"
"'Tis all my fault, Joe. If I hadn't run into the shop this
wouldn't have happened, and you'd have worked out your 'dentures,
and maybe risen to be a partner with Mr. Mark. I wish I had let
them catch me, Joe, I do."
"Now don't you take on, Master Humphrey. As for partners, I be sick
of making barrels for other folks' beer, that's the truth, and by
what I've heard there's riches to be picked up in the Indies, and
many a sea captain is a deal better off than Matthew Mark. And I'm
set on trying it, lad, the more so as, by long and short, I dursn't
stay in Shrewsbury no longer. So you'll be so good as go and see
the old mother tomorrow, and tell her I be gone to sea, and I'll
send her home silks, and satins, and diamonds, too, maybe, and I'll
come home some day rich as creases, as I heard parson say once."
"I hope you will, Joe. Will you write to me and tell me how you are
getting on?"
"Bless your life, I can do no more than make my mark. But maybe
I'll light on some scholard who'll write down out of my mouth, and
I'll make him limn a barrel on the paper, and then you'll know for
sure 'tis me."
This conversation had proceeded in whispers, but Joe's whisper was
sonorous, and I was in some fear lest Mistress Pennyquick, whose
room was hard by, should hear the rumble and take alarm. Yet I
could not refrain from keeping him while I told of the matter so
near my heart--the offer of Captain Galsworthy to take me as a
pupil.
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