the words trembled on her
lips as she spoke, I remember. It was not so much, however, because of
my wish to go to sea, as of my rank ingratitude and want of tenderness.

"Oh, Willand! ye dinna ken what harm ye have done, laddie," said Aunt
Bretta, as I parted from her to go to roost in my little attic room,
which she had fitted up so neatly for my use.

At first I was inclined to exult at having made the first step towards
the accomplishment of my wishes, and I was thinking how proud I should
be when I met Charley the next morning, to be able to tell him that I
had triumphed over all difficulties and was ready to accept his offer;
but then the recollection of what Aunt Bretta had said, and a
consciousness of the nature of my own conduct came over me, and I began
to be sorry for what I had done. In the morning, however, before
breakfast, Charley called for me, and when I told him that I had got
leave to go, he said he would come in and comfort the poor women. This
he did in a rough kind of way. He told them that we were going to make
only a short summer voyage--out to the Mediterranean and back; that if I
liked it I might then be apprenticed, and if not, that I might come on
shore; that I should have seen a little of the world, and that no great
harm would be done.

The matter once settled, no people could have exerted themselves more
than did my two kind relatives to get me ready for sea. They knew
exactly what was wanted, and in three or four days my entire kit was
ready and stowed away in a small sea-chest, which had belonged to some
member of my family who had escaped drowning. It received no little
commendation when it was hoisted up the side of the _Kite_.

"That's what I like," said Mr Iffley; "traps enough, and no more. It
speaks well for your womankind, and shows that you come of a sea-going
race."

I told him that I was born at sea, and that my father was drowned at
sea.

"That's better than being hung on shore," he answered with a loud laugh;
and I afterwards found that such had been the fate of his father, who
was a noted pirate, and that he himself had enjoyed the doubtful benefit
of his instruction for some time.

While we lay at Plymouth we received orders to call in at Falmouth, to
carry a cargo of pilchards, which was ready for us, to Naples, in the
south of Italy. The people in that country, being Roman Catholics and
having to fast, eat a great quantity of salt-fish. They have plenty of