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-Project Gutenberg's Pat the Lighthouse Boy, by Evelyn Everett-Green
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Pat the Lighthouse Boy
-
-Author: Evelyn Everett-Green
-
-Release Date: September 11, 2020 [EBook #63182]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAT THE LIGHTHOUSE BOY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by MWS, Tom Cosmas and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber Note
-
-Text emphasis denoted as _Italics_.
-
-
-
-
-                                   PAT
-
-                            THE LIGHTHOUSE BOY
-
-[Illustration: "Where will you go, Jim, when they do take you
-ashore?"--_Page 199._]
-
-
-
-
-                                  _Pat_
-
-                          _The Lighthouse Boy._
-
-
-                                    BY
-
-                            E. EVERETT-GREEN,
-
-                                AUTHOR OF
-
-               "EUSTACE MARCHMONT;" "WINNING THE VICTORY;"
-                       "TEMPLE'S TRIAL;" ETC. ETC.
-
-
-                               _NEW YORK_:
-                             WARD & DRUMMOND.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-  CHAP.                                            PAGE
-
-     I. LONE ROCK LIGHTHOUSE                          9
-
-    II. "SURLY JIM"                                  25
-
-   III. AN ODD PAIR                                  45
-
-    IV. LONE ROCK IN FOG AND STORM                   62
-
-     V. A TERRIBLE NIGHT                             85
-
-    VI. JIM'S EXPLOIT                               102
-
-   VII. THE LITTLE PRINCE                           122
-
-  VIII. "POOR JIM"                                  139
-
-    IX. HELP FROM SHORE                             157
-
-     X. A WONDERFUL DAY                             173
-
-    XI. THE PROMISED VISIT                          195
-
-   XII. HAPPY DAYS                                  213
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
-  "Where will you go, Jim, when they do take you
-      ashore?"                           _Frontispiece_
-
-        PAGE
-
-  Jim opened a door close by                         33
-
-  At last, on the third day, it began to feed from
-      his hand                                        81
-
-  He seemed to have received no injury at all, and
-      began to swallow the warm milk                 117
-
-  "That's our boat, I do believe!" cried Rupert      181
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-PAT
-
-THE LIGHTHOUSE BOY
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-_LONE ROCK LIGHTHOUSE_
-
-
-"O mother, mother, mother!" cried Pat, drawing a long breath of awe and
-wonder, "it seems like as if we had gone straight to heaven!"
-
-"Nay, my son, not quite to heaven, for sure the blessed book tells us
-that there will be no more sea there;" and the woman looked out over the
-heaving expanse of grey-blue water with a strange soft wistfulness in her
-big grey eyes. One would have said to look at her then that she had known
-what it meant to lose those near and dear to her through the hungry cruel
-sea, as indeed in her young life she had done; for she was an Irish woman,
-and had lived all her young life beside the wild coast of Galway, and many
-of those who bore her name had found a last resting-place beneath the
-heaving tossing waves. Therefore it was small wonder if she had come to
-look forward to that bright land beyond the moaning waves, of which it has
-been expressly said that "there shall be no more sea."
-
-But Patrick could scarcely enter at this moment into his mother's
-feelings on this score. He was wild with excitement and delight, as indeed
-he well might be, seeing that he had only just come from a close crowded
-alley in a smelling fishing and trading town to this lighthouse home,
-which seemed to lie alone in the very heart of the sea, with nothing
-above or around but sea and sky, the wild sea-birds for visitors, and the
-plash of the waves for one long "hush-a-by." No wonder if in these first
-moments of returning consciousness to outward things, little Pat felt as
-though some strange thing, almost like death, had befallen him, and that
-he had awakened to find himself either in heaven itself, or else in some
-beautiful and wonderful place very like to it indeed.
-
-For Pat had been very ill. He had been a frail little fellow all his short
-life, and had never been able to run about and shout and play as the other
-children did who lived in his court. He had spent most of his time indoors
-with his mother, growing more and more wan and white with each succeeding
-summer as it came and went. Although the sea lay only a mile away from
-his home, he had scarcely ever walked as far as its margin, for there was
-nothing to attract him when he did so. It was not beautiful open sea such
-as what he was now looking upon, but a piece of ugly tidal water, with
-quays and wharfs lining the brink, and evil smells everywhere.
-
-His father had a boat, and would have taken his boy out with him in it
-sometimes; but Pat was afraid of the rough looks of the other men, and his
-mother knew that the frail child would be weary to death long before he
-could be put ashore. So that Pat had grown up seeing little more than the
-sights of his own court, hearing little besides the shouts and cries and
-foul words so freely bandied about there. He had not been much better off
-in that respect than if he had come from a London slum, and this sudden
-awakening in the Lone Rock Lighthouse was like an awakening in a new world.
-
-It was on Pat's account that his parents had come to this strange new
-home. When the hot May sunshine had come streaming into the alley in which
-the child had been reared, he had suddenly failed and fallen ill of a low
-fever, which had almost sapped his little life away; and so near had he
-come to the gates of death, that the doctor had shaken his head and said,
-"There is only one thing that can save him, and that is lots of fresh
-air and sunshine and pure salt breezes--not the breezes you get in here,
-reeking with all that is foul and impure. If you keep him here, he will
-die. The only chance for him is to take him right away; and I am afraid
-that, situated as you are, you will find it impossible to do so."
-
-Perhaps it would have been impossible at another time; but just at this
-very juncture it chanced that Lone Rock Lighthouse was vacant, and indeed
-the post of caretaker had actually been offered to Nathaniel Carey,
-because he was known to be a steady respectable man, who could be relied
-upon to do his duty there. Lone Rock Lighthouse was always changing its
-keeper, for the life there was so solitary that men could not long stand
-the strain of it; and by the end of a year, or a couple of years, almost
-always resigned the post, in spite of the regular pay and comfortable home.
-
-It was not a post that Nat would have cared to accept under ordinary
-circumstances, for he was a sociable man, and liked to have other men
-about him; but when the life of his only child was at stake, and his wife,
-with wan drawn face and piteous eyes, pointed to the little figure on
-the bed and told him what the doctor had said, the only thing to be done
-was to go and accept the post without any more hesitation; and the next
-business was to get the sick child removed there upon the first calm and
-suitable day.
-
-For Lone Rock was not to be approached at all times and seasons, even in
-summer weather, and often was cut off from communication with the shore
-in winter for many weeks together. It was built upon a very dangerous
-sunken reef, round which the sea boiled and surged and raged from year's
-end to year's end. And herein lay the chief peril and the chief drawback
-of the keeper's life. If anything were to go wrong with him or with his
-home--if he were to be ill, or in want of some necessary of life, or if
-the structure of the lighthouse needed attention, it might be long weary
-days, or even weeks, before he could receive the help he had signalled
-for. It is true that every precaution was taken to ensure his safety. The
-structure was carefully examined by competent persons at short intervals.
-A large store of dried and salted provisions was always kept under the
-roof of the building, so that the keeper and his assistant might never be
-put to actual shifts for food, and stores of oil, for the great lamp, were
-likewise kept--stores which could scarcely run out, however long a spell
-of bad weather might last. Every care and precaution was taken; but for
-all that the life there was one of singular isolation, and men had been
-known to go mad during the long dreary winter months; and once a terrible
-crime had been committed there through this very cause--a crime of which
-men whispered still sometimes with 'bated breath, though Pat's mother
-always resolved that the child should never hear the gruesome tale.
-
-Eileen Carey was the first woman who had had the courage to make a home
-upon the Lone Rock. Other keepers had either been unmarried men, or had
-left their wives behind for the time that they lived there. But Nat Carey
-came with his wife and his child; and those in authority were glad that it
-was so, for they argued that a man who had a real home about him would not
-suffer from the loneliness of the life as others had done; and they had
-done several things to brighten up the little home before the new-comers
-arrived there. Eileen's clever hands had done more so soon as they were
-fairly landed, for little Pat required very little nursing, as he lay
-day after day in a trance of weakness and exhaustion. But his mother was
-satisfied that each day he grew slightly stronger, and was quite content
-to wait until he should awaken to a knowledge of his new surroundings,
-which she meantime strove to make as bright and as homelike as possible;
-for she meant that her husband and her little boy should not lack any of
-the comforts which her hands could provide during their whole stay on the
-Lone Rock.
-
-And now the mother was to have her reward. For several days Pat had begun
-to look about him, to follow her movements with his eyes, to answer when
-she spoke to him, and to smile when she looked his way. He was a long time
-in taking notice of anything except his mother and father. It seemed to
-them as though he had no eyes for any of the other strange things about
-him. He must have known that this new room, with its whitewashed walls,
-so spotless and clean, its queer shape, its fresh furniture and bright
-curtains to the sunny window, was not the room in which he had lived for
-all the previous years of his small life. Yet he did not take any open
-notice of these things for many days, and his mother would not let him
-be spoken to about them, for, as she truly said, if he hadn't strength
-to take them in with his eyes, he had far better be let alone till the
-strength began to come back to him of itself.
-
-And now that time had come. Pat had for some days been noticing
-everything--noticing with an ever-increasing curiosity and pleasure. He
-had begun by asking what was "that funny noise that never stopped;" and
-when his mother had told him it was the sound of the waves, he had asked
-"how they got there, for they didn't use to be so near." And so little by
-little Eileen had told him all the tale--how father had been offered the
-care of Lone Rock Lighthouse, and how the doctor had said that little Pat
-might thrive and grow strong if he were to be taken right away from the
-court in which he had always lived. And Pat lay and smiled at the tale,
-and got his mother to tell it him again and again, and grew so fond of the
-song of the sea before ever he had been able to get up and look at it,
-that he often told her "it was making him well as fast as it could;" and
-she would smile with tears in her eyes and believe him.
-
-Every day had seen some improvement in little Pat's condition; but it
-seemed long to the mother before he had expressed the wish to get up and
-look out at the window. She knew that would be the first thing he was
-likely to ask for, because he lay and watched the sunny square hour after
-hour, with a smile of contentment on his face. But it was only to-day
-that he had said he wanted to get up and look; and now she was sitting
-with him wrapped in a blanket, he standing with his little bare feet upon
-the window-seat, and gazing with wide-open wondering eyes over the vast
-expanse of sparkling water that was as little like "the sea," as he had
-been accustomed to think of it, as was the noise of the waves like the
-ceaseless bawling and brawling that his ears had grown used to in the
-court whence he had come.
-
-Pat was greatly moved and excited by all he saw, and from that day forward
-was most eager and anxious to regain his strength, that he might be able
-to explore the wonders of the lighthouse, and see what manner of place his
-new home was. So he ate everything that his mother brought to him "to make
-him strong;" he slept from sunset till morning like a young bird. He began
-to chatter and laugh to his father whenever he appeared; and long before
-he could attempt to mount the giddy spiral staircase, which led to the big
-circular room where the great lamp lived, he got his father to tell him
-all about it, and at night he would get out of bed if he chanced to wake
-up to see the circle of flashing light which it cast around upon the dark
-heaving mass of waters. The child was fascinated by the thought of the
-great lamp's lonely vigil over the wide empty sea long before he was able
-to understand what it was that it was doing.
-
-The first step in the child's convalescence which seemed to mark the
-era of "getting better," was when he was able to be dressed and to go
-into the other room for his meals. The base of the lighthouse was divided
-into several queer-shaped rooms. There was the sleeping-room, in which
-the child had hitherto spent all his time; and opening from that was the
-kitchen or living room, in which he was used to hear his mother bustling
-about as he lay in bed. There were also, as he presently found out, other
-smaller and darker chambers. One of these was appropriated to the use of
-the keeper's assistant, whilst others contained the stores for the lamp
-and its caretakers, of which mention has been made before. It was quite
-a surprise to Pat to learn that he and his parents were not the only
-occupants of the lighthouse. He had never heard any strange voice from
-the inner room all the time he had been lying in bed, and so he was very
-much astonished the first day he sat up to supper, to see a heavy-looking
-dark-browed man come slouching in, and taking his seat without a word of
-explanation or apology. The child looked wonderingly at his mother.
-
-"That is Jim," she said; "Jim helps daddy with the lamp. They take it in
-turns to watch. Jim, this is our little boy, Pat--him as has been so ill,
-you know. I have told you about him often."
-
-Pat looked across the table and nodded, but Jim said nothing, and scarcely
-appeared to hear himself addressed. He took his food in perfect silence,
-and as soon as he had finished he got up and went out, and they heard him
-going heavily up the winding staircase towards the lantern house.
-
-"Can't he talk?" asked Pat wonderingly. "Is he dumb, do you think?" Eileen
-smiled, and shook her head at the question.
-
-"Nay, he can speak. He has a tongue, but he is wonderful loth to use it.
-I suppose it is the life here as has made him so quiet. Surly Jim is what
-folks call him. He has been with several keepers, but none has had a good
-word for him, save that he does his work well and can be trusted with the
-lamp. He won't be keeper, though they did offer him the place. But he
-stays on year after year when nobody else will. He does all his work well,
-and is very clean and neat; but he scarce opens his lips, save in the way
-of business, from one year's end to the other."
-
-This seemed so very strange to Pat that he sat for some time turning it
-over in his mind. He thought when he had time he would try and get Surly
-Jim to talk to him; but at present there were many other things to think
-of, and the child's head was crowded with new ideas and questions.
-
-What a fascinating place the lighthouse was! As he grew stronger, he began
-to explore it from end to end, and found new wonders every hour of the day.
-
-There was the little door leading out to the rocks on which the place
-was built, and the flight of slippery steps which led down to the tiny
-creek where the boat lay moored. There were chains for hauling up the boat
-in rough weather on to a ledge, where it would not be likely to be swept
-away, save perhaps in the very worst weather; and at low tide there was a
-wonderful mass of rock uncovered by the sea, where he could wander about
-and pick up untold treasures, such as he had never seen or dreamed of
-before. And his mother was not afraid to let him wander about here. She
-had grown up herself on the wild coast, and had no fear of the slippery
-rocks and the plashing waves. Pat was only instructed to take off shoes
-and stockings before trying to scramble about them, and very soon he
-grew so sure-footed and fearless that neither parent was afraid for him.
-Moreover, he was growing brown and healthy-looking, and stronger than he
-had ever been in his life before; and though he might not be very robust
-for some time to come, he was gaining every day, and they were glad and
-thankful to see it.
-
-Oh, that wide, wild, beautiful sea! How Pat came to love it! It was at
-once a friend and playmate and a deep unspeakable mystery. He was never
-tired of watching its wild play over the rocks, or of sitting listening
-to its deep strange voice, as it laughed or shouted in its wild wonderful
-strength. He would sit with his face towards the west as the sun was going
-down, and watch whilst the great blazing ball dipped lower and lower, till
-it sank, sank, sank, right into the sea itself. And then as the sea opened
-its mouth and swallowed it up, it seemed all dyed crimson and gold, as
-though it had caught some of the colour from the prisoner it had taken.
-
-The child would watch with awe this daily mystery, and when he found
-that every morning the sun came up again out of the sea, but in quite a
-different place, he was awed and perplexed past the power of speech. It
-never occurred to him to ask questions even of his mother about this daily
-wonder; but he watched it with unfailing interest, and seemed to drink
-in new thoughts every time it happened. He was more and more sure that
-his new home was very like heaven--not so beautiful as the real heaven,
-because Jesus would be there to make the light of it: but like it in some
-things--in its peace and beauty and wonderful calm. Pat had been so near
-to the gates of death that his mind naturally turned to thoughts like
-this. He was still not strong enough to play more than a few hours every
-day, and the rest of his time would be spent sitting on the rocks or at
-the window watching the sea, and thinking about it, until his face took a
-new expression, as though some of the sunshine and the clearness of the
-blue sea had got into them and had taken up an abode there.
-
-Very often he would carry out his little Testament to his favourite
-nooks in the rocks, and find some of the places where he loved to read. He
-was particularly fond of the chapter about the "sea of glass mingled with
-fire," because he was so sure it must be just like his own sea at sunset
-time; and there were other places he was fond of too, because they always
-set him thinking and dreaming, and chimed in with all his new ideas. He
-did not talk much about his thoughts; when he went in to his mother he
-would chatter to her of his play and of the live things he had seen in
-the pools. To his father he would ask questions about the lamp, and how
-it kept awake all the night through--whether it never went to sleep by
-accident; for to him that lamp was like a living creature. He had only
-seen it once, because the climb up the spiral stairs turned him queer and
-giddy, and his parents had bidden him wait till he was stronger before he
-tried again. But that one visit had been enough to excite him strangely,
-and he always thought with awe of the great revolving light going round
-and round the whole night through. He was never tired of hearing about it
-and asking questions; but of his own strange thoughts, when he was all
-alone with the sea and the sunshine, he said nothing. That was his own
-secret--perhaps because he lacked words in which to express himself. And
-the new, strange, beautiful life began for little Pat upon the isolated
-reef which supported Lone Rock Lighthouse.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-"_SURLY JIM_"
-
-
-One night, contrary to his usual habit, Pat could not sleep. He had been
-to sleep for some hours during the early part of the night, but now he was
-wide awake, and he did not feel like going to sleep any more. He sat up
-in bed, and looked round him in the moonlight. There were his father and
-mother, both sleeping calmly and quietly. If father was in bed, Jim must
-be up in the lighthouse, watching to see the big lamp did not "go to sleep
-by accident," as the child phrased it in his own mind. He was suddenly
-taken with a vivid curiosity to go to that lighted chamber himself. He
-had only been there by day as yet. He wondered what it would look like at
-night; and almost before he knew what he was doing, he had slipped out
-of bed, and was putting on his clothes. He did not want to disturb his
-father, who would by-and-by have to get up and take his own watch in the
-tower, as the child called it in his thoughts, so he moved softly about,
-and presently found himself creeping up the dim staircase that was lighted
-at intervals by small lamps placed in niches in the wall.
-
-It made him rather breathless to mount so many stairs, but curiosity and
-a love of adventure led him on, and presently he found himself within the
-wonderful chamber he had visited before, only that now the great bright
-lamp with its myriad wicks and wonderful reflectors was alight, and slowly
-moving round and round, so that at one time it showed a red eye to those
-out at sea in great ships, at another a green, and again a pure white
-light, as white as crystal.
-
-The child stood gazing at the wonderful mechanism without speaking a
-word. He was trying to see how it moved, and by what power the great
-reflectors moved round and round. Of course he could not understand, and
-he quickly came to the conclusion that the thing was some great living
-monster, and that it had to be watched all the night through lest it
-went to sleep, or refused to do its part properly. He wondered, with a
-thrill of nervous terror, whether it would resent his intrusion into its
-special domain. Standing as he did in the full glare of the light, he
-could not hope to escape observation, and he looked about him as if for a
-hiding-place in case of attack.
-
-And then his eye fell upon the figure of the solitary watcher--a bent
-bowed figure, in a slouching and indifferent attitude, now quite familiar
-to the child, although he and the individual who owned that rough exterior
-had never as yet exchanged a single word.
-
-Pat was not a shy child as a rule, but he had always stood in awe of
-"Surly Jim." He could eat better and chatter more freely when the man was
-not present at table. He shrank a little into himself always when Jim
-entered the living room. It was not often that he did this, save when
-called to meals, for when not on duty, he was either sleeping in his own
-room, or sitting in the boat smoking a short black pipe, and Pat had never
-attempted to approach him at these times. Now he was nearer to him than he
-had ever been, except at table, and yet the man appeared to take no manner
-of notice of his approach. He sat with his elbows on his knees, and his
-head in his hands, and did not seem to look up at the child's cautious
-approach. Pat felt certain he had been seen, but this indifference seemed
-a little uncanny. He drew near step by step, and at last laid one small
-cold hand on the knee of the assistant.
-
-"Is it alive?" he asked softly, divided in his awe of the wonderful
-mechanism and its grim watcher. The man slowly lifted his head, and stared
-at the child without attempting to speak. Pat hesitated a moment, and then
-climbed upon the bench upon which Jim was seated, and slipped his small
-thin hand within the horny palm of the man. He felt that he must have hold
-of something human up here in this strange place of light and movement. He
-was trembling, and yet he was not exactly afraid.
-
-His hand was suffered to remain where he had placed it. Jim glanced
-furtively down at the small fingers in his hard hand, and perhaps
-something of an unwonted nature stole into his heart, for, to the
-astonishment of the child, he suddenly spoke.
-
-"What did you want to know, little master?"
-
-Now Pat thought it was very grand to be addressed as "little master," and
-his opinion of Jim began quickly to change. He could not be as cross as he
-tried to make out. The child took courage, and went on with his questions,
-in the order in which they came into his mind.
-
-"Is it alive?" he asked, with his eyes upon the slowly moving reflectors,
-as they solemnly revolved round and round the centre light.
-
-"Seems like as if she was," answered the man; "her takes a deal of food,
-and a deal of cleaning, and a deal of watching. Her be as full of moods as
-wimmim folk mostly be. She can't get along without a deal of notice, no
-more than they can!"
-
-Pat fixed his wondering eyes on the speaker's face. He was almost as
-much fascinated in Jim's slow and deliberate speech as in the subject in
-hand. It was almost as though the mouth of the dumb had been unstopped,
-as though it was only in this strange place, and in the witching hour of
-night, that the man's tongue was unloosed. He spoke very slowly, as though
-it was not easy for him to find words in which to clothe his thoughts.
-
-"It's a _she_ then, is it?" asked Pat, all alive in a moment. "That's
-very interesting. I always thought she must be alive, but mother and
-father laugh at me. Perhaps they don't know so well as you--you've been
-here so much longer, haven't you?"
-
-"I've been a-keeping of her this five years or more," said Jim, after a
-long pause, in which Pat began to wonder whether he would ever speak again
-or not; "afore that I was in prison. They let me come out to look after
-her. It was so hard to get anybody to stop."
-
-Pat felt a thrill of awe run through him. He had heard of people going to
-prison of course, and had known many lads and men who had passed through
-the ordeal of going there for a time; but that seemed different from Jim's
-case. He wondered whether this strange gruff man had ever been a murderer,
-or had done some very dreadful deed. If so, was it safe to be sitting up
-here with him in the night, all alone? Might he not perhaps think it would
-be a good opportunity for throwing him down the staircase, or out over the
-gallery into the sea? For a moment the child felt a queer sensation of
-fear come over him, and then it all passed away as fast as it came, for
-Jim still held him by the hand, and his clasp upon his fingers felt kind
-and friendly. He looked up into the sullen, weather-beaten face above him
-with his confiding smile, and asked--
-
-"What had they put you in prison for? Had you done anything bad?"
-
-"No," answered Jim, after the inevitable pause, "I hadn't. It were another
-man; but they wouldn't believe it. He gave evidence against me, and they
-took his word, not mine. Folks said it were proved against I, and so I was
-sent to prison. But I hadn't done it--I don't care what they say."
-
-"No, and I don't care, either!" cried Pat, with hot partisanship; "I know
-you didn't do it! It was they who were wicked and bad to send you to
-prison! But they had to let you out again, you see!"
-
-He spoke the last words with an air as of triumph, edging up towards Jim
-in a confidential way as he did so. The man was knitting his heavy brows,
-and looking as though he was not sure whether all this were not a strange
-dream.
-
-"They let me out to come here. I had three more years to run. They said
-if I would stop and do my duty it should count as though I had served
-my time. So I came, and here I be. It's the only home I've known since
-_that_ thing happened, and I don't want no other. I've got fond of
-_her_"--nodding towards the big lamp; "she looks kind at me now, and she's
-the only friend I've got. I'll bide here as long as I live. It's sore work
-going back to find all one's mates dead or changed to you."
-
-"Yes; don't go back," said Pat; "stay here with us. I'll be your friend,
-too. I should like a friend of my own. Father and mother don't count like
-that, because they _are_ just father and mother. I should like to have a
-friend as well. Let us be friends, Jim; and perhaps then _she'll_ let me
-be her friend too."
-
-Pat spoke in the simplest good faith, whilst Jim passed his hand across
-his eyes, and then looked down at the small figure beside him, rather as
-though he were not sure that it was not all a dream after all. Pat was not
-altogether sure of this either. It was certainly very queer to be up in
-the middle of the night just under the great lamp, sitting hand in hand
-with Jim and talking about being friends. He looked up into the rough face
-above him and smiled as he said--
-
-"Jim, do you think we are _both_ dreaming?"
