Nat the Naturalist

Nat the Naturalist, by G.
Manville Fenn

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Title: Nat the Naturalist A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas
Author: G. Manville Fenn
Illustrator: Anonymous
Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21356]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAT THE
NATURALIST ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Nat the Naturalist; or, A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas by
George Manville Fenn.

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Nat's mother and father have died, and he is being brought up by an
aunt and uncle, the latter being his mother's brother. His aunt does not
care at all for boys, and in particular makes sniping remarks at Nat the
whole time. But Nat's uncle is very fond of him, and they are great
friends.
But enter the aunt's brother, a famous naturalist, back from some trip
in South America. Nat, who has already shown great interest in
collecting specimens from nature, is enthralled, helps him to stuff and
catalogue his specimens, and eventually persuades him to take him
(Nat) with him on his next trip.
This requires a little training in shooting and sailing. Then they are off,
on a P&O liner sailing from Marseilles. On arriving in the Java Seas
they disembark, purchase a little boat, and set off. Very soon they are
joined by an enthusiastic native, and the trio spend some years
collecting numerous splendid specimens, of birds, beetles, and anything
else they can.
An unfriendly tribe of natives steal their boat, but does not find their
hut and specimens. They set-to to build a boat of some sort, to get
themselves away from such an unfriendly place. At the same time their
native assistant disappears, presumably murdered by the unfriendly
locals. What happens next I will not spoil the story by telling.
You'll enjoy it.
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NAT THE NATURALIST; OR, A BOY'S ADVENTURES IN THE
EASTERN SEAS, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
CHAPTER ONE.

WHY I WENT TO MY UNCLE'S.
"I don't know what to do with him. I never saw such a boy--a miserable
little coward, always in mischief and doing things he ought not to do,
and running about the place with his whims and fads. I wish you'd send
him right away, I do."
My aunt went out of the room, and I can't say she banged the door, but
she shut it very hard, leaving me and my uncle face to face staring one
at the other.
My uncle did not speak for some minutes, but sat poking at his hair
with the waxy end of his pipe, for he was a man who smoked a great
deal after dinner; the mornings he spent in his garden, being out there
as early as five o'clock in the summer and paying very little attention to
the rain.
He was a very amiable, mild-tempered man, who had never had any
children, in fact he did not marry till quite late in life; when I remember
my poor father saying that it was my aunt married my uncle, for uncle
would never have had the courage to ask her.
I say "my poor father", for a couple of years after that marriage, the
news came home that he had been lost at sea with the whole of the crew
of the great vessel of which he was the surgeon.
I remember it all so well; the terrible blank and trouble that seemed to
have come upon our house, with my mother's illness that followed, and
that dreadful day when Uncle Joseph came down-stairs to me in the
dining-room, and seating himself by the fire filled and lit his pipe, took
two or three puffs, and then threw the pipe under the grate, let his head
go down upon his hands, and cried like a child.
A minute or two later, when I went up to him in great trouble and laid
my hand upon his shoulder, saying, "Don't cry, uncle; she'll be better
soon," he caught me in his arms and held me to his breast.
"Nat, my boy," he said, "I've promised her that I'll be like a father to

you now, and I will."
I knew only too soon why he said those words, for a week later I was
an orphan boy indeed; and I was at Uncle Joseph's house, feeling very
miserable and unhappy in spite of his kind ways and the pains he took
to make me comfortable.
I was not so