Part 20 (1/2)
”I will be ready for you,” added the skipper.
”High Rock is such a delightful place!” exclaimed Rosabel, turning to Isabel again. ”I went there twice last summer; and I never enjoyed myself so much as I did in climbing the rocks, and looking out upon the ocean. I want you to see the place at once, Belle.”
”I shall be delighted to go, especially if we are to sail in the Rosabel,” replied Miss Peterson. ”Isn't it a nice thing to have a boat named after you!”
”Of course it is a very great honor,” laughed Rosabel, as she shook back the affluence of wavy auburn locks which fell upon her shoulders.
”Leopold is a real good fellow.”
”He is a very good-looking fellow, too,” added Isabel, in a lower tone.
”His face is handsome, and if he were only dressed in good style, he would be magnificent.”
”I think he is nice now,” said Rosabel, candidly, and without a blush, for the little beauty was conscious of nothing but a kindly regard for the landlord's son.
”He doesn't talk a bit country, and isn't clumsy and awkward, like many young fellows away from the city.”
”His manners are as pleasant as those of any young man I ever met. Do you know, Belle, he speaks German?”
”What, Leopold!”
”He knows how to speak it a great deal better than I do, though he never studied it in school, as I have for two years.”
Leopold had left the dining-room for a moment, so that he did not hear any of this conversation, and therefore had no idea how well he stood in the estimation of these young ladies. Of course they did not intend that he should know; and the next remark of Isabel, to the effect that she wished he was not a ”waiter,” would certainly have hurt his feelings.
Leopold had gone into the office, where he found a boy waiting for a chance to set up pins in the bowling alley, whom he sent for Stumpy, with directions for him to have the Rosabel ready immediately for the excursion to High Rock. Stumpy often went with him, and, as he intended to wear his good clothes on the trip, he wanted his help on this occasion.
As soon as breakfast was finished, Leopold was ready. His pa.s.sengers were to be Rosabel, Isabel, and Charley Redmond, a young man of seventeen, and the son of one of the New Yorkers in the party. The sloop was all ready when they reached the river. Stumpy had hoisted the mainsail, and hauled her up where the pa.s.sengers could embark without difficulty.
”Why, she is a real nice boat!” exclaimed Isabel, as she seated herself in the standing-room.
”I told you she was,” replied Rosabel.
”Quite n.o.bby,” added Charley Redmond, with a patronizing tone, as he adjusted his eye-gla.s.ses, for he was either near-sighted, or fancied that the gla.s.ses added to his dignity and importance. ”I dare say this rustic is quite a boatman.”
”He may be a rustic, but he is not so green as you are, Charley Redmond,” added Isabel, indignantly; but she spoke for her friend rather than for herself.
The ”rustic” did not hear any of these remarks, for after helping the girls to their seats, he had gone to cast off the cable which Stumpy was hauling in. But Leopold did not like Charley Redmond, for the young gentleman was a person of ten times as much importance, in his own estimation, as his father. He was supercilious, and, unlike the rest of the party, looked down upon the boatman, and everybody else in the town.
”Of course you couldn't expect much of a fellow down here,” added Charley.
”He knows twice as much as you do,” retorted Isabel, as the skipper took his place at the helm, thus putting an end to the conversation.
”Now shove her off, Stumpy,” said Leopold.
”Stumpy!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Charley, with a laugh. ”That's a romantic name.”
”His name is Stumpfield Wormbury,” Leopold explained. ”He is a first-rate fellow.”
”No doubt of it,” sneered the New Yorker, who was not a good specimen of his _genus_, and could not appreciate such a ”good fellow,” with his brown face and coa.r.s.e clothes.
”He don't like his nickname very well, and when he objected to it, years ago, the fellows began to call him 'Wormy.' He couldn't stand that, and is satisfied now to be called 'Stumpy.'”