CHAPTER SIX.
ON THE BEACH.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Bob presently, stopping on their wayhomewards at a nice-looking pastry-cook's shop hard by the dockyard-gates, whose wide green windows framed an appetising display of cakesand buns which appealed strangely to his gastronomic feelings; while afragrant odour, as of hot mutton-pies, the speciality of theestablishment, a renowned one in its way amongst middies and such likesmall fry who frequented the neighbourhood, oozed out from itshospitably-open door, perfuming lusciously the air around--"I am _so_hungry!"
"By Jove, my boy, so am I, too, now I think of it," said the Captain,likewise coming to a halt and proceeding to enter the shop, followed byhis eager companions. "Let us pipe down to lunch at once. This is afamous place for pies; and you may rely on having mutton in 'em and notpuppies!"
The old Captain `stood treat,' of course, and the boys had such aglorious `tuck out' that they were behind time when they got back toMrs Gilmour's house on the south parade.
"Aunt Polly" and Nellie were both ready and waiting for them outside,dressed in walking attire; while Rover was frisking round the ladies,though he darted up to his young master the moment he caught sight ofhim, forgetting, with all a good dog's magnanimity, the ill-treatment hehad received in not being allowed to accompany him to the dockyard.
"Sure, you're very late, Captain dear," began Mrs Gilmour when the oldsailor came near, with Dick following in his wake; but, suddenlynoticing the latter's wonderful transformation of appearance, shestopped her laughing reproaches anent the Captain's dilatoriness,exclaiming in admiring tones--"My good gracious! Dear me! Who is thisyoung gentleman?"
Bob was in ecstasies.
"We were sure you wouldn't know him, auntie!" he cried, as little MissNellie joined him in a gleesome dance of triumph round the blushing,new-fledged Dick, and Rover gambolled behind the pair, barking loudly,in sympathetic accord. "We were sure you wouldn't know him!"
"Sure, you're right, me dears, I wouldn't really have recognised him forthe same boy at all, at all!" cheerfully agreed Mrs Gilmour, as sheturned towards the ex-runaway and scrutinising his altered guise indetail, critically but kindly. "Are ye, really, Dick, now?"
"Yes, mum, I bees the same b'y, surely," replied Dick, with a broad grinthat spread over his face from ear to ear. "It's the Cap'en, God blesshim, mum, as made me for to look so foine that my own mother wouldn'tknow me, leastways nobody else--thanks be to the Cap'en, mum."
"Pooh, pooh, there's nothing to make a fuss about," interposed the oldsailor, anxious to let these personalities be dropped, being very shy ofany of his good actions being noticed. "The boy's all right. He hasonly changed his rig, that's all, the same as you put on a new dress ongoing out walking, ma'am."
"That's a nice thing to say of an economical person like me, sir!" saidMrs Gilmour, shaking her parasol at him in jocular anger. "One wouldthink I was one of those fine ladies who have a new dress every day inthe week, and milliners' bills as long as your old malacca cane."
"Well, well, I apologise, ma'am, for I know better than that, as you arefar too sensible a woman to spend all your money on finery," said theCaptain, with a low bow. "But where are we going to now, for I see youare dressed for walking?"
"Down to the sea, of course," she replied. "Nell and I went up toLandport this morning, while you and Bob were `transmogrifying' thatboy, as my old father used to say. We paid a visit to the old ladywhose eggs were broken yesterday by Master Rover's gambols. You mayremember, Captain, I promised her some from my own fowls in place ofthose she lost. Don't you recollect how anxious the poor creature wasabout them?"
"Yes, yes, I remember," said the old sailor, his face beaming with good-humour. "You're always kind and thoughtful."
"Whish!" cried Mrs Gilmour playfully. "None of your blarney!"
"Oh, Bob!" exclaimed Nellie, interposing at this juncture, while theystill all stood talking together in front of the house, neither MrsGilmour nor the `old commodore' having yet given the signal for sailing,"she has got such a dear little place of her own."
