Teddy: The story of a Little Pickle

by John Conran Hutcheson________________________________________________________________This short book is probably of more interest to ten or elevenyear olds, rather than any other age group, for much of the bookis taken up with describing sundry very juvenile misdemeanours. 

It is well written, but my personal opinion is that it is quiteinconsequential. 

Still, it was quite amusing to scan it, OCR it, and edit it. N. H. ________________________________________________________________

TEDDY: THE STORY OF A LITTLE PICKLE

BY JOHN CONRAN HUTCHESON. 

CHAPTER ONE. 

AN INDEPENDENT YOUNG GENTLEMAN. 

"I want do d'an'ma!"

This sudden and unexpected exclamation, uttered as it was in a shrilllittle voice like that of a piping bullfinch, and coming from nowhere inparticular, as far as he could make out, for he had fancied himself allalone on the platform, made the tall railway porter almost jump out ofhis skin, as he expressed it, startling him out of his seven senses. 

He was a stalwart, good-natured, black-bearded giant of a man, clad in asuit of dunduckety-mud-coloured velveteens, rather the worse for wear, and smeary with oil and engine-grease, which gave them a sort of highly-burnished appearance resembling that of a newly-polished black-leadedstove. 

Doing nothing, and thinking of nothing specially, for the three-fortyup-train had gone through the station, and it was a good hour yet beforethe five-ten down express was due, he had been lazily leaning in a half-dreamy and almost dozing state against the side of the booking-office. 

From this coign of vantage, he was, as well as his blinking eyes wouldallow, gazing out over the rails at the fast-falling flakes of featherysnow that were quickly covering up the metals and permanent way with amantle of white; when, all at once, without a "by your leave, " or seeingor hearing anyone approach, his attention was summarily brought back tothe present by the strange announcement of the shrill little voice, while, at the same time, he felt the clutch of tiny fingers twitching atone of the legs of his shiny velveteen trousers, evidently as a furthermeans of attracting his notice. 

The touch made the porter look downwards, when, perceiving that hisunknown interlocutor was a small mite barely reaching up to his knees, he became more reassured; and, bending his big body so as to bring hisface somewhat on a level with the young person, he proceeded tointerrogate him in familiar fashion. 

"Well, my little man, " he said, desiring to learn how he might be ofservice, for he was a genial willing fellow, and always anxious tooblige people when he knew how--"what's the matter?"

"I want do d'an'ma!" repeated the small mite in the same piping tones asbefore, speaking with the utmost assurance and in the most matter-of-fact way. 

It seemed as if, having now explicitly notified his wants and wishes, heconfidently looked forward, in all the innocent trust of childhood, totheir being instantly acted upon and carried out without any demur orhesitation. 

Jupp, the porter, was quite flabbergasted by the little chap's sang-froid; so, in order the better to collect his ideas and enable him tojudge what was best to be done under the circumstances, he took off hisflat-peaked uniform cap with one hand and scratched his headreflectively with the fingers of the other, as is frequently the wont ofthose possessed of thick skulls and wits that are apt to go wool-gathering. 

The operation appeared to have the effect desired; for, after indulgingin this species of mental and physical cogitation for a moment or two, Jupp ventured upon asking the mite another question which hadbrilliantly suggested itself to him as opportune. 

"Where is your grandma, sir?" he inquired with more deference than hehad used before. 

"Don-don, " replied the small person nonchalantly, as if the point wasquite immaterial, looking the porter calmly and straight in the eyesunflinchingly, without turning a hair as the saying goes. 

Jupp had never come across such a self-possessed young mannikin in hislife before. Why, he might have been the station-master or traffic-manager, he appeared so much at his ease!

But, he was a little gentleman all the same, Jupp could readily see, inspite of the fact that his costume was not quite suited for travelling, the mite being attired in a very prominent and dirty pinafore, while hischubby face was tear-stained, and he had the look of having come out ina hurry and being perhaps unprepared for the journey he contemplated;although, mind you, he had his luggage with him all right--a smallbundle tied up in a large pocket-handkerchief of a bright-red colour, which he held tightly clasped to his little stomach as if afraid of itsbeing taken from him. 

Jupp hardly knew off-hand how to deal with the case, it being of a moreperplexing nature than had previously come within range of his ownpersonal experience; still, he had his suspicions, and thought it bestto entertain the young person in conversation for a bit, until he shouldbe able to find out something about his belongings and where he camefrom. 

"London's a large place, sir, " he therefore observed tentatively, by wayof drawing the mite out and getting some clue towards his identity. 

The little chap, however, was quite equal to the occasion. 

"Don't tare, " he said defiantly, checking the porter's artful attempt atcross-examination. "I want do d'an'ma!"

Certainly, he was a most independent young gentleman. 

Jupp was at a nonplus again; however, he tried to temporise with themite, the more especially from his noticing that his little legs werequite mottled and his tiny fingers blue with cold. 

"Well, come in here, sir, at all events, and warm yourself, and then wecan talk the matter over comfortably together, " he said, throwing openthe door of the waiting-room as he spoke, and politely motioning thelittle chap to enter. 

The mite made no reply to the invitation, but he tacitly accepted it byfollowing the porter into the apartment he had indicated, and the twowere presently seated before a glowing fire, on which Jupp immediatelyemptied the scuttleful of coals, there being no stint of the fuel byreason of the company standing all expense. 

Thawed by the genial warmth, rendered all the more enjoyable by thewintry scene outside, where the snow was now swirling down faster andfaster as the afternoon advanced, the little chap began to get morecommunicative, egged on by Jupp in a series of apparently innocentquestions. 

"Nussy bad ooman, " he blurted out after a long silence, looking up atJupp and putting his hand on his knee confidingly. 

"Indeed, sir?" said the other cautiously, leading him on. 

"Ess, man, " continued the mite. "See want take way my kitty. "

"You don't mean that, sir!" exclaimed Jupp with well-feigned horror atsuch unprincipled behaviour on the part of the accused nurse. 

"Ess, man, see did, " replied the little chap, nodding his small curlyhead with great importance; but the next instant his little roguish blueeyes twinkled with suppressed intelligence, and his red rosebud of amouth expanded into a happy smile as he added, with much satisfaction inhis tones, "but I dot kitty all wite now!"

"Have you really, sir?" said Jupp, pretending to be much surprised atthe information, the little chap evidently expecting him to be so. 

"Ess, man, " cried the mite with a triumphant shout; "I'se dot po' 'ittlekitty here!"

"Never, sir!" ejaculated Jupp with trembling eagerness, as if his lifedepended on the solution of the doubt. 

The little chap became completely overcome with merriment at having sosuccessfully concealed his treasured secret, as he thought, that theporter had not even guessed it. 

"Kitty's in dundle!" he exclaimed gleefully, hugging his handkerchiefparcel tighter to his little stomach as he spoke. "I dot kitty here, all wite!"

"You don't mean that, sir--not in that bundle o' yours surely, sir?"repeated Jupp with deep fictitious interest, appearing still not quiteconvinced on the point and as if wishing to have the difficulty clearedup. 

This diplomatic course of procedure on the part of the porter removedany lingering scruples the mite had in respect of his good faith. 

"Ess, man. I dot kitty here in dundle all wite, " he repeated earnestlyin his very impressive little way. "Oo musn't tell nobody and I'll soher to 'oo!"

"I won't breathe a word of it to a soul, sir, " protested Jupp assolemnly and gravely as if he were making his last dying deposition;whereupon the mite, quite convinced of the porter's trustworthiness andabandoning all further attempt at concealment, deposited his littlebundle tenderly on the floor in front of the fireplace, and began toopen it with much deliberation. 

The little fellow appeared so very serious about the matter, that Juppcould not help trying to be serious too; but it required the exercise ofall the self-command he possessed to refrain from laughing when themotley contents of the red handkerchief were disclosed. 

Before the last knot of the bundle was untied by the mite's busy fingersthere crawled out a tiny tortoise-shell kitten, with its diminutivelittle tail erect like a young bottle-brush, which gave vent to a "phiz-phit, " as if indignant at its long confinement, and then proceeded torub itself against Jupp's leg, with a purring mew on recognising afriend. 

"So that's kitty, " said Jupp, holding the little thing up on his kneeand stroking it affectionately, the animal signifying its satisfactionby licking the back of his hand with its furry little red tongue, andstraightening its tiny tail again as stiff as a small poker. 

"Ess, man. Dat's kitty, " murmured the mite, too much occupied undoingthe last knots of the bundle to waste time in further speech for themoment, struggling as he was at the job with might and main. 

In another second, however, he had accomplished his task; and, liftingup the corners of the red handkerchief, he rolled out the whole stock ofhis valued possessions on to the floor. 

"Dere!" he exclaimed with much complacency, looking up into Jupp's facein expectation of his admiring surprise. 

The porter was again forced to act a part, and pretend that he could notguess anything. 

"Dear me!" he said; "you have brought a lot of things! Going to take'em with you to London, sir?"

"Ess. Da'n'ma tate tare of zem. "

"No doubt, sir, " replied Jupp, who then went on to inspect gingerly thedifferent articles of the collection, which was very varied incharacter. 

They consisted, in addition to the tortoise-shell kitten fore-mentioned, of a musical snuff-box, a toy model of a ship, a small Noah's ark, ahalf-consumed slice of bread and butter, an apple with a good-sized bitetaken out of one side, a thick lump of toffee, and a darkish-brownsubstance like gingerbread, which close association in the bundle, combined with pressure, had welded together in one almostindistinguishable mass. 

"I suppose, sir, " observed Jupp inquiringly, picking up all the eatablesand putting them together apart on the seat next the little man--"Isuppose as how them's your provisions for the journey?"

"Ess. I ate dindin; an', dat's tea. "

"Indeed, sir! and very nice things for tea too, " said Jupp, beaming withadmiration and good-humoured fun. 

"I touldn't det any milk, or I'd bought dat too, " continued the mite, explaining the absence of all liquid refreshment. 

"Ah! that's a pity, " rejoined the porter, thinking how well half a pintof milk would have mixed up with the other contents of the bundle; "but, perhaps, sir, the kitty would have lapped it up and there would havebeen none left. Would you like a cup of tea now, sir? I'm just agoingto have mine; and if you'd jine me, I'd feel that proud you wouldn'tknow me again!"

"Dank 'oo, I'm so dirsty, " lisped the little man in affableacquiescence; and, the next moment, Jupp had spirited out a rough basketfrom under the seat in the corner, when extracting a tin can with a corkstopper therefrom, he put it on the fire to warm up. 

From a brown-paper parcel he also turned out some thick slices of breadthat quite put in the shade the half-eaten one belonging to the mite;and as soon as the tea began to simmer in the tin over the coals, hepoured out some in a pannikin, and handed it to his small guest. 

"Now, sir, we'll have a regular picnic, " he said hospitably. 

"All wite, dat's jolly!" shouted the other in great glee; and the twowere enjoying themselves in the highest camaraderie, when, suddenly, thedoor of the waiting-room was opened from without, and the face of abuxom young woman peered in. 

"My good gracious!" exclaimed the apparition, panting out the words asif suffering from short breath, or from the effects of more rapidexertion than her physique usually permitted. "If there isn't the youngimp as comfortably as you please; and me a hunting and a wild-goosechasing on him all over the place! Master Teddy, Master Teddy, you'llbe the death of me some day, that you will!"

Jupp jumped up at once, rightly imagining that this lady's unexpectedappearance would, as he mentally expressed it, "put a stopper" on themite's contemplated expedition, and so relieve him of any furtherpersonal anxiety on his behalf, he having been puzzling his brainsvainly for the last half hour how to discover his whereabouts and gethim home to his people again; but, as for the little man himself, he didnot seem in the least put out by the interruption of his plans. 

"Dat nussy, " was all he said, clutching hold of Jupp's trouser leg, asat first, in an appealing way: "Don't 'et her, man, tate away poorkitty!"

"I won't sir, I promise you, " whispered Jupp to comfort him; however, before he could say any more, the panting female had drawn nearer fromthe doorway and come up close to the fireplace, the flickering red lightfrom which made her somewhat rubicund countenance appear all theruddier. 

CHAPTER TWO. 

TELLS ALL ABOUT HIM. 

"Pray, don't 'ee be angry wi' him, mum, " said Jupp appealingly, as thesomewhat flustered female advanced towards the mite, laying hands on hiscollar with apparently hostile intentions. 

"I ain't a going to be angry, " she replied a trifle crossly, as perhapswas excusable under the circumstances, carrying out the while, however, what had evidently been her original idea of giving the mite "a goodshaking, " and thereby causing his small person to oscillate violently toand fro as if he were crossing the Bay of Biscay in a Dutch trawler witha choppy sea running. "I ain't angry to speak of; but he's thattormenting sometimes as to drive a poor creature a'most out of her mind!Didn't I tell 'ee, " she continued, turning round abruptly to the objectof her wrath and administering an extra shake by way of calling him toattention. "Didn't I tell 'ee as you weren't to go outdoors in all theslop and slush--didn't I tell 'ee now?"

But in answer the mite only harked back to his old refrain. 

"I want do d'an'ma, " he said with stolid defiance, unmoved alike by hisshaking or the nurse's expostulation. 

"There, that's jest it, " cried she, addressing Jupp the porter again, seeing that he was a fine handsome fellow and well-proportioned out ofthe corner of her eye without looking at him directly, in thatunconscious and highly diplomatic way in which women folk are able toreckon up each other on the sly and take mental stock of mankind. "Ain't he aggravating? It's all that granma of his that spoils him; andI wish she'd never come nigh the place! When Master Teddy doesn't seeher he's as good as gold, that he is, the little man!"

She then, with the natural inconsequence and variability of her sex, immediately proceeded to hug and kiss the mite as affectionately as shehad been shaking and vituperating him the moment before, he putting upwith the new form of treatment as calmly and indifferently as he hadreceived the previous scolding. 

"He's a fine little chap, " said Jupp affably, conceiving a betteropinion of the nurse from her change of manner as well as from noticing, now that her temporary excitement had evaporated, that she was a youngand comely woman with a very kindly face. "He told me as how he weregoing to Lun'non. "

"Did he now?" she exclaimed admiringly. 

"He's the most owdacious young gen'leman as ever was, I think; for he'scapable, young as he is, not long turned four year old, of doin' a'mostanything. Look now at all them things of his as he's brought fromhome!"

"That were his luggage like, " observed Jupp, smiling and showing hiswhite teeth, which contrasted well with his black beard, making himappear very nice-looking really, the nurse thought. 

"The little rogue!" said she enthusiastically, hugging the mite againwith such effusion that Jupp wished he could change places with him, hebeing unmarried and "an orphan man, " as he described himself, "withoutchick or child to care for him. "

"He ought to be a good 'un with you a looking after him, " he remarkedwith a meaning glance, which, although the nurse noticed, she did notpretend to see. 

"So he is--sometimes, eh, Master Teddy?" she said, bending down againover the mite to hide a sudden flush which had made her face somehow orother crimson again. 

"Ess, " replied the hero of the occasion, who, soothed by all thesesocial amenities passing around him, quickly put aside his stoliddemeanour and became his little prattling self again. 

However, such was his deep foresight that he did not forget to grasp sofavourable an opportunity for settling the initial difficulty betweenhimself and nurse in the matter of the kitten, which had led uplogically to all that had happened, and so prevent any misunderstandingon the point in future. 

"Oo won't tate way kitty?" he asked pleadingly, holding up with bothhands the struggling little animal, which Jupp had incontinently droppedfrom his knee when he rose up, on the door of the waiting-room beingsuddenly opened and the impromptu picnic organised by the mite andhimself brought to an abrupt termination, by the unexpected advent ofthe nurse on the scene. 

"No, Master Teddy, I promise you I won't, " she replied emphatically. "You can bathe the poor little brute in the basin and then put it allwet in your bed afterwards, as you did this morning, or anything elseyou like. Bless you, you can eat it if it so please you, and I shan'tinterfere!"

"All wite, den; we frens 'dain, " lisped the mite, putting up his littlerosebud mouth so prettily for a kiss, in token of peace and forgivenesson his part, that the nurse could not help giving him another hug. 

This display of affection had unfortunately the same effect on Jupp asbefore, causing the miserable porter to feel acute pangs of envy;although, by rights, he had no direct interest in the transaction, andwas only an outside observer, so to speak!

By way of concealing his feelings, therefore, he turned theconversation. 

"And have you come far arter him, miss, if I may make so bold as to axthe question?" he said hesitatingly, being somewhat puzzled in his mindas to whether "miss" or "mum" was the correct form in which to addresssuch a pleasant young woman, who might or might not be a matron for allhe could tell. 

He evidently hit upon the right thing this time; for, she answered himall the more pleasantly, with a bright smile on her face. 

"Why, ever so far!" she exclaimed. "Don't you know that large red brickhouse t'other side of the village, where Mr Vernon lives--a sort ofold-fashioned place, half covered with ivy, and with a big garden?"

"Parson Vernon's, eh?"

"Yes, Master Teddy's his little son. "

"Lor', I thought he were a single man, lone and lorn like myself, anddidn't have no children, " said Jupp. 

"That's all you know about it, " retorted the nurse. "You must be astranger in these parts; and, now I come to think on it, I don't believeas I ever saw you here before. "

"No, miss, I was only shifted here last week from the Junction, andhardly knows nobody, " said Jupp apologetically. "For the rights o'that, I ain't been long in the railway line at all, having sarved tenyears o' my time aboard a man-o'-war, and left it thinking I'd like tosee what a shore billet was like; and so I got made a porter, miss, mykaracter being good on my discharge. "

"Dear me, what a pity!" cried the nurse. "I do so love sailors. "

"If you'll only say the word, miss, I'll go to sea again to-morrowthen!" ejaculated Jupp eagerly. 

"Oh no!" laughed the nurse; "why, then I shouldn't see any more of you;but I was telling you about Master Teddy. Parson Vernon, as you callhim, has four children in all--three of them girls, and Master Teddy isthe only boy and the youngest of the lot. "

"And I s'pose he's pretty well sp'ilt?" suggested Jupp. 

"You may well say that, " replied the other. "He was his mother's pet, and she, poor lady, died last year of consumption, so he's been made allthe more of since by his little sisters, and the grandmother when shecomes down, as she did at Christmas. You'd hardly believe it, small ashe looks he almost rules the house; for his father never interferes, save some terrible row is up and he hears him crying--and he can make anoise when he likes, can Master Teddy!"

"Ess, " said the mite at this, thinking his testimony was appealed to, and nodding his head affirmatively. 

"And he comed all that way from t'other side o' the village by hisself?"asked Jupp by way of putting a stop to sundry other endearments thefascinating young woman was recklessly lavishing on the little chap. "Why, it's more nor a mile!"

"Aye, that he has. Just look at him, " said she, giving the mite anothershake, although this time it was of a different description to the oneshe had first administered. 

He certainly was not much to look at in respect of stature, being barelythree feet high; but he was a fine little fellow for all that, with goodstrong, sturdy limbs and a frank, fearless face, which his bright blueeyes and curling locks of brown hair ornamented to the best advantage. 

As before mentioned, he had evidently not been prepared for a journeywhen he made his unexpected appearance at the station, being without ahat on his head and having a slightly soiled pinafore over his othergarments; while his little feet were encased in thin house shoes, orslippers, that were ill adapted for walking through the mud and snow. 

Now that the slight differences that had arisen between himself and thenurse had been amicably settled, he was in the best of spirits, with hislittle face puckered in smiles and his blue eyes twinkling with fun ashe looked up at the two observing him. 

"He is a jolly little chap!" exclaimed Jupp, bending down and liftinghim up in his strong arms, the mite the while playfully pulling at hisblack beard; "and I tell you what, miss, I think he's got a very goodnurse to look after him!"

"Do you?" said she, adding a moment afterwards as she caught Jupp's lookof admiration, "Ah, that's only what you say now. You didn't think sowhen I first came in here after him; for you asked me not to beat him--as if I would!"

"Lor', I never dreamt of such a thing!" cried he with much emphasis, theoccasion seeming to require it. "I only said that to coax you like, miss. I didn't think as you'd hurt a hair of his head. "

"Well, let it be then, " replied she, accepting this amende and settingto work gathering together the mite's goods and chattels that were stilllying on the floor of the waiting-room--with the exception of thekitten, which he had himself again assumed the proprietorship of and nowheld tightly in his arms, even as he was clasped by Jupp and elevatedabove the porter's shoulder. "I must see about taking him home again. "

"Shall I carry him for you, miss?" asked Jupp. "The down-train ain'tdue for near an hour yet, and I dessay I can get my mate to look out forme while I walks with you up the village. "

"You are very kind, " said she; "but, I hardly like to trouble you?"

"No trouble at all, miss, " replied Jupp heartily. "Why, the littlegentleman's only a featherweight. "

"That's because you're such a fine strong man. I find him heavy enough, I can tell you. "

Jupp positively blushed at her implied compliment. "I ain't much toboast of ag'in a delicate young 'ooman as you, " he said at last; "but, sartenly, I can carry a little shaver like this; and, besides, look howthe snow's a coming down. "

"Well, if you will be so good, I'd be obliged to you, " interposed thenurse hurriedly as if to stop any further explanations on Jupp's part, he having impulsively stepped nearer to her at that moment. 

