“Of course that’s a question we can’t answer, lad. It may be your folks didn’t send him word, or, perhaps the letters went astray. There are a dozen good reasons which might be found, and it ain’t likely he’d be claimin’ a boy he never saw if there wasn’t any relationship between ’em.”
“I hung ’round Calcutta long enough for him to claim me if he’d wanted to, an’ surely he must have known father was dead, ’cause I’ve heard mother say it was reported among the shippin’ news in all the American papers.”
“You don’t seem to be very much pleased at the idea of havin’ an uncle up in ’York State?” Sam Hardy said, speaking a trifle more cheerfully than before, and Benny cried excitedly:
“Pleased! Of course I ain’t! He can’t be much of an uncle, else he would have helped father an’ mother along when they needed it. He can write a dozen letters before I’ll go anywhere to live off of people that ain’t wantin’ me very bad, else I’d have heard from ’em long ago.”
“This ain’t a matter to be settled off-hand, Benny,” Keeper Downey said gravely. “If the man who wrote this letter is your uncle, and it seems he is, I’m not certain but that he could force you by law to go with him. At all events, it’s his duty to give you some help in the world, and we must look at the matter from all sides before deciding.”
“If you’d rather I wouldn’t stay here, Mr. Downey, Fluff an’ me will go off somewhere else; but we won’t take up with his offer.”
“Now look here, Benny,” and Sam Hardy, reaching over, took the boy by the hand. “There’s no question about our wantin’ you to stay here, for we’ve come to look on you as belongin’ to us, an’ I’ll venture to say I’m speakin’ now what’s in the heart of every man here. We like you because you’re a sensible mate, an industrious lad, an’ one’s who’s doin’ his level best to get into a hard callin’. If we thought only of ourselves that letter would go into the fire before you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’ It’s your future that must be considered. By stayin’ here you’ll never be more ’n a surfman, an’ a lad of your age should aim higher than that, whether he reaches the mark set or not. I ain’t lookin’ down upon the business I’ve followed all my life, an’ I’ll always uphold that it’s an honor to any man to be a member of a life-saving crew; but at the same time I know, an’ you know, that it’s possible for a lad to go a good bit higher. What’s decided on now affects your whole life, an’ settles whether you’re to stay in the life-saving service, or, perhaps, be a shinin’ light in the world. I vote that all hands of us study over this thing till to-morrow after breakfast, and then let each one, includin’ Benny, give the result of his figgerin.’”
“That’s the proper way,” Tom Downey said quickly, catching eagerly at the suggestion. “You’ll remember all Sam Hardy has said, Benny, for it’s true, so far as regards yourself an’ us. We want you with us; but I hope there’s nobody in this crew who would be willing to keep you at the expense of your future. Think it all over calmly and quietly, lad, as Sam proposes, an’ you can count on this crew doin’ their level best for whatever may be to your future good.”