LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1712, 15 August 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

BOROUGH-ENGLISH. A Tale of South Ai-bican Like. By CoriA Fantdi, 5.0. L., Author of " Twelve True Tales of the Law." Chapter I.— {Continued.) Jerry rose early next morning and wrote out something on a sheet of foolscap paper, and called in Surcingle and Larrapin to attest it, which they did. At breakfast he eat little and spoke less, but sat looking at Dorothy. At last the time of parting came. To reproduce the old man's parting speech would be impossible, but its burden was that Dorry was an angel and was the image of her mother, but more likely in growth and figure ; that he loved her very much, and wanted her always in the house ; that it was too late to do anything now, but he would try to arrange with her father to send her back to him ; that she was to be sure not to marry any man who was not an angel; for that such folk should always pair with their like—and twenty other fond follies of this sort.

He held Dorothy's hand in his during this speech, and at the end of it he drew out of his pocket a sealed envelope and gave it her. He said it was his ' will,' and he had made her fatber executor, and she was to give it to him directly they met. She undertook to do so.

' All the brewery and its contents, and the dwelling-house and its curtilage, being six acres, and four inns, and my houses .in Gallows-tree-gate, all in the borough of Broughtondale, I have given to thee, lass, for the sake of thy mother and thy poor father, and for thy loving face and the joy thou has given me.' Dorothy hesitated to take the paper. ' My old woman and the lads will be other ways provided for,' he added. Dorothy looked at the old man, and seemed to reflect for a moment.

' Very well,' said she, taking the offered package ; * be sure yon do provide for them, or else I shall have to do it myßelf.'

Chapter 11. THE VOYAGE. There were few passengers on board the Zulu Chief - indeed there seldom are many in a South African sailing vessel. Mr Brokesby, however, having shipped a small trading stock, thought he might as well come out with it, and so he and his daughter found themselves sailing down ohannel with no other company than the captain, the mate, and Mr John Smith—Jack Smith, aa he called himself—tho only other cabin passenger. None of the passengers had been a long voyage before, and they were not long In getting acquainted with each other. The story of Sir Brokesby and hia daughter wo know already. Jack Smith was a fine young man, who was going out to seek hia fortune, and without much capital beyond himself. Bat no man can be considered penniless who takes with him to any of her Majesty's possessions a tall form, broad shoulders, and straight and rounded limbs, not to mention the intelligent countenance and pleasant smile which crowned the edifice of Jack Smith.

As to the history or circumstances of the several passengers, there were none of them either reticent or communicative, inasmuch as, in enterprises such as they had in hand, their success is recognised as depending on the future and not on the past. That commercial misfortunes had induced Mr Brokesby and his daughter to emigrate, carrying -with them only a modest stock of wealth, was soon known to Jack Smith, while the fact that the latter, through dissensions in his family, had left home with only a few guineas in his pocket, was not concealed from his fellow-passengers,

Their course lay down 7.the channel, across the Bay of Biscay, and south to the Azores.

Whatever was the weather, Jack was always attentive and [handy exactly when his fellow-passengers most needed help. Except the cook—who was a surly-tempered, slothful nondescript, neither landsman nor sailor—there was no steward, and so it fell to the lot of Jack, as the more helpful of the party, to render a number of important little services. Old Mr Brokesby, a man of gentle and rather phlegmatic disposition, was not long in taking very kindly to the stalwart young comrade who helped him on deck, and carried his rug and book, and saw that his chair was properly placed under the awning, and helped to light his pipe when the wind blew, and did a hundred such like little things for him. And then Miss Brokesby liked to lia on the deck, and Jack used to carry up a mattress and pillows for her, and lay them in the shade, and bring her her work and something to read. And sometimes she could not come up withont help, and the old man would ask Mr Smith ' if it would be too much trouble to go and see after Dolly ' —he always called her Dolly-and Jack found it just as agreeable to look after Dolly as to be civil to the old gentleman. Away they went from the Azores southwestward to near the Brazilian coast, and, as usual, were becalmed on the line. It is a dreadful thing for landsmen to be becalmed on the line. It never happens in a steamer. The steamer not only urges her way by a force independent of wind, but, pressing the lifeless air at eight or nine knots an hour, tins the face of the passenger with an artificial breeze. But for days together the sun's vertical beams rainf d down their crnel heat upon the deck of the Zulu Chief, and the dazzling canvas hung without so much as flapping against the mast, as the vessel lay like a long black corpse along the water. The old man took the heat amiss, and his daughter lost acpetite and strength; yet, through all the listless sunburnt hours Jack was always ready to read, talk, or play; and when tho burning disc, first pausing on the horizon, had plunged suddenly beneath it, it was the melodious voice of Jack Smith, as he sang, accompanied by his guitar, that rolled over the phosphoric plain below. ' While our nerves both of mind and body are unstrung by this deadly heat,' said the old man, ' your spirits seem as buoyant as ever.' 'lndeed, you have the soul of a salamander,' said Dolly. ' But my heart,' said Jack, ' may easily be scathed by the rays of beauty.' Dolly blushed. 'Like enough,' said her father, 'that's likely to happen a good many times to a fine young fellow like you before you're much older.' Jack looked as though he hoped it would. But calms, like storms, mast have an end;

and, after » fortnight's delay, the ship wa'« again spinnisg merrily on towards the coast of Brazil. They did not sight it, but, catching {he trade wisds, lay their coarse to the south east to clear the Cape of Good Hope. And then they took to catching albatrosses, and Jack caught two large ones, and dried the skim in the sun, and cleaned them with some Btuff lie got from the boatswain, and gave the splendid grebe to Dolly, 'You can make a muff of one,' said he, ' and put thsr other on the collar, facings, and cuffs of a velvet jacket, and when you go home again and the ladies look as though they would kill you for looking so fine, just have a kindly thought for Jack Smith.'

Dolly thought that, if she wore a plain suit of homespun, and had Jack at her side, the women would be much more likely to be jealous of her ; but she did not say so.

It was about thia time that the cook turned sulky. They were all dependent on the cook ; the passengers especially. The cook always turns sulky rnce in a long voyage, but this time it was serious. The men had long been flinging away half their victuals because it waa so badly cooked, and, as for poor Dolly, who was just picking up her strength, she no longer had her cup of tea or soup early in the morsing. The coffee was weak and gritty, and the broth was cold and greasy, and neither was brought till she was half faint with waiting. The fresh pork was br,.ught half raw to dinner, and, as for what followed, it was equally impossible to wait tiU it was brought or to eat it when it came. The captain and mate dined together, and fared better, {To be continued )