Sturdy and strong, or, How George Andrews made his way

Presented to the
LIBRARY of the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

by

THE ESTATE OF THE LATE
GLENN S. MORGAN

CL

19/3.

"SURLY JOE SAT WITH A CHILD ON EITHER SIDE, TELLING THEM

SEA STORIES." — Frontispiece.
Sturdy and Strong:

STURDY AND STRONG

OR

How George Andrews ttfade His Way

BY

G. A. HENTY

AUTHOR OF "THE YOUNG CARTHAGINIAN," "WITH CLIVE

IN INDIA," "IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE," "THE LION

OF THE NORTH," "FACING DEATH,"

ETC., ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK

THE FEDERAL BOOK COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

PREFACE.

WHATEVER may be said as to distinction of
classes in England, it is certain that in no country;
in the world is the upward path more open to those
who brace themselves to climb it than in our own.
The proportion of those who remain absolutely
stationary is comparatively small. We are all liv-
ing on a hillside, and we must either go up or down.
It is easier to descend than to ascend; but he who
fixes his eyes upwards, nerves himself for the climb,
and determines with all his might and power to
win his way towards the top, is sure to find himself
at the end of his day at a far higher level than when
he started upon his journey. It may be said, and
sometimes foolishly is said, that luck is everything;
but in nineteen cases out of twenty what is called
luck is simply a combination of opportunity, and of
the readiness and quickness to turn that oppor-
tunity to advantage. The voyager must take
every advantage of wind, tide, and current, if he
would make a favorable journey; and for success
in life it is necessary not only to be earnest, stead-
fast, and true, but to have the faculty of turning
every opportunity to the best advantage; just as
a climber utilizes every tuft of grass, every little
shrub, every projecting rock, as a hold for his hands

m

i* PREFACE.

or feet. George Andrews had what may be called
luck — that is, he had opportunities and took ad-
vantage of them, and his rise in life was consei-
quently far more rapid than if he had let them pass
without grasping them; but in any case his steadi-
ness, perseverance, and determination to get on
would assuredly have made their way in the long
run. If similar qualities and similar determinations
are yours, you need not despair of similar success
in life.

G. A. HENTY.

CONTENTS.

FA08

STURDY AND STRONG:

I. ALONE, x

II. Two FRIENDS, ....••• 25

III. WORK, 4*

IV. HOME, . 74

V. AN ADVENTURE, ...••• 97

VI. FIRKI . . 117

VII. SAVED! . • .. • • • • • J4«

Do YOUR DUTY, 165

SURLY JOE, 231

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM, ••••••• 257

STURDY AND STRONG.

CHAPTER I.

ALONE.

*' You heard what he said, George? "

" Oh, mother, mother! "

" Don't sob so, my boy; he is right. I have seen
it coming a long time, and, hard as it seems, it will
be better. There is no disgrace in it. I have tried
my best, and if my health had not broken down we
might have managed, but you see it was not to be.
I shall not mind it, dear; it is really only for your
sake that I care about it at all."

The boy had ceased sobbing, and sat now with a
white set face.

" Mother, it will break my heart to think that I
cannot keep you from this. If we could only have
managed for a year or two I could have earned
more then; but to think of you — you in the work-
house! "

" In a workhouse infirmary, my boy," his mother
said gently. " You see it is not as if it were from
any fault of ours. We have done our best. You
and I have managed for two years; but what with

4 STURDY AND STRONG.

Mr. Andrews was looked upon as a rising man,
and for the first seven or eight years of her mar-
riage his wife's life had been a very happy one.
Then her husband was prostrated by a fever which
he caught in one of the midland towns while onj
circuit, and although he partially recovered he was
never himself again. His power of work seemed
to be lost; a languor which he could not overcome
took possession of him. A troublesome cough
ere long attacked him, and two years later Mrs.
Andrews was a widow, and her boy, then nine years
old, an orphan.

During the last two years of his life Mr. Andrews
had earned but little in his profession. The com-
fortable house which he occupied had been given
up, and they had removed to one much smaller.
But in spite of this, debts mounted up, and when,
after his death, the remaining furniture was sold
and everything settled, there remained only about
two hundred pounds. Mrs. Andrews tried to get
some pupils among her late husband's friends, but
during the last two years she had lost sight of many
of these, and now met with but poor success among
the others. She was a quiet and retiring woman,
and shrank from continuous solicitations, and at
the end of three years she found her little store
exhausted.

Hitherto she had kept George at school, but
could no longer do so, and, giving up her lodging
in Brompton, went down to Croydon, where some-

ALONE. 5

One had told her that they thought she would have
a better chance of obtaining pupils, but the cards
which some of the tradesmen allowed her to put in
the window led to no result, and finding this to be
the case she applied at one of the milliner's for
work. This she obtained, and for a year supported
herself and her boy by needlework.

From the time when George left school she had
gone on teaching him his lessons; but on the day
when he was thirteen years old he declared that he
would no longer submit to his mother working for
both of them, and, setting out, called at shop after
shop inquiring if they wanted an errand-boy. He
succeeded at last in getting a place at a grocer's
where he was to receive three shillings a week and
his meals, going home to sleep at night in the
closet-like little attic adjoining the one room which
his mother could now afford.

For a while they were more comfortable than
they had been for some time; now that his mother
had no longer George to feed, her earnings and the
three shillings he brought home every Saturday
night enabled them to live in comparative ease, and
on Sunday something like a feast was always pre-
pared. But six months later Mrs. Andrews felt
her eyesight failing, the lids became inflamed, and
a dull aching pain settled in the eyeballs. Soon
she could only work for a short time together, her
earnings became smaller and smaller, and her em-
ployers presently told her that she kept the work

6 STURDY AND STRONG.

so long in hand that they could no longer employ
her. There was now only George's three shillings
a week to rely upon, and this was swallowed up by
the rent. In despair she had applied to the parish
doctor about her eyes. For a fortnight he at-
tended her, and at the end of that time had per-
emptorily given the order of which she had told her
son.

To her it was a relief; she had seen that it must
come. Piece by piece every article of clothing she
possessed, save those she wore, had been pawned
for food, and every resource was now exhausted.
She was worn out with the struggle, and the cer-
tainty of rest and food overcame her repugnance
to the house. For George's sake too, much as she
knew he would feel her having to accept such a
refuge, she was glad that the struggle was at an
end. The lad had for the last six months suffered
greatly for her sake. Every meal to which he sat
down at his employer's seemed to choke him as he
contrasted it with the fare to which she was re-
duced, although, as far as possible, she had con-
cealed from him how sore was her strait.

George cried himself to sleep that night, and ha
could scarce speak when he said good-by to his
mother in the morning, for he could not tell when
he should see her again.

" You will stop where you are, my boy, will you
not?"

" I cannot promise, mother. I don't know yet

ALONE. 7

what I shall do ; but please don't ask me to promise
anything. You must let me do what I think best.
I have got to make a home for you when you are
cured. I am fourteen now, and am as strong as
most boys of my age. I ought to be able to earn
a shilling a day somehow, and with seven shillings
a week, mother, and you just working a little, you
know, so as not to hurt your eyes, we ought to be
able to do. Don't you bother about me, mother.
I want to try anyhow what I can do till you come
out. When you do, then I will do whatever you
tell me; that's fair, isn't it? "

Mrs. Andrews would have remonstrated, but he
said:

" Well, mother, you see at the worst I can get a
year's character from Button, so that if I can't get
anything else to do I can get the same sort of
place again, and as I am a year older than I was
when he took me, and can tie up parcels neatly
now, I ought to get a little more anyhow. You
see I shall be safe enough, and though I have never
grumbled, you know, mother — have I? — I think
I would rather do anything than be a grocer's boy.
I would rather, when I grow up, be a bricklayer's
laborer, .or a plowman, or do any what I call man's
work, than be pottering about behind a counter,
with a white apron on, weighing out sugar and
currants."

" I can't blame you, George," Mrs. Andrews
Baid with a sigh. " It's natural, my boy. If I get

8 STURDY AND STRONG.

my eyesight and my health again, when you grow
up to be a man we will lay by a little money, and
you and I will go out together to one of the colo-
nies. It will be easier to rise again there than here,
and with hard work both of us might surely hope
to get on. There must be plenty of villages in
Australia and Canada where I could do well with
teaching, and you could get work in whatever way
you may be inclined to. So, my boy, let us set
that before us. It will be something to hope for
and work for, and will cheer us to go through what-
ever may betide us up to that time."

" Yes, mother," George said. " It will be com-
fort indeed to have something to look forward to.
Nothing can comfort me much to-day; but if
anything could it would be some such plan as
that."

The last words he said to his mother as, blinded
with tears, he kissed her before starting to work,
were:

" I shall think of our plan every day, and look
forward to that more than anything else in the
world — next to your coming to me again."

At ten o'clock Dr. Jeffries drove up to Mrs. An-
drews' humble lodging in a brougham instead of
his ordinary gig, having borrowed the carriage
from one of the few of his patients who kept such
a vehicle, on purpose to take Mrs. Andrews, for
she was so weak and worn that he was sure she
would not be able to sit upright in a gig for the

ALONE. 9

three miles that had to be traversed. He managed
in the course of his rounds to pass the workhouse
again in the afternoon, and brought George, be-
fore he left work, a line written in pencil on a leaf
torn from his pocketbook:

" My darling, I am very comfortable. Every-
thing is clean and nice, and the doctor and people
kind. Do not fret about me. — Your loving
mother."

Although George's expressed resolution of leav-
ing his present situation, and seeking to earn his
living in some other way, caused Mrs. Andrews
much anxiety, she had not sought strongly to dis-
suade him from it. No doubt it would be wiser
for him to stay in his present situation, where he
was well treated and well fed, and it certainly
seemed improbable to her that he would be able
to get a better living elsewhere. Still she could
not blame him for wishing at least to try. She her-
self shared to some extent his prejudice against the
work in which he was employed. There is no
disgrace in honest work; but she felt that she would
rather see him engaged in hard manual labor than
as a shop boy. At any rate, as he said, if he failed
he could come back again to Croydon, and, with a
year's character from his present employer, would
probably be able to obtain a situation similar to
that which he now held. She was somewhat com-

10 STURDY AND STRONG.

forted, too, by a few words the doctor had said to
her during their drive.

" I think you are fortunate in your son, Mrs.
Andrews. He seems to me a fine steady boy. If
I can, in any way, do him a good turn while you are
away from him, I will."

George remained for another month in his situa-
tion, for he knew that it would never do to start on
his undertaking penniless. At the end of that
time, having saved up ten shillings, and having
given notice to his employer, he left the shop for
the last time, and started to walk to London. It
was not until he began to enter the crowded streets
that he felt the full magnitude of his undertaking.
To be alone in London, a solitary atom in the busy-
mass of humanity, is a trying situation even for a
man; to a boy of fourteen it is terrible. Buying
a penny roll, George sat down to eat it in one of the
niches of a bridge over the river, and then kneeling
up watched the barges and steamers passing be-
low him.

Had it not been for his mother, his first thought,
like that of most English boys thrown on the world,
would have been to go to sea; but this idea he had
from the first steadily set aside as out of the ques-
tion. His plan was to obtain employment as a boy
in some manufacturing work, for he thought that
there, by steadiness and perseverance, he might
make his way.

On one thing he was resolved. He would make

ALONE. II

his money last as long as possible. Three penny-
worth of bread a day would, he calculated, be suf-
ficient for his wants. As to sleeping, he thought
he might manage to sleep anywhere; it was summer
time and the nights were warm. He had no idea
what the price of a bed would be, or how to set
about getting a lodging. He did not care how
roughly he lived so that he could but make his
money last. The first few days he determined to
look about him. Something might turn up. If
it did not he would set about getting a place in
earnest. He had crossed Waterloo Bridge, and,
keeping straight on, found himself in Covent Gar-
den, where he was astonished and delighted at the
quantities of fruit, vegetables, and flowers.

Although he twice set out in different directions
to explore the streets, he each time returned to
Covent Garden. There were many lads of his own
age playing about there, and he thought that from
them he might get some hints as to how to set
about earning a living. They looked ragged and
poor enough, but they might be able to tell him
something — about sleeping, for instance. For al-
though before starting the idea of sleeping any-
where had seemed natural enough, it looked more
formidable now that he was face to face with it.

Going to a cook-shop in a street off the market
he bought two slices of plum-pudding. He rather
grudged the twopence which he paid; but he felt
that it might be well laid out. Provided with the

M STURDY AND STRONG.

pudding he returned to the market, sat himself
down on an empty basket, and began to eat slowly
and leisurely.

In a short time he noticed a lad of about his own
age watching him greedily.

He was far from being a respectable-looking boy.
His clothes were ragged, and his toes could be seeri
through a hole in his boot. He wore neither hat
nor cap, and his hair looked as if it had not been
combed since the day of his birth. There was a
sharp, pinched look on his face. But had he been
washed and combed and decently clad he would
not have been a bad-looking boy. At any rate
George liked his face better than most he had seen
in the market, and he longed for a talk with some-
one. So he held out his other slice of pudding,
and said:

" Have a bit? "

"Oh, yes!" the boy replied "Walker, eh?"

" No, I mean it, really. Will you have a bit? "

" No larks? " asked the boy.

" No; no larks. Here you are."

Feeling assured now that no trick was intended
the boy approached, took without a word the pud-
ding which George held out, and, seating himself
on a basket close to him, took a great bite.

" Where do you live? " George asked, when the
slice of pudding had half disappeared.

" Anywheres," the boy replied, waving his hand
round.

ALONE. 13

" I mean, where do you sleep? "

The boy nodded, to intimate that his sleeping-
place was included in the general description of his
domicile.

" And no one interferes with you? " George in-
quired.

" The beaks, they moves you on when they
ketches you; but ef yer get under a cart or
in among the baskets you generally dodges
'em."

" And suppose you want to pay for a place to
sleep, where do you go and how much do you
pay?"

"Tuppence," the boy said; "or if yer want a
first-rate, fourpence. Does yer want to find a
crib? " he asked doubtfully, examining his com-
panion.

" Well, yes," George said. " I want to find
some quiet place where I can sleep, cheap, you
know."

" Out of work? " the boy inquired.

" Yes. I haven't got anything to do at present.
1 am looking for a place, you know."

" Don't know no one about? "

" No; I have just come in from Croydon."

The boy shook his head.

" Don't know nothing as would suit," he said.
" Why, yer'd get them clothes and any money yet
had walked off with the wery fust night."

" I should not get a room to myself, I suppose,

14 STURDY AND STRONG.

even for fourpence? " George asked, making a
rapid calculation that this would come to two and
fourpence per week, as much as his mother had
paid for a comparatively comfortable room in
Croydon.

The boy opened his eyes in astonishment at his
companion requiring a room for himself.

" Lor' bless yer, yer'd have a score of them with
yer!"

" I don't care about a bed," George said. " Just
some place to sleep in. Just some straw in any;
quiet corner."

This seemed more reasonable to the boy, and he
thought the matter over.

" Well," he said at last, " I knows of a place
where they puts up the hosses of the market carts.
I knows a hostler there. Sometimes when it's
wery cold he lets me sleep up in the loft. Aint it
warm and comfortable just! I helps him with the
hosses sometimes, and that's why. I will ax him if
yer likes."

George assented at once. His ideas as to the
possibility of sleeping in the open air had vanished
when he saw the surroundings, and a bed in a quiet
loft seemed to him vastly better than sleeping in
a room with twenty others.

" How do you live? " he asked the lad, " and
what's your name? "

" They calls me the Shadder," the boy said rather
proudly; " but my real name's Bill."

ALONE. 15

" Why do they call you the Shadow? " George
asked.

" 'Cause the bobbies finds it so hard to lay hands
on me," Bill replied.

" But what do they want to lay hands on you
for? " George asked.

" Why, for bagging things, in course," Bill re-
plied calmly.

"Bagging things? Do you mean stealing?"
George said, greatly shocked.

" Well, not regular prigging," the Shadow re-
plied; " not wipes, yer know, nor tickers, nor them
kind of things. I aint never prigged nothing of
that kind."

" Well, what is it then you do — prig? " George
asked, mystified.

" Apples or cabbages, or a bunch of radishes,
onions sometimes, or 'taters. That aint regular
prigging, you know."

" Well, it seems to me the same sort of thing,"
George said, after a pause.

" I tell yer it aint the same sort of thing at all,"
the Shadow said angrily. " Everyone as aint a
fool knows that taters aint wipes, and no one can't
say as a apple and a ticker are the same."

" No, not the same," George agreed; " but you
see one is just as much stealing as the other."

" No, it aint," the boy reasserted. " One is the
same as money and t'other aint. I am hungry and
I nips a apple off a stall No one aint the worse for

t6 STURDY AND STRONG.

it. You don't suppose as they misses a apple here?
Why, there's wagon-loads of 'em, and lots of 'em is
rotten. Well, it amt no more if I takes one than
if it was rotten. Is it now? "

George thought there was a difference, but he
did not feel equal to explaining it.

" The policemen must think differently," he said
at last, " else they wouldn't be always trying to
catch you."

" Who cares for the bobbies? " Bill said con-
temptuously. " I don't; and I don't want no more
jaw with you about it. If yer don't likes it, yer
leaves it. I didn't ask for yer company, did I?
So now then."

George had really taken a fancy to the boy, and
moreover he saw that in the event of a quarrel his
chance of finding a refuge for the night was small.
In his sense of utter loneliness in the great city he
was loath to break with the only acquaintance he
had made.

" I didn't mean to offend you, Bill," he said;
" only I was sorry to hear you say you took things.
It seems to me you might get into trouble; and it
would be better after all to work for a living."

" What sort of work? " Bill said derisively.
" Who's agoing to give me work? Does yer think
I have only got to walk into a shop and ask for
'ployment? They wouldn't want to know nothing
about my character, I suppose? nor where I had
worked before? nor where my feyther lived? not

ALONE. 17

nothing? Oh, no, of course not! It's blooming
easy to get work about here; only got to ax for it,
that's all. Good wages and all found, that's your
kind."

" I don't suppose it's easy," George said; " but
it seems to me people could get something to do
if they tried."

" Tried! " the boy said bitterly. " Do yer think
we don't try! Why, we are always trying to earn
a copper or two. Why, we begins at three o'clock
in the morning when the market-carts come in, and
we goes on till they comes out of that there theater
at night, just trying to pick up a copper. Some-
times one does and sometimes one doesn't. It's
a good day, I tell you, when we have made a tanner
by the end of it. Don't tell me! And now as to
this ere stable; yer means it? "

"Yes," George said; "certainly I mean it."

" Wery well then, you be here at this corner at
nine o'clock. I will go before that and square it
with Ned. That's the chap I was speaking of."

" I had better give you something to give him,"
George said. " Will a shilling do? "

" Yes, a bob will do for three or four nights.
Are you going to trust me with it? "

" Of course I am," George replied. " I am sure
you wouldn't be so mean as to do me out of it; be-
sides, you told me that you never stole money and
those sort of things."

" It aint everyone as would trust me with a bob

I& STURDY AND STRONG.

for all that," Bill replied; " and yer are running a
risk, yer know, and I tells yer if yer goes on with
that sort of game yer'll get took in rarely afore
yer've done. Well, hand it over. I aint a-going
to bilk yer."

The Shadow spoke carelessly, but this proof of
confidence on the part of his companion really
touched him, and as he went off he said to himself,
" He aint a bad sort, that chap, though he is so
precious green. I must look arter him a bit and
see he don't get into no mischief."

George, on his part, as he walked away down
into the Strand again, felt that he had certainly run
a risk in thus intrusting a tenth of his capital to his
new acquaintance; but the boy's face and manner
had attracted him, and he felt that, although the
Shadow's notions of right and wrong might be of
a confused nature, he meant to act straight toward
him.

George passed the intervening hours before the
time named for his meeting in Covent Garden in
staring into the shop windows in the Strand, and
in wondering at the constant stream of vehicles
and foot passengers flowing steadily out westward.
He was nearly knocked under the wheels of the
vehicles a score of times from his ignorance as to
the rule of the road, and at last he was so confused
by the jostling and pushing that he was glad to
turn down a side street and to sit down for a time
on a doorstep.

ALONE. «9

When nine o'clock approached he went into a
baker's shop and bought a loaf, which would, he
thought, do for supper and breakfast for himself
and his companion. Having further invested
threepence in cheese, he made his way up to the
market.

The Shadow was standing at the corner whis-
tling loudly.

" Oh, here yer be! That's all right; come along.
I have squared Ned, and it's all right."

He led the way down two or three streets and
then stopped at a gateway.

" You stop here," he said, " and I will see as
there aint no one but Ned about."

He returned in a minute.

" It's all clear! Ned, he's a-rubbing down a
boss; he won't take no notice of yer as yer pass.
He don't want to see yer, yer know, 'cause in case
anyone corned and found yer up there he could
swear he never saw yer go in, and didn't know
nothing about yer. I will go with yer to the door,
and then yer will see a ladder in the corner; if yer
whip up that yer'll find it all right up there."

" But you are coming too, aint you? " George
asked.

" Oh, no, I aint a-coming. Yer don't want a
chap like me up there. I might pick yer pocket,
yer know; besides I aint your sort."

" Oh, nonsense ! " George said. " I should like
to have you with me, Bill; I should really. Be-

20 STURDY AND STRONG.

sides, what's the difference between us? We
both got to work for ourselves and make our way
in the world."

" There's a lot of difference. Yer don't talk the
way as I do; yer have been brought up different.
Don't tell me."

" I may have been brought up differently, BilL
I have been fortunate there; but now, you see, I
have got to get my living in the best way I can,
and if I have had a better education than you have,
you know ever so much more about London and
how to get your living than I do, so that makes us
quits."

"Oh, wery well," Bill said; "it's all the same
to this child. So if yer aint too proud, here
goes."

He led the way down a stable yard, past several
doors, showing the empty stalls which would be all
filled when the market carts arrived. At the last
door on the right he stopped. George looked in.
At the further end a man was rubbing down a horse
by the faint light of a lantern, the rest of the stable
was in darkness.

" This way," Bill whispered.

Keeping close behind him, George entered the
stable. The boy stopped in the corner.

" Here's the ladder. I will go up fust and give
yer a hand when yer gets to the top."

George stood quiet until his companion had
mounted, and then ascended the ladder, which was

ALONE. 21

fixed against the wall. Presently a voice whis-
pered in his ear:

" Give us your hand. Mind how yer puts your
foot."

In a minute he was standing in the loft. His
companion drew him along in the darkness, and in
a few steps arrived at a pile of hay.

" There yer are," Bill said in a low voice; " yer
'ave only to make yourself comfortable there.
Now mind you don't fall down one of the holes
into the mangers."

" I wish we had a little light," George said, as he
ensconced himself in the hay.

" I will give you some light in a minute," Bill
said, as he left his side, and directly afterwards a
door opened and the light of a gaslight in the yard
streamed in.

" That's where they pitches the hay in," Bill said
as he rejoined him. " I shuts it up afore I goes to
sleep, 'cause the master he comes out sometimes
when the carts comes in, and there would be a
blooming row if he saw it open; but we are all
right now."

" That's much nicer," George said. " Now
here's a loaf I brought with me. We will cut it in
half and put by a half for the morning, and eat the
other half between us now, and I have got some
cheese here too."

" That's tiptop ! " the boy said. " Yer 're a good
Sort, I could see that, and I am pretty empty, I

82 STURDY AND STRONG.

am, for I aint had nothing except that bit of duff
yer gave me since morning, and I only had a crust
then. 'Cept for running against you I aint been
lucky to-day. Couldn't get a job nohows, and it
aint for want of trying neither."

For some minutes the boys ate in silence.
George had given much the largest portion to his
companion, for he himself was too dead tired to be
very hungry. When he had finished, he said:

" Look here, Bill; we will talk in the morning.
I am so dead beat I can scarcely keep my eyes
open, so I will just say my prayers and go off to
sleep."

" Say your prayers! " Bill said in astonishment.
" Do yer mean to say as yer says prayers! "

" Of course I do," George replied; " don't you? "

" Never said one in my life," Bill said decidedly;
" don't know how, don't see as it would do no good
ef I did."

"It would do good, Bill," George said. "I
hope some day you will think differently, and I will
teach you some you will like."

" I don't want to know none," Bill said posi-
tively. " A missionary chap, he came and prayed
with an old woman I lodged with once. I could not
make head nor tail of it, and she died just the same,
so you see what good did it do her? "

But George was too tired to enter upon a theo-
logical argument. He was already half asleep, and
Bill's voice sounded a long way off.

ALONE. 33

w Good-night," he muttered; " I will talk to you
In the morning," and in another minute he was fast
asleep.

Bill took an armful of hay and shook it lightly
over his companion; then he closed the door of the
loft and threw himself on the hay, and was soon
also sound asleep. When, George woke in the
morning the daylight was streaming in through the
cracks of the door. His companion was gone.
He heard the voices of several men in the yard,
while a steady champing noise and an occasional
shout or the sound of a scraping on the stones told
him the stalls below were all full now.

George felt that he had better remain where he
was. Bill had told him the evening before that
the horses and carts generally set out again at
about nine o'clock, and he thought he had better
wait till they had gone before he slipped down be-
low. Closing his eyes he was very soon off to
sleep again. When he woke, Bill was sitting by
his side looking at him.

" Well, you are a oner to sleep," the boy said.
" Why, it's nigh ten o'clock, and it's time for us to
be moving. Ned will be going off in a few min-
utes, and the stables will be locked up till the even-
ing."

" Is there time to eat our bread and cheese? "
George asked.

" No, we had better eat it when we get down tQ
the market; come along."

84 STURDY AND STRONG.

George at once rose, shook the hay off his
clothes, and descended the ladder, Bill leading the
way. There was no one in the stable, and the yard
was also empty. On reaching the market they sat
down on two empty baskets, and at once began to
eat their bread and cheese.

CHAPTER II.

TWO FRIENDS.

" I DID wake before, Bill," George said after he
had eaten a few mouthfuls; " but you were out."

" Yes, I turned out as soon as the carts began to
come in," Bill said, " and a wery good morning I
have had. One old chap gave me twopence for
looking arter his hoss and cart while he went into
the market with his flowers. But the best move
was just now. A chap as was driving off with
flowers, one of them swell West-end shops, I expect,
by the look of the trap, let his rug fall. He didn't
see it till I ran after him with it, then he gave me a
tanner; that was something like. Have yer fin-
ished yer bread and cheese? "

" Yes," George said, " and I could manage a drink
of water if I could get one."

" There's a fountain handy," Bill said; " but you
come along with me, I am agoing to stand two cups
of coffee if yer aint too proud to take it;" and he
looked doubtfully at his companion.

" I am not at all too proud," George said, for he
saw that the slightest hesitation would hurt his
companion's feelings.

96 STURDY AND STRONG.

" It aint fust-rate coffee," Bill said, as with a
brightened look on his face he turned and led the
way to a little coffee-stall; " but it's hot and sweet,
and yer can't expect more nor that for a penny."

George found the coffee really better than he had
expected, and Bill was evidently very much gratified
at his expression of approval.

" Now," he said, when they had both finished,
" for a draw of 'baccy," and he produced a short
clay pipe. " Don't yer smoke ? "

" No, I haven't begun yet."

" Ah ! ye don't know what a comfort a pipe is,"
Bill said. " Why, when yer are cold and hungry
and down on your luck a pipe is a wonderful thing,
and so cheap; why, a ounce of 'baccy will fill yer
thirty pipes if yer don't squeeze it in too hard.
.Well, an ounce of 'baccy costs threepence half-
penny, so, as I makes out, yer gets eight pipes for a
penny; and now," he went on when he had filled
and lit his pipe, " let's know what's yer game."

"You mean what am I going to do?" George
asked.

Bill nodded.

" I want to get employment in some sort of works.
I have been an errand-boy in a grocer's for more
than a year, and I have got a written character from
my master in my pocket ; but I don't like the sort of
thing; I would rather work with my own hands.
There are plenty of works where they employ boys,
and you know one might get on as one gets older.

TWO FRIENDS. «7

The first thing is to find out whereabouts works of
that sort are."

" There are lots of works at the East End, I have
heard tell," Bill said; " and then there's Clerkenwell
and King's Cross, they aint so far off, and there are
works there, all sorts of works, I should say; but I
don't know miffm' about that sort of work. The
only work as I have done is holding hosses and car-
rying plants into the market, and sometimes when
I have done pretty well I goes down and lays out
what I got in Echoes, or Globes, or Evening Stand-
ards; that pays yer, that does, for if yer can sell them
all yer will get a bob for eight penn'orth of papers,
that gives yer fourpence for an hour's work, and I
calls that blooming good, and can't yer get a tuck-
out for a bob ! Oh, no, I should think not ! Well,
what shall it be? I knows the way out to White-
chapel and to Clerkenwell, so whichever yer likes I
can show yer."

" If Clerkenwell's the nearest we may as well try
that first," George said, "and I shall be much
obliged to you for showing the way."

The two boys spent the whole day in going from
workshop to workshop for employment; but the an-
swers to his application were unvarying: either he
was too young or there was no place vacant.
George took the disappointment quietly, for he had
made up his mind that he would have difficulty in
getting a place; but Bill became quite angry on be-
half of his companion.

90 STURDY AND STRONG.

" This is worse nor the market," he said. " A
chap can pick up a few coppers there, and here we
have been a-tramping about all day and aint done
nothing."

Day after day George set out on his quest, but all
was without success. He and Bill still slept in the
loft, and after the first day he took to getting up at
the same time as his companion, and going out with
him to try and pick up a few pence from the men
with the market-carts. Every other morning they
were able to lie later, as there were only regular
marketdays three mornings a week.

On market mornings he found that he earned
more than Bill, his better clothes giving him an ad-
vantage, as the men were more willing to trust their
carts and rugs to the care of a quiet, respectable-
looking boy than to that of the arabs who frequented
the Garden. But all that was earned was laid out in
common between the two boys, and George found
himself seldom obliged to draw above a few pence
on his private stock. He had by this time told the
Shadow exactly how much money he had, and the
boy, seeing the difficulty that George found in get-
ting work, was most averse to the store being
trenched upon, and always gave his vote against the
smallest addition to their ordinary fare of bread
and cheese being purchased, except from their earn-
ings of the day. This George felt was the more
creditable on Bill's part, inasmuch as the latter had,
in deference to his prejudices, abstained from the

TWO FRIENDS. «9

petty thefts of fruit with which before he had sea-
soned his dry crusts.

George had learned now what Bill knew of his
history, which was little enough. He supposed he
had had a father, but he knew nothing of him;
whether he had died, or whether he had cut away
and left mother, Bill had no idea. His mother he
remembered well, though she had died when he was,
as he said, a little chap. He spoke of her always in
a hushed voice, and in a tone of reverence, as a supe-
rior being.

" We was poor, you know," he said to George,
"and I know mother was often short of grub, but
she was just kind. I don't never remember her
whacking me; always spoke soft and low like; she
was good, she was. She used to pray, you know,
and what I remember most is as the night afore she
was took away to a hospital she says, ' Try and live
honest, Bill; it will be hard, but try, my boy. Don't
you take to stealing, however poor you may be;*
and I aint," Bill said earnestly over and over again.
" When I has seed any chap going along with a
ticker handy, which I could have boned and got
away among the carts as safe as ninepence, or when
I has seed a woman with her purse a-sticking out of
them outside pockets, and I aint had a penny to
bless myself with, and perhaps nothing to eat all day,
I have felt it hard not to make a grab; but I just
thought of what she said, and I aint done it. As I
told yer, I have often nabbed things off the stalls or

30 STURDY AND STRONG.

out of the baskets or carts. It didn't seem to me as
that was stealing, but as you says it is, I aint going"
to do so no more. Now look yer here, George; they
tells me as the parsons says as when people die and
they are good they goes up there, yer know."

George nodded, for there was a question in his
companion's tone.

" Then, of course," Bill went on, " she is up there.
Now it aint likely as ever I should see her again,
'cause, you know, there aint nothing good about
me; but if she was to come my way, wherever I
might be, and was to say to me, * Bill, have you been
a-stealing ? ' do yer think she would feel very bad
about them 'ere apples and things? "

" No, Bill, I am sure she would hot. You see
you didn't quite know that was stealing, and you
kept from stealing the things that you thought she
spoke of, and now that you see it is wrong taking
even little things you are not going to take them
any more."

" That I won't, so help me bob! " the boy said;
"not if I never gets another apple between my
teeth."

" That's right, Bill. You see you ought to do it,
not only to please your mother, but to please God.
That's what my mother has told me over and over
again."

"Has she now?" Bill said with great interest,
" and did you use to prig apples and sichlike some-
times?"

TWO FRIENDS. 31

" No," George said, " not that sort of thing; but
she was talking of things in general. Of doing
things that were wrong, such as telling lies and de-
ceiving, and that sort of thing."

" And your mother thinks as God knows all about
it?"

George nodded.

" And that he don't like it, eh, when things is done
bad?"

George nodded again.

" Lor', what a time he must have of it ! " Bill
said in solemn wonder. " Why, I heard a woman
say last week as six children was enough to worrit
anyone into the grave; and just to think of all of
us ! " and Bill waved his arm in a comprehensive
way and repeated, " What a time he must have
of it!"

For a time the boys sat silent in their loft, Bill
wondering over the problem that had presented
itself to him, and George trying to find some appro-
priate explanation in reply to the difficulty Bill had
started. At last he said:

" I am afraid, Bill, that I can't explain all this to
you, for I am not accustomed to talk about such
things. My mother talks to me sometimes, and of
course I went to church regularly; but that's differ-
ent from my talking about it; but you know what
we have got to do is to try and please God, and love
him because he loves us."

" That's whear it is," Bill said; " that's what I've

3* STURDY AND STRONG.

heard fellows say beats 'em. If he loves a chap likes
me how is it he don't do something for him? why
don't he get you a place, for instance? You aint
been a-prigging apples or a-putting him out.
That's what I wants to know."

" Yes, Bill, but as I have heard my mother say, it
would be very hard to understand if this world were
the only one; but you see we are only here a little
time, and after that there's on and on and oh, right
up without any end, and what does it matter if we
are poor or unhappy in this little time if we are
going to be ever so happy afterwards ? This is only
a sort of little trial to see how we behave, as it were,
and if we do the best we can, even though that best
is very little, then you see we get a tremendous re-
ward. For instance, you would not think a man
was unkind who kept you five minutes holding his
horse on a cold day, if he were going to give you
enough to get you clothes and good lodging for the
rest of your life."

" No, I should think hot," Bill said fervently; " so
it's like that, is it?"

George nodded. " Like that, only more."

" My eye ! " Bill murmured to himself, lost in
astonishment at this new view of things.

After that there were few evenings when, before
they nestled themselves down in the hay, the boys
did not talk on this subject. At first George felt
awkward and nervous in speaking of it, for like the
generality of English boys, however earnest their

TWO FRIENDS. 33

convictions may be, he was shy of speaking what he
felt; but his companion's eagerness to know more
of this, to him, new story encouraged him to speak,
and having in his bundle a small Bible which his
mother had given him, he took to reading to Bill a
chapter or two in the mornings when they had not
to go out to the early market.

It is true that Bill's questions frequently puzzled
him. The boy saw things in a light so wholly dif-
ferent from that in which he himself had been ac-
customed to regard them that he found a great
difficulty in replying to them.

George wrote a letter to his mother, telling her
exactly what he was doing, for he knew that if he
only said that he had not yet succeeded in getting
work she would be very anxious about him, and al-
though he had nothing satisfactory to tell her, at
least he could tell her that he had sufficient to eat
and as much comfort as he cared for. Twice he re-
ceived replies from her, directed to him at a little
coffee-house, which, when they had had luck, the
boys occasionally patronized. As time went on
without his succeeding in obtaining employment
George's hopes fell, and at last he said to his mate;
" I will try for another fortnight, Bill, and if at the
end of that time I don't get anything to do I shall go
back to Croydon again."

" But yer can earn yer living here! " Bill remon-
strated.

" I can earn enough to prevent me from starving,

34 STURDY AND STRONG.

but that is all, Bill. I came up to London in hopes
of getting something to do by which I might some
day make my way up; if I were to stop here like this
I should be going down, and a nice sight I should be
to mother if, when she gets well enough to come out
of the infirmary, I were to go back all in rags."

" What sort of a place is Croydon ? " Bill asked.
" Is there any chance of picking up a living there?
'cause I tells yer fair, if yer goes off I goes with yer.
I aint a-thinking of living with yer, George; but we
might see each other sometime, mightn't we? Yer
wouldn't mind that? "

" Mind it ! certainly not, Bill ! You have been a
good friend to me, and I should be sorry to think of
you all alone here."

" Oh, blow being a good friend to yer ! " Bill re-
plied. " I aint done nothing except put yer in the
way of getting a sleeping-place, and as it's given me
one too I have had the best of that job. It's been
good of yer to take up with a chap like me as don't
know how to read or write or nothing, and as aint
no good anyway. But you will let me go with yer
to Croydon, won't yer ? "

" Certainly I will, Bill; but you won't be able to
see much of me. I shall have to get a place like the
last. The man I was with said he would take me
back again if I wanted to come, and you know I am
all day in the shop or going out with parcels, and of
course you would have to be busy too at something."

"What sort of thing do yer think, George? I

TV/O FRIENDS. 35

Can hold a boss, but that aint much for a living.
One may go for days without getting a chance."

" I should say, Bill, that your best chance would
ibe to try and get work either in a brickfield or with a
market-gardener. At any rate we should be able
to get a talk for half an hour in the evening. I was
always done at nine o'clock, and if we were both in
work we could take a room together."

Bill shook his head.

" That would be wery nice, but I couldn't have it,
jGeorge. I knows as I aint fit company for yer, and
if yer was with a shop-keeping bloke he would think
yer was going to run off with the money if he knew
yer kept company with a chap like me. No, the
'greement must be as yer goes yer ways and I goes
mine; but I hopes as yer will find suffin to do up
here, not 'cause as I wouldn't like to go down to this
place of yourn, but because yer have set yer heart on
getting work here."

A week later the two boys were out late in Cov-
fcnt Garden trying to earn a few pence by fetching
up cabs and carriages for people coming out from a
concert in the floral hall. George had just suc-
ceeded in earning threepence, and had returned to
the entrance to the hall, and was watching the people
come out, and trying to get another job. Presently
a gentleman, with a girl of some nine or ten years
old, came out and took their place on the footpath.

" Can I call you a carriage, sir? " George asked.

" No, thank you, lad, a man has gone for it"

36 STURDY AND STRONG.

George fell back and stood watching the girl, who
was in a white dress, with a little hood trimmed with
swansdown over her head.

Presently his eye fell on something on which the
light glittered as it hung from her neck. Just as he
was looking a hand reached over her shoulder,
there was a jerk, and a sudden cry from the child,
then a boy dived into the crowd, and at the same
moment George dashed after him. There was a
cry of " Stop, thief ! " and several hands made a grab
at George as he dived through the crowd; but he
slipped through them and was soon in the road-
way.

