Friendship -- Juvenile fiction; Houseboats -- Juvenile fiction; Vacations -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Juvenile fiction
At the far end of the dock Captain Jules Fontaine was giving some orders
to four sailors who formed the entire crew of his new yacht, for the old
pearl diver was to pilot his own boat, which was to sail under Captain
Morton's orders. The beautiful little yacht was Captain Jules's own
property. The old man had made a comfortable fortune in his life in the
tropics, but he had little use for it, and no desire, except to make
Madge and her father happy. The little captain's love for the water was
what endeared her most to the old sailor. He could not be happy away from
the sea and he couldn't be happy away from Madge and Captain Morton. The
fortunate girl's two fathers had discussed very seriously Madge's own
proposal to come to keep house for them at "The Anchorage." Both men knew
that she could not settle down at their lonely little house far up the
bay and several miles from the nearest town, which was Cape May.
Wonderful as the fathers thought Madge, they realized that she was very
young and must go on with her education. They could not bear to send her
away to college after all the long years of separation. Captain Jules
conceived the brilliant idea of educating her by taking her on a trip
around the world. The old sailor couldn't have borne being cooped up in
liners and on trains with other people to run them. So Madge's dream of a
ship all her own, which was to sail "strange countries for to see," had
come true with her other good fortune.
Leaving her friends for a moment, Madge made her way toward the end of
the dock to beg Captain Jules to reassure her friends of their return at
the end of a year. The captain did not notice her approach. Apparently no
one was looking at her.
On the end of the wharf were gathered three or four small street arabs.
They had no business on the wharf, which was precisely their reason for
being there. They were playing behind a number of large boxes and some
other luggage, and, until Madge approached, no one had observed them.
They were having a tug-of-war and it was hardly a fair battle. Two
good-sized urchins were pulling against one other strong fellow and
another small boy, so thin and pale, with such dark hair and big, black
eyes that, for the moment, he made Madge think of Tania, who was almost
well enough to leave the sanatorium and had sent her Fairy Godmother many
loving messages by Mrs. Curtis. Madge stopped for half a minute to watch
the boys. In her stateroom were so many boxes of candy she would never be
able to eat it all in her trip around the world. If she only had some of
them to give this lively little group of youngsters!
Captain Jules was at one side of the wide wharf with his back toward her
and the group of boys. His yacht was occupying his entire attention. The
street urchins did not realize how near they were to the edge of the dock
because of the pile of luggage that surrounded them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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