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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Poor Jack, by Frederick Marryat
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Poor Jack
+
+Author: Frederick Marryat
+
+Release Date: November 30, 2004  [eBook #14222]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR JACK***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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+
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+
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+
+
+
+POOR JACK
+
+by
+
+CAPTAIN MARRYAT
+
+Works of Captain Marryat, Volume Ten
+
+With Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: POOR JACK--FRONTISPIECE--Marryat Vol. X.]
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME TEN
+
+FRONTISPIECE--Poor Jack
+Fisher's Alley
+I summoned all my strength, and called out long before we floated past her
+Anderson reading the Bible to Jack
+Anderson reading the news of the Battle of the Nile
+Jack's Father landing after the Battle of the Nile
+Jack in Nanny's Room
+Jack and Bramble aboard the Indiaman
+The Fore-peak Yarn
+"How's her head, Tom?"
+Bramble saving Bessie
+Jack heaving the lead
+Nanny relating her story
+Jack and his Father under the Colonnade
+A Surprise
+Bramble and Jack carried into a French Port
+The Leith Smack and the Privateer
+The Arrival of the Privateer at Lanion
+The Prison
+Jack a Prisoner
+The Escape
+Wreck of the Galley
+We found both Bramble and Bessy clinging to the rope
+Bramble had knelt by the bedside, and was evidently in prayer
+I went down to the beach, ... and I was soon on board
+"Mr. Saunders, ... may I ask where you procured this spy-glass?"
+Sir J. O'Connor and Mrs. St. Felix
+I met face to face a Frenchman
+
+
+
+
+POOR JACK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+     In which, like most People who tell their own Stories, I begin with
+     the Histories of other People.
+
+
+I have every reason to believe that I was born in the year of our Lord
+1786, for more than once I put the question to my father, and he
+invariably made the same reply: "Why, Jack, you were launched a few
+months before the Druids were turned over to the Melpomene." I have
+since ascertained that this remarkable event occurred in January 1787.
+But my father always reckoned in this way: if you asked him when such an
+event took place, he would reply, so many years or months after such a
+naval engagement or remarkable occurrence; as, for instance, when I one
+day inquired how many years he had served the King, he responded, "I
+came into the sarvice a little afore the battle of Bunker's Hill, in
+which we licked the Americans clean out of Boston[1]." As for Anno
+Domini, he had no notion of it whatever.
+
+[Footnote 1: I have since heard a different version of the result of
+this battle.]
+
+Who my grandfather was, I cannot inform the reader, nor is it, perhaps,
+of much consequence. My father was a man who invariably looked forward,
+and hated anything like retrospection: he never mentioned either his
+father or his mother; perhaps he was not personally acquainted with
+them. All I could collect from him at intervals was, that he served in a
+collier from South Shields, and that a few months after his
+apprenticeship was out, he found himself one fine morning on board of a
+man-of-war, having been picked up in a state of unconsciousness, and
+hoisted up the side without his knowledge or consent. Some people may
+infer from this that he was at the time tipsy; he never told me so; all
+he said was, "Why, Jack, the fact is when they picked me up I was quite
+altogether _non pompus_." I also collected at various times the
+following facts--that he was put into the mizzentop, and served three
+years in the West Indies; that he was transferred to the maintop, and
+served five years in the Mediterranean; that he was made captain of the
+foretop, and sailed six years in the East Indies; and, at last, was
+rated captain's coxswain in the "Druid" frigate, attached to the Channel
+fleet cruising during the peace. Having thus condensed the genealogical
+and chronological part of this history, I now come to a portion of it in
+which it will be necessary that I should enter more into detail.
+
+The frigate in which my father eventually served as captain's coxswain
+was commanded by a Sir Hercules Hawkingtrefylyan, Baronet. He was very
+poor and very proud, for baronets were not so common in those days. He
+was a very large man, standing six feet high, and with what is termed a
+considerable _bow-window_ in front; but at the same time portly in his
+carriage. He wore his hair well powdered, exacted the utmost degree of
+ceremony and respect, and considered that even speaking to one of his
+officers was paying them a very high compliment: as for being asked to
+his table, there were but few who could boast of having had that honor,
+and even those few perhaps not more than once in the year. But he was,
+as I have said, very poor; and moreover he was a married man, which
+reminds me that I must introduce his lady, who, as the ship was on
+Channel service, had lodgings at the port near to which the frigate was
+stationed, and occasionally came on board to take a passage when the
+frigate changed her station to the eastward or to the westward. Lady
+Hercules, as we were directed to call her by Sir Hercules, was as large
+in dimensions, and ten times more proud than her husband. She was an
+excessive fine lady in every respect; and whenever she made her
+appearance on board, the ship's company looked upon her with the
+greatest awe. She had a great dislike to ships and sailors; officers she
+seldom condescended to notice; and pitch and tar were her abomination.
+Sir Hercules himself submitted to her dictation; and, had she lived on
+board, she would have commanded the ship: fortunately for the service,
+she was always very seasick when she was taking a passage, and therefore
+did no mischief. "I recollect," said my father to me, "once when we were
+running down to Portsmouth, where we had been ordered for provisions,
+that my Lady Hercules, who was no fool of a weight, being one night
+seasick in her cot, the lanyard of the cot gave way, and she came down
+with a run by the head. The steward was called by the sentry, and there
+was a terrible shindy. I, of course, was sent for, as I had the hanging
+up of the cot. There was Sir Hercules with his shirt flapping in the
+wind, and a blanket over his shoulders, strutting about in a towering
+passion; there was the officer of the watch, who had been sent for by
+mistake, and who was ordered to quit the cabin immediately; and there
+was I, expecting to be put in irons, and have seven dozen for my
+breakfast. As for Sir Hercules, he didn't know what to do; he did
+nothing but storm at everybody, for my lady, with her head under the
+clothes, was serving him out at no small rate. She wouldn't, she
+declared, allow any man to come into the cabin to hoist her up again. So
+indecent, so indelicate, so shocking--she was ashamed of Sir
+Hercules--to send for the men; if they didn't leave the cabin
+immediately, she'd scream and she'd faint--that she would--there was no
+saying what she wouldn't do! Well, there we waited just outside until at
+last Sir Hercules and my lady came to a parley. She was too sick to get
+out of bed, and he was not able to hoist her up without assistance; so
+being, as I suppose, pretty well tired of lying with her head three feet
+lower than her heels, she consented, provided that she was properly
+kivered up, to allow us to come in and put all to rights. Well, first
+she made Sir Hercules throw over her his two boat cloaks, but that
+wouldn't do; so he threw the green cloth from off the table, but that
+warn't enough for her delicate sensibility, and she hollowed from under
+the clothes for more kivering; so Sir Hercules sent for two of the
+ship's ensigns, and coiled away the bunting on her till it was as high
+as a haycock, and then we were permitted to come in and hoist her
+ladyship up again to the battens. Fortunately it was not a slippery
+hitch that had let her down by the run, but the lanyard had given way
+from my lady's own weight, so my back was not scratched after all. Women
+ain't no good on board, Jack, that's sartain."
+
+But I must now introduce a more important personage than even Lady
+Hercules, which is my mother. They say "like master, like man," and I
+may add, "like lady, like maid." Lady Hercules was fine, but her maid
+was still finer. Most people when they write their biography, if their
+parents were poor, inform you that they left them a good name and
+nothing else. Some parents cannot even do that; but all parents can at
+all events leave their children a _pretty_ name, by taking a little
+trouble at their baptism. My mother's name was Araminta, which, as my
+father truly observed, was "a touch above the common." She had
+originally gone into service as a nursery maid, living in her first
+situation one year and nine months; in her second she remained two years
+and four months; then she left to _better_ herself, and obtained the
+situation of nurse in a family where she remained two years and one
+month; after which Lady Hercules then having a child of a year old, she
+was received into her service. At three years old the child died, and my
+mother was promoted to the situation of lady's maid. This advancement
+quite spoiled her; she was prouder than her mistress, and gave herself
+ten times more airs, and when, at first, my father (who as coxswain was
+constantly up at the house) offered to speak to her, she turned away
+from him in most ineffable disdain. Now my father was at that time about
+thirty years of age, and thought no small beer of himself, as the saying
+goes. He was a tall, handsome man, indeed, so good-looking that they
+used to call him "Handsome Jack" on board of the "Druid," and he had,
+moreover, a pigtail of most extraordinary size and length, of which he
+was not a little proud, as it hung down far below the waistband of his
+trousers. His hair was black and glossy, and his lovelocks, as the
+sailors term the curls which they wear on their temples, were of the
+most insinuating description. Now, as my father told me, when he first
+saw my mother with her sky-scraping cap at the back of her head, so
+different from the craft in general, he was very much inclined to board
+her; but when she boomed him off in that style, my father, who was
+quite the rage and fancy man among the ladies of Sally Port and Castle
+Rag, hauled his wind in no time, hitching up his white trousers and
+turning short round on his heel so as to present his back to her
+whenever they happened to meet. For a long time he gave her a wide
+berth. Now this fact of my father returning her disdain had the usual
+effect. At first she was very savage, and when she spoke of him to Lady
+Hercules, she designated him as "that proud coxswain, who seemed to
+think himself a greater man than Sir Hercules himself--with his filthy
+pigtail, indeed!" My father also, when he spoke of her to the boat's
+crew, termed her "that proud ---- of a lady's maid," the word not
+mentionable being both canine and feminine. Thus matters went on for
+some time, until my mother, by a constant survey of my father's handsome
+proportions, every day thought him to be a more proper man, and a few
+advances on her part at last brought them to a mutual understanding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+     My Father does what most Sailors do--he makes a foolish Marriage,
+     one of the Consequences of which is brought to Light at the End of
+     the Chapter.
+
+
+I have observed at the finale of my first chapter, that at last my
+mother and father came to a good understanding; but at the same time
+Madam Araminta (for so my mother insisted upon being called) took good
+care to let my father understand that she considered that she was
+lowering herself by surrendering up her charms to a captain's coxswain.
+She informed him that her father might be said to have been royally
+connected, being a king's messenger (and so, indeed, he might be
+considered, having been a twopenny postman), and that her mother had
+long scores against the first nobles in the land (she was a milk-woman),
+and that she had dry-nursed a young baronet, and was now not merely a
+ladies' maid, but a _lady's_ laides' maid. All this important and novel
+communication sunk deep in my father's mind, and when he heard it he
+could hardly believe his good fortune in having achieved such a
+conquest; but, as the sequel will prove, his marriage did not turn out
+very happily. He used to say to me, "Jack, take my advice, and never
+marry above your condition as I did; nothing would please me but a
+_lady's ladies'_ maid; I had no right to look up to even a _ladies'_
+maid, and had your mother only been a simple maid, all might have been
+right." But these were after-reflections when it was too late. I do not
+wonder at my poor father's senses being dazzled, for, as he said to me,
+"You see, Jack, after being used to see nothing but Point women, all so
+slack in stays and their rigging out of order, to fall aboard of a craft
+like your mother, so trim and neat, ropes all taut, stays well set up,
+white hammock-cloths spread every day in the week, and when under way,
+with a shawl streaming out like a silk ensign, and such a rakish gaff
+topsail bonnet, with pink pennants; why, it was for all the world as if
+I was keeping company with a tight little frigate after rolling down
+channel with a fleet of colliers; but, howsomever, fine feathers don't
+make fine birds, and handsome is as handsome does."
+
+My father's marriage was, however, precipitated by circumstances. One
+afternoon, after he had been accepted, he had taken his quid out of his
+cheek, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and was in the act of
+giving and receiving a chaste salute, when Lady Hercules happened to
+come down into the kitchen--a most rare occurrence, and wholly
+unexpected from a lady of her refined and delicate ideas. She caught my
+father and mother in the very act; and (as my father expressed it) with
+an exclamation of horror, "She 'bout ship, and sculled upstairs like
+winkin'." A loud peal of the bell summoned up my mother, leaving my
+father in a state of no pleasant suspense, for he was calculating how
+far Sir Hercules could bring in "kissing a lady's ladies' maid" under
+the article of war as "contempt of superiors," and, if so, how many
+dozen kisses his back might receive from the cat in return. While he was
+absorbed in this pleasing speculation, Lady Hercules was pouring out
+anathemas against my mother's want of delicacy and decency, informing
+her that it was impossible she could submit the decoration of her person
+to one who has so contaminated herself with a tobacco-chewing
+seaman--who was all pigtail within and without; for, as the Scripture
+says, "Who can touch pitch without being defiled?"
+
+Although my mother had made up her mind that if it was to be a question
+between a place and a husband, she should decide upon retaining the
+latter, still she thought it advisable, if it were possible, to
+conciliate my lady. She therefore pulled out a cambric handkerchief, and
+while her ladyship scolded, she covered up her face and wept. Lady
+Hercules continued to scold until she was out of breath, and thereby
+compelled to stop. My mother then replied, with deep humility and many
+tears, "that indeed she had been so persuaded (sob) that she at last
+promised to (sob) marry; but only on one condition--yes, indeed--(sob)
+that her ladyship gave her consent--positively on no other (sob)--no,
+indeed, upon her honor! Mr. Saunders was--(sob)--excellent young
+man--(sob), so attached to Sir Hercules (sob), and had such a great
+respect for her ladyship, that--(sob--sob--sob)--he had won her heart."
+
+By this time her ladyship had regained her breath, and she interrupted
+my mother by pointing out to her, that allowing all she said to be
+correct, yet still that was no reason why she should allow such indecent
+liberties; that Sir Hercules had never obtained such favors from her
+until after the ring had been put on her finger. Then, indeed, such
+things might be--that is, occasionally; but the kitchen of all
+places!--And, besides, how did she know how many wives the coxswain had
+already? She shouldn't be surprised, if, with that long pigtail of his,
+he had five at least--nay, perhaps, six or seven. Here my mother
+replied that "it was out of gratitude to her (sob) for having consented
+to permit him to (sob) speak to Sir Hercules (sob), who would plead with
+her ladyship (sob), which had occasioned Mr. Saunders (sob) to
+take--such--a--liberty (sob--sob--sob)--which he had never--done
+before--(sob)--No!--never--upon her honor--never!--" And here my
+mother's sobs choked her utterance.
+
+This explanation somewhat pacified, and a little subsequent humility and
+flattery gained the mistress, who consented to settle the matter with
+Sir Hercules, alleging, as one principal reason for so doing, that after
+the familiarity which had taken place between them, the sooner they were
+married the better. The wishes of her ladyship were tantamount to
+commands. Sir Hercules pronounced my father to be a fool, and they were
+married.
+
+My mother was a good-looking person, perhaps two or three years older
+than my father; she was of a very bad temper, very vindictive and
+revengeful, and in every way she had a pleasure in annoying other
+people, and when she succeeded she invariably concluded her remarks
+with, "There--now you're vexed!" Whenever out of humor herself from the
+observations of others, she attempted to conceal her vexation by
+singing; and having been so many years of her life in the nursery, her
+songs were usually those little ditties used to pacify or amuse children
+in arms. "Saunders," she would cry out, "if you aren't the biggest fool
+that ever walked on two legs--to look at that long tail of yours you're
+so proud of, one would think I'd married a monkey--a _hourang-howtang_,
+instead of a man. There--now you're vexed! One can't open one's mouth."
+My mother knew where to strike; and this attack upon his pigtail was
+certain to provoke my father, who would retort in no measured language,
+till she, in her turn, lost her temper, and then out she would sing, in
+a sort of scream--
+
+     "Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
+      The cow jumped over the moon," etc.
+
+And thus she continued to sing (or squeal) until her wrath cooled down.
+
+The consequences of forming a matrimonial alliance with a captain's
+coxswain soon became visible. Six months after they had been married,
+Lady Hercules pronounced my mother's appearance to be quiet indecent,
+and declared her no longer fit for the office of lady's maid to a lady
+of her exquisite delicacy; and my mother, who became less active every
+day, received notice to quit, which she did, when her month was up, in
+great wrath, packing up her boxes, and slamming the door as she left the
+house, singing at the very highest pitch of her voice,
+
+"Dickory, dickory, dock; the mouse ran up the clock," etc.
+
+My father wished her to come and live with him on board the frigate; but
+to that my mother would not consent, saying that she had, it was true,
+degraded herself and her family by marrying a coxswain, but she was not
+going to further contaminate herself by mixing with the vulgar creatures
+on board. In this resolve I think my mother was right; but her dismissal
+and disgrace was followed up by my father being disrated and turned into
+the maintop, for no other reason in the world than such being the will
+and pleasure of Lady Hercules.
+
+Her ladyship considered that she had lost a good servant through my
+father's intervention; and having therefore taken a dislike to him, did
+not choose that he should, as coxswain, come up to the house as usual;
+and, as he no longer did the duty of coxswain, she asserted that he was
+not entitled to the rating. Thus, seven months had hardly passed away
+before my father's marriage became a source of vexation and annoyance;
+his pay was decreased, and he was no longer a petty officer. My mother's
+pride was hurt; and if she was resolute in not going on board to remain
+with him when he was captain's coxswain, she was still more so now that
+he was reduced to a common seaman. As for my father, he was the picture
+of misery--he had no consolation except turning his quid and tying his
+pigtail.
+
+But everything changes in this world, and among other changes was that
+of the station of the frigate, which was ordered foreign. Sir Hercules
+took leave of his lady, who retired to Tunbridge Wells. My father took
+leave of my mother, who retired to Woolwich. She had saved some money in
+service, and my father handed over to her all the pay which he received,
+when the ship's company were paid previous to the sailing of the ship.
+It is but justice to observe that the moment he was out of soundings and
+away from the influence of her ladyship, Sir Hercules reinstated my
+father, and gave him back his rating as coxswain. My father was indeed
+the smartest and best seaman in the ship; he could do his work from stem
+to stern--mouse a stay, pudding an anchor, and pass a gammoning, as well
+as he could work a Turk's head, cover a manrope, or point a lashing for
+the cabin table. Besides which, he had seen service, having fought under
+Rodney, and served at the siege of Gibraltar.
+
+But I must return to my mother, who, when she first went to Woolwich,
+which she did in a transport that was ordered round, took lodgings in
+the outskirts of the town; and not wishing to acknowledge that she had
+married a common sailor, as she supposed my father still to be,
+asserted that she was the wife of a captain of a merchant vessel, which
+had been taken up as a transport to convey troops to the West Indies. On
+this supposition, being received into a society above her real station,
+she was compelled to spend more money than she could afford, and her
+finances rapidly wasted away. In the meantime I was born--a fine baby,
+but with nothing to look up to but a penniless mother, an absent (if
+existing) father, the workhouse, and the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+     In which my Mother proves herself a tender Wife, and at the same
+     time shows her Patriotism and Devotion to her Country.
+
+
+I had almost unconsciously arrived at the age of two years before there
+were any tidings of my father. All the information that my mother could
+obtain was, that the ship's company of the "Druid" had been turned over
+to another frigate called the "Melpomene," the former having been
+declared not seaworthy, and in consequence condemned and broken up at
+Port Royal.
+
+But no letter had been received from my father, who indeed was not much
+of a scholar; he could read, but he could not write. By this time my
+mother's savings were expended, and she was in great tribulation lest
+the deceit she had practiced should be exposed. Indeed, there were
+already many surmises as to the truth of her story, it being so long
+that her husband had been absent. At last, when she had changed her only
+remaining guinea, a letter arrived from my father, dated from
+Portsmouth, stating that the ship was to be paid off in a few days, and
+then "he would clap on all sail and be on board of his old woman in no
+time."
+
+My mother, although not a little disgusted at being called an old
+woman--an affront which she determined to revenge upon a more fitting
+occasion--was in raptures with the contents of the letter. She therefore
+returned a kind answer, informing my father what a promising child he
+was blessed with, and giving him a direction to meet her at Greenwich,
+as she had resolved upon not receiving him at Woolwich, where her false
+assertions would have been exposed. Going round to all her
+acquaintances, she bade them farewell, telling them that her husband had
+returned well, and _well to-do_, and had ordered her to meet him at
+Greenwich. Having thus satisfactorily, as she imagined, got out of this
+little difficulty, she packed up and hastened to Greenwich, where she
+sunk her assumed rank and waited very impatiently for her husband. He
+came at last, seated with many others on the outside of a stage
+coach--his hat bedecked with ribbons, a pipe in one hand and flourishing
+a pewter pot in the other. It hardly need be added that he was more than
+half tipsy. Nevertheless, even in this state, he was well received; and
+after he had smothered her with kisses, dandled me on his knee, thrown
+into her lap all the pay he had left, and drank three more pots of
+porter, they went very peaceably and lovingly to repose.
+
+I regret to say that this amity did not last long. My father's manners,
+which perhaps had been softened down by the awe which he had of Lady
+Hercules when he first made my mother's acquaintance, were now more
+coarse, and so was his language; and the neatness and cleanliness of
+person which he was obliged to maintain while performing the duties of a
+coxswain to a married captain were not so observable. Besides which,
+being no longer under discipline, he was almost every night intoxicated;
+and, being so, was more self-willed and regardless of his wife's
+injunctions. The consequences were that having received from my father
+fifty pounds, my mother first locked that up, and then "unlocked her
+jaw." Disputes were now hourly occurring; and it was "now you're vexed,"
+and "hey diddle diddle," from morning till night.
+
+My father would repair to the grog-shops to have a dance and carouse
+with his messmates, and my mother would not accompany him to such a
+vulgar place; consequently he went alone, was out very late, coming home
+very drunk, if indeed he came home at all. Moreover, the wives and
+companions of the other seamen would insult her when she walked out, for
+pretending to be better than they were.
+
+One day when she was walking out arm-in-arm with my father, unluckily
+she was met by one of her Woolwich acquaintances. This was the severest
+stroke of all, as she had intended to return to Woolwich; but now she
+was discovered, and avoided by one party, as well as insulted by the
+other. I cannot defend my mother's conduct; nor indeed was she deserving
+of pity, as her treatment had been brought about by her own folly and
+pride. The effect of all this was, however, that of souring her temper
+still more; and the constant vituperation poured out upon my father so
+roused his indignation that one evening, when more than usually
+intoxicated, the "lady's ladies' maid" received such a severe box on the
+ear that the one candle turned to a general illumination. This blow was
+never forgotten nor forgiven, although my father was very sorry for it,
+and begged her pardon the next day, with promises of amendment.
+
+Just at this time the French Revolution commenced, and there was
+expectation of a war with France; the press-gangs were ordered out, and
+the seamen, aware of it, remained concealed until they should leave the
+town. But my mother had made up her mind. She found out an officer who
+commanded one of the press-gangs, gave her address, and, having supplied
+my father with spirits until he was stupefied, she let in the gang, and
+before morning my father was safe on board of the tender lying off the
+Tower. This treachery on her part my father did not discover until some
+time afterward; and it was the occasion of a scene between them, as I
+shall hereafter show. The next day my mother went on board of the tender
+to visit my father, put her cambric handkerchief to her eyes, pressed
+his hand between the iron bars, and lamented _his_ hard fate, and _her_
+hard fate; but when requested by him to smuggle a little liquor in a
+bladder to comfort him with, she tossed up her head, and declared "that
+nothing could induce her to do anything so ungenteel." Whereupon my
+father turned away, lamenting the day that ever he had married a lady's
+ladies' maid.
+
+A day or two afterward my mother brought my father his kit of clothes,
+and two pounds of his own money. As a war was expected, my mother would
+have persuaded my father to give her his "will and power" to receive his
+prize money; but my father, grown comparatively wiser, positively
+refused. He turned away on his heel, and they parted.
+
+I shall, for the present, leave my father to his fortunes, and follow
+those of my mother. Convinced by his refusal to sign the deed, which she
+had brought ready prepared with her, that she had little in future to
+expect from my father, and aware probably of the risk incurred by a
+seaman from "battle, fire, and wreck," she determined this time to
+husband her resources, and try if she could not do something for
+herself. At first she thought of going again into service and putting me
+out to nurse; but she discovered that my father's return was not without
+its consequences, and that she was again to be a mother. She therefore
+hired rooms in Fisher's Alley, a small street still existing in
+Greenwich, and indeed still a general thoroughfare. Here, in due time,
+she was brought to bed of a daughter, whom she christened by the name of
+Virginia; not so much out of respect to her last mistress, who bore that
+name, as because she considered it peculiarly ladylike and genteel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+     In which I tell the Reader all I can recollect about myself, and
+     moreover prove the Truth of the old Adage, "That it is a wise Child
+     who knows its own Father".
+
+
+My readers must not expect me to tell them much of what passed during
+the first four years of my existence. I have a recollection of a deal
+board put at the door of our house, which opened into Fisher's Alley, to
+prevent me, and afterward my sister, from crawling out. Fisher's Alley
+is a very narrow street, and what was said in a room on one side of it
+can be heard on the other, and I used to hang over the board and listen.
