As it disappeared Buzzby gave a grunt, Fred and Isobel uttered a sigh in
unison, and Mrs. Bright resumed the fit of weeping which for some time
she had unconsciously suspended.
"I fear we shall never see him again," sobbed Mrs. Bright, as she took
Isobel by the hand and sauntered slowly home, accompanied by Fred and
Buzzby, the latter of whom seemed to regard himself in the light of a
shaggy Newfoundland or mastiff, who had been left to protect the family.
"We are always hearing of whale-ships being lost, and, somehow or
other, we _never_ hear of the crews being saved, as one reads of when
ships are wrecked in the usual way on the seashore."
Isobel squeezed her mother's hand, and looked up in her face with an
expression that said plainly, "Don't cry so, mamma; I'm _sure_ he will
come back," but she could not find words to express herself, so she
glanced towards the mastiff for help.
Buzzby felt that it devolved upon him to afford consolation under the
circumstances; but Mrs. Bright's mind was of that peculiar stamp which
repels advances in the way of consolation unconsciously, and Buzzby was
puzzled. He screwed up first the right eye and then the left, and smote
his thigh repeatedly; and assuredly, if contorting his visage could have
comforted Mrs. Bright, she would have returned home a happy woman, for
he made faces at her violently for full five minutes. But it did her no
good, perhaps because she didn't see him, her eyes being suffused with
tears.
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