e, being a bit nervous, may hev some of his
own; but thar ain't nothing to hurt four strapping younkers round
Killykinick except right _here_. And now, I reckon, it's about time for
dinner. I'm ready for some of Neb's clam-chowder, I know; and I guess you
are, too."

"Jing! but this is a great place of yours, Freddy!" said Dan, as they
turned back to the ship house. "We could not have found a better."

"That's all you know," scoffed the lordly Dud. "I mean to keep on the
right side of the old duffer," he added _sotto voce_, "and get over to
Beach Cliff in that tub of his whenever I can. Minnie Foster asked me to
come; they've taken a fine house down on the shore, and have all sorts of
fun--dances, picnics, boat races. I'll get sick of things here pretty
soon; won't you, Jim?"

"I don't know about that," was the lazy answer. "About as good a place to
loaf as you'll find."

"Loaf?" put in Dan. "There isn't going to be any loafing at Killykinick
for me. I'm for boating and fishing and clamming and digging up those
garden beds. I don't know what those others are paying," said Dan, who had
fallen behind with Captain Jeb; "but I've got no money, and am ready to
earn my board and keep."

"You are?" said the Captain, in surprise. "As I took it, the Padre bunched
you all together for as fair a figure as I could ask."

"Not me," replied Dan. "These other chaps are plutes, and can pay their
own way; so cut me out of your figures and let me work for myself."

"Well, that's sort of curious talk for a younker with a high-class
schooling," said Captain Jeb, dubiously. "You mean you want to hire out?"

"Yes," said Dan, remembering Aunt Winnie and how doubtful his claim was
upon St. Andrew's.

"Thar will be considerable stirring round, I'll allow," was the reflective
answer. "I was thinking of getting Billy Benson to lend a hand, but if
you'd like the job of sort of second mate--"

"I would," said Dan. "What is a second mate's work?"

"Obeying orders," answered Captain Jeb, briefly.

"That's dead easy," said Dan, with a grin.

"Oh, is it?" was the grim rejoinder. "Jest you wait, younker, till you've
stood on a toppling deck in the teeth of a nor'easter, with some
dunderhead of a captain roaring cuss words at you to cut away the mast
that you know is all that's keeping you out of Davy Jones' Locker, and
then you'll find what obeying orders means. But if you want the job here,
it's yours. What will you take?"

"My board a