+There were drunken men and drunken women, and occasionally scolding and
+fighting. My mother, having made up her mind to be saving, had taken a
+lease of the house and furnished it; and every day I heard her saying at
+the door, "Walk in, gentlemen; I've a nice clean room and boiling hot
+water"--for the seamen used to come in to take tea, drink, and smoke;
+and so did the old pensioners occasionally, for my mother had made
+acquaintance with several of them. I was always very ragged and dirty,
+for my mother neglected and ill-treated me. As soon as my sister was
+born she turned all her affections over to Virginia, who was always very
+much petted, well dressed, and a very beautiful child.
+
+All this I recollect, but little more, except that my mother gave me
+several beatings for calling my sister "Jenny," which I had learned to
+do from others who knew her; but when my mother heard them, she was
+always very angry, and told them that her child had not such a vulgar
+name; at which many would laugh, and make a point of calling out "Jenny"
+to Virginia whenever they passed and saw her at the door. When I was a
+little more than four years old I would climb over the board, for I had
+no pleasure at home. As I grew older I used to hasten down to the
+landing-steps on the beach, where the new inn called the Trafalgar now
+stands, and watch the tide as it receded, and pick up anything I could
+find, such as bits of wood and oakum; and I would wonder at the ships
+which lay in the stream, and the vessels sailing up and down. I would
+sometimes remain out late to look at the moon and the lights on board of
+the vessels passing; and then I would turn my eyes to the stars, and
+repeat the lines which I had heard my mother teach little Virginia to
+lisp:
+
+     "Pretty little twinkling star,
+      How I wonder what you are;
+      All above the earth so high,
+      Like a diamond in the sky;"
+
+and when I did stay out late I was sure of having no supper, and very
+often a good beating; and then Virginia would wake and cry, because my
+mother beat me, for we were fond of each other. And my mother used to
+take Virginia on her knee, and make her say her prayers every night; but
+she never did so to me; and I used to hear what Virginia said, and then
+go into a corner and repeat it to myself. I could not imagine why
+Virginia should be taught to pray and that I should not.
+
+[Illustration: FISHER'S ALLEY.--Marryat, Vol. X. p. 27.]
+
+As I said before, my mother let lodgings, and kept the ground-floor
+front room for people to drink tea and smoke in; and I used to take my
+little stool and sit at the knees of the pensioners who came in, and
+hear all their stories, and try to make out what they meant, for half
+was to me incomprehensible; and I brought them fire for their pipes, and
+ran messages. Old Ben the Whaler, as they called him, was the one who
+took most notice of me, and said that I should be a man one of these
+days, which I was very glad to hear then. And I made a little boat for
+my sister, which cost me a great deal of trouble and labor; and Ben
+helped me to paint it, and I gave it to Virginia, and she and I were
+both so pleased; but when my mother saw it, she threw it into the fire,
+saying it was "so ungenteel," and we both cried; and old Ben was very
+angry, and said something to my mother, which made her sing "High diddle
+diddle" for the whole day afterward.
+
+Such are the slight reminiscences, which must content the reader, of my
+early existence.
+
+When I was eight years old (about six years after his last visit), my
+father made his appearance; and then, for the first time, I knew that my
+father was alive, for I was but two years old when he left, and I
+remembered nothing about him, and I had never heard my mother mention
+his name as if he still existed.
+
+My father came in one day very unexpectedly, for he had given no notice
+of his return; and it so happened that as he came in, my mother was
+beating me with the frying-pan, for having dipped my finger in the
+grease in which she had been frying some slices of bacon. She was very
+angry, and as she banged me with it, Virginia was pulling at her skirts,
+crying and begging her to desist, "You little wretch," cried my mother,
+"you'll be just such a sea-monster as your father was--little wulgar
+animal, you must put your finger into the frying-pan, must you? There,
+now you've got it." So saying, she put down the frying-pan, and
+commenced singing as loud as she could, "Hush-a-by, baby, Pussy's a
+lady." "Ay, now you're vexed, I dare say," continued she, as she walked
+into the back kitchen.
+
+All this time my father had been at the door looking on, which she had
+not perceived. My father then came in. "What's your name, my lad?" said
+he.
+
+"Tommy Saunders," replied I, rubbing myself; for the frying-pan was very
+hot, and my trousers very much out of repair.
+
+"And who is that little girl?" said he.
+
+"That's my sister Virginia--but," continued I, "who are you? Do you want
+my mother?"
+
+"Not very particularly just now," said my father, taking up my sister
+and kissing her, and then patting me on the head.
+
+"Do you want any beer or 'baccy?" said I. "I'll run and get you some, if
+you give me the money, and bring back your change all right."
+
+"Well, so you shall, Jack, my boy," replied he; and he gave me a
+shilling. I soon returned with the pipes, tobacco, and beer, and offered
+him the change, which he told me to keep, to buy apples with. Virginia
+was on the knee of my father, who was coaxing and caressing her, and my
+mother had not yet returned from the back kitchen. I felt naturally
+quite friendly toward a man who had given me more money than I ever
+possessed in my life; and I took my stool and sat beside him; while,
+with my sister on his knee, and his porter before him, my father smoked
+his pipe.
+
+"Does your mother often beat you, Jack?" said my father, taking the pipe
+out of his mouth.
+
+"Yes, when I does wrong," replied I.
+
+"Oh! only when you do wrong--eh?"
+
+"Well, she says I do wrong; so I suppose I do."
+
+"You're a good boy," replied my father. "Does she ever beat you, dear?"
+said he to Virginia.
+
+"Oh, no!" interrupted I; "she never beats sister, she loves her too
+much; but she don't love me."
+
+My father puffed away, and said no more.
+
+I must inform the reader that my father's person was very much altered
+from what I have described it to have been at the commencement of this
+narrative. He was now a boatswain's mate, and wore a silver whistle hung
+round his neck by a lanyard, and with which little Virginia was then
+playing. He had grown more burly in appearance, spreading, as sailors
+usually do, when they arrive to about the age of forty; and, moreover,
+he had a dreadful scar from a cutlass wound, received in boarding, which
+had divided the whole left side of his face, from the eyebrow to the
+chin. This gave him a very fierce expression; still he was a
+fine-looking man, and his pigtail had grown to a surprising length and
+size. His ship, as I afterward found out, had not been paid off, but he
+had obtained a fortnight's leave of absence, while she was refitting. We
+were all very sociable together, without there being the least idea, on
+the part of my sister and myself, with whom we were in company, when in
+rolled old Ben the Whaler.
+
+"Sarvice to you," said Ben, nodding to my father. "Tommy, get me a pipe
+of 'baccy."
+
+"Here's pipe and 'baccy too, messmate," replied my father. "Sit down,
+and make yourself comfortable, old chap."
+
+"Won't refuse a good offer," replied Ben, "been too long in the sarvice
+for that--and you've seen sarvice, too, I think," continued Ben, looking
+my father full in the face.
+
+"Chop from a French officer," replied my father; after a pause, he
+added, "but he didn't live to tell of it."
+
+Ben took one of the offered pipes, filled, and was soon very busy
+puffing away, alongside of my father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+     My Father and Mother meet after an absence of Six Years--She
+     discovers that he is no longer a Coxswain but a Boatswain's Mate.
+
+
+While my father and Ben are thus engaged, I will give the reader a
+description of the latter.
+
+Ben was a very tall, broad-shouldered old fellow, but stooping a little
+from age. I should think he must have been at least sixty, if not more;
+still he was a powerful, sinewy man. His nose, which was no small one,
+had been knocked on one side, as he told me, by the flukes (_i.e._,
+tail) of a whale, which cut in half a boat of which he was steersman. He
+had a very large mouth, with very few teeth in it, having lost them by
+the same accident; which, to use his own expression, had at the time
+"knocked his figure-head all to smash." He had sailed many years in the
+whale fisheries, had at last been pressed, and served as quartermaster
+on board of a frigate for eight or nine years, when his ankle was broken
+by the rolling of a spar in a gale of wind. He was in consequence
+invalided for Greenwich. He walked stiff on this leg, and usually
+supported himself with a thick stick. Ben had noticed me from the time
+that my mother first came to Fisher's Alley. He was the friend of my
+early days, and I was very much attached to him.
+
+A minute or two afterward my father pushed the pot of porter to him. Ben
+drank, and then said:
+
+"Those be nice children, both on 'em--I know them well."
+
+"And what kind of a craft is the mother?" replied my father.
+
+"Oh! why, she's a little queer at times--she's always so mighty
+particular about gentility."
+
+"Do you know why?" replied my father.
+
+Ben shook his head.
+
+"Then I'll tell you: because she was once a lady's ladies' maid."
+
+"Well," replied Ben, "I don't understand much about titles and nobility,
+and those sort of things; but I'm sorry she's gone down in the world,
+for though a little particular about gentility, she's a good sort of
+woman in her way, and keeps up her character, and earns an honest
+livelihood."
+
+"So much the better for her," replied my father, who refilled his pipe
+and continued to smoke in silence.
+
+My mother had gone into the back kitchen to wash, which was the cause
+(not having been summoned) of her being so long absent.
+
+Virginia, who had become quite sociable, was passing her little fingers
+through my father's large whiskers, while he every now and then put his
+pipe out of his mouth to kiss her. I had the porter-pot on my knees, my
+father having told me to take a swig, when my mother entered the room.
+
+"Well, Mr. Benjamin, I shouldn't wonder--but--Oh! mercy, it's he!" cried
+my mother. "Oh! be quick--sal-wolatily!"
+
+"Sail who? What the devil does she mean?" said my father, rising up and
+putting my sister off his knee.
+
+"I never heard of her," replied Ben, also getting up; "but Mistress
+Saunders seems taken all aback, anyhow. Jack, run and fetch a bucket of
+water!"
+
+"Jack, stay where you are," cried my mother, springing from the chair on
+which she had thrown herself. "Oh, dear me! the shock was so sudden--I'm
+so flustered. Who'd have thought to have seen you?"
+
+"Are you her brother?" inquired Ben.
+
+"No; but I'm her husband," replied my father.
+
+"Well, it's the first time I've heard that she had one--but I'll be off,
+for Mistress Saunders is too genteel to kiss, I see, before company."
+Ben then took up his stick and left the house.
+
+It may be as well here to remark that during his absence my father had
+fallen in with one of the men who had been employed in the press-gang.
+From him he learned that a woman had given the information by which he
+was taken. He made the man, who was present when my mother called upon
+the officer, describe her person, and the description in every point was
+so accurate that my father had no doubt in his mind but that it was my
+mother who had betrayed him. This knowledge had for years rankled in his
+breast, and he had come home, not only from a wish to see how things
+were going on, but to reproach my mother with her treachery.
+
+Whether my mother's conscience smote her, or that she perceived by my
+father's looks that a squall was brewing, I know not; but as soon as Ben
+had left the house, she shut the street-door that the neighbors might
+not hear. Having so done, she turned to my father, who had resumed his
+seat and his pipe.
+
+"Well," said she, putting her apron to her eyes, "you have been away a
+good six years, and left me to get on how I could with these two poor
+orphanless children."
+
+"You know best why I went," replied my father, "and by whose means I was
+walked off in such a hurry."
+
+"Me?" replied my mother.
+
+"Yes, you," responded my father.
+
+"Well, what next?" cried she.
+
+"I'll tell you what next," said my father, rising, and taking about
+eighteen inches of inch-and-a-half rope out of his pocket, "Look you,
+ma'am, when I first found out that it was by your peaching that I was
+sent on board of the tender, I made up this colt, and I vowed that I
+would keep it in my pocket till I served you out. Now the time's come."
+
+Here my father flourished his rope's end. My mother would have flown to
+the door, but my father was beforehand with her; he turned the key, and,
+to the astonishment of Virginia and me, he seized my mother, and,
+holding her at arm's length, gave her several blows--not severe ones, I
+must acknowledge, indeed, they could not have hurt her.
+
+"There," said my father, "it's well for you, my Lady's ladies' maid,
+that I did not fall in with you when I first made up this colt; and it's
+well for you that I've heard a good character of you from the old chap
+who has just now left the house, or you'd have smarted for the false
+trick you played upon me. Howsomever, I've kept my oath, and you may
+thank your stars that it's not worse."
+
+My mother, who had not uttered a cry during the punishment, but only
+looked very indignant, now that my father had finished his speech, and
+was rolling up his colt to put it in his pocket, suddenly threw herself
+down on the floor, screaming murder with all her might. The noise
+summoned the neighbors--all Fisher's Alley was in an uproar, and our
+house was besieged with people, who attempted to force their way in--for
+my mother continued her screams, and poor little Virginia became so
+frightened that she also roared as loud as her mother.
+
+"I've more than two minds," said my father, taking the rope's end out of
+his pocket again; "but howsomever, since you wish it, all the world
+shall know it."
+
+My father put his colt into his pocket, and went to unlock the door. My
+mother, perceiving what he was about, immediately rose and hastened
+upstairs to her own room. My father then told the neighbors what had
+occurred, and why my mother had been punished, and the verdict of
+Fisher's Alley was, "sarved her right." Ben the Whaler, who was outside
+with the others, espoused my father's cause, and as soon as the people
+dispersed my father invited him to join him in his pipe and pot.
+
+Little Virginia, still terrified, had crept up to her mother. I, on the
+contrary, felt the highest respect for one who could dare to punish my
+mother, who had so often punished me; and the knowledge that he was my
+father inspired me with a feeling of tenderness toward him which I could
+not repress. I was old enough to understand why my mother had received
+such treatment, and I could not feel angry with my father; I therefore
+stayed below, and went for the porter as was required.
+
+I believe that at first it had been my father's intentions to have
+administered a much severer castigation to my mother, and then to have
+left the house, taking me with him, for he had not been apprised of the
+birth of Virginia; but whatever were his intentions before he came, or
+for the morrow, it is certain that he continued to smoke and talk with
+old Ben the Whaler till a very late hour, while I sat by and listened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+     A bright pleasant Evening after a Squall, in which the Art of
+     Angling is introduced in a way which would have added to the
+     Knowledge of Izaac Walton himself.
+
+
+"I beg pardon, messmate," said Ben, as he and my father became more
+sociable; "but may I make so bold as to ask you how you contrived to get
+that seam across your figure-head? You did say something about a
+Frenchman, if I heard right; and as the war is now of two years'
+standing, I suppose you've had a rap or two at Mounseer."
+
+"'Xpect I have," replied my father. "Well, old chap, I'll just wet my
+whistle, and then I'll tell you all about it, and it won't take long,
+neither. The boats were ordered away--"
+
+"Of what ship, messmate?"
+
+"Very true, I began in the middle. Well, it was in the ship I now
+belongs to, the 'Oudacious'--we were with the squadron off Ferrol;
+signal made to chase southeast--clapped every stitch on her after two
+gun-boats who were running down in-shore. Light winds--got well in for
+the land, and then it fell calm. Gun-boats four miles off using their
+sweeps--our boats in chase--I was coxswain of the first pinnace--a
+devilish fast boat, messmate, I can tell you, with a smart brass
+gun--pulled two feet to their one, and came up with them
+hand-over-hand--both cutters and the other pinnace well up with us--the
+old launch half a mile astern. Now you see, sir, I've got the picture
+for you, haven't I?"
+
+"Just exactly," replied old Ben.
+
+"Well, then, it was a long pull; and that reminds me that I'll have a
+long pull now, so hand me the porter, messmate." My father took a
+tremendous long pull at the pewter, and then handing it to Ben, he
+recommenced:
+
+"We were soon within gun-shot, and they turned their heads toward us and
+blazed away: very pretty shot they fired, for they cut away three of our
+starboard oars before we were near enough to return the fire with our
+small gun. However, the second pinnace and cutters came up and shared
+the shot with us; and at last the old fat launch came grunting along,
+for all the world like an old board, pitching into them round and grape.
+Now the first lieutenant was in the launch, and, of course, commanded,
+and he ordered the boats to separate more, which was very right, as it
+divided the shot; and then he passed the word that when he sounded the
+bugle we were all to pull to the headmost gun-boat and board her. D'ye
+understand, messmate?"
+
+"Perfectly," replied Ben, taking his pipe out to reply.
+
+"Well, then, just hand me the pot." My father drained it this time, and
+told me to go for another.
+
+"Then I shall lose the story," replied I.
+
+"No, boy, you won't," replied Ben; "I'll answer for it your father will
+heave-to till you come back."
+
+"So I will, Jack," replied my father. And having with every expedition
+executed my task, my father then continued:
+
+"Well, there we all were, waiting for the bugle, each boat creeping on a
+little every moment, so as to have a fair start, as they do in a race;
+when at last the signal was given, and away we all went like smoke,
+with our oars bending double. The first pinnace reached the gun-boat
+first; then the cutters banged alongside of her--all three of us to
+windward--while the second pinnace and launch took her to leeward.
+There's not much climbing in getting on board of a gun-boat; indeed, we
+were at it before we were out of the boat, for the Frenchmen had pikes
+as long as the spanker-boom; but we soon got inside of their points, and
+came to close work. They stood a good tussle, I will say that, and so
+they always do. We may laugh at 'em, and call 'em Johnny Crapows, but
+they are a right brave nation, if they aren't good seamen; but that I
+reckon's the fault of their lingo, for it's too noisy to carry on duty
+well with, and so they never will be sailors till they larn English."
+
+"I never heard them carry on duty in French," said Ben; "it quite beats
+my comprehension how they can do it at all."
+
+"Well, I have," replied my father; "and every word they use is as long
+as the maintop bowling, and the mast is over the side before they can
+get them out. Why, would you believe it? I once asked one of those
+fellows what he called the foremast in his language, and what d'ye think
+he said? Why, I'm blowed if he didn't call it a _'Mar-darty-marng'_ (and
+that's the only bit of French I know); but how is it possible to work a
+ship in such gibberish?"
+
+"Quite unpossible," replied Ben.
+
+"Well, as I've yawed a little out of my course, suppose we have another
+swig before I takes a fresh departure?"
+
+After they had both drunk, my father proceeded:
+
+"Well, messmate, I was on the gunnel as soon as the others, and a sword
+came down upon me like a flash of lightning. I had just time to lift my
+cutlass and save my head, and then I found that it was the sword of the
+French lieutenant who commanded the gun-boat. He was a, tall,
+clean-built chap, with curls hanging down like a poodle dog's--every
+curl not thicker than a rope yarn, and mayhap a thousand of them--and he
+quite foamed at the mouth (that's another fault of these Frenchmen, they
+don't take things coolly, but puts themselves in a passion about
+nothing); so thinks I to myself it won't do for you to go on chopping at
+that rate, for when I fended off he made my whole hand tingle with the
+force of his blow; so I darts at him and drives the hilt of my cutlass
+right into his mouth, and he fell, and his own men trod him underfoot,
+and on we went, hammer and tongs. By this time the boarding of the
+launch and pinnace to leeward, for they could not get up as soon as we
+did, created a divarsion, and bothered the Frenchman, who hardly knew
+which way to turn; however, as there were more of our men on the other
+side, they most on 'em faced about; and the French officer was then able
+to get on his knees again, and while I was busy and did not see him he
+just give me this cut across the figure-head, which don't add to my
+beauty, anyhow. Well, it was cut for cut, messmate. I just took one look
+at the beggar, and I drove my cutlass into his skull, just as he was
+rising up, and he never rose again. That's my story."
+
+"I suppose you took the craft?"
+
+"Yes; and her consort, too. But many lost the number of their mess, and
+I lost all my beauty. Just hand me the 'baccy, messmate; and, Jack, go
+for the next pot of beer."
+
+I found them both smoking in silence when I returned; but, after a few
+minutes, my father said, "Messmate, as I have told you how I got this
+chalk, suppose you tell me in return how you got that nose of yours
+fixed so hard a starboard? That's fair play."
+
+"Exactly so," replied Ben. "Why, d'ye see? I sarved most of my early
+life in the whaling line. I was three voyages to the north; but taking
+the black whale counts for nothing; you must go south arter the
+sparmacitty if you wish to see sport."
+
+"I never was in that line," replied my father; "but I've heard fellows
+spin the devil's own yarns about it."
+
+"And so they may, and tell the truth, that's sartain, shipmate. You see,
+the sparmacitty don't take the harpoon quite so quietly as the black
+whale does; he fights hard to the last, and sometimes is very free with
+his jaws. The very large ones are the most easy to kill; so we always
+look out for them when we can, as they give less trouble, and more oil;
+the most dangerous are the half-grown, which we call 'forty-barrel
+bulls,' as that's about what oil we get out of them."
+
+"Well," said my father, "I'm blessed if ever I knew whales were called
+bulls before this night."
+
+"Yes, that's our term," replied Ben; "and now to my story. We were down
+off the coast of Japan; when, about one hour after daybreak, the man
+looking out at the masthead gave the usual word when he sees a whale
+blowing--'There she spouts.' And this he repeats every time the fish
+rises. We had a clean hold at the time, for we had but just come to our
+fishing-ground, and we were mighty eager. The boats were down in a
+jiffy, and away we pulled. We were within a quarter of a mile of the
+whale, when, to our disappointment, he peaked his flukes--"
+
+"What's that, messmate?" inquired my father.
+
+"Why, you see, it's the right term after all, for the tail of
+sparmacitty is like the flukes of an anchor; and, of course, now you
+understand me."
+
+"Yes, you mean to say he went down, I suppose."
+
+"Of course; for how could he go down headforemost, without peaking his
+tail in the air?"
+
+"One lives and larns as long as one lives," observed my father. "Heave
+ahead again, old boy."
+
+"Well, as you can't know what you haven't heard anything about, I must
+now tell you that these animals be as regular as the bells in a
+man-of-war; and whenever they goes down to fed, they always stays
+exactly about the time allowed for dinner in a comfortable ship; that
+is, seventy minutes exactly. An hour, you see, is the regular time
+allowed, and the other ten minutes are by favor of the officer of the
+watch, or first lieutenant. We knew that we must wait that time for him,
+so we tossed up our oars, and laid by."
+
+"I suppose them sparmacitty chaps have a watch in their pockets," said
+my father, smiling.
+
+"It's a true bill, nevertheless, messmate, and they never alter: how and
+why they keep to their time, the Lord who gave them the sense to do so
+only knows. It is one of the wonders of the deep, which they only who go
+on the great waters can bear witness to."
+
+"It beats my comprehension quite entirely," replied my father; "and yet
+I have seen animals with a great deal of sense. In one ship, we had a
+sheep who would chew tobacco and drink grog. Now go ahead again."
+
+"Well, we had waited about half an hour, when we saw a whiff at the
+masthead of the ship; we knew that it was to direct our attention to
+some other point, so we looked round the horizon, and perceived that
+there was a 'school' of young bulls, about three miles from us. We were
+four boats in all; and the first mate desired my boat and another to go
+in chase of them, while he remained with the other two, for this old
+whale to come up again. Well, off we went, and soon came up with the
+school: they are the most awkward part of whale fishing; for they are
+savage, and, moreover, easily 'gallied,' that is, frightened. I picked
+out one, and tried to come up with him; but he was very shy, and at last
+he raised his head clean out of the water, and set off at the rate of
+ten miles an hour; this showed that he was aware of danger. I had just
+thought of giving him up, and trying for another, when he suddenly
+turned round and came right toward the boats. That we knew meant
+mischief; but, in coming toward us, he passed close to the other boat
+and the steersman gave him the harpoon right well into him. This made
+him more savage, and he stood right for my boat, plowing up the sea as
+he rushed on. I was all ready in the bow with the harpoon, and the men
+were all ready with their oars to pull back, so as to keep clear of him.
+On he came, and when his snout was within six feet of us we pulled sharp
+across him; and as we went from him, I gave him the harpoon deep into
+the fin. 'Starn all!' was the cry as usual, that we might be clear of
+him. He 'sounded' immediately, that is, down he went, headforemost,
+which was what we were afraid of, for you see we had only two hundred
+fathoms of line in each boat; and having both harpoons in him, we could
+not bend one to the other, in case he 'sounded' deep, for sometimes they
+will go down right perpendicular, and take four lines, or eight hundred
+fathoms, with them; so we expected that we should this time lose the
+whale as well as our lines, for when they were run out we must either
+cut or go down with him. Well, the lines ran out so swift that we poured
+water on them that they might not fire--and we thought that it was all
+over, for the lines were two-thirds out, and he was going down as fast
+as ever, when all of a sudden he stopped. We were hauling in the slack
+lines, when we saw him rise again, about a quarter of a mile off. It
+was a hurrah, for we now thought that we had him. Off he set with his
+nose up, right in the wind's eye, towing the two boats at the rate of
+twelve miles an hour; our stems cleaving through the sea, and throwing
+off the water like a plume of feathers on each side of the bows, while
+the sun's rays pierced through the spray and formed bright rainbows. We
+hoped soon to tire him, and to be able to haul in upon our lines, so as
+to get near enough to give him our lances; but that was only hope, as
+you'll hear. Of a sudden, he stopped, turned round, and made right for
+us, with his jaws open; then, all we had to do was to balk him, and give
+him the lance. He did not seem to have made up his mind which boat he
+would attack--we were pretty near together, and he yawed at one, and
+then at the other. At last he made right for the other boat, and the
+boatsetter dodged him very cleverly, while we pulled up to him, and I
+put the lance up to the stock into his side. He made a plunge as if he
+were going to 'sound' again; and as he did so, with his flukes he threw
+our boat into the air a matter of twenty feet, cutting it clean in half,
+and one of the boat's thwarts came right athwart of my nose, and it
+never has been straight since. So now you have it, messmate; and I
+shouldn't mind if you passed the beer this way, for this long yarn has
+made my throat somewhat dry."