Some twenty yards ahead of him he saw the boy
running. He turned up Bow Street and then
dashed down an alley. He did not know that he
was followed until suddenly George sprang upon
his back, and the two fell with a crash, the young
thief undermost. George seized his right hand, and
kneeling upon him, twisted it behind his back and
forced him to open his fingers, the boy, taken by sur-
prise, and not knowing who was his assailant, mak-
ing but slight resistance.

George seized the gold locket and dashed back at
full speed into the market, and was soon in the thick
of the crowd round the entrance. The gentleman
was standing talking to a policeman, who was tak-
ing a note of the description of the lost trinket.
The girl was standing by crying.

" Here is your locket," George said, putting it

TWO FRIENDS. 37

into her hand. " I saw the boy take it, and have
got it from him."

" Oh, papa! papa! " the girl cried. " Here is my
locket again."

" Why, where did you get it from ? " her father
asked in astonishment.

" This boy has just given it to me," she replied.
" He says he took it from the boy who stole it."

"Which boy, Nellie? Which is the boy who
brought it back ? "

The girl looked round, but George was gone.

"Why didn't you stop him, my dear?" her
father said. " Of course I should wish to thank
and reward him, for the locket was a very valuable
one, and the more so to us from its having belonged
to your mother. Did you notice the boy, police-
man?"

" No, sir, I did not see him at all."

" Was he a poor boy, Nellie? "

" Not a very, very poor boy, father," the girl re-
plied. " At least I don't think so; but I only looked
at his face. He didn't speak like a poor boy at
all."

" Would you know him again? "

" Oh, yes, I am sure I should. He was a good-
looking boy with a nice face."

" Well, I am very sorry he has gone away, my
<dear. Evidently he does not want a reward, but at
any rate I should have liked to thank him. Are you
always on this beat, policeman ? "

38 STURDY AND STRONG.

" I am on night duty, sir, while the concerts are
on."

" At any rate, I dare say you know the constables
who are about here in the daytime. I wish you
would mention the fact to them, and ask them if
they get any clew to the boy who has rendered me
this service, to let me know. Here is a card with
my name and address."

After restoring the locket George made his way
to the entrance to the stables, where he generally met
Bill after the theater had closed and there was no
farther chance of earning money. It was not till
half an hour later that the boy came running up.

" I have got eightpence," he said. " That is
something like luck. I got three jobs. One stood
me fourpence, the other two gave me tuppence each.
What do yer say? Shall we have a cup of coffee
afore we turns in ? "

" I think we had better not, Bill. I have got six-
pence. We will put that by, with the sixpence we
saved the other day, for the hostler. We haven't
given him anything for some time. Your eight-
pence will get us a good breakfast in the morn-
ing."

When they had comfortably nestled themselves
in the hay George told his companion how he had
rescued and restored the locket.

" And he didn't give yer nuffin ! I never heerd
tell of such a scaly trick as that. I should ha' said it
ought to have been good for a bob anyway."

TWO FRIENDS. 39

" I did not wait to see, Bill. Directly I had given
the little girl her locket I bolted."

" Well, that were soft. Why couldn't yer have
waited to have seen what the bloke meant to give
yer?"

" I did not want to be paid for such a thing as
that," George replied. " I don't mind being paid
when I have done a job for anyone; but this was
different altogether."

Bill meditated for a minute or two.

" I can't see no difference, nohow," he said at last.
*' Yer did him a good turn, and got the thing back.
I dare say it were worth five bob."

" A good deal more than that, Bill."

" More nor that ! Well, then, he ought to have
come down handsome. Didn't yer run like wink-
ing, and didn't yer jump on the chap's back and
knock him down, and didn't yer run back again?
And warn't there a chance, ef one of the bobbies
had got hold of yer collar and found it in yer hand,
of yer being had up for stealing it? And then yer
walks off and don't give him a chance of giving yer
nuffin. My eye, but yer are a flat ! "

" I don't suppose you will quite understand, Bill.
But when people do a thing to oblige somebody, and
not as a piece of regular work, they don't expect to
be paid. I shouldn't have liked it if they had offered
me money for such a thing."

" Well, ef yer says so, no doubt it's right," Bill
rejoined; " but it seems a rum sort of notion to me,

40 STURDY AND STRONG.

When people loses things they expects to pay to get
'em back. Why, don't yer see outside the p'lice
station, and in the shop winders, papers offering so
much for giving back things as is lost. I can't read
'em myself, yer know; but chaps have read 'em to
me. Why, I've heerd of as much as five quid being
offered -for watches and sichlike as was lost by ladies
coming out of theayters, and I have often thought
what a turn of luck it would be to light on one of
'em. And now yer says as I oughtn't to take the
money ef I found it."

" No, I don't say that, Bill. If you found a thing
and saw a reward offered, and you wanted the
money, you would have good right to take it. But,
you see, in this case I saw how sorry the girl was at
losing her locket, and I went after it to please her,
and I was quite content that I got it back for
her."

Bill tried again to think the matter over in his
mind, but he was getting warm and sleepy, and in
a few minutes was sound off.

Two or three days later the lads had, to their great
satisfaction, obtained a job. Walnuts were just
coming in, and the boys were engaged to take off the
green shucks. Bill was particularly pleased, for he
had never before been taken on for such a job, and
he considered it a sort of promotion. Five or six
women were also employed, and as j:he group were
standing round some great baskets Bill suddenly
nudged his friend :

TWO FRIENDS. 4*

**I say, my eye, aint that little gal pretty?"

George looked up from his work and at once
recognized the girl to whom he had restored the
locket. Her eye fell on him at the same moment.

" There, papa ! " she exclaimed. " I told you if
you brought me down to the market I felt sure I
should know the boy again if I saw him. That's
him, the one looking down into the basket. But he
knew me again, for I saw him look surprised when
he noticed me."

The gentleman made his way through the women
to George.

" My lad, are you the boy who restored the locket
to my daughter three evenings ago ? "

" Yes, sir," George said, coloring as he looked
up. " I was standing close by when the boy took it,
so I gave chase and brought it back, and that's all.'*

" You were off again in such a hurry tKat we
hadn't time to thank you. Just come across to my
daughter. I suppose you can leave your work for
a minute?"

" Yes, sir. We are working by the job," George
said, and looking rather shamefaced he followed the
gentleman to the sidewalk.

" This is your boy, as you call him, Nellie."

" I was sure I should know him again," the child
said, " though I only saw him for a moment. We
are very much obliged to you, boy, papa and me, be-
cause it had been mamma's locket, and we should
have been very sorry to have lost it."

43 STURDY AND STRONG. \

" I am glad I was able to get it back for you,"
George said; "but I don't want to be thanked for
doing it; and I don't want to be paid either, thank
you, sir," he said, flushing as the gentleman put his
hand into his pocket.

" No ! and why not ? " the gentleman said in sur-
prise. " You have done me a great service, and
there is no reason why I should not pay you for it.
If I had lost it I would gladly have paid a reward to
get it back."

" Thank you, sir," George said quietly; " but all
the same I would rather not be paid for a little thing
like that."

:< You are a strange fellow," the gentleman said
again. " One does not expect to find a boy in the
market here refusing money when he has earned it."

" I should not refuse it if I had earned it," George
said; "but I don't call getting back a locket for a
young lady who has lost it earning money."

" How do you live, lad ? You don't speak like a
boy who has been brought up in the market here."

" I have only been here three months," George
said. " I came up to London to look for work, but
could not get any. Most days I go about looking
for it, and do what odd jobs I can get when there's
a chance."

" What sort of work do you want? Have you
been accustomed to any work? Perhaps I could
help you."
L " I have been a year as an errand-boy," George

TWO FRIENDS. 43

answered; "but I didn't like it, and I thought I
would rather get some sort of work that I could
work at when I got to be a man instead of sticking
in a shop."

" Did you run away from home, then? " the gen-
tleman asked.

" No, sir. My mother was ill and went into an
infirmary, and so as I was alone I thought I would
come to London and try to get the sort of work I
liked; but I have tried almost all over London."

" And are you all alone here? "

" No, sir, not quite alone. I found a friend in
that boy there, and we have worked together since I
came up."

" Well, lad, if you really want work I can give it
you."

" Oh, thank you, sir ! " George exclaimed fer-
vently.

" And your friend too, if he likes. I have some
works down at Limehouse and employ a good many
boys. Here is the address;" and he took a card
from his pocket, wrote a few words on the back of
it, and handed it to George.

" Ask for the foreman, and give him that, and he
will arrange for you to begin work on Monday.
Come along, Nellie; we have got to buy the fruit for
to-morrow, you know."

So saying he took his daughter's hand, and
George, wild with delight, rah off to tell Bill that he
had obtained work for them both.

44 STURDY AND STRONG.

"Well, Nellie, are you satisfied?"

" Yes, I am glad you could give him work, papa;
didn't he look pleased? Wasn't it funny his saying
he wouldn't have any money? "

" Yes; I hardly expected to have met with a re-
fusal in Covent Garden; but you were right, child,
and you are a better judge of character than I gave
you credit for. You said he was a nice-looking lad,
and spoke like a gentleman, and he does. He is
really a very good style of boy. Of course he is
shabby and dirty now, and you see he has been an
errand-boy at a grocer's; but he must have been bet-
ter brought up than the generality of such lads.
The one he called his friend looked a wild sort of
specimen, altogether a different sort of boy. I
should say he was one of the regular arabs hanging
about this place. If so, I expect a very few days'
work will sicken him; but I shouldn't be surprised
if your boy, as you call him, sticks to it."

The next morning the two boys presented them-
selves at Mr. Penrose's works at Limehouse. These
were sawing and planing works, and the sound of
many wheels, and the hoarse rasping sound of saws
innumerable, came out through the open windows
of the building as they entered the yard.

" Now what do you boys want ? " a workman said
as he appeared at one of the doors.

" We want to see the foreman," George said. " I
have a card for him from Mr. Penrose."
. " I will let him know," the man replied

TWO FRIENDS. 45

Two minutes later the foreman came out, and
George handed him the card. He read what Mr.
Penrose had written upon it and said :

" Very well, you can come in on Monday; pay,
eight shillings a week ; seven o'clock ; there, that will
do. Oh, what are your names ? " taking out a
pocket-book. " George Andrews and William
Smith;" and then, with a nod, he went back into his
room, while the boys, almost bewildered at the
rapidity with which the business had been arranged,
went out into the street again.

" There we are, Bill, employed," George said in
delight.

" Yes, there we is," Bill agreed, but in a more
doubtful tone; "it's a rum start, aint it? I don't
expect I shall make much hand of it, but I am wery
glad for you, George."

" Why shouldn't you make much hand of it ?
You are as strong as I am."

"Yes; but then, you see, I aint been accustomed
to work regular, and I expect I shan't like it —
not at first; but I am going to try. George, don't
yer think as I aint agoing to try. I aint that sort;
still I expects I shall get the sack afore long."

" Nonsense, Bill ! you will like it when you once
get accustomed to it, and it's a thousand times better
having to draw your pay regularly at the end of the
week than to get up in the morning not knowing
whether you are going to have breakfast or not.
Won't mother be pleased when I write and tell her

46 STURDY AND STRONG.

I have got a place! Last time she wrote she said
that she was a great deal better, and the doctor
thought she would be out in the spring, and then I
hope she will be coming up here, and that will be

jolly."

" Yes, that's just it," Bill said; " that's whear it
is; you and I will get on fust-rate, but it aint likely
as your mother would put up with a chap like me."
' " My mother knows that you have been a good
friend to me, Bill, and that will be quite enough
for her. You wait till you see her."

" My eye, what a lot of little houses there is about
here!" Bill said, "just all the same pattern; and
how wide the streets is to what they is up Drury
Lane!'

" Yes, we ought to have no difficulty in getting a
room here, Bill, now that we shall have money to
pay for it; only think, we shall have sixteen shillings
a week between us ! "

" It's a lot of money," Bill said vaguely. " Six-
teen bob! My eye, there aint no saying what it
will buy ! I wish I looked a little bit more respect-
able," he said, with a new feeling as to the deficien-
cies of his attire. " It didn't matter in the Garden;
but to go to work with a lot of other chaps, these
togs aint what you may call spicy."

" They certainly are not, Bill," George said with
a laugh. " We must see what we can manage."

George's own clothes were worn and old, but they
looked respectable indeed by the side of those of his

TWO FRIENDS. 41

companion. Bill's elbows were both out, the jacket
was torn and ragged, he had no waistcoat, and his
trousers were far too large for him, and were kept
up by a single brace, and were patched in a dozen
places.

When George first met him he was shoeless, but
soon after they had set up housekeeping together
George had bought from a cobbler's stall a pair of
boots for two shillings, and these, although now al-
most falling to pieces, were still the best part of
Bill's outfit

CHAPTER III.

WORK.

THE next morning George went out with the
bundle containing his Sunday clothes, which had
been untouched since his arrival in town, and going
to an old-clothes shop he exchanged them for a suit
of working clothes in fair condition, and then re-
turning hid his bundle in the hay and rejoined Bill,
who had from early morning been at work shelling
walnuts. Although Bill was somewhat surprised
at his companion not beginning work at the usual
time he asked no questions, for his faith in George
was so unbounded that everything he did was right
in his eyes.

" There is our last day's work in the market, Bill,"
George said as they reached their loft that evening.

" It's your last day's work, George, I aint no
doubt; but I expects it aint mine by a long way. I
have been a-thinking over this 'ere go, and I don't
think as it will act nohow. In the first place I aint
fit to go to such a place, and they are sure to make
it hot for me."

" That's nonsense, Bill; there are lots of roughish
sort of boys in works of that sort, and you will soon
be at home with the rest"

40

WORK. 49

" In the next place," Bill went on, unheeding the
interruption, " I shall be getting into some blooming
row or other afore I have been there a week, and
they will like enough turn you out as well as me.
That's what I am a-thinking most on, George. If
they chucks me the chances are as they chucks you
too; and if they did that arter all the pains you tiave
had to get a place I should go straight off and make
a hole in the water. That's how I looks at it"

" But I don't think, Bill, that there's any chance
of your getting into a row. Of course at first we
must both expect to be blown up sometimes, but if
we do our best and don't answer back again we shall
do as well as the others."

" Oh, I shouldn't cheek 'em back," Bill said. " I
am pretty well used to getting blown up. Every
one's always at it, and I know well enough as it
don't pay to cheek back, not unless you have got a
market-cart between you and a clear road for a bolt.
I wasn't born yesterday. Yer've been wery good to
me, you have, George, and before any harm should
come to yer through me, s' help me, I'd chuck my-
self under a market- wagon."

" I know you would, Bill; but, whatever you say,
you have been a far greater help to me than I have
to you. Anyhow we are not going to part now.
You are coming to work with me to start with, and
I know you will do your best to keep your place.
If you fail, well, so much the worse, it can't be
helped; but after our being sent there by Mr. Pen-

$0 STURDY AND STRONG.

rose I feel quite sure that 'the foreman would not
turn me off even if he had to get rid of you."

"D'yer think so?"

" I do, indeed, Bill."

" Will yer take yer davey? "

" Yes, if it's any satisfaction to you, Bill, I will
take my davey that I do not think that they would
turn me off even if they sent you away."

" And yer really wants me to go with yer, so help
yer?"

" Really and truly, Bill."

" Wery well, George, then I goes; but mind yer,
it's 'cause yer wishes me."

So saying, Bill curled himself up in the hay, and
George soon heard by his regular breathing that he
was sound asleep.

The next morning, before anyone was stirring,
they went down into the yard, as was their custom
on Sunday mornings, for a good wash, stripping to
the waist and taking it by turns to pump over each
other. Bill had at first protested against the
fashion, saying as he did very well and did not see
no use in it; but seeing that George really enjoyed it
he followed his example. After a morning or two,
indeed, and with the aid of a piece of soap which
George had bought, Bill got himself so bright and
shiny as to excite much sarcastic comment and re/-
mark from his former companions, which led to
more than one pugilistic encounter.

That morning George remained behind in the loft

WORK. 51

for a minute or two after Bill had run down, attired
only in his trousers. When Bill went up the ladder
after his ablutions he began hunting about in the
hay.

" What are you up to, Bill ? "

" Blest if I can find my shirt. Here's two of
yourn knocking about, but I can't see where' s mine,
nor my jacket neither."

" It's no use your looking, Bill, for you won't find
them, and even if you found them you couldn't put
'em on. I have torn them up."

" Torn up my jacket ! " Bill exclaimed in conster-
nation. " What lark are yer up to now, George? "

" No lark at all. We are going together to work
to-morrow, and you could not go as you were; so
you put on that shirt and those things," and he
threw over the clothes he had procured the day
before.

Bill looked in astonishment.

" Why, where did yer get 'em, George? I knows
yer only had four bob with what we got yesterday.
Yer didn't find 'em, and yer didn't — no, in course
yer didn't — nip 'em."

" No, I didn't steal them certainly," George said,
laughing. " I swapped my Sunday clothes for them
yesterday. I can do without them very well till we
earn enough to get another suit. There, don't say
anything about it, Bill, else I will punch your
head."

Bill stared at him with open eyes for a minute,

52 STURDY AND STRONG.

and then threw himself down in the hay and burst
into tears.

" Oh, I say, don't do that ! " George exclaimed.
" What have you to cry about? "

" Aint it enough to make a cove cry," Bill sobbed,
" to find a chap doing things for him like that ? I
wish I may die if I don't feel as if I should bust.
It's too much, that's what it is, and it's all on one
side; that's the wust of it."

" I dare say you will make it even some time, Bill;
so don't let's say anything more about it, but put
on your clothes. We will have a cup of coffee each
and a loaf between us for breakfast, and then we will
go for a walk into the park, the same as we did last
Sunday, and hear the preaching."

The next morning they were up at their accus-
tomed hour and arrived at the works at Limehouse
before the doors were opened. Presently some men
and boys arrived, the doors were opened, and the
two boys followed the others in.

" Hallo ! who are you ? " the man at the gate
asked.

George gave their names, and the man looked at
his time-book.

;< Yes, it's all right; you are the new boys. You
are to go into that planing-shop," and he pointed to
one of the doors opening into the yard. /

The boys were not long before they were at work.
Bill was ordered to take planks from a large pile
and to hand them to a man, who passed them under

WORK. 53

one of the planing-machines. George was told to
take them away as fast as they were finished and
pile them against a wall. When the machines
stopped for any adjustment or alteration both were
to sweep up the shavings and ram them into bags,
in which they were carried to the engine-house.

For a time the boys were almost dazzled by the
whirl of the machinery, the rapid motion of the
numerous wheels and shafting overhead, and of the
broad bands which carried the power from them to
the machinery on the floor, by the storm of shav-
ings which flew from the cutters, and the unceasing"
activity which prevailed around them. Beyond re-
ceiving an occasional order, shouted in a loud tone —
for conversation in an ordinary voice would have
been inaudible — nothing occurred till the bell rang
at half-past eight for breakfast. Then the machin-
ery suddenly stopped, and a strange hush succeeded
the din which had prevailed.

" How long have we got now? " George asked the
man from whose bench he had been taking the
planks.

" Half an hour," the man said as he hurried
away.

" Well, what do you think of it, Bill ? " George
asked when they had got outside.

" Didn't think as there could be such a row," Bill
replied. " Why, talk about the Garden ! Lor',
why it aint nothing to it I hardly knew what I
was a-doing at first."

54 STURDY AND STRONG.

" No more did I, Bill. You must mind what you
do and not touch any of those straps and wheels and
things. I know when I was at Croydon there was a
man killed in a sawmill there by being caught in the
strap; they said it drew him up and smashed him
against the ceiling. And now we had better look
out for a baker's."

" I suppose there aint a coffee-stall nowhere
handy?"

"I don't suppose there is, Bill; at any rate we
have no time to spare to look for one. There's a
pump in the yard, so we can have a drink of water
as we come back. Well, the work doesn't seem
very hard, Bill," George said as they ate their
bread.

" No, it aint hard," Bill admitted, " if it weren't
for all them rattling wheels. But I expect it aint
going to be like that regular. They've just gived
us an easy job to begin with. Yer'll see it will be
worse presently."

" We shall soon get accustomed to the noise, Bill,
and I don't think we shall find the work any harder.
They don't put boys at hard work, but just jobs like
we are doing, to help the men."

" What shall we do about night, George ? "

" I think that at dinner-time we had better ask the
man we work for. He looks a good-natured sort
of chap. He may know of someone he could
recommend us to."

They worked steadily till dinner-time; then as

WORK. 55

they came out George said to the man with whom
they were working :

" We want to get a room. We have been lodg-
ing together in London, and don't know anyone
down here. I thought perhaps you could tell us of
some quiet, respectable people who have a room to
let?"

The man looked at George more closely than he
had hitherto done.

" Well, there aint many people as would care
about taking in two boys, but you seem a well-spoken
young chap and different to most of 'em. Do you
think you could keep regular hours, and not come
clattering in and out fifty times in the evening, and
playing torn-fools' tricks of all sorts ? "

" I don't think we should be troublesome,"
George said; " and I am quite sure we shouldn't be
noisy."

" You would want to be cooked for, in course? "

" No, I don't think so," George said. " Beyond
hot water for a cup of tea in the evening, we should
not want much cooking done, especially if there is
a coffee-stall anywhere where we could get a cup in
the morning."

" You haven't got any traps, I suppose? "

George looked puzzled.

" I mean bed and chairs, and so on."

George shook his head.

" We might get them afterwards, but we haven't
C,ny now."

56 STURDY AND STRONG.

" Well, I don't mind trying you young fellows.
I have got a bedroom in my place empty. A brother
of mine who lodged and worked with me has just
got a job as foreman down in the country. At any
rate I will try you for a week, and if at the end of
that time you and my missis don't get on together
you must shift. Two bob a week. I suppose that
will about suit you ? "

George said that would suit very well, and ex-
pressed his thanks to the man for taking them in. •

They had been walking briskly since they left the
works, and now stopped suddenly before the door of
a house in a row. It was just like its neighbor, ex-
cept that George noticed that the blinds and win-
dows were cleaner than the others, and that the door
had been newly painted and varnished.

" Here we are," the man said. " You had best
come in and see the missis and the room. Missis ! "
he shouted, and a woman appeared from the back-
room. " I have let Harry's room, mother," he said,
" and these are the new lodgers."

"My stars, John!" she exclaimed; "you don't
mean to say that you let the room to them two boys.
I should have thought you had better sense. Why,
they will be trampling up and down the stairs like
young hosses, wear out the oil cloth, and frighten
the baby into fits. I never did hear such a'
thing!"

" I think they are quiet boys, Bessie, and won't
give much trouble. At any rate I have agreed to

WORK. 57

try them for a week, and if you don't get on with
them at the end of that time of course they must
go. They have only come to work at the shop to-
day; they work with me, and as far as I can see they
are quiet young chaps enough. Come along, lads,
I will show you your room."

It was halfway up the stairs, at the back of the
house, over the kitchen, which was built out there.
It was a comfortable little room, not large, but suf-
ficiently so for two boys. There was a bed, a chest
of drawers, two chairs, and a dressing-table, and a
strip of carpet ran alongside the bed, and there was,
moreover, a small fireplace.

" Will that do for you ? " the man asked.

" Capitally," George said; " it could not be nicer;*'
while Bill was so taken aback by its comfort and
luxury that he was speechless.

" Well, that's settled, then," the man said. " If
you have got any things you can bring 'em in when
you like."

" We have not got any to speak of," George said,
flushing a little. " I came up from the country
three months ago to look for work, and beyond odd
jobs I have had nothing to do since, so that every-
thing I had is pretty well gone; but I can pay a
week's rent in advance," he said, putting his hand
in his pocket.

" Oh, you needn't mind that ! " the man said; " as
you work in the shop it's safe enough. Now I must
get my dinner, else I shall be late for work."

58 STURDY AND STRONG.

" Well, Bill, what do you think of that? " George
asked as they left the house.

" My eye," Bill exclaimed in admiration; " aint it
nice just ! Why, yer couldn't get a room like that,
not furnished, anywhere near the market, not at
four bob a week. Aint it clean just; so help me if
the house don't look as if it has been scrubbed down
every day ! What a woman that must be for wash-
ing!"

" Yes; we shall have to rub our feet well, Bill, and
make as little mess as we can in going in and out."

" I should think so," Bill said. " It don't seem to
me as if it could be true as we're to have such a room
as that to ourselves, and to walk into a house bold
without being afraid as somebody would have his
eye on you, and chivey you; and eight bob a week
for grub regular."

" Well, let's get some bread and cheese, Bill;
pretty near half our time must be gone, and mind
we must be very saving at first. There will be sev-
eral things to get; a kettle and a teapot, and a coffee-
pot, and some cups and saucers, and we shall want a
gridiron for frying rashers of bacon upon."

" My eye, won't it be prime! " Bill broke in.

" And we shall want some towels," George went
on with his enumeration.

"Towels!" repeated Bill. "What are they
like?"

" They are cloths for wiping your hands and face
after you have washed."

WORK. 59

" Well, if yer says we wants 'em, George, of
course we must get 'em; but I've always found my
hands dried quick enough by themselves, especially
if I gived 'em a rub on my trousers."

" And then, Bill, you know," George went on, " I
want to save every penny we can, so as to get some
things to furnish two rooms by the time mother
comes out"

" Yes, in course we must," Bill agreed warmly,
though a slight shade passed over his face at the
thought that they were not to be always alone to-
gether. " Well, yer know, George, I am game for
anythink. I can hold on with a penn'orth of bread
a day. I have done it over and over, and if yer says
the word I am ready to do it again."

" No, Bill, we needn't do that," George laughed.
" Still, we must live as cheap as we can. We will
stick to bread for breakfast, and bread and cheese
for dinner, and bread for supper, with sometimes a
rasher as a great treat. At any rate we will try to
live on six shillings a week."

" Oh! we can do that fine," Bill said confidently;
" and then two shillings for rent, and that will leave
us eight shillings a week to put by."

" Mother said that the doctor didn't think she
would be able to come out till the spring. We are
just at the beginning of November, so if she comes
out the first of April, that's five months, say twenty-
two weeks. Twenty-two weeks at eight shillings,
let me see. That's eight pounds in twenty weeks,

60 STURDY AND STRONG.

eight pounds sixteen altogether, that would furnish
two rooms very well, I should think."

" My eye, I should think so ! " Bill exclaimed, for
to his mind eight pound sixteen was an almost un-
heard-of sum, and the fact that his companion had
been able to calculate it increased if possible his ad-
miration for him.

It needed but two or three days to reconcile Mrs.
Grimstone to her new lodgers.

" I wouldn't have believed," she said at the end of
the week to a neighbor," as two boys could have
been that quiet. They comes in after work as regu-
lar as the master. They rubs their feet on the mat,
and you can scarce hear 'em go upstairs, and I don't
hear no more of 'em till they goes out agin in the
morning. They don't come back here to break-
fast or dinner. Eats it, I suppose, standing
like."

" But what do they do with themselves all the
evening, Mrs. Grimstone?"

" One of 'em reads to the other. I think I can
hear a voice going regular over the kitchen."

" And how's their room ? "

" As clean and tidy as a new pin. They don't
lock the door when they goes out, and I looked in
yesterday, expecting to find it like a pigsty; but
they had made the bed afore starting for work, and
set everything in its place, and laid the fire like for
when they come back."

Mrs. Grimstone was right. George had expended

WORK. 6r

six pence in as many old books at a bookstall. One
of them was a spelling-book, and he had at once set
to work teaching Bill his letters. Bill had at first
protested. " He had done very well without read-
ing, and didn't see much good in it." However, as
George insisted he gave way, as he would have done
to any proposition whatever upon which his friend
had set his mind. So for an hour every evening
after they had finished tea Bill worked at his letters
and spelling, and then George read aloud to him
from one of the other books.

" You must get on as fast as you can this winter,
Bill," he said; " because when the summer evenings
come we shall want to go for long walks."

They found that they did very well upon the sum
they agreed on. Tea and sugar cost less than
George had expected. Mrs. Grimstone took in for
them regularly a halfpenny-worth of milk, and for
tea they were generally able to afford a bloater be-
tween them, or a very thin rasher of bacon. Their
enjoyment of their meals was immense. Bill indeed
frequently protested that they were spending too
much money; but George said as long as they kept
within the sum agreed upon, and paid their rent,
coal, candles, and what little washing they required
out of the eight shillings a week, they were doing
very well.

They had by this time got accustomed to the din
of the machinery, and were able to work in comfort.
Mr. Penrose had several times come through the

6« STURDY AND STRONG.

room, and had given them a nod. After they had!
been there a month he spoke to Grimstone.

" How do those boys do their work ? "

" Wonderful well, sir; they are the two best boys
we have ever had. No skylarking about, and I
never have to wait a minute for a plank. They
generally comes in a few minutes before time and
gets the bench cleared up. They are first-rate boys.
They lodge with me, and two quieter and better-
behaved chaps in a house there never was."

" I am glad to hear it," Mr. Penrose said. " I am
interested in them, and am pleased to hear so good
an account."

That Saturday, to their surprise, when they went
to get their money they received ten shillings apiece.

" That's two shillings too much," George said as
the money was handed to them.

"That's all right," the foreman said. "The
governor ordered you both to have a rise."

" My eye! " Bill said as they went out. " What
do you think of that, George? Four bob a week
more to put by regularly. How much more will
that make by the time your mother comes ? "

" We won't put it all by, Bill. I think the other
will be enough. This four shillings a week we will
put aside at present for clothes. We want two more
shirts apiece, and some more stockings, and we shall
want some shoes before long, and another suit of
clothes each. We must keeg ourselves decent, you
know.'2

WORK. 63

From the time when they began work the boys
had gone regularly every Sunday morning to a small
iron church near their lodging, and they also went
to an evening service once a week. Their talk, too,
at home was often on religion, for Bill was ex-
tremely anxious to learn, and although his questions
and remarks often puzzled George to answer, he
was always ready to explain things as far as he
could.

February came, and to George's delight he heard
from his mother that she was so much better that
the doctor thought that when she came out at the
end of April she would be as strong as she had ever
been. Her eyes had benefited greatly by her long
rest, and she said that she was sure she should be
able to do work as before. She had written several
times since they had been at Limehouse, expressing
her great pleasure at hearing that George was so
well and comfortable. At Christmas, the works
being closed for four days, George had gone down
to see her, and they had a delightful talk together.
Christmas had indeed been a memorable occasion to
the boys, for on Christmas Eve the carrier had left a
basket at Grimstone's directed " George Andrews."
The boys had prepared their Christmas dinner, con-
sisting of some fine rashers of bacon and sixpenny-
worth of cold plum pudding from a cook-shop, and
had already rather lamented this outlay, for Mrs.
Grimstone had that afternoon invited them to dine
downstaits. George was reading from a book

64 STURDY AND STRONG.

which he bought for a penny that morning when
there was a knock at the door, and Mrs. Grimstone
said:

" Here is a hamper for you, George."

" A hamper for me !, " George exclaimed in aston-
ishment, opening the door. " Why, whoever could
have sent a hamper for me! It must be a mis-
take."

" That's your name on the direction, anyhows,"
Mrs. Grimstone said.

" Yes, that's my name, sure enough," George
agreed, and at once began to unknot the string
which fastened down the lid.

" Here is a Christmas card at the top ! " he
shouted. He turned it over. On the back were the
words :

" With all good wishes, Helen Penrose."

" Well, that is kind," George said in rather a
husky voice; and indeed it was the kindness that
prompted the gift rather than the gift itself that
touched him.

" Now, then, George," Bill remonstrated; "never
mind that there card, let's see what's inside."

The hamper was unpacked, and was found to con-
tain a cold goose, a Christmas pudding, and some
oranges and apples. These were all placed on the
table, and when Mrs. Grimstone had retired Bill-
executed a war-dance in triumph and delight.

" I never did see such a game," he said at last, as
he sat down exhausted. " There's a Christmas din-

WORK. 65

tier for yer ! Why, it's like them stories of the genii
you was a-telling me about — chaps as come when-
ever yer rubbed a ring or an old lamp, and brought
a tuck-out or whatever yer asked for. Of course
that wasn't true; yer told me it wasn't, and I
shouldn't have believed it if yer hadn't, but this 'ere
is true. Now I sees, George, as what yer said was
right and what I said was wrong. I thought yer
were a flat 'cause yer wouldn't take nothing for get-
ting back that there locket, and now yer see what's
come of it, two good berths for us and a Christmas
dinner fit for a king. Now what are we going to
do with it, 'cause yer know we dines with them
downstairs to-morrow ? "

" The best thing we can do, I think," George an-
swered, "will be to invite all of them downstairs,
Bob Grimstone, his wife, and the three young uns,
to supper, not to-morrow night nor the night after,
because I shan't be back from Croydon till late, but
say the evening after."

" But we can't hold them all," Bill said, looking
round the room.

" No, we can't hold them here, certainly, but I
dare say they will let us have the feed in their parlor.
There will be nothing to get, you know, but some
bread and butter, and some beer for Bob. Mrs.
Grimstone don't take it, so we must have plenty of
tea."

" I should like some beer too, just for once,
George, with such a blow-out as that"

66 r^URDY AND STRONG.

" No, ho, Bill, you and I will stick to tea. You
know we agreed that we wouldn't take beer. If we
begin it once we shall want it again, so we are not
going to alter from what we agreed to. We see
plenty of the misery which drink causes all round
and the way in which money is wasted over it. I
like a glass of beer as well as you do, and when I
get to be a man I dare say I shall take a glass with
my dinner regularly, though I won't do even that if
I find it makes me want to take more; but anyhow at
present we can do without it."

Bill agreed, and the dinner-party downstairs and
the supper two nights afterwards came off in due
course, and were both most successful.

The acknowledgment of the gift had been a mat-
ter of some trouble to George, but he had finally
bought a pretty New Year's card and had written
on the back, " with the grateful thanks of George
Andrews," and had sent it to the daughter of his
employer.

At the beginning of April George had consulted
Grimstone and his wife as to the question of pre-
paring a home for his mother.

" How much would two rooms cost ? " he had
asked ; " one a good-sized one and the other the same
size as ours."

" Four shillings or four and sixpence," Mrs.
Grimstone replied.

" And supposing we had a parlor and two little
bedrooms?"

WORK. 67

" Five and sixpence or six shillings, I should say,"
Mrs. Grimstone replied.

" And how much for a whole house? "

" It depends upon the size. We pay seven shil-
lings a week, but you might get one without the
kitchen and bedroom over it behind for six shil-
lings."

" That would be much the nicest," George said,
" only it would cost such a lot to furnish it."

" But you needn't furnish it all at once," Mrs.
Grimstone suggested. " Just a kitchen and two
bedrooms for a start, and you can put things into
the parlor afterwards. That's the way we did when
we first married. But you must have some furni-
ture."

" And how much will it cost for the kitchen and
two bedrooms ? "

"Of course going cheaply to work and buying
the things secondhand, I should say I could pick up
the things for you, so that you could do very well,"
Mrs. Grimstone said, " for six or seven pounds."

" That will do capitally," George said, " for by
the end of this month Bill and I will have more than
ten pounds laid by."

" What ! since you came here ? " Grimstone ex-
claimed in astonishment. " Do you mean to say
you boys have laid by five pounds apiece ? "

" Yes, and bought a lot of things too," his wife
put in.

" uWhy,you must have been starving yourselves ! '*

68 STURDY AND STRONG.

" We don't look like it," George laughed. " I
am sure Bill is a stone heavier than when he came
here."

" Well, young chap, it does you a lot of credit,"
Bob Grimstone said. " It isn't every boy, by a long
way, would stint himself as you must have done for
the last five months to make a comfortable home for
his mother, for I know lots of men who are earning
their two quid a week and has their old people in
the workhouse. Well, all I can say is that if I or
the missis here can be of any use to you in taking a
house we shall be right down glad."

" Thank you," George said. " We will look
about for a house, and when we have fixed on one
if you or Mrs. Grimstone will go about it for
us I shall be much obliged, for I don't think
landlords would be inclined to let a house to two
boys."

" All right, George ! we will do that for you with
pleasure. Besides, you know, there are things,
when you are going to take a house, that you stand
out for; such as papering and painting, or putting
in a new range, and things of that sort."

After their dinner on the following Sunday the
two boys set out house-hunting.

" If it's within a mile that will do," George said.
" It doesn't matter about our going home in the
breakfast time. We can bring our grub in a basket
and our tea in a bottle, as several of the hands do;
but if it's over a mile we shall have to hurry to get

WORK. 69

there and back for dinner. Still there are plenty of
houses in a mile."

There were indeed plenty of houses, in long regu-
lar rows, bare and hard-looking, but George wanted
to find something more pleasant and homelike than
these. Late in the afternoon he came upon what he
wanted. It was just about a mile from the works
and beyond the lines of regular streets. Here he
found a turning off the main road with but eight
houses in it, four on each side. It looked as if the
man who built them had intended to run a street
down for some distance, but had either been unable
to obtain enough ground or had changed his mind.

They stood in pairs, each with its garden in front,
with a bow-window and little portico. They ap-
peared to be inhabited by a different class to those
who lived in the rows, chiefly by city clerks, for the
gardens were nicely kept, the blinds were clean and
spotless, muslin curtains hung in the windows, and
fancy tables with pretty ornaments stood between
them. Fortunately one of them, the last oh the
left-hand side, was to let.

" What do you think of this, Bill? "

" It seems to be just the thing; but how about the
rent, George? I should think they were awful
dear."

" I don't suppose they are any more than the
houses in the rows, Bill. They are very small, you
see, and I don't suppose they would suit workmen as
as the others; at any rate we will see."

70 STURDY AND STRONG.

Whereupon George noted down on a scrap of
paper the name of the agent of whom inquiry was to
be made.

" No. 8," he said; "but what's the name of the
street? Oh, there it is. Laburnum Villas. No.
8 Laburnum Villas; that sounds first-rate, doesn't
it? I will get Mrs. Grimstone to go round to the
agent to-morrow."

This Mrs. Grimstone agreed to do directly she
was asked. After speaking to her husband she said,
" I will get the key from the agent's and will be there
just after twelve to-morrow, so if you go there
straight when you get out you will be able to see the
rooms and what state it's in."

" But how about Bob's dinner ? " George asked.

" Oh, he will have it cold to-morrow, and I will
set it out for him before I start."

" That is very kind, Mrs. Grimstone, thank you
very much. It would be just the thing."

Accordingly, at ten minutes past twelve on the
following day the two boys arrived breathless at No.
8 Laburnum Villas.

" Hurrah ! " George shouted, " there is Mrs.
Grimstone at the window."

The door was opened and they rushed in

" It's a tidy little place," Mrs. Grimstone said;
" and it's in good order and won't want any money
laying out upon it."

The house was certainly small, but the boys were
delighted with it. On the ground-floor were two

WORK. 71

little rooms opening with folding doors, and a little
kitchen built out behind. There was a room over
this, and two rooms above the sitting rooms.

" That's just the right number," George said, " a
bedroom each for us; it couldn't be nicer; and what
pretty paper ! "

" And there is a good long slip of garden behind,"
Mrs. Grimstone said, " where you could grow lots
of vegetables. Of course in the front you would
have flowers."

