tv I ^ w^y^^f ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 N . > - I
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 SAILOR-BOY BOB, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. EDWARD A. RAND, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " UP-THE-LADDER CLUB SERIES : " " THE KNIGHTS OF THB 
 WHITE SHIELD," "THE SCHOOL IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE," "YARD- 
 STICK AND SCISSORS," " THE CAMP AT SURF BLUFF," AND " OUT 
 OF THS BREAKERS ;" "ART SERIES;" "SCHOOL AND CAMP 
 SERIES: " " PUSHING AHEAD, OR, BIG BROTHER DAVE," 
 " ROY'S DORY AT THE SEA-SHORE," AND " LITTLK 
 BROWN-TOP ;" " BARK CABIN ON KEARSARGE," 
 " FIGHTING THE SEA," ETC., ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK: PHILLIPS &> HUNT. 
 CINCINNA Tit CRANSTON & STOWE.
 
 Copyright, 1887, by 
 PHILLIPS & HUNT, 
 
 New York.
 
 -RI535 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. CAN Go IF HE WISH. 5 
 
 II. HE CHOOSES TO Go 19 
 
 III. WANTED, MITTENS 32 
 
 IV. GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON 52 
 
 V. AT THE WALKER HOME 65 
 
 VI. ASHORE STILL 88 
 
 VII. DOWN THE ATLANTIC 101 
 
 VIII. MIGHT TRY 118 
 
 IX. ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT 136 
 
 X. A CLOUD THAT GROWS 156 
 
 XI. A BREAK IN THE CLOUD 168 
 
 XII. THERE SHE BLOWS ! 180 
 
 XIII. SOUNDING A MYSTERY 193 
 
 XIV. THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED 208 
 
 XV. How ? 224 
 
 XVI. ADRIFT 242 
 
 XVII. A WONDERFUL MEETING 275 
 
 XVIII. A SAIL ! A SAIL ! 289 
 
 XIX. A WRECK THAT WAS NOT A WRECK 306 
 
 XX. ASSAULT ONE 319 
 
 XXI. CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TREE 330 
 
 XXII. FROM GOOD TO BETTER, FROM BAD TO WORSE... 345
 
 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 CAN GO IF HE WISH. 
 
 " T)LEASE say that again, Squire "Winthrop," 
 X said Bob Walker, looking up from his 
 spade that he had just thrust fnto one of the 
 squire's old-fashioned garden beds. 
 
 The squire smiled. "Want to hear it again, 
 Bob ? Why, it was not so wonderful. I said if 
 you wanted the chance to go to sea you could 
 have it in the whaler, the Andromeda. The 
 same offer is open to my young relative, Ralph." 
 Bob could hardly repress his excitement. He 
 lifted his hands from the old spade. He lifted 
 his eyes up to the old clock-dial on the stone 
 church down on the main business street of Old- 
 buryport. Ten minutes more, and the tired, 
 sleepy hands would be folded at twelve for a 
 moment's halt and a moment's nap. 
 \ " I I wish you would let me off now, and I
 
 Q SAILOK-BOT BOB. 
 
 will make up the ten minutes this afternoon," 
 said Bob,. trying to speak deliberately, but feel- 
 ing somewhat like a volcano that is trying to de- 
 liver its lava with dignified composure. 
 
 "O, you need not make it up, and if you 
 would* like to go home now, do so, Bob. That 
 is all right." 
 
 " Thank you," said Bob. 
 Another second, not minute, he was flying 
 out of that old-fashioned garden, Squire Win- 
 throp laughing away quietly as he watched him. 
 " What a Bob ! Didn't go out of the gate, 
 did he ? Took a short cut back of the barn ! " 
 thought the squire. 
 
 " A short cut ! " How could Bob possibly 
 have gone home the usual way ? It seemed to 
 him as if he would have died on that long route 
 down " Winthrop Court " into Central Street, 
 and then through Parker Street to Spinks's Al- 
 ley. He went by the shortest possible way. 
 Back of the squire's barn, then through a yard 
 back of a big brick block, into the back door of 
 Simile's apothecary-store (" Charlie Lambert, the 
 clerk, will let me," reasoned Bob), through the 
 store, out upon Central Street, through Central 
 Street Court, over two fences and through two
 
 CAN Go IF HE WISH. 7 
 
 vacant lots into Parker Street, and then into 
 Spinks's Alley, on which lived the Walkers in a 
 humble house. He turned the corner of Parker 
 Street and rushed so rapidly into Spinks's Al- 
 ley that he almost upset fat, puffing Mrs. Bar- 
 tram, her arms full of bags of candy and peanuts 
 destined for her stand at the corner of Parker 
 and Central. 
 
 " Eh eh look out, young man ! " screamed 
 the one-cent merchant, staggering back from a 
 blow that might have given her a life-long 
 trouble, if it had not been for the barricade of bags 
 in her arms. " Mind who you are hitting ! " 
 
 "I I beg pardon," said Bob, turning to 
 look, but not stopping. 
 
 The door of his home was open, and an odor 
 of a fry escaped into the street. 
 
 " Fried haddock ! " Bob would have said any 
 other day, but to-day his thought was whether 
 it might not be " fried whale ! " That was the 
 kind of fish now to be borne in mind. Through 
 this opened door, into the entry and then into 
 the sitting-room he rushed, and finally into the 
 kitchen. There before the stove was a girl with 
 a bright, handsome face and a cloud of glossy 
 brown curls. This was Alma, the oldest dangh-
 
 8 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 ter "Alma the beautiful and Alma the 
 blessed," her father would have said called 
 Alma because but I must not stop now to give 
 the reason of her name. Bob wants to speak. I 
 will keep him waiting long enough to say that 
 several young Walkers, male and female, were 
 coming into the kitchen by another door, hav- 
 ing just arrived from school. Mrs. "Walker sat 
 by an open window for two reasons : to get " a 
 sniff of pure air," as she declared, and also sniff 
 her camphor-bottle. She was a weakly woman, 
 with the look of a probable invalid. Mr. Sar- 
 dinius Walker, a man with a rather dark, vision- 
 ary face, as if he might be fond of contemplative 
 moods, and moods not always hopeful, appeared 
 at a door in a corner. Here it was that the 
 back chamber stairs touched the kitchen floor. 
 His arms were full of shoes that he had been cob- 
 bling in the garret. Alma ceased to watch her 
 fish. The school children halted on the threshold, 
 Mrs. Walker let her camphor-bottle fall into 
 her lap, and the burdened cobbler almost dropped 
 his shoes when Bob burst into the kitchen, pant- 
 ing, perspiring, and gasping : 
 
 " Folks folks I've got a chance to go 
 a-whaling if you are willing."
 
 CAN Go IF HE WISH. 9 
 
 " Got a chance to what ? " asked his father in 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Dear me ! a-whaling ? " exclaimed Alma, al- 
 lowing her fish to burn. 
 
 " You crazy f " said his mother to Bob. 
 
 "I'll tell in just three minutes," said Bob 
 excitedly, looking round wildly. *' I want to go 
 to the wharf. Have dinner ready, wont you, 
 Alma, when T get back ? " 
 
 Out of the house Bob rushed again. 
 
 "Why, Sardinius," said Mrs. Walker to her 
 husband, " what does Bob mean ? " 
 
 " I only know what he said, wife." 
 
 "You haven't put him up to any thing?" she 
 asked, knowing her husband's fondness for 
 schemes, and especially one as foolhardy as, to 
 her mind, this going after whales promised to be. 
 
 "Why, Cynthy, of course not. What do you 
 mean ? " said her husband reprovingly. 
 
 "Alma, that fish is burning," remarked Mrs. 
 Walker, preferring to change the subject. 
 
 The daughter did not seem to hear. She 
 stood in the smoky atmosphere, knife and fork 
 in hand, a dazed look in her soft, lustrous eyes. 
 
 " Alma, that fish is burning," said her mother, 
 more emphatically.
 
 10 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 " O h h ! " exclaimed the startled girl, re- 
 turning to her charge. u Bob almost took my 
 senses away. Father, you suppose Bob means 
 that ? " 
 
 " I don't know, daughter." 
 
 " I know ; and I promise you it will turn out 
 that he has gone down to see that old whaler," 
 said the mother. 
 
 Mrs. Walker's guess was correct. Bob went 
 to see a sailor acquaintance, Horace Haviland, 
 on board the Andromeda which was lying at a 
 near wharf. Bob wished to say this : " Perhaps 
 perhaps I may go with yon. Squire Win- 
 throp says I may ; and perhaps Ralph Winthrop 
 may go." 
 
 " Good for you, Bob 1 'Twill make a man 
 of you," replied the weather-beaten sailor, 
 leaning over the freshly painted rail of the 
 Andromeda. 
 
 "I thought you would like to know," said 
 the enthusiastic Bob, halting one moment on the 
 wharf. Turning about he ran home. 
 
 "Now, Bob, tell us what you mean," said 
 Alma, as she landed in his plate his share of the 
 burned haddock. "You almost frightened us 
 out of our wits."
 
 CAN Go IF HE WISH. 11 
 
 She did not say, " You are responsible for 
 this burned fish." It was not her style. 
 
 Bob proceeded to eat his dinner, and at the 
 same time tell what he did mean ; what Squire 
 Winthrop said to him, and what he would like 
 to do. Then he waited for the opinion of the 
 family. 
 
 " Now I see, Robert," remarked his father. 
 " We can think it over." 
 
 " It will need a good deal of thinking, in my 
 opinion," said his mother. 
 
 Alma made no remark, but that evening she 
 and Bob stayed in the kitchen when the others 
 had retired, and talked the new project over. 
 It was raining. The night was a chilly one in - 
 April, and the two sat by the stove. 
 
 " Now, Alma, I suppose you think I am 
 rather rash in my ideas, but I don't believe it is 
 rash, though I know I tumbled in and out of 
 the house this morning like a madman this 
 noon, I mean. But, you see, I have been think- 
 ing. I have got through school. Seventeen, you 
 know, and I really don't know what to do. I 
 don't seem to take to business as yet, and really 
 I can't get a chance to go into a store. There is 
 nothing permanent that seems to offer itself,
 
 12 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 no good opening I know of. I believe Stiggins 
 wants a boy " 
 
 "Don't you go into Stiggins's even if we 
 have to go to the poor-house," declared Alma 
 warmly. " He sells rum." 
 
 "I knew you wouldn't like that. Then I 
 don't fancy a trade, you know. Really, I have 
 said to myself more than once, ' Bob, why don't 
 you try going to sea ? ' It is tough, you know. 
 I don't expect an easy time, but then I must do 
 something. Father, you know " 
 
 " Poor father ! " sighed Alma. 
 
 " Say," asked Bob, " where did he get those 
 shoes to mend ? Did he pick them up in the 
 neighborhood, and will he get pay for them ? " 
 
 Alma must have had a bird-cage in her 
 throat, for the canaries seemed to sing when she 
 
 9 O 
 
 laughed, and she now laughed heartily. 
 
 " They are our children's shoes, Bob, and I 
 believe he has a pair of yours and mine. He 
 came and held up mine, and said, ' See, Alma, 
 I have not tried shoemaking since I was a young 
 man, and I am pleased to know I have not lost 
 all my knack yet. Now I don't think you will 
 have wet feet any longer when it rains, Alma.' 
 Poor father ! Wasn't he kind ? No, he won't
 
 CAN Go IF HE WISH. 13 
 
 get any pay for his cobbling, but he will have 
 to pay out money for his stock." 
 
 Bob sprang up from his chair and walked 
 about the kitchen. 
 
 " There, Alma ! That is just what takes hold 
 of me. Seventeen ; and I ought to be doing 
 something more than digging Squire Winthrop's 
 garden to-day, and perhaps writing for him to- 
 morrow, and the third day not having a thing 
 to do. Now, if I go off. in that whaler, there 
 will be steady wages coming in. Perhaps I can 
 fix it with Squire Winthrop so that the family 
 can have some of my pay and draw it while I 
 am gone. Don't you see, Alma ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Alma, sorrowfully, fastening her 
 dark eyes on the stove. 
 
 " Fire almost out, Alma ? " 
 
 " Yes," she said laughingly, " every thing is 
 almost out in this house. But there, I do know 
 where one stick more is out in the back entry. 
 Ted wanted to make a boat of it and pitch it 
 into the dock, and I said, ' No, young man, that 
 is precious.' " 
 
 " Good for you, Alma ! If it wasn't for you, 
 what would become of us all ? " 
 
 In a very natural way Alma deprecated this
 
 14 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 remark, and said "it was no such thing." 
 Then she added a word for her father that she 
 believed he would yet get something to do. 
 
 " I dare say," remarked Bob ; " but then, you 
 know, father hasn't a regular trade or been edu- 
 cated to business. However, we will hope." 
 
 That gratified Alma. She abounded in hope, 
 even as the Atlantic Ocean in water. People 
 that were in the depths of any trouble liked to 
 talk with Alma. She could see a light down in 
 the dark pit of their misery if any body could. 
 
 " Yes ! " she now exclaimed, " father will get 
 something to do, I know. And. Bob, if if it 
 is best for you to go whaling, I will make the 
 best of it. How long will you be gone ? " 
 
 " Well, Captain Gran by says that vessels are 
 apt to be gone for several years, but if he can 
 get back in two years or less he would like it." 
 
 " 0, well, that won't be forever, and we will 
 make the best of it. Any of the Oldburyport 
 boys going with you ? " 
 
 " Squire Winthrop said Kalph might go." 
 
 Alma gave a little start. Bob could not see 
 this, as the kitchen was quite dark. There was 
 no lamp, and for a good reason. The lamps 
 in the house were not numerous, and they
 
 CAN Go IF HE WISH. 15 
 
 were all up-stairs, and only flashes from the fire 
 in the stove played through the openings in the 
 door upon the uncarpeted floor and low ceiling. 
 No, Bob did not see that little nervous move- 
 ment by Alma when he said Ralph might go. 
 Alma and Ralph moved in very different circles 
 in society, and only met as Ralph might appear 
 at the Walkers' humble door and inquire for 
 Bob. True, some of the old gossips that had 
 tongues warranted to run forever did say that 
 Ralph called when Bob could not possibly be at 
 home, and that they had seen Alma slyly look 
 at the Winthrops' pew in church. But then 
 Ralph might have an errand with Ted Walker 
 or Billy or Carrie, and as for that church mat- 
 ter, why, Ralph wore a very graceful circular 
 cloak, fashionable in those days, and it naturally 
 would attract the notice of Alma, a girl who 
 liked to see graceful things. Besides, Ralph's 
 fine, classical face had a rather sickly look, for 
 he was not very robust, and this state of things 
 would naturally excite the compassionate inter- 
 est of a warm-hearted girl like Alma. If there 
 had been any thing significant in Ralph's fre- 
 quent calls or in Alma's very modest and 
 stealthy glances in church, would not Bob have
 
 16 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 noticed it? He certainly suspected nothing. 
 He now remarked : 
 
 " Yes, the squire said Kalph might go, and I 
 hope he will." 
 
 "Might" and "could" are two different 
 words, and " could " would have been the proper 
 word here. All that the squire said was that 
 the offer made to Bob was open to Ralph also. 
 Ralph therefore could go, and yet might not. 
 The way Alma understood it, the prospect was 
 that Ralph both could and might go. She 
 breathed a long sigh, but the crackling of the 
 wood in the stove and the drip of the rain on a 
 shelf outside the window smothered the sound 
 of this heavy breathing. She felt that in resign- 
 ing Bob to the whales she had cast overboard a 
 treasure, and she was now preparing to make 
 another surrender. 
 
 " So you see, Alma," said Bob, returning to 
 the subject of his own course of action, " it is 
 really best if father and mother are willing 
 best for me to go, though I know that whaling 
 is any thing but eay work. You wont have 
 my big appetite to satisfy, and my bed to make, 
 and" 
 
 " 0, Bob, don't think it is hard ! "
 
 CAN <ro O 1 HE WISH. 17 
 
 "I know that; but those are facts. Then 
 you'll have my wages, Alma, and " 
 
 " Ah, that wont be you." 
 
 She paused. 
 
 " Well, Bob, we are going to make the best 
 of it, though we shall miss you awfully. Per- 
 haps you had better go to bed now. You know 
 you will have to be up nights watching if you 
 go to sea, and you must get all the sleep you can 
 now." 
 
 Bob went off, saying he felt already like a 
 sailor at sea, but that night he was going to 
 watch with his eyes shut. Alma stayed behind 
 to hear the rain drip on a shelf outside the 
 window, to watch the last of the fire sputter out 
 in darkness, and to think. There will be time 
 now to explain her name. Her father had once 
 attended an academy. It made a very deep im- 
 pression on him. He could not see why, like 
 more distinguished men from more distinguished 
 institutions, he could not call the old academy 
 his " alma mater" He was very proud of this 
 title which he had bestowed on the old brick 
 box in a country village. "When in the course 
 of time he was married and married, too, at an 
 
 earlier date than his income would allow there 
 2
 
 18 SAILOR-BOT BOB. 
 
 finally came children into the home. The first 
 birth was that of twins. He thought affection- 
 ately of the old academy. 
 
 " One of these shall be named ' Alma,' and the 
 other 'Mater," he said. "Then I shall hear 
 * Alma Mater ' every day." . 
 
 Thus he laid away in the names of these twins, 
 like gold in ivory, the two words dear to him, 
 meaning bountiful, gracious, kindly and cher- 
 ishing mother. It was Alma Abbott Walker 
 and Mater Prime Walker. "Alma Mater!" 
 As he saw them side by side, the two names 
 were two links in a short but golden chain. 
 Death came, though, and severed the chain. 
 Mater, the little "mother," was taken away. 
 Alma, the bountiful, the nourishing, and gra- 
 cious, was left. She was true to the traditions 
 of her name, that night of the talk with Bob. 
 While all others in the family slept soundly, she 
 sat up and thought and planned. What would 
 she do without Bob ? What would her father 
 do? What would her mother, Billy, Ted, and 
 Carrie do ? Then her thoughts came back to 
 Bob. Once in a while somebody looking like 
 Ralph flitted through her thoughts. 
 
 Alma was now eighteen.
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HE CHOOSES TO GO. 
 
 IN the last chapter it was said that Bob Walker 
 could go to sea if he wished, and he both 
 wished and chose to go, and his parents consent- 
 ed, though Mrs. Walker's ordinarily long face 
 grew longer yet when she thought about the 
 voyage. She thought, too, that " Sardinius " 
 was " unusually absentminded." All at home 
 seemed to come under a cloud. Alma had spells 
 of somber stopping at a chamber-window from 
 which could be seen the masts of the Androm- 
 eda, while beyond these, a strip of water flashed 
 in the sun like a bar of silver. The children, 
 Ted, Billy, and Carrie, aged nine, seven, and 
 five, had many questions to ask, and Carrie, 
 Alma's bed-mate, woke up one night out of a 
 dream and cried as she sobbed out the fear that 
 her " Bobbie was a-eaten up by wales." 
 
 " O, no," whispered Alma, at the same time 
 shivering at the last thought. "Bobbie is the 
 one to eat up the whales."
 
 20 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 But this assurance, which made Bob out to be 
 a strange creature, a whale-devourer, did not 
 prove to be as much of a pacificator as Alma in- 
 tended. She was obliged to soothe Carrie to 
 rest in some other way, and she was quieted at 
 last and went to sleep. 
 
 The days slipped rapidly by, and brought Bob, 
 one noon, to the dinner-table, saying, " O, folks, 
 Cap'n Granby wants to know if you wouldn't 
 like to come down and see the Andromeda?' 1 
 
 " O h h, yes ! " shouted the children, and 
 their seniors were just as anxious to go. 
 
 Bob offered his services as guide, and as the 
 family ueared the wharf where the Andromeda 
 was moored he called attention to the vessel's 
 figure-head. 
 
 "There; that I suppose is Andromeda," he' 
 exclaimed. 
 
 "A dromedary?" asked Ted, who had seen 
 ' a menagerie the summer before. 
 
 " No, no, Theodore," remarked his father, re- 
 calling his stock of learning amassed at "the 
 academy," and proceeding to spread out those 
 stores, " An-drom-e-da was a sea-monster " 
 
 He hesitated and looked at Alma. Thought- 
 ful daughter ! She had not forgotten what she
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 21 
 
 had learned in the classical course at the high- 
 school, graduating at the head of her class, and 
 she knew what a pitfall of a blunder he was 
 tumbling into, but she did not remind him of it. 
 She only said, " Now, children, we wont bother 
 father to tell us that old story. Let us talk 
 about the ship. That is our first business. 
 Come ! We will leave Andromeda, and father 
 will tell us by and by." 
 
 Sardinius Walker was very sensitive on the 
 subject of his classical knowledge. He gave Alma 
 a look of sincere gratitude, for he knew by her 
 manner that he had been saved from some kind 
 of peril. She had given him time to hunt up 
 the facts about Andromeda. 
 
 "Now, children," continued Alma, "take a 
 good long look at the ship. Bob says she is the 
 best craft of the kind afloat." 
 
 "Yes," said Bob proudly; "they say she is 
 somewhat old-fashioned, but Cap'n Granby says 
 for her work she is one of the best vessels 
 afloat." 
 
 Just before them, neat as one of the Oldbury- 
 port houses after a spring painting, rose the A.n- 
 dromeda, masts and spars, shrouds and stays, 
 boats and anchors, all in good order, ready for
 
 22 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 splendid service. The vessel was bark-rigged. 
 She registered about five hundred tons, and 
 could easily carry twenty-five hundred barrels of 
 oil. Captain Granby, indeed, had said he, or 
 the Andromeda rather, could carry three thou- 
 sand barrels. She was built for two purposes. 
 One was to go. Her bow was sharp. The 
 swell of her sides, their graceful curve, pleased 
 every sailor. She was built for something else. 
 She was built to carry a big cargo. Her decks 
 had a good width, and between deck and deck 
 there was excellent stowage. 
 
 " Now you want to know what we carry with 
 us," said Captain Granby in response to a 
 question from Mr. Walker. "Well, we must 
 take boats, of course. Anyway, we must have 
 four boats. Besides these we have three spare 
 boats. Now I will show you something else." 
 
 He pointed out boat material, such as light 
 timber and boards. There were stores to be 
 used in repairing the ship, like extra rigging or 
 spars or sails. The Andromeda also took 
 plenty of paint and tar. There were boat 
 hatchets, lances, harpoons, whale-line, casks for 
 the oil of the whales that might be taken, cut- 
 ting-in spades, knives. The captain pointed out
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 23 
 
 the big iron pots for boiling the blubber, used 
 in the process of " trying out." 
 
 " Now," he continued, " we have a big crew, 
 and we want to feed them well, and you may 
 want to see what we are going to eat. There! 
 "We have plenty of ship-biscuit, coffee, rice, 
 beans, flour, pickles, tea ; and we take pork and 
 beef, molasses and Indian meal. We have 
 got a quantity of canned goods, too. Don't 
 mean to starve on board the Andromeda, I 
 tell ye." 
 
 " Now, folks," said Bob proudly, " I want 
 you to see where I tie up or expect to." 
 
 In the forecastle he pointed out the tiers of 
 bunks, one above another; and when Carrie 
 said : " Where is yours, Bobbie ? " he pointed 
 out his resting-place for the night. 
 
 He did not see his little sister for his back 
 was quickly turned as she stepped to the berth 
 and hid something under his mattress. This 
 had the approval of Alma's bright eyes, closely 
 watching for an opportunity when Carrie might 
 carry out this pre-arranged plan in which the 
 two sisters had been interested. 
 
 " It's there where he sleeps," whispered Car- 
 rie; "there in that long hole, and I hid it."
 
 24 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 Delight shone in her face, which was patterned 
 after Alma's. 
 
 Captain Granby invited his visitors into his 
 cabin, which was plainly furnished. In the cen- 
 ter was a table, whose surface was divided by 
 strips of wood running lengthwise. 
 
 " That's a funny way to fix a table to have 
 those pieces of wood going so," said Billy to 
 Bob. 
 
 " Well, Billy, between those long strips they 
 set the dishes, and then, when the ship goes so 
 up and down, up and down the dishes can't so 
 well slide off. And you see those frames over- 
 head?" 
 
 Billy looked, and saw rows of tumblers that 
 had been set in holes cut in shelves hanging 
 from the ceiling above the table. 
 
 " There, Billy," said Bob, seizing his young 
 brother, and almost tipping him upside down, 
 " when the big waves make the Andromeda go 
 this way up and down, up and down you see 
 we have got things steadied somehow, so that 
 they won't spill out." 
 
 Billy never forgot this illustration of a ship's 
 motion in a rough sea, and on after-nights of 
 storm he would shiver as he thought of his
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 25 
 
 Bobbie almost standing on his head in the in- 
 verted relations of things. 
 
 " How much of a crew will you take, cap- 
 tain ? " inquired Mr. Walker. 
 
 " Well, we shall carry over thirty. You see, 
 we must have enough sailors to man four boats, 
 anyway. Each will need a crew of six, and that 
 will make a couple of dozen men. Then we 
 must have a cook and a steward, and I mean to 
 get a cabin-boy. Must have a carpenter, you 
 can see, where boats are likely to be injured by 
 the whales, and we must have a cooper to look 
 after our barrels. Then 1 want several spare 
 men on hand to fill gaps. Folks die at sea as 
 well as on land, and we must think of these 
 things." 
 
 " Yes," said Bob's father somberly. 
 
 Nobody seemed to care to continue that part 
 of the subject, and here, as a diversion, Bob 
 asked his wondering brothers if they did not 
 want to see him " go up the rigging." 
 
 " O yes ! " they cried, four big eyes assenting 
 also. 
 
 They all looked up from the deck while Bob 
 proudly leaped into the shrouds, and taking on 
 the swing of an old sailor, began to climb up.
 
 26 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Ah, he missed, his footing, and awkwardly 
 wriggled on the shrouds. 
 
 " Ship ahoy ! " sang out Horace Haviland, 
 who was up on the maintop looking down. 
 " Take a reef in those legs ! " 
 
 Several old whalemen looked up from the 
 deck and grinned, while a shudder went through 
 the older members of the Walker group, Carrie 
 and Billy giving each a faint scream. Bob 
 started up again, and went on without difficulty. 
 He wanted to reach the maintop, where Horace 
 was. There are two ways of approach. One is 
 by the shrouds, going outside, or " over the top," 
 as sailors say, and the other is easy and safe for 
 landsmen, and, doubtless out of regard for them, 
 is named " the lubber's hole," taking one up 
 through a hole near the mast, and then out 
 upon the maintop. 
 
 " I won't go by that lubber's hole," said Bob 
 contemptuously, struggling up over the top, lu- 
 dicrously squirming, losing his foothold, then 
 regaining it, laying his hand in the wrong place, 
 struggling harder, Horace Haviland at last rush- 
 ing forward, shouting : 
 
 "Here, young shipmate, give us a flipper! 
 You twist wuss than a seal on a clay bank."
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 27 
 
 As he spoke he laid hold of Bob, and, vigor- 
 ously pulling him up, landed him on the main- 
 top. 
 
 The Walker circle was relieved to see the 
 young sailor in the stout grasp of Horace, and 
 still more fully relieved when Bob was down on 
 the deck again. 
 
 " I I did it ! " said Bob, trying to give his 
 head a shake, as if in triumph. 
 
 " Guess guess, Bob," whispered his father to 
 the aspiring navigator, "I wouldn't try that 
 much until I was a little more used to it." 
 
 This encouraging remark belongs to the same 
 class of directions as that to boys who are ad- 
 vised to keep out of water until they know how 
 to swim. 
 
 When the Walkers were once more at home, 
 Alma gratified her father's vanity, and at the 
 same time gave him opportunity for private 
 preparation, by proposing to him that at supper- 
 time he should tell them the story about An- 
 dromeda. 
 
 " I certainly will, my dear," said the father 
 complacently. 
 
 He busily consulted his old dust-covered clas- 
 sical dictionary, and at supper-time remarked :
 
 28 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 "Now, children, I will tell you about An- 
 dromeda." 
 
 All listened while he very learnedly talked 
 about the ancient Andromeda. 
 
 " She was the daughter of Cassiopeia, who was 
 the queen of the Ethiopians. Foolishly the 
 mother said Andromeda was better-looking than 
 the Nereids, a kind of beings, females, you know, 
 who lived or were supposed to live in the 
 water. Well, Neptune, the god of the sea, or 
 somebody the Greeks supposed was ruler of the 
 sea, did not like Cassiopeia's talk. He sent a 
 flood and a sea-monster that killed people right 
 and left; beasts, too. Well, there was a good 
 deal of excitement, and it was announced that 
 there would be no let-up in this business until 
 Andromeda's father had first exposed her* as a 
 sacrifice to the monster's appetite. Poor An- 
 dromeda ! They took her one day down to 
 the sea-shore and tied her to a rock. There 
 they left her, poor Andromeda! waiting for 
 the awful monster to come out of the sea. 
 But who should happen along but Perseus, a 
 brave fellow, who had ' already gained a victory 
 elsewhere over an enemy called the Gorgon. 
 Perseus was not afraid, not a bit. He just
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 29 
 
 went to work, killed the monster, and untied 
 Andromeda." 
 
 " O wasn't that jolly ! " said Ted. 
 
 " Andromeda's folks ought to have done one 
 thing more,' 1 suggested Bob. 
 
 " What was that ? " said the historian. 
 
 " Why, made him their son. That's what 
 they generally do in such stories give the 
 daughter in marriage to the one that rescues 
 
 O O 
 
 her." 
 
 " O, well, my son, that is not every thing in 
 this life." 
 
 Alma gave her brother a look which meant 
 something, he well knew. 
 
 "Alma," he said, after supper, when they 
 were alone, " what did you mean by looking at 
 me?" 
 
 " Why, Bob, Perseus married Andromeda." 
 
 " He did ? And father forgot it ? " 
 
 " O well, you can't expect one to remember 
 every thing." 
 
 " No, but I mean to think of it when I am 
 out on the sea and the figure-head is dipping 
 into the cold water. I'll say to myself, ' The 
 real Andromeda had an easy time by and by, 
 and got married.' "
 
 30 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 That very night there was not a "Walker but 
 that dreamed of Andromeda. Alma saw the 
 vessel far out at sea. As the bow dipped down 
 into the frothing billows, they seemed to change 
 to sea-monsters that sprang upon poor Androm- 
 eda and tried to pull her down into the ocean, 
 and bury her forever in its cold depths. And 
 at every such assault Bob would come forward, 
 like Perseus of old, and, looking down on the 
 exposed figure-head, would say some encourag- 
 ing word to the defenseless Andromeda and 
 drive away those reckless assailants. After this 
 dream came a long, forgetful space of slumber. 
 Then the dream returned, the sea-monsters rush- 
 ing at Andromeda, Bob standing in the vessel's 
 bows and driving them away. Suddenly he 
 called was it " Andromeda, Andromeda ? " 
 
 Alma awoke. 
 
 "Alma!" cried a voice at the foot of the 
 kitchen stairs. 
 
 " O, father, is that you ? " 
 
 " Yes, dear. Time to be up." 
 
 " I will come. Father ! " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Didn't you call ' Andromeda 2 Thought I 
 heard somebody."
 
 HE CHOOSES TO Go. 81 
 
 "Why, no; I said 'Alma! Alma!' Guess 
 my story was too much for you." 
 
 Sardinius felt proud to think his classical 
 knowledge had made such an impression on the 
 family. He took it also as a deserved tribute to 
 that famous Academy, the pride of his younger 
 years, his honored " Alma Mater."
 
 32 ' SAILOH-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 
 
 " FTIHEKE, Bob," said Alma one day, turning 
 
 JL away from the kitchen stove. She and 
 Bob were alone just then, Mrs. Walker having 
 retreated to her chamber, where, unseen, she 
 wished to shed a few tears over Bob's departure, 
 while the father, with Ted, Billy, and Carrie, 
 had gone down to the wharf to see the Androm- 
 eda. 
 
 " There, Bob ! " exclaimed Alma again. 
 
 "Well, Alma, what is it ?" 
 
 " I have forgotten one thing. I do believe I 
 am growing old." said Alma laughingly, in a 
 liquid, rippling tone that old age cannot possi- 
 bly reproduce. 
 
 " O, no," said Bob encouragingly. 
 
 "Well, I will tell you what, Bob. I will 
 make a bargain with you. I want to go out and 
 buy something, and if you will watch the her- 
 rings in the oven I will do my errand. Now, 
 don't let them burn."
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 33 
 
 "Alma, if I let them burn you may burn 
 me." 
 
 Alma laughed again. She pulled her brown 
 hood over a lot of curls that had a very willful, 
 independent way of growing, and never yet had 
 been successfully imprisoned by any head-dress 
 Alma might wear. She drew about her shoul- 
 ders " mother's red shawl," worn by every body 
 in the family save the men-folks. Then she 
 hurried up the alley and came at last to the main 
 street of the town and known as Central Street. 
 
 " O, dear ! " said Alma, looking anxiously up 
 and down the street, " what if ' Charlie ' should 
 be shut up ! There he is. I am so forget- 
 ful ! " 
 
 Was she forgetful ? Alma had one of those 
 roomy, hospitable natures, welcoming every 
 body's care and trouble, and in an apart- 
 ment built to hold fifty it is not easy to find 
 place for eighty. She seemed at times to forget, 
 but it was rather because this hour's wants were 
 so numerous that they crowded upon those of 
 the previous hour. Ted would say, "Alma, I 
 am hungry," or Carrie would moan, "My dress 
 is torn, Alma," or Billy might whimper, " Al- 
 ma, can't I go out-doors?" On top of these
 
 34 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 statements would come father's inquiry, " Alma, 
 can we make the butter last over to-morrow ? " 
 and mother's wonder, "Alma, have you an 
 idea where the camphor- bottle has gone ? " 
 
 It is a wonder that Alma remembered as many 
 things as she did, and a greater mystery that she 
 did so much actual work day by day. What 
 helped her (and what will help every body) was 
 a disposition to accept all home-service as a 
 pleasure. It was her life to do for others. That 
 disposition saves one in work from any unpleas- 
 ant friction which is likely to interfere with 
 memory, and every thing else also. I am not 
 describing a saint. Alma was just a very nat- 
 ural, impulsive, warrn-hearted girl, whom every 
 body liked. Her very looks suggested that rich, 
 bountiful nature which her name implied. She 
 was of medium height, and rather full and 
 chubby in form. She had a round face, that 
 good health and good spirits kept freshly tinted. 
 She had dimpled cheeks and a mouth that part- 
 ed evenly and showed pretty teeth. Her eyes 
 were very dark, and had soft, lustrous depths, 
 that made you think of the sea-water in the 
 shadow of still nooks and corners of the shore- 
 ledges. When Alma laughed and shook all her
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 35 
 
 wealth of curls, it was a comely sight to behold. 
 Every year Mrs. Walker prophesied she would 
 "surely die this year," and why she didn't I 
 cannot conceive, unless it was Alma's resolute, 
 cheerful resistance, who would say, " No, mother, 
 I sha'n't let you!" That settled it, until the 
 next spring set in with its east winds and bilious 
 days. When Mr. Sardinius Walker had his 
 seasons of discouragement, because he had seen 
 a scowling creditor up in town, he knew where 
 to hasten as soon as possible, and, finding Alma, 
 lie would throw himself into one of the three 
 old rocking-chairs at home and exclaim, " There, 
 I've seen Bailey about that wood we bought, 
 and we might as well give up first as last." 
 
 " No, father," she would be likely to say, " I 
 don't believe in giving up. You will have a job 
 at book-keeping or or 
 
 Then she would mention nice little projects 
 for raising money, and that appeal to Mr. Sar- 
 dinius Walker's imagination was so much in 
 harmony with his temperament that he would 
 leave Alma's presence whistling away and retir- 
 ing to meditate in hope awhile ; but the medita- 
 tion was likely to end in despondency. If it 
 possibly ended in a trial on Central Street to
 
 36 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 obtain a little work as penman, such efforts were 
 not generally successful. 
 
 Bob was different from Alma, while resem- 
 bling her. He had her eyes and complexion, but 
 his face was long and thin. His hair was dark, 
 and also straight, save at the forehead, where it 
 lay on the clear white skin in a single curl. He 
 was rather tall, and of a muscular build. He 
 was not only impulsive, but often heedless. He 
 was very venturous. Alma would say, " There; 
 I am willing to go away from home and see 
 what is outside by day, but when night comes 
 I want to be where I can see home." 
 
 Bob's dark eyes would kindle, and he would 
 exclaim enthusiastically, " I want to see the 
 world the whole of it." Bob did not have such 
 an abounding stock of good nature as Alma. 
 The latter could "get mad," but she did not 
 often indulge any such mood. People thought 
 Bob to be rather quick-tempered, but he was 
 very generous and social. 
 
 He was a welcome companion in any of the 
 sports of the young people, and the older folks 
 made ready room for his vivacity in their gath- 
 erings. Bob was not afraid of work, while his 
 father shunned really laborious efforts. Bob,
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 37 
 
 too, had a laudable desire to succeed. He was 
 ambitious. He determined he would not be 
 like his father, " bothered by debts." And yet 
 Bob was not careful in what he spent. If he 
 came into bondage to any creditor at the stores, it 
 did not greatly worry Bob. Now Alma hated 
 debt and tried to keep out of it. She would go 
 without an article rather than thereby run into 
 debt. Bob would go destitute as long as he com- 
 fortably could, and then would say, " There ! I 
 have waited long enough. I am going to have 
 that thing and pay when I can. The sooner I 
 pay the better, of course, but I must have it." 
 
 To Bob's life there was an aspect of unsteadi- 
 ness. A popular fellow, gifted with certain no- 
 ble qualities, there was a lack of self-control. 
 Something needed to be introduced into his 
 character a rudder to hold the vessel to a 
 steady course. Hasty impulses would give him 
 trouble at times. 
 
 " O, it is Bob ! " would be the comment, if 
 not au explanation, volunteered by his friends 
 when he gave way to some strange impulse. 
 
 " Going to sea will be a first-rate thing for 
 Bob," people said. " It will sort of trim the 
 ship. He is a generous soul."
 
 38 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 They did not feel like criticising Bob unless 
 they also commended him, for somehow they 
 could not help liking him. 
 
 His unsteadiness seemed to be expressed in 
 Bob's very gait. There was a swing to it, a 
 careless swagger without its conceit, and, as he 
 inclined this way or that, he might suddenly 
 shoot into the street to see why the boys might 
 be hanging round the cart of Billy Toby, the 
 fish peddler, or he might shoot the other way 
 and vault over a fence behind which he heard 
 two dogs growling. He had very little fear 
 about his nature, and that made him an attract- 
 ive leader for venturous boys about the town. 
 He had no bad habits, though, to make him a 
 dangerous leader. He did not swear, and he 
 had not yet learned the so-called manly arts of 
 chewing or smoking or drinking. 
 
 "Alma won't let me," he would sometimes 
 say. " She is a fanatic about those things." 
 
 " Yes, Bob, I am a fanatic about those things," 
 Alma once declared, bringing squarely down 
 upon the floor her foot, " if to be opposed to 
 them is fanatfcism." 
 
 " I told you she wouldn't let me," said Bob 
 to one who urged him to take a cigar. " No,
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 39 
 
 sir ; I can't do any thing till Alma says I 
 may." 
 
 Alma's opinion had great weight in the 
 "Walker house, at least, and Alma's activity al- 
 most seemed to be the one condition of the 
 life of the household. Her agency was quite 
 important in securing for Bob's comfort the ar- 
 ticle for whose sake she now visited Central 
 Street the day before his departure. She went 
 into a store, at whose door and in whose win- 
 dow were paraded all kinds of men's furnishing 
 goods and clothing, and those for sailors in par- 
 ticular. The proprietor stood behind the coun- 
 ter, Mr. Charles Habermann, a German, whose 
 accessibility and sociability gained for him in 
 town circles of business the universal pet term, 
 " Charlie." He was a one-armed emigrant, who 
 gradually had got into trade, and with the sail- 
 ors especially was a great favorite. He had 
 neither wife nor child, nor kindred of any de- 
 gree, and his store, a kind of curiosity shop, re- 
 ceived very largely his affection, and occupied 
 all his time. It was wife and family to him. 
 
 " O, Mr. Habermann, have you mittens ? " 
 inquired Alma, in her energetic way, hurrying 
 into the store.
 
 40 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 A short, thick-set man, heavy and dark-feat- 
 ured, with a very pleasant voice, in a slow, 
 deliberate way he replied : 
 
 " O yes ! Let me see. Joost let me 
 see." 
 
 His goods were disposed not in layers or or- 
 derly rows, but miscellaneous heaps, and a bun- 
 dle of mittens might make a nest on a shelf by 
 the side of several packages of pins. There 
 would have been an annoying mishap if a hand 
 of flesh had been thrust inside a mitten and the 
 pins had all gone to pricking. Perhaps that 
 was the law of association in Charlie's mind 
 joining mittens and pins together, one suggest- 
 ing the other in the above fashion and so he 
 was moved to tumble them together upon the 
 same shelf. 
 
 " O dear ! " thought Alma, who knew Char- 
 lie's peculiarities of business, " that ' joost let 
 me see ' means he has got to hunt in this hay- 
 stack, and there are my herrings at home ! 
 They will O dear, if Bob don't watch them ! " 
 
 "Mittensh mittensh," Charlie was saying, 
 moving slowly along before his crowded, con- 
 fused shelves. " Where are those init tensh ? 
 Yas, I did put dem up up *p O, Alma, you
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 41 
 
 slitop one minute, and I will hab dem fery di- 
 rect. Mit tensh. What goesh wid mit tensh? 
 O, pinsh I hab it ! And where where are the 
 pinsh ?" 
 
 He had gone the length of his shelves on one 
 side of his store, and now looked inquiringly at 
 the other side. 
 
 " O, Charlie ! " 
 
 She stopped. She had forgotten herself. 
 Never before had she called him by the name 
 that his business acquaintances gave him. 
 
 "Excuse me Mr. Habermann," stammered 
 Alma. 
 
 Charlie's dark eyes brightened into diamonds. 
 What lonely man would not have been pleased 
 with Alma's friendly use of his first name ? 
 
 " O, dat ish no matter ! Call me Sharlie al- 
 vays. Yes, Alma, alvays." 
 
 " O, dear !" thought Alma. " These mittens 
 are making me a lot of trouble." 
 
 They were destined to make Alma and Bob a 
 lot of trouble that could not possibly have been 
 anticipated, and it is not my purpose to make 
 any anticipatory statement here, and thereby 
 gratify any reader's curiosity. 
 
 " And there are the herrings ! " continued
 
 42 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Alma in her thoughts. " O hurry, Charlie Mr. 
 Habermaim, and get my mittens ! " 
 
 Snapping his lingers, winking his eyes, hum- 
 ming snatches of tunes, Charlie fluttered before 
 his shelves like a distracted bee before a thorn 
 hedge, in which was hid somewhere a single 
 holly-hock. After more snapping and winking 
 and humming, he found at last the pin-and-mit- 
 ten heap. 
 
 " Dere," said Charlie, bringing down a big 
 bundle, " are some ob de nishest mittens. 1 " 
 
 " They are very thick and warm. They will 
 be nice in cold weather. How much are 
 they?" 
 
 " Forty-one shentsh." 
 
 Alma shrank back in alarm. She had only 
 forty. To get the forty she had raked and 
 scraped every- where at home, and to get the 
 last penny had sent Billy on a hot chase after 
 the ragman to sell a discarded old dress found 
 up in the attic. Charlie may have detected her 
 alarm. He now said : 
 
 " Alma, I gib dose to you as a present from 
 Sharlie." 
 
 Never did this humble dealer in clothing for 
 the wardrobe of the hardy seamen coming to
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 43 
 
 Oldburyport make a more obsequious bow to 
 any customer than to Alma. 
 
 " O O I shall ruin you ! I will pay will 
 bring in the other " 
 
 " Alma," said Charlie, firmly and sympathet- 
 ically, " when you hang out close in de yard, 
 dese mittensh " 
 
 " O, thank you ; but summer is coming, and I 
 sha'n't need any in hanging out clothes. They 
 are for Bob, who is going, you know, in a 
 whaler." 
 
 " O ! For Bob ? " asked Charlie, in the tones 
 at first of one who was disappointed. 
 
 He recovered himself. He remembered that 
 Bob was Alma's brother. 
 
 '" Den," he said, with a pleased air again, 
 " 'low me, Alma, to gib dose mittensh to your 
 brudder. Yen he climb de mast, ven he go 
 for de vales, ven he come shib'rin' to de ship 
 from de ice and shnow, dey will be fery goot. 
 Dey are for Alma's brudder." 
 
 It was so pleasant to think that these mittens 
 were going, not to a " Bob " merely, but to Bob, 
 the brother of Alma Walker. The blushing re- 
 cipient of the gift knew not what to say, but 
 confusedly stood on the outside of the counter,
 
 44 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 while the grinning, happy Charlie bowed low on 
 the inside. 
 
 "I I I " exclaimed Alma, " I had rather 
 
 pay" 
 
 " Shay no more to rne, Alma " 
 
 " Bob will be very much obliged, but I I 
 hope t-to p-pay," stammered Alma. 
 
 " Shay notin' 'bout dat, not one leetle ting ! 
 I inshist, I inshist ! Ven Bob 'mong de vales, 
 ven de vinds blow and de seas roll, Bob can tink 
 of Sharlie. Dey vill do him goot." 
 
 Smiling cordially, rubbing his hands, Charlie 
 followed Alma to -the door. There he lingered, 
 looking up at the church-vane to see what 
 weather the pointers might indicate, then glanc- 
 ing at the country wagons slowly rattling down 
 the street. He turned back into the store, say- 
 ing to himself, " Dose mitlensh vill do Bob a 
 heap of goot." 
 
 He little anticipated the trouble they would 
 make the sailor-boy. Alma went down street 
 saying, " O, dear, those herrings in the stove ! 
 I hope Bob has closely watched them, and they 
 are not burned." 
 
 Bob remained in the house watching about 
 one minute by the faded old time-piece ticking
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 45 
 
 feebly on the mantle-piece. Suddenly he heard 
 a sharp, piercing cry in the alley, " Had-dick ! 
 Her-rin' ! Had-dick ! Her-rin' ! " He did not 
 stop to contemplate the state of his pocket- 
 book, whether it would allow him to buy even 
 one more herring. He only thought how de- 
 sirable it would be to have half a dozen. Obey- 
 ing the impulse of this first thought, and not 
 waiting that a second might reach and de- 
 tain him, he dashed out of doors. He saw the 
 fish-peddler's cart in the alley, and under it 
 crouched a surly bull-dog, with a heavy jaw, fat, 
 full chops, and scowling, dark eyes. But he 
 saw something else, and that interested him 
 more than the fish-cart or the bull-dog. Two 
 young men were on the sidewalk carrying be- 
 tween them a chest such as seamen use. 
 
 "A sailor's chest!" thought Bob, and then 
 he began excitedly to enumerate its features. 
 " Painted blue, rope handles " 
 
 He stopped. One of these young men was 
 white, the other colored; a handsome mulatto. 
 The first was the older, and as he turned his 
 head Bob did not know whether it was the 
 young man that resembled the bull-dog under 
 the cart, or the bull-dog that resembled the
 
 46 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 young man. One or both of these sailors had 
 been drinking, for the trunk would sway vio- 
 lently as one or the other pulled it. 
 
 " Come ! " shouted Bull-dog. " Who who 
 who yer shovin' ? Look out ! " 
 
 "He is drunk ! " thought Bob. 
 
 "I am not shoving any body," retorted the 
 mulatto. " You are the one that shove ! " 
 
 " He is not drunk ! " declared Bob. 
 
 Bull-dog now dropped his end of the trunk, 
 and stepped threateningly toward the mulatto, 
 who was no match for this opponent, even 
 though the latter was not of heavy build. 
 
 " You say you did not shove ? " asked 
 Bull-dog. 
 
 "Yes, I do." 
 
 Bob did not give one more thought to the 
 fish-cart in the street, or those fish in the 
 oven. He dearly loved an adventure, and still 
 more intensely he loved fair play. He had seen 
 the drunken Bull-dog stagger, and that brought 
 him violently against the trunk. 
 
 " Don't yer say yer didn't shove that 
 trunk agin me ! " wrathf ully growled Bull-dog, 
 holding a threatening fist in dangerous proximity 
 to the mulatto's nose.
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 47 
 
 " Yes, I will ! " said the latter. 
 
 " And he had a right to say it ! " asserted Bob, 
 quickly stepping forward. "I saw it all. He 
 did not shove you ! " 
 
 " Who who are you ? " inquired Bull-dog, 
 now in a furious passion. 
 
 " No matter about that," said Bob. " I want 
 to see fair play." 
 
 Bull-dog now was so excited that he could not 
 speak. He had sense enough aboard to see that 
 he was no match for the two young men, and he 
 shrank back. 
 
