Leaping from his chair, Jim tore into the library with his friend, both yelling like Indians and prancing about the old sailor until he thought they had gone stark, staring mad.
“Avast there! Lay off!” he cried. “What in the name o’ tarnation’s the matter with ye?”
Presently in disjointed sentences, the two boys managed to explain the cause of their excitement.
“I’ll be blowed!” exclaimed the old whaleman. “So that’s how the land lays, eh? So you’re the two third mates ol’ man Edwards was talkin’ erbout. Wondered what in Sam Hill he wanted two fer. Well, well, so we’re goin’ fer to be shipmates, eh? ’Spect Nye wuz jest jollyin’ of ye all the time. He knowed I wuz a-goin’ last night. Cap’n Edwards wuz over ter see me an’ wanted fer me ter go, but I wuz a leedle mite skittish ’bout this timber leg. Then, this arternoon, he come over ter see the ol’ Hector an’ he sez ter me, Pem, he sez, ye’ve jes’ gotter sign on. ’Lessen ye do I won’t have no other nav’gator erlong. Can’t git ’em ’lessen you come too. So I jes’ signed on then an thar.”
“Hurrah for Captain Edwards!” shouted the boys. Then, as their parents entered the room, Tom cried: “Now what do you say, father? I’ll bet you’re surprised. Isn’t it bully, though!”
Mr. Lathrop coughed and covered his mouth with his handkerchief and Mr. Chester strove to conceal a smile and winked at his friend.
“Well, wonders will never cease,” he replied. “Luck seems to be with you, boys. I hope it will last through the cruise. And it will be some cruise, eh, Lathrop? Mate with a wooden leg, two boys for third mates, an eighty-year-old ship and Heaven alone knows what kind of a crew!”
“Don’t ye fear erbout the crew, Mr. Chester,” spoke up Cap’n Pem. “That’s my job an’ my name ain’t Pem Potter if I don’ git ’em, if I have ter bust open the jail or the poor house an’ take the critters inside.”
The others laughed. “I shouldn’t be surprised if they’d prove better than anything you’ll get elsewhere,” chuckled Mr. Lathrop. “The war’s taken every able-bodied man there is. You won’t find the crowd of park loafers and bums that used to form the bulk of whaling crews.”
“Who said anythin’ erbout able-bodied men?” exclaimed the old seaman. “Jes’ so long’s they’ve got two feet an’ two han’s it’s all I ask. Give me three months at sea with ’em an’ I’ll make whalemen outer anything what’s human. But I reckon I’ll be h’istin’ to’sails an’ gettin’ under way. I gotter be mighty busy from now on.”