The Lady of the Aroostook | Page 9

as well as the sensibilities often seem dulled by age. They
have both perhaps been wrought upon too much in the course of the
years, and can no longer respond to the appeal or distress which they
can only dimly realize; even the heart grows old. "Don't you, don't you,
Lyddy!" repeated the old man. "You mustn't. The captain's waitin'; and
the cars--well, every minute I lose makes it riskier and riskier; and your
aunt Maria, she's always so uneasy, you know!"
The girl was not hurt by his anxiety about himself; she was more
anxious about him than about anything else. She quickly lifted her head,
and drying her eyes, kissed him, forcing her lips into the smile that is
more heart-breaking to see than weeping. She looked over the side, as
her grandfather was handed carefully down to a seat by the two sailors
in the boat, and the captain noted her resolute counterfeit of
cheerfulness. "That's right!" he shouted up to her. "Just like my girls
when their mother left 'em. But bless you, they soon got over it, and
so'll you. Give way, men," he said, in a lower voice, and the boat shot
from the ship's side toward the wharf. He turned and waved his
handkerchief to Lydia, and, stimulated apparently by this, her
grandfather felt in his pockets for his handkerchief; he ended after a
vain search by taking off his hat and waving that.
When he put it on again, it relapsed into that likeness of a half-shut
accordion from which Lydia had rescued it; but she only saw the face
under it.
As the boat reached the wharf an express wagon drove down, and
Lydia saw the sarcastic parley which she could not hear between the
captain and the driver about the belated baggage which the latter put off.
Then she saw the captain help her grandfather to the seat between
himself and the driver, and the wagon rattled swiftly out of sight. One
of the sailors lifted Lydia's baggage over the side of the wharf to the

other in the boat, and they pulled off to the ship with it.

III.
Lydia went back to the cabin, and presently the boy who had taken
charge of her lighter luggage came dragging her trunk and bag down
the gangway stairs. Neither was very large, and even a boy of fourteen
who was small for his age might easily manage them.
"You can stow away what's in 'em in the drawers," said the boy. "I
suppose you didn't notice the drawers," he added, at her look of inquiry.
He went into her room, and pushing aside the valance of the lower
berth showed four deep drawers below the bed; the charming snugness
of the arrangement brought a light of housewifely joy to the girl's face.
"Why, it's as good as a bureau. They will hold everything."
"Yes," exulted the boy; "they're for two persons' things. The captain's
daughters, they both had this room. Pretty good sized too; a good deal
the captain's build. You won't find a better stateroom than this on a
steamer. I've been on 'em." The boy climbed up on the edge of the
upper drawer, and pulled open the window at the top of the wall. "Give
you a little air, I guess. If you want I should, the captain said I was to
bear a hand helping you to stow away what was in your trunks."
"No," said Lydia, quickly. "I'd just as soon do it alone."
"All right," said the boy. "If I was you, I'd do it now. I don't know just
when the captain means to sail; but after we get outside, it might be
rough, and it's better to have everything pretty snug by that time. I'll
haul away the trunks when you've got 'em empty. If I shouldn't happen
to be here, you can just call me at the top of the gangway, and I'll come.
My name's Thomas," he said. He regarded Lydia inquiringly a moment
before he added: "If you'd just as lives, I rather you'd call me Thomas,
and not steward. They said you'd call me steward," he explained, in a
blushing, deprecating confidence; "and as long as I've not got my
growth, it kind of makes them laugh, you know,--especially the second
officer."
"I will call you Thomas," said Lydia.
"Thank you." The boy glanced up at the round clock screwed to the
cabin wall. "I guess you won't have to call me anything unless you
hurry. I shall be down here, laying the table for supper, before you're
done. The captain said I was to lay it for you and him, and if he didn't

get back in time you was to go to eating, any way. Guess you