Through Forest and Stream | Page 5

thwart.
"How much more is there to come, Nat?" asked my uncle, as I stood on deck, looking down.
"That's all, uncle," I said.
"Bravo! for we're packed pretty close. Hardly room to move, eh, carpenter?"
"I don't see much the matter, sir," said the man. "Everything's nice and snug, and these boxes make like a deck. Bimeby when you've used your stores you can get rid of a chest or two."
"No," said Uncle Dick; "we shall want them to hold the specimens we shoot. But you've packed all in splendidly, my lad."
"Thankye, sir," said the man gruffly, and just then I heared a low weary sigh from somewhere close by, and turning sharply, I saw the ship's boy standing there with his left hand up to his face, looking at me piteously.
"Hallo!" I said, smiling; "how's the eye this morning?"
"Horrid bad, sir," he answered.
"Let me look."
He took away his hand slowly and unwillingly, showing that the eye was a good deal swollen and terribly blackened.
"You wouldn't like an eye like that, sir?" he said, with a faint smile.
"No," I said angrily; "and it's a great shame."
I hardly know how it was that I had it there, where money was not likely to be of use, but I had a two-shilling piece in my pocket, and I gave it to the poor fellow, as it seemed to me like showing more solid sympathy than empty words.
His face lit up so full of sunshine that I did not notice how dirty it was as he clapped the piece of silver to the swollen eye.
"That will not do any good," I said, laughing.
"Done a lot, sir," he answered--"that and what you said."
He made a curious sound as if he were half choking then, and turned sharply to run forward to the cook's galley.
By the time breakfast was over, land could be seen from the deck to starboard, port, and right forward--misty-looking land, like clouds settled here and there upon the surface of the sea.
This grew clearer and clearer, till about noon it was plain to see that some of the patches were islands, while farther to the west the mainland spread right and left with dim bluish-looking mountains in the distance.
It was early in the afternoon that the captain suddenly gave his orders, the engine was stopped, and the boat towing far astern began to grind up against the side, as it rose and fell on the heaving sea.
"Still of the same mind, doctor?" said the captain.
"Certainly, sir."
"Then now's your time. Over you go."
"I thought you would run in a few miles nearer," said Uncle Dick.
"Did you, sir?" said the captain roughly; "then you made a great mistake. This sea swarms with reefs and shoals nigher in, and I'm not going to be mad enough to risk my vessel, if you're mad enough to risk your life. Now, sir, please, I want to get ahead and claw off here before it falls calm. If I don't, some of these currents 'll be landing me where I don't want to go."
"We are ready," said Uncle Dick.
"Haul that boat abreast the starboard gangway!" shouted the captain, and a couple of men ran to obey the order.
"Well, good-bye, captain," said Uncle Dick, "and thank you for what you've done."
"Good-bye, sir, and good luck to you. You too, youngster; but it isn't too late yet."
"Much," said my uncle, and it seemed quite strange to me that what followed took so short a time. For one minute we were on the deck of the large vessel, the next we were standing up in our little boat, waving our hats to the crew, who had crowded to the side to give us a cheer; and the last faces I noted as they glided away were those of the carpenter and the boy, who gazed after us in a wistful way, the latter looking miserable in the extreme as he held his left hand over his eye.
CHAPTER THREE.
NIGHT ASHORE.
I was brought back to the present by my uncle giving me a hearty slap on the shoulder.
"Ready to begin again, Nat?" he cried.
"Yes, uncle," I said eagerly. "It seems like the old days come back."
"Ship the rudder, then, while I hoist the sail. The skipper may be right, so let's make use of this soft breeze to get to the mainland before the calm leaves us at the mercy of the currents."
A few minutes later the boat careened over gently, and glided fast through the water, while I steered, making for an opening which Uncle Dick made out with his glass to be the mouth of a valley running up the country.
"It's too far off to see all I want, Nat," he said, as he closed his glass; "but I fancy we shall find a river there, and we'll run in and try our