been told so should only
have answered that what was good enough for others was good enough for me.
I came because Will came. We had always been great friends, and more than
once joined to thrash a big fellow who put upon us. But the principal
thing was that a little while ago he saved me from drowning. There was a
deep cut running up to the foot of the cliffs. One day I was running past
there, when I slipped, and in falling hurt my leg badly. I am only just
beginning to use it a bit now. The pain was so great that I did not know
what I was doing; I rolled off the rock into the water. My knee was so bad
that I could not swim, and the rock was too high for me to crawl out. I
had been there for some time, and was beginning to get weak, when Will
came along on the top of the cliff and saw me. He shouted to me to hold on
till he could get down to me. Then he ran half a mile to a place where he
was able to climb down, and tore back again along the shore till he
reached the cut, and then jumped in and swam to me. There was no getting
out on either side, so he swam with me to the end of the cut and landed me
there. I was by that time pretty nigh insensible, but he half-helped and
half-carried me till we got to the point of the cliff where he had come
down. Then he left me and ran off to the village to get help. So you will
understand now why I should wish to stick to him."

"I should think so," the sailor said warmly. "It was a fine thing to do,
and I would be glad to do it myself. Stick to him, lad, as long as he will
let you. I fancy, from the way he speaks and his manner, that he will
mount up above you, but never you mind that."

"I won't, as long as I can keep by him, and I hope that soon I may have a
chance of returning him the service he has done me. He knows well enough
that if I could I would give my life for him willingly."

"I think," the sailor said to Will seriously, "you are a fortunate fellow
to have made a friend like that. A good chum is the next best thing to a
good wife. In fact, I don't know if it is not a bit better. Ah, here comes
the boatswain with a bit of sail-cloth, so you had better lie down at
once. We shall most of us turn in soon down below, for there is nothing to
pass the time, and I for one shall be very glad when the cutter comes for
us."

The boys chatted for some time under cover of the sail-cloth. They agreed
that things were much better than they could have expected. The protection
of