Boston Jacky: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Taking Care of Business Read Free

Wanderers. Another is from my dear friend John Higgins, posted in London. And the third is from the House of Chen—
Chopstick Charlie! Joy! Maybe news of Jaimy!
    I rip that one open first . . .
    Â 
    Charles Chen
    The House of Chen
    Rangoon, Burma
    March 19, 1809
    Â 
    Jacky Faber
    Faber Shipping Worldwide
    State Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
    Â 
    Dear Ju kau-jing yi,
    It gives me great pleasure, Little Round-Eyed Barbarian, to report that your Mr. James Fletcher has made a full recovery of his senses and has taken passage to the United States.
    He has been given money and instructions to conduct some business for me when he is in that country. He devoutly hopes you, yourself, will actually be in that locale and I assured him it was as good a place as any for him to start the search for you. I have advised him to stay in some disguise, as the authorities in London might not have completely forgiven him for his past transgressions in spite of your efforts upon his behalf.
    I hope you are well, Number Two Daughter. Number One Daughter Sidrah sends her regards.
    Â 
    Your Humble Servant,
    Chops
    Â 
    â€œWhat good news!” I exult, passing the letter to Amy and reaching for Higgins’s envelope. “Jaimy’s coming here! I had thought to take passage to Rangoon at the first opportunity, but now I won’t have to! Joy!”
    Amy can scarcely contain herself as she reads and mutters . . . “Rangoon . . . Burma . . . barbarians . . . Mr. Fletcher . . . ?”
    â€œLater, Sister, please,” I plead. I know she wants to pull out her pencil and portable writing desk right now, to start in, but it will have to wait. Then I rip open the letter from my grandfather . . .
    Â 
    Reverend Henry Alsop
    London Home for Little Wanderers
    Brideshead Street, London, England
    April 26, 1809
    Â 
    Miss Mary Alsop Faber
    Faber Shipping Worldwide
    State Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
    Â 
    My dear granddaughter,
    It is my fondest hope and prayer that this letter finds you well and happy, wherever you might be in this world.
    The Home continues to do its good work for the orphan children of London, thanks to the donations from your company and the proceeds from the penny-dreadful accounts of your adventures so graciously donated by Miss Amy Trevelyne, the author of those little epics. I can barely make myself read them, but I do, and console myself in the hope that most of the rather risqué parts are figments of Miss Trevelyne’s vivid imagination. I have a full shelf of them in my study, the latest one being
The Wake of the Lorelei Lee,
but I don’t let the children read them, oh, no. I do, however, allow the staff to borrow the books, and I am afraid that some of them have found their way into general circulation among some of the older children. Oh, well, best they know something of their benefactors, I suppose . . .
    I myself am well, or as well as could be expected, considering my age, but I do grow a bit infirm. Oh, how I miss having Mrs. Mairead McConnaughey as Mistress of Girls, but I hear she is afraid to come back to the school in light of her last maltreatment by the British authorities.
    However, I do now have an excellent Assistant Schoolmaster in the person of a Mr. Thomas Arnold, a very well-educated young man, who, as Master, seldom wields the rod on his students, preferring to believe in the essential goodness of the children in his care. Who knows, perhaps some day I may leave the Home in his capable hands and come to see you in America? Yes, maybe there is yet one more adventure in me.
    I would dearly love to see you again, child, as it has been a long time.
    Â 
    Your Loving Grandfather,
    Henry Alsop
    Â 
    I do not pass that letter to Amy, but instead lay it aside, snorting back a bit of a tear. Amy Trevelyne, poet, writer, and would-be academic, does not need to see the term
penny-dreadful
put next to her name. No. Now