WlTrt ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON DANA ESTES & COMPANY PUBLISHERS r< ". • ■ PAGE "Star pondered a moment, with her head on one side, and a finger hooked confidentially through the Captain's button- hole" Frontispiece "A sturdy man in a blue coat with brass buttons came down the wharf and greeted the Captain with a hearty shake of the hand" 11 "On the top of this cairn rises the lighthouse" . . . . 15 "The Captain drew up the little boat and made her fast" . 17 "On the stone stairway, and slowly descending, with steps that were meant to be stately, was the figure of a child " . 21 "' She wa'n't like you, Peach Blossom '" 24 "' Take up the golden chafing-dish, Grumio !'" .... 27 "The long, level rays flashed their golden warning over the murmuring darkness of the summer sea" .... 35 "' I am here, Daddy, loving you: loving you all to pieces '" . 38 "' Thar she was, comin' full head on, straight for Light Island '" 44 "' Then I waited for the spar to come along'" . . . . 47 7 12 CAPTAIN JANUARY. when he was hailed by a cheery voice from the street. "Hillo, January !" said the voice. "Is that you? How goes it?" and the owner of the voice, a sturdy man in a blue coat with brass buttons, came down the wharf and greeted the Captain with a hearty shake of the hand. "How goes it?" he repeated. "I haven't seen ye for a dog's age." "I'm hearty, Cap'n Nazro !" replied Cap- tain January. "Hearty, that's what I am, an' hopin' you're the same." "That's right!" said the first speaker. "'Tain't often we set eyes on you, you stick so close to your light. And the little gal, she's well, I expect? She looks a picture, when I take a squint at her through the glass sometimes. Never misses running out and shaking her apron when we go by!" "Cap'n Nazro," said January, speaking with emphasis, "if there is a pictur in this world, of health, and pootiness, and good- ness, it's that child. It's that little un, sir. Not to be beat in this country, nor yet any other, 'cordin' as I've voyaged." CAPTAIN JANUARY. tively, took out his pipe and looked at it, then gazed again. "January's cracked," he said; " that's what's the matter with him. He's a good man, and a good lighthouse-keeper, and he's been an able seaman in his day, none better; but he's cracked!: There is an island off a certain part of the coast of Maine j — a little rocky island, heaped and tumbled together as if i -" Dame Nature had shaken down a heap of stones at random from her apron, when she had finished making the larger islands which lie between it and the mainland. At one end, the shore- ward end, there is a tiny cove, and a bit of silver sand beach, with a green meadow beyond it, and a single great pine; but all the rest is rocks, rocks. At the further end the rocks are piled high, like a CAPTAIN JANUARY. 19 hearth. The table was laid with a clean white cloth, the kettle was singing on the hob, and a little covered saucepan was sim- mering with an agreeable and suggestive sound; but no one was to be seen. Alarmed, he hardly knew why, at the silence and soli- tude, Captain January set his parcels down on the table, and going to the foot of the narrow stone staircase which wound up- ward beside the chimney, called, "Star! Star Bright, where are you? Is anything wrong?" "No, Daddy Captain!" answered a clear, childish voice from above; "I'm coming in a minute. Be patient, Daddy dear!" With a sigh of relief, Captain January retired to the fireplace, and sitting down in a huge high-backed armchair, began leisurely pulling off his great boots. One was already off and in his hand, when a slight noise made him look up. He started violently, and then, leaning back in his chair, gazed in silent amazement at the vision before him. On the stone stairway, and slowly descend- ing, with steps that were meant to be stately 20 CAPTAIN JANUAR Y' (and which might have been so, had not the stairs been so steep, and the, little legs so short) was the figure of a child: a little girl about ten years old, with a face of almost startling beauty. Her hair floated like a cloud of pale gold about her shoulders; her eyes were blue, not light and keen, like the old man's, but of that soft, deep, shadowy blue that poets love to call violet. Wonder- ful eyes, shaded by long, curved lashes of deepest black, which fell on the soft, rose- and-ivory tinted cheek, as the child carefully picked her way down, holding up her long dress from her little feet. It was the dress which so astonished Captain January. In- stead of the pink calico frock and blue checked pinafore, to which his eyes were accustomed, the little figure was clad in a robe of dark green velvet with a long train, which spread out on the staircase behind her, very much like the train of a peacock. The body, made for a grown woman, hung back loosely from her shoulders, but she had tied a scarf of gold tissue under her arms and round her waist, while from the long CAPTAIN JANUARY. 