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author: Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> 2025-10-15 04:34:41 -0700
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+<title>The Sea Lions, by James Fenimore Cooper</title>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10545 ***</div>
+
+<div class="note"><p>[Transcriber's note: It appears that the author <i>may have</i> used &prime;
+and &Prime; interchangeably throughout this text to mean "minutes" whereas
+traditionally, &prime; is used to mean minutes and &Prime; seconds. Not knowing
+the author's intent, I have left these characters as they were in the
+original.]</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+<h1 class="title">The Sea Lions;</h1>
+
+<h2 class="subtitle">or, The Lost Sealers.</h2>
+
+<h2 class="author">By J. Fenimore Cooper.</h2>
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>
+  Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume<br />
+  The dread unknown, the chaos of the tomb<br />
+  Melt, and dispel, ye spectre doubts that roll<br />
+  Cimmerian darkness o'er the parting soul</p>
+
+  <p><i>Campbell.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<h3><i>Complete in One Volume.</i></h3>
+
+
+<h4>1860.</h4>
+
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="preface">
+<h2>Preface.</h2>
+
+
+
+<p>If any thing connected with the hardness of the human heart could surprise
+us, it surely would be the indifference with which men live on, engrossed
+by their worldly objects, amid the sublime natural phenomena that so
+eloquently and unceasingly speak to their imaginations, affections, and
+judgments. So completely is the existence of the individual concentrated
+in self, and so regardless does he get to be of all without that
+contracted circle, that it does not probably happen to one man in ten,
+that his thoughts are drawn aside from this intense study of his own
+immediate wants, wishes, and plans, even once in the twenty-four hours, to
+contemplate the majesty, mercy, truth, and justice, of the Divine Being
+that has set him, as an atom, amid the myriads of the hosts of heaven and
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>The physical marvels of the universe produce little more reflection than
+the profoundest moral truths. A million of eyes shall pass over the
+firmament, on a cloudless night, and not a hundred minds shall be filled
+with a proper sense of the power of the dread Being that created all that
+is there--not a hundred hearts glow with the adoration that such an appeal
+to the senses and understanding ought naturally to produce. This
+indifference, in a great measure, comes of familiarity; the things that we
+so constantly have before us, becoming as a part of the air we breathe,
+and as little regarded.</p>
+
+<p>One of the consequences of this disposition to disregard the Almighty
+Hand, as it is so plainly visible in all around us, is that of
+substituting our own powers in its stead. In this period of the world, in
+enlightened countries, and in the absence of direct idolatry, few men are
+so hardy as to deny the existence and might of a Supreme Being; but, this
+fact admitted, how few really feel that profound reverence for him that
+the nature of our relations justly demands! It is the want of a due sense
+of humility, and a sad misconception of what we are, and for what we were
+created, that misleads us in the due estimate of our own insignificance,
+as Compared with the majesty of God.</p>
+
+<p>Very few men attain enough of human knowledge to be fully aware how much
+remains to be learned, and of that which they never can hope to acquire.
+We hear a great deal of god-like minds, and of the far-reaching faculties
+we possess; and it may all be worthy of our eulogiums, until we compare
+ourselves in these, as in other particulars, with Him who produced them.
+Then, indeed, the utter insignificance of our means becomes too apparent
+to admit of a cavil. We know that we are born, and that we die; science
+has been able to grapple with all the phenomena of these two great
+physical facts, with the exception of the most material of all--those
+which should tell us what is life, and what is death. Something that we
+cannot comprehend lies at the root of every distinct division of natural
+phenomena. Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, seems to be imprinted
+on every great fact of creation. There is a point attained in each and all
+of our acquisitions, where a mystery that no human mind can scan takes the
+place of demonstration and conjecture. This point may lie more remote with
+some intellects than with others; but it exists for all, arrests the
+inductions of all, conceals all.</p>
+
+<p>We are aware that the more learned among those who disbelieve in the
+divinity of Christ suppose themselves to be sustained by written
+authority, contending for errors of translation, mistakes and
+misapprehensions in the ancient texts. Nevertheless, we are inclined to
+think that nine-tenths of those who refuse the old and accept the new
+opinion, do so for a motive no better than a disinclination to believe
+that which they cannot comprehend. This pride of reason is one of the most
+insinuating of our foibles, and is to be watched as a most potent enemy.</p>
+
+<p>How completely and philosophically does the venerable Christian creed
+embrace and modify all these workings of the heart! We say
+philosophically, for it were not possible for mind to give a juster
+analysis of the whole subject than St. Paul's most comprehensive but brief
+definition of Faith. It is this Faith which forms the mighty feature of
+the church on earth. It equalizes capacities, conditions, means, and ends,
+holding out the same encouragement and hope to the least, as to the most
+gifted of the race; counting gifts in their ordinary and more secular
+points of view.</p>
+
+<p>It is when health, or the usual means of success abandon us, that we are
+made to feel how totally we are insufficient for the achievement of even
+our own purposes, much less to qualify us to reason on the deep mysteries
+that conceal the beginning and the end. It has often been said that the
+most successful leaders of their fellow men have had the clearest views of
+their own insufficiency to attain their own objects. If Napoleon ever
+said, as has been attributed to him, "<i>Je propose et je dispose</i>," it must
+have been in one of those fleeting moments in which success blinded him to
+the fact of his own insufficiency. No man had a deeper reliance on
+fortune, cast the result of great events on the decrees of fate, or more
+anxiously watched the rising and setting of what he called his "star."
+This was a faith that could lead to no good; but it clearly denoted how
+far the boldest designs, the most ample means, and the most vaulting
+ambition, fall short of giving that sublime consciousness of power and its
+fruits that distinguish the reign of Omnipotence.</p>
+
+<p>In this book the design has been to pourtray man on a novel field of
+action, and to exhibit his dependence on the hand that does not suffer a
+sparrow to fall unheeded. The recent attempts of science, which employed
+the seamen of the four greatest maritime states of Christendom, made
+discoveries that have rendered the polar circles much more familiar to
+this age, than to any that has preceded it, so far as existing records
+show. We say "existing records;" for there is much reason for believing
+that the ancients had a knowledge of our hemisphere, though less for
+supposing that they ever braved the dangers of the high latitudes. Many
+are, just at this moment, much disposed to believe that "Ophir" was on
+this continent; though for a reason no better than the circumstance of
+the recent discoveries of much gold. Such savans should remember that
+'peacocks' came from ancient Ophir. If this be in truth that land, the
+adventurers of Israel caused it to be denuded of that bird of beautiful
+plumage.</p>
+
+<p>Such names as those of Parry, Sabine, Ross, Franklin, Wilkes, Hudson,
+Ringgold, &amp;c., &amp;c., with those of divers gallant Frenchmen and Russians,
+command our most profound respect; for no battles or victories can redound
+more to the credit of seamen than the dangers they all encountered, and
+the conquests they have all achieved. One of those named, a resolute and
+experienced seaman, it is thought must, at this moment, be locked in the
+frosts of the arctic circle, after having passed half a life in the
+endeavour to push his discoveries into those remote and frozen regions. He
+bears the name of the most distinguished of the philosophers of this
+country; and nature has stamped on his features--by one of those secret
+laws which just as much baffle our means of comprehension, as the greatest
+of all our mysteries, the incarnation of the Son of God--a resemblance
+that, of itself, would go to show that they are of the same race. Any one
+who has ever seen this emprisoned navigator, and who is familiar with the
+countenances of the men of the same name who are to be found in numbers
+amongst ourselves, must be struck with a likeness that lies as much beyond
+the grasp of that reason of which we are so proud, as the sublimest facts
+taught by induction, science, or revelation. Parties are, at this moment,
+out in search of him and his followers; and it is to be hoped that the
+Providence which has so singularly attempered the different circles and
+zones of our globe, placing this under a burning sun, and that beneath
+enduring frosts, will have included in its divine forethought a sufficient
+care for these bold wanderers to restore them, unharmed, to their friends
+and country. In a contrary event, their names must be transmitted to
+posterity as the victims to a laudable desire to enlarge the circle of
+human knowledge, and with it, we trust, to increase the glory due to God.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h1 class="title">The Sea Lions.</h1>
+
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-01">
+<h2>Chapter I.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>----"When that's gone<br />
+  He shall drink naught but brine."</p>
+
+<p>  <i>Tempest.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>While there is less of that high polish in America that is obtained by
+long intercourse with the great world, than is to be found in nearly every
+European country, there is much less positive rusticity also. There, the
+extremes of society are widely separated, repelling rather than attracting
+each other; while among ourselves, the tendency is to gravitate towards a
+common centre. Thus it is, that all things in America become subject to a
+mean law that is productive of a mediocrity which is probably much above
+the average of that of most nations; possibly of all, England excepted;
+but which is only a mediocrity, after all. In this way, excellence in
+nothing is justly appreciated, nor is it often recognised; and the
+suffrages of the nation are pretty uniformly bestowed on qualities of a
+secondary class. Numbers have sway, and it is as impossible to resist them
+in deciding on merit, as it is to deny their power in the ballot-boxes;
+time alone, with its great curative influence, supplying the remedy that
+is to restore the public mind to a healthful state, and give equally to
+the pretender and to him who is worthy of renown, his proper place in the
+pages of history.</p>
+
+<p>The activity of American life, the rapidity and cheapness of intercourse,
+and the migratory habits both have induced, leave little of rusticity and
+local character in any particular sections of the country. Distinctions,
+that an acute observer may detect, do certainly exist between the eastern
+and the western man, between the northerner and the southerner, the Yankee
+and middle states' man; the Bostonian, Manhattanese and Philadelphian; the
+Tuckahoe and the Cracker; the Buckeye or Wolverine, and the Jersey Blue.
+Nevertheless, the World cannot probably produce another instance of a
+people who are derived from so many different races, and who occupy so
+large an extent of country, who are so homogeneous in appearance,
+characters and opinions. There is no question that the institutions have
+had a material influence in producing this uniformity, while they have
+unquestionably lowered the standard to which opinion is submitted, by
+referring the decisions to the many, instead of making the appeal to the
+few, as is elsewhere done. Still, the direction is onward, and though it
+may take time to carve on the social column of America that graceful and
+ornamental capital which it forms the just boast of Europe to possess,
+when the task shall be achieved, the work will stand on a base so broad as
+to secure its upright attitude for ages.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the general character of identity and homogenity that so
+strongly marks the picture of American society, exceptions are to be met
+with, in particular districts, that are not only distinct and
+incontrovertible, but which are so peculiar as to be worthy of more than a
+passing remark in our delineations of national customs. Our present
+purpose leads us into one of these secluded districts, and it may be well
+to commence the narrative of certain deeply interesting incidents that it
+is our intention to attempt to portray, by first referring to the place
+and people where and from whom the principal actors in our legend had
+their origin.</p>
+
+<p>Every one at all familiar with the map of America knows the position and
+general form of the two islands that shelter the well-known harbour of the
+great emporium of the commerce of the country. These islands obtained
+their names from the Dutch, who called them Nassau and Staten; but the
+English, with little respect for the ancient house whence the first of
+these appellations is derived, and consulting only the homely taste which
+leads them to a practical rather then to a poetical nomenclature in all
+things, have since virtually dropped the name of Nassau, altogether
+substituting that of Long Island in its stead.</p>
+
+<p>Long Island, or the island of Nassau, extends from the mouth of the Hudson
+to the eastern line of Connecticut; forming a sort of sea-wall to protect
+the whole coast of the latter little territory against the waves of the
+broad Atlantic. Three of the oldest New York counties, as their names
+would imply, Kings, Queens, and Suffolk, are on this island. Kings was
+originally peopled by the Dutch, and still possesses as many names derived
+from Holland as from England, if its towns, which are of recent origin, be
+taken from the account, Queens is more of a mixture, having been early
+invaded and occupied by adventurers from the other side of the Sound; but
+Suffolk, which contains nearly, if not quite, two-thirds of the surface of
+the whole island, is and ever has been in possession of a people derived
+originally from the puritans of New England. Of these three counties,
+Kings is much the smallest, though next to New York itself, the most
+populous county in the state; a circumstance that is owing to the fact
+that two suburban offsets of the great emporium, Brooklyn and
+Williamsburg, happen to stand, within its limits, on the waters of what is
+improperly called the East River; an arm of the sea that has obtained this
+appellation, in contradistinction to the Hudson, which, as all
+Manhattanese well know, is as often called the North River, as by its
+proper name. In consequence of these two towns, or suburbs of New York,
+one of which contains nearly a hundred thousand souls, while the other
+must be drawing on towards twenty thousand, Kings county has lost all it
+ever had of peculiar, or local character. The same is true of Queens,
+though in a diminished degree; but Suffolk remains Suffolk still, and it
+is with Suffolk alone that our present legend requires us to deal. Of
+Suffolk, then, we purpose to say a few words by way of preparatory
+explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Although it has actually more sea-coast than all the rest of New York
+united, Suffolk has but one sea-port that is ever mentioned beyond the
+limits of the county itself. Nor is this port one of general commerce, its
+shipping being principally employed in the hardy and manly occupation of
+whaling. As a whaling town, Sag Harbour is the third or fourth port in the
+country, and maintains something like that rank in importance. A whaling
+haven is nothing without a whaling community. Without the last, it is
+almost hopeless to look for success. New York can, and has often fitted
+whalers for sea, having sought officers in the regular whaling ports; but
+it has been seldom that the enterprises have been rewarded with such
+returns as to induce a second voyage by the same parties.</p>
+
+<p>It is as indispensable that a whaler should possess a certain <i>esprit de
+corps</i>, as that a regiment, or a ship of war, should be animated by its
+proper spirit. In the whaling communities, this spirit exists to an
+extent, and in a degree that is wonderful, when one remembers the great
+expansion of this particular branch of trade within the last
+five-and-twenty years. It may be a little lessened of late, but at the
+time of which we are writing, or about the year 1820, there was scarcely
+an individual who followed this particular calling out of the port of Sag
+Harbour, whose general standing on board ship was not as well known to all
+the women and girls of the place, as it was to his shipmates. Success in
+taking the whale was a thing that made itself felt in every fibre of the
+prosperity of the town; and it was just as natural that the single-minded
+population of that part of Suffolk should regard the bold and skilful
+harpooner, or lancer, with favour, as it is for the belle at a
+watering-place to bestow her smiles on one of the young heroes of
+Contreras or Churubusco. His peculiar merit, whether with the oar, lance,
+or harpoon, is bruited about, as well as the number of whales he may have
+succeeded in "making fast to," or those which he caused to "spout blood."
+It is true, that the great extension of the trade within the last twenty
+years, by drawing so many from a distance into its pursuits, has in a
+degree lessened this local interest and local knowledge of character; but
+at the time of which we are about to write, both were at their height, and
+Nantucket itself had not more of this "intelligence office" propensity, or
+more of the true whaling <i>esprit de corps</i>, than were to be found in the
+district of country that surrounded Sag Harbour.</p>
+
+<p>Long Island forks at its eastern end, and may be said to have two
+extremities. One of these, which is much the shortest of the two legs thus
+formed, goes by the name of Oyster Pond Point; while the other, that
+stretches much farther in the direction of Blok Island, is the well-known
+cape called Montauk. Within the fork lies Shelter Island, so named from
+the snug berth it occupies. Between Shelter Island and the longest or
+southern prong of the fork, are the waters which compose the haven of Sag
+Harbour, an estuary of some extent; while a narrow but deep arm of the sea
+separates this island from the northern prong, that terminates at Oyster
+Pond.</p>
+
+<p>The name of Oyster Pond Point was formerly applied to a long, low, fertile
+and pleasant reach of land, that extended several miles from the point
+itself, westward, towards the spot where the two prongs of the fork
+united. It was not easy, during the first quarter of the present century,
+to find a more secluded spot on the whole island, than Oyster Pond. Recent
+enterprises have since converted it into the terminus of a railroad; and
+Green Port, once called Sterling, is a name well known to travellers
+between New York and Boston; but in the earlier part of the present
+century it seemed just as likely that the <i>Santa Casa</i> of Loretto should
+take a new flight and descend on the point, as that the improvement that
+has actually been made should in truth occur at that out-of-the-way place.
+It required, indeed, the keen eye of a railroad projector to bring this
+spot in connection with anything; nor could it be done without having
+recourse to the water by which it is almost surrounded. Using the last, it
+is true, means have been found to place it in a line between two of the
+great marts of the country, and thus to put an end to all its seclusion,
+its simplicity, its peculiarities, and we had almost said, its happiness.</p>
+
+<p>It is to us ever a painful sight to see the rustic virtues rudely thrown
+aside by the intrusion of what are termed improvements. A railroad is
+certainly a capital invention for the traveller, but it may be questioned
+if it is of any other benefit than that of pecuniary convenience to the
+places through which it passes. How many delightful hamlets, pleasant
+villages, and even tranquil county towns, are losing their primitive
+characters for simplicity and contentment, by the passage of these fiery
+trains, that drag after them a sort of bastard elegance, a pretension that
+is destructive of peace of mind, and an uneasy desire in all who dwell by
+the way-side, to pry into the mysteries of the whole length and breadth of
+the region it traverses!</p>
+
+<p>We are writing of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
+nineteen. In that day, Oyster Pond was, in one of the best acceptations of
+the word, a rural district. It is true that its inhabitants were
+accustomed to the water, and to the sight of vessels, from the two-decker
+to the little shabby-looking craft that brought ashes from town, to
+meliorate the sandy lands of Suffolk. Only five years before, an English
+squadron had lain in Gardiner's Bay, here pronounced 'Gar'ner's,' watching
+the Race, or eastern outlet of the Sound, with a view to cut off the trade
+and annoy their enemy. That game is up, for ever. No hostile squadron,
+English, French, Dutch, or all united, will ever again blockade an
+American port for any serious length of time, the young Hercules passing
+too rapidly from the gristle into the bone, any longer to suffer antics of
+this nature to be played in front of his cradle. But such was not his
+condition in the war of 1812, and the good people of Oyster Pond had
+become familiar with the checkered sides of two-deck ships, and the
+venerable and beautiful ensign of Old England, as it floated above them.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was it only by these distant views, and by means of hostilities, that
+the good folk on Oyster Pond were acquainted with vessels. New York is
+necessary to all on the coast, both as a market and as a place to procure
+supplies; and every creek, or inlet, or basin, of any sort, within a
+hundred leagues of it, is sure to possess one or more craft that ply
+between the favourite haven and the particular spot in question. Thus was
+it with Oyster Pond. There is scarce a better harbour on the whole
+American coast, than that which the narrow arm of the sea that divides the
+Point from Shelter Island presents; and even in the simple times of which
+we are writing, Sterling had its two or three coasters, such as they were.
+But the true maritime character of Oyster Pond, as well as that of all
+Suffolk, was derived from the whalers, and its proper nucleus was across
+the estuary, at Sag Harbour. Thither the youths of the whole region
+resorted for employment, and to advance their fortunes, and generally with
+such success as is apt to attend enterprise, industry and daring, when
+exercised with energy in a pursuit of moderate gains. None became rich, in
+the strict signification of the term, though a few got to be in reasonably
+affluent circumstances; many were placed altogether at their ease, and
+more were made humbly comfortable. A farm in America is well enough for
+the foundation of family support, but it rarely suffices for all the
+growing wants of these days of indulgence, and of a desire to enjoy so
+much of that which was formerly left to the undisputed possession of the
+unquestionably rich. A farm, with a few hundreds <i>per annum,</i> derived from
+other sources, makes a good base of comfort and if the hundreds are
+converted into thousands, your farmer, or agriculturalist, becomes a man
+not only at his ease, but a proprietor of some importance. The farms on
+Oyster Pond were neither very extensive, nor had they owners of large
+incomes to support them; on the contrary, most of them were made to
+support their owners; a thing that is possible, even in America, with
+industry, frugality and judgment. In order, however, that the names of
+places we may have occasion to use shall be understood, it may be well to
+be a little more particular in our preliminary explanations.</p>
+
+<p>The reader knows that we are now writing of Suffolk County, Long Island,
+New York. He also knows that our opening scene is to be on the shorter, or
+most northern of the two prongs of that fork, which divides the eastern
+end of this island, giving it what are properly two capes. The smallest
+territorial division that is known to the laws of New York, in rural
+districts, is the 'township,' as it is called. These townships are usually
+larger than the English parish, corresponding more properly with the
+French canton. They vary, however, greatly in size, some containing as
+much as a hundred square miles, which is the largest size, while others do
+not contain more than a tenth of that surface.</p>
+
+<p>The township in which the northern prong, or point of Long Island, lies,
+is named Southold, and includes not only all of the long, low, narrow
+land that then went by the common names of Oyster Pond, Sterling, &amp;c., but
+several islands, also, which stretch off in the Sound, as well as a
+broader piece of territory, near Riverhead. Oyster Pond, which is the
+portion of the township that lies on the 'point,' is, or <i>was</i>, for we
+write of a remote period in the galloping history of the state, only a
+part of Southold, and probably was not then a name known in the laws, at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>We have a wish, also, that this name should be pronounced properly. It is
+not called Oyster <i>Pond</i>, as the uninitiated would be very apt to get it,
+but <i>Oyster</i> P&ugrave;nd, the last word having a sound similar to that of the
+cockney's 'pound,' in his "two p&ugrave;nd two." This discrepancy between the
+spelling and the pronunciation of proper names is agreeable to us, for it
+shows that a people are not put in leading strings by pedagogues, and that
+they make use of their own, in their own way. We remember how great was
+our satisfaction once, on entering Holmes' Hole, a well-known bay in this
+very vicinity, in our youth, to hear a boatman call the port, 'Hum'ses
+Hull.' It is getting to be so rare to meet with an American, below the
+higher classes, who will consent to cast this species of veil before his
+school-day acquisitions, that we acknowledge it gives us pleasure to hear
+such good, homely, old-fashioned English as "Gar'ner's Island," "Hum'ses
+Hull," and "Oyster Pund."</p>
+
+<p>This plainness of speech was not the only proof of the simplicity of
+former days that was to be found in Suffolk, in the first quarter of the
+century. The eastern end of Long Island lies so much out of the track of
+the rest of the world, that even the new railroad cannot make much
+impression on its inhabitants, who get their pigs and poultry, butter and
+eggs, a little earlier to market, than in the days of the stage-wagons, it
+is true, but they fortunately, as yet, bring little back except it be the
+dross that sets every thing in motion, whether it be by rail, or through
+the sands, in the former toilsome mode.</p>
+
+<p>The season, at the precise moment when we desire to take the reader with
+us to Oyster Pond, was in the delightful month of September, when the
+earlier promises of the year are fast maturing into performance. Although
+Suffolk, as a whole, can scarcely be deemed a productive county, being
+generally of a thin, light soil, and still covered with a growth of small
+wood, it possesses, nevertheless, spots of exceeding fertility. A
+considerable portion of the northern prong of the fork has this latter
+character, and Oyster Pond is a sort of garden compared with much of the
+sterility that prevails around it. Plain, but respectable dwellings, with
+numerous out-buildings, orchards and fruit-trees, fences carefully
+preserved, a pains-taking tillage, good roads, and here and there a
+"meeting-house," gave the fork an air of rural and moral beauty that,
+aided by the water by which it was so nearly surrounded, contributed
+greatly to relieve the monotony of so dead a level. There were heights in
+view, on Shelter Island, and bluffs towards Riverhead, which, if they
+would not attract much attention in Switzerland, were by no means
+overlooked in Suffolk. In a word, both the season and the place were
+charming, though most of the flowers had already faded; and the apple, and
+the pear, and the peach, were taking the places of the inviting cherry.
+Fruit abounded, notwithstanding the close vicinity of the district to salt
+water, the airs from the sea being broken, or somewhat tempered, by the
+land that lay to the southward.</p>
+
+<p>We have spoken of the coasters that ply between the emporium and all the
+creeks and bays of the Sound, as well as of the numberless rivers that
+find an outlet for their waters between Sandy Hook and Rockaway. Wharves
+were constructed, at favourable points, <i>inside</i> the prong, and
+occasionally a sloop was seen at them loading its truck, or discharging
+its ashes or street manure, the latter being a very common return cargo
+for a Long Island coaster. At one wharf, however, now lay a vessel of a
+different mould, and one which, though of no great size, was manifastly
+intended to go <i>outside</i>. This was a schooner that had been recently
+launched, and which had advanced no farther in its first equipment than to
+get in its two principal spars, the rigging of which hung suspended over
+the mast-heads, in readiness to be "set up" for the first time. The day
+being Sunday, work was suspended, and this so much the more, because the
+owner of the vessel was a certain Deacon Pratt, who dwelt in a house
+within half a mile of the wharf, and who was also the proprietor of three
+several parcels of land in that neighbourhood, each of which had its own
+buildings and conveniences, and was properly enough dignified with the
+name of a farm. To be sure, neither of these farms was very large, their
+acres united amounting to but little more than two hundred; but, owing to
+their condition, the native richness of the soil, and the mode of turning
+them to account, they had made Deacon Pratt a warm man, for Suffolk.</p>
+
+<p>There are two great species of deacons; for we suppose they must all be
+referred to the same <i>genera</i>. One species belong to the priesthood, and
+become priests and bishops; passing away, as priests and bishops are apt
+to do, with more or less of the savour of godliness. The other species are
+purely laymen, and are <i>sui generis</i>. They are, <i>ex officio,</i> the most
+pious men in a neighbourhood, as they sometimes are, as it would seem to
+us, <i>ex officio</i>, also the most grasping and mercenary. As we are not in
+the secrets of the sects to which these lay deacons belong, we shall not
+presume to pronounce whether the individual is elevated to the deaconate
+because he is prosperous, in a worldly sense, or whether the prosperity is
+a consequence of the deaconate; but, that the two usually go together is
+quite certain: which being the cause, and which the effect, we leave to
+wiser heads to determine.</p>
+
+<p>Deacon Pratt was no exception to the rule. A tighter fisted sinner did not
+exist in the county than this pious soul, who certainly not only wore, but
+wore out the "form of godliness," while he was devoted, heart and hand, to
+the daily increase of worldly gear. No one spoke disparagingly of the
+deacon, notwithstanding. So completely had he got to be interwoven with
+the church--'meeting,' we ought to say--in that vicinity, that speaking
+disparagingly of him would have appeared like assailing Christianity. It
+is true, that many an unfortunate fellow-citizen in Suffolk had been made
+to feel how close was the gripe of his hand, when he found himself in its
+grasp; but there is a way of practising the most ruthless extortion, that
+serves not only to deceive the world, but which would really seem to
+mislead the extortioner himself. Phrases take the place of deeds,
+sentiments those of facts, and grimaces those of benevolent looks, so
+ingeniously and so impudently, that the wronged often fancy that they are
+the victims of a severe dispensation of Providence, when the truth would
+have shown that they were simply robbed.</p>
+
+<p>We do not mean, however, that Deacon Pratt was a robber. He was merely a
+hard man in the management of his affairs; never cheating, in a direct
+sense, but seldom conceding a cent to generous impulses, or to the duties
+of kind. He was a widower, and childless, circumstances that rendered his
+love of gain still less pardonable; for many a man who is indifferent to
+money on his own account, will toil and save to lay up hoards for those
+who are to come after him. The deacon had only a niece to inherit his
+effects, unless he might choose to step beyond that degree of
+consanguinity, and bestow a portion of his means on cousins. The
+church--or, to be more literal, the 'meeting'--had an eye on his
+resources, however; and it was whispered it had actually succeeded, by
+means known to itself, in squeezing out of his tight grasp no less a sum
+than one hundred dollars, as a donation to a certain theological college.
+It was conjectured by some persons that this was only the beginning of a
+religious liberality, and that the excellent and godly-minded deacon would
+bestow most of his property in a similar way, when the moment should come
+that it could be no longer of any use to himself. This opinion was much in
+favour with divers devout females of the deacon's congregation, who had
+daughters of their own, and who seldom failed to conclude their
+observations on this interesting subject with some such remark as, "Well,
+in <i>that</i> case, and it seems to me that every thing points that way, Mary
+Pratt will get no more than any other poor man's daughter."</p>
+
+<p>Little did Mary, the only child of Israel Pratt, an elder brother of the
+deacon, think of all this. She had been left an orphan in her tenth year,
+both parents dying within a few months of each other, and had lived
+beneath her uncle's roof for nearly ten more years, until use, and natural
+affection, and the customs of the country, had made her feel absolutely at
+home there. A less interested, or less selfish being than Mary Pratt,
+never existed. In this respect she was the very antipodes of her uncle,
+who often stealthily rebuked her for her charities and acts of
+neighbourly kindness, which he was wont to term waste. But Mary kept the
+even tenor of her way, seemingly not hearing such remarks, and doing her
+duty quietly, and in all humility.</p>
+
+<p>Suffolk was settled originally by emigrants from New England, and the
+character of its people is, to this hour, of modified New England habits
+and notions. Now, one of the marked peculiarities of Connecticut is an
+indisposition to part with anything without a <i>quid pro quo</i>. Those little
+services, offerings, and conveniences that are elsewhere parted with
+without a thought of remuneration, go regularly upon the day-book, and
+often reappear on a 'settlement,' years after they have been forgotten by
+those who received the favours. Even the man who keeps a carriage will let
+it out for hire; and the manner in which money is accepted, and even asked
+for by persons in easy circumstances, and for things that would be
+gratuitous in the Middle States, often causes disappointment, and
+sometimes disgust. In this particular, Scottish and Swiss thrift, both
+notorious, and the latter particularly so, are nearly equalled by New
+England thrift; more especially in the close estimate of the value of
+services rendered. So marked, indeed, is this practice of looking for
+requitals, that even the language is infected with it. Thus, should a
+person pass a few months by invitation with a friend, his visit is termed
+'boarding;' it being regarded as a matter of course that he pays his way.
+It would scarcely be safe, indeed, without the precaution of "passing
+receipts" on quitting, for one to stay any time in a New England dwelling,
+unless prepared to pay for his board. The free and frank habits that
+prevail among relatives and friends elsewhere, are nearly unknown there,
+every service having its price. These customs are exceedingly repugnant to
+all who have been educated in different notions; yet are they not without
+their redeeming qualities, that might be pointed out to advantage, though
+our limits will not permit us, at this moment, so to do.</p>
+
+<p>Little did Mary Pratt suspect the truth; but habit, or covetousness, or
+some vague expectation that the girl might yet contract a marriage that
+would enable him to claim all his advances, had induced the deacon never
+to bestow a cent on her education, or dress, or pleasures of any sort,
+that the money was not regularly charged against her, in that nefarious
+work that he called his "day-book." As for the self-respect, and the
+feelings of caste, which prevent a gentleman from practising any of these
+tradesmen's tricks, the deacon knew nothing of them. He would have set the
+man down as a fool who deferred to any notions so unprofitable. With him,
+not only every <i>man</i>, but every <i>thing</i> "had its price," and usually it
+was a good price, too. At the very moment when our tale opens there stood
+charged in his book, against his unsuspecting and affectionate niece,
+items in the way of schooling, dress, board, and pocket-money, that
+amounted to the considerable sum of one thousand dollars, money fairly
+expended. The deacon was only intensely mean and avaricious, while he was
+as honest as the day. Not a cent was overcharged; and to own the truth,
+Mary was so great a favourite with him, that most of his charges against
+<i>her</i> were rather of a reasonable rate than otherwise.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-02">
+<h2>Chapter II.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Marry, I saw your niece do more favours<br />
+To the count's serving-man, than ever she bestowed<br />
+Upon me; I saw it i' the orchard."</p>
+
+<p>  <i>Twelfth Night.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>On the Sunday in question, Deacon Pratt went to meeting as usual, the
+building in which divine service was held that day, standing less than two
+miles from his residence; but, instead of remaining for the afternoon's
+preaching, as was his wont, he got into his one-horse chaise, the vehicle
+then in universal use among the middle classes, though now so seldom seen,
+and skirred away homeward as fast as an active, well-fed and powerful
+switch-tailed mare could draw him; the animal being accompanied in her
+rapid progress by a colt of some three months' existence. The residence
+of the deacon was unusually inviting for a man of his narrow habits. It
+stood on the edge of a fine apple-orchard, having a door-yard of nearly
+two acres in its front. This door-yard, which had been twice mown that
+summer, was prettily embellished with flowers, and was shaded by four rows
+of noble cherry-trees. The house itself was of wood, as is almost
+uniformly the case in Suffolk, where little stone is to be found, and
+where brick constructions are apt to be thought damp: but, it was a
+respectable edifice, with five windows in front, and of two stories. The
+siding was of unpainted cedar-shingles; and, although the house had been
+erected long previously to the revolution, the siding had been renewed but
+once, about ten years before the opening of our tale, and the whole
+building was in a perfect state of repair. The thrift of the deacon
+rendered him careful, and he was thoroughly convinced of the truth of the
+familiar adage which tells us that "a stitch in time, saves nine." All
+around the house and farm was in perfect order, proving the application of
+the saying. As for the view, it was sufficiently pleasant, the house
+having its front towards the east, while its end windows looked, the one
+set in the direction of the Sound, and the other in that of the arm of the
+sea, which belongs properly to Peconic Bay, we believe. All this water,
+some of which was visible over points and among islands, together with a
+smiling and fertile, though narrow stretch of foreground, could not fail
+of making an agreeable landscape.</p>
+
+<p>It was little, however, that Deacon Pratt thought of views, or beauty of
+any sort, as the mare reached the open gate of his own abode. Mary was
+standing in the stoop, or porch of the house, and appeared to be anxiously
+awaiting her uncle's return. The latter gave the reins to a black, one who
+was no longer a slave, but who was a descendant of some of the ancient
+slaves of the Pratts, and in that character consented still to dawdle
+about the place, working for half price. On alighting, the uncle
+approached the niece with somewhat of interest in his mariner.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mary," said the former, "how does he get on, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! my dear sir he cannot possibly live, I think, and I do most
+earnestly entreat that you will let me send across to the Harbour for Dr.
+Sage."</p>
+
+<p>By the Harbour was meant Sag's, and the physician named was one of merited
+celebrity in old Suffolk. So healthy was the country in general, and so
+simple were the habits of the people, that neither lawyer nor physician
+was to be found in every hamlet, as is the case to-day. Both were to be
+had at Riverhead, as well as at Sag Harbour; but, if a man called out
+"Squire," or "Doctor," in the highways of Suffolk, sixteen men did not
+turn round to reply, as is said to be the case in other regions; one half
+answering to the one appellation, and the second half to the other. The
+deacon had two objections to yielding to his niece's earnest request; the
+expense being one, though it was not, in this instance, the greatest;
+there was another reason that he kept to himself, but which will appear as
+our narrative proceeds.</p>
+
+<p>A few weeks previously to the Sunday in question, a sea-going vessel,
+inward bound, had brought up in Gardiner's Bay, which is a usual anchorage
+for all sorts of craft. A worn-out and battered seaman had been put ashore
+on Oyster Pond, by a boat from this vessel, which sailed to the westward
+soon after, proceeding most probably to New York. The stranger was not
+only well advanced in life, but he was obviously wasting away with
+disease.</p>
+
+<p>The account given of himself by this seaman was sufficiently explicit. He
+was born on Martha's Vineyard, but, as is customary with the boys of that
+island, he had left home in his twelfth year, and had now been absent from
+the place of his birth a little more than half a century. Conscious of the
+decay which beset him, and fully convinced that his days were few and
+numbered, the seaman, who called himself Tom Daggett, had felt a desire to
+close his eyes in the place where they had first been opened to the light
+of day. He had persuaded the commander of the craft mentioned, to bring
+him from the West Indies, and to put him ashore as related, the Vineyard
+being only a hundred miles or so to the eastward of Oyster Pond Point. He
+trusted to luck to give him the necessary opportunity of overcoming these
+last hundred miles.</p>
+
+<p>Daggett was poor, as he admitted, as well as friendless and unknown. He
+had with him, nevertheless, a substantial sea-chest, one of those that the
+sailors of that day uniformly used in merchant-vessels, a man-of-war
+compelling them to carry their clothes in bags, for the convenience of
+compact stowage. The chest of Daggett, however, was a regular inmate of
+the forecastle, and, from its appearance, had made almost as many voyages
+as its owner. The last, indeed, was heard to say that he had succeeded in
+saving it from no less than three shipwrecks. It was a reasonably heavy
+chest, though its contents, when opened, did not seem to be of any very
+great value.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours after landing, this man had made a bargain with a middle-aged
+widow, in very humble circumstances, and who dwelt quite near to the
+residence of Deacon Pratt, to receive him as a temporary inmate; or, until
+he could get a "chance across to the Vineyard." At first, Daggett kept
+about, and was much in the open air. While able to walk, he met the
+deacon, and singular, nay, unaccountable as it seemed to the niece, the
+uncle soon contracted a species of friendship for, not to say intimacy
+with, this stranger. In the first place, the deacon was a little
+particular in not having intimates among the necessitous, and the Widow
+White soon let it be known that her guest had not even a "red cent." He
+had chattels, however, that were of some estimation among seamen; and
+Roswell Gardiner, or "Gar'ner," as he was called, the young seaman <i>par
+excellence</i> of the Point, one who had been not only a whaling, but who had
+also been a sealing, and who at that moment was on board the deacon's
+schooner, in the capacity of master, had been applied to for advice and
+assistance. By the agency of Mr. Gar'ner, as the young mate was then
+termed, sundry palms, sets of sail-needles, a fid or two, and various
+other similar articles, that obviously could no longer be of any use to
+Daggett, were sent across to the 'Harbour,' and disposed of there, to
+advantage, among the many seamen of the port. By these means the stranger
+was, for a few weeks, enabled to pay his way, the board he got being both
+poor and cheap.</p>
+
+<p>A much better result attended this intercourse with Gardiner, than that of
+raising the worn-out seaman's immediate ways and means. Between Mary Pratt
+and Roswell Gardiner there existed an intimacy of long standing for their
+years, as well as of some peculiar features, to which there will be
+occasion to advert hereafter. Mary was the very soul of charity in all its
+significations, and this Gardiner knew. When, therefore, Daggett became
+really necessitous, in the way of comforts that even money could not
+command beneath the roof of the Widow White, the young man let the fact be
+known to the deacon's niece, who immediately provided sundry delicacies
+that were acceptable to the palate of even disease. As for her uncle,
+nothing was at first said to him on the subject. Although his intimacy
+with Daggett went on increasing, and they were daily more and more
+together, in long and secret conference, not a suggestion was ever made by
+the deacon in the way of contributing to his new friend's comforts. To own
+the truth, to give was the last idea that ever occurred to this man's
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Pratt was observant, and of a mind so constituted, that its
+observations usually led her to safe and accurate deductions. Great was
+the surprise of all on the Point when it became known that Deacon Pratt
+had purchased and put into the water, the new sea-going craft that was
+building on speculation, at Southold. Not only had he done this, but he
+had actually bought some half-worn copper, and had it placed on the
+schooner's bottom, as high as the bends, ere he had her launched. While
+the whole neighbourhood was "exercised" with conjectures on the motive
+which could induce the deacon to become a ship-owner in his age, Mary did
+not fail to impute it to some secret but powerful influence, that the sick
+stranger had obtained over him. He now spent nearly half his time in
+private communications with Daggett; and, on more than one occasion, when
+the niece had taken some light article of food over for the use of the
+last, she found him and her uncle examining one or two dirty and well-worn
+charts of the ocean. As she entered, the conversation invariably was
+changed; nor was Mrs. White ever permitted to be present at one of these
+secret conferences.</p>
+
+<p>Not only was the schooner purchased, and coppered, and launched, and
+preparations made to fit her for sea, but "Young Gar'ner" was appointed to
+command her! As respects Roswell Gardiner, or "Gar'ner," as it would be
+almost thought a breach of decorum, in Suffolk, not to call him, there was
+no mystery. Six-and-twenty years before the opening of our legend, he had
+been born on Oyster Pond itself, and of one of its best families. Indeed,
+he was known to be a descendant of Lyon Gardiner, that engineer who had
+been sent to the settlement of the lords Saye and Seal, and Brook, since
+called Saybrook, near two centuries before, to lay out a town and a fort.
+This Lyon Gardiner had purchased of the Indians the island in that
+neighbourhood, which still bears his name. This establishment on the
+island was made in 1639; and now, at an interval of two hundred and nine
+years, it is in possession of its ninth owner, all having been of the name
+and blood of its original patentee. This is great antiquity for America,
+which, while it has produced many families of greater wealth, and renown,
+and importance, than that of the Gardiners, has seldom produced any of
+more permanent local respectability. This is a feature in society that we
+so much love to see, and which is so much endangered by the uncertain and
+migratory habits of the people, that we pause a moment to record this
+instance of stability, so pleasing and so commendable, in an age and
+country of changes.</p>
+
+<p>The descendants of any family of two centuries standing, will, as a matter
+of course, be numerous. There are exceptions, certainly; but such is the
+rule. Thus is it with Lyon Gardiner, and his progeny, who are now to be
+numbered in scores, including persons in all classes of life, though it
+carries with it a stamp of caste to be known in Suffolk as having come
+direct from the loins of old Lyon Gardiner. Roswell, of that name, if not
+of that Ilk, the island then being the sole property of David Johnson
+Gardiner, the predecessor and brother of its present proprietor, was
+allowed to have this claim, though it would exceed our genealogical
+knowledge to point out the precise line by which this descent was claimed.
+Young Roswell was of respectable blood on both sides, without being very
+brilliantly connected, or rich. On the contrary, early left an orphan,
+fatherless and motherless, as was the case with Mary Pratt, he had been
+taken from a country academy when only fifteen, and sent to sea, that he
+might make his own way in the world. Hitherto, his success had not been of
+a very flattering character. He had risen, notwithstanding, to be the
+chief mate of a whaler, and bore an excellent reputation among the people
+of Suffolk. Had it only been a year or two later, when speculation took
+hold of the whaling business in a larger way, he would not have had the
+least difficulty in obtaining a ship. As it was, however, great was his
+delight when Deacon Pratt engaged him as master of the new schooner, which
+had been already named the "Sea Lion"--or "Sea Lyon," as Roswell sometimes
+affected to spell the word, in honour of his old progenitor, the engineer.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Pratt had noted all these proceedings, partly with pain, partly with
+pleasure, but always with great interest. It pained her to find her uncle,
+in the decline of life, engaging in a business about which he knew
+nothing. It pained her, still more, to see one whom she loved from habit,
+if not from moral sympathies, wasting the few hours that remained for
+preparing for the last great change, in attempts to increase possessions
+that were already much more than sufficient for his wants. This
+consideration, in particular, deeply grieved Mary Pratt; for she was
+profoundly pious, with a conscience that was so sensitive as materially to
+interfere with her happiness, as will presently be shown, while her uncle
+was merely a deacon. It is one thing to be a deacon, and another to be
+devoted to the love of God, and to that love of our species which we are
+told is the consequence of a love of the Deity. The two are not
+incompatible; neither are they identical. This Mary had been made to see,
+in spite of all her wishes to be blind as respects the particular subject
+from whom she had learned the unpleasant lesson. The pleasure felt by our
+heroine, for such we now announce Mary Pratt to be, was derived from the
+preferment bestowed on Roswell Gardiner. She had many a palpitation of the
+heart when she heard of his good conduct as a seaman, as she always did
+whenever she heard his professional career alluded to at all. On this
+point, Roswell was without spot, as all Suffolk knew and confessed. On
+Oyster Pond, he was regarded as a species of sea lion himself, so numerous
+and so exciting were the incidents that were related of his prowess among
+the whales But, there was a dark cloud before all these glories, in the
+eyes of Mary Pratt, which for two years had disinclined her to listen to
+the young man's tale of love, which had induced her to decline accepting a
+hand that had now been offered to her, with a seaman's ardour, a seaman's
+frankness, and a seaman's sincerity, some twenty times at least, which had
+induced her to struggle severely with her own heart, which she had long
+found to be a powerful ally of her suitor. That cloud came from a species
+of infidelity that is getting to be so widely spread in America as no
+longer to work in secret, but which lifts its head boldly among us,
+claiming openly to belong to one of the numerous sects of the land. Mary
+had reason to think that Roswell Gardiner denied the divinity of Christ,
+while he professed to honour and defer to him as a man far elevated above
+all other men, and as one whose blood had purchased the redemption of his
+race!</p>
+
+<p>We will take this occasion to say that our legend is not polemical in any
+sense, and that we have no intention to enter into discussions or
+arguments connected with this subject, beyond those that we may conceive
+to be necessary to illustrate the picture which it is our real aim to
+draw--that of a confiding, affectionate, nay, devoted woman's heart, in
+conflict with a deep sense of religious duty.</p>
+
+<p>Still, Mary rejoiced that Roswell Gardiner was to command the Sea Lion.
+Whither this little vessel, a schooner of about one hundred and forty tons
+measurement, was to sail, she had not the slightest notion; but, go where
+it might, her thoughts and prayers were certain to accompany it. These are
+woman's means of exerting influence, and who shall presume to say that
+they are without results, and useless? On the contrary, we believe them to
+be most efficacious; and thrice happy is the man who, as he treads the
+mazes and wiles of the world, goes accompanied by the petitions of such
+gentle and pure-minded being's at home, as seldom think of approaching the
+throne of Grace without also thinking of him and of his necessities. The
+Romanists say, and say it rightly too, could one only believe in their
+efficacy, that the prayers they offer up in behalf of departed friends,
+are of the most endearing nature; but it would be difficult to prove that
+petitions for the souls of the dead can demonstrate greater interest, or
+bind the parties more closely together in the unity of love, than those
+that are constantly offered up in behalf of the living.</p>
+
+<p>The interest that Mary Pratt felt in Roswell's success needs little
+explanation. In all things he was most agreeable to her, but in the one
+just mentioned. Their ages, their social positions, their habits, their
+orphan condition, even their prejudices--and who that dwells aside from
+the world is without them, when most of those who encounter its collisions
+still cherish them so strongly?--all united to render them of interest to
+each other. Nor was Deacon Pratt at all opposed to the connection; on the
+contrary, he appeared rather to favour it.</p>
+
+<p>The objections came solely from Mary, whose heart was nearly ready to
+break each time that she was required to urge them. As for the uncle, it
+is not easy to say what could induce him to acquiesce in, to favour
+indeed, the addresses to his niece and nearest relative, of one who was
+known not to possess five hundred dollars in the world. As his opinions on
+this subject were well known to all on Oyster Pond, they had excited a
+good deal of speculation; "exercising" the whole neighbourhood, as was
+very apt to be the case whenever anything occurred in the least out of the
+ordinary track. The several modes of reasoning were something like
+these:--</p>
+
+<p>Some were of opinion that the deacon foresaw a successful career to, and
+eventual prosperity in the habits and enterprise of, the young mate, and
+that he was willing to commit to his keeping, not only his niece, but the
+three farms, his "money at use," and certain shares he was known to own in
+a whaler and no less than three coasters, as well as an interest in a
+store at Southold; that is to say, to commit them all to the keeping of
+"young Gar'ner" when he was himself dead; for no one believed he would
+part with more than Mary, in his own lifetime.</p>
+
+<p>Others fancied he was desirous of getting the orphan off his hands, in the
+easiest possible way, that he might make a bequest of his whole estate to
+the Theological Institution that had been coquetting with him now, for
+several years, through its recognised agents, and to which he had already
+made the liberal donation of one hundred dollars. It was well ascertained
+that the agents of that Institution openly talked of getting Deacon Pratt
+to sit for his portrait, in order that it might be suspended among those
+of others of its benefactors.</p>
+
+<p>A third set reasoned differently from both the foregoing. The "Gar'ners"
+were a better family than the Pratts, and the deacon being so "well to
+do," it was believed by these persons that he was disposed to unite money
+with name, and thus give to his family consideration, from a source that
+was somewhat novel in its history. This class of reasoners was quite
+small, however, and mainly consisted of those who had rarely been off of
+Oyster Pond, and who passed their days with "Gar'ner's Island" directly
+before their eyes. A few of the gossips of this class pretended to say
+that their own young sailor stood next in succession after the immediate
+family actually in possession should run out, of which there was then some
+prospect; and that the deacon, sly fellow, knew all about it! For this
+surmise, to prevent useless expectations in the reader, it may be well to
+say at once, there was no foundation whatever, Roswell's connection with
+the owner of the island being much too remote to give him any chance of
+succeeding to that estate, or to anything else that belonged to him.</p>
+
+<p>There was a fourth and last set, among those who speculated on the
+deacon's favour towards "young Gar'ner," and these were they who fancied
+that the old man had opened his heart towards the young couple, and was
+disposed to render a deserving youth and a beloved niece happy. This was
+the smallest class of all; and, what is a little remarkable, it contained
+only the most reckless and least virtuous of all those who dwelt on Oyster
+Pond. The parson of the parish, or the Pastor as he was usually termed,
+belonged to the second category, that good man being firmly impressed that
+most, if not all of Deacon Pratt's worldly effects would eventually go to
+help propagate the gospel.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things when the deacon returned from meeting, as
+related in the opening chapter. At his niece's suggestion of sending to
+the Harbour for Dr. Sage, he had demurred, not only on account of the
+expense, but for a still more cogent reason. To tell the truth, he was
+exceedingly distrustful of any one's being admitted to a communication
+with Daggett, who had revealed to him matters that he deemed to be of
+great importance, but who still retained the key to his most material
+mystery. Nevertheless, decency, to say nothing of the influence of what
+"folks would say," the Archimedean lever of all society of puritanical
+origin, exhorted him to consent to his niece's proposal.</p>
+
+<p>"It is such a round-about road to get to the Harbour, Mary," the uncle
+slowly objected, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Boats often go there, and return in a few hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes--<i>boats</i>; but I'm not certain it is lawful to work boats of a
+Sabbath, child."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe, sir, it was deemed lawful to do good on the Lord's day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if a body was certain it <i>would</i> do any good. To be sure, Sage is a
+capital doctor--as good as any going in these parts--but, half the time,
+money paid for doctor's stuff is thrown away."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, I think it our duty to try to serve a fellow-creature that is in
+distress; and Daggett, I fear, will not go through the week, if indeed he
+go through the night."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be sorry to have him die!" exclaimed the deacon, looking really
+distressed at this intelligence. "Right sorry should I be, to have him
+die--just yet."
+
+The last two words were uttered unconsciously, and in a way to cause the
+niece to regret that they had been uttered at all. But they had come,
+notwithstanding, and the deacon saw that he had been too frank. The fault
+could not now be remedied, and he was fain to allow his words to produce
+their own effect.</p>
+
+<p>"Die he will, I fear, uncle," returned Mary, after a short pause; "and
+sorry should I be to have it so without our feeling the consolation of
+knowing we had done all in our power to save him, or to serve him."</p>
+
+<p>"It is so far to the Harbour, that no good might come of a messenger; and
+the money paid <i>him</i> would be thrown away, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say Roswell Gardner would be glad to go to help a fellow-creature
+who is suffering. <i>He</i> would not think of demanding any pay."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is true. I will say this for Gar'ner, that he is as reasonable
+a young man, when he does an odd job, as any one I know. I like to employ
+him."</p>
+
+<p>Mary understood this very well. It amounted to neither more nor less, than
+the deacon's perfect consciousness that the youth had, again and again,
+given him his time and his services gratuitously; and that too, more than
+once, under circumstances when it would have been quite proper that he
+should look for a remuneration. A slight colour stole over the face of the
+niece, as memory recalled to her mind these different occasions. Was that
+sensitive blush owing to her perceiving the besetting weakness of one who
+stood in the light of a parent to her, and towards whom she endeavoured to
+feel the affection of a child? We shall not gainsay this, so far as a
+portion of the feeling which produced that blush was concerned; but,
+certain it is, that the thought that Roswell had exerted himself to oblige
+<i>her</i> uncle, obtruded itself somewhat vividly among her other
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir," the niece resumed, after another brief pause, "we can send
+for Roswell, if you think it best, and ask him to do the poor man this act
+of kindness."</p>
+
+<p>"Your messengers after doctors are always in such a hurry! I dare say,
+Gar'ner would think it necessary to hire a horse to cross Shelter Island,
+and then perhaps a boat to get across to the Harbour. If no boat was to be
+found, it might be another horse to gallop away round the head of the Bay.
+Why, five dollars would scarce meet the cost of such a race!"</p>
+
+<p>"If five dollars were needed, Roswell would pay them out of his own
+pocket, rather than ask another to assist him in doing an act of charity.
+But, no horse will be necessary; the whale-boat is at the wharf, and is
+ready for use, at any moment."</p>
+
+<p>"True, I had forgotten the whale-boat. If that is home, the doctor might
+be brought across at a reasonable rate; especially if Gar'ner will
+volunteer. I dare say Daggett's effects will pay the bill for attendance,
+since they have answered, as yet, to meet the Widow White's charges. As I
+live, here comes Gar'ner, at this moment, and just as we want him."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew of no other to ask to cross the bays, sir, and sent for Roswell
+before you returned. Had you not got back, as you did, I should have taken
+on myself the duty of sending for the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, girl, you would have made yourself liable. I have too many
+demands on my means, to be scattering dollars broadcast. But, here is
+Gar'ner, and I dare say all will be made right."</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner now joined the uncle and niece, who had held this conversation in
+the porch, having hastened up from the schooner the instant he received
+Mary's summons. He was rewarded by a kind look and a friendly shake of the
+hand, each of which was slightly more cordial than those that prudent and
+thoughtful young woman was accustomed to bestow on him. He saw that Mary
+was a little earnest in her manner, and looked curious, as well as
+interested, to learn why he had been summoned at all. Sunday was kept so
+rigidly at the deacon's, that the young man did not dare visit the house
+until after the sun had set; the New England practice of commencing the
+Sabbath of a Saturday evening, and bringing it to a close at the
+succeeding sunset, prevailing among most of the people of Suffolk, the
+Episcopalians, forming nearly all the exceptions to the usage. Sunday
+evening, consequently, was in great request for visits, it being the
+favourite time for the young people to meet, as they were not only certain
+to be unemployed, but to be in their best. Roswell Gardiner was in the
+practice of visiting Mary Pratt on Sunday evenings; but he would almost as
+soon think of desecrating a church, as think of entering the deacon's
+abode, on the Sabbath, until after sunset, or "sun<i>down</i>," to use the
+familiar Americanism that is commonly applied to this hour of the day.
+Here he was, now, however, wondering, and anxious to learn why he had been
+sent for.</p>
+
+<p>"Roswell," said Mary, earnestly, slightly colouring again as she spoke,
+"we have a great favour to ask. You know the poor old sailor who has been,
+staying at the Widow While's, this month or more--he is now very low; so
+low, we think he ought to have better advice than can be found on Oyster
+Pond, and we wish to get Dr. Sage over from the Harbour. How to do it has
+been the question, when I thought of you. If you could take the whale-boat
+and go across, the poor man might have the benefit of the doctor's advice
+in the course of a few hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," put in the uncle, "and I shall charge nothing for the use of the
+boat; so that, if <i>you</i> volunteer, Gar'ner, it will leave so much towards
+settling up the man's accounts, when settling day comes."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner understood both uncle and niece perfectly. The intense
+selfishness of the first was no more a secret to him than was the entire
+disinterestedness of the last. He gazed a moment, in fervent admiration,
+at Mary; then he turned to the deacon, and professed his readiness to
+"volunteer." Knowing the man so well, he took care distinctly to express
+the word, so as to put the mind of this votary of Mammon at ease.</p>
+
+<p>"Gar'ner will <i>volunteer</i>, then," rejoined the uncle, "and I shall charge
+nothing for the use of the boat. This is 'doing as we would be done by,'
+and is all right, considering that Daggett is sick and among strangers.
+The wind is fair, or nearly fair, to go and to come back, and you'll make
+a short trip of it. Yes, it will cost nothing, and may do the poor man
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, go at once, Roswell," said Mary, in an entreating manner; "and show
+the same skill in managing the boat that you did the day you won the race
+against the Harbour oarsmen."
+
+"I will do all a man can, to oblige you, Mary, as well as to serve the
+sick. If Dr. Sage should not be at home, am I to look for another
+physician, Mr. Pratt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sage <i>must</i> be at home--we can employ no other. Your old,
+long-established physicians understand how to consider practice, and don't
+make mistakes--by the way, Gar'ner, you needn't mention <i>my</i> name in the
+business, at all. Just say that a sick man, at the Widow White's, needs
+his services, and that you had <i>volunteered</i> to take him across. <i>That</i>
+will bring him--I know the man."</p>
+
+<p>Again Gardiner understood what the deacon meant. He was just as desirous
+of not paying the physician as of not paying the messenger. Mary
+understood him, too and, with a face still more sad than anxiety had
+previously made it, she walked into the house, leaving her uncle and lover
+in the porch. After a few more injunctions from the former, in the way of
+prudent precaution, the latter departed, hurrying down to the water-side,
+in order to take to the boat.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-03">
+<h2>Chapter III.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"All that glisters is not gold,<br />
+Often have you heard that told;<br />
+Many a man his life hath sold,<br />
+But my outside to behold."</p>
+
+<p>  <i>Merchant of Venice.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>No sooner was Deacon Pratt left alone, than he hastened to the humble
+dwelling of the Widow White. The disease of Daggett was a general decay
+that was not attended with much suffering. He was now seated in a homely
+armchair, and was able to converse. He was not aware, indeed, of the real
+danger of his case, and still had hopes of surviving many years. The
+deacon came in at the door, just as the widow had passed through it, on
+her way to visit another crone, who lived hard by, and with whom she was
+in the constant habit of consulting. She had seen the deacon in the
+distance, and took that occasion to run across the road, having a sort of
+instinctive notion that her presence was not required when the two men
+conferred together. What was the subject of their frequent private
+communications, the Widow White did not exactly know; but what she
+imagined, will in part appear in her discourse with her neighbour, the
+Widow Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's the deacon, ag'in!" cried the Widow White, as she bolted hurriedly
+into her friend's presence. "This makes the third time he has been at <i>my</i>
+house since yesterday morning. What <i>can</i> he mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I dare say, Betsy, he means no more than to visit the sick, as he
+pretends is the reason of his many visits."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget it is Sabba' day!" added the Widow White, with emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>"The better day, the better deed, Betsy."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that; but it's dreadful often for a <i>man</i> to visit the sick--three
+times in twenty-four hours!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; 't would have been more nat'ral for a woman, a body must own,"
+returned the Widow Stone, a little drily. "Had the deacon been a woman, I
+dare say, Betsy, you would not have thought so much of his visits."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think nothing of them at all," rejoined the sister widow,
+innocently enough. "But it is dreadful odd in a <i>man</i> to be visiting about
+among the sick so much--and he a deacon of the meeting!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is not as common as it might be, particularly among deacons. But,
+come in, Betsy, and I will show you the text from which minister preached
+this morning. It's well worth attending to, for it touches on our forlorn
+state." Hereupon, the two relicts entered an inner room, where we shall
+leave them to discuss the merits of the sermon, interrupted by many
+protestations on the part of the Widow White, concerning the "dreadful"
+character of Deacon Pratt's many visits to <i>her</i> cottage, "Sabba' days" as
+well as week days.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile, the interview between the deacon, himself, and the sick
+mariner, had its course. After the first salutations, and the usual
+inquiries, the visiter, with some parade of manner, alluded to the fact
+that he had sent for a physician for the other's benefit.</p>
+
+<p>"I did it of my own head," added the deacon; "or, I might better say, of
+my own heart. It was unpleasant to me to witness your sufferings, without
+doing something to alleviate them. To alleviate sorrow, and pain, and the
+throes of conscience, is one of the most pleasant of all the Christian
+offices. Yes, I have sent young Gar'ner across the bays, to the Harbour;
+and three or four hours hence we may look for him back, with Dr. Sage in
+his boat."</p>
+
+<p>"I only hope I shall have the means to pay for all this expense and
+trouble, deacon," returned Daggett, in a sort of doubting way, that, for a
+moment, rendered his friend exceedingly uncomfortable. "Go, I know I must,
+sooner or later; but could I only live to get to the Vineyard, twould be
+found that my share of the old homestead would make up for all my wants. I
+<i>may</i> live to see the end of the other business."</p>
+
+<p>Among the other tales of Daggett, was one which said that he had never yet
+received his share of his father's property; an account that was true
+enough, though the truth might have shown that the old man had left
+nothing worth dividing. He had been a common mariner, like the son, and
+had left behind him a common mariner's estate. The deacon mused a moment,
+and then he took an occasion to advert to the subject that had now been
+uppermost in his thoughts ever since he had been in the habit of holding
+secret conferences with the sick man. What that subject was, will appear
+in the course of the conversation that ensued.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you thought of the chart, Daggett," asked the deacon, "and given an
+eye to that journal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both, sir. Your kindness to me has been so great, that I am not a man apt
+to forget it."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would show me, yourself, the precise places on the chart,
+where them islands are to be found. There is nothing like seeing a thing
+with one's own eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget my oath, deacon Pratt. Every man on us took his bible oath not
+to point out the position of the islands, until a'ter the year 1820. Then,
+each and all on us is at liberty to do as he pleases. But, the chart is in
+my chest, and not only the islands, but the key, is so plainly laid down,
+that any mariner could find 'em. With that chest, however, I cannot part
+so long as I live. Get me well, and I will sail in the Sea Lion, and tell
+your captain Gar'ner all he will have occasion to know. The man's fortune
+will be made who first gets to either of them places."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can imagine that, easy enough, from your accounts, Daggett--but,
+how am I to be certain that some other vessel will not get the start of
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the secret is now my own. There was but seven on us, in that
+brig, all told. Of them seven, four died at the islands of the fever,
+homeward bound; and of the other three, the captain was drowned in the
+squall I told you of, when he was washed overboard. That left only Jack
+Thompson and me; and Jack, I think, must be the very man whose death I
+see'd, six months since, as being killed by a whale on the False Banks."</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Thompson is so common a name, a body never knows. Besides, if he was
+killed by that whale, he may have told the secret to a dozen before the
+accident."</p>
+
+<p>"There's his oath ag'in it. Jack was sworn, as well as all on us, and he
+was a man likely to stand by what he swore to. This was none of your
+custom-house oaths, of which a chap might take a dozen of a morning, and
+all should be false; but it was an oath that put a seaman on his honour,
+since it was a good-fellowship affair, all round."</p>
+
+<p>Deacon Pratt did not <i>tell</i> Daggett that Thompson might have as good
+reasons for disregarding the oath as he had himself; but he <i>thought</i> it.
+These are things that no wise man utters on such occasions; and this
+opinion touching the equality of the obligation of that oath was one of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another hold upon Jack," continued Daggrett, after reflecting a
+moment. "He never could make any fist of latitude and longitude at all,
+and he kept no journal. Now, should he get it wrong, he and his friends
+might hunt a year without finding either of the places."</p>
+
+<p>"You think there was no mistake in the pirate's account of that key, and
+of the buried treasure?" asked the deacon, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I would swear to the truth of what <i>he</i> said, as freely as if I had seen
+the box myself. They was necessitated, as you may suppose, or they never
+would have left so much gold, in sich an uninhabited place; but leave it
+they did, on the word of a dying man."</p>
+
+<p>"Dying?--You mean the pirate, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure I do. We was shut up in the same prison, and we talked the
+matter over at least twenty times, before he was swung off. When they was
+satisfied I had nothing to do with the pirates, I was cleared; and I was
+on my way to the Vineyard, to get some craft or other, to go a'ter these
+two treasures (for one is just as much a treasure as t'other) when I was
+put ashore here. It's much the same to me, whether the craft sails from
+Oyster Pond or from the Vineyard."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Well, as much to oblige you, and to put your mind at rest, as
+anything else, I've bought this Sea Lion, and engaged young Roswell
+Gar'ner to go out in her, as her master. She'll be ready to sail in a
+fortnight, and, if things turn out as you say, a good voyage will she
+make. All interested in her will have reason to rejoice. I see but one
+thing needful just now, and that is that you should give me the chart at
+once, in order that I may study it well, before the schooner sails."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to make the v'y'ge yourself, deacon?" asked Daggett, in some
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Not in person, certainly," was the answer. "I'm getting somewhat too old
+to leave home for so long a time; and, though born and brought up in sight
+of salt-water, I've never tried it beyond a trip to York, or one to
+Boston. Still, I shall have my property in the adventure, and it's nat'ral
+to keep an eye on <i>that</i>. Now, the chart well studied before-hand would be
+much more useful, it seems to me, than it can possibly be, if taken up at
+a late hour."</p>
+
+<p>"There will be time enough for captain Gar'ner to overhaul his chart well,
+afore he reaches either of his ports," returned the mariner, evasively.
+"If I sail with him, as I suppose I <i>must</i>, nothing will be easier than
+for me to give all the courses and distances."</p>
+
+<p>This reply produced a long and brooding silence. By this time, the reader
+will have got a clue to the nature of the secret that was discussed so
+much, and so often, between these two men. Daggett, finding himself sick,
+poor, and friendless, among strangers, had early cast about him for the
+means of obtaining an interest with those who might serve him. He had soon
+got an insight into the character of Deacon Pratt, from the passing
+remarks of the Widow White, who was induced to allude to the uncle, in
+consequence of the charitable visits of the niece. One day, when matters
+appeared to be at a very low ebb with him, and shortly after he had been
+put ashore, the sick mariner requested an interview with the deacon
+himself. The request had been reluctantly granted; but, during the visit,
+Daggett had managed so well to whet his visiter's appetite for gain, that
+henceforth there was no trouble in procuring the deacon's company. Little
+by little had Daggett let out his facts, always keeping enough in reserve
+to render himself necessary, until he had got his new acquaintance in the
+highest state of feverish excitement. The schooner was purchased, and all
+the arrangements necessary to her outfit were pressed forward as fast as
+prudence would at all allow. The chart, and the latitude and longitude,
+were the circumstances over which Daggett retained the control. These he
+kept to himself, though he averred that he had laid down on the charts
+that were in his chest the two important points which had been the
+subjects of his communications.</p>
+
+<p>Although this man had been wily in making his revelations, and had chosen
+his confidant with caution and sagacity, most of that which he related was
+true. He had belonged to a sealer that had been in a very high southern
+latitude, where it had made some very important discoveries, touching the
+animals that formed the objects of its search. It was possible to fill a
+vessel in those islands in a few weeks; and the master of the sealer,
+Daggett having been his mate, had made all his people swear on their
+"bible oaths" not to reveal the facts, except under prescribed
+circumstances. His own vessel was full when he made the discoveries, but
+misfortune befel her on her homeward-bound passage, until she was herself
+totally lost in the West Indies, and that in a part of the ocean where she
+had no business to be.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of these several calamities, Daggett and one more man were
+the sole living depositories of the important information. These men
+separated, and, as stated, Daggett had reason to think that his former
+shipmate had been recently killed by a whale. The life and movements of a
+sailor are usually as eccentric as the career of a comet. After the loss
+of the sealing-vessel, Daggett remained in the West Indies and on the
+Spanish Main for some time, until falling into evil company he was
+imprisoned on a charge of piracy, in company with one who better deserved
+the imputation. While in the same cell, the pirate had made a relation to
+Daggett of all the incidents of a very eventful life. Among other things
+revealed was the fact that, on a certain occasion, he and two others had
+deposited a very considerable amount of treasure on a key that he
+described very minutely, and which he now bestowed on Daggett as some
+compensation for his present unmerited sufferings, his companions having
+both been drowned by the upsetting of their boat on the return from the
+key in question. Subsequently, this pirate had been executed, and Daggett
+liberated. He was not able to get to the key without making friends and
+confidants on whom he could rely, and he was actually making the best of
+his way to Martha's Vineyard with that intent, when put ashore on Oyster
+Pond. In most of that which this man had related to the deacon, therefore,
+he had told the truth, though it was the truth embellished, as is so apt
+to be the case with men of vulgar minds. He might have been misled by the
+narrative of the pirate, but it was his own opinion that he had not been.
+The man was a Scot, prudent, wary, and sagacious; and in the revelations
+he made he appeared to be governed by a conviction that his own course was
+run, and that it was best that his secret should not die with him. Daggett
+had rendered him certain services, too, and gratitude might have had some
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>"My mind has been much exercised with this matter of the hidden gold,"
+resumed the deacon, after the long pause already mentioned. "You will
+remember that there may be lawful owners of that money, should Gar'ner
+even succeed in finding it."</p>
+
+<p>"'T would be hard for 'em to prove their claims, sir, if what McGosh told
+me was true. Accordin' to his account, the gold came from all
+sides--starboard and larboard, as a body might say--and it was jumbled
+together, and so mixed, that a young girl could not pick out her lover's
+keepsake from among the other pieces. 'T was the 'arnin's of three years
+cruisin', as I understood him to say; and much of the stuff had been
+exchanged in port, especially to get the custom-house officers and king's
+officers out of its wake. There's king's officers among them bloody
+Spaniards, Deacon Pratt, all the same as among the English."</p>
+
+<p>"Be temperate in your language, friend; a rough speech is unseemly,
+particularly of the Lord's day."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett rolled the tobacco over his tongue, and his eyes twinkled with a
+sort of leer, which indicated that the fellow was not without some humour.
+He submitted patiently to the rebuke, however, making no remonstrance
+against its reception.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," he added presently, "a starn chase, they say, is a long chase;
+and the owners of them doubloons, if owners they can now be called, must
+be out of sight, long before this. Accordin' to McGosh, some of the gold
+r'aally captured had passed back through the hands of them that sent it to
+sea, and they did not know their own children!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly hard to identify coin, and it would be a bold man who
+should stand up, in open court, and make oath to its being the same he had
+once held. I have heard of the same gold's having answered the purposes of
+twenty banks, one piece being so like another."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir, gold is gold; and any of it is good enough for me, though
+doubloons is my favour<i>ites</i>. When a fellow has got half-a-dozen doubloons
+alongside of his ribs, he can look the landlord full in the eye; and no
+one thinks of saying to sich as he, 'it's time to think of shipping
+ag'in.'"</p>
+
+<p>From the nature of this discourse, it will not be easy for the reader to
+imagine the real condition of Daggett. At the very moment he was thus
+conversing of money, and incidentally manifesting his expectations of
+accompanying Roswell Gardiner in the expedition that was about to sail,
+the man had not actually four-and-twenty hours of life in him. Mary Pratt
+had foreseen his true state, accustomed as she was to administer to the
+wants of the dying; but no one else appeared to be aware of it, not even
+the deacon. It was true that the fellow spoke, as it might be, from his
+throat only, and that his voice was hollow, and sometimes reduced to a
+whisper; but he ascribed this, himself, to the circumstance that he had
+taken a cold. Whether the deacon believed this account or not, it might be
+difficult to say; but he appeared to give it full credit. Perhaps his mind
+was so much occupied with the subject of his discussions with Daggett,
+that it did not sufficiently advert to the real condition of the man.</p>
+
+<p>Twice, that afternoon, did Deacon Pratt go between the cottage of the
+Widow White and his own dwelling. As often did the relict fly across the
+way to express her wonder to the Widow Stone, at the frequency of the rich
+man's visits. The second time that he came was when he saw the whale-boat
+rounding the end of Shelter Island, and he perceived, by means of his
+glass, that Dr. Sage was in it. At this sight the deacon hurried off to
+the cottage again, having something to say to Daggett that could no longer
+be delayed.</p>
+
+<p>"The whale-boat will soon be in," he observed, as soon as he had taken his
+seat, "and we shall shortly have the doctor here. That young Gar'ner does
+what he has to do, always, with a jerk! There was no such haste, but he
+seems to be ever in a hurry!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do what is to be done at once, and then lie by, is the sailor's rule,
+deacon," rejoined the mariner. "Squalls, and gusts, and reefin', and
+brailin' up, and haulin' down, won't wait for the seaman's leisure. <i>His</i>
+work must be done at once, or it will not be done at all. I'm not afeard
+of the doctor; so let him come as soon as he pleases. Medicine can't hurt
+a body, if he don't take it."</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing I wish to say to you, Daggett, before Dr. Sage comes
+in. Talking too much may excite you, especially talking of matters that
+are of interest; and you may give him a false impression of your state,
+should you get the pulse up, and the cheek flushed, by over-talking."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand you, deacon. My secret is my secret, and no doctor shall get
+it out of me as long as I know what I say. I'm not so friendly with them,
+as to seek counsel among doctors."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's the Lord's day," added the Pharisee, "and it is not seemly to
+dwell too much on worldly interests, on the Sabbath."</p>
+
+<p>A novice might have been surprised, after what had passed, at the
+exceeding coolness with which the deacon uttered this sentiment. Daggett
+was not so in the least, however; for he had taken the measure of his new
+confidant's conscience, and had lived long enough to know how marked was
+the difference between professions and practice. Nothing, indeed, is more
+common than to meet with those who denounce that in others, which is of
+constant occurrence with themselves; and who rail at vices that are so
+interwoven with their own moral being, as to compose integral portions of
+their existence. As for the deacon, he really thought it would be
+unseemly, and of evil example, for Daggett to converse with Dr. Sage,
+touching these doubloons, of the Lord's day: while he had felt no
+scruples himself, a short hour before, to make them the theme of a long
+and interesting discussion, in his own person. It might not repay us for
+the trouble, to look for the salve that the worthy man applied to his own
+conscience, by way of reconciling the apparent contradiction; though it
+probably was connected with some fancied and especial duty on his part, of
+taking care of the sick man's secrets. Sickness, it is well known, forms
+the apology for many an error, both of omission and commission.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sage now arrived; a shrewd, observant, intelligent man, who had
+formerly represented the district in which he lived, in Congress. He was
+skilful in his profession, and soon made up his mind concerning the state
+of his patient. As the deacon never left him for a moment, to him he first
+communicated his opinion, after the visit, as the two walked back towards
+the well-known dwelling of the Pratts.</p>
+
+<p>"This poor man is in the last stages of a decline," said the physician,
+coolly, "and medicine can do him no good. He <i>may</i> live a month; though it
+would not surprise me to hear of his death in an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think his time so short!" exclaimed the deacon. "I was in hopes he
+might last until the Sea Lion goes out, and that a voyage might help to
+set him up."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing will ever set him up again, deacon, you may depend, on that. No
+sea-voyage will do him any good; and it is better that he should remain on
+shore, on account of the greater comforts he will get. Does he belong on
+Oyster Pond?"</p>
+
+<p>"He comes from somewhere east," answered the deacon, careful not to let
+the doctor know the place whence the stranger had come, though to little
+purpose, as will presently be seen. "He has neither friend nor
+acquaintance, here; though I should think his effects sufficient to meet
+all charges."</p>
+
+<p>"Should they not be, he is welcome to my visit," answered the doctor,
+promptly; for he well understood the deacon's motive in making the remark.
+"I have enjoyed a pleasant sail across the bays with young Gar'ner, who
+has promised to take me back again. I like boating, and am always better
+for one of these sailing excursions. Could I carry my patients along, half
+of them would be benefited by the pure air and the exercise."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a grateful thing to meet with one of your temperament, doctor--but
+Daggett--"</p>
+
+<p>"Is this man named Daggett?" interrupted the physician.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>believe</i> that is what he calls himself, though a body never is certain
+of what such people say."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true, deacon; your rambling, houseless sailor is commonly a great
+liar--at least so have I always found him. Most of their log-books will
+not do to read; or, for that matter, to be written out, in full. But if
+this man's name is really Daggett, he must come from the Vineyard. There
+are Daggetts there in scores; yes, he must be a Vineyard man."</p>
+
+<p>"There are Daggetts in Connecticut, as I know, of a certainty--"</p>
+
+<p>"We all know that, for it is a name of weight there; but the Vineyard is
+the cradle of the breed. The man has a Vineyard look about him, too. I
+dare say, now, he has not been home for many a day."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon was in an agony. He was menaced with the very thing he was in
+the hope of staving off, or a discussion on the subject of the sick man's
+previous life. The doctor was so mercurial and quick of apprehension,
+that, once fairly on the scent, he was nearly certain he would extract
+every thing from the patient. This was the principal reason why the deacon
+did not wish to send for him; the expense, though a serious objection to
+one so niggardly, being of secondary consideration when so many doubloons
+were at stake. It was necessary, however, to talk on boldly, as any
+appearance of hesitation might excite the doctor's distrust. The answers,
+therefore, came instantaneously.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be as you say, doctor," returned the deacon; "for them Vineyard
+folks (Anglice folk) are great wanderers."</p>
+
+<p>"That are they. I had occasion to pass a day there, a few years since, on
+my way to Boston, and I found five women on the island to one man. It must
+be a particularly conscientious person who could pass a week there, and
+escape committing the crime of bigamy. As for your bachelors, I have heard
+that a poor wretch of that description, who unluckily found himself cast
+ashore there, was married three times the same morning."</p>
+
+<p>As the doctor was a little of a wag, deacon Pratt did not deem it
+necessary religiously to believe all that now escaped him; but he was glad
+to keep him in this vein, in order to prevent his getting again on the
+track of Daggett's early life. The device succeeded, Martha's Vineyard
+being a standing joke for all in that quarter of the world, on the subject
+of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Mary was in the porch to receive her uncle and the physician. It was
+unnecessary for her to ask any questions, for her speaking countenance
+said all that was required, in order to obtain an answer.</p>
+
+<p>"He's in a bad way, certainly, young lady," observed the doctor, taking a
+seat on one of the benches, "and I can give no hope. How long he may live,
+is another matter. If he has friends whom he wishes to see, or if he has
+any affairs to settle, the truth should be told him at once, and no time
+lost."</p>
+
+<p>"He knows nothing of his friends," interrupted the deacon, quite thrown
+off his guard by his own eagerness, and unconscious, at the moment, of the
+manner in which he was committing himself on the subject of a knowledge of
+the sick man's birth-place, "not having been on the Vineyard, or heard
+from there, since he first left home, quite fifty years since."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor saw the contradiction, and it set him thinking, and
+conjecturing, but he was too discreet to betray himself. An explanation
+there probably was, and he trusted to time to ascertain it.</p>
+
+<p>"What has become of captain Gar'ner?" he asked, looking curiously around,
+as if he expected to find him tied to the niece's apron-string.</p>
+
+<p>Mary blushed, but she was too innocent to betray any real confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"He has gone back to the schooner, in order to have the boat ready for
+your return."</p>
+
+<p>"And that return must take place, young lady, as soon as I have drunk two
+cups of your tea. I have patients at the Harbour who must yet be visited
+this evening, and the wind goes down with the sun. Let the poor man take
+the draughts I have left for him--they will soothe him, and help his
+breathing--more than this my skill can do nothing for him. Deacon, you
+need say nothing of this visit--I am sufficiently repaid by the air, the
+sail, and Miss Mary's welcome. I perceive that she is glad to see me, and
+that is something, between so young a woman and so old a man. And now for
+the two cups of tea."</p>
+
+<p>The tea was drunk, and the doctor took his leave, shaking his head as he
+repeated to the niece, that the medical science could do nothing for the
+sick man.</p>
+
+<p>"Let his friends know his situation at once, deacon," he said, as they
+walked towards the wharf, where the whale-boat was all ready for a start.
+"There is not an hour to lose. Now I think of it, the Flash, captain
+Smith, is to take a cargo of oil to Boston, and sails to-morrow. I can
+write a line by her, as it is ten to one she will go into the Hole. All
+our craft get into that Hole, or into Tarpaulin Cove, before they venture
+across the Shoals; and a letter addressed to any person of the name of
+Daggett might find the right man. I'll write it this very evening."</p>
+
+<p>The announcement of this intention threw the deacon into a cold-sweat, but
+he did not think it prudent to say aught against it. He had bought the Sea
+Lion, engaged Roswell Gardiner, and otherwise expended a large sum of
+money, in the expectation of handling those doubloons, to say nothing of
+the furs; and here was a chance of all his calculations being defeated by
+the interference of impertinent and greedy relatives! There was no remedy
+but patience, and this the deacon endeavoured to exercise.</p>
+
+<p>Deacon Pratt did not accompany the doctor beyond the limits of his own
+orchard. It was not deemed seemly for a member of the meeting to be seen
+walking out on the Sabbath, and this was remembered in season to prevent
+neighbourly comments. It is true, the <i>doctor</i> might furnish an apology;
+but, your strictly religious people, when they undertake the care of other
+people's consciences, do not often descend to these particulars.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had Gardiner and the physician re-embarked than the deacon
+returned to the cottage of the Widow White. Here he had another long and
+searching discourse with the sick mariner. Poor Daggett was wearied with
+the subject; but Dr. Sage's predictions of an early termination of the
+case, and the possibility that kinsmen might cross over from the
+'Vineyard,' in order to learn what the long absent man had in his
+possession, acted on him as keen incentives. By learning the most material
+facts now, the Sea Lion might get so far ahead of all competitors as to
+secure the prizes, even should Daggett let others into the secret, and
+start another vessel on the same expedition. His own schooner was nearly
+ready for sea, whereas time would be needed in order to make an entire
+outfit.</p>
+
+<p>But Daggett did not appear to be disposed to be more communicative than
+heretofore. He went over the narrative of the discovery of the
+sealing-island, and gave a graphic account of the number and tame
+condition of the animals who frequented it. A man might walk in their
+midst without giving the smallest alarm. In a word, all that a gang of
+good hands would have to do, would be to kill, and skin, and secure the
+oil. It would be like picking up dollars on a sea-beach. Sadly! sadly!
+indeed, was the deacon's cupidity excited by this account; a vivid picture
+of whales, or seals, having some such effect on the imagination of a true
+Suffolk county man, or more properly on that of an East-ender, as those
+who live beyond Riverhead are termed, as a glowing account of a prairie
+covered with wheat has on that of a Wolverine or a Buck eye; or an
+enumeration of cent per cent. has on the feelings of a Wall-street broker.
+Never before had Deacon Pratt been so much "exercised" with a love of
+Mammon. The pirate's tale, which was also recapitulated with much gusto,
+scarce excited him as much as Daggett's glowing account of the number,
+condition, and size of the seals.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing was withheld but the latitudes and longitudes. No art of the
+deacon's, and he practised many, could extort from the mariner these most
+material facts, without which all the rest were useless; and the old man
+worked himself into a fever almost as high as that which soon came over
+Daggett, in the effort to come at these facts--but all in vain.</p>
+
+<p>At that hour the pulse of the sick man usually quickened; but, on this
+occasion, it fairly thumped. He had excited himself, as well as his
+listener; and the inconsiderate manner in which both had yielded up their
+energies to these enticing images of wealth, contributed largely to
+increase the evil. At length, exhaustion came to put an end to the scene,
+which was getting to be dramatic as well as revolting.</p>
+
+<p>So conscious was the deacon, on returning home that evening, that his mind
+was not in such a condition as it behoved him to keep it in on the Lord's
+Day, that he was afraid to encounter the placid eye of his devout and
+single-minded niece. Instead of joining her, and uniting in the services
+that were customary at that hour, he walked in the adjoining orchard until
+near nine o'clock. Mammon was uppermost in the place of the Deity, and
+habit offered too strong a barrier to permit him to bring, as it were, the
+false god openly into the presence of the true.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-04">
+<h2>Chapter IV.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Oh! mourn not for them, their grief is o'er,<br />
+Oh! weep not for them, they weep no more;<br />
+For deep is their sleep, though cold and hard<br />
+Their pillow may be in the old kirk-yard."</p>
+
+<p>  Bayly.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Early on the succeeding morning, the whole household of deacon Pratt,
+himself included, were up and doing. It was as the sun came up out of the
+waters that Mary and her uncle met in the porch, as if to greet each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"Yonder comes the Widow White, and seemingly in a great hurry," said the
+niece, anxiously; "I am afraid her patient is worse!"</p>
+
+<p>"He seemed better when I left him last evening, though a little tired with
+talking," returned the uncle. "The man <i>would</i> talk, do all I could to
+stop him. I wanted to get but two or three words from him, and he used a
+thousand, without once using the few I wished most to hear. A talking man
+is that Daggett, I can tell you, Mary!"</p>
+
+<p>"He'll never talk ag'in, deacon!" exclaimed the Widow White, who had got
+so near as to hear the concluding words of the last speaker--"He'll never
+say good or evil more!"</p>
+
+<p>The deacon was so confounded as to be speechless. As for Mary, she
+expressed her deep regrets that the summons should have been so sudden,
+and that the previous preparation was so small; matters that gave her far
+more concern than any other consideration. They were not long left to
+conjectures, the voluble widow soon supplying all the facts that had
+occurred. It appeared that Daggett died in the night, the widow having
+found him stiff and cold on visiting his bed-side a few minutes before.
+That this somewhat unexpected event, as to the time at least, was hastened
+by the excitement of the conversation mentioned, there can be little
+doubt, though no comment was made on the circumstance. The immediate cause
+of death was suffocation from the effects of suppuration, as so often
+occurs in rapid consumption.</p>
+
+<p>It would be representing deacon Pratt as a worse man than he actually was,
+to say that this sudden death had no effect on his feelings. For a short
+time it brought him back to a sense of his own age, and condition, and
+prospects. For half an hour these considerations troubled him, but the
+power of Mammon gradually resumed its sway, and the unpleasant images
+slowly disappeared in others that he found more agreeable. Then he began
+seriously to bethink him of what the circumstances required to be done.</p>
+
+<p>As there was nothing unusual in the death of Daggett, the investigations
+of the coroner were not required. It was clearly a natural, though a
+sudden death. It remained, therefore, only to give directions about the
+funeral, and to have an eye to the safe-keeping of the effects of the
+deceased. The deacon assumed the duty of taking charge of everything. The
+chest of Daggett was removed to his house for safe-keeping, the key having
+been taken from the pocket of his vest, and the necessary orders were
+given for the final disposition of the body.</p>
+
+<p>The deacon had another serious, and even painful half hour, when he first
+looked upon the corpse. There it lay, a senseless shell, deserted by its
+immortal tenant, and totally unconscious of that subject which had so
+lately and so intensely interested them both. It appeared as if the
+ghastly countenance expressed its sense of the utter worthlessness of all
+earthly schemes of wealth and happiness. Eternity seemed stamped upon the
+pinched and sunken features; not eternity in the sense of imperishable
+matter, but in the sense of the fate of man. Had all the gold of the
+Indies lain within his reach, the arm of Daggett was now powerless to
+touch it. His eye could no longer gloat upon treasure, nor any part of his
+corporeal system profit by its possession. A more striking commentary on
+the vanity of human wishes could not, just then, have been offered to the
+consideration of the deacon. His moral being was very strangely
+constituted. From early childhood he had been accustomed to the cant of
+religion; and, in many instances, impressions had been made on him that
+produced effects that it was easy to confound with the fruits that real
+piety brings forth. This is a result that we often find in a state of
+society in which appearances are made to take the place of reality. What
+is more, it is a result that we may look for equally among the formalists
+of established sects, and among the descendants of those who once deserted
+the homes of their fathers in order to escape from the impiety of so
+meretricious an abuse of the substance of godliness. In the case of the
+latter, appearances occupy the mind more than that love of God which is
+the one great test of human conversion from sin to an improving state of
+that holiness, without which we are told no man shall see his Creator;
+without which, indeed, no man could endure to look upon that dread Being
+face to face.</p>
+
+<p>The deacon had all the forms of godliness in puritanical perfection. He
+had never taken the "name of his God in vain," throughout the course of a
+long life; but, he had abstained from this revolting and gratuitous sin,
+more because it was a part of the teachings of his youth so to do, and
+because the neighbours would have been shocked at its commission, than
+because he felt the deep reverence for his Maker, which it became the
+insignificant being that was the work of his hand to entertain; and which
+would, of itself, most effectually have prevented any wanton use of his
+holy name, let the neighbours feel or think as they might on the subject.
+In this way Deacon Pratt might be said to have respected most of the
+commands of the decalogue; not, however, because the spirit of God
+impelled him, through love, to reverence and obey, but because he had been
+brought up in a part of the country where it was considered seemly and
+right to be moral, to the senses, at least, if not to the all-seeing eye
+above. It was in this way that the deacon had arrived at his preferment in
+the meeting. He had all the usual sectarian terms at the end of his
+tongue; never uttered a careless expression; was regular at meeting;
+apparently performed all the duties that his church required of its
+professors, in the way of mere religious observances; yet was he as far
+from being in that state which St. Paul has described succinctly as "for
+me to live in Christ, and to die is gain," as if he had been a pagan. It
+was not the love of God that was active in his soul, but the love of self;
+and he happened to exhibit his passion under these restrained and
+deceptive forms, simply because he had been born and educated in a state
+of society where they composed an integral part of existence. Covetousness
+was the deacon's besetting sin; and, as it is a vice that may be pretty
+well concealed, with a little attention to appearances, it was the less
+likely to expose him to comments than almost any other sin. It is true,
+that the neighbourhood sometimes fancied him 'close,' or, as they
+expressed it, "cluss," and men got to look sharply to their own interests
+in their dealings with him; but, on the whole, there was perhaps more
+reason to apprehend, in such a community, that the example of so good a
+man should be accepted as authority, than that his acts should impeach his
+character, or endanger his standing.</p>
+
+<p>Very different were the situation, feelings, and motives of the niece. She
+devoutly loved God, and, as a consequence, all of those whom he had
+created, and placed around her. Her meek and gentle spirit led her to
+worship in sincerity and truth; and all that she thought, said, and did,
+was under the correction of the principles such motives could best
+produce. Her woman's love for Roswell Gardiner, alone troubled her
+otherwise happy and peaceful existence. That, indeed, had caused her more
+than once to falter in her way; but she struggled with the weakness, and
+had strong hopes of being able to overcome it. To accept of any other man
+as a husband, was, in her eyes, impossible; with the feelings she was
+fully conscious of entertaining towards him, it would have been both
+in-delicate and unjust: but, to accept <i>him</i>, while he regarded the
+Redeemer as only man, however pure and exalted, she felt would be putting
+herself willingly, or wilfully, into the hands of the great enemy of her
+salvation. Often and often had she prayed for her lover, even more
+devoutly, and with hotter tears, than she had ever prayed for herself;
+but, so far as she could discover, without any visible fruits. His
+opinions remained unchanged, and his frank nature forbade him from
+concealing their state from Mary. In this way, then, was unhappiness
+stealing on the early and innocent hours of one who might, otherwise, have
+been so contented and blessed. It formed a somewhat peculiar feature in
+her case, that her uncle favoured the views of her suitor. This rendered
+the trials of the niece so much the more severe, as she had no other
+judgment to sustain her than her own, fortified as that was, however, by
+the consciousness of right, and the support of that great power which
+never deserts the faithful.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of feeling among some of the principal actors of our
+tale, when the sudden death of Daggett occurred. The body was not removed
+from the house of the Widow White, but the next morning it was conveyed to
+the "grave-yard"--'church-yard' would have sounded too episcopal--and
+interred in a corner that was bestowed on the unhonoured and unknown. It
+was then, only, that the deacon believed he was the sole depository of the
+important secrets. He had the charts in his possession, and no more
+revelations could pass the lips of Daggett. Should the friends of the
+deceased sailor hear of his death, and come to look after his effects,
+there was very little probability of their finding anything among them to
+furnish a clue to either the new sealing-ground, or to the buried treasure
+of the pirate. In order to be secured, he even went a little beyond his
+usual precautions, actually discharging all indebtedness of the deceased
+to the Widow White out of his own pocket, by giving to her the sum of ten
+dollars. This was handsome compensation in her eyes as well as in his, and
+he quieted the suspicions so great and unusual an act of liberality would
+be apt to awaken, by saying, "he would look to the friends, or if they
+failed him, to the effects, for his returns; for it was better he should
+lose by the stranger, than a lone widow." He also paid for the coffin, the
+digging of the grave, and the other light expenses of the interment. In a
+word, the deacon endeavoured to hush all impertinent inquiries by applying
+the salve of silver, wherever it was needed.</p>
+
+<p>The chest had been removed to a large, light closet, that communicated
+with the deacon's own room. When all his accounts were settled, thither he
+repaired, armed with the key that was to expose so much treasure to his
+longing eyes. Some slight qualms arose, after he had locked himself in the
+room, touching the propriety of his opening the chest. It was not his,
+certainly; but he put such a construction on the nature of the revelations
+of Daggett, as he thought would fully justify him in proceeding. He had
+purchased the schooner expressly to go in quest of the seals and the
+treasure. This he had done with Daggett's knowledge and acquiescence; nor
+did he conceive that his own rights were lessened by the mariner's
+decease. As for himself, the deacon had never believed that the Martha's
+Vineyard man could accompany the expedition, so that his presence or
+absence could have no influence on his own rights. It is true, the deacon
+possessed no direct legal transfer of the charts; but he inferred that all
+the previous circumstances gave him sufficient claims to justify him in,
+at least, looking, into their contents.</p>
+
+<p>It was a solemn, as well as an anxious moment to the deacon, when he first
+raised the lid of the chest. Solemn, because it was not possible to forget
+the recent decease of its late owner; and anxious, inasmuch as he had no
+certainty that he should find even on the charts, the places of which he
+sought the latitudes and longitudes. Certainly, nothing like treasure
+presented itself to his eyes, when all that Daggett had left behind him
+lay exposed to view. The chest of a common sailor is usually but
+ill-furnished unless it may be just after his return from a long and
+well-paid voyage, and before he has had time to fall back on his purchases
+of clothes, as a fund to supply his cravings for personal gratification.
+This of Daggett's formed no exception to the rule. The few clothes it
+contained were of the lightest sort, having been procured in warm
+climates, and were well worn, in addition. The palms, needles, and shells,
+and carving in whale-bone, had all been sold, to meet their owner's wants,
+and nothing of that sort remained. There were two old, dirty, and ragged
+charts, and on these the deacon laid his hands, much as the hawk, in its
+swoop, descends on its prey. As it did, however, a tremor came over him,
+that actually compelled him to throw himself into a chair, and to rest for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p>The first of the charts opened, the deacon saw at a glance, was that of
+the antarctic circle. There, sure enough, was laid down in ink, three or
+four specks for islands, with lat. --&deg;, --&Prime;, and long. --&deg;, --&Prime;, written
+out at its side. We are under obligations not to give the figures that
+stand on the chart, for the discovery is deemed to be important, by those
+who possess the secret, even to the present hour. We are at liberty to
+tell the whole story, with this one exception; and we shall proceed to do
+so, with a proper regard to the pledges made in the premises.</p>
+
+<p>The deacon scarcely breathed as he assured himself of the important fact
+just mentioned, and his hands trembled to such a degree as to fairly cause
+the paper of the chart to rattle. Then he had recourse to an expedient
+that was strictly characteristic of the man. He wrote the latitude and
+longitude in a memorandum-book that he carried on his person; after which
+he again sat down, and with great care erased the island and the writing
+from the chart, with the point of a penknife. This done, his mind felt
+infinitely relieved. Nor was this all. Charts purchased for the schooner
+were lying on a table in his own room, and he projected on one of them, as
+well as his skill would allow, the sealing-islands he had just removed
+from the chart left by Daggett. There he also wrote, in pencil, the
+important figures that we are commanded not to reveal.</p>
+
+<p>The second chart was then opened. It was of the West Indies, and
+particularly of certain keys. One of these last was pointed out in a way
+to leave no doubt that it was meant for the key indicated by the pirate.
+The same prohibition existing as to this key that exists in respect to the
+sealing-island, we cannot be more explicit. The writing near this key
+being in pencil, it was effectually removed by means of India-rubber. When
+this was done, the deacon used the precaution to rub some material on the
+clean place made by his knife, on the other chart, when he believed no eye
+could detect what had just been done. Having marked the proper key, on his
+own chart of the West Indies, he replaced the charts of Daggett in the
+chest, and locked all up again. The verbal accounts of the sick mariner he
+had already transferred to paper, and he now believed himself secure of
+all the information that was necessary to render him the richest man in
+Suffolk!</p>
+
+<p>When they next met, Mary was surprised at the gaiety of her uncle, and
+that so soon after a funeral. He had a lightened heart, however; for after
+leading him on, step by step, until he had gone so far as to purchase and
+fit out the schooner, Daggett had pertinaciously refused to enter into
+those minute particulars which it is even now forbidden us to state, and a
+want of which would have rendered his previous expenditures useless.
+Death, however, had lifted the veil, and the deacon now believed himself
+secure in his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>An hour or two later, Deacon Pratt and his niece were seated, in company
+with two others, at the dinner-table. The fare was simple, but good. Fish
+enters largely into the domestic consumption of all those who dwell near
+the water, in that part of the country; and, on that particular occasion,
+the uncle had, in the lightness of his heart, indulged in what, for him,
+was a piece of extravagance. In all such regions there are broken-down,
+elderly men, who live by taking fish. Liquor has usually been their great
+enemy, and all have the same generic character of laziness, shiftless and
+ill-regulated exertions, followed by much idleness, and fits of
+intemperance, that in the end commonly cause their deaths. Such a man
+fished between Oyster Pond and Shelter Island, being known to all who
+dwelt within his beat, by the familiar appellation of Baiting Joe.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the discovery of the latitudes and longitudes on the charts,
+the deacon had gone to the wharf, in his impatience to see how Roswell
+Gardiner got on with the Sea Lion. The young man, with his gang of hands,
+was hard at work, and a very material difference was to be observed in the
+state of the schooner, from that in which she was described in our opening
+chapter. Her rigging had all been set up, every spar was in its place, and
+altogether she had a look of preparation and completeness. Her water was
+taking in, and from time to time a country wagon, or an ox-cart, delivered
+alongside articles belonging to her stores. Of cargo, proper, there was
+none, or next to none; a sealer carrying little besides salt, and her
+stores. In a word, the work was rapidly advancing, and "Captain Gar'ner"
+told his impatient owner that the craft would be ready to put to sea in
+all that week.</p>
+
+<p>"I have succeeded in engaging the first officer I wanted," added the young
+man, "and he is now busy in looking up and shipping hands, at Stonington.
+We must get half-a-dozen reliable men on the main, and then we can take
+some of our neighbours here, as beginners, just to please them."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; ship a goodly number of green hands," said the deacon, zealously.
+"They work at cheap 'lays,' and leave the owners the greater profits.
+Well, well, Captain Gar'ner, things seem to be doing well in your hands,
+and I will leave you. About two hours after dinner, I shall want to have a
+word with you in private, and will thank you just to step across to the
+house, where you will be certain to find me. Baiting Joe seems to have
+hooked something there, in 'arnest."</p>
+
+<p>"That has he! I'll answer for it that he has a sheepshead at the end of
+his line that will weigh eight or ten pounds."</p>
+
+<p>The words of Gardiner proved true, for Joe actually pulled in a fish of
+the description and weight he had just mentioned. It was this sight that,
+in the lightness of his heart, tempted the deacon to a little
+extravagance. Joe was called ashore, and after a good deal of chaffering,
+the deacon bought the prize for half a dollar. As Mary was celebrated for
+her skill in preparing this particular fish, the deacon, before he left
+the wharf, with the sheepshead hanging from one hand, fairly invited
+"Captain Gar'ner" so to time his visit to the house, as to be present at
+the feast.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was this all. Before the deacon had settled with Joe, the Rev. Mr.