" And how much do they want for it? "

" Seven and sixpence a week, including rates and
taxes. I call it dear for its size, but then of course
it's got the garden and it looks pretty and nice.
The agent says it's been painted and papered from
top to bottom since the last people left, but he says
the owner won't let it unless somebody conies who
is likely to stop, and he will want references of re-
spectability."

" All right ! " George said; " I can manage that,"
for he had already been thinking of the question in
his mind; " and we can manage seven and sixpence
a week; can't we, Bill? "

" We will try, anyhow," Bill said stoutly, for he
was as much pleased with the cottage as George
was.

They explored the garden behind the house.
This was about a hundred feet long by twenty-five
wide. Half of it was covered with stumps of a
(plantation of cabbages, the other half was empty and

72 STURDY AND STRONG.

had evidently been dug up by the last tenants ready;
for planting.

" Why, I should think we shall be able to grow,
all our own potatoes here ! " George exclaimed in
delight.

Mrs. Grimstone was a country woman, and she
shook her head.

" You wouldn't be able to do that, George, not if
you gave it all up to potatoes; but if you planted the
further end with potatoes you might get a good
many, and then, you know, at this end you might
have three or four rows of peas and French beans,
and lettuces and such like, but you will have to get
some manure to put in. Things won't grow with-
out manure even in the country, and I am sure they
won't here; and then you know you can have flowers
in the front of the house. But it's time for you to
be off, else you will be late at the works. I am sure
it's more than half an hour since you came in. I
will take the key back and tell them they shall have
an answer by Wednesday or Thursday."

George did not think they could have been a quar-
ter of an hour ; however, he and Bill started at a trot,
which they increased into a run at the top of their
speed when the first clock they saw pointed to seven
minutes to one. The bell was ringing as they ap-
proached the works; it stopped when they were
within fifty yards, and the gate was just closing as
they rushed up.

" Too late," the man said.

WORK. 73

" Oh, do let us through," George panted out; " it's
the first time we have ever been late, and we have
run a mile to be here in time ! "

" Oh, it's you, is it ? " the man said, opening the
gate a few inches to look through. " Ah, well I
will let you in this time, 'cause you are well-behaved
young chaps; but don't you run it so close another
time, else you will have to lose your hour."

CHAPTER IV.

HOME.

THAT evening George wrote a letter to Dr.
Jeffries at Croydon, saying that he had taken a
little house for his mother to come to when she
came out of the infirmary, and as he had kindly said
that he would render her help if he could, would he
be good enough to write to the agent whose ad-
dress he gave, saying that Mrs. Andrews, who was
about taking No. 8 Laburnum Villas, was a per-
son of respectability.

The following evening he received a letter from
the doctor saying that he had written to the agent,
and that he was glad indeed to hear that George
was getting on so well that he was able to provide
a home for his mother.

On Wednesday at dinner-time Mrs. Grimstone
handed George a key.

" There you are, George. You are master of
the house now. The agent said the reference was
most satisfactory; so I paid him the seven and six-
pence you gave me for a week's rent in advance,
and you can go in when you like. We shall be
sorry to lose you both, for I don't want two better
lodgers. You don't give no trouble, and all has

74 <

HOME. 75

been quiet and pleasant in the house; and to think
what a taking I was in that day as Bob brought
you here for the first time, to think as he had let
the room to two boys. But there, one never
knows, and I wouldn't have believed it as boys could
be so quiet in a house."

" Now we must begin to see about furniture,"
Bob Grimstone said. " The best plan, I think,
will be for you two to go round of an evening to
all the shops in the neighborhood, and mark off just
what you think will suit you. You put down the
prices stuck on them, and just what they are, and
then the missis can go in the morning and bargain
for them. She will get them five shillings in the
pound cheaper than you would. It's wonderful
how women do beat men down, to be sure. When
a man hears what's the price of a thing he leaves
it or takes it just as he likes, but a woman begins
by offering half the sum. Then the chap says no,
, and she makes as if she was going away; he lets
her go a little way and then he hollers after her,
and comes down a goodish bit in the price. Then
she says she don't particularly want it and
shouldn't think of giving any such price as that.
Then he tries again, and so they gets on till they
hit on a figure as suits them both. You see that
little tea-caddy in the corner? My wife was just
three weeks buying that caddy. The chap wanted
seven and six for it, and she offered him half a
crown. He came down half a crown at the end of

76 STURDY AND STRONG.

the first week, and at last she got it for three and
nine. Now, the first thing you have got to do is
to make out a list. First of all you have got to
put down the things as you must have, and then
the things you can do without, though you will
get them if you can afford it. Mother will help
you at that."

So Mrs. Grimstone and George sat down with
paper and a pencil, and George was absolutely hor-
rified at the list of things which Mrs. Grimstone
declared were absolutely indispensable. How-
ever, after much discussion, some few items were
marked as doubtful. When the list was finished
the two boys started on an exploring expedition,
and the next week all their evenings were fully oc-
cupied. In ten days after they began the three
bedrooms and the kitchen were really smartly fur-
nished, Mrs. Grimstone proving a wonderful hand
at bargaining, and making the ten pounds go far-
ther than George had believed possible. On the
Sunday Bob went with his wife and the boys to
inspect the house.

" It's a very comfortable little place," he said,
" and that front bedroom with the chintz curtains
the missis made up is as nice a little room as you
want to see. As to the others they will do well
enough for you boys."

The only articles of furniture in the sitting room
were two long muslin curtains, which Mrs. Grim-
Stone had bought a bargain at a shop selling off;

HOME. 77

for it was agreed that this was necessary to give
the house a furnished appearance. Bob Grim-
stone was so much pleased at what had been done
that he shared George's feeling of regret that one
of the sitting rooms could not also be furnished,
and on the walk home said:

" Look here, George. I know you would
to have the house nice for your mother. You
couldn't make one of those sitting rooms com-
fortable not under a five-pound note, not even with
the missis to market for you, but you might for
that. I have got a little money laid by in the
savings-bank, and I will lend you five pounds, and
welcome, if you like to take it. I know it will be
just as safe with you as it will be there."

" Thank you very much, Bob — thank you very
much, but I won't take it. In the first place, I
should like mother to know that the furniture is all
ours, bought out of Bill's savings and mine; and
in the next place, I should find it hard at first to
pay back anything. I think we carnjust manage
on our money, but that will be all. I told you
mother does work, but she mayn't be able to get
any at first, so we can't reckon on that. When
she does, you know, we shall be able gradually to
buy the furniture."

" Well, perhaps you are right, George," the man
said after a pause. " You would have been wel-
come to the money: but perhaps you are right not
to take it. I borrowed a little money when I first

78 STURDY AND STRONG.

went into housekeeping, and it took a wonderful
trouble to pay off, and if there's illness or anything
of that sort it weighs on you. Not that I should
be in any hurry about it. It wouldn't worry me,
but it would worry you."

A week later Mrs. Andrews was to leave the in-
firmary, and on Saturday George asked for a day
off to go down to fetch her. Every evening
through the week he and Bill had worked away at
digging up the garden. Fortunately there was
a moon, for it was dark by the time they came out
from the works. Bill was charged with the com-
mission to lay in the store of provisions for the
Sunday, and he was to be sure to have a capital
fire and tea ready by four o'clock, the hour at which
George calculated he would be back.

Very delighted was George as in his best suit—-
for he and Bill had two suits each now — he stepped
out of the train at Croydon and walked to the
workhouse. His mother had told him that she
would meet him at the gate at half-past two, and
punctually at the time he was there. A few min-
utes later Mrs. Andrews came out, not dressed as
he had seen her at Christmas, in the infirmary garb,
but in her own clothes. George gave a cry of de-
light as he ran forward to meet her.

" My darling mother! and you are looking quite
yourself again."

" I am, thank God, George. It has seemed a
long nine months, but the rest and quiet have done

HOME. 79

wonders for me. Everyone has been very kind;
and of course the knowledge, dear boy, that you
had got work that you liked helped me to get
strong again. And you are looking well too; and
your friend, I hope he is well ? "

" Quite well, mother, but in a great fright about
you. He is glad you are coming because I am
glad; but the poor fellow has quite made up his
mind that you won't like him and you won't think
him a fit companion for me. I told him over and
over again that you are not that sort; but nothing
can persuade him. Of course, mother, he doesn't
talk good grammar, and he uses some queer ex-
pressions; but he is very much changed in that way
since I first knew him, and he tries very hard, and
don't mind a bit how often I correct him, and he
is beginning to read easy words quite well; and
he is one of the best-hearted fellows in the
world."

" If he is kind to you, George, and fond of you,
that's enough for me," Mrs. Andrews said; "but
I have no doubt I shall soon like him for himself.
You could not like him as much as you do if there
were not something nice about him. And you
have succeeded in getting a room for me in the
house in which you lodge? " for George had never
mentioned a word in his letter about taking a
house, and had asked Dr. Jeffries if he should see
his mother to say nothing to her about his applica-
tion to him.

8o STURDY AND STRONG.

" Yes, that's all right, mother," he replied
briskly.

" And you have got some new clothes since I
saw you last, George. You wanted them; yours
were getting rather shabby when I saw you at
Christmas."

" Yes, mother, they were."

" I suppose you had to part with your best suit
while you were so long out of work? "

" That was it, mother; but you see I have been
able to get some more things. They are only
cheap ones, you know, but they will do very well
until I can afford better ones. I am not walking
too fast for you, am I? But we shall just catch
the train. Or look here, would you mind going
straight by yourself to the railway station ? Then
you can walk slowly. I will go round and get your
box. I went into our old place as I came along,
and Mrs. Larkins said she would bring it down-
stairs for me as I came back."

" No, I would rather go round with you, George.
I want to thank her for having kept it for me so
long. Even if we do miss the train it will not mat-
ter much, as it will make no difference whether we
get in town an hour earlier or later."

As George could not explain his special reason
for desiring to catch that train he was obliged to
agree, and they stopped a quarter of an hour at
their old lodging, as Mrs. Larkins insisted upon
their having a cup of tea which she had prepared

HOME. 8l

for them. However, when they reached the sta-
tion they found that a train was going shortly, and
when they reached town they were not so very
much later than George had calculated upon.

They took a cab, for although Mrs. Andrews'
box was not heavy, it was too much for George to
carry that distance; besides, Mrs. Andrews herself
was tired from her walk to the station from the
infirmary, having had no exercise for so long.
When they got into the neighborhood of Lime-
house George got outside to direct the cabman.
It was just a quarter past four when the cab drew up
at No. 8 Laburnum Villas.

" Why, is this the house? " Mrs. Andrews asked
in surprise as George jumped down and opened the
door. " Why, you told me in one of your letters
it was a house in a row. What a pretty little place!
It is really here, George? "

" It is here, mother; we moved the other day.
There is Bill at the door; " but Bill, having opened
the door, ran away out into the garden, and
George, having paid the cabman, carried his
mother's box in and entered the house with her.

" Straight on, mother, into the little room at the
end."

"What a snug little kitchen!" Mr-s. Andrews
said as she entered it ; " and tea all laid and ready !
What, have they lent you the room for this even-
ing? "

" My dear mother," George said, throwing his

8« STURDY AND STRONG.

arms round her neck, " this is your kitchen and
your house, all there is of it, only the sitting room
isn't furnished yet. We must wait for that, you
know."

" What! you have taken a whole house, my boy!
that is very nice; but can we afford it, George? It
seems too good to be true."

" It is quite true, mother, and I think it's a dear
little house, and will be splendid when we have got
it all furnished. Now come up and see the bed-
rooms. This is Bill's, you know," and he opened
the door on the staircase, " and this is mine, and
this is yours."

" Oh, what a pretty little room! " Mrs. Andrews
said: " but, my dear George, the rent of this house
and the hire of the furniture will surely be more
than we can afford to pay. I know what a good
manager you are, my boy, but I have such a hor-
ror of getting into debt that it almost frightens
me."

" The rent of the house is seven and sixpence a
week, mother, with rates and taxes, and we can
afford that out of Bill's earnings and mine, even
if you did not do any work at all; and as to the
furniture, it is every bit paid for out of our savings
since we went to work."

On hearing which Mrs. Andrews threw her arms
round George's neck and burst into tears of hap-
piness. She was not very strong, and the thought
of the sacrifices these two boys must have made to

HOME. 83

get a house together for her completely over-
powered her.

" It seems impossible, George," she said when
she had recovered herself. " Why, you have only
been earning ten shillings a week each, and you
have had to keep yourselves and get clothes and
all sorts of things; it seems impossible."

" It has not cost so much as you think, mother,
and Bill and I had both learned to live cheap in
Covent Garden; but now let us go downstairs; you
have not seen Bill yet, and I know tea will be
ready."

But Bill had not yet come in, and George had to
go out into the garden to fetch him.

" Come on, Bill ; mother is delighted with every-
thing. She won't eat you, you know."

" No, she won't eat me, George ; but she will
think me an out-and-out sort of 'ottentot," which
word had turned up in a book the boys had been
reading on an evening previously.

" Well, wait till she says so; come along."

So linking his arm in Bill's, George drew him
along, and brought him shamefaced and bashful
into the kitchen.

" This is Bill, mother."

" I am glad to see you, Bill," Mrs. Andrews said,
holding out her hand. " I have heard so much of
you from George that I seem to know you quite
well."

Bill put his hand out shyly.

84 STURDY AND STRONG.

" I am sure we shall get on well together," Mrs.
Andrews went on. " I shall never forget that you
were a friend to my boy when he was friendless in
London."

"It's all the t'other way, ma'am," Bill said
eagerly; " don't you go for to think it. Why, just
look what George has done for me! There was I,
a-hanging about the Garden, pretty nigh starving,
and sure to get quadded sooner or later; and now
here I am living decent, and earning a good wage;
and he has taught me to read, ma'am, and to know
about things, and aint been ashamed of me, though
I am so different to what he is. I tell you, ma'am,
there aint no saying what a friend he's been to me,
and I aint done nothing for him as I can see."

" Well, Bill, you perhaps both owe each other
something," Mrs. Andrews said: " and I owe you
something as well as my son, for George tells me
that it is to your self-denial as well as to his own
that I owe this delightful surprise of finding a ho«ne
ready for me; and now," she went on, seeing how
confused and unhappy Bill looked, " I think you
two ought to make tea this evening, for you are the
hosts, and I am the guest. In future it will be my]
turn."

" All right, mother! you sit down in this arm-
chair; Bill, you do the rashers, and I will pour the
water into the pot and then toast the muffins."

Bill was at home now; such culinary efforts as
they had hitherto attempted had generally fallen to

HOME. 85

his share, as he had a greater aptitude for the work
than George had, and a dish of bacon fried to a
turn was soon upon the table.

Mrs. Andrews had been watching Bill closely,
and was pleased with the result of her observation.
Bill was indeed greatly improved in appearance
since he had first made George's acquaintance.
His cheeks had filled out, and his face had lost its
hardness of outline; the quick, restless, hunted ex-
pression of his eyes had nearly died out, and he no
longer looked as if constantly on the watch to
dodge an expected cuff; his face had always had
a large share of that merriment and love of fun
which seem the common portion of the London
arabs, and seldom desert them under all their hard-
ships ; but it was a happier and brighter spirit now,
and had altogether lost its reckless character. A
similar change is always observable among the
waifs picked up off the streets by the London
refuges after they have been a few months on board
a training ship.

When all was ready the party sat down to their
meal. Mrs. Andrews undertook the pouring out
of the tea, saying that although she was a guest,
as the only lady present she should naturally pre-
side. George cut the bread, and Bill served the
bacon. The muffins were piled on a plate in the
front of the fire as a second course.

It was perhaps the happiest meal that any of the
three had ever sat down to. Mrs. Andrews was

86 STURDY AND STRONG.

not only happy at finding so comfortable a home
prepared for her, but was filled with a deep feeling
of pride and thankfulness at the evidence of the
love, steadiness, and self-sacrifice of her son.
George was delighted at having his mother with
him again, and at seeing her happiness and content-
ment at the home he had prepared for her. Bill
was delighted because George was so, and he was
moreover vastly relieved at finding Mrs. Andrews
less terrible than he had depicted her.

After tea was cleared away they talked together
for a while, and then Bill — feeling with instinctive
delicacy that George and his mother would like to
talk together for a time — said he should take a turn
for an hour, and on getting outside the house exe-
cuted so wild a war-dance of satisfaction that it was
fortunate it was dark, or Laburnum Villas would
have been astonished and scandalized at the specta-
cle.

" I like your friend Bill very much," Mrs. An-
drews said when she was alone with George. " I
was sure from what you told me that he must be
a good-hearted lad; but brought up as he has been,
poor boy, I feared a little that he would scarcely
be a desirable companion in point of manners. Of
course, as you say, his grammar is a little peculiar;
but his manners are wonderfully quiet and nice,
considering all."

" Look what an example he's had, mother,"
George laughed j " but really he has taken great

HOME. 87

pains ever since he knew that you were coming
home. He has been asking me to tell him of any-
thing he does which is not right, especially about
eating and that sort of thing. You see he had
never used a fork till we came down here, and he
made me show him directly how it should be held
and what to do with it. It has been quite funny to
me to see him watching me at meals, and doing
exactly the same."

" And you have taught him to read, George? "

" Yes, mother."

" And something of better things, George? " she
asked.

" Yes, mother, as much as I could. He didn't
know anything when I met him; but he goes to
church with me now regularly, and says his prayers
every night, and I can tell you he thinks a lot of it*
More, I think, than I ever did," he added honestly*

" Perhaps he has done you as much good as you
have done him, George."

" Perhaps he has, mother; yes, I think so. When
you see a chap so very earnest for a thing you can't
help being earnest yourself; besides, you know,
mother," he went on a little shyly, for George had
not been accustomed to talk much of these matters
with his mother — " you see when one's down in
the world and hard up, and not quite sure about
the next meal, and without any friend, one seems
to think more of these things than one does when
one is jolly at school with other fellows."-

88 STURDY AND STRONG.

" Perhaps so, George, though I do not know
why it should be so, for the more blessings one has
the more reason for love and gratitude to the giver.
However, dear, I think we have both reason to be
grateful now, have we not? "

" That we have, mother. Only think of the dif-
ference since we said good-by to each other last
summer! Now here you are strong and well
again, and we are together and don't mean to be
separated, and I have got a place I like and have
a good chance of getting on in, and we have got a
pretty little house all to ourselves, and you will be
able to live a little like a lady again, — I mean as
you were accustomed to, — and everything is so
nice. Oh, mother, I am sure we have every reason
to be grateful ! "

" We have indeed, George, and I even more than
you, in the proofs you have given me that my son
is likely to turn out all that even I could wish him."

Bill's hour was a very long one.

"You must not go out of an evening, Bill, to
get out of our way," Mrs. Andrews said when he
returned, " else I shall think that I am in your way.
It was kind of you to think of it the first evening,
and George and I are glad to have had a long talk
together, but in future I hope you won't do it.
You see there will be lots to do of an evening.
There will be your lessons and George's, for I hope
now that he's settled he will give up an hour or two
every evening to study. Not • Latin and Greek,

HOME. 89

George," she added, smiling, seeing a look of some-
thing like dismay in George's face, "that will be
only a waste of time to you now, but a study of
such things as may be useful to you in your present
work and in your future life, and a steady course
of reading really good books by good authors.
Then perhaps when you have both done your work,
you will take it by turns to read out loud while I
do my sewing. Then perhaps some day, who
knows, if we get on very 'flourishingly, after we
have furnished our sitting room, we may be able
to indulge in the luxury of a piano again and have
a little music of an evening."

" That will be jolly, mother. Why, it will be
really like old times, when you used to sing to
me!"

Mrs. Andrews' eyes filled with tears at the
thought of the old times, but she kept them back
bravely, so as not to mar, even for a moment, the
happiness of this first evening. So they chatted
till nine o'clock, when they had supper. After it
was over Mrs. Andrews left the room for a minute
and went upstairs and opened her box, and re-
turned with a Bible in her hand.

" I think, boys," she said, " we ought to end this
first happy evening in our new home by thanking
God together for his blessings."

" I am sure we ought, mother," George said, and
Bill's face expressed his approval.

So Mrs. Andrews read a chapter, and then they

90 STURDY AND STRONG.

knelt and thanked God for his blessings, and the
custom thus begun was continued henceforth in
No. 8 Laburnum Villas.

Hitherto George and his companion had found!
things much more pleasant at the works than they
had expected. They had, of course, had princi-
pally to do with Bob Grimstone; still there were
many other men in the shop, and at times, when
his bench was standing idle while some slight al-
terations or adjustment of machinery were made,
they were set to work with others. Men are quick
to see when boys are doing their best, and, finding
the lads intent upon their work and given neither
to idleness nor skylarking, they seldom had a sharp
word addressed to them. But after Mrs. Andrews
had come home they found themselves addressed
in a warmer and more kindly manner by the men.
Bob Grimstone had told two or three of his mates
of the sacrifices the boys had made to save up
money to make a home for the mother of one of
them when she came out of hospital. They were
not less impressed than he had been, and the story
went the round of the workshops and even came
to the ears of the foreman, and there was not a man
there but expressed himself in warm terms of sur-
prise and admiration that two lads should for six
months have stinted themselves of food in order '
to lay by half their pay for such a purpose.

' There's precious few would liave done such a
thing," one of the older workmen said, " not one

HOME. 91

in a thousand; why, not one chap in a hundred,
even when he's going to be married, will stint him-
self like that to make a home for the gal he is going
to make his wife, so as to start housekeeping out
of debt; and as to doing it for a mother, where will
you find 'em? In course a man ought to do as
much for his mother as for the gal who is agoing to
be his wife, seeing how much he owes her; but how
many does it, that's what I says, how many does
it?"

So after that the boys were surprised to find how
many of the men, when they met them at the gate,
would give them a kindly nod or a hearty, " Good-
morning, young chaps! "

A day or two after Mrs. Andrews had settled in
Laburnum Villas she went up to town and called
upon a number of shops, asking for work. As she
was able to give an excellent reference to the firm
for whom she had worked at Croydon she suc-
ceeded before the end of the week in obtaining mil-
linery work for a firm in St. Paul's Churchyard,
and as she had excellent taste and was very quick
at her needle she was soon able to earn consid-
erably more than she had done at Croydon.

The three were equally determined that they
would live as closely as possible until the sitting-
rooms were furnished, and by strict management
they kept within the boys' pay, Mrs. Andrews'
earnings being devoted to the grand purpose.
The small articles were bought first, and each week

93 STURDY AND STRONG.

there was great congratulation and pleasure a3
some new article was placed in the rooms. Then
there was a pause for some time, then came the
chairs, then after an interval a table, and lastly the
carpet. This crowning glory was not attained un-
til the end of July. After this they moved sol-
emnly into the sitting-room, agreeing that the
looking-glass, chiffonier, and sofa could be added
at a more gradual rate, and that the whole of Mrs.
Andrews' earnings need no longer be devoted.

" Now, boys," Mrs. Andrews said on that mem-
orable evening, " I want you in future, when you
come in, to change your working clothes before
you come in here to your teas. So long as we
lived in the kitchen I have let things go on, but I
think there's something in the old saying, ' Com-
pany clothes, company manners,' and I think it is
good when boys come in that they should lay aside
their heavy-nailed shoes and their working clothes.
Certainly such boots and clothes are apt to render
people clumsy in their movements, and the differ-
ence of walk which you observe between men of
different classes arises very greatly from the clumsy,
heavy boots which workingmen must wear."

" But what does it matter, mother? " George
urged, for it seemed to him that it would be rather
a trouble to change his clothes every day. " These'
little things don't make any real difference to a
man."

" Not any vital difference, George, but a real

HOME. 93

difference for all that. Manners make the man,
you know! that is, they influence strangers and
people who only know him in connection with busi-
ness. If two men apply together for a place the
chances are strongly in favor of the man with the
best manners getting it. Besides, my boy, I think
the observance of little courtesies of this kind make
home pleasanter and brighter. You see I always
change my dress before tea, and I am sure you
prefer my sitting down to the table tidy and neat
with a fresh collar and cuffs, to my taking my place
in my working dress with odds and ends of threads
and litter clinging to it."

" Of course I do, mother, and I see what you
mean now. Certainly I will change my things in
future. You don't mind, do you, Bill? "

Bill would not have minded in the least any
amount of trouble by which he could give the
slightest satisfaction to Mrs. Andrews, who had
now a place in his affections closely approximating
to that which George occupied.

During the summer months the programme for
the evening was not carried out as arranged, for at
the end of April Mrs. Andrews herself declared that
there must be a change.

" The evenings are getting light enough now for
a walk after tea, boys, and you must therefore cut
short our reading and studies till the days close in
again in the autumn. It would do you good to
get out in the air a bit."

94 STURDY AND STRONG.

" But will you come with us, mother? "

" No, George. Sometimes as evenings get
longer we may make little excursions together: go
across the river to Greenwich and spend two or
three hours in the park, or take a steamer and go
up the river to Kew; but as a general thing you
had better take your rambles together. I have my
front garden to look after, the vegetables are your
work, you know, and if I like I can go out and do
whatever shopping I have to do while you two are
away."

So the boys took to going out walks, which got
longer and longer as the evenings drew out, and
when they were not disposed for a long ramble they
would go down to a disused wharf and sit there and
watch the barges drifting down the river or tack-
ing backwards and forwards, if there was a wind,
with their great brown and yellow sails hauled
tautly in, and the great steamers dropping quietly
down the river, and the little busy tugs dragging
great ships after them. There was an endless
source of amusement in wondering from what ports
the various craft had come or what was their des-
tination.

" What seems most wonderful to me, George,"
Bill said one day, " when one looks at them big
steamers "

" Those," George corrected.

"Thank ye — at those big steamers, is to think
that they can be tossed about, and the sea go over

HOME. 95

them, as one reads about, just the same way as the
wave they make when they goes down "

" Go down, Bill."

" Thank ye — go down the river, tosses the little
boats about; it don't seem possible that water can
toss itself about so high as that, does it? "

" It does seem extraordinary, Bill; we know that
it is so because there are constantly wrecks; but
looking at the water it does not seem possible that
it should rise up into waves large enough to knock
one of those great steamers in pieces. Some day,
Bill, not this year, of course, because the house
isn't finished, but next year, I hope we shall be able
all of us to go down for a trip to the sea, I have
seen it stuck up you can go to Margate and back
for three or four shillings; and though Bob Grim-
stone says that isn't regular sea, it would be enough
to show us something of what it's like."

The garden occupied a good deal of the boys'
time. Bill's long experience in the market had
given him an interest in vegetables, and he was al-
ways ready for an hour's work in the garden after
tea. The results of much labor and plenty of
manure were not unsatisfactory, and Mrs. Andrews
was delighted with her regular supply of fresh vege-
tables. Bill's anticipation, however, of the amount
that could be grown in a limited space were by no
means fulfilled, and seeing the small amount which
could be daily gathered, and recalling the countless
piled-up wagons which he had been accustomed to

96 STURDY AND STRONG.

see in Covent Garden, he was continually express-
ing his astonishment at the enormous quantity of
ground which must be employed in keeping up the
supplyv of the market.

They did not that year get the trip to Margate;
but in the autumn, after the great work of fur-
nishing was finished, they did get several long
jaunts, once out to Epping Forest on an omnibus,
once in a steamer up to Kew, and several times
across to Greenwich Park. Mrs. Andrews found
it a very happy summer, free from the wear of
anxiety, which, more even than the work, had
brought on her long illness. She grew stronger
and better than she had ever expected to be again,
and -those who had only known the pale, harassed-
looking needlewoman of Croydon would not have
recognized her now; indeed, as George said some-
times, his mother looked younger and younger every
day. She had married very young, and was still
scarcely five-and-thirty, and although she laughed
and said that George was a foolish boy when he said
that people always took her for his sister, she really
looked some years younger than she was. Her
step had regained its elasticity, and there was a ring
of gladness and happiness in her voice which was
very attractive, and even strangers sometimes
looked round as they passed the bright, pleasant-
looking woman chatting gayly with the two healthy,
good-looking young fellows.

CHAPTER V.

AN ADVENTURE.

IN August the annual outing, .or, as it was called;,
the bean-feast, at the works took place. Usually
the men went in vans down into Epping Forest;
but this year it was determined that a steamer
should be engaged to take the whole party with
their wives and families down to Gravesend. They
were to make an early start, and on arriving there
all were to do as they pleased until they assembled
to dine in a pavilion at one of the hotels. After
this they were to go to the gardens and amuse
themselves there until the steamer started in the
evening. The party embarked at Blackwell at ten
o'clock in the morning. George and Bill got to-
gether up in the bow of the steamer, and were de-
lighted with their voyage down, their only regret
being that Mrs. Andrews had declined to accom-
pany them, saying that she would far rather go
with them alone than with so large a party.

" What shall we do, Bill? " George said, when
they landed. " We are not to dine till two, so we
have two good hours before us. I vote we hire a
boat and go out. It will be ten times as jolly here
as up in that crowded river by London."

This was said in reference to various short rows

98 STURD Y AND STRONG.

which they had had in boats belonging to barges
which had been sometimes lent them for half an
hour of an evening by a good-natured bargeman as
they hung about the wharves.

" I suppose you can row, young chaps ? " the
waterman, whom they hired the boat of, said.

" Oh, yes, we can row! " George replied with the
confidence of youth.

" Mind the tide is running out strong," the
waterman said.

" All right, we will mind," George answered,
scarce heeding his words; and getting out the oars
they pushed off.

For some little time they rowed among the an-
chored vessels, both being especially filled with de-
light at the yachts moored opposite the club-
houses. These were new craft to them, and the
beauty and neatness of everything struck them with
surprise and admiration. Tide had only turned a
short time before they got into their boat, and
while keeping near the shore they had no difficulty
in rowing against it.

Presently they determined to have a look at a
fine East-Indiaman moored well out in the stream
a short distance below Gravesend. They ceased
rowing when they approached her, and sat idly on
their oars talking over the distant voyage on which
she was probably about to start, and the country
she might visit, George was telling his companion
the ports she would touch if her destination was

AN ADVENTURE. 99

China, and absorbed in their conversation they paid
no attention to anything else, until George gave a
sudden exclamation.

" Good gracious, Bill! Why, the ship is ever so
far behind. It is two miles, I should think, from
the town. We must set to work or we shan't be
back in time for dinner."

The boys' knowledge of the navigation of the
Thames was not sufficient to tell them that to row
against tide it is necessary to keep close inshore,
and turning the boat's head they set to work to
row back in the middle of the river. Their knowl-
edge of rowing was but slight, and the mere opera-
tion of their oars took up all their attention. They
rowed away till their hands burned and the per-
spiration ran down their faces.

After half an hour of this George looked round,
thinking that he ought to be near to the vessel by
this time. He uttered an exclamation of surprise
and dismay. Neither the ship nor Gravesend were
visible. Their puny efforts had availed nothing
against the sweeping tide. They had already,
without knowing it, swept round the turn in the
river, and were now entering Sea Reach.

" My goodness, Bill! what are we to do? Just
look at that buoy; we are going past it as fast as
a horse could trot. Look what a width the river
is. What on earth are we to do? "

" I have no idea," Bill replied. " Where shall
we go to if we go on like this? "

100 STURDY AND STRONG.

" Right out to sea, I should think," George said.
" I do not know how far it is; but the river seems
to get wider and wider in front."

" Perhaps," Bill suggested, " the tide will turn
again and take us back."

" Not it," George said. " It was against us, you
know, all the way down, and could only have
turned a little while before we got in the boat.
Look at that line of barges sailing down on the
right-hand side. I vote we pull to them and ask
the men what we had better do. Anyhow we could
row to the land and get out there and wait till tide
turns. It turned at about eleven, so that it will
turn again somewhere about five. The steamer is
not to start till eight, so we shall be back in plenty
of time to catch it. We shall lose the dinner and
the fun in the gardens, but that can't be helped."

" That don't make no odds," Bill said cheerfully;
" this is a regular venture, this is; but I say, shan't
we have to pay a lot for the boat? "

"Yes," George assented mournfully; "but per-
haps the man will let us off cheap when he sees we
couldn't help it. He looked a good-tempered sort
of chap. Come, let us set to work. Every minute
it is taking us further away."

They set steadily to work. The boat was a large
and heavy one, and their progress was by no means
rapid.

" How thick it's getting! " George exclaimed
suddenly.

AN ADVENTURE. IOI

"Aint it just!" Bill assented. "My eye,
George, I can't see the barges! "

Unobserved by them a fog had been steadily
creeping up the river. They were just at its edge
when they made the discovery. Another two
minutes and it rolled thickly over them, and they
could not see ten yards away. They looked at
each other in silent bewilderment.

"What's to be done, George?" Bill said at
length in awe-struck tones.

" I don't know, Bill; I haven't an idea.- It's no
use rowing, that I see, for we don't know which
way the boat's head is pointing."

" Well, it can't be helped," Bill said philosophi-
cally. " I am going to have a pipe. Oh, I say,
aint my hands blistered! "

"All right, you can have your pipe, Bill, but
keep your oar in your hand to be ready to row."

" What for? " Bill demanded. " I thought you
said it warn't no use rowing ! "

" No more it is, Bill ; but we must look out for
those big buoys. If the tide were to sweep us
against one of them we should capsize to a cer-
tainty. That must have been a big steamer," he
went on, as the boat rolled suddenly. " It's lucky
we were pretty well over towards the side of the
river, before the fog came on. Listen — there's an-
other. I can hear the beat of her engines. I have
an idea, Bill!" he exclaimed suddenly. "We
know the steamers were passing to the left of us

102 STURDY AND STRONG.

when the fog came on. If we listen to their whis-
tles and the sound of their paddles, and then row
to the right, we shall get to the bank at last."

" Yes, that's a good idea," Bill agreed, laying
down the pipe he had just lighted. " There's a
whistle over there."

" Yes, and another the other way," George said,
puzzled. "Why, how can that be! Oh, I sup-
pose one is coming up the river and one down,
but it's awfully confusing."

It was so, but by dint of listening intently the
boys gained some idea of the proper direction; but
they could only row a few strokes at a time, being
obliged to stop continually to listen for fresh guid-
ance.

Fortunately for them the fog lay low on the water,
and the upper spars of the steamers were above it,
and men placed there were able to direct those on
deck as to their course. Had it not been for this
the steamers must all have anchored. As it was
they proceeded slowly and cautiously on their way,
whistling freely to warn any small craft, that might
be hidden in the fog, of their coming.

Half an hour's rowing and the boys gave a simul-
taneous exclamation. The boat had quietly
grounded on the edge of a mud flat. They could
not see the bank, and had no idea how far distant it
was. Bill at once offered to get overboard and
reconnoiter, but George would not hear of it.

" You might not be able to find your way back,

AN ADVENTURE. 103

Bill, or you might sink in the mud and not be able
to get out again. No, we won't separate; and, look
here, we must keep the boat afloat just at the edge
of the mud. If we were to get left here we should
not float again till tide comes up to us, and that
wouldn't be till about two hours before high tide,
and it won't be high, you know, until twelve o'clock
at night."

" I wish this fog would clear off ! " Bill said, look-
ing round at the wall of white vapor which sur-
rounded them. " It regular confuses a chap. I
say, I expect they are just sitting down to dinner at
present. I feel awfully hungry."

" It's no use thinking about that, Bill. We shall
be a good deal more hungry before we are done;
but I am so glad we have found the land and
stopped going out to sea that I don't mind being
hungry."

" But I say, George, if this fog keeps on how are
we to find our way back to Gravesend ? "

" The only way will be, Bill, to keep quite close to
the edge of the mud — just as close as the boat will
swim. That way, you know, we must come to
Gravesend at last."

" So we must. I didn't think of that. You have
got a good head, George, you have. I should never
have thought about the way to find the bank if it
hadn't been for you, and might have gone on float->
ing and floating till we was starved."

" This fog can't last forever, Bill."

IC4 STURDY AND STRONG.

" No, but I haVe known them last a week in
London."

" Yes, but not in August, Bill."

"No, not in August," Bill assented; "but you
see these here fogs may last just as long down
here in August as they do in London in No-
vember."

"I don't think so, Bill. Anyhow it doesn't mat-
ter to us; we have got the land for a guide, and I
hope we shall be back in Gravesend before it's quite
dark."

" But if we don't, George? "

" Well, if we don't we must run her ashore before
it gets too dark, and wait till it is morning. We
shall be all right if we keep quite cool and use our
senses. If we had something to eat I shouldn't mind
a bit, except that mother will be getting anxious
about us. It's a regular adventure, and we shall
have something to talk about for a long time. Look
out, Bill, we must push her further off — she's get-
ting aground ! "

For an hour they sat and chatted.

"Hullo! what's that?" Bill exclaimed at last.
" That's the rattle of a chain. I expect it's a barge
anchoring somewhere near. Listen; I can hear
voices. I vote we hollo."

George lifted up his voice in a lusty shout. The
shout was repeated not very far off, and was fol-
lowed by the shout of " Who are you ? "

" We have drifted down from Gravesend and lost

AN ADVENTURE. 105

our way," George shouted back. " We will come
on board if you will let us."

"All right!" the voice replied; "I will go on
shouting and you row to my voice."

It was but a hundred yards, and then a voice close
at hand said sharply :

" Row bow hard or you will be across the chain."

Bill rowed hard, and George, looking round, saw
that they were close to the bows of a barge. Half
a dozen more strokes and they were alongside. Bill
seized a hand-rope and sprang onto the barge, and
the boat was soon towing astern.

" Well, young men, however did you manage to
get here? " one of the bargemen asked. " It's lucky
for you you weren't taken out to sea with the tide."

George related the history of their voyage and
how they had managed to reach the shore.

" Well, you are good-plucked uns anyhow," the
man said; " aint they, Jack? Most chaps your age
would just have sat in the boat and howled, and
a good many longshoremen too. You have done
the best thing you could under the circumstances."

" Where are we? " George asked.

''' You are on board the Sarah and fane topsail
barge, that's where you are, about three parts down
Sea Reach. We know our way pretty well even in a
fog, but we agreed it was no use trying to find the
Swashway with it as thick as this, so we brought
up."

"Where is the Swashway?" George asked.

106 STURDY AND STRONG,

" The Swashway is a channel where the barges
go when they are making for Sheerness. It's well
buoyed out and easy enough to follow with the help
of Sheerness lights on a dark night; but these fogs
are worse than anything. It aint no use groping
about for the buoy when you can't see ten yards
ahead, and you might find yourself high and dry on
the mud and have to wait till next tide. Mayhap
this fog will clear off before evening, and we shall
be able to work in; and now I expect you two young
uns would like some grub. Come below."

The two boys joyfully followed into the little
cabin, and were soon satisfying their hunger on
bread and cold meat. The bargee drew a jug of
water from the breaker and placed it before them.

" The fire has gone out," he said, " or I would
give yer a cup of tea — that's our tipple; we don't
keep spirits on board the Sarah and Jane. I like a
drop oh shore, but it aint stuff to have on a barge,
where you wants your senses handy at all times.
And now what are you thinking of doing? " he asked
when the boys had finished.

