CHAPTER IV
TALKING IT OVER
Captain Spark was invited to spend a week or more at the Hendersonhome. He was up bright and early the next morning--in fact, beforeany one else, and Bob, hearing some one moving around downstairs,and knowing his father and mother were not in the habit of havingsuch an early breakfast, descended to see who it was.
"Good-morning, my lad," greeted the mariner. "I suppose you aregoing to take the morning watch and holystone the decks. Nothinglike being active when you're young. It will keep you from gettingold."
"Yes, sir," replied Bob, for he did not know what else to say.
"Haven't got any more tic-tacs, have you?" and there was a twinklein the captain's eyes.
"No, sir."
"That's right. If you've got to play tricks, do it on somebody yoursize. Then it's fair. Don't scare lone widows."
"I won't do it again," promised Bob, who felt a little ashamed ofhis prank of the previous night.
Soon Mrs. Henderson came downstairs to get breakfast, and when themeal was over Bob got ready for school, Mr. Henderson leaving forhis work in the woolen mill.
When Bob was safely out of the way Captain Spark once more broughtup before Mrs. Henderson the proposition he had made the nightbefore.
"Well, Lucy," he said, for he called Mrs. Henderson by her firstname, "have you thought over what I said about taking Bob to sea?"
"Yes, I have."
"And what do you think of it?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't like the idea."
"Why not? I'm sure it would be good for him."
"It might. I'm sure you mean it well, but I couldn't bear to havehim go."
"It will make a man of him--cure him of some of his foolish ways,I'm sure."
"Perhaps it would. Bob is very wild, I know, but I think I havemore influence over him than any one else. He will do anything forme, or for his father, either, for that matter. I am afraid if Bobgot away from our influence he would be worse than he is now."
"Oh, we have a few good influences aboard the Eagle," said thecaptain with a grim smile. "Only we don't call 'em influences. Wecall 'em ropes' ends, or cat-o'-nine-tails, or a belaying-pin. I'veknown a limber rope's end, applied in the right place, do more goodto a boy than lots of medicine."
"Oh, but, captain, I couldn't have Bob beaten!"
"No, of course not, I was only joking. Not that it doesn't do a boygood, though, once in a while, to have a good tanning. But I don'trecommend it for a steady diet."
"Bob's father has never whipped him since he was a small lad," wenton Mrs. Henderson. "Not that he doesn't seem to deserve itsometimes even now, but Mr. Henderson believes in talking to him andshowing him how wrong he has acted."
"Yes, talk is good," admitted the mariner, "but if there's a rope'send handy, it sometimes makes the talk a little more effective--justa little bit."
"I suppose life aboard a sailing ship is very hard now-a-days,"ventured Mrs. Henderson. Somehow she dwelt on the plan of havingthe captain take Bob, though she felt she could not consent to it.
"No harder than it ever was. In fact, it's easier than when I was aboy and ran away to sea. Those were hard days, and I've neverforgot 'em. That's why I try to treat all my sailors and cabin boysas if they were human beings. Now you'd better think my plan over.It would do Bob a world of good to go to sea. You'd hardly know himwhen he got back."
"Oh, I don't know what to do," said Bob's mother. "No, I don'tthink I can consent. He might be drowned, and I would never forgivemyself. I don't believe his father would consent either."
"Well, think it over," advised the captain. "I'm going to be inthis port for some time. We're loading for a trip around Cape Horn,and it will take two weeks or more to get in shape. There's timeenough to decide between now and then."
"I don't believe I could ever consent," declared Mrs. Henderson. "Ithink Bob will settle down pretty soon and give up playing pranks."
"I don't," said the captain to himself. "That boy is too full ofmischief. He needs a sea voyage to soak some of it out of him. Butthat's the way with mothers. Well, I'll wait a while. I thinksomething may happen to make her change her mind before I sail."
The captain did not know what a good prophet he was.
When Bob came home from school that noon-time he was surprised tosee his mother and Captain Spark in earnest conversation. At firstBob thought the mariner might be telling of the escapade of thetic-tac, but when his mother made a warning gesture of silence toCaptain Spark on beholding Bob the boy was puzzled.
"They must have been talking about me," he decided; "but what couldit be? I don't think he would tell about the tic-tac, but there'scertainly something queer afoot."
The truth was that the captain was renewing his plan of taking Bobto sea. Had the boy known of it he would have been much surprised,for he never dreamed of such a thing.
"How did you get along at school to-day?" asked Captain Spark, asMrs. Henderson went out to get dinner.
"Pretty well."
"Didn't put any bent pins in the teacher's chair, did you?"
"No, sir."
The boy hoped the captain would not ask him what other prank he hadbeen up to, for the truth was that Bob had that morning taken a livemouse to the classroom, releasing it during a study period, andnearly sending the woman teacher and the girl pupils into hysterics.His part had not been discovered, but the teacher had threatened tokeep the whole class of boys in that night until the guilty oneconfessed, and Bob knew he would have to tell sooner or later, ifsome of his companions did not "squeal" on him, in order that theymight be released from suspicion.
"That's right," went on the mariner. "Never put bent pins in theteacher's chair."
As Bob feared, some one during the afternoon session told of hispart in the mouse episode, and he was the only one kept in. Theteacher made him stay while she corrected a lot of examinationpapers, and in the silent schoolroom the boy began to wish he hadnot been so fond of a "joke."
The teacher, who was a kind-hearted woman, talked seriously to herrather wild pupil, pointing out that it was a cowardly thing for aboy to frighten girls. Bob had never looked at it in just thatlight, and he was pretty well ashamed of himself when he was allowedto go home, with an admonition that he must mend his ways or beliable to expulsion.
"I'll bet he's been up to some mischief, Lucy," said Captain Sparkwhen Bob came home quite late that afternoon.
"Perhaps he has. I hope it was nothing serious."
"Shall I ask him what it was?"
"No, we'll find it out sooner or later, and I don't want his fatherto worry more than he has to. He has hard work at the mill, and Ilike his evenings to be as free from care as possible."
"That's just like a woman," growled the mariner to himself. "Theytake more than their share of the burdens that the men and boysought to bear. But never mind. I'll get Bob yet, and when I doI'll make a man of him or know the reason why. He'll find it muchdifferent on board ship from what he has it here in this quietlittle village."
Bob was all unconscious of what fate had in store for him.