+Whittle came on the wharf, confessedly in quest of something to eat. The
+regular occupations of this divine were writing sermons, preaching,
+holding conferences, marrying, christening and burying, and hunting up
+"something to eat." About half of his precious time was consumed in the
+last of these pursuits. We do not wish to represent this clergyman as
+having an undue gastronomic propensity; but, as having a due one, and a
+salary that was so badly paid as quite to disable him from furnishing his
+larder, or cellar, with anything worth mentioning, in advance. Now, he was
+short of flour; then, the potatoes were out; next, the pork was consumed;
+and always there was a great scarcity of groceries, and other necessaries
+of that nature. This neglect on the part of the parishioners, coupled with
+a certain improvidence on that of the pastor, left the clergyman's family
+completely in that state which is usually described as being in the "from
+hand to mouth" condition, and which consequently occupied so large a
+portion of the good man's time in "providing."</p>
+
+<p>Deacon Pratt felt a little conscious and awkward, at encountering the Rev.
+Mr. Whittle. It was not the fish that caused the first any concern. Fifty
+times had he met and gone by his pastor, running about with a perplexed
+and hungry look, when his own hands, or chaise, or wagon, as the case
+might be, contained enough to render the divine's family happy and
+contented for a week. No compunctions of that sort ever troubled the
+deacon's breast. But, he had missed the afternoon's meeting the last
+Sabbath, a delinquency for which he felt an awkwardness in accounting,
+while he saw its necessity. The salutations passed as usual, the one party
+thinking intently on the absence from service, and the other of the
+sheepshead. Now, it happily occurred to the deacon to invite his pastor
+also to partake of the fish. There was enough for all; and, though no one
+on Oyster Pond was much in the habit of entertaining at dinner, it was by
+no means unusual for the parishioners to have their pastor for a guest.
+This lucky invitation so occupied the parties that nothing was said about
+an occurrence so very unusual as the deacon's absence from "meeting" the
+"last Sabba' day afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>By these simple means the party at table consisted of the deacon himself,
+Mary, Roswell Gardiner, and the Rev. Mr. Whittle. The fish was excellent,
+being so fresh and so skilfully prepared; and Mary was highly complimented
+by all who ate of it, for her share in the entertainment. But Mary Pratt
+seemed sad. She had not yet recovered from the melancholy feelings
+awakened by the recent death and funeral; and then her thoughts recurred,
+with few interruptions, to the long voyage of Roswell, and most especially
+to the unhappy state of religious belief in which he would undertake so
+hazardous an expedition. Several times had she hinted to the clergyman her
+desire that he would 'talk to Roswell;' but the good man, though
+well-enough inclined, had really so much to do in 'providing,' that it was
+not a very easy matter for him to go beyond the beaten track, in order to
+probe the consciences of particular individuals. He promised fairly, but
+always forgot to perform; and in this he imitated closely the example set
+him by his parishioners, in reference to his own salary.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner, therefore, remained in his unbelief; or, what was
+tantamount to it, under the influence of a set of opinions that conflicted
+with all that the church had taught since the time of the apostles--at
+least so thought Mary, and so think we.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, the pastor and the deacon were particularly gay, for men
+of their habitual sobriety. Although those were not the days of
+temperance, <i>par excellence</i>, neither of the guests was what might be
+termed even a moderate drinker. For a novelty in a sailor, Roswell
+Gardiner seldom touched anything but water, while the other two took their
+rum and water; but it was in moderation, as all the gifts of God should be
+used. As for the intemperate cry which makes it a sin to partake of any
+liquor, however prudently, it was then never heard in the land. On the
+whole, the clergy of all denominations might be set down as
+brandy-and-water men, a few occasionally carrying out their principle to
+exaggeration. But the Rev. Mr. Whittle was a sober man, and, though he saw
+no great harm in enlivening his heart and cheering his spirits with brandy
+taken in small quantities, he was never known to be any the worse for his
+libations. It was the same with the deacon, though <i>he</i> drank
+rum-and-water of choice; and no other beverage, Mary's currant-wine and
+cider excepted, was ever seen on his table.</p>
+
+<p>One thing may be said of liquor, whether it be in its favour or not; it
+usually brings out all there is of the facetious in a man, rendering him
+conversable and pleasant; for the time being, at least. This was apt to be
+peculiarly the case with the Rev. Mr. Whittle and his deacons. In their
+ordinary intercourse with their fellow-creatures, these good people had
+taken up the idea that, in order to be religious, their countenances must
+be sombre, and that care and anxiety should be stamped on their faces,
+just as if they had no confidence in the efficacy of the redemption. Few,
+indeed, are they who vindicate their professions by living at peace with
+God and man! At Oyster Pond, it was much the fashion to imagine that the
+more a person became impressed with the truths of <i>his</i>, and articularly
+with those of <i>her</i>, lost condition, the more it became the party to be
+cynical, and to pry into, and comment, on the backslidings of the entire
+community. This weakness, however, was characteristic of neither the
+pastor nor the deacon, each of whom regarded his professions too much in
+the light of a regular "business transaction," to descend into these
+little abuses. As for Mary, good creature, her humility was so profound as
+to cause her to believe herself among the weakest and least favoured of
+all who belonged to meeting.</p>
+
+<p>"I was sorry that my late journey into Connecticut prevented my seeing the
+poor man who was so suddenly taken away from the house of Widow White,"
+observed the Rev. Mr. Whittle, some little time after he had made his
+original attack on the sheepshead. "They tell me it was a hopeless case
+from the first?"</p>
+
+<p>"So Dr. Sage considered it," answered the deacon. "Captain Gar'ner
+volunteered to go across for the doctor in <i>my</i> boat--" with a heavy
+emphasis on the possessive pronoun--"and we had him to look at the
+patient. But, if the salt-water <i>be</i> good for consumptive people, as some
+pretend, I think there is generally little hope for seamen whose lungs
+once give way."</p>
+
+<p>"The poor man was a mariner, was he? I did not know his calling, but had
+rather got the impression that he was a husbandman. Did he belong to
+Oyster Pond?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; we have none of the name of Daggett here, which is a tribe on the
+Vineyard. Most of the Daggetts are seafaring folks (folk, <i>Anglice</i>) and
+this man was one of that class, <i>I believe</i>; though I know nothing of him,
+or of his pursuits, except by a word, here and there, dropped in
+discourse."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon thought himself safe in venturing this little departure from
+the literal truth, inasmuch as no one had been present, or he <i>thought</i> no
+one had ever been present at his many secret conferences with the deceased
+mariner. Little, however, did he understand the character of the Widow
+White, if he flattered himself with holding any discourse under her roof,
+in which she was not to participate in its subject. So far from this
+having been the case, the good woman had contrived to obtain, not only a
+listening-place, but a peeping-hole, where she both heard and saw most of
+that which passed between her guest and the deacon. Had her powers of
+comprehension been equal to her will, or had not her mind been
+prepossessed with the notion that the deacon <i>must</i> be after herself, old
+Suffolk would have rung with the marvels that were thus revealed. Not only
+would an unknown sealing-island been laid before the East-enders, but
+twenty such islands, and keys without number, each of which contained more
+hidden treasure than 'Gar'ner's Island,' Oyster Pond, the Plumb and
+Fisher's, and all the coasts of the Sound put together; enriched as each
+and all of these places were thought to be, by the hidden deposits of
+Kidd.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing but an accident had prevented these rumours from being circulated.
+It happened that on only one occasion Daggett was explicit and connected
+in his narrative. At all other times his discourse was broken, consisting
+more in allusions to what had been previously said than in direct and
+clear revelations. The widow, most unfortunately for her means of
+information, was with "neighbour Stone" when the connected narrative was
+given, and all that she knew was disjointed, obscure, and a little
+contradictory. Still, it was sufficient to set her thinking intensely and
+sufficient to produce a material influence on the future fortunes of the
+Sea Lion, as will appear in the sequel.</p>
+
+<p>"It is always a misfortune for a human being to take his departure away
+from home and friends," observed the Rev. Mr. Whittle. "Here was an
+immortal soul left to take its last great flight, unsupported, I dare say,
+except by the prayers of a few pious neighbours. I regret having been
+absent during the time he was here. Getting home of a Friday only, I was
+compelled to devote Saturday to preparations for the Sabbath; and
+Sabbath-night, as I understand it, he departed."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all in the hands of Divine Providence," said the deacon, with a
+sober mien, "and it is our duty to submit. To my thinking, Oyster Pond
+catches more of its share of the poor and needy, who are landed from
+vessels passing east and west, and add considerably to our burthens."</p>
+
+<p>This was said of a spot as much favoured by Divine Providence, in the way
+of abundance, as any other in highly-favoured America. Some eight or ten
+such events as the landing of a stranger had occurred within the last
+half-century, and this was the only instance in which either of them had
+cost the deacon a cent. But, so little was he accustomed, and so little
+was he disposed, to give, that even a threatened danger of that sort
+amounted, in his eyes, nearly to a loss.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," exclaimed the literal Roswell Gardiner, "I think, deacon, that we
+have no great reason to complain. Southold, Shelter Island, and all the
+islands about here, for that matter, are pretty well off as to poor, and
+it is little enough that we have to pay for their support."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the idea of a young man who never sees the tax-gatherers,"
+returned the deacon. "However, there are islands, captain Gar'ner, that
+are better off still, and I hope you will live to find them."</p>
+
+<p>"Is our young friend to sail in the Sea Lion in quest of any such?"
+inquired the pastor, a little curiously.</p>
+
+<p>The deacon now repented him of the allusion. But his heart had warmed
+with the subject, and the rum-and-water had unlocked some of its wards. So
+timid and nervous had he become, however, that the slightest indication of
+anything like a suspicion that his secrets were known, threw him into a
+sweat.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all--not at all--the captain goes on well-known and beaten
+ground--Sam, what is wanting, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here is Baiting Joe comed up from the wharf, wanting to see master,"
+returned a grey-headed negro, who had formerly been a slave, and who now
+lived about the place giving his services for his support.</p>
+
+<p>"Baiting Joe! He is not after his sheepshead, I hope--if he is, he is
+somewhat late in the day."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," put in the young sailor, laughing--"tell him Sam, that no small
+part of it is bound to the southward meaning to cross the line in my
+company, and that right soon."</p>
+
+<p>"I paid Joe his half-dollar, certainly--<i>you</i> saw me pay him, captain
+Gar'ner."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think it's any sich thing, master. There is a stranger with Joe,
+that he has ferried across from Shelter Island, and <i>he's</i> comed up from
+the wharf too. Yes--that's it, master."</p>
+
+<p>A stranger! Who could it be? A command was given to admit him, and no
+sooner did Mary get a sight of his person, than she quietly arose to
+procure a plate, in order that he, too, might have his share of the fish.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-05">
+<h2>Chapter V.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Stranger! I fled the home of grief,<br />
+At Connoeht Moran's tomb to fall;<br />
+I found the helmet of my chief,<br />
+His bow still hanging on our wall."</p>
+
+<p>Campbell.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>"Amphibious!" exclaimed Roswell Gardiner, in an aside to Mary, as the
+stranger entered the room, following Baiting Joe's lead. The last only
+came for his glass of rum-and-water, served with which by the aid of the
+negro, he passed the back of his hand across his mouth, napkin-fashion,
+nodded his "good-day," and withdrew. As for the stranger, Roswell
+Gardiner's term being particularly significant, it may be well to make a
+brief explanation.</p>
+
+<p>The word "amphibious" is, or rather <i>was</i>, well applied to many of the
+seamen, whalers, and sealers, who dwelt on the eastern end of Long Island,
+or the Vineyard, around Stonington, and, perhaps we might add, in the
+vicinity of New Bedford. The Nantucket men had not base enough, in the way
+of terra firma, to come properly within the category. The class to which
+the remark strictly applied were sailors without being seamen, in the
+severe signification of the term. While they could do all that was
+indispensably necessary to take care of their vessels, were surpassed by
+no other mariners in enterprise, and daring, and hardihood, they knew
+little about "crowning cables," "carrick-bends," and all the mysteries of
+"knotting," "graffing," and "splicing." A regular Delaware-bay seaman
+would have turned up his nose in contempt at many of their ways, and at
+much of their real ignorance; but, when it came to the drag, or to the
+oar, or to holding out in bad weather, or to any of the more manly
+qualities of the business, he would be certain to yield his respect to
+those at whom it had originally been his disposition to laugh. It might
+best describe these men to say that they bore some such relation to the
+thorough-bred tar, as the volunteer bears to the regular soldier.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of course, the stranger was invited to take his seat at the
+table. This he did without using many phrases; and Mary had reason to
+believe, by his appetite, that he thought well of her culinary skill.
+There was very little of the sheepshead left when this, its last
+assailant, shoved his plate back, the signal that he could do no more. He
+then finished a glass of rum-and-water, and seemed to be in a good
+condition to transact the business that had brought him there. Until this
+moment, he had made no allusion to the motive of his visit, leaving the
+deacon full of conjectures.</p>
+
+<p>"The fish of Peconic and Gar'ner's is as good as any I know," coolly
+observed this worthy, after certainly having established some claim to
+give an opinion on the subject. "We think ourselves pretty well off, in
+this respect, on the Vineyard--"</p>
+
+<p>"On the Vineyard!" interrupted the deacon, without waiting to hear what
+was to follow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, on Martha's Vineyard--for that's the place I come from. Perhaps
+I ought to have introduced myself a little more particularly--I come from
+Martha's Vineyard, and my name is Daggett."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon fairly permitted the knife, with which he was spreading some
+butter, to fall upon his plate. "Daggett" and the "Vineyard" sounded
+ominously. Could it be that Dr. Sage had managed to get a message so far,
+in so short a time; and had this amphibious inhabitant of the neighbouring
+island come already to rob him of his treasure? The perceptions of the
+deacon, at first, were far from clear; and he even imagined that all he
+had expended on the Sea Lion was thrown away, and that he might be even
+called on to give some sort of an account, in a court of chancery, of the
+information obtained from the deceased. A little reflection, however,
+sufficed to get the better of this weakness, and he made a civil
+inclination of his head, as much as to tell the stranger, notwithstanding
+his name and place of residence, that he was welcome. Of course no one but
+the deacon himself knew of the thoughts that troubled him, and after a
+very brief delay, the guest proceeded with his explanations of the object
+of his visit.</p>
+
+<p>"The Daggetts are pretty numerous on the Vineyard," continued the
+stranger, "and when you name one of them it is not always easy to tell
+just what family he belongs to. One of our coasters came into the Hull
+(Holmes' Hole was meant) a few weeks since, and reported that she spoke an
+inward-bound brig, off New Haven, from which she heard that the people of
+that craft had put ashore, at Oyster Pond, a seafaring man, who belonged
+to the Vineyard, and who was bound home, arter an absence of fifty years,
+and whose name was Thomas Daggett. The word passed through the island, and
+a great stir it made among all us Daggetts. There's plenty of our Vineyard
+people wandering about the 'arth, and sometimes one drops in upon the
+island, just to die. As most of them that come back bring something with
+them, it's gen'rally thought a good sign to hear of their arrival. After
+casting about, and talking with all the old folks, it has been concluded
+that this Thomas Daggett must be a brother of my father's, who went to sea
+about fifty years since, and has never been seen or heard of since. He's
+the only person of the name for whom we can't account, and the family have
+got me to come across to look him up."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, Mr. Daggett, that you are so late," answered the deacon,
+slowly, as if unwilling to give pain. "Had you come last week, you might
+have seen and conversed with your relation; or had you come early this
+morning, only, you might have attended his funeral. He came among us a
+stranger, and we endeavoured to imitate the conduct of the good Samaritan.
+I believe he had all the comforts that Oyster Pond can give; and,
+certainly, he had the best advice. Dr. Sage, of Sag Harbour, attended him
+in his last illness--Dr. Sage, of the Harbour: doubtless you have heard
+<i>him</i> mentioned?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know him by reputation, and make no doubt all was done that could be
+done. As the sloop I named lay by the brig some time, in a calm, the two
+captains had a long talk together; and ours had prepared us to hear of our
+kinsman's speedy dissolution. He was in a decline when he landed, and we
+suppose that no human skill could have saved him. As he had so skilful a
+physician, and one who came so far, I suppose my uncle must have left
+property?"</p>
+
+<p>This was a home-thrust; but, fortunately for the deacon, he had already
+prepared himself with an answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Sea-faring men, that are landed on points and capes, from inward-bound
+vessels, are not very apt to be overloaded with worldly goods," he said,
+smiling. "When a man prospers in that calling, he usually comes ashore at
+a wharf, in some large place, and gets into his coach, to ride up to some
+grand tavern! I have remarked, pastor, that sea-faring men love comforts
+and free-living, unaccountably, when they can fairly get a chance at 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"That is natural, deacon--quite natural; and what is natural, is very
+likely to happen. The natural man loves all sorts of indulgences, and
+these among others."</p>
+
+<p>As there was no gainsaying this commonplace commentary on the species, it
+was permitted to pass unanswered.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope my kinsman has not been a burthen to any on Oyster Pond?" said the
+nephew, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say that he has," returned the deacon. "He was at little cost,
+at first, and got along by selling a few odd things that he owned. As
+Providence had placed him in the dwelling of a poor widow, I thought it
+might be pleasing to the friends--and every man has <i>some</i> friends, I
+suppose--to settle with <i>her</i>. This I did, this very morning, taking her
+receipt in full, as you can see," passing the paper to the stranger. "As a
+sort of security for my advances, I had the chest of the deceased removed
+to this house; and it is now up-stairs, ready to be examined. It feels
+light, and I do not think much silver or gold will be found in it."</p>
+
+<p>To own the truth, the Vineyard seaman looked a little disappointed. It was
+so natural that a man who has been absent fifty years should bring back
+the fruits of his labour, that he had expected some slight reward for the
+trouble he was now taking, to be bestowed in this particular form. This,
+however, was not the specific object of his visit, as will appear as we
+proceed. Keeping in view his real motive, the nephew continued his
+inquiries, always putting his questions a little indirectly, and receiving
+answers that were as evasive and cautious as his own interrogatories. All
+this was characteristic of the wary people from which both had sprung, who
+seldom speak, in a matter of business, without bearing in mind all the
+possible constructions of what they are saying. After a discourse of some
+fifteen minutes, in which the history of the chest, in its outlines, was
+fully given, and during which the stranger produced written evidence of
+his right to interfere, it was determined to make an inventory, on the
+spot, of the property left by Daggett, for the benefit of all who might
+have any interest in it. Accordingly, the whole party, including Mary, was
+soon assembled in the deacon's own room, with the sea-chest placed
+invitingly in the centre. All eyes were fastened on the lid, in curious
+anticipations of the contents; for, the deacon excepted, all supposed that
+those contents were a profound secret. The Widow White could have told
+them better, she having rummaged that chest a dozen times, at least,
+though without abstracting even a pin. Curiosity had been her ruling
+motive, far more than cupidity. It is true, the good woman had a prudent
+regard to her own interests, and felt some anxiety to learn the prospects
+of her receiving the stipulated price for board--only $1.50 per week--but
+the sales of the needles, and palms, and carved whale-bone, having kept
+her accounts reasonably square, solicitude on this particular interest was
+not at is height. No: curiosity, pure female curiosity, a little quickened
+by the passion which is engendered among the vulgar by the possession of a
+slight degree of instruction, was really at the bottom of her researches.
+Not only had she handled every article in the chest, but she had read, and
+re-read, every paper it contained, half-a-dozen letters included, and made
+her own surmises on their nature. Still, the good woman was very little
+the wiser for her inquiries. Of the great secret she knew absolutely
+nothing, unless the broken hints collected in her many listenings, could
+be so considered. But, here her ignorance ceased. Every hole in a shirt,
+every patch in a pair of trousers, and every darn in a stocking, had been
+examined, and its probable effect on the value of the garment duly
+estimated. The only thing that had escaped her scrutiny was a small till,
+that was locked. Into that she could not look, and there were moments when
+she would have parted with a finger in order to overhaul it.</p>
+
+<p>"This jacket might sell for a dollar," had the Widow White calculated,
+"but for the hole in the elbow; and, that well patched, would bring
+seventy-five cents. Them trowsers must have cost two dollars, but they
+ar'n't worth half price now. That pee-jacket is the best article in the
+chest, and, sent across to the Harbour, about the time the ships are going
+out, it would bring enough to maintain Daggett a month!"</p>
+
+<p>Such had been the character of the widow's visitations to the chest,
+though no one knew anything of her discoveries, not even her
+sister-relict, neighbour Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the key," said the deacon, producing that instrument from the
+drawer of a table, as if he had laid it carefully aside for some such
+moment, "I dare say it will be found to fit, for I remember to have seen
+Daggett use it once or twice myself."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner, as the youngest man, and the one on whom the labouring
+oar ought to fall, now took the key, applied it to the lock, turned it
+without difficulty, and then lifted the lid. Disappointment appeared on
+every face but that of the deacon, at the meagre prospect before the
+company. Not only was the chest more than half empty, but the articles it
+did contain were of the coarsest materials; well worn sea-clothes that had
+seen their best days, and which had never been more than the coarse common
+attire of a foremast hand.</p>
+
+<p>"There is little here to pay a man for crossing from the Vineyard,"
+observed Roswell Gardiner, a little drily; for he did not half like the
+appearance of cupidity that shone through the nephew's tardy concern for
+the fate of the uncle. "The last voyage has not been prosperous, I fear,
+or the owners failed before the vessel got in! What is to be done with all
+this dunnage, deacon?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would be best to take out the contents, article by article," answered
+the other, "and examine each and all. Now that we have made a beginning
+with the inventory, it is best to go through with it."</p>
+
+<p>The young man obeyed calling out the name of each article of dress, as he
+raised it from its receptacle, and passing it over to him who stood there
+in the character of a sort of heir-at-law. The last gave each garment a
+sharp look, and prudently put his hand into every pocket, in order to
+make sure that it was empty, before he laid the article on the floor.
+Nothing was discovered for some time, until a small key was found in the
+fob of a pair of old 'go-ashore' pantaloons. As there was the till to the
+chest already mentioned, and a lock on that till, the heir at-law kept the
+key, saying nothing touching its existence.</p>
+
+<p>"The deceased does not appear to have been much afflicted with this
+world's wealth," said the Rev. Mr. Whittle, whose expectations, to own the
+truth, had been a little disappointed. "This may have been all the better
+for him, when the moment of departure drew near."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say he would have borne the burthen cheerfully," put in Roswell
+Gardiner, "to have been a little more comfortable. I never knew a person,
+seaman or landsman, who was ever the worse for having things snug about
+him, and for holding on to the better end of his cheer, as long as he
+could."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Your</i> notion of what is best for man as he draws near to his end,
+captain Gar'ner, is not likely to be of the most approved nature. The sea
+does not produce many very orthodox divines."</p>
+
+<p>The young sailor coloured, bit his lip, cast a glance at Mary, and began a
+nearly inaudible whistle. In a moment he forgot the rebuke he had
+received, and laughingly went on with the inventory.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he cried, "this is rather a poorer outfit than Jack is apt to
+carry! <i>in</i>fit, I suppose it should be called, as the poor fellow who
+owned it was inward bound, when he brought up on Oyster Pond. You'll
+hardly think it worth while, captain Daggett, to take this dunnage across
+to the Vineyard."</p>
+
+<p>"It is scarce worth the trouble, though friends and relations may set a
+value on it that strangers do not. I see a couple of charts there--will
+you hand them this way, if you please? They may have a value with a
+sea-faring man, as old mariners sometimes make notes that are worth as
+much as the charts themselves."</p>
+
+<p>This was said very naturally and simply; but it gave the deacon a good
+deal of concern. Nor was this feeling at all lessened by the earnest, not
+to say eager, manner in which Daggett, as we shall now call this member of
+the family, spread the chart on the bed, and began to pry into its
+records. The particular chart first opened in this way, was the one
+including the antarctic circle, and, of course, was that from which the
+deacon had been at so much pains to erase the sealing-islands, that the
+deceased mariner had laid down with so great precision and care. It was
+evident that the Martha's Vineyard-man was looking for something that he
+could not find, and that he felt disappointment. Instead of looking at the
+chart, indeed, he may be said to have been peering at it, in all its holes
+and crannies, of which there were not a few, in consequence of the torn
+condition of the paper. Several minutes elapsed ere the investigation
+terminated, the stranger seeming, all that time, to feel no interest in
+the remainder of his relation's wardrobe.</p>
+
+<p>"This is an old chart, and of the date of 1802," observed Daggett, raising
+himself erect, as a man who has long been bent takes the creaks out of his
+back. "So old a chart as to be of little use now-a-day. Our sealers have
+gone over so much of the ground to the southward of the two capes, as to
+be able to do much better than this now."</p>
+
+<p>"Your uncle had the appearance of an old-fashioned sailor," coldly
+observed the deacon; "and it may be that he most liked old-fashioned
+charts."</p>
+
+<p>"If such was the case he must have pretty well forgotten his Vineyard
+schooling. There is not a woman there who doesn't know that the latest
+chart is commonly the best. I own I'm disapp'inted somewhat; for the
+master of the sloop gave me to understand he had heard from the master of
+the brig, that some valuable information was to be found on the old
+gentleman's charts."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon started, as here was an indication that the deceased had talked
+of his knowledge to others, as well as to himself! It was so natural for a
+man like Daggett to boast of what his charts were worth, that he saw the
+extreme probability that a difficulty might arise from this source. It was
+his cue, however, to remain silent, and let the truth develop itself in
+due course. His attention was not likely to be drawn aside by the shirts
+and old clothes, for the stranger began a second time to examine the
+chart, and what was more, in the high latitudes at no great distance from
+the very spot where the sealing-islands had been placed, and from which
+they had been so carefully erased.
+
+"It is unaccountable that a man should wear out a chart like this, and
+leave so few notes on it!" said the Vineyard-man, much as one complains of
+a delinquency. "Here is white water noted in the middle of the ocean,
+where I dare say no other white water was seen but that which is made by a
+fish, and nothing is said of any islands. What do you think of this,
+captain Gar'ner?" laying his finger on the precise spot where the deacon
+had been at work so long that very morning erasing the islands. "This
+looks well-fingered, if nothing else, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Its a shoal laid down in dirt," answered Roswell Gardiner,
+laughing--"Let's see; that's about lat. --&deg; --&Prime;, and long. --&deg; --&Prime;. There
+can be no known land thereaway, as even captain Cook did not succeed in
+getting as far south. That's been a favourite spot with the skipper for
+taking hold of his chart. I've known one of those old-fashioned chaps put
+his hand on a chart, in that way, and never miss his holding ground for
+three years on a stretch. Mighty go-by-rule people are some of our
+whaling-masters, in particular, who think they know the countenances of
+some of the elderly fish, who are too cunning to let a harpoon get fast to
+'em."</p>
+
+<p>"You've been often in them seas, I some think, captain Gar'ner?" said the
+other, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"I was brought up in the business, and have a hankering for it yet,"
+returned the young man, frankly. "Nor do I care so much for charts. They
+are well enough when a vessel is on her road; but, as for whales or seals,
+the man who wishes to find either, in these times, has to look for them,
+as I tell my owner. According to reports, the time has been when a craft
+had only to get an offing to fall in with something that was worth putting
+a harpoon into; but those days are gone, captain Daggett; and whales are
+to be looked after, out at sea, much as money is to be looked for ashore
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the craft I saw at the wharf fitting out for a whaler, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is going after luck, and will accept of it, in whatever form it may
+turn up."</p>
+
+<p>"She is rather small for the whaling business, though vessels of that
+size <i>have</i> done well, by keeping close in upon our own coast."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall know better what she will do after she has been tried," returned
+Gardiner, evasively. "What do you think of her for the Banks of
+Newfoundland?"</p>
+
+<p>The Martha's Vineyard-man gave his brother tar a quick, impatient glance,
+which pretty plainly said, "tell that to the marines," when he opened the
+second chart, which as yet had been neglected.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough," he muttered, in a low tone, though loud enough to be heard
+by the keenly attentive deacon; "here it is--a chart of the West Indies,
+and of all the keys!"</p>
+
+<p>By this casual, spontaneous outbreaking, as it might be, the deacon got
+another clue to the stranger's knowledge, that gave him increased
+uneasiness. He was now convinced that, by means of the masters of the brig
+and the sloop, such information had been sent to the relatives of Daggett
+as had prepared them to expect the very revelations on which he hoped to
+establish his own fortunes. To what extent these revelations had been
+made, of course he could only conjecture; but there must have been a good
+deal of particularity to induce the individual who had come over to Oyster
+Pond to look into the two charts so closely. Under the circumstances,
+therefore, he felicitated himself on the precaution he had so early taken
+to erase the important notations from the paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Gar'ner, your eyes are younger than mine," said the Vineyard-man,
+holding the chart up to the light--"will you be good enough to look
+here?--does it not seem as if that key had been noted, and the words
+rubbed off the chart?"</p>
+
+<p>This caused the deacon to peer over Roswell Gardiner's shoulder, and glad
+enough was he to ascertain that the stranger had placed his finger on a
+key that must lie several hundred miles from that which was supposed to
+hold the buried treasure of the pirates. Something like an erasure did
+appear at the indicated point; but the chart was so old and dirty, that
+little satisfaction could be had by examining it. Should the inquirer
+settle down on the key he evidently had in his eye, all would be well,
+since it was far enough from the spot really noted.</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange that so old a seafaring man should wear out a chart, and
+make no observation on it!" repeated the stranger, who was both vexed and
+at a loss what to conjecture. "All my charts are written over and marked
+off, just as if I meant to get out an edition for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Men differ in their tastes and habits," answered Roswell Gardiner,
+carelessly. "Some navigators are for ever finding rocks, and white water,
+and scribbling on their charts, or in the newspapers, when they get back;
+but I never knew any good come of it. The men who make the charts are most
+to be trusted. For my part, I would not give a sixpence for a note made by
+a man who passes a shoal or a rock, in a squall or a gale."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you say to the note of a sealer who should lay down an island
+where the seals lie about on the beach like pigs in a pen, sunning
+themselves? Would you not call a chart so noted a treasure?"</p>
+
+<p>"That would alter the case, sure enough," returned Gardiner, laughing;
+"though I should not think of looking into this chest for any such riches.
+Most of our masters navigate too much at random to make their charts of
+any great value. They can find the places they look for themselves, but
+don't seem to know how to tell other people the road. I have known my old
+man lay down a shoal that he fancied he saw, quite a degree out of the
+way. Now such a note as that would do more harm than good. It might make a
+foul wind of a fair one, and cause a fellow to go about, or ware ship,
+when there was not the least occasion in the world for doing anything of
+the sort."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay; this will do for nervous men, who are always thinking they see
+danger ahead; but it is different with islands that a craft has actually
+visited. I do not see much use, Deacon Pratt, in your giving yourself any
+further trouble. My uncle was not a very rich man, I perceive, and I must
+go to work and make my own fortune if I wish more than I've got already.
+If there is any demand against the deceased, I am ready to discharge it."</p>
+
+<p>This was coming so much to the point that the deacon hardly knew what to
+make of it. He recollected his own ten dollars, and the covetousness of
+his disposition so far got the better of his prudence as to induce him to
+mention the circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Sage may have a charge--no doubt has one, that ought to be settled,
+but your uncle mainly paid his way as he went on. I thought the widow who
+took care of him was entitled to something extra, and I handed her ten
+dollars this morning, which you may repay to me or not, just as you
+please."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Daggett drew forth his wallet and discharged the obligation on the
+spot. He then replaced the charts, and, without opening the till of the
+chest, he shut down the lid, locked it, and put the key in his pocket,
+saying that he would cause the whole to be removed, much as if he felt
+anxious to relieve the deacon of an incumbrance. This done, he asked a
+direction to the dwelling of the Widow White, with whom he wished to
+converse, ere he left the Point.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have the questions of so many cousins to answer, when I get
+home," he said, smiling, "that it will never do for me to go back without
+taking all the talk I can get with me. If you will be kind enough to show
+me the way, captain Gar'ner, I will promise to do as much for you, when
+you come to hunt up the leavings of some old relation on the Vineyard."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner very cheerfully complied, not observing the look of
+dissatisfaction with which his owner listened to the request. Away the two
+went, then, and were soon at the widow's door. Here the young man left his
+companion, having duty to attend to on board the Sea Lion. The Widow White
+received her guest with lively interest, it forming one of the greatest
+pleasures of her existence to be imparting and receiving intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you found my uncle a companionable man," observed the captain,
+as soon as amicable relations were established between the parties, by
+means of a few flattering remarks on one side and on the other. "The
+Vineyard folks are generally quite conversable."</p>
+
+<p>"That he was, captain Daggett; and when the deacon had not been over to
+perplex him, and wake up the worldly spirit in him, he was as well
+inclined to preparation as any sick person I ever waited on. To be sure
+it <i>was</i> different arter the deacon had paid one of his visits."</p>
+
+<p>"Was Deacon Pratt in the habit of coming to read and pray with the sick?"</p>
+
+<p>"He pray! I don't believe he as much as went through a single sentence of
+a prayer in all his visits. Their whull talk was about islands and seals,
+when they was by themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed the nephew, manifesting a new interest in the
+discourse. "And what could they find to say on such subjects? Islands and
+seals were a strange topic for a dying man!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it"--answered the widow, sharply. "I know'd it at the time; but
+what could a lone woman do to set 'em right; and he a deacon of the
+meetin' the whull time? If they <i>would</i> talk of worldly things at such
+times, it wasn't for one like me to put 'em right."</p>
+
+<p>"Then this discourse was held openly in your presence--before your face,
+as it might be, ma'am?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say that it was just that; nor was it altogether when my back was
+turned. They talked, and I overheard what was said, as will happen when a
+body is about, you know."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger did not press the point, having been brought up in what might
+almost be termed a land of listeners. An island, that is cut off from much
+communication with the rest of the earth, and from which two-thirds of the
+males must be periodically absent, would be very likely to reach
+perfection in the art of gossiping, which includes that of the listener.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered, "one picks up a good deal, he doesn't know how. So
+they talked of islands and seals?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus questioned, the widow cheerfully opened her stores of knowledge. As
+she proceeded in her account of the secret conferences between Deacon
+Pratt and her late inmate, her zeal became quickened, and she omitted
+nothing that she had ever heard, besides including a great deal that she
+had not heard. But her companion was accustomed to such narratives, and
+knew reasonably well how to make allowances. He listened with a
+determination not to believe more than half of what she said, and by dint
+of long experience, he succeeded in separating the credible portions of
+the woman's almost breathless accounts, from those that ought to have been
+regarded as incredible, with a surprising degree of success. The greatest
+difficulty in the way of comprehending the Widow White's report, arose
+from the fact that she had altogether missed the preliminary and most
+explicit conference. This left so much to be understood and inferred,
+that, in her own efforts to supply the deficiencies, she made a great deal
+of confusion in the statements. Captain Daggett was fully assured that the
+deacon knew of the existence of the sealing-island, at least; though he
+was in doubt whether the rumour that had been brought to him, touching the
+buried treasure, had also been imparted to this person. The purchase and
+equipment of the Sea Lion, taken in connection with the widow's account,
+were enough, of themselves, to convince one of his experience and
+foresight, that an expedition after seal was then fitting out, on the
+information derived from his deceased relative. Of this much he had no
+doubt; but he was not able to assure himself, quite so satisfactorily,
+that the key was to be looked at by the way.</p>
+
+<p>The interview between Captain Daggett and the Widow White lasted more than
+an hour. In that time the former had gleaned all the information the
+latter could give, and they parted on the best terms in the world. It is
+true that the captain gave the widow nothing--he had acquitted his
+conscience on this score, by re-paying the deacon the money the last had
+advanced--but he listened in the most exemplary manner to all she had to
+say; and, with a certain class of vehement talkers, the most favoured
+being in the world is your good listener. Interest had given the stranger
+an air of great attention, and the delighted woman had poured out her
+torrent of words in a way that gratified, in the highest degree, her
+intense desire to be imparting information. When they separated, it was
+with an understanding that letters, on the same interesting subject,
+should pass between them.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon, Captain Daggett found means to remove the chest of his
+late kinsman, across the bays, to Sag Harbour, whither he proceeded
+himself by the same conveyance. There, he passed an hour or two in making
+inquiries touching the state of equipment, and the probable time of the
+departure of the Sea Lion. The fitting out of this schooner was the cause
+of a good deal of discourse in all that region, and the Martha's
+Vineyard-man heard numberless conjectures, but very little accurate
+information. On the whole, however, he arrived at the conclusion that the
+Sea Lion would sail within the next ten days; that her voyage was to be
+distant; that her absence was expected to exceed a twelvemonth; and that
+it was thought she had some other scheme in view, in addition to that of
+sealing. That night, this hardy mariner--half agriculturist as he was--got
+into his whale-boat, and sailed for the Vineyard, all alone, taking the
+chest with him. This was nothing, however; for quite often, before, had he
+been off at sea, in his boat, alone, looking out for inward-bound vessels
+to pilot.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-06">
+<h2>Chapter VI.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Launch thy bark, mariner!<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Christian, God speed thee!<br />
+Let loose the rudder-bands,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Good angels lead thee!<br />
+Set thy sails warily,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Tempests will come;<br />
+Steer thy course steadily,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Christian, steer home!"</p>
+
+<p>  Mrs. Southey.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The visit of Captain Daggett, taken in connection with all that he had
+said and done, while on Oyster Pond, and at Sag Harbour, had the effect
+greatly to hasten the equipments of the Sea Lion. Deacon Pratt knew the
+characters of the seamen of the island too well, to trifle in a matter of
+so much moment. How much the Vineyard folk had been told, in reference to
+his great secrets, he did not know; but he felt assured that they knew
+enough, and had learned enough in this visit, to quicken all their desires
+for riches, and to set them in motion towards the antarctic circle. With
+such a people, distance and difficulties are of no account; a man who has
+been cradling oats, to-day, in his own retired fields, where one would
+think ambition and the love of change could never penetrate, being ready
+to quit home at twenty-four hours' notice, assuming the marlingspike as he
+lays aside the fork, and setting forth for the uttermost confines of the
+earth, with as little hesitation as another might quit his home for an
+ordinary journey of a week. Such, did the deacon well know, was the
+character of those with whom he had now to deal, and he foresaw the
+necessity of the utmost caution, perseverance, diligence, and activity.</p>
+
+<p>Philip Hazard, the mate mentioned by Roswell Gardiner, was enjoined to
+lose no time; and the men engaged for the voyage soon began to cross the
+Sound, and to make their appearance on board the schooner. As for the
+craft herself, she had all that was necessary for her wants below hatches;
+and the deacon began to manifest some impatience for the appearance of two
+or three men of particular excellence, of whom Phil Hazard was in quest,
+and whom Captain Gardiner had made it a point should be obtained. Little
+did the worthy owner suspect that the Vineyard people were tampering with
+these very hands, and keeping them from coming to terms, in order that
+they might fit out a second Sea Lion, which they had now been preparing
+for near a month; having purchased her at New Bedford, with a view to
+profit by the imperfect information that had reached them, through the
+masters of the brig and sloop. The identity in the name was accidental,
+or, it might be better to say, had been naturally enough suggested by the
+common nature of the enterprise; but, once existing, it had been the means
+of suggesting to the Vineyard company a scheme of confounding the vessels,
+out of which they hoped to reap some benefit, but which it would be
+premature now fully to state.</p>
+
+<p>After a delay of several days, Hazard sent across from Stonington a man by
+the name of Watson, who had the reputation of being a first-class sealer.
+This accession was highly prized; and, in the absence of his mates, both
+of whom were out looking for hands, Roswell Gardiner, to whom command was
+still novel, consulted freely with this experienced and skillful mariner.
+It was fortunate for the schemes of the deacon that he had left his young
+master still in the dark, as respected his two great secrets. Gardiner
+understood that the schooner was to go after seals, sea-lions,
+sea-elephants, and all animals of the genus <i>phoca;</i> but he had been told
+nothing concerning the revelations of Daggett, or of the real motives that
+had induced him to go so far out of his usual course, in the pursuit of
+gain. We say it was fortunate that the deacon had been so wary; for Watson
+had no intention whatever to sail out of Oyster Pond, having been actually
+engaged as the second officer of the rival Sea Lion, which had been
+purchased at New Bedford, and was then in an active state of forwardness
+in its equipments, with a view to compete with the craft that was still
+lying so quietly and unconsciously alongside of Deacon Pratt's wharf. In a
+word, Watson was a spy, sent across by the Vineyard-men, to ascertain all
+he could of the intentions of the schooner's owner, to worm himself into
+Gardiner's confidence, and to report, from time to time, the state of
+things generally, in order that the East-enders might not get the start of
+his real employers. It is a common boast of Americans that there are no
+spies in their country. This may be true in the every-day signification of
+the term, though it is very untrue in all others. This is probably the
+most spying country in christendom, if the looking into other people's
+concerns be meant. Extensive and recognised systems of <i>espionage</i> exist
+among merchants; and nearly every man connected with the press has
+enlisted himself as a sort of spy in the interests of politics--many, in
+those of other concerns, also. The reader, therefore, is not to run away
+with impressions formed under general assertions that will scarce bear
+investigation, and deny the truth of pictures that are drawn with
+daguerreotype fidelity, because they do not happen to reflect the cant of
+the day. The man Watson, who had partially engaged to go out in the Sea
+Lion, captain Roswell Gardiner, was not only a spy, but a spy sent
+covertly into an enemy's camp, with the meanest motives, and with
+intentions as hostile as the nature of the circumstances would permit.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things on Oyster Pond for quite a week after the
+nephew had been to look after the effects of the deceased uncle. The
+schooner was now quite ready for sea, and her master began to talk of
+hauling off from the wharf. It is true, there was no very apparent reason
+why this step, preliminary to sailing, should be taken in that port, where
+there were so few opportunities for her people's running into excesses;
+but it sounded ship-shape, and captain Gardiner had been heard to express
+an intention to that effect. The men arrived but slowly from the main, and
+something like impatience was manifested by the young commander, who had
+long before got all his green hands, or youths from the neighbourhood, on
+board, and was gradually breaking them in to the ways of a vessel. Indeed,
+the best reason he could give to himself for 'hauling off,' was the
+practice it might give to these lads with the oars.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what Hazard and Green are about"--called out Roswell
+Gardiner to his owner, the first being on the quarter-deck of the Sea
+Lion, and the last on the wharf, while Watson was busy in the
+main-rigging; "they've been long enough on the main to ship a dozen crews
+for a craft of this size, and we are still short two hands, even if this
+man sign the papers, which he has not yet done. By the way, Watson, it's
+time we saw your hand-writing."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a poor scholar, captain Gar'ner," returned the cunning mariner, "and
+it takes time for me to make out even so small a matter as my name."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay; you are a prudent fellow, and I like you all the better for it.
+But you have had leisure, and a plenty of it too, to make up your mind.
+You must know the schooner from her keel up by this time, and ought to be
+able to say now that you are willing to take luck's chances in her."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir; that's all true enough, so far as the craft is concerned. If
+this was a West India v'y'ge, I wouldn't stand a minute about signing the
+articles; nor should I make much question if the craft was large enough
+for a common whalin' v'y'ge; but, sealin' is a different business, and one
+onprofitable hand may make many an onprofitable lay."</p>
+
+<p>"All this is true enough; but we do not intend to take any unprofitable
+hands, or to have any unprofitable lays, You know me--"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! if all was like <i>you</i>, captain Gar'ner, I wouldn't stand even to wipe
+the pen. <i>Your</i> repitation was made in the southward, and no man can
+dispute your skill."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, both mates are old hands at the business, and we intend that all
+the 'ables' shall be as good men as you are yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>needs</i> good men, sir, to be operatin' among some of them
+sea-elephants! Sea-dogs; for sea-dogs is my sayin'. They tell of seals
+getting scurce; but I say, it's all in knowin' the business--'There's
+young captain Gar'ner,' says I, 'that's fittin' out a schooner for some
+onknown part of the world,' says I, 'maybe for the South Pole,
+for-ti-know, or for some sich out-of-the-way hole; now he'll come back
+<i>full</i>, or I'm no judge o' the business,' says I."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if this is your way of thinking, you have only to clap your name to
+the articles, and take your lay."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir; when I've seed my shipmates. There isn't the business under
+the sun that so much needs that every man should be true, as the
+sea-elephant trade. Smaller animals may be got along with, with a narvous
+crew, perhaps; but when it comes to the raal old bulls, or bull-dogs, as a
+body might better call 'em, give me stout hearts, as well as stout hands."</p>
+
+<p>'Well, now, to my notion, Watson, it is less dangerous to take a
+sea-elephant than to fasten to a regular old bull-whale, that may be has
+had half a dozen irons in him already."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, <i>that's</i> sometimes skeary work, too; though I don't think so
+much of a whale as I do of a sea-elephant, or of a sea-lion. 'Let me know
+my shipmates,' say I, 'on a sealin' expedition.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Gar'ner," said the deacon, who necessarily overheard this
+discourse, "you ought to know at once whether this man is to go in the
+schooner or not. The mates believe he is, and may come across from the
+main without a hand to take his place should he leave us. The thing should
+be settled at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm willing to come to tarms this minute," returned Watson, as boldly as
+if he were perfectly sincere; "only let me understand what I undertake.
+If I know'd to what islands the schooner was bound, it might make a
+difference in my judgment."</p>
+
+<p>This was a well-devised question of the spy's, though it failed of its
+effect, in consequence of the deacon's great caution in not having yet
+told his secret, even to the master of his craft. Had Gardiner known
+exactly where he was about to go, the desire to secure a hand as valuable
+as Watson might have drawn from him some imprudent revelation; but knowing
+nothing himself, he was obliged to make the best answer he could.</p>
+
+<p>"Going," he said; "why, we are going after seals, to be sure; and shall
+look for them where they are most to be found. As experienced a hand as
+yourself ought to know where that is."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered the fellow, laughing--"it's just neither here nor
+there--that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Gar'ner," interrupted the deacon, solemnly, "this is trifling,
+and we must come to terms with this man, or write to Mr. Hazard to engage
+another in his place. Come ashore, sir; I have business with you up at the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>The serious manner in which this was uttered took both the captain and the
+man a little by surprise. As for the first, he went below to conceal his
+good-looking throat beneath a black handkerchief, before he followed the
+deacon where it was most probable he should meet with Mary. While he was
+thus occupied, Watson came down out of the main-rigging and descended into
+the forecastle. As the young captain was walking fast towards the dwelling
+of Deacon Pratt, Watson came on deck again, and hailed Baiting Joe, who
+was fishing at no great distance from the wharf. In a few minutes Watson
+was in Joe's boat, bag and all--he had not brought a chest on board--and
+was under way for the Harbour. From the Harbour he sailed the same
+evening, in a whale-boat that was kept in readiness for him, carrying the
+news over to Holmes's Hole that the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, would
+certainly be ready to go out as early as the succeeding week. Although
+Watson thus seemingly deserted his post, it was with a perfect
+understanding with his real employers. He had need of a few days to make
+his own preparations before he left the 41st degree of north latitude to
+go as far south as a vessel could proceed. He did not, however, leave his
+post entirely vacant. One of Deacon Pratt's neighbours had undertaken, for
+a consideration, to let the progress of events be known, and tidings were
+sent by every opportunity, reporting the movements of the schooner, and
+the prospects of her getting to sea. These last were not quite as
+flattering as Roswell Gardiner hoped and believed, the agents of the
+Vineyard company having succeeded in getting away two of Hazard's best
+men; and as reliable sealers were not to be picked up as easily as pebbles
+on a beach, the delay caused by this new stroke of management might even
+be serious. All this time the Sea Lion, of Holmes' Hole, was getting ahead
+with untiring industry, and there was every prospect of her being ready to
+go out as soon as her competitor. But, to return to Oyster Pond.</p>
+
+<p>Deacon Pratt was in his porch ere Roswell Gardiner overtook him. There the
+deacon gave his young friend to understand he had private business of
+moment, and led the way at once into his own apartment, which served the
+purposes of office, bed-room and closet; the good man being accustomed to
+put up his petition to the throne of Mercy there, as well as transact all
+his temporal affairs. Shutting the door, and turning the key, not a little
+to Roswell's surprise, the old man faced his companion with a most earnest
+and solemn look, telling him at once that he was now about to open his
+mind to him in a matter of the last concern. The young sailor scarce knew
+what to think of it all; but he hoped that Mary was, in some way,
+connected with the result.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, captain Gar'ner," continued the deacon, "I must ask
+you to take an oath."</p>
+
+<p>"An oath, deacon!--This is quite new for the sealing business--as
+ceremonious as Uncle Sam's people."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, an oath; and an oath that must be most religiously kept, and on
+this bible. Without the oath, our whole connection must fall through,
+captain Gar'ner."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather than that should happen, deacon, I will cheerfully take two oaths;
+one to clench the other."</p>
+
+<p>"It is well. I ask you, Roswell Gar'ner, to swear on this Holy Book that
+the secrets I shall now reveal to you shall not be told to any other,
+except in a manner prescribed by myself; that in no other man's employment
+will you profit by them and that you will in all things connected with
+them be true and faithful to your engagements to me and to my
+interests--so help you God!"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner kissed the book, while he wondered much, and was dying
+with curiosity to know what was to follow. This great point secured, the
+deacon laid aside the sacred volume, opened a drawer, and produced the two
+all-important charts, to which he had transferred the notes of Daggett.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Gar'ner," resumed the deacon, spreading the chart of the
+antarctic sea on the bed, "you must have known me and my ways long enough
+to feel some surprise at finding me, at my time of life, first entering
+into the shipping concern."</p>
+
+<p>"If I've felt any surprise, deacon, it is that a man of your taste and
+judgment should have held aloof so long from the only employment that I
+think fit for a man of real energy and character."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, this is well enough for you to say, as a seaman yourself; though you
+will find it hard to persuade most of those who live on shore into your
+own ways of thinking."</p>
+
+<p>"That is because people ashore think and act as they have been brought up
+to do. Now, just look at that chart, deacon; see how much of it is water,
+and how little of it is land. Minister Whittle told us, only the last
+Sabbath, that nothing was created without a design, and that a wise
+dispensation of Divine Providence was to be seen in all the works of
+nature. Now, if the land was intended to take the lead of the water, would
+there have been so much more of the last than of the first, deacon? That
+was the idea that came into my mind when I heard the minister's words; and
+had not Mary--"</p>
+
+<p>"What of Mary?" demanded the deacon, perceiving that the young man paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Only I was in hopes that what you had to say, deacon, might have some
+connection with her."</p>
+
+<p>"What I have to say is better worth hearing than fifty Marys. As to my
+niece, Gar'ner, you are welcome to her, if she will have you; and why she
+does not is to me unaccountable. But, you see that chart--look at it well,
+and tell me if you find anything new or remarkable about it."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks like old times, deacon, and here are many places that I have
+visited and know. What have we here? Islands laid down in pencil, with the
+latitude and longitude in figures! Who says there is land, thereaway,
+Deacon Pratt, if I may be so free as to ask the question?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do--and capital good land it is, for a sealing craft to get alongside
+of. Them islands, Gar'ner, may make your fortune, as well as mine. No
+matter how I know they are there--it is enough that I <i>do</i> know it, and
+that I wish you to carry the Sea Lion to that very spot, as straight as
+you can go; fill her up with elephant's oil, ivory, and skins, and bring
+her back again as fast as she can travel."</p>
+
+<p>"Islands in that latitude and longitude!" said Roswell Gardiner, examining
+the chart as closely as if it were of very fine print indeed--"I never
+heard of any such land before!"</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis there, notwithstanding; and like all land in distant seas that men
+have not often troubled, plentifully garnished with what will pay the
+mariner well for his visit."</p>
+
+<p>"Of that I have little doubt, should there be actually any land there. It
+may be a Cape Fly Away that some fellow has seen in thick weather. The
+ocean is full of such islands!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is none of them. It is bony fidy 'arth, as I know from the man who
+trod it. You must take good care, Gar'ner, and not run the schooner on
+it"--with a small chuckling laugh, such as a man little accustomed to this
+species of indulgence uses, when in high good-humour. "I am not rich
+enough to buy and fit out Sea Lions for you to cast 'em away."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a high latitude, deacon, to carry a craft into. Cook, himself,
+fell short of <i>that</i>, somewhat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind Cook--he was a king's navigator--my man was an American
+sealer; and what he has once seen he knows where to find again. There are
+the islands--three in number and there you will find 'em, with animals on
+their shores as plenty as clam-shells on the south beach."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it may be so. If land is there, and you'll risk the schooner,
+I'll try to get a look at it. I shall want you to put it down in black and
+white, however, that I'm to go as high as this."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have any authority a man may ask. On that point there can be no
+difficulty between me and you. The risk of the schooner must be mine of
+course; but I rely on you to take as good care of her as a man can. Go
+then, direct, to that point, and fill up the schooner. But, Gar'ner, my
+business doesn't end with this! As soon as the schooner is full, you will
+come to the southward, and get her clear of everything like ice as fast as
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>"That I should be very likely to do, deacon, though you had said nothing
+on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, by all accounts them are stormy seas, and the sooner a body is shut
+of them the better. And now, Gar'ner, I must swear you again. I have
+another secret to tell you, and an oath must go with each. Kiss this
+sacred volume once more, and swear to me never to reveal to another that
+which I am about to reveal to you, unless it may be in a court of law, and
+at the command of justice, so help you God."</p>
+
+<p>"What, a second oath, deacon!--You are as bad as the custom-houses, which
+take you on all tacks, and don't believe you when you've done. Surely, I'm
+sworn in already."</p>
+
+<p>"Kiss the book, and swear to what I have put to you," said the deacon,
+sternly, "or never go to sea in a craft of mine. Never to reveal what I
+shall now tell you, unless compelled by justice, so help you God!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus cornered, Roswell Gardiner hesitated no longer, but swore as
+required, kissing the book gravely and reverently. This was the young
+man's first command, and he was not going to lose it on account of so
+small a matter as swearing to keep his owner's secrets. Having obtained
+the pledge, the deacon now produced the second chart, which was made to
+take the place of the other on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" he exclaimed, in a sort of triumph--"that is the real object of
+your voyage!"</p>
+
+<p>"That key! Why, deacon, that is in north latitude --&deg; --&Prime;, and you make a
+crooked road of it truly, when you tell me to go as far south as --&deg; --&Prime;,
+In order to reach it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is well to have two strings to a body's bow. When you hear what you
+are to bring from that key, you will understand why I send you south,
+before you are to come here to top off your cargo."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be with turtle, then," said Roswell Gardiner, laughing. "Nothing
+grows on these keys but a few stunted shrubs, and nothing is ever to be
+found on them but turtle. Once in a while a fellow may pick up a few
+turtle, if he happen to hit the right key."</p>
+
+<p>"Gar'ner," rejoined the deacon, still more solemnly--"that island, low and
+insignificant as it is, contains treasure. Pirates made their deposits
+here a long time ago, and the knowledge of that fact is now confined to
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>The young man stared at the deacon as if he had some doubts whether the
+old man were in his right mind. He knew the besetting weakness of his
+character well, and had no difficulty in appreciating the influence of
+such a belief as that he had just expressed, on his feelings; but it
+seemed so utterly improbable that he, living on Oyster Pond, should learn
+a fact of this nature, which was concealed from others, that, at first, he
+fancied his owner had been dreaming of money until its images had made him
+mad. Then he recollected the deceased mariner, the deacon's many
+conferences with him, the interest he had always appeared to take in the
+man, and the suddenness, as well as the time, of the purchase of the
+schooner; and he at once obtained a clue to the whole affair.</p>
+
+<p>"Daggett has told you this, Deacon Pratt"--said Gardiner, in his off-hand
+way. "And he is the man who has told you of those sealing-islands too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Admitting it to be so, why not Daggett as well as any other man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if he knew what he was saying to be true--but the yarn of a
+sailor is not often to be taken for gospel."</p>
+
+<p>"Daggett was near his end, and cannot be classed with those who talk idly
+in the pride of their health and strength--men who are ever ready to
+say--'Tush, God has forgotten.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Why was this told to you, when the man had natural friends and relatives
+by the dozen over on the Vineyard?"</p>
+
+<p>"He had been away from the Vineyard and them relatives fifty years; a
+length of time that weakens a body's feelings considerably. Take you away
+from Mary only a fourth part of that time, and you would forget whether
+her eyes are blue or black, and altogether how she looks."</p>
+
+<p>"If I should, a most miserable and contemptible dog should I account
+myself! No, deacon, twice fifty years would not make me forget the eyes or
+the looks of Mary!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, so all youngsters think, and feel, and talk. But let 'em try the
+world, and they'll soon find out their own foolishness. But Daggett made
+me his confidant because Providence put me in his way, and because he
+trusted to being well enough to go in the schooner, and to turn the
+expedition to some account in his own behalf."</p>
+
+<p>"Had the man the impudence to confess that he had been a pirate, and
+helped to bury treasure on this key?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is not, by any means, his history. Daggett was never a pirate
+himself, but accident placed him in the same prison and same room as that
+in which a real pirate was confined. There the men became friends, and the
+condemned prisoner, for such he was in the end, gave this secret to
+Daggett as the last service he could do him."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, deacon, you do not expect much in the way of profit from this
+part of the voyage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I expect the most from it, Gar'ner, as you will too, when you come to
+hear the whole story."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon then went into all the particulars of the revelations made by
+the pirate to his fellow-prisoner, much as they had been given by Daggett
+to himself. The young man listened to this account at first with
+incredulity, then with interest; and finally with a feeling that induced
+him to believe that there might be more truth in the narrative than he had
+originally supposed possible. This change was produced by the earnest
+manner of the deacon as much as by the narrative itself; for he had become
+graphic under the strong impulses of that which, with him, was a master
+passion. So deep had been the impression made on the mind of the old man
+by Daggett's account, and so intense the expectations thereby awakened,
+that he omitted nothing, observed the most minute accuracy in all his
+details, and conveyed just as distinct impressions to his listener, as had
+been conveyed to himself, when the story was first told to him.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a most extr'or'nary account, take it on whatever tack you will!"
+exclaimed Roswell Gardiner, as soon as a pause in the deacon's story
+enabled him to put in another word. "The most extr'or'nary tale I ever
+listened to! How came so much gold and silver to be abandoned for so long
+a time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Them three officers hid it there, fearing to trust their own crew with it
+in their vessel. Their pretence was to stop for turtle, just as you must
+do: whilst the hands were turtling, the captain and his mates walked about
+the key, and took occasion to make their deposits in that hole on the
+coral rock, as you have heard me say. Oh! it's all too natural not to be
+true!"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner saw that the old man's hopes were too keenly excited to
+be easily cooled, and that his latent covetousness was thoroughly
+awakened. Of all the passions to which poor human nature is the slave, the
+love of gold is that which endures the longest, and is often literally
+carried with us to the verge of the grave. Indeed, in minds so constituted
+originally as to submit to an undue love of money, the passion appears to
+increase, as others more dependent on youth, and strength, and enterprise,
+and ambition, gradually become of diminished force, slowly but surely
+usurping the entire sway over a being that was once subject to many
+masters. Thus had it been with the deacon. Nearly all his passions now
+centred in this one. He no longer cared for preferment in politics, though
+once it had been the source of a strong desire to represent Suffolk at
+Albany; even the meeting, and its honours, was loosening its hold on his
+mind; while his fellow-men, his kindred included, were regarded by him as
+little more than so many competitors, or tools.</p>
+
+<p>"A lie may be made to seem very natural," answered Roswell Gardiner, "if
+it has been put together by one who understands knotting and splicing in
+such matters. Did this Daggett name the amount of the sum that he supposed
+the pirates may have left on that key?"</p>
+
+<p>"He did," returned the deacon, the whole of his narrow and craving soul
+seeming to gleam in his two sunken eyes as he answered. "According to the
+account of the pirate, there could not have been much less than thirty
+thousand dollars, and nearly all of it in good doubloons of the coin of
+the kings--doubloons that will weigh their full sixteens to the pound--ay,
+and to spare!"</p>
+
+<p>"The Sea Lion's cargo, well chosen and well stowed, would double that,
+deacon, if the right animals can only be found."</p>
+
+<p>"May be so--but, just think, Gardner--this will be in good bright coined
+gold!"</p>
+
+<p>"But what right can we have to that gold, even admitting that it is there,
+and can be found?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right!" exclaimed the deacon, staring. "Does not that which Divine
+Providence gives man become his own?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the same rule it might be said Divine Providence gave it to the
+pirates. There must be lawful owners to all this money, if one could only
+find them."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, if one could only find them. Harkee, Gar'ner; have you spent a
+shilling or a quarter lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"A good many of both, deacon," answered the young man, again betraying the
+lightness of his heart with a laugh. "I wish I had more of your saving
+temper, and I might get rich. Yes, I spent a quarter only two hours since,
+in buying fish for the cabin, of old Baiting Joe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, tell me the impression of that quarter. Had it a head, or only
+pillars? What was its date, and in whose reign was it struck? Maybe it was
+from the mint at Philadelphia--if so, had it the old eagle or the new? In
+a word, could you swear to that quarter, Gar'ner, or to any quarter you
+ever spent in your life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not, deacon. A fellow doesn't sit down to take likenesses, when
+he gets a little silver or gold."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor is it very probable that any one could say--'that is my doubloon.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Still there must be a lawful owner to each piece of that money, if any
+such money be there," returned Roswell Gardiner, a little positively.
+"Have you ever talked with Mary, deacon, on this subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"I talk of such a matter with a woman! Do you think I'm mad, Gar'ner? If
+I wanted to have the secret run through old Suffolk, as fire runs over the
+salt meadows in the spring, I might think of such a thing: but not
+without. I have talked with no one but the master of the craft that I am
+about to send out in search of this gold, as well as in search of the
+sealing-islands I have shown you. Had there been but <i>one</i> object in view,
+I might not have ventured so much; but with <i>two</i> before my eyes, it would
+seem like flying in the face of Divine Providence to neglect so great an
+opportunity!"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner saw that arguments would avail nothing against a cupidity
+so keenly aroused. He abstained, therefore, from urging any more of the
+objections that suggested themselves to his mind, but heard all that the
+deacon had to tell him, taking full notes of what he heard It would seem
+that Daggett had been sufficiently clear in his directions for finding the
+hidden treasure, provided always that his confidant the pirate had been as
+clear with him, and had not been indulging in a mystification. The
+probability of the last had early suggested itself to one of Deacon
+Pratt's cautious temperament; but Daggett had succeeded in removing the
+impression by his forcible statements of his friend's sincerity. There was
+as little doubt of the sincerity of the belief of the Martha's Vineyard
+mariner, as there was of that of the deacon himself.</p>
+
+<p>The day that succeeded this conference, the Sea Lion hauled off from the
+wharf, and all communications with her were now made only by means of
+boats. The sudden disappearance of Watson may have contributed to this
+change, men being more under control with a craft at her moorings than
+when fast to a wharf. Three days later the schooner lifted her anchor, and
+with a light air made sail. She passed through the narrow but deep channel
+which separates Shelter Island from Oyster Pond, quitting the waters of
+Peconic altogether. There was not an air of departure about her,
+notwithstanding. The deacon was not much concerned; and some of Roswell
+Gardiner's clothes were still at his washerwoman's, circumstances that
+were fully explained, when the schooner was seen to anchor in Gardiner's
+Bay, which is an outer roadstead to all the ports and havens of that
+region.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-07">
+<h2>Chapter VII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p> "Walk in the light! so shalt thou know<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;That fellowship of love,<br />
+His spirit only can bestow<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Who reigns in light above.<br />
+Walk in the light! and sin, abhorr'd,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Shall ne'er defile again;<br />
+The blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Shall cleanse from every stain."</p>
+
+<p>  Bernard Barton.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>About an hour after the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, had let go her anchor in
+Gardiner's Bay, a coasting sloop approached her, coming from the westward.
+There are two passages by which vessels enter or quit Long Island Sound,
+at its eastern termination. The main channel is between Plum and Fisher's
+Islands, and, from the rapidity of its currents, is known by the name of
+the Race. The other passage is much less frequented, being out of the
+direct line of sailing for craft that keep mid-sound. It lies to the
+southward of the Race, between Plum Island and Oyster Pond Point, and is
+called by the Anglo-Saxon appellation of Plum Gut. The coaster just
+mentioned had come through this latter passage; and it was the impression
+of those who saw her from the schooner, that she was bound up into
+Peconic, or the waters of Sag Harbour. Instead of luffing up into either
+of the channels that would have carried her into these places, however,
+she kept off, crossing Gardiner's Bay, until she got within hail of the
+schooner. The wind being quite light, there was time for the following
+short dialogue to take place between the skipper of this coaster and
+Roswell Gardiner, before the sloop had passed beyond the reach of the
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond?" demanded the skipper, boldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," answered Roswell Gardiner, in the sententious manner of a
+seaman.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there one Watson, of Martha's Vineyard, shipped in that craft?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was aboard here for a week, but left us suddenly. As he did not sign
+articles, I cannot say that he run."</p>
+
+<p>"He changed his mind, then," returned the other, as one expresses a slight
+degree of surprise at hearing that which was new to him. "Watson is apt to
+whiffle about, though a prime fellow, if you can once fasten to him, and
+get him into blue water. Does your schooner go out to-morrow, Captain
+Gar'ner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not till next day, I think," said Roswell Gardiner, with the frankness of
+his nature, utterly free from the slightest suspicion that he was
+communicating with one in the interests of rivals. "My mates have not yet
+joined me, and I am short of my complement by two good hands. Had that
+fellow Watson stuck by me, I would have given him a look at water that no
+lead ever sounded."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay; he's a whiffler, but a good man on a sea-elephant. Then you think
+you'll sail day a'ter to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"If my mates come over from the main. They wrote me yesterday that they
+had got the hands, and were then on the look-out for something to get
+across in. I've come out here to be ready for them, and to pick 'em up,
+that they needn't go all the way up to the Harbour."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good traverse, and will save a long pull. Perhaps they are in
+<i>that</i> boat."</p>
+
+<p>At this allusion to a boat, Roswell Gardiner sprang into his main rigging,
+and saw, sure enough, that a boat was pulling directly towards the
+schooner, coming from the main, and distant only a short half mile. A
+glass was handed to him, and he was soon heard announcing cheerfully to
+his men, that "Mr. Hazard and the second officer were in the boat, with
+two seamen," and that he supposed they should <i>now</i> have their complement.
+All this was overheard by the skipper of the sloop, who caught each
+syllable with the most eager attention.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll soon be travelling south, I'm thinking, Captain Gar'ner?" called
+out this worthy, again, in a sort of felicitating way--"Them's your chaps,
+and they'll set you up."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so, with all my heart, for there is nothing more tiresome than
+waiting when one is all ready to trip. My owner is getting to be
+impatient too, and wants to see some skins in return for his dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, them's your chaps, and you'll be off the day a'ter to-morrow, at
+the latest. Well, a good time to you, Captain Gar'ner, and a plenty of
+skinning. It's a long road to travel, especially when a craft has to go as
+far south as your's is bound!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know, friend, whither I am bound? You have not asked me for my
+sealing ground, nor is it usual, in our business, to be hawking it up and
+down the country."</p>
+
+<p>"All that is true enough, but I've a notion, notwithstanding. Now, as
+you'll be off so soon, and as I shall not see you again, for some time at
+least, I will give you a piece of advice. If you fall <i>in</i> with a consort,
+don't fall <i>out</i> with her, and make a distant v'y'ge a cruise for an
+enemy, but come to tarms, and work in company: lay for lay; and make fair
+weather of what can't be helped."</p>
+
+<p>The men on board the sloop laughed at this speech, while those on board
+the schooner wondered. To Roswell Gardiner and his people the allusions
+were an enigma, and the former muttered something about the stranger's
+being a dunce, as he descended from the rigging, and gave some orders to
+prepare to receive the boat.</p>
+
+<p>"The chap belongs to the Hole," rejoined the master of the schooner, "and
+all them Vineyard fellows fancy themselves better blue-jackets than the
+rest of mankind: I suppose it must be because their island lies further
+out to sea than anything we have here inside of Montauk."</p>
+
+<p>Thus ended the communications with the stranger. The sloop glided away
+before a light south wind, and, favoured by an ebb tide, soon rounded the
+spit of sand that shelters the anchorage; and, hauling up to the eastward,
+she went on her way towards Holmes' Hole. The skipper was a relative of
+half of those who were interested in fitting out the rival Sea Lion, and
+had volunteered to obtain the very information he took with him, knowing
+how acceptable it would be to those at home. Sooth to say, a deep but wary
+excitement prevailed on the Vineyard, touching not only the
+sealing-islands, but also in respect to the buried treasure. The
+information actually possessed by the relations of the deceased mariner
+was neither very full nor very clear. It consisted principally of sayings
+of Daggett, uttered during his homeward-bound passage, and transmitted by
+the master of the brig to him of the sloop in the course of conferences
+that wore away a long summer's afternoon, as the two vessels lay becalmed
+within a hundred fathoms of each other. These sayings, however, had been
+frequent and intelligible. All men like to deal in that which makes them
+of importance; and the possession of his secrets had just the effect on
+Daggett's mind that was necessary to render him boastful. Under such
+impulses his tongue had not been very guarded; and facts leaked out which,
+when transmitted to his native island, through the medium of half a dozen
+tongues and as many fancies, amounted to statements sufficient to fire the
+imaginations of a people much duller than those of Martha's Vineyard.
+Accustomed to converse and think of such expeditions, it is not surprising
+that a few of the most enterprising of those who first heard the reports
+should unite and plan the adventure they now actually had in hand. When
+the intelligence of what was going on on Oyster Pond reached them,
+everything like hesitation or doubt disappeared; and from the moment of
+the nephew's return in quest of his uncle's assets, the equipment of the
+"Humses' Hull" craft had been pressed in a way that would have done credit
+to that of a government cruiser. Even Henry Eckford, so well known for
+having undertaken to cut the trees and put upon the waters of Ontario two
+double-bank frigates, if frigates they could be termed, each of which was
+to mount its hundred guns, in the short space of sixty days, scarce
+manifested greater energy in carrying out his contract, than did these
+rustic islanders in preparing their craft to compete with that which they
+were now certain was about to sail from the place where their kinsman had
+breathed his last.</p>
+
+<p>These keen and spirited islanders, however, did not work quite as much in
+the dark as our accounts, unexplained, might give the reader reason to
+suppose. It will be remembered that there was a till to the chest which
+had not been examined by the deacon. This till contained an old mutilated
+journal, not of the last, but of one or two of the earlier voyages of the
+deceased; though it had detached entries that evidently referred to
+different and distant periods of time. By dint of study, and by putting
+together sundry entries that at first sight might not be supposed to have
+any connection with each other, the present possessor of that chest had
+obtained what he deemed to be very sufficient clues to his uncle's two
+great secrets. There were also in the chest several loose pieces of paper,
+on which there were rude attempts to make charts of all the islands and
+keys in question, giving their relative positions as it respected their
+immediate neighbours, but in no instance giving the latitudes and
+longitudes. In addition to these significant proofs that the reports
+brought through the two masters were not without a foundation, there was
+an unfinished letter, written by the deceased, and addressed as a sort of
+legacy, "to any, or all of Martha's Vineyard, of the name of Daggett."
+This address was sufficiently wide, including, probably, some hundreds of
+persons: a clan in fact; but it was also sufficiently significant. The
+individual into whose hands it first fell, being of the name, read it
+first, as a matter of course, when he carefully folded it up, and placed
+it in a pocket-book which he was much in the habit of carrying in his own
+pocket. On what principle this letter, unfinished and without a signature,
+with nothing indeed but its general and comprehensive address to point out
+its origin as well as its destination, was thus appropriated to the
+purposes of a single individual, we shall not stop to inquire. Such was
+the fact, however, and none connected with the equipment of the Sea Lion,
+of Holmes' Hole, knew anything of the existence of that document, its
+present possessor excepted. He looked it over occasionally, and deemed the
+information it conveyed of no trifling import, under all the circumstances
+of the case.</p>
+
+<p>Both the enterprises of which we have given an opening account were
+perfectly characteristic of the state of society in which they were
+brought into existence. Deacon Pratt, if he had any regular calling, was
+properly a husbandman, though the love of money had induced him to invest
+his cash in nearly every concern around him, which promised remunerating
+returns. The principal owners of the Sea Lion, of Holmes' Hole, were
+husbandmen also; folk who literally tilled the earth, cradled their own
+oats and rye, and mowed their own meadows. Notwithstanding, neither of
+these men, those of the Vineyard any more than he of Oyster Pond, had
+hesitated about investing of his means in a maritime expedition, just as
+if they were all regular ship-owners of the largest port in the Union.
+With such men, it is only necessary to exhibit an account with a fair
+prospect of large profits, and they are ever ready to enter, into the
+adventure, heart, hand, and pocket. Last season, it may have been to look
+for whales on the coast of Japan; the season before that, to search for
+islands frequented by the seals; this season, possibly, to carry a party
+out to hunt for camelopards, set nets for young lions, and beat up the
+quarters of the rhinoceros on the plains of Africa: while the next, they
+may be transporting ice from Long Pond to Calcutta and Kingston--not to
+say to London itself. Of such materials are those descendants of the
+Puritans composed; a mixture of good and evil; of the religion which
+clings to the past, in recollection rather than in feeling, mingled with a
+worldly-mindedness that amounts nearly to rapacity; all cloaked and
+rendered decent by a conventional respect for duties, and respectable and
+useful, by frugality, enterprise, and untiring activity.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner had not mistaken the persons of those in the boat. They
+proved to be Phil Hazard, his first officer; Tim Green, the second mate;
+and the two sealers whom it had cost so much time and ingenuity to obtain.
+Although neither of the mates even suspected the truth, no sooner had they
+engaged the right sort of man than he was tampered with by the agents of
+the Martha's Vineyard concern, and spirited away by means of more tempting
+proposals, before he had got quite so far as to sign the articles. One of
+the motives for sending Watson across to Oyster Pond had been to induce
+Captain Gardiner to believe he had engaged so skilful a hand, which would
+effectually prevent his attempting to procure another, until, at the last
+moment, he might find himself unable to put to sea for the want of a
+complement. A whaling or a sealing voyage requires that the vessel should
+take out with her the particular hands necessary to her specific object,
+though, of late years, the seamen have got so much in the habit of
+'running,' especially in the Pacific, that it is only the craft that
+strictly belong to what may be termed the whaling communities, that bring
+back with them the people they carry out, and not always them.</p>
+
+<p>But here had Roswell Gardiner his complement full, and nearly everything
+ready to sea. He had only to go up to the Harbour and obtain his
+clearance, have a short interview with his owner, a longer with Mary, and
+be off for the antarctic circle, if indeed the ice would allow him to get
+as far south. There were now sixteen souls on board the Sea Lion, a very
+sufficient number for the voyage on which she was about to sail. The
+disposition or rating of the crew was as follows, viz.</p>
+<ol>
+  <li>Roswell Gardiner, master.</li>
+  <li>Philip Hazard, chief mate.</li>
+  <li>Timothy Green, second do.</li>
+  <li>David Weeks, carpenter.</li>
+  <li>Nathan Thompson, seaman.</li>
+  <li>Sylvester Havens, do.</li>
+  <li>Marcus Todd, do.</li>
+  <li>Hiram Flint, do.</li>
+  <li>Joshua Short, seaman.</li>
+  <li>Stephen Stimson, do.</li>
+  <li>Bartlett Davidson, do.</li>
+  <li>Peter Mount, landsman.</li>
+  <li>Arcularius Mott, do.</li>
+  <li>Robert Smith, do.</li>
+  <li>Cato Livingston, cook.</li>
+  <li>Primus Floyd, boy.</li>
+</ol>
+<p>This was considered a good crew, on the whole. Every man was a native
+American, and most of them belonged to old Suffolk. Thompson, and Flint,
+and Short, and Stimson, four capital fellows in their way, came from the
+main; the last, it was said, from as far east as Kennebunk. No matter;
+they were all reasonably young, hale, active fellows, with a promise of
+excellent service about every man of them. Livingston and Floyd were
+coloured persons, who bore the names of the two respectable families in
+which they or their progenitors had formerly been slaves. Weeks was
+accustomed to the sea, and might have been rated indifferently as a
+carpenter or as a mariner. Mount and Mott, though shipped as landsmen,
+were a good deal accustomed to the water also, having passed each two
+seasons in coasters, though neither had ever yet been really <i>outside</i>, or
+seen blue water.</p>
+
+<p>It would not have been easy to give to the Sea Lion a more efficient crew;
+yet there was scarce a real seaman belonging to her--a man who could have
+been made a captain of the forecastle on board a frigate or a ship of the
+line. Even Gardiner, the best man in his little craft in nearly every
+respect, was deficient in many attainments that mark the thorough sea-dog.
+He would have been remarkable anywhere for personal activity, for courage,
+readiness, hardihood, and all those qualities which render a man useful in
+the business to which he properly belonged; but he could hardly be termed
+a skilful leadsman, knew little of the finesse of his calling, and was
+wanting in that in-and-in breeding which converts habit into an instinct,
+and causes the thorough seaman to do the right thing, blow high or blow
+low, in the right way, and at the right moment. In all these respects,
+however, he was much the best man on board; and he was so superior to the
+rest as fully to command all their respect. Stimson was probably the next
+best seaman, after the master.</p>
+
+<p>The day succeeding that on which the Sea Lion received the remainder of
+her people, Roswell Gardiner went up to the Harbour, where he met Deacon
+Pratt, by appointment. The object was to clear the schooner out, which
+could be done only at that place. Mary accompanied her uncle, to transact
+some of her own little domestic business; and it was then arranged between
+the parties, that the deacon should make his last visit to his vessel in
+the return-boat of her master, while Roswell Gardiner should take Mary
+back to Oyster Pond, in the whale-boat that had brought her and her uncle
+over. As Baiting Joe, as usual, had acted as ferryman, it was necessary to
+get rid of him, the young sailor desiring to be alone with Mary. This was
+easily enough effected, by a present of a quarter of a dollar. The boat
+having two lugg sails, and the wind being light and steady, at south-west,
+there was nothing to conflict with Roswell Gardiner's wishes.</p>
+
+<p>The young sailor left the wharf at Sag Harbour about ten minutes after the
+deacon had preceded him, on his way to the schooner. As the wind was so
+light and so fair, he soon had his sheets in, and the boat gliding along
+at an easy rate, which permitted him to bestow nearly all his attention on
+his charming companion. Roswell Gardiner had sought this occasion, that he
+might once more open his heart to Mary, and urge his suit for the last
+time, previously to so long an absence. This he did in a manly frank way,
+that was far from being unpleasant to his gentle listener, whose
+inclinations, for a few minutes, blinded her to the resolutions already
+made on principle. So urgent was her suitor, indeed, that she should
+solemnly plight her faith to him, ere he sailed, that a soft illusion came
+over the mind of one as affectionate as Mary, and she was half-inclined to
+believe her previous determination was unjustifiable and obdurate. But the
+head of one of her high principles, and clear views of duty, could not
+long be deceived by her heart, and she regained the self-command which had
+hitherto sustained her in all her former trials, in connection with this
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it would have been better, Roswell," she said, "had I taken leave
+of you at the Harbour, and not incurred the risk of the pain that I
+foresee I shall both give and bear, in our present discourse. I have
+concealed nothing from you; possibly I have been more sincere than
+prudence would sanction. You know the only obstacle there is to our union;
+but that appears to increase in strength, the more I ask you to reflect on
+it--to try to remove it."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you have me do, Mary! Surely, not to play the hypocrite, and
+profess to believe that which I certainly do not, and which, after all my
+inquiries, I <i>cannot</i> believe."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry it is so, on every account," returned Mary, in a low and
+saddened tone. "Sorry, that one of so frank, ingenuous a mind, should find
+it impossible to accept the creed of his fathers, and sorry that it must
+leave so impassable a chasm between us, for ever."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mary; that can never be! Nothing but death can separate us for so
+long a time! While we meet, we shall at least be friends; and friends love
+to meet and to see each other often."</p>
+
+<p>"It may seem unkind, at a moment like this, Roswell, but it is in truth
+the very reverse, if I say we ought not to meet each other here, if we are
+bent on following our own separate ways towards a future world. My God is
+not your God; and what can there be of peace in a family, when its two
+heads worship different deities? I am afraid that you do not think
+sufficiently of the nature of these things.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not believe you to be so illiberal, Mary! Had the deacon said as
+much, I might not have been surprised; but, for one like you to tell me
+that my God is not your God, is narrow, indeed!"
+
+"Is it not so, Roswell? And, if so, why should we attempt to gloss over
+the truth by deceptive words? I am a believer in the Redeemer, as the Son
+of God; as one of the Holy Trinity; while you believe in him only as a
+man--a righteous and just, a sinless man, if you will, but as a man only.
+Now, is not the difference in these creeds immense? Is it not, in truth,
+just the difference between God and man? I worship my Redeemer; regard him
+as the equal of the Father--as a part of that Divine Being; while you look
+on him as merely a man without sin--as a man such as Adam probably was
+before the fall."</p>
+
+<p>"Do we know enough of these matters, Mary, to justify us in allowing them
+to interfere with our happiness?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are told that they are all-essential to our happiness--not in the
+sense you may mean, Roswell, but in one of far higher import--and we
+cannot neglect them, without paying the penalty."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you carry these notions too far, dearest Mary, and that it is
+possible for man and wife most heartily to love each other, and to be
+happy in each other, without their thinking exactly alike on religion. How
+many good and pious women do you see, who are contented and prosperous as
+wives and mothers, and who are members of meeting, but whose husbands make
+no profession of any sort!"</p>
+
+<p>"That may be true, or not. I lay no claim to a right to judge of any
+other's duties, or manner of viewing what they ought to do. Thousands of
+girls marry without <i>feeling</i> the very obligations that they profess to
+reverence; and when, in after life, deeper convictions come, they cannot
+cast aside the connections they have previously formed, if they would; and
+probably would not, if they could. That is a different thing from a young
+woman, who has a deep sense of what she owes to her Redeemer, becoming
+deliberately, and with a full sense of what she is doing, the wife of one
+who regards her God as merely a man--I care not how you qualify this
+opinion, by saying a pure and sinless man; it will be man, still. The
+difference between God and man is too immense, to be frittered away by any
+such qualifications as that"</p>
+
+<p>"But, if I find it <i>impossible</i> to believe all you believe, Mary, surely
+you would not punish me for having the sincerity to tell you the truth,
+and the whole truth."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, Roswell," answered the honest girl, gently, not to say
+tenderly. "Nothing has given me a better opinion of your principles,
+Roswell--a higher notion of what your upright and frank character really
+is, than the manly way in which you have admitted the justice of my
+suspicions of your want of faith--of faith, as I consider faith can alone
+exist. This fair dealing has made me honour you, and esteem you, in
+addition to the more girlish attachment that I do not wish to conceal from
+you, at least, I have so long felt."</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed Mary!" exclaimed Roswell Gardiner, almost ready to fall down on
+his knees and worship the pretty enthusiast, who sat at his side, with a
+countenance in which intense interest in his welfare was beaming from two
+of the softest and sweetest blue eyes that maiden ever bent on a youth in
+modest tenderness, whatever disposition he might be in to accept her God
+as his God. "How can one so kind in all other respects, prove so cruel in
+this one particular!"</p>
+
+<p>"Because that one particular, as you term it, Roswell, is all in all to
+her," answered the girl, with a face that was now flushed with feeling. "I
+must answer you as Joshua told the Israelites of old--'Choose you, this
+day, whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served, that
+were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
+land ye dwell: <i>but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord</i>.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you class me with the idolaters and pagans of Palestine?" demanded
+Gardiner, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You have said it, Roswell. It is not I, but yourself, who have thus
+classed you. You worship your reason, instead of the one true and living
+God. This is idolatry of the worst character, since the idol is never seen
+by the devotee, and he does not know of its existence."</p>
+
+<p>"You consider it then idolatry for one to use those gifts which he has
+received from his Maker, and to treat the most important of all subjects,
+as a rational being, instead of receiving a creed blindly, and without
+thought?"</p>
+
+<p>"If what you call thought could better the matter; if it were sufficient
+to comprehend and master this subject, there might be force in what you
+say. But what is this boasted reason, after all? It is not sufficient to
+explain a single mystery of the creation, though there are thousands. I
+know there are, nay there <i>must</i> be, a variety of opinions among those who
+look to their reasons, instead of accepting the doctrine of revelation,
+for the character of Christ; but I believe all, who are not open infidels,
+admit that the atonement of his death was sufficient for the salvation of
+men: now, can you explain this part of the theory of our religion any more
+than you can explain the divine nature of the Redeemer? Can you <i>reason</i>
+any more wisely touching the fall, than touching the redemption itself? I
+know I am unfit to treat of matters of this profound nature," continued
+Mary, modestly, though with great earnestness and beauty of manner; "but,
+to me, it seems very plain that the instant circumstances lead us beyond
+the limits of our means of comprehension, we are to <i>believe</i> in, and not
+to reason on, revelation. The whole history of Christianity teaches this.
+Its first ministers were uneducated men; men who were totally ignorant
+until enlightened by their faith; and all the lessons it teaches are to
+raise faith, and faith in the Redeemer, high above all other attainments,
+as the one great acquisition that includes and colours every other. When
+such is the fact, the heart does not make a stumbling-block of every thing
+that the head cannot understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know how it is," answered Roswell Gardiner, influenced, though
+unconvinced; "but when I talk with you on this subject, Mary, I cannot do
+justice to my opinions, or to the manner in which I reason on them with my
+male friends and acquaintance. I confess it does appear to me illogical,
+unreasonable--I scarce know how to designate what I mean--but,
+improbable, that God should suffer himself, or his Son, to be crucified by
+beings that he himself created, or that he should feel a necessity for any
+such course, in order to redeem beings he had himself brought into
+existence."</p>
+
+<p>"If there be any argument in the last, Roswell, it is an argument as much
+against the crucifixion of a man, as against the crucifixion of one of the
+Trinity itself. I understand you to believe that such a being as Jesus of
+Nazareth did exist; that he was crucified for our redemption; and that the
+atonement was accepted, and acceptable before God the Father. Now, is it
+not just as difficult to understand how, or why, this should be, as to
+understand the common creed of Christians?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, there is a vast difference between the crucifixion of a
+subordinate being, and the crucifixion of one who made a part of the
+Godhead itself, Mary! I can imagine the first, though I may not pretend to
+understand its reasons, or why it was necessary it should be so; but, I am
+certain you will not mistake my motive when I say, I cannot imagine the
+other."</p>
+
+<p>"Make no apologies to me, Roswell; look rather to that Dread Being whose
+teachings, through chosen ministers, you disregard. As for what you say, I
+can fully feel its truth. I do not pretend to <i>understand</i> why such a
+sacrifice should be necessary, but I <i>believe</i> it, <i>feel</i> it; and
+believing and feeling it, I cannot but adore and worship the Son, who
+quitted heaven to come on earth, and suffered, that we might possess
+eternal life. It is all mystery to me, as is the creation itself, our
+existence, God himself, and all else that my mind is too limited to
+comprehend. But, Roswell, if I believe a part of the teachings of the
+Christian church, I must believe all. The apostles, who were called by
+Christ in person, who lived in his very presence, who knew nothing except
+as the Holy Spirit prompted, worshipped him as the Son of God, as one 'who
+thought it not robbery to be equal with God;' and shall I, ignorant and
+uninspired, pretend to set up my feeble means of reasoning, in opposition
+to their written instructions!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yet must each of us stand or fall by the means he possesses, and the use
+he makes of them."</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite true, Roswell; and ask yourself the use to which you put
+your own faculties. I do not deny that we are to exercise our reason, but
+it is within the bounds set for its exercise. We may examine the evidence
+of Christianity, and determine for ourselves how far it is supported by
+reasonable and sufficient proofs; beyond this we cannot be expected to go,
+else might we be required to comprehend the mystery of our own existence,
+which just as much exceeds our understanding as any other. We are told
+that man was created in the image of his Creator, which means that there
+is an immortal and spiritual part of him that is entirely different from
+the material creature One perishes, temporarily at least--a limb can be
+severed from the body and perish, even while the body survives; but it is
+not so with that which has been created in the image of the deity. That is
+imperishable, immortal, spiritual, though doomed to dwell awhile in a
+tenement of clay. Now, why is it more difficult to believe that pure
+divinity may have entered into the person of one man, than to <i>believe</i>,
+nay to <i>feel</i>, that the image of God has entered into the persons of so
+many myriads of men? You not only overlook all this, Roswell, but you
+commit the, to me inexplicable, mistake of believing a part of a mystery,
+while you hesitate about believing all. Were you to deny the merits of the
+atonement altogether, your position would be much stronger than it is in
+believing what you do. But, Roswell, we will not embitter the moment of
+separation by talking more on this subject, now. I have other things to
+say to you, and but little time to say them in. The promise you have asked
+of me to remain single until your return, I most freely make. It costs me
+nothing to give you <i>this</i> pledge, since there is scarce a possibility of
+my ever marrying another."</p>
+
+<p>Mary repeated these words, or rather this idea in other words, to Roswell
+Gardiner's great delight; and again and again he declared that he could
+now penetrate the icy seas with a light heart, confident he should find
+her, on his return, disengaged, and, as he hoped, as much disposed to
+regard him with interest as she then was. Nevertheless, Gardiner did not
+deceive himself as to Mary's intentions. He knew her and her principles
+too well, to fancy that her resolution would be very likely to falter.
+Notwithstanding their long and intimate knowledge of each other, at no
+time had she ever betrayed a weakness that promised to undermine her high
+sense of duty; and as time increased her means of judging of what those
+duties were, her submission to them seemed to be stronger and stronger.
+Had there been anything stern or repulsive in Mary's manner of manifesting
+the feeling that was uppermost in her mind, one of Roswell Gardiner's
+temperament would have been very apt to shake off her influence; but, so
+far from this being the case, she ever met him and parted from him with a
+gentle and ingenuous interest in his welfare, and occasionally with much
+womanly tenderness. He knew that she prayed for him daily, as fervently as
+she prayed for herself; and even this, he hoped, would serve to keep alive
+her interest in him, during his absence. In this respect our young sailor
+showed no bad comprehension of human nature, nothing being more likely to
+maintain an influence of this sort, than the conviction that on ourselves
+depends the happiness or interests of the person beloved.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-08">
+<h2>Chapter VIII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>&nbsp;"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I wanton'd with thy breakers--they to me<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Were a delight; and if the freshening sea<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For I was, as it were, a child of thee,<br />
+And trusted to thy billows, far and near,<br />
+And laid my hand upon thy mane--as I do here."</p>
+
+<p>  Byron.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>It was past the turn of the day when Roswell Gardiner reached his vessel,
+after having carefully and with manly interest in all that belonged to
+her, seen Mary to her home, and taken his final leave of her. Of that
+parting we shall say but little. It was touching and warm-hearted, and it
+was rendered a little solemn by Mary Pratt's putting into her lover's hand
+a pocket-bible, with an earnest request that he would not forget to
+consult its pages. She added, at the same time, that she had carefully
+marked those passages which she wished him most to study and reflect on.
+The book was accepted in the spirit in which it was offered, and carefully
+placed in a little case that contained about a hundred volumes of
+different works.</p>
+
+<p>As the hour approached for lifting the anchor, the nervousness of the
+deacon became very apparent to the commander of his schooner. At each
+instant the former was at the latter's elbow, making some querulous
+suggestion, or asking a question that betrayed the agitated and unsettled
+state of his mind. It really seemed as if the old man, at the last moment,
+had not the heart to part with his property, or to trust it out of his
+sight. All this annoyed Roswell Gardiner, disposed as he was, at that
+instant, to regard every person and thing that in any manner pertained to
+Mary Pratt, with indulgence and favour.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be particular about them islands, Captain Gar'ner, and not get
+the schooner ashore," said the deacon, for the tenth time at least. "They
+tell me the tide runs like a horse in the high latitudes, and that seamen
+are often stranded by them, before they know where they are."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir; I'll try and bear it in mind," answered Gardiner, vexed at
+being importuned so often to recollect that which there was so little
+likelihood of his forgetting; "I am an old cruiser in those seas, deacon,
+and know all about the tides. Well, Mr. Hazard, what is the news of the
+anchor?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are short, sir, and only wait for orders to go on, and get clear of
+the ground."</p>
+
+<p>"Trip, at once, sir; and so farewell to America--or to this end of it, at
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the keys, they tell me, are dangerous navigation, Gar'ner, and a
+body needs have all his eyes about him."</p>
+
+<p>"All places have their dangers to your sleepy navigator, deacon; but the
+man who keeps his eyes open has little to fear. Had you given us a
+chronometer, there would not have been one-half the risk there will be
+without one."</p>
+
+<p>This had been a bone of contention between the master of the Sea Lion and
+his owner. Chronometers were not, by any means, in as general use at the
+period of our tale as they are to-day; and the deacon abhorred the expense
+to which such an article would have put him. Could he have got one at a
+fourth of the customary price he might have been tempted; but it formed no
+part of his principles of saving to anticipate and prevent waste by
+liberality.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner was the schooner released from the ground than her sails were
+filled, and she went by the low spit of sand already mentioned, with the
+light south-west breeze still blowing in her favour, and an ebb tide.
+Everything appeared propitious, and no vessel probably ever left home
+under better omens. The deacon remained on board until Baiting Joe, who
+was to act as his boatman, reminded him of the distance and the
+probability that the breeze would go down entirely with the sun. As it
+was, they had to contend with wind and tide, and it would require all his
+own knowledge of the eddies to get the whale-boat up to Oyster Pond in
+anything like reasonable time. Thus admonished, the owner tore himself
+away from his beloved craft, giving "young Gar'ner" as many 'last words'
+as if he were about to be executed. Roswell had a last word on his part,
+however, in the shape of a message to Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell Mary, deacon," said the young sailor, in an aside, "that I rely on
+her promise, and that I shall think of her, whether it be under the
+burning sun of the line, or among the ice of the antarctic."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; that's as it should be," answered the deacon, heartily. "I
+like your perseverance, Gar'ner, and hope the gal will come round yet, and
+I shall have you for a nephew. There's nothing that takes the women's
+minds like money. Fill up the schooner with skins and ile, and bring back
+that treasure, and you make as sure of Mary for a wife as if the parson
+had said the benediction over you."</p>
+
+<p>Such was Deacon Pratt's notion of his niece, as well as of the female sex.
+For months he regarded this speech as a <i>coup de maitre</i>, while Roswell
+Gardiner forgot it in half an hour; so much better than the uncle did the
+lover comprehend the character of the niece.</p>
+
+<p>The Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, had now cast off the last ligament which
+connected her with the land. She had no pilot, none being necessary, or
+usual, in those waters; all that a vessel had to do being to give Long
+Island a sufficient berth in rounding its eastern extremity. The boat was
+soon shut in by Gardiner's Island, and thenceforth nothing remained but
+the ties of feeling to connect those bold adventurers with their native
+country. It is true that Connecticut, and subsequently Rhode Island, was
+yet visible on one hand, and a small portion of New York on the other; but
+as darkness came to close the scene, even that means of communication was
+soon virtually cut off. The light on Montauk, for hours, was the sole
+beacon for these bold mariners, who rounded it about midnight, fairly
+meeting the long, rolling swell of the broad Atlantic. Then the craft
+might be said to be at sea for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>The Sea Lion was found to perform well. She had been constructed with an
+eye to comfort, as well as to sailing, and possessed that just proportion
+in her hull which carried her over the surface of the waves like a duck.
+This quality is of more importance to a small than to a large vessel, for
+the want of momentum renders what is termed "burying" a very deadening
+process to a light craft. In this very important particular Roswell was
+soon satisfied that the ship-wright had done his duty.</p>
+
+<p>As the wind still stood at south-west, the schooner was brought upon an
+easy bowline, as soon as she had Montauk light dead to windward. This new
+course carried her out to sea, steering south-south-east, a little
+easterly, under everything that would draw. The weather appearing settled,
+and there being no signs of a change, Gardiner now went below and turned
+in, leaving the care of the vessel to the proper officer of the watch,
+with an order to call him at sunrise. Fatigue soon asserted its power, and
+the young man was shortly in as profound a sleep as if he had not just
+left a mistress whom he almost worshipped for an absence of two years, and
+to go on a voyage that probably would expose him to more risks and
+suffering than any other enterprise then attempted by sea-faring men. Our
+young sailor thought not of the last at all, but he fell asleep dreaming
+of Mary.</p>
+
+<p>The master of the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond was called precisely at the hour
+he had named. Five minutes sufficed to bring him on deck, where he found
+everything as he had left it, with the exception of the schooner itself.
+In the six hours he had been below, his vessel had moved her position out
+to sea nearly forty miles. No land was now to be seen, the American coast
+being very tame and unpicturesque to the eye, as the purest patriot, if he
+happen to know anything of other parts of the world, must be constrained
+to admit. A low, monotonous coast, that is scarcely visible at a distance
+of five leagues, is certainly not to be named in the same breath with
+those glorious shores of the Mediterranean, for instance, where nature
+would seem to have exhausted herself in uniting the magnificent with the
+bewitching. On this continent, or on our own portion of it at least, we
+must be content with the useful, and lay no great claims to the beautiful;
+the rivers and bays giving us some compensation in their admirable
+commercial facilities, for the sameness, not to say tameness, of the
+views. We mention these things in passing, as a people that does not
+understand its relative position in the scale of nations, is a little apt
+to fall into errors that do not contribute to its character or
+respectability; more especially when they exhibit a self-love founded
+altogether on ignorance, and which has been liberally fed by flattery.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing a seaman does on coming on deck, after a short absence, is
+to look to windward, in order to see how the wind stands, and what are the
+prospects of the weather. Then he turns his eyes aloft to ascertain what
+canvass is spread, and how it draws. Occasionally, the order of these
+observations is changed, the first look being sometimes bestowed on the
+sails, and the second on the clouds. Roswell Gardiner, however, cast his
+first glance this morning towards the southward and westward, and
+perceived that the breeze promised to be steady. On looking aloft, he was
+well satisfied with the manner in which everything drew; then he turned to
+the second mate, who had the watch, whom he addressed cheerfully, and with
+a courtesy that is not always observed among sailors.</p>
+
+<p>"A fine morning, sir," said Roswell Gardiner, "and a good-bye to America.
+We've a long road to travel, Mr. Green, but we've a fast boat to do it in.
