There
was only one thing I did like, and that was the books. Oh, I did lots of
reading, I tell you! But that could n't make up for the rest. I wanted
the freedom and the sunlight and the salt water. And what had I done to
be kept in prison and herded with such a gang? Instead of doing wrong,
I had tried to do right, to make myself better, and that 's what I got
for it. I was n't old enough, you see, to reason anything out.
"Sometimes I 'd see the sunshine dancing on the water and showing white
on the sails, and the _Reindeer_ cutting through it just as you please,
and I 'd get that sick I would know hardly what I did. And then the boys
would come against me with some of their meannesses, and I 'd start in
to lick the whole kit of them. Then the men in charge would lock me up
and punish me. Well, I could n't stand it any longer; I watched my chance
and ran for it. Seemed as though there was n't any place on the land for
me, so I picked up with French Pete and went back on the bay. That 's about
all there is to it, though I 'm going to try it again when I get a little
older--old enough to get a square deal for myself."
"You 're going to go back on the land with me," Joe said authoritatively,
laying a hand on his shoulder. "That 's what you 're going to do. As for--"
Bang! a revolver-shot rang out from the shore.
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