[39.1] la navegación de altura, sailing the high seas.
[39.2] una chica como una plata, a fine girl, lit. "[shining] like silver," i.e. neat and pretty. Cf. valer tanto como la plata, "to be worth one's weight in gold." But also esa niña es de oro.
Page 40.—
[40.1] alguna de esas miradas. The grammars do not note this curious use of the singular of alguno in a distributive or plural sense. It is paralleled by the Italian alcuno (e.g. c'era alcuno presente che diceva). Cf. in Spanish the similar use of tanto: al ver tanto libro, "on seeing so many books." In English the use of "many a," "many a man," etc., is somewhat analogous.
[40.2] nunca, ever. Correlative to negative prefix in desconfiaba.
[40.3] en vías de arreglo, in a way of being settled. The plural is sometimes used with a force apparently singular, but more general or indefinite. Here the idea is perhaps "in one of a number of possible ways." Cf. al fin del mes, "at the end of the month," a fines del mes, "about the end of the month" (during the last days of the month?). In the conventional forms of greeting, buenos días, etc., the fundamental idea is, according to Foerster, Spanische Sprachlehre, page 275, to extend the greeting to subsequent meetings.
[40.4] romería, journey or pilgrimage made to some sanctuary. It is mainly, however, a pleasure-trip or picnic, for when the religious duties are accomplished, the rest of the time is given over to dancing and other amusements.
Page 41.—
[41.1] en un principio, at first.
[41.2] hacer agua, leak.