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from side to side for all the world like a .hoary-haired sea dog that hadn't been on land for several years. "We have always spent the holidays on board," his mother said, as she watched him buttonhole a great black man with queer gold rings in his ears, his trousers rolled up to his knees and great, brown feet bare, "so he doesn't know what a tree is, but this year we leave port so late and the men begged so hard for one that we are going to have a regular celebration. You see," she added as she glanced about at the men rolling great casks of oil out on the dock, "there aren't many whalers that carry women and this is the only one that I know of that carries a child, and the men make a great deal of him. And," with a little laugh, "It's such a "I always make all holiday dinners my own special business," she went on. "The men have little enough to look forward to, so I carry along dainties that will keep, and we fare Just about as well as you people on land. Mince meat, fruit cake, salted almonds, nuts. and candies go a long way in dressing up a table, and it pays to keep on the right side of the sailors. Jamie and I are very de pendent upon them, you know.'.' Well, I should rather think, they, were. There are mighty few women who would care to take their lives in their hands to such an extent as .that. To be sure . her * husband is captain, but he is one of thirty, and; with the exception of ,the mate and i a \couplo of others, is the only. • white "' man on the Knowles I got up and dressed the a boy. It was prettyrough, but Tm a o: good sailor and didn't mind. Any- h thing was better than stifling in the ,cl cabin, but you may know how the sea". 11 was rolling when' I, tell you that I stepped from our '¦: small . boat on the; hi deck of the Alice Knowles 'when she "J turned our way. .My, wasn't I glad to n see a woman again. I rather fancy tl Mrs. "Captain Montgomery was pleased, too." . . a] '., Fancy such a "predicament. A" boil- I' ing sea' on one side and a villainous" ai crew on the other. , Sort _ of a Hob- .w son's choice, but she choose the lesser. P 1 of the two evils. 1 9 1 \j "Oh, you're so terrible slow. ' Come ci on,: hurry up," and '; the lord ' and mas ter.- of /the Morgan ' came '- cantering H long perched on the broad shoulders fa modern Othello. .. He i dug his eels into the ribs of his steed,' lapped him on the head and scolded ke a small fury. "Gea up'."// "Well, here it is," he announced, as" e proudly handed over a toy popgun, [help shoot whales, I do," and his •ef er skirt flaunted itself proudly In ie breeze. "I'm a man, lam." -, "Now, son, you stay here and see that 11 the oil Is taken out of the hold, and 11 call you '¦ when tea ; Is ready!" and s he took up his watch/ gun in'handj e went downstairs, ostensibly to pre are tea,' but in reality to peep into the h.est and see how much of a man the iptain's son was. "He's a man, is he?. Well, this looks ke It, don't It?" and his mother held / f LEASE.Santa Claus, bring me X ) a pail, a wheelbarrow and a \^ shovel, and I'll be a good JL boy. Amen." Now you might wonder what Jamie Earle, a small boy who has spent his four summers aboard a whaler, wants a pail and a Ehovel for, for there isn't very much available sand out in the middle of the ocean, but Jamie has a mind cf his own and what he wants he wants badly, and like most small bo? he gets It. Jamie's father, be it known, is the captain of the Charles P. Morgan, the South Sea whaler that was caught In the great tidal wave, so Just about all the small man has to do is to lift up his voice and the sailors rush madly about and do the rest. "I really think son has more to say on board than his father," his mother Eaid, as she captured him sliding down a nearby rope. "The sailors mind his pa 4 _ because they know they have to, but they do ivhat Jamie says because they like to." "Oh, Jamie, boy. don't wiggle that way," as he squirmed about like a lively eel. "Tell us what you want Santa. Claus to bring you, because I think this lady will see him before I do." "Oh say, are you goin' to see him?" And he stopped in his mad career and scrambled up Into my lap for all the j •world like a small monkey. "I want a nice red pail like the one I saw in the window and a shovel and a wheel barrow and a horse and some pretty . pictures and some candy," and when,* he simply had to stop for want or breath he gently patted my face and smiled in a guileless fashion. '¦'. ,V' • Only four years old and yet such "a master of the persuasive art. He's a sailor born and bred, and if the old saying that a sailor has a sweetheart in every port is true, then Jamie Is evi dently merely trying to live up to his reputation. "Oh, say," Bitting up and Investigat ing the wheels in my watch, "Santa Claus didn't forget all about me last Christmas, even if I was an awful long way away. Just see here," and he swaggered down and commenced dig ging in a diminutive pocket "He brought me a watch and a chain and a— mamma, Where's my gun? I "want to ehow the lady my gun. Oh, tell me where it Is," and aTOyJtie went rolling to the cause. Day after day. as the Morgan cruises slowly along, keeping: a sharp lockout for the cachalots, there Is practical}- nothing to do, and the races afford the men quite as much amusement as they do the baby, for, after all, men are only a sort of a grown-up youngrster. When he pets tired and the dream fairies swarm about him too thickly he curls up in a hammock that is protect ed fronj the hot sun by an awning, and every one that passes gives him a gen tle swing for good luck until he returns from hl3 Journey and makes lifa merry on board again. When it's stormy and too disagree able to be on deck, he takes a turn at playing the piano, and if he is a very good bey his mother plays and sings for him. So, after all, you see life la. one grand holiday "with nothing to dc^ but make the most of it. Just think of it, all you white-faced children of the land. Would you trade your green parks, your prancin* 'i horses and your gilded matinees for a whaler that is tossed about by the water3 as though It were a bit of barkT Eleven months out at one time, if you chanced to make a good catch and the weather was favorable, but nine times out of ten It would be just as well if you counted on twelve months out and, at the most, one in port. "I take my machine along because Jamie outgrows his clothes so fast, and this year I'm counting on making a perfect host of tarlatan bags and