three-ringed circus."

"That's right, sir!" Hal agreed heartily. "I remember when I first went
into the mills how puzzled I was at seeing the bobbins whirling in
opposite directions. It seemed as if one was simply undoing what
another had done. I thought they all ought to turn the same way. It was
months before I got through my head what they were up to."

"I hadn't thought of the twisting and doubling part," Carl murmured.

"You decide with that thrown in maybe the answer to the puzzle isn't so
easy, eh?" responded Hal with a teasing smile.

"I might have to ponder over it," Carl confessed suavely.

"Ponder! I guess you would. What's more, you'd have a good smart
headache before you were through your _pondering_, I'll bet!" jeered
Hal, tweaking his chum's hair.

CHAPTER XIV

SPINNING YARNS

All good things, alas, come to an end and the McGregor's Christmas
holidays were no exception to this immutable law. A day arrived when
Carl, Mary and Tim were obliged to return to school, and following
swift on the heels of this dire occasion came a yet more lamentable one
when Uncle Frederick Dillingham was forced to go back to his ship and
sail for China. The latter calamity entirely overshadowed the former
and was a very real blow not only to Mulberry Court, where the captain
had become an object of universal pride and affection, but also to the
Harling family who had come to depend on his daily visits for cheer and
sunshine.

"I don't see why somebody else can't sail your ship to China, Uncle
Frederick, and let you stay here," wailed Mary.

"Somebody else sail my ship!" gasped the captain, every syllable of the
phrase echoing consternation. "Why, my dear child, I would no more turn
the command of the _Charlotte_ over to another person than you would
exchange your mother for somebody else's. The _Charlotte_ kind of
belongs to me, don't you see? She is my--well, I reckon I can't just
explain what she is. All I can say is that where she goes I go--if I am
alive."

"But--but the sea is so terrible," objected the timid Mary. "So
dangerous."

For answer Captain Dillingham burst into a peal of laughter.

"Dangerous? Why, lassie, there isn't a quarter a part the danger on the
water there is on land. I have come nearer to being killed right here
in Baileyville than ever I have while cruising in mid-ocean. Folks take
their lives in their hands every time they cross a city street. Then,
too, aren't there high buil