SAILING.
"Rento!"
"Ay, ay, sir!"
"Franci!"
"Señor!"
"Jack and Jim!"
The monkeys for answer leaped on their master's shoulder, and chattered,
and peered round into his face.
"The company of this schooner, attention! Behold Colorado, who comes to
be my son! He sails with us, he receives kindness from you all, he is in
his home. Instruction you will give him in ways of the sea, and he
becomes in all things your brother. Am I understood?"
The different members of the crew received this intelligence each in his
own way. Rento advanced, and shaking John cordially by the hand, assured
him with honest warmth that he was proper glad to see him, and that he
hoped they should be good friends.
Franci smiled like an angel, and the moment the Skipper's back was
turned, made frightful grimaces at the boy, and threatened his life. But
John was too happy to be afraid of Franci. Going boldly up to him, he
asked,--
"Why don't you like me, and why do you want to kill me? I never did you
any harm, and I should like to be friends, please."
The Spaniard looked at him sidelong out of his soft, sleepy eyes.
"Have you understanding?" he asked presently. "Have you intelligence to
accept the idea of a person of poetry, of soul?"
"I think so!" said John, with some confidence. "I could try, anyhow."
"Look, then!" exclaimed Franci, throwing his arms abroad with a dramatic
gesture.
"I am not of nature murderous. A dove, a lamb at sport in the meadow,
such is the heart of Franci. But--behold me desolated on this infernal
schooner. Torn by my parents from my home, from warm places of my
delight, from various maidens, all enamoured of my person, I am sent to
be a sailor. A life of horror, believe me who say it to you! Wetness,
cold and work; work, cold and wetness! Behold the sea! may it be
accursed, and dry up at the earliest moment! I come here, on this so
disastrous voyage. Have I poetry, think you, on board this vessel? Is
the pig-faced armadillo yonder a companion for me, for Franci? Is my
beauty, the gentleness and grace of my soul appreciated here? even the
Patron, a person in some ways of understanding, has for me only the
treatment of a child, of a servant. Crushed to the ground by these
afflictions, how do I revenge myself? How do I make possible the passage
of time in this wooden prison? I make for myself the action, I make for
myself the theatre. Born for the grace of life, deprived of it, let me
have the horrors! In effect, I would not hurt the safety of a flea; in
appearance, I desire blood, blood, blood!"
He shrieked the last words aloud, and leaped upon the boy, his eyes
glaring like a madman's; but John was on his own ground now; his eyes
shone with appreciation.
"That's splendid!" he cried. "Blood! Oh, I wish I could do it like that!
I say, we can play all kind of things, can't we? We'll be pirates--only
good pirates,--and we'll scour the seas, and save all the shipwrecked
people, won't we? And you shall be the captain (or you might call it
admiral, if you liked the sound better, I often do), and I will be the
mate, or the prisoners, or the drowning folks, just as you like. I love
to play things."
"Come to my heart, angelic child!" cried Franci, flinging out his arms
once more. "At length I am understood, I am appreciated, I have found a
comrade! That I weep on thy bosom, Colorado!"
And, much to the disgust of Rento, he fell upon John's neck, and shed,
or appeared to shed, a few tears, with great parade of silk
handkerchief. He then advanced to where the Skipper was smoking his
cigar in the stern, and informed him, with a low bow, that he and
Colorado were one soul, which the Skipper said he was delighted to hear,
adding that he recommended the one soul to set the two bodies to work
cleaning the brasses.
Franci liked to clean the brasses, because he could see his face in
them, and make eyes at himself as he went along; accordingly he turned
three back-somersaults, a sign of high good-humour with him, and
returned to his new friend.
"Have you noticed, Colorado," he inquired, "the contour of my leg? Did
you observe it now, quivering in the air?"
John nodded appreciation, and wondered how old Franci was.
"To possess beauty," said the latter, gravely, "is a responsibility, my
friend. It is a burden, my soul! Franci has shed tears over it, the
tears of a poet. You have read of Apollo, at least you have heard of
him, the god of poetry, of music, of grace? yes? Behold him, Colorado!
He lives before you, in the form of Franci. Come on, that we clean
together the brasses!"
