you've been favored; but the time has come to know
what you mean to do. Speak up, lad, and tell me your story?"

Encouraged by his kind voice, Darry told all he knew about himself up to
the very moment when he parted from his friend, the captain.

Mr. Frazer seemed interested.

"I feel sorry for you, Darry. It must be hard to feel that you haven't
got a friend in the world. My hands are tied in the matter, so I can do
nothing; but there's Abner Peake telling me he'd like you to stay with
him," he remarked.

"I understood him to say he once had a boy about my age."

"Yes, a likely little chap, but it was about a year back he was lost."

"Was he drowned?" asked Darry, feeling that this was about the way most
persons in this coast country must meet their end.

"Yes. The little fellow was a venturesome boy, and tried to cross the
bay in a heavy sea. He must have been swept out at the inlet. They found
the boat on the beach, three miles above here, but never little Joe.
Abner has never gotten over it. To this day he sits and looks out to sea
as if he could discover his poor boy coming back to him. I thought for a
time the fellow would go out of his mind."

"And he wants me to stay with him?" continued Darry, musingly.

"Yes. Abner has a small house out of the village, where his wife and the
two little girls live, while he is over here at the station. Often we
want someone to cross over with supplies, and he thinks you might like
the job."

Darry drew a long breath.

"I have no home. The only one I ever knew was the poor old _Falcon_, and
her timbers are scattered along the coast for ten miles. I think that if
Mr. Peake really wants me to stay with him I shall accept gladly. It is
tough to feel like a piece of driftwood all the time," he said.

"I think you are wise in deciding that way. Abner is a kind man, and as
for his wife--well, she's got a temper all right, but if you don't rub
it the wrong way she can be got on with, I reckon. Anyhow, it would pay
you to try it until something else turns up. Maybe you want to ship on
another vessel?"

"I think I have had all of the sea I want, after that time. I wake up
nights, thinking I'm choking with the salt water, and trying to catch my
breath. When I get older and stronger I want to be a life saver like
you, sir."

The keeper smiled pleasantly.

It was not often he appeared as a hero in the eyes of even a boy, and,
being human, he could not help feeling some s