e
boys."

"It's all utterly impossible, of course," said Rob's mother, in turn,
her mouth closing tightly as she looked around at her son.

Mrs. Wilcox said less, but kept her hand on Jesse's shoulder. "What
would you do at night with no one to see you safe in bed, my son?" said
she, at length.

"Oh, mother!" began Jesse, shamefacedly.

"I'll take care of the boys," said Uncle Dick, at length. "I won't
mollycoddle them, and they will have to shift for themselves, but I'll
see that they get through all right. Think it over, good people. It will
be the making of the kids."

"Oh, well now, Richard," began Mrs. Hardy, once more, "how do we know
when you are coming back?"

"You don't know. I don't know myself."

"But these boys have to go to school."

"Oh, I'll get them back in time for the fall term. Boats are coming down
from Kadiak every month or so."

"But they say the storms out that way are perfectly frightful," began
Mrs. McIntyre.

"We'll not be in any storms. The cutter _Bennington_ anchors in the
harbors, and, besides, the boys will be ashore in town at Kadiak. You
don't suppose that Uncle Sam will let me have them around underfoot all
the time, do you? I'll have something else to do."

"But what could the boys do, then?" inquired Mrs. McIntyre.

"Nothing much. Hunt seals and otters and whales and bears, and a few
little things like that--catch more codfish and salmon than they ever
thought of around here--go boat-riding with the Aleuts--"

"In those tippy bidarkas?"

"Tippy bidarkas," nodded Uncle Dick; "and go egg-hunting on the gull
rocks, and all sorts of things. Why, they'd have the time of their
lives, that's all."

"But not one of the boys has a father at home now to advise in the
matter," hesitated Jesse's mother. "They are all inside, and won't be
back for a week."

"They'll all be back just a week too late," answered Uncle Dick. "In
about three-quarters of an hour from now, as Captain Ryan here will
advise you, we start; and these boys, I think, will be on board the
_Yucatan_ headed for Kadiak. You want to remember that this is Alaska,
and that these are Alaskan boys. They've got to grow up knowing how to
take care of themselves in this country. They're not sissies, with red
morocco shoes and long yellow curls--they're the stuff we've got to make
men out of up here. How'd Alaska ever have been found, in the first
place, if there hadn't been real men raised from real boys?"

"Oh, we