forgotten him, in the pleasurable excitement of bestowing upon Giuditta the huge, hat-shaped basket filled with fruit which they had brought for her.

48

Later in the day, as they weighed anchor and sailed out from the shadow of the great Rock, Blythe found herself standing with Mr. Grey at the stern-rail of their own deck, watching the face of the mighty cliff as it changed with the varying perspective.

“Oh! I wish I were a poet or an artist or something!” she cried.

“Would you take that monstrous fortress for a subject?” he asked.

“Yes, and I should do something so splendid with it that nobody would dare to be satirical!” and she glanced defiantly at her companion, whose good-humoured countenance was wrinkling with amusement.

“Let us see,” he said. “How would this do?” And he gravely repeated the following:

 “There once was a fortress named Gib, Whose manners were haughty and—

49

What rhymes with Gib?”

“Glib!” Blythe cried.

“Good!

 Whose manners were haughty and glib. If you tried to get in, She replied with a grin,—

If you tried to get in,

She replied with a grin,—

Quick! Give me another rhyme for Gib.”

“Rib!” Blythe suggested, audaciously.

“Excellent, excellent! Rib! Now, how does it go?

 There once was a fortress named Gib, Whose manners were haughty and glib! If you tried to get in, She replied, with a grin, ‘I’m Great Britain’s impregnable rib!’

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