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diff --git a/21105.txt b/21105.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d149038 --- /dev/null +++ b/21105.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4488 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Teddy, by J. C. Hutcheson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Teddy + The Story of a Little Pickle + +Author: J. C. Hutcheson + +Illustrator: A.M.S. + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21105] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEDDY *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + + +Teddy: The story of a Little Pickle + +by John Conran Hutcheson +________________________________________________________________ +This short book is probably of more interest to ten or eleven +year olds, rather than any other age group, for much of the book +is taken up with describing sundry very juvenile misdemeanours. + +It is well written, but my personal opinion is that it is quite +inconsequential. + +Still, it was quite amusing to scan it, OCR it, and edit it. N.H. +________________________________________________________________ + +TEDDY: THE STORY OF A LITTLE PICKLE + +BY JOHN CONRAN HUTCHESON. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +AN INDEPENDENT YOUNG GENTLEMAN. + +"I want do d'an'ma!" + +This sudden and unexpected exclamation, uttered as it was in a shrill +little voice like that of a piping bullfinch, and coming from nowhere in +particular, as far as he could make out, for he had fancied himself all +alone on the platform, made the tall railway porter almost jump out of +his skin, as he expressed it, startling him out of his seven senses. + +He was a stalwart, good-natured, black-bearded giant of a man, clad in a +suit of dunduckety-mud-coloured velveteens, rather the worse for wear, +and smeary with oil and engine-grease, which gave them a sort of highly- +burnished appearance resembling that of a newly-polished black-leaded +stove. + +Doing nothing, and thinking of nothing specially, for the three-forty +up-train had gone through the station, and it was a good hour yet before +the five-ten down express was due, he had been lazily leaning in a half- +dreamy and almost dozing state against the side of the booking-office. + +From this coign of vantage, he was, as well as his blinking eyes would +allow, gazing out over the rails at the fast-falling flakes of feathery +snow that were quickly covering up the metals and permanent way with a +mantle of white; when, all at once, without a "by your leave," or seeing +or hearing anyone approach, his attention was summarily brought back to +the present by the strange announcement of the shrill little voice, +while, at the same time, he felt the clutch of tiny fingers twitching at +one of the legs of his shiny velveteen trousers, evidently as a further +means of attracting his notice. + +The touch made the porter look downwards, when, perceiving that his +unknown interlocutor was a small mite barely reaching up to his knees, +he became more reassured; and, bending his big body so as to bring his +face somewhat on a level with the young person, he proceeded to +interrogate him in familiar fashion. + +"Well, my little man," he said, desiring to learn how he might be of +service, for he was a genial willing fellow, and always anxious to +oblige people when he knew how--"what's the matter?" + +"I want do d'an'ma!" repeated the small mite in the same piping tones as +before, speaking with the utmost assurance and in the most matter-of- +fact way. + +It seemed as if, having now explicitly notified his wants and wishes, he +confidently looked forward, in all the innocent trust of childhood, to +their being instantly acted upon and carried out without any demur or +hesitation. + +Jupp, the porter, was quite flabbergasted by the little chap's sang- +froid; so, in order the better to collect his ideas and enable him to +judge what was best to be done under the circumstances, he took off his +flat-peaked uniform cap with one hand and scratched his head +reflectively with the fingers of the other, as is frequently the wont of +those possessed of thick skulls and wits that are apt to go wool- +gathering. + +The operation appeared to have the effect desired; for, after indulging +in this species of mental and physical cogitation for a moment or two, +Jupp ventured upon asking the mite another question which had +brilliantly suggested itself to him as opportune. + +"Where is your grandma, sir?" he inquired with more deference than he +had used before. + +"Don-don," replied the small person nonchalantly, as if the point was +quite immaterial, looking the porter calmly and straight in the eyes +unflinchingly, without turning a hair as the saying goes. + +Jupp had never come across such a self-possessed young mannikin in his +life before. Why, he might have been the station-master or traffic- +manager, he appeared so much at his ease! + +But, he was a little gentleman all the same, Jupp could readily see, in +spite of the fact that his costume was not quite suited for travelling, +the mite being attired in a very prominent and dirty pinafore, while his +chubby face was tear-stained, and he had the look of having come out in +a hurry and being perhaps unprepared for the journey he contemplated; +although, mind you, he had his luggage with him all right--a small +bundle tied up in a large pocket-handkerchief of a bright-red colour, +which he held tightly clasped to his little stomach as if afraid of its +being taken from him. + +Jupp hardly knew off-hand how to deal with the case, it being of a more +perplexing nature than had previously come within range of his own +personal experience; still, he had his suspicions, and thought it best +to entertain the young person in conversation for a bit, until he should +be able to find out something about his belongings and where he came +from. + +"London's a large place, sir," he therefore observed tentatively, by way +of drawing the mite out and getting some clue towards his identity. + +The little chap, however, was quite equal to the occasion. + +"Don't tare," he said defiantly, checking the porter's artful attempt at +cross-examination. "I want do d'an'ma!" + +Certainly, he was a most independent young gentleman. + +Jupp was at a nonplus again; however, he tried to temporise with the +mite, the more especially from his noticing that his little legs were +quite mottled and his tiny fingers blue with cold. + +"Well, come in here, sir, at all events, and warm yourself, and then we +can talk the matter over comfortably together," he said, throwing open +the door of the waiting-room as he spoke, and politely motioning the +little chap to enter. + +The mite made no reply to the invitation, but he tacitly accepted it by +following the porter into the apartment he had indicated, and the two +were presently seated before a glowing fire, on which Jupp immediately +emptied the scuttleful of coals, there being no stint of the fuel by +reason of the company standing all expense. + +Thawed by the genial warmth, rendered all the more enjoyable by the +wintry scene outside, where the snow was now swirling down faster and +faster as the afternoon advanced, the little chap began to get more +communicative, egged on by Jupp in a series of apparently innocent +questions. + +"Nussy bad ooman," he blurted out after a long silence, looking up at +Jupp and putting his hand on his knee confidingly. + +"Indeed, sir?" said the other cautiously, leading him on. + +"Ess, man," continued the mite. "See want take way my kitty." + +"You don't mean that, sir!" exclaimed Jupp with well-feigned horror at +such unprincipled behaviour on the part of the accused nurse. + +"Ess, man, see did," replied the little chap, nodding his small curly +head with great importance; but the next instant his little roguish blue +eyes twinkled with suppressed intelligence, and his red rosebud of a +mouth expanded into a happy smile as he added, with much satisfaction in +his tones, "but I dot kitty all wite now!" + +"Have you really, sir?" said Jupp, pretending to be much surprised at +the information, the little chap evidently expecting him to be so. + +"Ess, man," cried the mite with a triumphant shout; "I'se dot po' 'ittle +kitty here!" + +"Never, sir!" ejaculated Jupp with trembling eagerness, as if his life +depended on the solution of the doubt. + +The little chap became completely overcome with merriment at having so +successfully concealed his treasured secret, as he thought, that the +porter had not even guessed it. + +"Kitty's in dundle!" he exclaimed gleefully, hugging his handkerchief +parcel tighter to his little stomach as he spoke. "I dot kitty here, +all wite!" + +"You don't mean that, sir--not in that bundle o' yours surely, sir?" +repeated Jupp with deep fictitious interest, appearing still not quite +convinced on the point and as if wishing to have the difficulty cleared +up. + +This diplomatic course of procedure on the part of the porter removed +any lingering scruples the mite had in respect of his good faith. + +"Ess, man. I dot kitty here in dundle all wite," he repeated earnestly +in his very impressive little way. "Oo musn't tell nobody and I'll so +her to 'oo!" + +"I won't breathe a word of it to a soul, sir," protested Jupp as +solemnly and gravely as if he were making his last dying deposition; +whereupon the mite, quite convinced of the porter's trustworthiness and +abandoning all further attempt at concealment, deposited his little +bundle tenderly on the floor in front of the fireplace, and began to +open it with much deliberation. + +The little fellow appeared so very serious about the matter, that Jupp +could not help trying to be serious too; but it required the exercise of +all the self-command he possessed to refrain from laughing when the +motley contents of the red handkerchief were disclosed. + +Before the last knot of the bundle was untied by the mite's busy fingers +there crawled out a tiny tortoise-shell kitten, with its diminutive +little tail erect like a young bottle-brush, which gave vent to a "phiz- +phit," as if indignant at its long confinement, and then proceeded to +rub itself against Jupp's leg, with a purring mew on recognising a +friend. + +"So that's kitty," said Jupp, holding the little thing up on his knee +and stroking it affectionately, the animal signifying its satisfaction +by licking the back of his hand with its furry little red tongue, and +straightening its tiny tail again as stiff as a small poker. + +"Ess, man. Dat's kitty," murmured the mite, too much occupied undoing +the last knots of the bundle to waste time in further speech for the +moment, struggling as he was at the job with might and main. + +In another second, however, he had accomplished his task; and, lifting +up the corners of the red handkerchief, he rolled out the whole stock of +his valued possessions on to the floor. + +"Dere!" he exclaimed with much complacency, looking up into Jupp's face +in expectation of his admiring surprise. + +The porter was again forced to act a part, and pretend that he could not +guess anything. + +"Dear me!" he said; "you have brought a lot of things! Going to take +'em with you to London, sir?" + +"Ess. Da'n'ma tate tare of zem." + +"No doubt, sir," replied Jupp, who then went on to inspect gingerly the +different articles of the collection, which was very varied in +character. + +They consisted, in addition to the tortoise-shell kitten fore-mentioned, +of a musical snuff-box, a toy model of a ship, a small Noah's ark, a +half-consumed slice of bread and butter, an apple with a good-sized bite +taken out of one side, a thick lump of toffee, and a darkish-brown +substance like gingerbread, which close association in the bundle, +combined with pressure, had welded together in one almost +indistinguishable mass. + +"I suppose, sir," observed Jupp inquiringly, picking up all the eatables +and putting them together apart on the seat next the little man--"I +suppose as how them's your provisions for the journey?" + +"Ess. I ate dindin; an', dat's tea." + +"Indeed, sir! and very nice things for tea too," said Jupp, beaming with +admiration and good-humoured fun. + +"I touldn't det any milk, or I'd bought dat too," continued the mite, +explaining the absence of all liquid refreshment. + +"Ah! that's a pity," rejoined the porter, thinking how well half a pint +of milk would have mixed up with the other contents of the bundle; "but, +perhaps, sir, the kitty would have lapped it up and there would have +been none left. Would you like a cup of tea now, sir? I'm just agoing +to have mine; and if you'd jine me, I'd feel that proud you wouldn't +know me again!" + +"Dank 'oo, I'm so dirsty," lisped the little man in affable +acquiescence; and, the next moment, Jupp had spirited out a rough basket +from under the seat in the corner, when extracting a tin can with a cork +stopper therefrom, he put it on the fire to warm up. + +From a brown-paper parcel he also turned out some thick slices of bread +that quite put in the shade the half-eaten one belonging to the mite; +and as soon as the tea began to simmer in the tin over the coals, he +poured out some in a pannikin, and handed it to his small guest. + +"Now, sir, we'll have a regular picnic," he said hospitably. + +"All wite, dat's jolly!" shouted the other in great glee; and the two +were enjoying themselves in the highest camaraderie, when, suddenly, the +door of the waiting-room was opened from without, and the face of a +buxom young woman peered in. + +"My good gracious!" exclaimed the apparition, panting out the words as +if suffering from short breath, or from the effects of more rapid +exertion than her physique usually permitted. "If there isn't the young +imp as comfortably as you please; and me a hunting and a wild-goose +chasing on him all over the place! Master Teddy, Master Teddy, you'll +be the death of me some day, that you will!" + +Jupp jumped up at once, rightly imagining that this lady's unexpected +appearance would, as he mentally expressed it, "put a stopper" on the +mite's contemplated expedition, and so relieve him of any further +personal anxiety on his behalf, he having been puzzling his brains +vainly for the last half hour how to discover his whereabouts and get +him home to his people again; but, as for the little man himself, he did +not seem in the least put out by the interruption of his plans. + +"Dat nussy," was all he said, clutching hold of Jupp's trouser leg, as +at first, in an appealing way: "Don't 'et her, man, tate away poor +kitty!" + +"I won't sir, I promise you," whispered Jupp to comfort him; however, +before he could say any more, the panting female had drawn nearer from +the doorway and come up close to the fireplace, the flickering red light +from which made her somewhat rubicund countenance appear all the +ruddier. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +TELLS ALL ABOUT HIM. + +"Pray, don't 'ee be angry wi' him, mum," said Jupp appealingly, as the +somewhat flustered female advanced towards the mite, laying hands on his +collar with apparently hostile intentions. + +"I ain't a going to be angry," she replied a trifle crossly, as perhaps +was excusable under the circumstances, carrying out the while, however, +what had evidently been her original idea of giving the mite "a good +shaking," and thereby causing his small person to oscillate violently to +and fro as if he were crossing the Bay of Biscay in a Dutch trawler with +a choppy sea running. "I ain't angry to speak of; but he's that +tormenting sometimes as to drive a poor creature a'most out of her mind! +Didn't I tell 'ee," she continued, turning round abruptly to the object +of her wrath and administering an extra shake by way of calling him to +attention. "Didn't I tell 'ee as you weren't to go outdoors in all the +slop and slush--didn't I tell 'ee now?" + +But in answer the mite only harked back to his old refrain. + +"I want do d'an'ma," he said with stolid defiance, unmoved alike by his +shaking or the nurse's expostulation. + +"There, that's jest it," cried she, addressing Jupp the porter again, +seeing that he was a fine handsome fellow and well-proportioned out of +the corner of her eye without looking at him directly, in that +unconscious and highly diplomatic way in which women folk are able to +reckon up each other on the sly and take mental stock of mankind. +"Ain't he aggravating? It's all that granma of his that spoils him; and +I wish she'd never come nigh the place! When Master Teddy doesn't see +her he's as good as gold, that he is, the little man!" + +She then, with the natural inconsequence and variability of her sex, +immediately proceeded to hug and kiss the mite as affectionately as she +had been shaking and vituperating him the moment before, he putting up +with the new form of treatment as calmly and indifferently as he had +received the previous scolding. + +"He's a fine little chap," said Jupp affably, conceiving a better +opinion of the nurse from her change of manner as well as from noticing, +now that her temporary excitement had evaporated, that she was a young +and comely woman with a very kindly face. "He told me as how he were +going to Lun'non." + +"Did he now?" she exclaimed admiringly. + +"He's the most owdacious young gen'leman as ever was, I think; for he's +capable, young as he is, not long turned four year old, of doin' a'most +anything. Look now at all them things of his as he's brought from +home!" + +"That were his luggage like," observed Jupp, smiling and showing his +white teeth, which contrasted well with his black beard, making him +appear very nice-looking really, the nurse thought. + +"The little rogue!" said she enthusiastically, hugging the mite again +with such effusion that Jupp wished he could change places with him, he +being unmarried and "an orphan man," as he described himself, "without +chick or child to care for him." + +"He ought to be a good 'un with you a looking after him," he remarked +with a meaning glance, which, although the nurse noticed, she did not +pretend to see. + +"So he is--sometimes, eh, Master Teddy?" she said, bending down again +over the mite to hide a sudden flush which had made her face somehow or +other crimson again. + +"Ess," replied the hero of the occasion, who, soothed by all these +social amenities passing around him, quickly put aside his stolid +demeanour and became his little prattling self again. + +However, such was his deep foresight that he did not forget to grasp so +favourable an opportunity for settling the initial difficulty between +himself and nurse in the matter of the kitten, which had led up +logically to all that had happened, and so prevent any misunderstanding +on the point in future. + +"Oo won't tate way kitty?" he asked pleadingly, holding up with both +hands the struggling little animal, which Jupp had incontinently dropped +from his knee when he rose up, on the door of the waiting-room being +suddenly opened and the impromptu picnic organised by the mite and +himself brought to an abrupt termination, by the unexpected advent of +the nurse on the scene. + +"No, Master Teddy, I promise you I won't," she replied emphatically. +"You can bathe the poor little brute in the basin and then put it all +wet in your bed afterwards, as you did this morning, or anything else +you like. Bless you, you can eat it if it so please you, and I shan't +interfere!" + +"All wite, den; we frens 'dain," lisped the mite, putting up his little +rosebud mouth so prettily for a kiss, in token of peace and forgiveness +on his part, that the nurse could not help giving him another hug. + +This display of affection had unfortunately the same effect on Jupp as +before, causing the miserable porter to feel acute pangs of envy; +although, by rights, he had no direct interest in the transaction, and +was only an outside observer, so to speak! + +By way of concealing his feelings, therefore, he turned the +conversation. + +"And have you come far arter him, miss, if I may make so bold as to ax +the question?" he said hesitatingly, being somewhat puzzled in his mind +as to whether "miss" or "mum" was the correct form in which to address +such a pleasant young woman, who might or might not be a matron for all +he could tell. + +He evidently hit upon the right thing this time; for, she answered him +all the more pleasantly, with a bright smile on her face. + +"Why, ever so far!" she exclaimed. "Don't you know that large red brick +house t'other side of the village, where Mr Vernon lives--a sort of +old-fashioned place, half covered with ivy, and with a big garden?" + +"Parson Vernon's, eh?" + +"Yes, Master Teddy's his little son." + +"Lor', I thought he were a single man, lone and lorn like myself, and +didn't have no children," said Jupp. + +"That's all you know about it," retorted the nurse. "You must be a +stranger in these parts; and, now I come to think on it, I don't believe +as I ever saw you here before." + +"No, miss, I was only shifted here last week from the Junction, and +hardly knows nobody," said Jupp apologetically. "For the rights o' +that, I ain't been long in the railway line at all, having sarved ten +years o' my time aboard a man-o'-war, and left it thinking I'd like to +see what a shore billet was like; and so I got made a porter, miss, my +karacter being good on my discharge." + +"Dear me, what a pity!" cried the nurse. "I do so love sailors." + +"If you'll only say the word, miss, I'll go to sea again to-morrow +then!" ejaculated Jupp eagerly. + +"Oh no!" laughed the nurse; "why, then I shouldn't see any more of you; +but I was telling you about Master Teddy. Parson Vernon, as you call +him, has four children in all--three of them girls, and Master Teddy is +the only boy and the youngest of the lot." + +"And I s'pose he's pretty well sp'ilt?" suggested Jupp. + +"You may well say that," replied the other. "He was his mother's pet, +and she, poor lady, died last year of consumption, so he's been made all +the more of since by his little sisters, and the grandmother when she +comes down, as she did at Christmas. You'd hardly believe it, small as +he looks he almost rules the house; for his father never interferes, +save some terrible row is up and he hears him crying--and he can make a +noise when he likes, can Master Teddy!" + +"Ess," said the mite at this, thinking his testimony was appealed to, +and nodding his head affirmatively. + +"And he comed all that way from t'other side o' the village by hisself?" +asked Jupp by way of putting a stop to sundry other endearments the +fascinating young woman was recklessly lavishing on the little chap. +"Why, it's more nor a mile!" + +"Aye, that he has. Just look at him," said she, giving the mite another +shake, although this time it was of a different description to the one +she had first administered. + +He certainly was not much to look at in respect of stature, being barely +three feet high; but he was a fine little fellow for all that, with good +strong, sturdy limbs and a frank, fearless face, which his bright blue +eyes and curling locks of brown hair ornamented to the best advantage. + +As before mentioned, he had evidently not been prepared for a journey +when he made his unexpected appearance at the station, being without a +hat on his head and having a slightly soiled pinafore over his other +garments; while his little feet were encased in thin house shoes, or +slippers, that were ill adapted for walking through the mud and snow. + +Now that the slight differences that had arisen between himself and the +nurse had been amicably settled, he was in the best of spirits, with his +little face puckered in smiles and his blue eyes twinkling with fun as +he looked up at the two observing him. + +"He is a jolly little chap!" exclaimed Jupp, bending down and lifting +him up in his strong arms, the mite the while playfully pulling at his +black beard; "and I tell you what, miss, I think he's got a very good +nurse to look after him!" + +"Do you?" said she, adding a moment afterwards as she caught Jupp's look +of admiration, "Ah, that's only what you say now. You didn't think so +when I first came in here after him; for you asked me not to beat him-- +as if I would!" + +"Lor', I never dreamt of such a thing!" cried he with much emphasis, the +occasion seeming to require it. "I only said that to coax you like, +miss. I didn't think as you'd hurt a hair of his head." + +"Well, let it be then," replied she, accepting this amende and setting +to work gathering together the mite's goods and chattels that were still +lying on the floor of the waiting-room--with the exception of the +kitten, which he had himself again assumed the proprietorship of and now +held tightly in his arms, even as he was clasped by Jupp and elevated +above the porter's shoulder. "I must see about taking him home again." + +"Shall I carry him for you, miss?" asked Jupp. "The down-train ain't +due for near an hour yet, and I dessay I can get my mate to look out for +me while I walks with you up the village." + +"You are very kind," said she; "but, I hardly like to trouble you?" + +"No trouble at all, miss," replied Jupp heartily. "Why, the little +gentleman's only a featherweight." + +"That's because you're such a fine strong man. I find him heavy enough, +I can tell you." + +Jupp positively blushed at her implied compliment. "I ain't much to +boast of ag'in a delicate young 'ooman as you," he said at last; "but, +sartenly, I can carry a little shaver like this; and, besides, look how +the snow's a coming down." + +"Well, if you will be so good, I'd be obliged to