“I will, and I am under great obligations to you for the offer.”
“Belay that,” said the sailor. “I know what it is to be without money or friends—I am used to it, but you ain’t, I can see that plain enough, and I want to help you out. Now about your money—when did you see it last?”
The loss of the purse was a matter that the wheelsman inquired into very particularly. He questioned Guy closely for ten minutes, and having finished his pipe, knocked the ashes from it and arose to his feet.
“I must go on watch now,” said he. “When you get ready to go to bed, tumble into my bunk. There’s room enough in it for both of us, and any of the boys will show you where it is. Keep up a good heart and you’ll come out all right. I’ll make a sailor man of you.”
Flint walked off, leaving Guy sitting silent and thoughtful. His mind was relieved of a great load of anxiety, for he had found somebody to lean upon. And this new friend was more to his liking than the one he had lost, for he had more confidence in him. Having been a wanderer upon the face of the earth for thirty-five years, Flint of course knew all about his position and was fully competent to give advice in any emergency. But still there was one objection to him. Guy would have thought more of him if he had been a hunter instead of a sea-faring man. He did not want to go before the mast for he was too firmly wedded to his idea of living in the woods. He had thought and dreamed of it for years, and he clung to it still.
“This sailoring will be a merely temporary business,” thought Guy, “and perhaps it is after all the best thing I could do. I am well enough acquainted with city life to know that I can’t make much money at anything just now, having no trade or profession. The only course open to me is to go into a store or office, and there I could command but three or four dollars a week, out of which I should have to pay my board, so I could not save anything. I may be able to earn eight or ten dollars a month as cabin-boy, and as I shall be under no expense for board of course I shall have all my money at the end of the voyage. Besides, while I am earning the three hundred dollars I need, I shall be getting used to hard fare and hard weather, and consequently I shall be in better condition to begin my career as a hunter. I shall adopt Flint’s plan, for I don’t think I could do better.”
Having come to this conclusion Guy made his way to the sailors’ quarters and went to bed in a very happy frame of mind.
CHAPTER IX.
THE BUCKSKIN PURSE.
