"I'll be glad to do it, sir, if the others won't think that I don't want to stay with them."
"I'll 'tend to that part of it," the keeper said sharply. "Things are at a pretty pass if I've got to be shoved up here all by myself, an' can't call on any one to sit with me!"
"You wouldn't be up there, Ephraim Downs, if hadn't been for your own pig-headedness!" Uncle Zenas called from below, and Captain Eph whispered to the lad: "I never thought he could hear me, else I wouldn't have spoken so loud, for he's terrible kind of fretty since his wounds are beginnin' to heal in good shape," and he added in a louder tone to the second assistant, "I reckon I can make talk to Sonny, if I want'er, without your mixin' your tongue in, eh?"
"I'll mix in jest as often as you tell 'bout bein' shoved up there, when you know Sammy an' I were both set against it!" and Uncle Zenas' tone was what might truthfully be called "vinegary."
"Hello down there!" Mr. Peters called from the lantern, and, running to the foot of the stairs, Sidney answered the hail.
"Tell Cap'n Eph there's a dory comin' in from the east'ard. As nigh as I can make out, there are two men aboard, but they don't seem to have her in hand very well."
"A dory from the east'ard," the old keeper repeated, he having heard the first assistant's report. "There's likely to have been trouble out that way, Sonny, for the most venturesome fishermen who ever lived wouldn't be abroad in this blow unless somethin' had gone wrong. Tell Sammy to keep his eye on 'em."
Sidney repeated the instructions as Captain Eph had given them, and a smile overspread his face as he heard Mr. Peters mutter irritably:
"Keep my eye on 'em? I'd like to know what else I can do? Any idjut would have sense enough for that!"
"What's he sayin'?" the keeper asked sharply.