ll do just as you say, Uncle Ike, and try to avoid
trouble. But what shall I tell that blue-eyed teacher you advised
me--the one, you know, that you was so sweet on at the picnic?"

"Oh, tell her I told you to try and grow up to be a regular
thoroughbred, like your Uncle Ike, and only turn the other cheek to
girls, see! And tell her I never squeezed anybody's hand at a picnic,
unless they commenced it, by gosh!" and the old man took the red-headed
boy in his arms and carried him bodily into the dining room, and there
was a smile on his good old face that was good to look upon.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Uncle Ike had met with a misfortune that troubled him, and he was
smoking and trying to think of some way to explain the affair. All his
life he had been an all-around sport, and cluck shooting had been his
hobby. He had prided himself that he could ride any boat that an Indian
could, and bragged that he had never got his feet wet in his forty years
as a duck shooter; but this morning he had gone out in a boat, before
anybody was up about the house, and when he was not looking, a wave
tipped the boat up on one side, filled it with water, and had gone down
with him before he could say Jack Robinson, and he had floundered around
in mud and water up to his armpits, singing "A life on the ocean wave,"
and yelling for somebody to come and tie him loose.

[Illustration: A life on the ocean wave 211]

A neighbor had come with a boat, and dragged him ashore, and he had
taken off his wet clothes, hung them on the fence to dry, put on some
dry clothes, and he was smoking his pipe and wringing the water out
of his wet pants, when the red-headed boy came out to inquire into the
marine disaster.

"Getting your washing out pretty early in the morning, Uncle Ike," said
the boy, as he lifted a wet sweater off the fence, and took some wet
cartridges out of the pockets. "Is it healthy to go in swimming with so
many clothes on? How did this thing happen, anyway?"

"Now, don't get gay," said Uncle Ike, "and I will tell you. It was
blowing a hurricane, and the wind took the boat up in the air about ten
feet, and it dove down head first, and what could I do but get out?
A cramp took me in the leg, and I stood on t'other leg, but I wasn't
afraid. I didn't yell, but just said to a man who was about half a mile
away, says I, 'Kindly assist me to land,' and he took me by the shirt
collar and escorted me to the shore."

"I see," said the boy;