"I think I would, after he had learned the navigation."
"He is your brother, Lawry, and I don't like to say anything to wound you; but I feel that your brother is not a reliable person. You must be very prudent. Even a trifling accident, resulting from mismanagement, might ruin your business; for people will not expose their lives needlessly. If Ben will run the ferry the rest of the year, keep sober, and behave well in every respect, you might make a pilot of him, or even captain, another season."
Doubtless this was good advice, and the little captain had so much confidence in his friend and benefactor that he could not help adopting it. Mr. Sherwood went into the cabin again, without any conversation with the subject of his severe but just comments. Lawry was on the point of leaving the hurricane-deck, where he had talked with his adviser, when he noticed that the boat was headed toward the shore, and in a moment more would be aground in the shoal water off Barber's Point. He rushed into the wheel-house, and found that Ben had abandoned the helm. Grasping the wheel, the pilot brought her up to her course, and then turned to his brother.
"What do you mean, Ben, by leaving the wheel?" demanded Lawry, filled with indignation at his brother's treachery.
"Don't talk to me," growled Ben.
"The boat would have been aground in a minute more."
"I wish she was."
"What's the matter, Ben?"
"I thought you were my brother; but you are not."
"I'm sorry to hear you talk so; and I didn't think you would do so mean a thing as to run the boat ashore."