Charley Laurel: A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land, Page 3

  CHAPTER THREE.

  DICK'S PRAYER.

  Night had come and passed away since the gallant _Laurel_ had sunk. Thesea had much gone down, and Dick, no longer compelled to hold on for hislife, was able to open the basket and give Charley, who was crying outfor his breakfast, some food.

  "Where de ship?" inquired Charley, in his imperfect English and littleinnocent fashion. "Where we got to? Why not give me hot tea? Why giveme wet biscuit?"

  "Don't ask questions, Charley," answered Dick. "If I have a fancy fortaking a cruise on this here raft, you should be content--you know Ihave charge of you; and if I didn't think it the best thing to be done,I wouldn't have brought you here."

  "All right," said Charley. "More biscuit, please. Now I sing song toyou, Dick," and the little chap struck up the stave of a ditty whichDick had taught him, evidently feeling in no way alarmed at the fearfulposition in which he was placed.

  "I think, Charley, you should say your prayers," said Dick, who hadtaught the boy those he had himself learned in his childhood. "Ask Godto take care of you, Charley; for I am sure if He does not no one elsewill, either here or anywhere else. He hears your prayers as well asbig people's, so don't be afraid of asking Him for what you want; andjust now I have a notion we want Him to send a ship this way to pick usup."

  Charley turned round, and kneeling up in his basket, lifted his smallhands towards the blue sky, and asked the kind Father he believed dweltthere to take care of him and Dick, and send a ship to pick them up.

  Dick gazed affectionately at the child as he prayed.

  "That's done me good," he said to himself. "I am sure He who lives upthere will do what that innocent little cherub asks. What He would sayif a rough wild chap like me was to pray, is a different matter; and yetI mind that mother used to tell me He will hear any one who is sorry forwhat they have done amiss, and trust to His Son who died for sinners.But it's a hard matter to mind all the bad things a man like me hasdone, and I hope He ain't so over particular with respect to poorsailors."

  Dick at length, mustering courage, knelt by the side of the child, thecalm sea allowing him to do so without the danger of falling off. Hisprayer might not have been, as he expressed it, very ship-shape; thechief expression in it was, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner, and takecare of little Charley here and me, if such a one as I am is worthlooking after."

  At length Dick resumed his seat by the side of his charge. The sun camedown with intense heat, but he managed, by turning the raft round withhis paddle, and lifting the lid of the basket, to shelter Charley fromits burning rays. The child sat up and looked about him, prattling awayfrequently in a lingo Dick could not understand: sometimes also he spokea little English, which he seemed to have known before he came on boardthe _Laurel_, but since then he had picked up a good many words. Dicknow tried to amuse him and himself by teaching him more, and as thechild learned rapidly whatever he heard, he already could sing--

  "Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer, List ye landsmen all to me."

  and--

  "One night it blew a hurricane, The sea was mountains rolling, When Barney Buntline turned his quid, And cried to Billy Bowlin--"

  right through without a mistake.

  "Oh, look dere, dere! what dat rum fis?" he suddenly exclaimed, pointingto a short distance from the raft.

  Dick looked, and saw what a sailor dreads more than any human foe--theblack triangular fin of a huge shark which was noiselessly gliding by,just beneath the surface, and turning its wicked eye towards Charley andhimself. A blow from the monster's tail or nose might easily upset theraft, when they to a certainty would become its prey. Dick grasped hispole to do battle, should the creature come nearer, and he at once beganbeating the water on every side and shouting at the top of his voice.The shark, an arrant coward by nature, kept at a distance, but his darkfin could still be seen as he circled round and round the raft, waiting,Dick feared, for an opportunity to rush in and make an attack.

  "He shall pay for it with one of his eyes, if he does," said Dick tohimself.

  "What for make all that noise?" asked Charley.

  "Why do you sing out `youngster' sometimes?" inquired Dick. "Becauseyou have a fancy for it, I've a notion, and so I have a fancy just nowto shout away. I mus'n't frighten the little chap," he muttered tohimself. "It won't do to tell him what Jack Shark is looking after."

  Thus Dick sat on till he thought by the position of the sun that it mustbe noon, when he gave Charley his dinner and cup of water--he himselfeating but sparingly, for fear of diminishing his scanty store anddepriving the child of food.

  "I can hold out much longer than he can," he said to himself, "and Imust not let him get into bad case."

  Every now and then Dick stood up and gazed around the horizon, anxiouslylooking out for the signs of a breeze which might bring up some ship.The sun was again sinking beneath the ocean, which continued glass-likeas before. At length night crept over the world of waters, and thebrilliant stars shone down from the dark sky, each one reflected clearlyin the mirror-like deep.

  "What all those pretty things up dere?" asked Charley, waking suddenlyfrom his first sleep; "get me some to play wid, Dick."

  "Just what I can't do, boy," answered Dick. "All those are stars faraway in the sky, and I have heard say they are worlds; but how they stopup is more than I can tell, except God keeps them there."

  "God do many things we can't," said Charley. "But if I ask Him, wouldHe give me some to play wid?"

