"
"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. Vickars 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.
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