The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island | Page 2

about the rough seas, and the
chance of becoming seasick, they were joined by two others, one of
whom said in a breezy voice and with a lively air:
"Well, boys, how are you enjoying yourselves? Glorious weather, isn't
it? Fine breeze, just the thing to send us along, although we do not need
it, going under steam."
"I'm glad you like it, Jack!" said Harry with a wry face, "but I can't say
that I do. You may be used to the water, but I am not."
"I have never been at sea before," laughed Jack, "so I cannot be any
more used to it than you are. Perhaps you have been eating too much,
that might make you sick. You don't look it, at any rate."
"I don't know how I look," muttered Billy Manners, stopping suddenly
in his walking, "but I know how I feel," and he made a dash for the
cabin, and was gone for some time, the others continuing their walk on
deck.
In a few minutes a smiling negro in a white jacket and cap came out of
the cabin carrying a tray containing cups of beef tea, which he offered
to the boys, saying with a grin:
"Dis ain't like de beef soup yo' get at de 'cademy, sah, but mebby yo'
would like a bite or two dis mon'in' to sha'pen yo' appetite fo' dinnah?"
"No, thanks, Bucephalus," said one of the boys, Dick Percival by name,

who was walking arm in arm with Jack. "I don't need anything to
sharpen my appetite, which is always good on sea or land."
"The idea of offering a fellow anything to eat when he feels as I do,"
growled Harry. "Take it away, Buck, or I'll throw you overboard."
The high sounding name of the negro was often contracted to Buck by
the Hilltop boys, as in the present instance, but he was used to both,
and answered as readily to one as to the other, now saying with a broad
grin:
"Dat am a mistake, Mistah Harry. De worser yo' feel, de mo' yo' should
put in yo' stomach, dat is to say when yo' get good nourishmental food
like dis yer. Of co'se dey is detrimental substances which----"
"That sort of talk will make me sick if nothing else will," said Harry,
hurrying away, while Jack and Dick sat down, and gazed out upon the
horizon, while sipping their bouillon and nibbling at their biscuits.
"We will be in summer seas, as the advertisements call them, before
long," said Jack. "The air is pleasant enough as it is. Down here in the
summer it is pretty hot I take it, but in April it will be all right."
"Think of us cruising around the Spanish main where the old
buccaneers used to roam," laughed Dick. "Perhaps we will dig up a pot
of gold buried on one of the islands by some of them."
"If Captain Kidd had buried all the gold that folks said he did," replied
Jack, "he would have been kept busy till now. If people would work
instead of trying to find gold that was never buried, they would
accomplish something. The only treasure you dig out of the earth is the
good crop you get by working at your corn and potatoes."
"That's true philosophy, Jack. I have never had to dig anything for
myself, having rich folks who always looked after me. Perhaps it would
have been better for me if I had had to do more for myself."
"Well, you are not a spoiled child, Dick," said Jack, "as some sons of

rich parents are. You are not idle nor vicious, and you know the value
of money. You will do for yourself when you leave school. You are
going through a training now, that will do you good later."
"Yes, I suppose so, but your having to do for yourself has made you a
stronger, more self-reliant fellow than I will ever be."
"Oh, I don't know," returned Jack, half laughing, half seriously. "I am
not patting myself on the back, Dick."
"No, you never would."
The two boys were great friends, and were the leading spirits in the
Academy, having a great many friends, and being looked up to by the
greater part of the boys, and especially by the younger ones, who took
them as models.
Dick was somewhat older than Jack, and was farther along in his
classes, having had more advantages, but Jack was studious and
ambitious, and bade fair to catch up with his older companion and
schoolmate before many months had passed, having already in the few
months he had been at the Academy greatly shortened the lead which
Percival had in the beginning.
Two days later the yacht