Part 19 (2/2)

A snow-white table-cloth was spread, having been routed out from the deepest recesses of my chest, where it, in company with others, had lain in undisturbed repose since the commencement of the voyage, and upon it was spread a variety of dainties of various kinds, the produce of our raid upon the _Copernicus's_ provision lockers; and, of all things in the world, a plentiful supply of delicious little cakes, smoking hot, which Miss Ella's own dainty hands had prepared.

The tea, too, instead of being boiled in the kettle, as was our usual practice, had been prepared in accordance with the most approved rules, and was certainly a very different beverage from what we had been in the habit of drinking; and, altogether, the meal was a perfect Epicurean feast compared with what we were accustomed to.

Ella presided, doing the honours of the small table with the grace of a princess, and I began to feel as though I had suddenly become an inhabitant of fairy-land.

As soon as my meal was over I relieved Bob, and he went below for his share of the good things; and though Miss Ella had been very demure with me, I soon discovered, by the peals of musical laughter which, mingled with Bob's gruffer cachinnations, floated up through the companion, that the two had completely broken the ice between them.

As soon as the remains of the meal had been cleared away, and the wants of her pet kitten attended to, the little lady came on deck and commenced an animated conversation with Bob and me, as we smoked the pipe of peace (Ella declaring that she quite liked the odour of tobacco), asking a thousand questions, and full of wonder that such a ”dear little tiny yacht” had come all the way from England.

She was most anxious to try her hand at steering, which she thought she could do quite well; and I promised I would instruct her at a more favourable opportunity, explaining that we were just then so circ.u.mstanced that none but _experienced_ helmsmen could be trusted with the tiller, it being more difficult to steer properly when running before the wind than at any other time.

”But it _looks_ quite easy,” she persisted, ”to hold that handle. _You_ do not move it much, and surely I could do the little you are doing. I used to steer the _Copernicus_ sometimes, but she never _would_ go straight with _me_; and it was _so_ tiring to keep turning that great wheel round.”

Bob laughed joyously at this quaint speech, and proceeded laboriously to hold forth on the science of the helmsman, interlarding his lecture copiously with nautical ill.u.s.trations and sea phrases, which were so much Greek to his pupil, who listened with an open-eyed earnestness which was most entertaining.

She heard Bob with the utmost patience and attention until he had utterly exhausted his entire stock of precepts, when she thanked him as courteously and sweetly as though she had understood every word of it; and then electrified us both, and set me off into a fit of perfectly uncontrollable laughter, by asking him, in the same breath, to sing her a song.

Whatever Bob's accomplishments might be, singing was certainly not one of them. He could hail the fore-royal-yard from the taffrail in a gale of wind, and make himself pretty plainly heard too; but when it came to trolling forth a ditty, he had no more voice than a raven; and my sister had often thrown him into a state of the most comical distress by proffering a similar request to that now made by his new friend.

As soon as she found that Bob really could not sing, she tried me; and, as I was considered to have a very tolerable voice, I immediately complied, giving her ”Tom Bowling” and a few more of Dibdin's fine old sea-songs, as well as one or two more frequently heard in a drawing- room, which I had learnt under my sister's able tuition.

She then sang us a few favourites of her own in a sweet clear soprano, and with a depth of feeling for the sentiment of the song which is but too seldom heard in the performances of amateurs.

About ten o'clock she wished us ”good-night,” and retired to her cot; and Bob then also went below and turned in, it being his ”eight hours in” that night, and I was left to perform the rest of my watch alone.

The next morning, Bob turned out of his own accord, and made a surrept.i.tious attempt to resume the duties of the _cuisine_; but at the first rattle of the cups and saucers he was hailed from the fore- compartment and ordered to desist at his peril, and in a very short time the little fairy appeared, blooming and fresh as the morning, and Master Bob received such a lecture that he was fain from that time forward to leave the cookery department entirely in her hands, and he retired discomfited to the deck, and began forthwith to wash down.

A permanent improvement now occurred in our style of living, and we began to enjoy many little comforts which, it is true, we never had missed, but which were singularly welcome nevertheless; and altogether we found ourselves vastly gainers by the presence of the sweet little creature on board.

She quickly learned to take the chronometer time for my observations, and that, too, with a precision which Bob himself could not surpa.s.s; and in a very short time she could steer as well as either of us, which was an immense advantage when shortening or making sail. Add to all this the amus.e.m.e.nt we derived from her incessant lively prattle, and the additional cheerfulness thus infused into our daily life, and the reader will agree with me, I think, that it was a lucky day for us when we first fell in with little Ella Brand.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

A MIRAGE.

By the time that our fair guest had been on board a week or ten days, she had put me in possession of probably every circ.u.mstance of importance which had occurred in her past history, and had also touched lightly upon her future, which, notwithstanding the natural buoyancy of her temperament, she seemed to regard with considerable apprehension.

It appeared that, in the first place, she had but a very imperfect idea as to the whereabouts of her relatives in England. She knew that her grandfather had a place somewhere down in Leicesters.h.i.+re, and she thought he also had a house in town; but, as her mother had never heard from him since her marriage, Ella had been utterly unable to find any clue to the old gentleman's address, after a most thorough search through such papers belonging to her parents as had fallen into her hands after her father's death.

Then, bearing in mind many conversations between her parents which had occurred in her presence, she felt the gravest doubt as to whether any of her relatives, when found, would even condescend so far as to acknowledge her as a relative, much less a.s.sist her in any way. She inclined to the opinion that they would not, and there were many circ.u.mstances to justify this sentiment, notably one which had occurred a short time previous to the departure of her parents from England.

Her father was at the time suffering from nervous debility and severe mental depression, the result of over-work and incessant anxiety; and to such a deplorable condition was he reduced that, for a considerable time, he was completely incapacitated for work of any kind.

The family resources dwindled to a low ebb, the process being materially hastened by heavy doctors' bills and other expenses connected with Mr Brand's condition, and the wife and mother found herself almost at her wit's-end to provide necessaries for her husband and child, utterly forgetful of herself all the time. At last, in sheer desperation, she wrote to her father describing her position, and entreating that a.s.sistance which he could so bountifully bestow--and her letter remained unanswered. She then wrote to her mother, and this time the letter was returned unopened.

She then tried her two brothers in succession, and finally her sister, and all her attempts to communicate with these unnatural relatives were treated with the same cold-blooded silence. Matters would soon have gone hard indeed with the Brand family had not a former suitor of Mrs Brand's (who had been rejected in favour of the man she afterwards took for her husband) chivalrously come forward at this juncture, not only relieving their immediate necessities, but also using all his influence, which was potent, to obtain for Mr Brand the appointment which the poor fellow held until his death.

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