“But don’t you think Charlie is handsome,—the handsomest man that ever was?”
“I think Captain Rhines is handsome.”
“Yes, sir; but Charlie Bell; is it any hurt for me to call him Charlie? They all down there call each other so, and somehow I seem to love him more when I don’t put the handle on.”
“No, indeed; do you love me better when you don’t put on the handle?”
“No, sir; because I have been used to calling you Mr. Brown, and it comes natural, and I couldn’t love you any better than I do.”
“I suppose, Ned, Charlie looks handsome to you, and Captain Rhines to me, because we had the most to do with them; but they are both really fine-looking men. Most people would think John Rhines a finer specimen of a man than Charlie. I have seen a great many men, but I never in all my life saw so fine a proportioned young man as John Rhines; if he lives, he’ll be almost as strong as Ben. Charlie is the handsomest, John the most manly.”
“But, sir, do you know what I thought (I suppose I was wandering) after they took us off the raft, and I kind of came to? I opened my eyes, and Charlie was bending over the bed. I looked him right in the face; such a beautiful face, so much goodness in it, I thought I had got to heaven, and that an angel was hovering over me; and then, when I came to myself, he was so kind,—fed me with a spoon, took me in his arms, and put me in a chair, just as my mother would; and Ben Rhines, though he ain’t handsome, he is just as good as the rest. Uncle Isaac and Fred Williams, they are all just as good as they can be. I mean to go down there, and stay a month at Pleasant Cove, and Elm Island. They asked me to.”