Joshua Marvel. B. L. Farjeon
But each of their allowances was supplemented by contributions from independent sources. The motives which prompted these contributions were of a very different nature; as the following will explain:--
"Something more for the money-box, Dan," said Joshua, producing a four-penny piece, and dropping it into the box.
"From the same party, Jo?" asked Dan.
"From the same jolly old party, Dan. From the Old Sailor."
"Is he nice?"
"The Old Sailor? You should see him, that's all."
"You have been down to the waterside again, then?"
"Yes. Tuck-tuck-joey!" This latter to the linnet, who came out to have a peep at Joshua, and who, directly it heard the greeting, responded with the sweetest peal of music that mortal ever listened to. When the linnet had finished its song the obtrusive and greedy blackbird, determined not to be outdone, and quite ignoring the fact that it had had a very good supper, ordered Polly to put the kettle on, in its most piercing notes.
"Did you go on the river, Jo?" asked Dan.
"Yes. In a boat. Rowing. The Old Sailor says I am getting along famously."
"I should like to see the Old Sailor."
"I wish you could; but he is such a strange old fellow! He doesn't care for the land. When I tell mother what I am making up my mind to be--what I shall have made up mind then to be--I will coax him to come to our house. I want him to talk to mother about the sea, for she is sure to cry and fret, and although the Old Sailor doesn't think that women are as good as men, he thinks mothers are better."
Dan laughed a pleasant little laugh.
"That is queer," he said.
"He knows all about you, and he asks me every day, 'How is Dan?'"
"I am glad of that--very glad."
"So am I. I have told him all about the birds, and how, they love you. You would never guess what he said to-day about you."
"Something very bad, I dare say," said Dan, knowing very well, all the time, that it was something good, or Joshua would not tell him.
"Something very bad. He said, 'He must be a fine little chap'--meaning you, Dan--'or the birds wouldn't love him.'"
"Has he been all over the world, Jo?"
"All over the world; and O Dan, he has seen such places!"
"I tell you what we will do," said Dan. "To-morrow you shall buy a couple of young bullfinches, and you shall find out some tune the Old Sailor is fond of; and I will teach the bullfinches to whistle it. Then you shall give the birds to the Old Sailor, and say they are a present from me and you."
"That will be prime! He will be so pleased!"
"Have you ever heard him sing, Jo?"
"Yes," answered Joshua, laughing; "I have heard him sing,--
'Which is the properest day to drink,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday?
Each is the properest day, I think-- Why should I name but one day?
Tell me but yours, I'll mention my day,
Let us but fix on some day--
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.'"
"I don't think that would do," said Dan, echoing Joshua's laugh.
"Here's another," said Joshua, and he played a prelude to "Poor Tom Bowling," and sang the first verse,--
'Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew;
No more he'll hear the tempest howling, For death has broached him too.
His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft,
Faithful below Tom did his duty,
But now he's gone aloft,
But now he's gone aloft.'"
Joshua sang the words with much tender feeling, but Dan shook his head.
"The birds would never be able to get the spirit of the song into them," he said, "and the tune is nothing without that. Never mind--we'll teach them something, and then the Old Sailor shall have them."
"And I shall tell him they are a present from you alone."
"No," said Dan energetically; "that would spoil it all. They are from you and me together. Can't you guess the reason why?"
"I believe I can," replied Joshua, after a little consideration. "The Old Sailor likes me, and you want him to like you because of me, not because of yourself alone; you want him to like me more because of you--as I am sure he will when he knows you."
"That's it. I want him to know that we love each other, and that we shall always love each other, whether we are together or separated. I want everybody who likes you, Jo, to like me."
Joshua laid his hand upon Dan's, which rested on the table, and Dan placed his other hand upon Joshua's playfully. Their hands were growing to be very unlike. Dan's hand, as it grew, became more delicate, while Joshua's grew stronger and more muscular. Dan laughed another pleasant laugh as he remarked the difference between them. "That is a proper kind of hand for a hero," he said. And then, in a more serious voice, "Joshua, do you know I think we can see each other's thoughts." And so, indeed, it appeared as if they could.
The next day the bullfinches were bought, and Dan began to train them. They were a pair of very young birds, not a dozen days old, and the air Dan fixed upon to teach them first was "Rule, Britannia."
So much for Joshua's supplemental contributions to the general fund. Now for Dan's.
"Another sixpence in a piece of paper, Jo!"
"That makes eighteen pence this month, Dan. Poor Susan!"
"Poor Susan!" echoed Dan.
Susan was very much to be pitied. Looking upon herself as her brother's destroyer, she endeavored, by offerings of sixpences as often as she could afford them, to atone for the crime--for so she now regarded it--by which she had made him a helpless cripple. These sixpences were not given openly; they were laid, as it were, upon the sacrificial altar in secret. Sometimes the altar was one of Ellen's shoes, and Ellen, when she dressed herself, would feel something sticking in her heel, and discover it to be a sixpence tightly screwed up in a piece of paper, with the words, "For Dan; from Susan," written on it; sometimes the altar was one of Dan's pocket-handkerchiefs, and the sixpence was tied up in a knot; sometimes it was a bag of bird-seed; sometimes Dan's cap. She was so imbued with a sense of guilt, that she trembled when she met Dan's eye. He was as kind and gentle to her, when he had the opportunity, as he was to all around him; and divining her secret remorse, he tried by every means in his power to lessen it. But the feeling, that, if Dan died, she was a murderess, was too deeply implanted in her to be ever removed. She lived in constant fear. She was afraid of the dark, and could not sleep without a rush-light near her bedside. Often in the night, on occasions when Dan was weaker than usual, she would creep down stairs, and listen at his bedroom-door to catch the sound of his breathing. If she did not hear it at first, the ghostly echo of the old terrible cry, "Ah-h-h-h! who killed her little brother? Ah-h-h-h!" filled the staircase and the passage with dreadful shadows; shadows that seemed to thicken and gather about her as if possessed with a desire to stifle her--and she would press her hands tightly upon her eyes so that she should not see them. Then perhaps she would open Dan's door quietly, and hearing him breathe, ever so softly, would creep up stairs again, a little more composed; always closing her door quickly, to prevent the shadows on the stairs from coming into her room.
The supplemental contributions from Susan and the Old Sailor were very acceptable to Dan and Joshua, who were