r o' water."

"What do you care about your mother--she don't care for you? Come
along."

"Well," said Bob, "first let me hide the pitcher where I can find it
again."

With these words he stowed away his earthenware under a flight of
stone steps, and accompanied his friend aboard his ship. The pilot was
urging the captain to cast off, and take advantage of the tide and
wind, but the latter was awaiting the arrival of a boy who had shipped
the day before, wishing no good to his eyes for the delay he had
occasioned.

At last he turned to Bob, and said,--

"What do you say, youngster, to shipping with me? I'll treat you well,
and give you ten dollars a month."

"I should like to go," said Bob, hesitatingly. "But my mother----"

"Hang your mother!" interrupted the captain. "She'll be glad to get
rid of you. Come--will you go?"

"I hain't got no clothes."

"Here's a chestfull. That other chap was just your size; they'll fit
you to a T."

"I'll go."

"Cast off that line there!" shouted the captain; and the ship fell off
with the tide, and was soon standing down the bay with a fair wind,
and every stitch of canvas set. She was bound for the northwest coast,
_via_ Canton, and back again, which was then called the "double
voyage," and usually occupied about four years.

In the mean while, the non-appearance of Bob seriously alarmed his
mother. A night passed, and the town crier was called into requisition
a week, when she gave him up, had a note read for her in meeting, and
went into mourning.

Just four years after these occurrences the ship returned to port, and
Bob and his friend were paid off. The wages of the widow's son
amounted to just four hundred and eighty dollars, and he found, on
squaring his accounts with the captain, that his advances had amounted
to the odd tens, and four hundred dollars clear were the fruits of his
long cruise.

As he walked in the direction of his mother's house, in company with
Joe, he scanned with a curious eye the houses, the shops, and the
people that he passed. Nothing appeared changed; the same signs
indicated an unchanging hospitality on the part of the same landlords,
the same lumpers were standing at the same corners--it seemed as if he
had been gone only a day. With the old sights and sounds, Bob's old
feelings revived, and he almost dreaded to see, debouching from some
alley, a detachment of boys sent by his ancient enemy, the
schoolmaster, to know why he had been