Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/105

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A TALK ABOUT THE TROUBLES IN CUBA
83

the Norwegian. "You let me alone, like captain say you should."

There the talk ended, and instead of anything being gained by it, matters were made worse, for Oleson became an enemy of Striker as well as of Larry. He no longer looked at either when their eyes were turned in his direction, yet they felt intuitively that he had them constantly in his mind.

Taken at its best, life on a sailing-vessel on an extended trip is bound to grow more or less monotonous, and were it not for a number of reasons Larry would have found time growing dull on his hands, during the hours when there was absolutely nothing to do, and when he was too wide-awake to think of going to sleep, as many of his messmates did.

But besides Striker, he had made a good friend of the Rev. Martin Wells, and the missionary was not above coming forward to chat with Larry and the others, and in addition to this he loaned the youth several books, which Larry devoured with keen relish,—histories and biographies, books which were rather dry when compared with what the boy had read when at home, but which did him far more good.