25 "Wal — maybe she kem off in a hurry and forgot 'em!" said the Captain, charitably. "Anyhow, not speakin' her language, I didn't ask her. And she was as black as the ace of spades, and shinin' all over with butter." "Oh, that kind of princess!" said Star, loftily. "I didn't mean that kind, Daddy. I meant the kind who live in fretted pal- aces, with music in th' enamelled stones, you know, and wore clothes like these every day." "Wal, Honey, I never saw one of that kind, till now!" said the Captain, meekly. "And I'm sorry I hain't— I mean I airit — got no fretted palace for my princess to live in. This is a poor place for golden lasses and velvet trains." "It isn't!" cried the child, her face flash- ing into sudden anger, and stamping her foot. "You sha'n't call it a poor place, Daddy! It's wicked of you. And I wouldn't live in a palace if there were fifty of them all set in a row. So there now!" She folded her arms and looked defiantly at the old man, who returned her gaze placidly, 26 CAPTAIN JANUARY. and continued to puff at his pipe, until he was seized in a penitent embrace, hugged, and kissed, and scolded, and wept over, all at once. The brief tempest over, the child seated herself comfortably on his knee, and said, "Now, Daddy, I want a story." "Story before supper?" asked the Cap- tain, meekly, looking at the saucepan, which was fairly lifting its lid in its eagerness to be attended to. A fresh access of remorse- ful hugging followed. "You poor darling !" said Star; "I forgot all about supper. And it's stewed kidneys, too! But oh! my dress !" and she glanced down at her velvet splendour. "I must go and take it off," she said, sadly. "Not you, Honeysuckle," said the old man, rising and setting the child down care- fully in the chair. "Sit you there, and be a real princess, and I will be your steward, and get supper this time. I like to see you in your fine clothes, and 'twould be a shame to take 'em off so soon." She clapped her hands again, and settling CAPTAIN JANUARY. 27 herself cosily in the great chair, arranged her train with a graceful sweep, and pushed back her cloudy golden hair. "Shall I really act princess ?" she asked, — and with- out waiting for an answer, she began to give orders in lofty tones, holding her head high in the air, and point- ing hither and thither with her tiny hands. "Take up the golden chafing-dish, Grumio! she cried. "The kidneys — I mean the ca- pons — are quite ready now. And the milk — no! the sack, — is in the silver flagon!" 32 CAPTAIN JANUARY. very long time, sitting like Patience on the doorstep. And suddenly, Daddy Captain, I thought about those boxes of clothes, and how you said they would be mine when I was big. And I measured myself against the doorpost, and found that I was very big. I thought I must be almost as big as you, but I s'pose I'd forgotten how big you were. So I went up, and opened one box, and I was just putting the dress on when you came in. You knew where it came from, of course, Daddy, the moment you saw it." The Captain nodded gravely, and pulled his long moustaches. "Do you suppose my poor mamma wore it often?" the child went on eagerly. "Do you think she looked like me when she wore it? Do I look as she did when you saw her?" "Wal," began the Captain, meditatively; but Star ran on without waiting for an answer. "Of course, though, she looked very dif- ferent, because she was dead. You are quite very positively sure my poor mamma was dead, Daddy Captain?" CAPTAIN JANUARY. 33 "She were," replied the Captain, with em- phasis. "She were that, Pigeon Pie! You couldn't find nobody deader, not if you'd sarched for a week. Why, door nails, and Julius Caesar, and things o' that description, would ha' been lively compared with your poor ma when I see her. Lively! that's what they'd ha' been." The child nodded with an air of familiar interest, wholly untinged with sadness. "1 think," she said, laying her head against the old man's shoulder, and curling one arm about his neck, "I think I should like to hear about it again, please, Daddy. It's a long, long time since you told me the whole of it." "Much as a month, I should think it must be," assented the Captain. "Why, Snow- drop, you know the story by heart, better'n I do, I believe. 'Pears to me I've told it reg'lar, once a month or so, ever since you were old enough to understand it." "Never mind!" said the Princess, with an imperious gesture. "That makes no difference. I want it now!" 38 CAPTAIN JANUARY. hers. "Don't talk about that dreadful part. Go on to the next!" "No, I won't talk about it, Star Bright!" said the old man, very gravely. "Fust place CAPTAIN JANUARY. 39 I can't, and second place it ain't fit for little maids to hear of. But I lived on that island fifteen year, — five year with my good mate Job Hotham, and ten year alone, after Job died. When a ship kem by, after that, and took me off, I'd forgot most everything, and was partly like the beasts that perish: but it kem back to me. Slow, like, and by fits, as you may say; but it kem back, all there was before, and maybe a good bit more!" "Poor Daddy!" murmured the child again, pressing her soft cheek against the white beard. "It's all over now! Don't think of it! I am here, Daddy, loving you: loving you all to pieces, you know!" The old man was silent for a few minutes, caressing the little white hands which lay like twin snowflakes in his broad, brown palm. Then he resumed cheerfully: — "And so, Cream Cheese from the dairy of Heaven, I kem home. Your old Daddy kem home, and landed on the same wharf he'd sailed from twenty-five years before. Not direct, you understand, but takin' steamer from New York, and so on. Wal, there 40 CAPTAIN JANUARY. wa'n't nobody that knew me, or cared for me. Father was dead, and his wife: and their children, as weren't born when I sailed from home, were growed up and gone away. No, there wa'n't nobody. Wal, I tried for a spell to settle down and live like other folks, but 'twa'n't no use. I wasn't used to the life, and I couldn't stand it. For ten years I hadn't heard the sound of a human voice, and now they was buzz, buzzin' all the time; it seemed as if there was a swarm of wasps round my ears the everlastin' day. Buzz! buzz! and then clack! clack! like an ever- lasting mill-clapper; and folks starin' at my brown face and white hair, and askin' me foolish questions. I couldn't stand it, that was all. I heard that a light-keeper was wanted here, and I asked for the place, and got it. And that's all of the fust part, Peach Blossom." The child drew a long breath, and her face glowed with eager anticipation. "And now, Daddy Captain," she said, " now you may say, 'Ten year ago this fall!'" "Ten year ago this fall," said the Captain, 42 CAPTAIN JANUARY. she said, "Act I, Scene 2: 'Enter Prospero and Miranda.' Go on, Daddy!" "Wal, my Lily Flower," continued the old man. "And the storm went on. It roared, it bellowed, and it screeched: it thumped and it kerwhalloped. The great seas would come bunt up agin the rocks, as if they was bound to go right through to Jersey City, which they used to say was the end of the world. Then they'd go scoopin' back, as if they was callin' all their friends and neighbours to help; and then, bang! they'd come at it agin. The spray was flyin' in great white sheets, and whiles, it seemed as if the hull island was goin' to be swallowed up then and thar. 