Captain January | Page 8

a leg!' I says. For down in my heart, Jewel, I knew they
wouldn't ha' taken such care of anythin' but what was alive, and they
perishin', but I didn't think it could live in such a sea long enough to get
ashore. Wal, I kep' my eyes on that spar, and I see that 'twas comin'
along by the south side. Then I ran, or crawled, 'cordin' as the wind
allowed me, back to the shed, and got a boat-hook and a coil o' rope;
and then I clumb down as far as I dared, on the south rocks. I scooched
down under the lee of a p'int o' rock, and made the rope fast round my
waist, and the other end round the rock, and then I waited for the spar
to come along. 'Twas hard to make out anythin', for the water was all a
white, bilin' churn, and the spray flyin' fit to blind you; but bimeby I
co't sight of her comin' swashin' along, now up on top of a big roarer,
and then scootin' down into the holler, and then up agin. I crep' out on
the rocks, grippin' 'em for all I was wuth, with the boat-hook under my
arm. The wind screeched and clawed at me like a wildcat in a caniption
fit, but I hadn't been through those cyclones for nothin'. I lay down flat
and wriggled myself out to the edge, and thar I waited."
"And the waves were breaking over you all the time?" cried the child,
with eager inquiry.
"Wal, they was that, Honeysuckle!" said the Captain. "Bless ye, I sh'd
ha' been washed off like a log if 't hadn't ben for the rope. But that held;
'twas a good one, and tied with a bowline, and it held. Wal, I lay thar,
and all to wunst I see her comin' by like a flash, close to me. '_Now_!'
says I, 'ef ther's any stuff in you, J. Judkins, let's see it!' says I. And I
chucks myself over the side o' the rock and grabs her with the
boat-hook, and hauls her in. 'All together,' I says. '_Now_, my hearties!
Yo heave _ho_!' and I hed her up, and hauled her over the rocks and
round under the lee of the p'int, before I stopped to breathe. How did I
do it? Don't ask me, Jewel Bright! I don't know how I did it. There's
times when a man has strength given to him, seemin'ly, over and above

human strength. 'Twas like as if the Lord ketched holt and helped me:
maybe He did, seein' what 'twas I was doing. Maybe He did!" He
paused a moment in thought, but Star was impatient.
"Well, Daddy!" she cried. "And then you looked and found it was--go
on, Daddy dear!"
"I looked," continued the old man, "and I found it was a sail, that had
showed so white against the spar; a sail, wrapped tight round somethin'.
I cut the ropes, and pulled away the canvas and a tarpaulin that was
inside that; and thar I seed--"
"My poor mamma and me!" cried the child, joyously, clapping her
hands. "Oh, Daddy Captain, it is so delightful when you come to this
part! And my poor mamma was dead? You are quite positively sure
that she was dead, Daddy?"
"She were, my lamb!" replied the Captain, gravely. "You needn't never
have no doubt about it. She had had a blow on the head, your poor ma
had, from one o' the bull's horns, likely; and I'll warrant she never
knowed anythin' after it, poor lady! She was wrapped in a great fur
cloak, the same as you have on your bed in winter, Blossom: and lyin'
all clost and warm in her cold arms, that held on still, though the life
was gone out of 'em, was"--the old man faltered, and brushed his rough
hand across his eyes--"was a--a little baby. Asleep, it seemed to be, all
curled up like a rose on its mother's breast, and its pooty eyes tight shut.
I loosed the poor arms--they was like a stattoo's, so round and white
and cold; and I took the child up in my arms; and lo' ye! it opened its
eyes and looked straight at me and laughed."
"And it said, Daddy?" cried the delighted child, clapping her hands.
"Tell what it said!"
"It said ''Tar,'" the old man continued, in a hushed voice. "'Tar,' it said
as plain as I say it to you. 'And "Star" it is!' says I; for 'if ever a star
shone on a dark night, it's you, my pooty,' I says. 'Praise the Lord,' I
says. 'Amen, so be it.' Then I laid your poor ma in a corner, under the
lee