NED THORN.
It was on one of the balmiest of spring afternoons that Noll went over
to Culm to see a little child who was recovering from the fever. The
sickness, apparently, had run its course, and the people were
beginning to take heart; and the men were overhauling their nets and
making ready for their summer's work. There had been a heavy storm on
the previous evening, and Noll found quantities of brilliant
sea-weeds and curious shells and pebbles on his walk along the beach,
and lingered long to search for treasures and enjoy the bright
loveliness of the day. Culm Rock and the great sea had never looked
fairer to him than on this afternoon,--the one lying warm and silent,
its great stone ribs purpling under the sun, and the other flecked
with curling ripples of snowy foam and emerald light.
It was late afternoon when he arrived at the Culm houses, and so long
did he linger that the sun was dipping in the waves before he was
ready to leave his little patient. He was standing in the door,
swinging his basket to and fro, and on the point of taking his
departure, when a sudden shout of voices from without turned his
attention in that direction. There, slowly riding in over the waves
all burnished and aflame with ruddy sunlight, was the "Gull"!
For a few short seconds Noll actually stood still with pleasure and
delight, then dropping his basket, he ran off across the sand toward
the wharf, as fast as he could go. The fishermen were already
congregating there, and their wives were standing in the doors of
their dwellings to gaze upon the welcome sight.
The vessel's white wings slowly brought her round to the little wharf,
revealing the skipper's sturdy person, and Mr. Snape's long and solemn
visage. Noll could hardly wait for the craft to touch the planks, and
Skipper Ben spied the lad before the "Gull" came up, with a dull thump
and jar, alongside.
"Great fishes!" cried he, extending his hand to aid Noll in clambering
aboard, "if here ben't the lad, alive an' hearty! Glad ter see
ye,--glad ter see ye!" shaking the boy's hand as if he never would
have done.
"You may believe I'm glad to see you!" said Noll; "I never was so glad
to see anything as the old 'Gull' in my life; and oh, why didn't you
come earlier, skipper?"
Ben laughed. "I knowed ye hev a hard time on't," he said; "reckoned
ye'd be glad ter see the old skipper once more. An', lad, how goes
it?"
Mr. Snape came up just here, drawling, "What ye think o' the winters
down 'ere, now, lad?"
"They _are_ long," said Noll; "but I've got through one, somehow. If
it weren't for the sickness, and such a long time without letters, I
wouldn't mind. Oh! skipper, haven't you got a great packet of 'em for
me?"
"Been sick down 'ere; hev ye?" said Ben, evading Noll's question.
"Well, that's wuss'n bein' without letters, eh, lad?"
"But haven't you got a bundle of 'em for me?" queried Noll. "I can't
wait, skipper!"
The skipper began to slowly shake his head. "Sorry," he said, "but I
didn't bring ye nary letter this time. Don' know but all yer frien's
hev forgot ye, fur they didn't give a single scrap o' paper to bring,
nor a message, nuther."
Mr. Snape began to grin, seeing how Noll's face fell, and how all his
joy and eagerness had suddenly vanished, and stepping along to the
hatchway, made certain mysterious signs and beckonings to something or
some one, there. Noll, filled with disappointment, walked away to the
stern and looked down into the green depths of water rippling there,
and strove to conceal his feelings from the watchful skipper. Up from
the hatchway and along the deck came a light step,--eager,
hurrying,--and before Noll could turn around, two arms had clasped him
about and held him fast against the rail, while a voice--just as full
of laughter and merriness as a voice could be--cried,--
"Oh, Noll, Noll Trafford! not to know me! not to _guess_ that I was
here! Why, you dear old fellow, ain't I better than letters? I've a
good mind to never let you look around to pay for not mistrusting that
I was here! Oh, Noll!"
"Well, I be beat!" said the skipper. "I never seed a lad so
dumbfounded afore. What ye goin' to give me fur bringin' ye sech a
parcel, Master Noll?"
But Noll had only eyes and ears for his friend.
