Page:Dick Sands the Boy Captain.djvu/19

 « TiTT r>T>rt ** THE "PILGRIM. S so many voyages, that she was quite inured to ail the makeshifts of a seafaring life, and was conscious of no misgiving in embarkîng upon a vessel of such small tonnage. She was a brave, hîgh-spirited woman of about thirty years of âge, in the enjoyment of excellent health, and for her the sea had no terrors. Aware that Captain Hull was an experienced man. in whom her husban(} had the utmost confidence, and knowing that his ship was a substantial craft, registered as one of the best of the American whalers, so far from entertaining any mistrust as to her safety, she only rejoiced in the opportuneness of the chance which seemed to offer her a direct and unbroken route to her destination. Cousin Benedict, as a matter of course, was to accom- pany her. He was about fifty ; but in spite of his mature âge it would hâve been considered the heightof imprudence to allow him to travel anywhere alone. Spare, lanky, with a bony frame, with an enormous cranium, and a pro- fusion of hair, he was one of those amiable, inoffensive savants who, having once taken to gold spectacles, àppear to hâve arrived at a settled standard of âge, and, however long they live afterwards, seem never to be older than they hâve ever been. Claiming a sort of kîndredship with ail the world, he was universally known, far beyond the pale of his own connexions, by the name of " Cousin Benedict." In the ordinary concerns of life nothing would ever hâve rendered him capable of shifting for himself ; of his meals he would never think until they were placed before him ; he had the appearance of being utterly insensible to heat or cold ; he vegetated rather than lived, and might not inaptly be compared to a tree which, though healthy enough at its core, produces scant foliage and no fruit. His long arms and legs were în the way of himself and evcrybody else ; yet no one could possibly treat him with unkindness. As M. Prudhomme would say, "if only he had been endowed with capability," he would hâve rendered a service to any one in the world ; but helplessness was his dominant characteristic ; helplessness was ingrained