If there was any one more happy than another on board the good ship Zingara, I think it was Teenie herself.
The glorious weather and the sunshine acted like a special stimulant on her. She was here, there, and everywhere on deck and below, with her monkeys or pet cat.
She had grown browner, but this only added to her innocent and childish beauty.
A curious effect of this latter was felt by—why, whom do you think?—the fat boy, Johnnie Smart.
Johnnie had fallen head over heels in love with pretty Teenie.
Whenever she came towards him, he held back his head, and laughed with joy, while his little funny eyes disappeared entirely, for Johnnie was getting fatter and fatter every week. Sometimes, while bringing things aft on a tray, if Teenie popped suddenly up, he was sure to drop a plate or two.
He brought Teenie raisins, lumps of sugar, a skipping-rope which he had made himself, and a picture-book his grandmother had given him before he started from home.
Once he went so far as to say—
“I likes you, Teenie, I does, more’n honey. You is so nice-like, and you is just pretty enough to be framed and hung above the mantelpiece. Yes, you is a swatcher, Teenie. If ye up and told me to throw stones at my grandmother, blow me tight if I would not ’ave a shy at the old lady.”
Teenie was silent. Flattery was not altogether displeasing to the saucy little maiden.