Father's protecting care over those we love!

CHAPTER SIX.

Our stay at Payta was shorter than we had expected. The "Lady Alice,"
with the assistance of the English commander of the corvette, obtained
more speedily than would otherwise have been the case all the repairs
she required, and Captain Bland secured several good hands from among
the crew of a merchantman wrecked further down the coast. Captain Hake
gave the larboard watch of our ship leave on shore to make amends for
their disappointment at Tumbez, but they did no credit to our country,
for after quarrelling with the natives, during which one of them was
stabbed, they were brought off in the last stage of brutal intoxication,
from which it took them several days to recover.

I paid frequent visits to the "Lady Alice," which lay close alongside
us. Captain Hake did not object to my doing that, but when Captain
Bland again asked him for the loan of me (as he put it) my captain
assumed the glummest of glum looks, and replied, "I thought that I had
settled that matter before. The lad came out in this ship, and he goes
home in her, if I have my will."

Though disappointed when Captain Bland told me this I had much reason to
be thankful that I was able to enjoy, even at intervals, the civilising
influences of female society. How different my lot to that of many poor
lads away for four long years from any one who takes the slightest
interest in their moral welfare, or attempts to raise their minds above
the grovelling existence of their brutal associates. I should be
ungrateful if I did not mention, in addition to other advantages, the
benefit I derived from the society of Medley, who was truly a friend to
be prized.

It was a great consolation to me to find that the two ships were to
cruise in company, though I might possibly not be able for many weeks
together to visit the "Lady Alice." On leaving Payta we steered
westward for the usual cruising ground. We had each at the end of ten
days taken a couple of whales, when one Sunday morning a number appeared
in different directions. The "Eagle's" boats were quickly in chase, but
those of the "Lady Alice" remained hanging from the davits.

"What can the old man be about?" I heard the captain remark to the
first mate as they were about to shove off. "It cannot be that he
doesn't see the whales. The owners will be down upon him if he doesn't
look after their interests better."

He said something to