"Who's `she'--the cat's mother, Nell?"
Nellie laughed.
"I mean the old lady who had the broken eggs."
"Aye," put in the Captain, "and who nearly had broken legs likewise!"
This made Nellie laugh again.
"Oh, you know who I mean very well, Bob," said she, when she had ceasedto giggle. "She has got the dearest little cottage, you ever saw. Itis fitted up just like the cabin of a ship inside; her husband, who wasa ship's carpenter, having done it all. Why, the walls are covered withChinese pictures and shells and curios which he picked up in all sortsof outlandish places, bringing them home after his various voyages. Oh,Bob, you never saw such funny things."
"Didn't the woman say something of having an invalid daughter?" inquiredthe Captain. "I think I heard her speak of one yesterday at thestation."
"Yes, poor thing," said Mrs Gilmour. "She's got spinal complaint, andwe saw her lying on the sofa in the queer little parlour crammed withcuriosities that Nell took such a fancy to. She seems a very nice girl,so happy and contented although in such a helpless state! Her oldmother, whom I know you thought fussy and selfish, is quite devoted toher."
"Humph!" ejaculated the Captain, taking no notice of Mrs Gilmour'sallusions to his original impression of the stout personage with whomRover had, so to speak, entangled them into an acquaintance. "Perhapssome of that old port wine of mine would do the girl good, eh, ma'am?"
"Not a doubt of it, she looks so pale and delicate," replied MrsGilmour. "But there will be plenty of time to think about that to-morrow. Let us go on now to the beach, or it will be too late for us todo so before dinner."
"Come on then, I'm yours obediently," said the Captain with his usualchirpy chuckle. "By Jove, though, I think I've had pretty nearlywalking enough for one day for an old fellow turned sixty."
This time they steered clear of the castle, the exciting memories of theprevious evening being too vivid in Mrs Gilmour's mind to allow theboys to go near the treacherous footing of the rampart again.
Instead of going thither, they turned their footsteps rather to theeastern portion of the shore; where a shelving, shingly beach slopedgradually down to the water, and thus no danger to be feared of MasterBob or any one else plunging in suddenly without warning, as happenedunfortunately before.
Here, everything was new to the young people; the wet pebbles glisteninglike jewels after a last polish from the receding tide; the masses ofmany-hued seaweed; the quaint shells; and the rippling waves, laughingin the sunshine, and sportively throwing up in their joyous play littleballs of foam or spindrift, which the buoyant south-westerly breeze,equally inclined for fun and frolic, tossed about here and there high inthe air, until they were lost to sight in the distance beyond theesplanade.
One or two silver-grey gulls, with white waistcoats on, as if going tosome nautical dinner-party, were hovering above and occasionally makingdashes down in their swooping curvilinear flight to pick up stray tit-bits from the tideway, to assuage their hunger until the grander repastto which they were invited was ready; while a whole colony of theirkindred, the black, brown, and dusky-coloured gulls, not so fortunate inbeing asked out to the festive banquet, were anon floating about ingroups on the water close inshore, anon suddenly taking wing and flyingoff, only to settle down again on the surface further out.
Even more impressive, however, than all these evidences of moving lifearound, there was the sea, that touched their feet almost, and yetstretched out in its illimitable expanse away and away--to where?
It was Nellie to whom these thoughts occurred; as for Bob, he wasengaged in chasing little green crabs as they scuttled over the shingle,busily collecting as many as he could get hold of in a little pond hehad scooped in the sand.
This pond would now be filled as some venturesome wavelet broke over itsbrink; and then be drained as the tide fell back, leaving the poorlittle crabs left hi
gh and dry ashore to repeat their scramblingattempts at escape, only to tumble over on top of each other as theytried to climb the precipitous sides of Bob's reservoir.
