A REJECTED APPLICANT. 237 



boat, and take us aboard. The freshet is getting pretty bad, 

 and it is getting a little damp, up here.' 



" ' I can't do it,' says Noah, ' my craft is full of better 

 people.' 



" ' But,' says the applicant for admission into the Ark, 

 'let me in, and I'll superintend the navigation. I'll man 

 the wheel, and see that the sails are all right, and we can 

 pick up a deal of floating plunder as we go along.' 



" ' Can't do it,' says Noah, ' we've got a good steersman 

 and safe navigators on board already." 



" 'Well,' says the applicant, ' I'll work my passage as a 

 deck hand, asking only a small portion of such spoils as we 

 may pick up. Come, bring us aboard.' 



" ' Can't do it,' says Noah, ' can't think of such a thing." 



" ' Then,' said the persevering applicant for a passage in 

 the Ark, ' I'll go along for nothing giving the benefit of my 

 counsel and assistance free gratis ; more than all that, I'll 

 stand the liquor all round.' 



" ' No use in talking,' says Noah, ' you can't come, on 

 board of my craft, on any terms. You'd corrupt my people, 

 and set them by the ears in a week. You can't have a berth 

 on any conditions. Good-bye 1' 



" ' Then go to thunder with your old Ark,' indignantly 

 responded the occupant of the rock, ' I don't believe there's 

 going to be much of a shower, after all.' 



" In a day or two, Noah drifted that way again. The 

 mountain peak had disappeared beneath the waters, and the 

 occcupants were all gone." 



