Australian Tales - Setis

I was glad, too, for the safety of my friend Weedle's money and
merchandise, which I knew were all he possessed in the world, so I
hastened below to gladden him; but I thought I would first shock him a
little before I overwhelmed him with happiness.
“Weedle! Weedle! Jump up on deck directly,” I exclaimed as I entered
his cabin, after knocking loudly at the door; but my heart was so full of
joy that I could not carry on the little harmless deception which the
captain had so successfully practised on me, in order to increase my
rapturous surprise. Neither could I bear to see my poor sick friend's
woeful face, as he turned round in his berth, and declared that “he had
not strength left to save his life, and must just die in his bed;” so I opened
the stern windows to let in the sunshine, and the effect on his yellow face
was like French-polish on an old stool. Archie Weedle was a living man
again in two minutes; and in less than two minutes more he was standing
on the deck with me, enjoying the glad prospect, and watching the many
native canoes which were paddling off to the ship as she lay becalmed
about midway between the outer headlands of the Bay of Islands.