A Little Girl in Old Salem | Page 8

America. There are a great many
countries in it, and once they had a big war. They had wars, too, in
India. Why must people kill each other?"
"There seem to be reasons. A little girl could not understand them all, I
think;" and how could he explain them?
"Oh, there is Captain Corwin!" She flew across the cabin with
outstretched arms, which she clasped about him.
"Well, have you been getting acquainted with--he will be your uncle, I
suppose. What title are you going to take with the child, Mr. Leverett?"
Chilian Leverett colored, without a cause he thought, and it annoyed
him.
"Are you going back to India to-day?" She was not interested in Chilian
Leverett's answer.
Captain Corwin laughed heartily and patted her shoulder.

"Not to-day, nor even next week. The cargo will have to be taken off,
little missy, and a new one stowed away. And I fancy there must be
some repairs. I shall stay in town and run down to Marblehead. So you
will see me quite often."
"And you are coming back again from India?"
"Oh, I hope so. More than once."
"You will bring father then. It is such a long while to wait;" and she
sighed.
The men exchanged glances.
"I want to see him so much. Couldn't I go back with you?"
"Don't you remember I told you the other evening he might start before
I reached India again? Don't you want to go ashore and see Salem? Ask
Miss Rachel to get you ready."
Rachel was beckoning to her. "Let us go up on deck," she said. "It's a
strange country to me as well as to you. And I fancy the men want to
talk."
She crossed the cabin slowly, not quite certain what she did desire most,
except to see her father.
"You will have a rather sorry task. But Captain Ant'ny would have it so.
He wanted to feel that she would be among friends. He had the fullest
confidence that you could manage wisely. There is a great box of
papers, instructions, etc. You are appointed her guardian and trustee.
I've brought boxes of stuff that the officers will have to go through. But
the legal matters you may take with you. He tried to make it as easy as
he could. She will have considerable of a fortune, and more to come
when matters get settled on the other side. A cousin of the Bannings
came out,--English are great hands to keep things in the family. But it
is one of the biggest importing houses out there and it owes its success
to the long and wise head of Captain Anthony. They want young

Banning in it and the matter was about settled when we came away, but
the payments will run over several years. All these papers will be sent
to you. The Bannings are upright business men, and I think you need
have no fear. But the child's fortune is to be invested on this side of the
water. Oh, you cannot realize what a trial it was to give up all thoughts
of ending his days here."
Captain Corwin brushed some tears from his honest, weather-beaten
face.
"But if he had started earlier----"
"He would not believe the trouble would prove fatal. And when it was
declared there was so much to put in order. Then he could not bear to
think of leaving his wife alone there, though it's only the shell after all,
and, if we believe the Good Book, we shall see the real part over there
that was so much to us. But he could not explain the parting to the child,
though death is such a common thing out there. Yet it is hard to believe
our own can die. We are never ready for that. How you will
manage----"
The customs officers had come. Captain Corwin went out to meet them.
Chilian Leverett dropped into the well-worn leather-covered chair that
had been fine in its day. A heavy burthen had been laid upon him. He
was not fond of business. Cousin Giles might be of some assistance; he
grasped at the thought as if he had been a drowning man and this the
straw. And the child, somehow, was different from the average child,
he felt; though he was not certain what the average child would unfold
day after day. What would Elizabeth think? Eunice he could count on.
Though she yielded on many points in that tacit sort of way, she was by
no means an echo of her sister.
The three men entered the cabin. Chilian was no stranger to the
officials, who greeted him cordially and who sympathized with Captain
Anthony Leverett's untimely ending, as he was hardly past middle life.
"Why, it will