Dick put his arms around his mothers’ neck and as soon as he could speak, half sobbed out: 

“Oh, Mumsey, I can’t take your money.  You’ve got so little.”

“But mother wants you to, so much.”

Dick held his mother’s face close to his own for a minute and then said, very slowly: 

“Mumsey, I’ll go—­and it’s really and truly because you want me to—­but I won’t take any of your money.  Hush, now!  Don’t you say a word, or I’ll—­disown you.  I’ve got a ten-dollar bill of my own and I’ll keep that in my pocket just so you won’t worry for fear I’m hungry; and I will bet you ten dollars I’ll bring that same bill back to you and I won’t go hungry one day either.”

“But, Dick—­”

“Not one word, Mumsey, except to say you’ll take that bet.  I can get a ride to New York on a boat, any day.  Then I’ll go to the Mallory Line and work my way to Key West on one of their boats; and from Key West I can find a fishing boat that will land me on the west coast of Florida somewhere within a hundred miles of Ned, and I’d walk that far just for the fun of surprising him.”

CHAPTER II

DICK GOES TO SEA

Three days after Dick’s talk with his mother, he boarded a Key West steamer just as it was leaving its New York pier.  He sat on the deck and watched busy ferry-boats in the river, fussy tugs and chug-chugging launches in the harbor, and the white-winged yachts and great ocean steamers in the lower bay.  He looked back from the Narrows upon the receding city, to the east upon Coney Island with its pleasure palaces, and to the southwest upon the great curve of Sandy Hook.  Every step upon the deck near him brought his heart into his mouth in dread of what he knew he had to face.  When the steamer was opposite Long Branch and there was small chance that he could be sent back, he inquired for the captain, whom he found talking to some young girls among the passengers.  This somewhat reassured Billy, for he felt that the captain wouldn’t eat him up in the presence of the young ladies, and he stood waiting with his cap in his hand until the captain spoke to him.

“Do you want to see me, my boy?”

“If you are Captain Anderson, I do, sir.”

“All right, go ahead.”

“I want you to set me to work, sir.”

“Why should I set you to work?  Do you belong on the boat?”

“Not yet, but you see it’s this way.  I had to get to Key West and I thought I’d work my passage with you.”

“Why didn’t you ask me before we left the dock?”

“Because I was afraid you wouldn’t take me, if you could help it, and I had to go.”

“You cheeky little devil, I believe I’ll chuck you overboard.”

“Oh!” said a brown-eyed girl who stood beside the captain, “you mustn’t do that!”

The captain laughed and said to Dick: 

“I hope you understand that you owe your life to this young lady.  Now, go and report yourself to the cook and tell him to put you on the worst job he’s got.”