Back again.--Taken in Tow.--Bobbing for Eels.--Glow-worms.--
Home.--Urticating Caterpillars.
It will be seen that our boys had great capacities for enjoying
themselves, and so oblivious had they been of the flight of time, that
they had only left themselves two days in which to get home, for they
felt bound not to ask for any extension of their holiday. Two days was a
very short time to sail all the way down the Yare and up the Bure again;
and to add to their dilemma, the wind had settled in the east, and blew
light and fitfully all day until five or six, when it would drop. They
could have gone back by road and left the yacht to be sent after them,
but this would have been _infra dig._, and was not to be thought of
while the chance remained of reaching home in a legitimate way. So they
started, and with infinite labour and much tacking and clever sailing,
they succeeded in reaching Brundall, about six miles down the river, by
the middle of the day.
"This won't do," said Frank. "Here comes a steam-wherry. I wonder if
they will take us in tow."
The wherry was hailed, and for a small consideration her crew consented
to tow them to Yarmouth. Their sails were accordingly lowered, and a
rope was made fast to the wherry; and in a few minutes' time they were
being pulled along at a good pace by their great, black, ugly friend.
"Now we can enjoy our _otium cum dignitate_," said Dick, throwing
himself at full length on the roof of the cabin with the furled mainsail
as a pillow; "and however light the breeze is to-morrow, it will take us
home in time; so I shall write a note home and post it at Yarmouth."
Between the waving reed-beds, through the long miles of marsh, acres of
which were white with the silky globes of the cotton-grasses, by
whirling wind-mills and groups of red and white cattle browsing on the
reclaimed marshes, past sailing wherries that surged along before the
light breeze with a lazy motion, past white-sailed yachts with
gay-coloured pennants at their mast-heads and laughter-loving pleasure
parties on board, underneath a bright blue sky streaked with filmy
cloudlets and dotted with uprising larks, over a stream that murmured
and rippled with a summer gladness, they clove their steady way. With
every nerve instinct with healthy life, and hearts which had the great
gift of understanding and appreciating the true and the beautiful around
them, what wonder if they felt as happy as they could wish to feel, and
were full of contentment with the pleasant time it was their lot to
pass.
They crossed Breydon Water under widely different circumstances to those
in which they first crossed it. Then it was wild and stormy; now it was
fair and placid.
They reached Yarmouth about five, and as the wind still held they turned
up the Bure with the flowing tide, and sailed on and on in that quiet
peaceful evening, with lessening speed as the wind fell, until at last
they barely crept through the water. Even when there was not a breath of
air perceptible to the upheld hand, and the surface of the river was as
smooth as glass, and the reeds were silent from their whispering, yet a
magic wind seemed to fill their large sails, and still they crept on
with a dream-like motion. At last that motion ceased, but then they were
so close to Acle bridge that they set to work and poled the yacht along
with the quants, and in another half hour they were moored by the
Staithe.
It was then half-past nine o'clock, but still very light; and there was
a whiteness in the sky to the north-east, which told them the sun was
not very far over the horizon, and that at midnight it would be but
little darker than it was then.
After they had had supper Frank said,
"Do you remember those men whom we saw near Norwich, who sat in small
boats all the night long, and with a line in each hand, bobbed for
eels?"
"Yes; what of them?"
"Why should we not bob for eels to-night? I don't feel inclined to go to
bed."
"Very well," said Jimmy; "but can we get the worsted?"
"I will go and ask for some at the Hermitage."
"What do you want worsted for?" said Dick.
"To catch the eels with; but wait a bit and you shall see. Bring the
lantern and come with me."
Frank marched up to the house and knocked, and when the door was opened
by a woman, said,
"Please can you let us have a hank of worsted? I will give you double
its value." The woman looked at him in surprise, and he repeated his
question. Then she went indoors, and reappeared with a hank of worsted
in her hand. This she threw out to them with a frightened look, and
slammed the door in their faces.
"Wait, my good woman, we have not paid you," said Frank. But there was
no answer.
"We seem to have frightened her," said Dick.
Frank put a shilling under the door, and they went away laughing
heartily. Their next proceeding was to look about the damp grass and
pick up the lob-worms, which were about in great numbers. When they had
each collected a large number they returned to the yacht, and by Frank's
directions threaded the worms on to the worsted, lengthways, with the
needle they had used for sniggling. In this way they made three large
bunches of worm-covered worsted. These bunches they weighted with a
stone, and tied strong lengths of cord to them.
"Now," said Frank, "we can begin to bob. This is the way, Dick:--let the
bunch sink to the bottom and then keep the line taut. Let it lie there
for some time, and when you feel some sharp quick tugs, it is the eels
biting at it. Then haul it quietly on board and shake the eels off.
There, I can feel them on my line now."
