On Board the Esmeralda Part 31

"Now, that's curious," Sam said.

I could almost have felt certain that I knew what he was doing when he spoke those words in that way. He must have taken off his hat and begun scratching his head reflectively with the other hand, I'm certain!

"Curious?" repeated Jane. "Why?"

"Why, because we had it for dinner when the poor laddie left us."

"Deary me!" exclaimed Jane, her voice full of alarm. "There's no tidings of any harm come to he, surely!"

"No, no, Jane, my woman," said he, "the lad's all right; 'fact, I've-- I've seen him this morning."

"This morning!" cried she, all excitement. "Why, what are you holding the door back for? It's him--he's here!"

And, in another moment, my second mother, as I shall always call her, was clinging round my neck with almost more than a mother's love for me--if that were possible!

"Deary me!" she said a little while after, "isn't he like Teddy, now?"

Sam burst out laughing.

"Why, Teddy was a slim boy of fourteen, and this laddie here's a fine strapping fellow, nearly six feet high, and as broad in the beam as a Dutch sloop!"

However, Jane wouldn't be convinced but that I was the very image of her own lost child; and, as I had all her wealth of affection in consequence, I'm sure I have no reason to complain.

I took up my quarters at "Old Calabar Cottage," as Sam loved to hear people call it, rolling out the full name himself with great gusto; and, in a little while, as things went on in the old way, I got so accustomed to everything around me that I could almost fancy my first voyage and the burning of the _Esmeralda_ were a dream, as well as all my later experiences of the sea.

But, after a time, I began to long again to be on the deep, desiring once more to be daring its dangers and glorying in that "life on the ocean wave" which, once tasted by the true-born sailor, can never be given up altogether. I had just begun to deliberate with myself as to what sort of ship I should seek, and whither I would prefer to voyage for my next trip, when Sam came back from Plymouth one morning brimful of news.

"Well, laddie--who d'ye think I met to-day?" he called out to me, almost before he was quite inside the house.

"I'm sure I can't guess," I replied. "Who?"

"Why, Cap'en Billings, my c.o.c.kbird!"

"Captain Billings!" I said, with surprise. "I thought he was in China."

"No, but he's going there this voyage."

"This voyage?" I repeated questioningly, after Sam had said the words.

"Aye, laddie; he's got a bran' new ship, which the owners of the _Esmeralda_ have had built, and just made him skipper of. And, what do you think, laddie?"

"I'm sure I can't tell," said I.

"He's going to have a bran' new second mate, who he hears has just got his certificate from the Trinity House Board--that is, if he'll accept the berth under his old captain."

"What!" I exclaimed, breathless with excitement, "does he offer to take me with him as he promised?"

"Aye, laddie, the berth's open to you if you'll have it, he says. Will you go?"

"Go?" I repeated, "of course I will!"

And so it came about that I am going to sail under my old skipper again.

THE END.