Bob Strong's Holidays Part 12

Satisfied apparently with the 'blow' it thus had, the weather subsequently was all that could be desired; setting in bright and fine, while it was warm enough to be almost tropical.

Thenceforth, therefore, there was no more confinement to the house for the young people.

Bob started off early every morning across the common to the beach, where, under the superintendence of the Captain, he and d.i.c.k were taught how to swim, the boys, it may be mentioned, learning the art all the more quickly from the fact of the old sailor's telling them that "until they were able to keep afloat," to use his own words, "he'd think twice before he would take 'em afloat!"

So, as both were anxious to go out rowing and sailing, this threat acted as a spur to their efforts.

Nellie, too, had a bathe each day; and, much she liked bobbing up and down in the usual girl-fashion from the end of the rope of the machine.

By and by, also, when she had gained a little courage, she learnt to swim like Bob, whose boastings on the point had put her on her mettle; and the bathing-woman informed Mrs Gilmour one fine morning, when she accompanied Nellie to the beach and entered into conversation with her teacher, that she was "the smartest young leddy to learn as ever was."

This fact Miss Nell at once proved by swimming there and then some forty yards, more than double the distance Master Bob could accomplish, in spite of all his 'tall talk,' after a similar period of tuition.

"You ladies can always beat us if you only try," said the Captain gallantly, when he heard this. "I believe a woman can do anything she likes."

"You're too complimentary, I'm afraid," remarked Mrs Gilmour. "You don't mean all you say."

"Don't I, by Jove!" replied he. "Lucky for us men you do not set your mind to it; for, if you did, no poor fellow would ever have a chance of commanding his own ship!"

"That's a base slander," cried Mrs Gilmour, laughing. "I thought you were paying us rather a doubtful compliment."

The old sailor chuckled.

"I had you there, ma'am, I think, eh?" said he, blinking away with much delight. "By Jove, I had!"

"But, when are you going to take us on the water?" asked Bob at this point, before his aunt could give the Captain 'a Roland for his Oliver'

in reply to his aspersion on her s.e.x. "You said you would, you know, when I and d.i.c.k knew how to swim."

"And I know how to, as well," put in Nellie. "Don't I, auntie?"

"Don't bother me, children," growled the Captain, pretending to get in a rage. "I must be off now. I have an appointment in the Dockyard this afternoon."

"You shan't go! you shan't go!" cried the two together, hanging on to him on either side. "You promised to take us somewhere or do something if we were good, and that was to be to-morrow."

"To-morrow comes never!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the old sailor, chuckling and blinking away. "'Hodie mihi, cras tibi.' What is that, Master Bob?"

"Eh, sir?" said Bob, making a wry face. "Why, it's Latin."

"Thank you for nothing, you young shaver!" retorted the Captain drily.

"What I want to know is, what does it mean?"

Bob hesitated a bit, as if puzzled to translate the phrase; but in a moment memory came to his aid.

"Ah yes, I recollect now," he said in an a.s.sured voice. "It means, I think, 'to-day it is my turn; to-morrow it will be yours.'"

"Very good, my boy," said the Captain with a chuckle. "That's my answer to your question just now."

"But you promised us, Captain," cried Nellie, taking up the cudgels now that poor Bob was routed so ignominiously. "You know you did, sir-- didn't he, auntie? And the 'to-morrow' you meant was a long time back, before the storm and everything!"

"Then I'm afraid, Miss Nellie," he replied, making for the door, so as to secure his retreat, "it must be a very stale one; a sort of 'to- morrow' I wouldn't have, if I were you, at any price!"

Nellie was not to be beaten so easily, so she followed him out into the hall as he was leaving the house.

"Do tell me, dear Captain," she pleaded earnestly. "Do tell me what this wonderful something is that you have in store for us."

"I will, my dear," replied the old sailor, succeeding by a dexterous twist in releasing the lapel of his coat from her restraining hand. "I will, my dear. I'll whisper it to you--I will tell you to-morrow!"

With this he skipped down the steps as nimbly as a two-year-old, slamming the gate behind him to secure his retreat; and Nellie could hear his hearty "Ho-ho!" as he went along the parade towards Portsmouth.

"What a tiresome man the Captain is!" she exclaimed petulantly, on returning to the drawing-room, where Mrs Gilmour had remained with Bob.

"It is always 'to-morrow,' and 'to-morrow,' and 'to-morrow'; and when the 'to-morrow' comes, he never tells us anything!"

"Fie, Nellie, you must not be impatient, my dear," said her aunt, on hearing this outburst. "Recollect how kind and good-natured Captain Dresser has always shown himself, who ever since you two came down here for your holiday, putting himself out in every way to suit your convenience, and never regarding anything as a trouble which could conduce to your pleasure. I confess I am surprised at my little niece Nell speaking in such a way of so good a man. If the Captain keeps you in suspense, depend upon it his purpose is to make you enjoy the treat he has in his mind ten times more than if you knew all about it beforehand."

"But I hate being kept in suspense, auntie!" cried Miss Nellie rather naughtily, tossing her head indignantly, and throwing back her golden curls as if she were metaphorically pitching them at the offending old sailor. "I like to know the best or worst at once. I say, d.i.c.k, has the Captain told you anything about the treat he has for us?"