+
+"When you've had your swig, old chap, you may as well tell us how the
+matter ended," observed my father.
+
+"Why, it just ended in our losing the whale in the first place, and the
+boat with her gear in the second. We were picked up by the other boat,
+and there was no time to be lost, for the sharks were brought together
+by the scent of the whale's blood; the whale sounded again, and we were
+obliged to cut the line and return on board. But God bless you,
+messmate, I could tell you many a longer yarn than that, and mayhap I
+shall some day or another."
+
+"Well, I hope you will," replied my father; "but your fishing story has
+put me in mind of rather a curious fish, caught by a lad on board of a
+man-of-war; and suppose I finish what's at the bottom of this here pot;
+send Jack for another, and when he comes back, I'll tell you all about
+it."
+
+"There's nothing gives me more satisfaction," replied Ben, "than to pass
+away the evening in a sober, quiet way, as we are doing now, telling and
+listening to long yarns. Ain't you sleepy, Jack?"
+
+"Oh! no," replied I, "not a bit. I'll run for the porter; and don't let
+father begin till I come back, Ben. The house will be shut up soon:
+shall I get more than a pot?"
+
+"Yes, Jack; but not more beer," replied my father, putting some silver
+into my hand; "get one pot of beer and a bottle of rum. We'll have that
+by way of a nightcap, old boy."
+
+I ran for the beer and liquor, and was soon back. My father and Ben
+refilled their pipes, and the former commenced as follows:
+
+"When I was quartermaster on board of the 'Melpomene,' we had an old
+chap for first lieutenant whose name was Fletcher. He was a kind-hearted
+man enough, as he never worried the ship's company when there was no
+occasion; but, at the same time, he was what you call a great stickler
+for duty--made no allowances for neglect or disobedience of orders,
+although he would wink at any little skylarking, walking aft, shutting
+his eyes, and pretending not to see or hear it. His usual phrase was,
+'My man, you've got your duty to do, and I've got mine.' And this he
+repeated fifty times a day; so at last he went by the name of 'Old
+Duty.' I think I see him now, walking up and down with his spy-glass
+under his left arm, and the hand of the other pushed into his breast, as
+if he were fumbling for a flea. His hat was always split and worn in the
+front, from constantly taking it off, instead of touching it, when he
+came on the quarter-deck; and, as soon as it was too far gone in front
+to raise the purchase off his head, he used to shift it end for end,
+bringing the back part in front, and then he would wear it, until, as
+the Yankees say, it was in 'taterations altogether,' and he was forced
+to bend a new one.
+
+"Now, we had a boy on board, who entered one day when the captain landed
+at Torquay to dine with a friend. His name was Jack Jervis: his father
+and his whole tribe had been fishermen for as long as could be
+remembered; and Jack himself had been drafted out of his cradle into a
+coble; and there he had continued day and night, from one year's end to
+another, helping his father to fish--so, you see, it had become second
+nature to him; and, after he came on board, his liking for his former
+calling still remained with him, and he never was so happy as when his
+line was overboard, or when he was snooding a hook in some corner or
+another. He went by the name of Jack the Fisherman; and a smart, active,
+willing lad he was, sure enough.
+
+"Now, there was a little difficulty between Old Duty and Jack the
+Fisherman. Old Duty would not allow the lines to be overboard when the
+ship was in harbor; as he said it was untidy in appearance, and that
+there was always plenty of work, and no time for fishing. So Jack hadn't
+pulled up his line ten or a dozen times before he was pulled up himself.
+'Whose line's that?' says Old Duty. 'Mine, sir,' says Jack, touching his
+hat. 'I don't allow fishing, young man,' said the first lieutenant.
+'You understand me?--I don't allow fishing. You've your duty to do, sir,
+and I've got mine.'
+
+"Jack, who had only been two or three days on board, and who, I believe,
+would never have entered, had he known that there would have been such a
+'_weto_,' as the boatswain used to call it, looked quite astonished, and
+said--
+
+"'What, mayn't I fish, sir?'
+
+"'No, my man, you must not fish without permission; and that I never
+give in harbor. If I catch you fishing again, you get two dozen at the
+gun, recollect that. You've got your duty to do, and I've got mine.'
+
+"Well, Jack could not give up his habit, so he used to fish at night,
+and all night long, out of the fore-chains; but it so happened that the
+ship's corporal caught Jack in the middle watch, and reports him to the
+first lieutenant.
+
+"'So, you've been fishing again, sir,' says Old Duty. 'No, sir,' replied
+Jack, 'not fishing--only laying night lines.'
+
+"'Oh! that's it,' replied the first lieutenant; 'only laying night
+lines! Pray, what's the difference?'
+
+"'Please, sir,' said Jack, touching his hat, 'the difference is--that
+it's not the same thing.'
+
+"'Well, sir, I see but one difference, and I'll meet it accordingly.
+You've your duty to do, and I've got mine.'
+
+"The boys' heads and ears having been pulled about and examined by the
+master-at-arms, they were dismissed; and Jack thought that he had got
+off--but he was mistaken.
+
+"After the hammocks had been piped down, and it was dark, the boys were
+ordered up by the master-at-arms; Jack was seized to the gun, and had
+his two dozen. 'There, sir,' said Old Duty, as they cast the seizings
+off, 'if fishing at night is not fishing, punishment at night is not
+punishment. Now we're quits. You've your duty to do, and I've got
+mine.'
+
+"I don't think that Jack perceived any more difference in the two dozen
+at night-time than the first lieutenant did between day and night
+fishing; however, Jack did not fish for some time afterward. But it so
+happened that the first lieutenant was asked on shore to dine with the
+port-admiral; and, although he seldom left the ship, he could not refuse
+such a compliment, and so he went. As soon as it was dark, Jack thought
+his absence too good an opportunity not to have a fish; so he goes into
+the mizzen-chains and drops his line. Well, he fished (but I don't know
+whether he caught any) till the boat was hailed in which the first
+lieutenant was coming on board, and then Jack thought it time to haul in
+his line; but, just at that moment, there was a jerk; and Jack, who knew
+that fish was at the bait, could not for the life of him pull up his
+line--for, you see, he was a fisherman heart and soul; so Jack trusted
+to Providence and the first lieutenant's going down below as soon as he
+came on deck.
+
+"Now, you see, the ship was lying at the time 'cross the tide, the wind
+blowing against the current: the starboard side (being to leeward as to
+the wind, but to windward as to the tide) had been cleared away, and
+manned for the boat, and Jack made sure that the first lieutenant would
+pull to that side; but he was mistaken. Whether it was that the first
+lieutenant wished to have a look round the ship or not, I do not know,
+but he pulled across the bows, and went round the stern, passing the
+larboard side: as he passed, Jack shrunk under the lee of the deadeyes
+and lanyards, hoping he might not be seen; but the first lieutenant,
+having the clear horizon on the other side, perceived the line which
+Jack had half hauled up, and, having an eye like a cat, makes out Jack
+also.
+
+"'I see you, sir--I see you, Mr. Jervis, fishing again, sir. Very well,'
+cried the first lieutenant, from the sternsheets of the boat, as he
+passed by. 'You've your duty to do, and I've got mine.' 'That's as good
+as two dozen to-morrow morning at muster,' thought Jack, who cursed his
+luck, and, in a very melancholy mood, began to haul up his line, which,
+as soon as he had been discovered, he had let go down to the bottom
+again. Now, it so happened that, as Old Duty went up the other side, his
+foot slipped; and, how it was I can't tell, for they say he wasn't the
+least groggy, but down he fell, between the boat's gunnel and the ship's
+side, just like a deep-sea lead, and disappeared. There being so few men
+on deck, there was not much of a bustle--there was a dive or two for him
+with the boat-hook, but all in vain--Old Duty was gone.
+
+"In the meantime, Jack on the other side was slowly hauling up his line;
+but he had not got it half-way up when he felt a heavy strain, and he
+thought that a large conger eel had followed the bait up, as they do
+sometimes, and he hauled and hauled with all his might. At last, who
+should he bring to the surface of the water but Old Duty, who had been
+sucked under the ship's bottom by the tide, and had been hooked by Jack,
+as he was pulling up. When Jack saw it was the first lieutenant, as he
+told me, his first idea was to let him down again; but that was only for
+a moment. The words of the first lieutenant still rang in his ears,
+'You've your duty to do, and I've got mine'--so Jack did his duty. He
+hollows out that he had caught Old Duty, and the boat shifted round and
+took him on board. The old fellow was quite senseless; but as he had
+been but a short time in the water, he was put to bed, and resuscitated
+by the surgeon. The next morning he was all just as if nothing had
+happened, walking the deck with his right hand in his breast, and his
+spy-glass under his left arm, as usual.
+
+"Well, we all told Jack that he was safe this time, but Jack seemed to
+think otherwise. He shook his head; and now you'll learn who was right.
+
+"When the boys were all mustered next morning, toeing a line, and
+holding out their paws, the first lieutenant turns round and says,
+'Jervis, you were fishing last night, against my orders.' 'Yes, sir,'
+said Jervis, 'and I catched a first lieutenant;' for Jack had a good
+deal of fun in him. 'Yes, sir, and queer fishes they are sometimes,'
+replies Old Duty; 'but you forget that you have also catched two dozen.
+You have your duty to do, and I've got mine.'
+
+"Well, as you may suppose, there were many of us looking abaft, just to
+see what would take place, and were not a little astonished at the idea
+of his rewarding Jack with two dozen for saving his life; however, of
+course, we were mum. Jack was tied up; and the first lieutenant
+whispered a word into the ear of his master-at-arms, who again whispered
+to Williams, the boatswain's mate; and the effect of that whisper was,
+that the cat was laid on so lightly that Jack hardly felt it; so
+lightly, indeed, that the first lieutenant walked away aft, that he
+might not appear to be a party in the consarn, and Jack was cast off
+without having half a tear in either eye when Old Duty went up to him.
+
+"'You fished last night against orders, and therefore you have received
+your punishment. You saved my life last night, and therefore it is my
+duty to reward you. I could not let you off this punishment, as it would
+be making the King pay you for me, instead of my paying you myself. I'm
+not a rich man, but here's ten guineas for your purse, and here's my
+gold watch. Spend the first usefully, and keep the other; and observe,
+Jack Jervis, if ever you are again caught fishing in harbor, you will as
+surely get two dozen for your pains. _You've your duty to_ do, _and I've
+got mine_.'"
+
+"Well, messmate, that's a queer story altogether, and queerer fellows in
+it. I wouldn't have minded sailing with that Old Duty. Suppose we drink
+his health?"
+
+"With all my heart; for you're right, old chap. When we knows what we
+are to expect, we're always ready to meet-it; but some officers I've
+sailed with shift about like a dog-vane, and there's no knowing how to
+meet them. I recollect--But I say, Jack, suppose you turn in--your eyes
+are winking and blinking like an owl's in the sunshine. You're tired,
+boy, so go to bed. We shan't tell any more yarns to-night."
+
+I was very tired indeed, and could not keep my eyes open any longer; so
+I went upstairs, and was asleep almost as soon as I laid my head upon
+the pillow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+     In which my Mother gives my Father a Scriptural Lesson--My Father's
+     Grief at parting with an old Friend--He expostulates with my Mother
+     and quits the House.
+
+
+I Woke early the next morning; for the whole night I had been restless,
+and dreaming of the unusual occurrences of the day before. It was just
+daylight, and I was recalling what had passed, and wondering what had
+become of my father, when I heard a noise in my mother's room. I
+listened--the door opened, and she went downstairs.
+
+This surprised me; and being conscious, even at my age, of the
+vindictive temper shown by my mother upon every occasion, and anxious to
+know where my father was, I could not remain in bed. I put on my
+trousers, and crept softly downstairs without my shoes. The door of the
+front room was ajar, and I looked in. The light was dimly peering
+through the window which pointed to the alley; the table was covered
+with the empty pipes, tobacco, and large pools of beer and liquor which
+had been spilled on it; the sofa was empty, and my father, who evidently
+had become deeply intoxicated the night before, was lying on the sanded
+floor with his face downward; my mother, in her short dressing-gown and
+flannel petticoat, was standing over him, her teeth set, her fists
+clinched, and arms raised, with a dire expression of revenge in her
+countenance. I thought at the time that I never saw her look so ugly--I
+may say so horrid; even now her expression at that moment is not effaced
+from my memory. After a few minutes she knelt down and put her ear close
+to his head, as if to ascertain whether he was in a sound sleep. She
+then took a knife from off the table, felt the edge, looked at my
+prostrate father, and raised it. I would have screamed, but my tongue
+was glued to my lips with horror. She appeared to reflect, and, after a
+time, laid the knife down on the table, put the palm of her hand up to
+her forehead, and then a smile gleamed over her moody features. "Yes, if
+he murders me; but they will be better," muttered she at last. She went
+to the cupboard, took out a large pair of scissors, and, kneeling down
+by my father, commenced severing his long pigtail from his head. My
+father was too sound asleep to be roused: in a minute the tail was off,
+and my mother rose up, holding it, with an expression of the utmost
+contempt, between her finger and thumb. She then very softly laid it
+down by his side, and replaced the scissors in the cupboard. As I
+expected that she would go upstairs again, I concealed myself in the
+back kitchen. I was correct in my supposition. A moment afterward I
+heard her ascending the stairs and go into her own room.
+
+I must say that I felt indignant at this conduct of my mother's, as, so
+far from provocation, she had hardly received the reward of previous
+treachery. I believe, however, that, like most people, I was actuated by
+my own feelings toward my mother, who had treated me so unkindly. I
+thought for a little while--what would my mother do? She would hardly
+remain in the house, to meet the wrath of my father, when he made the
+discovery. She would escape him; this I had no wish that she should do;
+so I went softly into the front parlor and pushed my father to awake
+him. For some time this was useless; he muttered and growled, but it
+appeared impossible to rouse him. There were the remains of a jug of
+water on the table; and, as I had seen the same thing done before to a
+drunken sailor, I took the jug, and poured the water softly on the nape
+of his neck. In a minute or two this had the effect of waking him. He
+turned over, opened his eyes, and, when I put my finger to my lips to
+intimate silence, he looked at me with a vacant stare. Time pressed; I
+heard my mother moving about upstairs, and I was afraid that she would
+leave the house before my father had recovered his senses. I therefore
+took his pigtail from the floor and held it up before him. This appeared
+to surprise him. He fixed his eyes upon it for a few seconds, and then,
+as if at last suspecting what had taken place, he put his hand to the
+back of his head and found no pigtail there. Suddenly he jumped up; he
+appeared to be sobered all at once. He caught the tail out of my hand,
+looked at it, felt convinced of his loss, threw himself down on the sofa
+and wept like a child.
+
+"I saw my mother do it, father," said I, whispering in his ear. This
+appeared to recall him. He raised himself up, wiped his eyes with the
+back of his hand, ground his teeth, and shook his head. He threw his
+tail on the floor, and, as he eyed it, a deep melancholy spread over his
+countenance. After a minute or two he folded his arms, and thus lamented
+over it:
+
+"Well, I never would have thought it had they told me that you and I
+should have parted company. Many, many years has it taken you to grow to
+your present length; often have you been handled, often have you been
+combed, and often have you been tied. Many's the eel has been skinned
+for your sarvice, and many's the yard of ribbon which you have cost me.
+You have been the envy of my shipmates, the fancy of the women, and the
+pride of poor Tom Saunders. I thought we should never have parted on
+'arth, and, if so be my sins were forgiven me, and I could show a fair
+log, that I might be permitted to wear you in the world which is to
+come. But there you are--parted for all the world like a limb shot off
+in action, never to be spliced again. What am I to say when I go on
+board? I shall have a short tale to tell, instead of a long tail to
+show. And the wife of my busum to do this! Well, I married too high, and
+now my pride is laid low. Jack, never marry a lady's ladies' maid; for
+it appears that the longer the names the more venomous the cattle be."
+
+Just as he had finished I heard my mother coming downstairs with
+Virginia, whom she had taken up and dressed, to take away with her.
+"Hush!" I heard her softly say to Virginia, "don't speak, dear, or
+you'll wake your naughty father."
+
+She had hardly said this when she made her appearance, with Virginia on
+one arm and a large bundle on the other. But as soon as she perceived
+that my father was awake, and cognizant of her revenge, she uttered a
+loud scream, dropped Virginia and the bundle, and, running upstairs to
+her own room, locked herself in.
+
+Poor little Virginia set up a roar at this very unusual (and I believe
+felonious) act of child-dropping on the part of my mother. I ran to her,
+and carried her to the sofa, while my father, with compressed lips,
+first taking two or three quarter-deck strides up and down the room,
+locked the street door, put the key in his pocket, and then ascended the
+stairs to pay a visit to my mother, who, I believe, would very willingly
+have been "not at home"; but some people are importunate, and will take
+no refusal; and, when my father retired three or four steps from the
+door, and with a sudden run brought the whole weight of his foot to bear
+upon it, it flew open. At first my mother was not visible, my father
+thought she had escaped; but at last he spied her legs under the bed.
+Seizing her by her extremities, he dragged her out, without any regard
+to propriety, until he had her into the middle of the room with his foot
+upon her. What a situation for a lady's ladies' maid! I had put Virginia
+down on the sofa, and crept up the stairs to see what took place. My
+father and mother were in these relative positions, and he thus
+addressed her:
+
+"I have heard say that a man mustn't thrash his wife with anything
+thicker than his own thumb. That's as may be--and I do recollect when
+the first lieutenant wanted to cut off the men's hair that the purser
+told him that it was felony, under the Act of cutting and maiming. I
+don't know whether the first lieutenant would have made a felony or not;
+but this I'm sartain of--he'd have made a mutiny. You desarve no mercy,
+and you shall have none. This pigtail of mine shall be what I shall use
+upon you, and if the colt is heavy, recollect you cut it for yourself;
+and as you may not be able to hear what I say by the time I have done
+with you, I'll just tell you now. I'll point the end, and work a mouse
+on this pigtail of mine, and never part with it. I'll keep it for your
+own particular use, and for nobody else's; and as sartain as I come
+back, so sartain every time I come you shall have a taste of pigtail
+without _chewing_', my lady's ladies' maid."
+
+Having made this uncommon long speech, to which my mother offered no
+reply, her eyes being fixed in terror upon the brandished tail, which
+was nearly as thick as her own arm, my father proceeded to put his
+threats into execution. Blow resounded after blow; my mother's cries
+became feebler and feebler, until at last she appeared senseless. Then I
+ran to my father, and, clinging to his leg, cried, "Oh, father, she's
+dead!"
+
+This observation induced him to leave off. He looked at my mother's
+face; her eyes were closed, and her jaw had fallen. "Well, she had
+enough of it this time," said my father, after a pause; "maybe too much
+on it. But when I looks at this tail in my hand, I feel as if I could
+still give her more. And if she be dead, I think the judge would not
+hang me, if I showed him what I have lost. I'd rather have parted with
+an arm or a leg any day of the week. There's been provocation enough, at
+all events, if she be dead--a saint in heaven couldn't stand it."
+
+During these remarks my mother gave no signs of returning animation, and
+at last my father became seriously alarmed. "Jack," said he, "I must cut
+my stick, or they may put me into limbo. As soon as I have cleared out,
+do you run for a doctor to look at your mother; and mind you don't
+forget to tell that old chap who was boozing with me last night
+everything which has happened, and the people will say, come what will
+on it, that I was aggravated sufficient; and, Jack, if there be a
+crowner's inquest, mind you tell the truth. You know I didn't want to
+kill the old woman, don't you, my boy? for didn't I say that I'd keep
+the tail to give her another dose when I came back again?--that proves I
+didn't intend that she should slip her wind, you know, boy. I said I'd
+give her another dose, you know, Jack--and," continued my father, "so I
+will, if I find her above ground when I comes back again."
+
+My father then went downstairs. Little Virginia had fallen asleep again
+on the sofa; my father kissed her softly, shook hands with me, and put a
+crown in my hand. He then unlocked the door, and, thrusting the end of
+his pigtail into his breast, coiled it, as it were, round his body,
+hastened down the alley, and was soon out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+     In which the Doctor pays a Visit and receives no Fee; and I am
+     obliged to work very hard to procure myself a Livelihood.
+
+
+I did not forget my father's injunctions, for I was very much
+frightened. There was a doctor who lived half-way up Church Street, a
+short distance from Fisher's Alley. He was a little man with a large
+head sunk down between two broad shoulders. His eyes were small and
+twinkling, his nose snubbed, his pate nearly bald; but on the sides of
+his head the hair was long and flowing. But if his shoulders were broad
+the rest of his body was not in the same proportion--for he narrowed as
+he descended, his hips being very small, and his legs as thin as those
+of a goat. His real name was Todpoole, but the people invariably called
+him Tadpole, and he certainly in appearance somewhat reminded you of
+one. He was a facetious little fellow, and, it was said, very clever in
+his profession.
+
+"Dr. Tadpole," cried I, out of breath with running, "come quick, my
+mother is very bad indeed."
+
+"What's the matter?" said he, peering over a mortar in which he was
+rubbing up something with the pestle. "External or internal?"
+
+Although I did not know what he meant, I replied, "Both, doctor, and a
+great deal more besides."
+
+"That's bad indeed," replied Tadpole, still rubbing away.
+
+"But you must come directly," cried I. "Come along--quick!"
+
+"Festina lente, good boy--that's Latin for hat and boots. Tom, are my
+boots clean?"
+
+"Ye'es, sir," replied a carroty-haired boy, whom I knew well.
+
+The doctor laid down his pestle, and taking his seat on a chair, began
+very leisurely to pull on his boots, while I stamped with impatience.
+
+"Now do be quick, doctor, my mother will be dead."
+
+"Jack," said the doctor, grinning, as he pulled on his second boot,
+"people don't die so quick before the doctor comes--it's always
+afterward; however, I'm glad to see you are so fond of your mother. Tom,
+is my hat brushed?"
+
+"Ye'es, sir," replied Tom, bringing the doctor's hat.
+
+"Now then, Jack, I'm all ready. Tom, mind the shop, and don't eat the
+stick-liquorice--d'ye hear?"
+
+"Ye'es, sir," said Tom, with a grin from ear to ear.
+
+The doctor followed me very quick, for he thought from my impatience
+that something serious must be the matter. He walked up to my mother's
+room, and I hastened to open the door; when, to my surprise, I found my
+mother standing before the glass arranging her hair.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed my mother, "this is very pretty behavior--forcing your
+way into a lady's room."
+
+The doctor stared, and so did I. At last I exclaimed, "Well! father
+thought he'd killed her."
+
+"Yes," cried my mother, "and he's gone away with it on his conscience,
+that's some comfort. He won't come back in a hurry; he thinks he has
+committed murder, the unfeeling brute! Well, I've had my revenge."
+
+And as she twisted up her hair, my mother burst out screaming:
+
+     "Little Bopeep, she lost her sheep.
+     And couldn't tell where to find him;
+     She found him, indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
+     For he left his tail behind him."
+
+"Why, then, doctor, it was all sham," exclaimed I.
+
+"Yes; and the doctor's come on a fool's errand--
+
+     "'Goosey, Goosey Gander,
+     Whither dost thou wander?
+     Upstairs and downstairs,
+     And in a lady's chamber.'"
+
+The doctor shrugged up his shoulders so that his head disappeared
+between them. At last he said, "Your mother don't want me, Jack, that's
+very clear. Good-morning, Mrs. Saunders."
+
+"A very good-morning to you, Dr. Tadpole," replied my mother with a
+profound courtesy; "you'll oblige me by quitting this room and shutting
+the door after you, if you please." As the doctor and I went down, my
+mother continued the song--
+
+     "And then I met a little man,
+     Couldn't say his prayers,
+     I took him by the left leg
+     And sent him downstairs."
+
+As soon as we were in the parlor, I acquainted the doctor with what had
+happened. "I'm sure I thought she was dead," said I, when I had finished
+the story.
+
+"Jack, when I asked you where your mother was bad, external or
+internal, you replied both, and a great deal more besides. So she
+is--internally, externally, and infernally bad," said the doctor,
+laughing. "And so she amputated your father's pigtail, did she, the
+Delilah? Pity one could not amputate her head, it would make a good
+woman of her. Good-by, Jack; I must go and look after Tom, he's
+swallowed a whole yard of stick-liquorice by this time."
