With the tide; or, A life's voyage. By Sidney Daryl

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Contents

I. TJL&M

HOMEWABD BOUHD 1

n.

Chapter I. HOMEWAED BOUND!

WIFTLY over the glittering waters of the estuary of the Thames, her sails bellied oat by the favouring breeze and lit np by the bright tnoming son, till their whiteness was almost dazzling, the brave ship Gipsy Queeriy bound from Sydney to London, drew nearer and nearer to the end of her long and perilous journey. She had done her work well in weather foul and fair, and bore upon her sides the scars of more than one fierce conflict with storms in the tropics and squalls in the southern seas, that had made her stout framework shiver again and again, and threatened to send her and her living freight to the bottom. But all that was passed now, she had parted company with the waves for a while, and in a few short hours more would be snugly ensconced in a cosy comer of the docks, there to enjoy a long and well-earned rest. So she bounded on over the sparkling waters till the banks on either side the river narrowed the way along which she was travelling. Presently an excessively dirty and noisy little steam tug came panting up alongside, and in a few minutes more the masts of the Gipsy Queen were bare of canvas and she was being towed to her destination.

B

It was a pleasant thing to witness the general delight, it might almost be called ecstacy, of all on board the Australian clipper ship. Most of her passengers had drawn their first breath in the old country, and their hearts yearned toward the land that gave them birth, as they found themselves once again folded to her bosom. Some few there were who made her acquaintance for the first time, but the same feeling was at work within them, for all their nearest and dearest had called England mother, and so they loved her, though till now they had never seen her bright and bonnie face.

Did I say that all on board the Gipsy Queen were glad and happy ? Yes, and so all were, with a single exception. While those around her were laughing and chattering gaily at the prospect of a speedy termination of the voyage, and a release from their long imprisonment, and many were bright with the anticipation of meeting loved friends and relations not seen for years, one lonely, silent woman sat apart with her baby-boy in her arms, her face worn and weary- looking, and her eyes turned wistfully toward the sea, that was now scarcely visible. There was an expression in them altogether inconsistent with the general mirth and gaiety ; and as she rocked herself backwards and forwards, moaning sadly the while, it required no very great acuteness to perceive that there was some deep sorrow gnawing at her heart. She was young, of that there could be no doubt, though trouble had evidently done its worst to prematurely age her ; she was pretty, too, and her general appearance indicated gentle breeding and delicate nurture. What a contrast there was between the darkness and gloom on her face, and the smiles and dimples of which her baby's countenance seemed composed ! Now I know that it is always the fashion for every mother to declare that her own individual baby is the most beautiful, the dearest, the sweetest darling that ever found its way into the troublesome world. I am not a mother, and I am not going to trouble myself with comparisons, which, as the old saying most sensibly remarks, are odious ; but I have no hesitation whatever in asserting that that

OB, A life's YOYAOE.

baby on board the Gipsy Queen was a perfect picture. His face was saffdsed with sanshine ; not that he never cried, babies who are in good health and alive to the responsibilities of their position ought to have a glorious roar occasionally, it is of immense benefit to their constitutions, and an incontrovertible sign of the soundness of their lungs. But at the time we are making an inspection of him he was in the best of tempers ; stretched out full length on his mother's lap, and with his big blue eyes turned upwards, he was crowing and kicking in a manner that showed he was determined to attract her attention to him. self. But her thoughts were far away ; back through storm and rain and mist, over the thousands of miles of green sea that the Gipsy Queen had traversed, her mind wandered to the land she had left behind, and the terrible mission from which she was now returning, that she had gone thither upon. And then the irresistible hot tears forced their way out, and coursing unheeded down her pale cheeks fell upon the upturned face of the smiling youngster, till one big drop lighted on his eyelid, and nearly blinding him for a moment, changed in a single wink the whole aspect of his countenance. At his first cry his mother seemed roused from her abstraction, and pressing him to her bosom soothed him with soft words and tender caresses. And soon the summer storm was past, and the sunshine was as bright as ever !

