s,
and Captain Murchison here commands one. At least he doesn't at the
present moment, but he will do so as soon as I can buy another to
supply the place of the _Petrel_. And as he saw one yesterday that he
thinks highly of, I shall probably buy her as soon as she has been
surveyed. So you see that difficulty is at an end. As to your mother, no
doubt she would have objected to your going as a ship's-boy, but perhaps
she wouldn't if you were going as an apprentice. We call them midshipmen
on board our ships; I like the name better than apprentice, though the
thing is about the same. Captain Murchison will, I am sure, be glad to
have you with him, and will do his best to make a good sailor of you.
And you may be sure that I shall push you on if you deserve it as fast
as possible; and it may be that in another ten years you will be in
command of one of my ships. Well, what do you say to that?"

"Oh! thank you, sir," Jack exclaimed. "I should like that better than
anything in the world, if mother will let me."

"I don't think that your mother will stand in the way of your good," Mr.
Godstone said. "And she must see that the prospect is a far better one
than any you can have here; for after all, the profits of a bawley are
not large, and the life is an infinitely harder one than that of a
sailor. You had better not say anything to your mother about it until my
wife has had a chat with her."

CHAPTER VII.

ON BOARD THE "WILD WAVE."

MRS. GODSTONE found no difficulty whatever in persuading Jack's mother
to allow him to take advantage of her husband's offer. Mrs. Robson had
at her husband's death decided at once that, with the small sum of money
at her disposal, the only method she could see of making ends meet was
to go down to Leigh and invest it in a bawley. She had never told Jack
that she had even thought of allowing him to carry out his wish to go to
sea; but she had thought it over, and had only decided on making a
fisherman of him after much deliberation. The desire to keep him with
her had of course weighed with her, but this was a secondary
consideration. She had so decided, because it was evident that had he
gone to sea it must have been as a ship's-boy. In such a rough life he
would have had no time whatever to continue his studies, and would
speedily have forgotten most that he had learned, and he might have
remained many years before the mast before he could pass as a third
mate. She thought therefor