Poor d.i.c.k, who had been thoughtfully left behind by the old sailor, on account of Mrs Gilmour having expressed her intention of going down to the beach with the young people in the afternoon, hardly knew how to answer the question.

He did not like to tell an untruth by saying that he had no knowledge of the Captain's plans, nor did he wish to disoblige Miss Nell, so his answer was of the non-committal order--a sort of 'I don't recollect' in its way.

"I can't tell, miss," was all he said, but, fortunately enough for him, it sufficed to throw Nellie off the scent and prevent her trying any further to worm the secret out of him; although, there is no doubt, she would have succeeded had she persevered, and d.i.c.k was on thorns until she went upstairs to get ready for going out, the little lady having an insinuating manner of her own that was well-nigh irresistible.

By the time she came below again, equipped for walking, Nellie's pa.s.sing fit of ill-temper had disappeared, and she was not only her bright cheerful little self once more, but full of a project for adding to her collection a specimen of the 'sea cuc.u.mber,' which the Captain had told her she might find if she only hunted diligently enough.

These strange marine animals belong to a species of 'Triple Alliance' of their own, being connected in a greater or less degree with the anemones, the ringworms, and the 'sea urchins'; albeit, the sea cuc.u.mbers possess one very great advantage over these cousins of theirs, in being able, when they so please, to turn themselves inside out and dispense with their stomachs, as well as what would be considered other equally necessary portions of their corporate frames.

When in this transformed, or 'turn-coat' stage of his existence, the animal consists only of an empty bag, or pocket, that has at the broadest end an apparently useless mouth, but which he still continues to make use of for feeding purposes; and, by and by, when my gentleman feels disposed to return to his original state, seemingly by the mere effort of will, his tentacles sprout out one by one, the mouth-end of his bag becomes surmounted by a sort of mushroom head, his interior person gets filled up, and the sea cuc.u.mber is himself again, "all a- taunto!"

The Captain had advised Nellie to search amongst the old wooden piles of the pier, as a likely situation to find these animals, and others he named quite as curious, such as the 'beroe' and the 'bala.n.u.s,' which while looking as if inanimate yet are 'all alive,' and, if not 'kicking,' certainly may be seen fishing, either with natural lines of their own or with a sort of trawl-net, very similar to which we human bipeds use.

But, although Miss Nellie, with d.i.c.k acting under her directions and Bob, too, a.s.sisting in a desultory way when the superior attractions of crab-hunting on his own account did not beguile him from the pursuit, all hunted everywhere, finding every variety of young whelks, c.o.c.kles, and other sh.e.l.l-fish ova on the pier-piles, which they were able to examine at their pleasure, it being low tide, no sea cuc.u.mbers to be seen anywhere.

Nellie was in despair at her failure and felt almost inclined to cry; but, d.i.c.k at the last moment, when the search was just about to be given up, raked out a perfect specimen from a hole in the rock-work beneath one of the b.u.t.tresses that was nearly awash with the water--a darksome dungeon, isolated from the vulgar herd of barnacles, and common but kindred anemones with which the stuck-up sea cuc.u.mber was too proud to a.s.sociate.

Naturally enough, Miss Nellie was delighted with her capture, and, she tenderly bore him home in triumph to be added to her extensive marine collection, which had now increased so considerably, that her aunt declared laughingly that she would have to build a room especially to contain it presently, her house not being big enough for the purpose.

"Rubbish!" the Captain had called her first attempt at collecting, but, since then, she had learnt something under the instruction of the old sailor and displayed greater discrimination in the objects of her zeal; although still, perhaps, inclined to err in the matter of quant.i.ty over quality, leaning fondly, as most enthusiasts do, to common things.

Not only was the alb.u.m which her aunt had given her pasted as full as it could hold of different sorts of seaweed, known and unknown alike to Bob and herself; but she had a pile of sh.e.l.ls big enough to build a rockery.

In addition to these, her acc.u.mulation of pet specialities included a seven-fingered starfish, which is supposed by the ignorant to be peculiarly inimical to the adventurous cat that swalloweth it; and a ring-horned pandalus or 'Aesop prawn,' which queer creature Master Bob appropriately christened 'The Prawnee Chief,' much to the annoyance of Miss Nell, who had become quite grand now in her language, becoming 'puffed up,' as Bob said, with her newly-acquired 'knowledge'--a 'little' of which, as the proverb tells us, is "a dangerous thing."

The Aesop prawn, by the way, gained the prefix to his name from having a hump on his back like the Phrygian slave, the fabulist. He is, also, distinguished by the most exquisite little rings or bands of scarlet, which seem to encircle his body; but the picturesque effect is really produced by his antennae, which the pandalus has the happy knack of arranging round his little person in the most graceful fashion.

Beyond these rarities, precious above price, Nellie had gathered a quant.i.ty of cuttle-fish 'bone,' as it is erroneously called, sufficient to have supplied Bob and herself for a lifetime with ink-erasers--a purpose for which it is generally employed.

The substance, however, is not really 'bone,' but is composed of thin layers of the purest white chalk, which, when the cuttle-fish is living, is embedded in the body of the animal, running through its entire length.

The cuttle-fish in which this so-called bone is generally met with, is the same species from whence the well-known colour sepia used in painting is usually obtained.