“AND what a change it will be, too,” said Reginald Fitzroy to Johnnie and Willie, while Peggy McQueen sat listening in the tent to every word that was said.
He had already signed the agreement with the Macgilvray Company to bring out Peggy on the Australian stage. In her acting2 and singing she had made such progress this winter, that she was certain to cause a sensation in that new land of sunshine.
It was spring again once more; it is a sorrowful thing for anyone who loves nature, to sail away from his native land when the birds begin to build and sing, and wild-flowers spring wanton, to be loved and admired.
But ever since he had met Macgilvray’s agent, Fitzroy had been a different man.
“It will be for the good of us all, my dears,” he said, hopefully. “Peggy will become a queen of the stage.”
Poor Peggy’s eyes sparkled with delight, but she sighed immediately afterwards, for{128} she was very fond of her caravan3. But then—well, she couldn’t be always a child.
Father Fitzroy had already written a three-act piece for Peggy, and he himself believed he would get rich. Willie would be a draw, and the splendid blood-hound would work beautifully into the play. Such a chance would never come again, he thought—
“There is a tide....
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”
Thus Fitzroy, with gestures suited for the occasion. But poor old Mother Molly took Father Fitzroy down a peg1.
“Which ye doesn’t get Molly to sail for no furrin parts, ’cept heaven itself when her day comes; there’s no tide but that for her.” And Molly resolved now to reside with a sister.
The caravans4 would not be sold, but left in comfortable quarters. A show like this, Fitzroy said, might be something to fall back upon.
The expenses would all fall on Macgilvray’s agent. He pooh-poohed them. Fitzroy would be able to pay him back out of his first week’s gate-money.
No wonder hope rose high. They were
going in a sailing-ship, though. This would be quieter, and though a longer voyage, it would be a healthier; and Fitzroy was just old enough to begin to think of his health and comfort.
A smart little barque enough, and a kindly5 skipper; a trader, however, and ordered to make straight for Rio first, then Buenos Ayres, etc.; and, at each town he visited, the Wandering Minstrels were to give their great entertainment.
Nothing succeeds like success, and had Fitzroy elected to stay on with his company even at Rio, he might have made a pile.
But he didn’t. There was a golden future before them all, he told himself, when they should reach the land of the Southern Cross.
They had troublesome times weathering Cape6 Horn, and the barque leaked badly. Often and often it was all hands to the pump. Pump or drown, Fitzroy phrased it. The children were told nothing about their danger, and the stormier the weather the merrier they were. Why, in two months’ time, somewhat to Fitzroy’s consternation7, Willie grew a whole quarter of an inch!
“If he starts growing,” said Fitzroy to the giant, “he’ll ruin himself, and hurt me also.{130}”
“Goodness sake, Gourmand!” cried Fitzroy; “grow a foot if you want to, or a yard even would be better.”
Somehow, when the ship was stretching up north and west into sunnier seas, she stopped leaking. Seaweed sometimes gets sucked into a leak and stops it. Ah! then it was a happy and a merry time on board!
But another storm arose which drove them far out of their course, which split the sails, and smashed the bulwarks9 to pieces.
One night the mate came to the skipper’s state-room.
“The ship is sinking, sir, and the men have seized the boats. They are going to leave her, you better come.”
“You cowards!” cried the captain, springing up and seizing his revolver. “I will shoot the first man who attempts to leave the vessel10.”
This was only what the scoundrel of a mate expected. He darted11 out of the state-room and locked the door.
The captain was a prisoner, probably to be drowned like a rat in its hole.
When the sun rose about six next day, like{131} a big, blood orange shimmering12 red through the horizon’s haze13, the good barque Vulture lay like a log upon the water, and reeled like a drunken man. The waves were high, but there was not a breath of wind. Only those smooth, oily-looking billows.
The children had to be told of the danger now, for at any time the Vulture might take her final plunge14. But they bore up most bravely.
The captain had been set free again, and he, with Fitzroy himself and the giant, set about cutting away every stick. Few sailors could wield15 axe16 or adze as Gourmand did. It was splendid to see the splinters fly! But thus relieved, and the rolling seas going down, the vessel recovered herself.
She might float a long time yet. But for a time she was at the mercy of the currents, or of any breeze that might blow.
Two little jury-masts were rigged just to catch the wind, which soon came from the south-east, only bits of staysails, but they served the purpose of keeping her head before it.
Every day they kept looking out for the ship that never passed their way, and every night they burned a light.{132}
They spent a terrible time. The sun was so hot that the pitch between the planks17 of the quarter-deck boiled and stuck to the shoes. There were plenty of provisions, but the mutinous18 mate and crew had taken most of the water and all the rum away in the boats. The remainder of the water went bad, and both Peggy and Willie began to pine. Oh, it was pitiful to see them, and even to hear the poor, faithful blood-hound appealing in his own canine19 fashion for the water that was not forthcoming. To make matters worse, the captain found he was far out of the track of ships, far away from any of the ocean’s great highways.
“But,” pleaded poor Peggy, hopefully, “a ship may come. God may send a ship.”
One night, the sky bright with heaven’s jewels, sheet-lightning playing behind the low, rocky clouds on the horizon, that seemed to forebode a storm, and a phosphorescent light upon the waves, something happened. There was a rasping noise coming from beneath the keel, and all motion suddenly ceased.
The Vulture had grounded on a reef! No one slept two consecutive21 hours, and everyone{133} was astir before the sun leapt out of his ocean bed. But it was not an ocean bed this morning, for in the east, and but a short distance off, lo and behold22! a green and beautiful island, with a beach of coral sand, and strange round huts built under tall and stately poplar trees. A cry of joy burst from every lip. They were saved!
Yes, saved from the sea!
But on those sands spear-armed savages23 danced and yelled, brandishing24 their weapons and waving their naked arms as if to keep them off.
What now would be the fate of the Wandering Minstrels?
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
peg
|
|
| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
caravan
|
|
| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
caravans
|
|
| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
cape
|
|
| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
consternation
|
|
| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
gourmand
|
|
| n.嗜食者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
bulwarks
|
|
| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
vessel
|
|
| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
shimmering
|
|
| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
haze
|
|
| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
plunge
|
|
| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
wield
|
|
| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
axe
|
|
| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
planks
|
|
| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
mutinous
|
|
| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
canine
|
|
| adj.犬的，犬科的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
alas
|
|
| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
consecutive
|
|
| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
savages
|
|
| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
brandishing
|
|
| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |