Bob Strongs Holidays | Page 3

this; for, the old gentleman had not merely nodded previously to their having determined to change windows, but his gold-rimmed spectacles had almost tumbled from his nose, the latter organ also having given audible vent to certain stentorian sounds uncommonly like snoring!
The old gentleman, however, did not appear conscious of all this evidence against his fancied wakefulness; and he blinked out so queerly from a pair of little black beady eyes, half-hidden under a fringe of bushy white eyebrows, which made them look all the blacker from contrast, as he glared over his spectacles at the brother and sister, that Bob's giggle expanded into a fit of irrepressible merriment, although he endeavoured vainly to conceal his want of manners by burying his face in his pocket-handkerchief.
Bob some time afterwards told Nellie in confidence that, just then, the old gentleman so comically resembled `Blinkie,' a dissipated old tame jackdaw they had at home, in the way he cocked his head on one side, with his ruffled hair and all, that he couldn't have helped laughing, if he had died for it!
"Well?" said the old gentleman inquiringly, after a bit, tired apparently of waiting for an answer to his original question as to what Nellie had said as he woke up, gazing still fixedly at her, his beady black eyes twinkling and his bushy eyebrows bristling up like the whiskers of a cat when it is angry. "What did he say, eh?"
"He--he was only speaking to me, sir," stammered poor Nellie, now trembling with fright. "He was only speaking to me, that's all."
"What, what?" jerked out her unappeased questioner. "Who is `he'?"
"My brother--Bob, sir," said she, still trembling and nervous; "my brother here, sir."
"Bob what?"
"Strong, sir," replied Nellie, a little less timidly, now that she saw the old gentleman was not going to eat her up quite--"Robert Dugald Strong, sir."
"Humph!" he grunted out in reply to this. "He may be Strong by name and he looks strong by nature; but, really, he seems unusually weak in mind--he's a lunatic, I should think!"
But, there was a quaint, good-humoured expression on his face that somewhat belied his abrupt manner and harsh, peremptory voice, which sounded like that of a bullying old barrister, cross-examining a hesitating witness in court; so Nellie, therefore, gathered increased confidence as she caught his glance, to proceed with her explanation anent Master Bob.
"You're mistaken, sir,--he isn't silly," she said. "He only wanted me to cross over to the other side of the carriage; and I told him I couldn't pass by you, sir. That was all, sir."
"Oh, indeed! Then I'm sure I beg your pardon," said the old gentleman very politely, drawing in his legs, so as to leave the road clear. "I don't see, though, what the young rascal has got to laugh at in that way, like a regular young yahoo."
"Please, sir, pray excuse him," pleaded Nellie on behalf of Bob. "It is only a way he has got. He cannot help laughing for the life of him when the fit is on. He really does not mean to be rude, sir, I assure you."
"Doesn't he?" repeated the old gentleman, smiling in a knowing fashion as if he knew all about it. "Then, he's very unlike all the boys I have come across in my time; and they've been a goodish few, missy! But, there, get along with you both, and look out of the window to your heart's content. Take care, though, that neither you nor that young jackanapes don't manage to tumble out on the line, for I can't pick you up from here!"
Bob and Nellie took advantage at once of the permission granted them; but, soon, becoming tired of the monotonous sameness of the ever- whirling landscape, turned back within the railway-carriage, and, sitting down like ordinary and regular travellers accustomed by this time to all the sights and scenes of the road, the pair were presently engaged in earnest and confidential conversation with the now extremely affable, old gentleman.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, breaking the ice on seeing the pair at last quiet. "So, your name is Strong, eh?"
"Yes, sir," answered Bob, acting as spokesman. "Father is a barrister, and he cannot get away from London yet for his holiday like us; and, of course, sir, my mother couldn't leave him alone, you know--"
"No, of course not," agreed the old gentleman, "of course not."
"So, then," continued Bob, "they sent us on first; and we're going to the seaside, where we've never been before! Isn't it jolly?"
"Very jolly," responded the old gentleman smiling. "I wish I were as young as you are to enjoy it all over again, in spite of my having seen enough of the sea in my time."
"Are you a sailor, sir?" asked Nellie, chiming in. "I mean a sailor officer, sir, you know?"
"Yes,