you," interposed the +nurse hurriedly as if to stop any further explanations on Jupp's part, +he having impulsively stepped nearer to her at that moment. + +"All right then!" cried he, his jolly face beaming with delight at the +permission to escort her. "Here, Grigson!" + +"That's me!" shouted another porter appearing mysteriously from the back +of the office, in answer to Jupp's stentorian hail. + +"Just look out for the down-train, 'case I ain't back in time. I'm just +agoin' to take some luggage for this young woman up to the village." + +"Aye, just so," replied the other with a sly wink, which, luckily for +himself, perhaps, Jupp did not see, as, holding the mite tenderly in his +arms, with his jacket thrown over him to protect him from the snow, he +sallied out from the little wayside station in company with the nurse, +the latter carrying all Master Teddy's valuables, which she had re- +collected and tied up again carefully within the folds of the red +pocket-handkerchief bundle wherein their proprietor had originally +brought them thither. + +Strange to say, the mite did not exhibit the slightest reluctance in +returning home, as might have been expected from the interruption of his +projected plan of going to London to see his "d'an'ma." + +On the contrary, his meeting with Jupp and introduction to him as a new +and estimable acquaintance, as well as the settlement of all outstanding +grievances between himself and his nurse, appeared to have quite changed +his views as to his previously-cherished expedition; so that he was now +as content and cheerful as possible, looking anything but like a +disappointed truant. + +Indeed, he more resembled a successful conqueror making a triumphal +entry into his capital than a foiled strategist defeated in the very +moment of victory! + +"I like oo," he said, pulling at Jupp's black beard in high glee and +chuckling out aloud in great delight as they proceeded towards the +village, the nurse clinging to the porter's other and unoccupied arm to +assist her progress through the snow-covered lane, down which the wind +rushed every now and then in sudden scurrying gusts, whirling the white +flakes round in the air and blinding the wayfarers as they plodded +painfully along. + +"I don't know what I should have done without your help," she observed +fervently after a long silence between the two, only broken by Master +Teddy's shouts of joy when a snow-flake penetrating beneath Jupp's +jacket made the kitten sneeze. "I'm sure I should never have got home +to master's with the boy!" + +"Don't name it," whispered Jupp hoarsely beneath his beard, which the +snow had grizzled, lending it a patriarchal air. "I'm only too proud, +miss, to be here!" and he somehow or other managed to squeeze her arm +closer against his side with his, making the nurse think how nice it was +to be tall and strong and manly like the porter! + +"They'll be in a rare state about Master Teddy at the vicarage!" she +said after they had plodded on another hundred yards, making but slow +headway against the drifting snow and boisterous wind. "I made him +angry by taking away his kitten, I suppose, and so he determined to make +off to his gran'ma; for we missed him soon after the children's dinner. +I thought he was in the study with Mr Vernon; but when I came to look +he wasn't there, and so we all turned out to search for him. Master +made sure we'd find him in the village; but I said I thought he'd gone +to the station, far off though it was, and you see I was right!" + +"You're a sensible young woman," said Jupp. "I'd have thought the +same." + +"Go on with your nonsense; get along!" cried she mockingly, in apparent +disbelief of Jupp's encomiums, and pretending to wrench her arm out of +his so as to give point to her words. + +"I'll take my davy, then," he began earnestly; but, ere he could say any +more, a voice called out in front of them, amid the eddying flakes: + +"Hullo, Mary! Is that you?" + +"That's my master," she whispered to Jupp; and then answered aloud, +"Yes, sir, and I've found Master Teddy." + +"Is Mary your name?" said Jupp to her softly in the interlude, while +scrunching footsteps could be heard approaching them, although no one +yet could be perceived through the rifts of snow. "I think it the +prettiest girl's name in the world!" + +"Go 'long!" cried she again; but she sidled up to him and held on to his +arm once more as she spoke, the blasts of the storm at the moment being +especially boisterous. + +"Is that you, Mary?" repeated the voice in front, now much nearer, her +answer not having been heard apparently, on account of the wind blowing +from the speaker towards them. + +"Yes, sir," she screamed out. "I've found Master Teddy, and he's all +right." + +She was heard this time. + +"Thank God!" returned the voice in trembling accents, nearer still; and +then a thin, haggard, careworn-looking man in clergyman's dress rushed +up to them. + +He was quite breathless, and his face pale with emotion. + +"Padie! Padie!" exclaimed the mite, raising himself up on Jupp's +shoulder and stretching out one of his little hands to the new-comer +while the other grasped the kitten. "I'se turn back, I'se turn back to +oo!" + +"My boy, my little lamb! God be praised for his mercy!" cried the +other; and the next instant Teddy was locked in his father's arms in a +close embrace, kitten and all. + +"Say, Miss Mary," whispered Jupp, taking advantage of the opportunity +while Mr Vernon's back was turned. + +"What?" she asked, looking up into his face demurely. + +"This ought to be passed round." + +"Go 'long!" she replied; but, she didn't budge an inch when Jupp put his +arm round her, and nobody knows what happened before Mr Vernon had +composed himself and turned round again! + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +AT THE VICARAGE. + +Three little girls were flattening their respective little noses against +the panes of glass as they stood by one of the low French windows of the +old red brick house at the corner of the lane commanding the approach +from the village; and three little pairs of eager eyes, now big with +expectation, were peering anxiously across the snow-covered lawn through +the gathering evening gloom towards the entrance gate beyond--the only +gap in the thick and well-nigh impenetrable laurel hedge, some six feet +high and evenly cropped all round at the top and square at the sides, +which encircled the vicarage garden, shutting it in with a wall of +greenery from the curious ken of all passers-by without. + +With eager attention the little girls were watching to see who would be +the first of the trio to herald the return of the missing Master Teddy +and those who had gone forth in search of him; but, really, seekers and +sought alike had been so long absent that it seemed as if they were all +lost together and never coming back! + +The little girls were weary almost of waiting, and being thus kept in +suspense with hope deferred. + +Besides that, they were overcome with a sense of loneliness and +desertion, everyone in the house but old Molly the cook and themselves +having started off early in the afternoon in different directions in +quest of the truant Teddy; so, as the time flew by and day drew to a +close, without a sight or sound in the distance to cheer their drooping +spirits, their little hearts grew heavy within them. + +Presently, too, their whilom bright eyes got so dimmed with unshed tears +which would well up, that they were unable to see clearly had there been +anything or anyone for them to see; while their little putty noses, when +they removed them occasionally from close contact with the glass, bore a +suspiciously red appearance that was not entirely due to previous +pressure against the window panes. + +Nor were their surroundings of a sufficiently enlivening character to +banish the little maidens' despondency, the fire in the drawing-room +grate having died out long since from inattention, making them feel cold +and comfortless, and it had got so dark within that they could not +distinguish the various articles of furniture, even papa's armchair in +the chimney-corner; while, outside, in the gloaming, the snow-flakes +were falling slowly and steadily from a leaden-hued sky overhead. + +The only thing breaking the stillness of the murky air was the +melancholy "Chirp, churp! chirp, churp" uttered at intervals by some +belated sparrow who had not gone to bed in good time like all sensible +bird-folk, and whose plaintive chirp was all the more aggravating from +its monotonous repetition. + +"I'm sore sumtin d'eadfill's happened," whimpered little Cissy, the +youngest of the three watchers, after a long silence between them. "Pa +sood have been back hours and hours and hours ago." + +"Nonsense, Cissy!" said Miss Conny, her elder sister, who by virtue of +her seniority and the fact of her having reached the mature age of ten +was rather prone to giving herself certain matronly airs of superiority +over the others, which they put up with in all good faith, albeit they +were most amusing to outside onlookers. "You are always imagining +something terrible is going to befall everybody, instead of hoping for +the best! Why don't you learn to look on the bright side of things, +child? Every cloud, you know, has its silver lining." + +"But not dat one up dere!" retorted Cissy, unconvinced by the proverb, +pointing to the sombre pall of vapour that now enveloped the whole sky +overhead; when, struck more than ever with the utter dismalness of the +scene, she drew out a tiny sort of doll's handkerchief from as tiny a +little pocket in her tiny pinafore-apron, and began wiping away the +tears from her beady eyes and blowing her little red nose vigorously. +"It's all black, and no light nowhere; and I'm sore poor pa and Teddy +and all of dem are lost!" + +With that, completely overcome by her own forebodings, the little thing +all at once broke down, sobbing in such a heart-broken way that it was +as much as Conny could do to comfort her; the elder sister drawing her +to her side and hugging her affectionately, rocking her small person to +and fro the while with a measured rhythm-like movement as if little +Cissy were a baby and she her mother, hushing her to sleep! + +At this moment, Liz, who occupied the middle step between the two, and +was of a much more sedate and equable nature than either of her sisters, +suddenly effected a diversion that did more to raise Cissy's spirits +than all Conny's whispered consolation and kisses. + +"I think I see a black speck moving in the lane," she exclaimed, +removing her face a second from the glass to look round at the others as +she spoke, and then hastily glueing it to the pane again. "Yes, +somebody's coming. There's an arm waving about!" + +Conny and Cissy were instantly on the alert; and before Liz had hardly +got out the last words they had imitated her example, wedging their +little noses once more against the window, looking down the lane, and +trying somewhat vainly to pierce the haze obscuring the distance. + +"No," said Conny, after a prolonged observation of the object Liz had +pointed out; "it's only a branch of the lilac tree blown about by the +wind." + +A minute later, however, and Liz began to clap her hands triumphantly, +although still keeping her face fixed to the window. + +"I was right, I was right!" she exclaimed in triumph. "The speck is +getting nearer, and, see, there are two more behind." + +"I believe you are right," said Conny, after another steady glance down +the lane. "There are three people approaching the house, and--" + +"Dat's pa in front, I know," shouted out Cissy, interrupting her and +clapping her hands like Liz, her whilom sad little face beaming with +gladness. "I see him, I see him, and he's dot Teddy in his arms!" + +"So he has," said Conny, carried away by the excitement out of her +ordinarily staid and decorous demeanour. "Let us all run down and meet +him!" + +Her suggestion was hailed with a shout of exclamation; and, the next +moment, forgetful of the falling flakes and the risk of getting damp +feet, which Conny the careful was ever warning the others against, the +three had run out into the hall, opened the outside door of the porch, +which the wind banged against the side of the passage with a thump that +shook the house, and were racing towards the entrance gate over the +white expanse of lawn, now quite covered with some six inches of snow. + +Just as the little girls reached the gate, all breathless in a batch, it +was opened from without, and they were confronted by their father with +Master Teddy on his shoulder, still holding the kitten in his arms; +while, close behind, followed Jupp taking care of Mary the nurse. + +"Oh, papa!" cried Conny, Cissy, and Liz in chorus, hanging on to their +father's coat-tails as if afraid he would get away from them again; and +so, in a motley procession, Teddy apparently king of the situation and +Jupp and Mary still bringing up the rear, they marched into the hall, +where Molly the cook, having heard the door bang when the little girls +rushed out, was waiting with a light to receive them. + +"Take the porter to the kitchen, Molly," said Mr Vernon, "and give him, +mind, a good cup of tea for bringing home Master Teddy. But for his +kindness we might not perhaps have seen the little truant again--to- +night, at all events." + +"Lawks a mercy, sir!" ejaculated Molly with open-mouth astonishment, +curtseying and smiling: "you doant mean that?" + +"Yes, I do," went on Mr Vernon. "Mind you take every care of him, for +the porter is a right good fellow." + +"Why, sir, I didn't do nothing to speak of, sir," said Jupp, quite +abashed at being made so much of. "The young gen'leman commed to me, +and in course, seeing as how he were such a little chap and all alone +out in the cold, I couldn't do nothing else." + +"Never mind that; I'm very much obliged to you, and so are all of us. +What you've got to do now is to go with Molly and have a good cup of +tea, the same as we are going to have after that long tramp in the +snow," said the vicar cordially, shaking hands with Jupp; while Teddy, +who was still perched on his father's shoulder, came out with a "tank +oo, my dood man," which made everybody laugh. + +Jupp hesitatingly attempted to decline the proffered hospitality, +murmuring something about being wanted down at the station; but the +vicar wouldn't hear of his refusal, the more especially as Mary reminded +him that he had asked in her hearing his fellow-porter to look after his +work in his absence. + +So, presently, in heart nothing loth in spite of his excuses, he was +following Molly the cook down the passage into her warm kitchen at the +back of the house; while Mr Vernon, opening a door on the opposite side +of the hall to the drawing-room, entered the parlour, where fortunately +the fire, thanks to Molly's care, had not been allowed to go out, but +was dancing merrily in the grate-lighting up the bright-red curtains +that were closely drawn across the windows, shutting out the gloomy +prospect outside, and throwing flickering shadows against the walls of +the apartment as the jets of flame rose and fell. + +Nurse Mary at first wanted to march off Master Teddy to bed, on the plea +that he must be wet through and tired out with all the exposure he had +undergone during his erratic escapade; but the young gentleman +protesting indignantly against his removal whilst there was a chance of +his sitting up with the rest, and his clothes having been found on +examination to be quite dry on the removal of the porter's protecting +jacket, he was allowed to remain, seated on the hearth-rug in state, and +never once leaving hold of the tabby kitten that had indirectly led to +his wandering away from home, with Conny and Liz and little Cissy +grouped around him. + +Here by the cosy fireside the reunited family had quite a festive little +meal together, enlivened by the children's chatter, Miss Conny pouring +out the tea with great dignity as her father said laughingly, and Teddy, +unchecked by the presence of his nurse, who was too prone to calling him +to account for sundry little breaches of etiquette for him to be +comfortable when she was close by. + +While the happy little party were so engaged, Jupp was being regaled +sumptuously in the kitchen with both Molly the cook and Mary to minister +to his wants, the latter handmaiden having returned from the parlour +after carrying in the tea-tray. + +Jupp was in a state of supreme satisfaction ensconced between the two, +munching away at the pile of nice hot buttered toast which the cook had +expressly made for his delectation, and recounting between the mouthfuls +wonderful yarns connected with his seafaring experiences for Mary's +edification. + +Joe the gardener, who had also come back to the house shortly after the +others, with the report that he "couldn't see nothing of Master Teddy +nowheres," sat in the chimney-corner, gazing at the porter with envious +admiration as he told of his hairbreadth scapes at sea and ashore when +serving in the navy. Joe wished that he had been a sailor too, as then +perhaps, he thought, the nurse, for whom he had a sneaking sort of +regard, might learn to smile and look upon him in the same admiring way, +in which, as he could see with half an eye, she regarded the stalwart +black-bearded Jupp. + +Bye and bye, however, a tinkle of the parlour bell summoning the +household to prayers brought the pleasant evening to a close, too soon +so far as Jupp was concerned, although Joe the gardener did not regard +the interruption with much regret; and while Mary took off the children +to bed on the termination of the vicar's heart-felt thanks to the Father +above for the preservation of his little son, Mr Vernon wished him +good-night, trying to press at the same time a little money present into +his hand for his kind care of Teddy. + +But this Jupp would not take, declining the douceur with so much natural +dignity that the vicar honoured him the more for refusing a reward, for +only doing his duty as he said. + +Mr Vernon apologised to him for having hurt his feelings by offering +it, adding, much to Jupp's delight, that he would always be pleased to +see him at the vicarage when he had an hour or so to spare if he liked +to come; and, on the porter's telling him in return that he was only +free as a rule on Sundays, as then only one train passed through the +station early in the morning, between which and the mail express late at +night he had nothing to do, and being a stranger in the place and +without any relations the time somewhat hung on his hands, Mr Vernon +asked him to come up to the house after church and have dinner with the +servants, saying that he could go to the evening service in company with +the family. + +This invitation Jupp gladly accepted in the same spirit in which it was +given; and then, with another hearty "good-night" from the vicar, to +which he responded by touching his cap and giving a salute in regular +blue-jacket fashion, he went on his way back to the little railway- +station beyond the village where Master Teddy had first made his +acquaintance--much to their mutual benefit as things now looked! + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +IN A SCRAPE AGAIN. + +The winter was a long and severe one, covering the range of downs that +encircle Endleigh with a fleecy mantle of white which utterly eclipsed +the colour of the woolly coats of the sheep for which they were famous, +and heaping the valleys with huge drifts that defied locomotion; so that +Master Teddy, being unable to get out of doors much, was prevented from +wandering away from home again, had he been in that way inclined. + +It may be added, too, that beyond breaking one of his arms in a tumble +downstairs through riding on the banisters in defiance of all commands +to the contrary, he managed for the next few months to keep pretty free +from scrapes--something surprising in such a long interval. + +During all this time Jupp had been a very regular Sunday visitor at the +vicarage, coming up to the house after morning-service and being +entertained at dinner in the kitchen, after which meal he served as a +playfellow for the children until the evening, when he always +accompanied the vicar to church. + +He had now come to be looked upon by all as a tried and valued friend, +Mr Vernon being almost as fond of chatting with him about his old sea +life as was Mary, the nurse; while Conny would consult him earnestly on +geographical questions illustrative of those parts of the globe he had +visited. + +As for the younger ones, he was their general factotum, Teddy and Cissy +regarding him as a sort of good-natured giant who was their own especial +property and servant. + +With all a sailor's ingenuity, he could carve the most wonderful things +out of the least promising and worthless materials that could be +imagined; while, as for making fun out of nothing, or telling thrilling +stories of fairies and pirates and the different folk amongst whom he +had mixed in his travels--some of them, to be sure, rather queer, as +Conny said--why, he hadn't an equal, and could make the dreariest +afternoon pass enjoyably to young and old alike, even Joe the gardener +taking almost as great pleasure in his society as Molly and Mary. + +This was while the snow lay on the ground and Jack Frost had bound the +little river running through the village and the large pond in the water +meadow beyond with chains of ice, and life out of doors seemed at a +standstill; but, anon, when the breath of spring banished all the snow +and ice, and cowslips and violets began to peep forth from the released +hedgerows, and the sparrows chuckled instead of chirped, busying +themselves nest-building in the ivy round the vicarage, and when the +thrush sang to the accompaniment of the blackbird's whistle, the +children found that Jupp was even a better playfellow in the open than +he had been indoors, being nearly as much a child in heart as +themselves. + +Whenever he had half a day given him in the week free from duty he would +make a point of coming up to take "Master Teddy and the young ladies" +out into the woods, fern-hunting and flower-gathering, the vicar +frequently popping upon the little picnickers unawares, whilst they were +watching the rabbits and rabbitikins combing out their whiskers under +the fir-trees, and Jupp and Mary getting an al fresco tea ready for the +party. + +The little tabby kitten had long since been eclipsed in Teddy's +affections by a small Maltese terrier with a white curly coat of hair, +which his fond grandmother had rather foolishly given him, the poor +little animal being subjected to such rough treatment in the way of +petting that it must have over and over again wished itself back in its +Mediterranean home. + +"Puck" was the little dog's name, and he appeared in a fair way of +"putting a girdle round the earth," if not in forty minutes like his +elfish namesake, at least in an appreciable limited space of time, Teddy +never being content except he carried about the unfortunate brute with +him everywhere he went, hugging it tightly in his arms and almost +smothering its life out by way of showing his affection. + +Having once had his hair cut, too, unluckily by Mary, Teddy seized an +opportunity, when alone in the nursery, to treat poor Puck in similar +fashion, the result of which was that the little animal, deprived of his +long curly coat, not only shivered constantly with cold, but looked, in +his closely-shorn condition, like one of those toy lambs sold in the +shops in lieu of dolls for children, which emit a bleating sort of sound +when pressed down on their bellows-like stands. + +Of course, Puck was as invariable an attendant at the picnic excursions +in the woods as Master Teddy himself, and, having developed sufficient +interest in the rabbits to summon up courage to run after them, which +Teddy graciously permitted him to do, these outings perhaps gave the +little animal the only pleasure he had in existence, save eating; for he +was then allowed, for a brief spell at all events, to use his own legs +instead of being carried about in baby fashion. + +One day at the beginning of May, when the birds were gaily singing in +the branches of the trees overhead, through which an occasional peep of +blue sky could be had, the grass below being yellow with buttercups or +patched in white with daisies, Jupp and Mary were grouped with the +children beneath a spreading elm in the centre of a sort of fairy ring +in the wood, a favourite halting-place with them all. + +The porter for once in a way had a whole holiday, and had spent the +morning helping Joe the gardener in mowing the lawn and putting out +plants in the flower-beds in front of the vicarage; so after their early +dinner, the children under Mary's care came out with him for a regular +picnic tea in the woods, carrying a kettle with them to make a fire, +with plenty of milk and cakes and bread and butter, for it was intended +to have quite a feast in honour of "papa's birthday," the vicar having +promised to come and join them as soon as he had finished his parish +work. + +The little ones had been romping with Jupp all the way to the wood under +the downs, running races with him and making detours here and there in +search of wild anemones and meadow-sweet, or else chasing butterflies +and the low-flying swallows that heralded the advent of summer, so they +were rather tired and glad to lie down on the grass and rest when they +reached their old elm-tree; albeit, on Jupp setting to work to pick up +sticks for the