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diff --git a/21797-h/21797-h.htm b/21797-h/21797-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a15e0a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/21797-h/21797-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3192 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Sailor's Lass, by Emma Leslie</title> +<style type="text/css" media="screen"> + +* { margin:0%; padding:0%; } + +body { margin:5% 15%; } + +a:link { color:black; } +a:visited {color:black; } +a:hover {color:blue; } +a:active {color:red; } + +h1,h2,h3 { margin:5% 3%; text-align:center; } + +body p +{ +margin:1.25% 0% 0%; +text-align:justify; +line-height:120%; +} + +p.subtitle { text-align:center;font-weight:bold; margin:0% 0% 3%;} +p.caption { width:50%; font-weight:bold; text-align:center; margin:2% auto 0%;} + + +dl { width:40%; margin:5% auto 10%; font-size:110%; } +dt { margin:3% 0%; text-align:center; } +dd .ralign { position: absolute; right:30%; } + +hr { width:65%; margin: 5% auto; } +hr.tb { width:50%; margin:5% auto; } + +div.illustration { margin:5% 0%; } +img { border: medium double black; } +img.noborder { border:none; } +img.center { display:block; width:auto; margin:0% auto; } +img.header { margin-bottom: 25%; } +img.footer { margin-top: 10%; margin-bottom:15%; } + +.pagenum +{ +visibility:hidden; +font-size:50%; +position: absolute; +right:5%; +padding: 0%; +margin: 0%; +} + +.titlepage +{ +width:50%; +margin:5% auto; +padding:0% 0% 3%; +text-align:center; +} + +.titlepage h1 { margin:10% 0% 0%; } + +.byline +{ +margin:20% 0% 0%; +font-size:110%; +line-height:3em; +} + +.titlepage div.smcap +{ +font-variant:small-caps; +font-size:75%; +} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +pre.poem { margin:3% 0%; font-family:serif; } + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre.pg {font-size: 85%;} +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Sailor's Lass, by Emma Leslie</h1> +<pre class="pg"> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: A Sailor's Lass</p> +<p>Author: Emma Leslie</p> +<p>Release Date: June 10, 2007 [eBook #21797]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SAILOR'S LASS***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by David Clarke, V. L. Simpson,<br /> + and the<br /> + Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<div> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img class="center" src="images/frontis-th.jpg" alt="" /> +</a> +<p class="caption">"HE PICKED UP THE WHITE BUNDLE, AND HURRIED AFTER PETERS."</p> +</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>A SAILOR'S LASS</h1> + +<div class="byline"> +<small>BY</small><br /> +EMMA LESLIE,<br /> +</div> + +<div class="smcap"> +Author of "The Gipsy Queen," "Dearer than Life," "Gytha's Message," etc. +</div> + +<div style="margin:25% 0 25%;"> +<i>With Five Illustrations.</i><br /> +SECOND EDITION. +</div> + +<div> +LONDON:<br /> +S.W. PARTRIDGE & CO.,<br /> +<span class="smcap">9, Paternoster Row.</span> +</div> + +</div><!-- end .titlepage --> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<dl> +<dt><a href="#I">CHAPTER I.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">One Stormy Night</span> <span class="ralign">7</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#II">CHAPTER II.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">The Fisherman's Home</span> <span class="ralign">22</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#III">CHAPTER III.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">Tiny's Hope</span> <span class="ralign">41</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">Tiny's Treasure</span> <span class="ralign">57</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#V">CHAPTER V.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">On the Sands</span> <span class="ralign">74</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">Bad Times</span> <span class="ralign">92</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">A Tea Meeting</span> <span class="ralign">110</span></dd> + +<dt><a href="#VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></dt> +<dd><span class="smcap">Brighter Days</span> <span class="ralign">127</span></dd> +</dl> + +<p> <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 7]</span></p> + +<div id="I"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp1.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">ONE STORMY NIGHT.</p> + +<p>"Mother, we're afloat agin." It was a gruff, sleepy voice that spoke, +and the old fisherman turned over and snored on, as though the fact of +their home being afloat was of no consequence to him. His wife, however, +was by no means so easy in her mind, for it was only during the +equinoctial gales and an unusually high tide that their home was lifted +from its moorings; and now it had been swinging and swaying for hours, +and the rusty chains that held it fast to some posts were creaking and +straining as though the next gust of wind<span class="pagenum">[Pg. +8]</span>would certainly carry them out to sea or drive them up the +river, where they would inevitably be swamped in a very short time, for +their boat-home was leaky at the bottom—had been a water-logged boat +before the fisherman took possession of it and turned it into a +quaint-looking cottage by running up some wooden walls along the sides, +and roofing it in with planks and tarpaulin. Thus converted into a +dwelling-house, the boat had been secured, by four chains fixed to posts +in the ground, on the top of a mud-bank that formed the boundary of the +mouth of the river.</p> + +<p>The ocean itself was less than a quarter of a mile from where the old +boat was moored, and so the poor woman might well be excused for growing +more alarmed as the minutes went on and the gale increased, until the +boat fairly rocked, and the children in the adjoining cabin began crying +and screaming in their fright.</p> + +<p>"Coomber! Coomber!" she said at last, shaking her husband, and +starting up in bed; for a sound more dreadful than the +children's<span class="pagenum">[Pg. 9]</span>screams had made itself +heard above the din of the wind and waves.</p> + +<p>"There's a ship, Coomber, close in shore; I can hear the guns!" +screamed his wife, giving him another vigorous shake.</p> + +<p>"Ship! guns!" exclaimed the old fisherman, starting up in bed. The +next minute he was on his feet, and working himself into his clothes. +"She must be on the sand-bar if you heard the guns," he said.</p> + +<p>A sudden lurch of the boat almost pitched the old man forward, and +the children's screams redoubled, while Mrs. Coomber hastily scrambled +out of bed and lighted the lantern that hung against the wall.</p> + +<p>"What are yer going to do?" asked her husband, in some surprise; +"women ain't no good in such work as this."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Mrs. Coomber, almost crying +herself; "the boat will soon be adrift with this wind and tide, and we +shall all be drowned like rats in a hole."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay, old woman, the boat was made <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +10]</span>taut enough before I brought you here, and you think she +wouldn't have broke away before this if she was going to do it? Don't be +a stupid lubber," he added.</p> + +<p>"But the children, Coomber, the children. I ain't afraid for myself," +said the mother, with a sob.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, the old boat'll hold the boys for many a day yet," said +the fisherman; "you go in and stop their noise, while I get help for the +poor souls that are surely perishing out there."</p> + +<p>"But what can you do for them?" asked his wife; "there ain't a boat +besides ours at Bermuda Point, nor a man to help you manage it besides +Bob."</p> + +<p>"No, no; Bob and I couldn't manage the boat in such a sea as this; +but he shall go with me to Fellness. Bob! Bob!" called his father, in +the same breath.</p> + +<p>"Aye, aye," came an answering shout from the adjoining cabin.</p> + +<p>"Slip into your things as quick as you +can; <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 11]</span>we must be off to Fellness; +there's a ship out there on the bar sands."</p> + +<p>"I'm a'most ready, dad; I heard mother call yer, and thought you'd +let me go along," replied Bob.</p> + +<p>Before the fisherman put on his sou'-wester he took a black bottle +from a recess, and after taking a hearty draught, he said, "It's lucky +we've got a drop to-night," as he handed it to his wife; and with a +parting word to her not to be afraid, he and Bob stepped out of the +boat-house door, to meet the full fury of the blast, that threatened at +first to carry them off their legs. The three miles' walk to the little +fishing village of Fellness was no easy task such a wild night as this, +for although the road was inland, it was fully exposed to the sea, and +between the wilder outbreaks of the wind and rain they could hear the +guns of distress, and occasionally see a rocket piercing the midnight +blackness of the sky, appealing for help for the drowning men.</p> + +<p>At the coastguard station, midway between<span class="pagenum">[Pg. +12]</span>the Point and the village, they found the men on the alert, +and two volunteered to go with Coomber and help man the boat. Then the +four plodded silently along the slushy road, for talking was next to +impossible in such a gale, and it needed all the strength and energy +they could muster to fight the wind and rain.</p> + +<p>They made their way to the beach as soon as they reached Fellness, +and, as they expected, found most of the men gathered there, watching +the distressed vessel.</p> + +<p>"Halloo! here's Coomber from the Point," said one, as the new-comers +pushed their way in among them.</p> + +<p>"What are yer standing here for?" shouted Coomber, in some +impatience; "looking won't do her no good."</p> + +<p>"We can't do nothing else," said the man; "we've got Rodwell's boat +here—she's the best craft on this coast for such a trip, and we've made +three tries in her, but it's no good; nothing could live in such a sea +as this; we've <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 13]</span>been beat back every +time, and well-nigh swamped."</p> + +<p>"Well, mates, I don't say nothing but what yer may have tried; but +suppose now one of yer had got a boy out in that there ship—<i>I've</i> +got a boy in that, or another, if he ain't gone to where there's no more +sea," said the old fisherman, with a groan; and before he had done +speaking, one or two had moved to where the boat had been dragged on to +the low sandy shore.</p> + +<p>"We'll try again," they said, in quiet but determined voices.</p> + +<p>"Let the youngsters go," said Coomber, as two or three married men +pressed forward; "them as has got wives ain't no call to go on such a +trip as this. There'll be enough of us; there's me and Bob, and Rook and +White came with us a purpose, and——"</p> + +<p>"But how about your wife, Coomber?" interrupted one of the men.</p> + +<p>"Oh, never you fear, lads; she'll not grudge me if I save her boy. +Now, lads, look here; <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 14]</span>seven of +us'll be enough, and we've got four."</p> + +<p>There were so many volunteers for the three vacant places, that the +men seemed on the point of quarrelling among themselves now for the +privilege of joining in this dangerous errand; but by common consent +Coomber was constituted the leader of the party, and he chose three of +the most stalwart of the single men, and the rest were allowed to run +the boat down through the surf. Then, with a loud cheer from all who +stood on the shore, the seven brave men bent to their oars, and during a +slight lull in the wind, they made a little headway towards the wreck. +But the next minute they were beaten back again, and the boat well-nigh +swamped. Again they pushed off, but again were they driven back; and +five times was this repeated, and thus an hour was lost in the fruitless +endeavour to get away from the shore. At length the fury of the storm +somewhat abated, and they were able to get away, but it was a long time +before they <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 15]</span>could get near the +dangerous bar sands, on which the vessel had struck, and when they did +get there, the ship had disappeared. There was plenty of wreckage +about—broken spars, fragments of masts and torn sail-cloth.</p> + +<p>"We're too late," groaned one of the men, as he peered through the +darkness, trying to descry the hull of the vessel. They had not heard +the guns or seen a rocket thrown up for some time.</p> + +<p>"They're all gone, poor fellows," said another, sadly; "we may as +well go back now, before the gale freshens again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, stop a bit; we'll look among this rubbish, and see what there is +here; perhaps some of them are holding on to the floating timber," said +Coomber, who had frequently been out on a similar errand.</p> + +<p>They raised their voices together, and cried "Hi! hi!" trying to +outscream the wind; but it was of no use; there was no answering call +for help, and after waiting about for some time, and going as near to +the dangerous sands as they dared, they at length reluctantly +turned <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 16]</span>their boat towards the +shore, and began to row back. But before they had got far on their way, +they descried the gleam of something white floating in front of +them.</p> + +<p>"Only a bit of sail-cloth," said one, as they paused in their rowing +to concentrate all their attention upon the object.</p> + +<p>"Let's make sure, mates," said Coomber. "Steady, now; mind your oars; +let her float; it's coming this way, and we'll pick it up;" and in +another minute Coomber had reached over and seized the white bundle, +which he found to be carefully lashed to a spar.</p> + +<p>"It's a child!" he exclaimed. "Mates, we ain't come out for nothing, +after all. Now row for dear life," he said, as he carefully laid the +bundle in the bottom of the boat. They could do nothing for it here, not +even ascertain whether it was dead or alive; and they pulled for the +shore with even greater eagerness than they had left it.</p> + +<p>The dawn was breaking before they got back, and they were welcomed +with a shout from their <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 17]</span>waiting +comrades, who were watching anxiously for the return of the boat. There +was disappointment, however, in the little crowd of watchers when they +saw only the brave crew returning from the perilous journey.</p> + +<p>"What, nothing!" exclaimed one of the men, as the boat drew close in +shore.</p> + +<p>"Only a child, and that may be dead," shouted one of the crew.</p> + +<p>"But I think it's alive," said Coomber. "Run, Peters, and rouse up +your missus; the womenfolk are better hands at such jobs than we are;" +and as soon as he could leave the boat, he picked up the white bundle, +and hurried after Peters, leaving his companions to tell the story of +their disappointment.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Peters was a motherly woman, and had already lighted a fire to +prepare some breakfast for her husband, in readiness for his return from +the beach, so the wet clothes were soon taken off the child, and they +saw it was a little girl about five years old, fair and +delicate-looking, decently, but not richly clad, with a small +silver <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 18]</span>medal hung round her neck by +a black ribbon. At first they feared the poor little thing was dead, for +it was not until Mrs. Peters had well-nigh exhausted all her best-known +methods for restoring the apparently drowned, that the little waif +showed any sign of returning life.</p> + +<p>Coomber stood watching with silent but intense anxiety the efforts of +the dame to restore animation, not daring to join in the vigorous +chafings and slappings administered, for fear his rough horny hands +should hurt the tender blue-white limbs.</p> + +<p>For some time the woman was too much occupied with her task to notice +his presence, but when her labour was rewarded by a faint sigh, and a +slightly-drawn breath parted the pale lips, she heard a grunt of +satisfaction behind her; and turning her head, she exclaimed, "What +gowks men are, to be sure."</p> + +<p>"Eh, what is it, dame?" said Coomber, meekly; for he had conceived a +wonderful respect for Mrs. Peters during the last ten +minutes. <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 19]</span>"Ha' you been a-standing +there like a post all this while, and never put out yer hand to help +save the child?" she said, reproachingly.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't, dame, I couldn't with such hands as these; but I'll do +anything for you that I can," whispered the fisherman, as though he +feared to disturb the child.</p> + +<p>"Well, I want a tub of hot water," snapped Mrs. Peters. "You'll find +the tub in the backyard, and the kettle's near on the boil. Look sharp +and get the tub, and then go upstairs and get a blanket off the +bed."