Bob Strong's Holidays Part 25

While the two were thus talking, Bob and Nell remained down on the beach, awaiting the arrival of d.i.c.k and h.e.l.lyer, who through want of room in their wherry had to come ash.o.r.e in another boat.

Rover, such was his strict sense of duty, strange to say, instead of accompanying his young master and mistress, was still intent on keeping in sight of the hamper.

Accordingly, he stopped on board the steamer till h.e.l.lyer, the hamper's custodian, left her; when after seeing him and d.i.c.k embarked along with the hamper, the retriever jumped over the side of the stranded vessel and swam ash.o.r.e in company with the boat containing his friends, apparently mistrusting the frail craft, and preferring to rely upon his own powers in the water.

Nor was he far behind, getting to land almost at the same moment that the wherry's keel grated on the beach; when, after shaking himself decorously as he had been taught, so as to avoid wetting his friends by his excessive moisture, Rover barked and pranced round h.e.l.lyer and the hamper, and then round Bob and Nellie, as if to say in his dog language-- "There, my dear young master and mistress, I have discharged my trust faithfully," scurrying off then to the higher part of the sh.o.r.e, where Mrs Gilmour and the Captain were standing, to tell them the same tale, with a loud "Bow wow!"

"Come now," cried Mrs Gilmour, on the little party being reunited again, "we must be off home at once; for, it is getting late, and Sarah will be wondering where we all are."

"Well, we mustn't keep 'the good Sarah' waiting," said the Captain slily, with a wink to Nellie that set her off laughing so that she dropped the bunch of wild-flowers which her aunt was just handing her at the moment, and was obliged to stop to pick them up. "By Jove! though, ma'am, she may have forgotten _us_ as she did the other things."

"You're too bad entirely!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour a little pettishly.

"I suppose I shall never hear the last about that, nor poor Sarah either. Come on now, dearie; we must hasten home whether or no."

So saying, she made the Captain wheel round from taking a last lingering look at the _Bembridge Belle_, whose skipper, now that she was a bit lightened aft by all the people having cleared out of her, had backed again into deep water; and then putting on full steam ahead, was trying to run her up high and dry ash.o.r.e.

After this parting glance at the poor vessel, our party proceeded on their way across the common back to The Moorings, Miss Nell, as aforesaid, carrying the bouquet of wild-flowers, and Bob the tin bucket of sea-anemones, their "spoil" of the day, in sporting parlance; while h.e.l.lyer and d.i.c.k brought up the rear of the procession with the hamper and empty water-jar, representing the relics of their picnic feast.

Rover on this occasion, it may be added, acted anon as pioneer of the column when he caracoled for awhile in front of them all; anon as baggage-guard, when he followed at the heels of h.e.l.lyer, sniffing the empty hamper.

Poor Sarah, "that good Sarah" whom Mrs Gilmour had so unhappily praised, her penance was yet to come!

Bob was the first to a.s.sail her as she opened the door on their arrival home.

"Who forgot the bread?" he shouted out, so loudly that, starting back with fright, she almost tumbled. "Who forgot the bread?"

"Who forgot the tea?" cried Nellie, immediately behind him, following up her brother's attack and making Sarah jump afresh. "Who forgot the tea?"

"And who forgot her head?" said the Captain from the rear, pressing the charge home; whereupon, they all, Mrs Gilmour included, halted on the doorstep and roared with laughter. "Aye, who forgot her head?"

This was too much for the girl.

"Oh my, me!" she exclaimed, staring at them in hopeless stupefaction.

"Oh my, me!"

"Dear me!" observed Mrs Gilmour, her laugh subsiding into a broad smile. "Why, you are quite a poet, Sarah."

"Me, mum?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the other, more astonished than ever. "Whatever have I gone and done now?"

"Yes," continued her mistress, "you've just supplied 'the missing link'

in our rhyme; and people who make poetry, of course, are poets."

"Oh, auntie, I see, I see!" called out Nellie excitedly, in great glee.

"I see it--don't you, Bob?"

"No, what is it?" asked that young gentleman. "See what?"

"Oh dear! and you began it, too," cried Nell. "You really are a very stupid boy. Why, it's a regular verse of poetry--

"Who forgot the bread?

Who forgot the tea?

And who forgot her head?

Oh, my--me!

"Don't you see it now?"

"Oh, yes," replied Bob, adding his usual expression when praising anything--"it's jolly!"

"I confess I did not see it either at first; so, I suppose, you'll call me a stupid too, Miss Nellie, eh?" chuckled Captain Dresser. "However, now you've made it all clear to us, I will, if you like, christen your short but sweet poem for you. What say you to 'Sarah's forget-me-nots'?

Do you think that will do, eh?"

"Splendidly!" said Nell; an opinion which they all seemed to share, excepting poor Sarah, into whose ears the verselet was dinned so incessantly, both by Bob and Nellie, and even by the pert d.i.c.k, too, that its repet.i.tion, or any specific allusion to any one of the articles she had omitted in making up the historic hamper, would invariably make the unfortunate damsel wince; while if the simple name of the innocent flower which the Captain had adopted were but mentioned, even without any malice prepense, the poor girl would leave the room at once.

"Where are the forget-me-nots?" said Mrs Gilmour incautiously, for instance, to Nellie, while arranging the wild-flowers in vases shortly before going to bed. "I can't see them at all anywhere. Can you, Sarah?"

There was no answer from her, however.

Sarah was off like a shot!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"BROKEN UP!"

Early next morning, after their usual matutinal swim, Bob and d.i.c.k accompanied the Captain for a stroll along the beach to the coastguard- station on the eastern side of the Castle, near to which the ill-fated _Bembridge Belle_ had been run ash.o.r.e.

Of course, Rover formed one of the party; carrying, equally as a matter of course, his young master's towels in his mouth and wagging his fine bushy tail with even more energy than he generally evinced when performing that function, in order to express his proud exultation at the trust reposed in him.

At the coastguard-station they found h.e.l.lyer standing by the flagstaff, with his telescope under his left arm and evidently on duty.

"Not much damage done to her hull yet, sir," said he, touching his hat, as he thus antic.i.p.ated the Captain's inquiry. "She were all awash, though, sir, at high-water this morning!"

"Indeed!" cried Captain Dresser. "Then, that forward bulkhead must have started when the fore compartment got full."

"No doubt o' that, sir," agreed h.e.l.lyer. "Why, the tide covered her after-deck at Six Bells; and the cus.h.i.+ons of the settees and a lot o'

dunnage were floating about in the saloon below and was.h.i.+ng through the ports astern."

"Her fo'c's'le, however, keeps high and dry."

"Aye, now it do, sir," replied h.e.l.lyer. "But, not for long!"

"You're right, my man," said the Captain, after having a good squint at the object of their commiseration. "She has been working already on the s.h.i.+ngle, and her frame has been a good deal knocked about since last night."

The coastguardsman gave a shrug to his shoulders.

"I expect a tide or two'll settle her hash, sir," he observed, after thus relieving his pent-up feelings. "With the water making a clean sweep through her fore and aft every time it rises, the poor thing can't last long, sir!"