-
-[Illustration: "Jim opened a door close by."--_Page 35._]
-
-"It seems almost like it, little master," answered the man; "but we'll go
-out into the gallery, and get a breath of fresh air. That's the best thing
-to wake one up if one is getting be-fogged."
-
-Pat was delighted at this notion. He knew that there was an outside
-gallery running all round the glass house where the lamp lived. He had
-seen it from the boat when his father had rowed him out a little way in
-the evenings; but he had never been out on it before, and to go there at
-night for the first time seemed a very wonderful thing to do. He would see
-how the sea looked from up there in the moonlight; and perhaps Jim would
-be able to tell him how the sun managed to swim round from one side to the
-other before morning, and why it always came up in just the same place
-every day, and went down in the same place every night. Jim must know a
-lot of things, living so much up there, he thought.
-
-So Jim got up and opened a door close by, and a breath of cold wind came
-rushing into the warm room under the big lamp. Pat looked wonderingly out
-into the black darkness, and shivered a little, holding Jim's hand fast in
-his small tenacious clasp. And then Jim, all in a moment, shuffled somehow
-out of his warm rough pilot coat, and wrapped it round the child's thin
-frame, and lifting him bodily in his strong arms, carried him out into
-the still calm night, shutting the door behind him as he went, that the
-draught might not make the lamp flicker or flare.
-
-For a moment it came into the child's head to wonder whether Jim was going
-to throw him over the gallery rail and into the sea, and he shut his eyes
-tight, and breathed a little prayer. But something in the strong clasp in
-which he was held stilled this fear almost before it had taken shape, and
-the next minute the child wonderingly opened his eyes and gazed with awe
-at the scene before him.
-
-It did not seem dark now, for the silver moon rode high in the sky, and
-though the sea beneath looked black in places, there was a great track
-of silver light right across it where the moonlight lay, and sometimes a
-white sea-bird would fly athwart the silver track, and for that moment its
-beautiful white wings seemed to shine like silver too. The little plashing
-waves below were tipped and crested with phosphorescent light, and broke
-against the reef in a thousand ripples of molten silver. The whole world
-seemed as if it had been turned into ebony and silver, and the child
-looked and looked, drinking in the wonderful beauty, which was beyond his
-powers of comprehension.
-
-He forgot all the questions he had meant to ask; he forgot the puzzle
-about the sun and its setting and rising; he could think of nothing but
-the strange majestic beauty of the summer night, and looking up into Jim's
-dark face, he wondered if it looked the same to him.
-
-He was beautifully snug and warm wrapped up, and held close and safely.
-There was nothing to mar his happiness and wonder. He gazed, and gazed,
-and gazed again, till at last his confused thoughts found vent in words.
-
-"I can't think how He thought of it!"
-
-"Who thought of what, little master?" asked Jim, who had now found his
-tongue, and did not seem indisposed to use it more freely.
-
-"Why, God to be sure," answered the child reverently. "You know that God
-made everything; and before He made it He'd have to think of it, and know
-what it would look like; and I can't think how He did!"
-
-"I don't seem to know much about that," said the man, as Pat looked up at
-him as if for a suggestion. "It's a many years since I heard the name of
-God spoke--except to swear by," he added as an afterthought.
-
-Now Pat knew very well what swearing sounded like, for he had heard a
-great deal too much of it in his small life. But his mother had always
-taught him to shun those people who used bad words, and he had never
-heard an oath pass his father's lips. He had been brought up to read his
-Bible, and to learn as much of the meaning of it as his mother was able
-to teach him. Neither his father nor his mother were able to do much more
-than read and write. They had not much education, and were ignorant of a
-great deal that they would have liked to know. But they were devout and
-simple-minded Christian folks, and had carefully trained their little boy
-in all they knew themselves. If Nat had something of the stern Puritan
-element in his creed, Eileen on her part had the vivid imagination and
-burning devotion of her warm-hearted race, and Pat had inherited much
-of her temperament, though not without some of his father's hard-headed
-shrewdness. Pat had begun to feel as though this lighthouse must be
-wonderfully near to God--much nearer than the crowded court where he had
-lived before. It seemed to him often as though God _must_ be looking
-straight down out of heaven at the Lone Rock, and that there was nothing
-to come between Him and it, to hinder Him from seeing everything. So the
-child had got into the habit of thinking a great deal more than before of
-God; and it seemed very natural to think of Him to-night, with the great
-dome of star-spangled sky above, and the limitless black sea below, with
-the shining pathway across it that might be leading straight to heaven.
-
-But Jim's words troubled him rather. He didn't like to think that Jim
-did not think about God too. He didn't see how he could help it in his
-long lonely night-watches. Pat knew very well that he should be frightened
-of the loneliness and the darkness if he wasn't quite sure that God
-would take care of him somehow, though how He did it the child was not
-at all certain. He went off on this train of thought now; and instead of
-answering Jim's remark, or asking him why he had not heard or thought
-about God for many years, he looked up into his face in a meditative
-fashion, and said, slowly and reflectively--
-
-"I think He must send the angels to fly about the lighthouses at night
-and keep them safe. Mother says perhaps the stars are the angels' eyes
-looking down at us; and don't you think it feels like as if there were
-angels flying all about here? I think perhaps they like to dip their big
-beautiful white wings in the moonlight, like the sea-gulls. I almost think
-I can feel them flying round; it seems like as if there was a sound of
-wings in the air!"
-
-"May be, little master, may be," answered Jim, without much interest in
-his face and tone. "If there be anything of that sort about the place, I
-make no doubt you would be the one to hear and see it."
-
-Pat did not quite know what these muttered words might mean, nor could
-he get Jim to talk to him or sustain his share in the conversation. In
-point of fact, the talk grew very broken and disjointed, for the night
-air blowing on his face made the child very sleepy, and Jim was never one
-to speak by himself. How that night's adventure ended Pat never knew. He
-seemed soon to be flying all round the lighthouse on a pair of beautiful
-white wings, and trying to coax Jim, who stood on the gallery watching, to
-come and fly with him too. But Jim, though he had wings too, did not seem
-to have any wish to use them, and only stood still watching his companion,
-and refusing to trust himself to the flight to which Pat urged him, and
-the child was just trying to make him believe that it would all be right
-if he would only believe, when he felt a hand upon his head, and a voice
-said in his ear--
-
-"Little son, little son, it is time you were waking, honey. The day has
-begun hours ago, and I can't find your clothes anywhere. Where did you put
-them when you took them off, Pat?"
-
-Pat opened his eyes to find that he had no beautiful wings after all, and
-that he was just in his own bed, covered up very snug and warm, but when
-he threw off the bed clothes, there he found himself all dressed in those
-very clothes for which his mother had been hunting everywhere.
-
-"Why, whatever does it mean?" cried Eileen, "the child has been walking
-in his sleep. Saints preserve us! but if he takes to that in this place
-it's never a wink of quiet sleep I will get!"
-
-"Oh, mother, it was not in my sleep!" cried Pat, remembering all the
-adventure now. "I was wide awake. I wanted to see the big lamp alight, and
-I went up, and Jim let me sit with him, and he wrapped me up in his coat
-by-and-by, and took me out on to the gallery. And I suppose I must have
-gone to sleep there, and he must have brought me back to bed and wrapped
-me up like that. Mother, Jim is a very kind man. He isn't a bit like what
-I thought; I'm going to have him for a friend. I think by-and-by he will
-like me perhaps. I like him very much. He was very kind last night."
-
-"Well, if anybody can come at his heart, it will be the child," thought
-Eileen, whose own advances had been steadily rejected and ignored. She was
-sorry for the lonely man with the sad history, and was a little afraid
-of him too; but when she whispered a word of her fear to her husband,
-Nat stoutly declared it was "all right." Pat could do as he liked, and
-make what advances he chose. The worst that could happen would be that
-Jim would turn a deaf ear to him. He would never harm the child. He was
-not that sort. There were stories against him, it was true; but nothing
-they need fear as regards their own child. Nat was not troubled with a
-vivid imagination, and Eileen had long learnt to subdue her fears when
-her husband told her she was frightening herself about nothing. She would
-be glad enough to lighten the dreary lot of "Surly Jim," and watched with
-some curiosity the advances of Pat towards him.
-
-At first little progress seemed made. At table the two hardly looked
-at each other, and Jim never spoke unless actually obliged; but now and
-again she would see them sitting together in the boat, which had always
-been Jim's summer sitting-room, and gradually it seemed as though there
-was more talk between them. She could see that Pat began to chatter away
-freely enough, and sometimes she fancied that Jim took a share in the
-conversation. His pipe would go out, and be laid aside. He would lean
-towards the child, and seem to be listening with some intentness. Eileen
-was not a little curious to know what all this talk was about, but Pat was
-singularly reticent, and seldom spoke of Jim, though he would chatter to
-his mother about anything and everything else. Once she did venture to ask
-what they had been talking about, and got an answer that surprised her not
-a little.
-
-"We talk about a lot of things; Jim knows such a lot when you once get him
-to talk," said Pat, with a certain quiet reserve of manner. "But I think
-he likes it best when we talk about God. You see he'd almost forgotten
-about Him. He's remembering now, and it's very interesting. We've begun at
-the beginning of the Bible, and we skip a good deal, so we shall soon get
-to the part about Jesus, and I think that'll be the most interesting of
-all!"
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-_AN ODD PAIR_
-
-
-"It be queer to see them together. They be as thick as thieves," said Nat
-to his wife with a broad smile, as he sat down to table for the dish of
-tea he always looked for before he went up to see that all was in order
-with the lamp before the dusk fell. "As for me, I can't get a word out
-of him no how; but the little chap, he makes him talk as I never knew he
-could. I can't hear what they say. Bless you! if I so much as look that
-way, Jim shuts up his mouth like as if no power on earth would open it,
-and Pat he goes as red as a rose, as if he was half ashamed to be caught
-chattering; but so soon as my back's turned they're at it again. And glad
-I be that the poor chap has found somebody to love and to care for him;
-for he's had a hard life of it, if all we hear of him be true."
-
-"That's just what I think, Nat," answered Eileen. "I'm glad the boy has
-found the way to his heart. Sure it's a bad thing for any creature to be
-shut up against his fellow-men as he was. May be it's the blessed saints
-as have sent the child to him to show him a better way."
-
-Eileen still spoke sometimes about the "blessed saints," as she had been
-used to do in her childhood, when she lived amongst those who used even to
-pray to them; but her husband would smile and shake his head when he heard
-the words, and to-day he answered slowly and thoughtfully--
-
-"Nay, my lass; it's no doing of the saints above--not that I'm one to
-say they are not blessed, nor that they may not look down upon us poor
-creatures here below and think of us as their brethren; but it's the Lord
-as rules the world for us, and gives each one of us a work to do for Him
-somehow; and if our boy has been sent as a messenger to this poor chap--as
-like enough he has--it's the Lord's own doing, that's what it is; and we
-won't say a word to discourage him, not though it may seem as though he'd
-got a tough job before him if he's got to win back Jim."
-
-The ready tears started to Eileen's eyes. She came over and put her hand
-on Nat's broad shoulder, bending to kiss him, though he was not a man who
-as a rule cared to receive caresses from even his own wife or child.
-
-"It does me good to hear you talk like that. Sure and it's the children
-who are often the Lord's best messengers. I heard a holy man say once as
-the beautiful angels were God's messengers, and it does seem sometimes as
-though He used the children too--may be because they are most like the
-angels themselves--bless their innocent little hearts!"
-
-But Pat never thought about being an angel. He only felt like a very
-happy little boy, whose life had suddenly become exceedingly interesting,
-and who had so much to do every day that the days never seemed quite long
-enough for all he wanted to put into them. There was so much to learn
-about the reef and the lighthouse, about the big lamp and its bigger
-reflectors, about the wonderful fog-horn which he had as yet never heard
-at work, and about the apparatus which kept all these wonders moving,
-that his head fairly swam sometimes in the effort to take in all that he
-saw. He had one of those inquiring minds which is not content just to
-see what is done, but must know the why and the wherefore of it all. Nat
-was content to know that certain results would follow certain actions
-on his part, and he followed his instructions, with intelligence and
-diligence, but without fully comprehending the mechanism of which he was
-the overseer. Jim was the man who more fully understood this. He could put
-to rights any small matter which had got out of gear, without any appeal
-to the mainland. He had been so long on the Lone Rock that he was familiar
-with every detail of the lighthouse apparatus, and Pat would watch him
-with awe as he climbed about the great lamp, and cleaned the wheels and
-the levers with the air of one who knew exactly what was the work of each.
-And then he and the child knew the secret about the creatures being alive,
-when everybody else thought it merely a machine. Jim always spoke of it
-as "her," and Pat learned to do the same, and to wonder sometimes why she
-never awoke by day, but was always so quiet and still when the sun was
-shining, though when the dusk fell upon the land she would wake up and
-shine, and go round and round with that strange monotonous noise he had
-learned to heed as little as the ceaseless plash of the waves. That secret
-knowledge shared by both made another link between the man and the child.
-And then, if Jim could only find words, he could answer Pat's questions
-about the working of the creature far better than the child's father
-could do. Pat grew greatly impressed by the depth and profundity of his
-knowledge, and came secretly to the conclusion that Jim was a marvel of
-learning and skill. He was greatly flattered that he was allowed to be on
-terms of such intimacy with him, and grew to think his gruff speech and
-silent habits a grace, and a sign of learning and wisdom.
-
-It was with great satisfaction one day that Pat heard that he and Jim
-were to be left in charge of the lighthouse for a whole day, whilst
-his father and mother went ashore to lay in stores against the coming
-autumn and winter. The summer was waning now. Before very long the fierce
-equinoctial gales might be any time expected, and Nat was anxious to get
-ashore before this present calm broke up, and thoroughly victual the rock
-against the winter. Eileen, too, had many things to think of, both for
-herself and the child, before the winter should set in. They had been in
-rather low water, owing to Pat's long illness, just before they came here,
-and had not any supply of warm clothing with them. Now that Nat had been
-drawing his pay all these months, there was plenty of money to purchase
-what was needed. Only she felt she must go ashore herself for the purpose;
-but she thought the expedition would be too fatiguing for the boy, and Pat
-was more than content to be left behind with Jim, to take care of the home
-and the lighthouse in his father's short absence.
-
-It was a beautiful hot September morning when the boat put off from the
-rock, and Pat stood holding Jim's hand and waving his little cap to his
-parents, as Nat hoisted the sail to the light breeze, and the boat began
-to cut its way through the sparkling water in the direction of the shore.
-
-"The top of the morning to ye!" shouted the child, who loved to air
-his little bits of Irish phrases when he was in high spirits. "Sure
-it's a lovely day for a sail. Come back again safe and sound, and we'll
-be waiting for you here. Good-bye, mother dear. Take care of yourself,
-mavourneen. It's meself as will be thinking of you every hour of the day
-till the boat brings you back safe again!"
-
-The mother waved her hand, and Pat stood looking till his eyes were too
-dazzled to see clearly any longer, and then he drew Jim back towards the
-house. His small face was full of importance and gravity. He plainly felt
-himself his father's deputy for the day, and the sense of his position and
-the burden of his responsibilities weighed upon him rather heavily.
-
-"We shall have to watch her very carefully all day, Jim," he remarked.
-"Because you see she may know that father has gone, and try to take
-advantage. We had a dog who used to do that once. Mother always said he
-took advantage when father had gone off for the day. It wouldn't do for
-things to go wrong before he came back. You and I will have to be very
-careful. Shall we go up and look how she seems now?--and whether she is
-all asleep and quiet?"
-
-Jim grinned in his queer way, but assented at once.
-
-"All right, little master, we'll go. I've got to clean her up. But I think
-she'll be quiet like all day. She's a wonderful one for sleeping so long
-as the sun shines--that she is!"
-
-"Yes, rather like a bat, isn't it, Jim? I read a tale once in a book about
-a big bat with a funny name. I think it was called a vampire. I know it
-was very big indeed, and rather fierce. Perhaps _she's_ a kind of vampire;
-only you've made her tame, and she doesn't hurt people now. Did she ever
-hurt you, Jim? You don't seem afraid of her a bit."
-
-"Nay, she's never hurt I," answered Jim. "She don't hurt them as know how
-to humour her. She did break the arm of one man once; but he was a rare
-fool and deserved what he got. You've got to be a bit careful of her when
-she's going; but if you mind her well she won't hurt nobody."
-
-They were mounting the stairs now, and Pat seated himself to watch Jim at
-his mysterious duties about the great She, as he had come to call her in
-his own mind. He had seen everything done a dozen times before; but the
-interest and fascination was always new. To-day he was permitted to help
-Jim a little by holding his leathers and rubbers from time to time; and
-he felt that he should soon be able to climb about and clean himself, so
-familiar did he grow with all his companion's evolutions.
-
-It took the best part of the morning to do all that was needed to make
-things ship-shape for night, and Pat presently went downstairs to get
-ready the simple mid-day meal his mother had prepared for them. He thought
-that it would be pleasant to eat it down on the rocks, for the tide was
-out, and as it was a spring tide there was more rock than usual uncovered.
-He carried everything carefully down, and presently Jim joined him, and
-they sat down together. Pat thought it was quite the nicest dinner he had
-ever tasted, down in the cool shadow of the rocks, with the waves washing
-up and down only a few feet away. He got Jim to light his pipe by-and-by,
-and to tell him some of his sailor stories (Jim, he noticed, always talked
-better when he was smoking), and after an hour had passed like that, Jim
-suggested to him that it was his turn to tell a tale.
-
-Now Pat was very willing to take his turn, but he had not any big store
-of stories, and such as his mother had told him had all been related to
-Jim before--all but the Bible stories, of which, to be sure, there were
-plenty left to tell. Pat sat nursing his knees and thinking. At last he
-looked up into his companion's face and asked reflectively--
-
-"I don't think I've ever told you about Jesus, have I? We've not got to
-Him yet in reading out of the Book. But there's lots and lots of stories
-about Him--real pretty ones, too. I could tell you some of them, if you
-liked. I don't think you know about Jesus yet; do you, Jim?"
-
-The man had slowly taken his pipe from his lips whilst the child was
-speaking, and now sat staring out over the sea with a look on his face
-that somehow seemed new to Pat, and which made him all of a sudden look
-different; the little boy could not have said how or why.
-
-"I used to hear tell of Him when I was little," came the reply, very
-slowly spoken. "My mother used to tell me of Him when I was a little
-chap no bigger than you. But I went off to sea when I couldn't have been
-much bigger, and since then there's been nobody to tell me of Him 'cept
-the gentleman in the prison; and I didn't take friendly to what he said,
-though I dare say he meant it all kind enough."
-
-"Well, I'll tell you as well as I can," said Pat, settling himself to
-his task with some relish. "Perhaps you'll remember some of the things I
-forget, and mother could tell us it all afterwards, if we like. But I can
-remember a good lot--all the things that matter most. So I'll begin."
-
-And Pat did begin, in rather a roundabout fashion, it is true, and with
-a good many repetitions and harkings back to things he had forgotten, but
-still with a zest and good-will that atoned for many defects in style, and
-with the perfect faith in the truth of what he was saying, that gave a
-reality to the narrative which nothing else could have done. When it came
-to the story of the Crucifixion and the Garden of Gethsemane, Pat found,
-rather to his surprise, that the tears came into his eyes, and that once
-or twice he could hardly get on with the tale. He remembered that his
-mother had sometimes cried in telling it to him; but he had never quite
-understood why. He began to feel as though he did understand now. When he
-was telling it himself to somebody who was listening, like Jim, it all
-seemed so much more real. He wanted Jim to understand it all--just as his
-mother wanted him to understand; and that made him enter into the meaning
-of the story as perhaps he had hardly ever done before. He was glad when
-it came to the joyful part, about how the Lord rose again, and showed
-Himself to His doubting and mourning followers. Jim never spoke the whole
-time, but sat with his face turned out towards the sea, never moving, and
-looking sometimes as though he scarcely heard what the child said; yet Pat
-was convinced that he was listening to every word. It was only when the
-story had been finished for several minutes that he slowly turned his head
-round, and Pat saw with surprise that there was a moisture in his eyes
-that looked exactly as though it were tears.
-
-"That's the story as my mother used to tell it me," he said, in a husky
-voice. "Do you think as it's all true, little master?"
-
-"Why, of course it's true!" answered Pat, with perfect confidence.
-"Almost everybody in the world believes it--everybody except the heathen!"
-(And Pat quite believed this was so.) "Some folks forget, as you did, Jim,
-and some don't care as they should. But it's every word true. He did die."
-
-"Yes, but why? Why did He die if He needn't have done? Why did He let them
-nail Him on the cross like that, if He could have had as many angels as He
-liked to come and take Him away out of their hands?"
-
-"Oh, because, you know, He came to die for us," answered Pat, wrinkling
-up his forehead, and trying to remember how his mother had answered _his_
-questions on this very point. "He was the Lamb of God who came to take
-away the sins of the world--your sins, Jim, and mine, and everybody's. God
-could not have forgiven everything if it hadn't been for Jesus, because
-He is so just as well as so kind. Somebody had to be punished--somebody
-had to die for us. We couldn't have died for ourselves--not like that, you
-know, because we are all wicked. It had to be somebody good--like the lamb
-in the Passover, without blemish--and that could only be Jesus. I don't
-know if I can explain it right; but it's something like that. There was
-nobody else, and God loved us so, He sent His own Son. Oh, Jim, it _was_
-good of Him! I don't think we love Him, or Jesus, half enough!"
-
-Jim passed his horny hand over his eyes. He didn't speak for some time.
-
-"It doesn't hardly seem as though He _could_ have done it for us--for you
-and me," continued the child, filled with his own thought. "But He did, I
-know He did; mother says so, and it's all in the Bible, for she can find
-the places.
-
-"I mean to try and think about it oftener, for it doesn't seem as though
-we ought ever to forget it. Mother says it ought to make us try and do
-things for Him; but I don't know what I can do, except to love Him, and
-try to be good. Perhaps till I'm bigger He'll let that count."
-
-"And when you're bigger what will you do, little master?" asked Jim.
-
-Pat sat and pondered the question a good while with his chin in his hand.
-
-"I don't quite know," he answered slowly. "I mightn't ever have the
-chance; but I think I know what I should like to do if I could."
-
-"And what is that?" asked Jim, with sudden and very evident interest.
-
-"I think," answered the child, slowly and reverently, "that I should like
-best to lay down my life for somebody else--like as He laid it down for
-us. Some people have done that, you know--brave men who have died doing
-their duty--to try and save other people from death. I think God must love
-them for it. I think Jesus must smile at them, for He did just the same
-for us; and if He knows that they do it because they want to be like Him
-and do something for Him, I think He would be pleased. People don't always
-die because they are willing to; sometimes they are saved too. But Jesus
-would know that they were willing to die for Him. I think, when I grow to
-be a man, if I might choose, I should like best to serve Him like that."
-
-Whilst Pat was speaking, Jim's eyes had been fixed earnestly upon his
-face. Now they roved back again over the sea, and suddenly the man gave a
-great start. He rose to his feet, and stood looking over the sea, shading
-his eyes with his hand.
-
-"What is it?" asked Pat, coming and standing beside him, and imitating his
-gesture. "Can you see anything, Jim? I can't seem to see nothing."
-
-"That's just it," answered the man. "We can't see half as far as we did
-an hour ago. Seems like as if there was a thick sea-fog coming on. I was
-thinking only this morning what a time we had been without one. That's a
-fog-bank and no mistake, and drifting right down upon us, too. I must go
-and see to the horn. We must start that if it comes over us; else your
-father might never find his way back--to say nothing of the ships running
-aground here. You'll hear her voice, and no mistake, little master, before
-another hour is over; and a mighty queer voice it is, I can tell you.
-You'll not forget it easy, once you've heard it!"