</p> + +<p>Coomber soon brought the tub, and a pitcher of cold water that stood +near, but it was not so easy for him to grope his way upstairs. The +staircase was narrow and dark, and seemed specially contrived that the +uninitiated might bump and bruise themselves. Coomber, in his boat-home, +having no such convenience or inconvenience in general use, found the +ascent anything but easy, and the dame's sharp voice was heard calling +for the blanket long before he had groped his way to the bedroom door. +But what would he <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 20]</span>not do for that +child whose faint wail now greeted his ears? He pushed on, in spite of +thumps and knocks against unexpected corners, and when he had found the +blanket, was not long in making his way down with it.</p> + +<p>"Now what's to be done with her?" demanded the woman, as she lifted +the little girl out of the water, and wrapped her in the blanket.</p> + +<p>"Won't she drink some milk?" said Coomber, scratching his head +helplessly.</p> + +<p>"I dessay she will presently; but who's to keep her? You say there +ain't none of the people saved from the wreck to tell who she belongs +to?"</p> + +<p>"No, there ain't none of 'em saved, so I think I'll take her myself," +said Coomber.</p> + +<p>"You take her!" exclaimed the woman; "what will your wife say, do you +think, to another mouth to fill, when there's barely enough now for what +you've got—four hearty boys, who are very sharks for eating?"</p> + +<p>"Well, dame, I've had a little gal o' my +own, <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 21]</span>but ain't likely to have +another unless I takes this one," said Coomber, with a little more +courage, "and so I ain't a-going to lose this chance; for I do want a +little gal."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all very well; but you ain't no call to take this child +that's no ways your own. She can go to the workus, you know. Peters'll +take her by-and-by. Her clothes ain't much, so her belongings ain't +likely to trouble themselves much about her. Yer can see by this +trumpery medal she don't belong to rich folks; so my advice is, let her +go to the workus, where she'll be well provided for."</p> + +<p>"No, no! the missus'll see things as I do, when I talk to her a bit. +So if you'll take care of her for an hour or two, while I go home and +get off these duds, and tell her about it, I'll be obliged;" and without +waiting for the dame's reply, Coomber left the cottage.</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp21.jpg" alt="illustration" /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 22]</span></p> + +<div id="II"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp22.jpg" +alt="illustration" /></div> + + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">THE FISHERMAN'S HOME.</p> + +<p>"Why, mother, are you here?" Coomber spoke in a stern, reproachful tone, +for he had found his wife and the cowering children huddled together in +the corner of the old shed where the family washing and various +fish-cleaning operations were usually carried on; and the sight did not +please him.</p> + +<p>"Are yer all gone mad that yer sitting out there wi' the rain drippin' +on yer, when yer might be dry an' comfortable, and have a bit o' +breakfast ready for a feller when he comes home after a tough job such +as I've had?"</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't know when you was coming to breakfast," said Mrs. Coomber, +timidly, and still keeping close in the corner of the shed for fear her +husband should knock her down; while <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +23]</span>the children stopped their mutual grumblings and complaints, +and crept closer to each other behind their mother's skirts.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you ha' got it ready and waited wi' a bit o' fire to dry these +duds?" exclaimed her husband.</p> + +<p>"But the boat, Coomber, it wasn't safe," pleaded the poor woman. "We +might ha' been adrift any minute."</p> + +<p>"Didn't I tell yer she was safe, and didn't I ought to know when a +boat's safe better nor you—a poor tool of a woman? Come out of it," he +added, impatiently, turning away.</p> + +<p>The children wondered that nothing worse than hard words fell to their +share, and were somewhat relieved that the next question referred to +Bob, and not to their doings.</p> + +<p>"You say he ain't come home?" said Coomber.</p> + +<p>"I ain't seen him since he went with you to Fellness. Ain't you just +come from there?" said his wife, timidly.</p> + +<p>"Of course I have, but Bob ought to have <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +24]</span>been back an hour or so ago, for I had something to do in the +village. Come to the boat, and I'll tell you all about it," he added, in +a less severe tone; for the thought of the child he had rescued softened +him a little, and he led the way out of the washing-shed.</p> + +<p>The storm had abated now, and the boat no longer rocked and swayed, so +that the children waded back through the mud without fear, while their +father talked of the little girl he had left with Dame Peters at +Fellness. They listened to his proposal to bring her home and share +their scanty meals with very little pleasure, and they wished their +mother would say she could not have another baby; but instead of this +Mrs. Coomber assented at once to her husband's plan of fetching the +child from Fellness that afternoon.</p> + +<p>The Coombers were not a happy family, for the fisherman was a stern, +hard man by nature, and since he had lost his little girl he had become +harder, his neighbours said. At all events, his wife and children grew +more afraid <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 25]</span>of him—afraid of +provoking his stern displeasure by any of those little playful raids +children so delight in; and every one of them looked forward to the day +when they could run away from home and go to sea, as their grown-up +brother had done. Bob, the eldest now at home, was already contemplating +taking this step very soon, and had promised to help Dick and Tom when +they were old enough. It had been a startling revelation to Bob to hear +his father speak as he had done on the beach at Fellness about his +brother, for he had long ago decided that his father did not care a pin +for any of them, unless it was for the baby sister who had died, and +even of that he was not quite sure. He had made up his mind, as he +walked through the storm that morning, that he would not go back again, +but make his way to Grimsby, or some other seaport town, after his +business at Fellness was done. But what he had heard on the beach from +his father somewhat shook his purpose, and when he learned from Dame +Peters after<span class="pagenum">[Pg. 26]</span>wards, that the child +they had rescued was to share their home, he thought he would go back +again, and try to bear the hard life a little longer, if it was only to +help his mother, and tell her his father did care for them a bit in +spite of his stern, hard ways.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Mrs. Coomber did not need to be told that her husband loved her +and his children; at all events, she received Bob's information with a +nod and a smile, and a whispered word. "Yer father's all right, and a +rare good fisherman," she said; for in spite of the frequent unkindness +she experienced, Mrs. Coomber was very fond of her husband.</p> + +<p>"Ah, he's a good fisherman, but he'd be all the better if he didn't have +so much of that bottle," grumbled Bob; "he thinks a deal more about that +than he does about us."</p> + +<p>It was true enough what Bob said. If his father could not by any chance +get his bottle replenished, wife and children had a little respite from +their usual hard, driving life, and he was more civil to their only +neighbours, <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 27]</span>who were at the farm +about half a mile off; but once the bottle got filled again, he grew +sullen and morose, or quarrelsome. He had recently made himself very +disagreeable to Farmer Hayes in one of his irritable fits, a fact which +suddenly recurred to his wife when she heard of the sick child being +brought home to her to nurse, but she dared not mention it to her +husband. When Coomber brought the child that afternoon, he said, gaily: +"Here's a present for yer from the sea, mother; maybe she'll bring us +good luck coming as she did."</p> + +<p>"It 'ud be better luck if we'd picked up a boat," muttered Bob, who was +standing near.</p> + +<p>"Why, she ain't such a baby as you said," exclaimed Mrs. Coomber, as she +unpinned the shawl in which she was wrapped; "she is about five."</p> + +<p>"Five years old," repeated Coomber; "but she'd talk if she was as old as +that, and Dame Peters told me she'd just laid like a dead thing ever +since she'd been there."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 28]</span> "She's ill, that's what it is, +poor little mite—ill and frightened out of her senses;" and Mrs. +Coomber gathered her in her arms, and kissed the little white lips, and +pressed her to her bosom, as only a tender mother can, while the boys +stood round in wondering silence, and Coomber dashed a tear from his eye +as he thought of the little daughter lying in Fellness churchyard. But +he was ashamed of the love that prompted this feeling, and said hastily: +"Now, mother, we mustn't begin by spoiling her;" but then he turned +away, and called Bob to go with him and look after the boat.</p> + +<p>For several days the child continued very ill—too ill to notice +anything, or to attempt to talk; but one day, when she was lying on Mrs. +Coomber's lap before the fire, the boys mutely looking at her as she +lay, she suddenly put up her little hands, and said in a feeble whisper, +"Dear faver Dod, tate tare o' daddy and mammy, and Tiny;" and then she +seemed to drop off into a doze.</p> + +<p>The boys were startled, and Mrs. Coomber <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +29]</span>looked down hastily at the little form on her lap, for this +was the first intimation they had had that the child could talk, +although Mrs. Coomber fancied that she had showed some signs of +recognising her during the previous day.</p> + +<p>"I say, did you hear that?" whispered Dick. "Was she saying her prayers, +mother, like Harry Hayes does?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber nodded, while she looked down into the child's face and +moved her gently to and fro to soothe her to sleep.</p> + +<p>"But, mother, ought she to say that? Did you hear her? She said 'dear +God,'" said Dick, creeping round to his mother's side.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber was puzzled herself at the child's words. They had awakened +in her a far-off memory of days when she was a girl, and knelt at her +mother's knee, and said, "Our Father," before she went to bed. But that +was long before she had heard of Bermuda Point, or thought of having +boys and girls of her own. When they came she had +forgotten <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 30]</span>all about those early +days; and so they had never been taught to say their prayers, or +anything else, in fact, except to help their father with the boat, shoot +wild-fowl in the winter, and gather samphire on the shore during the +summer.</p> + +<p>She thought of this now, and half wished she had thought of it before. +Perhaps if she had tried to teach her children to pray, they would have +been more of a comfort to her. Perhaps Jack, her eldest, would not have +run away from home as he did, leaving them for years to wonder whether +he was alive or dead, but sending no word to comfort them.</p> + +<p>The boys were almost as perplexed as their mother. The little they had +heard of God filled them with terror, and so to hear such a prayer as +this was something so startling that they could think and talk of +nothing else until their father came in, when, as usual, silence fell on +the whole family, for Coomber was in a sullen mood now.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 31]</span> The next day Tiny, as she had +called herself, was decidedly better. A little bed had been made up for +her in the family living-room, and she lay there, quiet but observant, +while Mrs. Coomber went about her work—cooking and cleaning and +mending, and occasionally stopping to kiss the little wistful face that +watched her with such quiet curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Am I in a s'ip now?" the child asked at length, when Mrs. Coomber had +kissed her several times.</p> + +<p>"You're in a boat, deary; but you needn't be afraid; our boat is safe +enough."</p> + +<p>"I ain't afraid; Dod is tatin' tare of me," said the child, with a +little sigh.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber wondered whether she was thinking of the storm; whether she +could tell them who she was, and where her friends might be found; and +she ventured to ask her several questions about this, but failed to +elicit any satisfactory answer. The child was sleepy, or had forgotten +what Mrs. Coomber thought she would be sure to remember; but it +was <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 32]</span>evident she had taken notice of +her surroundings during the last few days, for after a little while she +said, "Where's der boys—dat Dick and Tom?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber was amused. "They're out in the boat looking after the +nets," she said.</p> + +<p>"When they toming home?" asked the little girl; "home to dis boat, I +mean," she added.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they'll come soon," replied Mrs. Coomber. "But, now, can't you tell +me something about your mother and father, and where you lived, my +deary?" she asked again.</p> + +<p>"I tomed in a s'ip, and 'ou my mammy now," said the child, looking round +the cosy room with perfect content.</p> + +<p>"But where is your own mammy, who taught you to say your prayers?" asked +Mrs. Coomber.</p> + +<p>The tears came into the sweet blue eyes for a minute as she said, "See +dorn up dere, to tay in Dod's house, and Tiny do too if see a dood dal."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 33]</span> Mrs. Coomber laid down the jacket +she was patching, and kissed the serious little face. "Is your mother +dead, my deary?" she asked, while the tears shone in her own eyes.</p> + +<p>"See done to see daddy, and tell him about Tiny," answered the child; +from which Mrs. Coomber gathered that mother and father were both dead; +and when her husband came home she told him what she had heard, which +seemed to afford the old fisherman a good deal of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Then she's ours safe enough, mother," he said, rubbing his hands, "and +when she gets well she'll toddle about the old boat like our own little +Polly did."</p> + +<p>"But I thought you said Peters was going to see the newspaper man to +tell him to put something in the <i>Stamford Mercury</i> about finding +her, so that her friends should know she was saved, and come and fetch +her."</p> + +<p>"I said her mother or father," interrupted Coomber, sharply; "but if +they're dead, there <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 34]</span>ain't anybody +else likely to want such a little 'un, and so we may keep her, I take +it. But Peters shall go to the newspaper man, never fear," added +Coomber; "I don't want to rob anybody of the little 'un; but if nobody +don't come in a week, why then, Mary——" and Coomber paused, and looked +at his wife.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I'll get out little Polly's things; they'll just about fit +her," said Mrs. Coomber, hastily wiping her eyes with her apron for fear +her husband should reproach her again for her tears.</p> + +<p>When the boys came in, the little girl said, shyly, "Tome and tell me +about the nets."</p> + +<p>Dick looked at her, and then at his mother.</p> + +<p>"What does she mean?" he asked, drawing near the little bed where Tiny +lay.</p> + +<p>"She wants to know about the fishing," said Mrs. Coomber. "Have you had +a good take, Dick?" asked his mother, rather anxiously, for she wanted +some more milk for Tiny, and her little secret store of halfpence was +gone now.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 35]</span> "Oh, it ain't much," said Dick; +"Bob has taken a few plaice to Fellness, and I dessay he'll bring back +some bread or some flour."</p> + +<p>"But I want some milk for the child; she can't eat bread and fish and +potatoes now she's ill. Couldn't you run up to the farm, Dick, and ask +Mrs. Hayes if she wants a bit o' fish, and I'll be thankful for a drop +o' milk for it."</p> + +<p>But Dick looked dubious. "I'd like to go," he said, "if it was only to +have a word with Harry Hayes, and ask him about his rabbits; but father +don't like the farm people now, and he said I was never to speak to +them. You know they've had a quarrel."</p> + +<p>"Well, what are we to do? They are our only neighbours, and they ain't a +bad sort either, Mrs. Hayes is a kind soul, who has children of her own, +and would let me have milk in a minute if she knew I wanted it for this +poor little mite," said Mrs. Coomber, in perplexity as to the best thing +to do.</p> + +<p>"I'll go, mother, if you can find any fish worth taking," at last said +Dick.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 36]</span> Mrs. Coomber went and turned over +what the boys had brought. The best had been picked out and sent to +Fellness, and what was left was not more than sufficient for themselves; +but she carefully looked out the largest she could find and washed it. +While she was doing this her husband came in.