Bob the Castaway | Page 9

Mrs. Henderson. Somehow she dwelt on the plan of having the captain
take Bob, though she felt she could not consent to it.
"No harder than it ever was. In fact, it's easier than when I was a boy
and ran away to sea. Those were hard days, and I've never forgot 'em.
That's why I try to treat all my sailors and cabin boys as if they were
human beings. Now you'd better think my plan over. It would do Bob a
world of good to go to sea. You'd hardly know him when he got back."
"Oh, I don't know what to do," said Bob's mother. "No, I don't think I
can consent. He might be drowned, and I would never forgive myself. I
don't believe his father would consent either."

"Well, think it over," advised the captain. "I'm going to be in this port
for some time. We're loading for a trip around Cape Horn, and it will
take two weeks or more to get in shape. There's time enough to decide
between now and then."
"I don't believe I could ever consent," declared Mrs. Henderson. "I
think Bob will settle down pretty soon and give up playing pranks."
"I don't," said the captain to himself. "That boy is too full of mischief.
He needs a sea voyage to soak some of it out of him. But that's the way
with mothers. Well, I'll wait a while. I think something may happen to
make her change her mind before I sail."
The captain did not know what a good prophet he was.
When Bob came home from school that noon-time he was surprised to
see his mother and Captain Spark in earnest conversation. At first Bob
thought the mariner might be telling of the escapade of the tic-tac, but
when his mother made a warning gesture of silence to Captain Spark on
beholding Bob the boy was puzzled.
"They must have been talking about me," he decided; "but what could
it be? I don't think he would tell about the tic-tac, but there's certainly
something queer afoot."
The truth was that the captain was renewing his plan of taking Bob to
sea. Had the boy known of it he would have been much surprised, for
he never dreamed of such a thing.
"How did you get along at school to-day?" asked Captain Spark, as Mrs.
Henderson went out to get dinner.
"Pretty well."
"Didn't put any bent pins in the teacher's chair, did you?"
"No, sir."
The boy hoped the captain would not ask him what other prank he had

been up to, for the truth was that Bob had that morning taken a live
mouse to the classroom, releasing it during a study period, and nearly
sending the woman teacher and the girl pupils into hysterics. His part
had not been discovered, but the teacher had threatened to keep the
whole class of boys in that night until the guilty one confessed, and
Bob knew he would have to tell sooner or later, if some of his
companions did not "squeal" on him, in order that they might be
released from suspicion.
"That's right," went on the mariner. "Never put bent pins in the
teacher's chair."
As Bob feared, some one during the afternoon session told of his part in
the mouse episode, and he was the only one kept in. The teacher made
him stay while she corrected a lot of examination papers, and in the
silent schoolroom the boy began to wish he had not been so fond of a
"joke."
The teacher, who was a kind-hearted woman, talked seriously to her
rather wild pupil, pointing out that it was a cowardly thing for a boy to
frighten girls. Bob had never looked at it in just that light, and he was
pretty well ashamed of himself when he was allowed to go home, with
an admonition that he must mend his ways or be liable to expulsion.
"I'll bet he's been up to some mischief, Lucy," said Captain Spark when
Bob came home quite late that afternoon.
"Perhaps he has. I hope it was nothing serious."
"Shall I ask him what it was?"
"No, we'll find it out sooner or later, and I don't want his father to
worry more than he has to. He has hard work at the mill, and I like his
evenings to be as free from care as possible."
"That's just like a woman," growled the mariner to himself. "They take
more than their share of the burdens that the men and boys ought to
bear. But never mind. I'll get Bob yet, and when I do I'll make a man of

him or know the reason why. He'll find it much different on board ship
from what he has it