'Taint nothin' but a little heap o' rocks, anyhow, to face the hull Atlantic Ocean gone mad: and on that heap o' rocks was Januarius Judkins, holdin' on for dear life, and feelin' like a hoppergrass that had got lost in Niag'ry Falls." "Don't say that name, Daddy!" inter- rupted the child. "You know I don't like it. Say 'Captain January '!" "I tell ye, Honeysuckle," said the old man, 46 CAPTAIN JANUAR V. a-comin' to you pooty soon. 'Twas along about eight bells when she struck, and none so dark, for the moon had risen. After the ship had gone down, I strained my eyes through the driving spray, to see whether anything was comin' ashore. Presently I seed somethin' black, driftin' towards the rocks: and lo' ye, 'twas a boat, bottom side up, and all hands gone down. Wal! wal! the Lord knew what was right: but it's wuss by a deal to see them things than to be in 'em yourself, to my thinkin'. Wal, after a spell I looked agin, and there was somethin' else a-driftin' looked like a spar, it did: and somethin' was lashed to it. My heart! 'twas tossed about like a egg-shell, up and down, and here and thar! 'Twas white, whatever was lashed to it, and I couldn't take my eyes off'n it. 'It can't be alive,' I says, 'what- ever it is!' I says. 'But I'll get it, if it takes a leg!' I says. For down in my heart, Jewel, I knew they wouldn't ha' taken such care of anythin' but what was alive, and they perishin', but I didn't think it could live in such a sea long enough to get ashore. Wal, CAPTAIN JANUARY. 47 I kep' my eyes on that spar, and I see that 'twas comin' along by the south side. Then I ran, or crawled, 'cording as the wind al- lowed me, back to the shed, and got a boat- hook and a coil o' rope; and then I dumb down as far as I / dared, on the south rocks. I scooched down under the lee of a pint o rock, and made the rope fast round my waist, and the other end round the rock, and then I waited for the spar to come along. 'Twas hard to make out anythin', for the water was all a white, bilin' churn, and the spray flyin' fit to blind you; but bimeby I co't sight of her comin' swashin' along, now up on top of a big roarer, and then scootin' down into the holler, and then 48 CAPTAIN JANUARY. up agin. I crep' out on the rocks, grippin' 'em for all I was wuth, with the boat-hook under my arm. The wind screeched and ■lawed at me like a wildcat in a caniption fit, but I hadn't been through those cy- clones for nothin'. I lay down flat and wrig- gled myself out to the edge, and thar I waited." "And the waves were breaking over you all the time?" cried the child, with eager inquiry. "Wal, they was that, Honeysuckle !" said the Captain. "Bless ye, I sh'd ha' been washed off like a log if 't hadn't ben for the rope. But that held; 'twas a good one, and tied with a bowline, and it held. Wal, I lay thar, and all to wunst I see her comin' by like a flash, close to me. 'Now!' says I, 'ef ther's any stuff in you, J. Judkins, let's see it!' says I. And I chucks myself over the side o' the rock and grabs her with the boat- hook, and hauls her in. 'All together,' I says. 'Now, my hearties! Yo heave ho!' and I hed her up, and hauled her over the rocks and round under the lee of the pint CAPTAIN JANUARY. 49 before I stopped to breathe. How did I do it? Don't ask me, Jewel Bright! / don't know how I did it. There's times when a man has strength given to him, seemin'ly, over and above human strength. 'Twas like as if the Lord ketched holt and helped me: maybe He did, seein' what 'twas I was doing. Maybe He did!" He paused a moment in thought, but Star was impatient. "Well, Daddy!" she cried. "And then you looked and found it was — go on, Daddy dear!" "I looked," continued the old man, " and I found it was a sail, that had showed so white against the spar; a sail, wrapped tight round somethin'. I cut the ropes, and pulled away the canvas and a tarpaulin that was inside that; and thar I seed —" "My poor mamma and me!" cried the child, joyously, clapping her hands. "O Daddy Captain, it is so delightful when you come to this part. And my poor mamma was dead? You are quite positively sure that she was dead, Daddy?" "She were, my lamb!" replied the Cap- , • I "I CAPTAIN JANUARY. 53 says I; 'for if ever a star shone on a dark night, it's you, my pooty,' I says. 'Praise the Lord,' I says. 'Amen, so be it.' Then I laid your poor ma in a corner, under the lee of the big rock, where the spray wouldn't fly over her, and I covered her with the sail; and then I took the fur cloak, seein' the baby needed it and she didn't, and wrapped it round the little un, and clumb back over the rocks, up to the house. And so, Honeysuckle—" "And so," cried the child, taking his two great hands and putting them softly together, "so I came to be your little Star!" "To be my little Star! " assented the old man, stooping to kiss the golden head. "Your light and your joy!" exclaimed the child, laughing with pleasure. "My light and my joy !" said the old man, solemnly. "A light from heaven to shine in a dark place, and the Lord's message to a sinful man." He was silent for a little, looking earnestly into the child's radiant face. Presently, "You've been happy, Star Bright?" he asked. "You haven't missed nothin'?" CAPTAIN JANUARY. 