</p> + +<p>"It's a poor take to-day, mother," he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I wanted a bit extra, to get some milk for the child," said +Mrs. Coomber; "but I think I can manage with this," she said, still +busying herself with the fish, and not turning to look at her husband.</p> + +<p>"What are yer goin' to do wi' it?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"I want to send Dick up to the farm; Mrs. Hayes will give me some milk +for it, I know," replied his wife, trying to speak in a matter-of-fact +tone.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 37]</span></p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 38]</span></p> + +<div class="illustration"> +<a href="images/illp38.jpg"> +<img class="center" src="images/illp38-th.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></a> +<p class="caption">"'ME LIKES 'OU,' SHE SAID." [<i>See page</i> 40.</p> +</div> + +<p>"And you'd send Dick to that place when I said they shouldn't go near +the house," said her husband, angrily. "Take the fish and cook +it <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 39]</span>for supper. Not a bit o' my fish +shall they have."</p> + +<p>"But the milk. What am I to do for the milk for the child now she's +ill?"</p> + +<p>"What have yer done afore?" demanded her husband; and the poor woman was +obliged to confess that she had taken milk from the man as he went past +in his cart to the village each day since the child had been there. "She +couldn't do wi'out milk," protested Mrs. Coomber.</p> + +<p>"How do you know she couldn't?" said her husband. "What business have +you to spend money for milk—what business have you wi' money at all?" +he inquired, suspiciously; for he saw in this wastefulness a cause for +the recent strange scarcity of whisky; and he felt he had been deeply +wronged. His quarrel with Hayes had also been disregarded, and this made +him further angry with his wife, and he strictly charged her never to +have any more dealings with any of the farm people.</p> + +<p>"We can live very well without milk," he <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +40]</span>said. "I will feed the little 'un, and you'll see she can eat +fish and bread as well as the rest of us."</p> + +<p>It was useless for Mrs. Coomber to protest against this; she knew if her +husband made up his mind to do anything he would do it; but she almost +dreaded supper-time coming, for she could not tell how Tiny would like +the proposed change in her nurse and diet.</p> + +<p>But as it happened the little girl was very pleased to be lifted out of +bed and seated on Coomber's knee at the table.</p> + +<p>"Me likes 'ou," she said, patting his cheek with her little white hand; +and she ate the fish and bread as though she was quite used to such +food.</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp40.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 41]</span></p> + +<div id="III"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp41.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">TINY'S HOPE.</p> + +<p>The slant rays of the setting sun lay on the wide stretch of level sand +surrounding Bermuda Point, for the tide was out, and had left it smooth, +or slightly rippled as with tiny wavelets. Standing at the very edge of +the sands, with her eyes shaded, and her clothes blowing round her bare +legs, was a little fair-haired girl. She was slender and +delicate-looking still, in spite of the sun-browned arms and face. +Months had passed, but Tiny was still at the Point.</p> + +<p>She stood gazing seawards for some minutes, and then turned and walked +slowly across the rippled sand.</p> + +<p>"I can't see him, Dick," she said, in a disappointed tone.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 42]</span> "Oh, well, never mind," said the +boy, who sat scooping the loose sand up in a heap, beyond the reach of +the present ordinary tides.</p> + +<p>"Have you filled both the baskets?" asked the little girl, as she waded +through the loose dry sand to where the boy was sitting.</p> + +<p>"No, that I ain't," answered Dick, "mother said you could pick the +samphire to-day."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you said you'd help me," said the girl, walking steadily +across the sand to the salt-marsh beyond. Here the samphire grew in +abundance, and the little girl set to work to fill the two large baskets +that stood near.</p> + +<p>"You might come and help, Dick," she called, hardly repressing a sob as +she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Look here, I'll help if you'll just come and make some more of them +letters. You said you would, you know," added the boy, still piling up +the sand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dick, you know I can't; you know I've forgot a'most everything +since I've been <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 43]</span>here;" and this +time the little girl fairly burst into tears, and sat down beside the +half-filled baskets, and sobbed as though her heart would break.</p> + +<p>The boy's heart was touched at the sight of her distress, and he ran +across to comfort her.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, Tiny; I'll help yer, and then we'll try agin at the letters. +I know three—A B C: you'll soon find out about the others, and make 'em +in the sand for me."</p> + +<p>But Tiny shook her head. "I'd know 'em if I had a book," she said, +sadly; "ain't it a pity daddy ain't got one?"</p> + +<p>"What 'ud be the good of books to dad?" said Dick. "Harry Hayes has got +some, I know; but then he goes to school, and knows all about 'em. +There, let's forget we see him with that book yesterday, for it ain't no +good for us to think about it," concluded Dick; for he did not like to +see Tiny's tears, and the easiest way of banishing them was to forget +the original cause, he thought. But the +little <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 44]</span>girl was not of the same +opinion. She shook her head sadly as she said—</p> + +<p>"I've forgot a'most everything my mother told me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that you ain't," contradicted the boy, "You never forget to say +your prayers before you go to bed. I wonder you ain't forgot that; I +should, I know."</p> + +<p>"How could you, Dick, if you knew God was waiting to hear you?" said +Tiny, lifting her serious blue eyes to his face.</p> + +<p>"Then why ain't He waiting to hear me?" asked Dick.</p> + +<p>The question seemed to puzzle the little girl for a minute or two; but +at length she said—</p> + +<p>"He is, Dick, I think; I'm a'most sure He's waiting for yer to begin."</p> + +<p>"Then He's waited a good while," said Dick, bluntly; and he got up and +began to pull away at the samphire, by way of working off or digesting +the wonderful thought. After working away in silence for some minutes, +Dick said—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 45]</span>"D'ye think God cares for us down +here at Bermuda Point?"</p> + +<p>Tiny paused, with her hands full of samphire.</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't He?" she said. "I know He cares for me. He loves me," she +added, in a tone of triumph; "my mother told me so. She said He loved me +just as well as she did."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know whether He cares about me," said Dick. "D'ye think yer +could find out for us, Tiny? Yer see everybody likes you—mother, and +father, and Bob; and Harry Hayes showed you his book yesterday. You see +you're a gal, and I think you're pretty," added Dick, critically; "so it +'ud be a wonder if He didn't like you."</p> + +<p>"And why shouldn't He love you, Dick?" said Tiny.</p> + +<p>Dick looked down at the patched, ragged, nondescript garments that +served him as jacket and trousers, and then at his bare, sunburnt arms +and legs. "Well, I'm just Dick of the <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +46]</span>Point. I ain't a gal, and I ain't pretty." Nobody could +dispute the latter fact, which Dick himself seemed to consider +conclusive against any interest being taken in him, for he heaved a sigh +as he returned to his work of picking the samphire.</p> + +<p>The sigh was not lost on Tiny. "Look here, Dick," she said, "you ain't a +gal, and p'r'aps you ain't pretty, but I love you;" and she threw her +arms round his neck as he stooped over the basket. "I love yer, Dick, +and I'll find out all about it for yer. I'm a'most sure God loves yer +too."</p> + +<p>"Oh, He can't yet, yer know," said Dick, drawing his arms across his +eyes to conceal the tears that had suddenly come into them. "I don't +never say no prayers nor nothing. I ain't never heerd about Him, only +when dad swears, till you come and said your prayers to Him."</p> + +<p>"Still, He might, yer know," said Tiny; "but if you'll help, I'll find +out all about it."</p> + +<p>"What can yer do?" asked Dick.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 47]</span> "Well, I'll tell yer why I want +dad to come home soon to-night," said Tiny, resting her hands on the +basket, and looking anxiously across the sea. "Mother said he'd take the +samphire by boat to Fellness, and I thought perhaps he'd take me too."</p> + +<p>"Well, s'pose he did?" said Dick, who could see no connection between a +visit to the village and the attainment of the knowledge they both +desired.</p> + +<p>"Why, then I might get a book," said Tiny. "I'd go with dad to sell the +samphire; and then we'd see the shops; and if he had a good take, and we +got a lot of samphire, he'd have enough money to buy me a book, as well +as the bread and flour and tea."</p> + +<p>Dick burst into a loud laugh. "So this is your secret; this is what +you've been thinking of like a little goose all day."</p> + +<p>Tiny was half offended. "You needn't laugh," she said; "I shall do it, +Dick."</p> + +<p>"Will yer?" he said, in a teasing tone. "If there wasn't no whisky, and +there was <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 48]</span>bookshops at Fellness, you might. +Why, what do you think the village is like?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Like? Oh, I dunno! Everything comes from Fellness," added the little +girl, vaguely.</p> + +<p>To the dwellers at the Point, the little fishing-village was the centre +of the universe; and Tiny, with faint recollections of a large town, +with broad streets, and rows of shops all brilliantly lighted at night, +had formed magnificently vague notions of Fellness as being something +like this; and she had only got to go there, and it would be easy to +coax the old fisherman to buy her a book, as she coaxed him to build her +a castle in the sand, or take her on his knee and tell her tales of +ships that had been wrecked on the bar sands.</p> + +<p>"But do you know what Fellness is like?" persisted Dick. "There ain't no +shops at all—only one, where they sells flour, and bread, and 'bacca, +and tea, and sugar, and soap. They has meat there sometimes; +but <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 49]</span>I never sees no books, and I +don't believe they ever has 'em there," concluded the boy.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they keeps 'em in a box where you can't see 'em," suggested +Tiny, who was very unwilling to relinquish her hope.</p> + +<p>"Pigs might fly, and they will when they sells books at Fellness," +remarked Dick.</p> + +<p>"Where does Harry Hayes get his from?" suddenly asked the girl; and at +the same moment she espied a speck on the horizon, which she decided was +a fisherman's boat. "He's coming, Dick, dad's coming," she exclaimed. +"Make haste—make haste and fill up the baskets;" and she tore away at +the seaweed, piling it into the baskets as fast as her small hands would +permit. "Now we'll carry one down," she said, taking hold of the handle. +"Catch hold, Dick;" for she wanted to be at the edge of the sands by the +time the boat touched the shore.</p> + +<p>But Dick was in no such hurry to meet his father. "There's plenty of +time," he said, leisurely untying a knot in a piece of string.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 50]</span> "No there isn't, Dick; don't you +know I'm going to Fellness in the boat."</p> + +<p>"But you're afraid," said the boy; "ain't father tried to coax you lots +o' times to go out with him, and yer never would? You'll just get to the +edge, and when yer sees it rock a bit yer'll run away."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't, Dick, this time," said the little girl. But as she spoke a +shiver of fear and dread ran through her frame at the thought of the +swaying boat.</p> + +<p>Dick saw it, and laughed. "Didn't I tell yer you was afraid," he said, +in a mocking tone; "what's the good of going down there, when you're +frightened?"</p> + +<p>"But I want a book, Dick; I must learn to read, and find out what we +want to know. Oh, do make haste!" she added, as she saw the boat +approaching the shore.</p> + +<p>Dick was still laughing, but he helped her carry the basket, though he +teased her as they went along about being frightened. They got across +the sands with their samphire, <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 51]</span>just +as Coomber and Bob were springing ashore.</p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy, take me with yer to Fellness," called Tiny, shutting her +eyes as she spoke that she might not see the treacherous waves and the +swaying boat.</p> + +<p>"Halloo, halloo! What now, deary?" exclaimed Coomber. And it was +wonderful to see the change in his hard face as he lifted the little +girl in his arms and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"She says she'll go," said Dick, "but I don't believe she means it."</p> + +<p>"Yes I do. You'll take me, daddy, won't yer—'cos I've picked a lot of +samphire—all that, and another basketful up there? Go and fetch it, +Bob, and daddy can put it in the boat. And I'm going, too."</p> + +<p>"So you shall, deary, so you shall," said the old fisherman, in a +pleased tone, for he had often tried to coax her out with him on the +sea; but the memory of that awful night on the bar sands still clung to +her, and the sight of the boat, swayed about at the +mercy <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 52]</span>of the waves, filled her with +a nameless terror.</p> + +<p>"There won't be a storm, will there?" asked Tiny, with a shiver of fear, +as the fisherman carefully lifted her in and placed her beside the +basket of samphire.</p> + +<p>"My deary, if I thought the wind 'ud be even a bit fresh to-night, I +wouldn't take yer," said the fisherman, in an earnest tone.</p> + +<p>He had never been so tender with one of his own children—unless it was +to the little girl lying in the churchyard—as he was to this little +waif of the sea; and now, as he pushed off from the shore, he was +careful to keep the old boat as steady as possible, and sat watching her +little frightened face as he plied his oars. He kept as close to the +beach, too, as he well could, just skirting the sand-banks, so that she +should have the comfort of seeing the land all the way along.</p> + +<p>After a few minutes Tiny grew less frightened, and ventured to ask a +question about where they were going.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll take yer to see Dame Peters <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +53]</span>while Bob unloads the boat," said Coomber, nodding at her in +an approving manner.</p> + +<p>"And shall I see the shops?" asked Tiny; for she did not believe what +Dick had told her.</p> + +<p>"Shops, shops!" repeated the fisherman, resting on his oars for a minute +to stare at the little girl. "Well, there's a shop," he said, slowly; +"but I don't see what you can want there."</p> + +<p>"Do they sell books?" asked Tiny, eagerly.</p> + +<p>For answer the fisherman burst into a loud laugh. "What does a little +'un like you know about books?" he said. "But I know of something they +do sell, as 'll suit you a deal better; they sell sweets, and almond +rock, as well as 'bacca and bread, and you shall have some, my deary."</p> + +<p>The fisherman expected a joyous outburst in anticipation of these +unwonted dainties, but the little girl said slowly—</p> + +<p>"Don't they sell books, too, daddy? I'd rather have a book than almond +rock," she added.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 54]</span> "Why, what do you want with a +book, a little 'un like you?" said Coomber, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"We both wants it, Dick and me; we wants to find out whether God loves +boys as well as gals."</p> + +<p>The fisherman looked at her serious little face for a minute, and then +burst into a laugh again. "Well, you are a rum 'un as ever I came +across. Did you hear that, Bob?" he asked, appealing to his elder son, +who was steering. Bob turned his sulky face round.</p> + +<p>"What's she saying now?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"What was, it little 'un—whether God loved boys and gals, wasn't it?" +asked the fisherman, who was highly amused at the question.</p> + +<p>"He don't love none of us, I can tell her that," said Bob, sharply. "He +forgot us long ago, if ever He knowed anything about us."</p> + +<p>"There, what d'ye think o' that, little 'un?" said the fisherman, +pulling away at the oars.