The Young Trawler by Robert Michael Ballantyne (classic novels txt) 📕

good as it ought to be, so I want them to have a change of air. You see, the poor little street in which they live is not the freshest in London."

"Exactly so. They want a trip to Brighton or Broadstairs or Ramsgate, and a whiff of fresh sea-air, eh?" said the captain with a look of satisfaction.

"No not to these places," said Ruth; "I thought of Yarmouth."

"Well, Yarmouth--just as good. Any part o' the coast will do to blow the London cobwebs out o' their brains--say Yarmouth."

"Very good, captain, but my difficulty is, how to manage it."

"Nothing easier, Miss Ruth. I will take an afternoon train, run down, hire a lodgin', come up to-morrow, an' carry the Miss Seawards off wi' me."

"But suppose they won't go?"

"But they must go. I'm quite able to take up one under each arm an' carry 'em off by force if they won't."

"I would highly approve of that method, captain, if it were possible, but I'm afraid such things are not permitted in this free country. No, if done at all, the thing must be gone about with a little more care and delicacy."

"Well then, I'll go down an' take a lodgin', an' write up and ask them to pay me a visit for the benefit of their health."

Ruth shook her pretty little head and frowned.

"Won't do," she said. "I know them too well. They're so unselfish that they won't budge a step to benefit themselves."

"H'm! I see, Miss Ruth, we want a little scheming here--eh? Well, I'll manage it. You leave this little matter in my hands, and see if I don't get 'em to visit Yarmouth, by hook or by crook. By the way, Miss Ruth, was it one o' your little schemes, givin' 'em these mitts and comforters to make?"

"Of course it was," Ruth replied with a laugh and a blush. "You see these things are really very much wanted by the North sea fishermen, and a great many benevolent women spend much time in knitting for them--and not only women, but also boys."

"Boys!" echoed the captain in surprise--"boys knit mitts and comforters?"

"Yes. I assure you that the telegraph boys of the Notting Hill branch of the Post-office have actually spent some of their spare time in doing this work."

"I'll look upon telegraph boys with more respect ever after this," said the captain with emphasis.

"Well, as I was saying," continued Ruth, "Mamma bought far more worsted for me than I could ever find time to work up into mitts or comforters, so I have employed the Miss Seawards to do it for me--at so much a pair. But they don't know it's for me, so be careful not to--"

"Yes, yes, I see--more scheming. Well, I'll take care not to blab."

"And I sent the worsted and arranged the transaction through such a dear pretty little fisher-boy from Yarmouth. But perhaps you have seen him at your lodging."

"No, I haven't seen him, but I've heard a good deal about him. The ladies seem to be as much impressed with his sweetness and prettiness as yourself, Miss Ruth. For my part, I'm not over fond o' sweet pretty boys. I prefer 'em rough-cast or even ugly, so long's they're smart an' willin'."

"Oh! but you have no idea what a smart and willing boy he is," said Ruth, firing up in defence of her little friend. "I assure you he is most willing and intelligent, and I do believe he would scratch his face and twist his little nose into a screw if by so doing he could make himself ugly, for I have observed that he is terribly annoyed when people call him pretty--as they often foolishly do."

"Well, I'll be off now on this little business," said the captain, rising and smoothing his hat with his cuff. "But--but--Miss Ruth-- excuse me, you said something about sending the Miss Seawards a _rich_ lodger when you sent me. How d'ee know I'm rich?"

"Well, I only guessed it," returned Ruth with a laugh, "and, you know, more than once you have hinted to me that you had got on very well--that God had prospered you--I think these were the words you have sometimes used."

"These are the words I would always use," returned the captain. "The prosperity that has attended me through life I distinctly recognise at being the result of God's will, not of my wisdom. Don't we see that the cleverest of men sometimes fail, and, on the other hand, the most stupid fellows sometimes succeed? It is God that setteth up one and putteth down another."

"I'm glad to hear that you think so clearly on this point, captain, though I did not know it before. It is another bond between us. However, if I have been wrong in supposing you to be rich, I--"

"Nay, I did not deny it, Miss Ruth, but it does not follow that a man means to say he is rich when he says that he has got on very well. However, my dear, I don't mind tellin' you, as a secret that I _am_ rich--as rich, that is, as there's any use to be, an' far richer than I deserve to be. You must know," continued the captain, sinking his voice to a hoarse whisper, "that your dear father used to allow me to put my savin's into his hands for investment, and the investments succeeded so well that at last I found myself in possession of five hundred a year!"