fire that was to boil the kettle, first one and then +another jumped up to help, for, really, they could not be quiet very +long. + +The sticks being collected and Jupp having slung the camp-kettle over +them by the means of two forked props, in campaigning fashion, as he +well knew how to do as an old sailor, a match was quickly applied, and +there was soon a pleasant crackling sound of burning wood, accompanied +with showers of sparks like fireworks as the wind blew the blaze aside. + +Soon, too, a nice thick column of smoke arose that reminded Conny of +what she had read of Indian encampments, although Jupp told her that if +he were abroad and near any of such dark-skinned gentry he would take +precious good care when making a fire to have as little smoke as +possible. + +"Why?" asked Conny, always anxious for information in order to improve +her mind. + +"Because I shouldn't like them to discover my whereabouts, unless, miss, +I knew 'em to be friends," said Jupp in answer. + +"And how would you manage to have no smoke?" she next pertinently +inquired, like the sensible young lady she was. + +"By always burning the very driest wood I could find, miss," replied +Jupp. "It is only the green branches and such as has sap in it that +makes the smoke." + +"Oh!" ejaculated Conny, "I shall remember that. Thank you, Mr Jupp, +for telling me. I often wondered how they contrived to conceal their +camp-fires." + +Teddy, with Cissy and Liz, had meanwhile been lying on the grass, +overcome with their exertions in stick-gathering, and were intently +watching a little glade in front of the elm-tree, some distance off +under a coppice. Here they knew there were lots of rabbit-burrows, and +they were waiting for some of the little animals to come out and perform +their toilets, as they usually did in the afternoon and early evening, +preparing themselves for bed-time, as the children said; but, for a long +while, not one appeared in sight. + +"Dere's a bunny at last," whispered Cissy as one peeped out from its +hiding-place; and, seeing no cause for alarm in the presence of the +little picnic party, with whom no doubt it was now well acquainted, it +came further out from the coppice, sitting up on its haunches in the +usual free-and-easy fashion of rabbitikins, and beginning to comb out +its whiskers with its paws. + +At the sight of this, Puck, who of course was cuddled up tightly in +Teddy's arms, began to bark; but it was such a feeble little bark that +not even the most timid of rabbits would have been frightened at it, +while as for the one Puck wished to terrify, this simply treated him +with the utmost contempt, taking no notice either of bark or dog. + +Three or four other rabbits, too, impressed with the beauty of the +afternoon and the advantages of the situation, now followed their +comrade's example, coming out from their burrows and squatting on the +turf of the sloping glade in a semicircle opposite the children; while, +the more poor Puck tried to express his indignation at their free-and- +easiness, the more nonchalantly they regarded him, sitting up +comfortably and combing away, enjoying themselves as thoroughly as if +there was no such thing as a dog in existence, Puck's faint coughing +bark being utterly thrown away upon them. + +"Imp'dent tings!" said Teddy, unloosing the small terrier; "do and lick +'em, Puck!" + +The little woolly lamb-like dog, who certainly possessed a larger amount +of courage than would reasonably have been imagined from his attenuated +appearance, at once darted after the rabbits, who, jerking their short +tails in the funniest way possible and throwing up their hind-legs as if +they were going to turn somersaults and come down on the other side, +darted off down the glade, making for the holes of their burrows under +the coppice. + +The artful Puck, however, having chased the gentry before, was up to all +their little dodges, so, instead of running for the rabbits directly, he +attacked their flank, endeavouring to cut off their retreat; and, in +this object succeeding, away went the hunted animals, now scared out of +their lives, down the side of the hill to the bottom, with Puck charging +after them, and Teddy following close behind, and Cissy and Liz bringing +up the rear. + +Miss Conny was much too dignified to chase rabbits. + +"Stop, Master Teddy! stop!" cried Mary. "Come back, Miss Liz and +Cissy--come back at once!" + +The little girls immediately obeyed their nurse; but Teddy, who perhaps +in the ardour of the chase might not have heard her call, continued on +racing down the hill after Puck, as fast as his stumpy little legs could +carry him, his hat flying off and his pinafore streaming behind him in +the wind. + +"Stop, Master Teddy, stop!" called out Mary again. + +"Why can't you let him be?" said Jupp. "He's only enj'ying hisself with +the rabbits, and can't come to no harm on the grass." + +"Little you know about it," retorted Mary, rather crossly it seemed to +Jupp. "Why, the river runs round just below the coppice; and if Master +Teddy runs on and can't stop himself, he'll fall into it--there!" + +"My stars and stripes!" ejaculated Jupp starting up in alarm. "I'll go +after him at once." + +"You'd better," said Mary as he set off running down the hill after +Teddy, singing out loudly for him to stop in a sort of reef-topsails-in- +a-heavy-squall voice that you could have heard more than a cable's +length ahead! + +The momentum Teddy had gained, however, from the descent of the glade +prevented him from arresting his rapid footsteps, although he heard +Jupp's voice, the slope inclining the more abruptly towards the bottom +of the hill. Besides, Puck in pursuit of the rabbits was right in front +of him, and the dog, unable or unwilling to stop, bounded on into the +mass of rushes, now quite close, that filled the lower part of the +valley, and disappeared from Teddy's sight. + +The next moment there was a wild yelp from Puck as he gripped the +rabbit, and both tumbled over the bank of the river into the water, +which was previously concealed from view; the dog's bark being echoed +immediately afterwards by a cry of alarm from Teddy and a heavy plunge, +as he, too, fell into the swiftly-flowing stream, and was borne out from +the bank by the rapid current away towards the mill-dam below! + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +BLOWN UP. + +"Well, I never!" panted out Jupp as he raced down the incline at a +headlong speed towards the spot where he had seen Teddy disappear, and +whence had come his choking cry of alarm and the splash he made as he +fell into the water. "The b'y'll be drownded 'fore I can reach him!" + +But, such was his haste, that, at the same instant in which he uttered +these words--more to himself than for anyone else's benefit, although he +spoke aloud--the osiers at the foot of the slope parted on either side +before the impetuous rush of his body, giving him a momentary glimpse of +the river, with Teddy's clutching fingers appearing just above the +surface and vainly appealing for help as he was sinking for the second +time; so, without pausing, the velocity he had gained in his run down +the declivity carrying him on almost in spite of himself, Jupp took a +magnificent header off the bank. Then,--rising after his plunge, with a +couple of powerful strokes he reached the unconscious boy, whose +struggles had now ceased from exhaustion, and, gripping fast hold of one +of his little arms, he towed him ashore. + +Another second and Jupp would have been too late, Teddy's nearly +lifeless little form having already been caught in the whirling eddy of +the mill-race. Even as it was, the force of the on-sweeping current was +so great that it taxed all Jupp's powers to the utmost to withstand +being carried over the weir as he made for the side slanting-wise, so as +not to weary himself out uselessly by trying to fight against the full +strength of the stream, which, swollen with the rains of April, was +resistless in its flow and volume. + +Swimming on his side, however, and striking out grandly, Jupp succeeded +at length in vanquishing the current, or rather made it serve his +purpose; and, presently, grasping hold of the branch of an alder that +hung over the river at the point of the bend, he drew himself up on the +bank with one hand, holding poor Teddy still with the other, to find +himself at the same moment confronted by Nurse Mary, with Cissy and Liz, +who had all hurried down the slope to the scene of the disaster. + +"Oh, dear! oh, dear!--he's dead, he's dead!" wailed Mary, taking the +little fellow from Jupp and lifting him up in her arms, preparing to +start off at a run for the vicarage, while the little girls burst into a +torrent of tears. + +"You just bide there!" said Jupp, preventing her from moving, and +looking like a giant Triton, all dripping with water, as he stepped +forward. "You just bide there!" + +"But he'll die if something's not done at once to restore him," +expostulated Mary, vainly trying to get away from the other's +restraining hold. + +"So he might, if you took him all that long way 'fore doin' anything," +replied Jupp grimly. "You gie him to me; I knows what's best to be +done. I've seed chaps drounded afore aboard ship, and brought to life +ag'in by using the proper methods to git back the circularation, as our +doctor in the _Neptune_ used to call it. You gie him to me!" + +Impressed with his words, and knowing besides now from long acquaintance +that Jupp was what she called "a knowledgeable man," Mary accordingly +surrendered the apparently lifeless body of little Teddy; whereupon the +porter incontinently began to strip off all the boy's clothing, which of +course was wringing wet like his own. + +"Have you got such a thing as a dry piece of flannel now, miss?" he then +asked Mary, hesitating somewhat to put his request into words, "like, +like--" + +"You mean a flannel petticoat," said the girl promptly without the least +embarrassment in the exigencies of the case. "Just turn your back, +please, Mr Jupp, and I'll take mine off and give it to you." + +No sooner was this said than it was done; when, Teddy's little naked +body being wrapped up warmly in the garment Mary had surrendered, and +turned over on the right side, she began under Jupp's directions to rub +his limbs, while the other alternately raised and depressed the child's +arms, and thus exercising--a regular expansion and depression of his +chest. + +After about five minutes of this work a quantity of water that he had +swallowed was brought up by the little fellow; and next, Mary could feel +a slight pulsation of his heart. + +"He's coming round! he's coming round!" she cried out joyously, causing +little Cissy's tears to cease flowing and Liz to join Mary in rubbing +Teddy's feet. "Go on, Mr Jupp, go on; and we'll soon bring him to." + +"So we will," echoed her fellow-worker heartily, redoubling his +exertions to promote the circulation; and, in another minute a faint +flush was observable in Teddy's face, while his chest rose and fell with +a rhythmical motion, showing that the lungs were now inflated again and +in working order. + +The little fellow had been brought back to life from the very gates of +death! + +"Hooray!" shouted Jupp when Teddy at length opened his eyes, staring +wonderingly at those bending over him, and drawing away his foot from +Liz as if she tickled him, whereat Mary burst into a fit of violent +hysterical laughter, which terminated in that "good cry" customary with +her sex when carried away by excess of emotion. + +Then, all at once, Teddy appeared to recollect what had happened; for +the look of bewilderment vanished from his eyes and he opened his mouth +to speak in that quaint, formal way of his which Jupp said always +reminded him of a judge on the bench when he was had up before the court +once at Portsmouth for smuggling tobacco from a troopship when paid off! + +"Were's Puck an' de bunny?" he asked, as if what had occurred had been +merely an interlude and he was only anxious about the result of the +rabbit hunt that had so unwittingly led to his unexpected immersion and +narrow escape from drowning. + +No one in the greater imminence of Teddy's peril had previously thought +of the dog or rabbit; but now, on a search being made, Puck was +discovered shivering by the side of the river, having managed to crawl +out somehow or other. As for the rabbit, which was only a young one or +the little woolly terrier could never have overtaken it in the chase +down the glade, no trace could be seen of it; and, consequently, it must +have been carried over the weir, where at the bottom of the river it was +now safe enough from all pursuit of either Puck or his master, and free +from all the cares of rabbit life and those ills that even harmless +bunnies have to bear! + +When this point was satisfactorily settled, much to the dissatisfaction, +however, of Master Teddy, a sudden thought struck Mary. + +"Why, wherever can Miss Conny be all this time?" she exclaimed, on +looking round and not finding her with the other children. + +"See's done home," said Cissy laconically. + +"Gone home!" repeated Mary. "Why?" + +"Done fets dwy c'o's for Teddy," lisped the little girl, who seemed to +have been well informed beforehand as to her sister's movements, +although she herself had hurried down with the nurse to the river bank +in company with the others immediately Jupp had rushed to Teddy's +rescue. + +"Well, I never!" ejaculated Mary, laughing again as she turned to Jupp. +"Who would have thought the little puss would have been so thoughtful? +But she has always been a funny child, older than her years, and almost +like an old woman in her ways." + +"Bless you, she ain't none the worse for that!" observed Jupp in answer. +"She's a real good un, to think her little brother 'ud want dry things +arter his souse in the water, and to go and fetch 'em too without being +told." + +"I expect you'd be none the worse either for going back and changing +your clothes," said Mary, eyeing his wet garments. + +"Lor', it don't matter a bit about me," he replied, giving himself a +good shake like a Newfoundland dog, and scattering the drops about, +which pleased the children mightily, as he did it in such a funny way. +"I rayther likes it nor not." + +"But you might catch cold," suggested Mary kindly. + +"Catch your grandmother!" he retorted. "Sailors ain't mollycoddles." + +"Wat's dat?" asked Teddy inquiringly, looking up at him. + +"Why, sir," said Jupp, scratching his head reflectively--he had left his +cap under the elm-tree on top of the hill, where he had taken it off +when he set about building the fire for the kettle--"a mollycoddle is a +sort of chap as always wraps hisself up keerfully for fear the wind +should blow upon him and hurt his complexion." + +"Oh!" said Teddy; but he did not seem any the wiser, and was about to +ask another question which might have puzzled Jupp, when Liz interrupted +the conversation, and changed the subject. + +"There's Conny coming now, and Pa with her," she called out, pointing to +the top of the glade, where her father and elder sister could be seen +hurrying swiftly towards them, followed closely by Joe the gardener +bearing a big bundle of blankets and other things which the vicar +thought might be useful. + +"My! Master must have been scared!" cried Mary, noticing in the +distance the anxious father's face. "Master Teddy do cause him trouble +enough, he's that fond of the boy!" + +But, before Jupp could say anything in reply, the new arrivals had +approached the scene of action, Conny springing forward first of all and +hugging Teddy and Cissy and Liz all round. In the exuberance of her +delight, too, at their being safe and sound, when in her nervous dread +she had feared the worst, she extended the same greeting to Mary and +Jupp; for, she was an affectionate little thing, and highly emotional in +spite of her usually staid demeanour and retiring nature. + +The vicar, too, could hardly contain himself for joy, and broke down +utterly when he tried to thank Jupp for rescuing his little son; while +Joe the gardener, not to be behindhand in this general expression of +good-will and gratitude, squeezed his quondam rival's fist in his, +ejaculating over and over again, with a broad grin on his bucolic face, +"You be's a proper sort, you be, hey, Meaister?" thereby calling upon +the vicar, as it were, to testify to the truth of the encomium. + +He was a very funny man, Joe! + +When the general excitement had subsided, and Teddy, who had in the +meantime been stalking about, a comical little figure, attired in Mary's +flannel petticoat, was re-dressed in the fresh suit of clothes Joe had +brought for him amidst the blankets, the whole party adjourned up the +hill to their old rendezvous under the elm-tree. + +Here they found, greatly to their surprise and gratification, that +Jupp's well-built fire had not gone out, as all expected, during the +unforeseen digression that had occurred to break the even tenor of their +afternoon's entertainment, although left so long unattended to. + +On the contrary, it was blazing away at a fine rate, with the kettle +slung on the forked sticks above it singing and sputtering, emitting +clouds of steam the while, "like an engine blowing off," as the porter +observed; so, all their preparations having been already completed, the +children carried out their original intention of having a festal tea in +honour of "Pa's birthday," he being set in their midst and told to do +nothing, being the guest of the occasion. + +Never did bread and butter taste more appetisingly to the little ones +than when thus eaten out in the woods, away from all such stuck-up +surroundings as tables and chairs, and plates, and cups and saucers, and +the other absurd conventionalities of everyday life. They only had +three little tin pannikins for their tea, which they passed round in +turn, and a basket for their dish, using a leaf when the luxury of a +plate was desired by any sybarite of the party--those nice broad ones of +the dock making splendid platters. + +Now, besides bread and butter, Molly the cook had compounded a delicious +dough-cake for them, having plums set in it at signal distances apart, +so conspicuous that any one could know they were there without going to +the trouble of counting them, which indeed would not have taken long to +do, their number being rather limited; and, what with the revulsion of +feeling at Teddy's providential escape, and the fact of having papa with +them, and all, they were in the very seventh heaven of enjoyment. + +Conny and Cissy, who were the most active of the sprites, assisted by +the more deliberate Teddy and Liz, acted as "the grown-up people" +attending as hostesses and host to the requirements of "the children," +as they called their father and Mary and Jupp, not omitting Joe the +gardener, who, squatting down on the extreme circumference of their +little circle, kept up a perpetual grin over the acres of bread and +butter he consumed, just as if he were having a real meal and not merely +playing! + +The worthy gardener was certainly the skeleton, or cormorant, so to +speak, of the banquet, eating them almost out of house and home, it must +be mentioned in all due confidence; and, taking watch of his depravity +of behaviour in this respect, the thoughtful Conny registered an inward +determination never to invite Joe to another of their al fresco feasts, +if she could possibly avoid doing so without seriously wounding his +sensibilities. The way he walked into that dough-cake would have made +anyone almost cry. + +The fete, however, excepting this drawback, passed off successfully +enough without any other contretemps; and after the last crumb of cake +had been eaten by Joe, and the things packed up, the little party wended +their way home happily in the mellow May evening, through the fields +green with the sprouting corn, with the swallows skimming round them and +the lark high in the sky above singing her lullaby song for the night +and flopping down to her nest. + +Towards the end of the month, however, Teddy managed somehow or other to +get into another scrape. + +"There never was such a boy," as Mary said. He was "always in hot +water." + +The queen's birthday coming round soon after the vicar's, Jupp, +remembering how it used to be kept up when he was in the navy, great +guns banging away at royal salutes while the small-arm men on board +fired a _feu de joie_, or "fire of joy," as he translated it by the aid +of Miss Conny, who happened just then to be studying French, he +determined to celebrate the anniversary as a loyal subject in similar +fashion at the vicarage, with the aid of a couple of toy cannon and a +small bag of powder which he purchased for the purpose. + +Teddy, of course, was taken into his confidence, the artillery +experiments being planned for his especial delectation; so, coming up to +the house just about noon on the day of the royal anniversary, when he +was able to get away from the station for an hour, leaving his mate +Grigson in charge, he set about loading the ordnance and getting ready +for the salute, with a train laid over the touch-holes of the cannon to +set light to the moment it was twelve o'clock, according to the +established etiquette in the navy, a box of matches being placed handy +for the purpose. + +As ill luck would have it, though, some few minutes before the proper +time, Mary, who was trying to sling a clothes-line in the back garden, +called Jupp to her assistance, and he being her attentive squire on all +occasions, and an assiduous cavalier of dames, hastened to help her, +leaving Teddy in charge of the loaded cannon, the gunpowder train, and +lastly, though by no means least, the box of matches. + +The result can readily be foreseen. + +Hardly had Jupp reached Mary's side and proceeded to hoist the +obstreperous clothes-line, when "Bang! bang!" came the reports of +distant cannonading on the front lawn, followed by an appalling yell +from the little girls, who from the safe point of vantage of the +drawing-room windows were looking on at the preparations of war. + +To rush back through the side gate round to the front was but the work +of an instant with Jupp, and, followed by Mary, he was almost as quickly +on the spot as the sound of the explosion had been heard. + +He thought that Master Teddy had only prematurely discharged the cannon, +and that was all; but when he reached the lawn what was his +consternation to observe a thick black cloud of smoke hanging in the +air, much greater than could possibly have been produced by the little +toy cannon being fired off, while Teddy, the cause of all the mischief, +was nowhere to be seen at all! + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE POND IN THE MEADOW. + +Not a trace of the boy could be seen anywhere. + +The cause of the explosion was apparent enough; for, the little wooden +box on which Jupp had mounted the toy cannons, lashing them down firmly, +and securing them with breechings in sailor-fashion, to prevent their +kicking when fired, had been overturned, and a jug that he had brought +out from the house containing water to damp the fuse with, was smashed +to atoms, while of the box of matches and the bag of powder only a few +smouldering fragments remained--a round hole burned in the grass near +telling, if further proof were needed, that in his eagerness to start +the salute, Master Teddy, impatient as usual, had struck a light to +ignite the train, and this, accidentally communicating with the bag of +powder, had resulted in a grand flare-up of the whole contents. + +This could be readily reasoned out at a glance; but, where could Teddy +be, the striker of the match, the inceptor of all the mischief? + +Jupp could not imagine; hunt high, hunt low, as he might and did. + +At first, he thought that the young iconoclast, as nothing could be +perceived of him on the lawn or flower-beds, had been blown up in the +air over the laurel hedge and into the lane; as, however, nothing could +be discovered of him here, either, after the most careful search, this +theory had to be abandoned, and Jupp was fairly puzzled. + +Teddy had completely vanished! + +It was very strange, for his sisters had seen him on the spot the moment +before the explosion. + +Mary, of course, had followed Jupp round to the front of the house, +while the little girls came out on to the lawn; and Molly the cook, as +well as Joe the gardener, attracted by the commotion, had also been +assisting in the quest for the missing Teddy, prying into every hole and +corner. + +But all their exertions were in vain; and there they stood in wondering +astonishment. + +"P'aps," suggested Cissy, "he's done upstairs?" + +"Nonsense, child!" said Conny decisively; "we would have seen him from +the window if he had come in." + +"Still, we'd better look, miss," observed Mary, who was all pale and +trembling with anxiety as to the safety of her special charge. "He may +have been frightened and rushed to the nursery to hide himself, as he +has done before when he has been up to something!" + +So saying, she hurried into the passage, and the rest after her. + +It was of no use looking into the drawing-room or kitchen, the little +girls having been in the former apartment all the time, and Molly in the +latter; but the parlour was investigated unsuccessfully, and every nook +and cranny of the study, a favourite play-ground of the children when +the vicar was out, as he happened to be this evening, fortunately or +unfortunately as the case might be, visiting the poor of his parish. + +Still, there