</p> + +<p>Tiny looked perplexed for a minute or two, but at length she said: "I +think God knows all about the Point, 'cos He loves me, and +He <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 55]</span>listens when I say my prayers. +But s'pose I tell him," she suddenly added, as though the thought had +just occurred to her; "I can ask Him to bless you and mammy, and Dick +and Bob. But I should like to get a book," she said, in conclusion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the sweets 'll do as well," said the fisherman, who saw little use +in books. He might have humoured Tiny in what he looked upon as a most +extraordinary whim, but he never remembered seeing such a thing as a +book in Fellness all the years he had known the place. People might have +books, some of them, at least, but they were not of much use to +fisher-folks, and he rather despised them.</p> + +<p>The sun had gone down before they landed; but the moon was rising; and +so, between daylight and moonlight, they would be able to get back +without any difficulty, when the fish and samphire were disposed of.</p> + +<p>"Now, Bob, get her unloaded, while I take the little 'un up to see Dame +Peters," said <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 56]</span>Coomber, as he lifted +Tiny out of the boat.</p> + +<p>She was looking round eagerly in search of the houses and shops, for in +spite of what she had been told, she could not divest herself of the +idea that Fellness was a grand, glorious place, where everything could +be bought if people only had fish and seaweed enough; and surely two big +baskets of samphire were sufficient to buy a book.</p> + +<p>But to her disappointment she saw only a few lounging fishermen and +children—like herself and Dick—instead of the crowds of people she had +expected; and as for shops—well, she could see a row of stone cottages +at a distance. There might be a dozen, perhaps, and a few sheds and +outbuildings, but the rest of the landscape was flat and unoccupied as +their own Point; and at the sight Tiny hid her face in the fisherman's +neck and burst into tears.</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp56.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 57]</span></p> + +<div id="IV"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp57.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">TINY'S TREASURE.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, if you can make her out, it's more than I can," said +Coomber, pausing in the doorway of Dame Peters' cottage, after he had +seated Tiny by the old woman's fire.</p> + +<p>"Oh, leave her here for half an hour; she'll be all right by the time +you come back; there's no 'counting for children, and she may feel +frightened a bit, for all she ain't cried till she got ashore."</p> + +<p>"It's just that that beats me," said the fisherman; "she's as lively as +you please in the boat, but as soon as she gets out, down she pops her +head, and begins to pipe her eye."</p> + +<p>"Well, there, you go and look after Perkins and the fish, and I'll see +to her," said Dame <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 58]</span>Peters, a little +impatiently; for she had some potatoes cooking for her husband's supper, +and she knew they needed attention. After looking to these, she turned +to Tiny, who had dried her tears by this time, and sat watching the old +woman. "D'ye like to see pictures, deary?" she asked; and at the same +time she opened the top drawer of an old-fashioned chest of drawers, and +brought out a print, which she laid on the table, and lifted Tiny, chair +and all, close up to look at it.</p> + +<p>Pictures were not to be seen in every cottage a few years ago, as they +may be now. The <i>Band of Hope Review</i> and <i>British Workman</i> +had not been heard of in Fellness at the time of which we write, and so +Dame Peters was very choice of her picture, although she knew nothing +about the reading at the back of it.</p> + +<p>Tiny brightened up wonderfully when her eyes fell upon this treasure; +but after looking at it for some minutes, while Dame Peters turned out +the potatoes, she ventured to lift it up and look at the other side, and +she exclaimed <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 59]</span>joyfully: "Oh, it's a +book! There's reading on it!"</p> + +<p>"What, what!" exclaimed the old woman, turning from the fireplace to see +what had happened. "What is it, child?"</p> + +<p>"See, see, there's reading—G O D! What does that spell?" asked Tiny, +looking up in the old woman's face, her finger still resting on the word +she had picked out.</p> + +<p>"Bless the child, how should I know? S'pose it is some sort of reading, +as you say; but I never learned a letter in my life."</p> + +<p>"And I've a'most forgot," said Tiny, sadly; and then her finger roved +over the printed page, and she found that she could remember most of the +letters now she saw them again; but how to put them together was the +difficulty. She had forgotten how to do this entirely. G O D spelt a +word familiar enough to her at one time, but which of all the words she +used now those letters were intended to signify, she could not remember. +Again and again her finger returned to the well-remembered +letters, <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 60]</span>but beyond this her memory +failed her; and she sat, with puckered brow and steadfast eyes, still +looking at the printed page instead of the picture, when Coomber came +back.</p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy, daddy, look here!" exclaimed Tiny; "here's a book with +reading!"</p> + +<p>"She's just sat and looked at them letters, as she calls 'em, ever since +you've been gone," said Dame Peters, in a half-offended tone; for her +picture was not valued as much as it ought to be, she thought.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's a rum 'un," said Coomber. "Well, now, are you ready, little +'un?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Tiny looked up wistfully in the old woman's face. "Couldn't I take this +home, and show it to Dick?" she asked, timidly, laying her hand on the +print.</p> + +<p>"Take my picture home!" exclaimed the old woman.</p> + +<p>Coomber turned the paper over, and looked at it contemptuously. "Peters +got this when he went to Grimsby, I s'pose?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he did."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 61]</span> "Well now, couldn't you let her +have it, and let Peters bring you another?" said the fisherman, who was +anxious that his darling should be gratified if possible.</p> + +<p>But the old woman was little more than a child herself over this +picture, and was unwilling to part with it at first. At last she agreed +to sell it to Tiny for a basket of samphire, for this seaweed made a +kind of pickle among the fisher-folk, and was of some marketable value, +too, for it did not grow everywhere along the coast, although round +Bermuda Point it flourished in great luxuriance.</p> + +<p>Tiny was only too glad to obtain such a treasure on such easy terms, +although she was paying about five times the value of it; and when it +had been folded up and carefully stowed away in Coomber's pocket, she +was quite ready to go to the boat, although Dame Peters pressed them to +stay and have some of the hot potatoes for supper.</p> + +<p>Tiny seemed brimful of joy that night; and when she was seated in the +boat, and they were <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 62]</span>rowing over the +placid water, she so far forgot her fears as to begin singing. Something +in the surroundings had recalled to her mind the time when she used to +sing nearly every night her mother's favourite hymn. It all came back to +her as freshly as though she had sung it only last week; and her sweet +young voice rang out bold and clear—</p> + +<pre class="poem"> + "Star of Peace to wanderers weary, + Bright the beams that smile on me; + Cheer the pilot's vision dreary, + Far, far at sea." +</pre> + +<p>She paused there, not feeling quite sure of the next verse; but +Coomber said quickly—</p> + +<p>"Go on, deary, go on; don't you know the next bit?"</p> + +<p>"I'll try," said Tiny; and again the voice rang out in its childish +treble—</p> + +<pre class="poem"> + "Star of Hope, gleam on the billow, + Bless the soul that sighs for Thee; + Bless the sailor's lonely pillow, + Far, far at sea." +</pre> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 63]</span>"Who told you that, deary?" +asked the fisherman, eagerly, when she paused again.</p> + +<p>"My mother used to sing it every night. She used to say it was meant for +daddy. And she told me I must always sing it, too, only somehow I've +forgot everything since I came here."</p> + +<p>"Never mind the rest, deary; try and think about that. It's just the +song for a sailor and a sailor's lass."</p> + +<p>"That's just what my mother used to say—that I was a sailor's lass!" +exclaimed Tiny.</p> + +<p>"And she taught you just the right kind of a song. Now try a bit more, +deary," he added, coaxingly.</p> + +<pre class="poem"> + "Star of Faith, when winds are mocking + All his toil, he flies to Thee; + Save him, on the billows rocking, + Far, far at sea." +</pre> + +<p>"I don't think I know any more," said the child, as she finished this +verse.</p> + +<p>"Well, you've done first-rate, deary; and <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +64]</span>mind, you must sing that song to me every night," he added.</p> + +<p>For a little while they went on in silence, and nothing could be heard +but the gentle lap, lap of the waves at the side of the boat, until +Coomber said: "Come, sing to us again about that sailor's star. Bob, you +try and pick it up as she sings," he added.</p> + +<p>So the verses were sung through again, and without a break this time; +and Tiny was able to recall the last verse, too, and sang—</p> + +<pre class="poem"> + "Star Divine, oh! safely guide him, + Bring the wanderer back to Thee; + Sore temptations long have tried him, + Far, far at sea." +</pre> + +<p>"Bravo, little 'un," exclaimed Bob, who was completely charmed out of +his sulky mood by the singing.</p> + +<p>"I say, Bob," suddenly exclaimed Coomber, "is the bottle up there?"</p> + +<p>"I ain't seen the bottle," sulkily responded the lad, his ill-humour +returning at once.</p> + +<p>"I—I took it up, and told 'em to fill it," <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +65]</span>exclaimed Coomber; and as he spoke he drew in his oars, and +felt under the seat, and all round the boat. "I must ha' forgot it, +thinking about the little 'un and her picture," he said, after searching +round the boat in vain.</p> + +<p>"It's too late to go back," said Bob; "it'll be dark soon."</p> + +<p>"Ye-es, it's too late to go back with the child," said Coomber, slowly +and regretfully; though what he should do without his nightly dose of +whisky he did not know.</p> + +<p>"Sing again," whispered Bob to Tiny; and the next minute the little +voice rang out once more its "Star of Peace."</p> + +<p>It brought peace to the angry fisherman—the more angry, perhaps, +because he had nobody but himself to blame that the bottle had been left +behind. Before they landed the singing had worked its mysterious charm, +and the fisherman had almost forgotten his anger, and his bottle, too.</p> + +<p>"You tie up the boat, and make haste in, Bob," he said, as he took the +little girl in his <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 66]</span>arms, and +stepped out upon the shore. A light was shining in the window of the old +boat-house, and Tiny was all impatience to get home and show her +treasure to Dick.</p> + +<p>"Take it out of your pocket, daddy, and give it to me," she said, as +they were crossing the sands; and the moment the door was opened she ran +in, exclaiming, "I've got it! I've got it, Dick!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, deary; Dick and Tom have gone to bed, and both are fast +asleep. Come in and get your supper; it's been waiting ever so long for +you." As she spoke, the poor woman cast several furtive glances at her +husband, fearing that he was more than usually morose, as he had not +spoken; but, to her surprise, he said, in a merry tone:</p> + +<p>"Bless you, mother, the little 'un has got something better than supper. +Dame Peters wanted her to stay and have some hot potatoes; but she was +in such a hurry to be off with her prize that she wouldn't look at the +potatoes."</p> + +<p>"I've got some reading," said Tiny, in a <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +67]</span>delighted whisper, holding up her sheet of paper.</p> + +<p>"Why, what's the good of that?" exclaimed Mrs. Coomber, in a +disappointed tone. "Nobody at the Point can read, unless it's the Hayes' +at the farm."</p> + +<p>"And she'd better not let me catch her with any of them," put in +Coomber, sharply.</p> + +<p>"Dick and me are going to learn to read by ourselves," announced Tiny, +spreading out her picture on the table. This would enhance its value to +everybody, she thought, since Dame Peters set such store by it solely +because of the picture. And so she did not venture to turn it over to +con the letters on the other side until after Bob had come in, and they +had all looked at it.</p> + +<p>"What's it all about?" asked Bob, turning to the smoking plate of fish +which his mother had just placed on the table.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see it's a kind man putting his hand on the boys' heads?" +said Tiny, rather scornfully.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 68]</span>"Oh, anybody can see that," +said Bob. "But what does it mean? That's what I want to know."</p> + +<p>But Tiny could only shake her head as she gazed earnestly at the print. +"I dunno what it is," she said, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, you must put that away for to-night," said Mrs. Coomber; +"you ought to have been in bed an hour ago;" and she would have taken +the picture away, but Tiny hastily snatched it up, and, carefully +folding it, wrapped it in another piece of paper, and then begged that +it might be put away in a drawer for fear it should be lost before the +morning.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber smiled as she took it from her hand. "I'll take care of +it," she said, "and you go and get your supper."</p> + +<p>It was not often that the fisherman's family were up so late as this, +but no one seemed in a hurry to go to bed. Coomber himself was so +good-tempered that his wife and Bob forgot their habitual fear of him in +listening to his account of how brave Tiny had been, and +how <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 69]</span>Dame Peters thought she was +growing very fast. Then Tiny had to sing one verse of "Star of Peace," +after she had finished her supper—Mrs. Coomber would not let her sing +more than that, for she was looking very sleepy and tired—and then they +all went to bed, with a strange, new feeling of peace and content, Mrs. +Coomber vaguely wondering what had become of the whisky bottle, and +wishing every night could be like this.</p> + +<p>As soon as her eyes were open the next morning Tiny thought of her +treasure, and crept into the boys' room to tell Dick the wonderful news. +But to her surprise she found the bed was empty; and, peeping into the +kitchen, saw Mrs. Coomber washing up the breakfast things.</p> + +<p>"Oh, mammy, what is the time?" she exclaimed, but yawning as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're awake at last. Make haste and put your clothes on, and come +and have your breakfast," said Mrs. Coomber.</p> + +<p>"Where's Dick?" asked Tiny.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 70]</span> "He's helping daddy and Bob with +the net; and you can go, too, when you've had your breakfast. Daddy +wouldn't let the boys come and wake you 'cos you was so tired last +night."</p> + +<p>"What are they doing to the net?" asked Tiny, as she came to the table.</p> + +<p>"Mending it, of course. Daddy's going shrimping to-day."</p> + +<p>"What a bother that net is," said Tiny. "Daddy's always mending it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, so he is, deary. It's old, you see, and we can't afford to get a +new one."</p> + +<p>"I've got to get a lot of samphire to-day, and I promised Dick I'd make +some more letters for him in the sand," said Tiny, meditatively.</p> + +<p>"But daddy wants you to help him with the net," suggested Mrs. Coomber. +The little girl had always been so pliant, so amenable to control, that +Mrs. Coomber was surprised to hear her say passionately—</p> + +<p>"I won't do that nasty net. I must pick the <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +71]</span>samphire for Dame Peters, and show Dick my picture, first;" +and then she snatched up a basket, and ran out, not to the sands, where +the fisherman and his boys sat mending the torn net, but away to the +salt-marsh, where the seaweed grew thickest, and she could fill her +basket most quickly. In an hour or two she came home, looking tired and +cross.</p> + +<p>"Ain't Dick come home yet?" she asked, throwing herself on the floor.</p> + +<p>"They ain't done the net yet. Tom came to fetch you a little while ago."</p> + +<p>"I don't want Tom, I want Dick. We're going to make some letters, and +learn to read," said Tiny.</p> + +<p>"You'd better leave the reading alone, if it makes you so cross," said +Mrs. Coomber.</p> + +<p>"No, it don't make me cross; it's that nasty net."</p> + +<p>"But you always liked to help daddy wind the string and mend the net +before. Why don't you go to them now?"</p> + +<p>But Tiny would not move. She lay on the <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +72]</span>floor, kicking and grumbling, because Dick could not leave the +net and come and see her picture.