t sea than it
is there."

"Well, I have not got to decide until to-morrow; you go home and think it
over, and if you come in the morning with your mind made up, I will speak
to the officer here and ask him if they will take us both."

CHAPTER II

IN THE KING'S SERVICE

Before morning came Will had thought the matter over in every light, and
concluded that he could not do better than join the navy for a few years.
Putting all other things aside, it was a life of adventure, and adventure
is always tempting to boys. It really did not seem to him that, if he
entered the merchant service at once, he would be any better off than he
would be if he had a preliminary training in the royal navy. He knew that
the man-of-war training would make him a smarter sailor, and he hoped that
he would find time enough on board ship to continue his work, so that
afterwards he might be able to pass as a mate in the merchant service.

Tom Stevens came round in the morning.

"I have quite made up my mind to go with you if you will let me," he said.

"I will let you readily enough, Tom, but I must warn you that you will not
have such a good look-out as I shall. You know, I have learnt a good deal,
and if the first cruise lasts for five years I have no doubt that at the
end of it I shall be able to pass as a mate in the merchant service, and I
am afraid you will have very little chance of doing so."

"I can't help that," Tom said. "I know that I am not like you, and I
haven't learnt things, and I don't suppose that if I had had anyone to
help me it would have made any difference. I know I shall never rise much
above a sailor before the mast. If you leave the service and go into a
merchantman I will go there with you. It does not matter to me where I am.
I felt so before, and of course I feel it all the more now that you have
saved my life. I am quite sure you will get on in the world, Will, and
sha'n't grudge you your success a bit, however high you rise, for I know
how hard you have worked, and how well you deserve it. Besides, even if I
had had the pains bestowed upon me, and had worked ever so hard myself, I
should never have been a bit like you. You seem different from us somehow.
I don't know how it is, but you are smarter and quicker and more active. I
expect some day you will find out something about your father, and then
probably we shall be able to understand th