“I think you two have always been together, have you not?” he asked, keeping meanwhile a bright lookout.
“Yes,” answered Decatur, showing his white teeth in a smile. “We have been together ever since we were born, it seems to me. We both remember you when we were at school in Philadelphia, although you were so much older than we.”
“I recollect you both perfectly,” answered Stewart, “although you were such little fellows. Somers was the quietest fellow in the school, and you, Decatur, were the noisiest.”
“I believe you,” said Decatur, laughing. “I could have gone with my father on the Delaware,” pointing to the smart little sloop-of-war, “but I could not think of leaving Somers alone to fight it out in the steerage of the United States all by himself.”
At this Somers turned his eyes on Stewart, with a laugh in them. They were very black and soft, and full of humor, although Somers neither laughed nor talked much.
“Don’t mind Decatur, Mr. Stewart,” he said. “Captain Decatur didn’t want him on the Delaware.”
“I should think not,” replied Stewart. “I can’t imagine anything more uncomfortable than for a captain to have his own son among the junior officers. Captains, you know, have to understand what to see and what not to see. But a captain with his own son in the steerage would have to see everything.”
“Just what my father said,” added Decatur; “and, besides, he really did tell me he would like to keep Somers and me together for our first cruise, because Somers is such a steady old coach that he is fit to be the guardian of every midshipman in the navy.”
“I wish there were more like him, then,” said Stewart, with rather a grim smile, remembering what a larky set of youngsters the steerage of “Old Wagoner” harbored. “Let me give you each one piece of advice,” he added, as they drew close to the frigate’s great black hull, that loomed up darkly in the uncertain haze. “Decatur, do you be careful what you say to your messmates—Somers, do you be careful what you allow your messmates to say to you. Decatur will be too quick to take the other midshipmen up, and you, Somers, will be too slow.”
“Thank you, sir,” said both Somers and Decatur together, who appreciated Stewart’s few words of caution.