+Here is an offing ready made to our hands. Nothing in sight to the
+westward; not so much as a coaster, even! It's too early for the
+outward-bound craft of the last ebb, and too late for those that sailed
+the tide before. I never saw this bight of the coast clearer of canvass."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir; it does seem empty, like. Here's a chap, however, to
+leeward, who appears inclined to try his rate of sailing with us. Here he
+is, sir, a very little abaft the beam; and, as near as I can make him out,
+he's a fore-tawsail schooner, of about our own dimensions; if you'll just
+look at him through this glass, Captain Gardner, you'll see he has not
+only our rig, but our canvass set."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right enough, Mr. Green," returned Roswell, after getting, his
+look. "He is a schooner of about our tonnage, and under precisely our
+canvass. How long has the fellow bore as he does now?"</p>
+
+<p>"He came out from under Blok Island a few hours since, and we made him by
+moonlight. The question with me is, where did that chap come from? A
+Stunnin'ton man would have naturally passed to windward of Blok Island;
+and a Newport or Providence fellow would not have fetched so far to
+windward without making a stretch or two on purpose. That schooner has
+bothered me ever since it was daylight; for I can't place him where he is
+by any traverse my poor Parnin' can work!"</p>
+
+<p>"She does seem to be out of her way. Possibly it is a schooner beating up
+for the Hook, and finding herself too close in, she is standing to the
+southward to get an offing again."</p>
+
+<p>"Not she, sir. She came out from behind Blok, and a craft of her size that
+wanted to go to the westward, and which found itself so close in, would
+have taken the first of the flood and gone through the Race like a shot.
+No, no, Captain Gar'ner; this fellow is bound south as well as ourselves,
+and it is quite onaccountable how he should be just where he is--so far to
+windward, or so far to leeward, as a body might say. A south-south-east
+course, from any place behind Point Judith, would have taken him off near
+No Man's Land, and here he is almost in a line with Blok Island!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps he is out of New London, or some of the ports on the main, and
+being bound to the West Indies he has been a little careless about
+weathering the island. It's no great matter, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"It is some such matter, Captain Garner, as walkin' round a meetin'-'us'
+when your ar'n'd is in at the door in front. But there was no such craft
+in at Stunnin'tun or New London, as I know from havin' been at both places
+within the last eight-and-forty hours."</p>
+
+<p>"You begin to make me as curious about this fellow as you seem to be
+yourself, sir. And now I think the matter all over, it is somewhat
+extr'or'nary he should be just where he is. It is, however, a very easy
+thing to get a nearer look at him, and it's no great matter to us,
+intending as we do to make the islands off the Cape de Verde, if we do
+lose a little of our weatherly position--keep the schooner away a point,
+and get a small pull on your weather braces--give her a little sheet too,
+fore and aft, sir. So, that will do--keep her steady at that--south-east
+and by south. In two hours we shall just about speak this out-of-the-way
+joker."</p>
+
+<p>As every command was obeyed, the Sea Lion was soon running off free, her
+bowlines hanging loose, and all her canvass a rap full. The change in her
+line of sailing drought the sail to leeward, a little forward of her beam;
+but the movement of the vessel that made the freest wind was consequently
+the most rapid. In the course of half an hour the stranger was again a
+little abaft the beam, and he was materially nearer than when first seen.
+No change was made in the route of the stranger, who now seemed disposed
+to stand out to sea, with the wind as it was, on an easy bowline, without
+paying any attention to the sail in sight.</p>
+
+<p>It was noon ere the two schooners came within hail of each other. Of
+course, as they drew nearer and nearer, it was possible for those on board
+of each to note the appearance, equipments, and other peculiarities of his
+neighbour. In size, there was no apparent difference between the vessels,
+and there was a somewhat remarkable resemblance in the details.</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow is no West India drogger," said Roswell Gardiner, when less
+than a mile from the stranger. "He carries a boat on deck, as we do, and
+has one on each quarter, too. Can it be possible that he is bound after
+seals, as well as we are ourselves!"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you're right, sir," answered Hazard, the chief-mate, who was
+now on deck. "There's a sealing look about the gentleman, if I know my own
+complexion. It's odd enough, Captain Gar'ner, that two of us should come
+together, out here in the offing, and both of us bound to the other end of
+the 'arth!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing so very remarkable in <i>that</i>, Mr. Hazard, when we
+remember that the start must be properly timed for those who wish to be
+off Cape Horn in the summer season. We shall neither of us get there much
+before December, and I suppose the master of you schooner knows that as
+well as I do myself. The position of this craft puzzles me far more than
+anything else about her. From what port can a vessel come, that she should
+be just here, with the wind at south-west?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, sir," put in Green, who was moving about the decks, coiling ropes and
+clearing things away, "that's what I tell the chief-mate. Where can a
+craft come from, to be just here, with this wind, if she don't come from
+Stunnin'tun. Even from Stunnin'tun she'd be out of her way; but no such
+vessel has been in that port any time these six weeks. Here, you Stimson,
+come this way a bit. Didn't you tell me something of having seen a
+schooner at New Bedford, that was about our build and burthen, and that
+you understood had been bought for a sealer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered Stimson, as bluff an old sea-dog as ever flattened
+in a jib-sheet, "and that's the craft, as I'm a thinkin', Mr. Green. She
+had an animal for a figure-head, and that craft has an animal, as well as
+I can judge, at this distance."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right enough there, Stephen," cried Roswell Gardiner, "and that
+animal is a seal. It's the twin-brother of the sea lion we carry under our
+own bowsprit. There's some proof in that, tastes agree sometimes, even if
+they do differ generally. What became of the schooner you saw?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard, sir, that she was bought up by some Vineyard men, and was taken
+across to Hum'ses Hull. They sometimes fit out a craft there, as well as
+on the main. I should have crossed myself to see what they was at, but I
+fell in with Mr. Green, and shipped aboard here."</p>
+
+<p>"An adventure by which, I hope, you will not be a loser, my hearty," put
+in the captain. "And you think that is the craft which was built at New
+Bedford, and fitted out on the Vineyard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain of it, sir; for I know the figure-head, and all about her build."</p>
+
+<p>"Hand me the trumpet, Mr. Green; we shall soon be near enough for a hail,
+and it will be easy to learn the truth."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner waited a few minutes for the two schooners to close, and
+was in the very act of applying the trumpet to his mouth, when the usual
+salutation was sent across the water from the stranger. During the
+conversation that now took place, the vessels gradually drew nearer to
+each other, until both parties laid aside their trumpets, and carried on
+the discourse with the unaided voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Schooner, ahoy!" was the greeting of the stranger, and a simple "Hilloa!"
+the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"What schooner is that, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, Long Island; bound to the southward, after
+seal, as I suppose you know by our outfit."</p>
+
+<p>"When did you leave Oyster Pond--and how did you leave your owner, the
+good Deacon Pratt?"</p>
+
+<p>"We sailed yesterday afternoon, on the first of the ebb, and the deacon
+left us as we weighed anchor. He was well, and full of hope for our luck.
+What schooner is that, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Sea Lion, of Hum'ses Hull; bound to the southward, after seals, as
+you probably knew by <i>our</i> outfit. Who commands that schooner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Roswell Gar'ner--who commands aboard you, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Jason Daggett," showing himself more plainly, by moving out of
+the line of the main-rigging. "I had the pleasure of seeing you when I was
+on the P'int, looking after my uncle's dunnage, you may remember, Captain
+Gar'ner. 'T was but the other day, and you are not likely to have
+forgotten my visit."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, not at all, Captain Daggett; though I had no idea, <i>then</i>,
+that you intended to make a voyage to the southward so soon. When did you
+leave the Hole, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Day before yesterday, afternoon. We came out of the Hull about five
+o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"How had you the wind, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sou'-west, and sou'-west and by south. There has been but little change
+in that, these three days."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner muttered something to himself; but he did not deem it
+prudent to utter the thoughts, that were just then passing through his
+mind, aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," he answered, after a moment's pause, "the wind has stood there
+the whole week; but I think we shall shortly get a change. There is an
+easterly feeling in the air."</p>
+
+<p>"Waal, let it come. With this offing, we could clear Hatteras with
+anything that wasn't worse than a south-easter. There's a southerly set,
+in here, down the coast, for two or three hundred miles."</p>
+
+<p>"A heavy south-easter would jam us in, here, between the shoals, in a way
+I shouldn't greatly relish, sir. I like always to get to the eastward of
+the Stream, as soon as I can, in running off the land."</p>
+
+<p>"Very true, Captain Gar'ner--very true, sir. It <i>is</i> best to get outside
+the Stream, if a body <i>can</i>. Once there, I call a craft at sea.
+Eight-and-forty hours more of this wind would just about carry us there.
+Waal, sir, as we're bound on the same sort of v'y'ge, I'm happy to have
+fallen in with you; and I see no reason why we should not be neighbourly,
+and 'gam' it a little, when we've nothing better to do. I like that
+schooner of yours so well, that I've made my own to look as nearly
+resembling her as I could. You see our paint is exactly the same."</p>
+
+<p>"I have observed that, Captain Daggett; and you might say the same of the
+figure-heads."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay; when I was over on the P'int, they told me the name of the
+carver, in Boston, who cut your seal, and I sent to him to cut me a twin.
+If they lay in a ship-yard, side by side, I don't think you could tell
+one from the other."</p>
+
+<p>"So it seems, sir. Pray haven't you a man aboard there of the name of
+Watson?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay--he's my second-mate. I know what you mean, Captain Gar'ner--
+you 're right enough, 'tis the same hand who was aboard you; but wanting
+a second officer, I offered him the berth, and he thought that better than
+taking a foremast lay in your craft."</p>
+
+<p>This explanation probably satisfied all who heard it, though the truth was
+not more than half told. In point of fact, Watson was engaged as Daggett's
+second mate <i>before</i> he had ever laid eyes on Roswell Gardiner, and had
+been sent to watch the progress of the work on Oyster Pond, as has been
+previously stated. It was so much in the natural order of events for a man
+to accept preferment when offered, however, that even Gardiner himself
+blamed the delinquent for the desertion far less than he had previously
+done. In the mean time the conversation proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>"You told us nothing of your having that schooner fitting, when you were
+on the Point," observed Roswell Gardiner, whose thoughts just then
+happened to advert to this particular fact.</p>
+
+<p>"My mind was pretty much taken up with the affairs of my poor uncle, I
+suppose, Captain Gar'ner. Death must visit each of us, once; nevertheless,
+it makes us all melancholy when he comes among friends."</p>
+
+<p>Now, Roswell Gardiner was not in the least sentimental, nor had he the
+smallest turn towards indulging in moral inferences, from ordinary events;
+but, this answer seemed so proper, that it found no objection in his mind.
+Still, the young man had his suspicions on the subject of the equipment of
+the other schooner, and suspicions that were now active and keen, and
+which led him directly to fancy that Daggett had also some clue to the
+very objects he was after himself. Singular as it may seem at first,
+Deacon Pratt's interests were favourably affected by this unexpected
+meeting with the Sea Lion of Holmes' Hole. From the first, Roswell
+Gardiner had been indisposed to give full credit to the statements of the
+deceased mariner, ascribing no small part of his account to artifice,
+stimulated by a desire to render himself important. But, now that he found
+one of this man's family embarked in an enterprise similar to his own, his
+views of its expediency were sensibly changed. Perfectly familiar with the
+wary economy with which every interest was regulated in that part of the
+world, he did not believe a company of Martha's Vineyard men would risk
+their money in an enterprise that they had not good reasons for believing
+would succeed. Although it exceeded his means to appreciate fully the
+information possessed by the Vineyard folk, and covetousness did not
+quicken his faculties on this subject, as they had quickened those of the
+deacon, he could see enough to satisfy his mind that either the
+sealing-islands, or the booty of the pirates, or both, had a reality, in
+the judgments of others, which had induced them also to risk their money
+in turning their knowledge to account. The effect of this conviction was
+very natural. It induced Roswell to regard the charts, and his
+instructions, and all connected with his voyage, as much more serious
+matters than he had originally been inclined to do. Until now, he had
+thought it well enough to let the deacon have his fancies, relying on his
+own ability to obtain a cargo for the schooner, by visiting sealing
+stations where he had been before; but, now, he determined to steer at
+once for Daggett's Islands, as he and his owner named the land revealed to
+them, and ascertain what could be done there. He thought it probable the
+other Sea Lion might wish to keep him company; but the distance was so
+great, that a hundred occasions must occur when it would be in his power
+to shake off such a consort, should he deem it necessary.</p>
+
+<p>For several hours the two schooners stood on in company, keeping just
+without hailing distance apart, and sailing so nearly alike as to render
+it hard to say which craft had the best of it. There was nothing
+remarkable in the fact that two vessels, built for the same trade, should
+have a close general resemblance to each other; but it was not common to
+find them so moulded, stowed, sparred and handled, that their rate of
+sailing should be nearly identical. If there was any difference, it was
+slightly in favour of the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, which rather drew
+ahead of her consort, if consort the other Sea Lion could be termed, in
+the course of the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>It is scarcely necessary to say that many were the speculations that were
+made on board these rival vessels--competitors now for the commonest
+glories of their pursuits, as well as in the ultimate objects of their
+respective voyages. On the part of Roswell Gardiner and his two mates,
+they did not fail, in particular, to comment on the singularity of the
+circumstance that the Sea Lion, of the Vineyard, should be so far out of
+her direct line of sailing.</p>
+
+<p>"Although we have had the wind at sow-west" (<i>sow</i>-west always, as
+pronounced by every seaman, from the Lord High Admiral of England, when
+there happens to be such a functionary, down to the greenest hand on board
+the greenest sealer) "for these last few days," said Hazard, "anybody can
+see we shall soon have easterly weather. There's an easterly feel in the
+air, and all last night the water had an easterly glimmer about it. Now,
+why a man who came out of the Vineyard Sound, and who had nothing to do
+but just to clear the west end of his own island, and then lay his course
+off yonder to the southward and eastward, should bear up cluss (Anglic&eacute;,
+close) under Blok, and stretch out to sea, for all the world as if he was
+a Stunnin'tun chap, or a New Lunnoner, that had fallen a little to
+leeward, is more than I can understand, Captain Gar'ner! Depend on it,
+sir, there's a reason for't. Men don't put schooners into the water,
+now-a-days, and give them costly outfits, with three whale-boats, and
+sealin' gear in abundance, just for the fun of making fancy traverses, on
+or off a coast, like your yacht gentry, who never know what they would be
+at, and who never make a v'y'ge worth speaking on."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been turning all this over in my mind, Mr. Hazard," answered the
+young master, who was amusing himself at the moment with strapping a small
+block, while he threw many a glance at the vessel that was just as close
+under his lee as comported with her sailing. "There is a reason for it, as
+you say; but, I can find no other than the fact that she has come so much
+out of her way, in order to fall in with <i>us;</i> knowing that we were to
+come round Montauk at a particular time."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, that may have been her play! Men bound the same way often wish
+to fall into good company, to make the journey seem the shorter, by making
+it so much the pleasanter."</p>
+
+<p>"Those fellows can never suppose the two schooners will keep in sight of
+each other from forty-one degrees north all the way to seventy south, or
+perhaps further south still! If we remain near each other a week, 't will
+be quite out of the common way."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that, sir. I was once in a sealer that, do all she could,
+couldn't get shut of a curious neighbour. When seals are scarce, and the
+master don't know where to look for 'em, he is usually glad to drop into
+some vessel's wake, if it be only to pick up her leavin's."</p>
+
+<p>"Outfits are not made on such chances as that. These Vineyard people know
+where they are going as well as we know ourselves; perhaps better."</p>
+
+<p>"There is great confidence aboard here, in the master, Captain Gar'ner. I
+overheard the watch talking the matter over early this morning; and there
+was but one opinion among <i>them</i>, I can tell you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Which opinion was, Mr. Hazard----"</p>
+
+<p>"That a lay aboard this craft would be worth a lay and a half aboard any
+other schooner out of all America! Sailors go partly on skill and partly
+on luck. I've known hands that wouldn't ship with the best masters that
+ever sailed a vessel, if they didn't think they was lucky as well as
+skilful."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, it's all <i>luck</i>! Little do these fellows think of
+<i>Providence</i>--or of <i>deserving</i>, or <i>undeserving</i>. Well, I hope the
+schooner will not disappoint them--or her master either. But, whaling and
+sealing, and trusting to the chances of the ocean, and our most flattering
+hopes, may mislead us after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir; nevertheless, Captain Gar'ner <i>has</i> a name, and men will
+trust to it!"</p>
+
+<p>Our young master could not but be flattered at this, which came at a
+favourable moment to sustain the resolutions awakened by the competition
+with the rival schooner. Although so obviously competitors, and that in a
+matter of trade, the interest which above all others is apt to make men
+narrow-minded and hostile to each other, though the axiom would throw this
+particular reproach on <i>doctors,</i> there were no visible signs that the two
+vessels did not maintain the most amicable relations. As the day advanced
+the wind fell, and after many passages of nautical compliments, by means
+of signals and the trumpet, Roswell Gardiner fairly lowered a boat into
+the water, and went a "gamming," as it is termed, on board the other
+schooner.</p>
+
+<p>Each of these little vessels was well provided with boats, and those of
+the description in common use among whalers. A whale-boat differs from the
+ordinary jolly-boat, launch, or yawl--gigs, barges, dinguis, &amp;c. &amp;c.,
+being exclusively for the service of vessels of war--in the following
+particulars: viz.--It is sharp at both ends, in order that it may 'back
+off,' as well as 'pull on;' it steers with an oar, instead of with a
+rudder, in order that the bows may be thrown round to avoid danger when
+not in motion; it is buoyant, and made to withstand the shock of waves at
+both ends; and it is light and shallow, though strong, that it may be
+pulled with facility. When it is remembered that one of these little
+egg-shells--little as vessels, though of good size as boats--is often
+dragged through troubled waters at the rate of ten or twelve knots, and
+frequently at even a swifter movement, one can easily understand how much
+depends on its form, buoyancy and strength. Among seamen, it is commonly
+thought that a whale-boat is the safest craft of the sort in which men can
+trust themselves in rough water.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Daggett received his guest with marked civility, though in a
+quiet, eastern way. The rum and water were produced, and a friendly glass
+was taken by one after the other. The two masters drank to each other's
+success, and many a conventional remark was made between them on the
+subject of sea-lions, sea-elephants, and the modes of capturing such
+animals. Even Watson, semi-deserter as he was, was shaken cordially by the
+hand, and his questionable conduct overlooked. The ocean has many of the
+aspects of eternity, and often disposes mariners to regard their
+fellow-creatures with an expansiveness of feeling suited to their common
+situations. Its vastness reminds them of the time that has neither
+beginning nor end; its ceaseless movement, of the never-tiring impulses of
+human passions; and its accidents and dangers, of the Providence which
+protects all alike, and which alone prevents our being abandoned to the
+dominion of chance.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner was a kind-hearted man, moreover, and was inclined to
+judge his fellows leniently. Thus it was that his "good evening" at
+parting, to Watson, was just as frank and sincere as that he bestowed on
+Captain Daggett himself.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-09">
+<h2>Chapter IX.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean--roll!<br />
+Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;<br />
+Man marks the earth with ruin--his control<br />
+Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain<br />
+The wrecks are all thy deeds, nor doth remain<br />
+A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,<br />
+When for a moment, like a drop of rain,<br />
+He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,<br />
+Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown."</p>
+
+<p>  Byron.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>That evening the sun set in clouds, though the eastern horizon was
+comparatively clear. There was, however, an unnatural outline to objects,
+by which their dimensions were increased, and in some degree rendered
+indefinite. We do not know the reason why the wind at east should produce
+these phenomena, nor do we remember ever to have met with any attempt at a
+solution; but of the fact, we are certain, by years of observation. In
+what is called 'easterly weather,' objects are seen through the medium of
+a refraction that is entirely unknown in a clear north-wester; the crests
+of the seas emit a luminous light that is far more apparent than at other
+times; and the face of the ocean, at midnight, often wears the aspect of a
+clouded day. The nerves, too, answer to this power of the eastern winds.
+We have a barometer within that can tell when the wind is east without
+looking abroad, and one that never errs. It is true that allusions are
+often made to these peculiarities, but where are we to look for the
+explanation? On the coast of America the sea-breeze comes from the rising
+sun, while on that of Europe it blows from the land; but no difference in
+these signs of its influence could we ever discover on account of this
+marked distinction.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner found the scene greatly changed when he came on deck
+next morning. The storm, which had been brewing so long, had come at last,
+and the wind was blowing a little gale from south-east. The quarter from
+which the air came had compelled the officer of the watch to haul up on
+the larboard tack, or with the schooner's head to the southward and
+westward; a course that might do for a few days, provided it did not blow
+too heavily. The other tack would not have cleared the shoals, which
+stretched away to a considerable distance to the eastward. Hazard had got
+in his flying-jib, and had taken the bonnets off his foresail and jib, to
+prevent the craft burying. He had also single-reefed his mainsail and
+foretopsail. The Sea Lion, of the Vineyard, imitated each movement, and
+was brought down precisely to the same canvass as her consort, and on the
+same tack. At that moment the two vessels were not a cable's length
+asunder, the Oyster Ponders being slightly to leeward. Their schooner,
+however, had a trifling advantage in sailing when it blew fresh and the
+water was rough; which advantage was now making itself apparent, as the
+two craft struggled ahead through the troubled element.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we were two hundred miles to the eastward," observed the young
+master to his first officer, as soon as his eye had taken in the whole
+view. "I am afraid we shall get jammed in on Cape Hatteras. That place is
+always in the way with the wind at south-east and a vessel going to the
+southward. We are likely to have a dirty time of it, Mr. Hazard."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir, dirty enough," was the careless answer. "I've known them
+that would go back and anchor in Fort Pond Bay, or even in Gardiner's,
+until this south-easter had blown itself out."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't think of that! We are a hundred miles south-east of Montauk,
+and if I run the craft into any place, it shall be into Charleston, or
+some of the islands along that coast. Besides, we can always ware off the
+land, and place ourselves a day's run further to the southward, and we can
+then give the shoals a wide berth on the other tack. If we were in the
+bight of the coast between Long Island and Jersey, 't would be another
+matter; but, out here, where we are, I should be ashamed to look the
+deacon in the face if I didn't hold on."</p>
+
+<p>"I only made the remark, Captain Gar'ner, by way of saying something. As
+for getting to the southward, close in with our own coast, I don't know
+that it will be of much use to a craft that wishes to stand so far to the
+eastward, since the trades must be met well to windward, or they had
+better not be met at all. For my part, I would as soon take my chance of
+making a passage to the Cape de Verds or their neighbourhood, by lifting
+my anchor from Gardiner's Bay, three days hence, as by meeting the next
+shift of wind down south, off Charleston or Tybee."</p>
+
+<p>"We should be only five hundred miles to windward, in the latter case, did
+the wind come from the south-west, again, as at this season of the year it
+is very likely to do. But, it is of no consequence; men bound where we
+have got to go, ought not to run into port every time the wind comes out
+foul. You know as well as I do, Mr. Hazard, that away down south, yonder,
+a fellow thinks a gale of wind is a relief, provided it brings clear water
+with it. I would rather run a week among islands, than a single day among
+icebergs. One knows where to find land, for that never moves; but your
+mountains that float about, are here to-day, and there to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true, sir," returned Hazard, "and men that take their lays in
+sealers, are not to expect anything but squalls. I'm ready to hold on as
+long as our neighbour yonder; he seems to be trimming down to it, as if in
+raal earnest to get ahead."</p>
+
+<p>This was true enough. The Sea Lion of the Vineyard was doing her best, all
+this time; and though unable to keep her station on her consort's weather
+bow, where she had been most of the morning, she was dropped so very
+slowly as to render the change nearly imperceptible. Now, it was, that the
+officers and crews of these two craft watched their "behaviour," as it is
+technically termed, with the closest vigilance and deepest interest. Those
+in the Oyster Pond vessel regarded the movements of their consort, much as
+a belle in a ball-room observes the effect produced by the sister belles
+around her; or a rival physician notes the progress of an operation, that
+is to add new laurels, or to cause old ones to wither. Now, the lurch was
+commented on; then, the pitch was thought to be too heavy; and Green was
+soon of opinion that their competitor was not as easy on her spars as
+their own schooner. In short, every comparison that experience, jealousy
+or skill could suggest, was freely made; and somewhat as a matter of
+course, in favour of their own vessel. That which was done on board the
+Sea Lion of Oyster Pond, was very freely emulated by those on board her
+namesake of the Vineyard. They made <i>their</i> comparisons, and formed
+<i>their</i> conclusions, with the same deference to self-esteem, and the same
+submission to hope, as had been apparent among their competitors. It would
+seem to be a law of nature that men should thus flatter themselves, and
+perceive the mote in the eye of their neighbour, while the beam in their
+own escapes.</p>
+
+<p>Had there been an impartial judge present, he might have differed from
+both sets of critics. Such a person would have seen that one of these
+schooners excelled in this quality, while the other had an equal advantage
+in another. In this way, by running through the list of properties that
+are desirable in a ship, he would, most probably, have come to the
+conclusion that there was not much to choose between the two vessels; but,
+that each had been constructed with an intelligent regard to the
+particular service in which she was about to be employed, and both were
+handled by men who knew perfectly well how to take care of craft of that
+description.</p>
+
+<p>The wind gradually increased in strength, and sail was shortened in the
+schooners, until each was finally brought down to a close-reefed foresail.
+This would have been heaving the vessels to, had they not been kept a
+little off, in order to force them through the water. To lie-to, in
+perfection, some after-sail might have been required; but neither master
+saw a necessity, as yet, of remaining stationary. It was thought better to
+wade along some two knots, than to be pitching and lurching with nothing
+but a drift, or leeward set. In this, both masters were probably right,
+and found their vessels farther to windward in the end, than if they had
+endeavoured to hold their own, by lying-to. The great difficulty they had
+to contend with in keeping a little off, was the danger of seas coming on
+board; but, as yet, the ocean was not sufficiently aroused to make this
+very hazardous, and both schooners, having no real cargoes, were light and
+buoyant, and floated dry. Had they encountered the sea there was, with
+full freights in their holds, it might have been imprudent to expose them
+even to this remote chance of having their decks swept. Water comes aboard
+of small vessels, almost without an exception, in head winds and seas;
+though the contrivances of modern naval architecture have provided
+defences that make merchant vessels, now, infinitely more comfortable, in
+this respect, than they were at the period of which we are writing.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of three days, Roswell Gardiner supposed himself to be about
+the latitude of Cape Henry, and some thirty or forty leagues from the
+land. It was much easier to compute the last, than the first of these
+material facts. Of course, he had no observations. The sun had not been
+visible since the storm commenced, and nearly half the time, during the
+last day, the two vessels were shut in from one another, by mists and a
+small rain. It blew more in squalls than it had done, and the relative
+positions of the schooners were more or less affected by the circumstance.
+Sometimes, one would be to windward, and ahead; then, the other would
+obtain a similar advantage. Once or twice they seemed about to separate,
+the distance between them getting to be so considerable, as, apparently,
+to render it impossible to keep in company; then the craft would change
+places, by a slow process, passing quite near to each other again. No one
+could tell, at the moment, precisely why these variations occurred; though
+the reasons, generally, were well understood by all on board them.
+Squalls, careless steering, currents, eddies, and all the accidents of the
+ocean, contribute to create these vacillating movements, which will often
+cause two vessels of equal speed, and under the same canvass, to seem to
+be of very different qualities. In the nights, the changes were greatest,
+often placing the schooners leagues asunder, and seemingly separating them
+altogether. But, Roswell Gardiner became satisfied that Captain Daggett
+stuck by him intentionally; for on all such occasions if <i>his</i> schooner
+happened to be out of the way, he managed to close again, ere the danger
+of separating became too great to be overcome.</p>
+
+<p>Our mariners judged of their distance from the land, by means of the lead.
+If the American coast is wanting in the sublime and picturesque, and every
+traveller must admit its defects in both, it has the essential advantage
+of graduated soundings. So regular is the shoaling of the water, and so
+studiously have the fathoms been laid down, that a cautious navigator can
+always feel his way in to the coast, and never need place his vessel on
+the beach, as is so often done, without at least knowing that he was about
+to do so. Men become adventurous by often-repeated success; and the
+struggles of competition, the go-ahead-ism of the national character, and
+the trouble it gives to sound in deep water, all contribute to cast away
+the reckless and dashing navigator, on this as well as on other coasts,
+and this to his own great surprise; but, whenever such a thing <i>does</i>
+happen, unless in cases of stress of weather, the reader may rest assured
+it is because those who have had charge of the stranded vessel have
+neglected to sound. The mile-stones on a highway do not more accurately
+note the distances, than does the lead on nearly the whole of the American
+coast. Thus Roswell Gardiner judged himself to be about thirty-two or
+three marine leagues from the land, on the evening of the third day of
+that gale of wind. He placed the schooner in the latitude of Cape Henry on
+less certain data, though that was the latitude in which he supposed her
+to be, by dead reckoning.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I knew where Daggett makes himself out," said the young master,
+just as the day closed on a most stormy and dirty-looking night. "I don't
+half like the appearance of the weather; but, I do not wish to ware off
+the land, with that fellow ahead and nearer to the danger, if there be
+any, than we are ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Here, Roswell Gardiner manifested a weakness that lies at the bottom of
+half our blunders. He did not like to be outdone by a competitor, even in
+his mistakes. If the Sea Lion of Holmes' Hole could hold on, on that tack,
+why might not the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond do the same? It is by this
+process of human vanity that men sustain each other in wrong, and folly
+obtains the sanction of numbers, if not that of reason. In this practice
+we see one of the causes of the masses becoming misled, and this seldom
+happens without their becoming oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner, however, did not neglect the lead. The schooner had
+merely to luff close to the wind, and they were in a proper state to
+sound. This they did twice, during that night, and with a very sensible
+diminution in the depth of the water. It was evident that the schooner was
+getting pretty close in on the coast, the wind coming out nearly at south,
+in squalls. Her commander held on, for he thought there were indications
+of a change, and he still did not like to ware so long as his rival of the
+Vineyard kept on the larboard tack. In this way, each encouraging the
+other in recklessness, did these two craft run nearly into the lion's jaw,
+as it might be; for, when the day re-appeared, the wind veered round to
+the eastward, a little northerly, bringing the craft directly on a
+lee-shore, blowing at the time so heavily as to render a foresail reefed
+down to a mere rag, more canvass than the little vessels could well bear.
+As the day returned, and the drizzle cleared off a little, land was seen
+to leeward, stretching slightly to seaward, both ahead and astern! On
+consulting his charts, and after getting a pretty good look at the coast
+from aloft, Roswell Gardiner became satisfied that he was off Currituck,
+which placed him near six degrees to the southward of his port of
+departure, and about four to the westward. Our young man now deeply felt
+that a foolish rivalry had led him into an error, and he regretted that he
+had not wore the previous evening, when he might have had an offing that
+would have enabled him to stand in either direction, clearing the land. As
+things were, he was not by any means certain of the course he ought to
+pursue.</p>
+
+<p>Little did Gardiner imagine that the reason why Daggett had thus stood on,
+was solely the wish to keep him company; for, that person, in consequence
+of Gardiner's running so close in towards the coast, had taken up the
+notion that the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond meant to pass through the West
+Indies, visiting the key, which was thought to contain treasure, and of
+which he had some accounts that had aroused all his thirst for gold,
+without giving him the clue necessary to obtain it. Thus it was that a
+mistaken watchfulness on one side, and a mistaken pride on the other, had
+brought these two vessels into as dangerous a position as could have been
+obtained for them by a direct attempt to place them in extreme jeopardy.</p>
+
+<p>About ten, the gale was at its height, the wind still hanging at east, a
+little northerly. In the course of the morning, the officers on board both
+schooners, profiting by lulls and clear moments, had got so many views of
+the land from aloft, as to be fully aware of their respective situations.
+All thoughts of competition and watchfulness had now vanished. Each vessel
+was managed with a reference solely to her safety; and, as might have been
+foreseen when true seamen handled both, they had recourse to the same
+expedients to save themselves. The mainsails of both crafts were set,
+balance-reefed, and the hulls were pressed up against the wind and sea,
+while they were driven ahead with increased momentum.</p>
+
+<p>"That main-mast springs like a whale-bone whip-handle, sir," said Hazard,
+when this new experiment had been tried some ten minutes or more. "She
+jumps from one sea to another, like a frog in a hurry to hop into a
+puddle!"</p>
+
+<p>"She must stand it, or go ashore," answered Gardiner, coolly, though in
+secret he was deeply concerned. "Did Deacon Pratt forgive me, should we
+lose the schooner, I never could forgive myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Should we lose the schooner, Captain Gar'ner, few of us would escape
+drowning, to feel remorse or joy. Look at that coast, sir--it is clear
+now, and a body can see a good bit of it--never did I put eyes upon a less
+promising land-fall, for strangers to make."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner did look, as desired, and he fully agreed with Hazard in
+opinion. Ahead, and astern, the land trended to seaward, placing the
+schooners in a curve of the coast, or what seamen term a bight, rendering
+it quite impossible for the vessels to lay out past either of the
+head-lands in sight. The whole coast was low, and endless lines of
+breakers were visible along it, flashing up with luminous crests that left
+no doubt of their character, or of the dangers that they so plainly
+denoted. At times, columns of water shot up into the air like enormous
+jets, and the spray was carried inland for miles. Then it was that gloom
+gathered around the brows of the seamen, who fully comprehended the nature
+of the danger that was so plainly indicated. The green hands were the
+least concerned, "knowing nothing and fearing nothing," as the older
+seamen are apt to express their sense of this indifference on the part of
+the boys and landsmen.</p>
+
+<p>According to the calculations of those on board the Sea Lion, of Oyster
+Pond, they had about two miles of drift before they should be in the
+breakers. They were on the best tack, to all appearances, and that was the
+old one, or the same leg that had carried them into the bight. To ware
+now, indeed, would be a very hazardous step, since every inch of room was
+of importance. Gardiner's secret hope was that they might find the inlet
+that led into Currituck, which was then open, though we believe it has
+since been closed, in whole or in part, by the sands. This often happens
+on the American coast, very tolerable passages existing this year for
+vessels of an easy draught, that shall be absolutely shut up, and be
+converted into visible beach, a few years later. The waters within will
+then gain head, and break out, cutting themselves a channel, that remains
+open until a succession of gales drives in the sands upon them from the
+outside once more.</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner well knew he was on the most dangerous part of the whole American
+coast, in one sense, at least. The capacious sounds that spread themselves
+within the long beaches of sand were almost as difficult of navigation as
+any shoals to the northward; yet would he gladly have been in one in
+preference to clawing off breakers on their outside. As between the two
+schooners, the Vineyard-men had rather the best of it, being near a
+cable's length to windward, and so much further removed from destruction.
+The difference, however, was of no great account in the event of the gale
+continuing, escape being utterly impossible for either in that case. So
+critical was the situation of both craft becoming, indeed, that neither
+could now afford to yield a single fathom of the ground she held.</p>
+
+<p>All eyes were soon looking for the inlet, it having been determined to
+keep the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, away for it, should it appear to
+leeward, under circumstances that would allow of her reaching it. The
+line of breakers was now very distinctly visible, and each minute did it
+not only appear to be, but it was in fact nearer and nearer. Anchors were
+cleared away, and ranges of cable over-hauled, anchoring being an
+expedient that a seaman felt bound to resort to, previously to going
+ashore, though it would be with very little hope of ground-tackles
+holding.</p>
+
+<p>The schooner had been described by Hazard as 'jumping' into the sea. This
+expression is not a bad one, as applied to small vessels in short seas,
+and it was particularly apt on this occasion. Although constructed with
+great care forward as to buoyancy, this vessel made plunges into the waves
+she met that nearly buried her; and, once or twice, the shocks were so
+great, that those on board her could with difficulty persuade themselves
+they had not struck the bottom. The lead, nevertheless, still gave water
+sufficient, though it was shoaling fast, and with a most ominous
+regularity. Such was the actual state of things when the schooner made one
+of her mad plunges, and was met by a force that seemed to check her
+forward movement as effectually as if she had hit a rock. The main-mast
+was a good spar in some respects, but it wanted wood. An inch or two more
+in diameter might have saved it; but the deacon had been induced to buy it
+to save his money, though remonstrated with at the time. This spar now
+snapped in two, a few feet from the deck, and falling to leeward, it
+dragged after it the head of the foremast, leaving the Sea Lion, of Oyster
+Pond, actually in a worse situation, just at that moment, than if she had
+no spars at all.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner now appeared in a new character. Hitherto he had been
+silent, but observant: issuing his orders in a way not to excite the men,
+and with an air of unconcern that really had the effect to mislead most of
+them on the subject of his estimate of the danger they were in.
+Concealment, however, was no longer possible, and our young master came
+out as active as circumstances required, foremost in every exertion, and
+issuing his orders amid the gale trumpet-tongued. His manner, so full of
+animation, resolution and exertion, probably prevented despair from
+getting the ascendancy at that important moment. He was nobly sustained by
+both his mates: and three or four of the older seamen now showed
+themselves men to be relied on to the last.</p>
+
+<p>The first step was to anchor. Fortunately, the foresight of Gardiner had
+everything ready for this indispensable precaution. Without anchoring, ten
+minutes would probably have carried the schooner directly down upon the
+breakers, leaving no hope for the life of any on board her, and breaking
+her up into chips. Both bowers were let go at once, and long ranges of
+cable given. The schooner was snubbed without parting anything, and was
+immediately brought head to sea. This relieved her at once, and there was
+a moment that her people fancied she might ride out the gale where she
+was, could they only get clear of the wreck. Axes, hatchets, and knives
+were freely used, and Roswell Gardiner saw the mass of spars and rigging
+float clear of him with a delight he did not desire to conceal. As it
+drove to leeward, he actually cheered. A lead was instantly dropped
+alongside, in order to ascertain whether the anchors held. This infallible
+test, however, gave the melancholy certainty that the schooner was still
+drifting her length in rather less than two minutes.</p>
+
+<p>The only hope now was that the flukes of the anchors might catch in better
+holding ground than they had yet met with. The bottom was hard sand,
+however, which never gives a craft the chance that it gets from mud. By
+Roswell Gardiner's calculations, an hour, at the most, would carry them
+into the breakers; possibly less time. The Sea Lion, of Holmes' Hole, was
+to windward a cable's length when this accident happened to her consort,
+and about half a mile to the southward. Just at that instant the breakers
+trended seaward, ahead of that schooner, rendering it indispensable for
+her to ware. This was done bringing her head to the southward, and she now
+came struggling directly on towards her consort. The operation of waring
+had caused her to lose ground enough to bring her to leeward of the
+anchored craft, and nearer to the danger.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner stood on his own quarter-deck, anxiously watching the
+drift of the other schooner, as she drew near in her laboured way,
+struggling ahead through billows that were almost as white as the breakers
+that menaced them with destruction to leeward. The anchored vessel,
+though drifting, had so slow a movement that it served to mark the steady
+and rapid set of its consort towards its certain fate. At first, it seemed
+to Gardiner that Daggett would pass just ahead of him, and he trembled for
+his cables, which occasionally appeared above water, stretched like bars
+of iron, for the distance of thirty or forty fathoms. But, the leeward set
+of the vessel under way was too fast to give her any chance of bringing
+this new danger on her consort. When a cable's length distant, the Sea
+Lion, of the Vineyard, <i>did</i> seem as if she might weather her consort;
+but, ere that short space was passed over, it was found that she fell off
+so fast, by means of her drift, as to carry her fairly clear of her stern.
+The two masters, holding with one hand to some permanent object by which
+to steady themselves, and each pressing his tarpaulin firmly down on his
+head with the other, had a minute's conversation when the schooners were
+nearest together.</p>
+
+<p>"Do your anchors hold?" demanded Daggett, who was the first to speak, and
+who put his question as if he thought his own fate depended on the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to say they do not. We drift our length in about two minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"That will put off the evil moment an hour or two. Look what a wake <i>we</i>
+are making!"</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, that wake was frightful! No sooner was the head of the Sea
+Lion, of the Vineyard, fairly up with the stern of the Sea Lion, of Oyster
+Pond, than Gardiner perceived that she went off diagonally, moving quite
+as fast to leeward as she went ahead. This was so very obvious that a line
+drawn from the quarter of Roswell's craft, in a quartering direction,
+would almost have kept the other schooner in its range from the moment
+that her bow hove heavily past.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you!--God bless you!" cried Roswell Gardiner, waving his hand
+in adieu, firmly persuaded that he and the Vineyard master were never to
+meet again in this world. "The survivors must let the fate of the lost be
+known. At the pinch, I shall out boats, if I can."</p>
+
+<p>The other made no answer. It would have been useless, indeed, to attempt
+it; since no human voice had power to force itself up against such a
+gale, the distance that had now to be overcome.</p>
+
+<p>"That schooner will be in the breakers in half an hour," said Hazard, who
+stood by the side of young Gardiner. "Why don't he anchor! No power short
+of Divine Providence can save her."</p>
+
+<p>"And Divine Providence will do it--thanks to Almighty God for his
+goodness!" exclaimed Roswell Gardiner. "Did you perceive that, Mr. Hazard?"</p>
+
+<p>The '<i>that</i>' of our young mariner was, in truth, a most momentous omen.
+The wind had lulled so suddenly that the rags of sails which the other
+schooner carried actually flapped. At first our seamen thought she had
+been becalmed by the swell; but the change about themselves was too
+obvious to admit of any mistake. It blew terribly, again, for a minute;
+then there was another lull. Gardiner sprang to the lead-line to see the
+effect on his own vessel. She no longer dragged her anchor!</p>
+
+<p>"God is with us!" exclaimed the young master--"blessed for ever be his
+holy name."</p>
+
+<p>"And that of his only and <i>true</i> Son," responded a voice from one at his
+elbow.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the emergency, and the excitement produced by this sudden
+change, Roswell Gardiner turned to see from whom this admonition had come.
+The oldest seaman on board, who was Stimson, a Kennebunk man, and who had
+been placed there to watch the schooner's drift, had uttered these unusual
+words. The fervour with which he spoke produced more impression on the
+young master than the words themselves; the former being very unusual
+among sea-faring men, though the language was not so much so.
+Subsequently, Gardiner remembered that little incident, which was not
+without its results.</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe, sir," cried Hazard, "that the gale is broken. It often
+happens, on our own coast, that the south-easters chop round suddenly, and
+come out nor'-westers. I hope this will not be too late to save the
+Vineyard chap, though he slips down upon them breakers at a most fearful
+rate."</p>
+
+<p>"There goes his foresail, again--and here is another lull!" rejoined
+Gardiner. "I tell you, Mr. Hazard, we shall have a shift of wind--nothing
+short of which could save either of us from these breakers."</p>
+
+<p>"Which comes from the marcy of God Almighty, through the intercession of
+his only Son!" added Stimson, with the same fervour of manner, though he
+spoke in a very low tone of voice.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner was again surprised, and for another moment he forgot the
+gale and its dangers. Gale it was no longer, however, for the lull was now
+decided, and the two cables of the schooner were distended only when the
+roll of the seas came in upon her. This wash of the waves still menaced
+the other schooner, driving her down towards the breakers, though less
+rapidly than before.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't the fellow anchor!" exclaimed Gardiner, in his anxiety, all
+care for himself being now over. "Unless he anchor, he will yet go into
+the white water, and be lost!"</p>
+
+<p>"So little does he think of that, that he is turning out his reefs,"
+answered Hazard. "See! there is a hand aloft loosening his topsail--and
+there goes up a whole mainsail, already!"</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, Daggett appeared more disposed to trust to his canvass, than
+to his ground-tackle. In a very brief space of time he had his craft under
+whole sail, and was struggling, in the puffs, to claw off the land.
+Presently, the wind ceased altogether, the canvass flapping so as to be
+audible to Gardiner and his companions, at the distance of half a mile.
+Then, the cloth was distended in the opposite direction, and the wind came
+off the land. The schooner's head was instantly brought to meet the seas,
+and the lead dropped at her side showed that she was moving in the right
+direction. These sudden changes, sometimes destructive, and sometimes
+providential as acts of mercy, always bring strong counter-currents of air
+in their train.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we shall have it!" said Hazard--"a true nor'wester, and butt-end
+foremost!"</p>
+
+<p>This opinion very accurately described that which followed. In ten minutes
+it was blowing heavily, in a direction nearly opposite to that which had
+been the previous current of the wind. As a matter of course, the Sea Lion
+of the Vineyard drew off the land, wallowing through the meeting billows
+that still came rolling in from the broad Atlantic; while the Sea Lion of
+Oyster Pond tended to the new currents of air, and rode, as it might be,
+suspended between the two opposing forces, with little or no strain on her
+cables. Gardiner expected to see his consort stand out to sea, and gain an
+offing; but, instead of this, Captain Daggett brought his schooner quite
+near to the disabled vessel, and anchored. This act of neighbourly
+kindness was too unequivocal to require explanation. It was the intention
+of the Vineyard men to lie by their consort until she was relieved from
+all apprehensions of danger. The 'butt-end' of the 'nor'-wester' was too
+large to admit of intercourse until next morning, when that which had been
+a small gale had dwindled to a good steady breeze, and the seas had gone
+down, leaving comparatively smooth water all along the coast. The line of
+white water which marked the breakers was there, and quite visible; but it
+no longer excited apprehension. The jury-masts on board the disabled craft
+were got up, and what was very convenient, just at that moment, the wreck
+came floating out on the ebb, so near to her as to enable the boats to
+secure all the sails and most of the rigging. The main-boom, too, an
+excellent spar, was towed alongside and saved.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-10">
+<h2>Chapter X.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"The shadow from thy brow shall melt,<br />
+The sorrow from thy strain;<br />
+But where thy earthly smile hath dwelt,<br />
+Our hearts shall thirst in vain."</p>
+
+<p>  Mrs. Hemans.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>As soon as it would do to put his boats in the water, or at daylight next
+morning, Captain Daggett came alongside of his consort. He was received
+with a seaman's welcome, and his offers of services were accepted, just as
+frankly, as under reversed circumstances, they would have been made. In
+all this there was a strange and characteristic admixture of neighbourly
+and Christian kindness, blended with a keen regard of the main chance. If
+the former duties are rarely neglected by the descendants of the Puritans,
+it may be said, with equal truth, that the latter are never lost sight of.
+Speculation, and profit, are regarded as so many integral portions of the
+duty of man; and, as our kinsmen of Old England have set up an idol to
+worship, in the form of aristocracy, so do our kinsmen of New England pay
+homage to the golden calf. In point of fact, Daggett had a double motive
+in now offering his services to Gardiner; the one being the discharge of
+his moral obligations, and the other a desire to remain near the Sea Lion
+of Oyster Pond, lest she should visit the key, of which he had some very
+interesting memorandums, without having enough to find the place unless
+led there by those who were better informed on the subject of its precise
+locality than he was himself.</p>
+
+<p>The boats of Daggett assisted in getting the wreck alongside, and in
+securing the sails and rigging. Then, his people aided in fitting
+jury-masts; and, by noon, both vessels got under way, and stood along the
+coast, to the southward and westward. Hatteras was no longer terrible, for
+the wind still stood at north-west, and they kept in view of those very
+breakers which, only the day before, they would have given the value of
+both vessels to be certain of never seeing again. That night they passed
+the formidable cape, a spit of sand projecting far to seaward, and which
+is on a low beach, and not on any main land at all. Once around this angle
+in the coast, they had a lee, hauling up to the south-west. With the wind
+abeam, they stood on the rest of the day, picking up a pilot. The next
+night they doubled Cape Look Out, a very good landmark for those going
+north to keep in view, as a reminder of the stormy and sunken Hatteras,
+and arrived off Beaufort harbour just as the sun was rising, the
+succeeding morning. By this time the north-wester was done, and both
+schooners entered Beaufort, with a light southerly breeze, there being
+just water enough to receive them. This was the only place on all that
+coast into which it would have answered their purposes to go; and it was,
+perhaps, the very port of all others that was best suited to supply the
+present wants of Roswell Gardiner. Pine timber, and spars of all sorts,
+abounded in that region; and the "Banker," who acted as pilot, told our
+young master that he could get the very sticks he needed, in one hour's
+time after entering the haven. This term of "Banker" applies to a
+scattering population of wreckers and fishermen, who dwell on the long,
+low, narrow beaches which extend along the whole of this part of the
+coast, reaching from Cape Fear to near Cape Henry, a distance of some
+hundred and fifty miles. Within lie the capacious sounds already
+mentioned, including Albemarle and Pimlico, and which form the watery
+portals to the sea-shores of all North Carolina. Well is the last headland
+of that region, but one which the schooners did not double, named Cape
+Fear. It is the commencement, on that side, of the dangerous part of the
+coast, and puts the mariner on his guard by its very appellation,
+admonishing him to be cautious and prudent.</p>
+
+<p>Off the entrance of Beaufort, a very perfect and beautiful haven, if it
+had a greater depth of water, the schooners hove-to, in waiting for the
+tide to rise a little; and Roswell Gardiner took that occasion to go on
+board the sister craft, and express to Daggett a sense of the obligations
+he felt for the services the other had rendered.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, you will not think of going in, Captain Daggett," continued
+our hero, in dwelling on the subject, "after having put yourself, already,
+to so much unnecessary trouble. If I find the spars the Banker talks of, I
+shall be out again in eight-and-forty hours, and we may meet, some months
+hence, off Cape Horn."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what it is, Gar'ner," returned the Vineyard mariner,
+pushing the rum towards his brother master, "I'm a plain sort of a fellow,
+and don't make much talk when I do a thing, but I like good-fellowship. We
+came near going, both of us--nearer than I ever was before, and escape
+wrackin'; but escape we did--and when men have gone through such trials in
+company, I don't like the notion of casting off till I see you all a-tanto
+ag'in, and with as many legs and arms as I carry myself. That's just my
+feelin', Gar'ner, and I won't say whether it's a right feelin' or
+not--help yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a right feeling, as between you and me, Captain Daggett, as I can
+answer for. My heart tells me you are right, and I thank you from it, for
+these marks of friendship. But, you must not forget there are such persons
+as owners, in this world. I shall have trouble enough on my hands, with my
+owner, and I do not wish you to have trouble with yours. Here is a nice
+little breeze to take you out to sea again; and by passing to the
+southward of Bermuda, you can make a short cut, and hit the trades far
+enough to windward to answer all your purposes."</p>
+
+<p>"Thankee, thankee, Gar'ner--I know the road, and can find the places I'm
+going to, though no great navigator. Now. I never took a lunar in my life,
+and can't do anything with a chronometer; but as for finding the way
+between Martha's Vineyard and Cape Horn, I'll turn my back on no
+shipmaster living."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid, Captain Daggett, that we have both of us turned our backs on
+our true course, when we suffered ourselves to get jammed away down here,
+on Hatteras. Why, I never saw the place before, and never wish to see it
+again! It's as much out of the track of a whaler, or sealer, as Jupiter is
+out of the track of Mars, or Venus."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there go your lunars, about which I know nothing, and care nothing. I
+tell you, Gar'ner, a man with a good judgment, can just as well jog about
+the 'arth, without any acquaintance with lunars, as he can with. Then,
+your sealer hasn't half as much need of your academy-sort of navigation,
+as another man. More than half of our calling is luck; and all the best
+sealing stations I ever heard of, have been blundered on by some chap who
+has lost his way. I despise lunars, if the truth must be said; yet I like
+to go straight to my port of destination. Take a little sugar with your
+rum-and-water--we Vineyard folks like sweetening."</p>
+
+<p>"For which purpose, or that of going straight to your port, Captain
+Daggett, you've come down here, on your way to the Pacific; or, about five
+hundred miles out of your way!"</p>
+
+<p>"I came here for company, Gar'ner. We hadn't much choice, you must allow,
+for we couldn't have weathered the shoals on the other tack. I see no
+great harm in our positions, if you hadn't got dismasted. That's a two or
+three hundred dollar job, and may make your owner grumble a little, but
+it's no killing matter. I'll stick by you, and you can tell the deacon as
+much in the letter you'll write him, when we get in."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems like doing injustice to <i>your</i> owners, as well as to my own,
+keeping you here, Captain Daggett," returned Roswell, innocently, for he
+had not the smallest suspicion of the true motive of all this apparent
+good-fellowship, "and I really wish you would now quit me."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't think of it, Gar'ner. 'Twould make an awful talk on the
+Vineyard, was I to do anything of the sort. 'Stick by your consort,' is an
+eleventh commandment, in our island."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is the reason why there are so many old maids there, I suppose,
+Daggett," cried Roswell Gardiner, laughing. "Well, I thank you for your
+kindness, and will endeavour to remember it when you may have occasion for
+some return. But, the tide must be making, and we ought to lose no time,
+unnecessarily. Here's a lucky voyage to us both, Captain Daggett, and a
+happy return to sweethearts and wives."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett tossed off his glass to this toast, and the two then went on deck.
+Roswell Gardiner thought that a kinder ship's company never sailed
+together than this of the Sea Lion of Holmes' Hole; for, notwithstanding
+the interest of every man on board depended on the returns of their own
+voyage, each and all appeared willing to stick by him and his craft so
+long as there was a possibility of being of any service.</p>
+
+<p>Whalers and sealers do not ship their crews for wages in money, as is done
+with most vessels. So much depends on the exertions of the people in these
+voyages, that it is the practice to give every man a direct interest in
+the result. Consequently, all on board engage for a compensation to be
+derived from a division of the return cargo. The terms on which a party
+engages are called his "lay;" and he gets so many parts of a hundred,
+according to station, experience and qualifications. The owner is paid for
+his risk and expenses in the same way, the vessel and outfits usually
+taking about two-thirds of the whole returns, while the officers and crew
+get the other. These conditions vary a little, as the proceeds of whaling
+and sealing rise or fall in the market, and also in reference to the cost
+of equipments. It follows that Captain Daggett and his crew were actually
+putting their hands into their own pockets, when they lost time in
+remaining with the crippled craft. This Gardiner knew, and it caused him
+to appreciate their kindness at a rate so much higher than he might
+otherwise have done.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight, it might seem that all this unusual kindness was
+superfluous, and of no avail. This, however, was not really the case,
+since the crew of the second schooner was of much real service in
+forwarding the equipment of the disabled vessel. Beaufort has an excellent
+harbour for vessels of a light draught of water like our two sealers; but
+the town is insignificant, and extra labourers, especially those of an
+intelligence suited to such work, very difficult to be had. At the bottom,
+therefore, Roswell Gardiner found his friendly assistants of much real
+advantage, the two crews pushing the work before them with as much
+rapidity as suited even a seaman's impatience. Aided by the crew of his
+consort, Gardiner got on fast with his repairs, and on the afternoon of
+the second day after he had entered Beaufort, he was ready to sail once
+more; his schooner probably in a better state for service than the day she
+left Oyster Pond.</p>
+
+<p>The lightning-line did not exist at the period of which we are writing. It
+is our good fortune to be an intimate acquaintance of the distinguished
+citizen who has bestowed this great gift on his own country--one that will
+transmit his name to posterity, side by side with that of Fulton. In his
+case, as in that of the last-named inventor, attempts have been made to
+rob him equally of the honours and the profits of his very ingenious
+invention. As respects the last, we hold that it is every hour becoming
+less and less possible for any American to maintain his rights against
+numbers. There is no question that the government of this great Republic
+was intended to be one of well-considered and upright principles, in which
+certain questions are to be referred periodically to majorities, as the
+wisest and most natural, as well as the most just mode of disposing of
+them. Such a government, well administered, and with an accurate
+observance of its governing principles, would probably be the best that
+human infirmity will allow men to administer; but when the capital mistake
+is made of supposing that mere numbers are to control all things,
+regardless of those great fundamental laws that the state has adopted for
+its own restraint, it may be questioned if so loose, and capricious, and
+selfish a system, is not in great danger of becoming the very worst scheme
+of polity that cupidity ever set in motion. The tendency--not the <i>spirit</i>
+of the institutions, the two things being the very antipodes of each
+other, though common minds are so apt to confound them--the <i>tendency</i> of
+the institutions of this country, in flagrant opposition to their <i>spirit</i>
+or <i>intentions</i>, which were devised expressly to restrain the disposition
+of men to innovate, is out of all question to foster this great abuse, and
+to place numbers above principles, even when the principles were solemnly
+adopted expressly to bring numbers under the control of a sound
+fundamental law. This influence of numbers, this dire mistake of the very
+nature of liberty, by placing men and their passions above those great
+laws of right which come direct from God himself, is increasing in force,
+and threatens consequences which may set at naught all the well-devised
+schemes of the last generation for the security of the state, and the
+happiness of that very people, who can never know either security or even
+peace, until they learn to submit themselves, without a thought of
+resistance, to those great rules of right which in truth form the <i>spirit</i>
+of their institutions, and which are only too often in opposition to their
+own impulses and motives.</p>
+
+<p>We pretend to no knowledge on the subject of the dates of discoveries in
+the arts and sciences, but well do we remember the earnestness and
+single-minded devotion to a laudable purpose, with which our worthy friend
+first communicated to us his ideas on the subject of using the electric
+spark by way of a telegraph. It was in Paris, and during the winter of
+1831-2, and the succeeding spring, a time when we were daily together; and
+we have a satisfaction in recording this date, that others may prove
+better claims if they can. Had Morse set his great invention on foot
+thirty years earlier, Roswell Gardiner might have communicated with his
+owner, and got a reply, ere he again sailed, considerable as was the
+distance between them. As things then were, he was fain to be content with
+writing a letter, which was put into the deacon's hand about a week after
+it was written, by his niece, on his own return from a short journey to
+Southold, whither he had been to settle and discharge a tardy claim
+against his schooner.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a letter for you, uncle," said Mary Pratt, struggling to command
+her feelings, though she blushed with the consciousness of her own
+interest in the missive "It came from the Harbour, by some mistake;
+Baiting Joe bringing it across just after you left home."</p>
+
+<p>"A letter with a post-mark--'Beaufort, N.C.'--Who in natur' can this
+letter be from?--What a postage, too, to charge on a letter! Fifty cents!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is a proof, sir, that Beaufort must be a long way off. Besides, the
+letter is double. I think the hand-writing is Roswell's."</p>
+
+<p>Had the niece fired a six-pounder under her uncle's ears, he would
+scarcely have been more startled. He even turned pale, and instead of
+breaking the wafer as he had been about to do, he actually shrunk from
+performing the act, like one afraid to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"What can this mean?" said the deacon, taking a moment to recover his
+voice. "Gar'ner's hand-writing! So it is, I declare. If that imprudent
+young man has lost my schooner, I'll never forgive him in this world,
+whatever a body may be <i>forced</i> to do in the next!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary to believe anything as bad as that, uncle. Letters
+are often written at sea, and sent in by vessels that are met. I dare say
+Roswell has done just this."</p>
+
+<p>"Not he--not he--the careless fellow! He has lost that schooner, and all
+my property is in the hands of wrackers, who are worse than so many rats
+in a larder. 'Beaufort, N.C.' Yes, that must be one of the Bahamas, and
+N.C. stands for New Providence--Ah's me! Ah's me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But N.C. does <i>not</i> stand for New Providence--it would be N.P. in that
+case, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"N.C. or N.P., they sound so dreadfully alike, that I don't know what to
+think! Take the letter and open it. Oh! how big it is--there must be a
+protest, or some other costly thing inclosed."</p>
+
+<p>Mary did take the letter, and she opened it, though with trembling hands.
+The inclosure soon appeared, and the first glance of her eye told her it
+was a letter addressed to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Mary?--What is it, my child? Do not be afraid to tell me,"
+said the deacon, in a low faltering voice. "I hope I know how to meet
+misfortunes with Christian fortitude. Has it one of them awful-looking
+seals that Notary Publics use when they want money?"</p>
+
+<p>Mary blushed rosy-red, and she appeared very charming at that moment,
+though as resolute as ever to give her hand only to a youth whose 'God
+should be her God.'</p>
+
+<p>"It is a letter to me, sir--nothing else, I do assure you, uncle. Roswell
+often writes to me, as you know; he has sent one of his letters inclosed
+in this to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes--I'm glad it's no worse. Well, where was his letter written?
+Does he mention the latitude and longitude? It will be some comfort to
+learn that he was well to the southward and eastward."</p>
+
+<p>Mary's colour disappeared, and a paleness came over her face, as she ran
+through the few first lines of the letter. Then she summoned all her
+resolution, and succeeded in telling her uncle the facts.</p>
+
+<p>"A misfortune has befallen poor Roswell," she said, her voice trembling
+with emotion, "though it does not seem to be half as bad as it might have
+been. The letter is written at Beaufort, in North Carolina, where the
+schooner has put in to get new masts, having lost those with which she
+sailed in a gale of wind off Cape Hatteras."</p>
+
+<p>"Hatteras!" interrupted the deacon, groaning--"What in natur' had my
+vessel to do down there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I don't know, sir--but I had better read you the contents of
+Roswell's letter, and then you will hear the whole story."</p>
+
+<p>Mary now proceeded to read aloud. Gardiner gave a frank, explicit account
+of all that had happened since he parted with his owner, concealing
+nothing, and not attempting even to extenuate his fault. Of the Sea Lion
+of Holmes' Hole he wrote at large, giving it as his opinion that Captain
+Daggett really possessed some clue--what he did not know--to the existence
+of the sealing islands, though he rather thought that he was not very
+accurately informed of their precise position. As respected the key,
+Roswell was silent, for it did not at all occur to him that Daggett knew
+anything of that part of his own mission. In consequence of this opinion,
+not the least suspicion of the motive of the Vineyard-man, in sticking by
+him, presented itself to Gardiner's mind; and nothing on the subject was
+communicated in the letter. On the contrary, our young master was quite
+eloquent in expressing his gratitude to Daggett and his crew, for the
+assistance they had volunteered, and without which he could not have been
+ready to go to sea again in less than a week. As it was, the letter was
+partly written as the schooner re-passed the bar, and was sent ashore by
+the pilot to be mailed. This fact was stated in full, in a postscript.</p>
+
+<p>"Volunteered!" groaned the deacon, aloud. "As if a man ever volunteers to
+work without his pay!"</p>
+
+<p>"Roswell tells us that Captain Daggett did, uncle," answered Mary, "and
+that it is understood between them he is to make no charge for his going
+into Beaufort, or for anything he did while there. Vessels often help each
+other in this kind way, I should hope, for the sake of Christian charity,
+sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Not without salvage, not without salvage! Charity is a good thing, and it
+is our duty to exercise it on all occasions; but salvage comes into
+charity all the same as into any other interest. This schooner will ruin
+me, I fear, and leave me in my old age to be supported by the town!"</p>
+
+<p>"That can hardly happen, uncle, since you owe nothing for her, and have
+your farms, and all your other property unencumbered. It is not easy to
+see how the schooner can ruin you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am undone"--returned the deacon, beating the floor with his foot,
+in nervous agitation--"as much undone as ever Roswell Gar'ner's father
+was, and he might have been the richest man between Oyster Pond and
+Riverhead, had he kept out of the way of speculation. I remember him much
+better off than I am myself, and he died but little more than a beggar.
+Yes, yes; I see how it is; this schooner has undone me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But Roswell sends an account of all that he has paid, and draws a bill
+on you for its payment. The entire amount is but one hundred and sixteen
+dollars and seventy-two cents."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not for salvage. The next thing will be a demand for salvage in
+behalf of the owners and crew of the Sea Lion of Humses' Hull! I know how
+it will be, child: I know how it will be! Gar'ner has undone me, and I
+shall go down into my grave a beggar, as his father has done already."</p>
+
+<p>"If such be the fact, uncle, no one but I would be the sufferer, and I
+will strive not to grieve over your losses. But, here is a paper that
+Roswell has inclosed in his letter to me, by mistake, no doubt. See, sir;
+it is an acknowledgment, signed by Captain Daggett and all his crew,
+admitting that they went into Beaufort with Roswell out of good feeling,
+and allowing that they have no claims to salvage. Here it is, sir; you can
+read it for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon did not only read it--he almost devoured the paper, which, as
+Mary suggested, had been inclosed in her letter by mistake. The relief
+produced by this document so far composed the uncle, that he not only read
+Gardiner's letter himself, with a very close attention to its contents,
+but he actually forgave the cost of the repairs incurred at Beaufort.
+While he was in the height of his joy at this change in the aspect of
+things, the niece stole into her own room in order to read the missive she
+had received, by herself.</p>
+
+<p>The tears that Mary Pratt profusely shed over Roswell's letter, were both
+sweet and bitter. The manifestations of his affection for her, which were
+manly and frank, brought tears of tenderness from her eyes; while the
+recollection of the width of the chasm that separated them, had the effect
+to embitter these proofs of love. Most females would have lost the sense
+of duty which sustained our heroine in this severe trial, and, in
+accepting the man of their heart, would have trusted to time, and her own
+influence, and the mercy of Divine Providence, to bring about the change
+she desired; but Mary Pratt could not thus blind herself to her own high
+obligations. The tie of husband and wife she rightly regarded as the most
+serious of all the obligations we can assume, and she could not--<i>would</i>
+not plight her vows to any man whose 'God was not her God.'</p>
+
+<p>Still there was much of sweet consolation in this little-expected letter
+from Roswell. He wrote, as he always did, simply and naturally, and
+attempted no concealments. This was just as true of his acts, as the
+master of the schooner, as it was in his character of a suitor. To Mary he
+told the whole story of his weakness, acknowledging that a silly spirit of
+pride which would not permit him to seem to abandon a trial of the
+qualities of the two schooners, had induced him to stand on to the
+westward longer than he should otherwise have done, and the currents had
+come to assist in increasing the danger. As for Daggett, he supposed him
+to have been similarly influenced; though he did not withhold his
+expressions of gratitude for the generous manner in which that seaman had
+stuck to him to the last.</p>
+
+<p>For weary months did Mary Pratt derive sweet consolation from her treasure
+of a letter. It was, perhaps, no more than human nature, or woman's nature
+at least, that, in time, she got most to regard those passages which best
+answered to the longings of her own heart; and that she came at last to
+read the missive, forgetful in a degree, that it was written by one who
+had deliberately, and as a matter of faith, adopted the idea that the
+Redeemer was not, in what may be called the catholic sense of the term,
+the Son of God. The papers gave an account of the arrival of the 'Twin Sea
+Lions,' as the article styled them, in the port of Beaufort, to repair
+damages; and of their having soon sailed again, in company. This paragraph
+she cut out of the journal in which it met her eye, and enclosing it in
+Roswell's last letter, there was not a day in the succeeding year in which
+both were not in her hand, and read for the hundredth time, or more. These
+proofs of tenderness, however, are not to be taken as evidence of any
+lessening of principle, or as signs of a disposition to let her judgment
+and duty submit to her affection. So far from this, her resolution grew
+with reflection, and her mind became more settled in a purpose that she
+deemed sacred, the longer she reflected on the subject. But, her prayers
+in behalf of her absent lover grew more frequent, and much more fervent.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, the Twin Lions sailed. On leaving Beaufort, they ran
+off the coast with a smart breeze from south-west, making a leading wind
+of it. There had been some variance of opinion between Daggett and
+Gardiner, touching the course they ought to steer. The last was for
+hauling up higher, and passing to the southward of Bermuda; while the
+first contended for standing nearly due east, and going to the northward
+of those islands. Gardiner felt impatient to repair his blunder, and make
+the shortest cut he could; whereas Daggett reasoned more coolly, and took
+the winds into the account, keeping in view the main results of the
+voyage. Perhaps the last wished to keep his consort away from all the
+keys, until he was compelled to alter his course in a way that would leave
+no doubt of his intentions. Of one thing the last was now certain; he knew
+by a long trial that the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond could not very easily run
+away from the Sea Lion of Holmes' Hole, and he was fully resolved that she
+should not escape from him in the night, or in squalls. As for Roswell
+Gardiner, not having the smallest idea of looking for his key, until he
+came north, after visiting the antarctic circle, he had no notion whatever
+of the reason why the other stuck to him so closely; and, least of all,
+why he wished to keep him clear of the West Indies, until ready to make a
+descent on his El Dorado.</p>
+
+<p>Beaufort lies about two degrees to the northward of the four hundred
+rocks, islets, and small islands, which are known as the Bermudas; an
+advanced naval station, that belongs to a rival commercial power, and
+which is occupied by that power solely as a check on this republic in the
+event of war. Had the views of real statesmen prevailed in America,
+instead of those of mere politicians, the whole energy of this republic
+would have been long since directed to the object of substituting our own
+flag for that of England, in these islands. As things are, there they
+exist; a station for hostile fleets, a receptacle for prizes, and a depot
+for the munitions of war, as if expressly designed by nature to hold the
+whole American coast in command. While little men with great names are
+wrangling about southwestern acquisitions, and north-eastern boundaries,
+that are of no real moment to the growth and power of the republic, these
+islands, that ought never to be out of the mind of the American statesman,
+have not yet entered into the account at all; a certain proof how little
+the minds that do, or ought to, influence events, are really up to the
+work they have been delegated to perform. Military expeditions have twice
+been sent from this country to Canada, when both the Canadas are not of
+one-half the importance to the true security and independence of the
+country--(no nation is independent until it holds the control of all its
+greater interests in its own hands)--as the Bermudas. When England asked
+the cession of territory undoubtedly American, because it overshadowed
+Quebec, she should have been met with this plain proposition--"Give us the
+Bermudas, and we will exchange with you. You hold those islands as a check
+on our power, and we will hold the angle of Maine for a check on yours,
+unless you will consent to make a fair and mutual transfer. We will not
+attack you for the possession of the Bermudas, for we deem a just
+principle even more important than such an accession; but when you ask us
+to cede, we hold out our hands to take an equivalent in return. The policy
+of this nation is not to be influenced by saw-logs, but by these manifest,
+important, and ulterior interests. If you wish Maine, give us Bermuda in
+exchange, or go with your wishes ungratified." Happily, among us, events
+are stronger than men; and the day is not distant when the mere force of
+circumstances will compel the small-fry of diplomacy to see what the real
+interests and dignity of the republic demand, in reference to this great
+feature of its policy.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner and Daggett had several discussions touching the manner
+in which they ought to pass those islands. There were about four degrees
+to spare between the trades and the Bermudas; and the former was of
+opinion that they might pass through this opening, and make a straighter
+wake, than by going farther north. These consultations took place from
+quarter-deck to quarter-deck, as the two schooners ran off free, steering
+directly for the islands, as a sort of compromise between the two
+opinions. The distance from the main to the Bermudas is computed at about
+six hundred miles, which gave sufficient leisure for the discussion of the
+subject in all its bearings. The conversations were amicable, and the
+weather continuing mild, and the wind standing, they were renewed each
+afternoon, when the vessels closed, as if expressly to admit of the
+dialogue. In all this time, five days altogether, it was farther
+ascertained that the difference in sailing between the Twin Lions, as the
+sailors now began to call the two schooners, was barely perceptible. If
+anything, it was slightly in favour of the Vineyard craft, though there
+yet remained many of the vicissitudes of the seas, in which to make the
+trial. While this uncertainty as to the course prevailed, the low land
+appeared directly ahead, when Daggett consented to pass it to the
+southward, keeping the cluster in sight, however, as they went steadily on
+towards the southward and eastward.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-11">
+<h2>Chapter XI.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"With glossy skin, and dripping mane,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And reeling limbs, and reeking flank,<br />
+The wild steed's sinewy nerves still strain<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Up the repelling bank."</p>
+
+<p>  Mazeppa.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner felt as if he could breathe more freely when they had run
+the Summers Group fairly out of sight, and the last hummock had sunk into
+the waves of the west. He was now fairly quit of America, and hoped to see
+no more of it, until he made the well-known rock that points the way into
+that most magnificent of all the havens of the earth, the bay of Rio de
+Janeiro. Travellers dispute whether the palm ought to be given to this
+port, or to those of Naples and Constantinople. Each, certainly, has its
+particular claims to surpassing beauty, which ought to be kept in view in
+coming to a decision. Seen from its outside, with its minarets, and Golden
+Horn, and Bosphorus, Constantinople is, probably, the most glorious spot
+on earth. Ascend its mountains, and overlook the gulfs of Salerno and
+Gaeta, as well as its own waters, the <i>Campugna Felici</i> and the memorials
+of the past, all seen in the witchery of an Italian atmosphere, and the
+mind becomes perfectly satisfied that nothing equal is to be found
+elsewhere; but enter the bay of Rio, and take the whole of the noble
+panorama in at a glance, and even the experienced traveller is staggered
+with the stupendous as well as bewitching character of the loveliness that
+meets his eye. Witchery is a charm that peculiarly belongs to Italy, as
+all must feel who have ever been brought within its influence; but it is a
+witchery that is more or less shared by all regions of low latitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Our two Sea Lions met with no adventures worthy of record, until they got
+well to the southward of the equator. They had been unusually successful
+in getting through the calm latitudes; and forty-six days from Montauk,
+they spoke a Sag Harbour whaler, homeward bound, that had come out from
+Rio only the preceding week, where she had been to dispose of her oil. By
+this ship, letters were sent home; and as Gardiner could now tell the
+deacon that he should touch at Rio even before the time first anticipated,
+he believed that he should set the old man's heart at peace. A little
+occurrence that took place the very day they parted with the whaler, added
+to the pleasure this opportunity of communicating with the owner had
+afforded. As the schooners were moving on in company, about a cable's
+length asunder, Hazard saw a sudden and extraordinary movement on board
+the Vineyard Lion, as the men now named that vessel, to distinguish her
+from her consort.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out for a spout!" shouted the mate to Stimson, who happened to be on
+the foretopsail-yard at work; when this unexpected interruption to the
+quiet of the passage occurred. "There is a man overboard from the other
+schooner, or they see a spout."</p>
+
+<p>"A spout! a spout!" shouted Stimson, in return; "and a spalm (sperm, or
+spermaceti, was meant) whale, in the bargain! Here he is, sir, two p'ints
+on our weather beam."</p>
+
+<p>This was enough. If any one has had the misfortune to be in a coach drawn
+by four horses, when a sudden fright starts them off at speed, he can form
+a pretty accurate notion of the movement that now took place on board of
+Deacon Pratt's craft. Every one seemed to spring into activity, as if a
+single will directed a common set of muscles. Those who were below
+literally "tumbled up," as seamen express it, and those who were aloft
+slid down to the deck like flashes of lightning. Captain Gardiner sprang
+out of his cabin, seemingly at a single bound; at another, he was in the
+whale-boat that Hazard was in the very act of lowering into the water, as
+the schooner rounded-to. Perceiving himself anticipated here, the mate
+turned to the boat on the other quarter, and was in her, and in the water,
+almost as soon as his commanding officer.</p>
+
+<p>Although neither of the schooners was thoroughly fitted for a whaler, each
+had lines, lances, harpoons, &amp;c., in readiness in their quarter-boats,
+prepared for any turn of luck like this which now offered. The process of
+paddling up to whales, which is now so common in the American ships, was
+then very little or not at all resorted to. It is said that the animals
+have got to be so shy, in consequence of being so much pursued, that the
+old mode of approaching them will not suffice, and that it now requires
+much more care and far more art to take one of these creatures, than it
+did thirty years since. On this part of the subject, we merely repeat what
+we hear, though we think we can see an advantage in the use of the paddle
+that is altogether independent of that of the greater quiet of that mode
+of forcing a boat ahead. He that paddles looks <i>ahead</i>, and the approach
+is more easily regulated, when the whole of the boat's crew are apprised,
+by means of their own senses, of the actual state of things, than when
+they attain their ideas of them through the orders of an officer. The last
+must govern in all cases, but the men are prepared for them, when they can
+see what is going on, and will be more likely to act with promptitude and
+intelligence, and will be less liable to make mistakes.</p>
+
+<p>The four boats, two from each schooner, dropped into the water nearly
+about the same time. Daggett was at the steering-oar of one, as was
+Roswell at that of another. Hazard, and Macy, the chief mate of the
+Vineyard craft, were at the steering-oars of the two remaining boats. All
+pulled in the direction of the spot on the ocean where the spouts had been
+seen. It was the opinion of those who had been aloft, that there were
+several <i>fish</i>; and it was certain that they were of the most valuable
+species, or the spermaceti, one barrel of the oil of which was worth about
+as much as the oil of three of the ordinary sort, or that of the <i>right</i>
+whale, supposing them all to yield the same quantity in number of barrels.
+The nature or species of the fish was easily enough determined by the
+spouts; the right whale throwing up two high arched jets of water, while
+the spermaceti throws but a single, low, bushy one.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long ere the boats of the two captains came abreast of each
+other, and within speaking distance. A stern rivalry was now apparent in
+every countenance, the men pulling might and main, and without even a
+smile among them all. Every face was grave, earnest, and determined; every
+arm strung to its utmost powers of exertion. The men rowed beautifully,
+being accustomed to the use of their long oars in rough water, and in ten
+minutes they were all fully a mile dead to windward of the two schooners.</p>
+
+<p>Few things give a more exalted idea of the courage and ingenuity of the
+human race than to see adventurers set forth, in a mere shell, on the
+troubled waters of the open ocean, to contend with and capture an animal
+of the size of the whale. The simple circumstance that the last is in its
+own element, while its assailants are compelled to approach it in such
+light and fragile conveyances, that, to the unpractised eye, it is
+sufficiently difficult to manage them amid the rolling waters, without
+seeking so powerful an enemy to contend with. But, little of all this did
+the crews of our four boats now think. They had before them the objects,
+or <i>one</i> of the objects, rather, of their adventure, and so long as that
+was the case, no other view but that of prevailing could rise before their
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"How is it, Gar'ner?" called out the Vineyard master; "shall it be shares?
+or does each schooner whale on her own hook?"</p>
+
+<p>This was asked in a friendly way, and apparently with great indifference
+as to the nature of the reply, but with profound art. It was Daggett's
+wish to establish a sort of partnership, which, taken in connection with
+the good feeling created by the affair at Beaufort, would be very apt to
+lead on to further and more important association. Luckily for Gardiner,
+an idea crossed his mind, just as he was about to reply, which induced the
+wisest answer. It was the thought, that competition would be more likely
+to cause exertion than a partnership, and that the success of all would
+better repay them for their toils and risks, should each vessel act
+exclusively for itself. This is the principle that renders the present
+state of society more healthful and advantageous than that which the
+friends of the different systems of associating, that are now so much in
+vogue, wish to substitute in its place. Individuality is an all-important
+feeling in the organization of human beings into communities; and the
+political economist who does not use it as his most powerful auxiliary in
+advancing civilization, will soon see it turn round in its tracks, and
+become a dead weight; indulging its self-love, by living with the minimum
+of exertion, instead of pushing his private advantage, with the maximum.</p>
+
+<p>"I think each vessel had better work for herself and her owners," answered
+Roswell Gardiner.</p>
+
+<p>As the schooners were in the trades, there was a regular sea running, and
+one that was neither very high nor much broken. Still, the boats were
+lifted on it like egg-shells or bubbles, the immense power of the ocean
+raising the largest ships, groaning under their vast weight of ordnance,
+as if they were feathers. In a few minutes, Gardiner and Daggett became a
+little more separated, each looking eagerly for the spouts, which had not
+been seen by either since quitting his vessel. All this time the two mates
+came steadily on, until the whole of the little fleet of boats was, by
+this time, not less than a marine league distant from the schooners. The
+vessels themselves were working up to windward, to keep as near to the
+boats as possible, making short tacks under reduced canvass; a shipkeeper,
+the cook, steward, and one or two other hands, being all who were left on
+board them.</p>
+
+<p>We shall suppose that most of our readers are sufficiently acquainted with
+the general character of that class of animals to which the whale belongs,
+to know that all of the genus breathe the atmospheric air, which is as
+necessary for life to them as it is to man himself. The only difference
+in this respect is, that the whale can go longer without renewing his
+respiration than all purely land-animals, though he must come up to
+breathe at intervals, or die. It is the exhaling of the old stock of air,
+when he brings the "blow-holes," as seamen call the outlets of his
+respiratory organs, to the surface, that forces the water upward, and
+forms the "spouts," which usually indicate to the whalers the position of
+their game. The "spouts" vary in appearance, as has been mentioned, owing
+to the number and situation of the orifices by which the exhausted air
+escapes. No sooner is the vitiated air exhaled, than the lungs receive a
+new supply; and the animal either remains near the surface, rolling about
+and sporting amid the waves, or descends again, a short distance, in quest
+of its food. This food, also, varies materially in the different species.
+The right-whale is supposed to live on what may be termed marine insects,
+or the mollusc&aelig; of the ocean, which it is thought he obtains by running in
+the parts of the sea where they most abound; arresting them by the hairy
+fibres which grow on the lamin&aelig; of bone that, in a measure, compose his
+jaws, having no teeth. The spermaceti, however, is furnished with regular
+grinders, which he knows very well how to use, and with which he often
+crushes the boats of those who come against him. Thus, the whalers have
+but one danger to guard against, in assaulting the common animal, viz.,
+his flukes, or tail; while the spermaceti, in addition to the last means
+of defence, possesses those of his teeth or jaws. As this latter animal is
+quite one-third head, he has no very great dissemblance to the alligator
+in this particular.</p>
+
+<p>By means of this brief description of the physical formation and habits of
+the animals of which our adventurers were in pursuit, the general reader
+will be the better able to understand that which it is our duty now to
+record. After rowing the distance named, the boats became a little
+separated, in their search for the fish. That spouts had been seen, there
+was no doubt; though, since quitting the schooners, no one in the boats
+had got a further view of the fish,--if fish, animals with respiratory
+organs can be termed. A good look-out for spouts had been kept by each man
+at the steering-oars, but entirely without success. Had not Roswell and
+Daggett, previously to leaving their respective vessels, seen the signs of
+whales with their own eyes, it is probable that they would now have both
+been disposed to return, calling in their mates. But, being certain that
+the creatures they sought were not far distant, they continued slowly to
+separate, each straining his eyes in quest of his game, as his boat rose
+on the summit of the rolling and tossing waves. Water in motion was all
+around them; and the schooners working slowly up against the trades, were
+all that rewarded their vigilant and anxious looks. Twenty times did each
+fancy that he saw the dark back, or head, of the object he sought; but as
+often did it prove to be no more than a lipper of water, rolling up into a
+hummock ere it broke, or melted away again into the general mass of the
+unquiet ocean. When it is remembered that the surface of the sea is tossed
+into a thousand fantastic outlines, as its waves roll along, it can
+readily be imagined how such mistakes could arise.</p>
+
+<p>At length Gardiner discerned that which his practised eye well knew. It
+was the flukes, or extremity of the tail of an enormous whale, distant
+from him less than a quarter of a mile, and in such a position as to place
+the animal at about the same breadth of water from Daggett. It would seem
+that both of these vigilant officers perceived their enemy at the same
+instant, for each boat started for it, as if it had been instinct with
+life. The pike or the shark could not have darted towards its prey with
+greater promptitude, and scarcely with greater velocity, than these two
+boats. Very soon the whole herd was seen, swimming along against the wind,
+an enormous bull-whale leading, while half a dozen calves kept close to
+the sides of their dams, or sported among themselves, much as the
+offspring of land animals delight in their youth and strength. Presently a
+mother rolled lazily over on her side, permitting its calf to suck. Others
+followed this example; and then the leader of the herd ceased his passage
+to windward, but began to circle the spot, as if in complaisance to those
+considerate nurses who thus waited on the wants of their young. At this
+interesting moment, the boats came glancing in among the herd.</p>
+
+<p>Had the competition and spirit of rivalry been at a lower point among our
+adventurers than it actually was, greater caution might have been
+observed. It is just as dangerous to assault a whale that has its young to
+defend, as to assault most other animals. We know that the most delicate
+women become heroines in such straits; and nature seems to have given to
+the whole sex, whether endowed with reason or only with an instinct, the
+same disposition to die in defence of the helpless creatures that so much
+depend on their care. But, no one there now thought of the risk he ran, it
+being the Vineyard against Oyster Pond, one Sea Lion against the other,
+and, in many instances, pocket against pocket.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell, as if disdaining all meaner game, pulled quite through the herd,
+and laid the bows of his boat directly on the side of the old bull--a
+hundred-barrel whale, at the very least. No sooner did the enormous
+creature feel the harpoon, than, throwing its flukes upward, it descended
+into the depths of the ocean, with a velocity that caused smoke to arise
+from the chuck through which the line passed. Ordinarily, the movement of
+a whale is not much faster than an active man can walk; and, when it runs
+on the surface, its speed seldom exceeds that of a swift vessel under full
+sail; but, when suddenly startled, with the harpoon in its blubber, the
+animal is capable of making a prodigious exertion. When struck, it usually
+'sounds,' as it is termed, or runs downward, sometimes to the depth of a
+mile; and it is said that instances have been known in which the fish
+inflicted great injury on itself, by dashing its head against rocks.</p>
+
+<p>In the case before us, after running out three or four hundred fathoms of
+line, the 'bull' to which Gardiner had 'fastened,' came up to the surface,
+'blowed,' and began to move slowly towards the herd again. No sooner was
+the harpoon thrown, than a change took place in the disposition of the
+crew of the boat, which it may be well to explain. The harpoon is a barbed
+javelin, fastened to a staff to give it momentum. The line is attached to
+this weapon, the proper use of which is to 'fasten' to the fish, though it
+sometimes happens that the animal is killed at the first blow. This is
+when the harpoon has been hurled by a very skilful and vigorous harpooner.
+Usually, this weapon penetrates some distance into the blubber in which a
+whale is encased, and when it is drawn back by the plunge of the fish,
+the barbed parts get embedded in the tough integuments of the hide,
+together with the blubber, and hold. The iron of the harpoon being very
+soft, the shank bends under the strain of the line, leaving the staff
+close to the animal's body. Owing to this arrangement, the harpoon offers
+less resistance to the water, as the whale passes swiftly through it. No
+sooner did the boat-steerer, or harpooner, cast his 'irons,' as whalers
+term the harpoon, than he changed places with Roswell, who left the
+steering-oar, and proceeded forward to wield the lance, the weapon with
+which the victory is finally consummated. The men now 'peaked' their oars,
+as it is termed; or they placed the handles in cleets made to receive
+them, leaving the blades elevated in the air, so as to be quite clear of
+the water. This was done to get rid of the oars, in readiness for other
+duty, while the instruments were left in the tholes, to be resorted to in
+emergencies. This gives a whale-boat a peculiar appearance, with its five
+long oars raised in the air, at angles approaching forty-five degrees. In
+the mean time, as the bull approached the herd, or school,<a href="#fn-1">*</a> as the
+whalers term it, the boats' crew began to haul in line, the boat-steerer
+coiling it away carefully, in a tub placed in the stern-sheets purposely
+to receive it. Any one can understand how important it was that this part
+of the duty should be well performed, since bights of line running out of
+a boat, dragged by a whale, would prove so many snares to the men's legs,
+unless previously disposed of in a place proper to let it escape without
+this risk. For this reason it is, that the end of a line is never
+permitted to run out at the bow of a boat at all. It might do some injury
+in its passage, and an axe is always applied near the bows, when it is
+found necessary to cut from a whale.</p>
+
+<div class="note" id="fn-1"><p>  * We suppose this word to be a corruption of the Dutch "<i>schule</i>"
+  which, we take it, means the same thing.</p></div>
+
+<p>It was so unusual a thing to see a fish turn towards the spot where he was
+struck, that Roswell did not know what to make of this manoeuvre in his
+bull. At first he supposed the animal meant to make fight, and set upon
+him with its tremendous jaws; but it seemed that caprice or alarm
+directed the movement; for, after coming within a hundred yards of the
+boat, the creature turned and commenced sculling away to windward, with
+wide and nervous sweeps of its formidable flukes. It is by this process
+that all the fish of this genus force their way through the water, their
+tails being admirably adapted to the purpose. As the men had showed the
+utmost activity in hauling in upon the line, by the time the whale went
+off to windward again they had got the boat up within about four hundred
+feet of him.</p>
+
+<p>Now commenced a tow, dead to windward, it being known that a fish, when
+struck, seldom runs at first in any other direction. The rate at which the
+whale moved was not at the height of his speed, though it exceeded six
+knots. Occasionally, this rate was lessened, and in several instances his
+speed was reduced to less than half of that just mentioned. Whenever one
+of these lulls occurred, the men would haul upon the line, gradually
+getting nearer and nearer to the fish, until they were within fifty feet
+of his tremendous flukes. Here, a turn was taken with the line, and an
+opportunity to use the lance was waited for.</p>
+
+<p>Whalers say that a forty-barrel bull of the spermaceti sort is much the
+most dangerous to deal with of all the animals of this species. The larger
+bulls are infinitely the most powerful, and drive these half-grown
+creatures away in herds by themselves, that are called 'pads,' a
+circumstance that probably renders the young bull discontented and fierce.
+The last is not only more active than the larger animal, but is much more
+disposed to make fight, commonly giving his captors the greatest trouble.
+This may be one of the reasons why Roswell Gardiner now found himself
+towing at a reasonable rate, so close upon the flukes of a hundred-barrel
+whale. Still, there was that in the movements of this animal, that induced
+our hero to be exceedingly wary. He was now two leagues from the
+schooners, and half that distance from the other boats, neither of which
+had as yet fastened to a fish. This latter circumstance was imputed to the
+difficulty the different officers had in making their selections, cows, of
+the spermaceti breed, when they give suck, being commonly light, and
+yielding, comparatively, very small quantities of head-matter and oil. In
+selecting the bull, Roswell had shown his judgment, the male animal
+commonly returning to its conquerors twice the profit that is derived from
+the female.</p>
+
+<p>The whale to which Roswell was fast continued sculling away to windward
+for quite two hours, causing the men to entirely lose sight of the other
+boats, and bringing the topsails of the schooners themselves down to the
+water's edge. Fortunately, it was not yet noon, and there were no
+immediate apprehensions from the darkness; nor did the bull appear to be
+much alarmed, though the boat was towing so close in his rear. At first,
+or before the irons were thrown, the utmost care had been taken not to
+make a noise; but the instant the crew were 'fast,' whispers were changed
+into loud calls, and orders were passed in shouts, rather than in verbal
+commands. The wildest excitement prevailed among the men, strangely
+blended with a cool dexterity; but it was very apparent that a high
+sporting fever was raging among them. Gardiner himself was much the
+coolest man in his own boat, as became his station and very responsible
+duties.</p>
+
+<p>Stimson, the oldest and the best seaman in the schooner, he who had
+admonished his young commander on the subject of the gratitude due to the
+Deity, acted as the master's boat-steerer, having first performed the duty
+of harpooner. It was to him that Gardiner now addressed the remarks he
+made, after having been fastened to his whale fully two hours.</p>
+
+<p>"This fellow is likely to give us a long drag," said the master, as he
+stood balancing himself on the clumsy elects in the bows of the boat,
+using his lance as an adept in saltation poises his pole on the wire, the
+water curling fairly above the gunwale forward, with the rapid movement of
+the boat; "I would haul up alongside, and give him the lance, did I not
+distrust them flukes. I believe he knows we are here."</p>
+
+<p>"That he does--that does he, Captain Gar'ner. It's always best to be
+moderate and wait your time, sir. There's a jerk about that chap's flukes
+that I don't like myself, and it's best to see what he would be at, before
+we haul up any nearer. Don't you see, sir, that every minute or two he
+strikes down, instead of sculling off handsomely and with a wide sweep, as
+becomes a whale?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just the motion I distrust, Stephen, and I shall wait a bit to
+see what he would be at. I hope those ship-keepers will be busy, and work
+the schooners well up to windward before it gets to be dark. Our man is
+asleep half his time, and is apt to let the vessel fall off a point or
+two."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hazard gave him caution to keep a bright look out, sir, and I think
+he'll be apt to--look out, sir!--Look out!"</p>
+
+<p>This warning was well-timed; for, just at that instant the whale ceased
+sculling, and lifting its enormous tail high in the air, it struck five or
+six blows on the surface of the water, that made a noise which might have
+been heard half a league, besides filling the atmosphere immediately
+around him with spray. As the tail first appeared in the air, line was
+permitted to run out of the boat, increasing the distance between its bows
+and the flukes to quite a hundred feet. Nothing could better show the
+hardy characters of the whalers than the picture then presented by Roswell
+Gardiner and his companions. In the midst of the Atlantic, leagues from
+their vessel, and no other boat in sight, there they sat patiently waiting
+the moment when the giant of the deep should abate in his speed, or in his
+antics, to enable them to approach and complete their capture. Most of the
+men sat with their arms crossed, and bodies half-turned, regarding the
+scene, while the two officers, the master and boat-steerer, if the latter
+could properly be thus designated, watched each evolution with a keenness
+of vigilance that let nothing like a sign or a symptom escape them.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things, the whale still threshing the sea with his
+flukes, when a cry among his men induced Roswell for a moment to look
+aside. There came Daggett fast to a small bull, which was running directly
+in the wind's eye with great speed, dragging the boat after him, which was
+towing astern at a distance of something like two hundred fathoms. At
+first, Roswell thought he should be compelled to cut from his whale, so
+directly towards his own boat did the other animal direct his course. But,
+intimidated, most probably, by the tremendous blows with which the larger
+bull continued to belabour the ocean, the smaller animal sheered away in
+time to avoid a collision, though he now began to circle the spot where
+his dreaded monarch lay. This change of course gave rise to a new source
+of apprehension. If the smaller bull should continue to encircle the
+larger, there was great reason to believe that the line of Daggett might
+get entangled with the boat of Gardiner, and produce a collision that
+might prove fatal to all there. In order to be ready to meet this danger,
+Roswell ordered his crew to be on the look-out, and to have their knives
+in a state for immediate use. It was not known what might have been the
+consequence of this circular movement as respects the two boats; for,
+before they could come together, Daggett's line actually passed into the
+mouth of Gardiner's whale, and drawing up tight into the angle of his
+jaws, set the monster in motion with a momentum and power that caused the
+iron to draw from the smaller whale, which by this time had more than half
+encircled the animal. So rapid was the rate of running now, that Roswell
+was obliged to let out line, his whale sounding to a prodigious depth.
+Daggett did the same unwilling to cut as long as he could hold on to his
+line.</p>
+
+<p>At the expiration of five minutes the large bull came up again for breath,
+with both lines still fast to him; the one in the regular way, or attached
+to the harpoon, and the other jammed in the jaws of the animal by means of
+the harpoon and staff, which formed a sort of toggle at the angle of his
+enormous mouth. In consequence of feeling this unusual tenant, the fish
+compressed its jaws together, thus rendering the fastening so much the
+more secure. As both boats had let run line freely while the whale was
+sounding, they now found themselves near a quarter of a mile astern of
+him, towing along, side by side, and not fifty feet asunder. If the spirit
+of rivalry had been aroused among the crew of these two boats before, it
+was now excited to a degree that menaced acts of hostility.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, of course, Captain Daggett, that this is my whale," said
+Gardiner. "I was fast to him regularly, and was only waiting for him to
+become a little quiet to lance him, when your whale crossed his course,
+fouled your line, and has got you fast in an unaccountable way, but not
+according to whaling law."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that. I fastened to a whale, Captain Gar'ner, and am fast
+to a whale now. It must be <i>proved</i> that I have no right to the crittur'
+before I give him up."</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner understood the sort of man with whom he had to deal too well to
+waste words in idle remonstrances. Resolved to maintain his just rights at
+every hazard, he ordered his men to haul in upon the line, the movement of
+the whale becoming so slow as to admit of this measure. Daggett's crew did
+the same, and a warm contest existed between the two boats, as to which
+should now first close with the fish and kill it. This was not a moment
+for prudence and caution. It was "haul in--haul in, boys," in both boats,
+without any regard to the danger of approaching the whale. A very few
+minutes sufficed to bring the parties quite in a line with the flukes,
+Gardiner's boat coming up on the larboard or left-hand side of the animal,
+where its iron was fast, and Daggett's on the opposite, its line leading
+out of the jaws of the fish in that direction. The two masters stood erect
+on their respective clumsy cleets, each poising his lance, waiting only to
+get near enough to strike. The men were now at the oars, and without
+pausing for any thing, both crews sprung to their ashen instruments, and
+drove the boats headlong upon the fish. Daggett, perhaps, was the coolest
+and most calculating at that moment, but Roswell was the most nervous, and
+the boldest. The boat of the last actually hit the side of the whale, as
+its young commander drove his lance through the blubber, into the vitals
+of the fish. At the same instant Daggett threw his lance with consummate
+skill, and went to the quick. It was now "stern all!" for life, each boat
+backing off from the danger as fast as hands could urge. The sea was in a
+foam, the fish going into his "flurry" almost as soon as struck, and both
+crews were delighted to see the red of the blood mingling its deep hues
+with the white of the troubled water. Once or twice the animal spouted,
+but it was a fluid dyed in his gore. In ten minutes it turned up and was
+dead.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-12">
+<h2>Chapter XII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"God save you, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you, sir! you are welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Travel you far on, or are you at the furthest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, at the furthest for a week or two."</p>
+
+<p>  Shakspeare.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<p>Gardiner and Daggett met, face to face, on the carcase of the whale. Each
+struck his lance into the blubber, steadying himself by its handle; and
+each eyed the other in a way that betokened feelings awakened to a keen
+desire to defend his rights. It is a fault of American character,--a fruit
+of the institutions, beyond a doubt,--that renders men unusually
+indisposed to give up. This stubbornness of temperament, that so many
+mistake for a love of liberty and independence, is productive of much
+good, when the parties happen to be right, and of quite as much evil, when
+they happen to be wrong. It is ever the wisest, as, indeed, it is the
+noblest course, to defer to that which is just, with a perfect reliance on
+its being the course pointed out by the finger of infallible wisdom and
+truth. He who does this, need feel no concern for his dignity, or for his
+success; being certain that it is intended that right shall prevail in the
+end, as prevail it will and does. But both our shipmasters were too much
+excited to feel the force of these truths; and there they stood, sternly
+regarding each other, as if it were their purpose to commence a new
+struggle for the possession of the leviathan of the deep.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Daggett," said Roswell, sharply, "you are too old a whaler not to
+know whaling law. My irons were first in this fish; I never have been
+loose from it, since it was first struck, and my lance killed it. Under
+such circumstances, sir, I am surprised that any man, who knows the usages
+among whalers, should have stuck by the creature as you have done."</p>
+
+<p>"It's in my natur', Gar'ner," was the answer. "I stuck by you when you
+was dismasted under Hatteras, and I stick by everything that I undertake.
+This is what I call Vineyard natur'; and I'm not about to discredit my
+native country."</p>
+
+<p>"This is idle talk," returned Roswell, casting a severe glance at the men
+in the Vineyard boat, among whom a common smile arose, as if they highly
+approved of the reply of their own officer. "You very well know that
+Vineyard law cannot settle such a question, but American law. Were you man
+enough to take this whale from me, as I trust you are not, on our return
+home you could be and would be made to pay smartly for the act. Uncle Sam
+has a long arm, with which he sometimes reaches round the whole earth.
