Seating himself within view of the reef upon which the _Amazonia_ had gone to pieces, and covering Fluff with his coat as best he might, the lad gave himself up to reflection--not as to what was best for him to do regarding the matter of going to his uncle; but concerning the cruel tricks which fortune seemed to be playing him. “I know neither mother nor Mrs. Clark would want us to go off to that old man who never cared for us a cent’s worth till he saw the news of the shipwreck in the papers, and it’s horrible for him to interfere just when we’d got into such a nice place!” The dog licked his master’s face, and interpreting this as meaning Fluff fully agreed with him, Benny continued mournfully: “We won’t go, Fluffy, and that’s all there is to it. If the crew say we can’t stay here because that man claims the right to order us ’round, we’ll run off somewhere by our own two selves, an’ see if it won’t be possible to make another home. But we’ll never find such a pleasant place as this, no matter how much good luck we have! It seemed as if the men liked us, an’ after there’d been time to grow, we’d come out as regular surfmen.” The dog whined because he was cold, but Benny fully believed it to be in reply. “Of course you’re sorry, Fluff! Anybody’d be; an’ what _is_ to become of us? You’ve got a collar and a medal, and there’s my two suits of clothes; but we’ll need some place to sleep in the very first night of leaving here, and where’ll we find it? The money the passengers gave us is in the bank, and I suppose Andrew Foster will think it belongs to him, so we can’t count on that.” Fluff twisted and squirmed until he escaped from his master’s arms, for the embrace was much too close to please him, and as he capered and danced, begging to be taken back to the station Benny’s grief increased: “I know you want to stay here, Fluffy; but how can I fix things? It’s going to be terrible hard on you to go where folks won’t want you in the house ’cause you’re a dog, an’ we can’t be together much of the time. Oh, what shall we do, you poor little man!” Believing himself hidden from view of the life savers, the lad gave way to the grief in his heart, and, lying face downward upon the rocks, he allowed the tears to flow unchecked. It was Sam Hardy who, missing Benny from the station, had come out fearing to find him in much such a frame of mind. During two or three minutes the kindly-hearted surfman stood over him in silence, while Fluff remained near by wagging his tail as if asking what had gone wrong so suddenly, and then, bending over, Sam Hardy lifted the sorrowing boy in his arms. “Look you, lad, it’s wrong to get all down to the heel in this fashion when a question comes up which is to be settled as nearly for your good as we can figger it out. A life-savin’ station ain’t the kind of a home which is needed by a boy of your age.” “It’s the only kind I want!” Benny sobbed. “Fluffy an’ I’ll never find another so good!”