"They are stars, Jacob, and rather bright ones," said Captain Solomon. "My chronometer—my clock, you know—was losing a good deal, and I looked through my sextant at them to find out where we really were."
"Oh," said little Jacob; but he didn't understand very well, and Captain Solomon saw that he didn't. It wasn't strange that he didn't understand.
Little Jacob sat looking at the log book and he didn't say anything for a long time.
Captain Solomon smiled. "Well, Jacob," he said, at last, "what are you thinking about? I guess you were thinking that you wished that you had the log to write up. Then you could say more about the things that were interesting. Weren't you?"
Little Jacob got very red. "Oh, no, sir," he said. "That is, I—well, you see, the things that are new and interesting to me—well, I s'pose you have seen them so many times that it doesn't seem worth while to you to say much about them."
"That is a part of the reason," answered Captain Solomon. "The other part is that it doesn't seem necessary. Anything that concerns the ship is put down. We don't have time—nor we don't have the wish—to put down anything else."
"Of course," said little Jacob, "it isn't necessary."
"I'll tell you what I'll do, Jacob," said Captain Solomon. "I'll let you write up the log, and then you can write as much as you like about anything that interests you."
Little Jacob got very red again. "Oh!" he cried, getting up in his excitement. "Will you let me do that? Thank you. I thank you very much. But—but how shall I put down all those numbers that show how the ship goes?"
"I'll give you the numbers, as you call them," said Captain Solomon, "and I'll look over the log every day, to see that you put them down right."