Dodd caught
sight of a broad straw hat on the top of a wave, swam lustily to it, and
found Freddy inside: it was tied under his chin, and would have floated
Goliath. Dodd turned to the ship, saw the poor mother with white face and
arms outstretched as if she would fly at them, and held the urchin up
high to her with a joyful "hurrah." The ship seemed alive and to hurrah
in return with giant voice: the boat soon picked them up, and Dodd came
up the side with Freddy in his arms, and placed him in his mother's with
honest pride and deep parental sympathy.
Guess how she scolded and caressed her child all in a breath, and sobbed
over him! For this no human pen has ever told, nor ever will. All I can
just manage to convey is that, after she had all but eaten the little
torment, she suddenly dropped him, and made a great maternal rush at
Dodd. She flung her arms round him, and kissed him eagerly, almost
fiercely: then, carried away wild by mighty Nature, she patted him all
over in the strangest way, and kissed his waistcoat, his arms, his hands,
and rained tears of joy and gratitude on them.
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