  "No, Charley, He gives us what we want and what is good for us, but Hechooses to keep those stars where they are, for He knows that if He sentone of them down they would only do us harm. Now, Charley, don't beasking more questions; just lie down and go to sleep again," and Dickshut down the lid of the basket.

  Charley's questions, however, had set his mind at work, and as he gazedup in the sky he thought more than he had ever done before of thosewondrous lights which he had always seen there, and yet had troubledhimself so little about. And then he was led to think of the God whomade them and governs their courses, and many things he had heard in hisboyhood came back to his mind.

  "Mother used to say He is a kind and loving God, and go I am sure Hewill take care of this little chap, and me, too, for his sake."

  Dick at length felt very sleepy. He had been afraid to shut his eyes,for fear of the shark, but he could no longer prevent the drowsinesscreeping over him: he lashed himself therefore to the raft, to escapethe risk of falling off it, and placing his head on the basket, closedhis weary eyelids.

  The bright beams of the great red sun rising above the horizon as theyfell on his eyes awoke him, and on looking round he caught sight of thefin of the shark gliding by a few feet off. The monster's eye wasturned up towards him with a wicked leer, and he believed that inanother instant the savage creature would have made a grab at the raft.His pole was brought into requisition, and the rapid blows he gave withit on the water soon made the monster keep at a respectful distance. Hewould not shout out, for fear of waking Charley.

  The boy slept on for a couple of hours longer, and when he at lengthawoke, seemed none the worse for what he had gone through. Dick had cutup some little bits of meat and biscuit, that he might not have to waitfor breakfast after he awoke. He had on the previous day carefullydried his clothes and bedding, and given him such food as he required--the child, indeed, could not have had a better nurse.

  Dick calculated that the store of provisions he had stowed away in thebasket and his own pockets would last a week, and he hoped before thetermination of that time to be picked up. He, in reality, inconsequence of anxiety, suffered more than the child: had he been alone,he probably would not have felt so much.

  The day passed away as before. Occasionally sea-birds flew overhead,and huge fish were seen swimming by, or breaking the calm surface asthey poked up their noses or leaped into the air.

  "Oh, Dick, Dick, what dat?" suddenly exclaimed Charley. As he spoke, adozen
flying-fish, their wings glittering in the bright sun, leaped onto the raft, some tumbling into the child's basket.

  Dick quickly secured them, for though unwilling to feed the little boywith raw fish, they would, he knew, afford him an ample meal or two.Charley, however, begged to have some to play with, and was muchsurprised to find their beautiful wings quickly become dry, and that ina few seconds they were dead.

  Dick enjoyed a better supper than he had had since the hurricane began,and he always afterwards declared that those fish had kept his body andsoul, when he would otherwise have been starved--although those hereserved for a meal on the following day required a keen appetite tomunch up.

  Day after day Dick and his charge floated on the calm ocean. He wasbecoming weaker than he had ever before been in his life, and yet hewould take but a few drops of water from the beaker, and would not eat aparticle of the food more than was necessary to keep the life in him, sofearful was he of not having enough for Charley. Yet Dick had not beendistinguished among his shipmates for any especial good qualities,except that he was looked upon as a good-natured, kind-hearted, jovialfellow, and brave as the bravest; yet so were many of the _Laurel's_gallant crew, now sleeping their last sleep beneath the ocean.

  The faithful fellow now often found himself dropping off to sleep whenhe wished to be awake--and afraid that on one of these occasions Charleymight get out of his basket and tumble overboard, to make such anaccident impossible, he tied him down by the legs in such a way as toallow the child to sit up when inclined, and look about him.

  Poor Dick, who was getting very weak, was lying down asleep with hishead on the edge of the basket, when he heard Charley's voice sing out--

  "See, see--what dat?"

  Dick opened his eyes, and casting them in the direction the childpointed, caught sight of a large vessel under all sail running downbefore the wind, which she brought up with her.

  "A ship, Charley, a ship!" cried Dick. "And we must do what we can tomake her see us, or she may be passing by, and we shall be no better offthan we are now."

  He instantly took off his shirt, which he fastened by its sleeves to thepole. Holding it aloft as the ship drew near, with all his strength hewaved it to and fro, shouting out in his anxiety, and not aware how lowand hollow his voice sounded. Charley shouted too, with his childishtreble, though their united voices could not have reached by a long wayas far as the ship was from them. It seemed to Dick that she would passat some distance: his heart sank. Presently his eye brightened.

  "She has altered her course; she is standing this way," he cried out."Charley, we shall be picked up!"

  "Then I thank God--He hear my prayer. I ask ship come--ship do come,"said Charley.

  "You are right, boy--you are right!" cried Dick. "And I was forgettingall about that prayer of yours."

  The tall ship glided rapidly over the ocean, the surface of which wasnow rippled with miniature wavelets as the freshening breeze sweptacross it.

  "To my eye, she is a foreign ship of war," observed Dick. "But a friendin need is a friend indeed, and we may be thankful to be taken on boardby her or any other craft. Even if a `Mounseer' had offered to pick usup, I would not have refused."

  The ship approaching was hove-to, a boat being lowered from her, which,with rapid strokes, pulled towards the raft.