+Before you proceed any further in this matter, it may be well to remember
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett reflected; and it is probable that, as he cooled off from the
+excitement created by his late exertions, he fully recognised the justice
+of the other's remarks, and the injustice of his own claims. Still, it
+seemed to him un-American, un-Vineyard, if the reader please, to "give
+up;" and he clung to his error with as much pertinacity as if he had been
+right.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are fast, I am fast, too. I'm not so certain of your law. When a
+man puts an iron into a whale, commonly it is his fish, if he can get him,
+and kill him. But there is a law above all whalers' law, and that is the
+law of Divine Providence. Providence has fastened us to this crittur', as
+if on purpose to give us a right in it; and I'm by no means so sure
+States' law won't uphold that doctrine. Then, I lost my own whale by means
+of this, and am entitled to some compensation for such a loss."</p>
+
+<p>"You lost your own whale because he led round the head of mine, and not
+only drew his own iron, but came nigh causing me to cut. If any one is
+entitled to damage for such an act, it is I, who have been put to extra
+trouble in getting my fish."</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe it was my lance that did the job for the fellow! I darted,
+and you struck; in that way I got the start of you, and may claim to have
+made the crittur' spout the first blood. But, hearkee, Gar'ner--there's my
+hand--we've been friends so far, and I want to hold out friends. I will
+make you a proposal, therefore. Join stocks from this moment, and whale,
+and seal, and do all things else in common. When we make a final stowage
+for the return passage, we can make a final division, and each man take
+his share of the common adventure."</p>
+
+<p>To do Roswell justice, he saw through the artifice of this proposition,
+the instant it was uttered. It had the effect, notwithstanding, a good
+deal to mollify his feelings, since it induced him to believe that Daggett
+was manoeuvring to get at his great secret, rather than to assail his
+rights.</p>
+
+<p>"You are part owner of your schooner, Captain Daggett," our hero answered,
+"while I have no other interest in mine than my lay, as her master. You
+may have authority to make such a bargain, but I have none. It is my duty
+to fill the craft as fast and as full as I can, and carry her back safely
+to Deacon Pratt; but, I dare say, your Vineyard people will let you cruise
+about the earth at your pleasure, trusting to Providence for a profit. I
+cannot accept your offer."</p>
+
+<p>"This is answering like a man, Gar'ner, and I like you all the better for
+it. Forty or fifty barrels of ile shan't break friendship between us. I
+helped you into port at Beaufort, and gave up the salvage; and now I'll
+help tow your whale alongside, and see you fairly through this business,
+too. Perhaps I shall have all the better luck for being a little
+generous."</p>
+
+<p>There was prudence, as well as art, in this decision of Daggett's.
+Notwithstanding his ingenious pretensions to a claim in the whale, he knew
+perfectly well that no law would sustain it, and that, in addition to the
+chances of being beaten on the spot, which were at least equal, he would
+certainly be beaten in the courts at home, should he really attempt to
+carry out his declared design. Then, he really deferred to the expectation
+that his future good fortune might be influenced by his present
+forbearance. Superstition forms a material part of a sailor's nature; if,
+indeed, it do not that of every man engaged in hazardous and uncertain
+adventures. How far his hopes were justified in this last respect, will
+appear in the contents of a communication that Deacon Pratt received from
+the master of his schooner, and to which we will now refer, as the
+clearest and briefest mode of continuing the narrative.</p>
+
+<p>The Sea Lion left Oyster Pond late in September. It was the third day of
+March, in the succeeding year, that Mary was standing at a window, gazing
+with melancholy interest at that point in the adjacent waters where last
+she had seen, nearly six months before, the vessel of Roswell disappear
+behind the woods of the island that bears his family name. There had been
+a long easterly gale, but the weather had changed; the south wind blew
+softly, and all the indications of an early spring were visible. For the
+first time in three months, she had raised the sash of that window; and
+the air that entered was bland, and savoured of the approaching season.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say, uncle"--the deacon was writing near a very low wood-fire,
+which was scarcely more than embers--"I dare say, uncle," said the sweet
+voice of Mary, which was a little tremulous with feeling, "that the ocean
+is calm enough to-day. It is very silly in us to tremble, when there is a
+storm, for those who must now be so many, many thousand miles away. What
+is the distance between the Antarctic Seas and Oyster Pond, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be able to calculate that yourself, gal, or what is the use
+to pay for your schooling?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should not know how to set about it, uncle," returned the gentle Mary,
+"though I should be very glad to know."</p>
+
+<p>"How many miles are there in a degree of latitude child? You know that, I
+believe."</p>
+
+<p>"More than sixty-nine, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in what latitude is Oyster Pond?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard Roswell say that we were a little higher, as he calls it,
+than forty-one."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, 41 times 69"--figuring as he spoke--"make 2829; say we are 3000
+miles from the equator, the nearest way we can get there. Then, the
+antarctic circle commences in 23&deg; 30&prime; south, which, deducted from 90
+degrees, leave just 66&deg; 30&prime; between the equator and the nearest spot
+within the sea you have mentioned. Now, 66&deg; 30&prime; give about 4589 statute
+miles more, in a straight line, allowing only 69 to a degree. The two
+sums, added together, make 7589 miles, or rather more. But the road is not
+straight, by any means, as shipmasters tell me; and I suppose Gar'ner
+must have gone, at the very least, 8000 miles to reach his latitude, to
+say nothing of a considerable distance of longitude to travel over, to the
+southward of Cape Horn."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a terrible distance to have a friend from us!" ejaculated Mary,
+though in a low, dejected tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a terrible distance for a man to trust his property away from him,
+gal; and I do not sleep a-nights for thinking of it, when I remember where
+my own schooner may be all this time!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here is Baiting Joe, and with a letter in his hand, uncle, I do
+declare!"</p>
+
+<p>It might be a secret hope that impelled Mary, for away she bounded, like a
+young fawn, running to meet the old fisherman at the door. No sooner did
+her eyes fall on the superscription, than the large package was pressed to
+her heart, and she seemed, for an instant, lost in thanksgiving. That no
+one might unnecessarily be a witness of what passed between her uncle and
+herself, Joe was directed to the kitchen, where a good meal, a glass of
+rum and water, and the quarter of a dollar that Mary gave him as she
+showed the way, satisfied him with the results of his trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is, uncle," cried the nearly breathless girl, reentering the
+'keeping-room,' and unconsciously holding the letter still pressed to her
+heart,--"A letter--a letter from Roswell, in his own precious hand."</p>
+
+<p>A flood of tears gave some relief to feelings that had so long been pent,
+and eased a heart that had been compressed nearly to breaking. At any
+other time, and at this unequivocal evidence of the hold the young man had
+on the affections of his niece, Deacon Pratt would have remonstrated with
+her on the folly of refusing to become "Roswell Gar'ner's" wife; but the
+sight of the letter drove all other thoughts from his head, concentrating
+his whole being in the fate of the schooner.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, and see if it has the Antarctic post-mark on it, Mary," said the
+deacon, in a tremulous voice.</p>
+
+<p>This request was not made so much in ignorance as in trepidation. The
+deacon very well knew that the islands the Sea Lion was to visit were
+uninhabited, and were destitute of post-offices; but his ideas were
+confused, and apprehension rendered him silly.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle!" exclaimed the niece, wiping the tears from a face that was now
+rosy with blushes at her own weakness, "surely, Roswell can find no
+post-office where he is!"</p>
+
+<p>"But the letter must have some post-mark, child. Baiting Joe has not
+brought it himself into the country."</p>
+
+<p>"It is post-marked 'New York,' sir, and nothing else--Yes, here is
+'Forwarded by Cane, Spriggs, and Button, Rio de Janeiro.' It must have
+been put into a post-office there."</p>
+
+<p>"Rio!--Here is more salvage, gal--more salvage coming to afflict me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you had no salvage to pay, uncle, on the other occasion; perhaps
+there will be none to pay on this. Had I not better open the letter at
+once, and see what has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, open it, child," answered the deacon, in a voice so feeble as to be
+scarcely audible--"open it at once, as you say, and let me know my fate.
+Anything is better than this torment!"</p>
+
+<p>Mary did not wait for a second permission, but instantly broke the seal.
+It might have been the result of education, or there may be such a thing
+as female instinct in these matters; but, certain it is, that the girl
+turned towards the window, as she tore the paper asunder, and slipped the
+letter that bore her own name into a fold of her dress, so dexterously,
+that one far more keen-sighted than her uncle would not have detected the
+act. No sooner was her own letter thus secured, than the niece offered the
+principal epistle to her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"Read it yourself, Mary," said the last, in his querulous tones. "My eyes
+are so dim, that I could not see to read it."</p>
+
+<p>"Rio di Janeiro, Province of Brazil, South America, Nov. 14th, 1819,"
+commenced the niece.</p>
+
+<p>"Rio di Janeiro!" interrupted the uncle. "Why that is round Cape Horn,
+isn't it, Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not, sir. Brazil is on the east side of the Andes, and Rio di
+Janeiro is its capital. The king of Portugal lives there now and has lived
+there as long as I can remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; I had forgotten. The Brazil Banks, where our whalers go, are
+in the Atlantic. But what can have taken Gar'ner into Rio, unless it be to
+spend more money!"</p>
+
+<p>"By reading the letter, sir, we shall soon know. I see there is something
+about spermaceti oil here."</p>
+
+<p>"Ile? And spalm ile, do you say!" exclaimed the deacon, brightening up at
+once--"Read on, Mary, my good gal--read the letter as fast as you
+can--read it at a trot."</p>
+
+<p>"Deacon Israel Pratt--Dear sir," continued Mary, in obedience to this
+command, "the two schooners sailed from Beaufort, North Carolina, as
+stated already per mail, in a letter written at that port, and which has
+doubtless come to hand. We had fine weather and a tolerable run of it,
+until we reached the calm latitudes, where we were detained by the usual
+changes for about a week. On the 18th Oct. the pleasant cry of 'there she
+spouts' was heard aboard here, and we found ourselves in the neighbourhood
+of whales. Both schooners lowered their boats, and I was soon fast to a
+fine bull, who gave us a long tow before the lance was put into him, and
+he was made to spout blood. Captain Daggett set up some claims to this
+fish, in consequence of his line's getting foul of the creature's jaws,
+but he changed his mind in good season, and clapped on to help tow the
+whale down to the vessel. His irons drew from a young bull, and a good
+deal of dissatisfaction existed among the other crew, until, fortunately,
+the school of young bulls came round quite near us, when Captain Daggett
+and his people succeeded in securing no less than three of the fish, and
+Mr. Hazard got a very fine one for us.</p>
+
+<p>"I am happy to say that we had very pleasant weather to cut in, and
+secured every gallon of the oil of both our whales, as did Captain Daggett
+all of his. Our largest bull made one hundred and nineteen barrels, of
+which forty-three barrels was head-matter. I never saw better case and
+junk in a whale in my life. The smallest bull turned out well too, making
+fifty-eight barrels, of which twenty-one was head. Daggett got one hundred
+and thirty-three barrels from his three fish, a very fair proportion of
+head, though not as large as our own. Having this oil on board, we came in
+here after a pleasant run; and I have shipped, as per invoice enclosed,
+one hundred and seventy-seven barrels of spermaceti oil, viz., sixty-four
+barrels of head, and rest in body-oil, to your order, care of Fish &amp;
+Grinnell, New York, by the brig Jason, Captain Williams, who will sail for
+home about the 20th proximo, and to whom I trust this letter"--</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, Mary, my dear--this news is overpowering--it is almost too good to
+be true," interrupted the deacon, nearly as much unmanned by this
+intelligence of his good fortune as he had previously been by his
+apprehensions. "Yes, it does seem too good to be true; read it again,
+child; yes, read every syllable of it again!"</p>
+
+<p>Mary complied, delighted enough to hear all she could of Roswell's
+success.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, uncle," said the deeply-interested girl, "all this oil is
+spermaceti! It is worth a great deal more than so much of that which comes
+of the right whale."</p>
+
+<p>"More! Ay, nearly as three for one. Hunt me up the last Spectator,
+girl--hunt me up the last Spectator, and let me see at once at what they
+quote spalm."</p>
+
+<p>Mary soon found the journal, and handed it to her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, here it is, and quoted $1.12-1/2 per gallon, as I live! That's nine
+shillings a gallon, Mary--just calculate on that bit of paper--thirty
+times one hundred and seventy-seven, Mary; how much is that, child?"</p>
+
+<p>"I make it 5310, uncle--yes, that is right. But what are the 30 times for,
+sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gallons, gal, gallons. Each barrel has 30 gallons in it, if not more.
+There ought to be 32 by rights, but this is a cheating age. Now, multiply
+5310 by 9, and see what that comes to."</p>
+
+<p>"Just 47,790, sir, as near as I can get it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's the shillings. Now, divide 47,790 by 8, my dear. Be actyve,
+Mary, be actyve."</p>
+
+<p>"It leaves 5973, with a remainder of 6, sir. I believe I'm right."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you are, child; yes, I dare say you are. This is the dollars.
+A body may call them $6000, as the barrels will a little overrun the 30
+gallons. My share of this will be two-thirds, and that will nett the
+handsome sum of, say $4000!"</p>
+
+<p>The deacon rubbed his hands with delight, and having found his voice
+again, his niece was astonished at hearing him utter what he had to say,
+with a sort of glee that sounded in her ears as very unnatural, coming
+from him. So it was, however, and she dutifully endeavoured not to think
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Four thousand dollars, Mary, will quite cover the first cost of the
+schooner; that is without including outfit and spare-rigging, of which her
+master took about twice as much as was necessary. He's a capital fellow,
+is that young Gar'ner, and will make an excellent husband, as I've always
+told you, child. A little wasteful, perhaps, but an excellent youth at the
+bottom. I dare say he lost his spars off Cape Hatteras in trying to
+outsail that Daggett; but I overlook all that now. He's a capital youth to
+work upon a whale or a sea-elephant! There isn't his equal, as I'll
+engage, in all Ameriky, if you'll only let him know where to find the
+creatur's. I knew his character before I engaged him; for no man but a
+real skinner shall ever command a craft of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Roswell <i>is</i> a good fellow," answered Mary, with emphasis, the tears
+filling her eyes as she listened to these eulogiums of her uncle on the
+youth she loved with all of a woman's tenderness, at the very moment she
+scrupled to place her happiness on one whose 'God was not her God.' "No
+one knows him better than I, uncle, and no one respects him more. But, had
+I not better read the rest of his letter?--there is a good deal more of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, child, go on--but, read the part over again where he speaks of the
+quantity of the ile he has shipped to Fish &amp; Grinnell."</p>
+
+<p>Mary did as requested, when she proceeded to read aloud the rest of the
+communication.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been much at a loss how to act in regard to Captain Daggett," said
+Roswell, in his letter. "He stood by me so manfully and generously off
+Cape Hatteras, that I did not like to part company in the night, or in a
+squall, which would have seemed ungrateful, as well as wearing a sort of
+runaway look. I am afraid he has some knowledge of the existence of our
+islands, though I doubt whether he has their latitude and longitude
+exactly. Something there is of this nature on board the other schooner,
+her people often dropping hints to my officers and men, when they have
+been gamming. I have sometimes fancied Daggett sticks so close to us, that
+he may get the advantage of our reckoning to help him to what he wants to
+find. He is no great navigator anywhere, running more by signs and
+currents, in my judgment, than by the use of his instruments. Still, he
+could find his way to any part of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop there, Mary; stop a little, and let me have time to consider. Isn't
+it awful, child?"</p>
+
+<p>The niece changed colour, and seemed really frightened, so catching was
+the deacon's distress, though she scarce knew what was the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"What is awful, uncle?" at length she asked, anxious to know the worst.</p>
+
+<p>"This covetousness in them Vineyarders! I consider it both awful and
+wicked. I must get the Rev. Mr. Whittle to preach against the sin of
+covetousness; it does gain so much ground in Ameriky! The whole church
+should lift its voice against it, or it will shortly lift its voice
+against the church. To think of them Daggetts' fitting out a schooner to
+follow my craft about the 'arth in this unheard-of manner; just as if she
+was a pilot-boat, and young Gar'ner a pilot! I do hope the fellows will
+make a wrack of it, among the ice of the antarctic seas! That would be a
+fit punishment for their impudence and covetousness."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose, sir, they think that they have the same right to sail on the
+ocean that others have. Seals and whales are the gifts of God, and one
+person has no more right to them than another."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget, Mary, that one man may have a secret that another doesn't
+know. In that case he ought not to go prying about like an old woman in a
+village neighbourhood. Read on, child, read on, and let me know the worst
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall sail to-morrow, having finished all my business here, and hope to
+be off Cape Horn in twenty days, if not sooner. In what manner I am to get
+rid of Daggett, I do not yet know. He outsails me a little on all tacks,
+unless it be in very heavy weather, when I have a trifling advantage over
+him. It will be in my power to quit him any dark night; but if I let him
+go ahead, and he should really have any right notions about the position
+of the islands, he might get there first, and make havoc among the seals."</p>
+
+<p>"Awful, awful!" interrupted the deacon, again; "that would be the worst of
+all! I won't allow it; I forbid it--it shall not be."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! uncle, poor Roswell is too far from us, now, to hear these words.
+No doubt the matter is long since decided, and he has acted according to
+the best of his judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"It is terrible to have one's property so far away! Government ought to
+have steam-boats, or packets of some sort, running between New York and
+Gape Horn, to carry orders back and forth.--But we shall never have things
+right, Mary, so long as the democrats are uppermost."</p>
+
+<p>By this remark, which savours very strongly of a species of censure that
+is much in fashion in the coteries of that Great Emporium, which it is the
+taste and pleasure of its people to term a <i>commercial</i> emporium,
+especially among elderly ladies, the reader will at once perceive that the
+deacon was a federalist, which was somewhat of a novelty in Suffolk,
+thirty years since. Had he lived down to our own times, the old man would
+probably have made all the gyrations in politics that have distinguished
+the school to which he would have belonged, and, without his own
+knowledge, most probably, would have been as near an example of perpetual
+motion as the world will ever see, through his devotion to what are now
+called "Whig Principles." We are no great politician, but time has given
+us the means of comparing; and we often smile when we hear the disciples
+of Hamilton, and of Adams, and of all that high-toned school, declaiming
+against the use of the veto, and talking of the "one man power," and of
+Congress' leading the government! The deacon was very apt to throw the
+opprobrium of even a bad season on the administration, and the reader has
+seen what he thought of the subject of running packets between New York
+and Cape Horn.</p>
+
+<p>"There ought to be a large navy, Mary, a monstrous navy, so that the
+vessels might be kept carrying letters about, and serving the public. But
+we shall never have things right, until Rufus King, or some man like him,
+gets in. If Gar'ner lets that Daggett get the start of him, he never need
+come home again. The islands are as much mine as if I had bought them; and
+I'm not sure an action wouldn't lie for seals taken on them without my
+consent. Yes, yes; we want a monstrous navy, to convoy sealers, and carry
+letters about, and keep some folks at home, while it lets other folks go
+about their lawful business."</p>
+
+<p>"Of what islands are you speaking, uncle? Surely the sealing islands,
+where Roswell has gone, are public and uninhabited, and no one has a
+better right there than another!"</p>
+
+<p>The deacon perceived that he had gone too far, in his tribulation, and
+began to have a faint notion that he was making a fool of himself. He
+asked his niece, in a very faint voice, therefore, to hand him the letter,
+the remainder of which he would endeavour to read himself. Although every
+word that Roswell Gardiner wrote was very precious to Mary, the gentle
+girl had a still unopened epistle to herself to peruse, and glad enough
+was she to make the exchange. Handing the deacon his letter, therefore,
+she withdrew at once to her private room, in order to read her own.</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Mary," said Roswell Gardiner, in this epistle, "your uncle will
+tell you what has brought us into this port, and all things connected with
+the schooner. I have sent home more than $4000 worth of oil, and I hope my
+owner will forgive the accident off Currituck, on account of this run of
+good luck. In my opinion, we shall yet make a voyage, and that part of my
+fortune will be secure. Would that I could feel as sure of finding you
+more disposed to be kind to me, on my return! I read in your Bible every
+day, Mary, and I often pray to God to enlighten my mind, if my views have
+been wrong. As yet, I cannot flatter myself with any change, for my old
+opinions appear rather to be more firmly rooted than they were before I
+sailed." Here poor Mary heaved a heavy sigh, and wiped the tears from her
+eyes. She was pained to a degree she could hardly believe possible, though
+she did full credit to Roswell's frankness. Like all devout persons, her
+faith in the efficacy of sacred writ was strong: and she so much the more
+lamented her suitor's continued blindness, because it remained after light
+had shone upon it. "Still, Mary," the letter added, "as I have every human
+inducement to endeavour to be right, I shall not throw aside the book, by
+any means. In that I fully believe; our difference being in what the
+volume teaches. Pray for me, sweetest girl--but I know you do, and will
+continue to do, as long as I am absent."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, Roswell," murmured Mary--"as long as you and I live!"</p>
+
+<p>"Next to this one great concern of my life, comes that which this man
+Daggett gives me,"--the letter went on to say. "I hardly know what to do
+under all the circumstances. Keep in his company much longer I cannot,
+without violating my duty to the deacon. Yet, it is not easy, in any
+sense, to get rid of him. He has stood by me so manfully on all occasions,
+and seems so much disposed to make good-fellowship of the voyage, that,
+did it depend on myself only, I should at once make a bargain with him to
+seal in company, and to divide the spoils. But this is now impossible, and
+I must quit him in some way or other. He outsails me in most weathers, and
+it is a thing easier said than done. What will make it more difficult is
+the growing shortness of the nights. The days lengthen fast now, and as we
+go south they will become so much longer, that, by the time when it will
+be indispensable to separate, it will be nearly all day. The thing must be
+done, however, and I trust to luck to be able to do it as it ought to be
+effected.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, dearest, dearest Mary--" But why should we lift the veil from
+the feelings of this young man, who concluded his letter by pouring out
+his whole heart in a few sincere and manly sentences. Mary wept over them
+most of that day, perusing and reperusing them, until her eyes would
+scarce perform their proper office.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the deacon was made a very happy man by the receipt of a
+letter from Fish &amp; Grinnell, notifying him of the arrival of his oil,
+accompanied by a most gratifying account of the state of the market, and
+asking for instructions. The oil was disposed of, and the deacon pocketed
+his portion of the proceeds as soon as possible; eagerly looking for a new
+and profitable investment for the avails. Great was the reputation Roswell
+Gardiner made by this capture of the two spermaceti whales, and by sending
+the proceeds to so good a market. In commerce, as in war, success is all
+in all, though in both success is nearly as often the result of unforeseen
+circumstances as of calculations and wisdom. It is true there are a sort
+of trade, and a sort of war, in which prudence and care may effect a great
+deal, yet are both often outstripped by the random exertions and
+adventures of those who calculate almost as wildly as they act. Audacity,
+as the French term it, is a great quality in war, and often achieves more
+than the most calculated wisdom--nay, it becomes wisdom in that sort of
+struggle; and we are far from being sure that audacity is not sometimes as
+potent in trade. At all events, it was esteemed a bold, as well as a
+prosperous exploit, for a little schooner like the Sea Lion of Oyster
+Pond, to take a hundred-barrel whale, and to send home its "ile," as the
+deacon always pronounced the word, in common with most others in old
+Suffolk.</p>
+
+<p>Long and anxious months, with one exception, succeeded this bright spot of
+sunshine in Mary Pratt's solicitude in behalf of the absent Roswell. She
+knew there was but little chance of hearing from him again until he
+returned north. The exception was a short letter that the deacon received,
+dated two weeks later than that written from Rio, in latitude forty-one,
+or just as far south of the equator as Oyster Pond was north of it, and
+nearly fourteen hundred miles to the southward of Rio. This letter was
+written in great haste, to send home by a Pacific trader who was
+accidentally met nearer the coast than was usual for such vessels to be.
+It stated that all was well; that the schooner of Daggett was still in
+company; and that Gardiner intended to get "shut" of her, as the deacon
+expressed it, on the very first occasion.</p>
+
+<p>After the receipt of this letter, the third written by Roswell Gardiner
+since he left home, a long and blank interval of silence succeeded. Then
+it was that months passed away in an anxious and dark uncertainty. Spring
+followed winter, summer succeeded to spring, and autumn came to reap the
+fruits of all the previous seasons, without bringing any further tidings
+from the adventurers. Then winter made its second appearance since the Sea
+Lion had sailed, filling the minds of the mariners' friends with sad
+forebodings as they listened to the meanings of the gales that accompanied
+that bleak and stormy quarter of the year. Deep and painful were the
+anticipations of the deacon, in whom failing health, and a near approach
+to the "last of earth," came to increase the gloom. As for Mary, youth and
+health sustained her; but her very soul was heavy, as she pondered on so
+long and uncertain an absence.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-13">
+<h2>Chapter XIII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Safely in harbour<br />
+Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once<br />
+Thou calledst me up at midnight to fetch dew<br />
+From the still vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid."</p>
+
+<p>  <i>Tempest.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The letter of Roswell Gardiner last received, bore the date of December
+10th, 1819, or just a fortnight after he had sailed from Rio de Janeiro.
+We shall next present the schooner of Deacon Pratt to the reader on the
+18th of that month, or three weeks and one day after she had sailed from
+the capital of Brazil. Early in the morning of the day last mentioned, the
+Sea Lion of Oyster Pond was visible, standing to the northward, with the
+wind light but freshening from the westward, and in smooth water. Land was
+not only in sight, but was quite near, less than a league distant. Towards
+this land the head of the schooner had been laid, and she was approaching
+it at the rate of some four or five knots. The land was broken, high, of a
+most sterile aspect where it was actually to be seen, and nearly all
+covered with a light but melting snow, though the season was advanced to
+the middle of the first month in summer. The weather was not very cold,
+however, and there was a feeling about it that promised it would become
+still milder. The aspect of the neighbouring land, so barren, rugged and
+inhospitable, chilled the feelings, and gave to the scene a sombre hue
+which the weather itself might not have imparted. Directly ahead of the
+schooner rose a sort of pyramid of broken rocks, which, occupying a small
+island, stood isolated in a measure, and some distance in advance of other
+and equally ragged ranges of mountains, which belonged also to islands
+detached from the main land thousands of years before, under some violent
+convulsions of nature.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite apparent that all on board the schooner regarded that ragged
+pyramid with lively interest. Most of the crew was collected on the
+forecastle, including the officers, and all eyes were fastened on the
+ragged pyramid which they were diagonally approaching. The principal
+spokesman was Stimson, the oldest mariner on board, and one who had
+oftener visited those seas than any other of the crew.</p>
+
+<p>"You know the spot, do you, Stephen?" demanded Roswell Gardiner, with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, there's no mistake. That's the Horn. Eleven times have I
+doubled it, and this is the third time that I've been so close in as to
+get a fair sight of it. Once I went inside, as I've told you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"I have doubled it six times myself," said Gardiner, "but never saw it
+before. Most navigators give it a wide berth. 'Tis said to be the
+stormiest spot on the known earth!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a mistake, you may depend on 't, sir. The sow-westers blow great
+guns here-abouts, it is true enough; and when they do, sich a sea comes
+tumbling in on that rock as man never seed anywhere else, perhaps; but, on
+the whull, I'd rather be close in here, than two hundred miles further to
+the southward. With the wind at sow-west, and heavy, a better slant might
+be made from the southern position; but here I know where I am, and I'd go
+in and anchor, and wait for the gale to blow itself out."</p>
+
+<p>"Talking of seas, Captain Gar'ner," observed Hazard, "don't you think,
+sir, we begin to feel the swell of the Pacific. Smooth as the surface of
+the water is, here is a ground-swell rolling in that must be twelve or
+fifteen feet in height."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no doubt of that. We have felt the swell of the Pacific these two
+hours; no man can mistake <i>that</i>. The Atlantic has no such waves. This is
+an ocean in reality, and this is its stormiest part. The wind freshens and
+hauls, and I'm afraid we are about to be caught close in here, with a
+regular sow-west gale."</p>
+
+<p>"Let it come, sir, let it come," put in Stimson, again; "if it does, we've
+only to run in and anchor. I can stand pilot, and I promise to carry the
+schooner where twenty sow-westers will do her no harm. What I've seen done
+once, I know can be done again. The time will come when the Horn will be a
+reg'lar harbour."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell left the forecastle, and walked aft, pondering on what had just
+been said. His situation was delicate, and demanded decision, as well as
+prudence. The manner in which Daggett had stuck by him, ever since the two
+vessels took their departure from Block Island, is known to the reader.
+The Sea Lions had sailed from Rio in company, and they had actually made
+Staten Land together, the day preceding that on which we now bring the
+Oyster Pond craft once more upon the scene, and had closed so near as to
+admit of a conversation between the two masters. It would seem that
+Daggett was exceedingly averse to passing through the Straits of le Maire.
+An uncle of his had been wrecked there, and had reported the passage as
+the most dangerous one he had ever encountered. It has its difficulties,
+no doubt, in certain states of the wind and tide, but Roswell had received
+good accounts of the place from Stimson, who had been through several
+times. The wind was rather scant to go through, and the weather threatened
+to be thick. As Daggett urged his reasons for keeping off and passing
+outside of Staten Land, a circuit of considerable extent, besides bringing
+a vessel far to leeward with the prevalent winds of that region, which
+usually blow from northwest round to southwest, Roswell was reflecting on
+the opportunity the circumstances afforded of giving his consort the slip.
+After discussing the matter for some time, he desired Daggett to lead on,
+and he would follow. This was done, though neither schooner was kept off
+until Roswell got a good view of Cape St. Diego, on Tierra del Fuego,
+thereby enabling him to judge of the positions of the principal
+land-marks. Without committing himself by any promise, therefore, he told
+Daggett to lead on, and for some time he followed, the course being one
+that did not take him much out of the way. The weather was misty, and at
+times the wind blew in squalls. The last increased as the schooners drew
+nearer to Staten Land. Daggett, being about half a mile ahead, felt the
+full power of one particular squall that came out of the ravines with
+greater force than common, and he kept away to increase his distance from
+the land. At the same time, the mist shut in the vessels from each other.
+It was also past sunset, and a dark and dreary night was approaching. This
+latter fact had been one of Daggett's arguments for going outside.
+Profiting by all these circumstances, Roswell tacked, and stood over
+towards Tierra del Fuego. He knew from the smoothness of the water that an
+ebb-tide was running; and trusted to its force to carry him through the
+Straits. He saw no more of the Sea Lion of the Vineyard. She continued
+shut in by the mist until night closed around both vessels. When he got
+about mid-channel, Roswell tacked again. By this time the current had
+sucked him fairly into the passage, and no sooner did he go about than his
+movement to the southward was very rapid. The squalls gave some trouble,
+but, on the whole, he did very well. Next morning he was off Cape Horn, as
+described. By this expression, it is generally understood that a vessel is
+somewhere near the longitude of that world-renowned cape, but not
+necessarily in sight of it. Few navigators actually see the extremity of
+the American continent, though they double the cape, it being usually
+deemed the safest to pass well to the southward. Such was Daggett's
+position; who, in consequence of having gone outside of Staten Land, was
+now necessarily a long distance to leeward, and who could not hope to beat
+up abreast of the Hermits, even did the wind and sea favour him, in less
+than twenty-four hours. A great advantage was obtained by coming through
+the Straits of Le Maire, and Roswell felt very certain that he should not
+see his late consort again that day, even did he heave-to for him. But
+our hero had no idea of doing any thing of the sort. Having shaken off his
+leech, he had no wish to suffer it to fasten to him again. It was solely
+with the intention of making sure of this object that he thought of making
+a harbour.</p>
+
+<p>In order that the reader may better understand those incidents of our
+narrative which we are about to relate, it may be well to say a word of
+the geographical features of the region to which he has been transported,
+in fiction, if not in fact. At the southern extremity of the American
+continent is a cluster of islands, which are dark, sterile, rocky, and
+most of the year covered with snow. Evergreens relieve the aspect of
+sterility, in places that are a little sheltered, and there is a meagre
+vegetation in spots that serve to sustain animal life. The first strait
+which separates this cluster of islands from the main, is that of
+Magellan, through which vessels occasionally pass, in preference to going
+farther south. Then comes Tierra del Fuego, which is much the largest of
+all the islands. To the southward of Tierra del Fuego lies a cluster of
+many small islands, which bear different names; though the group farthest
+south of all, and which it is usual to consider as the southern
+termination of our noble continent, but which is not on a continent at
+all, is known by the appropriate appellation of the Hermits. If solitude,
+and desolation, and want, and a contemplation of some of the sublimest
+features of this earth, can render a spot fit for a hermitage, these
+islands are very judiciously named. The one that is farthest south
+contains the cape itself, which is marked by the ragged pyramid of rock
+already mentioned; placed there by nature, a never-tiring sentinel of the
+war of the elements. Behind this cluster of the Hermits it was that
+Stimson advised his officer to take refuge against the approaching gale,
+of which the signs were now becoming obvious and certain. Roswell's
+motive, however, for listening to such advice, was less to find a shelter
+for his schooner than to get rid of Daggett. For the gale he cared but
+little, since he was a long way from the ice, and could stretch off the
+land to the southward into a waste of waters that seems interminable.
+There are islands to the southward of Cape Horn, and a good many of them
+too, though none very near. It is now known, also, by means of the toils
+and courage of various seamen, including those of the persevering and
+laborious Wilkes, the most industrious and the least rewarded of all the
+navigators who have ever worked for the human race in this dangerous and
+exhausting occupation, that a continent is there also; but, at the period
+of which we are writing, the existence of the Shetlands and Palmer's Land
+was the extent of the later discoveries in that part of the ocean. After
+pacing the quarter-deck a few minutes, when he quitted the forecastle as
+mentioned, Roswell Gardiner again went forward among the men.</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite sure that this high peak is the Horn, Stimson?" he
+observed, inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain of it, sir. There's no mistaking sich a place, which, once seen,
+is never forgotten."
+
+"It agrees with the charts and our reckoning, and I may say it agrees with
+our eyes also. Here is the Pacific Ocean, plain enough, Mr. Hazard."</p>
+
+<p>"So I think, sir, We are at the end of Ameriky, if it <i>has</i> an end
+anywhere. This heavy long swell is an old acquaintance, though I never was
+in close enough to see the land, hereabouts, before."</p>
+
+<p>"It is fortunate we have one trusty hand on board who can stand pilot.
+Stimson, I intend to go in and anchor, and I shall trust to you to carry
+me into a snug berth."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do it, Captain Gar'ner, if the weather will permit it," returned the
+seaman, with an unpretending sort of confidence that spoke well for his
+ability.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations were now commenced in earnest, to come to. It was time that
+some steady course should be adopted, as the wind was getting up, and the
+schooner was rapidly approaching the land. In half an hour the Sea Lion
+was bending to a little gale, with her canvass reduced to close-reefed
+mainsail and foresail, and the bonnet off her jib. The sea was fast
+getting up, though it came in long, and mountain-like. Roswell dreaded the
+mist. Could he pass through the narrow channels that Stimson had described
+to him, with a clear sky, one half of his causes of anxiety would be
+removed. But the wind was not a clear one, and he felt that no time was to
+be lost.</p>
+
+<p>It required great nerve to approach a coast like that of Cape Horn in
+such weather. As the schooner got nearer to the real cape, the sight of
+the seas tumbling in and breaking on its ragged rock, and the hollow
+roaring sound they made, actually became terrific. To add to the awe
+inspired in the breast of even the most callous-minded man on board, came
+a doubt whether the schooner could weather a certain point of rock, the
+western extremity of the island, after she had got so far into a bight as
+to render waring questionable, if not impossible. Every one now looked
+grave and anxious. Should the schooner go ashore in such a place, a single
+minute would suffice to break her to pieces, and riot a soul could expect
+to be saved. Roswell was exceedingly anxious, though he remained cool.</p>
+
+<p>"The tides and eddies about these rocks, and in so high a latitude, sweep
+a vessel like chips," he said to his chief mate. "We have been set in here
+by an eddy, and a terrible place it is."</p>
+
+<p>"All depends on our gears holding on, sir," was the answer, "with a little
+on Providence. Just watch the point ahead, Captain Gar'ner; though we are
+not actually to leeward of it, see with what a drift we have drawn upon
+it! The manner in which these seas roll in from the sow-west is terrific!
+No craft can go to windward against them."</p>
+
+<p>This remark of Hazard's was very just. The seas that came down upon the
+cape resembled a rolling prairie in their outline. A single wave would
+extend a quarter of a mile from trough to trough, and as it passed beneath
+the schooner, lifting her high in the air, it really seemed as if the
+glancing water would sweep her away in its force. But human art had found
+the means to counteract even this imposing display of the power of nature.
+The little schooner rode over the billows like a duck, and when she sank
+between two of them, it was merely to rise again on a new summit, and
+breast the gale gallantly. It was the current that menaced the greatest
+danger; for that, unseen except in its fruits, was clearly setting the
+little craft to leeward, and bodily towards the rocks. By this time our
+adventurers were so near the land that they almost gave up hope itself.
+Cape Hatteras and its much-talked-of dangers, seemed a place of refuge
+compared to that in which our navigators now found themselves. Could the
+deepest bellowings of ten thousand bulls be united in a common roar, the
+noise would not have equalled that of the hollow sound which issued from a
+sea as it went into some cavern of the rocks. Then, the spray filled the
+air like driving rain, and there were minutes when the cape, though so
+frightfully near, was hid from view by the vapour.</p>
+
+<p>At this precise moment, the Sea Lion was less than a quarter of a mile to
+windward of the point she was struggling to weather, and towards which she
+was driving under a treble impetus; that of the wind, acting on her sails,
+and pressing her ahead at the rate of fully five knots, for the craft was
+kept a rap full; that of the eddy, or current, and that of the rolling
+waters. No man spoke, for each person felt that the crisis was one in
+which silence was a sort of homage to the Deity. Some prayed privately,
+and all gazed on the low rocky point that it was indispensable to pass, to
+avoid destruction. There was one favourable circumstance; the water was
+known to be deep, quite close to the iron-bound coast, and it was seldom
+that any danger existed, that it was not visible to the eye. This, Roswell
+knew from Stimson's accounts, as well as from those of other mariners, and
+he saw that the fact was of the last importance to him. Should he be able
+to weather the point ahead, that which terminated at the mouth of the
+passage that led within the Hermits, it was now certain it could be done
+only by going fearfully near the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner took his station between the knight-heads, beckoning to
+Stimson to come near him. At the same time, Hazard himself went to the
+helm.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember this place?" asked the young master of the old seaman.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the spot, sir; and if we can round the rocky point ahead, I will
+take you to a safe anchorage. Our drift is awful, or we are in an eddy
+tide here, sir!"
+
+"It is the eddy," answered Roswell, calmly, "though our drift is not
+trifling. This is getting frightfully near to that point!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, sir--it's our only chance;--hold on, and we may rub and go."</p>
+
+<p>"If we <i>rub</i>, we are lost; that is certain enough. Should we get by
+<i>this</i> first point, there is another, a short distance beyond it, which
+must certainly fetch us up, I fear. See--it opens more, as we draw ahead."</p>
+
+<p>Stimson saw the new danger, and fully appreciated it. He did not speak,
+however; for, to own the truth, he now abandoned all hope, and, being a
+piously inclined person, he was privately addressing himself to God. Every
+man on board was fully aware of the character of this new danger, and all
+seemed to forget that of the nearest point of rock, towards which they
+were now wading with portentous speed. That point <i>might</i> be passed; there
+was a little hope there; but as to the point a quarter of a mile beyond,
+with the leeward set of the schooner, the most ignorant hand on board saw
+how unlikely it was that they should get by it.</p>
+
+<p>An imposing silence prevailed in the schooner, as she came abreast of the
+first rock. It was about fifty fathoms under the lee bow, and, as to
+<i>that</i> spot, all depended on the distance outward that the dangers thrust
+themselves. This it was impossible to see amid the chaos of waters
+produced by the collision between the waves and the land. Roswell fastened
+his eyes on objects ahead, to note the rate of his leeward set, and, with
+a seaman's quickness, he noted the first change.</p>
+
+<p>"She feels the under-tow, Stephen," he said, in a voice so compressed as
+to seem to come out of the depths of his chest, "and is breasted up to
+windward!"</p>
+
+<p>"What means that sudden luff, sir? Mr. Hazard must keep a good full, or we
+shall have no chance."</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner looked aft, and saw that the mate was bearing the helm well up,
+as if he met with much resistance. The truth then flashed upon him, and he
+shouted out--"All's well, boys! God be praised, we have caught the
+ebb-tide, under our lee-bow!"</p>
+
+<p>These few words explained the reason of the change. Instead of setting to
+leeward, the schooner was now meeting a powerful tide of some four or five
+knots, which hawsed her up to windward with irresistible force. As if
+conscious of the danger she was in, the tight little craft receded from
+the rocks as she shot ahead, and rounded that second point, which, a
+minute before, had appeared to be placed there purposely to destroy her.
+It was handsomely doubled, at the safe distance of a hundred fathoms,
+Roswell believed he might now beat his schooner off the land far enough to
+double the cape altogether, could he but keep her in that current. It
+doubtless expended itself, however, a short distance in the offing, as its
+waters diffused themselves on the breast of the ocean; and it was this
+diffusion of the element that produced the eddy which had proved so nearly
+fatal.</p>
+
+<p>In ten minutes after striking the tide, the schooner opened the passage
+fairly, and was kept away to enter it. Notwithstanding it blew so heavily,
+the rate of sailing, by the land, did not exceed five knots. This was
+owing to the great strength of the tide, which sometimes rises and falls
+thirty feet, in high latitudes and narrow waters. Stimson now showed he
+was a man to be relied on. Conning the craft intelligently, he took her in
+behind the island on which the cape stands, luffed her up into a tiny
+cove, and made a cast of the lead. There were fifty fathoms of water, with
+a bottom of mud. With the certainty that there was enough of the element
+to keep him clear of the ground at low water, and that his anchors would
+hold, Roswell made a flying moor, and veered out enough cable to render
+his vessel secure.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, was the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond, that craft which the reader
+had seen lying at Deacon Pratt's wharf, only three short months before,
+safely anchored in a nook of the rocks behind Cape Horn. No navigator but
+a sealer would have dreamed of carrying his vessel into such a place, but
+it is a part of their calling to poke about in channels and passages where
+no one else has ever been. It was in this way that Stimson had learned to
+know where to find his present anchorage. The berth of the schooner was
+perfectly snug, and entirely land-locked. The tremendous swell that was
+rolling in on the outside, caused the waters to rise and fall a little
+within the passage, but there was no strain upon the cables in
+consequence. Neither did the rapid tides affect the craft, which lay in an
+eddy that merely kept her steady. The gale came howling over the Hermits,
+but was so much broken by the rocks as to do little more than whistle
+through the cordage and spars aloft.</p>
+
+<p>Three days, and as many nights, did the gale from the south-west continue.
+The fourth day there was a change, the wind coming from the eastward.
+Roswell would now have gone out, had it not been for the apprehension of
+falling in with Daggett again. Having at length gotten rid of that
+pertinacious companion, it would have been an act of great weakness to
+throw himself blindly in his way once more. It was possible that Daggett
+might not suppose he had been left intentionally, in which case, he would
+be very apt to look for his lost consort in the vicinity of the cape. As
+for the gale, it might, or it might not, have blown him to leeward. A good
+deal would depend on the currents, and his distance to the southward. Near
+the land, Gardiner believed the currents favoured a vessel doubling it,
+going west; and if Daggett was also aware of this fact, it might induce
+him to keep as near the spot as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Time was very precious to our sealers, the season being so short in the
+high latitudes. Still, they were a little in advance of their
+calculations, having got off the Horn fully ten days sooner than they had
+hoped to be there. Nearly the whole summer was before them, and there was
+the possibility of their even being too soon for the loosening of the ice
+further south. The wind was the strongest inducement to go out, for the
+point to which our adventurers were bound lay a considerable distance to
+the westward, and fair breezes were not to be neglected. Under all the
+circumstances, however, it was decided to remain within the passage one
+day longer, and this so much the more, because Hazard had discovered some
+signs of sea-elephants frequenting an island at no great distance. The
+boats were lowered accordingly, and the mate went in one direction, while
+the master pulled up to the rocks, and landed on the Hermit, or the island
+which should bear that name, <i>par excellence,</i> being that in which the
+group terminates.</p>
+
+<p>Taking Stimson with him, to carry a glass, and armed with an old lance as
+a pike-pole, to aid his efforts, Roswell Gardiner now commenced the ascent
+of the pyramid already mentioned. It was ragged, and offered a thousand
+obstacles, but none that vigour and resolution could not overcome After a
+few minutes of violent exertion, and by helping each other in difficult
+places, both Roswell and Stimson succeeded in placing themselves on the
+summit of the elevation, which was an irregular peak. The height was
+considerable, and gave an extended view of the adjacent islands, as well
+as of the gloomy and menacing ocean to the southward. The earth, probably,
+does not contain a more remarkable sentinel than this pyramid on which our
+hero had now taken his station. There it stood, actually the Ultima Thule
+of this vast continent, or, what was much the same, so closely united to
+it as to seem a part of our own moiety of the globe, looking out on the
+broad expanse of waters. The eye saw, to the right, the Pacific; in front
+was the Southern, or Antarctic Ocean; and to the left was the great
+Atlantic. For several minutes, both Roswell and Stephen sat mute, gazing
+on this grand spectacle. By turning their faces north, they beheld the
+high lands of Terra del Fuego, of which many of the highest peaks were
+covered with snow. The pyramid on which they were, however, was no longer
+white with the congealed rain, but stood, stern and imposing, in its
+native brown. The outlines of all the rocks, and the shores of the
+different islands, had an appearance of volcanic origin, though the rocks
+themselves told a somewhat different story. The last was principally of
+trap formation. Cape pigeons, gulls, petrels, and albatross were wheeling
+about in the air, while the rollers that still came in on this noble
+sea-wall were really terrific. Distant thunder wants the hollow, bellowing
+sound that these waves made when brought in contact with the shores.
+Roswell fancied that it was like a groan of the mighty Pacific, at finding
+its progress suddenly checked. The spray continued to fly, and, much of
+the time, the air below his elevated seat was filled with vapour.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as our young master had taken in the grander features of this
+magnificent view, his eyes sought the Sea Lion of Martha's Vineyard. There
+she was, sure enough, at a distance of only a couple of leagues, and
+apparently standing directly for the Cape. Could it be possible that
+Daggett suspected his manoeuvre, and was coming in search of him, at the
+precise spot in which he had taken shelter? As respects the vessel, there
+was no question as to her character. From the elevation at which he was
+placed, Roswell, aided by the glass, had no difficulty in making her out,
+and in recognising her rig, form, and character. Stimson also examined
+her, and knew her to be the schooner. On that vast and desolate sea, she
+resembled a speck, but the art of man had enabled those she held to guide
+her safely through the tempest, and bring her up to her goal, in a time
+that really seemed miraculous for the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"If we had thought of it, Captain Gar'ner," said Stephen, "we might have
+brought up an ensign, and set it on these rocks, by way of letting the
+Vineyarders know where we are to be found. But we can always go out and
+meet them, should this wind stand."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is just what I have no intention of doing, Stephen. I came in here,
+on purpose to get rid of that schooner."</p>
+
+<p>"You surprise me, sir! A consort is no bad thing, when a craft is
+a-sealin' in a high latitude. The ice makes such ticklish times, that, for
+me, I'm always glad to know there is such a chance for taking a fellow
+off, should there happen to be a wreck."</p>
+
+<p>"All that is very true, but there are reasons which may tell against it. I
+have heard of some islands where seals abound, and a consort is not quite
+so necessary to take them, as when one is wrecked."</p>
+
+<p>"That alters the case, Captain Gar'ner. Nobody is obliged to tell of his
+sealing station. I was aboard one of the very first craft that found out
+that the South Shetlands was a famous place for seals, and no one among us
+thought it necessary to tell it to all the world. Some men are weak enough
+to put sich discoveries in the newspapers; but, for my part, I think it
+quite enough to put them in the log."</p>
+
+<p>"That schooner must have the current with her, she comes down so fast. She
+'II be abreast of the Horn in half an hour longer, Stephen. We will wait,
+and see what she would be at."</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner's prediction was true. In half an hour, the Sea Lion of Holmes'
+Hole glided past the rocky pyramid of the Horn, distant from it less than
+a mile. Had it been the object of her commander to pass into the Pacific,
+he might have done so with great apparent ease. Even with a south-west
+wind, that which blows fully half the time in those seas, it would have
+been in his power to lay past the islands, and soon get before it. A
+north-east course, with a little offing, will clear the islands, and when
+a vessel gets as far north as the main land, it would take her off the
+coast.</p>
+
+<p>But Daggett had no intention of doing anything of the sort. He was looking
+for his consort, which he had hoped to find somewhere near the cape.
+Disappointed in this expectation, after standing far enough west to make
+certain nothing was in sight in that quarter, he hauled up on an easy
+bowline, and stood to the southward. Roswell was right glad to see this,
+inasmuch as it denoted ignorance of the position of the islands he sought.
+They lay much farther to the westward; and no sooner was he sure of the
+course steered by the other schooner, than he hastened down to the boat,
+in order to get his own vessel under way, to profit by the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours later, the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond glanced through the passage
+which led into the ocean, on an ebb-tide. By that time, the other vessel
+had disappeared in the southern board; and Gardiner came out upon the open
+waters again, boldly, and certain of his course. All sail was set, and the
+little craft slipped away from the land with the ease of an aquatic bird,
+that is plying its web-feet. Studding-sails were set, and the pyramid of
+the Horn soon began to lower in the distance, as the schooner receded.
+When night closed over the rolling waters, it was no longer visible, the
+vessel having fairly entered the Antarctic Ocean, if anything north of the
+circle can properly so be termed.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-14">
+<h2>Chapter XIV.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"All gone! 'tis ours the goodly land----<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Look round--the heritage behold;<br />
+Go forth--upon the mountain stand;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Then, if you can, be cold."</p>
+
+<p>  Sprague.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>It was an enterprising and manly thing for a little vessel like the Sea
+Lion to steer with an undeviating course into the mysterious depths of the
+antarctic circle--mysterious, far more in that day, than at the present
+hour. But the American sealer rarely hesitates. He has very little
+science, few charts, and those oftener old than new, knows little of what
+is going on among the savans of the earth, though his ear is ever open to
+the lore of men like himself, and he has his mind stored with pictures of
+islands and continents that would seem to have been formed for no other
+purpose than to meet the wants of the race of animals it is his business
+to pursue and to capture. Cape Horn and its vicinity have so long been
+frequented by this class of men, that they are at home among their
+islands, rocks, currents and sterility; but, to the southward of the Horn
+itself, all seemed a waste. At the time of which we are writing, much less
+was known of the antarctic regions than is known to-day; and even now our
+knowledge is limited to a few dreary outlines, in which barrenness and ice
+compete for the mastery. Wilkes, and his competitors, have told us that a
+vast frozen continent exists in that quarter of the globe; but even their
+daring and perseverance have not been able to determine more than the
+general fact.</p>
+
+<p>We should be giving an exaggerated and false idea of Roswell Gardiner's
+character, did we say that he steered into that great void of the southern
+ocean in a total indifference to his destination and objects. Very much
+the reverse was his state of mind, as he saw the high land of the cape
+sink, as it might be foot by foot, into the ocean, and then lost sight of
+it altogether. Although the weather was fine for the region, it was dark
+and menacing. Such, indeed, is usually the case in that portion of this
+globe, which appears to be the favourite region of the storms. Although
+the wind was no more than a good breeze, and the ocean was but little
+disturbed, there were those symptoms in the atmosphere and in the long
+ground-swells that came rolling in from the southwest, that taught the
+mariner the cold lessons of caution. We believe that heavier gales of wind
+at sea are encountered in the warm than in the cold months; but there is
+something so genial in the air of the ocean during summer, and something
+so chilling and repulsive in the rival season, that most of us fancy that
+the currents of air correspond in strength with the fall of the mercury.
+Roswell knew better than this, it is true; but he also fully understood
+where he was, and what he was about. As a sealer, he had several times
+penetrated as far south as the ne plus ultra of Cook; but it had ever
+before been in subordinate situations. This was the first time in which he
+had the responsibility of command thrown on himself, and it was no more
+than natural that he should feel the weight of this new burthen. So long
+as the Sea Lion of the Vineyard was in sight, she had presented a centre
+of interest and concern. To get rid of her had been his first care, and
+almost absorbing object; but, now that she seemed to be finally thrown out
+of his wake, there remained the momentous and closely approaching
+difficulties of the main adventure directly before his eyes. Roswell,
+therefore, was thoughtful and grave, his countenance offering no bad
+reflection of the sober features of the atmosphere and the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Although the season was that of summer, and the weather was such as is
+deemed propitious in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, a feeling of
+uncertainty prevailed over every other sensation. To the southward a cold
+mistiness veiled the view, and every mile the schooner advanced appeared
+like penetrating deeper and deeper into regions that nature had hitherto
+withheld from the investigation of the mariner. Ice, and its dangers, were
+known to exist a few degrees farther in that direction; but islands also
+had been discovered, and turned to good account by the enterprise of the
+sealers.</p>
+
+<p>It was truly a great thing for the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond to have thrown
+off her namesake of the Vineyard. It is true both vessels were still in
+the same sea, with a possibility of again meeting; but, Roswell Gardiner
+was steering onward towards a haven designated in degrees and minutes,
+while the other craft was most probably left to wander in uncertainty in
+that remote and stormy ocean. Our hero thought there was now very little
+likelihood of his again falling in with his late consort, and this so much
+the more, because the islands he sought were not laid down in the vicinity
+of any other known land, and were consequently out of the usual track of
+the sealers. This last circumstance was fully appreciated by our young
+navigator, and gave him confidence of possessing its treasures to himself,
+could he only find the place where nature had hid them.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun went down in that vast waste of water which lies to the
+southward of this continent, the little Sea Lion had fairly lost sight of
+land, and was riding over the long southwestern ground-swell like a gull
+that holds its way steadily towards its nest. For many hours her course
+had not varied half a point, being as near as possible to south-southwest,
+which kept her a little off the wind. No sooner, however, did night come
+to shut in the view, than Roswell Gardiner went aft to the man at the
+helm, and ordered him to steer to the southward, as near as the breeze
+would conveniently allow. This was a material change in the direction of
+the vessel, and, should the present breeze stand, would probably place
+her, by the return of light, a good distance to the eastward of the point
+she would otherwise have reached. Hitherto, it had been Roswell's aim to
+drop his consort; but, now it was dark, and so much time had already
+passed and been improved since the other schooner was last seen, he
+believed he might venture to steer in the precise direction he desired to
+go. The season is so short in those seas, that every hour is precious, and
+no more variation from a real object could be permitted than circumstances
+imperiously required. It was now generally understood that the craft was
+making the best of her way towards her destined sealing-ground.</p>
+
+<p>Independently of the discoveries of the regular explorers, a great deal
+of information has been obtained from the sealers themselves within the
+present century, touching the antarctic seas. It is thought that many a
+headland, and various islands, that have contributed their shares in
+procuring the <i>accolades</i> for different European navigators, were known to
+the adventurers from Stonington and other by-ports of this country, long
+before science ever laid its eyes upon them, or monarchs their swords on
+the shoulders of their secondary discoverers.</p>
+
+<p>That divers islands existed in this quarter of the ocean was a fact
+recognised in geography long before the Sea Lion was thought of; probably
+before her young master was actually born; but the knowledge generally
+possessed on the subject was meagre and unsatisfactory. In particular
+cases, nevertheless, this remark would not apply, there being at that
+moment on board our little schooner several mariners who had often visited
+the South Shetlands, New Georgia, Palmer's Land, and other known places in
+those seas. Not one of them all, however, had ever heard of any island
+directly south of the present position of the schooner.</p>
+
+<p>No material change occurred during the night, or in the course of the
+succeeding day, the little Sea Lion industriously holding her way toward
+the south pole; making very regularly her six knots each hour. By the time
+she was thirty-six hours from the Horn, Gardiner believed himself to be
+fully three degrees to the southward of it, and consequently some distance
+within the parallel of sixty degrees south. Palmer's Land, with its
+neighbouring islands, would have been near, had not the original course
+carried the schooner so far to the westward. As it was, no one could say
+what lay before them.</p>
+
+<p>The third day out, the wind hauled, and it blew heavily from the
+north-east. This gave the adventurers a great run. The blink of ice was
+shortly seen, and soon after ice itself, drifting about in bergs. The
+floating hills were grand objects to the eye, rolling and wallowing in the
+seas; but they were much worn and melted by the wash of the ocean, and
+comparatively of greatly diminished size. It was now absolutely necessary
+to lose most of the hours of darkness it being much too dangerous to run
+in the night. The great barrier of ice was known to be close at hand; and
+Cook's "Ne Plus Ultra," at that time the great boundary of antarctic
+navigation, was near the parallel of latitude to which the schooner had
+reached. The weather, however, continued very favourable, and after the
+blow from the north-east, the wind came from the south, chill, and
+attended with flurries of snow, but sufficiently steady and not so fresh
+as to compel our adventurers to carry very short sail. The smoothness of
+the water would of itself have announced the vicinity of ice: not only did
+Gardiner's calculations tell him as much as this, but his eyes confirmed
+their results. In the course of the fifth day out, on several occasions
+when the weather cleared a little, glimpses were had of the ice in long
+mountainous walls, resembling many of the ridges of the Alps, though
+moving heavily under the heaving and setting of the restless waters. Dense
+fogs, from time to time, clouded the whole view, and the schooner was
+compelled, more than once that day, to heave-to, in order to avoid running
+on the sunken masses of ice, or fields, of which many of vast size now
+began to make their appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the dangers that surrounded our adventurers, they were
+none of them so insensible to the sublime powers of nature as to withhold
+their admiration from the many glorious objects which that lone and wild
+scene presented. The ice-bergs were of all the hues of the rainbow, as the
+sunlight gilded their summits or sides, or they were left shaded by the
+interposition of dark and murky clouds. There were instances when certain
+of the huge frozen masses even appeared to be quite black, in particular
+positions and under peculiar lights; while others, at the same instant,
+were gorgeous in their gleams of emerald and gold!</p>
+
+<p>The aquatic birds, also, had now become numerous again. Penguins were
+swimming about, filling the air with their discordant cries, while there
+was literally no end of the cape-pigeons and petrels. Albatrosses, too,
+helped to make up the picture of animated nature, while whales were often
+heard blowing in the adjacent waters. Gardiner saw many signs of the
+proximity of land, and began to hope he should yet actually discover the
+islands laid down on his chart, as their position had been given by
+Daggett.</p>
+
+<p>In that high latitude a degree of longitude is necessarily much shorter
+than when nearer to the middle of our orb. On the equator, a degree of
+longitude measures, as is known to most boarding-school young ladies, just
+sixty geographical, or sixty-nine and a half English statute miles. But,
+as is not known to most boarding-school young ladies, or is understood by
+very few of them indeed, even when known, in the sixty-second degree of
+latitude, a degree of longitude measures but little more than thirty-two
+of those very miles. The solution of this seeming contradiction is so very
+simple that it may assist a certain class of our readers if we explain it,
+by telling them that it arises solely from the fact that these degrees of
+longitude, which are placed sixty geographical miles asunder at the centre
+or middle of the earth, converge towards the poles, where they all meet in
+a point. According to the best observations Roswell Gardiner could obtain,
+he was just one of these short degrees of longitude, or two-and-thirty
+miles, to the westward of the parallel where he wished to be, when the
+wind came from the southward. The change was favourable, as it emboldened
+him to run nearer than he otherwise might have felt disposed to do, to the
+great barrier of ice which now formed a sort of weather-shore.
+Fortunately, the loose bergs and sunken masses had drifted off so far to
+the northward, that once within them the schooner had pretty plain
+sailing; and Roswell, to lose none of the precious time of the season,
+ventured to run, though under very short canvass, the whole of the short
+night that succeeded. It is a great assistance to the navigation of those
+seas that, during the summer months, there is scarcely any night at all,
+giving the adventurer sufficient light by which to thread his way among
+the difficulties of his pathless journey.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun reappeared, on the morning of the sixth day after he had left
+the Horn, Roswell Gardiner believed himself to be far enough west for his
+purposes. It now remained to get a whole degree further to the south,
+which was a vast distance in those seas and in that direction, and would
+carry him a long way to the southward of the 'Ne Plus Ultra.' If there
+was any truth in Daggett, however, that mariner had been there; and the
+instructions of the owner rendered it incumbent on our young man to
+attempt to follow him. More than once, that morning, did our hero regret
+he had not entered into terms with the Vineyard men, that the effort might
+have been made in company. There was something so portentous in a lone
+vessel's venturing within the ice, in so remote a region, that, to say the
+truth, Roswell hesitated. But pride of profession, ambition, love of Mary,
+dread of the deacon, native resolution, and the hardihood produced by
+experience in dangers often encountered and escaped, nerved him to the
+undertaking. It must be attempted, or the voyage would be lost; and our
+young mariner now set about his task with a stern determination to achieve
+it.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the schooner had luffed up within a cable's length of the
+ice, along the margin of which she was running under easy sail. Gardiner
+believed himself to be quite as far to the westward as was necessary, and
+his present object was to find an opening, by means of which he could
+enter among the floating chaos that was spread, far and wide, to windward.
+As the breeze was driving the drifting masses to the northward, they
+became loosened and more separated, every moment; and glad enough was
+Gardiner to discover, at length, a clear spot that seemed to favour his
+views. Without an instant's delay, the sheets were flattened in, a pull
+was taken on the braces, and away went the little Sea Lion into a passage
+that had a hundredfold more real causes of terror than the Scylla and
+Charybdis of old.</p>
+
+<p>One effect of the vicinity of ice, in extensive fields, is to produce
+comparatively still water. It must blow a gale, and that over a
+considerable extent of open sea, to produce much commotion among the
+fields and bergs, though that heaving and setting, which has been likened
+to the respiration of some monster, and which seamen call the
+"ground-swell," is never entirely wanting among the waters of an ocean. On
+the present occasion, our adventurers were favoured in this respect, their
+craft gliding forward unimpeded by anything like opposing billows. At the
+end of four hours, the schooner, tacking and waring when necessary, had
+worked her way to the southward and westward, according to her master's
+reckoning, some five-and-twenty miles. It was then noon, and the
+atmosphere being unusually clear, though never without fog, Gardiner went
+aloft, to take a look for himself at the condition of things around him.</p>
+
+<p>To the northward, and along the very passage by which the vessel had
+sailed, the ice was closing, and it was far easier to go on than to
+return. To the eastward, and towards the south-east in particular,
+however, did Roswell Gardiner turn his longing eyes. Somewhere in that
+quarter of the ocean, and distant now less than ten leagues, did he expect
+to find the islands of which he was in quest, if, indeed, they had any
+existence at all. In that direction there were many passages open among
+the ice, the latter being generally higher than in the particular place to
+which the vessel had reached. Once or twice, Roswell mistook the summits
+of some of these bergs for real mountains, when, owing to the manner in
+which the light fell upon them, or rather did not fall upon them directly,
+they appeared dark and earthy. Each time, however, the sun's rays soon
+came to undeceive him; and that which had so lately been black and
+frowning was, as by the touch of magic, suddenly illuminated, and became
+bright and gorgeous, throwing out its emerald hues, or perhaps a virgin
+white, that filled the beholder with delight, even amid the terrors and
+dangers by which, in very truth, he was surrounded. The glorious Alps
+themselves, those wonders of the earth, could scarcely compete in scenery
+with the views that nature lavished, in that remote sea, on a seeming
+void. But the might and honour of God were there, as well as beneath the
+equator.</p>
+
+<p>For one whole hour did Roswell Gardiner remain in the cross-trees, having
+hailed the deck, and caused the schooner's head to be turned to the
+south-east, pressing her through the openings as near the wind as she
+could go. The atmosphere was never without fog, though the vapour drifted
+about, leaving large vacancies that were totally clear. One spot, in
+particular, seemed to be a favourite resting-place for these low clouds,
+which just there appeared to light upon the face of the ocean itself. A
+wide field of ice, or, it were better to say, a broad belt of bergs, lay
+between this stationary cloud and the schooner, though the existence of
+the vapour early caught Roswell's attention; and during the hour he was
+aloft, conning the craft through a very intricate and ticklish channel,
+not a minute passed that the young man did not turn a look towards that
+veiled spot. He was in the act of placing a foot on the ratlin below him,
+to descend to the deck, when he half-unconsciously turned to take a last
+glance at this distant and seemingly immovable object. Just then, the
+vapour, which had kept rolling and moving, like a fluid in ebullition,
+while it still clung together, suddenly opened, and the bald head of a
+real mountain, a thousand feet high, came unexpectedly into the view!
+There could be no mistake; all was too plain to admit of a doubt. There,
+beyond all question, was land; and it was doubtless the most western of
+the islands described by the dying seaman. Everything corroborated this
+conclusion. The latitude and longitude were right, or nearly so, and the
+other circumstances went to confirm the conjecture, or conclusion. Daggett
+had said that one island, high, mountainous, ragged and bleak, but of some
+size, lay the most westerly in the group, while several others were within
+a few miles of it. The last were lower, much smaller, and little more than
+naked rocks. One of these last, however, he insisted on it, was a volcano
+in activity, and that, at intervals, it emitted flames as well as a fierce
+heat. By his account, however, the party to which he belonged had never
+actually visited that volcanic cauldron, being satisfied with admiring its
+terrors from a distance.</p>
+
+<p>As to the existence of the land, Roswell got several pretty distinct and
+certain views, leaving no doubt of its character and position. There is a
+theory which tells us that the orb of day is surrounded by a luminous
+vapour, the source of heat and light, and that this vapour, being in
+constant motion, occasionally leaves the mass of the planet itself to be
+seen, forming what it is usual to term the "spots on the sun." Resembling
+this theory, the fogs of the antarctic seas rolled about the mountain now
+seen, withdrawing the curtain at times, and permitting a view of the
+striking and majestic object within. Well did that lone and nearly barren
+mass of earth and rock merit these appellations! The elevation has already
+been given; and a rock that is nearly perpendicular, rising out of the
+ocean for a thousand feet, is ever imposing and grand. This was rendered
+so much the more so by its loneliness, its stable and stern position amid
+floating and moving mountains of ice, its brown sides and bald summit, the
+latter then recently whitened with a fall of pure snow, and its frowning
+and fixed aspect amid a scene that might otherwise be said to be ever in
+motion.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner's heart beat with delight when assured of success in
+discovering this, the first great goal of his destination. To reach it was
+now his all-absorbing desire. By this time the wind had got round to the
+southwest, and was blowing quite fresh, bringing him well to windward of
+the mountain, but causing the ice-bergs to drift in towards the land, and
+placing an impassable barrier along its western shore. Our young man,
+however, remembered that Daggett had given the anchorage as on the
+north-eastern side of the island, where, according to his statements, a
+little haven would be found, in which a dozen craft might lie in security.
+To this quarter of the island Gardiner consequently endeavoured to get.</p>
+
+<p>There was no opening to the northward, but a pretty good channel was
+before the schooner to the southward of the group. In this direction,
+then, the Sea Lion was steered, and by eight bells (four in the afternoon)
+the southern point of the largest island was doubled. The rest of the
+group were made, and to the infinite delight of all on board her,
+abundance of clear water was found between the main island and its smaller
+neighbours. The bergs had grounded apparently, as they drew near the
+group, leaving this large bay entirely free from ice, with the exception
+of a few small masses that were floating through it. These bodies, whether
+field or berg, were easily avoided; and away the schooner went, with
+flowing sheets, into the large basin formed by the different members of
+the group. To render 'assurance doubly sure,' as to the information of
+Daggett, the smoke of a volcano arose from a rock to the eastward, that
+appeared to be some three or four miles in circumference, and which stood
+on the eastern side of the great basin, or some four leagues from
+Sealer's Land, as Daggett had at once named the principal island. This
+was, in fact, about the breadth of the main basin, which had two principal
+passages into it, the one from the south and the other from the
+north-east.</p>
+
+<p>Once within the islands, and reasonably clear of all ice, it was an easy
+thing for the schooner to run across the basin, or great bay, and reach
+the north-eastern extremity of Sealer's Land. As the light would continue
+some hours longer, there being very little night in that high latitude in
+December, the month that corresponds to our June, Roswell caused a boat to
+be lowered and manned, when he pulled at once towards the spot where it
+struck him the haven must be found, if there were any such place at all.
+Everything turned out as it had been described by Daggett, and great was
+our young man's satisfaction when he rowed into a cove that was little
+more than two hundred yards in diameter, and which was so completely
+land-locked as not to feel the influence of any sea outside. In general,
+the great difficulty is to land on any of the antarctic rocks, the
+breakers and surf opposing it; but, in this spot, the smallest boat could
+be laid with its bows on a beach of shingles, without the slightest risk
+of its being injured. The lead also announced good anchorage in about
+eight fathoms of water. In a word, this little haven was one of those
+small basins that so often occur in mountainous islands, where fragments
+of rock appear to have fallen from the principal mass as it was forced
+upward out of the ocean, as if purposely intended to meet the wants of
+mariners.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was the outer bay, or the large basin formed by the entire group, by
+any means devoid of advantages to the navigator. From north to south this
+outer bay was at least six leagues in length, while its breadth could not
+much have fallen short of four. Of course it was much more exposed to the
+winds and waves than the little harbour proper, though Roswell was struck
+with the great advantages it offered in several essential particulars. It
+was almost clear of ice, while so much was floating about outside of the
+circle of islands; thus leaving a free navigation in it for even the
+smallest boat. This was mainly owing to the fact that the largest island
+had two long crescent-shaped capes, the one at its north-eastern and the
+other at its south-eastern extremity, giving to its whole eastern side the
+shape of a new moon. The harbour just described was to the southward of,
+or within the north-eastern cape, which our young master at once named
+Cape Hazard, in honour of his chief mate's vigilance; that officer having
+been the first to point out the facilities probably offered by the
+formation of the land for an anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>Though rocky and broken, it was by no means difficult to ascend the rugged
+banks on the northern side of the harbour, and Gardiner went up it,
+attended by Stimson, who of late had much attached himself to the person
+of his commander. The height of this barrier above the waves of the ocean
+was but a little less than a hundred feet, and when the summit was
+reached, a common exclamation of surprise, not to say delight, broke from
+the lips of both. Hitherto not a seal of any sort had been seen, and
+Gardiner had felt some misgivings touching the benefits that were to be
+derived from so much hardship, exposure and enterprise. All doubts,
+however, vanished, the instant he got a sight of the northern shore of the
+island. This shore, a reach of several miles in extent, was fairly alive
+with the monsters of which he was in search. They lay in thousands on the
+low rocks that lined that entire side of the island, basking in the sun of
+the antarctic seas. There they were, sure enough! Sea Lions, Sea
+Elephants, huge, clumsy, fierce-looking and revolting creatures, belonging
+properly to neither sea nor land. These animals were constantly going and
+coming in crowds, some waddling to the margin of the rocks and tumbling
+into the ocean in search of food, while others scrambled out of the water,
+and got upon shelves and other convenient places to repose and enjoy the
+light of day. There was very little contention or fighting among these
+revolting-looking creatures, though nearly every known species of the
+larger seals was among them.</p>
+
+<p>"There is famous picking for us, master Stephen," said Roswell to his
+companion, fairly rubbing his hands in delight. "One month's smart work
+will fill the schooner, and we can be off before the equinox. Does it not
+seem to you that yonder are the bones of sea lions, or of seals of some
+sort, lying hereaway as if men had been at work on the creatures?"</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt on't at all, Captain Gar'ner; as much out of the way as this
+island is--and I never heard of the place afore, old a sealer as I
+am--but, as much out of the way as it is, we are not the first to find it.
+Somebody has been here, and that within a year or two; and he has picked
+up a cargo, too, depend on't."</p>
+
+<p>As all this merely corresponded with Daggett's account of the place,
+Roswell felt no surprise; on the contrary, he saw in it a confirmation of
+all that Daggett had stated, and as furnishing so much the more reason to
+hope for a successful termination to the voyage in all its parts. While on
+the rocks, Roswell took such a survey of the localities as might enable
+him to issue his orders hereafter with discretion and intelligence. The
+schooner was already making short tacks to get close in with the island,
+in obedience to a signal to that effect; and the second mate had pulled
+out to the entrance of the little haven, with a view to act as pilot.
+Before the captain had descended from the summit of the northern barrier,
+the vessel came in under her jib, the wind being nearly aft, and she
+dropped two anchors in suitable spots, making another flying moor of it.</p>
+
+<p>General joy now illuminated every face. It was, in itself, a great point
+gained to get the schooner into a perfectly safe haven, where her people
+could take their natural rest at night, or during their watches below,
+without feeling any apprehension of being crushed in the ice; but here was
+not only security, but the source of that wealth of which they were in
+quest, and which had induced them all to encounter so many privations and
+so much danger. The crew landed to a man, each individual ascending to the
+summit of the barrier, to feast his eyes on the spectacle that lay spread
+in such affluent abundance, along the low rocks of the northern side of
+the island.</p>
+
+<p>As there were yet several hours of light remaining, Roswell, still
+attended by Stimson, each armed with a sealing spear or lance, not only as
+a weapon of defence but as a leaping-staff, set out to climb as high up
+the central acclivity of the island as circumstances would allow him to
+go. He was deceived in the distances, however, and soon found that an
+entire day would be necessary to achieve such an enterprise, could it be
+performed at all; but he did succeed in reaching a low spur of the central
+mountain that commanded a wide and noble view of all that lay to the north
+and east of it. From this height, which must have been a few hundred feet
+above the level of the ocean, our adventurers got a still better view of
+the whole north coast, or of what might have been called the sealing
+quarter of the island. They also got a tolerably accurate idea of the
+general formation of that lone fragment of rock and earth, as well as of
+the islets and islands that lay in its vicinity. The outline of the first
+was that of a rude, and of course an irregular triangle, the three
+principal points of which were the two low capes already mentioned, and a
+third that lay to the northward and westward. The whole of the western or
+south-western shore seemed to be a nearly perpendicular wall of rock,
+that, in the main, rose some two or three hundred feet above the ocean.
+Against this side of the island in particular, the waves of the ocean were
+sullenly beating, while the ice drove up 'home,' as sailors express it;
+showing a vast depth of water. On the two other sides, it was different.
+The winds prevailed most from the south-west, which rendered the
+perpendicular face of the island its weather-wall; while the two other
+sides of the triangle were more favoured by position. The north side, of
+course, lay most exposed to the sun, everything of this nature being
+reversed in the southern hemisphere from what we have it in the northern;
+while the eastern or north-eastern side, to be precisely accurate, was
+protected by the group of islands that lay in its front. Such was the
+general character of Sealer's Land, so far as the hurried observations of
+its present master enabled him to ascertain. The near approach of night
+induced him now to hasten to get off of the somewhat dangerous acclivities
+to which he had climbed, and to rejoin his people and his schooner.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-15">
+<h2>Chapter XV.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Ye dart upon the deep, and straight is heard<br />
+A wilder roar; and men grow pale, and pray:<br />
+Ye fling its waters round you, as a bird<br />
+Flings o'er his shivering plumes the fountain's spray.<br />
+See! to the breaking mast the sailor clings!<br />
+Ye scoop the ocean to its briny springs,<br />
+And take the mountain billows on your wings,<br />
+And pile the wreck of navies round the bay."</p>
+
+<p>  Bryant's Winds.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>No unnecessary delay was permitted to interfere with the one great purpose
+of the sealers. The season was so short, and the difficulties and dangers
+of entering among and of quitting the ice were so very serious, that every
+soul belonging to the schooner felt the importance of activity and
+industry. The very day that succeeded the vessel's arrival, not only was
+great progress made in the preliminary arrangements, but a goodly number
+of fur-seals, of excellent quality, were actually killed and secured. Two
+noble sea-elephants were also lanced, animals that measured near thirty
+feet in length, each of which yielded a very ample return for the risk and
+trouble of taking it, in oil. The skins of the fur-seals, however, were
+Roswell's principal object; and glad enough was he to find the creature
+that pays this tribute to the wants and luxuries of man, in numbers
+sufficient to promise him a speedy return to the northward. While the
+slaughter, and skinning, and curing, and trying out were all in active
+operation, our young man paid some attention to certain minor
+arrangements, which had a direct bearing on the comforts of his people, as
+well as the getting in of cargo.</p>
+
+<p>An old store-house, of respectable size, had stood on the deacon's wharf,
+while the schooner was fitting out, but it had been taken to pieces, in
+order to make room for a more eligible substitute. The materials of this
+building, Roswell Gardiner had persuaded his owner to send on board, and
+they had all been received and stowed away, a part below and a part on
+deck, as a provision for the possible wants of the people. As it was
+necessary to clear the decks and break out the hold, all these materials,
+consisting principally of the timbers of the frame, the siding, and a
+quantity of planks and boards, were now floated ashore in the cove, and
+hauled upon the rocks. Roswell took a leisure moment to select a place for
+the site of his building, which he intended to erect at once, in order to
+save the time that would otherwise be lost in pulling between the schooner
+and the shore.</p>
+
+<p>It was not difficult to find the sort of spot that was desirable for the
+dwelling. That chosen by Gardiner was a shelf of rock of sufficient
+extent, that lay perfectly exposed to the north and north-east, or to the
+sunny side of the island, while it was sheltered from the south and
+south-west by masses of rock, that formed a complete protection against
+the colder winds of the region. These walls of stone, however, were not
+sufficiently near to permit any snows they might collect to impend over
+the building, but enough space was left between them and the house, to
+admit of a capacious yard, in which might be placed any articles that were
+necessary to the ordinary work, or to the wants of the sealers.</p>
+
+<p>Had it been advisable to set all hands at the business of slaughtering,
+Roswell Gardiner certainly would not have lost the time he did, in the
+erection of his house. But our master was a judicious and wary commander
+at his calling. The seals were now perfectly tame, and nothing was easier
+than to kill them in scores. The great difficulty was in removing the
+spoils across the rocks, as it was sometimes necessary to do so for a
+distance of several miles. Means were found, in the end, to use the boats
+on this service, though even then, at midsummer, the northern shore of the
+island was frequently so closely beset by the ice as completely to block
+up the passage. This, too, occurred at times when the larger bay was
+nearly free, and the cove, which went by the name of the "Deacon's Bight,"
+among the men, was entirely so. In order to prevent a premature panic
+among the victims of this intended foray, then, Gardiner allowed no one to
+go out to "kill" but the experienced hands, and no more to be slain each
+day than could be skinned or cut up at that particular time. In
+consequence of this prudent caution, the work soon got into a regular
+train; and it was early found that more was done in this mode, than could
+have been effected by a less guarded assault on the seals.</p>
+
+<p>As for the materials of the building, they were hauled up the rocks
+without much difficulty. The frame was of some size, as is the case
+generally with most old constructions in America; but being of pine,
+thoroughly seasoned, the sills and plates were not so heavy but that they
+might be readily enough handled by the non-sealing portion of the crew.
+Robert Smith, the landsman, was a carpenter by trade, and it fell to his
+lot to put together again the materials of the old warehouse. Had there
+not been such a mechanic among the crew, however, a dozen Americans could,
+at any time, construct a house, the 'rough and ready' habits of the people
+usually teaching them, in a rude way, a good deal of a great many other
+arts, besides this of the carpenter. Mott had served a part of his time
+with a blacksmith, and he now set up his forge. When the frame was ready,
+all hands assembled to assist in raising it; and, by the end of the first
+week, the building was actually enclosed, the labour amounting to no more
+than putting each portion in its place, and securing it there, the saw
+being scarcely used during the whole process. This building had two
+apartments, one of which Gardiner appropriated to the uses of a
+sitting-room, and the other to that of a dormitory. Rough bunks were
+constructed, and the mattresses of the men were all brought ashore, and
+put in the house. It was intended that everybody should sleep in the
+building, as it would save a great deal of going to and fro, as well as a
+great deal of time. The cargo was to be collected on a shelf of rock, that
+lay about twenty feet below that on which the building stood; by following
+which, it was possible to turn the highest point of the pass, that which
+formed the southern protection of the building, and come out on the side
+of the cove at another shelf, that was not more than fifty feet above the
+level of the vessel's decks. Down this last declivity, Roswell proposed to
+lower his casks by means of a projecting derrick, the rock being
+sufficiently precipitous to admit of this arrangement, while his spare
+spars furnished him with the necessary means. Thus was every preparation
+made with judgment and foresight.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner did the first ten days pass, every man and boy being as
+busy as bees. To own the truth, no attention was paid to the Sabbath,
+which would seem to have been left behind them by the people, among the
+descendants of those Puritans who were so rigid in their observance of
+that festival. At the end of the time just mentioned, a great deal had
+been done. The house, such as it was, was completed. To be sure, it was
+nothing but an old storehouse re-vamped, but it was found to be of
+infinite service, and greatly did all hands felicitate themselves at
+having brought its materials along with them. Even those who had most
+complained of the labour of getting the timbers on board, had the most
+often cursed them for being in the way, during the passage, and had
+continued the loudest to deride the idea of 'sealers turning carpenters,'
+were shortly willing to allow that the possession of this dwelling was of
+the greatest value to them, and that, so far from the extra work's causing
+them to fall behind in their main operations, the comfort they found, in
+having a home like this to go to, after a long day's toil, refreshed them
+to a degree which enabled every man to return to his labour, with a zeal
+and an energy that might otherwise have been wanting. Although it was in
+the warmest season of the year, and the nights could scarcely be called
+nights at all, yet the sun never got very low without leaving a chilliness
+in the air that would have rendered sleeping without a cover and a
+protection from the winds, not only excessively uncomfortable, but
+somewhat dangerous. Indeed, it was often found necessary to light a fire
+in the old ware-house. This was done by means of a capacious box-stove,
+that was almost as old as the building itself, and which had also been
+brought along as an article of great necessity in that climate. Fuel could
+not be wanting, as long as the 'scraps' from the try-works abounded, and
+there were many more of these than were needed to 'try out' the
+sea-elephant oil. The schooner, however, had a very ample supply of wood
+to burn, that being an article which abounded on Shelter Island, and which
+the deacon had consented to lay in, in some abundance. Gardiner got this
+concession out of the miserly temperament of the old man, by persuading
+him that a sealer could not work to any advantage, unless he had the means
+of occasionally warming himself. The miserly propensities of the deacon
+were not so engrossing that he did not comprehend the wisdom of making
+sufficient outlay to secure the execution of his main object; and among
+other things of this nature, the schooner had sailed with a very large
+supply of wood, as has just been stated. Wood and onions, indeed, were
+more abundant in her than any other stores.</p>
+
+<p>The arrangements described were completed by the end of the first
+fortnight, during which period the business of sealing was also carried on
+with great industry and success. So very tame were the victims, and so
+totally unconscious of the danger they incurred from the presence of man,
+that the crew moved round among them, seemingly but very little observed,
+and not at all molested. The utmost care was taken to give no unnecessary
+alarm; and when an animal was lanced, it was done in such a quiet way as
+to produce as little commotion as possible. By the end of the time named,
+however, the sealing had got so advanced as to require the aid of all
+hands in securing the spoils. To work, then, everybody went, with a hearty
+good-will: and the shelf of rock just below the house was soon well
+garnished with casks and skins. Had the labour been limited to the mere
+killing, and skinning, and curing, and barreling of oil, it would have
+been comparatively quite light; but the necessity of transporting the
+fruits of all this skill and luck considerable distances, in some cases
+several miles, and this over broken rocks, formed the great obstacle to
+immediate success. It was the opinion of Roswell Gardiner, that he could
+have filled his schooner in a month, were it possible to place her
+directly alongside of the rocks frequented by the seals, and prevent all
+this toil in transporting. This, however, was impossible, the waves and
+the ice rendering it certain destruction to lay a craft anywhere along the
+northern shore of the island. The boats might be, and occasionally they
+were used, bringing loads of skin and oil round the cape, quite into the
+cove. These little cargoes were immediately transferred to the hold of the
+schooner, a ground-tier of large casks having been left in her purposely
+to receive the oil, which was emptied into them by means of a hose. By the
+end of the third week, this ground-tier was filled, and the craft became
+stiff, and was in good ballast trim, although the spare water was now
+entirely pumped out of her.</p>
+
+<p>All this time the weather was very fair for so high a latitude, and every
+way propitious. The twenty-third day after the schooner got in, Roswell
+was standing on a spur of the hill, at no great distance from the house,
+overlooking the long reach of rocky coast over which the 'sea-elephants,'
+and 'lions,' and 'dogs,' and 'bears,' were waddling in as much seeming
+security as the hour when he first saw them. The sun was just rising, and
+the seals were clambering up out of the water to enjoy its warm rays, as
+they placed themselves in positions favourable to such a purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a pleasant sight to a true sealer, Captain Gar'ner," observed
+Stimson, who as usual had kept near his officer, "and one that I can say I
+never before saw equalled. I've been in this business now some
+five-and-twenty years, and never before have I met with so safe a harbour
+for a craft, and so large herds that have not been stirred up and got to
+be skeary."</p>
+
+<p>"We have certainly been very fortunate thus far, Stephen, and I am now in
+hopes we may fill up and be off in good season to get clear of the ice,"
+returned Roswell. "Our luck has been surprising, all things considered."</p>
+
+<p>"You call it luck, Captain Gar'ner; but, in my creed, there is a truer and
+a better word for it, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, I know well enough what you mean, Stephen; though I cannot fancy that
+Providence cares much whether we shall take a hundred seals to-day, or
+none at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Such is not my idee, sir; and I'm not ashamed to own it. In my humble way
+of thinking, Captain Gar'ner, the finger of Divine Providence is in all
+that comes to pass; if not straight ahead like, as a body would receive a
+fall, still, by sartain laws that bring about everything that is to
+happen, just as it does happen. I believe now, sir, that Providence does
+not intend we shall take any seals at all to-day, sir"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Stimson? It is the very finest day we have had since we have
+been on the island!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's true enough; and it is this glorious sunny day, glorious and sunny
+for sich a high latitude, that makes me feel and think that this day was
+not intended for work. You probably forget it is the Sabbath, Captain
+Gar'ner."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough; I had forgotten that, Stephen; but we sealers seldom lie by
+for such a reason."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the worse for us sealers, then, sir. This is my seventeenth
+v'y'ge into these seas, sir, and I will say that more of them have been
+made with officers and crews that did <i>not</i> keep the Sabbath, than with
+officers and crews that did. Still, I have obsarved one thing, sir, that
+the man who takes his rest one day in seven, and freshens his mind, as it
+might be, with thinking of other matters than his every-day consarns,
+comes to his task with so much better will, when he <i>does</i> set about it,
+as to turn off greater profit than if he worked night and day, Sundays and
+all."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner had no great reverence for the Christian Sabbath, and
+this more because it was so <i>called</i>, than for any sufficient reason in
+itself. Pride of reason rendered him jealous of everything like a
+concession to the faith of those who believed in the Son of God; and he
+was very apt to dissent from all admission that had even the most remote
+bearing on its truth. Still, as a kind-hearted commander, as well as a
+judicious reasoner on the economy of his fellow-creatures, he fully felt
+the policy of granting relaxation to labour. Nor was he indisposed to
+believe in the care of a Divine Providence, or in its justice, though less
+believing in this respect than the illiterate but earnest-minded seaman
+who stood at his side. He knew very well that "all work, and no play,
+makes Jack a dull boy;" and he understood well enough that it was good for
+man, at stated seasons, to raise his mind from the cares and business of
+this world, to muse on those of the world that is to come. Though inclined
+to Deism, Roswell worshipped in his heart the creator of all he saw and
+understood, as well as much that he could neither scan nor comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>"This is not the seaman's usual way of thinking," returned our hero, after
+regarding his companion for a moment, a little intently. "With us, there
+is very little Sabbath in blue-water."</p>
+
+<p>"Too little, sir; much too little. Depend on't, Captain Gar'ner, God is on
+the face of the waters as well as on the hill-tops. His Spirit is
+everywhere; and it must grieve it to see human beings, that have been
+created in his image, so bent on gain as to set apart no time even for
+rest; much less for his worship and praise!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not certain you are wrong, Stimson, and I feel much more sure that
+you are right as a political economist than in your religion. There
+<i>should</i> be seasons of rest and reflection--yet I greatly dislike losing a
+day as fine as this."</p>
+
+<p>"'The better the day, the better the deed.' sir, No time is lost to him
+who stops in his work to think a little of his God. Our crew is used to
+having a Sabbath; and though we work on lays, there is not a hand aboard
+us, Captain Gar'ner, who would not be glad to hear the word pass among 'em
+which should say this is the Lord's Day, and you've to knock off from your
+labour."</p>
+
+<p>"As I believe you understand the people, Stephen, and we have had a busy
+time of it since we got in, I'll take you at your word, and give the
+order. Go and tell Mr. Hazard there'll be no duty carried on to-day beyond
+what is indispensable. It is Sunday, and we'll make it a day of rest."</p>
+
+<p>Truth compels us to say that Roswell was quite as much influenced in
+giving this order, by recollecting the pleasure it would give Mary, as by
+any higher consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Glad enough was Stimson to hear this order, and away he hastened to find
+the mate, that it might be at once communicated to the men. Although this
+well-disposed seaman a little overrated the motives of a portion of the
+crew at least, he was right enough as to the manner in which they would
+receive the new regulation, Rest and relaxation had become, in a measure,
+necessary to them; and leisure was also needed to enable the people to
+clean themselves; the business in which they had been engaged being one
+that accumulates oily substances, and requiring occasional purifications
+of the body in order to preserve the health. The scurvy, that great curse
+of long voyages, is as much owing to neglect of cleanliness as to diet.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner was it known that this day was to be treated as the Sabbath,
+than soap, razors, scissors, and all the usual appliances of the sailor's
+toilet, were drawn out of bags and chests, and paraded about on the rocks.
+An hour passed in scrubbing, shaving, cutting hair, holding garments up to
+the light to look for holes and ascertain their condition, and rummaging
+among "properties," as the player would term the different wardrobes that
+were thus brought into view. The mates came out of the <i>melee</i> 'shaven and
+shorn,' as well as neatly attired; and there was not a man on the island
+who did not look like a different being from what he had appeared an hour
+before, in consequence of this pause in the regular business of sealing,
+and the promised holiday. A strict order was given that no one should go
+among the seals, as it was feared that some indiscretion or other might
+have a tendency to create an alarm. In all other respects the island was
+placed at the disposal of the men, if anything could be made of such a
+lone spot, a speck on the surface of the antarctic seas, and nearly
+encircled by mountains of floating ice.</p>
+
+<p>As for Roswell himself, after reading a chapter or two in Mary Pratt's
+bible, he determined to make another effort to ascend to the summit of the
+sterile rocks which capped the pile that rose vertically in the centre of
+the island. The day was nearly all before him; and, summoning Stimson as a
+companion, for he had taken a great fancy to this man, away he went,
+young, active, and full of buoyancy. Almost at the same instant, Hazard,
+the chief mate, pulled out of the cove in one of the whale-boats, manned
+by volunteers and provided with sails, with an intention to cross the
+Great Bay, and get a nearer view of the volcanic hill, out of which smoke
+was constantly pouring, and occasionally flames. The second mate and one
+or two of the hands remained near the house, to keep a look-out on the
+vessel and other property.</p>
+
+<p>The season had now advanced to the first day of January, a month that in
+the southern hemisphere corresponds with our own July. As Roswell picked
+his way among the broken rocks that covered the ascent to what might be
+termed the table-land of the island, if indeed any portion of so ragged a
+bit of this earth could properly be so named, his thoughts recurred to
+this question of the season, and to the probability of his getting a cargo
+before it would be absolutely necessary to go to the northward. On the
+whole, he fancied his chances good; and such he found to be Stimson's
+opinion, when this experienced sealer was questioned on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"We've begun right in all respects but one, Captain Gar'ner," said
+Stephen, as he closed his remarks on the subject; "and even in that matter
+in which we made a small mistake at the outset, we are improving, and I
+hope will come out right in the end. I said a <i>small</i> mistake, but in this
+I'm wrong, as it was a <i>great</i> mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"And what was it, Stephen? Make no bones of telling me of any blunder I
+may have committed, according to your views of duty. You are so much older
+than myself, that I'll stand it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, it's not in seamanship, or in sealing; if it was, I'd hold my
+tongue; but it's in not keeping the Lord's Day from the hour when we
+lifted our anchor in that bay that bears the name of your family, Captain
+Gar'ner; and which ought to be, and I make no doubt <i>is</i>, dear to you on
+that account, if for no other reason. I rather think, from what they tell
+me, that the old Lord Gar'ner of all had much preaching of the word, and
+much praying to the Lord in the old times, when he lived there."</p>
+
+<p>"There never was any <i>Lord</i> Gardiner among us," returned Roswell,
+modestly, "though it was a fashion among the east-enders to give that
+title to the owner of the island. My ancestor who first got the place was
+Lyon Gardiner, an engineer in the service of the colony of Connecticut."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, whether he was a lion or a lamb, I'll answer for it the Lord was
+not forgotten on that island, Captain Gar'ner, and he shouldn't be on
+this. No man ever lost anything in this world, or in that which is to come
+a'ter it, by remembering once in seven days to call on his Creator to help
+him on in his path. I've heard it said, sir, that you're a little
+partic'lar like in your idees of religion, and that you do not altogether
+hold to the doctrines that are preached up and down the land."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell felt his cheeks warm at this remark, and he thought of Mary, and
+of her meek reliance on that Saviour whom, in the pride of his youth,
+strength, and as he fancied of his reason also, he doubted about, as being
+the Son of God. The picture thus presented to his mind had its pleasant
+and its unpleasant features. Strange as it may seem, it is certain that
+the young man would have loved, would have respected Mary less than he now
+did, could he imagine that <i>she</i> entertained the same notions on this very
+subject as those he entertained himself! Few men relish infidelity in a
+woman, whose proper sphere would seem to be in believing and in
+worshipping, and not in cavilling, or in splitting straws on matters of
+faith. Perhaps it is that we are apt to associate laxity of morals with
+laxity of belief, and have a general distaste for releasing the other sex
+from any, even the smallest of the restraints that the dogmas of the
+church impose; but we hold it to be without dispute that, with very few
+exceptions, every man would prefer that the woman in whom he feels an
+interest should err on the side of bigotry rather than on that of what is
+called liberalism in points of religious belief. Thus it is with most of
+us, and thus was it with Roswell Gardiner. He could not wonder at Mary's
+rigid notions, considering her education; and, on the whole, he rather
+liked her the better for them, at the very moment that he felt they might
+endanger his own happiness. If women thoroughly understood how much of
+their real power and influence with men arises from their seeming
+dependence, there would be very little tolerance in their own circles for
+those among them who are for proclaiming their independence and their
+right to equality in all things.</p>
+
+<p>While our young mariner and his companion were working their way up to the
+table-land, which lay fully three hundred feet above the level of the sea,
+there was little opportunity for further discourse, so rough was the way,
+and so difficult the ascent. At the summit, however, there was a short
+pause, ere the two undertook the mountain proper, and they came to a halt
+to take a look at the aspect of things around them. There was the boat, a
+mere white speck on the water, flying away with a fresh northerly breeze
+towards the volcano, while the smoke from the latter made a conspicuous
+and not very distant land-mark. Nearer at home, all appeared unusually
+plain for a region in which fogs were so apt to prevail. The cove lay
+almost beneath them, and the schooner, just then, struck the imagination
+of her commander as a fearfully small craft to come so far from home and
+to penetrate so deep among the mazes of the ice. It was that ice, itself,
+however, that attracted most of Roswell's attention. Far as the eye could
+reach, north, south, east and west, the ocean was brilliant and chill with
+the vast floating masses. The effect on the air was always perceptible in
+that region, 'killing the summer,' as the sealers expressed it; but it
+seemed to be doubly so at the elevation to which the two adventurers had
+attained. Still, the panorama was magnificent. The only part of the ocean
+that did not seem to be alive with ice-bergs, if one may use such an
+expression, was the space within the group, and that was as clear as an
+estuary in a mild climate. It really appeared as if nature had tabooed
+that privileged spot, in order that the communication between the
+different islands should remain open. Of course, the presence of so many
+obstacles to the billows without, and indeed even to the rake of the
+winds, produced smooth water within, the slow, breath-like heaving and
+setting of the ceaseless ground-swell, being the only perceptible motion
+to the water in side.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis a very remarkable view, Stephen," said Roswell Gardiner, "but there
+will be one much finer, if we can work our way up that cone of a mountain,
+and stand on its naked cap. I wish I had brought an old ensign and a small
+spar along, to set up the gridiron, in honour of the States. We're
+beginning to put out our feelers, old Stimson, and shall have 'em on far
+better bits of territory than this, before the earth has gone round in its
+track another hundred years."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to my notion, Captain Gar'ner," answered the seaman, following his
+officer towards the base of the cone, "Uncle Sam has got more land now
+than he knows what to do with. If a body could discover a bit of ocean, or
+a largish sort of a sea, there might be some use in it. Whales are getting
+to be skeary, and are mostly driven off their old grounds; and as for the
+seals, you must bury yourself, craft and all, up to the truck in ice, to
+get a smile from one of their good-lookin' count'nances, as I always say."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid, Stephen, it is all over with the discovery of more seas.
+Even the moon, they now say, is altogether without water, having not so
+much as a lake or a large pond to take a duck in."</p>
+
+<p>"Without water, sir!" exclaimed Stimson, quite aghast. "If 'tis so, sir,
+it <i>must</i> be right, since the same hand that made the moon made this
+'arth, and all it contains. But what <i>can</i> they do for seafaring folks in
+the moon, if what you tell me, Captain Gar'ner, is the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>"They must do without them. I fancy oil and skins are not very much in
+demand among the moonites, Stephen. What's that, off here to the eastward,
+eh? East-and-by north-half-east, or so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean, sir. It does look wonderfully like a sail, and a
+sail pretty well surrounded by ice, too!"</p>
+
+<p>There was no mistake in the matter. The white canvass of a vessel was
+plainly visible, over a vast breadth of field-ice, a little to the
+northward of the island that lay directly opposite the cove. Although the
+sails of this stranger were spread, it was plain enough he was closely
+beset, if not actually jammed. From the first instant he saw the strange
+craft, Roswell had not a doubt of her character. He felt convinced it was
+his late consort, the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, which had found her way to
+the group by means of some hint that had fallen into Daggett's hands, if
+not by a positive nautical instinct. So great had been his own success,
+however, and so certain did he now feel of filling up in due season, that
+he cared much less for this invasion on his privacy than he would have
+done a fortnight earlier. On the contrary, it might be a good thing to
+have a consort in the event of any accident occurring to his own vessel.
