"Captains Courageous": A Story of the Grand Banks

open to the North Atlantic fog, as the big liner ro

aid a man in a frieze overcoat, shutting the door

een bites: "I know der breed. Ameriga is full of dot kind. I d

th along the cushions under the wet skylight. "They've dragged him around from hotel to hotel ever since he was a kid. I was talking

curled up in a corner. "That boy gets two hundred a m

ather, aind't it?

ets his wife spend the money," the Philadelphian went on lazily. "The West don't suit her, she says. She just tracks around with the boy and her nerves, trying to find out what'll amuse him

n attending to him personally?" sa

guess. He'll find out his error a few years from now. 'Pity, be

mit a rope's end!"

person of his years, and his look was a mixture of irresolution, bravado, and very cheap smartness. He was dressed in a cherry-coloured blazer, knickerbockers, red stockings, and bicycle shoes, with a red flannel cap at the bac

New Yorker. "Shut the door and sta

"Did you pay for my passage, Mister Martin? '

checkerboard and began throw

ader'n mud. Can't we make a

is legs, and drummed on the table with rather dirty finge

ternoon?" a man said. "I

ss fifteen dollars for looking after her. I don't go down more 'n I can avoid. It makes me feel m

apologize

except the first day, I haven't been sick one little bit. No, sir!" He brought down

plain sight," the Philadelphian yawned. "You'll blosso

'em that when I strike Europe. Piff! My cig's out. I can't smoke the

red, smiling, and wet. "Say, Mac," cried

y. "The young are as polite as ever to their elders

e German opened his cigar-case and h

y young friendt," he said. "You vill dry

th a flourish: he felt that he w

r," he said, ignorant that he was lighting

," said the German. "Where

t; but in a general way o' speakin', we're all among the fishing-fleet now. We've shaved three do

he German asked, for Harve

eeth. "Guess we've slowed down a little, haven'

vhas you," s

rted, and he crawled to the extreme end of it, near the flag-pole. There he doubled up in limp agony, for the Wheeling "stogie" joined with the surge and jar of the screw to sieve out his soul. His head swelled; sparks of fire danced before his eyes; his body seemed to lose weight, while his heels wavered in the breez

d-ocean, but was too weak to fit things together. A new smell filled his nostrils; wet and clammy chills ran down his back, and he was helplessly full of salt water. When he opened his eyes, he percei

boy. "I'm dead, sure enough,

head, showing a pair of little gold

well now?" it said. "Lie

o slide her into a glassy pit beyond. But this mountain-climbing did not interrupt blue-jersey's talk. "Fine good j

Harvey; "sick, an

e all down. Eh, wha-at? I think you are cut into baits by the screw, but you dre

could not see that life was p

come from schooner 'We're Here' of Gloucester. I live

huttering shriek through the fog. How long this entertainment lasted, Harvey could not remember, for he lay back terrified at the sight of the smoking swells. He fancied he heard a gun and a horn and shouting. Something

ubber boots. Several pairs of the same sort of foot-wear, an old cap, and some worn-out woollen socks lay on the floor, and black and yellow oilskins swayed to and fro beside the bunks. The place was packed as full of smells as a bale is of cotton. The oilskins had a peculiarly thick flavor of their own which made a sort of background to the smells of fried fish, burnt grease, paint, pepper, and stale tobacco; but these, again, were all hooped together by one encircling smell of ship

rin. "Hev some coffee?" He brought a tin

ng round the dark double tier of bunks

in't likely to be till 'baout mid-Sept

anded him a plate full of pieces of cr

e," said the boy. "They ain't our style much - non

n every direction, but cou

an' I'm cook's helper an' everything else aboard that's too dirty for the men. There ain't no boy here 'cep' me sence Ott

y. "It was a gale, and I was seasick.

the boy. "But ef thet's your notion of a gale --" He whistled

nce and the reasons for the request. Mrs. Cheyne lived in fear of breaking his spirit, which, perhaps, was the reason that she herself walked on the edge of nervous prostration. He could not see

him. "Say, Dad!" he shouted up the foc'sle hatch, "he says you k

Harvey had ever heard from a human chest

hero among his friends for life. He hoisted himself on deck up a perpendicular ladder, and stumbled aft, over a score of obstructions, to where a small, thick-set, clean-shaven man with gray eyebrows sat on a step that led up to the quarter-deck. The swell had passed in the night, leaving a long, oily sea, dot

say. You've nigh slep' the clock ro

as one rescued from drowning, expected sympathy. His mother suffered ago

last, fer all concerned. What might be your name? Where from (we mi

the accident, winding up with a demand to be taken back immediately

t say we think special of any man, or boy even, that falls overboard from that k

suppose I'd fall overboard into

t which, under Providence, was the means o' savin' ye, names. In the first place, it's blame irreligious. In the second, i

r being saved and all that, of course! but I want you to understand t

ed one shaggy eyebrow over

." He thrust a hand into a pocket, and threw out his stomach a little, which was his way of being grand. "You'

oured," said

ne is, you don't know much - that's al

t of America was filled with people disc

ake a reef in your stummick, youn

the stump-foremast, and blood rushed to his face. "We'll pay for t

September; an' your pa - I'm real sorry I hain't heerd tell of him - m

into his pocket for the wad of bills. All he

or the lungs. Heave 'em overboa

olen!" cried

till you see your pa

ll stolen," said Harvey, hunting wildl

"What might you have been doin' at your time o' life

month." This Harvey thought would be a k

seemed to be talking to himself -"he tripped on a hatch an' butted the mainmast with his head - hardish. 'Baout three weeks afterwards, old man Hasken he would hev it that the "East Wind" was a commerce-destroyin' man-o'-war, an' so h

"We're sorry fer you. We're very sorry fer you - an' s

u won't. Yo

n no fit state to go back to your home, an' we've jest come on to the Banks, workin' fer our bread. We don't see the ha'af of a hundr

stay here doin' nothing just because

on Le Have. I mistrust he lost his grip in a gale we f'und there. Anyways, he never come back to deny it. You've turned u

ore," said Harvey, with a vicious nod, murmuring vague threa

n to do ez he's bid, an' sechlike, an' I'll give you - you ain't wuth it, but I'll give - ten an' a ha'af a month; say thirty-five at th

vey, his eyes filling with tears

s eight of us on the 'We're Here', an' ef we went back naow - it's more'n a thousand

r would make

read; an' you'll be better in your health when you see him in the fall. Go forward an' help

lean pots and pans an

You've no call to s

ettle"- Harvey stamped on the deck -"ten times over, if you take me to N

roop, the iron

ant me to do menial work"- Harvey was very proud of that a

with deep interest for a while, as Ha

n' out my responsibilities in my ow

n' with Dad any more," he pleaded. "You've called him a thief two

ieked, disregarding the advi

young feeler, nor you won't blame me when the bile's out o' your systim. Be sure you sense what I say? Ten an' a

ake me back to New Yo

s lying in the scuppers, holding on to a nose th

sorry for him, because he's clear distracted in his upper works. He ain't responsible fer the names he's give me, nor fer his other statements - nor fer jumpin' overboard,

e he and the older men bunked, leaving Dan to