" What we had made up our minds to do was to
lie where we were at the edge of the mud till tide
turned, and then to keep as close to the shore as we
could until we got back to Gravesend. The steamer
we came by does not go back till late, and we
thought we should be back by that time."

" No, you wouldn't," the man said. " Out in the5
middle of the stream you would be back in tw<?

AN ADVENTURE. 107

hours easy, but not close inshore. The tide don't
help you much there, and half your time you are in
eddies and back-currents. No, you wouldn't be
back in Gravesend by eight noway."

" Then what would you advise us to do? "

" Well, just at present I won't give no advice at
all. We will see how things are going after a bit.
Now let's take a look round."

So saying he climbed the ladder to the deck, fol-
lowed by the boys. The white fog still shut the
boat in like a curtain.

" What do you think of it, Jack? "

" Don't know," the other replied. " Thought just
now there was a puff of air coming down the river.
I wish it would, or we shan't make Sheerness to-
night, much less Rochester. Yes, that's a puff sure
enough. You are in luck, young uns. Like
enough in half an hour there will be a orisk wind
blowing, driving all this fog out to sea before it."

Another and another puff came, and tiny ripples
swept across the oil-like face of the water.

" It's a-coming, sure enough," the bargeman said.
" I'd bet a pot of beer as the fog will have lifted in
a quarter of an hour."

Stronger and stronger came the puffs of wind.

The fog seemed as if stirred by an invisible hand.
It was no longer a dull, uniform whitish-gray; dark
shadows seemed to flit across it, and sometimes the
yiew of the water extended here and there.

"There's the shore!" Bill exclaimed suddenly^

Io8 STURDY AND STRONG.

but ere George could turn round to look it was gone
again.

" I shall have the anchor up directly, lads. Now
I tell you what will be the best thing for you if the
wind holds, as I expect it will. We shall be at
Sheerness in little over an hour — that will make it
four o'clock," he added, consulting his watch, " and
the young flood will be coming up soon afterwards,
and I shall go up with the first of it to Rochester.
We shall get there maybe somewhere about seven
o'clock. Now the best thing I can do for you is to
tow that ere boat up to Rochester with me, and you
can get a train there that will take you up to town
in goodish time."

" You are very kind," George said; " but what are
we to do about the boat? "

" I shall be going back to-morrow night, or mpre
likely next morning, and I will take her along and
hand her over to her rightful owner at Gravesend."

" James Kitson."

" Yes, I know him."

"But how about paying for it?" George said.
" I am afraid he will expect a great deal of money,
for it has been away all the time, and we have only
got six shillings between us."

'* You will want that to get up to town. Never
mind about the boat. I will put that square for you.
I will tell Kitson as how you have been shipwrecked,
and he will think himself precious lucky in getting
the boat without being damaged. If I take the

AN ADVENTURE.

trouble to tow it up to Rochester and back, he
needn't grumble about getting no fare."

" I would rather pay something," George said;
"though, you see, we can't afford to pay
much."

" Well, then, you send him a post-office order for
five bob. I will tell him you are going to send him
that, and he will thank his stars he has got so well
out of it. If you had drifted out to sea, as he ex-
pects you have by this time, and the boat didn't get
smashed by a steamer, you would likely enough have
been taken off by one of them; but the captain
wouldn't have troubled himself about that old tub.
I looks upon Kitson as being in luck this job, so
don't you worry about him. There, the mist's driv-
ing off fast. We will up with the kedge."

The boys lent a hand at the windlass, and the
anchor was soon hanging from the bow. Then the
brail of the mainsail was loosed, and the great sail
shaken out. The foresail was hoisted, and in a few
minutes the Sarah and Jane was running before a
brisk wind down Sea Reach.

The fog had rolled off now, and it was clear
astern, though a thick bank still hung over the river
ahead, but this was rapidly melting away; and the
bargeman, who told them his name was Will Atkins,
pointed out a large building low down on the water
ahead.

" That's Sheerness Fort," he said. " You can
lend Jack a hand to get up the topsail. The wind is

IIC STURDY AND STRONG.

rising every minute, and we shall soon be bowling
along hand over hand."

Both ahead and astern of them were a line of
barges, which had, like the Sarah and Jane, an-
chored when the fog was thickest, and were, like her,
making their way to Sheerness. The wind was
blowing briskly now, and the barge made her way
through the water at a rate which surprised the boys.

" I had no idea that barges sailed so fast," George
said.

" There are not many craft can beat them," At-
kins replied. " With a breeze so strong that they
can only just carry their topsails, they will hold their
own with pretty nigh anything afloat. There are
mighty few yachts can keep alongside us when we
are doing our best."

As Atkins had predicted, in little over an hour
they brought up just inside the mouth of the Med-
way, and dropped the anchor to wait till the tide
turned to help them up to Rochester. At six o'clock
they were again under way. The wind had fortu-
nately veered round somewhat to the north of west,
and they were able for the most part to lay their
course, so that soon after seven they were abreast
of the dockyard, and a few minutes later dropped
anchor off Rochester.

"Jump into the boat, boys," the good-natured
bargeman said ; " I will put you ashore at once.
There is the station close to the end of the bridge."

With many very hearty thanks for his kindness

AN ADVENTURE. Ill

the lads jumped ashore and hurried up to the station.
They found that there would be a train in half
an hour, and by nine o'clock they arrived in
town.

Before they had landed the bargeman had
scrawled on a piece of paper, " Your boat was picked
up by the Sarah and Jane. Will bring her back on
return trip. No damage done. William Atkins."
This he had handed to the boys, and they now got
an envelope and directed it to " James Kitson,
Waterman, Gravesend," and posted it, and then set
out to walk home.

" It's not been the sort of day we expected,"
George said; " but it's been good fun, hasn't it? "

" Grand! " Bill agreed. " But I didn't think so
when we were in the middle of that fog listening to
them whistles and trying to find out the way. I
didn't say much, George, but I felt downright
funky."

" I didn't like it either, Bill. There was such a
horribly lonely feeling, lost in the fog there; but it
was all right as soon as we touched the mouth, and
got an idea where we were. I was worrying most
about mother getting anxious if we did not get back
to-night, and a little about what we should have to
pay for the boat. It was lucky that bargeman took
the matter in his hands for us. I expect we should
have had to pay over a pound. He was an awfully
good fellow, wasn't he? "

" I should just think he was," Bill said. " He

IH STURDY AND STRONG.

was a good un, and no mistake. It aint cost us so
very much either, considering."

" That it hasn't, Bill. Two and threepence apiece
railway fare, that's four and sixpence, and five bob
we are to send down for the boat, nine shillings and
sixpence. Well, we should have paid two shillings
for the boat anyhow, and I expect we should have
spent another shilling apiece in things at the gar-
dens, perhaps more; that would make four shillings
anyhow, so we have only spent about five shillings
more than we calculated. And haven't we got a lot
to talk about! It's been a regular adventure."

" It has," Bill said doubtfully; " but I don't think
I want many more of them kind of adventures.
It's all right now, you know, but it wasn't jolly at
the time. I always thought as adventures was
jolly; but that didn't seem to me to have no jolliness
about it, not when we was out there. It's all very
well to hear tell of shipwrecks and fights with sav-
ages, but I expect there aint no larks about it at the
time. I suppose you will send that five bob off to-
morrow, and get it off your mind ? "

" No. Atkins said we had better not send it for
another three or four days. The man will have got
his boat back all right then, and the five bob would
come upon him unexpectedly. He was going to tell
Kitson that he had arranged with us that was what
we were to pay, as we couldn't afford more; but he
will never expect to get it, so when it comes he will
be only too glad to receive it"

AN ADVENTURE. "3

They were met at the door of the^house by Bob
Grimstone, who was just coming out.

" Why, what have you boys been up to ? " he said
angrily. " I have been wondering all day what has
become of you, and the missis has done nothing but
worry and fidget. It's regular spoilt the day.
What have you been up to? I haven't seen you
since we got ashore at Gravesend, and I have just
come round to ask your mother if she has heard of
you."

" I am very sorry, Bob, but it wasn't our fault, at
least it was not altogether our fault. We went for
a row, and the tide took us down, and then the fog
came on and we got lost."

" I expected better of you," Grimstone said
angrily. " Foggy, indeed ! I've been anxious and
worried all day. I did think as you warn't like
other boys, but could be trusted, and then you go
and play such a prank as this. Well, go in; your
mother is in a nice taking about you."

" My dear mother," George said as he ran in, " I
am so sorry you have been uneasy about us, awfully
sorry; but really it hasn't been our fault altogether."

" Never mind that now, George," Mrs. Andrews
said, throwing her arms round his neck. " Fortu-
nately I did not know anything about it till Mr.
Grimstone came in a few minutes ago. I had been
expecting you in for some little time, but I supposed
the steamer was late, and I was not at all uneasy
till Mr. Grimstone came in and said that he had not

114 STURDY AND STRONG-

seen either of you since the steamer got to Graves-
end, and that you had not come back with the rest.
Is Bill with you?"

" Yes, mother; he is at the door talking to
Bob."

"Ask Mr. Grimstone to come in again," Mrs.
Andrews said. " He has been most kind, and he
had promised to- go down to Gravesend by the first
train in the morning if you did not come home to-
night, and to make inquiries about you there. He
tried to cheer me up by saying that as you were to-
gether nothing could very well happen to you and
that probably you had only got into some boyish
scrape — perhaps, he suggested, only gone out into
the country and had helped yourselves to some
apples, and had so got locked up."

Bob, however, would not come in again, but went
off saying he would hear all about it in the morning,
but would go off to tell his wife at once that they
had returned safely, for " that she was in such a
worry as never was."

Hearing that the boys had had nothing to eat
since two o'clock, Mrs. Andrews at once laid the
table for supper; and when they had finished it
listened to George's account of their adventure.

" You had a very narrow escape, boys," she said
when they had finished. " You might have been
swept out to sea, or run down by a steamer in the
fog. I hope to-night that you will neither of you
forget to thank God for his protection through the

AK ADVENTURE. 11$

danger you have run ; and I do hope, my dear boys,
that you will be more careful in future."

The next evening, after work was over, George
went in to Bob Grimstone's and told them all that
had happened. When the story was told, Bob
agreed that after all it was not altogether their fault,
and that, indeed, they had, in some respects, justi-
fied his opinion of them. Mrs. Grimstone, however,
was not so easily pacified. They had come back,
she said; but it was more than likely that they
wouldn't have come back at all, but might have been
drifting out far at sea, perhaps cutting each other's
throats and eating each other alive, which was, as
the good woman said, what she had heard happened
when boats were lost at sea.

Two days later they sent off the money to the
waterman, and received in reply a letter from him
saying that the boat had been brought safely back
by the Sarah and Jane and that he was glad to get
the five shillings.

" Bill Atkins told me as you said you would send
it; but knowing what boys is, I say fair as I didn't
expect to see the color of your money. It aint
everyone as would have paid up when they got safe
away, and I consider as you have behaved hand-
some."

They had heard from Atkins of the wharf off
which the Sarah and Jane might generally be found
moored, between her cruises, and after one or two
ineffectual attempts they one day found the barge

Il6 STURDY AND STRONG.

there when they rowed up to the spot. She had but
just returned front a trip to Rochester and Bill At-
kins was still on board. He was very glad to see
the boys, but they had great difficulty in persuading
him to accept a pound of tobacco which their mother
had sent off to him with her compliments as a token
of gratitude for his kindness to them.

" Well, young chaps, I didn't look for nothing of
the sort, but seeing as your mother has got it for
me it wouldn't be manners to say no. Well, look
here, any time as you are disposed for a sail down
to Rochester and back you're free of the Sarah and
Jane, and heartily glad shall I be to have you with
me."

The boys thanked him for the offer, but said as
they were still at work there was but small chance
of their being able to accept it, but that they should
be glad to come and have a chat with him sometimes
when he was in the Pool.

CHAPTER VI.
FIRE!

ONE Saturday evening early in October the boys
had been for a long walk down among the marshes.
They had told Mrs. Andrews they would be late,
and it was past eight o'clock when they came along
past the works.

" We shan't get home at this hour again for some
time, I expect," George said, " for they say that we
are going to begin to work overtime on Monday,
and that the orders are so heavy that it will very-
likely have to be kept up all through the winter."

" I am glad it didn't begin earlier," Bill replied;
" it would have been horrid if we had lost all our
walks while the weather was fine. How dark the
place looks how it's shut up, and how quiet and still
it is after the rattle we are accustomed to ! "

" Stop a moment," George said, putting his hand
on his arm.

"What is it, George?"

" I don't know. It seemed to me, for a moment,
as if I saw the big stack clearly and then it was
dark again."

" How could that be, George?"

" I don't know; it looked to me as if it was a re-

«7

Il8 STURDY AND STRONG.

flection of light from one of the windows at the
back there. There it is again."

"Yes, I saw it," Bill agreed. "What can it
be?"

" I don't know, Bill ; let's run around to the back.
There might be — it's awful to think of — but there
might be a fire."

The boys ran down a narrow lane by the side of
the works onto a piece of waste ground behind.

" Look, Bill, look at the glare fe the molding-
room. There must be fire. Here, help to put this
bit of old timber against the wall."

The piece of wood was placed into position, the
two lads climbed up it onto the wall, and dropped
into the yard within. Just as they did so there was
a clatter of falling glass, followed by a glare of light
as a body of flame burst out from one of the win-
dows.

"Let's ring the dinner-bell, Bill; that will call
people's attention, and then we must do the best we
can."

They rah along until they reached the front gate,
and then, seizing the bell-rope, rang it violently.

In a minute or two there was a clatter of feet out-
side, and shouts of " What's the matter ? "

" There is a fire in the molding- room," George
shouted; " run for the engines, someone, and break
the gate open. Now come on, Bill."

The two boys ran towards that part of the build-
ing where the flames had been seen, broke a window,

FIRE i 119

and climbed in. There was an almost stifling smell
of burning wood and at a door at the end of the
planing-room they could see a light flame flickering
through the cracks of the door leading into the
molding-room, which was next to it.

" Quick, Bill, screw that leather pipe onto the
hydrant. We must stop it from getting through
here till the engines come."

The hydrant communicated with the great tank at
the top of the Raiding, and as soon as the hose was
screwed on and Bill stood with the nozzle directed
towards the burning door, George turned the cock
and volumes of water flew out.

The first result seemed disastrous. The door was
already nearly burned through, and, as the powerful
jet flew against it, it seemed to crumble away and a
mass of flame Marted out from the molding-room.
The joists and timbers supporting the floor above
the planing-room would have caught at once, but
the boys deluged them with water, as also the frame-
work of the door, and then, throwing the stream of
water into the blazing workshop, they kept down
the flames near the door. The smoke was stifling.

" We shall be choked, George ! " Bill gasped.

" Lie down, Bill. I have heard the air is always
better near the ground."

This they found to be the case, and they were still
able to direct the jet of water. But three or four
minutes had elapsed when the outer door of the
planing-house was unlocked and Bob Grimstone and

120 STURDY AND STRONG

several other men rushed in, but were at once driven
back by the smoke. George had recognized Grim-
stone's voice, and shouted :

" This way, Bob, the fire hasn't got through yet.
Come and lend a hand, for it's gaining on us in
spite of the water. You can breathe if you kneel
down."

Grimstone, with two or three of the men, crawled
in and joined the boys.

"What! is it you, George? How oh earth did
you get here? " Bob exclaimed.

" We saw a light as we were passing, and got in
from behind. When we saw what it was we" rang
the alarm-bell, and then came on here to do what we
could till help came."

" You are good-plucked, you are," Grimstone
said admiringly; " but I am afraid it's not much
good."

" You take the hose, Bob, and keep the rafters
drenched there. Bill and I will crawl forward and
clear the shavings out of the way if we can. They
have caught half a dozen times already."

The two boys crawled forward, and although the
heat was tremendous they managed to clear away
the shavings for a considerable distance. The
smoke and heat were so great that they were obliged
to crawl back into the outer air, where for a while
they lay almost insensible. There were crowds of
men in the yard now, but most of them were round
at the back, powerless to aid at present, and only

FIRE! I2i

watching the flames as they roared through the
whole of the windows of the molding-room.

Men were hurrying past with buckets of water,
and one of them, seeing the condition of the boys,
dashed some over their heads and faces, and they
presently staggered to their feet. It was now a
quarter of an hour since they had first given the
alarm, and they were just about to re-enter the
planing-shop to rejoin Bill when they met him and
his comrades coming out.

" All the water's gone," he said; " if the engines
aint here in a minute or two it will be too late."

But just at that moment there was a cheer out-
side, and immediately afterwards a fire-engine
dashed through the gate. Grimstone ran up to the
firemen as they leaped off.

" The great thing," he said, " is to prevent it
spreading from that shop into this. We have been
keeping it back till now, but the tank has just run
dry."

While the other firemen were fitting the hose to
the fire-plug just outside the gates one of them made
his way into the planing-room to ascertain the exact
position of affairs.

"Quick, lads," he said; "there's no time to be
lost; the fire is making its way through. Another
five minutes and we should have been too late to
save any of this block. Is there any communication
through the upper floors?" he asked Grimstone.

" Yes, there is a door on each floor. "

122 STURDY AND STRONG.

" Have you got any empty sacks about the
place?"

" Yes, there is a pile of them in there."

The fireman gave instructions to one of his com-
rades, while he himself made his way into the plan-
ing-room with the hose; the other got out the sacks,
and assisted by Grimstone and some of the hands
drenched them with water, and then proceeding to
the door on the first floor piled them against it.

" It is hot already," he said as he laid his hand
upon it. " Now, do you men bring me buckets of
water. Keep the sacks drenched till another engine
comes up."

George and Bill, finding they could be of no more
use, made their way out to the back and joined the
crowd watching the flames, which had already
spread to the first floor. They were, however, with
the rest of the lookers-on, speedily turned out of the
yard by the police, who, having now arrived in
sufficient strength, proceeded at once to clear the
premises of all save a score or two of men who were
engaged in assisting the firemen.

As the boys went out through the front gate an-
other engine dashed up at full speed, dropping
lighted cinders on its way.

" Hurray! " Bill said; " this is a steamer. I ex-
pect they will do now."

Then the boys made their way round again to the
back, and by means of the pieces of timber estab-
lished themselves on the wall, where they were soon

FIRE! 123

joined by a number of others, and watched the strug-
gle with the flames.

In half an hour six engines were on the spot;
but even this force had no visible effect upon the
flames in that portion of the building in which they
had taken possession, and the firemen turned the
whole of their efforts to prevent it from spreading.

The party wall dividing it from the main building
was a very strong one; but so hot had it become that
the floor boards touching it were over and over again
in flames.

A score of men with saws and axes cut away the
flooring adjoining the doors on the first and second
stories. The planing-room was fortunately not
boarded. While a portion of the fire brigade
worked unceasingly in preventing the spread of the
flames in this direction, the rest turned their atten-
tion to the great wood piles, which were repeatedly
ignited by the fragments of burning wood.

Presently the roof fell in, and the flames shot up
high into the air, but grand as the sight was, the
boys did not wait any longer looking on. Their
faces smarted severely from the heat to which they
had been exposed; their hands had been a good deal
burned by the shavings; their hair, eyebrows, and
eyelashes were singed, and the eyeballs ached with
the glare.

"I will run home now, Bill; mother will likely
enough hear of the fire, and as we said we should
be back soon after eight she will be getting anxious."

124 STURDY AND STRONG.

" I will go and tell her it's all right; you stop and
see the end of it here."

But this George would not hear of.

" Very well, then, I will go with you. I must
get some grease or something to put on my face and
hands; they are smarting awfully."

Mrs. Andrews gave an exclamation of surprise
and alarm as the boys entered. The irritation of
the wood smoke had so much inflamed their eyes
that they could scarcely see out of them, and their
faces looked like pieces of raw beef.

" Whatever has happened, boys ? " she exclaimed.

" There's a great fire at Penrose's, mother; it
broke out just as we were passing, so we stopped to
help for a bit, and then came home to tell you, think-
ing that you might be anxious."

" A fire at the works ! " Mrs. Andrews exclaimed;
" that is dreadful. Dreadful for Mr. Penrose, and
for all of you who work there; more, perhaps, for
you than for him, for no doubt he is insured, and
you may be out of work for months. Thank God I
have plenty of work, so I dare say we shall be able
to tide it over."

" It is not all burned, mother; only the molding-
shop and the floors above it are on fire at present,
and as there are six fire-engines at work, and they
keep on arriving every minute, I hope they will'
save the rest; and now, mother, what can we
do to our faces and hands, they are smarting
awfully?"

FIREt 1*5

"Dear me, George, are you burnt? I thought
you were only dreadfully hot."

" We feel hot, mother, just as if our faces were
being roasted."

" I will get some oil, that will be the best thing,"
Mrs. Andrews said, hurrying away to the kitchen,
and coming back with a piece of cotton-wool, and
some olive-oil in a cup.

" You are burned, George. Why, child, your
hair is all singed, and your eyebrows and eyelashes.
Why, what have you been doing to yourselves?
There could have been no occasion to put your heads
into the flames like that. Why, your hands are
worse still; they are quite blistered. I had better
wrap them up in cotton-wool."

" It's the inside that's the worst, mother; perhaps
if you put a bit of cotton-wool there and tie it round
the back it will do; we can't go out with our hands
all swaddled round like that. And now, please, di-
rectly you have done we want to go down again to
see the fire. Just you go up to the road corner,
mother. It's a grand sight, I can tell you."

" We will have tea first," Mrs. Andrews said de-
cidedly; " everything has been ready except pouring
the water in since eight o'clock, and it's a quarter
past nine now. After we have done I will put on
my bonnet and walk down with you as near as I can
get. I am not going to lose you out of my sight
again."

So after their meal they went down together, but

126 STURDY AND STRONG.

could not get anywhere near the works, all the ap-
proaches now being guarded by the police. It was
a grand sight, but the worst was over, and there was
a general feeling of confidence in the crowd that it
would spread no further. A dozen engines were at
work now. Some of the firemen were on the roof,
some on the stacks of timber, which looked red-hot
from the deep glow from the fire. The flames were
intermittent now, sometimes leaping up high above
the shell of the burned-out buildings, then dying
down again.

" Thank God it's no worse ! " Mrs. Andrews said
fervently. " It would have been a bad winter for a
great many down here if the fire had spread; as it
is, not a quarter of the buildings are burned."

" No, nothing like that, mother; not above a
tenth, I should say. It's lucky that there was a
strong wall between that and the next shops, or it
must all have gone. I have heard them say that
part was added on five or six years ago, so that the
wall at the end of the planing-shop was an outside
wall before; that accounts for its being so thick."

After looking on for about half ah hour they went
back home. But neither of the boys got much sleep
that night, the excitement they had gone through
and the pain of their burns keeping them wide
awake till nearly morning. As Mrs. Andrews heard
no movement in their rooms — whereas they were
usually up and about almost as early on Sundays as
on other days, being unable to sleep after their usual

FIRE I 127

hour for rising — she did not disturb them. George
was the first to awake, and looking out of the win-
dow felt sure by the light that it was later than
usual. He put his head out of the door and
shouted :

" Bill, are you up ? " There was no answer.
" Mother, are you up; what o'clock is it? "

" Up ! hours ago, George. Why, it's past
eleven ! "

George gave an exclamation of astonishment and
rushed into Bill's room. The latter had woke at
his shout.

" It's past eleven, Bill, and mother has been up
for hours;" and he dashed off again to his room to
dress. It was but a few minutes before they came
downstairs just at the same moment.

" Why didn't you wake us, mother ? "

" Because I thought it better to let you sleep on,
George. I guessed that your burns had kept you
awake for some time."

" That they did. I thought I was never going to
get to sleep," George said; and Bill gave a similar
account of himself. " Still, mother, a short night
does no harm for once, and you haven't been able to
get to church."

" It does not matter for once, George. What
figures you both are ! "

" We are figures," George said ruefully. " I
hardly knew myself when I looked in the glass.
My eyes are almost shut up, and the skin is peeling

128 STURDY AND STRONG.

off my nose, and my hair is all rough and scrubby;
and Bill looks as bad as I do. You are a figure,
'Bill ! " and George burst into a fit of laughter.

" He's no worse than you, George; but come
along, breakfast is waiting."

'"' You haven't waited breakfast for us, I hope,
mother ? "

" I made myself a cup of tea the first thing, boys,
and had a slice of bread and butter, for I thought
you might not be down for some time; but I am
quite ready to join you; we have got fish. I put
them down directly you called."

" Well, I am glad you are not starving, mother;
and I am glad too you didn't have your regular
breakfast. It would have been horrid to sit down
on Sunday morning without you, when it's the only
regular breakfast we get in the week."

Just as they had finished their meal there was a
knock at the door. It was Bob Grimstone. Bill
opened the door.

"Well, how are you to-day, lad? I thought I
would just come round and see. You look pretty
badly burned ; and so do you, George," he added, as
he followed Bill into the sitting room.

" Good-day, Mrs. Andrews."

" Good-morning, Mr. Grimstone," Mrs. Andrews
said. Since her coming the Grimstones had several
times come in on Sunday afternoon to Laburnum
Villas. Mrs. Andrews would, indeed, have wished
tfiem to come in more frequently, for she felt much

FIREt 129

indebted to them for their kindness to George, and,
moreover, liked them for themselves, for both were
good specimens of their class.

" I see you were busy last night too, Mr. Grim-
stone; your face looks scorched; but you did not
manage to get yourself burned as these silly boys
did. What a blessing it is for us all that the fire did
not spread ! "

" Well, Mrs. Andrews, I don't think those two
lads can have told you what they did, for if they had
you would hardly call them silly boys."

Mrs. Andrews looked surprised.

" They told me they lent a hand to put out the
fire — I think those were George's words — but they
did not tell me anything else."

" They saved the building, ma'am. If it hadn't
been for them there would not have been a stick or
stone of Penrose's standing now; the shops and the
wood piles would all have gone, and we should all
have been idle for six months to come; there is ho
doubt about that at all."

"Why, how was that, Mr. Grimstone? How
was it they did more than anyone else? "

" In the first place they discovered it, ma'am, and
rung the alarm-bell; it mightn't have been found
out for another five minutes, and five minutes would
have been enough for the fire. In the next place,
when they had given the alarm they did the only
thing that could have saved the place: they got
into the planing-shop and turned on the hose there,

130 STURDY AND STRONG.

and fought the fire from spreading through the door
till we got in seven or eight minutes later. It was
all we could do to stop it then; but if they hadn't
done what they did the planing-shop would have
been alight from end to end, and the floors above it
too, before the first engine arrived, and then nothing
could have saved the whole lot. I can tell you, Mrs.
Andrews, that there isn't a man on the works, nor
the wife of a man, who doesn't feel that they owe
these two lads their living through the winter. I
don't know what Mr. Penrose will say about it, but I
know what we all feel."

" Why, George," Mrs. Andrews said, while her
eyes were filled with happy tears at the praises of
her son, " why did you not tell me about it? "

" Why, mother, there was not anything to tell,"
George said, " and Bob has made a great fuss about
nothing. As I told you, we saw a light as we came
along and when we went round behind and got on
the wall we saw the place was on fire, so we rang
the alarm-bell, and then turned on the hose and
flooded the place with water till Bob and some more
came to help us."

" It sounds very simple, Mrs. Andrews, but I can
tell you it wasn't so. When we opened the door of
the planing-shop it was so full of smoke that it didn't
seem as if anyone could breathe there for a minute,
and as we could see the glare of the flames at the
other end we thought the place was gone. We
should have gone out and waited for the engines if

FIRE I 131

we hadn't heard the boys sing out that they were
there; and even though we knelt down and crawled
in, as they shouted to us to do, we were pretty nearly
stifled. When we took the hose they crawled for-
ward and got the shavings cleared away; that was
how they burned their hands, I expect; and I hear
they tumbled down insensible when they got out
Now, ma'am, they may make light of it, but if ever
two young chaps behaved like heroes they did, and
you have every right to be proud of them — I say of
them, because although Bill's no son of yours I know
he is what you and your boy have made him. He
was telling me about it one day."

" Will work go on to-morrow as usual, Bob ? "
George asked, in order to change the subject

" In some of the shops it will, no doubt," Bob
said; " but in our shop and the floors above it it will
take a day or two to clear up. I saw the foreman
just now, and he tells me that a strong gang of car-
penters will be put on, for both the floors are burned
away at the end of the wall and pretty near twenty
feet of the roof are charred. Two surveyors are
coming down this afternoon to examine the wall and
say whether it is safe. The walls of the shops that
are burned out must come down, of course. The
surveyor says that if the wall at the end of the plan-
ing-room looks pretty strong they will build up an-
other wall against it as soon as it gets cold enough
and the rubbish is cleared away for men to work;
that will make a strong job of it, and there won't bfl

13* STURDY AND STRONG.

any loss of time. Of course if the old one has to
come down there can't be much work done in the
shops till it's finished. The governor got down
about ten o'clock last night. A messenger went up
to him almost directly after the fire broke out, but
he was out at dinner, and by the time he got down
here all danger of it spreading was over. He had
a talk with the foreman and arranged about the wall
with him. He is as anxious as we are that there
should be no delay, for there are some heavy orders
in, and, of course, he doesn't want them taken any-
where else."

" Will you look at their hands, Mr. Grimstone. I
don't know much about it, but they seem to be badly
burned."

" That they are, ma'am," Mr. Grimstone said
when he had examined them; " pretty nigh raw. If
I might give an opinion, I should say as the doctor
had better see them; they are precious painful, aint
they, George?"

" They do feel as if they were on fire, Bob, but I
don't see any use in a doctor. I don't suppose he
can do more than mother has."

" Perhaps not, George, but he had better see them
for all that; he may give you some cooling lotion for
them, and I can tell you burns on the hand are apt
to be serious matters, for the muscles of the fingers
may get stiffened. I have known two or three cases
like that. You had better go at once to Dr. Max-
well; he always attends if there are any accidents at

FIREt 133

the works. You know the house, George; it is
about halfway between this and the works."

" Yes, you had better go at once, boys," Mrs. An-
drews said; " there, put on your hats and be off."

" I will walk with them. I must be off anyway,
for the missis will be waiting dinner for me,"

" Are we to pay, mother? "

" No, not till you have done, George. I dare say
you will have to have your hands dressed several
times."

" There won't be any occasion to pay him, Mrs.
Andrews. The firm always pays the doctor in case
of accidents, and you may be very sure that in this
case they will be only too glad."

" Well, in any case, George," Mrs. Andrews said,
" you can tell the doctor that you will pay when he
says that you need not come to him again. If Mr.
Penrose hears about it and chooses to pay I should
not think of refusing, as you have been burned in
his service; but certainly I should hot assume that
he will do so."

" Shall I go in with you, boys? " Bob asked when
they reached the door. " I know the doctor; he at-
tended me two years ago when I pretty nigh had my
finger taken off by one of the cutters."
" Yes, please, Bob, I wish you would."
They were shown into the surgery, where the
doctor soon joined them.

" I've brought these two young chaps for you to
look at their hands, Dr. Maxwell. They got them

134 STURDY AND STRONG.

burnt last night at the fire. Mrs. Andrews, the
mother of this lad, wished me to say that she would
pay the charges when you have done with them ; but
as if it hadn't been for them the works would have
been burnt down as sure as you are standing there,
I expect the firm will take the matter in their own
hands."

" Yes, they are nasty burns," the doctor said, ex-
amining the boys' hands. " Can you open and shut
them, boy ? "

" I think I could if Irtried, sir," George said, " but
I shouldn't like to try, for if I move my fingers at
all it hurts them awfully."

" I see you have had oil and cotton-wool on your
hands."

" Yes."

" The best thing you can do, boys, is to put on
some soothing poultices. Tell your mother to get
some linseed and mix it with olive-oil. I will give
you a bottle of laudanum. Let her put about twenty-
drops of that into the oil before she mixes it with
the linseed. Every four or five hours change the
poultices. I think you will find that will relieve the
pain a good deal. I see your faces are scorched too.
You can do nothing better than keep them moistened
with sweet-oil. I should advise you to keep as quiet
as possible for three or four days."

" But we shall want to get to work, sir," George
said.

" Nonsense ! You will be very lucky if you cad

FIRE I 135

use your hands in another fortnight. I will send
in the usual certificate to the works."

" Will you tell the foreman, Bob," George said
when they left the doctor's, " how it is we can't come
to work? You tell him we wanted to, and that we
hope to come back as soon as our hands are all right;
because, you see, the men and boys at the shops
which have been burnt down will be all out of work,
and it would be awful if we found our places filled
up when we went to work again."

" Don't you be afraid, George; there is no fear of
your being out of work after what you have
done."

" Well, what did the doctor say? " was Mrs. An-
drews' first question when they returned home.

" He Hidn't say much, mother, except that we)
must not think of going to work for a fortnight any-
how, and we are to have poultices made with linseed
mixed with oil, and twenty drops of laudanum from
this bottle, and it must be put on fresh every three
or four hours. I am afraid it will be an awful
trouble."

" The trouble won't matter," Mrs. Andrews said
brightly. " Did he say you were to go to bed ? "

" No, mother; but we were to keep as quiet as we
could."

" Then in that case, George, I think you had bet-
ter go to bed."

" No; I am sure we had better not," George said.
** I should toss and fidget about there horridly. The

136 STURDY AND STRONG.

best thing- will be for us to sit here, and then we
shall be all together. And if you talk to us, and
perhaps read to us, we shan't feel it half so much.
What are you going to do, mother? " he asked five
minutes afterwards, as Mrs. Andrews came down
with her bonnet on. 9

" I am going to get some linseed, George, of
course. I haven't got any in the house."

" But it's Sunday, mother, and the shops will be
shut."

" I shall get it at the chemist's, George. They
will always supply things that are needed even on
Sunday. People are ill on Sunday as well as any
other day, you know. I shan't be gone more than
a quarter of an hour. You muet keep very quiet
till I come back."

The boys found a good deal of relief from the
effect of the poultices, and were very much better
after a good night's rest At ten o'clock the next
morning, as Mrs. Andrews was sitting at her work,
with the boys both on the hearthrug in front of the
fire, there was a knock at the door. It was a loud
double knock, quite unlike the ordinary summons of
the baker's boy, who was the only regular caller.
The boys jumped up in surprise.

" Who can that be, mother? "

" We shall soon see," Mrs. Andrews said quietly.

She was not surprised, on opening the door, to see
a gentleman standing there, whom, by the descrip-
tion the boys had given of him, she guessed to be

FIREt 137

their employer. A little girl was standing by his
side.

" Is this Mrs. Andrews ? " the gentleman asked.

" I am Mrs. Andrews," the lady answered quietly.

" My name is Penrose. I have called with my
daughter to inquire after the two lads — one of them
your son, I believe — who so gallantly saved my place
from being burned down on Saturday evening. I
only heard about it late yesterday evening, when I
came down to arrange about some matters with the
foreman. He did not know the facts of the case
on Saturday night, but had learned them yesterday,
and there can be no doubt whatever, from what he
says, that had it not been for the presence of mind
and bravery of these two lads nothing could have
saved the entire works and all the wood piles from
destruction. I told my daughter this morning, and
she insisted on coming down with me. You know
she is already indebted to your son for saving a
locket which we both greatly valued."

"Will you walk in, sir?" and Mrs. Andrews
showed, them into the sitting room.

Mr. Penrose had been somewhat surprised by
Mrs. Andrews' manner, although the foreman, in
telling him of the boys' conduct, had also stated
what he knew about them.

" They are out-of-the-way sort of boys, sir," he
said. " There was quite a talk about them in the
shops in the spring. They lodged with Grimstone,
and it seems that after they had been here at work

I38 STURDY AND STRONG.

five months Andrews' mother, who had fen ill, was
coming to them, and they got Grimstone to take a
house for them, and it turned out that ever since
they had been at work here they had been putting by
half their wages to furnish a place for her, so they
must have lived on abo'it five shillings a week each
and got clothes for themselves out of it Now, sir,
boys as would do that aint ordinary boys, and there
was quite a talk among the men about it. I hear
from Grimstone that Mrs. Andrews is a superior
sort of person, he says quite a lady. She does work,
I believe, for some London shop."

Mr. Penrose, therefore, wa^ prepared to find the
boys in a more comfortable abode than usual, and
their mother what the foreman called a superior sort
of woman; but he perceived at once by her address
that Grimstone's estimate had been a correct one,
and that she was indeed a lady. The prettiness of
the little sitting room, with its comfortable furni-
ture, its snowy curtains and pretty belongings,
heightened this feeling.

" I have come to see you, boys," he said, " and to
tell you how indebted I feel to you for your exer-
tions on Saturday. There is no doubt that had it
hot been for you the place would have been entirely
burned. It was fully insured, but it would have
been a serious matter for me, as I should have lost
four or five months' work, and it would have been
still more serious for the men to have been thrown
out of employment at this time of the year, so we all

FIREI 139

feel very much indebted to you. I hope you are not
much burned."

" Oh, no, sir ! our hands are burned a bit, but they
will be all right in a few days. Bill and I are very
glad, sir, that we happened to be passing, and were
able to give the alarm and do something to stop the
flames till the others came up; but we don't feel that
it was anything out of the way. It was just a piece
of fun and excitement to us."

" They didn't say anything about it, Mr. Penrose,
when they came home, and it was only when one of
the men came in next day to ask after them that I
heard that they had really been of use."

" It is all very well to say so, lads," Mr. Penrose
replied; " but there is no doubt you showed a great
deal. of courage, as well as presence of mind, and
you may be sure that I shall not forget it. And
now, Mrs. Andrews," he said, turning round to her,
" I feel rather in a false position. I came round to
see the lads, who, when I last saw them, were not
in very flourishing circumstances, and I was going
to make them a present for the service they had done
me, and my daughter has brought them a basket
with some wine, jelly, and other things such as are
good for sick boys. Finding them as I find them,
in your care and in such a home, you see I feel a diffi-
culty about it altogether."

" Thank you, sir," Mrs. Andrews said, " for the!
kindness of your intention; but my boys — for al-
though one is in no way; related to me I feel towards

140 STURDY AND STRONG.

him as if he were my own — would not like to take
money for doing their duty towards their employer."

" No, indeed ! " George and Bill exclaimed simul-
taneously.

" As you see, sir, thanks to the work you were
good enough to give the boys and to my needle," — •
and she glanced towards the articles on the table, —
" we are very comfortable; but I am sure the boys
will be very glad to accept the things which your
daughter has been so kind as to bring down for
them, and will feel very much obliged for her
thoughtf ulness. "

" That is right," Mr. Penrose said, relieved.
" Nelly, you may as well leave the basket as it is.
I am sure you don't want to carry it back again ? "

" No, papa," Nelly said; and indeed even the
empty basket would have been more than the child
could well have carried. It had come on the top of
the carriage to the railway-station, and a porter had
accompanied Mr. Penrose with it to Laburnum
Villas.

" You would have hardly known your young
friend. Would you, Nelly?"

" I don't think I should," she said, shaking her
head. " He looks dreadfully burned, and his hair
is all funny and frizzled."

