Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

“ She had found in the treasure-chest a short mantle of gold-coloured velvet, which made “a just exactly skirt” for her, the two ends trailing behind enough to give her a sense of dignity, but not enough to impede her movements. “For I am not a princess to-day!” she said; “I am delicate Ariel, and the long ones get round my feet so I can't run.” Then came a long web of what she called “sunshine,” and really it might have been woven of sunbeams, so airy-light was the silken gauze of the fabric. ”

“ But think, my Star; you are a child now, but you will soon be a woman. You cannot grow up to womanhood in a place like this. You must be with your own people, and have companions of your own age. My children will be like your own sisters and brothers. My dear, if you could only know how they will love you, how we shall all cherish and care for you!”
“When I am dead?” asked Star. “It will make no difference to me, your love, for I shall be dead. I will not go alive.”
“Oh, Captain January!” cried Mrs. Morton, turning to the old man with clasped hands. “Speak to her! she will listen to you. ”

“ And there will be most beautiful music, Imogen. Oh! you can't think what lovely music Daddy Captain will play on a harp. I know he will, 'cause he will be a spirit of just men made perfect: and that will be a great thing, Imogen; for he has never known how to play on anything before: and—” Ah! the sweet, childish prattle! but already it was growing faint upon the old man's ears.
“Star Bright!” he called; and the dancing shape came flying, and stood on tiptoe in the doorway. Steady, now, January! keep your voice steady, if there is any will left in you. ”

“ Nearly every day the child would run out on the south rocks to wave a greeting to some of her acquaintances among the crew; for she knew them all, from the black-bearded captain down to the tiniest cabin-boy; and they, for their part, were always eager—good souls!—for a smile or a nod from the “Star of Light Island.” Not a man of them but envied Bob Peet his privilege of going when he pleased to the lighthouse rock. For Captain January was not fond of visitors, and gave them no encouragement to come, Bob Peet being the single exception to the rule. ”

“ As he thus soliloquised, the little maiden reached the bottom of the stairs in safety, and dropping the folds of the velvet about her, made a quaint little courtesy, and said, “Here I am, Daddy Captain! how do you like me, please?”
“Star Bright,” replied Captain January, gazing fixedly at her, as he slowly drew his pipe from his pocket and lighted it. “I like you amazin'. A-mazin' I like you, my dear! but it is what you might call surprisin', to leave a little maid in a blue pinafore, and to come back and find a princess in gold and velvet. ”

“ Star stood very still, neither returning nor repelling the lady's caresses. She was pale, and her breath came short and quick, but otherwise she showed no sign of agitation. Presently she put up her hand and stroked the lady's cheek gently. “Why do you cry?” she asked, quietly. “My poor mamma is in heaven. Don't you like her to be in heaven? Daddy says it is much nicer than here, and he knows.”
Mrs. Morton checked her tears, and smiled tenderly in the little wondering face, “Dear child!” she said, “I do like to have her in heaven, and I will not cry any more. ”

“ I want it now!”
“Wal, wal!” said the Captain, smoothing back the golden hair. “If you want it, why of course you must have it, Blossom! But first I must light up, ye know. One star inside the old house, and the other atop of it: that's what makes Light Island the lightest spot in the natural world. Sit ye here, Star Bright, and play Princess till Daddy comes back!” ”

“ At the farther end the rocks are piled high, like a castle wall, making a brave barrier against the Atlantic waves; and on top of this cairn rises the lighthouse, rugged and sturdy as the rocks themselves, but painted white, and with its windows shining like great, smooth diamonds. This is Light Island; and it was in this direction that Captain January's red dory was headed when he took his leave of his brother-captain, and rowed away from the wharf. ”

“ Then finding a bit of sorrel, he fell upon it with avidity, and seemed to think he had said enough.
“H'm!” said Star, with a disdainful little sniff. “You'd better get Daddy to steer your boat. He doesn't mind fog. Are there many people on board?” she added, with an air of interest.
“Heaps!” replied Bob, succinctly. Then, after a pause of meditative chewing: “Like to go aboard? take ye—boat—Cap'n willin'.”
“No, I don't want to go aboard, thank you!” said Star. “I don't like people. But you might just row me round her once, Bob,” she added. “I think I should like that. ”

“ To the child Star, winter was always a season of great delight; for Captain January had little to occupy him out-of-doors, and could devote much of his time to her. So there were long, delightful “jack-knife times,” as Star called them, when the Captain sat fashioning all sorts of wonderful trifles with his magic knife, the child sitting at his elbow and watching him with happy eyes. There were “story times,” instituted years before, as soon as Star had learned to sew on patchwork; for as for sewing without a story to listen to, “that,” said Star, “is against my nature, Daddy. ”

“ The Captain liked Bob because he was not “given to clatter,” and “knew how to belay his jaw.”
“I do love to see a man belay his jaw!” said Captain January, unconsciously quoting the words of another and a more famous captain, the beloved David Dodd. So Bob was free to come and go as he liked, and to smoke his pipe in sociable silence for hours at a time, within the walls of Storm Castle.
“Stop here, Bob!” said Star, with an imperious motion of her hand. “I don't want to go any nearer.” The obedient Bob lay on his oars, and both looked up at the great boat, now only a few yards away. ”

“ The beauty of it all filled the eyes and the heart of Captain January, as he came up among the rocks. He paused, and stood for some time in silence, watching the little well-beloved figure. “Wal!” he said, “if that ain't one of the young-eyed cherubims, then I never seed one, that's all.”
At this moment Star caught sight of him. “O Daddy,” she cried. “My Daddy Captain, I'm having such a fine ride! It isn't quite as high as a heaven-kissing hill, but it's a heaven-kissing cow, for Imogen is really very high. Dear Daddy, won't you come and try it? there's plenty of room!” ”

“ He's a good man, and a good lighthouse-keeper, and he's been an able seaman in his day, none better; but he's cracked!”
There is an island off a certain part of the coast of Maine,—a little rocky island, heaped and tumbled together as if Dame Nature had shaken down a heap of stones at random from her apron, when she had finished making the larger islands which lie between it and the mainland. At one end, the shoreward end, there is a tiny cove, and a bit of silver-sand beach, with a green meadow beyond it, and a single great pine; but all the rest is rocks, rocks. ”

“ He—he is quite safe, I suppose?”
“Wal, yes!” replied Captain January, with a half smile. “Bob's safe, if anyone is. Old Bob! so he doosn't like them, eh?”
At that moment his eye caught something, and he said, in an altered voice, “Here's Bob's boat coming now, Minister, and the lady and gentleman in her.”
“They must have come much more rapidly than I did,” said the minister, “and yet my boy rows well enough. Compose yourself, January! this is a heavy blow for you, my good friend. Compose yourself! Things are strangely ordered in this world. 'We see through a glass darkly'!” ”

“ Morton, joyously, to her husband, “here is our little niece, dearest Helena's child. She is going to love me, she says, and she will love you, too. Star, my darling, this is your Uncle George. Will you not give him a kiss, and be his little girl as well as mine? We have two little girls at home, and you shall be the third.”
Star went obediently to Mr. Morton, who kissed her warmly, and tried to take her on his knee. “You are taller than our Grace,” he said, “but I don't believe you are as heavy, my dear. ”

“ When a man has been fifteen year on a desert island, ye see, he learns to take things by and large. But I never see good come of a fog yet. Amen! so be it! And so Cap'n Nazro brought the lady to your house, Minister?”
“Captain Nazro came with her,” said the minister, “and also her husband, Mr. Morton, and Robert Peet, the pilot. Mrs. Morton had seen little Star in Peet's boat, and was greatly and painfully struck by the child's likeness to a beloved sister of hers, who had, it was supposed, perished at sea, with her husband and infant child, some ten years ago.” ”

“ Bob,” she added, irrelevantly, a moment after, “I never noticed before that you looked like Imogen. Why, you are the very image of her, Bob! Your eyes and your expression are exactly the same.” Bob raised his eyes and surveyed Imogen with a critical air. “Fine cow!” he said at last. “D'no's I mind—'f she doosn't.”
“Isn't she a fine cow?” cried little Star, patting the meek and graceful head of her favourite. “I don't believe there's another such cow in the world. I know there isn't! I think,” she added, “I will take a little ride on her, while we are waiting for Daddy Captain. ”

“ Grace is just your age, and I am sure you will be great friends.”
But Star slipped quietly from his arms, and, running to the Captain, took one of his hands in both of hers and kissed it. “I am Daddy Captain's little girl!” she said, looking round bravely at the others. “Why do you talk as if I belonged to you?” Then seeing the trouble in Mrs. Morton's face, she added, “I will love you, truly I will, and I will call you Aunt Isabel; but I cannot belong to different people, 'cause I'm only just one. Just Captain January's Star.” ”

“ That was Daddy's present to her on her last birthday. Dear Daddy! There, sitting in the corner, was Mrs. Neptune, the doll which Captain January had carved out of a piece of fine wood that had drifted ashore after a storm. Her eyes were tiny black snail-shells, her hair was of brown sea-moss, very thick and soft (“though as for combing it,” said Star, “it is im-possible!”) , and a smooth pink shell was set in either cheek, “to make a blush.” Mrs. Neptune was somewhat battered, as Star was in the habit of knocking her head against the wall when she was in a passion ”

