While Madge, her father, and Captain Jules were trying to see how they could bear the miracle and shock of their great happiness, a small, dark object darted into the room and planted its claws in Madge's hair. It pulled and chattered with all its might.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I am Going to Keep House for You at 'The Anchorage.'"]

The little captain laughed with the tears in her eyes. "It's that good-for-nothing monkey!" she exclaimed as she disentangled the creature's tiny hands. Then she kissed her father and afterwards Captain Jules. "Now I know why this monkey is called Madge, and I am sorry to have such a jealous, bad-tempered namesake."

The captain scolded the monkey gently. "Don't you fret about this particular namesake. If you only knew all the others you have had! Every single pet that two lonely old men could get to stay around the house with them we have named for you."

Captain Morton did not go back to the houseboat with his daughter. Madge thought she would rather tell her friends of her great happiness alone.

She wouldn't even let Captain Jules escort her. "You'll both have plenty of my society after a while," she argued, "for I am going to come to keep house for you at 'The Anchorage' some day."

Madge rowed slowly back to the "Merry Maid." She was thinking over what she would say to Miss Jennie Ann and the girls. How should she announce to them that her quest was ended, her victory over Fate won?

As she neared the houseboat she saw that her companions were gathered on deck, evidently watching for her. Madge rested on her oars and waved one hand to them. Four hands waved promptly back to her. A moment more and she had come alongside the "Merry Maid." As she clambered on deck she cast a swift upward glance at her friends, who, with one accord, were looking down on her, their faces full of loving concern.

With a little cry of rapture Madge threw herself into Miss Jenny Ann's arms. "O, my dear!" she cried, "I've found him! I've found my father!"

And it was with her faithful mates' arms around her that Madge told the strange story of how her quest had ended in the little sitting room of "The Anchorage."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE LITTLE CAPTAIN STARTS ON A JOURNEY

Six weeks had pa.s.sed since Madge Morton's discovery of her father, and many things had happened since then. It was now toward the latter part of September, and on a beautiful fall morning one of the busy steamship docks in the lower end of New York City was crowded with a gay company of people. There were four young girls and three young men, a beautiful older woman, with soft, white hair and a look of wonderful distinction; a woman of about twenty-six or seven, with a man by her side, who in some way suggested the calling of the artist; a white-haired old man and an elderly lady, who, in spite of the fact that she answered to the name of Mrs. John Randolph, would have been mistaken anywhere for a New England spinster. Two men were the only other important members of the group. One of them was a distinguished-looking man of about fifty-three with a rather sad expression, and the last a bluff old sea captain, whose laugh rang out clear and hearty above the sound of the many voices.

In front of the wharf lay a beautiful steam yacht, painted pure white and flying a United States flag. The boat was of good size and capable of making many knots an hour, but she looked like a little toy ship alongside the immense ocean-going steamers that were entering and leaving the New York harbor, or waiting their sailing day at their docks.

One of the girls, dressed in a white serge frock and wearing a white felt hat, was walking up and down at the back of the crowd, talking to a young man.

"David, more than almost anything, I believe I appreciate your coming to New York to see me off. It would have been dreadful to go away for a whole year, or maybe longer, without having had a glimpse of you. Who knows what may happen before I am back again?" The girl's eyes looked wistfully about among her friends, although her lips smiled happily.

For a few seconds the young man made no answer. He had never been able to talk very readily, now he seemed to wish to think before he spoke.

"I shall be a man, Madge, before you are back again," he replied slowly.

"I am twenty now, so I shall be ready to vote. But, best of all, I shall be through college and ready to go to work." The young man threw back his square shoulders. His black eyes looked serious and steadfast. "I am going to make you proud of me, Madge. You remember I told you so, that day in the Virginia field, when you helped me out of a sc.r.a.pe and started me on the right road."

