Rollo on the Atlantic Part 11

After dinner, Hilbert, instead of going to his mother, went up upon the deck, leaving his bow and arrows, however, down in the cabin. As Rollo and Jennie were, at that time, seated near the after part of the promenade deck, he came and sat down near them. Rollo had a great desire to get up and go away, taking Jennie with him; but he feared that it would be impolite for him to do so; and while he was considering what he should do, the surgeon came along that way, and said to them,--

"Children, have you seen the little bird?"

"What bird?" exclaimed the children, all together.

"Why, there has a bird come on board," replied the surgeon. "He belongs in Nova Scotia, I suppose. That is the nearest land. He is forward, somewhere, among the sailors."

The children immediately hurried out to the most forward part of the promenade deck, near the great smoke pipe, to a place from which they could look down upon the forward deck. There they saw the little bird perched upon a coil of rigging. He was perfectly still. Some sailors were standing near, looking at him. The bird, however appeared to take no notice of them.

"Poor little thing!" said Rollo. "I expect he is tired flying so far. I wonder how far it is to Nova Scotia."

Rollo turned round as he said this, to see if the surgeon was near, in order to ask him how far the poor bird was from home. The surgeon was not there, but he saw that both Jennie and Hilbert had suddenly started together to go back toward the stairway, as if they were going below.

"Jennie," said Rollo, "where are you going?"

Jennie did not answer, but hurried on. Hilbert seemed equally eager. In fact, it was evident that they had both been seized with some new idea, though Rollo could not at first imagine what it was. At length, he said,--

"Ah! I know. They are going down where the bird is, to see it nearer.

I'll go with them."

So saying, Rollo hurried away too.

He was mistaken, however, in supposing that Hilbert and Jennie were merely going to the forward deck so as to get nearer the bird. Jennie was going down into the cabin to shut up her kitten. The instant that she saw the bird she was reminded of Tiger, having sometimes seen Tiger run after little birds in the yards and gardens at home. _They_ could escape from her by flying away, but this poor bird seemed so tired that Jennie was afraid the kitten would catch it and kill it, if she came near; and so she ran off very eagerly to shut the kitten up.

She found the kitten asleep on a sofa in the cabin. She immediately seized her, waking her up very suddenly by so doing, and hurried her off at once to her cage. Jennie put the kitten into the cage, and then shut and fastened the door.

"There, Tiger," said she, "you must stay in there. There is something up stairs that you must not see."

Then Jennie took the cage up, by means of the ring which formed the handle at the top, and carried it into her state room. She pushed aside the curtains of the lower berth, and, putting the cage in, she deposited it upon a small shelf in the end of the berth. Then, drawing the curtains again very carefully, she came out of the state room and shut the door.

"Now, Tiger," said she, as she tried the door to see if it was fast, "you are safe; and you must stay there until the little bird goes away."

The kitten, when she found herself thus left alone in such a seclusion, stood for a moment on the floor of the cage, looking toward the curtains, in an att.i.tude of great astonishment; then, knowing well, from past experience, that it was wholly useless for her to speculate on the reasons of Jennie's doings, she lay down upon the floor of the cage, curled herself into a ring, and went to sleep again.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

As for Hilbert, who had set off from the smoke pipe deck at the same time with Jennie, and in an equally eager manner, his going below had been with an entirely different intent from hers. He was going to get his bow and arrows, in order to shoot the little bird. He found them on the seat where he had left them. He seized them hastily, and ran up by the forward gangway, which brought him out upon the forward deck not very far from where the bird was resting upon the coil of rigging. He crept softly up toward him, and adjusted, as he went, his arrow to his bow. Several of the sailors were near, and one of them, a man whom they called Hargo, immediately stopped the operation that he was engaged in, and demanded of Hilbert what he was going to do.

"I am going to pop one of my arrows into that bird," said Hilbert.

"No such thing," said the sailor. "You pop an arrow into that bird, and I'll pop _you_ overboard."

Sailors will never allow any one to molest or harm in any way the birds that alight upon their s.h.i.+ps at sea.

"Overboard!" repeated Hilbert, in a tone of contempt and defiance. "You would not dare to do such a thing."

So saying, he went on adjusting his arrow, and, creeping up toward the bird, began to take aim.

Hargo here made a signal to some of his comrades, who, in obedience to it, came up near him in a careless and apparently undesigned manner.