 " O come, Steve ! " said the mulatto. " There's 
 the cap'n ! " 
 
 A man with a weather- beaten face like that of 
 a seaman was coming down the alley. Bull- 
 dog eyed him a moment ; then, seizing a rope 
 handle, he muttered. " Come along." 
 
 The mulatto obeyed, and the two went down 
 the alley. 
 
 " Wonder if they are going to the Androm- 
 eda?" conjectured Bob, as they turned toward 
 the wharves. 
 
 No, they passed the old whaler. Bob fol- 
 lowed them, determined to see that no injustice 
 was done the mulatto, for the young men's
 
 48 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 captain seemed to have disappeared, and with 
 him went any promise of protection for the mu- 
 latto from that quarter. Bull-dog, though, stag- 
 gered ahead when he did not stagger side-wise 
 and did not stop until they reached a vessel 
 lying at the end of the last wharf stretching out 
 into the river. 
 
 " O, that is a schooner from one of the Brit- 
 ish provinces going to New York," soliloquized 
 Bob. " I heard somebody say she meant to drop 
 down with the tide to-night and get out to 
 sea, if possible, before dark. Here comes the 
 cap'n." 
 
 This officer now made his appearance again. 
 
 Bull-dog and the mulatto were about going 
 aboard when Bull-dog turned and confronted 
 Bob, who had closely followed. He had been 
 led on by the fascination of any chance for ad- 
 venture, and was resolute to see fair play given 
 to the mulatto. 
 
 " Lemme look at ye 1 " said Bull-dog to Bob. 
 " I want to take a good long look at ye. I want 
 to remember ye." 
 
 Bull-dog brought his dark, revengeful eyes 
 close to Bob's face. 
 
 " Take a good, long look ! " cried Bob. " I
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 49 
 
 arn a very handsome man, and you wont see so 
 fine a picture again very soon." 
 
 " If the cap'n wasn't comin', I'd spile that 
 pictur pretty quick for interferin' with me, but 
 we shall see each other agin." 
 
 " I hope so," said Bob cheerfully and prompt- 
 ly. " You need looking after." 
 
 " Dark eyes, long face, lot of hair " mur- 
 mured Bull-dog. 
 
 " Now, if I had known you were going to ask 
 for a look at my face I would have brought my 
 photograph, and you could have kept it under 
 your pillow and looked at it often as you felt 
 like it." 
 
 The mulatto laughed and Bull-dog frowned. 
 
 " Cap'n is close by," whispered the mulatto. 
 " Shove aboard quick, Steve." 
 
 Muttering gloomily, Bull-dog crawled over 
 the vessel's rail, almost tumbling upon the deck ; 
 but he recovered himself, and was ready to say, 
 obsequiously, " On hand, cap'n," when the ves- 
 sel's master appeared. Bob now left. He went 
 off whistling, but opposite the Andromeda he 
 abruptly stopped. There he stood one moment, 
 the mouth still gaping after that unfinished 
 whistle. Then he started on a run, uttering
 
 50 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 this one word, " Herring ! " Into the house he 
 hurried, but an odor of suioke told the story. 
 Before the oven-door Alma was kneeling, and 
 she exclaimed : 
 
 " O, Bob, our supper is gone ! " 
 
 Bob said " Too bad ! " and looked bad ; but 
 that did not bring the supper back. 
 
 They sat down, as often before, to a table on 
 which were bread and butter and hot weak tea 
 not the most satisfactory kind of a supper. 
 
 " Well, Bob," said Alma, comfortingly and 
 animatedly, "you shall have a good cup of cof- 
 fee in the morning before " 
 
 She looked at her mother, and saw her head 
 drooping, and, checking herself, said : 
 
 " There, Bob, I forgot to tell you I have got 
 a surprise for you, and I will give it to you this 
 moment." 
 
 She rose, left the table, and, returning, gave 
 her brother the mitten package. Bob began to 
 read its superscription : 
 
 " ' For Brother Bob. Not to be opened until 
 the first streak of cold weather sets in. From a 
 friend.' Ah, Alma, thank you " 
 
 " No, I didn't give it. That is from Charlie 
 Habermann."
 
 WANTED, MITTENS. 51 
 
 " O, from Charlie ! All right ! He is a very 
 good fellow. I will see that it is packed in my 
 chest and opened at the proper time. Put them 
 on the shelf now." 
 
 The next day the farewell words were spoken 
 by Bob, and the Andromeda faced and sought 
 that ocean fabled to have sent a devouring mon- 
 ster to her namesake of old.
 
 52 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GETTING HIS SEA-LEGS ON. 
 
 t{ /~1 UESS I have got my sea-legs on," declared 
 
 vT Bob that very afternoon of the departure, 
 strutting about the forecastle or striding the 
 deck, exceedingly pleased that he was not sea- 
 sick. " I pity Ralph." 
 
 Ralph Winthrop was half a dozen months 
 older than Bob. He was of graceful but slen- 
 der build. As his health was not very firm, 
 medical advice said and that meant wise old 
 Dr. Bates " Give up your books awhile, Ralph, 
 and go off' on a sea-voyage for a year or two." 
 
 This was Squire Winthrop's reply to this 
 medical advice when Ralph reported it to him : 
 " I will think it over, Ralph." 
 
 Ralph had been Bob's school-mate, and always 
 liked him, though the two were very different. 
 Morally, Ralph was a crusader ; brave, in a seri- 
 ous emergency, to martyrdom. Physically, he 
 was timid. Hero and scarecrow tenanted the 
 same body. He was not responsible, though,
 
 GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON. 53 
 
 for tins physical shrinking. It came with his 
 body, and Ralph's soul disowned it. In his 
 personal appearance he would have attracted at- 
 tention anywhere at once. He had a refined 
 face, fair complexion, and eyes of deep blue 
 that kindled with a strangely magnetic light 
 when he addressed any one. His expression 
 was one of peculiar interest pure, unselfish, 
 trustworthy. He had found in Bob a champion 
 when boys at school took advantage of Ralph's 
 weak body and sometimes tormented him. 
 Ralph repaid Bob's alliance with his gratitude in 
 public, and in private with many tokens of his 
 appreciation. 
 
 We always take a special interest in any 
 thing weak that we may have protected. This, 
 in part, explained Bob's interest in Ralph. 
 Bob's protege was also, as already affirmed, a 
 noble-hearted, refined boy, a character that will 
 interest any body susceptible to appreciation of 
 true worth of character. Ralph never disap- 
 pointed Bob in any testing of character, though 
 he might disappoint him in an hour when phys- 
 ical bravery and daring might be demanded. 
 
 " Bob, I I am ashamed to feel so, but 
 somehow my old body is a real coward," Ralph
 
 54 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 once said on an occasion of faltering before a 
 danger. 
 
 " Ralph," said Bob, who did not thoroughly 
 understand his comrade's physical peculiarities, 
 " all that is needed to make you brave as one of 
 old Bonaparte's soldiers is to have you go to sea. 
 That will make a man of you." 
 
 This remark was made by Bob one day when 
 the two boys were out on the river running by 
 Oldburyport. They were rowing a dory be- 
 longing to Squire Winthrop. Bob's companion 
 smiled, taking good-naturedly Bob's rather pa- 
 tronizing remark. 
 
 " I can't explain it, Bob, but I am afraid in a 
 thunder-storm, and shiver before lots of things. 
 Still, if I thought I was called on to do any 
 thing that I knew to be wrong may sound like 
 boasting I hope I should submit to considera- 
 ble rather than do it." 
 
 " I think you would stand your ground there, 
 Ralph," said Bob, " though you knew you might 
 have to go to the stake for it." 
 
 Ralph modestly said he did not " know about 
 just that ;" whereupon Bob said emphatically he 
 did know about that. 
 
 The boys were drawing the line fairly in this
 
 GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON. 55 
 
 case between Ralph as timorous and Ralph as 
 courageous. He had a physical shrinking from 
 pain or the risk of it, and yet he had that scru- 
 pulous regard for the right out of which you 
 get martyrs willing to stand and smolder at the 
 stake. It only needed an appeal to Ralph's 
 moral nature to give him a victory of the spirit 
 over all timidity and all cowardice of the flesh. 
 
 After this talk between the two boys, Ralph 
 one day asked Squire Winthrop if he might go 
 off in the Andromeda. 
 
 "Ralph," said Squire Winthrop (he had re- 
 ceived this title from the people on account of 
 some office held years ago), " I think that it 
 would be an excellent thing. The doctor said 
 only the other day a sea-voyage would be good 
 for your health." 
 
 Arrangements for Ralph's departure as a 
 member of the Andromeda 's company were 
 quickly made. 
 
 The Winthrops in Oldburyport had the repu- 
 tation of being " rich as mud," and previous to 
 Ralph's departure Squire Winthrop made an 
 interesting statement about property he de- 
 signed for Ralph. The latter called him 
 "grandpa," though this was not the squire's
 
 56 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 relation to him. Ealph was a distant relative 
 taken into the squire's home. The squire now 
 said : 
 
 " Ralph, you have lived with me ever since, 
 ten years ago, your parents committed you to 
 my care, and as both are now dead I feel like a 
 parent to you, and have tried to look faithfully 
 after you." 
 
 "You have done all that, grandpa," said 
 Ralph gratefully. 
 
 " I hope so. Now that you are going away, I 
 feel peculiarly my loneliness." 
 
 Squire Winthrop was a widower. His home 
 was managed by Mrs. Walker, a cousin to Sar- 
 dinius, and known by Bob and Alma as " Aunt 
 Mary." Since Ralph was the only member of 
 the squire's family at all related to him. the 
 squire felt his loneliness. He now continued : 
 
 " I know that I am an old man. While I 
 hope that I may be alive when you return, yet 
 at my time of life there is great uncertainty. 
 I shall make my will, Ralph, so as to protect 
 your interests, and I want you to know now 
 that it is my purpose to give you what we call 
 'the brick block.' My will will be deposited 
 with Lawyer Hatch, who will be my executor.
 
 GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON. 57 
 
 I want you to know these things before you go 
 away, Ralph, though I hope when you come 
 back you will find me " 
 
 Squire Winthrop ceased. Tears glistened in 
 the old man's eyes. Ralph was very dear to 
 him. 
 
 " Grandpa, you are very kind to speak of this. 
 I hope nothing will happen, and that we shall 
 go on with our home. You have always done 
 every thing for me " 
 
 " O, don't say any thing about that. It is the 
 future I want to care for. My thoughts, iny 
 blessing, my prayers will go with you, Ralph." 
 
 It seemed as if these gave a strong push to the 
 Andromeda, now speeding over the sea. 
 
 Ralph and Bob, that afternoon of the depart- 
 ure, under the swollen sails had been talking 
 about home, their friends, the boys at school or 
 in the stores, that they had known. 
 
 " Well," said Bob, who felt that he had his 
 " sea-legs on," and was striding about in a digni- 
 fied, ambitious way " well, Ralph, we must do 
 our best. Don't want people to say, you know, 
 that we didn't come up to the scratch." 
 
 "It looks, Bob, as if we ought to do that, 
 though I begin "
 
 58 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 "What is it?" asked Bob, eying sharply 
 Ralph's face, which, he thought, looked rather 
 pale. " Seasick, boy ? Don't say so ! Get 
 into your berth ! I have just made up my mind 
 that I wont be seasick." 
 
 " O, I am going to grin and bear it, what- 
 ever comes along." 
 
 "What if Roaring Ben should come along? 
 Grin and bear that ? " 
 
 Roaring Ben was the second mate. Bowles 
 was his surname, but no one ever said "Ben 
 Bowles;" it was "Roaring Ben." His voice 
 was so prominent that the crew could not well 
 think of any thing else than a wind in identify- 
 ing and naming him. 
 
 " It's cither a nor'-wester or ' Roarin' Ben,' ' : 
 an old veteran of the forecastle said once when 
 the sailors were discussing the meaning of a big 
 noise. 
 
 " O, well, ' Roaring Ben ' would be harmless 
 if he didn't have any work for us, Bob." 
 
 "Of course. How do you feel now? Any 
 more sick ? Feel pale, boy ? " 
 
 " Do I look so ? " 
 
 " I don't know but that you do look a little 
 suspicious. However, ' grin and bear it ' is the
 
 GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON. 59 
 
 advice of an experienced navigator on board this 
 ship! Do as he says, unless you will let me 
 carry you to your berth." 
 
 "Go away! Koaring Ben will be along. 
 Say ! You don't suppose he would send us up 
 into the rigging the first day? Awful, if he 
 should ! How could I get up there ! " 
 
 " Grin and bear it, young man ; grin and bear 
 it. I have been practicing on climbing. Guess 
 I could make out." 
 
 He had been practicing. There was no high 
 point in the vicinity of Bob's home which he 
 had not tried to reach. He had climbed over 
 the shed-roof and that of the next shed on a 
 neighbor's lot. One day his mother had gone 
 up garret to overhaul some old clothing. She 
 climbed the stairway leading to the scuttle, and 
 she raised it to admit more light. 
 
 " Did I ever ! " she exclaimed, dropping the 
 scuttle suddenly. " If there isn't Bob." 
 
 Yes, the first obj ect seen was Bob's face ! He 
 had climbed the house-roof, and, crawling along 
 the ridge-pole, had reached the scuttle when his 
 mother chanced to open it. 
 
 " Here I am ! " he shouted, raising the scuttle. 
 
 " There, Bob," said his mother, " I expect next
 
 60 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 to see you on the church-vane, sitting across 
 that." 
 
 " No, mother, you will see me going to the 
 mast-head with ease, just because I have been 
 practicing for it. No other way, you know." 
 
 Having practiced, he supposed that on board 
 the Andromeda there would not be the least 
 difficulty in going up the shrouds and reaching 
 any point of the rigging. 
 
 " Wish I wasn't so timid ! " exclaimed Ralph. 
 
 " Follow me ! " said Bob proudly. " If you 
 feel seasick, get on my back when up aloft. O, 
 we sha'n't have to go aloft ! " 
 
 On board ship, though, no one can with con- 
 fidence anticipate an easy time. The wind fresh- 
 ened, and, as it looked very squally toward night, 
 Roaring Ben, whose watch it was, thought it 
 advisable to shorten sail. His voice bellowed 
 forth its commands, and then whom did he see 
 shrinking into one corner, hoping that he would 
 not send them aloft, though outwardly trying to 
 look brave ? 
 
 " Ah, boys, up with you ! Just bear a hand 
 there ! Up with you ! " shouted the mate. 
 
 " Where, sir ? " Ralph meekly ventured to 
 inquire.
 
 GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON. 61 
 
 " Main top-sail ! " roared Ben. " Where's 
 your ears ? Lay aloft ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir ! " replied Bob, promptly 
 springing into the rigging. 
 
 " O, dear," groaned Ralph, awkwardly follow- 
 ing. " "Where's the main top-sail ? " 
 
 He had been learning the parts of a ship, but 
 his memory suddenly seemed to have deserted 
 him. However, he followed Bob. 
 
 " Say ! " bawled the mate, who at first had 
 not closely watched the execution of his order to 
 the boys, so multiplied were his duties. " That 
 isn't the mainmast ! " 
 
 O, what sheepish boys crawled down the rig- 
 ing ! Bob had as usual been more anxious to go 
 quick than to go right, and, obeying his first im- 
 pulse, had climbed the shrouds nearest him. 
 Consequently, he had started up the rigging 
 of the foremast. Ralph was laughing. Bob, 
 though, looked mad enough to eat Roaring Ben. 
 After all his practice, to think he should go up 
 the wrong mast ! However, he rectified his 
 error, went up the right shrouds, reached the 
 right yard, and then, clinging for " dear life," as 
 Ralph said, the two boys tried to shorten sail. 
 They had an abundance of company, so that
 
 62 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 their duty was not a solitary one, but what an 
 experience ! 
 
 There was the sea roughening every-where 
 around the Andromeda, while the numberless 
 foaming crests of the waves were like white, 
 angry faces lifted out of the sea. In the midst 
 of this uneasiness, below his feet, was a vessel's 
 deck that Ralph once ventured to look down 
 upon, and how he did wish himself safely estab- 
 lished there ! He did not look a second time, 
 for his head was beginning to swim. Up to 
 the mast-head, up to the sky covered with tur- 
 bulent clouds he turned his eyes, and his self- 
 possession returned. He saw several sailors on 
 his yard, and Bob was next. They all were 
 gripping the fluttering sail, energetically trying 
 to secure it. But was Bob slipping? Ralph 
 never could exactly tell, and Bob never would 
 allow that he was slipping, but while Ralph 
 clung with one arm he threw another about 
 Bob, and wished they both were five hundred 
 miles inland. 
 
 " I feel miserably," said Ralph. 
 
 " Guess, boys, we can do without you," shouted 
 a kindly voice, " and you have made a good be- 
 ginning. Let me have your place."
 
 GETTING His SEA-LEGS ON. 63 
 
 It was Horace Haviland. Ralph was entirely 
 willing to resign his position to Horace, and he 
 crawled back out of the way, followed by Bob. 
 
 " What's what's the matter, Bob?" said 
 Ralph, looking into a very pale face. " You 
 you sick ? This old thing tosses so I 
 can't" 
 
 ' k What's what's the matter with you ? " 
 said Bob, who was just above Ralph on the 
 shrouds, and now looked down into a ghastly 
 face. "You got a touch of sickness ? 
 Hadn't we better go down " 
 
 " Down to the deck ? O hold on just 
 till Horace and the others get through and 
 we will go with them," pleaded Ralph. " If 
 we don't, that hurricane of a Ben will send us 
 up again " 
 
 " Well," said Bob, mournfully ; adding, " I 
 feel" 
 
 " The way I feel, probably. Don't say any 
 thing. Grin " 
 
 " And bear it," was the heroic finish that Bob 
 gave to the words of Ralph. 
 
 Two green boys up in the rigging of a ship, 
 tossing on a sea where not an inch of land 
 was in sight, under a sky that the clouds cov-
 
 64 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 ered and the night soon would darke'n two boys 
 beginning to feel that there was a sea stirring 
 inside of them were they to be envied ? 
 
 " Ralph," sang out Bob, " I I've got to go 
 down " 
 
 " Roaring Ben will send us up " 
 
 " Down with you ! " shouted Horace Havi- 
 land ; " that sail is reefed. Down, boys." 
 
 It seemed to the boys as if Horace's rough 
 voice made the sweetest possible music in all 
 the world, and down they crawled, their heads 
 drooping, just clinging with their hands, and 
 putting their feet somewhere and feeling so 
 wretchedly that the grimmest old enemy would 
 have been moved to quick compassion. They 
 staggered into the forecastle, and turned at once 
 into their bunks, to lie there in misery, and long- 
 ingly think of home.
 
 AT THE WALKEK HOME. 65 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 
 
 DID two seasick sailor boys wish themselves 
 at home ? How gladly those at home would 
 have welcomed them if returning that day ! 
 
 " Didn't think we should miss Ralph quite so 
 badly," said Squire Winthrop to his housekeeper, 
 trying to smile as he spoke. 
 
 " House seems like a tomb," replied Aunt 
 Mary ; a woman of nerve and energy, tall, dark, 
 wearing spectacles. 
 
 " O, dear ! " groaned Mrs. Walker, striving to 
 be brave, but at last yielding to her mood, and 
 bandaging her face with a big white handker- 
 chief, " I knew my toothache would come on if 
 Bob left." 
 
 " It looks terribly homesick down in the dock 
 where the Andromeda was," Father Walker re- 
 ported to Alma. " If I had known how it 
 would be with Bob gone I never would have 
 consented to his going off. How do you feel 
 about it, Alma ? "
 
 66 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 It was Alma's nature to feel, and then in a 
 courageous way to bravely accept the situation 
 and endeavor to make the best of it. She relied 
 very much on Bob. When her mother's nerves 
 were troublesome Bob could quiet them. That 
 the impulsive, restless Bob should ever have 
 been like a narcotic may have seemed strange, 
 but then " nerves " are strange things any way. 
 When Mrs. Walker said that hers were " a-jump- 
 in'," Bob could somehow subdue them. Then 
 he was helpful to Alma. When the father for- 
 got, as he often did, to bring home flour, meal, 
 or meat, Bob was the one to spring up and rush 
 to the stores on Central Street. Besides, he 
 would bring Alma any little earnings he might 
 receive, and only Alma knew how helpful they 
 were. Bob also was such a social body so 
 noisy, making his whistle echo all over the 
 house, and his shout echo all about it, that the 
 place did seem very empty now. When all had 
 gone to bed that night, Alma lingered before 
 the kitchen fire and wondered where Bob was. 
 She heard the wind sigh down the lane, and she 
 fancied how it might be out at sea. Then she 
 thought of the burdens sure to come upon her 
 shoulders now that Bob was gone. O how they
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 67 
 
 multiplied, and not only seemed to drop upon 
 her, but, as if animated and alive, seemed to 
 rush at her! "I am the flour barrel ; fill 
 me!" said one. "I am the stove-hod; give 
 me some coal ! " said another. " I am the milk 
 bill ; pay me ! " said a third. " We are the shoes 
 Billy has been wearing out at the toes ; mend 
 us 1 " cried a fourth party. " And you the rent 
 bill ?" thought Alma as she saw another intruder 
 fluttering before her. " O, dear, no, I -wont 
 sigh. To-morrow is Sunday, and I am going to 
 have rest." " But Monday what then ? " all 
 the bills seemed to shout. " Monday is coming." 
 
 " Well, I can't see as far ahead as Monday," 
 replied Alma, who believed in taking what 
 somebody has called short looks. 
 
 Blessed is it to take a look ahead that carries 
 us into the midst of Sunday, that truce with 
 care, that resting-place in the up-hill climb, that 
 fuller chance for a talk with God and a leaning 
 upon his strength. 
 
 That Sunday was such a house of comfort for 
 Alma! To the dear old church, whose walls 
 were so overgrown with the associations of wor- 
 ship, she took a request that the pastor might 
 remember those who had gone to sea.
 
 68 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " O yes," said fatherly old Mr. Tappan, " I 
 was going to remember those who had gone in 
 the Andromeda" 
 
 It was raining when Alma went home from 
 the evening service, the night was dark, and up 
 the river came the cry of the sea. After the 
 prayer for those on board the Andromeda, the 
 vessel, to Alma's sight, sailed not in darkness 
 and wind and rain, but across a great space of 
 peaceful sea, and amid rich, golden sunshine. 
 The next morning, though, was Monday, and 
 there was the " rent bill." 
 
 u Father, I don't suppose you know of any 
 money anywhere for the rent ? " asked Alma. 
 
 " Kent ? " said Father Walker, who had just 
 returned from an unsuccessful trip to Central 
 Street after a job. 
 
 He spoke with a bewildered air. All color 
 seemed to leave his face as he said : 
 
 " Kent ? There ! What shall we do ? You 
 see I didn't get any thing this morning, and " 
 
 Alma looked down and spoke slowly : 
 
 " I think I must do what I don't want to do, 
 go to see our landlord and ask him to give us a 
 little more time." 
 
 " Alma, child, if if you will, I'll bless you,
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 69 
 
 and I know he won't refuse you," enthusiastic- 
 ally cried Father "Walker. 
 
 He then sat down to his breakfast contentedly, 
 and thought no more about rent. 
 
 "Alma will fix that," he had affirmed with 
 assurance. 
 
 After breakfast Alma said : 
 
 " It is a bad matter, and the sooner it is over 
 the better it will be, and I will go at once." 
 
 She hurried up-stairs to get the hat that, 
 through re-fitting and re-trimming and great 
 care, had been her "best" for four or five sea- 
 sons. She halted in her room a few minutes. 
 It was a rest to her to fall on her knees and tell 
 God her perplexity, and ask for that guiding 
 Hand which had so often led her through in- 
 tricate ways. 
 
 " He has helped me so many times," she mur- 
 mured, " that I don't believe this will be too 
 hard for him." 
 
 Alma had a child's ready belief that somehow 
 her Father in heaven, that great Friend, who 
 is never wearied with the sound of oft-coming 
 feet, could and would help her now. That prayer 
 was like a breath of the pure outer air to one 
 who has been shut up day after day to the at-
 
 70 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 mosphere of the sick room. She left the house 
 and passed up into Central Street. 
 
 " There is that old-fashioned house empty 
 again," thought Alma. 
 
 It was an antique wooden house, reputed to 
 be one of the oldest in town, and around it hung 
 a rich drapery of old-time stories. One corner 
 had been modernized sufficiently to permit the 
 building out of a bay-window on the first floor. 
 
 " There it is, looking at me again, and seem- 
 ing to say, 'What a good chance this is for 
 you ! ' " thought Alma. 
 
 So often perplexed to know what she possibly 
 might do to increase the income of the family, 
 she sometimes had had a dream about this old 
 house. 
 
 "If I could live in that house," she now said 
 to herself, repeating the substance of her dream, 
 " I could keep a little store and display my goods 
 in that bay-window. There, that will do to go 
 with father's efforts to get a job. We will let 
 that go, and think about rent. O, dear! " 
 
 Next to the old house was "the brick block." 
 This was Ralph's expected inheritance. It was 
 the largest structure of brick in the town, and 
 that fact had given it the title it bore. Nobody
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 71 
 
 said "Winthrop's Block," but "the brick 
 block." 
 
 " If father could only be employed by those 
 in its offices, wouldn't it be nice ! " thought Al- 
 ma. "Then we could get along. No use to 
 wish!" 
 
 She passed the brick block, and turned up a 
 little court in whose rear rose a mansion, not 
 stylish, but substantial and in good taste, fronted 
 by a garden where the buds on the trees were 
 rapidly swelling and getting up their pennants 
 for springes grand flag-raising in forest and 
 field. 
 
 Alma hastened through the garden, ran 
 up a flight of stone steps, and was received 
 by a servant, who showed her into a library, 
 and she there waited her landlord's appear- 
 ance. 
 
 " Ah, Alma ! " exclaimed Squire Winthrop as 
 he entered. He was a tall, stately man, with a 
 deep, impressive voice. He was not only 
 crowned with his white hairs, but with the re- 
 spect of all the Oldburyport people. " You are 
 the very one I wanted to see, Alma." 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so," thought Alma. " He 
 wants his rent."
 
 72 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 She began to say, "I I " Somehow her 
 breath seemed to have left her. 
 
 " Stop one minute ! I will tell you what is 
 on my mind," said Squire Winthrop. "You 
 know the ' old house,' now empty, next to the 
 brick block ? " 
 
 Alma began to breathe more easily, and said, 
 " O, yes, sir 1 " 
 
 " Well, I want," he said smilingly " to come 
 at once to my point I want you to move 
 into it!" 
 
 Did Alma hear aright ? She almost lost her 
 breath again in an amazement of joy. 
 
 "Not move into that old-fashioned house I 
 have always liked ? " 
 
 "Not only move in, but stay in." 
 
 " And keep store ? " 
 
 " Store ? " he asked looking puzzled. 
 
 " Why, I have thought how nice a store-win- 
 dow that bay-window would make " 
 
 "Store?" 
 
 " Fancy goods, ribbons, pins, and needles " 
 
 " And you keep it ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 "Capital!" 
 
 " O, you are so good ! But "
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 73 
 
 Her countenance fell. She thought of that 
 serious subject " rent." He guessed her mean- 
 ing. 
 
 " About the rent ? Well, it occurred to me 
 that for the rent your father might be willing 
 to be janitor of the brick block. That means 
 to open arid close each day the door leading up 
 to the offices and hall, sweep down the main 
 stair- way, and look after any of the offices that 
 needed him, open and close the hall when used. 
 For the care of the hall, the heating and sweep- 
 ing, he would have extra pay according to the 
 nights it might be used. He could do it, I 
 think, and attend also to any work he might get 
 outside. You could " 
 
 " You are so kind, I " 
 
 She stopped. She suddenly thought about 
 the rent of the present home that had not yet 
 been paid, and, after all the kindness of the 
 squire, it did seem too bad to tell the old gen- 
 tleman that she had not brought him his 
 due. There sat Alma, her head drooping like 
 a flower suddenly wilted, her eyes cast down, 
 her hands clasped in her lap, and a flush of 
 shame and embarrassment overspreading her 
 fair cheeks.
 
 74: SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 "Are are not you well?" asked the squire 
 solicitously. 
 
 " O, yes ! " she said, not raising her head. 
 "But but, Squire Winthrop, it seems too bad, 
 after your kindness, to say that the rent is not 
 ready to-day, and to ask you for a few days 
 more time?" 
 
 " O, that's it ! We can fix that," said the 
 squire promptly. 
 
 The squire's pleasant, ready assurance had an 
 effect like that of a bath of water on a drooping 
 plant, and Alma raised her head. 
 
 " O, you are so good ! " 
 
 " O, not at all ! That is all right. Now, you 
 go home and talk this over with your father and 
 mother, and let me know to-morrow, say? 
 Your father will want to see me, too. The man 
 who has been janitor at the brick block leaves 
 in a week, so that his successor must be ready 
 to go on duty at once, or very soon." 
 
 How Alma went home, on feet or wings, along 
 Central Street, or by a back way or not I 
 don't think she knew. She went very quickly, 
 and she went in a flutter. That was all she 
 could report about the trip home. What she 
 told those at home set them in a flutter as great
 
 AT THE WALKEK HOME. 75 
 
 as her own. Father Walker called on the squire 
 soon as he could get inside his best coat and 
 pants. Mrs. "Walker put on a faded sun-bonnet 
 and hurried off to see " Aunt Mary." It was 
 the first time her " nerves " had permitted her 
 to make " a call " for a year. In her confusion 
 she tied the strings of the old sun-bonnet so 
 tightly that when she arrived at Aunt Mary's 
 sitting-room, in the rear of Squire Winthrop's 
 library, the tightly -drawn strings gave her 
 flushed face a half-hung look. It was all settled 
 within an hour, and the janitor-elect strutted 
 down street as if he had unexpectedly come into 
 possession of Squire Winthrop's magnificent 
 brick block itself. 
 
 " We move next week," said Mrs. Walker to 
 Alma, when she returned home ; " and I am glad 
 I feel so strong. I feel as if I could move the 
 furniture myself." 
 
 " Good, mother, good ! O, if Bob only knew 
 it ! " cried Alma enthusiastically. 
 
 Alma soon went up to Squire Winthrop's, for 
 he had sent her word that he wanted to see her. 
 
 "I thought, Alma," remarked the squire, 
 " that I would like to go over the house with 
 you and tell you something about it."
 
 76 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " It is just what 1 wanted, Squire Winthrop ; 
 and could mother come too ? " 
 
 "Why, yes, certainly; but I thought she was 
 sick." 
 
 " She was sick ; but somehow this makes a new 
 woman of her. It has," said Alma, " awakened 
 a strange interest, a new kind of energy in mother. 
 She has been up here." 
 
 " I did not know it. The town doctors ought 
 to get hold of this fact, and if they did their 
 patients might get hold of less medicine. There 
 is in every physical body some power to repair 
 waste, and one province of the doctor is to get 
 that power to work, and, if weak, to strengthen 
 it. Medicine must be discriminatingly given, 
 and any superfluous administration is not only 
 thrown away, but worse even. However, that 
 is not seeing the old house, and soon as your 
 mother comes to-morrow, say, for that will rest 
 her we will look it over." 
 
 Mrs. Walker, though, wanted to go that very 
 day, and went. The old house was a so-called 
 " double-house," a long, wide hall dividing it. 
 This hall extended from the street in front to a 
 small, old-fashioned garden in the rear. At 
 the right, as you entered from the street, was
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 77 
 
 the bay-window in the front room of a suite 
 of two. 
 
 " Double parlors," thought Alrna ; " but, if 
 the squire still is willing, I will have a store in 
 the front one." 
 
 On the other side of the hall were two rooms 
 that the family could occupy for living pur- 
 poses. 
 
 " A sitting room in front and kitchen in the 
 rear, mother ? " asked Alma. 
 
 " Yes, that is it," replied Mrs. "Walker, accus- 
 tomed to defer to her daughter's opinion. 
 
 " Nice room for a kitchen especially," said the 
 squire, pointing to the back room. Outside of 
 one of its windows stood a small apple-tree, in 
 blossom now, its branches seeming to be crowded 
 with pure, white faces coming out of some blessed 
 land to give Alma and her mother a welcome. 
 Up-stairs the room was divided into smaller 
 apartments, connected by cozy passage ways. 
 There was a hall on the second floor corre- 
 sponding with that below, and between the two 
 floors was a broad, gently sloping stairway. Its 
 balustrade was of an old-fashioned type, but the 
 structure was still strong. The wall paper 
 one noticed it as he descended the stairs was
 
 78 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 covered with palm-trees, so that on a hot day 
 there was an agreeable illusion of coming down 
 into a palm grove. On the second floor the 
 scenery was different. There were big fleets of 
 ships forever anchored on the paper of the 
 upper hall. On the third floor was " a magnifi- 
 cent garret," as Alma termed it. From its front 
 window you could look over the low roof of a 
 block of stores opposite, and then out upon the 
 river winding toward the sea. Alma and her 
 mother had a morning view of the river and 
 harbor. The sun was still trying to make the 
 water believe it had been turned into glittering 
 silver by the magic wand of its beams from the 
 East. 
 
 " O, mother ! " exclaimed Alma, " what a 
 view ! We can watch up here for ships when 
 Bob is expected home." 
 
 " And it will be a comfort, any way, to look 
 out and see which way he went," replied the 
 mother, lingering thoughtfully at this window. 
 
 " Now," said the squire, " I want to tell you 
 something about the picture." 
 
 " O yes ! " replied Alma. " I almost forgot 
 that. I have often heard about it. Somebody 
 said it had gone."
 
 AT THE WALKEK HOME. 79 
 
 " It is in the house, just the same, and I want 
 to tell you about it. Shall we go down ? " 
 
 The squire here led off, and the two ladies 
 followed. 
 
 He halted before a portrait in the lower hall. 
 It was the only piece of furniture in all the 
 house below the attic. The squire almost bowed 
 to it as he spoke, and it seemed, so tall and 
 straight was he, as if one of the stately palms 
 had stepped forward from the groves on the 
 wall and made a slight obeisance to the 
 portrait. 
 
 " Here it is," he said, and then remained 
 silent. 
 
 The picture was that of a man about fifty, 
 stout and heavy, wearing a scarlet coat, though 
 the tinting was much faded now. The man did 
 not turn fully to the spectators, but it seemed as 
 if, having started to move off, he partially turned 
 to say something that he had forgotten, and so 
 looked over his shoulder. It was a very scowl- 
 ing look he gave out of his dark eyes, deep-set 
 under bushy brows, and a look as of indignation 
 flushed his full round face with red. 
 
 " There," said*the squire, " the strange thing 
 about that picture is that I don't seem to know
 
 80 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 who it is; whether an ancestor or just an in- 
 truder. My father before me did not know. It 
 got into the possession of the family somehow. 
 You know some people don't like to disturb 
 pictures. You may have read, as I have, about 
 pictures whose owner said they must not be re- 
 moved. "Well. I have that kind of feeling about 
 that unknown man in scarlet. So I tell all who 
 live as tenants not to touch the picture. May 
 be superstition," continued the squire in low, 
 half-whispered tones, as if he were talking to 
 himself, "but I don't just like to disturb him. 
 He has been there so long, you know, all these 
 years of my knowledge, and he may have been 
 one of the family " 
 
 " You used to live here, sir, didn't you ? " 
 asked Mrs. Walker. 
 
 "When I was young; but I wanted to get 
 back from the street not wanting to go into 
 business, like this enterprising young woman 
 here" 
 
 He hesitated and looked at Alma. Had he 
 told a secret ? 
 
 " Mother knows," said Alma quickly, " and 
 she approves." 
 
 " Very well, then. So you see, I built the
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 81 
 
 house where I am living now. The puzzling 
 thing about that picture " he now returned to 
 the portrait, which seemed to interest him ex- 
 ceedingly " is, who can it be ? Really, though, 
 I don't know about him. Must have been, it 
 seems to me, a kind of military man, for you 
 see his coat is buttoned up like a soldier's 
 looks like it, at least ; and when I was younger, 
 and my eyes sharper and the picture not so 
 dusty, I used to imagine a strap on his shoul- 
 der, but I don't know. Looks pretty resolute ; 
 doesn't he 2 " 
 
 Alma thought he did, and as they turned to 
 go away it seemed to her as if he looked very 
 intently at her. 
 
 " You, young lady, do not belong to this 
 Winthrop family, but I do. I own all the 
 "Winthrop house and "Winthrop family," the 
 portrait seemed to say. It startled the young 
 woman. 
 
 Alma did not recover from this impression of 
 a seeming charge against her, of trying to get 
 him out of the Winthrop family, for a } r ear at 
 least. In the dark, when nothing could be seen, 
 and in the bright sunlight, when much could be 
 seen, by Alma hurrying past that portrait, again
 
 82 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 and again did it seem as if the dark eyes looked 
 sharply at her, and " Colonel Scarlet-coat," as the 
 Walker children learned to call him, would say 
 again, " You, young lady, do not belong to the 
 Winthrop family, but I do." 
 
 We become used, though, to almost every 
 thing, and gradually "Colonel Scarlet-coat" 
 ceased to have any special interest for any body 
 in the house. However, he did not cease to look 
 day and night over his shoulder in the warmest 
 weather and the coldest weather, on Sundays 
 and on week days, as if he were on the watch for 
 the man or woman who would certainly come 
 some day and with no gentle hand take him 
 down from his honorable place on the wall. 
 
 When the Walkers were established in their 
 new quarters Alma said to herself, u Now for 
 my store. But O, dear, where's the money com- 
 ing from with which to buy pins and needles 
 and cotton and ribbons and combs and hair- 
 brushes " 
 
 She stopped, and in despair looked at that 
 vacant window. What could, could she do? 
 She thought, she planned, she spoke to one 
 merchant after another, but could get no help. 
 She would not give it up. One day the senior
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 83 
 
 member of the firm of " Bangs Brothers" called 
 to her when passing their splendid dry goods 
 store. 
 
 " Excuse me, Miss Walker, but I understand 
 you think of opening a little store," said 
 Bangs. 
 
 " O it wouldn't interfere with you ! " replied 
 Alma, thinking he referred to a possible clash- 
 ing of the firms of " Bangs Brothers" and " A. 
 Walker." 
 
 "O, I don't mean that!" he said, with a 
 smile ; " but I was thinking that if you 
 wanted some goods on credit I could let you 
 have some." 
 
 " Would you, though ? That would be" 
 
 Alma could not express her satisfaction readily, 
 but it shone in her happy eyes. She tried to 
 thank Mr. Bangs as well as she could, and hast- 
 ened home to tell her father and mother. In. 
 due time the bay-window was stocked, and cus- 
 tomers came in. 
 
 " Mother," said Alma one day, " I will tell 
 you who I suspect is at the bottom of this." 
 
 "Of what?" 
 
 " Why, my having these goods to sell." 
 
 "Who?"
 
 84 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " I think Squire Winthrop said something to 
 Bangs Brothers." 
 
 Alma's guess was correct. Squire Winthrop 
 had said to the senior member of the firm, 
 " Bangs, that young woman in Walker's fam- 
 ily" 
 
 I know." 
 
 " Has an idea she would like to keep a little 
 store in my old house." 
 
 " Has she 3 " 
 
 " Yes, and if you will let her have some goods 
 I will be responsible for their payment. Don't 
 say any thing about me to her." 
 
 " But how will she know I am willing to do 
 it I mean, willing to start her ? " 
 
 " O, you speak to her some day when she is 
 going by. She will be passing along the street, 
 and you speak." 
 
 Alma passed along and Bangs spoke. 
 
 A month after this, Squire Winthrop called 
 upon his tenants in the old house. Stepping 
 into the store, he exclaimed, 
 
 " What, you here, Mrs. Walker ? You 
 keep store ? I thought Alma was the store- 
 keeper." 
 
 " Well, squire, somehow I got interested, and
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 85 
 
 my health is so much better for it, and Alma 
 says I have a real knack at it, and it gives her a 
 chance to to " 
 
 " Do something else." 
 
 " Yes, sir, something she has always thought 
 she would like to do if she ever did have a 
 chance to, you know " 
 
 " Dress-making ? " asked the squire. 
 
 " You knock on that door, sir, and see. 
 We didn't need more than the front room 
 for the store, and so she has taken the back 
 room." 
 
 " I am really quite curious to see," observed 
 the squire. He stepped up to the door opening 
 into the back parlor and gently knocked. Yery 
 quickly a hum of voices inside ceased, and the 
 squire heard the step of some one approaching 
 the door. When it was thrown back there ap- 
 peared Alma. She greeted her landlord with a 
 pleasant, " O, how do you do, Squire Win- 
 throp?" 
 
 " Why, why ! " he exclaimed, " What is this ? 
 Have you a seminary here ? " 
 
 He saw eight children, each holding a small 
 primer in the lap ; and it was well the book thus 
 fondled was not .a big one, but slender and light,
 
 86 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 for all the children were little folks, and une- 
 qual to heavy burdens. 
 
 " You see," said Alma, a quiet delight glow- 
 ing in her eyes, "I have always had an idea I 
 should like to teach, and mother, you see, takes 
 to store-keeping, and so I secured some children 
 in the neighborhood, and put one of ours with 
 them, and that makes a class." 
 
 " I see, I see ! " said the squire, nodding ap- 
 provingly. 
 
 When he passed out into the broad hall and 
 closed the door behind him, he lingered a rno- 
 inent to enjoy the echo of the children's voices 
 giving " teacher " an answer in chorus. 
 
 " That girl is a treasure," thought the squire. 
 " I am sure of that. I feel like adopting her 
 and making her my daughter." 
 
 However, Squire Winthrop took no step to- 
 ward the adoption of Alma as a daughter. The 
 days went by quietly, but busily. Alma taught, 
 and her mother sold pins and needles. No harm 
 came to the Winthrop house or Winthrop fam- 
 ily, though the mysterious portrait frowned con- 
 tinually, as much as to say, "You, young lady, 
 will be the one through whom harm will come 
 to me."
 
 AT THE WALKER HOME. 87 
 
 Harm? lu all the world, who had a more 
 tender, more amiable heart \ She was loved on 
 land and sea. One sailor-bo y, confessedly, was 
 her admirer, never weary of sounding her 
 praises. That was her brother Bob, and his 
 flight on canvas wings, far out to sea, we shall, 
 in a little while, follow.
 
 88 SAILOB-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ASHORE STILL. 
 
 " /^OULD I see you a moment, Almay?" 
 
 \J It was a gray morning, and the clouds 
 hung thick above Oldburyport, and there was 
 no sunshine in the bay-window of the old house 
 where the Walkers lived. The sunshine, though, 
 seemed to have come, for Alma had entered the 
 room, and, in her cheerful, energetic way, hum- 
 ming a tune, was bustling among her goods of 
 cotton and linen, her threads and laces, her but- 
 tons and yarn. But who was it that wanted to 
 see her? The new-comer was a spare, gray- 
 haired woman with bent form and worn features, 
 and in her eyes was a vacant, abstracted look, as 
 if a part of her mind had wandered away and 
 she missed it, and was perplexed to know where 
 it had gone. This indeed was the fact. Some- 
 thing given to other people, our greatest bless- 
 ing, reason, was wanting in its completeness to 
 Mary Haviland, and she had a confused sense of 
 her loss without the ability to definitely state it.
 
 ASHORE STILL. 89 
 
 " I know I am not like other people,*' Mary 
 Haviland would sometimes say. Severe sickness 
 when a child had forever stunted her growth, 
 and, though she became a woman, the mind and 
 powers of a child were all that arrived at the 
 years of womanhood. Her brother was Horace 
 Haviland, of the crew of the Andromeda. She 
 knew where he was weak, in his appetite for 
 drink, and earnestly did she pray that Horace 
 might become a new man. She was extremely 
 susceptible to the thought of a God, of heaven, 
 of the spiritual and eternal life. Her prayers 
 were marvels of directness and trust. Alrna 
 once heard Mary Haviland pray. 
 
 " Mary took me deep into the presence of God, 
 somehow," Alma told her mother. " She had a 
 real home-like way of talking, not so much to 
 him, but with him. She never seems to have a 
 doubt but that she will always get just what she 
 wants." 
 
 Mary had strong faith in her brother Horace's 
 victory sometime over drink. 
 
 " I just love to hear Mary tell about Horace 
 what he will become," Alma once said to Aunt 
 Mary. " Mary at one time thinks he will be a 
 great sea-captain, and then another time it is a
 
 90 SAILOK BOY BOB. 
 
 great soldier, or a great preacher, but it is always 
 something grand and marvelous. She thiiiks he 
 is wonderful." 
 
 And yet, with all her hopes and her expecta- 
 tions,, there went the gravest fears on account of 
 her brother's appetite for liquor. Like a pendu- 
 lum, she went from joy to anxiety. She was 
 now uneasy about Horace. When she called to 
 see Alma, this gray, clouded morning, she 
 showed her distress in her face. 
 
 "Could I see you a moment, Almay?" she 
 asked again. 
 
 " O yes, Mary, what is it ? Come into the 
 school-room. We shall .be alone there, you 
 know." 
 
 " You see, Almay, I am worried about Hor- 
 ace." 
 
 " Well, there is this to be thought of, Mary : 
 he knows his danger, and will be likely to be 
 careful, I should say." 
 
 " Yes, yes." 
 
 That did not satisfy Mary, though she assent- 
 ed to Alma's words. It was not strange that 
 Mary should be solicitous, for the Andromeda 
 was halting in New York. The number of her 
 crew was not full. A few repairs were to be
 
 ASHORE STILL. 91 
 
 made. Mary knew that if Horace ventured 
 ashore he would not be likely to stand the temp- 
 tations sure to confront him. In the secluded 
 room where they stood, there was silence for a 
 while, Mary's faded blue eyes snapping and her 
 wrinkled features working convulsively. 
 
 " O, I hope it will come out all right ! " said 
 Alma assuringly. " You stop and take some 
 breakfast with me." 
 
 This seemed to exhaust Alma's list of re- 
 sources. It did not satisfy Mary. She rose 
 nervously, pulled over her shoulders a thin, 
 gray shawl, for the morning was cool, and left 
 the room. When she reached the hall, she 
 turned and came back again. 
 
 " You see," she whispered, " I have an idea 
 that what you say, Almay, is good but but 
 I seem to feel that all I can do is is just to 
 tell the Lord." 
 
 " That is right, Mary," said Alma encourag- 
 ingly. " It is all you can do, and the best thing 
 you can do, to tell the Lord." 
 
 "Yes," said Mary, "I will do that. You 
 know, Almay, I can always reach him." 
 
 In a poor but neat home on one of the nar- 
 row, crooked lanes straggling from the district
 
 92 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 about Central Street down to the wharves, sat 
 an old mother, who looked up from her knitting 
 as Mary entered, and said : 
 
 " Got back, Mary ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother," replied the daughter, and 
 went at once to a little side room, in which was 
 a bed. 
 
 The door of this room she softly closed when 
 she had entered. The open window she did not 
 shut. Mary had an idea she could pray more 
 freely when the window was open, and this fact 
 she now noticed with pleasure. 
 
 " I'll just tell the Lord," she murmured, and 
 fell upon her knees. 
 
 As she prayed for the absent, tempted, weak 
 brother, a peace came into her face. Somehow 
 the wrinkles, as by the pressure of a gentle 
 hand, seemed to go down and pass away. A 
 robin alighted on the window-sill and sang. 
 That did not disturb Mary. 
 
 " It is the voice of the Lord," she said in the 
 depths of her soul. 
 
 As the robin sang on, Mary prayed on, and 
 the change in her face was still more marked 
 and strange. It was a child's face bent over the 
 bed, and seemingly asleep ; but Mary was not
 
 ASHORE STILL. &8 
 
 asleep. Her soul was keenly awake, for she was 
 with God, and his peace came down into her 
 heart and stilled it, like the great tide in the 
 river that twice a day came from the sea and 
 set at liberty any stranded, vexed vessel, floating 
 it off into depths of peace. 
 
 " I've got my answer," said Mary. " The 
 Lord will take care of Horace." 
 
 Yes, the Lord will care, in his own way and 
 at his own time ; and a thought like this, but not 
 so clear and definite, came to Mary. As she 
 rose from her knees the now startled bird ceased 
 his song, lifted his wings, and flew away. His 
 music, though, stayed in the sister's heart that 
 had been pleading for a brother. 
 
 " The Lord's voice, the Lord's voice," she 
 often said during the day. " He will take care 
 of Horace." 
 
 " And Horace, where was he ? It was this 
 same day, in New York, that Captain Granby 
 had given leave to his crew to go ashore. 
 
 " Shall you go, Horace ? " asked Bob. 
 
 "I I don't know. Yes, I think I will," 
 replied Horace. 
 
