"Would you wish," I asked, "that I should be tempted to break a promise
to a widowed mother, who never in my life denied me any thing that was
reasonable?"
"No!" said David, after a moment's thought; "give me your hand! You are
perfectly right, and I honor you for it."
Before he had time to say any more, Brown Tom came in to look for a gun,
which had been brought on board; for the water was covered with ducks,
and he was anxious to have a shot at them. I should like to try my hand
in the same way; for when fish and birds are used for food, my
conscience don't hurt me about killing them. That's the reason that I
like mackerel-fishing, though I have no fondness for mackerels
themselves, for they are cannibals. We use a piece of one for bait for
the rest, and don't have lines more than three or four yards long. This
is a very different thing from catching cod, where they pull them up
through many fathoms of water. Clary says that next year he means to go
out to the Banks for cod, if he can get some of his friends to make up a
party for the purpose. You never saw any one so changed as he is.
Last week there came up a storm, when we were near the land, and they
hauled into port. Clarendon walked off on shore in his fishing-clothes,
without appearing in the least ashamed of them, and went to make a call
on a gentleman in the place, whom he had seen in Virginia a year or two
since.
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