The Island of Gold: A Sailor's Yarn Read online

so well as he could havewished. I am never sorry for the downfall of speculators; for, afterall, what is speculation but a species of gambling--gambling for highstakes? And supposing that a man wins, which once in a way he may;supposing even that he is strong enough in pocket to establish a"corner," as it is called in Yankee-land, to buy up the whole of somegreat commodity, and shut it up until the people are starving for it andglad to pay for it at three times the original value, well, the cornerknight becomes a millionaire. Yes; and very often a miser, andmiserable at that. Can a millionaire enjoy sport or play any betterthan you or I, reader? No, nor so much.

  Has he a better appetite from the fact that he can afford to coax itwith every costly dainty that cash can purchase? More likely a worse.

  Is he more healthy? That were impossible.

  Is he more happy? Ah, here we come to the test question. Well, he canhave a larger and a finer house than most people, and it may befurnished like a palace. Pictures of the old masters may adorn itswalls; musical instruments of rare value, works of art and vertu, maymeet the eye at every turn; the gardens, and rose lawns, andconservatories may be more gorgeous than the dream of an Eastern prince.But can he live in more than one room at a time, or enjoy anythingaround him a bit better than the friends do whom he invites to his homethat they may admire everything and envy _him_?

  But even the millionaire tires of home. He is satiated with the goodthings his gold has brought him; and if he travels abroad he will notfind half the enjoyment in those beauties of nature--which even themillionaire's gold cannot deprive the poorest man of--that the poet orthe naturalist does.

  I think there is one thing that most of us have to be thankful for--namely, that we are not over-ambitious, and have no desire to becomemillionaires.

  Yes, but Tandy's ambition was not a morbid one; it was not selfish. Hefelt that he could die contentedly enough, could he make as sure as anyone can be sure that his boy and girl would not become waifs and strayson the great highway of life.

  How to make sure? That had been the question he had tried to answermany and many a time as he lay on the poop of his little craft andsailed slowly through the meadows and moors.

  I have said he was inventive. His inventive faculties, however, tookhim far too high at first, like a badly ballasted balloon. He thoughtof ministering to governments of nations--of putting into their handsinstruments for the destruction of his fellow mortals that should renderwar impossible, and many other equally airy speculations.

  He failed, and had to come down a piece. There is no use in soaring toohigh above the clouds if one would be a useful inventor and a benefactorto mankind. Darning-needles are of more service to the general publicthan dynamite guns, and they are more easily manufactured. So Tandyfailed in all his big things. That balloon of his was still soaring toohigh.

  "I guess," he said to himself, "I'll have to come a little lower stillbefore I find out just what the world wants, and what _all_ the worldwants."

  Food? Physic? Fire?

  Ha! he had it. Fire, of course. How many a poor wretch starves todeath in a garret just because coals are too dear to purchase. "Andwhy?" he asked himself; and the answer came fast enough, "Because coalsare wasted by the rich."

  Then Tandy set his brains on to simmer, and invented one of the simplestcontrivances in the world for saving waste.

  Yes, he had it at last, and in two years' time he began to gain acompetence, which was gradually increasing.

  This little cottage down by the sad, sad sea, as sentimental old maidscall it, was his own. He and Babs--or little Nelda, as we may now callher--had only been here for six months. The place was by no means afashionable one, although many people came here in summer to seek forhealth on the glorious sands and rocks, and among the fields and woodsthat stretched northwards into the interior.

  As for Ransey Tansey, Captain Weathereye had really done his best tosecure the welfare of this half-wild lad, just as Miss Scragley tried toassist his wee sister.

  Impressionable children learn very quickly, and in a year's time Ranseywas so much improved in manners that Miss Scragley rather encouraged hisvisits to the Hall than otherwise, especially when the Admiral and Bobcame along with him.

  Grand old lawns and shrubberies surrounded the Hall, and these ended inwoods. There were artificial lakes and islands in them too. Theseislands were the especial property of many beautiful ducks; but one wasso large, and surrounded by such a big stretch of water, that the onlything to make it perfect--so Ransey thought--was a boat or skiff. Eediewas of the same opinion; so was Babs and Bob.

