The Voyage of the HoppergrassPearson, Edmund Lester
General
The Voyage of the Hoppergrass
Pearson, Edmund Lester
Boats and boating -- Juvenile fiction; Pirates -- Juvenile fiction
"'She'd git her little banjo an' she'd sing Kulla-lo-lo!'--but not
in Bailey's Harbor,--hey, what? She wouldn't get her little banjo
there, or you'd run her in, wouldn't you, Squire? You and the
Constable!"
"Where did you get that poem?" asked Pete, who was furling the
sail.
"I read it in a paper last week. Isn't it great? It's by a man
with a funny name,--I wish I could remember it! 'An' the dawn
comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!' That's the way
the dawn does come up over there, isn't it? Ever been in China,
Squire?"
"No, I haint," said Gregory. "Where be you fellers goin' to put me
ashore? That's what I want to know."
"All in good time, Squire, all in good time. Watch this,--I bet
you can't do it!"
And Sprague made a clean dive and scoot under the water, came up
thirty feet away, and commenced to float, facing the boat, and
waggling one big toe at Gregory the Gauger.
It did not take me two seconds to know what I wanted to do, nor
two minutes to get overboard. The water was cold, but I swam
around the yacht, before I climbed out again. One by one the
others came up from below, and they all jumped over for a swim,
except Gregory and the Chief. The latter went poking about, in his
silent, methodical way, paying no attention to the orders which
Sprague fired at him.
"Food! food!" called the banjo-player, climbing aboard; "my wasted
frame cries aloud for food. Get out the frying-pan, Chief, and the
coffee-pot! Move about more briskly,--remember that I have been
many days on bread and water in a dungeon ... Oh, hang it!"
He floundered about in his shirt, which he had put on wrong side
foremost in his hurry.
"Fish out those eggs, and see if there are any rolls left,--I'll
match you for yours, Squire. You won't be hungry, you haven't been
in swimming."
"Ketch me goin' into that water!" returned Gregory, "I'll make my
abbalootions right here."
And he proceeded to wash his face and hands over the stern of the
boat. We were all very much awake now, very hungry, and no longer
tired. The swim had opened our eyes. The drowsy moonlight world
had gone and given place to one of sunshine. A breeze rattled the
halliards against the mast, and ruffled the blue water of the bay
in little patches. We hurried into our clothes, while the Chief
warned us to keep out of the cockpit, and not get everything wet.
Sprague struggled with his shirt, and declaimed his favorite poem
in a muffled tone.
"'And the flyin' fishes play,'--And speaking of flying-fishes,
where is Simon? Has he had his morning swim? ... Oh, there he is,
--paddling about like a good one! Swims like a duck, doesn't he,
Squire?"
"There's nothing for breakfast except bacon and eggs," said the
Chief.
"And coffee and rolls," added Pete, "what more do you want, you
old lemon?"
"No, there are only three rolls. Some of us will have to eat
crackers."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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