"Oh _inside_ he's the same. I was just like him when I was a kid. I
had a step-mother, too, and she and all the step-uncles and aunts scolded
and scolded, and whipped me besides, because _I_ wanted to go to sea
on a great big ship."

"What did you do?"

They didn't really need to ask that question, for hadn't the Toyman been
most everywhere, and hadn't he told them many a story about the great sea
and the ships?

"Yes, they all said I would drown or become a wicked bad man."

Marmaduke thought he would like to do something to those step-uncles and
aunts who treated the Toyman so badly.

"They don't know what they're talking about," he shouted. "You're good as
anybody in the world."

"Thank you, little feller," replied the Toyman, patting his head. "But they
said I would, just the same. They talked just like those old Wyandottes
there.

"But I fooled them all," he went on. "And one night, when it was dark, just
a few stars out, I climbed out of bed and jumped out of the window and ran
away.

"I walked and I walked, miles and miles, till I came to a big town by the
sea. There were lots of big ships at the docks, and I asked a man, with a