 Bob and Ralph went off also. They strayed 
 as far as Broadway, watching the crowd, looking
 
 94 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 at the stores, until they were tired, and then re- 
 turned to the ship. 
 
 " Seen any thing of Horace ? " asked Captain 
 Granby. 
 
 u No, sir ; no, sir." 
 
 " Nothing at all, boys ? " 
 
 " Nothing at all, sir." 
 
 " I wonder where he is ? " 
 
 " Don't you want us to look him up ? " asked 
 Bob. 
 
 " "Where would you go to ? Like trying to 
 find an eel in a big mill-pond." 
 
 " 'Twon't do any harm just to try," suggested 
 Kalph. 
 
 " Yes, that is so," seconded Bob. " Trying 
 wont cost you any thing? " 
 
 " You may go, boys. Don't go far." 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir," sang out the boys together. 
 
 Off they started, Bob and Ralph, to hunt up 
 Horace, encouraged by this parting remark from 
 Captain Granby : " If Horace has taken any 
 thing, the longer he is away from the ship the 
 less sense he will bring back." 
 
 The boys could not go far without meeting a 
 row of rum saloons. They looked into saloon 
 after saloon. They were all very much alike in
 
 ASHORE STILL. 95 
 
 these particulars : they were dirty, ill-smelling, 
 and occupied by rough, profane, lazy-looking 
 men. Suddenly Bob shouted : 
 
 " There's our man ! Now for him ! " 
 Ralph held back a moment, asking himself, 
 " May may there not be trouble ahead ? " 
 Bob asked no questions, saw trouble neither 
 before him nor behind him, to the right or* the 
 left. He simply saw Horace, and rushed on. x 
 Ralph speedily caught up with him, and the 
 two walked up to Horace, and each took him by 
 an arm. He lowered a glass of whisky that had 
 touched his lips, and confusedly, angrily, looked 
 at his interrupters. 
 
 " All right, Horace ! " said Bob soothingly. 
 " Go with us. That is a good fellow." 
 
 " Yes, yes," added Ralph ; " we are your 
 friends." 
 
 "Who are you?" growled somebody on the 
 other side of Ralph. 
 
 Bob and Ralph looked up. The former 
 started. In the round, compact face, the heavy 
 jaw, the fat, coarse, drooping cheeks, the angry, 
 revengeful eyes, Bob saw Bull-dog. That 
 drunken sailor, whom Bob met before his de- 
 parture from Oldburyport; the same insolent
 
 96 SAILOU-BOY BOB. 
 
 fellow who, with a bully's manners, had threat- 
 ened his mulatto companion. 
 
 " "Who are you ?" he snarled out. again. " O, 
 you don't know enough to keep out of gentle- 
 men's company, but must interrupt when you 
 are not wanted. I know you," he added, ad- 
 dressing Bob. " I have seen you before." 
 
 " O ! " said Bob with an embarrassed air. 
 "No offense meant. Cap'n wants him. I I 
 wasn't looking for you. Didn't expect to see 
 you." 
 
 " I s'pose not, young man. Blessings some- 
 times turn up when things least are expected. 
 Now you let this man alone." 
 
 Bob was not afraid. 
 
 " I shall do my business with him in spite of 
 yon or any body else. The cap'n sent me." 
 
 Ralph had begun to shrink toward the door, 
 but Bob's bold reply gave him courage, and he 
 came back and took his stand beside Bob. He 
 was no longer a coward. Was he going to leave 
 Bob alone ? Duty said "No." That was enough. 
 He would have stood by the side of Bob come 
 what might, and it did look as if something 
 more than words would come from this episode. 
 Horace was peaceable, and acted like one who
 
 ASHORE STILL. 97 
 
 feels willing to leave himself in the hands of his 
 friends, but is not able to decide who they are. 
 He swayed toward Bob, and then he responded 
 to the grasp of Bull dog, and swayed toward 
 him. 
 
 " Let this man alone," commanded Bull-dog. 
 
 " I sha'n't until he refuses to go with me," 
 replied Bob. " The cap'n sent me after you, 
 Horace, and you know I am your friend." 
 
 " That that sh sho," said Horace with 
 thickened, bacchanalian speech. 
 
 " Row ! row ! " sang out some of the drinkers 
 present, rushing up and forming a ring about 
 the four sailors. The two bartenders set down 
 the glasses and decanters they were handling, 
 and looked on the scene curiously. 
 
 " You let go of him ! " shouted Bull-dog. 
 
 "Not until he tells me to. Horace, come 
 along ! " said Bob. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " chimed in Ealph. 
 
 B nil-dog and Bob both pulled stoutly. The 
 circle of spectators pressed closer up to the con- 
 testants. Ralph eagerly maintained his place at 
 the side of Bob. The bartenders rested their 
 elbows on the counter and watched with quick- 
 ened interest the strife. 
 7
 
 98 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Pitch in ! " shouted somebody. 
 
 " Pitch out ! " shouted a second. 
 
 Matters looked very serious. 
 
 Horace at last shouted, " I am not going. Bob, 
 shay rshay I'll be there ! " 
 
 "No use in waiting! Pass right out, my 
 little men ! " cried Bull-dog. 
 
 "Yesh, tell the cap'n shay to him," said 
 Horace, " I'll be there." 
 
 The by-standers and the bartenders, all curi- 
 ously watching this scene, applauded the deci- 
 sion, and Bob sullenly retreated, Ralph saying, 
 " You see nothing can be done, Bob." 
 
 " I know it, Ralph, but I hate to give up." 
 
 The boys withdrew to the street, and then 
 went to the ship, followed after a while by Hor- 
 ace and Bull-dog, could it be? 
 
 " You want to see the cap'n ? " asked Bob, 
 wondering what Bull-dog wanted. 
 
 " I'll see him for myself when I want him," 
 replied Bull-dog, and retired to the forecastle, 
 taking Horace with him. 
 
 Bob was perplexed. Could Bull-dog possibly 
 be one of the new seamen shipped at New York? 
 
 " I hope not," thought Bob. 
 
 There was no room for this hope, Bob saw,
 
 ASHORE STILL. 99 
 
 when he had asked information of the mate, 
 Roaring Ben. 
 
 " He one of our men ? " asked Bob. 
 
 "That feller with Horace?" replied Roaring 
 Ben. " Yes, I am sorry to say, judging by his 
 looks." 
 
 Bob was still more sorry. To think he must 
 go to sea with Bull-dog! There was no help 
 for it. In this life we must take things as they 
 are, and try to improve them, not wait till they 
 are improved. I wish that on board the An- 
 dromeda the surroundings of Bob and Ralph 
 could be reported as fully satisfactory ; that 
 every sailor could be counted as a beau-ideal of 
 a man, and every officer a hero. Such a report 
 would be a fiction. 
 
 I also wish that it might have been shown 
 that Horace Haviland was superior to tempta- 
 tion. The man that staggered aboard the An- 
 dromeda was he the great captain, the great 
 soldier, the grand character poor Mary Haviland 
 wished to see, hoped to see, believed one day 
 she would see ? Was it for such a result as this 
 she had prayed ? No. Why did God not throw 
 about the tempted brother that strong arm 
 which belongs to the Almighty? That is the
 
 100 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 old question why God does not answer all our 
 prayers at our dates for their answers, and in our 
 way, also, of answering. We must leave time 
 and mode to the great Hand that covers them, 
 and cling to that Hand, believing that in God's 
 time and in God's way the blessing will be sent. 
 Mary Haviland hid in the depths of her soul 
 this confidence, to which she could not give exact 
 form in words, and it held her soul in peace, 
 even as under the water the anchor, whose form 
 we cannot outline, steadies the ship amid the 
 swaying of the billows.
 
 THE ATLANTIC. 101 
 
 CHAPTER YIL 
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 
 
 Andromeda was now far out at sea. 
 JL " He says his name, Bob, is Stephen Wyck- 
 ham," remarked Ralph one day. 
 
 " Bull-dog's name is that ? " replied Bob. 
 
 " Yes ; Stephen Wyckham. And you know 
 he has behaved very decently. First two or 
 three days, you know, he snubbed us and teased 
 us, Bob. 
 
 " Know ? I rather think I do could not 
 easily forget that." 
 
 " Well, when he found out that Squire Win- 
 throp was my relative, and had great pecuniary 
 interest in the ship, I think it made a great 
 difference in his treatment of me. When he 
 found out that you were my friend, I fancied 
 he took his teeth out of you and quit shaking 
 you/' 
 
 " I saw the difference, but did not know what 
 was the matter." 
 
 " I had a talk with him we w r ere on deck
 
 102 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 together and he said, 'They say you are a 
 Winthrop.' " 
 
 " ' I always supposed so,' I told him. Then I 
 asked if he knew Squire Winthrop. ' Some- 
 what,' he said. ' Not much. Saw him once 
 or twice. Perhaps you didn't know I was a 
 Winthrop?' 'You?' said I, and I suppose I 
 showed my surprise. ' Stephen Wyckham is 
 what folks call me, and I give that as my name. 
 Really, it is Stephen W. Wyckham, and the mid- 
 dle W. is for Winthrop.' ' Indeed ! ' said I. 
 Booby I was ! You see, I could not keep my 
 surprise to myself." 
 
 " I don't wonder at that, to find out that the 
 vicious Bull-dog was a Winthrop. I should have 
 told him that he must have made a a slight 
 mistake." 
 
 " Well, I don't know that it is so. He is a 
 fellow that I don't have confidence in. How- 
 ever, I can't help his saying so." 
 
 " It is Winthrop is that Winthrop does, you 
 can tell him. You have got him there." 
 
 " One funny thing I noticed as we were 
 closing up that talk. In the old house at home, 
 next to the brick block the house where your 
 folks are living, you know is a picture in
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 103 
 
 the hall. Did you ever see that picture or hear 
 of it ? " 
 
 "Never did, Ralph. However, I hope to 
 get home some day and see that picture a good 
 many times." 
 
 " Nobody knows whose portrait it is. Squire 
 "Winthrop does not know whose it is; but it 
 came somehow into the family possessions, and 
 he has let it stay on the hall-wall. It; may be a 
 Winthrop. Now, that old ancestor if he be 
 one in the portrait, has turned half-way round 
 and is looking over his shoulder, as we say. I 
 never liked the man's face, and as Steve Wyck- 
 ham and I were talking, Cap'n Granby called to 
 him. Steve started to go to him, but that he 
 might catch my last word he turned and looked 
 back at me over his shoulder, and there was " 
 
 " That old ancestor in the picture ? " 
 
 " The very same face, only Steve's was 
 younger." 
 
 " Don't like to think Bull-dog is on guard 
 there in that house where Alma and the folks 
 are, Ralph." 
 
 " O, the picture won't hurt ; if ijt would, I'd 
 write to grandpa at once and have him burn the 
 old thing up," said Ralph warmly.
 
 104 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Tliis passionate interest in the Walkers' wel- 
 fare was gratifying to Bob. 
 
 " Thank you, Ralph ; but here we are off 
 somewhere in the ocean going nowhere, I should 
 say, from the looks of things and precious little 
 chance have you for getting a letter to grandpa. 
 Folks at home must put up with the picture 
 and it probably doesn't trouble them and you 
 and I must put up with Steve Wyckham, and 
 make the best of him." 
 
 " That is good philosophy, Bob, and I am try- 
 ing to make the best of all these fellows about 
 me. Some of them are rough enough, but I 
 don't doubt that they have their good qualities. 
 I know what grandpa once said about a building 
 he bought. He said it was rough enough on 
 one side, ' but really,' he said, ' when I got round 
 on the other side it looked very well, and, 
 Ralph, that is the way it is with a good many 
 people ; and going through life you must try 
 to get on their good-looking side.' Pretty good 
 advice, wasn't it ? " 
 
 " That's so, Ralph and there is a chance to 
 carry it out. here. Well, I am going to do my 
 best and and that is all we are asked to do 
 in this life. I am going to get along peaceably
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 105 
 
 with the folks about me, and make as good a 
 whaleman as I can." 
 
 " That's the doctrine. That's the flag to run 
 up. Now stick to it." 
 
 This was not Ralph's voice replying to Bob ; 
 but, looking up, the boys saw a shaggy face, and 
 it accompanied Roaring Ben's big voice. If his 
 name had been the Roaring Lion it would have 
 been very appropriate. He was a blustering, 
 self-satisfied officer, but a complete sailor, and al- 
 ways appreciative of one who had that ambition. 
 He was rough enough to compete for the place 
 of the north wind, but he was no friend to in- 
 justice. " Roaring Ben likes fair play," was a 
 remark sometimes made of him. The name of 
 the other mate was Simpson Doolittle. He was 
 mildness itself in comparison with Roaring Ben, 
 but the sailors did not like him so well, as he 
 was sly and underhanded. He was a good sailor, 
 though, and this qualification kept him in his 
 position. 
 
 Bob and Ralph strove to make as good sail- 
 ors as their ship-mates, and in the accomplish- 
 ment of this purpose they were prepared to 
 appreciate every thing agreeable and endure 
 patiently what was disagreeable. One of the
 
 106 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 X 
 
 things disagreeable and to be endured was a 
 big storm. 
 
 " Something is coming, Bob ! " said Capt. 
 Granby, squinting at his barometer. " See that. 
 Mercury has been a-fallin'. Clouds, too, look 
 bad. Wind is threatenm'." 
 
 He here went to the cabin-door and looked 
 up at the sky, and then across the sea. Ralph 
 stepped forward when he saw the captain and 
 Bob at the cabin-door. 
 
 " Watchin' for the weather, boys," said Capt. 
 Granby. 
 
 " Does it look pretty bad ? " inquired Ralph. 
 
 " R r rether," remarked the captain oracu- 
 larly. " I have been caught in this part of the 
 Atlantic once before." 
 
 " Was it a bad storm ? " asked Bob. 
 
 " Yes, something of a gale, and I think she is 
 coming now. We must make every thing snug 
 to-night, and it will be sunset soon. You see 
 the sea is pretty rough." 
 
 The waves were rolling heavier and angrier, 
 and it seemed as if the Andromeda was plung- 
 ing into a mob of turbulent sea-monsters, all 
 springing at her. She would dash down among 
 them boldly and then come up shivering after
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 107 
 
 such reckless exposure, trying to shake them off, 
 these huge, cold, frothing beasts of the deep. 
 The vessel carried very little sail. Every inch $f 
 canvas exposed to the breeze was swollen out 
 by it till firm as a drum-head on parade-day. 
 
 "How the wind howls through the rigging ! " 
 exclaimed Ralph to Bob. 
 
 " A reg'lar organ," said the captain, who heard 
 the remark. 
 
 From every mast, every spar, every bit of 
 sail, every rope, every boat, every ring-bolt, from 
 every opening anywhere like a hawser-hole, or 
 that in a block, or in the funnel projecting from 
 the cook's caboose the wind rushing about it or 
 through it would evoke some kind of a noise. 
 And all these responses, high or low, shrill or 
 hoarse, like a roar or like a sigh, piping far up 
 on the tenor or roaring far down in the depths of 
 the bass, were combined into a chorus to which 
 the comely maiden Andromeda was forced to be 
 a listener. Then there was the sound of the 
 billows smiting, pounding, bombarding her sides. 
 This was no small feature of the growing up- 
 roar. As the boys watched the vexed and noisy 
 sea, and then glanced at the cloudy, sullen sky, 
 they heard the captain say :
 
 108 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 "And yet I feel quite safe in the Androin- 
 eda." 
 
 * " You do ? " said Ralph, relieved by this 
 remark. 
 
 " Yes, we are not near a shore that is waiting 
 to trip us up, but we have plenty of sea-room. 
 Then the vessel is well built. She is no toy, I 
 tell ye, though she is a leetle old-fashioned. I 
 hope, too, her cap'n and mates know something 
 about managing a ship. You see wrecks are 
 not the rule, but the exception. We .must take 
 that into account. Yes, in a good ship I feel 
 safe. We are going to get a good deal tossed 
 up," said the captain looking about on the heav- 
 ing, foaming sea, " but I think we shall come 
 out all right." 
 
 The Andromeda was very uneasy on that 
 tossing sea. 'Rastus (in full Erastus), the black 
 cook, was just then passing into the cabin, care- 
 fully poising in his hand a covered dish, and a 
 lurch of the ship threatened to send him one 
 way and the dish another. He recovered his 
 balance, though, shouting : 
 
 " Look out dar, honeys ! I tell ye dis am a 
 big storm comin'." 
 
 When he returned he said to the boys :
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 109 
 
 " If ye git sliilled, come in whar dar's a good 
 fire." 
 
 Ralph and Bob thanked him, and turned into 
 the forecastle to wait until the watch on deck 
 should be relieved, and their turn mighj come 
 to go on duty. The sailors were passing in and 
 out, and the most of those that left the forecas- 
 tle wore their sou'-westers and oiled suits, for 
 word came that it was beginning to rain. When 
 Bob and Ralph went out they were dressed in 
 like fashion. What a night that was on board 
 the Andromeda ! a night that was followed by a 
 day as violent, and a second night even wilder. 
 It was a " blow " that lasted two days, and the 
 blow seemed to have rolled all the water-casks 
 in the sky to a point just over the Andromeda 
 and then. emptied them. It was cataract upon 
 cataract. 
 
 " Well, Bob," said somebody crouching in the 
 shelter of the ship's rail to windward, the voice 
 issuing from beneath a rough sou'- wester, " how 
 do you stand this ? Hold on there." 
 
 "Aye, aye, Ralph," cried a voice that was 
 heard under the eaves of a second sou'-wester. 
 " I have got a grip on this ring-bolt. I tell ye 1 
 Isn't this tough ? "
 
 110 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Yes, but it has got to blow over sometime. 
 Must be an end to it." 
 
 " If it don't make an end to us," added 
 Bob. " I I do feel shaky about our getting 
 through." 
 
 " Looks like an upset sometimes, I must say. 
 All right, though." 
 
 What ? Bob gave a puzzled look at Ralph. 
 They seemed to have changed places. Ralph 
 was likely to show signs of timidity ; Bob was 
 the lion, who never cared to turn back from a 
 foe. 
 
 " O, what a blow ! Let me get under that rail 
 farther," said Bob, " and get a fresh grip on that 
 bolt again." 
 
 Bob, as he shrank closer up to Ralph, noticed 
 where his jacket parted, and saw a little book 
 sticking up from an inside pocket. 
 
 " What's that book ? " said Bob. " Life pre- 
 server?" 
 
 " Yes," said Ralph soberly. 
 
 Bob knew at once that it was Ralph's Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 " Don't know," observed Bob, " but I ought 
 to have mine in my pocket ; but the fact is, I 
 don't know as I have got one."
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. Ill 
 
 " It would not do any harm, Bob. I gener- 
 ally have a pocket Testament about me." 
 
 Ralph was not one who could easily speak 
 about liis religious habits. His life, though, 
 spoke for him. That is our best witness to the 
 fact that we own and read the Bible, while we 
 ought to be ready to say a needed word for it. 
 
 "I suppose," said Bob, "a fellow ought to 
 read it, but but I don't seem to get time." 
 
 " O, make time ! " 
 
 Bob did not like to continue this conversation. 
 He therefore said, " Seems to me, young man, 
 you are unusually calm for you." 
 
 " Am I ? Don't feel so sometimes, but " 
 
 Ralph did not have an opportunity to finish 
 this sentence, for a big sea swept the deck of 
 the Andromeda, boiling over and about the two 
 boys, and, if they had not been clinging to a 
 ring-bolt, might have washed both of them over- 
 board. When it had retreated, they arose and 
 ran to the forecastle. Bob removed his wet 
 clothing and crawled into his bunk. It was not 
 a quiet resting-place, for the vessel was tossing 
 violently, and every thing on board seemed to 
 toss with it. Stretching oat and bracing himself 
 against his bunk so as to be as secure as possible,
 
 112 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 he returned to the subject about which he and 
 Kalph had been talking when the big wave 
 struck the ship. 
 
 "Don't see why that fellow isn't more ex- 
 cited," thought Bob.. " It is not his style. Look 
 at him now." 
 
 Glancing out of his berth, Bob saw Kalph sit- 
 ting on the blue chest that Grandpa Winthrop 
 gave him. 
 
 "Reading?" thought Bob. "Yes, he has 
 taken out that Life-preserver, and seems to be 
 looking inside of it. "Wonder if that has any 
 thing to do with his calmness ! Queer fellow, 
 but I like him ! " 
 
 To Bob, Ralph was still a " queer fellow." 
 The perplexing part of this problem of Ralph's 
 character was an ordinary physical shrinking, 
 and yet at times an extraordinary absence of all 
 fear of consequences, so that in comparison Bob 
 the daring, the reckless, became Bob the timid, 
 and fearful. It was when Ralph's spiritual nat- 
 ure was aroused and his trust in God stimulated, 
 that his thought of self, of shame, of pain was 
 lost in the consciousness of another's need and 
 his duty to God. It was then that the spiritual 
 in Ralph dominated the natural, and he became
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 113 
 
 the hero in thought and was ready to be a mar- 
 tyr in reality. The storm at first intimidated 
 him, but in that little " Life-preserver " he had 
 come in contact with certain assurances which 
 floated his soul beyond the reach of any fear. 
 Did not God rule the storm ? Was not the un- 
 ruly sea held a prisoner in his great palm ? If 
 the Andromeda went to the bottom, Ralph would 
 not go out of the loving grasp of that fatherly 
 Hand. Was not the end of storm and wreck, 
 even not only the saving, but bettering, of His 
 children ? 
 
 " Then I will trust him and be at ease," said 
 Ralph, and while Bob, as he confessed, was at 
 times shivering, Ralph was calm. - '. 
 
 " O, dear ! " thought Bob, as the ship lurched 
 and threw him out of his previous position in 
 his bunk. " This is a fearfully uneasy ship ! 
 What is that ? " 
 
 His bedding was disturbed by the general up- 
 heaval, and he felt at one side of his bunk a hard 
 little object not observed before. 
 
 " I should say it was my pocket-book if I had 
 any money in it to make it hard. I will just see 
 what that is. Come up here! Out with you! 
 
 Why don't you come? Don't you want to be 
 8
 
 114: SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 known ? Now I have you ! A book ! A Bible, 
 I declare ! Where did this come from ? " 
 
 He opened it. He turned to a fly-leaf. There 
 he saw in Alma's handwriting this sentence, 
 " Brother Bob, from Alma and Carrie." 
 
 " That is nice I " thought Bob. " Like getting 
 a letter from home. Wonder how it carne 
 here!" 
 
 He thought Ralph might have been delegated 
 to put it under his bedding, but Ralph knew 
 nothing about it. Not until Bob reached home 
 did he learn the solution of this mystery that 
 Carrie, the day of the visit of the family to the 
 Andromeda, had hid the book away in Bob's 
 bunk. She had thrust it under the mattress, 
 and only the heaving of this storm had disturbed 
 its resting-place. 
 
 Bob braced himself firmly in his berth, and, 
 opening to a psalm, began to read the twenty- 
 third, " The Lord is my Shepherd." 
 
 "That is good," thought Bob. As he read 
 on, his thoughts went home. Back of Squire 
 Winthrop's house was a very deep, old-fashioned 
 garden. The lower part of it was given up to 
 the green grass that here grew in luxuriance. 
 A brook that flashed across this part of the
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 115 
 
 garden fed the grass-roots, and gave them a 
 thrifty growth. One summer the squire took it 
 into his head to keep a few sheep, and, tethered 
 here in this grassy inclosure, they would con- 
 tentedly browse on the juicy verdure, and occa- 
 sionally cool their noses in the tinkling waters. 
 Bob had been working at intervals that season 
 for the squire, and whenever he was in the gar- 
 den he loved to make the little flock a call, and 
 see how contented they were in this calm, 
 secluded corner. 
 
 " This makes me think of home," he now said, 
 this stormy day on board the Andromeda- 
 " makes me think of the squire's garden, the 
 green grass, and the sheep there." 
 
 His thoughts did not drift back to the An- 
 dromeda, but lingered amid the beautiful illus- 
 tration of the psalm furnished by the squire's 
 garden. 
 
 " That is the way it is with God's care. Pretty 
 idea ! " he thought. 
 
 Bob was tired. When out on duty, fighting 
 the storm had been hard work. When he sought 
 his berth, the agitation of the ship made his rest 
 uneasy and fragmentary. He craved inward 
 calm also. As he lay there, this opened Bible
 
 116 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 before him, Squire Winthrop's far-away garden 
 seemed to open to him. He was also among 
 the sheltered, cherished sheep. He heard the 
 words, " The Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not 
 want." Gradually the book drooped in his 
 hand. His eyes occasionally would shut. Then 
 he would open them, raise his Bible, read a line, 
 and another drowsy spell would steal over him. 
 He would start, look about him, brace himself 
 stoutly in his bunk, read, think of the squire's 
 garden, grow calm and drowsy once more. 
 
 "Why," said Ralph, approaching his berth, 
 " Bob has gone to sleep ! Got a book in his 
 hand ! The sleep will do him good." 
 
 The sleep indeed did him good, and the find- 
 ing of the book a greater good. Ever after, 
 with the Bible was associated Squire Winthrop's 
 grassy garden-patch and the little flock there, and 
 then would steal into his soul a pleasant sense of 
 rest and security. 
 
 " 1 ought to read my Bible," he said, " and I 
 will begin right off." 
 
 Fair weather soon came. The sun threw back 
 from his bright face the dark, muffling cowl of 
 the storm. The waves went submissively down 
 before their great, radiant superior in the sky,
 
 DOWN THE ATLANTIC. 117 
 
 confessing his power. The Andromeda spread 
 its sails above, while below the carpenter went 
 from spot to spot, repairing the damaged rails, 
 mending the ruptured wood-work about the 
 cook's and sailors' quarters, making every thing 
 trim and tight again. At last, it did not look 
 at all as if there had been a violent duel in 
 which Andromeda and the sea-monsters were 
 the opposing sides, Andromeda getting the worst 
 of it ; but this stanch maiden was herself again. 
 Fair weather duties were resumed by the crew. 
 Life went back to its old courses. Bob, though, 
 did not go back to his old neglect of the Bible. 
 He read it regularly. From it he took thoughts 
 that promised sometime to be the seed of a life 
 radically different from that in the past.
 
 118 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MIGHT TRY. 
 
 CAPTAIN GRANBY was not a religious 
 \J man. On the other hand, he was not hos- 
 tile to religion. He respected its forms after a 
 fashion, though he did not observe them. 
 When Sunday came, although he never at- 
 tempted to secure for his men a religious serv- 
 ice, he would yet say : 
 
 " Slick up, men ! Play you were goin' to 
 church, and get out your go-to-meetin' clothes." 
 
 All day there would huddle on the deck a 
 flock of men better dressed than on other days. 
 They would be likely to sport mammoth neck- 
 ties with huge flapping ends like sails. Some 
 would appear in white duck pants. The cap- 
 tain would make their work as light as he 
 could, and tell 'Rastus to " feed out a little 
 better grub than common." This was " keepin' 
 Sunday." 
 
 The great vice of the Andromeda's crew 
 was profanity. Ralph and Bob had never been
 
 MIGHT TRY. 119 
 
 guilty of it, and the crew's very free habit of 
 blasphemy shocked them into an intenser aver- 
 sion to it, especially Kalph. Captain Granby was 
 not clear of this taint, but he was far less in- 
 fected by it than his men. He issued this dis- 
 criminating order, as he considered it, for the 
 first day of the week : 
 
 " Now, my men, no swearin' on Sunday. If 
 you must be heathen on six days out of the 
 seven, don't be that the fust day. Mind your 
 manners now, and quit your swearin' on 
 Sunday." 
 
 Captain Granby, with an oath, gave emphasis 
 to his famous order on profanity, and declared 
 that " Sunday should be respected." The crew 
 were more particular after the issue of that 
 order. 
 
 " Sunday that is the day when we get less 
 work and more grub," observed one of the crew 
 to Ralph and Bob. 
 
 Kalph, though, wondered if something more 
 could not be done to notice the day. 
 
 " Hardly know what," he reflected, " and yet 
 I think something might be done." 
 
 In his kit he had an old Sunday-school hym- 
 nal, and as he and Bob were good singers, and
 
 120 SAILOB-BOY BOB. 
 
 were familiar with many of the selections, Ralph 
 sometimes would pull out the book on Sunday, 
 and in a very modest way, when the forecastle 
 was empty, they would try some of the tunes 
 identified with home. There were men dis- 
 posed to ridicule the " chaplain," as they called 
 Ralph, while they nicknamed Bob " the dea- 
 con," until he said to them : 
 
 "Don't you deacon me." 
 
 A few encouraged the boys, to sing on. 
 There was a gray-haired sailor whom the crew 
 had named " The old man." His real name 
 was John Wilson, a quiet, meditative man, say- 
 ing very little, and disposed to keep aloof from 
 the crew, though messing and working and 
 bunking side by side with them. He surprised 
 Ralph, one Sunday, with a remark made on deck. 
 Ralph and the old man were leaning over the 
 rail, watching the sunset. There was a bank of 
 fair-weather purple in the west, through which 
 the light broke in lines and rifts as if these were 
 golden cords 'that looped up rich Tyrian drap- 
 ery. A young moon above the purple bank was 
 shining with a soft, silver radiance. Not far off 
 the evening star had kindled its peaceful rays. 
 The scene was one to invite serious contempla-
 
 MIGHT TJRY. ' 121 
 
 tion. Several sailors besides Ralph and the old 
 man, dressed in their so-called Sunday rig, were 
 watching the same scene. 
 
 " Makes me think of home and the folks," 
 observed the old man. " Has a good effect, like 
 your singing." 
 
 " Thank you," said Ralph, pleased to receive 
 this compliment. 
 
 " I wish myself you would sing more. Don't 
 know as you would think it, but I was brought 
 up that way. I was baptized. I belong to the 
 Church. No, you might not think so." 
 
 Ralph did not interrupt him, but allowed him 
 to continue these remarks. 
 
 " Now, I would like to hear some more of 
 them tunes. I have an idee that if you asked 
 the cap'n he might make it sort of reg'lar on 
 Sunday let us have it, say, in the for'c'stle at a 
 certain hour. And if you could make a prayer, 
 say, chaplain, and read a leelle Scriptur' it would 
 seem sort of like old times." 
 
 " O O ! " said the blushing, embarrassed 
 Ralph, " I I didn't think of that ! " 
 
 " Why not ? " asked Wilson coolly. " I have 
 been thinking it over. Couldn't you pick up 
 a few prayers somewhere ? I am sure we all
 
 122 - SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 need 'em bad enough. There are some good 
 prayers people have written, if you can't make 
 one up yourself. And a leetle Scriptur', you 
 know, chaplain." 
 
 Ralph stammered out an attempt at a reply, 
 saying he would think it over. 
 
 " I didn't know as you would have any objec- 
 tion, chaplain," said Wilson in tones of disap- 
 pointment. " If a thing is right, you know " 
 
 That appeal stimulated Ralph's shrinking 
 nature. 
 
 " Right, you know," continued Wilson, " that 
 seems to settle it ; but then, 'scuse me, I ought 
 not to tell other folks what to do. Perhaps, if 
 I had the eddication, I might not be backward 
 myself, and might do more toward helpin' this 
 keepin' Sunday. Of course, it is right." 
 
 Unconsciously, Wilson had struck a key in 
 Ralph's moral nature that never yet had failed 
 to respond to any appeal to it. Without any 
 false self-assertion, Ralph knew well enough that 
 he had what Wilson called the " eddication." 
 He had advanced beyond Bob in his studies, 
 and would have entered college had his health 
 permitted it. Another thing he appreciated. 
 He understood thoroughly the fact that, though
 
 MIGHT TKY. 123 
 
 in the forecastle, he was the relative of one hav- 
 ing great pecuniary interests in the ship, and he 
 rather than Wilson would be the one to interview 
 Captain Granby. 
 
 " I ought not to let him think of doing it, 
 poor old Wilson. I won't shirk if somebody 
 must do it. Yes, I'll make the effort ; do my 
 duty, come what will. Perhaps God's hand is 
 in it all. I might try ; yes, I might try." 
 
 He thought a moment, and in his decided 
 way, so characteristic of him when duty had 
 been made plain, resolved to go to Captain 
 Granby at once. 
 
 Ralph was obliged to expel several hindering 
 lumps from his throat, but he -made known his 
 errand. 
 
 " Capital ! " said the captain. " I say that right 
 off, though you might not expect it of me. 
 Another thing, Ralph, I think it would have a 
 good effect on the men. We are all of us mis- 
 erable sinners and need something, and, any way, 
 I notice say in' prayers on board a ship don't 
 hurt the discipline. You go ahead and I'll back 
 ye up." 
 
 Ralph went away, saying to himself : 
 
 " That is encouraging. There's the ' old man '
 
 124 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 feeling the way he does, and the cap'n talking * 
 this fashion. Did not know they had those 
 thoughts." 
 
 In a land that seems dry and barren, no one 
 can tell what waters may flow beneath the sur- 
 face until some driven well shall search and find 
 out the springs hidden there and ready to bub- 
 ble out. In the heart that seems without inter- 
 est, the surface of whose life seems withered 
 and blasted, may be accumulated hidden waters 
 of feeling that flow out in some unusual moment 
 of spiritual test and trial. 
 
 "Well, chaplain, you have got yourself into 
 business on Sunday," jokingly observed Bob to 
 Ealph. 
 
 " Dare say ; but, if I am in, you are too. I 
 don't mean to leave you out." 
 
 "Oh-h-O! How's that?" 
 
 " You have got to be chorister." 
 
 Bob demurred, but Ralph could not excuse 
 him. These very humble Sunday services were 
 begun with that understanding between the two ; 
 Ralph was chaplain, but Bob was chorister. 
 Some of the crew ridiculed the plan of Sunday 
 services, but the majority were on the side of a 
 respectful keeping of the day, and declared
 
 MIGHT TRY. 125 
 
 " Let's have them ! They won't hurt us. "We'll 
 stand by you, chaplain." 
 
 One might have supposed that the sailor who 
 resembled the picture in the hall of the old 
 Winthrop house would have had for these serv- 
 ices a look more hostile than that in the ancient 
 picture even. To the surprise of Ralph and Bob 
 he was an earnest supporter of the services. 
 
 " Can't account for it ! " thought Bob. " It 
 isn't his style." 
 
 It was not Steve's style, and yet he did the 
 courteous thing, coming into the forecastle at 
 the time of the services and behaving with pro- 
 priety. Horace Haviland was there also. " I 
 feel I ought to sustain them from a town inter- 
 est," declared Horace to Ralph and Bob. " You 
 chaps come from the same town, you know." 
 
 The " services " consisted, for the greater part, 
 of singing. A chapter was read from the Bible, 
 the Lord's Prayer said, and Ralph added two 
 other prayers. Ralph had only his own hymnal, 
 but he multiplied the tunes and hymns. There 
 were several good penmen among the crew, and 
 Ralph secured their help as copyists. The tunes 
 had various degrees of popularity, but those that 
 the sailors did like they used through the week
 
 126 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 at all hours. They might be heard down in the 
 forecastle evenings ; or perhaps in the depths of 
 midnight, when the Andromeda in the moon- 
 light was racing across a field of liquid silver, 
 two or three strong deep voices would catch up 
 and bear away one of the " chaplain's " hymns. 
 
 " Well, chaplain," Roaring Ben said one day, 
 " I think your Sunday singin' is a good move. 
 You know we seamen have libraries on board 
 ship oftentimes ; I shall recommend in the future 
 that they always put into ? ern something to sing 
 out of." 
 
 " Well, chaplain," Roaring Ben began again, 
 "good as this Sunday singin' is, I don't know as 
 you will catch 'em all." 
 
 "I see that they all don't get into the Sunday 
 singing." 
 
 This was the name generally given to the 
 forecastle services, and the title was a relief to 
 Ralph, who timidly shrank from the idea that 
 he was conducting any thing so important or 
 responsible as " religious services." 
 
 " Haven't seen ' Volcano ' there, chaplain." 
 
 " No ; Vol, I believe, hasn't put his head inside 
 the for'c'stle during the Sunday singing." 
 
 Volcano (a name generally shortened to
 
 MIGHT TRY. 127 
 
 " Yol") was the nickname of a sailor who was 
 shockingly profane. Any expression was gen- 
 erally fired up with blasphemy, but when he was 
 excited, his profane eruptions were frightful. 
 This sad peculiarity gave him his cognomen. 
 Captain Granby, as little inclined as he was to 
 be reverent, would never have kept him on 
 board the Andromeda, had he not been a thor- 
 ough whaleman. JHe would have been made 
 an officer, had it not been for this offensive 
 habit. 
 
 " Profanity is bad enough in a servant," said 
 one ship owner, to whom a friend had ventured 
 to commend Rufus Ring as a worthy candidate 
 for a mateship. " I am not willing to put pro- 
 fanity in office/' 
 
 Neither Ralph nor Bob supposed that Rufus 
 Ring, alias Yol, would come to the Sunday 
 singing. One Sunday afternoon, though, Ralph 
 took occasion, during the singing of a hymn, to 
 go up on deck. He left Bob in charge of the 
 tune, a dozen sons of Neptune roaring out their 
 faithful assistance. Ralph had missed 'Rastus 
 the cook, and wished to step to his galley and 
 urged him to come to the forecastle, if possible, 
 knowing that 'Rastus's sympathies were with the
 
 128 SAILOR-BOY J3os. 
 
 service. Turning away from the galley after 
 leaving his message for the cook, and facing the 
 hatchway leading to the forecastle, he saw a 
 sailor bending over it and looking down, as if 
 eager to catch every note that was coming up. 
 When Ralph reached the man he was surprised 
 to see in the face that tried to turn away and 
 look unconcerned, the leader of the profanity of 
 the crew, Rufus King.- Ralph was very confi- 
 dent also that he saw tears glistening in the 
 eyes of Yol, but the movement of his face was 
 so rapid as it turned that Ralph could not be 
 positive in his opinion. 
 
 "Still," thought Ralph, "I do believe the 
 man is crying." 
 
 Yol quickly went to the vessel's rail, and, lean- 
 ing over it, looked down at the sea. Ralph had 
 one of his spasms of timidity, and then, as con- 
 science said, " You ought to speak to that man 
 and ask him down into the forecastle," Ralph 
 stepped up to him, laid his hand on his shoulder, 
 and said pleasantly, " Ruf us ! " 
 
 "What say, chaplain?" replied Ruf us very 
 soberly, not looking up, but still gazing at the 
 water shivering into a thousand crystals along 
 the vessel's side.
 
 MIGHT TBY. 129 
 
 " "Won't you come down and sing with us ? " 
 
 Ralph expected that an oath would be flung 
 at him, but, to his surprise, he was addressed in 
 ordinary English, " Why didn't you ask me be- 
 fore?" 
 
 " I I wish I had, but I thought that as a rule, 
 a general notice might do. However, I wish I 
 had spoken to you. Come now, please." 
 
 Ralph was still looking for a bomb-shell in 
 the shape of an oath. It did not come. The 
 blasphemer came, though. He followed Ralph 
 down into the forecastle, and then, with a half- 
 ashamed air, sneaked to the rear of the men, and 
 there, sitting on an old chest, listened intently, 
 but holding his head down. 
 
 The singing, that afternoon, was of a pecul- 
 iarly pleading, penitential nature. 
 
 " 0, Jesus, thou art standing 
 Outside the fast-closed door," 
 
 was one of the hymns. They were all very 
 direct in their invitations to the slumbering 
 soul. They were door-knocks of an impera- 
 tive character, like those given in the night, 
 echoing through the deserted hall and startling 
 
 all who hear. 
 9
 
 130 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 When the singing was over and the chaplain 
 had made two or three prayers, very short and 
 humble, the men went away. Ralph and Bob 
 passed up on deck also. It was a marvelous sun- 
 set, for, as the sun sank in the west, a silvery moon 
 in all its glory rose in the east and rested on the 
 water. It seemed as if one of the fabulous 
 structures sometimes said to exist under the 
 waves had come up to prove the accuracy of 
 those fancies, and lifted this shining dome. 
 There, in the east, the water became silver the 
 whitest, as if molten. In the west, the ocean 
 was a vast flame of crimson. As Ralph watched 
 the marvelous contrast, he was conscious very 
 soon that Bob had left him, and that the next 
 moment somebody had approached him. He 
 looked up, and there was Yol. 
 
 " Could I say a word ? " asked Rufus. 
 
 "O yes, do!" 
 
 The man was very pale when he began to 
 speak. His face was something like that white 
 sea heaving between the vessel and the moon. 
 As he went on, his face flushed with emotion. 
 Once it was scarlet as the western sea, for it 
 burned with some feeling of shame. 
 
 " Chaplain, I have been an awful man, and in
 
 MIGHT TEY.. 131 
 
 our talk now ], may rip out a lot of oaths before 
 I get through. I am trying to keep 'em down, 
 swallow 'em. If I do say any thing that is not 
 right, remember I try to put it down. Fact is, 
 it is a habit." 
 
 Here Yol was true to his old habit, and al- 
 most involuntarily made his language emphatic 
 with an oath. 
 
 " We folks who swear and you have heard 
 enough of 'em do it in part from habit. I 
 don't believe those who are swearers always 
 prefer to stay so. Habit, you know, holds like a 
 vise. But there ; I wanted to tell you how I got 
 interested in your meetin's. I was opposed to 
 them. But last Sunday you sang a kind of 
 child's hymn, and do you know how it takes 
 hold of me ? I came round to-day to hear out- 
 side, for I darsen't go down to sit with the men, 
 but I came to hear. That very hymn my boy 
 sang when dying, chaplain." 
 
 What hymn ? " 
 
 Vol spoke in a hollow tone of voice, 
 
 " O, I couldn't give it now ! You didn't 
 know I had a home once, a wife and child. Of 
 course not. Well, the wife went, and the boy, 
 and when he was dying I swore at God, to think
 
 132 SAILOE-BOT BOB. 
 
 he would take away my boy. "What did that 
 sick little feller do ? He tried to sing what you 
 had 'tother Sunday and to-day. Yes, when his 
 eyes were glassy and his tongue stammered, 
 one line came out like a bird's note, and then 
 it stopped. His voice died all away, he was 
 gone " 
 
 Rufus here hung his head and wept bitterly. 
 Ralph did not check him, but let his grief have 
 its way. 
 
 " Somehow, after that it seemed as if the oath 
 I took against God has had the mastery of me 
 ever since, but I don't know that hymn broke 
 me up." 
 
 " What was it ? " Ralph ventured to ask. 
 
 Looking off toward the east, and not the west, 
 toward the rising light of hope, and not that of 
 the departing day, Rufus Ring repeated these 
 words : 
 
 " ' Jesus loves me, and he watches 
 
 Over me with loving eye ; 
 And he sends his holy angels 
 
 Safe to keep me till I die. 
 Jesus loves me 0, Lord Jesus, 
 
 Now I pray thee, by thy love 
 Keep me ever pure and holy 
 
 Till I come to the* above.' "
 
 MIGHT TRY. 133 
 
 O, how Ealph wished for wisdom, that he 
 might know what to say ! He felt that he 
 must say something. When he spoke, his words 
 seemed very mean and powerless. It was just 
 this : 
 
 " Ruf us, I I I'll pray for you." 
 
 As Ralph spoke, he wrung the hand of Rufus 
 and left him. In a moment he came back. 
 
 " Rufus," he said, ." you pray, too." 
 
 Rnfus neither nodded his head in assent nor 
 moved his lips in dissent. He only stared in 
 silence at the rippling water. Ralph again left 
 him. 
 
 One day, when Ralph and Bob were up on 
 the main topgallant yard taking in sail, the 
 dark blue sea tossing under them, and the 
 clouds in a darkening sky tossing above them, 
 Bob said to his mate : 
 
 " Ralph, what is the matter with Volcano 
 nowadays ? He is strangely quiet, for him. 
 He don't rip out as he used to. He was an 
 awfnl swearer." 
 
 "He never said he would do it, Bob, mind 
 you, but I have an idea he has been praying." 
 
 " O, that is it ! Thought it was something, 
 but could'nt say what."
 
 134: SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Yes, I think that is it. It steadies him 
 down wonderfully. It steadies any one." 
 
 Bob in silence clutched the folds of the sail, 
 gathered them in, and secured them. In si- 
 lence, also, he descended from the yard when his 
 work was over and went to the forecastle and 
 stretched out in his bunk. 
 
 " I want to think," he said. 
 
 Lying there he recalled Jiis conversation with 
 Ralph about Yolcano. 
 
 " Then Yol has got something to steady him 
 down, something to keep him quiet," thought 
 Bob. " Guess I need what Yol has got. 
 Where's the girls' Bible ? Now where shall I 
 read first ? " 
 
 He found the psalm about the Good Shepherd, 
 read it, and said : 
 
 " That is good ! That is good ! I I suppose 
 I ought not to be satisfied with just reading. I 
 need something, T-know well enough." 
 
 Bob Walker needed the very element in his 
 life which Ruf us Ring had come into possession 
 of prayer, like a rudder, to steady and hold 
 him in a course where every day good impulses 
 from heaven would visit him even as wind the 
 sails of a ship. When would he possess this
 
 MIGHT TRY. 135 
 
 blessing which, possessing him, would control 
 all the movements of his life ? 
 
 While Bob was influenced by the " Sunday 
 singing," Ralph had occasion to reflect that 
 " might try " was a motto worth the remem- 
 brance and a repetition in other things.
 
 136 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 BOUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 
 
 FAB, away into the rough, chilling waters of 
 an antarctic sea runs the nub of a continent, 
 Cape Horn. It is the most southerly point of 
 the far-reaching continent of America. Once, 
 every sail that went from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific flew along the waters of the Strait of 
 Magellan. The famous navigator, Magellan, was 
 sailing one day along the coast of South Amer- 
 ica, trying to find a break in its long wall by 
 which he could reach the Moluccas islands in 
 the far East. This project of the sixteenth cent- 
 ury, to find the East by going west, was one of 
 vast importance. It was in harmony with the 
 theory that the earth was round as an orange, 
 but nobody had proved it by actually going round 
 the world. If he, Magellan, could strike the 
 Moluccas by steadfastly striking out toward the 
 west, a nice geographical theory would be ex- 
 perimentally settled, and a valuable roadway for 
 commerce opened. He must therefore go
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 137 
 
 through America or round it somewhere. He 
 sailed down the coast of South America, hunt- 
 ing with vigilant eyes for a gateway to the 
 west, and finally reached Patagonia. He found 
 a strait, which he eagerly followed. It opened 
 before him as he pressed forward, until its wa- 
 ters widened into a great sea, without any hint 
 of a shore beneath the misty horizon. So 
 pleased was he with this ocean that he called it 
 the Pacific, and over it he went joyfully sailing. 
 He did not himself live to reach home, but his 
 ship came again to Spain, from which it started, 
 the first to belt the world with the silvery fur- 
 row of its long, daring voyage. 
 
 Magellan was a Portuguese in the employ of 
 Spain, and for over ninety years all the world 
 that wanted to go from Europe to Asia by sail- 
 ing west followed the flag that opened up to 
 commerce that far-off Patagonian strait. 
 
 The seventeenth century came, bringing with 
 it the year 1616, and the venturous Hollander, 
 William Schouten. He came into those bright, 
 chilling southern waters in his old Dutch tub. 
 He poked farther south than the Strait of Ma- 
 gellan, and one day he saw what ? An un- 
 known nub of land, the rough waters vigor-
 
 138 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 ously tossing all about it. He pressed past it 
 and hurrah ! he had reached the big Pacific 
 by doubling that unknown cape ! He grate- 
 fully thought of the old-fashioned town, Hoorn, 
 where a Dutch mother rocked his cradle when 
 he was a crying, sleepy baby, and from a Hol- 
 land town that stubborn projection into the sea, 
 that nub of a continent, took its name, Cape 
 Hoorn, or Horn. The flag of Holland had out- 
 flanked the flag of Spain, and a Schouten won 
 from Magellan a division of the honors of south- 
 ern discovery. 
 
 The Andromeda had now run so far south 
 that the doubling of the cape at the end of the 
 inhabited world might daily be expected. 
 
 "We can't tell what weather to look for," 
 Captain Granby had said to his officers, " but 
 we will be ready for whatever may come as we 
 double old Horn. May have a big sou'-west 
 blow, cold weather, and a craft outward bound 
 will be bothered day after day, just layin'-to, ice 
 on her hull and riggin', you know. We will be 
 ready, send down some of our spars, make fast 
 our anchors, boats, too, and we will just have an 
 eye out for the scuttle-butts and the cook's 
 galley."
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 139 
 
 Every thing was made tight, and the Arv- 
 dromeda gallantly headed for the Pacific. The 
 weather stiffened off Cape Horn's vixenish 
 shores, but the captain said it would be " a blow 
 from the sou'-east, and that will put us along 
 lively." It was nothing short of " lively " for 
 two days, but the Andromeda sped gallantly 
 away and came out in waters less vexed and 
 violent. 
 
