Bob Strong's Holidays Part 13

To make a long story short, the rest of Miss Nellie's collection consisted of most of the various members of the crustacean family found along the south coast, which she, with the help of Bob and d.i.c.k, had picked up promiscuously.

"A good deal of rubbish still, my dear," was the Captain's comment when he came round in the evening and Nellie showed him the latest additions to her store; "but, you've got one or two good things. I'll tell you what you want, though."

"What?" she asked excitedly. "What do we want, Captain? Hush, Bob!"

"An aquarium," said he. "You see, my dear--"

"Why, we've got one. We've got one already, Captain!" she cried out triumphantly, clapping her hands as she interrupted him. "Aunt Polly bought one this very morning for us."

"That was very good of her, more than you young torments deserve," said the Captain, with his customary chuckle. "However, now you've got an aquarium, you must have something to put in it. Something living, I mean. These dead and gone dried-up old chaps here are of no use; although I wouldn't be surprised if that starfish there could still tell the number of his mess if placed in water. I'm sure he's yet alive, my dear."

"Why!" exclaimed Nellie, astonished at this, "we've had him hanging up like that for a week!"

"Never mind that," replied the Captain. "Those funny, fat, seven- fingered gentlemen have a nasty habit of 'shamming Abraham,' or pretending to have 'kicked the bucket' when they are all alive and hearty!"

"How funny!" said Nellie, laughing. "But, what shall we get to put into the aquarium besides, Captain dear, crabs and little fish, like those we see swimming about in the sea below the castle?"

"Crabs and little grandmothers!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Captain in great disgust. "A nice aquarium you would make of it, missy, if you hadn't some one to look after you! Why, the crabs would eat your little fish before a week was out and then turn round and eat you!"

"Dear me, that would be dreadful!" cried Nellie laughing still more, the Captain did look so comical. "But, what may we have for our aquarium, if we must not have these?"

"Get? Well, let me see," said he, blinking away furiously and moving his bushy eyebrows up and down for a moment, as if deliberating. "We'll have some sea-anemones, to commence with. No proper aquarium is complete without them; and, when you once see them expand, showing their red and purple hues, and watch their wonderful way of moving about, you will soon be convinced that they are really animals and not vegetables, which, as I believe I told you before, many wise people for a long time supposed them to be! You just wait, missy, and you will find this out for yourself and learn more about them, too, than I can tell you."

"Oh, yes," interposed Bob. "I saw one this morning when I was swimming, and it looked just like a big dahlia."

"Lucky for you it wasn't a jelly-fish, or you'd have felt it as well as seen it!" rejoined the Captain grimly--"Avast there, though, we were talking about sea-anemones and other similar fry; and I was thinking that the best place for us to go to get them would be--why, by Jove, it's the very thing!"

"What's the matter now?" said Mrs Gilmour, who had been reading a letter she had just received by the post, looking up at his sudden exclamation. "Dear me, Captain, is anything wrong?"

"Nothing, ma'am, nothing," he replied, turning round to her--"only I've this moment thought of a way of 'killing two birds with one stone.' I promised these youngsters, you know, if they were good--"

"I know, I know what's coming now," cried Miss Nell, again interrupting him. Really she was a very rude little lady sometimes. "You're going to tell us at last!"

"What, missy?" said the Captain chuckling, as she and Bob executed a triumphal dance round him, while d.i.c.k stood grinning in the background, his face, which had filled out considerably in the last week or two, making him look very different to the lantern-jawed lad they had encountered in the train, all one smile. "What, missy?"

"You're going to take us out somewhere," Bob and Nellie cried in concert. "You promised, you know you did!"

"But, that was if you were good," he answered, enjoying their antics.

"That was the proviso, young people."

"We _are_ good," they shouted together. "Auntie says so."

The Captain put his hands to his ears to shut out their voices.

"Are they good?" he asked Mrs Gilmour. "Eh, ma'am?"

"Well, yes, I think so," said she, smiling. "Good enough as far as such children can be, I suppose! I suppose I must not tell tales out of school, sure, about what a little girl said the other day when somebody, whom I won't name, went away?"

"What, what?" inquired the old sailor, looking from one to the other.

"Tell me what she said!"

Nellie put her hand over Mrs Gilmour's mouth.

"Hush auntie," she cried appealingly. "You mustn't say anything; I didn't mean it!"

"I dare say you called me a sour old curmudgeon?" hinted the Captain, pretending to be very much grieved. "Didn't you?"

"No, I didn't," said Nellie, jumping up and throwing her arms round his neck to kiss him. "I think you are the dearest and kindest old Captain that ever was!"

"Humph!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in a smothered voice, addressing her aunt.

"There's no doubt, ma'am, where she gets the 'blarney' from. It runs in the family!"

"Sure an' small blame to her either," retorted the other defiantly.

"It's fortunate for us women that we have something wherewith to get the better of you hard men sometimes."

"Sometimes, eh? always, I think," growled the Captain, looking very knowing and laughing the while. "But, I won't argue the point with you, ma'am--sure to get the worst of it if I do. Tell you what I'll do, that is if it is agreeable to you. What say you to all of us crossing over to-morrow to the Island, eh?"

"Oh, auntie, how nice!" cried Nellie, hugging her and the Captain alternately.

Bob contented himself with uttering only the single word "jolly!"

But, the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n spoke volumes, Bob's highest appreciation being ever expressed by that expressive but slangy term "jolly!"

"Will it do, d'ye think?" said the Captain to Mrs Gilmour; there was no need of his asking either of the children, their faces giving an unhesitating a.s.sent at once, as did d.i.c.k's. "Eh, ma'am?"

"Certainly," she replied, "if it suits you."

"Then, that's settled," he decided. "There's a new steamer, called the _Bembridge Belle_, I've seen advertised to run on an excursion to Seaview pier; and I think she will do very well for us; especially as she will go partly round the Island afterwards."

"I can't say I like excursion steamers," observed Mrs Gilmour hesitatingly; "but if you think, as an experienced sailor, that she will be safe, of course I can have no objection. You know--I'm speaking more for the children's sake than my own, being responsible to their parents for them."

"Safe, ma'am, eh? Safe as houses!" replied the Captain, with much energy, stamping his foot on the floor as he spoke to give point to his a.s.sertion, his malacca cane not being within reach at the moment.

"Otherwise, ma'am, I wouldn't let you or the chickabiddies go in her for worlds!"

"You're quite sure, Captain?"

"Faith, I'll take my 'davy,' ma'am, she's as staunch and sound as the old _Bucephalus_."

"Say no more, Captain," said Mrs Gilmour. "If she's as safe as my poor Ted's s.h.i.+p, she must be safe indeed, I know."

"She is that, I believe, ma'am, on my honour."

"All right then, Captain," replied Mrs Gilmour to this. "We'll consider the trip arranged, then, for to-morrow, eh?"

"Very good, ma'am, there's my hand on it," cried the Captain, rising to take his leave. "I must say 'good-night' now; for, it's getting late, and I ought to turn in early if you expect me to turn out to-morrow.

Good-night, Miss Nell; good-night, Bob; come along, d.i.c.k!"

With which parting words, away he sailed homeward, not thinking that he had forgotten his game of cribbage with his fair hostess.