6 CAPTAIN COOK 



if it hadn't been for Mr. Shottowe's generosity 

 I should have learnt nothing." 



"And would you have been any worse off for 

 that? Book-learning isn't necessary to till the 

 soil." 



"But I'm not going to till the soil." 



"What, you, James Cook, a Cleveland lad — 

 you mean to say you don't like the land? It's 

 against nature." 



The boy blushed, and then, in a hesitating and 

 timid voice, he replied, "I prefer the sea." 



The man shouted with laughter. "Then you 

 know all about the sea?" 



^'No, I have never seen it." 



"Well, then!" 



"Well, I don't know why, but I prefer it." 



The countryman shrugged his shoulders. 

 "Well, here's a queer one," he muttered. Then 

 he asked James aloud, "What are you going to 

 do at Staithes?" 



"I am going to be apprenticed for three years 

 to Mr. William Saunderson, who keeps a 

 grocer's and draper's shop on the quay." 



"But that's not the sea!" exclaimed the man. 



"No, but I shall see it every day," replied 

 James Cook confidently. 



The two travellers pursued their way in si- 

 lence for an hour, across the lonely moorland. 

 The horse ambled along, while the trap clattered 



