By Englands Aid | Page 7

river to
Bricklesey to-morrow, and then he is going on board his nephew's ship.

She is a ketch, and she carries ten tons, though I don't know what it is
she carries; and she's going to London, and he is going in her, and he
says if you will let him he will take us with him, and will show us
London, and take great care of us. It will be glorious, father, if you will
only let us go."
Mr. Vickars looked blankly as Geoffrey poured out his torrent of words.
His mind was still full of the book he had been reading, and he hardly
took in the meaning of Geoffrey's words.
"Going in a ketch!" he repeated. "Going to catch something, I suppose
you mean? Do you mean he is going fishing?"
"No, father,--going in a ketch. A ketch is a sort of ship, father, though I
don't quite know what sort of ship. What sort of ship is a ketch, Master
Lirriper?"
"A ketch is a two-masted craft, Master Geoffrey," John Lirriper said.
"She carries a big mizzen sail."
"There, you see, father," Geoffrey said triumphantly; "she carries a big
mizzen sail. That's what she is, you see; and he is going to show us
London, and will take great care of us if you will let us go with him."
"Do you mean, Master Lirriper," Mr. Vickars asked slowly, "that you
are going to London in some sort of ship, and want to take my sons
with you?"
"Well, sir, I am going to London, and the young masters seemed to
think that they would like to go with me, if so be you would have no
objection."
"I don't know," Mr. Vicars said. "It is a long passage, Master Lirriper;
and, as I have heard, often a stormy one. I don't think my wife--"
"Oh, yes, father," Lionel broke in. "If you say yes, mother is sure to say
yes; she always does, you know. And, you see, it will be a great thing
for us to see London. Every one else seems to have seen London, and I

am sure that it would do us good. And we might even see the queen."
"I think that they would be comfortable, sir," John Lirriper put in. "You
see, my nephew's wife is daughter of a citizen, one Master Swindon, a
ship's chandler, and he said there would be a room there for me, and
they would make me heartily welcome. Now, you see, sir, the young
masters could have that room, and I could very well sleep on board the
ketch; and they would be out of all sort of mischief there."
"That would be a very good plan certainly, Master Lirriper. Well, well,
I don't know what to say."
"Say yes, father," Geoffrey said as he saw Mr. Vickars glance
anxiously at the book he had left open. "If you say yes, you see it will
be a grand thing for you, our being away for a week with nothing to
disturb you."
"Well, well," Mr. Vickars said, "you must ask your mother. If she
makes no objection, then I suppose you can go," and Mr. Vickars
hastily took up his book again.
The boys ran off to the kitchen, where their mother was superintending
the brewing of some broth for a sick woman down the village.
"Mother!" Geoffrey exclaimed, "Master Lirriper's going to London in a
ketch--a ship with a big mizzen sail, you know--and he has offered to
take us with him and show us London. And father has said yes, and it's
all settled if you have no objection; and of course you haven't."
"Going to London, Geoffrey!" Mrs. Vicars exclaimed aghast. "I never
heard of such a thing. Why, like enough you will be drowned on the
way and never come back again. Your father must be mad to think of
such a thing."
"Oh, no, mother; I am sure it will do us a lot of good. And we may see
the queen, mother. And as for drowning, why, we can both swim ever
so far. Besides, people don't get drowned going to London. Do they
Master Lirriper?"

John was standing bashfully at the door of the kitchen. "Well, not as a
rule, Master Geoffrey," he replied. "They comes and they goes, them
that are used to it, maybe a hundred times without anything happening
to them."
"There! You hear that, mother? They come and go hundreds of times.
Oh, I am sure you are not going to say no. That would be too bad when
father has agreed to it. Now, mother, please tell Ruth to run away at
once and get a wallet packed with our things. Of course we shall want
our best clothes; because people dress finely