59 And you ought not to be rude, Imogen!" After which short lecture, Star turned to her book again, — a great book it was, lying open on the little pink calico lap, — and went on reading, in her clear childish voice : — "' Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander everywhere, Swifter than the moony sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green': — Do you know what a fairy is, Imogen?" asked Star, looking up again suddenly. But this time it was very evident that Imogen (who was, in truth, a large white cow, with a bell round her neck) was paying no attention whatever to the reading; for she had fairly turned her back, and was leisurely cropping the short grass, swaying her tail in a comfortable and reflective man- ner the while. Star sprang to her feet, and, seizing the delinquent's horns, shook them with all her might. 6o CAPTAIN JANUARY. "How dare you turn your back when I am reading !" she cried. "I'm just ashamed of you! You're a disgrace to me, Imogen. Why, you're as ignorant as a — as — as a lobster! and you a great cow with four whole legs. A —a — ah! shame on you!" Imogen rubbed her head deprecatingly against the small pink shoulder, and uttered a soft and apologetic "moo"; but Star was not ready to be mollified yet. "And you know it's my own book, too!" she continued, reproachfully. "My own Willum Shakespeare, that I love more — well, no! not more than I love you, Imogen, but just as much, and almost nearly half as much as I love Daddy Captain. "But after all," she added, with a smile flitting over her frowning little face, "after all, you poor dear, you are only a cow, and I don't suppose you know." And then she hugged Imogen, and blew a little into one of her ears, to make her wink it, and the two were very friendly again. "Perhaps you would like to know, Imo- gen," said Star, confidentially, seating her- CAPTAIN JANUARY. 61 self once more on the ground, "why I am so fond of Willum Shakespeare. So I will tell you. It is really part of my story, but Daddy Captain didn't get as far as that last night, so I think I will tell it to you. Well!" she drew a long breath of enjoyment, and, clasp- ing her hands round her knees, settled her- self for a "good talk." "Well, Imogen: you see, at first I was a little baby, and didn't know anything at all. But by and by I began to grow big, and then Daddy Captain said to himself, 'Here's a child,' he says, ' and a child of gentlefolks, and she mustn't grow up in ignorance, and me doing my duty by her poor pa and ma,' he says. So he rows over to the town, and he goes to the minister (the same minister who came over here before), and he says, 'Good morning, Minister!' and the minister shakes him by the hand hearty, and says, 'Why, Captain January! ' he says, ' I'm amaz- ing glad to see you. And how is the child?' And Daddy says, 'The child is a-growing with the flowers,' he says; 'and she's a-grow- ing like the flowers. Show me a rose that's CAPTAIN JANUARY. 63 along of getting wet in his weskit pocket, being he carried it along always. So the minister gave him a new big beautiful Bible, Imogen! It isn't so new now, but it's just as big and beautiful, and I love it. And then he thought for a long time, the minister did, walking about the room and looking at all the books. The whole room was full of books, Daddy says, all on shelves, 'cept some on the floor and the table and the chairs. It made his head go round dreadful to see them all, Daddy says (I mean Daddy's head), and think of anybody reading them. He says he doesn't see how in creation the min- ister manages to keep his bearings, and look out for a change in the wind, and things that have to be done, and read all those books too. Well!" she kissed Imogen's nose again, from sheer enjoyment, and threw her head back with a laugh of delight. "I'm coming to it now, Imogen!" she cried. "At last the minister took down a big book — Oh! you precious old thing, how I love you !" (this apostrophe was addressed to the quarto volume which she was now hugging CAPTAIN JANUARY. 69 Bob raised his eyes and surveyed Im- ogen with a critical air. "Fine cow!" he said at last. "D'no's I mind — 'f she doosn't." "Isn't she a fine cow!" cried little Star, patting the meek and graceful head of her favourite. "I don't believe there's another such cow in the world. I know there isn't! I think," she added, " I will take a little ride on her, while we are waiting for Daddy Captain. Will you put me up, please, Bob?" The obedient Bob lifted her as if she were a ball of thistle-down, and set her on the broad back of the good cow, who straight- way began to pace sedately along the bit of meadow, following the guidance of the small hands which clasped her horns. Ah! who will paint me that picture, as my mind's eye sees it? The blue of sky and sea, the ripples breaking in silver on silver sand, the jewelled green, where the late dandelions flecked the grass with gold: and in the midst the lovely, laughing child, mounted on the white cow, tossing her cloudy golden CAPTAIN JANUAR V. , 71 Bob in the fewest possible words related the mishap which had befallen the boat, and asked if he might take Missy out to see her. "To be sure! to be sure!" said Captain January. "That'll be a nice trip for ye, Honeysuckle. Put on your bunnit and go with Bob. He'll take good care of ye, Bob will." And so, by what seemed the merest chance, that lovely afternoon, little Star went with Bob Peet, in his old black boat, to see the steamer Huntress aground on a sand- bank off the main shore. The sea lay all shining and dimpling in the afternoon light, and not a cloud was to be seen overhead. Here and there a white gull was slowly waving his wings through the clear air, and little fish came popping their heads out of the water, just for the pleasure of popping them back again. Star dipped her hands in the blue crystal below, and sang little snatches of song, being light of heart and without a care in the world. They were no nursery songs that she sang. CAPTAIN JANUARY. 