"All right then!" cried he, his jolly face beaming with delight at thepermission to escort her. "Here, Grigson!"

"That's me!" shouted another porter appearing mysteriously from the backof the office, in answer to Jupp's stentorian hail. 

"Just look out for the down-train, 'case I ain't back in time. I'm justagoin' to take some luggage for this young woman up to the village. "

"Aye, just so, " replied the other with a sly wink, which, luckily forhimself, perhaps, Jupp did not see, as, holding the mite tenderly in hisarms, with his jacket thrown over him to protect him from the snow, hesallied out from the little wayside station in company with the nurse, the latter carrying all Master Teddy's valuables, which she had re-collected and tied up again carefully within the folds of the redpocket-handkerchief bundle wherein their proprietor had originallybrought them thither. 

Strange to say, the mite did not exhibit the slightest reluctance inreturning home, as might have been expected from the interruption of hisprojected plan of going to London to see his "d'an'ma. "

On the contrary, his meeting with Jupp and introduction to him as a newand estimable acquaintance, as well as the settlement of all outstandinggrievances between himself and his nurse, appeared to have quite changedhis views as to his previously-cherished expedition; so that he was nowas content and cheerful as possible, looking anything but like adisappointed truant. 

Indeed, he more resembled a successful conqueror making a triumphalentry into his capital than a foiled strategist defeated in the verymoment of victory!

"I like oo, " he said, pulling at Jupp's black beard in high glee andchuckling out aloud in great delight as they proceeded towards thevillage, the nurse clinging to the porter's other and unoccupied arm toassist her progress through the snow-covered lane, down which the windrushed every now and then in sudden scurrying gusts, whirling the whiteflakes round in the air and blinding the wayfarers as they ploddedpainfully along. 

"I don't know what I should have done without your help, " she observedfervently after a long silence between the two, only broken by MasterTeddy's shouts of joy when a snow-flake penetrating beneath Jupp'sjacket made the kitten sneeze. "I'm sure I should never have got hometo master's with the boy!"

"Don't name it, " whispered Jupp hoarsely beneath his beard, which thesnow had grizzled, lending it a patriarchal air. "I'm only too proud, miss, to be here!" and he somehow or other managed to squeeze her armcloser against his side with his, making the nurse think how nice it wasto be tall and strong and manly like the porter!

"They'll be in a rare state about Master Teddy at the vicarage!" shesaid after they had plodded on another hundred yards, making but slowheadway against the drifting snow and boisterous wind. "I made himangry by taking away his kitten, I suppose, and so he determined to makeoff to his gran'ma; for we missed him soon after the children's dinner. I thought he was in the study with Mr Vernon; but when I came to lookhe wasn't there, and so we all turned out to search for him. Mastermade sure we'd find him in the village; but I said I thought he'd goneto the station, far off though it was, and you see I was right!"

"You're a sensible young woman, " said Jupp. "I'd have thought thesame. "

"Go on with your nonsense; get along!" cried she mockingly, in apparentdisbelief of Jupp's encomiums, and pretending to wrench her arm out ofhis so as to give point to her words. 

"I'll take my davy, then, " he began earnestly; but, ere he could say anymore, a voice called out in front of them, amid the eddying flakes:

"Hullo, Mary! Is that you?"

"That's my master, " she whispered to Jupp; and then answered aloud, "Yes, sir, and I've found Master Teddy. "

"Is Mary your name?" said Jupp to her softly in the interlude, whilescrunching footsteps could be heard approaching them, although no oneyet could be perceived through the rifts of snow. "I think it theprettiest girl's name in the world!"

"Go 'long!" cried she again; but she sidled up to him and held on to hisarm once more as she spoke, the blasts of the storm at the moment beingespecially boisterous. 

"Is that you, Mary?" repeated the voice in front, now much nearer, heranswer not having been heard apparently, on account of the wind blowingfrom the speaker towards them. 

"Yes, sir, " she screamed out. "I've found Master Teddy, and he's allright. "

She was heard this time. 

"Thank God!" returned the voice in trembling accents, nearer still; andthen a thin, haggard, careworn-looking man in clergyman's dress rushedup to them. 

He was quite breathless, and his face pale with emotion. 

"Padie! Padie!" exclaimed the mite, raising himself up on Jupp'sshoulder and stretching out one of his little hands to the new-comerwhile the other grasped the kitten. "I'se turn back, I'se turn back tooo!"

"My boy, my little lamb! God be praised for his mercy!" cried theother; and the next instant Teddy was locked in his father's arms in aclose embrace, kitten and all. 

"Say, Miss Mary, " whispered Jupp, taking advantage of the opportunitywhile Mr Vernon's back was turned. 

"What?" she asked, looking up into his face demurely. 

"This ought to be passed round. "

"Go 'long!" she replied; but, she didn't budge an inch when Jupp put hisarm round her, and nobody knows what happened before Mr Vernon hadcomposed himself and turned round again!

CHAPTER THREE. 

AT THE VICARAGE. 

Three little girls were flattening their respective little noses againstthe panes of glass as they stood by one of the low French windows of theold red brick house at the corner of the lane commanding the approachfrom the village; and three little pairs of eager eyes, now big withexpectation, were peering anxiously across the snow-covered lawn throughthe gathering evening gloom towards the entrance gate beyond--the onlygap in the thick and well-nigh impenetrable laurel hedge, some six feethigh and evenly cropped all round at the top and square at the sides, which encircled the vicarage garden, shutting it in with a wall ofgreenery from the curious ken of all passers-by without. 

With eager attention the little girls were watching to see who would bethe first of the trio to herald the return of the missing Master Teddyand those who had gone forth in search of him; but, really, seekers andsought alike had been so long absent that it seemed as if they were alllost together and never coming back!

The little girls were weary almost of waiting, and being thus kept insuspense with hope deferred. 

Besides that, they were overcome with a sense of loneliness anddesertion, everyone in the house but old Molly the cook and themselveshaving started off early in the afternoon in different directions inquest of the truant Teddy; so, as the time flew by and day drew to aclose, without a sight or sound in the distance to cheer their droopingspirits, their little hearts grew heavy within them. 

Presently, too, their whilom bright eyes got so dimmed with unshed tearswhich would well up, that they were unable to see clearly had there beenanything or anyone for them to see; while their little putty noses, whenthey removed them occasionally from close contact with the glass, bore asuspiciously red appearance that was not entirely due to previouspressure against the window panes. 

Nor were their surroundings of a sufficiently enlivening character tobanish the little maidens' despondency, the fire in the drawing-roomgrate having died out long since from inattention, making them feel coldand comfortless, and it had got so dark within that they could notdistinguish the various articles of furniture, even papa's armchair inthe chimney-corner; while, outside, in the gloaming, the snow-flakeswere falling slowly and steadily from a leaden-hued sky overhead. 

The only thing breaking the stillness of the murky air was themelancholy "Chirp, churp! chirp, churp" uttered at intervals by somebelated sparrow who had not gone to bed in good time like all sensiblebird-folk, and whose plaintive chirp was all the more aggravating fromits monotonous repetition. 

"I'm sore sumtin d'eadfill's happened, " whimpered little Cissy, theyoungest of the three watchers, after a long silence between them. "Pasood have been back hours and hours and hours ago. "

"Nonsense, Cissy!" said Miss Conny, her elder sister, who by virtue ofher seniority and the fact of her having reached the mature age of tenwas rather prone to giving herself certain matronly airs of superiorityover the others, which they put up with in all good faith, albeit theywere most amusing to outside onlookers. "You are always imaginingsomething terrible is going to befall everybody, instead of hoping forthe best! Why don't you learn to look on the bright side of things, child? Every cloud, you know, has its silver lining. "

"But not dat one up dere!" retorted Cissy, unconvinced by the proverb, pointing to the sombre pall of vapour that now enveloped the whole skyoverhead; when, struck more than ever with the utter dismalness of thescene, she drew out a tiny sort of doll's handkerchief from as tiny alittle pocket in her tiny pinafore-apron, and began wiping away thetears from her beady eyes and blowing her little red nose vigorously. "It's all black, and no light nowhere; and I'm sore poor pa and Teddyand all of dem are lost!"

With that, completely overcome by her own forebodings, the little thingall at once broke down, sobbing in such a heart-broken way that it wasas much as Conny could do to comfort her; the elder sister drawing herto her side and hugging her affectionately, rocking her small person toand fro the while with a measured rhythm-like movement as if littleCissy were a baby and she her mother, hushing her to sleep!

At this moment, Liz, who occupied the middle step between the two, andwas of a much more sedate and equable nature than either of her sisters, suddenly effected a diversion that did more to raise Cissy's spiritsthan all Conny's whispered consolation and kisses. 

"I think I see a black speck moving in the lane, " she exclaimed, removing her face a second from the glass to look round at the others asshe spoke, and then hastily glueing it to the pane again. "Yes, somebody's coming. There's an arm waving about!"

Conny and Cissy were instantly on the alert; and before Liz had hardlygot out the last words they had imitated her example, wedging theirlittle noses once more against the window, looking down the lane, andtrying somewhat vainly to pierce the haze obscuring the distance. 

"No, " said Conny, after a prolonged observation of the object Liz hadpointed out; "it's only a branch of the lilac tree blown about by thewind. "

A minute later, however, and Liz began to clap her hands triumphantly, although still keeping her face fixed to the window. 

"I was right, I was right!" she exclaimed in triumph. "The speck isgetting nearer, and, see, there are two more behind. "

"I believe you are right, " said Conny, after another steady glance downthe lane. "There are three people approaching the house, and--"

"Dat's pa in front, I know, " shouted out Cissy, interrupting her andclapping her hands like Liz, her whilom sad little face beaming withgladness. "I see him, I see him, and he's dot Teddy in his arms!"

"So he has, " said Conny, carried away by the excitement out of herordinarily staid and decorous demeanour. "Let us all run down and meethim!"

Her suggestion was hailed with a shout of exclamation; and, the nextmoment, forgetful of the falling flakes and the risk of getting dampfeet, which Conny the careful was ever warning the others against, thethree had run out into the hall, opened the outside door of the porch, which the wind banged against the side of the passage with a thump thatshook the house, and were racing towards the entrance gate over thewhite expanse of lawn, now quite covered with some six inches of snow. 

Just as the little girls reached the gate, all breathless in a batch, itwas opened from without, and they were confronted by their father withMaster Teddy on his shoulder, still holding the kitten in his arms;while, close behind, followed Jupp taking care of Mary the nurse. 

"Oh, papa!" cried Conny, Cissy, and Liz in chorus, hanging on to theirfather's coat-tails as if afraid he would get away from them again; andso, in a motley procession, Teddy apparently king of the situation andJupp and Mary still bringing up the rear, they marched into the hall, where Molly the cook, having heard the door bang when the little girlsrushed out, was waiting with a light to receive them. 

"Take the porter to the kitchen, Molly, " said Mr Vernon, "and give him, mind, a good cup of tea for bringing home Master Teddy. But for hiskindness we might not perhaps have seen the little truant again--to-night, at all events. "

"Lawks a mercy, sir!" ejaculated Molly with open-mouth astonishment, curtseying and smiling: "you doant mean that?"

"Yes, I do, " went on Mr Vernon. "Mind you take every care of him, forthe porter is a right good fellow. "

"Why, sir, I didn't do nothing to speak of, sir, " said Jupp, quiteabashed at being made so much of. "The young gen'leman commed to me, and in course, seeing as how he were such a little chap and all aloneout in the cold, I couldn't do nothing else. "

"Never mind that; I'm very much obliged to you, and so are all of us. What you've got to do now is to go with Molly and have a good cup oftea, the same as we are going to have after that long tramp in thesnow, " said the vicar cordially, shaking hands with Jupp; while Teddy, who was still perched on his father's shoulder, came out with a "tankoo, my dood man, " which made everybody laugh. 

Jupp hesitatingly attempted to decline the proffered hospitality, murmuring something about being wanted down at the station; but thevicar wouldn't hear of his refusal, the more especially as Mary remindedhim that he had asked in her hearing his fellow-porter to look after hiswork in his absence. 

So, presently, in heart nothing loth in spite of his excuses, he wasfollowing Molly the cook down the passage into her warm kitchen at theback of the house; while Mr Vernon, opening a door on the opposite sideof the hall to the drawing-room, entered the parlour, where fortunatelythe fire, thanks to Molly's care, had not been allowed to go out, butwas dancing merrily in the grate-lighting up the bright-red curtainsthat were closely drawn across the windows, shutting out the gloomyprospect outside, and throwing flickering shadows against the walls ofthe apartment as the jets of flame rose and fell. 

Nurse Mary at first wanted to march off Master Teddy to bed, on the pleathat he must be wet through and tired out with all the exposure he hadundergone during his erratic escapade; but the young gentlemanprotesting indignantly against his removal whilst there was a chance ofhis sitting up with the rest, and his clothes having been found onexamination to be quite dry on the removal of the porter's protectingjacket, he was allowed to remain, seated on the hearth-rug in state, andnever once leaving hold of the tabby kitten that had indirectly led tohis wandering away from home, with Conny and Liz and little Cissygrouped around him. 

Here by the cosy fireside the reunited family had quite a festive littlemeal together, enlivened by the children's chatter, Miss Conny pouringout the tea with great dignity as her father said laughingly, and Teddy, unchecked by the presence of his nurse, who was too prone to calling himto account for sundry little breaches of etiquette for him to becomfortable when she was close by. 

While the happy little party were so engaged, Jupp was being regaledsumptuously in the kitchen with both Molly the cook and Mary to ministerto his wants, the latter handmaiden having returned from the parlourafter carrying in the tea-tray. 

Jupp was in a state of supreme satisfaction ensconced between the two, munching away at the pile of nice hot buttered toast which the cook hadexpressly made for his delectation, and recounting between the mouthfulswonderful yarns connected with his seafaring experiences for Mary'sedification. 

Joe the gardener, who had also come back to the house shortly after theothers, with the report that he "couldn't see nothing of Master Teddynowheres, " sat in the chimney-corner, gazing at the porter with enviousadmiration as he told of his hairbreadth scapes at sea and ashore whenserving in the navy. Joe wished that he had been a sailor too, as thenperhaps, he thought, the nurse, for whom he had a sneaking sort ofregard, might learn to smile and look upon him in the same admiring way, in which, as he could see with half an eye, she regarded the stalwartblack-bearded Jupp. 

Bye and bye, however, a tinkle of the parlour bell summoning thehousehold to prayers brought the pleasant evening to a close, too soonso far as Jupp was concerned, although Joe the gardener did not regardthe interruption with much regret; and while Mary took off the childrento bed on the termination of the vicar's heart-felt thanks to the Fatherabove for the preservation of his little son, Mr Vernon wished himgood-night, trying to press at the same time a little money present intohis hand for his kind care of Teddy. 

But this Jupp would not take, declining the douceur with so much naturaldignity that the vicar honoured him the more for refusing a reward, foronly doing his duty as he said. 

Mr Vernon apologised to him for having hurt his feelings by offeringit, adding, much to Jupp's delight, that he would always be pleased tosee him at the vicarage when he had an hour or so to spare if he likedto come; and, on the porter's telling him in return that he was onlyfree as a rule on Sundays, as then only one train passed through thestation early in the morning, between which and the mail express late atnight he had nothing to do, and being a stranger in the place andwithout any relations the time somewhat hung on his hands, Mr Vernonasked him to come up to the house after church and have dinner with theservants, saying that he could go to the evening service in company withthe family. 

This invitation Jupp gladly accepted in the same spirit in which it wasgiven; and then, with another hearty "good-night" from the vicar, towhich he responded by touching his cap and giving a salute in regularblue-jacket fashion, he went on his way back to the little railway-station beyond the village where Master Teddy had first made hisacquaintance--much to their mutual benefit as things now looked!

CHAPTER FOUR. 

IN A SCRAPE AGAIN. 

The winter was a long and severe one, covering the range of downs thatencircle Endleigh with a fleecy mantle of white which utterly eclipsedthe colour of the woolly coats of the sheep for which they were famous, and heaping the valleys with huge drifts that defied locomotion; so thatMaster Teddy, being unable to get out of doors much, was prevented fromwandering away from home again, had he been in that way inclined. 

It may be added, too, that beyond breaking one of his arms in a tumbledownstairs through riding on the banisters in defiance of all commandsto the contrary, he managed for the next few months to keep pretty freefrom scrapes--something surprising in such a long interval. 

During all this time Jupp had been a very regular Sunday visitor at thevicarage, coming up to the house after morning-service and beingentertained at dinner in the kitchen, after which meal he served as aplayfellow for the children until the evening, when he alwaysaccompanied the vicar to church. 

He had now come to be looked upon by all as a tried and valued friend, Mr Vernon being almost as fond of chatting with him about his old sealife as was Mary, the nurse; while Conny would consult him earnestly ongeographical questions illustrative of those parts of the globe he hadvisited. 

As for the younger ones, he was their general factotum, Teddy and Cissyregarding him as a sort of good-natured giant who was their own especialproperty and servant. 

With all a sailor's ingenuity, he could carve the most wonderful thingsout of the least promising and worthless materials that could beimagined; while, as for making fun out of nothing, or telling thrillingstories of fairies and pirates and the different folk amongst whom hehad mixed in his travels--some of them, to be sure, rather queer, asConny said--why, he hadn't an equal, and could make the dreariestafternoon pass enjoyably to young and old alike, even Joe the gardenertaking almost as great pleasure in his society as Molly and Mary. 

This was while the snow lay on the ground and Jack Frost had bound thelittle river running through the village and the large pond in the watermeadow beyond with chains of ice, and life out of doors seemed at astandstill; but, anon, when the breath of spring banished all the snowand ice, and cowslips and violets began to peep forth from the releasedhedgerows, and the sparrows chuckled instead of chirped, busyingthemselves nest-building in the ivy round the vicarage, and when thethrush sang to the accompaniment of the blackbird's whistle, thechildren found that Jupp was even a better playfellow in the open thanhe had been indoors, being nearly as much a child in heart asthemselves. 

Whenever he had half a day given him in the week free from duty he wouldmake a point of coming up to take "Master Teddy and the young ladies"out into the woods, fern-hunting and flower-gathering, the vicarfrequently popping upon the little picnickers unawares, whilst they werewatching the rabbits and rabbitikins combing out their whiskers underthe fir-trees, and Jupp and Mary getting an al fresco tea ready for theparty. 

The little tabby kitten had long since been eclipsed in Teddy'saffections by a small Maltese terrier with a white curly coat of hair, which his fond grandmother had rather foolishly given him, the poorlittle animal being subjected to such rough treatment in the way ofpetting that it must have over and over again wished itself back in itsMediterranean home. 

"Puck" was the little dog's name, and he appeared in a fair way of"putting a girdle round the earth, " if not in forty minutes like hiselfish namesake, at least in an appreciable limited space of time, Teddynever being content except he carried about the unfortunate brute withhim everywhere he went, hugging it tightly in his arms and almostsmothering its life out by way of showing his affection. 

Having once had his hair cut, too, unluckily by Mary, Teddy seized anopportunity, when alone in the nursery, to treat poor Puck in similarfashion, the result of which was that the little animal, deprived of hislong curly coat, not only shivered constantly with cold, but looked, inhis closely-shorn condition, like one of those toy lambs sold in theshops in lieu of dolls for children, which emit a bleating sort of soundwhen pressed down on their bellows-like stands. 

Of course, Puck was as invariable an attendant at the picnic excursionsin the woods as Master Teddy himself, and, having developed sufficientinterest in the rabbits to summon up courage to run after them, whichTeddy graciously permitted him to do, these outings perhaps gave thelittle animal the only pleasure he had in existence, save eating; for hewas then allowed, for a brief spell at all events, to use his own legsinstead of being carried about in baby fashion. 

One day at the beginning of May, when the birds were gaily singing inthe branches of the trees overhead, through which an occasional peep ofblue sky could be had, the grass below being yellow with buttercups orpatched in white with daisies, Jupp and Mary were grouped with thechildren beneath a spreading elm in the centre of a sort of fairy ringin the wood, a favourite halting-place with them all. 

The porter for once in a way had a whole holiday, and had spent themorning helping Joe the gardener in mowing the lawn and putting outplants in the flower-beds in front of the vicarage; so after their earlydinner, the children under Mary's care came out with him for a regularpicnic tea in the woods, carrying a kettle with them to make a fire, with plenty of milk and cakes and bread and butter, for it was intendedto have quite a feast in honour of "papa's birthday, " the vicar havingpromised to come and join them as soon as he had finished his parishwork. 

The little ones had been romping with Jupp all the way to the wood underthe downs, running races with him and making detours here and there insearch of wild anemones and meadow-sweet, or else chasing butterfliesand the low-flying swallows that heralded the advent of summer, so theywere rather tired and glad to lie down on the grass and rest when theyreached their old elm-tree; albeit, on Jupp setting to work to pick upsticks for the fire that was to boil the kettle, first one and thenanother jumped up to help, for, really, they could not be quiet verylong. 