-
-Pat was immensely interested. He followed Jim up into the upper room,
-and went out upon the gallery to watch the great fog-bank creep slowly
-down upon them. The sun was so bright and clear that it seemed impossible
-that that slowly moving white mass should ever obscure it; but soon a
-few little light vapour wreaths drifted up against the rocks, and very
-quickly the sun looked dull and red, and little by little the sky and
-the sea seemed all to be blotted out, and Pat could not tell which way
-he was looking, nor where the land lay. He seemed to be up alone in some
-high place, floating in mid-air, in a world of vapour. He would have been
-frightened if he had not heard Jim moving about close at hand.
-
-And then, all in a moment, a most fearful and extraordinary noise just
-above his head made Pat clap his hands to his ears, as though his head
-would come off with the vibration if he did not. He knew what it was.
-_She_ had been awakened from sleep, and was lifting up that great voice
-of hers, as he had heard she could do when it was wanted; and in great
-amazement, Pat ran indoors to see how she did it. He felt that such a
-wonderful creature as this had surely never lived before!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-_LONE ROCK IN FOG AND STORM_
-
-
-But strange and fascinating as was the voice of the great She, Pat could
-not be quite happy till his father and his mother had got back safe to the
-rock again. He could not imagine how they could find their way in all the
-thick wreaths of darkness which shut the Lone Rock in; but Jim told him
-that very likely it was quite clear a little way off, and that the noise
-of the horn, which sounded every three minutes, would guide his father
-safely to the right place. The sea was quite smooth and still; he could
-approach without any trouble. Jim knew that Nat would not be easy away
-from his post, more especially now that this fog had come on, which would
-entail extra care and extra work. There was a mechanical apparatus worked
-by steam, which could keep the horn blowing at intervals for a certain
-number of hours; but that required attention too, and for the present, Jim
-preferred to work it by the bellows, remaining up aloft, and bidding Pat
-keep watch for the boat below, if he liked, but to be very careful not to
-lose his footing on the rocks, as there would be nobody to come to his
-help.
-
-Pat was not afraid of that now. He always ran about barefoot, and was as
-sure of foot as a goat by this time.
-
-He stationed himself upon the great square rock overlooking the little
-creek where the boat usually lay moored, and watched the thick wreaths
-of vapour as they drifted and circled round him. Sometimes, for a few
-moments, they would clear away for a while, and he would be able to
-look out over the grey waters for some little distance. Then they would
-close over again, and shut out even the sight of the waves not ten feet
-below him, and Pat would feel as though he were quite, quite alone in a
-world of fog, with only the great horn overhead for company. But it was
-company, and kept him in mind that Jim was not far away, and so he was not
-frightened, although very much surprised and perplexed by this strange new
-experience.
-
-It might have been an hour that he had been watching, when he heard the
-plash of oars, sounding a long way off, though in reality they were quite
-close, and almost immediately afterwards he saw the outline of the boat
-looming large against the background of fog, and uttered a joyful shout.
-
-"Father! dear daddy! Mother, is that you? I was so afraid you would never
-find your way home; but Jim said you would. Did you hear her blow the
-horn? Doesn't she do it well? Isn't it nice that she can wake up when
-she's wanted? She woke up and blew directly Jim told her there was a fog.
-Isn't it queer to be all thick like this? It isn't dark, but we can't
-hardly see anything. Daddy, did you ever see anything quite so funny
-before? Mother, did you?"
-
-"I've seen plenty of sea-fogs in my time, my little son," answered Nat,
-as he brought in the boat, and moored it safely in its niche; "and I am
-always glad to see them go, for they do more ill to ships, I take it, than
-storms and tempests. I'm glad to find myself here; for it's ill being at
-sea in such thickness as this. However, I think it will lighten a bit
-soon. The bank isn't a deep one, so far as I can see, and it must have
-pretty nigh drifted over us by now--not but what it may come back again a
-dozen times before the day is over. There is no telling what a fog will
-do. It's more capricious than a woman--eh, wifie?"
-
-Eileen smiled as she stepped ashore. Her face was rather pale.
-
-"I know more of women than of fogs, Nat. I don't know if they be much
-alike. Pat, darling, it's glad I am to see you safe and sound again. I'll
-not have to go ashore for a long while now. I've brought everything we
-shall want for many a month to come."
-
-Almost as she spoke the fog began to lift, and in a few moments, to the
-astonishment of Pat, the sun was shining again quite brightly. A breeze
-sprang up and drove the floating vapours away, dispersing them hither and
-thither, and making the waves dance and foam round the rocks. The great
-horn ceased to make its doleful cry, and Jim came down from above to help
-to unload the boat.
-
-"Have you got _my_ parcel, mother?" asked Pat, edging up to her, and
-speaking in a whisper, as thing after thing was brought in by the two busy
-men. The mother smiled and nodded, and presently she opened a big square
-package, and drew forth a small parcel tied up in brown paper, at sight of
-which Pat's face kindled all over.
-
-"Is it a nice one, mother? And did you spend my bright half-crown?" And
-on being satisfied upon these points, Pat vanished with his treasure into
-an inner room, and proceeded to untie the string and carefully open the
-mysterious parcel.
-
-When he had removed the two wrappings of paper, his eyes brightened and
-glowed with delight. He saw a beautiful book, with red-gold edges, in a
-soft black morocco cover, and he turned the leaves with reverent, loving
-fingers, and placed the book-mark in the place where he had been planning
-to read next to Jim--the place where the story of Jesus began that they
-had been talking over this very day.
-
-"It's a prettier Bible than mine," thought the child; "but mother gave me
-mine, so, of course, I like it best, and I shall always keep it as long
-as I live. But Jim will like this, I know; and he hasn't got any Bible,
-though he says he can read, and used to like to read once. I'm sure he'll
-like it. I'll go up to-night and give it him when he has his watch. He
-can read it up there in the tower when he's not attending to her. There's
-plenty of light, and in the winter he says the nights do seem long. It'll
-be nice for him to read about Jesus, and all the stories that are in the
-Bible."
-
-So as soon as supper was over, whilst his father and mother were still
-busy putting away the ample stores of provisions and clothing that they
-had brought from the mainland, Pat stole upstairs with his treasure in his
-hands, and came and took his favourite seat by Jim's side, still keeping
-the book safely hidden beneath his jacket.
-
-"Jim, don't you never read of a night up here alone?" he asked.
-
-"I don't often now. I did use to read the paper a bit, whenever I get
-a few sent over from shore; but one gets out of the habit of it, and
-sometimes there's nothing to read for days and weeks together."
-
-"I like reading," said Pat; "and I thought you'd perhaps like it too if
-you had something interesting to read. I've brought you a book. Mother got
-it for me to-day. It's yours now, for I've written your name inside, so
-that nobody can't ever take it away from you; and I think it would be nice
-if you would read it sometimes in the night. I'm almost sure you'll like
-it, if once you begin." And with a red but happy face, Pat pulled out his
-treasure, and presented it shyly to Jim.
-
-The man took it and looked at it, and then at the child, as though he
-didn't know what to make of so strange a thing as a present. Perhaps it
-was a dozen years since he had received a gift of any kind.
-
-"Be it for me, little master?" he asked in a puzzled voice.
-
-"Yes, to be sure it is," answered Pat, beaming. "I got mother to choose
-it for you, because she always chooses so well. It's a Bible, Jim. It's
-got all the stories in that we like to talk about, and all the story of
-Jesus--what we talked about to-day, and you liked. I've put the mark in
-one of the places where it begins about Him. You can read it yourself, if
-you like, whilst you're watching her."
-
-It was so long since Jim had ever received such a thing as a present that
-he scarcely knew how to thank the child, but kept turning the book over
-and over in his hands with a sheepish look on his face. However, Pat was
-easily satisfied, and he knew that Jim was more pleased than he showed;
-so he slipped down the stairs again in a happy frame of mind, and found
-his father examining the weather-glass below--a mysterious object in the
-child's eyes, which he always regarded with awe.
-
-"A good thing we went ashore to-day, wife," Pat heard his father say. "For
-if I don't mistake me, we'll have a spell of rough weather on us soon.
-The glass is going down steady and fast. By to-morrow morning, I take it,
-it'll be blowing half a gale of wind."
-
-Pat looked wonderingly at the glass, and could not see that it had moved
-from its niche. He never could understand why his father would say that it
-was higher some days than it was on others; but it was one of those things
-that he never asked about--one of those mysteries that he pondered over in
-secret with a sense of wonder and rather fascinating awe.
-
-Next morning he was not awakened, as he had been of late, by a bar of
-sunshine slanting across his bed and touching his face. He awoke later
-than his wont to a sound of moaning and splashing which he had not heard
-before; and when he jumped up and ran to the window he saw that there were
-heavy banks of cloud scudding across the sky, whilst the sea had turned
-from blue to grey, and was dashing itself against the rocks with greater
-vehemence than he had ever seen before. There was a moaning sound all
-around the walls of his home, rising sometimes to a mournful shriek. The
-little boy was glad to get on his clothes, and find a glowing fire burning
-in the living room. There had come a chilliness into the air, and it
-seemed as if summer had suddenly taken flight. His mother looked up at him
-as he came, and greeted him with a smile.
-
-"Well, Pat; so father is right after all, and here are the gales come
-upon us all sudden-like at the last. We shall have to make up our minds
-to a deal of moaning and tossing and tumbling if we are to live all the
-winter in a lighthouse! You'll be a brave boy, my little son, and not mind
-the wind and the rain and the dashing of the waves? It'll not frighten you
-to hear it day after day and week after week, will it, honey?"
-
-"Frighten me?" asked Pat, almost indignantly. "Why, mother, no! I'm almost
-a man now, and men aren't frightened by noises. I shall help father and
-Jim to take care of the lighthouse, and I'll help you down here when
-I'm not too busy upstairs with her. Jim says there's a deal more to do
-in winter than in summer, and sometimes they'll be very glad of a third
-man to help. I shall be the third man here. I shall have lots to do and
-think about!" And Pat looked for all the world like an important little
-turkey-cock, and went running up the stairs to see what was going on
-there, whilst his mother looked after him with a smile, and breathed a
-thankful prayer to God for giving back her child such full measure of
-health and strength.
-
-The next weeks were very interesting and exciting ones to Pat. The wind
-blew strongly and steadily, and the sea ran higher and higher. He used
-to go out daily into the balcony round the lamp-house, and stand "to
-le'ward," as Jim used to call it, whilst he watched the great crested
-waves come racing along, and breaking into sheets of spray at the foot of
-the reef--spray which sometimes rose almost as high as he was standing,
-and would often make the mackintosh coat in which he was always wrapped
-fairly run down with water.
-
-Jim would stand beside him sometimes, and tell him how in winter storms
-the spray would dash not only as far as the gallery, but right over the
-top of the lighthouse. Pat found it hard to believe this at first, but
-as he came to learn more and more of the marvellous power of the sea, he
-disbelieved nothing; and used sometimes to say with awe to Jim, when he
-had finished one of his stories of shipwreck and peril--
-
-"It do seem wonderful that the sea obeyed Jesus when He was here, and went
-down and got still just when He told it to. Mother says God holds the sea
-in the hollow of His hand. Jim, I think God's hand must be very wonderful;
-don't you?"
-
-Perhaps nothing so helped those two to understand the mighty power of God
-as their lonely life in the lighthouse during those stormy autumn days.
-If any story in the Bible reading seemed too marvellous for belief, it
-only needed Pat to point over the sea with his little hand, and remark
-reflectively, "But you see, Jim, He made all _that_!" to convince them
-both that nothing was too hard for the Lord. The story of Peter's attempt
-to walk on the sea was one of their favourite readings, when once they had
-come across it. Jim was wonderfully taken by the tale, and would have the
-mark kept in the place for a long time.
-
-"I read it every night up here alone," he said once to Pat, "and I can't
-help wondering if I could ever walk on the sea if I asked Him to help me."
-
-"Perhaps He would if you were going to Him," said Pat reflectively. "I
-don't know if He would for anything else. You see, He'd said 'Come' to
-Peter, and so he could do it, until he got frightened and forgot the Lord
-had called him. Mother says that was why he began to sink--because he'd
-begun to think about himself, instead of trusting it all to Jesus. If he
-were to say 'Come' to you, Jim, and you were to go out to meet Him, I
-expect it would be all right. But He don't seem to call folks in that sort
-of way now."
-
-New experiences were becoming common enough in Pat's life now, but he
-never forgot one curious sight which he was once called up from his bed to
-see in the middle of the night. He had gone to bed amid an unusual tumult
-of sound--moaning wind and dashing spray, and sometimes such a bang as
-a great wave struck the wall of the tower--that for some time he could
-scarcely get off to sleep, seasoned though he was to such sounds.
-
-Then, in the middle of the night, he was awakened by Jim coming to fetch
-him, and when he was once fairly awake, he was delighted to hurry into
-his warm suit of weather-proof clothes, and follow Jim upstairs, for he
-thought that the time had surely come when the services of the third man
-were required, and very grand and important he felt to occupy that proud
-position.
-
-But it was not quite what he thought, after all; for though his father
-was on watch as well as Jim whilst the storm raged round the lighthouse,
-there was nothing very much to be done, save to see that the light burned
-brightly, and Pat wondered for a moment why he had been summoned.
-
-"Jim said you'd like to see the birds, sonny," said his father, taking
-him in his strong arms, and holding him up near to the glass: "so I said
-he could fetch you. Look! do you see them flying against the glass? It's
-the light as brings them these stormy nights. They know they'll get
-perching-room somewhere round, if they get nothing else. See their white
-wings flitting to and fro, Pat? Jim says in the morning we shall pick up a
-score or so of dead birds in the gallery, as have dashed their lives out
-flying straight against the glass."
-
-Pat looked and began to see, for at first his eyes were dazzled. It was
-just as his father had said: outside the glass house were multitudes of
-wild sea birds, flitting to and fro like ghosts in the black darkness, and
-every now and then dashing themselves against the strong dome of glass
-with a noise which told of the violence of the effort. There seemed to the
-child to be an endless myriad of white and grey birds circling round his
-sea-girt home, and he looked at them in wonder and awe, for he had never
-before seen so strange a sight.
-
-"Do they want to get in, father?" he asked softly. "Oh, let us open the
-door and take them in. They are frightened at the storm. Why should we not
-let them come in and warm themselves here?"
-
-"They would only be worse scared than they are, Pat," answered his father,
-"and would fly into the lamp and hurt themselves and it. Poor foolish
-things! they don't know what they come for themselves; it's just the light
-attracts them. We'll get feathers enough to stuff a pillow for your mother
-to-morrow, if Jim is right about what we shall find outside."
-
-But Pat was quite unhappy about the poor foolish wild birds driven
-seawards by the gale, and coming to the lighthouse, as it were, for
-shelter.
-
-"Let me go outside and see them there," he said; and Jim wrapped him up
-warmly and carried him out for a few minutes.
-
-It was a still stranger sight out there to see the strange antics of the
-bewildered birds, and to hear their cries and screams, which made Pat
-shiver in spite of himself, remembering the stories his mother sometimes
-told him on winter evenings of the "banshee" and its wailing cry. He was
-dreadfully sorry for the birds, but they would not let him come near them,
-and he saw that nothing could be done for them.
-
-"I suppose God knows about them," he said at last, with a great sigh. "If
-He cares for sparrows, I suppose He cares for sea-gulls, too. If He knows,
-I suppose we need not mind very much. But I should have liked to take them
-in and feed them, and make them warm and comfortable. They sound so very
-sad; but perhaps God will comfort them best."
-
-And then Jim carried the child down to his warm bed again, and he fell
-asleep, thinking of the birds and their strange noises and ways.
-
-He awoke with the same strange noise in his ears. He was sure it was a
-voice like that of a sea-bird. He started up and looked about him, and
-then the sound came again. It was broad daylight now, and the noise seemed
-to proceed from the adjoining living room. Pat jumped up, and ran in
-without troubling to put on his clothes till his curiosity was satisfied.
-
-"Mother, what is it? What is that queer noise?" he asked; and then he saw
-a basket standing in a corner of the room, and the noise seemed to proceed
-out of that.
-
-"Go and get dressed, dear," answered his mother, "and then Jim, may be,
-will be down again. It's a wild bird that has hurt itself that he's got
-there. He thought you might like to have it to take care of till it got
-well, but it's so wild and fierce, and bites so, that I daren't open the
-basket till he comes. Jim says they fly at folks' eyes sometimes; but he
-seems to know how to manage it. Get you dressed, honey, and then he'll
-show it you."
-
-Pat was not long dressing that morning, and as soon as Jim could be
-got down from the tower, the basket was opened, and the treasure inside
-displayed to the child's admiring eyes. It was a young gull, whose wing
-was badly broken--so badly, that Jim declared it would never fly again,
-and was of opinion that the most merciful thing to do would be to pinion
-it--since it was the end of the wing that was broken--and bring it up
-to be a tame bird upon the rock, living there and catching fish in the
-pool, but kept from swimming away altogether by a light fetter round its
-foot. He had kept birds on the rock before now that had hurt themselves
-against the glass, though when they had grown quite strong and well they
-had usually taken themselves off. Still, he had sometimes kept pets for
-some considerable time; and Pat was all on fire to tame this gull, and
-make a playmate of it. It was not a very promising playmate at first, for
-it was wild and fierce, almost past management, and Pat thought it would
-have died under Jim's hands when he performed with skill and rapidity the
-operation which was soon seen to be a wonderful relief to the suffering
-bird. It refused food for two days, and the child feared it would
-certainly die; but his patience and care were unwearied, and at last, on
-the third day, it began to feed from his hand, being too weak to fear
-him; and after a few mouthfuls of fish greedily swallowed, it rewarded
-its friend by a vigorous peck on the hand, which nearly drew blood. Pat,
-however, was not at all discouraged, but looked upon it as a sign of
-returning health; and by slow degrees, as the days and weeks wore away, a
-certain confidence and friendship grew up between the wild bird and the
-little boy who tended him so faithfully and regularly.
-
-Jim contrived a little aviary for the bird--if so grand a word could
-be applied to the wire erection down among the rocks, where the bird
-could get salt-baths at high water, and fish in the pools left by the
-retiring tide--by the side of which Pat spent hours every day teaching the
-gull to come and take food from his hands, and gradually establishing a
-freemasonry between them, which developed at last into a real friendship,
-so that the little boy could go fearlessly into the cage at the wider and
-taller end against the house, and call the gull to perch upon his knee,
-and take bits of fish even from between his lips, and take any liberties
-he chose with his captive without fear of a rebuff.
-
-This new pastime was a source of immense pleasure to the little boy
-through the long dreary days of winter. He never felt dull in his strange
-home; and with Jim to talk to, the lamp to watch, and his bird to teach
-and tame, the days flew by all too fast, and he could scarcely believe
-when Christmas was actually upon them.
-
-It was a queer Christmas, spent amongst the sounds and sights of the Lone
-Rock, with the wild waves lashing the walls of his home, and the moaning
-of the wind for the only music. But Pat was growing used to the life, and
-did not call it queer now. It seemed far stranger to think of going back
-to the crowded court, where they never saw or heard the sea, and where
-even the sky and the air seemed quite different.
-
-[Illustration: "At last, on the third day, it began to feed from his
-hand."--_Page 79._]
-
-But it was interesting to explain to Jim about Christmas Day being Jesus's
-birthday; and the child discovered to his great satisfaction and surprise
-that it was Jim's own birthday, too. He had been born on Christmas Day,
-just as Pat had been born on Patrick's Day, to the great satisfaction of
-his Irish mother; and so the festival of Christmas was kept as brightly
-as it was possible, and neither Nat nor his wife could fail to remark how
-changed in many ways Jim was from what he had been in the spring, when
-first they had come to the rock.
-
-"I believe it's the love of the Lord coming into his heart that's doing
-it," said Nat, as he sat over the fire with his Bible, when Pat had gone
-to bed, and Jim was up aloft. "He took first to the child, and the child
-has led him to the Lord. It's often the way with us poor frail human
-creatures. We seem as though we must have some human hand to lead us,
-though the Lord is holding out His wounded hand all the while, and bidding
-us take that. It's wonderful true those words of His about the babes and
-sucklings. It seems to me that the heart of a little child is coming in
-place of the hard heart Jim seemed to have before. May be the Lord has a
-work for him to do yet. It may be we were sent here partly for him. One
-never knows where the work will meet one in the vineyard; but we must try
-to be ready for it when it comes."
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-_A TERRIBLE NIGHT_
-
-
-Although there had been plenty of wind, and a heavy sea running for the
-greater part of the winter, Pat had not seen what Jim called a "real
-storm" until Christmas had been several weeks old, and January had nearly
-run its course. The child called any rough bout of windy weather a storm,
-and did not quite believe that Jim could be right in declaring that it was
-"only a capful of wind," or that it was "only half a gale, after all." But
-there came one night late on in January when he began to understand very
-well what Jim had meant, and to realise that he had not really understood
-before what a real winter storm could be like.
-
-All day there had been a strange new sound in the moaning and the
-shrieking of the wind. His father had looked often at the glass, and had
-remarked almost every time he did so that "they were going to get it this
-time, and no mistake." Jim had been so busy up aloft that Pat had hardly
-seen him since breakfast-time; and even the sea-gull seemed to partake in
-the general uneasiness, for he flapped his wings, and screamed and cried
-in a way that was quite unusual for him; and when Jim came downstairs
-about dinner-time, he walked out to the side of the cage where the child
-stood watching his favourite, and said--
-
-"I'd bring him indoors to-night, Pat. I'd not answer for it but that the
-water will be over here before morning. Anyway, there's be sheets of spray
-flying about enough to drown the bird, if he's left where he is."
-
-Pat looked up wonderingly, for though one end of the great caged-in place
-ran down towards the lower rocks, the upper end was against the lighthouse
-itself, and it seemed impossible to the child that the waves should ever
-reach as high as that. He had lived seven or eight months in his new home
-by this time, and had never seen the sea as high as that yet. But of
-course Jim must know best.
-
-"I'll bring him in," he answered readily. "Mother won't mind if you tell
-me to, and he does come in sometimes. He hardly ever pecks at anybody now.
-See how tame he is when I go to take him!"
-
-Pat was rather proud of the conquest he had made of the bird, and
-certainly the wild creature made no resistance to being lifted by his
-little master and carried within doors. Eileen looked up as Pat brought
-the captive in with him.
-
-"Poor thing! so he wants shelter to-night, does he! Put him there in that
-bit of a cupboard, Pat dear, with a wire netting in front of him to keep
-him from cluttering up my clean kitchen. There, he can see you now, and
-you can see him. What a pretty bird he's growing! I'm sure he's welcome to
-a place within doors. God help all those poor souls who will be out at sea
-to-night!"
-
-The woman spoke with so much earnestness and feeling, that Pat looked up
-in her face with wide-open, questioning eyes.
-
-"What makes you say that, mother? Is it going to be what Jim would call
-a real big storm? I rather wanted to see one. Is it naughty to feel so? I
-won't, if it is; but I thought a lighthouse boy ought to know what a real
-storm was like. Are we going to have one to-night, mother?"
-
-"I fear we are, my child. And terrible it will be for those who are
-afloat, exposed to the mercy of the wind and the waves. We must pray to
-God for them, my little son; for in times like these only God can help
-them, and perhaps there are some in peril to-night, who will never pray
-for themselves--though in the hour of danger it is wonderful how the human
-heart turns to the God of heaven, however hard at any other time."
-
-Pat's eyes were open wide, and a new look had crept into them.
-
-"Mother, shall we pray now?--you and I together?" he asked; and Eileen
-took his little hand in hers, and knelt down then and there on the kitchen
-floor, praying aloud in very simple words for those in peril on the deep
-that night, that God would be with them in every danger, and bring them
-safe at last to the haven whither they would be. And Pat shut his eyes
-tight, and clasped his hands, and said "Amen" softly, several times,
-adding, as his mother ceased, "And if there are any little boys like me,
-please keep them quite safe, dear Lord Jesus, and bring them safe back to
-their mothers again."
-
-And then, when the child opened his eyes, and rose from his knees, he saw
-that Jim had crept in, all unknown to them, and that he was kneeling, too,
-his head down-bent, and a tear slowly trickling down his weather-beaten
-face. Pat had never seen him on his knees before. He had never been able
-to get Jim to tell him whether he ever said his prayers at all. But he was
-sure now that he did, and he ran across to him before he had had time to
-rise to his feet, and throwing his arms about his neck, he cried out--
-
-"Now we have all prayed to God together, so I'm _sure_ He'll hear us. He
-likes there to be two or three gathered together--it says so, somewhere in
-the Bible. I shan't be so unhappy about the poor people in the ships now,
-because we've asked God to take care of them, and He always hears what we
-say--doesn't He, mother?"
