.

"Oh, Father!" he cried; "there are the fur seals. Come over and see
them!"

But his father shook his head smilingly.

"They are not personal friends of mine, as they seem to be of yours," he
said, "and I have no time to waste. Besides, we have an engagement with
the Commissioner. You can come down and chat with your seal
acquaintances after our talk."

The Commissioner greeted them cordially, and without waste of words.

"So this is the boy!" he said, after the customary greetings. "He'll
need to grow a bit, eh?"

"So did both of us once," said Major Dare, looking at his own height
and the Commissioner's burly frame. "We haven't done so badly."

"That's true. Well, boy, tell me just what you want to do."

"Everything that there is to do in the Bureau, Mr. Glades," answered
Colin promptly.

The Commissioner rubbed his hand over his chin, with a short laugh.

"That's a big order," he said. "Willing to work?"

"Yes, sir," the boy replied; "I don't mind work."

"This is the place for it. There's just two kinds of people in the
world," the Commissioner went on; "those who do just what they learn to
do and nothing else, and those who do the work because they want to."

"Yes, sir," again responded the boy, wondering what was coming.

"The first lot keep things running and that's all. The others are the
real men. The last are the men we've got in the Bureau and everybody has
to be up to the standard. So, there you are."

"I don't know whether I can come up to the standard, but I'm one of
those that want to!" the boy said emphatically, rightly judging that
the Commissioner was not the sort of man who liked long speeches.

[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS OF THE U. S. FISHERIES BUREAU, AT
WASHINGTON, D. C.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

[Illustration: HAULING THE LARGEST SHAD SEINE IN THE WORLD.

Spawn-taking operations on the Potomac River. Trying to save from
extinction one of America's finest-flavored food fishes.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

"Good! Going to college?"

The boy looked at his father.

"I had thought of sending him to Brown," he said, "since he got this
Fisheries idea. One of my friends told me that it was an excellent
university for biology."

"Do it!" said the Commissioner. "Send him to college in the winter, let
him work with us in the vacation. That'll give him four summers'
training with us. When he comes out of college he ought to be worth
som