Read Afloat and Ashore for Free Online Page B

Vasquez de Gama?" demanded Lucy, with so much quickness as to
surprise me.
    "Why, a
noble
Portuguese, who discovered the Cape of Good Hope,
and first sailed round it, and then went to the Indies. You see,
girls, even
nobles
are sailors, and why should not Rupert and I
be sailors?"
    "It is not that, Miles," my sister answered; "every honest calling is
respectable. Have you and Rupert spoken to Mr. Hardinge on this
subject?"
    "Not exactly—not spoken—hinted only—that is, blindly—not so as to
be understood, perhaps."
    "He will
never
consent, boys!" and this was uttered with
something very like an air of triumph.
    "We have no intention of asking it of him, Grace. Rupert and I intend
to be off next week, without saying a word to Mr. Hardinge on the
subject."
    Another long, eloquent silence succeeded, during which I saw Lucy bury
her face in her apron, while the tears openly ran down my sister's
cheek.
    "You
do
not—
cannot
mean to do anything so cruel,
Miles!" Grace at length said.
    "It is exactly because it will not be cruel, that we intend to do
it,"—here I nudged Rupert with my elbow, as a hint that I wanted
assistance; but he made no other reply than an answering nudge, which
I interpreted into as much as if he had said in terms, "You've got
into the scrape in your own way, and you may get out of it in the same
manner." "Yes," I continued, finding succour hopeless, "yes,
that's
just it."
    "What is just it, Miles? You speak in a way to show that you are not
satisfied with yourself—neither you nor Rupert is satisfied with
himself, if the truth were known."
    "I not satisfied with
myself!
Rupert not satisfied with
himself!
You never were more mistaken in your life, Grace. If
there ever were two boys in New York State that
were
well
satisfied with themselves, they are just Rupert and I."
    Here Lucy raised her face from the apron and burst into a laugh, the
tears filling her eyes all the while.
    "Believe them, dear Grace," she said. "They are precisely two
self-satisfied, silly fellows, that have got some ridiculous notions
in their heads, and then begin to talk about 'superficial views of
duties,' and all such nonsense. My father will set it all right, and
the boys will have had their talk."
    "Not so last, Miss Lucy, if you please. Your father will not know a
syllable of the matter until you tell him all about it, after we are
gone. We intend 'to relieve him from all responsibility in the
premises.'"
    This last sounded very profound, and a little magnificent, to my
imagination; and I looked at the girls to note the effect. Grace was
weeping, and weeping only; but Lucy looked saucy and mocking, even
while the tears bedewed her smiling face, as rain sometimes falls
while the sun is shining.
    "Yes," I repeated, with emphasis, "'of all responsibility in the
premises.' I hope that is plain English, and good English, although I
know that Mr. Hardinge has been trying to make you both so simple in
your language, that you turn up your noses at a profound sentiment,
whenever you hear one."
    In 1797, the grandiose had by no means made the deep invasion into the
everyday language of the country, that it has since done. Anything of
the sublime, or of the recondite, school was a good deal more apt to
provoke a smile, than it is to-day—the improvement proceeding, as I
have understood through better judges than myself, from the great
melioration of mind and manners that is to be traced to the speeches
in congress, and to the profundities of the newspapers. Rupert,
however, frequently ornamented his ideas, and I may truly say
everything ambitious that adorned my discourse was derived from his
example. I almost thought Lucy impertinent for presuming to laugh at
sentiments which came from such a source, and, by way of settling my
own correctness of thought and terms, I made no bones of falling back
on my great authority, by fairly pointing him out.
    "I thought so!" exclaimed Lucy, now laughing with all her heart,
though a little