rself."

The woman who could not lift her head a week ago scrambled down the
ladder, and stood aghast amid the mess and tangle aft.

"Be you anyways interested in Harve?" said Disko.

"Well, ye-es."

"He's a good boy, an' ketches right hold jest as he's bid. You've heard
haow we found him? He was sufferin' from nervous prostration, I guess,
'r else his head had hit somethin', when we hauled him aboard. He's all
over that naow. Yes, this is the cabin. 'Tain't in order, but you're
quite welcome to look araound. Those are his figures on the stove-pipe,
where we keep the reckonin' mostly."

"Did he sleep here?" said Mrs. Cheyne, sitting on a yellow locker and
surveying the disorderly bunks.

"No. He berthed forward, madam, an' only fer him an' my boy hookin'
fried pies an muggin' up when they ought to ha' been asleep, I dunno as
I've any special fault to find with him."

"There weren't nothin' wrong with Harve," said Uncle Salters,
descending the steps. "He hung my boots on the main-truck, and he ain't
over an' above respectful to such as knows more'n he do, specially
about farmin'; but he were mostly misled by Dan."

Dan in the meantime, profiting by dark hints from Harvey early that
morning, was executing a war-dance on deck. "Tom, Tom!" he whispered
down the hatch. "His folks has come, an' Dad hain't caught on yet, an'
they're pow-wowin' in the cabin. She's a daisy, an' he's all Harve
claimed he was, by the looks of him."

"Howly Smoke!" said Long Jack, climbing out covered with salt and
fish-skin. "D'ye belave his tale av the kid an' the little four-horse
rig was thrue?"

"I knew it all along," said Dan. "Come an' see Dad mistook in his
judgments."

They came delightedly, just in time to hear Cheyne say: "I'm glad he
has a good character, because--he's my son."

Disko's jaw fell,--Long Jack always vowed that he heard the click of
it,--and he stared alternately at the man and the woman.

"I got his telegram in San Diego four days ago, and we came over."

"In a private car?" said Dan. "He said ye might."

"In a private car, of course."

Dan looked at his father with a hurricane of irreverent winks.

"There was a tale he told us av drivin' four little ponies in a rig av
his own," said Long Jack. "Was that thrue now?"

"Very likely," said Cheyne. "Was it, Mama?"

"He had a little drag when we were in Toledo, I think," said the mother.

Long Jack whistled. "Oh, Disko!" said he, and that was all.

"