 "Have we doubled the cape?" Bob asked 
 Roaring Ben. 
 
 " She's doubled, the old squaw !" answered the 
 mate. " We can't get along without her, and we 
 have little peace living with her. However, she 
 is left behind." 
 
 One experience, though, at this part of the 
 voyage was fated not to be left behind. It fol- 
 lowed Bob even as a long furrow of foam coldly 
 rustles in the rear of a vessel's flight. 
 
 " Cold weather," exclaimed Bob one morning, 
 as he met Steve Wyckham on deck. 
 
 " Eh ? " replied Steve. 
 
 " Cold, I say," and Bob slapped his hands to- 
 gether energetically. 
 
 " Why don't you prayin' folks ask for warmer 
 weather?" said Steve sarcastically. "I notice
 
 140 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 you talk awful poor when you are on your feet, 
 but down on your knees you are awful rich." 
 
 " Perhaps," replied Bob, " we need you for 
 an example." 
 
 " Deliver us from hypocrites ! " shouted Steve, 
 moving off. 
 
 o 
 
 " You mean the feller needed for an ex- 
 ample." 
 
 " No, I don't. I don't make any pretensions." 
 
 Steve walked away with a face of wrath. 
 
 Bob hardly knew how to interpret the mean- 
 ing of this outburst from Steve. The latter had 
 once been very friendly to Bob. To Ralph, 
 Steve was almost cringing, an attitude that 
 Ralph had reason to interpret as simply a bid 
 by Steve for the favor of one who might inter- 
 est a ship-owner in Steve's favor. While Steve's 
 demeanor toward Ralph had not changed in its 
 degree of warmth, toward Bob there had been 
 recently a sudden cooling. Steve also attempted 
 before Ralph to say prejudicial things about 
 Bob. Ralph did not allow him to do this suc- 
 cessfully, but he could not head off Steve's un- 
 friendly spirit. That remained, and Bob and 
 Ralph both noticed it, and wondered at it. 
 It was Steve's evident purpose to injure Bob in
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 
 
 Ralph's opinion. Why he had this purpose, he 
 did not declare. One might safely have attrib- 
 uted it to Steve's wish in general to do harm 
 wherever he had an opportunity. He was not 
 popular with the crew. He was regarded as a 
 selfish, treacherous fellow, very changeful in his 
 likes. When friendly, he was suspected of 
 secret unfriendliness, and only when hostile 
 openly was he regarded as sincere. What en- 
 joyment could one take in his company ? Bob 
 was destined to find it very disagreeable after 
 this passage round the cape. 
 
 The morning when Bob had informed Steve 
 that it was cold weather, and in return had re- 
 ceived some sarcastic advice, he then went to the 
 forecastle, saying to himself, " Old pickles ! 
 Well, he sha'n't spoil my morning for me. I 
 am not going to lose my good temper for him, 
 and I wont stay cold for him. I'll just step 
 down into the forecastle and look in my chest 
 for those new mittens Alma handed me when I 
 left home." 
 
 Bob had been wearing an old pair of mittens 
 when he felt the need of any protection for his 
 hands, and these he wore sparingly, at first, lest 
 the epithet " land-lubber " might be thrown at
 
 142 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 him. A laud-lubber no longer, lie felt that ho 
 might wear what he pleased. He now opened 
 his chest and began to overhaul his few but pre- 
 cious possessions. Several seamen were there 
 in the forecastle, lying in their bunks or loung- 
 ing on any chest that might be unoccupied. 
 Rufus Ring was there, also " the old man," 
 Wilson, Horace Haviland, and Ralph. While 
 Bob was hunting through his chest, whistling 
 away carelessly, Steve came down into the fore- 
 castle. Bob's whistle abruptly ceased. He 
 sprang up, flourished the new mittens which he 
 had found, and shouted, " Here are the beau- 
 ties ! " He was about to pull one over his hand 
 when a silver dollar rolled out of the mitten, 
 and, as it struck the floor, what a sharp, metallic 
 ring it gave ! 
 
 " Whew-w-w ! " exclaimed Bob. " Aint I 
 rich? O, my! Wonder where that came 
 from ! " 
 
 The dollar had rolled to the feet of Steve, as 
 if he were a magician with some strange power 
 over coin, and had willed it that way. 
 
 " I can tell you where it came from ! " angrily 
 shouted Steve. "Stolen goods! That's what 
 the dollar is."
 
 BOUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 143 
 
 Every body looked up in surprise at this ac- 
 cusation save Bob. He only laughed. 
 
 " Nonsense!'' he said. "Ha ha! That's 
 ridiculous. I don't know any thing about stolen 
 goods. Who the owner of that dollar may be, 
 is a mystery to me." 
 
 "No mystery to me. If any body takes any 
 thing of mine, I know what to call it." 
 
 " Nonsense ! " said Bob, trying to treat as a 
 triviality a matter which Steve regarded as seri- 
 ous. " I don't know any thing about that dollar. 
 I don't know how it came there, and and you 
 don't know that it's yours, either. How can 
 you tell ? " 
 
 " How can I tell ? " growled Steve, looking 
 more like a bull-dog than ever, now on guard 
 over this piece of money lying at his feet. 
 "How can /tell? All, notice! Every body! 
 See, see ! " 
 
 All in the forecastle fastened their eyes on 
 Steve. 
 
 " I claim that this silver dollar is mine, for I 
 can see here, from the way the light strikes 
 it, that it has a cross on it. And look again ! 
 Listen, every body ! I'll make this test. Some 
 one of you may take up that dollar I won't
 
 144 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 touch it and I don't hesitate to say that yon 
 will find on the other side my initials, S. TV. W. 
 All I ask is for fair play ! " 
 
 One more person had now entered the fore- 
 castle, though nobody had looked up to see who 
 it might be. When Steve had finished, the new- 
 comer caught up the last words, " fair play," 
 and repeated them. All in the forecastle turned 
 to him, and saw one whose hobby was " fair 
 play." It was Roaring Ben. 
 
 " Fair play," said Ben. " What is the row ? 
 You fellers down here make more noise than 
 breakers on a lee shore." 
 
 " Row is jest this : That dollar down there 
 rnind ye, I haven't touched it is mine. It rolled 
 out of mittens that Bob there took out of his 
 chest, and yet he claims to know nothin' about 
 it." 
 
 " Nonsense ! " once more exclaimed Bob, try- 
 ing to laugh. " I don't know about your dol- 
 lar." 
 
 " The first thing," said Roaring Ben, in a very 
 dignified and judicial tone, as if he were a very 
 judge, " the first thing, Wyckham, is to be able 
 to prove that the dollar is yours. How do you 
 know that ? "
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 145 
 
 Here Roaring Ben placed himself by the side 
 of Bob, as if he meant to see that "fair play", 
 was given the boy. With his shaggy head he 
 rose up like a lion before the menacing bull-dog 
 guarding the dollar at his feet. 
 
 " How do I know ? Mind ye, I haven't 
 touched it " 
 
 " You have said that once already. That 
 isn't proof," was the reminder of the lion and 
 judge. 
 
 " And I say it again if I want to. I do say 
 it that I haven't touched it, and it means a good 
 deal when I claim that if you turn that over 
 you'll find my initials on it, S. W. W. There ! 
 I'll rest my whole case on that ; yes, rest it 
 there." 
 
 Steve said this with great complacency, as if 
 he not only had a good case, but the others 
 must see that he could talk like a lawyer in the 
 presence of this great judge, Roaring Ben. 
 
 " We will see how it may be," said Roaring 
 Ben. Stooping he picked up the dollar that 
 had been the sudden occasion of all this sudden 
 uproar. The others gathered about the mate 
 and looked with him. It was a moment of 
 
 eager, silent suspense ! 
 10
 
 14:6 SAILOR BOY BOB. 
 
 " Where is it \ " asked the mate, after looking 
 and turning the dollar over" ' S. W. W. ; ' 
 where is it 3 " 
 
 "It is there ! I can make it out ! " exclaimed 
 Horace. 
 
 Yes, the letters "S. W. W." were on the 
 other side of the silver dollar. 
 
 " Where ? where ? " asked Bob eagerly. 
 
 " There ! " said Roaring Ben. 
 
 Bob could trace the letters on the dollar. 
 
 " Well, what does that prove ? " asked Bob. 
 " I don't know any thing about it." 
 
 " One can say this much : it don't look exact- 
 ly right," said the judge. 
 
 Bob did not laugh now, but, realizing that the 
 matter had a serious aspect, affirmed : 
 
 " Somebody must have put it in the mitten." 
 
 " Of course 1" said Steve triumphantly. " Who 
 stole it, hid it ! That's so ! " 
 
 " No, sir ! " shouted Bob indignantly. " I 
 could take my oath " 
 
 " I wouldn't take any oaths," said Steve sar- 
 castically. 
 
 " But," said Bob, " I am innocent, and God 
 knows it." 
 
 Bob's loud, emphatic disavowal of all wrong,
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 147 
 
 his look of abhorrence, his whole attitude of 
 manly protest, had its effect for a moment, and 
 there was silence in the forecastle. Steve broke 
 the silence : 
 
 " Well, there are the facts ! Make what you 
 can out of them'." 
 
 " I am not the only one that could go to rny 
 chest and put a dollar in my mitten," said Bob. 
 
 " Do you mean that I went to your chest, 
 hunted up your mittens, and put the dollar 
 there ? " asked Steve. " Do you keep your chest 
 open or locked ? " 
 
 I I I" 
 
 " Tell me." 
 
 " I generally have kept it locked." 
 
 " Ginerally ? I guess always." 
 
 " Not the first part of the voyage, but I have 
 the last part, and I shall always now. I wont 
 have a repetition of this thing." 
 
 " Shouldn't think you would want it," replied 
 Steve, with a sneer. 
 
 The situation of things in the forecastle was 
 now exceedingly interesting. All felt, for even 
 Bob could not deny it, that the coin must be 
 Steve's. Otherwise it could not have been so 
 exactly identified by him. The point to be
 
 148 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 ascertained was, who placed it in Bob's mit- 
 ten ? If Bob put it there, he was a thief. If 
 somebody else had made a hiding-place of the 
 mitten, who was it? 
 
 Ralph now stepped forward and began to 
 speak. The others listened carefully, for he was 
 credited by the crew with the ownership of "a 
 good head," and then his shipmates had confi- 
 dence in his character. Was he not Squire 
 Winthrop's relative ? He was sure of a hearing. 
 
 " I don't think there is any proof that either 
 Bob or Steve put the dollar in that mitten, 
 and proof is what we want. Bob has kept his 
 chest locked up for a long time, so that another 
 might and could not get " 
 
 " Might have a key that would fit it," said one 
 of the spectators. 
 
 It was never known who said this. Gradually 
 almost all of the crew, hearing of the matter, had 
 flocked down into the forecastle. Even Captain 
 Granby had arrived. Somebody in the rear made 
 this last remark, implicating another than Bob. 
 The voice sounded to Bob like Horace Havi- 
 land's, and a second voice murmured, " Might 
 be so." 
 
 " Until we know positively about this thing,"
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 149 
 
 rang out Ralph's clear, echoing voice, " let us 
 not have our suspicions, but credit both sides 
 with the fair thing. As for Bob, does it seem 
 reasonable that a fellow should steal and then 
 bring the money forward in this way ? Would 
 he be such a fool ? " 
 
 " No," replied a voice. 
 
 " I would like to ask Steve when he had this 
 dollar last," said Ralph. 
 
 Steve was puzzled to answer this, and stut- 
 tered : 
 
 " I I I can't say." 
 
 " Did you or have you had it during the voy- 
 age?" 
 
 " N n o, think not." 
 
 " Did you have it in New York ? " 
 
 " Don't remember." 
 
 Here Captain Granby, who had been picking 
 up the threads of the story, and had woven out 
 some idea of its details, interjected this inquiry : 
 
 " Sure you can't remember ? " 
 
 " Don't remember." 
 
 Here a voice from the entrance cried out : 
 
 "How 'bout Oldburyport, Stebe? Hab it 
 dar ? " 
 
 Bob turned in the direction of the voice, and
 
 150 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 there was 'Kastus, the black cook, his big eyes 
 rolling round excitedly. He had left the galley 
 when he had heard about matters in the fore- 
 castle, and had ventured thus far. 
 
 " Come, come, 'Rastus," said Captain Granby 
 reprovingly, " you go and get your work done 
 up in the galley. I will ask questions." 
 
 The cook went away muttering to himself : 
 
 "Don't beliebe dat Bob stole de dollar, see 
 if I do. Cap'n mout jes' lemine ax one ques- 
 tion." 
 
 His big, clumsy feet shuffled across the deck 
 to his galley, and sliding back the door he then 
 drew it forward with a slam. Shut up with his 
 stove and his soup, he was not seen again till 
 dinner-time. 
 
 " I would like to have the question of ? Rastus 
 put to my accuser if he was in a condition to 
 remember every thing that happened in Oldbury- 
 port," said Bob, giving the last clause in half-sup- 
 pressed tones. 
 
 " What condition ? " shouted Steve. 
 
 " You know," replied Bob. 
 
 " I know that I sha'n't take any impudence 
 from you," again shouted Steve. 
 
 " If a young mulatto was here, I wouldn't
 
 KOUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 151 
 
 need to ask about your condition as I saw it," 
 said Bob. 
 
 " What was his condition ? " asked Captain 
 Granby. "I heard of him in Oldburyport, but 
 did not see him there." 
 
 " Drunk, sir. How did he know what he did 
 with his money ? " 
 
 There was laughter among the crew. Steve 
 was now flaming. 
 
 "I am not here to be overhauled. Besides, 
 what has that got to do with the mittens ? No 
 matter what I did in Oldburyport. I I I " 
 
 "I was drunk," squeaked a voice. Again 
 there was a laugh. 
 
 " Quiet ! " ordered the captain promptly. 
 " Give every body a chance." 
 
 " If we want any thing, it is proof," declared 
 Steve. " If that young feller can prove he 
 is innocent, let him do it. It is my dollar. I 
 am not anxious to have it again till I get into 
 port. The cap'n may take it and keep it for me, 
 and in the meantime, if that that feller can 
 show he is all right in his record, let him do it.". 
 
 " I am right," roared Bob, the single curl of 
 dark hair on his forehead showing prominently, 
 as it always did when he was excited.
 
 152 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " That remains to be* seen," said Steve saucily. 
 
 "I will take charge of this case," remarked 
 Captain Granby. " If we can get light. I shall 
 welcome it. Without plain, clear evidence I 
 am not willing to believe that there is any wrong- 
 doing. We will wait, men, and waiting may 
 bring us light on this case." 
 
 Light on that case ! If ever there was a mys- 
 tery, it now shrouded with its shadows the dol- 
 lar in Captain Granby's keeping, that silver coin 
 cross-marked on one side, and on the other 
 bearing the letters S. W. W. Captain Granby 
 would sometimes take it out from a little, drawer 
 in his desk and closely examine it. 
 
 "Why don't you speak, and tell us your his- 
 tory ? " he said one day. " Where is your tongue ? 
 Were you ever in Oldburyport? Were you 
 ever in New York ? Were you ever anywhere ? 
 Did Bob put you in those mittens ? Did Steve 
 stick you there ? " 
 
 The dollar was as dumb a coin as ever was 
 struck off at the mint, and made no reply. 
 
 This case aroused an intense excitement 
 among the crew. Bob was popular, and the 
 men did not wish to think him guilty. Still, 
 there was an under-current of suspicion in spite
 
 BOUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 153 
 
 of their assertion of his honesty. They were 
 ready to think Steve was guilty of mischief and 
 somehow had introduced the coin among the 
 articles of Bob's clothing in his chest. They 
 could not, however, prove what some were anx- 
 ious to believe. Steve was thus under a cloud 
 of suspicion, but how could both Bob and Steve 
 be guilty ? The case was perplexing. 
 
 The coin in the meantime made no confession. 
 When Captain Granby opened his drawer contain- 
 ing the dollar, a ray of sunshine stealing through 
 the little cabin-window might fall on the coin, as 
 if to say, " Here is light ! Now, shed some your- 
 self ! Speak ! " It still was dumb. A moon- 
 beam came through the same window one night. 
 It touched with its silver wand the dead dollar, 
 and left it dead and dumb. It still had no light 
 to give, no word to say. For any thing it 
 lacked, the crew made up in the use of their 
 busy tongues. Others far away were set at last 
 to talking. 
 
 Captain Granby had said to the men, ""We 
 shall be likely to meet a homeward-bound vessel. 
 Make up a mail and I will get the captain of 
 the craft to take our letters home." 
 
 Steve in that way sent to relatives a long ac-
 
 154 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 count of his fine success as a whaleman, but 
 said he had been shabbily treated by an Old- 
 buryport boy, a Bob Walker, a sort of a low 
 chap whom lie had caught stealing. Bob and 
 Ralph, not thinking that any ugly stories which 
 needed correction might go home, wrote about 
 their life in general, and said nothing about the 
 charge of stealing brought against Bob. 
 
 Bob reported to Alma that going to sea was 
 " sort of tough," but he felt he was earning some 
 money, and that was a compensation. He re- 
 ported that Ralph's health was much better, and 
 that the crew called him "chaplain," and Bob 
 also gave an account of the Sunday singing. 
 Ralph wrote to Squire Wiuthrop that he thought 
 Bob was making a splendid sailor, and he felt 
 also that Bob every way was doing well. If 
 the two boys had known what a news-bag Steve 
 would send to his relatives, they would have made 
 some reply to his charge. As it was, Ralph re- 
 marked to himself, "I am glad I haven't got to 
 say any thing about Bob's affair. I can't, can't 
 think Bob is guilty, and yet if I had to allow 
 that a dollar belonging to another was found in 
 Bob's chest, I might not, if I tried, make people 
 at home feel as I do. I believe he will turn out
 
 ROUND THE NUB OF A CONTINENT. 155 
 
 all right by and by, and can make others see it ; 
 but now, I can prove nothing." 
 
 The Wyckham mail-bag went off, therefore, 
 with its grave charges, as if stuffed with bombs. 
 The Wyckham mail was opened and the bombs 
 thrown round to strike and explode wherever 
 they would. O, what sorrow they occasioned in 
 the old house that the Walkers occupied, for 
 there the bombs struck and wounded without 
 rnercy. We will leave the ship on the Pacific 
 awhile, and follow the vessel carrying the Wyck- 
 ham mail and that of the others to the United 
 States.
 
 156 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 A CLOUD THAT GROWS. 
 
 IT was a day on the edge of winter. The two 
 elms in front of the old house next to " the 
 brick block ! ' were in a continual unrest, so 
 windy was the day. They faced one another, 
 and with long, leafless branches, as if with the 
 arms of pugilists, they threshed one another. The 
 air was raw, chilly, penetrating. The sky was 
 uneven, and restless with the passage of clouds 
 that moved in waves. It was one of those days 
 when if every thing be pleasant inside the house, 
 warm and comfortable, and if no sickness or 
 sorrow be there, then any outside discomfort 
 never seems to cross the threshold. There is a 
 satisfaction even in thinking it is so chilly and 
 unattractive without. We face at twilight the 
 open fire and pleasurably watch the flames play 
 up into the broad-mouthed chimney, and are 
 rather glad that there is a black, bleak night 
 darkening out-doors. It will make our open fire 
 all the more agreeable. Let trouble, though, be
 
 A CLOUD THAT GROWS. 157 
 
 in-doors, and then it seems as if the weather had 
 got into the house. The fire looks dull. There 
 are hoarse, melancholy voices roaring down the 
 chimney. There is a cold draught felt as we 
 hurry through the hall. 
 
 For some reason Alma felt, this particular 
 day when our chapter opens, that the ugly 
 weather was getting into the house. She had 
 no definite reason for saying so. Things out- 
 wardly were moving along agreeably. Her fa- 
 ther had sufficient work as janitor of the brick 
 block to insure the payment of the rent of the 
 house, and there was a surplus, even, to go to- 
 ward bread and butter. Alma's school brought 
 in a little harvest of money, and the store, too 
 contributed quite a satisfactory quota of profit. 
 Squire Winthrop, in accordance with a previous 
 arrangement, allowed Mr. Walker to draw a 
 certain fraction of the wages that would be due 
 Bob, month by month. All these re-enforce- 
 ments made a power strong enough to push 
 hungry winter-weather back from the door-step 
 and keep its growls outside the house. This day, 
 however, Alma, hurrying through the hall -in the 
 morning, shrugged her shoulders and said, 
 " Ugh ! winter is coming fast 1 " The portrait
 
 158 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 seemed more unfriendly than usual. That old 
 Winthrop ancestor if he were one scowled 
 more seriously over his shoulder, and seemed to 
 be saying more emphatically than ever, " This 
 young lady is not wanted here. I belong 
 here." 
 
 Then Mary Haviland came into the little shop 
 early. Her gray hair was confusedly fluttering 
 about the rim of her bonnet, and her sharp blue 
 eyes, while kindly, had a startled, restless look. 
 Somehow Mary seemed to be sure to come when 
 trouble was coming, a coincidence that the ob- 
 serving Alma had noticed a number of times. 
 
 " You all well up here \ " said Mary, looking 
 about uneasily, as if expecting to find a sick 
 member of the family. 
 
 " "Why, yes," said Alma. 
 
 " Heard your father cough on the street yes- 
 terday," said Mary. 
 
 " Dare say you did, Mary, but folks cough 
 and yet are not sick." 
 
 "Yes, y e s," said Mary, "but I didn't 
 know." 
 
 When she went out she glanced around the 
 shop as if expecting still to find that invalid. 
 
 " Sympathetic creature ! " thought Alma.
 
 A CLOUD THAT GROWS. 159 
 
 " Now she heard father cough, and she felt 
 troubled and came to inquire about him. That 
 is all there is to it. I feel relieved. How pleas- 
 ant it is beginning to look out-doors. Weather 
 changing ? " 
 
 No, there had been no change in the disa- 
 greeable weather. The sky was like a troubled 
 sea. The wind moaned. The contentious elms 
 still quarreled with one another, beating as they 
 roared and roaring as they beat. 
 
 " Yes," said Alma, rocking contentedly in a 
 chair that had been very softly cushioned by 
 her mother, " it is beginning to look quite pleas- 
 ant out-doors." 
 
 She had no sooner finished this sentence than 
 a hack came splashing through the mud accumu- 
 lating in the street, and it halted at the door of 
 the old house. 
 
 " Why, what is that ? " asked Alma, not ac- 
 customed to see hacks halting at the door of a 
 home too poor to think of riding. 
 
 The driver had dismounted, and, turning the 
 knob of the hack-door, let out two men. 
 
 " One is Dr. Bates," thought Alma. 
 
 And these two assisted a third to dismount. 
 Then they led him toward the house.
 
 160 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Why, it is father ! " she exclaimed, spring- 
 ing up from her chair, and rushing to the front 
 door. " Something has happened ! " 
 
 The sparkle died out of her rich, lustrous 
 eyes, and the glow faded from her cheeks like 
 all the crimson from the sunset sky. 
 
 Dr. Bates and his assistant, Thomas Haviland, 
 brother of Horace and Mary, almost lifted Mr. 
 Walker in their arms, so helpless was he when 
 he reached the steps. 
 
 " Why, father, what is the matter ? " asked 
 Alma, stretching out her arms. 
 
 "I will tell you, Miss Walker. Just show 
 us a room where you have a bed or lounge," 
 said Dr. Bates calmly. 
 
 " Up this way ! " said Alma, going forward 
 to the broad stair-way, disregarding the portrait 
 frowning without mercy at this intrusion. 
 
 The sick man was carried to his own room, 
 and there Mrs. Walker, who fluttered nervously 
 about him, made him comfortable. 
 
 Alma led Dr. Bates out into the upper hall 
 and asked him what this sudden conveyance of 
 her father to his home might mean. 
 
 " I don't like to say just what I think it is, 
 Miss Walker, but the symptoms are not good.
 
 A CLOUD THAT GROWS. 161 
 
 Had dizziness he was attacked in the hall up 
 in the brick block and I was summoned, and 
 found him almost unconscious. Don't be im- 
 mediately alarmed. He will recover so as to 
 be a partial invalid, and, by keeping quiet, can 
 move about the house and be comfortable. He 
 will not be able, though, to do any hard work, 
 and he must be particular about his diet, avoid- 
 ing excitement. He may live years, and yet he 
 might not. Now take it as calmly as pos- 
 sible." 
 
 " There is no other way," said Alma, trying 
 to be calm. 
 
 And yet all the time she felt a heavy burden 
 coming down toward her, a load out of the 
 stormy sky, broadening, lowering, dropping 
 nearer and nearer, and she knew it must 
 rest on her shoulders, and she must carry it 
 patiently. 
 
 At noon something else happened. Two of 
 the children burst into the house excitedly 
 shouting : 
 
 " Mother ! Alma ! " 
 
 " Hash ! hush ! " said Alma meeting this 
 eager quantity of youthful life, " father is not 
 
 well." 
 11
 
 162 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " He sick abed ?" asked Billy. 
 
 " He is now sitting in his chair," replied Alma. 
 
 The children did not seem to think they 
 needed to worry about an invalid only sick 
 enough to occupy a chair and not to be in bed. 
 Alma was moving away when Ted said : 
 
 " You don't don't want to hear about the 
 Andromeda, I suppose ? " 
 
 Alma turned swiftly : 
 
 " The Andromeda f "What do you mean ? 
 She is not wrecked ? " 
 
 Alma seemed to have become just two dark 
 eyes staring out of a face white as a snow- 
 drift. 
 
 "Wrecked? Because a vessel's heard from 
 that's no sign she's wrecked ! They were talk- 
 ing about it at my school the scholars were 
 and the teacher and she's been spoken to." 
 
 "Who? The teacher?" 
 
 " No, the Andromeda, Alma, the Androm- 
 eda what Bob went in, and the Willoughbys 
 have got news ; and, Alma, where are our let- 
 ters ? " 
 
 " Did you ask at the post-office when you 
 came by ? " 
 
 "Yes, and the post-master said he didn't
 
 A CLOUD THAT GROWS. 163 
 
 know about letters from the Andromeda. 
 Cross old budget ! " 
 
 " O, well, we shall get them when they come. 
 Well, what did the Willoughbys hear 2 " 
 " She she's been spoken to and " 
 " Well, do speak ! Are they all well ? " 
 " I guess so. You mean the Willoughbys ? " 
 "No, no, but Bob and R Ka Squire Win- 
 throp's grandson or or relative ? " 
 " O, yes. I think so ; but, Alma " 
 Ted had been speaking in an absent-minded 
 way, looking about him as if to see who might 
 be listening, and then he stepped slowly, reluc- 
 tantly, up to Alma and said in a hollow, fright- 
 ened tone of voice : 
 
 " Alma, do do you believe it about Bob ? " 
 " Believe what ? Tell me quick, Ted ! I 
 can't seem to get any thing out of you." 
 
 If Alma was impatient, let it be remembered 
 that she had borne much that day, and she now 
 felt instinctively that the shadow of another 
 trouble was coming. 
 
 " Why, one of the boys came up to me and 
 sort of sneered and guessed if his brother went 
 to sea, guessed his brother wouldn't steal 
 and"
 
 164: SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Why, Ted ! " shrieked Alma, and so down 
 upon the poor girl's shoulders another great 
 burden descended. 
 
 It seemed to be a part of the wild, winter- 
 like day, a part of the storm that broke in all 
 its fury the subsequent night, the wind howl- 
 ing along the deserted street, the rain splashing 
 somberly from the eaves, and the elms con- 
 tending with one another more savagely than 
 ever. 
 
 Alma did not retire early that night. Her 
 father was very comfortable but weak, and in- 
 disposed to say any thing. The excitement had 
 not been kindly to Mrs. Walker's nerves, and 
 one of her awful headaches must be nursed by 
 Alma. 
 
 At last the old Walkers and the young Walk- 
 ers all were asleep, and Alma went round the 
 house to see if doors were locked and windows 
 were secured. She was passing through the big 
 lower hall, lamp in hand, and gave one glance 
 at the portrait. She had grown into the habit 
 of doing it the face had a sort of attraction for 
 her. That unknown Winthrop if such was 
 no more affable and placable than before. 
 
 " What is that ? " asked Alma, noticing a
 
 A CLOUD THAT GKOWS. 165 
 
 piece of paper on the floor directly under the 
 portrait. 
 
 It was a tattered, yellow bit, and as Alma 
 picked it tip she noticed that its edges were 
 broken, very much like an old person whose 
 faculties have been invaded by years, and rents 
 are made here and there. She lifted the por- 
 trait how it seemed to scowl ! and saw another 
 bit of paper clinging to the frame, but a blank. 
 She took both bits into the back-parlor, now a 
 school-room by day and a refuge-room by night. 
 Sitting down she joined these fragments, and 
 then she held this yellow, tattered slip up to the 
 light, and read on it these faded words : " John 
 Bevan." 
 
 " Now all of this must have .fallen from the 
 back of the portrait," concluded Alma, " tucked 
 away in the frame. I wonder if it is the man's 
 name ! I will ask Squire Winthrop sometime. 
 To keep it safe, I will put it in my bureau 
 drawer." 
 
 She forgot to inquire* of Squire Winthrop 
 what the name might mean, and there in the 
 secret dusk of that drawer was destined to re- 
 main unnoticed a very important bit of testi- 
 mony, sure, however, to be needed sometime.
 
 166 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Would it ever, though, be taken out of its hid- 
 ing-place ? 
 
 Alma sat *alone while others were sleeping, 
 while the storm was driving and howling about 
 the house, while the rain knocked rudely upon 
 the panes as if for admittance. Two burdens 
 in one day! There was her father's sickness, 
 involving the loss of work that had secured the 
 family this comfortable old home, and there was 
 the story about Bob said to be a thief, and 
 away off somewhere on the dark sea. 
 
 " I can't believe it of Bob," she asserted. 
 
 Then she had a question : Why should all 
 this come upon the family, upon her mother, 
 upon Alma? Were not the burdens large 
 enough before ? Did not God know what was 
 coming? Could he not have prevented it? 
 Why did he let it happen ? Was not God in- 
 terested ? And to Alma, sitting in the silent 
 back-parlor that night, something seemed to say 
 that God was heavenly Father still, that he was 
 interested, that it was his burden, that She 
 stopped questioning. If all this was a burden 
 her heavenly Father was interested in, she 
 would carry it with him and in his strength, 
 and would try to bring good out of it even as
 
 A CLOUD THAT GROWS. 167 
 
 lie purposed, and now she would go to sleep on 
 the pillow of that thought. She took up her 
 lump, went into the hall, and climbed the broad 
 old stairway. She did not stop to see if John 
 Bevan was looking at her. She did not think 
 of him.
 
 168 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 A BREAK IN THE CLOUD. 
 
 QARDINIUS WALKER soon was walking 
 O about the house again, pale, feeble, reminded 
 by the doctor that he must be " careful," and 
 living as it were under the sword of Damocles. 
 He, we remember, was the courtier and flat- 
 terer who thought his royal master, Dionysius, 
 ruler of Syracuse, was an exceedingly fortunate 
 and happy man, having a throne under him. 
 Dionysius invited him to a feast abounding in 
 the equipments and viands of royalty. In the 
 midst of all this show Damocles looked up and 
 saw a startling sight that of a sharp-edged 
 sword hanging above his head by a single horse- 
 hair ! The subject's views of royalty were very 
 seriously affected. It was in the shadow of a 
 very grave and threatening fate that Sardinius 
 "Walker now lived. 
 
 One winter day, when a warm, southerly rain 
 made the out-door atmosphere soft and mild, he 
 thought he would like to venture out on the
 
 A BREAK IN THE CLOUD. 1G9 
 
 street ; but the walking was very bad, and lie 
 knew he must stay in-doors. 
 
 "Why, father," remarked Alma, who some- 
 how was the one to see what was possible, " you 
 might pnt on your overcoat and go up garret 
 and walk there for exercise." 
 
 "So I could," said her father. " I haven't 
 been up for some time. If it wasn't for the 
 mist I might look out of the window and see 
 if the Andromeda was anywhere near port." 
 
 This playful humor Alma was glad to see. 
 
 " He doesn't know what those Willoughbys 
 have been reporting round about poor Bob," 
 thought Alma. " Don't I wish the Andromeda 
 would come home soon ! " 
 
 She quickly heard her father's step on the 
 stairs leading to the garret door. Then at in- 
 tervals she heard a dull, heavy sound higher up, 
 and knew that her father was exercising in the 
 garret. 
 
 " This is good ! " he said, walking up and 
 down the bare floor of old brown boards. " I 
 like this. I believe I am good for something 
 yet." 
 
 He went to the window and looked seaward, 
 but he could not penetrate the wall of gray mist
 
 170 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 thrown up there. Then he turned and walked 
 back toward a window looking down into the 
 yard and garden. All the while the rain beat 
 on the roof an accompanying tune by which the 
 invalid could march. As he walked, he looked 
 up at the rafters, from which hung bundles of 
 spearmint, thorough wort, and pennyroyal, gath- 
 ered up by Alma and Mary Haviland in the 
 pastures beyond the town. Then he glanced at 
 a pile of old furniture left there by Squire Win- 
 throp years ago, and among the relics was a box. 
 The lid was off, and naturally he glanced at the 
 contents. 
 
 " Books ! " he said. 
 
 He pulled the box forward carefully, remem- 
 bering the sword of Damocles, it would seem, 
 and, bringing the books into the fuller light of 
 the back window, examined them. 
 
 " An old arithmetic ! " he exclaimed. " Geog- 
 
 O 
 
 raphy ! Classical dictionary ! " 
 
 This last he handled with delight, remember- 
 ing his. studies at a certain academy. 
 
 " But what is this ? " he asked. " Genealogy 
 of the Winthrop family ! Must be interesting. 
 Somebody has made additions on the margin ; 
 notes written there by some one. I wonder if
 
 A BEEAK IN THE CLOUD. 171 
 
 Squire Winthrop remembers this book is here. 
 Guess I will take it down arid show it to the 
 folks. Quite a find ! " 
 
 He replaced the other books in the box and 
 came down the garret stairway, wrapped in his 
 overcoat, carrying the genealogy in his hand. 
 There at the foot of the dark stairs, suddenly 
 appearing like a beautiful star amid the shadows, 
 was Alma's bright, pure face. 
 
 " Got something interesting i" she asked in 
 her animated, cheerful way. " That is good, 
 father. Come down stairs and enjoy it." 
 
 " I will, Alma. I wanted to show it to you 
 and mother. Something very interesting, I 
 think." 
 
 " Do come, then, where mother and I are. I 
 have no school to-day, and I am with mother 
 in the shop. "We are all alone. Dear me ! 
 Only ducks will come out in this rain, so we 
 sliaVt be interrupted one bit. Won't we have 
 a nice time ! " 
 
 She took her father by the arm, looking up 
 into his face with such trust and affection that it 
 went to the poor invalid's heart, and he mur- 
 mured, 
 
 " You are a real good girl, Alma.'*
 
 172 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Only when I have you to tell me so. It is 
 all a make-believe on my part, you know. Now 
 you see how comfortable we are, mother and 
 I" 
 
 It was cozy in the little shop to which the 
 cottons and calicoes, ribbons and yarns, mittens 
 and scarfs, gave a look of comfort and warmth, 
 and this was increased by the open fire of coal 
 in a little grate. Mrs. Walker was sewing by a 
 window. Her face was the only uncomfortable- 
 looking object in the room, but it brightened 
 when she saw her husband's eager interest and 
 Alma's smiles. 
 
 " There, mother," said Mr. Walker, sitting 
 down in a rocking-chair Alrna brought out of 
 the sitting-room, " I found something up garret 
 that I know wrll interest you. It is an old 
 genealogy of the Winthrops." 
 
 " You don't say, Sardinins ! " 
 
 " Tucked away, mother, in an old box up- 
 stairs. See ! Got notes in it ! " 
 
 As he turned over the pages for his wife's in- 
 spection she said : 
 
 " May find something here about the Wins- 
 lows ; and it is excellent blood, and your great 
 let me see want to have it exact your great-
 
 A BREAK IN THE Ctouo. 173 
 
 grandmother was a Winslow, Alma. Yes, we 
 have real good blood." 
 
 " Good as the Winthrops ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, of course, and what is more, our 
 family the Winslows married into the Wiii- 
 throps, you know. May never do it again, 
 but" 
 
 Here Alma turned and looked out of the 
 window. 
 
 "But they have done it once. May be the 
 old genealogy will tell about it." 
 
 " It will if it is good for any thing," re- 
 marked Mr. Walker. "I will find out, Win- 
 throp, if you are an Alma ! Ha-ha ! Alma, I 
 will find out, I mean, if you are a Winthrop. I 
 have heard it said that we have Winthrop blood 
 in us." 
 
 All three laughed. In the midst of the rain 
 it was really pleasant to hear the three laughing, 
 especially when one of the three sat under the 
 sword of Damocles ; when, too, out in the hall 
 was a picture that scowled at Alma and asserted 
 that she did not belong there in that Winthrop 
 house. The three in the shop laughed again. 
 In the midst of the merriment, who was it, tall, 
 stately, stooping a little to-day, that came up the
 
 174 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 door-steps? "Who said only ducks would come 
 out in the rain ? "Was this a duck ? " 
 
 " Hush ! It is Squire Winthrop ! " said Alma. 
 
 "While they were wondering whether it was 
 as a customer or a caller that he appeared, the 
 squire answered this question by coining into 
 the shop. 
 
 " O ! " he said. " You all here ? It does my 
 eyesight good to see you all so happy. Mr. 
 "Walker, you are gaining, really. And Alma, 
 and Mrs. Walker, you both look well. I just 
 stepped in your Aunt Mary wanted a skein of 
 yarn, and I said I would get it for her." 
 
 The squire had a way of talking that was as 
 easy if not as vivacious as Alma's. There was 
 always, however, an accompaniment of dignity. 
 He never seemed to forget that he was a Win- 
 throp. It was a fact worth remembering. The 
 duck, though, who had ventured out to make 
 this purchase, had something in mind besides a 
 skein of yarn for " your Aunt Mary." 
 
 He had been considering the situation of the 
 Walkers, and what they would do, now that Mr. 
 Walker could do nothing. 
 
 " I want to help that Alma," he had silently 
 remarked to Squire Winthrop, " for she is mak-
 
 A BREAK IN THE CLOUD. ' 175 
 
 ing a brave struggle. I wish she was my daugh- 
 ter. Couldn't I fix this matter then ! As it is, 
 what can be done ? I will drop round and see 
 them." 
 
 Not only "yarn," but the future was in his 
 mind when he made his appearance. 
 
 " Squire," now observed Mr. Walker, pulling 
 from the rear of his coat-skirts the genealogy 
 which he had timidly secreted when the squire 
 came into the room, "I found this up garret. 
 No objection to our looking at it ? " 
 
 " O, no ; look all you please. Indeed ! The 
 old "Winthrop genealogy ! I didn't know a copy 
 was up in the attic. You see, I have one at 
 home. Ah, I had forgotten about these notes 
 on the margin, and so on ! They are very val- 
 uable. I have intended some time to give them 
 to the printer and let him preserve them in 
 more durable form. Why, I am really very 
 glad to see this." 
 
 " Those notes, Squire ? They are pretty old, 
 and I should say the sooner printed the better." 
 
 " See here, Sardinius ! I have it now, I have 
 it now ! " 
 
 The squire spoke triumphantly, for he sawlhe 
 solution of the problem that had perplexed him.
 
 176 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " I want to make you an offer, if your health 
 will permit. Just take off in a clear, neat hand 
 all these notes made on the margin anywhere. 
 Write them out fully, and I will tell you how. 
 Take time for it. I want to have all these notes 
 printed some time made into an appendix and 
 then they can be easily kept. You can favor 
 yourself all you please, and work when you feel 
 like it and drop it when weary. I don't doubt 
 but that you will earn enough to pay for your 
 rent for a year to come." 
 
 What? All that compensation for a task that 
 would not keep a good copyist at work a month ! 
 Did Alma hear aright? Did her father and 
 mother hear? 
 
 " Isn't the squire good ! " was the silent lan- 
 guage of six happy eyes. When the squire had 
 gone, three tongues were very busy sounding 
 his praises. Sardinius Walker had sometimes 
 doubted if the world had given him a fair chance. 
 If the world did feel penitent and disposed to 
 rectify its mistake, the late stroke of sickness 
 threatened to take away the world's opportunity. 
 It was all right now. He was Squire Winthrop's 
 amanuensis. He was also a genealogist. He 
 would have an opportunity as a scholar to avail
 
 A BREAK IN THE CLOUD. 177 
 
 himself of the resources of knowledge accumu- 
 lated in that famous academy course of his 
 youth. How it must gratify Alma, he thought, 
 as, clad in a dressing-gown that somehow he 
 always fancied had a scholastic air, he bent over 
 the dusty pages of that genealogy. If Mater, 
 the other twin-child, were only living to witness 
 her father's occupancy of his rightful place ! It 
 comforted him to think the dear child did look 
 down from the other life and see his present oc- 
 cupation. 
 
 There was another lift on Alma's burdens the 
 very next morning. Alma had hardly started 
 the kitchen tire when there was a hurried, eager 
 knock at the door. She opened it, and there 
 stood Mary Haviland, her faded eyes sharply 
 flashing, her gray hair escaping from her bonnet 
 and fluttering in the wind. 
 
 " He says it has not been proved and 
 I think you ought to know it," exclaimed 
 Mary, as Alma opened the door. 
 
 " Come in, come in ! " said Alrna. " Why, 
 Mary, what sends you out so early ? Come in 
 and warm yourself by the stove ! " 
 
 " 0, 1 ain't cold ! Well, it hasn't been proved, 
 
 no, no ! " 
 12
 
 178 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " What hasn't been proved ? " 
 
 "We had a letter from Horace last night, 
 and" 
 
 "Horace?" 
 
 "Ye,s, yes! Just think! A letter from 
 Horace, and it only got here last night. Been 
 miscarried! So the post-office folks tell me. 
 Now, did did you ever hear of such things ? 
 It got here last night. And and what do you 
 think Horace said ? " 
 
 Here Mary dropped her voice to a whisper in 
 communicating the important news. 
 
 " You know those Willoughbys said Bob stole, 
 and Horace says it hasn't been proved ! There 
 for ye ! Hasn't been proved ! Now, you can 
 stay your soul on that ! But I must go." 
 
 Alma was in a kind of painful daze. The 
 subject of any possible theft by Bob was like 
 the sting of a thorn in her side, but when she 
 saw this faithful though weak-minded ally turn- 
 ing toward the door, she recovered herself, and 
 murmured : 
 
 " I thank you ever so much, Mary." 
 
 " I thought it would help you when you come 
 to turn it over, dear." 
 
 Turning it over subsequently, Alma was
 
 A BKEAK m THE CLOUD. 179 
 
 helped by it. Bob in his letter had said nothing 
 about any charges of theft. Aunt Mary had 
 showed Alma the letter Ralph had sent, but this 
 said nothing about any theft by Bob. JSTow 
 came Horace's assurance that the charge had not 
 been proved. It was like a breaking cloud at 
 night, revealing in the rift a star. 
 
 "Thank God," said Alma devoutly, grate- 
 fully. " He is lifting on my burden." 
 
 Yes, underneath all our trials, burdens, cares, 
 are the everlasting arms. 
 
 Alma's father had not been allowed to. know 
 of any charge against Bob. 
 
 " It will do him no good," reasoned Alma and 
 her mother. " Then it may do him a lot of hurt, 
 as' he has had that ill turn." 
 
 Mr. Walker thought of Bob as the smartest 
 sailor, probably, on board the Andromeda', every 
 body liking him, his good name without a spot, 
 his future assured as one of honor. But what 
 was Bob doing to win a good record as a whale- 
 man ? Borrow the wings of an albatross and fly 
 to the Pacific.
 
 180 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THERE SHE BLOWS! 
 
 mHERE she blows!" was the sharp, shrill 
 J- cry echoing above the Andromeda one 
 day. 
 
 Bob at the time was in the galley with 'Rastus 
 the cook. It was a snug place of shelter. Besides 
 the stove, a bulky affair and securely fastened 
 to the deck, there were rows of tin- ware, a table, 
 a small heap of fuel. 'Rastus was " gittin' up 
 a big Johnny cake fur de crew," so he had told 
 Bob. One big pan for the dough was on the 
 stove ; a second stood on the floor, leaning against 
 the corner of the stove. 'Rastus was "spinning 
 a yarn." '' There she blows ! " came that cry. 
 The thread of 'Rastus's yarn was abruptly sev- 
 ered, cut by that sharp cry in a place of exceed- 
 ing interest to Bob. He wanted to find out if 
 'Rastus knew all the colored people in Oldbury- 
 port, and if he possibly knew such a young mu- 
 latto as that one in Steve's company the first 
 time Bob ever met Steve. Bob had been listen-
 
 THEEE SHE BLOWS ! 181 
 
 ing to 'Rastus, and, interrupting, was about to 
 describe that mulatto when there echoed over- 
 head the good news, " There she blows ! " The 
 galley was instantly in a state of intense excite- 
 ment. 'Rastus dropped the dish in which he 
 was mixing and stirring his dough, but clung to 
 his big iron spoon and started for the door of 
 the galley. Bob was ahead of him, but hit with 
 his foot the pan resting against the stove, and, 
 stumbling over it, pitched against the door of 
 the galley. 'Rastus arrived at the door in almost 
 as good time as Bob, and in their effort to get 
 out, two at a time, 'Rastus plastered up Bob's 
 right eye with a lump of dough whirled out of 
 the spoon still in the cook's hand. Such a mat- 
 ter as a lump of dough in one's eye is only a 
 trifle compared with a big whale in the sea, and 
 it was not allowed to interfere with Bob's per- 
 sistent progress. Scouring out his eye with his 
 handkerchief, Bob tumbled on the deck. 'Ras- 
 tus landed by his side, his legs as well as his 
 spoon flourished in the air, while his eyes were 
 frantically turned toward the source of that out- 
 cry in the rigging. 
 
 " There she blows ! " came the warning a sec- 
 ond time.
 
 182 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 It was Horace Haviland up in the foretop- 
 gallant cross-trees, doing duty as look-out a 
 very important piece of service in a whale-ship. 
 
 " Where away ? " rang out Captain Granby's 
 eager voice. 
 
 " Two points off lee bow ! Three miles off, 
 and sperm whale." 
 
 He had no sooner said this than Horace 
 shouted, " There goes flukes ! " 
 
 This meant that the monster, who had come 
 up possibly to see and devour the maid, An- 
 dromeda, had gone down into the sea again. 
 Tliis subject was not to be dropped here, even if 
 the whale had disappeared. The excitement in 
 the galley was an illustration of the state of 
 mind in which all the crew were. There were 
 those off duty who were lounging and sleeping 
 down in the forecastle, but they all scrambled 
 on deck, and rushed for the rigging, every eye 
 eagerly strained to see every thing possible. 
 
 "We will find out about that feller!" an- 
 nounced the captain, and the boats were cleared 
 for lowering. The driving Andromeda was 
 cautiously maneuvered to meet each emergency. 
 
 " Stand by to lower ! " thundered the captain, 
 and splashing down into the cool Pacific went
 
 THERE SHE BLOWS ! 183 
 
 the boats. The whale was now anxiously de- 
 sired by the crew to appear again, and finally 
 consented. 
 
 " There she blows ! " was the ringing cry aloft, 
 echoed by many voices below. The whale was 
 much nearer. The white foam of the spout 
 curved above the lonely waters. Such a fount- 
 ain-like play seemed a very insignificant matter, 
 but it- started up those boat-crews as if a bomb 
 had exploded under their feet. There were 
 three boats pushing off. Each had a crew of six 
 men. There were four oarsmen to a boat, also 
 a harpooner and boat steerer. Bob and Ralph 
 each pulled an oar under Roaring Ben, while 
 Horace Haviland was the harpooner. At various 
 times, when the sea was calm and the Androm- 
 eda loitering in its course, a spare spar would be 
 dropped overboard and towed astern. The spar 
 was supposed to be a whale. The boats would 
 be lowered and the crews exercised duly in 
 whaling. They were drilled in "pullin' in 
 chase," and in whatever was meant by those 
 mysteries, "starnin'," or " goin' on," or "pullin' 
 two oars starn three." There w r ould be a turbu- 
 lent swash of foam around that spar, but it would 
 always come unharmed out of the tumult. At
 
 184 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 various times, when the voyagers were sailing 
 down the Atlantic, the boats had been lowered 
 for real whales, but Bob's boat was never the 
 one lucky enough to capture a monster. Cha- 
 grined on account of this ill-success, Bob's mates 
 were specially anxious, now that they were on 
 the whaling grounds of the Pacific, to strike and 
 secure a whale soon as possible. 
 