"Isn't it jolly!" cried that young gentleman, looking up at the Captain,who, leaning on his stick, stood near, watching his futile endeavours torestrain the vivacious, side-walking, unwieldy little animals thatseemed gifted with such indomitable energy, and equal perseverance tothat of Bruce's spider. "Isn't it jolly, sir?"
"Not very jolly for the crabs, though," observed the old sailor smiling."I don't think they would say so if you asked them the question!"
"I'm not hurting them," said Bob in excuse. "I only want to see themclosely."
"I suppose you think they are all alike and belong to the same species,eh?" asked the Captain. "Don't you?"
"Well, I don't see much difference in them," replied Bob hesitatingly."Do you, Captain Dresser?"
"Humph! yes. I can see in that little pond of yours, now under my eyes,no less than three distinct varieties of the crab family."
"Never!" exclaimed Bob incredulously. "Why, they all look to me thesame queer little green-backed things, with legs all over them that theydo not know how to use properly."
"While you think, no doubt, that you could teach them better, eh?" saidthe Captain chuckling; but, the next moment, raising his hat and agraver expression stealing over his face as he looked upward towards theblue vault overhead, he added earnestly--"Ah, my boy, remember they havea wiser teacher than you or I! However, you're wrong about their beingall similar. The majority of those you've caught are certainly of theordinary species of green crab and uneatable, if even they had been ofany tolerable size; but, that little fellow there is a young `velvetfiddler' or `swimming crab.' If you notice, his hind legs areflattened, so as to serve him for oars, with which he can propel himselfat a very good rate through the water if you give him a chance. Looknow!"
"I see," cried Bob eagerly. "He's quite different to this other chaphere with the long legs."
"Oh that is a `spider crab.' He is of very similar proclivities to hiscousin though he lives ashore. The cunning fellow uses his sprawlinglong limbs in lieu of a web, and will lie in wait in some hole betweenthe rocks, artfully poking his claws out to catch unwary animals--oftenthose of his own or kindred species--as they pass by his den."
"What is this queer little chap?" asked Nellie, pointing to another,which was partly concealed in an old whelk-shell. "He seems to want toget out and can't."
"Why, my dear, that is the `hermit crab.' He does not want, though, toleave that comfortable lodging he has secured for himself, as you think.He's an `old soldier,' and knows when he's well off! He belongs towhat is called the `soft-tailed' family, and being defenceless astern hehas to seek an artificial protection against his enemies, in place ofnatural armour."
"How funny!" said Nellie, watching the little animal more closely."What a queer fellow!"
"Yes," continued the Captain, "and, that is the reason why he goesprowling about for empty shells. Often, too, really he's such apugnacious fellow, he will turn the rightful tenant out, taking forciblepossession. Just look at his tail and see how it is provided with apair of pincers at the end. He is enabled by this means to hold onfirmly to any shell, no matter how badly it may fit him, which hechooses for his temporary habitation."
As he spoke, the Captain extracted with some little difficulty thebuccaneer crab from the whelk-shell, showing its peculiar formation,quite unlike that of the others. A young shrimp who had lost hislatitude was also found in Bob's pond, and the discovery led the oldsailor to speak of these animals that form such a pleasant relish tobread-and-butter; and he told them that one of the best fishing-groundsfor them was off the Woolsner Shoal, some four miles further along thebeach to the eastwards, while another good place was Selsea Bill, moreeastward still.
While the Captain was giving this little lecture about the crabs andtheir congeners, Rover was prancing around and barking for some one topitch in a stick or something for him to fetch out of the sea.
Presently, in bringing back a piece of wood which Bob had thrown intothe water, Rover dragged ashore a mass of seaweed, a portion of whichwas shaped somewhat like a lettuce and coloured a greenish purple.
The Captain pounced on this at once.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed--"why, it is laver."
"Isn't that good to eat?" asked Mrs Gilmour. "I fancy I've heardpeople speak of it in London, or somewhere."
"I should rather think it was!" he replied. "It is, too, one of thebest sorts, the purple laver, a variety of some value, I believe, in theLondon market."