As for the monkeys, they at once adopted John as their companion and
their lawful prey. They climbed over him, they tried to get into his
pockets, they nestled in his arms, they challenged him to races among
the yards. The Skipper was their king, Franci was their model, the ideal
toward which they vainly aspired. Rento, good, homely Rento, was the
person who fed them, and with whom they could take any liberties, with
no danger of a beating; but the new-comer, the boy John, was simply
another monkey like themselves. Dressed up, it was true, like men, but
in no other way resembling them more than another, more than themselves.
Let him come and play, then, and put on no airs. These were the
sentiments of Jack and Jim, and John responded to them with hearty
good-will.
The Skipper sat smoking, and watched with a quiet smile the gambols of
the three young creatures, as they sped here and there about the
rigging, chattering, laughing, shrieking with glee.
"Laugh, my son!" he said to himself, between the puffs of his cigar.
"Laugh and play, my little son! Far too little laughter has been in thy
life so far; here thou shalt be as gay as the sun is bright on the
Bahamas. Of what use to be a sailor, if not to rejoice, and to see with
joy the works of God and His glory? Laugh, Colorado, the sound is music
in my ears!"
But by-and-by the play must cease. Orders were given, and Rento and
Franci set to work in good earnest. The wind was fair, the tide was
setting out. What should keep them longer here? The sails were hoisted
to the tune of "Baltimore," and Rento's gruff bass and Franci's melting
tenor were mingled for once in friendly harmony.
"I wish I was in Baltimore!
lo!
A-skating on the sanded floor.
A long time ago!
Forever and forever,
lo!
Forever and forever, boys,
A long time ago!"
Just as the cables were about to be cast off, a hail was heard from the
wharf, and Mr. Bill Hen Pike appeared, purple and breathless.
"Schooner ahoy!" he gasped; and then fell against a post and mopped his
brow.
"Señor!" responded the Skipper, coming to the stern, and greeting his
guest with a wave of the hand, "you come to bid us farewell? It is
kindly done! Or you bring us, perhaps, a message from our revered uncle?
Speak with haste, Señor, the tide waits not!"
"I--I brought this!" said Mr. Bill Hen, holding up a small object. "I
went up into his room, to see if there was anything he might like, and
there warn't nothing but just this. I thought you'd like to have it,
Johnny, to take along with you."
The good man's voice faltered; John ran to the stern, and held out his
hands eagerly, tenderly, crying,--"Oh, thank you, dear Mr. Pike! thank
you so very, very much!"
For it was the china poodle that Mr. Bill Hen had brought. When the
treasure was safe in the child's hands, Mr. Bill Hen breathed more
freely.
"Now you'll have something to remember us by, Johnny!" he said. "We've
lotted on ye a good deal, here to the village; more maybe than you
thought on. I--I'll miss ye consid'able, off and on, ye see, off and on.
You'll think about us nows and thens, won't ye, Bub?"
"Oh, yes, indeed!" cried little John, eagerly. "I shall think of you a
great, great deal, Mr. Bill Hen! You have always been so good and kind
to me, and I shall miss you, too, and Lena, and lots of people. And--and
how is Cousin Scraper, please, Mr. Bill Hen? Does he miss me, do you
think?"
"He's all right!" replied Mr. Bill Hen, gruffly. "Doosn't seem none the
worse for his tantrum. No, if you ask me, I can't say as he seems to
miss ye, not anyways to hurt him, that is. He'll be out again to-morrow
all right, doctor says; and besides bein' rather uglier than common all
day, I don't see no difference in him."
John sighed, but not very heavily.
"I suppose if I had been nicer he might have missed me," he said; "but
then, on the other hand, if he missed me, he wouldn't be so comfortable
at my going away; so, you see!"
Mr. Bill Hen did not see, but he said it was of no consequence. Then,
coming to the edge of the wharf, he shook hands all round, never
noticing, in the preoccupation of his mind, the knife that Franci
flashed and brandished in his eyes as a parting dramatic effect. He held
John's hand long, and seemed to labour for words, but found none; and so
they slipped away and left him standing alone on the wharf, a forlorn
figure.
Down the river! Sailing, sailing over the magical waters, past the fairy
shores, already darkening into twilight shades of purple and gray. The
white schooner glided along, passing, as she had come, like a dream. In
the bow stood the Skipper, his eyes bent forward, his hand clasping fast
the hand of the child.
"We go, Colorado!" he said. "We go, my son, to new worlds, to a new
life. May a blessing be upon them, as my heart feels there will be.