" It will soon grow again," George said, smiling.
" The doctor says our faces will be all right when
the skin is peeled off. Thank you very much, Miss
Penrose, for all the nice things. It was a fortunate

FIREt 141

day indeed for us when I caught that boy stealing
your locket."

" And it was a fortunate day for us too," Mr.
Penrose responded. " Now, Mrs. Andrews, we will
say good-by. You will not mind my calling again
to see how the boys are getting on? "

" It will be very kind of you, sir, and we shall be?
glad to see you," Mrs. Andrews replied; " but I hope
in a few days they will both be out of the doctor's
hands."

" I can't shake hands with you," Mr. Penrose said,
patting the boys on the shoulder, " but I hope next
time I see you to be able to do so. Good-morning,
Mrs. Andrews."

CHAPTER VIE

SAVED !

" Now let us have a look at the basket, mother,"
George said as Mrs. Andrews returned into the
room after seeing her two visitors off. "It's very
kind of him, isn't it ? and I am glad he didn't offer us
money; that would have been horrid, wouldn't it? "

" I am glad he did not, too, George. Mr. Pen-
rose is evidently a gentleman of delicacy and refine-
ment of feeling, and he saw that he would give pain
if he did so."

" You see it too, don't you, Bill ? " George asked.
" You know you thought I was a fool not to take
money when he offered it for getting back the locket;
but you see it in the same way now, don't you? "

;< Yes; I shouldn't have liked to take money,"
Bill said. " I sees "

" See," Mrs. Andrews corrected.

" Thank you. I see things different — differ-
ently," he corrected himself, seeing that George was
about to speak, " to what I did then."

" Now, mother," George said, " let us open the
basket; it's almost as big as a clothes-basket,
isn't it?"

a*

SA VED t 143

The cover was lifted and the contents, which had
after much thought been settled by Nelly herself,
were disclosed. There were two bottles of port-
wine, a large mold of jelly, a great cake, two dozen
oranges, some apples, a box of preserved fruit, some
almonds and raisins, two packets of Everton toffee,
a dozen mince-pies, and four pots of black-currant
jelly, on the cover of one of which was written in a
sprawling hand, " Two teaspoonfuls stirred up in
a tumbler of water for a drink at night."

"This will make a grand feast, mother; what a
jolly collection, isn't it ? I think Miss Penrose must
have chosen it herself, don't you ? "

" It certainly looks like it, George," Mrs. An-
drews replied, smiling. " I do not think any grown-
up person would have chosen mince-pies and toffee
as appropriate for sick boys."

" Yes; but she must have known we were not
badly burned, mother; and besides, you see, she put
in currant-jelly to make drinks, and there are the
oranges too. I vote that we have an orange and
some toffee at once, Bill."

" I have tasted oranges," Bill said, " lots of them
in the market, but I never tasted toffee."

" It's first-rate, I can tell you."

" Why, they look like bits of tin," Bill said as the
packet was opened.

George burst into a laugh.

" That's tin-foil, that's only to wrap it up; you
peel that off, Bill, and you will find the toffee inside.

144 STURDY AND STRONG.

Now, mother, you have a glass of wine and a piece
of cake."

" I will have a piece of cake, George; but I am
not going to open the wine. We will put that by in
case of illness or of any very extraordinary occa-
sion."

" I am glad the other things won't keep, mother,
or I expect you would be wanting to put them all
away. Isn't this toffee good, Bill ? "

"First-rate," Bill agreed. "What is it made
of?"

" Sugar and butter melted together over the fire."

" You are like two children," Mrs. Andrews
laughed, " instead of boys getting on for sixteen
years old. Now I must clear this table again and
get to work; I promised these four bonnets should
be sent in to-morrow morning, and there's lots to be
done to them yet."

It was three weeks before the boys were able to
go to work again. The foreman came round on
Saturdays with their wages. Mr. Penrose called
again; this time they were out, but he chatted for
some time with Mrs. Andrews.

" I don't wish to pry into your affairs, Mrs. An-
drews," he said, after asking about the boys; "but
I have a motive for asking if your son has, as I sup-
pose he has, from his way of speaking, had a fair
education."

" He was at school up to the age of twelve," Mrs.
Andrews said quietly; " circumstances at that time

SAVED I 145

obliged me to remove him; but I have since done
what I could myself towards continuing his educa-
tion, and he still works regularly of an evening."

" Why I ask, Mrs. Andrews, was that I should
like in time to place him in the counting-house. I
say in time, because I think it will be better for him
for the next two or three years to continue, to work
in the shops. I will have him moved from shop to
shop so as to learn thoroughly the various branches
of the business. That is what I should do had I a
son of my own to bring into the business. It will
make him more valuable afterwards, and fit him to
take a good position either in my shops or in any
similar business should an opening occur."

" I am greatly obliged to you, sir," Mrs. Andrews
said gratefully; " though I say it myself, a better
boy never lived."

" I am sure he is by what I have heard of him>
and I shall be only too glad, after the service he has
rendered me, to do everything in my power to push
him forward. His friend, I hear, has not had the
same advantages. At the time I first saw him he
looked a regular young arab."

" So he was, sir; but he is a fine young fellow.
He was very kind to my boy when he was alone in
London, and gave up his former life to be with him.
George taught him to read before I came here, and
he has worked hard ever since. No one .could be
nicer in the house than he is, and had I been his own
mother he could not be more dutiful or anxious to

146 STURDY AND STRONG.

please. Indeed I may say that I am indebted for
my home here as much to him as to my own
boy."

" I am glad to hear you say so, Mrs. Andrews, for
of course I should wish to do something for him too.
At any rate, I will give him, like your son, every
opportunity of learning the business, and he will in
time be fit for a position of foreman of a shop — by
no means a bad one for a lad who has had such a
beginning as he has had. After that, of course, it
must depend upon himself. I think, if you will
allow me to suggest, it would be as well that you
should not tell them the nature of our conversation.
Of course it is for you to decide; but, however steady
boys they are, it might make them a little less able
to get on well with their associates in a shop if they
know that they are going to be advanced."

" I don't think it would make any difference to
them, sir; but at the same time I do think it would
be as well not to tell them."

One day Bill was out by himself as the men were
coming out of the shop, aiid he stopped to speak to
Bob Grimstone.

" Oh ! I am glad to find you without George,"
Bob said; "'cause I want to talk to you. Look
here! the men in all the shops have made a subscrip-
tion to give you and George a present. Everyone
feels that it's your doing that we have not got to
idle all this winter, and when someone started the
idea there wasn't a man in the two shops that didn't

SA VED ! 147

agree with him. I am the treasurer, I am, and it's
come to just thirty pounds. Now I don't know
what you two boys would like, whether you would
like it in money, or whether you would like it in
something else, so I thought I would ask you first.
I thought you would know what George would like,
seeing what friends you are, and then you know it
would come as a surprise to him. Now, what do
you say ? "

" Its very kind of you," Bill said. " I am sure
George would like anything better than money, and
so should I."

" Well, you think it over, Bill, and let me know
in a day or two. We were thinking of a watch "for
each of you, with an inscription, saying it was pre-
sented to you by your shopmates for having saved
the factory, and so kept them at work for months
just at the beginning of winter. That's what
seemed to me that you would like; but if there is
anything you would like better, just you say so.
You come down here to-morrow or next day, when
you have thought it over, and give me an answer.
.Of course you can consult George if you think
best."

Bill met Bob Grimstone on the following day.

" I have thought it over," he said, " and I know
what George and me would like better than any
possible thing you could get"

"Well, what is it, Bill?"

" Well, what we have set our minds on, and what

148 STURDY AND STRONG.

we were going to save up our money to get, was a
piano for George's mother. I heard her say that we
could get a very nice one for about thirty pounds,
and it would be splendid if you were all to give it
her."

" Very well, Bill, then a piano it shall be. I know
a chap as works at Kirkman's, and I expect he will
be able to give us a good one for the money."

Accordingly on the Saturday afternoon before the
boys were going to work again, Mrs. Andrews and
George were astonished at seeing a cart stop before
the house, and the foreman, Bob Grimstone, and
four other men coming up to the door.

Bill ran and opened the door, and the men entered.
He had been apprised of the time that they might
be expected, and at once showed them in.

" Mrs. Andrews," the foreman said, " I and my
mates here are a deputation from the hands em-
ployed in the shop, and we have come to offer you a
little sort of testimonial of what we feel we owe your
son and Bill Smith for putting out the fire and sav-
ing the shops. If it hadn't been for them it would
have been a bad winter for us all. So after think-
ing it over and finding out what form of testimonial
the lads would like best, we have got you a piano,
which we hope you may live long to play on and
enjoy. We had proposed to give them a watch
each; but we found that they would rather that it
took the form of a piano."

" Oh, how good and kind of you all ! " Mrs. An-

SAVED t 149

clrews said, much affected. " I shall indeed be
proud of your gift, both for itself and for the kind
feeling towards my boys which it expresses."

" Then, ma'am, with your permission we will just
'bring it in;" and the deputation retired to assist with
the piano.

" Oh, boys, how could you do it without telling
me ! " Mrs. Andrews exclaimed.

George had hitherto stood speechless with sur-
prise.

" But I didn't know anything about it, mother.
I don't know what they mean by saying that we
would rather have it than watches. Of course we
would, a hundred times; but I don't know how they
knew it."

" Then it must have been your kind thought,
Bill."

" It wasn't no kind thought, Mrs. Andrews, but
they spoke to me about it, and I knew that a piano
was what we should like better than anything else,
and I didn't say anything about it, because Bob
Grimstone thought that it would be nicer to be a sur-
prise to George as well as to you."

" You are right, old boy," George said, shaking
Bill by the hand; " why, there never was such a good
idea; it is splendid, mother, isn't it?"

The men now appeared at the door with the
piano. This was at once placed in the position
which had long ago been decided upon as the best
place for the piano when it should come. Mrs. Ah-

I$0 STURDY AND STRONG.

drews opened it, and there on the front was a silver
plate with the inscription :

" To Mrs. Andrews from the Employees at
Messrs. Penrose & Co., in token of their gratitude to
George Andrews and William Smith for their cour-
age and presence of mind, by which the factory was
saved from being destroyed by fire on Saturday the
23d of October, 1857."

The tears which stood in Mrs. Andrews' eyes ren-
dered it difficult for her to read the inscription.

" I thank you, indeed," she said. " Now, per-
haps you would like to hear its tones." So saying
she sat down and played " Home, Sweet Home."
" It has a charming touch," she said as she rose,
" and, you see, the air was an appropriate one, for
your gift will serve to make home even sweeter than
before. Give, please, my grateful thanks, and those
of my boys, to all who have subscribed."

The inhabitants of No. 8 Laburnum Villas had
long been a subject of considerable discussion
and interest to their neighbors, for the appearance
of the boys as they came home of an evening
in their working clothes seemed altogether incon-
gruous with that of their mother and with the
neatness and prettiness of the villa, and was, indeed,
considered derogatory to the respectability of
Laburnum Villas in general. Upon this even-
ing they were still further mystified at hearing
the notes of a female voice of great power and sweet-
ness, accompanied by a piano, played evidently by

SAVED f 151

an accomplished musician, issuing from the house.
As to the boys, they thought that, next only to that
of the home-coming of Mrs. Andrews, never was
such a happy evening spent in the world.

I do not think that in all London there was a
household that enjoyed that winter more than did
the inmates of No. 8 Laburnum Villas. Their total
earnings were about thirty-five shillings a week,
much less than that of many a mechanic, but ample
for them not only to live, but to live in comfort and
even refinement. No stranger, who had looked into
the pretty drawing room in the evening, would have
tireamed that the lady at the piano worked as a
milliner for her living, or that the lads were boys in
a manufactory.

When spring came they began to plan various
trips and excursions which could be taken on bank
holidays or during the long summer evenings, when
an event happened which, for a time, cut short all
their plans. The word had been passed round the
shops the first thing in the morning that Mr. Pen-
rose was coming down with a party of ladies and
gentlemen to go over the works, and that things were
to be made as tidy as possible.

Accordingly there was a general clearing up, and
vast quantities of shavings and sawdust were swept
up from the floors, although when the machines had
run again for a few hours no one would have
thought that a broom had been seen in the place for
weeks.

152 STURDY AND STRONG.

George was now in a shop where a number of
machines were at work grooving, mortising, and
performing other work to prepare the wood for
builders' purposes. The party arrived just as work
had recommenced after dinner.

There were ten or twelve gentlemen and as many
ladies. Nelly Penrose, with two girls about her
own age, accompanied the party. They stopped for
a time in each shop while Mr. Penrose explained the
nature of the work and the various points of the
machinery.

They had passed through most of the other rooms
before they entered that in which George was en-
gaged, and the young girls, taking but little interest
in the details of the machinery, wandered somewhat
away from the rest of the party, chatting among
themselves. George had his eye upon them, and
was wishing that Mr. Penrose would turn round and
speak to them, for they were moving about carelessly
and not paying sufficient heed to the machinery.

Suddenly he threw down his work and darted for-
ward with a shout; but he was too late, a revolving
band had caught Nelly Penrose's dress. In an in-
stant she was dragged forward and in another mo-
ment would have been whirled into the middle of
the machinery.

There was a violent scream, followed by a sudden
crash and a harsh grating sound, and then the whole
of the machinery on that side of the room came to
a standstill. For a moment no one knew what had

SAVED! 153

happened. Mr. Penrose and some of his friends
rushed forward to raise Nelly. Her hand was held
fast between the band and the pulley, and the band
had to be cut to relieve it.

" What an escape ! what an escape ! " Mr. Penrose
murmured, as he lifted her. " Another second and
nothing could have saved her. But what stopped
the machinery ? " and for the first time he looked
round the shop. There was a little group of men a
few yards away, and, having handed Nelly, who was
crying bitterly, for her hand was much bruised, to
one of the ladies, he stepped towards them. The
foreman came forward to meet him.

" I think, sir, you had better get the ladies out of
the shop. I am afraid young Andrews is badly
hurt.

" How is it? What is the matter? " Mr. Penrose
asked.

" I think, sir, he saw the danger your daughter
was in, and shoved his foot in between two of the
cog-wheels."

" You don't say so ! " Mr. Penrose exclaimed, as
he pushed forward among the men.

Two of them were supporting George Andrews,
who, as pale as death, lay in their arms. One of his
feet was jammed in between two of the cog-wheels.
He was scarcely conscious.

" Good Heavens," Mr. Penrose exclaimed in a
low tone, "his foot must be completely crushed!
Have you thrown off the driving belt, Williams? '*

154 STURDY AND STRONG.

11 Yes, sir, I did that first thing."

" That's right; now work away for your lives,
lads." This was said to two men who had already
seized spanners and were unscrewing the bolts of
the bearings in order to enable the upper shafting to
be lifted and the cog-wheel removed. Then Mr.
Penrose returned to his friends.

" Pray leave the shop," he said, " and go down
into the office. There's been a bad accident; a noble
young fellow has sacrificed himself to save Nelly's
life, and is, I fear, terribly hurt. Williams, send off
a man instantly for the surgeon. Let him jump
into one of the cabs he will find waiting at the gate,
and tell the man to drive as hard as he can go. If
Dr. Maxwell is not at home let him fetch someone
else."

George had indeed sacrificed himself to save Nelly
Penrose. When he saw the band catch her dress he
had looked round for an instant for something with
which to stop the machinery, but there was nothing
at hand, and without an instant's hesitation he had
thrust his foot between the cog-wheels. He had on
very heavy, thickly nailed working boots, and the
iron-bound sole threw the cogs out of gear and bent
the shaft, thereby stopping the machinery. George
felt a dull, sickening pain, which seemed to numb-
and paralyze him all over, and he remembered little
more until, on the shafting being removed, his foot
was extricated and he was laid gently down on a
heap of shavings. The first thing he realized when

SAVED! 155

he was conscious was that someone was pouring
some liquid, which half-choked him, down his throat.

When he opened his eyes, Mr. Penrose, kneeling
beside him, was supporting his head, while on the
other side knelt Bill Smith, the tears streaming down
his cheeks and struggling to suppress his sobs.

" What is it, Bill ? What's the matter? " Then
the remembrance of what had passed flashed upon
him.

" Is she safe; was I in time? "

" Quite safe, my dear boy. Thank God, your
noble sacrifice was not in vain," Mr. Penrose an-
swered with quivering lips, for he too had the
greatest difficulty in restraining his emotion.

" Am I badly hurt, sir ? " George asked after a
pause, " because, if so, will you please send home for
mother ? I don't feel in any pain, but I feel strange
and weak."

"It is your foot, my boy. I fear that it is badly
crushed, but otherwise you are unhurt. Your boot
threw the machinery out of gear."

In ten minutes the doctor arrived. He had al-
ready been informed of the nature of the accident.

" Is it any use trying to cut the boot off? " Mr.
Penrose asked in a low voice as Dr. Maxwell stooped
over George's leg.

" Not the slightest," the doctor answered in the
same tone. " The foot is crushed to a pulp. It
must come off at the ankle. Nothing can save it.
He had better be taken home at once. You had best

156 STURDY ANU STRONG.

send to Guy's and get an operating surgeon for him.
I would rather it were done by someone whose hand
is more used than mine to this sort of work."

" I am a governor of Guy's," Mr. Penrose said,
" and will send off at once for one of their best men.
You are not afraid of the case, I hope, Dr. Max-
well?"

" Not of the local injury," Dr. Maxwell replied;
" but the shock to the system of such a smash is very
severe. However, he has youth, strength, and a
good constitution, so we must hope for the best.
The chances are all in his favor. We are thinking
of taking you home, my boy," he went on, speaking
aloud to George. " Are you in any great pain ? "

"I am not in any pain, sir; only I feel awfully
cold, and, please, will someone go on before and
tell mother. Bill had better not go; he would
frighten her to death and make her think it was
much worse than it is."

" I will go myself," Mr. Penrose replied. " I will
prepare her for your coming."

" Drink some more of this brandy," the doctor
said; " that will warm you and give you strength for
your journey."

There was a stretcher always kept at the works
in case of emergency, and George was placed on
this and covered with some rugs. Four of the men
raised it onto their shoulders and set out, Mr. Pen-
rose at once driving on to prepare Mrs. Andrews.

Bill followed the procession heart-broken. When

SAVED! 157

it neared home he fell behind and wandered away,
not being able to bring himself to witness the grief
of Mrs. Andrews. For hours he wandered about,
sitting down in waste places and crying as if his
heart would break. " If it had been me it wouldn't
have mattered," he kept on exclaiming — " wouldn't
have mattered a bit. It wouldn't have been no odds
one way or the other. There, we have always been
together in the shops till this week, and now when
.we get separated this is what comes of it. Here am
I, walking about all right, and George all crushed
up, and his mother breaking her heart. Why, I
would rather a hundred times that they had smashed
me up all over than have gone and hurt George like
that!"

It was dark before he made his way back, and,
entering at the back door, took off his boots, and was
about to creep upstairs when Mrs. Andrews came
out of the kitchen.

" Oh, Mrs. Andrews ! " he exclaimed, and the
tears again burst from him.

" Do not cry, Bill ; George is in God's hands, and
the doctors have every hope that he will recover.
They are upstairs with him now, with a nurse whom
Mr. Penrose has fetched down from the hospital.
He will have to lose his foot, poor boy," she added
with a sob that she could not repress, " but we
should feel very thankful that it is no worse after
such an accident as that. The doctor says that his
thick boots saved him. If it hadn't been for that

153 STURDY AND STRONG.

his whole leg would have been drawn into the ma-
chinery, and then nothing could have saved him.
Now I must go upstairs, as I only came down for
some hot water."

" May I go up to him, Mrs. Andrews? "

" I think, my boy, you had better stop down here
for the present for both your sakes. I will let you
know when you can go up to him."

So Bill crouched before the fire and waited. He
heard movements upstairs and wondered what they
were doing and why they didn't keep quiet, and
when he would be allowed to go up. Once or twice
the nurse came down for hot water, but Bill did not
speak to her; but in half ah hour Mrs. Andrews her-
self returned, looking, Bill thought, even paler than
before.

" I have just slipped down to tell you, my boy,
that it's all over. They gave him chloroform, and
have taken his foot off."

" And didn't it hurt it awful ? " Bill asked in an
awed voice.

" Not in the least. He knew nothing about it,
and the first thing he asked when he came to was
•when-they were going to begin. They will be going
away directly, and then you can come up and sit
quietly in his room if you like. The doctors say he
will probably drop asleep."

Bill was obliged to go outside again and wrestle
with himself before he felt that he was fit to go up
into George's room. It was a long struggle, and

SAVED I 159

had George caught his muttered remonstrances to
himself he would have felt that Bill had suffered a
bad relapse into his former method of talking. It
came out in jerks between his sobs.

" Come, none of that now. Aint yer ashamed of
yerself , a-howling and a-blubbering like a gal ! Call
yerself a man! — you are a babby, that's what
you are. Now, dry up, and let's have no more
of it."

3ut it was a long time before he again mastered
himself; then he went to the scullery and held his
head under the tap till the water took away his
breath, then polished his face till it shone, and then
went and sat quietly down till Mrs. Andrews came
in and told him that he could go upstairs to George.
He went up to the bedside and took George's hand,
but he could hot trust himself to speak.

" Well, Bill, old boy," George said cheerily, but in
a somewhat lower voice than usual, " this is a sud-
den go, isn't it ? "

Bill nodded. He was still speechless.

" Don't you take it to heart, Bill," George said,
feeling that the lad was shaking from head to foot.
" It won't make much odds, you know. I shall soon
be about again all right. I expect they will be able
to put on an artificial foot, and I shall be stumping
about as well as ever, though I shouldn't be much
good at a race."

"I wish it had been me," Bill broke out "I
[Would have jammed my head in between them

l6c STURDY AND STRONG.

wheels cheerful, that I would, rather than you
should have gone and done it."

" Fortunately there was no time," George said
with a smile. "Don't you fret yourself, Bill; one
can get on well enough without a foot, and it didn't
hurt me a bit coming off. No, nor the squeeze
either, not regular hurting; it was just a sort of
scrunch, and then I didn't feel anything more.
Why, I have often hurt myself ten times as much at
play and thought* nothing of it. I expect it looked
much worse to you than it felt to me."

"We will talk of it another time," Bill said
huskily. " Your mother said I wasn't to talk, and
I wasn't to let you talk, but just to sit down here
quiet, and you are to try to go off to sleep." So
saying he sat down by the bedside. George asked
one or two more questions, but Bill only shook his
head. Presently George closed his eyes,' and a short
time afterwards his quiet regular breathing showed
that he was asleep.

The next six weeks passed pleasantly enough to
George, Every day hampers containing flowers
and various niceties in the way of food were sent
down by Mr. Penrose, and that gentleman himself
very frequently called in for a chat with him. As
soon as the wound had healed an instrument-maker
came down from town to measure him for an arti-
ficial foot, but before he was able to wear this he
could get about on crutehes.

The first day that he was downstairs Mr. Pen-

SAVED I l6l

rose brought Nelly down to see him. The child
looked pale and awed as he came in.

" My little girl has asked me to thank you for
her, George," Mr. Penrose said as she advanced
timidly and placed her hand in his. " I have not
said much to you about my own feelings and I won't
say much about hers; but you can understand what
we both feel. Why, my boy, it was a good Provi-
dence, indeed, which threw you in my way! I
thought so when you saved the mill from destruc-
tion. I feel it tenfold more now that you have
saved my child. The ways of God are, indeed,
strange. Who would have thought that all this
could have sprung from that boy snatching the
locket from Helen as we came out of the theater!
And now about the future, George. I owe you a
great debt, infinitely greater than I can ever repay;
but what I can do I will. In the future I shall re-
gard you as my son, and I hope that you will look
to me as to a father. I have been talking to your
mother, and she says that she thinks your tastes lie
altogether in the direction of engineering. Is that
so?"

" Yes, sir. I have often thought I would rather
be an engineer than anything else, but I don't
like "

" Never mind what you like and what you don't
like," Mr. Penrose said quietly. " You belong to
me now, you knowx and must do as you are told.
What I propose is this, that you shall go to a good

162 STURDY AND STRONG.

school for another three years, and I will then ap-
prentice you to a first-class engineer, either mechan-
ical or civil as you may then prefer, and when you
have learned your business I will take good care
that you are pushed on. What do you say to
that?"

"I think it is too much altogether," George
said.

" Never mind about that," Mr. Penrose said,
" that is my business. If that is the only objection
we can imagine it settled. There is another thing.
I know how attached you are to your friend Bill,
and I am indebted to him, too, for the part he played
at the fire, so I propose, if he is willing, to put him
to a good middle-class school for a bit. In the
course of a couple of years he will get a sufficient
education to get on fairly with, and then I propose,
according as you may choose to be a civil or me-
chanical engineer, to place him with a mason or
smith; then by the time that you are ready to start
in business he will be ready to take a place under
you, so that you may again work together."

" Oh, thank you, sir!" George exclaimed, even
more pleased at the news relating to Bill than at his
own good fortune, great as was the delight which
the prospect opened by Mr. Penrose's offer caused
him.

As soon as George could be moved, Mr. Penrose
sent him with his mother and Bill down to the sea-
side. Here George rapidly regained strength, and

SAVED! 163

when, after a stay there of two months, he returned
to town, he was able to walk so well with his arti-
ficial foot that his loss would not have been noticed
by a stranger.

The arrangements settled by Mr. Penrose were
all in due time carried out. George went for three
years to a good school, and was then apprenticed to
one of the leading civil engineers. With him he
remained five years and then went out for him to
survey a railroad about to be constructed in Brazil,
and remained there as one of the staff who super-
intended its construction. Bill, who was now a
clever young mason, accompanied him, and through
George's interest with the contractor obtained the
sub-contract for the masonry of some of the bridges
and culverts.

This was ten years ago, and George Andrews is
now one of the most rising engineers of the day, and
whatever business he undertakes his friend Bill is
still his right-hand man. Mr. Penrose has been in
all respects as good as his word, and has been ready
to assist George with his personal influence in all
his undertakings, and in all respects has treated him
as a son, while Nelly has regarded him with the
affection of a sister.

Both George and Bill have been married some
years, and Mrs. Andrews the elder is one of the
proudest and happiest of mothers. She still lives
with her son at the earnest request of his wife, who
ss often left alone during George's frequent ab-

164 STURDY AND STRONG.

sence abroad on professional duties. As for Bill, he
has not even yet got over his wonder at his own
good fortune, and ever blesses the day when he first
met George in Covent Garden.

DO YOUR DUTY.

EARLY in the month of March, 1801, an old sailor
was sitting on a bench gazing over the stretch of sea
which lies between Hayling Island and the Isle of
Wight. The prospect was a lively one, for in those
days ships of war were constantly running in and
out, and great convoys of merchantmen sailed under
the protection of our cruisers ; and the traffic between
Spithead and Portsmouth resembled that of a much
frequented road.

Peter Langley had been a boatswain in the king's
service, and had settled down in his old age on a pen-
sion, and lived in a small cottage near the western
extremity of Hayling Island. Here he could see
what was going on at Spithead, and when he needed
a talk with his old " chums " could get into his boat,
which was lying hauled up on the sand, and with
a good wind arrive in an hour at the Hard. He was
sitting at present on a portion of a wreck thrown up
by a very high tide on the sandy slope, when his
meditations were disturbed by a light step behind
him, and a lad in a sailor's dress, some fifteen years
of age, with a bright honest face, came running
down behind him.

"Hallo, dad!"

166 DO YOUR DUTY.

" Hallo, my boy ! Bless me, who'd ha* thought
o' seeing you ! " and the old man clasped the boy in
his arms in a way that showed the close relationship
between the two. " I didn't expect you for another
week."

" No ! we've made a quick passage of it," the boy
said; " fine wind all the way up, with a gale or two
in the right quarter. We only arrived in the river
on Monday, and as soon as we were fairly in dock I
got leave to run down to see you."

" What were you in such a hurry for? " the old
sailor said. " It's the duty of every hand to stop
by the ship till she's cleared out."

" I have always stayed before till the crew were
paid off; but no sooner had we cast anchor than one
of the owners came on board, and told the captain
that another cargo was ready, that the ship was to
be unloaded with all speed, and to take in cargo and
sail again in a fortnight at the utmost, as a fleet was
on the point of sailing for the West Indies under a
strong convoy."

"A fortnight! That's sharp work," the old
sailor said. " And the goods will have to be bundled
out and in again with double speed. I know what
it will be. You will be going out with the paint all
wet, and those lubbers the stevedores will rub it off
as fast as it's put on. Well, a few days at sea will
shake all down into its place. But how did you get
leave?"

" I am rather a favorite with the first officer,"

DO YOUR DUTY. 167

lad said. " The men who desired to leave were to
be discharged at once and a fresh gang taken on
board, so I asked him directly the news came round
if I might have four days away. He agreed at once,
Sand I came down by the night coach; and here I am
for eight-and- forty hours."

" It's a short stay," the old sailor said, " after
more than a year away, but we mustn't waste the
time in regretting it. You've grown, Harry, and
are getting on fast. In another couple of years
you'll be fit to join a king's ship. I suppose you've
got over your silly idea about sticking to the mer-
chant service. It's all very well to learn your busi-
ness there as a boy, and I grant that in some things
a merchantman is a better school than a king's ship.
They have fewer hands, and each man has to do
more and to learn to think for himself. Still, after
all, there's no place like a saucy frigate for excite-
ment and happiness."

" I don't know, dad," the boy said. " I have been
learning a little navigation. The first officer has
been very kind to me, and I hope in the course of
two or three years to pass and get a berth as a third
mate. Still, I should like three or four years on
board a man-of-war."

" I should think so," the old sailor said, " for a
man ought to do his duty to his country."

" But there are plenty of men to do their duty to
their country," the boy said.

" Not a bit of it ! " the sailor exclaimed. " There's

168 DO YOUR DUTY.

a great difficulty in finding hands for the navy.
Everyone wants to throw their duty upon everyone
else. They all hanker after the higher wages and
loafing life on board a merchantman, and hate to
keep themselves smart and clean as they must do in
a king's ship. If I had my way, every tar should
serve at least five years of his life on board a man-of-
war. It is above all things essential, Harry, that
you should do your duty."

" I am ready to do my duty, dad," the boy said,
" when the time comes. I do it how to the best of
my power, and I have in my pocket a letter from the
first officer to you. He told you when you went
down with me to see me off on my last voyage
that he would keep an eye upon me, and he has
done so."

" That's right," the old man said. " As you say,
Harry, a man may do his duty anywhere; still, for
all that, it is part of his duty, if he be a sailor, to help
his majesty, for a time at least, against his enemies.
Look at me. Why, I served man and boy for nigh
fifty years, and was in action one way and another
over a hundred times, and here I am now with a
snug little pension, and as comfortable as his gra-
cious majesty himself. What can you want more
than that?"

" I don't know that I can want more," the boy
said, " in its way, at least; but there are other ways
in the merchant service. I might command a ship
by the time I am thirty, and be my own master in-

DO YOUR DUTY. 169

stead of being a mere part of a machine. I have
heard the balls flying too," he said, laughing.

" What ! did you have a brush with Mounseer ? "
the old tar said, greatly interested.

" Yes; we had a bit of a fight with a large pri-
vateer off the coast of Spain. Fortunately the old
bark carries a long eighteen, as well as her twelves,
and when the Frenchman found that we could play
at long bowls as well as himself he soon drew off,
but not before we had drilled a few holes in his sails
and knocked away a bit of his bulwarks."

"Were you hit, Harry?"

" Yes, two or three shots hulled her, but they did
little damage beyond knocking away a few of the
fittings and frightening the lady passengers. We
had a strong crew, and a good many were sorry that
the skipper did not hide his teeth and let the French-
man come close before he opened fire. We should
like to have towed him up the river with our flag
over the tricolor."

" There, you see, Harry," the old sailor said,
" you were just as ready to fight as if you had been
oh a man-of-war; and while in a sailing ship you
only get a chance if one of these privateers happens
to see you, in a king's ship you go looking about for
an enemy, and when you see one the chances are he
is bigger, instead of smaller, than yourself."

" Ah ! well, dad, we shall never quite agree on it,
I expect," the boy said; " but for all that, I do mean
to serve for a few years in a man-of-war. I expect

17° DO YOUR DUTY.

that we may have a chance of seeing some fighting1
in the West Indies. There are, they say, several
French cruisers in that direction, and although we
shall have a considerable convoy the Frenchmen
generally have the legs of our ships. I believe that
some of the vessels of the convoy are taking out
troops, and that we are going to have a slap at some
of the French islands. Has there been any news
here since I went ? "

" Nothing beyond a few rows with the smugglers.
The revenue officers have a busy time here. There's
no such place for smuggling on the coast as between
Portsmouth and Chichester. These creeks are just
the places for smugglers, and there's so much traffic
in the Channel that a solitary lugger does not attract
the attention of the coastguard as it does where the
sea's more empty. However, I don't trouble my-
self one way or the other about it. I may know a
good deal of the smuggling, or I may not, but it's
no business of mine. If it were my duty to lend a
hand to the coast-guard, I should do it; but as it
isn't, I have no ill-will to the smugglers, and am
content enough to get my spirits cheap."

" But, dad, surely it's your duty to prevent the
king being cheated ? " Harry said with a smile.

" If the king himself were going to touch the
money," the old sailor said sturdily, " I would lend
a hand to see that he got it, but there's no saying
where this money would have gone. Besides, if the
spirits hadn't been run, they would not have been

DO YOUR DUTY. 171

brought over here at all, so after all the revenue is
hone the worse for the smuggling-."

The boy laughed. " You can cheat yourself, dad,
when you like, but you know as well as I do that
smuggling's dishonest, and that those who smuggle
cheat the revenue."

" Ah, well ! " the sailor said, " it may be so, but I
don't clearly see that it's my duty to give informa-
tion in the matter. If I did feel as it were going to
be my duty, I should let all my neighbors know it,
and take mighty good care that they didn't say any-
thing within earshot of me. that I might feel called
on to repeat. And now, let's go up to the cottage
and see the old woman."

" I looked in there for a moment," Harry said,
" as I passed. Mother looks as hale and hearty as
she did when I.left, and so do you, dad."

" Yes, we have nothing to complain of," the old
man said. " I have been so thoroughly seasoned
with salt water that it would take a long time for
me to decay."

When they got up to the cottage they found that
Jane Langley had got breakfast prepared. Rashers
of bacon were smoking on the table, and a large
tankard of beer stood by, for in those days the use of
tea had not become general in this country.

" Have you heard, mother," Peter Langley said,
"that the boy is to leave us again in forty-eight
hours?"

" No, indeed," the old woman said; " but this is

173 DO YOUR DUTY.

hard news. I had hoped that you would be with us
for a bit, my boy, for we're getting on fast in life,
and may not be here when you return."

" Oh, mother ! we will not think of such a thing
as that," Harry said. " Father was just saying that
he's so seasoned that even time cannot make much
of such a tough morsel; and you seem as hearty as
he is."

" Aye, boy," Peter said, " that be true, but when
old oak does come down, he generally falls sudden.
However, we won't make our first meal 'sad by talk-
ing of what might be."

Gayly during the meal they chatted over the in-
cidents of Harry's voyage to India and back. It
was his second trip. The lad had had a much better
•education than most boys in his rank of life at that
time, the boatswain having placed him at the age of
ten in charge of a schoolmaster at Portsmouth.
.When Harry had reached that age Peter had retired
from the service, and had settled down at Hayling,
but for two years longer he had kept Harry at
school. Then he had apprenticed him to a firm of
shipowners in London, and one of the officers under
whom Peter had served had spoken to the heads of
the firm, so that the boy was put in a ship com-
manded by a kind and considerate officer, and to
whose charge he was specially recommended. Thus
he had not forgotten what he had learned at school,
as is too often the case with lads in his position.
His skipper had seen that he not only kept up what

DO YOUR DUTY. 173

he knew, but that he studied for an hour or so each
day such subjects as would be useful to him in his
career.

After breakfast the pair again went out onto the
sandhills, Peter, as usual, carrying a huge telescope
with him, with which he was in the habit of survey-
ing every ship as she rounded the west of the island
and came running in through the channel to Ports-
mouth. Most of the men-of-war he knew in an in-
stant, and the others he could make a shrewd guess
at. Generally when alone with Harry he was full
of talk of the sea, of good advice as to the lad's
future bearing, and of suggestions and hints as to
the best course to be adopted in various emergencies.
But to-day he appeared unusually thoughtful, and
smoked his pipe, and looked out in silence over the
sea, scarcely even lifting his telescope to his eye, .

" I've been thinking, Harry," he said at last,
" that as you are going away again, and, as the old
woman says, you may not find us both here when
you come back, it is right that I should tell you a
little more about yourself. I once told you, years
ago, that you were not my son, and that I would give
you more particulars some day."

The lad looked anxiously up at the old sailor. It
was a matter which he had often thought over in
his mind, for although he loved the honest tar and
his good wife as much as he could have done his
natural parents, still, since he had known that he
was their adopted son only, he had naturally won*

174 DO YOUR DUTY.

dered much as to who his parents were, and what
was their condition in life.

"I thought it as well," the old sailor began, " not
to tell you this here yarn until you were getting on.
Boys' heads get upset with a little breeze, especially
if they have no ballast, and though it isn't likely now
that you will ever get any clew as to your birth, and
it will make no difference whether it was a duke or
a ship's caulker who was your father, still it's right
that you should know the facts, as no one can say
when they start on a voyage in life what craft they
may fall aboard before they've done. It may be,
Harry, that as you intends to stick to the merchant
service— ^saving, of course, that little time you mean
to serve on board a king's ship — you may rise to be
a skipper, and perhaps an owner. It may be, boy,
that as a skipper you may fall in love with some taut
craft sailing in your convoy. I've seen such things
before now, and then the fact that you might be, for
aught you know, the son of a marquis instead of
being that of a boatswain, might score in your favor.
Women have curious notions, and though, for my
part, I can't see that it makes much difference where
the keel of a craft was laid as long as it's sound and
well-built, there are those who thinks different.

