“‘Please don’t; she will feel a great deal worse if you write.’
“‘I will not, if you will promise to write yourself.’
“‘I will, then. I don’t like to, though.’
“I could not bear the idea of having the little fellow’s mother pining over him for years, and I knew she would feel better to know he was alive, even if he was in a whale ship.
“Pretty soon after we had this talk, I saw a whale far off on the sea. In a few minutes we had a boat out, and George and I were pulling away towards the great fish.—There comes Mr. Jones for the currants, and I will tell you the rest of the story as soon as I have put them in his wagon.”
The dying Sailor Boy.
IV.
Uncle Ben was absent but a few moments; yet it seemed like a long while to the children, who were very anxious to hear the rest of the story about the handsome sailor boy.