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 "You—won't be there," whispered Garth.

"Do you think it's very easy for me to leave you and Mudder?" said Jim. "I shall be doing what I've wanted for a long time to do, but there'll not be an hour when I'm not thinking about you and wanting you. You've never been away from me for more than a day, Pem. Do you suppose that just because I'm helping to command a ship, I sha'n't miss you? We'll both have to try, I think."

"I will try, Fogger," said Garth. "But oh, not having the sea—and our Light—and the ships—and—you! Oh, Fogger!"

"Steady!" said Jim, "steady! Town's not all horror, you know. It's full of splendid things that you must see and know, and you'll love them, too, after a bit. Music, real music that you've never heard, Pem, and pictures, and books, and school. People and things from the four ends of the earth, such as you've never dreamed of. And remember, too, that there are other things just as fine as being a sea-captain, and that take just as much grit. Are you going to show me that you have it? Are you going to prove that you have the stuff in you worthy of a great captain, even though you can't be one?"