“We don’t have to be passengers, exactly,” answered Bobby. “We’ll help earn our keep in one way or another. But wouldn’t it be possible for you to put us on board some vessel bound back to the United States? That would probably suit you better, and it certainly would us.”
“Well, well. I’ll do the best I can,” said the captain. “It was a lucky thing you found those crates of canned goods in the hold. Probably, though, you’d all relish a meal of hot food by this time. How about it?”
“We’re not the ones to say no to that,” admitted Bobby, and in a short time the boys were seated about a table in the cabin and were enjoying the first hot meal for four days. The cook on that vessel was not noted for his skill, but the boys thought that never in their lives had they tasted better food. They cleaned their plates more than once, and won the whole-souled admiration of the mess boy who waited on them. The latter was a negro, and prided himself on his own ability to consume food, but he was forced to admit that the boys were his superiors.
“You white boys sho’ mus’ hold cards in de platter-polishers’ union,” he declared, with a grin that seemed to split his ebony countenance from ear to ear. “Doan ’member when Ah ever seen nobody relish dere food so thorough as you does.”
“Maybe if you’d lived on cold canned tomatoes and corn for a few days, you’d be able to work up an appetite, Mose,” remarked Billy.
“Ah doan nebber have to work up an appetite, nohow,” declared the darky, with a grin. “Seems lak it done come natchel to me, somehow. But you white boys is about two skips an’ a hop ahead o’ me.”
“We’ll slow down after we’ve had a few square meals,” said Bobby. “But tell me, Mose, where is this ship bound for?”
“Fo’ de No’th Pole,” declared the darky solemnly, with a shake of his woolly head.
“The North Pole!” echoed Billy, while the others sat agape. “Are you trying to kid us, Mose?”
“Well, ef it ain’t de No’th Pole it’s some place dat ain’t fur from it,” declared the negro. “Dis mawnin’ Ah heered de captain say dat we’d be seein’ de No’the’n Lights pretty soon, an’ Ah reckons dem lights ain’t fur from de No’th Pole, is dey?”