Project Gutenberg's Jack Mason, The Old Sailor, by Theodore Thinker

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Title: Jack Mason, The Old Sailor

Author: Theodore Thinker

Release Date: February 15, 2004 [EBook #11105]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Jack telling his stories.]

JACK MASON,
THE OLD SAILOR.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

FOR CHILDREN.

BY THEODORE THINKER.

1850.

THE OLD SAILOR.

Jack Mason had been to sea a great many times when I first knew him,
and he has been a great many times since. He has sailed in a ship
almost all over the world. Such a host of stories as he can tell!
Why, I do believe if he could find little boys and girls to talk to,
he would begin in the morning as soon as he had got through his
breakfast, and do nothing but tell stories about what he has seen,
until it was time to go to bed at night. I don't know but he would
want to stop once or twice to eat. Jack loves a good dinner as well
as anybody.

Jack is the one that you see in the picture, with his pea-jacket on,
and a book in his hand. He is in a ship, telling his stories now to
that boy sitting on a coil of rope. See, the boy is looking right at
the old man, hearing all he says. I wonder what Jack is talking about
now. He must be telling one of his best stories, I guess; for the boy
lifts his head up, as much as to say, "Dear me! who ever heard of
such a thing!"

Jack is a good man. He is not like a great many sailors that I have
seen. He does not use bad words. He never drinks rum, or any thing of
the kind. Sailors are apt to swear; but Jack Mason never swears. He
is a Christian: he loves to pray and read his Bible. The book which he
holds in his hand, as he is talking to that boy, is a Bible. He often
has a Bible in his jacket pocket, when he is on board of his ship; and
once in a while he stops telling stories about what he has seen, and
reads some of the stories in that good book.

When I was a little boy, Jack fell from the high mast of the ship, and
hurt himself