"Yes; a life at sea browns a fellow's phiz, and plenty of beef fills him out; not that ours isn't often tough enough, and more likely covered the bones of an old horse than an ox. But where are you bound to, Master Harry?" "I am going to pay a farewell visit to some friends, and then I have a great mind to go to sea. I am sick of a shore life, and wish I had gone three or four years ago." "Not too late now," answered Tuttle. "You are rather old for an officer, and I suppose you would be too proud to go before the mast." "No, indeed I would not," answered Harry. "I am ready to go anyhow. If I'm worth anything I hope to work my way up, as others have done, and if I am worth nothing I must take my chance with the rest." "Very rightly said, Harry; active hands like you are wanted. I am thinking of going to Portsmouth to look out for a ship, and if you take my advice you will volunteer on board the same. I will soon teach you your duties, and you will be a petty officer before many months are over. There were plenty of gentlemen's sons on board the last ship I served in, or at all events they said they were. Some of them were pretty wild blades, to be sure, and were `King's hard bargains;' but that's not your style, I have a notion, and so, as I said before, come along with me. I will rig you out as a seaman. And now I come to think on't, you are a better one already than many a chap who has been two or three years afloat. There are some cut out for sailors, and there are others nothing can be made of." This proposition jumped exactly with Harry's present notions. "I have no time to lose," said Harry, "and I want to get rid of my present long shore toggery as soon as possible." "Well, then, mate," said Jacob, "my old mother's cottage, where I am stopping, is not far from here, and if you like to come, I'll rig you out in a seaman's suit, which I only got the other day, and never yet put on. You can pay me for it or not, as you think fit; you are welcome to it, at all events."