Little Bobtail Part 18

"Better, father," she replied, faintly. "I'm cold."

"Give way, lively, my lads," added the colonel, to whom minutes seemed like hours.

When the barge came alongside the accommodation-steps, Colonel Montague bore Grace in his arms to the deck of the Pen.o.bscot.

"Let me sit down here in the sun, father," said she.

"But you must remove your wet clothes."

"Not yet. Let me rest a few moments. I shall be all well in a little while."

"What's the matter, Edward?" asked the Hon. Mr. Montague, who had remained on board of the Pen.o.bscot, being too old to scramble about the rocks.

"I have been overboard, grandfather," replied Grace, with a faint smile; and it was evident that her condition was rapidly improving.

"Overboard, child!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "How did it happen?"

"I don't know. I was not with her," replied the colonel. "But where is that boy?"

"That boy" has just come on deck, and had seated himself in the waist.

He had recovered his wind, and was now nearly as good as new. He felt that he had done a big thing, and he wondered that no one said anything to him. The boat that brought him to the yacht had gone for the party which had been left on the island; and no one but the colonel knew anything about the part he had borne in the affair. But he was not long neglected, for the instant Colonel Montague thought of him he hastened to the waist, and with tears in his eyes, grasped him by the hand.

Doubtless he betrayed more emotion than the occasion seemed to warrant--emotion which was not all grat.i.tude.

"My lad, you have done me a service which I can never forget," said he, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"It's all right, sir. I feel better than if I hadn't done it," replied Bobtail.

"But come aft, and see Grace," added the colonel.

"No, sir, I think I won't bother her now. She must feel pretty bad after the ducking she got."

Just at this moment the barge from Blank Island dashed up to the steps.

Mrs. Montague was a demonstrative woman, and she had not even yet ceased to scream.

"O, where is she? where is she, Edward?" cried the poor mother, as she rose in the stern of the boat.

"Here I am, mother," exclaimed Grace, hastening to the rail on the quarter-deck. "I am not drowned or hurt."

Mrs. Montague was a.s.sisted up the steps, and in another moment she was sobbing over her child in her arms. While this scene was transpiring on the quarter-deck, the rest of the party went to Little Bobtail, and took him by the hand, as they expressed their admiration of his heroic conduct.

"That wan't anything," replied Bobtail. "I have dived off that rock twenty times before."

"But Grace would have drowned if you hadn't done it."

"Well, I don't know. I suppose, if I hadn't gone for her, some of the rest of you would."

"I don't know about that," said one of them, shaking his head. "I might have gone into the water, but I couldn't have done much."

Mrs. Montague hurried Grace into the cabin as soon as the violence of her emotions had in a measure subsided.

"But I haven't seen Captain Bobtail yet," said the daughter.

"You shall see him; but you must take off your wet clothes first,"

replied her mother.

"Not yet, mother. I must see him this instant. Tell him to come down here."

"I'll go for him," said Emily Walker, as she rushed up the companion-way.

Perhaps Miss Walker was more sentimental than Miss Montague; at any rate, she flew to the spot where Bobtail was seated, threw her arms around his neck, and actually kissed him before he had a chance to repel the a.s.sault, if he desired to do so.

"What a dear, good fellow you are!" exclaimed she. "But you must come right down into the cabin this instant. Grace wants to see you."

"I'm all wet, and I guess I won't go down now," replied Bobtail, blus.h.i.+ng like a red cabbage in the dews of the morning.

"But you must come. Grace is dying to see you;" and Miss Walker took him by the arm, and tugged at it till she dragged him to his feet.

"I don't like to go down into the cabin. I haven't got my coat and shoes yet."

"Never mind your coat, Mr. Bobtail. Grace won't change her wet clothes till she sees you."

Of course Miss Walker carried the day, and Little Bobtail was dragged into the cabin. Grace seized him by both hands, and warmly expressed her grat.i.tude. Emily wondered that she did not kiss him. If he had saved her, she would have kissed him twenty times. Mrs. Montague pressed his hand, and thanked him over and over again. Then Colonel Montague took his hand again, and expressed himself even more fully than before. The Hon. Mr. Montague followed him, and every lady and gentleman of the party took him by the hand, and said something exceedingly handsome; and Bobtail began to think they were overdoing it.

"But come, my lad; you are in your wet clothes, while we are talking to you," interposed the colonel. "You must have a dry suit."

"Never mind me, sir. I'm used to it," laughed Bobtail.

"You will catch cold."

"Catch a weasel asleep! I don't catch cold."

Colonel Montague insisted, and the sailing-master lent him a s.h.i.+rt and a pair of trousers twice too big for him, and Bobtail put himself inside of them. His bobtail coat and shoes, which had been brought from the island, were dry, and he was in presentable condition. Grace soon appeared, her hair nicely dried and dressed anew, wearing a white dress and a blue sacque. She looked very pretty; but Bobtail thought that Emily Walker was the prettier of the two. By this time dinner was ready, and the skipper of the Skylark was invited to dine in the cabin. He did not exactly like the idea, for he felt that he was not sufficiently posted in the ways of genteel society to sit at the table with such grand people.

"I'll take my grub with the hands forward, sir," said he, laughing. "I shall feel more at home with them."

"But we shall not feel at home without you, my lad," replied Colonel Montague. "Besides, when everybody gets cooled off, we want to talk over the affair on the island, for I haven't even heard how Grace happened to be in the water."

The owner of the Pen.o.bscot would not "let him up," as Bobtail expressed it when he told his mother the story, and he was placed at the table between Grace and Emily Walker. Chowder was served first. Bobtail kept his "weather eye" open to see how the rest of the party did, and adjusted his conduct by theirs. He wondered what "those towels were stuck into the tumblers for;" but when little Miss Walker unrolled her napkin, and placed it in her lap, and the gentlemen of the party did the same, he followed their example.

"Now, Grace, tell me how you got overboard," said Colonel Montague, when the soup plates were removed.

Mrs. Montague shuddered, for the scene was too terrible to be recalled with anything but anguish.

"Captain Bobtail had just told Emily and me a story about an Indian girl who jumped off that same cliff; but I didn't believe a word of it,"

Grace began. "I stood up on a stone near the edge, and swung my arms, for I was thinking just how the Indian girl looked, if she really did jump off that cliff. Just then mother screamed, and frightened me. I started back; but the stone I was standing on rolled over, and threw me forward, so that I went down into the water head first."

"I thought the child was going to jump overboard," added Mrs. Montague, with a strong tremor pa.s.sing through her frame.

The details of the affair were repeated, and then all eyes were directed at Little Bobtail, who was more concerned about the propriety of his conduct at the table than about his deeds at Blank Island; but probably, if he had fed himself with his knife, his admiring friends would cheerfully have forgiven him. He found it more difficult to transfer mashed potato from his plate to his mouth with the silver fork than it was to dive off that cliff into the sea. When the pastry came on, it was absolutely appalling to think of eating custard pie with a fork, and he would rather have undertaken the feat of swimming around Blank Island.