The sticks being collected and Jupp having slung the camp-kettle overthem by the means of two forked props, in campaigning fashion, as hewell knew how to do as an old sailor, a match was quickly applied, andthere was soon a pleasant crackling sound of burning wood, accompaniedwith showers of sparks like fireworks as the wind blew the blaze aside. 

Soon, too, a nice thick column of smoke arose that reminded Conny ofwhat she had read of Indian encampments, although Jupp told her that ifhe were abroad and near any of such dark-skinned gentry he would takeprecious good care when making a fire to have as little smoke aspossible. 

"Why?" asked Conny, always anxious for information in order to improveher mind. 

"Because I shouldn't like them to discover my whereabouts, unless, miss, I knew 'em to be friends, " said Jupp in answer. 

"And how would you manage to have no smoke?" she next pertinentlyinquired, like the sensible young lady she was. 

"By always burning the very driest wood I could find, miss, " repliedJupp. "It is only the green branches and such as has sap in it thatmakes the smoke. "

"Oh!" ejaculated Conny, "I shall remember that. Thank you, Mr Jupp, for telling me. I often wondered how they contrived to conceal theircamp-fires. "

Teddy, with Cissy and Liz, had meanwhile been lying on the grass, overcome with their exertions in stick-gathering, and were intentlywatching a little glade in front of the elm-tree, some distance offunder a coppice. Here they knew there were lots of rabbit-burrows, andthey were waiting for some of the little animals to come out and performtheir toilets, as they usually did in the afternoon and early evening, preparing themselves for bed-time, as the children said; but, for a longwhile, not one appeared in sight. 

"Dere's a bunny at last, " whispered Cissy as one peeped out from itshiding-place; and, seeing no cause for alarm in the presence of thelittle picnic party, with whom no doubt it was now well acquainted, itcame further out from the coppice, sitting up on its haunches in theusual free-and-easy fashion of rabbitikins, and beginning to comb outits whiskers with its paws. 

At the sight of this, Puck, who of course was cuddled up tightly inTeddy's arms, began to bark; but it was such a feeble little bark thatnot even the most timid of rabbits would have been frightened at it, while as for the one Puck wished to terrify, this simply treated himwith the utmost contempt, taking no notice either of bark or dog. 

Three or four other rabbits, too, impressed with the beauty of theafternoon and the advantages of the situation, now followed theircomrade's example, coming out from their burrows and squatting on theturf of the sloping glade in a semicircle opposite the children; while, the more poor Puck tried to express his indignation at their free-and-easiness, the more nonchalantly they regarded him, sitting upcomfortably and combing away, enjoying themselves as thoroughly as ifthere was no such thing as a dog in existence, Puck's faint coughingbark being utterly thrown away upon them. 

"Imp'dent tings!" said Teddy, unloosing the small terrier; "do and lick'em, Puck!"

The little woolly lamb-like dog, who certainly possessed a larger amountof courage than would reasonably have been imagined from his attenuatedappearance, at once darted after the rabbits, who, jerking their shorttails in the funniest way possible and throwing up their hind-legs as ifthey were going to turn somersaults and come down on the other side, darted off down the glade, making for the holes of their burrows underthe coppice. 

The artful Puck, however, having chased the gentry before, was up to alltheir little dodges, so, instead of running for the rabbits directly, heattacked their flank, endeavouring to cut off their retreat; and, inthis object succeeding, away went the hunted animals, now scared out oftheir lives, down the side of the hill to the bottom, with Puck chargingafter them, and Teddy following close behind, and Cissy and Liz bringingup the rear. 

Miss Conny was much too dignified to chase rabbits. 

"Stop, Master Teddy! stop!" cried Mary. "Come back, Miss Liz andCissy--come back at once!"

The little girls immediately obeyed their nurse; but Teddy, who perhapsin the ardour of the chase might not have heard her call, continued onracing down the hill after Puck, as fast as his stumpy little legs couldcarry him, his hat flying off and his pinafore streaming behind him inthe wind. 

"Stop, Master Teddy, stop!" called out Mary again. 

"Why can't you let him be?" said Jupp. "He's only enj'ying hisself withthe rabbits, and can't come to no harm on the grass. "

"Little you know about it, " retorted Mary, rather crossly it seemed toJupp. "Why, the river runs round just below the coppice; and if MasterTeddy runs on and can't stop himself, he'll fall into it--there!"

"My stars and stripes!" ejaculated Jupp starting up in alarm. "I'll goafter him at once. "

"You'd better, " said Mary as he set off running down the hill afterTeddy, singing out loudly for him to stop in a sort of reef-topsails-in-a-heavy-squall voice that you could have heard more than a cable'slength ahead!

The momentum Teddy had gained, however, from the descent of the gladeprevented him from arresting his rapid footsteps, although he heardJupp's voice, the slope inclining the more abruptly towards the bottomof the hill. Besides, Puck in pursuit of the rabbits was right in frontof him, and the dog, unable or unwilling to stop, bounded on into themass of rushes, now quite close, that filled the lower part of thevalley, and disappeared from Teddy's sight. 

The next moment there was a wild yelp from Puck as he gripped therabbit, and both tumbled over the bank of the river into the water, which was previously concealed from view; the dog's bark being echoedimmediately afterwards by a cry of alarm from Teddy and a heavy plunge, as he, too, fell into the swiftly-flowing stream, and was borne out fromthe bank by the rapid current away towards the mill-dam below!

CHAPTER FIVE. 

BLOWN UP. 

"Well, I never!" panted out Jupp as he raced down the incline at aheadlong speed towards the spot where he had seen Teddy disappear, andwhence had come his choking cry of alarm and the splash he made as hefell into the water. "The b'y'll be drownded 'fore I can reach him!"

But, such was his haste, that, at the same instant in which he utteredthese words--more to himself than for anyone else's benefit, although hespoke aloud--the osiers at the foot of the slope parted on either sidebefore the impetuous rush of his body, giving him a momentary glimpse ofthe river, with Teddy's clutching fingers appearing just above thesurface and vainly appealing for help as he was sinking for the secondtime; so, without pausing, the velocity he had gained in his run downthe declivity carrying him on almost in spite of himself, Jupp took amagnificent header off the bank. Then, --rising after his plunge, with acouple of powerful strokes he reached the unconscious boy, whosestruggles had now ceased from exhaustion, and, gripping fast hold of oneof his little arms, he towed him ashore. 

Another second and Jupp would have been too late, Teddy's nearlylifeless little form having already been caught in the whirling eddy ofthe mill-race. Even as it was, the force of the on-sweeping current wasso great that it taxed all Jupp's powers to the utmost to withstandbeing carried over the weir as he made for the side slanting-wise, so asnot to weary himself out uselessly by trying to fight against the fullstrength of the stream, which, swollen with the rains of April, wasresistless in its flow and volume. 

Swimming on his side, however, and striking out grandly, Jupp succeededat length in vanquishing the current, or rather made it serve hispurpose; and, presently, grasping hold of the branch of an alder thathung over the river at the point of the bend, he drew himself up on thebank with one hand, holding poor Teddy still with the other, to findhimself at the same moment confronted by Nurse Mary, with Cissy and Liz, who had all hurried down the slope to the scene of the disaster. 

"Oh, dear! oh, dear!--he's dead, he's dead!" wailed Mary, taking thelittle fellow from Jupp and lifting him up in her arms, preparing tostart off at a run for the vicarage, while the little girls burst into atorrent of tears. 

"You just bide there!" said Jupp, preventing her from moving, andlooking like a giant Triton, all dripping with water, as he steppedforward. "You just bide there!"

"But he'll die if something's not done at once to restore him, "expostulated Mary, vainly trying to get away from the other'srestraining hold. 

"So he might, if you took him all that long way 'fore doin' anything, "replied Jupp grimly. "You gie him to me; I knows what's best to bedone. I've seed chaps drounded afore aboard ship, and brought to lifeag'in by using the proper methods to git back the circularation, as ourdoctor in the _Neptune_ used to call it. You gie him to me!"

Impressed with his words, and knowing besides now from long acquaintancethat Jupp was what she called "a knowledgeable man, " Mary accordinglysurrendered the apparently lifeless body of little Teddy; whereupon theporter incontinently began to strip off all the boy's clothing, which ofcourse was wringing wet like his own. 

"Have you got such a thing as a dry piece of flannel now, miss?" he thenasked Mary, hesitating somewhat to put his request into words, "like, like--"

"You mean a flannel petticoat, " said the girl promptly without the leastembarrassment in the exigencies of the case. "Just turn your back, please, Mr Jupp, and I'll take mine off and give it to you. "

No sooner was this said than it was done; when, Teddy's little nakedbody being wrapped up warmly in the garment Mary had surrendered, andturned over on the right side, she began under Jupp's directions to rubhis limbs, while the other alternately raised and depressed the child'sarms, and thus exercising--a regular expansion and depression of hischest. 

After about five minutes of this work a quantity of water that he hadswallowed was brought up by the little fellow; and next, Mary could feela slight pulsation of his heart. 

"He's coming round! he's coming round!" she cried out joyously, causinglittle Cissy's tears to cease flowing and Liz to join Mary in rubbingTeddy's feet. "Go on, Mr Jupp, go on; and we'll soon bring him to. "

"So we will, " echoed her fellow-worker heartily, redoubling hisexertions to promote the circulation; and, in another minute a faintflush was observable in Teddy's face, while his chest rose and fell witha rhythmical motion, showing that the lungs were now inflated again andin working order. 

The little fellow had been brought back to life from the very gates ofdeath!

"Hooray!" shouted Jupp when Teddy at length opened his eyes, staringwonderingly at those bending over him, and drawing away his foot fromLiz as if she tickled him, whereat Mary burst into a fit of violenthysterical laughter, which terminated in that "good cry" customary withher sex when carried away by excess of emotion. 

Then, all at once, Teddy appeared to recollect what had happened; forthe look of bewilderment vanished from his eyes and he opened his mouthto speak in that quaint, formal way of his which Jupp said alwaysreminded him of a judge on the bench when he was had up before the courtonce at Portsmouth for smuggling tobacco from a troopship when paid off!

"Were's Puck an' de bunny?" he asked, as if what had occurred had beenmerely an interlude and he was only anxious about the result of therabbit hunt that had so unwittingly led to his unexpected immersion andnarrow escape from drowning. 

No one in the greater imminence of Teddy's peril had previously thoughtof the dog or rabbit; but now, on a search being made, Puck wasdiscovered shivering by the side of the river, having managed to crawlout somehow or other. As for the rabbit, which was only a young one orthe little woolly terrier could never have overtaken it in the chasedown the glade, no trace could be seen of it; and, consequently, it musthave been carried over the weir, where at the bottom of the river it wasnow safe enough from all pursuit of either Puck or his master, and freefrom all the cares of rabbit life and those ills that even harmlessbunnies have to bear!

When this point was satisfactorily settled, much to the dissatisfaction, however, of Master Teddy, a sudden thought struck Mary. 

"Why, wherever can Miss Conny be all this time?" she exclaimed, onlooking round and not finding her with the other children. 

"See's done home, " said Cissy laconically. 

"Gone home!" repeated Mary. "Why?"

"Done fets dwy c'o's for Teddy, " lisped the little girl, who seemed tohave been well informed beforehand as to her sister's movements, although she herself had hurried down with the nurse to the river bankin company with the others immediately Jupp had rushed to Teddy'srescue. 

"Well, I never!" ejaculated Mary, laughing again as she turned to Jupp. "Who would have thought the little puss would have been so thoughtful?But she has always been a funny child, older than her years, and almostlike an old woman in her ways. "

"Bless you, she ain't none the worse for that!" observed Jupp in answer. "She's a real good un, to think her little brother 'ud want dry thingsarter his souse in the water, and to go and fetch 'em too without beingtold. "

"I expect you'd be none the worse either for going back and changingyour clothes, " said Mary, eyeing his wet garments. 

"Lor', it don't matter a bit about me, " he replied, giving himself agood shake like a Newfoundland dog, and scattering the drops about, which pleased the children mightily, as he did it in such a funny way. "I rayther likes it nor not. "

"But you might catch cold, " suggested Mary kindly. 

"Catch your grandmother!" he retorted. "Sailors ain't mollycoddles. "

"Wat's dat?" asked Teddy inquiringly, looking up at him. 

"Why, sir, " said Jupp, scratching his head reflectively--he had left hiscap under the elm-tree on top of the hill, where he had taken it offwhen he set about building the fire for the kettle--"a mollycoddle is asort of chap as always wraps hisself up keerfully for fear the windshould blow upon him and hurt his complexion. "

"Oh!" said Teddy; but he did not seem any the wiser, and was about toask another question which might have puzzled Jupp, when Liz interruptedthe conversation, and changed the subject. 

"There's Conny coming now, and Pa with her, " she called out, pointing tothe top of the glade, where her father and elder sister could be seenhurrying swiftly towards them, followed closely by Joe the gardenerbearing a big bundle of blankets and other things which the vicarthought might be useful. 

"My! Master must have been scared!" cried Mary, noticing in thedistance the anxious father's face. "Master Teddy do cause him troubleenough, he's that fond of the boy!"

But, before Jupp could say anything in reply, the new arrivals hadapproached the scene of action, Conny springing forward first of all andhugging Teddy and Cissy and Liz all round. In the exuberance of herdelight, too, at their being safe and sound, when in her nervous dreadshe had feared the worst, she extended the same greeting to Mary andJupp; for, she was an affectionate little thing, and highly emotional inspite of her usually staid demeanour and retiring nature. 

The vicar, too, could hardly contain himself for joy, and broke downutterly when he tried to thank Jupp for rescuing his little son; whileJoe the gardener, not to be behindhand in this general expression ofgood-will and gratitude, squeezed his quondam rival's fist in his, ejaculating over and over again, with a broad grin on his bucolic face, "You be's a proper sort, you be, hey, Meaister?" thereby calling uponthe vicar, as it were, to testify to the truth of the encomium. 

He was a very funny man, Joe!

When the general excitement had subsided, and Teddy, who had in themeantime been stalking about, a comical little figure, attired in Mary'sflannel petticoat, was re-dressed in the fresh suit of clothes Joe hadbrought for him amidst the blankets, the whole party adjourned up thehill to their old rendezvous under the elm-tree. 

Here they found, greatly to their surprise and gratification, thatJupp's well-built fire had not gone out, as all expected, during theunforeseen digression that had occurred to break the even tenor of theirafternoon's entertainment, although left so long unattended to. 

On the contrary, it was blazing away at a fine rate, with the kettleslung on the forked sticks above it singing and sputtering, emittingclouds of steam the while, "like an engine blowing off, " as the porterobserved; so, all their preparations having been already completed, thechildren carried out their original intention of having a festal tea inhonour of "Pa's birthday, " he being set in their midst and told to donothing, being the guest of the occasion. 

Never did bread and butter taste more appetisingly to the little onesthan when thus eaten out in the woods, away from all such stuck-upsurroundings as tables and chairs, and plates, and cups and saucers, andthe other absurd conventionalities of everyday life. They only hadthree little tin pannikins for their tea, which they passed round inturn, and a basket for their dish, using a leaf when the luxury of aplate was desired by any sybarite of the party--those nice broad ones ofthe dock making splendid platters. 

Now, besides bread and butter, Molly the cook had compounded a deliciousdough-cake for them, having plums set in it at signal distances apart, so conspicuous that any one could know they were there without going tothe trouble of counting them, which indeed would not have taken long todo, their number being rather limited; and, what with the revulsion offeeling at Teddy's providential escape, and the fact of having papa withthem, and all, they were in the very seventh heaven of enjoyment. 

Conny and Cissy, who were the most active of the sprites, assisted bythe more deliberate Teddy and Liz, acted as "the grown-up people"attending as hostesses and host to the requirements of "the children, "as they called their father and Mary and Jupp, not omitting Joe thegardener, who, squatting down on the extreme circumference of theirlittle circle, kept up a perpetual grin over the acres of bread andbutter he consumed, just as if he were having a real meal and not merelyplaying!

The worthy gardener was certainly the skeleton, or cormorant, so tospeak, of the banquet, eating them almost out of house and home, it mustbe mentioned in all due confidence; and, taking watch of his depravityof behaviour in this respect, the thoughtful Conny registered an inwarddetermination never to invite Joe to another of their al fresco feasts, if she could possibly avoid doing so without seriously wounding hissensibilities. The way he walked into that dough-cake would have madeanyone almost cry. 

The fete, however, excepting this drawback, passed off successfullyenough without any other contretemps; and after the last crumb of cakehad been eaten by Joe, and the things packed up, the little party wendedtheir way home happily in the mellow May evening, through the fieldsgreen with the sprouting corn, with the swallows skimming round them andthe lark high in the sky above singing her lullaby song for the nightand flopping down to her nest. 

Towards the end of the month, however, Teddy managed somehow or other toget into another scrape. 

"There never was such a boy, " as Mary said. He was "always in hotwater. "

The queen's birthday coming round soon after the vicar's, Jupp, remembering how it used to be kept up when he was in the navy, greatguns banging away at royal salutes while the small-arm men on boardfired a _feu de joie_, or "fire of joy, " as he translated it by the aidof Miss Conny, who happened just then to be studying French, hedetermined to celebrate the anniversary as a loyal subject in similarfashion at the vicarage, with the aid of a couple of toy cannon and asmall bag of powder which he purchased for the purpose. 

Teddy, of course, was taken into his confidence, the artilleryexperiments being planned for his especial delectation; so, coming up tothe house just about noon on the day of the royal anniversary, when hewas able to get away from the station for an hour, leaving his mateGrigson in charge, he set about loading the ordnance and getting readyfor the salute, with a train laid over the touch-holes of the cannon toset light to the moment it was twelve o'clock, according to theestablished etiquette in the navy, a box of matches being placed handyfor the purpose. 

As ill luck would have it, though, some few minutes before the propertime, Mary, who was trying to sling a clothes-line in the back garden, called Jupp to her assistance, and he being her attentive squire on alloccasions, and an assiduous cavalier of dames, hastened to help her, leaving Teddy in charge of the loaded cannon, the gunpowder train, andlastly, though by no means least, the box of matches. 

The result can readily be foreseen. 

Hardly had Jupp reached Mary's side and proceeded to hoist theobstreperous clothes-line, when "Bang! bang!" came the reports ofdistant cannonading on the front lawn, followed by an appalling yellfrom the little girls, who from the safe point of vantage of thedrawing-room windows were looking on at the preparations of war. 

To rush back through the side gate round to the front was but the workof an instant with Jupp, and, followed by Mary, he was almost as quicklyon the spot as the sound of the explosion had been heard. 

He thought that Master Teddy had only prematurely discharged the cannon, and that was all; but when he reached the lawn what was hisconsternation to observe a thick black cloud of smoke hanging in theair, much greater than could possibly have been produced by the littletoy cannon being fired off, while Teddy, the cause of all the mischief, was nowhere to be seen at all!

CHAPTER SIX. 

THE POND IN THE MEADOW. 

Not a trace of the boy could be seen anywhere. 

The cause of the explosion was apparent enough; for, the little woodenbox on which Jupp had mounted the toy cannons, lashing them down firmly, and securing them with breechings in sailor-fashion, to prevent theirkicking when fired, had been overturned, and a jug that he had broughtout from the house containing water to damp the fuse with, was smashedto atoms, while of the box of matches and the bag of powder only a fewsmouldering fragments remained--a round hole burned in the grass neartelling, if further proof were needed, that in his eagerness to startthe salute, Master Teddy, impatient as usual, had struck a light toignite the train, and this, accidentally communicating with the bag ofpowder, had resulted in a grand flare-up of the whole contents. 

This could be readily reasoned out at a glance; but, where could Teddybe, the striker of the match, the inceptor of all the mischief?

Jupp could not imagine; hunt high, hunt low, as he might and did. 

At first, he thought that the young iconoclast, as nothing could beperceived of him on the lawn or flower-beds, had been blown up in theair over the laurel hedge and into the lane; as, however, nothing couldbe discovered of him here, either, after the most careful search, thistheory had to be abandoned, and Jupp was fairly puzzled. 

Teddy had completely vanished!

It was very strange, for his sisters had seen him on the spot the momentbefore the explosion. 

Mary, of course, had followed Jupp round to the front of the house, while the little girls came out on to the lawn; and Molly the cook, aswell as Joe the gardener, attracted by the commotion, had also beenassisting in the quest for the missing Teddy, prying into every hole andcorner. 

But all their exertions were in vain; and there they stood in wonderingastonishment. 

"P'aps, " suggested Cissy, "he's done upstairs?"

"Nonsense, child!" said Conny decisively; "we would have seen him fromthe window if he had come in. "

"Still, we'd better look, miss, " observed Mary, who was all pale andtrembling with anxiety as to the safety of her special charge. "He mayhave been frightened and rushed to the nursery to hide himself, as hehas done before when he has been up to something!"

So saying, she hurried into the passage, and the rest after her. 

It was of no use looking into the drawing-room or kitchen, the littlegirls having been in the former apartment all the time, and Molly in thelatter; but the parlour was investigated unsuccessfully, and every nookand cranny of the study, a favourite play-ground of the children whenthe vicar was out, as he happened to be this evening, fortunately orunfortunately as the case might be, visiting the poor of his parish. 

