Jacks Ward | Page 9

think, Martha?"
"I think there is no objection," said Mrs. Harding, secretly amazed at
Rachel's entertaining the idea.
The result was that Miss Rachel put on her things, and accompanied the
captain. She was prevailed on to take the captain's arm at length,

greatly to Jack's amusement. He was still more amused when a boy
picked up her handkerchief which she had accidentally dropped, and,
restoring it to the captain, said, "Here's your wife's handkerchief,
gov'nor."
"Ho! ho!" laughed the captain. "He takes you for my wife, ma'am."
"Ho! ho!" echoed Jack, equally amused.
Aunt Rachel turned red with confusion. "I am afraid I ought not to have
come," she murmured. "I feel ready to drop."
"You'd better not drop just yet," said the captain--they were just
crossing the street--"wait till it isn't so muddy."
On the whole, Aunt Rachel decided not to drop.
The Argo was a medium-sized vessel, and Jack in particular was
pleased with his visit. Though not outwardly so demonstrative, Aunt
Rachel also seemed to enjoy the expedition. The captain, though blunt,
was attentive, and it was something new to her to have such an escort.
It was observed that Miss Harding was much less gloomy than usual
during the remainder of the day. It might be that the captain's
cheerfulness was contagious. For a stranger, Aunt Rachel certainly
conversed with him with a freedom remarkable for her.
"I never saw Rachel so cheerful," remarked Mrs. Harding to her
husband that evening after they had retired. "She hasn't once spoken of
life being a vale of tears to-day."
"It's the captain," said her husband. "He has such spirits that it seems to
enliven all of us."
"I wish we could have him for a permanent boarder."
"Yes; the five dollars a week which he pays are a great help, especially
now that I am out of work."
"What is the prospect of getting work soon?"

"I am hoping for it from day to day, but it may be weeks yet."
"Jack earned fifty cents to-day by selling papers."
"His daily earnings are an important help. With what the captain pays
us, it is enough to pay all our living expenses. But there's one thing that
troubles me."
"The rent?"
"Yes, it is due in three weeks, and as yet I haven't a dollar laid by to
meet it. It makes me feel anxious."
"Don't lose your trust in Providence, Timothy. He may yet carry us
over this difficulty."
"So I hope, but I can't help feeling in what straits we shall be, if some
help does not come."
Two weeks later, Capt. Bowling sailed for Liverpool.
"I hope we shall see you again sometime, captain," said Mrs. Harding.
"Whenever I come back to New York, I shall come here if you'll keep
me," said the bluff sailor.
"Aunt Rachel will miss you, captain," said Jack, slyly.
Capt. Bowling turned to the confused spinster.
"I hope she will," said he, heartily. "Perhaps when I see her again, she'll
have a husband."
"Oh, Capt. Bowling, how can you say such things?" gasped Rachel,
who, as the time for the captain's departure approached, had been
subsiding into her old melancholy. "There's other things to think of in
this vale of tears."
"Are there? Well, if they're gloomy, I don't want to think of 'em. Jack,

my lad, I wish you were going to sail with me."
"So do I," said Jack.
"He's my only boy, captain," said Mrs. Harding. "I couldn't part with
him."
"I don't blame you, ma'am, not a particle; though there's the making of
a sailor in Jack."
"If he went away, he'd never come back," said Rachel, lugubriously.
"I don't know about that, ma'am. I've been a sailor, man and boy, forty
years, and here I am, well and hearty to-day."
"The captain is about your age, isn't he, Aunt Rachel?" said Jack,
maliciously.
"I'm only thirty-nine," said Rachel, sharply.
"Then I must have been under a mistake all my life," said the cooper to
himself. "Rachel's forty-seven, if she's a day."
This remark he prudently kept to himself, or a fit of hysterics would
probably have been the result.
"I wouldn't have taken you for a day over thirty-five, ma'am," said the
captain, gallantly.
Rachel actually smiled, but mildly disclaimed the compliment.
"If it hadn't been for my trials and troubles," she said, "I might have
looked younger; but they are only to be expected. It's the common lot."
"Is it?" said the captain. "I can't say I've been troubled much that way.
With a stout heart and a good conscience we ought to be jolly."
"Who of us has a good conscience?" asked Rachel, in a melancholy
tone.

"I have, Aunt Rachel," answered Jack.
"You?" she exclaimed, indignantly. "You, that tied a tin kettle to a
dog's