The sailor looked at him with a peculiar expression of countenance, and was silent for a few moments.
"Next time," he said huskily, and, making a rough bow, he caught up a small portmanteau standing ready, and hurried out of the house, while the Skipper's mother bit her lower lip, hard, as she turned away, to hide her swimming eyes.
"What's Mamma crying for?" asked Dot.
"She wasn't crying," said the Skipper gloomily, but, he felt she was ready to do so, and he turned to go into the drawing-room, after opening the door a little way, feeling all the while that his mother's looks were all on account of his behaviour.
Just then the boy stood perfectly still, for there was a burst of pitiable sobs, and he heard his mother say, in answer to some whispered words of the Captain's—"I do try, dear, but it seems so hard, so very hard."
CHAPTER IV.
The next morning at breakfast the Skipper noticed that his mother looked as if she had been crying again, and the sight came like a chill over the boy.
"But she isn't very angry with me," he thought the next moment, for she kissed him eagerly. "It's only because she's sorry. I'm never going to make her unhappy again, though," he thought, as he went on to shake hands with his father.
"Morning, Bob," said the Captain, pressing his boy's hand hard, and then turning to Dot, whom he jumped up so as to kiss her lovingly.