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The boy’s simplicity was so genuine that Paul Jones could not laugh at him. He only said, smiling a little:

“Very well. Green is to be my quartermaster, and I’ll see the captain, and perhaps he may let me have you.”

“Thankee, sir,” replied Danny gratefully, and sitting down outside the cabin door he kept his earnest eyes fixed on Paul Jones, like a dog on his master. Presently Paul Jones came out, and after a few words with the captain, Danny was told that he might go along with the new commander of the Providence. Paul Jones was touched by the boy’s devotion, and took him for the captain’s cabin boy.

Paul Jones had good reason to be satisfied with all the people he had brought from the Alfred. Bill Green, besides being a first-class quartermaster, was such a pleasant, cheery, waggish fellow that he kept everything forward in a good humor. Moreover, he had a very valuable talent—he could sing beautifully, and had a store of sea songs, some of which he had picked up in the British navy, where he had served some time, and others were patriotic songs which were often composed and much sung in those days. But Bill had a weakness—he always professed to have composed all his songs himself, and to have written them out, when it was a well-known fact that he could not write a word. He had signed the ship’s books with a cross instead of his name, which he explained by saying: “The officer, he was in a hurry, and it was gittin’ on toward my watch, and I didn’t have no half hour to spend writin’ ‘Bill Green,’ so I jest made a cross mark, not thinkin’ as how nobody would suspicion I couldn’t write; and then, it takes so much o’ my time to write my songs, I ain’t got none for to write my name.” All this was received with many sly winks by the men, but they were willing to humor the handsome quartermaster in anything, he was such a favorite with them. Bill, also, like other artists, liked to be urged. This, too, was fully understood, and he always yielded to pressure.