a small
cockleshell of a boat, we dared not go out when it was not calm; and
with regard to this, I had been duly cautioned by Henry Blew himself.
Our excursions only extended to a short distance from the village,
usually up the bay, though sometimes down, but I always took care to
keep near the shore, and never ventured far out, lest the little boat
might be caught in a squall and get me into danger.

As time passed on, however, I grew less timid, and began to feel more at
home on the wide water. Then I extended my excursions sometimes as far
as a mile from the shore, and thought nothing of it. My friend, the
waterman, seeing me on one of these far voyages, repeated his former
caution, but it might have had a more salutary effect had I not
overheard him, the moment after, observe to one of his companions:--

"Wonderful boy! ain't he, Bob? Come of the true stock--make the right
sort of a sailor, if ever he grows big enough."

This remark led me to think that I had not much displeased my patron in
what I had done; and therefore his caution "to keep close in-shore"
produced very little effect on me.

It was not a long time before I quite disobeyed it; and the
disobedience, as you shall hear, very nigh cost me my life.

But first let me tell of a circumstance that occurred at this date, and
which quite changed the current of my existence. It was a great
misfortune that befell me--the loss of both my parents.

I have said that my father was a seaman by profession. He was the
master of a ship that traded, I believe, to the colonies of America, and
so little was he at home from the time I was old enough to remember,
that I scarce recollected him more than just what he was like--and that
was a fine, manly, sailor-looking man, with a face bronzed by the
weather until it was nearly of a copper colour, but for all that a
handsome and cheerful face.

My mother must have thought so too, for from the time that news arrived
that his ship was wrecked and he himself drowned, she was never herself
again. She seemed to pine away, as if she did not wish to live longer,
but was desirous of joining him in the other world. If such were her
wishes, it was not long before they were gratified; for in a very few
weeks after the terrible news had reached us, my poor mother was carried
to her grave.

These were the circumstances that changed the current of my existence.
Even my mode of life was no longer the same. I was now an orp