+From the moment, then, that Gardiner felt certain of the character of the
+strange sail, his policy was settled in his own mind. It was to receive
+his old acquaintance with good will, and to help fill him up too, as soon
+as he had secured his own cargo, in order that they might sail for home in
+company. By his aid and advice, the other schooner might save a week in
+time at that most important season of the year; and by the experience and
+exertions of his people, a whole month in filling up might readily be
+gained.</p>
+
+<p>All thoughts of climbing the peak were at once abandoned; and, in fifteen
+minutes after the sail was seen, Roswell and Stephen both came panting
+down to the house; so much easier is it to descend in this world than to
+mount. A swivel was instantly loaded and fired as a signal; and, in half
+an hour, a boat was manned and ready. Roswell took command himself,
+leaving his second mate to look after the schooner. Stimson went with his
+captain, and in less than one hour after he had first seen the strange
+sail, our hero was actually pulling out of the cove, with a view to go to
+her assistance. Roswell Gardiner was as good-hearted a fellow as ever
+lived. He had a sufficient regard for his own interests, as well as for
+those of others entrusted to his care; but, these main points looked
+after, he would cheerfully have worked a month to relieve the Vineyard-men
+from the peril that so plainly beset them. Setting his sails the instant
+the boat was clear of the rocks, away he went, then, as fast as ash and
+canvass could carry him, which was at a rate but little short of eight
+knots in the hour.</p>
+
+<p>As he was thus flying towards his object, our young mariner formed a
+theory in his own mind, touching the drift of the ice in the adjacent
+seas. It was simply this. He had sounded in entering the great bay, and
+had ascertained that comparatively shallow water existed between the
+south-eastern extremity of Sealer's Land and the nearest island opposite.
+It was deep enough to admit the largest vessel that ever floated, and a
+great deal more than this; but it was not deep enough to permit an
+ice-berg to pass. The tides, too, ran in races among the islands, which
+prevented the accumulation of ice at the southern entrance, while the
+outer currents seemed to set everything past the group to allow of the
+floating mountains to collect to the eastward, where they appeared to be
+thronged. It was on the western verge of this wilderness of ice-bergs and
+ice fields that the strange sail had been seen working her way towards the
+group, which must be plainly in view from her decks, as her distance from
+the nearest of the islands certainly did not exceed two leagues.</p>
+
+<p>It required more than two hours for the whale-boat of Roswell to cross the
+bay, and reach the margin of that vast field of ice, which was prevented
+from drifting into the open space only by encountering the stable rocks of
+the first of the group. Every eye was now turned in quest of an opening,
+by means of which it might be possible to get further to the eastward.
+One, at length, was discovered, and into it Gardiner dashed, ordering his
+boat's crew to stretch themselves out at their oars, though every man with
+him thought they were plunging into possible destruction. On the boat
+went, however, now sheering to starboard, now to port, to avoid projecting
+spurs of ice, until she had ploughed her way through a fearfully narrow,
+and a deviating passage, that sometimes barely permitted them to go
+through, until a spot was reached where the two fields which formed this
+strait actually came in close crushing contact with each other. Roswell
+took a look before and behind him, saw that his boat was safe owing to the
+formation of the two outlines of the respective fields, when he sprang
+upon the ice itself, bidding the boat-steerer to wait for him. A shout
+broke out of the lips of the young captain the instant he was erect on the
+ice. There lay the schooner, the Martha's Vineyard craft, within half a
+mile of him, in plain sight, and in as plain jeopardy. She was jammed,
+with every prospect, as Roswell thought, of being crushed, ere she could
+get free from the danger.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-16">
+<h2>Chapter XVI.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"A sculler's notch in the stern he made,<br />
+An oar he shaped of the bottle blade;<br />
+Then sprung to his seat with a lightsome leap<br />
+And launched afar on the calm, blue deep."</p>
+
+<p>  <i>The Culprit Fay.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Roswell was hardly on the ice before a sound of a most portentous sort
+reached his ear. He knew at once that the field had been rent in twain by
+outward pressure, and that some new change was to occur that might release
+or might destroy the schooner. He was on the point of springing forward in
+order to join Daggett, when a call from the boat arrested his steps.</p>
+
+<p>"These here fields are coming together, Captain Gar'ner, and our boat will
+soon be crushed unless we get it out of the water."</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, a single glance behind him sufficed to assure the young
+master of the truth of this statement. The field he was on was slowly
+swinging, bringing its western margin in closer contact with the eastern
+edge of the floe that lay within it. The movement could be seen merely by
+the closing of the channel through which the boat had come, and by the
+cracking and crushing of the ice on the edges of the two fields. So
+tremendous was the pressure, however, that cakes as large as a small house
+were broken off, and forced upward on the surface of the field, or ground
+into small fragments, as it might be under the vice of a power hitherto
+unknown to the spectators. Slow as was the movement of the floe, it was
+too fast to allow of delay; and, finding a suitable place, the boat was
+hauled up, and put in security on the floe that lay nearest the schooner.</p>
+
+<p>"This may give us a long drag to get back into the water, Stimson, and a
+night out of our bunks," said Roswell, looking about him, as soon as the
+task was achieved.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know that, sir," was the answer. "It seems to me that the floe
+has parted alongside of them rocks, and if-so-be that should turn out to
+be the case, the whull on us, schooner, boat, and all hands, may drift
+into the bay; for that there is a current setting from this quarter up
+towards our island, I'm sartain of, by the feel of my oar, as we come
+along."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be so--the currents run all manner of ways, and field-ice may pass
+the shoals, though a berg never can. I do not remember, nevertheless, to
+have ever seen even a floe within the group--nothing beyond large cakes
+that have got adrift by some means or other."</p>
+
+<p>"I have, sir, though only once. A few days a'ter we got in, when I was
+ship-keeper, and all hands was down under the rocks of the north eend, a
+field come in at the northern entrance of the bay, and went out at the
+southern. It might have been a league athwart it, and it drifted, as a
+body might say, as if it had some one aboard to give it the right sheer.
+Touch it did at the south cape, but just winding as handy as a craft could
+have done it, in a good tide's way, out to sea it went ag'in, bound to the
+south pole for-ti-'now."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this is good news, and may be the means of saving the Vineyard
+craft in the end. We do seem to be setting bodily into the bay, and if we
+can only get clear of that island, I do not see what is to hinder it. Here
+is a famous fellow of a mountain to the northward, coming down before the
+wind, as one might say, and giving us a cant into the passage. I should
+think that chap must produce some sort of a change, whether it be for
+better or worse."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," put in Thompson, who acted as a boat-steerer at need, "he
+may do just that, but it is all he can do. Mr. Green and I sounded out
+from the cove for a league or more, a few days since, and we found less
+than twenty fathoms, as far as we went. That chap up to the nor'ard
+there, draws something like a hundred fathoms, if he draws an inch. He
+shows more above water than a first-rate's truck."</p>
+
+<p>"That does he, and a good deal to spare. Thompson, do you and Todd remain
+here, and look after the boat, while the rest of us will shape our course
+for the schooner. She seems to be in a wicked berth, and 'twill be no more
+than neighbourly to try to get her out of it."</p>
+
+<p>Truly enough might Roswell call the berth of the Sea Lion, of the
+Vineyard, by any expressive name that implied danger. When the party
+reached her, they found the situation of that vessel to be as follows. She
+had been endeavouring to work her way through a passage between two large
+fields, when she found the ice closing, and that she was in great danger
+of being 'nipped.' Daggett was a man of fertile resources, and great
+decision of character. Perceiving that escape was impossible, all means of
+getting clear being rendered useless by the floes soon touching, both
+before and behind him, he set about adopting the means most likely to save
+his vessel. Selecting a spot where a curve, in the margin of the field to
+leeward, promised temporary security, at least, he got his vessel into it,
+anchored fast to the floe. Then he commenced cutting away the ice, by
+means of axes first, and of saws afterwards, in the hope that he might
+make such a cavity as, by its size and shape, would receive the schooner's
+hull, and prevent her destruction. For several hours had he and his people
+been at this work, when, to their joy, as well as to their great
+astonishment, they were suddenly joined by Roswell and his party. The fact
+was, that so intently had every one of the Vineyard men's faculties been
+absorbed by their own danger, and so much was each individual occupied by
+his own duty, that not a man among them had seen the boat, or even any of
+the crew, until Gardiner called out to Daggett as he approached,
+announcing his presence by his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"This is good fortune, truly, Captain Gar'ner," said Daggett, shaking his
+brother master most cordially by the hand; "good fortune, do I call it! I
+was satisfied that I should fall in with you, somewhere about this group
+of islands, for they lie just about where my late uncle had given us
+reason to suppose some good sealing ground might be met with; but I did
+not hope to see you this morning. You observe our position, Captain
+Gar'ner; there is every prospect of a most awful nip!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is, indeed, though I see you have been making some provision for
+it. What luck have you had in digging a slip to let the schooner into?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we might have had worse, though better would have been more
+agreeable. It's plain sailing, so long as we can work above water, and you
+see we've cleared a fine berth for the craft, down to the water's edge;
+but, below that, 'tis blind work and slow. The field is some thirty feet
+thick, and sawing through it is out of the question. The most we can do is
+to get off pieces diagonally. I am not without hopes that we have done
+enough of this to make a wedge, on which the schooner will rise, if
+pressed hard on her off-side. I have heard of such things, Captain
+Gar'ner, though I cannot say I ever saw it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a ticklish business to trust to such a protector; still, a great
+deal must be gained by cutting away so much of this upper ice, and it is
+possible your schooner may be lifted, as you seem to expect. Has anything
+been done to strengthen the craft in-board?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not as yet; though I've thought of that, too. But what is the stoutest
+ship that ever floated, against the pressure of such an enormous field of
+ice? Had we not better keep cutting away?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can continue to work the saw and the axes, but I will give an eye to
+strengthening the craft in-board. Just point out the spars and plank you
+can spare, and we'll see what can be done. At any rate, my lads, you can
+now work with the certainty that your lives are safe. My schooner lies
+about six leagues from you, as safely moored as if she lay in a dock.
+Come, Captain Daggett, let me see your spare spars and plank."</p>
+
+<p>Great encouragement it certainly was to these mariners, so far from home,
+and in their imminently perilous condition, to know that a countryman and
+a friend was so near them, to afford shelter and protection. The American
+sailor is not a cheering animal, like his English relative, but he quite
+as clearly understands what ought to be received with congratulation, as
+those who are apt to make more noise. The Vineyard men, in particular,
+were habitually quiet and thoughtful, there being but one seaman in the
+craft who did not husband his lay, and look forward to meet the wants of a
+future day. This is the result of education, men usually becoming quiet as
+they gain ideas, and feel that the tongue has been given to us in order to
+communicate them to our fellows. Still, the joy at receiving this
+unlooked-for assistance was great among the Vineyard men, and each party
+went to work with activity and zeal.</p>
+
+<p>The task of Roswell Gardiner was in-board, while that of Daggett and his
+men continued to be on the ice. The latter resumed the labour of cutting
+and sawing the field, and of getting up fenders, or skids, to protect the
+inner side of their vessel from the effects of a 'nip.' As for Gardiner,
+he set about his self-assumed duty with great readiness and intelligence.
+His business was to strengthen the craft, by getting supports up in her
+hold. This was done without much difficulty, all the upper part of the
+hold being clear and easily come at. Spars were cut to the proper length,
+plank were placed in the broadest part of the vessel, opposite to each
+other, and the spars were wedged in carefully, extending from side to
+side, so as to form a great additional support to the regular construction
+of the schooner. In little more than an hour, Roswell had his task
+accomplished, while Daggett did not see that he could achieve much more
+himself. They met on the ice to consult, and to survey the condition of
+things around them.</p>
+
+<p>The outer field had been steadily encroaching upon the inner, breaking the
+edges of both, until the points of junction were to be traced by a long
+line of fragments forced upward, and piled high in the air. Open spaces,
+however, still existed, owing to irregularities in the outlines of the two
+floes; and Daggett hoped that the little bay into which he had got his
+schooner might not be entirely closed, ere a shift of wind, or a change in
+the tides, might carry away the causes of the tremendous pressure that
+menaced his security. It is not easy for those who are accustomed to look
+at natural objects in their more familiar aspects, fully to appreciate the
+vast momentum of the weight that was now drifting slowly down upon the
+schooner. The only ray of hope was to be found in the deficiency in one
+of the two great requisites of such a force. Momentum being <i>weight</i>,
+multiplied into <i>velocity</i>, there were some glimpses visible, of a nature
+to produce a slight degree of expectation that the last might yet be
+resisted. The movement was slow, but it was absolutely grand, by its
+steadiness and power. Any one who has ever stood on a lake or river shore,
+and beheld the undeviating force with which a small cake of ice crumbles
+and advances before a breeze, or in a current, may form some idea of the
+majesty of the movement of a field of leagues in diameter, and which was
+borne upon by a gale of the ocean, as well as by currents, and by the
+weight of drifting ice-bergs from without. It is true that the impetus
+came principally from a great distance, and could scarcely be detected or
+observed by those around the schooner; still, these last were fully aware
+of the whole character of the danger, which each minute appeared to render
+more and more imminent and imposing. The two fields were obviously closing
+still, and that with a resistless power that boded destruction to the
+unfortunate vessel. The open water near her was already narrowed to a
+space that half an hour might suffice to close entirely.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you set that nearest island by compass, Daggett?" asked Roswell
+Gardiner, as soon as he had taken a good look around him. "To me it seems
+that it bears more to the eastward than it did an hour since. If this
+should be true, our inner field here must have a very considerable
+westerly set."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case we may still hope to drift clear," returned Daggett,
+springing on board the schooner, and running aft to the binnacle, Roswell
+keeping close at his side. "By George! it is as you say; the bearings of
+that island are altered at least two points!"</p>
+
+<p>"In which case our drift has exceeded a league--Ha! what noise is that?
+Can it be an eruption of the volcano?"</p>
+
+<p>Daggett, at first, was inclined to believe it was a sound produced by some
+of the internal convulsions of the earth, which within, as if in mockery
+of the chill scene that prevailed without, was a raging volcano, the
+fierce heats of which found vent at the natural chimneys produced by its
+own efforts. This opinion, however, did not last long, and he gave
+expression to his new thoughts in his answer.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis the ice," he said. "I do believe the pressure has caused the fields
+to part on the rocks of that island. If so, our leeward floe may float
+away, as fast as the weather field approaches."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly," said Roswell, gazing intently towards the nearest island;
+"hardly; for the most weatherly of the two will necessarily get the force
+of the wind and the impetus of those bergs first, and make the fastest
+drift. It may lessen the violence of the nip, but I do not think it will
+avert it altogether."</p>
+
+<p>This opinion of Gardiner's fully described all that subsequently occurred.
+The outer floe continued its inroads on the inner, breaking up the margins
+of both, until the channel was so nearly closed as to bring the field from
+which the danger was most apprehended in absolute contact with the side of
+the schooner. When the margin of the outer floe first touched the bilge of
+the schooner, it was at the precise spot where the vessel had just been
+fortified within. Fenders had also been provided without, and there was
+just a quarter of a minute, during which the two captains hoped that these
+united means of defence might enable the craft to withstand the pressure.
+This delusion lasted but a moment, however, the cracking of timbers
+letting it be plainly seen that the force was too great to be resisted.
+For another quarter of a minute, the two masters held their breath,
+expecting to see the deck rise beneath their feet, as the ice rose along
+the points of contact between the floes. Such, in all probability, would
+have been the result, had not the pressure brought about another change,
+that was quite as much within the influence of the laws of mechanical
+forces, though not so much expected. Owing to the wedge-like form of the
+vessel's bottom, as well as to the circumstance that the ice of the outer
+floe had a similar shape, projecting beneath the schooner's keel, the
+craft was lifted bodily, with an upward jerk, as if she were suddenly
+released from some imprisoning power. Released she was, indeed, and that
+most opportunely, for another half-minute would have seen her ribs broken
+in, and the schooner a mangled wreck. As she now rose, Roswell gave vent
+to his delight in a loud cry, and all hands felt that the occurrence might
+possibly save them. The surge upward was fearful, and several of the men
+were thrown off their feet; but it effectually released the schooner from
+the nip, laying her gradually up in the sort of dock that her people had
+been so many hours preparing for her reception. There she lay, inclining a
+little, partly on her bilge, or sewed, as seamen term it, when a vessel
+gets a list from touching the ground and being left by the tide, neither
+quite upright, nor absolutely on her beam-ends.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner was the vessel thus docked, than all apprehension of receiving
+further injury from the outer floe ceased. It might force the schooner
+altogether on the inner field, driving the vessel before it, as an
+avalanche of mud in the Alps is known to force cottages and hamlets in its
+front; but it could no longer 'nip' it. It did not appear probable to the
+two masters, however, that the vessel would be forced from its present
+berth, the rending and cracking of the ice sensibly diminishing, as the
+two floes came closer and closer together. Nor was this all: it was soon
+very obvious that the inner field was drifting, with an increased motion,
+into the bay, while the larger, or outer floe, seemed to hang, from some
+cause or other. Of the fact there was soon no doubt, the fissure beginning
+to open, as slowly and steadily as it had closed, but noiselessly, and
+without any rending of the ice.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall get you clear, Daggett! we shall get you clear!" cried Roswell,
+with hearty good-will, forgetting, in that moment of generous effort, all
+feelings of competition and rivalry. "I know what you are after, my good
+fellow--have understood it from the first. Yonder high land is the spot
+you seek; and along the north shore of that island are elephants, lions,
+dogs, bears, and other animals, to fill up all the craft that ever came
+out of the Vineyard!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is hearty, Gar'ner," returned the other, giving his brother master a
+most cordial shake of the hand, "and it's just what I like. Sealing is a
+sociable business, and a craft should never come alone into these high
+latitudes. Accidents will happen to the most prudent man living, as you
+see by what has just befallen me; for, to own the truth, we've had a
+narrow chance of it!"</p>
+
+<p>The reader will remember that all which Daggett now said, was uttered by
+a man who saw his vessel lying on the ice, with a list that rendered it
+somewhat difficult to move about on her deck, and still in circumstances
+that would have caused half the navigators of this world to despair. Such
+was not the fact with Daggett, however. Seven thousand miles from home,
+alone, in an unknown sea, and uncertain of ever finding the place he
+sought, this man had picked his way among mountains and fields of ice,
+with perhaps less hesitation and reluctance than a dandy would encounter
+the perils of a crossing, when the streets were a little moistened by
+rain. Even then, with his vessel literally shelfed on the ice, certain
+that she had been violently nipped, he was congratulating himself on
+reaching a sealing ground, from which he could never return without
+encountering all the same dangers over again. As for Roswell, he laughed a
+little at the other's opinion of the sealing business, for he was morally
+certain the Vineyard-man would have kept the secret, had it been in his
+possession alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, we'll forget the past," he said, "all but what we've done to
+help one another. You stood by me off Hatteras, and I've been of some
+service to you here. You know how it is in our calling, Daggett; first
+come, first served. I got here first, and have had the cream of the
+business for this season; though I do not by any means wish to be
+understood as saying that you are too late."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, Gar'ner. 'Twould be vexatious to have all this risk and
+trouble for nothing. How much ile have you stowed?"</p>
+
+<p>"All my ground-tier, and a few riders. It is with the skins that we are
+doing the best business."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett's eyes fairly snapped at this announcement, which aroused all his
+professional ambition, to say nothing of that propensity to the "root of
+all evil," which had become pretty thoroughly incorporated with his moral
+being, by dint of example, theory, and association. We have frequently had
+occasion to remark how much more 'enjoyable,' for the intellectual and
+independent, is a country on the decline, than a country on the advance.
+The one is accumulating that wealth which the other has already possessed
+and improved; and men cease to dwell so much on riches in their inmost
+souls, when the means of obtaining them would seem to have got beyond
+their reach. This is one of the secrets of the universal popularity of
+Italy with the idle and educated; though the climate, and the monuments,
+and the recollections, out of doubt, contribute largely to its charms.
+Nevertheless, man, as a rule, is far more removed from the money-getting
+mania in Italy, than in almost any other portion of the Christian world;
+and this merely because the time of her wealth and power has gone by,
+leaving in its train a thousand fruits, that would seem to be the most
+savoury, as the stem on which they grew would appear to be approaching its
+decay. On Martha's Vineyard, however, and in no part of the Great
+Republic, indeed, has this waning season yet commenced, and the heart of
+man is still engrossed with those desires that are to produce the means
+which are to lay the foundations for the enjoyment of generations to come.</p>
+
+<p>"That's luck, indeed, for a craft so early in the season," returned
+Daggett, when his eyes had done snapping. "Are the critturs getting to be
+wild and skeary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not more so than the day we began upon them. I have taken the greatest
+care to send none but my most experienced hands out to kill and skin, and
+their orders have been rigid to give as little alarm as possible. If you
+wish to fill up, I would advise you to take the same precautions, for the
+heel of the season is beginning to show itself."</p>
+
+<p>"I will winter here, but I get a full craft," said Daggett, with a
+resolute manner, if not absolutely serious in what he said. "Trouble
+enough have I had to find the group, and we Vineyard-men don't relish the
+idee of being outdone."</p>
+
+<p>"You would be done up, my fine fellow," answered Roswell, laughing, "did
+you attempt to pass a winter here. The Sea Lion of Humse's Hull would not
+herself keep you in fuel, and you would have to raft it off next summer on
+your casks, or remain here for ever."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose a body might expect to see you back again, another season,"
+observed Daggett, glancing meaningly towards his companion, as if he had
+seriously revolved so desperate a plan in his mind. "'Tisn't often that a
+sealer lets a station like that you've described drop out of his
+recollection in a single v'y'ge."</p>
+
+<p>"I may be back or I may not"--said Roswell, just then remembering Mary,
+and wondering if she would continue to keep him any longer in suspense,
+should he return successful from his present adventure--"That will depend
+on others more than on myself. I wish, however, now we are both here, and
+there can no longer be any 'hide and go seek' between us, that you would
+tell me how you came to know anything about this cluster of islands, or of
+the seals then and there to be found?"</p>
+
+<p>"You forget my uncle, who died on Oyster Pond, and whose effects I crossed
+over to claim?"</p>
+
+<p>"I remember him very well--saw him often while living, and helped to bury
+him when dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, our information came from him. He threw out several hints
+consarning sealing-grounds aboard the brig in which he came home; and you
+needn't be told, Gar'ner, that a hint of that kind is sartain to find its
+way through all the ports down east. But hearing that there was new
+sealing-ground wasn't knowing where to find it. I should have been at a
+loss, wasn't it for the spot on my uncle's chart that had been rubbed over
+lately, as I concluded, to get rid of some of his notes. You know, as well
+as I do, that the spot was in this very latitude and longitude, and so I
+came here to look for the much-desired land."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have undertaken such an outfit, and come this long distance into
+an icy sea, on information as slight as this!" exclaimed Roswell,
+astonished at this proof of sagacity and enterprise, even in men who are
+renowned for scenting dollars from pole to pole.</p>
+
+<p>"On this, with a few hints picked up, here and there, among some of the
+old gentleman's papers. He was fond of scribbling, and I have got a sort
+of a chart that he scratched on a leaf of his bible, that was made to
+represent this very group, as I can now see."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you could have had no occasion for the printed chart, with the mark
+of obliteration on it, and did not come here on that authority after all."</p>
+
+<p>"There you 're wrong, Captain Gar'ner. The chart of the group had no
+latitude or longitude, but just placed each island with its bearings and
+distances from the other islands. It was no help in finding the place,
+which might be in one hemisphere as well as in the other."</p>
+
+<p>"It was, then, the mark of the obliteration--"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Marks</i>, if you please, Captain Gar'ner," interrupted the other,
+significantly. "My uncle talked a good deal aboard of that brig about
+other matters besides sealing. We think several matters have been
+obliterated from the old chart, and we intend to look 'em all up. It's our
+right, you know, seeing that the old man was Vineyard-born, and we are his
+nearest of kin."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly"--rejoined Roswell, laughing again, but somewhat more faintly
+than before. "Every man for him self in this world is a good maxim; it
+being pretty certain if we do not take care of ourselves, no one will take
+care of us."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said Stimson, who was standing near; "there is one to care for
+every hair of our heads, however forgetful and careless we may be
+ourselves. Wasn't it for this, Captain Gar'ner, there's many a craft that
+comes into these seas that would never find its way out of 'em; and many a
+bold sailor, with a heart boiling over with fun and frolic, that would be
+frozen to an ice-cicle every year!"</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner felt the justice of this remark, and easily pardoned its
+familiarity for its truth. In these sealers the discipline is by no means
+of that distant and military or naval character that is found in even an
+ordinary merchantman. As every seaman has an interest in the result of the
+voyage, some excuse was made for this departure from the more general
+usage; and this familiarity itself never exceeded the bounds that were
+necessary to the observance of duty.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay," returned Roswell, smiling--"in one sense you are right enough;
+but Captain Daggett and myself were speaking of human affairs, as human
+affairs are carried on.--Is not this inner field drifting fast away from
+the outer, Daggett? If so, we shall go directly into the bay!"</p>
+
+<p>It was as Gardiner thought. By some means that were not apparent, the
+floes were now actually separating, and at a rate of movement which much
+exceeded that of their junction. All idea of further danger from the outer
+field disappeared, as a matter of course.</p>
+
+<p>"It's so, Captain Gar'ner," said Stimson, respectfully, but with point;
+"and who and what brought it about for our safety and the preservation of
+this craft?--I just ventur' to ask that question, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be the hand of Providence, my good fellow; for I very frankly own
+I can see no direct physical cause. Nevertheless, I fancy it would be
+found that the tides or currents have something to do with it, if the
+truth could be come at."
+
+"Well, sir, and who causes the tides and currents to run, this-a-way and
+that-a-way?"</p>
+
+<p>"There you have me, Stephen; for I never could get hold of the clew to
+their movements at all," answered Roswell, laughing. "There is a reason
+for it all, I dare say, if one could only find it out. Captain Daggett, it
+is high time to look after the safety of your schooner. She ought to be in
+the cove before night sets in, since the ice has found its way into the
+bay."</p>
+
+<p>This appeal produced a general movement. By this time the two fields were
+a hundred fathoms asunder; the smaller, or that on which the vessel lay,
+drifting quite fast into the bay, under the joint influences of wind and
+current; while the larger floe had clearly been arrested by the islands.
+This smaller field was much lessened in surface, in consequence of having
+been broken at the rocks, though the fragment that was thus cut off was of
+more than a league in diameter, and of a thickness that exceeded many
+yards.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, she was literally shelfed, as has
+been said. So irresistible had been the momentum of the great floe, that
+it lifted her out of the water as two or three hands would run up a bark
+canoe on a gravelly beach. This lifting process had, very fortunately for
+the craft, been effected by an application of force from below, in a
+wedge-like manner, and by bringing the strongest defences of the vessel to
+meet the power. Consequently, no essential injury had been done the vessel
+in thus laying her on her screw-dock.</p>
+
+<p>"If a body could get the craft <i>off</i> as easily as she was got <i>on</i>,"
+observed Daggett, as he and Roswell Gardiner stood looking at the
+schooner's situation, "it would be but a light job. But, as it is, she
+lies on ice at least twenty feet thick, and ice that seems as solid as
+flint!"</p>
+
+<p>"We know it is not quite as hard as that, Daggett," was Roswell's reply;
+"for our saws and axes make great havoc in it, when we can fairly get at
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"If one <i>could</i> get fairly at it! But here you see, Gar'ner, everything is
+under water, and an axe is next to useless. Nor can the saws be used with
+much advantage on ice so thick."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no help for it but hard work and great perseverance. I would
+advise that a saw be set at work at each end of the schooner, allowing a
+little room in case of accidents, and that we weaken the foundation by two
+deep cuts. The weight of the vessel will help us, and in time she will
+settle back into her 'native element,' as the newspapers have it."</p>
+
+<p>There was, indeed, no other process that promised success, and the advice
+of Gardiner was followed. In the course of the next two hours deep cuts
+were made with the saws, which were pushed so low as to reach quite to the
+bottom of the cake. This could be done only by what the sailors called
+"jury-handles," or spars secured to the plates. The water offered the
+principal obstacle, for that lay on the shelf at least five feet deep.
+Perseverance and ingenuity, however, finally achieved their aim. A
+cracking was heard, the schooner slowly righted, and settled off into the
+sea again, as easily and harmlessly as if scientifically launched. The
+fenders protected her sides and copper, though the movement was little
+more than slowly sinking on the fragment of the cake, which, by means of
+the cuts, had been gradually so much reduced as to be unable to uphold so
+great a weight. It was merely reversing the process of breaking the
+camel's back, by laying the last feather on his load.</p>
+
+<p>This happy conclusion to several hours of severe toil, occurred just as
+the field had drifted abreast of the cove, and was about the centre of the
+bay. Hazard came up also at that point, on his return from the volcano,
+altering his course a little to speak the strangers. The report of the
+mate concerning his discoveries was simple and brief. There was a volcano,
+and one in activity; but it had nothing remarkable about it. No seal were
+seen, and there was little to reward one for crossing the bay. Sterility,
+and a chill grandeur, were the characteristics of all that region; and
+these were not wanting to any part of the group. Just as the sun was
+setting, Gardiner piloted his companion into the cove; and the two Sea
+Lions were moored amicably side by side, and that too at a spot where
+thousands of the real animals were to be found within a league.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-17">
+<h2>Chapter XVII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"The morning air blows fresh on him;<br />
+The waves dance gladly in his sight;<br />
+The sea-birds call, and wheel, and skim--<br />
+O, blessed morning light!"</p>
+
+<p>  Dana.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The very day succeeding the arrival of the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, even
+while his mate was clearing the vessel, Daggett had a gang on the north
+shore, killing and skinning. As Roswell's rules were rigidly observed, no
+other change was produced by this accession to the force of the sealers,
+than additional slaughter. Many more seals were killed, certainly, but all
+was done so quietly that no great alarm was awakened among the doomed
+animals themselves. One great advantage was obtained by the arrival of the
+new party that occasioned a good deal of mirth at first, but which, in the
+end, was found to be of great importance to the progress of the work.
+Daggett had taken to pieces and brought with him the running part of a
+common country wagon, which was soon found of vast service in transporting
+the skins and blubber across the rocks. The wheels were separated, leaving
+them in pairs, and each axle was loaded with a freight that a dozen men
+would hardly have carried, when two or three hands would drag in the load,
+with an occasional lift from other gangs, to get them up a height, or over
+a cleft. This portion of the operation was found to work admirably, owing,
+in a great measure, to the smooth surfaces of the rocks; and
+unquestionably these wheels advanced the business of the season at least a
+fortnight;--Gardiner thought a month. It rendered the crews better
+natured, too, much diminishing their toil, and sending them to their bunks
+at night in a far better condition for rest than they otherwise could have
+been.</p>
+
+<p>Just one month, or four weeks to a day, after the second schooner got in,
+it being Sunday of course, Gardiner and Daggett met on the platform of a
+perfectly even rock that lay stretched for two hundred yards directly
+beneath the house. It was in the early morning. Notwithstanding there was
+a strong disposition to work night and day on the part of the new-comers,
+Roswell's rule of keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest had prevailed, and
+the business of washing, scrubbing and shaving, had just commenced. As for
+the two masters, they required fewer ablutions than their men, had risen
+earlier, and were already dressed for the day.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow will be the first day of February," said Daggett, when the
+salutations of the morning were passed, "and I was calculating my chances
+of getting full this season. You will be full this week, I conclude,
+Gar'ner?"</p>
+
+<p>"We hope to be so, by the middle of it," was the answer. "I think the seal
+are getting to be much shyer than they were, and am afraid we shall
+demonstrate that 'the more haste is the worse speed.'"</p>
+
+<p>"What is that to you?" returned Daggett quickly. "Of course you will sail
+for home as soon as you can get off."</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner did not like the "of course," which was indirectly saying what
+the other would do himself under similar circumstances. Still, it caused
+no difference in his own decision, which had been made up under the
+influence of much reflection, and of a great deal of good feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do no such thing, Captain Daggett," was the answer. "I do not
+fancy the idea of leaving a fellow-creature, a countryman--nay, I might
+say, a neighbour, on this lone spot, with the uncertainty of his ever
+getting out of it. If you can come to some understanding with my officers
+and crew, I will keep the schooner here until we are both full, and ready
+to sail in company."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case you would nat'rally ask a lay for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally, perhaps, I might," returned Roswell, smiling, "though
+positively, I shall not. Not one of us in the cabin will look for any
+other advantage than your good company. I have talked this matter over
+with my mates, and they say that the advantage of having a consort in
+getting through the ice is sufficient to justify us in holding on two or
+three weeks longer. With the men, it will be a little different, perhaps;
+and they will require some pay. The poor fellows live by their hands, and
+what their hands do they will expect to be compensated for."</p>
+
+<p>"They shall have good lays, depend on it. As for yourself, Captain
+Gar'ner, I trust my owners will not forget to do what is right, if we ever
+get home, and meet with luck in the market."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear for me, Daggett. I look for my reward in the bright eyes and
+pleasant smiles of as excellent a girl as Long Island can produce. Mary
+never fails to reward me in that way whenever I do right. It <i>is</i> right to
+stand by you just now--to do as I would be done by: and I 'll do it. Set
+the thing down as decided, but make your bargain with my men. And now,
+Daggett, what say you to climbing yonder mountain to-day, by way of
+getting a good survey of our territories, as well as to take a look at the
+state of the ice?"</p>
+
+<p>Daggett assented very cheerfully, his mind being greatly relieved by this
+assurance of standing by him, on the part of Roswell; for he had been
+undecided whether to remain after the departure of the other schooner or
+not. All was now clear to him, however, and the two masters made their
+preparations to ascend the mountain as soon as they had breakfasted.
+Stimson was summoned to be of the party, his officer having got to be
+accustomed to, and desirous of, his company.</p>
+
+<p>For the first two hours after quitting the house, Gardiner, Daggett, and
+the boat-steerer, were busily employed in working their way across the
+broken surface of the island, to the base of the cone-like pinnacle that
+formed the apex of all. There they rested, and took a little refreshment,
+conversing the while on the state of the ice in the offing, so far as the
+last could be seen from their present elevation.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have a sharp hill to climb, should we succeed in getting up
+here," observed Roswell, "though the rocks appear to be quite clear of
+snow just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Just now, or never. This is the antarctic dog-days, Gar'ner," answered
+Daggett, laughing, "and we must make the most of them. A man can move
+about without his pee-jacket at noon-day, and that is something gained;
+for, I have heard of ice making in the bays, even at mid-summer."</p>
+
+<p>"We are not in a high enough latitude for that, thank heaven, though
+pretty well south too. This is our harvest-time here, sure enough, and we
+had better look to it."</p>
+
+<p>As Gardiner said this, the eyes of all three were turned on the sterile
+scene around them. The island was not absolutely destitute of vegetation,
+as is the case a few degrees further south; but it might be said to be
+nearly so. A few stunted plants were to be seen in the fissures of the
+rocks, and a little soil had been made, seemingly by the crumbling of the
+stones, in which a wiry grass occasionally showed itself. As for the
+mountain, however, it was mostly bare; and when our party began to climb,
+the ascent was not only difficult, but in places dangerous. Roswell had
+foreseen this, and he had made a provision accordingly. In addition to his
+lance, used as a leaping-staff and walking-pike, each man had a small coil
+of ratlin-stuff thrown over his shoulder, in order to help him in
+difficult places, or enable him to help his companions. It was in the
+descent chiefly that these ropes were expected to be of service, though
+their utility was made apparent ere the three reached the summit. The
+ascent of a mountain a thousand feet in height is no great exploit under
+ordinary circumstances. Even when there are precipitous cliffs, gorges,
+ravines and broken masses, youth, activity and courage will commonly
+overcome all the difficulties, placing the foot of man on eminences that
+nature would appear to have intended solely for the dominion of the goat.
+Thus did it turn out with the three sealers, all of whom stood on the bald
+cap of that mountain, after a vigorous and somewhat hazardous ascent, that
+occupied rather more than an hour. They had greatly aided each other in
+achieving their purpose, to be sure; and the ratlin-stuff was found of use
+on more than one occasion.</p>
+
+<p>An extraordinary, and, considering the accessories, a most brilliant view,
+rewarded the adventurers. But, after a few minutes passed in pure
+admiration of what they beheld, the minds of all three adverted to the
+parts which gave such unusual splendour to the panorama. Icebergs were
+visible on all sides of them, the great bay excepted; and the group was
+surrounded by them, in a way that would seem to proclaim a blockade. At
+that season, the south winds prevailed, though changes were frequent and
+sudden, and the vast frozen fleet was drifting north. Gardiner saw that
+the passage by which he had brought in his schooner was now completely
+closed, and that the only means of exit from the bay was by its northern
+outlet. The great depth of the bergs still prevented their coming within
+the cluster of islands, while their number and size completely stopped the
+floes from passing.</p>
+
+<p>To the northward, the sea was much more open. Gardiner and Daggett both
+thought, as they gazed in that direction, that it would be easy enough to
+take a vessel through the difficulties of the navigation, and that a good
+run of eight-and-forty hours would carry her quite beyond the crowded ice.
+This sight awakened some regrets in the two masters, that they were not
+then in a condition to depart.</p>
+
+<p>"I am almost sorry that we have made a holiday of the Sunday," said
+Daggett, seating himself on a point of rock, to get a little rest after so
+fatiguing an ascent. "Every minute of time is precious to men in our
+situation."</p>
+
+<p>"Every minute of time is precious to all men, Captain Daggett, in another
+and a still more important sense, if they did but know it," put in
+Stimson, with a zealous freedom, and a Christian's earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand you, Stephen, and will not gainsay it. But a sealin' v'y'ge
+is no place, after all, for a man to give himself up to Sabbaths and
+religion."</p>
+
+<p>"All places are good, sir, and all hours Sabbaths, when the heart is in
+the true state. God is on this naked rock, as he is on the Vineyard; and a
+thought, or a syllable, in his praise, on this mountain, are as pleasant
+to him as them that arise from churches and priests."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it is, at least, a mistake in policy to give the men no day of
+rest," said Roswell, quietly. "Though not prepared to carry matters as far
+as my friend Stephen here. I agree with him entirely in <i>that</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"And not in believing, sir, that the Spirit of God is on this island?"</p>
+
+<p>"In that too, certainly. Neither Captain Daggett nor myself will be
+disposed to dispute either of these two propositions, I think, when we
+come to reflect on them. A day of rest would seem to be appointed by
+nature; and I make no doubt we have filled up all the sooner for having
+observed one. Seamen have so many calls on their time which cannot be
+neglected, that it is unwise in them to increase the number
+unnecessarily."</p>
+
+<p>"This is not the spirit, Captain Gar'ner, I'm sorry to say, in which we
+should keep our day of rest, though it is well that we keep it at all. I'm
+no stickler for houses and congregations, though they are good enough in
+their times and seasons; for every man has a tabernacle in his own heart,
+if he's disposed to worship."</p>
+
+<p>"And if any place on earth can particularly incline one to worship God,
+surely it must be some such spot as this!" exclaimed Roswell, with a
+degree of fervour it was not usual for him to exhibit. "Never in my life
+have my eyes seen a sight as remarkable and as glorious as this!"</p>
+
+<p>Well might our young mariner thus exclaim. The day was fine for the
+region, but marked by the caprice and changeful light of high latitudes.
+There was mist in places, and flurries of snow were to be seen to the
+southward, while the ocean to the northward of the group was glittering
+under the brightness of an unclouded sun. It was the mixed character of
+this scene that rendered it so peculiar, while its grandeur, sublimity,
+and even beauty, were found in its vastness, its noble though wild
+accessories, its frozen and floating mountains, glowing in prismatic
+light, and the play of summer on the features of an antarctic view.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis a remarkable spot, as no one can deny," answered Daggett; "but I
+like its abundance of seal the most of all T cannot say I have much taste
+for sights, unless they bring the promise of good profit with them. We
+Vineyarders live in a small way, and are not rich enough to take delight
+in landscapes."</p>
+
+<p>"Serve God, and reverence his holy name," said Stimson, earnestly, "and
+all places will be good to look upon. I have been on the Vineyard in my
+time, and have never found any difference as to the spot, so long as the
+heart is right."</p>
+
+<p>"A poor man must work," answered Daggett, dropping his eyes from the more
+distant and gorgeous views of the drifting ice-mountains, to the rocky
+shore, that was still frequented by thousands of seals, some of the
+largest of which might be seen, even from that elevation, waddling about;
+"ay, a poor man must work, Sundays or no Sundays; and he who would make
+his hay, must do it while the sun shines. I like meetin'-goin' at the
+right place, and sealin' when sealin' ought to be done. This day is lost,
+I fear, and I hope we shall not have reason to regret it."</p>
+
+<p>Stimson did not abandon what he conceived to be his duty, but answered
+this cold, worldly spirit in the best manner his uncultivated speech
+enabled him to do. But his words were thrown away on Daggett. The lust of
+gold was strong within him; and while that has full dominion over the
+heart, it is vain to expect that any purely spiritual fruits will ripen
+there. Daggett was an instance of what, we fear, many thousands resembling
+him might be found, up and down the land, of a man energetic by
+temperament, industrious by habit, and even moderate in his views, but
+whose whole existence is concentrated in the accumulation of property.
+Born poor, and in a state of society in which no one other generally
+recognised mode of distinction is so universally acknowledged as that of
+the possession of money, it is not surprising that a man of his native
+disposition should early bend all his faculties to this one great object.
+He was not a miser, Irke Deacon Pratt, for he could spend freely, on
+occasion, and perfectly understood the necessity of making liberal outfits
+to insure ample returns; but he lived for little else than for gain. What
+such a man might have become, under more favourable auspices, and with
+different desires instilled into his youthful mind, it is not easy to say;
+it is only certain that, as he was, the steel-trap is not quicker to
+spring at the touch, than he was to arouse all his manifold energies at
+the hopes or promise of profit. As his whole life had been passed in one
+calling, it was but natural that his thoughts should most easily revert to
+the returns that calling had so often given. He never dreamed of
+speculations, knew nothing of stocks, had no concern with manufactures in
+cotton or wool, nor had any other notion of wealth than the possession of
+a good farm on the Vineyard, a reasonable amount of money "at use,"
+certain interests in coasters, whalers, and sealers, and a sufficiency of
+household effects, and this in a very modest way, to make himself and
+family comfortable. Notwithstanding this seeming moderation, Daggett was
+an intensely covetous man; but his wishes were limited by his habits.</p>
+
+<p>While one of the masters of the sealing crafts was drawing these pictures,
+in his imagination, of wealth after his manner, very different were the
+thoughts of the other. Roswell's fancy carried him far across that blue
+and sparkling ocean, northward, to Oyster Pond, and Deacon Pratt's
+homestead, and to Mary. He saw the last in her single hearted simplicity,
+her maiden modesty, her youthful beauty,--nay, even in her unyielding
+piety; for, singular as it may seem, Gardiner valued his mistress so much
+the more for that very faith to which, in his own person, he laid no
+claim. Irreligious he was not, himself, though skeptical on the one great
+tenet of Christianity. But, in Mary, it struck him it was right that she
+should believe that which she had been so sedulously taught; for he did
+not at all fancy those inquiring minds, in the other sex, that lead their
+possessors in quest of novelties and paradoxes. In this humour, then, the
+reader will not be surprised to hear that he imagined the deacon's niece
+in her most pleasing attributes, and bedecked her with all those charms
+that render maidens pleasant to youthful lovers. Had Mary been less
+devout, less fixed in her belief that Jesus was the Son of God; strange as
+it may seem, the skeptical young man would have loved her less.</p>
+
+<p>And what was that rugged, uncultivated seaman, who stood near the two
+officers, thinking of, all this time? Did he, too, bend his thoughts on
+love, and profit, and the pleasures of this world? Of love, most truly,
+was his heart full to overflowing; but it was the love of God, with that
+affection for all his creatures, that benevolence and faith, which glow as
+warmly in the hearts of the humblest and least educated, as in those of
+the great and learned. His mind was turned towards his Creator, and it
+converted the extraordinary view that lay before his sight into a vast,
+magnificent, gorgeous, though wild temple, for his worship and honour. It
+might be well for all of us occasionally to pause in our eager pursuit of
+worldly objects, and look around on the world itself, considering it as
+but a particle in the illimitable fields of creation,--one among the many
+thousands of other known worlds, that have been set in their places in
+honour of the hand that made them. These brief but vivid glances at the
+immensity of the moral space which separates man from his Deity, have very
+healthful effects in inculcating that humility which is the stepping-stone
+of faith and love.</p>
+
+<p>After passing an hour on the bald cap of the mountain, sometimes
+conversing, at others ruminating on the scene, a change in the weather
+induced our party to move. There had been flurries of snow visible all the
+morning, but it was in the distance, and among the glittering bergs. Once
+the volcano had thus been shut in from view; but now a driving cloud
+passed over the mountain itself, which was quickly as white as the pure
+element could make it. So heavy was the fall of snow, that it was soon
+impossible to see a dozen yards, and of course the whole of the plain of
+the island was concealed. At this most inauspicious moment, our
+adventurers undertook their descent.</p>
+
+<p>It is always much less dangerous to mount an acclivity than to go down it.
+The upward progress is easily enough arrested, while that in the other
+direction is frequently too rapid to be under perfect command. Roswell
+felt the truth of this, and would have proposed a delay until the
+atmosphere became clear again, but it struck him that this was not likely
+to occur very soon. He followed Daggett, therefore, though reluctantly,
+and with due caution. Stimson brought up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>For the first ten minutes our adventurers got along without any great
+difficulty. They found the precise point at which they had reached the
+summit of the mountain, and began to descend. It was soon apparent that
+great caution must be used, the snow rendering the footing slippery,
+Daggett, however, was a bold and hot-blooded man when in motion, and he
+preceded the party some little distance, calling out to those behind him
+to come on without fear. This the last did, though it was with a good deal
+more caution than was observed by their leader. At length, all three
+reached a spot where it seemed they could not overcome the difficulties.
+Beneath them was the smooth face of a rock already covered with snow,
+while they could not see far enough in advance to ascertain in what this
+inclined plane terminated. Daggett, however, insisted that he knew the
+spot; that they had passed up it. There was a broad shelf a short distance
+below them; and once on that shelf, it would be necessary to make a
+considerable circuit in order to reach a certain ravine, down which the
+path would be reasonably easy. All remembered the shelf and the ravine;
+the question was merely whether the first lay beneath them, and as near as
+Daggett supposed. A mistaken confidence beset the last, and he carried
+this feeling so far as to decline taking an end of a line which Roswell
+threw to him, but seated himself on the snow and slid downward, passing
+almost immediately out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>"What has become of him?" demanded Roswell, endeavouring to pierce the air
+by straining his eye-balls. "He is not to be seen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on to the line, sir, and give me the other end of it; I will go and
+see," answered Stimson.</p>
+
+<p>It being obviously the most hazardous to remain to the last, and descend
+without the support of one above him, Roswell acquiesced in this proposal,
+lowering the boat-steerer down the rock, until he too was hid from his
+sight. But, though out of sight in that dense snow-storm, Stimson was not
+so distant as to be beyond the reach of the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Go more to the right, sir," called out the seaman, "and steady me with
+the line along with you."</p>
+
+<p>This was done, the walking being sufficiently secure at the elevation
+where Roswell was. Presently, Stimson shook the line, and called out
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"That will do, Captain Gar'ner," he said. "I am on the shelf <i>now</i>, and
+have pretty good footing. Lay the line down on the snow, sir, and slide
+as slowly as you can; mind and keep close at its side. I'll stand by to
+fetch you up."</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner understood all this perfectly, and did as he was desired to do.
+By keeping near the line he reached the shelf precisely at the spot where
+Stimson was ready to meet him; the latter arresting his downward movement
+by throwing the weight of his own body forward to meet his officer. By
+such a precaution Roswell was stopped in time, else would he have gone
+over the shelf, and down a declivity that was so nearly perpendicular as
+to offer no means of arresting the movement.</p>
+
+<p>"And what has become of Captain Daggett?" demanded Gardiner, as soon as on
+his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear he has shot off the rock, sir," was the answer. "At the place
+where I reached this shelf, it was so narrow I could with great difficulty
+walk--could not, indeed, had not the line been there to steady me; and,
+judging from the marks in the snow, the poor man has gone down helpless!"</p>
+
+<p>This was appalling intelligence to receive at such a time, and in such a
+place! But, Roswell was not unmanned by it; on the contrary, he acted
+coolly and with great judgment. Making a coil of the ratlin-stuff, he
+threw the line down until certain it reached bottom, at the distance of
+about six fathoms. Then he caused Stimson to brace himself firmly, holding
+on to the line, aided by a turn round a rise in the rock, and he boldly
+lowered himself down the precipice, reaching its base at about the
+distance he had calculated so to do.</p>
+
+<p>It still snowed violently, the flakes being large, and eddying round the
+angles of the rocks, in flurries so violent as, at moments, to confound
+all the senses of the young man. He was resolute, however, and bent on an
+object of humanity, as well as of good fellowship. Living or dead, Daggett
+must be somewhere on his present level; and he began to grope his way
+among the fragments of rock, eager and solicitous. The roaring of the wind
+almost prevented his hearing other sounds; though once or twice he heard;
+or fancied that he heard, the shouts of Stimson from above. Suddenly, the
+wind ceased, the snow lessened in quantity, soon clearing away
+altogether; and the rays of the sun--and this in the dog-days of that
+region, be it remembered--fell bright and genial on the glittering scene.
+At the next instant, the eyes of Roswell fell on the object of his search.</p>
+
+<p>Daggett had been carried over the narrow shelf on which Stimson landed, in
+consequence of his having no support, or any means of arresting his
+momentum. He did thrust forward his lance, or leaping-staff; but its point
+met nothing but air. The fall, however, was by no means perpendicular,
+several projections of the rocks helping to lessen it; though it is
+probable that the life of the unfortunate sealer was saved altogether by
+means of the lance. This was beneath him as he made his final descent, and
+he slid along it the whole length, canting him into a spot where was the
+only piece of stinted vegetation that was to be seen for a considerable
+distance. In consequence of coming down on a tolerably thick bunch of
+furze, the fall was essentially broken.</p>
+
+<p>When Roswell reached his unfortunate companion, the latter was perfectly
+sensible, and quite cool.</p>
+
+<p>"God be thanked that you have found me, Gar'ner," he said; "at one time I
+had given it up."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, also, that you are living, my friend," answered the other. "I
+expected only to find your body; but you do not seem to be much hurt."</p>
+
+<p>"More than appears, Gar'ner; more than appears. My left leg is broken,
+certainly; and one of my shoulders pains me a good deal, though it is
+neither out of joint or broken. This is a sad business for a sealing
+v'y'ge!"</p>
+
+<p>"Give yourself no concern about your craft, Daggett--I will look to her,
+and to your voyage."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you stand by the schooner, Gar'ner?--Promise me that, and my mind
+will be at peace."</p>
+
+<p>"I do promise. The two vessels shall stick together, at all events, until
+we are clear of the ice."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, but that won't do. <i>My</i> Sea Lion must be filled up as well as your
+own. Promise me <i>that</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"It shall be done, God willing. But here comes Stimson; the first thing
+will be to get you out of this spot."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett was obviously relieved by Roswell's pledges; for, amid the
+anguish and apprehensions of his unexpected state, his thoughts had most
+keenly adverted to his vessel and her fortunes. Now that his mind was
+somewhat relieved on this score, the pains of his body became more
+sensibly felt. The situation of our party was sufficiently embarrassing.
+The leg of Daggett was certainly broken, a little distance above his
+ancle; and various bruises in other places, gave notice of the existence
+of other injuries. To do anything with the poor man, lying where he was,
+was out of the question, however; and the first thing was to remove the
+sufferer to a more eligible position. Fortunately it was no great distance
+to the foot of the mountain, and a low level piece of rock was accessible
+by means of care and steady feet. Daggett was raised, between Roswell and
+Stimson in a sitting attitude, and supporting himself by putting an arm
+around the neck of each. The legs hung down, the broken as well as the
+sound limb. To this accidental circumstance the sufferer was indebted to a
+piece of incidental surgery that proved of infinite service to him. While
+dangling in this manner the bone got into its place, and Daggett instantly
+became aware of that important fact, which was immediately communicated to
+Roswell. Of course the future mode of proceeding was regulated by this
+agreeable piece of information.</p>
+
+<p>Sailors are often required to act as physicians, surgeons and priests. It
+is not often that they excel in either capacity; but, in consequence of
+the many things they are called to turn their hands to, it does generally
+happen that they get to possess a certain amount of address that renders
+them far more dexterous, in nearly everything they undertake, than the
+generality of those who are equally strangers to the particular act that
+is thus to be exercised. Roswell had set one or two limbs already, and had
+a tolerable notion of the manner of treating the case. Daggett was now
+seated on a rock at the base of the mountain, with his legs still hanging
+down, and his back supported by another rock. No sooner was he thus
+placed, than Stimson was despatched, post-haste, for assistance. His
+instructions were full, and the honest fellow set off at a rate that
+promised as early relief as the circumstances would at all allow.</p>
+
+<p>As for our hero, he set about his most important office the instant
+Stimson left him. Daggett aided with his counsel, and a little by his
+personal exertions; for a seaman does not lie down passively, when
+anything can be done, even in his own case.</p>
+
+<p>Baring the limb, Roswell soon satisfied himself that the bone had worked
+itself into place. Bandages were instantly applied to keep it there while
+splints were making. It was, perhaps, a little characteristic that Daggett
+took out his knife, and aided in shaving down these splints to the
+necessary form and thickness. They were made out of the staff of the
+broken lance, and were soon completed. Roswell manifested a good deal of
+dexterity and judgment in applying the splints. The handkerchiefs were
+used to relieve the pressure in places, and rope-yarns from the ratlin
+stuff furnished the means of securing everything in its place. In half an
+hour, Roswell had his job completed, and that before there was much
+swelling to interfere with him. As soon as the broken limb was thus
+attended to, it was carefully raised, and laid upon the rock along with
+its fellow, a horizontal position being deemed better than one that was
+perpendicular.</p>
+
+<p>Not less than four painful hours now passed, ere the gang of hands from
+the vessels reached the base of the mountain. It came prepared, however,
+to transport the sufferer on a hand-barrow that had been used in conveying
+the skins of seal across the rocks. On this barrow Daggett was now
+carefully placed, when four men lifted him up, and walked away with him
+for a few hundred yards. These were then relieved by four more; and, in
+this manner, was the whole distance to the house passed over. The patient
+was put in his bunk, and some attention was bestowed on his bruises and
+other injuries.</p>
+
+<p>Glad enough was the sufferer to find himself beneath a roof, and in a room
+that had its comforts; or what were deemed comforts on a sealing voyage.
+As the men were in the dormitory very little of the time except at night,
+he was enabled to sleep; and Roswell had hopes, as he now told Stimson,
+that a month or six weeks would set the patient on his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been a fortunate fellow, Stephen, that it was no worse," added
+Roswell, on that occasion. "But for the luck which turned the lance-pole
+beneath him, every bone he has would have been broken."</p>
+
+<p>"What you call <i>luck</i>, Captain Gar'ner, I call <i>Providence</i>," was
+Stephen's answer. "The good book tells us that not a sparrow shall fall
+without the eye of Divine Providence being on it."</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-18">
+<h2>Chapter XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Now far he sweeps, where scarce a summer smiles,<br />
+On Bhering's rocks, or Greenland's naked isles;<br />
+Cold on his midnight watch the breezes blow,<br />
+From wastes that slumber in eternal snow,<br />
+And waft across the waves' tumultuous roar,<br />
+The wolf's long howl from Oonalaska's shore,"</p>
+
+<p> Campbell.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner set about his duties, the succeeding day, with a shade of
+deep reflection on his brow. A crisis had, indeed, come in his affairs,
+and it behooved him to look well to his proceedings. Daggett's presence on
+the island was no longer of any moment to himself or his owner, but there
+remained the secret of the Key, and of the buried treasure. Should the two
+schooners keep together, how was he to acquit himself in that part of his
+duty, without admitting of a partnership, against which he knew that every
+fibre in the deacon's system, whether physical or moral, would revolt.
+Still, his word was pledged, and he had no choice but to remain, and help
+fill up the rival Sea Lion, and trust to his own address in getting rid of
+her again, as the two vessels proceeded north.</p>
+
+<p>The chief mate of Daggett's craft, though a good sealer, was an impetuous
+and reckless man, and had more than once found fault with the great
+precautions used, by the orders of Roswell. Macy, as this officer was
+called, was for making a regular onslaught upon the animals, slaying as
+many as they could at once, and then take up the business of curing and
+trying-out as a regular job. He had seen such things done with success,
+and he believed it was the most secure mode of getting along. 'Some of
+these fine mornings,' as he expressed it, 'Captain Gar'ner would turn out,
+and find that his herd was off--gone to pasture in some other field.' This
+was a view of the matter with which Roswell did not at all agree. His
+forbearing and cautious policy had produced excellent results so far, and
+he hoped it would continue so to do, until both schooners were full. On
+the morning when the men next went forth, he as leader of both crews,
+therefore, our young master renewed his admonitions, pointing out to the
+new-comers, in particular, the great necessity there was of using
+forbearance, and not to alarm the seals more than the work indispensably
+required. The usual number of "Ay, ay's, sir!" were given in reply, and
+the gangs went along the rocks, seemingly in a good humour to obey these
+injunctions.</p>
+
+<p>Circumstances, however, were by no means favourable to giving Roswell the
+same influence over the Vineyard-men as he possessed over his own crew. He
+was a young commander, and this was his first voyage in that capacity, as
+all well knew; then, there had been rivalry and competition between the
+two crafts, which was a feeling not so easily removed; next, Macy felt,
+and even intimated, that he was the lawful commander of his own schooner,
+in cases in which Daggett was disabled, and that the latter had no power
+to transfer him and his people to the authority of any other individual.
+All these points were discussed that day with some freedom, particularly
+among the Vineyard-men, and especially the last.</p>
+
+<p>Wisely has it been said that "the king's name is a tower of strength."
+They who have the law on their side, carry with them a weight of authority
+that it is not easy to shake by means of pure reasoning on right or wrong.
+Men are much inclined to defer to those who are thus armed, legal control
+being ordinarily quite as effective in achieving a victory, as having
+one's "quarrel just." In a certain sense, authority indeed becomes
+justice, and we look to its proper exercise as one of the surest means of
+asserting what "is right between man and man."</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>commodore</i> says that the critturs are to be treated delicately,"
+said Macy, laughing, as he lanced his first seal that morning, a young
+one of the fur species; "so take up the pet, lads, and lay it in its
+cradle, while I go look for its mamma."</p>
+
+<p>A shout of merriment succeeded this sally, and the men were only so much
+the more disposed to be rebellious and turbulent, in consequence of
+hearing so much freedom of remark in their officer.</p>
+
+<p>"The child's in its cradle, Mr. Macy," returned Jenkins, who was a wag as
+well as the mate. "In my judgment, the best mode of rocking it to sleep
+will be by knocking over all these grim chaps that are so plenty in our
+neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>"Let 'em have it!" cried Macy, making an onset on an elephant, as he
+issued the order. In an instant, the rocks at that point of the island
+were a scene of excitement and confusion. Hazard, who was near at hand,
+succeeded in restraining his own people, but it really seemed as if the
+Vineyard-men were mad. A great many seals were killed, it is true; but
+twenty were frightened to take refuge in the ocean, where one was slain.
+All animals have their alarm cries, or, if not absolutely cries, signals
+that are understood by themselves. Occasionally, one sees a herd, or a
+flock, take to its heels, or to its wings, without any apparent cause, but
+in obedience to some warning that is familiar to their instincts. Thus
+must it have been with the seals; for the rocks were soon deserted, even
+at the distance of a league from the scene of slaughter, leaving Hazard
+and his gang literally with nothing to do, unless, indeed, they returned
+to complete some stowage that remained to be done, on board their own
+craft.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you know, Mr. Macy, all this is contrary to orders," said
+Hazard, as he was leading his own gang back towards the cove. "You see I
+am obliged to go in and report."</p>
+
+<p>"Report and welcome!" was the answer. "I have no commander but Captain
+Daggett;--and, by the way, if you see him, Hazard, just tell him we have
+made a glorious morning's work of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay; you will have your hands full enough to-day, Macy; but how will
+it be to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, just as it has been to-day. The devils must come up to blow, and
+we're sartain of 'em, somewhere along the shore. This day's work is worth
+any two that I've seen; since I came upon the island."</p>
+
+<p>"Very true; but what will to-morrow's work be worth? I will tell Captain
+Daggett what you wish me to say, however, and we will hear his opinion on
+the subject. In my judgment, he means to command his craft till she gets
+back to the Hole, legs or no legs."</p>
+
+<p>Hazard went his way, shaking his head ominously as he proceeded. Nor was
+he much mistaken in what he expected from Daggett's anger. That
+experienced sealer sent for his mate, and soon gave him to understand that
+he was yet his commander. Loose and neighbourly as is usually the
+discipline of one of these partnership vessels, there is commonly a man on
+board who is every way competent to assert the authority given him by the
+laws, as well as by his contract. Macy was sent for, rebuked, and menaced
+with degradation from his station, should he again presume to violate his
+orders. As commonly happens in cases of this nature, regrets were
+expressed by the offender, and future obedience promised.</p>
+
+<p>But the mischief was done. Sealing was no longer the regular, systematic
+pursuit it had been on that island, but had become precarious and
+changeful. At times, the men met with good success; then, days would occur
+in which not a single creature, of any of the different species, would be
+taken. The Vineyard schooner was not more than half-full, and the season
+was fast drawing to a close. Roswell was quite ready to sail, and he began
+to chafe a little under the extra hazards that were thus imposed on
+himself and his people.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, or fully three weeks after the occurrence of the
+accident to Daggett, the injuries received by the wounded man were fast
+healing. The bones had knit, and the leg promised, in another month, to
+become tolerably sound, if not as strong as it had been before the hurt.
+All the bruises were well, and the captain of the Vineyard craft was just
+beginning to move about a little on crutches; a prodigious relief to one
+of his habits, after the confinement to the house. By dint of great care,
+he could work his way down on the shelf that stretched, like a terrace,
+for two hundred yards beneath the dwelling. Here he met Roswell, on the
+morning of the Sabbath, just three weeks after their unfortunate visit to
+the mountain. Each took his seat on a low point of rock, and they began to
+converse on their respective prospects, and on the condition of their
+vessels and crews. Stephen was near his officer, as usual.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe Stimson was right in urging me to give the men their Sabbaths,"
+observed Gardiner, glancing round at the different groups, in which the
+men were washing, shaving, and otherwise getting rid of the impurities
+created by another week of toil. "They begin anew, after a little rest,
+with a better will, and steadier hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the Sabbath <i>is</i> a great privilege, especially to such as are on
+shore," returned Daggett. "At sea, I make no great account of it: a craft
+must jog along, high days or holidays."</p>
+
+<p>"Depend on it, the same account is kept of the day, Captain Daggett, in
+the great log-book above, whether a man is on or off soundings," put in
+Stephen, who was privileged ever to deliver his sentiments on such
+subjects. "The Lord is God on the sea, as on the land."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause; for the solemn manner and undoubted sincerity of the
+speaker produced an impression on his companions, little given as they
+were to thinking deeply on things of that nature. Then Roswell renewed the
+discourse, turning it on a matter that had been seriously uppermost in his
+mind for several days.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to converse with you, Captain Daggett, about our prospects and
+chances," he said. "My schooner is full, as you know. We could do no more,
+if we stayed here another season. You are about half-full, with a greatly
+diminished chance of filling up this summer. Mr. Macy's attack on the
+seals has put you back a month, at least, and every day we shall find the
+animals less easy to take. The equinox is not very far off, and then, you
+know, we shall get less and less sun,--so little, as to be of no great use
+to us. We want day-light to get through the ice, and we shall have a long
+hundred leagues of it between us and clear water, even were we to get
+under way to-morrow. Remember what a serious thing it would be, to get
+caught up here, in so high a latitude, after the sun has left us!"</p>
+
+<p>"I understand you, Gardner," answered the other, quietly, though his
+manner denoted a sort of compelled resignation, rather than any cordial
+acquiescence in that which he believed his brother master intended to
+propose. "You're master of your own vessel; and I dare say Deacon Pratt
+would be much rejoiced to see you coming in between Shelter Island and
+Oyster Pond. I'm but a cripple, or I think the Vineyard craft wouldn't be
+many days' run astarn!"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell was provoked; but his pride was touched also. Biting his lip, he
+was silent for a moment, when he spoke very much to the point, but
+generously, and like a man.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you what it is, Daggett," said our hero, "good-fellowship is
+good-fellowship, and the flag is the flag. It is the duty of all us Yankee
+seamen to stand by the stripes; and I hope I'm as ready as another to do
+what I ought to do, in such a matter; but my owner is a close calculator,
+and I am much inclined to think that he will care less for this sort of
+feeling than you and I. The deacon was never in blue water."</p>
+
+<p>"So I suppose--He has a charming daughter, I believe, Gar'ner?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean his niece, I suppose," answered Roswell, colouring. "The deacon
+never had any child himself, I believe--at least he has none living. Mary
+Pratt is his niece."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all the same--niece or daughter, she's comely, and will be rich, I
+hear. <i>Well</i>, I am <i>poor</i>, and what is more, a <i>cripple!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell could have knocked his companion down, for he perfectly understood
+the character of the allusion; but he had sufficient self-command to
+forbear saying anything that might betray how much he felt.</p>
+
+<p>It is always easier to work upon the sensitiveness of a spirited and
+generous-minded man, than to influence him by force or apprehensions.
+Roswell had never liked the idea of leaving Daggett behind him, at that
+season, and in that latitude; and he relished it still less, now that he
+saw a false reason might be attributed to his conduct.</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly do not dream of wintering here, Captain Daggett?" he said,
+after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I can help it. But the schooner can never go back to the Vineyard
+without a full hold. The very women would make the island too hot for us
+in such a case. Do your duty by Deacon Pratt, Gar'ner, and leave me here
+to get along as well as I can. I shall be able to walk a little in a
+fortnight; and, in a month, I hope to be well enough to get out among the
+people, and regulate their sealing a little myself. Mr. Macy will be more
+moderate with my eye on him."</p>
+
+<p>"A month! He who stays here another month may almost make up his mind to
+stay eight more of them; if, indeed, he ever get away from the group at
+all!"</p>
+
+<p>"A late start is better than a half-empty vessel. When you get in to
+Oyster Pond, Gar'ner, I hope you will send a line across to the Vineyard,
+and tell 'em all about us."</p>
+
+<p>Another long and brooding pause succeeded, during which Roswell's mind was
+made up.</p>
+
+<p>"I will do this with you, Daggett," he said, speaking like one who had
+fully decided on his course. "Twenty days longer will I remain here, and
+help to make out your cargo; after which I sail, whether you get another
+skin or a thousand. This will be remaining as long as any prudent man
+ought to stay in so high a latitude."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me your hand, Gar'ner. I knew you had the clear stuff in you, and
+that it would make itself seen at the proper moment. I trust that
+Providence will favour us--it's really a pity to lose as fine a day as
+this; especially as the crittur's are coming up on the rocks to bask,
+something like old times!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll gain no great help from that Providence you just spoke of, Captain
+Daggett, by forgetting to keep 'Holy the Sabbath,'" said Stimson,
+earnestly. "Try forbearance a little, and find the good that will come of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"He is right," said Roswell, "as I know from having done as he advises.
+Well, our bargain is made. For twenty days longer I stay here, helping you
+to fill up. That will bring us close upon the equinox, when I shall get to
+the northward as fast as I can. In that time, too, I think you will be
+able to return to duty."</p>
+
+<p>This, then, was the settled arrangement. Roswell felt that he conceded
+more than he ought to do; but the feeling of good-fellowship was active
+within him, and he was strongly averse to doing anything that might wear
+the appearance of abandoning a companion in his difficulties. All this
+time our hero was fully aware that he was befriending a competitor; and he
+was not without his suspicions that Daggett wished to keep him within his
+view until the visit had been paid to the Key. Nevertheless, Roswell's
+mind was made up. He would remain the twenty days, and do all he could in
+that time to help along the voyage of the Vineyarders.</p>
+
+<p>The sealing was now continued with more order and method than had been
+observed under Macy's control. The old caution was respected, and the work
+prospered in proportion. Each night, on his return to the house, Gardiner
+had a good report to make; and that peculiar snapping of the eye, that
+denoted Daggett's interest in his calling, was to be again traced in the
+expression of the Vineyarder's features; a certain proof that he was fast
+falling into his old train of thought and feeling. Daggett was never
+happier than when listening to some account of the manner in which an old
+elephant or lion had been taken, or a number of fur-seals had been made to
+pay their tribute to the enterprise and address of his people.</p>
+
+<p>As for Roswell, though he complied with his promise, and carried on the
+duty with industry and success, his eye was constantly turned on those
+signs that denote the advance of the seasons. Now he scanned the ocean to
+the northward, and noted the diminished number as well as lessened size of
+the floating bergs; proofs that the summer and the waves had been at work
+on their sides. Next, his look was on the sun, which was making his daily
+course, lower and lower, each time that he appeared, settling rapidly away
+towards the north, as if in haste to quit a hemisphere that was so little
+congenial to his character. The nights, always cool in that region, began
+to menace frost; and the signs of the decline of the year that come so
+much later in more temperate climates, began to make themselves apparent
+here. It is true, that of vegetation there was so little, and that little
+so meagre and of so hardy a nature, that in this respect the progress of
+the seasons was not to be particularly noted; but in all others, Roswell
+saw with growing uneasiness that the latest hour of his departure was
+fast drawing near.</p>
+
+<p>The sealing went on the while, and with reasonable returns, though the
+golden days of the business had been seriously interrupted by Macy's
+indiscretion and disobedience. The men worked hard, for they too foresaw
+the approach of the long night of the antarctic circle, and all the risk
+of remaining too long. As we have had frequent occasion to use the term
+'antarctic,' it may be well here to say a few words in explanation. It is
+not our wish to be understood that these sealers had penetrated literally
+within that belt of eternal snows and ice, but approximatively. Few
+navigators, so far as our knowledge extends, have absolutely gone as far
+south as this. Wilkes did it, it is true; and others among the late
+explorers have been equally enterprising and successful. The group visited
+by Gardiner on this occasion was quite near to this imaginary line; but we
+do not feel at liberty precisely to give its latitude and longitude. To
+this hour it remains a species of private property; and in this age of
+anti-rentism and other audacious innovations on long-received and
+venerable rules of conduct, we do not choose to be parties to any inroads
+on the rights of individuals when invaded by the cupidity and ruthless
+power of numbers. Those who wish to imitate Roswell must find the islands
+by bold adventure as he reached them; for we are tongue-tied on the
+subject. It is enough, therefore, that we say the group is <i>near</i> the
+antarctic circle; whether a little north or a little south of it, is a
+matter of no moment. As those seas have a general character, we shall
+continue to call-them the antarctic seas; with the understanding that,
+included in the term, are the nearest waters without as well as within the
+circle.</p>
+
+<p>Glad enough was Roswell Gardiner when his twenty days were up. March was
+now far advanced, and the approach of the long nights was near. The
+Vineyard craft was not full, nor was Daggett yet able to walk without a
+crutch; but orders were issued by Gardiner, on the evening of the last
+day, for his own crew to "knock off sealing," and to prepare to get under
+way for home.</p>
+
+<p>"Your mind is made up, Gar'ner," said Daggett, in a deprecating sort of
+way, as if he still had latent hopes of persuading his brother-master to
+remain a little longer "Another week would almost fill us up."</p>
+
+<p>"Not another day," was the answer. "I have stayed too long already, and
+shall be off in the morning. If you will take my advice. Captain Daggett,
+you will do the same thing. Winter comes in this latitude very much as
+spring appears in our own; or with a hop, skip, and a jump. I have no
+fancy to be groping about among the ice, after the nights get to be longer
+than the days!"</p>
+
+<p>"All true enough, Gar'ner; all quite true--but it has such a look to take
+a craft home, and she not full!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have a great abundance of provisions; stop and whale awhile on the
+False Banks, as you go north. I would much rather stick by you there a
+whole month, than remain here another day."</p>
+
+<p>"You make me narvous, talking of the group in this way! I'm sartain that
+this bay must remain clear of ice several weeks longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it may; it is more likely to be so than to freeze up. But this
+will not lengthen the days and carry us safe through the fields and bergs
+that we know are drifting about out here to the northward. There's a
+hundred leagues of ocean thereaway, Daggett, that I care for more just
+now, than for all the seal that are left on these islands. But, talking is
+useless; I go to-morrow; if you are wise, you will sail in company."</p>
+
+<p>This settled the matter. Daggett well knew it would be useless to remain
+without the aid of Roswell's counsel, and that of his crew's hands; for
+Macy was not to be trusted any more as the leader of a gang of sealers.
+The man had got to be provoked and reckless, and had called down upon
+himself latterly more than one rebuke. It was necessary, therefore, that
+one of the Sea Lions should accompany the other. The necessary orders were
+issued accordingly, and "hey for home!" were the words that now cheerfully
+passed from mouth to mouth. That pleasant idea of "home," in which is
+concentrated all that is blessed in this life, the pale of the Christian
+duties and charities excepted, brings to each mind its particular forms of
+happiness and good. The weather-beaten seaman, the foot-worn soldier, the
+weary traveller, the adventurer in whatever lands interest or pleasure
+may lead, equally feels a throb at his heart as he hears the welcome
+sounds of "hey for home." Never were craft prepared for sea with greater
+rapidity than was the case now with our two Sea Lions. It is true that the
+Oyster-Ponders were nearly ready, and had been quite so, for a fortnight;
+but a good deal remained to be done among the Vineyarders. The last set
+themselves to their task with a hearty good-will, however, and with
+corresponding results.</p>
+
+<p>"We will leave the house standing for them that come after us," said
+Roswell, when the last article belonging to his schooner was taken out of
+it. "The deacon has crammed us so full of wood that I shall be tempted to
+throw half of it overboard, now we have so much cargo. Let all stand,
+Hazard, bunks, planks and all; for really we have no room for the
+materials. Even this wood," pointing to a pile of several cords that had
+been landed already to make room for skins and casks that had been brought
+out in shocks, "must go to the next comer. Perhaps it may be one of
+ourselves; for we sailors never know what port will next fetch us up."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope it will be old Sag, sir," answered Hazard, cheerfully; "for,
+though no great matter of a seaport, it is near every man's home, and may
+be called a sort of door-way to go in and out of the country through."</p>
+
+<p>"A side-door, at the best," answered Roswell. "With you, I trust it will
+be the next haven that we enter; though I shall take the schooner at once
+in behind Shelter Island, and tie her up to the deacon's wharf."</p>
+
+<p>What images of the past and future did these few jocular words awaken in
+the mind of our young sealer! He fancied that he saw Mary standing in the
+porch of her uncle's habitation, a witness of the approach of the
+schooner, looking wistfully at the still indistinct images of those who
+were to be seen on her decks. Mary had often done this in her dreams;
+again and again had she beheld the white sails of the Sea Lion driving
+across Gardiner's Bay, and entering Peconic; and often had she thus gazed
+in the weather-worn countenance of him who occupied so much of her
+thoughts--so many of her prayers--picturing through the mysterious images
+of sleep the object she so well loved when waking.</p>
+
+<p>And where was Mary Pratt at that day and hour when Roswell was thus
+issuing his last orders at Sealer's Land; and what was her occupation, and
+what her thoughts? The difference in longitude between the group and
+Montauk was so trifling that the hour might be almost called identical.
+Literally so, it was not; but mainly so, it was. There were not the five
+degrees in difference that make the twenty minutes in time. More than this
+we are not permitted to say on this subject; and this is quite enough to
+give the navigator a pretty near notion of the position of the group. As a
+degree of longitude measures less than twenty-eight statute miles at the
+polar circles, this is coming within a day's run of the spot, so far as
+longitude is concerned; and nearer than that we do not intend to carry the
+over-anxious reader, let his curiosity be as lively as it may.</p>
+
+<p>And where, then, was Mary Pratt? Safe, well, and reasonably happy, in the
+house of her uncle, where she had passed most of her time since infancy.
+The female friends of mariners have always fruitful sources of uneasiness
+in the pursuit itself; but Mary had no other cause for concern of this
+nature than what was inseparable from so long a voyage, and the sea into
+which Roswell had gone. She well knew that the time was arrived when he
+was expected to be on his way home; and as hope is an active and beguiling
+feeling, she already fancied him to be much advanced on his return. But a
+dialogue which took place that very day--nay, that very hour--between her
+and the deacon, will best explain her views and opinions, and
+expectations.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very extr'or'nary, Mary," commenced the uncle, "that Gar'ner doesn't
+write! If he only know'd how a man feels when his property is ten thousand
+miles off, I'm sartain he would write, and not leave me with so many
+misgivings in the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom is he to write, uncle?" answered the more considerate and
+reasonable niece. "There are no post-offices in the antarctic seas, nor
+any travellers to bring letters by private hands."</p>
+
+<p>"But he <i>did</i> write once; and plaguy good news was it that he sent us in
+that letter!"</p>
+
+<p>"He did write from Rio, for there he had the means. By my calculations,
+Roswell has left his sealing ground some three or four weeks, and must now
+be as many thou sand miles on his way home."</p>
+
+<p>"D'ye think so, gal?--d'ye think so?" exclaimed the deacon, his eyes
+fairly twinkling with pleasure. "That would be good news; and if he
+doesn't stop too long by the way, we might look for him home in less than
+ninety days from this moment!"</p>
+
+<p>Mary smiled pensively, and a richer colour stole into her cheeks, slowly
+but distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think, uncle, that Roswell Gardiner will be very likely to stop
+on his way to us here, on Oyster Pond," was the answer she made.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be sorry to think that. The best part of his v'y'ge may be made
+in the West Ingees, and I hope he is not a man to overlook his
+instructions."</p>
+
+<p>"Will Roswell be obliged to stop in the West Indies, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain--if he obeys his orders; and I think the young man will do
+<i>that</i>. But the business there will not detain him long,"--Mary's
+countenance brightened again, at this remark,--"and, should you be right,
+we, may still look for him in the next ninety days."</p>
+
+<p>Mary remained silent for a short time, but her charming face was
+illuminated by an expression of heartfelt happiness, which, however, the
+next remark of her uncle's had an obvious tendency to disturb.</p>
+
+<p>"Should Gar'ner come home successful, Mary," inquired the deacon,
+"successful in all things--successful in sealing, and successful in that
+other matter--the West Ingee business, I mean--but successful in all, as I
+daily pray he may be,--I want to know if you would then have him; always
+supposing that he got back himself unchanged?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unchanged, I shall never be his wife," answered Mary, tremulously, but
+firmly.</p>
+
+<p>The deacon looked at her in surprise; for he had never comprehended but
+one reason why the orphan and penniless Mary should refuse so
+pertinaciously to become the wife of Roswell Gardiner; and that was his
+own want of means. Now the deacon loved Mary more than he was aware of
+himself, but he had never actually made up his mind to leave her the
+heiress of his estate. The idea of parting with property at all, was too
+painful for him to think of making a will; and without such an instrument,
+there were others who would have come in for a part of the assets, "share
+and share alike," as the legal men express it. Of all this was the deacon
+fully aware and it occasionally troubled him: more of late than formerly,
+since he felt in his system the unerring signs of decay. Once had he got
+so far as to write on a page of foolscap, "In the name of God, Amen;" but
+the effort proved too great for him, and he abandoned the undertaking.
+Still Deacon Pratt loved his niece, and was well inclined to see her
+become the wife of "young Gar'ner," more especially should the last return
+successful.</p>
+
+<p>"Unchanged!" repeated the uncle, slowly; "you sartainly would not wish to
+marry him, Mary, if he was <i>changed!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not mean changed, in the sense you are thinking of, uncle. But we
+will not talk of this now. Why should Roswell stop in the West Indies at
+all? It is not usual for our vessels to stop there."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is not. If Gar'ner stop at all, it will be on a very <i>unusual</i>
+business, and one that may make all our fortunes--your'n, as well as his'n
+and mine, Mary."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that sealers never meddle with the transportation of slaves,
+uncle!" the girl exclaimed, with a face filled with apprehension. "I would
+rather live and die poor, than have anything to do with them!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see no such great harm in the trade, gal; but such is not Roswell's
+ar'nd in the West Ingees. It's a great secret, the reason of his call
+there; and I will venture to foretell that, should he make it, and should
+it turn out successful, you will marry him, gal."</p>
+
+<p>Mary made no reply. Well was she assured that Roswell had an advocate in
+her own heart, that was pleading for him, night and day; but firm was her
+determination not to unite herself with one, however dear to her, who set
+up his feeble understanding of the nature of the mediation between God
+and man, in opposition to the plainest language of revelation, as well as
+to the prevalent belief of the church, since the ages that immediately
+succeeded the Christian era.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-19">
+<h2>Chapter XIX.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Poor child of danger, nursling of the storm,<br />
+Sad are the woes that wreck thy manly form!<br />
+Rocks, waves, and winds the shatter'd bark delay;<br />
+Thy heart is sad, thy home is far away."</p>
+
+<p>  Campbell.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>It was about midday, when the two Sea Lions opened their canvass, at the
+same moment, and prepared to quit Sealer's Land. All hands were on board,
+every article was shipped for which there was room, and nothing remained
+that denoted the former presence of man on that dreary island, but the
+deserted house, and three or four piles of cord-wood, that had grown on
+Shelter Island and Martha's Vineyard, and which was now abandoned on the
+rocks of the antarctic circle. As the topsails were sheeted home, and the
+heavy fore-and-aft mainsails were hoisted, the songs of the men sounded
+cheerful and animating. 'Home' was in every tone, each movement, all the
+orders. Daggett was on deck, in full command, though still careful of his
+limb, while Roswell appeared to be everywhere. Mary Pratt was before his
+mind's eye all that morning; nor did he even once think how pleasant it
+would be to meet her uncle, with a "There, deacon, is your schooner, with
+a good cargo of elephant-oil, well chucked off with fur-seal skins."</p>
+
+<p>The Oyster Pond craft was the first clear of the ground. The breeze was
+little felt in that cove, where usually it did not seem to blow at all,
+but there was wind enough to serve to cast the schooner, and she went
+slowly out of the rocky basin, under her mainsail, foretopsail, and jib.
+The wind was at south-west,--the nor-wester of that hemisphere,--and it
+was fresh and howling enough, on the other side of the island. After
+Roswell had made a stretch out into the bay of about a mile, he laid his
+foretopsail flat aback, hauled over his jib-sheet, and put his helm hard
+down, in waiting for the other schooner to come out and join him. In a
+quarter of an hour, Daggett got within hail.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," called out the last, "you see I was right, Garner; wind enough out
+here, and more, still further from the land. We have only to push in among
+them bergs while it is light, pick out a clear spot, and heave-to during
+the night. It will hardly do for us to travel among so much ice in the
+dark."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we had got out earlier, that we might have made a run of it by
+day-light," answered Roswell. "Ten hours of such a wind, in my judgment,
+would carry us well towards clear water."</p>
+
+<p>"The delay could not be helped. I had so many traps ashore, it took time
+to gather them together. Come, fill away, and let us be moving. Now we are
+under way, I'm in as great haste as you are yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell complied, and away the two schooners went, keeping quite near to
+each other, having smooth water, and still something of a moderated gale,
+in consequence of the proximity and weatherly position of the island. The
+course was towards a spot to leeward, where the largest opening appeared
+in the ice, and where it was hoped a passage to the northward would be
+found. The further the two vessels got from the land, the more they felt
+the power of the wind, and the greater was their rate of running. Daggett
+soon found that he could spare his consort a good deal of canvass, a
+consequence of his not being full, and he took in his topsail, though,
+running nearly before the wind, his spar would have stood even a more
+severe strain.</p>
+
+<p>As the oldest mariner, it had been agreed between the two masters that
+Daggett should lead the way. This he did for an hour, when both vessels
+were fairly out of the great bay, clear of the group altogether, and
+running off north-easterly, at a rate of nearly ten knots in the hour. The
+sea got up as they receded from the land, and everything indicated a gale,
+though one of no great violence. Night was approaching, and an Alpine-like
+range of icebergs was glowing, to the northward, under the oblique rays
+of the setting sun. For a considerable space around the vessels, the water
+was clear, not even a cake of any sort being to be seen; and the question
+arose in Daggett's mind, whether he ought to stand on, or to heave-to and
+pass the night well to windward of the bergs. Time was precious, the wind
+was fair, the heavens clear, and the moon would make its appearance about
+nine, and might be expected to remain above the horizon until the return
+of day. This was one side of the picture. The other presented less
+agreeable points. The climate was so fickle, that the clearness of the
+skies was not to be depended on, especially with a strong south-west
+wind--a little gale, in fact; and a change in this particular might be
+produced at any moment. Then it was certain that floes, and fragments of
+bergs, would be found near, if not absolutely among the sublime
+mountain-like piles that were floating about, in a species of grand fleet,
+some twenty miles to leeward. Both of our masters, indeed all on board of
+each schooner, very well understood that the magnificent array of icy
+islands which lay before them was owing to the currents, for which it is
+not always easy to account. The clear space was to be attributed to the
+same cause, though there was little doubt that the wind, which had now
+been to the southward fully eight-and-forty hours, had contributed to
+drive the icy fleet to the northward. As a consequence of these facts, the
+field-ice must be in the vicinity of the bergs, and the embarrassment from
+that source was known always to be very great.</p>
+
+<p>It required a good deal of nerve for a mariner to run in among dangers of
+the character just described, as the sun was setting. Nevertheless,
+Daggett did it; and Roswell Gardiner followed the movement, at the
+distance of about a cable's length. To prevent separation, each schooner
+showed a light at the lower yard-arm, just as the day was giving out its
+last glimmerings. As yet, however, no difficulty was encountered; the
+alpine-looking range being yet quite two hours' run still to leeward.
+Those two hours must be passed in darkness; and Daggett shortened sail in
+order not to reach the ice before the moon rose. He had endeavoured to
+profit by the light as long as it remained, to find a place at which he
+might venture to enter among the bergs, but had met with no great
+success. The opening first seen now appeared to be closed, either by means
+of the drift or by means of the change in the position of the vessels; and
+he no longer thought of <i>that</i>. Fortune must be trusted to, in some
+measure; and on he went, Roswell always closely following.</p>
+
+<p>The early hours of that eventful night were intensely dark. Nevertheless,
+Daggett stood down towards the icy range, using no other precautions than
+shortening sail and keeping a sharp look-out. Every five minutes the call
+from the quarter-deck of each schooner to "keep a bright look-out" was
+heard, unless, indeed, Daggett or Roswell was on his own forecastle, thus
+occupied in person. No one on board of either vessel thought of sleep. The
+watch had been called, as is usual at sea, and one half of the crew was at
+liberty to go below and turn in. What was more, those small fore-and-aft
+rigged craft were readily enough handled by a single watch; and this so
+much the more easily, now that their top-sails were in. Still, not a man
+left the deck. Anxiety was too prevalent for this, the least experienced
+hand in either crew being well aware that the next four-and-twenty hours
+would, in all human probability, be decisive of the fate of the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Both Daggett and Gardiner grew more and more uneasy as the time for the
+moon to rise drew near, without the orb of night making its appearance. A
+few clouds were driving athwart the heavens, though the stars twinkled as
+usual, in their diminutive but sublime splendour. It was not so dark that
+objects could not be seen at a considerable distance; and the people of
+the schooners had no difficulty in very distinctly tracing, and that not
+very far ahead, the broken outlines of the chain of floating mountains. No
+alpine pile, in very fact, could present a more regular or better defined
+range, and in some respects more fantastic outlines. When the bergs first
+break away from their native moorings, their forms are ordinarily somewhat
+regular; the summits commonly resembling table-land. This regularity of
+shape, however, is soon lost under the rays of the summer sun, the wash of
+the ocean, and most of all by the wear of the torrents that gush out of
+their own frozen bosoms. A distinguished navigator of our own time has
+compared the appearance of these bergs, after their regularity of shape
+is lost, and they begin to assume the fantastic outlines that uniformly
+succeed, to that of a deserted town, built of the purest alabaster, with
+its edifices crumbling under the seasons, and its countless unpeopled
+streets, avenues and alleys. All who have seen the sight unite in
+describing it as one of the most remarkable that comes from the lavish
+hand of nature.</p>
+
+<p>About nine o'clock on the memorable night in question, there was a good
+deal of fog driving over the ocean to increase the obscurity. This
+rendered Daggett doubly cautious, and he actually hauled up close to the
+wind, heading off well to the westward, in order to avoid running in among
+the bergs, in greater uncertainty than the circumstances would seem to
+require. Of course Roswell followed the movement; and when the moon first
+diffused its mild rays on the extraordinary scene, the two schooners were
+pitching into a heavy sea, within less than a mile of the weather-line of
+the range of bergs. It was soon apparent that floes or field ice
+accompanied the floating mountains, and extended so far to the southward
+of them as to be already within an inconvenient if not hazardous proximity
+to the two vessels. These floes, however, unlike those previously
+encountered, were much broken by the undulations of the waves, and seldom
+exceeded a quarter of a mile in diameter; while thousands of them were no
+larger than the ordinary drift ice of our own principal rivers in the time
+of a freshet. Their vicinity to the track of the schooners, indeed, was
+first ascertained by the noise they produced in grinding against each
+other, which soon made itself audible even above the roaring of the gale.</p>
+
+<p>Both of our masters now began to be exceedingly uncomfortable. It was soon
+quite apparent that Daggett had been too bold, and had led down towards
+the ice without sufficient caution and foresight. As the moon rose, higher
+and higher, the difficulties and dangers to leeward became at each minute
+more and more apparent. Nothing could have been more magnificent than the
+scene which lay before the eyes of the mariners, or would have produced a
+deeper feeling of delight, had it not been for the lively consciousness of
+the risk the two schooners and all who were in them unavoidably ran, by
+being so near and to windward of such an icy coast, if one may use the
+expression as relates to floating bodies. By that light it was very easy
+to imagine Wilkes' picture of a ruined town of alabaster. There were
+arches of all sizes and orders; pinnacles without number; towers, and even
+statues and columns. To these were to be added long lines of perpendicular
+walls, that it was easy enough to liken to fortresses, dungeons and
+temples. In a word, even the Alps, with all their peculiar grandeur, and
+certainly on a scale so vastly more enlarged, possess no one aspect that
+is so remarkable for its resemblance to the labours of man, composed of a
+material of the most beautiful transparency, and considered as the results
+of human ingenuity, on a scale so gigantic. The glaciers have often been
+likened, and not unjustly, to a frozen sea; but here were congealed
+mountains seemingly hewed into all the forms of art, not by the chisel it
+is true, but by the action of the unerring laws which produced them.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Roswell Gardiner was the only individual in those two vessels that
+night who was fully alive to all the extraordinary magnificence of its
+unusual pictures. Stephen may, in some degree, have been an exception to
+the rule; though he saw the hand of God in nearly all things. "It's
+wonderful to look at, Captain Gar'ner, isn't it?" said this worthy seaman,
+about the time the light of the moon began to tell on the view;
+"wonderful, truly, did we not know who made it all!" These few and simple
+words had a cheering influence on Roswell, and served to increase his
+confidence in eventual success. God did produce all things, either
+directly or indirectly; this even his sceptical notions could allow; and
+that which came from divine wisdom must be intended for good. He would
+take courage, and for once in his life trust to Providence. The most
+resolute man by nature feels his courage augmented by such a resolution.</p>
+
+<p>The gales of the antarctic sea are said to be short, though violent. They
+seldom last six-and-thirty hours, and for about a third of that time they
+blow with their greatest violence. As a matter of course, the danger amid
+the ice is much increased by a tempest; though a good working breeze, or
+small gale of wind, perhaps, adds to a vessel's security, by rendering it
+easier to handle her, and to avoid floes and bergs. If the ice is
+sufficient to make a lee, smooth water is sometimes a consequence; though
+it oftener happens that the turbulence produced in clear water is
+partially communicated over a vast surface, causing the fields and
+mountains to grind against each other under the resistless power of the
+waves. On the present occasion, however, the schooners were still in open
+water, where the wind had a long and unobstructed rake, and a sea had got
+up that caused both of the little craft to bury nearly to their gunwales.
+What rendered their situation still more unpleasant was the fact that all
+the water which came aboard of them now soon froze. To this, however, the
+men were accustomed, it frequently happening that the moisture deposited
+on their rigging and spars by the fogs froze during the nights of the
+autumn. Indeed, it has been thought by some speculators on the subject,
+that the bergs themselves are formed in part by a similar process, though
+snows undoubtedly are the principal element in their composition. This it
+is which gives the berg its stratified appearance, no geological formation
+being more apparent or regular in this particular than most of these
+floating mountains.</p>
+
+<p>About ten, the moon was well above the horizon; the fog had been
+precipitated in dew upon the ice, where it congealed, and helped to arrest
+the progress of dissolution; while the ocean became luminous for the hour,
+and objects comparatively distinct. Then it was that the seamen first got
+a clear insight into the awkwardness of their situation. The bold are apt
+to be reckless in the dark; but when danger is visible, their movements
+become more wary and better calculated than those of the timid. When
+Daggett got this first good look at the enormous masses of the field-ice,
+that, stirred by the unquiet ocean, were grinding each other, and raising
+an unceasing rushing sound like that the surf produces on a beach, though
+far louder, and with a harshness in it that denoted the collision of
+substances harder than water, he almost instinctively ordered every sheet
+to be flattened down, and the schooner's head brought as near the wind as
+her construction permitted. Roswell observed the change in his consort's
+line of sailing, slight as it was, and imitated the manoeuvre. The sea
+was too heavy to dream of tacking, and there was not room to ware. So
+close, indeed, were some of the cakes, those that might be called the
+stragglers of the grand array, that repeatedly each vessel brushed along
+so near them as actually to receive slight shocks from collisions with
+projecting portions. It was obvious that the vessels were setting down
+upon the ice, and that Daggett did not haul his wind a moment too soon.</p>
+
+<p>The half-hour that succeeded was one of engrossing interest. It settled
+the point whether the schooners could or could not eat their way into the
+wind sufficiently to weather the danger. Fragment after fragment was
+passed; blow after blow was received; until suddenly the field-ice
+appeared directly in front. It was in vast quantities, extending to the
+southward far as the eye could reach. There remained no alternative but to
+attempt to ware. Without waiting longer than to assure himself of the
+facts, Daggett ordered his helm put up and the main gaff lowered. At that
+moment both the schooners were under their jibs and foresails, each
+without its bonnet, and double-reefed mainsails. This was not canvass very
+favourable for waring, there being too much after-sail; but the sheets
+were attended to, and both vessels were soon driving dead to leeward, amid
+the foam of a large wave; the next instant, ice was heard grinding along
+their sides.</p>
+
+<p>It was not possible to haul up on the other tack ere the schooners would
+be surrounded by the floes; and seeing a comparatively open passage a
+short distance ahead, Daggett stood in boldly, followed closely by
+Roswell. In ten minutes they were fully a mile within the field, rendering
+all attempts to get out of it to windward so hopeless as to be almost
+desperate. The manoeuvre of Daggett was begun under circumstances that
+scarcely admitted of any alternative, though it might be questioned if it
+were not the best expedient that offered. Now that the schooners were so
+far within the field-ice, the water was much less broken, though the
+undulations of the restless ocean were still considerable, and the
+grinding of ice occasioned by them was really terrific. So loud was the
+noise produced by these constant and violent collisions, indeed, that the
+roaring of the wind was barely audible, and that only at intervals. The
+sound was rushing, like that of an incessant avalanche, attended by
+cracking noises that resembled the rending of a glacier.</p>
+
+<p>The schooners now took in their foresails, for the double purpose of
+diminishing their velocity and of being in a better condition to change
+their course, in order to avoid dangers ahead. These changes of course
+were necessarily frequent; but, by dint of boldness, perseverance and
+skill, Daggett worked his way into the comparatively open passage already
+mentioned. It was a sort of river amid the floes, caused doubtless by some
+of the inexplicable currents, and was fully a quarter of a mile in width,
+straight as an air-line, and of considerable length; though how long could
+not be seen by moonlight. It led, moreover, directly down towards the
+bergs, then distant less than a mile. Without stopping to ascertain more,
+Daggett stood on, Roswell keeping close on his quarter. In ten minutes
+they drew quite near to that wild and magnificent ruined city of alabaster
+that was floating about in the antarctic sea!</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the imminent peril that now most seriously menaced the two
+schooners, it was not possible to approach that scene of natural grandeur
+without feelings of awe, that were allied quite as much to admiration as
+to dread. Apprehension certainly weighed on every heart; but curiosity,
+wonder, even delight, were all mingled in the breasts of the crews. As the
+vessels came driving down into the midst of the bergs, everything
+contributed to render the movements imposing in all senses, appalling in
+one. There lay the vast maze of floating mountains, generally of a
+spectral white at that hour, though many of the masses emitted hues more
+pleasing, while some were black as night. The passages between the bergs,
+or what might be termed the streets and lanes of this mysterious-looking,
+fantastical, yet sublime city of the ocean, were numerous, and of every
+variety. Some were broad, straight avenues, a league in length; others
+winding and narrow; while a good many were little more than fissures, that
+might be fancied lanes.</p>
+
+<p>The schooners had not run a league within the bergs before they felt much
+less of the power of the gale, and the heaving and setting of the seas
+were sensibly diminished. What was, perhaps, not to be expected, the
+field-ice had disappeared entirely within the passages of the bergs, and
+the only difficulty in navigating was to keep in such channels as had
+outlets, and which did not appear to be closing. The rate of sailing of
+the two schooners was now greatly lessened, the mountains usually
+intercepting the wind, though it was occasionally heard howling and
+scuffling in the ravines, as if in a hurry to escape, and pass on to the
+more open seas. The grinding of the ice, too, came down in the currents of
+air, furnishing fearful evidence of dangers that were not yet distant. As
+the water was now sufficiently smooth, and the wind, except at the mouths
+of particular ravines, was light, there was nothing to prevent the
+schooners from approaching each other. This was done, and the two masters
+held a discourse together on the subject of their present situation.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a bold fellow, Daggett, and one I should not like to follow in a
+voyage round the world," commenced Roswell. "Here we are, in the midst of
+some hundreds of ice-bergs; a glorious sight to behold, I must
+confess--but are we ever to get out again?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is much better to be here, Gar'ner," returned the other, "than to be
+among the floes. I'm always afraid of my starn and my rudder when among
+the field-ice; whereas there is no danger hereabouts that cannot be seen
+before a vessel is on it. Give me my eyes, and I feel that I have a
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>"There is some truth in that; but I wish these channels were a good deal
+wider than they are. A man may <i>feel</i> a berg as well as see it. Were two
+of these fellows to take it into their heads to close upon us, our little
+craft would be crushed like nuts in the crackers!"</p>
+
+<p>"We must keep a good look-out for that. Here seems to be a long bit of
+open passage ahead of us, and it leads as near north as we can wish to
+run. If we can only get to the other end of it, I shall feel as if half
+our passage back to Ameriky was made."</p>
+
+<p>The citizen of the United States calls his country "America" <i>par
+excellence</i>, never using the addition of 'North, as is practised by most
+European people. Daggett meant 'home,' therefore, by his 'Ameriky,' in
+which he saw no other than the east end of Long Island, Gardiner's Island,
+and Martha's Vineyard. Roswell understood him, of course; so no breath was
+lost.</p>
+
+<p>"In my judgment," returned Gardiner, "we shall not get clear of this ice
+for a thousand miles. Not that I expect to be in a wilderness of it, as we
+are to-night; but after such a summer, you may rely on it, Daggett, that
+the ice will get as far north as 45&deg;, if not a few degrees further."</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible: I have seen it in 42&deg; myself; and in 40&deg; to the nor'ard
+of the equator. If it get as far as 50&deg;, however, in this part of the
+world, it will do pretty well. That will be play to what we have just
+here--In the name of Divine Providence, what is that, Gar'ner!"</p>
+
+<p>Not a voice was heard in either vessel; scarcely a breath was drawn! A
+heavy, groaning sound had been instantly succeeded by such a plunge into
+the water, as might be imagined to succeed the fall of a fragment from
+another planet. Then all the bergs near by began to rock as if agitated by
+an earthquake. This part of the picture was both grand and frightful. Many
+of those masses rose above the sea more than two hundred feet
+perpendicularly, and showed wall-like surfaces of half a league in length.