Throughout the voyage it had been a mystery to the passengers by the Gipsy Queen who and what was this lonely, melancholy woman, who kept so entirely to herself, associating with no one, indeed, speaking to no one, except when it was impossible to avoid doing so. Her only companion was her baby, in whose society she spent all her time. More than once the captain, who was a rough, good-humoured fellow, and every inch of him a sailor, had tried hard to enter into conversation with her ; and on one occasion had gone into ecstacies over the baby, which, as a man of much and varied experience, he held to be the right way to winning a mother's heart. But she met his advances with a coldness that was repulsive, and when he proposed to take the b2 joung gentleman from her for a few moments to giro him a ** here we go/' np, np, up!" she only clutched the little fellow more tightly to her hreast, while her eyes, illumined by a wild and passionate look, flashed out a negative.

** I'm bothered if I c^n make her out," said the disconcerted skipper to one of the passengers after this interview. ** She's a regular sphinx, and there's no taking her bearings."

The clock of an adjacent church was striking six, and the gilded weathercock that surmounted the spire seemed almost a flame in the ruby-red rays of the expiring sun, when the Gip$y Queen, having successfully made her way under the auspices of the dirty little steam-tug up the river, at last came to a secure and comfortable resting-place. Some of her passengers had landed at Qravesend in order to save time, and those who remained till she was securely moored in the docks did not take very long to clear out, for they were only too glad to find themselves standing once again on terra firma. Passengers and crew had for the most part taken themselves off to their friends or to such places as their fancy led them, and the Gipsy Queen was almost deserted, when, as the shadows were lengthening and the twilight was drawing on, the lonely mother stole quietly ashore and hurried away, her baby in her arms, past the many storehouses, over the swing bridges, and finally out at the dock gates into the noisy, bustling streets of East London. She had left what little luggnge she possessed behind her, purposing to send for it on the morrow, for a strange feeling possessed her that she could not sleep another night on board the ship, and though at first she sought to combat it, she found it irresistible. And so out into the busy thoroughfare, friendless, homeless, with care and anxiety gnawing at her heart, she made her way, while the baby, unconscious of the new world upon which he had entered, slept soundly under her shawl !

Connolly's Lodging House was a place well known and much frequented by sailors and other persons, whose wandering manner of life made it impossible and unnecessary for them to have a fixed

OB, A life's VOTAOE.

residence anywhere. It stood, or rather tottered, in a dark and narrow street leading ont of the Commercial Road, which was regarded with no great favour hy the police, and on the outside presented anything hat an inviting appearance. Its visage was hegrimed and blackened with the soot of ages, and the upper part was prevented from falling forward by a strong beam that stretched across the street and rested on the opposite house. But for this precaution the top stories of each would have long before made one another*s acquaintance in common ruin on the stones of the street below.

Mrs. Connolly — her good man had gone to his rest these ten years — ^was a remarkable woman in every sense of the word. In stature and circumference she was proportioned in a way that would have made her an invaluable adjunct to a travelling caravan, while her voice was of so masculine a tone that it was dif&cult to believe that it could be associated with petticoats. I am sorry to have to add that whatever quantity of the milk of human kindness she had once possessed, it was now completely soured, and she regarded humanity generally as a thing to be bullied and cheated and ill-treated ; at least, such portions of it as came under her notice and handling. Perhaps this was not altogether surprising, for in her time she had had some rough customers to deal with, and had on one occasion been laid up for nearly three months in consequence of a brutal assault made upon her by a Coolie seaman, who, afber sleeping at her lodging-house for upwards of a week, refused to pay her for the accommodation, which conduct naturally enough she resented. Her establishment was divided into two compartments, one for men and the other for women and children. And thither, as the night drew on, the poor and homeless came hurrying, till every bed was full, and the atmosphere of the ill-built, ill-ventilated wards, became suffocating and almost pestilential. Ah ! my young people, you in your own cosy little rooms all to yourselves, with everything about you clean and white and sweet smelling, do not know the filth and grime and sickly odours in which so many of your fellows have to sleep, where to breathe is to inhale poison, and the dreams are of fever and death !

It was getting dark, and Mrs. Connolly was standing at what she was pleased to term her front door, awaiting the arrival of candidates for accommodation in her house, when she was staoiiled by a hand being placed upon her arm ; and looking np she found a young and decently dressed woman standing at her side with a baby in her arms. It was the lonely mother we met on board the Gipsy Queen,

What on earth do you want making people jump in that way?" growled Mrs. Connolly, looking very red. "Why couldn't you speak instead of catching hold of one ?"