The little captain nodded emphatically. "I am proud of you already, David," she declared warmly. "I think it is perfectly wonderful that you have been able to take two years' work in college instead of one, beside helping Mr. Preston on the farm. You are going to make me dreadfully ashamed when I come back, by knowing so much more than I. Phil enters Va.s.sar this fall and Tom will graduate at Columbia in another year. I am going to try to study on the yacht, but I shall be so busy seeing things that I know I won't accomplish very much. Just think, David, I am going around the world in our own boat with my father and Captain Jules! Isn't it wonderful how one's dreams come true and things turn out even better than you expect them to? I believe, if it weren't for leaving my beloved houseboat chums and Mrs. Curtis and Tom, and Miss Jenny Ann and you, I should be the happiest girl in the world."

"I don't suppose I count for much, Madge," answered David honestly, "but I am more grateful to you than you can know for putting me on that list.

Some day----" The young man hesitated, then his sober face relaxed and a brilliant smile lighted it. "It's pretty early for a fellow like me to be talking about some day, isn't it, Madge?"

Madge laughed, though she blushed a little and answered nothing.

Just then Phyllis Alden and a young man in a lieutenant's uniform joined Madge and David Brewster.

"Lieutenant Jimmy is saying dreadful things, Madge," announced Phil mournfully. "He says he is sure you won't come back home in a year.

You'll stay over in Europe until you are grown up or married, or something else, and you'll never be a houseboat girl again!" Phil's voice broke.

Lieutenant Jimmy looked uncomfortable. "See here, Miss Alden," he protested, "I never said anything as bad as all that. I only said that perhaps Captain Morton and Captain Jules would stay longer than a year.

Almost any one would, if they owned that jolly little yacht."

"I'll wager you, Lieutenant Jimmy, a torpedo boat full of the same kind of candy that you sent us at the end of our second houseboat holiday, that if you come down to this dock one year from to-day you will see our yacht, which Captain Jules has named 'The Little Captain,' paying her respects to the Statue of Liberty. Come, let's go and make Father and Captain Jules convince him, Phil," proposed Madge, hugging Phyllis close to her, as if the thought of being parted from her for so long as one year was not to be borne.

"I'll take that wager, Miss Morton," replied Lieutenant Jimmy jokingly, "because I would be so awfully glad to have to pay it."

"Madge simply must come back on time, Lieutenant Jimmy," whispered Phil, nodding her head mysteriously toward a young woman and a man. "It's a state secret, and I ought not to tell you, but Miss Jenny Ann and Mr.

Theodore Brown, the artist, are to be married a year from this fall. We must all be at the wedding. Miss Jenny Ann couldn't possibly be married unless every one of the 'Mates of the Merry Maid' were there. If we can arrange it, Miss Jenny Ann is going to be married on the houseboat. Won't it be the greatest fun?"

For the moment Phil was so cheered at the thought of another houseboat reunion, though a whole twelve months off, that she forgot that her best beloved Madge was to leave in another half-hour for her trip around the world.

Phyllis and Lieutenant Jimmy were standing a little behind Madge. David Brewster stopped to talk to Mrs. Curtis and Tom.

At the far end of the dock Captain Jules Fontaine was giving some orders to four sailors who formed the entire crew of his new yacht, for the old pearl diver was to pilot his own boat, which was to sail under Captain Morton's orders. The beautiful little yacht was Captain Jules's own property. The old man had made a comfortable fortune in his life in the tropics, but he had little use for it, and no desire, except to make Madge and her father happy. The little captain's love for the water was what endeared her most to the old sailor. He could not be happy away from the sea and he couldn't be happy away from Madge and Captain Morton. The fortunate girl's two fathers had discussed very seriously Madge's own proposal to come to keep house for them at "The Anchorage." Both men knew that she could not settle down at their lonely little house far up the bay and several miles from the nearest town, which was Cape May.

Wonderful as the fathers thought Madge, they realized that she was very young and must go on with her education. They could not bear to send her away to college after all the long years of separation. Captain Jules conceived the brilliant idea of educating her by taking her on a trip around the world. The old sailor couldn't have borne being cooped up in liners and on trains with other people to run them. So Madge's dream of a ship all her own, which was to sail "strange countries for to see," had come true with her other good fortune.

Leaving her friends for a moment, Madge made her way toward the end of the dock to beg Captain Jules to rea.s.sure her friends of their return at the end of a year. The captain did not notice her approach. Apparently no one was looking at her.

On the end of the wharf were gathered three or four small street arabs.