+
+Soon afterward Ben the Whaler came in to inquire after my father, and I
+told him what had occurred. He was very indignant at my mother's
+conduct, and, as soon as the affair was known, so were all the tenants
+of Fisher's Alley. When my mother went out, or had words with any of her
+neighbors, the retort was invariably, "Who sent the press-gang after her
+own husband?" or "Who cut off the tail from her husband's back? Wasn't
+that a _genteel_ trick?" All this worried my mother, and she became very
+morose and ill-tempered. I believe she would have left the alley if she
+had not taken a long lease of the house. She had now imbibed a decided
+hatred for me, which she never failed to show upon every occasion, for
+she knew that it was I who had roused my father, and prevented her
+escape from his wrath. The consequence was that I was seldom at home,
+except to sleep. I sauntered to the beach, ran into the water, sometimes
+rowed in the wherries, at others hauling them in and holding them steady
+for the passengers to land. I was beginning to be useful to the
+watermen, and was very often rewarded with a piece of bread and cheese,
+or a drink of beer out of their pots. The first year after my father's
+visit I was seldom given a meal, and continually beaten--indeed,
+sometimes cruelly so--but as I grew stronger, I rebelled and fought, and
+with such success that, although I was hated more, I was punished less.
+
+One scene between my mother and me may serve as a specimen for all. I
+would come home with my trousers tucked up, and my _high-lows_ unlaced
+and full of water, sucking every time that I lifted up my leg, and
+marking the white sanded floor of the front room, as I proceeded through
+it to the back kitchen. My mother would come downstairs, and perceiving
+the marks I had left, would get angry, and as usual commence singing--
+
+     "'A frog he would a-wooing go,
+     Heigho, says Rowly.'
+
+"I see here's that little wretch been here--
+
+     "'Whether his mother would let him or no,
+     Heigho, says Rowly.'
+
+"I'll rowly him with the rolling-pin when I get hold of him. He's worse
+than that beastly water-spaniel of Sir Hercules', who used to shake
+himself over my best cambric muslin. Well, we'll see. He'll be wanting
+his dinner; I only wish he may get it.
+
+     "'Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
+     Eating his Christmas pie;
+     He put in his thumb and pull'd out a plum,
+     And cried, What a good boy am I!'
+
+"'Good boy am I!' good-for-nothing brat, just like his father. Oh,
+dear!--if I could but get rid of him!
+
+     "'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
+     She'd so many children she didn't know what to do;
+     She gave them some broth without any bread,
+     She whipped them all round, and sent them to bed.'
+
+"And if I don't whip him, it's my fault, that's all. Virginia, my love,
+don't spit--that's not genteel. It's only sailors and Yankees who spit.
+Nasty little brute! Oh! here you are, are you?" cried my mother, as I
+entered. "Do you see what a dirty mess you have made, you little
+ungrateful animal? Take that, and that, and that," continued she,
+running the wet bristles of the long broom into my face, with sufficient
+force to make my nose bleed. I stood the first push, and the second; but
+the third roused my indignation--and I caught hold of the end of the
+broom toward me, and tried to force it out of her hands. It was push
+against push, for I was very strong--she, screaming as loud as she
+could, as she tried to wrest the broom from my clutches--I, shoving at
+her with all my force--like Punch and the devil at the two ends of the
+stick. At last, after she had held me in a corner for half a minute, I
+made a rush upon her, drove her right to the opposite corner, so that
+the end of the handle gave her a severe poke in the body, which made her
+give up the contest, and exclaim as soon as she recovered her
+breath--"Oh! you nasty, ungrateful, ungenteel brute! You little viper!
+Is that the way you treat your mother--and nearly kill her? Oh, dear
+me!"
+
+"Why don't you leave me alone, then? you never beats Jenny."
+
+"Who's Jenny, you wicked good-for-nothing boy? you mean your sister
+Virginia. Well, you'll have no dinner, I can tell you."
+
+I put my hand in my pocket, took out a sixpence which I had received,
+and held it up between my thumb and finger. "Won't I?"
+
+"You oudacious boy! that's the way you're spoiled by foolish people
+giving you money."
+
+"Good-by, mother." So saying, I leaped over the board fixed up at the
+door, and was again down at the beach. Indeed, I was now what is termed
+a regular _Mud-larker_, picking up halfpence by running into the water,
+offering my ragged arm to people getting out of the wherries, always
+saluting them with, "You haven't got never a halfpenny for poor Jack,
+your honor?" and sometimes I did get a halfpenny, sometimes a shove,
+according to the temper of those whom I addressed. When I was not on the
+beach, I was usually in company with Ben the Whaler, who, after my
+father's visit, was more kind to me than ever; and there were several
+other pensioners who were great friends of mine; and I used to listen to
+their long yarns, which were now becoming a source of great delight to
+me; at other times I would be with the watermen, assisting them to clean
+out their wherries, or pay the seams. In fact, I was here, there, and
+everywhere except at home--always active, always employed, and, I may
+add, almost always wet. My mother used to scold whenever I came in; but
+that I did not mind; her greatest punishment was refusing me a clean
+shirt on a Sunday. At last I picked up halfpence enough to pay, not only
+for my food, such as it was, but for my own washing, and every day I
+became more independent and more happy.
+
+There were other ways by which money was to be obtained during the
+summer season, which were from the company who used to come down to the
+whitebait parties at the Ship and other taverns. There were many other
+boys who frequented the beach besides me, and we used to stand under the
+windows, and attract attention by every means in our power, so as to
+induce the company to throw us halfpence to scramble for. This they
+would do to while away their time until their dinner was ready, or to
+amuse themselves and the ladies by seeing us roll and tumble one over
+the other. Sometimes they would throw a sixpence into the river, where
+the water was about two feet deep, to make us wet ourselves through in
+groping for it. Indeed, they were very generous when they wished to be
+amused; and every kind of offer was made to them which we thought suited
+to their tastes, or likely to extract money from their pockets.
+
+"Dip my head in the mud for sixpence, sir!" would one of us cry out; and
+then he would be outbid by another.
+
+"Roll myself all over and over, in the mud, face and all, sir--only give
+me sixpence!"
+
+Sometimes I would perceive a lovely countenance, beaming with pity and
+compassion at our rags and apparent wretchedness, and then the money
+thrown to me gave me much more pleasure; but the major portion of those
+who threw us silver for their own amusement would not have given us a
+farthing if we had asked charity for the love of God.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that I gained the enviable situation
+of _Poor Jack_ until I had been some time on the beach. There are
+competitors for every place, even the most humble; and there was no want
+of competitors for this office among the many idle boys who frequented
+the beach. When I first plied there, I was often pushed away by those
+who were older and stronger than myself, with a "Go along with you! He's
+not poor Jack--I'm poor Jack, your honor." This, at first, I submitted
+to; taking my chance for a stray halfpenny, which was occasionally
+thrown to me, trusting to my activity in being the first down to the
+boat, or to my quickness in a scramble. I never quarreled with the other
+boys, for I was remarkable for my good temper. The first idea I had of
+resistance was from oppression. One of the boys, who was older and
+taller than myself, attempted to take away a sixpence which I had gained
+in a scramble. Before that, I had not resented being pushed away, or
+even when they threw water or mud at me; but this was an act of violence
+which I could not put up with: the consequence was a fight; in which, to
+my surprise (for I was not aware of my strength), as well as to the
+surprise of the bystanders, I proved victorious, beating my opponent
+until he reeled into the water, following him up until he tumbled, and
+then holding his head down in the mud until he was almost stifled. I
+then allowed him to get up, and he went home crying to his mother. For
+this feat I was rewarded with the plaudits of the old pensioners and
+others who were looking on, and with a shilling which was thrown to me
+from the window of the inn. Ben the Whaler, who had witnessed the fray,
+told me, the next day, that I handled my fists remarkably well, and that
+I had but to keep a higher guard and I should fight well. He was an old
+pugilist himself, and he gave me a few directions which I did not
+forget. I soon had occasion to put them into practice; for, two days
+afterward, another boy, bigger than myself, as I was plying as "Poor
+Jack," pushed me back so hard that I fell off the steps into the deep
+water, and there was a general laugh against me. I did not care for the
+ducking, but the laugh I could not bear: as soon as I gained the steps
+again, I rushed upon him and threw him off, and he fell into the wherry,
+and, as it afterward appeared, he strained his back very much;
+nevertheless he came out to thrash me; and this time it was a regular
+fight, as the pensioners and watermen interfered, taking us both up on
+the higher ground, and seeing that it was fair play. Ben the Whaler
+acted as my second, and we set to. The boy was too powerful for me, had
+it not been for the hurt he had received and the instructions I obtained
+from Ben every time that I sat on his knee between each round. Still it
+was a very hard fight, and I was terribly beaten; but I could not give
+up, for so many betted upon my winning, and Ben told me, at the end of
+every round, that if I only stood up one more, I should be certain to
+beat him, and that then I should be _Poor Jack forever!_ The last
+inducement stimulated me to immense exertion. We closed and wrestled,
+and my antagonist was thrown; and, in consequence of the strain he had
+before received, he could not stand up anymore. Poor fellow! he was in
+great pain; he was taken home, and obliged to have a doctor, and an
+abscess formed in his side. He was a long while getting well, and, when
+he came out of doors again, he was so pale. I was very sorry for him,
+and we were always the best friends afterward, and I gave him many a
+halfpenny, until I had an opportunity of serving him.
+
+I mention these two fights because they obtained for me a greater
+reputation than I deserved: this reputation perhaps saved me a great
+deal more fighting, and obtained me the mastery over the other boys on
+the beach. Indeed, I became such a favorite with the watermen that they
+would send the other boys away; and thus did I become, at last, the
+acknowledged, true, lawful, and legitimate "Poor Jack of Greenwich."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+     In which I take a Cruise contrary to the received Rules of
+     Navigation--On my Return from a cold Expedition, I meet with a cold
+     Reception.
+
+
+As soon as I was fairly in possession of my office, I gained sufficient
+money to render me almost entirely independent of my mother.
+Occasionally I procured an old jacket or trousers, or a pair of shoes,
+at the store of an old woman who dealt in everything that could be
+imagined; and, if ever I picked up oakum or drifting pieces of wood, I
+used to sell them to old Nanny--for that was the only name she was known
+by. My mother, having lost her lodgers by her ill temper and continual
+quarreling with her neighbors, had resorted to washing and getting up of
+fine linen, at which she was very expert, and earned a good deal of
+money. To do her justice, she was a very industrious woman, and, in some
+things, very clever. She was a very good dressmaker, and used to make up
+the gowns and bonnets for the lower classes of people, to whom she gave
+great satisfaction. She worked very hard for herself and my sister,
+about whose dress and appearance she was more particular than ever;
+indeed, she showed as much affection for her as she did ill-will toward
+me. To look at me, with my old trousers tucked up above my knees, my
+ragged jacket, and weatherbeaten cap; and then to see Virginia, so
+neatly and even expensively dressed, no one could have believed that we
+were brother and sister. My mother would always try to prevent Virginia
+from noticing me, if we ever met when she was walking out with her. But
+my sister appeared to love me more and more; and, in spite of my mother,
+as soon as she saw me, would run up to me, patting my dirty jacket with
+her pretty little hand; and, when she did so, I felt so proud of her.
+She grew up handsomer every day, and so sweet in disposition that my
+mother could not spoil her.
+
+It was in the autumn that I gained undisputed possession of the office
+of "Poor Jack"; and that winter I had an adventure which nearly
+occasioned my making a vacancy for somebody else, and which, the reader
+will agree with me, was anything but pleasant.
+
+It was in the month of January--the river was filled with floating ice,
+for it had frozen hard for several days; and, of course, there were but
+few people who trusted themselves in wherries--so that I had little
+employment, and less profit. One morning, as I was standing on the
+landing-steps, the breath coming out of my mouth like the steam of a
+tea-kettle--rubbing my nose, which was red from the sharpness of the
+frost--and looking at the sun, which was just mounting above a bank of
+clouds, a waterman called to me, and asked me whether I would go down
+the river with him, as he was engaged to take a mate down to join his
+ship, which was several miles below Greenwich; and, if so, he would give
+me sixpence and a breakfast. I had earned little for many days, and,
+hating to be obliged to my mother, I consented.
+
+In an hour we started: there was no wind--the water was smooth, and the
+sun's rays glittered on the floating patches of ice, which grated
+against the sides of the wherry as we cut through them with our sharp
+prow. Although we had the tide with us, it was three hours before we
+gained the ship. The mate paid the fare, and gave us something to drink;
+and we passed an hour or more warming ourselves at the caboose and
+talking with the seamen. At last a breeze sprung up, and the captain
+ordered the men to get the ship under way. We shoved off, the tide
+having flowed some time, expecting to be back to Greenwich before dark.
+
+But it clouded over, and a heavy snowstorm came on, so that we could not
+see in what direction we were pulling; the wind blew very fresh, and it
+was piercing cold; however, we pulled as hard as we could, not only to
+get back again, but to keep ourselves from freezing. Unfortunately, we
+had lost too much time on board of the vessel; and, what with that, and
+the delay arising from the snowstorm preventing us pulling straight
+back, the ebb-tide made again before we had gained more than two-thirds
+of our way. We were now nearly worn out with the severe cold and
+fatigue, but we pulled hard, keeping as close inshore as we could. It
+was necessary, at the end of one reach, to cross over to the other side
+of the river; and, in so doing, we were driven by the tide against a
+large buoy, when the wherry filled and upset in an instant. We both
+contrived to cling on to her, as she was turned bottom up; and away we
+were swept down among the drifting ice, the snowstorm still continuing
+to beat down on our heads. I was nearly frozen before I could climb on
+the bottom of the wherry; which I at last contrived to do, but the
+waterman could only hold on. There we both were, shivering and shaking;
+the wind piercing through our wet clothes--the snow beating down on us,
+and our feet freezing among the drifting ice--borne away with the tide
+toward the mouth of the river--not able to see two yards before us, or
+likely to be seen by any one, so as to be assisted. We were too cold to
+speak, but remained in silence, looking at each other, and with no
+pleasant forebodings as to our fate. The ice now formed in large masses;
+the icicles hung from our clothes and all sense was lost in our
+extremities. It was now dark as pitch; and so feeble were we that it was
+with difficulty we could keep in our positions. At last the storm
+abated, the sky cleared up, and the bright full moon shone in the
+heavens; but our case appeared hopeless--we felt that before morning we
+must perish. I tried to say what prayers I had learned by hearing my
+sister say them; but my teeth chattered, and I could only think them. At
+last I perceived a vessel at anchor: the tide was sweeping us past--we
+were close to her, and I contrived to cry out; but there was no reply.
+Again I screamed, but it was in vain. They were all in their warm beds,
+while we floated past, freezing to death. My hopes, which had been
+raised, and which had occasioned my heart to resume its beating, now
+sank down again, and I gave myself up in despair. I burst into tears;
+and, before the tears had rolled half-way down my cheeks, they had
+frozen hard. "I am indeed 'Poor Jack,' now," thought I; "I shall never
+see my father or Virginia any more." As I thought so, I saw another
+vessel ahead of us. I summoned all my strength, and called out long
+before we floated past her. The light wind bore my voice down; there was
+a man on deck, and he heard it; he walked forward, and I perceived him
+looking over the bows. I hallooed again, to direct his attention to
+where we were; for our wherry was so encrusted with ice that she might
+have been taken for a larger piece floating by. I saw him turn away, and
+heard him thump with a handspike on the deck. How my heart bounded! I
+almost felt warm. As we were passing the vessel, I cried out again and
+again, and the man answered me--
+
+"Ay, ay, hold on for a minute or two, and I'll send for you."
+
+[Illustration: I SUMMONED ALL MY STRENGTH, AND CALLED OUT LONG BEFORE WE
+FLOATED PAST HER.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 73.]
+
+"We are saved," I cried to the waterman; but he was quite insensible,
+apparently frozen stiff where he was clinging. In a few minutes I heard
+the sound of oars, and then they stopped; the boat came quietly
+alongside, that they might not by the shock throw us off into the water;
+they dragged us both in, and took us on board, poured a glass of brandy
+down our throats, stripped off our frozen clothes, chafed our limbs, and
+put us between the hot blankets which they had just left. As soon as I
+was in bed the mate made me drink a tumbler of hot grog, and left me. I
+soon fell into a deep sleep, long before they had ceased their attempts
+to restore vitality to my companion, which at last they did. When I
+awoke the next morning I was quite well, and the waterman was also
+recovering, although not able to leave his hammock. The mate who had had
+the watch and had saved us, told me that the wherry was safe on board,
+and, as the ship was bound up the river, that we had better remain where
+we were. I narrated our accident; and my clothes having been dried at
+the caboose, I dressed myself and went on deck. My companion, the
+waterman, did not escape so well; his foot was frostbitten, and he lost
+four of his toes before he recovered. It was singular that he, who was a
+man grown up, should suffer so much more than I did. I cannot account
+for it, except that my habit of always being in the water had hardened
+me more to the cold. We remained on board two days, during which we were
+treated with great kindness.
+
+It was a fine bright morning, when, as the ship was passing the
+hospital, we shoved the wherry off, and landed at the steps; and when we
+jumped out we were greeted by all who were standing there. We had very
+naturally been given up for lost. They supposed that we had perished in
+the snowstorm. Old Ben was among those who were standing at the steps,
+and he walked up with me toward my mother's house.
+
+"I did go to the old woman and break the matter to her in a becoming
+way, Jack," said Ben; "but I can't say that she appeared to take it much
+to heart, and that's the truth. Had it been little Jenny, she'd have
+cried her eyes out."
+
+I arrived at Fisher's Alley, and the neighbors looked out; and as I
+nodded to them they cried, "Why, here's Jack come back again. Where have
+you been to, Jack?" This passing from mouth to mouth at last reached my
+mother's ears; she looked out and saw me and old Ben close to the door.
+
+"Here be your son, missus," said Ben; "so you may thank God for His
+mercy."
+
+But my mother did not appear to be very thankful. She turned round and
+went in. I followed her, while Ben was standing at the door in amazement
+at her not flying to me and kissing me. On the contrary she must have
+been angry at my return, for she commenced singing:
+
+     "Jack and Gill went up the hill
+       To fetch a pail of water;
+     Jack fell down and broke his crown,
+       And Gill came tumbling after."
+
+And then she broke out: "And where have you been, you good-for-nothing
+boy, all this time? putting me to all this useless expense that you
+have; all my money thrown away for nothing." I looked at the table and
+perceived that she had been making a black dress and bonnet, to put
+little Virginia into mourning; for she never let slip an opportunity to
+dress out my sister.
+
+"Fifteen good shillings thrown away and lost, all by your coming back.
+Your sister would have looked so beautiful and interesting in it. Poor
+child! and now she will be disappointed. Never mind, my darling, you may
+have to wear them soon yet, if he goes on this way."
+
+Virginia did not seem to mind it at all; she was kissing and patting me,
+and was delighted to see me again. But my mother took her by the hand,
+and catching up the half-made dress and bonnet in her other, walked away
+upstairs to her room, singing:
+
+     "There was an old man who lived under a hill,
+     And if he's not dead, he lives there still."
+
+"So much for motherly love! Dang it, what's her heart made of?" said a
+voice. I turned round; it was old Ben, who had been an unobserved
+spectator of the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+     In which I narrate what I consider the most fortunate Incident in
+     my Life; and Ben the Whaler confides to me a very strange History
+
+
+Among the pensioners there was one with whom I must make the reader
+acquainted, as he will be an important person in this narrative. His
+name was Peter Anderson, a north countryman, I believe, from Greenock;
+he had been gunner's mate in the service for many years, and, having
+been severely wounded in an action, he had been sent to Greenwich. He
+was a boatswain in Greenwich Hospital; that is, he had charge of a ward
+of twenty-five men, and Ben the Whaler had lately been appointed one of
+the boatswain's mates under him. He was a very good scholar, and had
+read a great deal. You could hardly put any question to him, but you
+would get from him a satisfactory sort of an answer; and he was
+generally referred to in all points of dispute, especially in matters
+connected with the service, which he had at his fingers' ends; and,
+moreover, he was a very religious good man. I never heard him swear, but
+correct all those who did so in his presence. He had saved some money in
+the service, the interest of which, with his allowances as boatswain,
+enabled him to obtain many little comforts, and to be generous to
+others. Before Ben was shifted over to Anderson's ward, which he was
+when he was appointed boatswain's mate under him, they had not been well
+acquainted; but, since that time, they were almost always together; so
+that now I knew Anderson, which I did not before, except by sight. He
+was a very venerable looking old man, with gray locks curling down on
+his shoulders, but very stout and hearty; and, as Ben had told him all
+about me, he took notice of me, and appeared also to take an interest.
+When I came back, after the providential escape I have mentioned in the
+last chapter, Ben had narrated to him the conduct of my mother; and a
+day or two afterward, when the frost had broken up, and they were both
+sitting down, basking in the sun, which was shining bright, I went up to
+them.
+
+"Well, Jack," said old Ben, "are you ready for another trip down the
+river?"
+
+"I hope I shall earn my sixpence at an easier rate, if I do go," replied
+I.
+
+"It was wonderful that you were saved, boy," said Peter Anderson, "and
+you ought to very thankful to the Omniscient."
+
+I stared; for I had never heard that term applied to the Diety.
+
+"You mean God, don't you?" said I, at last; for I thought he couldn't
+mean any other.
+
+"Yes, boy; has not your mother taught you that name?"
+
+"She never would teach me anything. All the prayers I know I have stolen
+from my sister."
+
+"And what do you know, Jack?"
+
+"I know 'Our Father,' and 'Now I lay down to sleep,' and I believe that
+is all."
+
+"How old are you now, Jack?"
+
+"I am three years older than Virginia; she, I heard my mother say, was
+six the other day--then I suppose I'm nine."
+
+"Do you know your letters?"
+
+"Yes, some of them; I learned them on the boats."
+
+"But you cannot read?"
+
+"No, not a word."
+
+"Has your mother ever told you of the Bible?"
+
+"Not me; but I've heard her tell Virginia about it."
+
+"Don't you ever go to church?"
+
+"No, never. Mother takes little Virginia; but she says I'm too ragged
+and ungenteel."
+
+"Why does your mother neglect you? I suppose you are a bad boy?"
+
+"That he's not," interrupted Ben; "that's not the reason. But we must
+not talk about that now; only I must take Jack's part. Go on, Peter."
+
+"Would you like to learn to read, Jack?" said Anderson; "and would you
+like to hear me read the Bible to you, until you can read it yourself?"
+
+"Indeed I would," replied I. "There's many of the boys on the beach,
+smaller than me, who can both read and write."
+
+Peter Anderson then told me that he would teach me, provided I behaved
+myself well. He desired that I would come to his cabin every afternoon
+at six o'clock, a time which interfered little with my avocation of
+"Poor Jack," and that he would give me a lesson. Before he had finished
+talking, one of the lieutenants of the hospital sent for him; and Ben
+remained behind, to point out to me how valuable my knowing how to read
+and write might one day prove to me.
+
+"I've no larning myself, Jack," said he; "and I know the loss of it. Had
+I known how to read and write, I might have been something better than
+a poor Greenwich pensioner; but nevertheless I'm thankful that I'm no
+worse. Ever since I've been a man grown I've only regretted it once--and
+that's been all my life. Why, Jack, I'd give this right arm of mine--to
+be sure, it's no great things now, but once it could send a harpoon in,
+up to the hilt--but still a right arm is a right arm to the end of your
+days!--and I'd give it with pleasure, if I only knew how to read and
+write. Nay, I wouldn't care about the writing; but, if I could only read
+print, Jack, I'd give it; for then I could read the Bible, as Peter
+Anderson does. Why, Jack, when we do go to chapel on Sunday, there's not
+one in ten of us who can follow the parson with his book; all we can do
+is to listen; and when he has done speaking, we are done also, and must
+wait till he preaches again. Don't I feel ashamed, then, Jack, at not
+being able to read? and ought not they to feel proud who can--no, not
+proud, but thankful[2]? We don't think of the Bible much in our younger
+days, boy; but, when we are tripping our anchor for the other world, we
+long to read away our doubts and misgivings; and it's the only chart you
+can navigate by safely. I think a parent has much to answer for that
+don't teach its child to read; but I must not blame my father or mother,
+for I never knew them."
+
+[Footnote 2: Ben's observations were true at the time he spoke; but this
+is no longer the case. So much more general has education become, that
+now, in a ship's company, at least five out of seven can read.]
+
+"Never knew them?"
+
+"No, boy, no. My father and mother left me when I was one year old: he
+was drowned, and my mother--she died too, poor soul!"
+
+"How did your mother die, Ben?"
+
+"It's a sad, sad story, Jack, and I cannot bear to think of it; it was
+told me long afterward, by one who little thought to whom he was
+speaking."
+
+"Do tell me, Ben."
