"Grandfather," said Ralph, after letting the boat run up in the wind to ease her of a strong and sudden puff, "while we were fishing to-day you made the remark that the last time you had fished off an uninhabited island you were a good many thousands of miles from this part of the world. Is there a good story connected with it?"
The old mariner nodded his head in the affirmative.
"Yes, my lad, as usual I have an exciting yarn to spin you, even if the subject is nothing more than that of an uninhabited island, and to-night, after dinner has been tucked away, you may expect to hear it. But here's the dock, so mind your eye, and let me see you bring the Mabel to it in ship-shape style."
Ralph steered so as to go to leeward of the pier, calculating the distance his boat would reach after she had been thrown up in the wind, and a moment later he put the tiller down and gathered in his sheet. The Mabel shot ahead with considerable speed for a moment, then her way became slower and slower, and when her snub nose touched the dock there was not enough force in the contact to send a tremor through the boat.
"That's Boston fashion, my boy," said Captain Sterling, regarding his grandson proudly.
That evening Ralph's grandfather related to the lad a story, which he named, "The Yarn of the Vanished Island."
"It is so many years ago now that I dislike to tell you the number, for fear that you will think that I am growing old; so I will simply say that when I was a hearty young seaman I found myself out in San Francisco 'on the beach,' as sailors put it when they have neither money nor employment. I could have had both by remaining on the Dove, the vessel in which I had sailed around Cape Horn, but the treatment received on board had been so bad that all hands deserted as soon as she reached California. I made myself scarce until the ship sailed, then found a berth on a top-sail schooner called the Queen, that traded around the Sandwich Islands, bartering all kinds of trinkets with the natives for sandal-wood and the plumage of beautiful birds, which in the days I refer to were common on all the islands. The sandal-wood and feathers were carried to China and traded for tea, and this was taken to California and sold in different ports along the coast.
"We were a happy family on board the Queen, for we all lived in a big cabin aft, and Captain Josiah Crabtree, the master of the schooner, who was a very eccentric and pious old fellow from Massachusetts, and who had made a considerable fortune in the trade, kept strict order among us, and seemed to consider himself responsible for our spiritual as well as earthly welfare, for he held church service regularly every Sunday morning on deck, and obliged all hands to be present. He quoted Scripture on all occasions, and always had an appropriate verse handy for anything and everything, whether it was a call to meals or an order to tar down the rigging. In spite of his peculiar ways we respected him so much that during the time I served on the schooner I never heard a profane word used—in fact, it would have been unhealthy to do so, for Captain Crabtree was over six feet in height, and was what is called a 'muscular Christian.'
"On the voyage I sailed with him, the master of the Queen was to try a new plan. The supply of feathers had been falling off for the last two or three voyages, so he determined to go hunting on his own account. He explained to us that there were a number of small islands to the northward and westward of Hawaii that were uninhabited, and that he proposed to visit several of them, leaving a man on each, supplied with provisions, a shot-gun, and plenty of ammunition, and that during the short time we were to play Robinson Crusoe he expected us to shoot as many birds as possible, and to carefully save their feathers until he should come back and pick us up. This plan suited us first rate, for we looked upon it as promising a great lark, and were anxious for the Queen to cover the twenty-five hundred miles of water that separated us from the little islands with their delightful climate on which we were to picnic.
"After a long passage, for the schooner was a slow sailer, we sighted the first of the group, and one of the men was set on shore. I was left on the second one, and found it a paradise, with its snow-white beach, its beautiful, luxuriant vegetation and woods, and its balmy air laden with the odor of flowers. The Captain told me to look out for his return about a fortnight later.