So when Little Jacket was about fifteen years old, one bright summer's
day, he kissed his father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and
went off as a sailor in a ship bound to the East Indies.




CHAPTER TWO.

HIS GOOD AND HIS BAD LUCK AT SEA.


It was a long voyage, and there was plenty of hard work for Little
Jacket, but he found several good fellows among the sailors, and was
so quick, so bright, so ready to turn his hand to every thing, and
withal of so kind and social a disposition, that he soon became a
favorite with the Captain and mates, as with all the sailors. They had
fine weather, only too fine, the Captain said, for it was summer time,
and the sea was often as smooth as glass. There were lazy times then
for the sailors, when there was little work to do, and many a story
was told among them as they lay in the warm moonlight nights on the
forecastle. But now and then there came a blow of wind, and all hands
had to be stirring--running up the shrouds, taking in sails, pulling
at ropes, plying the pump; and there was many a hearty laugh among
them at the ducking some poor fellow would get, as now and then a wave
broke over the deck.

Things went on, however, pretty smoothly with Little Jacket, on the
whole, for some time. They doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and were