ore long."

"I wish we could stop."

"You want to see everything," laughed John. "We're going to South
America, aren't we? What more do you want?"

At that moment Fred and George Sanders approached the two boys.

"We ought to be Sons of Neptune in a few days," exclaimed George gayly
as he and Fred came up to the place where their two friends were
standing.

"What do you mean by that, Pop?" asked John curiously.

"Just what I say, String, my boy," said George. "You don't mean to tell
me that you don't know what a Son of Neptune is! Every man that sails
any of the seven seas ought to know that."

"Don't be funny, Pop," warned John, assuming a threatening attitude.
"Tell me what it means and be quick about it."

"You swear you don't know?"

"You heard what I said, didn't you?"

"Yes," grinned Pop, "but you know I don't believe half what you say."

"Throw him overboard, String," urged Fred. "Don't fool with him any
longer."

"That's just about what I had decided to do," said John.

"Wait," cried Pop, stepping forward and holding up his hand
dramatically. "Spare my life and I will tell all."

"Be quick about it then," warned John. "I shan't fool with you much
longer."

"I know it," said Pop, pretending to be greatly alarmed. "I know it,
String, and I must say I am awfully frightened."

John stepped forward and raised his hands as if he was about to seize
George W. Sanders by the neck. He had no opportunity to do so, however.

"I'll tell. I'll tell," cried Pop quickly.

"I'll give you till I count three," said John. "One, two--"

"A man becomes a Son of Neptune," said George, "when he has crossed the
equator on a boat. Now will you promise not to hurt me? Not that you
could do it if you tried," he added, but he muttered the words so softly
to himself that no one else heard him.

"Is that what a Son of Neptune is?" exclaimed John.

"Yes, String, that's what a Son of Neptune is," said George, imitating
as nearly as possible his friend's tone of voice.

"Who told you?" demanded Grant.

"What has that got to do with it?"

"Who told you?" repeated Grant sharply. "We'll have to take some of this
freshness out of him pretty soon, String," he added.

"We surely will," agreed John readily. "I'm ready at any time."

The four friends loved to tease and banter one another and oftentimes an
outsider might have thought from their conversation that they had lost
their tempers. Such, however, was never the ca