TALKING IT OVER
Captain Spark was invited to spend a week or more at the Henderson
home. He was up bright and early the next morning--in fact, before
any one else, and Bob, hearing some one moving around downstairs,
and knowing his father and mother were not in the habit of having
such an early breakfast, descended to see who it was.
"Good-morning, my lad," greeted the mariner. "I suppose you are
going to take the morning watch and holystone the decks. Nothing
like being active when you're young. It will keep you from getting
old."
"Yes, sir," replied Bob, for he did not know what else to say.
"Haven't got any more tic-tacs, have you?" and there was a twinkle
in the captain's eyes.
"No, sir."
"That's right. If you've got to play tricks, do it on somebody your
size. Then it's fair. Don't scare lone widows."
"I won't do it again," promised Bob, who felt a little ashamed of
his prank of the previous night.
Soon Mrs. Henderson came downstairs to get breakfast, and when the
meal was over Bob got ready for school, Mr. Henderson leaving for
his work in the woolen mill.
When Bob was safely out of the way Captain Spark once more brought
up before Mrs. Henderson the proposition he had made the night
before.
"Well, Lucy," he said, for he called Mrs. Henderson by her first
name, "have you thought over what I said about taking Bob to sea?"
"Yes, I have."
"And what do you think of it?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't like the idea."
"Why not? I'm sure it would be good for him."
"It might. I'm sure you mean it well, but I couldn't bear to have
him go."
"It will make a man of him--cure him of some of his foolish ways,
I'm sure."
"Perhaps it would. Bob is very wild, I know, but I think I have
more influence over him than any one else. He will do anything for
me, or for his father, either, for that matter. I am afraid if Bob
got away from our influence he would be worse than he is now."
"Oh, we have a few good influences aboard the Eagle," said the
captain with a grim smile. "Only we don't call 'em influences. We
call 'em ropes' ends, or cat-o'-nine-tails, or a belaying-pin. I've
known a limber rope's end, applied in the right place, do more good
to a boy than lots of medicine."
"Oh, but, captain, I couldn't have Bob beaten!"
"No, of course not, I was only joking. Not that it doesn't do a boy
good, though, once in a while, to have a good tanning. But I don't
recommend it for a steady diet."
"Bob's father has never whipped him since he was a small lad," went
on Mrs. Henderson. "Not that he doesn't seem to deserve it
sometimes even now, but Mr. Henderson believes in talking to him and
showing him how wrong he has acted."
"Yes, talk is good," admitted the mariner, "but if there's a rope's
end handy, it sometimes makes the talk a little more effective--just
a little bit."
"I suppose life aboard a sailing ship is very hard now-a-days,"
ventured Mrs. Henderson. Somehow she dwelt on the plan of having
the captain take Bob, though she felt she could not consent to it.
"No harder than it ever was. In fact, it's easier than when I was a
boy and ran away to sea. Those were hard days, and I've never
forgot 'em. That's why I try to treat all my sailors and cabin boys
as if they were human beings. Now you'd better think my plan over.
It would do Bob a world of good to go to sea. You'd hardly know him
when he got back."
"Oh, I don't know what to do," said Bob's mother. "No, I don't
think I can consent. He might be drowned, and I would never forgive
myself. I don't believe his father would consent either."
"Well, think it over," advised the captain. "I'm going to be in
this port for some time. We're loading for a trip around Cape Horn,
and it will take two weeks or more to get in shape. There's time
enough to decide between now and then."
"I don't believe I could ever consent," declared Mrs. Henderson. "I
think Bob will settle down pretty soon and give up playing pranks."
"I don't," said the captain to himself. "That boy is too full of
mischief. He needs a sea voyage to soak some of it out of him. But
that's the way with mothers. Well, I'll wait a while. I think
something may happen to make her change her mind before I sail."
The captain did not know what a good prophet he was.
When Bob came home from school that noon-time he was surprised to
see his mother and Captain Spark in earnest conversation. At first
Bob thought the mariner might be telling of the escapade of the
tic-tac, but when his mother made a warning gesture of silence to
Captain Spark on beholding Bob the boy was puzzled.
"They must have been talking about me," he decided; "but what could
it be? I don't think he would tell about the tic-tac, but there's
certainly something queer afoot."
The truth was that the captain was renewing his plan of taking Bob
to sea. Had the boy known of it he would have been much surprised,
for he never dreamed of such a thing.
"How did you get along at school to-day?" asked Captain Spark, as
Mrs. Henderson went out to get dinner.
"Pretty well."
"Didn't put any bent pins in the teacher's chair, did you?"
"No, sir."
The boy hoped the captain would not ask him what other prank he had
been up to, for the truth was that Bob had that morning taken a live
mouse to the classroom, releasing it during a study period, and
nearly sending the woman teacher and the girl pupils into hysterics.
His part had not been discovered, but the teacher had threatened to
keep the whole class of boys in that night until the guilty one
confessed, and Bob knew he would have to tell sooner or later, if
some of his companions did not "squeal" on him, in order that they
might be released from suspicion.
"That's right," went on the mariner. "Never put bent pins in the
teacher's chair."
As Bob feared, some one during the afternoon session told of his
part in the mouse episode, and he was the only one kept in. The
teacher made him stay while she corrected a lot of examination
papers, and in the silent schoolroom the boy began to wish he had
not been so fond of a "joke."
The teacher, who was a kind-hearted woman, talked seriously to her
rather wild pupil, pointing out that it was a cowardly thing for a
boy to frighten girls. Bob had never looked at it in just that
light, and he was pretty well ashamed of himself when he was allowed
to go home, with an admonition that he must mend his ways or be
liable to expulsion.
"I'll bet he's been up to some mischief, Lucy," said Captain Spark
when Bob came home quite late that afternoon.
"Perhaps he has. I hope it was nothing serious."
"Shall I ask him what it was?"
"No, we'll find it out sooner or later, and I don't want his father
to worry more than he has to. He has hard work at the mill, and I
like his evenings to be as free from care as possible."
"That's just like a woman," growled the mariner to himself. "They
take more than their share of the burdens that the men and boys
ought to bear. But never mind. I'll get Bob yet, and when I do
I'll make a man of him or know the reason why. He'll find it much
different on board ship from what he has it here in this quiet
little village."
Bob was all unconscious of what fate had in store for him.