“Tom Brown just suits mother, and me too, so I wish Mr. Hughes would write another story as good,” said Archie.
“You don't find things of this sort in Tom Brown; yet these books are all in the Sunday-school libraries” and Mrs. Jessie read the following paragraph from the book she had taken from Will's hand,
“'In this place we saw a tooth of John the Baptist. Ben said he could see locust and wild honey sticking to it. I couldn't. Perhaps John used a piece of the true cross for a tooth-pick.'”
“A larky sort of a boy says that, Mum, and we skip the parts where they describe what they saw in the different countries,” cried Will.
“And those descriptions, taken mostly from guidebooks, I fancy, are the only parts of any real worth. The scrapes of the bad boys make up the rest of the story, and it is for those you read these books, I think,” answered his mother, stroking back the hair off the honest little face that looked rather abashed at this true statement of the case.
“Anyway, mother, the ship part is useful, for we learn how to sail her, and by and by that will all come handy when we go to sea,” put in Geordie.
“Indeed, then you can explain this manoeuvre to me, of course,” and Mrs. Jessie read from another page the following nautical paragraph,
“The wind is south-south-west, and we can have her up four points closer to the wind, and still be six points off the wind. As she luffs up we shall man the fore and main sheets, slack on the weather, and haul on the lee braces.”
“I guess I could, if I wasn't afraid of uncle. He knows so much more than I do, he'd laugh,” began Geordie, evidently puzzled by the question.
“Ho, you know you can't, so why make believe? We don't understand half of the sea lingo, Mum, and I dare say it's all wrong,” cried Will, suddenly going over to the enemy, to Geordie's great disgust.