was not a trace of Teddy to be found. + +The search was then continued upstairs amongst the bed-rooms by Mary and +Molly, accompanied by the three little girls, who marched behind their +elders in silent awe, Jupp and Joe remaining down in the hall and +listening breathlessly for some announcement to come presently from +above. + +The nursery disclosed nothing, neither did the children's sleeping room, +nor the vicar's chamber, although the beds were turned up and turned +down and looked under, and every cupboard and closet inspected as +cautiously as if burglars were about the premises; and Mary was about to +give up the pursuit as hopeless, when all at once, she thought she heard +the sound of a stifled sob proceeding from a large oak wardrobe in the +corner of the spare bed-room opposite the nursery, which had been left +to the last, and where the searchers were all now assembled. + +"Listen!" she exclaimed in a whisper, holding up her finger to enjoin +attention; whereupon Cissy and Liz stopped shuffling their feet about, +and a silence ensued in which a pin might have been heard to drop. + +Then, the noise of the stifled sobs that had at first attracted Mary's +notice grew louder, and all could hear Teddy's voice between the sobs, +muttering or repeating something at intervals to himself. + +"I do believe he's saying his prayers!" said Mary, approaching the +wardrobe more closely with stealthy steps, so as not to alarm the little +stowaway, a smile of satisfaction at having at last found him crossing +her face, mingled with an expression of amazement--"Just hear what he is +repeating. Hush!" + +They all listened; and this was what they heard proceeding from within +the wardrobe, a sob coming in as a sort of hyphen between each word of +the little fellow's prayer. + +"Dod--bess pa--an' Conny an' Liz--an' 'ittle Ciss--an' Jupp, de porter +man, an' Mary--an'--an'--all de oders--an' make me dood boy--an' I'll +neber do it again, amen!" + +"The little darling!" cried Mary, opening the door of the wardrobe when +Teddy had got so far, and was just beginning all over again; but the +moment she saw within, she started back with a scream which at once +brought Jupp upstairs. Joe the gardener still stopped, however, on the +mat below in the passage, as nothing short of a peremptory command from +the vicar would have constrained him to put his heavy clod-hopping boots +on the soft stair-carpet. Indeed, it had needed all Mary's persuasion +to make him come into the hall, which he did as gingerly as a cat +treading on a hot griddle! + +As Jupp could see for himself, when he came up to the group assembled +round the open door of the wardrobe there was nothing in the appearance +of poor Teddy to frighten Mary, although much to bespeak her pity and +sympathy--the little fellow as he knelt down in the corner showing an +upturned face that had been blistered by the gunpowder as it exploded, +besides being swollen to more than twice its ordinary size. His +clothing was also singed and blackened like that of any sweep, while his +eyelashes, eyebrows, and front hair had all been burnt off, leaving him +as bare as a coot. + +Altogether, Master Teddy presented a very sorry spectacle; and the +little girls all burst into tears as they looked at him, even Jupp +passing his coat-sleeve over his eyes, and muttering something about its +being "a bad job" in a very choky sort of voice. + +It was but the work of an instant, however, for Mary to take up the +unfortunate sufferer in her arms, and there he sobbed out all his woes +as she cried over him on her way to the nursery, sending off Jupp +promptly for the doctor. + +"I'se not do nuzzin," explained Teddy as he was being undressed, and his +burns dressed with oil and cotton-wool, pending the arrival of medical +advice. "I'se only zust light de match an' den dere was a whiz; an' a +great big black ting lift me up an' trow me down, and den I climb up out +of de smoke an' run 'way here. I was 'fraid of black ting comin' an' +hide!" + +"There was no black thing after you, child," said Conny. "It was only +the force of the explosion that knocked you down, and the cloud of smoke +you saw, which hid you from us when you ran indoors." + +"It was a black ting," repeated Teddy, unconvinced by the wise Miss +Conny's reasoning. "I see him, a big black giant, same as de jinny in +story of de fairies; but I ran 'way quick!" + +"All right, dear! never mind what it was now," said Mary soothingly. +"Do you feel any better now?" + +"Poor mou's so sore," he whimpered, "an' 'ittle nosey can't breez!" + +"Well, you shouldn't go meddling with matches and fire, as I've told you +often," said Mary, pointing her moral rather inopportunely. Still she +patted and consoled the little chap as much as she could; and when +Doctor Jolly came up from Endleigh presently, he said that she had done +everything that was proper for the patient, only suggesting that his +face might be covered during the night with a piece of soft rag dipped +in Goulard water, so as to ease the pain of the brows and let the little +sufferer sleep. + +The vicar did not return home until some time after the doctor had left +the house and Jupp gone back to his duties at the railway-station; but +although all traces of the explosion had been removed from the lawn and +the grass smoothed over by Joe the gardener, he knew before being told +that something had happened from the unusual stillness around, both +without and within doors, the little girls being as quiet as mice, and +Teddy, the general purveyor of news and noise, being not to the fore as +usual. + +It was not long before he found out all about the accident; when there +was a grand to-do, as may be expected, Mr Vernon expressing himself +very strongly anent the fact of Jupp putting such a dangerous thing as +gunpowder within reach of the young scapegrace, and scolding Mary for +not looking after her charge better. + +Jupp, too, got another "blowing up" from the station-master for being +behind time. So, what with the general upset, and the dilapidated +appearance of Master Teddy, with his face like a boiled vegetable +marrow, when the bandages had been removed from his head and he was +allowed to get up and walk about again, the celebration of the Queen's +Birthday was a black day for weeks afterwards in the chronicles of the +vicar's household! + +During the rest of the year, however, and indeed up to his eighth year, +the course of Teddy's life was uneventful as far as any leading incident +was concerned. + +Of course, he got into various little scrapes, especially on those +occasions when his grandmother paid her periodic visits to the vicarage, +for the old lady spoiled him dreadfully, undoing in a fortnight all that +Mary had effected by months of careful teaching and training in the way +of obedience and manners; but, beyond these incidental episodes, he did +not distinguish himself by doing anything out of the common. + +Teddy leisurely pursued that uneven tenor of way customary to boys of +his age, exhibiting a marked preference for play over lessons, and +becoming a great adept at field sports through Jupp's kindly tuition, +albeit poor Puck was no longer able to assist him in hunting rabbits, +the little dog having become afflicted with chronic asthma ever since +his immersion in the river when he himself had so narrowly escaped from +drowning. + +If water, though, had worked such ill to Puck, the example did not +impress itself much on Teddy; for, despite his own previous peril, he +was for ever getting himself into disgrace by going down to the river to +catch sticklebacks against express injunctions to the contrary, when +left alone for any length of time without an observant and controlling +eye on his movements. He was also in the habit of joining the village +boys at their aquatic pranks in the cattle-pond that occupied a +prominent place in the meadows below Endleigh--just where the spur of +one of the downs sloped before preparing for another rise, forming a +hollow between the hills. + +Here Master Teddy had loved to go on the sly, taking off his shoes and +stockings and paddling about as the shoe and stockingless village +urchins did; and this summer, not satisfied with simple paddling as of +yore, he bethought himself of a great enterprise. + +The pond was of considerable extent, and when it was swollen with rain, +as happened at this period, the month of June being more plentiful than +usual of moisture, its surface covered several acres, the water being +very deep between its edge and the middle, where it shallowed again, the +ground rising there and forming a sort of island that had actually an +alder-tree growing on it. + +Now, Teddy's ambition was to explore this island, a thing none of the +village boys had dreamed of, all being unable to swim; so, as the +wished-for oasis could not be reached in that fashion, the next best +thing to do was to build a boat like Robinson Crusoe and so get at it in +that way. + +As a preliminary, Teddy sounded the ex-sailor as to the best way of +building a boat, without raising Jupp's suspicions--for, the worthy +porter, awed by the vicar's reprimand anent the _feu de joie_ affair and +Mary's continual exhortations, had of late exhibited a marked +disinclination to assist him in doing anything which might lead him into +mischief--artfully asking him what he would do if he could find no tree +near at hand large enough that he could hollow out for the purpose; but, +Jupp could give him no information beyond the fact that he must have a +good sound piece of timber for the keel, and other pieces curved in a +particular fashion for the strakes, and the outside planking would +depend a good deal whether he wanted the boat clinker-built or smooth- +sided. + +"But how then," asked Teddy--he could speak more plainly now than as a +five-year old--"do people get off from ships when they have no boat?" + +"Why, they builds a raft, sir," answered Jupp. + +"A raft--what is that?" + +"Why, sir, it means anything that can swim," replied Jupp, quite in his +element when talking of the sea, and always ready to spin a yarn or tell +what he knew. "It might be made of spare spars, or boards, or anything +that can float. When I was in the _Neptune_ off Terra del Faygo I've +seed the natives there coming off to us seated on a couple of branches +of a tree lashed together, leaves and all." + +"Oh, thank you," said Teddy, rejoiced to hear this, the very hint he +wanted; "but what did they do for oars?" + +"They used sticks, in course, sir," answered the other, quite +unconscious of what the result of his information would be, and that he +was sowing the seeds of a wonderful project; and Teddy presently leading +on the conversation in a highly diplomatic way to other themes, Jupp +forgot bye and bye what he had been talking about. + +Not so, however, Master Teddy. + +The very next day, taking up Puck in his arms, and getting away +unperceived from home soon after the early dinner, which the children +always partook of at noon, he stole down to the pond, where, collecting +some of the little villagers to assist him, a grand foray was made on +the fencing of the fields and a mass of material brought to the water's +edge. + +Teddy had noted what Jupp had said about the Tierra del Fuegans lashing +their rude rafts together, so he took down with him from the house a +quantity of old clothes-lines which he had discovered in the back +garden. These he now utilised in tying the pieces of paling from the +fences together with, after which a number of small boughs and branches +from the hedges were laid on top of the structure, which was then pushed +off gently from the bank on to the surface of the pond. + +Hurrah, it floated all right! + +Teddy therefore had it drawn in again, and stepped upon the raft, which, +although it sank down lower in the water and was all awash, still seemed +buoyant. He also took Puck with him, and tried to incite some others of +the boys to venture out in company with him. + +The little villagers, however, were wiser in their generation, and being +unused to nautical enterprise were averse to courting danger. + +"You're a pack of cowards!" Teddy exclaimed, indignant and angry at +their drawing back thus at the last moment. "I'll go by myself." + +"Go 'long, master," they cried, noways abashed by his comments on their +conduct; "we'll all watch 'ee." + +Naturally plucky, Teddy did not need any further spurring, so, all alone +on his raft, with the exception of the struggling Puck, who did not like +leaving _terra firma_, and was more of a hindrance than an aid, he +pushed out into the pond, making for the islet in the centre by means of +a long pole which he had thinned off from a piece of fencing, sticking +it into the mud at the bottom and pushing against it with all his might. +Meanwhile, the frail structure on which he sat trembled and wobbled +about in the most unseaworthy fashion, causing him almost to repent of +his undertaking almost as soon as he had started, although he had the +incense of popular admiration to egg him on, for the village boys were +cheering and hooraying him like--"like anything," as he would himself +have said! + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +FATHER AND SON. + +The road from the vicarage to the village and station beyond passed +within a hundred yards or so of the pond; but from the latter being +situated in a hollow and the meadows surrounding it inclosed within a +hedge of thick brushwood, it could only be seen by those passing to and +fro from one point--where the path began to rise above the valley as it +curved round the spur of the down. + +It was Saturday also, when, as Teddy well knew, his father would be +engaged on the compilation of his Sunday sermon, and so not likely to be +going about the parish, as was his custom of an afternoon, visiting the +sick, comforting the afflicted, and warning those evil-doers who +preferred idleness and ale at the "Lamb" to honest toil and uprightness +of living; consequently the young scapegrace was almost confident of +non-interruption from any of his home folk, who, besides being too busy +indoors to think of him, were ignorant of his whereabouts. It was also +Jupp's heaviest day at the station, so _he_ couldn't come after him he +thought; and he was enjoying himself to his heart's content, when as the +Fates frequently rule it, the unexpected happened. + +Miss Conny, now a tall slim girl of thirteen, but more sedate and +womanly even than she had been at ten, if that were possible, was +occupied in the parlour "mending the children's clothes," as she +expressed it in her matronly way, when she suddenly missed a large reel +of darning cotton. Wondering what had become of it, for, being neat and +orderly in her habits, her things seldom strayed from their proper +places, she began hunting about for the absent article in different +directions and turning over the piles of stockings before her. + +"Have you seen it?" she asked Liz, who was sitting beside her, also +engaged in needlework, but of a lighter description, the young lady +devoting her energies to the manufacture of a doll's mantilla. + +"No," said Liz abstractedly, her mouth at the time being full of pins +for their more handy use when wanted, a bad habit she had acquired from +a seamstress occasionally employed at the vicarage. + +"Dear me, I wonder if I left the reel upstairs," said Conny, much +concerned at the loss; and she was just about prosecuting the search +thither when Cissy threw a little light on the subject, explaining at +once the cause of the cotton's disappearance. + +"Don't you recollect, Con," she observed, "you lent it to Teddy the +other day? I don't s'pose he ever returned it to you, for I'm sure I +saw it this morning with his things in the nursery." + +"No more he did," replied Conny. "Please go and tell him to bring it +back. I know where you'll find him. Mary is helping Molly making a +pie, and he's certain to be in the kitchen dabbling in the paste." + +"All right!" said Cissy; and presently her little musical voice could be +heard calling through the house, "Teddy! Teddy!" as she ran along the +passage towards the back. + +Bye and bye, however, she returned to the parlour unsuccessful. + +"I can't see him anywhere," she said. "He's not with Mary, or in the +garden, or anywhere!" + +"Oh, that boy!" exclaimed Conny. "He's up to some mischief again, and +must have gone down to the village or somewhere against papa's orders. +Do you know where he is, Liz?" + +"No," replied the young sempstress, taking the pins out of her mouth +furtively, seeing that Conny was looking at her. "He ran out of the +house before we had finished dinner, and took Puck with him." + +"Then he has gone off on one of his wild pranks," said her elder sister, +rising up and putting all the stockings into her work-basket. "I will +go and speak to papa." + +The vicar had just finished the "thirdly, brethren," of his sermon; and +he was just cogitating how to bring in his "lastly," and that favourite +"word more in conclusion" with which he generally wound up the weekly +discourse he gave his congregation, when Conny tapped at the study door +timidly awaiting permission to enter. + +"What's the matter?" called out Mr Vernon rather testily, not liking to +be disturbed in his peroration. + +"I want to speak to you, papa," said Conny, still from without. + +"Then come in," he answered in a sort of resigned tone of voice, it +appearing to him as one of the necessary ills of life to be interrupted, +and he as a minister bound to put up with it; but this feeling of +annoyance passed off in a moment, and he spoke gently and kindly enough +when Conny came into the room. + +"What is it, my dear?" he asked, smiling at his little housekeeper, as +he called her, noticing her anxious air; "any trouble about to-morrow's +dinner, or something equally serious?" + +"No, papa," she replied, taking his quizzing in earnest. "The dinner is +ordered, and nothing the matter with it that I know of. I want to speak +to you about Teddy." + +"There's nothing wrong with him, I hope?" said he, jumping up from his +chair and wafting some of the sheets of his sermon from the table with +his flying coat-tails in his excitement and haste. "Nothing wrong, I +hope?" + +Although a quiet easy-going man generally, the vicar was wrapt up in all +his children, trying to be father and mother in one to them and making +up as much as in him lay for the loss of that maternal love and guidance +of which they were deprived at an age when they wanted it most; but of +Teddy he was especially fond, his wife having died soon after giving him +birth, and, truth to say, he spoiled him almost as much as that +grandmother whose visitations were such a vexed question with Mary, +causing her great additional trouble with her charge after the old lady +left. + +"Nothing wrong, papa dear, that I know of," replied Conny in her formal +deliberative sort of way; "but, I'm afraid he has gone off with those +village boys again, for he's nowhere about the place." + +"Dear me!" ejaculated the vicar, shoving up his spectacles over his +forehead and poking his hair into an erect position like a cockatoo's +crest, as he always did when fidgety. "Can't you send somebody after +him?" + +"Mary is busy, and Teddy doesn't mind Joe, so there's no use in sending +him." + +"Dear me!" ejaculated her father again. "I'm afraid he's getting very +headstrong--Teddy, I mean, not poor Joe! I must really get him under +better control; but, I--I don't like to be harsh with him, Conny, you +know, little woman," added the vicar dropping his voice. "He's a brave, +truthful little fellow with all his flow of animal spirits, and his eyes +remind me always of your poor mother when I speak sternly to him and he +looks at me in that straightforward way of his." + +"Shall I go after him, papa?" interposed Conny at this juncture, seeing +that a wave of memory had carried back her father into the past, making +him already forget the point at issue. + +"What? Oh, dear me, no!" said the vicar, recalled to the present. +"I'll go myself." + +"But your sermon, papa?" + +"It's just finished, and I can complete what has to be added when I come +back. No--yes, I'll go; besides, now, I recollect, I have to call at +Job Trotter's to try and get him to come to church to-morrow. Yes, I'll +go myself." + +So saying, the vicar put on the hat Conny handed to him, for she had to +look after him very carefully in this respect, as he would sometimes, +when in a thinking fit, go out without any covering on his head at all! + +Then, taking his stick, which the thoughtful Conny likewise got out of +the rack in the hall, he went out of the front door and over the lawn, +through the little gate beyond. He then turned into the lane that led +across the downs to the village, Miss Conny having suggested this as the +wisest direction in which to look for Teddy, from the remembrance of +something the young scapegrace had casually dropped in conversation when +at dinner. + +As he walked along the curving lane, the air was sweet with the scent of +dry clover and the numerous wild flowers that twined amongst the +blackberry bushes of the hedgerows. Insects also buzzed about, creating +a humming music of their own, while flocks of starlings startled by his +approach flew over the field next him to the one further on, exhibiting +their speckled plumage as they fluttered overhead, and the whistle of +the blackbird and coo of the ring-dove could be heard in the distance. + +But the vicar was thinking of none of these things. + +Conny's words about Teddy not minding Joe the gardener, or anybody else +indeed, had awakened his mind to the consciousness that he had not given +proper consideration to the boy's mental training. + +Teddy's education certainly was not neglected, for he repeated his +lessons regularly to his father and displayed the most promising signs +of advancement; but, lessons ended, he was left entirely to the +servants. The vicar reflected, that this ought not to be permitted with +a child at an age when impressions of right and wrong are so easily +made, never to be effaced in after life, once the budding character is +formed. + +He would correct this error, the vicar determined; in future he would +see after him more personally! + +Just as he arrived at this sound conclusion the vicar reached the bend +of the lane where it sloped round by the spur of the down, a bustling +bumblebee making him notice this by brushing against his nose as he +buzzed through the air in that self-satisfied important way that all +bumblebees affect in their outdoor life; and, looking over the hedge +that sank down at this point, he saw a group of boys gathered round the +edge of the pond. + +He did not recognise Teddy amongst them; but, fancying the urchins might +be able to tell him something of his movements, he made towards them, +climbing through a gap in the fence and walking down the sloping side of +the hill to the meadow below. + +The boys, catching sight of him, immediately began to huddle together +like a flock of sheep startled by the appearance of some strange dog; +and he could hear them calling out some words of warning, in which his +familiar title "t'parson" could be plainly distinguished. + +"The young imps must be doing something wrong, and are afraid of being +found out," thought the vicar. "Never mind, though, I sha'n't be hard +on them, remembering my own young truant!" + +As he got nearer, he heard the yelp of a dog as if in pain or alarm. + +"They're surely not drowning some poor animal," said the vicar aloud, +uttering the new thought that flashed across his mind. "If so, I shall +most certainly be severe with them; for cruelty is detestable in man or +boy!" + +Hurrying on, he soon obtained a clear view of the pond, and he could now +see that not only were a lot of boys clustered together round the edge +of the water, but towards the centre something was floating like a raft +with apparently another boy on it, who was holding a struggling white +object in his arms, from which evidently the yelps proceeded--his ears +soon confirming the supposition. + +"Hullo! what are you doing there?" shouted the vicar, quickening his +pace. "Don't hurt the poor dog!" + +To his intense astonishment the boy on the floating substance turned his +face towards him, answering his hail promptly with an explanation. + +"It's Puck, padie, and I ain't hurting him." + +Both the face and the voice were Teddy's! + +The vicar was completely astounded. + +"Teddy!" he exclaimed, "can I believe my eyes?