e a fixed sum, as
we go shares in the vally o' the venture; but, if yer brother haar likes
it better, I'll give you twenty dollars a month, besides yer keep an'
mess money, thaar!"

"I'm sure, Captain Brown, that is a very generous offer," replied Fritz,
acting as spokesman for his brother; "still, I hardly think my poor
mother would like his being away for so long a time as your voyage would
last."

"We'll be away, I reckon, fur a twelvemonth, countin' from next month,
when we'll start--thet is if my shep's ready for the v'y'ge, as I kinder
guess she'll be, with me to look arter her an' see the longshore men
don't lose time over the job," interrupted the skipper. "Say now, she
sails latter end o' July, so as to git down to the Forties afore
October, or tharabouts; waall, I guess we'll cast anchor in Narraganset
Bay ag'in 'fore next fall--will that du for you, mister, hey?"

"You see," explained Fritz, "my poor mother thinks him dead; and, of
course, after she gets the letter he tells me he has just sent home, it
will be as bad as a second death to her to know that he has now started
on another voyage without returning to see her first! Besides that,
I've read and heard that whaling life is terribly dangerous--isn't it?"

"Not a bit of it," said the skipper bluntly, in sea-dog fashion. "I
reckon it's nary half so dangerous as sailin' back'ards an' for'ards
across the herrin' pond 'twixt Noo Yark an' your old Eu-rope in one o'
them ocean steamers, thet are thought so safe, whar you run the risk o'
bustin' yer biler an' gettin' blown up, or else smashin' yer screw-shaft
an' goin' down to Davy Jones' locker! Why, thaar ain't a quarter the
per'l 'bout it, much less half, as I sed jest naow! You jest ax my
friend haar, whom you seem to hev known afore. Say, Nat, what d'ye
think o' whalin' life?"

"Safe as the National Bank, I guess, Job," promptly responded the
individual addressed, Fritz's acquaintance the "deck hand," whose full
name he now learnt was Nathaniel Washington Slater--usually addressed as
"Nathaniel W Slater," or called familiarly "Nat" by his friends!

"Thaar!" exclaimed the skipper, "what more d'ye want than thet, hey?
You see, mister, the _Pilot's Bride_ don't do whalin' up in Baffin's Bay
an' further north, whar I'll allow the fishin' is a bit risky. We only
makes reg'ler trips once a year to the Southern Ocean, callin' in on our
way at Saint Helena an' the Cape o' Good Hope. Thaar, I guess, w