I said, feeling very nervous indeed.

"We should have gone to the bottom, my boy, and been drowned, for I
don't think I could have swum ashore from here in my clothes and taken
you as well."

"Then--then, hadn't we much better go ashore at once, uncle?" I said,
looking at him nervously.

"Yes, Nat, I'll take you ashore at once if you feel afraid; but before
doing so I will tell you that I brought you out here to give you a
severe lesson in what boat-sailing with me is likely to be; and I tell
you besides, Nat, that I know well how to manage a boat. You have had
enough of it, I see, and we will go back."

He made a motion to take the tiller out of my hands, for I was steering
as he told me to steer, but I pushed his hand back.

"I thought you were frightened, Nat," he said; and then there was a
pause, for I wanted to speak, but the words would not come. At last,
though, they did.

"I am frightened, uncle, very much frightened; and this going up and
down makes me feel sick."

"All right, then, Nat, we'll go back," he said kindly; but he was
watching me all the while.

"No," I gasped, "we won't, and--and," I cried, setting my teeth fast, "I
won't be sick."

"But it is dangerous, Nat, my boy," he said; "and we are going straight
away into rougher water. Let us go back."

"No," I said, "you brought me out to try me, uncle, and I won't be a
coward, not if I die."

He turned his head away for a few minutes, and seemed to be looking at
the distant shore, and all the while the little boat rushed through the
water at a tremendous rate, the sail bellying out and the gunwale down
dangerously near the waves as we seemed to cut our way along.

The feeling of sickness that had troubled me before now seemed to go
off, as if my determination had had something to do with it; and in
spite of the sensation of dread I could not help liking my position, and
the way in which we mastered the waves, as it were, going head on to one
that seemed as if it would leap into the boat, but only for us to rise
up its slope and then plunge down to meet another, while the danger I
had feared minute after minute floated away astern.

When my uncle turned his head he said quietly:

"Nat, my boy, it was dangerous work to come out here with me; but, my
boy, it is far more dangerous work to go out on that long voyage with me
amongst savages, perhaps; to sail on unknown seas, and to meet perils
that we can not prepare to encounter. Do you