** I am very sorry to have startled you," was the answer, given in a soft and musical voice, but I want to know if I can have a bedroom here to-night 7 "

A bedroom ! " roared the lodging-house keeper, with a grim smile on her face ; **well, I'm blessed. Would you like a parlour and a boudoir as well ? A bedroom, indeed ! I don't keep bedrooms ; but if you want somewhere to sleep there's the women's ward, where you can have half a nice comfortable bed for twopence for the night. A bedroom, indeed ! " And with that Mrs. Connolly went of into a violent fit of laughter, till her cheeks got purple, and she was almost choked with the cough it had induced. At last she was brought to her senses by being addressed in a style to which she was little accustomed.

^* Listen to me, woman," said the stranger : I want none of your coarse wit. If you have a bed in a separate room to let I will take it and pay you for it, but as to my sleeping in a ward with my baby and sharing a bed with one of your female lodgers, I would sooner wander about the streets till morning."

Mrs. Connolly was dumb-founded ; she, who was always treated with the most profound respect, to be addressed as woman," it was simply awfuL But as often happens with persons who are in the habit of carrying things with a high hand and lording it over their fellow-creatures, she was completely mastered by the bold

OR, A life's votaos. 7

and anihoritatiTe style in which she had heen met. She conld not help respecting the woman who had vanquished her in a moment, and when she did speak her own tone was much sahdued.

" Well, now I come to think of it," she said, "there is the attic yon might hare. It's rather high up, and the ceiling's a trifle low, bat we can soon set it a bit sqaare and comfortable. Will that suit?"

« I have no doubt it will do well enough," was the answer.

It matters little what sort of a room it is, so long as I have it to mysel£ Show me to it," she added, impatiently, for I am tired."

"My Yisitors always pays first," suggested Mrs. Connolly, holding out her hand ; " it's so much better, you know, for them, we ain't under no obligations to one another."

"Enough 1" was the reply, and the sum having been named was at once placed in her outstretched palm.

And then up the creaking, rickety stairs, that groaned and shook ominously beneath their feet, Mrs. Connolly led the way, followed by the stranger woman and her baby. At last the attic was reached, and entered afler some difficulty in opening the door, and the lodger found herself in a room, the ceiling of which was about a couple of inches above her head, while by stretching out both her arms she could touch either ^all. The furniture consisted of a chair with the seat almost entirely gone, and a small bed, which the maker must have intended for a person of very diminutive stature. But she seemed to heed none of these disadvantages, for, taking the candlestick from Mrs. Connolly's hand, she abruptly wished her " Good night 1 " and that worthy, understanding the hint, disappeared downstairs, and had soon resumed her position on the doorstep below.

Meanwhile the lonely woman had seated herself on the edge of the bed, and unfastening her shawl disclosed the placid face of her sleeping baby ; and as she looked down upon him, she thought what she would give to rest thus peacefully. My dear young people, that baby is my hero, and it is his story I am going to tell. So regard him well now at the beginning of his voyage ; ere I shall have done with him there will have been many an ebb and flow in the river of his fortunes, that perchance may recall the time when thus sleeping on his mother s bosom he was in blissful ignorance of the future and what it would bring forth ! Still, his eyes are closed and he sleeps on soundly, while she presses him nearer to her heart and kisses him fondly ! Not till long years are passed will he know what her love and devotion to liim has been I Never more will he see that gentle face so soft and kind to him, or be met by her tender, winning glances that had so often in a moment soothed and quieted his baby sorrows ! No, still he slumbers, while slowly but surely inexorable fate weaves a veil, that when he wakes will have hidden her from his view for ever in this world !

Morning was breaking, and the stars were making their last feeble twinkles, when the policeman on duty in passing Connolly's Lodging House was startled to see smoke issuing from the window of one of the lower rooms of that establishment. In an instant more he had satisfied himself that the place was on Are, and at once raised an alarm. Soon the street was in an uproar, windows were thrown up, and pale and frightened faces peered out of them, while the greedy flames that had now burst forth in all their fury danced higher and higher, catching the woodwork and spreading further and further. Helter skelter, racing for life, half-naked and wild with terror, Mrs. Connolly's lodgers tumbled out of their frouzy beds, and fighting madly with one another most of them managed to squeeze themselves through the narrow passage into the street. As for the landlady herself, she had taken flight at the first alarm, and in the airiest of costumes was standing in the gutter weeping and wringing her hands as she watched the destruction of her house.

