Part 18 (1/2)
”I have no doubt about your being a near relative of ours, Peter, and I rejoice to find you one, aret Troil did not come back to her husband's relatives after her husband's death I cannot tell”
”Perhaps she had not the one away to sea, and she was afraid that he ht be unable to find her on his return if she left her ho that she died soon after randfather was lost, when he himself was a little chap”
”Well, all is ordered for the best, though we don't see how,” said Mr Troil ”And now you have come you must stay with us and turn back into a Shetlander What do you say to my proposal?”
”Oh, do stay with us, Cousin Peter!” exclai up in my face
”Indeed, I should like very much to do so,” I answered, ”but there is h I know that she is well off with Mr Gray”
”Then Peter ie ”Oh, I should so like to have her here! I would love her as a sister”
”A bright idea of yours, Maggie,” said Mr Troil ”What do you say to it, Peter? I will furnish you with ample funds, and you can be back here in a month, as I feel very sure that your friend Mr Gray illingly allow Mary to coenerous relative's proposal, and it was arranged that as soon as I had quite recoveredfrom Lerwick, accompanied by Jim, anted to see his friends, and hoped to be able to work his passage both ways, so that he ht not be separated from me
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A DISASTROUS VOYAGE
I was soon e southward
Accordingly, Mr Troil having received directions from Mr Gray to send the _Good Intent_ to Lerwick to be refitted, To farewell, as we hoped, only for a short season to Miss Troil and Maggie, went on board the brig to assist in carrying her there, intending to proceed by the first vessel sailing after our arrival Mr Troil sent us a pilot and a good crew to navigate the vessel, and accoht assist us if necessary
The as fair and the sea smooth, and thus without accident we arrived in that fine harbour called Brassa Sound, on the shore of which Lerwick, the capital of the islands, stands We there found a vessel shortly to sail for Newcastle Having taken in a cargo of coals, she was thence to proceed to Portsmouth This so exactly suited our object that Mr Troil at once engaged a passage on board her for Jim and me
After Portse warm hearts, and were very kind to Jie hearts and live in a se place They seee in the _Good Intent_, and hoo boys alonejury- how to do our work and sticking to it,” answered Jier at Lere should have begun to fancy ourselves_Nancy_, Captain Goas ready for sea, and wishi+ng farewell to my kind relative, Mr Troil, who set sail in his shi+p to return hoot under ith a fair breeze, and before night had left Suh Head, the lofty point which forms the southern end of the Shetland Islands, far astern
The _Nancy_ was a very different sort of craft from the _Good Intent_
She was an old ill-found vessel, patched up in an ireed that if she were to meet with the bad weather we encountered in our old shi+p she would go to the botto that Captain Goas a very different person from our former captain He had conducted himself pretty well on shore, so that people spoke of him as a very decent man, but when once at sea he threw off all restraint, abused the crew, quarrelled with the e
Jie, slept in the fore-peak, but I was berthed aft I, however, did as h lot, and that he had never heard worse language in his life They tried to bully hih to hold his own, and never lost his terohen I caht to do, and he asked if every shi+p-boy was to be turned into a young gentleman because he happened to have saved his life while others lost theirs?
I did not answer him, for I saw an empty bottle on the locker, and another by his side with very little liquor reot reed that if the _Nancy_ had not been going direct to Portsmouth, we should do well to leave her at Newcastle, and try to h ent, I believe, much out of our proper course, we at last entered the Tyne Soon after we brought up, several curiously-shaped boats, called kreels, ca a chaldron; these tubs being hoisted on board, their bottoms were opened and the coals fell into the hold
The kreels, which were oval in shape, were propelled by a long oar or pole on each side, worked by a unwale fro the upper end with his shoulder while the lower touched the ground Anotheroar to steer
The creere fine hardy fellows, known as kreelmen I was astonished to hear thenified ”brothers” So bully Saunders meant brother Saunders
Ji clothes, which was fortunate, as before long, with the coal-dust flying about, ere as black as negroes, but as everything and all on board were coloured with the same brush, we did not mind that
With the help of the kreelain sailed for the southward Matters did not i abstained fro a double allowance, and beca civilly toa ith his poor , though tolerably tight when light, now that she had a full cargo, as soon as a sea got up began to leak considerably, so that each watch had to pump for an hour to keep the water under Jih accustomed to the exercise, it was hard work When we cried ”Spell ho!” for others to take our places, the captain shouted, ”You began to puo on for h they at first laughed, having more humanity than the skipper, soon relieved us