SAFELY BACK TO ENGLAND.
There are such things as happy ships still in the merchant service of
this country, in which the crew are all, or nearly all, British men, and
the captain and mate honest fellows and not tyrants. English or Scotch
sailors work well for officers like these, and a bad word is never heard
on the ship's decks.
The _Nor'lan' Star_ had scarcely changed a hand of her crew for several
years. They were like a family in fact. Every one knew his duty and did
it. When any dispeace occurred the matter was brought before the
captain--of course his word was law; and if there existed a malcontent
on board he was very speedily got rid of, for a tainted sheep affects a
flock.
But, somehow, when a captain takes his wife with him the whole tone of a
ship is raised many degrees. But, over and above all this, Captain
Paterson owned the ship, or most of her, for the mate and some others
had shares, and this arrangement caused things to pull together better.
This honest skipper was a good example of what industry and carefulness
in business can accomplish, and love with honour, I may add; for he
would have told you that the best thing ever he did was marrying
Maggie, and taking her to sea with him.
Well, the _Nor'lan' Star_ reached Trondhjem at last; and as the men were
not drunkards, but knew how to use without abusing God's gifts, every
man settled to work, and with the help of dockmen the unloading and the
loading-up again proceeded regularly and peacefully enough, and was all
over in a week. Then the orders were to clean ship before the granting
of a few days' leave off and on to the watches. In a very short time all
signs of the loading-up were obliterated, and from stem to stern the
_Nor'lan' Star_ looked as sweet and clean as a new half-crown.
Ben and the mate had been very busy up till now, but Mrs Skipper had
taken Lotty on shore several times. The town, with its great cathedral,
was in its winter garb; but they found the streets regular and wide, and
even pretty, the older houses being of wood, plain in architecture, but
very quaint. There were many fine shops too, and the people therein were
kindly in the extreme. Everything here, especially about the suburbs,
was very strange and foreign-like, but with none of the fussiness found
in French ports, where it is mostly all palaver and insincerity. All her
life at present was what, in the case of busy men who have been laid
aside for a time by illness, doctors call 'an enforced holiday.' But it
was a very delightful and restful one. She was free for a time from the
drudgery of show-work, of having to sing and act to crowds of gaping
rustics and others; free from the bullying and ill-treatment of her
father, Biffins Lee. She only wished that Wallace had been with her now.
As for the others--well, they would like her better when she came back
from a watery grave, or, more plainly, when the sea gave up the one they
all believed dead and gone.
But Wallace, what fun he would have had with little baby Norlans, and
how he would have rolled him up and down the deck, but gone to sleep
afterwards with the sealkin in his arms, like the good dog he was! A
tub, both she and Mrs Skipper admitted, was an awkward and somewhat
unsightly cot for the sealkin, so they had a look round the toy-shops,
and at one they found an assortment of dolls as big as the baby-children
of Anak must have been.
The shop-mistress curtsied and smiled, and felt certain the young lady
would buy one. She raised a garishly dressed specimen as she spoke,
which was half-doll, half-golliwog, and hideously ugly. But Lotty was
not impressed. She was too old, she said, for dolls like that; but had
the good woman bassinets for these?
'Oh yes,' she had, 'lovely little cradles, with rockers and all. Look!'
Lotty did look, and was delighted. These were just the thing for
Norlans. How sweet he would show in one of these, with its tiny cushion,
its muslin drapery, and its blanket of blue! And so one was bought and
sent on board. That night Norlans was put to bed in it. Lotty sat down
and rocked her baby; and as she rocked she sang a pretty cradle hymn:
'Baloo, baloo, my wee wee thing,
Oh, softly close thy blinkin' e'e;
Baloo, baloo, my dear wee thing,
Now thou art doubly dear to me.
Thy face is simple, sweet, and mild,
Like ony simmer evenin' fa';
Thy sparklin' e'e is bonny black,
Thy neck is like the mountain snaw.
Baloo, baloo, baloo.'
And baby Norlans was willing to give himself up entirely to the luxury
of the situation, and was soon sound enough asleep.
Then daddy Ben was called in--he had to walk on tiptoe--to take just one
peep at him.
'Isn't he just lovelier than anything on earth, papa?' said Lotty.
'Lovelier,' replied Ben, 'than biled cockles, and every bit as white and
clean.'
A day or two after this Lotty ran on deck when Ben was hung up as usual
on a belaying-pin, the ship having been put to sea again, and it being
the lad's watch off.
'Oh papa,' she cried, pretending to be awfully excited, 'you are to run
down below at once. Grandma says Norlans has cut a "toofams."'
Of course a 'toofams' meant a tooth; and Ben, keeping up the game, went
below at once and found it was the truth, and was wise enough to go into
raptures over the pearly little appearance.
