I guess I can't go to sleep till I've told you something."
Daddy smiled at Mother Bunker but nodded to Russ.
"All right," he said. "We will go out on deck again and take a turn up
and down and you shall tell me all about it."
Mother made no objection, although the hour was getting late, and she
smiled, too, when she saw Russ slip into his jacket again and follow his
father out of the stateroom. On the deck Russ burst out with:
"I promised I wouldn't tell anybody. But when I gave him his supper I
told him I'd just have to tell my father, I was afraid; and he said he
didn't have any father and he didn't know whether fathers wouldn't
'snitch,' and I said my father wouldn't."
"I see," said Mr. Bunker gravely. "You recommended me as being a safe
person to trust a secret with. I am glad you did so."
"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.
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