"I hope you have had enough of the sea," sighed his mother.
"I am just beginning to like it first rate. Don't you see I am an officer?"
"Are you the captain of the ship?"
"Well, no; not exactly that, mother; but I am in command of this boat."
Scott turned away, and laughed, as did the stroke oarsman, who also heard the remark.
"I want you to go with me now. I am very, very lonely without you," added Mrs. Blacklock.
"Not much, as the Americans say," replied Clyde, shaking his head.
"Much what, my son?"
"I don't want to leave the ship. I have done very well, and I am going to be the captain of her one of these days. I have been studying geometry, and algebra, and navigation, and French, and German; and a fellow can learn something in that ship. It's the best school I ever went to.—Way enough!" said the new coxswain, as the cutter approached the gangway of the Young America, the steps of which had been rigged out as soon as it was seen that ladies were coming on board.