"And I at mine," said Jimmy.
"And I too," said Dick.
"Then wait five minutes, and haul on board."
At the end of five minutes they each hauled their lines quietly on
board, and on Frank's were no less than six eels, their teeth entangled
in the worsted. On Jimmy's there were two, and on Dick's three. They
shook the eels on to the deck. Jimmy's two at once wriggled themselves
off back into the water, and Frank and Dick had hard work to keep theirs
from doing the same, until Jimmy got out the bucket they used for
washing the deck, and in this they safely deposited their captives.
"This is not bad fun," said Dick, as he brought up three more eels, one
of them a large one.
"No, is it?" answered Jimmy, as he followed Dick's example.
So they went on laughing and talking and pulling in eels until two
o'clock in the morning, when their bucket was so full of eels that it
would not hold any more.
"Now it is time to turn in," said Frank; "take up the bucket, Jimmy, and
put it by the foremast with something over it to keep the eels from
crawling out, while I do up the lines."
Jimmy took up the bucket, and was walking aft with it, when his foot
slipped on an eel that had made its escape, and was wriggling about the
deck. In an instant, Jimmy, the bucket, and the eels all went into the
water. Jimmy rose to the surface and swam to the yacht, and climbed on
board, with the bucket still in his hands, but all the eels had of
course disappeared.
"What an extraordinary thing!" spluttered Jimmy, as he rose to the
surface.
"Very," said Frank, as soon as he could speak for laughing; "but hadn't
you better dive after the eels?"
"Do you mind my losing them, Frank?" said Jimmy, rather ruefully.
"Not at all, old man. We don't want the eels, and a good laugh is better
for us."
While they were undressing, Dick was peering through one of the side
lights and at length said,
"I suppose it is impossible for any one to have been smoking here
lately, yet there are two or three things which are like cigar-ends
gleaming on the bank. Is it possible that they are glow-worms?"
"Yes, of course they are," said Jimmy; "I will go and get them;" and
presently he came back with the little, soft, brown things, which shed a
circle of phosphorescent light for two or three inches around them.
"Put them into that empty jar with some grass, and we will take them
home with us."
[Illustration: GLOW-WORM.]
The glow-worm is the wingless female of a winged beetle. The male has a
dim light, but nothing to be compared to that of his wife. The light
issues from the three last segments of her body, and is of a bright
yellow in colour. In general she shines from ten to twelve o'clock, but
often much later, as on this occasion. Why such a brown, ugly little
beetle should have such a beautiful light I do not know. Perhaps it is
to guide the male to her. This beetle with the wonderful light has
plebeian tastes, for she eats the flesh of snails, and, unlike our
Gallic neighbours, she does not wait for the snails' decease first.
The morning soon shone brightly, and again the fair east wind blew;
"The sun was warm; and the wind was cool,"
and the _Swan_ spread her white wings to the favouring breeze and glided
between the narrowing banks, where the meadow-sweet in full luxuriance
waved its cloudy clusters, the forget-me-not gleamed in turquoise blue,
the tall iris or white flag reared its flowers of gold over its green
sword-shaped leaves, and the modest ragged-robin showed its thin red
petals amid the dew-wet grass.
Through Heigham Sounds and into Hickling Broad, and there at the farther
end was a group of people, waving their handkerchiefs in greeting.
"There they are," said Frank; "give them three cheers;" and a "Hip! hip!
hurrah!" rang over the water with a hearty good will.
Mr. and Mrs. Merivale, Sir Richard Carleton, and Mary, were all there to
meet them.
Frank brought the yacht up to her moorings in his best manner, and in a
few minutes they were ashore.
"Dick," said Sir Richard, "I can scarcely believe my eyes. I am
delighted."
There was some cause for his surprise. Dick was as brown as a berry. His
form was upright and full of vigour, and his handsome face was bright
with the smile of health. A greater contrast to the pale-faced delicate
boy, who some months before had aroused his father's anxiety, could not
well be seen.
"I am glad you have enjoyed yourself, dear," said Mrs. Merivale to
Frank, "but I have been very anxious about you, and it has seemed a long
time."
Frank laughed merrily, as he put his arm round his mother, and kissed
her with all a lover's devotion.
"You are like Martha, mother, who troubled herself about many things.
But where is Florrie?"
"Oh," said Mary, "she can't leave her room. She got a little black hairy
caterpillar for you, and it has stung her. At least she has a rash all
over her, and nasty little red lumps, and she suffers so much."
"That must be a mistake, Mary, about the caterpillar," said Frank.
"No, it is not, Frank," said Dick; "I was reading the other day about
urticating caterpillars. The caterpillars of some moths will affect some
people like that."
"We have the creature in a glass, and you can see it, and try it, if you
like, Frank," said Mary.