I can sleep on a bale of goods or on the bare deck; I can work with the crew, if need be.

Oh! you need not doubt that I shall speedily come back." They talked long together, this mother and this son, and it was her golden dreams for him that made her invoke Heaven's blessings upon him and tell him to go.

She knew, too, that it was wise for her to tell him to go and to bless him, for it would have been impossible to withstand him, so set was he in his purpose.
"I tell you, Dame Charter," said Mr.Delaplaine an hour later, "this son of yours should be a great credit and pride to you, and he will be, I stake my word upon it." "He is now," said the good woman quietly.
"I have been pondering in my brain," said he, "what I should do to relieve my niece of this burden of anxiety which is weighing upon her.

I could see no way, for letters would be of no use, not knowing where to send them, and it would be dreary, indeed, to sit and wait and sigh and dream bad dreams until chance throws some light upon this grievous business, and here steps up this young fellow and settles the whole matter.

When he comes back, Dame Charter, I shall do well for him; I shall put him in my counting-house, for, although doubtless he would fain live his young life in the fields and under the open sky, he will find the counting-house lies on the road to fortune, and good fortune he deserves." If that loving mother could have composed this speech for Master Delaplaine to make she could not have suited it better to her desires.
When the King and Queen was nearly ready to sail, Dickory Charter, having been detained by Mr.Delaplaine, who wished the young man to travel as one of importance and plentiful resources, hurried to the house to take his final instructions from Mistress Kate Bonnet, in whose service he was now setting forth.