FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   >>   >|  
e papers, that Kenneth, who had come prepared to reveal all, resolved to keep his secret, believing that there was no pity left in his father's breast. As he lay awake and sorrowing that night he heard his father's step pacing to and fro incessantly during the whole night, and hoped that the loss he had in all probability sustained would break up the ice; but next morning at breakfast he was as cold as ever. He looked very pale, indeed, but he was sterner and even more irascible than usual in regard to the merest trifles, so Kenneth's resolution not to confide in his father was confirmed. CHAPTER TWELVE. THE BU'STER WILLS TO ACCOMPLISH MISCHIEF, AND GETS INTO TROUBLE. "At sea."--How differently do human beings regard that phrase! To one it arouses feelings akin to rapture; to another it is suggestive of heavings and horror. To him whose physical condition is easily and disagreeably affected by aquatic motion, "at sea" savours of bad smells and misery. To him who sings of the intensity of his love for "a ride on the fierce, foaming, bursting tide," "at sea" sounds like the sweet ringing of a silver bell floating towards him, as if from afar, fraught with the fragrance and melody of distant climes--such as coral isles, icy mountains, and golden sands. Let us regard the phrase in its pleasant aspect just now, good reader. I have always loved the sea myself, from the hour I first set foot on board a man-of-war and skylarked with the middies, to that sad and memorable day when, under the strong--I might almost say irresistible-- influence of my strong-minded wife, I bade adieu to the royal navy for ever, and retired into private life. Alas! But what is the use of sighing? If a man _will_ get born in his wrong century, he ought to lay his account with being obliged to suffer much from the strange, I had almost said childish, fallacies, follies, and inconsistencies peculiar to the more early period in which his lot has been cast by mistake. You see, reader, I have accepted my position. There is a bare possibility that those who have assigned it to me may be wrong, but I have long ago ceased to dispute that point. At sea! Haco's sloop is there now, just out of sight of land, although not far from it, and resting on as glassy a sheet of water as is ever presented by the ocean in a deep dead calm. Haco himself, big, hairy, jovial, ruddy, is seated on the after skylight, the sole occupant of the deck
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
regard
 

father

 

strong

 
phrase
 

Kenneth

 
reader
 

retired

 

sighing

 

private

 

pleasant


aspect

 
irresistible
 

influence

 

minded

 

skylarked

 

middies

 

memorable

 

inconsistencies

 

resting

 
glassy

ceased

 

dispute

 
presented
 

seated

 

skylight

 

occupant

 

jovial

 
follies
 

fallacies

 
childish

peculiar

 

period

 

strange

 

account

 
obliged
 

suffer

 

possibility

 
assigned
 

position

 

accepted


mistake

 
century
 

silver

 

sterner

 

irascible

 

looked

 

morning

 

breakfast

 

merest

 

ACCOMPLISH