My cousin coloured with a wild flush of delight; but though he stooped down to finger the new yacht in a sort of tender way, as if he loved it, he hesitated to make another guess, and I broke in impatiently,—
"Aleck, why are you so nonsensical as to pretend you don't see it's for you?"
"That's it indeed, Master Gordon; you'll understand what I meant about the sailing match now;" and the old sailor's face lit up afresh with kind enjoyment, as he marked the absorbing pleasure which his present was giving.
Another moment, and Aleck was almost hugging the old man: "Oh, how very, very, very kind of you to make it for me; I like it better a great deal than anything I have ever seen, better than the 'Fair Alice' even, and I did think that nicer than anything else. May I have it out on the water to-day; and couldn't we sail them both together as you said."
There was no time for answering him, as he ran on immediately into a minute individual examination of all the details of the little vessel, calling for attention and admiration in every case: "Look at the bowsprit, and then the rudder; see how delicately it moves; the royal is beautiful, and there are three flags; do look, Willie, mine will be the admiral's vessel, and I can signal to you."
I looked, but said very little, though Aleck was too much absorbed with his own enjoyment to notice this, and kept appealing to me for sympathetic interest during the whole operation of unreefing the sails and launching the yacht for a trial sail in the Cove.
Nothing certainly could look more graceful and pretty than did the little vessel, as it bent to the breeze, and steadily kept its course out towards the mouth of the Cove. Aleck clapped his hands exultingly, and ran forward to slip the rope across, as the tide was already pretty high, and still rising. Then slowly brought the treasure back again, and surveyed it at his leisure in one of the little creeks, where the shelter of the rocks prevented it from speeding off again on its journey. Frisk, too, took a great interest in the new acquisition, seeming to recognize in it an addition to his circle of friends. And George rubbed his hands, and chuckled with satisfaction, as he repeated again that Master Gordon's boat should sail on the Cove as tight and trim as the "Fair Alice" herself.
And I—yes, I must confess it, found the old miserable feelings were all back again, and vainly tried to shake off the dead weight which had settled upon me from the moment that I had clearly understood that Aleck, and not I, was to possess the new vessel.
Perhaps George detected something of what was passing in my mind, for, when the question arose which of us boys should go up to the house to ask permission for the expedition to the White-Rock Cove, he decided at once that it should be Aleck, saying that he and I would have time for trying the kite meanwhile; and, looking back at it now, I fancy I can understand his wanting to take off my thoughts from Aleck's present, and make me think about my own.
So Aleck started off by the Zig-zag, and George and I would have set to flying the kite immediately, had not he discovered that one of the sails of our own boat had been taken up to the lodge, and that he must go and look for it first.