Read Ebook: The Young Trawler by Ballantyne R M Robert Michael

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Ebook has 1855 lines and 90800 words, and 38 pages

"Hallo!" exclaimed Zulu.

"There--there's something wrong wi' me," said Billy, with a faint attempt to smile as he became rather pale.

Seeing this, his friend quietly put a bucket beside him.

"I say, Zulu," observed the poor boy with a desperate attempt at pleasantry, "I wonder what's up."

"Des nuffin' up yit but he won't be long," replied the young cook with a look full of sympathy.

It would be unjust to our little hero to proceed further. This being, as we have said, his first trip to sea, he naturally found himself, after an hour or two, stretched out in one of the bunks which surrounded the little cabin. There he was permitted to lie and think longingly of his mother, surrounded by dense tobacco smoke, hot vapours, and greasy fumes, until he blushed to find himself wishing, with all his heart, that he had never left home!

There we will leave him to meditate and form useless resolves, which he never carried out, while we introduce to the reader some of the other actors in our tale.

From that heaving grey wilderness of water called the North Sea we pass now to that lively wilderness of bricks and mortar called London.

West-end mansions are not naturally picturesque or interesting subjects either for the brush or the pen, and we would not willingly drag our readers into one of them, did not circumstances--over which we have not a shadow of control--compel us to do so.

The particular mansion to which we now direct attention belonged to a certain Mrs Dotropy, whose husband's ancestors, by the way, were said to have come over with the Conqueror--whether in his own ship or in one of the bumboats that followed is not certain. They were De Tropys at that time, but, having sunk in the social scale in the course of centuries, and then risen again in succeeding centuries through the medium of trade, they reappeared on the surface with their patronymic transformed as now presented.

"Mother," said Ruth Dotropy to a magnificent duchess-like woman, "I've come to ask you about the poor--"

"Ruth, dear," interrupted the mother, "I wish you would not worry me about the poor! They're a troublesome, ill-doing set; always grumbling, dirty, ill-natured, suspicious, and envious of the rich--as if it was our fault that we are rich! I don't want to hear anything more about the poor."

Ruth, who was a soft-cheeked, soft-handed, and soft-hearted girl of eighteen, stood, hat in hand, before her mother with a slight smile on her rosy lips.

"You are not quite just to the poor, mother," returned Ruth, scarce able to restrain a laugh at her parent's vehemence. "Some of them are all that you say, no doubt, but there are many, even among the poorest of the poor, who are good-natured, well-doing, unsuspicious, and respectful, not only to the rich but also to each other and to everybody. There is Mrs Wolsey, for instance, she--"

"Oh! but she's an exception, you know," said Mrs Dotropy, "there are not many like Mrs Wolsey."

"And there is Mrs Gladman," continued Ruth.

"Yes, but she's another exception."

"And Mrs Robbie."

"Why, Ruth, what's the use of picking out all the exceptions to prove your point? Of course the exception proves the rule--at least so the proverb says--but a great many exceptions prove nothing that I know of, except--that is--but what's the use of arguing, child, you'll never be convinced. Come, how much do you want me to give?"

Easy-going Mrs Dotropy's mind, we need scarcely point out, was of a confused type, and she "hated argument." Perhaps, on the whole, it was to the advantage of her friends and kindred that she did so.

"I only want you to give a little time, mother," replied Ruth, swinging her hat to and fro, while she looked archly into Mrs Dotropy's large, dignified, and sternly-kind countenance, if we may venture on such an expression,--"I want you to go with me and see--"

"Yes, mother, I saw him too," said Ruth, with a demure look; "it curiously enough happened that I was following you at the time. You afterwards passed the same boy with a refusal, I suppose?"

"Yes, child, of course--and a reproof."

Being quite incapable of disentangling or expressing the flood of ideas that overwhelmed her, the good lady relieved herself after a few broken sentences, with the assertion that it was of no use arguing with Ruth, for Ruth would never be convinced.

"They must indeed be wonderful people," said Mrs Dotropy, with a laugh at Ruth's enthusiasm, "quite angelic."

"They are as nearly so as mortals ever become, I think," returned Ruth, putting on her hat; "won't you come, mother?"

Now, Mrs Dotropy had the faculty of giving in gracefully, although she could not argue. Rising with an amused smile, she kissed Ruth's forehead and went to prepare for a visit to the poor.

Let us now turn to a small street scarcely ten minutes' walk from the mansion where the above conversation took place.

It was what may be styled a Lilliputian street. Almost everything in it was small. The houses were small; the shops were small; the rents-- well, they were certainly not so small as they should have been, the doors and windows were small; and the very children that played in the gutter, with an exceedingly small amount of clothing on them, were rather diminutive. Some of the doors stood open, revealing the fact that it had been thought wise by the builders of the houses to waste no space in lobbies or entrance halls. One or two, however, displayed entries, or passages--dark and narrow--the doors to which were blistered and severely battered, because, being the public property of several families, they had no particular owner to protect them.

