is delightful
experience. And, being young, he allowed his eagerness to take
possession of him, so that soon he was unduly urging the captain for more
pieces of fish and of bread and butter. Once, he even barked his demand.
This put the idea into the captain's head, who began immediately to teach
him to "speak."

At the end of five minutes he had learned to speak softly, and to speak
only once--a low, mellow, bell-like bark of a single syllable. Also, in
this first five minutes, he had learned to "sit down," as distinctly
different from "lie down"; and that he must sit down whenever he spoke,
and that he must speak without jumping or moving from the sitting
position, and then must wait until the piece of food was passed to him.

Further, he had added three words to his vocabulary. For ever after,
"speak" would mean to him "speak," and "sit down" would mean "sit down"
and would not mean "lie down." The third addition to his vocabulary was
"Skipper." That was the name he had heard the mate repeatedly call
Captain Van Horn. And just as Jerry knew that when a human called
"Michael," that the call referred to Michael and not to Biddy, or
Terrence, or himself, so he knew that _Skipper_ was the name of the two-
legged white master of this new floating world.

"That isn't just a dog," was Van Horn's conclusion to the mate. "There's
a sure enough human brain there behind those brown eyes. He's six months
old. Any boy of six years would be an infant phenomenon to learn in five
minutes all that he's just learned. Why, Gott-fer-dang, a dog's brain
has to be like a man's. If he does things like a man, he's got to think
like a man."

CHAPTER IV

The companionway into the main cabin was a steep ladder, and down this,
after his meal, Jerry was carried by the captain. The cabin was a long
room, extending for the full width of the _Arangi_ from a lazarette aft
to a tiny room for'ard. For'ard of this room, separated by a tight
bulkhead, was the forecastle where lived the boat's crew. The tiny room
was shared between Van Horn and Borckman, while the main cabin was
occupied by the three-score and odd return boys. They squatted about and
lay everywhere on the floor and on the long low bunks that ran the full
length of the cabin along either side.

In the little stateroom the captain tossed a blanket on the floor in a
corner, and he did not find it difficult to get Jerry to understand that
that was his bed. N