They had no business on the wharf, which was precisely their reason for being there. They were playing behind a number of large boxes and some other luggage, and, until Madge approached, no one had observed them.

They were having a tug-of-war and it was hardly a fair battle. Two good-sized urchins were pulling against one other strong fellow and another small boy, so thin and pale, with such dark hair and big, black eyes that, for the moment, he made Madge think of Tania, who was almost well enough to leave the sanatorium and had sent her Fairy G.o.dmother many loving messages by Mrs. Curtis. Madge stopped for half a minute to watch the boys. In her stateroom were so many boxes of candy she would never be able to eat it all in her trip around the world. If she only had some of them to give this lively little group of youngsters!

Captain Jules was at one side of the wide wharf with his back toward her and the group of boys. His yacht was occupying his entire attention. The street urchins did not realize how near they were to the edge of the dock because of the pile of luggage that surrounded them.

The tug-of-war grew exciting. Madge clapped her hands softly. She had not believed the smallest rascal had so much strength. Suddenly the older lad's grip broke. The boys fell back against a pile of trunks that were set uneasily one above the other. One of the trunks slid into the water and the smallest lad slipped backward after it with an almost noiseless splash. His boy companions stared helplessly after him, too frightened to make a sound.

Of course, Madge might soon have summoned help. She did think of it for a brief instant, for she realized perfectly that her white serge suit would look anything but smart if she plunged into the river in it. Then, too, her friends, Captain Jules, and her father might be displeased with her.

But the little lad had given her such an agonized, helpless look of appeal as he struck the water! And his eyes were so like Tania's!

Captain Jules turned around at the sound of feet running down the dock.

David Brewster and Tom Curtis were side by side. But they both looked more surprised than frightened. In the water, a few feet from the dock, Captain Jules espied Madge Morton, her white hat floating off the back of her head, her face and hair dripping with water. She was smiling in a half-apologetic and half-nervous way. In one hand she held a small boy firmly by the collar. "Fish us out, somebody?" she begged. "I am dreadfully sorry to spoil my clothes, but this little wretch would go and fall into the water at the very last moment."

Captain Jules and one of his sailors pulled Madge and the small boy safely onto the wharf again. The captain frowned at her solemnly, while David and Tom laughed.

"How am I ever going to keep her out of the bottom of the sea?" the captain inquired sternly. "I don't know that I care for the role of playing guardian to a mermaid."

Madge could see Mrs. Curtis, Miss Jenny Ann, her chums and her father, as well as their other friends, hurrying down toward the end of the dock.

She gave one swift glance at them, then she looked ruefully at her own dripping garments. Tom and David long remembered her as they saw her at that moment. Her white dress clung to her slender form; the water was dripping from her clothing, her cheeks were a brilliant crimson from embarra.s.sment at her plight; her red-brown hair glinted in the bright sunlight, and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief and dismay. Before any one had a chance to scold or to reproach her, she had dashed across the wharf, run aboard the yacht and had shut herself up in her stateroom.

A few minutes later, dressed in a fresh white serge frock, she emerged to say good-bye. The houseboat girls had made up their minds that not one tear would any one of them shed when the moment of parting came. Lillian and Phil stood on either side of Eleanor, for neither of them had much faith that Nellie could keep her word when it came to the test.

Madge went first to Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph. "Miss Betsey" took both her hands and held them gravely. "Madge, dear, remember I have always told you that wherever you were exciting things were sure to happen. You have convinced me of it again to-day. Now, you are going around the world and I hope you will see and know only the best there is in it. Good-bye."

Miss Betsey leaned on her distinguished old husband's arm for support and surrept.i.tiously wiped her eyes.

"Jenny Ann Jones, you promised I wouldn't have to say good-bye to you,"

protested Madge chokingly. Miss Jenny Ann nodded, while Mr. Theodore Brown gazed at her comfortingly. Madge rallied her courage and smiled at both of them. "Do you remember, Jenny Ann," she questioned, "how on the very first of our houseboat trips you said that you would marry some day, just to be able to get rid of the name of 'Jones'? I am sure you will like 'Brown' a whole lot better." Madge turned saucily away to hide the trembling of her lips.