Rivers of Ice | Page 4

craft, and
cut up by its ever-bustling steamers. But the most noteworthy part of
this room, or "cabin," was the space between the two windows
immediately over the chimney-piece, which the eccentric old woman
had covered with a large, and, in some cases, 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