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A few times, their mother left them in a land city and went out to sea without them.  This was only when they were still young, and couldn’t be trusted to go to a water port that the pirates or other unsavory characters (probably the  Mettes or the Slag, considering the time) governed.  Places like that weren’t safe for children.

So mother would have to leave them with a land port woman wherever they were visiting.  These ladies seemed made of children, didn’t seem to mind a couple more, and always needed money.  So their mother would negotiate a few dollars, and swear up and down that she would come back, and then threaten the life of the woman were the boys to not be ok upon her return.  This was the only part of the discussion to which they paid attention.

After seeing her out to sea, usually a tearful and dramatic event, they they had friends for a few weeks, ones that were more or less their own age.  And land children were exciting, different different than boat children.  Despite (what the boys considered) their confinement, they seemed freer.

During the day, they ran through the city and were excited to show off their friends and the tricks and corners of the town.  Always there was a butcher who would scowl at them until they begged enough, and then he would toss them fat slabs of dried pork.  The farmers were never friendly, but every local boy in every city knew how to crawl under a fence to steal potatoes or radishes or carrots.  They knew every nook and cranny of every street and stone building, like magic tricks.  They seemed sure of everything.