</p> + +<p>"You're a very naughty girl, Tiny," said Mrs. Coomber at last; "and I +don't see how you can think God will love you if you don't try to be +good."</p> + +<p>The little girl sat up instantly, and looked earnestly into her face. +"My other mammy used to say something like that," she said, slowly. And +then she burst into tears, and ran and shut herself in the boys' +bedroom.</p> + +<p>What passed there, Mrs. Coomber did not know; but, half an hour +afterwards, as she glanced out of the little kitchen window, she saw her +running across the sands to where the group of boys sat mending the old +net; and she smiled as she thought of what her words had done. She did +not know what a hard fight Tiny had had with herself before she could +make up her mind to give up her own way; she only thought how pleased +her husband would be when he saw the child +come <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 73]</span>running towards him, and that +a fit of ill-humour, from which they would probably all have suffered, +had been warded off by the little girl's conquest of herself.</p> + +<p>But neither Tiny nor Mrs. Coomber ever forgot that day. A new element +was introduced into the lives of the fisherman's family. The little girl +learned her first lesson in self-control, and Dick and Tom began to +master the difficulties of the alphabet; for, when the net was finished, +and Bob and his father waded out into the sea on their shrimping +expedition, Tiny ran and fetched her pretty picture to show the boys, +and then they all set to work with bits of stick to make the letters in +the sand.</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp73.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 74]</span></p> + +<div id="V"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp57.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">ON THE SANDS.</p> + +<p>Tiny was somewhat disappointed as the days went on to find that her +pupils, Tom and Dick, took less and less interest in learning the +letters she marked in the sand, or pointed out on the paper. They teased +her to know how to put the letters together and make them into words +which they could understand. But, alas! labour as she would, Tiny could +not get over this difficulty even for herself. She had a dim idea that G +O D spelt God, but she could not be quite sure—not sure enough to tell +Dick that it was so. It was enough, however, to quicken her own interest +in what the lines of letters might be able to tell her if only she could +solve the mystery of putting them into words, for doubtless +they <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 75]</span>would clear up her anxiety as +to whether God loved boys as well as girls.</p> + +<p>She did not spend her whole time poring over her picture. She gathered +samphire, helped to sort the fish when it was brought in, or mend the +much-despised net; but every day she spent some time diligently tracing +out the letters she knew and spelling over G O D.</p> + +<p>She might have mastered the difficulty with very little trouble if the +fisherman had been less obstinate in his quarrel with the farm people, +for Harry Hayes and his sisters were often down on the sands, sometimes +bringing their books with them, and Dick, who longed to join them in +their play, tried to persuade Tiny to go and ask them to help her with +the reading difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Dad won't say anything to you, even if he should see you talking; but +he won't see, and I won't tell," urged Dick, one day, when the children +from the farm were at play among the sandhills, and occasionally casting +sidelong glances towards Dick and Tiny.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 76]</span> But the little girl only shook her +head. "I can't, Dick," she said; "God wouldn't like it; mother told me +that long ago."</p> + +<p>"But how is He to know if you don't tell Him?" said the boy, in an +impatient tone.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know that God can see us all the time; that He's taking care +of us always?" said Tiny, slowly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come! what'll you tell us next?" said Dick, looking over his +shoulder with a gesture of fear. "He ain't here now, you know," he +added.</p> + +<p>"Yes he is," said the little girl, confidently; "mother said God was a +Spirit. I dunno what that is, but it's just as real as the wind. We +can't see that you know, but it's real; and we can't see God, but He's +close to us all the time."</p> + +<p>The boy crept closer to her while she was speaking. "What makes you talk +like that?" he said, in a half-frightened tone.</p> + +<p>"What's a matter, Dick?" she asked, not understanding his fear. "Don't +you like to <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 77]</span>think God is close to +you, and all round you," she suddenly added, in surprise.</p> + +<p>Dick shook his head. "Nobody never thinks about God at Bermuda Point, so +p'r'aps He don't come here," he said, at last, in a tone of relief. "Oh, +I say, Tiny, look! Harry Hayes has got a book! Let's go and see what +it's about!"</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll ask dad when he come home to-night, and p'r'aps he'll let +us," said the little girl, turning resolutely to her own paper again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then, it's dad you're afraid of, and not God?" said Dick.</p> + +<p>"Afraid! What do you mean?" asked Tiny. "God loves me, and takes care of +me, and so does daddy; and if I was to talk to Harry Hayes, it would +make him cross, and God doesn't like us to make people cross; and little +gals has to do as they are told, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes; I know all about that," said Dick; "but what do you suppose God +thinks <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 78]</span>of dad when he makes himself +cross with the whisky?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! He's dreadfully sorry, Dick, I know He is, for He makes me afraid +of him sometimes, when he's had a big lot; and he's just the dearest +daddy when he forgets to bring the bottle home from Fellness."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but that ain't often," grunted Dick; "and if God wouldn't like you +to talk to Harry Hayes, 'cos dad says you musn't, I'd like to know what +He thinks of dad sometimes, that's all." And then Dick ran away, for if +he could not speak to the farm children, he liked to be near them when +they came to play on the sands.</p> + +<p>A minute or two after Dick had left her, Tiny was startled by a sound +close at hand, and, looking round, she saw Coomber coming from the other +side of the sandhill.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dad, I thought you was out in the boat," she said.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 79]</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 80]</span></p> + +<div class="illustration"> +<a href="images/illp80.jpg"> +<img class="center" src="images/illp80-th.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></a> +<p class="caption">"'I WANT YOU TO SING A BIT, WHILE I RUB AWAY AT THIS OLD GUN.'" +[<i>See page 81.</i></p> +</div> + +<p>"Bob and Tom have gone by themselves to-day, for I wanted to clean the +gun ready for <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 81]</span> winter," said the +fisherman, still rubbing at the lock with a piece of oiled rag.</p> + +<p>Tiny looked up at him half shyly, half curiously, for if he had only +been on the other side of the sand-ridge, he must have heard all she and +Dick had been talking about.</p> + +<p>But if he had heard the fisherman took no notice of what had passed.</p> + +<p>"Come, I want you to sing a bit, while I rub away at this old gun," he +said. "Sing 'Star of Peace'; it'll sound first-rate out here;" as though +he had never heard it out there before, when, as a matter of fact, +scarcely a day passed but she sang it to please him.</p> + +<p>When she had finished, he said, quickly: "What do you think about that +'Star of Peace' deary? It's the sailor's star, you know, so I've got a +sort of share in it like."</p> + +<p>"I think it means God. I'm a'most sure mother said it meant God," added +the little girl.</p> + +<p>"Ah, then, I don't think there's much share of it for me," said Coomber, +somewhat sadly; <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 82]</span>and he turned to +rubbing his gun again, and began talking about it—how rusty he had +found it, and how he would have to use it more than ever when winter +came, for the boat was growing old, and would not stand much more +knocking about by the rough wintry sea; so he and Bob must shoot more +wild birds, and only go out in calm weather when winter came. Then half +shyly, and with apparent effort, he brought the conversation round so as +to include Farmer Hayes.</p> + +<p>"He ain't a bad sort, you know, Tiny, if he could just remember that a +fisherman is a bit proud and independent, though he may be poor; and if +you could do one of them young 'uns a good turn any time, why, you're a +sailor's lass, yer know, and a sailor is always ready to do a good turn +to anybody."</p> + +<p>"Yes, daddy," said Tiny, slowly and thoughtfully; and then, after a +minute's pause, she said: "Daddy, I think Harry or Polly would just like +to help me a bit with this reading."</p> + +<p>For answer the fisherman burst into a loud <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +83]</span>laugh. "That's what you'd like, I s'pose?" he said, as he +looked at her.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I want to find out about this picture, and these letters tell all +about it, I know—if I only could find out what they mean," said Tiny, +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, when I'm gone indoors you can go and ask 'em if they'd like +to help you," he said, with another short laugh. "Maybe you'll be able +to tell us all about it when winter comes, and it'll soon be here now," +added the fisherman, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>Never before had Coomber looked forward with such dread to the winter. +Until lately he had always thought the fishing-boat would "last his +time," as he used to say; but he had patched and repaired it so often +lately, until at last the conviction had been forced upon him that it +was worn out; and to be caught in a sudden squall on the open sea, would +inevitably break her up, and all who were in her would meet with a +watery grave. He was as brave as a lion; but to know that his boat +was <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 84]</span>gradually going to pieces, and +that its timbers might part company at almost any moment, made even his +courage quail; especially when he thought of his wife, and the boys, and +this little helpless girl. Some hard things had been said at Fellness +about his folly in taking her upon his hands when she could without +difficulty have been sent to the poorhouse. A girl was such a useless +burden, never likely to be helpful in managing a boat, as a boy might +be; and it was clear that no reward would ever be obtained from her +friends, even if they were found, for her clothing made it evident that +she was only the child of poor parents.</p> + +<p>This had been the reasoning among the Fellness busybodies ever since +Coomber had announced his intention of taking the little girl home; but +he was as obstinate in this as in most other things. He had followed his +own will, or rather the God-like compassion of his own heart, in spite +of the poverty that surrounded him, and the hard struggle he often had +to get bread enough for his own children.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 85]</span>"I'll just have to stay out a bit +longer, or go out in the boat a bit oftener," he said, with a light +laugh, when they attempted to reason him out of his project. He did not +know then that the days of his boat were numbered; but he knew it +now—knew that starvation stared them in the face, and at no distant +date either. He could never hope to buy a new boat. It would cost over +twenty pounds, and he seldom owned twenty pence over the day's stock of +bread and other household necessaries. Among these he counted his +whisky; for that a fisherman could do his work without a daily supply of +ardent spirits never entered his head. Blue ribbon armies and temperance +crusades had never been heard of, and it was a fixed belief among the +fisher folk that a man could not work without drinking as well as +eating, and drinking deeply, too.</p> + +<p>So Coomber never thought of curtailing his daily allowance of grog to +meet the additional expense of his household: he rather increased the +allowance, that he might be able to work <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +86]</span>the boat better, as he fancied, and so catch more fish. When +he forgot his bottle and left it at Fellness, it struck him as something +all but marvellous that he should be able to work the next day without +his usual drams, but it had not convinced him that he could do without +it all together. Of its effect upon himself, in making him sullen, +morose, and disagreeable, he was in absolute ignorance, and so the +children's talk about it came upon him as a revelation. He knew that +Tiny sometimes shrank from and avoided him; but he had considered it a +mere childish whim, not to be accounted for by anything in himself; and +so to hear that she was absolutely afraid of him sometimes was something +to make him think more deeply than he had ever done in his life before.</p> + +<p>But he did not say a word to Tiny about this. When he had done rubbing +his gun he carried it home, and Tiny was left free to make acquaintance +with the farm children.</p> + +<p>She walked shyly up to where they were <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +87]</span>sitting—Polly reading, and Harry throwing sand at Dick, who +had seated himself at a short distance, and was returning the salute.</p> + +<p>"Would—wouldn't you like to tell me about these letters, please?" said +Tiny, holding out her paper to Polly.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's a rum way of asking," said Harry, with a laugh. "Suppose +she wouldn't now, little 'un," he added.</p> + +<p>"Then she mustn't," said Tiny, stoutly; though the tears welled up to +her eyes at the thought of all her hopes being overthrown just when they +seemed about to be realised.</p> + +<p>"Don't, Harry; what a tease you are!" said his sister. "I should like to +tell you, dear," she added, in a patronising tone. "Come and sit down +here, and tell me what you want."</p> + +<p>"It's what you want; don't forget that, Polly, else she'll get her back +up, and go off again," laughed her brother; but he was not sorry the +embargo had been taken off their intercourse with the fisherman's +family; for although he had had surreptitious dealings +with <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 88]</span>boys sometimes, they had to be +so watchful lest they should be discovered that the play was +considerably hindered. Now he understood that this advance on Tiny's +part was a direct concession from Coomber himself, for he and the boys +had long ago agreed to try and draw the little girl into some intimacy +as the only way of breaking down the restrictions laid upon them. But +Tiny had proved obstinate. She had been asked again and again, but she +had always returned the same answer: "Daddy would let her some day, and +then she would play with them." So Harry Hayes was perfectly aware that +she had won the fisherman's consent at last, although no word had been +said about it.</p> + +<p>When the girls were left to themselves, Polly took up the picture and +looked at it, then turned it over and read, "God is good to all: He +loves both boys and girls." At this point Tiny interrupted her by laying +her hand on her arm, and saying eagerly: "Are you quite sure that is +what it says?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 89]</span> "Why, don't you think I can read?" +said Polly, in a half-offended tone. But the subject was new to her, and +so she was anxious to read further, and turned to the page again and +read on. At the bottom was a line or two in smaller print, and Polly +read these longer words with a touch of pride: "Jesus said, Suffer the +little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the +kingdom of God."</p> + +<p>"Then this must be Jesus, and these are the little children," concluded +Polly, as she turned over the paper to look at the picture again.</p> + +<p>The two girls sat and looked at it and talked about it for a few +minutes, and then Tiny said wistfully: "Will you show me now how you +make up them nice words?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's easy enough if you know the letters; but you must learn the +letters first," said Polly; and she proceeded to tell Tiny the name of +each; and the little girl had the satisfaction of knowing now that she +had remembered them quite correctly, and that G O D did spell God, as +she had surmised.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 90]</span>She was not long now in putting +other words together; and before she went home she was able to spell out +the first two lines of the printed page, for they were all easy words, +and intended for beginners.