CHAPTER XV.
Shows, Among Other Curious Matters, That Two Boys Are Better Than One, and That Pluck Is a Good Thing, Especially When Polar Bears Are Around.
The next record we have of the doings of the ancient mariner and his little friends reads thus:—
“You will tell us to-day what you did with the bears,—won’t you, Captain Hardy?” inquired William.
“Well,” replied the Captain, laughing in his free-and-easy way, like a jolly old sailor as he was, taking his long pipe out of his mouth that he might do it all the better, “I think it was pretty near being what the bears did with us, my hearties! yes, that would be quite as near the mark, I’m thinking.”
“No matter, then,” said William,—“no matter, Captain Hardy; we ain’t particular,—any way you like. I’ll put the question t’ other way, then,—what did the bears do with you?”
The Captain was in great good-humor to-day, and he kept on laughing till his pipe went out; and, while he laughed, he said, “Why, to be sure, they frightened us!”
“Tit for tat,” exclaimed William; “you frightened them,—that’s fair.”