"Yes, that was the end of him. He had tried to save the ship, his father's ship--and he had done it when men failed--I don't know--I can't judge him. Old man Jackson left without a word, and I never saw him again."
The old seaman paused, and the night showed his cigar end flaming again. I sat there thinking over the tale, the true tale of that boy, for I knew Large was telling me only facts. It was all very strange, all like a horrid nightmare the old seaman had suffered from; but it was not a dream, it was the truth about a boy, just a rough, tough boy whose ideals had been a bit peculiar. I looked over across the berth at my own ship, where five boys were already signed on for the voyage around the Cape, and I began to wonder if I had done a wise thing to ship them. Then I determined right there to give them some extra thought and study, to try to fathom what lay behind their "going to sea."
THE END
FOOTNOTE:
[A] Copyright, 1911, by Doubleday, Page & Co.