"That will be nice!" cried the boy, greatly relieved. "Of course I ought
to have told you right at first. You always do know how to straighten
things out, Daddy!"

"That is what fathers and mothers are for," replied Mr. Bunker. "Go down
and go to sleep, Son, and I will do my best for this young deserter."

When Mr. Bunker entered the stateroom an hour later Mother Bunker wanted
to know all about it, of course. And if Russ had known just what they
both said of him he would certainly have been proud.

"He's a manly boy," said Daddy Bunker in conclusion. "I am glad he is
our son."

The trouble about it all was, in Rose's opinion, that she never quite
understood it. If Russ had done anything to be punished for, he
certainly didn't seem to mind the punishment! And Daddy and Mother
seemed to have a little secret between them, as well as Russ.

"I don't like secrets," she complained the next day, on thinking it all
over.

"Oh, I do!" cried Laddie. "'Specially now that Christmas is coming."

But Rose knew this was not a Christmas secret. She wondered where the
nice, pleasant-faced sailor boy came from who seemed to know Russ and
Daddy Bunker so well. She had not seen him before. And that was another
mystery that nobody seemed willing to explain to her.