in the open; we don't want any moral bad weather in the cabin. Go
to the captain, and speak out frankly. Do you know what he will do?"

"Look at me, as he did just now."

"That's insulting a brave man and my friend, sir," said the doctor
sternly. "I know Captain Marsham better than you do, then. He will do
nothing of the kind. He will listen calmly and dispassionately to all
you have to say, and then perhaps point out a few things."

"To humiliate me!" cried Steve.

"There you go again, blazing out. No, hardly to humiliate you; but,
even if he does, who the salts of tartar are you, sir, that you are not
to be spoken to and humiliated a bit when you have gone wrong?"

"Oh, I'm nobody," said Steve bitterly; "I'm a donkey and an ass."

"Yes," said the doctor quietly, "but that is rather running wild; a
donkey and an ass are the same thing, Stevey, my lad. If the captain
says a few things to cut your comb a little, they will do you good; and
I am as certain as that I am sitting here that he will end by saying,
`There, my boy, then, that's an end of it. Let it be a lesson to you.
Now shake hands.'"

"He wouldn't say that. He'd send me out of the cabin feeling more
miserable than I feel now."

"I know better than that, my lad. You're punishing yourself."

"Then, if a boy strikes me I'm not to strike him again?" cried Steve.

"Humph! Well, I did not say that, my lad, exactly."

"What was I to do, sir? Was I to let that miserable, disagreeable young
rascal, who has been insulting and sneering at me ever since we started
from Nordoe, knock me about, and I not retaliate?"

The doctor looked puzzled.

"Go in and shake hands with the captain; he's in his cabin."

"No, he isn't. I heard him go on deck, sir. But you didn't answer me."

"I told you that you couldn't fight with a boy like that. Look at your
clothes."

"Oh yes, I know, sir. I'm all over feathers; but you don't say anything
about what I asked: was I to let him knock me about and crow over me?"

"Well--er," said the doctor, "you might have kicked him."

"And that would have been cowardly, and he would have kicked me again.
It's worse to fight with the feet than it is to fight with the hands."

"Humph! Well, yes, I suppose it is," muttered the doctor; "but never
mind that. Go on deck as soon as you're decent, and talk to the captain
there."

"I can't, sir."

"Then will you go to him when he comes down?"

Steve shook his head, and