American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the OrientOptic, Oliver
General
American boys afloat : $b or, Cruising in the Orient
Optic, Oliver
Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
But the average boy had not the ingenuity, pluck, and enterprise of
Louis; and perhaps he made his adventures more exciting than another
might have done. The nearest approach to him in the big four appeared
to be Scott, who had fully developed himself in the recapture of the
Salihé, though his intended cruise in the Seahound in the West Indies
stamped the metal of which he was made.
Louis did not like the name of Don Quixote, a crack-brained and absurd
adventurer, whose career Cervantes had written and made as ridiculous
as possible for the purpose of bringing knight-errantry into disrepute;
and he succeeded admirably. In dubbing his ward a knight, Uncle Moses
simply intended to ridicule adventures in general.
"I don't like the name of Don Quixote, which my trustee suggests, and
that is the only name that has been mentioned," said Louis, when the
big four had assembled to talk over the organization of the ship's
company, after he had informed them of the purchase of the little
steamer.
The young millionaire had explained to them the use to which it was
intended to apply her, with some enlargement of the idea to suit his
own fancy, and had reported some of the conversation between the
captain, Uncle Moses, and the magnate of the Fifth Avenue.
"Don Quixote isn't a bad name for a boat," added Scott. "I don't know
much about the fellow who bore it, and I am not competent to give an
opinion as to its fitness."
It then appeared that Louis was the only one of the four who had read
the book; and he gave some description of the Spanish knight-errant,
and related some of his adventures with windmills, wine sacks, and
galley slaves.
"The Don is not the fellow for our craft," added Scott. "But I suppose
you own the steam-yacht, Louis, as you do the Guardian-Mother, and you
ought to name her to suit yourself."
"Morris's father is as much an owner of her as I am, for he pays half
her cost. The name was referred to me; but I think Morris ought to have
as much to say about that as I have," replied Louis.
"I don't care what her name is," said Morris, laughing. "There will
be just as much fun in her under one name as any other. If you have
thought of anything, Louis, I will agree to it."
"What shall her name be, Louis?" demanded Scott.
"I thought of calling her the Maud," answered Louis.
"The only objiction in loife I have to that name is that it was what
they called the shtaymer of John Schoble," added Felix.
"But that was not her name, and it was only stuck on over 'Viking.'"
"Maud is a tip-top name!" exclaimed Scott.
"I like it; and it is your mother's name, Louis, which makes me like it
all the more," said Morris.
"Maud it is, then; and no fellow must say Salihé after this," added
Scott.
As a matter of form the question was put to vote, and Maud was
unanimously adopted as the name of the steamer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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