Bravo, Joshua! How strong he looked, with his shirt-sleeves tucked up
to his shoulders; and how well he managed his oars! Not that Dan was
much of a judge; but he knew what grace was, and surely he saw that
before him when he saw Joshua rowing. Joshua looked at Dan, and smiled
and nodded; and Dan clapped his hands. And Joshua, to show how clever
he was, made a great sweep with the oars, and fell backwards in the
boat, in a most ridiculous position, with his heels in the air. But he
was up again like lightning, and recovered his oars, and made so light
of it, that Dan, who had caught his breath for an instant, laughed
merrily at the mishap, and thought it was good fun. His laugh was
echoed by Ellen, who was sitting by his side, and who had also been a
little alarmed at first. The industrious maid was making holiday in
her own peculiar way. She was not accustomed to sit idly down with her
hands in her lap. By some mysterious means she had obtained possession
of two of the Old Sailor's shirts which required mending; and there
she was stitching away at them, as if it were the most natural thing
in the world for her to do when she came out for a holiday. Did she
have a design upon the Old Sailor? It really looked suspiciously like
it, if one might judge from the demure glances she cast upon him every
now and then, and from the admiring manner in which he returned her
artful glances. One thing was certain: she had fairly captivated him;
and there is no telling what might have occurred, if he had been
thirty years younger.
What more beautiful phase of human nature can be seen than that of an
old man with a young heart? Place, side by side, two pictures of old
manhood: one, with crafty face; with cautious eyes that never rove;
with compressed lips that keep guard on every word; with puckered
forehead and eyebrows, from every ugly crevice in which the spirit of
"You can't take me in" peeps out, as if the essence of a fox were in
hiding there;--the other, with open face, which says, "Read me; I am
not afraid;" with eyes that, be they large or small, enjoy what they
see; with full-fleshed wrinkles on forehead and eyebrows; with lips
that smile when others smile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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