+At the point where the schooners happened to be just at that moment, the
+ice-islands were not so large, but quite as high, and consequently were
+more easily agitated. While the whole panorama was bowing and rocking,
+pinnacles, arches, walls and all, seeming about to totter from their
+bases, there came a wave sweeping down the passage that lifted them high
+in the air, some fifty feet at least, and bore them along like pieces of
+cork, fully a hundred yards. Other waves succeeded, though of less height
+and force; when, gradually, the water regained its former and more natural
+movement, and subsided.</p>
+
+<p>"This has been an earthquake!" exclaimed Daggett. "That volcano has been
+pent up, and the gas is stirring up the rocks beneath the sea."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," answered Stimson, from the forecastle of his own schooner,
+"it's not that, Captain Daggett. One of them bergs has turned over, like
+a whale wallowing, and it has set all the others a-rocking."</p>
+
+<p>This was the true explanation; one that did not occur to the less
+experienced sealers. It is a danger, however, of no rare occurrence in the
+ice, and one that ever needs to be looked to. The bergs, when they first
+break loose from their native moorings, which is done by the agency of
+frosts, as well as by the action of the seasons in the warm months, are
+usually tabular, and of regular outlines; but this shape is soon lost by
+the action of the waves on ice of very different degrees of consistency;
+some being composed of frozen snow; some of the moisture precipitated from
+the atmosphere in the shape of fogs; and some of pure frozen water. The
+first melts soonest; and a berg that drifts for any length of time with
+one particular face exposed to the sun's rays, soon loses its equilibrium,
+and is canted with an inclination to the horizon. Finally, the centre of
+gravity gets outside of the base, when the still monstrous mass rolls over
+in the ocean, coming literally bottom upwards. There are all degrees and
+varieties of these ice-slips, if one may so term them, and they bring in
+their train the many different commotions that such accidents would
+naturally produce. That which had just alarmed and astonished our
+navigators was of the following character. A mass of ice that was about a
+quarter of a mile in length, and of fully half that breadth, which floated
+quite two hundred feet above the surface of the water, and twice that
+thickness beneath it, was the cause of the disturbance. It had preserved
+its outlines unusually well, and stood upright to the last moment; though,
+owing to numerous strata of snow-ice, its base had melted much more on one
+of its sides than on the other. When the precise moment arrived that would
+have carried a perpendicular line from the centre of gravity without this
+base, the monster turned leisurely in its lair, producing some such effect
+as would have been wrought by the falling of a portion of a Swiss mountain
+into a lake; a sort of accident of which there have been many and
+remarkable instances.</p>
+
+<p>Stimson's explanation, while it raised the curtain from all that was
+mysterious, did not serve very much to quiet apprehensions. If one berg
+had performed such an evolution, it was reasonable to suppose that others
+might do the same thing; and the commotion made by this, which was at a
+distance, gave some insight into what might be expected from a similar
+change in another nearer by. Both Daggett and Gardiner were of opinion
+that the fall of a berg of equal size within a cable's length of the
+schooners might seriously endanger the vessels by dashing them against
+some wall of ice, if in no other manner. It was too late, however, to
+retreat, and the vessels stood on gallantly.</p>
+
+<p>The passage between the bergs now became quite straight, reasonably broad,
+and was so situated as regarded the gale, as to receive a full current of
+its force. It was computed that the schooners ran quite three marine
+leagues in the hour that succeeded the overturning of the berg There were
+moments when the wind blew furiously; and, taking all the accessories of
+that remarkable view into the account, the scene resembled one that the
+imagination might present to the mind in its highest flights, but which
+few could ever hope to see with their proper eyes. The moon-light, the
+crowd of ice-bergs of all shapes and dimensions, seeming to flit past by
+the rapid movements of the vessels; the variety of hues, from spectral
+white to tints of orange and emerald, pale at that hour yet distinct;
+streets and lanes that were scarce opened ere they were passed; together
+with all the fantastic images that such objects conjured to the thoughts;
+contributed to make that hour much the most wonderful that Roswell
+Gardiner had ever passed. To add to the excitement, a couple of whales
+came blowing up the passage, coming within a hundred yards of the
+schooners. They were fin-backs, which are rarely if ever taken, and were
+suffered to pass unharmed. To capture a whale, however, amid so many
+bergs, would be next to impossible, unless the animal were killed by the
+blow of the harpoon, without requiring the keener thrust of the lance.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the hour mentioned, the Sea Lion of the Vineyard rapidly
+changed her course, hauling up by a sudden movement to the westward. The
+passage before her was closed, and there remained but one visible outlet,
+towards which the schooner slowly made her way, having got rather too
+much to leeward of it, in consequence of not earlier seeing the necessity
+for the change of course in that dim and deceptive light. Roswell, being
+to windward, had less difficulty, but, notwithstanding, he kept his
+station on his consort's quarter, declining to lead. The passage into
+which Daggett barely succeeded in carrying his schooner was fearfully
+narrow, and appeared to be fast closing; though it was much wider further
+ahead, could the schooners but get through the first dangerous strait.
+Roswell remonstrated ere the leading vessel entered, and pointed out to
+Daggett the fact that the bergs were evidently closing, each instant
+increasing their movement, most probably through the force of attraction.
+It is known that ships are thus brought in contact in calms, and it is
+thought a similar influence is exercised on the ice-bergs. At all events,
+the wind, the current, or attraction, was fast closing the passage through
+which the schooners had now to go.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely was Daggett within the channel, when an enormous mass fell from
+the summit of one of the bergs, literally closing the passage in his wake,
+while it compelled Gardiner to put his helm down, and to tack ship,
+standing off from the tottering berg. The scene that followed was
+frightful! The cries on board the leading craft denoted her peril, but it
+was not possible for Roswell to penetrate to her with his vessel. All he
+could do was to heave-to his own schooner, lower a boat, and pull back
+towards the point of danger. This he did at once, manfully, but with an
+anxious mind and throbbing heart. He actually urged his boat into the
+chasm beneath an arch in the fallen fragment, and made his way to the very
+side of Daggett's vessel. The last was nipped again, and that badly, but
+was not absolutely lost. The falling fragment from the berg alone
+prevented her and all in her from being ground into powder. This block, of
+enormous size, kept the two bergs asunder; and now that they could not
+absolutely come together, they began slowly to turn in the current,
+gradually opening and separating, at the very point where they had so
+lately seemed attracted to a closer union. In an hour the way was clear,
+and the boats towed the schooner stern foremost into the broader passage.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-20">
+<h2>Chapter XX.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"A voice upon the prairies,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;A cry of woman's woe,<br />
+That mingleth with the autumn blast<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;All fitfully and low."</p>
+
+<p>  Mrs. Sigourney.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The accident to the Sea Lion of the Vineyard occurred very near the close
+of the month of March, which, in the southern hemisphere, corresponds to
+our month of September. This was somewhat late for a vessel to remain in
+so high a latitude, though it was not absolutely dangerous to be found
+there several weeks longer. We have given a glance at Mary Pratt and her
+uncle, about this time; but it has now become expedient to carry the
+reader forward for a considerable period, and take another look at our
+heroine and her miserly uncle, some seven months later. In that interval a
+great change had come over the deacon and his niece; and hope had nearly
+deserted all those who had friends on board the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond,
+as the following explanation will show was reasonable, and to be expected.</p>
+
+<p>When Captain Gardiner sailed, it was understood that his absence would not
+extend beyond a single season. All who had friends and connections on
+board his schooner, had been assured of this; and great was the anxiety,
+and deep the disappointment, when the first of our own summer months
+failed to bring back the adventurers. As week succeeded week, and the
+vessel did not return, the concern increased, until hope began to be lost
+in apprehension. Deacon Pratt groaned in spirit over his loss, finding
+little consolation in the gains secured by means of the oil sent home, as
+is apt to be the case with the avaricious, when their hearts are once set
+on gain. As for Mary, the load on <i>her</i> heart increased in weight, as it
+might be, day by day, until those smiles, which had caused her sweet
+countenance to be radiant with innocent joy, entirely disappeared, and she
+was seen to smile no more. Still, complaints never passed her lips. She
+prayed much, and found all her relief in such pursuits as comported with
+her feelings, but she seldom spoke of her grief; never, except at weak
+moments, when her querulous kinsman introduced the subject, in his
+frequent lamentations over his losses.</p>
+
+<p>The month of November is apt to be stormy on the Atlantic coasts of the
+republic. It is true that the heaviest gales do not then occur, but the
+weather is generally stern and wintry, and the winds are apt to be high
+and boisterous. At a place like Oyster Pond, the gales from the ocean are
+felt with almost as much power as on board a vessel at sea; and Mary
+became keenly sensible of the change from the bland breezes of summer to
+the sterner blasts of autumn. As for the deacon, his health was actually
+giving way before anxiety, until the result was getting to be a matter of
+doubt. Premature old age appeared to have settled on him, and his niece
+had privately consulted Dr. Sage on his case. The excellent girl was
+grieved to find that the mind of her uncle grew more worldly, his desires
+for wealth more grasping, as he was losing his hold on life, and was
+approaching nearer to that hour when time is succeeded by eternity. All
+this while, however, Deacon Pratt "kept about," as he expressed it
+himself, and struggled to look after his interests, as had been his
+practice through life. He collected his debts, foreclosed his mortgages
+when necessary, drove tight bargains for his wood and other saleable
+articles, and neglected nothing that he thought would tend to increase his
+gains. Still, his heart was with his schooner; for he had expected much
+from that adventure, and the disappointment was in proportion to the
+former hopes.</p>
+
+<p>One day, near the close of November, the deacon and his niece were alone
+together in the "keeping-room,"--as it was, if it be not still, the custom
+among persons of New England origin to call the ordinary
+sitting-apartment,--he bolstered up in an easy-chair, on account of
+increasing infirmities, and she plying the needle in her customary way.
+The chairs of both were so placed that it was easy for either to look out
+upon that bay, now of a wintry aspect, where Roswell had last anchored,
+previously to sailing.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pleasant sight it would be, uncle," Mary, almost unconsciously to
+herself, remarked, as, with tearful eyes, she sat gazing intently on the
+water, "could we only awake and find the Sea Lion at anchor, under the
+point of Gardiner's Island! I often fancy that such <i>may</i> be--nay,
+<i>must</i> be the case yet; but it never comes to pass! I would not tell you
+yesterday, for you did not seem to be as well as common, but I have got an
+answer, by Baiting Joe, to my letter sent across to the Vineyard."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon started, and half-turned his body towards his niece, on whose
+face his own sunken eyes were now fastened with almost ferocious interest.
+It was the love of Mammon, stirring within him the lingering remains of
+covetousness. He thought of his property, while Mary thought of those
+whose lives had been endangered, if not lost, by the unhappy adventure.
+The latter understood the look, however, so far as to answer its inquiry,
+in her usual gentle, feminine voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say, sir, that no news has been heard from Captain Daggett,
+or any of his people," was the sad reply to this silent interrogatory. "No
+one on the island has heard a word from the Vineyard vessel since the day
+before she sailed from Rio. There is the same uneasiness felt among
+Captain Daggett's friends, as we feel for poor Roswell. They think,
+however, that the two vessels have kept together, and believe that the
+same fate has befallen both."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed the deacon, as sharply as wasting lungs would
+allow--"Heaven forbid! If Gar'ner his let that Daggett keep in his company
+an hour longer than was necessary, he has deserved to meet with shipwreck,
+though the loss always falls heaviest on the owners."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, uncle, it is more cheering to think that the two schooners are
+together in those dangerous seas, than to imagine one, alone, left to meet
+the risks, without a companion!"</p>
+
+<p>"You talk idly, gal--as women always talk. If you know'd all, you wouldn't
+think of such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"So you have said often, uncle, and I fear there is some mystery preying
+all this time on your, spirits. Why not relieve your mind, by telling your
+troubles to me? I am your child in affection, if not by birth."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a good gal, Mary," answered the deacon, a good deal softened by
+the plaintive tones of one of the gentlest voices that ever fell on human
+ear, "an excellent creatur' at the bottom--but of course you know nothing
+of the sealing business, and next to nothing about taking care of
+property."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you do not think me wasteful, sir? That is a character I should
+not like to possess."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not wasteful; on the contrary, curful (so the deacon pronounced the
+word) and considerate enough, as to <i>keeping</i>, but awfully indifferent as
+to <i>getting</i>. Had I been as indifferent as you are yourself, your futur'
+days would not be so comfortable and happy as they are now likely to be,
+a'ter my departure--if depart I <i>must</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"My future life happy and comfortable!" <i>thought</i> Mary; then she struggled
+to be satisfied with her lot, and contented with the decrees of
+Providence. "It is but a few hours that we live in this state of trials,
+compared to the endless existence that is to succeed it."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I knew all about this voyage of Roswell's," she added, aloud; for
+she was perfectly certain that there was something to be told that, as
+yet, the deacon had concealed from her. "It might relieve your mind, and
+lighten your spirits of a burthen, to make me a confidant."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon mused in silence for more than five minutes. Seldom had his
+thoughts gone over so wide a reach of interests and events in so short a
+space of time; but the conclusion was clear and decided.</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to know all, Mary, and you shall know all," he answered, in the
+manner of a man who had made up his mind beyond appeal. "Gar'ner has gone
+a'ter seal to some islands that the Daggett who died here, about a year
+and a half ago, told me of; islands of which nobody know'd anything,
+according to his account, but himself. His shipmates, that saw the place
+when he saw it, were all dead, afore he let me into the secret."</p>
+
+<p>"I have long suspected something of the sort, sir, and have also supposed
+that the people on Martha's Vineyard had got some news of this place, by
+the manner in which Captain Daggett has acted."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it wonderful, gal? Islands, they tell me, where a schooner can
+fill up with ile and skins, in the shortest season in which the sun ever
+shone upon an antarctic summer! Wonderful! wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very extraordinary, perhaps; but we should remember, uncle, at how much
+risk the young men of the country go on these distant voyages, and how
+dearly their profits are sometimes bought."</p>
+
+<p>"Bought! If the schooner would only come back, I should think nothing of
+all that. It's the cost of the vessel and outfit, Mary, that weighs so
+much on <i>my</i> spirits. Well, Gar'ner's first business is with them islands,
+which are at an awful distance for one to trust his property; but,
+'nothing ventured, nothing got,' they say. By my calculations, the
+schooner has had to go a good five hundred miles among the ice, to get to
+the spot; not such ice as a body falls in with, in going and coming
+between England and Ameriky, as we read of in the papers, but ice that
+covers the sea as we sometimes see it piled up in Gar'ner's Bay, only a
+hundred times higher, and deeper, and broader, and colder! It's desperate
+<i>cold</i> ice, the sealers all tell me, that of the antarctic seas. Some on
+'em think it's colder down south than it is the other way, up towards
+Greenland and Iceland itself. It's extr'or'nary, Mary, that the weather
+should grow cold as a body journeys south; but so it is, by all accounts.
+I never could understand it, and it isn't so in Ameriky, I'm sartain. I
+suppose it must come of their turning the months round, and having their
+winter in the midst of the dog-days. I never could understand it, though
+Gar'ner has tried, more than once, to reason me into it. I believe, but I
+don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>"It is all told in my geography here," answered Mary, mechanically taking
+down the book, for her thoughts were far away in those icy seas that her
+uncle had been so graphically describing. "I dare say we can find it all
+explained in the elementary parts of this book."</p>
+
+<p>"They <i>do</i> make their geographies useful, now-a-days," said the deacon,
+with rather more animation than he had shown before, that morning.
+"They've got 'em to be, now, almost as useful as almanacs. Read what it
+says about the seasons, child."</p>
+
+<p>"It says, sir, that the changes in the seasons are owing to 'the
+inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit,' I do not
+exactly understand what that means, uncle.'</p>
+
+<p>"No,--it's not as clear as it might be.--The declination--"</p>
+
+<p>"Inclination, sir, is what is printed here."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, inclination. I do not see why any one should have much inclination
+for winter, but so it must be, I suppose. The Earth's orbit has an
+inclination towards changes,' you say."</p>
+
+<p>"The changes in the seasons, sir, are owing to 'the inclination of the
+earth's axis to the plane of its orbit.' It does not say that the orbit
+has an inclination in any particular way."</p>
+
+<p>Thus was it with Mary Pratt, and thus was it with her uncle, the deacon.
+One of the plainest problems in natural philosophy was Hebrew to both,
+simply because the capacity that Providence had so freely bestowed on each
+had never been turned to the consideration of such useful studies. But,
+while the mind of Mary Pratt was thus obscured on this simple, and, to
+such as choose to give it an hour of reflection, perfectly intelligible
+proposition, it was radiant as the day on another mystery, and one that
+has confounded thousands of the learned, as well as of the unlearned. To
+her intellect, nothing was clearer, no moral truth more vivid, no physical
+fact more certain, than the incarnation of the Son of God. She had the
+"evidence of things not seen," in the fulness of Divine grace; and was
+profound on this, the greatest concern of human life, while unable even to
+comprehend how the "inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its
+orbit" could be the cause of the change of the seasons. And was it thus
+with her uncle?--he who was a pillar of the "meeting," whose name was
+often in men's mouths as a "shining light," and who had got to be
+identified with religion in his own neighbourhood, to a degree that caused
+most persons to think of Deacon Pratt, when they should be thinking of the
+Saviour? We are afraid he knew as little of one of these propositions as
+of the other.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very extr'or'nary," resumed the deacon, after ruminating on the
+matter for a few moments, "but I suppose it <i>is</i> so. Wasn't it for this
+'inclination' to cold weather our vessels might go and seal under as
+pleasant skies as we have here in June. But, Mary, I suppose that wasn't
+to be, or it would be."</p>
+
+<p>"There would have been no seals, most likely, uncle, if there was no ice.
+They tell me that such creatures love the cold and the ice, and the frozen
+oceans. Too much warm weather would not suit them."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Mary, it might suit other folks! Gar'ner's whole ar'nd isn't among
+the ice, or a'ter them seals."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know that I understand you, sir. Surely Roswell has gone on a
+sealing voyage."</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain; there's no mistake about <i>that</i>. But there may be many
+stopping-places in so long a road."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean, sir, that he is to use any of these stopping-places, as you
+call them?" asked Mary, eagerly, half-breathless with her anxiety to hear
+all. "You said something about the West Indies once."</p>
+
+<p>"Harkee, Mary--just look out into the entry and see if the kitchen door is
+shut. And now come nearer to me, child, so that there may be no need of
+bawling what I've got to say all over Oyster Pond. There, sit down, my
+dear, and don't look so eager, as if you wanted to eat me, or my mind may
+misgive me, and then I couldn't tell you, a'ter all. Perhaps it would be
+best, if I was to keep my own secret."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if it has anything to do with Roswell, dear uncle; not if it has
+anything to do with him! You have often advised me to marry him, and I
+ought to know all about the man you wish me to marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Gar'ner will make a right good husband for any young woman, and I
+<i>do</i> advise you to have him. You are my brother's da'ghter, Mary, and I
+give you this advice, which I should give you all the same, had you been
+my own child, instead of his'n."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I know that.--But what about Roswell, and his having to stop,
+on his way home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you must know, Mary, that this v'y'ge came altogether out of that
+seaman who died among us, last year. I was kind to him, as you may
+remember, and helped him to many little odd comforts,"--odd enough were
+they, of a verity,--"and he was grateful. Of all virtues, give me
+gratitude, say I! It is the noblest, as it is the most oncommon of all
+our good qualities. How little have I met with, in my day! Of all the
+presents I have made, and gifts bestowed, and good acts done, not one in
+ten has ever met with any gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>Mary sighed; for well did she know how little he had given, of his
+abundance, to relieve the wants of his fellow-creatures. She sighed, too,
+with a sort of mild impatience that the information she sought with so
+much eagerness, was so long and needlessly delayed. But the deacon had
+made up his mind to tell her all.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Gar'ner has got something to do, beside sealing," he resumed of
+himself, when his regret at the prevalence of ingratitude among men had
+exhausted itself. "Suthin'"--for this was the way he pronounced that
+word--"that is of more importance than the schooner's hold full of ile.
+Ile is ile, I know, child; but gold is gold. What do you think of <i>that</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is Roswell, then, to stop at Rio again, in order to sell his oil, and
+send the receipts home in gold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Better than that--much better than that, if he gets back at all." Mary
+felt a chill at her heart. "Yes, that is the p'int--if he gets back at
+all. If Gar'ner ever does come home, child, I shall expect to see him
+return with a considerable sized keg--almost a barrel, by all
+accounts--filled with gold!"</p>
+
+<p>The deacon stared about him as he made this announcement, like a man who
+was afraid that he was telling too much. Nevertheless, it was to his own
+niece, his brother's daughter, that he had confided thus much of his great
+secret--and reflection re-assured him.</p>
+
+<p>"How is Roswell to get all this gold, uncle, unless he sells his cargo?"
+Mary asked, with obvious solicitude.</p>
+
+<p>"That's another p'int. I'll tell you all about it, gal, and you'll see the
+importance of keeping the secret. This Daggett--not the one who is out in
+another schooner, another Sea Lion, as it might be, but his uncle, who
+died down here at the Widow White's--well, <i>that</i> Daggett told more than
+the latitude and longitude of the sealing islands--he told me of a buried
+treasure!"</p>
+
+<p>"Buried treasure!--Buried by whom, and consisting of what, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Buried by seamen who make free with the goods of others on the high seas,
+ag'in the time when they might come back and dig it up, and carry it away
+to be used. Consisting of what, indeed! Consisting principally, accordin'
+to Daggett's account, of heavy doubloons; though there was a lot of old
+English guineas among 'em. Yes, I remember that he spoke of them
+guineas--three thousand and odd, and nearly as many doubloons!"</p>
+
+<p>"Was Daggett, then, a pirate, sir?--for they who make free with the goods
+of others on the high seas are neither more nor less than pirates."</p>
+
+<p>"No; not he, himself. He got this secret from one who <i>was</i> a pirate,
+however, and who was a prisoner in a gaol where he was himself confined
+for smuggling. Yes; that man told him all about the buried treasure, in
+return for some acts of kindness shown him by Daggett. It's well to be
+kind sometimes, Mary"</p>
+
+<p>"It is well to be kind always, sir; even when it is misunderstood, and the
+kindness is abused. What was the redemption but kindness and love, and
+god-like compassion on those who neither understood it nor felt it? But
+money collected and buried by pirates can never become <i>yours</i>, uncle; nor
+can it ever become the property of Roswell Gardiner."</p>
+
+<p>"Whose is it, then, gal?" demanded the deacon, sharply. "Gar'ner had some
+such silly notion in his head when I first told him of this treasure; but
+I soon brought <i>him</i> to hear reason."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Roswell must always have seen that a treasure obtained by robbery
+can never justly belong to any but its rightful owner."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is this rightful owner, pray? or <i>owners</i>, I might say; for the
+gold was picked up, here and there, out of all question, from many hands.
+Now, supposing Gar'ner gets this treasure, as I still hope he may, though
+he is an awful time about it--but suppose he gets it, how is he to find
+the rightful owners? There it is, a bag of doubloons, say--all looking
+just alike, with the head of a king, a Don Somebody, and the date, and the
+Latin and Greek--now who can say that 'this is my doubloon; I lost it at
+such a time--it was taken from me by such a pirate, in such sea; and I was
+whipped till I told the thieves where I had hid the gold?' No, no, Mary;
+depend on 't, no action of 'plevy would lie ag'in a single one of all them
+pieces. They are lost, one and all, to their former owners, and will
+belong to the man that succeeds in getting hold on 'em ag'in; who will
+become a rightful owner in his turn. All property comes from law; and if
+the law won't 'plevy money got in this way, nobody can maintain a claim to
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very, very sorry, my dear uncle, to have Roswell enrich
+himself in this way."</p>
+
+<p>"You talk like a silly young woman, and one that doesn't know her own
+rights. We had no hand in robbing the folks of their gold. They lost it
+years ago, and may be dead--probably are, or they would make some stir
+about it--or have forgotten it, and couldn't for their lives tell a single
+one of the coins they once had in their possession; and don't know whether
+what they lost was thrown into the sea, or buried in the sand on a
+key--Mary, child; you must never mention anything I tell you on this
+subject!"</p>
+
+<p>"You need fear nothing, sir, from me. But I do most earnestly hope Roswell
+will have nothing to do with any such ill-gotten wealth. He is too
+noble-hearted and generous to get rich in this way."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, say no more about it, child; you're romantic and notional.
+Just pour out my drops; for all this talking makes me breathe thick. I'm
+not what I was, Mary, and cannot last long; but was it the last breath I
+drew, I would stand to it, that treasure desarted and found in this way
+belongs to the last holder. I go by the law, however; let Gar'ner only
+find it--well, well, I'll say no more about it now; for it distresses you,
+and that I don't like to see. Go and hunt up the Spectator, child, and
+look for the whaling news--perhaps there may be suthin' about the sealers
+too."</p>
+
+<p>Mary did not require to be told twice to do as her uncle requested. The
+paper was soon found, and the column that contained the marine
+intelligence consulted. The niece read a long account of whalers spoken,
+with so many hundred or so many thousand barrels of oil on board, but
+could discover no allusion to any sealer. At length she turned her eyes
+into the body of the journal, which being semi-weekly, or tri-weekly, was
+crowded with matter, and started at seeing a paragraph to the following
+effect:--</p>
+
+<p>"By the arrival of the Twin Sisters at Stonington, we learn that the ice
+has been found farther north in the southern hemisphere this season, than
+it has been known to be for many years. The sealers have had a great deal
+of difficulty in making their way through it; and even vessels bound round
+the Cape of Good Hope have been much embarrassed by its presence."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it!--Yes, Mary, that's just it!" exclaimed the deacon. "It's that
+awful ice. If 'twasn't for the ice, sealin' would be as pleasant a calling
+as preachin' the gospel! It is possible that this ice has turned Gar'ner
+back, when he has been on his way home, and that he has been waiting for a
+better time to come north. There's one good p'int in this news--they tell
+me that when the ice is seen drifting about in low latitudes, it's a sign
+there's less of it in the higher."</p>
+
+<p>"The Cape of Good Hope is certainly, in one sense, in a low latitude,
+uncle; if I remember right, it is not as far south as we are north; and,
+as you say, it <i>is</i> a good sign if the ice has come anywhere near it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't say it has, child; I don't say it has. But it may have come to
+the northward of Cape Horn, and that will be a great matter; for all the
+ice that is drifting about there comes from the polar seas, and is so much
+taken out of Gardner's track."</p>
+
+<p>"Still he must come <i>through</i> it to get home," returned Mary, in her
+sweet, melancholy tones. "Ah! why cannot men be content with the blessings
+that Providence places within our immediate reach, that they must make
+distant voyages to accumulate others!"</p>
+
+<p>"You like your tea, I fancy, Mary Pratt--and the sugar in it, and your
+silks and ribbons that I've seen you wear; how are you to get such matters
+if there's to be no going on v'y'ges? Tea and sugar, and silks and satins
+don't grow along with the clams on 'Yster Pond'"--for so the deacon
+uniformly pronounced the word 'oyster.'</p>
+
+<p>Mary acknowledged the truth of what was said, but changed the subject.
+The journal contained no more that related to sealing or sealers, and it
+was soon laid aside.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be that Gar'ner is digging for the buried treasure all this time,"
+the deacon at length resumed. "That may be the reason he is so late. If
+so, he has nothing to dread from ice."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand you, sir, that this money is supposed to be buried on a
+key--in the West Indies, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak so loud, Mary--there's no need of letting all 'Yster Pond
+know where the treasure is. It may be in the West Ingees, or it may not;
+there's keys all over the 'arth, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not think, uncle, that Roswell would write, if detained long among
+those keys?"</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't hear to post-offices in the antarctic ocean, and now you
+want to put them on the sand-keys of the West Ingees! Woman's always a
+sailin' ag'in wind and tide."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so, sir, in this case, at least. There must be many
+vessels passing among the keys of the West Indies, and nothing seems to me
+to be easier than to send letters by them. I am quite sure Roswell would
+write, if in a part of the world where he thought what he wrote would
+reach us."</p>
+
+<p>"Not he--not he--Gar'ner's not the man I take him for, if he let any one
+know what he is about in them keys, until he had done up all his business
+there. No, no, Mary. We shall never hear from him in that quarter of the
+world. It may be that Gar'ner is a digging about, and has difficulty in
+finding the place; for Daggett's account had some weak spots in it."</p>
+
+<p>Mary made no reply, though she thought it very little likely that Roswell
+would pass months in the West Indies employed in such a pursuit, without
+finding the means of letting her know where he was, and what he was about.
+The intercourse between these young people was somewhat peculiar, and ever
+had been. In listening to the suit of Roswell, Mary had yielded to her
+heart; in hesitating about accepting him, she deferred to her principles.
+Usually, a mother--not a managing, match-making, interested parent, but a
+prudent, feminine, well-principled mother--is of the last importance to
+the character and well-being of a young woman. It sometimes happens,
+however, that a female who has no parent of her own sex, and who is early
+made to be dependent on herself, if the bias of her mind is good, becomes
+as careful and prudent of herself and her conduct as the advice and
+solicitude of the most tender mother could make her. Such had been the
+case with Mary Pratt. Perfectly conscious of her own deserted situation,
+high principled, and early awake to the defects in her uncle's character,
+she had laid down severe rules for the government of her own conduct; and
+from these rules she never departed. Thus it was that she permitted
+Roswell to write, though she never answered his letters. She permitted him
+to write, because she had promised not to shut her ears to his suit, so
+long as he practised towards her his native and manly candour; concealing
+none of his opinions, and confessing his deficiency on the one great point
+that formed the only obstacle to their union.</p>
+
+<p>A young woman who has no mother, if she escape the ills attendant on the
+privation while her character is forming, is very apt to acquire qualities
+that are of great use in her future life. She learns to rely on herself,
+gets accustomed to think and act like an accountable being, and is far
+more likely to become a reasoning and useful head of a family, than if
+brought up in dependence, and under the control of even the best maternal
+government. In a word, the bias of the mind is sooner obtained in such
+circumstances than when others do so much of the thinking; whether that
+bias be in a right or in a wrong direction. But Mary Pratt had early taken
+the true direction in all that relates to opinion and character, and had
+never been wanting to herself in any of the distinctive and discreet
+deportment of her sex.</p>
+
+<p>Our heroine hardly knew whether or not to seek for consolation in her
+uncle's suggestion of Roswell's being detained among the keys, in order to
+look for the hidden treasure. The more she reflected on this subject, the
+more did it embarrass her. Few persons who knew of the existence of such a
+deposit would hesitate about taking possession of it; and, once reclaimed,
+in what way were the best intentions to be satisfied with the disposition
+of the gold? To find the owners would probably be impossible; and a
+question in casuistry remained. Mary pondered much on this subject, and
+came to the conclusion that, were she the person to whom such a treasure
+were committed, she would set aside a certain period for advertising; and
+failing to discover those who had the best claim to the money, that she
+would appropriate every dollar to a charity.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! Little did Mary understand the world. The fact that money was thus
+advertised would probably have brought forward a multitude of dishonest
+pretenders to having been robbed by pirates; and scarce a doubloon would
+have found its way into the pocket of its right owner, even had she
+yielded all to the statements of such claimants.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, did not bring back the missing Roswell. Another winter
+was fast approaching, with its chilling storms and gales, to awaken
+apprehensions by keeping the turbulence of the ocean, as it might be,
+constantly before the senses. Not a week now passed that the deacon did
+not get a letter from some wife, or parent, or sister, or perhaps from one
+who hesitated to avow her relations to the absent mariner; all inquiring
+after the fate of those who had sailed in the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond,
+under the orders of Captain Roswell Gardiner.</p>
+
+<p>Even those of the Vineyard sent across questions, and betrayed anxiety and
+dread, in the very manner of putting their interrogatories. Each day did
+the deacon's apprehensions increase, until it was obvious to all around
+him that this cause, united to others that were more purely physical,
+perhaps, was seriously undermining his health, and menacing his existence.
+It is a sad commentary on the greediness for gain, manifested by this
+person, that ere the adventure he had undertaken on the strength of
+Daggett's reluctant communications was brought to any apparent result, he
+himself was nearly in the condition of that diseased seaman, with as
+little prospect of being benefited by his secrets as was the man himself
+who first communicated their existence. Mary saw all this clearly, and
+mourned almost as much over the blindness and worldliness of her uncle as
+she did over the now nearly assured fate of him whom she had so profoundly
+loved in her heart's core.</p>
+
+<p>Day by day did time roll on, without bringing any tidings of either of
+the Sea Lions. The deacon grew weak fast, until he seldom left his room,
+and still more rarely the house. It was now that he was induced to make
+his will, and this by an agency so singular as to deserve being mentioned.
+The Rev. Mr. Whittle broached the subject one day, not with any interested
+motive of course, but simply because the "meeting-house" wanted some
+material repairs, and there was a debt on the congregation that it might
+be a pleasure to one who had long stood in the relation to it that Deacon
+Pratt filled, to pay off, when he no longer had any occasion for the money
+for himself. It is probable the deacon at length felt the justice of this
+remark; for he sent to Riverhead for a lawyer, and made a will that would
+have stood even the petulant and envious justice of the present day; a
+justice that inclines to divide a man's estate infinitesimally, lest some
+heir become a little richer than his neighbours. After all, no small
+portion of that which struts about under the aspects of right, and
+liberty, and benevolence, is in truth derived from some of the most
+sneaking propensities of human nature!</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-21">
+<h2>Chapter XXI.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"I, too, have seen thee on thy surging path<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When the night-tempest met thee; thou didst dash<br />
+Thy white arms high in heaven, as if in wrath,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Threatening the angry sky; thy waves did lash<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The labouring vessel, and with deadening crash<br />
+Rush madly forth to scourge its groaning sides;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Onward thy billows came, to meet and clash<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;In a wild warfare, till the lifted tides<br />
+Mingled their yesty tops, where the dark storm-cloud rides."</p>
+
+<p>  Percival.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The first movement of the mariner, when his vessel has been brought in
+collision with any hard substance, is to sound the pumps. This very
+necessary duty was in the act of performance by Daggett, in person, even
+while the boats of Roswell Gardiner were towing his strained and roughly
+treated craft into the open water. The result of this examination was
+waited for by all on board, including Roswell, with the deepest anxiety.
+The last held the lantern by which the height of the water in the well was
+to be ascertained; the light of the moon scarce sufficing for such a
+purpose. Daggett stood on the top of the pump himself, while Gardiner and
+Macy were at its side. At length the sounding-rod came up, and its lower
+end was held out, in order to ascertain how high up it was wet.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you make of it, Gar'ner?" Daggett demanded, a little
+impatiently. "Water there must be; for no craft that floats could have
+stood such a squeeze, and not have her sides open."</p>
+
+<p>"There must be near three feet of water in your hold," answered Roswell,
+shaking his head. "If this goes on, Captain Daggett, it will be hard work
+to keep your schooner afloat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Afloat she shall be, while a pump-break can work. Here, rig this larboard
+pump at once, and get it in motion."</p>
+
+<p>"It is possible that your seams opened under the nip, and have closed
+again, as soon as the schooner got free. In such a case, ten minutes at
+the pump will let us know it."</p>
+
+<p>Although there is no duty to which seamen are so averse as pumping--none,
+perhaps, that is actually so exhausting and laborious--it often happens
+that they have recourse to it with eagerness, as the only available means
+of saving their lives. Such was now the case, the harsh but familiar
+strokes of the pump-break being audible amid the more solemn and grand
+sounds of the grating of ice-bergs, the rushing of floes, and the
+occasional scuffling and howling of the winds. The last appeared to have
+changed in their direction, however; a circumstance that was soon noted,
+there being much less of biting cold in the blasts than had been felt in
+the earlier hours of the night.</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe that the wind has got round here to the north-east," said
+Roswell, as he paced the quarter-deck with Daggett, still holding in his
+hand the well wiped and dried sounding-rod, in readiness for another
+trial. "That last puff was right in our teeth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in our teeth, Gar'ner; no, not in <i>my</i> teeth," answered Daggett,
+"whatever it maybe in <i>your'n</i>. I shall try to get back to the island,
+where I shall endeavour to beach the schooner, and get a look at her
+leaks. This is the <i>most</i> I can hope for. It would never do to think of
+carrying a craft, after such a nip, as far as Rio, pumping every foot of
+the way!"</p>
+
+<p>"That will cause a great delay, Captain Daggett," said Roswell,
+doubtingly. "We are now well in among the first great body of the ice; it
+may be as easy to work our way to the northward of it, as to get back into
+clear water to the southward."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say it would; but, back I go. I do not ask you to accompany us,
+Gar'ner; by no means. A'ter the handsome manner in which you've waited for
+us so long, I couldn't think of such a thing! If the wind has r'ally got
+round to nothe-east, and I begin to think it has, I shall get the schooner
+into the cove in four-and-twenty hours; and there's as pretty a spot to
+beach her, just under the shelf where we kept our spare casks, as a body
+can wish. In a fortnight we'll have her leaks all stopped, and be jogging
+along in your wake. You'll tell the folks on Oyster Pond that we're
+a-coming, and they'll be sure to send the news across to the Vineyard."</p>
+
+<p>This was touching Roswell on a point of honour, and Daggett knew it very
+well. Generous and determined, the young man was much more easily
+influenced by a silent and indirect appeal to his liberal qualities, than
+he could possibly have been by any other consideration. The idea of
+deserting a companion in distress, in a sea like that in which he was,
+caused him to shrink from what, under other circumstances, he would regard
+as an imperative duty. The deacon, and still more, Mary, called him north;
+but the necessities of the Vineyarders would seem to chain him to their
+fate.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see what the pump tells us now," cried Roswell impatiently.
+"Perhaps the report may make matters better than we have dared to hope
+for. If the pump gains on the leak, all may yet be well."</p>
+
+<p>"It's encouraging and hearty to hear you say this; but no one who was <i>in</i>
+that nip, as a body might say, can ever expect the schooner to make a run
+of two thousand miles without repairs. To my eye, Gar'ner, these bergs are
+separating, leaving us a clearer passage back to the open water."</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe you are right; but it seems a sad loss of time, and a great
+risk, to go through these mountains again," returned Roswell. "The wind
+has shifted; and the nearest bergs, from some cause or other, are slowly
+opening; but recollect what a mass of floe-ice there is outside. Let us
+sound again."</p>
+
+<p>The process was renewed this time much easier than before, the boxes being
+already removed. The result was soon known.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what news, Gar'ner?" demanded Daggett, leaning down, in a vain
+endeavour to perceive the almost imperceptible marks that distinguished
+the wet part of the rod from that which was dry. "Do we gain on the leak,
+or does the leak gain on us? God send it may be the first!"</p>
+
+<p>"God has so sent it, sir," answered Stimson, reverently; for he was
+holding the lantern, having remained on board the damaged vessel by the
+order of his officer. "It is He alone, Captain Daggett, who could do this
+much to seamen in distress."</p>
+
+<p>"Then to God be thanks, as is due! If we can but keep the leak under, the
+schooner may yet be saved."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it may be done, Daggett," added Roswell. "That one pump has
+brought the water down more than two inches; and, in my judgment, the two
+together would clear her entirely."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll pump her till she sucks!" cried Daggett. "Rig the other pump, men,
+and go to the work heartily."</p>
+
+<p>This was done, though not until Roswell ordered fully half of his own crew
+to come to the assistance of his consort. By this time the two vessels had
+filled away, made more sail, and were running off before the new wind,
+retracing their steps, so far as one might judge of the position of the
+great passage. Daggett's vessel led, and Hazard followed; Roswell still
+remaining on board the injured craft. Thus passed the next few hours. The
+pumps soon sucked, and it was satisfactorily ascertained that the
+schooner could be freed from the water by working at them about
+one-fourth of the time. This was a bad leak, and one that would have
+caused any crew to become exhausted in the course of a few days. As
+Roswell ascertained the facts more clearly, he became better satisfied
+with a decision that, in a degree, had been forced on him. He was
+passively content to return with Daggett, convinced that taking the
+injured vessel to Rio was out of the question, until some attention had
+been paid to her damages.</p>
+
+<p>Fortune--or as Stimson would say, Providence--favoured our mariners
+greatly in the remainder of their run among the bergs. There were several
+avalanches of snow quite near to them, and one more berg performed a
+revolution at no great distance; but no injury was sustained by either
+vessel. As the schooners got once more near to the field-ice, Roswell went
+on board his own craft; and all the boats, which had been towing in the
+open passage, were run up and secured. Gardiner now led, leaving his
+consort to follow as closely in his wake as she could keep.</p>
+
+<p>Much greater difficulty, and dangers indeed, were encountered among the
+broken and grating floes, than had been expected, or previously met with.
+Notwithstanding fenders were got out on all sides, many a rude shock was
+sustained, and the copper suffered in several places. Once or twice,
+Roswell apprehended that the schooners would be crushed by the pressure on
+their sides. The hazards were in some measure increased by the bold manner
+in which our navigators felt themselves called on to push ahead; for time
+was very precious in every sense, not only on account of the waning
+season, but actually on account of the fatigue undergone by men who were
+compelled to toil at the pumps one minute in every four.</p>
+
+<p>At the return of day, now getting to be later than it had been during the
+early months of their visit to these seas, our adventurers found
+themselves in the centre of vast fields of floating ice, driving away from
+the bergs, which, influenced by under-currents, were still floating north,
+while the floes drove to the southward. It was very desirable to get clear
+of all this cake-ice, though the grinding among it was by no means as
+formidable, as when the seas were running high, and the whole of the
+frozen expanse was in violent commotion. Motion, however, soon became
+nearly impossible, except as the schooners drifted in the midst of the
+mass, which was floating south at the rate of about two knots.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed an entire day and night. So compact was the ice around them,
+that the mariners passed from one vessel to the other on it, with the
+utmost confidence. No apprehension was felt so long as the wind stood in
+its present quarter, the fleet of bergs actually forming as good a lee as
+if they had been so much land. On the morning of the second day, all this
+suddenly changed. The ice began to open; why, was matter of conjecture,
+though it was attributed to a variance between the wind and the currents.
+This, in some measure, liberated the schooners, and they began to move
+independently of the floes. About noon, the smoke of the volcano became
+once more visible; and before the sun went down the cap of the highest
+elevation in the group was seen, amid flurries of snow.</p>
+
+<p>Every one was glad to see these familiar land-marks, dreary and remote
+from the haunts of men as they were known to be; for there was a promise
+in them of a temporary termination of their labours. Incessant pumping--
+one minute in four being thus employed on board the Vineyard craft--was
+producing its customary effect; and the men looked jaded and exhausted. No
+one who has not stood at a pump-break on board a vessel, can form any
+notion of the nature of the toil, or of the extreme dislike with which
+seamen regard it. The tread-mill, as we conceive--for our experience
+extends to the first, though not to the last of these occupations--is the
+nearest approach to the pain of such toil, though the convict does not
+work for his life.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the fourth day, our mariners found themselves in the
+great bay, in clear water, about a league from the cove, and nearly dead
+to windward of their port. The helms were put up, and the schooners were
+soon within the well-known shelter. As they ran in, Roswell gazed around
+him, in regret, awe, and admiration. He could not but regret being
+compelled to lose so much precious time, at that particular season. Short
+as had been his absence from the group, sensible changes in the aspect of
+things had already occurred. Every sign of summer--and they had ever been
+few and meagre--was now lost; a chill and dreary autumn having succeeded.
+As a matter of course, nothing was altered about the dwelling; the piles
+of wood, and other objects placed there by the hands of man, remaining
+just as they had been left; but even these looked less cheering, more
+unavailable, than when last seen. To the surprise of all, not a seal was
+visible. From some cause unknown to the men, all of these animals had
+disappeared, thereby defeating one of Daggett's secret calculations; this
+provident master having determined, in his own mind, to profit by his
+accident, and seize the occasion to fill up. Some said that the creatures
+had gone north to winter; others asserted that they had been alarmed, and
+had taken refuge on one of the other islands; but all agreed in saying
+that they were gone.</p>
+
+<p>It is known that a seal will occasionally wander a great distance from
+what may be considered his native waters; but we are not at all aware that
+they are to be considered as migratory animals. The larger species usually
+take a wide range of climate to dwell in, and even the little fur-seal
+sometimes gets astray, and is found on coasts that do not usually come
+within his haunts. As respects the animals that so lately abounded on
+Sealer's Land, we shall hazard no theory, our business being principally
+with facts; but a conversation that took place between the two chief mates
+on this occasion may possibly assist some inquiring mind in its
+speculations.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Macy," said Hazard, pointing along the deserted rocks, "what do you
+think of <i>that</i>? Not an animal to be seen, where there were lately
+thousands!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I think of it?--Why, I think they are off, and I've know'd such
+things to happen afore"--The sealers of 1819 were not very particular
+about their English, even among their officers--"Any man who watches for
+signs and symptoms, may know how to take this."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to hear it explained; to me it is quite new."</p>
+
+<p>"The seals are off, and that is a sign <i>we</i> should be off, too. There's my
+explanation, and you may make what you please of it. Natur' gives such
+hints, and no prudent seaman ought to overlook 'em. I say, that when the
+seale go, the sealers should go likewise."</p>
+
+<p>"And you set this down as a hint from natur', as you call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do; and a useful hint it is. If we was in sailing trim, I'd ha'nt the
+old man, but I'd get him off this blessed night. Now, mark my words,
+Hazard--no good will come of that nip, and of this return into port ag'in;
+and of all this veering and hauling upon cargo."</p>
+
+<p>The other mate laughed; but a call from his commanding officer put a stop
+to the dialogue. Hazard was wanted to help secure the schooner of Daggett
+in the berth in which she was now placed. The tides do not appear to rise
+and fall in very high latitudes, by any means, as much as it does in about
+50&deg;. In the antarctic sea they are reported to be but of medium elevation
+and force. This fact our navigators had noted; and Daggett had, at once,
+carried his schooner on the only thing like a beach that was to be found
+on any part of that wild coast. His craft was snug within the cove, and
+quite handy for discharging and taking in. Beach, in a proper sense, it
+was not; being, with a very trifling exception, nothing but a shelf of
+rock that was a little inclined, and which admitted of a vessel's being
+placed upon it, as on the floor of a dock.</p>
+
+<p>Into this berth Daggett took his schooner, while the other vessel
+anchored. There was nearly a whole day before them, and all the men were
+at once set to work to discharge the cargo of the injured vessel. To get
+rid of the pumps, they would cheerfully have worked the twenty-four hours
+without intermission. As fast as the vessel was lightened, she was hove
+further and further on the rock, until she was got so high as to be
+perfectly safe from sinking, or from injuring anything on board her; when
+the pumps were abandoned. Before night came, however, the schooner was so
+secured by means of shores, and purchases aloft that were carried out to
+the rocks, as to stand perfectly upright on her keel. She was thus
+protected when the tide left her. At low water it was found that she
+wanted eight feet of being high and dry, having already been lightened
+four feet. A good deal of cargo was still in, on this the first night
+after her return.</p>
+
+<p>The crew of Daggett's vessel carried their mattresses ashore, took
+possession of the bunks, lighted a fire in the stove, and made their
+preparations to get the camboose ashore next day, and do their cooking in
+the house, as had been practised previously to quitting the island.
+Roswell, and all his people, remained on board their own vessel.</p>
+
+<p>The succeeding day the injured schooner was cleared of everything, even to
+her spars, the lower masts and bowsprit excepted. Two large sealing crews
+made quick work with so small a craft. Empty casks were got under her, and
+at the top of the tide she was floated quite up to the small beach that
+was composed of the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> of rock, already mentioned. As the water left
+her, she fell over a little, of course; and at half-tide her keel lay high
+and dry.</p>
+
+<p>The prying eyes of all hands were now busy looking out for the leaks. As
+might have been expected, none were found near the garboard streak, a fact
+that was clearly enough proved by a quantity of the water remaining in the
+vessel after she lay, entirely bare, nearly on her bilge.</p>
+
+<p>"Her seams have opened a few streaks below the bends," said Roswell, as he
+and Daggett went under the vessel's bottom, looking out for injuries; "and
+you had better set about getting off the copper at once. Has there been an
+examination made inside?"</p>
+
+<p>None had yet been made, and our two masters clambered up to the main
+hatch, and got as good a look at the state of things in the hold as could
+be thus obtained. So tremendous had been the pressure, that three of the
+deck beams were broken. They would have been driven quite clear of their
+fastenings, had not the wall of ice at each end prevented the possibility
+of such a thing. As it was, the top-timbers had slightly given way, and
+the seams must have opened just below the water-line. When the tide came
+in again, the schooner righted of course; and the opportunity was taken to
+pump her dry. There was then no leak; another proof that the defective
+places must be sought above the present water-line.</p>
+
+<p>With the knowledge thus obtained, the copper was removed, and several of
+the seams examined. The condition of the pitch and oakum pointed out the
+precise spots that needed attention, and the caulking-irons were
+immediately set at work. In about a week the job was completed, as was
+fancied, the copper re-placed, and the schooner was got afloat again.
+Great was the anxiety to learn the effect of what had been done, and quite
+as great the disappointment, when it was found that there was still a
+serious leak that admitted too much water to think of going to sea until
+it was stopped. A little head-work, however, and that on the part of
+Roswell, speedily gave a direction to the search that was immediately set
+on foot.</p>
+
+<p>"This leak is not as low down as the vessel's bilge," he said; "for the
+water did not run out of her, nor into her, until we got her afloat. It is
+somewhere, then, between her light-water load-line and her bilge. Now we
+have had all the copper off, and the seams examined in the wake of this
+section of the vessel's bottom, from the fore-chains to the main; and, in
+my judgment, it will be found that something is wrong about her stem, or
+her stern-post. Perhaps one of her wood-ends has started. Such a thing
+might very well have happened under so close a squeeze."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case we shall have to lay the craft ashore again, and go to work
+anew," answered Daggett. "I see how it is; you do not like the delay, and
+are thinking of Deacon Pratt and Oyster Pond. I do not blame you, Gar'ner;
+and shall never whisper a syllable ag'in you, or your people, if you sail
+for home this very afternoon; leaving me and mine to look out for
+ourselves. You've stood by us nobly thus far, and I am too thankful for
+what you have done already, to ask for more."</p>
+
+<p>Was Daggett sincere in these professions? To a certain point he was; while
+he was only artful on others. He wished to appear just and magnanimous;
+while, in secret, it was his aim to work on the better feelings, as well
+as on the pride of Gardiner, and thus secure his services in getting his
+own schooner ready, as well as keep him in sight until a certain key had
+been examined, in the proceeds of which he conceived he had a share, as
+well as in those of Sealer's Land. Strange as it may seem, even in the
+strait in which he was now placed, with so desperate a prospect of ever
+getting his vessel home again, this man clung like a leech to the remotest
+chance of obtaining property. There is a bull-dog tenacity on this
+subject, among a certain portion of the great American family--the
+god-like Anglo-Saxon--that certainly leads to great results in one
+respect; but which it is often painful to regard, and never agreeable to
+any but themselves, to be subject to. Of this school was Daggett, whom no
+dangers, no toil, no thoughts of a future, could divert from a purpose
+that was coloured by gold. We do not mean to say that other nations are
+not just as mercenary; many are more so; those, in particular, that have
+long been corrupted by vicious governments. You may buy half a dozen
+Frenchmen, for instance, more easily than one Yankee; but let the last
+actually get his teeth into a dollar, and the muzzle of the ox fares worse
+in the jaws of the bull-dog.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell was deeply reluctant to protract his stay in the group; but
+professional pride would have prevented him from deserting a consort under
+such circumstances, had not a better feeling inclined him to remain and
+assist Daggett. It is true the last had, in a manner, thrust himself on
+him, and the connection had been strangely continued down to that moment;
+but this he viewed as a dispensation of Providence, to which he was bound
+to submit. The result was a declaration of a design to stand by his
+companion as long as there was any hope of getting the injured craft home.</p>
+
+<p>This decision pointed at once to the delay of another week. No time was
+lost in vain regrets, however; but all hands went to work to get the
+schooner into shallow water again, and to look further for the principal
+leak. Accurate trimming and pumping showed that a good deal of the water
+was already stopped out; but too much still entered to render it prudent
+to think of sailing until the injury was repaired. This time the schooner
+was not suffered to lie on her bilge at all. She was taken into water just
+deep enough to permit her to stand upright, sustained by shores, while the
+tide left two or three streaks dry forward; it being the intention to wind
+her, should the examination forward not be successful.</p>
+
+<p>On stripping off the copper, it was found that a wood-end had indeed
+started, the inner edge of the plank having got as far from its bed as
+where the outer had been originally placed. This opened a crack through
+which a small stream of water must constantly pour, each hour rendering
+the leak more dangerous by loosening the oakum, and raising the plank from
+its curvature. Once discovered, however, nothing was easier than to repair
+the damage. It remained merely to butt-bolt anew the wood-end, drive a few
+spikes, cork, and replace the copper. Roswell, who was getting each moment
+more and more impatient to sail, was much vexed at a delay that really
+seemed unavoidable, as it arose from the particular position of the leak.
+Placed as it was, in a manner, between wind and water, it was not possible
+to work at it more than an hour each tide; and the staging permitted but
+two hands to be busy at the same time. As a consequence of these
+embarrassments, no less than six tides came in and went out, before the
+stem was pronounced tight again. The schooner was then pumped out, and the
+vessel was once more taken into deep water. This time it was found that
+the patience and industry of our sealers were rewarded with success; no
+leak of any account existing.</p>
+
+<p>"She's as tight as a bottle with a sealed cork, Gar'ner," cried Daggett, a
+few hours after his craft was at her anchor, meeting his brother-master at
+his own gangway, and shaking hands with him cordially. "I owe much of this
+to you, as all on the Vineyard shall know, if we ever get home ag'in."</p>
+
+<p>"I am rejoiced that it turns out so, Captain Daggett," was Roswell's
+reply; "for to own the truth to you, the fortnight we have lost, or shall
+lose, before we get you stowed and ready to sail again, has made a great
+change in our weather. The days are shortening with frightful rapidity,
+and the great bay was actually covered with a skim of ice this very
+morning. The wind has sent in a sea that has broke it up; but look about
+you, in the cove here--a boy might walk on that ice near the rocks."</p>
+
+<p>"There'll be none of it left by night, and the two crews will fill me up
+in twenty-four hours. Keep a good heart Gar'ner; I'll take you clear of
+the bergs in the course of the week."</p>
+
+<p>"I have less fear of the bergs now, than of the new ice and the floes. The
+islands must have got pretty well to the northward by this time; but each
+night gets colder, and the fields seem to be setting back towards the
+group, instead of away from it."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett cheered his companion by a good deal of confident talk; but
+Roswell was heartily rejoiced when, at the end of four-and-twenty hours
+more, the Vineyard craft was pronounced entirely ready. It was near the
+close of the day, and Gardiner was for sailing, or moving at once; but
+Daggett offered several very reasonable objections. In the first place,
+there was no wind; and Roswell's proposition to tow the schooners out into
+the middle of the bay, was met by the objection that the people had been
+hard at work for several days, and that they needed some rest. All that
+could be gained by moving the schooners then, was to get them outside of
+the skim of ice that now regularly formed every still night near the land,
+but which was as regularly broken and dispersed by the waves, as soon as
+the wind returned. Roswell, however, did not like the appearances of
+things; and he determined to take his own craft outside, let Daggett do as
+he might. After discussing the matter in vain, therefore, and finding that
+the people of the other schooner had eaten their suppers and turned in, he
+called all hands, and made a short address to his own crew, leaving it to
+their discretion whether to man the boats or not. As Roswell had pointed
+out the perfect absence of wind, the smoothness of the water, and the
+appearances of a severe frost, or cold, for frost there was now, almost at
+mid-day, the men came reluctantly over to his view of the matter, and
+consented to work instead of sleeping. The toil, however, could be much
+lessened, by dividing the crew into the customary watches. All that
+Roswell aimed at was to get his schooner about a league from the cove,
+which would be taking her without a line drawn from cape to cape, the
+greatest danger of new ice being within the curvature of the crescent.
+This he thought might easily be done in the course of a few hours; and,
+should there come any wind, much sooner. On explaining this to the crew,
+the men were satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner felt as if a load were taken off his spirits, when his
+schooner was clear of the ground, and his mainsail was hoisted. A boat was
+got ahead, and the craft was slowly towed out of the cove, the canvass
+doing neither good nor harm. As the vessel passed that of Daggett the
+last was on deck; the only person visible in the Vineyard craft. He wished
+his brother-master a good night, promising to be out as soon as there was
+any light next morning.</p>
+
+<p>It would not be easy to imagine a more dreary scene than that in which
+Deacon Pratt's schooner moved out into the waters that separated the
+different islands of this remote and sterile group. Roswell could just
+discern the frowning mass of the rocks that crowned the centre of Sealer's
+Land; and that was soon lost in the increasing obscurity. The cold was
+getting to be severe, and the men soon complained that ice was forming on
+the blades of their oars. Then it was that a thought occurred to our young
+mariner, which had hitherto escaped him. Of what use would it be for his
+vessel to be beyond the ice, if that of Daggett should be shut in the
+succeeding day? So sensible did he become to the importance of this idea,
+that he called in his boat, and pulled back into the cove, in order to
+make one more effort to persuade Daggett to follow him out.</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner found all of the Vineyarders turned in, even to their officers.
+The fatigue they had lately undergone, united to the cold, rendered the
+berths very agreeable; and even Daggett begged his visiter would excuse
+him for not rising to receive his guest. Argument with a man thus
+circumstanced and so disposed, was absolutely useless. After remaining a
+short time with Daggett, Roswell returned to his own schooner. As he
+pulled back, he ascertained that ice was fast making; and the boat
+actually cut its way through a thin skim, ere it reached the vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Our hero was now greatly concerned lest he should be frozen in himself,
+ere he could get into the more open water of the bay. Fortunately a light
+air sprung up from the northward, and trimming his sails, Gardiner
+succeeded in carrying his craft to a point where the undulations of the
+ground-swell gave the assurance of her being outside the segment of the
+crescent. Then he brailed his foresail, hauled the jib-sheet over, lowered
+his gaff, and put his helm hard down. After this, all the men were
+permitted to seek their berths; the officers looking out for the craft in
+turns.</p>
+
+<p>It wanted about an hour of day, when the second mate gave Roswell a call,
+according to orders. The young master found no wind, but an intensely cold
+morning, on going on deck. Ice had formed on every part of the rigging and
+sides of the schooner where water had touched them; though the stillness
+of the night, by preventing the spray from flying, was much in favour of
+the navigators in this respect. On thrusting a boat-hook down, Roswell
+ascertained that the bay around him had a skim of ice nearly an inch in
+thickness. This caused him great uneasiness; and he waited with the
+greatest anxiety for the return of light, in order to observe the
+condition of Daggett.</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, when the day came out distinctly, it was seen that ice of
+sufficient thickness to bear men on it, covered the entire surface within
+the crescent. Daggett and his people were already at work on it, using the
+saw. They must have taken the alarm before the return of day, for the
+schooner was not only free from the ground, but had been brought fully a
+cable's length without the cove. Gardiner watched the movements of Daggett
+and his crew with a glass for a short time, when he ordered all hands
+called. The cook was already in the galley, and a warm breakfast was soon
+prepared. After eating this, the two whale-boats were lowered, and Roswell
+and Hazard both rowed as far as the ice would permit them, when they
+walked the rest of the way to the imprisoned craft, taking with them most
+of their hands, together with the saw.</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps fortunate for Daggett that it soon began to blow fresh from
+the northward, sending into the bay a considerable sea, which soon broke
+up the ice, and enabled the Vineyard craft to force her way through the
+fragments, and join her consort about noon.</p>
+
+<p>Glad enough was Roswell to regain his own vessel; and he made sail on a
+wind, determined to beat out of the narrow waters at every hazard, the
+experience of that night having told him that they had remained in the
+cove too long. Daggett followed willingly, but not like a man who had
+escaped by the skin of his teeth, from wintering near the antarctic circle.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-22">
+<h2>Chapter XXII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Beside the Moldau's rushing stream,<br />
+With the wan moon overhead,<br />
+There stood, as in an awful dream,<br />
+The army of the dead."</p>
+
+<p>  Longfellow.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Most of our readers will understand what was meant by Mary Pratt's
+"inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit;" but as there
+may be a few who do not, and as the consequences of this great physical
+fact are materially connected with the succeeding events of the narrative,
+we propose to give such a homely explanation of the phenomenon as we
+humbly trust will render it clear to the most clouded mind. The orbit of
+the earth is the path which it follows in space in its annual revolution
+around the sun. To a planet there is no up or down, except as ascent and
+descent are estimated from and towards itself. In all other respects it
+floats in vacuum, or what is so nearly so as to be thus termed. Now, let
+the uninstructed reader imagine a large circular table, with a light on
+its surface, and near to its centre. The light shall represent the sun,
+the outer edge of the circle of the table the earth's orbit, and its
+surface the plane of that orbit. In nature there is no such thing as a
+plane at all, the space within the orbit being vacant; but the surface of
+the table gives a distinct notion of the general position of the earth as
+it travels round the sun. It is scarcely necessary to say that the axis of
+the earth is an imaginary line drawn through the planet, from one pole to
+the other; the name being derived from the supposition that our daily
+revolution is made on this axis.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the first thing that the student is to fix in his mind, in order to
+comprehend the phenomenon of the seasons, is the leading fact that the
+earth does not change its attitude in space, if we may so express it, when
+it changes its position. If the axis were <i>perpendicular</i> to the plane of
+the orbit, this circumstance would not affect the temperature, as the
+simplest experiment will show. Putting the equator of a globe on the outer
+edge of the table, and holding it perfectly <i>upright</i>, causing it to turn
+on its axis as it passes round the circle, it would be found that the
+light from the centre of the table would illumine just one half of the
+globe, at all times and in all positions, cutting the two poles. Did this
+movement correspond with that of nature, the days and nights would be
+always of the same length, and there would be no changes of the seasons,
+the warmest weather being nearest to the equator, and the cold increasing
+as the poles were approached. No where, however, would the cold be so
+intense as it now is, nor would the heat be as great as at present, except
+at or quite near to the equator. The first fact would be owing to the
+regular return of the sun, once in twenty-four hours; the last to the
+oblique manner in which its rays struck this orb, in all places but near
+its centre.</p>
+
+<p>But the globe ought not to be made to move around the table with its axis
+perpendicular to its surface, or to the "plane of the earth's orbit." In
+point of fact, the earth is inclined to this plane, and the globe should
+be placed at a corresponding inclination. Let the globe be brought to the
+edge of the table, at its south side, and with its upper or north pole
+inclining to the sun, and then commence the circuit, taking care always to
+keep this north pole of the globe pointing in the same direction, or to
+keep the globe itself in what we have termed a fixed attitude. As one half
+of the globe must always be in light, and the other half in darkness, this
+inclination from the perpendicular will bring the circle of light some
+distance beyond the north pole, when the globe is due-south from the
+light, and will leave an equal space around the opposite pole without any
+light at all, or any light directly received. Now it is that what we have
+termed the <i>fixed attitude</i> of the globe begins to tell. If the north pole
+inclined towards the orbit facing the rim of the table, the light would
+still cut the poles, the days and nights would still be equal, and there
+would be no changes in the seasons, though there would be a rival
+revolution of the globe, by causing it to turn once a year, shifting the
+poles end for end. The inclination being to the surface of the table, or
+to <i>the plane</i> of the orbit, the phenomena that are known to exist are a
+consequence. Thus it is, that the change in the seasons is as much owing
+to the fixed attitude of the earth in space, as we have chosen to term its
+polar directions, as to the inclination of its axis. Neither would produce
+the phenomena without the assistance of the other, as our experiment with
+the table will show.</p>
+
+<p>Place, then, the globe at the south side of the rim of the table, with its
+axis inclining towards its surface, and its poles always pointing in the
+same general direction, not following the circuit of the orbit, and set it
+in motion towards the east, revolving rapidly on its axis as it moves.
+While directly south of the light, it would be found that the north pole
+would be illuminated, while no revolution on the axis would bring the
+south pole within the circle of the light. This is when a line drawn from
+the axis of the globe would cut the lamp, were the inclination brought as
+low as the surface of the table. Next set the globe in motion, following
+the rim of the table, and proceeding to the east or right hand, keeping
+its axis always looking in the same general direction, or in an attitude
+that would be parallel to a north and south line drawn through the sun,
+were the inclination as low as the surface of the table. This movement
+would be, in one sense, sideways, the circle of light gradually lessening
+around the north pole, and extending towards the south, as the globe
+proceeded east and north, diminishing the length of the days in the
+northern hemisphere, and increasing them in the southern. When at east,
+the most direct rays of the light would fall on the equator, and the light
+would cut the two poles, rendering the days and nights equal. As the globe
+moved north, the circle of light would be found to increase around the
+<i>south</i> pole, while none at all touched the <i>north</i>. When on the north
+side of the table, the <i>northern</i> pole of the globe would incline so far
+from the sun as to leave a space around it in shadow that would be of
+precisely the same size as had been the space of light when it was placed
+on the opposite side of the table. Going round the circle west, the same
+phenomena would be seen, until coming directly south of the lamp, the
+north pole would again come into light altogether, and the south equally
+into shadow.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to this very simple but very wonderful provision of divine power and
+wisdom, this earth enjoys the relief of the changes in the seasons, as
+well as the variations in the length of the days. For one half of the
+year, or from equinox to equinox, from the time when the globe is at a
+due-west point of the table until it reaches the east, the north pole
+would always receive the light, in a circle around it, that would
+gradually increase and diminish; and for the other half, the same would be
+true of the other hemisphere. Of course there is a precise point on the
+earth where this polar illumination ceases. The shape of the illuminated
+part is circular; and placing the point of a pencil on the globe at the
+extremest spot on the circle, holding it there while the globe is turned
+on its axis, the lines made would just include the portions of the earth
+around the globe that thus receives the rays of the sun at midsummer.
+These lines compose what are termed the arctic and antarctic circles, with
+the last of which our legend has now a most serious connection. After all,
+we are by no means certain that we have made our meaning as obvious as we
+could wish, it being very difficult to explain phenomena of this nature
+clearly, without actually experimenting.</p>
+
+<p>It is usual to say that there are six months day and six months night in
+the polar basins. This is true, literally, at the poles only; but,
+approximatively, it is true as a whole. We apprehend that few
+persons--none, perhaps, but those who are in habits of study--form correct
+notions of the extent of what may be termed the icy seas. As the polar
+circles are in 23&deg; 28&Prime;, a line drawn through the south pole, for instance,
+commencing on one side of the earth at the antarctic circle, and extending
+to the other, would traverse a distance materially exceeding that between
+New York and Lisbon. This would make those frozen regions cover a portion
+of this globe that is almost as large as the whole of the Atlantic Ocean,
+as far south as the equator. Any one can imagine what must be the
+influence of frost over so vast a surface, in reproducing itself, since
+the presence of ice-bergs is thought to affect our climate, when many of
+them drift far south in summer. As power produces power, riches wealth,
+so does cold produce cold. Fill, then, in a certain degree, a space as
+large as the North Atlantic Ocean with ice in all its varieties, fixed,
+mountain and field, berg and floe, and one may get a tolerably accurate
+notion of the severity of its winters, when the sun is scarce seen above
+the horizon at all, and then only to shed its rays so obliquely as to be
+little better than a chill-looking orb of light, placed in the heavens
+simply to divide the day from the night.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, was the region that Roswell Gardiner was so very anxious to
+leave; the winter he so much dreaded. Mary Pratt was before him, to say
+nothing of his duty to the deacon; while behind him was the vast polar
+ocean just described, about to be veiled in the freezing obscurity of its
+long and gloomy twilight, if not of absolute night. No wonder, therefore,
+that when he trimmed his sails that evening, to beat out of the great bay,
+that it was done with the earnestness with which we all perform duties of
+the highest import, when they are known to affect our well-being, visibly
+and directly.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep her a good full, Mr. Hazard," said Roswell, as he was leaving the
+deck, to take the first sleep in which he had indulged for four-and-twenty
+hours; "and let her go through the water. We are behind our time, and must
+keep in motion. Give me a call if anything like ice appears in a serious
+way."</p>
+
+<p>Hazard "ay-ay'd" this order, as usual, buttoned his pee-jacket tighter
+than ever, and saw his young superior--the transcendental delicacy of the
+day is causing the difference in rank to be termed "<i>senior</i> and
+<i>junior</i>"--but Hazard saw <i>his</i> superior go below, with a feeling allied
+to envy, so heavy were his eye-lids with the want of rest. Stimson was in
+the first-mate's watch, and the latter approached that old sea-dog with a
+wish to keep himself awake by conversing.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem as wide awake, king Stephen," the mate remarked, "as if you
+never felt drowsy!"</p>
+
+<p>"This is not a part of the world for hammocks and berths, Mr. Hazard," was
+the reply. "I can get along, and must get along, with a quarter part of
+the sleep in these seas as would sarve me in a low latitude."</p>
+
+<p>"And I feel as if I wanted all I can get. Them fellows look up well into
+our wake, Stephen."</p>
+
+<p>"They do indeed, sir, and they ought to do it; for we have been longer
+than is for our good, in their'n."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now we have got a fresh start, I hope we may make a clear run of
+it. I saw no ice worth speaking of, to the nor'ard here, before we made
+sail."</p>
+
+<p>"Because you see'd none, Mr. Hazard; is no proof there is none. Floe-ice
+can't be seen at any great distance though its blink may. But, it seems to
+me, it's all blink in these here seas!"</p>
+
+<p>"There you're quite right, Stephen; for turn which way you will, the
+horizon has a show of that sort----"</p>
+
+<p>"Starboard"--called out the look-out forward--"keep her away--keep her
+away--there is ice ahead."</p>
+
+<p>"Ice in here!" exclaimed Hazard, springing forward--"That is more than we
+bargained for! Where away is your ice, Smith?"</p>
+
+<p>"Off here, sir, on our weather bow--and a mortal big field of it--jist
+sich a chap as nipp'd the Vineyard Lion, when she first came in to join
+us. Sich a fellow as that would take the sap out of our bends, as a
+squeezer takes the juice from a lemon!"</p>
+
+<p>Smith was a carpenter by trade, which was probably the reason why he
+introduced this figure. Hazard saw the ice with regret; for he had hoped
+to work the schooner fairly out to sea in his watch; but the field was
+getting down through the passage in a way that threatened to cut off the
+exit of the two schooners from the bay. Daggett kept close in his wake, a
+proof that this experienced navigator in such waters saw no means to turn
+farther to windward. As the wind was now abeam, both vessels drove rapidly
+ahead; and in half an hour the northern point of the land they had so
+lately left came into view close aboard of them. Just then the moon rose,
+and objects became more clearly visible.</p>
+
+<p>Hazard hailed the Vineyard Lion, and demanded what was to be done. It was
+possible, by hauling close on a wind, to pass the cape a short distance to
+windward of it, and seemingly thus clear the floe. Unless this were done,
+both vessels would be compelled to ware, and run for the southern
+passage, which would carry them many miles to leeward, and might place
+them a long distance on the wrong side of the group.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Captain Gar'ner on deck?" asked Daggett, who had now drawn close up on
+the lee-quarter of his consort, Hazard having brailed his foresail and
+laid his topsail sharp aback, to enable him to do so--"If he isn't, I'd
+advise you to give him a call at once."</p>
+
+<p>This was done immediately; and while it was doing, the Vineyard Lion swept
+past the Oyster Pond schooner. Roswell announced his presence on deck just
+as the other vessel cleared his bows.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no time to consult, Gar'ner," answered Daggett. "There's our road
+before us. Go through it we must, or stay where we are until that
+field-ice gives us a jam down yonder in the crescent. I will lead, and you
+can follow as soon as your eyes are open."</p>
+
+<p>One glance let Roswell into the secret of his situation. He liked it
+little, but he did not hesitate.</p>
+
+<p>"Fill the topsail, and haul aft the foresheet," were the quiet orders that
+proclaimed what he intended to do.</p>
+
+<p>Both vessels stood on. By some secret process, every man on board the two
+craft became aware of what was going on, and appeared on deck. All hands
+were not called, nor was there any particular noise to attract attention;
+but the word had been whispered below that there was a great risk to run.
+A risk it was, of a verity! It was necessary to stand close along that
+iron-bound coast where the seals had so lately resorted, for a distance of
+several miles. The wind would not admit of the schooners steering much
+more than a cable's length from the rocks for quite a league; after which
+the shore trended to the southward, and a little sea-room would be gained.
+But on those rocks the waves were then beating heavily, and their
+bellowings as they rolled into the cavities were at almost all times
+terrific. There was some relief, however, in the knowledge obtained of the
+shore, by having frequently passed up and down it in the boats. It was
+known that the water was deep close to the visible rocks, and that there
+was no danger as long as a vessel could keep off them.</p>
+
+<p>No one spoke. Every eye was strained to discern objects ahead, or was
+looking astern to trace the expected collision between the floe-ice and
+the low promontory of the cape. The ear soon gave notice that this meeting
+had already taken place; for the frightful sound that attended the
+cracking and rending of the field might have been heard fully a league.
+Now it was that each schooner did her best! Yards were braced up, sheets
+flattened, and the helm tended. The close proximity of the rocks on the
+one side, and the secret presentiment of there being more field-ice on the
+other, kept every one wide awake. The two masters, in particular, were all
+eyes and ears. It was getting to be very cold; and the sort of shelter
+aloft that goes by the quaint name of "crow's-nest," had been fitted up in
+each vessel. A mate was now sent into each, to ascertain what might be
+discovered to windward. Almost at the same instant, these young seamen
+hailed their respective decks, and gave notice that a wide field was
+coming in upon them, and must eventually crush them, unless avoided. This
+startling intelligence reached the two commanders in the very same moment.
+The emergency demanded decision, and each man acted for himself. Roswell
+ordered his helm put <i>down</i>, and his schooner <i>tacked</i>. The water was not
+rough enough to prevent the success of the maneuvre. On the other hand,
+Daggett kept a rap full, and <i>stood on</i>. Roswell manifested the most
+judgment and seamanship. He was now far enough from the cape to beat to
+windward; and, by going nearer to the enemy, he might always run along its
+southern boundary, profit by any opening, and would be by as much as he
+could thus gain, to windward of the coast. Daggett had one advantage. By
+standing on, in the event of a return becoming necessary, he would gain in
+time. In ten minutes the two schooners were a mile asunder. We shall first
+follow that, of Roswell Gardiner's, in his attempt to escape.</p>
+
+<p>The first floe, which was ripping and tearing one of its angles into
+fragments, as it came grinding down on the cape, soon compelled the vessel
+to tack. Making short reaches, Roswell ere long found himself fully a mile
+to windward of the rocks, and sufficiently near to the new floe to discern
+its shape, drift, and general character. Its eastern end had lodged upon
+the field that first came in, and was adding to the vast momentum with
+which that enormous floe was pressing down upon the cape. Large as was
+that first visiter to the bay, this was of at least twice if not of thrice
+its dimensions. What gave Roswell the most concern was the great distance
+that this field extended to the westward. He went up into the crow's-nest
+himself, and, aided by the light of a most brilliant moon, and a sky
+without a cloud, he could perceive the blink of ice in that direction, as
+he fancied, for fully two leagues. What was unusual, perhaps, at that
+early season of the year, these floes did not consist of a vast collection
+of numberless cakes of ice; but the whole field, so far as could then be
+ascertained, was firm and united. The nights were now so cold that ice
+made fast wherever there was water; and it occurred to our young master
+that, possibly, fragments that had once been separated and broken by the
+waves, might have become re-united by the agency of the frost. Roswell
+descended from the crow's-nest half chilled by a cutting wind, though it
+blew from a warm quarter. Summoning his mates, he asked their advice.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me, Captain Gar'ner," Hazard replied, "there's very little
+choice. Here we are, so far as I can make it out, embayed, and we have
+only to box about until day-light comes, when some chance may turn up to
+help us. If so, we must turn it to account; if not, we must make up our
+minds to winter here."</p>
+
+<p>This was coolly and calmly said; though it was clear enough that Hazard
+was quite in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget there may be an open passage to the westward, Mr. Hazard,"
+Roswell rejoined, "and that we may yet pass out to sea by it. Captain
+Daggett is already out of sight in the western board, and we may do well
+to stand on after him."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir--I know all that, Captain Gar'ner, and it may be as you say,
+but when I was aloft, half an hour since, if there wasn't the blink of ice
+in that direction, quite round to the back of the island, there wasn't the
+blink of ice nowhere hereabouts. I'm used to the sight of it, and can't
+well be mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"There is always ice on that side of the land, Hazard, and you may have
+seen the blink of the bergs which have hugged the cliffs in that quarter
+all summer. Still, that is not proving we shall find no outlet. This craft
+can go through a very small passage, and we must take care and find one in
+proper time. Wintering here is out of the question. A <i>hundred</i> reasons
+tell us not to think of such a thing, besides the interests of our owners.
+We are walking along this floe pretty fast, though I think the vessel is
+too much by the head; don't it strike you so, Hazard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, sir, it's nothing but the ice that has made, and is making for'ard!
+Before we got so near the field as to find a better lee, the little lipper
+that came athwart our bows froze almost as soon as it wet us. I do
+suppose, sir, there are now several tons of ice on our bows, counting from
+channel to channel, forward."</p>
+
+<p>On an examination this proved to be true, and the knowledge of the
+circumstance did not at all contribute to Gardiner's feeling of security.
+He saw there was no time to be lost, and he crowded sail with a view of
+forcing the vessel past the dangers if possible, and of getting her into a
+milder climate. But even a fast-sailing schooner will scarcely equal our
+wishes under such circumstances. There was no doubt that the Sea Lion's
+speed was getting to be affected by the manner in which her bows were
+weighed down by ice, in addition to the discomfort produced by cold, damp,
+and the presence of a slippery substance on the deck and rigging.
+Fortunately there was not much spray flying, or matters would have been
+much worse. As it was, they were bad enough, and very ominous of future
+evil.</p>
+
+<p>While the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond was running along the margin of the ice
+in the manner just described, and after the blink to the westward had
+changed to a visible field, making it very uncertain whether any egress
+was to be found in that quarter or not, an opening suddenly appeared
+trending to the northward, and sufficiently wide, as Roswell thought, to
+enable him to beat through it. Putting his helm down, his schooner came
+heavily round, and was filled on a course that soon carried her half a
+mile into this passage. At first, everything seemed propitious, the
+channel rather opening than otherwise, while the course was
+such--north-north-west--as enabled the vessel to very long legs on one
+tack, and that the best. After going about four or five times, however,
+all these flattering symptoms suddenly changed, by the passage's
+terminating in a <i>cul de sac</i>. Almost at the same instant the ice closed
+rapidly in the schooner's wake. An effort was made to run back, but it
+failed in consequence of an enormous floe's turning on its centre, having
+met resistance from a field closer in, that was, in its turn, stopped by
+the rocks. Roswell saw at once that nothing could be done at the moment.
+He took in all his canvass, as well as the frozen cloth could be handled,
+got out ice-anchors, and hauled his vessel into a species of cove where
+there would be the least danger of a nip, should the fields continue to
+close.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Daggett was as busy as a bee. He rounded the headland, and
+flattered himself that he was about to slip past all the rocks, and get
+out into open water, when the vast fields of which the blink had been seen
+even by those in the other vessel, suddenly stretched themselves across
+his course in a way that set at defiance all attempts to go any further in
+that direction. Daggett wore round, and endeavoured to return. This was by
+no means as easy as it was to go down before the wind, and his bows were
+also much encumbered with ice; more so, indeed, than those of the other
+schooner. Once or twice his craft missed stays in consequence of getting
+so much by the head, and it was deemed necessary to heave-to, and take to
+the axes. A great deal of extra and cumbrous weight was gotten rid of, but
+an hour of most precious time was lost.</p>
+
+<p>By the time Daggett was ready to make sail again, he found his return
+round the headland was entirely cut off, by the field's having come in
+absolute contact with the rocks!</p>
+
+<p>It was now midnight, and the men on board both vessels required rest. A
+watch was set in each, and most of the people were permitted to turn in.
+Of course, proper look-outs were had, but the light of the moon was not
+sufficiently distinct to render it safe to make any final efforts under
+its favour. No great alarm was felt, there being nothing unusual in a
+vessel's being embayed in the ice; and so long as she was not nipped or
+pressed upon by actual contact the position was thought safe rather than
+the reverse. It was desirable, moreover, for the schooners to communicate
+with each other; for some advantage might be known to one of the masters
+that was concealed by distance from his companion. Without concert,
+therefore, Roswell and Daggett came to the same general conclusions, and
+waited patiently.</p>
+
+<p>The day came at last, cold and dreary, though not altogether without the
+relief of an air that blew from regions far warmer than the ocean over
+which it was now travelling. Then the two schooners became visible from
+each other, and Roswell saw the jeopardy of Daggett, and Daggett saw the
+jeopardy of Roswell. The vessels were little more than a mile apart, but
+the situation of the Vineyard Lion was much the most critical. She had
+made fast to the floe, but her support itself was in a steady and most
+imposing motion. As soon as Roswell saw the manner in which his consort
+was surrounded, and the very threatening aspect of the danger that pressed
+upon him, his first impulse was to hasten to him, with a party of his own
+people, to offer any assistance he could give. After looking at the ice
+immediately around his own craft, where all seemed to be right, he called
+over the names of six of his men, ordered them to eat a warm breakfast,
+and to prepare to accompany him.</p>
+
+<p>In twenty minutes Roswell was leading his little party across the ice,
+each man carrying an axe, or some other implement that it was supposed
+might be of use. It was by no means difficult to proceed; for the surface
+of the floe, one seemingly more than a league in extent, was quite smooth,
+and the snow on it was crusted to a strength that would have borne a team.</p>
+
+<p>"The water between the ice and the rocks is a much narrower strip than I
+had thought," said Roswell, to his constant attendant, Stimson. "Here, it
+does not appear to be a hundred yards in width!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nor is it, sir--whew--this trotting in so cold a climate makes a man puff
+like a whale blowing--but, Captain Gar'ner, that schooner will be cut in
+two before we can get to her. Look, sir; the floe has reached the rocks
+already, quite near her; and it does not stop the drift at all,
+seemingly."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell made no reply; the state of the Vineyard Lion did appear to be
+much more critical than he had previously imagined. Until he came nearer
+to the land, he had formed no notion of the steady power with which the
+field was setting down on the rocks on which the broken fragments were now
+creeping like creatures endowed with life. Occasionally, there would be
+loud disruptions, and the movement of the floe would become more rapid;
+then, again, a sort of pause would succeed, and for a moment the
+approaching party felt a gleam of hope. But all expectations of this sort
+were doomed to be disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, sir!" exclaimed Stimson--"she went down afore it twenty fathoms at
+that one set. She must be awful near the rocks, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>All the men now stopped. They knew they were powerless: and intense
+anxiety rendered them averse to move. Attention appeared to interfere with
+their walking on the ice; and each held his breath in expectation. They
+saw that the schooner, then less than a cable's length from them, was
+close to the rocks; and the next shock, if anything like the last, must
+overwhelm her. To their astonishment, instead of being nipped, the
+schooner rose by a stately movement that was not without grandeur, upheld
+by broken cakes that had got beneath her bottom, and fairly reached the
+shelf of rocks almost unharmed. Not a man had left her; but there she was,
+placed on the shore, some twenty feet above the surface of the sea, on
+rocks worn smooth by the action of the waves! Had the season been
+propitious, and did the injury stop here, it might have been possible to
+get the craft into the water again, and still carry her to America.</p>
+
+<p>But the floe was not yet arrested. Cake succeeded cake, one riding over
+another, until a wall of ice rose along the shore, that Roswell and his
+companions, with all their activity and courage, had great difficulty in
+crossing. They succeeded in getting over it, however; but when they
+reached the unfortunate schooner, she was literally buried. The masts were
+broken, the sails torn, rigging scattered, and sides stove. The Sea Lion
+of Martha's Vineyard was a worthless wreck--worthless as to all purposes
+but that of being converted into materials for a smaller craft, or to be
+used as fuel.</p>
+
+<p>All this had been done in ten minutes! Then it was that the vast
+superiority of nature over the resources of man made itself apparent. The
+people of the two vessels stood aghast with this sad picture of their own
+insignificance before their eyes. The crew of the wreck, it is true, had
+escaped without difficulty; the movement having been as slow and steady as
+it was irresistible. But there they were, in the clothes they had on, with
+all their effects buried under piles of ice that were already thirty or
+forty feet in height.</p>
+
+<p>"She looks as if she was built there, Gar'ner!" Daggett coolly observed,
+as he stood regarding the scene with eyes as intently riveted on the wreck
+as human organs were ever fixed on any object. "Had a man told me this
+<i>could</i> happen, I would not have believed him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Had she been a three-decker, this ice would have treated her in the same
+way. There is a force in such a field that walls of stone could not
+withstand."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Gar'ner--Captain Gar'ner," called out Stimson, hastily; "we'd
+better go back, sir; our own craft is in danger. She is drifting fast in
+towards the cape, and may reach it afore we can get to her!"</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, it was so. In one of the changes that are so unaccountable
+among the ice, the floe had taken a sudden and powerful direction towards
+the entrance of the Great Bay. It was probably owing to the circumstance
+that the inner field had forced its way past the cape, and made room for
+its neighbour to follow. A few of Daggett's people, with Daggett himself,
+remained to see what might yet be saved from the wreck; but all the rest
+of the men started for the cape, towards which the Oyster Pond craft was
+now directly setting. The distance was less than a league; and, as yet,
+there was not much show on the rocks. By taking an upper shelf, it was
+possible to make pretty good progress; and such was the manner of
+Roswell's present march.</p>
+
+<p>It was an extraordinary sight to see the coast along which our party was
+hastening, just at that moment. As the cakes of ice were broken from the
+field, they were driven upward by the vast pressure from without, and the
+whole line of the shore seemed as if alive with creatures that were
+issuing from the ocean to clamber on the rocks. Roswell had often seen
+that very coast peopled with seals, as it now appeared to be in activity
+with fragments of ice, that were writhing, and turning, and rising, one
+upon another, as if possessed of the vital principle.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour Roswell and his party reached the house. The schooner was
+then less than half a mile from the spot, still setting in, along with the
+outer field, but not nipped. So far from being in danger of such a
+calamity, the little basin in which she lay had expanded, instead of
+closing; and it would have been possible to handle a quick-working craft
+in it, under her canvass. An exit, however, was quite out of the question;
+there being no sign of any passage to or from that icy dock. There the
+craft still lay, anchored to the weather-floe, while the portion of her
+crew which remained on board was as anxiously watching the coast as those
+who were on the coast watched her. At first, Roswell gave his schooner up;
+but on closer examination found reason to hope that she might pass the
+rocks, and enter the inner, rather than the Great, Bay.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-23">
+<h2>Chapter XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"To prayer;--for the glorious sun is gone,<br />
+And the gathering darkness of night comes on;<br />
+Like a curtain from God's kind hand it flows,<br />
+To shade the couch where his children repose.<br />
+Then kneel, while the watching stars are bright,<br />
+And give your last thoughts to the guardian of night."</p>
+
+<p>  Ware.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Desolate, indeed, and nearly devoid of hope, had the situation of our
+sealers now become. It was mid-day, and it was freezing everywhere in the
+shade. A bright genial sun was shedding its glorious rays on the icy
+panorama; but it was so obliquely as to be of hardly any use in
+dispelling the frosts. Far as the eye could see, even from the elevation
+of the cape, there was nothing but ice, with the exception of that part of
+the Great Bay into which the floe had not yet penetrated. To the
+southward, there stood clustering around the passage a line of gigantic
+bergs, placed like sentinels, as if purposely to stop all egress in that
+direction. The water had lost its motion in the shift of wind, and new ice
+had formed over the whole bay, as was evident by a white sparkling line
+that preceded the irresistible march of the floe.</p>
+
+<p>As Roswell gazed on this scene, serious doubts darkened his mind as to his
+escaping from this frozen chain until the return of another summer. It is
+true that a south wind might possibly produce a change, and carry away the
+blockading mass; but every moment rendered this so much the less probable.
+Winter, or what would be deemed winter in most regions, was already
+setting in; and should the ice really become stationary in and around the
+group, all hope of its moving must vanish for the next eight months.</p>
+
+<p>Daggett reached the house about an hour before sunset. He had succeeded in
+cutting a passage through the ice as far as the cabin-door of his
+unfortunate schooner, when there was no difficulty in descending into the
+interior parts of the vessel. The whole party came in staggering under
+heavy loads. Pretty much as a matter of course, each man brought his own
+effects. Clothes, tobacco, rum, small-stores, bedding, quadrants, and
+similar property, was that first attended to. At that moment, little was
+thought of the skins and oil. The cargo was neglected, while the minor
+articles had been eagerly sought.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell was on board his own schooner, now again in dangerous proximity to
+the cape. She was steadily setting in, when Daggett rejoined him. The crew
+of the lost vessel remained in the house, where they lighted a fire and
+deposited their goods, returning to the wreck for another load, taking the
+double sets of wheels along with them. When the two masters met, they
+conferred together earnestly, receiving into their councils such of the
+officers as were on board The security of the remaining vessel was now
+all-important! and it was not to be concealed that she was in imminent
+jeopardy. The course taken by the floe was directly towards the most
+rugged part of Cape Hazard; and the rate of the movement such as to
+threaten a very speedy termination of the matter. There was one
+circumstance, however, and only that one, which offered a single chance of
+escape. The opening around the schooner still existed in part, about half
+of it having been lost in the collision with the outermost point of the
+rocks. It was this species of vacuum that, by removing all resistance at
+that particular spot, indeed, which had given the field its most dangerous
+cant, turning the movement of the vessel towards the rocks. The chance,
+therefore, existed in the possibility--and it was little more than a bare
+possibility--of moving the schooner in that small area of open water, and
+of taking her far enough south to clear the most southern extremity of the
+wall of stone that protected the cove. As yet, this open water did not
+extend far enough to admit of the schooner's being taken to the point in
+question; but it was slowly tending in that direction, and did not the
+basin close altogether ere that desirable object was achieved, the vessel
+might yet be saved. In order, however, to do this, it would be necessary
+to cut a sort of dock or slip in the ice of the cove, into which the craft
+might shoot, as a place of refuge. Once within the cove, fairly behind the
+point of the rocks, there would be perfect safety; if suffered to drift to
+the southward of that shelter, this schooner would probably be lost like
+her consort, and very much in the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>Gardiner now sent a gang of hands to the desired point, armed with saws;
+and the slip was commenced. The ice in the cove was still only two or
+three inches thick, and the work went bravely on. Instead of satisfying
+himself with cutting a passage merely behind the point of rock, Hazard
+opened one quite up into the cove, to the precise place where the schooner
+had been so long at anchor. Just as the sun was setting, the crisis
+arrived. So heavy had been the movement towards the rocks, that Roswell
+saw he could delay no longer. Were he to continue where he was, a
+projection on the cape would prevent his passage to the entrance of the
+cove; he would be shut in, and he might be certain that the Sea Lion would
+be crushed if the floe pressed home upon the shore. The ice-anchors were
+cut out accordingly, the jib was hoisted, and the schooner wore short
+round on her heel. The space between the floe and the projection in the
+rocks just named, did not now exceed a hundred feet; and it was lessening
+fast. Much more room existed on each side of this particular excrescence
+in the rugged coast, the space north being still considerable, while that
+to the southward might be a hundred yards in width; the former of these
+areas being owing to the form of the basin, and the latter to the shape of
+the shore.</p>
+
+<p>In the first of the basins named, the schooner wore short round on her
+heel, her foresail being set to help her. A breathless moment passed as
+she ran down towards the narrow strait. It was quickly reached, and that
+none too soon; the opening now not exceeding sixty feet. The yards of the
+vessel almost brushed the rocks in passing; but she went clear. As soon as
+in the lower basin, as one might call it, the jib and foresail were taken
+in, and the head of the mainsail was got on the craft. This helped her to
+luff up towards the slip, which she reached under sufficient head-way
+fairly to enter it. Lines were thrown to the people on the ice, who soon
+hauled the schooner up to the head of her frozen dock. Three cheers broke
+spontaneously out of the throats of the men, as they thus achieved the
+step which assured them of the safety of the vessel, so far as the ice was
+concerned! In this way do we estimate our advantages and disadvantages, by
+comparison. In the abstract, the situation of the sealers was still
+sufficiently painful; though compared with what it would have been with
+the other schooner wrecked, it was security itself.</p>
+
+<p>By this time it was quite dark; and a day of excitement and fatigue
+required a night of rest. After supping, the men turned in; the
+Vineyarders mostly in the house, where they occupied their old bunks. When
+the moon rose, the party from the wreck arrived, with their carts well
+loaded, and themselves half frozen, notwithstanding their toil. In a short
+time, all were buried in sleep.</p>
+
+<p>When Roswell Gardiner came on deck next morning, his first glance told him
+how little was the chance of his party's returning north that season. The
+strange floe had driven into the Great Bay, completely covering its
+surface, lining the shores far and near with broken and glittering cakes
+of ice; and, as it were, hermetically sealing the place against all
+egress. New ice, an inch or two thick, or even six or eight inches thick,
+might have been sawed through; and a passage cut even for a league, should
+it be necessary. Such things were sometimes done, and great as would have
+been the toil, our sealers would have attempted it, in preference to
+running the risk of passing a winter in that region. But almost desperate
+as would have been even that source of refuge, the party was completely
+cut off from its possession. To think of sawing through ice as thick as
+that of the floe, for any material distance, would be like a project to
+tunnel the Alps.</p>
+
+<p>Melancholy was the meeting between Roswell and Daggett that morning. The
+former was too manly and generous to indulge in reproaches, else might he
+well have told the last that all this was owing to him. There is a
+singular propensity in us all to throw the burthen of our own blunders on
+the shoulders of other folk. Roswell had a little of this weakness,
+overlooking the fact that he was his own master; and as he had come to the
+group by himself, he ought to have left it in the same manner, as soon as
+his own particular task was accomplished. But Roswell did not see this
+quite as distinctly as he saw the fact that Daggett's detentions and
+indirect appeals to his better feelings had involved him in all these
+difficulties. Still, while thus he felt, he made no complaint.</p>
+
+<p>All hope of getting north that season now depended on the field-ice's
+drifting away from the Great Bay before it got fairly frozen in. So jammed
+and crammed with it did every part of the bay appear to be, however, that
+little could be expected from that source of relief. This Daggett admitted
+in the conversation he held with Roswell, as soon as the latter joined him
+on the rocky terrace beneath the house.</p>
+
+<p>"The wisest thing we can do, then," replied our hero, "will be to make as
+early preparations as possible to meet the winter. If we are to remain
+here, a day gained now will be worth a week a month hence. If we should
+happily escape, the labour thus expended will not kill us."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true--very much as you say, certainly," answered Daggett, musing.
