Dick Cheveley | Page 9

about to interfere with her young,
we could not tell, but we agreed that it was well to beat a retreat. We
accordingly set off and ran on until we reached the further end of the
pond, when Mark, asking me to stop a minute, disappeared among the
bushes, and in a few minutes returned with a rough basket full of fine
tench, carp, and eels. I had a notion that some night-lines had assisted
him to take so many. I did not, however, ask questions just then, and
once more we set off running. Wet as I was, I was very glad to move
quickly, not that I felt particularly cold, for the sun had now risen some
way above the trees, and as there was not a breath of air, his rays
warmed me and began to dry my outer garments. I must have had a
very draggled look, and I had no wish to be seen by any one at home in
that condition. In little more than a quarter of an hour we came in sight
of a cottage situated below a cliff on the side of a ravine, opening out
towards the sea. A stream which flowed from the Squire's ponds
running through it.
"That is my home, and father will be right glad to see you," said Mark,
pointing to it.
A fine old sailor-like man with a straw hat and round jacket came out
of the door as we approached, and began to look about him in the
fashion seafaring men have the habit of doing when they first turn out
in the morning, to ascertain what sort of weather it is likely to be. His
eyes soon fell on Mark and me as we ran down the ravine.
"Who have you got with you, my son?" he asked.
"The young gentleman from the vicarage. He has had a ducking, and he
wants to dry his clothes before he goes home; or maybe he'd call it a
swanning, seeing it was one of those big white birds which pulled him
in, and towed him along from one end of the pond to the other, eh,
master? What's your name?"
"Richard," I replied, "though I'm generally called Dick," not at all
offended at my companion's familiarity.

"You are welcome, Master Dick, and if you like to turn into Mark's bed,
or put on a shirt and pair of trousers of his, we'll get your duds dried
before the kitchen fire in a jiffy," said the old sailor. "Come in, come in;
it doesn't do to stand out in the air when you are wet through with fresh
water."
I gladly entered the old sailor's cottage, where I found his wife and a
young daughter, a year or two older than Mark, busy in getting
breakfast ready. I thought Nancy Riddle a nice-looking pleasant-faced
girl, and her mother a good-natured buxom dame. As I had no fancy for
going to bed I gladly accepted a pair of duck trousers and a blue check
shirt belonging to Mark, and a pair of low shoes, which were certainly
not his. I suspected that they were Nancy's best.
I quickly took off my wet things in Mark's room, and getting into dry
ones, made my appearance in the room which served them for parlour,
kitchen, and hall, where I found the table spread, with a pot of hot tea,
cups and saucers, a bowl of porridge, a loaf of home-made bread, and a
pile of buttered toast, to which several of Mark's freshly caught fish
were quickly added. I offered mine to Mrs Riddle, but she answered--
"Thank you kindly, but you had better take them home to your friends,
they'll be glad of them, and we've got a plenty, as you see."
I was very thankful to get a cup of scalding tea, for I was beginning to
feel somewhat chilly, though Mrs Riddle made me sit near the fire. A
saucer of porridge and milk, followed by some buttered toast and the
best part of a tench, with a slice or two of bread soon set me up.
Nancy, however, now and then got up and gave my clothes a turn to
dry them faster--a delicate attention which I duly appreciated. Mr
Riddle, who was evidently fond of spinning yarns, as most old sailors
are, narrated a number of his adventures, which greatly interested me,
and made me more than ever wish to go to sea. Mark had already made
a trip in a coaster to the north of England, and I was much surprised to
hear him say that he had had enough of it.
"It is not all gold that glitters," he remarked. "I fancied that I was to

become a sailor all at once, instead