Bob Strong's Holidays Part 45

"It's my native place, sir. I was born there!" cried Jacques. "My father was in the English navy; and my old mother, who is yet alive, has a house of her own in the town! It's only through my having married a French wife that has took me over here along with the Parlyvoos!"

"How strange!" exclaimed Bob. "Why, we went to see only the other day a Mrs Craddock, who has a daughter who's very ill, that my aunt Polly goes to see; and she told us she had a son married to a French girl and he was living at Saint Malo!"

"Why, that's me!" cried Jacques; although "Jacques" no longer to us.

"I'm Jim Craddock, and the old lady that you saw is my mother! My word!

this is a rum start!"

After the curious coincidence of Bob and d.i.c.k being rescued by the son of "the old egg-woman," as they always called her, between whom and themselves Rover had in the original instance sc.r.a.ped an acquaintance, nothing would content Jim Craddock but that he must bear up at once for Portsmouth, and restore Bob and d.i.c.k to those who bewailed them as lost, as well as return the battered little yacht, which the lugger had in tow astern, to her proper owner.

The meeting between Bob and his parents is too sacred a matter to touch upon here; but, it is easy enough to imagine the delight of those welcoming one coming back to them as it were from the dead; d.i.c.k, too, being received like another son.

As for Nellie, her joy was so great at beholding again her brother Bob, whom she loved so dearly, that she laughed till she cried and then fainted; while, on her recovery, she laughed and cried again, though she did not faint a second time!

But, you should only have seen Rover when he saw his young master.

Sarah, "the good Sarah," said that she would never forget "the way in which that there dog went on as long as she lived!"

Of course, it can be well understood that there were no ill-feelings between Bob and the retriever anent the desertion of the latter from the cutter on the day of the boys' terribly punished escapade; though, the mystery of the dog's swimming ash.o.r.e so strangely on that memorable occasion, it may be mentioned here, was never cleared up!

The Captain, it must be said, behaved much more unconcernedly than Rover.

"By Jove! I told you they'd turn up all right!" said he, chuckling away at such a rate that he could hardly stop to get out the next words. "I always told you so, didn't I ma'am--now, didn't I?"

"My gracious goodness, Cap'en Dresser, why you were the first to give them up!" cried Mrs Gilmour laughing. "Sure, I never did see such a man!"

At this the Captain chuckled still more; and he then told d.i.c.k, whom every one was as glad almost to see amongst them again as they were to see Bob, that he intended, when he got strong enough, to send him into the navy so as to prevent him from going to sea again!

After a few days' rest, in order to recuperate from the effects of the strain on all their nerves, Bob's father said they must all go back to town, their holiday limit being at length reached.

Bob and Nellie, on this intimation, began a round of leave-taking which would well-nigh have consumed another long holiday, to have been carried out in accordance with their intention; for they wanted to say "good- bye!" to all their favourite haunts and many acquaintances of the animate and inanimate world in turn.

Yes, they must see once more the halcyon spot where they caught the Pandalus, that gem of their aquarium; they had to bid adieu to Mrs Craddock's cottage, and the old lady herself and daughter; and again inspect the place where the unfortunate _Bembridge Belle_ was wrecked.

They had to give a handshake, too, to their friend h.e.l.lyer--and all his fellow-coastguardsmen; besides having to go over the Captain's yacht, which had been sparred and rigged anew, the little _Zephyr_ looking now "as fresh as paint again" after her eventful vicissitudes adrift in the Channel.

Aye, they paid farewell visits to every one and everything, and then wanted to begin over again, it was so hard to part with them all!

At last, however, the ordeal was accomplished; and all their goods and chattels and new acquisitions, especially the aquarium and its various occupants, that terrible Mesembryanthemum included, being properly packed up and labelled, behold the party one fine morning at the railway-station on their way to London as soon as the train should start!

Here Rover, despite his frantic howls on escaping his former prison, was snugly incarcerated in the guard's van; when the others, after exchanging last words with Mrs Gilmour and the Captain, entered a saloon-carriage which had been reserved for them for the journey, Bob and Nell, it may be taken for granted, being the last to get in, loth to leave "aunt Polly" and "that dear old sailor" who had won their hearts, as well as say "good-bye" to d.i.c.k, the whilom uninvited guest of their first eventful journey "Down the line," and subsequent faithful companion of Bob in his wonderful adventures by sea and land.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

A LAST WORD.

There was a warning shriek from the engine's steam-whistle, as if it were impatient to be off, and angrily wanting to know why it was kept thus unnecessarily waiting.

Following up the scream of the whistle came the last cling! clang! of the railway-porter's bell, telling belated pa.s.sengers that "time" was "up."

Next ensued the scrambling and scurrying of the aforesaid belated pa.s.sengers, who always appear to put off making up their minds as to whether they shall start or not until the last moment of grace has expired.