" Well, to tell you the yarn. It were nigh four-
teen years ago that I was boatswain aboard the
Alert frigate, as taut a craft as ever sailed. . We
had a smart captain and as good a crew as you'd
want to see. We were cruising in the West

DO YOUR DUTY. 175

Indies, and had for months been, off and on, in
chase of a craft that had done much damage
there. She carried a black flag, and her skipper
was said to be the biggest villain that ever even
commanded a pirate. Scarce a week passed
but some ship was missing. It mattered little
to him whether she sailed under the English, the
French, or the Spanish flag; all was fish to him.
Many and many a vessel sailed laden that never
reached Europe. Sometimes a few charred timbers
would be thrown up on the shore of the islands,
showing that the ship to which they belonged had
been taken and burned before she had gone many
days on her way. Often and often had the pirate
been chased. She was bark-rigged, which was in
itself a very unusual thing with pirates — indeed, I
never knew of one before. But she had been, I be-
lieve, a merchantman captured by the pirate, and
was such a beauty that he hoisted his flag on her,
and handed his own schooner over to his mate.
Somehow or other he had altered her ballast, and
maybe lengthened her a bit, for those pirates have
a rendezvous in some of the islands, where they are
so strong that they can, if need be, build a ship of
their own. Anyhow, she was the fastest ship of her
class that ever was seen on those seas, and though
our cruisers had over and over again chased her, she
laughed at them, and would for a whole day keep
just out of reach of their bow-chasers with half her
sails set, while the cruisers were staggering under

I7<> DO YOUR DUTY.

every rag they could put on their masts. Then
when she was tired of that game she would hoist her
full canvas and leave the king's vessel behind as if
she was standing still. Once or twice she nearly got
caught by cruisers coming up in different directions,
but each time she managed to slip away without ever
having a rope or stay started by a shot. We in the
Alert had been on her footsteps a dozen times, but
had had no more luck than the rest of them, and the
mere name of the Seamew was sufficient to put any
one of us into a passion. There wasn't one of the
ship's company, from the captain down to the
powder-monkey, who wouldn't have cheerfully
given a year's pay to get alongside the Seamew.
The Alert carried thirty-two guns, and our crew was
stronger than usual in a vessel of that size, for there
was a good deal of boat service, and it was con-
sidered that at any moment ' Yellow Jack ' might lay
a good many hands up— or down, as the case may
be. Well, one night we were at anchor in Porto
Rico, and the first lieutenant had strolled up with
two of the middies to the top of a hill just before the
sun went down. He had taken a glass with him.
Just as the night was falling, a middy on our quar-
ter-deck, who was looking at the shore with a glass,
said to the second lieutenant, who was on watch :

" ' Look, sir; here comes Mr. Jones with Keen
and Hobart down that hill as if he were running a
race. He isn't likely to be racing the middies.
.What can he be after ? '

DO YOUR DUTY. 177

'"No/ the second lieutenant said, with a smile;
' Mr. Jones is hardly likely to be racing the middies ';
which, indeed, was true enough, for the first lieu-
tenant was as- stiff as a ramrod — a good officer, but
as strict a martinet as ever I sailed under.

" The second lieutenant took the glasses, and saw
that, whatever the reason might be, it was as the mid-
shipman had said. The news that Mr. Jones was
coming down the hill, running as if Old Nick was
after him, soon spread, and there was quite an ex-
citement on the quarter-deck as to what could be
the matter.

" Ten minutes afterwards the gig was seen com-
ing off to the ship, and it was evident, by the way
the spray was flying and the oars bending, that the
men were pulling as if for life or death. By this
time the news had spread through the ship, and the
captain himself was on the quarter-deck.

" ' Give me the speaking-trumpet,' he said, and as
the boat came within call he shouted, ' What's the
matter, Mr. Jones? Is anything wrong?'

" ' I've sighted,' the lieutenant said, standing up
and making a trumpet with his two hands, 'two
craft together round the point of the island some
fifteen miles at sea. They're low down on the sea-
line, but by their look I think that one is the Seamew
and the other a merchantman she has captured.'

" Not a moment was lost. The captain gave the
orders sharp and quick. The men, who were all
standing about, were in a minute clustering on thfl

178 DO YOUR DUTY.

yards, and never was canvas got on a ship faster
than it was on the Alert that evening. Before the
boat was fairly run up to the davits the anchor was
at the cat-head, and the Alert's bows were pointing
seawards. Five minutes afterwards, with every
stitch of canvas set, we were running out of the har-
bor. The first lieutenant had taken the bearings
pretty accurately, and as there was a brisk evening
breeze blowing we spun along at a famous rate. By
this time it was dark, and we had every hope that
we might come upon the pirate before she had
finished transferring the cargo of her prize under
her own hatches. Not a light was shown, and as
the moon was not up we hoped to get within gun-
shot before being seen, as the pirate, seeing no craft
within sight before the sun went down, would not
suspect that the Alert could be on his traces. We
had to sail close to the wind till we were round the
point of the island, and then to run nearly before it
towards the spot where the vessels had been seen.
In two hours from the time of starting we reckoned
that we must be getting close to them if they still
remained hove-to.

" All of a sudden, some two miles ahead, a point
or two off the starboard bow, a great flame shot up.
Every moment it grew and grew until we could see
a large ship in flames, while another lay about ai
quarter of a mile distant. Three or four boats were
pulling from the ship in flames towards the other,
and as this was a bark we had no doubt that we had

DO YOUR DUTY, 179

caught the Seamew at her villainous work. The
pirate was lying between us and the burning mer-
chantman, so that while her spars stood out dear
and distinct against the glare of light we must have
been invisible to her. The word was passed quickly
forward for the men to go to quarters. Every gun
was double-shotted and run out, and then, all being
ready for the fight, the men stripped to their waists,
cutlasses and boarding-pikes ready to hand, we
waited with breathless anxiety. We were already
within range of our bow-chasers, and as yet there
was no sign that the pirate was conscious of our
presence. The boats were now near him, and no
doubt those on board were looking rather in their
direction than to windward. Rapidly the Alert
tore through the water, the sail trimmers were all
ready to take in her light canvas at a moment's
notice. The officers clustered on the quarter-deck,
and the men stood by their guns with every eye
strained at the pirate. Nearer and nearer we came,
and our hopes rose higher and higher. We were
within a mile now, when suddenly a great movement
was seen oh board the pirate. The breeze was
steady, and the sea quiet, and loud words of com-
mand could be heard shouted as a swarm of men ran
up the rattlins. It was clear we were seen. There
was no further need of concealment, and the captain
gave word for the bow-chasers to open. Quickly as
the pirate got her canvas spread — and I do think that
sharp as we had been on board the Alert, the Sea-

l8o DO YOUR DUTY.

mew was even quicker in getting under canvas — we!
were scarce a quarter of a mile from her when she
got fairly under way. Up to this moment not a
gun had spoken save the two bow-chasers, as the
captain would not yaw her until the last moment.
Then round she came and poured a broadside into
the Seamew. Orders had been given to fire high,
and every man was on his mettle. The maintop-
mast of the Seamew fell, snapped at the cap; the
peak halyards of the mizzen were shot away, and a
number of holes were drilled through her sails. A
loud cheer broke from our men. Fast as the Sea-
mew was she was sufficiently crippled now to prevent
her getting away, and at last she was to show
whether she could fight as well as run, and I must
say for her she did.

" She carried but twenty guns against our thirty-
two, but they were of far heavier metal, and after
ten minutes the Alert was as much bruised and bat-
tered as if she had been fighting a Frenchman of
equal size for an hour. However, we had not been
idle, and as our shot had been principally directed
against the enemy's rigging, as our great object was
to cripple her and so prevent her from getting away,
she was by this time a mere wreck above, although
her sides were scarcely touched; whereas two of our
ports had been knocked into one, and some thirty of
our men had been struck down either by shot or by
splinters. Pouring a last broadside into her, the
captain ordered the Alert to be brought alongside

DO YOUR DUTY. 181

the Seamew. There was no need to call upon the
boarders to be ready. Every man was prepared,
and as the vessels came alongside our men rushed to
the assault. But the crew of the Seamew were as
eager to board us as we were them, and upon the
very bulwarks a desperate combat ensued. Strong
as we were, the Seamew carried fully as many hands,
and as they were fighting with halters round their
necks it's little wonder that they fought so well.

" I've been in a good many fights, but never did
I see one like that. Each man hacked, and hewed,
and wielded his boarding-pike as if the whole fight
depended upon his single exertions. Gradually the
men whose places were at the guns on the starboard
side left their places and joined in the fight, while
those on the port side continued to pour a fire of
grape into the enemy. It was near half an hour
before we got a fair footing on the pirate's deck, and
then steadily and gradually we fought our way for-
ward. But it was another half-hour after the
pirate captain and all his officers had been killed, and
fully half the crew cut down, that the rest sur-
rendered.

" On board the Alert we had fully one-third of
our complement killed or wounded. Mr. Jones had
been shot through the head; the second and third
lieutenants were both badly wounded, and the cap-
tain himself had had his jaw broken by a pistol fired
in his face. I got this scar on my cheek, which
spoiled my beauty for the rest of my life, but as L

1 82 DO YOUR DUTY.

had been over thirty years married to the old woman
that made but little difference. Never were a crew
more glorious than we were that night. Even the
wounded felt that the victory had been cheaply pur-
chased. We had captured the scourge of these seas,
which had for ten years laughed at all the fastest
cruisers of our navy, and we felt as proud as if we
had captured a French first-rate.

" All hands were at work next day in repairing
•damages. I was up aloft seeing to the fitting of fresh
gear to the topgallant-mast when I saw something
floating at sea which took my attention. It seemed
to me like a box, and an empty one, for it floated
high on the water. Its lid seemed to be open, and I
thought once or twice that I saw something inside.
I slid down to the quarter-deck and reported what I
had seen. The third lieutenant, who was doing duty
with his arm in a sling, was not disposed to take the
men off their work to lower a boat; but as I pointed
out that the box might have belonged to the mer-
chantman which had been burned overnight, and
that it might afford some clew as to the name of the
ship, he consented, and with four hands I was soon
rowing towards the box.

" I don't know what I had expected to see, but I
was never more surprised than when, getting there, .
I found that it was a trunk, and that in it, sitting
up, was a child about eighteen months old. That
was you, Harry. In the bottom of the trunk were
a locket with a woman's likeness in it, a curious In-

DO YOUR DUTY. 183

dian bangle, and a few other articles of jewelry.
How you got there we never knew, but the supposi-
tion was that when the pirate was overhauling the
merchantman, and her true nature was ascertained,
some mother, knowing the fate that awaited all on
board, had put you in an opten trunk, had thrown in
what ornaments she had about her, and had dropped
the trunk overboard, in hopes that it might drift
away and be picked up by some passing ship. It
was a wild venture, with a thousand to one against
its success, but the Lord had watched over it, and
there you were as snug and comfortable as if you
had been laying in your own cot, though, by the
way, you were squalling as loud as a litter of kittens,
and I expect had missed your breakfast considerably.
You were sitting up, and it was lucky that you were
backward of your age, for, although by your size
we guessed you to be eighteen months, you were still
unable to walk. If you had been as active as some
chaps of that age you would have scrambled onto
your feet, and no doubt capsized your boat.

" Well, we brought you on board, and there was
a great talk as to what was to be done with you ; but
as I was your discoverer I claimed you as a lawful
prize, and I thought you would amuse the old
woman while I was at sea, and perhaps be a comfort
to me when I got laid up in ordinary, as indeed you
have been. So that's all I know, Harry. Every
inquiry was made, but we never heard of any ship
which exactly answered to the description. You

184 DO YOUR DUTY.

see, beyond the fact that she was a square-rigged
ship we could say but little about her. The orna-
ments found in the box seemed to show that she had
come from the East Indies, but of course that could
not be, for what would she be doing there? But at
any rate the person who put you into the trunk, and
who was no doubt your mother, had been to the East
Indies, or at least had been given those ornaments
by someone who had, for there was no doubt where
they were turned out.

" Well, on board the Alert everyone got promoted.
There was enough valuable property found oh board
the Seamew to give us a handsome sum all round,
and it was my share of the prize-money that enabled
me to buy this little cottage, and went no small way
towards paying for your schooling and board. As
no one else claimed you, and your friends could not
be heard of, ho one disputed my right to your guard-
ianship; and so, my boy, here you have been cruis-
ing about the world as Harry Langley ever since."

The old sailor was silent, and Harry was some
time before he spoke.

" Well, dad, you may not have been my real
father, but no one could have been a better father to
me than you have, and as it isn't likely now that I
shall ever hit upon a clew which could lead me to'
discover who I am, I shall continue to regard you as
my real father. Still, as you say, it may perhaps in
life be some advantage to me to be able to claim that
1 am the son of a marquis;" and he laughed merrily.

DO YOUR DUTY. 185

They talked the matter over for some time, and then
Harry changed the subject.

" Are all our friends well ? " Harry asked.

" All except poor Torn Hardy. He slipped his
cable six months since, and his wife, poor old soul,
is gone to some friends near Winchester."

" Who's living in the cottage? "

" Black Jack has taken it."

" What ! has he moved from his old place, then? "

" No, it is said that he's taken it for a Frenchy,
who comes down off and on. They say he's in the
smuggling business with Black Jack, and that he
disposes of the silks and wines that are brought over
in the Lucy, and that Jack trades over in France
with his friends. The lieutenant at the coast-guard
station has his eye upon him, and I believe that some
day they will catch Black Jack as he runs his cargo;
but he's a slippery customer. It would be a good day
for Hayling if they could do so, for he and his crew
do a lot of harm to the place. They look more like
men who have belonged to the Seamew I was talk-
ing to you about than honest English fishermen."

" It is a curious thing, dad, that the French-
man should be coming backwards and forwards here,
and I wonder that the revenue people don't inquire
into it."

" I don't suppose that they know very much about
it, Harry. He comes off and on, generally arriving
at night, and leaving a few hours afterwards. I hear
about these things because everyone knows that old

186 DO YOUR DUTY.

Peter Langley is not the chap to put his nose into
other people's business. I don't like these goings
on, I must say, and consider they will end badly.
However, it is no business of ours, lad. We get our
brandy cheap in Hayling — nowhere cheaper, I
should say — and that, after all, is the matter that
concerns us most. The wind's rising fast; I think
we're in for a gale."

It was as Peter said. The clouds were rising fast
behind the island, the waves were breaking with a
short, sharp sound upon the beach, white heads were
beginning to show themselves out at sea, the fishing
craft were running in towards Portsmouth under
reefed sails, the men-of-war at Spithead could be
seen sending down their topmasts, and everything
betokened that it would be a nasty night.

"What time must you leave, Harry?"

" I shall go off at three to-morrow morning; shall
cross the ferry, and catch the coach as it goes along
at eight. I promised that I would be back on the
following morning, and I would not fail in keeping
my appointment, for as the captain has been so good
I should be sorry that he should think that I had
broken my word."

In the course of the day Harry went over to the
village and saw many of his boy friends. Bill
Simpkins, however, his great chum, happened to be
away, but his parents said that he would be back at
nine in the evening. He had gone over to Win-
chester to see a brother who was in a regiment quar-i

DO YOUR DUTY. 187

tered there. Accordingly, soon after nine o'clock
Harry said to his father that he would just walk
over to have a chat with his friend, and be back in
an hour or so.

" Thou had best stop at home and go to bed at
once," Jane Langley said; " if thou hast to start at
three o'clock, it were time thou wert in bed now."

" I am accustomed to short nights," Harry said,
laughing, " and I shall be able to sleep long to-
morrow."

Putting on his hat, he nodded to the old couple,
and went off at a run into the darkness.

The road was a wide one, and but little fre-
quented, and the grass grew thick over a considerable
portion of the sides, therefore as he ran along with
a light, springy tread the sound of his footsteps was
deadened. As he came along by the cottage of
which he had been speaking to Peter Langley he
heard the sound of voices within. Being curious to
see what this mysterious Frenchman was like, Harry-
paused, lightly lifted the latch of the gate, and en-
tered the little garden. He had intended to peep in
at the window, and having satisfied his curiosity to
be off; but just as he reached the door the latter
opened suddenly, and Harry had only time to draw
back behind the little porch before two men came
out. In one Harry recognized by his voice the
smuggler Black Jack; the other was by his halting
English evidently the foreigner. They stopped for
a moment, looking out into the night.

188 DO YOUR DUTY.

" I tell you," the smuggler said, " it's going to bei
a storm, and no mistake. The Lucy is a tight craft,
and has weathered gales when many a bigger ship
has gone down. Still, I don't like running out into
it without necessity."

" Necezity," said the Frenchman, " I sould have
sought zat ze earning of five hundred pounds was as
urgent a necezity as was wanted."

"Aye, the money will be handy enough," the
smuggler said, " though one does put one's head
into the noose to earn it. However, the sum is
bigger than usual, and, as you say, the affair is im-
portant."

" Bah ! " the Frenchman said, " what does it mat-
ter about ze nooze? It hasn't got over your zick
neck or my zin one, and till it does we needn't trouble
about it. I tell you zis is ze most important dis-
patch we have ever sent, and if it gets safe to hand
zey cannot grudge us double pay. I have ridden
from London wizout stopping, and have killed a
horse worth fifty of your guineas. However, zat
matters not. Zis letter should fetch us ze money to
pay for a dozen horses and a dozen of your Lucys."

"All right! " the smuggler said; " in an hour we(
will be off. Letters like that in your pocket are best
not kept on hand. You are sure that the Chasse:
Maree will put out to meet us in such weather as we
are likely to have? "

" She will put out if a hurricane's blowing," the
Frenchman said. " Zey know ze importance of zei

DO YOUR DUTY. 189

hews, which is expected, and which I am bringing1
zem. Mon Dieu! what sums have been paid to get
ze news zat's in zis little dispatch ! "

" Do you know what it is ? " the smuggler said.

" Not for certain," the Frenchman replied, " but
I believe it is ze orders zat are to be sent to ze
British fleet, and zat zey are about to strike a great
blow zomewhere."

" Well," the smuggler said, "I will go round and
tell the boys. I warned them to be in readiness, and
I will send them straight down to the beach. In a
quarter of an hour I will return for you."

While this conversation had been going on Harry
had been standing against the porch, the sides of
which were filled with latticework over which a
creeper grew. He had been frightened at the im-
portance of the secret that he was hearing, and had
been rapidly meditating in his mind how this all-
portant information which was about to be conveyed
to the enemy could be stopped. He had made up
his mind that the instant the smuggler moved out?
he would make his way down to the village, tell the
tale to half a dozen men, and have the Frenchman
seized. He saw at once that it would be difficult,
for the smuggler and his gang were not men to be
attacked with impunity, and the fishers of the village
would hesitate in taking part in such a struggle
merely on the information of a boy. However,
Harry saw that it was the only chance.

In his anxiety to stand close to the lattice and so

190 DO YOUR DUTY.

hide himself from the view of the two men who were!
standing on the little garden-path in front, he
pressed too hard against it. The woodwork was
rotten with age, and suddenly with a crash it gave
way.

With an oath the smuggler turned round, and hei
and the Frenchman dashed to the spot, and in an
instant had collared the lad. In a moment he was
dragged into the room.

" We must cut his throat, mounseer," the smug-
gler said, with a terrible imprecation. " The scoun-
drel has heard what we've said, and our lives won't
be worth a minute's purchase if he were to be let free.
Stand by and I'll knock out his brains;" and ha
seized a heavy poker from the side of the hearth.

" No, no," the Frenchman said, " don't let us have
blood. Zere might be inquiries, and zese sings will
sometimes be found. Better take him to sea wis
you in ze Lucy, and hand him over to ze Chasse
Maree. Zey will take care zat he does not come
back again."

" I will take care myself," the smuggler said.
" I'm not going to risk my neck on the chance of his
blabbing. It's better, as you say, to have no blood,
but as soon as the Lucy's at sea overboard he goes."

" We can talk of it," the Frenchman said. " I'm
wis you zat he must be silenced, but it may be better
— my plan zan yours. Zis boy belongs, I suppose,
to ze village? "

" Yes," the smuggler said, " I know him by sight

DO YOUR DUTY. IpX

'He's the son of ah old man-of-war's man who lives
half a mile away."

" Well, you see, some of your men might some
day, if they quarreled wis you, or in zeir drink, drop
some words which might lead to inquiries. Better
put him on board ze Chasse Marie. I will see ze
matter is settled."

Harry had spoken no word from the time he was
grasped. He felt in an instant that his life was for-
feited, and was surprised that he had not been in-
stantly killed. He had not raised his voice to hallo,
for he knew that no cottagers were near, and was
sure that an attempt to give the alarm would insure
his instant death. To struggle would have been
useless. He was unarmed, and although a stout lad,
was but a child in the grasp of a powerful man like
the smuggler. He saw, too, that on the instant the
Frenchman had drawn a dagger from his breast, and
though more quiet than the smuggler he felt by the
tone of his voice that he was as determined as his
colleague that his silence should be secured by death.

In another minute he was bound and thrown into
a corner. The Frenchman then took his seat near
him, assuring him in a low tone that he would at his
first movement plant his dagger in his heart. The
smuggler strolled off to summon his crew, and for a
quarter of an hour silence reigned in the cottage.

" You are one fool," the Frenchman said at last,
as if he had been thinking the matter over — " one
meddlesome fool. Why you want to listen at

19* DO YOUR DUTY.

people's doors and learn zeir secrets? I don't want
to kill you, but what are we to do? You make us
kill you. You push your own head into ze trap.
Zat is ze way wis boys. Zey are forever meddling
in affairs zat concern zem not, and zen we have ze
trouble to kill zem. I would give a hundred pounds
if zis had not happened; but what can I do? It is
my life against yours, and alzough I am sorry to
have to do it — parbleu! my life is of much more
value zan zat of a fishing boy. Bah! you are one
meddlesome fool."

So exasperated was the Frenchman at the trouble
which the prying of this lad had brought upon him
that he got up and angrily gave him a kick. A few
minutes later the smuggler returned.

" The men have all gone down to the boat," he
said briefly. " Come along, mounseer. Bring that
tin case with you, and those pistols."

" Zere is ho fear zat I forget ze tin case," the
Frenchman said. " As to ze pistols — zey are not of
much use. However, I will take zem;" and he
thrust them into the pockets of his coat.

The smuggler stooped, picked up Harry, threw
Ihim onto a sail which he had laid on the ground,
wrapped this round him, and then cast him over his
shoulder.

" I'm not likely to meet anyone on my way to the
fcoat," he said, " but should I do so I'm taking the
tnainsail of the Lucy down to her."
[ In another minute Harry heard the door

DO YOUR DUTY. 193

and then he felt himself being carried steadily along,
his weight being as nothing to the smuggler. Not
a word was spoken between the two men on their
way down to the shore. Presently Harry felt by
the deadened sound of the footsteps, and by the more
uneven motion, that he was being carried over the
sandy slopes down to the edge of the sea, and
through the canvas he could hear the loud roar of
the waves, which were now breaking violently.

Presently he was flung roughly down on the
sands. A minute later he was lifted by the head and
feet, and swung into a boat. Not a word was
spoken as it was shoved off through the breakers,
and after ten minutes' hard rowing he felt a shock,
and knew that they were alongside of the Lucy. He
was hauled up on deck. He heard a few words of
command, and then felt the vessel was on her way.
A minute or two later the covering was unloosed.
His cords were cut, and the smuggler said to him,
" You can't get away now, and may as well make
yourself handy for the present. Give a haul on that
rope."

The Lucy was, in fact, short-handed, two of the
six men who composed her crew being absent.
She was a lugger of some twenty-five tons' burden,
built something like an ordinary fishing-boat, but
longer and lower, and was, in fact, used for fishing
when her crew were not engaged upon other adven-
tures. She was a remarkably fast craft, and had
more than once showed her heels with success when

194 DO YOUR DUTY.

chased by the revenue cutters. She owed her im-
munity from capture, however, chiefly to her ap-
pearance, as from her size and build she generally
passed unsuspected as an innocent fisherman.

The storm increased in violence, and the little
lugger, although a good sea-boat, had difficulty in
making her way almost in the teeth of the gale. She
.was bound, Harry gained from a word or two
dropped by the captain, for the mouth of the Loire,
off which she was to be met by the Chasse Maree.
Long before morning the coast of England was out
of sight, and the lugger was struggling down Chan-
nel bravely holding her way in the sou' westerly gale.

" Will she be zere true to her time? " the French-
man asked the smuggler.

" Aye, she will do it," Black Jack said, " if the
wind holds as at present. Two o'clock in the morn-
ing is the time named, and if your people are as
punctual as I shall be, the five hundred pounds will
be gained. There's one thing — in such a gale as is
blowing to-day none of our cruisers who may be off
the coast are likely to trouble themselves about a
boat like ours. They may wonder what we are
doing at sea, but are scarcely likely to chase us."

Once or twice in the course of the day large ves-
sels were seen in the distance, which Harry knew, •
by the cut of their sails, to be English cruisers. All
were, however, lying-to under the smallest canvas,
and Harry knew that any assistance from them was
out of the question. Towards evening the gale

DO YOUR DUTY. 19$

moderated, but the sea was still very high. During
the day Harry had turned, over in his mind every
possible plan by which he might destroy the tin case
which contained, as he knew, such important docu-
ments. From what he had gathered he learned that
the success of some great undertaking upon which
the British fleet were about to embark would be
marred if these papers were to find their way into
the hands of the French authorities. His own life
he regarded as absolutely forfeited, for he was sure
that ho sooner was he fairly on board the French
Chasse Maree than he would, at the orders of the
French spy, be thrown overboard, and that his life
had been so preserved, not from any feeling of
mercy, but in order that his death might be accom-
plished with less risk to those whose safety de-
manded it.

He was determined, if opportunity presented,
to seize the little case and to leap overboard with
it. The French spy never for one moment put it
down. It was a small tin case, with a handle at the
top, and some eight inches long by three inches wide,
and the same deep. Sometimes the Frenchman put
it in his pocket, beyond which it projected, but even
then he took the precaution always to keep his hand
upon it. During the day Harry was constantly em-
ployed in work on board the lugger, hauling at ropes
and acting as if he were one of the regular crew.
He had shared in the meals with the men, but beyond
a curse now and then not a word had been addressed

196 DO YOUR DUTY.

to him by any on board. The night came on; the
wind was still going down, but the sea was very
heavy. From the occasional rifts in the clouds the
stars could be seen shining brightly, and once or
twice the moon broke through and spread a light
over the angry sea. As time went on the smuggler
became anxious, and kept a keen lookout ahead.

" It is past two," he exclaimed presently to the
Frenchman, " and we are nearly off the mouth of
the river. When the moon shone out just now I
thought I caught sight of a vessel coming out, and
I believe to windward an English cruiser is lying.
However, I will get ready the lanterns."

The next time the moon came out a vessel was
clearly seen. The smuggler raised the lantern above
the bulwarks, held it there for half a minute, and
then lowered it. This he repeated three times. A
moment later a similar signal was made on the bows
of the vessel.

" That's her," the smuggler exclaimed exultingly,
" and the five hundred pounds is as good as in my
pocket ! "

As he spoke a bright flash was seen to windward.

" Confound it ! " the smuggler said, " that cruiser
has caught sight of the Frenchman. However, we
shall be on board in plenty of time, and whether she.
gets safe to shore or hot matters not much to me.
I shall have done my part of the work, and you,
mounseer, will give me the order for payment on
London."

DO YOUR DUTY. 197

" It's done, my friend," the Frenchman said;
"you've done your work well. Here's the order."

By this time the French craft was within a dis-
tance of a quarter of a mile, running down at a great
pace under her reefed sails.

" It '11 be no easy matter to get on board," the
smuggler said, " for the sea is running tremendously.
They will have to throw a rope, and you will have
to catch it, mounseer, and jump overboard. I sup-
pose your dispatch-box is water-tight ? "

" And the boy? " the Frenchman asked.

" Let them throw another rope," the smuggler
said, " and you can haul him on board too. It won't
make much matter whether I slip the noose round
his body or his neck. The last will be the easiest
plan perhaps, for then, if he happens not to be alive
when you pull him out, it would be an accident; and
even if anyone chooses to peach, they can't swear
that it was purposely done."

Harry was standing near, and heard the words.
He was close to the helm at the time, and watched
with intense anxiety as the Chasse Maree ran rapidly
down to them. It was clear that what had to be
done must be done quickly, for another flash came
up from the cruiser; and although in the din of the
wind and the toss of the waves it could not be seen
where her shot had fallen, the brightness of the flash
showed that she had come up since the last shot was
discharged. The Chasse Maree ran down, and as
she came her captain stood upon the bulwarks and

198 DO YOUR DUTY.

shouted at the top of his voice " Keep her steady*
and as I run past I will throw a rope."

" Throw two," Black Jack shouted. " There are
two to come on board."

The course taken by the Chasse Marie would
bring her along at a distance of some ten yards from
the side of the lugger. At the moment a squall
came, and the lugger's head turned a little towards
the approaching craft. When she was just upon
them Harry saw that his one chance of escape had
come. With a sudden rush he knocked the man at
the helm from his footing, and put the tiller up hard.
The lugger paid off instantly. Black Jack, with an
oath, turned round and sprang at Harry. The lad
leaped beneath his uplifted hand, sprang at the
Frenchman, who was standing with his back to him,
and snatching the tin box from his hand leaped over-
board.

Momentary as had been his hold upon the tiller it
had been sufficient. The vessel had paid off front
the wind, and before the helmsman could regain his
feet, or Black Jack could seize the tiller, she lay
across the course of the Chasse Maree; and in an-
other moment the French craft plunged down upo'n
her, and with a crash the Lucy sank under her bows,
and went down with all on board.

As Harry sank beneath the waves he heard a
shout of dismay from those on board the Lucy.
When he came up a minute later he saw the Chasse
Maree plowing her way from him, but no sign of the

DO YOUR DUTY. »99

Lucy was to be seen. Harry was a good swimmer,
and fortunately the dispatch-box which he grasped
was water-tight, and buttoning it within his jacket
he felt that it kept his head easily above the water.
He swam as well as he could away from, the spot
where the Lucy had disappeared, for he knew that
if Black Jack or the Frenchman had escaped being"
run down and should see him, his death was certain
•—not indeed that his chances were in any case good,
but with the natural hopefulness of boyhood he clung
to life, and resolved to make a fight for it as long as
possible. Had it not been for the dispatch-box he
must have speedily succumbed, for in so heavy a sea
it was difficult in the extreme to swim. However,
after a short time he turned his back to the wind, and
suffered himself quietly to drift.

Hour passed after hour, and at last, to his intense
delight, morning began to break. He saw on his
right the low shores of the French coast, and look-
ing round beheld seaward the British cruiser which
had fired at the Chasse Maree. She was running
quietly along the coast, and was evidently on guard
at the mouth of the river. The sea had now gone
down much, and the sun rose bright in an almost
cloudless sky.

Invigorated by the sight of the vessel Harry at
once swam towards her. She was farther out by a
mile than the spot where he was swimming, and was
some two miles astern of him. She was sailing but
glowly, and he hoped that by the time she came along

20C DO YOUR DUTY.

he would be able to get within a distance whence hd
might be seen. His fear was that she might run
back before she reached the spot where she would be
nearer to him.

With all his strength he swam steadily out, keep-
ing his eye fixed steadily on the ship. Still she came
onward, and was within half a mile when she was
abreast of him. Then raising himself as high as he
could from the water, he shouted at the top of his
voice. Again and again he splashed with his hands
to make as much spray and commotion as possible in
order to attract attention. His heart almost stood
still with joy as he heard an answering hail, and a
moment later he saw the vessel come round into the
wind, and lay there with her sails back. Then a
boat was lowered, and five minutes later he was
hauled in, his senses almost leaving him now that
the time for exertion had passed. It was not until
he had been lifted onto the deck of the Viper, and
brandy had been poured down his throat, that he
was able to speak. As soon as he was sufficiently
recovered he was sent for to the captain's cabin.

" And who are you, boy, and whence do you
come ? " the captain asked. " Do you belong to the
Chasse Maree, which we chased in the night ? "

The officer spoke in French, supposing that Harry
had fallen overboard from that craft.

" I am English, sir," Harry said, " and escaped
from a lugger which was run down by the French
craft just as you were firing at her."

DO YOUR DUT\. *O1

" I thought," exclaimed the captain, " that my
feyes had not been wrong. I was sure that I saw a
small fishing-boat close to the Chasse Maree. We
lost sight of her when a cloud came over the moon,
and thought we must have been mistaken. How
came you there in an English fishing-boat ? "

Harry modestly told the story, and produced the
dispatch-box.

" This is important news indeed," the officer said,
" and your conduct has been in every way most gal-
lant. What is your name, lad ? "

" Harry Langley," he replied. " I am an appren-
tice on board the Indiaman Dundas Castle, and was
to have sailed this week in the convoy for the West
Indies."

" You will not be able to do that now," the cap-
tain said. " This is most important. However,
the steward will take charge of you, and I will talk
to you again presently."

The steward was called, and was told to put Harry
into a cot slung for him, and to give him a bowl of
warm soup; and in a few minutes the lad was asleep.

The Viper shortly afterwards hauled her wind,
and ran down to a consort who was keeping watch
with her over the mouth of the Loire. The captain
repaired on board the other ship, whose commander
was his senior officer, and a consultation was held
between them, after which the Viper was again got
under sail and shaped her course for Portsmouth.

The wind was fair, and the next morning the

202 DO YOUR DUTY.

Viper passed through the Needles, and soon after-
wards anchored at Spithead. Here a large number
of men-of-war and frigates were at anchor, and
above two of the largest floated the flags of admirals.
The Viper had made her signal as she came in sight
of the fleet, and a reply was instantly run up front
the masthead of the admiral's ship, directing the cap-
tain to come on board immediately the anchor was
dropped. The moment this was done the captain's
gig was lowered, and calling to Harry to follow him
the captain took his seat in the stern-sheets, and
rowed for the admiral's ship. Directing the lad to
remain on deck, the captain at once entered the ad-
miral's cabin, and a few minutes later the admiral's
orderly summoned Harry to enter.

Admiral Sir Hyde Parker had evidently had a
breakfast party, for a number of naval officers, in-
cluding Admiral Nelson and most of the captains of
the men-of-war, were seated round the table. The
admiral turned to Harry.

" So you are the lad who has brought this box of
dispatches? "

" Yes, sir," Harry said modestly.

" Tell us your story over again," the admiral said.
" It's a strange one."

Harry again repeated the account of his adven-
tures from the time of leaving his father's cottage.
When he had done Admiral Nelson exclaimed :

" Very well, my lad. You could not have acted
more presence of mind had you been a captain

DO YOUR DUTY.

of the fleet. You showed great bravery and did
your duty nobly."

" There wasn't much bravery, sir," Harry said
modestly, " for I knew that they were going to kill
me anyhow, so that it made no difference. But I
was determined, if possible, that the dispatches
should be destroyed."

The admiral smiled. He was not accustomed to
hear his dicta even so slightly questioned by a
lad.

" You are an apprentice in the merchant service,
Captain Skinner tells me," Sir Hyde Parker said,
" and have been two years at sea."

" Yes, sir," Harry said.

" Would you like to be on the quarter-deck of one
of his majesty's vessels, instead of that of a mer-
chantman ? "

Harry's eyes glistened at the question.

" I should indeed, sir," he said.

" Then you shall be, my boy," the admiral an-
swered. " Have any of you gentlemen a vacancy
in the midshipmen's berth? If not, I'll have him
ranked as a supernumerary on board my ship."

" I am short of a midshipman, Sir Hyde," one of
the captains said. " Poor little De Lisle fell over-
board the night before last as we came round from
Plymouth. He was about the size of this lad, and
I'll arrange for him to have his togs. I like his
look, and I should be glad to have him with me. I
am sure he will be a credit to the service."

904 DO YOUR DUTY.

" That's settled, then," the admiral said. " You
are now, sir," he said, turning to Harry again, " an
officer in his majesty's service, and, as Captain Ball
remarks, I am sure you will do credit to the service.
A lad who does his duty when death is staring him
in the face, and without a hope that the act of devo-
tion will ever be known or recognized, is sure to
make a brave and worthy officer."

Harry's new captain wrote a few words on a piece
of paper, and said to the admiral's servant, " Will
you tell the midshipman of my gig to come here ? "

A minute afterwards the midshipman entered.
The captain gave him the slip of paper and said,
" Take this young gentleman on board the ship with
you at once, and present him to Mr. Francis, and
with him give this note. He will be your shipmate
in future. See that he's made comfortable."

The midshipman then beckoned to Harry to fol-
low him, gazing askance, and with no slight aston-
ishment in his face, at the appearance of his hew
messmate. Harry's attire, indeed, was not in ac-
cordance with the received ideas of that of a mid-
shipman freshly joining a ship. His clothes were
all so much shrunk that his ankles showed below his
trousers, and his wrists below his coat-sleeves.
Without a word the midshipman took his place in
the stern-sheets, and beckoned Harry to sit beside
him.

" Where have you sprung from ? " he said shortly.

" I hail last from the admiral's cabin," Harry said

DO YOUR DUTY. 205

with a laugh. " Before that from his majesty's
ship Viper, and before that from the sea."

" You look like the sea," said the midshipman.
" IBut what have you been doing ? Have you served
before?"

" Not in a king's ship," Harry said; " I have only
just been appointed."

The midshipman was too surprised at Harry's
appearance to question him further. He felt that
there was some mystery in the affair, and that it
would be better for him to wait until he saw the foot-
ing upon which Harry was placed. He had little
doubt from the fact of his appointment being made
under such circumstances that there must be some-
thing at once singular and noteworthy about it.

Upon reaching the ship Harry's hew messmate at
once led him up to the first lieutenant, and presented
the captain's note. The lieutenant opened it and
glanced at the contents. They were brief :

" Harry Langley has been appointed midshipman
on board the Casar, and has been promoted by Sir
Hyde Parker himself. He has performed a most
gallant action, and one of the greatest importance.
Make him at home at once, and let him have poor
De Lisle's kit. I will arrange about it."

The senior midshipman was at once sent for by
Mr. Francis, and Harry handed over to him. The
first lieutenant intimated to him briefly the contents
of the captain's letter, telling the midshipman to
make him as comfortable as possible.

«06 DO YOUR DUTY.

Harry was led below to the cockpit, where his ar-
rival was greeted with a storm of questions, as his
appearance on the quarter-deck had naturally excited
a great deal of observation. The midshipman who
had come with him could, of course, furnish no in-
formation, and beyond the brief fact mentioned by
the captain and repeated by the first lieutenant, his
new conductor could say no more.

" Just wait," the midshipman said, " till he's got y
into his new clothes and looks presentable. He's in
my charge, and I am to make him comfortable. As
he has been put on the quarter-deck by Sir Hyde
himself you may be sure he has done something out
of the way."

In a few minutes Harry was rigged out in full
midshipman's dress, and being a very good-looking
and gentlemanly lad, his appearance favorably im-
pressed his new messmates, who had at first been dis-
posed to resent the intrusion among themselves of a
youngster whose appearance was at least the reverse
of reputable.

" Now," said one of the passed mates, " this meet-
ing will resolve itself into a committee. Let every-
one who can, sit down; and let those who can't,
stand quiet. I am the president of the court. Now,
prisoner at the bar," he said, " what is your
name? "

" Harry Langley."

" And how came you here? "

" I was brought in the captain's gig."

DO YOUR DUTY. 207

" No equivocation, prisoner. I mean what
brought you onto the quarter-deck ? "

" I had the good luck," Harry said, " to prevent
a very important dispatch falling into the hands of
the French."

" The deuce you had! " the president said; " and
how was that ? That is to say," he said, " if there's
no secret about it ? "

" None at all," Harry said, " the matter was very
simple;" and for the second time that morning he
told the story.

When he had done there was a general exclama-
tion of approval among those present, and the mid-
shipmen crowded round him, shaking his hand, pat-
ting him on the back, and declaring that he was a
trump.

" The prisoner is acquitted," the president said,
" and is received as a worthy member of this noble
body. Boy!"

" Yes, sir."

" Go to the purser and ask him to send in two
bottles of rum for this honorable mess to drink the
health of a new comrade."

