“What is that?”
“He said he made baskets of willows, and colored them red, blue, and green, real handsome, and said that was the way they did in England.”
“But the basket-maker said, if I remember right, that it was about ten years ago, and that his son was large enough to work in the shop at light work. O, Walter, wouldn’t I be glad, and wouldn’t the captain be glad (when Mr. Bell saved our lives), to be the means of taking his father home to him?”
“Don’t you think somebody else would be glad too, you little monkey, you?”
“The boys didn’t sleep much that night, having worked each other up to such a state of excitement. In the morning Walter went on board, full of the news, and opened the whole matter to the captain, who was as much astonished as Ned; being entirely ignorant of the antecedents of Charlie, he supposed him a native of the country. After patiently listening with the deepest interest to all that Walter had to say, he acknowledged that the probabilities were very strong, but, much less sanguine, did not express a very decided opinion.
“He said he had a wife and three children,” observed the captain; “what became of them? were they ever at Elm Island?”
Walter had never heard them mentioned; but he was very young when Charlie came to Elm Island, and might not have heard half that occurred. Captain Brown turned the matter over in his mind, and conversed with Walter, who daily recollected some fresh corroborating circumstance, till at length he determined, the next time the basket-maker came on board, to broach the matter to him, even at the risk of exciting unfounded hopes. Day after day they expected his appearance; but he came not. Walter searched the streets and piers, but in vain.
The time of year now drew on when periodical gales were expected, and the vessel would be likely to go to sea.
“He may be sick, Walter,” said Ned; “for he looked pale and half sick the day he was aboard.”