But, happy though his home was, it was evident enough that the sealkin
retained a good deal of nature about him, and would fain have obeyed the
call of the wild, and plunged right away down into the clear sunny sea,
a blink of which he could catch through one of the scupper-holes on the
lee side. And always now, when taken on deck for what Lotty termed his
constitutional, it was towards a lee scupper-hole he crawled or waddled
his way, and seemed never to tire watching the waves. Sometimes when
there was a freshening breeze, with plenty of sail on her, the sea would
gurgle up as she dipped to leeward, and some portion would be under
water. Then Norlans spread his flippers at once and made pretence to
swim, and had to be taken away to be towelled and placed in the sunshine
to dry.
It was about this time that Mrs Skipper had a quiet talk with her
husband, and told him about those curious birth-marks, and what she
half-suspected, and what she was going to do about it. Even the mate was
taken into confidence and his advice asked. But he had not much to
give. He really was both innocent and good, but knew more about handling
a ship than anything else.
'Seems to me, Mrs Captain,' this was all he said, 'as how it is a
'tarposition o' Providence from first to last. And He--the great Power
above us all--does move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.'
'Well,' said Mrs Paterson, 'you are both men-people and have your reason
to guide you. I am only a woman-person, and have merely my instinct;
but, Providence here or Providence there, something tells me that a
great wrong has been done to that dear child, and mebbe we may be put in
the way to redress it.'
'That is,' said the mate solemnly, 'if your suspeecions is right, Mrs
Captain. If they's wrong, then'----
'Well, then, of course, there will be no harm done, only we must take
good care to say nothing to Lotty one way or another till we see.'
'That's right, that _is_ right, Mrs Captain; and I'm truly glad I've
given you good advice, which I hope you won't be above thinking over.'
As the honest mate had given no advice, one way nor another, it
certainly would not take very long to think it over.
That was a somewhat rough and stormy passage homewards; but the wind was
for the most part fair, and under such circumstances she 'skeeted'
along like a water-witch, and in due time the cliffs of Old England hove
in sight far off on the lee-bow, lying along like a gray cloud on the
horizon.
Lotty could scarcely believe she was so near, for the voyage out had
been a lengthy one, and so many things had happened since she was picked
up by the _Nor'larn' Star_ that she felt quite a year older at the very
least.
That last evening the boy Ben was very sad indeed.
'Which,' he said to Lotty, 'we've 'ad a 'igh old time of it, missie; but
lor! it's gone now, and we'll maybe never see ye in life again--no, nor
Norlans either.'
'Oh,' said Lotty, with an attempt at good-humour, 'Norlans will be a big
boy before he sees his papa again. I'm going to take him to camp, and
some day, perhaps, his daddy will come right away down to see him, and
his mammy also.'
'Am just a-goin' to live an' dream about that day, Miss Lotty; an' who
knows but that when I'm a capting of a big ship you may not sail along
o' me again.'
'Who knows?' answered the gipsy lass.
And the last thing the girl saw as she left by the gangway, which led
over several vessels before she could reach the quay, was second-mate
Ben gazing sorrowfully after her. There were tears in his eyes, too,
that he had no need to be ashamed of.
And there was more than he looked after the little gipsy lass, and waved
her a hearty good-bye, for her presence on board had really brought
light and joy to many a man of the _Nor'lan' Star_.
There was nothing at present to keep Mrs Captain Paterson on the vessel,
so she went with Lotty back home to her house in the outskirts. About
all Lotty's luggage was Norlans in the bassinet, and that had been sent
on before by a trusty messenger. There was a beautiful garden here, but
just exactly what Norlans thought of it may never be recorded; for he
was to be taken to the camp anyhow, and would be more at home within
sound of the sea.
* * * * *
Just two days after this, Frank Antony Blake received a letter, and was
a very happy man. It enclosed a note for Mr Biffins Lee. The letter to
Antony was quite a girl's, round-hand, language, and all; but so
innocent, for it gave Antony orders which he was to pass on to Mary,
with a detailed list of the articles of clothing she was to forward to
care of Captain Paterson of the bark _Nor'lan' Star_, Hull, and the
amount of money Mary was to ask Biffins for and send with the things.
It is needless to say there was joy now in the camp, and somehow it
seemed to communicate itself even to Wallace the Newfoundland. We never
know just how much a dog understands. Mary was daft with delight. Chops
was 'blubbering'--an ugly word; but it was one of the fat boy's own, and
when interpreted means 'weeping.' For it is not grief only which is
capable of bringing salt tears to one's eyes.
Frank Antony Blake did not take long to make up his mind as to what he
should do on this occasion. He thought, anyhow, that a railway journey
would do him no harm; but really, when he arrived at last, and Lotty
threw herself right into his arms to do a good cry, he thought it was
the most natural thing in the world to fold her to his breast.
He did not like Hull, simply because he did not like cities; and so,
after thanking, and more than thanking, the captain, his wife, and mate
for all their kindness to Lotty, and hoping to meet them again, he took
first-class tickets, and soon the fast train was bearing them back to
the north, baby Norlans and all. He had wired to Crona to have Wallace
at the cottage, and she had gone over on purpose to bring the faithful
dog to her hut.
But no pen could portray the delight of this dear fellow when he was
sent off with a rush and a run to meet Lotty and Antony slowly winding
their way uphill to Crona's cottage.