"I never should like it so well as the land. Besides, I should not like to leave my mother."
"Well, my lad, if you should ever change your mind," said the captain, with a wicked glance at Randall, "I hope you'll give me the first offer of your services."
"Yes, sir," said our hero, thinking the captain very affable and polite, though, to be sure, his appearance was hardly as prepossessing as it might have been.
"The captain seems to be a very nice man," said he to Randall, after that officer had left them.
"Oh, yes," answered Randall, dryly, "a very fine man the captain is. I'm glad you like him."
"Have you been to sea a long time?" inquired Charlie.
"Yes, I have been ever since I was a boy."
"Do you like it?"
"Very much. It seems like home to me now. I shouldn't be willing to live on land for any length of time."
"Did you begin very young?"