“‘Never mind, Uncle,’ I said, soothingly. ‘We’ll both do our best for you——’
“‘And your “best” will be just exactly alike,’ he cried. ‘When you get your mate’s tickets it will be the same, and in the end I’ll have a couple of masters of windjammers as near alike as old Somes and Bowditch. What one can do the other can do. Ye stood just the same in your books at school, and you stand just the same in your rating at sea.’
“I expect the old man was pretty well heated up. But we just laughed as though it was a joke.
“‘I tell you what,’ says he, pushing back his chair. ‘You sha’n’t fool me no more. One of you is going to take his place in the firm at the end of this v’yge you are beginning. One of you will win and the other will lose. And I’ll never let a penny of my money get into the hands of the fellow that loses.’
“Oh, he was quite in earnest, we could see. Alf looked at me and shook his head. It was past laughing at.
“‘The Gullwing and the Seamew,’ says uncle, ‘are putting to sea on the same day. They will practically make the same voyage. Now listen to me! Whichever of you boys steps ashore at Baltimore at the end of the voyage, that boy will be my heir, and the other sha’n’t have a cent. Now, that’s final. One of you has got to win, whether you want to, or not. I’ll settle it myself.’
“And with that he walked off and left us, too mad to even bid us good-bye,” said Mr. Barney.
Chapter XX
In Which Phillis Tells Me of Her Dream
I thought Mr. Barney had finished his story, he was so long silent. I saw, however, that he was still thinking of his brother, and I was not sure whether he was expecting a word of sympathy, or not. I reckoned he had been talking more to relieve his mind than for any other purpose. And finally he went on with it: