



Produced by Al Haines










ALL ABOARD


A STORY FOR GIRLS



BY FANNIE E. NEWBERRY


_Author of "The Odd One," "Not for Profit," "Bubbles," "Joyce's
Investments," "Sara a Princess," etc., etc._




  "Our Faith, a star, shone o'er a rocky height;
  The billows rose, and she was quenched in night."




NEW YORK:

A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.




COPYRIGHT, 1898.

By A. I. BRADLEY & CO




IN MEMORY

OF A HAPPY VISIT,

LET ME DEDICATE TO YOU, MY COUSINS

H. S. AND W. FASSETT,

THIS LITTLE BOOK

WITH MY AFFECTIONATE REGARDS




CONTENTS.


CHAP.

     I.  Debby has a Caller
    II.  The Leave-taking
   III.  New Surroundings
    IV.  Introductions
     V.  "On the Bay of Biscay, O!"
    VI.  Portuguese Towns and Heroes
   VII.  Kite-flying and Gibraltar
  VIII.  Nightmare and Gossip
    IX.  A Game of Gromets
     X.  Mrs. Windemere's Dinner
    XI.  A Sunday at Sea
   XII.  The Story of a Wreck
  XIII.  Algiers and Andy
   XIV.  Guesswork
    XV.  Tropical Evenings
   XVI.  Danger
  XVII.  Lady Moreham Speaks
 XVIII.  Last Days Together
   XIX.  Old Ties and New
    XX.  In Old Bombay
   XXI.  Friends Ashore
  XXII.  In Elephanta's Caves




"ALL ABOARD!"


CHAPTER I.

DEBBY HAS A CALLER.

"And they're twins, you say?"

"Yes'm, two of 'em, and as putty as twin blooms on a stalk,'m."

The second speaker was a large, corpulent woman, with a voluminous
white apron tied about her voluminous waist.  She stood deferentially
before the prospective roomer who had asked the question, to whom she
was showing the accommodations of her house, with interpolations of a
private nature, on a subject too near her heart, to-day, to be ignored
even with strangers.  As she stood nodding her head with an emphasis
that threatened to dislodge the smart cap with purple ribbons, which
she had rather hastily assumed when summoned to the door, the caller
mentally decided that here was a good soul, indeed, but rather
loquacious to be the sole guardian of two girls "putty as twin blooms."

She, herself, was tall and slender, and wore her rich street costume
with an easy elegance, as if fine clothing were too much a matter of
course to excite her interest.  But upon her face were lines which
showed that, at some time, she had looked long and deeply into the
hollow eyes of trouble, possibly despair.  Even the smile now curving
her well-turned lips lacked the joyousness of youth, though in years
she seemed well on the sunny side of early middle age.  She was
evidently in no hurry this morning, and finding her possible landlady
so ready to talk, bent an attentive ear that was most flattering to the
good creature.

"I knew," she said, sinking into a rattan chair tied up with blue
ribbons, like an over-dressed baby, "that these rooms had an air which
suggested youth and beauty.  I don't wonder your heart is sore to lose
them."

"Ah, it's broke it is,'m!" the voice breaking in sympathy, "for I've
looked upon 'em as my own, entirely, and it's nigh to eighteen year,
now.  Their mother, just a slip of a girl herself,'m, had only time
for a long look at her babbies before she begun to sink, and when she
see, herself, 'twas the end, she whispered, 'Debby'--I was right over
her,'m, leaving the babbies to anybody, for little they were to me
then, beside the dear young mistress--so she says, says she, 'Debby!'
and I says, very soft-like, 'Yes, Miss Helen,'--'cause, mind you, I'd
been her maid afore she was merrit at all, and I allays forgot when I
wasn't thinkin', and give her the old name--and I says, 'Yes, Miss
Helen?'  And then she smiles up at me just as bright as on her wellest
days,'m, and says, 'Call 'em Faith and Hope,' Debby; that's what they
would be to me if--and not rightly onderstandin' of her, I breaks in,
'Faith and Hope?  Call _what_ faith and hope?'  For, thinkses I,'she
may be luny with the fever.'  But no, she says faint-like, but clear
and sound as a bell, 'Call my babies so.  Let their names be Faith and
Hope, and when their poor father comes home, say it was my wish, and he
must not grieve too much, for he will have Faith and Hope always with
him.'  And then the poor dear sinks off again and never rightly comes
to, till she's clean gone."

"And their father was on a voyage, then?"

"Yes'm, second mate of the 'International.'  He's cap'n now,'m, with
an interest in the steamship, and they do say they ain't many that's so
dreadfully much finer in the big P. & O. lines--leastwise so I've heerd
tell,'m, and I guess they ain't no mistake about it