CHAPTER FOUR.
THE "JOSEPHINE." "What!" I exclaimed joyfully; "Captain Miles! That jolly old fellow who came out to Mount Pleasant last year and showed me how to make a kite ?" "The same," replied dad.

"But remember, Tom, he's not much over my age; and I do not by any means call myself an old man yet! Besides, he and I are friends of long standing, and you should not speak of him so disrespectfully." "Oh, dad, I didn't mean that, and I beg his pardon, I'm sure," I interposed hastily at this.

"What I wished to express was, that I thought him so nice and pleasant, that I was very glad to have the chance of seeing him again!" "My dear boy, I know what you meant," said dad kindly, with his usual bright smile, the sight of which eased my mind in a minute.

"However, Tom," he added quizzingly, "we must now see about getting out to the old fellow." But this was sooner said than done.
There was the ship, it was true, and there were we on the shore looking at her; but, there between us stretched an expanse of nearly two miles of blue water, which we certainly could not cross by swimming, although dad was a pretty good hand at that, and had made me, too, a fair adept in the art for my years.
How to reach the vessel, therefore, was the question.
Dad tried waving his handkerchief to attract the attention of those on board; but the crew of the _Josephine_ appeared to be all asleep, for nobody took any notice of the signal.

Foiled in this hope, dad turned round to me again with a puzzled expression on his face, as if wondering what he should do next, though of course I could not suggest anything.
Just then Jake, who had been looking at my father very attentively all this while, as if "taking stock" of his movements, so to speak, suddenly burst into one of his huge guffaws.
"Yah, yah, massa, golly you no see for suah!" he cried out in an ecstasy of enjoyment at what he considered a rare joke.