Captain Bream said this with much deliberation and an emphatic nod for each word, while he gazed solemnly in Ruth's face. "Not a bad fortune for an old bachelor, eh? Then," he continued, after a moment's pause, "when I was wrecked, two years ago in Australia, I took a fancy to have a look at the gold diggin's, so off I went to Bendigo, and I set to work diggin' for the mere fun o' the thing, and the very first day I turned up a nugget as big as my fist and two of the same sort the day after, an' then a lot o' little ones; in fact I had got hold of a first-rate claim, an' when I had dug away for a month or so I put it all in a big chest, sold the claim, and came straight home, bringin' the chest with me. I have it now, up in my cabin yonder. It well-nigh broke my back gittin' it up the stair, though my back ain't a weak one."

"And how much is the gold worth?" eagerly asked Ruth, who had listened with a sympathetic expression on her face.

"That's more than I can tell. I scarce know how to go about convertin' it into cash; but I'm in no hurry. Now mind, Miss Ruth, not a word o' this to any livin' soul. Not even to your own mother, for she ain't _my_ mother, d'ee see, an' has no right to know it. In fact I've never told it to any one till this day, for I have no one in the wide world to care about it. Once, indeed, I had--"

He stopped short.

"Ah! you are thinking of your sister?" said the sympathetic Ruth; "the sister whom you once told me about long ago."

"Yes, Miss Ruth, I _was_ thinkin' o' her; but--" He stopped again.

"Do tell me about her," said Ruth, earnestly. "Has she been long dead?"

"Dead! my dear. I didn't say she was dead, an' yet it ain't unlikely she is, for it's long, long since I heard of her. There's not much to tell about her after all," said the captain, sadly. "But she was a dear sweet little girl at the time--just turned eighteen--an' very fond o' me. We had no parents living, an' no kindred except one old aunt, with whom my sister lived. I was away at the time on a long voyage, and had to take a cargo from the East Indies to China before returnin' home. At Hongkong I fell ill, an' was laid up there for months. Altogether a good many troubles came on me at that time--though they were blessed troubles to me, for they ended in the saving o' my soul through my eyes bein' opened to see my sins and Jesus Christ as my Saviour. It was three years before I set foot in England again, and when I got back I found that my old aunt was dead, and that my dear sister had married a seaman and gone away--no one knew where."

"And you've never heard of her since?" asked Ruth.

"Never."

"And don't know who she married?"

"Know nothin' more about her, my dear, than I've told 'ee. Good-bye now, Miss Ruth. I must look sharp about this business of yours."

He showed such evident disinclination to continue the painful subject, that Ruth forbore to press it, and they parted to prosecute their respective schemes.


CHAPTER TWELVE.


CAPTAIN BREAM DEVELOPS A CAPACITY FOR SCHEMING.

At dinner that day Captain Bream paused in the act of conveying a whole potato to his mouth on the end of his fork, and said--

"Miss Seaward, I'm going to leave you--"

"Leave us!" cried Kate, interrupting him with a look of consternation, for she and Jessie had both become so fond of the amiable seaman, with the frame of Goliath and the heart of Samuel, that they were now as much afraid of losing, as they had formerly been of possessing him. "Leave us, captain!"

"Only for a time, Miss Kate--only for a time," he replied, hastily, as he checked the power of further utterance with the potato. "Only for a time," he repeated, on recovering the power. "You see, I've got a little bit of business to transact down at Yarmouth, and it will take me a good while to do it. Some weeks at the least--perhaps some months-- but there's no help for it, for the thing _must_ be done."

The captain said this with so much decision, that Kate could scarcely forbear laughing as she said--

"Dear me, it must be very important business since you seem so determined about it. Is there anything or any one likely to oppose you in transacting the business?"

"Well, not exactly at present," returned the captain blandly, "but there are two obstinate friends of mine who, I have been told, would oppose me pretty stoutly if I was to tell 'em all the truth about it."

"Is there any necessity," asked Jessie, "for telling these obstinate friends anything about the business at all?"

"Well, yes," replied the captain with a chuckle that almost brought on a choking fit; "I can't well avoid tellin' them somethin' about it, for they've a right to know, but--"

"Wouldn't it save you all trouble, then," broke in Kate, seeing his hesitation, "to tell them just as much of the business as they were entitled to know, and no more."

"That's just the very thing I mean to do," replied the captain, bursting into a laugh so deep and thunderous that the small domestic, Liffie Lee, entered the room abruptly to ask if anything was wanted, but in reality