</p> + +<p>What a triumph it was to Tiny to be able to read out to the fisherman's +family what she had learned on the sands that day. She was allowed to +have the candle all to herself after supper, and they sat round the +table looking at each other in wondering amazement as her little finger +travelled along the page, and she spelt out the wonderful news, "'God is +good to all: He loves both boys and girls.' It's true, Dick, what I told +you, ain't it?" she said, in a tone of delighted satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Dick scratched his head, and looked round at his father, wondering what +he would think or say. For a minute or two the fisherman smoked his pipe +in silence. At length, taking it from his mouth, he said, in a slow, +meditative fashion: "Well, little 'un, I s'pose if it's printed that way +it's true; and if it is, why I <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +91]</span>s'pose we've all got a share in that 'Star of Peace' we was +talking about to-day."</p> + +<p>Tiny did not quite follow his train of thought; but she nodded her head, +and then proceeded to tell them what she had heard about the picture, +and the conclusion she and Polly had arrived at upon the subject—that +Jesus, the kind, loving man of the picture, had come to show them how +kind God was to them.</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp91.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<p> <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 92]</span></p> + +<div id="VI"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp92.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BAD TIMES.</p> + +<p>Winter around Bermuda Point was at all times a dreary season, and the +only thing its few inhabitants could hope for was that its reign might +be as short as possible. A fine, calm autumn was hailed as a special +boon from heaven by the fisher-folk all round the coast, and more +especially by the lonely dwellers at the Point.</p> + +<p>A fine autumn enabled Coomber to go out in his boat until the time for +shooting wild fowl began, and the children could play on the sands, or +gather samphire, instead of being penned up in the house half the time. +But when the weather was wild and wet, and the salt marshes lay under +water, that meant little <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 93]</span>food and +much discomfort, frequent quarrels, and much bitterness to the +fisherman's family.</p> + +<p>This autumn the weather was more than usually boisterous; and long +before the usual time the old boat had to be drawn up on to the bank, +for fear the waves should dash it to pieces. The fisherman sometimes +went to Fellness, on the chance of picking up a stray job, for it was +only the state of his boat, and his anxiety to keep it together as long +as possible, that prevented him braving the perils of the sea; and so he +sometimes got the loan of another boat, or helped another fisherman with +his; and then, rough though they might be, these fisher-folk were kind +and helpful to each other, and if they could not afford to pay money for +a job, they could pay for it in bread or flour, or potatoes, perhaps, +and so they would generally find Coomber something to do, that they +might help him, without hurting him.</p> + +<p>But there was little work that could be done +in <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 94]</span>such bad weather as this, and he +knew it, and his proud, independent spirit could not brook to accept +even a mouthful of bread that he had not earned; and so there were many +weary days spent at home, or sauntering round the coast with his gun, on +the look-out for a stray wild fowl. Tiny often went to bed hungry, and +woke up feeling faint and sick; and although she never forgot to say her +prayers, she could not help thinking sometimes that God must have +forgotten her. She read her paper to Dick, and he and Tom had both +learned to spell out some of the words, and she read to herself again +and again the Divine assurance, "God is good to all: He loves both boys +and girls;" but then, as Dick said sometimes, Bermuda Point was such a +long way from anywhere, and He might forget there were any boys and +girls living there.</p> + +<p>When she was very hungry, and more than usually depressed, Tiny thought +Dick must be right, but even then she would not admit such a thought to +others. When she saw Mrs. <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 95]</span>Coomber +in tears, because she had no food to prepare for her hungry children, +she would steal up to her, pass her little arm round the poor woman's +neck, and whisper, "God is good; He'll take care of us, mammy; He'll +send us some supper, if He can't send us any dinner;" and the child's +hopeful words often proved a true prophecy, for sometimes when Coomber +had been out all day without finding anything that could be called food, +he would, when returning, manage to secure a wild duck, perhaps, or a +couple of sea magpies, or a few young gulls. Nothing came amiss to the +young Coombers at any time, and just now a tough stringy gull was a +dainty morsel.</p> + +<p>It threatened to be an unusually hard and long winter, and at last Mrs. +Coomber ventured to suggest that Tiny should be taken to the poorhouse, +at least until the spring, when she could come back again.</p> + +<p>"Look at her poor little white face," said the woman, with her apron to +her eyes; "I'm <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 96]</span>afraid she'll be ill +soon, and then what can we do?"</p> + +<p>"Time enough to talk about that when she is ill," said Coomber, gruffly, +as he took up his gun and went out. They were generally able to keep a +good fire of the drift-wood and wreckage that was washed ashore, for +unfortunately there was scarcely a week passed but some noble vessel +came to grief on the perilous bar sands during the more boisterous +weather. Once, when they were at their wits' end for food, and Bob had +begged his mother to boil some samphire for supper, Tiny was fortunate +enough to discover an unopened cask which the sea had cast up the night +before, and left high and dry behind the ridge of sandhills. She was not +long fetching Bob and the boys to see her treasure trove; all sorts of +wild speculations passing through her mind as to what it could contain +as she ran shouting—</p> + +<p>"Bob! Bob! Dick! Dick! Come and see what I've found."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 97]</span></p> + +<div class="illustration"> + +<a href="images/illp97.jpg"> + +<img class="center" src="images/illp97-th.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></a> + +<p class="caption">"'DICK, DICK, COME AND SEE WHAT I'VE FOUND.'" [<i>See page +96.</i></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 98]</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 99]</span></p> + +<p>The boys were not long in making their appearance, and Bob fetched a +hatchet, and soon broke open the cask; and oh! what joy for the starving +children—it was full of ship biscuits!</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dick, didn't I tell you this morning God hadn't forgotten us?" said +Tiny, in a quavering voice, when Bob announced what the cask contained.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Dick, "so you did;" but he was too hungry to think of +anything but the biscuits now—too hungry even to shout his joy, as he +would have done at another time. As soon as they could be got at, he +handed one to Tiny, and then Tom and Dick helped themselves, filling +their pockets and munching them at the same time; but Tiny, though she +nibbled her biscuit as she went, ran at once to tell Mrs. Coomber of her +wonderful discovery; and she, scarcely daring to believe that such good +news could be true, ran out at once to see for herself, and met the +boys, who confirmed Tiny's tale. But she must see the cask +for <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 100]</span>herself, and then she ate and +filled her apron, and shed tears, and thanked God for this wonderful +gift all at the same time. Then she told the boys to come and fetch some +baskets at once, to carry them home in, and she would sort them over, +for some were soaked with sea-water, but others near the middle were +quite dry. Bob took a bagful and went in search of his father along the +coast, and everybody was busy carrying or sorting or drying the +biscuits, for they had to be secured before the next tide came in, or +they might be washed away again.</p> + +<p>When Coomber came home, bringing a couple of sea-gulls he had shot, he +was fairly overcome at the sight of the biscuits.</p> + +<p>"Daddy, it was God that sent 'em," said Tiny, in an earnest, joyful +whisper.</p> + +<p>The fisherman drew his sleeve across his eyes. "Seems as though it must +ha' been, deary," he said; "for how that cask ever came ashore without +being broken up well-nigh beats me."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 101]</span> "God didn't let it break, 'cos we +wanted the biscuits," said Tiny confidently; "yer see, daddy, He ain't +forgot us, though Bermuda Point is a long way from anywhere."</p> + +<p>The biscuits lasted them for some time, for as the season advanced +Coomber was able to sell some of the wild ducks he shot, and so +potatoes, and flour, and bread could be brought at Fellness again. If +the fisherman could only have believed that whisky was not as necessary +as bread, they might have suffered less privation; but every time he got +a little money for his wild fowl, the bottle had to be replenished, even +though he took home but half the quantity of bread that was needed; and +so Tiny sometimes was heard to wish that God would always send them +biscuits in a tub, and then daddy couldn't drink the stuff that made him +so cross.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber smiled and sighed as she heard Tiny whisper this to Dick. +She, too, had often wished something similar—or, at least, that her +husband could do without <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 102]</span>whisky. +Now, as the supply of wild fowl steadily increased, he came home more +sullen than ever. His return from Fellness grew to be a dread even to +Tiny at last; and she and Dick used to creep off to bed just before the +time he was expected to return, leaving Bob and Tom to bear the brunt of +whatever storm might follow.</p> + +<p>He seldom noticed their absence, until one night, when, having drunk +rather more than usual, he was very cross on coming in, and evidently on +the look-out for something to make a quarrel over.</p> + +<p>"Where's Dick and the gal?" he said, as he looked round the little +kitchen, after flinging himself into a chair.</p> + +<p>"They're gone to bed," said his wife, timidly, not venturing to look up +from her work.</p> + +<p>"Then tell 'em to get up."</p> + +<p>"I—I dunno whether it 'ud be good for Tiny," faltered the poor woman; +"she's got a cold now, and—and——"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 103]</span>"Are you going to call 'em up, or +shall I go and lug 'em out of bed?" demanded the angry, tipsy man.</p> + +<p>"But, Coomber," began his wife.</p> + +<p>"There, don't stand staring like that, but do as I tell you," +interrupted the fisherman; "I won't have 'em go sneaking off to bed just +as I come home. I heard that little 'un say one day she was afraid of me +sometimes. Afraid, indeed; I'll teach her to be afraid," he repeated, +working himself into a passion over some maudlin recollection of the +children's talk in the summer-time.</p> + +<p>His wife saw it would be of no use reasoning with him in his present +mood, and so went to rouse the children without further parley. They +were not asleep, and so were prepared for the summons, as they had +overheard what had been said.</p> + +<p>"Oh mammy, must I come?" said Tiny, her teeth chattering with fear, as +she slipped out of bed.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid, deary—don't let him see <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +104]</span>you're frightened," whispered Mrs. Coomber; "slip your +clothes on as quick as you can, and come and sing 'Star of Peace' to +him; then he'll drop off to sleep, and you can come to bed again."</p> + +<p>"I will—I will try," said the child, trying to force back her tears and +speak bravely. But in spite of all her efforts to be brave, and not look +as though she was frightened, she crept into the kitchen looking cowed +and half-bewildered with terror, and before she could utter a word of +her song, Coomber pounced upon her.</p> + +<p>"What do yer look like that for?" he demanded; "what business have you +to be frightened of me?"</p> + +<p>Tiny turned her white face towards him, and ventured to look up. +"I—I——"</p> + +<p>"She's going to sing 'Star of Peace,'" interposed Mrs. Coomber; "let her +come and sit over here by the fire."</p> + +<p>"You let her alone," roared her husband; "she's a-going to do what I +tell her. Come <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 105]</span>here," he called, +in a still louder tone. Tiny ventured a step nearer, but did not go +close to him.</p> + +<p>"Are you coming?" he roared again; then, stretching out his hand, he +seized her by the arm, and dragged her towards him, giving her a violent +shake as he did so. "There—now sing!" he commanded, placing her against +his knee.</p> + +<p>The child stared at him with a blank, fascinated gaze. Once he saw her +lips move, but no sound came from them; and after waiting a minute he +dashed her from him with all the strength of his mad fury.</p> + +<p>There was a shriek from Mrs. Coomber, and screams from the boys, but +poor little Tiny uttered no sound. They picked her up from where she had +fallen, or rather had been thrown, and her face was covered with blood; +but she uttered no groan—gave no sign of life.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's dead! she's dead!" wailed Dick, bending over her as she lay +in his mother's arms.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 106]</span> The terrible sight had completely +sobered Coomber. "Did I do it? Did I do that?" he asked, in a changed +voice.</p> + +<p>"Why, yer know yer did," growled Bob; "or leastways the whisky in yer +did it. I've often thought you'd do for mother, or one of us; but I +never thought yer'd lift yer hand agin a poor little 'un like that."</p> + +<p>Coomber groaned, but made no reply. "Hold your tongue, Bob," commanded +his mother; for she could see that her husband was sorry enough now for +what he had done.</p> + +<p>"What's to be done, mother?" he asked, in a subdued voice; "surely, +surely I haven't killed the child!"</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Coomber feared that he had, and it was this that paralysed all +her faculties. "I don't know what to do," she said, helplessly, wiping +away the blood that kept flowing from a deep gash on Tiny's forehead.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you give her some water?" said Dick, who did not know what +else to suggest. Coomber meekly fetched a cupful from +the <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 107]</span>pan outside, and Mrs. Coomber +dipped her apron in it, and bathed Tiny's face; and in a minute or two +Dick saw, to his great delight, that she drew a faint, fluttering +breath. Coomber saw it too, and the relief was so great that he could +not keep back his tears. "Please God He'll spare us His little 'un, I'll +never touch another drop of whisky," he sobbed, as he leaned over his +wife's chair, and watched her bathe the still pallid face.</p> + +<p>"Open the door, Dick, and let her have a breath of fresh air; and don't +stand too close," said his mother, as Tiny drew another faint breath.</p> + +<p>The door was opened, and the boys stood anxiously aside, watching the +faint, gasping breath, until at last Tiny was able to swallow a little +of the water; and then they would have closed round her again, but their +mother kept them off.</p> + +<p>"Would a drop o' milk do her good?" whispered Coomber after a time; but +she was <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 108]</span>sensible enough to +recognise his voice, and shuddered visibly. He groaned as he saw it; but +drew further back, so that she should not see him when she opened her +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Give me the sticking-plaster, Dick," said his mother, when Tiny had +somewhat revived. Mrs. Coomber was used to cuts and wounds, and could +strap them up as cleverly as a surgeon. It was not the sight of the ugly +cut that had frightened her, but the death-like swoon, which she did not +understand.</p> + +<p>"How about the milk, mother?" Coomber ventured to ask, after Tiny's +forehead was strapped up and bandaged.</p> + +<p>Again came that shudder of fear, and the little girl crept closer to the +sheltering arms. "Don't be frightened, deary; daddy won't hurt you now."</p> + +<p>"Don't let him come," whispered Tiny; but Coomber heard the whisper, and +it cut him to the heart, although he kept carefully in the background as +he repeated his question.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 109]</span> "Would yer like a little milk, +deary?" asked Mrs. Coomber.</p> + +<p>"There ain't no money to buy milk," said Tiny, in a feeble, weary tone.</p> + +<p>But Coomber crept round the back of the kitchen, so as to keep out of +sight, took up the bottle of whisky he had brought home, and went out. +He brought a jug of milk when he came back. "You can send for some more +to-morrow, and as long as she wants it," he said, as he stood the jug on +the table.