Twelve years--twelve eventful years--had passed, and, ere our work is
done, we must entreat our readers to visit with us, once again, the old
Isle of Shepey. The thoughtless, good-tempered, dissipated, extravagant,
ungrateful, unprincipled Charles, had been called by the sedate,
thinking, and moral people of England to reign over them. But with
English whim, or English wisdom, we have at present nought to do; we
leave abler and stronger heads to determine, when reviewing the page of
history, whether we are or are not a most change-loving people--lovers
of change for the sake of change.
Our business is with an aged man, seated, on a pleasant evening of the
year 1668, under a noble oak, whose spreading branches shadowed a brook
that babbled at his feet.
The beams of the setting sun were deepening the yellow tints of yet
early autumn, and many of the trees looked as if steeped in liquid gold.
In the distance, the ocean, quiet, calm, unruffled, was sleeping beneath
the sober sky, and not a breeze wafted its murmurs to the little
streamlet by the side of which that old man sat. He was but one of a
group; four healthy and handsome children crowded around him, watching,
with all the intense hope and anxiety of that happy age, the progress of
his work. He was occupied, as grandfathers often are, in constructing a
toy for his grandchildren. The prettiest of the party was a dark-eyed
rosy girl of about four, perhaps five--for her countenance had more
intelligence than generally belongs to either age, while her figure was
slight and small, small enough for a child not numbering more than three
years: she, too, was employed--stitching, with a long awkward needle,
something which looked very like the sail of a baby-boat. A boy,
somewhat older than herself, was twisting tow into cordage, while the
eldest, the man of the family, issued his directions, or rather his
commands, to both, in the customary style of lads when overlooking their
juniors. The next to him was probably grandpapa's especial pet, for he
knelt at the old man's knee, watching patiently, and taking good note,
how he secured the principal mast steadily in the centre of the mimic
vessel, it had been his kind task to frame for the youngsters'
amusement.
It must not be forgotten that a very pretty spaniel crouched at the
little maid's feet, and ever and anon lifted its mild gentle eyes to the
countenance of its mistress.
"Con," said the eldest boy, "you are making those stitches as long as
your own little fingers; and you must remember, that if the work is not
done neatly, the wind may get into the turnings and throw the ship on
her beam-ends."