f you
talked to a mate the way you done to me?"

"Don't know. S'pose I'd have been killed,--sir."

"Well, you would, mighty nigh, and that's a fact. Now, I'll tell you
somethin' else. You wanted to enlist in the Navy, I understand. You
couldn't git in the Navy, anyway, you're too young, but s'pose you
could, what then? You'd never git any higher 'n a petty officer, 'cause
you don't know enough. The only way to git into the Navy is to go
through Annapolis, and git an education. I tell you, education counts.
Me and Perez would have been somethin' more 'n cheap fishin' and
coastin' skippers if we'd had an education; don't forgit that."

"I guess I don't want to be a sailor, anyway, sir. This one trip is
enough for me, thank you."

"Can't help that. You shipped 'long with me for two months, and you'll
sail with me for two months, every time I go out. You won't run away
again neither, I'll look out for that. You'll sail with me and you'll
help clean fish, and you'll mind me and you'll say 'sir.' You needn't
smoke if you don't want to," with a smile. "I ain't p'tic'lar 'bout
that.

"Then," went on the Captain, "when the two months is up you'll be your
own master again. You can go back to 'Web' Saunders and 'Squealer' Wixon
and 'Ily' Tucker and their tribe, if you want to, and be a town nuisance
and a good-for-nuthin'. OR you can do this: You can go to school for a
few years more and behave yourself and then, if I've got any influence
with the Congressman from this district--and I sort of b'lieve I have,
second-handed, at any rate--you can go to Annapolis and learn to be a
Navy officer. That's my offer. You've got a couple of months to think it
over in."

The catboat swung about on her final tack and stood in for the narrows,
the route which the Captain had spoken of as the "short cut." From
where Josiah sat the way seemed choked with lines of roaring, frothing
breakers that nothing could approach and keep above water. But Captain
Eri steered the Mary Ellen through them as easily as a New York
cabdriver guides his vehicle through a jam on Broadway, picking out the
smooth places and avoiding the rough ones until the last bar was crossed
and the boat entered the sheltered waters of the bay.

"By gum!" exclaimed the enthusiastic "able seaman." "That was
great--er--sir!"

"That's part of what I'll l'arn you in the next two months," said the
Captain. "'Twon't do you any harm to know it when you're in the Navy
neither. St