Alec tried hard to keep down the smile that wanted to come. "And, Captain Rumford," he went on, "if only you would get a typewriter, I could write letters for you and make carbon copies or copy them in the copying-press. It wouldn't take one-fourth the time it takes to write your letters by hand, let alone make copies of some of them. Then you'd have copies of everything."
"Um!" said the captain again. "But who'd do the typewriting when you are not here? The Bertha B won't always be tied up by cold weather."
"Well," laughed Alec, "I don't suppose I'll always be a deck-hand on the Bertha B, for that matter. If you wanted to make a deck-hand into an office hand, I don't know what would prevent you. And I'm sure 'Barkis would be willin'.'"
"Barkis," said the shipper, straightening up. "Who's he, and what's he got to do with my business, anyway?"
"Oh! He's just a character in a book," said Alec. This time he could not conceal the smile, and he added, "He's just a funny sort of fellow that makes you laugh when you think of him."
"But what's this about his being 'willin''? What's the connection, anyway?"
"Oh! That was just a phrase of his, that came into my head. What I meant was that I would be willing to change from deck-hand to office hand any time you wanted me to."
Captain Rumford wheeled around toward Alec as though he were about to bite him. "Are you getting tired of catching oysters so soon?" he demanded. "I thought you had some sand."
"Tired!" cried Alec. "I love it. But I don't want to be a deck-hand forever, and I don't intend to be, either. There's so much to learn about the business that I've got to keep moving, or I'll never learn it."
"So you think you already know all there is to learn on shipboard, do you?" said the captain with cold contempt.