And Barney tied it round my neck, and took
me into his arms. And they said he spoke never a word when they told him
my mother was dead, and shed never a tear when he saw her lie, but he
sobbed his heart out over me."
"You may well care for him!" said I.
"Indeed I may. He kept my mother's memory green in my heart, and he
taught me all ever I knew but books. He taught me to walk, and he taught
me to ride, and shooting, and fishing, and such like country diversions;
and strange to say, he taught me to swim, the way they learn in my
mother's country, with a bundle of bull-rushes--for the old man couldn't
swim a stroke himself, or he might be here now, alive and hearty, please
GOD."
"Were there only you and he in the hooker?"
"That's all. It was altogether sheer madness, for the old boat was
barely fit for a day's fishing in fine weather, and though Barney nearly
killed himself overhauling her, and patching her sails, I doubt if he
knew very well what he was after. I've been thinking, Jack, that his
mind was not what it was.
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