“That is just the reason,” said his mother, “that he ought to be gratified once in a while. It’s a great deal better he should be here with Ben, than with some of the boys he goes with; I should feel much easier about him than I do when he’s with them in boats, and gunning. I’m always afraid they’ll shoot one another, or be drowned.”
“Well, it’s just as his mother says; I’m at home so little, I don’t interfere with her concerns; she’s cap’n; I’m only passenger.”
“But you’re going to be at home all the time now; and I should like to give up my authority.”
“By the way, Ben, I’ve had a letter from Mr. Welch; he says large, handsome masts, bowsprits, and spars are in great demand; that he can find a market in Boston and Salem, in the spring, for all you can send him.”
“I’m going to cut small spars directly, father; but I want snow to fall the large ones on, else I shall have to bed them with brush, for fear of breaking them.”
“He says that the war in Europe is throwing all the carrying trade into the hands of neutrals; that now we’ve got our government going, it’ll be snapping times; and that while they’re all fighting like dogs over a bone, we can run off with the bone; and if I want to try a voyage, he has a vessel for me.”
“Well, you’re not going,” said his wife; “you’ve been enough, and you’ve done enough. If Ben could afford to give up going to sea, in the prime of life, for the sake of Sally, I’m sure you can, in your old age, for the sake of Betsey; and you belong to me for the rest of your life.”
“Old!” said the captain, dancing over the room; “I don’t feel a bit old. I should like a little cash, just to fix up the buildings a little, buy that timber lot that joins the rye field; and then”—with a comical look at his wife—“I should like to do a little more for the minister. I should be so thankful, sometimes, if somebody would come in that could talk about anything else than some old horse, or cow, or sheep that’s got the mulligrubs!”
“Father,” said John, as they were preparing to go, “why can’t I stay now?”
“Because, child, I want you to help me row.”