"Ah, if you were only going on a voyage with me," said the sailor,
"that would make a man of you. I wouldn't go and be shut up with that
old prig, poring over books forever."
Marco was displeased to hear the sailor call his cousin an old
prig, and he felt some compunctions of conscience about forming and
continuing an intimacy with such a person. Still he was so much
interested in hearing him talk, that he continued to walk with him up
the hill. Finally, the sailor fairly proposed to him to run away and
go to sea with him.
"O no," said Marco, "I wouldn't do such a thing for the world.
Besides," said he, "they would be after us, and carry me back."
"No," said the sailor; "we would cut across the country, traveling in
the night and laying to by day, till we got to another stage route,
and then make a straight wake, till we got to New Bedford, and there
we could get a good voyage. Come," said he, "let's go to-night. I'll
turn right about. I don't care a great deal about seeing my mother."
Though Marco was a very bold and adventurous sort of a boy, still he
was not quite prepared for such a proposal as this. In the course of
the conversation the sailor used improper and violent language too,
which Marco did not like to hear; and, in fact, Marco began to be a
little afraid of his new acquaintance. He determined, as soon as he
got back to the coach to keep near Forester all the time, so as not to
be left alone again with the sailor. He tried to hasten on, so as to
overtake the coach, but the sailor told him not to walk so fast; and,
being unwilling to offend him, he was obliged to go slowly, and keep
with him; and thus protracted the conversation.
[Illustration: THE HILL.]
About half-way up the hill there was a small tavern, and the sailor
wanted Marco to go in with him and get a drink. Marco thought that he
meant a drink of water, but it was really a drink of spirits which
was intended. Marco, however, refused to go, saying that he was not
thirsty; and so they went on up the hill. At the top of the hill, the
stage-coach stopped for the pedestrians to come up. There was also
another passenger there to get in, - a woman, who came out from a
farm-house near by. The driver asked the sailor if he was not willing
to ride outside, in order to make room for the new passenger. But he
would not. He was afraid. He said he would not ride five miles outside
for a month's wages. Marco laughed at the sailor's fears, and he
immediately asked Forester to let _him_ ride outside.
