"Let us hear how it happened," said Jack, while a good-natured smile
overspread his face.
"Well, you must know," began Peterkin, "that the very day before I went
to sea, I was greatly taken up with a game at hockey, which I was
playing with my old school-fellows for the last time before leaving
them--you see I was young then, Ralph." Peterkin gazed, in an
abstracted and melancholy manner, out to sea. "Well, in the midst of
the game, my uncle, who had taken all the bother and trouble of getting
me bound 'prentice and rigged out, came and took me aside, and told me
that he was called suddenly away from home, and would not be able to
see me aboard, as he had intended. 'However,' said he, 'the captain
knows you are coming, so that's not of much consequence; but as you'll
have to find the ship yourself, you must remember her name and
description. D'ye hear, boy?' I certainly did hear, but I'm afraid I
did not understand, for my mind was so taken up with the game, which I
saw my side was losing, that I began to grow impatient, and the moment
my uncle finished his description of the ship and bade me good-bye, I
bolted back to my game, with only a confused idea of three masts, and a
green painted tafferel, and a gilt figure-head of Hercules with his
club at the bow. Next day I was so much cast down with everybody saying
good-bye, and a lot o' my female friends cryin' horribly over me, that
I did not start for the harbour, where the ship was lying among a
thousand others, till it was almost too late.
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