Still, there was not a trace of Teddy to be found. 

The search was then continued upstairs amongst the bed-rooms by Mary andMolly, accompanied by the three little girls, who marched behind theirelders in silent awe, Jupp and Joe remaining down in the hall andlistening breathlessly for some announcement to come presently fromabove. 

The nursery disclosed nothing, neither did the children's sleeping room, nor the vicar's chamber, although the beds were turned up and turneddown and looked under, and every cupboard and closet inspected ascautiously as if burglars were about the premises; and Mary was about togive up the pursuit as hopeless, when all at once, she thought she heardthe sound of a stifled sob proceeding from a large oak wardrobe in thecorner of the spare bed-room opposite the nursery, which had been leftto the last, and where the searchers were all now assembled. 

"Listen!" she exclaimed in a whisper, holding up her finger to enjoinattention; whereupon Cissy and Liz stopped shuffling their feet about, and a silence ensued in which a pin might have been heard to drop. 

Then, the noise of the stifled sobs that had at first attracted Mary'snotice grew louder, and all could hear Teddy's voice between the sobs, muttering or repeating something at intervals to himself. 

"I do believe he's saying his prayers!" said Mary, approaching thewardrobe more closely with stealthy steps, so as not to alarm the littlestowaway, a smile of satisfaction at having at last found him crossingher face, mingled with an expression of amazement--"Just hear what he isrepeating. Hush!"

They all listened; and this was what they heard proceeding from withinthe wardrobe, a sob coming in as a sort of hyphen between each word ofthe little fellow's prayer. 

"Dod--bess pa--an' Conny an' Liz--an' 'ittle Ciss--an' Jupp, de porterman, an' Mary--an'--an'--all de oders--an' make me dood boy--an' I'llneber do it again, amen!"

"The little darling!" cried Mary, opening the door of the wardrobe whenTeddy had got so far, and was just beginning all over again; but themoment she saw within, she started back with a scream which at oncebrought Jupp upstairs. Joe the gardener still stopped, however, on themat below in the passage, as nothing short of a peremptory command fromthe vicar would have constrained him to put his heavy clod-hopping bootson the soft stair-carpet. Indeed, it had needed all Mary's persuasionto make him come into the hall, which he did as gingerly as a cattreading on a hot griddle!

As Jupp could see for himself, when he came up to the group assembledround the open door of the wardrobe there was nothing in the appearanceof poor Teddy to frighten Mary, although much to bespeak her pity andsympathy--the little fellow as he knelt down in the corner showing anupturned face that had been blistered by the gunpowder as it exploded, besides being swollen to more than twice its ordinary size. Hisclothing was also singed and blackened like that of any sweep, while hiseyelashes, eyebrows, and front hair had all been burnt off, leaving himas bare as a coot. 

Altogether, Master Teddy presented a very sorry spectacle; and thelittle girls all burst into tears as they looked at him, even Jupppassing his coat-sleeve over his eyes, and muttering something about itsbeing "a bad job" in a very choky sort of voice. 

It was but the work of an instant, however, for Mary to take up theunfortunate sufferer in her arms, and there he sobbed out all his woesas she cried over him on her way to the nursery, sending off Jupppromptly for the doctor. 

"I'se not do nuzzin, " explained Teddy as he was being undressed, and hisburns dressed with oil and cotton-wool, pending the arrival of medicaladvice. "I'se only zust light de match an' den dere was a whiz; an' agreat big black ting lift me up an' trow me down, and den I climb up outof de smoke an' run 'way here. I was 'fraid of black ting comin' an'hide!"

"There was no black thing after you, child, " said Conny. "It was onlythe force of the explosion that knocked you down, and the cloud of smokeyou saw, which hid you from us when you ran indoors. "

"It was a black ting, " repeated Teddy, unconvinced by the wise MissConny's reasoning. "I see him, a big black giant, same as de jinny instory of de fairies; but I ran 'way quick!"

"All right, dear! never mind what it was now, " said Mary soothingly. "Do you feel any better now?"

"Poor mou's so sore, " he whimpered, "an' 'ittle nosey can't breez!"

"Well, you shouldn't go meddling with matches and fire, as I've told youoften, " said Mary, pointing her moral rather inopportunely. Still shepatted and consoled the little chap as much as she could; and whenDoctor Jolly came up from Endleigh presently, he said that she had doneeverything that was proper for the patient, only suggesting that hisface might be covered during the night with a piece of soft rag dippedin Goulard water, so as to ease the pain of the brows and let the littlesufferer sleep. 

The vicar did not return home until some time after the doctor had leftthe house and Jupp gone back to his duties at the railway-station; butalthough all traces of the explosion had been removed from the lawn andthe grass smoothed over by Joe the gardener, he knew before being toldthat something had happened from the unusual stillness around, bothwithout and within doors, the little girls being as quiet as mice, andTeddy, the general purveyor of news and noise, being not to the fore asusual. 

It was not long before he found out all about the accident; when therewas a grand to-do, as may be expected, Mr Vernon expressing himselfvery strongly anent the fact of Jupp putting such a dangerous thing asgunpowder within reach of the young scapegrace, and scolding Mary fornot looking after her charge better. 

Jupp, too, got another "blowing up" from the station-master for beingbehind time. So, what with the general upset, and the dilapidatedappearance of Master Teddy, with his face like a boiled vegetablemarrow, when the bandages had been removed from his head and he wasallowed to get up and walk about again, the celebration of the Queen'sBirthday was a black day for weeks afterwards in the chronicles of thevicar's household!

During the rest of the year, however, and indeed up to his eighth year, the course of Teddy's life was uneventful as far as any leading incidentwas concerned. 

Of course, he got into various little scrapes, especially on thoseoccasions when his grandmother paid her periodic visits to the vicarage, for the old lady spoiled him dreadfully, undoing in a fortnight all thatMary had effected by months of careful teaching and training in the wayof obedience and manners; but, beyond these incidental episodes, he didnot distinguish himself by doing anything out of the common. 

Teddy leisurely pursued that uneven tenor of way customary to boys ofhis age, exhibiting a marked preference for play over lessons, andbecoming a great adept at field sports through Jupp's kindly tuition, albeit poor Puck was no longer able to assist him in hunting rabbits, the little dog having become afflicted with chronic asthma ever sincehis immersion in the river when he himself had so narrowly escaped fromdrowning. 

If water, though, had worked such ill to Puck, the example did notimpress itself much on Teddy; for, despite his own previous peril, hewas for ever getting himself into disgrace by going down to the river tocatch sticklebacks against express injunctions to the contrary, whenleft alone for any length of time without an observant and controllingeye on his movements. He was also in the habit of joining the villageboys at their aquatic pranks in the cattle-pond that occupied aprominent place in the meadows below Endleigh--just where the spur ofone of the downs sloped before preparing for another rise, forming ahollow between the hills. 

Here Master Teddy had loved to go on the sly, taking off his shoes andstockings and paddling about as the shoe and stockingless villageurchins did; and this summer, not satisfied with simple paddling as ofyore, he bethought himself of a great enterprise. 

The pond was of considerable extent, and when it was swollen with rain, as happened at this period, the month of June being more plentiful thanusual of moisture, its surface covered several acres, the water beingvery deep between its edge and the middle, where it shallowed again, theground rising there and forming a sort of island that had actually analder-tree growing on it. 

Now, Teddy's ambition was to explore this island, a thing none of thevillage boys had dreamed of, all being unable to swim; so, as thewished-for oasis could not be reached in that fashion, the next bestthing to do was to build a boat like Robinson Crusoe and so get at it inthat way. 

As a preliminary, Teddy sounded the ex-sailor as to the best way ofbuilding a boat, without raising Jupp's suspicions--for, the worthyporter, awed by the vicar's reprimand anent the _feu de joie_ affair andMary's continual exhortations, had of late exhibited a markeddisinclination to assist him in doing anything which might lead him intomischief--artfully asking him what he would do if he could find no treenear at hand large enough that he could hollow out for the purpose; but, Jupp could give him no information beyond the fact that he must have agood sound piece of timber for the keel, and other pieces curved in aparticular fashion for the strakes, and the outside planking woulddepend a good deal whether he wanted the boat clinker-built or smooth-sided. 

"But how then, " asked Teddy--he could speak more plainly now than as afive-year old--"do people get off from ships when they have no boat?"

"Why, they builds a raft, sir, " answered Jupp. 

"A raft--what is that?"

"Why, sir, it means anything that can swim, " replied Jupp, quite in hiselement when talking of the sea, and always ready to spin a yarn or tellwhat he knew. "It might be made of spare spars, or boards, or anythingthat can float. When I was in the _Neptune_ off Terra del Faygo I'veseed the natives there coming off to us seated on a couple of branchesof a tree lashed together, leaves and all. "

"Oh, thank you, " said Teddy, rejoiced to hear this, the very hint hewanted; "but what did they do for oars?"

"They used sticks, in course, sir, " answered the other, quiteunconscious of what the result of his information would be, and that hewas sowing the seeds of a wonderful project; and Teddy presently leadingon the conversation in a highly diplomatic way to other themes, Juppforgot bye and bye what he had been talking about. 

Not so, however, Master Teddy. 

The very next day, taking up Puck in his arms, and getting awayunperceived from home soon after the early dinner, which the childrenalways partook of at noon, he stole down to the pond, where, collectingsome of the little villagers to assist him, a grand foray was made onthe fencing of the fields and a mass of material brought to the water'sedge. 

Teddy had noted what Jupp had said about the Tierra del Fuegans lashingtheir rude rafts together, so he took down with him from the house aquantity of old clothes-lines which he had discovered in the backgarden. These he now utilised in tying the pieces of paling from thefences together with, after which a number of small boughs and branchesfrom the hedges were laid on top of the structure, which was then pushedoff gently from the bank on to the surface of the pond. 

Hurrah, it floated all right!

Teddy therefore had it drawn in again, and stepped upon the raft, which, although it sank down lower in the water and was all awash, still seemedbuoyant. He also took Puck with him, and tried to incite some others ofthe boys to venture out in company with him. 

The little villagers, however, were wiser in their generation, and beingunused to nautical enterprise were averse to courting danger. 

"You're a pack of cowards!" Teddy exclaimed, indignant and angry attheir drawing back thus at the last moment. "I'll go by myself. "

"Go 'long, master, " they cried, noways abashed by his comments on theirconduct; "we'll all watch 'ee. "

Naturally plucky, Teddy did not need any further spurring, so, all aloneon his raft, with the exception of the struggling Puck, who did not likeleaving _terra firma_, and was more of a hindrance than an aid, hepushed out into the pond, making for the islet in the centre by means ofa long pole which he had thinned off from a piece of fencing, stickingit into the mud at the bottom and pushing against it with all his might. Meanwhile, the frail structure on which he sat trembled and wobbledabout in the most unseaworthy fashion, causing him almost to repent ofhis undertaking almost as soon as he had started, although he had theincense of popular admiration to egg him on, for the village boys werecheering and hooraying him like--"like anything, " as he would himselfhave said!

CHAPTER SEVEN. 

FATHER AND SON. 

The road from the vicarage to the village and station beyond passedwithin a hundred yards or so of the pond; but from the latter beingsituated in a hollow and the meadows surrounding it inclosed within ahedge of thick brushwood, it could only be seen by those passing to andfro from one point--where the path began to rise above the valley as itcurved round the spur of the down. 

It was Saturday also, when, as Teddy well knew, his father would beengaged on the compilation of his Sunday sermon, and so not likely to begoing about the parish, as was his custom of an afternoon, visiting thesick, comforting the afflicted, and warning those evil-doers whopreferred idleness and ale at the "Lamb" to honest toil and uprightnessof living; consequently the young scapegrace was almost confident ofnon-interruption from any of his home folk, who, besides being too busyindoors to think of him, were ignorant of his whereabouts. It was alsoJupp's heaviest day at the station, so _he_ couldn't come after him hethought; and he was enjoying himself to his heart's content, when as theFates frequently rule it, the unexpected happened. 

Miss Conny, now a tall slim girl of thirteen, but more sedate andwomanly even than she had been at ten, if that were possible, wasoccupied in the parlour "mending the children's clothes, " as sheexpressed it in her matronly way, when she suddenly missed a large reelof darning cotton. Wondering what had become of it, for, being neat andorderly in her habits, her things seldom strayed from their properplaces, she began hunting about for the absent article in differentdirections and turning over the piles of stockings before her. 

"Have you seen it?" she asked Liz, who was sitting beside her, alsoengaged in needlework, but of a lighter description, the young ladydevoting her energies to the manufacture of a doll's mantilla. 

"No, " said Liz abstractedly, her mouth at the time being full of pinsfor their more handy use when wanted, a bad habit she had acquired froma seamstress occasionally employed at the vicarage. 

"Dear me, I wonder if I left the reel upstairs, " said Conny, muchconcerned at the loss; and she was just about prosecuting the searchthither when Cissy threw a little light on the subject, explaining atonce the cause of the cotton's disappearance. 

"Don't you recollect, Con, " she observed, "you lent it to Teddy theother day? I don't s'pose he ever returned it to you, for I'm sure Isaw it this morning with his things in the nursery. "

"No more he did, " replied Conny. "Please go and tell him to bring itback. I know where you'll find him. Mary is helping Molly making apie, and he's certain to be in the kitchen dabbling in the paste. "

"All right!" said Cissy; and presently her little musical voice could beheard calling through the house, "Teddy! Teddy!" as she ran along thepassage towards the back. 

Bye and bye, however, she returned to the parlour unsuccessful. 

"I can't see him anywhere, " she said. "He's not with Mary, or in thegarden, or anywhere!"

"Oh, that boy!" exclaimed Conny. "He's up to some mischief again, andmust have gone down to the village or somewhere against papa's orders. Do you know where he is, Liz?"

"No, " replied the young sempstress, taking the pins out of her mouthfurtively, seeing that Conny was looking at her. "He ran out of thehouse before we had finished dinner, and took Puck with him. "

"Then he has gone off on one of his wild pranks, " said her elder sister, rising up and putting all the stockings into her work-basket. "I willgo and speak to papa. "

The vicar had just finished the "thirdly, brethren, " of his sermon; andhe was just cogitating how to bring in his "lastly, " and that favourite"word more in conclusion" with which he generally wound up the weeklydiscourse he gave his congregation, when Conny tapped at the study doortimidly awaiting permission to enter. 

"What's the matter?" called out Mr Vernon rather testily, not liking tobe disturbed in his peroration. 

"I want to speak to you, papa, " said Conny, still from without. 

"Then come in, " he answered in a sort of resigned tone of voice, itappearing to him as one of the necessary ills of life to be interrupted, and he as a minister bound to put up with it; but this feeling ofannoyance passed off in a moment, and he spoke gently and kindly enoughwhen Conny came into the room. 

"What is it, my dear?" he asked, smiling at his little housekeeper, ashe called her, noticing her anxious air; "any trouble about to-morrow'sdinner, or something equally serious?"

"No, papa, " she replied, taking his quizzing in earnest. "The dinner isordered, and nothing the matter with it that I know of. I want to speakto you about Teddy. "

"There's nothing wrong with him, I hope?" said he, jumping up from hischair and wafting some of the sheets of his sermon from the table withhis flying coat-tails in his excitement and haste. "Nothing wrong, Ihope?"

Although a quiet easy-going man generally, the vicar was wrapt up in allhis children, trying to be father and mother in one to them and makingup as much as in him lay for the loss of that maternal love and guidanceof which they were deprived at an age when they wanted it most; but ofTeddy he was especially fond, his wife having died soon after giving himbirth, and, truth to say, he spoiled him almost as much as thatgrandmother whose visitations were such a vexed question with Mary, causing her great additional trouble with her charge after the old ladyleft. 

"Nothing wrong, papa dear, that I know of, " replied Conny in her formaldeliberative sort of way; "but, I'm afraid he has gone off with thosevillage boys again, for he's nowhere about the place. "

"Dear me!" ejaculated the vicar, shoving up his spectacles over hisforehead and poking his hair into an erect position like a cockatoo'screst, as he always did when fidgety. "Can't you send somebody afterhim?"

"Mary is busy, and Teddy doesn't mind Joe, so there's no use in sendinghim. "

"Dear me!" ejaculated her father again. "I'm afraid he's getting veryheadstrong--Teddy, I mean, not poor Joe! I must really get him underbetter control; but, I--I don't like to be harsh with him, Conny, youknow, little woman, " added the vicar dropping his voice. "He's a brave, truthful little fellow with all his flow of animal spirits, and his eyesremind me always of your poor mother when I speak sternly to him and helooks at me in that straightforward way of his. "

"Shall I go after him, papa?" interposed Conny at this juncture, seeingthat a wave of memory had carried back her father into the past, makinghim already forget the point at issue. 

"What? Oh, dear me, no!" said the vicar, recalled to the present. "I'll go myself. "

"But your sermon, papa?"

"It's just finished, and I can complete what has to be added when I comeback. No--yes, I'll go; besides, now, I recollect, I have to call atJob Trotter's to try and get him to come to church to-morrow. Yes, I'llgo myself. "

So saying, the vicar put on the hat Conny handed to him, for she had tolook after him very carefully in this respect, as he would sometimes, when in a thinking fit, go out without any covering on his head at all!

Then, taking his stick, which the thoughtful Conny likewise got out ofthe rack in the hall, he went out of the front door and over the lawn, through the little gate beyond. He then turned into the lane that ledacross the downs to the village, Miss Conny having suggested this as thewisest direction in which to look for Teddy, from the remembrance ofsomething the young scapegrace had casually dropped in conversation whenat dinner. 

As he walked along the curving lane, the air was sweet with the scent ofdry clover and the numerous wild flowers that twined amongst theblackberry bushes of the hedgerows. Insects also buzzed about, creatinga humming music of their own, while flocks of starlings startled by hisapproach flew over the field next him to the one further on, exhibitingtheir speckled plumage as they fluttered overhead, and the whistle ofthe blackbird and coo of the ring-dove could be heard in the distance. 

But the vicar was thinking of none of these things. 

Conny's words about Teddy not minding Joe the gardener, or anybody elseindeed, had awakened his mind to the consciousness that he had not givenproper consideration to the boy's mental training. 

Teddy's education certainly was not neglected, for he repeated hislessons regularly to his father and displayed the most promising signsof advancement; but, lessons ended, he was left entirely to theservants. The vicar reflected, that this ought not to be permitted witha child at an age when impressions of right and wrong are so easilymade, never to be effaced in after life, once the budding character isformed. 

He would correct this error, the vicar determined; in future he wouldsee after him more personally!

Just as he arrived at this sound conclusion the vicar reached the bendof the lane where it sloped round by the spur of the down, a bustlingbumblebee making him notice this by brushing against his nose as hebuzzed through the air in that self-satisfied important way that allbumblebees affect in their outdoor life; and, looking over the hedgethat sank down at this point, he saw a group of boys gathered round theedge of the pond. 

He did not recognise Teddy amongst them; but, fancying the urchins mightbe able to tell him something of his movements, he made towards them, climbing through a gap in the fence and walking down the sloping side ofthe hill to the meadow below. 

The boys, catching sight of him, immediately began to huddle togetherlike a flock of sheep startled by the appearance of some strange dog;and he could hear them calling out some words of warning, in which hisfamiliar title "t'parson" could be plainly distinguished. 

"The young imps must be doing something wrong, and are afraid of beingfound out, " thought the vicar. "Never mind, though, I sha'n't be hardon them, remembering my own young truant!"

As he got nearer, he heard the yelp of a dog as if in pain or alarm. 

"They're surely not drowning some poor animal, " said the vicar aloud, uttering the new thought that flashed across his mind. "If so, I shallmost certainly be severe with them; for cruelty is detestable in man orboy!"

Hurrying on, he soon obtained a clear view of the pond, and he could nowsee that not only were a lot of boys clustered together round the edgeof the water, but towards the centre something was floating like a raftwith apparently another boy on it, who was holding a struggling whiteobject in his arms, from which evidently the yelps proceeded--his earssoon confirming the supposition. 

"Hullo! what are you doing there?" shouted the vicar, quickening hispace. "Don't hurt the poor dog!"

To his intense astonishment the boy on the floating substance turned hisface towards him, answering his hail promptly with an explanation. 

"It's Puck, padie, and I ain't hurting him. "

Both the face and the voice were Teddy's!

The vicar was completely astounded. 

"Teddy!" he exclaimed, "can I believe my eyes?--is it really you?"

"Yes, it's me, padie, " replied the young scapegrace, trying to balancehimself upright on the unsteady platform as he faced his father, but notsucceeding in doing so very gracefully. 

"Why, how on earth--or rather water, that would be the most correctexpression, " said the vicar correcting himself, being a student of Paleyand a keen logician as to phraseology; "how did you get there?"

"I made a raft, " explained Teddy in short broken sentences, which wereinterrupted at intervals through the necessary exertion he had to makeevery now and then to keep from tumbling into the water and hold Puck. "I made a raft like--like Robinson Crusoe, and--and--I've brought Puck--uck with me, 'cause I didn't have a parrot or a cat. I--I--I wanted toget to the island; b-b-but I can't go any further as the raft is stuck, and--and I've lost my stick to push it with. Oh--I was nearly overthere!"

