prompted ; but I tooktakemy mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary , and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it , and my father had better give me his consent than force me to go without it ; that I was now eighteen years old , which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or clerk to an attorney ; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out my time , but I should certainly run away from my master before my time was out , and go to sea ; and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad , if I came home again , and did not like it , I would go no more ; and I would promise , by a double diligence , to recover the time that I had lost .