Lawry was good for nothing at complimentary speeches, and he went aft to give the girls directions to light up the cabin and the two staterooms for the accommodation of his unexpected passengers.
"Where's Fanny Jane?" asked Ethan, when Mr. Sherwood had gone to the wheel-house to put up the motto.
"She is going to keep house for us while we are gone," replied Miss Fanny mischievously. "You were so unsocial to-day she would not come with us."
"I had to look out for the engine," pleaded Ethan.
"That was not the reason, Ethan," interposed Mrs. Sherwood. "You behaved splendidly."
"If you were twenty, instead of sixteen, Ethan, I should say you were in love with Fanny Jane," laughed Miss Fanny.
"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Ethan, blushing beneath his smutty face. "I like her, and after what we went through out West, I don't think it is very strange I should."
"You are right, Ethan. She is a good girl, and I hope you will like her more, rather than less."
"The saloon is ready for you, ladies," said Lawry, interrupting this pleasant conversation—very pleasant to Ethan, for without entering into an analysis of the young engineer's feelings, it is quite certain he thought a great deal of the companion of his wanderings in Minnesota; but fortunately he is not the hero of this book, and this interesting suggestion need not be followed out any further.
The little captain conducted the ladies to the saloon, and then hastened to the wheel-house, where Mr. Sherwood, by the light of a lantern in the hands of one of the boys, had screwed up the sign.