The teacher, who was a kind-hearted woman, talked seriously to her
rather wild pupil, pointing out that it was a cowardly thing for a
boy to frighten girls. Bob had never looked at it in just that
light, and he was pretty well ashamed of himself when he was allowed
to go home, with an admonition that he must mend his ways or be
liable to expulsion.

"I'll bet he's been up to some mischief, Lucy," said Captain Spark
when 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 father
to worry more than he has to. He has hard work at the mill, and I
like his evenings to be as free from care as possible."

"That's just like a woman," growled the mariner to himself. "They
take more than their share of the burdens that the men and boys
ought to bear. But never mind. I'll get Bob yet, and when I do
I'll make a man of him or know the reason why. He'll find it much
different on board ship from what he has it here in this quiet
little village."

Bob was all unconscious of what fate had in store for him.