"But he was drunk," said Noddy.
"That's none of your business. If he was, it was so much the more stupid in you to attempt to kick up a row with him."
Noddy began to be of the same opinion himself; and an incipient resolution to be more careful in future was flitting through his mind, when he was summoned to the cabin by Mollie. He went below; the captain was not there—he had retired to his state-room; and his daughter sat upon the locker, weeping bitterly.
"How happy I expected to be! How unhappy I am!" sobbed she. "Noddy you have made me feel very bad."
"I couldn't help it; I didn't mean to make you feel bad," protested Noddy.
"My poor father!" she exclaimed, as she thought again that the blame was not the boy's alone.
"I am very sorry for what I did. I never went to sea before, and I didn't know the fashions. Where Is your father? Could I see him?"
"Not now; he has gone to his state-room. He will be better by and by."
"I want to see him when he comes out. I will try and make it right with him, for I know I was to blame," said Noddy, whose ideas were rapidly enlarging.
"I am glad to hear you say so, Noddy," added Mollie, looking up into his face with such a sad expression that he would have done anything to comfort her. "Now go on deck; but promise me that you will not be impudent to my father, whatever happens."