"You thought some one else was? Why, that's just as bad--almost.
Who did you think would sit there?"

"Captain Spark!"

"You young rascal!" exclaimed the commander of the _Eagle_, but he
did not seem very angry. "So that was intended to anchor me down,
eh? Well, I must look into this."

"I thought you'd sit there," went on Bob.

"So I was going to, but the minister made me change, as he's a
little deaf on one side, and he wanted to ask me some questions
about the Fiji Islanders."

There was now quite a crowd around Bob, his mother, and the captain.
Mrs. Henderson did not know what to do. Up to now Bob's pranks had
been bad enough, but to play this trick on the minister, and at the
annual donation supper, where nearly every person in the village was
present, was the climax. She felt that she had been much humiliated.

Bob's father heard what had happened, and came up to his son.

"Bob," he said, in a curiously quiet voice, "you must go home at
once. I shall have to punish you severely for this."

Bob knew what that meant. He wished, most heartily, that he had not
played this last prank. But it was too late now.