The Lady of the Aroostook | Page 7

that
sprang so far aloft; the hull glistened black with new paint. When Lydia
mounted to the deck she found it as clean scrubbed as her aunt's kitchen
floor. Her glance of admiration was not lost upon Captain Jenness.
"Yes, Miss Blood," said he, "one difference between an American ship
and any other sort is dirt. I wish I could take you aboard an English
vessel, so you could appreciate the Aroostook. But I guess you don't
need it," he added, with a proud satisfaction in his laugh. "The
Aroostook ain't in order yet; wait till we've been a few days at sea." The
captain swept the deck with a loving eye. It was spacious and
handsome, with a stretch of some forty or fifty feet between the house
at the stern and the forecastle, which rose considerably higher; a low
bulwark was surmounted by a heavy rail supported upon turned posts
painted white. Everything, in spite of the captain's boastful detraction,
was in perfect trim, at least to landfolk's eyes. "Now come into the
cabin," said the captain. He gave Lydia's traps, as he called them, in
charge of a boy, while he led the way below, by a narrow stairway,
warning Lydia and her grandfather to look out for their heads as they

followed. "There!" he said, when they had safely arrived, inviting their
inspection of the place with a general glance of his own.
"What did I tell you, Lyddy?" asked her grandfather, with simple joy in
the splendors about them. "Solid mahogany trimmin's everywhere."
There was also a great deal of milk-white paint, with some modest
touches of gilding here and there. The cabin was pleasantly lit by the
long low windows which its roof rose just high enough to lift above the
deck, and the fresh air entered with the slanting sun. Made fast to the
floor was a heavy table, over which hung from the ceiling a swinging
shelf. Around the little saloon ran lockers cushioned with red plush. At
either end were four or five narrow doors, which gave into as many tiny
state-rooms. The boy came with Lydia's things, and set them inside one
of these doors; and when he came out again the captain pushed it open,
and called them in. "Here!" said he. "Here's where my girls made
themselves at home the last voyage, and I expect you'll find it pretty
comfortable. They say you don't feel the motion so much,--I don't know
anything about the motion,--and in smooth weather you can have that
window open sometimes, and change the air. It's light and it's large.
Well, I had it fitted up for my wife; but she's got kind of on now, you
know, and she don't feel much like going any more; and so I always
give it to my nicest passenger." This was an unmistakable compliment,
and Lydia blushed to the captain's entire content. "That's a rug she
hooked," he continued, touching with his toe the carpet, rich in its
artless domestic dyes as some Persian fabric, that lay before the berth.
"These gimcracks belong to my girls; they left 'em." He pointed to
various slight structures of card-board worked with crewel, which were
tacked to the walls. "Pretty snug, eh?"
"Yes," said Lydia, "it's nicer than I thought it could be, even after what
grandfather said."
"Well, that's right!" exclaimed the captain. "I like your way of speaking
up. I wish you could know my girls. How old are you now?"
"I'm nineteen," said Lydia.
"Why, you're just between my girls!" cried the captain. "Sally is
twenty-one, and Persis is eighteen. Well, now, Miss Blood," he said, as
they returned to the cabin, "you can't begin to make yourself at home
too soon for me. I used to sail to Cadiz and Malaga a good deal; and
when I went to see any of them Spaniards he'd say, 'This house is

yours.' Well, that's what I say: This ship is yours as long as you stay in
her. And I mean it, and that's more than they did!" Captain Jenness
laughed mightily, took some of Lydia's fingers in his left hand and
squeezed them, and clapped her grandfather on the shoulder with his
right. Then he slipped his hand down the old man's bony arm to the
elbow, and held it, while he dropped his head towards Lydia, and said,
"We shall be glad to have him stay to supper, and as much longer as he
likes, heh?"
"Oh, no!" said Lydia; "grandfather must go back on the six o'clock train.
My aunt expects him." Her voice fell, and her face suddenly clouded.
"Good!" cried the captain. Then he pulled out his watch, and held it as
far away as the chain would stretch, frowning at it with his