Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (e manga reader .txt) š
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And so the old crowdāHarvey felt like the most ancient of mariners dropped into the old schooner among the battered dories, while Harvey slipped the stern-fast from the pier-head, and they slid her along the wharf-side with their hands. Every one wanted to say so much that no one said anything in particular. Harvey bade Dan take care of Uncle Saltersās sea-boots and Pennās dory-anchor, and Long Jack entreated Harvey to remember his lessons in seamanship; but the jokes fell flat in the presence of the two women, and it is hard to be funny with green harbour-water widening between good friends.
āUp jib and foresāl!ā shouted Disko, getting to the wheel, as the wind took her. āSee you later, Harve. Dunno but I come near thinkinā a heap oā you anā your folks.ā
Then she glided beyond ear-shot, and they sat down to watch her up the harbour, And still Mrs. Cheyne wept.
āPshaw, my dear,ā said Mrs. Troop: āweāre both women, I guess. Likeās not itāll ease your heart to hev your cry aout. God He knows it never done me a mite oā good, but then He knows Iāve had something to cry fer!ā
Now it was a few years later, and upon the other edge of America, that a young man came through the clammy sea fog up a windy street which is flanked with most expensive houses built of wood to imitate stone. To him, as he was standing by a hammered iron gate, entered on horsebackāand the horse would have been cheap at a thousand dollarsāanother young man. And this is what they said:
āHello, Dan!ā
āHello, Harve!ā
āWhatās the best with you?ā
āWell, Iām soās to be that kind oā animal called second mate this trip. Aināt you most through with that triple invoiced college of yours?ā
āGetting that way. I tell you, the Leland Stanford Junior, isnāt a circumstance to the old āWeāre Hereā; but Iām coming into the business for keeps next fall.ā
āMeaninā aour packets?ā
āNothing else. You just wait till I get my knife into you, Dan. Iām going to make the old line lie down and cry when I take hold.ā
āIāll resk it,ā said Dan, with a brotherly grin, as Harvey dismounted and asked whether he were coming in.
āThatās what I took the cable fer; but, say, is the doctor anywheres araound? Iāll draown that crazy nigger some day, his one cussed joke anā all.ā
There was a low, triumphant chuckle, as the ex-cook of the āWeāre Hereā came out of the fog to take the horseās bridle. He allowed no one but himself to attend to any of Harveyās wants.
āThick as the Banks, aināt it, doctor?ā said Dan, propitiatingly.
But the coal-black Celt with the second-sight did not see fit to reply till he had tapped Dan on the shoulder, and for the twentieth time croaked the old, old prophecy in his ear.
āMasterāman. Manāmaster,ā said he. āYou remember, Dan Troop, what I said? On the āWeāre Hereā?ā
āWell, I wonāt go so far as to deny that it do look like it as things stand at present,ā said Dan. āShe was a noble packet, and one way anā another I owe her a heapāher and Dad.ā
āMe too,ā quoth Harvey Cheyne.
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Captains Courageous, by Kipling
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