From whence came the rich warm blood that in a moment suffused the old
man's cheek, as his unconscious grandchild pronounced the name of his
darling, his long-lost, but not forgotten ship? He grasped the boy's arm
with the energy of former times, and shook him as he never thought to
have shaken the child of his own Barbara.
"Where heard you those words--where, I say?" he demanded of his
namesake, while the boy cowered, and the other children stood aghast.
"I heard that wild old man who died in our barn last week, although
mother made him so comfortable, and you and father were so kind to him,
say that was the name of a ship you once had," sobbed little Hugh: "and
I only thought I should like to call mine after it."
"And was that indeed all?" inquired the aged Buccaneer, relaxing his
grasp, but still looking into the boy's ingenuous countenance, as if he
expected some evil tidings.
"It was all that I understood," replied the child, now weeping from pain
and terror, "except that I remember he asked to be buried at
East-Church, because that was nearer what he called the Gull's Nest Crag
than the old church of Minster."
"Poor Jack!--poor Jack Roupall!" exclaimed Dalton, forgetting his
momentary displeasure, and musing aloud upon the end of his ever
reckless follower--"Poor Jack! The nut had been good, fresh, sweet,
wholesome, though the rind was rough and bitter; it was the canker that
destroyed it: and I should have been as bad--as blighted--lost--but for
my own sweet child." And then Hugh Dalton's eye fell upon the pouting
boy, whose arm he had, in the anguish of his remembrance, pressed too
roughly, and he caught him to his bosom, and blessed him with all his
heart and soul.
Little Con crept round, and, seeing where her brother's arm was still
red, held it to her grandfather's lip, saying, "Kiss, kiss it, and make it well."
The old man did as that child in her simplicity directed; and, when she
again looked upon it, there was more than one tear glistening on the
fair firm flesh.
"Let us call her 'King Charles,'" exclaimed the eldest boy, as the
gallant little vessel moved down the stream; while the children, who not
ten minutes before were trembling with alarm at their grandfather's
displeasure, now, with the happy versatility of youthful spirits,
shouted gaily at the ship's progress over the unrippled waters.
"You will call it by no such name," said Dalton gravely. "Yonder comes
your mother, and she or your father can best christen your little ship."