46 MARTIN RATTLER.

perate as he thought of the misery into which poor
Aunt Dorothy Grumbit would be plunged, on learning
that he had been swept out to sea in a little boat,
and drowned, as she would naturally suppose. In
his frenzy he entreated and implored the captain to
send him back in the boat, and even threatened to
knock out his brains with a handspike if he did not;
but the captain smiled, and told him that it was his
own fault. He had no business to be putting to sea
in a small boat in rough weather; and he might be
thankful he wasn’t drowned. He wouldn’t turn back
now for fifty pounds twice told.

At length Martin became convinced that all hope
of returning home was gone. He went quietly be-
low, threw himself into one of the sailors’ berths,
turned his face to the wall, and wept long and
bitterly.