The Sea-Witch by Maturin Murray Ballou (english novels for students .TXT) 📕

line, "seein' hestarted so arly on the sea he can't tell when he wasn't there himself."

"How was that matter, Bill?" asked one of his messmates. "They say youhave kept the captain's reckoning, man and boy, these fifteen years."

"That have I, and never a truer heart floated than the man you seeyonder leaning over the rail on the quarterdeck, where he belongs,"answered Bill Marline.

"How did you first fall in with him, Bill?--Tell us that," said one ofthe crew.

"Well, do ye see, messmates, it must have been the matter of thirteenyears ago, there or thereabouts, but I can't exactly say, seeing's Inever have kept a log and can't write; but must have been about thatlength of time, when I was a foremast hand on board the 'Sea Lion,' asfine an Indiaman as you would wish to see. We were lying in theLiverpool docks, with sails bent and cargo stowed, under sailing orders,when one afternoon there strolled alongside a boy rather ragged anddirty, but with such eyes and such a countenance as would m