CHAPTER X.
The result of Mr. Page's generosity was that when Fred and Charlie went to a tailor's, Ping Wang ordered a Chinese costume. A week later it was sent home, and when Ping Wang put it on, and permitted his pigtail to hang down, he looked quite a different man. That day the family were sitting talking over the coming voyage when a maid came in.
'A man wants to see you, sir,' she said to Mr. Page. 'He says his name is Skipper Drummond.'
'What a lark!' Charlie exclaimed to Ping Wang. 'Shall we carry him down the garden, and pitch him in the duck-pond?'
'Show Skipper Drummond in,' Mr. Page said to the maid, and as she departed he continued, 'Now, you boys and Ping Wang, go into the conservatory, and wait there until I call you.'
Fred, Charlie, and Ping Wang stepped into the conservatory, and seated themselves on a rustic bench, so that they could hear what the skipper said without being seen by him.
'Skipper Drummond, sir,' the maid said, as she reopened the door.
The bullying little skipper had evidently made a strong effort to look respectable. He was attired in a shiny black frock-coat, and had it not been for his brightly-coloured tie, one would have imagined that he was going to a funeral. In one hand he held a tall hat; in the other he carried two stiff-looking black gloves.
'Good evening, sir,' he said, as he stepped gingerly across the room, showing as much respect for the carpet as if it was newly-sown grass.
'Take a seat,' Mr. Page said, and he did so.
'I've come about the Sparrow-hawk, sir,' he said, endeavouring to appear more comfortable than he felt.
'Yes.'
'We've had a grand time, sir. Every voyage the Sparrow-hawk makes she improves. There is not a trawler in the North Sea catches more fish than the Sparrow-hawk. She's a beauty, sir; and every one in Grimsby and Hull knows it. Two of the big fleet-owners want to buy her.'
'I suppose that they did not offer so much for her as you are asking from me?'
'They offered more, sir.'
'Then why did you not accept one of the offers?'
'Because it wouldn't have been acting square with you, sir. I am a straightforward man, I am; and having offered the Sparrow-hawk to you at a certain price, I bide by my word.'
'That is very good of you—very good, indeed. It is not often that I meet with such an honourable business man.'
Skipper Drummond sighed deeply, as if he was sincerely sorry for the fact that there were some men who were very dishonourable.
'My idea was,' Mr. Page said, after a few moments' silence, 'to purchase the Sparrow-hawk for my son, and start him in business as a steam-trawler owner. Perhaps it would be well if I introduced you to him at once.'
'I shall be proud to make the young gentleman's acquaintance. I am not a man to boast, sir; but if any one can produce a man that knows more about North Sea fishing than I do, I'm a Dutchman.'
'Charlie!' Mr. Page called out loudly, and in walked from the conservatory Charlie, Ping Wang, and Fred.
'Good evening, skipper!' Charlie exclaimed, cheerfully.
'Good evening, skipper!' Ping Wang added, equally cheerfully.
Skipper Drummond dropped his hat and gloves, and almost started out of his chair. Evidently he had never expected to see either Charlie or Ping Wang again.
'Have you brought us the clothes which we left on the Sparrow-hawk?' Charlie inquired.
'And the pay which you owe me?' Ping Wang added.
'I thought that you were both drowned,' the skipper gasped.
'And no doubt you are almost sorry that we were not,' Charlie remarked. 'However, we have told my father what a wretched old tub the Sparrow-hawk is. We have told him that she is rotten; that her boilers are worn out; that her gear is not up-to-date; that she has the smallest catches of any Grimsby trawler. We have told him also that you have been keeping down expenses by half-starving your men, and that you are the vilest little bully that ever held a captain's certificate.'
'And they also told me,' Mr. Page joined in, 'that you confessed to one of your men that you were about to sell the Sparrow-hawk for half as much again as she was worth. Let me assure you that you will do nothing of the kind. I would not give half the sum which you ask for her. From the first I suspected that you were a swindler, and it was to obtain proof of it that my son shipped with you as a cook. Have you anything that you wish to say in your defence, or will you go at once?'
Skipper Drummond picked up his hat and gloves, and without uttering a word walked out of the room. He was white with rage, but he dared not express his anger in words such as he would have used on the Sparrow-hawk, for Charlie accompanied him to the hall door, and stood in the porch watching him until he had passed into the main road.