+"I was thinking as you came ashore, Gar'ner, if a lucky turn might not be
+made in this wise:--have a good many skins in the wreck, you see, and you
+have a good deal of ile in your hold--now, by starting some of that ile,
+and pumping it out, and shooking the casks, room might be made aboard of
+you for all my skins. I think we could run all of the last over on them
+wheels in the course of a week."</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Daggett, it is by yielding so much to your skins that we have got
+into all this trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Skins, measure for measure, in the way of tonnage, will bring a great
+deal more than ile."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell smiled, and muttered something to himself, a little bitterly. He
+was thinking of the grievous disappointment and prolonged anxiety that it
+pained him to believe Mary would feel at his failure to return home at the
+appointed time; though it would probably have pained him more to believe
+she would not thus be disappointed and anxious. Here his displeasure, or
+its manifestation, ceased; and the young man turned his thoughts on the
+present necessities of his situation.</p>
+
+<p>Daggett appearing very earnest on the subject of removing his skins before
+the snows came to impede the path, Roswell could urge no objection that
+would be likely to prevail; but his acquiescence was obtained by means of
+a hint from Stimson, who by this time had gained his officer's ear.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him do it, Captain Gar'ner," said the boat-steerer, in an aside,
+speaking respectfully, but earnestly. "He'll never stow 'em in our hold,
+this season at least; but they'll make excellent filling-in for the sides
+of this hut."</p>
+
+<p>"You think then, Stephen, that we are likely to pass the winter here?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are in the hands of Divine Providence, sir, which will do with us as
+seems the best in the eyes of never-failing wisdom. At all events, Captain
+Gar'ner, I think 'twill be safest to act at once as if we had the winter
+afore us. In my judgment, this house might be made a good deal more
+comfortable for us all, in such a case, than our craft; for we should not
+only have more room, but might have as many fires as we want, and more
+than we can find fuel for."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, there's the difficulty, Stephen. Where are we to find wood,
+throughout a polar winter, for even one fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must be saving, sir, and thoughtful, and keep ourselves warm as much
+as we can by exercise. I have had a taste of this once, in a small way,
+already; and know what ought to be done, in many partic'lars. In the first
+place, the men must keep themselves as clean as water will make them--dirt
+is a great helper of cold--and the water must be just as frosty as human
+natur' can bear it. This will set everything into actyve movement inside,
+and bring out warmth from the heart, as it might be. That's my principle
+of keeping warm, Captain Gar'ner."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say it may be a pretty good one, Stephen," answered Roswell, "and
+we'll bear it in mind. As for stoves we are well enough off, for there is
+one in the house, and a good large one it is; then, there is a stove in
+each cabin, and there are the two cambooses. If we had fuel for them all,
+I should feel no concern on the score of warmth."</p>
+
+<p>"There's the wrack, sir. By cutting her up at once, we should get wood
+enough, in my judgment, to see it out."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell made no reply; but he looked intently at the boat-steerer for half
+a minute. The idea was new to him; and the more he thought on the subject,
+the greater was the confidence it gave him in the result. Daggett, he well
+knew, would not consent to the mutilation of his schooner, wreck as it
+was, so long as the most remote hope existed of getting her again into the
+water. The tenacity with which this man clung to property was like that
+which is imputed to the life of the cat; and it was idle to expect any
+concessions from him on a subject like that. Nevertheless, necessity is a
+hard master; and if the question were narrowed down to one of burning the
+materials of a vessel that was in the water, and in good condition, and of
+burning those of one that was out of the water, with holes cut through her
+bottom in several places, and otherwise so situated as to render repairs
+extremely difficult, if not impossible, even Duggett would be compelled to
+submit to circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>It was accordingly suggested to the people of the Vineyard Lion that they
+could do no better than to begin at once to remove everything they could
+come at, and which could be transported from the wreck to the house. As
+there was little to do on board the vessel afloat, her crew cheerfully
+offered to assist in this labour. The days were shortening sensibly and
+fast, and no time was to be lost, the distance being so great as to make
+two trips a day a matter of great labour. No sooner was the plan adopted,
+therefore, than steps were taken to set about its execution.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary for us to dwell minutely on everything that occurred
+during the succeeding week or ten days. The wind shifted to south-west the
+very day that the Sea Lion got back into her little harbour; and this
+seemed to put a sudden check on the pressure of the vast floe.
+Nevertheless, there was no counter-movement, the ice remaining in the
+Great Bay seemingly as firmly fastened as if it had originally been made
+there. Notwithstanding this shift of the wind to a cold point of the
+compass, the thermometer rose, and it thawed freely about the middle of
+the day, in all places to which the rays of the sun had access. This
+enabled the men to work with more comfort than they could have done in the
+excessively severe weather; as it was found that respiration became
+difficult when it was so very cold.</p>
+
+<p>Access was now obtained to the wreck by cutting a regular passage to the
+main hatch through the ice. The schooner stood nearly upright, sustained
+by fragments of the floe; and there were extensive caverns all around her,
+produced by the random manner in which the cakes had come up out of their
+proper element like so many living things. Among these caverns one might
+have wandered for miles without once coming out into the open air, though
+they were cold and cheerless, and had little to attract the adventurer
+after the novelty was abated. In rising from the water, the schooner had
+been roughly treated; but once sustained by the ice, her transit had been
+easy and tolerably safe. Several large cakes lay on or over her, sustained
+more by other cakes that rested on the rocks than by the timbers of the
+vessel herself. These cakes formed a sort of roof, and as they did not
+drip, they served to make a shelter against the wind; for, at the point
+where the wreck lay the south-west gales came howling round the base of
+the mountain, piercing the marrow itself in the bones. At the hut it was
+very different. There the heights made a lee that extended all over the
+cape, and for some distance to the westward; while the whole power the sun
+possessed in that high latitude was cast, very obliquely it is true, but
+clearly, and without any other drawback than its position in the ecliptic,
+fairly on the terrace, the hut above, and the rocks around it. On the
+natural terrace, indeed, it was still pleasant to walk and work, and even
+to sit for a few hours in the middle of the day; for winter was not yet
+come in earnest in that frozen world.</p>
+
+<p>One of Roswell's first objects was to transport most of the eatables from
+the wreck; for he foresaw the need there would be for everything of the
+sort. Neither vessel had laid in a stock of provisions for a longer period
+than about twelve months, of which nearly half were now gone. This
+allowance applied to salted meats and bread, which are usually regarded as
+the base of a ship's stores. There were several barrels of flour, a few
+potatoes, a large quantity of onions, a few barrels of corn-meal, or
+'injin,' as it is usually termed in American parlance, an entire barrel of
+pickled cucumbers, another about half full of cabbage preserved in the
+same way, and an entire barrel of molasses. In addition, there was a cask
+of whiskey, a little wine and brandy to be used medicinally, sugar, brown,
+whitey-brown and browny-white, and a pretty fair allowance of tea and
+coffee; the former being a Hyson-skin, and the latter San Domingo of no
+very high quality. Most of these articles were transported from the wreck
+to the house, in the course of the few days that succeeded, though Daggett
+insisted on a certain portion of the supplies being left in his stranded
+craft. Not until this was done would Roswell listen to any proposal of
+Daggett's to transfer the skins. Twice during these few days, indeed, did
+the Vineyard master come to a pause in his proceedings, as the weather
+grew milder, and gleams of a hope of being able yet to get away that
+season crossed his mind. On the last of these occasions of misgiving,
+Roswell was compelled to lead his brother master up on the plain of the
+island, to an elevation of some three hundred feet above the level of the
+ocean, and more than half that distance higher than the house, and point
+out to him a panorama of field-ice that the eye could not command. Until
+that vast plain opened, or became riven by the joint action of the
+agitated ocean and the warmth of a sun from which the rays did not glance
+away from the frozen surface, like light obliquely received, and as
+obliquely reflected from a mirror, it was useless to think of releasing
+even the uninjured vessel; much less that which lay riven and crushed on
+the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Were every cake of this ice melted into water, Daggett," Roswell
+continued, "it would not float off your schooner. The best supplied
+ship-yard in America could hardly furnish the materials for ways to launch
+her; and I never knew of a vessel's being dropped into the water some
+twenty feet nearly perpendicular."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that," answered Daggett, stoutly. "See what they're doing
+now-a-days, and think nothing of it. I have seen a whole row of brick
+houses turned round by the use of jack-screws; and one building actually
+taken down a hill much higher than the distance you name. Commodore
+Rodgers has just hauled a heavy frigate out of the water, and means to put
+her back again, when he has done with her. What has been done once can be
+done twice. I do not like giving up 'till I'm forced to it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is plain enough, Captain Daggett," returned Roswell, smiling. "That
+you are game, no one can deny; but it will all come to nothing. Neither
+Commodore Rodgers nor Commodore anybody else could put your craft into the
+water again without something to do it with."</p>
+
+<p>"You think it would be asking too much to take your schooner, and go
+across to the main next season a'ter timber to make ways?" put in Daggett,
+inquiringly. "She stands up like a church, and nothing would be easier
+than to lay down ways under her bottom."</p>
+
+<p>"Or more difficult than to make them of any use, after you had put them
+there. No, no, my good sir, you must think no more of this; though it may
+be possible to make a cover for the cargo, and return and recover it all,
+by freighting a craft from Rio, on our way north."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett gave a quick, inquisitive glance at his companion, and Roswell's
+colour mounted to his cheeks; for while he really thought the plan just
+mentioned quite feasible, he was conscious of foreseeing that it might be
+made the means of throwing off his troublesome companion, as he himself
+drew near to the West Indies and their keys.</p>
+
+<p>This terminated the discussion for the time. Both of the masters busied
+themselves in carrying on the duty which had now fallen into a regular
+train. As much of the interest of what is to be related will depend on
+what was done in these few days, it may be well to be a little more
+explicit in stating the particulars.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will understand that the house, of which so much had already
+been made by our mariners, was nothing but a shell. It had a close roof,
+one that effectually turned water, and its siding, though rough, was tight
+and rather thicker than is usual; being made of common inch boards,
+roughly planed, and originally painted red. There were four very tolerable
+windows, and a decent substantial floor of planed plank. All this had been
+well put together, rather more attention than is often bestowed on such
+structures having been paid by the carpenter to the cracks and joints on
+account of the known sharpness of the climate, even in the warm months.
+Still, all this made a mere shell. The marrow-freezing winds which would
+soon come--had indeed come--might be arrested by such a covering, it is
+true; but the little needle-like particles of the frost would penetrate
+such a shelter, as their counterparts of steel pierce cloth. It was a
+matter of life and death, therefore, to devise means to exclude the cold,
+in order that the vital heat might be kept in circulation during the
+tremendous season that was known to be approaching.</p>
+
+<p>Stimson had much to say on the subject of the arrangements taken. He was
+the oldest man in the two crews, and the most experienced sealer. It
+happened that he had once passed a winter at Orange Harbour, in the
+immediate vicinity of Cape Horn. It is true, that is an inhabited country,
+if the poor degraded creatures who dwell there can be termed inhabitants;
+and has its trees and vegetation, such as they are. The difference between
+Orange Harbour and Sealer's Land, in this respect, must be something like
+that which all the travelling world knows to exist between a winter's
+residence at the Hospital of the Great St. Bernard, and a winter's
+residence at one of the villages a few leagues lower down the mountain. At
+Sealer's Land, if there was literally no vegetation, there was so little
+as scarcely to deserve the name. Of fuel there was none, with the
+exception of that which had been brought there. Nevertheless, the
+experience of a winter passed at such a place as Orange Harbour, must
+count for a great deal. Cape Horn is in nearly 56&deg;, and Sealer's Land--we
+may as well admit this much--is, by no means, 10&deg; to the southward of
+that. There must be a certain general resemblance in the climates of the
+two places; and he who had gone through a winter at one of them, must have
+had a very tolerable foretaste of what was to be suffered at the other.
+This particular experience, therefore, added to his general knowledge, as
+well as to his character, contributed largely to Stephen's influence in
+the consultations that took place between the two masters, at which he was
+usually present.</p>
+
+<p>"It's useless to be playing off, in an affair like this, Captain Gar'ner,"
+said Stephen, on one occasion. "Away from this spot all the navies of the
+'arth could not now carry us, until God's sun comes back in his course, to
+drive the winter away afore it. I have my misgivin's, gentlemen, touching
+this great floe that has got jammed in among these islands, whether it
+will ever move ag'in; for I don't think its coming in here is a common
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, what would become of us, Stephen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, we should be at God's marcy, then, jist as we be now; or would
+be, was we on the east eend itself. I won't say that two resolute and
+strong arms might not cut a way through for one little craft like ourn, if
+they had summer fully afore 'em, and know'd they was a-workin' towards a
+fri'nd instead of towards an inimy. There's a great deal in the last;
+every man is encouraged when he thinks he's nearer to the eend of his
+journey a'ter a hard day's work, than he was when he set out in the
+mornin'. But to undertake sich an expedition at this season, would be
+sartain destruction. No, sir; all we can do, now, is to lay up for the
+winter, and that with great care and prudence. We must turn ourselves
+into so many ants, and show their forethought and care."</p>
+
+<p>"What would you recommend as our first step, Stimson?" asked Daggett, who
+had been an attentive listener.</p>
+
+<p>"I would advise, sir, to begin hardening the men as soon as I could. We
+have too much fire in the stove, both for our stock of wood and for the
+good of the people. Make the men sleep under fewer clothes, and don't let
+any on 'ern hang about the galley fire, as some on 'em love to do, even
+now, most desperately. Them 'ere men will be good for nothin' ten weeks
+hence, unless they're taken off the fires, as a body would take off a pot
+or a kettle, and are set out to harden."</p>
+
+<p>"This is a process that may be easier advised than performed, perhaps,"
+Roswell quietly observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you believe that, Captain Gar'ner. I've known the most shiverin',
+smoke-dried hands in a large crew, hardened and brought to an edge, a'ter
+a little trouble, as a body would temper an axe with steel. The first
+thing to be done is to make 'em scrub one another every mornin' in cold
+water. This gives a life to the skin that acts much the same as a suit of
+clothes. Yes, gentlemen; put a fellow in a tub for a minute or two of a
+mornin', and you may do almost anything you please with him all day
+a'terwards. One pail of water is as good as a pee-jacket. And above all
+things, keep the stoves clear. The cooks should be told not to drive their
+fires so hard; and we can do without the stove in the sleeping-room a
+great deal better now than most on us think. It will help to save much
+wood, if we begin at once to caulk and thicken our siding, and make the
+house warmer. Was the hut in a good state, we might do without any other
+fire than that in the camboose for two months yet."</p>
+
+<p>Such was the general character of Stephen's counsel, and very good advice
+it was. Not only did Roswell adopt the scrubbing process, which enabled
+him to throw aside a great many clothes in the course of a week, but he
+kept aloof from the fires, to harden, as Stimson had called it That which
+was thus enforced by example was additionally enjoined by precept. Several
+large, hulking, idle fellows, who greatly loved the fire, were driven away
+from it by shame; and the heat was allowed to diffuse itself more equally
+through the building.</p>
+
+<p>Any one who has ever had occasion to be a witness of the effect of the
+water-cure process in enabling even, delicate women to resist cold and
+damp, may form some notion of the great improvement that was made among
+our sealers, by adopting and rigidly adhering to Stimson's cold water and
+no-fire system. Those who had shivered at the very thoughts of ice-water,
+soon dabbled in it like young ducks; and there was scarcely an hour in the
+day when the half-hogshead, that was used as a bath, had not its tenant.
+This tub was placed on the ice of the cove, with a tent over it; and a
+well was made through which the water was drawn. Of course, the axe was in
+great request, a new hole being required each morning, and sometimes two
+or three times in the course of the day. The effect of these ablutions was
+very soon apparent. The men began to throw aside their pee-jackets, and
+worked in their ordinary clothing, which was warm and suited to a high
+latitude, with a spirit and vigour at which they were themselves
+surprised. The fire in the camboose sufficed as yet; and, at evening, the
+pee-jacket, with the shelter of the building, the crowded rooms, and the
+warm meals, for a long time enabled them to get on without consuming
+anything in the largest stove. Stimson's plans for the protection of the
+hut, moreover, soon began to tell. The skins, sails, and much of the
+rigging, were brought over from the wreck; by means of the carts, so long
+as there was no snow, and by means of sledges when the snow fell and
+rendered wheeling difficult. Luckily, the position of the road along the
+rocks caused the upper snow to melt a little at noon-day, while it froze
+again, firmer and firmer, each night. The crust soon bore, and it was
+found that the sledges furnished even better means of transportation than
+the wheels.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little controversy about the use of the skins, Daggett
+continuing to regard them as cargo. Necessity and numbers prevailed in the
+end, and the whole building was lined with them, four or five deep, by
+placing them inside of beckets made of the smaller rigging. By stuffing
+these skins compactly, within ropes so placed as to keep all snug, a very
+material defence against the entrance of cold was interposed. But this
+was not all. Inside of the skins Stimson got up hangings of canvass, using
+the sails of the wreck for that purpose. It was not necessary to cut these
+sails--Daggett would not have suffered it--but they were suspended, and
+crammed into openings, and otherwise so arranged as completely to conceal
+and shelter every side, as well as the ceilings of both rooms. Portions
+were fitted with such address as to fall before the windows, to which they
+formed very warm if not very ornamental curtains. Stephen, however,
+induced Roswell to order outside shutters to be made and hung; maintaining
+that one such shutter would soon count as a dozen cords of wood.</p>
+
+<p>Much of the wood, too, was brought over from the wreck; and that which had
+been carelessly abandoned on the rocks was all collected and piled
+carefully and conveniently near the outer door of the hut; which door, by
+the way, looked inward, or towards the rocks in the rear of the building,
+where it opened on a sort of yard, that Roswell hoped to be able to keep
+clear of ice and snow throughout the winter. He might as well have
+expected to melt the glaciers of Grindewald by lighting a fire on the
+meadows at their base!</p>
+
+<p>Stephen had another project to protect the house, and to give facilities
+for moving outside, when the winter should be at the hardest. In his
+experience at Orange Harbour, he had found that great inconvenience was
+sustained in consequence of the snow's melting around the building he
+inhabited, which came from the warmth of the fire within. To avoid this, a
+very serious evil, he had spare sails of heavy canvass laid across the
+roof of the warehouse, a building of no great height, and secured them to
+the rocks below by means of anchors, kedges, and various other devices; in
+some instances, by lashings to projections in the cliffs. Spare spars,
+leaning from the roof, supported this tent-like covering, and props
+beneath sustained the spars. This arrangement was made on only two sides
+of the building, one end, and the side which looked to the north;
+materials failing before the whole place was surrounded. The necessity for
+admitting light, too, admonished the sealers of the inexpediency of thus
+shrouding all their windows. The bottom of this tent was only ten feet
+from the side of the house, which gave it greater security than if it had
+been more horizontal, while it made a species of verandah in which
+exercise could be taken with greater freedom than in the rooms. Everything
+was done to strengthen the building in all its parts that the ingenuity of
+seamen could suggest; and particularly to prevent the tent-verandah from
+caving in.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen intimated that their situation possessed one great advantage, as
+well as disadvantage. In consequence of standing on a shelf with a lower
+terrace so close as to be within the cast of a shovel, the snow might be
+thrown below, and the hut relieved. The melted snow, too, would be apt to
+take the same direction, under the law that governs the course of all
+fluids. The disadvantage was in the barrier of rock behind the hut, which,
+while it served admirably to break the piercing south winds, would very
+naturally tend to make high snow-banks in drifting storms.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-24">
+<h2>Chapter XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"My foot on the ice-berg has lighted,<br />
+When hoarse the wild winds veer about;<br />
+My eye when the bark is benighted,<br />
+Sees the lamp of the light-house go out.<br />
+I'm the sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,<br />
+Lone looker on despair;<br />
+The sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,<br />
+The only witness there."</p>
+
+<p>  Brainard.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Two months passed rapidly away in the excitement and novelty of the
+situation and pursuits of the men. In that time, all was done that the
+season would allow; the house being considered as complete, and far from
+uncomfortable. The days had rapidly lessened in length, and the nights
+increased proportionably, until the sun was visible only for a few hours
+at a time, and then merely passing low along the northern horizon. The
+cold increased in proportion, though the weather varied almost as much in
+that high latitude as it does in our own. It had ceased to thaw much,
+however; and the mean of the thermometer was not many degrees above zero.
+Notwithstanding this low range of the mercury, the men found that they
+were fast getting acclimated, and that they could endure a much greater
+intensity of cold than they had previously supposed possible. As yet,
+there had been nothing to surprise natives of New York and New England,
+there rarely occurring a winter in which weather quite as cold as any they
+had yet experienced in the antarctic sea, does not set in, and last for
+some little time. Even while writing this very chapter of our legend, here
+in the mountains of Otsego, one of these Siberian visits has been paid to
+our valley. For the last three days the thermometer has ranged, at
+sunrise, between 17&deg; and 22&deg; below zero; though there is every appearance
+of a thaw, and we may have the mercury up to 40&deg; above, in the course of
+the next twenty-four hours. Men accustomed to such transitions, and such
+extreme cold, are not easily laid up or intimidated.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal of snow fell about this particular portion of the year; more,
+indeed, than at a later period. This snow produced the greatest
+inconvenience; for it soon became so deep as to form high banks around the
+house, and to fill all the customary haunts of the men. Still, there were
+places that were in a great measure exempt from this white mantle. The
+terrace immediately below the hut, which has so often been mentioned, was
+one of these bare spots. It was so placed as to be swept by both the east
+and the west winds, which generally cleared it of everything like snow, as
+fast as it fell; and this more effectually than could be done by a
+thousand brooms. The level of rock usually travelled in going to or from
+the wreck, was another of these clear places. It was a sort of shelf, too
+narrow to admit of the snow's banking, and too much raked by the winds
+that commonly accompanied snow, to suffer the last to lodge to any great
+depth. Snow there was, with a hard crust, as has already been mentioned;
+but it was not snow ten or fifteen feet deep, as occurred in many other
+places. There were several points, however, where banks had formed, even
+on this ledge, through which the men were compelled to cut their way by
+the use of shovels: an occupation that gave them exercise, and contributed
+to keep them in health, if it was of no other service. It was found that
+the human frame could not endure one-half the toil, in that low state of
+the mercury, that it could bear in one a few degrees higher.</p>
+
+<p>Daggett had not, by any means, abandoned his craft, as much as he had
+permitted her to be dismantled. Every day or two he had some new expedient
+for getting the schooner off in the spring; though all who heard them were
+perfectly convinced of their impracticableness. This feeling induced him
+to cause his own men to keep open the communication; and scarce a day
+passed in which he did not visit the poor unfortunate craft. Nor was the
+place without an interest of a very peculiar sort. It has been said that
+the fragments of ice, some of which were more than a hundred feet in
+diameter, and all of which were eight or ten feet in thickness, had been
+left on their edges, inclining in a way to form caverns that extended a
+great distance. Now, it so happened, that just around the wreck the cakes
+were so distributed as to intercept the first snows which filled the outer
+passages, got to be hardened, and covered anew by fresh storms, thus
+interposed an effectual barrier to the admission of any more of the frozen
+element within the ice. The effect was to form a vast range of natural
+galleries amid the cakes, that were quite clear of any snow but that which
+had adhered to their surfaces, and which offered little or no impediment
+to motion--nay, which rather aided it, by rendering the walking less
+slippery. As the deck of the schooner had been cleared, leaving an easy
+access to all its entrances, cabin, hold, and forecastle, this put the
+Vineyard Lion under cover, while it admitted of all her accommodations
+being used. A portion of her wood had been left in her, it will be
+remembered, as well as her camboose. The last was got into the cabin, and
+Daggett, attended by two or three of his hands, would pass a good deal of
+his time there. One reason given for this distribution of the forces, was
+the greater room it allowed those who remained at the hut for motion. The
+deck of this vessel being quite clear, it offered a very favourable spot
+for exercise; better, in fact, than the terrace beneath the hut, being
+quite sheltered from the winds and much warmer than it had been
+originally, or ever since the heavy fall of snows commenced. Daggett paced
+his quarter-deck hour after hour, almost deluding himself with the
+expectation of sailing for home as soon as the return of summer would
+permit him to depart.</p>
+
+<p>Around the hut the snow early made vast embankments. Every one accustomed
+to the action of this particular condition of one of the great elements,
+will understand that a bend in the rocks outward, or a curve inward, must
+necessarily affect the manner in which these banks were formed. The wind
+did not, by any means, blow from any one point of the compass; though the
+south-western cliffs might be almost termed the weather-side of the
+island, so much more frequently did the gales come from that quarter than
+from any other. The cape where the cove lay, and where the house had been
+set up, being at the north-eastern point, and much protected by the high
+table-land in its rear, it occupied the warmest situation in the whole
+region. The winds that swept most of the north shore, but which, owing to
+a curvature in its formation, did not often blow home to the hut, even
+when they whistled along the terrace only a hundred feet beneath and more
+salient, were ordinarily from the south-west outside; though they got a
+more westerly inclination by following the land under the cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>A bank of snow may be either a cause of destruction or a source of
+comfort. Of course, a certain degree of cold must exist wherever snow is
+to be found; but, unless in absolute contact with the human body, it does
+not usually affect the system beyond a certain point. On the other hand,
+it often breaks the wind, and it has been known to form a covering to
+flocks, houses, &amp;c., that has contributed essentially to their warmth. We
+incline to the opinion that if one slept in a cavern formed in the snow,
+provided he could keep himself dry, and did not come in absolute contact
+with the element, he would not find his quarters very uncomfortable, so
+long as he had sufficient clothing to confine the animal warmth near his
+person. Now, our sealers enjoyed some such advantage as this; though not
+literally in the same degree. Their house was not covered with snow,
+though a vast bank was already formed quite near it and a good deal had
+begun to pile against the tent. Singular as it may seem, on the east end
+of the building, and on the south front, which looked in towards the cliff
+next the cove, there was scarcely any snow at all. This was in part owing
+to the constant use of the shovel and broom, but more so to the currents
+of air, which usually carried everything of so light a nature as a flake
+to more quiet spots, before it was suffered to settle on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell early found, what his experience as an American might have taught
+him, that the <i>melting</i> of the snow, in consequence of the warmth of the
+fires, caused much more inconvenience than the snow itself. The latter,
+when dry, was easily got along with; but, when melted in the day, and
+converted into icicles at night, it became a most unpleasant and not
+altogether a safe neighbour; inasmuch as there was really danger from the
+sort of damp atmosphere it produced.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest ground of Roswell Gardiner's apprehensions, however, was for
+the supply of fuel. Much of that brought from home had been fairly used in
+the camboose, and in the stove originally set up in the hut. Large as that
+stock had been, a very sensible inroad had been made upon it; and,
+according to a calculation he had made, the wood regularly laid in would
+not hold out much more than half the time that it would be indispensable
+to remain on the island. This was a grave circumstance, and one that
+demanded very serious consideration. Without fuel it would be impossible
+to survive; no hardening process being sufficient to fortify the human
+frame to a degree that would resist the influence of an antarctic winter.</p>
+
+<p>From the moment it was probable the party would be obliged to pass the
+winter at Sealer's Land, therefore, Roswell had kept a vigilant eye on the
+wood. Stimson had more than once, spoken to him on the subject, and with
+great prudence.</p>
+
+<p>"Warmth must be kept among us," said the old boat-steerer, "or there will
+be no hope for the stoutest man in either crew. We've a pretty good stock
+of coffee, and that is better, any day, than all the rum and whiskey that
+was ever distilled. Good hot coffee of a morning will put life into us
+the coldest day that ever come out of either pole; and they do say the
+south is colder than the north, though I never could understand why it
+should be so."</p>
+
+<p>"You surely understand the reason why it grows warmer as we approach the
+equator, and colder as we go from it, whether we go north or south?"</p>
+
+<p>Stimson assented; though had the truth been said, he would have been
+obliged to confess that he knew no more than the facts.</p>
+
+<p>"All sailors know sich things, Captain Gar'ner; though they know it with
+very different degrees of exper'ence. But few get as far south as I have
+been, to pass a winter. A good pot of hot coffee of a morning will go as
+far as a second pee-jacket, if a man has to go out into the open air when
+the weather is at the hardest."</p>
+
+<p>"Luckily, our small stores are quite abundant, and we are better off for
+coffee and sugar than for anything else. I laid in of both liberally when
+we were at Rio."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Rio is a good place for the articles. But coffee must be <i>hot</i> to do
+a fellow much good in one of these high-latitude winters; and to be hot
+there must be fuel to heat it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid the wood will not hold out much more than half the time we
+shall be here. Fortunately, we had a large supply; but the other schooner
+was by no means as well furnished with fuel as she ought to have been for
+such a voyage."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I suppose you know what must be done next in such a case.
+Without <i>warm</i> food, men can no more live through one of these winters,
+than they can live without food at all. If the Vineyard craft has no
+proper fuel aboard her, we must make fuel of her."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell regarded Stephen with fixed attention for some time. The idea was
+presented to his mind for the second time, and he greatly liked it.</p>
+
+<p>"That might do," he said; "though it will not be an easy matter to make
+Captain Daggett consent to such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him go two or three mornings without his warm meal and hot coffee,"
+answered Stimson, shaking his head, "and he will be glad enough to come
+into the scheme. A man soon gets willing to set fire to anything that
+will burn in such a climate. A notion has been floating about in my mind,
+Captain Gar'ner, that I've several times thought I would mention to you.
+D'ye think, sir, any benefit could be made of that volcano over the bay,
+should the worst get to the worst with us?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought of the same thing, Stephen; though I fear in vain, I
+suppose no useful heat can be given out there, until one gets too near the
+bad air to breathe it. What you say about breaking up the other schooner,
+however, is worthy of consideration; and I will speak to Captain Daggett
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell was as good as his word; and the Vineyard mariner met the proposal
+as one repels an injury. Never were our two masters so near a serious
+misunderstanding, as when Roswell suggested to Daggett the expediency of
+breaking up the wreck, now that the weather was endurable, and the men
+could work with reasonable comfort and tolerable advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"The man who puts an axe or a saw into that unfortunate craft," said
+Daggett, firmly, "I shall regard as an enemy. It is a hard enough bed that
+she lies on, without having her ribs and sides torn to pieces by hands."</p>
+
+<p>This was the strange spirit in which Daggett, continued to look at the
+condition of the wreck! It was true that the ice prevented his actually
+seeing the impossibility of his ever getting his schooner into the water
+again; but no man at all acquainted with mechanics, and who knew the
+paucity of means that existed on the island, could for a moment entertain
+the idle expectation that seemed to have got into the Vineyard-master's
+mind, unless subject to a species of one-idea infatuation. This
+infatuation, however, existed not only in Daggett's mind, but in some
+degree in those of his men. It is said that "in a multitude of counsellors
+there is wisdom;" and the axiom comes from an authority too venerable to
+be disputed. But it might, almost with equal justice, be said, that "in-a
+multitude of counsellors there is folly;" for men are quite as apt to
+sustain each other in the wrong as in the right. The individual who would
+hesitate about advancing his fallacies and mistakes with a single voice,
+does not scruple to proclaim them on the hill-tops, when he finds other
+tongues to repeat his errors. Divine wisdom, foreseeing this consequence
+of human weakness, has provided a church-catholic, and proceeding directly
+from its Great Head on earth, as the repository of those principles,
+facts, and laws, that it has deemed essential to the furtherance of its
+own scheme of moral government on earth; and yet we see audacious
+imitators starting up on every side, presuming in their ignorance, longing
+in their ambition, and envious in these longings, who do not scruple to
+shout out upon the house-tops crudities over which knowledge wonders as it
+smiles, and humility weeps as it wonders. Such is man, when sustained by
+his fellows, in every interest of life; from religion, the highest of all,
+down to the most insignificant of his temporal concerns.</p>
+
+<p>In this spirit did Daggett and his crew now feel and act. Roswell had
+early seen, with regret, that something like a feeling of party was
+getting up among the Vineyarders, who had all along regarded the better
+fortune of their neighbours with an ill-concealed jealousy. Ever since the
+shipwreck, however, this rivalry had taken a new and even less pleasant
+aspect. It was slightly hostile, and remarks had been occasionally made
+that sounded equivocally; as if the Vineyarders had an intention of
+separating from the other crew, and of living by themselves. It is
+probable, however, that all this was the fruit of disappointment; and
+that, at the bottom, nothing very serious was in contemplation. Daggett
+had permitted his people to aid in transporting most of the stores to the
+house; though a considerable supply had been left in the wreck. This last
+arrangement was made seemingly without any hostile design, but rather in
+furtherance of a plan to pass as much time as circumstances would allow,
+on board the stranded vessel. There was, in truth, a certain convenience
+in this scheme, that commended it to the good sense of all. So long as any
+portion of the Vineyarders could be made comfortable in the wreck, it was
+best they should remain there; for it saved the labour of transporting all
+the provisions, and made more room to circulate in and about the house.
+The necessity of putting so many casks, barrels and boxes within doors,
+had materially circumscribed the limits; and space was a great
+desideratum for several reasons, health in particular.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell was glad, therefore, when any of the Vineyarders expressed a wish
+to go to the wreck, and to pass a few days there. With a view to encourage
+this disposition, as well as to ascertain how those fared who chose that
+abode, he paid Daggett a visit, and passed a night or two himself in the
+cabin of the craft. This experiment told him that it was very possible to
+exist there when the thermometer stood at zero; but, how it would do when
+ranging a great deal lower, he had his doubts. The cabin was small, and a
+very moderate fire in the camboose served to keep it reasonably warm;
+though Daggett, at all times a reasonable and reasoning man, when the
+"root of all evil" did not sorely beset him, came fully into his own views
+as to the necessity of husbanding the fuel, and of hardening the men. None
+of that close stewing over stoves, which is so common in America, and
+which causes one-half of the winter diseases of the climate, was tolerated
+in either gang. Daggett saw the prudence of Roswell's, or rather of
+Stimson's system, and fell into it freely, and with hearty good-will. It
+was during Gardiner's visit to the wreck that our two masters talked over
+their plans for the winter, while taking their exercise on the schooner's
+deck, each well muffled up, to prevent the frost from taking hold of the
+more exposed parts. Every one had a seal-skin cap, made in a way to
+protect the ears and most of the face; and our two masters were thus
+provided, in common with their men.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that we are to consider this as pleasant winter weather,"
+Roswell remarked, "the thermometer being down only at zero. Stimson tells
+me that even at Orange Harbour, the season he was there, they paid out
+mercury until it all got into the ball. A month or two hence, we may look
+out for the season of frosts, as the Injins call it. You will hardly think
+of staying out here, when the really hard weather sets in."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe we shall feel the cold much more than we do now. This
+daily washing is a capital stove; for I find all hands say that, when it
+is once over, they feel like new men. As for me, I shall stick by my craft
+while there is a timber left in her to float!"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell thought how absurd it was to cling thus to a useless mass of
+wood, and iron, and copper; but he said nothing on that subject.</p>
+
+<p>"I am now sorry that we took over to the house so many of our supplies,"
+Daggett continued, after a short pause. "I am afraid that many of them
+will have to be brought back again."</p>
+
+<p>"That would hardly quit cost, Daggett; it would be better to come over and
+pass the heel of the winter with us, when the supplies get to be short
+here. As we eat, we make room in the hut, you know; and you will be so
+much the more comfortable. An empty pork-barrel was broken up for the
+camboose yesterday morning."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see--we shall see, Gardner. My men have got a notion that your
+people intend to break up this schooner for fuel, should they not keep an
+anchor-watch aboard her."</p>
+
+<p>"Anchor-watch!" repeated Roswell, smiling. "It is well named--if there
+ever was an anchor-watch, you keep it here: for no ground-tackle will ever
+hold like this."</p>
+
+<p>"We still think the schooner may be got off," Daggett said, regarding his
+companion inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>While the Vineyard-man had a certain distrust of his brother-master, he
+had also a high respect for his fair-dealing propensities, and a strong
+disposition to put confidence in his good faith. The look that he now gave
+was, if possible, to read the real opinion of the other, in a countenance
+that seldom deceived.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be grateful to God, Captain Daggett," returned Roswell, after a
+short pause, "if we get through the long winter of this latitude, without
+burning too much of <i>both</i> craft, than will be for our good. Surely it
+were better to begin on that which is in the least serviceable condition?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought this matter over, Gar'ner, with all my mind--have dreamt
+of it--slept on it--had it before me at all hours, and in all weathers;
+and, look at it as I will, it is full of difficulties. Will you agree to
+take in a half-cargo of my skins and iles next season, and make in all
+respect? a joint v'y'ge of it; from home, home ag'in, if we'll consent to
+let this craft be burned?"</p>
+
+<p>"It exceeds my power to make any such bargain. I have an owner who looks
+sharply after his property, and my crew are upon lays, like the people of
+all sealers. You ask too much; and you forget that, should I assume the
+same power over my own craft, as you still claim in this wreck, you might
+never find the means of getting away from the group at all. We are not
+obliged to receive you on board our schooner."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you think, Gar'ner, that it will be impossible for us ever to get
+our craft off; but you overlook one thing that we may do--what is there to
+prevent our breaking her up, and of using the materials to make a smaller
+vessel; one of sixty tons say--in which we might get home, besides taking
+most of our skins?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not say <i>that</i> will be impossible; but I do say it will be very
+difficult. It would be wiser for you, in my judgment, to leave your cargo
+in the house, under the keeping of a few hands if you see fit, and go off
+with me. I will land you at Rio, where you can almost always find some
+small American craft to come south in, and pick up your leavings. If you
+choose that the men left behind should amuse themselves in your absence,
+by building a small craft, I am certain they will meet with no opposition
+from me. There is but one place where a vessel can be launched, and that
+is the spot in the cove where we beached your schooner. There it might
+possibly be done, though I think not without a great deal of trouble, and
+possibly not without more means than are to be picked up along shore in
+this group. But there is a very important fact that you overlook, Daggett,
+which it may be as well to mention here, as to delay it. <i>Your</i> craft, or
+<i>mine</i>, must be used as fuel this winter, or we shall freeze to death to a
+man. I have made the calculations closely; and, certain as our existence,
+there is no alternative between such a death and the use of the fuel I
+have mentioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a timber of mine shall be touched. I do not believe one-half of these
+stories about the antarctic winter, which cannot be much worse than what a
+body meets with up in the Bay of Fundy."</p>
+
+<p>"A winter in the Bay of Fundy, without fuel, must be bad enough; but it is
+a mere circumstance to one here. I should think that a man who has tasted
+an antarctic <i>summer</i> and <i>autumn</i>, must get a pretty lively notion of
+what is to come after them."</p>
+
+<p>"The men can keep in their berths much of the time, and save wood. There
+are many other ways of getting through a winter than burning a vessel. I
+shall never consent to a stick of this good craft's going into the
+galley-fire as long as I can see my way clear to prevent it. I would burn
+<i>cargo</i> before I would burn my <i>craft</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell wondered at this pertinacity; but he trusted to the pressure of
+the coming season, and changed the subject. Certainly the thought of
+breaking up his own craft did not cross his mind: though he could see no
+sufficient objection to the other side of the proposition. As discussion
+was useless, however, he continued to converse with Daggett on various
+practical subjects, on which his companion was rational and disposed to
+learn.</p>
+
+<p>It had been ascertained by experiment that the water, at a considerable
+depth, was essentially warmer beneath the ice, than at its surface. A plan
+had been devised by which the lower currents of the water could be pumped
+up for the purposes of the bath; thus rendering the process far more
+tolerable than it had previously been. Bathing in extremely cold weather,
+however, is not as formidable a thing as is generally supposed, the air
+being at a lower temperature than the water. As the greatest importance
+was attached to these daily ablutions, the subject was gone over between
+the two masters in all its bearings. There were no conveniences for the
+operation at the wreck; and this was one reason why Roswell suggested that
+a residence there ought to be abandoned. Daggett dissented, and invited
+his companion to take a walk in his caverns.</p>
+
+<p>A promenade in a succession of caves formed of ice, with the thermometer
+at zero, would naturally strike one as a somewhat chilling amusement.
+Gardiner did not find it so. He was quite protected from the wind, which
+gives so much pungency to bitter cold, rendering it insupportable.
+Completely protected from this, and warmed by the exertion of clambering
+among the cakes. Roswell's blood was soon in a healthful glow; and, to own
+the truth, when he left the wreck, it was with a much better opinion of it
+as a place of residence, than when he had arrived to pay his visit.</p>
+
+<p>As there was now nothing for the men to do in the way of preparation,
+modes of amusement were devised that might unite activity of body with
+that of the mind. The snows ceased to fall as the season advanced; and
+there were but few places on which heavy burthens might not have been
+transported over their crusts. It was, indeed, easier moving about on the
+surface of the frozen snow, than it had been on the naked rocks: the
+latter offering obstacles that no longer showed themselves. Sliding down
+the declivities, and even skating, were practised; few northern Americans
+being ignorant of the latter art. Various other sources of amusement were
+resorted to; but it was found, generally, that very little exercise in the
+open air exhausted the frame, and that a great difficulty of breathing
+occurred. Still, it was thought necessary to health that the men should
+remain as much as possible out of the crowded house; and various projects
+were adopted to keep up the vital warmth while exposed. Ere the month of
+July had passed, which corresponds to our January, it had been found
+expedient to make dresses of skins; for which fortunately the materials
+abounded.</p>
+
+<p>As the season advanced, the idea of preserving more than the lives of his
+men was gradually abandoned by Gardiner; though Daggett still clung to his
+wreck, and actually had wood transported back to it, that he might stay as
+much as possible near his property. There was no longer any thawing,
+though there were very material gradations in the intensity of the frosts.
+Occasionally, it was quite possible to remain in the open air an hour or
+two at a time; then, again, there were days in which it exceeded the
+powers of human endurance to remain more than a few minutes removed to any
+distance from heat artificially procured. On the whole, however, it was
+found that the comparatively moderate weather predominated; and it was
+rare indeed that all the people did not pursue their avocations and
+amusements outside, at what was called the middle of the day.</p>
+
+<p>And what a meridian it was! The shortest day had passed some time, when
+Roswell and Stimson were walking together on the terrace, then, as usual,
+as clear from snow as if swept by a broom; but otherwise wearing the
+aspect of interminable winter, in common with all around it. They were
+conversing, as had been much their wont of late, and were watching the
+passage of the sun as he stole along the northern horizon; even at high
+noon rising but a very few degrees above it!</p>
+
+<p>"It has a cold look, sir, but it does give out some heat," said Stephen,
+as he faced the luminary, in one of his turns. "I can feel a little warmth
+from it just now, sheltered us we are here under the cliffs, and with a
+back-ground of naked rock to throw back what reaches us. To me, all these
+changes in the movements of the sun seem very strange, Captain Gar'ner;
+but I know I'm ignorant, and that others may well know all about what I do
+not understand."</p>
+
+<p>Here Gardiner undertook to explain the phenomena that have been slightly
+treated on in our own pages. There are few Americans so ignorant as not to
+be fully aware that the sun has no sensible motion, or any motion that has
+an apparent influence on our own planet; but fewer still clearly
+comprehend the reasons of those very changes that are occurring constantly
+before their eyes. We cannot say that Captain Gardiner succeeded very well
+in his undertaking, though he imprinted on the old boat-steerer's mind the
+fact that the sun would not be seen at all were they only a few degrees
+farther south than they actually were.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, sir, I suppose he'll get higher and higher every day," put in
+Stephen, "until he comes quite up above our heads?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly that at noon; though abeam, as it might be, mornings and
+evenings."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, the coldest of our weather is yet to come, or I have no exper'ence
+in such things. Why does not the heat come back with the sun--or what
+seems to be the sun coming back? though, as you tell me, Captain Gar'ner,
+it's only the 'arth sheering this-a-way and that-a-way in her course."</p>
+
+<p>"One may well ask such a question--but cold produces cold, and it takes
+time to wear it out. February is commonly the coldest month in the year,
+even in America; though days any one in February. March, and even April,
+are months I dread here; and that so much the more, Stephen, because our
+fuel goes a good deal faster than I could wish."</p>
+
+<p>"What you say is very true, sir. Still, the people must have fire. I
+turned out this morning, while all hands were still in their berths, and
+looked to the stove, and it was as much as human natur' could bear to be
+about without my cap and skin-covering; though in-doors the whole time. If
+the weather goes on as it has begun, we shall have to keep a watch at the
+stove; nor do I think one stove will answer us much longer. We shall want
+another in the sleeping-room."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven knows where the wood is to come from! Unless Captain Daggett gives
+up the wreck, we shall certainly be out long before the mild season
+returns."</p>
+
+<p>"We must keep ourselves warm, sir, by reading the bible," answered
+Stimson, smiling; though the glance he cast at his officer was earnest and
+anxious. "You must not forget, Captain Gar'ner, that you've promised one
+who is praying for you daily, to go through the chapters she has marked,
+and give the matter a patient and attentive thought. No sealin', sir, can
+be half as important as this reading of the good book in the right
+spirit."</p>
+
+<p>"So you believe that Jesus was the Son of God!" exclaimed Roswell, half
+inquiringly, and half in a modified sort of levity.</p>
+
+<p>"As much as I believe that we are here, sir. I wish I was half as certain
+of our ever getting away."</p>
+
+<p>"What has caused you to believe this, Stimson?--reason, or the talk of
+your mother and of the parson?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother died afore I could listen to her talk, sir: and very little
+have I had to do with parsons, for the want of being where they are to be
+found. <i>Faith</i> tells me to believe this; and Faith comes from God."</p>
+
+<p>"And I could believe it, too, were Faith imparted to me from the same
+source. As it is, I fear I shall never believe in what appears to me to be
+an impossibility."</p>
+
+<p>Then followed a long discussion, in which ingenuity, considerable command
+of language, human pride and worldly sentiments, contended with that
+clear, intuitive, deep conviction, which it is the pleasure of the Deity
+often to bestow on those who would otherwise seem to be unfitted to become
+the repositories of so great a gift. As we shall have to deal with this
+part of our subject more particularly hereafter, we shall not enlarge on
+it here; but pursue the narrative as it is connected with the advance of
+the season, and the influence the latter exerted over the whole party of
+the lost sealers.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-25">
+<h2>Chapter XXV.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Beyond the Jewish ruler, banded close,<br />
+A company full glorious, I saw<br />
+The twelve apostles stand. O, with what looks<br />
+Of ravishment and joy, what rapturous tears;<br />
+What hearts of ecstacy, they gazed again<br />
+On their beloved Master"----</p>
+
+<p>  <i>Hillhouse's Judgment.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>It has become necessary to advance the season to the beginning of the
+month of October, which corresponds to our own April. In a temperate
+climate, this would mark the opening of spring; and the reviving hopes of
+a new and genial season would find a place in every bosom. Not so at
+Sealer's Land. So long as the winter was at its height, and the clear,
+steady cold continued, by falling into a system so prepared as to meet the
+wants of such a region, matters had gone on regularly, if not with
+comfort; and, as yet, the personal disasters were confined to a few frozen
+cheeks and noses, the results of carelessness and wanton exposure, rather
+than of absolute necessity. But one who had seen the place in July, and
+who examined it now, would find many marks of change, not to say of
+deterioration.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, a vast deal of snow had fallen; fallen, indeed, to
+such a degree, as even to cover the terrace, block up the path that
+communicated with the wreck, and nearly to smother the house and all
+around it. The winds were high and piercing, rendering the cold doubly
+penetrating. The thermometer now varied essentially, sometimes rising
+considerably above zero, though oftener falling far below it. There had
+been many storms in September, and October was opening with a most
+blustering and wintry aspect. In one sense, however, the character of the
+season had changed; the dry, equal cold, that was generally supportable,
+having been succeeded by tempests that were sometimes a little moist, but
+oftener of intense frigidity. Of course the equinox was past, and there
+were more than twelve hours of sun. The great luminary showed himself well
+above the northern horizon; and though his circuit described an arch that
+did not promise soon to bring him near the zenith at meridian, it was a
+circuit that seemed about to enclose Sealer's Land, by carrying the orb of
+day so far south, morning and evening, as to give it an air of travelling
+round the spot.</p>
+
+<p>These changes had not occurred without suffering and danger. Enormous
+icicles were suspended from the roof of the house, reaching to the ground,
+the third and fourth successions of these signs of heat and cold united,
+the earlier formations having been knocked down and thrown away. Mountains
+of drifted snow were to be seen in places, all along the shore; and
+wreaths that threatened fearful avalanches were suspended from the cliffs,
+waiting only for the increase of the warmth, to come down upon the rocks
+beneath. Once already had one of these masses fallen on the wreck; and the
+Oyster Pond men had been busy for a week digging into the pile, in order
+to go to the rescue of the Vineyarders. There was much generosity and
+charitable feeling displayed in this act; for, owing to the obstinate
+adherence of Daggett and his people to what they deemed their rights,
+Roswell had finally been compelled to cut to pieces the upper works of his
+own schooner to obtain fuel that might prevent his own party from freezing
+to death. The position of the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond was to be traced
+only by a high mound of snow, which had been arrested by the obstacle she
+presented to its drift; but her bulwarks, planks, deck, top-timbers,
+stern-frame--in short, nearly all of the vessel above water, had actually
+been taken to pieces, and carried within the covering of the verandah
+mentioned, in readiness for the stoves!</p>
+
+<p>To render the obstinacy of the other crew more apparent, Daggett had been
+obliged to do the same! Much of his beloved craft had already disappeared
+in the camboose, and more was likely to follow. This compelled
+destruction, however, rather increased than lessened his pertinacity. He
+clung to the last chip; and no terms of compromise would he now listen to
+at all. The stranded wreck was his, and his people's; while the other
+wreck belonged to the men from Oyster Pond. Let each party act for itself,
+and take care of its own. Such were his expressed opinions, and on them he
+acted.</p>
+
+<p>This state of things had not been brought about in a day. Months had
+passed; Roswell had seen his last billet of wood put in the camboose; had
+tried various experiments for producing heat by means of oil, which so far
+succeeded as to enable the ordinary boiling to be done, thereby saving
+wood; but, when a cold turn set in, it was quickly found that the schooner
+must go, or all hands perish. When this decree went forth, every one
+understood that the final preservation of the party depended on that of
+the boats. For one entire day the question had been up in general council,
+whether or not the two whale-boats should be burnt, with their oars and
+appurtenances, before the attack was made on the schooner itself. Stimson
+settled this point, as he did so many others, Roswell listening to all he
+said with a constantly increasing attention.</p>
+
+<p>"If we burn the boats first," said the boat-steerer, "and then have to
+come to the schooner a'ter all, how are we ever to get away from this
+group? Them boats wouldn't last us a week, even in our best weather; but
+they may answer to take us to some Christian land, when every rib and
+splinter of the Sea Lion is turned into ashes. I would begin on the upper
+works of the schooner first, Captain Gar'ner, resarvin' the spars, though
+they would burn the freest. Then I would saw away the top-timbers, beams,
+decks, transoms, and everything down within a foot of the water; but I
+wouldn't touch anything below the copper, for this here reason: unless
+Captain Daggett sets to work on his craft and burns her up altogether, we
+may find mater'als enough in the spring to deck over ag'in the poor thing
+down there in the cove, and fit her out a'ter a fashion, and make much
+better weather of it in her than in our boats. That's my opinion, sir."</p>
+
+<p>It was decided that this line of conduct should be pursued. The upper
+works of the schooner were all taken out of her as soon as the weather
+permitted, and the wood was carried up and stored in the house. Even with
+this supply, it was soon seen that great economy was to be used, and that
+there might be the necessity of getting at the vessel's bottom. As for the
+schooner, as the people still affectionately called the hull, or what was
+left of the hull, everything had been taken out of her. The frozen oil was
+carried up to the house in chunks, and used for fuel and lights. A good
+deal of heat was obtained by making large wicks of canvass, and placing
+them in vessels that contained oil; though it was very far from sufficing
+to keep life in the men during the hardest of the weather. The utmost
+economy in the use of the fuel that had been so dearly obtained, was still
+deemed all-essential to eventual preservation. Happily, the season
+advanced all this time, and the month of October was reached. The
+intercourse between the crews had by no means been great during the two
+solemn and critical months that were just past. A few visits had been
+exchanged at noon-day, and when the thermometer was a little above zero;
+but the snow was filling the path, and as yet there were no thaws to
+produce a crust on which the men might walk.</p>
+
+<p>About a month previously to the precise time to which it is our intention
+now to advance the more regular action of the legend, Macy had come over
+to the house, attended by one man, with a proposal on the part of Daggett
+for the two crews to occupy his craft, as he still persisted in calling
+the wreck, and of using the house as fuel. This was previously to
+beginning to break up either vessel. Gardiner had thought of this plan in
+connection with his own schooner, a scheme that would have been much more
+feasible than that now proposed, on account of the difference in distance;
+but it had soon been abandoned. All the material of the building was of
+pine, and that well seasoned; a wood that burns like tinder. No doubt
+there would have been a tolerably comfortable fortnight or three weeks by
+making these sacrifices; then would have come certain destruction.</p>
+
+<p>As to the proposal of Daggett, there were many objections to it. A want of
+room would be one; want of provisions another; and there would be the
+necessity of transporting stores, bedding, and a hundred things that were
+almost as necessary to the people as warmth; and which indeed contributed
+largely to their warmth. In addition was the objection just mentioned, of
+the insufficiency of the materials of the building; an objection which was
+just as applicable to a residence in one vessel as a residence in the
+other. Of course the proposition was declined.</p>
+
+<p>Macy remained a night with the Oyster Ponders, and left the house after
+breakfast next morning; knowing that Daggett only waited for his return
+with a negative, to commence breaking up the wreck. The mate was attended
+by the seaman, returning as he had arrived. Two days later, there having
+been a slight yielding of the snow under the warmth of the noon-day sun,
+and a consequent hardening of its crust in the succeeding night, Roswell
+and Stimson undertook to return this visit, with a view to make a last
+effort to persuade Daggett to quit the wreck and come over to the house
+altogether. When they had got about half-way between the two places, they
+found the body of the seaman, stiff, frozen hard, and dead. A quarter of a
+mile further on, the reckless Macy, who it was supposed greatly sustained
+Daggett in his obstinacy, was found in precisely the same state. Both had
+fallen in the path, and stiffened under the terrible power of the climate.
+It was not without difficulty that Roswell reached the wreck, and reported
+what he had seen. Even this terrible admonition did not change Daggett's
+purpose. He had begun to burn his vessel, for there was now no
+alternative; but he was doing it on a system which, as he explained it to
+Roswell, was not only to leave him materials with which to construct a
+smaller craft in the spring, but which would allow of his inhabiting the
+steerage and cabin as long as he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>In some respects the wreck certainly had its advantages over the house.
+There was more room for exercise, the caverns of the ice being extensive,
+while they completely excluded the wind, which was now the great danger of
+the season. It was doubtless owing to the wind that Macy and his
+companion had perished. As the spring approached, these winds increased in
+violence; though there had been slight symptoms of their coming more
+blandly, even at the time when their colder currents were really
+frightful.</p>
+
+<p>A whole month succeeded this visit of Roswell's, during which there was no
+intercourse. It was September, the March of the antarctic circle, and the
+weather had been terrific during most of the period. It was during these
+terrible four weeks that Roswell completed his examination of the
+all-important subject Mary had marked out for him, and which Stimson had
+so earnestly and so often placed before his mind. The sudden fate of Macy
+and his companion, the condition of his crew, and all the serious
+circumstances with which he was surrounded, conspired to predispose him to
+inquiry; and what was equally important in such an investigation, to
+humility. Man is a very different being in high prosperity from what he
+becomes when the blows of an evil fortune, or the visitations of Divine
+Providence alight upon him. The skepticism of Roswell was more the result
+of human pride, of confidence in himself, than in any precept derived from
+others, or of any deep reasoning process whatever. He conceived that the
+theory of the incarnation of the Son of God was opposed to philosophy and
+experience, it is true; and, thus far, he may be said to have reasoned in
+the matter, though it was in his own way, and with a very contracted view
+of the subject; but pride had much more to do with even this conclusion,
+than a knowledge of physics or philosophy. It did not comport with the
+respect he entertained for his own powers, to lend his faith to an account
+that conflicted with so many of the opinions he had formed on evidence and
+practice. Credulous women might have their convictions on the truth of
+this history, but it was not necessary for men to be as easily duped.
+There was something even amiable and attractive in this weakness of the
+other sex, that would ill comport, however, with the greater sternness of
+masculine judgment. Roswell, as he once told Stimson, hesitated to believe
+in anything that he could not comprehend. His God must be worshipped for
+the obvious truth of his attributes and existence. He wished to speak with
+respect of things that so many worthy people reverenced; but he could not
+forget that Providence had made him a reasoning creature; and his reason
+must be convinced. Stephen was no great logician, as the reader will
+easily understand; but Newton possessed no clearer demonstration of any of
+his problems than this simple, nay ignorant, man enjoyed in his religious
+faith, through the divine illumination it had received in the visit of the
+Holy Spirit.</p>
+
+<p>That gloomy month, however, had not been thrown away. All the men were
+disposed to be serious; and the reading of the bible, openly and aloud,
+soon became a favourite occupation with every one of them. Although
+Roswell's reading was directed by the marks of Mary, all of which had
+reference to those passages that touched on the Divinity of the Saviour,
+he made no comments that betrayed his incredulity. There is a simple
+earnestness in the narrative portions of the Gospel that commends its
+truth to every mind, and it had its effect on that of Roswell Gardiner;
+though it failed to remove doubts that had so long been cherished, and
+which had their existence in pride of reason, or what passes for such,
+with those who merely skim the surface of things, as they seem to exist
+around them.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of that particular day in October, to which we desire now
+to advance the time, and after the most pleasant and cheerful afternoon
+and sunset that any on the island had seen for many months, Roswell and
+Stimson ventured to continue their exercise on the terrace, then again
+clear of impediments, even after the day had closed. The night promised to
+be cold, but the weather was not yet so keen as to drive them to a
+shelter. Both fancied there was a feeling of spring in the wind, which was
+from the north-east, a quarter that brought the blandest currents of air
+into those seas, if any air of that region deserved such a term at all.</p>
+
+<p>"It is high time we had some communications with the Vineyarders," said
+Roswell, as they turned at that end of the terrace which was nearest to
+the wreck. "A full month has passed since we have seen any of them, or
+have heard a syllable of their doings or welfare."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bad business this separation, Captain Gar'ner," returned the
+boat-steerer; "and every hour makes it worse. Think how much good might
+have been done them young men had they only been with us while we've been
+reading the book of books, night and morning, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"That good book seems to fill most of your thoughts, Stephen--I wish I
+could have your faith."</p>
+
+<p>"It will come in time, sir, if you will only strive for it. I'm sure no
+heart could have been harder than mine was, until within the last five
+years. I was far worse as a Christian, Captain Gar'ner, than I consider
+you to be; for while you have doubts consarning the Divinity of our
+Blessed Lord, I had no thought of any one of the Trinity. My only God was
+the world; and sich a world, too, as a poor sailor knows. It was being but
+little better than the brutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Of all the men with me, you seem to be the most contented and happy. I
+cannot say I have seen even a sign of fear about you, when things have
+been at the worst."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be very ungrateful, sir, to mistrust a Providence that has done
+so much for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I devoutly wish I could believe with you that Jesus was the Son of God!"</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, Captain Gar'ner; it's jist because you do not <i>devoutly</i> wish
+this, that you do not believe. I think I understand the natur' of your
+feelin's, sir. I had some sich once, myself; though it was only in a small
+way. I was too ignorant to feel much pride in my own judgment, and soon
+gave up every notion that went ag'in Scriptur'. I own it is not accordin'
+to natur', as we know natur', to believe in this doctrine; but we know too
+little of a thousand things to set up our weak judgments in the very face
+of revelation."</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite willing to believe all I can understand, Stephen; but I find
+it difficult to credit accounts that are irreconcilable with all that my
+experience has taught me to be true."</p>
+
+<p>"They who are of your way of thinkin', sir, do not deny that Christ was a
+good man and a prophet; and that the apostles were good men and prophets;
+and that they all worked miracles."</p>
+
+<p>"This much I am willing enough to believe; but the other doctrine seems
+contrary to what is possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you have seen, sir, that these apostles believed what you refuse.
+One thing has crossed my mind, Captain Gar'ner, which I wish to say to
+you. I know I'm but an ignorant man, and my idees may be hardly worth your
+notice; but sich as they be, I want to lay 'em afore you. We are told that
+these apostles were all men from a humble class in life, with little
+l'arnin', chosen, as it might be, to show men that faith stood in need of
+no riches, or edication, or worldly greatness, of any sort. To me, sir,
+there is a wholesome idee in that one thing."</p>
+
+<p>"It gives us all a useful lesson, Stephen, and has often been mentioned, I
+believe, in connection with the doctrines of Christianity."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir--so I should think; though I don't remember ever to have heard
+it named from any pulpit. Well, Captain Gar'ner, it does not agree with
+our notions to suppose that God himself, a part of the Ruler and Master of
+the Universe, should be born of a woman, and come among sinners in order
+to save 'em from his own just judgments."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just the difficulty that I have in believing what are called the
+dogmas of Christianity on that one point. To me, it has ever seemed the
+most improbable thing in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Just so, sir--I had some sort of feelin of that natur' myself once. When
+God, in his goodness, put it into my heart to believe, however, as he was
+pleased to do in a fit of sickness from which I never expected to rise,
+and in which I was led to pray to him for assistance, I began to think
+over all these matters in my own foolish manner. Among other things, I
+said to myself, 'is it likely that any mortal man would dream of calling
+Christ the Son of God, unless it was put into <i>his</i> mind to say so?' Then
+comes the characters of them men, who all admit were upright and
+religious. How can we suppose that they would agree in giving the same
+account of sich a thing, unless what they said had been told to them by
+some tongue that they believed?"</p>
+
+<p>Roswell smiled at Stephen's reasoning, which was not without a certain
+point, but which an ingenious man might find the means of answering in
+various ways.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another thing, sir, that I've read in a book," resumed the
+boat-steerer, "which goes a great way with me. Jesus allowed others to
+call him the Son of God, without rebuking them for doing so. It does
+really seem that they who believe he was a good man, as I understand is
+the case with you, Captain Gar'ner, must consider this as a strong fact.
+We are to remember what a sin idolatry is; how much all ra'al worshippers
+abhor it; and then set that feelin' side by side with the fact that the
+Son did riot think it robbery to be called the equal of the Father. To me,
+that looks like a proof that our belief has a solid foundation."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell did not reply. He was aware that it would not be just to hold any
+creed responsible for the manner in which a person like Stimson defended
+it. Still, he was struck with both of this man's facts. The last, he had
+often met in books; but the first was new to him. Of the two, this novel
+idea of the improbability of the apostles' inventing that which would seem
+to be opposed to all men's notions and prejudices, struck him more
+forcibly than the argument adduced from the acquiescence of the Redeemer
+in his own divinity. The last might be subject to verbal criticism, and
+could possibly be explained away, as he imagined; but the first appeared
+to be intimately incorporated with the entire history of Christ's
+ministrations on earth. These were the declarations of John the Baptist,
+the simple and unpretending histories of the Gospels, the commentaries of
+St. Paul, and the venerable teachings of the church through so many
+centuries of varying degrees of faith and contention, each and all going
+to corroborate a doctrine that, in his eyes, had appeared to be so
+repugnant to philosophy and reason. Wishing to be alone, Roswell gave an
+order to Stimson to execute some duty that fell to his share, and
+continued walking up and down the terrace alone for quite an hour longer.</p>
+
+<p>The night was coming in cold and still. It was one of those last efforts
+of winter in which all the terrible force of the season was concentrated:
+and it really appeared as if nature, wearied with its struggle to return
+to a more genial temperature, yielded in despair, and was literally
+returning backwards through the coldest of her months. The moon was young,
+but the stars gave forth a brightness that is rarely seen, except in the
+clear cold nights of a high latitude. Each and all of these sublime
+emblems of the power of God were twinkling like bright torches glowing in
+space; and the mind had only to endow each with its probable or known
+dimensions, its conjectural and reasonable uses, to form a picture of the
+truest sublimity in which man is made to occupy his real position. In this
+world, where, in a certain sense, he is master, where all things are
+apparently under his influence, if not absolutely subject to his control;
+where little that is distinctly visible is to be met with that does seem
+to be created to meet his wants, or to be wholly at his disposal, one gets
+a mistaken and frequently a fatal notion of his true place in the scale of
+the beings who are intended to throng around the footstool of the
+Almighty. As the animalculae of the atmospheric air bear a proportion to
+things visible, so would this throng seem to bear a proportion to our
+vague estimates of the spiritual hosts. All this Roswell was very capable
+of feeling, and in some measure of appreciating; and never before had he
+been made so conscious of his own insignificance, as he became while
+looking on the firmament that night, glowing with its bright worlds and
+suns, doubtless the centres of other systems in which distance swallowed
+up the lesser orbs.</p>
+
+<p>Almost every one has heard or read of that collection of stars which goes
+by the name of the Southern Cross. The resemblance to the tree on which
+Christ suffered is not particularly striking, though all who navigate the
+southern hemisphere know it, and recognize it by its imputed appellation.
+It now attracted Roswell's gaze; and coming as it did after so much
+reading, so many conversations with Stephen, and addressing itself to one
+whose heart was softened by the fearful circumstances that had so long
+environed the sealers, it is not surprising that it brought our young
+master to meditate seriously on his true condition in connection with the
+atonement that he was willing to admit had been made for him, in common
+with all of earth, at the very moment he hesitated to believe that the
+sufferer was, in any other than a metaphorical sense, the Son of God.</p>
+
+<p>It is not our intention to describe more of the religious for me. Where
+there is the same knowledge, there is too much companionship, like, for
+worship and reverence."</p>
+
+<p>"But we are told that man was created after the image of God."</p>
+
+<p>"In his likeness, Captain Gar'ner--with <i>some</i> of the Divine Spirit, but
+not with all. That makes him different from the brutes, and immortal. I
+have convarsed with a clergyman who thinks that the angels, and
+archangels, and other heavenly beings, are far before even the Saints in
+Heaven, such as have been only men on 'arth."</p>
+
+<p>The idea of not having a Deity that he could not comprehend had long been
+one of Roswell Gardiner's favourite rules of faith. He did not understand
+by this pretending dogma, that he was, in any respect, of capacity equal
+to comprehend with that of the Divine Being, but simply that he was not to
+be expected or required to believe in any theory which manifestly
+conflicted with his knowledge and experience, as both were controlled by
+the powers of induction he had derived directly from his Creator. In a
+word, his exception was one of the most obvious of the suggestions of the
+pride of reason, and just so much in direct opposition to the great law of
+regeneration, which has its very gist in the converse of this feeling
+--Faith.</p>
+
+<p>As our young master paced the terrace alone, that idea of the necessity of
+the Creator's being incomprehensible to the created, recurred to him. The
+hour that succeeded was probably the most important in Roswell Gardiners
+life. So intense were his feelings, so active the workings of his mind,
+that he was quite insensible to the intensity of the cold; and his body
+keeping equal motion with his thoughts, if one may so express it, his
+frame actually set at defiance a temperature that might otherwise have
+chilled it, warmly and carefully as it was clad.</p>
+
+<p>Truly there were many causes existing at that time and place, to bring any
+man to a just sense of his real position in the scale of created beings.
+The vault above Roswell was sparkling with orbs floating in space, most of
+them far more vast than this earth, and each of them doubtless having its
+present or destined use. What was that light, so brilliant and pervading
+throughout space, that converted each of those masses of dark matter into
+globes clothed with a glorious brightness? Roswell had seen chemical
+experiments that produced wonderful illuminations; but faint, indeed, were
+the most glowing of those artificial torches, to the floods of light that
+came streaming out of the void, on missions of millions and millions of
+miles. Who, and what was the Dread Being--dread in his Majesty and
+Justice, but inexhaustible in Love and Mercy--who used these exceeding
+means as mere instruments of his pleasure? and what was he himself, that
+he should presume to set up his miserable pride of reason, in opposition
+to a revelation supported by miracles that must be admitted to come
+through men inspired by the Deity, or rejected altogether?</p>
+
+<p>In this frame of mind Roswell was made to see that Christianity admitted
+of no half-way belief; it was all true, or it was wholly false.</p>
+
+<p>And why should not Christ be the Son of God, as the Fathers of the Church
+had perseveringly, but so simply proclaimed, and as that church had
+continued to teach for eighteen centuries? Roswell believed himself to
+have been created in the image of God; and his much-prized reason told him
+that he could perpetuate himself in successors: and that which the Creator
+had given <i>him</i> the power to achieve, could he not in his own person
+perform? For the first time, an inference to the contrary seemed to be
+illogical.</p>
+
+<p>Then the necessity for the great expiation occurred to his mind. This had
+always been a stumbling-block to Roswell's faith. He could not see it; and
+that which he could not see he was indisposed to believe. Here was the
+besetting weakness of his character; a weakness which did not suffer him
+to perceive that could he comprehend so profound a mystery, he would be
+raised far above that very nature in which he took so much pride. As he
+reflected on this branch of the subject, a thousand mysteries, physical
+and moral, floated before his mind; and he became aware of the little
+probability that he should have been endowed with the faculties to
+comprehend this, the greatest of them all. Had not science gradually
+discovered the chemical processes by which gases could be concentrated
+and disengaged, the formation of one of those glittering orbs above his
+head would have been quite as unintelligible a mystery to him, as the
+incarnation of the Saviour. The fact was, that phenomena that were just as
+mysterious to the human mind as any that the dogmas of Christianity
+required to be believed, exist hourly before our eyes without awakening
+skepticism, or exciting discussion; finding their impunity in their
+familiarity. Many of these phenomena were strictly incomprehensible to
+human understandings, which could reason up to a fountain-head in each
+case; and there it was obliged to abandon the inductive process, purely
+for the want of power to grapple with the premises which control the whole
+demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>Could Mary Pratt have known what was going on in Roswell Gardiner's soul
+that night, her happiness would have been as boundless as her gratitude to
+God. She would have seen the barrier that had so long interposed itself to
+her wishes broken down; not by any rude hand, but by the influence of
+those whisperings of the Divine Spirit, which open the way to men to fit
+themselves for the presence of God.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-26">
+<h2>Chapter XXVI.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Let winter come! let polar spirits sweep<br />
+The darkening world, and tempest-troubled deep!"</p>
+
+<p>  Campbell.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>While the bosom of Roswell was thus warming with the new-born faith, of
+which the germ was just opening in his heart, Stimson came out upon the
+terrace to see what had become of his officer. It was much past the hour
+when the men got beneath the coverings of their mattresses; and the honest
+boat-steerer, who had performed the duty on which he had been sent, was
+anxious about Roswell's remaining so long in the open air, on this
+positively the severest night of the whole season.</p>
+
+<p>"You stand the cold well, Captain Gar'ner," said Stephen, as he joined
+his officer; "but it might be prudent, now, to get under cover."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not feel it cold, Stephen"--returned Roswell--"on the contrary, I'm
+in a pleasant glow. My mind has been busy, while my frame has kept in
+motion. When such are the facts, the body seldom suffers. But,
+hearken--does it not seem that some one is calling to us from the
+direction of the wreck?"</p>
+
+<p>The great distance to which sounds are conveyed in intensely cold and
+clear weather, is a fact known to most persons. Conversations in the
+ordinary tone had been heard by the sealers when the speakers were nearly
+a mile off; and, on several occasions, attempts had been made to hold
+communications, by means of the voice, between the wreck and the hut.
+Certain words <i>had</i> been understood; but it was found impossible to hold
+anything that could be termed conversation. Still, the voice had been
+often heard, and a fancy had come over the mind of Roswell that he heard a
+cry like a call for assistance, just as Stimson joined him.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so late, sir, that I should hardly think any of the Vineyarders
+would be up," observed the boat-steerer, after listening some little time
+in the desire to catch the sound mentioned. "Then it is so cold, that most
+men would like to get beneath their blankets as soon as they could."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not find it so very cold, Stephen. Have you looked at the
+thermometer lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"I gave it a look in coming out, sir; and it tells a terrible story
+to-night! The marcury is all down in the ball, which is like givin' the
+matter up, I do suppose, Captain Gar'ner."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis strange! I do not <i>feel</i> it so very cold! The wind seems to be
+getting round to north-east, too; give us enough of that, and we shall
+have a thaw. Hark! there is the cry again."</p>
+
+<p>This time there could be no mistake. A human voice had certainly been
+raised amid the stillness of that almost polar night, clearly appealing to
+human ears, for succour. The only word heard or comprehended was that of
+"help;" one well enough adapted to carry the sound far and distinctly.
+There was a strain of agony in the cry, as if he who made it uttered it
+in despair. Roswell's blood seemed to flow back to his heart; never had he
+before felt so appalling a sense of the dependence of man on a Divine
+Providence, as at that moment.</p>
+
+<p>"You heard it?" he said, inquiringly, to Stephen, after an instant of
+silent attention, to make sure that no more was to reach his ears just
+then.</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain, sir--no man could mistake <i>that</i>. It was the voice of the
+nigger, Joe; him that Captain Daggett has for a cook."</p>
+
+<p>"Think you so, Stephen? The fellow has good lungs, and they may have set
+him to call upon us in their distress. What can be the nature of the
+assistance they ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've been thinking of that, Captain Gardner; and a difficult p'int it is
+to answer. Food they must have still; and was they in want of their
+rations, hands would have been sent across to get 'em. They may have let
+their fire go out, and be without the means to re-light it. I can think of
+nothing else that is likely to happen to men so sarcumstanced."
+
+The last suggestion struck Roswell as possible. From the instant he felt
+certain that he was called on for aid, he had determined to proceed to the
+wreck, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, and the intense severity
+of the weather. As he had intimated to Stephen, he was not at all
+conscious how very cold it was; exercise and the active workings of his
+mind having brought him to an excellent condition to resist the sternness
+of the season. The appeal had been so sudden and unexpected, however, that
+he was at first somewhat at a loss how to proceed. This matter was now
+discussed between him and Stimson, when the following plan was adopted:--</p>
+
+<p>The mates were to be called, and made acquainted with what had occurred,
+and put on their guard as to what might possibly be required of them. It
+was not thought necessary to call any of the rest of the men. There was
+always one hand on the watch in the house, whose duty it was to look to
+the fires, for the double purpose of security against a conflagration, and
+to prevent the warmth within from sinking too near to the cold without. It
+had often occurred to Roswell's mind that a conflagration would prove
+quick destruction to his party. In the first place, most of the
+provisions would be lost; and it was certain that, without a covering and
+the means of keeping warm within it, the men could not resist the climate
+eight-and-forty hours. The burning of the hut would be certain death.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell took no one with him but Stimson. Two were as good as a hundred,
+if all that was asked were merely the means to re-light the fire. These
+means were provided, and a loaded pistol was taken also, to enable a
+signal-shot to be fired, should circumstances seem to require further aid.
+One or two modes of communicating leading facts were concerted, when our
+hero and his companion set forth on their momentous journey.</p>
+
+<p>Taking the hour, the weather, and the object before him into the account,
+Roswell Gardiner felt that he was now enlisted in the most important
+undertaking of his whole life, as he and Stephen shook hands with the two
+mates, and left the point. The drifts rendered a somewhat circuitous path
+necessary at first; but the moon and stars shed so much of their radiance
+on the frozen covering of the earth, that the night was quite as light as
+many a London day. Excitement and motion kept the blood of our two
+adventurers in a brisk circulation, and prevented their becoming
+immediately conscious of the chill intensity of the cold to which they
+were exposed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is good to think of Almighty. God, and of his many marcies," said
+Stephen, when a short distance from the house, "as a body goes forth on an
+expedition as serious as this. We may not live to reach the wrack, for it
+seems to me to grow colder and colder!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder we hear no more of the cries," remarked Roswell, who was
+thinking of the distress he was bent on relieving. "One would think that a
+man who could call so stoutly would give us another cry."</p>
+
+<p>"A body can never calcilate on a nigger," answered Stephen, who had the
+popular American prejudice against the caste that has so long been held in
+servitude in the land. "They call out easily, and shut up oncommon quick,
+if there's nothin' gained by yelling. Black blood won't stand cold like
+white blood, Captain Gar'ner, any more than white blood will stand heat
+like black blood."</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard this before, Stephen; and it has surprised me that Captain
+Daggett's cook should be the only one of that party who seems to have had
+any voice to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Stimson had a good deal to say now, as the two picked their way across the
+field of snow, always walking on the crust, which in most places would
+have upheld a loaded vehicle; the subject of his remarks being the
+difference between the two races as respects their ability to endure
+hardships. The worthy boat-steerer had several tales to relate of cases in
+which he had known negroes freeze when whites have escaped. As the fact is
+one pretty well established, Roswell listened complacently enough, being
+much too earnest in pressing forward toward his object, to debate any of
+his companion's theories just then. It was while thus employed that
+Roswell fancied he heard one more cry, resembling those which had brought
+him on this dangerous undertaking, on a night so fearful. This time,
+however, the cry was quite faint; and what was not so easily explained, it
+did not appear to come from the precise direction in which the wreck was
+known to lie, but from one that diverged considerably from that particular
+quarter. Of course, the officer mentioned this circumstance to the
+boat-steerer; and the extraordinary part of the information caused some
+particular discussion between them.</p>
+
+<p>"To me that last call seemed to come from up yonder, nearer to the cliffs
+than the place where we are, and not at all from down there, near to the
+sea, where the wrack is," said Stimson, in the course of his remarks. "So
+sartain am I of this, that I feel anxious to change our course a little,
+to see if it be not possible that one of the Vineyarders has got into some
+difficulty in trying to come across to us."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell had the same desire, for he had made the same conjecture; though
+he did not believe the black would be the person chosen to be the
+messenger on such an occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"I think Captain Daggett would have come himself, or have sent one of his
+best men," he observed, "in preference to trusting a negro with a duty so
+important."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not know, sir, that it was the nigger we heard, Misery makes much
+the same cries, whether it comes from the throat of white or black. Let us
+work upward, nearer to the cliffs, sir; I see something dark on the snow,
+hereaway, as it might be on our larboard bow."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell caught a glimpse of the same object, and thither our adventurers
+now bent their steps, walking on the crust without any difficulty, so long
+as they kept out of the drifts. One does not find it as easy to make any
+physical effort in an intensely cold atmosphere, as he does when the
+weather is more moderate. This prevented Roswell and his companion from
+moving as fast as they otherwise might have done; but they got along with
+sufficient rapidity to reach the dark spot on the snow in less than five
+minutes after they had changed their course.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Stephen," said Gardiner, as he came up to this speck, amid
+the immensity of the white mantle that covered both sea and land, far as
+the eye could reach; "it is the cook! The poor fellow has given out here,
+about half-way between the two stations."</p>
+
+<p>"There must be life in him yet, sir--nigger as he is. It's not yet twenty
+minutes since he gave that last cry. Help me to turn him over, Captain
+Gar'ner, and we will rub him, and give him a swallow of brandy. A little
+hot coffee, now, might bring the life back to his heart."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell complied, first firing his pistol as a signal to those left
+behind. The negro was not dead, but so near it, that a very few more
+minutes would have sealed his fate. The applications and frictions used by
+Gardiner and the boat-steerer had an effect. A swallow of the brandy
+probably saved the poor fellow's life. While working on his patient,
+Captain Gardiner found a piece of frozen pork, which, on examination, he
+ascertained had never been cooked. It at once explained the nature of the
+calamity that had befallen the crew of the wreck.</p>
+
+<p>So intent were the two on their benevolent duty, that a party arrived from
+the house in obedience to the signal, in much less time than they could
+have hoped for. It was led by the mate, and came provided with a lamp
+burning beneath a tin vessel filled with sweetened coffee. This hot drink
+answered an excellent purpose with both well and sick. After a swallow or
+two, aided by a vigorous friction, and closely surrounded by so many human
+bodies, the black began to revive; and the sort of drowsy stupor which is
+known to precede death in those who die by freezing, having been in a
+degree shaken off, he was enabled to stand alone, and by means of
+assistance to walk. The hot coffee was of the greatest service, every
+swallow that he got down appearing to set the engine of life into new
+motion. The compelled exercise contributed its part; and by the time the
+mate, to use his own expression, "had run the nigger into dock," which
+meant when he had got him safe within the hut, his senses and faculties
+had so far revived as to enable him to think and to speak. As Gardiner and
+Stimson returned with him, everybody was up and listening, when the black
+told his story.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that, during the terrible month which had just passed,
+Daggett had compelled his crew to use more exercise than had been their
+practice of late. Some new apprehension had come over him on the subject
+of fuel, and his orders to be saving in that article were most stringent,
+and very rigidly enforced. The consequence was, that the camboose was not
+as well attended to as it had been previously, and as circumstances
+required, indeed, that it should be. At night, the men were told to keep
+themselves warm with bed-clothes, and by huddling together; and the cabin
+being small, so many persons crowded together in it, did not fail to
+produce an impression on its atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things, when, on going to his camboose, in order to
+cook the breakfast, this very black found the fire totally extinguished!
+Not a spark could he discover, even among the ashes; and, what was even
+worse, the tinder-box had disappeared. As respects the last, it may be
+well to state here, that it was afterwards discovered carefully bestowed
+between two of the timbers of the wreck, with a view to a particular
+safe-keeping; the person who had made this disposition of it, forgetting
+what he had done. The loss of the tinder-box, under the circumstances, was
+almost as great a calamity as could have befallen men, in the situation of
+the Vineyarders. As against the cold, by means of bed-clothes, exercise,
+and other precautions, it might have been possible to exist for some time,
+provided warm food could be obtained; but the frost penetrated the cabin,
+and every one soon became sensitively alive to the awkwardness, not to say
+danger, of their condition. A whole day was passed in fruitless attempts
+to obtain fire, by various processes. Friction did not succeed; it
+probably never does with the thermometer at zero. Sparks could be
+obtained, but by this time everything was stiff with the frost. The food
+already cooked was soon as hard as bullets, and it was found that, on the
+second night, brandy that was exposed was converted into a lump of ice.
+Not only did the intensity of the cold increase, but everything, even to
+the human system, seemed to be gradually congealing, and preparing to
+become converted into receptacles for frost. Several of the men began to
+suffer in their ears, noses, feet and other extremities, and the bunks
+were soon the only places in which it was found possible to exist in
+anything like comfort. No less than three men had been sent, at intervals
+of a few hours, across to the house, with a view to obtain fire, or the
+means of lighting one, along with other articles that were considered
+necessary to the safety of the people. The cook had been the third and
+last of these messengers. He had passed his two shipmates, each lying dead
+on the snow,--or, as he supposed, lifeless; for neither gave the smallest
+sign of vitality, on an examination. It was in the agony of alarm produced
+by these appalling spectacles, that the negro had cried aloud for help,
+sending the sounds far enough to reach the ears of Roswell. Still he had
+persevered; until chilled, as much with terror, as with the cold and the
+want of warm nourishment, the cook had sunk into what would have soon
+proved to be his last long sleep, when the timely succour arrived.</p>
+
+<p>It was some two hours after the black had been got into the hut, and was
+strengthened with a good hot supper, ere he had communicated all the facts
+just related. Roswell succeeded, however, in getting a little at a time
+from him; and when no more remained to be related, the plan was already
+arranged for future proceedings. It was quite clear no unnecessary delay
+should be permitted to take place. The cold continued to increase in
+intensity, notwithstanding it was the opinion of the most experienced
+among the men that a thaw, and a great spring thaw, was approaching. It
+often happens, in climates of an exaggerated character, that these
+extremes almost touch each other, as they are said to meet in man.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell left the house, for the second time that eventful night, just at
+the hour of twelve. He now went accompanied by the second mate and a
+foremast-hand, as well as by his old companion, the boat-steerer. Each
+individual drank a bowl of hot coffee before he set out, and a good warm
+supper had also been taken in the interval between the return and this new
+sortie. Experience shows that there is no such protector against the
+effect of cold as a full stomach, more especially if the food be warm and
+nourishing. This was understood by Roswell; and not only did he cause the
+whole party that set forth with him at that late and menacing hour to
+receive this sustenance, but he ordered the kettle of boiling coffee to be
+carried with them, and kept two lamps burning, for the double purpose of
+maintaining the heat, and of having a fire ready on reaching the wreck.
+The oil of the sea-elephant, together with pieces of canvass prepared for
+the purpose, supplied the necessary materials.</p>
+
+<p>So intensely severe was the weather, that Roswell had serious thoughts of
+returning when he reached the spot where the black had been found. But the
+picture of Daggett's situation that occurred to his mind, urged him on,
+and he proceeded. Every precaution had been taken to exclude the cold, as
+it is usually termed, which, as it respects the body, means little else
+than keeping the vital heat in, and very useful were these provisions
+found to be. Skins formed the principal defence, though the men had long
+adopted the very simple but excellent expedient of wearing two shirts.
+Owing to this, and to the other measures taken, neither of the four was
+struck with a chill, and they all continued on.</p>
+
+<p>At the place mentioned by the black, the body of one of Daggett's best
+men, a boat-steerer, was found. The man was dead, of course, and the
+corpse was as rigid as a billet of wood. Every particle of moisture in it
+had congealed, until the whole of what had been a very fine and manly
+frame, lay little more than a senseless lump of ice. A few degrees to the
+southward of the spot where it was now seen, it is probable that this
+relic of humanity would have retained its form and impression, until the
+trump sounded to summon it to meet its former tenant, the spirit, in
+judgment.</p>
+
+<p>No time was lost in useless lamentations over the body of this man, who
+was much of a favourite among the Oyster Ponders. Twenty minutes later,
+the second corpse was found; both the bodies lying in what was the
+customary track between the house and the wreck. It was the last that had
+died; but, like that of the unfortunate man just described, it was in a
+state to be preserved ten thousand years, without the occurrence of a
+thaw. Merely glancing at the rigid features of the face, in order to
+identify the person, Roswell passed on, the chill feelings of every
+individual of his party now admonishing them all of the necessity of
+getting as soon as possible to some place where they could feel the
+influence of a fire. In ten minutes more, the whole were in the caverns of
+the ice, and, presently, the cabin of the wreck was entered. Without
+turning to the right hand or to the left, without looking for one of the
+inmates of the place, every man among the new-comers turned his attention
+instantly to getting the fire lighted. The camboose had been filled with
+wood, and it was evident that many efforts had been made to produce a
+blaze, by those who had put it there. Splinters of pine had been inserted
+among the oak of the vessel, and nothing was wanting but the means of
+kindling. These, most fortunately for themselves, the party of Roswell
+had, and eagerly did they now have recourse to their use.</p>
+
+<p>There was not a man among the Oyster Ponders who did not, just at that
+moment, feel his whole being concentrated in that one desire to obtain
+warmth. The cold had slowly, but surely, insinuated itself among their
+garments, and slight chills were now felt even by Roswell, whose frame had
+been most wonderfully sustained that night, through the force of moral
+feeling. Stimson was the individual who was put forward at the camboose,
+others holding the lamps, canvass saturated with oil, and some prepared
+paper. It was found to be perceptibly warmer within the cabin, with its
+doors closed, and the external coverings of sails, &amp;c., that had been made
+to exclude the air, than without; nevertheless, when Roswell glanced at a
+thermometer that was hanging against the bulk-head, he saw that all the
+mercury was still in the ball!</p>
+
+<p>The interest with which our party now watched the proceedings of Stephen,
+had much of that intensity that is known to attend any exhibition of vital
+importance. Life and death were, however, to be dependent on the issue;
+and the manner in which every eye was turned on the wood, and Stephen's
+mode of dealing with it, denoted how completely the dread of freezing had
+got possession of the minds of even these robust and generous men. Roswell
+alone ventured, for a single moment, to look around the cabin. Three of
+the Vineyarders only were visible in it; though it struck him that others
+lay in the berths, under piles of clothes. Of the three who were up, one
+was so near the lamp he held in his hand, that its light illumined his
+face, and all that could be seen of a form enveloped in skins. This man
+sat leaning against a transom. His eyes were open, and glared on the party
+around the camboose; the lips were slightly parted, and, at first, Roswell
+expected to hear him speak. The immovable features, rigid muscles, and
+wild expression of the eyeballs, however, soon told him the melancholy
+truth. The man was dead. The current of life had actually frozen at his
+heart. Shuddering, as much with horror as with a sharp chill that just
+then passed through his own stout frame, our young master turned anxiously
+to note the success of Stimson, in getting the wood of the camboose in a
+blaze.</p>
+
+<p>Every one, in the least accustomed to a very severe climate, must have had
+frequent occasions to observe the reluctance with which all sorts of fuel
+burn, in exceedingly cold weather. The billet of wood that shall blaze
+merrily, on a mild day, moulders and simmers, and seems indisposed to give
+out any heat at all, with the thermometer at zero. In a word, all
+inanimate substances that contain the elements of caloric appear to
+sympathize with the prevailing state of the atmosphere, and to contribute
+to render that which is already too cold for comfort, even colder. So it
+was now; notwithstanding the preparations that had been made. Baffled
+twice in his expectations of procuring a blaze, Stephen stopped and took a
+drink of the hot coffee. As he swallowed the beverage, it struck him that
+it was fast losing its warmth.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable collection of canvass, saturated with oil, was now put
+beneath the pile, in the midst of splinters of pine, and one of the lamps
+was forced into the centre of the combustibles. This expedient succeeded;
+the frosts were slowly chased out of the kindling materials; a sickly but
+gradually increasing flame strove through the kindling stuff and soon
+began to play among the billets of the oak, the only fuel that could be
+relied on for available heat. Still there was great danger that the
+lighter wood would all be consumed ere this main dependence could be
+aroused from its dull inactivity. Frost appeared to be in possession of
+the whole pile; and it was expelled so slowly, clung to its dominion with
+so much power, as really to render the result doubtful, for a moment or
+two. Fortunately, there was found a pair of bellows; and by means of a
+judicious use of this very useful implement, the oak wood was got into a
+bright blaze, and warmth began to be given out from the fire. Then came
+the shiverings and chills, with which intense cold consents even to
+abandon the human frame; and, by their number and force, Roswell was made
+to understand how near he and his companions had been to death. As the
+young man saw the fire slowly kindle to a cheerful blaze, a glow of
+gratitude flowed towards his heart, and mentally he returned thanks to
+God. The cabin was so small, had been made so tight by artificial means,
+and the camboose was so large, that a sensible influence was produced on
+the temperature, as soon as the wood began to burn a little freely. As
+none of the heat was lost, the effect was not only apparent, but most
+grateful, Roswell had looked into the vessels of the camboose while the
+fire was gathering head. One, the largest, was filled, or nearly so, with
+coffee frozen to a solid mass! In the other, beef and pork had been set
+over to boil, and there the pieces now were, embedded in ice, and frozen
+to blocks. It was when these two distinct masses of ice began to melt,
+that it was known the fire was beginning to prevail, and hope revived in
+the bosoms of the Oyster Ponders. On taking another look at the
+thermometer, it was found that the mercury had so far expanded as to be
+leaving the ball. It soon after ascended so high as to denote only forty
+degrees below zero!</p>
+
+<p>Every thing, even to life, depending on maintaining and increasing the
+power of the fire, the men now looked about them for more fuel. There was
+an ample stock in the cabin, however, the fire having become extinguished,
+not for want of wood, but in the usual way. It were needless to describe
+the manner in which those who stood around the stove watched the flames,
+or how profound was their satisfaction when they saw that Stimson had
+finally succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>"God be praised for this and for all his mercies!" exclaimed Stephen,
+laying aside the bellows, at last. "I can feel warmth from the fire, and
+that will save such of us as have not yet been taken away." He then lifted
+the lids, and looked into the different vessels that were on. The ice was
+melting fast, and the steams of coffee became apparent to the senses. It
+was at this instant that a feeble voice was heard issuing from beneath the
+coverings of a berth.</p>
+
+<p>"Gar'ner," it said, imploringly, "if you have any feelin' for a
+fellow-creatur' in distress, warm me up with one swallow of that coffee!
+Oh! how pleasantly it smells, and how good it must be for the stomach! For
+three days have I tasted nothing--not even water."</p>
+
+<p>This was Daggett, the long-tried sealer; the man of iron nerves and golden
+longings; he who had so lately concentrated within himself all that was
+necessary to form a pertinacious, resolute, and grasping seeker after
+gain. How changed, now, in all this! He asked for the means of preserving
+life, and thought no more of skins, and oils, and treasures on desert
+keys.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell was no sooner apprised of the situation of his brother-master,
+than he bestowed the necessary care on his wants. Fortunately, the coffee
+brought by the Oyster Ponders, and which retained some of its original
+warmth, had been set before the fire, and was now as hot as the human
+stomach could bear it. Two or three swallows of this grateful fluid were
+given to Daggett, and his voice; almost instantaneously showed the effect
+they produced.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm in a bad way, Garner," resumed the vineyard-master; "I fear we're
+all in a bad way, that are here. I held out ag'in the cold as long as
+human natur' could bear it, but was forced to give in at last."</p>
+
+<p>"How many of your people still remain, Daggett? tell us, that we may look
+for them, and attend to their wants."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid, Gar'ner, they'll never want anything more in this life! The
+second mate and two of the hands were sitting in the cabin when I got into
+this berth, and I fear 't will be found that they're dead. I urged them to
+turn in, too, as the berths were the only place where anything like warmth
+was to be found; but drowsiness had come on 'em, and, when that is the
+case, freezin' soon follows."</p>
+
+<p>"The three men in the cabin are past our assistance, being actually frozen
+into logs; but there must be several more of you. I see the signs of two
+others in the berths--ah! what do you say to that poor fellow, Stephen?"</p>
+
+<p>"The spirit is still in the body, sir, but about to depart, If we can get
+him to swallow a little of the coffee, the angel of death may yet loosen
+his hold on him."</p>
+
+<p>The coffee was got down this man's throat, and he instantly revived. He
+was a young man named Lee, and was one of the finest physical specimens of
+strength and youth in the whole crew. On examining his limbs, none were
+found absolutely frozen, though the circulation of the blood was so near
+being checked that another hour of the great cold which had reigned in the
+cabin, and which was slowly increasing in intensity, must have destroyed
+him. On applying a similar process to Daggett, Roswell was startled at the
+discovery he made. The feet, legs, and forearms of the unfortunate
+Vineyarder were all as stiff and rigid as icicles. In these particulars
+there could be no mistake, and men were immediately sent for snow, in
+order to extract the frost by the only safe process known to the sealers.
+The dead bodies were carried from the cabin, and laid decently on the ice,
+outside, the increasing warmth within rendering the removal advisable. On
+glancing again at the thermometer, now suspended in a remote part of the
+cabin, the mercury was found risen to two above zero. This was a very
+tolerable degree of cold, and the men began to lay aside some of their
+extra defences against the weather, which would otherwise be of no
+service to them when exposed outside.</p>
+
+<p>The crew of the Vineyard Lion had consisted of fifteen souls, one less
+than that of her consort. Of these men, four had lost their lives between
+the wreck and the house; two on a former, and two on the present occasion.
+Three bodies were found sitting in the cabin, and two more were taken out
+of the berths, dead. The captain, the cook and Lee, added to these, made a
+dozen, leaving but three of the crew to be accounted for. When questioned
+on the subject, Lee said that one of those three had frozen to death in
+the caverns, several days before, and the other two had set out for the
+hut in the last snow-storm, unable to endure the cold at the wreck any
+longer. As these two men had not arrived at the house when Gardiner and
+his companions left it, they had perished, out of all doubt. Thus, of the
+fifteen human beings who had sailed together from Martha's Vineyard, ready
+to encounter every hazard in order to secure wealth, or what in their
+estimation was wealth, but three remained; and of these, two might be
+considered in a critical condition. Lee was the only man of the entire
+crew who was sound and fit for service.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-27">
+<h2>Chapter XXVII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Bid <i>him</i> bow down to that which is above him,--<br />
+The overruling Infinite,--the Maker,----<br />
+Who made him not for worship,--let him kneel,<br />
+And we will kneel together."</p>
+
+<p>  Byron.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>When the bodies had been removed from the cabin, and the limbs of Daggett
+were covered with snow, Roswell Gardiner took another look at the
+thermometer. It had risen already to twenty degrees above zero. This was
+absolutely warmth, compared with the temperature from which the men had
+just escaped, and it was felt to be so, in their persons. The fire,
+however, was not the only cause of this most acceptable change. One of the
+men who had been outside soon came back and reported a decided improvement
+in the weather. The wind, which had been coquetting with the north-east
+point of the compass for several hours, now blew steadily from that
+quarter. An hour later it was found, on examination, that a second
+thermometer, which was outside, actually indicated ten above zero! This
+sudden and great change came altogether from the wind, which was now in
+the warm quarter. The men stripped themselves of most of their skins, and
+the fire was suffered to go down, though care was taken that it should not
+again be totally extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>We have little pleasure in exhibiting pictures of human suffering; and
+shall say but little of the groans and pains that Daggett uttered and
+endured, while undergoing that most agonizing process of having the frost
+taken out of his system by cold applications. It was the only safe way of
+treating his case, however, and as he knew it, he bore his sufferings as
+well as man could bear them. Long ere the return of day he was released
+from his agony, and was put back into his berth, which had been
+comfortably arranged for him, having the almost unheard-of luxury of
+sheets, with an additional mattress.</p>
+
+<p>As Stephen remarked, when the men were told to try and get a little sleep,
+"There's plenty of berths empty, and each on us can have as many clothes
+and as warm a bed as he can ask for, now that so many have hastened away
+to their great account, as it might be, in the pride of their youth and
+strength."</p>
+
+<p>Activity, the responsibility of command, and the great necessity there had
+been for exertion, prevented Roswell from reflecting much on what had
+happened, until he lay down to catch a little sleep. Then, indeed, the
+whole of the past came over him, in one sombre, terrible picture, and he
+had the most lively perception of the dangers from which he had escaped,
+as well as of the mercy of God's Providence. Surrounded by the dead, as it
+might be, and still uncertain of the fate of the living, his views of the
+past and future became much lessened in confidence and hope. The majesty
+and judgment of God assumed a higher place than common in his thoughts,
+while his estimate of him self was fast getting to be humble and
+searching. In the midst of all these changes of views and feelings,
+however, there was one image unaltered in the young man's imagination.
