Jack at Sea: All Work and No Play Made Him a Dull Boy

Jack dropped down into the boat with a feeling of pity for the men who had to stay on board with the mate. Sir John, the doctor, and Captain Bradleigh were of the party, all wel...

A busy fortnight followed, during which Jack Meadows accompanied his father and the doctor up to town pretty well every day, to visit tailors, hatters, hosiers, gunsmiths, fishi...

Edward was right. There, a few hundred yards from the yacht, and close in shore, lay the great canoe; but not floating, for she was aground, with the water lapping over her, and...

No more was seen of the blacks, while a fortnight passed; and encouraged by the utter solitude of the place, the well-armed parties which left the yacht made longer and longer e...

There was no need to go far afield in search of sport, for before Lenny and the mate had rowed them a couple of hundred yards, with Jack and the doctor preparing their lines, th...

A loud peculiar call, followed by a repetition from a distance, too long after to be a reverberation, though strange echoes had been heard from far up the mountain when a shot w...

The waters of the Dart were dancing merrily in the bright sunshine next morning, when, nervous and so anxious that his breakfast had been spoiled, Jack walked between his father...

"There it is again!" cried Ned, as a harsh, shrill sound arose from close at hand, to be followed by a chorus of discordant cries, which seemed to run in by them to be echoed an...

It was the next day, when the yacht was just beginning to glide over the water again to pass through the opening in the reef, that Jack was sitting by Ned's berth.

It was Lenny, the black-bearded sailor, who raised the cry at sunrise one morning, and made Edward spring out of his berth and run up, closely followed by Jack, who appeared on...

Jack did not see the canoe, for his attention was taken up by the little serpent which had suddenly flung itself upon his hand, as he disturbed the cluster of flowers, and struc...

"That it is what I thought at first, sir. The mountain yonder is firing a shot or two. If we had been out at sea, I dare say we should have seen a great red-hot stone flying up...

"The worst headache I ever had," said Jack Meadows to himself, as he lay with his eyes close shut, and in terrible pain; and then, with his brow throbbing, and a miserable sensa...

The men ceased rowing, and Jack sat with his heart beating painfully, his mind full of memories of accounts he had read concerning encounters with savages, and wounds inflicted...

"How are you?" he cried, rather boisterously, to Sir John, shaking hands warmly. "Well! no need to ask. And how are you, my Admirable Crichton?" he said, turning to Jack to cont...

"Ah!" ejaculated Ned, as he sat wiping the salt spray out of his eyes; "can't say as I should like to go through that again, Mr Jack, but now we have done it I like it. My word,...

The whole of that journey down the rugged gash in the mountain side was a prolonged agony to Jack, but he fought like a hero to keep his feet, and at last, satisfied that he cou...

The utter exhaustion produced by the struggle on the mountain slope and through the forest died away with Jack in the light of the terrible trouble which had come upon him; and...

A quick run with a favourable wind across to Colombo, a very brief stay, and then on again. There were baffling winds and a sharp storm, during which it was found necessary to g...

Jack Meadows started up in his berth with a great fear upon him, and he started down again with the great fear turned for the moment into a great pain, caused by his having stru...

From that day the collecting went on merrily, for it seemed as if, to use Ned's words, "the niggers" had had "a regular sickener," excursion after excursion being made with care...

"Is there going to be any wind to-night, captain?" said Sir John as they went on deck. For answer the captain pointed away to the west, and Jack saw here and there dark patches...

But the blacks had not left the guns, and utterly unused as these two were to the use of such savage weapons, they felt a thrill of satisfaction run through them as they grasped...

The voice seemed to come from a great distance, and the face of the speaker looked far away, and yet his hand was being held in his father's firm palm.

"No," said Sir John, in reply to a question addressed to him by the captain, one beautiful moonlight evening, as they were running down within sight of the coast of Portugal; "u...

For they were literally in the dark, and did not know but what they might be running into danger--that from the canoes which must be attacking the crew, or that of getting into...

All aboard after the preliminaries had been arranged in the most satisfactory way, Sir John's arrangements made, and Jack, like a dejected prisoner, taken down to Dartmouth one...

"Come on," said Jack, after they had stood listening for a few minutes, and gazing in the direction taken by the pigs. "Is it any use looking for the arrows?"

The run through the Canal did not seem monotonous to Sir John, for a new feeling of satisfaction was growing within him, and everything looked bright. The crew appeared contente...

"Here! Hi! Jack! Where are you, lad?" There was no reply, and the doctor called the nearest of the men, who were slowly making their way through the dense growth, putting up som...

"But it's very pitiful to see a lad of his years shrinking like a timid girl, and changing colour whenever he is spoken to. He seems to have no spirit at all."

"What's the meaning of this?" cried Sir John angrily, as he stood staring in astonishment at his son's anger-distorted, flushed face, then at the footman, and back at his son.

Meanwhile the captain went forward. The men were piped on deck, and in a short time they were under easy sail in search of the opening, the captain keeping about a mile from the...

They were too close to the goats to venture upon much whispering, and the decision was soon arrived at that they were to divide, and each make the best of his way up the ridge t...

Jack raised his head wearily from where it was resting upon his hand by the fireside, and looked dreamingly at the footman who had entered the warm library next morning.

"Regular volcanic cinder heap, Jack," was Sir John's not new opinion of sun-scorched Aden, where, while the coal-bunkers were filled up again, the lad had amused himself by insp...

"Beg pardon, coals," said the captain, smiling; and giving his orders, the cutter was hoisted up, the screw began to revolve slowly, and with an easy motion the yacht glided on...

"No; it is very nice," said the lad. "Ah, the toasting takes it off. Four days out. That's as long as we go with the same bread. Begin making our own to-morrow."

John Meadows--always "Jack," because his father's name was John--upon hearing that father's voice, raised his dull, dreamy eyes slowly from the perusal of the old Latin author o...