Captain Joy nodded. “Not much doubt about that, my lad,” he said, cheerfully. “But a broken bone’s nothing at your age. Splints an’ rest’ll set that all shipshape again in a matter of a couple o’ months at most.” ”_Months!_” Tommy gasped, and his head collapsed weakly against Lis’s shoulder, which happened to be nearest. “But, Captain, I’m shipping on the _Flying Spray_, bound out for Canton, come Saturday.” CHAPTER III Tommy was carried home from the wharf, a decidedly white-faced and subdued Tommy, and laid on the big four-poster in the room Lis and he shared at the back of the house, while his mother was summoned from Miss Charity’s party and the doctor routed out of a peaceful, before-bedtime nap in his study farther up Orange Street. Captain Bartlet escorted Mrs. Folger across the garden, and went upstairs with her to see his cabin boy. He was full of a bluff, kindly sympathy, and sat on the edge of the bed, letting poor Tommy grip hard at his big, muscular arm, while Dr. Spencer set the broken leg. The first thing Tommy said, when that operation was over and he was lying back on the stiff white bolster, with his right leg swollen to an unrecognizable size by splints and bandages, was: “I guess this discharges me from sea duty, sir—for this voyage, anyhow. Will you take Lis in my place, please? He was just as anxious to ship as I was, you know.” The captain looked keenly at the boy, and then at Lis, who had flushed suddenly scarlet. “Want to take thy brother’s place, son?” he asked the latter. “I’m sorry about Tom’s accident, but I do need a cabin boy.” He added, smiling, “And, after all, I don’t know as I could tell thee from him in any case, so I won’t realize there’s been an exchange.” Lis gulped, stared rather piteously at Tommy, and then at his mother. His heart had leaped at the unlooked-for opportunity that had come to him, but he plainly hated to accept it at the price of Tommy’s disappointment. “You’ll be able to ship with Uncle Eric, Tom, when the _Sea Gull_ comes in,” he suggested. But Tommy shook his fair head decidedly. “Too far off. We don’t know just when the _Sea Gull_ will return. No, this is your chance, Lis; better take it. And we can’t disappoint Captain Bartlet, either. He needs a boy, and this won’t be giving him fair notice to find another. He’ll go, sir,” he told the captain. “And he’s a lot steadier than I am, sir, so you’re getting a better man.” “Tommy is right—you had better go, dear,” Mrs. Folger said, unexpectedly. “I know you have wanted to, all the time, and I was pleased by the way you kept your disappointment to yourself and did not spoil your brother’s pleasure by grumbling.”