"Truly thou earnest the name of which thou art so proud, Otter, hardly.

What tempted thee to go into the water, on a day like this ?" Ned briefly explained what had taken place.

The story was no unusual one, for this was the third time that he had swum out to vessels on the rocks between Westport and Plymouth.

Then he related to his father how Captain Francis Drake had spoken to him, and praised him, and how he had promised that, on his next trip to the West Indies, he would take him with him.
"I would not have you count too much upon that," the dominie said, dryly.

"It is like, indeed, that he may never come back from this hare-brain adventure; and if he brings home his skin safe, he will, methinks, have had enough of burning in the sun, and fighting the Spaniards." "But hath he not already made two or three voyages thither, Father ?" the boy asked.
"That is true enough," said his father; "but from what I gather, these were mere trips to spy out the land.