"I can't say I should like to eat it," said Nellie, squeezing up hernose like a rabbit and making a wry face. "It looks too nasty!"
"Wouldn't you?" retorted the Captain. "I can tell you, missy, it isvery good when well boiled, with the addition of a little lemon-juice.It tastes then better than spinach."
"Do all these sorts of seaweed grow in the sea, Captain Dresser?" askedBob. "I mean in the same way as plants do in a garden?"
"No, my boy," replied the other. "They attach themselves to the rocksat the bottom of the sea, not to draw their sustenance from them in thesame way as plants ashore derive their nourishment from the earththrough their roots; but, simply to anchor themselves in a secure havenout of reach of the waves, getting all their nutriment from the water,which is the atmosphere of the sea in the same way as air is that of theland. Of course, some of these weeds of the ocean drift from theirmoorings, like that bladder wrack there with the berries."
"Don't they pop jolly!" observed Master Bob, popping away as hedelivered himself of this opinion. "Pop! There goes one!"
"You are not the only boy who has found that out, or girl either," saidthe Captain with a smile to Nellie, who was industriously following herbrother's example. "But, look here, children, I can now see somethingstranger than anything we've noticed yet."
"What?" exclaimed Bob and Nellie together, stooping down to where theCaptain was poking about with the end of his malacca cane in the sandyshingle. "What is it, sir?"
"A pholas," he answered. "It is one of the most curious burrowinganimals known, and has been a puzzle to naturalists for years, untilGosse discovered its secret, as to how it succeeded with its soft andtender shell in penetrating into the hardest rocks, within whosesubstance it is frequently found completely buried, so that, like the`Fly in Amber,' one wonders how it ever got there!"
"What did you say it was?" asked Mrs Gilmour. "A `fowl,' sure? Faithit's a quare-looken' bird, Cap'en dear!"
The Captain smiled, but he was not to be tempted away from his hobby.
"The pholas, I said, ma'am," he replied. "The `pholas dactylus,' asscientific people call it, which, until Gosse, as I said, discovered itsmode of action, was quite a puzzle to every one; although, now that themystery is out, all wonder it was not cleared up before! If you look atthe head of the shell, you'll see it is provided with a regular seriesof little pointed spines at the end of the upper portion. These spinesare of a much harder material than the main part of the shell, and arefixed into it, as you could notice better with a microscope, just in thesame way as the steel points for the notes of any air are attached tothe barrel of a common musical-box, projecting like so many teeth."
"Yes, I can see them," observed Bob, who was listening attentively."Look, Nell!"
"Well, then," the Captain went on, "besides this toothed head of his,the animal is provided with a sucker at his mouth, by which he can holdon to any wooden pile or stonework he may wish to perforate so as tomake his nest inside; and, gripping this firmly with his sucker andworking the head of his shell slowly backwards and forwards with a sortof circular rocking motion, he gradually bores his way into the objectof his affections, getting rid of the refuse he excavates by the aid ofa natural siphon that runs through his body, and by means of which heblows all his waste borings away--curious, isn't it?"
"Very," said Mrs Gilmour; while the childr
en, equally interested,wanted to learn not only all the Captain could tell them of thispeculiar little animal, but also everything he knew of the other wondersof the shore. "Sure I wish I knew all you do, Captain!"
But, if the Captain was learned and good-natured, the children taxed hispatience, Miss Nellie especially.
She had not lost any time in setting about making that collection ofshells which she had mentioned to him in confidence when coming down inthe train it was her intention to begin as soon as she got to the sea;and, all the time he had been speaking of the little crabs and otherthings, she had been busily gathering together all sorts of razorshells, pieces of cuttle-fish bone, cast-off lobsters' claws, and bitsof seaweed, which she now proudly drew his attention to, expecting theold sailor's admiration.
He was, on the contrary, however, extremely ungallant.
