"I shall do only a little more work for you, gran'pa," was Ned's amazing reply, which almost caused the old man to drop his lines and fall backward off his seat.
"What's that?" he cried, and his voice fairly squeaked under the stress of his great astonishment.
"I said," calmly repeated Ned, "that I shall not do much more work for you, grandpa, and neither will Herc here, I guess. We are going away."
It was Herc's turn to look astonished. Accustomed as he was to accept Ned's opinion in most things, this latest resolve seemed somewhat drastic even to the impetuous red-headed youth.
"Why, you ain't got no money?" stammered old Zack, not being able to think of anything else to say in his great amazement.
"Oh, yes, I have," quietly rejoined Ned. "I have fifty dollars saved up that I got for skins last winter and Herc has about the same sum. That will carry us a little way, I guess."
"Why, Ned, boy! Land o' Goshen, what have yer set yer mind on doin'?" gasped the farmer.
"We're going to enter the navy," announced Ned, in these same quiet, determined tones; which unmistakably meant to anyone who knew him that his mind was made up beyond the possibility of change.
"What, out on the water?" gasped old Zack, his mind in a whirl at this sudden kicking over the traces of authority.
"I believe they usually sail the vessels of Uncle Sam's navy on the water," chirped the irrepressible Herc, who, his first astonishment over, had quite resolved to follow his cousin's footsteps wherever they might lead.