  "Isn't it possible to build one?" thought Ransey. He felt sure it was;so did Eedie.

  Before two months had passed, that skiff, with the assistance ofWeathereye, was a _fait accompli_; and the old captain was just as proudof it as the children themselves.

  The ducks didn't have it all their own way now on the island. For herea wigwam was built, and almost every fine day--that is, when Ransey wasnot at his lessons--the children played at Crusoes and wild Indians, andI don't know what all.

  There was no end to Tansey's imagination, no end to his daring, no endto his tricks, and in these last, I fear, Eedie encouraged him.

  She was but two years younger than Ransey, but she was four years olderas far as worldly wisdom was concerned; and with her assistance thedramas, or theatrical performances, carried out on the island were attimes startling in the extreme.

  When Eedie brought children friends of hers to see these plays, Ranseywould have felt very shy indeed had he not had, figuratively speaking,Eedie's wing to shelter under. Encouraged by her, he soon found outthat real talent can make its own way, and be appreciated, howeverhumble its possessor may be.

  When Tandy first met Captain Weathereye, he wanted to be profuse in histhanks to this kindly staff-commander. But the latter would have noneof this.

  "Tandy," he said, "I know by your every action that you are a truesailor, like--ahem!--myself. Perhaps what you call kindness to your boyis only a fad of mine, and therefore selfishness after all."

  "No, no."

  "But I can say `Yo, yo,' to your `No, no.' Besides, we are all of ussailing over the sea of life for goodness knows where, and we are induty bound to help even little boats we may sight, if we see they're indistress."

  Tandy and Weathereye had soon became good friends, and smoked many apipe together; nor did Tandy hesitate to tell the navy sailor about allhis inventions and little speculations, to which account the latterlistened delightedly enough.

  "I say," he said to Tandy one day, "your lad is now over ten, and weshould send him right away to sea. I tell you straight, Tandy, I'd gethim into the Royal Navy if it were worth while. But he'd never be asailor, never learn seamanship."

  "Confound their old tin-kettles," he added, bringing his fist down onthe table with a force that made the glasses jingle, "there isn't asailor on board one of them; only gunners and greasers. [Greaser, adisparaging name for an engineer in the Royal Navy.] Let Ransey roughit, Mr Tandy, and you'll make a man of him."

  An apprenticeship in a Dundee trader, owned in Belfast, and sailing fromCardiff, this was secured; though what use a lad not yet eleven might beput to on board such a craft, I confess I hardly know. But this I _do_know, that the sooner a boy who is to be a British sailor goes to seathe better.

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  Babs ventured back to the window at last, and glanced once more out intothe now gathering gloom. Far away beyond Selsea Bill the sun had setbehind lurid coppery clouds, that boded little good for ships that weretoiling up the Channel.

  "O daddy, here is postie at long, long last, and he's all, all dressedin oilskins! He is coming to the door! Oh!"

  She could not say another word for a few moments, but flew toward herfather.

  "It is--it is--O daddy! _it's Ransey_!"

  Book 2--CHAPTER TWO.

  "SHIP-SHAPE AND SEAMAN-FASHION."
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  There wasn't a doubt about that, and no lad surely ever got a happierwelcome home.

  Bob and Murrams knew him, and the Admiral too, who danced for joy in theback-garden when Ransey Tansey went to see him.

  Everybody, with the exception of the father, seemed to walk on air thatnight. Mr Tandy was simply quietly happy.

  Ransey was quite a man, Babs told him, and she felt sure he would soonhave a moustache. Indeed, she brought a small magnifying-glass tostrengthen her convictions on this point.

  What a lot lads have to tell when they return from sea for the firsttime! and their friends cannot give them greater pleasure than bylistening to all their adventures and "hairbreadth scapes;" sympathisingwith them in sorrows past and gone, and dangers encountered, andthanking Providence that they have been spared to come safely home fromoff the stormy ocean.

  Ransey had gone to the