Presently the boy returned.

" The purser says, sir, who is going to pay for the
rum?"

There was a roar of laughter among the middies,
for the master's mate, who had acted as president,
was notoriously in the purser's books to the full
amount of his credit However, a midshipman,

20& DO YOUR DUTY.

who happened that morning to have received a re-
mittance, undertook to stand the liquor to the mess,
and Harry's health was drunk with all honors.

" I suppose," one of the midshipmen said, " that
the contents of the dispatch were with reference to
the point to which we are all bound. I wonder
where it can be? "

Here an animated discussion arose as to the vari-
ous points against which the attack of the fleet, now
rapidly assembling at Spithead, might be directed.
So far no whisper of its probable course had been
made public, and it was believed indeed that even the
captains of the fleet were ignorant of its object.

Upon the following day Harry at once obtained
leave to go on shore for twenty-four hours. Im-
mediately he reached the Head he chartered a
wherry, and was on the point of sailing when he
heard a well-known voice among a group of sailors
standing near him.

" I can't make head or tail of it," Peter Langley
said. " My boy left me merely to go down to the
village, and was to have returned the first thing in
the morning to join his ship in London. Well, he
never came back no more. What he did with him-
self, unless he sailed in a smuggling lugger which
put out an hour or two afterwards, I can't make out.
The boy would never have shipped in that craft will-
ingly, and I can see no reason why he should have
gone otherwise. He didn't cross the ferry, and I
can't help suspecting there was some foul play.

DO YOUR DUTY. 209

When Black Jack returns I will have it out of him
if I kill him for it. He has a strong party there, and
I want half a dozen good tight hands to come with
me to Hayling. He will probably be back in a
couple of days, and if we tackle him directly he
lands we may find out something about him. Who
will go with me? "

Half a dozen voices exclaimed that they were
willing to assist their old mate, when suddenly Harry
stepped in among them, saying, " There's no occa-
sion for that. I can tell them all about him."

Peter Langley stepped backwards in his astonish-
ment, and stared open-mouthed at Harry.

" Dash my buttons! " he exclaimed; " why, if it
isn't Harry himself, and in a midshipman's rig.
What means this, my boy? "

" It means, father, that I am a midshipman on
board his majesty's ship Casar."

Peter stood for a moment as one stupefied with
astonishment, and then threw his tarpaulin high in
the air with a shout of delight. It fell into the
water, and the tide carried it away; Peter gave it no
further thought, but, seizing Harry's hand, wrung
it with enthusiastic delight.

" This is news indeed, my boy," he said. " To
think of seeing you on the quarter-deck, and that so
soon!"

It was some minutes before Harry could shake
himself free from his friends, all of whom were old
chums of the boatswain, and had known him in his

210 DO YOUR DUTY.

childhood. Drawing Peter aside at last he took him
to a quiet hotel, and there, to the intense astonish-
ment of the veteran, he related to him the circum-
stances which had led to his elevation. The old
sailor was alternately filled with wrath and admira-
tion, and it was only the consideration that beyond
doubt Black Jack and the Frenchman had both per-
ished in the Lucy that restrained him from instantly
rushing off to take vengeance upon them.

An hour later the pair took a wherry and sailed
to Hayling, where the joy of Peter was rivaled by
that of Harry's foster-mother. That evening Peter
went out and so copiously ordered grog for all the
seafaring population in honor of the event that the
village was a scene of rejoicing and festivity such
as was unknown in its quiet annals.

The next day Harry rejoined his ship, and
commenced his regular duties as a midshipman on
board.

A week later the whole of the ships destined to
take part in it had arrived. The " Blue Peter " was
hoisted at the ship's head, and on a gun firing from
the admiral's ship the anchors were weighed, and
the fleet soon left Spithead behind them. It con-
sisted of eighteen sail of the line, with a number of
frigates and gunboats. The expedition was com;
manded by Sir Hyde Parker, with Admiral Nelson
second in command. Contrary to the general expe-
dition they sailed eastward instead of passing
through the Solent, and, coasting along the south of

DO YOUR DUTY. ail

England, passed through the Straits of Dover and
stood out into the North Sea,

Harry had had an interview with his captain four
days after he had joined. The latter told him that
the dispatch-box which he had taken had been sent
up to London, and that its contents proved to be of
the highest importance, and that the Lords of the
Admiralty had themselves written to the admiral
expressing their extreme satisfaction at the capture,
saying that the whole of their plans would have been
disconcerted had the papers fallen into the hands of
the enemy. They were pleased to express their
strong approval of the conduct of Harry Langley,
and gave their assurance that when the time came
his claim for promotion should not be ignored.

" So, my lad," the captain said, " you may be sure
that when you have passed your cadetship you will
get your epaulette without loss of time, and if you
are steady and well conducted you may look out for
a brilliant position. It is not many lads who enter
the navy under such favorable conditions. I should
advise you to study hard in order to fit yourself for
command when the time should come. From what
you tell me your education has not been neglected,
and I have no doubt you know as much as the ma-
jority of my midshipmen as to books. But books
are not all. An officer in his majesty's service
should be a gentleman. That you are that in man-
ner, I am happy to see. But it is desirable also that
an officer should be able in all society to hold bis own

DO YOUR DUTY.

in point of general knowledge with other gentle-
men. Midshipmen, as a class, are too much given to
shirking their studies, and to think that if an officer
can handle and fight a ship it is all that is required.
It may be all that is absolutely necessary, but you
will find that the men who have most made their
mark are all something more than rough sailors.
I need say nothing to you as to the necessity of at
all times and hazards doing your duty. That is a
lesson that you have clearly already learned."

As the fleet still kept east, expectation rose
higher and higher as to the object of the expedi-
tion. Some supposed that a dash was to be made on
Holland. Others conceived that the object of the
expedition must be one of the North German or
Russian forts, and the latter were confirmed in their
ideas when one fine morning the fleet were found
to be entering the Sound. Instead of passing
through, however, the fleet anchored here, out of
gunshot of the forts of Copenhagen; and great was
the astonishment of the officers and men alike of the
fleet when it became known that an ultimatum had
been sent oh shore, and that the Danes (who had
been regarded as a neutral power) were called upon
at once to surrender their fleet to the English.

Upon the face of facts known to the1 world at large,,
this was indeed a most monstrous breach of justice
and right. The Danes had taken no part in the
great struggle which had been going on, and their
sympathies were generally supposed to be with the

DO YOUR DUTY. 213

English rather than the French. Thus, for a fleet
to appear before the capital of Denmark, and to sum-
mon its king to surrender his fleet, appeared a high-
handed act of brute force.

In fact, however, the English government had
learned that negotiations had been proceeding be-
tween the Danish government and the French; and
that a great scheme had been agreed upon, by which
the Danes should join the French at a given moment,
and the united fleets being augmented by ships of
other powers, a sudden attack would be made upon
England. Had this secret confederation not been
interfered with, the position of England would have
been seriously threatened. The fleet which the allies
would have been able to put onto the scene would
have greatly exceeded that which England could
have mustered to defend her coast, and although
peace nominally prevailed between England and
Denmark the English ministry considered itself
justified — and posterity has agreed in the verdict —
in taking time by the forelock, and striking a blow
before their seeming ally had time to throw off the
mask and to join in the projected attack upon them.

It was the news of this secret resolve on the part
of the cabinet that, having in some way been ob-
tained by a heavy bribe from a subordinate in the
admiralty, was being carried over in cipher to
France in the Lucy, and had it reached its destina-
tion the Danes would have been warned in time, and
the enterprise undertaken by Parker and Nelson

214 DO YOUR DUTY.

would have been impossible, for the forts of Copers
hagen, aided by the fleet in the harbor, were too
strong to have been attacked had they been thor-
oughly prepared for the strife. As ail these matters
were unknown to the officers of the fleet, great was
the astonishment when the captains of the ships
assembled in the admiral's cabin, and each received
orders as to the position which his vessel was to take
up, and the part it was to bear in the contest. This
being settled, the captains returned to their respec-
tive ships.

Several days were spent in negotiations, but as the
Danes finally refused compliance with the English
demands the long-looked-for signal was hoisted and
the fleet stood in through the Sound. It was ? Ine!
sight as the leading squadron, consisting of twelve
line-of-battle ships and a number of frigates under
Admiral Nelson, steered on through the Sound, fol-
lowed at a short distance by Sir Hyde Parker with
the rest of the fleet. The Danish forts on the Sound
cannonaded them, but their fire was very ineffectual,
and the fleet without replying steered on until they
had attained the position intended for them. The
Danes were prepared for action. Their fleet of
thirteen men-of-war and a number of frigates, sup-
ported by floating batteries mounting seventy heavy-
guns, was moored in a line four miles long in front
of the town, and was further supported by the forts
on shore.

This great force was to be engaged by the squad*

DO YOUR DUTY. 215

ron of Admiral Nelson alone, as that of Sir Hyde
Parker remained outside menacing the formidable
Crown Batteries and preventing these from adding
their fire to that of the fleet and other shore batteries
upon Nelson's squadron.

The Casar, the leading ship of the fleet, had been
directed to sail right past the line of ships and to
operate against a detached fort standing on a spit of
land on the right flank of the Danish position. This
fort mounted many guns, much superior to those of
the Casar in weight, but the crew were in high spirits
at the prospect of a fight, little as they understood
the cause for which they were engaged. Stripping
to the waist, they clustered round the guns, each offi-
cer at his post, Harry, with two other midshipmen,
being upon the quarter-deck near the captain to carry
orders from him as might be required to different
parts of the ship. As the Ccesar passed along the
line of ships to take up her position she was saluted
by a storm of fire from the Danish vessels, to which
she made no reply. She suffered, however, but
little injury, although shot and shell whistled be-
tween the masts and struck the water on all sides of
her, several striking the hull with a dull, crashing
sound, while her sails were pierced with holes.
Harry felt that he was rather pale, and was disgusted
with himself at the feeling of discomfort which he
experienced. But there is nothing that tries the
nerves more than standing the fire of an enemy be-
fore it is time to set to work to reply. As soon as

2l6 DO YOUR DUTY.

orders were given for the Caesar's fire to be opened,
directly the guns could be brought to bear, and the
roar of her cannon answered those of the fort, the
feeling of uneasiness on Harry's part disappeared,
and was succeeded by that of the excitement of
battle. The din was prodigious. Along the whole
line the British fleet was engaged, and the boom of
the heavy guns of the ships, forts, and batteries, and
the rattle of musketry from the tops of the
ships, kept up a deep roar like that of incessant
thunder.

" The water is very shallow, sir," the first lieu-
tenant reported to the captain. " There are but two
fathoms under her foot. The wind, too, is drop-
ping so much that we have scarcely steerage-way,
and the current is sweeping us along fast."

" Prepare to anchor, Mr. Francis," the captain
said.

He had scarcely spoken, however, when there was
a slight shivering sensation in the ship, and it was
known by all on board that she was aground, and
that on a falling tide. While the starboard guns were
kept at work the men were called off from those of
the port side, boats were lowered and hawsers were
got out, and every effort was made to tow the ship
off the shoal. The sailors pulled hard in spite of.
the storm of shot and shell which fell round them
from the fort and the nearest Danish ships. But the
C(Bsar was fast. Calling the men on board again,
the captain requested the first lieutenant to go aloft

DO YOUR DUTY. 217

and see what was going on in other parts of the line.
He returned with the news that four or five other
ships were plainly aground, and that things appeared
to be going badly. In the meantime the Casar was
suffering heavily. The fire of the fort was well
directed, and the gunners, working their pieces under
comparative shelter, were able to pgur their fire
steadily into the Casar, while a floating battery and
two frigates also kept up an incessant fire.

The number of killed and wounded was already
large, but as only the guns of the starboard side
could be worked the fire was kept up with unabated
zeal, and the fort bore many signs of the accuracy of
the fire. The parapet was in many places shot away
and several of the guns put out of action. But the
Cccsar was clearly overmatched, and the captain
hastily wrote a note to the admiral, stating that the
ship was aground and was altogether overmatched,
and begging that another vessel might be dispatched
to his aid, if one could be spared, in order to par-
tially relieve her of the enemy's fire.

" Here, Mr. Langley, take the gig and row off to
the flagship instantly."

Harry obeyed orders. Through the storm of shot
and shell which was flying, striking up the water
in all directions, he made his way to the admiral's
ship, which was lying nearly a mile away.

Admiral Nelson opened the note and read it
through.
. " Tell Captain Ball," he said, " that I haven't a

2l8 DO YOUR DUTY.

ship to spare. Several are aground, and all hanf
pressed. He must do the best he can. Ah! you
are the lad whom I saw in Sir Hyde Parker's cabin,
are you not ? "

" Yes, sir."

The Admiral nodded in token of approval, and
Harry prepared to leave. Suddenly a thought
struck him, and running into the captain's cabin he
asked the steward for a small tablecloth.

"What on earth d'you want it for?" he ex-
claimed.

" Never mind. Give it me at once."

Seizing the tablecloth he ran down into the boat
As they returned towards the Casar they could see
how hardly matters were going with her. One of
her masts was down. Her sides were battered and
torn, and several of her port-holes were knocked into
one. Still her fire continued unabated, but it was
clear that she could not much longer resist.

"Do you think she must haul down her flag?"1
Harry said to the coxswain of the boat.

" Aye, aye, sir," the coxswain said. " Wood and
iron can't stand such a pounding as that much
longer. Most captains would have hauled down the
flag long before this, and even our skipper can't stand
out much longer. There won't be a man alive to.
fight her."

" Will you do as I order ? " Harry said.

" Aye, sir," the coxswain said in surprise, " I will
do what you like;" for the story of the conduct by

DO YOUR DUTY. 219

which Harry had gained his midshipman's promo-
tion had been repeated through the ship, and the men
were all proud of the lad who had behaved so
pluckily.

" At least," Harry said, " it may do good, and it
can't do harm. Where's the boat-hook? Fasten
this tablecloth to it and pull for the fort."

The coxswain gave an exclamation of surprise,
but did as Harry told him, and with the white flag
flying the boat pulled straight towards the fort. As
he was seen to do so the fire of the latter, which had
been directed towards the boat, ceased, although the
duel between the battery and the Casar continued
with unabated vigor. Harry steered direct to the
steps on the sea face and mounted to the interior of
the fort, where, on saying that he brought a message
from the captain, he was at once conducted to the
commandant.

" I am come, sir," Harry said, " from the captain
to beg of you to surrender at once. Your guns have
been nobly fought, but two more ships are coming
down to engage with you, and the captain would
fain save further effusion of life. You have done all
that brave men could do, but the fight everywhere
goes against you, and further resistance is vain. In
a quarter of an hour a fire will be centered upon your
guns that will mean annihilation, and the captain
therefore begs you to spare the brave men under your
Orders from further sacrifice."

tTaken by surprise by this sudden demand, which

220 DO YOUR DUTY.

was fortunately at the moment backed up by two
ships of the squadron which had hitherto taken no
part in the action being seen sailing in, the governor,
after a hasty consultation with his officers, resolved
to surrender, and two minutes afterwards the Danish
flag was hauled down in the fort and the white flag
run up. One of the Danish officers was directed to
return with Harry to the ship to notify the captain
of the surrender of the fort.

The astonishment of Captain Ball at seeing the
course of his boat suddenly altered, a white flag
hoisted, and the gig proceeding direct to the fort,
had been extreme, and he could only suppose that
Harry had received some orders direct from the
admiral and that a general cessation of hostilities
was ordered. His surprise became astonishment
when he saw the Danish flag disappear and the white
flag hoisted in its place; and a shout of relief and
exultation echoed from stem to stern of the Casar,
for all had felt that the conflict was hopeless and that
in a few minutes the Cccsar must strike her flag.
All sorts of conjectures were rife as to the sudden
and unexpected surrender of the fort, and expecta-
tion was at its highest when the gig was seen rowing
out again with a Danish officer by the side of the
midshipman.

On reaching the ship's side Harry ascended the
ladder with the Danish officer, and advancing to
Captain Ball said :

" This officer, sir, has, in compliance with the

DO YOUR DUTY. 221

summons which I took to the commander of the fort
in your name, come off to surrender."

The Danish officer advanced and handed his
sword to the captain, saying:

" In the name of the commander of the fort I sur-
render."

The captain handed him back his sword, and
ordering Harry to follow him at once entered his
cabin. His astonishment was unbounded when the
latter informed him what he had done, with many
apologies for having taken the matter into his own
hands.

" I saw," he said, " that the Casar was being
knocked to pieces, and the coxswain told me that it
was impossible she could much longer resist. I
therefore thought that I could do no harm by calling
upon the governor to surrender, and that it was pos-
sible that I might succeed, as you see that I
have."

" You certainly have saved the Casa.r" Captain
Ball said warmly, " and we are all indeed indebted
to you. It was a piece of astounding impudence
indeed for a midshipman to convey a message with
which his captain had not charged him; but success
in the present case a thousand times condones the
offense. You have indeed done well, young sir, and
I and the ship's company are vastly indebted to you.
I will report the matter to the admiral."

A hundred men speedily took their places in the
boats. Lieutenant Francis was sent ashore to take

822 DO YOUR DUTY.

possession, and a few minutes later the British flag
was flying upon the fort.

Ordering Harry to accompany him, Captain Ball
at once took his place in his gig and rowed to the
flagship. The battle was still raging, and to the
practiced eye there was no doubt that the English
fleet was suffering very severely. Captain Ball
mounted the quarter-deck, and saluting the admiral
reported that the fort with which he was engaged
had struck, but that the Cczsar being aground was
unable to render any assistance to the general attack.

" A good many of us are aground, Ball," Admiral
Nelson said, " but I congratulate you on having
caused the fort to haul down its colors. Several of
the Danish men-of-war have struck, but we cannot
take possession, and fresh boat-leads of men came
off from shore, and their fire has reopened. Our
position is an unpleasant one. Sir Hyde Parker has
signaled to me to draw off, but so far I have paid no
attention. I fear that we shall have to haul off and
leave some four or five ships to the enemy."

" The fact is," Captain Ball said, " it wasn't I who
made the fort haul down its flag, but this midship-
man of mine."

" Ha ! " said the admiral, glancing at Harry, who,
at Captain Ball's order, had left the boat and was
standing a short distance off. " How on earth did
he do that?"

" When you told him, sir, that you could give us
no aid he took upon himself, instead of returning to

DO YOUR DUTY. 2«J

the ship, to row straight to the fort with one of your
tablecloths fastened to the boat-hook, and sum-
moned the commander in my name to surrender at
once so as to save all further effusion of life, seeing
that more ships were bearing down and that he had
done all that a brave man could, and should now
think of the lives of his troops."

" An impudent little rascal ! " the admiral ex-
claimed. " Midshipmen were impudent enough in
m; days, but this boy beats everything. However,
his idea was an excellent one, and, by Jupiter! I
will adopt it myself. A man should never be above
learning, and we are in such a sore strait that one
catches at a straw."

So saying, the admiral, calling to his own captain,
entered his cabin, and at once indited a letter to the
King of Denmark begging him to surrender in order
to save the blood of his subjects, expressing admira-
tion at the way in which they had fought, and saying
that they had done all that was possible to save
honor, and might now surrender with a full con-
sciousness of having done their duty. This missive
was at once dispatched to shore, and the admiral
awaited with anxiety its result.

A half-hour elapsed, the firing continuing with
unabated fury.

" By Jove, Ball," the admiral suddenly exclaimed,
" there's the white flag ! " and a tremendous cheer
broke along the whole of the British ships as the flag
of truce waved over the principal fort of Copen-

824 DO YOUR DUTY.

hagen. Instantly the fire on both sides ceased.
Boats passed between the shore and the flagship with
the proposals for surrender and conditions. Nelson
insisted that the Danish fleet should be surrendered,
in so firm and decisive a tone as to convince the king
that he had it in his power completely to destroy the
town, and had only so far desisted from motives of
humanity. At length, to the intense relief of the
admiral and his principal officers, who knew how
sore the strait was, and to the delight of the sailors,
the negotiations were completed, and the victory of
Copenhagen won.

" Where's that boy ? " the admiral asked.

" That boy " was unfortunately no longer on the
quarter-deck. One of the last shots fired from the
Danish fleet had struck him above the knee, carrying
away his leg. He had at once been carried down to
the cockpit, and was attended to by the surgeons of
the flagship. In the excitement of an action men
take but little heed of what is happening around
them, and the fall of the young midshipman was un-
noticed by his captain. Now, however, that the
battle was over, Captain Ball looked round for his
midshipman, and was filled with sorrow upon hear-
ing what had happened. He hurried below to the
wounded boy, whose leg had already been ampu-
tated, above the point at which the ball had severed
it, by the surgeon.

" The white flag has been hoisted, my lad," he
said, " and Copenhagen has been captured, and to

DO YOUR DUTY. 225

you more than to anyone is this great victory due.
I am sorry, indeed, that you should have been
shot."

Harry smiled faintly.

" It is the fortune of war, sir. My career in the
navy has hot been a long one. It is but a fortnight
since I got my commission, and now I am leaving
it altogether."

" Leaving the navy, perhaps," the captain said
cheerfully, "but not leaving life, I hope. I 'trust
there's a long one before you; but Admiral Nelson
will, I am sure, be as grieved as I am that the career
of a young officer, who promised to rise to the
highest honors of his profession and be a credit and
glory to his country, has been cut short."

A short time later the admiral himself came down
and shook hands with the boy, and thanked him for
his services, and cheered him up by telling him that
he would take care that his presence of mind and
courage should be known.

For some days Harry lay between life and death,
but by the time that the ship sailed into Portsmouth
harbor the doctors had considerable hope that he
would pull round. He was carried at once to the
Naval Hospital, and a few hours later Peter Langley
was by his bedside. His captain frequently came to
see him, and upon one occasion came while his
foster-father was sitting by his bedside.

" Ah, Peter, is it you ? " he said. " Your son told
me that you had served his majesty; but I didn't

826 DO YOUR DUTY.

recognize the name as that of my old boatswain on
board the Cleopatra."

" I am glad to see your honor," Peter said; " but
I wish it had been on any other occasion. However,
I think that the lad will not slip his wind this time;
but he's fretting that his career on blue water is at
an end."

" It is sad that it should be so," Captain Ball said;
" but there are many men who may live to a good
age and will have done less for their country than
this lad in the short time he was at sea. First, he
prevented the dispatch, which would have warned
the enemy of what was coming, from reaching them;
and, in the second place, his sharpness and readiness
saved no small portion of Admiral Nelson's fleet,
and converted what threatened to be a defeat into a
victory. You must be proud of your son, old
salt."

" Has not the boy told you, sir, that he's not my
son ? " the boatswain said.

" No, indeed! " Captain Ball exclaimed, surprised;
" on the contrary, he spoke 'of you as his father."

In a few words Peter Langley related the circum-
stances of the finding of Harry when a baby. Cap-
tain Ball was silent for a while, and then said, " Do
you know, Peter, that I have been greatly struck by
the resemblance of that lad to an old friend and
school-fellow of mine, a Mr. Harper? They are as
like as two peas — that is, he is exactly what my
friend was at his age. My friend never was married;

DO YOUR DUTY. 257

but I remember hearing a good many years ago — I
should say some fifteen years ago, which would be
about in accordance with this lad's age — that he had
lost a sister at sea. The ship she was in was sup-
posed to have foundered, and was never heard of
again. She was the wife of the captain, and was
taking her first voyage with him. Of course it may
be a mere coincidence; still the likeness is so strong
that it would be worth while making some inquiries.
Have you anything by which the child can be identi-
fied?"

" There are some trinkets, sir, of Indian work-
manship for the most part, and a locket. I will
bring them over to your honor to-morrow if you
will let me."

" Do so," Captain Ball said; " I am going up to
London to-morrow, and shall see my friend. Don't
speak to the boy about it, for it's a thousand to one
against its being more than a coincidence. Still I
hope sincerely for his sake that it may be so."

The next evening Captain Ball went up by coach
to London, and the following day called upon his
friend, who was a rich retired East-Indian director.
He told the story as Peter had told it to him.

" The dates answer," he said; " and, curiously,
although the ship was lost in the West Indies, it's
likely enough that the ornaments of my poor sister
would have been Indian, as I was in the habit of
often sending her home things from Calcutta."

" I have them with me," Captain Ball said, and

DO YOUR DUTY.

produced the little packet which Peter had given
him.

The old gentleman glanced at the ornaments, and
then, taking the locket, pressed the spring. He gave
a cry as he saw the portrait within it, and exclaimed,
" Yes, that's the likeness of my sister as she was
when I last saw her! What an extraordinary dis-
covery! Where is the lad of whom you have been
speaking? for surely he is my nephew, the son of my
sister Mary and Jack Peters."

Captain Ball then related the story of Harry's do-
ings from the time he had known him, and the old
gentleman was greatly moved at the tale of bravery.
The very next day he went down to Portsmouth
with Captain Ball, and Harry, to his astonishment,
found himself claimed as nephew by the friend of
his captain.

When Harry was well enough to be moved he
went up to London with his uncle, and a fortnight
later received an official letter directing him to at-
tend at the Board of Admiralty.

Donning his midshipman uniform he proceeded
thither in his uncle's carriage, and walked with
crutches — for his wound was not as yet sufficiently
healed to allow him to wear an artificial leg — to the
board-room. Here were assembled the first lord'
and his colleagues. Admiral Nelson was also
present, and at once greeted him kindly.

A seat was placed for him, and the first lord then
addressed him. " Mr. Peters, Admiral Nelson has

DO YOUR DUTY. 229

brought to our notice the clever stratagem by which,
on your own initiation and without instruction, you
obtained the surrender of the Danish fort, and saved
the Casar at a time when she was aground and alto-
gether overmatched. Admiral Nelson has also been
good enough to say that it was the success which
attended your action which suggested to him the
course that he took which brought the battle to a
happy termination. Thus we cannot but feel that
the victory which has been won is in no small degree
due to you. Moreover, we are mindful that it was
your bravery and quickness which prevented the
news of the intended sailing of the fleet from reach-
ing the Continent, in which case the attack could not
have been carried out. Under such extraordinary
and exceptional circumstances we feel that an ex-
traordinary and exceptional acknowledgment is due
to you. We all feel very deep regret that the loss of
your leg will render you unfit for active service at
sea, and has deprived his majesty of the loss of so
meritorious and most promising a young officer.
We are about, therefore, to take a course altogether
without precedent. You will be continued on the
full-pay list all your life, you will at once be pro-
moted to the rank of lieutenant, three years hence to
that of commander, and again in another three years
to the rank of post captain. The board are glad to
hear from Captain Ball that you are in good hands,
and wish you every good fortune in life."

Harry was so overcome with pleasure that he

230 DO YOUR DUTY.

could only stammer a word or two of thanks, and
the first lord, his colleagues, and Admiral Nelson
having warmly shaken hands with him, he was taken
back to the carriage, still in a state of bewilderment
at the honor which had been bestowed upon him.

There is little more to tell. Having no other rela-
tions his uncle adopted him as his heir, and the
only further connection that Harry had with the sea
was that when he was twenty-one he possessed the
fastest and best-equipped yacht which sailed out of
an English port. Later on he sat in Parliament,
married, and to the end of his life declared that, after
all, the luckiest point in his career was the cutting
off of his leg by the last shot fired by the Danish bat-
teries, for that, had this not happened, he should
never have known who he was, would never have
met the wife whom he dearly loved, and would have
passed his life as a miserable bachelor. Peter Lang-
ley, when not at sea with Harry in his yacht, lived in
a snug cottage at Southsea, and had never reason to
the end of his life to regret the time when he sighted
the floating box from the tops of the Alert.

SURLY JOE.

"You wonder why I am called Surly Joe, sir?
No, as you say, I hope I don't deserve the title now;
but I did once, and a name like that sticks to a man
for life. Well, sir, the fish are not biting at present,
and I don't mind if I tell you how I got it."

The speaker was a boatman, a man some fifty
years old, broad and weather-beaten; he had but one
arm. I had been spending a month's well-earned
holiday at Scarborough, and had been making the
most of it, sailing or fishing every day. Upon my
first arrival I had gone out with the one-armed boat-
man, and as he was a cheery companion, and his
boat, the Grateful Mary, was the best and fastest on
the strand, I had stuck to him throughout. The
boatmen at our watering-places soon learn when a
visitor fixes upon a particular boat, and cease to im-
portune him with offers of a sail; consequently it
•became ah understood thing after a day or two that
I was private property, and as soon as I was seen
making my way across the wet, soppy sand, which
is the one drawback to the pleasure of Scarborough,
a shout would at once be raised for Surly Joe. The
name seemed a singularly inappropriate one; but it

agx

23 2 SURLY JOE.

was not until the very day before I was returning to
town that I made any remark on the subject. By
this time we had become great allies; for what with
a bathe in the morning early, a sail before lunch, and
a fishing expedition afterwards, I had almost lived
on board the Grateful Mary. The day had been too
clear and bright for fishing; the curly-headed, bare-
footed boy who assisted Joe had grown tired of
watching us catch nothing, and had fallen asleep in
the bow of the boat; and the motion, as the boat rose
and fell gently on the swell, was so eminently pro-
vocative of sleep that I had nodded once or twice as
I sat with my eyes fixed on my line. Then the happy
idea had occurred to me to remark that I wondered
why my companion was called by a nickname which
seemed so singularly inappropriate. Joe's offer to
tell me how he obtained it woke me at once. I re-
filled my pipe, — an invariable custom, I observe, with
smokers when they are sitting down to listen to a
story, — passed my pouch to Joe, who followed my
example; and when we had " lighted up " Joe began:
" Well, sir, it's about twelve years ago. I was a
strong, active chap then — not that I aint strong now,
for I can shove a boat over the sandbar with any
man oh the shore — but I aint as active as I were. I
warn't called Surly Joe then, and I had my two arms
like other men. My nickname then was Curly;
'cause, you see, my hair won't lay straight oh my
head, not when it gets as wet as seaweed. I owned
,my own boat, and the boys that worked with me

SURLY JOE. 233

warn't strangers, like Dick there, but they were my
own flesh and blood. I was mighty proud of the
two boys : fine straight tough-built lads was they, and
as good-plucked uns as any on the shore. I had
lost their mother ten years, maybe, before that, and
I never thought of giving them another. One of
'em was about twelve, just the size of Dick there;
the other was a year older. Full of tricks and mis-
chief they was, but good boys, sir, and could handle
the boat nigh as well as I could. There was one
thing they couldn't do, sir — they couldn't swim. I
used to tell 'em they ought to learn; but there, you
see, I can't swim myself, tmd out of all the men and
boys on this shore I don't suppose one in twenty on
'em can swim. Rum, aint it, sir? All their lives
in the water or on the water, seeing all these visitors
as comes here either swimming or learning to swim,
and yet they won't try. They talks about instinks;
I don't believe in instinks, else everybody who's got
to pass his life on the water would learn to swim,
instead of being just the boys as never does learn.
That year, sir, I was doing well. There was a gen-
tleman and his wife and darter used to use my boat
regular; morning and afternoon they'd go out for a
sail whenever it warn't too rough for the boat to put
out. I don't think the old gentleman and lady cared
so much for it; but they was just wrapped up in the
girl, who was a pale, quiet sort o' girl, who had come
down to the sea for her health. She was wonderful
fond of the sea, and a deal o' good it did her; she

«34 SURL Y JOE.

warn't like the same creature after she had been herd
two months.

" It was a roughish sort of afternoon, with squalls
from the east, but not too rough to go out: they
was to go out at four o'clock, and they came down
punctual; but the gentleman says, when he gets
down :

' We have just got a telegram, Joe, to say as a
friend is coming down by the five-o'clock train, and
we must be at the station to meet her, she being ah
invalid; but I don't want Mary to lose her sail, so
will trust her with you/

" * You'll take great care of her, Joe, and bring
her back safe,' the mother says, half laughing like;
but I could see she were a little anxious about lettin*
her go alone, which had never happened before.

" ' I'll take care of her, ma'am,' I says; ' you may
take your oath I'll bring her back if I comes back
myself.'

" ' Good-by, mamma,' the girl says as she steps on
the plank; 'don't you fidget: you know you can
trust Joe; and I'll be back at half-past six to din-
ner.'

" Well, sir, as we pushed off I felt somehow re-
sponsible like, and although I'd told the boys before
that one reef would be enough, I made 'em put in
another before I hoisted the sail. There warn't
many boats out, for there was more sea on than most
visitors care to face; but once fairly outside we went
&long through it splendid. When we got within a

SURL Y JOE. *35

mile of Fley, I asks her if we should turn, or
go on for a bit farther.

' We shall go back as quick as we've come, shan't
we, Joe? '

" 'Just about the same, miss; the wind's straight
on the shore.'

•

' We haven't been out twenty minutes,' she
says, looking at her watch ; ' I'd rather go a bit
farther.'

" Well, sir, we ran till we were off the brig. The
wind was freshening, and the gusts coming down
strong; it was backing round rather to the north
too, and the sea was getting up.

" ' I a'most think, miss, we'd better run into
Filey,' I says; ' and you could go across by the
coach/

" ' But there's no danger, is there, Joe? '

" ' No, miss, there aint no danger; but we shall
get a ducking before we get back; there's rain in that
squall to windward.'

" ' Oh, I don't care a bit for rain, Joe; and the
coach won't get in till half-past seven, and mamma
would be in a dreadful fright Oh, I'd so much
rather go on ! '

" I did not say no more, but I put her about, and
in another few minutes the squall was down upon
us. The rain came against us as if it wanted to
knock holes in the boat, and the wind just howled
again. A sharper squall I don't know as ever I was
put in. It was so black you couldn't have seen two

236 SURL Y JOE.

boats' length. I eased off the sheet, and put the
helm up; but something went wrong, and — I don't
know rightly how it was, sir. I've thought it over
hundreds and hundreds of times, and I can't reason
it out in any sort of form. But the 'sponsibility of
that young gal weighed on me, I expect, and I must
somehow ha' lost my head — I don't know, I can't
account for it; but there it was, and in less time than
it takes me to tell you we were all in the water.
Whatever I'd ha' been before, I was cool enough
now. I threw one arm round the gal, as I felt her
going, and with the other I caught hold of the side
of the boat. We was under water for a moment,
and then I made shift to get hold of the rudder as
she floated bottom upwards. The boys had stuck to
her too, but they couldn't get hold of the keel; for
you know how deep them boats are forward, draw-
ing nigh a foot of water there more than they does
astern. However, after a bit, they managed to get
down to'rds the stern, and get a hand on the keel
about halfway along. They couldn't come no
nigher, because, as you know, the keel of them boats
only runs halfway along. * Hould on, lads ! ' I
shouted; ' hould on for your lives! They'll have
seen us from the cliff, and '11 have a lugger out here
for us in no time.'

" I said so to cheer them up; but I knew in my
heart that a lugger, to get out with that wind on,
would have to run right into t'other side o' the bay
before she could get room enough to weather the

SURL Y JOE. 237

brig. The girl hadn't spoken a word since the
squall struck us, except that she gave a little short
cry as the boat went over; and when we came up she
got her hands on the rudder, and held on there as
well as she could with my help. The squall did not
last five minutes; and when it cleared off I could loolc
round and judge of our chances. They weren't
good. There was a party of people on the cliff, and
another on the brig, who were making their way out
as far as they could on the brig, for it were about
half-tide. They must have seen us go over as we
went into the squall, for as we lifted I could see over
the brig, and there was a man galloping on horse-
back along the sands to'rds Filey as hard as he could
go. We were, maybe, a quarter of a mile off the
brig, and I saw that we should drift down on it be-
fore a boat could beat out of the bay and get round
to us. The sea was breaking on it, as it always does
break if there's ever so little wind from the east, and
the spray was flying up fifty feet in places where the
waves hit the face of the rock. There aint a worse
place on all the coast than this, running as it do nigh
a mile out from the head, and bare at low water.
The waves broke over the boat heavy, and I had as
much as I could do to hold on by one hand to the
rudder, which swung backwards and forwards with
every wave. As to the boys, I knew they couldn't
hold on if they couldn't get onto the bottom of the
boat; so I shouted to 'em to try to climb up. But
they couldn't do it, sir; they'd tried already, over and

238 SURLY JOB.

over again. It would ha' been easy enough in calm
water; but with the boat rolling and such waves
going over her, and knocking them back again when
they'd half got up, it was too much for 'em. If I'd
ha' been free I could have got 'em up by working
round to the side opposite 'em, and given them a
hand to haul them up; but as it was, with only one
hand free, it took me all my time to hold on where I
was. The girl saw it too, for she turned her face
round to me, and spoke for the first time.

" ' Let me go, please,' says she, ' and help your
boys/

" * I can't do it,' said I. ' I've got to hold you till
we're both drowned together.'

" I spoke short and hard, sir; for, if you'll believe!
me, I was actually beginning to hate that gal.
There was my own two boys a-struggling for their
lives, and I couldn't lend a hand to help 'em, because
I was hampered by that white-faced thing. She
saw it in my face, for she gave a sort of little cry,
and said :

"'Oh, do— do let me go!'

" I didn't answer a word, but held on all the
harder. Presently Bill — he was my youngest boy — •
sang out :

" * Father, can't you get round and lend us a hand
to get up ? I can't hold on much longer.'

' I can't help you, Bill,' says I. ' I've given my
promise to take this young woman back, and I must
keep my word. Her life's more precious to her

SURL Y JOE. 239

father than yours is to me, ho doubt, and she's got to
be saved.'

" It was cruel of me, sir, and altogether unjust,
and I knew it was when I said it, but I couldn't help
it. I felt as if I had a devil in me. I was just mad
with sorrow and hopelessness, and yet each word
seemed to come as cold and hard from me as if it
was frozen. For a moment she didn't move, and
then, all of a sudden like, she gave a twist out of my
arms and went straight down. I grabbed at her,
and just got hold of her cloak and pulled her up
again. She never moved after that, but just lay
quiet on my arm as if she was dead. Her head was
back, half in, half out of the water; and it was only
by the tears that run down sometimes through her
eyelids, and by a little sob in her breast, that I knew
that she was sensible.

" Presently Bill says, ' Good-by, father. God
bless you ! ' and then he let go his hold and went
down. Five minutes afterwards, maybe, though it
seemed a week to 'me, Jack did the same.

" There we was — the girl and I — alone.

" I think now, sir, looking back upon it, as I was
mad then. I felt somehow as that the gal had
drowned my two boys; and the devil kept whisper-
ing to me to beat her white face in, and then to go
with her to the bottom. I should ha' done it too,
but my promise kept me back. I had sworn she
should get safe to shore if I could, and it seemed to
me that included the promise that I would do my

240 SURL Y JOE.

best for us both to get there. I was getting weak
now, and sometimes I seemed to wander, and my
thoughts got mixed up, and I talked to the boys as if
they could hear me. Once or twice my hold had
slipped, and I had hard work enough to get hold
again. I was sensible enough to know as it couldn't
last much longer, and, talking as in my sleep, I had
told the boys I would be with 'em in a minute or
two, when a sound of shouting quite close roused me
up sudden.

