solution of leaving home on the first opportunity.

I was one day walking down High Street, Plymouth, when I saw advancing
towards me a fine sailor-like looking lad, with a well-bronzed jovial
countenance.

"Why, Will, old boy, you don't seem to know me," he exclaimed,
stretching out his hand, which seemed as hard as iron.

"Why, I scarcely did, Charley, till I heard your voice," I answered,
shaking him warmly by the hand. "You've grown from a boy almost into a
man. There's nothing like the life of a sailor for hardening a fellow,
and making him fit for anything. I see that plainly."

"Then come to sea with me at once," he replied; "I can get you a berth
aboard our schooner, and we'll have a merry life of it altogether, that
we will."

I liked his confident and self-satisfied way of talking; but I said I
was afraid I could not take advantage of his offer, though I would try
and get leave from my grandmother.

"Leave from your grandmother!" he exclaimed with a taunting laugh; "take
French leave from the old lady. You are far better able to judge what
you like than she is, and she can't expect to tie you to her
apron-strings all your life, can she?"

"No, but she is very kind and good to me, and I'm young yet to leave her
and Aunt Bretta. Perhaps, when I am older, she will not object to my
going away," I replied.

"Pooh, pooh! feeds you with bread and milk, and lollipops; and as to
being too young--why, you are not much more than a year younger than I
am, and fully as stout, and I should like to know who would venture to
say that I am not fit to go to sea. I would soon show him which was the
best man of the two."

These remarks, for I will not call them reasons, had a great effect on
me. I thought Charley the finest fellow I had ever known, and I
promised to be guided by him entirely. I did not consider how
ungrateful and foolish I was. How could he really care about me, or
know what was for my best interests? He only thought of pleasing
himself by getting a companion whom he knew from experience he could
generally induce to do what he liked. I forgot all the love and
affection, all the tender care I had received from my grandmother and
aunt since my birth, and that I ought on every account to have consulted
their feelings and opinions on the most important step I had hitherto
taken in life. Instead of this, I made up my mind if they should say
no, as Charley expressed it, to cut my stick and run.