I only axed Mrs. Maddox whether it were a boy or a girl."
"How old was she then?"
"Well, how can I tell? that's not in my way; but the knowing ones in
these matters said that she must be about eighteen months old, so we
have taken that for a _departure_ as to her age. I love her now as if
she were my own child, and so will you, Tom, like a sister, when you
know her. She calls me her father, and you may do the same, Tom, if you
like, for I will be as good as a father to you, if you are as good a boy
as you now seem to be, I like to be called father, somehow or
another--it sounds pleasant to my ears. But come in now, I think you
have compassed the compass, so you must learn something else.
"There is another way, Tom," said Bramble, as he seated himself in his
large chair, "in which a smart 'prentice may be useful to his master,
and it is of quite as much importance as the compass, which is in
heaving the lead. You see, Tom, the exact soundings being known will
often enable a pilot to run over the tail of a bank and save a tide;
that is, when he knows that he can trust the man in the chains. Some
seamen are very particular in giving exact soundings, but all are not.
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