“ Slow, like! slow, Minister, bearin' in mind that I'm a slow man, and not used to it. This—this lady, she come to your house yisterday, as ever was?”
“Yesterday,” assented the minister; and his voice had a tender, almost compassionate tone, as if he were speaking to a child.
“And a fine day it were!” said Captain January. “Wind steady, sou'west by sou'. Fog in the mornin', and Bob Peet run the Huntress aground on the bank. I never liked fog, Minister! 'Give me a gale,' I'd say, 'or anythin' short of a cyclone,' I'd say, 'but don't give me fog!' and see now, how it's come about! ”

“ Imogen looked up meekly, but made no attempt to deny the charge.
“You must listen!” said the child, sternly. “First place, it's beautiful: and besides, it's very rude not to listen when people reads. And you ought not to be rude, Imogen!” After which short lecture, Star turned to her book again,—a great book it was, lying open on the little pink calico lap,—and went on reading, in her clear childish voice:
“'Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander everywhere, Swifter than the moony sphere ”

“ In the window stood the great chest, at once a treasure-chamber and a seat; and over it hung one of the most precious things of Star's little world. It was a string of cocoanut-shells. Fifteen of them there were, and each one was covered with curious and delicate carving, and each one meant a whole year of a man's life. “For the nuts was ripe when we kem ashore, my good mate Job Hotham and me, on that island. So when the nuts was ripe agin, ye see, Jewel Bright, we knowed 'twas a year since we kem. ”

“ Keep your head turned a little away, lest there be any change in your face, yet not turned enough to make her wonder. “Star Bright,” said Captain January, “it's about—time—for the Huntress—to be along, isn't it?”
“Yes, Daddy,” said the child; “she's just in sight now. Shall I go down and wave to Bob as he goes by?”
“Yes, Honeysuckle,” said the old man. “And—and wait to see if he comes ashore. I think—likely—Bob'll come ashore to-day. He was goin' to bring—somethin'—for me. Is there a squall comin' up, Jewel Bright?” ”

“ The lady shook her head. “No, darling,” she said, “I am no spirit. But I have come to see you, little Star, and to tell you something. Will you not let me come in, Sweetheart?”
Star blushed, and hung her head for a moment, remembering Captain January's lessons on politeness and “quarter-deck manners.” She brought a chair at once, and in a more gracious tone said (mindful of Willum Shakespeare's lords and ladies) , “I pray you sit!” ”

“ For down in my heart, Jewel, I knew they wouldn't ha' taken such care of anythin' but what was alive, and they perishin', but I didn't think it could live in such a sea long enough to get ashore. Wal, I kep' my eyes on that spar, and I see that 'twas comin' along by the south side. Then I ran, or crawled, 'cordin' as the wind allowed me, back to the shed, and got a boat-hook and a coil o' rope; and then I clumb down as far as I dared, on the south rocks. ”

“ But you keep a sharp lookout; and if some mornin' you don't see her, you says, 'Sailin' orders!' you says, and then you calls Cap'n Nazro, as never failed in a kindness yet, nor ain't likely to, to take the wheel, and you put for this island. And Cap'n Nazro he takes the Huntress in, and then goes straightway and sends a telegraft to the lady and gentleman, sayin' as Cap'n January has sailin' orders, and they please to come and take the child, as lawfully to them belongs. ”

“ I am here, Daddy, loving you: loving you all to pieces, you know!”
The old man was silent for a few minutes, caressing the little white hands which lay like twin snowflakes in his broad, brown palm. Then he resumed, cheerfully:
“And so, Cream Cheese from the dairy of Heaven, I kem home. Your old Daddy kem home, and landed on the same wharf he'd sailed from twenty-five years before. Not direct, you understand, but takin' steamer from New York, and so on. Wal, there wa'n't nobody that knew me, or cared for me. Father was dead, and his wife ”

“ Captain January shook his head emphatically, “You're real kind, Cap'n Nazro!” he said; “real kind, you and Mis Nazro both are! and she makin' the little un's frocks and pinafores, as is a great help. But I can't feel to let her out o' my sight, nohow; and as for school, she ain't the kind to bear it, nor yet I couldn't for her. She's learnin'!” he added, proudly. “Learnin' well! I'll bet there ain't no gal in your school knows more nor that little un does. Won'erful, the way she walks ahead!”
“Get the school readers, hey! and teach her yourself do you?” queried Captain Nazro. ”

“ Well, Imogen: you see, at first I was a little baby, and didn't know anything at all. But by and by I began to grow big, and then Daddy Captain said to himself, 'Here's a child,' he says, 'and a child of gentlefolks, and she mustn't grow up in ignorance, and me doing my duty by her poor pa and ma,' he says. So he rows over to the town, and he goes to the minister (the same minister who came over here before) , and he says, 'Good morning, Minister!' and the minister shakes him by the hand hearty, and says, 'Why, Captain January!' he says, 'I'm amazing glad to see you. ”