i' me here in this cottage, as my librarians and assistants in the
matter of Theology. I had a tough job to get 'em to agree, but I
managed it at last. So you see, Billy, I don't mean to leave you a
sixpence."

"Well, uncle," said Billy with a quiet look, "I don't care a brass
farden!"

Again the captain laughed. "But," he continued, "I'm very fond o' you,
Billy, an' there's no reason why I shouldn't help you, to help yourself.
So, if you're willin', I'll send you to the best of schools, and after
that to college, an' give you the best of education,--in short, make a
man of you, an' put you in the way of makin' your fortune."

Captain Bream looked steadily into the fair boy's handsome face as he
made this glowing statement; but, somewhat to his disappointment, he got
no responsive glance from Billy. On the contrary, the boy became graver
and graver, and at last his mind seemed lost in meditation while his
gaze was fixed on the floor.

"What think ye, lad?" demanded the captain.

Billy seemed to awake as from a dream, and then, looking and speaking
more like a man than he had ever done before, he said--

"It is kind of you, uncle--very kind--but my dear dad once said _he_
would make a man of me, and he _did_! I'll do my best to larn as much
as ever I can o' this world's larnin', but I'll never leave the sea."

"Now, my boy," said the captain, "think well before you decide. You
could do far more good if you were a highly educated man, you know."

"Right you _may_ be, uncle, an' I don't despise edication, by no means,
but some folk are born to it, and others ain't. Besides, good of the
best kind can be done without _much_ edication, when the heart's right
an' the will strong, as I've seed before now on the North Sea."

"I'm sorry you look at it this way, Billy, for I don't see that I can do
much for you if you determine to remain a fisherman."

"Oh! yes, you can, uncle," cried Billy, rising up in his eagerness and
shaking back his curly hair. "You can do this. You can take the money
you intended to waste on my schoolin', an' send out books an' tracts and
medicines, an' all sorts o' things to the fishin' fleets. An' if you're
awful rich--as you seem to be by the way you talk--you can give some
thousands o' pounds an' fit out two or three more smacks as you did the
noo _Evenin' Star_, an' hand 'em over to the Mission to become
gospel-ships to the fleets that have got none yet. That's the way to do
good