eak my word, Dick?" he inquired abruptly, as
they shuffled up.

"Never," said Dick.

"Cap'n Bowers' word is better than another man's oath," asseverated Joe.

"Well," said Captain Bowers, with a wink at the mate, "I'm going to give
you chaps a little self-denial week all to yourselves. If you all live
on biscuit and water till we get to port, and don't touch nothing else,
I'll jine you and become a Salvationist."

"Biscuit and water," said Dick doubtfully, scratching a beard strong
enough to scratch back.

"It wouldn't be right to play with our constitooshuns in that way, sir,"
objected Joe, shaking his head.

"There you are," said Bowers, turning to the mate with a wave of his
hand. "They're precious anxious about me so long as it's confined to
jawing, and dropping tracts into my tea, but when it comes to a little
hardship on their part, see how they back out of it."

"We ain't backing out of it," said Dick cautiously; "but s'pose we do,
how are we to be certain as you'll jine us?"

"You 've got my word for it," said the other, "an' the mate an' cook
witness it."

"O' course, you jine the Army for good, sir," said Dick, still
doubtfully.

"O' course."

"Then it's a bargain, sir," said Dick, beaming; "ain't it, chaps?"

"Ay, ay," said the others, but not beaming quite so much. "Oh, what a
joyful day this is!" said the old man. "A Salvation crew an' a Salvation
cap'n! We'll have the cook next, bad as he is."

"You'll have biskit an' water," said the cook icily, as they moved off,
"an' nothing else, I'll take care."

"They must be uncommon fond o' me," said the skipper meditatively.

"Uncommon fond o' having their own way," growled the mate. "Nice thing
you've let yourself in for."

"I know what I 'm about," was the confident reply.

"You ain't going to let them idiots fast for a week an' then break your
word?" said the mate in surprise.

"Certainly not," said the other wrathfully; "I'd sooner jine three
armies than do that, and you know it."

"They'll keep to the grub, don't you fear," said the mate. "I can't
understand how you are going to manage it."

"That's where the brains come in," retorted the skipper, somewhat
arrogantly.

"Fust time I've heard of 'em," murmured the mate softly; "but I s'pose
you've been using pint pots too."

The skipper glared at him scornfully, but, being unprovided with a
retort, forbore to reply, and going below again mixed himself a stiff
glass of grog, and dra