Part 2 (1/2)
I quickly took off my wet things in Mark's room, and getting into dry ones, made my appearance in the room which served them for parlour, kitchen, and hall, where I found the table spread, with a pot of hot tea, cups and saucers, a bowl of porridge, a loaf of home-made bread, and a pile of b.u.t.tered toast, to which several of Mark's freshly caught fish were quickly added. I offered mine to Mrs Riddle, but she answered--
”Thank you kindly, but you had better take them home to your friends, they'll be glad of them, and we've got a plenty, as you see.”
I was very thankful to get a cup of scalding tea, for I was beginning to feel somewhat chilly, though Mrs Riddle made me sit near the fire. A saucer of porridge and milk, followed by some b.u.t.tered toast and the best part of a tench, with a slice or two of bread soon set me up.
Nancy, however, now and then got up and gave my clothes a turn to dry them faster--a delicate attention which I duly appreciated. Mr Riddle, who was evidently fond of spinning yarns, as most old sailors are, narrated a number of his adventures, which greatly interested me, and made me more than ever wish to go to sea. Mark had already made a trip in a coaster to the north of England, and I was much surprised to hear him say that he had had enough of it.
”It is not all gold that glitters,” he remarked. ”I fancied that I was to become a sailor all at once, instead of that I was made to clean out the cabin, attend on the skipper, and wash up the pots and the pans for the cook, and be at everybody's beck and call, with a rope's-end for my reward whenever I was not quick enough to please my many masters.”
”That's what most youngsters have to put up with when they first go to sea,” remarked his father. ”You should not have minded it, my lad.”
I found that Mark's great ambition was to become the owner of a fis.h.i.+ng-boat, when he could live at home and be his own master. He was fonder of fis.h.i.+ng than anything else, and when he could not get out to sea he pa.s.sed much of his time with his rod and lines on the banks of the Squire's ponds, or on those of others in the neighbourhood. He did not consider it poaching, as he a.s.serted he had a perfect right to catch fish wherever he could find them, and I suspect that his father was of the same opinion, for he did not in any way find fault with him. When breakfast was over Mark exhibited with considerable pride a small model of a vessel which he and his father had cut out of a piece of pine, and rigged in a very perfect manner. I was delighted with her appearance, and said I should like to have a similar craft.
”Well, Master Cheveley, I'll cut one out for you as soon as I can get a piece of wood fit for the purpose,” said the old sailor; ”and when Mark and I have rigged her I'll warrant she'll sail faster than any other craft of her size which you can find far or near.”
”Thank you,” I answered, ”I shall be very pleased to have her; and perhaps we can get up a regatta, and Mark must bring his vessel. I feel sure he or I will carry off the prize.”
As I wanted to get home, dreading the jobation I should get from Aunt Deb for not making my appearance at prayer-time, I begged my friends to let me put on my own clothes. They were tolerably dry by this time, though the shoes were still wet, but that was of no consequence.
”Well, Master d.i.c.k, we shall always be glad to see you. Whenever you come this way give us a call,” said the old sailor, as I was preparing to wish him, his wife and daughter good-bye.
I shook hands all round, and Mark accompanied me part of the way home.
I parted from him as if he had been an old friend, indeed I was really grateful to him for the way in which he had saved my life, as I believed he had done, when he drove off the enraged swan.
CHAPTER TWO.
Aunt Deb's lecture, and what came of it--My desire to go to sea still further increases--My father, to satisfy me, visits Leighton Hall--Our interview with Sir Reginald Knowsley--Some description of Leighton Hall and what we saw there--The magistrate's room--A smuggler in trouble--The evidence against him, and its worth--An ingenious plea-- An awkward witness--The prisoner receives the benefit of the doubt-- Sir Reginald consults my father, and my father consults Sir Reginald-- My expectations stand a fair chance of being realised--The proposed crusade against the smugglers--My father decides on taking an active part in it--I resolve to second him.
On reaching home, the first person I encountered was Aunt Deb.
”Where have you been, Master d.i.c.k?” she exclaimed, in a stern tone, ”you've frightened your poor father and mother out of their wits. They have been fancying that you must have met with some accident, or run off to sea.”
”I have been fis.h.i.+ng, aunt,” I answered, exhibiting the contents of my basket, ”this shows that I am speaking the truth, though you look as if you doubted my word.”
”Ned said you had gone out fis.h.i.+ng, but that you promised to be back for breakfast,” she replied, ”it has been over half an hour or more, and the things have been cleared away, so you must be content with a mug of milk and a piece of bread. The teapot was emptied, and we can't be brewing any more for you.”
”Thank you, aunt. I must, as you say, be content with the mug of milk and piece of bread you offer me,” I said, with a demure countenance, glad to escape any questioning. ”I shall have a better appet.i.te for dinner, when I hope you will allow these fish to be cooked, and I fancy that you will find them very good, I have seldom caught finer.”
”Well, well, go in and get off your dirty shoes, you look as if you had been wading into the pond, and remember to be home in good time another day. While I manage the household, I must have regularity; the want of it throws everybody out, though your father and mother do not seem to care about the matter.”
Glad to escape so easily, I hurried away. My father had gone out to visit a sick person who had sent for him. My brothers and sisters were engaged in their various studies and occupations, and my mother was still in her room. Jane, the maid, by Aunt Deb's directions, brought me the promised mug of milk and piece of bread, and I, without complaint, ate a small piece of the one, and drank up the contents of the other, and then said I had had enough, and could manage to go on until dinner-time. It did not strike me at the time that I was guilty of any deception, though I really was; but I was afraid if I mentioned my visit to Roger Riddle's cottage, the rest of my adventures in the morning would come out, and so said nothing about the matter.
When my father came home, I told him that I was sorry for being so late, but considering the fine basket of fish I had brought home, it would add considerably to the supply of provisions for the family, and hoped he would not be angry with me.
”No, d.i.c.k, I am not angry,” he said, ”but Aunt Deb likes regularity, and we are in duty bound to yield to her wishes.”
”I wish that Aunt Deb were at Jericho,” I muttered to myself, ”and I should not have minded saying the same thing aloud to my brothers and some of my sisters, for we most of us were heartily tired of her interference with all family arrangements, and were frequently on the verge of rebellion, but my father paid her so much deference, that we were afraid of openly breaking out.”
Finding that my father was disengaged, I followed him into the study, and again broached the subject of going to sea.