date for sailing. In the meanwhile you can be getting ready."

"Aye, aye, sir," answered the boy, trying, as he had read of sailors
doing, to pull a lock of his reddish hair, but finding it too short.
He had decided to adopt all the sea practices he had ever read about.

"Get your bag ready," went on the captain, "have your mother put
some needles and thread in, for you'll have to mend your own clothes
at sea, and I'll look it over when I get back."

"Aye, aye, sir."

The captain laughed at Bob's sudden enthusiasm for the sea and ship
terms, but he was not displeased.

As for Bob, he thought the time would never pass until he would find
himself aboard the _Eagle_. That very day he began to sort over his
clothes, trying to decide which he should take, and he had such a
miscellaneous collection of garments that, when his mother saw them,
she laughed.

"Bob!" she exclaimed. "It would take three trunks to hold them, and
I don't believe sailors are ever allowed more than one. At least,
in all the pictures I ever saw of sailors going on board a ship they
only had a small box or bag on their shoulder, and, of course, that
must have contained all their clothes."

"I guess you're right, mother. I'll have to sort out some of these."

"Never mind. I'll do that. But what in the world are you doing