"I thought you'd sit there," went on Bob.
"So I was going to, but the minister made me change, as he's a little deaf on one side, and he wanted to ask me some questions about the Fiji Islanders."
There was now quite a crowd around Bob, his mother, and the captain. Mrs. Henderson did not know what to do. Up to now Bob's pranks had been bad enough, but to play this trick on the minister, and at the annual donation supper, where nearly every person in the village was present, was the climax. She felt that she had been much humiliated.
Bob's father heard what had happened, and came up to his son.
"Bob," he said, in a curiously quiet voice, "you must go home at once. I shall have to punish you severely for this."
Bob knew what that meant. He wished, most heartily, that he had not played this last prank. But it was too late now.
"I told you I thought he was up to something," whispered the captain to Mrs. Henderson.
"Yes, you were right," she admitted. "Now my mind is made up. Captain, I wish you would take him to sea with you at once! I can stand his foolishness no longer!"
Bob was out of the room by this time and did not hear his mother's decision.
"Do you mean that, Lucy?" asked Captain Spark eagerly.