+
+"You're too young, boy, for such a tale; it's too shocking."
+
+"Was it worse than being froze to death, as I nearly was the other day?"
+
+"Yes, my lad, worse than that; although, for one so young as you are,
+that was quite bad enough."
+
+"Well, Ben, I won't ask you to tell me if it pains you to tell it. But
+you did not do wrong?"
+
+"How could a baby of two years old do wrong, and five thousand miles off
+at the time, you little fool? Well, I don't know if I won't tell you,
+Jack, after all, because you will then find out that there's a comfort
+in reading the Bible; but you must promise me never to speak about it.
+I'm a foolish old fellow to tell it to you, Jack, I do believe; but I'm
+fond of you, boy, and I don't like to say 'no' to you. Now come to an
+anchor close to me. The bells are ringing for dinner--I shall lose my
+meal, but you will not lose your story, and there will be no fear of
+interruption.
+
+"My father was brought up to the sea, Jack, and was a smart young man
+till he was about thirty, when a fall from the mainyard disabled him
+from hard duty and going aft; but still he had been brought up to sea,
+and was fit for nothing on shore. So, as he was a clean, likely fellow,
+he obtained the situation of purser's steward in an Indiaman. After that
+he was captain's steward on board of several ships. He sailed originally
+from Yarmouth, and going home after a voyage to see his relations, he
+fell in with my mother, and they were spliced. He was very fond of his
+wife, and I believe she was a very true and good woman, equally fond of
+him. He went to sea again, and I was born. He made another voyage to
+India, and when he came back I was two years old. I do not recollect him
+or my mother. My father had agreed to sail to the West Indies as
+captain's steward, and the captain, with whom he had sailed before,
+consented that he should take his wife with him, to attend upon the lady
+passengers; so I was left at Yarmouth, and put out to nurse till they
+came back. But they never came back, Jack; and, as soon as I can
+recollect, I found myself in the workhouse, and, when old enough, was
+sent to sea. I had been told that my father and mother had been lost at
+sea, but no one could tell me how, and I thought little more about it,
+for I had never known them, and those we don't know we do not love or
+care for, be they father or mother.
+
+"Well, I had sailed four or five voyages to the north in the whalers,
+and was then about twenty-five years old, when I thought I would go back
+to Yarmouth and show myself, for I was 'harpooner and steersman' at that
+early age, and not a little proud. I thought I would go and look at the
+old workhouse, for it was the only thing I could recollect, and see if
+the master and mistress were still alive, for they were kind to me when
+I was living with them. I went to Yarmouth, as I said. There was the
+workhouse, and the master and mistress both alive; and I made myself
+known to them, and the old people looked at me through their spectacles,
+and could not believe that I could possibly be the little Ben who used
+to run to the pump for water. I had money in my pocket, and I liked the
+old people, who offered me all they could give without hopes of
+receiving any thing in return, and, as I knew nobody else, I used to
+live much with them, and pay them handsomely. I gave the old man some
+curiosities and the old woman a teapot, and so on, and I remained with
+them till it was time for me to sail again. Now, you see, Jack, among
+the old folk in the workhouse was a man who had been at sea; and I often
+had long talks with him, and gave him tobacco, which he couldn't afford
+to buy--for they don't allow it in a workhouse, which is a great
+hardship, and I have often thought that I should not like to go into a
+workhouse because I never could have a bit of tobacco. This man's hair
+was as white as snow, much too white for his age, for he was more
+decrepit and worn out than, perhaps, he was old. He had come home to his
+parish, and, being unable to gain his living, they had sent him to the
+workhouse. I can't understand why a place should be called a workhouse
+where they do nothing at all. Well, Charley, as they called him, got
+very ill, and they thought he would not last long; and, when the old
+people were busy, I used to talk a great deal with him. He was generally
+very quiet and composed, and said he was comfortable, but that he knew
+he was going fast.
+
+"'But,' says he, 'here's my comfort;' and he pointed to a Bible that he
+had on his knees. 'If it had not been for this book,' said he, 'I do
+think, at times, I should have made away with myself.'
+
+"'Why,' says I, 'what have you done? Have you been very wicked?'
+
+"'We are all very wicked,' said he; 'but that's not exactly it. I have
+been _haunted_ for so many years that I have been almost driven mad.'
+
+"'Why,' said I, 'what can you have done that you should have been
+haunted? You haven't committed murder, have you?'
+
+"'Well, I don't know what to say,' replied he; 'if a man looks on and
+don't prevent murder, is it not the same? I haven't long to live, and I
+feel as if I should be happier if I made a clean breast of it; for I
+have kept the secret a long while, and I think that you, as a sailor,
+and knowing what sailors suffer, may have a fellow-feeling; and perhaps
+you will tell me (for I'm somewhat uneasy about it) whether you think
+that I am so very much to blame in the business? I've suffered enough
+for it these many years, and I trust that it will not be forgotten that
+I have so, when I'm called up to be judged--as we all shall, if this
+book is true, as I fully believe it to be.'
+
+"Here he appeared to be a good deal upset; but he took a drink of water,
+and then he told me as follows:
+
+"'About twenty-three years ago I was a seaman on board of the "William
+and Caroline," West Indiaman, bound to Jamaica. We had two or three
+passengers on board, and the steward's wife attended upon them. She was
+a handsome, tall young woman; and when she and her husband came on
+board, they told me they had one child, which they had left at home. Now
+Yarmouth, you see, is my native place, and, although I did not know her
+husband, I knew her family very well. So we were very intimate, and used
+to talk about the people we knew, and so on. I mention this in
+consequence of what occurred afterward. We arrived very safe at Jamaica,
+and remained, as usual, some time at the island before the drogers
+brought round our cargo, and then we again sailed for England.
+
+"'Well, we got clear of the islands, and were getting well north, when
+there came on a terrible gale of wind which dismasted us; and for three
+weeks we were rolling about gunnel under, for we were very heavily
+laden, and we lost our reckoning. At last we found out that we had been
+blown down among the reefs to the southward of the Bahama Isles. We had
+at one time rigged jury-masts, but unfortunately the gale had blown up
+again, and carried them also over the side; and we had no means of doing
+anything, for we had no more small spars or sails, and all our hopes
+were of falling in with some vessel which might assist us.
+
+"'But we had no such good fortune; and one morning, when a heavy sea was
+running, we discovered that it was bearing us down upon a reef of rocks,
+from which there was no chance of escape. We had no resource but to get
+the boats out, and take our chance in them. The captain was very cool
+and collected; he ordered everything in which might be requisite; called
+up the men, and explained to them his intentions. All the water and
+provisions were put into the launch, for the sea ran so high that the
+small boats could not carry them; and it was intended that all the boats
+should keep company till it moderated, and then each boat should have
+its own supply. When all was ready, we were _told off_ to our respective
+boats. The steward and his wife were to be in the same boat with me, and
+I had put her carefully in the sternsheets, for I was her great friend.
+Now the steward was called out by the captain to go for something which
+had been forgotten; and while he was away the ship was struck by a heavy
+sea, which occasioned such a breach over her that all was in confusion,
+and, to prevent the small boats from swamping, they were pushed off. The
+launch still held on for the captain, who hastened in with the mate and
+the steward, for they were the only three left on board; and away we all
+went. I mention this as the cause why the steward was separated (only
+for a time, as we supposed) from his wife. We had not been clear of the
+ship more than five minutes before we found that we, in our boat, could
+hardly make head 'gainst the wind and swell, which bore down on the reef
+close to us; the launch, which was a heavy-pulling boat and deeply
+laden, could not; and in a quarter of an hour we had the misery to see
+her in the breakers, swallowed up with all hands, together with all the
+provisions and water for our sustenance. I will not attempt to describe
+the agony of the steward's wife, who saw her husband perish before her
+eyes. She fainted; and it was a long time before she came to again; for
+no one could leave his oar for a minute to assist her, as we pulled for
+our lives. At last she did come to. Poor thing! I felt for her. Toward
+night the wind lulled, and we had every appearance of fine weather
+coming on; but we had nothing to eat, and only a barrico of water in the
+boat, and we were quite exhausted with fatigue.
+
+"'We knew that we must pull to the northward, and try and fetch the
+Bahama Isles, or, perhaps, some of the small quays to the southward of
+them, where we might procure turtle, and, perhaps, water; and when the
+sea had gone down, which it did very fast, we put the head of our boat
+in that direction, pulling all night. At daybreak the other boat was not
+to be seen; it was a dead clam, but there was still a long heavy swell.
+We shared out some water and rested till the evening, and then we took
+to our oars again.
+
+"'We rowed hard till the morning, but when the sun rose it scorched us
+up. It was impossible for us to keep to our oars without drinking, and,
+there being no one to take the command, our water was all gone, and we
+had not gained fifty miles to the northward. On the third morning we
+laid down exhausted at the bottom of the boat--we were dying not only
+with thirst, but with hunger; we had agreed that when night came on we
+would take to the oars again; but some would and some would not; so
+that, at last, those who had taken to their oars would pull no longer.
+
+"'The steward's wife at times sang psalms, and at times wept. She had a
+very sweet voice, but her lips were soon glued together for want of
+water, and she could sing no longer.
+
+"'When the sun rose on the fourth day there was no vessel to be seen.
+Some were raving for water, and others sat crouched under the boat's
+thwarts in silent despair. But, toward evening, the sky clouded over,
+and there fell a heavy rain, which refreshed us. We took the gown from
+off the steward's wife, and spread it, and caught the water; and we all
+drank until our thirst was quenched--even our wet clothes were a comfort
+to us; still we were gnawed with hunger. That night we slept; but the
+next morning every man's eyes flashed, and we all looked as if we would
+eat each other; and there were whisperings and noddings going on in the
+bow of the boat; and a negro who was with us took out his knife, and
+sharpened it on the boat's gunnel. No one asked him why. We spoke not,
+but we all had our own thoughts. It was dreadful to look at our hollow
+cheeks--our eyes sunken deep, but glaring like red-hot coals--our long
+beards and haggard faces--every one ready to raise his hand against the
+other. The poor woman never complained or said a word after she left off
+singing; her thoughts appeared elsewhere. She sat for hours motionless,
+with her eyes fixed on the still blue water, as if she would pierce its
+depth.
+
+"'At last the negro came aft; and we were each upon our guard as he
+passed us, for we had seen him sharpen his knife. He went to the
+sternsheets, where the poor woman sat, and we all knew what he intended
+to do, for he only acted our own thoughts. She was still hanging over
+the gunnel, with her eyes fixed downward, and she heeded not his
+approach. He caught her by the hair, and dragged her head toward him.
+She then held out her arms toward me, faintly calling me by name; but
+I--shame on me!--remained sitting on the afterthwart. The negro thrust
+his knife into her neck, below the ear; and, as soon as he had divided
+the artery, he glued his thick lips to the gash and sucked her blood.
+
+"'When the deed was done, others rose up and would have shared; but the
+negro kept his white eyes directed toward them--one arm thrust out, with
+his knife pointed at them, as he slaked his thirst, while, with his
+other round her waist, he supported her dying frame. The attitude was
+that of fondness, while the deed was--murder. He appeared as if he were
+caressing her, while her life's blood poured into his throat. At last we
+all drew our knives; and the negro knew that he must resign his prey or
+his life. He dropped the woman, and she fell, with her face forward, at
+my feet. She was quite dead. And then--our hunger was relieved.
+
+"'Three days passed away, and again we were mad for want of water--when
+we saw a vessel. We shouted, and shook hands, and threw out the oars,
+and pulled as if we had never suffered. It was still calm, and, as we
+approached the vessel, we threw what remained of the poor woman into the
+sea; and the sharks finished what we had left. We agreed to say nothing
+about her, for we were ashamed of ourselves.
+
+"'Now I did _not_ murder, but I did _not_ prevent it; and I have ever
+since been haunted by this poor woman. I see her and the negro
+constantly before me, and then I think of what passed, and I turn sick.
+I feel that I ought to have saved her--she is always holding out her
+arms to me, and I hear her faintly call "Charles"--then I read my
+Bible--and she disappears, and I feel as if I were forgiven. Tell me,
+what do you think, messmate?'
+
+"'Why,' replied I, 'sarcumstances will make us do what we otherwise
+would never think possible. I never was in such a predicament, and
+therefore can't tell what people may be brought to do. But tell me,
+messmate, what was the name of the poor woman?'
+
+[Illustration: ANDERSON READING THE BIBLE TO JACK.--Marryat, Vol. X., p.
+89.]
+
+"'The husband's name was Ben Rivers.'
+
+"'_Rivers_, did you say?' replied I, struck all of a heap.
+
+"'Yes,' replied he; 'that was her name; she was of this town. But never
+mind the name--tell me what you think, messmate?'
+
+"'Well,' says I (for I was quite bewildered), 'I'll tell you what, old
+fellow--as far as I'm consarned, you have my forgiveness, and now I must
+wish you good-by--and I pray to God that we may never meet again.'
+
+"'Stop a little,' said he; 'don't leave me this way. Ah! I see how it
+is--you think I'm a murderer.'
+
+"'No, I don't,' replied I; 'not exactly--still, there'll be no harm in
+your reading your Bible.'
+
+"And so I got up, and walked out of the room--for you see, Jack,
+although he mayn't have been so much to blame, still I didn't like to be
+in company with a man who had eaten up _my own mother!_"
+
+Here Ben paused, and sighed deeply. I was so much shocked with the
+narrative that I could not say a word. At last Ben continued:
+
+"I couldn't stay in the room--I couldn't stay in the workhouse. I
+couldn't even stay in the town. Before the day closed I was out of it,
+and I have never been there since. Now, Jack, I must go in--remember
+what I have said to you, and larn to read your Bible."
+
+I promised that I would, and that very evening I had my first lesson
+from Peter Anderson, and I continued to receive them until I could read
+well. He then taught me to write and cipher; but before I could do the
+latter, many events occurred, which must be made known to the reader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+     In which the Doctor lets out some very novel Modes of Medical
+     Treatment, which are attended with the greatest Success.
+
+
+Such a change has taken place since I can first recollect Greenwich that
+it will be somewhat difficult for me to make the reader aware of my
+localities. Narrow streets have been pulled down, handsome buildings
+erected--new hotels in lieu of small inns--gay shops have now usurped
+those which were furnished only with articles necessary for the outfit
+of the seamen. Formerly, long stages, with a basket to hold six behind,
+and dillies which plied at the Elephant and Castle, were the usual land
+conveyances--now they have made place for railroads and omnibuses.
+Formerly, the wherry conveyed the mariner and his wife, with his
+sea-chest, down to the landing-place--now steamboats pour out their
+hundreds at a trip. Even the view from Greenwich is much changed, here
+and there broken in upon by the high towers for shot and other
+manufactories, or some large building which rises boldly in the
+distance; while the "Dreadnaught's" splendid frame fills up half the
+river, and she that was used to deal out death and destruction with her
+terrible rows of teeth, is now dedicated by humanity to succor and
+relieve.
+
+I mention this because the house in which Dr. Tadpole formerly lived no
+longer exists; and I wish particularly to describe it to the reader.
+
+When I left Greenwich in 1817 or 1818, it was still standing, although
+certainly in a very dilapidated state. I will, however, give a slight
+sketch of it, as it is deeply impressed on my memory.
+
+It was a tall, narrow building of dark red brick, much ornamented, and
+probably built in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It had two benches on
+each side the door; for, previous to Tadpole's taking possession of it,
+it had been an alehouse, and much frequented by seamen. The doctor had
+not removed these benches, as they were convenient, when the weather was
+fine, for those who waited for medicine or advice; and moreover, being a
+jocular, sociable man, he liked people to sit down there, and would
+often converse with them. Indeed, this assisted much to bring him into
+notice, and made him so well known among the humbler classes that none
+of them, if they required medicine or advice, ever thought of going to
+any one but Dr. Tadpole. He was very liberal and kind, and I believe
+there was hardly a poor person in the town who was not in his debt, for
+he never troubled them much about payment. He had some little property
+of his own, or he never could have carried on such a losing concern as
+his business really must have been to him. In early life he had been a
+surgeon in the navy, and was said, and I believe with justice, to be
+very clever in his profession. In defending himself against some act of
+oppression on the part of his captain--for in those times the service
+was very different to what it is now--he had incurred the displeasure of
+the Navy Board, and had left the service. His enemies (for even the
+doctor had his enemies) asserted that he was turned out of the service;
+his friends, that he left the service in disgust; after all, a matter of
+little consequence. The doctor is now gone, and has left behind him in
+the town of Greenwich a character for charity and generosity of which no
+one can deprive him. He was buried in Greenwich churchyard; and never
+was there, perhaps, such a numerous procession as voluntarily followed
+his remains to the grave. The poor fully paid him the debt of gratitude,
+if they did not pay him their other debts; and when his will was opened,
+it was found that he had released them all from the latter. Peace be to
+him, and honor to his worth!
+
+The shop of Dr. Tadpole was fitted up in a very curious manner, and
+excited a great deal of admiration. During his service afloat he had
+collected various objects of natural history, which he had set up or
+prepared himself: the lower rows of bottles in the windows were full of
+snakes, lizards, and other reptiles; the second tier of bottles in the
+window were the same as are now generally seen--large globes containing
+blue and yellow mixtures, with gold hieroglyphics outside of them; but
+between each of these bottles was a stuffed animal of some kind,
+generally a small monkey, or of that description. The third row of
+bottles was the most incomprehensible: no one could tell what was in
+them; and the doctor, when asked, would laugh and shake his head: this
+made the women very curious. I believe they were chiefly preparations of
+the stomach, and other portions of the interior of the animal frame; but
+the doctor always said that it was his row of "secrets," and used to
+amuse himself with evading the questions of the other sex. There were
+some larger specimens of natural history suspended from the ceiling,
+chiefly skulls and bones of animals; and on the shelves inside a great
+variety of stones and pebbles and fragments of marble figures, which
+the doctor had picked up, I believe, in the Mediterranean: altogether
+the shop was a strange medley, and made people stare very much when they
+came into it. The doctor kept an old woman to cook and clean the house,
+and his boy Tom, whom I have already mentioned. Tom was a good-natured
+lad, and, as his master said, very fond of liquorice; but the doctor
+used to laugh at that (when Tom was not by), saying, "It's very true
+that Tom cribs my _liquorice_; but I will say this for him, he is very
+honest about _jalap_ and _rhubarb_, and I have never missed a grain."
+
+Next door to the doctor lived another person, who kept a small
+tobacconist's shop, which was a favorite resort of the pensioners and
+other poor people. She was an Irishwoman, with a strong accent of her
+country--a widow by her own account. Who her husband had been was not
+satisfactorily known: if the question was put, she always evaded it as
+much as possible. All she said was that his name was St. Felix, and that
+he had been of no profession. She was about twenty-two or twenty-three,
+very handsome, and very pleasing in her manners, which was perhaps one
+cause of the surmises and scandal which were continually afloat. Some
+said that her husband was still alive; others that he had been
+transported for seven years; and many (and among them my mother)
+declared that she could not produce her "marriage lines." Indeed, there
+was no end to ill-natured reports, as always will be the case when men
+are so unfortunate as to have a reputation, or women so unfortunate as
+to be pretty. But the widow appeared to be indifferent to what people
+said: she was always lively and cheerful, and a great favorite with the
+men, whatever she may have been with the women. Dr. Tadpole had courted
+her ever since she had settled at Greenwich: they were the best of
+friends, but the doctor's suit did not appear to advance. Nevertheless,
+the doctor seldom passed a day without paying her a visit, and she was
+very gracious to him. Although she sold every variety of tobacco, she
+would not permit people to smoke, and had no seats either in the shop or
+at the door--but to this rule an exception was made in favor of the
+doctor. He seldom failed to be there every evening; and, although she
+would not allow him a chair, she permitted him to remain standing at the
+counter and smoke his cigar while they conversed. It was this indulgence
+which occasioned people to think that she would marry the doctor; but at
+last they got tired of waiting, and it became a sort of proverb in
+Fisher's Alley and its precincts, when things were put off to an
+indefinite period, to say, "Yes, that will be done when the widow
+marries the doctor."
+
+One evening, Ben had sent me to fill his tobacco-box at Mrs. St.
+Felix's, and when I went in, I found the doctor in her shop.
+
+"Well, Master Tom Saunders or Mr. Poor Jack," said the widow, "what may
+your pleasure be?"
+
+"Pigtail," said I, putting down the penny.
+
+"Is it for your father, Jack, for report tells me that he's in want of
+it?"
+
+"No," replied I, "it's for old Ben--father's a long way from this, I
+expect."
+
+"And do you intend to follow him, Jack? It's my opinion you'll be the
+very revarse of a good sailor if you cruise bottom up as you did on your
+first voyage."
+
+"It's not the pleasantest way of sailing, is it, Jack?" observed the
+doctor.
+
+"Not in the winter-time," replied I.
+
+The widow measured the length of the pigtail, as milliners do tape,
+from the tip of the finger to the knuckle, and cut it off.
+
+"And now will you oblige me with a cigar?" said the doctor. "I think
+this is the sixth, is it not, Mrs. St. Felix? so here's my shilling."
+
+"Really, doctor, if it were not that the wry faces I make at physic
+would spoil my beauty, I'm almost in honor bound to send for something
+to take out of your shop, just by the way of return for your patronage."
+
+"I trust you will never require it, Mrs. St. Felix. I've no objection to
+your sending for anything you please, but don't take physic."
+
+"Well, my girl Jane shall have a dose, I declare, she is getting so fat
+and lumpy. Only don't let it be laudanum, doctor, she's so sleepy-headed
+already. I told her this morning that she was looking pale, just by way
+of preparing her."
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix, you must excuse me, but you've no right to interfere
+with my practice. I prescribe physic when I think it necessary, and Jane
+is perfectly well at present, and shall not have any."
+
+"And you've no right to interfere with my household, doctor. If I
+choose, I'll physic Jane, and the dog, and the cat, and the kitten,
+which I reckon to be the whole of my establishment, all four of them on
+the same day. Tell me, doctor, how much ipecacuanha will make a kitten
+sick?"
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix, I am not a veterinary surgeon, and therefore cannot
+answer."
+
+"Veterinary! Well, I thought they only doctored horses."
+
+"I beg your pardon, their practice extends further, as I can prove to
+you. I was once at the establishment of one in London, and I observed in
+a large room about a dozen little lap-dogs all tied up with strings. The
+poor little unwieldy waddling things were sent to him because they were
+asthmatic, and I don't know what all; and how do you think he cured
+them?"
+
+"It's for me to ask that question, doctor."
+
+"Well, then, he told me his secret. He tied them all up, and gave them
+nothing to eat, only water to drink; and in three weeks they were
+returned in as beautiful condition, and as frisky as young kids. Nothing
+but diet, Mrs. St. Felix."
+
+"I should rather think it was _no_ diet, doctor. Well, I do declare,
+I'll tie up Jane for three weeks, and see if nothing but water will cure
+her complaints. Well, Mr. Jack, why don't you take the tobacco to Ben?"
+
+"Oh! he's in at supper now; there's no hurry," replied I; "and I like to
+hear you talk."
+
+"Well, there'll be less scandal in your remaining to hear us than there
+would be if we sent you away, anyhow. How's little Miss Virginia, sister
+to Poor Jack."
+
+"She's quite well, and wants to come and see you, only mother won't let
+her."
+
+"Many thanks to your sister for her compliment; and not forgetting your
+mother for hers, also. So your mother has given up 'making _lay_ on
+reasonable terms'?"
+
+"'Cause people wouldn't come."
+
+"And that is a sufficient reason, even if she had not another; which is,
+that she's never out of hot water without boiling more. Doctor, you're
+as mute as a fish. You told me how to cure Jane and the dogs, now tell
+me what's the dose for a cat and a kitten?"
+
+"A ha'p'orth of liver, cut into small pieces."
+
+"There'll be no difficulty in getting that down their throats, anyhow."
+
+"Talking about liver, Mrs. St. Felix, I once knew a friend of mine who
+cured some geese of a liver complaint."
+
+"Had they been long in the East Indies, poor creatures?"
+
+"No, but they had been in a very hot climate. You see, he was over in
+France during the last peace, and he went to the baths at Montpellier
+for the benefit of his health. He lodged with an old Frenchman. Now, you
+see, Mrs. St. Felix, in the south of France they have a custom of making
+certain pies, which are much esteemed, and are called pâtes de foie
+gras--that means livers of geese, in French."
+
+"It don't sound much like livers in English, doctor; but never mind
+that, go on with your story."
+
+"Here's a customer, Mrs. St. Felix; serve him first, and then I will go
+on with my story."
+
+An old pensioner came in, and laying the coppers on the counter, asked
+for a ha'p'orth of returns and a farthing of snuff.
+
+"That's a large ready money order, doctor," said the widow, as the man
+left the shop. "Ain't I making my fortune? Now go on; I'm as eager about
+the liver as my own cat."