"All rubbish!" he exclaimed on her asking him if he did not think herpile of curiosities nice. "But, those corallines, young lady, are good.They were long supposed to belong to the animal world, like thezoophytes; instead of which they are plants the same as any otherseaweed. When that little branch you have there is dry, if you put theend of it to a lighted candle, it will burn with an intense white flame,similar to the lime-light, or that produced by electricity."
"We'll try it to-night!" said Bob emphatically. "We'll try it to-night!"
"But, the Captain says it must be quite dry," interposed his sister,somewhat appeased by the praise bestowed on her corallines for thewholesale condemnation her collection had received. "Isn't that so,Captain?"
"Right you are, my deary," said he. "They would not burn unless they'rejust like tinder."
Dick, who had meanwhile been listening to all that was being said,without intruding on the conversation, busying himself in picking upshells for Miss Nell, and, occasionally, diverting Rover's attention bythrowing a stick for him into the sea, happened to come across, just atthis juncture, a queer-looking dark-coloured object that resembled anindia-rubber tobacco-pouch more than anything else.
"What be this, sir?" said he, holding up the article for inspection."Be he good for aught, sir?"
"Why, it's only a piece of seaweed, of course!" declared Master Bob,settling the question in his own way. "Any one can see that."
"You're wrong," said the Captain. "You're quite wrong, Master Sharp!"
"It's a fairy's pillow-case," cried Nellie. "Isn't it?"
"Your guess is the nearer of the two, missy," decided Captain Dresser,thumping his malacca cane down to give greater effect to his words."Strange to say, you've almost hit upon the very name; for, the fisher-folk hereabouts and down the coast call the things `mermaids' purses.'They once contained the egg of some young skate or shark, who, when hewas old enough, hatched himself, leaving his shell behind; and thisbeing elastic, like gutta-percha, closed up again, so that it cannot betold how he got out."
"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour. "I've often wondered what thosethings were, and never knew before."
"It's never too late, ma'am, to learn," said the Captain. "I myselfonly took up natural history, gathering the little knowledge I possess,after I was put on half-pay. Indeed, it was all owing to poor Ted, yourhusband and my old shipmate, that I ever thought of reading at all. Hesaid it would be something for me to fall back upon for occupation whenthe Admiralty shoved me on the shelf; and, by Jove, he was right!"
"Poor Ted!" sighed Mrs Gilmour somewhat sadly. "Poor old Ted!"
"Not `poor,' ma'am," said the Captain reverently, taking off his hat andlooking upwards as he had done before when calling the children'sattention to Him who taught the insects. "He's `rich' Ted, now; andbetter off in his snug moorings aloft than you and I here below!"
"Yes, I know that, but it is hard to be content," replied the other,appearing lost in thought for some moments; until presently, recoveringherself, she looked at her watch, when, seeing what time it was, shesaid they must start back for home at once. "Come along, children,time's up!"
"O-o-o-oh!" exclaimed Bob and Nellie in great consternation. "Why,we've only just come!"
"O-o-o-oh!" mimicked their aunt, amused at their woebegone faces. "Doyou know that we've been down here nearly four hours! If we stop muchlonger, you'll be `oh-ing' for your dinner, when it will be too late toget any, and how would you like that?"
"Humph! I thought I was feeling a bit peckish," said the Captain,wheeling about and preparing to head the return procession home,accepting Mrs Gilmour's remarks as a command. "Come on, children,we've got our sailing directions; so let us up anchor at once, foryou'll have plenty of the beach before you see the last of it. I tellyou what, though, I'll do for you if you are good."
"What, Captain?" cried Bob and Nellie, hanging on to his coat-tails ashe stumped over the shingle by the side of their aunt, the faces of allnow set homeward. "What?"
"Ah, you must wait till to-morrow!" was all that they could get out ofhim, however, in spite of their wheedlings and coaxings as they crossedthe Common, with Dick and Rover following behind; the latter being toohungry even to bark, and only able to give a faint wag of his tail nowand then when especially addressed by name. "Wait till to-morrow!"
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