-
-"Yes, dear, He always hears," answered Eileen, with a smile and a sigh.
-"But He does not always answer us quite in the way we would have."
-
-"But, then, He knows best," said Pat, with sudden thoughtfulness. "So if
-He does it differently from what we meant, we needn't mind, need we? You
-don't always do just what I want, mother dear; but afterwards I always
-know you decided best. It's like that with God and us, I suppose."
-
-Eileen stooped with a tear in her eye to kiss the child, and Jim went out
-to help Nat to haul up the boat, and place it in the greatest security the
-rock offered, to leeward of the wind, well braced at both ends to keep it
-steady. Pat watched these operations with great interest.
-
-"But why do you take it out of the water?" he asked. "I should have
-thought you'd want it there in case any ship in distress should go by. You
-might want to send a boat out to them, and if it was up here you wouldn't
-be able to get it out at all quickly."
-
-"No boat could live in such a sea as we'll have to-night, sonny,"
-answered the father gravely. "Nothing but a life-boat, anyhow, and then
-it could not be launched here amongst these rocks. Look at those waves,
-now. Do you think there would be any putting out to sea amongst such
-rollers as those? No, my little son. Please God we'll keep our light
-burning brightly--which is the duty given us to do--and that will help the
-big ships to keep clear of this cruel reef, where the best of them would
-be dashed to pieces. But more than that we cannot do, and may God grant
-that no vessel comes nigh these rocks to-night. None will, unless she be
-disabled; but, if she did, we could do almost nothing to help her. God
-alone could direct her course that she should not be dashed in pieces on
-this treacherous coast."
-
-So Pat went indoors, looking very grave, and feeling sobered by the shadow
-of peril resting upon some lives; and already the dark lowering clouds
-seemed to be driving faster and faster along the sky, and the shrieking of
-the wind grew ever angrier and angrier as the daylight waned.
-
-Bang! bang! bang! It was only the waves flinging themselves in wild fury
-against the rocks upon which the lighthouse was built, but Pat felt the
-tower shudder beneath the shock, and looked into his mother's face as
-though to ask if they themselves were in any danger. Her face was grave
-and a little pale, but there was no personal fear in her steady eyes as
-she met the child's look, and answered it by a thoughtful smile.
-
-"The walls of our home have stood through many a winter's storm, Pat. It's
-not ourselves we need fear for to-night, but for those at sea, in disabled
-vessels; and I fear me there will be many such upon a night like this.
-Hark at the wind! It is rising every moment!"
-
-It was indeed, and Pat soon became too excited to do anything but wander
-up and down the stairs, watching the wild strife of the wind and waves,
-first from one place and then from another, not knowing whence the best
-view was obtained. He might not open the door upon the gallery to go out
-there, as he would have liked. Jim told him he would not be able to stand
-there in such a night; and that the air rushing and sweeping in would be
-bad for the lamp; and to-night, above all nights, she must be studied and
-thought of. Many, many lives might depend upon her light, and she was the
-object of the most scrupulous care on the part of both the men in charge
-of her.
-
-"It seems as if she was trying to shine as bright as possible," said the
-child, with fond pride, as he looked up into the great ball of white flame
-above him. "Do you think she knows that there is a storm to-night, Jim,
-and is trying to throw the light as far as ever it will go?"
-
-"I shouldn't wonder," answered Jim. "Her knows a power of things by this
-time, her does;" but he spoke absently, as though his thoughts were far
-away, and he kept moving across to one of the small windows which looked
-out over the wild tossing sea, as though to make sure that there was no
-indication of the presence of any vessel in distress on the horizon. Pat
-grew nervous at the silence of the man, and the furious noises of the
-raging storm without, and crept downstairs to his mother again.
-
-By this time it was getting very dark. The tide was rising--a high spring
-tide--and the waves seemed to come thundering against the very walls of
-the lighthouse itself, making them shake to their foundations. Pat often
-looked anxiously into his father's face to know what he thought about it;
-but he knew the tower was safe, and was only thinking of the perils of
-others, like his wife.
-
-"It is going to be a fearful night," he said, as he rose from the
-tea-table. "There will be no sleep for either of us to-night, wife. We
-must both watch whilst the gale blows like this. I'll send Jim down now to
-get a bite and sup, and then he can join me up aloft. You and the child
-can go to bed when you will. Only leave us a good fire here, and something
-hot to take if we get chilled and wet."
-
-"I shall not go to bed, Nat," answered Eileen. "I could not sleep, and I
-shall keep my vigil for those poor souls who are in deadly peril to-night.
-There be times when it seems heartless to lie down and sleep. If we were
-in fearful danger ourselves, we should like to know that there were those
-ashore praying for us, even though they knew not our names."
-
-Nat kissed his wife and child, and his weather-beaten face looked tender.
-
-"Well, well, my lass, please yourself, please yourself. It will make the
-fireside brighter for a man to come to if you are there to-night."
-
-"Mother," said Pat, coming up and laying a small hand on her knee, "may I
-stay with you? May I keep a vigil, too? I know I could not sleep in my bed
-with all this noise of wind and waves. Please let me stop up too."
-
-"Very well, my child; until you grow sleepy you may. We will watch
-together, and be ready to help the men, if help is needed. In such a
-storm as this one never knows what will befall. We will be ready whatever
-betide."
-
-Jim came down to his tea next, and Pat eagerly asked him whether he had
-ever known such a storm before. He was surprised that Jim was not more
-filled with wonder at it than he was; but supposed that he had grown used
-to such tempests, as indeed was the case, for no winter ever went by
-without some such storm as the present one.
-
-When mother and child were together again, Pat occupied himself for a
-while in feeding and playing with his bird, who was a good deal disturbed
-by his new surroundings, but was content to be coaxed and quieted by his
-little master's hand and voice. By-and-by he retired to the back of the
-cupboard where it was dark, and seemed to settle himself down for sleep.
-By this time the tea-things had been washed up, and the room made bright
-and tidy. There was little more to do that night, save to see that there
-was food and something hot for the watchers at intervals, when they should
-be able to come down for it; and at Pat's suggestion his mother got out
-her needlework, whilst Pat brought out the big Bible from which his father
-generally read a chapter aloud every day, and laying it on the table,
-drew his high chair up to it, and began turning over the leaves to find
-all the places where it told of the sea, and especially of any storms;
-which passages he then read aloud to his mother, and they discussed them
-afterwards together to the sound of the stormy voices from without, which
-made a fitting accompaniment.
-
-As the night wore on the gale seemed rather to rise than fall. There were
-times when the child's voice could not be heard for the wild shrieking
-of the wind without. Now and again Pat would creep up the stairs to the
-lamp house, and report to his mother, with an awed face, that the spray
-was dashing right over the top of the tower. Sometimes one or other of
-the men would come down to sit awhile by the fire, and refresh himself
-with the good cheer Eileen had ready. Now and again Pat would doze off
-into a little light sleep, leaning against his mother's knee. But he would
-not hear of going to bed, and, indeed, there was no chance of continuous
-sleep, even for those used to the sounds of the winds and waters; for it
-was one continual battle without of raging strife, and Pat never slept
-long without waking up with a start at some crash of water against the
-wall, or some wilder shriek of the furious gale sweeping round the tower.
-
-But, hitherto, there had been no sight or sound of human peril or
-distress. Each time that a watcher had come down, Eileen had anxiously
-asked if he had seen any vessel in peril, or had heard any signals of
-distress, and each time the answer had been that nothing of the kind had
-been seen or heard. Eileen breathed a sigh of thankfulness each time the
-report was made, and as the night wore away, and the storm did not seem to
-be increasing, she began to try and coax Pat to be put to bed, for he was
-growing very sleepy at last, and had kept his vigil very bravely and well.
-
-Her persuasion seemed just about to triumph over the child's reluctance
-to own himself sleepy, when a new sound suddenly smote upon their ears,
-causing Eileen's hand suddenly to fall to her side, whilst her face put
-on a look of white dismay and terror. For a moment she stood as rigidly
-as though she had been turned into stone, and Pat woke up wide in his
-surprise, for he had not understood the sound he had heard, and could not
-account for the change which had come over his mother. And then he heard
-again the faint new sound--only a distant report--the sound as of a gun.
-
-"What is it, mother?" he asked in his perplexity.
-
-"God help them--that is the signal gun. That is a ship in distress! There
-it is again! Oh, dear Lord Jesus, be with those poor souls in their hour
-of peril, 'for vain is the help of man!'"
-
-Pat was wide awake now. His heart was beating fast and hard. Something
-of his mother's awe had communicated itself to him; but inaction was
-not possible in this time of excitement. He must be doing something,
-and without another word or question he darted up the stairs to go and
-find his father and Jim, and ask them what they knew about this ship in
-distress.
-
-They were both at a look-out hole. His father had the telescope, and Jim
-was shading his eyes with his hand, and gazing out into the night too
-intently to be aware of the presence of the child. The moon was full, and
-in spite of the wrack of clouds in the sky, the night was not wholly dark,
-and from time to time a shaft of light would stream out upon one portion
-of the sea or another, showing to the watchers something of the dismasted
-vessel beating helplessly in the trough of the raging sea.
-
-"The Lord help her, for she cannot help herself!" exclaimed Nat, as he
-handed the glass to Jim. "She's a fine vessel--a steamer; but her fires
-are out--may be her screw is broken--and the mast is snapped clean in
-half. It may be they will reach the lee of yon promontory before they
-are beaten to pieces. That is what they are making for plainly, and the
-vessel is well handled. But what can any helmsman do with such a crippled
-log? There is another gun! Would God we could help them, poor souls. But
-there is nothing we can do, and she is a good mile from the rocks, thank
-Heaven! If she can but weather it out for another half-hour, and keep the
-course she is making, she may get in safely yet. Or the life-boat may see
-her, and take her passengers ashore. But 'tis a fearful thing to see her
-labouring like that in such a sea. Every wave seems as though it would
-swallow her up!"
-
-"Daddy, let me see," pleaded Pat, and Jim adjusted the telescope so that
-the child could see the great disabled vessel lying rolling helplessly in
-the trough of the angry water, driven along almost at the mercy of the
-winds and waves, yet gallantly striving to keep such a course as should
-give her her only chance of safety. Pat was not seaman enough to estimate
-her chances of escape, and cried out every moment that she must sink.
-
-Jim was afraid rather she would be driven in and dashed upon the rocks;
-but that she was under able management both men saw; and when Nat carried
-the child down to his mother, and saw Eileen's white face and straining
-eyes, he was able to kiss her, and place the boy in her arms, saying,
-"Please God, they will weather it yet; but 'tis a fearful thing to see.
-They have escaped being driven on this reef; and if they can get round the
-next point, they may find shelter from the gale. Pray for them, my lass,
-for it is all we may do. We will watch while you pray, and may be they
-will be safe yet!"
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-_JIM'S EXPLOIT_
-
-
-"It's a little boy! It's a little boy! Daddy! Oh, mother, look! look! I
-see him quite plain! It's a little boy. Oh, save him! save him!"
-
-Pat's shrill little voice, sharpened by fear and pity, rang high through
-the noise of wind and waves. The cold dawn was breaking over the Lone
-Rock, and its four inmates were standing together at the base of the
-lighthouse with their eyes eagerly fixed upon the vast sheet of heaving
-and tossing water. The wind had abated its fury somewhat during the past
-hours, but the sea was still raging like a wild thing round the sunken
-reef. The tide, however, had fallen, and there was safe foothold for the
-little group anxiously gathered together. For some minutes they had all
-been gazing in the same direction--had been looking towards an object
-floating in the water, drifting nearer and nearer to them; and now the
-child's shrill cry broke the silence, and spoke the words the men had not
-dared to do, though for some moments they, too, had known what it was,
-lashed to a floating spar, that was being drifted down upon the Lone Rock.
-
-"It's a little boy! It's a little boy!" cried Pat, in an agony of sorrow
-and fear. "Oh, father! Oh, Jim! Will he be killed? Will he be killed? Oh,
-don't let him be killed! Don't let the waves dash him on the rocks! Oh,
-what can we do? What can we do?"
-
-Eileen covered her eyes with her hand as though to shut out the sight of
-the thing that seemed as though it must happen. It would be too frightful
-to see that little frame dashed in pieces before their eyes, even though
-life might be already extinct. Pat was clinging to her dress in an agony.
-Nat's voice shook as he made reply to his child--
-
-"I'm afraid he's dead already, Pat. He may have been hours in the water
-with the waves dashing over him. The life is soon beaten out of a strong
-man like that. A little child could scarce live half-an-hour."
-
-"Oh, save him! save him!" cried the child, his voice rising almost to a
-shriek. "Oh, I don't believe he's dead! See, his head is quite out of the
-water--only when the waves wash over it. I don't believe he's dead. Oh,
-don't let him be killed! Save him! save him!"
-
-Nat shook his head sadly. He gave an expressive glance at his wife, and
-she gathered her own child in her arms and sank upon her knees, weeping
-and mingling prayers and supplications with her tears. Nat stood perfectly
-still and rigid, his gaze fixed upon the spar which carried the body of
-the child--whether living or dead none could tell--towards those cruel
-rocks which (if dashed upon them) would surely tear it in pieces before
-their very eyes. It was a moment that none of those ever forgot who had
-taken part in it. And only some minutes later did they observe that Jim
-had moved, and was no longer with them.
-
-Pat was the first to note this. He raised his white, tear-stained face
-from his mother's shoulder, and looking round quickly, asked with sudden
-eagerness, as though some new idea had struck him--
-
-"Where is Jim?"
-
-That made them all look round, and then they all saw that Jim had gone
-within doors, and that he was now issuing forth with a life-belt round
-him, to which was attached a long coil of strong rope. He had taken off
-his coat, his boots, and leggings, and had nothing on but his shirt and
-trousers, which last was rolled up to the knee. He looked a very strong,
-muscular fellow as he stood rolling up his shirt sleeves, his face set in
-lines of the most dogged and resolute determination. Pat gave a little
-shriek, and rushed forward towards him.
-
-"Jim! Jim! what are you going to do?"
-
-Nat and Eileen had also come forward, and Nat laid his hand on his
-assistant's shoulder--
-
-"Thou art a brave fellow, Jim," he said (when Nat was moved in spirit he
-had a way of resorting to thee and thou which he had heard as a child from
-his Quaker mother), "but thou must not throw away thy life. It is certain
-death to try and live in yon sea, and thou hast thy duties here to think
-of. Thou must think of that, too, my good comrade."
-
-"I have thought of it," said Jim, "but yet I must go. I know what I am
-doing. Yon spar will not be washed upon the reef; it will be carried just
-beyond round the point where we stand. I shall spring off yonder into deep
-water as it is swept by and seize it, and you will pull me in--for with
-that burden in my arms I cannot swim. I have not lived all the years on
-Lone Rock not to know what may and may not be done. It will not be certain
-death----" He stopped suddenly short. He could not say that it might not
-be death, and already he had spoken more freely than he had been known to
-do to any one but the child.
-
-Pat rushed up to Jim, and flung his arms round his knees. His face was all
-in a glow of loving admiration and enthusiasm.
-
-"Jim! Jim! Are you going to save the little boy? Oh, Jim, can you bring
-him safe home to us? Oh, Jim, how brave and good you are! Oh, how I do
-love you! If I were a man I would go with you, I would, indeed!"
-
-Then Jim did a very strange thing--strange at least for him--for he lifted
-the child up in his arms and kissed him; and Jim had never kissed Pat in
-his life before. When he held Pat thus he could speak in his ear words
-that nobody could hear except the two themselves.
-
-"Pat," he said, and his voice was rather husky, "it seems just as though
-the Lord Jesus had told me to trust myself to the waves--to come out to
-Him, in a manner of speaking, and not to be afraid of the boisterous
-waves or the wind. I don't expect to be able to walk on the water; but it
-seems like as though He would be there to help me. I've been wanting to
-find something to do for Him all these weeks. It seems like as though He
-said to me just now, 'Go and do that, Jim. It's one of My lambs that is
-in peril.' So I'm going. And if I don't come back alive, don't you fret,
-little master. It's all right. You know what you said yourself you would
-like to do if you had the chance when you were a man--just to lay down
-your life--as He did."
-
-Pat's tears were running down his cheeks, but he could not try to stay Jim
-after that, though he realised then that the peril of the rescue would be
-great. The man put him gently down, and pushed him towards his mother, who
-took him within her sheltering arms; and then he made his way with Nat
-cautiously to the very edge of the rocks towards the edge of that great
-basin--to leeward as it chanced to-night--of the lighthouse, where the
-water was comparatively calm for a few yards, and where if he sprang in he
-would find depth to swim without being immediately caught up and hurled
-backwards by the fury of the sea.
-
-Nat saw that his strong and skilled comrade had just a chance of doing
-what he meditated, and yet escaping with his own life, and he would not
-seek to hold him back. Every seaman, at one time, or another, risks his
-life for his fellow-men, and Nat had not been backward in deeds of bravery
-in his own time. But as keeper of the lighthouse now, and with a wife and
-child to think for, he could not have taken his life in his hand to-night
-as Jim purposed to do. Still, he could aid and assist his comrade by his
-skill and strength, and judicious management of the rope; and he knew
-that Jim's life, when once he should have taken the plunge, would depend
-entirely upon the strength and foresight and management which he should
-show. He beckoned his wife to his side, for she was a strong woman, and
-had grown up amongst scenes of this sort. Eileen understood him in a
-moment, and came and stood beside him with her hand upon the ropes, ready
-to second his every effort, and do her share in the work of rescue. Pat
-stood beside his mother, his little face calm and quiet now, his eyes
-fixed full upon Jim. There was something in the expression upon all those
-faces that a painter would have loved to transfer to canvas--a look of
-lofty courage, of self-renunciation and purpose. Not a word more was
-spoken; the time for action had come, and all were nerving themselves for
-it.
-
-Although all this takes time to tell, only a few minutes had passed since
-Pat's first cry before they were all standing here at the edge of the
-basin, where the boat in the summer months rode at anchor. The sea was
-sweeping wildly past just outside this small basin, and the great waves
-were bringing nearer with every heave the floating spar, upon which all
-eyes were bent. Even Pat now understood exactly what Jim meant to do. It
-would have been madness for him to try and stem the force of the waves--to
-attempt to swim out against them. But he might launch himself into the
-boiling sea, and swim with them just as they were carrying their burden
-past the lighthouse, and then if he could once grasp it, the united
-strength of those upon the rocks might be sufficient to haul the double
-burden back to shore. Nat had already made fast the end of the rope to a
-great pinnacle of rock, which rose up like a gigantic needle at the edge
-of the basin. But all knew that ropes had been known to break beneath the
-strain which would come upon this one, that the strands might be cut where
-it was tied to the rock; and there was just the possibility that those
-on shore might be pulled into the boiling gulf before Jim and his burden
-could be dragged ashore. Nat realised this possibility, and his face was
-very set and grave; for he had the lighthouse to think for as well as his
-wife and child; and he knew that many, many lives might depend upon that
-sleepless light. The keeper of the lamp must not desert his post, come
-what might. It would be a fearfully hard choice if it had to be made; but
-Nat did his duty. If it came to be a question between Jim's life and that
-of his own duty, Jim must go. To let himself be dragged into the vortex
-would not save the life of his comrade, but it might cost the lives of
-tens and even hundreds of fellow-men. Nat's face was set and stern as all
-this flashed through his mind, but his resolution did not waver.
-
-"It's coming! it's coming!" cried Pat, breaking the strained silence
-with a sudden cry, and he pointed with his little hand towards the dark
-fleeting mass on the water, which was very near to them now. In the grey,
-but steadily increasing, daylight they could see the face of the little
-child--the damp hair floating round it, the expression calm and tranquil,
-as though the little one was sleeping in his mother's arms. They could
-see, too, that there was a great life-buoy about the child, so that it's
-head had been kept well above the water. It was just possible that life
-might be restored. Sailors have wonderful experiences of such returns to
-life after long immersion in the water. Pat could not believe the little
-boy was dead, and with breathless eagerness he watched Jim quietly slip
-into the water, and strike out in strong vigorous strokes for the floating
-spar. Eileen put her hands before her eyes for one moment at the plunge,
-and then stood up calm and strong.
-
-"God help him! God be with him!" she murmured softly under her breath, and
-Nat said "Amen" in deep steady tones.
-
-"Wife," he said, after a moment's pause, "remember that the lighthouse
-is now thy charge and mine. That must be our first duty. We two are its
-keepers now. God grant we have not to choose between it and yon brave
-fellow; but if it be His will that it be so, we must remember our duty to
-those who placed us here, and to those who sail on the sea, and look to be
-guided by yon light."
-
-She understood him in a moment, and nipped his hand.
-
-"Pray God it come not to that," she said. "We are both very strong."
-
-And then they held their breath to watch the bold swimmer, who was already
-beyond the shelter of the rocks, exposed to the full play of the sweeping
-billows, rising and falling like a cork on the face of the mighty deep,
-but with every strong stroke approaching more near to the object he had
-started to seek.
-
-Nat was paying out the rope with a look of strained anxiety on his face.
-Suppose it should not prove long enough! Coil after coil was payed out,
-and still Jim had not quite come up with the floating spar. Would there be
-enough? Heaven send he reach it soon!
-
-A shout from the child. Pat had clambered a little way above them to get a
-better view. Now came a wild hurrah.
-
-"He's got him! He's got him! Oh, brave Jim! Strong Jim! Daddy, he's got
-him. He's seized him fast. Pull him in! Pull him in quick! Oh, his head
-keeps going under! He can't help himself now! He keeps his arms fast round
-the little boy. He's doing something; I can't quite see what! Oh, I see
-now.... He's cut the rope that ties him to the spar! I can see it floating
-away by itself. But he's got the little boy! He's got him fast! Oh, daddy,
-be quick! be quick! Don't let Jim drown! His head does go under so often!
-Make haste and pull him out! Oh, do make haste! The waves are so big and
-fierce, and wash over them so often. He always keeps the little boy top;
-but he keeps going under himself so much. Oh, dear, brave Jim! How I do
-love you. Oh, daddy, that wave! There was something floating just under
-the water. It hit Jim; I'm sure it did! Oh, I hope it did not hurt him!
-He keeps fast hold of the little boy. Oh, they are coming nearer! Do make
-haste! Do make haste! Oh, I hope they will not both be dead! Oh, hold on
-strong, Jim! Daddy will pull you in soon; but the sea is so strong! Oh,
-how I wish the sea was not so cruel! I know now why mother said that it
-would be a blessed thing when there was no more sea!"
-
-Pat was too excited not to keep talking all the time, though some of his
-words were piped out in shrill tones to his parents below, and some were
-said beneath his breath to himself. Below at the edge of the basin Nat and
-Eileen were straining over their task, pulling in the rope hand over hand,
-and using the pinnacle of rock as a lever to assist their efforts, their
-faces set and pale, their muscles tense and quivering; for it was a hard
-task--harder almost than their strength was equal to; for the rush of the
-hungry water dragging their prey away was very great, and they dared not
-relax their efforts for one moment.
-
-But Eileen's muscles seemed to be turned into steel, and as Nat said
-afterwards, he could scarce believe it was not a strong man who stood at
-his side. The mother instinct in her made her fight as if for life itself
-for that unknown woman's child, whose life lay in the balance, as well as
-for honest Jim, who had served her husband so faithfully all these months,
-and had been such a friend to her own boy, too.
-
-"We shall do it yet, wife--thank the Lord!" spoke Nat at length, in
-laboured gasps, as the strain upon the rope grew less. When once they
-had drawn the lifeless burden out of the track of the sweeping waves,
-and into the comparative tranquillity of the little bay, their task was
-comparatively easy. Hand over hand the rope came in, bearing the strain
-well, and showing no sign of rupture, until at last Nat leaned over the
-edge of the basin, and grasped the child by his floating hair.
