orth," he says after a little while; "you think
that foolish, possibly?"

"We do," I says. "We unanimously do," and as I said it I got to thinkin'
of how when I was a boy I used to walk on my hands, and stand on my
head, and throw flip-flaps, or stop to knock the head off some passin'
kid--if I was able--anythin' so a red-ginghamed, pop-eyed little girl
sittin' on the door-step across the street would take notice. "We do
those things when we are boys," says I aloud.

"Ah-h! So you think--" says the gen'ral. "Ver-ry good," and starts to
throw off his uniform.

"No, no," I says. "Keep that on. It becomes you. And, besides, I don't
know's I'm so sure we ought all to grow up. And come below--come!" I
thought I heard the old fellow's voice below and I jumped down, and
there he was, the little captain, hurryin' away from the bulkhead.

And now I examines the bulkhead carefully, and I goes up on deck and
resumes my full admiral's coat and buckles on the fine gold-mounted belt
and sword and sets my shappo just a little to one side. I was wishin' I
had my shoes, but they were on the brigantine and she was a quarter-mile
away and still driftin'. And back in the cabin again, I picks up the
hammer and draws from the bulkhead plankin' half a dozen nails, and in
two minutes it's done, and out under the lights o' the cabin lamp
steps--O, the prettiest, slimmest little dark-eyed girl, just a match
for the gen'ral. But the first thing she sees is me, Killorin. "Ah-h--"
she says, in a long sigh with her mouth a little open, and I tosses the
hammer and nails into a corner and straightens up and takes a full
breath; and let me tell you, son, in those days the worst-lookin'
flatfoot ever climbed over a gunboat's side wasn't me, Killorin, bosun's
mate, second-class--or was I first-class then? No matter; I was in a
full-dress admiral's uniform then, and from me cocked hat to me bare
toes I was some class. I knew I was--even without my shoes. And when
again she looks at me and when again she sighs, "Ah-h--" with her little
red lips apart, I says to myself: "Killorin, son, you're makin' one big
hit." And just then her eyes looked past me and again she said, "Ah-h--"
and down among my lower ribs somewhere dropped my quick-firm' heart, and
"Killorin," I whispers to myself, "she loves you--not." For that last
ah-h--and sigh-h for the gen'ral was seven times deeper and longer than
the one she hove up at sight of me.

And while they were gazin'