There is a loud hurrah from those in the street. See, here comes the engine! the smoking horses galloping at the top of their speed as if conscious of their errand. Then, in a shorter time than it takes to write, the hose is fixed, and the demon, Fire, has to grapple with his enemy. Water I But he will have the best of the battle to-night, he has had too long a start in the race, and

OB, A life's voyage.

a second deluge could scarce quench him till he has burned himself out.

The chief fireman was a fine specimen of an Englishman, broad shouldered, open countenanced, with an eye that bespoke determination and courage in the heart. He had before now done many a noble deed of daring amidst the flames, and was always ready to risk his own life to save that of a fellow-creature.

** Are all the people out ? '* he shouted, but everybody was in such a state of terror that no answer followed. Then, almost before the echo of his voice had ceased, a wild shriek was heard, and immediately after, a woman's face, ghastly and distorted with the agony of the situation, appeared at one of the top windows of the burning house.

**Save my child! " she screamed ; ** I care not what comes to me, only save him ! "

Higher and higher darted the tongues of flame, ruddier and ruddier grew the glare in the clear morning sky ; could it be that men would stand by and see a helpless woman and her babe swept into eternity without extending a hand to save them? No, never should that be said, at least, so far as Sam Hill the fireman was concerned. It was no time for reflection or balancing probabilities, every second was precious, and he knew that he was not only jeopardising his own life but his chance of rescuing those in danger by delay. He uttered no word, but before the horrified crowd had recovered from the terrible sight he was battling his way through scorching flames and suffocating smoke up the stairs that yielded beneath his feet. He never paused to think ; had he done so, Sam could scarcely have felt otherwise than that he was a doomed man, and that he would never set his eyes on his own little blind daughter at home again. But a merciful Providence, on occasions of this sort, endows the heart with such a noble purpose, that everything is forgotten save the one object in view. Half-choked and bliuded, guided by the mother's screams, he struggled on till he reached the attic-door. For one moment he turned to look behind him, and as he did so the stairs over which he had jnst passed fell with a dreadful crash, catting off the only means of escape. But Sam Hill neither changed colour nor paused, he always carried with him an unswerring belief and confidence in the love and mercy of the Omnipotent, and he was as cool and collected as ever. He found the mother and her bal^y in the room, the former exhausted and fainting, the latter screaming and shrieking. I am sorry to have to record that on so trying an occasion my young gentleman was so exceedingly weak as to cry ; but considering his age, and one thing and another, perhaps it was not altogether surprising ! At the sight of Sam Hill, the woman seemed for a moment to reviye. Staggering across towards him, she put her baby into his arms.

'^Begone!'' she whispered hoarsely, and in a strangely altered voice, **or it will be too late. See, it is close upon us I" she continued, pointing with her finger through the open door, where the flames were already mingling with the thick smoke. **Save my baby-boy, and the good God will bless you and yours I " and then, falling at his feet, her hands stretched out imploringly, she murmured something he could not hear, and sank fainting on the floor. Another awful crash below, and Sam Hill felt the floor rocking beneath him. There was no time to be lost, he rushed to the window and looked out. He could hear the roar of voices below, and the hissing of the water as it fell upon the fire, but saw no means of escape. Suddenly his eye lighted on the beam that stretched across the street, supporting the upper stories of the two houses as has been described. It was after all but a foot beneath the window-ledge, and he thought he could reach it safely. Perilous though this alternative was, it seemed pleasant in comparison with the fate that awaited him if he remained. He turned to look if the woman was still unconscious ; she was kneeling at his side again. Save my baby-boy I " she shouted. ** Leave me here, but save him ! *'

It was a terrible occasion for Sam, he could not bear to leave her behind, but he felt that his first effort must be to rescue the little one in his arms, whose helpless cries wrung his heart.

OB, A LIFE*S YOTAOE.

Catching np the sheet from the hed, he folded the hahj up in it, and then slang the strange handle roand his neck. In a moment more he was clinging on to the window-ledge, his legs swinging to and fro in search of the heanu He coald not toach it, it was jast a trifle too far heneath him, and there he hang almost hy his nails, with the vision of a terrihle death hefore him. One last effort mast he made ; he tamed his eyes downward and saw that what he soaght was scarce half-a-dozen inches helow him. Why, after all, if he let go of the window-ledge he coald catch hold of the heam as he dropped, there was no great difficalty in that, only if he shoald miss catching hold of it ! Only and if— those two words he never waited to think ahoat, hat, like a hero as he was, made a hold strike for life — and won 1

Oyer the slender hridge he made his way with his harden on his hack, and when he reached the other side friendly arms were oatstretched to receive him and drag him into safety. And then, overtaxed natore gave way, and as one of his mates loosed the living bundle from aroand his neck, Sam Hill dropped in a swoon !