-
-Not the least difficult part of the business now was the raising of
-the half-drowned pair--the rescuer and the rescued inextricably locked
-together--out of the water and on to the safe shelter of the rocks above.
-Jim was by this time as insensible as the boy he had risked his life to
-draw ashore, though Nat was confident that he still lived, as he had not
-been long enough in the water to be past restoring. But his bear-like
-embrace of the child was hard to undo; and only when the pair lay side by
-side upon the rocks did Nat's strong hands succeed in loosing that rigid
-clasp.
-
-The moment the child was free, Eileen took the dripping form in her arms
-and bore it indoors. She scarcely dared to hope that the little fellow
-could be living. There was no means of knowing how long he had been in
-the water, but it must have been a long while. However, she laid him on
-her table, with a small cushion beneath his head, dried and chafed his
-cold limbs, and applied a steady and gentle friction in the neighbourhood
-of the heart. Presently she was almost certain she detected a faint
-pulsation, and redoubled her efforts, disregarding Pat's entreaties that
-she would bring the little boy to the fire because he must be so cold.
-
-[Illustration: "He seemed to have received no injury at all, and began to
-swallow the warm milk."--_Page 120._]
-
-"Wait a bit, honey," she answered, still rubbing vigorously, and working
-the little arms up and down in a way which perplexed Pat not a little.
-"We must get the little heart to work before we warm the little body,
-else the blood will run there and choke it, and it won't be able to beat
-again. Set the heart going first, and then we'll wrap him in blankets by
-the fire. That's what I have always been taught. And put the kettle right
-on the fire, sonny, and get the bath out ready. I do believe--praise the
-Lord!--that the darling is living still. If he is, and if he gets a bit
-better, a hot bath will restore him quicker than anything. And get that
-box of dried herbs and sea-weed from the cupboard. There are some rare
-good things there for rubbing the skin with. I've seen wonderful cures
-with them in my young days."
-
-Pat was intensely excited as he watched his mother's quick and clever
-ministrations to the little boy, who already began to look different--less
-like a child of marble, and more like one of flesh and blood. It seemed
-very, very long to Pat before his mother looked up with kindling eyes
-to say he was still alive; but Eileen herself had been surprised at the
-quickness with which the little heart had begun to beat beneath her hands,
-and decided in her own mind that the child could not have been very long
-in the water before they saw him.
-
-Pat ran from the kitchen, where his mother's operations were carried
-on, to the little room where Jim had been carried by Nat, and reported
-to each worker the success of the other. Jim very soon began to breathe
-again. He was not in the state the child had been, but he had evidently
-received some blow which had injured him in some way Nat could not at once
-determine. He awoke in great pain, and on trying to move himself became
-again unconscious; and Nat could only apply hot flannels to the side where
-the pain seemed to be worst, and get his wife, when she could spare the
-time, to mix him some of her simples, which had the effect of sending him
-off to sleep at last.
-
-The little boy's case was different altogether. He seemed to have received
-no injury at all, but to be suffering simply from exposure and the length
-of time he had been in the water. The bath of herbs and pungent roots
-prepared by Eileen seemed to have a marvellous effect upon him, and he
-began to swallow the warm milk in teaspoonfuls which she gave him from
-time to time, each time with increased ease and eagerness.
-
-"He likes it, mother," cried Pat excitedly; "I'm sure he likes it. I do
-wish he'd open his eyes and smile. Is he asleep, or what?"
-
-"I hope he'll be asleep soon," answered Eileen, as she dried him by the
-fire, and prepared to lay him in her own well-warmed bed. "He's coming
-round beautiful, and if he doesn't get a fever on it, which I'm in hopes
-he won't after what I've done for him, he may wake up to know us in
-another few hours. But he'll be best in bed now; and so would you, honey.
-You've been up the whole night long, my little son. Shall mother put the
-pretty little boy to bed first, and then little Pat?"
-
-It had not occurred to Pat before that he was tired; but now he found
-that he could only just keep his eyes open, and that his limbs were quite
-stiff from fatigue. So after seeing the little stranger boy put to bed,
-he consented to be undressed and fed himself. "Just as if I were a baby
-myself!" as he said sleepily; and his head had hardly touched the pillow
-before he fell fast, fast asleep, and slept for more hours at a time than
-he ever remembered to have done in all his life before.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-_THE LITTLE PRINCE_
-
-
-What was that noise? Pat sat up in bed to listen; and as he did so,
-he began to wonder where he was, and what had happened; for he had an
-impression that there was something strange in the way the light fell on
-the wall, and in his mind there was a feeling that some great event had
-taken place which he could not at that moment recall; and then, what _was_
-that noise in the living-room? It was for all the world like the sound
-of a little child laughing and prattling; but how had any child come to
-Lone Rock in the night?... And then all in a moment, like a flash, it
-came back to Pat--all the events of the night of the storm, the dismasted
-ship, the little boy lashed to the spar, Jim's heroic attempt to save
-the child--everything that had occurred up to the time he had let his
-mother put him to bed in broad daylight. It was daylight again now. He
-knew by the place the sun had got to on the wall that it was not only day,
-but afternoon. He thought for a moment that it was the afternoon of the
-day on which he had gone to bed; but he soon found out that it was the
-day following that one. He had slept for more than twenty-four hours, as
-little folks will sometimes do when they have been through great fatigue
-and excitement; and now he waked up as fresh as a lark, and full of eager
-curiosity about the new inmate of the lighthouse.
-
-He slipped out of bed, and into his clothes as fast as possible, and then
-stepped softly across the floor, and peeped into the next room. He wanted
-to see the little stranger before he was himself seen. He wanted to have a
-good look at him, and in this he was not disappointed.
-
-The living-room looked very neat and trim. All the disorder and mess
-which had been brought in the previous day was cleared away. The table
-was spread for a meal, and Eileen herself was sitting comfortably in her
-rocking-chair, with a laughing little boy perched upon her knee, laughing
-and crowing lustily at the movement of the chair. He was a great many
-years younger than Pat--this little waif of the ocean--perhaps not more
-than four years old. He had quantities of soft yellow hair, that floated
-round his head like a cloud, all curly and pretty; and his skin was like
-a peach in its soft bloom and pretty rich colour. He had big dark eyes
-that seemed full of sunshine, and when he laughed his little teeth looked
-like pearls. Pat thought he had never seen such a wonderful and lovely
-little boy before. He himself was not handsome, though he had a dear
-little shrewd intelligent face of his own, and a pair of pretty grey eyes
-like his mother's. Indeed, Pat had never before troubled his head as to
-whether people were pretty or the reverse; but the beauty of this child
-struck him as something so wonderful, that he could not help noticing it,
-and rejoicing in it. He had not thought about it in that strange night
-when the little guest had been brought in, looking like a marble image on
-a church monument. It was hard to believe that this could be the same
-being; and yet, of course, it must be. He came slowly forward, almost
-timidly, feeling as though he must apologise for his intrusion to this
-fairy prince.
-
-His mother looked up, and greeted his appearance with a smile.
-
-"Well, honey, quite rested after your vigil? That is right. And if you
-are up, will you mind the little boy whilst I get the tea? We have been
-living a strange life these past two days, and I scarce know what to call
-the meals; but father will like some tea when he comes down; and Jim, may
-be, will take a cup, too. Poor fellow! I wish we could get a doctor to
-him, but I'm afraid there'll be small chance of that for a week or more.
-The sea will run so high after the storm, though the wind does seem to be
-going down at last."
-
-For the moment Pat was too much engrossed with this wonderful little boy
-to heed even what his mother said of Jim. He was standing on his own feet
-now, where Eileen had set him, looking hard at Pat, as though wondering
-who he was, and where he had come from. He was dressed in a little old
-suit of Pat's clothes, which was many sizes too big for him, though
-Pat had long outgrown them. Yet little figure of fun as he was in this
-respect, nothing could destroy the look of dainty finish and beauty which
-seemed to belong to him as by a natural inheritance, and after he had
-indulged in a good long stare at Pat, a smile beamed all over his face,
-and he remarked graciously--
-
-"I'll play wis'oo, ickle boy. I likes to play nice dames."
-
-Pat was his slave in a moment, begging to be allowed to crawl round the
-room with the little prince on his back; and as this form of entertainment
-was mightily to the liking of the small guest, it was carried on
-uninterruptedly till Nat came down from the lighthouse, and laughed aloud
-to see the two children thus occupied.
-
-"What! is he turning a little tyrant already?" asked the father, as he
-picked up the rider, and lifted him high in the air, laughing and shouting
-in glee at this sudden change in the game. "So, Pat, my boy, you are awake
-at last! We thought you had turned into one of the seven sleepers, whoever
-they may be; and this young man, too, though he woke up the first, and
-shows he has the making of a first-rate jack-tar in him. He's none the
-worse for a wetting that would have made an end of any landlubber. He
-must be cut out for a sailor--aren't you, my hearty?"
-
-The child laughed, and danced up and down in those strong arms, and pulled
-Nat's beard, and shouted with glee. He was certainly none the worse, to
-all appearance, for the narrow escape of his life. Eileen marvelled at
-him, and her faith in her herbs and simples was tenfold increased. Perhaps
-Nature has secrets which are better known to the humble than the learned,
-for surely this unlettered woman, with her store of half-superstitious
-lore, gleaned in her girlhood from old women who were learned in the
-matter of Nature's cures, had achieved a result that many a medical man
-would have envied her. She was proud and delighted at her own success, and
-could hardly believe that any child could have gone through so much, and
-yet be so well and hearty twenty-four hours later.
-
-"He was never born to be drowned--the little rogue--that's plain enough!"
-laughed Nat, as he took his seat at table, and gave the child to his wife.
-"And now let me have my tea as quick as you can, for there is double work
-up aloft since poor Jim is laid by his heels."
-
-Pat stood beside his father, and waited on him with assiduity.
-
-"How is poor Jim, and what is the matter with him? May I take him his tea?
-He will like it, I think, if I bring it."
-
-"I think he will, sonny. He speaks of thee more than of any other. I
-scarce know what is the matter. It seems like as if he had broken a rib or
-two, and they were pressing inwards, somehow. He can't move without pain,
-and sometimes can scarce draw breath. But so long as he's lying still
-and quiet he seems fairly comfortable like. We must get a doctor to him
-as soon as ever we can. I've signalled ashore that we want help; but I'm
-afeard it will be some days before any boat can come anigh us."
-
-Pat took the cup of tea and slice of buttered toast his mother had made,
-and went carefully with it to Jim's little dark room, which was not far
-away.
-
-Jim was lying propped up with pillows, and there was a curious whiteness
-about his weather-beaten face, and a sunken look about his cheeks, which
-made Pat realise in a moment that he must be very ill. His heavy eyes,
-however, lightened at sight of the child, and he just moved his hand
-along the counterpane in token of greeting.
-
-"I've brought you some tea, Jim," he said softly; "I'm going to stop
-and give it you. I'm a good hand with sick folks. Mother always says so
-when she's ill. You needn't move or talk if you don't want to. I'll do
-everything for you. You've been a hero, you know, Jim; and now we must
-take care of you till you're well. I wonder what it feels like to be a
-hero? Do you feel different from what you did before that night?"
-
-Something like the ghost of a smile passed across the man's face, and
-he made a slight sign of dissent. Pat saw that he could not talk much,
-and he contented himself with giving him the tea, and coaxing him to try
-and swallow just a morsel of the toast, talking to him softly the while,
-and telling him how well and strong and beautiful the little boy was.
-Jim listened with evident interest and pleasure, but speech was visibly
-difficult, and the only connected words he spoke were whispered just at
-the end before Pat went away and left him.
-
-"I want you to read.... Just a few verses ... about Peter ... walking
-on the sea, ... and what the Lord said to him;" and Pat understood in a
-moment, and got the Bible from the table, and quickly found the place.
-
-As he read the simple story, a happy and satisfied look passed over Jim's
-face, and he closed his eyes as though he were asleep. Pat put the book
-back, and as he did so he could not help noticing how many signs of wear
-it showed, considering that it was new only a few months before; and there
-were bits of paper tucked into so many different places. It was plain that
-Jim had read it a great deal. Pat thought that it must have been that
-which helped Jim to be a hero that stormy night. The child knew he had
-risked his life to save the little boy, and he loved Jim with an admiring,
-reverential love, quite different from his former affection.
-
-But since there could be no conversation, he need not linger here, and
-he began to want his own tea, as well as the society of the beautiful
-little boy. Stealing from Jim's darkened room he found his way back to
-his mother, and there was his tea all ready for him, and the little boy
-enjoying his own share mightily, perched on Eileen's knee, and chattering
-away to her in a babbling fashion, which she seemed to understand better
-than Pat did all at once.
-
-"Mother, what is his name? Can he tell us?" asked Pat eagerly; and the
-question being put by Eileen to the child, was received by a gurgling baby
-laugh, and an answer which the listening Pat barely understood.
-
-"He calls himself Prince Rupert, by what I can make out," she said,
-turning with a smile to her own boy. "I've asked him again and again, for
-I don't know whether that isn't a pet name, not his own----"
-
-"Oh, but, mother, why should it be? I'm sure he's a sort of little
-prince--one can tell it by looking at him!" cried the delighted Pat.
-"Prince Rupert! What a pretty name! Oh, mother, I have wanted so often to
-see a real live prince. Mother, are any of the Queen's children called
-Prince Rupert? Do you think he might be one of them?"
-
-Eileen smiled at the simple good faith with which Pat asked this question,
-and also at the wonder she saw in the boy's eyes as they were turned
-towards the little guest, who was busily engaged in trying to reach
-everything upon the table, that he might better examine its properties.
-
-"No, dear; he's a deal too young to be our Queen's son, and there isn't a
-Prince Rupert amongst them; but he's plainly some well-born little boy,
-even if he isn't a real prince; and we must try and find out who his
-parents are, and where he came from, so soon as a boat can come to us,
-when the storm is over. Somebody must be mourning him for lost; unless,
-indeed, those who belong to him have found a watery grave themselves.
-One cannot guess how he came here, except that it must have been from
-some vessel, either wrecked or in great peril. He has been washed
-overboard--that's plain enough; but whether or not the ship went down, we
-cannot tell. We shall have to try and learn; but he can tell us nothing,
-bless him. He doesn't seem even to remember much about being on a ship.
-It's as if the salt water had washed everything out of his pretty head."
-
-Pat's face was full of eager excitement and purpose.
-
-"Oh, mother!" he cried; "and if nobody comes for the little boy--if his
-relations have been drowned in the ship--may we keep him? May I have him
-for a brother? You know you've said sometimes you wished I had a brother
-to play with. If nobody else wants Prince Rupert, may he stay here in the
-lighthouse with me? I should be so very happy if I might have him always.
-I would take care of him. He shouldn't be any trouble to you. Oh, mother,
-do say yes! I do love him so very, very much!"
-
-Eileen was smiling at her little boy's request, but she did not give him
-any direct answer. She set the child on his feet, and he promptly ran
-across to Pat with a shout of glee; and as the pair scrambled to the floor
-for a renewed romp together, she watched them a few minutes, and then
-said--
-
-"Poor little boy; he's too young to miss his mother yet, but I fear she
-may be in a terrible state of fear for him if she be living, poor soul. We
-must not think of ourselves, little son. We must think first of others.
-We must send word ashore about the little boy, and the police will do all
-they can to find out who he is. I can't but think he was washed off yon
-great steamer that was labouring past us that stormy night; and both Jim
-and your father think and hope that she weathered her way round the point,
-and reached harbour safely. If that is so, we shall soon hear who little
-Prince Rupert really is, and his parents or friends will send for him.
-That will be best of all; for this would be a poor sort of a home for him
-to be brought up in. He's plainly been used to something very different.
-Princes don't live in places like this, my little son."
-
-"No, I suppose not," answered Pat wistfully, "but I would have tried to
-make him so very happy!"
-
-"Well, make him as happy as you can whilst he is here. May be it will be
-for a good spell yet. And never mind what happens afterwards. You will
-always like to think you made his visit to the lighthouse a pleasant one."
-
-So Pat set himself with all his heart to the task of entertaining the
-little prince thus wonderfully cast upon his hands. It was not difficult
-to do this, for the wee boy was the merriest of little mortals, and took
-an immense liking to Pat from the very first. Very soon Pat began to
-understand his lisping prattle perfectly, and was delighted with his
-sharp observation, and little airs of baby importance and mastery. It was
-very plain that Prince Rupert had been used to plenty of attention and
-petting. He demanded both as a natural right, and soon had the submissive
-Pat completely under his yoke. Pat was to sit by him when he had his
-bath, so that he could splash him all over with the water, crowing with
-mischievous delight all the while. Pat was to come into the inner room,
-and see him go to bed, and sit beside him and tell him a tale; and of
-course Pat was enchanted to do this, and would have told him tales till
-midnight, had not his little tyrant speedily gone off to sleep, holding
-him fast by the hand. Pat never thought of taking his hand away. He
-would have sat by the little bed all night sooner than disturb his small
-majesty; but his mother came in and unclasped the chubby fingers, whilst
-she tucked the little stranger warmly up in his cot; and then Pat found
-that he was rather stiff and cramped, though he hardly knew then how to
-tear himself from the side of his new playmate.
-
-"Isn't he beautiful, mother?" he whispered softly, as he stooped to kiss
-the little rose-leaf face. "Oh, mother, it must have been Jesus who sent
-Jim to fetch him out of the sea."
-
-"Yes, Pat, dear, I think it must have been. Dear, bonny little lamb--he's
-one of the dear Lord's own little children."
-
-"Oh, yes, mother! and Jim told me before he went that it seemed just as if
-the Lord had called him to go out into the sea--like as He told Peter to
-come to Him, you know. Jim is very fond of that story. I read it to him
-often. You know, mother, Jesus kept Peter from sinking in the sea, and I
-think He must have been with Jim, too, for the waves were so very, very
-strong. I thought he would never be able to reach him. But he did; and
-then you and father pulled him safe to shore--but I don't think you could
-have done it if Jesus hadn't been helping too."
-
-"I'm sure we could not," answered Eileen with dewy eyes, as she turned
-away and took Pat's hand tenderly in hers. "I often think that the dear
-Lord is walking over the sea on stormy nights, very near indeed to those
-who are in peril, if they could but see Him there. And Pat, honey, did
-you say that Jim felt that too? Did he think that he was doing it at the
-bidding of the Lord Jesus?"
-
-"Yes, mother, I am sure he did. I can't remember just what he said, but it
-was something very like that. I'm almost sure that Jim loves Jesus very
-much now. He's always reading about Him in the Bible you bought for me to
-give him. Why do you cry, mother? Aren't you glad that Jim is happier than
-he was? because I am sure he is. I think it makes everybody happy to love
-Jesus, and to like to know about Him, and think about Him."
-
-"Indeed it does, my little boy," answered Eileen, bending to kiss him,
-"and it's thankful I am that poor Jim has come out of the darkness into
-the light. Go to him, Pat, and see if he is asleep, or if he is wanting
-anything. I must try and get the little boy's clothes mended to-night for
-him. They were so drenched and stained I had to wash them out in rain
-water, and get them well cleaned and dried. I must sit up till they are
-ready for him to-morrow, for I can't bear to see him running about such
-a little object as he is in your old things. His own mother would scarce
-know him, I take it. Beautiful, soft, warm clothes his own are--too good
-to be really hurt by their wetting. Run to Jim, dear, and see if you can
-do anything for him, and then come back and read to me. Father will have
-a long watch again to-night, and I shall sit up and take a spell with him
-by-and-by. We must all put our shoulder to the wheel and help him till we
-can get help here from shore."
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-_"POOR JIM!"_
-
-
-"And you were the little boy that was taken out of the water, and poor Jim
-was the brave man who swam into the great big waves to save you!"
-
-Pat was the speaker, and the beautiful little boy the listener. They were
-sitting together in the hot sunshine, just beneath the south wall of the
-lighthouse, well sheltered from the wind; and the sun was shining with all
-the brilliance that it sometimes can in early February on the south coast,
-though the sea tumbled and foamed beneath the strong gale which still
-blew steadily day by day, and cut off Lone Rock from the mainland. But
-the weather began to show signs of modifying. The careful keeper of the
-lighthouse had that day told his wife that he believed a few more days
-would see the end of this bout of rough weather. The glass was beginning
-to rise after its long period of depression, and this was the third day
-on which the sun had shone out brightly and bravely, tempting the two
-children out upon the rocks for several hours, in the brightest part of
-the day. By this time the two boys were the best of friends. They were not
-happy for a moment if separated. Pat took the lead in devising amusement
-for his small guest, and was in one sense of the word the leading spirit,
-yet it was the little prince who really ruled the pair, for his word was
-law to his comrade, who could have sat and looked at him, or listened
-to his merry prattle for hours. The little gentleman had a way with him
-which had captivated every heart within the lighthouse. Nat and Eileen
-were almost as much his slaves as Pat. He could twist any one of the three
-round his chubby little fingers, and this was plainly no new art to him.
-Those merry ways of his, half-coaxing, half-commanding, had plainly been
-practised before. He was no novice in the art of getting what he wanted,
-this beautiful little prince (as Pat firmly and fully believed him to
-be); and it seemed to Eileen a pathetic thing that the little fellow
-should thus be cast among strangers, and those of a rank in life so much
-humbler than his own, without being able to explain to them who he was,
-nor whence he had come, although in other ways he could prattle away fast
-enough, and tell little stories, too, in his own peculiar fashion.
-
-Eileen had listened in vain for any illusions to his parents in his talk;
-but the name of father or mother was never on his lips. Once, when she
-asked him where mother was, he pointed vaguely out over the sea; but she
-could not make out whether he meant anything by the gesture; and the only
-relative he ever spoke of was "Auntie;" whilst he did not appear to be
-pining after anybody, but was as merry as a lark from morning to night;
-very different from what Pat would have been, even as a little child, if
-suddenly robbed of all those whom he had learned to love.
-
-"I sometimes think the water has washed the memory of what went before
-clean out of his head," Eileen had said to her husband, in some
-disappointment at her failure to learn anything of the boy's history from
-him. "It seems strange he should have forgotten everything, such a quick,
-noticing little fellow as he is. He talks a little about a ship to Pat;
-but never seems to remember the people who were with him. I can't make it
-out. At his age, Pat would have been able to tell anybody where he lived,
-and what his name was, and who his father and mother were. It puzzles me
-altogether, that it does. And we want to send a message ashore when the
-relief boat comes. I'd have liked to be able to say who the boy was."
-
-"Well, we'll say enough for his relations to know him by, if he's got
-any living claim to him, poor little chap. I suppose the children of the
-gentry, who always have a nurse beside them, don't learn to be as knowing
-and independent as our little ones, who have to fend for themselves so
-much sooner. Pat may be will find out something more sooner or later. He
-chatters away to him like a young magpie. The child looks a deal better
-since his little prince came. It's good for boys to be together. I'll not
-grumble if his folks don't come for him in a hurry. Look at them now; why,
-they are as happy as kings together--and a deal happier than many kings,
-I take it, if all we hear of the ways of the world is true."
-
-The two boys were sitting in the hot sunshine in the lee of the
-lighthouse, and the tame sea-gull was hopping about near to them,
-sometimes diving into a pool after a dainty morsel that caught his eye,
-sometimes flapping his wings, and uttering his harsh cries, which seemed
-those of joy at seeing the sunshine again. Pat was evidently telling a
-tale to the little one of more than usual interest. The little prince's
-eyes were fixed upon his face with a look of wrapped absorption, his rosy
-lips were parted, and his whole expression was one of deep and undivided
-attention. He was in reality hearing the story of the little boy who had
-been seen a few nights ago, just as it was growing to be dawn, floating
-on the water on a broken spar; and of the brave man in the lighthouse,
-who had swum out amongst the great waves to bring him in safe to shore;
-and Prince Rupert had been more fascinated by this tale--told with all
-the graphic power of which the youthful eye-witness was capable--than by
-any other from Pat's store; and when at the close he was told that he
-himself had been the little boy, and that it was Jim who had gone into
-the boiling sea to fetch him out, he looked fairly bewildered at the idea,
-and turning his dark eyes towards the lighthouse behind, he looked up and
-down, and then asked--
-
-"And where is poor Jim?--does he live here, too?"
