?"

"Oh, nothin'. A book, that's all."

"Let me look at it."

Josiah hesitated, looked as if he would like to refuse, and then
sullenly took the ragged volume from his pocket and handed it to the
Captain, who deliberately unfolded it, and looked at the cover.

"'Fightin' Fred Starlight, the Boy Rover of the Pacific,'" he read
aloud. "Humph! Is it good?"

"Bet your life! It's a red-hot story."

"I want to know! Who was Mr. Moonshine--what's his name--Starlight?"

"He was a sailor," was the sulky answer. Josiah was no fool, and knew
when he was being made fun of.

The Captain opened the book, and read a page or two to himself. Then he
said, "I see he knocked the skipper down 'cause he insulted him. Nice,
spunky chap; I'd like to have had him aboard a vessel of mine. And he
called the old man a 'caitiff hound'? Awful thing to call a feller, that
is. I'll bet that skipper felt ashamed. Looks like a good book. I'll
borrow it to-night to read while you're doin' your lessons."

"I ain't got any lessons to do."

"Oh, ain't you? I thought that was a 'rithmetic over there."

"Well, I know 'em now. Besides, you ain't got any right to order me
around. You ain't my uncle. Can't I read that book, Uncle Perez?"

Poor Perez! He hesitated, swallowed once or twice, and answered, "You
can read it after you've studied a spell. You'll let him have it then,
won't you, Eri? Now study, like a good boy."

Captain Eri looked as if he would like to say something further, but
he evidently thought better of it, and tossed the paper novel across to
Captain Perez, who put it on the table, saying, rather feebly:

"There now, it's right there, where you can have it soon's you've
l'arned your examples. Now pitch in, so's the teacher can see how smart
you are."

His nephew grumblingly got his paper and pencil, took the arithmetic
and went to work. No one spoke for a while, Captain Perez twirling his
thumbs and looking, as he felt, uncomfortable. Soon Josiah, announcing
that his studies were completed, grabbed the novel from the table, took
a lamp from the kitchen and went off to bed. When he had gone Captain
Jerry said, "Perez, you're sp'ilin' that boy."

"I s'pose I am, I s'pose I am, but I can't bear to be cross to him,
somehow. Poor Lizzie, she made me promise I wouldn't be, and I jest
can't; that's all. You understand how 'tis, don't you, Eri?"

The Captain nodded. "I understand," he said. "I'm sorry I said anything.
I hadn't oug