73 Bob's oars kept time with the song, and his portentous voice thundered out the re- frain with an energy which shook the little skiff from stem to stern. By the time that "Boney " was safely consigned to his grave CAPTAIN JANUARY. 75 words of another and a more famous captain, the beloved David Dodd. So Bob was free to come and go as he liked, and to smoke his pipe in sociable silence for hours at a time, within the walls of Storm Castle. . "Stop here, Bob!" said Star, with an imperious motion of her hand. "I don't want to go any nearer." The obedient Bob lay on his oars, and both looked up at the great boat, now only a few yards away. The decks were crowded with passengers, who leaned over the railings, idly chatting, or watching the water to see if the tide had turned. "Sight o' folks," said Bob Peet, nodding toward the after-deck, which seemed a solid mass of human beings. "Yes," said the child, speaking half to herself, in a low tone. "It's just like the Tower of Babel, isn't it? I should think they would be afraid. 'And the Lord scat- tered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.' And it's so stupid /" she added, after a moment's pause. "Why don't they stay at home? Haven't they any homes to stay at? Who takes care of 76 CAPTAIN JANUARY. their homes while they go sailing about like loons?" "Folks likes to v'yage," said Bob Peet, with mild toleration. "Heaps — nothin' t' do — hot spells — v'yages." He added, with an approach to a twinkle in his meek and cow-like eyes, "Try it — some day — git tired of oP Cap'n — oP rock — pooty soon — take ye — v'yage —" His speech was interrupted by a sudden and violent dash of water in his face. "Take that! " cried Star, panting with fury, and flinging the water at him with all her small might. "I wish it was sharp stones, instead of just water. I wish it was needles, and jagged rocks, and quills upon the fretful porkypine, so I do! How dare you say such things to me, Bob Peet? How dare you?" She paused, breathless, but with flashing eyes and burning cheeks; while Bob meekly mopped his face and head with a red cotton handkerchief, and shook the water from his ears, eying her the while with humble and deprecatory looks. "No offence," he muttered, in apologetic thunder-rumble. "PooroP Bob—eh, Missy? CAPTAIN JANUARY. 77 sorry, beg pardon! Never no more. Didn't mean it — nohow!" The tempest subsided as suddenly as it rose, and Star, with a forgiving nod, took out her own little handkerchief and daintily wiped a few drops from her victim's fore- head. "You're so stupid, Bob," she said frankly, "that I suppose I ought not to get angry with you, any more than I would with Imo- gen, though even she provokes me some- times. So I forgive you, Bob. But if you ever say such a thing again as my getting tired of Daddy, I'll kill you. So now you know!" "Jes' so!" assented Bob. "Nat'rally! To b' sure!" The sudden splashing of the water had caught many eyes on the deck of the Hunt- ress, and people admired the "playfulness" of the pretty child in the little boat. One pair of eyes, however, was sharper than the rest. "Just look at that child, Isabel!" said a tall, bronzed gentleman who was leaning over the taff-rail. "She is a perfect little CHAPTER IV. THE VISIT. A grey day! soft grey sky, like the breast of a dove; sheeny grey sea, with gleams of steel running across; trailing skirts of mist shutting off the mainland, leaving Light Island alone with the ocean; the white tower gleaming spectral among the folding mists; the dark pine-tree pointing a sombre finger to heaven; the wet, black rocks, from which the tide had gone down, huddling together in fantastic groups as if to hide their nakedness. 79 82 CAPTAIN JANUARY. "Captain Nazro came with her," said the minister, "and also her husband, Mr. Mor- ton, and Robert Peet, the pilot. Mrs. Mor- ton had seen little Star in Peet's boat, and was greatly and painfully struck by the child's likeness to a beloved sister of hers, who had, it was supposed, perished at sea, with her husband and infant child, some ten years ago." "Ten year ago," repeated Captain Janu- ary, passing his hand across his weather- beaten face, which looked older, somehow, than it was wont to do. "Ten year ago this September. 'He holdeth the waters in the hollow of his hand.' Go on, Minister. The lady thought my little Star, as the Lord dropped out of the hollow of His hand into my arms ten years ago, had a look of her sister." "She was so strongly impressed by it," the minister continued quietly, " that, failing to attract Peet's attention as he rowed away, she sent for the captain, and begged him to give her all the information he could about the child. What she heard moved her so CAPTAIN JANUARY. 