oss," continued my uncle. "What's the other's name?"

"Boy," I said, laughing. "I never heard him called anything else.
Hadn't we better call the carpenter Man?"

"It would be just as reasonable," said my uncle. "Ask the boy his
name."

By this time our new acquisition was dry, and I stared at him, for he
seemed to be someone else as he dusted off the last of the sand.

It was not merely that he had got rid of the dirt and reduced the tar
smudges, but that something within was lighting up his whole face in a
pleasant, hearty grin as he looked up at me brightly in a way I had
never seen before.

"Is my face better, Mr Nat?" he said.

"Yes," I said, "ever so much; and you must keep it so."

"Oh, yes," he said seriously; "I will now. It was no good before."

"What's your name?" I said.

He showed his white teeth.

"Name? They always called me Boy on board," he replied.

"Yes, but you've got a name like anyone else," I said.

"Oh, yes, sir," he replied, wrinkling up his forehead as if thinking
deeply; "I've got a name somewheres, but I've never seemed to want it.
Got most knocked out of me. It's Peter, I know; but--I say, Bill
Cross," he cried sharply, "what's my name?"

The carpenter smiled grimly, and gave me a sharp look as much as to say,
"Wait a minute and you shall see me draw him out."

"Name, my lad," he said. "Here, I say, you haven't gone and knocked
your direction off your knowledge box, have you?"

"I dunno," said the boy, staring. "I can't 'member it."

"Where was it stuck on--your back?"

"Nay, it was in my head if it was anywhere. Gahn! You're laughing at
me. Here! I know, Mr Nat; it's Horn--Peter Horn. That's it."

"Well, you are a thick-skulled one, Pete, not to know your own name."

"Yes," replied the boy thoughtfully; "it's being knocked about the head
so did it, I s'pose. What shall I do now, sir? Light a fire?"

"Yes, at once," I said, for the thought made me know that I was hungry.
"Make it now between those pieces of rock yonder by the boat."

The boy went off eagerly; Cross followed; and I went back, to find my
uncle finishing the second skin.

"That's a good beginning, Nat," he said. "Now, then, the next thing is
to see about breakfast."

"And after that, uncle?"

"Then we'll be guided by circumstances, Nat," he replied. "What we have
to do is to get into the wildest places we can find where its river,
forest, or mountain."

"Isn't this wild enough?"