ase a kink in my back.

"You had no need to hide this from me, son; I envy you, that's all, I
wish I wasn't too old to do it, myself ... this beats travelling about
the country, selling goods as a salesman. It knocks my dream of having a
chicken farm all hollow, too...."

He drew in a deep breath of the good, sunny harbour air. Sailors were up
aloft, they were singing. The cook was in his galley, singing too. There
were gulls glinting about in the sun.

"Of course you know I almost made West Point once ... had the
appointment ... if it hadn't been for a slight touch of rheumatism in
the joints ..." he trailed off wistfully.

"We've never really got to know each other, Johnnie."

I looked at him. "No, we haven't."

"I'm going to start you out right. Will the captain let you off for a
while?"

"The cook's my boss ... as far as my time is concerned. I'm cabin boy."

My father gave the cook a couple of big, black cigars. I was allowed
shore leave till four o'clock that afternoon....

"--you need a little outfitting," explained my father, as we walked
along the dock to the street....

"I've saved up a couple of hundred dollars, which I drew out before I
came over."

"But, Father...."

"You need a lot of things. I'm going to start you off right. While you
were up in the cabin getting ready to go ashore I had a talk with the
cook.... I sort o' left you in his charge--"

"But I don't want to be left in anyone's charge."

"--found out from him just what you'd need and now we're going to do a
little shopping."

I accompanied my father to a seamen's outfitting place, and he spent a
good part of his two hundred buying needful things for me ... shirts of
strong material ... heavy underwear ... oilskins ... boots ... strong
thread and needles ... and a dunnage bag to pack it all away in....

* * * * *

We stood together on the after-deck again, my father and I.

"Now I must be going," he remarked, trying to be casual. He put a ten
dollar bill in my hand.

"--to give the boys a treat with," he explained ... "there's nothing
like standing in good with an outfit you're to travel with ... and
here," he was rummaging in his inside pocket ... "put these in your
pocket and keep them there ... a bunch of Masonic cards of the lodge
your daddy belongs to ... if you ever get into straits, you'll stand a
better chance of being helped, as son of a Mason."

"No, Father," I replied, seriously