"It would be a wholesome lesson to you if you got a good ducking!" saidthe vicar sternly, albeit the reminiscences of Robinson Crusoe and thefact of Teddy endeavouring to imitate that ideal hero of boyhood struckhim in a comical light and he turned away to hide a smile. "Come to thebank at once, sir!"

Easy enough as it was for the vicar to give this order, it was a verydifferent thing for Teddy, in spite of every desire on his part, to obeyit; for, the moment he put down Puck on the leafy flooring of the raft, the dog began to howl, making him take it up again in his arms. To addto his troubles, also, he had dropped his sculling pole during a lurchof his floating platform, so he had nothing now wherewith to propel iteither towards the island or back to the shore, the raft wickedlyoscillating midway in the water between the two, like Mahomet's coffin'twixt heaven and earth!

Urged on, however, by his father's command, Teddy tried as gallantly asany shipwrecked mariner to reach land again; but, what with Puckhampering his efforts, and his brisk movements on the frail structure, this all at once separated into its original elements through theclothes-line becoming untied, leaving Teddy struggling amidst the debrisof broken rails and branches--Puck ungratefully abandoning his master inhis extremity and making instinctively for the shore. 

The vicar plunged in frantically to the rescue, wading out in the muduntil he was nearly out of his depth, and then swimming up to Teddy, who, clutching a portion of his dismembered raft, had managed to keepafloat; although, he was glad enough when his father's arm was round himand he found himself presently deposited on the bank in safety, wherethey were now alone, all the village boys having rushed off _en masse_, yelling out the alarm at the pitch of their voices the moment Teddy fellin and the vicar went after him. 

Both were in a terrible pickle though, with their garments soaking wet, of course; while the vicar especially was bedraggled with mud from headto foot, looking the most unclerical object that could be well imagined. However, he took the whole matter good-humouredly enough, not scoldingTeddy in the least. 

"The best thing we can do, my son, " he said when he had somewhatrecovered his breath, not having gone through such violent exercise formany a long day. --"The best thing we can do is to hurry off home as fastwe can, so as to arrive there before they hear anything of the accidentfrom other sources, or the girls will be terribly alarmed about us. "

Teddy, without speaking, tacitly assented to this plan by jumping upimmediately and clutching hold of the shivering Puck, whose asthma, bythe way, was not improved by this second involuntary ducking; and thetwo were hastening towards the vicarage when they heard a horse trottingbehind them, Doctor Jolly riding up alongside before they had proceededvery far along the lane, after clambering out of the field where thepond was situated. 

"Bless me!" cried the doctor; "why, here are you both safe and sound, when those village urchins said you and Master Teddy were drownded!"

"Ah! I thought these boys were up to something of the sort when theyall scampered off in a batch without lending us a helping hand!" repliedthe vicar laughing. "I was just telling Teddy this, thinking the reportwould reach home before us. "

"Aye, all happen, Vernon? 'Pon my word, you're in a fine mess!"

The vicar thereupon narrated all that had occurred, much to the doctor'samusement. 

"Well, " he exclaimed at the end of the story, "that boy of yours is cutout for something, you may depend. He won't be drowned at any rate!"

"No, " said the vicar reflectively; "this is the second merciful escapehe has had from the water. "

"Yes, and once from fire, too, " put in the other, alluding to thegunpowder episode. "He's a regular young desperado!"

"I hope not, Jolly, " hastily interposed the vicar. "I don't like yourjoking about his escapades in that way. I hope he will be good--eh, myboy?" and he stroked Teddy's head as he walked along by his side, fatherand son being alike hatless, their headgear remaining floating on thepond, along with the remains of the raft, to frighten the frogs andfishes. 

Teddy uttered no reply; but his little heart was full, and he made manyinward resolves, which, alas! his eight-year-old nature was not strongenough to keep. 

CHAPTER EIGHT. 

UNAPPRECIATED. 

He really did not mean any harm; but mischief is mischief whetherintentional or not, and somehow or other he seemed continually to begetting into it. Circumstances, over which, of course, he had nocontrol, continually overruled his anxious desire to be good. 

As Doctor Jolly said, with his usual strident hearty laugh that could beheard half a mile off, and which was so contagious that it made peoplesmile whose thoughts were the reverse of gay, Teddy was always in hotwater, "except, by Jove, when he plunged into the cold, ho, ho!"

With reference to this latter point, however, it may be mentioned here, that albeit he had twice been mercifully preserved from drowning, thevicar, while trustful enough in the divine workings of Providence, didnot think it altogether right to allow Teddy's insurance against awatery grave to be entirely dependent on chance; and so, that veryevening, when Jupp came up to the house after he had done his work atthe station, he broached the subject to him as soon as the worthy porterhad been made cognisant of all the facts connected with the raftadventure. 

"No, " said the vicar, so carried away by his feelings that he almostadded "my brethren, " fancying himself in the pulpit delivering a homilyto his congregation generally, instead of only addressing one hearer, "we ought not to neglect any wise precaution in guarding against thosedangers that beset our everyday lives. Lightly spoken as the adage is, that `God helps those who help themselves, ' it is true enough. "

"Aye, aye, sir, and so say I, " assented Jupp, rather mystified as to"what the parson was a-driving at, " as he mentally expressed it, by thisgrand beginning, and thinking it had some reference to his not beingpresent at the pond to rescue Teddy in his peril, which he keenlyregretted. 

"This being my impression, " continued the vicar, completing his period, as if rounding a sentence in one of his sermons, wherein he wasfrequently prone to digress, "and I'm glad to learn from youracquiescent reply that you agree with me on the main issue, eh?"

Jupp nodded his head again, although now altogether in a fog regardingthe other's meaning. 

"Well, then, " said the vicar, satisfied with having at last cleared theground for stating his proposition, "I want you to devote any leisuretime you may have in the course of the next few weeks to teaching my sonto swim; so that, in the event of his unhappily falling into the wateragain, when neither you nor I may be near, he may be able to savehimself--under providence, that is. "

"I was just about a-thinking on the same thing, sir, when you began a-speaking, " observed Jupp thoughtfully, scratching his head in hisreflective way as he stood before the vicar cap in hand at the door ofthe study, where the conference was being held. "I fancied you didn'tlike me taking him down to the river, or I'd have taught him to swimlong ago, I would, sir!"

"Then I may depend on your doing so now, eh?"

"Sartenly, sir! I'll be proud, that I will, to show him, " answered Juppeagerly, mightily pleased with the task intrusted to him, having longwished to undertake it; and so, he being willing, and his pupil nothingloth, Teddy was in a comparatively short space so well instructed how tosupport himself in the water that he was quite capable of swimmingacross the river without fear of being sucked down into the mill-race--although he made both his father and Jupp a promise, which he honourablykept, of never bathing there unless accompanied by either of the two. 

Not only this, but he could also essay the muddy depths of the pond inthe meadow whenever the fancy seized him, exploring the little island inits centre at his own sweet will; and this accomplishment, as will beseen further on, stood him in good stead at one of the most criticalperiods of his life, although this is anticipating. 

But, learning swimming, and so lessening the risk attending peril bywater, did not prevent him from getting into scrapes on land; for, hewas a brave, fearless boy, and these very qualities, added to a naturalimpulsiveness of disposition, were continually leading him into rashenterprises which almost invariably ended in mishap and disaster, if notto himself, to those who unwittingly were involved in his ventures, alas!

In his ninth year, Jupp got a rise on the line, being promoted to beassistant station-master at a neighbouring town, which necessarilyinvolved his leaving Endleigh; and, being now also able to keep a wifein comfort, the long courtship which had been going on between him andMary was brought to a happy conclusion by matrimony, a contingency thatinvolved the loss to the vicar's household of Mary's controllinginfluence, leaving Master Teddy more and more to himself, with no one inauthority to look after him. 

Under these circumstances, the vicar, acting on Doctor Jolly's advice, sent him to a small private school in the village where the farmers'sons of the vicinity were taught the rudiments of their education, Teddygoing thither every morning and afternoon in company with his sistersLiz and Cissy, who received lessons from a retired governess dwellinghard by--the three children returning home in the middle of the day fortheir dinner, and again on the termination of their tasks in theevening. 

Miss Conny, who had passed through the same curriculum, had grown tooold for her teacher, and now remained at the vicarage, installed as herfather's housekeeper and head of the family in his absence. 

This arrangement worked very well for a time, although Teddy did notmake any very rapid progress at his studies, his mind being more turnedto outdoor sports than book lore; but the association with others madehim, if more manly, less tractable, developing his madcap propensitiesto a very considerable extent, if merely from his desire to emulate hiscompanions. 

One day, when going homewards with Liz and Cissy across the fields fromEndleigh, the trio came upon a group of the idle boys of the village whowere assembled in front of an inclosed paddock containing Farmer Giles'sbrindled bull, a savage animal, whose implacable viciousness was thetalk of the place; not even the ploughman, with whom he was morefamiliar than anyone else, daring to approach him without the protectionof a long-handled pitchfork. 

Neither Farmer Giles nor any of his men were about, and the boys, takingadvantage of the opportunity, were baiting the bull by shying clods athim and otherwise rousing his temper, when Teddy and his sisters camealong. 

Teddy fired up at once at the sight. 

"You cowards!" he cried; "you stand there behind the fence pelting thepoor animal, but none of you have the pluck to go inside and do it!"

"No more have you, Meaister, " retorted one of the biggest of the boys, arustic lout of sixteen. "You ain't got the plook t' go inside yoursen!"

"Haven't I?" said Teddy in answer to this taunt; and before his sisterscould prevent him he had darted over to where the boys were standing, and climbing over the stout five-barred gate that gave admittance to theinclosure, let himself down into the paddock--confronting the bullwithout even a stick in his hand. 

The savage animal appeared so much surprised at the temerity of such alittle fellow as Teddy invading his domain, that he allowed him toadvance several steps without making a movement; when, putting down hishead, as if trying the points of his horns, and pawing the ground, heuttered a wild bellow that brought forth a responsive shriek from Cissy. 

"Come back, Teddy, come back!" she screamed, turning quite pale withfright. "He's coming after you, and will toss you on his cruel horns. Oh, do come back!"

Teddy, however, still continued advancing towards the infuriated brute, waving his arms and shouting in the endeavour to intimidate it. He wassorry he had gone into the paddock; but he had some idea that if heretreated the bull would make a rush at him, and thought that by showinghe was not afraid, he might presently retire with all the honours ofwar, so he preserved a courageous front, although his heart went pit-a-pat all the while. 

Again, the bull lowered his horns and tossed up his head. 

He was quite close to him now; and Teddy stopped, the bull eyeing himand he looking at it steadfastly. 

The situation was alarming, so he stepped back gingerly, whereupon thebull advanced at the same moment, with another loud bellow, the smokecoming out of his red nostrils, and his little eyes flaming with fire. 

This caused all Teddy's courage to evaporate, and the next moment, forgetting all his previous caution, he turned and ran as hard as hecould for the gate; but, the bull, in two strides, catching him up onhis horns like a bundle of hay, tossed him high in the air, amidst thescreams and shouts of Cissy and Liz and all the village boys commingled, the triumphant roar of the animal overtopping them all as it bellowedforth a paean of victory. 

Fortunately for Teddy, a pollard elm stood just within the paddock, breaking his fall as he tumbled towards the ground, where the bull waslooking up awaiting him, with the intention of catching him again on hishorns; and the branches receiving his body in their friendly shelter, hewas saved from tumbling down, when he would have been at the mercy ofhis enemy. 

Still, there he hung, like Absalom, another naughty boy before him, suspended by his clothes if not by his hair, the bull bellowing andkeeping guard round the tree to prevent his further escape; and it wasnot until the ploughman had been called by one of the village boys anddriven away the animal that Teddy was able to climb down from hisinsecure perch and regain the others. 

He was glad enough to get out of the paddock, it may be safely asserted;and then, when he was examined, it was discovered, much to the wonder ofeverybody, including himself, that, beyond a scratch or two from thebranches of the elm, he was quite unhurt, in spite of the toss the bullgave him and his unexpected flight through the air!

But his daring, if unproductive of any evil consequences towards himselfpersonally, caused harm to others, the ploughman being badly gored whiledriving off the violent animal through his missing his footing whenaiming a blow at it with his pitchfork; while poor Cissy was in such afright at the mishap, that after screaming herself hoarse she went offin hysterics, the attack ending in a fit of convulsions on her gettinghome, making her so ill that the doctor had to be summoned to bring herback to consciousness. 

Teddy in consequence had a serious lecture from the vicar, who pointedout to him the difference between real courage and foolhardiness; butthe lesson did not strike very deep, and soon he was his wayward selfagain, his sister Conny being too near his own age to have any authorityover him, while his father was too much of a student and dreamer toexercise any judicious control in restraining his exuberant nature. 

By the time he was twelve years of age he was like a wild unbroken colt, although he had still the same honest outspoken look in his bright blueeyes, and was a fine manly little fellow who would not have, told a lieto save himself from punishment, or wilfully hurt chick or child; but, scapegrace he was still, as he had been almost from his earliestinfancy. 

He really could not help it. 

When Jupp and Mary paid their periodical visit at the vicarage to seehow the family were getting on, bringing anon another little Jupp withthem, they were certain to hear of something terrible that Master Teddyhad done; for all the village talked of him now and took heed of hismisdeeds, the recital of which, as is usual in such cases, lost nothingby the telling. 

They were only ordinary boyish freaks; but they seemed awful to thequiet, sleepy countryfolk who inhabited Endleigh. 

Once, his grandmother rather unwisely brought down a pistol for him fromLondon; and Teddy thereupon having his imagination excited by what hehad read of pirates and highwaymen in the works of romance which hedevoured whenever he could get hold of them, went about fancying himselfa bold buccaneer and freebooter, firing at everything moving within aswell as out of range, along the solitary country lanes and hedgerows--thereby frightening passers-by frequently with untimely shots close totheir ears, and making them believe their last hour had come. 

It was in this way that he peppered old Stokes's sow, which was taking aquiet walk abroad seeking a convenient wallowing place, when the squealsof the unlucky beast were a nine days' wonder, albeit "it was all cryand little wool, " as the Irishman said when he shaved his pig, theanimal being not much hurt. 

Still, old Stokes did not like it, and complained to the squire, whoremonstrated with the vicar, and the latter in his turn lectured Teddy--the matter ending there as far as he was concerned, although the squealsof the afflicted sow were treasured up and remembered against him in thechronicles of Endleigh. 

The place was so dull, that having nothing particular to keep himoccupied--for he had long since learned all the village schoolmastercould teach him, and it was a mere farce his remaining any longer underhis tutelage--the wonder was, not that Teddy got into any mischief atall, but that he did not fall into more; and Doctor Jolly wascontinually speaking to his father about neglecting him in that way, urging that he should be sent to some good boarding-school at a distanceto prepare him for the university, Mr Vernon intending that the boyshould follow in his own footsteps and go into the church, having thesame living after him that he had inherited from his father. 

But the vicar would not hear of this. 

"No, " said he, "he shall stop here and be educated by me in the same wayas I was educated by my poor father before going to Oxford. He's abright intelligent boy--you don't think him an ignoramus, Jolly, eh?"

"Not by any means, by Jove, " laughed the doctor. "He knows too muchalready. What I think he wants is a little proper restraint andcontrol. Master Teddy has too much his own way. "

"Ah! I can't be hard with him, Jolly, " sighed the vicar. "Whenever Itry to speak to him with severity he looks me in the face with thoseblue eyes of his, and I think of my poor wife, his mother. He's thevery image of her, Jolly!"

"Well, well, " said the doctor, putting the subject away, considering ituseless to press the point; "I'm afraid you'll regret it some day, though I hope not. "

"I hope not, indeed, " replied the vicar warmly. "Teddy isn't a bad boy. He has never told me a falsehood in his life, and always confesses toany fault he has committed. "

"That doesn't keep him out of mischief though, " said the doctor grimlyas he went off, atoning to himself for having found fault with Teddy bygiving him a drive out to the squire's, and allowing him to take hishorse and gig back by himself, an indulgence that lifted Teddy into theseventh heaven of delight. 

However, as events turned out, the very means by which the doctorthought to clear the reproach from his own soul of having advised thevicar about Teddy, indirectly led to his advice being followed. 

On alighting at the squire's and handing him the reins, he told Teddy tobe very particular in driving slowly, the horse being a high-spiritedone, and apt to take the bit in his teeth if given his head or touchedwith the whip; so, as long as he was in sight Teddy obeyed theseinjunctions, coaxing the bay along as quietly as if he were assisting ata funeral procession. 

Directly he got beyond range of observation from the house, though, hemade amends for his preliminary caution, shaking the reins free, andgiving the horse a smart cut under the loins that made it spring forwardlike a goat, almost jumping out of the traces; and then, away it torealong the road towards the village at the rate of twenty miles an hour, the gig bounding from rut to rut as if it were a kangaroo, and shakingTeddy's bones together like castanets. 

Once the animal had got its head, the boy found it useless to try andstop him; while, as for guidance, the horse no more cared about hispulling at the bit than if he were a fly, plunging onward in its wildcareer, and whisking the gig from side to side, so that Teddy was fullyemployed in holding on without attempting to pull the reins at all. 

For a mile or two the roadway was pretty clear, but on nearing Endleighit became narrower; and here, just in front, Teddy could see a loadedfarm wagon coming along. 

To have passed it safely either he or the wagoner would have had to pullup on one side; but with him now it was impossible to do this, while thedriver of the other vehicle was half asleep, and nodding from amidst thepile of straw with which the wagon was loaded, letting the team jinglealong at a slow walk. 

A collision, therefore, was inevitable, and hardly had Teddy come tothis conclusion than smash, bang, it followed!

There was a terrible jolt, and he suddenly felt himself doing asomersault, waking up the wagoner by tumbling on top of him above thestraw, whither he had hurled as from a catapult by the sudden stoppageof the gig in its mad career; and when he came to himself he saw thatthe fragments of the vehicle lay scattered about under the front of thewagon, against which it had been violently impelled, the bay canteringdown to its own stable with its broken traces dangling behind it. 

Teddy was thunderstruck at the mishap. 

He had not thought there was any danger in disobeying the doctor'sinstructions, and yet here was the gig smashed up and the wagoner'shorses injured irreparably, one poor brute having to be shot afterwards;besides which he did not know what had become of the runaway animal. 

All the mishap had arisen through disobedience!

He went home at once and told his father everything; but the vicar, though comforting him by saying that he would get the doctor a new gig, and recompense the farmer to whom the wagon belonged for the loss of histeam, seemed to have his eyes awakened at last to the evil to whichDoctor Jolly had so vainly tried to direct his attention. 

He determined that Teddy should go to school. 

But, before this intention could be carried out, there was a mostunexpected arrival at the vicarage. 

This was no less a personage than Uncle Jack, whom neither Teddy nor hissisters had ever seen before, he having gone to sea the same year thevicar had married, and never been heard of again, the vessel in which hehad sailed having gone down, and all hands reported lost. 

Uncle Jack hadn't foundered, though, if his ship had, for here he was aslarge as life, and that was very large, he weighing some fourteen orfifteen stone at the least!

What was more, he had passed through the most wonderful adventures andbeen amongst savages. These experiences enabled him to recount the mostdelightful and hairbreadth yarns--yarns that knocked all poor Jupp'sstories of the cut-and-dried cruises he had had in the navy into acocked hat, Teddy thought, as he hung on every utterance of this newly-found uncle, longing the while to be a sailor and go through similarexperiences. 

Uncle Jack took to him amazingly, too, and when he had becomedomesticated at the vicarage, asked one day what he was going to be. 

"What, make a parson of him, brother-in-law!" exclaimed the sailor inhorrified accents. "You'd never spoil such a boy as that, who's cut outfor a sailor, every inch of him--not, of course, that I wish to say aword against your profession. Still, he can't go into the church yet;what are you going to do with him in the meantime, eh?"

"Send him to school, " replied the other. 

"Why, hasn't he been yet?"

"Oh, yes, he's not altogether ignorant, " said the vicar. "I think he'sa very fair scholar for his years. "

"Then why dose him any more with book learning, eh? When you fill awater-cask too full it's apt to run over!"

"I quite agree with you about cramming, Jack, " said the vicar, smilingat the nautical simile; "but, I'm sending Teddy to a leading school morefor the sake of the discipline than for anything more that I want him tolearn at present. "

"Discipline, eh! is that your reason, brother-in-law? Then allow me totell you he'll get more of that at sea than he ever will at school. "

"Oh, father!" interrupted Teddy, who had been present all the timeduring the confab, listening as gravely as any judge to the discussionabout his future, "do let me be a sailor! I'd rather go to sea thananything. "

"But you might be drowned, my boy, " said the vicar gravely, his thoughtswandering to every possible danger of the deep. 

"No fear of that, " answered Teddy smiling. "Why, I can swim like afish; and there's Uncle Jack now, whom you all thought lost, safe andsound after all his voyages!"

"Aye and so I am!" chorused the individual alluded to. 