83 deeply that she became convinced of the child's identity with her sister's lost infant. As soon as Peet returned after putting Star ashore, she questioned him even more closely. He, good fellow, refused to commit himself to anything which he fancied you might not like, but he told her of my having performed the last rites over the mortal remains of the child's parents, and Mr. Morton wisely counselled her to go at once to me, instead of coming here, as she at first wished to do. After my interview with her, I am bound to say —" "Easy now, Minister!" interrupted Cap- tain January. "I'm an old man, though I never knowed it till this day. Easy with this part!" "I am bound to say," continued the min- ister, laying his hand kindly on his com- panion's arm, "that I think there is little doubt of Star's being Mrs. Morton's niece." "And what if she be?" exclaimed the old sailor, turning with a sudden violence which made the gentle minister start back in alarm. "What if she be? what have the lady 86 CAPTAIN JANUARY. were to follow in the course of an hour, in Robert Peet's boat. He is a very singular fellow, that Peet!" added the good man, shaking his head. "Do you think he is quite in his right mind? He has taken the most inveterate dislike to Mr. and Mrs. Morton, and positively refuses to speak to either of them. I could hardly prevail upon him to bring them over here, and yet he fell into a strange fury when I spoke of getting some one else to bring them. He — he is quite safe, I suppose?" "Wal, yes !" replied Captain January, with a half smile. "Bob's safe, if any one is. Old Bob! so he doosn't like them, eh?" At that moment his eye caught something, and he said in an altered voice, "Here's Bob's boat coming now, Minister, and the lady and gentleman in her." "They must have come much more rapidly than I did," said the minister, "and yet my boy rows well enough. Compose yourself, January! this is a heavy blow for you, my good friend. Compose yourself! Things are strangely ordered in this world. 'We see through a glass darkly'!" CAPTAIN JANUARY. 87 "Not meanin' to set my betters right, Minister," said Captain January, "I never seed as it made any difference whether a man seed or not, darkly or howsumdever, so long as the Lord made His views clear. And He's makin' 'em!" he added. "He's makin' 'em, Minister! Amen! so be it!" And quietly and courteously, ten minutes later, he was bidding his visitors welcome to Light Island, as if it were a kingdom, and he the crownless monarch of it. "It's a poor place, Lady!" he said, with a certain stately humility, as he helped Mrs. Morton out of the boat. "Good anchorage for a shipwrecked mariner like me, but no place for ladies or — or them as belongs to ladies." "O Captain January! "cried Mrs. Morton, who was a tall, fair woman, with eyes like Star's own. "What shall I say to you? I must seem to you so cruel, so heartless, to come and ask for the child whom you have loved and cared for so long. For that is what I have come for! I must speak frankly, now that I see your kind, honest face. I have come to take my sister's child, for it 88 CAPTAIN JANUARY. is my duty to do so." She laid both hands on the old man's arm, and looked up in his face with pleading, tearful eyes. But Captain January's face did not move as he answered quietly, "It is your duty, Lady. No question o' that, to my mind or any. But," he added, with a wistful look, "I'll ask ye to do it easy, Lady. It'll be sudden like for the — for the young lady. And — she ain't used to bein' took sudden, my ways bein' in a manner slow. You'll happen find her a little quick, Lady, in her ways, she bein' used to a person as was in a manner slow, and havin' to be quick for two, so to say. But it's the sparkle o' gold, Lady, and a glint o' diamonds." But the lady was weeping, and could not answer; so Captain January turned to her husband, who met him with a warm grasp of the hand, and a few hearty and kindly words. "And now I'll leave ye with the minister for a minute, Lady and Gentleman," the Captain said; "for Bob Peet is a-signallin' me as if he'd sprung aleak below the water line, and all hands goin' to the bottom." CAPTAIN JANUARY. 89 Bob, who had withdrawn a few paces after beaching his boat, was indeed making fran- tic demonstrations to attract the Captain's attention, dancing and snapping his fingers, and contorting his features in strange and hideous fashion. "Well, Bob," said the old man, walking up to him, "what's up with you, and why are ye h'istin' and lowerin' your jib in that onearthly fashion?" Bob Peet seized him by the arm, and led him away up the beach. "Cap'n," he said, looking round to make sure that they were out of hearing of the others, " I can't touch a lady — not seamanly! But 'f you say the word — knock gen'l'm'n feller — middle o' next week. Say the word, Cap'n! Good's a meal o' vittles t' me — h'ist him over cliff!" CAPTAIN JANUARY. 91 hour or so in her own room, and enjoy all the delights of "dressing up." For the great chest that had been washed ashore from the wreck, the day after she herself had come to the island, was full of clothes be- longing to her " poor mamma "; and as we have seen, the little woman was fully inclined to make use of them. Beautiful clothes they were; rich silks and velvets, with here and there cloudy laces and strange webs of Eastern gauze. For she had been a beautiful woman, this poor mamma, and it had been the delight of Hugh Maynard, her proud and fond hus- band, to deck his lovely wife in all rare and precious stuffs. Some of them were stained with sea-water, and many of the softer stuffs were crumpled and matted hopelessly, but that mattered little to Star. Her eyes de- lighted in soft, rich colours, and she was never weary of turning them over and over, trying them on, and "playing s'pose" with them. "S'pose," she would say, " my poor mamma was going to a banquet, like the Capulet one, 94 CAPTAIN JANUARY. cheek, "to make a blush." Mrs. Neptune was somewhat battered, as Star was in the habit of knocking her head against the wall when she was in a passion; but she main- tained her gravity of demeanour, and always sat with her back perfectly straight, and with an air of protest against everything in gen- eral. In the window stood the great chest, at once a treasure-chamber and a seat; and over it hung one of the most precious things of Star's little world. It was a string of cocoanut-shells. Fifteen of them there were, and each one was covered with curious and delicate carving, and each