"Yes, sir. For you see he's got to be fed until we get to Charleston."

"Do you mind telling me who this new friend of yours is, and where he
is, and why he must be fed?"

"He's a sailor boy. He belongs on a destroyer and got left at Boston
when his ship started for Charleston two days ago."

"He is in the Navy?" exclaimed Mr. Bunker, in surprise.

"Yes, sir. And he spent all his money and did not know how to get down
there where the fleet will be in winter quarters, he says, unless he
went secretly on one of these steamers."

"He is stealing his passage, then?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"I suppose he is, Daddy," said Russ, ruefully enough. "He is in a boat,
all covered up with canvas. Up there on the deck. I can show you. I
found him quite by myself, and I was sorry for him, 'specially when he
said he didn't have anything to eat. And he said, would I keep still
about it? And at first I said I would."

"I see," said Daddy Bunker, smiling. "Then you thought that you ought
not to keep the secret from me?"

"That's it, Daddy."

"Quite right," rejoined Mr. Bunker encouragingly. "It is not good policy
to keep secrets from your mother and father. What do you want to do