<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>A NEW PASSENGER</h2>
<div class='cap'>PUSS, JUNIOR, waved his paw to the
old sailor, who put his pipe back in his
mouth and smoked away contentedly under
the shady tree. All of a sudden a pretty
little girl jumped out from behind a stone
wall.</div>
<div class='poem'>
"Bobby Shafto's gone to sea,<br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Silver buckles on his knee;</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He'll come back and marry me,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pretty Bobby Shafto.</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bobby Shafto's fat and fair,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Combing down his yellow hair;</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He's my love for aye and ere,</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Pretty Bobby Shafto."</span><br/></div>
<p>"Hello," said Puss when she had finished
her song.</p>
<p>"Did you just get off that pretty ship,"
she asked.</p>
<p>"Yes, Miss," replied Puss.</p>
<p>"Was Bobby Shafto on board?"</p>
<p>"I didn't see him," replied Puss. "Did
you expect him?"</p>
<p>"I don't know," replied the little girl, "but
I run down to look every time a ship comes
to the old dock. And I always ask the old<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span>
sailor who sits on the bench over there if he
has seen my Bobby."</p>
<p>"You're looking for your Bobby, and I'm
searching for my daddy," said Puss, sadly.
And then he told the little girl how discouraged
he was because in all his travels he had
not yet found him.</p>
<p>And then, all of a sudden, they heard a
voice calling, "All aboard!"</p>
<p>"Goodness!" exclaimed Puss, "I must
hurry; the ship's going to sail. Good-by!"
and off he ran to the dock as fast as he could.</p>
<p>"Wait for me," called out the little girl,
"I guess I'll go, too. I may find Bobby
Shafto."</p>
<p>"Hurry, hurry!" cried Puss, looking back.
"I'll run ahead and ask the Captain to wait."</p>
<p>And it was lucky he did, for the gang-plank
was being hauled in just as he arrived.
"Wait for us!" he shouted.</p>
<p>"Why, I don't see anybody else," said the
Captain, as Puss stepped aboard.</p>
<p>"Yes, there is," answered Puss, "There
she comes!"</p>
<p>And in another minute, with her bonnet
strings streaming in the wind, the little girl
came running down the dock.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Thank you for waiting," she cried, turning
to the Captain. "I'd have been so
disappointed if you had left me behind."</p>
<p>And then she stood close to Puss as the
good ship left the dock. "Good luck, my
little skipper," shouted the old sailor.</p>
<p>"Good-by," cried Puss, waving his cap to
the old salt.</p>
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