+
+"Well, the great object is to increase the size of the geese's livers,
+that is, to bring on a regular liver complaint; and, to effect this,
+they put the poor animals in a hot closet next the kitchen fire, cram
+the food into their mouths through a funnel, and give them plenty of
+water to drink. This produces the disease; and the livers of the geese,
+when they are killed, very often weigh three or four pounds, while the
+animals themselves are mere skeletons."
+
+"And the French eat those liver complaints?" interrupted the widow,
+making a face.
+
+"Yes, they do, and are as fond of it as my boy Tom is of liquorice.
+Well, this doctor, who is a friend of mine, quarreled with his host, who
+boasted of his geese having the largest livers in Montpellier, and was
+very proud of it. My friend knew that he could not annoy him more than
+by preventing his success; so, having a large quantity of Cheltenham
+salts with him, he used every morning to put a quantity of them in the
+water which the geese were given to drink. This had the same effect upon
+them as it has upon men and women; and instead of becoming more diseased
+every day, the geese recovered their health and spirits. The Frenchman
+crammed and crammed, made his closet still hotter, and sacre bleu'd, and
+actually tore his hair, because his geese would be well and hearty; but,
+the more he tried to make them ill, the more salts were given to them by
+the doctor, who gained his point and his revenge."
+
+"Well, that's a funny story, doctor; and since you know how to cure it,
+the first time I meet with a sick goose I'll send him to you."
+
+"Many thanks; but, as it is, there's plenty of geese to send for the
+doctor."
+
+"That's true enough. And now, Master Jack, you've had quite enough for
+your penny, and I won't allow Ben to be kept waiting any longer."
+
+"You are not going to tell any more stories, doctor?" said I.
+
+"Why, you mud-larking vagabond, you don't mean to say that I've told
+stories? Be off with you! And, I say, as you pass round the corner, just
+tell Tom that I'm coming home directly."
+
+"Won't that be a story, doctor?" said I, as I went out of the door. I
+heard them both laugh, but I did not hear what they said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+     I prefer a Suit to Old Nanny, and procure a new Suit of
+     Clothes--The advantage of being well dressed: you may walk out with
+     the Ladies
+
+
+The reader must not give me too much credit when I tell him that, ever
+since I had been under the tuition of Peter Anderson, I had quite a
+craving to go to church. Although what I had gained from his precepts
+and explanations had increased my desire, still I must acknowledge that
+the strongest reason for my being so anxious was that my mother would
+not take me, and did take Virginia. Further, my curiosity was excited by
+my absolute ignorance of what the church service consisted; I had heard
+the bells toll, and, as I sauntered by, would stop and listen to the
+organ and the singing. I would sometimes wait, and see the people coming
+out; and then I could not help comparing my ragged dress with their
+clean and gay attire.
+
+This wish continually worried me; but the more I reflected, the more
+impossible it appeared to be that I should be able to gratify it. How
+could I possibly go to church in my tattered and dirty clothes--and what
+chance had I of getting others? I certainly gained, at an average,
+eighteenpence per week, but I saved nothing. Would my mother give me
+clothes? No, that I was sure she would not, for she grudged me even the
+little victuals which I did apply for. I thought this matter over and
+over as I lay in bed. Ben had no money. Anderson I could not ask for it.
+I thought that I would apply to Dr. Tadpole, but I was afraid. At last
+it came into my head that I had better first ascertain how much money I
+should require before I took further measures. The next morning I went
+to a fitting-out shop, and asked the lad who attended how much money I
+should have to pay for a pair of blue trousers, waistcoat, and jacket.
+The lad told me that I might have a very nice suit for twenty-two
+shillings. Twenty-two shillings! What an enormous sum it appeared to me
+then; and then there was a straw hat to buy, and a pair of shoes and
+stockings. I inquired the price of these last articles, and found that
+my dross could not be made complete under thirty-three shillings. I was
+quite in despair, for the sum appeared to be a fortune. I sat down to
+calculate how long it would take me to save up so much money, at
+sixpence a week, which was all that I could afford; but, at that time,
+never having learned anything of figures, all I could make of it was
+that it was so long a time as to be beyond my calculation.
+
+It was Saturday evening. I sat down on the steps of the landing-place,
+very melancholy, thinking that to-morrow was Sunday, and abandoning all
+hopes of ever going to church, when a Thames fisherman, of the name of
+Freeman, who lived at Greenwich, and with whom I was acquainted--for I
+used to assist him on the Saturday night to moor his coble off the
+landing-place, and hang up his nets to dry--called out to me to come and
+help him. I did so; we furled the sails, hauled on board his little boat
+for keeping the fish alive, hoisted the nets up to the mast, and made
+all secure; and I was thinking to myself that he would go to church
+to-morrow, and I could not, when he asked me why I was so sad. I told
+him.
+
+"Why, Jack," said he, "I can't help you, for it is bad times with me
+just now; indeed, I could help you but little if times were ever so
+good--I've too many children of my own; but look ye, here's a good long
+piece of four-inch, which I picked up, and it's well worth a shilling.
+I'll give it you (for I do owe you something), and do you take it to old
+Nanny. She's a queer body; but suppose you try whether she'll let you
+have the money. She can if she chooses, and, as you have dealt with her
+so long, perhaps she will, if you promise to lay some by every week, and
+repay her."
+
+This idea had never occurred to me, for I knew old Nanny was very close,
+and drove very hard bargains with me; however, I thanked Freeman for his
+piece of rope and piece of advice, and when we landed I determined, at
+all events, I would try.
+
+I have before mentioned old Nanny, who kept a marine store, and to whom
+I used to sell whatever I picked up on the beach. She was a strange old
+woman, and appeared to know everything that was going on. How she gained
+her information I cannot tell. She was very miserly in general; but it
+was said she had done kind things in one or two instances. Nobody knew
+her history: all that anybody knew was that she was Old Nanny. She had
+no kith or kin that she ever mentioned; some people said she was rich,
+if the truth were known; but how are we to get at the truth in this
+world?
+
+I was soon at old Nanny's store, with the piece of rope coiled over my
+arm.
+
+"Well, Jack, what have you got here? a piece of good junk? no, it is
+not, for it is quite rotten. Why do you bring me such things? What can I
+do with them?"
+
+"Why, mother," says I, "it's new rope; not been used hardly; it's the
+very best of junk."
+
+"Boy, boy! do you pretend to teach me? Well, what do you want for it?"
+
+"I want a shilling," replied I.
+
+"A shilling!" cried she, "where am I to find a shilling? And if I could
+find one, why should I throw it away upon a thing not worth twopence,
+and which will only lumber my store till I die? The boy's demented!"
+
+"Mother," says I, "it's worth a shilling, and you know it; so give it to
+me, or I go elsewhere."
+
+"And where will you go to, good-for-nothing that you are? where will you
+go to?"
+
+"Oh! the fishermen will give me more."
+
+"The fishermen will give you a couple of stale flat-fish, to take home
+to your mother."
+
+"Well, I'll try that," said I, going.
+
+"Not so fast, Jack, not so fast; if I make a penny by you one day, I
+suppose, to keep your custom, I must lose something by you the next.
+Now, I'll give you sixpence; and how I'm to get my money back I don't
+know."
+
+"No, Nanny," said I, "I must have a shilling."
+
+"A shilling, you little cheat! I can't give it; but what do you want?
+don't you want a key to your chest, or something of that sort?"
+
+"I've no chest, mother, and therefore don't want a key."
+
+"But you want something out of all the pretty things in my shop; boys
+always fancy something."
+
+I laughed at the idea of "pretty things" in her shop, for it contained
+nothing but old iron, empty bottles, dirty rags and phials; so I told
+her there was nothing that I wanted.
+
+"Well," says she, "sit down a little, and look about you; there's no
+hurry. So Mrs. East has got another boy, worse luck for the parish, with
+six children already!--Look about you, and take your time.--Did you hear
+of Peter James giving his wife a black eye last night because she wanted
+to get him out of the alehouse?--I wonder who that letter was from that
+Susan Davis had from the post-office. I think I could guess; poor girl!
+she has looked rather peaking for some weeks.--Don't be in a hurry,
+Jack; look about; there's plenty of pretty things in my shop.--So Davis
+the butcher has been pulled up for bad meat; I thought it would come to
+that, and I'm glad of it.--There's a capital lock and key, Jack, to put
+to your chest, when you get one; suppose you take that.--What's the
+doctor about? They say he is always sitting with the widow.--Does your
+mother make plenty of money by clear-starching? I know your sister had a
+spotted muslin frock on last Sunday, and that must have cost
+something.--There's a spade, Jack; very useful to dig on the beach; you
+may find something--money, perhaps--who knows? Take the spade, Jack, and
+then you'll owe me sixpence.--So Bill Freeman pawned his wife's best
+gown last Saturday night. I thought it would be so. He may say it's
+because he's caught no fish this bad weather. But I know more than
+people think.--Here's a nice glass bottle, Jack, wouldn't you like to
+give it to your mother, to put pickles in? it's white glass, you see.
+Look about, Jack; there's plenty of pretty things, you see.--So the
+Governor's daughter's going to be married; at least I suppose so, for I
+met her riding with a young gentleman; and nowadays the quality always
+make love on horseback.--Well, Jack, have you found anything?"
+
+"No, mother, I haven't; and I must have my shilling or go. Unless,
+indeed, you're inclined to help me to what I want, and then I'll give
+you the rope for nothing."
+
+"Give me the rope for nothing!" replied old Nanny. "Sit down, Jack, and
+let me know what it is you want."
+
+I thought it was of little use to make the application, but I determined
+to try; so I explained my wishes.
+
+"Humph!" said she, after a minute's thought, "so you want thirty-three
+shillings to buy clothes--to go to church in. Your mother dresses your
+sister in spotted muslin and leaves you in rags; suppose you wait till
+your father comes home again?"
+
+"That may not be for years."
+
+"Why, Jack, I don't go to church--I am too old--too poor to dress myself
+to go to church, even if I could go so far--why should you go?"
+
+"Well, mother," said I, rising up, "if you will not do it, I'm very
+sorry; I would have paid you honestly, and have given you good bargains,
+so good-by."
+
+"Not so fast, Jack--sit down, sit down, boy--look about the shop and see
+if you can find something that will suit you." Here Nanny communed with
+herself aloud: "Thirty-three shillings! that's a great deal of
+money--pay me honestly--and good bargains! His mother called me an old
+cat the other day--I think they could be got cheaper, they always cheat
+boys--she'd be vexed to see him dressed clean at church--honest boy, I
+do believe--a boy that wants to go to church must be a good boy. Oh,
+dear me, it is so much money!"
+
+"I'll work day and night to pay you, Nanny."
+
+"And mind, Jack, I'm to have good bargains, and this piece of rope for
+nothing; something paid every week."
+
+"If I can earn it, mother, as sure as I sit here."
+
+"Well, the old cat will do more for you, Jack, than your mother would.
+You shall have the money; but, Jack, I must bargain for the things."
+
+"Thank you, Nanny, thank you!" replied I, jumping off my seat with
+delight.
+
+"Well, we can do nothing to-night, Jack. Come to me on Monday, and if I
+don't change my mind--"
+
+"Change your mind!" said I, sorrowfully. "I thought you had promised!"
+
+"Well, so I did--and--and I'll keep my promise, Jack. Come on Monday;
+and as you can't go to church to-morrow, see if you can't pick up a
+little money."
+
+I did not neglect her injunctions, and was fortunate enough to be able
+to bring her sixpence on the Monday morning. Nanny went with me to the
+clothing-shop, haggled and fought until she reduced the articles to
+twenty-eight shillings, and then they were ordered to be made and sent
+to her house. I earned but little money that week, and more than once
+Nanny appeared to be very unhappy, and repent of her kind offices; but
+when Sunday came she was very cheerful; she washed me herself very
+carefully, and then put on my clothes. I cannot express the delight I
+felt at that moment; when Nanny said to me, as she placed the hat on my
+head:
+
+"Well, Jack, I wouldn't have thought that you were such a handsome boy
+as you are. Why, you may walk with your sister Virginia, and she will
+have nothing to be ashamed of, pretty as she is. There, go and show
+yourself; and, Jack, don't forget your promise to pay me back soon and
+give me good bargains!"
+
+I repeated my promise and hastened to the hospital to find Peter
+Anderson. He did not know me when I came up to him. I told him how and
+why I had got the clothes; he patted my head, said I was a good lad, and
+that he would take me to the chapel at the hospital, where I could sit
+with the school-children; he could manage that. Then I met Ben and
+others, and they were all so surprised. I went to the chapel, and
+although I could not hear well what was said, for I was a long way off
+from the parson, and the old pensioners coughed so much, I was very much
+pleased, although a little tired before it was over. When the service
+was finished, I was proceeding to my mother's, when I met her and little
+Virginia coming home from the town church.
+
+"There's a nice little boy, Virginia," said my mother; "wouldn't you
+like to walk with him?"
+
+My mother did not know me, but Virginia did immediately; she burst away
+from her mother and ran into my arms, laughing and crying as she clung
+to me, and then she cried out, "Mother, yes, mother, I will walk with
+him!" and she hastened me away with her, much to my mother's annoyance,
+who would have run after us to stop her, but she didn't think it genteel
+to go so fast; so Virginia and I went off together, leaving my mother
+very angry indeed. We walked along toward the hospital, Virginia crying
+out to every one she knew, her large hazel eyes beaming with delight,
+"Look, this is brother Jack!" and I went with her to Peter Anderson and
+old Ben. I was so proud to have my sister with me; and Peter Anderson
+said:
+
+"This is as it should have been a long while ago." And then he
+continued, "Jack, you may happen not to earn any money in the week, and
+if so, come to me, for old Nanny must not be disappointed; but,
+recollect, you must pay for your own clothes out of your own earnings."
+
+When it was dinner-time Virginia and I went home together. As we came
+to Fisher's Alley I said to her, "Mother will be angry with you."
+
+"I can't help it, Jack," replied she; "you are my own brother, and we
+are not doing wrong."
+
+When we went in my mother looked hard at me; but, to my surprise, said
+nothing. She was sulky, but whether it was with Virginia or with me, or
+with my new clothes, or whether her conscience smote her for her neglect
+of me, I do not know. She put the dinner on the table in silence, and
+after it was over she went upstairs. Virginia and I did not neglect this
+opportunity. She put on her bonnet, we slipped out, and walked about
+together till tea-time. When we came back my mother seized my sister by
+the arm and carried her up to bed. Little Virginia made no resistance,
+but turned her head and smiled at me as she was led away. I never felt
+so happy in my life as I did when I went to bed and thought over the
+events of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+     I am so Unfashionable as to pay my Debts--Ben's Opinion as to my
+     Father's Return--The Chances exemplified in the List of killed and
+     wounded--The "L'Orient" blowing up and the "Royal George" going
+     down.
+
+
+Time passed, and three years of it certainly were not unprofitably
+spent. Anderson had instructed me well. I could read, write, and cipher,
+and, what the reader will consider of more consequence, I was well
+acquainted with the Bible, and duly admonished by my preceptor of my
+duty toward God and man. Nor was my sister Virginia neglected. My
+mother, as soon as she was seven years old, sent her as a day scholar to
+a young ladies' seminary, where she was well taught, although the style
+of the school was much above my sister's situation in life; but my
+mother would not allow her to go anywhere else, although there were
+several schools more appropriate. She declared that Virginia should not
+mix with the vulgar, ungenteel girls of the place, and that, if _she_
+had demeaned herself by marrying below her rank, at all events _her_
+daughter should be brought up as she ought to be. The neighbors laughed
+at her, but my mother did not care. She worked hard, and always was
+ready to pay the quarter's bill for schooling whenever it was due.
+
+To me Sunday was a day of rejoicing; I was so glad to throw off my
+ragged apparel of "Poor Jack" and put on my best clothes, that I might
+walk with my sister, for my mother gradually softened down her asperity
+(perhaps out of prudence), as she could raise no objection to Virginia
+walking with her brother when he was clean and well dressed, and
+Virginia was very firm in supporting me when I requested permission.
+Indeed, latterly my requests were more like demanding a right than a
+favor, and my mother appeared to wish to avoid a contest with me. She
+knew that I was a good scholar, very independent of her, and very much
+liked. The favorable opinion of others induced her to treat me with more
+consideration; but we had no regard for each other, only preserving a
+sort of armed neutrality.
+
+There are grades in all classes of life; and the young ladies' seminary,
+to which Virginia went as a day scholar, had its distinctions of rank.
+The first in consequence among the young ladies were the two daughters
+of Mr. Tippet, the haberdasher; then came the hatter's daughter, Miss
+Beaver. The grades appeared to be as follows: manufactures held the
+first rank; then dry goods, as the tea-dealers, grocers, etc.; the third
+class consisted of the daughters of the substantial butchers and
+pastrycooks. The squabbles between the young ladies about rank and
+precedence were continual: what then must have been the position of poor
+little Virginia, whose mother was a clear-starcher and getter-up of fine
+linen? At first they called her the washerwoman's daughter, and would
+not associate with her, which made her very uncomfortable; and she used
+to tell me on the Sundays when we walked out how she had been treated
+during the week. But it was all for her advantage, and tended to correct
+the false pride and upstart ideas which in time must have been
+engendered by my mother's folly. Neither, after a few weeks, was my
+sister unhappy. She was too meek in disposition to reply, so that she
+disarmed those who would assail her; and being, as she was, of the
+lowest rank in the school, there could be no contest with the others as
+to precedence. Her mildness, humility, and sweetness of temper soon won
+upon both the schoolmistress and the scholars; eventually the Misses
+Tippet took Virginia under their protection, and this magnanimity on
+their part silenced all opposition. My mother had desired my sister to
+take lessons in dancing. At first the girls would not stand up with her;
+but, when the elder Miss Tippet took her as a partner, my sister became
+quite the fashion, and, what was better, a great favorite and pet with
+everybody; and they all patronized her as "little Virginia."
+
+I very soon paid off my debt to old Nanny, without having to apply to
+Peter Anderson. I had assistance (but without asking for it) as follows:
+The second Sunday after I had obtained my clothes I called, with
+Virginia, upon the widow of St. Felix. She was in the back parlor, and
+the doctor, as usual, sitting with her. She received us very kindly,
+spoke a deal to Virginia, and told me that I looked very handsome for
+"Poor Jack."
+
+"You'll be quite the fashion," continued she; "and I presume, like most
+fashionable gentlemen, your clothes are not paid for."
+
+I replied, laughing, that they were not; but that they should be, if I
+lived and could work.
+
+"I've heard the whole story from old Ben," replied she. "Come in
+to-morrow, Jack; I want to speak with you."
+
+I did so in the forenoon, when she put a five-shilling piece in my hand,
+and said, "That's from me, to help you to pay your debt to old Nanny.
+But that's not all, Jack; I've coaxed the doctor (not that he required
+much coaxing, to do him justice), and here's two half-crowns from him,
+which, I believe, will go about as far as my five shillings. Now, Jack,
+you look very happy; so, just out of gratitude, run as fast as you can,
+and make poor old Nanny happy, for she moans over her generous fit, and
+wonders all day long whether you will ever pay her again."
+
+I had listened all this while to Mrs. St. Felix, but I was so moved by
+her kindness and generosity that I could not speak. I had received money
+for services performed, and I had obtained it from Nanny as a loan, to
+be repaid with interest; but so much money, as a gift, had never entered
+into my imagination. I could not restrain my feelings. I dropped my face
+on the counter to conceal the tears which escaped.
+
+"I can't say 'thank you,' as I wish, indeed I can't," said I, as I
+looked up at her.
+
+"Why, you foolish boy, you have said thank you," replied the widow; "and
+now run away, for I must leave the shop a minute."
+
+This assistance made me redouble my exertions, and in three months I had
+repaid the whole. The last portion which was due I received from
+Virginia. She knew how much I paid off every week; and when on Sunday I
+told her that I had only one and sixpence owing, she ran upstairs, and,
+when she came down again, put the sum into my hand. She had been saving
+up all she could coax out of my mother ever since I had first obtained
+the clothes; and great indeed was her delight when she gave me the
+money--she kissed me, and began to dance, although it was Sunday, and
+then she proposed that we should walk together to old Nanny's, and close
+the account. We found the old woman sitting on her steps; the door was
+open, but the shop shutters were up. On the Saturday night I had paid
+her two shillings, so that she did not expect to see me. Virginia put
+the one and sixpence in her hand, saying, "Now brother has paid you
+all."
+
+"Yes, darling, he has," replied old Nanny; "but then he promised--"
+
+"I know I did," interrupted I; "and I will keep my promise. I promised
+you good bargains."
+
+"You're an honest boy, Jack, and what's more strange, your sister isn't
+a spoiled girl; but that's not her mother's fault. My dear, if it was
+not Sunday you would be able to see all the pretty things in my shop,
+and perhaps you might like something. You must come another day."
+
+I thanked old Nanny once more for having trusted me, and then we left
+her, I did keep my word with, her, and gave her good bargains for a long
+while afterward.
+
+I often thought of my father, who had been absent now for nearly four
+years, and, as the time advanced, I became more anxious to hear of him.
+I seldom met old Ben the Whaler without talking about my father, and
+asking Ben what chance he thought there was of his return.
+
+"Why, you see, Jack," said Ben, "in these times it's hard to say whether
+a man be alive or not. Every day we hear of some naval action or
+another, and therefore every day some must lose the number of their
+mess; and then you see, Jack, a man may be supposed to be dead for
+years, and after all turn up in some French prison or another; and then
+ships change their stations, and ships' companies their ships; and then
+ships are sometimes wrecked, with all hands, or take fire, and are blown
+up. Many a good seaman loses his life by falling overboard in a
+gale--and who knows or cares? Whether your father be alive or be dead,
+Jack, it is impossible for me to say; but, howsomever, I hope he be."
+
+This was not a satisfactory, although a cautious reply, and I never
+could get Ben to give any other. I began to think that one of the
+mischances enumerated in Ben's catalogue might have occurred, and that I
+never should see my father again, when one morning, as I was standing at
+the landing-place, Ben came up to me and said, "Now, Jack, perhaps we
+may hear something of your father. Here's been a famous action fought,
+and a matter of a thousand men killed and wounded. I've only just heard
+about it. Nelson has licked the French on the coast of Egypt" (Ben here
+referred to the battle of the Nile), "and the 'Oudacious,' the ship on
+board of which your father was boatswain's mate, was in the action. Now,
+you see, the names of the killed will be sent into the office here, that
+their relations may receive the pay and prize-money due to them. So now,
+Jack, perhaps you'll hear something about your father."
+
+"But I shall only hear of his being killed, by your account. I don't
+want to hear that."
+
+"No, boy, of course you don't; but if you do, you'll hear the worst of
+it, and that's some comfort, and if he aren't killed, why, perhaps he's
+wounded, and perhaps he aren't; all perhapses in this world. Howsomever,
+come with me. I saw Anderson, with a paper in his hand, walking up to
+his retreat, as he calls it; so let's make all sail after him, and we
+shall overhaul him before he begins to read it."
+
+[Illustration: ANDERSON READING THE NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF THE
+NILE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 115.]
+
+There is a small hill just inside of the Greenwich Park gates,
+commanding a beautiful view of the river and the hospital. Here Anderson
+was accustomed to repair when the weather was fine, that, as he told me,
+he might commune with himself. In this instance he had retired there to
+avoid the excitement and confusion which prevailed; he had, however,
+been accompanied by three other pensioners, whom we found on the hill
+when we arrived, and, before we had been there a minute, the pensioners
+had followed up so fast that there was quite a crowd. We were just in
+time to hear him commence reading the newspaper account. The wind was
+very high; old Anderson had taken off his hat (out of respect, I
+presume, for the service), and his long gray locks were swept by the
+wind, which, indeed, carried away his voice, so that it was with
+difficulty that I could hear what he said. "_Second Edition_. Glorious
+news! We have the felicity to inform our readers that, by dispatches
+received at the Admiralty this day, a splendid naval victory has been
+gained over the French fleet lying in Aboukir Bay, by Rear-Admiral Sir
+Horatio Nelson, and the gallant seamen under his command. We refer our
+readers to the dispatch of Sir Horatio Nelson for the details. We have
+only to say, in few words, that the French fleet of thirteen sail of the
+line and four frigates were, on the 1st of August last, when lying at
+anchor in Aboukir Bay, attacked by the English fleet of twelve sail of
+the line and one fifty-gun ship, and after a severe action, eleven sail
+of the line and two frigates belonging to the French were taken or
+burned. The loss on our side amounts to two hundred and eighteen killed,
+and six hundred and seventy-seven wounded."
+
+"Hurrah! three cheers, my lads!" cried Anderson, dropping the hand which
+held the newspaper, and raising the other with his hat in it above his
+head. The three hearty cheers were given by the crowd which had now
+assembled; and then Ben said to me:
+
+"You see, Jack, there's a lot of killed and wounded; so now, perhaps,
+you will hear something about your father."