-
-"Yes, he lives here," answered Pat. "But he got hurt that night. He has to
-lie in bed. I go to see him every day. Poor Jim looks very sad and poorly.
-Father says he won't be better till we can get a doctor to him."
-
-Little Rupert's eyes were wide with sympathy and interest. He was quite a
-kind-hearted little fellow, though he had been taught to think first of
-himself and his own wishes, as too many little children are, whether those
-about them know it or not.
-
-"Did he get hurted coming into the water after me?" he asked, in a voice
-that was quite soft and subdued with surprise and thought.
-
-"Yes, Prince Rupert, he did," answered Pat. "I don't quite know how it
-was; but there was a big black thing floating in the water, too. I saw it,
-and a great wave came and carried it right against Jim. I think it might
-have hit you, perhaps, only Jim saw it coming, and turned over so that
-it came against him instead, and a big wave broke all over him then, and
-I couldn't see what happened. But I know he got hurt then, for after that
-he couldn't help himself a bit; and father and mother could only pull you
-both in, for Jim never let go of you. And it seemed like as if you were
-both dead at first. But mother took care of you, and father took care of
-Jim, and you both got better. But Jim has to lie in bed, and his side
-hurts him dreadfully when he moves. But you can run about and play. I'm so
-glad you weren't hurt, too. Do you remember being washed into the water?"
-
-But the child did not answer the question. He seemed to be watching the
-gull at his queer play; but he was evidently thinking of something else,
-for he turned presently to Pat, and said with a lip that quivered a
-little--
-
-"I don't like Jim to be hurted in getting me out. Where does Jim live?"
-
-"In there," answered Pat, indicating the lighthouse behind. "When he was
-well, he helped father to take care of her--the big lamp, you know, that
-you went to see last night. He can't help now, because he's ill. But when
-he gets better he will again."
-
-"I'd like to go and see Jim," said the child, suddenly scrambling to his
-feet. "I fink Jim must be a very good man. I'll go and tell him so."
-
-"Yes, do!" answered Pat eagerly. "I'm sure he would like it. I tell him
-about you every day, Prince Rupert. He likes to hear about you, I know,
-though he can't talk hardly at all. You must talk to him. He can't say
-hardly anything himself. It hurts him so; and mother says he mustn't."
-
-"I'll talk," answered the little prince serenely. "I can talk very well,
-if I like. I've heard people say so, though they don't always understand
-when I do. Why didn't you take me to see Jim before?"
-
-"I don't know. I didn't think perhaps you'd care to come. You see, he
-has only a poor little dark room, and you are a little prince." Pat's
-loving admiration was betrayed in every word he spoke, and in the glance
-of his smiling eyes. He thought Rupert looked prettier than ever with his
-golden curls blowing about in the breeze, and his little face, with the
-peach bloom tanned by the kisses of the sunbeams which had been caressing
-it these past days. His own stylish little sailor suit had been neatly
-mended, too, and had not suffered so very much by the long immersion in
-salt water. The child had an air of refinement and sovereignty about him
-of which Pat's sensitive Irish nature was keenly conscious. He felt he
-could lay down his life for this princely child; and understood very well
-now how it was that real kings and princes in history had got hundreds
-and thousands of followers to go with them to victory or death. Sometimes
-before, his mother's stories had puzzled him. He did not quite understand
-how men had been so easily led to fight against fearful odds. But it was
-no puzzle to him now. The spirit of hero-worship had entered into his
-being, and had made many things plain that had perplexed him before.
-
-"If I am a prince, princes must be good," said the golden-haired child,
-suddenly straightening himself out, and looking at Pat with a new
-expression in his eyes. It was as if some sudden memory were coming back
-to him--a memory of something or somebody almost forgotten hitherto. Pat
-held his breath to watch and listen. "I know that's right. She said so. I
-remember quite well. She said, 'If you are a prince, you must be a good
-one,' and she kissed me, and took me in her arms. The sea was all shining
-over there, just like it shines now. Was it here she said it, Pat?"
-
-Pat shook his head. He was almost as curious as his mother would have been
-to know who the "she" was whose words the child has just quoted.
-
-But the flash of memory did not seem to go farther, and after a moment's
-pause, Rupert went back to his former theme, speaking with his baby lisp,
-yet in words quite intelligible to Pat.
-
-"Take me to see poor Jim. I'd like to see him. I'd like to tell him he's a
-good man, and that I'm very much obliged to him for pulling me out of the
-sea. I suppose I should have been drowned if he hadn't got me out in time;
-shouldn't I, Pat?"
-
-"Yes, indeed you would; I thought you'd be drowned as it was. It seemed
-such a long time before they could get you both out. Now I'll take you to
-see poor Jim. I'm sure he'll be pleased, though perhaps he won't seem to
-be. Jim is rather a funny man; but he's very nice when you know him. You
-won't be frightened if he looks rather cross at you?"
-
-"Nobody looks cross at me, except nurse, when she's in a bad temper,"
-answered the child serenely. "And only babies and girls are frightened at
-things. I wasn't frightened when the gull pecked me--you said so yourself."
-
-"No, you weren't, you were very brave," said Pat, in loyal admiration;
-adding, after a moment's pause, "Now come with me. I'll take you to Jim;
-but go quietly, in case he's asleep. Mother says he gets so little sleep
-at night. We won't awake him if he should be asleep now. This is the way,
-just up these little steep stairs. There are only four of them. Have you
-never been here before?" and Pat laid his fingers on his lips, and pushed
-open the door, and peeped cautiously in before he turned back to his
-companion.
-
-"We can go in. He's not asleep. His eyes are open. It's rather dark, when
-you first get in, but you'll see better when you've been in a little
-while. Jim," he added, advancing into the bare little wedge-shaped room
-which had been Jim's as long as he had been on Lone Rock, "Prince Rupert
-wants to come and see you. I told him to-day about how you went into the
-sea after him. He thinks it was very kind of you."
-
-"Lift me on the bed. I can't see him properly," spoke the second visitor
-in imperious tones, and Pat hastened to obey. The next minute the
-beautiful child and the rugged faced man were looking straight at each
-other with mutual curiosity and interest; and after a few seconds spent in
-this silent inspection, Rupert put out his tiny hand and laid it in Jim's.
-
-"I like you," he said deliberately. "I fink you're a very brave man; and
-you're a very good one, too. I shall tell my papa about you. I fink he
-will make you one of his soldiers, or servants, or somefing like that. He
-will like you very much for coming into the water after me. He likes men
-when they are brave. He is very brave himself. I shall tell him to take
-you away from here, and let you be always with him."
-
-Pat listened breathlessly to these words. The little prince had never
-before spoken in this manner at all.
-
-"Have you got a father?" he asked in eager accents; but Rupert looked at
-him as though he scarcely understood the question.
-
-"Have you got a papa, little gentleman?" asked Jim, in his very low, faint
-tones, so unlike the old strong gruff voice that used to rise above the
-tumult of the winds and the waves.
-
-"_Torse_ I have," answered the child, almost indignantly. "I'll tell my
-papa about you. He'll like you because you got yourself hurted instead
-of me. My papa did that himself once. He got nearly killed, instead of
-somebody else. Mamma told me about it her own self. And the Queen gave him
-a cross for it. She showed it me. It wasn't so very pretty; but mamma said
-papa liked it better than anything else he had. Perhaps when I'm a man,
-I'll get one for myself; but mamma said they only gave them to very brave
-men. P'raps they'll give one to you, Jim. You're very brave, you know.
-When my papa comes home, I'll tell him about you. He'll come and see you
-then. P'raps you'll have a cross, too."
-
-Jim smiled faintly, and stroked the small hand that lay in his palm,
-rather as he might have stroked a delicate rose petal that had floated
-to him from the sky. He could not talk; but it was a pleasure to lie and
-look at this beautiful child; and Rupert became all at once wonderfully
-communicative. He plainly took a strange and wayward liking to Jim, as
-children will do sometimes to the most unlikely people.
-
-"I feel as though he belonged to me," he remarked later on in the living
-room, as the mid-day meal was going forward. "You see, he got me out of
-the water; and I fink my papa will take him for one of his soldiers,
-because he's so brave. I'm to be a soldier when I grow up. Perhaps I'll
-have Jim to be my orderly. Papa has an orderly, I know. I suppose he
-keeps his things tidy for him. I fink I'll have Jim for mine when he gets
-better. Why doesn't he get better quickly?"
-
-"Because we can't get a doctor to him yet, little gentleman."
-
-"My papa would send one if you'd ask him," said the child, in the same
-rather magnificent way. "He can send anybody anywhere, I know. He can do
-anything he likes. My papa is a very great man."
-
-"And where does he live, dear?" asked Eileen breathlessly, realising
-for the first time that, though the words father and mother conveyed
-no impression to the child's mind, he had a very decided notion about
-his papa and mamma, although he had never spoken of them before to-day;
-but the question was beyond the child's power of answering. He looked
-perplexed for a moment, and then said--
-
-"They're going home--we're all going home. They'll go home as soon as the
-big ship gets to land. I suppose they've gone home already," and then
-he looked about him with wide-open wondering eyes, filled with a vague
-distress and perplexity; and glancing up into Eileen's face, he asked--
-
-"Is this home? Is this where they are coming to, by-and-by?"
-
-"No, darling," answered Eileen quickly, the tears springing to her eyes
-as she realised the possibility that the child's parents had found a
-different home from the one they had talked about to their little boy.
-"Papa and mamma stayed on the big ship; and if the big ship got safe into
-port, they would go home when they landed; and we will find out where they
-are, and you shall go to them. Don't cry, little prince. As soon as ever
-a boat can come from shore we will find out all about it."
-
-"I don't want to cry," answered the child, whose wondering eyes were quite
-dry. "I like being here. I like you, and Pat, and Jim, and the gull, and
-everybody. I fink I'll stay here always. My papa and mamma can come and
-live with us if they want to; and if they don't, I'll go and see them
-sometimes. I don't live with them ever--only now and then. I'd like to be
-a lighthouse keeper, with Jim to help me. I fink I'll live always with
-you."
-
-"Oh, do, do, do!" cried Pat, clapping his hands, and running across to his
-little prince, he folded him in his arms in a long embrace. "I should be
-so unhappy if you went away. Now I am going to give Jim his dinner. Will
-you come and help me?"
-
-"_Torse_ I will. I like Jim. I'll help you take care of him till he's
-better;" and the pair went off together, carefully carrying Jim's light
-repast, while Eileen looked up in perplexity at her husband, and said--
-
-"What does the little fellow mean?--and why doesn't he seem to care more
-for his parents? He has never cried for them, or seemed to miss them, and
-yet he knows all about his papa and mamma, as he calls them. I cannot make
-it out--no, that I can't--such a warm-hearted little fellow as he is, too."
-
-Nat shook his head slowly. The problem was beyond him also.
-
-"May be we'll find out some day. It isn't all fine folks that get the
-love of their little ones. Perhaps they're too fine to notice him, and he
-doesn't love them as our little one loves us. But plainly his father is
-a soldier, and a bit of a grand one, too. I doubt there'll be no trouble
-in making out who the youngster is, once we get ashore. But if he belongs
-to them as have no love for him, it will be a hard matter to let him go,
-though we'll have to do it, I suppose."
-
-Eileen sighed at the thought, but knew it would be inevitable. Yet as the
-days passed by, the child endeared himself to them more and more by the
-singular devotion he suddenly conceived for "poor Jim," as he invariably
-called him. He was in and out of the little dark room morning, noon, and
-night. He insisted on taking Pat's place on the bed at meal times, and
-feeding the patient with his own tiny but capable hands. A singular bond
-grew up between the rough man and the two children, one of whom he had
-risked his life to save; and in this way the days slipped by, one after
-another, until the sea went down, the waves ceased to dash themselves
-against the reef; and Pat came tearing down from the gallery in wild
-excitement one morning to announce to his mother the fact that the relief
-boat was coming out to Lone Pock as fast as winds and waves could bring
-her.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-_HELP FROM SHORE_
-
-
-The two little boys stood hand in hand on the rocks, waving their caps
-and cheering as the boat came dashing through the foaming waves towards
-the Lone Rock. The sea was still running high, but approach was possible
-to those who well understood what they were about. A man stood upright in
-the bow of the boat, boat-hook in hand, and every few moments he called
-out some word of warning to those behind him. As the boat neared the
-rock, the sail came down with a run, and the crew, taking to their oars,
-rowed carefully and cautiously towards the basin where a boat could float
-at ease, and where Nat stood, ready to render assistance when the craft
-should come alongside.
-
-"Glad to see you well and hearty, mate," shouted the man in the bow, as
-soon as he was within earshot. "We've been anxious about the Lone Rock
-ever since you signalled for help. We were afeard some harm had befallen
-you. What's wrong with you here?"
-
-"Jim's on the sick list," shouted Nat back, "can't stir hand or foot. Have
-you brought a doctor with you, mates?"
-
-"Ay, ay, he's here sure enough, and other things too you may want if
-you've a sick man with you. Is he too bad to be sent ashore? What's wrong
-with him?"
-
-"The doctor must tell us that. My wife thinks it's broken ribs. I'll tell
-you the tale when you get on shore. Steady there with the boat! Ease her
-a bit and hold her back. There's a big drift running in just here. So
-steady! Here she comes. Throw me the line, mate. Now she'll do. Keep her
-steady and fend off from the rocks. So!"
-
-The boys, watching with eager eyes the advance of the boat, cheered aloud
-when it was safely drawn up in the little creek. The man in the bow, who
-was an old crony of Nat's, looked at the pair with an air of astonishment.
-
-"Why, Nat, you've never raised another in this time!" he exclaimed; "I
-never knew you had more than little Pat over here. Where did the second
-come from? He doesn't look much like a child of yours. He looks as if he's
-come straight from fairyland, wherever that may be."
-
-"From the sea-fairies, then," answered Nat, with a smile, "for Jim got him
-out of the water the night when the storm was at its worst. That's how he
-came by the blow which has laid him by the heels. But the boy never seemed
-a bit the worse after he came to. He's a wonderful saucy little fellow,
-gentry-born, as one can see, and as hold as a little lion. Have you heard
-aught ashore of a child gone overboard in the gale?" The men shook their
-heads, looking with keen interest at the little golden-headed fellow
-who was helping Nat to hold the boat, and looking as though everything
-depended on himself!
-
-"Look alive, men!" he piped out in his high pitched voice. "Tumble out and
-get ashore! We've been waiting for you ever such a lot of days! Lend a
-hand, Pat, and hold her steady!"
-
-Laughing and admiring, the men sprang ashore, speaking kindly words
-to Pat, whom most of them knew, and looking with keen interest at the
-beautiful little boy, who continued to issue his baby commands in such
-nautical language as he could command.
-
-"He's been afloat before now," said the men one to another. "He's picked
-up that air from some bo'sun as keeps his men well in order. He's a rare
-young game-cock, he is! Picked up out of the sea, was he, Nat? We must try
-and find out where he comes from. Anything about him to say?"
-
-"No; and the spar he came on was not picked up either. That might have
-told us something; but it was so heavy Jim cut the child loose before we
-hauled them both in. There's a sort of a mark on some of his underclothes
-which my wife takes to have been a D before it was well nigh washed out;
-but it's hard to tell anything now, and all we can get from him is that
-his name is Prince Rupert, and that his father is a soldier. He seems to
-know very little about his parents, and the salt water perhaps washed most
-things out of his head. He hasn't talked but very little of anything he
-knew before; but he's a bold, merry little chap, and will make a fine
-sailor one of these days. Doesn't know what fear means!" The men all
-looked with interest at the little waif, who was busily engrossed with the
-rope--making fast the boat, as he plainly believed--and ordering Pat about
-in the most lordly way. His yellow curls were blowing about his rosy face;
-his big dark eyes were alight with excitement and self-importance. No one
-could fail to regard the little prince with admiration; and the sailors
-laughed together, and told Nat he had done a good thing for himself in
-befriending such a boy as that.
-
-"He comes of fine folks--any one can see that, and they must be real set
-on such a smart little chap as him," said one, as they began to make
-their way to the lighthouse, where Eileen stood in the doorway smiling a
-welcome. "You won't be the loser by being good to him. He's a fine little
-fellow, and no mistake!"
-
-"So he is," answered Nat, "but I don't want nothing for doing my duty by
-him. It was Jim as risked his life to save him. If his folks want to do
-something for him, I'll only think it right and proper, since I doubt if
-the poor chap will ever be the same again. But I've done nothing, and I
-want nothing. My wife's had all the bit of trouble he's been, and she'd
-do the same for any child that breathed, be he never so poor."
-
-"Ay, that she would," answered more than one voice heartily. "She's a
-real good one is Eileen;" and then there were pleasant greetings between
-the bright-faced wife and mother and those who had come to assist the
-prisoners upon the Lone Hock; whilst the young surgeon, whom the sailors
-had brought with them, asked to be taken to his patient without more delay.
-
-The boys lingered down by the boat, for the little prince was fascinated
-by it, and Pat had to show him everything, and explain the use of the
-various parts.
-
-"We had boats," said Rupert, with his head a little on one side; "but they
-were fastened up so high I could never see into them. I like this boat. Do
-you fink we could get in and sail her off round and round the rock till
-the men want her again?"
-
-But Pat negatived this bold suggestion, and Rupert was reluctantly borne
-off indoors "to see how poor Jim was getting on," as Pat coaxingly put it,
-for he was quite afraid the daring little fellow would really try to cast
-the boat loose and let it drift away. Nat's knots would most likely prove
-too much for him; but there was no knowing what his determination might
-not achieve.
-
-The doctor and Eileen were with poor Jim, and the men sat round the table
-partaking of the meal she had prepared for them, and hearing from Nat the
-whole history of the storm, and the details of the rescue of the little
-stranger, which was thought a very interesting piece of intelligence.
-"We'll do all we can to find out who he is when we get ashore," said the
-cockswain of the boat, "and we'll leave Robin behind to help you with the
-lighthouse till something can be settled. You've had a hard time of it,
-Nat, these last ten days--Jim laid up, and another little 'un on your
-wife's hands."
-
-"My wife's a jewel," answered Nat, a smile beaming over his honest face.
-"She's the sort of helpmate for a man like me. Never a word of complaint,
-however hard the work, and she's always ready to take a watch and let
-me get a good sleep. Then luckily there was nothing went wrong with the
-light, and the days were clear and fine. It might have been a good bit
-worse; not but what I'll be glad enough to have Robin's help for a spell.
-I fear me it'll be many weeks before Jim is up to anything again."
-
-"Poor chap, I'm afeard he's a good bit hurt," said another, "but he seems
-a bit quieter like now. I wonder whether the doctor will let him be took
-ashore. He's a good bit of trouble to your wife here."
-
-"I san't let Jim be took away," remarked a small voice from about the
-level of the table; "Jim's my pal. I likes him very much. I tell him
-tales, and I make him better. I san't let anybody take him away till my
-papa comes and makes him into a soldier, and then p'raps I'll go too, and
-everybody here, and we'll all live together somewhere where there's just a
-little more room. It isn't always just very con-wenient," with a gulp over
-the long word, "to have water everywhere all round. I fink a garden is
-better for some fings."
-
-"Did you have a garden where you came from, my little man?" said the
-cockswain, lifting the child on to his knee amid a general laugh.
-
-"_Torse_ we did!" answered the child, looking up into the weather-beaten
-face fearlessly, "a great big garden, with trees and fings, and I played
-there every day. It was nice; but we hadn't got a sea-gull there, only
-two dogs. I fink I like a sea-gull best. He makes such nice noises and he
-dances, too. I fink I shall dig a great big ditch all round the garden,
-and fill it with the sea, and put a lighthouse in the middle, and Pat and
-his daddy and my Nan can live with me there; and the sea-gull, too, and
-then we should have everything, and it would be quite con-wenient for
-everybody."
-
-"Do you know the name of the house where you lived, my hearty?" asked the
-man, with beaming face; but Rupert shook his head impatiently, and went
-chattering on about how his future domain was to be arranged.
-
-"You can come sometimes in your big boat and see us, man," he remarked,
-"and I'll show you how to sail it in our sea, for I don't expect you'll
-know how to do it properly. I shall have a boat of my very own then: my
-papa will give me one. And when I'm not a soldier I shall be a sailor, and
-I'll teach you how to be one too."
-
-"Thank you, my little man, I'll be sure and come and learn of you," and
-the child looked a little offended at the general laugh from the rest.
-
-"You needn't bring those men with you another time," he said, "I don't
-fink they understand fings properly."
-
-At that moment the young surgeon reappeared with Eileen in his wake. She
-looked grave and sorrowful, and went to the fire to take off the soup she
-was preparing, whilst the men glanced up at the doctor, and asked what he
-thought of his patient.
-
-"We heard him groaning a good bit at first, and Jim isn't one to cry out
-for naught," said Rupert's friend; "I'm afraid he's a good bit hurt. What
-do you make of him, sir? Can he be taken ashore?"
-
-"No, he must stay where he is. He could not stand any sort of move yet. He
-has been badly hurt, and there is a great deal of inflammation about him.
-He will be easier now that I have bandaged him up right, and his lungs
-will have a chance of healing; but he has been left much too long without
-medical aid. If I could have seen him at once, things would have been much
-better. However, we will hope for the best. Any way, the worst of the pain
-is over now, unless the inflammation spreads."
-
-"Have you hurted my Jim?" asked Rupert, doubling his little fists and
-bristling up like a young turkey-cock. "If you have, I'll frash you. I
-won't have my Jim hurted. He came into the water after me. Now I'm taking
-care of him. You didn't ought to have gone and seen him without my leave!"
-and he strode up to the doctor as though he meant to inflict condign
-punishment upon him forthwith.
-
-But the young man understood children, and soon made friends with the
-young autocrat, now ruling Lone Rock with a rod of iron. He soon got him
-to talk of himself, and called up many reminiscences of his past life,
-all of which he carefully noted. From his own better knowledge of the
-way in which gently-born children lived, he succeeded in eliciting more
-information from the boy than any of his other new friends had done.
-
-When the little fellow grew tired of talking at last, and went out with
-Pat to play, the young man made some notes in his pocket book, and turning
-to Eileen, said--
-
-"Are you anxious to be rid of your young charge? I will take him home to
-my mother if you like. I am sure she would give him shelter for a time,
-till he can be traced. Is he not rather a burden to you here?"
-
-"Oh, no, sir, thank you kindly all the same; but unless it's wrong to say
-so, we's far rather keep him here till his own relations come for him.
-He's got that into our hearts that he almost seems like one of our own,
-bless him; and though I know the life's rough, and not what he's been used
-to, it hasn't seemed to hurt him."
-
-"Hurt him! I should think not!--do the little rogue all the good in the
-world! There's nothing like roughing it a little to make a man of a boy
-brought up in luxury. Lone Rock discipline will be good for him in more
-ways than one. I was only thinking you would be rather full here with your
-patient and this boy, as well as the extra man left to help your husband;
-but you know best."
-
-"Oh, the little fellow takes no room. He shares Pat's bed, and the two
-play together and help me with poor Jim, and I think they'd pine if they
-were took from each other now. Thank you kindly all the same, sir. Did you
-make out from the little boy who he was or where he came from?"
-
-"Not exactly, but I think it's plain that he's been separated from his
-parents for some while, and that his father is either an officer in
-the army, or else holds some important official position in India. The
-child has been plainly made to understand that he is a very great man,
-and lives in kingly state somewhere. I think I have found out enough to
-help materially in identifying the boy when we set about to find out his
-belongings. He appears to be an only child of wealthy parents; and there
-will be inquiries after him along the coast, even if it is only for some
-trace of the drowned body. He could not have been so very long in the
-water before you got him, or he would have been more difficult to bring
-to life. It has been a wonderful escape, look at it as you will; and I
-hope that those to whom he belongs will do something for that brave fellow
-who risked his life for him; for I greatly fear he has received an injury
-which will disable him from active labour for the rest of his life. It is
-difficult to tell so soon, but I have my fears that it will be so. I will
-come over again in the course of a week and see him, if it is possible.
-Meantime, you can only go on as you have been doing, and I hope, now the
-bandaging has been done which was so much needed, that he will be easier.
-I see you are a very good nurse, and I leave him in your hands with every
-confidence."
