Hoggee by Anna Myers

Author:Anna Myers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2004-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

9

SOME PEOPLE ARE WONDERFULLY KIND

The great, unexpected kindness overwhelmed Howard. After he carved the words, he was surprised to feel tears slipping from his eyes. He had never before cried with joy. But before that wonderful moment, there were dark ones.

They stood in the captain’s small cabin. Howard had been dragged there by the man who caught him on the stairs. He sat now in a small wooden chair, his face in his hands.

The grandmother was there, too, along with the captain, a large, red-faced man. Jack had come in just as the captain shoved Howard into the chair. Howard did not know how Jack had learned of his predicament. He also did not know whether he was glad his brother stood in a line with those who accused him, or whether he wished they had thrown him overboard with weights around his feet so that he could have drowned peacefully in the canal without his brother ever having to know what had happened.

“By thunder,” bellowed Captain Wall, “I’ll throw you off the boat tonight, with no town near. I won’t tolerate a thieving hoggee! I won’t.”

Jack moved around the grandmother to speak to the captain. “Please, sir,” he said softly, “if I might say a word in my brother’s defense.” The captain nodded slightly, and Jack rushed on. “My brother, sir, is no thief. I can’t tell you what he was doing with that bag, but sir, I would wager my life on the fact that he was not stealing. Let him explain please, sir.”

An angry huff came from the woman. “His hand was in my bag. I saw that with my own eyes!”

Howard raised his head then. “Please, madam,” he said, and his voice shook. “I wanted to see the book, the one about how to talk with your hands.”

“Are you daft, boy?” said the captain. “Talk with your hands. What gibberish is that?”

“For deaf people, sir. This lady has a book that shows how to talk to deaf people.” Howard looked pleadingly at the lady.

The woman looked at Howard long and hard before she spoke. “It’s true, Captain,” she said. “My granddaughter is a deaf-mute, and we have a book that shows how to communicate with her.”

The captain reached out, grabbed the collar of Howard’s shirt, and pulled him roughly to his feet. “And why,” he thundered, “would the likes of you be wanting a book. You can’t read, can you, boy?”

“I can, sir,” said Howard, “and I wanted to see the book for a friend, a friend who cannot hear or speak.”

The captain shoved the boy back into the chair. “That’s a likely story.” The captain shook his large head, and the red in his face deepened. “If you had an honest desire, why did you not speak to the lady? Why did you not ask?”

“I tried, sir,” said Howard, and a small hope flamed in his heart.

The woman sighed. “It’s true,” she said. “The boy tried to speak to me, but the cook said I should not trust him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.