Behold, my friend, the ways of God, very wonderful to men of the sea. I
come up this river, with what thoughts in my heart? Partly of curiosity,
that I see the place where my mother, long dead, was born, came to her
womanhood; partly of tenderness for her memory, regard for her wish;
partly, also, for anger at the villain brother, my uncle, and desire for
revenge, for my rights. I come, and I find--a child! A brother for my
present life, a son for my age, a friend for my heart! Living upon the
sea, Colorado, a man has much time for thought; the sea speaks to him,
the sky, the wind and wave. What is the word they say, each and every
one, in the ear of the sailor? 'Glory to God!' That is it, my son. Let
us give thanks, and begin with joy our new life together!"
Down the river! The banks fade into shadow, the breeze sinks away, but
still the tide flows free, and the schooner slips along like a spirit.
Now comes up the white fog, the fog out of which she came gliding that
first morning; and it receives her as a bride, and folds her in its
arms, and she melts into the whiteness and is gone. Was it all a dream?
Or does there still come back to us, faintly borne, sweetly ringing, the
song of the sailors?
[Music]
For-ev-er and for-ev-er I--o,
For-ev-er and for-ev-er boys, A long time a-go.
[Illustration]
The Hildegarde Series
AND OTHER BOOKS BY LAURA E. RICHARDS.
***Next to Miss Alcott's famous "Little Women" series they easily rank,
and no books that have appeared in recent times may be more safely put
into the hands of a bright, intelligent girl than these four "Queen
Hildegarde" books.
HILDEGARDE'S NEIGHBORS.
By Laura E. Richards. A companion to "Queen Hildegarde," etc.
Illustrated from original designs. Square 16mo, cloth. $1.25.
A new volume in the "Hildegarde" Series, some of the best and most
deservedly popular books for girls issued in recent years. This new
volume is fully equal to its predecessors in point of interest, and is
sure to renew the popularity of the entire series.
QUEEN HILDEGARDE.
A story for girls, by Laura E. Richards, author of "Captain January,"
etc. Illustrated from original designs by Garrett (292 pp). Square 16mo,
cloth. $1.25.
"We would like to see the sensible, heroine-loving girl in her early
teens who would not like this book. Not to like it would simply argue a
screw loose somewhere." _Boston Post._
HILDEGARDE'S HOLIDAY.
A companion to "Queen Hildegarde." By Laura E. Richards. Illustrated
with full-page plates by Copeland. Square 16mo, cloth. $1.25.
HILDEGARDE'S HOME.
By Laura E. Richards, author of "Queen Hildegarde," "Captain January,"
etc. Illustrated with original designs by Merrill. Square 16mo, cloth.
$1.25.
_ALSO_
FOUR FEET, TWO FEET, AND NO FEET;
Or, Furry and Feathery Pets, and How they Live. Stories of Animals,
Fishes and Birds for the Little Folks. Edited by Laura E. Richards.
Illustrated with nearly 250 wood engravings, all original in design, and
engraved by George T. Andrew. Quarto. Illuminated board covers. $1.75.
FIVE MICE IN A MOUSE TRAP.
The story of their lives and other wonderful things related by The Man
in the Moon, done in the vernacular from the lunacular form, by Laura E.
Richards, daughter of Julia Ward Howe, author of "Four Feet, Two Feet,
and No Feet," "Joyous Story of Toto," etc. With a large number of
beautiful illustrations by Addie Ledyard, Kate Greenaway and others.
Quarto. Illuminated board covers. $1.25.
SIX GIRLS.
A delightful book for girls. By Fannie Belle Irving, a gifted writer,
and niece of Washington Irving. Illustrated from designs by Merrill.
16mo, cloth. Boston. $1.25.
_Estes & Lauriat, Publishers, Boston._
Illustrated Gift Books
FOR ALL SEASONS.
AMERICA'S GODFATHER;
Or, the Florentine Gentleman. Being the story of Amerigo Vespucci. By
Virginia W. Johnson, author of "The Lily of the Arno," etc. Handsomely
printed from large type, on fine paper, and illustrated with twenty
full-page plates in half-tone. Small, 8vo, handsomely bound in cloth,
extra, original and very handsome cover design, gilt top, in a box.
$2.50.