-
-"I will do what I can for him, sir, I'm sure; for he is a brave man, and
-he went to what might well have been his death without a thought for
-himself. But it's a hard thing to be laid aside at his age, especially
-since he has no friends to go to, and no relatives to help him. He's had a
-very lonely life of it, and a hard one, has poor Jim. It seems as though
-it was to be hard to the very end."
-
-"We will hope there are brighter days coming for him," answered the young
-surgeon cheerfully; "I shall certainly make it known, if we succeed in
-tracing this child, that Jim has received these injuries in saving him
-from certain death. I cannot believe he will be allowed to suffer in
-consequence--suffer any sort of want, I mean. Poor fellow, he has had
-suffering enough of another kind, and may have more still, though I hope
-what I have done will give him ease."
-
-And then the doctor went down to the boat where the crew were by this
-time waiting for him. The children were there, too, and cheered lustily
-as the boat put off into the big waves beyond the little creek. Rupert
-had stoutly resisted the blandishments of the cockswain, and had quite
-declined to let himself be taken from "his Nan," as he had called Eileen
-almost from the first. He was in charge of the lighthouse, he gravely
-asserted, and he couldn't possibly go away unless his father came for him.
-He was very busy every day, helping to keep the light burning, and taking
-care of Jim. He was far too important a person to be spared, and he flatly
-refused to be taken away by anybody.
-
-"Now we'll come and tell Jim all about it," he said, as soon as the boat
-had grown small and insignificant in the distance; and as Jim was looking
-rather better by that time, he was pleased for Rupert to climb upon the
-bed and tell him all that had been said and done.
-
-"They wanted to take you away, but I wouldn't allow it," said the little
-autocrat; "I said you'd like better to stay here, and that I'd frash
-anybody who took you away. I san't let you go to anybody except my
-papa, and if he takes you we'll all go and have a lighthouse of our own
-somewhere else, where there isn't so much water. I fink it's a pity to
-put them in the middle of the sea; they'd be more con-wenient in a garden
-where we could get at them more easily. We'll have our lighthouse in a
-garden when we go away from here."
-
-Then Pat stole in with his soft step, and Jim looked at the Bible that lay
-beside him, and Pat took it and read a story, and explained it to Rupert
-as he was used to do now. The little boy liked this wind up of the day
-almost as much as Jim, and was always very attentive.
-
-"I'll say my prayers to Jim to-night," he remarked suddenly, when the
-reading had concluded, "because I fink he's a very good man. I want him to
-get quite better, so we'll ask Jesus if He won't make him. I fink He must
-love poor Jim very much!"
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-_A WONDERFUL DAY_
-
-
-The two little boys were up in the gallery. Nat was burnishing the
-reflectors and overlooking the great She, whose wonderful individuality
-was taking a strong hold upon the imagination of both the children. Rupert
-knew almost all Pat's stories about the wonderful creature who slept all
-the day, but waked up to keep watch all the night, and he was never tired
-of watching her cleaned and fed; but the process lasted longer some days
-than others, and they would vary the morning's work by going out upon the
-sunny gallery, and calling out to the men at work within what vessels were
-in sight, and where they seemed to be going. And whilst thus occupied,
-Rupert would generally demand that Pat should tell him some of Jim's
-many stories, many of which they would try to enact between them, making
-believe that the gallery was the deck of a ship, and that they were the
-officers in charge. Pat's vivid imagination, inherited from his mother,
-made this kind of make-believe easy and entrancing to him, and Rupert
-delighted in it, and in flourishing about and being the lord and master
-of everything and everybody. He was growing so brown and sturdy that it
-was a treat to look at him, and Pat had increased in health and strength
-visibly since he had had a little playmate to romp with. Before that he
-had been inclined to spend rather too much time in sitting and thinking.
-The sea and the rocks and the sky gave him many strange ideas; and there
-was Jim, too, who wanted so often to know things that took a great deal of
-puzzling out. Pat had liked all the thinking, being of a cogitative turn,
-but it was better for him to run about and shout and play more, and to sit
-and ponder rather less. The parents looked in wonder at him sometimes,
-remembering how all last winter he had seemed wasting away, and had fallen
-into a state from which it seemed as though nothing but a miracle could
-lift him. They could not be thankful enough for the wonderful change. The
-dreamy wistfulness which had lingered so long in his eyes, was changing
-now to something more boyish and healthy. He did not look as though he
-were always walking on the border-land of the unseen world. The romps and
-merry games with his little companion were fast making a boy of him again,
-and Nat looked with hearty satisfaction at the change.
-
-A merry rosy pair they were up aloft to-day, and their shouts of glee rang
-cheerily over the dancing water. Eileen now and again heard them as she
-sat at her needle below, and she would smile and glance upwards, as though
-to try and see what the urchins were about. To-day was a glad one at the
-lighthouse, for Jim had taken a decided turn for the better. Now that the
-broken ribs were properly set and in place, and no longer pressing upon
-the organs they had injured, he was relieved of the worst of the pain. He
-had been able to sleep and eat better, and to-day he felt so strong that
-he had coaxed Nat and Eileen to let him get up and sit beside the fire
-in the living room, well wrapped up in blankets, and with plenty of rugs
-about him. The doctor had said he might do this if he felt well enough,
-as a change of posture might be a relief. The children had watched the
-move with great interest; but had been sent upstairs after a while to let
-Jim rest and be quiet. The mother had told Pat to go and look out whether
-any boat from shore might not be coming to the rock. It was a fine day,
-and the week had expired which was to bring the doctor for another visit.
-He might come any day now; and the children were delighted to go up aloft
-and play the game of "look-out man," as they called it.
-
-There were a good many fishing boats out in the bay, and Rupert had been
-certain that every one of them was coming to Lone Rock, till at last he
-had grown weary of watching, had declared that nobody was coming to-day,
-and had suggested another game at which they had played some time. When,
-however, they were tired of this, Pat had gone to the rail to look over,
-and now he called to Rupert with some excitement.
-
-"Come and look! Come and look!" he called out, "I do believe that boat is
-coming here! Look how she skims along! What a pretty one she is! How white
-her sail is! And doesn't she go fast! I don't know that boat, Prince
-Rupert. I don't think she belongs in the bay. Yet she looks just as if
-she was coming here. Shall I call father and ask him what he thinks? She
-doesn't turn or tack. She comes straight, straight on. Oh, I do hope she
-is coming! Perhaps she has got something for you on board."
-
-"Perhaps it is my papa come for me," said Rupert, not looking as though he
-knew exactly whether he relished this thought or not, "but I'm not sure
-that I'll go away with him if it is. I like being here. I like playing
-lighthouse games. I didn't have anybody to play with me before. I don't
-much fink I will go with him if he comes. I fink I'll belong to you're
-father and mother. I like them very much."
-
-Pat, not quite knowing how to reply, and greatly moved in spirit in case
-this pretty white-sailed boat should be coming to rob them of their
-darling, hastily called his father, who came out into the bright sunshine,
-and shaded his eyes with his hand.
-
-"It looks as though she were making for Lone Rock," he said, "and it's
-no boat from our bay, Pat; it's a better built and better-rigged craft
-than we often see in these parts. It's a yacht's boat by the look of
-her, and a tidy little craft she is. Well, well, we shall soon know; but
-she's heading for Lone Rock as sure as fate; and it's not the coast-guard
-inspection, neither. That boat belongs to some gentleman, I'll be bound,"
-and the man's eyes turned towards the little fellow beside him with a
-look that Pat understood in a moment. His eyes filled with tears, and for
-a moment everything swam in a golden haze. They were coming to take away
-his little prince, the darling little boy who had become the first object
-in his life. However should he bear to let him go? It did not do to think
-about it. If he thought, he would surely cry, and that would be a pity,
-for perhaps Rupert would cry too, and it would never do for his parents to
-find him in tears, they would think he had been badly treated, and take
-him away as quick as thought. No, he must put a brave face on, and try to
-make the best of it. Perhaps Prince Rupert would decide not to go, and
-Pat could hardly believe that his word would not be law if he once boldly
-asserted his determination.
-
-"Shall we go down and watch her come in, and tell her how to make the
-creek?" he asked of the child, and Rupert assented gladly.
-
-Nat, too, descended the winding steps with the two children, and as he
-passed out he said to his wife--
-
-"I believe the little fellow's friends are coming for him, wifie. There's
-a boat on its way that doesn't belong to our parts. Make the place as
-bright as you can, and set some food on the table. I'll make them welcome
-to come in if they have a mind. May be they'll like to see the place as
-their little boy has lived in these last weeks."
-
-Eileen's kitchen was always neat and trim, and she soon whisked out a
-bright table-cover, and a few bits of ornaments, to smarten up the place,
-as she did for Sundays and holidays, or when summer guests were expected.
-Jim still sat by the fire dozing, and scarcely alive to what was passing;
-but it was out of the question to think of moving him again so soon. There
-he was and there he must remain; but she cast a quick eye all over her
-small domain, and saw that everything else was in order; and then she
-went out to see what was happening outside.
-
-The children were standing below on the rocks, for the tide was ebbing,
-and nearly low. The sun caught the yellow curls of the little prince,
-and made them shine like gold. He was visibly excited, and kept hopping
-from one foot to another, whilst Pat held his hand in a close, protecting
-clasp, and kept him from slipping in his excitement, and falling amongst
-the wet sea-weed.
-
-Nearer and nearer came the pretty boat, skimming its way through the water
-like a white-winged sea-bird. It was manned by sailors in uniform; plainly
-it was what Nat had said, the boat from some gentleman's yacht. "That's
-our boat, I do believe!" cried little Rupert, as it drew near. "Our men
-wear tings like that on their heads. I fink papa must have sent them to
-fetch me!"
-
-[Illustration: "'That's our boat, I do believe,' cried Rupert."--_Page
-180._]
-
-Pat's heart beat so fast he did not know how to reply; but there was
-no need for him to say anything; for just at that moment the sail came
-fluttering down; they saw in the stern of the boat a lady and gentleman,
-sitting together, looking eagerly ahead; and the next moment a cry went
-up that awoke an answering thrill in Eileen's heart, and made the tears
-spring suddenly to Pat's eyes--the cry of a woman's voice--
-
-"It is! It is! Rupert! Rupert! My own little boy!"
-
-Rupert started at the sound of that call, looked hard at the boat, and
-then waved his little hand joyously.
-
-"Mamma! Mamma!" he cried, and pulling Pat by the sleeve, he added, in
-a tone of pleasurable excitement, "That lady is my mamma, Pat, and the
-gentleman is my papa, and those are his sailors. I should have liked him
-to bring his soldiers better; but perhaps he has them on shore waiting."
-Pat looked as one in a dream. He could not understand it--the child's
-calmness in the recognition which should have filled him with ecstasy, and
-the evident deep emotion of the mother. Hardly had the boat touched the
-rock before the pretty young lady, with the sweet, sad face, had sprung
-out, catching at Nat's outstretched hand, and in another moment she had
-come flying towards them, and sinking on her knees upon the wet sea-weed,
-she took the little one in her arms in a clasp so close that it seemed
-as though she would never let him go; and Pat knew that the tears were
-raining down her face, and that the reason why she did not speak was that
-she could not for overmastering emotion.
-
-When he looked up it was to find a tall, stalwart, bronzed man standing
-beside them, who put his hand upon Pat's head, and said kindly--
-
-"Well, my little man, and have you been helping to take care of our little
-boy for us all these days?" and Pat crimsoned to his very ears with
-shyness and pleasure.
-
-"We are all so very, very fond of him, sir," answered the boy
-shamefacedly. "Are you going to take him away from us?"
-
-He could not help asking the wistful question, and as he did so he
-raised his face and met the glance of a pair of very kindly, though very
-keen eyes fixed upon him. The question seemed half to amuse and half to
-surprise the gentleman, who hesitated a moment before he said--
-
-"Don't you think that is what is our business to do, since he belongs to
-us, eh, little man?"
-
-"I--I suppose so, sir," answered Pat sorrowfully, "only we shall so miss
-him when he is gone!"
-
-"Well, well, we will see, we will see," said the gentleman kindly, and
-then he stooped over the child, and said in a voice which shook just a
-very little in spite of the playful ring in it--
-
-"Well, Rupert, my little boy, haven't you got one word or look for
-papa?--or have you forgotten him altogether?"
-
-"I haven't forgot--_torse_ I haven't--but mamma frottles me so!" answered
-the little fellow, who was by this time trying to wriggle himself free
-from the embrace of his agitated mother, which had become too close for
-comfort. He seemed better pleased when his father took him up in his
-strong arms, and he laughed and kicked with pleasure, as he did when Nat
-took and tossed him high in the air.
-
-The lady rose from her knees, wiping from her eyes the tears which still
-seemed inclined to start, and putting out her soft hand to Pat, she said
-very gently and sweetly--
-
-"And so you are the little boy who has been playing the part of brother
-to our dear little Rupert. Have you got a kiss to spare for me, my little
-man?"
-
-And Pat felt hot all over with surprise and pleasure, as the gentle,
-beautiful lady bent her head and kissed him, and he hardly dared to kiss
-her back, lest it should be taking a liberty; but he remembered that
-queens had their hands kissed when they sat in state, and so he raised the
-white hand that held his to his lips, and kissed it reverently.
-
-"Shall I take you to my mother, madam?" he asked. "She has taken care of
-Prince Rupert. I only played with him and helped her."
-
-"Prince Rupert!" repeated the lady, smiling. "Who taught you to call him
-that?"
-
-"He said Rupert was his name," answered Pat, looking up, "and we all know
-he must be a little prince--he looks so like one."
-
-The lady smiled again, her tears were drying now. Eileen had come forward
-by this time, and had heard the last words. The lady stepped forward, and
-held out her hands to the lighthouse-keeper's wife.
-
-"I have heard of your goodness to my boy," she said, in a quivering voice,
-"how can I thank you for it?"
-
-"I do not want any thanks, my lady," answered Eileen, with her soft shy
-pride. "I would have done the same for any blessed baby cast up on our
-shores; and the darling has won his way to all our hearts--and it's a real
-prince of princes that he is--the bonny boy!"
-
-"No, no--not a prince at all--only a very spoiled little boy, I am
-afraid," said the mother, with something between a sob and a laugh. "A
-little boy who badly wants his father and mother's care and training. But
-we had to leave him with my sisters when we were sent out to India in
-haste two years ago; and we have been there ever since. He was brought
-out to meet us as we came home; he came in my husband's yacht, which met
-us at Malta, and we were to come home to England in her. The child had
-hardly more than learned to know us well before that fearful night, when
-we thought we must go to the bottom before we reached port. Oh, how can
-I tell you the agony we suffered when we heard that the mast to which
-the child had been lashed for protection had been snapped clean off, and
-had gone overboard, and we running before the gale as our only chance,
-and expecting almost moment by moment to be sucked beneath the cruel
-waves! It only seemed then as though he had been the first. There was
-water below, and above the waves swept the deck every moment. I was lashed
-to another mast; but I was almost insensible from cold and exposure. I
-think I saw the light of the lighthouse above us as we passed half a mile
-off from it. I had just heard then that the child had gone, and nothing
-seemed to matter then, whether we lived or died. And then somehow we got
-round the headland, in the wake of a big steamer also in distress, and
-they helped us, though in need of help themselves, and at last we both
-weathered the storm together. But, oh! what days of misery those were when
-we thought we had lost for ever in this world the little son we had just
-received back after those long years of absence!"
-
-Tears of sympathy were in Eileen's eyes; but she began to understand many
-things that had puzzled her before.
-
-"Oh, my lady, I am so thankful to hear you speak so. I was grieved that
-the little boy spoke so little of you, and seemed to care so little
-whether his own father and mother came for him or not. Glad was I for
-sure that he was happy with us; but it didn't seem natural-like for him
-never to pine a bit for his mother. It made me afraid (you'll forgive
-me speaking so plain) that his parents had not cared for him as a child
-should be cared for, and that went to my heart; but now----"
-
-"Ah, yes, you understand how it was--we had only had him with us for a
-bare ten days--and part of that time he was sea-sick and fretful, and
-could scarce be made to look at us. It was only the last few days that
-he was his bonny bright self, learning to love us and know us. No wonder
-he forgot us quickly after that fearful night. I cannot think how he
-lived in those boiling waves. Oh, I must see the brave man who saved him!
-The doctor who came over with us in our boat has told me how he injured
-himself in plunging after our darling. Oh, you must tell us what we can do
-for him--what we can do for you all--to show our gratitude. I did not know
-how to believe it when Mr. Deering told us that our little boy was alive
-and well, and very happy on Lone Rock in the care of the keeper of the
-lighthouse!"
-
-"Bless him! He has been as happy as the day is long, and he and my Pat
-have played like brothers, if you will pardon my boldness in saying so."
-
-"Nay, what is there to pardon; are they not brothers in the sight of our
-God?" said the lady, with a sparkle of tears in her eyes. "If you only
-knew what it was to me to hear how he had been cared for--my little boy,
-whom we were mourning as dead! Ah, you must let us be friends after this,"
-she added, turning her sweet quivering face full on Eileen. "I cannot and
-I will not talk of 'rewards' to those who have shown themselves the best
-and truest of friends to my child, when only devotion such as he received
-could have saved his precious life. It would be a wrong to you and to me;
-but you must let us be your friends from this time forth. You must let us
-see what may be best done for your happiness and his. _You_ saved his life
-by your skill and promptitude when he was brought ashore, as much as the
-brave sailor did who plunged into the waves to bring him out of the water.
-You must never think that I could forget that."
-
-"Oh, my lady, I only did what any other mother would have done----"
-
-"Ah, but you did more than some _could_ have done, because you had skill
-and knowledge beyond what many have. The doctor said so himself. But let
-me see the sailor who saved my child. I must thank him, too. And he must
-never suffer for his devotion in risking his life for our boy. You must
-tell me what I can do for him. Mr. Deering says he fears he will never be
-strong again."
-
-"Oh, I don't know, my lady. He is getting on; but he hasn't tried to do
-aught but sit by the fire yet. But he's up to-day, and you can see him by
-stepping indoors. May I just tell him you are here? But I do not know by
-what name to call you?"
-
-"I am Lady St. John," was the answer. "My husband is Sir Arthur St. John,
-who--but you will hardly know that. And Rupert is our only child. Let me
-go and see the man who saved his life."
-
-Eileen was sadly afraid that Jim would be very rough and gruff when the
-visitor came and stood beside him; but somehow--whether it was that
-illness had softened him, or that the influence of the children had had
-an effect upon him, or that the inherent sweetness of the lady took
-effect in an unexpected manner--anyhow, he was wonderfully gentle in his
-manner to both the strangers, and though he said almost nothing, his
-rugged face looked smiling and peaceful, and there was no rough turning
-away from the kindness that was proffered. Not much was said that first
-visit; but a great many questions were asked both of the Careys and of
-Jim. The visitors sat down to partake of the simple fare provided for
-them, and whilst they ate they talked and asked questions. Eileen, intent
-on hospitable cares, scarcely noted all that was passing, and Nat was too
-straightforward and unsuspecting to see the drift of much that was said,
-and spoke freely enough in reply to Sir Arthur's various inquiries as to
-his past life, his qualifications, tastes, and pursuits. Pat's health was
-also mentioned, for it had been for his sake that his father had ever
-consented to become an inmate of Lone Rock Lighthouse. And whilst the
-elders thus talked, Pat and Rupert sat close together, and sometimes Pat
-had to brush away the tears from his eyes, for he knew the parents would
-take their little boy home with them, and it was dreadful to him to think
-of seeing his little prince no more. Rupert, too, was very much divided
-in mind as to whether or not he would "let himself be took away;" but Pat
-loyally told him in eager whispers that he must "do as his own mother
-wished," and the tie of blood was beginning to assert itself when once the
-little fellow had felt his parents' arms around him.
-
-But when the moment for parting came, and Lady St. John saw the tears in
-the eyes of Eileen, and the manful struggles on Pat's part to keep back
-his sobs, her own eyes looked very dewy, and she turned and spoke quickly
-in a foreign tongue for several moments with her husband. Then turning to
-the expectant group on the rocks, she said, smiling sweetly--
-
-"You will see us all again very soon. I promise to bring Rupert back to
-see you in about a week's time from this--at least if we get a fine day.
-So cheer up, my brave little Pat, and do not cry, Mrs. Carey. You shall
-see your nursling again very soon; and I hope we may have pleasant news
-for you by that time."
-
-Then the lady stepped into the boat, Nat took the boy from his wife's arms
-and handed him to his mother, half eager and half reluctant to go, Sir
-Arthur followed, and the men pushed off, whilst Pat watched through a mist
-of tears the disappearance of his fairy prince, who seemed for the moment
-to have vanished out of his life for ever.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-_THE PROMISED VISIT_
-
-
-Pat lived in a chronic state of excited expectation after the departure of
-little Rupert, counting the days till the week should be over, and then
-spending almost all his time in waiting and watching for the white-sailed
-boat which should bring his little prince back to him again.
-
-But for this hope to look forward to, the child would have felt very
-keenly the absence of his playmate; for they all sadly missed the happy
-laughter and baby prattle of the golden-haired child they had learned to
-love. Jim seemed to miss him as much as anybody, and perhaps both he and
-Pat were happiest when sitting over the fire together after dusk, and
-talking of his beauty, his bold, masterful ways, and the quick, clever
-things he had said and done. They never seemed tired of the subject, and
-if Pat was not reading to Jim out of the book they both loved so well,
-they were almost always talking of Rupert, wondering where he was, and
-what he was doing, and whether he would come soon and see them and Lone
-Rock again.
-
-Poor Jim only got on very slowly. The doctor who had come with Sir Arthur
-and Lady St. John in their boat had told them it would be a long time
-before he would be fit for any sort of work again, and Jim began to feel
-as though his working days were over for ever. He had of late lost flesh
-and muscle rather fast. He noticed how shrunken his arms began to look,
-and Pat would sometimes tell him that his face was much thinner than it
-used to be. His bronze was paling too, and now that Eileen kept his hair
-neatly brushed and trimmed, and his bushy beard was reduced to order, he
-certainly looked a very different creature from the rough, uncouth Jim of
-past days. He used to feel a sheepish sort of pride when Pat would hold
-up a little looking-glass before his face to show him "how handsome he
-was getting!" But certainly the change both in the man's aspect and the
-expression of his face was greatly in his favour; and Eileen found it
-hard to remember that she had once thought him the most rugged specimen
-of humanity that she had ever come across. But she was more and more
-convinced that there was something seriously wrong with him, and that
-he would never be able to resume the hard life of a seaman which he had
-always led hitherto. What would become of the poor fellow she could not
-bear to think, only that the recollection of Lady St. John's gentle look
-and words would occur to her at intervals, and she felt sure that the lady
-would not allow the brave rescuer of her child to come to want through his
-act of devotion and bravery.
-
-What Jim thought about it all himself she did not know, until one night
-when they chanced to be alone together whilst the other men were up aloft,
-and Pat was sleeping soundly in his bed. The wind had been rather wild
-again the last few nights, and it was blowing half-a-gale now. Eileen was
-preparing something hot for the watchers when they should come down, and
-Jim, who was not disposed to go to bed just yet, was sitting watching her.
-
-"It must seem a strange sort of thing to you, Jim," she said, smiling, "to
-have naught to do with the lamp on nights like these. I wonder if you miss
-going up to her (as Pat says) these nights? Do you think of her or dream
-of her in your sleep?"
-
-"Now and again I do--dream I'm going up and up and up the stairs, and
-can't never reach the top. That's the nights when my breathing's bad. It
-comes to me like a dream of going on and on up the stairs, not able to
-breathe, and the stairs never ending. I'm glad to wake then, and find
-myself in bed. Sometimes I wonder whether I'll ever get up those stairs
-again."
-
-Eileen's face was full of sympathy and quick comprehension.
-
-"Do you feel like that, Jim? Do you feel very bad?"
-
-"I don't know rightly how to say it; but I feel as though all the life and
-spring had been took out of me. I don't seem to have no strength inside
-nor out. That's all I feel. The pain don't trouble me much. But I've a
-feeling sometimes that it could be pretty sharp if I was to try moving
-about or lifting weights again. I don't know whether I shall ever get up
-those stairs to have a look at her again. Sometimes I feel as if my last
-look would be when the boat comes to take me away from the Lone Rock for
-good and all."
