I burst into a fit of laughter. “Well, I believe you’re not far wrong, but I’m better now.”
“Ah, that’s right,” said the sailor, with an approving nod of his head, “always confess when you’re in the wrong. Now, younker, let me give you a bit of advice. Never get into a passion if you can help it, and if you can’t help it get out of it as fast as possible, and if you can’t get out of it, just give a great roar to let off the steam and turn about and run. There’s nothing like that. Passion han’t got legs. It can’t hold on to a feller when he’s runnin’. If you keep it up till you a’most split your timbers, passion has no chance. It must go a-starn. Now, lad, I’ve been watchin’ ye all the mornin’, and I see there’s a screw loose somewhere. If you’ll tell me wot it is, see if I don’t help you!”
The kind frank way in which this was said quite won my heart, so I sat down on the old cask, and told the sailor all my sorrows.
“Boy,” said he, when I had finished, “I’ll put you in the way o’ helpin’ your mother. I can get you a berth in my ship, if you’re willin’ to take a trip to the whale-fishery of the South Seas.”
“And who will look after my mother when I’m away?” said I.
The sailor looked perplexed at the question.
“Ah, that’s a puzzler,” he replied, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. “Will you take me to your mother’s house, lad?”
“Willingly,” said I, and, jumping up, I led the way. As we turned to go, I observed that the old gentleman with the gold-headed cane was leaning over the rail of the pier at a short distance from us. A feeling of anger instantly rose within me, and I exclaimed, loud enough for him to hear—
“I do believe that stingy old chap has been listening to every word we’ve been saying!”
I thought I observed a frown on the sailor’s brow as I said this, but he made no remark, and in a few minutes we were walking rapidly through the streets. My companion stopped at one of those stores so common in seaport towns, where one can buy almost anything, from a tallow candle to a brass cannon. Here he purchased a pound of tea, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a small loaf,—all of which he thrust into the huge pockets of his coat. He had evidently no idea of proportion or of household affairs. It was a simple, easy way of settling the matter, to get a pound of everything.
In a short time we reached our house, a very old one, in a poor neighbourhood, and entered my mother’s room. She was sitting at the table when we went in, with a large Bible before her, and a pair of horn-spectacles on her nose. I could see that she had been out gathering coals and cinders during my absence, for a good fire burned in the grate, and the kettle was singing cheerily thereon.
“I’ve brought a friend to see you, mother,” said I.
“Good-day, mistress,” said the sailor bluntly, sitting down on a stool near the fire. “You seem to be goin’ to have your tea.”
“I expect to have it soon,” replied my mother.
“Indeed!” said I, in surprise. “Have you anything in the kettle?”
“Nothing but water, my son.”
“Has anybody brought you anything, then, since I went out?”
“Nobody.”
“Why, then, mistress,” broke in the seaman, “how can you expect to have your tea so soon?”
My mother took off her spectacles, looked calmly in the man’s face, laid her hand on the Bible, and said, “Because I have been a widow woman these three years, and never once in all that time have I gone a single day without a meal. When the usual hour came I put on my kettle to boil, for this Word tells me that ‘the Lord will provide.’ I expect my tea to-night.”
The sailor’s face expressed puzzled astonishment at these words, and he continued to regard my mother with a look of wonder as he drew forth his supplies of food, and laid them on the table.
In a short time we were all enjoying a cup of tea, and talking about the whale-fishery, and the difficulty of my going away while my mother was dependent on me. At last the sailor rose to leave us. Taking a five-pound note from his pocket, he laid it on the table and said—
“Mistress, this is all I have in the world, but I’ve got neither family nor friends, and I’m bound for the South Seas in six days; so, if you’ll take it, you’re welcome to it, and if your son Bob can manage to cast loose from you without leaving you to sink, I’ll take him aboard the ship that I sail in. He’ll always find me at the Bull and Griffin, in the High Street, or at the end o’ the pier.”
While the sailor was speaking, I observed a figure standing in a dark corner of the room near the door, and, on looking more closely, I found that it was the old gentleman with the nose like his cane-knob. Seeing that he was observed, he came forward and said—
“I trust that you will forgive my coming here without invitation; but I happened to overhear part of the conversation between your son and this seaman, and I am willing to help you over your little difficulty, if you will allow me.”
The old gentleman said this in a very quick, abrupt way, and looked as if he were afraid his offer might be refused. He was much heated, with climbing our long stair no doubt, and as he stood in the middle of the room, puffing and wiping his bald head with a handkerchief, my mother rose hastily and offered him a chair.
“You are very kind, sir,” she said; “do sit down, sir. I’m sure I don’t know why you should take so much trouble. But, dear me, you are very warm; will you take a cup of tea to cool you?”
“Thank you, thank you. With much pleasure, unless, indeed, your son objects to a ‘stingy old chap’ sitting beside him.”
I blushed when he repeated my words, and attempted to make some apology; but the old gentleman stopped me by commencing to explain his intentions in short, rapid sentences.
To make a long story short, he offered to look after my mother while I was away, and, to prove his sincerity, laid down five shillings, and said he would call with that sum every week as long as I was absent. My mother, after some trouble, agreed to let me go, and, before that evening closed, everything was arranged, and the gentleman, leaving his address, went away.
The sailor had been so much filled with surprise at the suddenness of all this, that he could scarcely speak. Immediately after the departure of the old gentleman, he said, “Well, good-bye, mistress, good-bye, Bob,” and throwing on his hat in a careless way, left the room.
“Stop,” I shouted after him, when he had got about half-way down stair.
“Hallo! wot’s wrong now?”
“Nothing, I only forgot to ask your name.”
“Tom Lokins,” he bellowed, in the hoarse voice of a regular boatswain, “w’ich wos my father’s name before me.”
So saying, he departed, whistling “Rule Britannia” with all his might.
Thus the matter was settled. Six days afterwards, I rigged myself out in a blue jacket, white ducks, and a straw hat, and went to sea.
CHAPTER TWO.
At Sea.
My first few days on the ocean were so miserable that I oftentimes repented of having left my native land. I was, as my new friend Tom Lokins said, as sick as a dog. But in course of time I grew well, and began to rejoice in the cool fresh breezes and the great rolling billows of the sea.
Many and many a time I used to creep out to the end of the bowsprit, when the weather