Part 2 (1/2)

I quickly took offinto dry ones, made my appearance in the room which served them for parlour, kitchen, and hall, where I found the table spread, with a pot of hot tea, cups and saucers, a bowl of porridge, a loaf of home-made bread, and a pile of buttered toast, to which several of Mark's freshly caught fish were quickly added I offered mine to Mrs Riddle, but she answered--

”Thank you kindly, but you had better take theot a plenty, as you see”

I was very thankful to get a cup of scalding tea, for I was beginning to feel soh Mrs Riddle e and milk, followed by some buttered toast and the best part of a tench, with a slice or two of bread soon set ave my clothes a turn to dry them faster--a delicate attention which I duly appreciated Mr Riddle, as evidently fond of spinning yarns, as most old sailors are, narrated a nureatly interested o to sea Mark had already land, and I was h of it

”It is not all gold that glitters,” he remarked ”I fancied that I was to become a sailor all at once, instead of that I was made to clean out the cabin, attend on the skipper, and wash up the pots and the pans for the cook, and be at everybody's beck and call, with a rope's-end for h to please sters have to put up hen they first go to sea,” remarked his father ”You should not have reat a-boat, when he could live at ho than anything else, and when he could not get out to sea he passed much of his time with his rod and lines on the banks of the Squire's ponds, or on those of others in the neighbourhood He did not consider it poaching, as he asserted he had a perfect right to catch fish wherever he could find them, and I suspect that his father was of the same opinion, for he did not in any way find fault with him When breakfast was over Mark exhibited with considerable pride a small model of a vessel which he and his father had cut out of a piece of pine, and rigged in a very perfect hted with her appearance, and said I should like to have a similar craft

”Well, Master Cheveley, I'll cut one out for you as soon as I can get a piece of wood fit for the purpose,” said the old sailor; ”and when Mark and I have rigged her I'll warrant she'll sail faster than any other craft of her size which you can find far or near”

”Thank you,” I answered, ”I shall be very pleased to have her; and perhaps we can get up a regatta, and Markhis vessel I feel sure he or I will carry off the prize”

As I wanted to get hoet froed my friends to let me put on h the shoes were still wet, but that was of no consequence

”Well, Master dick, we shall always be glad to see you Whenever you coive us a call,” said the old sailor, as I was preparing to wish hiood-bye

I shook hands all round, and Mark accompanied me part of the way home

I parted frorateful to him for the way in which he had saved my life, as I believed he had done, when he drove off the enraged swan

CHAPTER TWO

Aunt Deb's lecture, and what cao to sea still further increases--My father, to satisfy inald Knowsley--Soistrate's rooainst hienious plea-- An aitness--The prisoner receives the benefit of the doubt-- Sir Reginald consults inald-- My expectations stand a fair chance of being realised--The proposed crusade against the s an active part in it--I resolve to second hi home, the first person I encountered was Aunt Deb

”Where have you been, Master dick?” she exclaihtened your poor father andthat you must have met with some accident, or run off to sea”

”I have been fishi+ng, aunt,” I answered, exhibiting the contents of h you look as if you doubted , but that you promised to be back for breakfast,” she replied, ”it has been over half an hour or s have been cleared away, so youof milk and a piece of bread The teapot was e any more for you”

”Thank you, aunt Iof milk and piece of bread you offer lad to escape any questioning ”I shall have a better appetite for dinner, when I hope you will allow these fish to be cooked, and I fancy that you will find theo in and get off your dirty shoes, you look as if you had been wading into the pond, and ree the household, I ularity; the want of it throws everybody out, though your father and mother do not seem to care about the matter”

Glad to escape so easily, I hurried away My father had gone out to visit a sick person who had sent for hied in their various studies and occupations, and my mother was still in her roohtof milk and piece of bread, and I, without complaint, ate a small piece of the one, and drank up the contents of the other, and then said I had had enough, and could o on until dinner-tiuilty of any deception, though I really was; but I was afraid if I e, the rest ofwould co about the matter

Whenso late, but considering the fine basket of fish I had brought home, it would add considerably to the supply of provisions for the fary with ry,” he said, ”but Aunt Deb likes regularity, and we are in duty bound to yield to her wishes”

”I wish that Aunt Deb were at Jericho,” Ithe sa aloud to my brothers and some of my sisters, for we most of us were heartily tired of her interference with all fae of rebellion, but my father paid her soout”

Finding that ed, I followed hi to sea