Jack was therefore sent for after his uncle had left the inn.
"Well, my lad," Mr. Godstone said as he entered, "I am glad to see you at last and to thank you for what you did for us the other day. My wife tells me that you do not like being thanked, and as deeds are better than words we won't say much more about it. So I hear you have only been living here about two years?"
"That is all, sir; we lived at Dulwich before."
"So I hear. And your father was an artist? Have you any taste that way?"
Jack shook his head. "No, sir; I never thought of being an artist. I always wanted to go to sea."
"To go to sea--eh?" Mr. Godstone repeated, "Well, then, you have got your wish."
"Oh, I do not call this going to sea," Jack said contemptuously. "I mean, I wanted to be a sailor--not a fisherman."
"Well, sir, in the first place mother did not know anyone who had to do with ships; and then her friends were all here, and she knew the place and its ways, and she thought that by buying a bawley, as she has done, in time I should come to sail her and earn my living as my uncle does. And then I don't think she would ever have agreed to my going to sea right away from her; but I do not know about that."
"Well, lad, you see the case is changed now. I have to do with ships, and Captain Murchison here commands one. At least he doesn't at the present moment, but he will do so as soon as I can buy another to supply the place of the _Petrel_. And as he saw one yesterday that he thinks highly of, I shall probably buy her as soon as she has been surveyed. So you see that difficulty is at an end. As to your mother, no doubt she would have objected to your going as a ship's-boy, but perhaps she wouldn't if you were going as an apprentice. We call them midshipmen on board our ships; I like the name better than apprentice, though the thing is about the same. Captain Murchison will, I am sure, be glad to have you with him, and will do his best to make a good sailor of you. And you may be sure that I shall push you on if you deserve it as fast as possible; and it may be that in another ten years you will be in command of one of my ships. Well, what do you say to that?"
"Oh! thank you, sir," Jack exclaimed. "I should like that better than anything in the world, if mother will let me."