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Read Ebook: A Short Treatise on Head Wear Ancient and Modern by Goater Anne C Goater Walter H Illustrator
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Ebook has 77 lines and 2478 words, and 2 pages
"I--I don't know," said the boy, feebly. "I'm so tired--and my feet hurt--and--and--and I can't go any farther, please. Don't be cross with me, sir; I can't help it--I'm obliged to cry."
His legs sank beneath him as he spoke and doubled so that he naturally came down upon his knees, and raising the hand that was not held, to join the other, the boy seemed in the gloom to be praying for mercy to the big, rough man.
"Why, matey, I didn't know you were on your beam ends like this here," he growled, softly. "Here, I'll help yer. Let me lift yer on to this 'ere bank. That's the way. Steady, now, while I turn round. Give's t'other fin. There you are. Heave ho! and you're up and on my back. Now, then, I'll tow you into port where I'm going, and you an' me'll have a bit o' supper together, and after that--well, look at that now!"
As he spoke the sailor had got the boy up on his shoulders, pig-a-back fashion, and began to tramp steadily along the road, not feeling the light weight, and talking pleasantly to the little fellow all the while, till, in his surprise, he uttered the last words in a low tone, and followed them up by exclaiming:
"Tired out, poor bairn. I'm blessed if he ain't fast asleep!"
The sailor stood in the middle of the road thinking and talking aloud to himself as if he were someone else.
"That's the way to do it," said Jack Jeens, with a low, soft chuckle. "Poor little bairn! The skipper has got a wife and little uns of his own, and understands these sort o' things. Shouldn't wonder if he finds a new father and mother for him."
Jack's messmates said nothing, for they never knew, though the rough sailor began to carry out his plan, going onward with the boy fast asleep upon his back, too much wearied out to heed where he was going or to think of the troubles which had befallen one so young. For his sleep grew deeper and deeper till the lights of Torquay came into sight round about the port at the bottom of the hill; and he did not stir when Jack, stopping short at the door of a shabby-looking little inn upon the Strand--a place much frequented by seamen--and the boy did not heed Jack Jeen's voice when he cried, "What cheer?" to the landlady, and asked for a room and bed for the night with supper to be ready directly.
The simple supper was soon placed upon the table of the mean-looking room; but the boy could not eat.
"Tired out?" said the landlady, sourly.
"Ay, ay; that's it," said Jack. "Here, missus, I'll carry him up and put him to bed."
And this the rough fellow did, carrying his young companion as carefully as if he were afraid that he would break, and then without attempting to undress him, he laid him down, covered him up, and then went back to have his supper. After which, weary enough himself, and thinking about his work in the early morning, he looked out to where his schooner lay moored to a buoy with a light swinging high in the rigging, and then went up to his room.
The boy was faster than ever, and as Jack Jeens held a guttering tallow candle over the sleeper's face, "Poor little chap," he said, smiling. "Why, if I get tumbling into bed it'll wake him up, and I won't do that. Here, this'll do."
Jack took the candle out of the stick and put it out very untidily by turning it upside down till the flame was choked, and then threw himself down upon the floor by the bedside.
"Quite as soft--bit softer perhaps--than the schooner's deck," he muttered. "Good-night, little un. The skipper'll make it all right for you in the morning, and--Heigh-ho-ha-hum! My word, I am jolly sleepy, and--"
Jack Jeens said no more, but the next instant he gave vent to a snore that ought to have awakened the boy but did not; and he lay sleeping hard till there was something louder than his own snore upon the stairs.
First there was the whispering of voices below; then a rough laugh; then the shuffling and stamping of feet, which ceased upon the landing outside the door, which was roughly tried, and being fastened, kicked in, while a fierce voice cried aloud in tones which made Jack Jeens spring to his feet under the belief that he was at home aboard the schooner and in his bunk.
"Ahoy there! Tumble up! Tumble up! In the King's name!"
Jack Jeens and his young companion started up, sitting upon the floor, and both confused and wondering.
"Hillo!" ejaculated Jack.
"What's that?" said the boy, who could not tell where he was, while at that moment the window was pushed up a little and the voice of a man said softly:
"There's a ladder here. Quick, run for it! The pressgang!"
"Eh, what? Where?" growled the sailor, excitedly. "Bring a light? Where's the light?"
He knew the next moment, for the door was burst open with a crash and a party of men headed by an officer in uniform rushed into the room, filling it with light, for three of them bore ship's lanthorns, and Jack found that the warning had come too late, for he was seized by three men before he could even think of resisting, and held tightly with his back to the wall. "Only one, my lads?" cried the officer.
"Not sure yet, sir," replied one of the men, who ducked down to bring the light of the lanthorn he carried beneath the bed, while another of the party examined the cupboard, and a companion peeped up the chimney.
"No, sir; only one, sir," said a man who seemed to be a warrant officer; "but here's a nipper on the bed."
"I thought there had been more," said the leader. "Now, then, my
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