+
+By this time I had been pushed back, first by one, and then by another,
+until I was a long way off from where Anderson stood.
+
+"I can't hear a word that Peter says," replied I to Ben.
+
+"No, because the wind's so high, and I myself am a little hard of
+hearing out of doors. Suppose we go now, and by-and-by you shall get the
+paper from Anderson, and read it all over to me."
+
+"Come away, Ben," replied I, impatiently, "I've got a shilling, and I'll
+buy one."
+
+We left the hill and went down into the town, directing our course to
+where we heard the horns blowing. I had not, however, to go to such an
+extraordinary expense, as "a full and particular account" had been
+struck off for twopence; one of these I purchased, and then Ben and I
+sat down on the bench outside of a public-house, and I commenced
+reading.
+
+"How good that porter looks!" observed Ben, after a pause, as he eyed a
+man near to him who was blowing off the froth from the top of the pot he
+held in his hand.
+
+"Well, Ben, as I have bought the account of the battle for twopence,
+suppose I spend the rest of the money I intended to pay for it in a pot
+of porter, to drink the health of Nelson?"
+
+"Ay, my boy, and of those who fought with him," replied Ben; "your own
+father, Jack, whether he be dead or alive."
+
+I sighed at the idea of my father being dead, for I had a great regard
+for him, although I had not seen much of him. The porter was brought,
+and after we had both drunk I recommenced reading. Having concluded
+Admiral Nelson's dispatch and the list of the ships taken, we then came
+to the loss in killed and wounded on board of the respective English
+ships.
+
+"'Vanguard'--thirty killed, seventy-five wounded; total, a hundred and
+five."
+
+"Yes, Jack, that was Nelson's own ship; and he is always to be found
+where the shot fly thickest."
+
+"'Bellerophon'--forty-nine killed, a hundred and forty-eight wounded;
+total, a hundred and ninety-seven."
+
+"Well, she was in the thick of it, anyhow!" observed Ben.
+
+"'Majestic'--fifty killed, a hundred and forty-three wounded; total, a
+hundred and ninety-three."
+
+"Why, she and the 'Bellyruffron' seem to have pretty well shared and
+shared alike. You see, Jack, they led into the action, and had all the
+cream of the fire."
+
+I went on reading and Ben remarking, until I came to the "Audacious."
+
+"'Audacious'"--one killed, and thirty-five wounded; total, thirty-six."
+
+"Well now, Jack, that's all in favor of your father being alive; 'cause
+why should he be the one killed, more than any one else? I'd bet two
+pots of beer that he's among the wounded--but it's impossible to say;
+for you see, Jack, although they give us the names of the officers
+killed and wounded, they always _lump_ the petty officers and common
+seamen. Well, here's to your father's health, Jack, anyhow; we shall
+soon hear something about him."
+
+"I hope so," replied I, folding up the paper.
+
+"And now, Jack," continued Ben, handing me the pot, "don't you feel how
+proud a thing it is to know how to read? Here I am, you see, old enough
+almost to be your grandfather, and don't I look like a helpless babby
+beside you? you can inform me of what is going on, but I cannot help
+myself. Don't I feel it, as I sit here, as if you were the man and I
+were the boy? indeed I do, Jack, and no mistake; but, arter all, there
+was no one to blame in my case; that's some comfort."
+
+I certainly did acknowledge to myself how much I had gained by the
+tuition of Peter Anderson, and what advantage it was to me that I had
+been instructed; and I could not help for a moment feeling that I had
+the advantage over my good friend Ben.
+
+According to the usual custom on the occasion of a great victory, the
+pensioners had, on the following day, what was called a holiday, that
+is, a day of rejoicing, on which they were supplied with an extra
+quantity of beer, to make merry with. On these occasions the rules of
+the hospital, with respect to sobriety, are, of course, not strictly
+observed. Most of those who prefer smoking collect in what is called the
+smoking-room, where they sit and enjoy themselves; but very often, as
+there is so much noise on these occasions, those who belong to the same
+ward collect together, club for some spirits to add to their extra
+allowance, and sit by the fire, which is in the corridor of the ward.
+The fireplace is generally a very large one, and surrounded by benches
+with high backs, to serve as screens against the cold and wind; and, as
+there are tables inside, you are very snug and comfortable. On this
+occasion many of the Warriors' Ward, of which Anderson was boatswain,
+and Ben one of the boatswain's mates, had repaired to their own fire,
+for it was now October, and very chilly after the sun went down.
+
+Ben, I suppose, in return for the pot of porter which I had given him,
+invited me to be of the party; they drank the health of Nelson, and
+talked about the different ships which were in the action. Some drank
+very fast, and then reeled off to their beds, which were close at hand;
+others were taken to bed by Peter Anderson and Ben; and at last there
+were but four or five left. One of these was the other boatswain's mate
+of the ward. I knew very little of him at that time, except that his
+name was James Turner. He was a very quiet well-behaved man, and seemed
+to be more fond of sitting or walking alone than of being in company;
+never was known to drink too much; and, indeed, as boatswain's mate, was
+more relied upon by Anderson than even Ben was--although, perhaps, Ben
+was his more constant companion. The conversation relative to the
+particulars of the battle of the Nile was resumed, and Anderson
+observed--
+
+     "What an awful sight it must have been to behold the blowing up of
+     the 'L'Orient' French three-decker, with upward of a thousand men
+     on board! Merciful Heaven! so many poor fellows launched into
+     eternity in one moment! They say there were but seventy-three
+     saved."
+
+     "There were nearly as many souls lost when the 'Royal George' went
+     down at Spithead, with all the fleet at anchor round about her,"
+     replied Ben; "were there not, Turner, for you were on board of
+     her?"
+
+     "Yes, I should think there were," replied Turner; "but it is
+     impossible to say how many people were on board at the time."
+
+     "Messmate," said Anderson, "as all the noisy ones are gone, and we
+     shall be able to hear you, suppose that you let us know all about
+     it? I have heard a good deal, but, I suspect, not the rights of
+     it."
+
+     "With all my heart," replied Turner. "It was a sad affair, and was
+     all owing to the pride of an officer, who was not much of a sailor,
+     at all events."
+
+I drew nearer, that I might not lose a word of what Turner said; and
+then he narrated, in the following words,
+
+THE LOSS OF THE "ROYAL GEORGE"
+
+"Well, messmates, the 'Royal George' was a hundred-gun ship; and what we
+don't often see now, when I first belonged to her her guns were all
+brass. We had brass twenty-four-pounders on our quarter-deck,
+forecastle, poop, and main deck, brass thirty-twos on our middle deck,
+and brass forty-two-pounders on our lower deck. In the spring of '82,
+when we were at Plymouth (about six months before she sunk), it was
+considered that the brass forty-twos on the lower deck were too heavy
+for her, so they were put on shore, and we had iron thirty-twos instead.
+I don't think, myself, it made much difference in the weight of metal,
+and we were sorry to part with them. We were a flagship, you know--old
+Kempenfelt carrying his blue at the mizzen--and our poop lanterns were
+so large that the men used to get inside them to clean them. She was
+rather a top-heavy sort of ship, in my opinion, her upper works were so
+high--why, we measured sixty-six feet from the keelson up to the
+taffrail; but still, with proper attention, there was nothing to fear on
+that score.
+
+"Well, it was on the twenty-ninth of August, '82--that's just fourteen
+years and about six weeks ago--that we were lying at Spithead, in
+company with Lord Howe's fleet of between twenty and thirty sail of the
+line: there was the 'Victory,' 'Barfleur,' 'Ocean,' and 'Union,' all
+three-deckers, I recollect, close to us. We were in good repair, not at
+all leaky, and were to have sailed in two days to join the fleet in the
+Mediterranean. We had been paid, in consequence of our being about to
+sail foreign; and we had been paid in golden guineas. I think that,
+could all the money be collected together, from the pockets of the
+seamen, the women, and the Jews, who went down in the ship, it would be
+a very pretty fortune even for a duke's daughter."
+
+Here Ben shoved the ale to Turner, who drank a little and proceeded,
+while Ben took a swig and passed it round.
+
+"Well, you see, messmates, the first lieutenant had been washing the
+decks on the morning before, and the carpenter had been ordered to let
+the water in, when it was found that the water-cock, which was about
+three feet below the water-line, was out of order, and it was necessary
+that it should be repaired. The foreman came off from the dockyard, and
+stated that it was necessary that the ship should be careened over to
+port sufficiently to raise the mouth of the pipe--which went through the
+ship's timbers below--clean out of the water, that they might work at
+it; so, between seven and eight o'clock on that morning, the whole of
+the larboard guns were run out as far as they could be, and of course
+the larboard lower deck ports were open; the starboard guns were also
+run in amidships, and secured by the tackles; the shifting over of this
+great weight of metal brought the larboard lower deck port-cills just
+level with the water; the men were then able to get at the mouth of the
+pipe to the water-cock on the starboard side, as it was clean out of
+water, and for about an hour they were working away hard at it.
+
+"It was about nine o'clock, we had just finished our breakfasts, and the
+hands had been turned up, when the last lighter, with the rum on board,
+came alongside. She was a sloop of fifty tons, called the 'Lark,' and
+belonged to three brothers, whose names I forget. She was secured to the
+larboard side of the ship; and the hands were piped 'clear lighter.'
+Some of our men were in the lighter slinging the casks, others at the
+yard tackle and stay-falls hoisting in, some in the spirit-room stowing
+away. I was in the waist, bearing the casks over, down the hatchway;
+none of us thinking that we should never mix our grog out of that
+liquor."
+
+"No, I suppose not," observed Anderson; "but we little know what the day
+may bring forth."
+
+"That's true as Gospel," said Ben.
+
+"That's a very old saying, that every little helps. I did not think of
+it at the time; but, you see, as we were clearing the lighter, almost
+all the men were on the larboard side, and that must have brought the
+ship down still more to port. Then, again, the water was not so smooth
+as it was when we first careened her, and it began to wash into the
+lower deck ports, and of course had no escape, so that there was very
+soon a good weight of water in the lower deck. There were mice in the
+ship, and they were disturbed by the water entering into their quarters,
+and the men were catching them, and laughing as they swam about, little
+thinking that it was to be a general swim so shortly afterward. But the
+carpenter was the first that perceived that there was danger; for again,
+you see, the casks of rum, hoisted in, and lying on the decks on the
+larboard side, before it could be lowered into the hold, made also a
+difference; and so the carpenter went on deck to the lieutenant, who was
+officer of the watch, requesting that he would be pleased to order the
+ship to be righted somewhat, as she could not bear it; but the
+lieutenant gave a very short answer to the carpenter, who then went down
+below."
+
+"Who was the lieutenant on deck?" inquired Anderson.
+
+"I don't recollect his right name--he was, I think, the third
+lieutenant--he went by the name of 'Jib and Foresail Jack,' for,
+whenever he had the watch, he did nothing but up jip and down jib, up
+foresail, down foresail, every five minutes, always worrying the men for
+nothing. He was not considered as a good officer, but a very troublesome
+one. He had a knack of twisting and moving his fingers about as he
+walked the deck, and the men were wont to say that 'he must have been a
+forty piany teacher.'"
+
+"And where were the captain and first lieutenant?" said Anderson.
+
+"The first lieutenant was at the time busy in the wing, I believe; and
+as for the captain, I don't know where he was--but, you know, a captain
+seldom interferes in harbor."
+
+"Where was the admiral?" inquired Ben.
+
+"The admiral was in his cabin. I saw the barber, who had been in to
+shave him, come out just before she went down."
+
+"What sort of a man was the admiral?" said Anderson.
+
+"He was a thin tall man, upward of seventy years of age, and he stooped
+a good deal in his walk."
+
+"Wet your whistle, Jim," said Ben, "for this is a long yarn."
+
+"Well," continued Turner, as soon as he had put down his pot, "the
+carpenter came up a second time on the quarter-deck to the lieutenant,
+and said to him--
+
+"'If you please, sir, to right the ship, it's my duty to tell you she
+will not bear it any longer.' He spoke in a very positive way, as was
+his duty; but the lieutenant answered, with an oath--
+
+"'If you think, sir, that you can manage the ship better than I can, you
+had better take the command.' I was in the waist at the time, with a
+good many more men, and we heard what the carpenter said, and what
+answer the lieutenant gave. Indeed, we were all aware of the danger, and
+felt very uncomfortable; there were plenty of good seamen on board, who
+knew what they were about almost as well as the officers, and certainly
+better than the one who had the watch.
+
+"A few minutes afterward (whether it was that he had remained that time
+doing nothing, merely because he would not be dictated to by the
+carpenter, I know not) the lieutenant ordered the drummer to be called
+to beat to quarters, that the guns might be run into their places and
+the ship righted. The drummer's name was passed along quick enough, for
+we were all alarmed at our situation, for the ship just then heeled over
+still more. I jumped down off the gangway as soon as the drummer was
+called, and hastened down to my quarters. The drum was not beat, for the
+man had not time to get his drum. All hands were now tumbling down the
+hatchways as fast as they could to their quarters, that they might run
+their guns into their places, and so right the ship. The gun I was
+stationed at was the third gun from forward on the starboard side of the
+lower gundeck. I said to Carroll, the second captain of the gun, 'I say,
+let us try to get our gun out without waiting for the drum, as the
+sooner we right the better.' We boused out our gun, which had been run
+in amidships; but the ship heeled over so much that, do all we could, it
+ran in again upon us, and at the same time the water made a heavy rush
+into the larboard lower deck ports. 'The ship is sinking, Carroll!'
+cried I. 'Lay hold of the ring-bolt and jump out; we shall all be
+drowned!' He made for the ring-bolt, caught it, climbed out of the port,
+and jumped into the sea. I presume he was drowned, for I never saw him
+afterward. I followed him as fast as I could out of the same port, which
+was the one belonging to our gun (the third from forward on the
+starboard side), and when I was outside I perceived that all the other
+port-holes were crowded as full as they could be with the heads of the
+men, all trying to escape, and jamming one another so that they could
+scarcely move either one way or the other. I caught hold of the sheet
+anchor, which was just above me, to prevent falling back inboard; and
+perceiving a woman struggling at the port, I caught hold of her, dragged
+her out, and threw her from me. The ship was now lying down so
+completely on her larboard broadside that the heads of the men in the
+ports disappeared all at once; they all dropped back into the ship, for
+the port-holes were now upright, and it was just as if men were trying
+to get out of the tops of so many chimneys, with nothing for their feet
+to purchase upon. Just after the men fell inboard, there came a rush of
+air through the ports, so violent as to blow my hat off. It was the air
+from the hold and lower deck, which, having no other vent, escaped as
+the water which poured in took up its space. The ship then sunk in a
+moment, righting as she went down. I was a good swimmer and diver, and
+when she was sinking I attempted to keep above water, but it was
+impossible; I was drawn down with the ship until she reached the bottom.
+As soon as she grounded, the water boiled and bubbled a great deal, and
+then I found that I could swim, and began to rise to the surface. A man
+tried to grapple me as I went up; his forefinger caught in my shoe,
+between the shoe and my foot. I succeeded in kicking off my shoe, and
+thus got rid of him, and then I rose to the surface of the water."
+
+"Take breath after that, Jim," said Ben, handing him the ale.
+
+"I can tell you that I could hardly take breath when I came to the
+surface, for my head came up through a quantity of tar, which floated
+like fat on a boiler, and it nearly smothered me; for, you see, there
+had been one or two casks of tar on the decks, which had stove when the
+ship was going down, and the tar got up to the top of the water before I
+did. It prevented me from seeing at first, but I heard the guns firing
+as signals of distress." Here Turner drank some ale.
+
+"Well," said he, after a short pause, "I may as well finish my story. As
+soon as I could clear the tar from my eyes, I saw the main topsail
+halyard-block about level with the water's edge about eight or ten yards
+from me; so I swam to it and rode on it, holding on by the halyards, and
+then I looked about me. The fore, main, and mizzentops were all above
+water, as was a part of the bowsprit, and also part of the ensign-staff,
+with the flag hoisted--for, you see, messmates, we went down in only
+thirteen and a half fathom water, that is, about eighty feet; and, as I
+said before, she measured sixty-six feet from the keelson up to the
+taffrail; and she grounded as nearly upright as a vessel could; for the
+lighter, which was fast to leeward when she went down, caught the main
+yard, which helped to right her as she sank--but the lighter went down
+with her. Well, as I looked round, I saw the admiral's baker in the
+mizzen shrouds, and there was the body of the woman I had dragged out of
+the port rolling about close to him. The baker was an Irishman, of the
+name of Claridge; and I called out to him, 'Bob, reach out your hand and
+catch hold of that woman, I daresay she is not dead.'
+
+"He said, 'She's dead enough; it's no use to lay hold of her.'
+
+"I answered, 'She is not dead.' He caught hold of the woman and hung her
+head over one of the rattlings of the mizzen shrouds, and there she
+swung by her chin till a wash came and lifted her off, and then she
+rolled about again. Just then one of the captains of the frigates came
+up in his boat. I waved my hand toward the woman--he stopped pulling,
+the men dragged her into the boat, and laid her in the sternsheets.
+
+"'My man,' said the captain, 'I must pick up those who are in more
+danger than you.'
+
+"'All right, sir,' said I; 'I'm safe moored here.'
+
+"There was one of our men hanging on the mainstay, and roaring like a
+bull, as he tried to climb by it out of the water. Had he only remained
+quiet, he would have done well enough. The boat took him off first, and
+the others of the people who were clinging about the masts and rigging,
+including the baker and myself. It then pulled on board the 'Victory'
+with us; and I once more found a good dry plank between me and the salt
+water."
+
+"Was the captain and admiral saved?"
+
+"Captain Waghorn was. He could not swim; but one of the seamen held him
+up. The admiral was drowned in his cabin. Captain Waghorn tried to
+acquaint him that the ship was sinking; but the heeling over of the ship
+had so jammed the doors of the cabin that they could not be opened."
+
+"What became of the lieutenant of the watch and the carpenter?"
+
+"The lieutenant of the watch was drowned--and so indeed was the
+carpenter. His body was taken up, I believe, by the same boat which
+picked up Lieutenant Durham[3]. When I went on board of the 'Victory,' I
+saw the carpenter's body before the galley fire--some women were
+attempting to recover him, but he was quite dead. There was a strong
+westerly breeze, although the day was fine; and the wind made the water
+so rough that there was great danger of the boats getting entangled in
+the rigging and spars, when they came to take the men off, or more would
+have been saved."
+
+[Footnote 3: Afterward Admiral Sir Philip Durham.]
+
+"How many do you think were lost altogether?" inquired Anderson.
+
+"We had our whole complement on board, eight hundred and sixty-five men;
+and there were more than three hundred women on board, besides a great
+many Jews with slops and watches; as there always are, you know, when a
+ship is paid and the men have any money to be swindled out of. I don't
+exactly know how many men were saved, but there was only one woman,
+which was the one I dragged out of the port. There was a great fat old
+bumboat woman, whom the sailors used to call the 'Royal George'--she was
+picked up floating, for she was too fat to sink; but she had been
+floating the wrong way uppermost, and she was dead. There was a poor
+little child saved rather strangely. He was picked up by a gentleman who
+was in a wherry, holding on to the wool of a sheep which had escaped and
+was swimming. His father and mother were drowned, and the boy did not
+know their names; all that he knew was that his own name was Jack; so
+they christened him John _Lamb_, and the gentleman took care of him."
+
+"Have you no idea how many men were saved, Turner?"
+
+"I only know this--that the Admiralty ordered five pounds a man to be
+given to the seamen who were saved, as a recompense for the loss of
+their clothes, and I heard that only seventy-five claimed it; but how
+many marines were saved, or other people who were on board, I do not
+know; but perhaps, altogether, there might be two hundred or more--for
+you see the seamen had the worst chance of being saved, as they were
+almost all down in the hold, or on the lower and main decks at their
+guns. A few days after the ship went down the bodies would come up,
+eight or ten almost the same time--rising to the top of the water so
+suddenly as to frighten people who were passing near. The watermen made
+a good thing of it; for, as the bodies rose, they took from them their
+shoe-buckles, money, and watches, and then towed them on shore to be
+buried."
+
+"That lieutenant had much to answer for," observed Ben. "His false pride
+was the cause of it all."
+
+"It would seem so--but God only knows," replied Anderson. "Come, my
+lads, the beer is out, and it's two bells in the middle watch. I think
+we had better turn in. Jack, what's to become of you?"
+
+"Oh, I'll find a plank," said I.
+
+"So you shall, boy, and a bed upon it," replied Ben. "Come and turn in
+with me, and don't you dream that the larboard lower deck ports are
+open."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+     My Father makes his Appearance, having left his Leg, but not his
+     Tail, behind him--My Father is pensioned off by my Mother as well
+     as by his Country.
+
+
+About six weeks after the intelligence of the battle of the Nile, as I
+was sweeping away from the steps the mud which had been left by the
+tide, a King's tender, that I had been watching as she came up the
+river, dropped her anchor in the stream, abreast of the hospital.
+
+Shortly afterward the lieutenant who commanded her pulled on shore in
+his boat, and, landing at the steps, proceeded to the governor's house.
+The men having orders not to leave the boat, requested me to procure
+them some porter, which I did; and on my return with it, they informed
+me that they had come round from Portsmouth with sixty-three men, who
+had lost their limbs, or had been otherwise so severely wounded in the
+late action as to have been recommended for Greenwich.
+
+I felt very anxious for the men to land, as it was possible that my
+father might be one of them. The lieutenant soon returned, jumped into
+the boat, and shoved off. I perceived that the disabled men were getting
+ready to land, hauling their chests and kits on deck. In about
+half-an-hour a boat full of them came to the steps. I ran down to
+assist; and as I held on to the gunnel of the boat, while they threw out
+their gang-board, the first person who stumped out was my father, minus
+his left leg.
+
+"Father!" cried I, half sorry and half pleased.
+
+"Who calls me father?" replied he, looking at me. "Why, you don't mean
+to say that you're my boy Tom?"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said I.
+
+"Ah! yes--I recollect your smile now. Why, what a big fellow you've
+grown!"
+
+"It's four years since you left, father."
+
+"Well! I suppose it is, since you say so," replied he, taking me by the
+arm, and stumping a little to one side, when he said in a low tone, "I
+say, Jack, what became of the old woman? Did I settle her?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied I, laughing, "she was only shamming."
+
+"Shamming was she? Well! it's all the better--for she has been a little
+on my conscience, that's truth. Shamming? Heh! She won't sham next time,
+if I fall foul of her. How does she get on?"
+
+"Oh, very well indeed."
+
+"And how's your little sister? What's her name--Jenny lengthened at both
+ends? I never could recollect it, though I've often thought of her sweet
+little face."
+
+"She's quite well, and as pretty and as good as ever."
+
+"Well, Tom, my boy, you stood by your father when he was in trouble, and
+now he'll stand by you. How does your mother treat you?"
+
+"We get on pretty well--not over-fond of each other."
+
+[Illustration: JACK'S FATHER LANDING AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE
+NILE.--Marryat, Vol X., p. 133.]
+
+"Well, Tom, I've only one pin left; but I say," continued my father,
+with a wink of his eye, "I haven't left my tail behind me, 'cause it may
+be useful, you know. Now we must all go up to the governor of the
+hospital for inspection, and I suppose we shall be kept for some time;
+so you may run home and tell your mother that I've come back in a
+perfect good-humor, and that it will be her fault if she puts me
+out--that's all."
+
+"I will, father; and then I'll come to you at the hospital."
+
+I ran home to communicate the important intelligence to my mother and to
+Virginia, who had as usual come from school for her dinner.
+
+"Mother," says I, out of breath, "who do you think has come back?"
+
+"Comeback?" said she. "_Back?_ Not your father?"
+
+"Yes," says I, "my father. I just left him."
+
+My mother turned deadly pale, and dropped the hot iron from her hand, so
+as to spoil a frilled nightcap belonging to one of her lady customers.
+She staggered to a chair, and trembled all over. I really believe that
+had she been aware of his being about to return, she would have quitted
+Greenwich before his arrival; but now it was too late. Virginia had run
+for the salts as soon as she perceived that her mother was unwell, and
+as she smelled them she gradually recovered. At last she inquired how my
+father looked and what he said.
+
+I told her that he had lost his leg, and had been sent as a pensioner to
+the hospital; that he had looked very well, and that he had told me to
+say that "he was in a perfect good humor, and it would be her fault if
+she put him out of it; and that if she did--"
+
+"Well, what then?" inquired my mother.
+
+"Oh, the _tail_--that's all."
+
+At the mention of the tail my mother very nearly went off in a
+swoon--her head fell back, and I heard her mutter, "So vulgar! so
+ungenteel!" However, she recovered herself, and appeared to be for some
+time in deep thought. At last she rose up, ordered me to fetch something
+extra for supper, and recommenced her ironing.