 "Now, boys," said Hearing Ben, "all ready! 
 There, that is it ! Now, go it ! Stiddy, 
 stiddy ! " 
 
 As the boatmen bent forward to dip their 
 oars Roaring Ben would bend also, then falling 
 back for the long, hard pull. Through the 
 swelling sea shot the boat, Roaring Ben every 
 minute or two interjecting some word of en- 
 couragement : " Boys, you are gainin' on 'em ! " 
 " T'other boats are fallin' astarn ! " " That crit- 
 ter is blowin' agin ! " " Sticfdy ! We'll have an 
 iron in him sartin sure ! " " Eyes out, Horace ! 
 Have your iron out ! " 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir ! " replied the harpooner, stand- 
 ing in the bow of the boat, his hand on the sharp 
 iron. Before him rose from the sea the square, 
 bulky head of the whale, dark and stupid and 
 stubborn, the outlines contrasting strongly with
 
 THERE SHE BLOWS ! 185 
 
 the pools of white foam that frothed about this 
 big creature of the deep. Roaring Ben's crew 
 came on gently as possible. Whalemen know 
 how to muffle their oars so that the strong, ener- 
 getic strokes shall not excite his black majesty 
 carelessly sporting in the sea. 
 
 " Ready, Horace ! " muttered Roaring Ben. 
 
 The harpooner gave a nod impatiently, as if 
 signifying by it that of course he was ready, 
 and did not the mate understand that ? His 
 harpoons barbed weapons of iron, the edges 
 keen and bright were close at hand. There 
 were the lances, each in good cutting order. 
 Nowadays, whalers resort also to harpoon-guns 
 and bomb-lances. In Roaring Ben's boat were 
 three hundred fathoms of hemp-line carefully 
 coiled away. There were hatchet and knife that 
 might be serviceable in cutting the line. This 
 was not the only apparatus in the boat. The 
 whalemen must have their compass, for might 
 they not be separated from their beloved vessel ? 
 Then they must take water-keg, lantern, candles, 
 fluke-spade, boat-hook, dragging-float. That 
 sporting whale not far away might prove to be 
 a dangerous creature, and in the duel between 
 boat and fish some of the crew might be hurt
 
 186 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 as well as the fish. There must be bandages in 
 readiness for any sucli emergency as a wound. 
 A " waif-flag," mounted on a pole, might be 
 helpful. 
 
 Roaring Ben's whale was now nearer than 
 ever. The other boats were still "astarn." 
 As his crew with muffled oars steadily made 
 headway, the mate plied his stimulating re- 
 marks. 
 
 "Now, boys, give it to 'em! Now, stiddy, 
 stiddy, stiddy! Spring to it! Spring, boys! 
 O, a ship to every man that wins ! Spring to 
 it! Hun-now!' There!" 
 
 As the crew rowed, Roaring Ben steered. His 
 apparatus was a steering-oar over twenty feet 
 long thrust out through a so-called groin met on 
 the stern-post. As if strong hooks of steel his 
 brown hands gripped that oar, while his eyes 
 glared sharp and wild under the eaves of shaggy 
 hair. He saw only that whale. 
 
 " There goes flukes ! " said Ben, in a softened 
 but excited tone. " Now look out ! " 
 
 The whale had gone. Gone where? When 
 he came up where would he appear? 
 
 Ralph trembled. 
 
 " What if that creature should know no better
 
 THERE SHE BLOWS! 187 
 
 than to come up under this very boat, and, say, 
 bump his head against my feet ! " 
 
 Bob did not have any thoughts. He only saw 
 Ben's face, and his soul was thrilled with the ex- 
 citement of the chase and the hope of capture. 
 He just gripped his oar in silence, for not a man 
 spoke save as the steejer gave his orders in low, 
 hushed tones. 
 
 " Pull for dear life ! " Roaring Ben was say- 
 ing. " Spring all ! 'Most there ! Jest hear 
 him spout! Ain't that music? There he is! 
 Pull ! " 
 
 In silence every man pulled as if it were to 
 save himself from a funeral. Bob turned his 
 head an instant and saw the huge dark creature 
 projecting his back from the uneasy water. 
 Roaring Ben had risen that he might more 
 easily work his long steering-oar. Horace, also, 
 was standing in the bow of the boat, the sharp- 
 pointed iron in his hand, one moment looking at 
 the big bulk every oar-sweep nearer to him, and 
 then glancing down to see if the line attached 
 to his iron was falling into the tub clear and 
 
 o 
 
 disentangled. Carelessly, dignifiedly spouting, 
 the king of the sea still lay stretched out upon 
 the sea.
 
 188 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Now, now, give it to him ! " half whispered 
 the mate to Horace. 
 
 Whizz z ! went the iron, its keen point sug- 
 gesting suddenly to the king that somebody 
 meant to disturb his repose. 
 
 " Another ! " cried the mate. 
 
 Horace was handling his second iron, and it 
 followed the first in speedy succession, making 
 another pointed and disagreeable suggestion to 
 his majesty. 
 
 " Starti all ! " Roaring Ben was now shouting. 
 " Starn, I tell ye ! " 
 
 The boat was quickly backed to a position be- 
 yond the reach of the whale if he should turn 
 and show fight. There was no such disposition 
 in the startled creature. He had felt the prick 
 of a sharp spur that started him off in a mad, 
 violent shoot, and away he rushed, the line whirl- 
 ing out of the tub so fast that the wooden rail 
 of the boat smoked with the heat of the intense 
 friction. Down, down sank the leviathan, as if 
 to smother his trouble and the boat also in the 
 depths of the ocean. Bob had sunk a fishing- 
 line oftentimes in the river at home, but he had 
 never known any excitement like this. All that 
 could be seen was just that strong hemp-line
 
 THERE SHE BLOWS ! 189 
 
 going down into the ocean, and that something 
 was on the end of the line the movement of 
 the boat readily proved. What a big, unseen 
 mystery was towing them over the Pacific ! 
 Would it come up again, this ocean-mystery ? 
 Would the line hold? What if it broke? 
 When might the whale be expected ? Sudden- 
 ly, not far away, rose out of the foaming water 
 a huge hump, and the next moment there was 
 the sound of a hoarse blowing. The king had 
 arrived again. 
 
 " There she blows ! " reported the mate, pant- 
 ing with excitement. 
 
 The whale had consumed his stock of air, and 
 had come up to breathe. 
 
 "Now spring for it, boys! Quick, Horace! 
 Don't sojer, boys ! Quick ! " urged Roaring 
 Ben. 
 
 Horace was as prompt as the mate. He drove 
 into the whale a lance, following it up with a sec- 
 ond and a third. There was no escape now for 
 the whale. With his immense flukes he threshed 
 the water as if this were the wretch daring to in- 
 terfere with his peace. The heavy blows echoed 
 over the sea. 
 
 " Starn all ! " shouted the mate.
 
 190 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 The boat was backed out of the raging whirl- 
 pool, whose furious center was that wounded 
 fish-king. He would still fight on. 
 
 The boatmen rested on their oars and watched 
 from a safe distance the contortions of their booty. 
 These were less and less violent. The huge flukes 
 could not be lifted so easily, flapping lower, lower. 
 The breathing was more and more suppressed. 
 The body turned more and more laboriously, and 
 at last there was a motionless carcass stretched out 
 on the surface of the sea. The king was dead. 
 Across the waters echoed the hurrah of the vic- 
 torious, happy whalemen. The other boats that 
 had started out in this hunt had been diverted 
 toward several breathing, blowing monsters of 
 the sea, but, failing to make a capture, they 
 rowed up to Roaring Ben's crew, and assisted 
 in the towing of the whale to the ship. It was 
 not a lengthy effort, for the Andromeda met 
 them and the whale was made fast to the ship's 
 chains. Andromeda was victor in this her mod- 
 ern fight with a big sea-prodigy. 
 
 " Well, boys ! " exclaimed Captain Granby to 
 Bob and Ralph as they came aboard, " how do 
 you feel after the hunt ? " 
 
 " First-rate," said Ralph.
 
 THERE SHE BLOWS ! 191 
 
 Bob's answer was characteristic : 
 
 " Ready for the next one." 
 
 " He is going to be a whaleman," added Roar- 
 ing Ben with pride. 
 
 The mission of the Andromeda to the great 
 whaling grounds in the far Pacific now began 
 in earnest. From the mast head hung tackle 
 and fall for hoisting, to assist in the so-termed 
 *' cutting-in " process to which every captured 
 whale is subjected. Amidships stood the try- 
 works. The whale duly is dissected or " cut 
 up." All serviceable parts are hoisted out of 
 the sea. In the "blubber-room" is a whale- 
 carver. He cuts up the blubber, and it leaves 
 him for the " mincing-horse." Here another 
 carving takes place. The fat is finally brought 
 into available size for the try-pots. These are 
 of iron, and are firmly set in brick. Under 
 these hot fires are maintained. Wood is used 
 at first. When the trying-out season has fairly 
 begun the scraps left after boiling down the 
 blubber into oil are sufficient to keep up the 
 fires. The whale does not need after this the 
 services of a wood-chopper, but is so accommo- 
 dating as to boil his fat at his own expense. 
 
 While a whaler by day cruises under sail
 
 192 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 wherever her booty may show itself, at sunset 
 sail is taken in. The mainyard is aback. She 
 lies during the night under diminished canvass. 
 The try- works are in operation. The blackish, 
 sooty flames roll up in the furnaces, and as they 
 escape from the flues they light np the deck, 
 the masts, the shrouds, and stays, the scanty sail, 
 and throw a red glare down upon the sea and 
 turn each patch of foam into a rose from the 
 garden at home. 
 
 Bob's first whale (did not our sailor-boy have 
 an energetic hand in the capture ?) yielded about 
 seventy barrels of oil, snugly stowed away be- 
 tween decks.
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. 
 
 IT was just before dawn. Ralph was standing 
 in the bows of the Andromeda. He was 
 glad to have this opportunity to do nothing. but 
 stand and look off. He had been working hard 
 for two hours about the hot furnaces, cramming 
 in the scraps, or busy in passing pieces of blub- 
 ber to the try-pots. Work was carried on at 
 night as well as by day. The great question 
 was how to get oil, oil, oil. It is true the An- 
 dromeda did not have her old look of neatness 
 and trimness. Big grease-spots darkened the 
 decks. Somewhere a sail might need patching 
 or the wood-work might show the marks of 
 hard usage. The business of the Andromeda 
 was now not to look handsome, but be a suc- 
 cessful whaler. The vessel had come too great 
 a distance from New England to waters stretch- 
 ing down toward New Zealand to lose this op- 
 portunity for an oil-harvest. 
 
 Ralph looked very little like Squire "Win- 
 13
 
 194 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 throp's relative in the fashionable cloak that 
 Alma used to admire in church. He was now 
 just a young whaleman, whose clothes were well 
 greased with whale-blubber. Thankful for a short 
 vacation, he was looking off contentedly toward 
 the east, while the dark sea musically stroked and 
 caressed the hull of the Andromeda. The sun 
 had not yet thrust his royal face above the ho- 
 rizon, but he was already coquetting with the 
 clouds, which rosily blushed before his glances. 
 The ship was lying almost motionless on the si- 
 lent, glassy sea. 
 
 As Ralph looked up, he saw Steve Wyckham 
 not far from him leaning over the vessel's rail. 
 Seeing Steve, Ralph thought of Bob. He nat- 
 urally was reminded of the cross-marked dollar. 
 And then, like a disagreeable object rising out 
 of the sea, came up the old mystery ; namely, 
 how did that dollar happen to get into Bob's 
 mitten ? 
 
 " I would like to ask Steve a question," 
 thought Ralph. Then followed his natural 
 shrinking from the obeying of any such impulse. 
 " You ought," said conscience. " You can influ- 
 ence both parties in this unfortunate affair, if 
 any body can."
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTEKY. 105 
 
 Steve had been both careful and courteous in 
 his attitude toward Ralph. It was out of re- 
 gard for his own interests rather than because 
 he cared for Ralph's feelings. He never forgot 
 that Ralph was Squire "Winthrop's relative, and 
 might be a very serviceable round to step on as 
 he climbed up the ladder of promotion. Ralph 
 suspected this. 
 
 " You have influence," now suggested Ralph's 
 conscience. " You use it." 
 
 Ralph was ready after this. 
 
 " Good-morning, Wyckham." 
 
 "Nice day." 
 
 " I hope so." 
 
 " Good whale day." 
 
 " Yes-s-s." 
 
 There was a pause, a little strip of awkward 
 silence between tw r o people who instinctively 
 feel that one has something special to say to the 
 other person. 
 
 " O, Wyckham, excuse it, but began 
 Ralph. 
 
 Steve looked sharply at him, bull-dog like, as 
 if he suspected that some one was going to in- 
 vade the privacy of his views. 
 
 " But you but I but you," resumed Ralph,
 
 196 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 "know that it would be pleasant to have that 
 matter between you and Bob Walker fixed up." 
 
 " I don't know,," replied Steve promptly. " I 
 want it fixed up right. There is only one right 
 way to any thing. All that Bob Walker has 
 got to do is to own up." 
 
 " But he asserts that he is innocent ; that he 
 has no idea how the dollar came in the mitten ; 
 and naturally he would not be such a fool as to 
 bring out of its hiding-place, in so public a way, 
 this money, if he put it there. Now, can't you 
 tell when you had it last ? Don't be offended." 
 
 Steve knew what was best for his interests. 
 He drove from his face as much of the bull-dog 
 look as was possible, and with a smooth, quiet 
 tongue, said : 
 
 "I have been thinking it over, and I have 
 concluded that I had it while on board the ship." 
 
 "Sure?" 
 
 Steve did not like this monosyllabic interrog- 
 atory. It was uttered in a tone of doubt. His 
 face clouded. Bull-dog came into Steve's eyes 
 and looked gloomily if not savagely out upon 
 Ralph. Steve was losing control of himself. 
 He forgot that he was addressing Squire Win- 
 throp's relative, and he saw just Ralph Win-
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. 197 
 
 throp, a greasy young whaleman in the bows of 
 the Andromeda. 
 
 " You you doubt me ? " growled Steve. 
 " That is what you all think me to be a liar. 
 It's no gentleman that insinuates any such 
 thing." 
 
 " O, I mean no offense, Steve. Beg pardon 
 for any appearance of unfairness. People some- 
 times forget, that is all. I thought " 
 
 " Don't care what you thought. You all in 
 that pious Sunday afternoon gang are bound to 
 stand by one another." 
 
 The bull-dog wheeled round on his feet and 
 moved off moodily. 
 
 " O, Wyckham ! " called Kalph. 
 
 Steve would hear nothing, but strode gloom- 
 ily away. Ralph preferred to contemplate the 
 sun, that had now reached the horizon-line and 
 over the wide, solitary waters threw a bridge of 
 gold stretching as far as the Andromeda. 
 
 "If that bridge reached to Oldburyport," 
 thought Ralph, "I would like to leave this craft 
 and start for home at once. I would like to get 
 out of this unpleasant trouble. That can't be, 
 though, and I must stay by the Andromeda, and 
 when she gets to Oldburyport I shall get there
 
 198 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 too. All right ! I am going to have as good a 
 time as possible, and take things as they come 
 along, and stand by Bob through thick and thin. 
 Ah, there he is ! " 
 
 " Hullo, Kalph ! " shouted Bob, with all the 
 resolute cheerfulness possible. " Nice day ! " 
 
 "Splendid!" 
 
 " Any sign of a whale ? " Bob asked, turning 
 and glancing up at the motionless figures who 
 were in the rigging on look-out duty. 
 
 "Nothing yet, Bob." 
 
 The two young men then faced the sun. 
 
 It pleased Ralph to see that Bob was in good 
 spirits and pluckily interested in his daily duties. 
 With regard to the present trouble, Bob had 
 Ralph's mind to make the best of it. Bob had 
 sometimes wondered why this trouble should 
 have come up, not on land, where we may get 
 away from those we dislike, but, of all places, 
 on board a ship ! That, though, is one of life's 
 disciplines to be cornered with a trouble, to be 
 forced to eat, drink, and sleep under the same 
 roof with it. We show our manhood by accept- 
 ing and enduring such close quarters in a brave, 
 conciliatory spirit, cheerfully bearing the in- 
 evitable.
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTEKY. 199 
 
 " Grin and bear it ! " was Bob's motto, and 
 Ralph, in his noble loyalty to a friend's inter- 
 ests, resolved to echo that motto. 
 
 The two friends continued to watch the sun- 
 rise, occasionally sweeping the horizon with the 
 eye to see if possibly a whale might be in 
 sight. 
 
 " Not one blowing anywhere ! " muttered 
 Bob. 
 
 No whale, but what was the cry echoing down 
 from the men on look-out duty ? 
 
 A sail ! 
 
 " Where away ? " called out Captain Granby. 
 
 " Due west ! " was the reply. 
 
 Every body on deck had been facing the east, 
 watching the sunrise, and the west had been 
 neglected. Slowly the stranger bore down on 
 the Andromeda, and its occupation was declared 
 at once by the great blocks fastened to the mast- 
 head, its try-works amidships, and its numerous 
 boats. 
 
 " What ship's that? " hailed Captain Granby. 
 
 " The Cruiser, of , Captain Boggs, fif- 
 teen months out, eight hundred barrels of oil." 
 
 Captain Granby in turn gave the name, port, 
 time out, of the craft he commanded.
 
 200 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Come to," added Captain Granby, " and I'll 
 send a boat on board ! " 
 
 Bob was one of Captain Granby's crew. A 
 rough, hearty seaman, calling himself " Skipper 
 John Mann," received the visitors from the An- 
 dromeda and took Captain Granby into his 
 cabin. The other visitors wandered about the 
 deck, talking with the crew, peeping into the 
 try-works, or taking a look inside the forecastle. 
 Bob, remembering his fondness for a cook's 
 galley, put his head within the galley-door and 
 sang out, " How d' do ? " 
 
 " Walk in ! Don't be bashful, honey ! " was 
 the ready welcome given by one of the colored 
 race. But who was it Bob saw standing before 
 the stove, uncertain whether to speak and wel- 
 come Bob, or to wait until he was addressed ? A 
 great ocean, where humanity is almost as scarce 
 as fresh water, will make two strangers very 
 social. It was a young mulatto. He and Bob 
 were quickly nodding to one another, smiling 
 like old acquaintances, and then Bob began to 
 ask himself whether this young mulatto might 
 not be an old acquaintance actually. 
 
 " Where have I seen that fellow before ? " 
 asked Bob. He busily reflected awhile and
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. 201 
 
 then lie declared, " I must have seen him some- 
 where on land ! " 
 
 The conviction strengthened with Bob that 
 the two had met before on land. 
 
 " Haven't I seen you before ? " asked Bob-*- 
 " somewhere in " 
 
 " Don't beliebe you hab. Neber seen you 
 afore.'' 
 
 If he had ever met Bob, he certainly had not 
 seen this kind of a Bob, bronzed by sun and 
 wind, under a rough sou'-wester, in the greasy 
 clothes of the " trying-out " season. If Bob 
 had ever met this young man, where it possi- 
 bly could have been Bob was at a loss to say. 
 
 V V 
 
 His mind began to search through the past. At 
 first it was like trying with a fifty-foot line to 
 sound a basin reputed to be a hundred feet 
 deep. There was no touching bottom. 
 
 " Can't can't can't seem to get hold of it," 
 asserted Bob, staring at the young mulatto, but 
 seeing only a grinning face that could not give 
 the least help. 
 
 " O ! " he exclaimed, " I have it ! I saw you 
 in Oldburyport." 
 
 " "What ? " said the young man, as much mys- 
 tified as ever.
 
 202 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Call him Jim Solus," suggested the black 
 cook to Bob. " Dat is his name." 
 
 "All right. It is coming to me now," said 
 Bob. " I saw you with Steve Wyckham when 
 you two were lugging a chest down to the wharf. 
 Don't you remember, Jim Solus ? " 
 
 " He lie he ! " laughed the mulatto. " You 
 dat feller? You in " 
 
 " In these old .clothes ? Greased up and 
 browned up, you going to say ? The very one, 
 Jim Solus. How are you ? " 
 
 The two advanced and shook hands as if 
 brothers. 
 
 " He sabe me from a right smart lickin'," ex- 
 plained Jim Solus to the cook. " I remember 
 dat Stebe ; not a giant, but he know how to use 
 his fists." 
 
 " Well, now, you remember one other thing," 
 said Bob, wishing to improve his opportunity. 
 " Did you see Steve handling any money ? " 
 
 " Any money ? He frew it roun' right an' 
 lef. Didn' know, you see," Jim Solus ex- 
 plained to the cook, " didn' know much as one 
 do sometime." 
 
 " Who didn' know? You, honey ? You los' 
 yer senses ? "
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. 203 
 
 
 
 "He lie! No, dat Stebe. I jined de 
 pledge." 
 
 " Well," said Bob, feeling that time was pre- 
 cious, and anxious to improve his opportunity, 
 " I will tell you the whole story, and what I am 
 driving at you will see. I found in a pair of 
 mittens a dollar marked with a cross on one side 
 and S. W. W. on the other. When I was tak- 
 ing my mittens out of the chest, that was the 
 time I found it. Funny! And if the dollar 
 didn't roll over toward Steve, as if knowing it 
 was lost and trying to find him ! It was as much 
 of a surprise to me as any body. Now he, Steve, 
 claims that I stole the money from him and 
 tucked it in that mitten. Now I don't know 
 as you can help me, but did you see him with a 
 piece of money like a keepsake or a " 
 
 " I remember. O, I hab seen it wid him a long 
 time. lie and me sailed togeder two voyages. 
 I know him all ober, and he had dat money 
 had it" 
 
 He hesitated. He was feeling away back in 
 the shadows of the past for some evidence on 
 this point. 
 
 " He had it in Oldburyport, an' los' de money 
 let me tink ! He los' dat money, he los' it
 
 204 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 
 dar. We went into a man's shop he sole goods 
 
 for sailors " 
 
 " Habermann ? " 
 
 " Don' know his name. Sort ob tall, look 
 important, dark face, wear specs " 
 
 " That's not Habermann," cried Bob. 
 
 No, it never was the genial " Charlie." 
 
 " Did you go into any other store ? You see 
 my time may be up, and cap'n go any moment 
 to our ship. We have got to be quick." 
 
 Bob had not spoken any too soon. That mo- 
 ment Captain Granby's voice was ringing out : 
 
 " Come, boys ! All aboard for the Androm- 
 eda!" 
 
 "Quick!" said Bob. 
 
 " He went into three more stores to buy suf- 
 fin,' and dar he miss his money, and he came out 
 mad." 
 
 "Well," said Bob, puzzled as much as ever, 
 and feeling that the mystery was still a dark 
 one, " which store ? " 
 
 " All aboard for the Andromeda" was the 
 warning cry. 
 
 " Say say ! " exclaimed Bob. " Come over 
 and see us ! I dare say the ships may lie by 
 each other "
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. 205 
 
 He was at the door of the galley. 
 
 " Get permission " 
 
 " All aboard" 
 
 " Get leave to come to-day " 
 
 " Where's my crew ? " Captain Granby was 
 shouting. 
 
 Bob was now at the ship's rail. 
 
 " And see us " 
 
 He was going down the Cruiser's side, yet 
 looking up and beckoning. 
 
 " I'll try," replied Jim Solus, looking down 
 and benevolently grinning. 
 
 How many things in this world are desired 
 and almost touch our hands, and then slip for- 
 ever beyond our reach ! If Bob could only 
 have brought Jim Solus and Steve together, it 
 might have obliged the latter to be more re- 
 strained in his charges, Bob thought, and then, 
 in his perplexity, he wondered if Jim could help 
 at all. 
 
 The captains of the two whalers thought they 
 might keep one another company that day, and 
 Skipper John in that case meant to return Cap- 
 tain Granby 's visit. A breeze sprang up, though, 
 which sent the 'Cruiser rapidly eastward, in 
 which direction she wished to go, and so with a
 
 206 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 disappointed heart, Bob saw a rapidly growing 
 space of blue water between the two ships. 
 The Cruiser lessened to a speck of white cloud 
 that vanished into the mysterious spaces of the 
 east. The Andromeda was not ready to 
 follow. 
 
 " Gone ! " declared Bob to Kalph. 
 
 " Well, Bob, this is certain. Steve told me," 
 said Ralph, "his money he had with him on 
 board ship ; and now here is testimony that he 
 lost his money in Oldburyport." 
 
 Naturally, one would infer that Steve would 
 have been led by this testimony to be more 
 moderate in his charges against Bob, and Ralph 
 told him what Jim Solus said. Steve sneered 
 at the value of the testimony. 
 
 " Humph ! What does that prove, supposing 
 Bob did see somebody " 
 
 " Jim Solus," suggested Ralph. 
 
 " Jim Solus ! " was Steve's scornful remark. 
 "I don't know any Jim Solus. Snpposin' I did 
 see him jest for the sake of arguin', you know 
 and the money was lost in Oldburyport, how 
 did it get into Bob's mittens ? Found the door 
 open and walked in ? Get over that difficulty if 
 you can."
 
 SOUNDING A MYSTERY. ' 207 
 
 There was still a difficulty, like the bar at a 
 harbor's mouth, that ought to be taken out of 
 the way, and here, in the suspicion of more 
 than one, Bob's fair reputation was caught and 
 held in suspense, if not seriously damaged.
 
 208 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIV. 
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 
 
 FT! HE heading of this chapter does not refer to 
 JL the Andromeda, but to that domestic vessel, 
 the Walker family, in Oldburyport, whose finan- 
 cial matters were about to feel the pressure of a 
 storm ; when it was inevitable that sacrifices 
 must be made, and very many comforts and con- 
 veniences go overboard. It was autumn again. 
 The torch of October had fired the maples, and 
 even dared to attack those big elms for which 
 the old town was famous. Outside the town 
 there were groves of oak where that incendia- 
 rism was making assaults less bold, but the oaks 
 were doomed to a sure though slower combus- 
 tion. All over the country the bright October 
 flames were spreading. 
 
 To Alma it was not the color of destruction, 
 but of hope rather. It was a bright, cheerful 
 portal through which she was passing into the 
 winter. That was her feeling, one day, when 
 from a garret window she looked out upon the
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 209 
 
 bright colors lining the streets and blazing in 
 the gardens. 
 
 " Things do look hopeful all round ! " she 
 murmured. " Bob will be home in the spring, 
 and then he can face and put to an end the 
 stories about him. Father earned enough money 
 by copying the old genealogy to pay our rent up. 
 He is not earning any thing now, but as his 
 health is no worse I guess he will have a chance 
 to pick up something. The children are doing 
 well at school. Mothers health is quite good 
 for her, and she likes to keep store. If Squire 
 Winthrop were only well ! " 
 
 Ah, that was a little cloud at first, the squire's 
 sickness, but it overspread the sky with a dark 
 pall of disaster. Just how it should bring ruin 
 to the Walker hopes will at once be seen. 
 
 Bangs Brothers had allowed Alma and her 
 mother to take goods for their little shop to the 
 extent of the value of a thousand dollars. This 
 stock, fast as sold, could be replenished, but 
 Bangs Brothers said, "Don't keep more than a 
 thousand dollars' worth on hand at any time. 
 We shall expect you td pay us as fast as you sell, 
 and the more profit you can make on your goods 
 
 the better for yon ; but we must protect our- 
 14
 
 210 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 selves, of course, and as long as you do not buy 
 your goods right out, and pay only for what you 
 sell, we must keep the right any time to take 
 what goods you have on hand. Of course, we 
 don't think there will be any such emergency, 
 but then there is no telling what may happen." 
 
 Bangs Brothers certainly did not expect what 
 really happened. They annexed the above con- 
 dition to their sale of goods to the Walkers sim- 
 ply as a possible convenience to themselves, not 
 anticipating any trouble which came, neverthe- 
 less. It arrived, not by way of the Walkers, 
 but through one of those sometimes unreason- 
 able, often uncontrollable things, a business 
 panic. People were frightened in every direc- 
 tion. The market was violently agitated. " Old 
 houses" that could not stand the sudden strain 
 of this crisis came tumbling to the ground with 
 a sad crash. 
 
 " Mother," said Alma, returning from a busi- 
 ness errand one day, " I think they look worried 
 at Bangs Brothers'. I have been there and they 
 seemed to be nervous and hurried very kind to 
 me, of course, in their manner, but still they 
 seemed worried. And when I talked about hav- 
 ing some more goods they were just as pleasant
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 211 
 
 as ever, but said it might be best to wait till to- 
 morrow, and they might sell all right then. I 
 could not understand, but I am afraid some- 
 thing is going to happen. However, we will 
 come out all right." 
 
 " All right ? All wrong, I should say ! " ex- 
 claimed Mrs. Walker, who did not possess Alma's 
 sanguine temperament. Like Alma, she had 
 dark eyes, but they seemed more like caves full 
 of gloomy shadows. Mrs. Walker was one of 
 the kind always expecting a storm, even in the 
 midst of fair weather of the most brilliant kind. 
 In a characteristic way she now added : " But, 
 there, 1 knew something would turn out bad." 
 
 It turned out the next clay the failure of 
 Bangs Brothers. All their goods were assigned 
 to a third party, for the benefit of creditors, and 
 these goods were to be sold at once. Alma 
 heard this through Charlie Habermann at his 
 store. He did not know he was reading a 
 death-warrant to the Walkers' business hopes. 
 Alma returned home, and was just doing up a 
 yard of ribbon for a customer, when Mr. Porter, 
 head- clerk of Bangs Brothers, called. 
 
 " Trouble ! " Alma said to herself, the moment 
 she saw the man. He had never been in the
 
 212 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 little shop before, and she knew that he called 
 now on some unusual errand, and to say some- 
 thing about the great failure. 
 
 "A pleasant little corner! "he said the mo- 
 ment Alma's customer had gone. " Really," he 
 said, looking round, " I did not know you were 
 so pleasantly located. Seems too bad to inter- 
 rupt you 
 
 Alma did not jump, or give a little scream. 
 She only looked at the head-clerk very directly 
 and regretfully, and that made it harder for him 
 to proceed. He stammered out a continuation 
 of his speech : 
 
 " B-b-but I am afraid-d-d I shall have to take 
 your goods. You know you have had them, as 
 it were, on commission, to sell and make what 
 you could-d-d. We kept the right t-t-to take the 
 goods any time." 
 
 "And they must be taken no\v, I suppose, 
 sir?" 
 
 He lowered his eyes before her searching look. 
 
 " Yes, that is it ; or as soon as they can be 
 packed. All our goods are included in the as- 
 signment we make, and these, of course, go with 
 them. I am sorry." 
 
 " Perhaps Squire Winthrop "
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 213 
 
 " Could help you ? I wish he were in a con- 
 dition to give aid, for then I know we should get 
 help. We have found out that his doctor keeps 
 all exciting subjects away from him, and the 
 squire attends as little to business as when he 
 was a baby." 
 
 " I see. Well ? " 
 
 She looked at him and tried to smile. 
 
 " Going to make the best of it, Miss Walker ? 
 That is the better philosophy, we think, over at 
 the store." 
 
 " And religion," Alma could not help saying. 
 
 " Don't know about that, Miss Walker, but I 
 I know we have got to take things as they 
 come." 
 
 Mr. Porter did not bear a reputation foj* 
 any interest in religion. He lived apparently 
 a life as separate from all spirituality as the life 
 of a vegetable. 
 
 " We are very thankful to you people at the 
 store for allowing us to have the goods as long 
 as we have had them. We can take some com- 
 fort in that, Mr. Porter." 
 
 " Don't know about that either, Miss Walker. 
 It does not make me happy in the midst of 
 rainy weather to-day because it did not rain yes-
 
 214: SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 terday. But there," he said, with an apologetic 
 tone, " I ought not to be bothering you this 
 way. The long and the short of it is. we must 
 all try to make the best of things. Sorry, 
 sorry ! If you will be ready to pack the goods, 
 I can send you over some boxes any time." 
 
 " We will be ready, and we thank you all. 
 We will square up for every thing we owe. 
 We are really sorry for Bangs Brothers." 
 
 Mr. Porter went out of the old house saying, 
 "^That girl would take the electricity out of a 
 stroke of lightning. Wish I could feel as she 
 does and talk so, too, even if I did not really 
 believe so." 
 
 The head-clerk had been venting his feelings 
 
 in almost numberless rounds of oaths since the 
 
 
 
 hour the failure was known to be inevitable. 
 
 Brave Alma ! When alone she was only a 
 girl after all she leaned her head forward on 
 the counter and cried. 
 
 " That does me good ! " she said. " Now, I'll 
 go to work." 
 
 She began at once to 'take up the ribbon goods 
 and arrange them for packing. Then she gath- 
 ered up the spools of cotton in their corner. 
 The boxes came from the store of Bangs Broth-
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 215 
 
 ers promptly, and promised to hold all that the 
 "Walkers had on the counter and shelves. 
 
 " They look like coffins," said Mrs. "Walker 
 with a groan. " I mean these boxes." 
 
 " It does seem like a funeral," said Alma, 
 laughing. " No, I won't have it. I am going 
 to think it is the best thing possible. Mother, 
 now see! I can get something to do besides 
 my school, so as to earn some money,' and all 
 this will save you a lot of work. You need a 
 vacation." 
 
 " Got to take it whether needed or not, Al- 
 ma," was Mrs. Walker's glum and unappreciative 
 remark. " I wish it would rain." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " O it would seem fit, and have it blow, 
 too" 
 
 " And hail and snow and " 
 
 Both were now laughing. The weather did 
 none of those things. The hours when the 
 daughter and mother were packing were very 
 sunny. Mr. Walker came in, and he tried to 
 help on the exodus, saying what cheerful things 
 he could, driving any needed nails, and lifting 
 as far as his limited stock of strength would 
 allow. Ted and Billy arrived, and, claiming to
 
 216 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 be " men," handed the goods to the packers, and 
 ran promptly on any errands. Carrie served as 
 best she could. It was touching to see how 
 anxiously each lent a helping hand. 
 
 The room was cleared of its stock of goods, 
 the floor nicely swept, the extemporized counter 
 and shelves moved elsewhere. Then they all 
 gathered in the empty apartment Alma, her 
 father and mother, Billy, Ted, and Carrie and 
 they did their best toward saving the hour from 
 any gloom. And it did not rain one drop or 
 blow one gust. All day the sun poured down 
 its blessing, and at its hour for setting took one 
 more golden look at the family, and made it as 
 long and kindly a look through the window as 
 possible.. 
 
 " Not a bit of a funeral, mother, whispered 
 Alma. 
 
 The picture in the entry, though, looked 
 gloomier than ever, as if to say, 
 
 " This young person is doing very wrong in 
 trying to be cheerful. She will make mischief 
 in the family yet. She has no business here ; I 
 have." 
 
 " Whoever you are," said Alma, " old scare- 
 crow, you don't frighten one bit."
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 217 
 
 Now, was the emptying of that front room 
 the lightening of the ship I had in mind ? 
 
 Not at all, but that lightening soon came. 
 
 "What is to be done now ?" asked Alma one 
 day, in the midst of a family circle composed of 
 herself, her mother, Ted, Billy, and Carrie. 
 
 Her father was up-stairs in his room. He did 
 not feel very well, and he could be heard at in- 
 tervals feebly coughing. The family conference 
 therefore went on without him. It was just as 
 well, for if he had been present he would have 
 been as much at a loss to know what he, Sardin- 
 ius Walker, could propose to do in this hour of 
 the family's extremity, as if on a sand-bank, a 
 hundred miles from the main-land, without a 
 boat, no sail in sight, he were asked how he 
 could get ashore. 
 
 Alma took the lead in the conference, for the 
 good reason that there was no other leader. 
 Mrs. Walker complained of a "headache coming 
 on," and her head had already gone into a thick, 
 wide bandage of black, as if a mourner over the 
 late family catastrophe. 
 
 " Now, folks old folks, young folks what 
 are we going to do ? " asked Alma, and she 
 asked it in such a pleasant way, with such a
 
 218 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 bright smile, that it seemed as if she meant, 
 " Now, who is going to a picnic ? " 
 
 And Ted and Billy and Carrie caught a cheer- 
 ful sparkle from Alma's beautiful eyes, and their 
 faces lighted up as if the smile accompanied a 
 remark, " We will all go." 
 
 " O, dear ! " groaned Mrs. Walker. 
 
 She did not feel as if a picnic were before 
 them. 
 
 " They say," continued Alma, disregarding 
 the cheerful ebullition from her mother, " they 
 say if you want to have money you must save 
 it. You must go without something. Now 
 what can we do without ? " 
 
 " Don't see how we can do without a thing if 
 we haven't got it in the first place," said Mrs. 
 Walker, in the same encouraging tone of voice 
 as before. 
 
 " We shall see," replied Alma, nothing daunt- 
 ed. " Now I had set my heart on having a new 
 cloak. I have been thinking it over, and I can 
 get my old one turned turn it myself and it 
 won't cost much to dye it a pretty shade. A 
 new one would have cost me fifteen dollars. To 
 fix the old one will cost me two dollars. Two 
 from fifteen leaves how much, children ? "
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 219 
 
 " Thirteen ! " they screamed enthusiastically. 
 
 " Only think ! Thirteen already ! 'Thirteen 
 dollars good as in the hand ! Ted, you get a 
 piece of paper and a pencil up on the shelf 
 there under the clock and set the figures 
 down. Thirteen to begin with. Now, who 
 next ? " 
 
 " Well, if I must," said a doleful voice under 
 the black bandage " if I must, I must. I did 
 want a new bunnet. I can make my old one do, 
 and save four dollars on that." 
 
 " No, mother, I have set my heart on that. 
 You must have a new hat," said Alma. " I can 
 trim it. and in that way it won't cost you more 
 than a dollar. She must have it, children, 
 mustn't she ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " was the general shout. 
 
 " I heard father say," remarked Ted, " that 
 he was not going to have a new coat." 
 
 " Poor man ! he deserves it ; but I suppose if 
 I buy velvet for a new collar, get some nice silk 
 binding for the edges, rebutton the coat, and so 
 on, it won't cost much to fix up the old one. A 
 new one would cost twenty dollars, and we can 
 fix the old one up for three. Three from twenty 
 will leave how much ? "
 
 220 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Seventeen ! " again shouted the children en- 
 thusiastically. 
 
 " Seventeen and thirteen make how much, 
 Ted ? Set it all down." 
 
 " Thirty, Alma ! " 
 
 " Only think ! Thirty dollars already, good as 
 in the hand ! " 
 
 The children's eyes snapped as if they really 
 saw thirty bright silver dollars heaped up in 
 Alma's two hands. 
 
 " I was going to buy a pair of boots this win- 
 ter for three dollars," said Ted, who had picked 
 up this money running errands during the sum- 
 mer. " Horace Haviland's brother says he can 
 fix up my old ones good as new for a dollar." 
 
 "Well, that will save two dollars. Thirty- 
 two dollars, in all, that we have saved ! The 
 sum is rolling up. I can give up going to the 
 'Young Folks' Lecture Course.' That would 
 have cost me a dollar and a half. I can take 
 more books out of the public library instead. I 
 can get information that way, same as if I went 
 to lectures. Thirty-three dollars and a half ! 
 Now, what else can we throw overboard ? " 
 
 As this throwing overboard process was con- 
 tinued, the Walker ship, that had been so hard
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 221 
 
 pressed by storm, began to right itself. It rose 
 up from its humbled posture. Its prow was 
 again pointed toward fair weather seas. 
 
 What else could be given up ? What thing 
 could go overboard ? 
 
 "Not having a store, we shall have one fire 
 less. That will save us half a dozen dollars 
 ten even," declared Alma. " That will bring 
 the money up to forty -three dollars and a half ! 
 How it does count up ? Good as so much 
 money in hand ! " 
 
 What else to go overboard ? 
 
 " I can give up my Christmas visit," sug- 
 gested Carrie, rolling her big eyes up toward 
 Alma. 
 
 This meant a trip in the steam-cars to the 
 next town, where Carrie had been invited to 
 spend Christinas at a cousin's. This expendi- 
 ture would only be ten cents for the fare each 
 way, and it was thought best not to interfere 
 with that. 
 
 "There!" said Alma. "I didn't think! 
 Where are my faculties ? Not having a store, 
 we shall need one light less in the evening. 
 There will be a saving." 
 
 Other things were recalled that, connected
 
 222 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 with the store, had been an occasion of expen- 
 diture. All this would be saved. Indeed, the 
 impression gained ground rapidly that the store 
 had been quite an expensive institution. As 
 this fiction did no harm, and brought the family 
 conference much comfort, Alma did not inter- 
 fere with it. 
 
 "O, Alma!" cried Ted, "you left out the 
 saving on m'other's bunnet." 
 
 " So I did ! I am getting old and forgetful." 
 
 There was now a going back to pick up omit- 
 ted sums. 
 
 ."Could there be a saving in our table ex- 
 penses ? " next suggested Alma. 
 
 This brought an uneasy look into the chil- 
 dren's faces. Ted's had an aspect of horror. 
 Ever since they could recall the fact that they 
 were Walkers, the table had been a place where 
 they did not get all that they wanted. What 
 could be spared possibly, to go as a sacrifice into 
 this yawning deep of economy ? However, Alma 
 could think of a few things where the diet might 
 be simplified, she thought, " and yet, children, it 
 be as nutritious." 
 
 The children looked very doubtful, while Mrs. 
 Walker gave a very dismal nod.
 
 THE SHIP MUST BE LIGHTENED. 223 
 
 So they kept on giving up, throwing over- 
 board, lightening the ship. 
 
 " Now, let us look at Ted's list ! We have 
 gone all over the house," declared Alma laugh- 
 ing, " up into the garret, down into the cellar, 
 back in the shed 
 
 " Out-doors, too, on the street,'' suggested Ted. 
 
 "3Tes, every- where, and we can save O, my! 
 A hundred dollars ! " declared Alma. 
 
 A shout of exultation now went up from the 
 small Walkers. It did seem worth while to 
 lighten the ship. Alrna went to sleep very com- 
 posedly that night, and her rest was as comfort- 
 able as Bob's ever had been on the great deep 
 when, after a hard watch, he would creep, stiff 
 and tired and sleepy, into his bunk, and the 
 Andromeda would ride up and down like a 
 cradle, rocking Sailor-boy Bob into a deep, 
 grateful slumber. So Alma slept this night; 
 and, best of all, she felt that her heavenly Fa- 
 ther's hand was on the helm of life's vessel, 
 guiding it safely over the deep.
 
 224 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 HOW? 
 
 THE ship had been lightened. Another ques- 
 tion now came up, and a far more difficult 
 one than any discussed in the last chapter. It 
 was this : How keep alive the crew that must run 
 the ship ? How get just the necessities of life 
 such as bread and butter, clothing and shoes for 
 Ted, Billy, and Carrie, also father and mother? 
 Somehow, Alma did not think of herself. She 
 could get along on what they did not need to 
 use ; on what they left behind. There must be 
 another conference. 
 
 Mr. Walker was absent from this conference 
 also. He kept his room, and could be heard at 
 intervals, as before, still feebly coughing. 
 
 " Well, folks," said Alma, the leader now as 
 ut the previous conference, " what can we do to- 
 ward getting some bread and butter, and so on ? 
 I thought we had better talk it over." 
 
 Mrs. Walker did not have a black bandage 
 round her head this morning. It was round her
 
 How? 225 
 
 soul, though, and gloomily she looked out of the 
 window. 
 
 " I will do all I can to get more scholars. I 
 Lave twelve now every morning." (The school 
 did not keep in the afternoon.) " If I could get 
 three more ! " 
 
 Alma looked round on Ted, Billy, and Carrie, 
 who had come at different times into her school 
 flock, as if to suggest, " Could you get me any 
 scholars ? " 
 
 " I'll tell you what, Alma," said Ted. " WQ 
 might each count as two! That would give 
 three more." 
 
 This made the conference laugh, but it did 
 not bring any new scholars. 
 
 " Well, I will see what can be done," said the 
 leader. 
 
 " I think I can count on some sewing, you 
 know, Alma," remarked Mrs. Walker. 
 
 With the store had come applications from 
 customers for ^the services of any body who 
 could do "a little sewing." Such opportunities 
 for work had been eagerly accepted by Mrs. 
 Walker, Alma assisting. Once the mother had 
 been a dress-maker. This knowledge of the use 
 
 of the needle had never been lost, and Mrs. 
 15
 
 226 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Walker would always make the dresses of Alma 
 and Carrie until, one day, she told Alma that 
 she " guessed Alma, being a big girl, must go to 
 a reg'lar dress-maker." 
 
 When the store was opened Alma insisted 
 upon it that her mother should teach her how 
 to "do dress-making," as far as Mrs. Walker 
 understood it. Several times the two had had 
 opportunities to make dresses for little folks, 
 and they had accepted these chances. 
 
 "Now, mother," said Alma, "why not put 
 your shingle out, and say, 'Dress-making for 
 misses ? ' That means me as well as you,' for I 
 will help you." 
 
 This rather startled the conference. 
 
 " Not not like Joe Bigler's grandmother ? " 
 said Ted. 
 
 Joe Bigler was not a favorite with Ted. This 
 is what Joe Bigler one day in school wrote on 
 his slate : " My gr^ndmarm makes dresses. She 
 has a sine, DRESMAKIN DONE HERE. It is stuck 
 on her house." 
 
 Ted thought at the time, " I hope none of my 
 folks will have a sign up like that." 
 
 There was a little family pride opposed to this 
 measure. It must go overboard.
 
 How ? 227 
 
 " Why," said Alma, " what is the difference 
 between that and a store ? We had a window 
 all filled up with goods. Wasn't that a sign? 
 We put up with that. Any thing, I say, that is 
 honest." 
 
 This argument settled the matter. When it 
 was the children's turn to mention any thing 
 they could do toward the support of the family, 
 they were very loyal to the name and interests 
 of Walker. Ted thought he could get some 
 body's office fire to build. Billy crowed that he 
 would " try." Carrie only nodded her head, but 
 it was a very zealous nod. It meant something 
 that was very definite in her own mind, but she 
 did not care to speak it out. 
 
 Alma felt drawn toward the house of Squire 
 Winthrop, especially to ask if " Aunt Mary " 
 knew of any thing that Alma could possibly do. 
 Aunt Mary, alas ! knew of nothing. 
 
 " Is the squire better ? " asked Alma in the 
 hall. 
 
 "Yes. he is decidedly improved. We keep 
 him very quiet. He doesn't yet know about the 
 failure of Bangs Brothers," said Aunt Mary. 
 " Yes, we keep him very quiet." 
 
 Thump, thump, thump !
 
 228 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 It was a sound like that of a pounding in a 
 room at the head of the stairs. 
 
 " Dear me ! " said Aunt Mary. " It is that 
 man, I do believe, that is a-pounding. I left a 
 cane with him, if he wanted any thing. I'll be 
 right down again." 
 
 " Remember me to him, please." 
 
 Aunt Mary came down quickly. 
 
 " Just think, Alma ! His hearin' is dreadful 
 good. He heard your voice, and he wants you 
 to come up. So you must go. Don't excite 
 him, or say any thing about the failure of Bangs 
 Brothers." 
 
 Squire "Winthrop was bolstered up in his bed, 
 looking very pale and thin, but he was conva- 
 lescent to this extent that he had "just begun 
 to set up a leetle," Aunt Mary said. He was a 
 handsome old man, with his soft white hair, his 
 fair complexion, and blue eyes that " carried a 
 smile in them," Carrie Walker said. The furni- 
 ture in the room was old-fashioned, but very 
 comfortable, and Aunt Mary saw that every 
 tiling was kept in excellent order. There was a 
 soft, thick carpet on the floor, and this was more 
 agreeable to Alma's feet than the floors at home, 
 almost all of which were bare. Behind a pair
 
 How ? 229 
 
 of tall brass andirons, brightly burnished, was a 
 fire of rock maple, and it was very acceptable 
 this chilly autumn day. The squire was very 
 glad to see Alma, and he had a kind word to 
 say about those at home, and that he hoped her 
 father was doing well ; and then he said he was 
 glad Bob was coming home in the spring. 
 
 "I have been somewhat worried about you 
 all, business has been so affected. For sonte 
 time I was out of my head, and didn't know any 
 thing and couldn't render any help to any body, 
 and I suppose it was then you gave up your 
 store ; and Bangs Brothers, they have stopped 
 too, and 
 
 " Squire Winthrop ! " 
 
 It was Aunt Mary. She had a very sharp 
 nose and keen, black eyes. These gave her face 
 an aspect of penetrativeness, as if she were con- 
 tinually making an investigation. Then Ted 
 said that her spectacles made her look "as if she 
 were going right through you." There was a 
 big store of energy behind that penetrating look, 
 and when Aunt Mary did start to make an in- 
 vestigation she was quite sure to go deep down 
 into a subject. She was a person of many ex- 
 cellent qualities, a notable housekeeper, a good
 
 230 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 financier, could hold her tongue and be as reticent 
 as a stone wall, and was very even and cheerful 
 in her temperament. She made a desirable ex- 
 ecutive for the domestic department of Squire 
 Winthrop, who had been a widower many years. 
 She now closely eyed the squire. She eared 
 him, also, eagerly listening when she had said : 
 
 " Dear me, Squire Winthrop ! How how 
 did you hear about business matters ? Been 
 a-keepin' 'em from you " 
 
 The squire smiled. 
 