filling them with popcorn and candies. Don't you think that will help out a great deal when they're so many to look after?" ' "X. suppose this ship belongs to your_ son and heir," I said after I had man aged to sit fairly and squarely down on It. "I don't exactly see where he sails it." "Oh bless me, we have a tub filled with water. This," holding up a gayly lacquered box, "is filled with Japanese toys that one of the men got for him. They're Just pieces of paper rolled tnv but when you put them in water th*y expand Into all sorts of fantastical shapes. So you see," she added with >» a humorous twinkle in her eye, "a tufcdl is absolutely essential to our happi ness." All this fuss .and feather that one small man may be happy, perhaps you. Mr. landlubber, are thinking. Yet it Is infinitely more than that, as you would know if the sea had claimed you for its very own for a long, dreary monoton ous year. The smallest trifles, such as the opening of the mystic papers, . breaks into the sameness of the day, and I'd be willing to wager my very head that not on* of the Morgan's crew would' lift a hand to keep the captain's son ashore. In his royal despotism he Is like a tin god, and. whatever he say* goes, so when he prayed for a thousand and one things the sailors went out and bought, even though they knew that dipping into the slop chest would be the ln« evitable. So it chanced that when the whaler anchored in the stream there was a great, mysterious hurrying and bus tling about, putting queer-shaped bcy^ and bags safely out of sight, and t5& last thing I heard, as she was being towed out to sea, was a small voice 1 calling: "Please don't forget about my pail and my shovel and my wheelbar row If you Bee Santa Claug fln»t. t * Not all this Jubilee came from this port, for there are queer-looking toys that savor of Japan and China, of the Philippines and the tropical islands. Everything and anything that could be picked up, and, besides all this, the gifts that the sailors have fashioned In their spare minutes. Such a tree as there will be. It wasn't on board, but a delegation had volunteered to see that it would be there in plenty of time if Mrs. Earle would attend to the gee-gawa and the glinting nothings that make a Christ mas tree what it is. "It's been awfully hard for me to buy all the decorations for the tree on ac count of the boy," Mrs. Earle said as she brought up a handful of cornucopias and strings and strings of pretty bright-colored bells. "He's been land sick ever since we have been in port, and he wasn't content with that, but he had to catch a beastly cold. What do you think? For the first time in his life he had the croup and had it so badly that his father had to call a doc tor in the middle of the night. But I'm not worrying; he'll be all right Just as soon as we lose sight of land." » Generally It's quite the reverse with the majority of us. About the time we reach the Potato Patch we commence to long for home and mother, and when ¦we actually get both feet planted flrmly on good, solid terra flrroa there is am ple cause for rejoicing. Landsick? Just imagine. Jamie narrowly escaped being a wa ter baby. It Just happened that he wasn't born at sea, but when he was a •wee, small man he made his bow at the helm and his tiny hand has been felt there ever since. But he isn't to be pitied— rather envied, for his life is a happy rollicking one spent roaming from country tb« country and in having just as good a' time as he' knows how. When the weather is bright and sunny he hitches up a team of sailors and goes whirling about the deck at a breakneck pace, and he is never quite as happy as when the crew line up and bet on the horses that can make the best time. Then he is like a Roman driver, standing In his chariot and lending his small whlpjmd Bhrill voice up a funny rag doll, and a black baby at that. "He saw It in the windp^ and asked for it, but I told him that papa never would get over laughing at him for wanting to play with dolls, like girls, and he didn't say another word to me. But that night his father told me that Jamie had asked what he wouid think if he had a nigger baby, and so here he is. He certainly isn't much for pretty, but he is the very one he wanted, so that make3 all the differ ence in the world. "You see, he hasn't very much room to play in, and no earth at all, so this year we are going to take a great sand box and turn him loose in it. His father said it could be built in one end of the ship, and that's the reason he wants a pall and shovel. He saw some children on the beach, and he thinks it would be pretty fine." Oh, such perfect stacks of things as that youngster will have. A great hob by-horse that will rock him to Dublin town and back in a few minutes: a beautiful coaster with a new-fangled brake on it, books by the score, candy that is piled so high one can scarcely see over it and the usual odds and ends that always delight the heart of a child. - : v* : *. THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY ; CALL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. BOY'S CHRISTMAS ABOARD A WHALER By Madge Moore good excuse, don't you know, to cele brate. You would hardly believe that these great rough men are more pleased than baby with some trifle, and they can hardly wait until dinner time." The dinner part appealed most emphatically to me as I looked at the black natives of Guam, the queer looking little Portuguese with cruel knives tucked handily away In their scarlet belts and the dull, stolid faces of the very few fair men that help to make up their crew. It wasn't hard to believe that catering to their etomach might be one of their great est concerns, but that a ; woman's homely remembrances might find favor in their eyes was almost one too, many for me. I rather accepted it "with a grain of salt. - . ¦:. . board. While he is at her tide she and her baby are safe, but what would happen if one of the murderous looking crew should stick a knife In his ..back? It isn't pleasant to con template, yet she understands her po sition full well. "When we were in the midst of the tidal '-. wave my husband worried a good', deal about the California, be cause she leaked badly when she left port; and as soon as we sighted the Alice , Knowles he wanted to go a 'gamming.' "For five whole days Jamie and I had , been flat on our backs in . bed because : his father was afraid we would be hurt by falling timbers or carried away by. the high seas, but' when I heard he , was going over ta 26