doctor, shall I be fit to go with you the first time you go
ashore?"

"Would you like to?"

"Like to! Oh, I say," cried the boy; "fancy being left here alone in
the ship when you two go. I say, don't leave me; it would make me
worse."

"Wait a bit, and we'll see. The raft is not ready yet. Bostock has not
fitted the mast and sail."

"No," said Carey, thoughtfully. "I say, isn't he dreadfully slow?"

The doctor laughed.

"Well, I was thinking something of the kind, certainly, my boy."

Carey was silent and thoughtful for a few minutes, and then he began
again.

"It's very beautiful lying back here," he said at last, "and sometimes I
feel as if I should like to do nothing else for a month to come. Then I
get hot and fidgety and tired of it all. Yes, he is horribly slow.
I've watched him, and instead of knocking a nail right in at once he
gets boring holes and measuring and trying first one and then another
till he gets one to suit him. It makes me feel sometimes as if I should
like to throw books at him. I'll tell him to make haste and finish."

"Better not, perhaps," said the doctor, quietly, as he busied himself
trying to catch some of the floating jelly-fish over the side with a
rope and bucket. "You may hurt his feelings."

No more was said on the subject then, for there was enough to interest
the patient in examining with a magnifying glass the curious creatures
captured; but Carey had not forgotten, and that evening when the doctor
was below and Bostock had brought up the bag of tools he used to work
upon the clumsy-looking raft he was building, the boy lay back watching
him chewing away at a piece of tobacco, and bending thoughtfully over
the structure.

"I say," cried Carey at last in a peevish tone, "when are you going to
finish that raft?"

"Finish it, my lad?"

"Yes, finish it. How many more days are you going to be?"

Bostock screwed up his face, rose erect in a very slow and deliberate
way, laid down the auger he held, and took off his cap to scratch his
head.

"Finish it?" he said, thoughtfully. "Well, I don't quite know; you see,
I must make it reg'lar strong."

"Of course," cried Carey, "but you spend so much time thinking about
it."

"Well, yes, my lad, I do, certainly; but then, you see, I have to do the
thinking and making too. There's on'y me, you see."

"Why didn't you let the doctor help you? He did want to."

"Ye-es, he did want to, my lad," said the old sailo