The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rudder Grangers Abroad and Other Stories
by Frank R. Stockton

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Title: The Rudder Grangers Abroad and Other Stories

Author: Frank R. Stockton

Release Date: March 22, 2004 [EBook #11671]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE RUDDER GRANGERS ABROAD AND OTHER STORIES

BY

FRANK R. STOCKTON

1891, 1894

CONTENTS.

I. EUPHEMIA AMONG THE PELICANS
II. THE RUDDER GRANGERS IN ENGLAND
III. POMONA'S DAUGHTER
IV. DERELICT
V. THE BAKER OF BARNBURY
VI. THE WATER-DEVIL

EUPHEMIA AMONG THE PELICANS.

The sun shone warm and soft, as it shines in winter time in the
semi-tropics. The wind blew strong, as it blows whenever and wherever
it listeth. Seven pelicans labored slowly through the air. A flock of
ducks rose from the surface of the river. A school of mullet, disturbed
by a shark, or some other unscrupulous pursuer, sprang suddenly out of
the water just before us, and fell into it again like the splashing of
a sudden shower.

I lay upon the roof of the cabin of a little yacht. Euphemia stood
below, her feet upon the mess-chest, and her elbows resting on the edge
of the cabin roof. A sudden squall would have unshipped her; still, if
one would be happy, there are risks that must be assumed. At the open
entrance of the cabin, busily writing on a hanging-shelf that served as
a table, sat a Paying Teller. On the high box which during most of the
day covered our stove was a little lady, writing in a note-book. On the
forward deck, at the foot of the mast, sat a young man in a state of
placidness. His feet stuck out on the bowsprit, while his mildly
contemplative eyes went forth unto the roundabout.

At the tiller stood our guide and boatman, his sombre eye steady on the
south-by-east. Around the horizon of his countenance there spread a
dark and six-days' beard, like a slowly rising thunder-cloud; ever and
anon there was a gleam of white teeth, like a bright break in the sky,
but it meant nothing. During all our trip