The Mate of the Lily

The Mate of the Lily, by W. H. G.
Kingston

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Title: The Mate of the Lily Notes from Harry Musgrave's Log Book
Author: W. H. G. Kingston
Illustrator: unknown
Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21469]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MATE
OF THE LILY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Mate of the Lily; Notes from Harry Musgrave's Log Book, by W H
G Kingston.

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This is another book by Kingston on the theme of a youngster whose
father has not returned from a voyage at sea, and whose mother
therefore is almost destitute, with several younger children to house
and feed. Luckily her brother Jack, the Mate of the Lily, is home, and
though pledged in marriage, offers to provide for the family, taking the
eldest, Harry, with him as an apprentice officer. They are to look for a
return cargo in the Java Seas and thereabouts, and use the opportunity,
following certain clues, to search for Captain Musgrave and his vessel.
There are all sorts of vicissitudes, from storm, volcanoes, grounding,
and persistent attacks by the pirates that infest those seas.
Needless to say they find him, though practically at the end of his life,
from despair. On being found he recovers his spirits, and so is brought
home.
It is well-written, and full of suspense. There are other twists to the
story that I have not mentioned above, and I am sure you would enjoy
reading the book or listening to it.
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THE MATE OF THE LILY, NOTES FROM HARRY MUSGRAVE'S
LOG BOOK, BY W H G KINGSTON.
CHAPTER ONE.
Jack Radburn, mate of the "Lily," was as prime a seaman as ever broke
biscuit. Brave, generous, and true, so said all the crew, as did also
Captain Haiselden, with whom he had sailed since he had first been to
sea. Yet so modest and gentle was he on shore that, in spite of his broad
shoulders and sun-burnt brow, landsmen were apt to declare that
"butter wouldn't melt in his mouth."

A finer brig than the "Lily" never sailed from the port of London. Well
built and well found--many a successful voyage had she made to far
distant seas. Jack Radburn might have got command of a larger craft,
but Captain Haiselden, who had nursed him through a fever caught on
the coast of Africa, and whose life on another occasion he had saved,
thus closely cementing their friendship, begged him to remain with him
for yet another voyage, likely to be the most adventurous they had ever
yet undertaken.
Jack Radburn, who was my uncle, stayed when on shore--not often
many weeks together--with his sister, Mrs Musgrave, my mother.
Though he was my uncle, I have spoken of him as Jack Radburn, mate
of the "Lily," as did everybody else; indeed, he was, I may say, as well
known as the captain himself. My mother, who was the daughter of a
clergyman long since dead, had not many acquaintances. She had been
left by my grandfather with little or nothing to depend upon, when her
brother introduced to her my father, then first mate of the ship to which
he belonged.
Her greatest friend was Grace Bingley, who lived with her mother, wife
of a ship-master, a few doors off from us.
Uncle Jack had consequently seen much of Grace Bingley, and had
given her the whole of his warm honest heart, nor was it surprising that
he had received hers in return, and pretty tightly he held it too. Even
my mother acknowledged that she was worthy of him, for a sweeter or
more right-minded girl was not, far or near, to be found.
Some four years before the time of which I am now speaking, my
father sailed in command of a fine ship, the "Amphion," for the Eastern
seas. The time we had expected him to return had long passed away.
My mother did not, however, give up all expectation of seeing him, but
day after day and week after week we looked for him in vain. The
owners at last wrote word that they feared the ship had been lost in a
typhoon, but yet it was possible that she might have been cast away on
some uninhabited island from whence the crew could not effect their
escape. My mother therefore still hoped on and endeavoured