“I should like to go with you wherever you go, but I should like more than anything to do that.”
“It is a serious business, you know; you would have to make up your mind to be kicked and cuffed.”
“I get that at home,” Tom said; “it can’t be harder for me at sea than it is there.”
“Well, I have not got to decide until to-morrow; you go home and think it over, and if you come in the morning with your mind made up, I will speak to the officer here and ask him if they will take us both.”
CHAPTER II
IN THE KING’S SERVICE
Before morning came Will had thought the matter over in every light, and concluded that he could not do better than join the navy for a few years. Putting all other things aside, it was a life of adventure, and adventure is always tempting to boys. It really did not seem to him that, if he entered the merchant service at once, he would be any better off than he would be if he had a preliminary training in the royal navy. He knew that the man-of-war training would make him a smarter sailor, and he hoped that he would find [pg 33]time enough on board ship to continue his work, so that afterwards he might be able to pass as a mate in the merchant service.
Tom Stevens came round in the morning.
“I have quite made up my mind to go with you if you will let me,” he said.