Hargo then, by a sudden and unexpected movement, pulled the bow and arrow out of Hilbert's hand, and pa.s.sed them instantly behind him to another sailor, who pa.s.sed them to another, each standing in such a position as to conceal what they did entirely from Hilbert's sight. The thing was done so suddenly that Hilbert was entirely bewildered. His bow and arrow were gone, but he could not tell where. Each sailor, the instant that he had pa.s.sed the bow and arrow to the next, a.s.sumed a careless air, and went on with his work with a very grave and unmeaning face, as if he had not been taking any notice of the transaction. The last man who received the charge was very near the side of the s.h.i.+p, and as he stood there, leaning with a careless air against the bulwarks, he slyly dropped the bow and arrow overboard. They fell into the water just in advance of the paddle wheel. As the s.h.i.+p was advancing through the water all this time with tremendous speed, the paddle struck both the bow and the arrow the instant after they touched the water, and broke them both into pieces. The fragments came out behind, and floated off unseen in the foam which drifted away in a long line in the wake of the steamer. Hilbert was perfectly confounded. He knew nothing of the fate which his weapons had met with. All he knew was, that they had somehow or other suddenly disappeared as if by magic. Hargo had taken them, he was sure; but what he had done with them, he could not imagine. He was in a great rage, and turning to Hargo with a fierce look, he demanded, in a loud and furious tone,--

"Give me back my bow and arrow."

"I have not got your bow and arrow," said Hargo.

So saying, Hargo held up both hands, by way of proving the truth of his a.s.sertion.

Hilbert gazed at him for a moment, utterly at a loss what to do or say, and then he looked at the other sailors who were near, first at one, and then at another; but he could get no clew to the mystery.

"You have got them hid behind you," said Hilbert, again addressing Hargo.

"No," said he. "See."

So saying, he turned round and let Hilbert see that the bow and arrow were not behind him.

"Well, you took them away from me, at any rate," said Hilbert; and saying this, he turned away and walked off, seemingly very angry. He was going to complain to his father.

He met his father coming up the cabin stairs, and began, as soon as he came near him, to complain in very bitter and violent language of the treatment that he had received. Hargo had taken away his bow and arrow, and would not them back to him.

"Very well," replied his father, quietly, "you had been doing some mischief with them, I suppose."

"No," said Hilbert, "I had not been doing any thing at all."

"Then you were _going_ to do some mischief with them, I suppose," said his father.

"No," said Hilbert, "I was only going to shoot a little bird."

"A little bird!" repeated his father, surprised. "What little bird?"

"Why, a little bird that came on board from Nova Scotia, they said,"

replied Hilbert. "He came to rest."

"And you were going to shoot him?" said his father, in a tone of surprise. Then, after pausing a moment, he added, "Here, come with me."

So saying, Hilbert's father turned and walked down the cabin stairs again. He led the way to his state room, which, as it happened, was on the opposite side of the cabin from that which Jennie occupied. When he reached the door of the state room, he opened it, and standing on one side, he pointed the way to Hilbert, saying, sternly,--

"Go in there!"

Hilbert went in.

"You will stay there, now," said his father "as long as that bird sees fit to remain on board. It won't do, I see, for you both to be on deck together."

So saying, Hilbert's father shut the state room door, and locked it; and then, putting the key in his pocket, went away.

The bird was now safe, his two enemies--the only enemies he had on board the steamer--being shut up in their respective state rooms, as prisoners, one on one side of the cabin, and the other on the other. He did not, however, rest any the more quietly on this account; for he had not at any time been conscious of the danger that he had been in, either from the kitten or the boy. He went on reposing quietly at the resting-place which he had chosen on the coil of rigging, until at last, when his little wings had become somewhat reinvigorated, he came down from it, and went hopping about the deck. Jennie and Maria then went down below and got some bread for him. This they scattered in crums before him, and he came and ate it with great satisfaction. In about two hours he began to fly about a little; and finally he perched upon the bulwarks, and looked all over the sea. Perceiving that he was now strong enough to undertake the pa.s.sage home to his mate, he flew off, and ascending high into the air, until he obtained sight of the coast, he then set forth with great speed in that direction.

It was several hundred miles to the sh.o.r.e, and he had to rest two or three times on the way. Once he alighted on an English s.h.i.+p-of-war that was going into Halifax; the next time upon a small fis.h.i.+ng boat on the Banks. He was not molested at either of his resting-places; and so in due time he safely reached the sh.o.r.e, and joined his mate at the nest, in a little green valley in Nova Scotia. He was very glad to get home.

He had not intended to have gone so far to sea. He was blown off by a strong wind, which came up suddenly while he was playing in the air, about five miles from sh.o.r.e.