</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp109.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 110]</span></p> + +<div id="VII"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp41.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">A TEA MEETING.</p> + +<p>Tiny was very ill the next day—too ill to get up, or to notice what was +passing around her. Mrs. Coomber, who had had very little experience of +sickness, was very anxious when she saw Tiny lying so quiet and +lifeless-looking, the white bandage on her forehead making her poor +little face look quite ghastly in its paleness. The fisherman had crept +into the room before he went out, to look at her while she was asleep, +and the sight had made his heart ache.</p> + +<p>"I never thought I could ha' been such a brute as to hurt a little 'un +like that," he said, drawing his sleeve across his eyes, and speaking in +a whisper to his wife.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 111]</span>"It was the whisky," said his +wife, by way of comforting him.</p> + +<p>But Coomber would not accept even this poor comfort. "I was a fool to +take so much," he said. "Wus than a fool, for I knowed it made me savage +as a bear; and yet I let it get the mastery of me. But it's the last, +mother; I took the bottle to the farm last night, and they're going to +let me have the value of it in milk for the little 'un, and please God +she gets well again, it's no more whisky I'll touch."</p> + +<p>It was not easy for a man like Coomber to make such a promise, and still +more difficult to keep it. For the first few days, while Tiny was very +ill, it was not so hard to send Bob and Tom to Fellness, with the teal +and widgeon he had shot; but when she began to get better, and the +craving for the drink made itself felt, then began the tug of war. +During the first few days of the little girl's illness, the fisherman +kept carefully out of her sight, though he longed to see her once more, +and hear her say <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 112]</span>she had forgiven +him the cruel blow he had dealt to her.</p> + +<p>Tiny, too, longed for him to come and see her in the daytime; but as it +grew dusk the longing passed away, and every night, as the hour drew +near when he usually came back from Fellness, a positive dread and +terror of him seized her, and she would lie shivering and holding Mrs. +Coomber's hand whenever she heard his voice in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Coomber tried to persuade her husband to go and see the child in +the daytime; but he only shook his head. "She hates me, and I don't +deserve to see her agin," he said, gloomily.</p> + +<p>He returned the same answer again and again, when pressed to go in and +see her before he went out with his gun in the morning. At length, as he +sat at breakfast one day, he was startled by Tiny creeping up to him, +just as she had slipped out of bed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy, why didn't you come to me?" <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +113]</span>she said, with a little gasping sob, throwing her arms round +his neck.</p> + +<p>"My deary, my deary," he said, in a choking voice, gathering her in his +arms, and kissing her, while the tears rolled down his weather-beaten +face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy, don't you love me," said Tiny; "that you didn't come to see +me all these days?"</p> + +<p>"Love you, my deary? Ah, you may well ask that, after what I've done to +yer; but it was just because I did love yer that I kept away from yer," +he went on; "I thought you'd never want to see yer cruel old daddy any +more; and as for me, why I'd punish myself by not trying to see yer, or +get back your love. That's just how it was, deary," said the fisherman, +as he looked tenderly at the little pallid face.</p> + +<p>"But, daddy, I love you, and I wanted you all the days," said Tiny, +nestling closer to him as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Bless you, deary, I believe you're one of <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +114]</span>God's own bairns, as well as a sailor's lass," said Coomber.</p> + +<p>"I wanted you all the days, daddy; but—but—don't—come—at—night," +she added, in a hesitating tone.</p> + +<p>"I know what you mean; mother's told me, little 'un," he said, drawing +his sleeve across his eyes, and sighing.</p> + +<p>"I can't help it, daddy, I can't help it," said the little girl, with a +sob.</p> + +<p>"Well, I s'pose not; but you needn't be afraid now, you know. I've done +with the bottle now; and it wasn't me you was afraid of, mother said, +but the whisky."</p> + +<p>Tiny nodded. "Yes, that's it," she said; "and I shan't be afraid long if +I know you don't have it now;" and from that time the little girl set +herself strenuously to overcome the terror and dread that nightly crept +over her; but still it was some time before she could endure Coomber's +presence after dusk.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile pinching want was again making <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +115]</span>itself felt in the household. For some reason known only to +themselves, the teal and widgeon did not come within range of the +fisherman's gun just now; and sometimes, after a whole day spent in the +punt, or among the salt marshes along the coast, only a few unsaleable +old gulls would reward Coomber's toil. They were not actually uneatable +by those who were on the verge of starvation; but they were utterly +unfit for a child like Tiny, in her present weak, delicate condition; +and again the question of sending her to the poorhouse until the spring +was mooted by Mrs. Coomber. Her husband did not refuse to discuss it +this time when it was mentioned, and it was evident that he himself had +thought of it already, for he said, with a groan—</p> + +<p>"It seems as though God wasn't going to let me keep the little 'un, +though she's getting on a bit, for never have I had such a bad shooting +season as this since I knocked the little 'un down. It seems hard, +mother; what do you think?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 116]</span>But Mrs. Coomber did not know what +to think; she only knew that poor little Tiny was often hungry, although +she never complained. They had eaten up all the store of biscuits by +this time; and although Dick and Tom often spent hours wandering along +the shore, in the hope of finding another wonderful treasure-trove, +nothing had come of their wanderings beyond the usual harvest of drift +wood that enabled them to keep a good fire in the kitchen all day.</p> + +<p>At length it was decided that Coomber should take Tiny to the poorhouse, +and ask the authorities to keep her until this bitter winter was over; +and then, when the spring came, and the boat could go out once more, he +would fetch her home again.</p> + +<p>But it was not without many tears that this proposal was confided to +Tiny, the fisherman insisting—though he shrank from the task +himself—that she should be told what they thought of doing. "She is a +sailor's lass, and it's only fair to her," he said, +as <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 117]</span>he left his wife to break the +news to Tiny.</p> + +<p>She was overwhelmed at the thought of being separated from those who had +been so kind to her, and whom she had learned to love so tenderly, but +with a mighty effort she choked back her tears, for she saw how grieved +Mrs. Coomber was; though she could not help exclaiming: "Oh! if God +would only let me stay with you, and daddy, and Dick!"</p> + +<p>Her last words to Dick before she started were in a whispered +conference, in which she told him to pray to God every day to let her +come back soon. "I will, I will!" said Dick through his tears; "I'll say +what you told me last night—I'll say it every day." And then Coomber +and Tiny set out on their dreary walk to Fellness, reaching it about the +middle of the afternoon.</p> + +<p>Bob and Tom had let their old friends know that their father had given +up the whisky, and now he, foolish man, felt half afraid and +half <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 118]</span>ashamed to meet them; but he +was obliged to go, for he wanted Peters to go with him, and tell the +workhouse people about the rescue of the little girl, for fear they +should refuse to take her in unless his story was confirmed.</p> + +<p>Coomber explained this to his friend in a rather roundabout fashion, for +he had not found Peters on the shore, as he had expected, and where he +could have stated his errand in a few words. He had found instead that +all the village was astir with the news of a tea-meeting, that was to +take place that afternoon in the chapel, and that Peters, who was +"something of a Methody," as Coomber expressed it, had gone to help in +the preparations.</p> + +<p>He was astonished to see Coomber when he presented himself, and still +more to hear the errand he had come upon. He scratched his head, and +looked pityingly at the little girl, who held fast to Coomber's hand. +"Well now, mate, I'm in a fix," he said, slowly, and pointing round the +room; "I've got all these forms to move, and to fix up the tables for +'em by <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 119]</span>four o'clock; but if you'll +stay and lend a hand, why, you and the little 'un 'll be welcome to stay +to tea, I know; it's free to all the village to-day," he added, "and the +more that come, the better we shall like it."</p> + +<p>Coomber looked at Tiny, and saw how wistfully her eyes rested on a pile +of cakes that stood near; and that look decided him. "Would you like to +have some of it?" he said, with a faint smile. The little girl's face +flushed with joy at the prospect of such a treat. "Oh, daddy! if I could +only take Dick some, too," she said.</p> + +<p>Both the men laughed, but Peters said, "Well, well, we'll see what we +can do; come in here while daddy helps me with the forms;" and he led +the way into a small room, where several of the fishermen's wives were +cutting bread and butter. Peters whispered a word to one of them, and +she seated Tiny by the fire, and gave her some bread and butter at once. +When the tea was all ready, and the company began to arrive, Coomber +fetched <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 120]</span>Tiny to sit with him, and +the two had a bountiful tea, and such cake as the little girl had not +tasted for a long time. But she would not eat much. She took what was +given to her, but slipped most of it into Coomber's pocket, that he +might take it home to Dick, for the little girl thought they would go on +to the poorhouse as soon as tea was over.</p> + +<p>But while the tea-things were being cleared away, and they were +preparing for the meeting that was to follow, the fisherman drew her +aside, and whispered: "I do believe God has heard what you've been +a-praying for, deary, for Peters has heard of a job of work for me since +I've been here."</p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy! and we shall go home together again," exclaimed Tiny, +looking round for her bonnet at once.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not jest yet. There's to be some preaching or somethin', +and—and—little 'un, I've been a bad man, and I dunno as God'll have +anything to do wi' helping such a tough customer to be any better; but +if He would—"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 121]</span>And here Coomber drew his sleeve +across his eyes, and turned his head aside to hide his emotion.</p> + +<p>The little girl threw her arms round his neck, and drew his face close +to hers. "Oh, daddy, He will! He will!" she whispered, earnestly; "He +loves you, and He's been waiting all this long time for you to love Him; +and you will, won't you, now, you know?"</p> + +<p>But there was no time for Coomber to reply, for the people were taking +their seats again, and Peters touched him on the shoulder, motioning him +to do the same. The two sat down, feeling too eager for shyness, or to +notice that others were looking at them. A hymn was sung, and a prayer +followed, and then Coomber began to feel disappointed, for he was +hungering to hear something that might set his doubts at rest. At length +he heard the words that have brought help and gladness to so many souls: +"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that +whosoever believeth in Him should not <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +122]</span>perish, but have everlasting life." Then followed a simple +address, enlarging upon the text, and an exhortation to accept God's +offer of salvation. "The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said: 'Come unto Me, +all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,'" +continued the speaker, "and in His name I beg each one of you to become +reconciled to God. He is waiting: He is willing to receive each one of +you."</p> + +<p>These were his closing words, and Coomber, who had listened with eager, +rapt attention, stayed only for the people to move towards the door, and +then followed the speaker into the little vestry. "Beg pardon, sir," he +said, pausing at the door, "but 'tain't often as I gets the chance of +hearing such words as I've heard from you to-night, and so I hopes +you'll forgive me if I asks for a bit more. I'm a bad man. I begins to +see it all now; but—but——"</p> + +<p>"My friend, if you feel that you are a sinner, then you are just one of +those whom the Lord Jesus died to redeem. He came to seek +and <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 123]</span>to save those who are lost—to +redeem them from sin. He gave His life—dying upon the cross, a +shameful, painful death—not, mark me, that they may continue in sin. To +say we believe in God, and to live in sin, makes our belief of no +effect. We must learn of Christ, or He will have died in vain for us. We +must learn of Him, and He will help us to overcome our love of drink, +our selfishness, and sullenness, and ill-temper;" for the gentleman knew +something of Coomber, and so particularised the sins he knew to be his +easily besetting ones.</p> + +<p>"And you think He'd help me? You see, sir, He's done a deal for me +lately, bad as I am," said Coomber, twisting his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Help you! ah, that He will. If He gave His only Son, what do you think +He will withhold? 'What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, +will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a +serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your +children, how much more shall <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 124]</span>your +Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him.'"</p> + +<p>"And what are the good things that I'm to ask for," said Coomber. "I +know what the asking means; this little 'un here has taught me that +praying is asking God; and though I ain't never done it afore, I'll +begin now."</p> + +<p>"Do, my man. Ask that the Holy Spirit may be given you, to lead you, and +teach you, and guide you into all truth. Without His help you can do +nothing; but, seeking His help, trusting in his guidance, you will be +enabled to overcome every difficulty and obstacle, however hard it may +be."</p> + +<p>"And you think God will forgive me all the past?"</p> + +<p>"My brother, Christ died—He shed His precious blood, to wash away our +sin, to set our conscience free from guilt, and to assure us beyond a +doubt of the perfect love of God towards us."</p> + +<p>The words spoken fell into prepared soil, for Coomber had been hungering +and thirsting <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 125]</span>after righteousness, +and he went home that night feeling that he had been fed.</p> + +<p>What a happy walk home that was for Tiny and the fisherman! As he left +the little chapel at Fellness, a basket, well filled with the odds and +ends left from the tea-meeting, had been handed to Coomber to take home, +and Peters whispered, as he went out: "I've heard of another job for +yer, so be along in good time in the morning, mate." To describe Mrs. +Coomber's joy, when her husband walked in with Tiny asleep in his arms, +and also with the basket of bread and butter, would be impossible.</p> + +<p>"God has given us the little 'un back, mother," he said, placing the +child in his wife's arms. "He's been good to me, better than I deserved, +only the Lord Jesus Christ has died for me, and that explains it all."</p> + +<p>His heart was full of joy and gratitude to-night, and he forgot his +usual shyness, and told his wife of the good news he had heard at +Fellness, both for body and soul. "Now, <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +126]</span>mother," he said, as he concluded, "you and I must both begin +a new life. We must ask God to help us like this little 'un, and we must +teach our boys to do the same. We owe it all to her," he added, as he +kissed Tiny, "for if she hadn't come among us, we might never have heard +about God down here at Bermuda Point."</p> + +<div><img class="center noborder footer" src="images/illp40.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 127]</span></p> + +<div id="VIII"><img class="center noborder header" src="images/illp127.jpg" +alt="decoration" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BRIGHTER DAYS.