A NATURAL SHOWER-BATH.
Whenever the clouds indicated a coming shower, the boys generally went to the cabin and soon appeared in their bathing-suits. Covering their heads with straw hats, to protect them from the pelting of the great drops, they would sit in the rain and enjoy the luxury of the earliest form of shower-bath ever known. One night, when they were sleeping on deck, they were suddenly awakened by the pouring of the rain in their faces, and, before they could gather their clothing and escape to shelter, they were treated to a bath they had not bargained for. It is one of the inconveniences of sleeping on deck in the tropics that you are liable to have your slumbers disturbed in this way, just as you are dreaming of pleasant things, and in no mood for waking.
Though they were not in sight of land, our friends realized that they were in a comparatively small body of water, and not in the open ocean. The swell and heaving of the Atlantic and Pacific waves were altogether absent; though the steamer was a diminutive one in comparison with the great ships on which they had travelled hitherto, she rolled and pitched very little, and sometimes her motion was as steady as though she was navigating a river. The Gulf of Siam does not occupy a large place on the map, and for a great part of the year it is as peaceful as a lake. The captain told them that it was rarely disturbed by typhoons or severe gales, and was about five hundred miles long by two hundred and fifty in width.
FLYING-FISH.
Porpoises and flying-fish appeared occasionally, and their lively leaps from the water were a source of much amusement to the youths.
The first indication of their approach to the coast of Siam was the appearance of a dark line on the northern horizon. As they steamed on, this line developed into a fringe of tropical trees; but before they could make anything more of it than the merest fringe, the steamer came to anchor. As they were still a long way from land, the boys could not understand the reason for stopping, and Fred ventured to ask the captain why they did not go on.