He toiled long hours in the damp
darknesses below seas, with the sounds of crashing waves and rolling
boulders close above him, and at times threateningly audible through the
stratum of rocks between; and when he did appear at meals he was too
weary to trouble about anything beyond the immediate satisfaction of his
needs. Besides, young Tom had long since proved his strength equal to
his father's, and remonstrance or rebuke would have produced no effect.
As to Bernel, he was only a boy as yet, but he was Nance's boy and all
she would have wished him.
In time he would grow up and be a match for Tom, and meanwhile she would
see to it that he grew up as different from Tom in every respect as it
was possible for a boy to be.
CHAPTER VI
HOW GRANNIE SCHEMED SCHEMES
Stephen Gard's experience of women had been small.
His mother had been everything to him till she died, when he was
fourteen, and he went to sea.
When she was gone, that which she had put into him remained, and kept
him clear of many of the snares to which the life of the young sailorman
is peculiarly liable.
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