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leave Debby, but we go with father, and such a fine voyage is enough to make any one happy. Ought we to feel all sorry?"
"No, indeed! Why should we? As you say, we are to go with our father. That alone is a great delight."
"And, by the way, that lady never told us whether she was American, or not, did she?"
"Sure enough! Well, we may never see her again, so what does it matter? I hope we will, though, for I liked her."
"And so did I," was Hope's emphatic rejoinder.
Captain Hosmer opened the cab door for them himself, and gave them the gaze of wondering approval which he reserved for these fair daughters. To him their growth, development, and beauty seemed something magical, incomprehensible. He had left them in the lank, homely, tooth-shedding period, at the time he placed them in school, and when he returned to see them graduated, here were two blooming maidens on the very borderland of charming womanhood. The usual love and pride of a father was in him a rapture made up of the love given to his very own, and also of the admiration that a man, little thrown among women, is apt to feel for those of his fireside. Then, too, these were the relics of a wife most fondly cherished, and he constantly saw in them traits and expressions which brought her to mind, and filled his heart with tenderness.
They, in turn, fairly adored the tall, brawny man, whose whole bearing bespoke self-restraint, and the calm exercise of authority, and if his attitude towards them was both chivalrous and tender, theirs to him was fondly admiring and respectful.
"I've been waiting for you ten minutes," he said, flinging his cigar away. Then he beckoned to a sailor who, cap in hand, stood by, and giving him a low order, led the girls off at a brisk pace, saying, "Jack will see to your luggage; I've something to show you before we leave."
With one on either arm he walked them rapidly among the bales, boxes, cordage, wagons, lumber, and people crowding the wharf, then turned abruptly townwards, entered a short, lane-like street, and finally stopped at a low, quaint-looking old shop, leaning in a tired manner against a larger building beyond, thus throwing its doors and windows into such oblique angles that Hope declared it made her feel dizzy. A little dark man--doubtless to match the little dark house--bowed with much suavity in the doorway, as if expecting them, and the captain at once addressed him.
"Here we are, Beppo! Bring them along, and be quick about it." But, though his words were commanding, his eyes twinkled at the man, who, ducking his black head once more, disappeared within.
The girls peered into the doorway, from which issued a by-no-means agreeable odor, and their father asked, laughingly.
"Shall we go in?"
"I think not," said Faith, holding her handkerchief to her dainty little nose, "but what are those queer--why!" She jumped and caught at her father, for some one had seemed to ask in a gruff voice, right at her ear, "What d'ye want?"
Her father laughed outright.
"Scared you, eh? Look out, Hope!" for the latter had stepped inside.
She answered merrily.
"Oh, Faith, come! What you heard was a parrot. And there are a lot of birds--oh! and cats--such queer ones. Do come and see."
But at this minute, from some inner apartment Beppo reappeared, a cage in either hand. In one perched a parrot of gorgeous plumage, in the other crouched a beautiful Angora cat, large and tawny, its great brush of a tail curled disconsolately about its ears.
"What a lovely kitten!" cried Faith, "and so frightened. Poor, poor Pussy!"
"And such a saucy parrot!" chimed in Hope. "Isn't it handsome, though?"
"He talka--oh, mocha he talka," observed Beppo, holding the cages on high with a prideful air. "An' he pussa ver' fine, yes."
"Well, girls, which do you like the better?" said the captain. "I know it's the thing to give presents to out-going travelers, and I want to do everything shipshape. But flowers are a nuisance the second day out, and fruit a drug, so I thought a pet was the thing. It's only to decide which it shall be."
"Oh, if we can't have both, do let's take the parrot; don't you say so, Faith?"
"Why, if you wish it, of course, dear, but"--her gaze rested lingeringly upon the other cage.
"But you want the Persian cat, I see, daughter," put in the captain. "Well, well, let's have both, Beppo. We'll find some place to stow 'em, no doubt. Have you somebody by to carry them to the steamer?"
"Me go," cried the man, grinning broadly in delight over this trade, "me vife she stay--me go."
"But couldn't I carry the poor kitten in my arms, she seems to feel being a prisoner so?" asked