Many have done as
I did, and bitterly repented their folly and ingratitude every day
afterwards to the end of their lives. It stands to reason that those
who have brought us up and watched over us in helpless infancy or in
sickness, instructed us and fitted us to enter on the active duties of
life, must feel far greater interest in our future welfare than can any
other person. We, as boys, are deeply interested in a shrub or a tree
we have planted, in a dog we have brought up from a puppy; and we may be
certain that our parents or guardians are far more interested in our
welfare, and therefore I repeat, do not go and follow my example, and
run counter to their advice and wishes.

I spent the afternoon with Charley Iffley on board the _Kite_ schooner,
of which his father was mate. She was a fine craft, with a handsomely
fitted up cabin. She had been a privateer in the last war, and still
carried six brass guns on deck, which were bright and polished, and took
my fancy amazingly. She also had a long mahogany tiller bound with
brass, and with a handsomely carved head of a kite which I much admired.
These things, trifles as they were, made me still more desire to belong
to so dandy-looking a craft. The captain was on shore, but Mr Iffley,
the mate, did the honours of the vessel, and talked largely of all her
good qualities, and finally told me that for the sake of his son, who
was my best friend, if I had a mind to go to sea, he would make interest
to get me apprenticed to her owners. I did not exactly understand what
that signified; but I thanked him very much, and said that I left the
matter in his and his son's hands.

"All right, Will, we'll make a sailor of you before long!" exclaimed
Charley, clapping me on the back.

Mr Iffley was not a person, from his appearance, very well calculated
to win the confidence of a young lad. He was a stout, short man, with
huge, red, carroty whiskers, and a pock-marked face, small ferretty
eyes, a round knob for a nose, and thick lips, which he smacked loudly
both when speaking and after eating and drinking. However, Charley
seemed to hold him in a good deal of respect and awe, an honour my
friend did not pay to many people. This I found was owing much to the
liberal allowance of rope-end which the mate dealt out to his son
whenever he neglected his duty, or did anything else to displease him;
but of course Master Charley did not confide this fact to me, but
allowed me to