Sammy.
Sammy is a great friend of mine, and a brave boy too, I can tell you: he is only seven years old, but quite a little man. Sammy’s grandmamma was my nurse when I was a child, and through her I came to know him. She married a fisherman at Hastings one summer when we were staying there, and has lived from that time to this in a cottage on the beach just out of the town. Her husband no longer follows the calling of a fisherman, for he is very old; but he lets out rowing boats, of which two or three are generally to be seen drawn up on the beach close to the cottage.
The daughter of this old couple married a shipwright, and has four children, of whom Sammy is the eldest. She, her husband, and all the children, live with her father and mother in the cottage on the beach. How they all squeeze in, I do not pretend to know: it is a puzzle to me, but they manage somehow.
I had not seen my old nurse for some years—indeed not since her daughter’s marriage—when, being at Hastings not long ago, I went one afternoon to pay her a visit. I approached the cottage from the beach, and entered at the door of a sort of kitchen which I found open. The proper entrance to the cottage, it appears, is from the road at the other side, where there is a little garden. However, I went in, and finding the kitchen empty, went through it to another open door leading into a sitting-room. Through this door, without being observed myself, I beheld one of the pleasantest sights that has ever met my eyes.
The children had evidently been out to meet their father on his way home from work, and they were all coming through the garden and just entering the opposite door together, as you see them in the picture. Sammy marched in front, carrying his father’s basket of tools upon his shoulder as proudly as if he bore a treasure. Father himself was carrying little Topsey, the youngest child, upon his shoulder, who pulled his hair and crowed and laughed all the time; while the other two children, Mary Jane and Florence Bessy, walked, or rather jumped and danced, on either side of him. The old man in the cottage was smiling a welcome to them as they came in: in short every face, from the youngest to the eldest there, looked bright and happy.
As I stood there observing, I mentally thanked heaven for the happiness which love and good temper can bring to the poorest cottage. My presence was soon noticed: my old nurse appeared heartily glad to see me, and showed me her grandchildren with great pride; but I did not remain long, for I saw that their tea was ready, and I was disturbing them. Afterwards I was often at the cottage; but I must hasten on to describe what first made me rank Sammy among my little friends.
One morning I was rambling along the shore, sometimes walking on the sand, sometimes on the slippery green rocks, reading occasionally a few lines of a book I had in my hand, but more frequently looking out to sea and watching the fishing boats riding bravely on the waves, when I suddenly became aware that the tide had risen quickly, and that I was hemmed in on a sort of island. I found water in front and on each side of me, while behind me was a ridge of rocks too rugged and slippery to climb.
Now my life was in no danger I daresay, but the prospect of having to walk through the water up to my knees was disagreeable. Very near me, but separated by some impassable rocks, stood the cottage of my old nurse, looking tranquil and pretty in the sunshine; while close by it, in a little cove formed by a wooden breakwater, a small boat was moored. I approached as near as I could and called for help. Presently little Sammy made his appearance in answer to my cries; but instead of returning into the cottage to obtain help from some grown-up person, he set to work at once to unmoor the boat, jumped into it, and began paddling along with a single oar round the breakwater and the rocks to where I stood.
I was in an agony of fear lest he should be carried out to sea, for he was certainly too little and too weak to have made head against any current or wind that there might be. However, the boat soon touched the sand close to me. I scrambled in, getting very wet the while, and then by our united efforts we got her off again and paddled her round to her own little harbour.
Once in safety, I exclaimed: “Oh, Sammy, how dangerous for you to come alone! why didn’t you call somebody?”
“I thought you’d drown furst,” said Sammy, with a grin; “but grandfather’s ill and father’s out, so I wor the only man at home, yer see.”
“And a true little man you are,” said I to my friend Sammy; and I am sure my little readers think so too.
PUZZLE-PAGE.
Now, dear children, see if you can find out this puzzle page. One of these objects begins with a B, one with C, one with F, one with K, one with M, and one with P.
