The good landlady gave the boy her blessing. Katie gave him a bunch of ribbons and he gave Katie a kiss. He was saucy enough almost for anything.
"Goodbye, sonny," said Jack, "the world isn't so very wide, and we may meet again."
Then with his bag over his shoulder Kep bore up for the railway-station straight away, and in due time was deposited at Southampton.
The ship would sail in two days' time, so he went straight away and booked himself a second-class passage. Then set out to purchase his travelling box and kit. Kep did not mean to let the grass grow up between his toes it he could help it.
I suppose the lad really had a good share of Scottish forethought in his nature, as well as Italian frugality, and he counted his cash again, and counted all costs before he booked. The landlady at the Blue Ensign on giving him back his money had refused to accept a single coin for her hospitality, and the boy had turned red when he remembered that he had at first positively taken her pretty little hostelry for a boozing ken.
He did not go on board the Paramaribo until the very last bell, thinking that his youthful appearance might cause enquiries. It is so seldom, if ever, that a boy of fourteen starts on so long a voyage without a friend or guardian.
He posted another letter to Madge, his sister, before leaving, and a little pink note to Katie, quite a boy's love letter in fact and of no more value than most juvenile love letters. Only it pleased Katie. In addition to Jack Stormalong, she could now boast that she had a little boy lover far away on the stormy main.
Jack Stormalong was one day--if not eaten by blue sharks--going to marry Katie, and the two were to have the Blue Ensign. But she showed Kep's letter to Jack.
Jack took a pull at his beer and laughed. "Why, he is a precockshious lad and no mistake," he said. "He's bound to fall on his feet, Katie. Bound to come out top-dog, or die for it."
Once on board, and settled down, our Kep was not long in making himself friends. His flute with its blue ribbon did that for him. Of course, it was away forward that he made his first friends. But soon his fame became noised abroad and then Kep was invited aft to play. The boy's knowledge of music was really phenomenal, and his execution on the piano astonished everybody.