"If I were going to run away, I would not go on the canal," observed Harry. "I would go to sea."
"You might not fare very much better for that," returned the scholar, "and you would be still more powerless to help yourself if you chanced to fall into the hands of a brutal captain. Any resistance to the will of the captain on board ship is a mutiny, and liable to be punished with death. A seafaring life is hard enough, especially in the beginning, if begun under the most favorable circumstances; and the inevitable hardships of the position would not be lightened by an accusing conscience."
"There is no great danger of Harry's running away," said May, laughing. "Harry, do you remember when you and Tommy Baker set out to go to Bengal to hunt tigers?"
Harry blushed and laughed at the same time.
"What was that?" asked Ned.
"Shall I tell, Harry?" asked May.
"O yes, I don't care," replied Harry. "I was only eight years old, anyhow."
"When Harry was eight years old," May began, "he and Tommy Baker, a little friend of his, was visiting at the house of a lady who had a great many beautiful books, and among others one which had in it a great many pictures and stories about tiger hunting. It had beautiful colored plates, and the stories were very interesting. So we always asked for the tiger book whenever we went to see the lady."
"What was her name?" asked Ned, who always wanted all the particulars.
"Her name was Mrs. G—, but we always called her 'the lady.' All the children did. Well, Harry and Tommy got the tiger book, and looked at the pictures and read the stories, till they thought they would like to go and hunt tigers too. So after supper, instead of coming straight home, they set out to walk to Bengal. They had each for provisions an apple and a nice frosted cake, which the lady had given them. When it grew late and they did not come, mamma sent for them, but the lady said they had set out some time before. Of course, every one was alarmed, and papa and Uncle Henry went out to look for them. Before long Uncle Henry found them a long way from home, but trudging along back as fast as they could and looking very crestfallen."