 " One day, when you were gone a-shopping, 
 Anastasia brought up the Globe that had just 
 arrived, Mrs. Walker." 
 
 Anastasia was the hired girl. She had 
 thoughtlessly brought up the mail. In it was 
 the Globe, an ambitious name for the local sheet 
 that gave the news that happened in a small 
 patch of this earthly sphere, a patch known as 
 Old bury port. 
 
 " When it was too late for me to do any 
 thing, the Globe told me that the house of 
 Bangs Brothers had failed, and that the Walk- 
 ers had closed their store. I was very sorry for 
 you. I wonder what Bangs Brothers will do. 
 However, let that go."
 
 How ? 231 
 
 Aunt Mary did not say any thing, but she 
 looked very significantly at Anastasia, who now 
 entered, bringing a big maple-stick for a back 
 log. When she had left, the squire remarked : 
 
 " You see, Aunt Mary, young boys like your 
 patient will do strange things sometimes. I be- 
 lieve I went all through the Globe, advertise- 
 ments and every thing. I was very hungry for 
 news, being a boy, too, you know." 
 
 Aunt Mary now smiled, and prudently said 
 nothing. She once confessed to Alma that she 
 found the "Winthrops, especially, did like to have 
 their own way, and it was not best to oppose 
 them. 
 
 " Let me see, Alma," resumed the squire ; 
 " you have a school in the morning." 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " Well, how would you like in the afternoon 
 to come and read to me? I know my house- 
 keeper wouldn't like to have me read my- 
 self" 
 
 The housekeeper shook her head authorita- 
 tively. 
 
 " And you might plan to be here a part of 
 each afternoon, between one and two hours, say, 
 and read me the papers or some book. I will
 
 232 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 make the compensation agreeable. Would 
 twenty-five dollars a month be satisfactory com- 
 pensation ? " 
 
 Twenty-five ? Why, in its most flourishing 
 days, the store had not brought much more than 
 that. 
 
 " I I should be delighted to do it," said 
 Alma. 
 
 And what she uttered with her mouth was 
 not half as expressive as the satisfaction that 
 glowed in her eyes. 
 
 " When shall we begin, sir ? " 
 
 " To-morrow," replied the squire promptly. 
 
 Aunt Mary over in her corner had her doubts 
 about the judiciousness of all this " newspaper 
 readin' and book readin'," as she silently ex- 
 pressed herself; but knowing fully the Win- 
 throp willfulness she said nothing, and resolutely 
 bent over her work. 
 
 The profits of Alma's new occupation made a 
 very happy family at the Walker home, while 
 the occupation itself was a very agreeable one 
 to Alma. 
 
 It was so very comfortable there in the squire's 
 room. As the autumn air grew chillier, the 
 squire's open fire grew bigger. From the tern-
 
 How ? 233 
 
 perature without you could tell the size of the 
 fire within. The squire, in his long dressing- 
 gown of gray trimmed with crimson, would oc- 
 cupy one side of the fire, and Alma would sit 
 opposite. I do think it made Aunt Mary a lit- 
 tle jealous to see the squire listening so content- 
 edly to that fair young reader, but she wisely 
 sealed up in her soul all captious thoughts. 
 Alma enjoyed any thing like a book. She ap- 
 preciated, too, the comfortable, tasty surround- 
 ings of the squire's home. Then there was an 
 agreeable sense that the squire was taking care 
 of her, and he seemed very much like a father 
 an ideal father. 
 
 Mr. Walker had been to Alma more like a 
 big, well-meaning, but crippled child, that must 
 be taken care of. Ever since she could run 
 about and earn something, she was helping to 
 support the family. She found this necessity 
 a luxury. She rejoiced in the privilege. And 
 yet and yet it was pleasant to have a change 
 sometimes and feel that there was some one 
 looking after her, and Squire Winthrop was 
 filling out in part the measure of that idea. So 
 Alma read with much enjoyment, and the squire 
 listened with a satisfaction as great.
 
 234 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 At home, Alma's new earnings were extreme- 
 ly acceptable. Still there was room for more, 
 especially when the white flakes were flying, as 
 if trying to make white, feathery wings that 
 would fold nicely and tightly down upon the 
 earth, and keep it warm, which they could not 
 possibly do. 
 
 Alma thought of a plan that might be to the 
 Walkers' profit, and she asked the squire's mind 
 about it one day. 
 
 " Would you have any objection, Squire Win- 
 throp, to our letting part of our house ? There 
 are a few rooms we could spare as well as not," 
 said Alma. 
 
 " Suit yourself, Alma. I think I can give 
 your father some writing when he is a little 
 better, and it will offset your rent. Let any 
 rooms you please." 
 
 This put canvas wings to that lightened 
 Walker vessel, but they all said : 
 
 "If we can get any rent for the squire by 
 letting rooms, we will. We shall feel more in- 
 dependent." 
 
 " We had better," said Mrs. Walker, " get a 
 real estate agent to let them for us. We don't 
 seem to know of a tenant."
 
 How ? 235 
 
 " Very well, mother," replied Alma. 
 
 " And we can give a tenant all the rooms on 
 the left hand side of the hall ; can't we, Alma ? 
 We can by squeezing ourselves a little," said 
 Mrs. Walker. 
 
 Yes, by squeezing they could offer a tenement 
 of five rooms to a small family. They were 
 used to squeezing. It was Carrie who abounded 
 in expedients and ventures, and was now instru- 
 mental in securing a tenant. She was on the 
 hunt for opportunities to help along the family 
 one day, when she saw on a bulletin board out- 
 side an office door this tempting notice : " Girl 
 Wanted." 
 
 Her big eyes took in this announcement with 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " Perhaps I can earn something," thought the 
 intrepid little soul, and she ventured into the 
 office. 
 
 u What do you want this morning, my little 
 girl ? " asked a gray -whiskered man, looking up 
 from a desk. 
 
 "Well, what what do you want? It says 
 out there, ' Girl wanted.' I thought " 
 
 The man laughed as he said, 
 
 "Well, dear, it is a big girl, a servant-girl for
 
 236 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 housework that is wanted. I ought to have been 
 more definite." 
 
 " O h ! " exclaimed the disappointed Carrie. 
 
 " We have various wants here," said the man 
 kindly, anxious to say something that would di- 
 vert this disappointed applicant. " We want 
 houses for people and people for houses " 
 
 " O, you let places 3 " 
 
 " Yes, we let houses if any body has them." 
 
 " O, we have five rooms to let ! " 
 
 " Have you ? Well, if your folks will tell me 
 about them, may be I can get a tenant." 
 
 As the result of this interview, Alma called to 
 see Mr. Drown. He was a stranger in town, 
 and for that reason was anxious to pick up em- 
 ployment, and offered his services to Alma at 
 such low figures that she engaged him to obtain 
 a tenant. He soon sent her a note, saying : 
 
 " I have secured a tenant an old man and an 
 old woman. Very quiet people. No children. 
 Will pay seventy -five dollars. They will come 
 to-morrow, as they are very anxious to move 
 before any more winter storms come. You said 
 the rooms were ready, and I know you would 
 like to have the rent begin as soon as pos- 
 sible."
 
 How ? 237 
 
 " He didn't say who they were," observed Mr. 
 "Walker feebly ; a closely-confined invalid this 
 winter, but hoping soon to handle his pen for 
 the squire. " 
 
 " No," replied Mrs. Walker, " but they will 
 be here in the morning, and can speak for them- 
 selves. I think we can trust him Mr. Drown 
 to send us good tenants." 
 
 Alma was away, and did not return home till 
 late in the evening, or she would have made in- 
 quiries of the real estate agent and obtained in- 
 formation about the expected neighbors. 
 
 The next morning, before the breakfast table 
 had been cleared, somebody in the street shout- 
 ed, " Whoa a a ! Whoa, there, I tell ye ! " 
 
 Billy was out-doors, and heard the teamster. 
 He came rushing into the house. 
 
 " Goods have come, and I opened the front 
 door and told the man where to put them," 
 cried Billy. 
 
 Alma went into the hall, and the teamster was 
 there, a chair in each hand. 
 
 " Bright and early," he said. 
 
 " Yes, sir. Do you know who these folks 
 are?" 
 
 "No, lady. The real estate man, Drown,
 
 238 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 gave me the job, and I axed the folks no ques- 
 tions. They live in a good neighborhood. I 
 told 'em I would see the things were sot round. 
 They are comin', you know." 
 
 " But they have never been here. How do 
 they know they will like the place ? " 
 
 " O, they probably know the reputation of the 
 house. Every body knows it is first-class." 
 
 This comforted Alma, to think every body 
 called her home " a first-class house." 
 
 In a short time Alma, saw an old lady watch- 
 ing the house. Then this watcher came up to 
 the door and pulled the bell-knob. 
 
 " I thought I would follow my things," said 
 the old lady to Alma. 
 
 " O, you you are the one that rented the 
 rooms." 
 
 " I am one of them. Mr. Drown told us." 
 
 " "Well, make yourselves at home, and tell us 
 if we can help you. May I ask your name ? " 
 
 The old lady gave it at once, but Alma did 
 not catch it distinctly. 
 
 " I wont as^ her again just; now," thought 
 Alma. " She is bothered enough about moving, 
 I know." 
 
 Another load and an old man came soon. By
 
 How? 239 
 
 dinner-time the goods had ceased to arrive, and 
 no one of the bright-eyed Walker children had 
 seen the old man or the old woman leave the 
 house. Through the afternoon, sounds of the 
 moving of furniture could be heard by the 
 Walkers. 
 
 About dusk Mary Haviland called. 
 
 " They've come, haven't they ? " Mary, in her 
 eager, excited way, asked of Alma. 
 
 " Our new neighbors ? Yes, though I don't 
 know who they really are yet. The woman 
 gave her name, but I am getting old, I think, 
 for I didn't understand her. I am going to 
 ask again." 
 
 " Then you don't know ? " 
 
 " Why, no." 
 
 " They told me down street at my grocer's." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Well what, Alma?" 
 
 " Well, why don't you tell me ? " 
 
 " O, they are the Willoughbys." 
 
 "The who?" 
 
 "Them folks what told the bad news about 
 Bob." 
 
 " The very folks ? " 
 
 " So my grocer says, and he says they don't
 
 240 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 probably know you are Bob's folks. They 
 haven't lived here long, and they don't know 
 every thing." 
 
 " The Willoughbys ! " 
 
 " Yes, I believe they had to move right off. 
 House was sold over their heads. Mis' Wil- 
 loughby, I believe they said, she only wanted to 
 put her feet inside some place, for she was all 
 worried out." 
 
 " Indeed ! " 
 
 " You'll find it jest so," was Mary's last affir- 
 mation as she turned away and left Alma's pres- 
 ence. Alma sat alone in the kitchen, into which 
 the night was fast hurrying, darkening every 
 corner and bringing out in vivid contrast the red 
 light of the fire in the stove. 
 
 " O, dear, here is a new trouble the Wil- 
 loughbys ! " thought Alma. " Why do they 
 come? They can't know who we are! O, 
 dear!" 
 
 A new storm seemed to threaten the* "Walker 
 vessel. I said our heavenly Father was at the 
 helm. Would he let go his hand now, and ask 
 Alrna to care for herself ? 
 
 " No," said Alma. 
 
 But why should the old trouble come up
 
 How? 241 
 
 again and walk into the house, as it were, before 
 the Walkers' very eyes ? 
 
 " I must leave it all with God," Alma mur- 
 mured. 
 
 And that is where she left it all in the arms 
 of the heavenly Father. She was thinking upon 
 the subject when she went to sleep. She felt 
 that it would be a relief if Bob were at home 
 and she could tell him this trouble. 
 
 "He will be here in the spring," she mur- 
 mured. 
 
 Would he ? If she could have seen as far 
 as the heart of the South Seas, and watched a 
 drifting boat, she might have seriously doubted 
 
 whether Bob would ever see home again. 
 16
 
 24:2 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ADRIFT. 
 
 WHAT was it? A clump of drift-wood, a 
 boat, the carcass of a whale, a fragment of 
 the wreck of a ship, a what could it be ? 
 
 Captain Granby, looking off one afternoon 
 from the deck of the Andromeda, could not say. 
 Bob, watching the same object, could not say. 
 One moment it would be " drift-wood " in Bob's 
 opinion. Then Captain Granby might say, " I 
 really think it is something else. I do believe 
 somebody is on it, waving something." 
 
 Neither eye nor glass would declare what it 
 was. There was very little wind at this time to 
 take the Andromeda anywhere, and none at all 
 to carry the Andromeda toward this drifting 
 object. 
 
 I I wish, cap'n," said Bob, in his eager 
 way, that lock of hair on his forehead curling 
 out prominently, as it seemed to have a strong 
 tendency to do when he was excited, " I wish 
 you would let Ralph and me take a boat and go
 
 ADRIFT. 243 
 
 off and see what that is. The vessel is not mak- 
 ing much of a headway, and you could lie to 
 and pick us up. May be something important 
 there." 
 
 "Well-1-1," said the captain. His tone said 
 what the uttered word did not that he was very 
 doubtful whether it would do any good. Bob 
 had a magnetic eagerness that always influenced 
 Ralph, and he jumped with Bob into the boat 
 when it was lowered. 
 
 There was no whale-hunting that day, but 
 work previously had been very pressing. Whale 
 after whale had been captured, the try-works 
 had been in constant service, and the Androm- 
 eda's load of oil for home was increasing. The 
 crew were tired, and at the time that the boys 
 left the Andromeda many of their shipmates 
 were stretched out in the bunks below. A few 
 of the crew witnessed this seemingly insignifi- 
 cant departure. 
 
 " Good luck ! " cried Horace Haviland. " If 
 that is a wreck of a pirate off there, bring us 
 a pot of gold .if you find any was left on 
 board ! " 
 
 Steve Wyckham, with the sneer that he gen- 
 erally kept on hand nowadays, flung out a
 
 244 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 suggestion, " A joke if you chaps didn't get 
 back again ! " 
 
 " { You chaps ' can take care of themselves," 
 Bob informed him, and the boat was pushed off. 
 The great sea was quiet for such a body of water, 
 and yet it showed a long glassy swell, now lift- 
 ing, now lowering this boat of discovery. The 
 Andromeda^ with its lazily flapping sails, its 
 tackle and fall at the mast-head, its try-works 
 projecting above the rails, receded every mo- 
 ment, the heads of the men that leaned over 
 the vessel's side dwindling to a row of peas 
 along the rail. On all that stretching waste of 
 water nothing astern could be seen save the 
 Andromeda, and ahead was that strange, drift- 
 ing mass. Between these two objects, one with 
 life aboard, the other seemingly dead, was this 
 boat with the two young men. 
 
 " Can you make it out ? " asked Ralph, as he 
 saw Bob twisting his head and trying to look 
 round, after an energetic pull. 
 
 " Well, Ralph, we are a good deal nearer, and 
 it looks like timber of some kind. I see some- 
 thing beyond it that looks like poles or brooms 
 or trees sticking up. It is very small." 
 
 "You do?"
 
 ADEIFT. 245 
 
 " Yes. Just look ! " 
 
 They both rested on their oars and looked 
 ahead. 
 
 " You are right, Bob. Strange we did not 
 see it from the deck." 
 
 " Cap'n Granby and I both thought we saw 
 something beyond that clump there, and once he 
 said, 'Bob, seems to me there is an island off 
 there,' but it was kind of hazy in that direction, 
 and whatever we saw went out of sight. It 
 would have been seen better if it wasn't for 
 the haze." 
 
 All this time the Andromeda was halting on 
 the great sea. 
 
 "'Most there to that stuff!" cried Ealph. 
 " Whatever it is, we shall be there soon. One 
 consolation ! " 
 
 " Soon " at sea has a variety of meanings. It 
 may be a distance of two miles or one mile or 
 five miles ; and when a ship is swashing along 
 through the waters at a lively rate, "soon" 
 means a number of good leagues. In this case 
 " soon " meant farther than Ralph supposed. 
 The Andromeda still lay almost becalmed on 
 the vast ocean. 
 " 'Most there, Kalph ! " cried Bob, now trying
 
 246 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 his hand at assuring a companion of a speedy 
 voyage. "I did not know it was so far here. 
 However, we shall soon be all right." 
 
 " Soon " in this case also meant more than 
 Bob conjectured. The longest distance, though, 
 has its limit, and the floating mass was reached. 
 
 "Piece of a wreck!" said Kalph. "That 
 is all ! " 
 
 " So it is," replied Bob. 
 
 They rowed about the misshapen mass, a relic 
 of a hard fight between a ship and some storm, 
 and tried to discover a clew to its name. 
 
 " Looks like a piece of the stern," said Bob. 
 
 " Yes," said Kalph, " row ahead. I don't 
 know but what I see some letters." 
 
 They had almost circumnavigated the bulky 
 mass when Bob shouted, 
 
 " There is a C." 
 
 " There is an A," said Ealph. 
 
 " Yes," added Bob, " I can make out S and 
 P." 
 
 The other letters were under the surface of 
 the water. The boys looked down and saw be- 
 neath the green, tremulous surface of the sea 
 two more letters, A and R. 
 
 " This unfortunate craft was the Caspar, Bob,"
 
 ADEIFT. 247 
 
 declared Ralph. " The Caspar has gone, now, 
 though." 
 
 " Let me see if I can't get a relic, Ralph." 
 
 Whistling about this melancholy sample of a 
 disaster at sea, Bob noticed that a part of the 
 name was loose. 
 
 " O, good ! See, Ralph ! Here's a little board 
 on which is P in the name, and it has worked 
 loose somehow. I'll rip it off. Here she comes. 
 There, she is mine now. A whole P ! " 
 
 "Well, we must be going. Sun is working 
 down toward the horizon. Good-bye, Caspar, 
 thou lonely, forsaken soul ! " 
 
 " Good-bye," echoed Bob. " Never will see 
 you again." 
 
 And was it, " Good-bye, Andromeda ?" 
 
 Where was that vessel ? The boys looked off 
 in surprise. Had that craft become a wreck, and 
 gone down into the sea ? 
 
 " Where is she, Bob ? " 
 
 Bob turned round and exultingly shouted, 
 
 " There she is ! " 
 
 He pointed off toward the old whaler, lifting 
 still its canvas above the sea. They had not 
 looked in the right direction ; but there she was 
 over in the south-east. How good she looked !
 
 248 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 " That shows, Bob, how easy it is to get 
 turned round. We had better put for home." 
 
 " I did hope we might get to that island," said 
 Bob regretfully. 
 
 Ralph knew Bob's love of adventure, and was 
 not disposed to encourage it any further. The 
 sun, too, was lying on the western water, a 
 round hub of gold, out of which shot spokes of 
 flame through the masses of cloud. In an op- 
 posite direction, on a sea almost without a rip- 
 ple save that long, heavy, unbroken swell, rose 
 the Andromeda. It was a beautiful sight that 
 motionless vessel rising up in the symmetry of 
 its rigging, of mast and spar, of rope and can- 
 vas. Then the beautiful became the majestic as 
 the eye rested upon the vast, silent sea, chang- 
 ing from a chilling indigo in the east to a wide 
 stretch of crimson in the west. Besides the 
 Andromeda, the only visible objects on the sea 
 were the fragment of the unfortunate Caspar 
 and that little island. 
 
 " Put in, Bob, put in ! " said Kalph. 
 
 He knew his companion's relish for discovery ; 
 that he was inclined to linger not only until the 
 last moment, but the moment after. 
 
 " Just one more relic, Ralph."
 
 ADEIFT. 249 
 
 " Bob, you are a booby ! Come ! I am going 
 to row my part of the boat to the ship. You 
 can stay here and tie your part of the boat to 
 the Caspar" 
 
 " Keady ! " said Bob, pulling on his oar. " I 
 wonder where that Caspar is going?" 
 
 " Going ? Nowhere." 
 
 " No, I think she is drifting." 
 
 " Any thing, I suppose, on the water, is pulled 
 round by currents, but this " 
 
 " No, there is quite a drift to her A pretty 
 strong current I thought I noticed when we 
 were hanging round the Caspar" 
 
 " O, I guess not ! " 
 
 " I think so." 
 
 " Well, I hope it won't interfere with us." 
 
 " O, probably not ! We are good for it. 
 Come, Ealph, sing!" 
 
 The boys raised a boating song. It sounded 
 so lonely on that lonely sea. They pulled away, 
 strongly, steadily. The sun had now gone down, 
 but from the agitation of colors in the west that 
 monarch seemed to be making an effort to get 
 up again, flaunting overhead some of his imperial 
 drapery. The boys were looking toward the 
 west, as they rowed away, admiring that last gor-
 
 250 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 geous display of the sunset, when Ralph ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 "Bob, before you turn round, guess how 
 far we are from the Andromeda! Half way 
 there ? " 
 
 " O, yes ! more ! " 
 
 " I'll guess two fifths," said Ralph, who was 
 not so sanguine as Bob. 
 
 The boys rested on their oars a moment 
 and then looked round. The Andromeda was 
 gone ! 
 
 " Whew-w-w ! " exclaimed Bob. " Where is 
 she?" 
 
 " That is an interesting question," said 
 Ralph. 
 
 " Easy to ask the question ! It will be more 
 interesting to get an answer." 
 
 " O, there it is ! " cried Ralph. 
 
 He pointed toward a black object towering 
 above the sea. 
 
 " You are right ! " cried Bob, eager to assent 
 to any thing. " JSTow, spring for it ! " 
 
 The boys pulled as they only did on the most 
 exciting kind of a whale hunt, and then looked 
 again. 
 
 " I think I see it, Bob, over there ! "
 
 ADRIFT. 251 
 
 Ralph pointed toward an indistinct pillar of 
 something rising out of the sea. 
 
 " But but, Ralph, I see something over there 
 at the left." 
 
 There were two uncertain vapory columns, 
 and which was the Andromeda f 
 
 " We might row sort of between them, Bob, 
 and then we can tell which is the ship." 
 
 " Well-1-1." 
 
 The two boys pulled away violently. Neither 
 expressed the fear that was in his mind that 
 by the time they had reached a point between 
 those misty somethings, each " something " 
 might be nothing ! Neither cared to sing now. 
 Ralph looked very anxious. Bob looked anx- 
 ious and reckless also. No ship, the sun gone 
 down, a vast unknown sea about them ! There 
 were clouds on one section of the horizon. Did 
 this indicate a storm ? Both of the boys saw it, 
 but did not care to say any thing about it. They 
 pulled in silence. 
 
 But where was the Andromeda f It was on 
 the sea, and Captain Granby was wondering 
 where the boys were. After they had left, 
 he was busy in the cabin working out an esti- 
 mate of the financial results of this trip to the
 
 252 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 whaling grounds of the South Seas, soon to be 
 abandoned. Steve Wyckham was up in the 
 rigging on the look-out. 
 
 "Keep out an eye for those boys! Watch 
 sharp ! " said Captain Granby to Steve. He 
 also gave an order that the vessel should con- 
 tinue to "lie to." 
 
 " I was a fool to let those jackanapes go off," 
 he reflected, as he turned into his cabin. He 
 was so much engrossed in dollars and cents that 
 he gave no more heed to that fraction of his 
 crew off in a boat, and remained in his cabin 
 longer than he intended. When he came on 
 deck again, he noticed that the sun was on the 
 edge of the sea. He looked up into the rigging 
 and, climbing a short distance, asked : 
 
 "Those two fools comin' back in that boat? 
 Do you see 'em, Steve ? " 
 
 At the same time that he asked this question, 
 Horace Haviland was finishing a remark he had 
 begun to make to Steve. The two sailors were 
 not far apart in the rigging, Horace at work 
 on a rope that needed readjustment. 
 
 " Those young chaps ought to be back by this 
 time," said Horace. " They can row quite well, 
 can't they ? "
 
 ADRIFT. 253 
 
 " Do you see 'em ? " said Captain Granby. 
 
 Instead of saying, " No, sir," to the captain, 
 and then giving the affirmative answer to Hor- 
 ace, "I think so," he simply made this last 
 reply. 
 
 Captain Granby could not hear very distinctly, 
 but interpreted Steve's reply as one made to 
 him, and as a favorable reply also. To make 
 sure that he was right, the captain added, " Can't 
 seem to make out that boat, but if you say you 
 see them, all right." 
 
 Steve made no answer. The captain, not 
 catching any objection to his opinion, de- 
 scended to the deck and went into the cabin 
 again, repeating his orders that the vessel 
 should lie to. 
 
 The rope that Horace was at work upon gave 
 him much trouble. He took out his sheath- 
 knife to cut away a ragged end, but, as the end 
 was not quite ready for amputation, he thrust 
 his knife into the sailor's ready vise his teeth. 
 He did not pay close attention to Steve's words, 
 and as he had applied a voluntary gag to his 
 mouth, he was not in a condition to make 
 remarks. 
 
 " The look-out will see after that boat. It is
 
 254 SAILOR BOY BOB. 
 
 Steve's business," thought Horace, bending 
 down closely to his perplexing rope. 
 
 " There ! " he finally ejaculated. " That job 
 is done ! " 
 
 Trimming the rope's end he thrust his knife 
 into its sheath, and then, looking off upon the 
 sea hastily, muttered, " Steve is looking after 
 'em.-' He swung over into the shrouds and ran 
 quickly down to the deck. He went to the fore- 
 castle for a short time, as it seemed to him, and 
 then, mounting to the deck again, he met Cap- 
 tain Granby. 
 
 " Boys back, I s'pose, cap'n ? " said Horace, 
 looking round for Ralph and Bob. 
 
 "N-n-no!" replied the captain impatiently. 
 "Don't see where they are. I thought that 
 Steve told me he could see them." 
 
 "I heard you say something and s'posed it 
 was all right. My hands and mouth were full, 
 for I had a bad job. Steve " 
 
 " I'll rouse that dumb booby up in the rig- 
 ging. Say ! " he shouted, looking aloft. " Say,' 
 Steve ! Do you see those two fools ? " 
 
 " How can I see when it is gettin' dark ? " 
 replied Steve. 
 
 " Answer, yes or no ! "
 
 ADRIFT. 255 
 
 " No -o-o ! " thundered Steve. 
 
 " You may add 4 sir.' " 
 
 " No, sir" was the hesitating, sulky reply. 
 
 " Now you may come down and go below. 
 I'll have a man up there who can see some- 
 thing," angrily yelled the captain. 
 
 "I can't see when there is nothing to be 
 seen," growled Steve. 
 
 " You don't want to see. That is what the 
 matter is with you," replied the captain, justly 
 suspecting Steve's sincerity. " This not keep- 
 ing an eye out sharp for a couple of youngsters 
 isn't the thing." 
 
 Those of the crew now on deck gathered about 
 the captain and Steve, and then they opened 
 ranks to let Steve, whose sullen face was black- 
 ening with wrath, pass to his retreat in the fore- 
 castle. The affair occasioned much excitement 
 among the crew, and the very just feeling was 
 that Steve had not properly watched the boys 
 and faithfully reported to the captain. 
 
 " He'd be willing to have Bob drift away and 
 never come back," said some one of the crew 
 whose face Captain Granby could not see. 
 
 " I'll teach him what is a look-out's duty," 
 said the captain, peering over the vessel's rail
 
 256 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 into the shadows that crouched dark ai}d heavy 
 upon the waters. He directed that all the can- 
 vas should be gathered in, and that the An- 
 dromeda should " lie to through the* night." 
 
 " We'll stay right here, if we can, jest where 
 we are," said the captain. " In the mornin' we 
 may pick 'em up." 
 
 And the boys ? They were not pulling now, 
 but in the deepening twilight were looking in 
 every direction for the much wanted Androm- 
 eda. 
 
 " I did wish," said Bob, trying to speak in as 
 brave tones as possible " I did wish, the other 
 day, when we were working so hard, that I 
 might not see any try-works again for a century. 
 I wish now they were at the mast-head of the 
 Andromeda, blazing away furiously. Then we 
 should have a light to guide us." 
 
 " What I am afraid of, Bob, is that a mist is 
 coming up, and it has hidden the ship and will 
 hide any lights." 
 
 Ralph was right. Captain Granby hung 
 lights in the rigging of the Andromeda as if 
 for an illumination in honor of a good whaling 
 voyage, but a mist veiled them. 
 
 " What shall we do, Bob ?"
 
 ADRIFT. 257 
 
 " Do ..nothing. Wish we had taken a com- 
 pass. Ought to have been one in this boat, but, 
 for some reason, somebody took it out yester- 
 day. We can do nothing now." 
 
 " You mean not to row at all ? " 
 
 " That's it ; we don't know which way to 
 row, and seems to me we had better stir from 
 this place as little way as possible. I don't be- 
 lieve the Andromeda will leave us. She will 
 cruise round for us in the morning, and we don't 
 want to be far from the place where she left us. 
 She will find us." 
 
 " O, yes ! No doubt about that," declared 
 Ralph, in as courageous tones as possible. " I'm 
 hungry, thirsty, too. Wonder if there is any 
 water in our keg." 
 
 " O, yes, I imagine so." 
 
 There was a water-keg in the boat, and Ralph 
 lifted it and tasted it at the bung-hole. 
 
 " Quite good, Bob ! Have some ? " 
 
 " Thank you. I'll have a swig to keep up my 
 courage, you know. And here are some crack- 
 ers in this box." 
 
 " Good ! " 
 
 " O, we will live like princes." 
 
 The boys talked awhile, and then Ralph asked, 
 17
 
 258 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Now, Bob, shall we both watch ? Shall" 
 
 " Guess we both won't sleep. Let's keep 
 awake ! I can't go to sleep in this old boat." 
 
 Ralph assented, but a tired body is a heavy 
 drag upon all purposes of wakefulness, and both 
 the voyagers began to yawn. 
 
 " Bob, we have got to give in. I'll watch, and 
 you sleep." 
 
 " No, you turn in, or turn down, and I'll keep 
 my eyes open. I will wake you up." 
 
 Bob generally had his way in any of the out- 
 door ventures that the boys prosecuted, his 
 strength and energy being superior, and Ralph 
 agreed to " turn in." This meant to make him- 
 self comfortable on the bottom of the boat in 
 the dryest place lie could find. Bob noticed 
 that Ralph was silent before lying down. He 
 knew Ralph's habits thoroughly, and he said to 
 himself, " Ralph is saying his prayers. He 
 wouldn't miss those for any thing." 
 
 No sooner had this thought flashed through 
 Bob's mind than another followed it " Why 
 don't you pray ? " 
 
 Rough and careless as a ship-life is, Bob had 
 come every day under the influence of Ralph so 
 fully that it had not been lost upon him. He
 
 ADRIFT. 259 
 
 had done at sea what he had not been accustomed 
 to do at home he had read his Bible. The 
 " Sunday singing " had done its quiet work. 
 The thoughts in the hymns were like the silent 
 dropping of seed in his heart. Seed will lie in 
 the ground unsuspected until, under the stimu- 
 lus of some day of unusual sunshine or fall of 
 gracious rain, there is a sudden opening of the 
 coats imprisoning the shoot, and up comes the 
 welcome growth. 
 
 That night Bob did some serious thinking. 
 "How quietly Ralph is sleeping," he said. 
 "Awful lonely place here ! " He looked up into 
 the heavens. There was a thin veil of mist 
 thrown over the sky, and through it the stars 
 were trying to shine. He looked where he sup- 
 posed the sea w r as, and there nothing could be 
 discovered. Only a great, black emptiness ! 
 " No something is there ! " thought Bob, reach- 
 ing his hand over the boat's side and touching 
 the water. It was a relief to feel the water. 
 As if to assure Bob that something was about 
 him, and not a great, awful vacuum, the water 
 softly beat against the sides of the boat and 
 played about his hand. 
 
 " Off in the Pacific I don't know where
 
 260 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 makes you nervous ! What makes Ralph sleep 
 so ? " thought Bob. " He prays and goes to 
 sleep. It seems to quiet him." 
 
 Then this thought flashed through his soul : 
 " Why shouldn't you pray ? " 
 
 " I don't know why I don't, I am sure," 
 -said Bob. "Would God hear me ? Where 
 is he?" 
 
 And then there seemed to be aroused in Bob's 
 soul a desire, a craving, a hunger, for sympathy, 
 companionship, love. In the night, away off on 
 the ocean, alone, his companion asleep, in that 
 gently rocking boat, the darkness disclosing noth- 
 ing save a few, far-away, faint stars, Bob Walker 
 had this desire aroused within him. And then 
 came one. of the Sunday hymns to his memory. 
 It seemed as if he could hear Ralph's clear 
 treble, Roaring Ben's deep bass, the sweet, 
 musical tenor of " the old man," John Wilson, 
 while "Yolcano" sang a low, plaintive alto. 
 And these were the words wafted on the wings 
 of that remembered harmony : 
 
 " Jesus, Lover of my soul, 
 
 Let me to thy bosom fly, 
 While the nearer waters roll, 
 
 While the tempest still is high I
 
 ADKIFT. 261 
 
 Hide me. my Saviour, hide, 
 
 Till the storm of life is past; 
 Safe into the haven guide, 
 
 receive my soul at last." 
 
 " I can't help it," murmured Bob. " Now or 
 never." 
 
 Down lie dropped upon his knees and turned 
 his face up toward the great, lonely sky. "What 
 he said, he never could recall. He hardly knew 
 what he did, save this in general that he gave 
 up something himself, his will; he received 
 something a presence, a friend, God, his 
 Saviour. 
 
 Then he sat in silence awhile, looking con- 
 tentedly down. At last he looked up. During 
 his frequent watches on the deck of the An- 
 dromeda, at night, he had become familiar with 
 that beautiful constellation the Southern Cross. 
 And now in the heaven, still veiled, yet thinly, 
 he could trace some of the outlines of that glo- 
 rious group of stars. 
 
 " That is a sign of hope," he said. 
 
 He could tell from its position what time it was. 
 
 " My watch is up ! " he said. 
 
 Reaching over to Ralph, he laid his hand 
 gently upon him.
 
 262 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 " He sleeps sound ! Too bad to wake him ! " 
 said Bob. " I'll let him sleep longer. Hullo ! " 
 he suddenly exclaimed. " This boat drifting ? 
 I I believe it is. I I suspected that." 
 
 When he held his hand down in the water, 
 there seemed to be a movement against it. He 
 caught the sound of a gentle rushing. This he 
 had noticed several times. And what dark ob- 
 ject was it ahead or wasn't it an object ? It 
 could not be the hull of the Andromeda, of 
 course. He was relieved when he heard Ralph 
 stirring in the boat. Ralph had concluded to 
 wake himself up. 
 
 " Ugh ! Hullo ! " he said nervously. " What 
 is this ? Where are we ? " 
 
 " In the boat, you know." 
 
 Oh-h-h ! " 
 
 It was an exclamation of disappointment. 
 
 " And look, Ralph ! You see this black thing 
 ahead?" 
 
 Ralph rubbed his eyes, thought he did see 
 something, and hoped it wasn't a rock. 
 
 " No, but that old wreck, isn't it ? " 
 
 "Hadn't we better keep off from it? Might 
 be a rock, and some current about it." 
 
 Bob at first was for boldly approaching the
 
 ADRIFT. 263 
 
 object, but Ralph's more prudent counsel pre- 
 vailed. Nearing this mysterious something cau- 
 tiously, Ralph reached out an oar and struck it, 
 while Bob kept the boat off with another oar. 
 
 " Bob, it is wood ! It is that piece of wreck. 
 Let us go up to it." 
 
 Bob declared it was like meeting an old 
 friend, and, as they lingered about it, Ralph pro- 
 posed that they should moor the boat to it and 
 wait till morning. 
 
 " All right, Ralph ! I have an idea that this 
 thing is aground, for she doesn't seem to be 
 stirring. Fact is, Ralph, we have been in a 
 current " 
 
 " And didn't know it ! That is so. I thought 
 it was strange we did not get ahead faster when 
 we were trying to find the Andromeda. The 
 current was against us, and when we stopped 
 rowing it took .us back where the wreck was, and 
 I guess you were right. This piece of the Cas- 
 par got aground, and we caught up with it." 
 
 " Got aground, Ralph ? Then do you sup- 
 pose we are near that island we saw last night ? 
 Hurrah!" 
 
 The enthusiastic Bob was obliged to give vent 
 to his delight, though he was adrift on the
 
 264 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Pacific, and though it was night, and though 
 but what was it the boys saw off in the lonely 
 sky? 
 
 " It isn't daylight, is it, Bob ? " asked 
 Kalph. 
 
 No, it was too soft and silvery, and yet it was 
 light. 
 
 ' The moon ! " cried Ralph. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " shouted Bob. 
 
 It was not a brilliant moon, and the mist that 
 had veiled different sections of the sea tried to 
 throw a screen before this new, soft light. 
 There was enough illumination to bring out into 
 form the wreck, and what else could the boys 
 soon trace ? 
 
 "" Ralph, now you may .say what you please " 
 
 " I haven't said any thing." 
 
 " You hold on, and what will you say to this ? 
 Look off there ! That sort of bank is the island 
 we saw last night. Yes, sir ! Hur-rah ! And 
 hark ! What do you hear ? " 
 
 " Don't hear any thing, save the water round 
 the wreck." 
 
 " Just cast that rope off, and pull away from 
 it, just a few strokes." 
 
 "O, Bob!"
 
 ADRIFT. 265 
 
 Ralph was afraid that Bob would leave the 
 certain for the uncertain the wreck for an 
 unknown island. 
 
 " I'll answer for consequences," replied Bob, 
 with characteristic decision untying the rope, 
 and Ralph as usual submitting. 
 
 " There ! You see you couldn't hear distinct- 
 ly at the wreck, but I have caught it several 
 times during the night a sound like surf. 
 Hark!" 
 
 " Yes, I hear it," 
 
 " Now, Ralph, let us go there," proposed Bob, 
 with startling energy. " Come on, Ralph ! 
 Now is your chance to see something of the 
 world. Come on ! " 
 
 "Hold on, Bob, hold on! Let us think it 
 over." 
 
 " Don't want to think, but go. You see you 
 see" 
 
 " But the Andromeda f " 
 
 " Would find us just as quick there. You see, 
 we could build a fire or climb a tree, and throw 
 out a flag " 
 
 "Flag?" 
 
 " "Well, pants or shirt, then." 
 
 " But, savages !"
 
 266 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 That was what Bob needed to fire him up to 
 greater zeal. 
 
 " O, Ralph ! I would like to see some of them. 
 They won't hurt. You know we have harpoons 
 and lances. Besides, we can push off in the 
 morning before they are up, if we want to. Be- 
 sides, Ralph, what if a storm should come ! We 
 don't want to be off here. Get on shore, where 
 you are safe, where you can get water, where 
 you will find cocoanuts, where " 
 
 " Come on, Bob ! I'm agreed." 
 
 The current that had shifted their loca- 
 tion during the night helped them now, for 
 they made a swift advance. At times they 
 stopped and caught the musical sound of surf, 
 not angry, but hushed ; not the rough, loud drum- 
 beat of the storm, but the play of the water in 
 fair weather. Still, a storm might come, and it 
 was much more agreeable, Ralph thought, to go 
 ashore now, easily and voluntarily, -than to be 
 hurled there in a tempest. 
 
 " You see," said Bob, as the two pulled stout- 
 ly away, " there is that current off there we got 
 into, and if we had held on and a storm broken 
 on us, we might have come ashore in a style we 
 didn't like. Getting 'most there r f "
 
 ADRIFT. 267 
 
 "Almost. Bob!" 
 
 The trees on the island rose up in a dark, 
 shadowy wall, but nearer, nearer, and the surf 
 sounded louder. 
 
 " Here we are, Bob ! " shouted Ealph. " Got 
 to the shore-waves ! Steady ! " 
 
 " Steady it is ! Here we are ! " 
 
 Up and down, up and down, in the gentle 
 cradle of the surf, rocked the boat, and soon 
 was safely beached. The last of the surf in- 
 closed the boat in a net- work of molten silver, 
 flashing in the white light of the moon. 
 
 " Ship oars ! " Ralph had shouted. 
 
 The two boys sprang out and, pulling the boat 
 beyond the reach of the low waves, went up the 
 sands still higher and sat down in the edge of 
 a grove. 
 
 " Ha-ha, Bob ! Isn't this romantic ? " 
 
 " Yes, Ralph ; and we are safe, too. It is 
 good to feel that you are safe on land. Good to 
 have a foundation under you. Now we know 
 where we are in one sense." 
 
 " Wonder what they are doing on board the 
 Andromeda, Bob ? " 
 
 " I wonder ! Well, we are safe. You see, 
 Ralph," said Bob, looking up to the branchts of
 
 268 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 the trees overhead, " I suppose these are cocoa- 
 nut-trees, and we have all the fruit we want. 
 Can't starve, you know." 
 
 " They say the cocoanut palm is invaluable, 
 Bob. It will supply posts and walls for a house 
 and, you know, we have a hatchet to cut trees 
 down with and then the cocoanut palm gives 
 you materials for thatching and for mats " 
 
 " Can carpet our floors, Ralph, and when oui 
 clothes give out we can weave a new suit. You 
 would make a good tailor, I know. Ha-ha ! " 
 
 The boys, sitting under the branches of the 
 trees, looking off upon the gentle throw of 
 silver-like surf in the moonlight, laughed at the 
 thought that they were about to turn into car- 
 penters and tailors. 
 
 " You can get oil, Bob, out of the cocoanut, 
 so that we are sure of a light by night. There 
 is our lantern in the boat, and we can fill that 
 with cocoanut oil when it is empty. We can 
 compete with the sperm oil factories." 
 
 The boys laughed again to think that they 
 were to become oil-makers ! 
 
 " You know, Bob, they make rope out of the 
 fiber in the old stems. We shall have to build 
 a rope-walk at once."
 
 ADRIFT. 269 
 
 " Lucky ! Who would go back to the An- 
 dromeda?" 
 
 The boys sat under the trees joking and 
 laughing, planning how to live in the kingdom 
 of 'the cocoanut-tree, a small section of which 
 they had invaded. Gradually, the languor of 
 needed sleep stole over them and made them 
 drowsy. They nodded their heads, bowed lower, 
 and at last they both sank into the depths of a 
 grateful slumber. It was Ralph who, in his 
 dreams, thought with alarm of one object that 
 in their plans for the future had not been men- 
 tioned. What was that object? In his turn 
 Bob was dreaming of a life with Kalph in a 
 palm log-hut, saying to himself how strange, 
 after his readings about Robinson Crusoe and 
 Swiss Family Robinson, to think that he him- 
 self was to have such an exceptional, fascinating 
 experience. He was meditating upon a name 
 for a possible book, The Two Castaways, or 
 Thrown Upon a Desert Island, when all these 
 thoughts were routed by a scream from Ralph. 
 This other dreamer fancied he felt the touch of 
 a man's hand, an awful touch that started on the 
 forehead, proceeded to the nose, diverged to 
 each cheek, and it was the touch of a savage !
 
 2YO SAILOB-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Ugh ! " screamed Ralph, springing up, only 
 to find that the invader of his seclusion had been 
 the long leaf of a shrub under which he had 
 rolled in his uneasy sleep. The movement of 
 the leaf in the early morning breeze explained 
 that horrible savage touch. Bob was now awake 
 also. 
 
 " That ugly savage ! " exclaimed Ealph, rub- 
 bing his eyes open. 
 
 " Where ? " said Bob looking round. 
 
 He rose upon his feet, and, in the strong light 
 of the new day flooding the sea, looked off. 
 Did he see an aborigine, a cannibal, say ? 
 
 " Hurrali ! That is not your savage ! " 
 
 He stood pointing off the shore, and there, 
 calmly floating, was the Andromeda ! The 
 sight of the old whaler, with the big blocks at 
 the mast-head, was so fascinating ! Those dark 
 blocks looked handsomer than any jewel. Fare- 
 well to the fascinations of a Juan Fernandez life ! 
 The boys seized their boat, rushed it into the 
 surf, and began to pull for their old friend. Up, 
 down, up, down, beyond the sweep of the shore- 
 waves at last glided the boat of the young whale- 
 men, forsaking all those tempting objects the 
 log-hut, rope-walk, and cocoanut-oil factory.
 
 ADEIFT. 271 
 
 "Do they see us?" anxiously asked Ralph, 
 turning his head round when they had rowed a 
 little while. 
 
 " Can't say, Ealph, but yes, yes ! They see 
 us! I can see them looking over the vessel's 
 rail and they are waving their hands and, 
 yes, somebody is up in the rigging, waving, I 
 believe." 
 
 "Let us stand up and give three cheers, 
 Bob ! Come on ! " 
 
 The cheers of the boys as they stood up in 
 the boat, echoed over the water, and from the 
 Andromeda came an answering and bigger shout 
 of welcome. 
 
 " Here is the wreck again, Bob ! Grounded 
 on some reef ! We must not let the Andromeda 
 come any nearer. She is in that current, I am 
 afraid." 
 
 " She will be all right, Ralph ! She is mov- 
 ing off to the left there, and I don't know but 
 that she is going to drop anchor." 
 
 The rattle of the Andromeda's cable was 
 heard as her anchor sank into the water. 
 
 " Soon there, Bob ! Row, row ! " 
 
 " Spring for it, Ralph 2 " 
 
 Encouraging one another, the boys quick-
 
 272 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 ened their efforts as if a canoe load of savages 
 were after them, and were soon alongside the 
 whaler. 
 
 ""Hullo, Bob!" "How are ye, Ralph?" 
 ^' Aboard with you 1 " " Home again ! " " How 
 do you like life on an island ? " were among the 
 greetings that the boys received. 
 
 Captain Granby, Roaring Ben, Horace H*avi- 
 land, 'Rastus the cook, " the old man," " Yol- 
 cano " every body, it seemed, excepting Steve 
 Wyckham were all on hand to receive Ralph 
 and Bob as they climbed over the vessel's 
 rail. 
 
 It was so good to get back to the old craft, to 
 the greasy decks, even, and the very try-pots ! 
 The Andromeda soon weighed anchor, and 
 opened her canvas wings to catch a breeze fresh- 
 ening above the waters. Bob and Ralph leaned 
 over the vessel's rail and watched the receding 
 wreck and island. 
 
 " There goes the Caspar. Bob ! Good-bye ! " 
 
 " Ralph, the island is growing smaller ! Good- 
 bye!" 
 
 " Yes, farewell to that valuable tree, the cocoa- 
 nut palm, waving beautifully in a South Sea 
 wind!"
 
 ADRIFT. 273 
 
 " Yes, and to our house of palm-logs ! " 
 
 " And the palm-leaf matting for the floors ! " 
 
 " And to our fashionable palm-leaf suits ! " 
 
 "And to the beautiful savage who woke 
 me up ! " 
 
 " I began to think of writing a book, and didn't 
 know as I would change places with the happiest 
 man in Oldburyport ! " 
 
 " Good-bye, Caspar ! " 
 
 " Good-bye, island-home ! " 
 
 What was left of the Caspar subsided to the 
 level of the ocean, and then melted away amid 
 its foam. The palm-trees on the island lowered 
 their proud heads, bowed down to the level of 
 the wave-tops, and so sank out of sight. 
 
 One of the results of a rough experience is to 
 lead us to appreciate the daily line of comforts 
 which we may have despised and constantly de- 
 preciated as humble and hard. What soft cush- 
 ions they are when we get back to them ! 
 
 In his berth, that night, Ralph leaned for- 
 ward and, looking out, said to Bob, his next 
 neighbor, 
 
 " I didn't know this old bunk could seem so 
 precious. I sha'n't have any fear of savages or 
 
 storms. Good-night 1 " 
 18
 
 274 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Good night ! Fearful sleepy ! I've got 
 home ! " 
 
 That night, Bob had done something strange 
 for him. He had got down by his bunk and 
 thought gratefully of God. Both the boys in 
 their sleep dreamed of home. 
 
 For Oldburyport, the Andromeda soon 
 spread its wings.
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 
 
 IT was Sunday afternoon in the old forecastle. 
 A rough place it was, and the hard usage of 
 a whaling voyage had told on the floor and also 
 the bunks, that had begun the voyage in a coin- 
 mentlable state of neatness. The "chaplain" 
 was singing with the sailors who chose to gather 
 at this time. Some of them were seated on 
 several battered chests, and, leaning over the 
 old, well-thnrnbed books, were roaring out 
 their interest in the exercises of the hour. 
 There were three seamen carelessly stretched 
 out in their bunks. Their posture said, " If 
 we find the singing tiresome, we can try to 
 sleep." 
 
