Rivers of Ice | Page 4

inappropriate assortment of objects, by way of ornament, each article being cleaned and polished to the highest possible condition of which it was susceptible. A group of five photographs of children--three girls and two boys, looking amazed-- formed the centrepiece of the design; around these were five other photographs of three young ladies and two young gentlemen, looking conscious, but pleased. The spaces between these, and every available space around them, were occupied by pot-lids of various sizes, old and battered, but shining like little suns; small looking-glasses, also of various sizes, some square and others round; little strings of beads; heads of meerschaums that had been much used in former days; pin-cushions, shell-baskets, one or two horse-shoes, and iron-heels of boots; several flat irons belonging to doll's houses, with a couple of dolls, much the worse for wear, mounting guard over them; besides a host of other nick-nacks, for which it were impossible to find names or imagine uses. Everything--from the old woman's cap to the uncarpeted floor, and the little grate in which a little fire was making feeble efforts to warm a little tea-kettle with a defiant spout--was scrupulously neat, and fresh, and clean, very much the reverse of what one might have expected to find in connection with a poverty-stricken population, a dirty lane, a filthy court, a rickety stair, and a dark passage. Possibly the cause might have been found in a large and much-worn family Bible, which lay on a small table in company with a pair of tortoiseshell spectacles, at the old woman's elbow.
On this scene the nautical man stood gazing, as we have said, with much interest; but he was too polite to gaze long.
"Your servant, missis," he said with a somewhat clumsy bow.
"Good morning, sir," said the little old woman, returning the bow with the air of one who had once seen better society than that of Grubb's Court.
"Your name is Roby, I believe," continued the seaman, advancing, and looking so large in comparison with the little room that he seemed almost to fill it.
The little old woman admitted that that was her name.
"My name," said the seaman, "is Wopper, tho' I'm oftener called Skipper, also Capp'n, by those who know me."
Mrs Roby pointed to a chair and begged Captain Wopper to sit down, which he did after bestowing a somewhat pointed glance at the chair, as if to make sure that it could bear him.
"You was a nuss once, I'm told," continued the seaman, looking steadily at Mrs Roby as he sat down.
"I was," answered the old woman, glancing at the photographs over the chimney-piece, "in the same family for many years."
"You'll excuse me, ma'am," continued the seaman, "if I appear something inquisitive, I want to make sure that I've boarded the right craft d'ee see--I mean, that you are the right 'ooman."
A look of surprise, not unmingled with humour, beamed from Mrs Roby's twinkling black eyes as she gazed steadily in the seaman's face, but she made no other acknowledgment of his speech than a slight inclination of her head, which caused her tall cap to quiver. Captain Wopper, regarding this as a favourable sign, went on.
"You was once, ma'am, I'm told, before bein' a nuss in the family of which you've made mention, a matron, or somethin' o' that sort, in a foundlin' hospital--in your young days, ma'am?"
Again Mrs Roby admitted the charge, and demanded to know, "what then?"
"Ah, jus' so--that's what I'm comin' to," said Captain Wopper, drawing his large hand over his beard. "You was present in that hospital, ma'am, was you not, one dark November morning, when a porter-cask was left at the door by some person unknown, who cut his cable and cleared off before the door was opened,--which cask, havin' on its head two X's, and bein' labelled, `This side up, with care,' contained two healthy little babby boys?"
Mrs Roby, becoming suddenly grave and interested, again said, "I was."
"Jus' so," continued the captain, "you seem to be the right craft--'ooman, I mean--that I'm in search of. These two boys, who were supposed to be brothers, because of their each havin' a brown mole of exactly the same size and shape on their left arms, just below their elbows, were named `Stout,' after the thing in which they was headed up, the one bein' christened James, the other Willum?"
"Yes, yes," replied the little old woman eagerly, "and a sweet lovely pair they was when the head of that barrel was took off, lookin' out of the straw in which they was packed like two little cheruphims, though they did smell strong of the double X, and was a little elevated because of the fumes that 'ung about the wood. But how do you come to know all this, sir, and why do you ask?"
"Excuse