for having defended me, and how, since I had left Toulouse, I had not been able to earn a cent. While I was speaking Arthur played with the dogs, but he was listening and he understood what I said. "How hungry you must be!" he cried. At this word, which they understood perfectly, the dogs began to bark and Joli-Coeur rubbed his stomach frantically. "Oh, mamma!" cried Arthur. 5 His mother understood that appeal. She said a few 10 words in a strange language to a woman who appeared at a half-open door, and who presently brought out a little table set for a meal. "Sit down, my child," said the lady to me. I did not need any urging. I sat down quickly before 15 the table, while the dogs arranged themselves in a row about me, and Joli-Cœur took his place on my knee. "Do your dogs eat bread?" Arthur asked me. Would they eat bread! I gave each of them a morsel, which they devoured. "And the monkey?" said Arthur. But there was no need to worry about Joli-Cœur, for while I was serving the dogs he had seized a bit of piecrust over which he was now choking under the table. 20 20 As for me, I took a slice of bread, and if I did not 25 choke myself as Joli-Coeur had, I devoured it quite as ravenously. "Poor child," said the lady, filling my glass. 5 "Perhaps to-morrow we shall be as lucky as we have been to-day." Arthur turned toward his mother and entered into a long talk with her in the strange language that I had already heard. He seemed to be asking for some favor 10 that she was not disposed to grant, or at least against which she raised some objections. 15 Suddenly he turned his head toward me, for he could not move his body, and said, "Should you like to stay with us?" I looked at him without answering, for this question took me by surprise. 66 "My son asks you if you would like to stay with us." "On this boat?" "Yes, on this boat. My son is sick, and the doctors 20 have ordered that he should be fastened to a board, as you see. I travel with him in this boat, so that he shall not become weary. You shall live with us. Your dogs and your monkey shall give their performances before Arthur, who will be their public. As for you, if you are willing, 25 my child, you shall play to us on your harp. Thus you will render us a service, and we, on our side, may be useful, perhaps, to you." To live on a boat! This had always been my greatest desire. How fortunate I was! I took my harp and, going forward into the bow, I began to play. The boat was drawn from the bank and was soon mov- 5 ing over the tranquil surface of the canal. The waves lapped against the hull and the trees flew past us. As I look back upon the days spent in the boat I find them to be the happiest ones of my childhood. Not an hour of dullness nor of fatigue; from morning till night 10 every moment was filled with pleasure. When the country was interesting we traveled only a few miles a day; when it was monotonous we went more swiftly. However, pleasant as these new ways seemed to me, it 15 became necessary, before long, to bring them to an end. The time had passed quickly and now the day was fast approaching when my master was to be released from prison. Sans Famille (sän få me ́ye): homeless. — Joli-Cœur (zhō lẻ cûr): dandy. - Southern Canal: this connects the Atlantic with the Mediterranean. Toulouse (too-loos'): a city of southern France. — Capi (kä pē): captain. -Dolci (dōl-che): gentleness. Zerbino (zâr bē'no): a gallant. — repertory (rep'er to ry): list of selections. 10 THE TYPHOON JOSEPH CONRAD The life of Joseph Conrad is like a chapter from one of his own tales of adventure. He was born in Poland, and at the age of thirteen, having been left an orphan, he made his way first to Paris and then to Marseilles, where he found employment as a sailor. Now a master in the merchant 5 service of England, he is also known as one of the foremost writers of English prose. His sea stories are remarkable examples of word painting. NOTE. The Nan-Shan is a Siamese vessel manned by British officers; Jukes is chief mate. The following pages describe the approach of the typhoon. A plunge of the ship ended in a shock, as if she had landed her fore foot upon something solid. After a moment of stillness a lofty flight of sprays drove hard with the wind upon their faces. "Keep her at it as long as we can," shouted Captain 15 MacWhirr. Before Jukes had squeezed the salt water out of his eyes all the stars had disappeared. From the first stir of the air on his cheek the gale seemed to take upon itself the impetus of an avalanche. Heavy sprays enveloped the 20 Nan-Shan from stem to stern, and in the midst of her regular rolling she began to kick and plunge. Jukes was glad to have his captain at hand. It relieved him as if that man had, by simply coming on deck, taken at once most of the gale's weight upon his shoulders. Such is the 25 privilege and the burden of command. Captain MacWhirr could expect no comfort of that sort from any one on earth. Such is the loneliness of command. The strong wind swept at him out of a vast obscurity; he felt under his feet the uneasiness of his ship, and he could not discern even a shadow of her shape. 5 A faint burst of lightning quivered all around, as if flashed into a cavern, - into a black and secret chamber of the sea, with a floor of foaming crests. It unveiled for a sinister, fluttering moment a ragged mass of clouds hanging low, the lurch of the long outlines of the ship, 10 the black figures of men on the bridge. The darkness palpitated down upon all this, and then the real thing came at last. It was something formidable and swift, like the sudden. smashing of a vial of wrath. It seemed to explode all 15 round the ship with an overpowering concussion and a rush of great waters, as if an immense dam had been blown up to windward. In an instant the men lost touch of each other. Jukes was driven away from his commander. He fancied him- 20 self whirled a great distance through the air. Everything disappeared, but his hand had found within. six feet of him one of the rail stanchions. It saved his body and steadied his soul so far that it became conscious of an intolerable distress. Though young, he had seen 25 some bad weather and had never doubted his ability to imagine the worst; but this was so much beyond his |