“A stowaway found!” said the cooper, entering the half-deck. “The old man[7] has her. And a bonnie wee mite she is.”
Barclay went on deck soon after him, but his astonishment may be conceived when Teenie herself ran forward to meet him.
“Oh, Teenie, how could you have done it!”
“Just to see all, all the world. That’s how.”
“And your parents——”
“Oh, they is all right, ’cause I wrote a letter to them. Now, I’m going to play with pussy; and by-and-by I’ll come and play with you.”
Next moment, Teenie was flying up and down the deck, falling sometimes—but that didn’t matter—hauling a string and ball after her. Muffie the cat followed close behind, whacking the ball into the air whenever it alighted on deck.
Well, before four days were over, Teenie was the pet of the good ship Zingara. And sailors do like pets. The cat would have to play second fiddle, now.
In course of time they got into the trade winds, and the barque went bounding on; the same kind of wind day after day, and the same kind of rippling, half-choppy sea. But it sparkled like diamonds in the sun, though the shadow of each wave was of the darkest blue.
Few birds were seen at present, but now and then, to Teenie’s intense delight, an over-tired gull would alight on a topsail yard, and a sailor would climb cautiously up, and, catching it, bring it down for the girl to nurse and smooth and pet. Pussy too took an interest in these birds of passage, but it was an interest of quite a different kind.