Edward often thought, as he strode scowling up and down the deck by himself, that this was exactly the life for him. What a lucky boy he was, to have tumbled into it by good fortune, instead of having to run away to sea as most other people did! In spite of the White Mouse’s pronouncement (whom secretly he had long ceased to believe in), he had no doubt that this was a pirate vessel: and no doubt either that when presently Jonsen was killed in some furious battle the sailors would unanimously elect him their captain.
The girls were a great nuisance. A ship was no place for them. When he was captain he would have them marooned.
Yet there had been a time when he had wished he was a girl himself. “When I was young,” he once confided to the admiring Harry, “I used to think girls were bigger and stronger than boys. Weren’t I silly?”
“Yes,” said Harry.