_WILLIAM WARE'S BOOKS._
ZENOBIA;
Queen of Palmyra. A tale of the Roman Empire in the days of the Emperor
Aurelian. By William Ware, author of "Aurelian," "Julian," etc. _Holiday
edition_. Handsomely printed from new and large type on laid paper, and
handsomely illustrated with twenty full-page plates in half-tone from
photographs taken in Palmyra. Small 8vo, tastefully bound in
parti-colored cloth, decorated in gold, with cameo portrait on side,
gilt top, in a box. $2.50
A handsome holiday edition of a famous historical novel, still popular
and worthy of preservation in an attractive form. The illustrations add
considerably to its interest, depicting the ruins of a splendid
civilization, that was at its zenith nearly two thousand years ago.
AURELIAN;
Emperor of Rome. A tale of the Roman Empire in the Third Century. By
William Ware, author of "Zenobia," etc. Handsomely printed from new,
large type, and illustrated with twenty full-page plates in half-tone
from photographs of Roman scenes described in the story. Small 8vo,
cloth, gilt top, _uniform with our holiday edition of_ "Zenobia," each
copy in a box. $2.50.
A companion edition to the handsome holiday edition of "Zenobia." It is
an historical tale of no ordinary power, and is familiar to the present
generation chiefly from the reputation of its former success, but well
deserves renewed popularity.
JULIAN;
Or Scenes in Judea. By William Ware, author of "Zenobia," etc.
Handsomely printed from new, large type, on laid paper, and illustrated
with full-page plates reproducing historic scenes described in the
narrative. Small 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uniform with our holiday editions
of "Zenobia" and "Aurelian," each copy in a box. $2.50.
Completes the series of historical romances by the author of "Zenobia."
The scene is laid at an earlier date than "Aurelian," being in fact
during the time of Christ's ministrations in Judea, scenes which have
since been so grandly used by Lew Wallace in "Ben Hur." To most of the
present generation the book will possess all the charm of novelty.
_Estes & Lauriat, Publishers, Boston._
Italian Cities Illustrated
ROME OF TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY:
The Pagan Centuries. By John Dennie. New holiday edition. Illustrated
with maps, plans, and twenty full-page plates, reproducing, in
photogravure, photographs of the most important points of interest.
Small 8vo, vellum cloth, cover design in gold and colors, gilt tops,
slip covers, in cloth case. $3.00.
GENOA THE SUPERB:
The City of Columbus. By Virginia W. Johnson, author of "The Lily of the
Arno," etc. Handsomely printed from large type on laid paper and
illustrated with twenty full-page photogravure plates from actual
photographs of buildings, statues, church interiors, etc., in the City
of Genoa. Small 8vo, tastefully bound in white vellum cloth, illuminated
in gold and colors, gilt top, uncut edges, with slip cover in scarlet.
Each copy in a neat cloth case. $3.00.
THE LILY OF THE ARNO;
Or, Florence, Past and Present, by Virginia W. Johnson. Charmingly
illustrated with twenty-five full-page photogravure plates from original
Photographs of points of interest in the beautiful City of Florence,
"The Lily of the Arno." Small 8vo, handsomely bound in white vellum
cloth, with cover design in gold and colors, gilt top, uncut edges, with
slip covers in scarlet. Each copy in a neat cloth case. $3.00.
NAPLES; THE CITY OF PARTHENOPE;
And its environs. By Clara Erskine Clement, author of "A Handbook of
Legendary and Mythological Art," "The Queen of the Adriatic," etc.
Handsomely illustrated with twenty full-page plates in photogravure from
photographs of historic scenes in and around Naples. Small 8vo,
handsomely bound in extra cloth, with handsome cover design, gilt top,
slip cover, in a neat cloth case. $3.00.
THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC;
Or, Venice, Mediæval and Modern. By Clara Erskine Clement, author of "A
Handbook of Legendary and Mythological Art," etc. Handsomely illustrated
with twenty full-page photogravures from recent photographs of the
principal points of interest. Small 8vo, vellum cloth, illuminated in
gold and colors, gilt tops, with slip cover, in cloth case. $3.00.
Great Cities of the World.
THE CITY OF THE SULTANS;
Or, Constantinople, the Sentinel of the Bosphorus. By Clara Erskine
Clement, author of "Naples," "Queen of the Adriatic," etc. Handsomely
illustrated with full-page photogravures from original photographs.
Small 8vo, cloth, substantially uniform in style with series of "Italian
Cities Illustrated." with slip cover, in cloth case. $3.00.
The initial volume of a new series of handsome gift books, companions to
the popular "Italian Cities Illustrated." Other volumes in press.
_Estes & Lauriat, Publishers, Boston._