And that lonely melancholy woman, who came to England by the Gipsy Queen, slept the sleep that knows no waking, beneath the smoaldering embers of what had once been Connolly's Lodging Hoase.

Chapter II. BLIND JANET

WOMDEB what keeps year father so late this morning, Jenny!" exclaimed Miss Sarah Hill, better known among her friends and acqnaintance as Aant Sally, as she bnsied herself in the preparation of some tempting-looking battered toast in the little parlonr of Sam Hill's hoase, on the morning when the events ' recorded in the latter part of the last chapter occarred. ** It's an nncommon thing for him to be behind-hand in coming to breakfast," she continued. ''It's pretty sare there's been a fire somewhere daring the night."

The speaker was a bustling, smart-looking woman, who jerked ont her words with extraordinary emphasis, and seemed anxious to say all she had to say with the least possible waste of time. Bat with all her briskness, nay, it might almost be called roughness of manner, Aunt Sally had a big and tender heart, and when her brother's wife died some three years before the time when we made her acquaintance, she had, without a murmur, left a comfortable situation as housekeeper at a large warehouse in the city, at his invitation, to come and look after his cottage and take care of his little blind daughter.

It had been a grieyous blow to Sam, when, after long hope deferred, he had been assured by the most competent authorities that his darling child, Janet, was irretrieyably blind, and that those bright brown eyes that appeared so full of life and intelligence to him were powerless and dead. At first he could not belieye what the doctors told him, and seating her on his knee would gaze long and earnestly into the little one's unappreciative orbs, waiting anxiously but confidently for some sign in them that she could see him. But as time passed on, the irresistible truth dawned on him ; the doctors must be right, and he could do nought but bear with patience the dispensation of Proyidence.

As for Janet herself, she was perfectly contented and happy, and strangers who saw her often went away quite ignorant of the terrible calamity under which she laboured. Her face was always wreathed in smiles, her laugh silvery and hearty, while she was singing about the place from morning till night, carrying an atmosphere of contentment and gaiety into every comer of the cottage. A more lovely child nature never formed ; it almost seemed as if it had sought to make up for the one fearful deficiency in its work by gifting her with a beauty of form and feature as near perfection as could be. Look at her as she sits by the open window; for though the limited size of Sam's cottage requires that the cookery be done in the parlour, it is a warm summer's morning. What painter would not rush off for his tools to perpetuate such a living picture 1 She can only number nine

OB, ▲ LIFB*S YOTAOB. 18

years, and yet she appears as if she had lived ahnost twice that period, so marked and striking is the chiselling of her face. At this moment there is something troubling her, she is neither smiling nor singing, but her eyes are sad; and as Aunt Sally addresses her in the words that have been recorded, she sighs and makes no reply. Janet's love for her father was so intense, that when he was away from her side beyond the customary period entailed by his duty, she became quite melancholy, and would sit silent and gloomy till he came home, when his entrance would bring back the fine weather and set her all right again.

** I can hear him ! *' she exclaimed, jumping up suddenly from her seat by the window and hurrying to the door to let her father in, while Aunt Sally took occasion to look out at Sam, who was Btanding on the step, and to commence a remonstrance with him for being so late.

** Lawk a mercy ! whatever is that bundle youVe got in your arms ? " she called to him, observing that he was carrying something that looked soft and bulky. <<I hope you ain't been picking up a bargain anywhere,'' she added, remembering sundry occasions on which Sam had been most terribly taken in by designing persons who had cheap lots for sale.

** Just you keep your curiosity to yourself, Sally," was Sam's answer from the outside, and the next moment he made his appearance in the parlour, followed by Janet, and continued: *'It ain't a bargain exactly as I've been picking up, but it's something valuable, that I'm going to make a present of to you and Jenny."

By this time Aunt Sally's curiosity was too much for her, and so she put down the teapot she was just about to fill at the kettle, and crossed to where Sam was standing, his mouth twitching with fun.

«Come, Sam, let's see itl" she said, making a dart at the bundle — ^but he was too sharp for her, and jumped out of the way.

WITH THK TIDE ;

"Oh, do tell US what it is, father 1" chimed in Janet, still holding fast hy Sam*s coat tails.