sitting up on the very tip top of the mainmast and letting my
feet hang down and swinging back and forth with the mast. Maybe I could
see Java."

Little Jacob shivered to think of sitting on top of the mast. "My, Sol!"
he said. "You'd fall. There's nothing to hold on to."

"Oh, I'm not going to try it, Jake," said little Sol. "Father'd give it
to me, if I did. You know the time I fell overboard?"

Little Jacob nodded. "Well, then," said little Sol. "I guess a boy'd be
foolish to try that twice."

Little Jacob nodded again. "Did he thrash you, Sol?" he asked.

Little Sol smiled. "_Didn't_ he, though?" he said. "Ever get a
thrashing, Jake?"

Little Jacob hesitated. "Well," he said, slowly, "sometimes--with a
slipper."

"Huh!" said little Sol, with much scorn. "That's nothing. My father
don't use any slipper."

Little Jacob thought it was time to change the subject. "What makes you
think that you could see Java from up there?"

"I don't s'pose I could, really," answered little Sol. "But father said
that we ought to sight it within two days."

"To-morrow is Christmas," remarked little Jacob, thoughtfully. "I'd
rather like to be at home, on Christmas."

"Well, you can't," said little Sol. "You're thousands of miles from
home. I wonder what they'll have for dinner."

"We generally have lots of things for Christmas dinner," said little
Jacob, in a stifled little voice, "goose and apple sauce, and potatoes
and squash and----"

"I don't mean at home, Jake," said little Sol, gently. "I mean here. We
always have good things at home, too. But we haven't any goose or
anything else except salt junk and plum duff. I s'pose it'll be that."

But little Jacob didn't say anything because he couldn't speak. He
tilted his hat over his eyes and thought how nice it was at home at
Christmas time, and how sorry Lois, his mother, would be that he wasn't
there, and how sorry his little sister Lois would be. He didn't know
about his father, Captain Jacob, but he thought that perhaps he would be
sorry, too; and he knew that his grandfather, Captain Jonathan, would be
sorry. He was very fond of his grandfather because Captain Jonathan was
always nice and kind and gentle and he seemed to understand little boys.
And, at last, little Jacob jammed his hat on straight and got up and ran
down into the cabin to write his mother a letter. Captain Solomon would
leave the letter in Java for some ship to take home. When he had written
the let