In her view to be at sea was merely to run an imminent and ceaseless risk of shipwreck; and even this jeopardy of life and limb was secondary to the dangers that going ashore in foreign places would bring upon my mind and morals.
So when my father spoke kindly to me at supper, and said that he had arranged with Mr.Wood that I should read with him for two hours every evening, in preparation for my future life as an articled clerk, my heart was softened.

I thanked him gratefully, and resolved for my own part to follow what seemed to be the plain path of duty, though it led to Uncle Henry's office, and not out into the world.
The capacity in which I began life in Uncle Henry's office was that of office boy, and the situation was attended in my case with many favourable conditions.

Uncle Henry wished me to sleep on the premises, as my predecessor had done, but an accidental circumstance led to my coming home daily, which I infinitely preferred.

This was nothing less than an outbreak of boils all over me, upon which, every domestic application having failed, and gallons of herb tea only making me worse, Dr.Brown was called in, and pronounced my health in sore need of restoration.

The regimen of Crayshaw's was not to be recovered from in a day, and the old doctor would not hear of my living altogether in the town.