"Well, well, we'll think of it, " said the vicar. "I'll hear what my oldfriend Jolly has to say to the plan first. "

But he could not have consulted a more favourable authority as far asTeddy was concerned. 

"The very thing for him!" said the doctor approvingly. "I don't thinkyou could ever turn him into a parson, Vernon. He has too much animalspirits for that; think of my gig, ho! ho!"

Overcome by the many arguments brought forward, and the generalconsensus of judgment in favour of the project, the vicar at lastconsented that Teddy might be allowed to go to sea under the aegis ofUncle Jack, who started off at once to London to see about the shippingarrangements; when the rest of the household set to work preparing theyoung sailor's outfit in the meantime, so that no time might be lost--little Cissy making him a wonderful anti-macassar, which, in spite ofall ridicule to the contrary, she asserted would do for the sofa in hiscabin!

Of course, Jupp and Mary came over to wish Teddy good-bye; but, albeitthere was much grief among the home circle at the vicarage when theyescorted him to the little railway-station, on the day he left therewere not many tears shed generally at his going, for, to paraphrase notirreverently the words of the Psalmist, "Endleigh, at heart, was glad athis departing, and the people of the village let him go free!"

CHAPTER NINE. 

AT SEA. 

"Well, here we are, my hearty!" said Uncle Jack, who was on the watchfor him at London Bridge station, and greeted him the moment the trainarrived; "but, come, look sharp, we've a lot to do before us, andprecious little time to do it in!"

Teddy, however, was not inclined at first to "look sharp. "

On the contrary, he looked extremely sad, being very melancholy atleaving home, and altogether "down in the mouth, " so to speak. 

This arose, not so much from the fact of his parting with his father andsisters, dearly as he loved them all in his way; but, on account of poorPuck, who, whether through grief at his going away, which theintelligent little animal seemed quite as conscious of through theinstinct of his species as if he were a human being, or from his chronicasthma coming to a crisis, breathed his last in Teddy's arms the verymorning of his departure from home!

The doggy, faithful to the end, was buried in the garden, Conny, Cissy, and Liz attending his obsequies, and the two latter weeping with Teddyover his grave, for all were fond of Puck; but none lamented him sodeeply as he, and all the journey up to town, as the train sped itsweary way along, his mind was busy recalling all the incidents thatattended their companionship from the time when his grandmother firstgave him as a present. He was a brisk young dog then, he remembered, the terror of all strange cats and hunter of rabbits, but his affectionhad not swerved down to the last year of their association, when, toothless and wheezy, he could hunt no more, and cats came fearlesslybeneath his very nose when he went through the feeble pretence of tryingto gnaw a bone on the lawn. 

Poor Puck--_requiescat in pace_!

Still, doggy or no doggy, Uncle Jack was not the sort of fellow to letTeddy remain long in the dumps, especially as he had said there was agood deal to be done; and, soon, Teddy was in such a whirl ofexcitement, with everything new and strange around him, that he had notime left to be melancholy in. 

First, Uncle Jack hailed a hansom, all Teddy's belongings in the shapeof luggage being left in the cloak-room at the terminus, and the twojumping in were driven off as rapidly as the crowded state of thestreets would allow, to Tower Hill, where the offices of the shippingagents owning the _Greenock_ were situated. 

Here Uncle Jack deposited a cheque which the vicar had given him, andMaster Teddy was bound over in certain indentures of a very imposingcharacter as a first-class apprentice to the said firm, the lad thensigning articles as one of the crew of the _Greenock_, of which vessel, it may be mentioned, Uncle Jack had already been appointed chiefofficer, so that he would be able to keep a watchful eye over his nephewin his future nautical career. 

"Now that job's done, " said Uncle Jack when all the bothersome writingand signing were accomplished and the vicar's cheque paid over, "we'llhave a run down to look at the ship; what say you to that, eh?"

"All right!" responded Teddy, much delighted at the idea; and the pairthen were driven from Tower Hill to the Fenchurch Street railway-station, where they dismissed their cab and took train for the docks, the state of locomotion in the neighbourhood of which does not readilypermit of the passage of wheeled vehicles, a hansom running the risk ofbeing squashed into the semblance of a pancake against the heavy draysblocking the narrow streets and ways, should it adventure within thethoroughfares thereof. 

On their arrival at Poplar, Uncle Jack threaded his way with amazingease and familiarity through a narrow lane with high walls on eitherhand, and then into a wide gateway branching off at right angles. Entering within this Teddy found himself in a vast forest of masts, withships loading and unloading at the various quays and jetties alongsidethe wharves, opposite to lines of warehouses that seemed to extend fromone end of the docks to the other. 

Uncle Jack was not long in tumbling across the _Greenock_, which hadnearly completed taking in her cargo and was to "warp out next morning, "as he told Teddy, who didn't know what on earth he meant by the phrase, by the way. 

There appeared to be a great deal of confusion going on in front of thejetty to which she was moored; but Uncle Jack took him on board andintroduced him to Mr Capstan, the second officer, as a future messmate, who showed him the cabins and everything, telling him to "make himselfat home!"

The _Greenock_ was a fine barque-rigged vessel of some two thousandtons, with auxiliary steam-power; and she gained her living or earnedher freight, whichever way of putting it may please best, by sailing toand fro in the passenger trade between the ports of London andMelbourne, but doing more in the goods line on the return journey, because colonials bent on visiting the mother country generally preferthe mail steamers as a speedier route. Emigrants, however, are not sosqueamish, contenting themselves in getting out to Australia, that landof promise to so many hard-up and despairing people at home, by whatevermeans they can--so long only as they may hope to arrive there at sometime or other!

Teddy was surprised at the gorgeousness of the _Greenock's_ saloons andcabins, and the height of her masts, and the multitude of ropes aboutrunning in every conceivable direction, crossing and recrossing eachother with the bewildering ingenuity of a spider's web; but Uncle Jacktook all these wonders as a matter of course, and rather pooh-poohedthem. 

"Wait till you see her at Gravesend, " he said. "She's all dismantlednow with these shore lumpers and lubbers aboard, and won't be herselftill she's down the river and feels herself in sailors' hands again. Why, you won't know her! But come along, laddie, we've got to buy asea-chest and a lot of things to complete your kit; and then, we'll goto granny's and try to see something of the sights of London. "

So, back they trudged again to the Poplar station and were wafted oncemore to Fenchurch Street, where Uncle Jack dived within the shop of afriendly outfitter, who had a mackintosh and sextant swinging in frontof his establishment to show his marine leanings and dealings. 

Here, a white sea-chest, whose top was made like a washing-stand, andseveral other useful articles, were purchased by Uncle Jack withoutwasting any time, as he had made up his mind what he wanted before goingin and knew what he was about; and these things being ordered to beforwarded to the cloak-room at the London Bridge station, to be placedwith Teddy's other luggage, Uncle Jack rubbed his hands gleefully. 

"Now that business is all settled, " he said, "we can enjoy ourselves abit, as the ship won't be ready for us till next Monday. Come along, myhearty! Let us bear up for granny's--you haven't been to her placebefore, have you, eh?"

No, Teddy explained. Granny had often been down to Endleigh to see him, but he had never been up to town to see her; that first attempt of his, which had been frustrated by Mary's pursuit and the machinations ofJupp, having deterred him, somehow or other, from essaying the journey asecond time. Indeed, he had never been to London at all. 

"_My_!" exclaimed Uncle Jack. "What a lot there'll be for you to see, my hearty, eh?"

What is more, he showed him, too, all that was to be seen, taking Teddyto monuments and exhibitions, to galleries and even to the theatre. 

The time passed by rapidly enough--too rapidly, granny thought, when theday came for her to say good-bye to Teddy; but he was nothing loth togo, longing to be on board the _Greenock_ as one belonging to her ofright, and feel himself really at sea. 

Granny wanted him to have another little dog in place of Puck; however, he couldn't make up his mind to a substitute to supersede the formeranimal's hold on his affections. Besides this, Uncle Jack said thecaptain did not allow anybody to have dogs on board, and that was aclincher to the argument at once. 

Monday morning came, and with it another railway journey. It reallyseemed to Teddy as if he were "on the line, " like Jupp!

The _Greenock_, having taken in all her cargo, had been warped out ofdock and then towed down the river to Gravesend, where she was now lyingmoored in the stream off the Lobster. 

"There she is!" cried Uncle Jack when they got down to the beach. 

"Where?" asked Teddy, not recognising the dirty untidy hulk he had seenin the docks, as she first appeared to him before he was taken on boardand noticed the elegance of her cabins, in the thing of beauty he sawnow before him; with every spar in its place and snow-white canvasextended in peaceful folds from the yards, as the vessel lay at anchorwith her topsails dropped and her courses half clewed up, ready tospread her wings like an ocean bird. 

What a change there was in her!

"Look, right in front there, laddie, " said Uncle Jack. "Can't you see?She's just about making-sail, so we'd better get on board as soon aspossible. Hi, boatman, seen any one belonging to the _Greenock_ashore?"

"Aye, aye, sir, " answered the man addressed, "her boat's just over thereby the p'int, just agoin' to shove off. "

"Thank you, my hearty, " said Uncle Jack, giving him a trifle for theinformation; and in another minute or so Teddy found himself in the_Greenock's_ jolly-boat in company with a lot of the new hands, likehimself, going off to join the ship. Here on his arrival on board, hewas introduced to Captain Lennard, the monarch of all he surveyed as faras the deck of the _Greenock_ was concerned, and his future commander. 

Teddy liked the look of him; while he, on his part, seemed to like thelook of Teddy, smiling kindly when he saw him come over the gangwayafter Uncle Jack. He had the general appearance of a brown Jupp, beingof the same height and with just such a smiling good-humoured face, withthe exception that his hair and beard, instead of being black, was of alighter and ruddier hue. 

Oh, yes, Teddy thought, Captain Lennard was the man for him. He lookedeasy and kind-hearted and would not bully people, as he had read of somebrutal captains doing. 

"This your nephew?" he asked Uncle Jack politely. 

"Yes, sir, " replied the other, touching his cap, being in regularnautical rig now, as also was Teddy, who, clad in spick-and-span reefercostume, felt as proud as Punch. 

"Ah! then, if he's like you I think we'll get along very well together, Mr Althorp, " said the captain with a bow and smile. "He looks like achip of the old block too!"

"You're very good to say that, sir, " stammered Uncle Jack, blushing atthe compliment. "The youngster's very like my poor sister, and Isuppose resembles me, as she and I were twins. I've no doubt, though, you'll find him teachable when he's licked into shape; for, he isn't abad lad from what I have seen of him as yet, and is plucky enough, ifall I've heard of him down at Endleigh be true. "

"Well, Master Vernon, I hope you'll justify the character your unclegives of you. If you only obey orders there'll be no fear of ourfalling out. But, mind, I'm captain of this ship; so look out forsqualls if you shirk duty or try on any tricks!"

The captain said this pleasantly, but there was a stern look combined inthe twinkle of his hazel eyes beneath their thick brown eyebrows, likepenthouses overshadowing them; and Teddy felt that, with all hisgentleness and joking way, he was a man who intended to command andlikewise to be obeyed. 

A moment later Captain Lennard changed the conversation by asking UncleJack if all the hands were on board. 

"Aye, aye, sir, " said the other. "The whole batch, I think, came outwith us. Isn't that so, Mr Capstan?" he asked, turning to the second-mate, who was standing close by. 

"Yes, all hands aboard, " replied the second-mate laconically. 

"Then make sail at once, " said Captain Lennard, going aft on the poop;while Mr Capstan bustled forwards, shouting out as he scrambled up onthe windlass bitts and thence to the fo'c's'le, "All hands make sa-i-il!" drawling out the last word as if it were a chorus to some mariner'sditty he were singing. 

The crew were all picked men, the majority having been in the ship onone or two previous voyages; so they were quite at home, and sprang intothe rigging long before the second-mate had got to the end of hisrefrain. 

In a second, the topsails were dropped and sheeted home, and therattling of the clewgarnet blocks told of the courses following theirexample; after which the hands aloft then loosed the topgallant, therebeing a fine breeze fair for the Downs. 

Teddy was puzzled for a moment by all the seeming confusion that reignedin the ship, with ropes flying about and cordage cracking, while thehoarse orders issued by Mr Capstan and Uncle Jack were answered by thecheery cry of the men, singing out lustily as they hoisted and pulled atthe halliards with a will. But, the confusion was only momentary and inappearance only; for, hardly had he begun to realise what all the bustlewas about, than the ship was clothed in canvas from truck to deck, likea lady attired for a ball all in white!

The headyards were then backed, and Captain Lennard's voice rang throughthe vessel fore and aft as clear as a bell--

"Hands up anchor!"

Then, the windlass was wound; and, slip, slap, click, clack, it wentround the pawl belaying every inch of cable got in. 

"Cheerily, men! heave with a will!" urged the second-mate; and thebrawny fellows bent all their strength to the handspikes, heaving themdown with sheer brute force. 

"Hove short!" presently sang out Mr Capstan. 

"Up with it!" responded Captain Lennard from the poop, where the pilotnow appeared by his side awaiting all these preparations to be completedbefore taking charge of the ship. 

Half-a-dozen more heaves and the anchor-stock showed above the water. 

"Hook cat!" cried the second-mate. 

"I wonder what that means!" thought Teddy. "I hope they won't hurt thepoor thing!"

But, the next moment, he was undeceived. 

Nothing in the shape of cruelty to animals was about to be perpetrated. 

Mr Capstan only ordered the men to hook on the tackle by which the headof the anchor was to be braced up; and, before he could say "JackRobinson, " if he had been that way inclined, the falls were manned andthe anchor run up to the cathead with a rousing chorus as the menscampered aft with the tail-end of the rope. 

The headyards were then filled, and the ship bowed her head as if insalute to Father Neptune, the next instant gathering way as the sailsbegan to draw. 

"Port!" sang out the pilot from the bridge. 

"Port it is, " responded the man at the wheel, shifting the spokes withboth hands like a squirrel in a cage, it seemed to Teddy, who waslooking at him from the break of the poop, where he had taken up hisstation by Captain Lennard's orders so that he might the more easily seeall that was going on. 

"Steady!"

"Steady it is, " repeated the helmsman in parrot fashion. 

And so, conning and steering along, the _Greenock_ was soon bounding onher way down channel, passing Deal and rounding the South Forelandbefore noon. 

Teddy at last was really at sea!

CHAPTER TEN. 

TAKING FRENCH LEAVE. 

The weather was beautifully fine for October, with a bright warm sunshining down and lighting up the water, which curled and crested beforethe spanking nor'-east breeze, that brought with it that bracing tonewhich makes the month, in spite of its autumnal voice warning us of theapproach of winter, one of the most enjoyable in our changeableclimate--especially to those dwelling along the south coast, which thegood ship _Greenock_ now trended by on her passage out of the Channel. 

Teddy as yet, although this was his first experience of "a life on theocean wave, " was not sea-sick; for, although the vessel heeled well overto the wind on the starboard tack she did not roll, but ploughed throughthe little wavelets as calmly as if on a mill-pond, only rising now andagain to make a graceful courtesy to some cross current that brought aswell over from the opposite shore of France, for after passing BeachyHead she kept well off the land on the English side. 

A west-nor'-west course brought the _Greenock_ off Saint Catharine'sPoint; but the evening had drawn in too much for Teddy to see anythingof the Isle of Wight, and when he woke up next morning the ship wasabreast of the Start Point. 

From thence, he had a fair view of the Devon and Cornish coasts in thedistance all the way to the Lizard, the scene being like an ever-changing panorama, with plenty of life and movement about in the vesselsthe _Greenock_ was continually passing either outwards or homewardsbound; while the little trawlers and fishing-boats clustered in groupshere and there, and there was the occasional smoke from some steamersteaming along the horizon, like a dark finger-post above the level ofthe sea in the distance. 

He enjoyed it all, as, although he had found his bunk in the cabinrather close and stuffy after his nice airy bed-room at the vicarage, hewas still not sea-sick; and, as he leant over the taffrail, watching thecreamy wake the ship left behind her, spreading out broader and broaderuntil it was lost in the surrounding waste of waters, what with thesniff of the saline atmosphere and the bracing breeze, he began to feelhungry, longing for breakfast-time to come and wondering when he wouldhear the welcome bell sound to tell that the meal was ready. 

No one was on deck, at least on the poop, when he came up, save thehelmsman, and Mr Capstan, the latter walking up and down briskly on thewindward side and exchanging a word now and again with the pilot on thebridge; so Teddy felt a little forlorn. 

Presently, the second-mate, taking a longer turn in his quarterdeckwalk, came up and spoke to him. 

"Well, young shaver, " he said, "how are you getting on?"

"Very well, thank you, sir, " replied Teddy, touching his cap, as UncleJack had told him he must always do to his superior officer. 

"Ah! you're like a young bear, and have all your troubles before you, "the other next remarked consolingly, adding immediately afterwards thequery: "Seen any of your messmates yet?"

"No, sir, " replied Teddy, looking a bit puzzled--"that is, exceptingyourself and the captain, and Uncle Jack, of course. Are there anyother midshipmen like myself?"

"Aye, if you call the apprentices so, young shaver, " said Mr Capstanwith an ironical grin which did not improve his rather ugly face. "There are two more of you; and the lazy young hounds must be snoozingbelow, for they haven't shown a leg yet. However, I'll soon rouse 'emup!"

So saying, he shouted out to one of the hands in the waist forwards:"Here, Bill Summers!"

"Aye, aye, sir, " replied the man, looking up towards the break of thepoop, whence the second-mate had hailed him, leaning over the rail. 

"Just go and call Jones and Maitland. Tell 'em to turn out sharp orI'll stop their grog, " cried Mr Capstan. 

"Aye, aye, sir, " said the man, proceeding towards the deck-house, whichoccupied a middle position in the ship between the poop and fo'c's'le;and presently, although hidden from the gaze of those aft, he could beheard rapping at one of the doors, repeating in whispered tones theorder the second-mate had given him. 

Ere long, a couple of striplings appeared, dressed in dirty uniformswhich presented a marked difference to that of Teddy; and he noticedbesides that one was considerably taller than he was while the secondwas shorter and a little slimmer. 

"Here, you, Jones and Maitland, I won't have you caulking away thisbright morning when the sun ought to be scorching the sleep out of youreyes. What do you mean by it, eh?" began Mr Capstan as if lashinghimself into a passion, but had not quite got enough steam up yet. 

"I thought, sir, as this is our first day out and the ship still incharge of the pilot, we needn't turn out so early, " said Jones, thebiggest of the two, acting as spokesman. 

"You thought!" snarled the second-mate, catching up a rope's-end withthe apparent intention of laying it across the shoulders of Jones, onlyhe kept a wary distance away. "I've half a mind to give you somethingfor answering me like that! No one has any business to think on boardship. "

"Aye, where you're boss!" said the offender speaking aside. 

"What is that you're jabbering?" quickly interposed Mr Capstan--"someimpudence, I reckon. Now, just you pull off those patent-leather pumpsof yours and set to work washing decks. It's gone six bells, and itought to have been done half an hour ago. "

Teddy thought this was a very unkind cut of the mate at poor Jones'sboots, which were a dilapidated pair of bluchers that needed mendingbadly; still, he couldn't help smiling, which didn't seem to please MrCapstan, who, turning round, now addressed him:

"And you, my fine young shaver, with your dandy rig, you'd better bedoing something to earn your salt, and not be a useless lubber, lookingon like a fine lady! You just put off and go and help Jones. "

Teddy, though he didn't relish the job, obeyed willingly; and soon hewas paddling about in bare feet with his trousers rolled up to the knee, while the crew under Jones's direction rigged the head pump and sluicedthe decks down from end to end of the ship, beginning with the poop andending with the midship section in the waist, where all the water wascollected in a sort of small lake and had to be swabbed out of thescuttles. 

Young Maitland meanwhile had been sent up the main royal mast to clearthe dog vane, which had somehow or other got fouled; so Mr Capstan, satisfied at seeing everybody busily employed but himself, pacedcontentedly up and down the poop, sniffing about and snortingoccasionally like an old grampus, as if in satisfaction at "taking itout of the youngsters. "

The man was naturally a bully, and loved to display the little authorityhe had by "hazing" those under him, to use the technical sea phrase. 

By dint of continually nagging at the men below from his commandingposition above, the second-mate hurried them up so with their work thatin a very short space of time the decks were scrubbed and washed, thesun drying them almost without the use of the swab. 

Mr Capstan then set them to work coiling down the loose ropes lyingabout, there being nothing else to do, as the ship had not altered hercourse but remained on the starboard tack with the wind well on herquarter; and, although everything had been made snug before leaving theDowns, he was just going to tell the hands to unship the motley contentsof the long-boat and stow it again afresh in default of some other task, when eight bells struck, and Uncle Jack came up from below to relievehim from his watch--a relief, it may be added, to all hands in more thanone sense!

Presently, Captain Lennard came on deck too; although he must not bethought lazy for being so late, for he had remained up with the pilot onthe bridge all night conning the ship, only turning in for a short napat daylight. 