-
-"Oh, Jim! But you're not going to leave us yet!"
-
-"I don't know, my lass. I don't know. But I'm only a useless log here, and
-any day they may send and fetch me away. I sent a message by the doctor to
-them on shore, saying as I wasn't able to do my work, and that I couldn't
-look to stay on here. I've sort of expected to be took away ever since,
-but they haven't come for me yet."
-
-"And where will you go, Jim, when they do take you ashore?" asked Eileen,
-with wide-open, wondering eyes. "Have you got any friends as would give
-you a bit of a home till you were fit for work again?"
-
-"Nay, I've got naught of that sort," answered the man quietly. "You see I
-wasn't never one for making friends at the best of time, and the last ten
-years I've been in prison, or else here on Lone Rock. I suppose they'll
-take me into the 'Firmary till I'm a bit stronger and better; and if so
-be as I'm never fit to earn my bread again, I suppose I shall get kept on
-there the rest of my time."
-
-"Oh, Jim!" cried Eileen, her eyes full of tears, "you don't never mean
-you'll have to spend the rest of your days in the workhouse!"
-
-He shook his head gently, and his face grew strangely soft and thoughtful.
-
-"Nay, lass, I don't know--I can't see not a step before me; but somehow
-that don't trouble me. May be it's because I'm weak-like and sick; but the
-thought about what's coming doesn't trouble me one bit. I've a feeling
-somewhere that the Lord will see after me; and His way is sure to be the
-best, and will lead straightest home. It seemed like as if He called me by
-name that night, and I went out into the sea not knowing whether I'd sink
-in the waves or not. He kept me from that, and brought me safe ashore, and
-it seems as though I could leave everything else to Him now. I couldn't
-see the way in the dark, with the waves all tumbling and washing over me;
-but He could see, and so He can now. That's how I think about it; it's all
-right as long as He knows."
-
-Eileen's tears dropped, but she turned her face away and dried them
-quickly, and then her smile shone out like a sunbeam.
-
-"Well, if that's how you feel about it, you're a happy man, Jim, and I
-needn't worrit myself about you as I have been doing. If we only leave the
-future in the hands of the blessed Saviour, we never find that He gives us
-cause to regret. He cares for us a deal better than we know how to care
-for ourselves."
-
-"It's caring for ourselves as makes us sink in the waves, I'm thinking,
-often," said Jim thoughtfully. "That was the way with Peter. It was all
-right with him so long as he looked at the Lord and trusted. It was only
-when he began to think about himself, and the danger he was in, that he
-began to sink, and then so soon as he cried to the Lord he was saved,
-and helped in the midst of his peril. It all comes to that all the Bible
-through--do the best you can--do the duty that comes to you--and leave the
-rest to Him. That was in my head all the while that night. I can't feel
-afraid now. Whatever comes to be will be His doing."
-
-And after that Eileen ceased to fret herself over poor Jim's future. She
-felt that he had within him that which would brighten his lot, and make
-it a happy one, be it cast where it might.
-
-The seas ran too high for several days longer for there to be any hope of
-a visit to Lone Rock, but towards the end of the month a calm came down on
-the face of the sea, and Pat resumed his watch with the greatest eagerness
-and interest. How he wished that Jim could climb up to the gallery and
-share it with him, but Jim was quite unable to think of attempting such a
-feat. So the little boy divided his time between the high look-out place
-and the fireside where Jim passed his time; and Eileen spruced up her
-kitchen, and made it as bright as hands could make it, to be ready day by
-day for the arrival of the little prince on his promised visit.
-
-One day Pat saw a beautiful yacht steaming past the Lone Rock at half a
-mile distance, and making for the bay beyond. He was always interested in
-such a vessel, but he did not connect her appearance with the return of
-his little prince, till he presently saw her casting anchor in the bay and
-launching a boat from the side; and then in great excitement he got his
-father to come with the telescope, and five minutes later was tearing down
-the winding stairs at the risk of toppling down and breaking his neck in
-his haste.
-
-"Mother! mother! Jim!--he's coming! They're coming! I saw them quite
-plain. They came in a beautiful ship of their own, and now the boat is
-coming to the rock. Oh, mother! they are all there--the king and the queen
-and the little prince"--for so Pat was accustomed to speak of them, in
-spite of his father's laughter and his mother's attempted explanations.
-"Oh, Jim, do come down to the rocks and see them land! Prince Rupert will
-be so pleased to see you there. Come, mother! Come, Jim!"
-
-There was no resisting him. Jim could hobble about a little with his
-stick, and the three went out together into the bright sunshine, and stood
-watching whilst the white-winged boat came skimming over the waves towards
-them. Pat was wildly waving his cap, and shouting out his greetings long
-before they could be heard; but as soon as the boat got within hail,
-the little yellow-haired boy, who was in a suit of sailor white, and a
-veritable picture of childish beauty, sprang up in his seat and began
-waving his straw hat, and shouting at the very pitch of his voice, and
-hardly had the boat touched the rocks before the two boys were in each
-other's arms, hugging and kissing as though they never meant to let each
-other go. The mothers stood looking on and smiling, Eileen half ashamed at
-the "forwardness" of her child before the gentry, but Lady St. John, all
-smiles and sweetness, as she turned to her, and said--
-
-"My little Rupert has been crying out for Pat every day, and sometimes
-will not be pacified without him. I am so glad for them to meet again. I
-think you made him happier on Lone Rock than we have done at home."
-
-"Oh, my lady, don't say that!" said the woman, half pleased, half shamed,
-as she led the way within, Rupert leaving Pat for a moment to give her a
-warm hug, and then dashing at Jim to renew acquaintance with him.
-
-"We must manage for them to be friends still," said the sweet-voiced
-lady as she entered Eileen's bright living-room, whilst the men and the
-children remained outside. "It is not good for children to be brought up
-without companionship, and Pat is such a dear, gentle, little fellow,
-Rupert will learn nothing but good from him."
-
-"I hope he will learn no harm, my lady; but Pat is only a sailor's son,
-and I hope he will not take liberties with the little gentleman. It was
-being so much together those days that did it, but----"
-
-"Now, you must not speak as though I were not very glad my boy should make
-a friend of your son," said Lady St. John, in her sweet way. "I know that
-in after life their paths will lie widely asunder, but that is no reason
-why as children they should not play together, and love each other. And it
-will do my child good to learn, whilst he is still young, that the lives
-of others are not cast in quite such pleasant places. It will give him
-sympathy and comprehension as to the troubles of others, which it is right
-that all should learn. And now, Eileen--if you will let me call you by
-your pretty name----"
-
-"Please do, my lady. Most folks call me so. I know myself best by it."
-
-"Yes, and I have heard so much about you by that name that it comes first
-to my lips. So Eileen, then, I want you to sit down and talk with me a
-little about the future. Now that Pat's health is re-established, are you
-still anxious to remain upon the lighthouse? Is Lone Rock the home you
-would choose for yourself if you had the choice?"
-
-"Well, no, my lady, I can't say it is; though we have been very happy
-through the best part of a year. It's a lonely life, and a rough one, and
-there's no way of getting the boy taught, save what his father and I can
-teach him ourselves, and we should like him to be better educated than
-we were. But I'm afraid if we took him back where he came from, he would
-droop and pine again; and the pay here is good and regular, and the work
-not so very hard, save in rough weather. Still----"
-
-"Still, if anything should turn up that would give you a pleasant country
-home, and advantages for Pat, without all the drawbacks of the lonely
-lighthouse life, you would be willing to think about it?"
-
-"Why, yes, my lady," answered Eileen, smiling, "glad, and thankful, too.
-But chances like that seldom come to us poor folks; and we must not
-repine, for we have been very happy here."
-
-"I am sure you have," answered the lady, "but my husband and I want
-you to be happy somewhere else instead. I will tell you in a few words
-what has recently happened to us. The death of a relative has put us in
-possession of a large property on the coast a few miles to the eastward
-of Lone Rock. This has made my husband give up his position in the army,
-and come home to live. The yacht which met us at Malta with our child is
-another possession of his, and the sailing-master, who has been in charge
-of her many years now, and has come in for an annuity from our relative,
-is anxious to retire when his place is filled. My husband wants your
-husband to take command of the yacht. He has made all due inquiries about
-him, and is satisfied that he is qualified for the post. We shall not use
-it a great deal, but we intend to keep it, as our means allow it, and we
-are both fond of the sea. You would have a cottage on the estate to live
-in--most likely one of the lodges--and your husband would be a great deal
-ashore as well as a good deal afloat, and there is anchorage for the yacht
-quite near to the Hall, which is on the coast, as I have said. Pat could
-go to school, and would still have sea air about him, and a pleasant
-country home to live in; and as for poor Jim, he is to receive a pension
-so long as he is in any wise disabled, and we should be very glad to pay
-you a fixed sum for boarding him out with you, as there is plenty of room
-in the lodge, and he could help to open the gate even before he was able
-to take any other employment, which we shall find for him when he gets
-stronger, as I trust he may----"
-
-But Lady St. John stopped short there, for Eileen had suddenly thrown her
-apron over her head, and was sobbing aloud.
-
-"You are not distressed, I hope?" began Lady St. John; but Eileen, by a
-great effort, recovered herself, and looked up with brimming eyes that
-were shining like stars through the mist of happy tears.
-
-"Oh, my lady, my lady! it seems too good to be true; sure they are tears
-of joy I am shedding. It's myself that can hardly believe my own ears. I
-don't know what to say, nor how to thank you. It's like a blessed dream
-entirely--that's what it is, and my breath is fairly took away!"
-
-"Oh, if that is all, I do not mind," said the lady, smiling; "tears of
-joy are soon dried. Well, Eileen, I believe my husband and yours are
-talking it over outside now; and I hope by what you say that he will
-be willing to entertain the offer. I have set my heart upon having you
-and Pat at the lodge, and then my little Rupert will not quite lose his
-playfellow. The children will be able to meet and enjoy a game of play
-together sometimes, and, perhaps, as Pat grows up, if he takes kindly to
-his father's life, he may live to take his place in time, and remain as
-my boy's captain or mate, when his parents' sailing days are over. Rupert
-must never forget what he owes to those who saved him from death that
-fearful night. I think that that is a story which will become engraved
-upon his heart, as it is engraved upon that of his mother."
-
-A sound of voices without warned the women that others were coming in. Nat
-entered with a happy glance beaming from his eyes, and an expression of
-mingled bewilderment and delight upon his face.
-
-"Have you heard the news, wife?" he asked; "I scarce know whether I am
-standing on my head or my heels."
-
-"And you will take it, Nat?" asked the wife breathlessly, and Lady St.
-John waited eagerly for the reply.
-
-"Take it? Ay, that I will, and be thankful to them who offer it, and to
-the good God who watches over us. I don't like this rough life for you
-and the little one. We've had a good winter this last year at Lone Rock,
-and you've made home home to a man, even out here. But it's not the right
-place for a woman and a bairn. I've been thinking so more and more as
-I've heard sailors tell of some of the hardships that have been lived
-through here. The boy has got his health back again, thank the Lord, and
-we've been happy here, and I'd not have thrown it up in haste if nothing
-else hadn't come in the way. And I'll not be in a hurry now to leave them
-before they can get another man to suit. But we'll not turn our backs on
-such a chance as has come in our path. I've told Sir Arthur that I thank
-him most kindly for thinking of us all like this; and since we may take
-poor Jim ashore with us, and make a home for him still--why, there's not
-another word to be said. We'll be ready to go ashore as soon as they can
-get a man to take charge of the Lone Rock. I can't say more than that."
-
-"And that is quite enough," answered Sir Arthur, smiling; "I would not
-have you act unfairly by your employers, and my sailing-master will remain
-on with me till you are free, and for a little while longer, to show you
-the ways of the vessel. And now, that being all settled, we will think of
-getting away from here; but it will not be long before we meet again, and
-then our boys will not find that visiting each other is fraught with quite
-so many difficulties."
-
-Rupert was a good deal displeased at being carried off so quickly, but
-the parents knew that those on the rock would have too much to discuss to
-wish their visitors to remain. The little autocrat was pacified by hearing
-that Pat and Jim should come to see him at home quite soon, and whilst the
-boat sailed away in the distance, Pat was told the wonderful news, whilst
-Jim sat still on the rock which was his usual seat out of doors, and gazed
-out over the sparkling water, his hands clasped together on the top of his
-stick, and his chin resting upon them in meditative fashion.
-
-"Oh!" cried Pat, when he fully understood the whole matter; "isn't it
-wonderful? Isn't it just like a story, mother? Oh, Jim! what do you think
-about it?"
-
-"Why, it seems to me," answered the man quietly, "for all the world as
-though the Lord had done it. It's just His way of helping us out of the
-deep waters, and it's too good not to be true."
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-_HAPPY DAYS_
-
-
-It was a lovely evening in August. The sun was setting in a blaze of
-splendour over the sparkling sea. The smooth shaven lawns and majestic
-sweep of park land around the fine old Tudor house were looking their
-loveliest upon an evening like this, and down by the sea, just where
-the creek ran up through a belt of woodland, and into the very garden
-itself, a man and a boy were waiting beside a neat little boat, fitted
-with cushions and other requisites of comfort, as if in expectation that
-somebody from the great house behind the trees would shortly be coming
-down for an evening row or sail.
-
-The man and the boy were both dressed in suits of sailor blue. Their caps
-were of the same pattern, and had in gold letters round them the words,
-"Prince Rupert." The same words were painted in gilt letters upon
-the pretty boat; and the little boy--who was none other than Pat, only
-grown wonderfully brown and healthy and strong-looking--sometimes glanced
-at the name with a smile, and then up at Jim's smart head-gear.
-
-"This is better than Lone Rock, isn't it, Jim?" he said, breaking the
-silence which had lasted some considerable time. "We didn't think last
-summer ever to be in a place like this."
-
-"No, that we didn't," answered Jim, with the smile, which was now so
-frequently seen, and which lightened his rugged face wonderfully. "It's
-a better place than ever I dreamed of once; though I know now there's a
-better one still waiting for us by-and-by."
-
-Jim's face lighted as he spoke with a look that Pat was used to seeing
-there now, and which always filled him with a certain wonder and awe. Jim
-had been up and about again for some little time now. He had the sole
-charge of the three boats which were kept in the boathouse in the creek,
-and used by the people in the big house whenever they wanted a sail or a
-row. No more scrupulously clean and attentive boat-keeper had ever been
-known, and all who came to the house noticed Jim, and had a kind word
-for him. But it was already quite plain that the man would never be fit
-for hard work again. He had received an injury on the night of the storm
-which baffled the skill of all the clever doctors who had been called in
-to see him. They could "patch him up" for a little while; they could give
-him sufficient ease and strength to enable him to get about his light
-daily tasks with comfort and pleasure. He could sail a boat in the bay
-in fine weather, or gently scull the light little _Prince Rupert_ about
-with its young master as passenger. But that was about all he was fit for,
-and those who had heard the doctors' verdict knew that any winter he was
-liable to be carried suddenly off through the injury to the lung, which
-had so nearly caused his death whilst he lay in the lighthouse under the
-care of Eileen. Jim knew this himself as well as any one, but the thought
-gave him no trouble or anxiety. He was wonderfully happy and contented in
-his life; yet he was as ready as ever to go forth over the unknown sea if
-the Lord should hold out His hand and bid him come.
-
-"Do you miss _her_ very much?" asked Pat, after a pause, turning his eyes
-towards the sea in the direction of the Lone Rock, which in very clear
-weather could be distinguished from the garden wall. "You were fond of
-her, and knew her better than the rest of us. Do you think she misses you
-now that you're gone?"
-
-"Why, no, I hardly think she do," answered Jim, with a smile; "I'd got
-into the way of thinking and speaking of her as though she were alive--it
-seemed a bit of company when one was all alone. But when I wasn't alone
-any more, why, she didn't seem to be more than a big lamp then. I always
-look out for her of a night when the light shines over the sea, but I
-don't seem to want to be over there no more. It's wonderful how one grows
-to like the life one has to lead. I used to think I'd never be happy off
-Lone Rock, and now----"
-
-"I know you're happy here, Jim," said Pat, with a quick upward glance of
-loving admiration; "you always look so happy!"
-
-"I oughter to be ashamed of myself, if I wasn't," said Jim. "If I was a
-prince I couldn't be better took care of, and me able to do so little. It
-'ud make me ashamed, it would, if our lady wasn't the sweetest mistress
-that ever drew breath. It does one good to see her face day by day. It's
-like a bit of God's sunshine come down on earth--that's what it is."
-
-"Yes, I do love her, and little Prince Rupert too," answered Pat eagerly.
-"Oh, Jim! what a thing it's been for us your swimming into the sea that
-night and pulling him out. It hurt you a great deal, I know; but you're
-glad you went, aren't you?"
-
-Jim's face wore a look that it often did when his thoughts were growing
-beyond his powers of expression. It was some little time before he tried
-to speak.
-
-"Yes, Pat, lad, I'm glad enough I went; but I'd have been just as glad, I
-hope, if it hadn't brought none of these good things to us."
-
-"Do you mean you'd have been glad if you'd had to go to the workhouse as
-mother was afraid once?" asked Pat, with wide-open eyes; and Jim looked at
-the boy with a curious half-smile in his eyes.
-
-"Well, I suppose the Lord Jesus is with His folks in the workhouse as
-well as anywhere else, Pat, and if so be as He's there, I can't think it
-could be such a bad place. I know old folks make a deal of fuss against
-going there, and may be it's right to struggle as long as one can to earn
-a living oneself; nay, I'm sure it is. But if so be as He sends sickness,
-and there's nothing else for it, why, I suppose He'll be there to take the
-sting away, like as He does always. I don't think folks think quite enough
-about that when they talk agin the workhouse. It's the way we get into of
-thinking all about ourselves and scarce a bit about Him."
-
-"That's not your way, Jim," said Pat warmly; "I think you're always
-thinking of Him."
-
-"I've got so much lost time to make up, you see, Pat," answered the man
-gravely; "I'd never thought of Him, and of all He'd done for me, till you
-brought it back to me again. I've lived the best part of my life without
-Him. It's wonderful how He'll take the poor bit that's left, when all
-one's best years were spent in forgetting and scorning Him."
-
-Pat looked grave and said nothing. The thought was rather beyond his
-comprehension, but it always made him happy to think that he had helped
-Jim back to the light, though he never quite knew what he had done.
-
-A joyful sound close at hand caused both the pair to start, and a little
-figure in white darted forth round an angle of the path, and yellow-haired
-Rupert stood before them, his face beaming with delight.
-
-"Good evening, Jim; good evening, Pat! I'm going to have a beautiful row
-to-night, and mamma's come to see how well I row. See, there she comes
-through the trees! Lift me in quick, Jim, and you come too, Pat, I want
-her to see how well I do it. Let me have the sculls. I can do it like a
-man now!"
-
-Jim was already in the boat, and helped the eager little boy in, where he
-stood between his knees, with his hands upon the sculls, which Jim was
-getting ready for use. Pat sprang after and took the tiller, pushing off
-from shore just as the lady came round the angle of the path to nod to
-them with sweet smiling glances.
-
-"Look, mamma! Look at me, mamma! I'm sculling!" shouted Rupert, his bright
-face all in a glow of importance and pleasure, "I can scull as well as Jim
-now, and I'll take you out sometimes like papa does, when I've got time.
-But I like going with Pat and Jim best. It's like as if we were living
-together in the lighthouse and had just gone out for a row."
-
-"Yes, darling," answered the mother, smiling and waving her hand. "Take
-good care of Pat and Jim, because they took good care of you once. How are
-you feeling to-day, Jim? and how is your mother, Pat?"
-
-"Nicely, thank you, my lady," they both answered in a breath, and the lady
-waved her hand once more to the party before turning back towards the
-house again.
-
-"She knows you are safe with me," remarked Rupert, slightly transposing
-a phrase he frequently heard from his parents' lips, and then the boat
-was headed towards the Lone Rock, and Rupert played the game all the time
-that they were living there again. He and Jim and Pat had been across once
-with Nat since their coming to live at the Lodge, and Rupert never forgot
-that it had once been his temporary home, and made many plans about buying
-it for his very own when he was a man, and going there to live with Pat.
-Whenever he had little friends of his own to tea at home, he would always
-assert his superiority over them by telling how he had once lived in a
-lighthouse, which certainly none of the others had done. And the story of
-his life there never failed to arouse a great interest and wonder.
-
-The child's father was waiting to take him when the boat neared shore
-again, and he spoke kindly to Jim and Pat before leading his little son
-home.
-
-As the latter put away the boat safe in the boathouse, and walked slowly
-towards the pretty lodge together, they saw the light from the Lone
-Rock streaming out over the darkening water, increasing every moment in
-brightness. Pat looked lovingly at it.
-
-"I used to wonder as I lay in bed how she would look to people a long way
-off. I didn't know she was quite so bright. I think they must be taking
-good care of her, Jim."
-
-"Yes, I think so, she's bright enough of nights. I can just see her as I
-lie awake in bed--through that gap in the trees. It makes me think about
-the Lamp to our feet and the Light to our path."
-
-"Oh, yes," answered Pat quickly and eagerly, "that's what mother said too,
-Jim, and she said something else as well; I wonder if I could remember
-it. I think it was about you. I know it made me think of you directly she
-said it."
-
-"About me?" questioned Jim absently, his eyes still on the light.
-
-They had paused now upon a little bit of rising ground to look over the
-sea. A short distance to the right, a little bit farther up the hill,
-twinkled the lights from a charming little lodge, within the rose-covered
-walls of which Eileen was stepping to and fro setting out the supper,
-whilst Nat smoked his pipe by the handful of fire, looking the picture
-of contentment and well-being. Pat could see the lights from both his
-past and present home as he stood beside Jim on the brow of the rising
-ground, waiting till the man should have recovered breath to go on, for
-going up hill always tried him a little, even though he went slowly. But
-it was their habit to stand thus a few minutes looking out towards the
-lighthouse, especially after dark, when the rays of the lamp could be
-seen; and now Pat took up the word again and went on eagerly--
-
-"Yes; mother was saying that when she looked out at night and saw the
-light, and the great track it made in the water, it made her think about
-some words in the Bible, where it says about the 'path of the just shining
-more and more unto the perfect day.' And when she said it I thought of
-you, Jim, and I said to mother, 'Isn't that what Jim's path does, mother?'
-And she said, 'Yes, Pat, I think it is; because Jim seems to me to be
-going on more and more to the perfect day than anybody I ever saw before.'
-So it must be like you, Jim, for mother always knows."
-
-Jim made no response in words; but Pat saw him draw his hand softly
-across his eyes. Presently he laid his hand upon the boy's shoulder, and
-there was something in the touch that made Pat look suddenly up. He met a
-glance of such affection and tenderness that for the moment he felt half
-startled, and then Jim spoke in tones that faltered a little with the
-deepness of his feeling.
-
-"You mustn't think too well of me, Pat; you don't know what I've been
-through in the dark before the light came. I'm the last man in the world
-as should be spoken of so. But I do know that my sins are washed away.
-I do know that He's taken the burden off my back. He's led me into the
-light now, and I think He'll keep me there to the end. But, Pat, it was
-your little hand that first pointed the way. I can't see how I should ever
-have found it if the Lord hadn't sent you to show it me. There's never a
-night as I lie watching the light, and thinking of that other Light that
-lighteth every man that cometh into the world, if so be as he'll turn his
-eyes towards it, but that I think of those old days of black darkness,
-when there wasn't a ray of light in my poor heart. And then I think of how
-the light came, and how He sent it to me. For it must have been His doing
-all the while that you came to Lone Rock, Pat, and taught me to know that
-we were never alone if so be as we would take the Lord at His word, and go
-to Him across the blackness and the darkness."
-
-
-                                 THE END.
-
-
-
-
-                    *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-Transcriber Note
-
-Illustrations were moved to prevent splitting paragraphs. Minor
-typographical errors were corrected. Produced from images generously
-made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries. All derived
-products are placed in the Public Domain.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Pat the Lighthouse Boy, by Evelyn Everett-Green
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