Charley Laurel | Page 7

up in his basket, lifted his small
hands towards the blue sky, and asked the kind Father he believed
dwelt there to take care of him and Dick, and send a ship to pick them
up.

Dick gazed affectionately at the child as he prayed.
"That's done me good," he said to himself. "I am sure He who lives up
there will do what that innocent little cherub asks. What He would say
if a rough wild chap like me was to pray, is a different matter; and yet I
mind that mother used to tell me He will hear any one who is sorry for
what they have done amiss, and trust to His Son who died for sinners.
But it's a hard matter to mind all the bad things a man like me has done,
and I hope He ain't so over particular with respect to poor sailors."
Dick at length, mustering courage, knelt by the side of the child, the
calm sea allowing him to do so without the danger of falling off. His
prayer might not have been, as he expressed it, very ship-shape; the
chief expression in it was, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner, and take
care of little Charley here and me, if such a one as I am is worth
looking after."
At length Dick resumed his seat by the side of his charge. The sun
came down with intense heat, but he managed, by turning the raft round
with his paddle, and lifting the lid of the basket, to shelter Charley from
its burning rays. The child sat up and looked about him, prattling away
frequently in a lingo Dick could not understand: sometimes also he
spoke a little English, which he seemed to have known before he came
on board the Laurel, but since then he had picked up a good many
words. Dick now tried to amuse him and himself by teaching him more,
and as the child learned rapidly whatever he heard, he already could
sing--
"Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer, List ye landsmen all to me."
and--
"One night it blew a hurricane, The sea was mountains rolling, When
Barney Buntline turned his quid, And cried to Billy Bowlin--"
right through without a mistake.
"Oh, look dere, dere! what dat rum fis?" he suddenly exclaimed,

pointing to a short distance from the raft.
Dick looked, and saw what a sailor dreads more than any human
foe--the black triangular fin of a huge shark which was noiselessly
gliding by, just beneath the surface, and turning its wicked eye towards
Charley and himself. A blow from the monster's tail or nose might
easily upset the raft, when they to a certainty would become its prey.
Dick grasped his pole to do battle, should the creature come nearer, and
he at once began beating the water on every side and shouting at the top
of his voice. The shark, an arrant coward by nature, kept at a distance,
but his dark fin could still be seen as he circled round and round the raft,
waiting, Dick feared, for an opportunity to rush in and make an attack.
"He shall pay for it with one of his eyes, if he does," said Dick to
himself.
"What for make all that noise?" asked Charley.
"Why do you sing out `youngster' sometimes?" inquired Dick.
"Because you have a fancy for it, I've a notion, and so I have a fancy
just now to shout away. I mus'n't frighten the little chap," he muttered
to himself. "It won't do to tell him what Jack Shark is looking after."
Thus Dick sat on till he thought by the position of the sun that it must
be noon, when he gave Charley his dinner and cup of water--he himself
eating but sparingly, for fear of diminishing his scanty store and
depriving the child of food.
"I can hold out much longer than he can," he said to himself, "and I
must not let him get into bad case."
Every now and then Dick stood up and gazed around the horizon,
anxiously looking out for the signs of a breeze which might bring up
some ship. The sun was again sinking beneath the ocean, which
continued glass-like as before. At length night crept over the world of
waters, and the brilliant stars shone down from the dark sky, each one
reflected clearly in the mirror-like deep.

"What all those pretty things up dere?" asked Charley, waking suddenly
from his first sleep; "get me some to play wid, Dick."
"Just what I can't do, boy," answered Dick. "All those are stars far away
in the sky, and I have heard say they are worlds; but how they stop up
is more than I can tell, except God keeps them there."