it. I ought to know. It's the
only life for a young man, especially for a guy in a little town.
There's no chance here for a bright young man, and if he goes to the
city, what does he get? The city's jam full of kids that flock there in
the spring and fall, looking for jobs, and thinking the city's sittin' up
waitin' for 'em. And where do they land? In the dime lodging houses,
that's where. In the navy you see the world, and it don't cost you a
cent. A guy is a fool to bury himself alive in a hole like this. You
could be seeing the world, traveling by sea from port to port, from
country to country, from ocean to ocean, amid ever-changing scenery and
climatic conditions, to see and study the habits and conditions of the
strange races----"

It rolled off his tongue with fascinating glibness. Eddie glanced at the
folder in his hand.

"I always did like the water," he said.

"Sure," agreed the hairy man, heartily. "What young feller don't? I'll
tell you what. Come on over to the office with me and I'll show you some
real stuff."

"It's my supper time," hesitated Eddie. "I guess I'd better not----"

"Oh, supper," laughed the man. "You come on and have supper with me,
kid."

Eddie's pink cheeks went three shades pinker. "Gee! That'd be great.
But my mother--that is--she----"

The man in the sailor suit laughed again--a laugh with a sting in it. "A
great big feller like you ain't tied to your ma's apron strings are you?"

"Not much I'm not!" retorted Eddie. "I'll telephone her when I get to
your hotel, that's what I'll do."

But they were such fascinating things, those new booklets, and the man
had such marvelous tales to tell, that Eddie forgot trifles like supper
and waiting mothers. There were pictures taken on board ship, showing
frolics, and ball games, and minstrel shows and glee clubs, and the men
at mess, and each sailor sleeping snug as a bug in his hammock. There
were other pictures showing foreign scenes and strange ports. Eddie's
tea grew cold, and his apple pie and cheese lay untasted on his plate.

"Now me," said the recruiting officer, "I'm a married man. But my wife,
she wouldn't have it no other way. No, sir! She'll be in the navy
herself, I'll bet, when women vote. Why, before I joined the navy I
didn't know whether Guam was a vegetable or an island, and Culebra wasn't
in my geography. Now? Why, now I'm as much at home in Porto Rico as I
am in San Francisco. I'm as well