</p> + +<p>The dreary winter came to an end at last, and with the first spring days +there was a general bustle of preparation in the fisherman's family, for +boat and nets alike required overhauling, and there would be a good deal +of repairing to do before the old boat would be fit for further use.</p> + +<p>Bob's face was fast losing its sullen, defiant, angry look, and he was +whistling as merrily as a lark one morning, when he and Coomber went to +remove the tarpaulin that had been covered over the boat during the +winter; but the whistling suddenly ceased when the boat was uncovered, +for, with all their care, the winter's storms had worked sad havoc with +the <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 128]</span>little craft. Seams were +starting, ribs were bulging, and there were gaping holes, that made +Coomber lift his hat and scratch his head in consternation.</p> + +<p>"This'll be a tough job, Bob," he said.</p> + +<p>"Aye, aye, dad, it will that," said the lad, carefully passing his +finger down where one rib seemed to be almost rotten.</p> + +<p>A few months before Coomber would have raved and blustered, and sworn it +was all Bob's fault, but since that tea-meeting at Fellness he had been +a changed man—old things had passed away, and all things had become +new; and none felt this more than Bob. It was a blessed change for him, +and he had given up all thoughts of running away now, if the old boat +could only be patched up and made serviceable. But it was a problem +whether this could ever be done effectually enough to make it seaworthy.</p> + +<p>"If I'd only found out ten years ago that I could do better without the +whisky than with it, we might ha' got a new +boat <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 129]</span>afore this, Bob," said the +fisherman, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Aye, aye, and had Jack with us, too, dad," Bob ventured to remark. He +had not dared to mention his brother's name for years, but he had +thought a good deal of him lately, wishing he could come home, and see +the blessed change that had been wrought in his father.</p> + +<p>The old fisherman lifted his head, and there was a look of bitter +anguish in his face, as he said: "Hark ye, lad, I'd give all the days of +my life to bring Jack back. The thought of him is making yer mother an +old woman afore her time, and I can't help it now; it's too late, too +late;" and the old fisherman covered his face and groaned.</p> + +<p>"There now, father, ain't I heard you say it was never too late to +repent?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, lad, that you have, and the precious blood of Christ can take away +the guilt of our sin; but, mark me, not even God Himself can do away +with the consequences of sin. Hard <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +130]</span>as they may be, and truly and bitterly as we may repent, the +past can't be undone; and as we sow we must reap. Poor Jack! Poor Jack! +If I could only know where he was. Why, it's nigh on ten years since he +went away, and never a storm comes but I'm thinking my boy may be in it, +and wanting help."</p> + +<p>Bob recalled what had passed on Fellness Sands the night they rescued +Tiny, and which had helped him often since to bear with his father's +gruff, sullen ways and fierce outbursts of temper; but he would not say +any more just now, only he thought that but for that tea-meeting his +father would now be mourning the loss of two sons; for he had made up +his mind to leave home when it was decided to take Tiny to the +poorhouse.</p> + +<p>They were working at the boat a few days after this, caulking, and +plugging, and tarring, when Tiny, who had been playing on the sandhills +a little way off, came running up breathless with some news.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 131]</span></p> + +<div class="illustration"> +<a href="images/illp131.jpg"> +<img class="center" src="images/illp131-th.jpg" alt="Illustration" +/></a> +<p class="caption">TINY AND THE OLD MAN. [<i>See page 130.</i></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 132]</span></p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy! there's a little ugly, old man <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +133]</span>over there, and he says my name is Coomber. Is it, daddy?"</p> + +<p>The fisherman lifted his hat and scratched his head, looking puzzled. +Strange to say, this question of the little girl's name had never +suggested itself to anybody before, living as they did in this +out-of-the-way spot. She was "Tiny," or "deary," or "the little 'un," +and no need had arisen for any other name; and so, after scratching his +head for a minute, he said: "Well, deary, if I'm your daddy, I s'pose +your name is Coomber. But who is the old man?" he asked; for it was not +often that strangers were seen at Bermuda Point, even in summer-time.</p> + +<p>"I dunno, daddy; but he says he knowed my mother when she was a little +gal like me."</p> + +<p>Coomber dropped the tar-brush he was using, and a spasm of pain crossed +his face. Had somebody come to claim the child after all? He +instinctively clutched her hand for a minute, but the next he told her +to go home, while he went to speak to the stranger.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 134]</span> He found a little, neatly-dressed +old man seated on one of the sandhills, and without a word of preface he +began:</p> + +<p>"You've come after my little gal, I s'pose?"</p> + +<p>The old man smiled. "What's your name, my man?" he said, taking out a +pocket-book, and preparing to write.</p> + +<p>"Coomber."</p> + +<p>"Coomber!" exclaimed the old man, dropping his book in his surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes; what should it be?" said the fisherman. "Didn't you tell my +little Tiny that you knew her name was Coomber? But how you came to +know——"</p> + +<p>"Why, I never saw you before that I know of," interrupted the other, +sharply; "so how do you suppose I should know your name? I told the +child I knew her name was Matilda Coomber, for she is the very image of +her mother when she was a girl, and she was my only daughter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, and you've come to fetch her!" gasped the fisherman.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 135]</span> The stranger took out his +snuff-box, and helped himself to a pinch. "Well, I don't know so much +about that," he said, cautiously; "I am her grandfather, and I thought, +when I picked up that old newspaper the other day, and read about her +being saved, I'd just like to come and have a look at her. I was pretty +sure she was my Tilly's little one, by the description of the silver +medal she wore, for I'd given it to her mother just before she ran away +to get married to that sailor Coomber."</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, a sailor, and his name was Coomber! Where is he? What was he +like?" asked the fisherman, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"He was drowned before his wife died; she never held up her head +afterwards, the people tell me. I never saw her after she was married, +and swore I'd never help her or hers; but when she was dying she wrote +and told me she was leaving a little girl alone in the world, and had +left directions for it to be brought to me after her death. With this +letter she sent her own portrait, and that of her husband and +child, <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 136]</span>begging me to keep them for +the child until she grew up. A day or two after came another letter, +saying she was dead, and a neighbour was coming from Grimsby to London +by ship, and would bring the child to me; but I never heard or saw +anything of either, and concluded she was drowned, when, about a month +ago, an old newspaper came in my way, and glancing over it, I saw the +account of a little girl being saved from a wreck, and where she might +be heard of. I went to the place, and they sent me here, and the minute +I saw the child, I knew her for my Tilly's."</p> + +<p>The old man had talked on, but Coomber had comprehended very little of +what was said. He stood looking half-dazed for a minute or two after the +stranger had ceased speaking. At length he gathered his wits +sufficiently to say: "Have you got them pictures now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the old man, promptly, taking out his pocket-book as he +spoke. "Here they are; I took care to bring 'em with me;" and he brought +out three photographs.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 137]</span> Coomber seized one instantly. "It +is him! It is my Jack!" he gasped. "Oh, sir, tell me more about him."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about him, I tell you," said the other, coldly; "I never +saw or spoke to my daughter after she married him; but I'm willing to do +something for the little child, seeing it was my girl's last wish."</p> + +<p>"The child," repeated Coomber. "Do you mean to say little Tiny is my +Jack's child?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, of course I do. What else could I mean?" replied the other.</p> + +<p>"Then—then I'm her grandfather, and have as much right to her as you +have," said the fisherman, quickly.</p> + +<p>The stranger shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I s'pose you have," he said; +"I'm not going to dispute it. I'm willing to do my duty by her. But +mind, I'm not a rich man—not a rich man," he added.</p> + +<p>Coomber was puzzled for a minute to know what he meant, and was about to +say that he wanted no payment for keeping Tiny; but +the <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 138]</span>other lifted his hand in a +commanding manner, and exclaimed: "Now, hear me first. Let me have my +say, and then, perhaps, we can come to terms about the matter. You've +got a wife, I s'pose, that can look after this child. I haven't; and if +she came to me, I shouldn't know what to do with her. Well now, that +being the case, she'd better stay here—for the present at least; she's +happy enough, I s'pose; and I'll pay you twenty pounds a year as my +share towards her expenses."</p> + +<p>Coomber was about to exclaim indignantly against this, and protest that +he would accept no payment; but just then he caught sight of Bob and the +old boat, and the thought of what that money would enable him to do kept +him silent a little longer.</p> + +<p>"Well now," resumed the old man, "if that plan suits you, we'll come to +business at once. You've had her about eighteen months now, so there's +about thirty pounds due. You see I'm an honest man, and mean to do the +just thing by her," he added.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 139]</span>"Thirty pounds!" repeated +Coomber, to whom such a sum seemed immense wealth. But the other mistook +the exclamation for one of discontent, and so he said, quickly, "Well +now, I'll throw you ten pounds in, as I hear you were the one that saved +her, and pay you the next six months in advance. That'll make it a round +fifty; but I won't go a penny farther. Now will that satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>Satisfy him? Coomber was debating with himself whether he ought to take +a farthing, considering what a rich blessing the little girl had been to +him. It was only the thought of the bitter winter they had just passed +through, and that, if he could get a new boat, he could better provide +for the child, that made him hesitate, lest in refusing it he should do +Tiny a wrong.</p> + +<p>At length, after a pause, during which he had silently lifted his heart +in prayer to God, he said: "Well, sir, for the little 'un's sake I'll +take your offer. But, look you, I shall use this money as a loan that is +to be returned; and as <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 140]</span>I can save +it, I shall put it in the bank for her."</p> + +<p>The other shrugged his shoulders. "You can do as you like about that. I +shall come and see the child sometimes, and——"</p> + +<p>"Do, sir, do, God bless her! To think she's my Jack's child!" +interrupted Coomber, drawing his sleeve across his eyes. "Do you know, +sir, where my boy went down?" he asked, in a tremulous voice.</p> + +<p>But the other shook his head. "I tell you I know nothing of my daughter +after she married; but she sent me a box with some letters and these +portraits, and some other odds and ends, to be kept for her little +Matilda. I'll send you them if you like;" and the old man rose as he +spoke. "Can you go with me to Fellness now, and settle this business +about the money?" he added.</p> + +<p>"But don't you want to see Tiny?" exclaimed Coomber, who could not +understand his willingness to give up his claim to the child.</p> + +<p>"I have seen her. We had a long talk here before you came. You may tell +her that her <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 141]</span>Grandfather West will +come and see her sometimes. And now, if you'll follow me as quickly as +you can to the village, we'll settle this business;" and as he spoke, +Mr. West turned towards the road, leaving Coomber still half-dazed with +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Bob, Bob," he called at last, "I've got to go to the village. A strange +thing has happened here to-day, and I want to get my wits a bit together +before I tell your mother. But you needn't do much to the boat till I +come back, for it may be we shall have a new one after all."</p> + +<p>Bob looked up in his father's face, speechless with surprise. He spoke +of having a new boat as though it was a very sad business. But his next +words explained it. "I've heard of Jack," he said; "no storms will +trouble him again;" and then the fisherman burst forth into +heart-breaking sobs and groans, and Bob shed a few tears, although he +felt heartily ashamed of them.</p> + +<p>"Now go back, Bob, and tell your mother I've gone to Fellness; and if I +ain't home by <span class="pagenum">[Pg. 142]</span>five o'clock, you +come and meet me, for I shall have some money to carry—almost a +fortune, Bob."</p> + +<p>Having heard so much, Bob wanted to hear more, and so walked with his +father for the first mile along the road, listening to the strange tale +concerning Tiny. Then he went back, and told the news to the astonished +group at home; and so, before Coomber returned, his wife had got over +the first outburst of grief for the death of her son, and she and Bob +had had time to talk calmly over the whole matter. They had decided that +the money must be used in such a way as would give the little girl the +greatest benefit from it, and that she must go to school, if possible.</p> + +<p>"Now, if dad could buy a share in one of the bigger boats where he and I +could work, wouldn't it be better than buying a little one for +ourselves?" suggested Bob; "then we could go and live at Fellness, and +Tiny could go to school—Sunday-school as well as week-day."</p> + +<p>"And Dick, too," put in Tiny. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg. 143]</span>"Yes, and we should all go to +God's house on Sunday," said Mrs. Coomber, drying her eyes.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, a similar project had been suggested to Coomber by his +old friend Peters, who knew a man who wanted to sell his share in one of +the large fishing-boats, and was asking forty pounds for it.</p> + +<p>"That will leave us ten pounds, mother, to buy the children some new +clothes, and take us to Fellness. What do you say to it now?" asked her +husband, after they had talked it over.</p> + +<p>"Why, it seems too good to be true," said the poor woman, through her +tears. "But oh! if only poor Jack was here!" she sighed.</p> + +<p>Her husband shook his head, and was silent for a minute or two; but +at length he said: "God has been very good to us when we had no thought +of Him. I always knew the little 'un must be a sailor's lass, but to +think that she should be our Jack's own child is wonderful. The old +gentleman had made quite sure of it <span class="pagenum">[Pg. +144]</span>before he came here—he wouldn't part with his money unless +he'd been sure, I know; and now she's ours, just as much as Dick and Bob +is. And we'll take good care of her, God bless her, and Him for sending +her to us."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The rest of my story is soon told. The fisherman and his family +removed to Fellness, and brighter days dawned for them than they had +ever hoped to see. When the box arrived from Mr. West, containing the +letter and papers relating to the latter years of their son's life, they +found that he had become a true Christian through his wife's influence. +He had also learned to read and write; and in the last letter sent to +his wife before his death, he told her he meant to go and see his +parents as soon as he returned from that voyage. Alas! he never did +return; but the "little lass," of whom he spoke so lovingly, became +God's messenger to his old home, and the joy and comfort of his parents' +hearts.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p style="text-align:center;font-size:85%;">Printed by Cooke & Halsted, +The Moorfields Press, London, E.C.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SAILOR'S LASS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 21797-h.txt or 21797-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/7/9/21797">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/9/21797</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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