Then, the passengers, of whom there were some sixty in the first-classsaloon, began to creep up the companion, one by one as if not yetaccustomed to the somewhat unsteady footing of a ship's deck at sea; asfor the steerage emigrants they remained below, and even after they hadbeen weeks afloat it required almost force to drive them up into thefresh air. 

Teddy was looking at the queer figures some of the gentlemen and ladiespresented on the poop, when all at once the breakfast gong sounded, andthey all scuttled down much faster than they had come up, the sea airhaving given those able to get out of their bunks fresh appetites afterthey had paid homage to Neptune. 

He was not invited to go down with these, however, having to mess alongwith Jones and Maitland in the deck-house close to the galley, where thethree mids consoled themselves with the reflection that if they wereexcluded from the saloon, at all events they were nearer the place wheretheir meals were cooked, and so had the advantage of getting themhotter!

After breakfast the pilot left the ship, a boat putting out for him fromthe land when they were near Saint Michael's; and then Captain Lennard, hauling round a bit, shaped a west-south-west course, steering out intothe broad Atlantic until he had reached longitude 12 degrees West, whenthe vessel's head was turned to the south for Madeira and the Canaries. 

Strange to say, Teddy up to now had not been once sick. 

It is true they had not as yet had any rough weather; but the sea wasbrisk enough to try the stomachs of all the landsmen on board, so it wascurious he was not affected in any way by the ship's motion. 

As Uncle Jack said at the first, he was a born sailor!

Soon he began, too, to understand his duties; and being naturally quickof intellect and active, he after a time became handier on the yards andup aloft than little Maitland, who had been two voyages out and homebefore; while Jones had to exert himself to hold his own with him--withUncle Jack, besides, coaching him up in seamanship, Teddy ere the vesselhad reached Madeira was a greenhand no longer. 

At Teneriffe Captain Lennard put in to coal, the ship being, as formerlymentioned, an auxiliary screw, and able to enlist the aid of steam whenshe came to the calm latitudes, which they were now approaching. 

The passengers being allowed to go on shore for a few hours, Teddyreceived permission to accompany those taking advantage of theopportunity of landing. 

There was no time to try and climb up the celebrated peak, which can beseen so far out at sea that it looks like an island in the clouds; butthere was much amusement gained in donkey riding and studying themanners and customs of the natives. 

The garments, Teddy noticed, of the ladies were rather limited indimensions; but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in style, all the dresses being provided with those "improvers" of late fashion inEngland. These made the skirts of the Portuguese damsels stick out allround, giving them a very funny appearance with their brown skins andbare feet!

It was well they coaled here, for while they were yet in sight of thehuge cloud-cap't mountain above Santa Cruz, the wind that had favouredthem so well up to now dropped to a dead calm; so, Captain Lennard, ordering the sails to be furled and the screw-propeller lowered, thevessel was able to proceed under steam across the equator, making almostas good time as when sailing before a good breeze--almost, but notquite, as she was a clipper under canvas. 

They touched once more at the Cape of Good Hope, to fill up the coalthey had expended in case of another emergency necessitating theirsteaming again; but, the wind being favourable when the _Greenock_ gotbelow the forties, she bowled along steadily before it under canvas, reaching Melbourne within sixty days. 

Altogether, the voyage was uneventful except for one thing, and that wasthe persistent bullying of Mr Capstan the second-mate, who, whetherfrom his relationship to Uncle Jack, his superior officer, or from someother cause, had apparently conceived such a dislike to Teddy that hetyrannised over him more than he seemed to think necessary either withlittle Maitland or Jones--although they suffered, too, at his hands!

Teddy would not complain, though, to the captain; and as for his UncleJack, he would have thought it dishonourable to breathe a word to him. He would rather have suffered the crudest torture the bully couldinflict than that!

However, he and little Maitland matured their plans together, and comingto the conclusion that they could not very well have any satisfactionfrom Mr Capstan without telling tales, they determined to steal awayfrom the ship when she got into harbour, and run away ashore up into thebush, Val Maitland retailing for Teddy's benefit the most wonderfulstories anent gold-digging and bush-ranging--stories that cordiallyagreed with his own fancy. 

Not long, therefore, after the _Greenock_ had entered within Port PhilipHeads and got up to Sandridge Pier, the two boys, mixing amongst thecrowd of passengers landing, touters touting for various boarding-houses, and all the different sorts of people that throng round thenewly-arrived at the colonial metropolis, especially at its harbourmouth, managed easily to get into the town unobserved, giving the slipmost successfully to their ship and all its belongings. 

"And what shall we do now?" asked Teddy, his companion, although smallerthan himself, taking the lead, from being an older sailor and havingbeen previously in Australia. 

"Do! why, go into the bush, of course!" promptly answered the other. 

"And how shall we get there?" next inquired Teddy cheerfully, wishing tostart off that very moment for the golden land he had dreamt of. 

"Why, by train, " said Val. 

"By train!" echoed Teddy in a voice of consternation, the idea was sucha terrible come down to what he had imagined. 

"Yes, by train; come along with me, " repeated little Maitland, catchinghold of his arm; and turning into Collins Street he soon made his way tothe railway depot and took a couple of tickets for Ballarat. 

CHAPTER ELEVEN. 

THE WRECK. 

"I say, " began Val presently when the train was in motion. 

"Well?" said Teddy rather grumpily. 

He could not stomach the fact that here they were journeying along bythe aid of an ordinary railway, just as they would have done in England. 

When Val had suggested their going to the diggings he had imagined theywould tramp thither through the bush, with their blankets and swag ontheir shoulders, as he had often read of men doing; and that they wouldend by picking up a big nugget of gold that would make all theirfortunes!

The train disposed of all these dreams in a moment; for, how could theypick up nuggets along a line of "permanent way, " as Jupp would havecalled it--a beaten track that thousands traversed every day by the aidof the potent iron-horse and a bucket of hot water?

It was scandalous that Val hadn't told him of the railroad!

It dispelled all the romance of the expedition at once, he thoughtgrumblingly. Despite all Mr Capstan's bullying, he had not run awayfrom the ship for that; so he was not at all in a mood to have anyconversation with such an unprincipled fellow as Val, who ought to haveenlightened him before. 

"Well?" he said again, seeing that young Maitland hesitated aboutproceeding, his grumpy tone acting as a sort of damper to hiscontemplated eloquence. 

"I say, old fellow, " then began Val again, making a fresh start andblurting out his question, "have you got any money?"

Teddy was all sympathy now. 

A comrade in distress should never appeal to him in vain!

So he commenced searching his pockets. 

"I ought to have some, " he said. "Father gave me a five-pound notebefore I left home, and Uncle Jack when I was in London with him tippedme a sovereign, and I haven't spent or changed either for that matter;but, now I come to think of it, they're both in my chest in the cabin. I never thought of taking them out before we left the _Greenock_. "

"That's precious unlucky, " observed Val, searching his pockets too, andtrying each vainly in turn. "I've only a couple of shillings left nowafter paying for the railway tickets. Whatever shall we do?"

"Oh, bother that!" replied Teddy sanguinely; "we sha'n't want any. Thefellows I've read about who went to the diggings never had a halfpenny, but they always met with a friendly squatter or tumbled into luck insome way or other. "

"That was in the old days, " said Val in a forlorn way. "The squattershave all been cleared out, and there are only hotels and boarding-housesleft, where they expect people to pay for what they have to eat. "

"They're a stingy lot then, and quite unlike what I've read in booksabout the customs in Australia; but what can you expect when they have arailway!"

Teddy spoke in such a scornful manner of this sign of civilisation thathe made Val laugh, raising his spirits again. 

"All right, old chap!" said the little fellow. "I daresay we'll getalong very well although we haven't any money to speak of with us. Twoshillings, you know, is something; and no doubt it will keep us fromstarving till we come across luck. "

Teddy cheerfully acquiesced in this hopeful view of things; and then thetwo, being alone in the carriage, chatted away merrily on all sorts ofsubjects until they arrived at their station, which a porter sang outthe name of exactly in the same fashion as if they were at home. 

This quite exasperated Teddy, who, when he got down and looked abouthim, opened his eyes with even greater wonder. 

Surely this large town couldn't be Ballarat!

Why, that place ought to be only a collection of hastily-run-up woodenshanties, he thought, with perhaps one big store where they soldeverything, provisions, and picks and shovels, with cradles for rockingthe gold-dust out of the quartz and mud. 

Where were the canvas tents of the diggers, and the claims, and all?

But, yes, Ballarat it was; although the only diggings were quarriesworked by public mining companies with an immense mass of machinery thatcrushed the rock and sent streams of water through the refuse, usingquicksilver to make an amalgam with--companies that were satisfied toget a grain of gold for every ton of quartz they excavated and poundedinto powder, and realised a handsome dividend at that, where ordinarydiggers wouldn't have had a chance of keeping themselves from starving. 

He and little Maitland wandered about; and then, feeling hungry, exhausted all their capital in one meal, "burning their boats, " like theold Athenians. 

They would now have either to find something to do to get lodging orfood, or else tramp it back to the ship. 

They slept that night in the open air, under some scaffolding round anew building that was being run up on the outskirts of the town; and thenext morning were wandering about again, feeling very miserable andwishing they were safely back on board the _Greenock_, it being justbreakfast-time, when they were accosted by a stout, hairy sort of man, dressed in a species of undress uniform. 

"Hullo, my young friends!" the man said, his voice being much pleasanterthan his looks, "where do you hail from? I don't think I've ever seenyou in Ballarat before. "

"You wouldn't again if we could help it, " replied Teddy so heartily thatthe hairy man laughed as jollily as might have been expected from hismusical voice. 

"Ah! I think I know who you are, " he observed, eyeing them bothcritically. 

"Well, you must be a conjuror if you do, " answered little Maitland, whohad a good deal of native impudence about him, "considering we haven'tbeen twenty-four hours in Australia!"

"What say you to Maitland being your name and Vernon that of yourcompanion, eh, my young cocksparrow?" said the man with a quizzicallook. "Am I conjuror or not?"

The boys stared at each other in amazement. 

"Well, " exclaimed Teddy at length, "this is certainly the funniestcountry I have ever been in. The diggings that I've read about in printover and over again have all vanished into nothing, and here there arerailways running through the bush, with people knowing who you aretwenty thousand miles away from home. It is wonderful!"

"Not so very wonderful after all, Master Teddy Vernon, " suggested thehairy man at this juncture. "I'm an inspector of police here, and wereceived a telegram last night which had been circulated in alldirections from the chief office at Melbourne, saying that you two younggentlemen were missing from the ship _Greenock_, just arrived fromEngland, and that any information about you would be gladly received andrewarded by Captain Lennard, the commander of the vessel. "

"I'm very glad, " said Teddy, interrupting any further remark theinspector might have made. "We came away suddenly because of somethingthat occurred on board; and now I sha'n't be at all sorry to go backagain, for we have no money or anything to eat. Besides, the placeisn't a bit like what I expected--there!"

"Ah! you're hungry, my young friends, and that soon takes the pluck outof a body, " observed the inspector kindly. "Come along with me and havesome breakfast, after which I'll see you into the train for Melbourne. "

"But we haven't got any money, " said Teddy, looking at him frankly inthe face. 

"Never mind that, " he replied jokingly. "I daresay I can put my hand onan odd sixpence or so, and this I've no doubt your captain will pay meback. "

"That he will, " cried Teddy and Val together in one breath; "besides, we've got money of our own on board the ship, only we forgot to bring itwith us. "

"And a very good job too, " said the inspector laughing, "otherwise, youmight not perhaps have been so glad to meet me this morning; but come onnow, lads. Let us go into the town to some restaurant, and then I willsee you to the depot, if I can depend on your going back. "

"That you can, sir, " replied Val drily, "if you buy the tickets for us. "

"Oh, I'll see about that, " said the inspector; and so, under his escort, they went into the nearest restaurant and had a good meal, after whichthe inspector took tickets for them, seeing them into the railway-carriage. The worthy policeman must also have said something to theguard, for after he had given Teddy his name, at the lad's especialrequest, and wished them good-bye, some official or other came up andlocked the door of the compartment, so that they could not have got outagain if they had wished save by climbing through the window. 

"He needn't have been alarmed at our giving him the slip, " observedlittle Maitland. "I am only too glad to be sent back in any fashion, ignominious though it may be to be under charge of the police. "

"So am I, " said Teddy; "but the inspector is a nice fellow after all, and has behaved very well to us. "

He had been even more thoughtful, however, than the boys imagined; for, on the train arriving once more at the Melbourne terminus, who should bethere to meet them but Uncle Jack!

"Well, you're a nice pair of young scamps, " was his exclamation when thedoor of the carriage was opened by another policeman, and they got outright in front of where he was standing. "What have you got to say foryourselves, eh, for taking leave in French fashion like that? Why, youought to be keel-hauled both of you!"

But he saved them a long explanation by telling them that Jones, theother midshipman, having been knocked down with a marlinespike by thesecond-mate, Captain Lennard had both him and Mr Capstan brought beforehim, when, sifting the matter to the bottom, Jones had made a cleanbreast of the way in which he and the other youngsters had been bullied. 

"And the upshot of the whole affair is, " continued Uncle Jack, "CaptainLennard has dismissed Capstan from his ship, giving him such a dischargecertificate that I don't think he'll get another second-mate's place ina hurry! As for you, my young scamps, I don't think the skipper will bevery hard on you; but, Teddy, you ought to have told me of the treatmentyou three poor beggars were receiving at that ruffian's hands all thevoyage. Old Bill Summers, the boatswain, confirmed every word thatJones said, and was quite indignant about it. "

"I didn't like to tell, you being my uncle and over Mr Capstan, " saidTeddy; "I thought it would be mean. "

"It is never mean to complain of injustice, " replied Uncle Jack gravely;"still, the matter now rests with the skipper. "

Captain Lennard gave the boys a good talking to for running away, sayingthat it wasn't manly for young sailors to shirk their work in that wayfor any reason. However, considering all the circumstances of the caseand the lesson they had learnt, that boys couldn't be absolutelyindependent of those in authority over them, he said that he had made uphis mind to forgive them, telling them they might return to their duty. 

The passengers having all landed and the ship cleared of her home cargo, she began immediately taking in wool for her return voyage, and in a fewweeks' time set sail from the Heads for England--though _via_ Cape Hornthis time, as is generally the routine with vessels sailing to Australiawhen coming back to the Channel. 

There were only two passengers on board, the captain and mate of avessel that had been sold at Melbourne, she having only been navigatedout by these officers for the purpose, and the vessel being unencumberedby emigrants the sailors had more room to move about. Teddy found itmuch pleasanter than on the passage out, as Captain Lennard was able tospare more time in teaching him his duty, a task which he was ablybacked up in by Uncle Jack and Robins, the new second-mate, a smartyoung seaman whom the captain had promoted from the fo'c's'le to takeCapstan's vacant place, and a wonderful improvement in every way to thatbully. 

After leaving Port Philip, they had a fair enough passage till they gotabout midway between New Zealand and the American continent, CaptainLennard taking a more northerly route than usual on account of its beingthe summer season in those latitudes, and the drift-ice coming up fromthe south in such quantities as to be dangerous if they had run downbelow the forties. 

When the _Greenock_ was in longitude somewhere about 150 West andlatitude 39 South a fierce gale sprung up from the north-east, right intheir teeth, causing the lighter sails of the ship to be handed and thetopgallants to be taken in. 

At midnight on the same day, the wind having increased in force, theupper topsails were handed and the foresail reefed, the ship runningunder this reduced canvas, and steering east-south-east, the directionof the wind having shifted round more to the northward. The nextevening, the wind veered to the westward, and was accompanied with suchterrific squalls and high confused sea that Captain Lennard, who hadthought at first he could weather out the storm under sail, determinedto get up steam, and lowered the propeller so that the ship might lay-tomore easily. 

Later on in the afternoon, however, another shift of wind took place, the gale veering to sou'-sou'-west in a squall heavier than any of itspredecessors; while a heavy sea, flooding the decks, broke through thehatchway and put out the engine fires. 

Being a smart seaman, the captain had sail set again as soon aspossible, hoisting reefed topsails and foresail to lift the vessel outof the trough of the following seas, in which she rolled from side toside like a whale in its death flurry. 

All seemed going on well for a short time after this; and he and UncleJack thought they had weathered the worst of it, when the foresheetparted and the clew of the foresail, going through the lowerforetopsail, split it in ribbons. 

The barque was then brought to the wind on the port tack under the lowermaintopsail, and she lay-to pretty well; but the wind kept on veeringand beating with frequent squalls from sou'-sou'-west to west, so thatat noon a strong gale prevailed again fiercer than before. 

Teddy had not seen anything like this; but he wasn't a bit frightened, and he was as active as the oldest sailor in lending help to carry outthe captain's orders, jumping here, there, and everywhere like a monkey. 

The skipper was so pleased with his behaviour that he complimented himby telling Uncle Jack he was as good as his right hand!

Later on, the weather seemed calming down and all were very busyrepairing damages; but, in the evening, a tremendous sea broke on boardcarrying away the bulwarks and chain-plates fore and aft on the portside, the accompanying violent gust of wind jerking the maintopsail asif it had been tissue paper out of the ship. 

Immediately after this, with the first lee roll, the foremast broke offalmost flush with the deck and fell with a crash over the side, takingwith it everything that stood but the lower main and mizzen masts, leaving the _Greenock_ rolling a hopeless wreck on the waste of ragingwaters. 

CHAPTER TWELVE. 

EASTER ISLAND. 

The gale suddenly ceased during the night, but all hands remained ondeck; for, the sea was still rolling mountains high and coming inoccasionally over the broken bulwarks, causing Captain Lennard muchanxiety about the boats, which, fortunately, the broken top hamper keptfrom being washed overboard. 

In the morning it was quite calm again; but the poor old ship presenteda piteous scene of desolation, with her broken sides, and her gay arrayof towering masts and spreading yards and spread of canvas all sweptaway. 

Teddy could nearly have cried at the sorry sight; not reflecting thatthrough the merciful care of a divine providence watching over all not alife had been lost. 

With the daylight, Captain Lennard took a rapid review of theirposition. 

He had caused a stout tarpaulin to be lashed over the engine-room hatch, thus preventing any more water from passing down into the hold there inany perceptible quantity; still, the carrying away of the bulwarks andchain-plates had strained the ship very much on the port side, and whenthe carpenter sounded the well at eight bells the ship was found to beleaking fast, having already a depth of two feet in her. 

"Man the pumps!" cried the captain; when Uncle Jack lending a willinghand, the crew under his encouragement were soon working away steadilywith a clink-clank, clink-clank, the water pouring out through thescuppers in a continuous stream. 

However, on the well being sounded again presently, it was found to beflowing in equally steadily, having risen already six inches more inspite of all their pumping!

What was to be done?

The captain and Uncle Jack deliberated together, summoning the new thirdmate to assist their counsels; but, they could only arrive at oneopinion. 

The ship was sinking fast, and all hands knew it as well as theythemselves; for, in addition to the damage done to the sides andbulwarks, the heavy propeller had aided the waves in wrenching away therudder, which carried with it the greater portion of the stern-post. 

"We must take to the boats, " said Captain Lennard. "Thank God, they areall right, and haven't been washed away in the storm!"

Leaving the useless pumps, therefore, for it was of no avail fatiguingthe men with the unnecessary exertion any longer, all the pumping in theworld being idle to save the vessel, the hands were at once set to workclearing the boats and getting them over the side. 

It was a ticklish job, the long-boat especially being very heavy, andthere being no means, now they had lost their masts, of rigging a tacklealoft to hoist it off the chocks amidships. 

Still, necessity teaches men alternatives in moments of great peril; so, now, knocking away the under fastenings of the boat by main force, thecrew managed at last to get it free. Then, improvising rollers out ofpieces of the broken topmast, they contrived by pulling and hauling andshoving, all working with a will together, to launch it over the sidethrough the hole in the bulwarks. 

The jolly-boat followed suit, an easier task; and then, the two beingdeemed sufficient to accommodate all on board, just sixty-one in numberincluding the two passengers, Captain Lennard gave the order toprovision them, telling the steward to bring out all the cabin storesfor this purpose, there being now no further use for them on board theship, and officers and men being entitled to share alike withoutdistinction. 

The captain himself, while this was being done, saw to the ship's logand other papers, taking also out of the cabin his best chronometer anda chart or two, as well as a sextant and some mathematical instruments. 

These preparations for departure, though, were abruptly cut short by awarning cry from Bill Summers, the boatswain. 

"We'd better look sharp, sir, " he called out to Uncle Jack, who wasbusily engaged superintending the stowage of the provisions in the twoboats. "The water is arising rapidly, and is now nearly up to the'tween-decks!"

Uncle Jack passed on the word to the captain, who instantly came up thecompanion. 

Seeing the truth of the boatswain's statement from the deeper immersionof the ship since he had gone below, he at once ordered the men downinto the boats, the passengers going first; then the foremast hands;and, lastly, the officers. 

