"No, brother," I said to him: "I'll not offer you trade, but gift. Let
it be that if I can win the dog, and if he will take me as his master
and friend, he shall be mine. And you take the pistol, and have a care
of it."
"That's all right!" said Lafitte shyly, yet delightedly, as I could
see.
"Here, Partial!" I called to the dog; and being young and friendly,
and attached to neither in particular, and only in general worshiping
the creature Boy, he came to me! I fed him, stroked him, looked into
his eyes. And in a few moments he put his feet on my shoulders, and
licked at my ear, and began to talk to me in low eager whines, and
rubbed his muzzle against my cheek, and said all that a dog could say
in oath of feudal service, pledging loyalty of life and limb. At which
I felt very odd indeed; and began to see the world had many things in
it of which I had never known; but which, now, I was resolved to know.
"Honorable is embarking those malefactor canine thing with so much
impediments in this small-going boat?" inquired Hiroshimi.
"Yes," I answered. "At once. All four of us. Put the stuff aboard,
Hiro."
So, somewhat crowded as the Sea Rover was, with three boys and a
dog, not to mention our supplies and our armament, at last we were
afloat with crew and cargo aboard. Hiro was not surprised, and asked
no questions. With the salaam with which he announced dinner, he now
announced his own departure for his duties at my deserted house; and
as he walked he never turned around for curious gaze. Often, often
have I, in my readings in the Eastern philosophy, endeavored to
analyze and to emulate this Oriental calm, this dismissal from the
soul of things small, things unessential and things unavoidable. An
enviable character, my boy Hiroshimi.
Now all was bustle and confusion aboard the good ship Sea Rover.
"Stand by the main braces!" roared Lafitte.
"Aye, aye, Sir!" replied the crew, that is to say, Jimmy L'Olonnois.
"Hard a lee!"
"Hard a lee it is, Sir!"
"Hoist the top-gallant mainsail an' clew all alow an' aloft!"
"Aye, aye, Sir!"
"Man the capstan! All hands to the starboard mizzen chains! Heave
away!"
"Heave away!" rejoined our gallant crew, never for a moment in doubt
as to the captain's meaning. And, indeed, he gave a push with an oar
at the bank, which thrust us into the smart current of my little
river.
We were afloat! We were off to seek our fortune!
Ah, what a fine new world was this which lay before us! But for one
thing, this had no doubt been the happiest moment in my life. For,
always, the attaining of knowledge, the growth of a man's mind and
soul, had to me seemed the one ambition worth a man's while; and now,
as I might well be assured, I had learned more and grown more,
these last twelve hours or so, than I had in any twelve years of my
life before. Before me, indeed, had opened a vast and wonderful world.
That morning, as we swept around curve after curve of the swift
trout-stream that I loved so well, among my alders, through my bits of
wood, along my hills--with Lafitte and L'Olonnois standing, each
alert, silent, peering ahead under his flat hand to see what might lie
ahead (I astern with Partial's head on my knee), I felt rise in my
soul the same sweet grateful feeling that I had when the new world of
music opened to me, what time I first caught the real meaning of the
Frühlingslied. My heart leaped anew in my bosom, for the time
forgetting its sadness. I saw that the world after all does hold faith
and loyalty and friendship and perpetual, self-renewing Youth.... I
also rose, cast my hat aside, and with one hand reaching down to touch
my friend's head, I, too, stood, shading my eyes with my edged hand,
peering ahead into this strange new world that lay ahead of me.