Frank Nelson in the Forecastle

ost like coming into a

tter than I do; but when I get tired of the saddle and the woods, I like to see the blue water and feel the solid pla

6

or no money, but seeing that he had been down, he would not sell his experience at any price. I couldn't be hired to make that same trip to

cisco. They had only just arrived that day, their trip across the mountains being happily ended. They had discarded the half-savage, half-civilized costumes they had worn during their sojourn in the wilderness and substituted pea-jackets for their hunting-shirts,

o every locker and corner, just as they had done when they first saw her on the stocks at New Orleans, and the next to mount to the cross-trees to survey the harbor. Here they had sat for half an hour, enjoying the prospect spread out b

stared at everything with wide-open eyes, and were as much out of place on the schooner's deck a

r filled with driving snow, and could hear the roaring of the wind as it swept the prairie, just as they had seen it and heard it on that long-to-be-remembered afternoon. Archie grew excited and elated whenever he thought of the way he had captured the wild horse, and then exasperated when he remembered how he had lost him before he had had a chance to try even one race with his[9] cousin. Frank shrugged his shoulders when any of his companions called him "Chinny Billy," as they often did, and thanked his lucky stars that he was well out of the predicament which the genuine Chinny Billy had so nearly got hi

ts that passed between Frank and Lieutenant Gaylord were the most valuable of any. These two young fellows had been fast friends and almost constant companions ever since the night on which the lieutenant recaptured Dick Lewis after his flight from the guard house, and arrested Frank for assisting him to make his escape. Frank had something he knew the lieutenant wanted, and that was the splendid horse which Potter had given him. Frank could not take the animal around the world with him, and besides he was already the happy owner of a steed which was

ear, whose skin and claws were preserved by the old members of the Club as trophies. They found the snow fully as deep as they expected, the travelling difficult, and the weat

long time to come. They owed much to these two men, and as they could not repay them in any other way, they would take them around the world, introducing them to scenes and people of which they had never dreamed. Of course thi

ins and the prairie-they were made for them; but how will they look on the deck of t

bunks in the forecastle, and they can sl

inued Uncle[13] Dick. "They will be frightened to death when they find themselves

d not trouble them. They'll not be in half as much danger as they were while they were with Potter's gang. Then think of the fun we'll have

I shall have a fine time of it among you all; I can see that plainly." And then he turne

k their breath away. They opened their mouths and eyes and looked wonderingly at each other, but said nothing. Archie thought that was enough for one day, and although his friends wanted an immediate answer, he succeeded in inducing

t was not to be thought of. The boys knew better than to press the subject, and hoped that time would accomplish what arguments could never do. A few hours on board the Stranger in the[15] harbor, where vessels were constantly coming and going, might increase their confidence, while it familiarized them in some slight degree with life on ship-board, and

s moccasins; "and I am ready for new adventures and new sights beyond the seas. Our fellows can say, what the books tell us comparatively few American travellers can say, and that is, we have seen

are aboard," said Eugene.

and Bob g

nd since I have come to think of it, I don't want th

train, what would be their feelings when they found the schooner tossing abou

tinued Fred. "They always go to him and believe

don't like to believe that the world is round. They don'

1

s as large as that house of Potter's, and lions a

Eugene; "and Dick laughed the other da

chie, as the sound of voices in animat

he had placed at his feet; but the boys could not see what it was, for the Club were crowded about it and hid it from view. They were missing something, that was evident; but they did not intend to miss any more of it, and it was but the work

er had no book larnin', an' don't know nothing outside the mountains an' the prairy. Now, you tell me that thar's three times as much water on the 'arth as thar is ground; that you're goin' to start f

any edge to i

ere," said Dick, pointing to the pan of water, "is the sea; an' this yere,"

1

iece clipped out of the side of it, in shape something like a bottle with a very short neck and wide body, to represent the Golden Gate and the harbor of San Francisco. This miniature world Dick placed in the middle o

biscuit, "can't you see the[20] edge all the way round? I can understand that, which wasn't so very plain to me a few days ago, but now comes something I can't see into. You say the 'arth turns over onct every day, but that don't by no means stand to reason, 'cause jest see what would happen,"-he went on, placing his finger under the biscuit and raising one edge of it out

eir silence that he had got the better of all of them, the trapper said he was more firmly convinced than he had ever been before, that all the learning in the[21] world was not to be found

ce of hard tack doesn't represent the shape of the earth, but this apple does, pretty nearly. In the next

he trapper. "It wo

d Eugene, turning to his companions. "If, when I get through, you want to explain that the earth really revolves through space, and that the

planation, which was simply a repetition of what every boy learns when he first begins the study of geography. He described the motions of the earth as well as he could, and used the magnet to illustrate the attraction of

er the[23] apple-"when they get around here, they'll be-Human natur'!" he cried suddenly, as if frightened at the discovery he had made. "When you get around here, on the under side of the 'arth, you'll be walkin' with your heads downwards, won't you? Bob can do as he likes, but I

ent, and the boys scattered as if some one had

ype="