THE ARCHÆOPTERYX.
“But we always thought——” began Marjorie—
“That when people spoke of a sailor ”spinning a yarn,” they meant telling a story,” finished Dick.
“Oh! oh! how could you think such a thing,” said the sailors, indignantly. “Sailors always tell the truth; don’t they, Skipper?”
The Skipper winked at Dick with one eye, and answered, guardedly, “Ahem! I have heard a sailor speak the truth, certainly, but——”
“Let’s change the subject,” said the sailors, getting up from their wheels. “Isn’t it nearly time for us to be starting on another voyage?”
“When we get some passengers, it will be,” responded the Skipper, gruffly. “By-the-bye,” he added, turning to the children; “you want to go somewhere or another, don’t you?”
“Yes, to England,” said Dick, eagerly. “Do you go there, please?”
“H’m! Never heard of the place as I knows of,” said the Skipper, scratching his head. “We might cruise about till we come across it, if you like, though.”
“Never heard of England!” exclaimed Dick.
“No,” said the Skipper, unconcernedly. “I never had no time to study goggerfy, I didn’t, so there’s lots of places I don’t know, no more than the Man in the Moon.”
“But don’t you find it very awkward?” cried the children; “however do you know how to go from one place to another?”
“We don’t know,” said the Skipper, laughing; “that’s just the fun of the thing. We get into our ship, and just go on and on till we come to somewhere or another, and then we land, you know. It’s much the best way, and saves such a lot of bother.”
“I am afraid we should be a long while reaching England that way,” remarked Dick, dubiously.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said the Skipper, “we might drop across it the first time, you know. You see, it’s not much use knowing in which direction it lies, because, once you get out to sea, there are no roads and things, so one way is as good as another.”
“But don’t you use a compass?” asked Marjorie.
“What’s that, Miss?” asked the Skipper.
“Why, a little thing that always points to the North,” said Marjorie.
“Blessed if I know, Miss,” said the Skipper, good-naturedly. “Here, Bill,” he called to one of the sailors, “do we use a little thing that always points to the North?”
“Not as I knows on,” answered the man, sulkily. “We ain’t got none of them newfangled things, and don’t want ’em.”
“Dear me, what a very odd ship yours must be,” said Dick. “Is it a steamer, or a sailing vessel, please?”
“Oh, it’s partly a sailing vessel and partly a rowing boat,” said the Skipper. “She’s a very fine ship,” he added, proudly, “come and have a look at her.”
The children followed him to a kind of rough harbor, where a most extraordinary craft was moored. She looked very like a picture which all the children remembered having seen in an old book at home, and although there was a small sail, a number of gaily-painted paddles sticking through the side of the huge boat, showed that, as the Skipper had said, rowing played a very important part in moving it along.
“What a dear old-fashioned thing,” exclaimed Marjorie, directly she saw it.
The Skipper looked rather hurt. “It isn’t more than a thousand years old,” he remarked.
“Well, that’s an awful long time for a ship to last, isn’t it?” said Marjorie, pleasantly.
“Our family is much older than that,” chimed in the Dodo, consequentially. “We date back to——”
“Oh, please don’t go into ancient history,” said the Skipper, “I can’t bear it; it reminds me so of my younger days, when I was first learning to skip.”
“What do you mean?” asked the children.
“Why, when I was a little boy, you know,” explained the Skipper, “I used to skip all the dry parts of a book—and the pages and pages I used to skip of my ancient history you’d never believe. It was that which decided my parents upon making me a Skipper. ”He’ll never do for anything else,” they used to say?”
“Well, are you going aboard or not?” he added, “because, if so, we ought to be starting.”
“Oh, yes, let’s go,” pleaded Marjorie, “we might just as well be on board as at this place, you know, and we shall, at any rate, be going somewhere, and perhaps we shall find some one who knows the way to England on the sea.”
So the children and the Dodo went aboard, and the Skipper blew a little whistle, which he wore tied around his neck by a white cord, and the sailors all came running up, bringing their spinning wheels, which they packed away at the bow of the vessel, and then settled themselves down at the oars. At the other end was a cosy little cabin, and above it a small deck, upon which the little passengers made themselves quite comfortable, and the Captain ordered the scales to be brought up from below.
“What are they for?” asked Dick, who, boy-like, always wanted to know the reason for everything.
“To weigh the anchor with,” explained the Skipper, seriously. “We always have to weigh it when we start on a voyage, and again when we reach our journey’s end.”
“What for?” asked Dick, who certainly remembered having heard the expression “weighing the anchor” before.
“Oh, I don’t know, I’m sure,” said the Skipper; “pack of nonsense, I calls it; but it’s the custom, and it’s got to be done.”
So the anchor was duly weighed, and the exact weight put down in a book, and the Argosy, as the ship was called, slowly moved out of the harbor.
It was a beautiful day, but there was just a little breeze blowing, and the sea was a little “choppy” outside, and, as a consequence, the Argosy rolled a little.
After they had been out at sea for about an hour, and the Skipper had been letting them take turns in looking through his telescope, the Dodo suddenly muttered something about having “forgotten his pocket-handkerchief,” and hurried down into the cabin.
“Why, I didn’t know he had one,” said Marjorie, wonderingly.
"Hope you're feeling better, Sir."
The Skipper winked, and said in a whisper behind his hand, “They always say that; he’s gone to lie down, the motion of the boat has made him feel a little seasick.”
The Dodo didn’t come up for a long while and at last the Skipper said he would go down and see if he wanted anything.
He found the poor bird looking the picture of misery, lolling limply against the cushioned seat.
“Hope you’re feeling better, Sir,” he said, respectfully, tugging at his forelock.
“Oh! oh!” groaned the Dodo. “Do throw me overboard, and let me die.”
“Nonsense,” said the Skipper, cheerfully. “You’ll be all right in an hour or two.”
“Oh, no,” said the bird; “I shall never be well again. I have never, never felt so ill in all my life.”
“Lie down, Sir, and I’ll cover you up with this rug,” said the Skipper, kindly; “you’ll be better presently.”
“Don’t tell the others,” gasped the bird, faintly.
“All right, Sir,” was the reply, and the Skipper went on deck again.
The breeze was quite fresh still, and the children had climbed up into the “lookout,” and were pointing eagerly into the distance.
“Land! over there!” shouted Dick, when he saw the Skipper.
“Oh! Ah! It’s an island,” said the Skipper. “I’ve been there before. The Archæopteryx lives there.”
“The what?” cried the children.
"'Charmed to meet you,' said the Archæopteryx."
“The Archæopteryx,” repeated the Skipper. “It’s an awful name, isn’t it?”
“What is he?” demanded Dick.
“A kind of lizardish bird, or a birdish lizard, whichever you like,” was the reply. “He’s a great swell, I can tell you, and fancies himself immensely.”
The children were all eagerness to see this strange creature, and could scarcely wait until the ship reached the land.
The Skipper went down and told the Dodo, who, directly he heard that they would meet the Archæopteryx, made a great effort to pull himself together again.
“I mustn’t let him see me in this state,” he declared. “He is a distant relative of mine, and a person of great consequence. Do you think,” he continued, addressing the Skipper, “that you could clean up my gloves a little with some bread crumbs, they have become slightly soiled; and would you kindly rearrange my necktie?”
These necessary preparations completed, the Dodo staggered up on deck just as the Argosy reached the shore.
The Archæopteryx was waiting for them on the beach, and recognized the Dodo immediately.
“Charmed to meet you again,” he said, hurrying forward to meet him, and raising his hat, with a polite bow. “Pray, introduce me to your friends.”