But you haven't got the look
about you. You don't seem that sort."

"I hope I shall turn out none the worse for it," the boy said; "at
any rate, I'll do my best."

"And none can't do more," the good woman said, briskly. "I like
your looks, Bill, and you've a nice way of talking. Well, we shall
see."

In a few minutes tea was upon the table, and Will sat down with the
skipper, his wife, and two daughters--girls of ten and twelve. The
lad enjoyed his meal immensely, and did full justice to the fish.

"You will have plenty of them, before you eat your next tea on
shore. We pretty nigh live on them, when we are on the fishing
grounds."

"The same kind of fish as this?"

"No, mackerel are caught in small boats, with a different sort of
gear, altogether. We get them, sometimes, in the trawl--not shoals
of 'em, but single fish, which we call horse mackerel."

After tea, the skipper lit his pipe; and his wife, after clearing
up, took some knitting, and sat down and began to question the new
apprentice.

"It's lucky, for you, you found such a good friend," she said, when
he had finished his story. "That's how it is you are so different
from other boys who have been apprenticed from the House. I should
never have thought you had come from there.

"And she gave you good advice as to how you should go on, I'll be
bound."

"Yes, ma'am," Will said, "and I hope I shall act up to it."

"I hope so, Bill; but you'll find it hard work to keep yourself as
you should do, among them boys. They are an awful lot, them smack
boys."

"Not worse nor other boys," her husband said.

"Not worse than might be looked for, John, but they are most of 'em
pretty bad. The language they use make my blood run cold, often.
They seems to take a delight in it. The hands are bad enough, but
the boys are dreadful.

"I suppose you don't swear, Will. They look too sharp after you, in
the House; but if you take my advice, boy, don't you ever get into
the way of bad language. If you once begin, it will grow on you.
There ain't no use in it, and it's awful to hear it."

"I will try not to do so," Will said firmly. "Mother--I always call
her mother--told me how bad it was, and I said I'd try."

"That's right, Will, you stick to that, and make up your mind to
keep from liquor, and you'll do."

"What's the use of talking that way?" the skipper said. "The boy's
sure to do it. They all do."

"Not all, John. There's some teetotalers in the fleet.