or boy. He belongs on a destroyer and got left at Boston
when his ship started for Charleston two days ago."

"He is in the Navy?" exclaimed Mr. Bunker, in surprise.

"Yes, sir. And he spent all his money and did not know how to get down
there where the fleet will be in winter quarters, he says, unless he
went secretly on one of these steamers."

"He is stealing his passage, then?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"I suppose he is, Daddy," said Russ, ruefully enough. "He is in a boat,
all covered up with canvas. Up there on the deck. I can show you. I
found him quite by myself, and I was sorry for him, 'specially when he
said he didn't have anything to eat. And he said, would I keep still
about it? And at first I said I would."

"I see," said Daddy Bunker, smiling. "Then you thought that you ought
not to keep the secret from me?"

"That's it, Daddy."

"Quite right," rejoined Mr. Bunker encouragingly. "It is not good policy
to keep secrets from your mother and father. What do you want to do
about it now?"

"Why--why, I want you to tell me," confessed Russ. "I got him some
food."

"I see you did," returned his father, smiling. "At your own cost, Russ."

"We-ell, yes, I could have eaten more if I hadn't taken what I did for
the sailor boy."

"We'll have to see about that----"

"I don't mind--much. I'm not very hungry," said Russ hurriedly. "It
wasn't that made me tell you."

"I know it wasn't, Russ," said Daddy Bunker, with a pride that the
little boy did not understand, and he dropped an approving hand upon
Russ' shoulder. "Now, I will tell you what we will do. This sailor boy
shall have his chance to rejoin his ship without getting into any more
trouble than is necessary. He is probably very young and foolish."

"He isn't very old, I guess," said Russ. "He has been in the Navy only a
little while, and it was his first 'shore leave,' he called it, in
Boston. He had some cousins there. They begged him to stay longer than
he should have. And so he got left."

"I'll fix it if I can," promised Daddy Bunker. "Of course, the first
thing to do is to pay his fare and then he can come out of the lifeboat
and have his proper meals. I will see the purser, and the captain if it
is necessary, and you go to bed, Russ."

"That will be nice!" cried the boy, greatly relieved. "Of course I ought
to have told you right at first. You always do know how to straighten
things out, Daddy!"

"That is what fathers and mothers are for," r