+Mary occupied the back-ground of every picture, with her meek, gentle, but
+blooming countenance. If he thought of God, <i>her</i> eyes were elevated in
+prayer; if the voyage home was in his mind, and the chances of success
+were calculated, <i>her</i> smiles and anxious watchfulness stimulated him to
+adventure; if arrived and safe, her downcast but joyful looks betrayed the
+modest happiness of her inmost heart. It was in the midst of some such
+pictures that Roswell now fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When the party turned out in the morning, a still more decided change had
+occurred in the weather The wind had increased to a gale, bringing with it
+torrents of rain. Coming from the warm quarter, a thaw had set in with a
+character quite as decided as the previous frost. In that region, the
+weather is usually exaggerated in its features, and the change from winter
+to spring is quite as sudden as that from autumn to winter. We use the
+terms "spring" and "autumn" out of complaisance to the usages of men; but,
+in fact, these two seasons have scarcely any existence at all in the
+antarctic seas. The change, commonly, is from winter to summer, such as
+summer is, and from summer back to winter.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the favourable appearances of things, when Roswell walked
+out into the open air next morning, he well knew that summer had not yet
+come. Many weeks must go by ere the ice could quit the bay, and even a
+boat could put to sea. There were considerations of prudence, therefore,
+that should not be neglected, connected with the continuance of the
+supplies and the means of subsistence. In one respect the party now on the
+island had been gainers by the terrible losses it had sustained in
+Daggett's crew. The provisions of the two vessels might now, virtually, be
+appropriated to the crew of one; and Roswell, when he came to reflect on
+the circumstances, saw that a Providential interference had probably saved
+the survivors from great privations, if not from absolute want.</p>
+
+<p>Still there was a thaw, and one of that decided character which marks a
+climate of great extremes. The snows on the mountain soon began to descend
+upon the plain, in foaming torrents; and, increased by the tribute
+received from the last, the whole came tumbling over the cliffs in various
+places in rich water-falls. There was about a mile of rock that was one
+continuous cataract, the sheet being nearly unbroken for the whole
+distance. The effect of this deluge from the plain above was as startling
+as it was grand. All the snow along the rocky shore soon disappeared; and
+the fragments of ice began rapidly to diminish in size, and to crumble. At
+first, Roswell felt much concern on account of the security of the wreck;
+his original apprehension being that it would be washed away. This ground
+of fear was soon succeeded by another of scarcely less serious
+import--that of its being crushed by the enormous cakes of ice that made
+the caverns in which it lay, and which now began to settle and change
+their positions, as the water washed away their bases. At one time Roswell
+thought of setting the storm at defiance, and of carrying Daggett across
+to the house by means of the hand-barrow; but when he came to look at the
+torrents of water that were crossing the rocks, so many raging rivulets,
+the idea was abandoned as impracticable. Another night was therefore
+passed in the midst of the tempest.</p>
+
+<p>The north-east wind, the rain, and the thaw, were all at work in concert,
+when our adventurers came abroad to look upon the second day of their
+sojourn in the wreck. By this time the caverns were dripping with a
+thousand little streams, and every sign denoted a most rapid melting of
+the ice. On carrying the thermometer into the open air it stood at
+sixty-two; and the men found it necessary to lay aside their second shirt,
+and all the extraordinary defences of their attire. Nor was this all; the
+wind that crosses the salt water is known to have more than the usual
+influence on the snows and ice; and such was the effect now produced by it
+on Sealer's Land. The snow, indeed, had mostly disappeared from all places
+but the drifts; while the ice was much diminished in its size and
+outlines. So grateful was the change from the extreme cold that they had
+so lately endured, that the men thought nothing of the rain at all; they
+went about in it just as if it did not stream down upon them in little
+torrents. Some of them clambered up the cliffs, and reached a point whence
+it was known that they could command a view of the house. The return of
+this party, which Roswell did not accompany, was waited for with a good
+deal of interest. When it got back, it brought a report that was deemed
+important in several particulars. The snow had gone from the plain, and
+from the mountain, with the exception of a few spots where there had been
+unusual accumulations of it. As respected the house, it was standing, and
+the snow had entirely disappeared from its vicinity. The men could be seen
+walking about on the bare rocks, and every symptom was that of settled
+spring.</p>
+
+<p>This was cheering news; and the torrents having much diminished in size,
+some having disappeared altogether, Roswell set out for the cape, leaving
+the second mate in charge of the wreck. Lee, the young Vineyarder, who had
+been rescued from freezing by the timely arrival of our hero, accompanied
+the tatter, having joined his fortunes to those of the Oyster Ponders. The
+two reached the house before dark, where they found Hazard and his
+companions in a good deal of concern touching the fate of the party that
+was out. A deep impression was made by the report of what had befallen the
+other crew; and that night Roswell read prayers to as attentive a
+congregation as was ever assembled around a domestic hearth. As for fire,
+none was now needed, except for culinary purposes, though all the
+preparations to meet cold weather were maintained, it being well known
+that a shift of wind might bring back the fury of the winter.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning it was clear, though the wind continued warm and
+balmy from the north. No such weather, indeed, had been felt by the
+sealers since they reached the group; and the effect on them was highly
+cheering and enlivening. Before he had breakfasted, Roswell was down in
+the cove, examining into the condition of his vessel, or what remained of
+her. A good deal of frozen snow still lay heaped on the mass, and he set
+the hands at work to shovel it off. Before noon the craft was clear, and
+most of the snow was melted, it requiring little more than exposure to the
+air in order to get rid of it.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the hulk was clear, Roswell directed his men to take
+everything out of it; the remains of cargo, water-casks, and some frozen
+provisions, in order that it might float as light as possible. The ice was
+frozen close to every part of the vessel's bottom to a depth of several
+feet, following her mould, a circumstance that would necessarily prevent
+her settling in the water below her timbers; but, as there was no telling
+when this ice might begin to recede by melting, it was deemed prudent to
+use this precaution. It was found that the experiment succeeded, the hulk
+actually rising, when relieved from the weight in it, no less than four
+inches.</p>
+
+<p>A consultation was held that night, between Gardiner, his officers, and
+the oldest of the seamen. The question presented was whether the party
+should attempt to quit the group in the boats, or whether they should
+build a little on the hulk, deck her over, and make use of this altered
+craft, to return to the northward. There was a good deal to be said on
+both sides. If the boats were used, the party might leave as soon as the
+weather became settled, and the season a little more advanced, by dragging
+the boats on sledges across the ice to the open water, which was supposed
+to be some ten or twenty miles to the northward, and a large amount of
+provisions might thus be saved. On the other hand, however, as it regarded
+the provisions, the boats would hold so little, that no great gain would
+be made by going early in them, and leaving a sufficient supply behind to
+keep all hands two or three months. This was a consideration that
+presented itself, and it had its weight in the decision. Then there was
+the chance of the winter's returning, bringing with it the absolute
+necessity of using a great deal more fuel. This was a matter of life and
+death. Comparatively pleasant as the weather had become, there was no
+security for its so continuing. One entire spring month was before the
+sealers, and a shift of wind might convert the weather into a wintry
+temperature. Should such be the case, it might become indispensable to
+burn the very materials that would be required to build up and deck over
+the hulk. There were, therefore, many things to be taken into the account;
+nor was the question settled without a great deal of debate and
+reflection.</p>
+
+<p>After discussing all these points, the decision was as follows. It was at
+least a month too soon to think of trusting themselves in that stormy
+ocean, on the high seas and in the open boats; and this so much the more
+because nature, as if expressly to send back a reasonable amount of warm
+air into the polar regions, with a view to preserve the distinction of the
+seasons, caused the wind to blow most of the time from the northward. As
+this month, in all prudence, must be passed on the island, it might as
+well be occupied with building upon the hulk, as in any other occupation.
+Should the cold weather return, the materials would still be there, and
+might be burned, in the last extremity, just as well, or even with greater
+facility, after being brought over to the cove, as if left where they then
+were, or at the wreck. Should the winter not return, the work done on the
+vessel would be so much gained, and they would be ready for an earlier
+start, when the ice should move.</p>
+
+<p>On this last plan the duty was commenced, very little interrupted by the
+weather. For quite three weeks the wind held from points favourable to the
+progress of spring, veering from east to west, but not once getting any
+southing in it. Occasionally it blew in gales, sending down upon the group
+a swell that made great havoc with the outer edges of the field-ice. Every
+day or two a couple of hands were sent up the mountain to take a look-out,
+and to report the state of matters in the adjacent seas. The fleet of
+bergs had not yet come out of port, though it was in motion to the
+southward, like three-deckers dropping down to outer anchorages, in
+roadsteads and bays. As Roswell intended to be off before these formidable
+cruisers put to sea, their smallest movement or change was watched and
+noted. As for the field-ice, it was broken up, miles at at a time, until
+there remained very little of it, with the exception of the portion that
+was wedged in and jammed among the islands of the group. From some cause
+that could not be ascertained, the waves of the ocean, which came tumbling
+in before the northern gales, failed to roll home upon this ice, which
+lost its margin, now it was reduced to the limits of the group, slowly and
+with great resistance. Some of the sealers ascribed this obstinacy in the
+bay-ice to its greater thickness; believing that the shallowness of the
+water had favoured a frozen formation below, that did not so much prevail
+off soundings. This theory may have been true, though there was quite as
+much against it, as in its favour, for polar ice usually increases above
+and not from below. The sea is much warmer than the atmosphere, in the
+cold months, and the ice is made by deposites of snow, moisture and sleet,
+on the surfaces of the fields and bergs.</p>
+
+<p>In those three weeks, which carried forward the season to within ten days
+of summer, a great deal of useful work was done. Daggett was brought over
+to the house, on a handbarrow, for the second time, and made as
+comfortable as circumstances would allow. From the first, Roswell saw that
+his state was very precarious, the frozen legs, in particular, being
+threatened with mortification. All the expedients known to a sealer's
+<i>materia medico</i>, were resorted to, in order to avert consequences so
+serious, but without success. The circulation could not be restored, as
+nature required it to be done, and, failing of the support derived from a
+healthful condition of the vital current, the fatal symptoms slowly
+supervened. This change, however, was so gradual, that it scarce affected
+the regular course of the duty.</p>
+
+<p>It was a work of great labour to transport the remaining timbers and plank
+of the wreck to the cove. Without the wheels, indeed, it may be questioned
+whether it could have been done at all, in a reasonable time. The breaking
+up of the schooner was, in itself, no trifling job, for fully one half of
+the frame remained to be pulled to pieces. In preparing the materials for
+use, again, a good deal of embarrassment was experienced in consequence of
+the portions of the two vessels that were left being respectively their
+lower bodies, all the upper works of each having been burned, with the
+exception of the after part of Daggett's craft, which had been preserved
+on account of the cabin. This occasioned a good deal of trouble in
+moulding and fitting the new upper works on the hulk in the cove. Roswell
+had no idea of rebuilding his schooner strictly in her old form and
+proportions; he did not, indeed, possess the materials for such a
+reconstruction. His plan was, simply, to raise on the hulk as much as was
+necessary to render her safe and convenient, and then to get as good and
+secure a deck over all as circumstances would allow.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the progress of the work, Lee, the Vineyard man, was a
+ship-carpenter, and his skill essentially surpassed that of Smith, who
+filled the same station on board the Oyster Pond craft. These two men were
+now of the greatest service; for, though neither understood drafting, each
+was skilful in the use of tools, and had a certain readiness that enabled
+him to do a hundred things that he had never found it necessary to attempt
+on any former occasion. If the upper frame that was now got on the Sea
+Lion was not of faultless mould, it was securely fastened, and rendered
+the craft even stronger than it had been originally. Some regard was had
+to resisting the pressure of ice, and experience had taught all the
+sealers where the principal defences against the effects of a "nip" ought
+to be placed. The lines were not perfect, it is true; but this was of less
+moment, as the bottom of the craft, which alone had any material influence
+on her sailing, was just as it had come from the hands of the artizan who
+had originally moulded her.</p>
+
+<p>By the end of a fortnight, the new top-timbers were all in their places,
+and secured, while a complete set of bends were brought to them, and were
+well bolted. The caulking-irons were put in requisition as soon as a
+streak was on, the whole work advancing, as it might be, <i>pari passu</i>.
+Planks for the decks were much wanted, for, in the terrible strait for
+fuel which had caused the original assault on the schooner, this portion
+of the vessel had been the first burned, as of the most combustible
+materials. The quarter-deck of the Vineyard craft, luckily, was entire,
+and its planks so far answered an excellent purpose. They served to make a
+new quarter-deck for the repairs, but the whole of the main-deck and
+forecastle remained to be provided for. Materials were gleaned from
+different parts of the two vessels, until a reasonably convenient, and a
+perfectly safe deck was laid over the whole craft, the coamings for the
+hatches being taken from Daggett's schooner, which had not been broken up
+in those parts. It is scarcely necessary to say that the ice had early
+melted from the rocks of the coast. The caverns all disappeared within
+the first week of the thaw, the attitudes into which the cakes had been
+thrown greatly favouring the melting process, by exposing so much surface
+to the joint action of wind, rain, and sun. What was viewed as a
+favourable augury, the seals began to reappear. There was a remote portion
+of the coast, from which the ice had been driven by the winds around the
+north-west cape, that was already alive with them. Alas! these animals no
+longer awakened cupidity in the breasts of the sealers. The last no longer
+thought of gain, but simply of saving their lives, and of restoring
+themselves to the humble places they had held in the world, previously to
+having come on this ill-fated voyage.</p>
+
+<p>This re-appearance of the seals produced a deep impression on Roswell
+Gardiner. His mind had been much inclined of late to dwell more and more
+on religious subjects, and his conversations with Stephen were still more
+frequent than formerly. Not that the boat-steerer could enlighten him on
+the great subject, by any learned lore, for in this Stimson was quite
+deficient; but his officer found encouragement in the depth and heartiness
+of his companion's faith, which seemed to be raised above all doubts and
+misgivings whatever. During the gloomiest moments of that fearful winter,
+Stephen had been uniformly confiding and cheerful. Not once had he been
+seen to waver, though all around him were desponding and anticipating the
+worst. His heart was light exactly in proportion as his faith was strong.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall neither freeze nor starve," he used to say, "unless it be God's
+will; and, when it is his pleasure, depend on it, friends, it will be for
+our good." As for Daggett, he had finally given up his hold on the wreck,
+and it seemed no longer to fill his thoughts. When he was told that the
+seals had come back, his eye brightened, and his nature betrayed some of
+its ardent longings. But it was no more than a gleaming of the former
+spirit of the man, now becoming dim under the darkness that was fast
+encircling all his views of this world.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity, Gar'ner, that we have no craft ready for the work," he said,
+under the first impulse of the intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"At this early time in the season, a large ship might be filled!"</p>
+
+<p>"We have other matters on our hands, Captain Daggett," was the answer;
+"they must be looked to first. If we can get off the island at all and
+return safe to those who, I much fear, are now mourning us as dead, we
+shall have great reason to thank God."</p>
+
+<p>"A few skins would do no great harm, Gar'ner, even to a craft cut down and
+reduced."</p>
+
+<p>"We have more cargo now than we shall be able to take with us. Quite one
+half of all our skins must be left behind us, and all of the oil. The hold
+of the schooner is too shallow to carry enough of anything to make out a
+voyage. I shall ballast with water and provisions, and fill up all the
+spare room with the best of our skins. The rest of the property must be
+abandoned."</p>
+
+<p>"Why abandoned? Leave a hand or two to take care of it, and send a craft
+out to look for it, as soon as you get home. Leave me, Gar'ner, I am
+willing to stay."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell thought that the poor man would be left, whether he wished to
+remain or not, for the symptoms that are known to be so fatal in cases
+like that of Daggett's, were making themselves so apparent as to leave
+little doubt of the result. What rendered this display of the
+master-passion somewhat remarkable, was the fact that our hero had, on
+several occasions, conversed with the invalid, concealing no material
+feature of his case, and the latter had expressed his expectation of a
+fatal termination, if not an absolute willingness to die. Stimson had
+frequently prayed with Daggett, and Roswell had often read particular
+chapters of the bible to him, at his own request, creating an impression
+that the Vineyarder was thinking more of his end than of any interests
+connected with this life. Such might have been, probably <i>was</i>, the case,
+until the seeming return of what had once been deemed good luck awakened
+old desires, and brought out traits of character that were about to be
+lost in the near views of a future world. All this Roswell saw and noted,
+and the reflections produced by his own perilous condition, the certain
+loss of so many companions, the probable death of Daggett, and the humble
+but impressive example and sympathy of Stimson, were such as would have
+delighted the tender spirit of Mary Pratt, could she have known of their
+existence.</p>
+
+<p>But the great consideration of the moment, the centre of all the hopes and
+fears of our sealers, was the rebuilding of the mutilated Sea Lion.
+Although the long thaw did so much for them, the reader is not to regard
+it as such a spell of warm weather as one enjoys in May within the
+temperate zone. There were no flowers, no signs of vegetation, and
+whenever the wind ceased to blow smartly from the northward, there was
+frost. At two or three intervals cold snaps set in that looked seriously
+like a return to winter, and, at the end of the third week of pleasant
+weather mentioned, it began to blow a gale from the southward, to snow,
+and to freeze. The storm commenced about ten in the forenoon; ere the sun
+went down, the days then being of great length, every passage around the
+dwelling was already blocked up with banks of snow. Several times had the
+men asked permission to remove the sails from the house, to admit air and
+light; but it was now found that the tent-like verandah they formed was of
+as much use as it had been at any time during the season. Without it,
+indeed, it would not have been possible for the people to quit their
+dwelling during three entire days. Everything like work was, of course,
+suspended during this tempest, which seriously menaced the unfortunate
+sealers with the necessity of again breaking up their schooner, now nearly
+completed, with a view again to keep themselves from freezing. The weather
+was not so intensely cold as it had been, continuously, for months during
+the past winter; but, coming as it did, after so long a spell of what
+might be considered as a balmy atmosphere in that region, it found the
+people unbraced and little prepared for it. At no time was the thermometer
+lower than twenty degrees below zero; this was near morning, after a sharp
+and stinging night; nor was it for any succession of hours much below
+zero. But zero was now hard to bear, and fires, and good fires too, were
+absolutely necessary to keep the men from suffering, as well as from
+despondency. Perhaps the spectacle of Daggett, dying from the effects of
+frost before their eyes, served to increase the uneasiness of the people,
+and to cause them to be less sparing of the fuel than persons in their
+situation ought to have been. It is certain that a report was brought to
+Roswell, in the height of the tempest, and when the thermometer was at the
+lowest, that there was not wood enough left from the plunder of the two
+vessels, exclusively of that which had been worked up in the repairs, to
+keep the fires going eight-and-forty hours longer! It was true, a little
+wood, intended to be used in the homeward passage, enough to last as far
+as Rio possibly, had been used in stowing the hold; and that might be got
+at first, if it ever ceased to snow. Without that addition to the stock in
+the house, it would not be within the limits of probability to suppose the
+people could hold out against the severity of such weather a great while
+longer.
+
+Every expedient that could be devised to save wood, and to obtain warmth
+from other sources, was resorted to, of course, by Roswell's orders. Lamps
+were burned with great freedom; not little vessels invented to give light,
+but such torches as one sees at the lighting up of a princely court-yard
+on the occasion of a <i>f&ecirc;te</i>, in which wicks are made by the pound, and
+unctuous matter is used by the gallon. Old canvass and elephants' oil
+supplied the materials; and the spare camboose, which had been brought
+over to the house to be set up there, while the other galley was being
+placed on board, very well answered the purpose of a lamp. Some warmth was
+obtained by these means, but much more of a glaring and unpleasant light.</p>
+
+<p>It was during the height of this tempest that the soul of Daggett took its
+flight towards the place of departed spirits, in preparation for the hour
+when it was to be summoned before the judgment-seat of God. Previously to
+his death, the unfortunate Vineyarder held a frank and confidential
+discourse with Roswell. As his last hour approached, his errors and
+mistakes became more distinctly apparent, as is usual with men, while his
+sins of omission seemed to crowd the vista of by-gone days. Then it was
+that the whole earth did not contain that which, in his dying eyes, would
+prove an equivalent for one hour passed in a sincere, devout, and humble
+service of the Deity!</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid that I've loved money most too well," he said to Roswell, not
+an hour before he drew his last breath; "but I hope it was not so much for
+myself, as for others. A wife and children, Gar'ner, tie a man to 'arth
+in a most unaccountable manner. Sealers' companions are used to hearing of
+misfortunes, and the Vineyard women know that few on 'em live to see a
+husband at their side in old age. Still, it is hard on a mother and wife,
+to l'arn that her chosen friend has been cut off in the pride of his days
+and in a distant land. Poor Betsey! It would have been better for us both,
+had we been satisfied with the little we had; for now the good woman will
+have to look to all matters for herself."</p>
+
+<p>Daggett now remained silent for some time, though his lips moved, most
+probably in prayer. It was a melancholy sight to see a man in the vigour
+of his manhood, whose voice was strong, and whose heart was still beating
+with vigour and vitality, standing, as it were, on the brink of a
+precipice, down which all knew he was to be so speedily hurled. But the
+decree had gone forth, and no human skill could arrest it. Shortly after
+the confession and lamentation we have recorded, the decay reached the
+vitals, and the machine of clay stopped. To avoid the unpleasant
+consequences of keeping the body in so warm a place, it was buried in the
+snow at a short distance from the house, within an hour after it had
+ceased to breathe.</p>
+
+<p>When Roswell Gardiner saw this man, who had so long adhered to him, like a
+leech, in the pursuit of gold, laid a senseless corpse among the frozen
+flakes of the antarctic seas, he felt that a lively admonition of the
+vanity of the world was administered to himself. How little had he been
+able to foresee all that had happened, and how mistaken had been his own
+calculations and hopes! What, then, was that intellect of which he had
+been so proud, and what reason had he to rely on himself in those matters
+that lay equally beyond the cradle and the grave--that incomprehensible
+past, and the unforeseen future, towards which all those in existence were
+hastening! Roswell had received many lessons in humility, the most useful
+of all the lessons that man can receive in connection with the relation
+that really exists between the Deity and himself. Often had he wondered,
+while reading the Bible Mary Pratt had put into his hand, at the stubborn
+manner in which the chosen people of God had returned to their "idols,"
+and their "groves," and their "high places;" but he was now made to
+understand that others still erred in this great particular, and that of
+all the idols men worship, that of self was perhaps the most
+objectionable.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-28">
+<h2>Chapter XXVIII.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>"Long swoln in drenching rains, seeds, germs, and buds<br />
+Start at the touch of vivifying beams.<br />
+Moved by their secret force, the vital lymph<br />
+Diffusive runs, and spreads o'er wood and field<br />
+A flood of verdure."</p>
+
+<p>  Wilcox.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>At length it came to be rumoured among the sealers that the fires must be
+permitted to go out, or that the materials used for making the berths, and
+various other fixtures of the house, must be taken to supply the stove. It
+was when it got to be known that the party was reduced to this sad
+dilemma, that Roswell broke through the bank of snow that almost covered
+the house, and got so far into the open air as to be able to form some
+estimate of the probable continuance of the present cold weather. The
+thermometer, within the bank of snow, but outside of the building, then
+stood at twenty below zero; but it was much colder in the unobstructed
+currents of as keen and biting a south wind as ever came howling across
+the vast fields of ice that covered the polar basin. The snow had long
+ceased, but not until an immense quantity had fallen; nearly twice as
+much, Roswell and Hazard thought, as they had seen on the rocks at any
+time that winter.</p>
+
+<p>"I see no signs of a change, Mr. Hazard," Roswell remarked, shivering with
+the intensity of the cold. "We had better go back into the house before we
+get chilled, for we have no fire now to go to, to warm ourselves. It is
+much warmer within doors, than it is in the open air, fire or no fire."</p>
+
+<p>"There are many reasons for that, Captain Gar'ner," answered the mate.
+"So many bodies in so small a space, the shelter from the wind and outer
+air, and the snow banks, all help us. I think we shall find the
+thermometer indoors at a pretty comfortable figure this morning."</p>
+
+<p>On examining it, it was found to stand at only fifteen below zero, making
+a difference of five degrees in favour of the house, as compared with the
+sort of covered gallery under the tent, and probably of five more, as
+compared with the open air.</p>
+
+<p>On a consultation, it was decided that all hands should eat a hearty meal,
+remove most of their clothes, and get within the coverings of their
+berths, to see if it would not be possible to wear out the cold spell, in
+some tolerable comfort, beneath rugs and blankets. On the whole, it was
+thought that the berths might be made more serviceable by this expedient,
+than by putting their materials into the stoves. Accordingly, within an
+hour after Roswell and his mate had returned from their brief out-door
+excursion, the whole party was snugly bestowed under piles of rugs,
+clothes, sails, and whatever else might be used to retain the animal heat
+near the body, and exclude cold. In this manner, six-and-thirty hours were
+passed, not a man of them all having the courage to rise from his lair,
+and encounter the severity of the climate, now unrelieved by anything like
+a fire.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell had slept most of the time, during the last ten hours, and in this
+he was much like all around him. A general feeling of drowsiness had come
+over the men, and the legs and feet of many among them, notwithstanding
+the quantity of bed-clothes that were, in particular, piled on that part
+of their person, were sensitively alive to the cold. No one ever knew how
+low the thermometer went that fearful night; but a sort of common
+consciousness prevailed, that nothing the men had yet seen, or felt,
+equalled its chill horrors. The cold had got into the house, converting
+every article it contained into a mass of frost, The berths ceased to be
+warm, and the smallest exposure of a shoulder, hand, or ears, soon
+produced pain. The heads of very many of the party were affected, and
+breathing became difficult and troubled. A numbness began to steal over
+the lower limbs; and this was the last unpleasant sensation remembered by
+Roswell, when he fell into another short and disturbed slumber. The
+propensity to sleep was very general now, though many struggled against
+it, knowing it was the usual precursor of death by freezing.</p>
+
+<p>Our hero never knew how long he slept in the last nap he took on that
+memorable occasion. When he awoke, he found a bright light blazing in the
+hut, and heard some one moving about the camboose. Then his thoughts
+reverted to himself, and to the condition of his limbs. On trying to rub
+his feet together, he found them so nearly without sensation as to make
+the consciousness of their touching each other almost out of the question.
+Taking the alarm at once, he commenced a violent friction, until by slow
+degrees he could feel that the nearly stagnant blood was getting again
+into motion. So great had been Roswell's alarm, and so intent his
+occupation, that he took no heed of the person who was busy at the
+camboose, until the man appeared at the side of his berth, holding a tin
+pot in his hand. It was Stimson, up and dressed, without his skins, and
+seemingly in perfect preservation.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's some hot coffee, Captain Gar'ner," said the provident
+boat-steerer, "and then turn out. The wind has shifted, by the marcy of
+God, and it has begun to rain. <i>Now</i>, I think we may have summer in
+'arnest, as summer comes among these sealin' islands."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell took six or eight swallows of the coffee, which was smoking hot,
+and instantly felt the genial influence diffused over his whole frame.
+Sending Stephen to the other berths with this timely beverage, he now sat
+up in his berth, and rubbed his feet and legs with his hands. The
+exercise, friction, and hot coffee, soon brought him round; and he sprang
+out of his berth, and was quickly dressed. Stimson had lighted a fire in
+the camboose, using the very last of the wood, and the warmth was
+beginning to diffuse itself through the building. But the change in the
+wind, and the consequent melioration of the temperature, probably alone
+saved the whole of the Oyster Pond crew from experiencing the dire fate of
+that of the Vineyard craft.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen got man after man out of his berth, by doses of the steaming
+coffee; and the blood being thus stimulated, by the aid of friction,
+everybody was soon up and stirring. It was found, on inquiry, that all
+three of the blacks had toes or ears frozen, and with them the usual
+application of snow became necessary; but the temperature of the house
+soon got to be so high as to render the place quite comfortable. Warm food
+being deemed very essential, Stephen had put a supply of beans and pork
+into his coppers; and the frost having been extracted from a quantity of
+the bread by soaking it in cold water, a hearty meal of good, hot, and
+most nourishing food, was made by all hands. This set our sealers up, no
+more complaints of the frost being heard.</p>
+
+<p>It was, indeed, no longer very cold. The thermometer was up to twenty-six
+above zero in the house when Roswell turned out; and the cooking process,
+together with Stephen's fires and the shift of wind, soon brought the
+mercury up to forty. This was a cheering temperature for those who had
+been breathing the polar air; and the influence of the north-east gale
+continued to increase. The rain and thaw produced another deluge; and the
+cliffs presented, for several hours, a sight that might have caused
+Niagara to hide her head in mortification. These sublime scenes are of
+frequent occurrence amid the solitudes of the earth; the occasional
+phenomena of nature often surpassing in sublimity and beauty her rarest
+continued efforts.</p>
+
+<p>The succeeding day the rain ceased, and summer appeared to have come in
+reality. It is true that at mid-day the thermometer in the shade stood at
+only forty-eight; but in the sun it actually rose to seventy. Let those
+who have ever experienced the extremes of heat and cold imagine the
+delight with which our sealers moved about under such a sun! All excess of
+clothing was thrown aside; and many of the men actually pursued their work
+in their shirt-sleeves.</p>
+
+<p>As the snow had vanished quite as suddenly as it came, everything and
+everybody was now in active motion. Not a man of the crew was disposed to
+run the risk of encountering any more cold on Sealer's Land. Roswell
+himself was of opinion that the late severe weather was the dying effort
+of the winter, and that no more cold was to be expected; and Stimson
+agreed with him in this notion. The sails were taken down from around the
+house, and those articles it was intended to carry away were transferred
+to the schooner as fast as the difficulties of the road would allow. While
+his mates were carrying on this duty, our young master took an early
+occasion to examine the state of matters generally on the island. With
+this view he ascended to the plain, and went half-way up the mountain,
+desiring to get a good look into the offing.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon ascertained that the recent deluge had swept all the ice and
+every trace of the dead into the sea. The body of Daggett had disappeared,
+with the snow-bank in which it had been buried; and all the carcases of
+the seals had been washed away. In a word, the rocks were as naked and as
+clean as if man's foot had never passed over them. From the facts that
+skeletons of seals had been found strewed along the north shore, and the
+present void, Roswell was led to infer that the late storm had been one of
+unusual intensity, and most probably of a character to occur only at long
+intervals.</p>
+
+<p>But the state of the ice was the point of greatest interest. The schooner
+could now be got ready for sea in a week, and that easily; but there she
+lay, imbedded in a field of ice that still covered nearly the whole of the
+waters within the group. As Roswell stood on the cliffs which overlooked
+the cove, he calculated the distance it would be necessary to take the
+schooner through the ice by sawing and cutting, and that through a field
+known to be some four feet thick, at five good miles at least. So
+Herculean did this task appear to be, that he even thought of abandoning
+his vessel altogether, and of setting out in the boats, as soon as the
+summer was fairly commenced. On reflection, however, this last plan was
+reserved as a <i>dernier ressort</i>, the danger of encountering the tempests
+of those seas in a whale-boat, without covering or fire, being much too
+great to be thought of, so long as any reasonable alternative offered.</p>
+
+<p>The bergs to the southward were in motion, and a large fleet of them was
+putting to sea, as it might be, coming in from those remote and then
+unknown regions in which they were formed. From the mountain, our hero
+counted at least a hundred, all regularly shaped, with tops like that of
+table-land, and with even, regular sides, and upright attitudes. It was
+very desirable to get ahead of these new maritime Alps, for the ocean to
+the northward was unusually clear of ice of all kinds, that lodged between
+the islands excepted.</p>
+
+<p>So long as it was safe to calculate on the regular changes of the seasons,
+Roswell knew that patience and vigilance would serve his turn, by bringing
+everything round in its proper time and place. But it was by no means
+certain that it was a usual occurrence for the Great Bay to be crammed
+with field-ice, as had happened the past winter; if the actual state of
+the surrounding waters were an exception instead of the rule. On examining
+the shores, however, it was found that the rain and melted snow had
+created a sort of margin, and that the strong winds which had been
+blowing, and which in fact were still blowing, had produced a gradually
+increasing attrition, until a space existed between the weather-side of
+the field and the rocks that was some thirty fathoms wide. This was an
+important discovery, and brought up a most grave question for decision.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the shape of the surrounding land, it would not be possible for
+the ice to float out in a body, for two or three months to come; or until
+so much had melted as to leave room for the field to pass the capes and
+head-lands. It never could have entered the bay for the same reason, but
+for the resistless power of a field that extended leagues out into the
+ocean, where, acted on jointly by wind and tide, it came down with a
+momentum that was resistless, ripping and tearing the edges of the field
+as if they had been so much freshly turned up mould. It was, then, a
+question how to get the schooner out of her present bed, and into clear
+water.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will probably remember that, on her first arrival at the group,
+the Sea Lion had entered the Great Bay from the southward; while, in her
+subsequent effort to get north, she had gone out by the opposite passage.
+Now, it occurred to Roswell that he might escape by the former of these
+routes more readily than by the latter, and for the following
+reasons:--No field-ice had ever blocked up the southern passage, which
+was now quite clear, though the approach to it just then was choked by the
+manner in which the north-east gale that was still blowing, pressed home
+against the rocks the field that so nearly filled the bay. A shift of
+wind, however, must soon come; and when that change occurred, it was
+certain that this field would move in an opposite direction, leaving the
+margin of open water, that has already been mentioned, all along the
+rocks. The distance was considerable, it is true--not less than fifteen
+miles--and the whole of it was to be made quite close to sharp angular
+rocks that would penetrate the schooner's sides almost as readily as an
+axe, in the event of a nip; but this danger might be avoided by foresight,
+and a timely attention to the necessities of the case. Seeing no more
+available plan to get the vessel out of her present duresse, the mates
+came readily into this scheme, and preparations were made to carry it out.
+As the cove was so near the north-east end of Sealer's Land, it may be
+well to explain that the reason this same mode of proceeding could not be
+carried out in a northern direction, was the breadth of the field seaward,
+and the danger of following the north shore when the solid ice did leave
+it, on account of the quantities of broken fragments that were tossing and
+churning in its front, far as the eye could reach from the cliffs
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The third day after the commencement of the thaw, the wind came round
+again from the south-west, blowing heavily. As was expected, this soon
+began to set the field in motion, driving it over towards the volcano, and
+at the same time northerly. About six in the morning, Hazard brought a
+report to Roswell that a margin of open water was beginning to form all
+along under the cliffs, while there was great danger that the channel
+which had been cut from the schooner to the nearest point beneath the
+rocks, in readiness for this very contingency, might be closed by the
+pressure of the ice without, on that within the cove. No time was to be
+lost, therefore, if it was intended to move the craft on this shift of
+wind. The distance that had been sawed through to make the channel just
+named, did not exceed a hundred yards. The passage was not much wider than
+the schooner's breadth: and it will be easily understood that it was to
+the last degree important to carry her through this strait as soon as
+possible. Although many useful articles were scattered about on the ice,
+and several remained to be brought over the rocks from the house, the
+order was given to get out lines, and to move the vessel at once, the men
+set to work with hearty goodwill, another glimpse of home rising before
+their imaginations; and, in five minutes after Hazard had made his
+communication, the Sea Lion had gone six or eight times her length towards
+the cliffs. Then came the pinch! Had not the ice been solid between the
+cape and the berth just before occupied by the schooner, she would have
+been hopelessly nipped by the closing of the artificial channel. As it
+was, she was caught, and her progress was arrested, but the field took a
+cant, in consequence of the resistance, of the solid ice that filled the
+whole cove to the eastward of the channel; and, before any damage was
+done, the latter began to open even faster than it had come together. The
+instant the craft was released the sealers manned their hauling lines
+again, and ran her up lo the rocks with a hurrah! The margin of water was
+just opening, but so prompt had been the movement of the men that it was
+not yet wide enough to permit the vessel to go any further; and it was
+found necessary to wait until the passage was sufficiently wide to enable
+her to move ahead. The intervening time was occupied in bringing to the
+craft the articles left behind.</p>
+
+<p>By nine o'clock everything was on board; the winding channel that followed
+the sinuosities of the coast could be traced far as the eye could see; the
+lines were manned; and the word was again given to move. Roswell now felt
+that he was engaged in much the most delicate of all his duties. The
+desperate run through the fleet of bergs, and the second attempt to get to
+sea, were not in certain particulars as hazardous as this. The field had
+been setting back and forth now, for several weeks; the margin of cleat
+water increasing by the attrition at each return to the rocks; and it was
+known by observation that these changes often occurred at very short
+notices. Should the wind haul round with the sun, or one of the
+unaccountable currents of those seas intervene before the south-east cape
+was reached, the schooner would probably be broken into splinters, or
+ground into powder, in the course of some two or three hours. It was
+all-important, therefore, to lose not a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Several times in the course of the first hour, the movement of the
+schooner was arrested by the want of sufficient room to pass between
+projecting points in the cliffs and the edge of the ice. On two of these
+occasions passages were cut with the saw, the movement of the field not
+answering to the impatience of the sealers. At the end of that most
+momentous hour, however, the craft had been hauled ahead a mile and a
+half, and had reached a curvature in the coast where the margin of open
+water was more than fifty fathoms wide, and the tracking of the vessel
+became easy and rapid. By two o'clock the Sea Lion was at what might be
+called the bottom of the Great Bay, some three or four leagues from the
+cove, and at the place where the long low cape began to run out in a
+south-easterly direction. As the wind could now be felt over the rocks,
+the foretopsail was set, as well as the lower sails, the latter being
+mainly becalmed, however, by the land; when the people were all taken on
+board, the craft moving faster under her canvass than by means of the
+hauling lines. The wind was very fresh, and in half an hour more the
+south-east cape came in sight, close as were the navigators to the rocks.
+Ten minutes later, the Sea Lion was under reefed sails, stretching off to
+the southward and eastward, in perfectly clear water!</p>
+
+<p>At first, Roswell Gardiner was disposed to rejoice, under the impression
+that his greatest labour had been achieved. A better look at the state of
+things around him, however, taught the disheartening lesson of humility,
+by demonstrating that they had in truth but just commenced.</p>
+
+<p>Although there was scarcely any field-ice to the southward of the group,
+and in its immediate neighbourhood, there was a countless number of bergs.
+It is true, these floating mountains did not come very near the passage,
+for the depth of water just there usually brought them up ere they could
+get into it; nevertheless, a large fleet of them was blockading the entire
+group, far as the eye could reach, looking east, west and south, or along
+the whole line of the southern coast. It was at first questionable
+whether, and soon after it became certain, that the schooner could never
+beat through such dangers. Had the wind been fair, the difficulty would
+have been insurmountable; but ahead, and blowing a little gale, the matter
+was out of the question. Some other course must be adopted.</p>
+
+<p>There was a choice of alternatives. One was to go entirely round the whole
+group, passing to the eastward of the volcano, where no one of the party
+had ever been; and the other was to follow the eastern margin of the bay,
+keeping inside of it, and trusting to finding some opening by which the
+schooner could force her way into clear water to the northward. After a
+very brief consultation with his mates, Roswell decided on attempting the
+last.</p>
+
+<p>As the course now to be steered was almost dead before the wind, the
+little craft, lightened of so much of her upper works, almost flew through
+the water. The great source of apprehension felt by our young men in
+attempting this new expedient, was in the probability that the field would
+drift home to the rocks in the north-east quarter of the bay, which, with
+a south-west wind, was necessarily a quarter to leeward. Should this prove
+to be the case, it might be found impossible to pass ahead, and the
+schooner would be caught in a <i>cul de sac</i>; since it would not be in the
+power of her people to track her back again in the teeth of so strong a
+wind. Notwithstanding these probabilities, on Roswell went; for he saw
+plain enough that at such a moment almost anything was better than
+indecision.</p>
+
+<p>The rate at which the little craft was flying before a fresh gale, in
+perfectly smooth water, soon put our sealers in a better condition to form
+closer estimates of their chances. The look-outs aloft, one of whom was
+Hazard, the first officer, sent down on deck constant reports of what they
+could see.</p>
+
+<p>"How does it look ahead, now, Mr. Hazard?" demanded Roswell, about five in
+the afternoon, just as his schooner was coming close under the smoking
+sides of the volcano, which had always been an object of interest to him,
+though he had never found time to visit it before. "Is there no danger of
+our touching the ground, close in as we are to this island?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think not, sir; when I landed here, we kept the lead going the whole
+time, and we got two fathoms quite up to the, shore. In my judgment,
+Captain Gar'ner, we may run down along this land as bold as lions."</p>
+
+<p>"And how does it look ahead? I've no wish to get jammed here, close aboard
+of a volcano, which may be choking us all with its smoke before we know
+where we are."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much danger of that, sir, with this wind. These volcanoes are nothin'
+but playthings, a'ter all. The vapour is driving off towards the
+north-east---That was a crack, with a vengeance!"</p>
+
+<p>Just as Hazard was boasting of the innocuous character of a volcano, that
+near them fired a gun, as the men afterwards called it, casting into the
+air a large flight of cinders and stones, accompanied by a sharp flash of
+flame. All the lighter materials drove away to leeward, but the heavier
+followed the law of projectiles, and scattered in all directions. Several
+stones of some size fell quite close to the schooner, and a few smaller
+actually came down on her decks.</p>
+
+<p>"It will never do to stop here to boil our pot," cried Roswell to the
+mate. "We must get away from this, Mr. Hazard, as fast as the good craft
+can travel!"</p>
+
+<p>"Get away it is, sir. There is nothing very near ahead to stop us; though
+it does look more toward the east cape as if the field was jammed in that
+quarter."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep all your eyes about you, sir; and look out especially for any
+opening among the smaller islands ahead. I am not without hope that the
+currents which run among them may give us a clear passage in that
+quarter."</p>
+
+<p>These words explain precisely that which did actually occur. On went the
+schooner, almost brushing the base of the volcano, causing Roswell many a
+bound of the heart, when he fancied she must strike; but she went clear.
+All this time, it was crack, crack, crack, from the crater, rumbling
+sounds and heavy explosions; the last attended by flames, and smoke of a
+pitchy darkness. A dozen times the Sea Lion had very narrow escapes when
+nearest to the danger, stones of a weight to pass through her decks and
+bottom falling even on the ice outside of her; but that hand which had so
+benevolently stayed various other evils, was stretched forth to save, and
+nothing touched the schooner of a size to do any injury. These escapes
+made a deep impression on Roswell. Until the past winter he had been
+accustomed to look upon things and events as matters of course. This
+vacant indifference, so common to men in prosperity, was extended even to
+the sublimest exhibition of the Almighty power; our hero seeing nothing in
+the firmament of heaven, of a clear night, but the twinkling rights that
+seemed to him to be placed there merely to garnish and illumine the
+darkness of this globe. Now, how differently did he look upon natural
+objects, and their origin! If it were only an insect, his mind presented
+its wonderful mechanism, its beauty, its uses. No star seemed less than
+what science has taught us that it is; and the power of the Dread Being
+who had created all, who governed all, and who was judge of all, became an
+inseparable subject of contemplation, as he looked upon the least of his
+works. Feelings thus softened and tempered by humility, easily led their
+subject to the reception of those leading articles of the Christian faith
+which have been consecrated by the belief of the church catholic since the
+ages of miraculous guidance, and which are now venerable by time. Bold and
+presuming is he who fancies that his intellect can rectify errors of this
+magnitude and antiquity, and that the church of God has been permitted to
+wallow on in a most fatal idolatry for centuries, to be extricated by the
+pretending syllogisms of his one-sided and narrow philosophy!</p>
+
+<p>The people of the Sea Lion were less affected by what they saw than their
+young commander. Their hearts were light with the prospect of a speedy
+release from the hardships and dangers they had undergone; and, at each
+explosion of the volcano, as soon as out of reach of the falling stones,
+they laughed, and asserted that the mountain was firing a salute in honour
+of their departure. Such is the difference between men whose hearts and
+spirits have submitted to the law of faith, and those who live on in the
+recklessness of the passing events of life!</p>
+
+<p>The schooner was racing past a rocky islet, beginning to haul more on a
+wind, as she made the circuit of the bay, just as Hazard came to the
+conclusion that the field had drifted home on the outer island of the
+group, and that it would be impossible to pass into clear water by going
+on. Turning his head in quest of some bay, or other secure place in which
+the craft might wait for a favourable change, he saw a narrow opening to
+leeward of the islet he had passed but a minute before; and, so far as he
+could perceive, one that led directly out to sea.</p>
+
+<p>It was too late to keep away for the entrance of the passage, the ice
+being too close at hand to leeward; but, most fortunately, there was room
+to tack. A call to Roswell soon caused the schooner to be close on a wind;
+down went her helm, and round she came like a top. Sail was shortened in
+stays, and by the time the little craft was ready to fall off for the
+passage, she had nothing on her but a foretopsail, jib, and a close-reefed
+mainsail. Under this canvass she glided along, almost brushing the rocks
+of the islet, but without touching. In twenty minutes more she was clear
+of the group altogether, and in open water!</p>
+
+<p>That night some embarrassment was encountered from broken field-ice, of
+which the ocean was pretty full; but by exercising great vigilance, no
+serious thump occurred. Fortunately the period of darkness was quite
+short, the twilight being of great length both mornings and evenings; and
+the re-appearance of the sun cast a cheerful glow on the face of the
+troubled waters.</p>
+
+<p>The wind held at south-west for three days, blowing heavily the whole
+time. By the second night-fall the sea was clear of ice, and everything
+was carried on the schooner that she could bear. About nine o'clock on the
+morning of the fourth day out, a speck was seen rising above the ragged
+outline of the rolling waves; and each minute it became higher and more
+distinct. An hour or two later, the Sea Lion was staggering along before a
+westerly gale, with the Hermit of Cape Horn on her larboard beam distant
+three leagues. How many trying scenes and bitter moments crowded on the
+mind of young Roswell Gardiner, as he recalled all that had passed in the
+ten months which intervened since he had come out from behind the shelter
+of those wild rocks! Stormy as was that sea, and terrible as was its name
+among mariners, coming, as he did, from one still more stormy and
+terrible, he now regarded it as a sort of place of refuge. A winter
+there, he well knew, would be no trifling undertaking, but he had just
+passed a winter in a region where even fuel was not to be found, unless
+carried there. Twenty days later the Sea Lion sailed again from Rio,
+having sold all the sea-elephant oil that remained, and bought stores; of
+which, by this time, the vessel was much in want. Most of the portions of
+the provisions that were left had been damaged by the thawing process; and
+food was getting to be absolutely necessary to her people, when the
+schooner went again into the noble harbour of the capital of Brazil. Then
+succeeded the lassitude and calms that reign about the imaginary line that
+marks the circuit of the earth, at that point which is ever central as
+regards the sun, and where the days and nights are always equal. No
+inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit affected the
+climate there, which knew not the distinctions of summer and winter; or
+which, if they did exist at all, were so faintly marked as to be nearly
+imperceptible.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty days later the schooner was standing among some low sandy keys,
+under short canvass, and in the south-east trades. By her movements an
+anchorage was sought; and one was found at last, where the craft was
+brought up, boats were hoisted out, and Roswell Gardiner landed.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-29">
+<h2>Chapter XXIX.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>If every ducat in six thousand ducats<br />
+Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,<br />
+I would not draw them; I would have my bond.</p>
+
+<p>  Shakspeare.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The earth had not stopped in its swift face round the sun at Oyster Pond,
+while all these events were in the course of occurrence in the antarctic
+seas. The summer had passed, that summer which was to have brought back
+the sealers; and autumn had come to chill the hopes as as the body. Winter
+did not bring any change. Nothing was heard of Roswell and his
+companions, nor <i>could</i> anything have been heard of them short of the
+intervention of a miracle.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Pratt no longer mentioned Roswell in her prayers. She fully believed
+him to be dead; and her puritanical creed taught her that this, the
+sweetest and most endearing of all the rites of Christianity, was allied
+to a belief that it was sacrilege to entertain. We pretend not to any
+distinct impressions on this subject ourselves, beyond a sturdy protestant
+disinclination to put any faith in the abuses of purgatory at least; but,
+most devoutly do we wish that such petitions <i>could</i> have the efficacy
+that so large a portion of the Christian world impute to them. But Mary
+Pratt, so much better than we can lay any claim to be in all essentials,
+was less liberal than ourselves on this great point of doctrine. Roswell
+Gardiner's name now never passed her lips in prayer, therefore; though
+scarce a minute went by without his manly person being present to her
+imagination. He still lived in her heart, a shrine from which she made no
+effort to expel him.</p>
+
+<p>As for the deacon, age, disease, and distress of mind, had brought him to
+his last hours. The passions which had so engrossed him when in health,
+now turned upon his nature, and preyed upon his vitals, like an ill-omened
+bird. It is more than probable that he would have lived some months,
+possibly some years longer, had not the evil spirit of covetousness
+conspired to heighten the malady that wasted his physical frame. As it
+was, the sands of life were running low; and the skilful Dr. Sage,
+himself, had admitted to Mary the improbability that her uncle and
+protector could long survive.</p>
+
+<p>It is wonderful how the interest in a rich man suddenly revives among his
+relatives and possible heirs, as his last hour draws near. Deacon Pratt
+was known to be wealthy in a small way; was thought to possess his thirty
+or forty thousand dollars, which was regarded as wealth among the
+east-enders thirty years since; and every human being in Old Suffolk,
+whether of its overwhelming majority or of its more select and wiser
+minority, who could by legal possibility claim any right to be remembered
+by the dying man, crowded around his bed-side. At that moment, Mary Pratt,
+who had so long nursed his diseases and mitigated his sufferings, was
+compelled to appear as a very insignificant and secondary person. Others
+who stood in the same degree of consanguinity to the dying man, and two, a
+brother and sister, who were even one degree closer, had <i>their</i> claims,
+and were by no means disposed to suffer them to be forgotten. Gladly would
+poor Mary have prayed by her uncle's bed-side; but Parson Whittle had
+assumed this solemn duty, it being deemed proper that one who had so long
+tilled the office of deacon, should depart with a proper attention to the
+usages of his meeting. Some of the relatives who had lately appeared, and
+who were not so conversant with the state of things between the deacon and
+his divine, complained among themselves that the latter made too many
+ill-timed allusions to the pecuniary wants of the congregation; and that
+he had, in particular, almost as much as asked the deacon to make a legacy
+that would enable those who were to stay behind, to paint the
+meeting-house, erect a new horse-shed, purchase some improved stoves, and
+reseat the body of the building. These modest requests, it was
+whispered--for all passed in whispers then--would consume not less than a
+thousand dollars of the deacon's hard earnings; and the thing was
+mentioned as a wrong done him who was about to descend into the grave,
+where nought of earth could avail him in any way.</p>
+
+<p>Close was the siege that was laid to Deacon Pratt, during the last week of
+his life. Many were the hints given of the necessity of his making a will,
+though the brother and sister, estimating their rights as the law
+established them, said but little on the subject, and that little was
+rather against the propriety of annoying a man, in their brother's
+condition, with business of so perplexing a nature. The fact that these
+important personages set their faces against the scheme had due weight,
+and most of the relatives began to calculate the probable amount of their
+respective shares under the law of distribution, as it stood in that day.
+This excellent and surpassingly wise community of New York had not then
+reached the pass of exceeding liberality towards which it is now so
+rapidly tending. In that day, the debtor was not yet thought of, as the
+creditor's next heir, and that plausible and impracticable desire of a
+false philanthropy, which is termed the Homestead Exemption Law
+--impracticable as to anything like a just and equitable exemption of
+equal amount in all cases of indebtedness--was not yet dreamed of. New
+York was then a sound and healthful community; making its mistakes,
+doubtless, as men ever will err; but the control of things had not yet
+passed into the hands of sheer political empirics, whose ignorance and
+quackery were stimulated by the lowest passion for majorities. Among other
+things that were then respected, were wills; but it was not known to a
+single individual, among all those who thronged the dwelling of Deacon
+Pratt, that the dying man had ever mustered the self-command necessary to
+make such an instrument. He was free to act, but did not choose to avail
+himself of his freedom. Had he survived a few years, he would have found
+himself in the enjoyment of a liberty so sublimated, that he could not
+lease, or rent a farm, or collect a common debt, without coming under the
+harrow of the tiller of the political soil.</p>
+
+<p>The season had advanced to the early part of April, and that is usually a
+soft and balmy month on the sea-shore, though liable to considerable and
+sudden changes of temperature. On the day to which we now desire to
+transfer the scene, the windows of the deacon's bed-room were open, and
+the soft south wind fanned his hollow and pallid cheek. Death was near,
+though the principle of life struggled hard with the King of Terrors. It
+was now that that bewildered and Pharasaical faith which had so long held
+this professor of religion in a bondage even more oppressive than open and
+announced sins, most felt the insufficiency of the creed in which he had
+rather been speculating than trusting all his life, to render the passing
+hour composed and secure. There had always been too much of self in Deacon
+Pratt's moral temperament, to render his belief as humble and devout as it
+should be. It availed him not a hair, now, that he was a deacon, or that
+he had made long prayers in the market-places, where men could see him, or
+that he had done so much, as he was wont to proclaim, for example's sake.
+All had not sufficed to cleanse his heart of worldly-mindedness, and he
+now groped about him, in the darkness of a faith obscured, for the true
+light that was to illumine his path to another world.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor had ordered the room cleared of all, but two or three of the
+dying man's nearest relatives. Among these last, however, was the gentle
+and tender-hearted Mary, who loved to be near her uncle, in this his
+greatest need. She no longer thought of his covetousness, of his griping
+usury, of his living so much for self and so little for God. While
+hovering about the bed, a message reached her that Baiting Joe wished to
+see her, in the passage that led to the bed-room. She went to this old
+fisherman, and found him standing near a window that looked towards the
+east, and which consequently faced the waters of Gardiner's Bay.</p>
+
+<p>"There she is, Miss Mary," said Joe, pointing out of the window, his whole
+face in a glow, between joy and whiskey. "It should be told to the deacon
+at once, that his last hours might be happier than some that he has passed
+lately. That's she--though, at first, I did not know her."</p>
+
+<p>Mary saw a vessel standing in towards Oyster Pond, and her familiarity
+with objects of that nature was such, as to tell her at once that it was a
+schooner; but so completely had she given up the Sea Lion, that it did not
+occur to her that this could be the long-missing craft.</p>
+
+<p>"At what are you pointing, Joe?" the wondering girl asked, with perfect
+innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"At that craft--at the Sea Lion of Sterling, which has been so long set
+down as missing, but which has turned up, just as her owner is about to
+cast off from this 'arth, altogether."</p>
+
+<p>Joe might have talked for an hour: he did chatter away for two or three
+minutes, with his head and half his body out of the window, uninterrupted
+by Mary, who sank into a chair, to prevent falling on the floor. At length
+the dear girl commanded herself, and spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot possibly be certain, Joe," she said; "that schooner does not
+look, to me, like the Sea Lion."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor to me, in some things, while in other some she does. Her upper works
+seem strangely out of shape, and there's precious little on 'em. But no
+other fore-taw-sail schooner ever comes in this-a-way, and I know of none
+likely to do it. Ay, by Jupiter, there goes the very blue peter I helped
+to make with my own hands, and it was agreed to set it, as the deacon's
+signal. There's no mistake, now!"</p>
+
+<p>Joe might have talked half an hour longer without any fear of
+interruption, for Mary had vanished to her own room, leaving him with his
+head and body still out of the window, making his strictures and
+conjectures for some time longer; while the person to whom he fancied he
+was speaking, was, in truth, on her knees, rendering thanks to God! An
+hour later, all doubt was removed, the schooner coming in between Oyster
+Pond and Shelter Island, and making the best of her way to the well-known
+wharf.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it wonderful, Mary," exclaimed the deacon, in a hollow voice, it is
+true, but with an animation and force that did not appear to have any
+immediate connection with death--"isn't it wonderful that Gar'ner should
+come back, after all! If he has only done his duty by me, this will be the
+greatest ventur' of my whole life; it will make the evening of my days
+comfortable. I hope I've always been grateful for blessings, and I'm sure
+I'm grateful, from the bottom of my heart, for this. Give me prosperity,
+and I'm not apt to forget it. They've been asking me to make a will, but I
+told 'em I was too poor to think of any such thing; and, now my schooner
+has got back, I s'pose I shall get more hints of the same sort. Should
+anything happen to me, Mary, you can bring out the sealed paper I gave you
+to keep, and that must satisfy 'em all. You'll remember, it is addressed
+to Gar'ner. There isn't much in it, and it won't be much thought of, I
+fancy; but, such as it is, 'tis the last instrument I sign, unless I get
+better. To think of Gar'ner's coming back, after all! It has put new life
+in me, and I shall be about, ag'in, in a week, if he has only not
+forgotten the key, and the hidden treasure!"</p>
+
+<p>Mary Pratt's heart had not been so light for many a weary day, but it
+grieved her to be a witness of this lingering longing after the things of
+the world. She knew that not only her uncle's days, but that his very
+hours, were numbered; and that, notwithstanding this momentary flickering
+of the lamp, in consequence of fresh oil being poured into it, the wick
+was nearly consumed, and that it must shortly go out, let Roswell's
+success be what it might. The news of the sudden and unlooked-for return
+of a vessel so long believed to be lost, spread like wildfire over the
+whole point, and greatly did it increase the interest of the relatives in
+the condition of the dying man. If he was a subject of great concern
+before, doubly did he become so now. A vessel freighted with furs would
+have caused much excitement of itself; but, by some means or other, the
+deacon's great secret of the buried treasure had leaked out, most probably
+by means of some of his lamentations during his illness, and, though but
+imperfectly known, it added largely to the expectations connected with the
+unlooked-for return of the schooner. In short, it would not have been easy
+to devise a circumstance that should serve to increase the liveliness of
+feeling that, just then, prevailed on the subject of Deacon Pratt and his
+assets, than the arrival of the Sea Lion, at that precise moment.</p>
+
+<p>And arrive she did, that tempest-tossed, crippled, ice-bound, and
+half-burned little craft, after roaming over an extent of ocean that would
+have made up half a dozen ordinary sea voyages. It was, in truth, the
+schooner so well known to the reader, that was now settling away her
+mainsail and jib, as she kept off, under her fore-topsail alone, towards
+the wharf, on which every human being who could, with any show of
+propriety, be there at such a moment, was now collected, in a curious and
+excited crowd. Altogether, including boys and females, there must have
+been not less than a hundred persons on that wharf; and among them were
+most of the anxious relatives who were in attendance on the vessel's
+owner, in his last hours. By a transition that was natural enough,
+perhaps, under the circumstances, they had transferred their interest in
+the deacon to this schooner, which they looked upon as an inanimate
+portion of an investment that would soon have little that was animate
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>Baiting Joe was a sort of oracle, in such circumstances. He had passed his
+youth at sea, having often doubled the Horn, and was known to possess a
+very respectable amount of knowledge on the subject of vessels of all
+sorts and sizes, rig and qualities. He was now consulted by all who could
+get near him, as a matter of course, and his opinions were received as
+<i>res adjudicata</i>, as the lawyers have it.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the boat," said Joe, affecting to call the Sea Lion by a
+diminutive, as a proof of regard; "yes, that's the craft, herself; but she
+is wonderfully deep in the water! I never seed a schooner of her tonnage,
+come in from a v'y'ge, with her scuppers so near awash. Don't you think,
+Jim, there must be suthin' heavier than skins, in her hold, to bring her
+down so low in the water?"</p>
+
+<p>Jim was another loafer, who lived by taking clams, oysters, fish, and the
+other treasures of the surrounding bays. He was by no means as bigh
+authority as Baiting Joe; still he was always authority on a wharf.</p>
+
+<p>"I never seed the like on't," answered Jim. "That schooner must ha' made
+most of her passage under water. She's as deep as one of our coasters
+comin' in with a load o' brick!"</p>
+
+<p>"She's deep; but not as deep as a craft I once made a cruise in. I was
+aboard of the first of Uncle Sam's gun-boats, that crossed the pond to
+Gibraltar. When we got in, it made the Mediterranean stare, I can tell
+you! We had furrin officers aboard us, the whull time, lookin' about, and
+wonderin', as they called it, if we wasn't amphibbies."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" demanded Jim, rather hastily. "There's no sich rope in the
+ship."</p>
+
+<p>"I know that well enough; but an amphibby, as I understand it, is a new
+sort of whale, that comes up to breathe, like all of that family, as old
+Dr. Mitchell, of Cow Neck, calls the critturs. So the furrin officers
+thought we must be of the amphibby family, to live so much under water, as
+it seemed to them. It was wet work, I can tell you, boys; I don't think I
+got a good breath more than once an hour, the whull of the first day we
+was out. One of the furrin officers asked our captain how the gun-boat
+steered. He wasn't a captain, at all--only a master, you see, and we all
+called him Jumpin' Billy. So Jumpin' Billy says, 'Don't know, sir.' 'What!
+crossed the Atlantic in her, and don't know how your craft steers!' says
+the furrin officer, says he--and well he might, Jim, since nothin' that
+ever lived could go from Norfolk to Gibraltar, without <i>some</i> attention to
+the helm--but Jumpin' Billy had another story to tell. 'No, sir; don't
+know,' he answered. 'You see, sir, a nor-wester took us right aft, as we
+cleared the capes, and down she dove, with her nose under and her starn
+out, and she come across without having a chance to try the rudder.'"</p>
+
+<p>This story, which Joe had told at least a hundred times before, and which,
+by the way, is said to be true, produced the usual admiration, especially
+among the crowd of lega-tees-expectant, to most of whom it was quite new.
+When the laugh went out, which it soon did of itself, Joe pursued a
+subject that was of more interest to most of his auditors, or rather to
+the principal personages among them.</p>
+
+<p>"Skins never brought a craft so low, that you may be sartain of!" he
+resumed. "I've seed all sorts of vessels stowed, but a hundred
+press-screws couldn't cram in furs enough to bring a craft so low! To my
+eye, Jim, there's suthin' unnat'ral about that schooner, a'ter all."</p>
+
+<p>The study is scarce worthy of a diploma, but we will take this occasion to
+say, for the benefit of certain foreign writers, principally of the female
+sex, who fancy they represent Americanisms, that the vulgar of the great
+republic, and it is admitted there are enough of the class, never say
+"summat" or "somethink," which are low English, but not low American,
+dialect. The in-and-in Yankee says "suth-in." In a hundred other words
+have these ambitious ladies done injustice to our vulgar, who are not
+vulgar, according to the laws of Cockayne, in the smallest degree. "<i>The</i>
+Broadway," for instance, is no more used by an American than "<i>the</i>
+Congress," or "the United States of <i>North</i> America."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," answered Jim, "'tisn't the Sea Lion, a'ter all. There's a
+family look about all the craft some men build, and this may be a sort of
+relation of our missin' schooner."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll not answer for the craft, though that's her blue peter, and them's
+her mast-heads, and I turned in that taw-sail halyard-block with my own
+hands.--I'll tell you what, Jim, there's been a wrack, or a nip, up
+yonder, among the ice, and this schooner has been built anew out of that
+there schooner You see if it don't turn out as I tell you. Ay, and
+there's Captain Gar'ner, himself, alive and well, just comin' forrard."</p>
+
+<p>A little girl started with this news, and was soon pour ing it into the
+willing ears and open heart of the weeping and grateful Mary. An hour
+later, Roswell held the latter in his arms; for at such a moment, it was
+not possible for the most scrupulous of the sex to affect coldness and
+reserve, where there was so much real tenderness and love. While folding
+Mary to his heart, Roswell whispered in her ears the blessed words that
+announced his own humble submission to the faith which accepted Christ as
+the Son of God. Too well did the gentle and ingenuous girl understand the
+sincerity and frankness of her lovers nature, to doubt what he said, or in
+any manner to distrust the motive. That moment was the happiest of her
+short and innocent life!</p>
+
+<p>But the welcome tidings had reached the deacon, and ere Roswell had an
+opportunity of making any other explanations but those which assured Mary
+that he had come back all that she wished him to be, both of them were
+summoned to the bed-side of the dying man. The effect of the excitement on
+the deacon was so very great as almost to persuade the expectant legatees
+that their visit was premature, and that they might return home, to renew
+it at some future day. It is painful to find it our duty to draw sketches
+that shall contain such pictures of human nature; but with what justice
+could we represent the loathsome likeness of covetousness, hovering over a
+grave, and omit the resemblances of those who surrounded it? Mary Pratt,
+alone, of all that extensive family connection, felt and thought as
+Christianity, and womanly affection, and reason, dictated. All the rest
+saw nothing but the possessor of a considerable property, who was about to
+depart for that unknown world, into which nothing could be taken from
+this, but the divine and abused spirit which had been fashioned in the
+likeness of God.</p>
+
+<p>"Welcome, Gar'ner--welcome home, ag'in!" exclaimed the deacon, so heartily
+as quite to deceive the young man as to the real condition of his owner; a
+mistake that was, perhaps, a little unfortunate, as it induced him to be
+more frank than might otherwise have been the case. "I couldn't find it in
+my heart to give you up, and have, all along, believed that we should yet
+have good news from you. The Gar'ners are a reliable family, and that was
+one reason why I chose you to command my schooner. Them Daggetts are a
+torment, but we never should have known anything about the islands, or the
+key, hadn't it been for one on 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>As the deacon stopped to breathe, Mary turned away from the bed, grieved
+at heart to see the longings of the world thus clinging to the spirit of
+one who probably had not another hour to live. The glazed but animated
+eye, a cheek which resembled a faded leaf of the maple laid on a cold and
+whitish stone, and lips that had already begun to recede from the teeth,
+made a sad, sad picture, truly, to look upon at such a moment; yet, of all
+present, Mary Pratt alone felt the fullness of the incongruity, and alone
+bethought her of the unreasonableness of encouraging feelings like those
+which were now uppermost in the deacon's breast. Even minister Whittle had
+a curiosity to know how much was added to the sum-total of Deacon Pratt's
+assets, by the return of a craft that had so long been set down among the
+missing. When all eyes, therefore, were turned in curiosity on the
+handsome face of the fine manly youth who now stood at the bed-side of the
+deacon, including those of brother and sister, of nephews and nieces, of
+cousins and friends, those of this servant of the most high God was of the
+number, and not the least expressive of solicitude and expectation. As
+soon as the deacon had caught a little breath, and had swallowed a
+restorative that the hired nurse had handed to him, his eager thoughts
+reverted to the one engrossing theme of his whole life.</p>
+
+<p>"These are all friends, Gar'ner," he said; "come to visit me in a little
+sickness that I've been somewhat subject to, of late, and who will all be
+glad to hear of our good fortune. So you've brought the schooner back,
+a'ter all, Gar'ner, and will disapp'int the Sag Harbour ship-owners, who
+have been all along foretelling that we should never see her
+ag'in:--brought her back--ha! Gar'ner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only in part, Deacon Pratt. We have had good luck and bad luck since we
+left you, and have only brought home the best part of the craft."</p>
+
+<p>"The best part--" said the deacon, gulping his words, in a way that
+compelled him to pause; "The best part! What, in the name of property, has
+become of the rest?"</p>
+
+<p>"The rest was burned, sir, to keep us from freezing to death," Roswell
+then gave a brief but very clear and intelligible account of what had
+happened, and of the manner in which he had caused the hulk of the
+deacon's Sea Lion to be raised upon by the materials furnished by the Sea
+Lion of the Vineyard. The narrative brought Mary Pratt back to the side of
+the bed, and caused her calm eyes to become riveted intently on the
+speaker's face. As for the deacon, he might have said, with Shakspeare's
+Wolsey,</p>
+
+<p>"Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would
+not, in mine age, Have left me naked to mine enemies."</p>
+
+<p>His fall was not that of a loss of power, it is true, but it was that of a
+still more ignoble passion, covetousness. As Roswell proceeded, his mind
+represented one source of wealth after another released from his clutch,
+until it was with a tremulous voice, and a countenance from which all
+traces of animation had fled, that he ventured again to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I may look upon my ventur' as worse than nothing?" he said. "The
+insurers will raise a question about paying for a craft that has been
+rebuilt in this way, and the Vineyard folks will be sartain to put in a
+claim of salvage, both on account of two of their hands helping you with
+the work, and on account of the materials--and we with no cargo, as an
+offset to it all!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, deacon, it is not quite as bad as that," resumed Roswell. "We have
+brought home a good lot of skins; enough to pay the people full wages and
+to return you every cent of outfit, with a handsome advance on the
+venture. A sealer usually makes a good business of it, if she falls in
+with seals. Our cargo, in skins, can't be worth less than $20,000; besides
+half a freight left on the island, for which another craft may be sent."</p>
+
+<p>"That is suthin', the Lord be praised!" ejaculated the deacon. "Though the
+schooner is as bad as gone, and the outlays have been awfully heavy, I'm
+almost afraid to go any further. Gardner,--did you--I grow weak very
+fast--did you stop--Mary, I wish <i>you</i> would put the question."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid that my uncle means to ask if you stopped at the Key, in the
+West Indies, according to your instructions, Roswell?" the niece said, and
+most reluctantly, for she plainly saw it was fully time her uncle ceased
+to think of the things of this life, and to begin to turn all his thoughts
+on the blessed mediation, and another state of being.</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot no part of your orders, sir," rejoined Roswell. "It was my duty
+to obey them, and I believe I have done so to the letter--"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop, Gar'ner," interrupted the dying man--"one question, while I think
+of it. Will the Vineyard men have any claim of salvage on account of them
+skins?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not, sir. These skins are all our own--were taken, cured,
+stowed, and brought home altogether by ourselves. There is a lot of skins
+belonging to the Vineyarders, stowed away in the house, which is yours,
+deacon, and which it would well pay any small craft to go and bring away.
+If anybody is to claim salvage, it will be ourselves. No salvage was
+demanded for the loss off Cape Henlopen, I trust?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, none--Daggett behaved what I call <i>liberal</i> in that affair,"--half
+the critics of the day would use the adjective instead of the adverb here,
+and why should Deacon Prates English be any better than his
+neighbours?--"and so I've admitted to his friends over on the Vineyard.
+But, Gar'ner, our great affair still remains to be accounted for. Do you
+wish to have the room cleared before you speak of that--shall we turn the
+<i>key</i> on all these folks, and then settle accounts--he! he! he!"</p>
+
+<p>The deacon's facetiousness sounded strangely out of place to Roswell;
+still, he did not exactly know how to gainsay his wishes. There might be
+an indiscretion in pursuing his narrative before so many witnesses, and
+the young man paused until the room was cleared, leaving no one in it but
+the sick man, Mary, himself, and the nurse. The last could not well be
+gotten rid of on Oyster Pond, where her office gave her an assumed right
+to know all family secrets; or, what was the same thing to her, to
+<i>fancy</i> that she knew them. Among all the sayings which the experience of
+mankind has reduced to axioms, there is not one more just than that which
+says, "There are secrets in all families." These secrets the world
+commonly affects to know all about, but we think few will have reached the
+age of threescore without becoming convinced of how much pretending
+ignorance there is in this assumption of the world. "<i>Tot ou tard tout se
+scait</i>" is a significant saying of our old friends, the French, who know
+as much of things, in practice as any other people on the face of the
+earth; but "<i>tot ou tard tout ne se scait pas</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the door shut?" asked the deacon, tremulously, for eagerness, united
+to debility, was sadly shaking his whole frame. "See that the door is shut
+tight, Mary; this is our own secret, and nurse must remember that."</p>
+
+<p>Mary assured him that they were alone, and turned away in sorrow from the
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Gar'ner," resumed the deacon, "open your whole heart, and let us
+know all about it."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell hesitated to reply; for he, too, was shocked at witnessing this
+instance of a soul's clinging to mammon, when on the very eve of departing
+for the unknown world. There was a look in the glazed and sunken eyes of
+the old man, that reminded him unpleasantly of that snapping of the eyes
+which he had so often seen in Daggett.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't forget the key, surely, Gar'ner?" asked the deacon,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; we did our whole duty by that part of the voyage."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you find it--was the place accurately described?"</p>
+
+<p>"No chart could have made it better. We lost a month in looking for the
+principal land-mark, which had been altered by the weather; but, that once
+found, the rest was easy. The difficulty we met with in starting, has
+brought us home so late in the spring."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind the spring, Gar'ner; the part that is past is sartain to come
+round ag'in, in due time. And so you found the very key that was described
+by Daggett?"</p>
+
+<p>"We did, sir; and just where he described it to be."</p>
+
+<p>"And how about the tree, and the little hillock of sand, at its foot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Both were there, deacon. The hillock must have grown a good deal, by
+reason of the shifting sand; but, all things considered, the place was
+well enough described."</p>
+
+<p>"Well--well--well--you opened the hillock, of course!"</p>
+
+<p>"We did, sir; and found the box mentioned by the pirate."</p>
+
+<p>"A good large box, I'll warrant ye! Them pirates seldom do things by
+halves--he! he! he!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say much for the size of the box, deacon--it looked to me as if
+it had once held window-glass, and that of rather small dimensions."</p>
+
+<p>"But, the contents--you do not mention the contents."</p>
+
+<p>"They are here, sir," taking a small bag from his pocket, and laying it on
+the bed, by the deacon's side. "The pieces are all of gold, and there are
+just one hundred and forty-three of them.--Heavy doubloons, it is true,
+and I dare say well worth their 16 dollars each."</p>
+
+<p>The deacon gave a gulp, as if gasping for breath, at the same time that he
+clutched the bag. The next instant he was dead; and there is much reason
+to believe that the demons who had watched him, and encouraged him in his
+besetting sin, laughed at this consummation of their malignant arts! If
+angels in heaven did not mourn at this characteristic departure of a frail
+spirit from its earthly tenement, one who had many of their qualities did.
+Heavy had been the load on Mary Pratt's heart, at the previous display of
+her uncle's weakness, and profound was now her grief at his having made
+such an end.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch-30">
+<h2>Chapter XXX.</h2>
+
+
+
+<blockquote class="epi"><p>4 <i>Cit</i>. We 'll hear the will: Read it, Mark Antony.</p>
+
+<p><i>Cit</i>. The will, the will; we will hear Caesar's will.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ant</i>. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.</p>
+
+<p>  <i>Julius Caesar.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>There is usually great haste, in this country, in getting rid of the dead.
+In no other part of the world, with which we are acquainted, are funerals
+so simple, or so touching; placing the judgment and sins which lead to it,
+in a far more conspicuous light than rank, or riches, or personal merits.
+Scarfs and gloves are given in town, and gloves in the country, though
+scarfs are rare; but, beyond these, and the pall, and the hearse, and the
+weeping friends, an American funeral is a very unpretending procession of
+persons in their best attire; on foot, when the distance is short; in
+carriages, in wagons, and on horseback, when the grave is far from the
+dwelling. There is, however, one feature connected with a death in this
+country, that we could gladly see altered. It is the almost indecent
+haste; which so generally prevails, to get rid of the dead. Doubtless the
+climate has had an effect in establishing this custom; but the climate, by
+no means, exacts the precipitancy that is usually practised.</p>
+
+<p>As there were so many friends from a distance present, some of whom took
+the control of affairs, Mary shrinking back into herself, with a timidity
+natural to her sex and years, the moment her care could no longer serve
+her uncle, the funeral of the deacon took place the day after that of his
+death. It was the solemn and simple ceremony of the country. The Rev. Mr.
+Whittle conceived that he ought to preach a sermon on the occasion of the
+extinguishment of this "bright and shining light," and the body was
+carried to the meeting-house, where the whole congregation assembled, it
+being the Sabbath. We cannot say much for the discourse, which had already
+served as eulogiums on two or three other deacons, with a simple
+subsittution of names. In few things are the credulous more imposed on
+than in this article of sermons. A clergyman shall preach the workings of
+other men's brains for years, and not one of his hearers detect the
+imposition, purely on account of the confiding credit it is customary to
+yield to the pulpit. In this respect, preaching is very much like
+reviewing,--the listener, or the reader, being too complaisant to see
+through the great standing mystifications of either. Yet preaching is a
+work of high importance to men, and one that doubtless accomplishes great
+good, more especially when the life of the preacher corresponds with his
+doctrine; and even reviewing, though infinitely of less moment, might be
+made a very useful art, in the hands of upright, independent, intelligent,
+and learned men. But nothing in this world is as it should be, and
+centuries will probably roll over it ere the "good time" shall really
+come!</p>
+
+<p>The day of the funeral being the Sabbath, nothing that touched on business
+was referred to. On the following morning, however, "the friends"
+assembled early in the parlour, and an excuse for being a little pressing
+was made, on the ground that so many present had so far to go. The deacon
+had probably made a remove much more distant than any that awaited his
+relatives.</p>
+
+<p>"It is right to look a little into the deacon's matters before we
+separate," said Mr. Job Pratt, who, if he had the name, had not the
+patience of him of old, "in order to save trouble and hard feelings. Among
+relatives and friends there should be nothing but confidence and
+affection, and I am sure I have no other sentiments toward any here. I
+suppose"--all Mr. Job Pratt knew, was ever on a supposition--"I suppose I
+am the proper person to administer to the deacon's property, though I
+don't wish to do it, if there's the least objection."</p>
+
+<p>Every one assented that he was the most proper person, for all knew he was
+the individual the surrogate would be the most likely to appoint.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never set down the deacon's property as anything like what common
+report makes it," resumed Mr. Job Pratt; "though I do suppose it will
+fully reach ten thousand dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"La!" exclaimed a female cousin, and a widow, who had expectations of her
+own, "I'd always thought Deacon Pratt worth forty or fifty thousand
+dollars! Ten thousand dollars won't make much for each of us, divided up
+among so many folks!"</p>
+
+<p>"The division will not be so very great, Mrs. Martin," returned Mr. Job,
+"as it will be confined to the next of kin and their representatives.
+Unless a will should be found--and, by all I can learn, there is
+<i>none</i>"--emphasizing the last word with point--"unless a will be found,
+the whole estate, real and personal, must be divided into just five
+shares; which, accordin' to my calculation, would make about two thousand
+dollars a share. No great fortin, to be sure; though a comfortable
+addition to small means. The deacon was cluss (Anglice, close); yes, he
+was cluss--all the Pratts are a little given to be cluss; but I don't
+know that they are any the worse for it. It is well to be curful (careful)
+of one's means, which are a trust given to us by Divine Providence."</p>
+
+<p>In this manner did Mr. Job Pratt often quiet his conscience for being as
+"curful" of his own as of other person's assets. Divine Providence,
+according to his morality, made it as much a duty to transfer the dollar
+that was in his neighbour's pocket to his own, as to watch it vigilantly
+after the transposition has been effected.</p>
+
+<p>"A body should be curful, as you say, sir," returned the Widow Martin;
+"and for that reason I should like to know if there isn't a will. I <i>know</i>
+the deacon set store by me, and I can hardly think he has departed for
+another world without bethinking him of his cousin Jenny, and of her
+widowhood."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid he has, Mrs. Martin--really afraid he has. I can hear of no
+will. The doctor says he doubts if the deacon could ever muster courage to
+write anything about his own death, and that he has never heard of any
+will. I understand Mary, that she has no knowledge of any will; and I do
+not know where else to turn, in order to inquire. Rev. Mr. Whittle thinks
+there is a will, I ought to say."</p>
+
+<p>"There <i>must be</i> a will," returned the parson, who was on the ground again
+early, and on this very errand; "I feel certain of that from the many
+conversations I have held with the deceased. It is not a month since I
+spoke to him of divers repairs that were necessary to each and all of the
+parish buildings, including the parsonage. He agreed to every word I
+said--admitted that we could not get on another winter without a new
+horse-shed; and that the east end of the parsonage ought to be shingled
+this coming summer."</p>
+
+<p>"All of which may be; very true, parson, without the deacon's making a
+will," quietly, and we may now add <i>patiently</i>, observed Mr. Job.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so," returned the minister, with a warmth that might have
+been deemed indiscreet, did it not relate to the horse-shed, the
+parsonage, and the meeting-house, all of which were public property,
+rather than to anything in which he had a more direct legal interest. "A
+pious member of the church would hardly hold out the hopes that Deacon
+Pratt has held out to me, for more than two years without meaning to make
+his words good in the end. I think all will agree with me in that
+opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the deacon, then, go so far as to promise to do any thing?" asked Mr.
+Job, a little timidly; for he was by no means sure the answer might not be
+in the affirmative, in which case he anticipated the worst.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," answered Minister Whittle, too conscientious to tell a
+Downright lie, though sorely tempted so to do. "But a man may promise
+indirectly, as well as directly. When I have a thing much at heart, and
+converse often about it with a person who can grant all I wish, and that
+person, listens as attentively as I could wish him to do, I regard that as
+a promise; and, in church matters, one of a very solemn nature."</p>
+
+<p>All the Jesuits in the world do not get their educations at Rome, or
+acknowledge Ignatius Loyola as the great founder of their order. Some are
+to be found who have never made a public profession of their faith and
+zeal, have naver assumed the tonsure, or taken the vows.</p>
+
+<p>"That's as folks think," quietly returned Mr. Job Pratt, though he smiled
+in a manner so significant as to cause Mrs. Martin a new qualm, as she
+grew more and more apprehensive that the property was, after all, to go by
+the distribution law. "Some folks think a promise ought to be expressed,
+while others think it may be understood. The law, I believe, commonly
+looks for the direct expression of any binding promise; and, in matters of
+this sort, one made in writing, too, and that under a seal, and before
+three responsible witnesses."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish a full inquiry might be made, to ascertain if there be no will;"
+put in the minister, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm quite willing so to do," returned Mr. Job, whose confidence and moral
+courage increased each instant. "Quite willing; and am rather anxious for
+it, if I could only see where to go to inquire."</p>
+
+<p>"Does no one present know of any will made by the deceased?" demanded
+Minister Whittle, authoritatively.</p>
+
+<p>A dead silence succeeded to the question. Eye met eye, and there was great
+disappointment among the numerous collaterals present, including all those
+who did not come in as next of kin, or as their direct representatives.
+But the Rev. Mr. Whittle had been too long and too keenly on the scent of
+a legacy, to be thrown out of the hunt, just as he believed the game was
+coming in sight.</p>
+
+<p>"It might be well to question each near relative directly," he added. "Mr.
+Job Pratt, do <i>you</i> know nothing of any will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing whatever. At one time I did think the deacon meant to make his
+testament; but I conclude that he must have changed his mind."</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Mrs. Thomas," turning to the sister--"as next of kin, I make the
+same inquiry of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I once talked with brother about it," answered this relative, who was
+working away in a rocking-chair as if she thought the earth might stop in
+its orbit, if she herself ceased to keep in motion; "but he gave me no
+satisfactory answer--that is, nothin' that I call satisfactory. Had he
+told me he <i>had</i> made a will, and given me a full shear (share), I should
+have been content; or, had he told me that he had <i>not</i> made a will, and
+that the law would give me a full shear, I should have been content. I
+look upon myself as a person easily satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>This was being explicit, and left little more to be obtained from the
+deacon's beloved and only surviving sister.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Mary; do you know anything of a will made by your uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>Mary shook her head; but there was no smile on her features, for the scene
+was unpleasant to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Then no one present knows of any paper that the deacon left specially to
+be opened after his death?" demanded Rev. Mr. Whittle, putting the general
+question pretty much at random.</p>
+
+<p>"A paper!" cried Mary, hastily. "Yes, I know something of a <i>paper</i>--I
+thought you spoke of a will."</p>
+
+<p>"A will is commonly written on paper, now-a-days, Miss Mary--but, you have
+a <i>paper</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle gave me a <i>paper</i>, and told me to keep till Roswell Gardiner came
+back; and, if he himself should not then be living, to give it to
+him"--The colour now mounted to the very temples of the pretty girl, and
+she seemed to speak with greater deliberation and care. "As I was to give
+the paper to Roswell, I have always thought it related to him. My uncle
+spoke of it to me as lately as the day of his death."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the will, beyond a doubt!" cried Rev. Mr. Whittle; with more
+exultation than became his profession and professions--"Do you not think
+this may be Deacon Pratt's will, Miss Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>Now Mary had never thought any such thing. She knew that her uncle much
+wished her to marry Roswell, and had all along fancied that the paper she
+held, which indeed was contained in an envelop addressed to her lover,
+contained some expression of his wishes on this to her the most
+interesting of all subjects, and nothing else. Mary Pratt thought very
+little of her uncle's property, and still less of its future disposition,
+while she thought a great deal of Roswell Gardiner and of his suit. It
+was, consequently, the most natural thing in the world that she should
+have fallen into some such error as this. But, now that the subject was
+brought to her mind in this new light, she arose, went to her own room,
+and soon re-appeared with the paper in her hand. Both Mr. Job Pratt and
+Rev. Mr. Whittle offered to relieve her of the burthen; and the former, by
+a pretty decided movement, did actually succeed in getting possession of
+the documents. The papers were done up in the form of a large business
+letter, Was duly sealed with wax, and was addressed to "Mr. Roswell
+Gardiner, Master of the Schooner Sea Lion, now absent on a voyage." The
+superscription was read aloud, a little under the influence of surprise;
+notwithstanding which, Mr. Job Pratt was very coolly proceeding to open
+the packet, precisely as if it had been addressed to himself. In this
+decided step, Mrs. Martin, and Mrs. Thomas, and Rev. Mr. Whittle, might be
+set down as accessories before the act; for each approached; and so eager
+were the two women, that they actually assisted in breaking the seal.</p>
+
+<p>"If that letter is addressed to me," said Roswell Gardiner, with firmness
+and authority, "I claim the right to open it myself. It is unusual for
+those to whom a letter is <i>not</i> addressed to assume this office."</p>
+
+<p>"But, it comes <i>from</i> Deacon Pratt," cried the widow Martin, "and may
+contain his will."</p>
+
+<p>"In which case, a body would think I have some rights concerned," said Mr.
+Job Pratt, a little more coolly, but with manifest doubts.</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain!" put in Mrs. Thomas. "Brothers and sisters, and even cousins,
+come before strangers, any day. Here we are, a brother and sister of the
+deacon, and we ought to have a right to read his letters."</p>
+
+<p>All this time Roswell had stood with an extended arm, and an eye that
+caused Mr. Job Pratt to control his impatience. Mary advanced close to his
+side, as if to sustain him, but she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a law, with severe penalties, against knowingly opening a letter
+addressed to another," resumed Roswell, steadily; "and it shall be
+enforced against any one who shall presume to open one of mine. If that
+letter has my address, sir, I demand it; and I will have it, at every
+hazard."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell advanced a step nearer Mr. Job Pratt, and the letter was
+reluctantly yielded; though not until the widow Martin had made a nervous
+but abortive snatch at it.</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate, it ought to be opened in our presence," put in this woman,
+"that we may see what is in it."</p>
+
+<p>"And by what right, ma'am? Have I not the privilege of others, to read my
+own letters when and where I please? If the contents of this, however, do
+really relate to the late Deacon Pratt's property, I am quite willing they
+should be made known. There is nothing on this superscription to tell me
+to open the packet in the presence of witnesses; but, under all the
+circumstances, I prefer it should be done."</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon Roswell proceeded deliberately to look into the package. The seal
+was already broken, and he exhibited it in that state to all in the room,
+with a meaning smile, after which he brought to light and opened some
+written instrument, that was engrossed on a single sheet of foolscap, and
+had the names of several witnesses at its bottom.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, that's it," said Baiting Joe, for the room was crowded with all
+sorts of people; "that's the dockerment. I know'd it as soon as I laid
+eyes on it!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what do <i>you</i> know about it, Josy?" demanded the widow, eagerly.
+"Cousin Job, this man may turn out a most important and considerable
+witness!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I know, Mrs. Martin? Why I seed the deacon sign for the seals,
+and exercute. As soon as I heard Squire Craft, who was down here from
+Riverhead on that 'ere very business, talk so much about seals, I know'd
+Captain Gar'ner must have suthin' to do with the matter. The deacon's very
+heart was in the schooner and her v'y'ge, and I think it was the craft
+that finished him, in the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't that set aside a codicil, cousin Job, if so be the deacon has
+r'ally codicilled off Captain Gar'ner and Mary?"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see, we shall see. So you was present, Josy, at the making of a
+will?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sartain--and was a witness to the insterment, as the squire called it.
+I s'pose he sent for me to be a witness, as I am some acquainted with the
+sealin' business, having made two v'y'ges out of Stunnin'tun, many years
+since. Ay, ay; that's the insterment, and pretty well frightened was the
+deacon when he put his name to it, I can tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Frightened!" echoed the brother--"that's ag'in law, at any rate. The
+instrument that a man signs because he's frightened, is no instrument at
+all, in law. As respects a will, it is what we justices of the peace call
+'dies non,' or, don't die; that is, in law."</p>
+
+<p>"Can that be so, squire Job?" asked the sister, who had said but little
+hitherto, but had thought all the more.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's Latin, I s'pose, and good Latin, too, they tell me. A man may
+be dead in the flesh, but living in law."</p>
+
+<p>"La! how cur'ous! Law is a wonderful thing, to them that understands it."</p>
+
+<p>The worthy Mrs. Thomas expressed a much more profound sentiment than that
+of which she was probably aware, herself. Law <i>is</i> a wonderful thing, and
+most wonderful is he who can tell what it is to-day, or is likely to be
+to-morrow. The law of testamentary devises, in particular, has more than
+the usual uncertainty, the great interest that is taken by the community
+in the large estates of certain individuals who are placed without the
+ordinary social categories by the magnitude of their fortunes, preventing
+anything from becoming absolutely settled, as respects <i>them</i>. In Turkey,
+and in America, the possession of great wealth is very apt to ruin their
+possessors; proscription, in some form or other, being pretty certain to
+be the consequences. In Turkey, such has long and openly been the fact,
+the bow-string usually lying at the side of the strong box; but, in this
+country, the system is in its infancy, though advancing towards maturity
+with giant strides. Twenty years more, resembling the twenty that are just
+past, in which the seed recently sown broadcast shall have time to reach
+maturity, and, in our poor opinion, the great work of demoralization, in
+this important particular, will be achieved. We are much afraid that the
+boasted progress, of which we hear so much, will resemble the act of the
+man who fancied he could teach his horse to live without food--just as he
+believed the poor beast was perfect, it died of inanition!</p>
+
+<p>Roswell read Baiting Joe's 'insterment' twice, and then he placed it, with
+manly tenderness; in the hands of Mary. The girl read the document, too,
+tears starting to her eyes; but, a bright blush suffused her face, as she
+returned the will to her lover.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! do not read it now, Roswell," she said, in an under tone; but the
+stillness and expectation were so profound, that every syllable she
+uttered was heard by all in the room.</p>
+
+<p>"And why not read it now, Miss Mary!" cried the Widow Martin. "Methinks
+<i>now</i> is the proper time to read it. If I'm to be codicilled out of that
+will, I want to know it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is better, in every respect, that the company present should know all
+that is to be known, at once," observed Mr. Job Pratt. "Before the will is
+read, if that be the will, Captain Gar'ner--"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the will of the late Deacon Pratt, duly signed, sealed, and
+witnessed, I believe, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"One word more, then, before it is read. I think you said, Josy, that the
+deceased was <i>frightened</i> when he signed that will? I do not express any
+opinion until I hear the will; perhaps a'ter it is read, I shall think or
+say nothin' about this fright; though the instrument that a man signs
+because he is frightened, if the fright be what I call a legal fright, is
+no instrument at all."</p>
+
+<p>"But such was not the deacon's case, Squire Job," put in Baiting Joe, at
+once. "He did not sign the insterment because he was frightened, but was
+frightened because he signed the insterment. Let the boat go right eend
+foremost, squire."</p>
+
+<p>"Read the will, Captain Gar'ner, if you have it," said Mr. Job Pratt, with
+decision. "It is proper that we should know who is executor. Friends, will
+you be silent for a moment?"</p>
+
+<p>Amid a death-like stillness, Roswell Gardiner now read as follows:--</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of God, amen. I, Ichabod Pratt, of the town of Southold, and
+county of Suffolk, and state of New York, being of failing bodily health,
+but of sound mind, do make and declare this to be my last will and
+testament.</p>
+
+<p>"I bequeath to my niece, Mary Pratt, only child of my late brother, Israel
+Pratt, all my real estate, whatsoever it may be, and wheresoever situate,
+to be held by her, her heirs and assigns, for ever, in fee.</p>
+
+<p>"I bequeath to my brother, Job Pratt, any horse of which I shall die
+possessed, to be chosen by himself, as a compensation for the injury
+inflicted on a horse of his, while in my use.</p>
+
+<p>"I bequeath to my sister, Jane Thomas, the large looking-glass that is
+hanging up in the east bed-room of my house, and which was once the
+property of our beloved mother.</p>
+
+<p>"I bequeath to the widow Catherine Martin, my cousin, the big pin-cushion
+in the said east chamber, which she used so much to praise and admire.</p>
+
+<p>"I bequeath to my said niece, Mary Pratt, the only child of my late
+brother, Israel Pratt, aforesaid, all of my personal estate, whether in
+possession or existing in equity, including money at use, vessels, stock
+on farm, all other sorts of stock, furniture, wearing apparel, book-debts,
+money in hand, and all sorts of personal property whatever.</p>
+
+<p>"I nominate and appoint Roswell Gardiner, now absent on a sealing voyage,
+in my employment, as the sole executor of this my last will, provided he
+return home within six months of my decease; and should he not return home
+within the said six months, then I appoint my above-mentioned niece and
+heiress, Mary Pratt, the sole executrix of this my will.</p>
+
+<p>"I earnestly advise my said niece, Mary Pratt, to marry the said Roswell
+Gardiner; but I annex no conditions whatever to this advice, wishing to
+leave my adopted daughter free to do as she may think best."</p>
+
+<p>The instrument was, in all respects, duly executed, and there could not be
+a doubt of its entire validity. Mary felt a little bewildered, as well as
+greatly embarrassed. So perfectly disinterested had been all her care of
+her uncle, and so humble her wishes, that she did not for some time regard
+herself as the owner of a property that she had all her life been
+accustomed to consider as a part of her late uncle. The heirs expectant,
+"a'ter reading the insterment," as Baiting Joe told his cronies, when he
+related the circumstances over a mug of cider that evening, "fore and aft,
+and overhauling it from truck to keelson, give the matter up, as a bad
+job. They couldn't make nawthin' out of oppersition," continued Joe, "and
+so they tuck the horse, and the looking-glass, and the pin-cushion, and
+cleared out with their cargo. You couldn't get one of that breed to leave
+as much as a pin behind, to which he thought the law would give him a
+right. Squire Job went off very unwillingly; for so strong was his belief
+in his claim, that he had made up his mind, as he told me himself, to
+break up the north meadow, and put it in corn this coming season."</p>
+
+<p>"They say that Minister Whittle took it very hard that nawthin' was said
+about him, or about meetin', in the deacon's will," observed Jake Davis,
+one of Baiting Joe's cronies.</p>
+
+<p>"That he did; and he tuck it so hard that everybody allows the two sermons
+he preached the next Sabba' day to be the very two worst he ever <i>did</i>
+preach."</p>
+
+<p>"They must have been pretty bad, then," quaintly observed Davis: "I've
+long set down Minister Whittle's discourses as being a <i>leetle</i> the worst
+going, when you give him a chance."</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to relate any more of this dialogue, nor should we have
+given the little we have, did it not virtually explain what actually
+occurred on the publication of the contents of the will. Roswell met with
+no opposition in proving the instrument, and the day after he was admitted
+to act as executor he was married to Mary Pratt, and became tenant, by the
+courtesy, to all her real estate; such being the law <i>then</i>, though it is
+so no longer. <i>Now</i>, a man and his wife may have a very pretty family
+quarrel about the ownership of a dozen tea-spoons, and the last, so far as
+we can see, may order the first out of one of her rocking chairs, if she
+see fit! Surely domestic peace is not so trifling a matter that the law
+should seek to add new subjects of strife to the many that seem to be
+nearly inseparable from the married state.</p>
+
+<p>Let this be as it may, no such law existed when Roswell Gardiner and Mary
+Pratt became man and wife. One of the first acts of the happy young
+couple, after they were united, was to make a suitable disposition of the
+money found buried at the foot of the tree, on the so-much-talked of key.
+Its amount was a little more than 2000 dollars, the pirate who made the
+revelation to Daggett having, in all probability, been ignorant himself of
+the real sum that had been thus secreted. By a specific bargain with the
+crew, all this money belonged to the deacon; and, consequently, it had
+descended to his niece, and through her was now legally the property of
+Roswell. The young man was not altogether free from scruples about using
+money that had been originally taken as booty by pirates, and his
+conscientious wife had still greater objections. After conferring together
+on the subject, however, and seeing the impossibility of restoring the
+gold to those from whom it had been forced in the first place, the
+doubloons were distributed among the families of those who had lost their
+lives at Sealer's Land. The shares did not amount to much, it is true; but
+they did good, and cheered the hearts of two or three widows and dependent
+sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Roswell Gardiner's care for their welfare stop here. He had the
+Sea Lion put in good order, removed her decks, raised upon her, and put
+her in her original condition, and sent her to Sealer's Land, again, under
+the orders of Hazard, who was instructed to take in all the oil and skins
+that had been left behind, and to fill up, if he could, without risking
+too much by delay. All this was successfully done, the schooner coming
+back, after a very short voyage, and quite full. The money made by this
+highly successful adventure, had the effect to console several of those
+who had great cause to regret their previous losses.</p>
+
+<p>As to Roswell and Mary, they had much reason to be content with their lot.
+The deacon's means were found to be much more considerable than had been
+supposed. When all was brought into a snug state. Roswell found that his
+wife was worth more than thirty thousand dollars, a sum which constituted
+wealth on Oyster Pond, in that day. We have, however, already hinted that
+the simplicity, and we fear with it the happiness, of the place has
+departed. A railroad terminates within a short distance of the deacon's
+old residence, bringing with it the clatter, ambition, and rivalry, of
+such a mode of travelling. What is even worse, the venerable and
+expressive name of "Oyster Pond," one that conveys in its very sound the
+idea of savoury dishes, and an abundance of a certain and a very agreeable
+sort has been changed to "Orient," Heaven save the mark! Long Island has,
+hitherto, been famous, in the history of New York, for the homely piquancy
+of its names, which usually conveyed a graphic idea of the place
+indicated. It is true, "Jerusalem" cannot boast of its Solomon's Temple,
+nor "Babylon" of its Hanging Gardens; but, by common consent, it is
+understood that these two names, and some half-a-dozen more of the same
+quality, are to be taken by their opposites.</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner did not let Stimson pass out of his sight, as is
+customary with seamen when they quit a vessel. He made him master of a
+sloop that plied between New York and Southold, in which employment the
+good old man fulfilled his time, leaving to a widowed sister who dwelt
+with him, the means of a comfortable livelihood, for life.</p>
+
+<p>The only bit of management of which Mary could be accused, was practised
+by her shortly after Stimson's death, and some six or eight years after
+her own marriage. One of her school friends, and a relative, had married a
+person who dwelt 'west of the bridge,' as it is the custom to say of all
+the counties that lie west of Cayuga Lake. This person, whose name was
+Hight, had mills, and made large quantities of that excellent flour, that
+is getting to enjoy its merited reputation even in the old world. He was
+disposed to form a partnership with Roswell, who sold his property, and
+migrated to the great west, as the country 'west of the bridge' was then
+termed, though it is now necessary to go a thousand miles farther, in
+order to reach what is termed "the western country." Mary had an important
+agency in bringing about this migration. She had seen certain longings
+after the ocean, and seals, and whales, in her husband; and did not
+consider him safe, as long as he could scent the odours of a salt marsh.
+There is a delight in this fragrance that none can appreciate as
+thoroughly as those who have enjoyed it in youth; it remains as long as
+human senses retain their faculties. An increasing family, however, and el
+dorado of the west, which, in that day, produced wheat, were inducements
+for a removal there, and, aided by Mary's gentle management, produced the
+desired effect; and for more than twenty years Roswell Gardiner has been a
+very successful miller, on a large scale, in one of the western counties
+of what is called "the Empire State." We do not think the <i>sobriquets</i> of
+this country very happy, in general, but shall quarrel less with this,
+than with the phrase of "commercial emporium," which is much as if one
+should say "a townish town."</p>
+
+<p>Roswell Gardiner has never wavered in his faith, from the time when his
+feelings were awakened by the just view of his own insignificance, as
+compared to the power of God! He then learned the first, great lesson in
+religious belief, that of humility; without which no man can be truly
+penitent, or truly a Christian. He no longer thought of measuring the
+Deity with his narrow faculties, or of setting up his blind conclusions,
+in the face of positive revelations. He saw that all must be accepted, or
+none; and there was too much evidence, too much inherent truth, a morality
+too divine, to allow a mind like his to reject the gospel altogether. With
+Mary at his side, he has continued to worship the Trinity, accepting its
+mysteries in an humble reliance on the words of inspired men.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h4>The End.</h4>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10545 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:34:41 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:34:41 -0700
commit	d78b3b1a366830e4ab1b131fb6219d7f931731f8 (patch)
tree	3f6803a8d998158efe8ec56fe729e0fea4c8042f /10545-h