The Lady of the Aroostook | Page 6

William Dean Howells
towards them, with his hat off, and rubbing his head
and face with a circular application of a red silk handkerchief. He was
dressed in a suit of blue flannel, very neat and shapely, and across his
ample waistcoat stretched a gold watch chain; in his left hand he
carried a white Panama hat. He was short and stout; his round florid
face was full of a sort of prompt kindness; his small blue eyes twinkled
under shaggy brows whose sandy color had not yet taken the grizzled
tone of his close-clipped hair and beard. From his clean wristbands his
hands came out, plump and large; stiff, wiry hairs stood up on their

backs, and under these various designs in tattooing showed their purple.
Lydia's grandfather stepped out to meet and halt this stranger, as he
drew near, glancing quickly from the girl to the old man, and then at
their bundles. "Can you tell me where a ship named the Aroostook is,
that was layin' at this wharf--Lucas Wharf--a fortnight ago, and better?"
"Well, I guess I can, Mr. Latham," answered the stranger, with a
quizzical smile, offering one of his stout hands to Lydia's grandfather.
"You don't seem to remember your friends very well, do you?"
The old man gave a kind of crow expressive of an otherwise
unutterable relief and comfort. "Well, if it ain't Captain Jenness! I be'n
so turned about, I declare for't, I don't believe I'd ever known you if you
hadn't spoke up. Lyddy," he cried with a child-like joy, "this is Captain
Jenness!"
Captain Jenness having put on his hat changed Mr. Latham's hand into
his left, while he stretched his great right hand across it and took
Lydia's long, slim fingers in its grasp, and looked keenly into her face.
"Glad to see you, glad to see you, Miss Blood. (You see I've got your
name down on my papers.) Hope you're well. Ever been a sea-voyage
before? Little homesick, eh?" he asked, as she put her handkerchief to
her eyes. He kept pressing Lydia's hand in the friendliest way. "Well,
that's natural. And you're excited; that's natural, too. But we're not
going to have any homesickness on the Aroostook, because we're going
to make her home to you." At this speech all the girl's gathering
forlornness broke in a sob. "That's right!" said Captain Jenness. "Bless
you, I've got a girl just about your age up at Deer Isle, myself!" He
dropped her hand, and put his arm across her shoulders. "Good land, I
know what girls are, I hope! These your things?" He caught up the
greater part of them into his capacious hands, and started off down the
wharf, talking back at Lydia and her grandfather, as they followed him
with the light parcels he had left them. "I hauled away from the wharf
as soon as I'd stowed my cargo, and I'm at anchor out there in the
stream now, waiting till I can finish up a few matters of business with
the agents and get my passengers on board. When you get used to the
strangeness," he said to Lydia, "you won't be a bit lonesome. Bless your
heart! My wife's been with me many a voyage, and the last time I was
out to Messina I had both my daughters."
At the end of the wharf, Captain Jenness stopped, and suddenly calling

out, "Here!" began, as she thought, to hurl Lydia's things into the water.
But when she reached the same point, she found they had all been
caught, and deposited in a neat pile in a boat which lay below, where
two sailors stood waiting the captain's further orders. He keenly
measured the distance to the boat with his eye, and then he bade the
men work round outside a schooner which lay near; and jumping on
board this vessel, he helped Lydia and her grandfather down, and easily
transferred them to the small boat. The men bent to their oars, and
pulled swiftly out toward a ship that lay at anchor a little way off. A
light breeze crept along the water, which was here blue and clear, and
the grateful coolness and pleasant motion brought light into the girl's
cheeks and eyes. Without knowing it she smiled. "That's right!" cried
Captain Jenness, who had applauded her sob in the same terms.
"_You'll_ like it, first-rate. Look at that ship! _That's_ the Aroostook. Is
she a beauty, or ain't she?"
The stately vessel stood high from the water, for Captain Jenness's
cargo was light, and he was going out chiefly for a return freight. Sharp
jibs and staysails cut their white outlines keenly against the afternoon
blue of the summer heaven; the topsails and courses dripped,
half-furled, from the yards stretching across the yellow masts
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