THE FATTED CALF. 9 



" Yes, yes," cried the blonde girl in lavendar, 

 " for that, too, and for kicking the football against 

 Squire Tomlinson's window so he came out as mad 

 as a March hare, and seized the ball and put it in 

 the stove. 0, we remember you well ! The deeds 

 that New Bedford boys do live after them. Besides, 

 we've not forgotten how you got another foot-ball 

 next day and filled it with gunpowder, and then 

 kicked that against the window till the Squire came 

 and caught it and put it in the stove just like 

 the first one, and then there wasn't any stove." 



The Prodigal turned again to Dorothy. " You 

 wouldn't have told those stories, would you ? " 

 He thought this tentative sally a triumph of pure 

 heroism. He was never so timid in his life. He 

 had chased whales and darted harpoons into their 

 slippery black backs out of the dancing prow of a 

 whale-boat ; he had gone among tattooed natives 

 who might have cooked and eaten him had they 

 chosen ; he had clambered down over the ship's 

 bows in a storm to repair a broken bob-stay, and 

 had stuck it out bravely till the bob-stay was 

 mended, though he was plunged twenty times 

 under water before the process was complete ; but 

 those exploits were as nothing beside this highly 

 problematic encounter with ringlets, and dimples, 

 and soft eyes, and tender white shoulders ! 