'We have seen the last of him, I think,' said Charlie, when the captain was out of sight; 'and I hope that I never meet another man like him.'
On the following evening the Pages had a much more welcome visitor in Lieutenant Williams, who availed himself of Charlie's earnest invitation to come and see him and Ping Wang before they started for China. In private life he was just as cheery, amusing, and good-tempered as on board ship. He told many interesting stories of his work in coper-catching and arrests for illegal fishing. He quite envied Fred, Charlie, and Ping Wang their trip to China.
'Perhaps you will be sent to South Africa,' Charlie remarked. 'That would be much better than going with us.'
'Certainly it would,' Williams declared. 'Active service is the best thing that a man in the navy can desire, but I am afraid that there is no chance of my getting to South Africa. At any rate, I shall go on hoping for foreign service of some sort.'
'If he has an opportunity,' Fred declared, after Lieutenant Williams had departed, 'he will make the most of it, I am sure. He is just the kind of man to do something big, and then laugh and pretend that it was a very easy thing to do. I wish that he was coming with us. However, it's no good wishing. I'm going to have a good long sleep for my last night in the old home. Good night, all.'
Charlie and Ping Wang followed Fred's example and went to bed as quickly as possible. They awoke early, and later in the day reached Liverpool and went aboard the Twilight, which was to be their home for five or six weeks.
The Twilight was a cargo boat which had accommodation for twenty saloon passengers, but she rarely carried that number, as, her speed being but ten knots an hour, most people proceeding to China travelled by a faster and, consequently, more expensive steamer.
Soon after she had left Liverpool, Fred, Charlie, and Ping Wang began to wonder where the other passengers were.
'They can't possibly be sea-sick already,' Charlie declared, and then seeing the chief steward he inquired how many passengers they had aboard.
'Only you three gentlemen,' the steward answered.
Fred and Charlie looked at each other in amazement. They had fully expected that there would be all sorts of amusements to break the monotony of their long voyage, and their disappointment was great. However, when they found that in consequence of their being the only passengers each might have a cabin to himself, their discontent quickly passed away. And when they got well out to sea they had plenty of amusements, for the captain had the shuffle-board, deck quoits, and other games brought out, and with the second officer and chief engineer played the passengers.
When the three passengers wearied of deck games, they sat on the poop reading some of the books which they had borrowed from the ship's library. Fred sometimes brought out his medical books, but he obtained more practical than theoretical knowledge that voyage, for the ship's doctor—a young fellow who had been recently qualified and was taking a sea voyage, and small pay in return for his medical services—was completely prostrated by sea-sickness, and utterly useless as a doctor. Fred attended to him, doctored such of the crew as needed it, and successfully set a stoker's dislocated forefinger.
MICE ON A SUBMARINE.
The sailors in our submarines have found out a simple device to protect their lives whilst on their 'under-sea' trips. Every submarine that goes to sea takes out a couple of mice. If one of these mice shows symptoms of distress, it is a sure sign that the time for coming to the surface has arrived, and that the air of the closed box needs replenishing from the fresh air.
X.
THE FATHER OF ALL.
ittle flower, in meadow bright,
With thy raiment sweet and white,
Knowest thou who set thee there,
Gave to thee a dress so fair,
Caused thee from the ground to spring,
Such a sweet and tender thing,
Sent the rain and sent the sun,
Sent the stars when day is done?
Little flower, dost thou not know
It was God Who made thee grow,
Gave to thee thy lovely dress,
Such as kings can ne'er possess;
Set thee in thy little bed,
Gave thee petals, white and red;
Sent for thee the dewdrop bright,
Shuts thy blossom up at night?
Little bird, high in the air,
Flying here and everywhere,
Dost thou know who made thy wing,
Gave thee thy sweet song to sing;
Brought thee o'er the ocean track,
Guided thee in safety back,
Caused thee with the spring to come
To thy green and shady home?
Little bird, God made thy wing,
Gave thee all thy songs to sing;
Set thee in the woods and trees,
Fanned thy nest with gentle breeze.
He it was who brought thee home,
Safe across the ocean's foam,
To the meadows green and bright,
Gave thee songs of sweet delight.