 The chaplain had given out several hymns 
 whose sentiment strongly appealed to any sea- 
 rnan, the waves seeming to rock in the sentences, 
 and when a storrn was described, in the notes 
 of the singers was developed a corresponding 
 energy. Bob sang as intensely as any body.
 
 276 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 " "We will try now something different," finally 
 said the chaplain. " Try the hymn, 
 
 " ' Jesus, and shall it ever be, 
 
 A mortal man ashamed of thee ? ' " 
 
 
 
 It was a long meter tune, moving slowly, with 
 dignity, and there was a certain plaintive qual- 
 ity to the melody in harmony with the tender, 
 almost tearful, appeals in the sentiment. Bob 
 soon found that the hymn and the air were 
 strangely, strongly moving him. There would 
 not have been this effect in euch a marked de- 
 gree had not an incident of the previous day 
 been suggested. Steve Wyckham had been in 
 disgrace after the affair of the last chapter. Cap- 
 tain Gran by had publicly reprimanded him and 
 had deprived him of several privileges. 
 
 " Couldn't have treated me wuss if he had 
 ironed me!" complained Steve to another sea- 
 man. 
 
 The crew abhorred his style of treating ship- 
 mates who were out on the water*, and whose 
 safety depended on his faithfulness as a look-out. 
 For a while, Steve was sulkily silent. By de- 
 grees, though, he ventured to creep out of this 
 silence, and to a few of the crew, who were men
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 277 
 
 after his style of character, he would express his 
 opinion. He was one of a group that, clustered 
 in the vessel's bows, the Saturday before this 
 '' Sunday singing," discussed the gatherings in 
 the old forecastle Sunday afternoons. Very 
 naturally Bob would not be attracted by any 
 such group. He chanced to be standing near 
 them, and, while they were busily talking, he 
 was as busily coiling a rope, and with all the 
 ready skill of an old sailor. He could hear 
 every thing that they said. 
 
 " I don't think so much of this psalm-singing," 
 exclaimed Dan A very. 
 
 " Nor I." replied Bill Tappan. " Folks are 
 awfnl pious sometimes, when they git into a 
 for'c'stle and roar out a lot of goody stuff." 
 
 " You don't ketch 'em doin' it any other time," 
 said Dan. "I mean their piousness. Don't 
 show that." 
 
 " Doiu' it any other time ! " exclaimed Steve. 
 "You'd never know how they felt from any 
 thing they say any other time. They act as if 
 they was ashamed to stand up and own the 
 society they belong to. When folks on shore 
 jine a society, they're tickled to put on their 
 badge, but these fellers aint. If I belonged, I'd
 
 278 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 have out my badge and clap it on purty quick. 
 They're ashamed." 
 
 ;c That's so ! " You've got 'em there ! " " Hit 
 the mark there ! " were the responses to this ex- 
 pression of opinion. 
 
 "Do they mean me?" thought Bob, as he 
 now moved away, his coil of rope neatly com- 
 pleted. 
 
 This expression of opinion by Steve and the 
 others was accidental. It had no reference to 
 Bob on the part of those uttering the opinion. 
 They did not even know be had been there. 
 When they turned about they saw a very neat 
 coil of rope. 
 
 " Who did that while we were here ? " asked 
 Steve. 
 
 Nobody knew. 
 
 " That's a good coil," declared Steve. 
 
 The words, though, which Bob had heard by 
 chance could not have more powerfully stirred 
 him had they been arrows sent by an intentional 
 archer aiming at Bob's heart. He had not 
 spoken to any one about the night of his expo- 
 sure with Ralph out upon the ocean, when, kneel- 
 ing in the gently swaying boat, he looked up 
 and besought the blessing of his God. He had
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 279 
 
 not told this to Ralph even. It was not a lost 
 experience by any means, and therefore uncon- 
 fessed. It survived the excitement of that nis-ht, 
 
 O * 
 
 and lasted beyond the next day. He kept on 
 praying. He was conscious that there was a 
 changed purpose in his life. He wondered if it 
 was what people called " conversion." He 
 doubted it, because he looked for something 
 more emotional. In that case he expected to 
 feel more deeply on the subject. 
 
 "I shall certainly be happier when I am 
 converted," he thought, " and I know I shall 
 feel I am a bigger sinner. Don't feel now, 
 for some reason, but I suppose I shall. How- 
 ever, T am going to follow this thing up. 
 Perhaps it will lead to conversion if I do follow 
 it up." 
 
 If Bob had analyzed his feelings, it would 
 have been apparent to him that this interest, 
 whatever it was, followed Kim up. It did not 
 leave his thoughts. He seemed to have come 
 into a new relation to God, and he thought about 
 him as one ever present and seeking to bring 
 Bob into closer communion with himself. Bob 
 seemed also to have come into a new relation to 
 his ship-mates. He felt that he ought to think
 
 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 more about their welfare in every way ; that he 
 ought to help them by a good example certainly. 
 Toward his Bible and toward prayer he seemed 
 to have come into a different attitude that of 
 interest in them because they were necessary to 
 him. 
 
 "I suppose I shall take still more interest in 
 this book when I am converted," said Bob, 
 handling his Bible one day. It was the little 
 volume Carrie had given him. "However, I 
 like to look at it as it is, and I feel that I ought, 
 somehow. Of course, if God is a Father to us, 
 we ought to read the book telling about him. 
 And then I can't seem to do without the book. 
 It helps me stand up, and comforts me. When 
 I am converted, I suppose, though, my liking 
 for the book will be nothing like what it is now. 
 It will go beyond any thing now." 
 
 Bob did not understand the nature of the new 
 life upon which he had entered. He had really 
 crossed the dividing-line between the old life of 
 indifference to God and the new life of interest 
 in him and submission to him. He had gone 
 over the line of conversion and did not know it. 
 The only abiding proofs of conversion are its 
 fruits, not simply in our feelings, but still more
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 281 
 
 in our doings. Bob was expecting some mar- 
 velous change whenever conversion came He 
 was ignorant. He was like a man who, in the 
 early dawn of a winter morning, steps from the 
 sharp, outside cold into the warm summer-like 
 air of a hot-house. He can feel a change, hut, 
 amid the shadows, he cannot appreciate it. He 
 can see growing plants, and there is foliage. He 
 cannot see bud or flower. He only says, " It is 
 warm and pleasant here in this hot-house." Let 
 him wait, though, and the light from the east 
 will pour about him, and bud and blossom will 
 be seen. Bob was inside a new life, but it was 
 very early morning, and he could not see as he 
 certainly would in later days. The best thing 
 about Bob's experience, simple and humble as it 
 seemed, was that it showed a purpose to go on, 
 looking to God, trusting in the mercy expressed 
 in Jesus Christ, trying to do for others in God's 
 strength. 
 
 " I am going to stick to this thing," declared 
 Bob in his heart. 
 
 When the new life comes to us, under it is 
 this root of a good purpose, begotten of God, to 
 live in him and for him. If Bob could have 
 analyzed his feelings he would have noticed also
 
 282 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 a deepening of interest in the little group who 
 supported the Sunday singing. Within that 
 circle he felt that there was an atmosphere in 
 sympathy with the new feelings and views that 
 had come to him. He was hardly conscious of 
 the stronger attraction that that simple observ- 
 ance of Sunday now had for him. 
 
 " Sort of good to be here. Seems like home," 
 silently declared Bob, this particular Sunday 
 afternoon of our story. That rough, soiled fore- 
 castle, the old bunks, the battered chests, were 
 very much unlike home, but the unseen spirit 
 of the occasion, like the unobserved heat of a 
 spring day, was grateful to Bob, and it made 
 the life within blossom out into new emotions. 
 In the midst of all this, suddenly Bob recalled 
 Steve's words about the Sunday singers : " They 
 act as if they was ashamed to stand up and own 
 the society they belong to." 
 
 While this was echoing in his memory, in his 
 ears sounded the strains of the hymn, which had 
 now reached this stanza : 
 
 " Ashamed of Jesus ! Sooner far 
 Let evening blush to own a star; 
 He sheds the beams of light divine 
 O'er this benighted soul of mine."
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 283 
 
 Bob was deeply stirred by the hymn, and also 
 by the question whether in any way he had 
 given Steve or others a reason to think that 
 he was ashamed to wear openly and always the 
 badge of one who wanted, at least, to be a 
 Christian. 
 
 " If I am not ashamed, why why not speak 
 now of what I want to do ? " thought Bob. 
 
 He looked about him. He listened. They 
 were singing the next verse : 
 
 " Ashamed of Jesus ! that dear Friend 
 On whom my hopes of heaven depend I 
 No ; when I blush be this my shame, 
 That I no more revere his name." 
 
 It seemed to Bob as if he could not wait until 
 the hymn had been concluded. There was the 
 swelling of a strange desire within him to rise, 
 to open his mouth, and somehow say to others 
 emphatically that he meant to follow Christ. 
 The opportunity came at last. . The final couplet 
 had j ust been closed : 
 
 " And 0, may this my glory be, 
 That Christ is not ashamed of me I " 
 
 Bob was upon his feet at once. In his excite- 
 ment it seemed as if he threw himself back and
 
 284: SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 stood up straighter than ever ; his fine, muscular 
 form showing its manly proportions. His dark 
 eyes flashed in his earnestness. His hair, that 
 curled above his brow, revealed while it half 
 concealed the symmetrical build of the forehead. 
 He began : 
 
 "I don't know but that you will be sur- 
 prised " 
 
 He hesitated. His auditors certainly were 
 startled, and they looked up to see what Bob 
 would say next. 
 
 " But I wanted to let you know where I 
 stood. I am trying to be a Christian. I can't 
 say that I have much success. However, I am 
 not ashamed of Jesus, and I mean to put his 
 badge on and wear it. Yes, I will." 
 
 Down lie sat. It was done in Bob's quick, 
 impulsive way, decidedly ; and in the tone of a 
 proclamation to the world that he was not at all 
 ashamed of Him whom he acknowledged as his 
 Friend. Ralph looked at Bob in delight. He 
 was prepared and he was not prepared for it. 
 He had prayed for Bob that he might come 
 into the light of God's love and service, and if 
 we believe in prayer we ought not to be sur- 
 prised when our prayers are answered. He had
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 285 
 
 seen Bob's interest in his Bible and in the 
 Sunday singing, and he had felt that Bob's sym- 
 pathies were all on the right side. Still, noth- 
 ing like this had been ever declared by Bob, and 
 his words that day came with unanticipated 
 force. Ralph could not seem to find a ready 
 answer, and he just looked his pleasure. Because 
 Ralph was silent, there was no awkward pause 
 in the meeting. Wilson, "the old man," rose 
 at once from the battered old chest he occupied, 
 and said it did him good to hear his young 
 brother, and he would promise to stand by him, 
 and he hoped they all would not be ashamed to 
 stand up for Jesus. There was now developed 
 an atmosphere of interest in which the hard 
 thing was not to speak, but to keep still. The 
 shipmate whose name once was only " Volcano " 
 now arose. 
 
 " Of course," he said, " you all know where 
 Rufus Ring stands, but I sort of like to say it. 
 I got hold of a Friend when I began to pray. I 
 would like to say it, but I don't want to stop 
 with the saying, for I mean to do it. Count me 
 in as wearin' that badge Bob told of." 
 
 He paused. 
 
 " You know what I once was. I can recom-
 
 286 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 mend the religion of Jesus. It took all the 
 swear out of me." 
 
 The chaplain was moved to offer his testi- 
 mony, and then who would follow Lira ? It 
 seemed as if the stock of remarks must be ex- 
 hausted, but any close observer would have 
 noticed that Horace Haviland's hands and feet 
 were working nervously, and his face was flushed, 
 and several times he cleared his throat as if 
 about to speak. Up he sprang finally, and 
 in an embarrassed but sincere, earnest way, 
 exclaimed, 
 
 " I don't suppose you were expecting me 
 to say any thing, but I really would like to 
 say a word. I I know I am weak before 
 a glass of liquor. If I could get it behind 
 me! But I see you, shipmates, talking this 
 wa y that saying that religion will take the 
 swear out of a man, and why wont it take the 
 liquor? That's what I want to know. I am 
 going home. I shall meet temptation. Aint 
 there any help ? " 
 
 " Pray, pray ! " said two of his auditors. 
 
 " If I thought " replied Horace. 
 
 " Try it ! " cried Bob. 
 
 " Yes ! " urged the chaplain.
 
 A WONDERFUL MEETING. 287 
 
 " I will ! " said Horace decidedly, and down 
 he sat. 
 
 " Let us try to pray ! " said the chaplain. 
 
 There in the old forecastle a circle of petition- 
 ers was formed. It was formed on a good foun- 
 dation, their knees, but their souls touched a 
 lower place the foot of the cross ; and tftere they 
 cried to God. Short cries, and sent out of ear- 
 nest hearts. Bob prayed. When he had fin- 
 ished he nudged Horace, and whispered, 
 
 " You pray ! " 
 
 Horace did say something, but what it was 
 he could never afterward recall. It was very 
 much like a famous old prayer our Saviour told 
 about short and humble and very penitent 
 the publican's prayer. 
 
 When the little meeting broke up they looked 
 at one another in a glad surprise, and the lan- 
 guage of the look was, " It is a wonderful meet- 
 ing!" 
 
 It was indeed a wonderful meeting. Other 
 Sunday afternoons came, and brought gather- 
 ings of much interest, but none were like that 
 meeting. The cloud seemed to gather and 
 break and the rain pour down at that meeting, 
 and into the hearts of two especially, Bob and
 
 288 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Horace, ran the strengthening waters of a new 
 life. 
 
 Whether it was rain to deeply penetrate one's 
 spiritual being and abide there, or the hasty 
 surf ace -flow of a transient experience, we 
 shall see.
 
 A SAIL ! A SAIL ! 289 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 
 
 "T DON'T see where the Andromeda is," 
 
 -L said Sardinius Walker, who would, several 
 times a day, climb the garret stairs and, from 
 the window facing the sea, look off for some 
 sign of the whaler. 
 
 As invariably as he went up hoping, he came 
 down disappointed. Each time, too, his walk 
 was feebler. One morning, he said : 
 
 " Daughter, I think I think I wont go up 
 to look off to-day." 
 
 "You feel sick, father?" asked Alma solic- 
 itously. 
 
 " O, no ! Only more tired, you know." 
 
 Alma was not satisfied to drop the matter 
 here. She consulted Dr. Bates, the family 
 physician. . 
 
 " Well, Alma, I will tell you what," said the 
 doctor in an authoritative tone. " Your father 
 is losing vitality growing indifferent, you know; 
 
 weak and he needs to be aroused into interest 
 19
 
 290 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 into activity. He needs a good, healthful, gal- 
 vanic shock from some source, so to speak. 
 Now, if a certain big sailor-boy that I know of 
 should come from sea, healthy and strong and 
 vitalizing, I think it would start him your 
 father, I mean into a more healthy condition ; 
 wake him up, you know. It is a case of will 
 acting on will, also of a physical nature abound- 
 ing in vitality and magnetism acting on a nature 
 that is deficient. That may sound like a theory 
 without a foundation, but I don't believe it is, in 
 this case. I don't believe in giving medicine 
 for your father, but would like to see my ideas 
 tried." 
 
 "Then I wish that sailor-boy would come 
 'quick meter,' doctor," said Alma energetically ; 
 and when the doctor had gone from the house 
 she said, " I will go up and take a look myself, 
 and see if there is any sign of a ship coming into 
 harbor." 
 
 She came down exclaiming, " Pshaw ! " 
 
 One morning, though, the boyish voice of 
 Billy rang down the stairs leading to the kitchen 
 where Alma was at work ; 
 
 " O, Alma, I just saw a ship ! " 
 
 Alma was sweeping. Clinging to the broom-
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 291 
 
 handle she flew up-stairs and along the garret- 
 floor to the window where stood Billy. It was 
 the same window where Sardinius Walker, stand- 
 ing day after day, had in vain looked off upon 
 the blue ocean, seeing only water. 
 
 " Where, Billy ? where ? " 
 
 The grinning Billy nodded toward the form of 
 a ship that he had cut out of paper and then 
 pasted upon the glass pane. 
 
 " O, Billy ! Was that right to get sister up 
 here just to see that ? " 
 
 " I thought you wanted to see something," re- 
 plied Billy, hanging his head. 
 
 " Sister was very busy." 
 
 Billy, who was like some other people that are 
 very tender-hearted after a mischievous deed, 
 stole away softly and sheepishly, and left Alma 
 alone in the old garret. It was so quiet up there 
 under the brown roof. The still atmosphere 
 was very restful to Alma. She tamed to- 
 ward Billy's ship and laughed. The sound of 
 her laugh in the dusty old garret was very 
 pleasant. 
 
 " Wish I had laughed with Billy ! " she said. 
 " It rests me to be up here." 
 
 So much of the daily fight for existence fell
 
 292 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 to the lot of her sword and shield that it is no 
 wonder she was wearied. She was glad to have 
 this little truce of peace up in the old garret. 
 She looked about her. There were her bundles 
 of scented herbs hanging from the brown, dusty 
 rafters. There were the old pieces of Winthrop 
 furniture piled up in one corner. There were 
 the old books amid which her father found the 
 Winthrop genealogy. 
 
 " Wonder whose Bible that was ! " she said, 
 turning back the covers of a volume very old 
 and battered. There was a name within. She 
 gave a start when she read it "Alma Win- 
 throp ! " 
 
 . " Did not know there was any one with my 
 name, though the squire says we are connected," 
 she exclaimed, delighted to meet with the name. 
 " Mother, too, says there is Winthrop-blood as 
 well as Winslow-blood in us ; that there has been 
 an intermarrying, though there may never be 
 again." 
 
 Alma did not like to follow the thread of this 
 last thought any farther. She turned over the 
 musty heap of books again ; old histories, old 
 school-books, old stories. Then s-he came back 
 to that other book, Alma Winthrop's Bible.
 
 A SAIL ! A SAIL ! 293 
 
 " Ought to go but I will stop, though," she 
 said, "just to look over here." 
 
 She turned in the direction of the Psalms, 
 where, in her own Bible, she had found many 
 favorite resting-places for her tired thoughts. 
 She now read, "He that dwelleth in the secret 
 place of the Most High^ shall abide under the 
 shadow of the Almighty." 
 
 " That rests me," said Alma, closing the book. 
 " I must go down-stairs to my work now." 
 
 Before descending, she turned toward the win- 
 dow, one of whose panes still carried Billy's dis- 
 graced ship. But looking across the tree-tops, 
 feathery with the new green foliage of the 
 spring, beyond the house-roofs of the old town, 
 out on the expanding, blue water, what was it 
 that Alma detected ? 
 
 A tower of white canvas shining in the morn- 
 ing sun ! 
 
 " A sail," said Alma, " coming round Jeffrey's 
 Point ! If that were only the Andromeda ! 
 But there ! it may be the Gitoaltar, say, from 
 the Mediterranean. Perhaps it is just a coaster. 
 Well, it is some vessel coming from somewhere, 
 and it will make somebody happy ! " 
 
 She watched for a moment its slow, stately,
 
 294 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 dignified approach to the town, and then in her 
 energetic way hurried down-stairs. 
 
 It was three hours later. Alma's school was 
 over. Mrs. Walker had already laid down her 
 work, a dress that she was making, having said, 
 " It is dreadful unprofitable, dress-makin' is. 
 Jt is more profitable to get dinner, and I will 
 get it." 
 
 Suddenly Billy's face flushed, eager ap- 
 peared at the back door. 
 
 "O, mother!" he exclaimed. Then, seeing 
 Alma, he rushed up to his mother and whispered, 
 " Don't tell Alma ! Let's give her a surprise ! " 
 
 "There, Billy, do speak as if I wasn't most 
 dead, and you thought a word aloud would kill 
 me!" advised Mrs. Walker; and rather un- 
 pleasantly added, " I can't hear, child." 
 
 The rebuffed Billy shrank toward the door 
 again. 
 
 "What is it, Billy?" asked Alma, pleasantly 
 and encouragingly. 
 
 Billy, though, had inherited some, at least, of 
 his mother's peculiarities, and, like her, he could 
 sulk. He shook his head. 
 
 " What is it, Billy ? " asked Alma again. 
 
 Hark ! Was it a spring-bird whistling out
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 295 
 
 in the back yard ? No, it was the blithe, ener- 
 getic whistle of a skillful performer of the 
 human kind. The tune came nearer. 
 
 "Why, mother," said Alma, turning pale, 
 " that sounds just like our Bob ! " 
 
 The whistle approached the door, and before 
 Alma and her mother could get to it a manly 
 step sounded on the threshold, then the door 
 itself was energetically thrown open, and there 
 was the brown-faced sailor-boy Bob ! 
 
 " Hallo, folks ! Here I am ! " he shouted. 
 " How are you ? " ^ 
 
 Sncli a screaming, and then a mute crying, 
 Mother Walker seeming to wipe apronfuls of 
 tears out of her eyes as she leaned her head on 
 Bob's strong shoulder. Alma could only say, 
 " Why, Bob ! Bless you, I say ! " and then she 
 also cried. Billy was the only seemingly joyful 
 one of the group that received Bob. He ca- 
 pered about the room, threw up his hat, and 
 shouted, " Hurrah ! " 
 
 Bob was telling his mother and Alma not to cry, 
 asking them if they w r ere not glad to see "the 
 prodigal " home once more, declaring it was so 
 good to get ashore and see them again, when 
 they all heard a steady thump thump thump
 
 296 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 on the stairs leading to the kitchen, and a white 
 face in a rim of gray hair and beard showed 
 itself. 
 
 " Hallo, father ! " shouted Bob, rushing for- 
 ward. 
 
 " You don't say that your father has come 
 down-stairs ! He hasn't been, down before for 
 a week ! And without his cane ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. Walker. 
 
 " Tell him you're glad to see him stirring," 
 whispered Alma to Bob when she could get a 
 chance. ^ 
 
 " Bob, my boy, how are you ! " said Sar- 
 dinins, gripping Bob's hand and pumping it as 
 if he never meant to get through. 
 
 " I am well, father, and I am glad to see you 
 stirring round so nicely." 
 
 " Thank you, Bob. I do believe I am going 
 to get round well as ever. I don't know but I 
 shall go off whaling," Sardinius dared to say 
 with a smile. 
 
 " Good for you, father ! You may be cap- 
 tain, and I will be crew. Captain Sardinius 
 Walker, of the good ship Arctic ! How does 
 that sound, father ? " 
 
 " It sounds well, Bob. I feel better already."
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 29T 
 
 And as Sardinius Walker continued to look 
 at this vigorous, muscular young tar his eyes 
 caught a sparkle from Bob's, his form straight- 
 ened, and a new vitality seemed to run through 
 and thrill his body. 
 
 " Just in time for dinner ! " said Alma. 
 " You shall have what you want, Bob." 
 
 It was a wonderful dinner that day, Bob send- 
 ing out to buy a few delicacies, but the love that 
 spread the feast, waited on the table, and made 
 all that were there participants in the joy of the 
 hour was the feature which gave the occasion its 
 great attraction and charm. 
 
 " You haven't asked about Ralph, Alma," said 
 Bob. 
 
 Alma hung her head, and pretended not to 
 hear. 
 
 " Bob," said Ted in a low voice, " she she 
 has sort of grown deaf, and can't seem to hear 
 some words." 
 
 " Now, Ted ! I sha'n't hear you, if you don't 
 look out I sha'n't hear you and give you a piece 
 of my sugar pie when you want it." 
 
 It was not every day that an apple pie wholly 
 sweetened with sugar appeared on the Walker 
 table. A pie in which there was nothing but
 
 298 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 molasses showed the cooking was for an ordinary 
 occasion. As the ordinary approached the ex- 
 traordinary, the molasses disappeared and sugar 
 took its place. The character of the occasion 
 could be determined by the amount of molasses 
 or sugar in Alma's apple pies. To-day, nothing 
 sufficed but white sugar, and Alma's threat 
 hushed Ted at once. She had an opportunity 
 speedily to learn about Ralph. That young mar- 
 iner had suggested to Squire Winthrop that the 
 Walkers might like some of the asparagus in the 
 squire's big garden-bed, and the squire readily 
 took the hint and Ralph bore off this kindly 
 donation ! Alas ! Mrs. Walker came to the door, 
 a feature of the programme unanticipated by 
 Ralph. Alma had fled to the back stairs, and 
 there listened eagerly and caught every word he 
 uttered in response to her mother's solicitous in- 
 quiries about his health. 
 
 Looking out of the window, about the middle of 
 the afternoon, Alma saw a second member of the 
 crew of the Andromeda walking with Mary Hav- 
 iland. It was Horace Haviland, and Mary's face 
 was flushed with an inexpressible joy. Alma 
 saw them near Stock's saloon, an infamous old 
 rum-hole.
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 299 
 
 " "Wonder if he will leave Mary and go in 
 there ! " thought Alma. " That is what Horace 
 generally does." 
 
 To her surprise and pleasure, Horace walked 
 past the open door, where old cronies nodded and 
 beckoned. 
 
 If Alma could have looked under the old but 
 neat gray shawl covering the shoulders of Mary 
 Haviland, she would have seen two thin hands 
 nervously, tightly clasped. 
 
 " I will go praying past this bad place," Mary 
 had said in her thoughts. 
 
 Horace felt weak, but he walked past the temp- 
 tation. He would have felt stronger if he could 
 have seen the two clasped hands under his sis- 
 ter's gray shawl. 
 
 One other member of the crew of the Androm- 
 eda Alma saw that day. It was toward even- 
 ing. She had slipped through the hall, casting 
 a triumphant glance at the scowling portrait on 
 the wall. By her glance she meant to say, " I 
 have a protector now. My brother Bob is at 
 home.'' 
 
 She went into the front room once occupied 
 as a store and hastily looked out. Who was it 
 halting before the steps leading to the front
 
 300 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 door, as if desiring to corne in, and yet unde- 
 cided ? 
 
 " Got a real bull-dog face ! " said Alma. 
 " However, here lie comes, and I will go to the 
 door and let him in." 
 
 "The Willoughbys live here?" said Bull- 
 dog. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Alma pleasantly, though she 
 shrank before the bold, impudent glance of this 
 bull-dog. 
 
 The young man began to remark that it was 
 a pleasant evening. Rather than see the Wil- 
 loughbys he preferred to gaze into the beauti- 
 ful face that came suddenly out of the dark 
 depths of the hall and looked at him like a star 
 coming up out of the clouded spaces of the sky. 
 Alma was not willing to linger, but promptly 
 said, " If you wish to see the Willoughbys, 
 please walk this way," and she proceeded to 
 cross the hall to a door upon which she tapped. 
 An old lady quickly opened it. Wishing the 
 Willoughbys in Europe, or some other conven- 
 iently distant place, the stranger passed beyond 
 the door now opened to him and disappeared. 
 
 " Ahem m m ! " 
 
 This sound came from the upper hall.
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 301 
 
 "Somebody is leaning over the rail of the 
 staircase," thought Alma. " O, it is Bob ! " 
 
 She joined him at once. 
 
 " Alma where where did that feller come 
 from?" 
 
 "That feller?" 
 
 " I don't know as you know, but it's one of 
 our men, Steve Wyckham, and he has done me 
 a lot of harm. I never told you, but he said I 
 stole. You never thought that of me ? " 
 
 " Why, of course not ; and when folks said " 
 
 " What folks ? " 
 
 Then it all carne out, what had been circulated 
 about the town through the letter coining to the 
 Willoughbys from the distant Andromeda, a 
 letter sent by a sailor on board the whaler. 
 
 " And every body knows it ? " asked Bob, 
 walking the floor indignantly. " I didn't think 
 it worth noticing in my letter." 
 
 " Now, Bob ! " said Alma, laying her gentle 
 but magnetic hands on her brother's shoulder. 
 " None of us believed it, of course, and I don't 
 believe the Willoughbys do. And that's the 
 Steve Wyckham who sent home the lie ! " 
 
 " How did you know his name ? " 
 
 " The Willoughbys themselves told me."
 
 302 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " How how did they come here ? " 
 " I don't wonder you ask. Well let rne tell 
 you they are real nice people. We wanted to 
 let some of our rooms to reduce expenses, you 
 know and we got a real estate broker to let 
 them. Well, he hadn't been in town long, and 
 he didn't know we had had any reason to dislike 
 the Willoughbys, and the Willoughbys are not 
 old residents and didn't know who the people 
 were that wanted to let the rooms, but were in a 
 hurry to get somewhere, and took our rooms, 
 and, you might say, were in them before we had 
 a chance to say l Boo ! ' And when I found 
 out who they were, Bob, I didn't know what to 
 do ! I was just stunne*d to think those people 
 w r ere in the house who had circulated that story 
 about my brother! 'Well, Alma Walker,' I 
 said, ' here they are, and you must get along 
 with them, somehow. Perhaps perhaps, they 
 can put a better face on this matter than you 
 think for. However, here they are, and you 
 must, must that's the word get along with 
 them, somehow. You must not go into a corner 
 and sulk*' I said. ' You must see that Mrs. Wil- 
 loughby, and make the best of her good points, 
 for you must live beside her for a while at least ;
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 303 
 
 and you had better live beside what is good in 
 her rather than what is bad supposing there is 
 any thing bad, you know, which might come 
 out.' So I went to her and talked with her, and 
 she is a real nice old lady, and her husband is a 
 nice old man. I told her about the letter, and 
 how badly we felt, and she was real sorry. She 
 said she was careless in reading the letter to a 
 relative, who went home to another town, and 
 there scattered the news that in this round-about 
 way reached Oldburyport, but she would try to 
 rectify her mistake and tell people " 
 
 " You can't very well get fire back that you 
 pitch into a haymow," said Bob stoutly. 
 
 " I know it,jjgnd there is the mischief, Bob, 
 but she is sorry, and I think you will see that. 
 She is really a nice old lady, and she says that 
 Steve Wyckharn is not a near relative, but one 
 she has rarely seen, and she does not understand 
 why Steve wrote to her 
 
 " O, he wanted to scatter his fire some- 
 where." 
 
 " But don't you mind it, Bob. The right is 
 bound to win sometime. And did you notice 
 that Mrs. Willoughby did not give Steve a very 
 warm reception ? "
 
 304 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " I thought she seemed rather quiet over his 
 arrival." 
 
 " Depend upon it, she is your friend. Now, 
 you just go ahead and show that you have done 
 right by being right, to-day " 
 
 " My dear, venerable sister ! " said Bob, laying 
 his strong brown hands on her shoulder. " I 
 am going to do the right thing in this matter, 
 and I am very grateful to you for wishing to 
 help me. Shouldn't wonder if this slander 
 turned up sometime and tried to trip me, but 
 but I mean to go ahead and do what is right ; 
 and since I left home, I think I have found 
 some One who will stand by me in trying to do 
 right." 
 
 That speech had the right ring. It contained 
 something, too, that echoed very pleasantly in 
 Alma's thoughts that night, when she went to 
 sleep even Bob's assurance that he had found 
 a strong Friend. Bob, too, when he went to his 
 rest, found comfort in the same thought. He 
 seemed in his dreams to be on the deck of the 
 Andromeda again. He was alone, save that 
 Steve Wyckham was in a strange way at inter- 
 vals appearing, trying to control the helm and 
 head the Andromeda for an ugly reef of rocks.
 
 A SAIL! A SAIL! 305 
 
 When, though, this cruel, wrecking purpose 
 might threaten to be successful, some power 
 would interfere, check and prevent Steve, and 
 the Andromeda would continue to sail pros- 
 perously on. 
 
 "I have a Friend that will stand by me," mur- 
 mured the tired sailor-boy in his dreams. 
 20
 
 306 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A WRECK THAT WAS NOT A WRECK. 
 
 in!" 
 
 This was a response to Bob's knock on 
 the door of the office where John Winthrop & 
 Sons were supposed still to send out ships and 
 also to welcome ships back. In the rear of the 
 building in which this office was located, 
 stretched a long wharf out into the wide, blue 
 river. On the roof of the building was a little 
 railed platform with a flag- staff. From that look- 
 out any approaching vessel could be watched, 
 and if it belonged to " John Winthrop & 
 Sons," a bright little flag would flutter from the 
 flag-staff. The day the Andromeda arrived, the 
 stars and stripes were thrown to the breeze from 
 the crown of this flag-staff, and it did old sea- 
 captains who never would sail a craft again 
 much good to look up and see that fluttering sig- 
 nal of a fresh arrival from the sea. The firm 
 of John Winthrop & Sous, that was supposed 
 to number several active and vigorous partners,
 
 A WRECK THAT WAS NOT A WRECK. 307 
 
 and to do all this sending out and receiving back, 
 in reality did very little of the work. 
 
 John Winthrop, the squire's father, long had 
 been dead. The squire and his brothers, Isaac 
 and Josiah, were the " sons." These brothers 
 were dead. They were single, and left no heir, 
 male or female, to continue an interest in the 
 business. One old man, the squire, continued 
 to write " John Winthrop & Sons." It was not 
 in so bold a hand as formerly, for the squire's 
 late sickness had affected his signature, and the 
 firm name, "John Winthrop & Sons," looked 
 like a vessel trembling before the assault of 
 heavy seas. The squire had a faithful old clerk, 
 Thomas Alden, who cared for his interests, and 
 really did the business of the firm, and it was 
 his ready, decided voice that said " Come in ! " 
 when Bob knocked at the office-door of John 
 Winthrop & Sons. 
 
 " The squire in ? " asked Bob. 
 
 The clerk made no reply, but nodded in the 
 direction of a door opening out of this office into 
 some apartment beyond. 
 
 " All right ! I'll wait," said Bob, who caught 
 the sound of voices in the room. 
 
 " If I can do any thing for you, I may save
 
 308 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 you the trouble of waiting," said the obliging 
 clerk. 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Alden. I I don't know 
 as it will do any good to speak of it." 
 
 Bob twirled his hat in his hands. 
 
 " It won't do any harm, at any rate. So out 
 with it, Bob ! " 
 
 A philanthropic look out of the old clerk's 
 spectacles helped Bob to go on. 
 
 " "Well, sir, though I have got my hand in as 
 a sailor, it doesn't seem to me as if I had better 
 go off again, jnst now, at any rate ; and you 
 know father is pretty feeble." 
 
 " I see, Botb, I see ! Exactly ! " 
 
 " Well, I wondered if I couldn't get some- 
 thing ashore, and the next thing to going to sea 
 is to to " 
 
 " Don't be bashful, Bob ! " 
 
 "Is to get a chance in a shipping-office. 
 There ! Do you suppose the squire wants a 
 clerk?" 
 
 The old clerk laughed. 
 
 " I don't know as the squire feels his need of 
 any help, but I should like a lift. I had as lief 
 have you as any body, and much rather have you 
 than a good many I can think of."
 
 A WJRECK THAT WAS NOT A WRECK. 309 
 
 " That is encouraging. Thank you ! " 
 
 " Only, Bob "and here the old clerk looked 
 toward the inner door "the squire probably 
 feels like retrenching rather than enlarging his 
 expenses. Perhaps you know " 
 
 " Yes, I heard something about it on the street. 
 A vessel lost, wasn't there ? " 
 
 "That is it, or part of it. The vessel was 
 heavily insured " 
 
 " Then why don't the insurance folks pay over 
 the money ? " 
 
 "There's the rub. Their agent, by the way, 
 is in that room now. He lives here, and the 
 company in New York told him to talk the mat- 
 ter over and report to them. They claim that 
 there is not sufficient evidence of the loss of the 
 vessel. Well, all we can claim is that the vessel 
 left port and has not been heard from except " 
 
 " Haven't the crew turned up ? " 
 
 " ]STot a man of them. O, the ship is lost, no 
 doubt about it ! She was seen just after a heavy 
 storm, and she flew a signal of distress. The 
 vessel that saw her was herself disabled, and 
 could render no aid and went on. O, the craft 
 was lost ! Why, Bob, I feel as sure of it as that 
 I am sitting here."
 
 310 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 " And I suppose that the insurance money is 
 wanted by the squire." 
 
 " Exactly. Then, you know, the Andromeda 
 brought home part of another whaler's cargo." 
 
 This was a re-enforcement received at a Chili 
 port, where the Andromeda called, and, accord- 
 ing to previous agreement, she took a part of the 
 cargo of another whaler that went off again on a 
 second cruise. 
 
 " Well, the squire is obliged to pay for the oil 
 transferred to the Andromeda, and at rates such 
 that he can't realize the profit that he expected 
 to get the oil-market not being so favorable as 
 it was and all this, you see, we feel. O, I tell 
 them we shall weather the storm all right ; but, 
 you see, we have got to take in spare canvas." 
 
 " And not use any you don't need ; and that 
 means you can't hire a clerk ? They talk pretty 
 earnestly, don't they ? " 
 
 It was the squire's voice that could now be 
 heard. 
 
 " Getting to be pretty warm work in there," 
 observed the clerk. " The squire^ yesterday 
 didn't have strength enough to talk much above a 
 whisper. You know he is getting that weak he 
 has to ride in his carriage to the office. Used to
 
 A WKECK THAT WAS NOT A WKECK. 311 
 
 pride himself on walking every day, stiff as a 
 major. Poor man! Had to come to riding at 
 last 1 That's the squire." 
 
 The squire's voice could now be plainly heard : 
 
 " I tell you, sir" 
 
 " That's the squire," observed the clerk, " and 
 he is talking to that insurance agent, a mean sort 
 of a snipper-snapper, I think." 
 
 " I tell you, sir," continued the squire," that 
 John Winthrop & Sons only want what is 
 fairly theirs. The need of this insurance money 
 may ruin our business, but if I thought the ves- 
 sel's value could not be honestly given us, perish 
 the money before I would take a penny of it ! 
 Our firm ' 
 
 " The squire is on too high a key for the good 
 of his health. Doctor told him to be quiet, but 
 he is dreadful stiff on any thing like honor," in- 
 terjected the clerk as the squire paused to take 
 breath. 
 
 " Our firm, resumed the old man in the inner 
 office, " has a name for honesty " 
 
 " Fiddle-sticks ! " squeaked a mean little voice. 
 " All firms look after their own interests." 
 
 " The wretch ! " observed the clerk to Bob. 
 " That's the agent."
 
 312 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Do you want him stopped ? " asked Bob, the 
 sailor, rising from his seat. " I'll just tell him 
 we can't have that." 
 
 "Thank'ee! Sit down! The squire will 
 chew him all up before he gets through with 
 him." said Thomas Alden. 
 
 "Yes, sir, a name for honesty," shouted the 
 squire. "Rather than take the money wrong- 
 fully, I prefer the welfare of the firm should 
 
 go and stay where I believe the is, at the 
 
 bottom of the sea." 
 
 Bob hopped so quickly from his chair that 
 the old clerk in alarm hopped from his also. 
 
 " What what did he say the name of that 
 lost ship was, Mr. Alden ? The ? " 
 
 Bob's excitement was so great that the name 
 he now repeated was rather indistinct, but the 
 old bald-headed clerk had heard it so often that 
 he could make it out. 
 
 " That's it, Bob." 
 
 " Lost in what ocean ? " 
 
 The clerk had no sooner pronounced the name 
 than Bob shouted," I'll be back in a jiffy 1 Tell 
 the squire to hold on and to keep that grind- 
 stone there and I I " 
 
 Bob's last words were all cut off by the clos-
 
 A WKECK THAT WAS NOT A WRECK. 313 
 
 ing of the door, which in his excitement he shut 
 with a bang. The noise in the outer room had 
 now reached the inner room and aroused the 
 wondering interest of the two men there. If 
 Bob could have looked back through a thick- 
 ness of wood, he would have seen two faces at 
 the half-opened door of the inner office. One 
 was like that of a sharp-nosed fox. Above it 
 was that of an old, white-haired man trembling 
 with excitement, but such a kindly, honorable 
 look did it wear that a poor widow would have 
 readily trusted with it her mites for safe-keep- 
 ing. But Bob did not see the two faces. He 
 did not seem to see any thing the office stairs 
 down over which he rushed the side-walk, and 
 Horace Haviland who stood on it, shouting, 
 " Ship ahoy ! How are ye, Bob ? " or any of 
 the buildings lining the streets that led to Bob's 
 house. As he flew in, he ran against his mother, 
 who was rubbing the brass knocker on the front 
 door, and almost pitched over a neighbor's dog 
 asleep at the foot of the hall stair-way. 
 
 "What's the matter with Bob?" asked his 
 mother. 
 
 " That boy gone mad ? " said his father, who 
 had just now thrust his head out of the door of
 
 314 SAILOB-BOY BOB. 
 
 a lower room and saw Bob's entrance and also 
 the flight up-stairs. 
 
 "And what has he got. in his hand? " said the 
 bewildered Sardinius, as he looked again and 
 saw a rusty brown object in the hand of Bob. 
 who was now descending the stairs. 
 
 Bob said nothing, but rushed round through 
 the kitchen, into the back yard, and thence into 
 the lane leading to Squire Winthrop's. 
 
 " See see here, Ralph ! Put on your hat 
 and come down quicker than a harpoon after a 
 whale," said Bob to his astonished shipmate, 
 stretched out under an apple-tree. 
 
 " Down where, Bob ? " 
 
 " Office ! " shouted Bob, who had turned to 
 leave Ralph. " Quick ! " 
 
 " What is it 3 Fire ? " asked Ralph. 
 
 "Yes, one kind of fire," shouted back the 
 rushing Bob, and hurried off through the lane. 
 Ralph understood his impetuous shipmate, and 
 followed at once, knowing it was something that 
 needed immediate attention. Bob was quickly 
 back at the office of John Winthrop & Sons, 
 and saying to Mr. Alden, " Come here, please ! " 
 hastened to the inner office, the door of which 
 was still partially open, and abruptly knocked.
 
 A WRECK THAT WAS NOT A WKECK. 315 
 
 " Come in ! " said the 'squire in tones that 
 were weak now. 
 
 Bob entered. The old clerk followed. They 
 saw the squire, with a face ashy pale, sitting at a 
 large round mahogany table. Opposite him sat 
 Samuel Strippings, the fox-faced agent. 
 
 " There ! " exclaimed Bob, depositing on the 
 table a relic of his trip to the Pacific, and care- 
 fully preserved by him. "That is a piece of 
 the Caspar you have been talking about. I saw 
 a part of the wreck I can prove it by Ralph 
 Winthrop who was off in a boat with me 
 and saw what was left of the old thing. 
 There ! " 
 
 Bob now stopped to breathe. He also in- 
 dulged in the comfort of wiping from his face 
 the perspiration that was running down. The 
 effect on the three spectators was electrical. 
 The squire rose eagerly from his chair, and his 
 tall form bowed over the mute witness from the 
 Pacific. 
 
 " Indeed ! " exclaimed Thomas Alden, rushing 
 to the table. 
 
 " Pooh ! " said Strippings. " What does that 
 amount to ! A piece of drift-wood and noth- 
 ing on it ! "
 
 316 SAILOR BOY BOB. 
 
 " Nothing on it I " said Bob. " There's a P on 
 it ; and if you had seen the rest of the vessel's 
 stern supposing you know what part of the 
 vessel that is you would have seen, on one side 
 of the P, a C and an A and an S. On the other 
 side were A and K. C-A-S-P-A-R, Caspar. f " 
 shouted Bob. 
 
 "Just you saw it, or pretended to see?" sar- 
 castically remarked Strippings. 
 
 " No, sir ! " thundered Bob. 
 
 "No, sir!" added another voice quietly. It 
 was Ralph, who, unobserved, had come in. He 
 then proceeded to detail the account of that 
 night's experience on the wide Pacific when he 
 and Bob were adrift, and fully explained about 
 the wreck. "As for the name, Caspar, I saw 
 it myself, and I can testify that this P" 
 Ralph here laid his hand on the dumb witness 
 from the Pacific " was a part of the name." 
 
 At the young men's request, Captain Granby 
 came and testified that, while he did not per- 
 sonally visit that remnant of the Caspar, he saw 
 it from the deck of the Andromeda. The re- 
 sult was that the insurance company decided 
 to pay Squire Winthrop his claim ; much to the 
 mortification of Strippings but to the joy of
 
 A WKKCK THAT WAS NOT A WKECK. 317 
 
 Squire Winthrop and all his friends. The 
 wreck was not a wreck after all, 
 
 " And it will be a good thing for you, Bob. 
 The squire won't forget it ! " declared his father 
 eagerly, for nowadays he took a quickened in- 
 terest in every thing, and especially in the plans 
 of his " plucky sailor-boy," as he called Bob. 
 It was good to see how the father seemed to 
 take a new lease of life, once more fondly plan- 
 ning and once more deeply enjoying. " Bob, I 
 feel better," he would say. Bob's coming was 
 like the strong, steady blowing of the sea-wind 
 after a long stretch of August heat; reviving 
 and invigorating. 
 
 He now dreamed of Bob's better prospects 
 for life, arguing that Squire Winthrop, in grati- 
 tude to Bob, must necessarily take him into his 
 office. 
 
 " Yes," reasoned the father, " I know the 
 squire would like to have a Winthrop in the 
 firm and succeed to his business, and Bob has 
 got Winthrop blood in him." 
 
 The discussion of Bob's future so aroused 
 Bob's father that he even ventured out of doors 
 again, limped on his cane as far as the door of 
 Squire Winthrop's office, and there he stood,
 
 318 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 looking in and wondering how it would seem 
 if some day lie should see Bob mounting that 
 ambitious flight of stone steps before the office 
 door as a member of the firm. 
 
 " Yes," reflected Sardmius Walker, limping 
 away from the door, " Bob will surely get into 
 the firm." 
 
 Before, though, Bob could get into the firm, 
 or any where near it, some one went out of the 
 firm who was very essential to the success of 
 Bob's plans. Squire Winthrop died.
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 319 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 
 
 11 rPHAT excitement about the Caspar did the 
 -L squire no good," said Dr. Bates. His 
 vitality was at a low ebb, and any new demands 
 upon the squire's resources of strength seriously 
 affected him. After the favorable decision 
 about the Caspar he declined rapidly, and even 
 contentedly. Prosperity seemed to make a rea- 
 son for going rather than staying. 
 
 " I am an old man," he said. " I know I must 
 go sometime. Besides, I leave my business, 
 my estate, in a satisfactory condition. I don't 
 need to live longer for that reason. There are 
 some things which I would like to do personally 
 for you and the Walkers and Ralph, but I can 
 fix it all in my will. I will have my lawyer, 
 Mr. Hatch, call to-morrow. I will get you to 
 send for him at ten in the morning." 
 
 He said this to Aunt Mary, his housekeeper, 
 one evening. Hearing Alma's voice down in 
 the hall, he asked that she might be called
 
 320 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 up. He requested that Ralph might be sum- 
 moned. 
 
 " I like to see those young people often as I' 
 can," he told Aunt Mary. 
 
 He took Alma by the hand and greeted her 
 very cordially, and when Ralph appeared on 
 the opposite side of the bed, the squire wel- 
 comed him as heartily. 
 
 " It was a dreadful interestin' sight," Aunt 
 Mary afterward told a neighbor, " to see those 
 two young people in all their bloomin' beauty, 
 and that old man between them a-holdin' their 
 hands. It was near sunsettin', you know, and 
 a kind of soft golden light playin'^over his pale 
 face and white hairs." 
 
 * It was the warm-hearted, quick-eyed Alma 
 who first seemed to have a presentiment of a 
 very near and significant change. She bowed 
 her head and began to sob. Ralph noticed it, 
 and the tears began to trickle down his cheeks. 
 
 " Come, come ! " said the squire almost play- 
 fully, " I didn't call you young people in here 
 to feel this way. You must be brave, and I 
 know you will. As for me, I am an old man, 
 and sometime I must go to my heavenly Fa- 
 ther's home. He has the best home in the
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 321 
 
 universe, and to me it seems like a very simple 
 thing to slip out of this home into that, yon 
 know. It is only a step over the threshold of a 
 door gently swinging back. Death is kind." 
 He paused for a while. "You two," he said, 
 " must always be good friends." 
 
 He looked from one to the other, and said he 
 would not keep them any longer. He told his 
 housekeeper he would like to look off upon the 
 sunset, and, as he felt very well, that the nurse 
 a man from the town hospital might leave 
 him for the night. Lying on his side, he could 
 look off upon the western sky, where it seemed 
 as if his heavenly Father were building a beau- 
 tiful door to the everlasting home. "When they 
 went to the squire in the morning, he did not 
 stir, he did not speak, he did not open his eyes. 
 He had passed within the beautiful door. 
 
 " Why, I do believe he has gone ! " exclaimed 
 Aunt Mary. 
 
 Yes, gone, but leaving in the very peace and 
 beauty of the face a silent sign that the late 
 tenant of this imperfect, perishable body had 
 passed to that which is complete and imperish- 
 able. He had gone to the Father's House. 
 