one meant a whole year of a man's life. "For the nuts was ripe when we kem ashore, my good mate Job Hotham and me, on that island. So when the nuts was ripe agin, ye see, Jewel Bright, we knowed 'twas a year since we kem. So I took my jack-knife and carved this first shell, as a kind o' token, ye know, and not thinkin' there'd be so many to carve." So the first shell was all covered with ships: fair vessels, with sails all set, and smooth seas 96 CAPTAIN JANUARY. a "good time" in her room. She had found in the treasure-chest a short mantle of gold-coloured velvet, which made " a just exactly skirt " for her, the two ends trailing behind enough to give her a sense of dig- nity, but not enough to impede her move- ments. "For I am not a princess to-day!" she said; " I am delicate Ariel, and the long ones get round my feet so I can't run." Then came a long web of what she called "sun- shine," and really it might have been woven of sunbeams, so airy-light was the silken gauze of the fabric. This my lady had wound round and round her small person with considerable art, the fringed ends hang- ing from either shoulder, and making, to her mind, a fair substitute for wings. "See!" she cried, running to and fro, and glancing backward as she ran. "They wave! they really do wave! Look, Mrs. Neptune! aren't they lovely? But you are envious, and that is why you look so cross. 'Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, under the blossom that hangs on the bough.'" She leaped and CAPTAIN JANUARY. 97 danced about the room, light and radiant as a creature of another world: then stopped, to survey with frowning brows her little blue stockings and stout laced boots. "Ariel never wore such things as those!" she declared; "if you say she did, Mrs. Nep- tune, you show your ignorance, and that is all I have to say to you." Off came the shoes and stockings, and the little white feet were certainly much prettier to look at. "Now," cried Star, " I will go down stairs and wait for Daddy Captain, and perhaps he will think I am a real fairy. Oh, wouldn't that be fun! I am sure I look like one!" and down the stairs she flitted like a golden butterfly. Once in the kitchen, the house- wife in her triumphed for a moment over the fairy: she raked up the fire, put on more wood, and swept the hearth daintily. "But Ariel did such things for Prospero," she said. "I'm Ariel just the same, so I may as well fill the kettle and put some apples down to roast." This was soon done, and clapping her hands with delight the "tricksy spirit" began to dance and frolic anew. CAPTAIN JANUARY. 101 then laid them on her breast, and then held them out to her with a gesture of loving appeal. "I don't know whether you are a spirit of health or a goblin damned," said Star; "but anyhow it isn't polite to come into people's houses without knocking, / think. I knowed you were a spirit when you looked at me yesterday, if you did have a red shawl on." "How did you know that I was a spirit?" asked the lady, softly. "Oh, little Star, how did you know?" "'Cause you looked like my poor mamma's picture," replied the child, "that my poor papa had round his neck. Are you my mamma's spirit?" The lady shook her head. "No, darling," she said, " I am no spirit. But I have come to see you, little Star, and to tell you some- thing. Will you not let me come in, Sweet- heart?" Star blushed, and hung her head for a moment, remembering Captain January's lessons on politeness and " quarter-deck man- ners." She brought a chair at once, and in CAPTAIN JANUARY. I03 "Her hair was dark, but her eyes were like yours, Star, blue and soft. We played together always as children, and we grew up together, two loving, happy girls. Then my sister married: and by and by, dear, she had a little baby. A sweet little girl baby, and she named it Isabel, after me." "I was a little girl baby, too," said Star, "but I wasn't named anything; I came so: just Star." "Little Isabel had another name," said the lady. "Her other name was Maynard, be- cause that was her father's name. Her father was Hugh Maynard. Have you ever seen or heard that name, my child?" Star shook her head. "No!" she said; "my poor papa's name was H. M. It was marked on his shirt and han'k'chief, Daddy says. And my poor mamma's name was Helena, just like Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream." The motherly hand trem- bled, and the lady's voice faltered as she said, "Star, my dear sister's name was Helena, too. Is not that strange, my litttle one r CAPTAIN JANUARY. I05 cried, "my dear, dear little one! It was the same storm; the same storm and the same ship. Your poor mamma was my own sweet sister Helena, and you are my niece, my little Isabel, my own, own little namesake. Will you love me, darling? will you love your Aunt Isabel, and let her care for you and cherish you as your sweet mother would have done?" Star stood very still, neither returning nor repelling the lady's caresses. She was pale, and her breath came short and quick, but otherwise she showed no sign of agitation. Presently she put up her hand and stroked the lady's cheek gently. "Why do you cry ?" she asked quietly. "My poor mamma is in heaven. Don't you like her to be in heaven? Daddy says it is much nicer than here, and he knows." Mrs. Morton checked her tears, and smiled tenderly in the little wondering face. "Dear child!" she said, " I do like to have her in heaven, and I will not cry any more. But you have not told me whether you will love me, Star. Will you try, dear? and will you let me call you my little Isabel?" io6 CAPTAIN JANUARY. "I will love you," replied the child, "if Daddy Captain loves you; I will love you very much. But you must not call me that name, 'cause I'm not it. I am just Star. Does Daddy love you ?" she asked; and then with a sudden note of anxiety in her voice, she exclaimed, "Where is Daddy? where is my Daddy Captain? Did you see him when you came in?" Her question was answered by the sound of voices outside; and the next moment the minister appeared, followed by Mr. Morton and Captain January. The old Captain hastened to place a chair for each of the gentlemen by the fireside, and then took his stand against the wall on the further side of the room. He held his weather-beaten cap in his hand, and turned it slowly round and round, considering it attentively. It might have been observed by one quick to notice trifles, that he did not look at the child, though no slightest motion of hers was lost upon him. "George," said Mrs. Morton joyously to her husband, "here is our little niece, dearest CAPTAIN JANUARY. 