132 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA:

frightened about losing him, and was so

glad to get him safe back again, that he did

not want to whip him. And then, besides
he thought that if he should punish him
severely, it would only make him more in-
clined to run away again.

“In fact, his father began to think that
perhaps he had better let him go to sea,
after all. Jack’s mother was still very un-
willing ; but he told her that perhaps it would
be safest to let him go, since he was so set
upon it. ‘We had better,’ said he, ‘look
him out a vessel, with a good captain, and
get him a good birth, than to have him run
away to sea, and so get ruined.’

“At length, his mother reluctantly gave
her consent ; and so they got Jack a birth on
board the very Almira that he had longed to
go in. Ben Halyard came with a wheel-
barrow to wheel his trunk to the wharf,
and his friend John went down with him to
see him safe aboard. On the way he said,

«“é¢There, John, I told you I meant to go
to sea; and here I am going before you, and
yet you are a year older than I am!’ For
at this time Jack was twelve, and John was