Part 4 (1/2)

”Well, you and your sisters seem to have spoiled the young scamp. When they brought him up from below he whimpered out that the young ladies had been kind to him, and he didn't like carrying luggage and cleaning railway lamps, and when he heard that you were coming to sea he wanted his mother to get me to take him as a cabin-boy. She boxed his ears.

But he found out when you were leaving, and hid in a goods wagon that reached Southampton a little before we did, and watched his opportunity to slip on board when the barque was lying at the quay-side. That's all I got out of him; and the motion served him as it serves most landsmen, and he dropped asleep just where you see him there. I'll have something to say to him when he wakes.”

”Poor little fellow!” said Tommy. ”You won't be hard on him, Uncle?”

The Captain grunted. Perhaps he remembered that fifty years before he had himself run away to sea.

”A rascally young stowaway,” he muttered. ”I can't put him ash.o.r.e, as I shan't touch at any port this side of Buenos Ayres. And his mother crying her eyes out, I'll be bound. And I'll have to spend several s.h.i.+llings on a cable to tell her he's safe. A pretty thing for a man with three nieces.”

”I'll pay for the cable, Uncle.”

”What! has she damaged the cable?” asked Mary innocently, coming up at this moment.

Captain Barton shook with laughter.

”Oh, you bookworms!” he said, when he had command of his breath. ”Take a look at the cable, Mary, and see if you think Tommy, for all her mischievousness, could do it much damage. No, 'tis another kind of cable we were speaking of--all along of young Samson there. What would you do with a stowaway, Bess?” he asked of his eldest niece, who had just joined the others.

”Good gracious!” exclaimed Elizabeth, ”you were right after all, Tommy.

What a little sweep he looks!”

At this moment Dan stirred, opened his eyes, and when he saw the girls smiled sheepishly.

”Now, young Samson, stand up and listen to me,” said the Captain severely. ”Lay a hold of that stay there if you can't stand steady.

You come sneaking aboard this vessel, ruining my cargo, expecting to fill yourself with my victuals, and all for what? Because you didn't like cleaning lamps and carrying luggage. What's that for a reason?

There's worse than that aboard s.h.i.+p, I can tell you. If I did my duty, I should have you lashed to the mast and dosed with the cat. And your poor mother crying her eyes out, and the police dragging the ponds, and the Government sending detectives to all parts, and wiring to all the recruiting sergeants, spending hundreds of pounds of the country's money all for a discontented young shaver not four feet high. Now just you run along to Mr. Purvis and ask him to forgive you. He's very strict is Mr. Purvis, much stricter than I am; and then ask Sandy Sam very politely to fling a few buckets of water over you and scrub you with holystone; and after that go to Cook and ask him if he can spare a biscuit and a can of soup; and then I'll see if I can find some clothes that will fit you, and we'll make a man of you, and an A.B. in time.”

The Captain's tone grew less stern and more genial as he went along, and when he had finished Dan smiled cheerfully, gave Tommy an extra smile, and went aft to obey orders.

The run down Channel was very pleasant to the girls. They showed the keenest interest in the s.h.i.+p and the doings of the sailors. These rough, good-tempered fellows were flattered by the attentions of their pa.s.sengers, and never tired of answering their questions. It was not long before all three were able to tie all kinds of sailors' knots, splice ropes, and do other simple things of the kind. They knew the names of the sails and the yards, and Tommy in particular never tired of airing her nautical vocabulary.

Even the s.h.i.+p's cook became their willing slave. Elizabeth took him in hand, and he meekly received her instructions, with great advantage to his bill of fare. Captain Barton declared that it was a good job he was retiring, for this unwonted luxury was killing his seaman's qualities.

The evenings were spent in the little deck cabin, where they played at draughts with the Captain and mate, or listened to the yarns they spun.

Mary had brought her mandoline, and on fine evenings they would get up a concert, the sailors singing their chanties and dancing the hornpipe.

The Captain hunted up some ancient gra.s.s hammocks, and when the weather was quite calm the sailors rigged these up on deck for the girls. Some of the crew taught them how to make hammocks, using string instead of gra.s.s, and they often amused themselves by weaving string bags and baskets.

As for Dan Whiddon, he soon became the pet of the s.h.i.+p. He was a good-tempered little fellow, willing to oblige anybody. He was kept always busy, and it was not long before he found that the life of a sailor was a good deal harder even than that of a porter at a wayside station.

”But I likes it, I do,” he said once to Tommy, ”better'n cleaning lamps and such.”

”You get no tips, Dan,” she replied.

”What's tips!” he said. ”I never had no good of 'em, miss. Mother took them all except a penny now and then for sweets, and the Captain he gives me sweets for nothing, he do, and so I save, don't I, miss?”

The weather held fair almost without interruption, and the girls became so well seasoned that an occasional gale did not distress them. As they approached the tropics the heat became rather trying, and then they brought out of their trunk sundry light blouses at which their uncle c.o.c.ked an eye.

”Rank disobedience!” he said sternly. ”I said serge.”

”Don't they look nice, Uncle?” said Tommy mischievously, ”and we made them ourselves. You can't object to that, my dear man, and we shall wash them ourselves, so there's no laundry bill for you to pay. In fact, you haven't a leg to stand on, so you had better say at once they look sweet and save time. Don't you think so, Mr. Purvis?”