ADVICE THAT SAVED A KING'S LIFE.
certain Khan of Tartary, making a journey with his nobles, was met by a dervish, who cried with a loud voice: 'If any one will give me a piece of gold I will give him a piece of advice.' The Khan ordered the sum to be given him, upon which the dervish said, 'Begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end.'
The courtiers, upon hearing his plain sentence, smiled, and said with a sneer, 'The dervish is well paid for his maxim.' But the king was so well satisfied with the answer, that he ordered it to be written in golden letters in several places of his palace, and engraved on all his plate.
Not long after, the king's surgeon was bribed to kill him with a poisoned lancet. One day, when the king needed bleeding, and the fatal lancet was ready, the surgeon read on the bowl which was close by: 'Begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end.' He started, and let the lancet fall out of his hand. The king observed his confusion, and inquired the reason. The surgeon fell prostrate, and confessed the whole affair. The Khan, turning to his courtiers, told them: 'That counsel could not be too much valued which had saved the life of your king.'
"He started, and let the lancet fall."
"The women of Bohemia act as bricklayers' labourers."
LIFE IN BOHEMIA.
ohemia is a land of rugged mountains and towering pine-forests, with other beauties of its own. Not many years ago it was, to most English people, an unknown land; but in these days, when travelling is so easy and rapid, year by year an ever-increasing number of our countrymen find their way to this beautiful country in search of health and pleasure. You have only to cross the strip of silver sea that rolls between our little island and sunny France or misty Holland, and you may then rush on, borne by the fastest of express trains, over the level plains that greet you on landing, on through the beautiful Rhineland and the quaint old towns of Bavaria, till at length you find yourself in this land of enchantment.
Here, surrounded by the mighty forests, and shut in by the mountains, stands the town of Marienbad. Not very long ago it was a lonely village, inhabited during the summer months by peasants tending their flocks and herds on the pasture of the table-land. In winter it was almost deserted, given over to the wild storms that swept the mountain slopes and to the wolves and bears that roamed through the forests.
Gradually the wonderful qualities of its mineral springs became known, and now a crowd of fashionable folk pour into it during the summer, and in every direction trees are being cut down to make way for villas, and buildings of all kinds, which are springing up like mushrooms.
The peasant-life of the people continues wonderfully simple, and it is very amusing to watch this mixing of modern fashionable life with the primitive ways of the villagers.
English boys and girls would, perhaps, not care to go for a ride in the Bohemian waggons, as they are so fond of doing in ours during harvest-time. These waggons are made of a few long, wide planks, nailed together so as to form a kind of huge trough, and strengthened on the outside by cross-pieces of wood. This is placed upon the framework with which the wheels are connected, and then roughly fastened to it. These clumsy vehicles are drawn over the rough mountain roads by teams of patient oxen. On fête days the cattle look very gay, for then they are decked out with ribbons of many colours.
The women of Bohemia work very hard indeed; they help their husbands in all kinds of work. Among other occupations they act as bricklayers' labourers. They run up and down the tall ladders with heavy loads of bricks or mortar, chattering gaily all the while as if life were one long holiday.
The houses are built in quite a different way from ours. First of all a complete skeleton house is set up, made of wood, and, when this is finished, the spaces between the wooden structure are filled in with bricks and mortar. Before the roof is put on, a large green bush is hoisted up as far as the eaves, and there tied to the scaffolding poles. This is supposed to drive away the pixies or wicked fairies, and no one would dare to put the roof on without the protection of the green bush.
The women also do the work of journeymen bakers. The loaves are of the long kind, sometimes jokingly called 'half-yards of bread.' These are carried on the backs of the women. They look very droll with their huge burdens, the loaves poking out in all directions above their shoulders, making a kind of background to their stooping figures.
Most of the people who visit Bohemia in order to take the mineral waters are very stout. They drink them to make themselves thinner, and the difference in their appearance when they arrive and when they leave is very great. They have sometimes to take mud baths, and it is very amusing to watch them going and returning from these. It does not seem to be a very pleasant way of spending a fine summer morning, but they appear to enjoy it all the same.
The Bohemians are very fond of music, and they never fail to greet any new-comers of importance with a serenade on the evening of their arrival.