Beadle's Dime Novels No. 131 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

~ THE MERCHANT'S SURPRISE. 25 soft hair—delicate they all were, but not effeminate. Indeed, the arch of the brow and curve of the nostril promised plenty of fire and spirit. One would hardly have guessed he had been born on northern soil, and was a native of a New Eng- land State, so thoroughly had his growth in a tropical climate among a strange people influenced his development, The hot sons had thinned lis blood and flesh and embrowned his skin, while his dark hair and eyes added still more to his foreign appearance. A flush was on his face, now, and his eyes were too bright. Mr. Baer 9 Peg Semen at we gree ay be had counted. his rising pulse. . « Poor Ola.” asthe mate had said. The sleeting storm to which he had long been exposed, and which had seemed to freeze the blood in his veins, had been severe even upon the hardy northern sailors; to him it had been terrible; only the courage of an indomitable will had enabled him to endure it, and when the moment of greatest trial came, and the boat in which they sought to make the land was swamped, that same courage still upheld him. He was an excellent swimmer, one of the pleasures Of his oriental life being to float and toss for hours in the warm inland waters, under an evening sky; and now, though his muscles were stiff, and veins curdled by the cold, he had clung to his oar, and supported himself until wholly insensible, and ‘in this condition had been met and picked up by the brave fishermen who had gone to the rescue. “] wish I had him home ” said the merchant, unconscious- ly uttering his thought aloud, as he stood by the narrow berth. “ We will take good care of iim, sir, until he is able to The musical voice was that of a child, but the decision it expressed was that of a woman; there was a calmness and confidence in it which made her hearer smile, as he turned to take a second look at the nurse, established near the boy’s bed. ; : 7 ‘ : He could not but look long and curiously. He would as soon have expected to come across an original Titian in = junk shop, as this exquisite bit of life and color, Ahis _brillian He om