111 me. Tell her that it is right for her to go; that you wish her to go!" The old man's breathing was heavy and laboured, and for a moment it seemed as if he strove in vain for utterance: but when he spoke, his voice was still soothing and cheer- ful, though his whole great frame was trem- bling like a withered leaf. "Star Bright," he said (and between almost every word he paused to draw the short, heavy breath), "I always told ye, ye 'member, that ye was the child of gentlefolks. So bein', 'tis but right that you should have gentle raisin' by them as is yer own flesh and blood. You've done your duty, and more than your duty, by me. Now 'tis time ye did your duty by them as the Lord has sent to ye. You'll have—my — my respeckful love and duty wherever you go, my dear, and you growin' up to be a beautiful lady, as has been a little wild lass. And you'll not forget the old Cap'n, well I know, as will be very comf'table here —" But here the child broke out with a wild, loud cry, which made all the others start to their feet. "Do you want me to go?" she CAPTAIN JANUARY. "5 The grey evening was closing in around the lighthouse tower. The guests were gone, and Captain January sat alone beside the fire in his old armchair. The window was still open, for the air was soft and mild. The old man's hands were clasped upon his knee; his heart was lifted as high as heaven, in silent prayer and praise. Suddenly, at the window, there was a gleam of yellow, a flitting shape, a look, a pause; then a great glad cry, and Star flitted like a ray of moonlight through the window, and fell on Captain January's breast. "Daddy," she said, breaking the long, happy silence, " dear Daddy, I am sorry I burned your horrid old cap!" CHAPTER VI. THE SIGNAL. Quietly passed the days, the weeks, the months, in the lonely tower on the rock fronting the Atlantic surge. Winter came, and folded it in a white mantle, and decked it with frost-jewels. Like a pillar of ice, the tower shone in the keen brilliance of the northern sun; but within was always summer, 116 CAPTAIN JANUARY. 119 But in winter, matters were different. All the laughing lips of ripples, all the white tossing crests of waves, must content them- selves with the ice-bound rocks, till spring should bring them their child-comrade again; and the little sheet of dark crystal in the hollow of the meadow had things all its own way, and mirrored back her bright face every day. The little red sled, launched at the top of the " tilt," came skimming down the slope, and shot like an arrow over the smooth ice, kept always clear of snow by the Captain's ever-busy hands; or else, when tired of coasting, the child would plant her small feet wide apart, and slide, and run, and slide again, till the pond could have cracked with pleasure, if such a thing had been in ac- cordance with its principles. But of all the joyous hours, none was more welcome to the child than that after the simple supper was cleared away and the room "redded up." Then, while fire and lamplight made their merriest cheer, the table was drawn up to the warmest spot; Star took her place upon Captain January's knee, CAPTAIN JANUARY. 123 went on, grave and earnest. Troubled it was, too, on one side; for though the Cap- tain sat quietly in his chair, and spoke in his usual cheerful voice, Bob Peet's rough tones were harsh and broken, and he rose from his place once or twice and moved uneasily about the room. "Cap'n," he said, "'tain't so. Don't tell me! Strong man — hearty — live twenty years yet — likes not thirty! Uncle o' mine — Punksquid — hundred and three — peart's chicken." Captain January puffed at his pipe in silence for some minutes. "Bob," he said presently, " it ain't always as it's given to a man to know his time. I've allers thought I should take it particular kind if it 'corded with the Lord's views to let me know when He was ready for me. And now that He has let me know, and moreover has set my mind that easy about the child that it's a pleasure to think of, why, it ain't likely I shall take it any way but kind. Thankin' you all the same, Bob, as have been a good mate to me, and as I sha'n't forget wherever CAPTAIN JANUARY. 133 Down comes the signal, and the old man creeps back to his chair again, and composes himself decently, with reverent, folded hands and head bowed in waiting. "' He holdeth the waters in the hollow of His hand. Behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing.' Amen! so be it!" Wave, little Star! wave your little blue apron from the rocks, and laugh and clap your hands for pleasure, as the ripples from the steamer's bow break in snowy foam at your feet. Bend to your oar, Bob Peet, and send your little black boat flying over the water as she never flew before! and press on, friendly Huntress, to your port, whence the winged message may speed on its way to the stately lady with the tender eyes, who waits for tidings in her distant home. For Captain January's last voyage is over, and he is already in the haven where he would be.