--is it really you?" + +"Yes, it's me, padie," replied the young scapegrace, trying to balance +himself upright on the unsteady platform as he faced his father, but not +succeeding in doing so very gracefully. + +"Why, how on earth--or rather water, that would be the most correct +expression," said the vicar correcting himself, being a student of Paley +and a keen logician as to phraseology; "how did you get there?" + +"I made a raft," explained Teddy in short broken sentences, which were +interrupted at intervals through the necessary exertion he had to make +every now and then to keep from tumbling into the water and hold Puck. +"I made a raft like--like Robinson Crusoe, and--and--I've brought Puck-- +uck with me, 'cause I didn't have a parrot or a cat. I--I--I wanted to +get to the island; b-b-but I can't go any further as the raft is stuck, +and--and I've lost my stick to push it with. Oh--I was nearly over +there!" + +"It would be a wholesome lesson to you if you got a good ducking!" said +the vicar sternly, albeit the reminiscences of Robinson Crusoe and the +fact of Teddy endeavouring to imitate that ideal hero of boyhood struck +him in a comical light and he turned away to hide a smile. "Come to the +bank at once, sir!" + +Easy enough as it was for the vicar to give this order, it was a very +different thing for Teddy, in spite of every desire on his part, to obey +it; for, the moment he put down Puck on the leafy flooring of the raft, +the dog began to howl, making him take it up again in his arms. To add +to his troubles, also, he had dropped his sculling pole during a lurch +of his floating platform, so he had nothing now wherewith to propel it +either towards the island or back to the shore, the raft wickedly +oscillating midway in the water between the two, like Mahomet's coffin +'twixt heaven and earth! + +Urged on, however, by his father's command, Teddy tried as gallantly as +any shipwrecked mariner to reach land again; but, what with Puck +hampering his efforts, and his brisk movements on the frail structure, +this all at once separated into its original elements through the +clothes-line becoming untied, leaving Teddy struggling amidst the debris +of broken rails and branches--Puck ungratefully abandoning his master in +his extremity and making instinctively for the shore. + +The vicar plunged in frantically to the rescue, wading out in the mud +until he was nearly out of his depth, and then swimming up to Teddy, +who, clutching a portion of his dismembered raft, had managed to keep +afloat; although, he was glad enough when his father's arm was round him +and he found himself presently deposited on the bank in safety, where +they were now alone, all the village boys having rushed off _en masse_, +yelling out the alarm at the pitch of their voices the moment Teddy fell +in and the vicar went after him. + +Both were in a terrible pickle though, with their garments soaking wet, +of course; while the vicar especially was bedraggled with mud from head +to foot, looking the most unclerical object that could be well imagined. +However, he took the whole matter good-humouredly enough, not scolding +Teddy in the least. + +"The best thing we can do, my son," he said when he had somewhat +recovered his breath, not having gone through such violent exercise for +many a long day.--"The best thing we can do is to hurry off home as fast +we can, so as to arrive there before they hear anything of the accident +from other sources, or the girls will be terribly alarmed about us." + +Teddy, without speaking, tacitly assented to this plan by jumping up +immediately and clutching hold of the shivering Puck, whose asthma, by +the way, was not improved by this second involuntary ducking; and the +two were hastening towards the vicarage when they heard a horse trotting +behind them, Doctor Jolly riding up alongside before they had proceeded +very far along the lane, after clambering out of the field where the +pond was situated. + +"Bless me!" cried the doctor; "why, here are you both safe and sound, +when those village urchins said you and Master Teddy were drownded!" + +"Ah! I thought these boys were up to something of the sort when they +all scampered off in a batch without lending us a helping hand!" replied +the vicar laughing. "I was just telling Teddy this, thinking the report +would reach home before us." + +"Aye, all happen, Vernon? 'Pon my word, you're in a fine mess!" + +The vicar thereupon narrated all that had occurred, much to the doctor's +amusement. + +"Well," he exclaimed at the end of the story, "that boy of yours is cut +out for something, you may depend. He won't be drowned at any rate!" + +"No," said the vicar reflectively; "this is the second merciful escape +he has had from the water." + +"Yes, and once from fire, too," put in the other, alluding to the +gunpowder episode. "He's a regular young desperado!" + +"I hope not, Jolly," hastily interposed the vicar. "I don't like your +joking about his escapades in that way. I hope he will be good--eh, my +boy?" and he stroked Teddy's head as he walked along by his side, father +and son being alike hatless, their headgear remaining floating on the +pond, along with the remains of the raft, to frighten the frogs and +fishes. + +Teddy uttered no reply; but his little heart was full, and he made many +inward resolves, which, alas! his eight-year-old nature was not strong +enough to keep. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +UNAPPRECIATED. + +He really did not mean any harm; but mischief is mischief whether +intentional or not, and somehow or other he seemed continually to be +getting into it. Circumstances, over which, of course, he had no +control, continually overruled his anxious desire to be good. + +As Doctor Jolly said, with his usual strident hearty laugh that could be +heard half a mile off, and which was so contagious that it made people +smile whose thoughts were the reverse of gay, Teddy was always in hot +water, "except, by Jove, when he plunged into the cold, ho, ho!" + +With reference to this latter point, however, it may be mentioned here, +that albeit he had twice been mercifully preserved from drowning, the +vicar, while trustful enough in the divine workings of Providence, did +not think it altogether right to allow Teddy's insurance against a +watery grave to be entirely dependent on chance; and so, that very +evening, when Jupp came up to the house after he had done his work at +the station, he broached the subject to him as soon as the worthy porter +had been made cognisant of all the facts connected with the raft +adventure. + +"No," said the vicar, so carried away by his feelings that he almost +added "my brethren," fancying himself in the pulpit delivering a homily +to his congregation generally, instead of only addressing one hearer, +"we ought not to neglect any wise precaution in guarding against those +dangers that beset our everyday lives. Lightly spoken as the adage is, +that `God helps those who help themselves,' it is true enough." + +"Aye, aye, sir, and so say I," assented Jupp, rather mystified as to +"what the parson was a-driving at," as he mentally expressed it, by this +grand beginning, and thinking it had some reference to his not being +present at the pond to rescue Teddy in his peril, which he keenly +regretted. + +"This being my impression," continued the vicar, completing his period, +as if rounding a sentence in one of his sermons, wherein he was +frequently prone to digress, "and I'm glad to learn from your +acquiescent reply that you agree with me on the main issue, eh?" + +Jupp nodded his head again, although now altogether in a fog regarding +the other's meaning. + +"Well, then," said the vicar, satisfied with having at last cleared the +ground for stating his proposition, "I want you to devote any leisure +time you may have in the course of the next few weeks to teaching my son +to swim; so that, in the event of his unhappily falling into the water +again, when neither you nor I may be near, he may be able to save +himself--under providence, that is." + +"I was just about a-thinking on the same thing, sir, when you began a- +speaking," observed Jupp thoughtfully, scratching his head in his +reflective way as he stood before the vicar cap in hand at the door of +the study, where the conference was being held. "I fancied you didn't +like me taking him down to the river, or I'd have taught him to swim +long ago, I would, sir!" + +"Then I may depend on your doing so now, eh?" + +"Sartenly, sir! I'll be proud, that I will, to show him," answered Jupp +eagerly, mightily pleased with the task intrusted to him, having long +wished to undertake it; and so, he being willing, and his pupil nothing +loth, Teddy was in a comparatively short space so well instructed how to +support himself in the water that he was quite capable of swimming +across the river without fear of being sucked down into the mill-race-- +although he made both his father and Jupp a promise, which he honourably +kept, of never bathing there unless accompanied by either of the two. + +Not only this, but he could also essay the muddy depths of the pond in +the meadow whenever the fancy seized him, exploring the little island in +its centre at his own sweet will; and this accomplishment, as will be +seen further on, stood him in good stead at one of the most critical +periods of his life, although this is anticipating. + +But, learning swimming, and so lessening the risk attending peril by +water, did not prevent him from getting into scrapes on land; for, he +was a brave, fearless boy, and these very qualities, added to a natural +impulsiveness of disposition, were continually leading him into rash +enterprises which almost invariably ended in mishap and disaster, if not +to himself, to those who unwittingly were involved in his ventures, +alas! + +In his ninth year, Jupp got a rise on the line, being promoted to be +assistant station-master at a neighbouring town, which necessarily +involved his leaving Endleigh; and, being now also able to keep a wife +in comfort, the long courtship which had been going on between him and +Mary was brought to a happy conclusion by matrimony, a contingency that +involved the loss to the vicar's household of Mary's controlling +influence, leaving Master Teddy more and more to himself, with no one in +authority to look after him. + +Under these circumstances, the vicar, acting on Doctor Jolly's advice, +sent him to a small private school in the village where the farmers' +sons of the vicinity were taught the rudiments of their education, Teddy +going thither every morning and afternoon in company with his sisters +Liz and Cissy, who received lessons from a retired governess dwelling +hard by--the three children returning home in the middle of the day for +their dinner, and again on the termination of their tasks in the +evening. + +Miss Conny, who had passed through the same curriculum, had grown too +old for her teacher, and now remained at the vicarage, installed as her +father's housekeeper and head of the family in his absence. + +This arrangement worked very well for a time, although Teddy did not +make any very rapid progress at his studies, his mind being more turned +to outdoor sports than book lore; but the association with others made +him, if more manly, less tractable, developing his madcap propensities +to a very considerable extent, if merely from his desire to emulate his +companions. + +One day, when going homewards with Liz and Cissy across the fields from +Endleigh, the trio came upon a group of the idle boys of the village who +were assembled in front of an inclosed paddock containing Farmer Giles's +brindled bull, a savage animal, whose implacable viciousness was the +talk of the place; not even the ploughman, with whom he was more +familiar than anyone else, daring to approach him without the protection +of a long-handled pitchfork. + +Neither Farmer Giles nor any of his men were about, and the boys, taking +advantage of the opportunity, were baiting the bull by shying clods at +him and otherwise rousing his temper, when Teddy and his sisters came +along. + +Teddy fired up at once at the sight. + +"You cowards!" he cried; "you stand there behind the fence pelting the +poor animal, but none of you have the pluck to go inside and do it!" + +"No more have you, Meaister," retorted one of the biggest of the boys, a +rustic lout of sixteen. "You ain't got the plook t' go inside yoursen!" + +"Haven't I?" said Teddy in answer to this taunt; and before his sisters +could prevent him he had darted over to where the boys were standing, +and climbing over the stout five-barred gate that gave admittance to the +inclosure, let himself down into the paddock--confronting the bull +without even a stick in his hand. + +The savage animal appeared so much surprised at the temerity of such a +little fellow as Teddy invading his domain, that he allowed him to +advance several steps without making a movement; when, putting down his +head, as if trying the points of his horns, and pawing the ground, he +uttered a wild bellow that brought forth a responsive shriek from Cissy. + +"Come back, Teddy, come back!" she screamed, turning quite pale with +fright. "He's coming after you, and will toss you on his cruel horns. +Oh, do come back!" + +Teddy, however, still continued advancing towards the infuriated brute, +waving his arms and shouting in the endeavour to intimidate it. He was +sorry he had gone into the paddock; but he had some idea that if he +retreated the bull would make a rush at him, and thought that by showing +he was not afraid, he might presently retire with all the honours of +war, so he preserved a courageous front, although his heart went pit-a- +pat all the while. + +Again, the bull lowered his horns and tossed up his head. + +He was quite close to him now; and Teddy stopped, the bull eyeing him +and he looking at it steadfastly. + +The situation was alarming, so he stepped back gingerly, whereupon the +bull advanced at the same moment, with another loud bellow, the smoke +coming out of his red nostrils, and his little eyes flaming with fire. + +This caused all Teddy's courage to evaporate, and the next moment, +forgetting all his previous caution, he turned and ran as hard as he +could for the gate; but, the bull, in two strides, catching him up on +his horns like a bundle of hay, tossed him high in the air, amidst the +screams and shouts of Cissy and Liz and all the village boys commingled, +the triumphant roar of the animal overtopping them all as it bellowed +forth a paean of victory. + +Fortunately for Teddy, a pollard elm stood just within the paddock, +breaking his fall as he tumbled towards the ground, where the bull was +looking up awaiting him, with the intention of catching him again on his +horns; and the branches receiving his body in their friendly shelter, he +was saved from tumbling down, when he would have been at the mercy of +his enemy. + +Still, there he hung, like Absalom, another naughty boy before him, +suspended by his clothes if not by his hair, the bull bellowing and +keeping guard round the tree to prevent his further escape; and it was +not until the ploughman had been called by one of the village boys and +driven away the animal that Teddy was able to climb down from his +insecure perch and regain the others. + +He was glad enough to get out of the paddock, it may be safely asserted; +and then, when he was examined, it was discovered, much to the wonder of +everybody, including himself, that, beyond a scratch or two from the +branches of the elm, he was quite unhurt, in spite of the toss the bull +gave him and his unexpected flight through the air! + +But his daring, if unproductive of any evil consequences towards himself +personally, caused harm to others, the ploughman being badly gored while +driving off the violent animal through his missing his footing when +aiming a blow at it with his pitchfork; while poor Cissy was in such a +fright at the mishap, that after screaming herself hoarse she went off +in hysterics, the attack ending in a fit of convulsions on her getting +home, making her so ill that the doctor had to be summoned to bring her +back to consciousness. + +Teddy in consequence had a serious lecture from the vicar, who pointed +out to him the difference between real courage and foolhardiness; but +the lesson did not strike very deep, and soon he was his wayward self +again, his sister Conny being too near his own age to have any authority +over him, while his father was too much of a student and dreamer to +exercise any judicious control in restraining his exuberant nature. + +By the time he was twelve years of age he was like a wild unbroken colt, +although he had still the same honest outspoken look in his bright blue +eyes, and was a fine manly little fellow who would not have, told a lie +to save himself from punishment, or wilfully hurt chick or child; but, +scapegrace he was still, as he had been almost from his earliest +infancy. + +He really could not help it. + +When Jupp and Mary paid their periodical visit at the vicarage to see +how the family were getting on, bringing anon another little Jupp with +them, they were certain to hear of something terrible that Master Teddy +had done; for all the village talked of him now and took heed of his +misdeeds, the recital of which, as is usual in such cases, lost nothing +by the telling. + +They were only ordinary boyish freaks; but they seemed awful to the +quiet, sleepy countryfolk who inhabited Endleigh. + +Once, his grandmother rather unwisely brought down a pistol for him from +London; and Teddy thereupon having his imagination excited by what he +had read of pirates and highwaymen in the works of romance which he +devoured whenever he could get hold of them, went about fancying himself +a bold buccaneer and freebooter, firing at everything moving within as +well as out of range, along the solitary country lanes and hedgerows-- +thereby frightening passers-by frequently with untimely shots close to +their ears, and making them believe their last hour had come. + +It was in this way that he peppered old Stokes's sow, which was taking a +quiet walk abroad seeking a convenient wallowing place, when the squeals +of the unlucky beast were a nine days' wonder, albeit "it was all cry +and little wool," as the Irishman said when he shaved his pig, the +animal being not much hurt. + +Still, old Stokes did not like it, and complained to the squire, who +remonstrated with the vicar, and the latter in his turn lectured Teddy-- +the matter ending there as far as he was concerned, although the squeals +of the afflicted sow were treasured up and remembered against him in the +chronicles of Endleigh. + +The place was so dull, that having nothing particular to keep him +occupied--for he had long since learned all the village schoolmaster +could teach him, and it was a mere farce his remaining any longer under +his tutelage--the wonder was, not that Teddy got into any mischief at +all, but that he did not fall into more; and Doctor Jolly was +continually speaking to his father about neglecting him in that way, +urging that he should be sent to some good boarding-school at a distance +to prepare him for the university, Mr Vernon intending that the boy +should follow in his own footsteps and go into the church, having the +same living after him that he had inherited from his father. + +But the vicar would not hear of this. + +"No," said he, "he shall stop here and be educated by me in the same way +as I was educated by my poor father before going to Oxford. He's a +bright intelligent boy--you don't think him an ignoramus, Jolly, eh?" + +"Not by any means, by Jove," laughed the doctor. "He knows too much +already. What I think he wants is a little proper restraint and +control. Master Teddy has too much his own way." + +"Ah! I can't be hard with him, Jolly," sighed the vicar. "Whenever I +try to speak to him with severity he looks me in the face with those +blue eyes of his, and I think of my poor wife, his mother. He's the +very image of her, Jolly!" + +"Well, well," said the doctor, putting the subject away, considering it +useless to press the point; "I'm afraid you'll regret it some day, +though I hope not." + +"I hope not, indeed," replied the vicar warmly. "Teddy isn't a bad boy. +He has never told me a falsehood in his life, and always confesses to +any fault he has committed." + +"That doesn't keep him out of mischief though," said the doctor grimly +as he went off, atoning to himself for having found fault with Teddy by +giving him a drive out to the squire's, and allowing him to take his +horse and gig back by himself, an indulgence that lifted Teddy into the +seventh heaven of delight. + +However, as events turned out, the very means by which the doctor +thought to clear the reproach from his own soul of having advised the +vicar about Teddy, indirectly led to his advice being followed. + +On alighting at the squire's and handing him the reins, he told Teddy to +be very particular in driving slowly, the horse being a high-spirited +one, and apt to take the bit in his teeth if given his head or touched +with the whip; so, as long as he was in sight Teddy obeyed these +injunctions, coaxing the bay along as quietly as if he were assisting at +a funeral procession. + +Directly he got beyond range of observation from the house, though, he +made amends for his preliminary caution, shaking the reins free, and +giving the horse a smart cut under the loins that made it spring forward +like a goat, almost jumping out of the traces; and then, away it tore +along the road towards the village at the rate of twenty miles an hour, +the gig bounding from rut to rut as if it were a kangaroo, and shaking +Teddy's bones together like castanets. + +Once the animal had got its head, the boy found it useless to try and +stop him; while, as for guidance, the horse no more cared about his +pulling at the bit than if he were a fly, plunging onward in its wild +career, and whisking the gig from side to side, so that Teddy was fully +employed in holding on without attempting to pull the reins at all. + +For a mile or two the roadway was pretty clear, but on nearing Endleigh +it became narrower; and here, just in front, Teddy could see a loaded +farm wagon coming along. + +To have passed it safely either he or the wagoner would have had to pull +up on one side; but with him now it was impossible to do this, while the +driver of the other vehicle was half asleep, and nodding from amidst the +pile of straw with which the wagon was loaded, letting the team jingle +along at a slow walk. + +A collision, therefore, was inevitable, and hardly had Teddy come to +this conclusion than smash, bang, it followed! + +There was a terrible jolt, and he suddenly felt himself doing a +somersault, waking up the wagoner by tumbling on top of him above the +straw, whither he had hurled as from a catapult by the sudden stoppage +of the gig in its mad career; and when he came to himself he saw that +the fragments of the vehicle lay scattered about under the front of the +wagon, against which it had been violently impelled, the bay cantering +down to its own stable with its broken traces dangling behind it. + +Teddy was thunderstruck at the mishap. + +He had not thought there was any danger in disobeying the doctor's +instructions, and yet here was the gig smashed up and the wagoner's +horses injured irreparably, one poor brute having to be shot afterwards; +besides which he did not know what had become of the runaway animal. + +All the mishap had arisen through disobedience! + +He went home at once and told his father everything; but the vicar, +though comforting him by saying that he would get the doctor a new gig, +and recompense the farmer to whom the wagon belonged for the loss of his +team, seemed to have his eyes awakened at last to the evil to which +Doctor Jolly had so vainly tried to direct his attention. + +He determined that Teddy should go to school. + +But, before this intention could be carried out, there was a most +unexpected arrival at the vicarage. + +This was no less a personage than Uncle Jack, whom neither Teddy nor his +sisters had ever seen before, he having gone to sea the same year the +vicar had married, and never been heard of again, the vessel in which he +had sailed having gone down, and all hands reported lost. + +Uncle Jack hadn't foundered, though, if his ship had, for here he was as +large as life, and that was very large, he weighing some fourteen or +fifteen stone at the least! + +What was more, he had passed through the most wonderful adventures and +been amongst savages. These experiences enabled him to recount the most +delightful and hairbreadth yarns--yarns that knocked all poor Jupp's +stories of the cut-and-dried cruises he had had in the navy into a +cocked hat, Teddy thought, as he hung on every utterance of this newly- +found uncle, longing the while to be a sailor and go through similar +experiences. + +Uncle Jack took to him amazingly, too, and when he had become +domesticated at the vicarage, asked one day what he was going to be. + +"What, make a parson of him, brother-in-law!" exclaimed the sailor in +horrified accents. "You'd never spoil such a boy as that, who's cut out +for a sailor, every inch of him--not, of course, that I wish to say a +word against your profession. Still, he can't go into the church yet; +what are you going to do with him in the meantime, eh?" + +"Send him to school," replied the other. + +"Why, hasn't he been yet?" + +"Oh, yes, he's not altogether ignorant," said the vicar. "I think he's +a very fair scholar for his years." + +"Then why dose him any more with book learning, eh? When you fill a +water-cask too full it's apt to run over!" + +"I quite agree with you about cramming, Jack," said the vicar, smiling +at the nautical simile; "but, I'm sending Teddy to a leading school more +for the sake of the discipline than for anything more that I want him to +learn at present." + +"Discipline, eh! is that your reason, brother-in-law? Then allow me to +tell you he'll get more of that at sea than he ever will at school." + +"Oh, father!" interrupted Teddy, who had been present all the time +during the confab, listening as gravely as any judge to the discussion +about his future, "do let me be a sailor! I'd rather go to sea than +anything." + +"But you might be drowned, my boy," said the vicar gravely, his thoughts +wandering to every possible danger of the deep. + +"No fear of that," answered Teddy smiling. "Why, I can swim like a +fish; and there's Uncle Jack now, whom you all thought lost, safe and +sound after all his voyages!" + +"Aye and so