Captain January | Page 5

'cept an old flounder, and he winked at me, so I put him back. And then I thought a long time--oh! a very long time, sitting like Patience on the doorstep. And _suddenly_, Daddy Captain, I thought about those boxes of clothes, and how you said they would be mine when I was big. And I measured myself against the doorpost, and found that I was very big. I thought I must be almost as big as you, but I s'pose I'd forgotten how big you were. So I went up, and opened one box, and I was just putting the dress on when you came in. You knew where it came from, of course, Daddy, the moment you saw it."
The Captain nodded gravely, and pulled his long moustaches.
"Do you suppose my poor mamma wore it often?" the child went on, eagerly. "Do you think she looked like me when she wore it? Do I look as she did when you saw her?"
"Wal," began the Captain, meditatively; but Star ran on without waiting for an answer.
"Of course, though, she looked very different, because she was dead. You are quite very positively sure my poor mamma was dead, Daddy Captain?"
"She were," replied the Captain, with emphasis. "She were that, Pigeon Pie! You couldn't find nobody deader, not if you'd sarched for a week. Why, door nails, and Julius Caesar, and things o' that description, would ha' been lively compared with your poor ma when I see her. Lively! that's what they'd ha' been."
The child nodded with an air of familiar interest, wholly untinged with sadness. "I think," she said, laying her head against the old man's shoulder, and curling one arm about his neck, "I think I should like to hear about it again, please, Daddy. It's a long, long time since you told me the whole of it."
"Much as a month, I should think it must be," assented the Captain. "Why, Snowdrop, you know the story by heart, better'n I do, I believe. 'Pears to me I've told it reg'lar, once a month or so, ever since you were old enough to understand it."
"Never mind!" said the Princess, with an imperious gesture. "That makes no difference. I want it now!"
"Wal, wal!" said the Captain, smoothing back the golden hair. "If you want it, why of course you must have it, Blossom! But first I must light up, ye know. One star inside the old house, and the other atop of it: that's what makes Light Island the lightest spot in the natural world. Sit ye here, Star Bright, and play Princess till Daddy comes back!"


CHAPTER II
.
THE STORY
The lamps were lighted, and the long, level rays flashed their golden warning over the murmuring darkness of the summer sea, giving cheer to many hearts on inbound barque or schooner. Bright indeed was the star on the top of the old lighthouse; but no less radiant was the face of little Star, as she turned it eagerly towards Captain January, and waited for the beginning of the well-known and well-loved story.
"Wal," said the Captain, when his pipe was refilled and drawing bravely. "Let me see now! where shall I begin?"
"At the beginning!" said Star promptly.
"Jes' so!" assented the old man. "Ten years ago this--"
"No! No!!" cried the child. "That isn't the beginning, Daddy! That's almost half-way to the middle. 'When I was a young lad.' That's the beginning."
"Bound to have it all, are ye, Honeysuckle?" said the obedient Captain. "Wal! Wal! when I were a young lad, I was a wild un, ye see, Treasure. My father, he 'prenticed me to a blacksmith, being big and strong for my years; but I hadn't no heart for the work. All I cared about was the sea, and boats, and sailors, and sea talk. I ran away down to the wharf whenever I could get a chance, and left my work. Why, even when I went to meetin', 'stead o' listenin', to the minister, I was lookin' out the places about them as go down to the sea in ships, ye know, and 'that leviathan whom Thou hast made,' and all that. And there was Hiram, King of Tyre, and his ships! Lord! how I used to think about them ships, and wonder how they was rigged, and how many tons they were, and all about it. Yes! I was a wild un, and no mistake; and after awhile I got so roused up--after my mother died, it was, and my father married again--that I just run away, and shipped aboard of a whaler, bound for the north seas. Wal, Honey, 'twould take me a week to tell ye about all my voyages. Long and short of it, 'twas the life I was meant for, and I done well in it. Had tumbles and toss-ups,