“Then I’m glad we came away,” replied the captain; “and we’ll go right on too, for I see you don’t like listening to the storm.”
“O, I’m dreadfully afraid!” said Alice.
“Go on, go on! Captain Hardy,” exclaimed both the boys together.
“But where was I when we left off to run away, in such a lubberly manner, from the storm?” inquired the Captain. “Let me see,” and he put his finger to his nose, looking thoughtful.
“You were just beginning to cry,” put in William.
“To be sure I was, that’s it; and so would you cry, too, my boy, if you had an empty stomach under your belt, and nothing but a jack-knife in it,” answered the Captain.
“That I would,” exclaimed William, “I should have cried my eyes out. But, Captain Hardy,—if you’ll excuse me,—was the jack-knife in the empty stomach or in the belt?”
“Ah, you little rogue! I’ll not mind you any more,” said the Captain, laughing; “what would Fred have done?”
“I think I should have broke my heart,” said Fred, promptly.
“That’s not so easy done as crying,” exclaimed the Captain. “But what says little Alice; what would she have done?”