"About a week after this unhappy occurrence, as I was leaning over
the rail on the quarter-deck, watching the shoals of porpoises (for
we were then in a warm latitude) playing in the bright blue sea at
the vessel's side, the boatswain, who was a fine specimen of a
sea-faring man, came up and, seating himself on a fowl-coop near me,
commenced sorting rope-yarns for the men to spin. Presently Frederic
walked up the ladder with a bucket of water to pour into the troughs
for the thirsty poultry, who were stretching their necks through the
bars and opening their bills, longing for the refreshing draught:
the heat was overpowering, and the poor things were closely packed
in their miserable coops.

"I remarked to Williams how pale the boy looked, and how thin, and
said, I feared he was not only badly treated, but had not proper
nourishment.

"'Why, ma'am,' said he, 'to say the truth, the lad's not been used
to this kind of living, and it was the worst thing as ever happened
to him to be brought on board the "Neptune," with our skipper for a
master. You see, madam,' he continued, 'his father was a parson; but
_he_ is dead, and the mother tried hard to persuade the lad (for,
poor thing, he is her only boy,) to turn parson too, when his father
died. But no. The boy had set his mind on going to sea; and as he
had no friends who could help him to go to school or college, and
his godfather, Captain Hartly, offered to pay the apprenticeship
fees if his mother would let him learn navigation, she at last,
though much against her will, consented that he should be bound
apprentice to our skipper here. But it pretty nigh broke her heart
to part with the child; and she begged the captain to use him gently
and bear with him a little, for he was not so hardy as many boys of