“Kind little soul!” exclaimed the sailor, heartily: “I’ll get a white kitten, or a tortoise-shell for ye, if one’s to be had for love or money! But maybe ye’re like the Jack-tar, and don’t think new friends like the old!” and the rough hard hand of the seaman was laid caressingly on the little girl’s shoulder.
“Uncle, you quite mistake me, you—you—would not be so kind if you knew all!” said Alie rapidly. The first difficult step was taken, but poor Alie’s cheek was crimson, and she would have felt it at that moment impossible to have raised her eyes from the floor.
“What’s all this?” exclaimed Jonas roughly, while Johnny, afraid that the whole truth was coming out, made a hasty retreat from the kitchen.
“What’s all this?” repeated the bluff sailor. Alie had now gone so far that she had not power to retreat. Her little hands pressed tightly together, her voice tremulous and indistinct with fear, she stammered forth, “It was I who knocked down the bottle—and—and shut poor Tabby into your room—and—”
“Shut her in on purpose?” thundered Jonas, starting up from his seat. Alie bent her head as her only reply.
“Shut in the cat that the blame might be laid upon her!—took a long walk that the mean trick might be successful!” At each sentence his voice rose louder and louder, so that Johnny could hear it at the other side of the road, while poor Alie bent like a reed beneath the storm.
“And was your brother with you, girl?” continued the angry sailor, after a short but terrible pause.
Poor Alie was dreadfully perplexed; she squeezed her hands together tighter than ever; she could not speak, but her silence spoke enough.
“Mean coward!” exclaimed Jonas, striking the table with his clenched fist till it rang again; “and he has set all sail, and made off, and left this little pinnace to brave the storm alone!” Alie burst into tears; and whether it was the sight of these tears, or whether his own words reminded the sailor that Alie at least had now acted an honest, straight-forward part, his anger towards her was gone in a moment, and he drew her kindly to his knee.
“Dry these eyes, and think no more about it,” said he; “you never guessed that the liquid was poison, and accidents, as they say, will happen even in the best-regulated families. But why did not you and your sneak of a brother tell me honestly about breaking the bottle, instead of playing such a cowardly trick as that of shutting up the poor cat in the room?”