And the sea didn't sweep us overboard.

But after that fight the mate let me do as I pleased for the rest of the voyage." Knowing how strong are the arms of an iron worker and what a burly man is a ship's mate, we realized that the fight must have been a struggle between giants.
We were fluent readers, much better readers than our parents, but we had no books.

We took the Youth's Companion, and it was the biggest thing in our lives.

Every week we were at the post-office when the Companion was due.

We could hardly wait, we were so eager to see what happened next in the "continued" story.