There was a small flat over a green-grocer's shop to which one of the cleanest of those entries led. It consisted of two rooms, a light-closet and a kitchen, and was low-ceilinged and poorly furnished, but there was a distinct air of cleanliness about it, with a consequent tendency to comfort. The carpet of the chief room was very old, but it had been miraculously darned and patched. The table was little larger than that of a gigantic doll's-house, but it was covered with a clean, though threadbare, cloth, that had seen better days, and on it lay several old and well-thumbed books, besides two work-baskets.

In an old--a very old--easy-chair at one side of the fire sat a lady rather beyond middle age, with her hands clasped on her lap, and her eyes gazing dreamily at the fire. Perhaps she was speculating on the question how long two small lumps of coal and a little dross would last. The grate in which that amount of fuel burned was a miniature specimen of simplicity,--a mere hollow in the wall with two bars across. The fire itself was so small that nothing but constant solicitude saved it from extinction.

There was much of grey mingled with the fair tresses of the lady, and the remains of beauty were very distinct on a countenance, the lines of which suggested suffering, gentleness, submission, and humility. Perchance the little sigh that escaped her as she gazed at the preposterously small fire had reference to days gone by when health revelled in her veins; when wealth was lavished in her father's house; when food and fun were plentiful; when grief and care were scarce. Whatever her thoughts might have been, they were interrupted by the entrance of another lady, who sat down beside her, laid a penny on the table, and looked at the lady in the easy-chair with a peculiar, half-comical expression.

There needed no magician to tell that these two were sisters. The indescribable similarity was strong, yet the difference was great. Jessie was evidently, though not much, the elder.

"It's almost absurd, Kate," she said, "to think that we should actually have--come--at last--to--"

She stopped, and Kate looked earnestly at her. There was a tremulous motion about the corners of both their mouths. Jessie laid her head on Kate's shoulder, and both wept--gently. They did not "burst into tears," for they were not by nature demonstrative. Their position made it easy to slide down on their knees and bury their heads side by side in the great old easy-chair that had been carefully kept when all the rest was sold, because it had belonged to their father.

We may not record the scarce audible prayer. Those who have suffered know what it was. Those who have not suffered could not understand it. After the prayer they sat down in a somewhat tranquil mood to "talk it over." Poor things--they had often talked it over, without much result, except that blessed one of evolving mutual sympathy.

"If I were only a little younger and stronger," said Kate, who had been, and still was of a lively disposition, "I would offer myself as a housemaid, but that is out of the question now; besides, I could not leave you, Jessie, the invalid of the family--that once was."

"Come, Kate, let us have no reference to the invalid of the family any more. I am getting quite strong. Do you know I do believe that poverty is doing my health good; my appetite is improving. I really feel quite hungry now."

"We will have tea, then," said Kate, getting up briskly; "the things that we got will make one good meal, at all events, though the cost of them has reduced our funds to the low ebb of one penny; so, let us enjoy ourselves while it lasts!"

Kate seized the poker as she spoke, and gave the fire a thrust that almost extinguished it. Then she heaped on a few ounces of coal with reckless indifference to the future, and put on a little kettle to boil. Soon the small table was spread with a white cloth, a silver teapot, and two beautiful cups that had been allowed them out of the family wreck; a loaf of bread, a very small quantity of brown sugar, a smaller quantity of skim-milk, and the smallest conceivable pat of salt butter.

"And this took all the money except one penny?" asked Jessie, regarding the table with a look of mingled sadness and amazement.

"All--every farthing," replied Kate, "and I consider the result a triumph of domestic economy."

The sisters were about to sit down to enjoy their triumph when a bounding step was heard on the stair.

"That's Ruth," exclaimed Kate, rising and hurrying to the door; "quick, get out the other cup, Jessie. Oh! Ruth, darling, this is good of you. We were sure you would come this week, as--"

She stopped abruptly, for a large presence loomed on the stair behind Ruth.

"I have brought mamma to see you, Kate--the Misses Seaward, mamma; you have often heard me speak of them."

"Yes, dear, and I have much pleasure in making the Misses Seaward's acquaintance. My daughter is very fond of you, ladies, I know, and the little puss has brought me here by way of a surprise, I suppose, for we came out to pay a very different kind of visit. She--"

With a mysterious look, and a gleam of delight in her eyes, Ruth drew forth a well-filled purse, the contents of which, in shillings, sixpences, and coppers, she poured out upon the tea-table.

"There," she said triumphantly, "I have collected all that myself, and I've come to consult you how much of it should be given to each, and how we are to get them to take it."

"How kind of you, Ruth!" exclaimed Kate and Jessie Seaward, gazing on the coin with intense, almost miserly satisfaction.

"It won't appear little in their eyes, Ruth," said Kate, "for you can't think how badly off some of them are. I assure you when Jessie and I think of it, as we often do, it makes us quite miserable."

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