It looked about in a dim, bewildered way at first, as if trying to wake up and make out what was the matter—that dark, vast, heaving, rolling sea, the rocks and capes touched with light, and a great land behind them yet dark and undefined; all so quiet too; and the soft, pink mist that rolled away in smoke-like clouds—rolled away over the billowy surface of the ocean toward the land, and, frightened, perhaps, by that red apparition on the eastern horizon, faded from sight, or rose for shelter to the sky above.
It was bravely up now; had mastered the situation, dispelled the night. The great honest face took a king’s expression, and breathing bounty, warmth, and courage, blessed the scene it looked upon.
Then how the birds sang out, how sea and land grew beautiful and full of voice, how the clouds dressed their ranks and marched on their way. And the irrepressible exclamation came from all our boy lips at once, “How glorious!”
Ugly saluted us in a most vociferous manner, continuing his welcome from the time we left the shore to the moment we reached the yacht. “Behold,” said Harry, “our rear-admiral waving his ta—I beg his honour’s pardon—flag.”
Yes—old Ugly kept his tail going in utmost delight, whilst he ran from one end to the other of the gunwale, assuring us that all was safe.
Sure enough, everything was in good order, but the supper had not been eaten. It had been pulled out of the after-cabin and inspected—that was all. Now Ugly’s supper consisted of two things he could never be induced to eat—ham and cold potatoes; and Harry, from mischief—he knew, however, that the dog had had a hearty dinner—prepared those things purposely, supposing that Ugly’s daintiness would fail in a twelve hours fast. But no; there the edibles were untouched.
“Come here, sir,” said Harry to Ugly; “now why have you not eaten this nice meal, eh?”
Ugly’s answer was merely to turn his head one side and look out at the sea, as if very much interested in something he saw—so much so as not to be able to attend to what Harry asked him.
“You dainty rascal, come along and eat this meal; it is good enough for any dog.” And Harry put the despised victuals on another part of the deck, and, quite unintentionally, within a foot of the port scuppers. “Here, Ugly, eat it, sir, every bit of it.”
Ugly’s sensitive little spirit could not brook such a public mortification; but he was obedient in part. He approached the pieces slowly—in a dignified, contemptuous way—as he would have gone up to a cat, and, putting his nose to them, gave a push—away they flew into the sea.