My Young Days | Page 3

the beach, and spent some of the
time there, and some of the time roaming about on the hills. Now it
chanced, one day, that they saw a flock of wild geese flying over the
shore. Jack had a gun with him, and he instantly shot one of these geese.
Uncle Hugh says they had had so much salt meat at sea, that they
smacked their lips to think of a nice fat goose for dinner. So they
carried it off to their hut, and then they pulled off all the feathers one by
one, and made it quite ready to cook. What funny cooks they must have
been! But it wasn't quite time to roast it, so they tied it up by a string to

the door and went away, leaving the captain's dog, Neptune, to watch it.
[Illustration: THE THIEF THAT STOLE THE GOOSE.]
Now, Nep was a very funny dog--a nervous dog, Uncle Hugh called
him--and he was quite afraid something would happen. By and by, poor
pussy came to have a peep at the goosey-gander, and she climbed up
the steps on tip-toe just to look. Nep watched her, and didn't feel easy
in his mind, and when poor pussy just stretched forward her head
(because she was a little short-sighted, I dare say), Nep could bear it no
longer. He gave a great loud bark, and flew along the road after the
wretched, flying cat. Silly dog! while he was gone after puss, and just
as he had his fore-paws quite over her back, up comes a sly thief to the
hut door, quietly unhooks the bird, and runs off the other way, with its
head hanging over his shoulder. "And, so, you see, Sissy," said Uncle
Hugh in his funnily grave way, "poor Jack and I came back to find our
dinner all gone!" But they got scent of the thief, and they caught him
and shut him up in their little hut, and locked him in, and left him with
nothing but bread and water. "For there was no policeman there, Sissy;
we had to play policemen ourselves."
[Illustration: THE DREAM THAT HAUNTED THE THIEF.]
And there they left him all night. And the poor thief thought about his
little hungry children at home, till he fell asleep and dreamt (I wonder
how Uncle Hugh knew that?) that he saw the goose all smoking hot,
gravy and all, and a knife and fork all ready to cut it up.
But they didn't mean to be cruel--I don't believe Uncle Hugh could be!
So they had a nice, hot supper themselves on board the big ship, and
plenty of fun, and lots of merry songs. And then they cut three big
slices and put them aside.
And don't you think the thief-man must have been surprised when he
saw the nice breakfast that Jack brought him next morning? I think
Uncle Hugh said that he wrapped it all up and took it home to his
children. How queer he must have felt as he slunk off, the sailors
standing round and giving him three cheers and plenty of jokes!

III.
THE LITTLE STOWAWAY.
One of my earliest friends at the Park was a little French boy, a kind of
page of my uncle's. Shall I tell you about him? You will think it very
funny that a servant-boy should be allowed to be my friend, so I must
explain.
Little Gus, as my uncle called him--though his real name was
Gustave--was altogether a little foreigner. He couldn't talk English at
all properly; in fact, the greater part of our conversation was carried on
by signs. He was very much afraid of everybody in the house, except
Uncle Hugh. He thought there was nobody in all the world like the
Captain, as he called him. His bright eyes used to twinkle and his white
teeth shine whenever he could find a chance of running an errand, or
doing any little job for the Captain; and I think it was, perhaps, because
he took me for the Captain's little pet that he grew so fond of me.
He would follow me all about the garden, and watch me as I talked
away to Jane, and be ready to find my ball or fetch my hoop the minute
I wanted them.
Now, after we had been a little while at the Park, I found that Jane had
got very fond of flowers, and was always anxious to go to the
glass-houses directly we came out into the garden.
"Why, Miss Sissy," she would say, "there never was anything like the
ferns, and the orange-trees, and the cactuses in them houses; and Mr.
Owen so civil-like in showing them to us, too."
So off we went to the hot-houses, and