Kernel Cob And Little Miss Sweetclover Part 11

CHAPTER XIV

"Well," said Jackie Tar, "Here we are in China." "I don't see any cups and saucers," said Kernel Cob, looking about the streets. "All I can see is a lot of women with hair hanging down their backs."

"Those are men--Chinamen," explained Jackie Tar, for sailors travel all about and know pretty nearly everything about the people of the world.

"Well, if they are men," said Kernel Cob, "they ought to have their hair cut, and look like men. And if Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather look like these Chinamen, I don't want to find them at all, for I think a child is better off _without_ parents than having two mothers."

"I wish we had never come here at all," said Sweetclover.

"Never mind," said the Villain, "we will find a way to get out of here."

"Leave it to me," said Jackie Tar. "I've been about this old world enough to know how to manage things."

But much as he had been about, he didn't count on the things that happen when you least expect them, for just at that moment, and without any warning, they were picked up by a little Chinese boy who carried them home.

"This must be the thirteenth of the month," said Jackie Tar, for you know that people think that the number thirteen brings bad luck.

But it wasn't the thirteenth as you will presently see, for it was a very lucky day indeed for our little friends.

And they were played with by the little Chinese boy, and, when it came time to go to bed, he took the little dolls with him and for once they were fed a very enjoyable supper of rice and milk, a food which Jackie Tar and the Villain liked, but Kernel Cob said it needed raisins and more sugar, so it might be a rice pudding, and after that they were properly put to bed under nice warm covers, but they did not sleep, you may be sure, but lay awake waiting for the little boy to fall asleep so that they might make their escape.

At last the moment arrived, and silently and cautiously they crept from under the covers, and once the Villain stumbled in climbing over the side of the crib, which wakened the little boy, but he must have been very tired for he went to sleep at once without thinking of his dolls.

They hurried away in the direction of the water, which Jackie Tar said he knew, for, said he, "A sailor can always smell the salt sea air, no matter how far away he may be."

And sure enough, in a few moments they arrived at the water's edge.

"Now that we are here," said Kernel Cob, "what's to be done?"

"All in good time, Kernel," said Jackie Tar, "Each man to his trade,"

and he began to look about.

"Gather all the sticks you see and bring them to me," said he, and they brought him pieces of wood, large and small, and he chose the largest, and having torn the lining of his jacket into strips, he spliced them into a rope and with this he tied the wood together until he had made a very good raft indeed.

And he set the biggest stick of all, which was a bamboo pole, into the raft and tying his jacket with one sleeve at the top, and the other at the bottom of the pole, he had a good sail made in a jiffy.

"All aboard," he sang out and they got upon the raft and sat "forward," as he told them, and grasping the tail of his coat in one hand, and the rudder with the other, for he had tied a flat board at the stern of the raft, they set sail.

"Where away?" he asked.

"I don't care," said Kernel Cob, "as long as we get away from this China place, for I don't like any place that isn't what it says it is."

"Aye, aye, sir," said Jackie Tar. "If you take my advice, we'll steer for India."

"Why?" asked the Villain.

"Because," said Jackie Tar, "from India there is always a ship bound for England and, once in England, we can easily get a ship for America."

"Goodie!" said Sweetclover.

And so Jackie Tar steered the raft in the direction of India, and they sailed with a good wind.

"I thought you said it was the thirteenth of the month?" said the Villain.

"I must have made a mistake," said Jackie Tar, "for I never had a better ship in all the years I've sailed the seas."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SAILORS

When I am grown to be a man I'll be a sailor if I can; For sailors, everywhere they roam Are sure to find a welcome home.

They sail upon the many seas We learn of in Geographies, And steer their ship by sun and star From Vera Cruz to Zanzibar.

They visit Chili and j.a.pan, And Guyaquil and Yucatan, And they have friends in Martinique And relatives in Mozambique.

And all about the world they sail In wind and storm and mighty gale, So they can tell the tales they do That children love to listen to.

And so when I am grown a man I'll be a sailor, if I can, And sail upon the many seas We learn of in Geographies.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER XV

And under the skillful command of Jackie Tar, they reached India.

"We'd better land at night," said Jackie Tar, "so we won't be bothered with a lot of people watching us."

So they waited until it was dark.

"I've been thinking," said Jackie Tar. "Once when I was here before, I saw some magicians who did wonderful tricks. They are called Hindus. A Hindu is an Indian."

"Oh, I know," said Kernel Cob, "he's got red skin and wears feathers in his hair."

"No!" said Jackie Tar. "That's an American Indian; but these Hindus are born in India where we are now."

"Tell us about the tricks," said Sweetclover.

"Well," said Jackie Tar, "there isn't a trick which they can't do.

Once I saw them make a little boy run up a long pole and when he came to the top he disappeared."