u as if you were his own!"

"Yes, uncle."

"And why?"

"Because you are tired of me, uncle, and don't trust me--and are going
to send me away."

"Hah! You are not going to try and be taken as a soldier?"

"No, uncle."

"Hah! What then? Going to seek your fortune?"

"No, uncle. I'm going to sea."

Perhaps that _hah_! that ejaculation, was louder than the other words--
perhaps Aleck Donne had not been dreaming--perhaps it was all real!

At any rate the sleeper had awakened and with his eyes able to open a
little more, and through the two narrow slits he was gazing at the
stern, sorrowful face, lit up by one candle, seated there within a yard
of the pillow.

"Head better, my lad?"

"Yes, uncle."

"Seems clearer, eh?"

"Yes, uncle."

"Feel feverish?"

"No, uncle, I think not. I'm hardly awake yet."

"I know, my lad. You got a good deal knocked about, then?"

"I don't quite know, uncle. I suppose so. It all seems very dreamy
now."

"Consequence of injury to the head. Soldiers are in that condition
sometimes after a blow from the butt end of a musket."

"Are they, uncle?" asked Aleck, who was half ready to believe that this
was all part of his dream.

The captain nodded, and sat silent for a few moments, before glancing at
the bundle, hat, and cane. Then--

"So you've been making up your mind to run away?"

"To go away, uncle; not run."

"Hah! Same thing, my lad."

"No, uncle."

"What! Don't contradict me, sir. Do you want to quarrel again?"

"No, uncle."

"Humph! You prepared those things for running away?"

"I had some such ideas, uncle, when I tied them up," said the lad,
firmly; "but I should not have done that."

"Indeed! Then why did you tie them up?"

"To go away, uncle."

"Well, that's what I said, sir."

"That was not quite correct, uncle. If I ran away it would have been
without telling you."

"Of course, and that's what you meant to do."

"No, uncle; I feel now that I could not have done that. I should have
come to you in the morning to tell you that I felt as if I should be
better away, and that I would go to sea at once."

"Humph! And if you went away, sir, what's to become of me?"

"I don't know, uncle, only I feel that you'd be better without such an
obstinate, disobedient fellow as I am."

"Oh, you think so, do you? Well, you shouldn't be obstinate then."

"I didn't mean to be, uncle."

"Then, why, in the name of all that's sensible, wer