" Then I saw we had drifted close to the brig.
Some men had climbed along, taking hold hand-in-
hand when they passed across places where the sea
was already breaking over, and bringing with them
the rope which, as I afterwards heard, the man on
horseback had brought back from Filey. It was a
brave deed on their part, sir, for the tide was rising
fast. When they saw I lifted my head and could
hear them they shouted that they would throw me
the rope, and that I must leave go of the boat, which
would have smashed us to pieces, as I knew, if she
had struck the rocks with us. Where they were
standing the rock was full six feet above the sea;
but a little farther it shelved down, and each wave
ran three feet deep across the brig. They asked me
could I swim; and when I shook my head, for I was
too far gone to speak now, one of 'em jumped in
with the end of the rope. He twisted it round the
two of us, and shouted to his friends to pull. It was
time, for we weren't much above a boat's length from

SURL Y JOE. 241

the brig. Three of the chaps as had the rope run
down to the low part of the rock and pulled together,
while another two kept hold of the end of the rope
and kept on the rock, so as to prevent us all being
washed across the brig together. I don't remember
much more about it. I let go the boat, sank down at
once, as if the girl and I had been lead, felt a tug of
the rope, and then, just as the water seemed choking
me, a great smash, and I remember nothing else.
When I came to my right senses again I was in a bed
at Filey. I had had a bad knock on the head, and
my right arm, which had been round the girl, was
just splintered. They took it off that night. The
first thing as they told me when I came round was
that the gal was safe. I don't know whether I was
glad or sorry to hear it. I was glad, because I had
kept my promise and brought her back alive. I was
sorry, because I hated her like pison. Why should
she have been saved when my two boys was
drowned? She was well-plucked, was that gal, for
she had never quite lost her senses ; and the moment
she had got warm in bed with hot blankets, and such-
like she wanted to get dry clothes and to go straight
on to Scarborough in a carriage. However, the
doctor would not hear of it, and she wrote a little
letter saying as she was all right; and a man gal-
loped off with it on horseback, and got there just as
they had got a carriage to the door to drive over to
Filey to ask if there was any news there about the
boat They came over and slept there, and she went

S URL Y fOE.

back with them next day. I heard all this after-
wards, for I was off my head, what with the blow 1
had got and one thing and another, before I had been
there an hour. And I raved and cussed at the girl,
they tell me, so that they wouldn't let her father in to
see me.

" It was high a fortnight before I came to myself,
to find my arm gone, and then I was another month
before I was out of bed. They came over to Filey
when I was sensible, and I hear they had got the
best doctor over from Scarborough to see me, and
paid everything for me till I was well, but I wouldn't
see them when they came. I was quite as bitter
against her as I had been when I was in the sea
drowning; and I was so fierce when they talked of
coming in that the doctor told them it would make
me bad again if they. came. So they went up to
London, and when I could get about they sent me a
letter, the gal herself and her father and mother,
thanking me, I suppose; but I don't know, for I just
tore 'em into pieces without reading them. Then a
lawyer of the town here came to me and said he'd
'struction to buy me a new boat, and to buy a 'nuity
for me. I told him his 'nuity couldn't bring my boys
back again, and that I warn't going to take blood-
money; and as to the boat, I'd knock a hole in her
end sink her if she came. A year after that lawyer
came to me again, and said he'd more 'structions;
and I told him though I'd only one arm left I was
man enough still to knock his head off his shoulders,

SURLY JOE 243

and that I'd do it if he came to me with his 'struc-
tions or anything else.

" By this time I'd settled down to work on the
shore, and had got the name of Surly Joe. Rightly
enough, too. I had one of them planks with wheels
that people use to get in and out of the boats; and
as the boatmen on the shore was all good to me,
being sorry for my loss, and so telling my story to
people as went out with them, I got enough to live
on comfortable, only there was nothing comfort-
able about me. I wouldn't speak a word, good
or bad, to a soul for days together, unless it was
to swear at anyone as tried to talk to me. I
hated everyone, and myself wuss nor all. I was
always cussing the rocks that didn't kill me, and
wondering how many years I'd got to go on at this
work before my turn came. Fortunately I'd never
cared for drink; but sometimes I'd find my thoughts
too hard for me, and I'd go and drink glass after
glass till I tumbled under the table.

" At first my old mates tried to get me round, and
made offers to me to take a share in their boats, or to
make one in a fishing voyage; but I would not hear
them, and in time they dropped off one by one, and
left me to myself, and for six years there wasn't a
surlier, wuss-conditioned, lonelier chap, not in all
England, than I was. Well, sir, one day — it was just
at the beginning of the season, but was too rough a
day for sailing — I was a-sitting down on the steps of
a machine doing nothing, just wondering and won-

244 SUJtL Y JOE.

dering why things was as they was, when two little
gals cum up. One was, maybe, five, and the other
a year younger. I didn't notice as they'd just cum
away from the side of a lady and gentleman. I never
did notice nothing that didn't just concern me; but I
did see that they had a nurse not far off. The biggest
girl had great big eyes, dark and soft, and she looked
up into my face, and held out a broken wooden spade
and a bit of string, and says she, ' Sailor-man, please
mend our spade.' I was struck all of a heap like; for
though I had been mighty fond of little children in
the old days, and was still always careful of lifting
them into boats, my name and my black looks had
been enough, and none of them had spoken to me
for years. I felt quite strange like when that child
spoke out to me, a'most like what I've read Robin-
son Crusoe, he as was wrecked on the island, felt
when he saw the mark of a foot.

" I goes to hold out my hand, and then I draws it
back, and says, gruff, ' Don't you see I aint got but
one hand? Go to your nurse.'

" I expected to see her run right off; but she
didn't, but stood as quiet as may be, with her eyes
looking up into my face.

" ' Nurse can't mend spade; break again when
Nina digs. Nina will hold spade together, sailor-
man tie it up strong.'

" I didn't answer at once; but I saw her lip quiver,
and it was plain she had been crying just before; so
I put my hand into my pocket and brings out a bit

S URL Y JOE. 245

of string, for the stuff she'd got in her hand was of
no account; and I says, in a strange sort of voice, as
I hardly knew as my own, ' All right, missy, I'll
tie it/

" So she held the broken pieces together, and I
ties 'em up with the aid of my hand and my teeth,
and makes a strong, ship-shape job of it. I did it sit-
ting on the bottom step, with a child standing on
each side watching me. When I had done it the
eldest took it, and felt it.

" ' That is nice and strong,' she said; ' thank you.
Annie, say thank you.'

" 'T'ank you,' she said; and, with a little pat on
my arm as a good-by, the little ones trotted away to
a nurse sitting some little distance off.

" It may seem a little thing to you, sir, just a half-
minute's talk to a child; but it warn't a little thing
to me. It seemed regularly to upset me like; and I
sat there thinking it over and wondering what was
come over me, till an hour afterwards they went
past me with their nurse; and the little things ran
up to me and said, * The spade's quite good now —
good-by, sailor-man ! ' and went on again. So I
shook it off and went to my work; for as the tide rose
the wind dropped, and a few boats went out; and
thinking what a fool I was, was gruffer and surlier
than ever.

" Next morning I was lending a mate a hand
painting- a boat, when I saw the two children com-
ing along the sand again, and I wondered to myself

S URL Y JOE.

whether they would know me again, or think any
more of me, and though I wanted them to do so I
turned my back to the way they was coming, and
went on with my painting. Somehow I felt won-
derful glad when I heard their little feet come, patter-
ing along the sand, and they sang out :

" ' Good-morning, sailor-man ! '

" ' Good-morning ! ' says I, short-like, as if I didn't
want no talk; and I goes on with my work without
turning round.

" Just then one of the men at the boats hails me.

" ' Joe, there's a party coming down.'

" ' I'm busy,' shouts I back; ' shove the plank out
yourself.'

" The children stopped quiet by me for a minute
or two, watching me at work, and then the eldest
says:

" ' May we get inside the boat, Joe? we've never
been inside a boat, and we do want to so much.'

" ' My hand is all covered with paint,' says I, mak-
ing a fight with myself against giving in.

" Then the little one said :

" ' Oo stoop down, Joe; sissy and me take hold
round oor neck; then oo stand up and we det in.'

" Well, sir, the touch of their little arms and those
soft little faces against my cheeks as they got in
fairly knocked me over, and it was some time before
I could see what I was doing.

" Once in, they never stopped talking. They
asked about everything, and I had to answer them;

SURLY JOE. 247

&nd as I got accustomed to it the words came freer,
till I was talking away with them as if I had known
'em all my life. Once 1 asked them didn't their papa
and mamma ever take 'em out for a sail, and they
shook their heads and said mammy hated the sea,
and said it was a cruel sea; by which I judged as she
must have lost someone dear to her by it.

" Well, sir, I must cut a long story short. Those
children used to come every day down to talk with
me, and I got to look for it regular; and if it was a
wet day and they couldn't come I'd be regular put
out by it; and I got to getting apples and cakes in
my pockets for them. After a fortnight I took to
carrying them across the wet sands and putting them
on the stand as I wheeled it out and back with people
to the boats. I didn't do it till they'd asked their
mother, and brought back the message that she knew
she could trust them with me.

" All this time it never once struck me as strange
that their nurse should sit with a baby-brother of
theirs at a distance, and let them play with me by
the hour together, without calling them away, for I
wondered so much at myself, and to find myself tell-
ing stories to 'em just as I'd do with children who
came out sailing with me in the old time, and in
knowing as I was so wrapped up in 'em that I
couldn't wonder at anything else. Natural like, I
changed a good deal in other respects, and I got to
give a good-morning to mates as I had scarce spoken
with for years; and the moment the children turned

248 S URL Y JOE.

down onto the sands there' d be sure to be a shout of
* There's your little ladies, Joe.'

" I don't know why my mates should ha' been
pleased to see me coming round, for I had made my-
self onpleasant enough on the shore; but they'd made
'lowances for me, and they met me as kindly as if I'd
cum back from a vyage. They did it just quiet like,
and would just say, natural, ' Lend us a hand here,
Joe, boy/ or * Give us a shoulder over the bank, Joe,'
and ask me what I thought o' the weather. It was
a hard day for me when, after staying nigh two
months, the little ladies came to say good-by. It
warn't as bad as might have been, though, for they
were going to stay with some friends near York, and
were to come back again in a fortnight before they
went back to London. But they kissed me, and
cried, and gave me a pipe and a lot o' 'bacca, and I
was to think of them whenever I smoked it, and they
would be sure to think of me, for they loved me very
much.

" That very afternoon, sir, as I was standing by
my stage, Jim Saunders — he'd been mate with me
before I owned a boat of my own — says out loud :

" ' Lor', here's my party a-coming down, and I've
jammed my hand so as I can't hoist a sail. Who'll
come out and lend me a hand ? '

" Well, everyone says they were busy, and
couldn't come; but I believe now as the whole thing
was a got-up plan to get me afloat again; and then
Jim turns to me as if a sudden idea had struck him.

SURL Y JOE. 249

" ' Come, Joe, lend us a hand for the sake o' old
times ; come along, old chap.'

" I was taken aback like, and could only say some-
thing about my stage; but half a dozen chaps volun-
teers to look after my stage, and afore I scarce knew
what I was after I was bundled aboard the boat; and
as the party got in I'm blest if I don't think as every
chap on the shore runs in to help shove her off, and
a score of hands was held out just to give me a shake
as we started.

" I don't think I was much good on that vyage,
for I went and sat up in the bow, with my back to
the others, and my eyes fixed far ahead.

" I needn't tell you, sir, when I'd once broken the
ice I went regular to the sea again, and handed my
stage over to a poor fellow who had lost his craft
and a leg the winter before.

" One day when I came in from a sail I saw two
little figures upon the sands, and it needed no word
from anyone to tell me my little ladies had come
back. They jumped and clapped their hands when
they saw me, and would have run across the water
to meet me hadn't I shouted to them to wait just a
minute till I should be with them.

" ' We've been waiting a long time, Joe. Where
have you been ? '

" ' I've been out sailing, missy.'

" * Joe, don't you know it's wicked to tell stories ?
iYou told us you should never go on sea any
more,'

«5° SURLY JOB,

" ' No more I didn't think I should, missy; and I
don't suppose I ever should if I hadn't met you,
though you won't understand that However, I've
give up the stage, and have taken to the sea again.'

" ' I'm glad of that, Joe,' the eldest said, ' and
mamma will be glad too/

"'Why should mamma be glad, little one?' I
asked.

" ' Mamma will be glad,' she said positively. ' I
know she will be glad when I tells her.'

" We'd sat down by this time, and I began to talk
to them about their mamma. Mamma very good,
very kind, very pretty, they both agreed; and then
they went on telling me about their home in London,
and their carriage and amusements. Presently they
stopped, and I could see the eldest wanted to say
something particular, for she puckered up her fore-
head as she always did when she was very serious;
and then she said, with her hands folded before her,
almost as if she was saying a lesson :

" ' Mamma very happy woman. She's got two
little girls and baby-brother, and papa love her so
much; but there's one thing keeps her from being
quite happy.'

" ' Is there, missy? ' I asked. ' She ought to be
happy with all these things. What is it ? '

" ' Mamma once had someone do a great thing for
her. If it hadn't been for him Nina and sissy and
little baby-brother could never have been born, and
papa would never have had dear mamma to lovej

SURLY JOE. 2gl

but it cost the man who did it a great deal — all he
cared for; and now he won't let mamma and papa
and us love him and help him ; and it makes mamma
unhappy when she thinks of it.'

" Here she had evidently finished what she had
heard her mamma say, for her forehead got smooth
again, and she began to fill my pockets with sand.

" ' It don't sound likely, missy, that doesn't,' I
says. ' It don't stand to reason nohow. You can't
have understood what mamma said.'

" ' Mamma said it over and over again, lots of
time,' Nina said. ' Nina quite sure she said right.'

" We didn't say no more about it then, though
after the children had gone I wondered to myself
how a chap could go on so foolish as that. Well, sir,
three days after come round from Whitby this very
boat, the Grateful Mary. She was sent care of Joe
Denton ; and as that was me, I had her hauled up on
the beach till I should hear whose she was. Several
visitors that had been out with me had said, promis-
cuous like, that they should like to have a boat of
their own, and I supposed they had bought her at
Wrhitby and sent her down, though why they should
have sent her to my care I couldn't quite see.

" Two days afterwards them children come down,
and says :

" * We want you to go through the town to the
other cliff with us, Joe.'

" ' I can't/ says I. ' I'm all right talking to you
here, missies; but I shouldn't be a credit to you in

25 2 SURLY JOE.

the town, and your pa wouldn't be best pleased if hei
was to see you walking about in the streets with a
boatman.'

" ' Papa said we might ask you, Joe/

" I shook my head, and the little ladies ran off to
their nurse, who come back with them and says :

" ' Master told me to say he should be pertickler
glad if you would go with the young ladies.'

" ' Oh, very well/ I says; ' if their pa don't object,
and they wishes it, I'd go with 'em anywheres. You
wait here a quarter of an hour, while I goes and
cleans myself, and I'll go with you.'

" When I comes back the youngest takes my hand,
and the oldest holds by my jacket, and we goes up
into High Street, and across to the other cliff. We
goes along till we comes to a pretty little cottage
looking over the sea. There was a garden in front,
new planted with flowers.

" ' Are you sure you are going right ? ' says I,
when they turned in.

" They nodded, and ran up to the door and turned
the handle.

" ' Come in, Joe,' they said; and they dragged me
into a parlor, where a lady and gentleman was sit-
ting.

" The gentleman got up.

" ' My little girls have spoken so much to me
about you, Joe, that I feel that we know each. other
already.'

" ' Yes, sir, surely,' says I.

SURL Y JOE. 253

' Well, Joe, do you know that I owe you a great
deal as to these little girls ? '

' Bless you, sir, it's I as owe a great deal to the
little missies; they have made a changed man of me,
they have; you ask anyone on the shore.'

' I hope they have, Joe; for had they not got
round your heart, and led you to your better self, I
could never have done what I have done, for you
would have rendered it useless/

" I didn't say nothing, sir, for I could make neither
head nor tail of what he was saying, and, I dessay,
looked as surprised as might be. Then he takes a
step forward, and he puts a hand on my shoulder,
and says he :

" ' Joe, have you never guessed who these little
girls were? '

" I looked first at the children, and then at him,
and then at the lady, who had a veil down, but was
wiping her eyes underneath it. I was downright
flummuxed.

" ' I see you haven't/ the gentleman went on.
' Well, Joe, it is time you should know now. I owe
to you all that is dear to me in this world, and our
one unhappiness has been that you would not hear
us, that you had lost everything and would not let us
do anything to lighten your blow.'

" Still, sir, I couldn't make out what he meant,
and began to think that I was mad, or that he was.
Then the lady stood up and threw back her veil, and
come up in front of me with the tears a-running

*54 SURLY JOE.

down her face; and I fell back a step, and sits down
suddenly in a chair, for, sure enough, it was that gal.
Different to what I had seen her last, healthy-looking
and well — older, in course; a woman now, and the
mother of my little ladies.

" She stood before me, sir, with her hands out be-
fore her, pleading like.

" ' Don't hate me any more, Joe. Let my chil-
dren stand between us. I know what you have suf-
fered, and, in all my happiness, the thought of your
loneliness has been a trouble, as my husband will tell
you. I so often thought of you — a broken, lonely
man. I have talked to the children of you till they
loved the man that saved their mother's life. I can-
not give you what you have lost, Joe — no one can do
that; but you may make us happy in making you
comfortable. At least, if you cannot help hating
me, let the love I know you bear my children weigh
with you.'

" As she spoke the children were hanging on me;
and when she stopped the little one said :

" ' Oh, Joe, oo must be dood; oo mustn't hate!
mamma, and make her cry ! '

" Well, sir, I know as I need tell you more about
it. You can imagine how I quite broke down, like
a great baby, and called myself every kind of name,
saying only that I thought, and I a'most think so
now, that I had been somehow mad from the mo-
ment the squall struck the Kate till the time I first
met the little girls.

SURL y JOE. «55

" When I thought o' that, and how I'd cut that
poor gal to her drowning heart with my words, I
could ha' knelt to her if she'd ha' let me. At last,
when I was quiet, she explained that this cottage and
its furniture and the Grateful Mary was all for me;
and we'd a great fight over it, and I only gave in
when at last she says that if I didn't do as she wanted
she'd never come down to Scarborough with the
little ladies no more; but that if I 'greed they'd come
down regular every year, and that the little girls
should go out sailing with me regular in the Grate-
ful Mary.

" Well, sir, there was no arguing against that,
was there? So here I am; and next week I expect
Miss Mary that was, with her husband, who's a Par-
liament man, as she was engaged to be married to
at the time of the upset, and my little ladies, who is
getting quite big girls too. And if you hadn't been
going away I'd ha' sailed round the castle tower,
and I'd ha' pointed out the cottage to you. Yes,
sir, I see what you are going to ask. I found it
lonely there; and I found the widow of a old mate of
mine who seemed to think as how she could make
me comfortable; and comfortable I am, sir — no
words could say how comfortable I am; and do you
know, sir, I'm blest if there aint a Joe up there at
this identical time, only he's a very little one, and
has got both arms. So you see, sir, I have got about
as little right as has any chap in this mortial world
to the name of Surly Joe."

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM.

FALMOUTH is hot a fashionable watering-place.
Capitalists and speculative builders have somehow
left it alone, and, except for its great hotel, standing
in a position, as far as I know, unrivaled, there have
been comparatively few additions to it in the last
quarter of a century. Were I a yachtsman I should
make Falmouth my headquarters: blow high, blow
low, there are shelter and plenty of sailing room,
while in fine weather there is a glorious coast along
which to cruise — something very different from the
flat shores from Southampton to Brighton. It is
some six years since that I was lying in the harbor,
having sailed round in a friend's yacht from Cowes.
Upon the day after we had come in my friend went
into Truro, and I landed, strolled up, and sat down
on a bench high on the seaward face of the hill that
shelters the inner harbor.

An old coastguardsman came along. I offered
him tobacco, and in five minutes we were in full talk.

" I suppose those are the pilchard boats far out
there?"

" Aye, that's the pilchard fleet'*

" Do they do well generally? '*

»S7

258 A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM.

" Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't; it's
an uncertain fish the pilchard, and it's a rough life is
fishing on this coast. There aint a good harbor not
this side of the Lizard; and if they're caught in a
gale from the southeast it goes hard with them.
.With a southwester they can run back here."

" Were you ever a fisherman yourse!f ? "

" Aye, I began life at it; I went a-fishing as a boy
well-nigh fifty year back, but I got a sickener of it,
and tramped to Plymouth and shipped in a frigate
there, and served all my time in queen's ships."

" Did you get sick of fishing because of the hard-
ships of the life, or from any particular circum-
stance ? "

" I got wrecked on the Scillys. There was fifty
beats lost that night, and scarce a hand was saved.
I shouldn't have been saved myself if it had not been
for a dream of mother's."

" That's curious," I said. " Would you mind
telling me about it ? "

The old sailor did not speak for a minute or two;
and then, after a sharp puff at his pipe, he told me
the following story, of which I have but slightly
altered the wording:

I lived with mother at Tregannock. It's a bit of
a village now, as it was then. My father had been
washed overboard and drowned two years before. I
was his only son. The boat I sailed in was mother's,
and four men and myself worked her in shares. I
was twenty-one, or maybe twenty-two, years old

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 259

then. It was one day early in October. We had
kad a bad season, and times were hard. We'd
agreed to start at eight o'clock in the morning. I
was up at five, and went down to the boats to see as
everything was ready. When I got back mother
had made breakfast; and when we sat down I saw
that the old woman had been crying, and looked
altogether queer like.

" My boy," says she, " I want you not to go out
this trip."

"Not go out!" said I; "not go out, mother!
Why? What's happened? Your. share and mine
didn't come to three pounds last month, and it would
be a talk if I didn't go out in the Jane. Why, what
is it?"

" My boy," says she, " I've had a dream as how;
you was drowned."

"Drowned!" said I; "I'm not going to ba
drowned, mother."

But what she said made me feel creepy like, for us
Cornishmen goes a good deal on dreams and tokens J
and sure enough mother had dreamed father was
going- to be drowned before he started on that last
trip of his.

" That's not all, Will," she said. " I dreamed ofi
you in bed, and a chap was leaning over you cuttingr
your throat."

P didn't care much for going on with my break-
fast after that; but in a minute or two I plucks ug
and says;

260 A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM.

" Well, mother, you're wrong, anyhow; fofr
if I be drowned no one has no call to cut mjr
throat"

" I didn't see you downright drowned in my
dream," she said. " You was in the sea — a terribly
rough sea — at night, and the waves were breaking^
down on you."

" I can't help going, mother," I says, after a bit.
" It's a fine day, and it's our boat. All the lads and
girls in the village would laugh at me if I stayed at
home."

" That's just what your father said; and he went
to his death."

And my mother, as she says this, puts her aprofl
over her head and began to cry again. I'd more
than half a mind to give way; but you know what
young chaps are. The thought of what the girls of
the place would say about my being afraid to go was
too much for me.

At last, when mother saw I was bent on
she got up and said :

" Well, Will, if my prayers can't keep you
will you do something else I ask you ? "

" I will, mother," said I — " anything but stayt
back."

She went off without a word into her bedroom,,
and she came back with something in her arms.

" Look here, Will, I made this for your fathely
and he wouldn't have it; now I ask you to take it,
and put it on if a storm comes on. You see, you

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. a6l

can put it oh under your dreadnaught coat, and no
one will be any the wiser."

The thing she brought in was two flat Dutch
spirit-bottles, sewn between two pieces of canvas.
•It had got strings sewed on for tying round the body,
and put on as she did to show me how, one bottle
leach side of the chest, it lay pretty flat.

" Now, Will, these bottles will keep you up for
hours. A gentleman who was staying in the village
before you was born was talking about wrecks, and
he said that a couple of empty bottles, well corked,
would keep up a fair swimmer for hours. So I
made it; but no words could get your father to try
it, though he was willing enough to say that it would
probably keep him afloat. You'll try it, won't you,

I didn't much like taking it, but I thought there
wasn't much chance of a storm, and that if I put it
under my coat and hid it away down in the fore-
castle, no one would see it; and so to please her I
said I'd take it, and that if a bad storm came on I
would slip it on.

" I will put a wineglass of brandy into one of the
bottles," mother said. " It may be useful to you;
who can say ? "

I got the life-preserver, as you call it nowadays,
on board without its being seen, and stowed it away
in my locker. I felt glad now I'd got it, for mother's
dream had made me feel uneasy; and on my way;
down old Dick Tremaine said to me:

262 A FISH- WIFE'S DREAM".

" I don't like the look of the sky, lad."

" No ! " says I ; " why, it looks fine enough."

" Too fine, lad. I tell ye, boy, I don't like the look
of it. I think we're going to have a bad blow/'

I told the others what he had said ; but they didn't
heed much. Two boats had come in that morning
with a fine catch, and after the bad time we'd been
having it would have taken a lot to keep them in
after that.

We thought no more about it after we had once
started. The wind was light and puffy; but we had
great luck, and were too busy to watch the weather.
What wind there was, was northerly; but towards
sunset it dropped suddenly, and as the sails flapped
\ve looked round at the sky.

" I fear old Dick was right, lads," Jabez Harper,
who was skipper, said, " and I wish we had taken
more heed to his words. That's about as wild a
sunset as may be; and look how that drift is nearing
our boat."

Even I, who was the youngest of them, was old
enough to read the signs of a storm — the heavy bank
of dark clouds, the pale-yellow broken light, the
horse-tails high up in the sky, and the small broken
irregular masses of cloud that hurried across them.
Instinctively we looked round towards the coast.
It was fully fifteen miles away, and we were to the
east of it. The great change in the appearance of
the sky had taken place in the last half-hour; pre-
vious to that time there had been nothing which

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 263

would have struck any but a man grown old upon
the coast like Dick Tremaine.

" Reef the mainsail," Jabez said, " and the fore-
sail too; take in the mizzen. Like enough it v:ill
come with a squall, and we'd best be as snug as may
be. What do you say? shall we throw over some
of the fish?"

It was a hard thing to agree to ; but every minute!
the sky was changing. The scud was flying thicker
and faster overhead, and the land was lest in a black
cloud that seemed to touch the water.

" We needn't throw 'em all out," Jabez said; " if
we get rid of half she'll be about in her best trim;
and she's as good a sea-boat as there is on the coast.
Come, lads, don't look at it."

It was, as he said, no use looking at it, and in fivef
minutes half our catch of the day was overboard.
The Jcine was a half-decked boat, yawl-rigged; she
wasn't built in our parts, but had been brought round
from somewhere east by a gentleman as a fishing-
craft. He had used her for two years, and had got
tired of the sport, and my father had bought her of
him. She wasn't the sort of boat generally used
about here, but we all liked her, and swore by her.

" It will be a tremendous blow for the first few
minutes, I reckon," Jabez said after a while.
"Lower down her sails altogether; get her head to
it with a sweep. I'll take the helm; Harry, you
stand ready to hoist the foresail a few feet; and,
JVVill, you and John stand by the hoists of the main-

264 A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM.

sail. We must show enough to keep her laying-to
as long as we can. You'd best get your coats out
and put 'em on, and batten down the hatch."

I let the others go down first, and when they came1
up I went in, tied the life-belt round me, and put on
my oilskin. I fetched out a bottle of hollands from
my locker, and then came out and fastened the hatch.

" Here comes the first puff," Jabez said.

I stowed away the bottle among some ropes for
our future use, and took hold of the throat halyard.

" Here it comes," Jabez said, as a white line ap-
peared under the cloud of mist and darkness ahead,
and then with a roar it was upon us.

I have been at sea, man and boy, for forty years,
and I never remember in these latitudes such a squall
as that For a few minutes I could scarcely see or
breathe. The spray flew in sheets over us, and the
wind roared so that you wouldn't have heard a sixty-
eight-pounder ten yards off. At first I thought we
were going down bodily. It was lucky we had
taken every stitch of canvas off her, for, as she spun
round, the force of the wind against the masts and
rigging all but capsized her. In five minutes the
first burst was over, and we were running before it
under our close-reefed foresail only. There was no
occasion for us to stand by the halyards now, and
we all gathered in the stern, and crouched down in
the well. Although the sun had only gone down
half an hour it was pitch-dark, except that the white
foam round us gave a sort of dim light that made th<S

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 265

sky look all the blacker. The sea got up in less time
than it takes in telling, and we were soon obliged to
hoist the foresail a bit higher to prevent the waves
from coming in over the stern. For three hours we
tore on before the gale, and then it lulled almost as
suddenly as it had come on. There had scarcely
been a word spoken between us during this time. I
was half asleep in spite of the showers of spray.
Jim Hackers, who was always smoking, puffed away
steadily; Jabez was steering still, and the others were
quite quiet. With the sudden lull we were all on
cur feet.

" Is it all over, Jabez ? " I asked.

" It's only begtJn," he said. " I scarce remember
such a gale as this since I was a boy. Pass that
bottle of yours round, Will; we shall be busy again
directly. One of you take the helm; I'm stiff with
the wet. We shall have it round from the south in
a few minutes."

There was scarce a breath of wind now, and she
rolled so I thought she would have turned turtle.

" Get out a sweep," Jabez said, " and bring her
head round."

We had scarcely done so ere the first squall from
behind struck us, and in five minutes we were run-
ning back as fast as we had come. The wind was
at first south, but settled round to southeast. We
got up a little more sail now, and made a shift to
keep her to the west, for with this wind we should
Jiave been ashore long before morning if we had run,

266 A FISH- WIFE'S DREAM.

•»

straight before it. The sea had been heavy — it was
tremendous now; and, light and seaworthy as the
Jane was, we had to keep baling as the sea broke into
her. Over and over again I thought that it was all
over with us as the great waves towered above our
stern, but they slipped under us as we went driving
on at twelve or fourteen knots an hour. I stood up
by the side of Jabez, and asked him what he thought
of it.

"I can't keep her off the wind," he said; "we!
must run, and by midnight we shall be among the
Scillys. Then it's a toss-up."

Jabez's calculations could not have been far out,
for it was just midnight, as far as I could tell, when
we saw a flash right ahead.

" That's a ship on one of the Scillys," Jabez said.
" I wish I knew which it was."

He tried to bring her a little more up into the
wind, but she nearly lay over onto her beam-ends,
and Jabez let her go ahead again. We saw cne
more flash, and then a broad faint light. The ship
was burning a blue light. She was not a mile ahead
now, and we could see she was a large vessel. I had
often been to the Scillys before, and knew them as
well as I did our coast, but I could not see the land.
It was as Jabez had said — a toss-up. If we just
missed one of them we might manage to bring up
under its lee; but if we ran dead into one or other of
them the Jane would break up like an egg-shell.

were rapidly running down upon the wreck

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 267

when the glare of a fire on shore shone up. It was
a great blaze, and we could faintly see the land and a
white cottage some hundred yards from the shore.

" I know it," Jabez shouted; " we are close to the
end of the island; we may miss it yet. Hoist the
mainsail a bit."

I leapt up with another to seize the halyards,
when a great wave struck us; she gave a roll, and
the next moment I was in the water.

After the first wild efforts I felt calm like. I
knew the shore was but half a mile ahead, and that
the wind would set me dead upon it. I loosened my
tarpaulin coat and shook it off, and I found that with
mother's belt I could keep easily enough afloat,
though I was half drowned with the waves as they
swept in from behind me. My mother's dream
cheered me up, for, according to that, it did not seem
as I was to be drowned, whatever was to come after-
wards. I drifted past the wreck within a hundred
yards or so. They were still burning blue lights;
but the sea made a clean sweep over her, and I saw
that in a very few minutes she would go to pieces.
Many times as the seas broke over me I quite gave
up hope of reaching shore; but I was a fair swimmer,
and the bottles buoyed me up, and I struggled on.

I could see the fire on shore, but the surf that
broke against the rocks showed a certain death if I
made for it, and I tried hard to work to the left,
where I could see no breaking surf. It seemed to me
that the fire was built close to the end of the island.

268 A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM.

As I came close I found that this was so. I drifted
past the point of land not fifty feet off, where the
waves were sending their spray a hundred feet up;
then I made a great struggle, and got in under the lea
of the point. There was a little bay with a shelving;
shore, and here I made a shift to land. Five minutes
to rest, and then I made my way towards the fire.
There was no one there, and I went to the edge of
the rocks. Here four or, five men with ropes were
standing, trying to secure some of the casks, chests,
and wreckage from the ship. The surf was full of
floating objects, but nothing could stand the shock of
a crash against those rocks. The water was deep
alongside, and the waves, as they struck, flew up in
spray, which made standing almost impossible.

The men came round me when they saw me.
There was no hearing one speak in the noise of the
storm; so I made signs I had landed behind the point,
and that if they came with their ropes to the point
they might get something as it floated past. They
went off, and I sat down by the fire, wrung my
clothes as well as I could, — I thought nothing of the
wet, for one is wet through half the time in a fishing-
boat, — took off mother's belt, and found one of the
bottles had broke as I got ashore; but luckily it was
the one which was quite empty. I got the cork out
of the other, and had a drink of brandy, and then felt
pretty right again. I had good hopes the boat was
all right, for she would get round the point easy, and
Jabez would bring her up under the lee of the island.

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 269

I thought I would go and see if I could help the
others, and perhaps save someone drifting from the
wreck; but I did not think there was very much
chance, for she lay some little distance to the right,
and I hardly thought a swimmer could keep off the
shore.

Just as I was going to move I saw two of them
coming back. They had a body between them, and
they put it down a little distance from the fire. I
was on the other side, and they had forgotten all
about me. They stooped over the figure, and I could
not see what they were doing. I got up and went
over, and they gave a start when they saw me. " Is
he alive? " says I. " Dunno," one of 'em growled;
and I could see pretty well that if I had not been
there it would have gone hard with the chap. He
was a foreign, Jewish-looking fellow, and had around
him one of the ship's life-buoys. There were lots of
rings on his fingers, and he had a belt round his
waist that looked pretty well stuffed out. I put my
hand to his heart, and found he still breathed; and
then I poured a few drops of brandy which remained
in my bottle down his throat.

While I was doing this the two men had talked
to each other aside. " He's alive, all right," says I.
"That's a good job," one of 'em said; but I knew
he didn't think so. " We'll carry him up to our cot-
tage. You'll be all the better for a sleep; it must
fre past two o'clock by this time."

They took the chap up, and carried him to the

270 A FISH-WIFE 'S DREAM.

cottage, and put him on a bed. He was moaning a
little, and between us we undressed him and got
him into bed. " I doubt he'll come round," I said.

" I don't believe he will. Will you have a drink
of whisky ? "

I was mighty glad to do so, and then, throwing- off
my wet clothes, I got into the other bed, for. there
were two in the room.

The men said they were going down again to see
what they could get. They left the whisky bottle
on the table, and as soon as I was alone I jumped
out and poured a little into the other chap's teeth,
so as to give him as good a chance as I could; but I
didn't much think he'd get round, and then I got
into bed and shut my eyes. I was just going off,
when, with a sudden jump, I sat straight up.
Mother's dream came right across me. I was out of
bed in a moment, and looked at the door. There
was no bolt, so I put a couple of chairs against it.
Then I took my clasp-knife out of my pocket and
opened it. I gave the other chap a shake, but there
was no sense in him, and I got into bed again. I
thought to myself they would never risk a fight when
they saw me armed and ready. But I soon found
that I couldn't keep awake; so I got up and dressed
in my wet clothes, and went to the door. I found it
was fastened on the outside. I soon opened the
window and got out, but before I did that I rolled
up some clothes and put 'em in the bed, and made a
sort of likeness of a man there. The poor fellow in

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 271

bed was lying very still now, and I felt pretty sure
that he would not live till morning. The candle was
a fresh one when they had first lighted it, and I left
it burning.

When I had got out I shut the window, and went
away fifty yards or so, "where I could hear them
come back. Presently I heard some footsteps com-
ing from the opposite direction. Then I heard a
voice I knew say, " There is the fire; we shall soon
know whether the poor lad has got ashore."

" Here am I, Jabez," I said. " Hush ! " as he and
the other were going to break into a shout of wel-
come, " hush ! Seme wreckers are coming up di-
rectly to cut my threat and that of another chap in
that cottage."

In a word cr two I told them all about it; and
they agreed to wait with me and see the end cf it.
Jabez had brought the Jane up under the lee of the
island, and, leaving two of the men on board, had
come oh shore in the cobble with the other to
look for me, but with very faint hopes of finding
me.

" You had best get hold of something to fljht
v/ith, if you mean to take these fellows, Jabez."

" A good lump cf reck is as good a weapon as an-
other," Jabez said.

Our plan was soon arranged, and half an hour
later we heard footsteps coming up from the shore
again. Two men passed us, went into the cottage,
and shut the door. Jabez and I made round to the

272 A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM.

•window, where we could see in, and John RedpatK
stood at the door. He was to open it and rush in
when he heard us shout. We stood a little back,
but we could see well into the room. Presently we
saw the door open very quietly, little by little. A
hand came through and moved the chairs, and then
it opened wide. Then the two men entered. One,
a big fellow, had a knife in his hand, and drew to-
wards the bed, where, as it seemed, I was sleeping,
with my head covered up by the clothes. The other
had no knife in his hand, and came towards the other
bed.

" Get ready, lad," Jabez said to me.

The big fellow raised his knife and plunged it
'down into the figure, throwing his weight onto it at
the same moment, while the smaller man snatched
the pillow from under the other's head and clapped
it over his face, and threw his weight on it. As they
did so we pushed the casement open and leapt in.
I seized the smaller man, who was suffocating the
other chap, and before he could draw his knife I had
him on the ground and my knee on his chest. The
big fellow had leapt up. He gave a howl of rage
as Jabez rushed at him, and stood at bay with his
knife. Jabez stopped, however, and threw his lump
of rock, as big as a baby's head, right into his
stomach. It just tumbled him over like a cannon-
shot. John burst in through the door, and we had
'em both tied tightly before five minutes was over.
tThen we lit a big fire in the kitchen, and with warm

A FISH-WIFE'S DREAM. 273

clothes and some hot whisky and water we got the
foreign chap pretty well round.

In the morning I went off and found a village on
the other side of the island. I woke them up and
told my story, and, to do 'em justice, though there
were some who would have shielded the fellows we
had caught, the best part were on our side. Some
of 'em told me there had been suspicion upon these
men, and that they bore a bad name. There was no
magistrate in the island, and no one objected when
I said we would take them across to Penzance and
give them in charge there.

So we did; and they were tried and got transpor-
tation for life for attempting to murder the foreign
chap, who, it turned out, was a Brazilian Jew, with
diamonds. He offered us all sorts of presents, but
\ve would have none; but that's neither here nor
there.

So you see, master, mother's dream saved me
from drowning and from having my throat cut. I
gave up fishing after that and went into the queen's
service. Mother sold the boat, and went to live
with a sister of hers at Truro. The Scilly Islands
have changed sinco those times, and you'll meet as
much kindness there if you're wrecked as you will
anywhere else; but they were a rough lot in those
jiays, and I had a pretty close shave of it, hadn't I ?

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