I am!" chorused the individual alluded to. + +"Well, well, we'll think of it," said the vicar. "I'll hear what my old +friend Jolly has to say to the plan first." + +But he could not have consulted a more favourable authority as far as +Teddy was concerned. + +"The very thing for him!" said the doctor approvingly. "I don't think +you could ever turn him into a parson, Vernon. He has too much animal +spirits for that; think of my gig, ho! ho!" + +Overcome by the many arguments brought forward, and the general +consensus of judgment in favour of the project, the vicar at last +consented that Teddy might be allowed to go to sea under the aegis of +Uncle Jack, who started off at once to London to see about the shipping +arrangements; when the rest of the household set to work preparing the +young sailor's outfit in the meantime, so that no time might be lost-- +little Cissy making him a wonderful anti-macassar, which, in spite of +all ridicule to the contrary, she asserted would do for the sofa in his +cabin! + +Of course, Jupp and Mary came over to wish Teddy good-bye; but, albeit +there was much grief among the home circle at the vicarage when they +escorted him to the little railway-station, on the day he left there +were not many tears shed generally at his going, for, to paraphrase not +irreverently the words of the Psalmist, "Endleigh, at heart, was glad at +his departing, and the people of the village let him go free!" + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +AT SEA. + +"Well, here we are, my hearty!" said Uncle Jack, who was on the watch +for him at London Bridge station, and greeted him the moment the train +arrived; "but, come, look sharp, we've a lot to do before us, and +precious little time to do it in!" + +Teddy, however, was not inclined at first to "look sharp." + +On the contrary, he looked extremely sad, being very melancholy at +leaving home, and altogether "down in the mouth," so to speak. + +This arose, not so much from the fact of his parting with his father and +sisters, dearly as he loved them all in his way; but, on account of poor +Puck, who, whether through grief at his going away, which the +intelligent little animal seemed quite as conscious of through the +instinct of his species as if he were a human being, or from his chronic +asthma coming to a crisis, breathed his last in Teddy's arms the very +morning of his departure from home! + +The doggy, faithful to the end, was buried in the garden, Conny, Cissy, +and Liz attending his obsequies, and the two latter weeping with Teddy +over his grave, for all were fond of Puck; but none lamented him so +deeply as he, and all the journey up to town, as the train sped its +weary way along, his mind was busy recalling all the incidents that +attended their companionship from the time when his grandmother first +gave him as a present. He was a brisk young dog then, he remembered, +the terror of all strange cats and hunter of rabbits, but his affection +had not swerved down to the last year of their association, when, +toothless and wheezy, he could hunt no more, and cats came fearlessly +beneath his very nose when he went through the feeble pretence of trying +to gnaw a bone on the lawn. + +Poor Puck--_requiescat in pace_! + +Still, doggy or no doggy, Uncle Jack was not the sort of fellow to let +Teddy remain long in the dumps, especially as he had said there was a +good deal to be done; and, soon, Teddy was in such a whirl of +excitement, with everything new and strange around him, that he had no +time left to be melancholy in. + +First, Uncle Jack hailed a hansom, all Teddy's belongings in the shape +of luggage being left in the cloak-room at the terminus, and the two +jumping in were driven off as rapidly as the crowded state of the +streets would allow, to Tower Hill, where the offices of the shipping +agents owning the _Greenock_ were situated. + +Here Uncle Jack deposited a cheque which the vicar had given him, and +Master Teddy was bound over in certain indentures of a very imposing +character as a first-class apprentice to the said firm, the lad then +signing articles as one of the crew of the _Greenock_, of which vessel, +it may be mentioned, Uncle Jack had already been appointed chief +officer, so that he would be able to keep a watchful eye over his nephew +in his future nautical career. + +"Now that job's done," said Uncle Jack when all the bothersome writing +and signing were accomplished and the vicar's cheque paid over, "we'll +have a run down to look at the ship; what say you to that, eh?" + +"All right!" responded Teddy, much delighted at the idea; and the pair +then were driven from Tower Hill to the Fenchurch Street railway- +station, where they dismissed their cab and took train for the docks, +the state of locomotion in the neighbourhood of which does not readily +permit of the passage of wheeled vehicles, a hansom running the risk of +being squashed into the semblance of a pancake against the heavy drays +blocking the narrow streets and ways, should it adventure within the +thoroughfares thereof. + +On their arrival at Poplar, Uncle Jack threaded his way with amazing +ease and familiarity through a narrow lane with high walls on either +hand, and then into a wide gateway branching off at right angles. +Entering within this Teddy found himself in a vast forest of masts, with +ships loading and unloading at the various quays and jetties alongside +the wharves, opposite to lines of warehouses that seemed to extend from +one end of the docks to the other. + +Uncle Jack was not long in tumbling across the _Greenock_, which had +nearly completed taking in her cargo and was to "warp out next morning," +as he told Teddy, who didn't know what on earth he meant by the phrase, +by the way. + +There appeared to be a great deal of confusion going on in front of the +jetty to which she was moored; but Uncle Jack took him on board and +introduced him to Mr Capstan, the second officer, as a future messmate, +who showed him the cabins and everything, telling him to "make himself +at home!" + +The _Greenock_ was a fine barque-rigged vessel of some two thousand +tons, with auxiliary steam-power; and she gained her living or earned +her freight, whichever way of putting it may please best, by sailing to +and fro in the passenger trade between the ports of London and +Melbourne, but doing more in the goods line on the return journey, +because colonials bent on visiting the mother country generally prefer +the mail steamers as a speedier route. Emigrants, however, are not so +squeamish, contenting themselves in getting out to Australia, that land +of promise to so many hard-up and despairing people at home, by whatever +means they can--so long only as they may hope to arrive there at some +time or other! + +Teddy was surprised at the gorgeousness of the _Greenock's_ saloons and +cabins, and the height of her masts, and the multitude of ropes about +running in every conceivable direction, crossing and recrossing each +other with the bewildering ingenuity of a spider's web; but Uncle Jack +took all these wonders as a matter of course, and rather pooh-poohed +them. + +"Wait till you see her at Gravesend," he said. "She's all dismantled +now with these shore lumpers and lubbers aboard, and won't be herself +till she's down the river and feels herself in sailors' hands again. +Why, you won't know her! But come along, laddie, we've got to buy a +sea-chest and a lot of things to complete your kit; and then, we'll go +to granny's and try to see something of the sights of London." + +So, back they trudged again to the Poplar station and were wafted once +more to Fenchurch Street, where Uncle Jack dived within the shop of a +friendly outfitter, who had a mackintosh and sextant swinging in front +of his establishment to show his marine leanings and dealings. + +Here, a white sea-chest, whose top was made like a washing-stand, and +several other useful articles, were purchased by Uncle Jack without +wasting any time, as he had made up his mind what he wanted before going +in and knew what he was about; and these things being ordered to be +forwarded to the cloak-room at the London Bridge station, to be placed +with Teddy's other luggage, Uncle Jack rubbed his hands gleefully. + +"Now that business is all settled," he said, "we can enjoy ourselves a +bit, as the ship won't be ready for us till next Monday. Come along, my +hearty! Let us bear up for granny's--you haven't been to her place +before, have you, eh?" + +No, Teddy explained. Granny had often been down to Endleigh to see him, +but he had never been up to town to see her; that first attempt of his, +which had been frustrated by Mary's pursuit and the machinations of +Jupp, having deterred him, somehow or other, from essaying the journey a +second time. Indeed, he had never been to London at all. + +"_My_!" exclaimed Uncle Jack. "What a lot there'll be for you to see, +my hearty, eh?" + +What is more, he showed him, too, all that was to be seen, taking Teddy +to monuments and exhibitions, to galleries and even to the theatre. + +The time passed by rapidly enough--too rapidly, granny thought, when the +day came for her to say good-bye to Teddy; but he was nothing loth to +go, longing to be on board the _Greenock_ as one belonging to her of +right, and feel himself really at sea. + +Granny wanted him to have another little dog in place of Puck; however, +he couldn't make up his mind to a substitute to supersede the former +animal's hold on his affections. Besides this, Uncle Jack said the +captain did not allow anybody to have dogs on board, and that was a +clincher to the argument at once. + +Monday morning came, and with it another railway journey. It really +seemed to Teddy as if he were "on the line," like Jupp! + +The _Greenock_, having taken in all her cargo, had been warped out of +dock and then towed down the river to Gravesend, where she was now lying +moored in the stream off the Lobster. + +"There she is!" cried Uncle Jack when they got down to the beach. + +"Where?" asked Teddy, not recognising the dirty untidy hulk he had seen +in the docks, as she first appeared to him before he was taken on board +and noticed the elegance of her cabins, in the thing of beauty he saw +now before him; with every spar in its place and snow-white canvas +extended in peaceful folds from the yards, as the vessel lay at anchor +with her topsails dropped and her courses half clewed up, ready to +spread her wings like an ocean bird. + +What a change there was in her! + +"Look, right in front there, laddie," said Uncle Jack. "Can't you see? +She's just about making-sail, so we'd better get on board as soon as +possible. Hi, boatman, seen any one belonging to the _Greenock_ +ashore?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered the man addressed, "her boat's just over there +by the p'int, just agoin' to shove off." + +"Thank you, my hearty," said Uncle Jack, giving him a trifle for the +information; and in another minute or so Teddy found himself in the +_Greenock's_ jolly-boat in company with a lot of the new hands, like +himself, going off to join the ship. Here on his arrival on board, he +was introduced to Captain Lennard, the monarch of all he surveyed as far +as the deck of the _Greenock_ was concerned, and his future commander. + +Teddy liked the look of him; while he, on his part, seemed to like the +look of Teddy, smiling kindly when he saw him come over the gangway +after Uncle Jack. He had the general appearance of a brown Jupp, being +of the same height and with just such a smiling good-humoured face, with +the exception that his hair and beard, instead of being black, was of a +lighter and ruddier hue. + +Oh, yes, Teddy thought, Captain Lennard was the man for him. He looked +easy and kind-hearted and would not bully people, as he had read of some +brutal captains doing. + +"This your nephew?" he asked Uncle Jack politely. + +"Yes, sir," replied the other, touching his cap, being in regular +nautical rig now, as also was Teddy, who, clad in spick-and-span reefer +costume, felt as proud as Punch. + +"Ah! then, if he's like you I think we'll get along very well together, +Mr Althorp," said the captain with a bow and smile. "He looks like a +chip of the old block too!" + +"You're very good to say that, sir," stammered Uncle Jack, blushing at +the compliment. "The youngster's very like my poor sister, and I +suppose resembles me, as she and I were twins. I've no doubt, though, +you'll find him teachable when he's licked into shape; for, he isn't a +bad lad from what I have seen of him as yet, and is plucky enough, if +all I've heard of him down at Endleigh be true." + +"Well, Master Vernon, I hope you'll justify the character your uncle +gives of you. If you only obey orders there'll be no fear of our +falling out. But, mind, I'm captain of this ship; so look out for +squalls if you shirk duty or try on any tricks!" + +The captain said this pleasantly, but there was a stern look combined in +the twinkle of his hazel eyes beneath their thick brown eyebrows, like +penthouses overshadowing them; and Teddy felt that, with all his +gentleness and joking way, he was a man who intended to command and +likewise to be obeyed. + +A moment later Captain Lennard changed the conversation by asking Uncle +Jack if all the hands were on board. + +"Aye, aye, sir," said the other. "The whole batch, I think, came out +with us. Isn't that so, Mr Capstan?" he asked, turning to the second- +mate, who was standing close by. + +"Yes, all hands aboard," replied the second-mate laconically. + +"Then make sail at once," said Captain Lennard, going aft on the poop; +while Mr Capstan bustled forwards, shouting out as he scrambled up on +the windlass bitts and thence to the fo'c's'le, "All hands make sa-i- +il!" drawling out the last word as if it were a chorus to some mariner's +ditty he were singing. + +The crew were all picked men, the majority having been in the ship on +one or two previous voyages; so they were quite at home, and sprang into +the rigging long before the second-mate had got to the end of his +refrain. + +In a second, the topsails were dropped and sheeted home, and the +rattling of the clewgarnet blocks told of the courses following their +example; after which the hands aloft then loosed the topgallant, there +being a fine breeze fair for the Downs. + +Teddy was puzzled for a moment by all the seeming confusion that reigned +in the ship, with ropes flying about and cordage cracking, while the +hoarse orders issued by Mr Capstan and Uncle Jack were answered by the +cheery cry of the men, singing out lustily as they hoisted and pulled at +the halliards with a will. But, the confusion was only momentary and in +appearance only; for, hardly had he begun to realise what all the bustle +was about, than the ship was clothed in canvas from truck to deck, like +a lady attired for a ball all in white! + +The headyards were then backed, and Captain Lennard's voice rang through +the vessel fore and aft as clear as a bell-- + +"Hands up anchor!" + +Then, the windlass was wound; and, slip, slap, click, clack, it went +round the pawl belaying every inch of cable got in. + +"Cheerily, men! heave with a will!" urged the second-mate; and the +brawny fellows bent all their strength to the handspikes, heaving them +down with sheer brute force. + +"Hove short!" presently sang out Mr Capstan. + +"Up with it!" responded Captain Lennard from the poop, where the pilot +now appeared by his side awaiting all these preparations to be completed +before taking charge of the ship. + +Half-a-dozen more heaves and the anchor-stock showed above the water. + +"Hook cat!" cried the second-mate. + +"I wonder what that means!" thought Teddy. "I hope they won't hurt the +poor thing!" + +But, the next moment, he was undeceived. + +Nothing in the shape of cruelty to animals was about to be perpetrated. + +Mr Capstan only ordered the men to hook on the tackle by which the head +of the anchor was to be braced up; and, before he could say "Jack +Robinson," if he had been that way inclined, the falls were manned and +the anchor run up to the cathead with a rousing chorus as the men +scampered aft with the tail-end of the rope. + +The headyards were then filled, and the ship bowed her head as if in +salute to Father Neptune, the next instant gathering way as the sails +began to draw. + +"Port!" sang out the pilot from the bridge. + +"Port it is," responded the man at the wheel, shifting the spokes with +both hands like a squirrel in a cage, it seemed to Teddy, who was +looking at him from the break of the poop, where he had taken up his +station by Captain Lennard's orders so that he might the more easily see +all that was going on. + +"Steady!" + +"Steady it is," repeated the helmsman in parrot fashion. + +And so, conning and steering along, the _Greenock_ was soon bounding on +her way down channel, passing Deal and rounding the South Foreland +before noon. + +Teddy at last was really at sea! + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +TAKING FRENCH LEAVE. + +The weather was beautifully fine for October, with a bright warm sun +shining down and lighting up the water, which curled and crested before +the spanking nor'-east breeze, that brought with it that bracing tone +which makes the month, in spite of its autumnal voice warning us of the +approach of winter, one of the most enjoyable in our changeable +climate--especially to those dwelling along the south coast, which the +good ship _Greenock_ now trended by on her passage out of the Channel. + +Teddy as yet, although this was his first experience of "a life on the +ocean wave," was not sea-sick; for, although the vessel heeled well over +to the wind on the starboard tack she did not roll, but ploughed through +the little wavelets as calmly as if on a mill-pond, only rising now and +again to make a graceful courtesy to some cross current that brought a +swell over from the opposite shore of France, for after passing Beachy +Head she kept well off the land on the English side. + +A west-nor'-west course brought the _Greenock_ off Saint Catharine's +Point; but the evening had drawn in too much for Teddy to see anything +of the Isle of Wight, and when he woke up next morning the ship was +abreast of the Start Point. + +From thence, he had a fair view of the Devon and Cornish coasts in the +distance all the way to the Lizard, the scene being like an ever- +changing panorama, with plenty of life and movement about in the vessels +the _Greenock_ was continually passing either outwards or homewards +bound; while the little trawlers and fishing-boats clustered in groups +here and there, and there was the occasional smoke from some steamer +steaming along the horizon, like a dark finger-post above the level of +the sea in the distance. + +He enjoyed it all, as, although he had found his bunk in the cabin +rather close and stuffy after his nice airy bed-room at the vicarage, he +was still not sea-sick; and, as he leant over the taffrail, watching the +creamy wake the ship left behind her, spreading out broader and broader +until it was lost in the surrounding waste of waters, what with the +sniff of the saline atmosphere and the bracing breeze, he began to feel +hungry, longing for breakfast-time to come and wondering when he would +hear the welcome bell sound to tell that the meal was ready. + +No one was on deck, at least on the poop, when he came up, save the +helmsman, and Mr Capstan, the latter walking up and down briskly on the +windward side and exchanging a word now and again with the pilot on the +bridge; so Teddy felt a little forlorn. + +Presently, the second-mate, taking a longer turn in his quarterdeck +walk, came up and spoke to him. + +"Well, young shaver," he said, "how are you getting on?" + +"Very well, thank you, sir," replied Teddy, touching his cap, as Uncle +Jack had told him he must always do to his superior officer. + +"Ah! you're like a young bear, and have all your troubles before you," +the other next remarked consolingly, adding immediately afterwards the +query: "Seen any of your messmates yet?" + +"No, sir," replied Teddy, looking a bit puzzled--"that is, excepting +yourself and the captain, and Uncle Jack, of course. Are there any +other midshipmen like myself?" + +"Aye, if you call the apprentices so, young shaver," said Mr Capstan +with an ironical grin which did not improve his rather ugly face. +"There are two more of you; and the lazy young hounds must be snoozing +below, for they haven't shown a leg yet. However, I'll soon rouse 'em +up!" + +So saying, he shouted out to one of the hands in the waist forwards: +"Here, Bill Summers!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied the man, looking up towards the break of the +poop, whence the second-mate had hailed him, leaning over the rail. + +"Just go and call Jones and Maitland. Tell 'em to turn out sharp or +I'll stop their grog," cried Mr Capstan. + +"Aye, aye, sir," said the man, proceeding towards the deck-house, which +occupied a middle position in the ship between the poop and fo'c's'le; +and presently, although hidden from the gaze of those aft, he could be +heard rapping at one of the doors, repeating in whispered tones the +order the second-mate had given him. + +Ere long, a couple of striplings appeared, dressed in dirty uniforms +which presented a marked difference to that of Teddy; and he noticed +besides that one was considerably taller than he was while the second +was shorter and a little slimmer. + +"Here, you, Jones and Maitland, I won't have you caulking away this +bright morning when the sun ought to be scorching the sleep out of your +eyes. What do you mean by it, eh?" began Mr Capstan as if lashing +himself into a passion, but had not quite got enough steam up yet. + +"I thought, sir, as this is our first day out and the ship still in +charge of the pilot, we needn't turn out so early," said Jones, the +biggest of the two, acting as spokesman. + +"You thought!" snarled the second-mate, catching up a rope's-end with +the apparent intention of laying it across the shoulders of Jones, only +he kept a wary distance away. "I've half a mind to give you something +for answering me like that! No one has any business to think on board +ship." + +"Aye, where you're boss!" said the offender speaking aside. + +"What is that you're jabbering?" quickly interposed Mr Capstan--"some +impudence, I reckon. Now, just you pull off those patent-leather pumps +of yours and set to work washing decks. It's gone six bells, and it +ought to have been done half an hour ago." + +Teddy thought this was a very unkind cut of the mate at poor Jones's +boots, which were a dilapidated pair of bluchers that needed mending +badly; still, he couldn't help smiling, which didn't seem to please Mr +Capstan, who, turning round, now addressed him: + +"And you, my fine young shaver, with your dandy rig, you'd better be +doing something to earn your salt, and not be a useless lubber, looking +on like a fine lady! You just put off and go and help Jones." + +Teddy, though he didn't relish the job, obeyed willingly; and soon he +was paddling about in bare feet with his trousers rolled up to the knee, +while the crew under Jones's direction rigged the head pump and sluiced +the decks down from end to end of the ship, beginning with the poop and +ending with the midship section in the waist, where all the water was +collected in a sort of small lake and had to be swabbed out of the +scuttles. + +Young Maitland meanwhile had been sent up the main royal mast to clear +the dog vane, which had somehow or other got fouled; so Mr Capstan, +satisfied at seeing everybody busily employed but himself, paced +contentedly up and down the poop, sniffing about and snorting +occasionally like an old grampus, as if in satisfaction at "taking it +out of the youngsters." + +The man was naturally a bully, and loved to display the little authority +he had by "hazing" those under him, to use the technical sea phrase. + +By dint of continually nagging at the men below from his commanding +position above, the second-mate hurried them up so with their work that +in a very short space of time the decks were scrubbed and washed, the +sun drying them almost without the use of the swab. + +Mr Capstan then set them to work coiling down the loose ropes lying +about, there being nothing else to do, as the ship had not altered her +course but remained on the starboard tack with the wind well on her +quarter; and, although everything had been made snug before leaving the +Downs, he was just going to tell the hands to unship the motley contents +of the long-boat and stow it again afresh in default of some other task, +when eight bells struck, and Uncle Jack came up from below to relieve +him from his watch--a relief, it may be added, to all hands in more than +one sense! + +Presently, Captain Lennard came on deck too; although he must not be +thought lazy for being so late, for he had remained up with the pilot on +the bridge all night conning the ship, only turning in for a short nap +at daylight. + +Then, the passengers, of whom there were some sixty in the first-class +saloon, began to creep up the companion, one by one as if not yet +accustomed to the somewhat unsteady footing of a ship's deck at sea; as +for the steerage emigrants they remained below, and even after they had +been weeks afloat it required almost force to drive them up into the +fresh air. + +Teddy was looking at the queer figures some of the gentlemen and ladies +presented on the poop, when all at once the breakfast gong sounded, and +they all scuttled down much faster than they had come up, the sea air +having given those able to get out of their bunks fresh appetites after +they had paid homage to Neptune. + +He was not invited to go down with these, however, having to mess along +with Jones and Maitland in the deck-house close to the galley, where the +three mids consoled themselves with the reflection that if they were +excluded from the saloon, at all events they were nearer the place where +their meals were cooked, and so had the advantage of getting them +hotter! + +After breakfast the pilot left the ship, a boat putting out for him from +the land when they were near Saint Michael's; and then Captain Lennard, +hauling round a bit, shaped a west-south-west course, steering out into +the broad Atlantic until he had reached longitude 12 degrees West, when +the vessel's head was turned to the south for Madeira and the Canaries. + +Strange to say, Teddy up to now had not been once sick. + +It is true they had not as yet had any rough weather; but the sea was +brisk enough to try the stomachs of all the landsmen on board, so it was +curious he was not affected in any way by the ship's motion. + +As Uncle Jack said at the first, he was a born sailor! + +Soon he began, too, to understand his duties; and being naturally quick +of intellect and active, he after a time became handier on the yards and +up aloft than little Maitland, who had been two voyages out and home +before; while Jones had to exert himself to hold his own with him--with +Uncle Jack, besides, coaching him up in seamanship, Teddy ere the vessel +had reached Madeira was a greenhand no longer. + +At Teneriffe Captain Lennard put in to coal, the ship being, as formerly +mentioned, an auxiliary screw, and able to enlist the aid of steam when +she came to the calm latitudes, which they were now approaching. + +The passengers being allowed to go on shore for a few hours, Teddy +received permission to accompany those taking advantage of the +opportunity of landing. + +There was no time to try and climb up the celebrated peak, which can be +seen so far out at sea that it looks like an island in the clouds; but +there was much amusement gained in donkey riding and studying the +manners and customs of the natives. + +The garments, Teddy noticed, of the ladies were rather limited in +dimensions; but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in style, +all the dresses being provided with those "improvers" of late fashion in +England. These made the skirts of the Portuguese damsels stick out all +round, giving them a very funny appearance with their brown skins and +bare feet! + +It was well they coaled here, for while they were yet in sight of the +huge cloud-cap't mountain above Santa Cruz, the wind that had favoured +them so well up to now dropped to a dead calm; so, Captain Lennard, +ordering the sails to be furled and the screw-propeller lowered, the +vessel was able to proceed under steam across the equator, making almost +as good time as when sailing before a good breeze--almost, but not +quite, as she was a clipper under canvas. + +They touched once more at the Cape of Good Hope, to fill up the coal +they had expended in case of another emergency necessitating their +steaming again; but, the wind being favourable when the _Greenock_ got +below the forties, she bowled along steadily before it under canvas, +reaching Melbourne within sixty days. + +Altogether, the voyage was uneventful except for one thing, and that was +the persistent bullying of Mr Capstan the second-mate, who, whether +from his relationship to Uncle Jack, his superior officer, or from some +other cause, had apparently conceived such a dislike to Teddy that he +tyrannised over him more than he seemed to think necessary either with +little Maitland or Jones--although they suffered, too, at his hands! + +Teddy would not complain, though, to the captain; and as for his Uncle +Jack, he would have thought it dishonourable to breathe a word to him. +He would rather have suffered the crudest torture the bully could +inflict than that! + +However, he and little Maitland matured their plans together, and coming +to the conclusion that they could not very well have any satisfaction +from Mr Capstan without telling tales, they determined to steal away +from the ship when she got into harbour, and run away ashore up into the +bush, Val Maitland retailing for Teddy's benefit the most wonderful +stories anent gold-digging and bush-ranging--stories that cordially +agreed with his own fancy. + +Not long, therefore, after the _Greenock_ had entered within Port Philip +Heads and got up to Sandridge Pier, the two boys, mixing amongst the +crowd of passengers landing, touters touting for various boarding- +houses, and all the different sorts of people that throng round the +newly-arrived at the colonial metropolis, especially at its harbour +mouth, managed easily to get into the town unobserved, giving the slip +most successfully to their ship and all its belongings. + +"And what shall we do now?" asked Teddy, his companion, although smaller +than himself, taking the lead, from being an older sailor and having +been previously in Australia. + +"Do! why, go into the bush, of course!" promptly answered the other. + +"And how shall we get there?" next inquired Teddy cheerfully, wishing to +start off that very moment for the golden land he had dreamt of. + +"Why, by train," said Val. + +"By train!" echoed Teddy in a voice of consternation, the idea was such +a terrible come down to what he had imagined. + +"Yes, by train; come along with me," repeated little Maitland, catching +hold of his arm; and turning into Collins Street he soon made his way to +the railway depot and took a couple of tickets for Ballarat. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +THE WRECK. + +"I say," began Val presently when the train was in motion. + +"Well?" said Teddy rather grumpily. + +He could not stomach the fact that here they were journeying along by +the aid of an ordinary railway, just as they would have done in England. + +When Val had suggested their going to the diggings he had imagined they +would tramp thither through the bush, with their blankets and swag on +their shoulders, as he had often read of men doing; and that they would +end by picking up a big nugget of gold that would make all their +fortunes! + +The train disposed of all these dreams in a moment; for, how could they +pick up nuggets along a line of "permanent way," as Jupp would have +called it--a beaten track that thousands traversed every day by the aid +of the potent iron-horse and a bucket of hot water? + +It was scandalous that Val hadn't told him of the railroad! + +It dispelled all the romance of the expedition at once, he thought +grumblingly. Despite all Mr Capstan's bullying, he had not run away +from the ship for that; so he was not at all in a mood to have any +conversation with such an unprincipled fellow as Val, who ought to have +enlightened him before. + +"Well?" he said again, seeing that young Maitland hesitated about +proceeding, his grumpy tone acting as a sort of damper to his +contemplated eloquence. + +"I say, old fellow," then began Val again, making a fresh start and +blurting out his question, "have you got any money?" + +Teddy was all sympathy now. + +A comrade in distress should never appeal to him in vain! + +So he commenced searching his pockets. + +"I ought to have some," he said. "Father gave me a five-pound note +before I left home, and Uncle Jack when I was in London with him tipped +me a sovereign, and I haven't spent or changed either for that matter; +but, now I come to think of it, they're both in my chest in the cabin. +I never thought of taking them out before we left the _Greenock_." + +"That's precious unlucky," observed Val, searching his pockets too, and +trying each vainly in turn. "I've only a couple of shillings left now +after paying for the railway tickets. Whatever shall we do?" + +"Oh, bother that!" replied Teddy sanguinely; "we sha'n't want any. The +fellows I've read about who went to the diggings never had a halfpenny, +but they always met with a friendly squatter or tumbled into luck in +some way or other." + +"That was in the old days," said Val in a forlorn way. "The squatters +have all been cleared out, and there are only hotels and boarding-houses +left, where they expect people to pay for what they have to eat." + +"They're a stingy lot then, and quite unlike what I've read in books +about the customs in Australia; but what can you expect when they have a +railway!" + +Teddy spoke in such a scornful manner of this sign of civilisation that +he made Val laugh, raising his spirits again. + +"All right, old chap!" said the little fellow. "I daresay we'll get +along very well although we haven't any money to speak of with us. Two +shillings, you know, is something; and no doubt it will keep us from +starving till we come across luck." + +Teddy cheerfully acquiesced in this hopeful view of things; and then the +two, being alone in the carriage, chatted away merrily on all sorts of +subjects until they arrived at their station, which a porter sang out +the name of exactly in the same fashion as if they were at home. + +This quite exasperated Teddy, who, when he got down and looked about +him, opened his eyes with even greater wonder. + +Surely this large town couldn't be Ballarat! + +Why, that place ought to be only a collection of hastily-run-up wooden +shanties, he thought, with perhaps one big store where they sold +everything, provisions, and picks and shovels, with cradles for rocking +the gold-dust out of the quartz and mud. + +Where were the canvas tents of the diggers, and the claims, and all? + +But, yes, Ballarat it was; although the only diggings were quarries +worked by public mining companies with an immense mass of machinery that +crushed the rock and sent streams of water through the refuse, using +quicksilver to make an amalgam with--companies that were satisfied to +get a grain of gold for every ton of quartz they excavated and pounded +into powder, and realised a handsome dividend at that, where ordinary +diggers wouldn't have had a chance of keeping themselves from starving. + +He and little Maitland wandered about; and then, feeling hungry, +exhausted all their capital in one meal, "burning their boats," like the +old Athenians. + +They would now have either to find something to do to get lodging or +food, or else tramp it back to the ship. + +They slept that night in the open air, under some scaffolding round a +new building that was being run up on the outskirts of the town; and the +next morning were wandering about again, feeling very miserable and +wishing they were safely back on board the _Greenock_, it being just +breakfast-time, when they were accosted by a stout, hairy sort of man, +dressed in a species of undress uniform. + +"Hullo, my young friends!" the man said, his voice being much pleasanter +than his looks, "where do you hail from? I don't think I've ever seen +you in Ballarat before." + +"You wouldn't again if we could help it," replied Teddy so heartily that +the hairy man laughed as jollily as might have been expected from his +musical voice. + +"Ah! I think I know who you are," he observed, eyeing them both +critically. + +"Well, you must be a conjuror if you do," answered little Maitland, who +had a good deal of native impudence about him, "considering we haven't +been twenty-four hours in Australia!" + +"What say you to Maitland being your name and Vernon that of your +companion, eh, my young cocksparrow?" said the man with a quizzical +look. "Am I conjuror or not?" + +The boys stared at each other in amazement. + +"Well," exclaimed Teddy at length, "this is certainly the funniest +country I have ever been in. The diggings that I've read about in print +over and over again have all vanished into nothing, and here there are +railways running through the bush, with people knowing who you are +twenty thousand miles away from home. It is wonderful!" + +"Not so very wonderful after all, Master Teddy Vernon," suggested the +hairy man at this juncture. "I'm an inspector of police here, and we +received a telegram last night which had been circulated in all +directions from the chief office at Melbourne, saying that you two young +gentlemen were missing from the ship _Greenock_, just arrived from +England, and that any information about you would be gladly received and +rewarded by Captain Lennard, the commander of the vessel." + +"I'm very glad," said Teddy, interrupting any further remark the +inspector might have made. "We came away suddenly because of something +that occurred on board; and now I sha'n't be at all sorry to go back +again, for we have no money or anything to eat. Besides, the place +isn't a bit like what I expected--there!" + +"Ah! you're hungry, my young friends, and that soon takes the pluck out +of a body," observed the inspector kindly. "Come along with me and have +some breakfast, after which I'll see you into the train for Melbourne." + +"But we haven't got any money," said Teddy, looking at him frankly in +the face. + +"Never mind that," he replied jokingly. "I daresay I can put my hand on +an odd sixpence or so, and this I've no doubt your captain will pay me +back." + +"That he will," cried Teddy and Val together in one breath; "besides, +we've got money of our own on board the ship, only we forgot to bring it +with us." + +"And a very good job too," said the inspector laughing, "otherwise, you +might not perhaps have been so glad to meet me this morning; but come on +now, lads. Let us go into the town to some restaurant, and then I will +see you to the depot, if I can depend on your going back." + +"That you can, sir," replied Val drily, "if you buy the tickets for us." + +"Oh, I'll see about that," said the inspector; and so, under his escort, +they went into the nearest restaurant and had a good meal, after which +the inspector took tickets for them, seeing them into the railway- +carriage. The worthy policeman must also have said something to the +guard, for after he had given Teddy his name, at the lad's especial +request, and wished them good-bye, some official or other came up and +locked the door of the compartment, so that they could not have got out +again if they had wished save by climbing through the window. + +"He needn't have been alarmed at our giving him the slip," observed +little Maitland. "I am only too glad to be sent back in any fashion, +ignominious though it may be to be under charge of the police." + +"So am I," said Teddy; "but the inspector is a nice fellow after all, +and has behaved very well to us." + +He had been even more thoughtful, however, than the boys imagined; for, +on the train arriving once more at the Melbourne terminus, who should be +there to meet them but Uncle Jack! + +"Well, you're a nice pair of young scamps," was his exclamation when the +door of the carriage was opened by another policeman, and they got out +right in front of where he was standing. "What have you got to say for +yourselves, eh, for taking leave in French fashion like that? Why, you +ought to be keel-hauled both of you!" + +But he saved them a long explanation by telling them that Jones, the +other midshipman, having been knocked down with a marlinespike by the +second-mate, Captain Lennard had both him and Mr Capstan brought before +him, when, sifting the matter to the bottom, Jones had made a clean +breast of the way in which he and the other youngsters had been bullied. + +"And the upshot of the whole affair is," continued Uncle Jack, "Captain +Lennard has dismissed Capstan from his ship, giving him such a discharge +certificate that I don't think he'll get another second-mate's place in +a hurry! As for you, my young scamps, I don't think the skipper will be +very hard on you; but, Teddy, you ought to have told me of the treatment +you three poor beggars were receiving at that ruffian's hands all the +voyage. Old Bill Summers, the boatswain, confirmed every word that +Jones said, and was quite indignant about it." + +"I didn't like to tell, you being my uncle and over Mr Capstan," said +Teddy; "I thought it would be mean." + +"It is never mean to complain of injustice," replied Uncle Jack gravely; +"still, the matter now rests with the skipper." + +Captain Lennard gave the boys a good talking to for running away, saying +that it wasn't manly for young sailors to shirk their work in that way +for any reason. However, considering all the circumstances of the case +and the lesson they had learnt, that boys couldn't be absolutely +independent of those in authority over them, he said that he had made up +his mind to forgive them, telling them they might return to their duty. + +The passengers having all landed and the ship cleared of her home cargo, +she began immediately taking in wool for her return voyage, and in a few +weeks' time set sail from the Heads for England--though _via_ Cape Horn +this time, as is generally the routine with vessels sailing to Australia +when coming back to the Channel. + +There were only two passengers on board, the captain and mate of a +vessel that had been sold at Melbourne, she having only been navigated +out by these officers for the purpose, and the vessel being unencumbered +by emigrants the sailors had more room to move about. Teddy found it +much pleasanter than on the passage out, as Captain Lennard was able to +spare more time in teaching him his duty, a task which he was ably +backed up in by Uncle Jack and Robins, the new second-mate, a smart +young seaman whom the captain had promoted from the fo'c's'le to take +Capstan's vacant place, and a wonderful improvement in every way to that +bully. + +After leaving Port Philip, they had a fair enough passage till they got +about midway between New Zealand and the American continent, Captain +Lennard taking a more northerly route than usual on account of its being +the summer season in those latitudes, and the drift-ice coming up from +the south in such quantities as to be dangerous if they had run down +below the forties. + +When the _Greenock_ was in longitude somewhere about 150 West and +latitude 39 South a fierce gale sprung up from the north-east, right in +their teeth, causing the lighter sails of the ship to be handed and the +topgallants to be taken in. + +At midnight on the same day, the wind having increased in force, the +upper topsails were handed and the foresail reefed, the ship running +under this reduced canvas, and steering east-south-east, the direction +of the wind having shifted round more to the northward. The next +evening, the wind veered to the westward, and was accompanied with such +terrific squalls and high confused sea that Captain Lennard, who had +thought at first he could weather out the storm under sail, determined +to get up steam, and lowered the propeller so that the ship might lay-to +more easily. + +Later on in the afternoon, however, another shift of wind took place, +the gale veering to sou'-sou'-west in a squall heavier than any of its +predecessors; while a heavy sea, flooding the decks, broke through the +hatchway and put out the engine fires. + +Being a smart seaman, the captain had sail set again as soon as +possible, hoisting reefed topsails and foresail to lift the vessel out +of the trough of the following seas, in which she rolled from side to +side like a whale in its death flurry. + +All seemed going on well for a short time after this; and he and Uncle +Jack thought they had weathered the worst of it, when the foresheet +parted and the clew of the foresail, going through the lower +foretopsail, split it in ribbons. + +The barque was then brought to the wind on the port tack under the lower +maintopsail, and she lay-to pretty well; but the wind kept on veering +and beating with frequent squalls from sou'-sou'-west to west, so that +at noon a strong gale prevailed again fiercer than before. + +Teddy had not seen anything like this; but he wasn't a bit frightened, +and he was as active as the oldest sailor in lending help to carry out +the captain's orders, jumping here, there, and everywhere like a monkey. + +The skipper was so pleased with his behaviour that he complimented him +by telling Uncle Jack he was as good as his right hand! + +Later on, the weather seemed calming down and all were very busy +repairing damages; but, in the evening, a tremendous sea broke on board +carrying away the bulwarks and chain-plates fore and aft on the port +side, the accompanying violent gust of wind jerking the maintopsail as +if it had been tissue paper out of the ship. + +Immediately after this, with the first lee roll, the foremast broke off +almost flush with the deck and fell with a crash over the side, taking +with it everything that stood but the lower main and mizzen masts, +leaving the _Greenock_ rolling a hopeless wreck on the waste of raging +waters. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +EASTER ISLAND. + +The gale suddenly ceased during the night, but all hands remained on +deck; for, the sea was still rolling mountains high and coming in +occasionally over the broken bulwarks, causing Captain Lennard much +anxiety about the boats, which, fortunately, the broken top hamper kept +from being washed overboard. + +In the morning it was quite calm again; but the poor old ship presented +a piteous scene of desolation, with her broken sides, and her gay array +of towering masts and spreading yards and spread of canvas all swept +away. + +Teddy could nearly have cried at the sorry sight; not reflecting that +through the merciful care of a divine providence watching over all not a +life had been lost. + +With the daylight, Captain Lennard took a rapid review of their +position. + +He had caused a stout tarpaulin to be lashed over the engine-room hatch, +thus preventing any more water from passing down into the hold there in +any perceptible quantity; still, the carrying away of the bulwarks and +chain-plates had strained the ship very much on the port side, and when +the carpenter sounded the well at eight bells the ship was found to be +leaking fast, having already a depth of two feet in her. + +"Man the pumps!" cried the captain; when Uncle Jack lending a willing +hand, the crew under his encouragement were soon working away steadily +with a clink-clank, clink-clank, the water pouring out through the +scuppers in a continuous stream. + +However, on the well being sounded again presently, it was found to be +flowing in equally steadily, having risen already six inches more in +spite of all their pumping! + +What was to be done? + +The captain and Uncle Jack deliberated together, summoning the new third +mate to assist their counsels; but, they could only arrive at one +opinion. + +The ship was sinking fast, and all hands knew it as well as they +themselves; for, in addition to the damage done to the sides and +bulwarks, the heavy propeller had aided the waves in wrenching away the +rudder, which carried with it the greater portion of the stern-post. + +"We must take to the boats," said Captain Lennard. "Thank God, they are +all right, and haven't been washed away in the storm!" + +Leaving the useless pumps, therefore, for it was of no avail fatiguing +the men with the unnecessary exertion any longer, all the pumping in the +world being idle to save the vessel, the hands were at once set to work +clearing the boats and getting them over the side. + +It was a ticklish job, the long-boat especially being very heavy, and +there being no means, now they had lost their masts, of rigging a tackle +aloft to hoist it off the chocks amidships. + +Still, necessity teaches men alternatives in moments of great peril; so, +now, knocking away the under fastenings of the boat by main force, the +crew managed at last to get it free. Then, improvising rollers out of +pieces of the broken topmast, they contrived by pulling and hauling and +shoving, all working with a will together, to launch it over the side +through the hole in the bulwarks. + +The jolly-boat followed suit, an easier task; and then, the two being +deemed sufficient to accommodate all on board, just sixty-one in number +including the two passengers, Captain Lennard gave the order to +provision them, telling the steward to bring out all the cabin stores +for this purpose, there being now no further use for them on board the +ship, and officers and men being entitled to share alike without +distinction. + +The captain himself, while this was being done, saw to the ship's log +and other papers, taking also out of the cabin his best chronometer and +a chart or two, as well as a sextant and some mathematical instruments. + +These preparations for departure, though, were abruptly cut short by a +warning cry from Bill Summers, the boatswain. + +"We'd better look sharp, sir," he called out to Uncle Jack, who was +busily engaged superintending the stowage of the provisions in the two +boats. "The water is arising rapidly, and is now nearly up to the +'tween-decks!" + +Uncle Jack passed on the word to the captain, who instantly came up the +companion. + +Seeing the truth of the boatswain's statement from the deeper immersion +of the ship since he had gone below, he at once ordered the men down +into the boats, the passengers going first; then the foremast hands; +and, lastly, the officers. + +"Mr Althorp," said the captain, "you will take charge of the jolly-boat +and shove off as soon as she's got her complement. I will command the +long-boat myself." + +"Aye, aye, sir," responded Uncle Jack, descending into the boat when she +had as many in her as she could safely hold; when, shoving off from the +ship's side and rowing a few strokes, the men lay on their oars, +remaining some twenty yards off so as to be out of the whirlpool or eddy +that would be formed when the vessel presently foundered. + +The long-boat now received its quota of passengers, all descending into +it and seating themselves on the thwarts and in the bottom so as not to +be in the way of those rowing, Captain Lennard waiting till the last to +get into her. + +Just as he got in, however, he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten +a compass, and hastily climbed back on board to get it. + +"Look sharp, Cap'en!" shouted Bill Summers from the bow as the ship gave +a quiver all over. "She's just about to founder." + +The captain was quick enough, racing back to the companion and down the +stairs in two bounds, where, although the cabin was half full of water, +he contrived to wrench away the "tell-tale" compass that swung over the +saloon-table; and he was on the poop again with it in an instant. + +The instrument, however, was heavy, but he had hard work to carry it +with both hands; and he managed to get to the side with it, when bending +down handed it to Bill Summers, who stood up in the bow of the boat to +receive it. + +At that instant, the ship gave a violent lurch, and some one sang out to +shove off; when, the oars being dropped in the water, the boat was +impelled some yards from the side, leaving Captain Lennard still on +board. + +"What, men, abandon your captain!" Teddy cried, his voice quivering +with emotion. "You cowards, row back at once!" + +"We can't," sang out the same voice that had before ordered the men to +shove off. + +Who it was no one noticed in the general flurry, nor knew afterwards; +but, while the men were hesitating which course to adopt, Teddy, without +saying another word, plunged overboard and swam back to the sinking +_Greenock_, having no difficulty in getting up the side now for it was +almost flush with the water. + +"Come on board, sir!" said he jokingly, touching his forehead with his +finger, his cap having been washed off as he dived. + +"My poor boy!" cried Captain Lennard, overcome with emotion at the +gallant lad's devotion; "you have only sacrificed two lives instead of +one! Why did you not stay in the boat?" + +"Because," began Teddy; but ere he could complete the sentence there was +a violent rush of air upwards from the hold, and a loud explosion, the +decks having burst. + +At the same time, the ship made a deep bend forwards. + +Then, her bows rose high in the air above the waves as the stern sank +with a gurgling moan; and, the next moment, Teddy and Captain Lennard +were drawn below the surface with the vessel as she foundered! + +Teddy was nearly suffocated; but, holding his breath bravely, as Jupp +had taught him, and striking downwards with all his force, he presently +got his head above water, inhaling the delicious air of heaven, which he +thought would never more have entered his nostrils. + +When he came to himself, he saw the captain's body floating face +downwards amongst a lot of broken planks and other debris of the wreck, +by some fragment of which he must have been struck as the _Greenock_ +foundered. + +To swim forwards and seize poor Captain Lennard, turning him face +upwards again and supporting his head above the water, was the work of a +moment only with Teddy; and then, holding on to a piece of broken spar, +he awaited the coming up of the launch, which, now that all danger was +over from the eddy rowed up to the scene, when he and the captain were +lifted on board--all hands enthusiastic about the courageous action of +the little hero, and none more so than Captain Lennard when he recovered +his consciousness. + +"You have saved my life!" he said. "Had you not been close by to turn +me over when I rose to the surface I should have been drowned before the +boat could have come up. I will never forget it!" + +Nor did he, as Teddy's subsequent advancement showed; but, there was no +time now for congratulation or passing compliments. + +The peril of those preserved from the wreck was not yet over, for, they +were thousands of miles away from land floating on the wide ocean! + +Hailing the jolly-boat, Captain Lennard announced what he thought the +proper course should be. + +"The best place for us to make for now is Valparaiso," he said; "and if +we steer to the east-nor'-east we ought to fetch it in three weeks or so +under sail; that is, if our provisions hold out so long." + +Uncle Jack approving, this course was adopted; and, day after day, the +boats, setting their sails, which Bill Summers had not forgotten to +place on board, made slow but steady progress towards the wished-for +goal. + +One morning, all were wakened up by the welcome cry of "Land ho!" from +the look-out forwards in the bow of the long-boat, which kept a little +ahead of the jolly-boat, although always reducing sail if she forged too +much forward so as not to lose her. + +A signal was made, therefore, telling the glad news to Uncle Jack and +those with him; while the boat pressed onwards towards the spot where +the hazy outline of a mountain could be dimly seen in the distance. + +"That is not the American continent," said Captain Lennard to the men, +in order to allay any future disappointment that might be afterwards +felt. "We are nearly a thousand miles off that yet. It must be Easter +Island. That is the only land I know of hereabouts in the Pacific; and, +although I have never visited the place myself, I have heard that the +natives are friendly to strangers. At all events we'll pay them a call; +it will be a break in our long journey!" + +Bye and bye the boats approached the shore and all landed, when a lot of +copper-coloured savages came down to the beach waving branches of trees +in sign of welcome. + +The islanders had not much to eat; but Captain Lennard, seeing that +their provisions were well-nigh expended, determined to stop here, while +sending on Uncle Jack with a small party to Valparaiso to charter some +vessel to come and fetch them all, the boats being so crowded that +misfortune might await them all if they continued the voyage in such +small craft. + +For months and months all awaited in constant expectation Uncle Jack's +return; but, he came not, and they at length believed that he and those +with him must have been lost in some hurricane that had sprung up off +the Chilian coast, and so had never reached Valparaiso at all! + +They had no fear of starvation, however, the islands abounding in +poultry in a semi-wild state, which they had to hunt down for +themselves; for the natives lent them no assistance. Indeed they were +rather hostile after a time; although the Englishmen were too numerous +for them to attack, especially as they were always on their guard +against surprise. + +In wandering over the island, which is only some thirty miles round, +Teddy was surprised, like the others, by the numbers of stone obelisks, +rudely carved into the semblance of human faces and statues, which could +not possibly have been executed by the present inhabitants. + +It is believed by geographers that Easter Island must have formed a +portion of a vast Polynesian continent peopled by some kindred race to +those that designed the colossal monuments of an extinct civilisation, +now almost overgrown with vegetation, that are yet to be found as +evidences of a past age amidst the forests of Central America. + +One day, more than a year after Uncle Jack had left, and when they had +almost given up all hope of ever seeing him again, or of being relieved +from their island prison--the long-boat being dashed to pieces in the +surf soon after he started--a schooner in full sail was discovered +making for the island. + +Presently, she came nearer and nearer. + +Then she hove to, and a boat was seen to be lowered from her side, and +shortly afterwards being pulled in to the shore. + +A moment later, and Uncle Jack's well-known face could be seen in the +stern-sheets, a glad hurrah being raised by the shipwrecked men at the +sight of him. + +Soon, Uncle Jack landed, and he had a long tale to tell of the jolly- +boat losing her sail, and being tossed about on the ocean till picked up +by an American whaler, which first took a cruise down the South Seas, +there detaining him many weary months before landing him at Sandy Point, +in the Straits of Magellan, from whence he got finally to Valparaiso +after awaiting a passage for weeks. + +Arrived here, however, he at once got in communication with the British +consul, and chartered a schooner to go to Easter Island and fetch his +comrades. + +Uncle Jack, too, mentioned that he had written home to the owners of the +_Greenock_, telling of her loss and the safety of all hands on their +temporary island home; and he had also sent a letter to Endleigh, he +said, narrating all about Master Teddy's adventures, and saying that he +was safe and well. + +Captain Lennard did not long delay the embarkation of his little band, +who were glad enough to leave Easter Island; so, in a couple of weeks' +time all landed safely in Valparaiso, where they luckily caught the +outgoing mail steamer as they arrived, and started off to England, +rejoicing in their timely rescue and preservation from peril amid all +the dangers of the deep. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +AT HOME AGAIN. + +It was a bright August day at Endleigh. + +There was a scent of new-mown hay in the air, and gangs of reapers were +out in the fields getting in the harvest, the whirr of the threshing- +machine, which the squire had lately brought down from London, making a +hideous din in the meadows by the pond, where it had been set up; +puffing and panting away as if its very existence were a trial, and +scandalising the old-fashioned village folk--who did not believe in such +new-fangled notions, and thought a judgment would come on those having +to do with the machine, depriving, as it did, honest men who could wield +the flail of a job! + +In the garden of the vicarage, the warm sun seemed to incubate a dreamy +stillness, the butterflies hardly taking the trouble to fly, and the +very flowers hanging down their lazy heads; while the trees drooping +their leaves, as if faint and exhausted with the heat. + +Everything out of doors looked asleep, taking a mid-day siesta. +Everything, that is, but the bees, which carried on their honey- +gathering business as briskly as ever, utterly impervious to the warmth. +Indeed, perhaps they got on all the better for it, probing the petals +of the white lilies yet in bloom, and investigating the cavities of the +foxglove and wonderful spider-trap of the Australian balsam, or else +sweeping the golden dust off the discs of the gorgeous sunflowers, a +regular mine of mellifluent wealth; a host of gnats and wasps and other +idle insects buzzing round them all the time and pretending to be busy +too, but really doing nothing at all! + +The heat-laden atmosphere was so still that it had that oily sort of +haze that distinguishes the mirage in the East, when the air appears +composed of little waving lines wavering to and fro that dazzle your +eyes with their almost-imperceptible motion as you look at them; and the +silence was unbroken save by the chuck-chuck-chuck of some meddlesome +blackbird in the shrubbery annoying the sparrows in their nap, and the +answering click-clink-tweedle-deedle-dum-tum-tweedle-um of the yellow- +hammer, telling as plainly as the little songster could tell that he at +all events was wide awake, while, in the far distance, there could be +heard the coo of ring-doves and the melancholy lament of the cuckoo +investigating the hedgerows in quest of other birds' nests wherein to +lay its solitary egg, and finding itself forestalled at every turn! + +But if everything was so quiet without, such was not the case indoors at +the vicarage. + +A telegram had been received from Uncle Jack, saying that he and Teddy, +having reached London in safety, would be down by the afternoon train; +so, all in the house were in a state of wild excitement at meeting again +those they had thought lost for ever. + +Even the vicar was roused out of his usual placidity, although Uncle +Jack's letter from Valparaiso had told all about the wonderful escape of +the survivors of the _Greenock_; while, as for Miss Conny, who was now a +perfectly grown-up young lady of eighteen, all her sedateness was gone +for the moment and she was every bit as wild as the rest. + +"Dear me, I'm sure the afternoon will never come!" exclaimed Cissy, +walking to the window after arranging and re-arranging the flowers in +the vases on the little table in the centre of the drawing-room and on +the mantel-piece for about the one-and-twentieth time. "It's the +longest day I ever knew." + +"Don't be so impatient, dear," said Conny, trying to appear cool and +tranquil as usual, but failing utterly in the attempt as she followed +Cissy to the window and looked out over the lawn; "the time will soon +pass by if you'll only try and think of something else but the hour for +the train to come in." + +"You're a fine counsellor," cried Cissy laughing, as she watched Conny's +hands nervously twisting within each other. "Why, you are as bad as I +am, and can't keep still a moment! Only Liz is calm--as if nothing had +happened or was going to happen. I declare I could bang her, as Teddy +used to say, for sitting there in the corner reading that heavy-looking +book. I believe it must be a treatise on metaphysics or something of +that sort." + +"Mistaken for once, Miss Ciss," said the student, looking up with a +smile. "It's a volume of travels telling all about the Pacific Ocean +and Easter Island, where Teddy and Uncle Jack stopped so long with the +natives; so, it is very interesting." + +"Well, I'd rather for my part wait and hear about the place from our own +travellers," rejoined Cissy impatiently. "I do wish they would come! I +think I will go and see how Molly is getting on with the dinner. I'm +sure she'll be late if somebody doesn't look after her." + +"You had better leave her alone, Cissy," remonstrated Conny. "Molly, +you know, doesn't like being interfered with; and, besides, it is very +early yet, for they can't be here before three o'clock at the earliest." + +"Oh, she won't mind me, Con," replied Cissy as she whisked out of the +room, gaily singing now, the idea of having an object or doing something +banishing her ennui; "Molly and I are the best of friends." + +However, on entering the cook's domain Cissy found the old servant the +reverse of amiable, for her face was red and hot with basting a little +sucking-pig that was slowly revolving on the spit before a glowing fire +that seemed to send out all the more heat from the fact of its being +August, as if in rivalry of the sun without. + +"Well, how are you getting on?" asked Cissy cheerfully, the sight of the +little roasting piggy which Molly had selected for the repast that was +to welcome Teddy, with some dim association of the fatted calf that was +killed on the return of the prodigal son, making her feel more assured +that the time was speeding on, and that the expected ones would arrive +soon. + +But, Molly was not amenable to friendly overtures at the moment. + +"Excuse me, miss, I don't want to be bothered now," she replied, turning +her perspiring countenance round an instant from her task and then +instantly resuming it again and pouring a ladleful of gravy over the +blistering crackling of her charge. "There, now--you almost made me +burn it by interrupting me!" + +"I'm very sorry, I'm sure, Molly," said Cissy apologetically; and seeing +that her room was preferred to her company, she went out into the +kitchen-garden to seek solace for her listlessness there. + +It was a vain task, though. + +The bees were still busily engaged hovering from flower to flower and +mixing up in their pouches the different sorts of sweet flavours they +extracted with their mandibles from the scabius, whose many-hued +blossoms of brown, and olive, and pink, and creamy-white, scented one +especial patch near the greenhouse. This corner the industrious little +insects made the headquarters of their honey campaign, sallying out from +thence to taste a sweet-pea or scarlet-runner and giving a passing kiss +to a gaudy fuchsia, who wore a red coat and blue corporation sort of +waistcoat, as they went homeward to their hive. + +On the ground below quite a crowd of sparrows were taking baths in turn +in a flat earthenware pan which was always kept filled with water for +their particular delectation; and the butterflies, too, waking up, were +poising themselves in graceful attitudes on the nasturtiums that twined +over the gooseberry bushes, which were running a race with the broad- +leaved pumpkins and vegetable marrow plants to see who would first +clamber over the wall, the red tomatoes laughing through the greenery at +the fun. + +But there was little amusement for Cissy in all this at such a period of +expectancy, when her pulses throbbed with excitement; so, she turned +back towards the house with a yawn, uttering her longing wish aloud, +"Why can't Teddy come?" + +It being summer time, all the doors and windows were wide open to let in +all the air possible, and as she retraced her steps slowly and +disconsolately from the bottom of the garden at the back she heard a +noise in front like the sound of wheels in the lane. + +To dart through the side gate instead of returning by way of the kitchen +was the work of a moment; and she reached the front of the house almost +as soon as Conny and Liz, who had only to step out on to the smooth turf +from the low French windows of the drawing-room. + +It was only a false alarm, though, Doctor Jolly having driven up from +visiting a patient to know when the travellers were expected. + +"By the three o'clock train, eh?" he said on being told; then looking at +his watch he added: "Why, it's close on two now. Any of you going down +to the station to meet them?" + +"Yes," answered Miss Conny in her prim way, "I was thinking of taking +the children, if you do not consider it too warm to venture out in the +heat of the sun? Poor papa is not so well to-day and unable to walk so +far." + +"Pooh, pooh!" ejaculated the doctor, with his hearty laugh. "Call this +fine day too warm; you ought to be ashamed of yourself! You need not +any of you walk. Go and put on your bonnets, and tell the vicar, and +I'll cram you all into my old shanderadan and drive you down." + +The Reverend Mr Vernon, however, besides suffering from one of his +usual nervous headaches, which always came on when he was excited by +anything as he was now, wished to be alone on first meeting with his +lost son again, so that none might witness his emotion, being a +particularly shy man amongst strangers; so, although he came out of his +study on hearing Doctor Jolly's voice he begged him to excuse his going, +while accepting his kind offer for the girls--who were ready in less +than no time, Miss Conny losing her primness in her anxiety not to keep +the doctor waiting, and the generally slow Liz being for once quick in +her movements. + +In another minute they were all packed within the hybrid vehicle, half +gig, half wagonette, which the doctor only used on state occasions, and +must have brought out this afternoon with the preconceived idea of its +being specially wanted. + +"This _is_ jolly!" exclaimed Cissy as they all drove off gaily down the +sleepy lane, passing neither man nor beast on their way. "You are very +good to us, doctor!" + +"Ho, ho, ho! Miss Cissy," laughed he; "you're getting extremely +familiar to address me like that. Jolly, indeed! why, that's my name, +ho, ho!" + +"I--I didn't think," stammered poor Cissy rather abashed, blushing +furiously, while Conny took advantage of the opportunity to point out to +her the evil effects of using slang words; but the little lecture of the +elder sister was soon joked away by the doctor, and they arrived at the +station in the best of spirits. + +Here they met with a wonderful surprise. + +Some one who must have heard the news somehow or other of Teddy's return +home had decorated the front of the old waiting-room with evergreens and +sunflowers; and a sort of triumphal arch also being erected on the +arrival platform of the same floral pattern. + +Who could have done it? + +Why, no less a person than Jupp, whose black beard seemed all the +blacker, surrounding his good-humoured face, as he came out of the +office with Mary on his arm, and a young Master Jupp and another little +Mary toddling behind them--the whilom porter no longer dressed in grimy +velveteens, but in a smart black frock-coat, his Sunday best, while his +wife was equally spruce. + +"I know it's ag'in the rules, miss," he explained to Conny; "but I see +the telegram as said Master Teddy'd be here this arternoon, God bless +him, and I'm thankful, that I am, he's restored safe and sound from the +bottom of the sea and Davy Jones's Locker, as we all on us thought. So +says I to Grigson, my old mate as was, who's in charge here now, and we +detarmined as how we'd make a kind of show like to welcome of him home." + +"You're a right-down brick, Jupp!" said Doctor Jolly, shaking him by the +hand, while Mary kissed her former nurse children all round; and, while +they were all exchanging congratulations, up came the train rumbling and +whistling and panting and puffing into the station, the engine bearing a +Union Jack tied to the funnel, for Jupp's interest in two of the special +passengers being brought to Endleigh was well-known on the line. + +Hardly had the train come to a standstill than out jumped Teddy, a +trifle taller and broader across the shoulders as might have been +expected from his two years of absence, but the same open-faced boy with +the curly brown hair and blue eyes that all remembered so well. + +What a meeting it was, to be sure, and how he hugged his sisters and Dr +Jolly and Jupp and Mary all round--Uncle Jack almost being unnoticed for +the moment, although he did not appear to mind it, looking on with a +sympathetic grin of delight at the general joy expressed in every +countenance present! + +The doctor's "shanderadan" had a full cargo back to the vicarage, +everybody talking to everybody all at once and none being able to finish +a complete sentence--little Cissy keeping tight hold of Teddy's arm the +while as if fearful of losing him again and thinking it might be all a +dream. + +When they got to the house Teddy was through the gate and across the +lawn in two bounds, tapping at the door of the study before his father +knew that he had come. + +Like another father, the vicar was overcome with glad emotion, clasping +him in his arms and embracing him, weeping as he cried in a broken +voice: + +"This, my son, was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!" + +Only a word more. + +The terrible experiences Teddy had had, and the sense of discipline +inculcated in him during his short training at sea, made such a change +in his character that henceforth he lost his former justly-earned +titles, being never more called either "pickle" or "scapegrace." + +He has not, however, abandoned the profession he originally adopted, in +spite of its many perils and dangers, and the fact that a sailor's life +is not altogether of that rose-coloured nature which story-writers +usually make out. + +No, he still sails under his old captain in the same line, and voyages +backwards and forwards between Melbourne and London with praiseworthy +punctuality, in the new ship Captain Lennard commands in place of the +old _Greenock_. The vessel, too, is a regular clipper in her way, +beating everything that tries to compete with her, whether outwards or +inwards bound. + +Teddy looks forward some day to taking his skipper's place when he +retires from active life afloat, and following the example of Uncle +Jack, who is already a captain too in his own right; for he is as steady +and trustworthy now as he was formerly impetuous and headstrong. + +But, mind you, he has lost none of his pluck or fearless spirit, and is +the same genial, good-tempered, and happy-dispositioned boy he was in +earliest childhood--knowing now the difference between true courage and +mere bravado, and the value of obedience to those in authority over him. + +As for Miss Conny, in spite of her ordinary sedateness of demeanour and +constant asseveration that she would only marry a clergyman like her +father, she is, to use Teddy's expressive diction, "spliced to a +sodger," having become engaged some time since to a gallant captain in a +marching regiment that was quartered for a while at Bigton, within easy +access of Endleigh. + +Cissy and Liz are both growing up nice girls; while the vicar is still +hale and hearty, giving his parishioners the benefit every Sunday of a +"thirdly" and sometimes "fourthly, brethren," in addition to the first +and second divisions of his sermon; and never omitting his favourite +"lastly" with "a word in conclusion" to wind up with. + +Doctor Jolly, to complete our list of characters, is yet to the fore +with his catching laugh, as "jolly" as ever; and, Jupp and Mary have +likewise been so tenderly dealt with by time that they hardly look a day +older than on that memorable occasion when Master Teddy introduced +himself to public notice. + +Don't you remember? + +Why, when he casually mentioned to the porter and reader alike, and all +whom it might concern, in the most matter-of-fact way in the world, that +he wanted to "do dan'ma!" + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Teddy, by J. 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