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Frank had left for Hull the evening before to meet him, and here was Tom the sailor, tall and bonny and dark. Pansy jumped into his arms like a baby, Aralia rushed to meet him, and his mother came out, though a little more slowly. When the bustle was all over, and Tom had answered nearly a hundred questions, they all went in to tea.
But Pansy was clinging to Aralia, quietly crying. "Well, Frank, we must live in the cave for a little, and so we had better get everything in, and be as jolly as we can." When they had got everything up to the cave, which took a long time, everybody had a good breakfast.
The boat pulled away and soon touched the ice; Tom sprang nimbly on shore, and before long he could be seen only as a little black dot on that dazzling plain of snow. Then he was observed to stop and kneel down while some huge monster, yellowish-white in colour, came rushing towards him. Aralia must have the glass now. "Oh, the bear! the bear!" she cried in grief. "It is going to kill Tom.
Pansy was jumping with joy. Aralia clapped her hands and cried: "Just too jolly for anything!" By and by Aralia sat down to the piano, and Pete brought out his fiddle, and a very happy evening indeed was spent in the Valhalla. The men were keeping it up forward too, around the galley fire, singing songs and spinning yarns, for the ship was "homeward bound".
"Please, sir, I think we'll find your aralia next spring-tide." Whereupon General Mohun told him he was a good little chap, and presented him with a half-crown, the largest sum he had ever possessed in his life.
They won't come out much until the sun returns." "Fancy," cried Aralia, clapping her hands, "Fancy all of us sleeping all night long three months, didn't you say, Tom? Wouldn't it be nice? And if Uncle Staysail should come in to wake us in the morning! 'Get up, he would say, 'are you going to sleep all day?" They all laughed at the idea, but it was not carried out.
What a happy meeting that was! The mastiff led Tom back over the hills, and in an hour's time he was safe and sound at the cave. Pansy wept with delight, and Aralia bound up Tom's wrists. He made very light of the bites, however.
Pansy, who was on board, and had been peeping in some of the rooms, said to Aralia at last: "Oh, Aralia, what a dear little doll's house of a cabin; I should like to live in it always!" Neither of the children was sea-sick when the Valhalla went out under steam, and they had such fun with the sailors and the two dogs that they were quite sorry when the ship once more steamed into port.
Oh! oh! oh! my brother Tom!" "Let me see! let me see!" screamed Pansy. "Look now!" said Aralia with a smile. "Isn't Tom brave?" Tom was indeed. For Pansy could now see the monster lying dead, and Tom leaning on his gun, and once more waving his cap. Then men came up and skinned the bear, and dragged the head and hide and paws to the ship. Tom was a splendid shot, and this was his first bear.
When he thrust his rifle between the willow bars to take a shot, the beasts bit and tore at it, as if they would have dragged it from his grasp. Aralia was busy helping Frank, and presently both came running up with lighted fir-torches, which Tom at once flung over the gate, together with pieces of burning peat and wood. These did splendid work, and after a time the terrible pack drew off.
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