Then, finally, after much clanging of doors upon the backs of those thus nearly left behind, with a snort of indignation and defiance of things in general, and late pa.s.sengers in particular, the panting, puffing, fuming iron horse metaphorically and practically "put his shoulder to the wheel," lugging the rolling, rumbling, heavy train out of the station Londonwards, with a "puff-puff, pant-pant!" from his hoa.r.s.e throat, answered by the groans and creaks of sympathy from the laden carriages and the clinking rattle of the coupling-chains, as they drew taut from the tension, lending a sort of cymbal-like accompaniment to the noisy chorus.

Bob and Nellie watched their aunt and the Captain standing on the platform, waving their handkerchiefs from the window of their compartment, which they found it a hard matter to shove their heads through two at a time, until a bend in the line swept aunt Pollys Captain Dresser, platform and all out of sight.

Then, sitting down disconsolately in their seats, Bob, who, of course, thought it unmanly to cry, screwed himself up in a corner in default of that alleviation of his misery, looking the very picture of woe; while poor Nell, being a girl and freed from such Spartan obligations, sought refuge from her sorrow in silent tears.

"Now, Nellie dear," said her mother reprovingly, "you mustn't be so foolis.h.!.+ Of course, I can make allowance for your sorrow at leaving Southsea, where you have been so happy; but these partings, dearie, will come some time or other, and, besides, you know, both aunt Polly and Captain Dresser have promised to come up to us at Christmas, so you'll see them again soon."

This made poor Nell try to compose herself; and presently she smiled through her tears, exchanging reminiscences of the past few weeks of their enjoyment by the sea with Bob, who also, after a time, shook off his grumpiness--the feeling that they were going "home" again, by and by overcoming their depression at leaving, perhaps for ever, the scene of so many delights and such a terrible ordeal at the last!

"I wonder how old Blinkie will look?" said Bob, trying to picture the jackdaw as he would appear when conscious of his owner's return; and then, deciding in his own mind that the only tribute of affection which he might expect would, most probably, be a sharp peck from Blinkie's beak, he added, "I dare say he won't remember me at all!"

Nellie's thoughts were directed to Snuffles the asthmatic cat, her great pet; and she believed that highly-trained animal would not only know her again after her long absence, but would certainly express her satisfaction in a much more endearing manner, if not quite so touching or pointed!

Thus the two beguiled the tedium of their journey; and, such was their joy on the train's arrival in town at last, that no one would have believed them to be the same Bob and Nell who had given way so greatly to their grief on leaving the seaside!

Naturally, Rover's pleasure at being released from his temporary imprisonment in the guard's van could be easily accounted for; but, the way in which, when he got back to his old home, he walked deliberately to the bottom of the garden in perfect remembrance of the spot where he had buried his last bone before going away, showed that he, at least, did not forget so easily.

The dog's memory, too, was equally green concerning his old friends Snuffles and Blinkie, as that of his young master and mistress; for he so sniffed and snuffed Snuffles in his exuberance at seeing her again, that he seriously disarranged her fur, while he allowed the jackdaw to peck at his legs and even his nose, without the slightest attempt at retaliation!

Not long after their getting back, Bob and Nell had a great joke all to themselves.

Their father and mother were sending down an invalid chair for Mrs Craddock's daughter, one in which she could be taken out into the open- air--it was a thing for which the poor girl had always been longing, as aunt Polly managed to find out for them when they were thinking of what sort of return they could make for the kind way in which the old lady's son had rescued Bob, Jim himself refusing any recompense whatever, despite all the barrister's and Captain Dresser's efforts.

So, this parcel being about to be dispatched "Down the line," Master Bob and Miss Nell bethought them that they would send a present too; not only to d.i.c.k, who was always in their minds, but one also for--whom do you think?

Why, for Sarah, "the good Sarah!"

And, what do you think the present was, eh?

You would never guess.

Well, a nice little loaf of bread and an ounce packet of the best black tea, both packed up in a very pretty box that also contained a remarkably smart cap, with ribbons of a colour such as the soul of Sarah loved.

Nor was this all,

On the lid of the box was an elaborate device in hieroglyphic characters, which could be readily understood when properly explained by the young designers, detailing the leading incidents of a celebrated picnic in the woods which once occurred; although, possibly the uninitiated might experience some little difficulty at first in discriminating between what were meant for the figures of the princ.i.p.al personages of the story and the objects of still life depicted in the drawing, though otherwise it was an admirable work of art.

Regarding the copy of verses also pinned on to the box, which the device in question was intended to ill.u.s.trate, there could be no mistake; the verses, indeed, being a replica of an original poem, preserved in the Bobo-Nellonian archives and ent.i.tled, "Sarah's forget-me-nots,"

wherewith the reader has been already made acquainted.

The parcel was duly dispatched down to Southsea; but, though Nellie subsequently wrote a nice little letter to the Captain in her own nice handwriting, large and legible, such as the old sailor could read comfortably without spectacles, wherein she mentioned all the latest news of her aquarium tenants, telling how the hermit crab had distrained for his rent on a young lobster who had cast-off his sh.e.l.l, and that a small skate objected to the ice, she could learn nothing of how "the good Sarah" received her present.

Nor could Bob gain any information on the subject from aunt Polly, to whom he sent a long epistle bearing on the same momentous theme.