p to the enjoyment of the hour.

He was quite at home on the sea, having already had several trips along
the coast through the kindness of captains who had taken a fancy to
him. Seasickness had no terrors for him. He might have undertaken to
sail round the world without missing a meal; and at supper that evening
he showed so keen an appetite that Captain Afleck, who had allowed him
to sit down with him for the sake of hearing him talk, said jestingly,--

"Why, Terry, my boy, you eat so hearty that I ought to have laid in an
extra stock of food, so we mightn't run short before we get to Boston."

Not a bit disconcerted by this chaff, Terry went on busily munching the
food, which was much better than he got at home, and which he proposed
to enjoy thoroughly while he had the chance.

"Ah, you young monkey!" laughed the captain, shaking his knife at him,
"you know when you're well off, don't you, now?"

"It's yourself says it, captain," responded Terry, as well as he could
with his mouth full. "I'm thinking I would like to hire with you for a
year, if ye'll always give me as good food."

"And is it only the food you care for, Terry?" asked the captain, the
smile on his face giving way to a serious look. "You're not such a
poor creature as that, are you?"

Terry's countenance crimsoned, and his head dropped upon his breast,
while he worked his hands together nervously. At last he managed to
stammer out,--

"Faith, captain, I didn't say so."

"No, Terry, you didn't," said the captain, in a soothing tone. "Nor
did you mean it either. I'm only testing you a bit. Look here, Terry,
listen to me now. What do you intend to do with yourself as you grow
older? Do you think of following the sea?"

Once more the colour mounted high in Terry's face. The question was a
home-thrust which he knew not how to parry, and so he simply kept
silence; while Captain Afleck began to wonder why his question, asked
in such an offhand way, should have so marked an effect upon the boy.
Getting no answer, he sought to ease the situation by saying kindly,--

"If you think I'm over-inquisitive, Terry, you needn't say anything.
It's none of my business any way."

Touched by the captain's genuine kindness of tone, Terry's Irish heart
opened towards him, and he impulsively began to tell him the whole
story of the past month.

Captain Afleck listened with unmistakable interest and sympathy,
interrupting but seldom, and then only to p