"Mr Althorp, " said the captain, "you will take charge of the jolly-boatand shove off as soon as she's got her complement. I will command thelong-boat myself. "

"Aye, aye, sir, " responded Uncle Jack, descending into the boat when shehad as many in her as she could safely hold; when, shoving off from theship's side and rowing a few strokes, the men lay on their oars, remaining some twenty yards off so as to be out of the whirlpool or eddythat would be formed when the vessel presently foundered. 

The long-boat now received its quota of passengers, all descending intoit and seating themselves on the thwarts and in the bottom so as not tobe in the way of those rowing, Captain Lennard waiting till the last toget into her. 

Just as he got in, however, he suddenly remembered that he had forgottena compass, and hastily climbed back on board to get it. 

"Look sharp, Cap'en!" shouted Bill Summers from the bow as the ship gavea quiver all over. "She's just about to founder. "

The captain was quick enough, racing back to the companion and down thestairs in two bounds, where, although the cabin was half full of water, he contrived to wrench away the "tell-tale" compass that swung over thesaloon-table; and he was on the poop again with it in an instant. 

The instrument, however, was heavy, but he had hard work to carry itwith both hands; and he managed to get to the side with it, when bendingdown handed it to Bill Summers, who stood up in the bow of the boat toreceive it. 

At that instant, the ship gave a violent lurch, and some one sang out toshove off; when, the oars being dropped in the water, the boat wasimpelled some yards from the side, leaving Captain Lennard still onboard. 

"What, men, abandon your captain!" Teddy cried, his voice quiveringwith emotion. "You cowards, row back at once!"

"We can't, " sang out the same voice that had before ordered the men toshove off. 

Who it was no one noticed in the general flurry, nor knew afterwards;but, while the men were hesitating which course to adopt, Teddy, withoutsaying another word, plunged overboard and swam back to the sinking_Greenock_, having no difficulty in getting up the side now for it wasalmost flush with the water. 

"Come on board, sir!" said he jokingly, touching his forehead with hisfinger, his cap having been washed off as he dived. 

"My poor boy!" cried Captain Lennard, overcome with emotion at thegallant lad's devotion; "you have only sacrificed two lives instead ofone! Why did you not stay in the boat?"

"Because, " began Teddy; but ere he could complete the sentence there wasa violent rush of air upwards from the hold, and a loud explosion, thedecks having burst. 

At the same time, the ship made a deep bend forwards. 

Then, her bows rose high in the air above the waves as the stern sankwith a gurgling moan; and, the next moment, Teddy and Captain Lennardwere drawn below the surface with the vessel as she foundered!

Teddy was nearly suffocated; but, holding his breath bravely, as Jupphad taught him, and striking downwards with all his force, he presentlygot his head above water, inhaling the delicious air of heaven, which hethought would never more have entered his nostrils. 

When he came to himself, he saw the captain's body floating facedownwards amongst a lot of broken planks and other debris of the wreck, by some fragment of which he must have been struck as the _Greenock_foundered. 

To swim forwards and seize poor Captain Lennard, turning him faceupwards again and supporting his head above the water, was the work of amoment only with Teddy; and then, holding on to a piece of broken spar, he awaited the coming up of the launch, which, now that all danger wasover from the eddy rowed up to the scene, when he and the captain werelifted on board--all hands enthusiastic about the courageous action ofthe little hero, and none more so than Captain Lennard when he recoveredhis consciousness. 

"You have saved my life!" he said. "Had you not been close by to turnme over when I rose to the surface I should have been drowned before theboat could have come up. I will never forget it!"

Nor did he, as Teddy's subsequent advancement showed; but, there was notime now for congratulation or passing compliments. 

The peril of those preserved from the wreck was not yet over, for, theywere thousands of miles away from land floating on the wide ocean!

Hailing the jolly-boat, Captain Lennard announced what he thought theproper course should be. 

"The best place for us to make for now is Valparaiso, " he said; "and ifwe steer to the east-nor'-east we ought to fetch it in three weeks or sounder sail; that is, if our provisions hold out so long. "

Uncle Jack approving, this course was adopted; and, day after day, theboats, setting their sails, which Bill Summers had not forgotten toplace on board, made slow but steady progress towards the wished-forgoal. 

One morning, all were wakened up by the welcome cry of "Land ho!" fromthe look-out forwards in the bow of the long-boat, which kept a littleahead of the jolly-boat, although always reducing sail if she forged toomuch forward so as not to lose her. 

A signal was made, therefore, telling the glad news to Uncle Jack andthose with him; while the boat pressed onwards towards the spot wherethe hazy outline of a mountain could be dimly seen in the distance. 

"That is not the American continent, " said Captain Lennard to the men, in order to allay any future disappointment that might be afterwardsfelt. "We are nearly a thousand miles off that yet. It must be EasterIsland. That is the only land I know of hereabouts in the Pacific; and, although I have never visited the place myself, I have heard that thenatives are friendly to strangers. At all events we'll pay them a call;it will be a break in our long journey!"

Bye and bye the boats approached the shore and all landed, when a lot ofcopper-coloured savages came down to the beach waving branches of treesin sign of welcome. 

The islanders had not much to eat; but Captain Lennard, seeing thattheir provisions were well-nigh expended, determined to stop here, whilesending on Uncle Jack with a small party to Valparaiso to charter somevessel to come and fetch them all, the boats being so crowded thatmisfortune might await them all if they continued the voyage in suchsmall craft. 

For months and months all awaited in constant expectation Uncle Jack'sreturn; but, he came not, and they at length believed that he and thosewith him must have been lost in some hurricane that had sprung up offthe Chilian coast, and so had never reached Valparaiso at all!

They had no fear of starvation, however, the islands abounding inpoultry in a semi-wild state, which they had to hunt down forthemselves; for the natives lent them no assistance. Indeed they wererather hostile after a time; although the Englishmen were too numerousfor them to attack, especially as they were always on their guardagainst surprise. 

In wandering over the island, which is only some thirty miles round, Teddy was surprised, like the others, by the numbers of stone obelisks, rudely carved into the semblance of human faces and statues, which couldnot possibly have been executed by the present inhabitants. 

It is believed by geographers that Easter Island must have formed aportion of a vast Polynesian continent peopled by some kindred race tothose that designed the colossal monuments of an extinct civilisation, now almost overgrown with vegetation, that are yet to be found asevidences of a past age amidst the forests of Central America. 

One day, more than a year after Uncle Jack had left, and when they hadalmost given up all hope of ever seeing him again, or of being relievedfrom their island prison--the long-boat being dashed to pieces in thesurf soon after he started--a schooner in full sail was discoveredmaking for the island. 

Presently, she came nearer and nearer. 

Then she hove to, and a boat was seen to be lowered from her side, andshortly afterwards being pulled in to the shore. 

A moment later, and Uncle Jack's well-known face could be seen in thestern-sheets, a glad hurrah being raised by the shipwrecked men at thesight of him. 

Soon, Uncle Jack landed, and he had a long tale to tell of the jolly-boat losing her sail, and being tossed about on the ocean till picked upby an American whaler, which first took a cruise down the South Seas, there detaining him many weary months before landing him at Sandy Point, in the Straits of Magellan, from whence he got finally to Valparaisoafter awaiting a passage for weeks. 

Arrived here, however, he at once got in communication with the Britishconsul, and chartered a schooner to go to Easter Island and fetch hiscomrades. 

Uncle Jack, too, mentioned that he had written home to the owners of the_Greenock_, telling of her loss and the safety of all hands on theirtemporary island home; and he had also sent a letter to Endleigh, hesaid, narrating all about Master Teddy's adventures, and saying that hewas safe and well. 

Captain Lennard did not long delay the embarkation of his little band, who were glad enough to leave Easter Island; so, in a couple of weeks'time all landed safely in Valparaiso, where they luckily caught theoutgoing mail steamer as they arrived, and started off to England, rejoicing in their timely rescue and preservation from peril amid allthe dangers of the deep. 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN. 

AT HOME AGAIN. 

It was a bright August day at Endleigh. 

There was a scent of new-mown hay in the air, and gangs of reapers wereout in the fields getting in the harvest, the whirr of the threshing-machine, which the squire had lately brought down from London, making ahideous din in the meadows by the pond, where it had been set up;puffing and panting away as if its very existence were a trial, andscandalising the old-fashioned village folk--who did not believe in suchnew-fangled notions, and thought a judgment would come on those havingto do with the machine, depriving, as it did, honest men who could wieldthe flail of a job!

In the garden of the vicarage, the warm sun seemed to incubate a dreamystillness, the butterflies hardly taking the trouble to fly, and thevery flowers hanging down their lazy heads; while the trees droopingtheir leaves, as if faint and exhausted with the heat. 

Everything out of doors looked asleep, taking a mid-day siesta. Everything, that is, but the bees, which carried on their honey-gathering business as briskly as ever, utterly impervious to the warmth. Indeed, perhaps they got on all the better for it, probing the petalsof the white lilies yet in bloom, and investigating the cavities of thefoxglove and wonderful spider-trap of the Australian balsam, or elsesweeping the golden dust off the discs of the gorgeous sunflowers, aregular mine of mellifluent wealth; a host of gnats and wasps and otheridle insects buzzing round them all the time and pretending to be busytoo, but really doing nothing at all!

The heat-laden atmosphere was so still that it had that oily sort ofhaze that distinguishes the mirage in the East, when the air appearscomposed of little waving lines wavering to and fro that dazzle youreyes with their almost-imperceptible motion as you look at them; and thesilence was unbroken save by the chuck-chuck-chuck of some meddlesomeblackbird in the shrubbery annoying the sparrows in their nap, and theanswering click-clink-tweedle-deedle-dum-tum-tweedle-um of the yellow-hammer, telling as plainly as the little songster could tell that he atall events was wide awake, while, in the far distance, there could beheard the coo of ring-doves and the melancholy lament of the cuckooinvestigating the hedgerows in quest of other birds' nests wherein tolay its solitary egg, and finding itself forestalled at every turn!

But if everything was so quiet without, such was not the case indoors atthe vicarage. 

A telegram had been received from Uncle Jack, saying that he and Teddy, having reached London in safety, would be down by the afternoon train;so, all in the house were in a state of wild excitement at meeting againthose they had thought lost for ever. 

Even the vicar was roused out of his usual placidity, although UncleJack's letter from Valparaiso had told all about the wonderful escape ofthe survivors of the _Greenock_; while, as for Miss Conny, who was now aperfectly grown-up young lady of eighteen, all her sedateness was gonefor the moment and she was every bit as wild as the rest. 

"Dear me, I'm sure the afternoon will never come!" exclaimed Cissy, walking to the window after arranging and re-arranging the flowers inthe vases on the little table in the centre of the drawing-room and onthe mantel-piece for about the one-and-twentieth time. "It's thelongest day I ever knew. "

"Don't be so impatient, dear, " said Conny, trying to appear cool andtranquil as usual, but failing utterly in the attempt as she followedCissy to the window and looked out over the lawn; "the time will soonpass by if you'll only try and think of something else but the hour forthe train to come in. "

"You're a fine counsellor, " cried Cissy laughing, as she watched Conny'shands nervously twisting within each other. "Why, you are as bad as Iam, and can't keep still a moment! Only Liz is calm--as if nothing hadhappened or was going to happen. I declare I could bang her, as Teddyused to say, for sitting there in the corner reading that heavy-lookingbook. I believe it must be a treatise on metaphysics or something ofthat sort. "

"Mistaken for once, Miss Ciss, " said the student, looking up with asmile. "It's a volume of travels telling all about the Pacific Oceanand Easter Island, where Teddy and Uncle Jack stopped so long with thenatives; so, it is very interesting. "

"Well, I'd rather for my part wait and hear about the place from our owntravellers, " rejoined Cissy impatiently. "I do wish they would come! Ithink I will go and see how Molly is getting on with the dinner. I'msure she'll be late if somebody doesn't look after her. "

"You had better leave her alone, Cissy, " remonstrated Conny. "Molly, you know, doesn't like being interfered with; and, besides, it is veryearly yet, for they can't be here before three o'clock at the earliest. "

"Oh, she won't mind me, Con, " replied Cissy as she whisked out of theroom, gaily singing now, the idea of having an object or doing somethingbanishing her ennui; "Molly and I are the best of friends. "

However, on entering the cook's domain Cissy found the old servant thereverse of amiable, for her face was red and hot with basting a littlesucking-pig that was slowly revolving on the spit before a glowing firethat seemed to send out all the more heat from the fact of its beingAugust, as if in rivalry of the sun without. 

"Well, how are you getting on?" asked Cissy cheerfully, the sight of thelittle roasting piggy which Molly had selected for the repast that wasto welcome Teddy, with some dim association of the fatted calf that waskilled on the return of the prodigal son, making her feel more assuredthat the time was speeding on, and that the expected ones would arrivesoon. 

But, Molly was not amenable to friendly overtures at the moment. 

"Excuse me, miss, I don't want to be bothered now, " she replied, turningher perspiring countenance round an instant from her task and theninstantly resuming it again and pouring a ladleful of gravy over theblistering crackling of her charge. "There, now--you almost made meburn it by interrupting me!"

"I'm very sorry, I'm sure, Molly, " said Cissy apologetically; and seeingthat her room was preferred to her company, she went out into thekitchen-garden to seek solace for her listlessness there. 

It was a vain task, though. 

The bees were still busily engaged hovering from flower to flower andmixing up in their pouches the different sorts of sweet flavours theyextracted with their mandibles from the scabius, whose many-huedblossoms of brown, and olive, and pink, and creamy-white, scented oneespecial patch near the greenhouse. This corner the industrious littleinsects made the headquarters of their honey campaign, sallying out fromthence to taste a sweet-pea or scarlet-runner and giving a passing kissto a gaudy fuchsia, who wore a red coat and blue corporation sort ofwaistcoat, as they went homeward to their hive. 

On the ground below quite a crowd of sparrows were taking baths in turnin a flat earthenware pan which was always kept filled with water fortheir particular delectation; and the butterflies, too, waking up, werepoising themselves in graceful attitudes on the nasturtiums that twinedover the gooseberry bushes, which were running a race with the broad-leaved pumpkins and vegetable marrow plants to see who would firstclamber over the wall, the red tomatoes laughing through the greenery atthe fun. 

But there was little amusement for Cissy in all this at such a period ofexpectancy, when her pulses throbbed with excitement; so, she turnedback towards the house with a yawn, uttering her longing wish aloud, "Why can't Teddy come?"

It being summer time, all the doors and windows were wide open to let inall the air possible, and as she retraced her steps slowly anddisconsolately from the bottom of the garden at the back she heard anoise in front like the sound of wheels in the lane. 

To dart through the side gate instead of returning by way of the kitchenwas the work of a moment; and she reached the front of the house almostas soon as Conny and Liz, who had only to step out on to the smooth turffrom the low French windows of the drawing-room. 

It was only a false alarm, though, Doctor Jolly having driven up fromvisiting a patient to know when the travellers were expected. 

"By the three o'clock train, eh?" he said on being told; then looking athis watch he added: "Why, it's close on two now. Any of you going downto the station to meet them?"

"Yes, " answered Miss Conny in her prim way, "I was thinking of takingthe children, if you do not consider it too warm to venture out in theheat of the sun? Poor papa is not so well to-day and unable to walk sofar. "

"Pooh, pooh!" ejaculated the doctor, with his hearty laugh. "Call thisfine day too warm; you ought to be ashamed of yourself! You need notany of you walk. Go and put on your bonnets, and tell the vicar, andI'll cram you all into my old shanderadan and drive you down. "

The Reverend Mr Vernon, however, besides suffering from one of hisusual nervous headaches, which always came on when he was excited byanything as he was now, wished to be alone on first meeting with hislost son again, so that none might witness his emotion, being aparticularly shy man amongst strangers; so, although he came out of hisstudy on hearing Doctor Jolly's voice he begged him to excuse his going, while accepting his kind offer for the girls--who were ready in lessthan no time, Miss Conny losing her primness in her anxiety not to keepthe doctor waiting, and the generally slow Liz being for once quick inher movements. 

In another minute they were all packed within the hybrid vehicle, halfgig, half wagonette, which the doctor only used on state occasions, andmust have brought out this afternoon with the preconceived idea of itsbeing specially wanted. 

"This _is_ jolly!" exclaimed Cissy as they all drove off gaily down thesleepy lane, passing neither man nor beast on their way. "You are verygood to us, doctor!"

"Ho, ho, ho! Miss Cissy, " laughed he; "you're getting extremelyfamiliar to address me like that. Jolly, indeed! why, that's my name, ho, ho!"

"I--I didn't think, " stammered poor Cissy rather abashed, blushingfuriously, while Conny took advantage of the opportunity to point out toher the evil effects of using slang words; but the little lecture of theelder sister was soon joked away by the doctor, and they arrived at thestation in the best of spirits. 

Here they met with a wonderful surprise. 

Some one who must have heard the news somehow or other of Teddy's returnhome had decorated the front of the old waiting-room with evergreens andsunflowers; and a sort of triumphal arch also being erected on thearrival platform of the same floral pattern. 

Who could have done it?

Why, no less a person than Jupp, whose black beard seemed all theblacker, surrounding his good-humoured face, as he came out of theoffice with Mary on his arm, and a young Master Jupp and another littleMary toddling behind them--the whilom porter no longer dressed in grimyvelveteens, but in a smart black frock-coat, his Sunday best, while hiswife was equally spruce. 

"I know it's ag'in the rules, miss, " he explained to Conny; "but I seethe telegram as said Master Teddy'd be here this arternoon, God blesshim, and I'm thankful, that I am, he's restored safe and sound from thebottom of the sea and Davy Jones's Locker, as we all on us thought. Sosays I to Grigson, my old mate as was, who's in charge here now, and wedetarmined as how we'd make a kind of show like to welcome of him home. "

"You're a right-down brick, Jupp!" said Doctor Jolly, shaking him by thehand, while Mary kissed her former nurse children all round; and, whilethey were all exchanging congratulations, up came the train rumbling andwhistling and panting and puffing into the station, the engine bearing aUnion Jack tied to the funnel, for Jupp's interest in two of the specialpassengers being brought to Endleigh was well-known on the line. 

Hardly had the train come to a standstill than out jumped Teddy, atrifle taller and broader across the shoulders as might have beenexpected from his two years of absence, but the same open-faced boy withthe curly brown hair and blue eyes that all remembered so well. 

What a meeting it was, to be sure, and how he hugged his sisters and DrJolly and Jupp and Mary all round--Uncle Jack almost being unnoticed forthe moment, although he did not appear to mind it, looking on with asympathetic grin of delight at the general joy expressed in everycountenance present!

The doctor's "shanderadan" had a full cargo back to the vicarage, everybody talking to everybody all at once and none being able to finisha complete sentence--little Cissy keeping tight hold of Teddy's arm thewhile as if fearful of losing him again and thinking it might be all adream. 

When they got to the house Teddy was through the gate and across thelawn in two bounds, tapping at the door of the study before his fatherknew that he had come. 

Like another father, the vicar was overcome with glad emotion, claspinghim in his arms and embracing him, weeping as he cried in a brokenvoice:

"This, my son, was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!"

Only a word more. 

The terrible experiences Teddy had had, and the sense of disciplineinculcated in him during his short training at sea, made such a changein his character that henceforth he lost his former justly-earnedtitles, being never more called either "pickle" or "scapegrace. "

He has not, however, abandoned the profession he originally adopted, inspite of its many perils and dangers, and the fact that a sailor's lifeis not altogether of that rose-coloured nature which story-writersusually make out. 

No, he still sails under his old captain in the same line, and voyagesbackwards and forwards between Melbourne and London with praiseworthypunctuality, in the new ship Captain Lennard commands in place of theold _Greenock_. The vessel, too, is a regular clipper in her way, beating everything that tries to compete with her, whether outwards orinwards bound. 

Teddy looks forward some day to taking his skipper's place when heretires from active life afloat, and following the example of UncleJack, who is already a captain too in his own right; for he is as steadyand trustworthy now as he was formerly impetuous and headstrong. 

But, mind you, he has lost none of his pluck or fearless spirit, and isthe same genial, good-tempered, and happy-dispositioned boy he was inearliest childhood--knowing now the difference between true courage andmere bravado, and the value of obedience to those in authority over him. 

As for Miss Conny, in spite of her ordinary sedateness of demeanour andconstant asseveration that she would only marry a clergyman like herfather, she is, to use Teddy's expressive diction, "spliced to asodger, " having become engaged some time since to a gallant captain in amarching regiment that was quartered for a while at Bigton, within easyaccess of Endleigh. 

Cissy and Liz are both growing up nice girls; while the vicar is stillhale and hearty, giving his parishioners the benefit every Sunday of a"thirdly" and sometimes "fourthly, brethren, " in addition to the firstand second divisions of his sermon; and never omitting his favourite"lastly" with "a word in conclusion" to wind up with. 

Doctor Jolly, to complete our list of characters, is yet to the forewith his catching laugh, as "jolly" as ever; and, Jupp and Mary havelikewise been so tenderly dealt with by time that they hardly look a dayolder than on that memorable occasion when Master Teddy introducedhimself to public notice. 

Don't you remember?

Why, when he casually mentioned to the porter and reader alike, and allwhom it might concern, in the most matter-of-fact way in the world, thathe wanted to "do dan'ma!"

THE END.