 The squire's death made a change in the plans 
 21
 
 322 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 of many people. Bob felt that his prospects 
 were suddenly and deeply clouded. The squire 
 had not accepted him formally as a clerk, but it 
 was thought that he would. In a few days after 
 the squire's funeral, Bob's hopes, that had begun 
 to sink, rose again. 
 
 " Father," he said one day on his return home 
 from the business street of the town, " I met 
 Mr. Hatch, Squire Winthrop's lawyer, and he 
 told me that Thomas Alden would continue the 
 business, and I know Thomas will need help, 
 and I will go down and call on him." 
 
 Mr. Alden did not receive Bob so cordially as 
 on a previous occasion, when the young sailor 
 made known his desire for a clerkship. 
 
 " So you want to be a clerk ? " remarked Mr. 
 Alden, rather coolly. 
 
 " Why, yes, sir ; I thought that was under- 
 stood." 
 
 Mr. Alden played with his penholder, as if 
 undecided what to do or say. 
 
 " Bob," he at last remarked, " I don't like to 
 speak of it, but yesterday, somebody else applied 
 for the situation, saying he was in the family, 
 and so on. He left his card. You know 
 him ? "
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 323 
 
 Bob, to bis surprise, read this name : " Ste- 
 phen Winthrop Wyckham." 
 
 " He want the place ? That fellow ! " 
 
 " So he says, Bob ; and, what is more, when I 
 told him that you had applied for the situation 
 now you will not be offended because I am 
 frank?" 
 
 " O, go on, Mr. Alden." 
 
 " When I told him that you wanted the place 
 and let me say I also added that I wanted you 
 to have it he said, ' You don't want a thief? ' " 
 
 Bob twisted round in his chair nervously. 
 
 " Of course I don't,' I told him. ' Well,' he 
 said, ' he stole a dollar from me on board the 
 Andromeda, and I can prove it.' Said I, 'That 
 is a pretty serious charge ; and you can prove 
 it, can you ? ' Without hesitation he said he 
 would, and he promised to call again this after- 
 noon at three. I want you to be here, and I 
 told him, in fact, you must be notified, and a 
 note has gone to you." 
 
 '" I would like to face him on that charge," 
 said Bob. " I have been wanting to see him.. 
 He spent one night at the Wi Hough bys', but saw 
 fit to go away early in the morning, and I did 
 not know he had turned up."
 
 324 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " He is stopping at the Bedford House, he 
 says. He has been out of town." 
 
 Bob now detailed to Mr. Alden the affair of 
 the finding of Steve's dollar in his mitten, and 
 added, " I allow that it seemed to be against me, 
 but God knows I am innocent. One of two 
 things is true : either the dollar was tucked away 
 in my mitten by an enemy who on the voyage 
 got access to my chest, or somebody tucked the 
 dollar in before leaving port." 
 
 " Who gave you the mittens ? " 
 
 " My sister, sir or they came through her." 
 
 " Doesn't she know any thing about it ? " 
 
 " Nothing, sir. She says she didn't put the 
 dollar in. Last night she raised the point whether 
 the man who did give them, Charlie Habermann, 
 might not know something about the dollar." 
 
 " Why, that is not improbable." 
 
 " No, sir ; but then Charlie did not say any 
 thing about it, and rny sister did not pnt the 
 dollar inside his present. However, I thought 
 I would ask him." 
 
 " You do so, Bob." 
 
 " I will ask him now." 
 
 " I would, and come at three." 
 
 Charlie Habermann was in his store. His
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 325 
 
 stock was as ranch of a pudding as ever, and 
 as a fleet of fishing vessels bad arrived in the 
 lower harbor and would soon send a swarm of 
 customers up to the stores, his goods would be 
 thrown into new confusion. 
 
 " I stopped you on the street one day and 
 thanked you for a pair of mittens you gave a 
 sailor-boy through Alma when he went to sea." 
 
 " Dat shailor-boy welcome ! " 
 
 " I know it. I didn't tell you at the time that 
 a dollar found in them made me trouble. Some- 
 body claimed the money as his and said I stole 
 it." 
 
 "No such ting!" 
 
 "Of course not. I wonder if you perhaps 
 did not put the dollar inside," said Bob, a look 
 of hope spreading over his face. 
 
 " My hands put no money in dose mittens.". 
 
 The look of hope vanished from Bob's 
 features. 
 
 " Well, that leaves the mystery deep as ever. 
 I suppose I must go to Alden and tell him." 
 
 " Alden ? In Winthrop's office ? " 
 
 "Yes, I want a situation there, and Alden 
 says he had a caller who has been accusing me 
 of stealing the dollar in the mittens. The same
 
 326 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 rascal followed me on the sea and now pursues 
 me on the land." 
 
 " Robert, you keep shtill. You can go pack 
 on your crachter. You jest shtay shtill and holt 
 on dere. I will go and see Alden." 
 
 Muttering away, the store-keeper hurried off, 
 while Bob went home wondering what Haber- 
 mann, in his ignorance, could say that would help 
 hi? cause in the office of John Winthrop & Sons. 
 
 " Joost de woman I want," said Habermann to 
 Mary Haviland, whom he met before the Win- 
 throps' office. " Now, come up-shtairs." 
 
 " You want me, Mr. Habermann ? " 
 
 The bewildered Mary followed her leader, and 
 the two stood before Mr. Alden. 
 
 "Now, Mishter Alden, you want to know 
 if Bobshtole?" 
 
 " O, is that it ? I was curious to know what 
 you two wanted." 
 
 " Now, Mary, put on your tinking cap." 
 
 Mary in her perplexity stared out of her great 
 gray eyes. 
 
 " You go pack to Bob's shailing away." 
 
 She nodded her head. 
 
 " You remember one fine pair of inittensh I 
 gabe him ? "
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 327 
 
 Again she nodded. 
 
 " A shailor more den half troonk came to my 
 shtore one day, and bought some tings and paid 
 me a tollar wid a crosh on it, and I tole you to 
 take dat tollar and go to Bob's house and get 
 dose mittensh and slip de tollar in and say not- 
 tings and nebber say nottings you remember 
 dat?" 
 
 " O, yes, yes ! That is so, Mr. Alden." 
 
 " I didn't put de tollar in, Mishter Alden. 
 Bob didn't shteal. Mary, she put de tollar in." 
 
 " Well, well," said the old bald-headed clerk, 
 " things happen queerly in this world. Guess 
 Mary didn't know that dollar was making so 
 much trouble." 
 
 " Why, no, Mr. Alden, I didn't know what it 
 was that made the trouble ; and there I was go- 
 ing round trying to comfort Alma! And I 
 felt I must keep my word not to tell about the 
 dollar, you know. Must keep my word ! " 
 
 Mary's eyes were snapping, Charlie Haber- 
 mann's face was joyfully beaming, and Thomas 
 Alden looked on with sincere satisfaction. 
 
 " I am sorry I was making trouble and didn't 
 know it," said Mary. 
 
 " You might shay I made it," affirmed Charlie.
 
 328 SAILOE-BOY BOB. 
 
 " No, Mishter Alden, I tell you what made de 
 trouble ; trink made it. If dat young man bad 
 been in bis senshes, he what traded his tollar wid 
 me, he would have remembered where it went. 
 No, it was de rume dat did it." 
 
 That seemed to lift responsibility from Mary 
 as well as Charlie; it was "rume" that did it 
 "rume," whose fiery bondage does so much mis- 
 chief, ever making the innocent suffer with the 
 guilty, and sometimes for them. 
 
 Of course, Steve Wyckham was confounded, 
 when he came to see, in behalf of Bob's inno- 
 cence, evidence that could not be overturned. 
 He tried to load some of the blame on " Jim 
 Solus," whose memory had been faulty when he 
 tried to enlighten Bob. 
 
 As for Bob, he was delighted with the news 
 and speedily w r ent into the old Winthrop office 
 as Thomas Alden's office-clerk. Father Walker 
 declared, " Since Bob is a Winthrop, it is con- 
 tinuing the business in the hands of the family. 
 That is what the Squire wanted." 
 
 Alma also had her deep draft of satisfaction 
 after the opening of this mystery that had been 
 like a sealed fountain. The portrait in the hall 
 alone looked unhappy. It still scowled, and
 
 ASSAULT ONE. 329 
 
 threatened, and seemed to say, " You don't be- 
 long here ; I do." 
 
 " We are happy," said Ralph Winthrop, who 
 came to the house to rejoice with the Walkers, 
 "but that portrait" he pointed toward it 
 "doesn't seem to feel that way. It seems to 
 shake its head at me." 
 
 Ralph soon found out that trouble was press- 
 ing hard on his heels, and Steve Wyckham was 
 the bull-dog that was pursuing Ralph and sav- 
 agely barking.
 
 y 
 
 330 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TREE. 
 
 ' k "\7"OU see, Ralph," observed Mr. Hatch, a 
 
 JL keen-eyed lawyer with full, sympathetic 
 voice, " I thought we could talk things over in 
 my office better than anywhere else." 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Ralph, looking round on 
 the room. It had a shut-in look, the long, nar- 
 row windows being half hidden by the encroach- 
 ing book-shelves. 
 
 " Well, hem m m ! It is about your 
 grandfather's will, of which I am the custodian. 
 Of course, you know that he is not just your 
 grandfather." 
 
 " O, yes, sir, I understand that. I am a dis- 
 tant relative, and called him grandfather for the 
 sake of convenience. I have been living with 
 him a long time. He was the same as a grand- 
 father to me." 
 
 " Yes, I saw that, and he intended to make a 
 new will and mention you definitely in his be- 
 quests. I say that he intended to do it, for he
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TKEE. 331 
 
 told me what was in his mind, and the very day 
 we found him dead I expected to make that 
 new will. As it is, he left nothing but a will 
 twelve years old, and of which I have been the 
 keeper ever since his health was so feeble. In 
 that he remembers his housekeeper, his church, 
 his town good idea, you know, to remember 
 Church and State, for it shows a man to be ap- 
 preciative of those conditions which which " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Kalph. 
 
 "Which have helped make him. Then he 
 left the rest of his property to be divided among 
 his relatives. He had few relatives living. He 
 specified the children of your real grandfather, 
 one such heir being your father. The latter has 
 since died ; his brother and sister, who were un- 
 married, have died also, and you are the descend- 
 ant in that branch now living. The squire in a 
 new will would have definitely mentioned you 
 and others, but you know that some people dislike 
 very much to distribute their property. They 
 would rather leave it to the provisions of the 
 law made for all such cases. So you see you are 
 not mentioned in that old will, made out only a 
 month before you came into the squire's home. 
 However, he intended to give you * the brick
 
 332 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 block,' and in a new will it would have been 
 so assigned. In a new will he would have 
 mentioned other heirs. Can you imagine 
 whom 2 " 
 
 " Bob Walker says he has Winthrop blood in 
 him, and I hope it is true." 
 
 " He is right. No doubt about it. The 
 Walkers would have been specified in the new 
 will. You see, the squire's father, John, an 
 opinionated kind of old fellow, insisted upon it 
 that the Walkers were not connected with the 
 Winthrops; that a certain asserted marriage 
 whereby they the Walkers came into the line, 
 or, as you might say, were grafted upon the 
 farnily tree, was not legal. Old John always 
 meant to do the fair thing, but he was a very 
 set man, and he could not seem to see that a 
 Walker was a Winthrop. His son had his fa- 
 ther's prejudice, but in a singular way Sardinius 
 Walker came across an old Winthrop genealogy, 
 and the squire hired him to copy it. In that 
 copy the squire saw evidence that a Walker 
 was a Winthrop, and he acknowledged it to Sar- 
 dinius, and in the new will, doubtless, they 
 would have all been mentioned. He thought a 
 good deal of the Walkers, especially Alma, and,
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TREE. 333 
 
 feeling that they were his kin really, helped 
 them. 
 
 " As it is, there is only this old will, in which 
 the intention was to remember all legal heirs, I 
 believe; and I must take the will to the court 
 whose duty it is to look after estates, and it will 
 do the right thing and distribute the property." 
 
 " Well, sir, that is agreeable to me. It is more 
 than I deserve." 
 
 " Only, the brick block you can't claim." 
 
 " O, sir, I am not particular. I am very glad 
 the Walkers are heirs." 
 
 " So am I. It was a good thing Sardinius 
 Walker did when he found and copied the old 
 genealogy. Shows when a man is sick he may 
 yet be good for something. The Walkers are 
 very worthy people." 
 
 ".Yes, sir. Bob's a particular friend of mine." 
 
 " That Alma is a beautiful girl," said the 
 lawyer. 
 
 Kalph did not say any thing, but coughed 
 abruptly and changed the subject. 
 
 " Shall I tell the Walkers ? " Ralph asked. 
 
 " Tell them what ? I was speaking about 
 Alma nice girl, you know." 
 
 Ralph blushed and coughed again.
 
 334: SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " I mean, sir the will, sir." 
 
 " O, about the will, Ralph ? I told Sardinius 
 a little just gave him a hint yesterday, but 
 you can tell all that I have told you, if you wish. 
 I have had no good opportunity to see any of 
 the Walkers, and you can tell all you know 
 about the affair. Say also that I shall see 
 them." 
 
 Ralph made haste to discharge this agreeable 
 duty, and it occasioned a jubilee at the Walker 
 home. When he had gone, Billy remarked : 
 
 " Too bad Ralph loses the brick block ! " 
 
 " I expect Alma will make that all right," 
 observed Ted. 
 
 " No," said Billy, " I don't believe she would 
 do any thing for him. She " 
 
 " Now, young people," said Alma energetic- 
 ally, at the same time letting a rich screen of 
 curls fall over her face, " there is to be no self- 
 ishness in this family " 
 
 " She would give it all to him," shouted 
 Billy. 
 
 " I am going to give you leave to go out of 
 this room. I have a job ; that is what I was 
 going to say. I want to clear up my room, 
 dust and clean it, and so on ; and I want you
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TREE. 
 
 two to move the furniture out into the hall, 
 please." 
 
 The two boys started at once for up-stairs. 
 Alma had been successful in inculcating the idea 
 that all service at home is a privilege, to be 
 promptly, not hesitatingly, accepted and dis- 
 charged. 
 
 " Boys," called out Alma, " when it comes to 
 the bureau in my room, take out the drawers 
 and move them separately, and you can do the 
 whole more easily." 
 
 Bob still lingered with Alma, and the two 
 talked about the good fortune that was likely to 
 come to the Walker family. 
 
 " I have thought of one thing, Alma. The 
 old will left by Squire Winthrop gave his prop- 
 erty to relatives now dead, intending to reach 
 all heirs, and Ralph and we are the only ones 
 who now seem to be in existence and able to 
 claim any thing. I have been thinking of this 
 possibility : what if a new relative should turn 
 up ? " 
 
 " That might be unfortunate for the rest of 
 us, Bob, though I think he should have his 
 share." 
 
 " O yes, of course. It is just a fancy I had."
 
 336 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Sometimes "fancies" turn out to be very 
 hard, obstinate facts, and that which is unlikely, 
 only possible, becomes the actual. The next 
 day Mr. Hatch called, and, after stating more 
 definitely what had already been told in general 
 by Ralph, said : 
 
 " I I don't wish to bring any bad news, but 
 do you know that another claimant of Squire 
 "Winthrop's property has turned up ? " 
 
 " No, sir," replied Bob. " Alma and I had 
 that thought in our minds. It was only a 
 thought, as people are apt to imagine every 
 thing ; but you say it is really so ? " 
 
 " Really so ; and he makes a big grab. If he 
 could have his say, he would take three quarters 
 or four fifths of all that the squire left. He 
 especially claims the land on which the brick 
 block rests." 
 
 " Does Ralph know it ? " asked Bob. 
 
 " Not yet," said Mr. Hatch, " but he will find 
 out soon. I thought I might see him here. To 
 your father I told it on the street. Then he 
 claims a valuable field which the squire really 
 did give to Ralph. He seems to be aiming at 
 Ralph especially." 
 
 " Why, who is it ? " asked Alma.
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TREE. 337 
 
 "He writes his name Stephen Winthrop 
 Wyckham." 
 
 Alma and Bob looked at one another in aston- 
 ishment. 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Bob. " Then he hasn't got 
 through following us ! He is the one who 
 charged me with theft." 
 
 " O, that the one ? Then he does not seem 
 like one who would be very likely to be a scru- 
 pulous opponent. I want to get information. 
 I want to get hold of the Winthrop genealogy. 
 This fellow claims that he is descended from 
 somebody who married into the "Winthrop fam- 
 ily away back I don't know how far and he 
 claims land to right and left as one of the de- 
 scendants from that marriage, and he wants his 
 share of the other property in buildings and 
 ships any way. The land as for that, he says, 
 it was illegally wrested by one of the Winthrops 
 from that ancestor. So he thinks he has a 
 double claim. You see, he has got a lawyer who 
 will turn over every stone to get at facts, and " 
 
 " Who ? " asked Bob. 
 
 " Strappings." 
 
 " An insurance agent ? " 
 
 " He was until the affair of the Oaspwr. The 
 22
 
 338 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 company felt at the time that he was showing 
 qualities they could not afford to give wages to. 
 In other words, it was hurting them to keep in 
 their employ that kind of a character ; and he 
 has gone back to the law, a profession which, 
 unfortunately for the rest of us, he studied for, 
 years ago. Now, I wonder who is good at 
 climbing genealogical trees ? Who can get up 
 the Winthrop tree and overhaul the branches?" 
 
 " What do you want up in that tree ? " asked 
 Alma. " I will ask father to step in. I heard 
 him coming in from the street just now. He 
 has been climbing the tree." 
 
 Sardinius Walker came into the room, bearing 
 an old musty volume, in response to that request 
 to be present. 
 
 " Squire Hatch, if I can do you a good turn, 
 I will," said the bearer of the records. 
 
 " It will be a good turn for all interested in 
 the property, and especially for Ralph. I want 
 to find out about John Bevan. Do you remem- 
 ber seeing any thing about such a name ? This 
 Stephen Winthrop Wyckham I- have just told 
 the young people about claims to come from 
 him." 
 
 " John Bevan 2 John Bevan ? " said the man,
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TREE. 339 
 
 climbing the genealogical tree and turning over 
 the leaves time had stained and dusted. " I 
 have seen his name." 
 
 " Have you ? " said the lawyer eagerly. 
 
 " Wait a minute, sir. "Wait, Mr. Hatch." 
 
 " This John Bevan made much trouble for 
 the Winthrop family when he was alive. He 
 is an old hand at making trouble, so I have 
 heard. What have you got ? " asked the 
 lawyer. 
 
 " John Bevan ! " said Sardinius Walker, giv- 
 ing his information like a judge reading a law 
 opinion. " John Bevan ! O, here he is ! Says 
 John Bevan married into Simon Winthrop's 
 family, but it doesn't say whom he married. 
 Simon's children are here James, his wife and 
 children, Joseph, and so on. Huldah, she mar- 
 ried, but it does not say whom. Huldah left 
 no children. Very imperfect record there." 
 
 " It does not seem very complete," remarked 
 the lawyer, looking at the yellow, discolored 
 leaves. " This is the old genealogy. The copy 
 you made " 
 
 " The squire took it, but it is just this, you 
 know, and I was sort of keeping it when he 
 died."
 
 34:0 SAILOE-BOT BOB. 
 
 " Well, from this it seems that John Bevan 
 came into the family, married, and yet it does 
 not say \vhorn." 
 
 All this time the words " John Bevan," 
 " John Bevan," were echoing in Alma's ears. 
 
 " Where have I seen John Sevan's name ? " 
 she thought. " O, it is that portrait ! " 
 
 She sprang up from her chair, flew into the 
 hall, and planted herself before the picture. 
 
 " John Bevan, I want information about 
 you ! " said Alma. 
 
 John Bevan^ only looked over his shoulder 
 and scowled as usual, saying, "You don't belong 
 here ; I do." 
 
 Hark! Alma's brothers in the upper hall, 
 who had been taking her furniture out of her 
 room, were now shouting about something. 
 
 "J-o-h-n!" said Billy. 
 
 " That spells John," said Ted. 
 
 "B-e-v-a-n ! " again called off Billy. 
 
 " That is ' Be-van,' " affirmed Ted. 
 
 " John Bevan ! " thought Alma, and up the 
 broad stair- way she raced. 
 
 " O, boys, what have you got ? " 
 
 Ted held up a piece of very aged paper: 
 " We found it in your drawer, Alma."
 
 CLIMBING A GENEALOGICAL TEEE. 3il 
 
 " O, to be sure ; I forgot about that ! Do 
 let me see ! J John Bevan married Huldah 
 Winthrop ! ' " she slowly read. 
 
 "Huldah had no children, the genealogy 
 says," thought Alma, and then she went like a 
 bird down-stairs. 
 
 " O, I have got it ! " Alma shouted. " Every 
 body, come here ! " 
 
 She reached the portrait, and there she halted, 
 holding up the slip of paper, and looking toward 
 the picture. 
 
 Ted and Billy were the first to respond to 
 Alma's invitation, and raced down-stairs. Out 
 of the sitting-room door limped Alma's father. 
 Bob quickly passed his father, and Mr. Hatch 
 and Mrs. Walker made as good speed as possi- 
 ble, for they had all heard Alma's voice. By 
 the picture stood Alma. It was a most inter- 
 esting scene. That old figure in the portrait 
 was frowning at this young girl standing tri- 
 umphant, defiant, holding up this slip of paper. 
 There were beauty and youth and truth all chal- 
 lenging, " You are an old deceiver. You have 
 hung on that wall long enough, a big pretender. 
 Your race died with you. You were not a 
 "Winthrop in the first place. You gave to the
 
 34:2 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 world none of that name or any name. You old 
 impostor ! come down ! " 
 
 The sun just then entered the hall, and its 
 golden light crowned the hair of Alma, illumi- 
 nated her face, and made an aureole investing 
 all her form whose attitude was that of victory. 
 
 " That's John Bevan ! " said Alma decidedly. 
 
 " O ! " exclaimed Mr. Hatch. " The old pict- 
 ure that Squire Winthrop said nobody knew 
 any thing about ! The very John Bevan I want 
 to find out about ! " 
 
 " There it is, sir ! This fell out of the pict- 
 ure one night, and I picked it up." 
 
 She handed him the aged slip. 
 
 " ' John Bevan married Huldah Win- 
 throp ! ' " slowly read the lawyer. "And Hul- 
 dah is the one that had no children. Climbing 
 the genealogical tree brought down some fruit. 
 That disposes of Stephen Winthrop Wyckham's 
 claim. End of that!" 
 
 " The squire seemed to think it was probably 
 somebody in the family, and did not like to dis- 
 turb the picture. The family seemed to think 
 a good deal of it," observed Sardinitis Walker. 
 
 " Well, there are many old humbugs in this 
 world, and I am glad the nonsense in this gas-
 
 CLIMBING A G-ENEALOGICAL TREE. 343 
 
 bag has been pricked," said the lawyer. " I 
 think I shall have to take the picture down any 
 way from the wall, and ask Miss Alma to let me 
 have that bit of evidence also which she has in 
 her hand. I want to lock them both up the 
 picture and the slip with her permission, for 
 safe-keeping. I want you all to show that you 
 are good at keeping a secret, and please say 
 nothing about this. I think when when I 
 bring this picture into court, and this added 
 evidence, it will make an interesting scene and 
 story. I don't want Strippings to get hold of 
 this, but will lock it up." 
 
 The lawyer prophesied accurately. The pict- 
 ure in court, the evidence of Alma, interested 
 the judge and every body else exceedingly. 
 Mr. Hatch also had on hand other testimony 
 about Steve of a damaging nature, but Alma's 
 story, as she stood in her beauty beside the old 
 picture, was the feature of chief interest. Strip- 
 pings could do nothing. The case went against 
 the pretender. The old portrait never went 
 back to its former honorable position, but was 
 banished to a dark hole in the garret. There it 
 sulked in the gloom, but nobody cared. The 
 one least mindful was the young lady that the
 
 344 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 portrait had frowned upon as if she had no 
 place in the "Winthrop line, and if she had, 
 would only bring disgrace to it. Ah ! the 
 beautiful Alma only brought honor to the name 
 of Winthrop, though she did overwhelm with 
 shame the name of Wyckham, and, by way of 
 association, that of Be van. An impostor was 
 routed from the hall where he had reigned 
 like a rightful king. In the old house Alma 
 and her kin remained, and when the squire's 
 property was distributed they were generously 
 remembered.
 
 GOOD TO BETTEB, BAD TO WOKSE. 345 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 FROM GOOD TO BETTER, FROM BAD TO WORSE. 
 
 /CHARACTER does not remain stationary. 
 \J To one desirous of improvement it may 
 seem as if he were making very slow progress, 
 but some progress he must make. If he have 
 the better desire, he will surely strengthen some 
 good impulses, and weaken others that are wrong. 
 If one lack the better desire, it may seem to 
 him as if he could not be making fast prog- 
 ress in evil, but some advance in the wrong di- 
 rection he will make. The latter development 
 is inevitable, as much as the growth of a poison- 
 plant that is unchecked, but is allowed to re- 
 ceive daily baths of sunshine and nightly baths 
 of dew. Two sets of people illustrated the 
 above principle. On one side was Bob. He 
 had come already out into the light of the 
 Saviour's presence, and could say that he was 
 Christ's and Christ was his. Ralph, too, was 
 on that side. The disposition of the squire's 
 property had been so arranged that Ralph was
 
 34:6 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 now in possession of " the brick block," but 
 Ralph's desires did not strengthen in the direc- 
 tion of money-getting. The question looming 
 up into ever greater prominence before him was 
 whether he ought not to give himself to the 
 ministry of Christ. 
 
 Alma and others were on the same side as Bob 
 and Ralph, but in none was the fact of a right 
 development more strongly emphasized than in 
 the case of Horace Haviland. As his mother 
 was growing infirm, he concluded to remain at 
 home, and found steady employment in one of 
 the fish-houses down by the wharves. He knew 
 his weakness. 
 
 " Awful weak," he would say, " but I'm just 
 looking up. My strength is all above me." 
 
 So Horace held to the way of right-doing, 
 and his walk in it was more assured. His sister 
 believed the world would yet see what a great 
 hero was hidden in her brother. 
 
 On the other hand, there were those illustrat- 
 ing the fact of the continuous development of a 
 character surrendering itself to its evil impulses. 
 Steve Wyckham grew more grasping, envious, 
 selfish, malicious. At times, his evil face would 
 be seen in Oldburyport, and yet his form never
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 347 
 
 shadowed the threshold of the door of any 
 relatives. They did not care to see Steve. 
 Another evil nature asserting itself more posi- 
 tively was that of Strippings. His failure to seat 
 Steve in the Winthrop chair of possession was 
 a bitter defeat to him. For some reason Steve 
 had an idea that Ralph might have helped him 
 assert a good claim to participation in the Win- 
 throp estate. He had sent a mysterious letter 
 to Ralph hinting at a "union of interests," and 
 Ralph pitched the letter into the fire. Steve 
 vowed he would make Ralph " smart for such 
 treatment." 
 
 Another year went by. Summer passed away. 
 As the months moved on and brought the world 
 into the midst of snow-drifts below and the 
 flaming Northern Lights above, it brought Christ- 
 mas also. Heaven seemed to descend, and 
 where it touched the earth it left the golden 
 foot-print of Bethlehem. Our young people in 
 the Walker and Winthrop circle yielded them- 
 ^selves to the gracious influences coming down 
 out of the skies. It brought to Bob a new idea 
 of God's mercy, God's pity, God's interest in 
 humanity, set forth in the human history of our 
 Saviour. Bob's trust in God grew under the
 
 34-8 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 stimulus of these thoughts, and his sense of ob- 
 ligation was sharpened also. He stood up in 
 the old church at home this Christmas-tide, and 
 confessed Christ as his Saviour. Ralph, too, was 
 influenced by the beautiful memorial season, and 
 he told his friends of his purpose, now matured, 
 to consecrate himself to the ministry of Christ. 
 Horace Haviland had a fresh conception of the 
 significance of Christ's mission : that it not only 
 meant a cross for that Saviour, but for all the 
 world, and for Horace Haviland. The very 
 symbol of the cross affected him as never before. 
 
 " That is the sign, 1 ' he said to himself more 
 than once, " of what Christ did for me, my hope 
 and my life, and I've got a cross to carry. I've 
 got to deny myself." 
 
 How Christmas affected other persons in this 
 story Steve and his lawyer, Stripping! we 
 shall see. 
 
 It was a week after Christmas when Horace 
 Haviland met a tempter. It was outside the 
 door of a place where the chief tempter is apt 
 to have his head-quarters, a rum-saloon. 
 
 " Horace," said some one, using the blandest, 
 most cordial tones, " where have you been, old 
 feller ? I have missed you a long time ! "
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 349 
 
 " Why," continued this ardent acquaintance, 
 " I have really missed you." 
 
 It was Steve Wyckham. He had not been in 
 Oldburyport recently. 
 
 " O, I've been round same as ever," replied 
 Horace. 
 
 " You look cold nipped, in fact. This winter 
 weather doesn't agree with you. Now you want 
 something warm, I know." 
 
 " No, I thank you." 
 
 " Come in, come in ! I don't mean any thing 
 strong, but just coffee coffee and oysters, say. 
 Fact is, I have a job for you, and you can make 
 a lot of money out of it. Come, we will talk it 
 over. Coffee and oysters, why, that will cheer 
 us both up ! " 
 
 u Well-1," said Horace irresolutely, " no harm 
 in that." 
 
 He knew that there was harm in stepping 
 within a circle of temptation. 
 
 " Of course not ! No harm ! Come along ! " 
 said Steve. 
 
 Steve took Horace by the arm and drew him 
 into the saloon. 
 
 " Coffee and oysters for two ! " he shouted, 
 motioning Horace into a little retreat partitioned
 
 350 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 off from the main saloon by a red curtain. 
 Steve stepped to the clerk behind the counter, 
 whispered a word or two, and came back to 
 Horace. When the coffee arrived, Horace no- 
 ticed at once its peculiar flavor. It was not at 
 all disagreeable to him, but the very opposite. 
 
 " Coffee tastes good, Steve." 
 
 " Ha-ha ! Of course it does." 
 
 "And that job!" 
 
 " O, I will tell you. Drink away ! " 
 
 Horace knew that he had done wrong in vent- 
 uring into such a place, and conscience was un- 
 easy. Then the flavor of that coffee ; it was 
 satisfactory to an old craving, and for that very 
 reason unsatisfactoiy to conscience. He said 
 suddenly to himself, " Brandy in that ? " He 
 looked at Steve. 
 
 "What what!" he muttered. "What is 
 that, Steve ? " 
 
 " All right ! " asserted Steve. " We will have 
 some more, and oysters hot, too. You look like 
 a tired, hungry man. You ought by good 
 rights to take something stronger. O, about 
 that job ! And let us have something really 
 warming, just as medicine. It is all right as 
 medicine."
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 351 
 
 How many people have gone wrong, gone to 
 ruin, on that medicine-track ! 
 
 In that moment Horace felt weak as a child. 
 He had suddenly come before a pit. open and 
 filled with hot flame, and into it were going all 
 his good purposes, his prayers, his past victo- 
 rious record, to be seized, consumed, destroyed. 
 His old mother's entreaties to him to be firm, 
 and Mary's fond encouragement, were going into 
 the same furnace. The hour threatened to be 
 fatal. Suddenly he looked at the wall opposite 
 him. A bracket projected from this wall, car- 
 rying an ornament, and the lines of its shadow 
 made the form of a cross. It was accidental, 
 for the saloon-keeper Vould have forever pre- 
 vented its occurrence had he known it. Horace 
 saw that humble but powerful sign. If the 
 cross had been lifted, if it had become a ham- 
 mer and had smitten Horace, he could not have 
 been more deeply affected. He was smitten, 
 but it was love's gentle stroke upon his con- 
 science, and that kind of blow is harder than 
 any by hammer of iron. 
 
 " How much of a cross am / carrying ? " he 
 thought. " Where is my self-denial ? What 
 did my Saviour carry for me ? "
 
 352 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 He sprang to his feet. He set down his cup 
 so violently that the jar threatened to break it. 
 He rushed out of the saloon. 
 
 " Where where going ? " asked the sur- 
 prised Steve. " That job you know ! " 
 
 He followed Horace to the door. Surprise 
 was turning to anger. 
 
 " Come back ! Don't be a fool ! " shouted 
 Steve. 
 
 Horace did not heed him. He rushed on, 
 turned a corner, and shrank into a little alley, 
 and there, behind the projection of a brick wall 
 secluding him from the notice of any passer-by, 
 he knelt on the snow, which became his cushion, 
 and, lifting his clasped hands to God, sobbed, 
 " O, my Father, don't leave me ! Don't leave 
 me ! " 
 
 How long he stayed, he knew not. "When he 
 had risen from his knees, he hurried home as 
 rapidly as possible. Horace Haviland was noto- 
 rious for his physical strength, but he crept into 
 the house feeling weak as a little child. When 
 he went out again, he did not venture near that 
 saloon. 
 
 u Where is Horace ? " wondered his sister 
 Mary, the next evening about nine. " He ought
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 353 
 
 to be home by this time. Horace is prompt, 
 you know." 
 
 " O," said her calmer mother, knitting away 
 in her corner, " he has gone to meetin', may be. 
 He will turn up in good order." 
 
 Mary listened keenly for her brother's step. 
 She heard instead a warning bell-note, and then 
 an excited cry out in the street. 
 
 " Mother, that is fire ! " said Mary nerv- 
 ously. 
 
 Yes, above the house-roofs rolled the round, 
 heavy notes of a fire-bell, and out in the street 
 echoe'd those sharp, warning tones that never 
 need an explanation, but awaken alarm whenever 
 heard. 
 
 " Fire-r-r ! Fire-r-r ! " 
 
 " Where is it ? " asked Mary, hurrying to the 
 door and questioning a self-appointed herald of 
 disaster. 
 
 " The brick block ! Fire-r-r ! Fire-r-r ! " an- 
 swered somebody. 
 
 Down the snow-heaped street ran the messen- 
 ger of evil, at almost every step hearing an echo 
 to his cry in the cry of another. 
 
 " There, mother, Horace has gone to the fire ! 
 
 He is a fireman, you know. That is where he 
 23
 
 354 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 is," said Mary, returning to the snug, warm lit- 
 tle kitchen. 
 
 " Where is the fire, Mary ? " 
 
 "In the brick block, mother the Winthrop 
 block, you know. Only think of it ! " 
 
 " In the brick block ? " said her mother calm- 
 ly, almost contentedly. The fire must be some- 
 where, and why not in the brick block ? Old 
 age is said to take life's mishaps in a mood 
 calmer than that of younger years, and does 
 sometimes. 
 
 The bell-booming went on, the cries also of 
 the fire-heralds. Mary stood all this as long as 
 possible, and then said : 
 
 " There, mother, I can't seem to stand it ! 
 Could could you spare me if I go to the 
 corner ? " 
 
 From " the corner " of an adjoining street 
 the brick block could easily be seen, all its long 
 front, the stores below, the offices and hall 
 above. 
 
 " Spare you ? " replied old age. " O yes ! " 
 and Mary's mother went on knitting, quite recon- 
 ciled to the fact that, if a fire must be somewhere, 
 it had better be in the brick block than in many 
 other places. Why should not Mary go ? She
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 355 
 
 was young only forty and youth that likes 
 fires might to be indulged. 
 
 " Yes, you may go, Mary." 
 
 This excitable young female left old age very 
 contentedly knitting in the corner that to her 
 was a harbor of refuge from many storms. 
 
 The janitor of the brick block was in the 
 habit of closing every thing above the first story 
 by six, whenever the big hall in the building 
 would not be needed that evening. Did he see 
 any one stealing into Room Sixteen, an empty 
 office, about half after five ? This intruder had 
 come from a rum-saloon, in itself a very sus- 
 picious fact. The janitor, though, did not no- 
 tice any such entrance. At his hour for closing, 
 he came to the door of this room and said, " I 
 wonder how long ' Sixteen' will be empty ! It 
 is lonesome in there. Don't like to have it so 
 empty." 
 
 All the while, in a closet of this office crouched 
 a man. He was so fearful that in some way he 
 might excite attention, he scarcely breathed. 
 
 " Empty ! " said the janitor softly, turning 
 the key in the door. The janitor locked other 
 offices and the big hall itself, and then went 
 down-stairs to the entrance-door, closed and
 
 356 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 locked that. There was another door, a small 
 one in the rear of the building, by which the 
 hall and offices could be reached. It closed with 
 a spring, and on the inside could be opened 
 without a key. 
 
 The man who was crouching in that dark 
 closet of Room Sixteen expected to leave the 
 building by this small door in the rear. His 
 expectations were not realized. When he had 
 reason to conclude that the janitor was out- 
 side the building, he softly opened the closet 
 door, stepped out into the empty room, and 
 went to a window. This looked down into the 
 street, where the lights in the shop-windows 
 were already flashing. The man could see the 
 dark forms of people hurrying past these lighted 
 windows, and he said, " I will give people in the 
 street something unusual to think about soon. 
 I will give the owner something to think about. 
 The insurance on this block has run out and not 
 been renewed. What is left standing by twelve 
 o'clock to-night won't be worth much." 
 
 He returned to the closet. He opened a trav- 
 eling-bag filled with combustibles. With ham- 
 mer and chisel he broke as gently as possible a 
 hole in the plastering above a shelf, and there
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 357 
 
 started a fire. The mischievous flames darted 
 into the space in the rear of the hole. It was 
 directly under a stair-way. Here was a very 
 strong draft, and the space under the stair-way 
 communicated with two other flights above. 
 The flames with swift red feet climbed the 
 rounds of this long, secret ladder. 
 
 " Now I will go," said the incendiary. " The 
 alarm will soon be given." 
 
 Kubbing his hands, chuckling away, exulting 
 over the people's wonder when they saw the 
 flames breaking out of the doomed building, he 
 went to the office door and laid his hand on the 
 door-knob, that he might turn it and pass out. 
 He could turn the knob, but could not open the 
 door ! It was locked firmly. An exclamation of 
 disappointment accompanied by an oath broke 
 from his lips. He pulled on the door-knob. To 
 his increased disgust the knob came off. 
 
 " However," he said, " I am not to be balked 
 this way. I will pry the thing open. How this 
 smoke pours out ! " 
 
 The room was filled with smoke, and he 
 could hear the crackling of the flames, and hark ! 
 " Fire-r-r ! " " Fire-r-r- ! " was the alarm soon 
 echoing out in the street.
 
 358 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 He went to work on the door more anxiously, 
 pushing, tugging, straining, trying to get a 
 chisel under the door and at the side of the 
 door, and in some way wrench it open. It was 
 a heavy door, for the room had once been used 
 as a banking-office. 
 
 He thought of a hammer he had in his bao-, 
 
 o o/ 
 
 and amid the thickening, suffocating smoke, he 
 swung this hammer against the panels of the 
 door. He could hear the echoes of his blows, 
 as, like a madman, he drove his hammer against 
 the thick panels. It was of no use. Outside, 
 he heard an increasing tumult. People, in the 
 absence of the janitor with the keys, were try- 
 ing the door leading up to the offices and 
 hall, furiously banging away on the wooden 
 barrier. 
 
 What if they got in, and found him and his 
 bag in this empty office ? What could he say ? 
 He stopped pounding. 
 
 Ah ! they had got in somehow, and were rush- 
 ing into the building to drag out of the offices 
 their furniture, provided they could reach all of^ 
 the rooms. Would some one say, "There is, 
 perhaps, some valued piece of furniture in ' Six- 
 teen ! ' Have it out ? " What if they came,
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 859 
 
 and " it " slionld turn* out to be an incendiary ! 
 Should this "valued piece of furniture" meet 
 them, hammer in hand, and drive them back? 
 Would it not be better to feel along the walls, 
 find a nail that might have been driven there, 
 wrench it out, and then nail up the door that 
 they might not get in ? But could he stay, this 
 man that did not dare to go out ? The smoke 
 was so suffocating that he was obliged to drop 
 on his hands and knees, and breathe close to the 
 floor. He crawled to a window somehow, man- 
 aged to raise it, and O, how grateful was the 
 current of pure, cold air that came streaming 
 into this room like a furnace ! The device that 
 gave him a chance to breathe told him also how 
 great the excitement was outside. 
 
 " There are the engines ! " he said. " How 
 the men shout ! " 
 
 He might have added, " Here comes the 
 water !" for a gush from a hose-pipe, directed 
 against an upper story, missed its aim and came 
 under the window-sash he had raised, drenching 
 his face. Were those outside trying to beat 
 him back into the fire that was steadily rushing 
 toward him? Must he roast in that furnace? 
 The thought was terrible to him. The closet
 
 360 SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 full of flame was discharging its surplus fire 
 into the office. Was there no escape for him ? 
 Was that the end of evil-doers, to be caught and 
 destroyed in the flames they themselves had 
 kindled ? He did not give the thought much 
 room in his mind, but he could not help its en- 
 trance. Should he show himself at the window 
 and entreat those without to save him ? "Who 
 would be friendly to the incendiary ? Should 
 he go back to the door and pound on it again, 
 hoping he might be heard ? He did not know 
 as he could reach it. If he reached it, he did not 
 know as any body was in the corridor to rescue 
 him ; all that he could hear now was the crack- 
 ling of the flames and how thick the smoke 
 was ! Come what might, he must have air, he 
 must have life. He raised the window all that 
 was possible. 
 
 " Fire-r-r ! " rang the alarm-cry, while the bells 
 boomed, the engineers shouted their orders, and 
 the streams of water from the pipes fell with a 
 crash on the building. That which gave life to 
 the incendiary gave life to the flames, for, fed 
 by the inrushing current of air, the fire crackled 
 and blazed with startling intensity. Under that 
 opened window, crouching below its sill so that
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 361 
 
 people could not see his head, was that agonized 
 wretch. What would he do? 
 
 The fireman saw that window opened so 
 strangely, and a heavy stream of water now 
 came crashing into the room. He incau- 
 tiously raised his head, and a blow from the 
 water almost stunned him. It was now a fight 
 
 o 
 
 there at the window between the water and 
 the fire, and in the center of the battle was that 
 man in agony. It was hard to say which was 
 the worse, the fire that was roasting him or the 
 icy water of winter that was freezing him. For 
 awhile the water was victor, and the fire seemed 
 to retreat, but that was only in the center of the 
 room opposite the window. The fire, now on 
 both sides, grew hotter, the smoke more stifling, 
 and then the flames rushed for the open window 
 where their author was in one suffocating, con- 
 suming cloud which the water might pierce but 
 could not conquer. Finally, the crowds of peo- 
 ple below, the hundreds of eager spectators 
 were horrified to see a form wriggling, strug- 
 gling, fighting its way out of that furnace-door 
 through the volume of water pouring in stead- 
 ily. The hosemen under that window did not 
 at first -notice these struggles.
 
 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 " Hold there 1 " shouted an engineer to the 
 hose-men drenching that window. 
 
 " Stop your playing ! " " Give over ! " What 
 you up to ? Don't drown a man 1 " " Give 
 him a chance ! " were the outcries from the 
 spectators. 
 
 The hose-men ceased to play at the window, 
 and, unmolested, the man climbed out of the win- 
 dow and hung by his hands from the sill. The 
 instinct to save life somehow, anyhow, was so 
 strong that he was willing to take this serious 
 risk. A shiver of horror went through the 
 crowd, as when the breath of a rough blast 
 sweeps across and ruffles the surface of a pond. 
 The block was a tall one. This window was in 
 the third story. The man, if he dropped, would 
 fall directly upon a pavement of flagging-stone. 
 How much longer could he cling to the window- 
 sill? 
 
 Various expedients were suggested. Before 
 they could be tried, the man might be in eter- 
 nity. Mary Haviland saw all that was actually 
 attempted. She ,saw two men making their 
 way to this part of the building with a ladder. 
 It was planted against the wall. One of the 
 men mounted it.
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 363 
 
 " It is Horace ! " she screamed. " God keep 
 him ! " 
 
 All the rest of the time, Mary Haviland held 
 her folded hands up to God, while her eyes 
 were fastened on her brother. 
 
 "Hold on !" he shouted to the man still cling- 
 ing to the window. 
 
 The ladder was long, but it did not reach the 
 man. If it had only been half a yard longer, the 
 man's feet would have touched it, and as there 
 was an ornamental projection just there in the 
 wall at the right of the man, he could have 
 steadied himself by it, when his feet rested on 
 the ladder, and with care could have descended 
 it. There was that little gap, though, between 
 the man's feet and the ladder, and it seemed as ' 
 fatal as if a chasm a mile wide. 
 
 " Steady the ladder ! " shouted Horace. 
 
 A dozen pairs of strong arms must have been 
 laid on that ladder, steadying its foot. "What 
 woman rushed to the firemen's help ? Were 
 not Mary's hands on. the ladder? 
 
 Horace Haviland was said to be the strong- 
 est man in town. A big, broad-shouldered man. 
 The boys loved to tell stories of his prowess. To 
 them he was both Samson and Hercules in one.
 
 364: SAILOK-BOY BOB. 
 
 Bracing himself in his footing on the ladder, 
 helped by the ornamental facing to the wall I 
 have mentioned, holding up his hands, he said, 
 " Easy now ! Don't be afraid ! Drop ! " 
 
 Some of the people turned their heads away. 
 Mary Haviland still looked, still held up her 
 hands, and it seemed to her as if God's hands 
 were on the ladder steadying it, and God's hands 
 were also helping her brother's hands reaching 
 up toward the man. 
 
 "Hurrah! hurrah!" echoed a huge shout 
 from the crowd, for in Horace Haviland's arms 
 was the rescued man, and soon they both came 
 down the ladder. 
 
 " O, thank God ! " cried Mary. 
 
 She did not stop to see or hear further. It 
 was enough. Horace was a hero. Her brother 
 was the great man she had always believed him 
 to be. The ladder was only the pedestal exalt- 
 ing him that in his true proportions he might 
 stand out before the people. They must have all 
 seen it. " They know it now ! " she murmured. 
 
 The engines now resumed their playing on 
 the building, while the rescued man slunk away 
 from notice as rapidly as possible. He had not 
 gone very far when a firm hand was laid on his
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WORSE. 365 
 
 shoulder, and a voice said : " You are my pris- 
 oner." 
 
 The incendiary looked up in surprise. 
 
 " You may think it hard to be nabbed," said 
 the police officer, " after your escape from that 
 horror, but you are wanted for a theft over in 
 Harrington." 
 
 " You you are mistaken 1 , and it's tough after 
 gettin' out of that oven to be hauled up. You 
 want another man." 
 
 " I want you, Steve Wyckham. I know you. 
 Come along, this way ! " 
 
 The two went to the police station. 
 
 Steve Wyckham was also wanted the next day 
 for the firing of the brick block. Suspicion 
 fastened on him, and he was tried for that in- 
 cendiarism as well as for the Harrington rob- 
 bery. It turned out that Strippings, who had 
 some acquaintance with insurance offices., had 
 told Steve that " the insurance on Ralph's block 
 had expired without renewal." Before it might 
 be renewed, Steve, anxious for revenge, vowed 
 he would fire the building. He tried to induce 
 Horace Haviland to undertake the job, and 
 thought if he could fire Horace with rum, Hor- 
 ace could be induced to fire the building.
 
 366 SAILOR-BOY BOB. 
 
 Knowing the horrible antecedents of rum, 
 Steve did not credit it with too much demoni- 
 acal power, if he could only get it inside of 
 Horace. Steve failed in his efforts, and then 
 fired the building himself, only to find out that 
 Strippings was wrong in the statement made 
 about the insurance on the building. The in- 
 surance had been very promptly renewed by the 
 young owner of the building, and it was suffi- 
 cient to enable Ralph to restore the brick block 
 to its former condition for effective service. 
 Steve Wyckham had. ample opportunity in jail 
 to reflect upon the fact that bad impulses un- 
 checked will develop into a character surely and 
 steadily deteriorating. 
 
 What could be expected, on the other hand, 
 in the lives of Sailor-boy Bob, Ralph, Alma, 
 Horace, and others, trying to make good charac- 
 ter into what was still better ? 
 
 Bob, in the office of John "Winthrop & Sons, 
 established a reputation not only for enterprise, 
 but integrity also. 
 
 Ralph in his studies gave promise of a life of 
 exceeding usefulness in the ministry of God. 
 The large-hearted, self-denying Alma, people 
 said, would make that worthy help-meet for
 
 GOOD TO BETTER, BAD TO WOBSE. 367 
 
 Ralph which she promised to be. Horace Ilav- 
 iland in the path of temperance found a life 
 opening into larger and larger possibilities of 
 usefulness. 
 
 " You have not said any thing about the An- 
 dromeda" some one remarks. Ah, that dear 
 old tub continued to make other voyages for 
 John Winthrop & Sons, and brought back new 
 resources of wealth. Sail on, Andromeda/ 
 Sail on 1 
 
 THE END.
 
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