"I think I'll be obliged to do it alone, sir. You can't tell in the dark

where I have left off. However, I'm glad to see that you're coming back

to your senses," he added, a bit caustically.

The master of the Polly received that rebuke with a meekness that

indicated a decided change of heart. "I reckon me and Otie and Dolph

have been acting out what you might call pretty pussylaminous, as I

heard a schoolmarm say once," confessed the skipper, struggling with the

big word. "But we three ain't as young as we was once, and I'll leave it

to you, sir, if this wasn't something that nobody had ever reckoned on."

"There's considerable novelty in it," said Mayo, in dry tones, running

his fingers over the rib to find the saw-scarf. The ache had gone out of

his arms, and he was ready to begin again.

"I'm sorry we yanked you into all this trouble," Can-dage went on. "And

on the other hand, I ain't so sorry! Because if you hadn't been along

with us we'd never have got out of this scrape."

"We haven't got out of it yet, Captain Candage."

"Well, we are making an almighty good start, and I want to say here in

the hearing of all interested friends that you're the smartest cuss I

ever saw afloat."

"I hope you will forgive father," pleaded Polly of the Polly. He felt

her breath on his cheek. She was so near that her voice nearly jumped

him. "I don't mean to get in your way, Captain Mayo, but somehow I feel

safer if I'm close to you."

"And I guess all of us do," admitted Captain Candage.

Mayo stopped sawing for a moment. "What say, men? Let's be Yankee

sailors from this time on! We'll be the right sort, eh? We'll put this

brave little girl where she belongs--on God's solid ground!"

"Amen!" boomed Mr. Speed. "I have woke up. I must have been out of my

mind. I showed you my nature when I first met you, Captain Mayo, and I

reckon you found it was helpful and enterprising. I'll be the same from

now on, even if you order me to play goat and try to butt the bottom out

of her with my head." "Me, too!" said Smut-nosed Dolph.




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