"Ned, Ned Thorn!" he exclaimed, looking at his friend with wide-open
eyes, as if he thought he was seeing a vision. "It is really you, only
grown a little taller!"
"Of course it is; who else should it be?" said Ned, drawing his friend
out to one of the skipper's bales, where they could both sit down.
"You're brown as an old salt, Noll; but you haven't grown a bit! Oh,
but you may believe I'm glad to see you! I thought you'd be dying by
this time to see some one from Hastings, and when the skipper pointed
out the old stone dungeon where you live, I thought likely you were
dead already. What a horrid old fortress 'tis! and weren't you awful
homesick? and aren't you terribly moped up in such quarters? and, you
dear old Noll, how _have_ you managed to live it through, anyhow?"
"Beats everything at questions, that lad does," observed Mr. Snape to
the skipper; "nigh about pestered me to death, comin' down. You'd
better charge double ef yer goin' to carry him home, 'cause it's two
days' work fur one man ter tend to his talk. I ben't goin' to do't fur
nothin'."
"They ben't glad to see each other, eh, Jack?" said Ben; "wish there
was some prospect o' taking t'other home, too."
"I sh'u'd be 'feared the 'Gull''d founder," said Mr. Snape.
Noll, in the midst of happy talk, suddenly recollected that it was
after sundown, and that Uncle Richard and the tea-table would be
waiting.
"Come, Ned," he said, gleefully, "I'd forgotten all about sunset and
home till this minute. It's a good long walk, and we must start."
"I'm ready," said Ned, jumping up. "Skipper, where's my carpet-bag?
I'm going to stay, Noll, just as long as you'll keep me; and now I'm
anxious for a look inside your old dungeon and a peep at that grim
old--that's what the skipper said he was--uncle of yours. Do you think
he'll scold because I've come?"
"Indeed not!" said Noll; "and Uncle Richard's not so very grim,
either. We'll have splendid times in the old house, and now see if you
aren't sorry when it comes time for you to leave Culm Rock."
They clambered over the "Gull's" side on to the wharf, and passed
through in the little lane which the fishermen made for them, to the
smooth and shining sand, and so started for the stone house.
Ned Thorn was a boy of Noll's own age, and much resembled him in
appearance, though, of the two, Ned was a trifle the taller. Indeed,
as Mr. Snape observed, leaning over the rail and smoking his pipe
while he watched the two lads walking briskly homeward,--
"They're as like as two peas, Ben,--did ye note?--only one's more so
than t'other."
It seemed to Noll, while on this homeward walk, that nothing was
lacking to make home pleasant, now that Ned had come. His friend's
presence did not seem a reality, as yet, and he had to listen a long
time to Ned's merry chatter before he could realize that it was
actually Ned Thorn who was walking beside him in this purple twilight,
along the shore of the glimmering, sounding sea.
"What a queer place!" said Ned, stopping, at the curve of the shore,
to look off at the horizon, which seemed to rise higher than their
heads, and turning to look at the dark wall of rock behind them; "and
what a lonesome sound the waves make! I should have died of the blues
in three weeks. And what a miserable set those fishermen are! They all
seem to like you, though. Did you see how they made way for us, and
touched their caps, some of them? What a capital place to fish, off
those rocks! I'm glad I brought hooks and lines, and--What's that
light ahead? A lighthouse?"
"No, only Hagar's kitchen window," said Noll; "Hagar's our black
cook, and there's only three of us in that great house, Ned!"
"I should think you'd lose each other! Is your uncle like your father
at all?"
"No, Uncle Richard's not much like papa," said Noll, with sudden
graveness; "but he loves me, and--and I hope you'll like him, Ned."
They walked the rest of the way in silence till they came to the
piazza steps under the shadow of the great stone house.
"It looks just as it did when I saw it first," said Noll,--"the sea
getting dark and shadowy and making that lonesome sound on the
pebbles, and oh, how I had to rap and search before I could find my
way in! But come on, Ned."
