We and the World: A Book for Boys. Part I

t to you, if my

easure, d'ye s

or trifles, I o

a'n't pity, why

* *

eyes, you see fe

their drops, 'tis

hat every tight

his country, his t

es Di

common-sense, and real skill of any sort; or to reap most quickly what he has so

e shall find that whatever he has really learned by labour or grasped with inborn talent, will sooner or later come to the surface to his credit and for his good; but that what he swaggers will not even find fair play. There, in brief, he shall find his level

roug

orld's a go

rlour-boarders it is very

rehensive sea-name of "tackle," I was again and again made the victim of a hoax, I soon learned to correct one piece of information by another, and to feel less of an April fool and more of a sailor. Reading sea-novels had not rea

to recover, and for a brief period I found my society in great request, because I had been employed in some fetching and carrying between the galley and the steerage, and had "heard the drowned man groan." We should hav

, and catching with my hands at every bit of tackle capable of giving support. And as I put out all my strength to help the steersman to force his wheel in the direction he mean

course I did not speak, I had quite enough to do to keep my footing and take my small part in this fierce bitting and bridling of the elements; but uncomfortable as it was, I "took a pride

end. Boy and man, they do their hard duty and live by its pitiful recompense. They know the sea as well as other mariners, a

f many a queer story that they "never talk about." And it has convinced me that there is no more cruel blunder than to send a boy to sea, if there is good reason to be

-chair and read the Penny Numbers to the bee-master. Barefoot, bareheaded, cold, wet, seasick, hard worked and half-rested, would I even now exchange the life I had chosen for the life I had left?-for the desk next

here you are, and if your work is mechanical you do it unconsciously, and may fall asleep over it. I dozed more than once, and woke with the horrible idea that I had lost my hold, and

was bawling upwards now, to Mr. Waters on the bridge. Then he pushed me on one side and t

gh, and steady to

heavy rope, and sucked my fingers to warm them, and very salt the

you c

her,

see if the cook can spa

k you

Mr. Johnson, and

s,

and to wonder whether it was true that he would get better, and whether it would be im

rply, "what are you standing

ase, sir, will

- Oh, yes.

s,

see if he wants anything, and attend o

k you

consequence of the conscientious scouring I had bestowed upon his pans. Then mightily warmed and refreshed, I made my way to t

ything?" he lifted his face

still staring hard. He had teeth like the ha

and look after you, but if you

and resting his head on the edge of, his hammock and looki

ng some salt wate

on deck, and it's just as wet. It always is

sed him. "That, indeed? And y

ecalled old Biddy Macartney; a sort of soft ghost of a brogue with a turn up at the end of it, as if every sentence came sliding and f

self higher i

Or were ye bored to extinction, or what? (Country life in England is mighty dull, so they tell me.) I suppose it was Fr

t thing, even when it takes the form of a catechism that is all questions, and no room for the answers. Mo

ause of several

ever have got to like being a lawyer"-("Small chance of it, I should say, the quill-driving thievery!") "It was my uncle's office"-("I ask his pardon and you

t of first cousin of my father's, and six foot three in his sto

d I, for it certainly was

ment's pause he added, "They call me Dennis O'Moore.

ou going in your boat, and ho

old hooker we started

of the boat you we

sed if Tim Brady was missing her by this, for I had no leisure to ask his

I interrupted, for I

r it? Why did ye never learn to swim, so fond of the water as ye were? Why couldn't ye hold on to me when I got a good grip of ye! Barney, dear, I've a notion in my heart that ye left your hold on purpose, and threw away your own life that ye mightn't risk mine. And now I'll never know, for ye'll never be able to tell me. Tim Brady's boat would have held two as easy as one, Barney, and maybe the old hooker

neself and one's near relations. For I really was not conceited enough to disapprove of my new friend because he astonished me, though he certainly did

his prayers when he was neither getting up nor going to bed, nor at church, nor at family worship, and before a stranger too! For, as he finished his sentence he touched his curls, and then the p

s head again. When his eyes met mine he blushed, and said, "I ask your pardon, Jack; I

your --?" and I stopped because I really did not know what relatio

ney do, when he's said a prayer by the side of the mistress, but ask for the crucifix off her neck, that she'd worn all her girlhood? If the women howled before, they double-howled then, and would have turned him out neck and crop, but my father lifted his head from where he was lying speechless in a kind of a fit at the foot of the bed, and says he, 'Barney Barton! ye knew the sweet lady that lies there long before that too brief privilege was mine. Ye served her well, and ye've served me well for her sake; whatever ye ask for of hers in this hour ye'll get, Barney Barton. She trusted ye-and I may.' 'God bless ye, squire,' says Barney; and what does he do but go up to her and unl

l care for h

to ride, and shooting, and fishing, and such like country diversions; and strange to say, he taught me to swim, the way they learn in my mothe

ly you and he

Barney didn't approve, if he didn't give in (as he was apt to do, being easy-tempered) I can tell ye he had to do it on the sly. That was how he ordered the new ploughs that nearly broke Barney's heart, both because of being new-fangled machines, and ready money having to be paid for them. 'I'll see the ould place ruined before ye come to your own, Master Dennis,' he told me. And-Jack! that's another thing makes me think what I tell ye. He was for ever talking as if

r cold potatoes?" I re

s, and found that all we wanted with him was to borrow his boat, and that the sea-weed business was no better than a blind; for Barney had planned it all out that we were to go down to Galway and fetch the new ploughs home in the hooker, to save the cost of the land-carriage. 'Sure it's bad enough for the squire to be soiling his hands with trumpery made by them English thieves, that's no more conscience over bothering a gentleman for money nor if he was one of themselves,' said Barney; 'sorra a halfpenny shall the railway rogues rob him of.' Ah, little stowaway, ye may guess my delight! And hadn't we glorious weather at first, and wasn't the dear old man happy and proud! I can tell ye I yelled, and I sang, and I laughed, when I felt the old hooker begin to bound on the swell when we got into the open, but not a look would Barney turn on me for minding the boat; but I could hear him chuckling to himself and muttering about the railway rogues. It wasn't much time we either of us had for talking, by and by. I steered and saw to the main sheet, and Barney did look-

pulse (which the third mate seemed to understand, as he understood most things), and was dismissed with some pithy hints about cultivating common-sense and not making a fool of myself. I

dn't seem to think that he would have fever, but he said he feared we had small reason to reckon on the prayers of the idolatrous ascending to the throne of grace. He told me a long st

and I was rolling myself in my

ver read Fox's

N

awful tales in it. When we've a bit

you, Al