“Now look here, Benny, there are some nights when that’s precious hard work, and almost any time in the winter it’s no joke to turn out, say about midnight, an’ walk this blooming shore four hours.”
“I know that, sir; but yet it will toughen me to do it, and after a spell I won’t mind it any more’n you do.”
“But what’s your idea in doin’ such work?”
“I want to grow into so much of a surfman that I can see at night the same as you do. When the Three Brothers was sighted I couldn’t make her out at all.”
“It’s trainin’ your eyes you’re after, eh?”
“Yes, sir, perhaps that’s what you could call it.”
“Well, I’ll talk with Downey, and see what he thinks of the scheme, although I’m willing to say right up an’ down now that I don’t just like it. The job is too rough for a little chap like you.”
“I must get hardened to bad weather, and the cold, and all that sort of thing if I’m goin’ to stay in the life-saving service.”
Sam turned away with a laugh, and not until evening did he make any reply to the request.
Then, when the hour was near at hand for him to go on patrol, he said, speaking to all hands, including Fluff’s master: