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diff --git a/old/62483-0.txt b/old/62483-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 67a4660..0000000 --- a/old/62483-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5976 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Quarterdeck and Fok'sle, by Molly Elliot Seawell - -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/license - - -Title: Quarterdeck and Fok'sle - Stories of the Sea - -Author: Molly Elliot Seawell - -Release Date: June 26, 2020 [EBook #62483] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERDECK AND FOK'SLE *** - - - - -Produced by D A Alexander, Stephen Hutcheson, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -https://www.pgdp.net; with special thanks to the librarians -at the University of Washington in Seattle, who went above -and beyond the call of duty, to track down pages missing -from the only copy available online. (This file was produced -from images generously made available by The Internet -Archive) - - - - - - - - - - QUARTERDECK AND FOK’SLE - STORIES OF THE SEA - - - BY - MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL - _Author of Young Heroes of Our Navy, Children of Destiny, Maid Marian, - Throckmorton, etc._ - - ILLUSTRATED - - [Illustration: Publisher crest] - - BOSTON AND CHICAGO - W. A. WILDE COMPANY - - Copyright, 1895. - By W. A. WILDE & CO. - _All rights reserved._ - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - A QUARTERDECK STORY. - CHAPTER PAGE - I. The Capture of the Fort 9 - II. Young Brydell’s Chums 21 - III. Brydell’s First Failure 33 - IV. Brydell’s Second Failure 45 - V. Striking Out for Himself 57 - VI. A New Life 71 - VII. The Summer Cruise 87 - VIII. A Question of Honor 100 - IX. Grubb’s Honorable Discharge 112 - X. In Command of the Squadron 120 - XI. A Safe Return 135 - XII. Brydell Redeems His Promise 139 - - - A FOK’SLE STORY. - CHAPTER PAGE - I. On Board the Diomede 151 - II. A Gallant Rescue 163 - III. Dicky’s Patriotism 175 - IV. An Important Errand 185 - V. An Adventure with the Redcoats 194 - VI. Jack Bell’s Secret 205 - VII. General Prescott’s Capture 214 - VIII. Dicky’s New Song 223 - IX. Dicky Enlists 236 - X. An Unexpected Encounter 245 - XI. The Enemy Outwitted 258 - - - ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - PAGE - “I was just trying to scare Grubb” (Frontispiece) 14 - “Brydell, with Atkins, a very Smart Sailor, was at the Wheel” 95 - “Brydell got the thumbed Bible and read to him” 117 - “‘Look out, you Young Rebel,’ called out the Sergeant” 197 - “The Yankees they have come and stolen Prescott from his Bed” 232 - - - - - A QUARTERDECK STORY. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - THE CAPTURE OF THE FORT. - - -The friendship between Young Brydell and Grubb the marine came about in -this way. - -One morning in May, just after Admiral Beaumont had finished the -beautiful toilet he made at precisely eight o’clock every morning, he -threw wide his bedroom shutters to see if the toilet of the navy yard -grounds had been made too. For the admiral was possessed by a demon of -neatness and order that is apt to develop in a naval officer long used -to the perfect cleanliness and discipline of a man-of-war. - -The admiral was the tenderest-hearted old fellow in the world, but the -strictest sort of martial law prevailed in the matter of tidiness in -every part of the navy yard over which he exercised or could claim -jurisdiction. - -A perpetual warfare raged between him and the nursemaids at the yard. -The nursemaids _would_ let the babies roll over on the admiral’s dearly -loved grass, and the sight of white dimity sunbonnets, dropped on the -gravel paths, was not wholly unknown. - -The admiral was a bachelor of long standing and had a wholesome awe of -babies and their mammas, although he ordered the babies’ papas about -without any awe of them whatever. In vain he tried to negotiate with the -officers’ wives, offering as a basis that the babies be permitted a -promenade around the main walks between two and four every day, the -walks to be immediately rolled afterward. The officers’ wives simply -laughed at him, and the babies continued to kick up the gravel, and the -admiral retired completely discomfited. - -As for the small boys at the yard, they harrowed the admiral’s kind soul -to that degree that he gloomily declared he would have the flag -half-masted and make the band play a dirge before the very next house in -which a boy baby was born. Nevertheless he had been known more than once -to have begged small boys off from the avenging birch switch. - -To this general antagonism to small boys one exception was made—Young -Brydell. He was called Young Brydell because, young as his father, the -ensign, was, the boy was actually twenty years younger—being nine, and a -beautiful, terrible, lovable imp. Perhaps it was because Young Brydell -had no mother that the admiral and everybody else, except Aunt Emeline, -winked at the mischief in which he reveled. When Young Brydell drew his -first breath his mother had drawn her last—and so from the beginning a -tender atmosphere of love and pity seemed to surround him. - -However, the escapade in which young Brydell figured that May morning -had so many elements of atrocity that the admiral at first determined to -punish him just as he would any other malefactor. Grubb was the -admiral’s orderly, and on this particular morning he had just knocked at -the bedroom door with the letter bag, when he heard something between a -roar and a shriek that caused him to dash the door open expecting to -find the admiral rolling on the carpet in an epileptic fit. - -“Orderly!” shouted the admiral, turning as red as a turkey cock with -rage, “direct the pick and shovel squad at once to level that -construction, and bring that young gentleman here to me,” pointing out -the window to Young Brydell. Grubb then saw what was up. - -In the middle of the great lawn, just in front of the admiral’s house, -was a dirt fort, constructed with no inconsiderable skill. The turf for -about twenty feet square had been ruthlessly torn up to make the glacis, -and over it floated a small American flag about as big as a pocket -handkerchief. - -On top of the glacis stood Young Brydell with a miniature rifle pointed -straight at the admiral’s window. Around him lay the bodies of:— - -I. Reginald Cunliffe, the captain’s only child and a mother’s darling, -who had been repeatedly told not to play with Young Brydell for fear he -would get hurt. At that moment the mother’s darling was representing a -wounded man and, rolling over in a new jacket was asking in feeble tones -for water. - -II. Jack Sawyer, the doctor’s son, who personated a dead man with -intermittent returns to life to see how the thing was going. - -III, IV, V. Dick, Rob, and Steve, young gentlemen belonging to the yard -who obeyed Young Brydell implicitly, although at least two years older -than he, and who submitted to pose as Indians slain by his victorious -hand. - -VI. Micky O’Toole, the washerwoman’s boy, who, although directed to fall -dead at the first fire, had failed to do so and was crawling forward on -all fours, with a knife between his teeth and a tomahawk in his hand to -assassinate Young Brydell. - -Grubb double-quicked it downstairs, but not so fast that the admiral was -not right on his heels. The pick and shovel squad were just passing as -Grubb called out to them:— - -“The admiral says as how that there construction is to be leveled at -once”— - -“And that young gentleman sent immediately to me!” bawled the admiral -from the doorway. - -The squad started toward the middle of the lawn, where the turf had been -slaughtered to make Young Brydell a holiday. The admiral, swelling with -righteous wrath, remained on the steps, and Grubb, laughing in his -sleeve, made a bee line for Young Brydell. Grubb walked as elegantly as -any officer and was a fine, tall, handsome fellow to boot. - -As the pick and shovel squad approached, Young Brydell, raising his -miniature rifle, pointed it straight toward them and shrieked out an -expression he had read in a book. “Up, men, and at ’em!” - -But the men didn’t “up and at ’em.” They were too much engaged in -watching the coming conflict between Grubb’s brawny arm and Young -Brydell. - -The rifle wasn’t much of an affair, but it had been known to kill a cat -twenty feet away. Young Brydell, who had the face of a cherub and the -alertness of a monkey, quickly brought the rifle to his shoulder and -aimed it straight at the approaching Grubb. - -“The admiral says,” shouted Grubb in his big baritone, “as how I’m to -bring you immediately to him, and the Lord have mercy on your soul!” - -Grubb, in saying this, reached forward to the rickety little flagstaff, -meaning to save the flag. But Young Brydell construed it differently and -thought Grubb meant to insult the national ensign. - -“If you touch that flag, you’re a dead man!” shrieked he in his baby -treble; and at the same moment, the toy rifle being at his shoulder, he -called out to his demoralized command:— - -“Ready—right—oblique—FIRE!” - -And bang went the rifle in Grubb’s face! - -Grubb put his hand to his ear, and when he brought it away, blood was -plentiful on it. A queer look came into his eye. “By the jumping Moses, -the monkey’s shot me,” said Grubb, reflectively and scarcely knowing -what he was saying. - -The admiral, standing on the porch, gave a sort of gasp when the shot -rang out—and every man in the pick and shovel squad stood stock still -for a moment. The boys, except Micky O’Toole, all ran away immediately. - -Grubb was the first to recover himself. Young Brydell had never lost his -composure and was now holding the rifle at parade rest, and the rifle -was exactly as high as he was. - -“You come along!” suddenly cried Grubb, seizing the boy and the rifle -too, and forgetting to drop the flag. It hurt Young Brydell’s dignity to -be hauled off so summarily in the presence of the public, and it also -hurt his shoulder, but he said not a word until he stood before Admiral -Beaumont. The admiral was small and lithe and had a pair of light blue -eyes that could look through a man and nail him to the wall—and these -eyes were fixed upon Young Brydell in a way that would have made him -flinch to the marrow of his bones, had he been a man instead of a little -lad. - -“BOY!” said the admiral, “I sent for you in order to reprove you for -your outrageous behavior in tearing up the turf and making ruin and -destruction of the government’s lawn. I find you, instead, guilty of a -most terrible act—a thing much more serious than any destruction you -might do to government property. But for God’s Providence you might be -this moment a murderer, boy as you are—for I saw you take deliberate aim -at the orderly and fire in his face!” - -“Oh, no, sir!” chirped Young Brydell quite cheerfully; “I didn’t mean to -shoot, you know; I was just trying to scare Grubb!” - -At that, Grubb, who had been standing very rigid, with his handkerchief -to his bleeding ear, suddenly smiled broadly and whispered involuntarily -under his breath:— - -“Skeer Grubb!” - -“You see, sir,” continued Young Brydell in a tone of animated argument, -“it was like this. We got up early this morning and built the fort—there -were seven of us, and it didn’t take half an hour.” - -“There were others responsible, then?” asked the admiral, for like -everybody else he had taken it for granted that Young Brydell was bound -to be the ringleader, if not the sole culprit. - -Young Brydell thrust his hands into the pockets of his sailor suit, -planted his feet wide apart, and reflected. - -“Well, sir,” he said, “there were the others—but I started it. Cunliffe -was afraid; he said he knew his mother would punish him, but I told him -I’d do something worser for him than his mother would if he didn’t obey -orders—because I’m captain of the company; it’s C company, sir, you -know, and orders must be obeyed.” - -“Go on, sir!” said the admiral sternly. - -“Cunliffe was afraid, and so he did as I told him. The other fellows, -except Micky O’Toole, said they were afraid of _you_—they say you are a -regular Tartar about the grass.” - -“They do—do they? Continue, I beg,” replied the admiral with a snort. - -“But I told ’em,” cried Young Brydell in a triumphant voice, “that _I’d_ -fix _you_. I said: ‘We’ll plant the United States flag on that fort, and -won’t anybody, not even the admiral himself, dare to pull it down!’” - -The admiral at this coughed and began to twist his gray mustache. - -“When I saw Grubb coming, sir, as I tell you, I just wanted to frighten -him, but before I knew it, just by accident, sir, the rifle went off, -and the first thing I knew the ball had hit Grubb’s ear. But I’m sorry -for it, and when I get my ’lowance next week, I’ll give it to him. I get -a silver half-dollar every Saturday, sir, from papa, but I think, sir,—I -think Grubb deserved what he got for hauling down the flag, and if I’d -have thought of it, I’d have peppered his legs for him, sure enough.” - -There was a pause after this. The admiral’s keen old eyes looked into -Young Brydell’s brown ones, and the man’s eyes had a kind of simplicity -in them like a child’s, while the child’s had a determination like a -man’s. Grubb still stood with a broad smile on his face, and the blood -dripped upon the handkerchief he held to his ear. - -“Now,” said the admiral, “will you tell me what you think I ought to do -with you and your companions in mischief?” - -“I think—I think you oughtn’t to do anything with the other fellows -except me and Micky O’Toole, ’cause we led ’em on. Micky didn’t think -about the fort first, but as soon as it was started, Micky helped me on -and said he didn’t care if he did get a licking.” - -“I am not concerned about Micky O’Toole,” said the admiral. “Micky, as I -understand, occupies a subordinate position in your company.” - -“He’s first sergeant, sir.” - -“Micky, I take it, is merely your tool. Very well, sir, I shall report -this whole thing to your father, and you must take the consequences. -Orderly, make my compliments to Mr. Brydell, and ask him to do me the -favor to come here. But stop—your ear.” - -“’Tis no matter, sir,” answered Grubb, touching his cap. “I’ll call by -the dispensary after I’ve done my message.” - -The admiral stepped through the open hall door for his cap, and putting -it on as he came out, said to Young Brydell with awful sternness: -“Remain where you are until I return.” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Young Brydell very respectfully. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - YOUNG BRYDELL’S CHUMS. - - -The pick and shovel squad were hard at work, leveling the fort, and the -sight of his beloved turf so maltreated made the admiral’s heart ache. -But he began to examine the fort. It was very cleverly done, and the -admiral’s gray mustache worked in a half-smile as he stood and looked at -it. Presently up came Young Brydell’s father, the handsomest, trimmest, -young ensign imaginable, but, as Grubb expressed it, “You see trouble in -his face.” - -“Good morning, Mr. Brydell!” cried the admiral quite jovially. “Have you -heard of the doings of your young one?” - -“I have, sir,” answered Young Brydell’s young father, looking unhappy, -“from the orderly here, whom I asked. Believe me, admiral, the little -fellow has not a bad heart; he is only mischievous, and he has no -mother”— - -“He’s the finest little chap I ever saw,” cried the admiral. “He wasn’t -going to shoot, really; the thing went off by accident; he wants to give -the orderly all his pocket money and takes the whole blame of this -performance on himself. Look at this construction—tolerably ingenious -this for a youngster.” The admiral groaned slightly as he said this. - -The picks and shovels were fast leveling the fort, but the lines -remained still. Young Brydell’s father could not forbear laughing. - -“And you’ll give him a hauling over the coals,” said the admiral, “but I -positively forbid any other punishment. The little lad has no mother, -and we mustn’t forget that.” - -“I never forget it,” answered Young Brydell’s father. “I do my best by -the child—I keep him with me all I can—but as you say—he has no mother”— -The ensign stopped. - -“I know all about it,” said the admiral briskly, “so come along and -we’ll try and frighten the youngster.” - -Mr. Brydell smiled. “I’m afraid we can’t do that, sir,” he said, “but we -can promise to take the rifle away, if he isn’t more careful.” This is -about what the lecture amounted to after all. - -When it was over, and Young Brydell was marching off holding on to his -father’s hand, he called out to the orderly who was coming toward them -from the dispensary:— - -“I say, Grubb, how funny that piece of court plaster looks on your ear.” - -Grubb touched his cap in response to the ensign’s salute and answered -gravely:— - -“It feels a deal funnier than it looks, sir.” - -“Now make an apology to the orderly,” said the ensign sternly. - -“I’m sorry, Grubb, I’m awful sorry the rifle went off—’cause I’ve got a -big scolding from papa and the admiral, too. But you hadn’t any business -touching the flag; you know you hadn’t. Come around next Saturday -morning and I’ll give you my half-dollar.” - -“Thanky, sir,” answered the orderly, “but my feelin’s is too much hurt -for to take money from you.” - -“Well, then,” said Young Brydell promptly, “I’ll ask you to my birthday -party instead. I’m going to have a birthday next week. I’ll be nine -years old; and I’m to ask anybody I like, and I’ll ask you and Capps, -the watchman, and some other fellows. Will that help your feelin’s?” - -“Course it will, sir,” answered Grubb again; “and sailors and marines is -so fond o’ one another.” Capps was a retired boatswain who was a -watchman at the yard, and as Grubb said this he slightly closed his left -eye. - -On that understanding they parted. It was Young Brydell’s proud -privilege on his birthday to ask his own guests, and he had before -included Capps, who was until the advent of Grubb his most intimate -friend. - -On this Saturday, therefore, there was a table set on the broad back -piazza of the ensign’s quarters. Aunt Emeline disapproved of the whole -thing, but Cunliffe’s mother, who was a kindly woman, saw that the cake -was there with nine candles in it, and Young Brydell sat at the head of -the table. All the members of Company C, including Micky O’Toole, first -sergeant, were present, and Capps, a bronzed old seaman, and Grubb, who -was almost as handsome as the ensign, Young Brydell’s father. His ear -still had a red scar, but over a bowl of lemonade Grubb and Young -Brydell swore eternal friendship, and the friendship lasted until the -end came. - -The ensign’s quarters were just back of the admiral’s great roomy house, -where he dwelt in solitary magnificence; and Admiral Beaumont, sometimes -finding the house lonely and silent,—as houses are where there are no -women and children,—would look from his back piazza and often see a -lonely little boy, too, in the ensign’s quarters. For Young Brydell was -never made to go to school as regularly as the other boys, and was, -unluckily, allowed his own way entirely too much—all because he had no -mother. - -The admiral, feeling sorry for the child and finding a kind of odd and -pleasant companionship with him, would send Grubb over with the request -that Master Dick be allowed to come over to luncheon, and even Aunt -Emeline could not ignore that request. So Young Brydell would go off -quite joyfully with Grubb and soon be seated opposite the admiral at the -round table in the big dining-room. The two would then exchange -reminiscences—Young Brydell pumping the admiral industriously about -“When you were on the old _Potomac_, sir,” or “That time you were in the -siege of Vera Cruz.” - -Behind the admiral’s chair stood Billy Bowline, once captain of the -maintop but retired because of deafness. This was a sore point to Billy, -who always protested: “I kin hear everything I wants to, and I never -missed a call from the day I j’ined the sarvice, and I kin hear the -admiral a sight better ’n Grubb, the jirene.”[1] The admiral, though, -always roared at Billy so loud that everybody in the yard could hear him -bawling. - -It was of course agreed that but one career was possible for Young -Brydell, and that was the navy. The ensign thought so, and so did the -admiral and Grubb and Billy Bowline and Capps, the watchman, who was a -chum of Billy’s as well as of Young Brydell’s. - -One day, though, a strange thing happened about Capps. Young Brydell, -coming along from school, whistling the bugle call, saw Capps sitting in -his usual place on the bench in the shade by the ordnance building. -Young Brydell called out as usual:— - -“Hello, Capps!” - -But Capps did not move. His eyes were closed, and Young Brydell, after -playfully prodding him with a slate pencil, went his way. Presently he -met Cunliffe, who also saw the old sailor sitting so still upon the -bench. - -“Let’s have some fun with old Capps,” cried Cunliffe. - -“No, you sha’n’t,” answered Young Brydell stoutly. “Capps is a friend of -mine and I won’t have him teased.” - -Words followed this, and it ended by Young Brydell giving his young -friend a kick on the shin, by way of testifying his loyalty to his old -friend. Just then Grubb came along and asked the cause of the -difficulty. Young Brydell pointed to Capps. Grubb went up to him, -touched him, and then came back to the two boys, looking rather strange. - -“You young gentlemen go along now; I know the admiral’ll want you to go -along, and I’ll tell you all about it after a while,” he said hurriedly. - -The boys walked away, but from the window in Young Brydell’s room they -saw Grubb and another marine take Capps up, who appeared to be quite -limp, and carry him off to the dispensary, and an hour or two afterward -they met Lucy, the apple-cheeked maid at the admiral’s house, with her -apron to her eyes; she, too, had been a friend of the ex-boatswain. - -“Mr. Capps is dead!” cried Lucy with a fresh burst of tears, “and ain’t -it too dreadful?—oh, dear, oh, dear!” - -The two boys each turned a little pale. This was their first knowledge -of that unknown thing called Death. Next day Capps was buried. Ensign -Brydell and one or two other officers walked in the old boatswain’s -funeral procession. He had always said he wanted “a rale lively funeral, -like as a sailor man is got a right to,” and he was gratified. The plain -coffin rested on a caisson, and a squad of sailors and marines marched -behind it with the band playing. - -As the little procession moved slowly out of the navy yard gate in the -hot sunshine, a company of seven small boys fell into line behind the -last squad. It was C company, with Young Brydell at its head. The boy’s -sunburned face was blistered with tears, but he was too much of a -soldier to wipe them away, while marching—for he had been fond of old -Capps and had felt lonely ever since Capps had died. - -Nobody attempted to stop C company. They marched along in good order, -their small legs being equal to the slow pace of the funeral procession. -It was a long way to the sailors’ cemetery and the day was hot, but C -company stood up to the work like men. Whether by design or not they -were cut off from a good view of the grave when poor old Capps was let -down into it, and the next moment the band struck up “Garryowen,” and to -its rattling music the sailors and marines stepped out at a lively rate. - -So did C company. But after ten minutes the pace was too much for it. -First Cunliffe lagged behind, then one by one, even to Young Brydell, -they gave out, and it was a good twenty minutes after the sailors and -marines had turned in the great gate to the navy yard that C company, -consisting of seven very hot and tired small boys, straggled through. -But as soon as they appeared, the corporal of the guard sang out “Turn -out the guard!” and the next minute the marine guard stood at “present -arms” as the boys marched through. - -“For it’s the honor you did poor old Capps,” said Grubb to Young -Brydell. - -The boy had the usual habit of asking questions, after the manner of his -kind, and one day when he and Grubb had got to be very good friends, he -suddenly asked:— - -“Grubb, are you married?” - -“I’m a widower,” said Grubb. - -“So is papa,” answered Young Brydell. “The other fellows tease me and -say papa will give me a stepmother some day, but I don’t believe it.” - -“A stepmother’s a deal better’n no mother at all,” announced Grubb. - -“And have you any children?” continued Young Brydell. - -“A boy about your size, but he ain’t here.” - -Young Brydell felt so surprised and also so hurt at Grubb’s want of -confidence in keeping these important facts to himself that he could -only stare at him. Grubb laughed rather grimly. - -“You see, my wife belonged to better folks than I. Her folks said she -oughtn’t to marry a jirene, as they called me. Her father was a master -mechanic, and when she died, poor thing! they took the boy, saying they -could do a better part by him than I could; a marine don’t git much pay, -you know; and, like a fool, I give him up. Now, in some way, the boy -don’t seem like my child. He’s got schooling, more ’n I ever had, and he -goes to school with fellers whose fathers I waits on, and he’s ashamed -o’ this here uniform I wear. So when I seen how it was, a year or two -back, I kinder let the thing go. I send him half my pay every month, and -it don’t pay for the clothes he wears, they dress him so fine, and it -seems to me I oughtn’t to bring him here, just to associate with Micky -O’Toole and the rest o’ the men’s children.” - -“But I ’sociate with Micky O’Toole,” put in Young Brydell. - -“That’s different. Micky knows how you are goin’ to be an officer and as -how if ever he gits in the navy, ’twill be as a ’prentice boy, and Micky -ain’t no sort o’ a aspiring fellow. He don’t want to be no gentleman. -But my boy does. And my boy’s too good for me, that’s a fact.” - -“He oughtn’t to be,” said Young Brydell stoutly. “You’re a good fellow; -everybody says so, and you’re a handsome fellow, and papa says he never -saw a better set-up fellow, and you’ll be promoted.” - -“No, sir,” answered Grubb, shaking his head, “I ain’t eddicated. I know -my business, but it takes book learnin’ to make a sergeant or even a -corporal. I can read and write and cipher some, but my boy could beat me -at it before he was eight years old. It seems to me like the boy was -mine and yet he ain’t mine; but yonder’s the admiral comin’ and I ain’t -been to the postoffice yet.” So Grubb strode off, leaving Young Brydell -considerably mystified about the marine’s boy. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - BRYDELL’S FIRST FAILURE. - - -Just six years after the May day that Young Brydell had nearly shot -Grubb’s ear off, on a day as bright, he sat with a number of other young -fellows about his own age around a long table, answering the questions -of three professors who were examining them. Each had a great stake in -this examination, as it was for an appointment to the naval academy at -Annapolis. - -Young Brydell had ceased to be Young Brydell then, being quite fifteen -years old. He has experienced a good many changes in those six years. -Much of the time his father, now a lieutenant, had been at sea, but -unluckily, whether his father were at sea or on shore, Brydell was still -allowed to have his own way, and a good deal more of the lieutenant’s -pay than was good for a boy. - -The old tenderness and sympathy still encompassed him—he had no mother. -Therefore whenever Brydell found himself dissatisfied at school a -complaining letter to his father would result in his going somewhere -else. When his teachers represented that Brydell, although an extremely -bright fellow and fond of reading, yet neglected his recitations for -athletics, Brydell would write a most convincing letter to his father -explaining how impossible it was for him to do more at his books when -his duties as captain of the football eleven were taken into -consideration, and his letters were so bright and well written that his -father, as foolishly fond in his way as poor Grubb, would persuade -himself that the boy would come out all right. - -He had even been sent to Switzerland to school, but like the other -schools this one did not suit Brydell, and six months after he was home -again. Fortunately Brydell possessed certain strong traits of character -that are difficult to spoil. He was perfectly truthful, brave, and had -naturally a good address. - -Nothing could have been prettier than the devotion between him and the -lieutenant. As Brydell said: “Dear dad, fatherly respect is out of the -question. When you got married at twenty, you took the chances of having -a boy in the field before you were ready to quit it yourself. I’ll agree -to treat you as an elder brother, but we’ve been chums too long for you -to come the stern father over me.” And this would be said with such an -affectionate hug that the lieutenant could only make believe to growl. - -And so Brydell grew up without any of the wholesome restraints and -self-denial of more fortunate boys. He was not a conceited boy, but he -realized that whenever he had failed it was because he had not really -exerted himself, and he had a naturally optimistic way of looking at -life, which so far had not been rudely contradicted. - -The determination to go into the navy had grown with his growth and -strengthened with his strength, and no other plan of life had ever -occurred to him. He knew the difficulties of getting an appointment, but -like most happy young fellows of his age and inexperience, he thought -all difficulties existed for other people; his own way would be easy -enough. - -His father had carefully retained a legal residence in his native town, -expressly for Brydell’s sake, so he could be eligible for appointment -from that district. But Brydell, having concluded to try private tutors -for a while,—which were changed as often as the schools were,—had lived -for nearly a year and a half with his Aunt Emeline in a town outside of -his own congressional district. - -One morning, picking up a paper, he had read that a competitive -examination would be held for an appointment to Annapolis, open to all -boys who had lived twelve months in the district. - -“That suits me to a dot,” cried Brydell, and from then until the day of -the examination he really worked hard, never doubting for a moment his -ultimate success. - -Aunt Emeline, it is true, croaked like a raven, but Aunt Emeline always -croaked. Brydell had already in his own mind composed the letter -announcing his success to his father and another one to the admiral, who -had continued to be his fast friend, and another one to Grubb, his old -chum, the marine. On the morning of the examination he therefore -presented himself and was duly accepted in the competition. - -Next him at the table sat a handsome young fellow about his own age. -Something in the boy’s fresh, regular features and lithe young figure -reminded Brydell of Grubb. Of all his early friends Brydell loved the -kindly marine, with his manliness and truth and bad grammar, better than -any of them. Although Grubb had done his share of sea duty, he and -Brydell had met many times in all those years, and always Brydell felt -as if he were a little lad again. - -Once, Brydell remembered, Grubb, being about going to sea again, had -paid the expenses of a long journey out of his small pay to see him, and -Brydell suspected that Grubb’s ticket had taken about all his spare -cash, and that he had lived on hard tack and a can of smoked beef most -of the way, which was hard on a big fellow like the marine. - -It suddenly flashed upon Brydell that this handsome fellow might be -Grubb’s son; he was about the right age. Brydell at this pricked up his -ears, but in a few minutes one of the professors, happening to address -the young man, called him “Mr. Esdaile.” Then he was not Grubb’s boy, -and Brydell lost all interest in him, except that he wished he could -write the answers off as quickly as Esdaile could. For Esdaile never -paused a moment, but with the ease and rapidity of one perfectly -accustomed to his subject he answered every question put him. - -Not so Brydell. He was well up in history and geography, for he was a -great reader. But in mathematics he stumbled woefully and made something -very like a fiasco. - -When at last it was over and the young fellows each took his way home, -Brydell felt a sickening sense of failure. He had really worked hard in -preparing for the examination, but he forgot that he had never worked in -his life before. His three weeks’ spurt had seemed to him a tremendous -effort that must win success, but it had not. And then came a terrible -apprehension; if he had failed at this examination, and he felt -perfectly sure he had, he might fail at another. He might even fail in -getting the appointment from his own district, for the congressman might -well hesitate to give it to a boy who could not hold his own in a -preliminary examination. - -This thought staggered him and almost broke his heart, for he had dwelt -so long on the navy that he could not think what to do with his life if -his ambition in that way should be balked. He was only kept in suspense -a week or two and then the blow fell. Esdaile had got the appointment, -and Brydell was at the foot of the list. - -Only a proud, sensitive, and inexperienced soul could imagine the pain -that Brydell suffered. It was not alone the mortification of failure; he -had allowed his passion for the navy to take such possession of him, -body and mind, that any serious setback to this cherished hope seemed to -him an appalling misfortune. - -In his tempest of disappointment he turned for the first time in his -life, even in his own mind, against his father. - -“It is not my fault,” he thought in sullen fury. “I am bright enough, -only I never was made to work. And yet everybody talks about my -advantages. Was it any advantage that I should never stay at any school -more than a year, and hardly ever more than six months? Was it any -advantage to me to be sent to Europe where I picked up a smattering of -French and came home to find myself behind every fellow of my age I -knew, except in that one thing? Was it any advantage to me to have more -money than almost any boy I knew, to squander on athletics and all sorts -of rubbish?” - -This last reflection brought Brydell suddenly to himself. He remembered -poor Grubb’s giving his boy half his pay. “And my poor old dad—poor -young dad, rather—gave me, I believe, a good deal more than half his -pay.” - -Brydell had learned something about how money went, and he stopped, -startled at the idea of how much skimping and saving his father must -have done to give him the money. He fell into a passion of remorse. - -“Poor dad—poor dad!” was all he could think, and “dad” was so -young—barely thirty-six, and did not look a day over thirty. “I dare -say,” thought poor Brydell, with the ghost of a smile, “that’s why it -was he never married again. I was squandering his pay.” - -Brydell was too generous a fellow to reproach his father, except to -himself in his first angry mood, and knowing the lieutenant would hear -about the examination anyway, he sat down and wrote his father frankly -and fully, admitting his failure, and his determination, if he could get -another chance, to do better. But the lieutenant was far away in the -Pacific and it would be months before he could get the letter, and -perhaps other long months before Brydell could get an answer. - -Then he wrote the admiral in the same strain. The admiral, who happened -to have shore duty then, got the letter. He was sitting on the piazza, -facing the salt sea, and when he had finished reading it he brought his -fist down with a thump on the arm of his chair and shouted:— - -“By!” - -The admiral always held that expletives were vulgar; but when much -wrought up he took refuge in “By,” which might mean any and every thing. - -“Just like the dog when he was about as big as a cockchafer, and took -the whole blame of cutting up my turf, when there were six older boys -aiding and abetting him. Bowline! here, sir!” and in a few minutes Billy -Bowline came trotting along the hall. - -“Bring me my portfolio and the ink,” said the admiral. “That little -scamp of a Brydell has failed in a competitive examination for an -appointment to the naval academy, and how his father could expect -anything else, I can’t see, taking him to Europe, putting him at school -one day and taking him away the next, and giving the boy no chance at -all, simply because he was too soft-hearted to say no! And now the young -fellow behaves like a man and shoulders it all. I say, Bowline, we can’t -afford not to have that young fellow in the service.” - -“No, sir, we can’t!” said Billy very seriously. “We’re ’bleeged to have -him, sir, in the sarvice.” - -“And how is it to be done, you old lunkhead?” bawled the admiral. - -“Beg your parding, sir, it’s easy enough,” answered Billy stoutly. -“There ain’t nothin’ in the reg’lations as prevents a admiral from axin’ -the member o’ Congress from Mr. Brydell’s districk, if he’s got a -’pintment to give away; and if he rightly understands his duty to a -rear-admiral on the active list, he dasn’t say no, sir.” - -“William Bowline,” said the admiral solemnly, “if you weren’t the -biggest ass I ever saw, I’d say you were a genius. Bring me the navy -register quick.” - -The admiral glanced at the register and saw there would be a vacancy in -that year in Brydell’s district. He then wrote fourteen pages to the -member of Congress, and sealed it with his big red seal. - -“That’ll fetch it,” thought Billy proudly. “It looks like it comes from -the sekertary of the navy.” - -As Billy was starting off to the postoffice with the important letter, -the admiral picked up Brydell’s letter and read it over, half-aloud. -“Esdaile, Esdaile; that has a familiar sound,” he said. - -“In course, sir,” answered Billy with a sniff. “That’s the son o’ Grubb, -the jirene. You know, sir, Grubb married a woman whose folks was ashamed -o’ him; and Grubb, like a great big ass, give the boy to his wife’s -people arter she died, and they stuffed that young ’un up with false -pride until he got ashamed to speak to Grubb; and Grubb, he was -a-sendin’ the boy half his pay straight along. So then the boy’s -grandfather died and left him a small fortin’ on condition that he -changes his name to his mother’s, Esdaile; and the brat were willin’ -enough, for he thought hisself too good to be named Grubb, and now he’s -goin’ to be a officer.” - -Here Billy rumpled his hair up violently to show his contempt for -Grubb’s boy, and the admiral again cried:— - -“By!” - -There was a great running to and fro between the admiral’s house and the -postoffice in those days, and the admiral and Billy both began to feel -anxious about Brydell’s appointment. The day was fast approaching when -the candidates must present themselves for examination at Annapolis, and -at last, three days before the time, just long enough for the admiral to -write to Brydell and for Brydell to get to Annapolis, the appointment -came from the member of Congress. - -Admiral Beaumont was so happy when he got the letter that he gave a kind -of snort of pleasure, and Billy, who was standing by, eagerly watching -the opening of the letters, had to go out in the backyard to chuckle. -The admiral sent a dispatch and a letter to Brydell, and Billy stumped -off gleefully with them, and three days afterward Brydell had presented -himself at Annapolis. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - BRYDELL’S SECOND FAILURE. - - -Far back in his babyhood, almost, Brydell remembered the academic -buildings, the green lawns, and bright river at Annapolis, and when on a -lovely May evening he walked in the great gates and passed the marine on -guard, he felt so happy he could have danced and sung. - -The weeks since his failure had been spent in a dull and hopeless mental -lethargy. Aunt Emeline had been grimly consolatory and had tried to -impress on him that he had made a lucky miss in not getting into the -navy, and named at least a thousand professions and business ventures in -which he could make more money. The good woman did not see in the least -how it was with the boy—that he was simply born to be a sailor, and that -nothing on earth could charm him then from his wish. - -After that one outburst of generosity in writing to his father and the -admiral, he had settled down to a sullen submission. It would be months -before he could hear from his father, and until then nothing could be -done. Suddenly, like the lifting of a mist by the glorious sun, came the -admiral’s letter and the appointment, and within twenty-four hours -Brydell was on his way to Annapolis to be examined for admission to the -academy. - -He had had no time to prepare for the examination, even if he could. But -a boy of Brydell’s temperament does not learn prudence and caution in a -day or a month, and he was as perfectly sanguine of success in the -coming examinations as if he had not failed before. He could have hugged -the admiral for his goodness, and had sat up half the night, when he got -the treasured letter, writing his thanks to him and the member of -Congress. - -On this lovely May afternoon he walked with a springy step along the -brick walks of the academy grounds under the giant trees, fresh in their -spring livery, and as he looked at the velvet turf he smiled and thought -of the admiral and the dirt fort and Grubb and that early time. It was -not necessary for him to report until next morning, so he strolled -along, the very happiest fifteen-year-old fellow in the world. - -Presently sauntering along the sea wall and watching the reflection in -the water of a steam launch filled with ladies and officers, he suddenly -came directly upon his old friend Grubb, standing and talking with -Esdaile, the handsome young fellow who had so far outstripped all the -other candidates, himself included. Esdaile started, and then blushing a -fiery red, nodded his head to Grubb and walked off. - -As for Brydell, all the kindness he had ever received as a little boy -from the handsome marine rushed to his mind. Grubb, as handsome as ever, -although a good deal older, smiled delightedly as Brydell dashed -forward, but seeing how tall the young fellow had grown, Grubb drew -himself up and saluted as he said: “How d’ you do, Mr. Brydell?” - -“Oh, hang the salute, Grubb! shake hands,” cried Brydell, delighted. -“I’m not a cadet yet, so we needn’t stand on ceremony.” At which Grubb -and he sawed the air for five minutes. - -“And are you come down here for to be examined, sir?” asked Grubb, -smiling broadly. - -“Yes,” said Brydell, adding shamefacedly, “I had a chance in a -competitive examination, but that fellow you were talking -with—Esdaile—got ahead of me.” - -At this it was Grubb’s turn to color. He shifted his feet and said -hesitatingly:— - -“Mr. Brydell, please don’t go for to tell it, sir, but Mr. Esdaile—Mr. -Esdaile is my son. His grandfather’s left him some money, if he’d take -the same name—Esdaile; and as the boy didn’t like the name o’ Grubb, -nohow, he got his name changed by law—and I’d ruther—I’d ruther, sir, -the folks here didn’t know it, bein’ as I ain’t nothin’ but a marine.” - -Brydell was so taken aback for a moment that he did not know what to -say, and Grubb with unwonted fluency continued:— - -“I’ve sent in my application for a transfer, sir, ’cause the boy don’t -want—I mean _I_ don’t want—to be stationed here, a-doin’ guard duty -while my boy is in the academy. I’ve talked it over with one o’ the -officers as I’ve knowed, and who has been a good friend to me, and he -says maybe it will be best all around. And I hope nobody will know that -Cadet William Esdaile is the son o’ Grubb the marine.” - -“You may be right in getting transferred somewhere else,” answered -Brydell after a moment, “and if the officer advised you, I wouldn’t -venture to say a word; but I don’t see why your boy should not want to -recognize”— Here he stopped, not knowing how to keep on. - -“Didn’t I tell you, sir, long years ago as how the boy was gittin’ above -his father?” burst out poor Grubb, his eyes filling with tears. “He’s -ashamed o’ me; he’s ashamed to be seen a-talkin’ with me, and I can give -him half my pay, and I’d give him all o’ it if he needed it, but I can’t -stand bein’ looked down upon by him.” - -“Why, if you were my father, I shouldn’t be in the least ashamed of -you,” cried Brydell hotly. “You haven’t had the advantage we other -fellows have had, but you’re one of the most honest and respectable men -in the world; so says my father and Admiral Beaumont, too, and it’s a -great deal better to come out and be honest and above board about these -things than to be skulking and hiding them.” - -“That’s true for you, Mr. Brydell,” replied Grubb, who had natural good -sense and much more experience than Brydell. “That’s your natur’. But it -ain’t everybody’s natur’. It ain’t my boy’s natur’; I wish it was. It’s -the easiest way and the best way o’ gittin’ through life, but it takes -all sorts o’ people to make up a world, and there’s lots o’ people that -could no more be aboveboard than a pig can fly.” - -Brydell had not lived long enough to appreciate this truth, and he -parted from Grubb with a mixture of respect and contempt for him, but -with unabated affection, and a most genuine disgust for Esdaile. Perhaps -it was helped a little by Esdaile’s triumph over him, but Brydell had -always hated a sneak, and he had very good ground for thinking the -accomplished Mr. Esdaile was constitutionally a sneak. - -Next day he reported and the examination began, and then came a time -that in torture far exceeded the sharp disappointment and sullen despair -of the last few weeks. For, after days of struggle and nights of furious -though ill-directed study, again did Brydell fail, and this time he -thought it was forever. - -When he knew it he had but one desire on earth—to get away from the -place anywhere—anywhere. But where was he to go and what was he to do -that people would not find him out? He hated to go back to that dreary -house with Aunt Emeline; his father was completely out of his -reach,—that too kind father,—and Brydell felt sick at the idea of -meeting the admiral again. - -Filled with the despair of the very young,—who can see nothing beyond -the narrow horizon of the present,—Brydell, sitting in his room at the -hotel, dropped his head upon his arms, and wished himself dead. He did -not know how long he had lain thus, only that the sun was shining -brightly in the afternoon when he heard the dreadful news, and it was -quite dusk when he had a strange feeling that some one was present, and -there stood over him Grubb’s tall figure. - -“It’s mortal bad, Mr. Brydell,” said Grubb. Brydell answered not a word, -and in the silence of the twilight the only sound was the melancholy -call of a night bird heard through the open window. - -“Whatever are you goin’ to do now, Mr. Brydell?” asked Grubb after a -while. - -“I don’t know,” said Brydell in a voice that he hardly recognized as his -own. - -“You’d better ask the admiral, sir,” presently Grubb continued. - -Brydell made no reply. Then, after a longer pause than usual, Grubb kept -on:— - -“You ain’t had no rale preparation, I reckon.” - -“No!” cried Brydell bitterly; “sent from one school to another, as often -as I wanted; allowed twice as much pocket money as any other boy in -school, while my father was pinching and skimping himself to give it to -me; with no home, no mother, to encourage me and nobody to govern me; of -course I failed. I’ll always fail.” - -“Don’t you go for to say that, Mr. Brydell, and it seems like I ain’t -the only foolish father in the world. There’s others as had eddication -and all sorts o’ things that don’t act no wiser nor poor old Grubb the -marine.” - -“Don’t say a word against my father!” cried Brydell, lifting his pale -face for the first time. - -“I’d be the last person in the world to say a word against the -leftenant, sir, but I say as how ’twas always said of you when you was a -little shaver: ‘Don’t be hard on him, he ain’t got no mother.’ Well, now -it seems to me they’ve been monstrous hard on you when they thought they -was bein’ easy.” - -Brydell said nothing more. He knew Grubb was telling the truth. - -“Well, now, sir, let me tell you something. I knows all about these -app’intments. You set down and write the admiral and ask him if he’ll -ask that there congressman to give you a year to prepare yourself. Tell -him as how you ain’t had half a chance, and give him your word as a -gentleman you’ll pass next year if they’ll let you keep the -app’intment.” - -“I’m ashamed to.” - -“Good night, Mr. Brydell,” said Grubb. “Them as is ashamed to ask for -another trial when they ain’t had a good chance, seems to me, ain’t got -much sand. It looks like you warn’t willin’ to work.” - -“Sit down, Grubb,” answered Brydell, beginning to consider this sound -advice, and before Grubb left the room the letter was written to the -admiral. - -“It won’t do any good; I know it won’t,” said poor Brydell despairingly. -Nevertheless he agreed to remain at Annapolis long enough to get an -answer. - -It would take about three days to get an answer, supposing the admiral -to be able to see the congressman at once. Those days Brydell remained -shut up in his room. It was a turning point with him. He retained only a -dim and chaotic memory of what he felt and suffered in those three days; -but at the beginning he was a boy, and when he came out of the struggle -he was a man. - -In the afternoon of the third day a dispatch came:— - - Congressman will let this year’s appointment lapse and will hold - vacancy open for you another year, upon my solemn word of honor that - you will qualify yourself and pass. I rely upon you to make my promise - good. - - GEORGE BEAUMONT. - -The day was dark and rainy, but no June morning ever seemed brighter to -Brydell when he read that dispatch. The transition seemed to him like -passing from death to life. - -He knew he had never had a chance at preparation, and he knew he had a -good mind, capable of learning what other fellows did. But, above all, -he felt suddenly develop within himself a determination, a strength of -purpose, a power of will that could do great things if he tried. - -This new force was always a part of his character, although quickly -developed by a strange succession of fierce disappointments. But -impetuosity was also a part of his character, and with this new sense of -manliness and responsibility came a rash determination that he would -prove his sincerity by working for his living while preparing himself -for that other chance a year hence. - -Hot with this thought, Brydell wrote his father a brief but eager -letter:— - - And as I have known all the disadvantages of having too much money to - spend, all taken, almost stolen from your pay, dear old man, while you - are doing without everything for me, and I am determined never to cost - you another dollar. I can find work easy enough, - -(sanguine Brydell) - - and work won’t interfere with my studying half as much as play will, - and I want to do something—anything—everything—to earn the admiral’s - respect and my own too. So make yourself easy, dad, about me. I’ll be - at work when you get this, and you know whatever faults I’ve had I - never was a milksop; and I’m going to behave myself; don’t you worry - about that. So wait until next year and you won’t be ashamed of your - affectionate son and chum, - - RICHARD BRYDELL, Jr. - -Brydell ran and posted this letter before he had time to change his mind -about sending it. When it was gone he had a sudden feeling of shock, -like a man just under a shower bath. But his word was passed. He had -naturally the strength of mind to stick to what he said, and one of the -things that had not been neglected with him was a most faithful regard -for his own word. Rash his resolve might be, but not to be shirked on -that account. - -When Brydell realized to what he had committed himself he seemed to grow -ten years older in half an hour. He felt a little afraid, but all these -things were working together to make a man of him. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - STRIKING OUT FOR HIMSELF. - - -Next morning, bright and early, Brydell was up and dressed. He had no -one to say farewell to except Grubb, but he wanted to see his humble -friend and avail himself of Grubb’s excellent common sense about his -future plans. For the marine had seen a good deal of the world and knew -something of it from a working-man’s point of view. Grubb happened to be -off duty that day, and early in the morning presented himself in -Brydell’s room. Brydell told him the glorious news, and Grubb, taking -off his cap and waving it three times, said in a half-whisper: “Hooray! -hooray! hooray!” - -“And now,” said Brydell, “I’ve got to go to work. I have about -twenty-five dollars left after paying my hotel bill, and I can’t go very -far on that. Besides, I’d rather stay near Annapolis. I can keep in -touch with it better in some ways. I have my books, you know, and -although I have only acquired a smattering from them, yet they are -familiar enough to me to study by myself. And I’ve got an idea about -employment.” - -“What is it, sir?” asked Grubb. - -“Well, you see, I’ve been great on outdoor life—riding and walking and -swimming; and I believe I could stand an outdoor life better than I -could being shut up in a dingy office. I hear that the farmers about -here find great difficulty in getting hands, even at high wages and -particularly at this season of the year. If I could get work on a farm, -I could get my living too, which I couldn’t get in a city.” - -“Lord, bless the boy!” cried Grubb in great disgust. “The leftenant’s -son, a-talkin’ about bein’ a hired man! Did ever anybody hear the likes -o’ that for a gentleman?” - -“I know I am a gentleman, Grubb, and that’s why it is I’m not afraid of -work,” answered Brydell, who could not help laughing at Grubb’s look. - -After Brydell had talked with him half an hour, though, the marine’s -ideas changed. Brydell, who had been thinking hard on the subject all -night, reminded him of how many young fellows walked the streets of -towns, asking for employment, while in the country employment was -waiting for twice as many men as could be found. “And besides,” said -Brydell with a slight blush, “in the city I might be all the time -running up against people I know, and if they were civil to me I’d -probably lose the time with them I would have in the evenings for study, -and if they didn’t notice me it would make me feel pretty bad; while in -the country I wouldn’t be likely to meet a soul I ever knew. It always -seemed to me, too, as if a country life was healthier for a young -fellow.” - -“It is a sight healthier in every way,” remarked Grubb with energy. - -“And then I can get work right away in the country, and who knows when I -could get it in town?” - -“Mr. Brydell,” said Grubb, “the admiral allers said, when you were a -little shaver, as you’d turn right side up, and I do believe he know’d -what he was talking about.” - -“The admiral’s the best friend I have in the world except you,” cried -Brydell; “I believe if you were an admiral, you’d do just as much for me -as Admiral Beaumont.” - -“Right you are, Mr. Brydell. I ain’t nothin’ but a poor marine, without -any book learnin’, but whenever I sees that motto of the corps, ‘_Semper -fidelis_’ which means ‘Ever faithful,’ I think to myself, Grubb, my man, -that means you ain’t never goin’ back on another feller; and, come to -think of it, it do seem ridicklous that the leftenant’s son should be -a-workin’ like a hired hand. But I’ve noticed, sir, as how you’ll put -two horses to haulin’ bricks. If one o’ ’em is a scrub, and t’ other one -has a strain o’ good blood in him, you’ll find the scrub all petered out -by the time his work is done. But the horse with the good blood’ll haul -all day, and be as frisky as a kitten when you take him out; for blood -do tell, Mr. Brydell.” - -Grubb said this with a sigh, and Brydell thought the poor fellow had his -own son in mind. - -Brydell did not care to say good-by to the few people he knew at -Annapolis, so he started out on a round, leaving his cards marked -“P.P.C.” at each acquaintance’s house and not waiting to see if they -were at home. He could not help laughing as he did this. He imagined he -saw himself at work in the fields in his shirt sleeves, and thought it -would be a good while before he needed any more visiting cards. - -A natural tinge of boyish adventure made him feel as if he would like to -start out on foot to seek his fortune, so next morning, having packed up -his belongings and left them in Grubb’s care, Brydell set out with his -stick and a small bundle and twenty-five dollars in his pocket. - -It was a lovely day, cool for the season, and as Brydell stepped out at -a lively pace, the world did not by any means look black to him. When he -looked back six months it seemed to him six years. In that time he had -had one of those plunges into real life which turns a boy into a man in -an inconceivably short time. He had had a pretty complete experience of -what life meant, and he had set himself to work out his own salvation in -earnest. - -He thought he would walk about twelve miles before stopping, wishing to -be at least that far from Annapolis. But the beauty of the day, the -greenness and freshness of the country, led him on and on until it was -nearly fifteen miles. - -Then the weather suddenly changed. The sky became overcast, the wind -sprung up, and the first thing Brydell knew he was caught in a drenching -rain. He had a rain coat with him and he put it on, meanwhile keeping -his bundle well protected. He was still following the main road and he -determined to stop and ask for shelter at the first house he saw. And -how that spring shower changed his views of life! - -He realized he was wet and hungry, that he was alone, and far from all -his friends, and all at once he began to feel very young. He pushed on -rapidly, and in a little while saw across the rolling country a large -and comfortable farmhouse. He made straight for it and in a little while -he knocked at the open door. - -A little girl in a white dimity sunbonnet came to the door. She was -about ten years old and remarkably pretty. She did not show the least -bit of shyness and asked Brydell in hospitably. Before he had time to -answer, her father and mother appeared—handsome country people, looking, -as they were, thoroughly prosperous. - -Brydell, whose manners were naturally graceful and polished, introduced -himself and asked the privilege of remaining until the shower was over, -and with a secret determination to ask for work later on. The farmer’s -address was not nearly so elegant as the young fellow’s who cherished -the ambition of becoming his hired man. He said:— - -“My name’s Laurison. Come in and sit down. If you’ve got any dry clothes -in that bundle, my wife’ll show you a room where you can change ’em.” - -Brydell looked at Mrs. Laurison and his heart went out to her instantly. -She was not like the officers’ wives he had known, educated and traveled -women; but she had a quiet dignity and a self-possession that was -equally good in its way. And she had the softest, kindest eyes in the -world, and her voice was so gentle when she invited Brydell upstairs to -change his clothes that he almost loved her from the start. In a little -while Brydell appeared with dry shoes and stockings and another pair of -trowsers. - -The farmer, being compelled to stay indoors, was not indisposed to talk -with the young stranger, and Brydell had quite a gift of making himself -agreeable. They sat talking in a large, airy, old-fashioned hall, with a -dry rubbed floor; and the little girl Minna was so pleased with her new -acquaintance that she came and perched herself on the arm of his chair -and gazed fearlessly into his eyes with the grave scrutiny of an -innocent girl. - -Brydell knew much about country life, and talked so knowingly about cows -and pigs and horses that even Mr. Laurison grew fluent, and Brydell -imagined it would be easy enough to get work there, and he quickly -determined to ask for it. - -“Do you have any trouble getting farm labor?” he asked. - -“Heaps of trouble,” answered Mr. Laurison with emphasis. “The negroes -all go off about this time of the year for berry-picking, just when -harvest is coming on and the corn needs weeding the worst you ever saw. -I’ve got two men I can count on that stay with me the year round, but I -ought to have four on a farm of this size.” - -Here was Brydell’s chance. - -“I’m looking for work,” he said diffidently—“Farm work, I mean.” - -“You!” shouted Mr. Laurison. “Why, you never did any work in your life. -Look at them hands!” - -“Pretty brown, I think they are,” answered Brydell complacently, -examining his own hands. - -“Yes,” said Mr. Laurison; “but they’re brown with the playin’ of tennis -and football and such. Any fool can see by your hands you ain’t done any -work.” - -“But I want to do some work.” - -“For what?” - -“For money, for a living.” - -“Ain’t you got any friends or family?” - -“I have a father. He’s in the navy and away off in the Pacific. I -haven’t any friend that can help me.” - -“And has your father thrown you off?” - -“Oh, no; but I want to earn my living, and it’s easier to get work in -the country than in town, and besides I know more about the country.” - -Mr. Laurison’s manner underwent an instant change. He paused a little -while and then said:— - -“I ain’t got any work for you;” and after another pause: “I think it’s -clearin’ up.” - -Brydell rose at once. He felt that in a moment the attitude of his host -was one of suspicion; but Mrs. Laurison’s kind gaze never changed in the -least, and little Minna came closer to him and caught his hand. - -“Are you going away?” she asked. - -“I must,” said Brydell gently, but feeling as if he would choke. Mr. -Laurison got up very promptly. - -“I’ll show you a short cut to the main road,” he said. - -The sun was now down and the purple twilight was upon them. The trees -and grass were wet and a faint gray haze rose from the meadows at the -back of the house. It had never dawned upon Brydell that he would be -invited to take the road at such an hour, and he felt a strange sinking -of the heart. - -He thanked Mrs. Laurison for her kindness to him. She said no word to -detain him, but Brydell felt she was sorry to see him go. He then turned -to shake hands with little Minna. The child suddenly tiptoed and threw -her arms around his neck, saying,— - -“Won’t you come back to-morrow?” - -“Some day, perhaps,” answered Brydell hurriedly, and feeling a sob -rising in his throat at the childish words. The woman and the little -girl had confidence in him. He said good-by to them both, thanked Mrs. -Laurison again, and followed her husband out, and along a path bordered -with alders, to the main road half a mile off. - -Neither spoke a word. When they reached a stile, beyond which the white -line of the sandy road glimmered faintly in the half-light, the farmer -turned to him:— - -“Young man,” he said, “if you’ve done anything wrong,—and I can’t help -suspecting you have,—’tain’t too late for you to mend. You’re young yet, -and you’ve got a whole lifetime to make up for it in.” - -Brydell had realized that the farmer suspected him, but hearing it put -into words was a shock that altogether unnerved him. - -“Why do you suspect me?” he asked in a voice he hardly recognized as his -own. - -“Because I can’t help suspecting an educated young feller with his -father in the navy, who tramps about, asking for work on a farm.” - -In all of his grief and anxiety and despair about his failing in his -examinations, and when he thought the desire of his heart was thwarted, -Brydell had never shed a tear. But when this new horror came upon him, -he did what he had not done since he was a little boy—he broke into a -passion of sobbing and crying. The farmer looked at him compassionately. - -“You’re sorry for what you’ve done,” he said, “and that’s a good sign.” - -“I’m not sorry, for I haven’t done anything,” burst out Brydell. “I am -as honest as you are and as respectable. How do you think you’d feel if -anybody accused you of being crooked? I’ve told you the truth. I got an -appointment at the Naval Academy and I failed, and the congressman who -gave it to me said he would hold it over for a year if I would work hard -and promise to pass, and I wrote my father I meant to work for that and -for my living, too, and I’m going to do it. That’s all.” - -Mr. Laurison hesitated for a moment. He had the wisdom of guileless -people, which is sometimes better than that of worldly people, and he -saw that Brydell was telling the truth, and he said so. - -“And you can come back to the house with me and spend the night, and -we’ll talk about work to-morrow,” he said. - -“No,” said Brydell stoutly, “I won’t spend the night in the house of a -man that takes me for a crook.” - -“I like your pluck, but you’re a fool all the same,” was Mr. Laurison’s -answer, accompanied by a friendly shove, “so come along back with me.” - -Brydell had meant to show great spirit, but he was not proof against -kindness, and he turned and walked rather sullenly back to the house. -Mrs. Laurison and Minna were still standing on the porch. The lamps were -lighted in the hall and dining-room, and the house had a hospitable and -inviting look. The two figures appeared out of the dusk. - -“Wife,” said Mr. Laurison, “I’ve brought this young feller back. He’s -all right. He just failed in his examination to get into the Naval -Academy, and like a wrong-headed boy he wrote his father he’d work for -his own living until he could get in the academy,—he’ll have another -chance next year,—and then, like a man, he determined to live up to what -he said. So we’ll just keep him to-night, and maybe we can find -something for him to do to-morrow.” - -Mrs. Laurison said only three words—“I am glad”—but Brydell knew they -came straight from her tender heart. Little Minna began to jump about, -singing, “I’m so glad! I’m so glad!” - -“You’ll find I can work,” said Brydell with rather a wan smile. “I’ve -worked in the hot sun a good many hours at cricket and football and -tennis and polo, and I daresay I can drive a plow or weed corn or hoe -potatoes just about as well.” - -“It ain’t half such hard work,” replied the farmer with a smile. - -The evening passed quickly. There was a wheezy piano in the parlor, and -Brydell, who played a little and could sing some college songs, pleased -his hosts very much with a performance that would not have been so -highly appreciated elsewhere. - -At nine o’clock he was shown to a comfortable room, not the best -bedroom, as he found out, and turning in fell asleep in five minutes, -well pleased with his first day’s battle with the world. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - A NEW LIFE. - - -Next morning, by sunrise, Brydell was up and dressed and outdoors. The -two negro men on the place were feeding the stock under Mr. Laurison’s -directions, while a negro woman milked the cows. - -Brydell looked about and saw that the vegetable garden was well weeded, -but there was a long straight walk down the garden, with flower beds on -each side of it, that were full of weeds. There were clumps of lilac, -both white and purple, great masses of the syringa, making the morning -air heavy with its sweet perfume, and snowball bushes blooming -profusely. Some early roses were out and a few gaudy peonies still -lingered. - -Both beds and walk were choked with grass and all manner of vagrant -growth. - -“If I had a garden hoe and rake, I could weed those flower beds,” said -Brydell to Mr. Laurison as they met in the backyard. - -“I wish to goodness you would,” answered Mr. Laurison. “My wife has -nearly broken her heart over those flower beds. I’ve had to keep the -hands to work so steady that I actually haven’t had a chance to get at -the flowers; and she ain’t strong enough to do it herself, and it’s just -been a trial to her.” - -Brydell had been taught to weed flowers under that stern martinet, Aunt -Emeline, and when an hour afterward Mrs. Laurison and Minna appeared, -one whole square was as neatly weeded as possible, the refuse piled up -in a wheelbarrow, and the garden looked like a different place. - -Mrs. Laurison was delighted. - -“You couldn’t have done anything that pleased me better, and a young -fellow that’s kind and considerate to women and children is apt to be a -good one. If Mr. Laurison keeps you, I’ve made up my mind to let you -have the little bedroom you slept in last night, instead of staying with -the hired men in the barn, because I see you are a gentleman’s son, and -your mother”— - -“I haven’t any mother,” said Brydell, his eyes filling with tears at -Mrs. Laurison’s kind tones. - -“Then there’s the more reason for being good to you,” she said. - -Little Minna immediately dragged him off to see her garden, which was -the disorderly patch which usually satisfied children, and then they all -went in to breakfast. - -After breakfast Mr. Laurison and Brydell had a business talk. Mr. -Laurison agreed to keep him a month on trial and to pay him ten dollars -besides his board. If he was satisfactory, he could keep the place -indefinitely. - -Brydell never was so thankful and so relieved in his life, except when -he got that dispatch from Admiral Beaumont. - -How much better was this wholesome country life than that dreary search -for employment in a city! And he had a good room to sleep in, instead of -a box on the top floor in a city boarding-house, and country milk and -butter and vegetables to eat—Brydell had an astonishing appetite—and his -work, although hard, was nothing like as hard as being perched upon an -office stool ten hours a day. - -He had to buy himself some working clothes, but, as one result of his -training as a gentleman, Brydell never appeared at the table without -being neatly dressed. This worked a much-needed reform in Mr. Laurison, -who before Brydell came had no scruples about appearing at the dinner -table in his shirt sleeves. But he could not afford to be less well -dressed than his young hired hand and he began to take more pains with -his daily toilet. - -This pleased Mrs. Laurison very much, who like most women attached -importance to the refinements of life, and who felt hurt to think that -though her husband put on his coat when they had guests to dinner, he -left it off when they were alone. - -At the end of the month Mr. Laurison said nothing about Brydell’s -leaving and was secretly rather afraid that Brydell had got tired of his -job. But not so; Brydell had a great fund of sound sense, after all the -nonsense had been knocked out of him, and he knew he was in good luck to -have such a means of livelihood. - -As soon as he felt any certainty about his position, he wrote a number -of letters—to his father, to Admiral Beaumont, to his Aunt Emeline, and -to Grubb the marine, who had got transferred to Portsmouth, New -Hampshire. - -He got very prompt answers from the three of his correspondents who -could communicate with him. His Aunt Emeline wrote, saying if he -wouldn’t come back, she couldn’t help it—but there was nothing urgent in -her invitation. Brydell smiled rather bitterly as he laid the letter -down. - -The admiral’s letter was overflowing. He could not give Brydell too much -encouragement, considered him bound to pass No. 1 next year, and -conveyed a long message from Billy Bowline to the effect that “Mr. -Brydell, he is bound to be a sailor man, ’cause he’s built that away.” - -And Grubb’s letter, which was recklessly spelled and not fully up to the -standard of classic English, bade him “go in and Win. You have got Sand, -Mr. Brydell, and Sand is what makes a man. Some fellows as learns a lott -out of books ain’t got no natural manly carackter and disapp’ints their -friends. But you are not the sort to disapp’int.” Grubb then went on to -lament that he was stationed at Portsmouth. “For the cadets cruze will -most likely be here, Mr. Brydell, and there’s one of them, for reasons -which is known to you, as I would ruther not see in present -serkumstances.” - -Brydell knew that the poor fellow meant Esdaile. - -Meanwhile Brydell was working like a Trojan at his books. - -Every evening after supper he would be claimed for half an hour by -little Minna, to play on the piano for her, to tell her stories, or to -amuse her in some way. Then he would take a lamp and go to his room and -study hard. - -Often he was very tired, but it was a healthful fatigue. He did not feel -any sense of nervous exhaustion, but, if he found himself falling asleep -over his books, he would go to bed and get up at daylight next morning -feeling perfectly refreshed. - -The outdoor life agreed with him wonderfully, and his boyish figure -began to fill out and lose some of its angles. And he had the -consciousness of making headway with his studies. He was forced to adopt -the old-fashioned plan of relying upon himself, instead of the -new-fashioned one of having a tutor to study with him and to take most -of the trouble off him. - -Besides making steady progress in studies and character and physique, he -actually found himself happy. He had no associates of his own age, it is -true; the neighborhood was sparsely populated and he did not find any -very congenial acquaintances among boys of his own age, but he comforted -himself by thinking, “Never mind, I’ll have lots of fellows for company -next year.” He came to like Mr. Laurison; and Mrs. Laurison’s kindness -was unvarying. Little Minna became the apple of his eye. - -In the summer she had a slight illness, and Brydell did not realize -until then how fond he was of the little girl. He was always on hand to -do anything for her, and the child would take her medicine more readily -from him than from anybody else. - -This still more won Mrs. Laurison’s heart, and there was keen sympathy -between her and the boy who had never known a mother’s love. He often -thought: “If Aunt Emeline had been like this!” Minna got well quickly, -but from that day on Brydell’s affection for the mother and child became -intense. Mrs. Laurison knew that Brydell was preparing for his -examination another year, but as she said to him sometimes: - -“The farm won’t be the same for any of us after you go away. I never had -any boys of my own; I always wanted them and it seems to me now I feel -the want of them more than ever, because I see how nice a nice boy -really is.” - -“I never was accused of being a nice boy by my best friends,” cried -Brydell, laughing but pleased. “Ask Aunt Emeline what she thinks of me.” - -As for Minna, every mention of Brydell’s leaving was met by her throwing -her arms around his neck and pleading, “You won’t go away and leave me?” -Brydell partially gained her consent to go, on promising that he would -send her chests full of magnificent things and a dolly as big as -herself. - -Toward the last of the summer he got a letter from his father. It was -very kind and affectionate, and almost humble in tone. - -“I feel that I have erred through my tenderness for you,” he wrote; “but -I hope that you have experienced the worst you will have to undergo of -the effects of my fondness. I do not know what you are doing now, and -shall wait eagerly to hear, but I rely upon your manliness and -uprightness to carry you through.” - -Brydell’s reply to this letter was a very cheerful one. - -One day in the autumn, as Brydell in his blue overalls was driving an -ox-wagon loaded with fodder down the lane, he suddenly caught sight of a -trim military old figure standing at the gate, with another rather -slouchy one, and the next minute he recognized Admiral Beaumont’s hearty -laugh. - -The admiral was highly amused at the spectacle his young friend -presented, mounted on a load of hay, while Billy Bowline grinned -appreciatively at the sight. Brydell was delighted to see his old friend -and, noticing that his employment as teamster seemed to afford the -admiral great diversion, he cried out:— - -“Delighted to see you, admiral! Just let me get my team through this -gate and I’ll jump down and shake hands with you. Gee, buck!” - -“Ha, ha!” roared the admiral. “You haven’t sea room enough, my young -friend, in which to manœuvre that craft. You’ll foul that gatepost as -sure as a gun.” - -“No, I won’t; whoa!” shouted Brydell in reply. The oxen made a sudden -turn that really did threaten to foul the gatepost. - -“Keep your luff,” called out the admiral, waving his stick excitedly, -“and keep your head to the wind.” - -“Can’t,” replied Brydell, who was not an expert ox-driver by any means; -“you see she yaws about so there’s no keeping her head to the wind.” - -At last, after the expenditure of much lung power, both by Brydell and -the admiral, the wagon got through, and Brydell, jumping down, shook -hands heartily with his old friends. - -“Bless my soul!” cried the admiral, “I never saw a fellow grow like you. -Why, you are about a foot taller and two feet broader than you were last -year—eh, Bowline?” - -“He do grow amazin’ fast,” said Billy solemnly, “and I reckon as how -he’ll be the finest-lookin’ feller in the sarvice when he gits there. -But, Mr. Brydell, beg your parding, sir, you ought not to risk your -life, sir, in no sich a craft as that. Horses is bad enough, but oxen is -the most dangersome thing alive. Like as not they run away with you or -kick your head off, sir. Now, sir, aboard ship you ain’t never in no -danger. That’s the beauty of the sarvice, sir, ain’t no horses for to -kick you, nor no oxen for to run away with you; jist nothin’ to hurt -you; and when the wind blows, all you’ve got to do, sir, is to make -everything snug and git to sea, and there you is, sir, safe and sound.” - -“The old dunderhead is right,” chuckled the admiral highly pleased, -while Brydell in his heart really thought a ship was the safest thing -under heaven, particularly a United States ship. - -Brydell took his two old friends up to the house, where Mrs. Laurison -received them, as she did everybody, kindly and graciously. The admiral, -struck by her gentle and refined manner, bowed over the hand of the -farmer’s wife as if she were the greatest lady in the land, while Billy -Bowline stood just outside the door, twiddling his cap, and could not be -induced to sit down even in the hall. - -“For ’tain’t for the likes o’ me to be sittin’ down afore ladies,” said -Billy. “But I’d like mightily to have a word with that little ’un as -looks like a angel.” - -Minna, after having made friends with the admiral, was quite willing to -make friends with the old sailor. Presently they saw her put her chubby -hand in his and lead him out under a tree, where they both sat down on -the grass, and through the window floated in scraps of a thrilling -narrative that Billy was telling her: “The prin-_cess_, she then give -orders, ‘Bring up my palankeen,’ and she climbed over the side and then -she trimmed the palankeen, and it’s a mighty onhandy thing to trim, my -dear”— - -Mrs. Laurison invited the admiral to stay to dinner, and he accepted -frankly. Brydell slipped upstairs and washed and changed his clothes; -then the admiral went upstairs, too, and had a long talk with him. He -took Brydell’s books and gave him a pretty sharp examination, which -Brydell stood remarkably well; he had not wasted his time. - -When dinner was ready they found Mr. Laurison dressed in his best -clothes, and Mrs. Laurison had put on a pretty gown for the admiral. The -dinner was very jolly, and Brydell was glad that the admiral saw what -excellent quarters he had fallen into. - -After dinner, when it was time for the train, Mr. Laurison wanted to -send the admiral to the station in the old carriage that was used on -great occasions, but the admiral preferred to walk. He and Brydell -started off, therefore, in the autumn evening to walk, with Billy -Bowline rolling along after them. - -“I have waited to write to your father until I should see you,” said the -admiral; “but now I can write with a cheerful heart. Zounds, sir, you -are in luck; a year of hard study, hard work, and independence will make -a man of you. I thought your failure in your examination the worst thing -that could befall you. But don’t you see, youngster, that what seems to -be the worst may sometimes be wrested to make the very best?” - -Brydell was not quite prepared to admit that his two mortifying failures -were the best things that could have happened to him; but he rightly -considered himself a fortunate fellow in the way his resolve to earn his -living had turned out. He told the admiral of the letter he had received -from his father, and what he had replied. And then he spoke of Grubb and -Esdaile. - -“I have heard of that Esdaile fellow, and mark my words, he’s a scamp. -It’s well enough to elevate himself; poor Grubb is an honest, sensible -fellow, though uneducated; but I hear that his boy would have nothing to -do with him, except on the sly, and actually has been heard to deny that -Grubb is his father. I say that fellow is a pernicious, unqualified, and -unmitigated scamp and scalawag; and I don’t care if he passes No. 1 in -his class, I’d fire him out of the navy in short order, if I had my -way.” - -Presently out of the darkness came the roar and thunder of the train, -the admiral wrung Brydell’s hand as did Billy Bowline, Billy saying, -“Good-by, Mr. Brydell, I hopes as how you’ll git through and be a -ornament to the sarvice, sir, afore I trips my anchor and sets out for -the other coast.” - -Brydell went back wonderfully encouraged. The admiral believed in him, -and that belief of others in us does wonders. Even Billy Bowline’s -appreciation was not lost on Brydell. - -The autumn and winter passed rapidly. Lieutenant Brydell’s ship was -still cruising in the Pacific, stopping occasionally for letters that -were months in reaching their destination. Brydell received several -letters from his father, all encouraging in tone, especially after -Admiral Beaumont’s letter. - -The spring came on apace, and at last one day in May, exactly a year -from the time Brydell had gone to Annapolis before, he was notified to -present himself before the examining board. - -Brydell felt reasonably confident. Not only had he worked hard, but, -forced to depend upon himself and to solve his own difficulties, he felt -that he stood a better chance of making a four years’ course than if he -had been crammed by a tutor to get through his examinations and then -make a flat failure afterward. - -It was hard on him to say good-by to the Laurisons, and Minna was so -distressed at the idea of parting from him that Mrs. Laurison and he -agreed that it would be better for him to slip off early in the morning -before sunrise, so that the child would be spared the pain of parting. -Both Mr. and Mrs. Laurison were up to give him his breakfast and see him -off. Mrs. Laurison said to him:— - -“If ever your Aunt Emeline said you were a disagreeable boy, I think she -must have been a very disagreeable woman, for in the year you have lived -with us I don’t think I could have found fault with you if I had tried.” - -“Dear Mrs. Laurison, it was because you were all so good to me,” -answered Brydell with tears in his eyes. - -The farewells were said, and Brydell struck off in the path that led -through the field to the little roadside station. Just as he shut the -gate that led from the path to the farm enclosures a childish figure, -topped by a ruffled dimity sunbonnet, rose from beside the gate. - -“I heard you get up,” said Minna, “and I knew you were going to-day, so -I slipped out of bed and dressed myself, for I heard mamma say something -to you about not telling me good-by because I would cry so; and I’m not -a cry-baby, and I want to say good-by too.” - -Brydell kissed her and promised to write to her, and although she -evidently wanted to cry she did not shed a tear. Brydell started her -back to the house and Minna trotted off obediently, but he saw her stop -once or twice and put her apron to her eyes. - -In a few hours he was at Annapolis and in a few days he had passed a -splendid examination and was formally notified that he was a naval cadet -at last. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - THE SUMMER CRUISE. - - -Esdaile was a third-class man, of course, and he was almost the first -person that Brydell ran across. Bearing in mind what the admiral had -said about Esdaile being ashamed of his father, it was not without a -wish to make Esdaile ashamed of himself that Brydell, the first time -they met alone, said carelessly:— - -“By the way, Esdaile, I believe you are the son of one of the best -friends I have in the world—Private Grubb, of the marines. I nearly -killed him once, when I was a kid, and after that we came to be -tremendously fond of one another.” - -Esdaile’s face turned crimson. - -“I’d—I’d rather you wouldn’t mention about my father,” answered Esdaile. -“You know my mother’s people, the Esdailes, were altogether different -from my father’s. My grandfather Esdaile was an ambitious man—the -Esdailes are a good family—and left me some money on condition I changed -my name, and it would be awkward for me when I’m an officer to have it -known that my father is a private of marines.” - -“Very awkward for Grubb,” said Brydell coolly; “I should think your -father would be awfully ashamed of you. Grubb, you know, is a fine man; -every officer he ever served under thinks highly of him; and you are -evidently a cad of the most pronounced description. No, I won’t mention -the relationship, for Grubb’s sake.” - -Now this was highly insubordinate talk from a plebe to a third-class -man. Esdaile straightened himself up. - -“Do you know that you are speaking to your superior, sir?” - -“Oh, come off!” answered Brydell carelessly. “This isn’t any class -question; it’s a mere private matter between us two. I say your father, -if he _is_ an uneducated man, is twice as much of a gentleman at heart -as you are, for all your education and your money and your fine name, -because Grubb respects himself, and that’s the first thing about a -gentleman, so I’ve been told.” - -Esdaile walked off in silent fury. He did not care to undertake to -discipline Brydell on such a matter, as it would only be proclaiming -what he earnestly desired to conceal, so he swallowed his chagrin and -determined to get even with Brydell some other way. - -Although hazing is strictly prohibited by act of Congress, the milder -form of it, known as “running,” is not wholly unpractised, and Brydell -had his experience of singing the clothes list to the tune of “Hail -Columbia,” chewing soap, standing on his head, for the amusement of the -Third Class, and various other of the boyish tricks that seem to afford -such intense satisfaction to the third-class men. Brydell, being a very -good-tempered fellow, took it all in good part. - -Esdaile had no share in it, but avoided Brydell as much as possible. -Brydell soon found out that Esdaile’s reputation for straightforwardness -was none of the best. The code of truth-telling is absolutely rigid at -the Naval Academy, and a fellow caught in a lie would undoubtedly be -forced to leave, whether the wrongdoing came to the ear of the -authorities or not. - -Now, Esdaile had not actually been caught in a falsehood by any of his -classmates, but there was a general sinister impression that he would -just as soon lie as tell the truth, provided he was not caught. His -recitations had been admirable, and he had very few demerits and stood -well with the instructors, but he did not stand so well with his own -class. Apparently no one knew of his relationship to the marine, and -Brydell was quite above the meanness of telling it. - -Early in June the graduating exercises were held, and Lieutenant -Brydell’s ship having got to San Francisco a few weeks before, Brydell -was delighted one day to get a dispatch from his father, saying he would -be at Annapolis before the cadets sailed on their summer cruise. - -Oh, the happiness that Brydell felt one June day when he once more -hugged his “dear old dad”! Brydell himself had grown and improved so -much, and the brief “setting up” process he had gone through with had -made him look so much more mature, that he and his father looked more -like two brothers than ever. - -The lieutenant felt perfectly happy in his boy. He had all along been -conscious of the weak points in the boy’s training, and when young -Brydell had of his own accord cast aside all indulgence and worked -manfully in the face of heart-breaking disappointments, his father’s joy -in him knew no bounds. Brydell showed his hands, which were rough and -sunburned, to his father, with pride. - -“Just look at ’em, dad!” he cried with a natural boyish conceit; “got -that by holding the plow and tossing hay and feeding the cattle and -chopping wood. You ought to have heard the admiral laugh when he saw me -trying to drive the ox-team through the gate. I’m not exactly a -first-class farm hand,—I wasn’t worth more than ten dollars a month,—but -I didn’t shirk, I can tell you. And you don’t know how much better it -was working in the fresh air, with a plenty of wholesome country food to -eat, than drudging in an office; and the horses and cows were excellent -company. I pity the poor fellows that have to work in city offices. Give -me the country every time.” - -The lieutenant gazed at him while a mist gathered in his eyes. He could -only say: “My brave boy! My brave boy!” - -Brydell told his father that he must go out to see the Laurisons, and -the lieutenant, nothing loth, went and spent the day. He came home -delighted with the kind people, for whom he felt sincere gratitude, and -he brought back a large nosegay from little Minna and a childish letter -written in a big, round hand to young Brydell. - -Before the Constellation sailed, Brydell sent her a cap ribbon with “U. -S. S. Constellation” on it in gold letters and a set of cadet buttons -for her jacket. Of course every cadet had his “best girl” and perhaps -half a dozen other “girls,” generally young ladies older than -themselves. But Brydell maintained a mysterious silence about his “best -girl,” only admitting that her name was Minna and she had long light -hair. - -One lovely morning in June the Constellation, that had been lying at -anchor in Annapolis Roads for several days, set her white sails and with -a fair wind took her majestic way to the open sea. She has never had -steam in her, and, except for being frequently repaired and even -rebuilt, she is very much the same as in the times when she was one of -the crack frigates of the nation and when she made her glorious record -as a fighting ship. From the days when she had come off victorious in -two fights against ships that were her superiors, and had remained -uncaptured, although blockaded by a great fleet for years, in 1812-15, -she had been always classed as a lucky ship, and lucky she proved. - -To Brydell every moment at sea was happiness. He took to seamanship and -navigation as a duck takes to water, much to Admiral Beaumont’s delight, -who was not wholly reconciled to the new-fashioned ships, where, as he -disgustedly declared, “The chief engineer is captain, and the ship is no -better than an iron kettle with an engine inside of her.” - -They made their way along the coast leisurely. Every morning the cadets -were made to go aloft and over all the rigging for exercise, and they -did it like cats. Brydell excelled at this from the first with the -utmost smartness. Esdaile, on the contrary, although his class rank was -high, did not do at all well in the practical exercises of seamanship. -He was growing more unpopular every day with his class, and among the -sailors he was hated. - -The blue jackets who worked side by side with the cadets on the summer’s -cruise were generally fine seamen and honest fellows, and a pleasant -feeling existed between them and the cadets, although the distance -between an embryo officer and a sailor was necessarily strictly -preserved. Brydell enjoyed nothing more than his turn at the wheel, -when, with a foremast man, he had his watch. - -All sailors can tell plenty of interesting things, and as they all liked -Brydell they made the watch pass quickly enough. Not so was it with -Esdaile. He treated the sailors with a superciliousness and selfish -indifference that made them hate him, and they sometimes took a sly -revenge on him by letting things go wrong, for which he was responsible, -without telling him. - -When he was sharply called to account by the officer of the deck or the -executive, there was a universal grin in the fok’sle. With the other -cadets the sailors were only anxious to shield them, if anything did go -awry. Brydell and Esdaile were upon the most distant terms, and neither -showed any disposition to change them. - -After a leisurely cruise along the coast they reached Portsmouth, New -Hampshire. It was a soft July evening, and the wind was fair for them to -enter the difficult harbor. Brydell, with Atkins, a very smart sailor, -was at the wheel when they were weathering the Point. - -It requires skilful seamanship for a sailing vessel to weather this -dangerous point, where the slightest mistake in the moment to put the -helm up or down will place a ship on the rocks. The captain trusted -nobody but himself to bring the frigate in. The ship, with all her light -canvas set, floated lightly on almost like a phantom ship. - -The Piscataqua is one of the most beautiful rivers on the Atlantic -coast, and in the pale sunset glow the water shimmered like a sea of -opal. The white-winged Constellation came on and on, without tacking, -and seemed literally rushing upon her doom as the rocky point reared -itself menacingly in her way. But when so near that her bowsprit almost -touched the rock, the captain, who stood at the steersman’s side, gave -the word, and the ship, answering her helm beautifully, came about like -magic and rounded the dangerous point. - -In a little while she reached her anchorage, and came to anchor in true -man-of-war style, her sails being furled and her anchors dropped in an -inconceivably short time. - -Brydell was at that happy age when every change seems delightful, and he -was just as glad to get ashore at Portsmouth as if he had not enjoyed -every moment when he was actually cruising. - -He looked forward with the greatest pleasure to seeing his old friend -Grubb, and only regretted the forms which must be observed between an -officer and a private. Grubb was such a sensible, self-respecting fellow -that he was not at all likely to let Brydell’s natural generosity lead -him beyond the right point with a subordinate. - -Brydell made up his mind that Grubb would keep off the ship if possible, -and determined the first time he got leave to go ashore to hunt up his -humble friend. But the very next morning, happening to go on deck, he -ran across Grubb delivering a message to the officer of the deck. - -Grubb touched his cap respectfully to Brydell, but his pleasure was -evident in his handsome sunburned face. The officer was just handing him -a note. Brydell could not help shaking hands with the marine, saying to -the officer, “Private Grubb and I are old friends. I have known him ever -since I was a little lad. He got me the very worst wigging I ever had, -for almost killing him with my parlor rifle.” - -The officer smiled and said:— - -“Private Grubb must be a good man to have remained in the service so -long.” - -“I dunno about that, sir,” answered Grubb, blushing. “I’ve been in the -sarvice twenty-four years, now going on twenty-five. I ain’t never asked -for promotion, because I ain’t a eddicated man, and I’m very well -satisfied with my increased pay, but I reckon I’ll stay Private Grubb as -long as the government’ll let me.” - -Just then Esdaile appeared, strolling along the deck. The instant Grubb -caught sight of him the marine’s face changed and hardened. The officer -detained him a moment to add something to the note he had written, and -Brydell stood talking with the marine. Esdaile’s face did not show the -slightest recognition. - -No one on the ship except Brydell knew of the relationship, and as he -had not thought fit to mention it, Esdaile in his selfish soul hoped -that it would not be suspected. Certainly it would not be from the -manner of either father or son. - -The officer had come back then, and giving his note to Grubb, and -civilly returning his salute, the marine went over the side and was soon -being pulled away in the boat. - -Brydell remained talking with the officer, who was very friendly to him, -and telling the story of the parlor rifle which came so near being a -tragedy instead of a comedy. - -“And my father and Admiral Beaumont both say that Grubb is one of the -most deserving men they ever knew, and he could have had promotion lots -of times, except that he is a timid sort of an old fellow about some -things, although as brave as a lion in others.” - -“Those men are very valuable,” answered the officer, “and you youngsters -ought to treat them with the highest consideration.” - -“Indeed, Grubb and I have always been the greatest chums in the world,” -said Brydell, showing his boyish dimples in a smile. “The only thing I -regret in being a cadet is that I can’t go and spend the day with Grubb -at his quarters as I used to when I was ten years old, and eat salt pork -and boiled onions; how good it tasted then.” - -Brydell had despised Esdaile before, but after that utter ignoring of -his father, Esdaile became even more contemptible than ever in his eyes. -Nor did he ever see the slightest recognition afterward between the two. -They constantly met on shore, but never exchanged a word or a sign, -except the conventional salute. - -Brydell indeed could not go to Grubb’s quarters as he had done as a -little boy, but when he had leave, he would sometimes get a boat and he -and Grubb would go fishing as in the old days, and be very happy -together. Everybody on the ship knew of the old association between -them, and the fondness of the smart young cadet for the grizzled marine -was perfectly understood. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - A QUESTION OF HONOR. - - -Esdaile avoided Brydell more than ever at Portsmouth, and as they were -in different classes it was easy for them to see but little of each -other. One night, though, Brydell having come on board, after a day’s -leave spent fishing with Grubb, was met by a third-class man as soon as -he had got on board and reported. This was his old acquaintance -Cunliffe, who had turned out a remarkably quiet and level-headed young -fellow and belonged to the section in every class which keeps up the -tone and discipline of the class. - -“Brydell,” said he, “will you come into the steerage with me? Something -very important is on hand, and we want your testimony.” - -Brydell went, quite ignorant of what was up, except the surmise that -some infringement of the code of cadet ethics was under discussion, and -he knew from Cunliffe’s manner it was something serious. For among these -cadets there is a rigid code of ethics which is carried out with a stern -impartiality that would do honor to much older men. - -Uncontaminated by the influences of self-interest, which are learned -later in life, these young fellows insist upon certain points of honor -so tenaciously that they can practically drive any cadet out of the -academy who does not live up to them. And the greatest of these is -truthfulness. - -Any failure to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the -truth, is regarded as unfitting a cadet for any association with his -fellows, and so well understood is this that there are few offences -against truth. Two things, lying and tale-bearing, are treated as -crimes, and a cadet convicted of them is not only put in Coventry, but -every other cadet makes it his business to load the offender down with -demerits, so that the class may be relieved of his presence. It is -stern, but the effect is indescribably good. - -Brydell followed Cunliffe to the steerage and sitting around the table -were about a dozen of the oldest and steadiest members of the third -class, while others were grouped about as listeners. Esdaile, looking -deadly pale, sat in a chair a little way off. - -“Mr. Brydell,” said the oldest of them, Maxwell,—known as “Old McSwell,” -because of his elegant appearance, but who was one of the most reliable -young fellows in the class,—“we want your testimony in regard to a -question affecting Mr. Esdaile’s honor. It has been whispered about the -ship that Mr. Esdaile is the son of Private Grubb of the marines, whom -you say you have known nearly all your life. The difference in their -names is explained by Mr. Esdaile taking another name. Some days ago Mr. -Esdaile went to call on the captain’s wife at the hotel, and in the -course of conversation complained that this report, which he considered -injurious to him, was going about. He denied flatly that Private Grubb -was his father, and said he was the son of Thomas Esdaile. The captain’s -wife thereupon denied it and has been very much embarrassed by hearing -from the very best authority that Private Grubb really is Mr. Esdaile’s -father. Can you give us any facts in the case?” - -The first idea that occurred to Brydell as he looked at the culprit was, -“What a fool!” Esdaile had stood near the top of his class; still he -lacked the good sense that almost invariably goes with good morals and -had told a lie which, like all lies, must in the end be detected. -Brydell could feel no sympathy for Esdaile, but the idea of poor Grubb’s -distress shook him. He hesitated a moment or two before he spoke. - -“I know all the facts, I think,” he said in a low voice. “Private Grubb -is Mr. Esdaile’s father. I have known it ever since I knew Private -Grubb, seven or eight years ago. Mr. Esdaile’s grandfather gave him some -money on condition that he should take the name of his mother’s family, -Esdaile. I want to say right here that Private Grubb is one of the best -men in the world. Admiral Beaumont and my father have both said so a -hundred times in my presence, and although he is a plain, uneducated -man, not one of us here need be ashamed to own him.” - -At this there was a long and painful pause. Esdaile’s face, that had -been pale, turned a greenish hue; he had still enough sense left to feel -the accumulated scorn of his classmates. It was a solemn moment for -those young judges. Esdaile had not been popular among them, but they -fully realized that they were branding him in a way he would probably -retain as long as he lived. - -“Have you anything to say, Mr. Esdaile?” asked Maxwell. - -Esdaile’s lips formed the word “Nothing,” but no sound was heard. - -“It is the opinion of your class,” continued Maxwell after a pause, -“that it would be best for you to resign at once. If you think -differently, you may depend upon it that the class will take every means -of making the academy too hot to hold you. Some liars and tale-bearers -have been found who tried to stick it out, but there is no instance -recorded of any one of them succeeding. You may go now.” - -In a few minutes they had all scattered. Most of them went on deck, -where in little groups they discussed the matter gravely and with heavy -hearts, for the presence of meanness and dishonor is among the most -painful things in the world. - -The officers said no word to the cadets about it, nor did the cadets -speak of it to the officers. It was within their own province to -maintain the standard of probity in their class, and they had a stern -and effective way of doing it. Therefore when for the next few days no -cadet spoke to Esdaile except when absolutely required in the -performance of duty, the officers saw plainly enough what was in the -wind. - -Within another week Esdaile received an imposing document from the navy -department, and everybody knew that his resignation had been accepted. -He formally announced it to the captain, who asked no questions. The -officers bade him a distant good-by, and in two hours from the time -Esdaile received the notification he was off the ship and, as his -classmates supposed, forever out of the navy. - -Brydell had been almost broken-hearted over the effect of Esdaile’s -disgrace upon poor Grubb. He wanted to go to see the marine at once, but -could not get leave for a day or two. Then he was suddenly taken down -with a violent cold and fever. He managed to write a few agitated lines -to Grubb, but got no answer. It was nearly ten days before he was well -enough to leave the ship and go in search of his friend. - -It was about dusk of the midsummer evening when Brydell, rather pale -from his recent illness, was going toward Grubb’s quarters. Halfway -there he met the surgeon, Dr. Wayne, a kindly, elderly man, who Brydell -knew had known the marine for many years. - -“Can you tell me, sir, anything about Private Grubb of the marines?” -asked Brydell without mentioning Esdaile at all. - -“I don’t know whether he can be called Private Grubb of the marines any -longer,” answered the doctor with solemn eyes. “His time was up the very -day he heard of his son’s disgrace. He was on his way to the office -ready to reënlist when he heard it. He walked straight to the -office,—you know what a fine, erect fellow he was,—asked for his -discharge without a word of explanation, except to know when he could -get his papers, and turned away. He had not got a block before he fell. -People ran and picked him up,—he had on his uniform,—and they were going -to carry him to the hospital, but he wouldn’t let them. He said he was -out of the service, and he had no right to go, and no wish to go, nor -could they make him go. I happened to be near by and went to him. I -said: ‘You must go to the hospital.’ You see, he was such a sort of -institution that I couldn’t quite take in why he shouldn’t obey orders. -He tried to touch his cap and managed to say: ‘I’ve worn this uniform -twenty-four years and I have never disobeyed an officer, but I can’t go -to the hospital.’ He became so excited over it that for fear it would -kill him I let them take him into a little tavern at hand, a respectable -sort of a place patronized by workingmen. I saw he had had a stroke, and -that it was a mortal one. He asked to be left alone with me, and then -that poor fellow begged and pleaded with me not to send him to the -hospital, where everybody would know him and know of his son’s -disgrace—he told me all about it. I couldn’t have forced him to go after -that, if it had cost me my commission. He’s going to die, and as he is a -good and faithful man he shall die in as much peace as I can give him.” - -Brydell grew a little faint at the words, and in an instant he was -carried back to that day so long ago when old Capps the boatswain had -been carried out of the navy yard gate on a caisson. He had not been -brought face to face with majestic Death since. - -“But mightn’t he get well?” Brydell began and halted. - -“No—he can’t get well,” answered the doctor quietly. “Poor honest Grubb -is dying of grief and shame over his son’s disgrace. I and the other -surgeons here have worked over him faithfully; if he had been the -ranking officer in the marine corps, we couldn’t have done any more. But -when a man is sick of life it is an incurable disease.” - -“I’d like to see him,” said Brydell with pale lips. - -“Go to see him, by all means. If you can rouse him, you will do him more -good than all the doctors in the world can.” - -Brydell walked rapidly through the fast-closing evening to the little -tavern in a back street. The proprietor, in his shirt sleeves, answered -his inquiries civilly enough. - -“We’re doin’ all we can for poor Grubb,” he said, “but I never see a man -so hopeless.” - -Brydell stumbled up the narrow stairs to the little back room where, in -response to his knock, Grubb’s voice weakly answered: “Come in.” Brydell -entered. - -On the narrow bed Grubb’s gaunt figure, only a little while ago so trim -and soldierly, was stretched out. His skin had lost its ruddy glow and -was quite grayish, and his eyes had sunk back into his head until they -seemed cavernous. Brydell advanced to the bed and took his hand. He was -not prepared for the change in poor Grubb, and his boyish face wore a -startled look. - -“I knowed you would come as soon as you could,” the marine began. “I -asked for you right after—right after—it happened. They told me you was -sick. I got that note you wrote me. It’s a mighty comfort to me to know -there’s one honest boy in the world.” - -Brydell could not say a word. He sat down in a chair by the bed, and in -spite of every effort to control himself tears started from his eyes and -fell on Grubb’s thin hands. - -“Now, Mr. Brydell, what are you a-cryin’ for? You don’t want me to live -in this here world where things is so hard. And you see I’m to blame -some about that boy. I give him all I had, and I didn’t require nothin’ -o’ him in return. When he first began to be ashamed of me, instead of -makin’ him see as how I was to be treated with respect, because I was -his father and a respectable man to boot, I let it go and sneaked out of -his way. But I think he must ’a’ been born a liar, ’cause your father -the leftenant indulged you just as much as I did my boy, but you allers -was a up and down truthful boy.” - -“Have you heard anything of—of Esdaile?” - -“No, sir, and I don’t count on hearin’, neither. He’s got some money, -and as long as that holds out it’s all he cares for. And besides, I -ain’t got no pay now. You see I just felt it like a flash, the minute I -heard o’ that boy’s disgrace, as if I didn’t want to wear this here -uniform unless I could walk down the main street lookin’ folks square in -the eye. I had worn that uniform twenty-four years and there wasn’t no -commissioned officer as kep’ himself straighter nor cleaner nor prouder -than Grubb the marine.” - -“That’s true, Grubb.” - -“Well, Mr. Brydell, I couldn’t look anybody in the face after that, so I -asked for my discharge papers instead of reënlistin’, and then I dropped -down in the street and it give me sort o’ relief to know that I couldn’t -git over it, because them doctors,—they’re mighty kind and attentive, -and they sets where you’re settin’ and tries to skeer me into gittin’ -well,—and I know I can’t git well, and I don’t want to git well.” - -Brydell could not say a word. There was something imposing in the -fierce, simple honor of the man who preferred dying to living because he -“couldn’t look anybody in the face again.” Presently Grubb spoke again -feebly: “I hope you’ll give my respectful compliments to the leftenant -and Admiral Beaumont, and tell ’em as how I hope I’ve did my duty to -their satisfaction.” - -“I will,” said Brydell. - -He sat there and talked a long time with Grubb—talked with him until he -had barely time to catch the ship’s boat, and had to run every step of -the way to the dock. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - GRUBB’S HONORABLE DISCHARGE. - - -All the night and the next day Brydell’s heart was heavy for his old -friend. The next evening at the same time he got leave. The officers -knew of Brydell’s affection for Grubb, and he had no difficulty in -getting off when they knew where he wished to go. - -Walking rapidly along the street from the wharf, whom should Brydell -almost run over but Admiral Beaumont with Billy Bowline as always -rolling along behind him. - -“I was just thinking about you, boy!” shouted the admiral. “Where are -you going in such a hurry?” - -“Going to see poor Grubb, sir,” answered Brydell, shaking hands with the -admiral and nodding pleasantly to Billy Bowline. And then with the -admiral’s hand upon his shoulder, standing in the narrow, fast-darkening -street, Brydell told of Esdaile’s disgrace and of the terrible blow it -was to poor Grubb. - -His story was punctuated with explosions of wrath from the admiral, such -as “Infamous cad, the boy! Shoot me, but I’d like to get that young -villain on a ship of mine! Why didn’t you lick him, sir? Why didn’t you -lick him when you found the rascal out? Poor old Grubb—one of the best -men I ever knew; ten good men like him will keep a whole ship’s company -in order.” - -Billy Bowline’s indignation was expressed by sundry snorts, sniffs, and -angry hitchings up of his trowsers, but was not the less emphatic -because not expressed in the admiral’s vigorous language. - -“Come along, sir,” cried the admiral when Brydell had finished his brief -account. “I’m going to see Grubb with you.” - -The admiral mounted the rickety stairs with his quick step, as alert as -Brydell’s. Billy Bowline remained below because, as he whispered to -Brydell:— - -“There ain’t no love lost between sailors and jirenes, and Grubb, he -were the best jirene I ever see; but I don’t reckon as how he keers -about seein’ sailor men when he is in trouble.” - -After knocking at the door the admiral and Brydell entered Grubb’s -little room. By the light of the small lamp they could see him -distinctly, and he looked more gaunt, more ashy, and nearer death than -the evening before. But he was feebly delighted to see them. - -“How’s this, Grubb?” began the admiral in his “quarterdeck voice.” “You -must get up. You must get well. You were the best orderly I ever had, -and it never occurred to me that you intended getting out of the service -like this.” - -“Thankee, sir, for your good opinions,” answered Grubb, a light -appearing in his sunken eyes, “but I can’t git well.” - -“Nonsense, nonsense. You’ve had trouble with your boy; but you must bear -up—bear up, sir.” - -“Ah, sir, askin’ your pardon, you don’t know what it is to have trouble -with your own flesh and blood! I couldn’t abear to be p’inted out as -Grubb, the feller whose son was drove out of his class for lyin’. I’m a -plain man, sir, and maybe that’s why I hold on to be respectable so -hard—I ain’t got nothin’ else. I didn’t think, though, ’twould go so -hard with me. I made up my mind in a minute to git out o’ the corps and -take off this uniform as I respects and loves. But I didn’t think to -fall down in the street, and I know I’ve got a shock as I’ll never get -over.” - -The admiral could not but believe him. For three or four days Brydell -and the admiral went to see Grubb regularly, and so did Dr. Wayne, and -it was plain to the most inexperienced eye that the marine was traveling -fast out of this world. At last one evening about the usual hour of -dusk, when Brydell went in the room he saw that Grubb had started on the -great journey. His face was slightly flushed and his eyes bright, and -occasionally his mind would wander. - -“I’ve been a-waitin’ for you, Mr. Brydell,” he cried in a weak voice. -“There’s two things as I want done. One is, I want you to git that -little Bible out o’ my haversack hanging up yonder and read them -promises about them as believes in Jesus Christ shall live though they -die. And the other is, to put my best uniform on me. You see, sir, -something’s goin’ to happen; it’s a inspection, seems to me, but my head -ain’t clear—yes, it’s a inspection sure. And Private Grubb ain’t never -been reported at inspection in twenty-four, goin’ on twenty-five years, -as long as I’ve been in the service.” - -“Don’t you think you’d better wait until the doctor comes, Grubb?” asked -Brydell soothingly. - -“Lord, no, sir! I’ve got to be on time—there’s the bugle now, sir”—and -indeed a faint echo of the bugle came through the open windows from the -Constellation lying out in the harbor, half a mile away. He was so -insistent that Brydell went to the closet and took out a new private’s -uniform that hung there. He brought it to the bed and laid it down. -Grubb began to finger it, and his face changed and his manner calmed. - -“I know what ’tis, sir,” he said. “It ain’t no inspection here on earth -I’m in for; it’s a inspection by the Great Captain as to how we’ve did -our duty. But all the same, Mr. Brydell, I want this here uniform -on—because I always said I wanted to die in it. Howsomever, do you think -it’s right, as I might get my discharge papers any day, for me to be -wearin’ it and bein’ buried in it?” - - [Illustration: “BRYDELL GOT THE THUMBED BIBLE AND READ TO HIM.”] - -“I don’t believe anybody in the world would call it wrong, Grubb.” - -“Well, sir, I’m glad to hear you say that. It does seem hard if, after -I’ve served twenty-four, goin’ on twenty-five years, I’m to die and be -buried like a plain cit.[2] And I’d like you to ask the admiral as how -if I couldn’t have the right sort of a funeral; you know we give it to -old Capps. I ain’t set on the band particklar, but I want the flag on my -coffin, and I want to be carried by my messmates. Now will you ask the -admiral all about this?” - -“Yes,” said Brydell in a trembling voice. Then holding Grubb up by main -force he managed to get the uniform on him, the poor fellow helping -feverishly and showing unexpected strength. When at last it was done -Brydell got the thumbed Bible and read to him those promises of comfort -to the dying. - -“That’s it, that’s it, Mr. Brydell. Life’s a sort o’ puzzle to me. I -don’t know where my boy got his bad ways from,—and I’m afraid he won’t -get over ’em,—but if ever you have a chance, I want you to befriend him -for the sake of poor old Grubb. Ha! ha! What a funny little shaver you -were! I can see you now, sir, the day I grabbed you for tearing up the -turf at the navy yard and the way you banged away at me with that little -rifle.” - -He was getting excited and beginning to toss about on his narrow bed. - -“Don’t you think you had better keep quiet and try to go to sleep? The -doctor will be here presently,” said Brydell, trying to restrain his -tears. - -“Well, yes, sir; good-night,” answered Grubb in a pleasant, natural -voice. - -In a little while the door opened softly and the doctor walked in. He -went up to the bed. “He’s asleep, sir,” said Brydell in a whisper. The -doctor bent over him and listened for his breathing. - -“Yes, he is asleep,” he said after a while. “He will wake no more.” - - * * * * * * * * - -Brydell told the admiral about Grubb’s last wish. - -“It shall be done, by George!” cried the admiral with tears in his eyes. - -So poor Grubb, after having served twenty-four, going on twenty-five -years, was buried in his uniform and taken covered with the flag to his -last resting-place, and nobody asked a word about his discharge papers; -the admiral arranged all that. - -Behind the coffin of his humble friend walked Brydell, in full uniform; -and as he kept the slow step of the funeral march solemnly played by the -band, he thought to himself: “This man was a poor uneducated private, -but I hope I shall be able to have as good a report to give the Great -Captain.” - - - - - CHAPTER X. - IN COMMAND OF THE SQUADRON. - - -One night about seven years after this, the handsome fifty-four gun -frigate, the Naiad, flagship of Admiral Beaumont’s squadron, and the -sloops-of-war Vixen and Spitfire lay at anchor off a town on the South -American coast. - -The night was clear, although there was no moon, and the harbor lights -shone steadily. The town itself was full of life and light, the -governor’s castle blazed, and across the dark water floated the -inspiring music of several military bands. A grand official reception in -honor of the admiral and his officers was in progress. - -Walking the deck of the Naiad was Brydell, now a handsome young ensign. -He wore a look of sublime resignation. He had a wholesome appetite for -receptions, but it being his watch that night he was obliged to remain -on board. In vain had he made all sorts of advantageous offers of -exchanging duty with the other young watch officers, of whom Maxwell, -his old acquaintance of the Constellation, was one, and Cunliffe was -another. Brydell had pleaded, cajoled, and stormed; the other fellows -only laughed at him and went off to enjoy themselves. - -“Just look over there at the Spitfire,” growled Brydell to himself—the -Spitfire was commanded by Brydell’s father. “Dad hates these affairs and -has let all the fellows go and stays at home and keeps ship himself. I -wish our captain was an unsocial widower like dad.” - -And as if to exasperate him further came a burst of music from the -shore, borne fitfully over the water. Brydell glanced cynically up at -the frigate’s lights which indicated by their arrangement that both -admiral and captain were on shore, while the Spitfire, a short distance -off, although looming up indistinctly, yet showed by the lanterns on her -shadowy spars that her captain was aboard. - -“However,” thought Brydell, slamming his cap fiercely on his head, -“Admiral Beaumont is nearer right than my father, for he gets all the -solid fun there is out of life. That’s the sort of admiral I mean to -be.” - -Brydell had enjoyed every moment of his cruise on the flagship. It was -Admiral Beaumont’s last sea service before his retirement. They expected -to sail for home within a few days, and when the admiral hauled down his -flag it would be for good. He had been known as a great martinet, but -for the last few weeks he had become rather more indulgent, especially -in the matter of shore leave; and now, for the first time on the cruise, -the ship had on her only one lieutenant, Verdery; one ensign, Brydell; -two young naval cadets, and one assistant engineer. - -As Brydell walked the deck some strange thoughts crossed his mind. They -had that day taken on board from the Vixen a number of men whose time -was up, and who were to be conveyed back to the United States, while the -Vixen remained on the South Atlantic station. - -And among them was a sailor rated on the ship’s books as “William Black, -able seaman,” whom Brydell instantly recognized, in spite of a heavy -full beard, as Esdaile. He had heard nothing of Grubb’s disgraced son in -all those seven years, and had thought that an American man-of-war was -the last place on earth to look for him. But he concluded that Esdaile -had no doubt spent his little patrimony and had probably enlisted for a -living, failing in other things. - -Esdaile or Black had given no sign of recognition, and probably hoped -that his altered name, his beard, and the changes of seven years would -keep his identity unknown. The meeting had given Brydell a shock. He had -never forgotten his promise to poor Grubb to befriend his son if -possible, but he had had no means of doing so. - -Then his thoughts turned to pleasanter things. He had received a letter -from Minna Laurison that day, enclosing her photograph in her white -commencement gown. She was a pretty girl of seventeen then, and eager to -enter college, which she would do the next year. - -Brydell had been back to the Laurison place several times since he had -spent his year of farm work there, and Minna and he had continued fast -friends. Minna, in her enthusiasm for the higher education, was loftily -indifferent to receptions, never having been to one; and Brydell made -her very indignant and amused himself very much by promising her that -her head would no doubt be completely turned by the first she should go -to. - -“Never mind,” thought Brydell to himself as he walked up and down the -deserted quarterdeck. “Some time or other I’ll go to a more gorgeous -reception than this, and I’ll have a sweeter girl to take than any -here—it will be Minna Laurison.” - -The sea had been rough when the boats put off, and it grew rougher as -the wind suddenly began to rise. Lieutenant Verdery, one of the oldest -lieutenants, who was left in command of the ship, had gone forward for a -few moments and presently came back. The wind began then to blow in -earnest, and the big frigate was rocking like a cockle shell. The sky, -too, became black and lowering in an inconceivably short time. - -“I shouldn’t be surprised if we were in for a norther,” said Verdery. -“We have had most uncommon good weather for this coast, and it’s about -time for it to change. I shouldn’t be surprised if the admiral got wet -coming off to-night.” - -“I shouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get off at all,” answered -Brydell, pointing to the northwest. - -A great mass of black clouds had collected as if by magic, and at that -instant it was torn by a flash of forked green light that seemed to rend -the heavens. Nothing could have been more sudden. Verdery dashed below -to look at the glass and to see the engineer, for if the storm struck -them, the safety of the ship and of the four hundred men she carried -would depend upon the power of the engines to keep her off the giant -rocks that fringed the shore. - -Almost instantly the distant roar of the advancing tempest was heard, -and in another moment the cabin orderly came running up excitedly to -Brydell. - -“If you please, sir,” he said, “Mr. Verdery was just going in the cabin -to look at the glass when, one of the ports being loose, the wind blew -it in and it struck Mr. Verdery right full in the forehead and knocked -him insensible. The cabin steward run to him to do everything he could, -but Mr. Verdery can’t give no orders, and the steward, as was a hospital -steward once, says as how it was a pretty bad blow, and when Mr. Verdery -comes to, he can’t give no orders ’cause both his eyes is bleeding and -he can’t see.” - -For one moment Brydell’s heart stood still. He was the next officer in -rank to Verdery on board, the only others besides the assistant engineer -being Manning and Buxton, both his juniors, and upon him would rest the -command of the flagship and her company in a gale which promised to be a -hurricane. In another moment, though, his courage rose. - -“I can only do my best,” he thought, “and all my life and training has -been steadily toward making me fit for such an emergency; and all I can -do is to keep off shore and trust in God.” - -At that very moment the advance guard of the storm struck them. As they -were at anchor their canvas was secure, but their steam was low, and the -wind was driving them straight on to destruction. The Naiad’s head had -been pointed seaward, but as the tempest struck her it knocked the great -frigate around as if it had been a paper ship, and her heavy anchors -began to drag. - -“Call the boatswain!” was Brydell’s first quick order, given calmly -enough although his heart was thumping like a steam engine, and his next -was, “Call the signal man!” - -In another moment the sharp call of the whistle was heard to get up the -anchor, and above the darkness the night signal went up to the other -ships, “Up anchors and go to sea!” - -Their only safety lay in seeking the open ocean. Manning and Buxton were -on deck immediately, cool and composed. Crawford, the young engineer, -was at his post working hard to get up steam, and in a few minutes the -throb of the engines, slow but steady, was heard. - -Brydell was at the wheel with Atkins, his old acquaintance of his cadet -days, who was now a quartermaster and remarkably cool-headed and -reliable. The helm was put hard aport, and in the teeth of the gale the -ship was brought about by slow degrees. - -A black and blinding rain had come along with thunder, lightning, and -wind, and it was only during the flashes of lightning that the Vixen and -the Spitfire could be seen. Both sloops-of-war had more powerful engines -for their size and worked better than the Naiad. As soon as the signal -was sent up, Brydell saw that both ships had come about and were heading -seaward for safety. They made but slow progress, but still they were -moving steadily and passed close to the Naiad on the port quarter. The -Naiad was struggling with the fury of the storm and, although her head -had been brought partly around, she lay in the trough of the sea, her -laboring engines seemingly unable to move her against the force of the -hurricane. - -All her company were on deck except the force down in the engine rooms, -and the men had begun to make silent preparation for the fight for their -lives. Most of them had kicked off their shoes and stripped off their -jackets, expecting every moment to be engulfed in the boiling sea. - -Suddenly a flash of lightning that lasted nearly a minute and played -over the whole heavens showed them the Spitfire, passing them easily -though slowly, followed by the Vixen. Captain Brydell was standing on -the bridge of the Spitfire, and saw at a glance that Brydell was in -command. He at once surmised that Lieutenant Verdery was disabled. - -As he forged ahead of the flagship, Captain Brydell took off his cap and -waved it; and Brydell, knowing the spirit of fortitude that his father -expected of him, waved his cap back in that one moment of ghastly light. -Then, as the darkness descended, a cheer rang out above the howling of -the wind; it was the men on the Naiad cheering their more fortunate -comrades, while they themselves seemed doomed to destruction. - -But at that moment the frigate, as if gathering herself for a mighty -effort, moved forward a little, then stopped and staggered, and again -she was moving ahead, although but slowly and unsteadily. Brydell -managed to keep her head to the wind, and by degrees as the steam got up -she made a little more headway. - -In the blinding flashes of light they could see the two sloops-of-war -for a while ahead of them, but when they had got a mile or two from -shore not even the lightning gleam could pierce the whole of the awful -darkness. - -Brydell’s sensations as he stood by the wheel, occasionally leaving it -to mount the bridge for a minute or two, could not be described. He was -simply doing what any other officer could do or would have done, but no -young officer in the world, having for his first command the safety of a -flagship in a furious gale and the lives of four hundred souls, could -feel anything but awed and solemn. - -The quickness with which he had seized the situation and had signaled -the course to pursue had inspired the men with confidence, and he was -well supported by the coolness and steadiness of the young midshipmen. -Presently, while walking forward to see how things were going, he was -met by the cabin orderly, who in attempting to salute lost his cap in -the shrieking wind. - -“Mr. Verdery, sir, has come to,” he yelled in Brydell’s ear above the -roaring of wind and water, “and the cabin steward is helpin’ him on -deck; but he can’t see ’cause both his eyes were hurt by that ’ere port -blowin’ out.” - -In the half-darkness that the ship’s lights could only pierce like star -points Brydell saw Verdery, with his eyes bandaged, being helped up the -companionway. Brydell hurried to him. - -“You have done admirably, Mr. Brydell,” was Verdery’s generous greeting, -“and it shall be known to your credit. My first dread when I recovered -my senses was that you had not grasped the situation, but when I asked I -found out that you had put to sea as promptly as any officer could.” - -“And I immediately signaled the other ships to go to sea also,” replied -Brydell. - -At that a sudden change came over Verdery’s pale and anxious face which -was visible below the bandages. In the midst of the horrors and dangers -of the hour he suddenly burst out laughing. - -“Quite right you were,” said he, “but your father was in command of the -Spitfire. I wonder how he would have felt if he had known it was you who -ordered him to go outside?” - -“He did know it, sir,” answered Brydell, smiling faintly. “They passed -quite close to us, and a great flash of light came, and I saw my father -as plainly as I see you now, and of course he saw I was in command. He -waved his cap to me, and I waved mine back at him.” - -Verdery, in spite of his dangerous hurt and helpless condition, remained -on deck, but he gave no orders, nor did he find it necessary to make any -suggestions, and his presence was only from the feeling that he wished -to be found at his post, even if he could not do duty. - -The fury of the storm continued, but the Naiad, with her engines -revolving quickly, was better able to withstand it. They had now worked -their way well out to sea and were in fairly good condition to weather -the gale. - -Brydell, although absorbed in trying to save the ship, had yet noticed -Black, the seaman whom he knew to be Esdaile. There was little for the -men to do, so they gathered forward on the fok’sle ready for any -emergency. - -Not so Black, who stood as far aft as discipline would allow, and apart -from his mates. Just then the fury of the gale blew a part of the main -staysail out of the bolt ropes, and the men sprang aloft to reef the -ragged sail. - -It was Black’s duty to go and he went, but Brydell, watching him in the -half-light, saw that he shirked his work. He was the last man aloft, and -he was so careless in what he was doing that the captain of the maintop, -pushing him aside, secured the sail himself. Black dropped to the deck -unconcernedly, close by Brydell. - -“My man,” said Brydell sharply, “you must be smarter at your duty than -that.” - -Without a word Black rushed at Brydell and with one blow felled him to -the deck; then, as if maddened, he jumped on him and began kicking him -furiously. In an instant a dozen brawny arms had seized the -insubordinate sailor and he was dragged below, fighting and resisting -violently. - -Neither the blow nor the kicks had seriously hurt Brydell. He was dazed -by the suddenness of it, but in half a minute he was on his feet, none -the worse but for a few bruises. The men, seeing his escape and knowing -how much the safety of all on board depended on the young ensign, with -one accord gave him three thundering cheers that echoed above the -roaring of the storm. - -All night the tempest raved, and when a ghastly dawn followed, the ship -was still fighting for her life. Brydell did not once leave the deck, -but toward noon the wind calmed, and although the sea still ran high the -fury of the storm was over. - -About two o’clock in the day the Spitfire was sighted. Brydell, knowing -her superior speed, signaled: “Report us all right and we will be in -some time to-day.” - -The Spitfire signaled back: “Congratulations. Who commands?” The answer -came: “Ensign Brydell. Verdery hurt, but not seriously.” - -With this good report the Spitfire steamed away for the anchorage. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - A SAFE RETURN. - - -Just at sunset that night the anxious group of officers on the dock -caught sight of the smoke from the Naiad’s funnels, and in a little -while the great frigate came in sight. As she neared her anchorage in -the sunset glow they could see the scarcity of officers on her decks; -there were only Brydell, Manning, and Buxton; for, although Verdery was -on deck, he was seated in a chair with his eyes bound up. - -“Gentlemen,” said Admiral Beaumont to his officers as the ship was hove -to and anchored in seamanlike style, “yonder shows what can be done by a -lot of schoolboys who know their duty and can do it. The eldest of those -young officers, young Brydell, is scarcely more than a boy, yet he acted -with all the boldness and decision of a man, and has done as well as you -or I or any of us could.” - -And then a cheer went up from the crowds on the dock, the admiral -leading and waving his cap enthusiastically. As soon as a boat could be -set off Admiral Beaumont, the captain, and the officers went aboard. - -When Brydell met them at the gangway he was far from being the trim and -fresh-looking young fellow he had been twenty-four hours before. His -eyes were heavy from want of sleep, and his face evidently needed -washing. His uniform had got wet and dried on him without improving his -appearance in the least. But Admiral Beaumont saw none of this; he only -wrung Brydell’s hand without speaking. Brydell, with a flush rising in -his wan face, said, smiling:— - -“No accidents, admiral, except Mr. Verdery’s with his eyes, and the -surgeon says that will not be serious, and one staysail torn, but I -think it can be mended.” - -Verdery, holding on to the surgeon’s arm, rose to shake hands with the -admiral. “And I wish to tell you, sir,” he said loudly so everybody -could hear him, “that I was disabled at the very beginning of the storm -and never gave an order, and the safety of the ship and her company is -due entirely to the coolness, ability, and courage of Mr. Brydell, who -commanded through it all, and that of the other officers acting under -his orders.” - -Brydell turned crimson; he had only done his duty, and he felt ashamed -to be made a hero of in that way. - -“Any other officer, I am sure, would have done as well,” he managed to -stammer. “Mr. Crawford, Mr. Manning, Mr. Buxton—all did equally well.” - -“Very true,” said the admiral, smiling. “It is presumed that all -officers do their duty intelligently in an emergency, but it is very -great good fortune for a young officer to have a chance for distinction, -and to be equal to the occasion, and I desire to express my very great -satisfaction at your conduct.” - -The other two young midshipmen and the engineer were also highly -praised, nor was Verdery’s admirable example in remaining on deck -forgotten, and the Naiad was indeed a happy ship. And in a little while -a boat was seen pulling from the Spitfire, and in a few minutes Captain -Brydell stepped aboard the Naiad. - -Brydell was so worn out with fatigue and excitement that as soon as the -captain resumed command he would have gone below at once except for the -expectation of seeing his father, but he waited for that. Captain -Brydell had meant to shake hands with him formally in the presence of so -many officers and men, but before they knew it, almost, father and son -were in each other’s arms. The admiral took Brydell by the shoulder. - -“Young man,” said he, “do you go below and go to sleep. Captain Brydell -and I want to hear all about the affair from someone who observed your -gallant conduct, and will do it justice much more than you would—so go.” - -Brydell needed no second order. He went below, and throwing himself, all -dressed as he was, upon his bunk, in five minutes was sleeping like a -log. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - BRYDELL REDEEMS HIS PROMISE. - - -When Brydell waked it was near daylight next morning. His first thoughts -were confused and then the recollection of Black’s blow and the terrible -consequences to a sailor of striking an officer rushed to his mind. And -he remembered poor Grubb, his early friend, and thought to himself: “If -I can do anything for Esdaile, I will for Grubb’s sake.” - -He was so troubled that he could sleep no more, and dressed and went on -deck very early. As soon as the regular routine was gone through, the -admiral sent for him into the cabin, where he asked an exact account of -everything, especially in regard to Black’s attack on him. - -Brydell at once told him that he felt convinced Black was Esdaile. This -troubled Admiral Beaumont as it had troubled Brydell. He had sincerely -respected poor Grubb, and the spectacle of his boy’s downfall was a -painful one. - -“I have issued an order this morning for a court-martial, and you will -probably be the first witness called,” said he. - -“Admiral,” said Brydell after a moment, “I would like your permission to -see Black; I don’t care anything for him, but I promised my poor old -friend to do what I could for his son, and I’d like to tell him that I -haven’t any animosity toward him.” - -The admiral gave his permission and Brydell went below to the dark place -where Black was in irons. He was sitting up with a scowl on his face, -and even in the dim light of the gruesome place Brydell saw that it was -Esdaile. - -“I’m sorry to see you here,” said he when the marine on guard had turned -his back. “The more so that I believe your father was a man I loved very -much.” - -“I’m Esdaile, if that is what you mean,” answered the supposed Black -coolly. “Of course I’ve gone to the dogs, driven to it by being driven -out of my class. My money went a long time ago, and as I knew no way of -making a living but by shipping before the mast, here I am.” - -Brydell said not a word, but the thought of poor Grubb, his simple -honesty, his mistaken indulgence to his boy, his enduring poverty, and -privation all his life for this boy almost overcame him. Esdaile, -watching Brydell’s face, saw he was deeply moved, and so touching is the -sight of magnanimity and sympathy that few hearts can withstand it. -Esdaile’s could not. - -After a few moments he broke the painful pause, saying hesitatingly and -with something like a sob between his words, “And when I saw you -standing there last night, an officer, and with such a chance for -distinction, I couldn’t help hating you; and when you spoke to me -sharply about my duty, I went crazy, I believe, and struck you. Now I -suppose I’ll have five or ten years in prison and after that I’ll take -my choice between the workhouse and the jail.” - -Brydell, like most courageous and upright men, had a tender heart, and -the words of the man before him, scarcely a year older than himself, -gave him a powerful shock. - -“I’m sorry to hear you talk in that way,” he said after a moment; “but I -want to tell you this—that although I shall have to tell exactly what -happened before the court-martial, I can’t find in my heart the least -feeling of revenge against poor old Grubb’s son, and when you are let -out of prison, if you’ll come to me, I’ll do what I can for you, because -I promised him when he was dying”—Brydell paused, and a slight change -came over Esdaile’s face at this, but he said nothing and Brydell turned -away. - -The next day but one the court met, and it made short work with Esdaile. -The testimony was complete, and the offence of striking an officer, -under the circumstances, was almost as grave as if it were in time of -war. - -When Brydell was called upon for his evidence he gave it in a plain and -straightforward way, and his examination brought out the fact that the -alleged Black was the son of Grubb the marine, who had been known to one -or two of the older officers in the court. Brydell could not but make -the best showing he could for Esdaile, and something in Esdaile’s face -seemed to indicate that a humanizing process was going on within him. It -was indeed the turning point in his life. Before that he had not fully -realized the wrongdoing of his whole life, but finding himself on trial -for a charge that must send him to prison, gave him some awful moments -of reflection. - -Only a day or two were consumed in the trial. Every time that Brydell -saw Esdaile led forward to his place to be tried for what was in -military morals and discipline a terrible offence, it gave him a feeling -of agony. He thought of his kind old friend, and the tears would come -into his eyes in spite of himself. Esdaile was singularly cool and -behaved civilly and respectfully to the court. - -At last the verdict was given out—five years in prison. Everybody was -surprised at its leniency. Esdaile when called up for sentence was asked -if he had anything to say. - -“Only this, if you please, gentlemen,” he answered calmly, in the tone -and manner of an educated man. “The time was when Mr. Brydell and I were -not so unequal in our standing. I made a mistake, committed a fault, if -you will, in my early youth, that has made me what I am. I had not seen -Mr. Brydell since; we had both of us been youths together. On the night -of the storm I stood apart from my mates, watching him and envying him. -Here, thought I, is he—an officer, suddenly finding himself in the -position to reap the greatest credit, with the admiral, the captain, and -all the officers in the squadron to witness it, while I, a sailor before -the mast, forced to conceal my real name, poor and friendless, might -have been where he is. And when I went aloft I scarcely knew what I was -doing. When I came down on deck he spoke to me; I believe he -acknowledged that he spoke impatiently, and some devil seemed to rise up -in me, and I would have killed him if I could. But that has all passed. -I have been tried fairly and impartially, and all I can ask is the mercy -of the court.” - -In the midst of a deep and breathless silence the verdict was read—five -years in prison. Esdaile, still wearing his impassive look, neither -groaned nor fell as men sometimes do in his awful circumstances; he only -said after a painful pause of a few minutes:— - -“I thank the court for its very moderate punishment, and I should like -the favor of seeing Mr. Brydell.” - -Brydell was hastily sent for. He had purposely kept out of the way; the -sight of Esdaile’s misery was terrible to him. He was found though, and -at once came in response to the summons. - -“Mr. Brydell,” said Esdaile in the same composed and reasonable voice, -“I have received my sentence and nothing I may say or do now can -mitigate it. You will therefore think me sincere when I ask your pardon -for my conduct, and tell you that if I live to get out of prison I will -lead a different life. Won’t you shake hands with me, sir?” - -Brydell, choking with emotion, held out his hand and, for the first time -in the lives of the two young men, they met in mutual goodwill. - -It was now time for the Naiad to sail for home, and Esdaile had to be -taken back in her before he was consigned to prison. He was kept in -solitary confinement and treated rigorously but not unkindly. - -Brydell asked permission of the admiral to go to Esdaile’s cell every -day for a few minutes. They would talk together, and Brydell began to -see that Esdaile was indeed a changed man. These visits became the one -bright spot in Esdaile’s hard life, and when at last the ship reached -New York he felt that he had at least one friend in the world. - - * * * * * * * * - -One night some years after that Brydell, now one of the brightest -lieutenants in the navy, sat in his pleasant quarters writing. His wife -sat near him under a softly shaded lamp, reading. After a long silence, -broken only by the scratching of Brydell’s pen, he turned to her and -handed her a paper. - -“Read that, Minna,” he said. “Esdaile, I believe, is a reformed man. -These people will give him a place as bookkeeper, but as he told them -frankly his past history, they write me that if I will go on Esdaile’s -bond for five thousand dollars they will take him. I don’t believe there -is the slightest danger; his fault, you know, was not connected with -money; but I don’t think it right for any man to assume this sort of -responsibility without his wife’s consent. So it rests with you whether -I shall guarantee Esdaile or not.” - -Minna took the letter and read it carefully. Then handing it back said -softly: “Of course you must sign it. Didn’t you promise the poor marine -when he was dying that you would befriend his boy?” - -“It is you who are befriending him now,” answered Brydell. “Whenever a -man is saved there is always a good woman who has a share in it. Between -us we will redeem my promise to dear old Grubb. Here goes!” And Brydell -signed the letter. - - - - - A FOK’SLE STORY. - - - [Illustration: A FOK’SLE STORY.] - - - - - CHAPTER I. - ON BOARD THE DIOMEDE. - - -At sunset, on a wild January afternoon in 1776, the Diomede frigate -passed Beaver-Tail light and entered the harbor of Newport. At that time -the town was held by a large British fleet and land force. - -The Diomede was a crack frigate and evidently had a crack crew from the -beautiful precision with which she made a flying moor. It seemed as if -in one minute her yards were squared, her sails furled, and her cable -rushed out of the hawse hole in a blaze of sparks. - -All this was done under the orders of the Diomede’s commander, Captain -Forrester, who, being one of the best seamen in the British navy, liked -to show his skill in anchoring before the assembled fleet. As soon as -everything was made snug the captain went below and, seating himself at -the cabin table, began to examine some papers by the light of the -swinging lamp. He had a kindly, frank face, which was an index to a -kindly, frank nature. - -After reading and writing for a while he called to the orderly who stood -at the cabin door. - -“Direct the master-at-arms to bring me the man and the boy taken -prisoners on the brig Betsey,” he said. - -The orderly disappeared and a few minutes later the master-at-arms -marched in with a remarkably handsome old sailor of about sixty and a -boy of ten or twelve. - -As soon as the old sailor saw the captain, he touched his glazed hat -with prompt civility and in a way very suggestive of a naval man, -although he wore the rough pea jacket of a merchant sailor. - -Captain Forrester motioned to the master-at-arms to leave him alone with -the two prisoners. As soon as the master-at-arms’ back was turned, the -captain said to the old sailor: “Shut the door, Bell.” - -“Aye, aye, sir,” answered Bell in a tone and manner of deference clearly -never learned in the merchant service. - -“You see I know your name,” continued Captain Forrester, looking at him -keenly. - -“Yes, sir,” replied the old sailor slyly, with something suspiciously -near a smile; “Bell ain’t a uncommon name, and I once knowed a -midshipman named Forrester, sir; a mighty smart little reefer he was, -too, sir.” - -This time it was the captain’s turn to smile when he spoke. - -“The man Bell that I knew was an American, but he had spent most of his -life in His Majesty’s service—Jack Bell he was—captain of the mizzentop -when I was midshipman on the Indomptable, and captain of the maintop -when I was sailing master on the old Colossus.” - -Jack Bell’s eyes gleamed as the captain spoke, and there was an -answering gleam in the captain’s eyes. The tie that unites good -shipmates is a strong one, no matter how great the difference in rank; -and the old sailor’s delight at being recognized, although it might mean -trouble for him, was evident. - -The captain remembered that in his reefer days, when as a mere lad he -was ordered to command a boat’s crew, that Jack Bell had always been -orderly, respectful, and sober, and had helped him out of not a few -scrapes, and had occasionally got him into some. - -“The first time I ever went aloft,” said the captain, smiling -involuntarily, “Jack Bell was in the mizzentop, and I recollect my -feelings when I was ready to go down, and Jack held on to me, insisting -I should pay my footing.” - -“Ten shillings it were, sir,” chimed in Jack with a broad grin. “That’s -what was axed reg’lar of the reefers on the old Indomptable, and many’s -the shilling you’ve give me besides—I—I mean—you give that ’ere Jack -Bell.” - -Jack stopped, wholly confused. - -“And that Jack Bell was a famous singer. Many a night when the ship was -going along under easy sail with a fair wind, I have sat for hours -listening to Jack’s sea songs, like ‘Tom Bowline,’ ‘When the Wind at -Night Whistles o’er the Deep,’ and all those fine old catches. I never -heard anybody sing them so well as he.” - -“His voice is badly cracked now, sir,” said Jack solemnly, “but this -’ere little brat Dicky Stubbs can sing all them old songs—Jack Bell -l’arned ’em to him. But, Jack, he remembers that ’ere little midshipman -Forrester—and a gallant officer, sir, he turned out to be -arterwards—when he was sailin’ master on the Colossus. Did you ever see, -sir, such a ornhandy ship for tackin’ as the old Colossus? If Mr. -Forrester hadn’t been a rale sailor, he’d ’a’ got hisself in trouble all -the time with that old three-decker.” - -Captain Forrester knew this was honest praise from an honest man, and it -pleased him more than many fine words from fine people. After a moment -Jack continued:— - -“Axin’ your parding, sir, there’s a midshipman on this ’ere ship as is -named Mr. Forrester. I never see a young gentleman so like that other -midshipman Forrester as I knowed more ’n twenty-five year ago.” - -“That’s my son—my only child—and a smart fellow, if I do say it myself. -But I want to hear something about Jack Bell. The man I knew was a -devoted American. I wonder what he did when the colonies rebelled -against His Majesty?” - -Jack twiddled his cap awkwardly for a moment, glanced around and saw the -door was shut, and then began to speak. His manner was respectful and -not without a rude and simple eloquence of his own. - -“Cap’n Forrester, that man Jack Bell wanted for to do his duty. He had -tooken the oath to King George when he ’listed in the navy and had -served him stiddy for more ’n forty year. But that man, Cap’n Forrester, -sir, was a American, and when that there Congress at Philadelphy said -Ameriky was free and independent, Jack Bell, he were in a peck o’ -trouble. There was his oath o’ allegiance to King George starin’ him in -the face, and there were the heart and soul o’ him tellin’ him he were a -villain to fight ag’in his own country. Well, sir, Bell, not bein’ a -eddicated man, couldn’t think out easy what was right for him to -do—’cause that man, sir, wanted for to do his duty. But he knowed if he -had suspicioned King George was a-goin’ to declare war ag’in Ameriky, -Bell, he’d ’a’ never tooken that oath; so at last he thought it was his -duty to desert.” - -The old sailor paused slightly at this word, and the officer and the -former captain of the maintop looked each other squarely in the eye. The -boy Dicky Stubbs, who had a bright glance, gazed first at one and then -at the other, wondering what it all was about. After a little pause Jack -Bell continued:— - -“Well, sir, that man Bell had a considerable sum o’ prize money due him, -but he thought as how he’d ruther not take it, as he was goin’ to take -French leave; so he give that up willin’ and cheerful. And he knowed, -too, if he were caught, he’d be strung up at the yardarm in spite of his -havin’ served King George for more ’n forty years faithful; but he -thought he couldn’t die but oncet for his country, and it didn’t matter -much which way he went, if only he was a-doin’ of his duty. So one night -at Gibralty, Jack Bell disappeared from his ship—’twas a ship o’ the -line. Maybe the Don Spaniards garroted him; maybe he was tooken by -pirates; maybe he got on a American merchant vessel that was took -arterwards by the British, who thought she was a privateer. Anyhow Jack -Bell did what he thought was right, and if he’s got to be hanged for it, -well, that’s a easy, comfortable way o’ gittin’ out o’ the world, and -Jack Bell ain’t got no apologies to make, excep’”—and here the old -sailor’s voice deepened—“excep’ for not desertin’ sooner.” - -All this time the officer and the sailor had looked steadily at each -other. Captain Forrester knew perfectly well that the man before him was -Jack Bell, and, if openly recognized, there would be but a short step -for him from the fok’sle of the Diomede to the whip[3] at the yardarm. -But Captain Forrester also believed Jack had acted from his conscience, -and he did not believe in hanging a man for that. After a pause the -captain spoke:— - -“Sometimes it is as hard for an educated man as for an uneducated one to -know on which side his duty lies; but it is safer to be on the side of -mercy. If I should meet Bell, I should not feel obliged to know him.” - -At this Jack stood upright at “attention” and saluted the captain. Each -knew what that meant. It was Jack’s way of thanking the captain, who -knew him perfectly well, for not betraying him. - -“There is one thing, though, my conscience would require me to do if I -should meet Bell,” continued Captain Forrester. “It is to land him here -where he can be watched, that he can’t get away to enlist in the rebel -navy, army, or marine corps. If King George can’t have his services, the -rebels sha’n’t.” - -Jack’s face was a study in its intense disappointment, but in a little -while he seemed to submit to the inevitable. - -“Well, sir,” he said, “Jack’s pretty old now—goin’ on to sixty—and he -ain’t wuth his salt, excep’ as a foremast man on a man-o’-war. So -neither King George nor Ameriky ain’t losin’ much. He’d ’a’ liked to -jine the navy, but as for the marines, poor Jack Bell wouldn’t trust -hisself with them murderin’ marines.” - -“The Jack Bell I know always hated the marines,” said Captain Forrester -with a smile. - -“I reckon he do still,” calmly remarked Jack. “And as for fightin’ on -dry land—why, sir, he’d git so tired runnin’ about he never could do no -fightin’. Landsmen instid o’ fightin’ at close quarters fights over -forty or fifty acres and does more walkin’ than fightin’, I’m thinkin’.” - -“Well, then,” said Captain Forrester, “to leave Jack Bell and come to -your own affairs. When I land you to-morrow morning I shall ask the -authorities to give you the run of the town of Newport, but not to let -you go outside. I think I can contrive it through the admiral, who is my -friend. And how about this youngster here?” - -“That brat, axin’ your parding, sir, is the son o’ the Widow Stubbs at -Newport—a excellent woman, and a good hand at book-larnin’, as well as -at the spinnin’ wheel. Her husband was killed in one o’ the fust -scrimmages o’ the war, and this ’ere brat, he run away to jine the -’Merican navy and was took on the Betsey along with me. I knowed his -mother well, and I’ve kinder kep’ my eye on the young one. He is a right -handy sort o’ boy, and he can sing a lot o’ chunes I’ve larned him. He -can sing all the old songs and two or three ‘Tid re I’s’ I’ve set him.” - -“Pipe up, youngster,” said the captain; “I’d like to hear one of the old -songs again. Give me ‘When the Wind at Night Whistles o’er the Deep.’” - -Little Dicky Stubbs looked scared to death. His mouth came open, but no -sound issued. Jack Bell, giving him a nudge that nearly broke his ribs, -whispered:— - -“Didn’t you hear the cap’n tell you to pipe up, you mutinous brat?” - -Thus adjured, Dicky began in a deliciously sweet but rather uncertain -voice:[4] - - When the wind at night whistles o’er the deep - And sings to landsmen dreary, - The sailor, fearless, goes to sleep - Or takes his watch most cheery. - Snoozing here, - Tossing there, - Steadily, readily, - Cheerily, merrily, - Still from care and thinking free, - Is a sailor’s life at sea. - -Before he reached the third line Dicky’s courage, and his voice too, -returned and he sang like some sweet-throated bird the next verse:— - - When the ship, d’ye see, becomes a wreck, - And landsmen hoist the boat, sir, - The sailor scorns to quit the deck - While there’s a single plank afloat, sir. - -Captain Forrester, leaning his head on his hand, listened to the song -that carried him back to his midshipman days, and watched the boy whose -young fresh voice echoed through the low-pitched cabin. Dicky was -unmistakably a child of the people, but his honest face, his bright, -intelligent eyes, and his clean though ragged attire made him a -prepossessing little fellow. - -“You may go now,” said Captain Forrester to Jack Bell, and meanwhile -giving Dicky a bright shilling, “but do not forget what I have told you, -and also that you have got off very well. As for that lad, take him to -his mother and tell her to keep him at home until he has cut his wisdom -teeth.” - -“Thank ye kindly, sir,” answered Jack. “I’ll not forget your orders, -sir, and as long as I live I’ll not forget your kindness, sir.” And, -with a parting salute, Jack returned to the custody of the waiting -master-at-arms. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - A GALLANT RESCUE. - - -The next morning ushered in a blustering day, and the wind blew so hard -as to make it decidedly uncomfortable for small boats in the harbor. - -In the forenoon a boat was lowered from the Diomede to take Jack Bell -and Dicky Stubbs ashore. Captain Forrester had seen the admiral, and had -got permission to let Jack Bell remain at Newport in a merely nominal -imprisonment, upon the ground of the old sailor’s age; and with many -thanks Jack bade the captain good-by and got in the boat, with Dicky -after him. - -The boat was commanded by young Forrester, the captain’s son, and so -like his father that Jack felt as if he had turned back many pages of -his life, and it was the Midshipman Forrester of twenty-five years ago -before him. - -The captain’s gig had put off from the ship with the captain, bound -ashore, and was far behind the midshipman’s boat. The young midshipman -steered straight for the landing-place, but he knew nothing of the tides -and currents of the harbor. The fierce wind was against them, and he -suddenly found the boat too close to the shore, and fast nearing a ledge -of sunken rocks, around which the waves were boiling. As he half-rose -from his seat the boat lurched violently and he suddenly lost his -balance; in another moment he was jerked overboard and disappeared. A -cry went up from every man in the boat except Jack Bell. It was not a -mere everyday fall overboard, but a fall amid sharp-pointed rocks and -dangerous eddies. Before the echo of that cry had died over the water, -Jack Bell had kicked off his shoes, peeled off his jacket, and had -plunged into the icy water after the young midshipman. - -Every movement was plain to Captain Forrester in his gig, only a short -distance away; and his crew, in a moment, pulled furiously toward the -other boat. - -Jack Bell had dived exactly over the spot where young Forrester had -disappeared. In a minute or two he came up, but alone. At this the -agonized father covered his face and groaned. But after a few long -breaths Jack dived again. This time when he rose a great shout went -up—he had young Forrester in his arms. - -In another minute he was in the boat, which headed for the nearest -shore, closely followed by the captain’s gig. Just above where they -landed was a lonely little cottage, and as soon as the keel touched the -sand two powerful sailors seized the unconscious young midshipman and, -led by Jack Bell and followed by Dicky Stubbs, rushed up the steep -incline toward the cottage. - -Captain Forrester was not far behind, but when he reached the cottage -the little midshipman’s clothes had been stripped from him, Jack Bell -was vigorously rolling, rubbing, and pounding him, while Dicky Stubbs -and his mother—for it was the Widow Stubbs’ plain cottage—were wringing -out hot cloths to put on young Forrester. Just as Captain Forrester -entered, the young midshipman gave a loud gasp and opened his eyes, only -to close them again. - -“He’s all right, sir,” cheerily called out Jack Bell, not stopping in -his rubbing. “He’s wuth all the dead reefers betwixt Newport and Chiny. -He got a whack on his head from some o’ them jagged rocks, and he just -fainted like—but he’s a-comin’ to fast, sir.” - -“He would not have been here to come to at all if it had not been for -you, my friend,” said the captain in a choking voice. - -Jack Bell said nothing,—he was too busy,—and the captain, seeing the -color return to his boy’s face, and that he was breathing better at -every moment, sat and watched with longing eyes his return to life. The -Widow Stubbs was as useful in her way as Jack Bell, while Dicky seemed -to have six hands and four legs, he was so helpful. - -In half an hour the young fellow was laid in the widow’s plain though -clean bed, and, except a little weakness, was as well as ever he was in -his life, and was carried on board the Diomede that very afternoon. The -story of Jack Bell’s plunge into the surf for him was known on board, -and from that hour Jack was safe from being denounced as a deserter. - -The fact that he was born in America had already deprived his offence of -the moral guilt that would have attached to it. It was common enough for -British sailors to be pressed into the service of Spanish and French -ships when captured on merchant vessels, but there was an unwritten law -that they should desert the first chance they had. This rule applied -perfectly to Jack Bell, and his plucky dive after a young British -officer secured for him that his past should be universally winked at -among the officers and sailors at Newport who might recognize him. - -That same night Captain Forrester came ashore and went straight to the -Widow Stubbs’ cottage, where he felt certain he would meet the three -persons he most desired to see there. - -Sure enough, on opening the door he found the widow, Jack Bell, and the -boy Dicky sitting before a blazing hickory fire in the humble -living-room. The widow sat at her spinning wheel in one corner, and the -wheel hummed merrily. They were so poor they could not afford even a -tallow dip, but the fire made the tidy little place quite bright and -cheery. Jack Bell sat on the wooden settle, and curled up by him was -Dicky Stubbs. - -Dicky had just been displaying his new accomplishments in the singing -line, and the Widow Stubbs had swelled with pride at the display of -Dicky’s talents. It was happiness enough to get him back alive and well, -but to find him so grown, so much improved from the ragged urchin who -had run away, and with such a wonderful new gift of singing, made the -Widow Stubbs an uncommonly happy woman. - -They all rose as Captain Forrester entered, and the widow gave him her -only armchair. - -“I have come to thank you all for my son’s life,” said Captain Forrester -as soon as he was seated, “but especially Jack Bell, here, who risked -his own life in jumping overboard among the rocks for my son. Of course -I never can pay you for it—but here is something that at least may give -you some comforts;” and the captain took from his breast a small package -made up of golden sovereigns banded together and held it toward Jack -Bell. - -Jack, however, shook his head and folded his arms. - -“I thank ’ee, sir, most respectful for ’em, and I don’t mean to hurt -your feelin’s by refusin’; but I can’t take money for savin’ anybody’s -life—and leastways from you, Cap’n Forrester—as was”— Jack Bell paused, -smiled knowingly, and then continued: “This ’ere boy sings a song called -‘Old Shipmates.’” - -“Yes, I know,” answered the captain, smiling back and knowing that Jack -meant that he and the captain had been shipmates; “but think of the -pleasure you would give me to know that this little present would make -your old age comfortable.” - -“True, sir,” answered Jack; “but I ain’t used to livin’ on my money, and -I’d be a sight happier if I had sumpin’ to do, like bein’ a night -watchman or some sich thing. You see, sir, I has had a watch now for -more ’n forty year, and it seems so ornnateral for me to git into a -standin’ bed place and know I ain’t got to hear the boatswain’s call -when it’s time to turn out, that I can’t sleep a wink. Now it seems to -me, sir, as if I had a watch on shore I could walk up and down this ’ere -town callin’ out the hours, and it would seem like I was standin’ my -reg’lar watch.” - -“But couldn’t you stand watch on shore, as you call it, just as well if -you knew you had a little money put away?” - -“Not for savin’ a life, sir,” answered Jack as politely as ever; but the -captain knew then there was no hope of his taking the money. “If you’d -be so kind, sir, as to git me the place as watchman, I wouldn’t ax no -better.” - -“You shall certainly have a watchman’s place,” said the captain, who -mentally added, “if I have to pay your wages out of my own pocket.” - -“It would seem mightily like the lookout,” continued Jack evidently -tickled with his new scheme. “I dessay I’d forgit and call out: ‘Eight -bells! Bright light, weather cathead!’ instid o’ ‘Twelve o’clock, and -all’s well!’” - -The captain laughed at this and then turned to the Widow Stubbs:— - -“And you, madam, and your son—will you not permit me to give you some -little token of gratitude for your help in restoring my son?” - -The Widow Stubbs blushed at this, but, like Jack Bell, she had scruples -about taking any recompense for the saving of life, especially as she -was a woman of some education and stood a little higher in the world -than Jack Bell. - -“No, sir, I thank you; but I could not accept money from anyone. What I -did was very little, and what my boy did was still less. I am glad, -though, we were able to do that little.” - -The captain felt disappointed when he put his money back in his breast -pocket, but he was too much the gentleman to insist on these humble -people receiving what they felt themselves above taking. - -“At all events,” he said, looking toward Dicky’s round, bright face, “I -might be able to do something for your boy.” - -“I am afraid not,” answered the widow with a faint smile. “We are -patriots—my boy and I; my husband was killed only six months ago in the -Continental Army, and there is nothing that a British officer could do -for him, no matter how kindly meant.” - -“What do you mean to do with him at present?” asked Captain Forrester. - -The widow shook her head. - -“I have just got him back after he ran away. I have not had time to -think; but there is always work hereabouts for a good strong boy like -Dicky.” - -“Provided he does not run away again,” said Captain Forrester. - -Dicky turned a rosy red at finding himself the subject of conversation -and astonished his mother by stuttering out,— - -“P-p-please, sir, don’t the British ever give folks their parole? I—I -mean, let ’em—go—if they promise they won’t do so any more?” - -The Widow Stubbs heard this with surprise and indignation. She had been -much distressed when Dicky had run away to join the Continental navy, -although he never got farther than the merchant ship Betsey; but his -apparent eagerness to promise he would not do so any more struck her as -a want of spirit in the boy that mortified her keenly. - -“Why, Dicky Stubbs!” she exclaimed, and said no more for very shame of -him. - -“Yes; we take paroles,” said Captain Forrester, supposing Dicky knew it -referred only to officers. - -“Then, sir,” cried Dicky, whose ideas of a parole were very hazy, “all -I’ve got to say is that I don’t want no parole,—I wouldn’t take it if -you was to offer it to me,—and I ain’t going to give no promise about -not running away again. Just as soon as I am big enough to carry my -father’s musket I’m a-going to enlist in the ’Merican army under General -Washington, and it won’t be long before I do it, neither!” - -This sudden outbreak was followed by the Widow Stubbs clasping Dicky in -her arms and crying,“That’s my own boy!” while Jack Bell said “Hooray!” -under his breath. - -But Captain Forrester, instead of sternly calling upon Dicky to recant, -as Dicky hoped, who meant to hurl defiance at him, only laughed. Dicky -could have cried with rage and disappointment when the captain got up, -still laughing, and said:— - -“General Washington will gain a valuable recruit, and King George a -dangerous enemy.” - -“I hope you’ll excuse him,” said the widow, smiling, but a little -ashamed of Dicky’s forwardness; “he doesn’t mean to be impudent.” - -“I know it,” said the captain. “He is a lad of spirit, and I like that -kind. I will now bid you good evening with a thousand thanks for your -kindness to my son; and if you get in any trouble with that youngster of -yours, write to General Prescott and mention my name; and as for you, -Bell, the less we say about the days on the Indomptable and the old -Colossus, the better, eh?” - -Jack Bell grinned broadly at that and answered:— - -“I knowed, sir, you wouldn’t blow the gaff on a old shipmate.” - -“Good-by, then,” said Captain Forrester. “You shall be made a watchman; -and remember, if you get in any trouble you must manage to communicate -with me; but I hope that prosperity may attend all of you, whom I can -never forget and must always feel grateful to.” - -The Widow Stubbs made a low bow, Jack Bell saluted, and Dicky, getting a -lantern, lighted the captain to his boat, which lay at the foot of the -cliff. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - DICKY’S PATRIOTISM. - - -Jack Bell very promptly got his appointment as a watchman, and soon -every night he paraded the streets of Newport with a stick and a -lantern, calling out the hours as the night slipped away. He never could -bring himself, though, to calling as the other watchmen did,—the hour, -and then, “All’s well!”—but sung out every half-hour the time according -to the ship’s bells, always adding what the weather was, and where the -wind lay, such as, “Six bells! Wind sou’-sou’-east!” - -The townspeople soon got used to the old sailor’s way and he was not -molested in his peculiar ideas of the time. At all events, evil -characters who prowled by night had great respect for him after having -once felt the force of his stick, because in spite of his age Jack’s arm -was still stalwart, and he was not given to arguing with offenders. - -At that time there was a large British fleet under Admiral Wallace lying -off Newport, besides a large land force under General Prescott. It was -impossible for Jack not to have a great many more acquaintances than he -desired among the sailors of the fleet. But although his true story was -more than suspected, it was perfectly well known that he had a powerful -protector in Captain Forrester. Jack’s bold dive into the icy water had -turned out a good thing for him. So Jack walked his beat all night, and -went back at daylight to the Widow Stubbs’ cottage where he slept in the -loft until midday, and was as little unhappy as he could be on shore. - -The Widow Stubbs had spoken quite confidently to Captain Forrester of -Dicky’s capacity to make a living, but it turned out not so easy as she -fancied in spite of the fact that Dicky was strong and bright and -willing to work. But he was only a twelve-year-old boy, and the war -times made business of all sorts dull. Dicky worked around the wharves, -but there were scarcely any merchant vessels plying, and the waterfront -was almost deserted except by the British warships and crews. - -The Americans held the opposite shore of Narragansett Bay, and Dicky -imagined that on fine days he could see the American flag flying there, -and the sight always made him feel very well disposed to run away again, -but he never did. - -Dicky, however, discovered very unexpectedly that he possessed a means -of livelihood in his beautiful young voice, and in the songs that Jack -Bell had taught him. But the treasure of Dicky’s life was a little -dog’s-eared, ill-printed book of patriotic songs, all predicting the -speedy overthrow of John Bull, and the certainty that the patriots would -soon drive every British soldier and sailor off American soil. The book -had been smuggled over from the Narragansett side, and was rather a -dangerous possession. But as Dicky soon learned the songs all by heart, -it would not have mattered if it had been found and destroyed. - -It was the dream of Dicky’s life though, as well as of Jack Bell’s, to -compose a song themselves. They had no scruples about adapting somebody -else’s music, but they burned with ambition to create a new set of words -which rhymed. Many a night before it was time for Jack’s watch to begin, -would he and Dicky struggle over a slate on which they had marked lines, -something like this:— - - ____sea - ____be - ____shore - ____gore - ____sail - ____hail - -But they never got any farther. - -“Seems to me, young ’un,” said Jack, scratching his head, “we’re -beginnin’ at the wrong end. It’s stern foremost, d’ye see?” - -“Yes, sir,” Dicky would reply, “but in poetry I believe you are obliged -to begin stern foremost—because if you begin at the beginning you never -get any poetry—just as if it was makin’ a song like this:— - -“The ’Mericans are gallant lads; they’re bound to whip Johnny Bull. It -don’t make no matter if Johnny Bull has got more ships and soldiers. -We’re goin’ to whip him. Now that ain’t poetry, because I begun at the -beginning.” - -“That’s so,” Jack would reluctantly admit; “but if it ain’t poetry, it’s -mighty good sense, and I hope it’ll all come true.” - -In those days tavern kitchens were very respectable resorts of the -humbler classes of people and Jack Bell was very fond of the kitchen of -the Eagle Tavern. The proprietor, Jacob Dyer, was a patriot at heart; -but his house was so much the resort of British sailors and soldiers -that he dared not avow the full extent of his sympathies. - -In the kitchen Dicky made most of his pennies—and he made so many that -they soon grew into shillings. It might have been rather a dangerous -place to trust a weak or a vicious boy; but Dicky was neither weak nor -vicious. He went to the tavern to sing his songs, and when he got -through he scampered off home to his mother with his money and was very -glad to get there. Besides, at the time when he usually turned up at the -tavern to sing, Jack Bell was comfortably established in the -chimney-corner and he kept a sharp eye on Dicky and promptly reported -any bad manners or other small offences to the Widow Stubbs, who upon -the few occasions that Dicky had transgressed always came down on him -with the heavy hand of justice armed with a good birch switch. - -One afternoon Dicky turned up at the tavern, as usual, and found the -kitchen full of sailors from several cruisers of Lord Howe’s fleet that -had rendezvoused at Newport. - -“Here you are, you young rapscallion!” called out one jolly -man-o’-war’s-man. “Come here and give us ‘Black-eyed Susan’ or I’ll give -you the cat.” - -This being the usual form in which those requests were made, Dicky -nodded his head, grinned, and perched himself on the kitchen dresser to -be heard the better. Having trolled out “Black-eyed Susan,” “Strike -Eight Bells,” and other nautical ditties in his sweet boyish treble, -Dicky got down and began to hand his homespun hat around for pennies. -The sailors were liberal and Dicky was beginning to think how his mother -would smile as he upset the hat in her lap, when one of the sailors, a -fellow with a great voice, seized him and, holding up a glass of rum, -called out: “Here, you lubber! come and drink the king’s health.” - -“Much obliged, sir,” answered Dicky readily; “but my mother don’t on no -account let me touch rum, and I’ve promised her I won’t.” - -How glad was Dicky at that moment that he had made the promise! His -mother had asked him and he had done it without giving it any particular -thought; but when it came to saving him from drinking the king’s health, -Dicky’s patriotic soul rejoiced that he had so good an excuse. - -The man, rough as he was, could not ask the boy to break his word, but -he was determined to get some British sentiment out of Dicky. - -“Then you pipe up ‘God Save the King’ as loud as you can,” he cried. - -“I c-c-can’t,” said Dicky, looking around at Jack Bell in the corner. -Jack gave him an almost imperceptible wink and nod, which meant: “You’re -right; stick to it.” - -“But you shall!” roared the sailor. - -“But I won’t!” shouted Dicky boldly, and making a dash for the -rolling-pin on the dresser, which he seized and flourished stoutly. - -The sailor made a dash for Dicky, who, as alert as a monkey, pushed a -chair in front of him, over which the sailor fell sprawling. The next -minute Dicky gave the window a terrific whack that smashed sash and all, -and, scrambling through, took to his heels and was almost home by the -time the sailor had got through rubbing his bruised shins. - -The Widow Stubbs was scrupulously honest, and her first comment after -she had praised Dicky for keeping his word about the rum and refusing to -sing “God Save the King” was:— - -“But, son, we must pay for the window.” - -“Yes, mammy,” said Dicky ruefully; “and I lost three shillings and my -hat too.” - -That night when Jack Bell came in for his usual chat on the settle, he -told Dicky: “You’re right, boy, and if it’s too hard a pull for you and -your mammy to pay for the winder, why, Jack Bell has got some of the -rhino and you’re welcome to it, for I see how you stuck up to your -promise and to your country.” - -Just at that minute a knock came at the door, and when Dicky opened it -Jacob Dyer walked in. Both the widow and Dicky thought he had come for -his money for the window, and the Widow Stubbs began: “Don’t you have -any fear, sir, that I won’t pay for what my boy did to-day, and pay it -cheerful, to know I’ve got a boy who can keep his word to me, and can’t -be frightened into singing ‘God Save the King.’” - -“Widder,” said Jacob, “your boy is welcome to smash that winder. Maybe -he’s got more courage than Jacob Dyer; for although I can’t sing ‘God -Save the King,’ chiefly because I don’t know how to sing anything, I -feel sometimes as if I ought to be more outspoken than I am for my -country. But I have a wife and eight children to support, and if I got -the redcoats down on me, they’d close my tavern and then I’d be on the -town. But sometimes my blood biles when I hear ’em talk about lickin’ -General Washington. I kem to-night to tell you that if I look cross at -your boy the next time he comes to the tavern he needn’t mind. You -sha’n’t pay a cent for the winder, and I’d be a good deal more of a -’Merican if my livin’ didn’t depend on the redcoats.” - -The very next day Dicky showed up in the tavern kitchen. As usual, -redcoats were plenty. Jacob Dyer, in a huge white apron, was -superintending the turning of the spit. As soon as he caught sight of -Dicky he began to grumble. - -“Here comes that Stubbs boy as cost me five shilling for a glazier’s -bill. If it warn’t that his mother’s a widder, I’d be after him, I can -tell you. But look out, you young scamp, if ever you get to wreckin’ my -premises again, I’ll get after you as sure as shootin’. Do you mind -that?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Dicky very meekly and not in the least alarmed. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - AN IMPORTANT ERRAND. - - -Visitors were few at the widow’s cottage, but the very night after Jacob -Dyer had been there another knock at the door ushered in a very -different visitor. The widow had just trimmed the fire, swept the -hearth, and drawn up the settle, and was waiting for Jack and Dicky to -come in and get their supper of milk and porridge and potatoes, when a -thundering rat-tat-tat came at the door. When she opened it, there stood -an elderly gentleman in a cocked hat and handsome knee buckles and a -gold-headed cane. The widow knew him in a moment. He was Squire Stavers, -one of the richest citizens of Newport and a staunch patriot. The widow -was rather flustered by the importance of her caller, but invited him in -politely. - -“I understand, madam,” began Squire Stavers, “that you have an -uncommonly reliable boy—a little fellow who goes about singing for his -living.” - -“Yes, sir,” answered the widow, all in a flutter. “It mayn’t seem such a -steady business for a boy, but the times are so hard I can’t find -anything else for him to do, and he makes a very good living and brings -all his money to me.” - -“His employment will answer very well for the present,” replied the -squire, “and when times become more settled no doubt you can find -honorable work for him. What I came to see you about to-night was in -connection with him. Is there any danger of being overheard?” - -For answer the widow rose and bolted the door of the cottage and—rare -luxury!—lighted two tallow candles. Then the squire continued: - -“I know, madam, that you are the widow of a Continental soldier and may -be depended upon to help your country.” - -“Yes, sir,” answered the widow quite promptly. - -“This, then, is what I wish to say. The patriots of Newport desire to -communicate with the Continental forces at Providence Plantations, and -if they can get a trusty messenger as far as Tiverton, there will be no -difficulty the rest of the way. We dare not employ a man on this service -as we are closely watched. But a boy would never be suspected, and our -communication would be in the form of a letter that would reveal nothing -in case it was found. Mr. James Barton, who has a gallant son in the -Continental Army, and myself are old friends, and we are supposed to be -corresponding for pleasure and profit. Mr. Barton, for example, has -beeves to sell, and writes me asking the price in the market. His -younger son has lately visited my house, and in my letter I speak of -him. Yet there is a hidden meaning in all this, and it would be of -substantial help to the cause if we could carry information in that -manner.” - -“If you will wait a few moments, sir, I will ask Mr. Bell’s opinion. -He’s a steady, sensible man, and although I’m perfectly willing to let -my boy do all he can, I’d rather consult Mr. Bell.” - -At that moment they both heard Dicky and Jack Bell fumbling at the -latch. The widow rose and let them in, then bolted the door again. - -Jack Bell knew well enough who Squire Stavers was, and when Dicky heard -that he, Dicky Stubbs, was actually wanted for an important service, he -could scarcely forbear hurrahing and cutting the pigeon wing in his -delight. - -“Now let me read you the letter I wish the lad to carry,” said the -Squire, putting on his great gold spectacles, and taking a letter from -his pocket. “Suppose your boy is stopped. Let him at once produce this -letter, and if the British can find out anything from it, they are -cleverer than I take it.” - - _My dear Sir_,— - - Your letter, enquiring what price beeves will fetch, is received, and - I made a note of the contents. No one can understand who has not been - here lately, the extremely low price that animal produce has fallen - to. But let me know in regard to the beeves, stating whether you wish - to sell them on the hoof or not, which is important. The lad who takes - this can bring a verbal message straight enough, but it would be - safest to write, as boys are but heedless creatures, and of their own - memory, they are overconfident. However, the bearer of this, may be - your son, as I am expecting him to return this way, and I may keep it - for him. The town is closely patrolled, and although the force here is - large, it is remarkably well disciplined. Your son was very popular - among the young ladies, who seemed determined to surround and capture - him. The place is not what it was in times of peace, as it is very - dull, the military being obliged to see an extremely strict watch - kept, and it would not be difficult in consideration of the unsettled - state of affairs to believe that we are in a state of siege, which is - a serious matter. There is but an indifferent interest taken in - welfare of the town, except by General Prescott commanding the land - forces. He is an able officer, and his loss would be very great should - he be transferred. I am thinking of taking up my residence at the - Eagle Tavern, or at the Overing House, on the outskirts of the town. - - I should let my house to a staff officer of my acquaintance who wants - it for six months. General Prescott has taken up his quarters as if he - meant to stay, and it leads me to think that no change of commanders - is impending. - - I am, - Your Friend and Obedient Servant, - WENTWORTH STAVERS. - -Jack Bell listened with great solemnity to the reading of this letter, -and when the Squire finished reading and lay back in the chair with a -triumphant smile, Jack remarked with emphasis:— - -“There ain’t nothin’ to hurt a babby in that ’ere letter. It’s all plain -sailin’, as fur as I can see.” - -The Widow Stubbs agreed with him, and Dicky thought privately it was one -of the stupidest letters he had ever read. - -“Well, now,” cried the Squire with a victorious air, “suppose you read -every third line, beginning at the third from the bottom. Here you are. - -“General Prescott has taken up his quarters at the Overing House on the -outskirts of the town. He is an able officer and his loss would be a -serious matter. There is but an indifferent watch kept, and it would not -be difficult to surround and capture him. The place is not closely -patrolled, and, although the force here is large, they are -overconfident. The bearer of this can bring a verbal message straight -enough. But let me know in regard to the beeves; the contents no one can -understand. - -“Now, what do you say to that?” inquired the Squire as he finished the -interpretation of the letter. - -Jack Bell’s jaw dropped and Dicky almost rolled on the floor in his -surprise, while his mother took the letter and, counting the lines, saw -how the information conveyed in it was so different from what appeared -on the surface. Presently Jack Bell recovered himself enough to bring -his hand down on the table with a thwack that made the candles jump and -everybody in the room jump, too. - -The Squire enjoyed the sensation he had given his simple audience and -looked around with an air of much satisfaction. - -“Now,” said he, “I want this letter taken to Tiverton, ten miles up. If -the boy takes it, I will lend him a horse,”—here Dicky could not forbear -thrusting his tongue into his cheek and wagging his head with -rapture,—“and if he is stopped on the way, let him hand out the letter. -They will probably read it and pass him on. And one thing may be of use -to you—I will give you two shillings if you bring me an answer back; so, -if you are stopped, tell your captors that and they will probably let -you go.” - -The Squire then rose to leave and, standing with his hand on his -gold-headed cane, spoke impressively:— - -“I have confided in all of you to-night, and if one word from any of you -gives rise to suspicion, there will be deep and serious trouble for all -of us.” - -“I can answer for me and my boy,” said the widow, while Jack Bell made -reply:— - -“I can answer, sir, for Jack Bell, as who is a uneddicated man, but -ain’t a fool, nor yet a rascal.” - -“I believe you, and good-by to all of you. The boy must be at my house -at sunrise to-morrow morning. He ought to be back by the early -afternoon, and if he is not, I myself will go and look for him.” - -The Squire then went out and the widow and Jack Bell and Dicky sat and -looked at each other, the widow unmindful of the extravagance of burning -two candles when there was no distinguished company. - -“Well,” said she after a pause, “the boy can’t come to harm just riding -between here and Tiverton—do you think so, Mr. Bell?” - -Instead of the hearty assurance that the widow expected, Jack looked -quite solemn and seemed to avoid an answer. But the widow’s pleading -eyes forced a reply out of him. - -“’Tain’t the distance, ma’am—that’s neither here nor there—and the boy -could leg it easy enough. But horses is ornnateral sort o’ beasts and -they’ve got a special spite ag’in sailor men and sailor boys too. I -never see a sailor man git on a horse that I didn’t see the four-legged -scoundrel kinder look around with a devilish grin, as much as to say: -‘Aha, I’ve got you now! You ain’t a-ridin’ the spanker boom, nor yet the -topsail yard, and I’ll bounce you off or bust’—and they most in gin’ally -don’t bust. I can’t help feelin’ oneasy about trustin’ him a horseback, -ma’am.” - -The widow laughed at this and Dicky cried out indignantly:— - -“Why, Mr. Bell, I’d just as lief ride anything from an elephant to a -goat. ’Tain’t any harder to stick on a horse than it is to hold on to -the topsail yard.” - -“Yes, it is, boy,” answered Jack with much severity, “and a sight more -dangersome. Horses, I tell you, has a spite ag’in sailor men—and they’re -mighty cunnin’ in carryin’ out their ill-will. I wish you was goin’ to -leg it. That’s all.” - - - - - CHAPTER V. - AN ADVENTURE WITH THE REDCOATS. - - -Dicky was sent to bed early that night, so he could have a good sleep -before his journey. But he was so excited over the prospect of his -coming adventures that he scarcely closed his eyes. He was up and -dressed by daybreak, and his mother had hard work holding him until -sunrise before starting off. - -As it was, he arrived at the Squire’s fine house in the town, before the -Squire was up. When the horse was led out for him to mount, Dicky made a -rush at him and scrambled up, beaming with delight. It was quite a sober -old cart horse, named Blackberry—but had he been the finest thoroughbred -in the world he could not have given Dicky more pleasure. - -The Squire gave him the letter before several of the servants, without -any extraordinary charges of carefulness, merely telling him to deliver -it with his own hands to Mr. Josiah Barton, of Tiverton, and to return -as soon as possible, when he would receive two shillings—and not to ride -Blackberry too hard. - -Dicky listened very respectfully, put the letter in the bosom of his -jacket and pinned it, and started off. He rode very slowly as long as he -was in sight of the Squire’s house, but it must be admitted that as soon -as he turned the first corner he gave old Blackberry a cut that started -him on a sharp trot. Blackberry, however, like the Squire himself, was -well fed, his load was light, the day was pleasant, and he was quite -willing to play the colt for a while, so he and Dicky got on -beautifully. - -The morning was deliciously fresh, and Dicky, who had never been ten -miles from Newport in his life, except when he had run away on the -Betsey, was as happy as a bird and felt himself quite as much of a man -as Jack Bell. He was so happy that when he had gone two or three miles -he could not forbear breaking into song—and as galloping and singing are -somewhat incongruous he brought Blackberry down to a leisurely walk. -Then with his knee crossed on the saddle he began to sing some of his -favorite songs. - -Unluckily though, he chose one of his rebel songs as they were called, -and he was trolling it out in his sweetest voice when presently looking -up, he found himself almost riding over a squad of redcoats marching -along the road with a sergeant at their head. - -“Look out, you young rebel!” called out the sergeant, catching -Blackberry’s bridle; “what are you up to?” - -“Nothing wrong,” answered Dicky boldly although he felt a slight tremor -at heart—but he knew the necessity of keeping a cool exterior. “I am on -my way to Tiverton on an errand for Squire Stavers.” - -“And do you know this is the King’s highway, and you were singing a song -about, - - ‘At Bunker Hill, that glorious day, - The time the redcoats ran away.’” - -Dicky remained prudently silent and wished he had not sung his Bunker -Hill song. - -The sergeant, who was a powerful fellow with a good-natured face in -spite of his bluff words, reached up, and lifting Dicky off the horse as -if he were a baby, set him down on the ground and proceeded to search -him. The first thing he ran across was the letter. “Come now,” said the -sergeant, “the lieutenant must see this. From Squire Stavers to Josiah -Barton of Tiverton. Both of them out-and-out rebels. Young man, will you -please to ’bout face and march along, while I’ll ride your battle -horse?” - -[Illustration: “‘LOOK OUT, YOU YOUNG REBEL,’ CALLED OUT THE SERGEANT.”] - -This was an unkind slur on Blackberry, who was unmistakably a horse who -had spent his life in civil pursuits. The sergeant mounted him, and the -old horse, out of whom Dicky had taken most of the spirit, struck into a -slow and dejected trot. - -Dicky went along silently, and appeared to be neither frightened or -discomposed. Indeed after a while he rather relished his adventure, and -anticipated the telling of it with the keenest pleasure, in which he -meant to do full justice to his own calmness under trying circumstances. -The whole party walked down the road about half a mile, when they came -to a deserted farmhouse. The sergeant, then dismounting, took Dicky by -the shoulder and shoved him into a room where a young officer sat at a -table writing. “If you please, sir,” said the sergeant, touching his -cap, “I found this boy riding along the road, singing rebel songs. I -thought I’d examine him to see if there was anything suspicious about -him, and I found this letter directed to Josiah Barton of Tiverton,—a -rank rebel,—and the boy says it is from Squire Stavers of Newport, who -is another rank rebel. So I thought it would be safer to bring him and -the letter to you.” - -“Quite right,” said the young officer, and taking the letter he coolly -broke the seal. Both he and the sergeant were keeping half an eye on -Dicky, who was perfectly quiet and composed, and gave no indications of -fear. - -“Do you know what is in this letter?” asked the lieutenant of Dicky -after glancing at it. - -“Sir!” answered Dicky, suddenly recalled from a contemplation of old -Blackberry through the window. - -“Do you know what is in this letter?” repeated the lieutenant sharply. - -“Something about beef cattle, I believe, sir,” answered Dicky, returning -to the contemplation of his steed. - -It was an ordinary letter enough, but still the lieutenant did not seem -able to persuade himself that it was exactly what it appeared to be. He -could scarcely imagine, though, that a compromising letter would be sent -by a boy, and, moreover, a boy who loitered by the road-side singing -songs. It occurred to him that he could find out something of the value -of the letter by the price that was paid Dicky for taking it. - -“Look here, my lad,” he said suddenly; “how much are you to get if you -deliver this letter and bring a reply?” - -“Two shillings, sir,” promptly replied Dicky; “but if I don’t deliver -it, I ain’t to get anything.” - -“That settles it,” said the young officer more to himself than to Dicky. -“A two-shilling messenger is not likely to be charged with serious -undertakings. You may go, youngster.” - -“Thank you, sir.” - -And the next minute Dicky had darted out of the door and, seizing old -Blackberry, was off at a smarter trot than Blackberry had known for a -good many years. - -Dicky arrived at Tiverton about nine o’clock and easily found the solid, -substantial Barton mansion. - -Mr. Barton was standing on the broad brick porch when Dicky swung -himself off Blackberry and, holding his shabby cap in his hand, -presented the letter. - -“The seal, sir, was broken by a redcoat officer a little way out from -Newport; but he didn’t understand the letter,” Dicky added -significantly. - -“It is easily understood,” said Mr. Barton, looking up after he got to -the end. - -Boylike, Dicky was charmed at being able to show the extent of his -knowledge and responsibilities. Coming up close to Mr. Barton, he -pointed out the third line from the bottom. Mr. Barton’s eyes followed -Dicky’s finger as it traveled upward over the page, and he grasped the -meaning immediately. - -“Boy,” said he after a pause, “there are some things I want to ask you. -Come in the house with me and do exactly what I tell you.” - -Dicky followed him in a small, dark room on the first floor, fitted up -as a library. Mr. Barton directed him to take a chair and then -disappeared behind him for a few moments. When he came back he said:— - -“Now answer freely and to the best of your ability all the questions I -shall ask you, but remember not to turn your head to look on either side -or behind you.” - -Dicky thought this strange, but he obeyed implicitly. Mr. Barton, then -taking out a quill pen and paper, began to ask him a series of questions -respecting the Overing House—its distance from the shore, the lay of the -land, and many other things of information. Dicky, not being one of -those boys who can spend a lifetime in a place without knowing anything -about it, was able to give a pretty accurate description of things in -and around Newport. Especially did he know where the British ships were -moored, the hours for the boats, and many other particulars about them. - -While looking in front of him, as Mr. Barton carefully wrote down what -he said, Dicky observed a round mirror, and what he saw in it almost -made him drop off his chair in surprise. For there was a door behind him -slightly ajar, and every now and then he caught a glimpse of a young man -wearing a Continental uniform and listening intently to what was said. - -Dicky felt an intense curiosity to know who it was, and, while -describing as well as he could a tortuous path that he knew leading from -the shore to a clump of woods behind the Overing House, he happened to -glance up at the mirror. The soldier behind him had become so interested -that he had poked his head completely outside the door. - -One glance in the mirror showed Dicky that the young man was the son of -Mr. Barton, and he surmised shrewdly that it was the young Captain -Barton of the Continental Army who was his unseen listener. He was -plainly in hiding, and Dicky understood very well why the elder Barton -imposed cautions upon him. - -Mr. Barton was very well pleased with Dicky’s sensible and -well-considered answers, and when he had got through he folded up the -memorandum he had made, wrote a few lines to Squire Stavers about the -beeves, and then handed Dicky two new shillings. - -“Money is a scarce commodity about here,” he said, smiling, “but I think -you have earned this.” - -Mr. Barton then asked him to stay until dinner was ready, but this Dicky -declined to do. He was very proud of the success of his errand so far -and wanted to return promptly, so that in a little while he was on his -way back to Newport. - -Squire Stavers was not without his doubts concerning the time Dicky -would return. A boy trusted with a horse is extremely liable to overstay -his time; but before twelve o’clock Dicky turned up. The Squire looked -sharply at Blackberry, but, although the old horse had had a pretty good -morning’s work, he seemed to realize that he was bent upon a patriotic -errand and was as lively as a colt. - -Dicky did not fail to do ample justice to his own coolness and composure -when nabbed by the redcoats, and his prompt surrendering of the letter. -The Squire chuckled when Dicky described how the young lieutenant -puzzled over it and handed Dicky out two shillings with great readiness, -saying,— - -“And as you are such a good hand in the transaction of business, I will -employ you again.” - -Dicky ran home as fast as his legs could carry him with his four -shillings clutched in his hands, and, throwing three of them in his -mother’s lap, held up the fourth, bawling,— - -“I’m going to give Mr. Bell and me a treat with this, mammy, because I’m -a very bright boy, I am,—the Squire said so,—and a reliable one, too. -There’s a show in town of dancing bears and monkeys, and Mr. Bell and me -are going sure.” - -When Jack came in that night Dicky recounted all of his adventures, even -to the seeing the officer behind him in the glass, which he had not -mentioned to Squire Stavers. The widow was immensely proud of Dicky’s -shrewdness and courage, and Jack Bell was perfectly delighted, -especially that Dicky had proved a match for old Blackberry. - -“You’re doin’ a sight better sarvice for your country than if you was a -powder boy ’board ship,” he remarked; “and it’s a deal more riskier to -handle a horse than it is to handle gunpowder, and I’m a-thinkin’ -sumpin’ will happen soon;” with which sententious remark Bell retired to -the loft to sleep, while Dicky tumbled into his flock bed—a very tired -but a very happy boy—and dreamed all night about dancing bears. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - JACK BELL’S SECRET. - - -Three more trips did Dicky make to Tiverton, and each time, under the -cover of a transaction in beef cattle, carried important news. He was -rather puzzled, though, to know what the news was, as Squire Stavers did -not tell him the contents of any letters but the first. Neither the -Squire nor Mr. Barton ever mentioned General Prescott’s name before him. -Dicky rashly concluded that the scheme to capture the British general -had been abandoned. - -He had never seen General Prescott to know him in his life. There were -crowds of British officers dashing about the town with orderlies -trotting after them; but which was the general he did not know. In fact, -after a while Dicky begun to suspect that his trips were for the sole -purpose of conveying news about the cattle after all, and felt a -distinct decrease in his own importance. - -Jack Bell, too, seeing that everything appeared quiet and that the -British had lately had successes, especially in having captured -Major-General Henry Lee,—“Light Horse Harry,”—began to be very much -depressed. He and Dicky discussed affairs very often, and both of them -came to the melancholy conclusion that Newport would remain in the hands -of the British until the end of the war and that nothing would be -attempted in the way of a capture. - -The Americans were anxious to make an exchange for General Lee, but had -no officer of rank high enough to offer for him. This was a mortifying -fact, and Jack Bell, commenting on it, wondered why the plan to kidnap -General Prescott had fallen through. - -One night, though, Squire Stavers sent for him, and Jack came away from -the Squire’s house wearing a look of delighted expectancy. - -About a week after that, one morning as soon as he wakened—which was -late, as he was out all night—he called Dicky, and the two strolled -together toward a lonely point of rocks some distance from any house and -where they were not likely to be disturbed by anyone. - -The sun shone brightly, while a sharp wind ruffled the waters of -Narragansett Bay and gave a kick to the sterns of several vessels that -were rounding Point Judith. - -It fluttered the pennants of a great British fleet that lay off Block -Island and dashed the steel blue water fiercely against the rocky shores -upon which the town of Newport is perched. So blue was the sky and so -blue was the sea that they came together invisibly on the far horizon, -and a fine English frigate which was sailing in under a huge spread of -canvas seemed to be suspended between the sky and the sea. - -Among the fleet there was the usual activity and business of the -morning. A great line-of-battle ship, with the red pennant flying at her -fore, indicating that she was taking on powder, lay out in the -foreground. An admiral’s barge at the gangway of a handsome black -frigate showed that she had distinguished company on board, and the -sound of the band playing on the quarterdeck and the noise made by the -parading of the marine guard was distinctly borne ashore by the wind. On -every ship something was going on in the way of the orderly bustle of a -man-of-war. - -On shore, too, the morning drill was taking place, and the regiments of -redcoats made a brilliant splash of color in the sombre tones of the -ancient town. The scene was charming in itself, but to Jack Bell and -Dicky Stubbs nothing was more disheartening than the evidences of the -might of England. - -Presently the advancing frigate, which was trotting along briskly, came -near enough for Jack Bell to recognize her. - -“That’s the Diomede, sonny,” said Jack dolefully, as if the arrival of -another British ship filled his cup of woe to overflowing. “That’s Cap’n -Forrester on the bridge—a mighty fine man he is, if he is a Britisher.” - -Dicky agreed with this as with everything else that Jack Bell advanced. - -As the frigate rounded to, in her usual grand style, Jack’s eyes kindled -although he sighed. “It do a sailor man’s heart good for to see a ship -anchored that way. I’ve knowed the Diomede ever since she slid off the -stocks, and she never was counted on bein’ no great sailer—but the -sailin’ qualities of a ship depends on the cap’n—d’ ye mind that, -youngster; and Cap’n Forrester, he knows how to handle a ship, d’ ye -see, boy? But I’m a-wishin’ she warn’t flying that ’ere flag at her -peak. If ’twas only the American flag now!” - -“Yonder ’tis,” said Dicky, pointing across to Narragansett Bay, where he -fancied he could see it flying in the blue air. - -“Maybe you can see it,” answered Jack reflectively as he gazed over the -blue water. - -“How I wish I were fighting under it!” cried Dicky, whose patriotic -ardor increased rather than abated by living under British rule. - -“I dessay,” remarked Jack slyly, who was much given to “pulling a leg” -at Dicky’s expense, “if our people over yonder knowed about you, they’d -be most as distrested as they are about Gineral Lee bein’ held by the -British—’twould take a major-gineral to exchange for Gineral Lee, but -maybe they could git you for a major or a colonel, p’r’aps. What a pity -they ain’t never heard on you!” - -Dicky at this turned very red, and giving a vicious kick to a stone sent -it skimming across the water. - -“Anyway,” said Dicky presently in a low voice, looking around to be sure -they were completely alone on the rocks, “I did the best I could. I took -three letters to Tiverton and back—and I knew what they was meant for -too.” - -“True for you, boy,” said Jack, slapping him on the back; “and now tell -me, what do you think I fetched you down on these rocks for?” - -“Dunno.” - -“Well, then,” said Jack very softly, “sumpin’ ’s up to-night. I’ve -knowed it for more ’n a week, and I tell you because we want your -valuable sarvices.” Jack could not refrain from giving Dicky this little -dig. “And I’ve pledged my word, as you are a safe boy and ain’t a-goin’ -to blow the gaff.” - -“You’re right there, Mr. Bell,” answered Dicky proudly. “I ain’t the -sort to blow the gaff.” - -“Well, then, listen to me and come close, so I can speak easy. There’s a -plot on hand to-night to bag Gineral Prescott. He’s a long-headed old -feller, although he is mighty proud, treatin’ quarterdeck folks like -they was foremast people. But he knows more ’n most of ’em what to do, -so that’s w’y the patriots is hankerin’ arter him. At nine o’clock -to-night a boat is goin’ to be pulled acrost the bay, and Cap’n Barton -with twenty men’s goin’ to sneak up to the Overing House, where the -Gin’ral is stayin’, while they’re fixin’ reg’lar headquarters for him. -They’re goin’ to take the house by boardin’—I dunno what the soldiers’ -word is for ketchin’ him with a rush—and they’re goin’ to put him in the -boat and take him back to Providence Plantations. Now the redcoats is -monstrous keerless about standin’ watch round the Overing House—they’ve -got a sentry or two that marches up and down and then goes and stands in -the corner o’ the house by the chimney—but Cap’n Barton wants some one -to give him the word about twelve o’clock to-night when the coast is -clear.” - -“And I’m to give the word,” cried Dicky, jumping with delight. - -“Not if you act that a-way,” answered Jack severely. “When sailor men -has got work in hand they don’t go bawlin’ out and jumpin’ like a lizard -over it. They says ‘Aye, Aye, sir,’ and then they goes and does it.” - -Dicky, quite crestfallen, awaited Jack’s next words. - -“I’d give the word myself, for I ain’t under no promise to Cap’n -Forrester. He just told me the redcoats would see that I didn’t git -away—and they do watch me pretty sharp—so most likely I’d be the very -one they’d suspect. So I says to Squire Stavers: ‘There’s that little -tow-headed Dicky Stubbs that I knows has got a head on his shoulders and -a pair of eyes as is worth sumpin’—and he kin hang round the house and -won’t nobody think it’s nothin’ but stayin’ out ag’in his mother’s -orders’—and you’re that chap,” said Jack Bell, giving Dicky a friendly -thwack that nearly sent him head foremost into the sea. - -Dick’s face was a picture—it was fairly beaming with delight. - -“To-night!” he whispered excitedly; “twelve o’clock; to keep a bright -lookout round the Overing House!” - -“Purcisely,” answered Jack Bell; “the boat will be down at the cove, and -when you see a man comin’ along the ravine through the woods from the -cove, with one hand raised up this way—you’ll slip up and let him know -if the coast is clear; and if the gineral is in bed—as they wants him to -be—you kin tell by the blowin’ out of his candle in the room in the -nor’west corner where he sleeps. So now, go along with you, and don’t -come a-nigh me to-day, ’cause folks might be wonderin’ what we was -a-talkin’ about. And I’ll tell your mother some time to-day, as you will -be out p’r’aps all night—but you won’t be doin’ any harm. And if they -catch you, mind you, set up a mighty howl, like a great baby, and tell -’em you’re afraid your mother’ll give you the cat—so they’ll think -you’re too young to know anythin’—and now be off with you.” - -Dicky, with a beaming face, ran off. The first thing that occurred to -him was: “If they do nab the British general, what a fine song it will -make!” for he had by no means given up his ambition to write a song, and -a rebel song at that. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - GENERAL PRESCOTT’S CAPTURE. - - -Dicky sang very industriously that day, and was lucky, having nearly -four shillings to take home to his mother. Jack Bell did not come to the -kitchen that evening as usual, but he had been there during the day. -After Dicky got his supper he lay down on the settle before the fire and -said knowingly to his mother:— - -“Please, ma’am, wake me up at ten o’clock.” - -“I will,” said Mrs. Stubbs quietly to this uncommon request. She knew -well enough what was meant. - -Dicky fully intended taking merely a cat nap, but when ten o’clock came -his mother had to shake him and pound him and drag him nearly all over -the floor to wake him up. However, once waked up he knew in an instant -what was required of him, and he put on his shabby greatcoat and hat -quickly enough. - -“Good night, mother,” he said. “Don’t fret about me—I’ll be home by -daylight.” - -“Good night, my boy,” said the Widow Stubbs in her calm way. “Be sure -you act like a boy of sense.” - -“I will,” answered Dicky sturdily as he made for the door. - -The night was murky, and as Dick glanced out upon the dark bosom of the -bay he could only tell the position of the British ships by the lights -twinkling dimly at their mastheads, while the huge bulk of their black -hulls made only a deeper shadow in the half-darkness. Dicky trudged -along the straggling streets of the town and presently he found himself -in a country lane that led toward the Overing House, a comfortable old -tavern convenient to the cantonments of the troops, and where General -Prescott had established himself temporarily. - -The house was not fully alight, as people went to bed earlier in those -days and ten o’clock was considered quite late. The kitchen where the -host and his humble friends gathered was perfectly dark, but in the -northwest corner of the house a light still burned. This was in General -Prescott’s room. - -Dicky crept close to the fence that surrounded the house. Everything was -perfectly quiet—even the housedog slept peacefully on the kitchen steps. -After looking about very carefully, he saw a path leading into the -underbrush toward the ravine. - -He slipped across the yard and into this path, and after what seemed to -him a long, long wait, he saw advancing noiselessly through the gloom a -man with one hand held up, as Jack Bell had described. Dicky went up and -whispered:— - -“Everything is quiet. The dog is asleep on the back steps, and General -Prescott’s room is directly at the front door.” - -In a minute more twenty men had silently appeared, as if out of the -ground, and among them was a burly negro known as Sam Ink, from his -jetty blackness. - -They crept through the fence and noiselessly surrounded three sides of -the house, the dog meanwhile sleeping peacefully, as they were careful -not to go near enough to rouse him. Almost as soon as their preparations -were completed the light in the northwest room was put out. Dicky -wondered what means they would take to open the front door, which -according to the custom of the time was no doubt barred as well as -locked. He was quickly enlightened, though, for as soon as the -preparations were complete Sam Ink backed off about twenty yards, and -then, starting on a run, he lowered his head and made straight for the -door, and the next minute the crash of splintered wood was heard and -Sam’s head had gone through the panel of the door. - -It was only the work of a second then to undo the lock and take down the -bar, and as the sound of shuffling feet in various parts of the house -was heard General Prescott himself opened the door of his room to see -what was the matter. He had no time to strike a flint, but one of the -Americans, who had a dark lantern, suddenly flashed it on the group and -then twenty stalwart arms seized the British officer and dragged him out -of the door and made a rush for the path through the woods. - -Dicky had watched it all, having crept up on the porch, and seeing in -the one flash of the lantern that General Prescott had on only his -nightclothes, Dicky darted in the room, grabbed a pile of clothes that -lay upon a chair, and flew after the party in the boat. - -They had already made much headway, and as it was some minutes before -the people in the house had been able to get a light from the slow -process of the tinder box or raking over the kitchen fire, the Americans -had a good start. They changed their direction soon after entering the -ravine, and half an hour’s rapid walking, and carrying the British -officer, brought them to their boats. - -Dicky had expected to hear a loud protest from General Prescott, but -when he had followed the party to their boats he saw the reason of the -general’s silence. A long horse pistol had been held to his head every -step of the way. General Prescott broke silence for the first time as he -was being hustled into the boat. - -“I have no breeches on,” he said. - -“Here they be,” cried Dicky in an excited but subdued voice, and he -threw a bundle of clothes into the boat. - -Desperate as their circumstances still were, the Americans could not -help laughing at this; the more so when Sam Ink, his head uninjured by -being used as a battering ram, said politely: - -“Lem me be your vally, suh. I’se used to bein’ great men’s vally, suh.” - -“Thank you, my good man,” coolly replied General Prescott as Sam with -more haste than elegance hustled the general’s clothes on. - -The boats then put out for the other side of the bay, and Dick quickly -turned and ran toward home. A general alarm had been given by that time, -but everybody supposed that the kidnappers were somewhere in the woods -near by, or possibly in some deserted quarter of the town. Soldiers were -running about, the drum was beating, skyrockets had been sent up, and -the alarm had been conveyed to the guardship in the harbor, which sent a -boat ashore to find out the cause of the commotion. - -Dicky got on all right until just as he reached his mother’s door in the -narrow street where they lived, when he ran full tilt into the arms of a -sergeant with a searching party. Remembering that he had to play the -part of a small and frightened boy, Dicky, who was not frightened in the -least, screwed his face up and broke out into a frightful howl as the -sergeant caught him by the collar of his jacket. - -“Oh! O-o-o-ooh!” yelled Dicky. “Let me go—let me go! Please, sir, let me -go! I know my mother will give me a whipping for bein’ out so late!” - -“See here,” cried the sergeant gruffly, “have you seen anything of the -gang that has carried off General Prescott?” - -The door opened just then and the Widow Stubbs appeared with a candle in -her hand. - -“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Oh, it’s you, Dicky. Very well, very -well. A pretty time of night it is for you to be out. Just hand him over -to me, sir,” said the artful Mrs. Stubbs to the sergeant, “and I’ll -promise you he won’t be going around the streets at this disreputable -hour of the night for a good while.” - -Dicky, at this, who could hardly keep from roaring out laughing, opened -his mouth and wailed louder than ever, until the sergeant nearly shook -the breath out of him. - -“Shut that potato trap of yours,” cried the sergeant, “and listen to me. -Have you seen a gang of men carrying an officer off into the woods? for -that is what has just happened.” - -A bright idea struck Dicky. - -“A tall, fine looking man, as I’ve seen going in and out of the Overing -House?” he whimpered. - -At this Mrs. Stubbs turned pale, thinking Dicky meant to turn traitor; -but the sergeant answered him eagerly:— - -“Yes, yes.” - -“Well, sir,” said Dicky, stammering and hesitating, “I see a crowd o’ -men carryin’ somebody off, and they was on horseback—gallopin’ along. -The officer was tied to the saddle”—Dicky here remembered about the -pistol. “They had a pistol to his head, and they took the main road -through Tiverton, sir. The officer was on a white horse, sir. I seen -that, though it was so dark.” - -It was impossible not to believe this circumstantial account. The -sergeant and his men doublequicked it back to the barracks to send -mounted scouts out on the Tiverton road. And meanwhile the Americans had -rowed with muffled oars across the bay and had landed their prisoner on -the opposite shore. - -Dicky went into the house, and his mother securely locked and barred the -door and put out the light; and when safe in darkness and silence she -caught Dicky in her arms and cried:— - -“My brave lad! My sensible boy!” - -Dicky never felt in all his life so proud and happy before. And at that -moment, they heard Jack Bell, marching up and down the streets, and -roaring out, at the top of his lungs,— - -“Two bells, and Gineral Prescott is tooken!” - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - DICKY’S NEW SONG. - - -The sensation in Newport for a day or two was tremendous. It was not -lessened when a flag of truce from the American commander announced that -General Prescott was in his hands, and he would be pleased to exchange -the British officer upon parole for an American officer of equal rank, -suggesting Major-General Henry Lee, of the Light Horse Brigade. In a -short time the exchange was effected, and General Prescott returned to -Newport as a paroled prisoner. - -The British officers were deeply chagrined at the boldness and success -of the attack. Much sympathy was felt for General Prescott. He was a -brave and capable officer, although a stern martinet, and the ridiculous -circumstances of the affair leaked out and were much laughed at on the -sly. - -No two souls were more delighted at the outcome than old Jack Bell and -Dicky Stubbs. Dicky’s ambition to have a song about it did not seem -likely to be gratified, so he and the old sailor conceived the daring -design of composing the song themselves. This was done in the long -winter evenings sitting before the kitchen fire and by the light of a -single tallow dip. - -Jack Bell’s accomplishments in the reading and writing line consisted of -the ability to spell out the paragraphs of “The Newport News Letter” and -to write with much time and trouble, in a large round hand, “Jno. Bell.” -Dicky, however, was quite expert with the pen, although his poetic -faculty was not nearly so well developed. After a month’s hard work, and -with infinite pains and labor, the song was composed. An air was found -for it, and Dicky found himself possessed of the most popular song in -Newport. - -He dared not sing it where there was a chance of redcoats being around, -but at tavern gatherings, with the doors and windows securely fastened, -“The Capture of Prescott” was sure to be called for, and when trolled -forth the boy’s sweet and thrilling treble always brought down a roaring -chorus of laughter and cheers and more shillings than pennies. It was -not of a very high order of poetic merit. Dicky was no embryo Milton or -Shakespeare, but it touched the pride of the Americans, and that was -enough. - -Whenever this ditty was being sung Jack Bell’s face was a study. He -leaned forward in his chair, his hands on his knees, and his deep, -cavernous eyes glowing with delight, and at intervals his great -hobnailed boots would come down on the floor with a loud thwack of -approval. Dicky, perched upon a table and swinging his legs, as he -cocked his chin in the air, would trill it out with all the pleasure in -his life, and was naturally enormously proud of his literary as well as -his artistic success. - -One night about three months after the capture and exchange, and while -General Prescott was on board the Diomede frigate waiting for a fair -wind to set sail for England, a farewell dinner was given on board to -the officers of the army and navy then at Newport. - -Now, what poor Dicky Stubbs, the widow’s son, had to do with this dinner -Dicky himself would have been puzzled to tell, and he was a much -astonished and slightly frightened boy when about dusk a corporal of -marines knocked at his mother’s door and demanded Dicky’s presence. Jack -Bell was sitting in the kitchen, as he usually was at that hour, and -both he and the Widow Stubbs were certain that the authorities had heard -of the boy’s rebel songs and had come to arrest him. - -As for Dicky, although a very courageous boy in the main, he thought it -prudent to retire under the bed in the next room. The corporal, though, -having seen him rush in and disappear, all except a pair of tell-tale -heels, caught him by the leg and dragged him out. - -“Come out o’ here!” cried the corporal gruffly but not unkindly. - -Dicky, finding himself in the hands of the enemy, recovered his -self-possession and stood up quite coolly and unconcernedly. - -“Are you the little feller that goes about and sings?” - -“Oh, my poor boy!” cried the Widow Stubbs, for once losing her courage. - -“Y-y-yes, sir, I am,” stammered Dicky, expecting the next moment to be -put in double irons and carried to headquarters. - -“Then,” said the corporal, “you’re to come aboard the Diomede frigate -with me to sing for the officers at a big jollification they’re havin’ -to-night, and you wash your face and comb your hair and put on your best -jacket.” - -This sounded reassuring, and Dicky proceeded to make his toilet with his -mother’s help. The marine meanwhile entered into conversation with Jack -Bell in the kitchen. - -“Seems to me,” said the corporal, “I’ve seen you at Gibralty on the old -Colossus ’long about ’70.” - -“Gibralty? Gibralty?” meditatively replied Jack Bell. “Now where in the -world is Gibralty?” - -“Come,” said the marine, laughing, “we knows all about you—and it was a -deuced lucky thing for you that you saved that officer’s life. Men has -been shot for deserters afore this.” - -“Now you’re jokin’!” exclaimed Jack earnestly; “you marines is allust -pullin’ a leg with we poor sailor men, and we never knows when you’re -jokin’ and when you ain’t. Gibralty—ain’t that somewheres nigh to the -Arches of Pelago, close by Villy Franky?” - -“You’ve got it uncommon mixed up, but I reckon you know more ’n you’d -let on,” answered the marine, still laughing. And Dicky’s toilet being -completed by that time, the marine rose to go. - -“Don’t you worrit about this ’ere youngster, ma’am,” he said politely to -the Widow Stubbs. “He’s just a-goin’ to sing to the officers after -dinner, and I’ll fetch him home before ten o’clock.” With which the -marine walked out, with Dicky trudging after him. They soon made the -boat and were pulled to the Diomede. - -The marine took him to the fok’sle, Dicky staring with all his might at -everything he saw. In a few minutes an orderly appeared from the ward -room, and Dicky followed him aft. - -When they reached the cabin door and Dicky got his first peep inside, it -literally took his breath away. Such lights, such gorgeous uniforms, -such splendor his simple eyes had never beheld. - -Around a long table glittering with glass and plate and wax candles sat -thirty or forty officers all in uniform. Most of them wore the dark blue -and gold of the navy, but there were many in blazing scarlet. Dicky -recognized Captain Forrester, and his eyes fell upon one directly facing -the door—a tall, handsome, stern-looking man of middle age, in a -brilliant uniform of scarlet, a gold-hilted sword, and with his breast -covered with medals. The other officers addressed him as “General.” All -were in a jovial humor and a rollicking chorus was dying away as Dicky -and the orderly appeared at the door. - -“Oh!” cried Captain Forrester at the head of the table, “this is our -sweet-throated thrush from the town of which we have heard so much. This -lad, gentlemen, is said to be the very finest singer hereabouts, and we -have sent for him to add to our jollity this evening.” - -Dicky blushed at this compliment to his powers and shuffled from one -foot to another in his embarrassment. - -“Now,” continued Captain Forrester to him, “pipe up, sir; do your best, -and give us a new song. Something that we have never heard before.” - -Dicky reflected for a moment or two and then, coloring and stammering, -said:— - -“If you please, sir—if you please, the only new song I’ve got is a -patriot song, what you calls a rebel song, sir—and—and”— - -“Very well, very well,” cried the officers, laughing. “Give us a rebel -song, then. Come, my little man, pipe up.” - -Dicky still hesitated between fear and bashfulness, when the “General” -in scarlet spoke up:— - -“Give us that song, you young rebel, or I’ll see that you get the cat, -sure!” - -Thus admonished, while much merriment prevailed among the officers at -the notion of the rebel song being sung, Dicky cleared his throat and in -the midst of a dead silence began to sing in his clear, sweet, boyish -voice:— - - ’Twas on a dark and stormy night, - The wind and waves did roar; - Bold Barton then, with twenty men, - Went down upon the shore. - - And in a whaleboat they set off - To Rhode Island fair, - To catch a redcoat general, - Who then resided there.[5] - -As soon as Dicky began the song he had noticed that it seemed to create -great amusement, and many sly looks were directed toward the general. -When Barton’s name was mentioned the fun became contagious, and at the -last line of the second stanza it became uncontrollable. Shouts and -roars of laughter resounded, in which the general joined heartily, and -it was some minutes before Dicky could proceed. - -All this time he looked, as he was, perfectly innocent, and could not -for the life of him imagine what the laughter was about. Dicky’s -seriousness seemed to increase the hilarity, which grew steadily as he -kept on. - - Through British fleets and guard boats strong - They held their dangerous way, - Till they arrived unto their port, - And then did not delay. - - A tawny son of Afric’s race - Then through the ravine led, - And entering then the Overing House, - Found the general in his bed. - - But to get in they had no means, - Except poor Cuffee’s head, - Who beat the door down, then rushed in - And seized him in his bed. - - “Stop, let me put my breeches on,” - The general then did pray. - “Your breeches, massa, I will take, - For dress we cannot stay.” - - Then through the stubble him they led, - With shoes and breeches none, - And placed him in their boat quite snug, - And from the shore were gone. - - Soon the alarm was sounded loud, - “The Yankees they have come - And stolen Prescott from his bed, - And him they’ve carried home.” - -At the mention of General Prescott’s name a perfect hullabaloo of -laughter, stamping, shouts, and cheers broke forth, none joining in more -heartily than the general, and it suddenly dawned upon Dicky that it was -General Prescott himself who was present. - -At the bare idea of this the boy grew ashy pale and looked as if he -would drop to the floor, but this only increased the rapture of their -amusement. And in the midst of the terrific noise General Prescott’s -voice was heard shouting,— - -“Go on, you little rascal—tell the whole story.” - -[Illustration: “THE YANKEES, THEY HAVE COME AND STOLEN PRESCOTT FROM HIS - BED.”] - -Thus admonished, Dicky managed to continue his song in a quavering -voice, every moment interrupted by shrieks of laughter from his -delighted audience. - - The drums were beat, skyrockets flew, - The soldiers shouldered arms, - And marched around the ground they knew, - Filled with most dire alarms. - - But through the fleet with muffled oar, - They held their devious way, - Landed on Narragansett shore, - Where Briton had no sway. - - When unto the land they came, - Where rescue there was none, - “A right bold push,” the general cried, - “Of prisoners I am one.” - -Never was there such a scene witnessed on board a ship as at the -conclusion of this song. So wild was the noise of the stamping on the -floor and pounding on the table that the people below thought the deck -would come through. Yells of laughter and enthusiastic cheering mutually -tried to drown out the other. Officers threw themselves on the table, -convulsed with laughter, while tears streamed down their cheeks. - -Others leaned their shaking sides up against the wall and yelled with -laughter. In the midst of it General Prescott, who had laughed until he -was almost in hysterics, threw Dicky a bright gold guinea, crying, -“There, you young dog, is a guinea for you!” - -Dicky caught the guinea as it spun toward him and, pulling his forelock -as he ducked his head, exclaimed: “Thanky, sir!” and then turning made a -bee-line for the fok’sle. - -A boat was just leaving—he scrambled into it, and in a few minutes he -was trotting up the narrow street toward his home, a very happy but -somewhat frightened boy. He dashed into the kitchen where the Widow -Stubbs sat peacefully knitting, while Jack Bell occupied his usual seat. - -“That’s for you, mammy!” shouted Dicky, throwing a gold guinea in his -mother’s lap. - -“Land sakes!” cried the widow, “where did you get it from?” - -“From General Prescott,” answered Dicky with twinkling eyes; and then he -told the story of the song. The Widow Stubbs laughed until she cried, -and Jack Bell roared like a bull with merriment. - -“W’y,” he chuckled, “that beats the speckled Jews!” - -“It does indeed,” answered Dicky as he thrust his tongue knowingly into -his cheek; “but I’ll say hooray for one British officer—hooray for -General Prescott!—and I’m glad I give him his breeches!” - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - DICKY ENLISTS. - - -A time came, though, when Newport was evacuated by the British—and on -that glorious day there were no happier souls than Dicky Stubbs and Jack -Bell. Among the great events was the sailing in to Newport of the small -squadron which made the beginning of the American navy. To Jack Bell’s -patriotic eyes they were the handsomest ships he had ever seen in his -life. - -Jack and Dicky stood on the highest point of the rocky shores of Newport -and watched with rapture the coming of the little squadron of five -vessels which, though small and lightly armed, were yet to give a noble -account of themselves. - -“Boy!” shouted Jack Bell as he gripped Dicky by the collar, “d’ye see -them ships? They ain’t big, and they ain’t got nothin’ in ’em heavier ’n -a twelve pounder—but they’ve got hearts of oak—and let me tell you, boy, -it’s the kind of heart you’ve got, as mostly settles whether you’re -goin’ to take a lickin’ or give one, in a fight.” - -Dicky showed his appreciation of this sentiment by bawling out “Hooray!” -as loud as he could—but as he had been “hooraying” pretty steadily for -forty-eight hours past, his voice was somewhat cracked. Dicky, however, -was still capable of making a good deal of patriotic noise. - -The shores were black with shouting crowds, and the American sailors and -soldiers received a greeting that made them sure of their welcome. Dicky -ran about all day long, sang all his rebel songs to listening crowds, -and refused to accept a penny for his singing. At night when he reached -home, tired, hungry, sleepy, and hoarse, but perfectly happy, he said to -his mother as he marched in: “Mammy, I ain’t got any money for you—I -couldn’t take it on a day like this—and I’ve sung the Bunker Hill song -and the General Prescott song and all the patriotic songs I know—and I -never had such a good time in my life!” - -“I know it, my boy,” said the Widow Stubbs, “and I’m glad you didn’t -take any money for singing on this glorious day.” - -The very next morning the inevitable occurred. Dicky announced that he -meant to enlist as a seaman apprentice in the American navy. His mother -turned a little pale but said no word. She was a brave woman and a -sensible one, too; and she saw that Dicky’s taste for a sea life was so -strong that, if balked of it, he would probably never be of much account -in any other calling. Jack Bell gave him one of those friendly thwacks -that almost knocked him down. - -“Right, youngster,” said he. “The navy’s the place for a lad as wants to -make his forting. I don’t mean a forting in money—there’s fortings and -fortings; I means in carackter, and bein’ stiddy and faithful, and in -havin’ lashin’s o’ fun when your cruise is up.” - -“But I thought,” said the Widow Stubbs timidly, “there were some hard -characters in the navy, Mr. Bell?” - -“Mighty few—mighty few,” answered Jack, shaking his head gravely. “When -a landsman and a sailor man gits to fightin’, it’s allus the landsman’s -fault. And if it warn’t for them meddlesome marines, the sailor men -never would git into no trouble. But all the wuthless rapscallions in -creation is arter sailor men—and if they warn’t jest as stiddy and -k’rect as they can be, ’taint no tellin’ the mischief they’d git into. -There ain’t no peaceabler folks in the world nor sailor men, if they is -jest let alone and ain’t balked of their will.” - -The Widow Stubbs thought this was true of some other people besides -sailor men. - -Among the small American squadron, the Raleigh, a smart little frigate -armed with twelve pounders, was easily the best; and Jack Bell, having -examined her all over, determined that Dicky should enlist on her. No -bright, capable boy was likely to be refused, and Captain Thompson, her -commander, would have been glad to get Jack Bell, too, of whom he had -heard something. The day that Jack took Dicky aboard, to enlist him, -Captain Thompson asked to have the old sailor sent down in the cabin. -Jack went down and found a very dashing young continental officer, proud -of his ship and anxious to do something for his country. - -“Well, my man,” said he to Jack; “I have had the lad you brought aboard -put on the ship’s books, and I would like very much to have you, too. I -know all about you, and such a man is valuable among the foremast -people.” - -“And I’d like mightily to come, sir,” answered Jack respectfully, “but I -was give my choice, by Cap’n Forrester of the Diomede frigate, of -promisin’ I wouldn’t enlist or of bein’ h’isted up at the yardarm. You -see, sir,” continued Jack, coming a little nearer and putting on a -knowing look which Captain Thompson understood perfectly well. “Cap’n -Forrester had got it into his head that I were one Jack Bell who sarved -forty year in the British navy. But when the war broke out, that there -Jack Bell thought as how he’d be a villian to fight ag’in his own -country, so he up and deserted. Now, sir, supposin’ Cap’n Forrester had -said I were that man? Why, sir, ’twouldn’t ha’ taken a court martial two -hours to string me up at the yardarm. So Cap’n Forrester said as how he -wouldn’t mention his suspicions to nobody, if I’d promise him I wouldn’t -enlist in the American army, navy, or marine corps—and as you see, sir, -not bein’ a officer, the only thing for me to do was to promise—so -that’s how it lays.” - -“I understand,” answered Captain Thompson. “Nothing else could be -expected of you; but I am sorry. You can assist me though by bringing me -recruits,—men that you know are steady and reliable,—and in that way you -may be of almost as much use to me as if you were on the ship.” - -“Thankee, sir; I’ll do it,” responded Jack with alacrity. Meanwhile -Dicky had been inducted into the fok’sle as drummer boy and helper to -the Jack o’ the dust. He found plenty of work to do, and a boatswain’s -mate after him to see it well done; and the fare was hard and the pay -small. But Dicky was like everybody who has found his real place in -life, perfectly satisfied. Every day Jack Bell came on board to see him, -and every day Dicky saw that the old sailor became more and more -despondent because he, too, could not serve his country. One day after -Jack had very dolefully left the ship, Jenkins, the boatswain’s mate on -board, said:— - -“If this was England now, we could send out a press gang and get that -man.” - -Now, Dicky knew very well what a press gang was—a body of sailors who -went ashore at night with an officer and authority to seize and press -men into the naval service. This set Dicky to thinking, and he began to -wonder if Jack would not be very well pleased if he were seized and -forcibly taken on board the Raleigh and made to work and fight. The very -next night Dicky got his first liberty on shore, and going to his -mother’s cottage found Jack there, as usual, smoking his pipe. - -The Widow Stubbs was delighted to see her boy, and he looked so clean -and smart and bright in his sailor’s rig that she could not but see that -he had improved in the little while that he had been aboard ship. Jack -showed his usual interest in everything that happened on the Raleigh, -but Dicky saw that the old sailor was much depressed. - -“Mr. Bell,” said Dicky after a while, “Mr. Jenkins, the boatswain’s -mate, says, as if there was a press gang ’lowed in the American navy, we -could get some mighty good men; we’d like to have—you, sir, for one.” - -Jack shook his head forlornly. - -“There ain’t no press gang, more’s the pity. If there was, and they -knowed there was a able-bodied sailor man like me ’round about, I’d ha’ -been nabbed long ago; and Cap’n Forrester couldn’t say as how I’d broke -my word when I was took by force aboard a American ship and made to -jine.” - -“Well,” persisted Dicky, “would you be glad or sorry if there was a -press gang and you was took?” - -“Boy,” said Jack sorrowfully, “you’re axin’ me a mighty foolish -question. In course I’d be glad. I’d run the risk of bein’ swung up if -we was captured and I was found out—but there ain’t no chance at all. -I’ve give my word to Cap’n Forrester, an’ I can’t break it; and it ain’t -likely that I’ll be lucky enough to be took by force.” - -Dicky said no more, but an idea had evidently taken possession of his -mind. His eyes began to sparkle, he whispered to himself as he sat in -the chimney corner, and his mother saw that something was up. Jack Bell -saw nothing, but sat and smoked gloomily. The widow gave Dicky a good -supper, and a basket of apples to take on board with him; and about -eight o’clock he started to leave. He motioned to his mother to come -outside with him when he left. - -“Mammy,” said he, “don’t you be scared if a gang from the Raleigh busts -in on you some night. I won’t tell you what it’s for, but you needn’t -think I’ve been in any harm; so just don’t you be scared about me;” and -without another word Dicky dashed down the rocky path to where he was to -meet the boat. - -Next day, after the men had had their morning exercise, Dicky went and -stood by the mast as he had seen men do who wished to speak to the -officer of the deck. The officer, Lieutenant Dobell, advanced to speak -with him. Dicky had rehearsed exactly what he meant to say to the -lieutenant, but when he was actually to say it, his tongue clove to the -roof of his mouth. At last, though with much stammering and stuttering, -he managed to get out that “Mr. Bell could be took.” At first Mr. Dobell -could not make head or tail of Dicky’s meaning, but in a little while it -was cleared up. Mr. Dobell, too, had heard of Jack Bell, and the idea of -having such a steady, reliable man-o’-war’s-man on board was very -agreeable to him. He merely told Dicky, though, to say nothing of what -he had told, and he would think over the matter. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER. - - -About a week after this Dicky was told by his friend Jenkins, the -boatswain’s mate, that he would be needed that night to pilot the way to -his mother’s cottage. Dicky grinned with delight and could hardly wait -until night came. At last, after the longest day he ever spent, eight -o’clock arrived. Jenkins called him and, in company with eight sailors -and Mr. Dobell, they dropped into one of the ship’s boats alongside; -and, pulling with a steady man-’o-war’s stroke, soon reached a lonely -spot on the shore near the Widow Stubbs’ cottage and silently took their -march up the rocky path, Dicky leading to show them the way. - -Arrived at the cottage they peered through the window and saw Jack Bell -sitting alone and dismally before the fire, smoking as usual. The Widow -Stubbs was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Dobell, noticing Jack’s brawny figure -and hale and hearty countenance, was more than ever in favor of having -him among the Raleigh’s crew. He directed Dicky to knock at the door, -and Jack opened it, whereupon Mr. Dobell and Dicky walked in, leaving -the eight sailors to watch outside. - -Jack Bell recognized Dicky at once by the light of the spluttering pine -logs, and after a moment of hesitation rose and saluted Mr. Dobell. - -The officer returned the salute and then said in a jovial voice:— - -“Do you want to know what we came for? Well, I’ll tell you. We know that -you are a first-class sailor and a good man, and we want just such brave -fellows on the Raleigh; and, as I hear you promised Captain Forrester -not to enlist in the American navy, we concluded we’d get you by other -means. So come along quietly with me, or I’ll call in eight men I have -outside and take you.” - -For a minute Jack Bell’s face was a study. He saw the whole scheme, and -the struggle between his delight and his sense of duty to his promise -was plain. After a moment he spoke, saluting again as he did so. - -“Sir,” said he, “I’m a uneddicated man, and maybe that’s why it is I -don’t always know what my duty is—but I want to do it if I can find it -out. Now, I don’t go for to say as I don’t want to be took—God knows I -do—but I hadn’t oughter give in without a fight—and if you’ll jist let -me square off and make a fight agin them eight chaps ’twould make me -easy in my mind.” - -“You won’t stand much of a show, my man,” replied Mr. Dobell, laughing -at Jack’s simplicity but respecting it, “so you might as well give in.” - -“One moment, sir,” asked Jack. “I don’t like to have no fightin’ in a -respectable widder woman’s house like this ’ere”— - -“Can’t help that,” said Mr. Dobell, still laughing; and stepping to the -door he motioned to the men outside and eight stalwart sailors marched -in. - -“Boys,” said Jack, “I ain’t sayin’ you won’t git me, but I think it’s my -duty to give you all the trouble I can, so I’ll just take this poker”— - -Jack reached forward and was about to seize the poker, when Dicky, as -active as a cat, whisked it out of the way. The next weapon at hand was -a stool, but before Jack could get hold of it Mr. Dobell gave it a kick -which sent it flying. The sailors closed in with a rush, but Jack, with -his stout arms swinging around like a Dutch windmill, laid more than one -of them low before he was overpowered. The struggle was short and sharp, -and in a minute or two Jack’s arms were pinioned by a couple of grinning -sailors, while two that he had floored were scrambling to their feet. - -“Sir,” said Jack to Mr. Dobell, “I calls you to witness that I made a -fight for my promise, and I axes you to give me your word in writin’ as -how I was took by force.” - -“I will,” answered Mr. Dobell, “and I think you have barked the shins -and blacked the eyes of two of my men, so come along. You, boy, remain -here until your mother comes to explain affairs to her.” - -Jack was carried on board the Raleigh and in due course of time was -offered his choice by Captain Thompson of enlisting or being put in -irons. - -“If you please, sir,” said Jack respectfully, “now as you’ve took me -I’ve got to sarve, but I’d ruther not be on the ship’s books.” - -“Of course,” answered Captain Thompson, “I would enlist you under -another name.” - -“’Tain’t that, sir,” said Jack. “I’m willin’ to sarve for my vittles and -does, but I don’t want no pay and no prize money, because I want to let -Cap’n Forrester know some day as I didn’t break my word and I didn’t -make nothin’ out of bein’ took, and I ax you to make a note in writin’ -and give it to me.” - -This the captain agreed to do, and Jack, with his testimony from Mr. -Dobell and that from the captain stored away in his ditty box, took his -place among the ship’s crew with a goodwill and the happiest heart in -the world. Captain Thompson, moreover, to ease Jack’s mind still -further, gave orders that he was to be watched and on no account to be -given liberty to go ashore, so that even had he wished to run away he -would have found it impossible; and within a week the Raleigh had -tripped her anchor and was off for a cruise along the southern coast. -Never were there two happier human beings than Jack Bell and Dicky -Stubbs. Dicky, it is true, occasionally felt down-hearted when he -thought how lonely his mother must be, but he chose rather to think of -the joy of meeting her again, and determined to try meanwhile and lead -the life his mother would wish him to lead. Jack kept a sharp eye on him -and if he showed any slight inclination to do what was not perfectly -correct, or to shirk his work, Jack would bring him up with a round -turn. So, what with a naturally good disposition and a wholesome -restraint and discipline Dicky was both a good and a useful boy. His -singing made him universally popular on board, and he was often sent for -in the long evenings to sing to the officers in the ward room and even -to the captain in the cabin. As for the fok’sle, Dicky could easily have -got all of his work done in exchange for his singing, which was a great -diversion, particularly when one of the petty officers taught him to -scrape a little on the violin. But Jack Bell was always at hand to make -him do his full share and more of all there was to do—in which Jack -proved himself to be Dicky’s best friend. The story of the song about -General Prescott had got abroad in the ship and Dicky was incessantly -chaffed about it. - -Jack had been a signal man for many years in the British navy and amused -his leisure time while cruising by making a tolerably complete set of -signal flags to use in an emergency. Dicky, who would much rather have -been singing and fiddling than sewing, was nevertheless made to help -Jack, and the two passed many hours sitting together on the gun deck -stitching away industriously. - -“I wonder what mammy’ll say when she finds I can play the fiddle,” Dicky -would ask with boyish conceit. - -“Dunno,” Jack would answer, slyly chaffing Dicky, “but I reckon she’ll -be mightily pleased when she finds you can sew up a pair o’ breeches as -good as any tailor man as ever set cross-legged.” - -“But I ain’t a-goin’ to do no sewin’ when I’m ashore,” cried Dicky, his -dignity much wounded. “I only do it now because I’m obliged to, and -mammy won’t ask or expect me to sew up my own breeches at home.” - -“P’raps not,” Jack would answer diplomatically. - -They had cruised now for some weeks and had captured several small -merchant ships, but Captain Thompson was looking for a warship to -engage. On a bright September evening they sighted a large fleet of -merchantmen which they hoped might be convoyed by a ship of war. - -There was a good breeze, and the Raleigh being an excellent sailer both -on and off the wind laid her head for the fleet. To divert suspicion and -to appear like a merchantman, Captain Thompson hoisted the British -ensign, lowered his ports, and had his guns on deck covered with -tarpaulins. He sent the men below with instructions at the first tap of -the drum to go to quarters, and Dicky as drummer boy was ordered to -bring his drum on deck, where he hid it behind a gun and covered it with -his jacket. - -It was late in the afternoon before the ships had been seen and it was -near sunset when the Raleigh, flying British colors, sailed boldly in -among the fleet. There were sixteen or seventeen vessels, somewhat -widely separated, and one large ship, considerably to windward, whose -squareness of rig and generally fine appearance induced Captain Thompson -to think she might be a heavy British frigate. But if so her commander -had disguised her so effectually that her real character could not be -known until the Raleigh got considerably closer than she was then. - -When the Raleigh got within signaling distance of the fleet, Captain -Thompson sent for Jack Bell, who, with Dicky Stubbs to help him, spread -out his signal flags. All of the officers were on deck except Mr. -Dobell, the first lieutenant, who was ill in his berth, just recovering -from a sharp attack of rheumatism. The second lieutenant, therefore, was -to superintend the signaling. The large ship was plainly visible on the -horizon when the sun was sinking in a blaze of glory. As soon as Jack -Bell caught sight of her he said to the lieutenant very respectfully:— - -“Axin’ your parding, sir, but that ’ere ship is a seventy-four. I sarved -forty year in the British navy, and I can tell one o’ them ships as fur -as I can see ’em.” - -“I think you are mistaken, Bell,” answered the young officer, who did -not know as much about the run and rig of a seventy-four as Jack Bell. -“No doubt there is a warship somewhere about convoying the fleet, but it -is not that large ship off the quarter; but I will speak to the -captain.” - -Captain Thompson agreed with his second lieutenant that the ship was not -a seventy-four. Jack said no more, and the twilight coming on, the ship, -although she grew larger as they approached her, also grew less distinct -in her character and outlines. - -Captain Thompson then sailed boldly into the fleet of merchantmen and -signaled, “Where is your convoy?” - -The signal was evidently understood, as the nearest vessel promptly hung -out several signal flags in reply. But in the dusky evening, it was -impossible to read them. However, the American captain thought it -prudent to act as if he had read them, and signaled back, “We have -orders to find your convoy.” - -The impudence of this tickled the Americans, and the officers with -difficulty suppressed a cheer from the men. Dicky Stubbs laughed so loud -that Jack Bell gave him a whack in good earnest, which caused Dicky to -be perfectly quiet afterward. - -Meanwhile the big ship was evidently edging off, which made the sanguine -Americans certain that she was a merchant ship. - -“Maybe she is—and maybe she’s waitin’ until we gits under her -broadside,” mumbled Jack Bell to himself. - -“She’s shy, my men,” cried Captain Thompson, who was young and brave and -rash, pointing to the ship, which continued to edge off. “We will signal -her and see what account she will give of herself,” continued the -captain. - -The little Raleigh had now lessened the distance nearly one half between -herself and the big ship, which showed not a single porthole and seemed -to be keeping off most determinedly. Accordingly the Raleigh signaled, -“Where is your convoy?” - -A faint moon showed its shimmering disk over the horizon, and those on -the Raleigh could plainly read the stranger’s answer:— - -“We have none.” - -The Raleigh then made this bold assertion: - -“We have your superior officer aboard.” - -By that time the Raleigh had gained on the big ship, which still showed -a disposition to get away. Nevertheless it signaled back: “We think you -are mistaken.” - -By that time both ships were running free on the same tack, under a good -working breeze. Suddenly the stranger luffed short around; her whole -starboard side seemed to fly open; a double row of heavy guns were run -out, as if by magic, and the whole broadside of a seventy-four roared -out and raked the American from stem to stern. Fortunately the men had -been kept below, in the effort to disguise the Raleigh, and by extreme -good fortune, although several of the few officers and men on deck were -wounded and all were thrown to the deck, none were killed. But the -destruction on the ship was frightful. Many of her guns were dismounted, -her masts and spars were so wounded that she became for the time -unmanageable, and it was plain that she could not survive another such -broadside. - -Captain Thompson, with blood streaming down his face, soon regained his -feet—but one glance showed him the state of affairs. The Raleigh had -lost her leeway and swung around with her head to the wind, perfectly -helpless under the guns of her huge antagonist. The seventy-four -meanwhile, shortening sail with the utmost quickness and precision, was -in a few minutes ready to repeat her performance. - -“We will give her one round for the honor of the flag, if we go to the -bottom for it,” cried Captain Thompson. “Sound your drum, boy, as loud -as you can!” - -Dicky at this began a tremendous tattoo, at the first sound of which the -men rushed from below, and running to their quarters every gun on the -Raleigh’s port side, which lay toward the seventy-four, thundered -out—and, immediately after, the American ensign was hauled down, as -resistance was useless. In another moment a boat was lowered from the -seventy-four and pulled toward the Raleigh. The officers, with Captain -Thompson at their head, stood at the port gangway to receive the -boarding officer. - -It had passed so quickly that Dicky was stunned by it all. He saw as in -a dream the British officer come aboard, Captain Thompson offer his -sword, which was courteously declined—and he, with the other officers, -taken off to the British ship, which turned out to be the Ajax, one of -the finest seventy-fours in the British navy. Not a murmur was heard -against Captain Thompson, whose rashness had brought the Raleigh’s -company to that evil pass. He had made a frightful mistake, but it was -the mistake of a brave man, duped by a skilful enemy. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - THE ENEMY OUTWITTED. - - -A prize crew was immediately thrown on board the Raleigh, but with the -contempt for the American navy which the British naturally felt at the -time, it was thought enough to send a young lieutenant, a midshipman, -and twenty men to take charge of the American ship. The crew were all on -deck, about to be mustered by their captors, when Jack Bell, finding -Dicky Stubbs, pale and awed, standing next him, whispered very softly:— - -“Has you seen Mr. Dobell anywheres about?” - -“No,” answered Dicky just as softly, “he ain’t able to move hardly yet.” - -“You slip below, then,” Jack continued hurriedly but impressively, “and -tell him there ain’t but twenty men and two officers aboard—and they -thinks they has got all the officers—and if he kin manage to git into -the men’s quarters and git a suit of sailor’s clo’es on him, they won’t -never suspect we has a officer among us; but if we has an officer, we -can git the ship back before they knows it. Now, can you remember that, -boy?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Dicky—and in the confusion he easily managed to get -below. With his heart in his mouth he ran to Mr. Dobell’s room. The -lieutenant, much disabled by rheumatism, had yet managed to crawl as far -as his door. He surmised only too well the state of affairs above, and -when Dicky in an agitated whisper gave Jack Bell’s message, Dobell saw -at once what was meant. Only twenty men and two young officers! He -balanced rapidly in his own mind the chances he took, not forgetting the -parole that he might expect as an officer, and the imprisonment he might -suffer if he assumed the character of an ordinary seaman—but he saw the -opportunity opening before him, and he also knew how level-headed and -experienced Jack Bell was in spite of his humble position and want of -school education. Nor did Mr. Dobell forget that although in the -excitement of the moment he might have been overlooked for a little -while, that very soon he would be inquired after and searched for—but a -plan instantly suggested itself to him on that point. Picking up his cap -he hobbled, with Dicky’s assistance, down to the men’s quarters. Nearly -all the lights had been put out by the shock of the Ajax’s broadside, -but by Mr. Dobell’s instructions Dicky put out every one in their wake -that remained. He then told the boy as they passed the carpenters’ -quarters to look around for a grindstone that he could lift. Dicky got -hold of one that he could lift very handily, as he was a strong boy. - -“Now,” said Mr. Dobell hurriedly, “get some sailor togs on me; then put -my officer’s clothes up in a bundle and hide them until I can get a -chance to throw them overboard; and next throw the grindstone overboard, -with my cap after it, and rush up shouting, ‘Man overboard!’ and they -will think it is I—but tell Bell privately that I am here.” - -By that time they were in the sickbay, where there were two or three men -ill, and in a minute or two Mr. Dobell was in a hammock, looking as ill -as any of them. Dicky ran back and by almost superhuman efforts managed -to get the heavy grindstone overboard and threw Mr. Dobell’s cap after -it. A loud splash was heard, and Dicky rushed up on deck shouting, “Man -overboard!” - -This added to the commotion prevailing on deck. The boarding boat was at -the gangway, and the young midshipman jumping in, the boat’s crew pulled -toward the bow of the boat, where the splash had been heard. They saw an -officer’s cap floating near by and it was picked up, and for half an -hour they pulled back and forth over the place where the grindstone had -gone down, upon the chance of saving the supposed unfortunate officer. - -On deck Jack Bell, by some occult means, had passed the word around -among the Americans that something was up and they must be on their -guard. When the boat returned with the officer’s cap, it was at once -identified as Mr. Dobell’s by the initials in it, and on looking into -his room it was found empty. The British lieutenant thought he had -conclusive proof that the first lieutenant had either fallen or jumped -overboard; and Jack Bell propounded a plausible theory that Mr. Dobell, -being unable to get on deck, had managed to lean out of the cabin window -so far, in his effort to see what was happening above, that he lost his -balance and fell overboard. “And he were a good officer, were Mr. -Dobell,” said Jack with much feeling; “and he must ha’ felt awful bad -when he knowed he couldn’t lift his hand to help the poor Raleigh.” - -Jack’s theory was shared by the British officers, and when they found -two or three sailors in the sickbay it did not occur to them that the -one who appeared the most ill was the first lieutenant of the ship. - -In a little while the ship was completely under the control of her -captors and nearly a hundred American prisoners were sent below the -hatches, while the damages to the ship were repaired as far as possible. -This was not finished until morning, when the Ajax and her prize parted -company, the Raleigh being directed to report at Philadelphia, which had -then fallen in the power of the British. - -The melancholy news of Mr. Dobell’s supposed loss had been conveyed to -his old shipmates on the Ajax, and added to the distress they suffered. -The American prisoners on the Raleigh, although closely guarded, were -perfectly free to communicate with each other. A plan was formed to -seize the ship as soon as Mr. Dobell was able to move about, which would -be shortly, as he was mending fast. A sentry, fully armed, always stood -at the hatchway, but if once he could be disarmed or thrown off his -guard, the Americans rushing up could get possession of the deck, and -the rest would be easy. Mr. Dobell had the management of the whole -scheme, and it was desired to carry it into effect before they reached -Northern waters which swarmed with British cruisers. Jack Bell was Mr. -Dobell’s righthand man; and after two or three days, when the lieutenant -was able to get about his cramped quarters fairly well, Jack took Dicky -aside and whispered to him: “When the officer comes down to inspect -to-morrow morning, do you be singing the prettiest song you have, and -fiddling, too, and maybe he’ll notice you; and then I’ll tell you what -to do.” - -Next morning, therefore, when the officer came below, Dicky was singing -away like a thrush “When the Wind at Night Whistles Over the Deep,” and -playing his accompaniment on the violin. He stopped, as if caught by the -officer; but apparently the young British lieutenant had no ear for -music and passed on without noticing him. The British sailors, though, -had heard him, and as music was highly prized on board ship to break the -monotony, Dicky was soon asked for, to sing and play to the men in the -fok’sle during their leisure hours. Thus, he was often allowed on deck -for an hour at a time, and never failed to use his eyes very sharply and -to carry down the news to Mr. Dobell, whose character as an officer was -not in the least suspected by his captors. They had experienced contrary -winds, and although ten days had passed since the Raleigh’s capture, -they had not yet passed the capes of North Carolina. - -On a certain day though, when Mr. Dobell was able to walk about with -comfort, Dicky had got his instructions, and with a beating heart but an -undaunted courage he went above, when he was called for. It was Sunday, -and the few sailors that could be spared were sitting around the fok’sle -smoking and spinning yarns. Dinner had been served to them and directly -afterward the hatches would be opened to send the prisoners’ dinner down -to them. Dicky was permitted to go as far as the main hatchway. It had -just been opened and two cooks descended, followed by two sailors armed -with pistols and cutlasses. As they disappeared below a slight noise, as -of scuffling bare feet, was heard. The sentry, with his piece at his -shoulder, advanced, and at the same moment Dicky, rushing at him from -behind, pulled his legs from under him and he fell sprawling down the -hatchway. In another minute the Americans came rushing up on deck headed -by Mr. Dobell who, although unable to take any active part, yet -commanded with skill and coolness. They had the pistols and cutlasses of -the two sailors they had disarmed below, and they had seized the musket -and pistols of the sentry. In another moment the sailors sitting around -the fok’sle were overpowered before they had a chance to make any -resistance, and Mr. Dobell, directing pistols to be leveled at the heads -of the lookouts, they came down with alacrity. All this was done with -surprisingly little noise, as the Americans had been ordered to act as -quietly as possible and had left their shoes below. - -Fifteen out of the twenty men had been captured, and it was now -determined to bag the two officers. Mr. Dobell, who had become -wonderfully active under the influence of excitement and success, -quickly and noiselessly descended the cabin hatchway. The cabin door was -open, and the lieutenant, with his back to it, sat at the table calmly -enjoying his dinner; while the young midshipman, leaning on the transom, -craned his neck far out of a porthole to see what caused the faint but -strange noises on deck. - -Mr. Dobell signaled to two brawny young Americans who walked abreast -with him, and the next instant a stout arm encircled the lieutenant’s -head, across his eyes, and a pair of equally stout arms pinioned him -behind. The lieutenant uttered a loud yell, but the midshipman with his -head out of the port did not hear it. He felt, though, someone dragging -him backward, and the next thing he knew he was gracefully seated on the -floor and the cabin was full of Americans. By that time the five -remaining British sailors had been overpowered and the ship was in the -hands of the Americans. - -The lieutenant struggled violently for an instant, when Mr. Dobell -spoke:— - -“Remove your arm from his eyes.” - -The sailor who had covered the officer’s eyes took his arm away. The -young lieutenant gave one quick glance around and became perfectly -quiet. - -“Sir,” said Mr. Dobell, “this ship is in possession of the Americans, -and to show you that it is, you shall be freed from personal restraint.” - -The sailor who held him let go, and the lieutenant rose and looked about -him. - -“At all events,” he said coolly, “there is no commissioned officer among -you, and it is not likely that any of you foremast people can navigate a -ship.” - -“I beg your pardon,” answered Mr. Dobell politely, “but I am Lieutenant -Dobell of the Continental navy, and I feel altogether capable of taking -this ship anywhere I wish. It was not I, but a grindstone, that fell -overboard the night of the capture. I felt that with an officer to -direct them our men could get the ship back, and for that reason I chose -to spend my time below the hatches. Now, however, I promise myself the -pleasure of your company in the cabin.” - -The lieutenant, not to be outdone in politeness, answered with admirable -self-possession: “When you have made your dispositions on the ship I -should be pleased to have your company at dinner, for I conceive myself -the host at this one meal at least.” - -“Thank you,” responded Mr. Dobell. “I will not keep you longer than I -can possibly help, for I acknowledge that the fare and table service -under the hatches has not been altogether to my liking.” - -Mr. Dobell then went on deck, and directing the prisoners to be -mustered, they were marched below and occupied the late quarters of the -Americans. No bad blood was shown on either side, but a philosophic -acceptance of a change of conditions. Mr. Dobell had his plans so well -made and easily carried out that within half an hour he rejoined the -lieutenant in the cabin and ate the first good meal he had enjoyed for -ten days; while the Raleigh, once more an American ship, bounded along -under a freshening breeze to the music of three thundering cheers, given -by the Americans as soon as they had leisure to celebrate their -adventure. - -Dicky Stubbs was the happiest little soul imaginable. He had been the -only one among all the Americans allowed on deck, and the news he had -carried below, and his achievements in pulling the sentry’s legs from -under him, made Dicky a considerable hero in his own eyes. But Mr. -Dobell, after seeing the boy every day in the time of their -imprisonment, had concluded that he was a remarkably brave, sensible, -and reliable boy, and had determined to interest himself in Dicky’s -future welfare. - -Mr. Dobell decided to make for Newport. They had favoring breezes all -the way and passed many British cruisers, to all of which the Raleigh -showed British colors and signaled that she had been taken from the -Americans. But whenever a disposition was shown to speak her, she always -made off with a swiftness that caused many an angry captain to promise -himself the pleasure of reporting her to the admiral as wanting in the -first principle of that courtesy which should prevail upon the seas. - -The melancholy news that the Raleigh had been captured by the Ajax was -brought to Newport one day by a trader from New York; and there was no -sadder heart in Newport than that of the Widow Stubbs. She spent no -time, however, in useless lamenting, for she had given her boy to her -country cheerfully and knew what the sacrifice meant. And she consoled -herself by thinking that it was after all but a temporal misfortune, not -comparable to what might have been had Dicky been caught lying, -stealing, or playing the rascal in any way. But she could not refrain -from crying a little when, about sunset on the day the bad news came, -she looked out of the window of her little house and thought that was -the time that Dicky had been wont to come home jingling his pennies in -his pockets with a vast air of importance before throwing them into her -lap, and then demanding his supper as if he owned the earth. But—strange -sight!—there lay a handsome little frigate at anchor in the harbor that -looked astonishingly like the Raleigh; and—oh, happy miracle!—there was -Dicky himself rushing up the path, followed by Jack Bell on a dog trot; -and then the door burst open and Dicky, grown about a foot taller and -broader, jumped into his mother’s arms, and Jack Bell marched in and -began sawing her arm up and down. The Widow Stubbs was so amazed, -astounded, and delighted that she was quite beside herself; and Dicky -poured out a rigmarole, his tongue going like a millwheel, all about -knocking the sentry down, and playing the fiddle, and what Mr. Dobell -was going to do for him. - -“What does he mean, Mr. Bell?” asked the Widow Stubbs helplessly, after -having hugged and kissed Dicky twenty times over. - -“The brat means, ma’am,” responded Jack as he solemnly cut a large quid -of tobacco and placed it in his cheek, “as how he’s did his duty—no more -and no less—but, like all brats, he’s makin’ a big hullabaloo over jest -a-doin’ of his duty, like ’twas sumpin’ extryordinary. I don’t go for to -say as he ain’t a smart chap—but he’s had adwantages, bein’ took young -into the navy, where most of the smart men is found, ma’am—and I think -he’ll live to be a credit and a comfort to you, ma’am.” - -“He will, if he only does his duty just as it lies before him,” said the -widow softly, and kissing Dicky’s freckled nose. - -“I’ll try to, mammy,” answered Dicky sturdily. - -And he kept his promise very faithfully. The day came, when the war was -over and America was free, that his mother saw him captain of a fine -ship and able to give her a better house to live in than she had ever -known in all her life. Jack Bell took possession of the little cottage, -where he spent many happy years, and always pointed to the brave, -bright, and successful Captain Richard Stubbs as a monument of what -“bein’ ketched young and put into the navy” would do for a man. - - - - - FOOTNOTES - - -[1]The sailors’ name for a marine. - -[2]Citizen. - -[3]The appliance for hanging men at the yardarm. - -[4]The songs in this book are not original. - -[5]This song is not original, but is taken from an old naval song book, - very popular in the last century. The incidents concerning this song - and General Prescott’s words on the occasion are historically - accurate. - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - ---_Two_ illustrations listed in the Table are missing from the book. - ---Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public - domain in the country of publication. - ---In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the - HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.) - ---Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and - dialect unchanged. - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Quarterdeck and Fok'sle, by Molly Elliot Seawell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK QUARTERDECK AND FOK'SLE *** - -***** This file should be named 62483-0.txt or 62483-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/4/8/62483/ - -Produced by D A Alexander, Stephen Hutcheson, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -https://www.pgdp.net; with special thanks to the librarians -at the University of Washington in Seattle, who went above -and beyond the call of duty, to track down pages missing -from the only copy available online. 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