Noll led his friend along the echoing hall, straight to Uncle
Richard's library, where the lamp had been lighted.
"This is Ned Thorn, Uncle Richard," said he, as they entered, "and
he's come clear from Hastings to see me."
"Ned is very welcome," said Trafford, who chanced to be in a cheerful
mood, "and if you boys are ready, we will go out to tea."
Noll ran on before to Hagar's kitchen, where he burst in,
exclaiming,--
"Another plate and teacup, Hagar! Did you know that we have actually
got company? It's Ned Thorn, a dear friend of mine, and he's from
Hastings, and going to stay--I don't know how long. Will you bring
them? Is tea all ready?"
"Bress ye!" said Hagar, "I's 'stonished to see ye so 'cited, honey.
I'll bring de dishes in a minnit."
The old housekeeper followed him back to the dining-room, where the
new-comer was endeavoring to interest Trafford in the account of the
day's journey, telling it in such a sprightly manner that the grim
master was betrayed into more than one smile.
"And now, Mr. Trafford, I'm going to stay here in this dismal old
house just as long as you'll keep me," said Ned, in conclusion. "And
Noll and I are going to have tip-top good times! I don't know as
there's a thing we can have fun out of, but if there isn't, we'll
invent something. We can fish,--there's one consolation! Why, Mr.
Trafford, what does Noll do with himself, anyhow? I think he's grown
as sober as--as--I don't know what!"
"Very likely," said Trafford, with a shadow of gloom on his face;
"this is a sober place. Noll has seen much of which you know nothing,
and it has made him graver and more thoughtful, I suppose; yet--"
"Yet you think he's all the better for that?" said Ned, merrily.
"Well, so do I! Papa always says I'm too much of a rattle-box; but I
can't help it. I couldn't be sober, like Noll, if I should try; and
you wouldn't want me to; would you, old fellow?"
Noll looked as if he was entirely suited, now, and secretly wondered
what Uncle Richard thought of his merry, light-hearted friend. The
days which followed were happy ones. Trafford recollected that Noll
had had a long winter of study, and granted a vacation to last during
Ned Thorn's stay; so the two boys were at liberty to fish and ramble
and explore rock and sand to their hearts' content. They gathered
basket after basket full of sea flowers and weeds of vivid dye, to be
pressed and packed for transportation to Hastings, and such quantities
of shells, with an occasional pebble of agate or carnelian, that Ned
laughingly declared,--
"I'll have just all the baggage the 'Gull' can float under, Noll. I'll
have to charter it to convey me and mine; for the skipper won't take
me under any other condition, you may be sure."
And these days were merry ones too. Hagar declared, "Dat yer Thorn boy
beat eberyt'ing dis ole woman eber seed. 'Peared like ther' was more'n
forty boys racin' up an' down dem yer stairs, an' laughin' at de tops
ob ther voices. Neber seed nuffn like it, nohow! But is ye sorry,
Hagar? Ye knows ye isn't! Ye likes to hear dis yer ole house waked up
an' 'pear as ef 'twas good fur somethin' 'sides holdin' mis'ry."
Noll more than once trembled lest Uncle Richard should be displeased
at this unusual clamor and mirthfulness, and banish Ned in anger; but
day after day passed, and Trafford made no opposition to the boys'
plans or proceedings, and apparently took quite a fancy to Noll's
friend.
"I'd just like to coax your uncle into playing a game of ball with
us," said Ned, as the two sat on the piazza one evening at twilight;
"do you suppose he would consent?"
"Uncle Richard play ball!" exclaimed Noll, laughing at the idea. "No!
I would almost as soon expect to see this old stone house playing at
toss and catch."
"Well, he _is_ the strangest man!" observed Ned; "but he loves
you,--I can see that, every day,---and perhaps he'll come out as
bright as a dollar, by and by. And--do you remember?--you was to tell
me about that plan to-night. Go in, Noll dear,--I'm all attention."