[Gutenberg 21475] • Peter Trawl; Or, The Adventures of a Whaler

Excerpt from Peter Trawl: Or the Adventures of a Whaler *Brother Jack, a seaman's bag over his shoulder, trudged sturdily ahead; father followed, carrying the oars, spars, sails, and other gear of wherry, while as I toddled alongside him I held on with on hand to the skirt of pea-jacket, and griped the boat-hook which had been given to my change with the other.

From the front of the well-known inn, the "Keppel's Head." the portrait of the brave old admiral, which I always looked at with awe and admiration, thinking what a great man he must have been, gazed sternly down on us as we made our way along the Common Hard of Portsea towards the water's edge.

Father and Jack hauled in the wherry, and having deposited their burdens in her, set to work to mop her out and to put her to rights, while I stood, still grasping the boat-hook, which I held upright with the point in the ground, watching their proceedings, till father, lifting me up in his arms, placed me in the sternsheets.

"Sit there, Peter, and mind you don't topple overboard, my son," he said, in the kind tone in which he always spoke to me and Jack.

I was too small to be of much use, indeed father had hitherto only taken me with him when he was merely going across to Gosport and back or plying about the harbour. *