+
+As soon as I had executed her commission I went to the hospital, where I
+found my father, who, with the other men, had just been dismissed. He
+accompanied me to my mother, shook hands with her very good-humoredly,
+kissed Virginia, whom he took on his knee, praised the supper, drank
+only one pot of porter, and then returned to the hospital, to sleep in
+the cabin which had been allotted to him in the Warriors' Ward, of which
+Anderson was the boatswain. My mother, although not very gracious, was
+much subdued, and for a few days everything went on very comfortably;
+but my mother's temper could not be long restrained. Displeased at
+something which she considered as very vulgar, she ventured to assail my
+father as before, concluding her tirade as usual, with "There--now
+you're vexed!"
+
+My father looked at her very sternly.--At last he said, "You're just
+right--I am vexed; and whenever you tell me so in future I'll prove that
+it's no lie." He then rose, stumped upstairs to my room, in which he had
+deposited his sea-chest, and soon made his appearance with the
+formidable and never-to-be-forgotten tail in his hand. "Mistress," said
+he, as my mother retreated, "you said, 'Now you're vexed' to me just
+now. I ask you again, am I vexed, or am I not?" and my father flourished
+the tail over his head.
+
+My mother looked at the strange weapon: the remembrance of the past was
+too painful; she was conquered by her fear.
+
+"Oh, no," cried she, falling on her knees. "You're not vexed--indeed you
+are not."
+
+"You're quite sure of that?" responded my father authoritatively, as he
+advanced toward her.
+
+"Oh! yes, yes," cried my mother, trembling; "indeed you're not."
+
+"Ain't I in a very good humor?" continued my father.
+
+"Yes, you are in the best of humors, and always are so, unless--I
+aggravate you," replied my mother, whimpering.
+
+"Well," replied my father, lowering his tail, "I expect we've come to a
+right understanding at last. So now get up and wipe your eyes; but
+recollect, that whenever you dare to tell me that I'm vexed, I won't be
+so ungenteel as to contradict you."
+
+Thus was the mastery gained by my father, and never lost. It is true
+that sometimes my mother would forget herself, and would get on as far
+as "There now, you're--," but she would stop there, and correct herself,
+saying, "No, you're not," and allow her temper to evaporate by singing
+one of her usual ditties, as "Hush-a-by, baby, on the tree-top;" but my
+father never took notice of her singing; and being really a very
+good-tempered man, my mother's temper gradually became improved.
+
+The return of my father made some alteration in our mode of life. He
+might, if he had pleased, have lived as an out-pensioner with my mother;
+but this he would not do. He used to come in almost every evening to see
+her, and she used to provide for him a pot of porter, which he seldom
+exceeded. If he had friends with him, they paid for what they drank.
+This pot of porter per diem was the only demand made upon my mother for
+permission to remain separate, and she did not grumble at it. His
+tobacco he found himself out of the tobacco money allowed at the
+hospital. He had received some pay, which, contrary to his former
+custom, he had laid by in the charge of one of the lieutenants of the
+hospital, for at that time there were no savings banks.
+
+As a married man my father had the liberty to introduce his wife and
+children into the hospital at meal-times, to share his allowance with
+them. This my mother would not listen to, as regarded herself and my
+sister; but my father messed in what is called the married men's room,
+on my account, and instead of buying my own dinner, or applying to my
+mother for it, I now always took it with my father in the hospital. In
+consequence of my father's admittance as a pensioner, both I and my
+sister might have been instructed at the hospital school; but my mother
+would not premit Virginia to go there, and I found it much more
+convenient to go to Peter Anderson in the evening, when I had nothing to
+do. On the whole, we all went on much more comfortably than we did
+before my father's return.
+
+One evening I was, as usual, with Anderson in his cabin; my father
+having been drafted into his ward, I could not help asking Anderson how
+he liked him. His reply was, "I like your father, Jack, for he is a
+straightforward, honest, good-tempered man, and, moreover, has a good
+natural judgment. I think it a great pity that such a man as he is
+should be so early in life lost, as it were, to the country. He is a
+first-rate seaman; and although there are many like him, still there are
+none to spare. However, if his country loses, he may himself gain, by
+being so soon called away from a service of great temptation. The sailor
+who has fought for his country, Jack, has much to be thankful for when
+he takes in moorings at Greenwich Hospital. He is well fed, well
+clothed, tended in sickness, and buried with respect; but all these are
+nothing compared with the greatest boon. When I reflect what lives
+sailors live, how reckless they are, how often they have been on the
+brink of eternity, and wonderfully preserved, without even a feeling of
+gratitude to Him who has watched over them, or taking their escapes as
+warnings; when I consider how they pass their whole lives in excess,
+intemperance, and, too often, blasphemy, it is indeed a mercy that they
+are allowed to repose here after such a venturous and careless career;
+that they have time to reflect upon what has passed, to listen to the
+words of the Gospel, to hate their former life, and trusting in God's
+mercy to secure their salvation. This is the greatest charity of this
+institution, and long may it flourish, a blessing to the country which
+has endowed it, and to the seamen, who are not only provided for in this
+world, but are prepared in it for the next."
+
+Such were continually the style of admonitions given me by this good old
+man, and I need not point out to the reader how fortunate it was for me
+that I had secured such a preceptor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+     In which is proved the Truth of the Proverb, "When your own House
+     is made of Glass, you never should be the first to throw Stones"
+
+
+One evening, when I went to the shop of the widow St. Felix to purchase
+some tobacco for my father, she said, "Why don't your father come
+himself, Jack? I want to make his acquaintance, and see how he looks
+without his pigtail."
+
+"Why, you never saw him when he had it on," replied I.
+
+"No, that's the truth; but still I wish to have a sight of him: the fact
+is, I want to laugh at him."
+
+"Very well, I'll bring him here; but, recollect, it's a very sore
+subject with him," replied I, "and that you may have a sharp answer."
+
+"That I'll take my chance of, Jack," replied the widow, laughing.
+
+In consequence of this intimation, one evening when my father was
+walking in the hospital, I persuaded him to call at the shop.
+
+"This is my father, Mrs. St. Felix," said I.
+
+"Most happy to see him. What shall I have the pleasure of assisting you
+to, Mr. Saunders?" said the widow.
+
+"My sarvice to you, marm--if you please, to two penn'orth of pigtail and
+a paper of shorts."
+
+"Much obliged to you, Mr. Saunders," replied she. "Sure we're much
+indebted to Admiral Lord Nelson for sending us such fine-looking
+pensioners. I shouldn't wonder if I were to choose a husband out of the
+hospital yet."
+
+"I'm afeard we're all too mauled, marm, to suit a pretty young woman
+like you," replied my father, very gallantly.
+
+"Thank you for that, Mr. Saunders; but you're mistaken entirely. I don't
+consider the loss of a leg, for instance, as anything; I never look at
+men's legs, and therefore care little whether they are made of wood or
+not, provided they don't tread on my corns."
+
+"Well, marm, I'm glad that you don't consider a timber toe as any
+obstacle to matrimony; but, I fear, having a wife already may be
+considered by you a sort of objection."
+
+"Why, sure, I must have the whole of my husband; I couldn't afford to
+share him, especially when one limb is gone already. That puts me in
+mind of my want of manners. I hope Mrs. Saunders is quite well. I hear
+from Jack that you have a separate maintenance--that's very genteel."
+
+"Why, yes, marm," replied my father; "the King maintains me, and my wife
+maintains herself; so, as you say, we have a separate maintenance."
+
+"Well, that's the best way when married people don't agree. What are you
+laughing at, Mr. Jack? did I hint that your father and mother ever had
+any little matrimonial differences? I certainly did hear that there was
+a trifling dispute when they last parted; but when they bring me such
+tales I always _cut them short_. Here's your _pigtail_, Mr. Saunders,"
+continued the widow, laughing, as she put the tobacco on the counter.
+
+I looked at my father, who did not seem to relish the hint, but he
+answered very frankly, "If you cut them as short as my wife cut mine,
+why, then you won't be troubled with them any more. I see, marm, you
+know all about it, and you may have your laugh if it pleases you; but I
+can tell you that my tail has done me better sarvice since it was off
+than when it hung down my back."
+
+"Become useful, instead of ornamental, I presume, Mr. Saunders."
+
+"Just made this difference--when it was on it made my wife's tongue to
+go; now it is off, it has stopped it."
+
+"An extraordinary powerful instrument, to stop a woman's tongue!"
+
+"Well, you've only to ax Mistress Saunders, she'll tell you all its
+virtues."
+
+"Well, Mr. Saunders, I don't know whether you have any idea of taking
+another wife some future day. If so, say nothing about it, or you'll
+never get one."
+
+"Well, marm--I don't know whether you ever think of taking another
+husband; but if so, I think it would be kind on my part to lend it to
+him. Can you tell me why widows' tongues run so much faster than other
+women's?"
+
+"Mercy! what put that idea in your head, Mr. Saunders?"
+
+"You, and half a dozen more that I happen to know. May I make so bold as
+to ask you, marm, how long you may have been a widow?" continued my
+father.
+
+"Bless me! so long that I quite forget all about it," replied Mrs. St.
+Felix, turning away from the counter to the jars behind.
+
+I gave my father a wink to let him know that it was his turn now: he
+understood me, hitched up his waistband and nodded.
+
+"How did you lose your first husband, marm? What did he die of?"
+
+The widow colored, and my father perceiving it, followed up his
+question.
+
+"Did he die of a fever, marm?"
+
+"I'm not exactly sure," replied she, hurriedly.
+
+"May I ask how long it is since he died?" continued my father.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Saunders," replied the widow, confusedly, "I really don't
+recollect just now. It's very painful to answer such questions."
+
+"Not if you've been a widow so long that you forget all about it; that's
+all sham and nonsense. So you ain't sure _what_ he died of, nor _when_
+it was that he died? Are you quite sure, marm, that your husband _is_
+dead?"
+
+Mrs. St. Felix started, turned very red, and then very pale.
+
+"My sarvice to you for the present, marm," said my father, after a
+pause, taking off his hat. "I suspect that I've found a way to stop your
+tongue as well as my wife's. Broadside for broadside, that's fair play."
+
+So saying, my father stumped away out of the shop door. Mrs. St. Felix
+put her apron up to her eyes, with her elbows resting on the counter. I
+waited a little, and then I said, "What is the matter, Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+She started at my voice.
+
+"You here, Jack? I thought you had gone out with your father. Well,"
+continued she, wiping her eyes, "it serves me right. I forgot that in
+amusing myself I annoyed him. Jack, don't you mention anything about
+this. Do you think your father will?"
+
+"I don't think he will, for he cannot do so without talking about having
+his pigtail cut off, and I know he cannot bear to think of it."
+
+"Well, then, pray don't you, that's a good boy."
+
+"I never will, I promise you."
+
+"Then, good-night, Jack; you must leave me now, I don't feel quite
+well."
+
+I wished the widow good-night, and went back to my mother's house. My
+father was there, but he never hinted at the conversation which had
+taken place, neither at that time nor afterward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+     Showing how Old Nanny fell Sick and got Well again.
+
+
+Before I fell asleep that night I thought a great deal of what had
+passed between the widow St. Felix and my father. Why should she have
+shown such emotion, and why should she request of me not to mention what
+had passed? I had heard reports about her, as I have before mentioned; I
+had heard them from old Nanny, but I did not put any confidence in what
+she said. Thinking of old Nanny reminded me that I had not called upon
+her for some time, and I resolved that I would visit her the next day.
+
+It was not until late in the evening that I could spare time to call
+upon her, and, what was not usual, I went empty-handed. I found to my
+surprise that the door was shut to, and the shutters of the shop not
+taken down. I tried the latch, the door opened, and I went in.
+
+"Who's there?" screamed old Nanny from the inner room. "What do you
+want?"
+
+"It's only Poor Jack, mother," replied I, "come to see how you are."
+
+"Come in," replied she; "I'm very bad. Oh! oh! I thought it was some
+thief or another come to steal all the things in my shop."
+
+I entered the room and found old Nanny in bed; she looked very ill and
+miserable, and everything was very dirty.
+
+"Are you not well, mother?" said I.
+
+"Well, boy? No, very ill, very ill indeed, haven't left my bed these
+three days. Reach me a little water, Jack, there's a good boy. I've been
+dying for water."
+
+I handed her a broken jug which had some water in it. She drank
+greedily, so as to spill nearly half of it on the coverlid.
+
+"Oh, how good it is!" exclaimed the old woman, as soon as she recovered
+her breath. "I'm better now. I could not reach it myself. I've the
+rheumatiz so bad! I've been in such a fright because I could not lock
+the door; it kept me awake all night long. Oh, my poor back!"
+
+"But why did you not send for the doctor, mother?"
+
+"Doctor! Eh? who's to pay him? I've got no money, Jack."
+
+"Well, but Dr. Tadpole's very kind."
+
+"Yes, yes, kind to the widow; but not to old women like me, without any
+money."
+
+"But why not have some one to sit up with you, and help you?"
+
+"Sit up with me! Who'd sit up with me? Yes, if I paid them. But I've no
+money, Jack; and then, I don't know them. They might rob me--there's a
+great many pretty things in my shop."
+
+"But you might die, mother, lying here without any one to help you."
+
+"Die! Well, and who would care if a poor old woman like me died, Jack?"
+
+"I should care, for one, mother; and so would my sister Virginia, and
+many others besides."
+
+"You might care, Jack, for you're a good boy, and so might your little
+sister, for she has a kind heart; but nobody else, Jack--no, not one!"
+
+I could not reply to this remark, as I really did not know anybody who
+would have cared; so I said, "You must see the doctor, mother. I will go
+for him."
+
+"No, Jack, I can't afford it, it's no use; besides, I'm better now."
+
+"Well, if you can't afford it, you shall not pay him; and, if he will
+not come for nothing, I'll pay him myself."
+
+"Will you pay him, Jack? that's a good boy. You promised me bargains,
+you know; that shall be one of them."
+
+"Well, mother, I'll make the bargain that I'll pay him, if you'll see
+him--so good-by now. Do you want anything before I go?"
+
+"No, Jack, no; I don't want anything, only just lock the door and take
+the key with you when you go out, and then no one can rob me, Jack,
+while you're gone."
+
+I complied with her request, and ran for Dr. Tadpole, whom I found
+smoking his cigar in the widow's shop.
+
+"Doctor," said I, "old Nanny has been ill in bed these three days, and I
+want you to go and see her."
+
+"Does she send you to me, or do you ask it yourself?" said the doctor,
+"for I think she would die rather than pay the doctor."
+
+"As for that, Mr. Tadpole," said the widow, "there are many of your
+patients who send for the doctor without ever intending to pay him.
+Perhaps old Nanny may go on the same plan."
+
+"Certainly; that alters the case. Well, Jack, what's the matter with
+her?"
+
+"Rheumatism, and, I believe, fever; for her hand is hot, and her tongue
+very white. She was lying in bed with no one to help her, and had not
+strength to reach a drop of water, until I gave it to her."
+
+"Poor old soul!" said the widow. "And yet they say that she has money?"
+
+"I don't think that she has much," replied I; "for when she lent me the
+twenty-eight shillings, she had not ten shillings more in the bag. But,
+doctor, I'll pay you; I will, indeed. How much will it be?"
+
+"Now, doctor, just put on your hat, and set off as soon as you please;
+for if Poor Jack says he'll pay you, you know that your money is as safe
+as mine was in the bank--before it failed."
+
+"Well, I'll just finish my cigar."
+
+"Of course you will--as you walk along, Mr. Tadpole," replied the widow;
+"it's very pleasant to smoke in the air, and just as unpleasant to
+others your smoking in the house. So, doctor, just be off and see the
+poor old wretch directly, or--I'll be affronted."
+
+Hereupon the doctor took up his hat, and without reply walked off with
+me. When we arrived, I unlocked the door and we went in.
+
+"Well, old Nanny, what's the matter now?" said Dr. Tadpole.
+
+"Nothing, doctor, nothing; you've come on a useless message; I didn't
+send for you, recollect that; it was Jack who would go; I did not send,
+recollect that, doctor; I can't afford it; I've no money."
+
+"Very well, I shan't look to you for money. Put out your tongue,"
+replied the doctor, as he felt her pulse.
+
+"Recollect, doctor, I did not send for you. Jack, you are witness--I've
+no money," repeated old Nanny.
+
+"Put out your tongue," repeated the doctor.
+
+"No, I won't, till it's all clearly settled."
+
+"It is, you old fool," said the doctor, impatiently; "put out your
+tongue."
+
+"Jack, you're witness it's all by force," said Nanny, who at last put
+out her tongue; "and now, doctor, I'll tell you."
+
+Whereupon Nanny commenced with a narrative of her ills; and by her own
+account there was not a portion of her body from top to toe which had
+not some ailment.
+
+"You've a very bad complaint," said the doctor; "what d'ye think it is?
+It's old age. I hardly know whether I can cure it."
+
+"Can your draw the pain out of my old bones?" said Nanny, groaning.
+
+"Why, I'll try, at all events. I must send you something to take
+inwardly."
+
+"Who's to pay for it?" said old Nanny.
+
+"I will, mother," said I.
+
+"You're witness, doctor--Jack says he'll pay for it. You're a good boy,
+Jack."
+
+"Well, that's settled--but now, we must have some one to sit up with
+you."
+
+"Sit up with me? nobody will sit up with an old thing like me."
+
+"Yes, I will, mother," said I, "and I'll look in upon you in the
+daytime, and see if you want to drink."
+
+"No, no, Jack! then you'll make no money."
+
+"Yes I will--never mind that."
+
+"Well, at all events," replied the doctor, "Jack will sit up with you
+this night; and we'll see how you are to-morrow. Now, Jack, come back
+with me, and I'll give you something for her. Good-night, Nanny," said
+the doctor, leaving the room.
+
+"Good-night," grumbled old Nanny; and as we were going through the shop
+I heard her continue: "It's very easy saying 'good-night,' but how can a
+poor wretch like me, with every bone aching as if it would split, expect
+to have a 'good night'?"
+
+As the doctor walked home, he appeared not to be in his usual talkative
+mood. He went to the shop, made up the medicines, and gave me the
+directions.
+
+"Here, Jack, take these; and it will be a kindness to sit up with her
+to-night. I will see her to-morrow; and as I can't allow you to be the
+only good Samaritan in the place, understand, Jack, that I attend the
+poor old woman and find medicine for nothing."
+
+I thanked him and hastened back. Old Nanny took her draught, and then
+turned round on her side. I suppose there was opium in it, for she soon
+fell fast asleep; not, however, until she had said, "Jack, have you
+locked the door?"
+
+"Yes, mother, I have."
+
+"Well, now, don't you think you could watch without burning a candle?
+You ain't afraid?"
+
+"No, mother, I'm not afraid; but if I do, I shall fall asleep; and,
+besides, if you wake and want anything, I shall not be able to find it.
+I should break the jug and other things, and they would cost more than a
+candle."
+
+"Very true, Jack. I feel sleepy already"--and old Nanny was soon in a
+loud snore.
+
+I had stopped at my mother's to say that I intended to stay with old
+Nanny, so that they might not sit up for me; and now all that I had to
+do was to keep myself awake. I had forgotten to bring a book with me, so
+I looked about the room for something to read; but I could find
+nothing. At last I ventured to open a drawer--it creaked, and old Nanny
+was roused. "Who's that?" cried she, but she did not wake up, the opiate
+was too powerful. I went to her; she was in a perspiration, which I knew
+was what the doctor wished. I put the clothes close up to her head, and
+left her. I then took the candle and looked into the drawer, and found a
+book lying in a corner with one side of the cover off. It was very dirty
+and stained. I took it out, and went again to my chair and opened it. It
+was Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and full of plates. I had never heard
+of the book, and did not know what the title meant. I first looked at
+all the plates, and then I turned to the opening of the book. On the
+blank leaf at the commencement, in very neat and lawyer-like
+handwriting, was "Anna James, on her marriage, from her dear friend Mary
+Farquhar, Tynemouth, June the 19th, 1738." By this I discovered, as I
+thought, the married but not the maiden name of old Nanny; and very
+probably, also, that Tynemouth was her native place. She was married,
+too, in 1738, that was more than sixty years back--and her age was,
+therefore, in all likelihood, nearly eighty years. I pondered over this
+for some time, and then I commenced reading; and so interested was I
+with the contents that I did not raise my head until the candle had
+burned to the socket: as I was about to light another, I perceived
+daylight through the chinks of the window shutter. So I laid down the
+book, and walking softly out of the room, unlocked the shop door to get
+a little fresh air; for the room that old Nanny was sleeping in was,
+from dirt and neglect, very close. I could not, however, unlock the door
+without waking up Nanny who screamed out "Thieves!--murder! thieves!"
+until she was wide awake.
+
+[Illustration: JACK IN NANNY'S ROOM.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 151.]
+
+"Oh! it is you, Jack?" said she at last. "I dreamed there were thieves
+breaking in."
+
+"Nothing but day breaking in, mother," said I. "How do you feel this
+morning?"
+
+"Better, Jack, better; I've not so much pain, but I'm very thirsty; give
+me some water."
+
+"No, mother; the doctor said you must not drink cold water. If you'll
+wait a little, I'll run and fetch you something warm. I won't be gone
+long, so try to go to sleep again."
+
+Old Nanny made no reply, but turned her face away from the light, as if
+in obedience to my orders. I locked the outer door and hastened home.
+
+I found my mother and Virginia sitting in the nice clean room, the fire
+blazing cheerfully and the breakfast on the table, and I could not help
+making the contrast in my own mind between it and the dirty abode I had
+just left. I ran into the back kitchen to wash my face and hands, and
+then returned, kissed Virginia, and wished my mother "Good-morning."
+
+Why, I do not know, but she was in one of her worst of humors.
+
+"Don't come near me, or near your sister Virginia," said she sharply;
+"who knows what vermin you may have brought from where you have been
+staying all night?"
+
+I did feel that what she said might be true.
+
+"Well, mother," said I, "I won't come near you if you don't like, but I
+want some tea for poor old Nanny."
+
+"I can't find tea for old Nannies," replied she.
+
+"I'll give her mine, Jack," cried Virginia.
+
+"Indeed, miss, you'll do no such thing," said my mother; "and sit up
+properly to table, instead of hanging your head down in that way; and
+don't pour your tea in your saucer--that's vulgar!"
+
+"The tea's so hot, mamma!" said Virginia.
+
+"Then wait till it's cool, miss. Leave the teapot alone, sir!"
+
+"I'll thank you for some tea, mother," replied I. "I shall give my
+breakfast to old Nanny."
+
+"You'll take no breakfast out of this house," was the reply.
+
+"Why, mother?--for a poor sick old woman."
+
+"Let her go to the parish."
+
+I now became angry myself. I took up the teapot and walked away into the
+back kitchen. My mother rose and followed me, insisting upon my putting
+the teapot down; but I would not, and I poured out the tea into a little
+milk-can. I did not answer her, but I felt that I was right and would
+not give in, and she was afraid to attempt force. My mother then ran
+back to the table, caught up the sugar-basin and carried it upstairs,
+singing as she went, at the highest pitch of her voice:
+
+     "What are little girls made of, made of
+     Sugar and spice, and all that's nice;
+     And that's what girls are made of!"
+
+While my mother was away, little Virginia poured her cup of tea, which
+was already sweetened, into the can. I seized some bread and butter, and
+before my mother came down I was clear of the house. Old Nanny made a
+good breakfast; the doctor came, and said that she was much better and
+would soon be well. The doctor had not left long before Peter Anderson
+came and told me to go and mind my business, and that he would sit by
+old Nanny. Old Ben, who had heard of it, also called in, and he sat up
+with her the next night.
+
+"Did I not tell you that there were others who cared for you, Nanny?"
+said I, a few days afterward.
+
+"Yes, you did, Jack, but I did not believe you; the world is better than
+I thought it was. But how will you pay the doctor, Jack?"
+
+"The doctor 'tended you for nothing; he told me so the first night."
+
+"Well, and that widow, too; it's kind of her to send me tea and sugar,
+and such nice things to eat."
+
+"Yes, mother, it is."
+
+"And your father, to bring your little dear sister, so nice and clean,
+to come and see an old wretch like me in such a dirty hole. Ah, Jack!
+now I'm getting well again I like the world better than I did."
+
+In a few days old Nanny had again opened her shop, sitting at the door
+as usual, and, as the spring was now well advanced, she gradually
+recovered her strength. When I gave up my office of nurse she did not,
+however, forget to tell me to bring her good bargains, as I had promised
+that I would.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+     A Morning Concert, in which the Opposition is as great as Black to
+     White.
+
+
+Among my father's associates there was a man of about forty years of
+age, Dick Harness by name. He had received a wound in the hip from a
+grape-shot, and his leg having in consequence contracted, it occasioned
+him to limp very much; but he was as strong and hearty in all other
+respects as a man could be. He was a very merry fellow, full of jokes,
+and if any one told a story which was at all verging on the marvelous,
+he was sure to tell another which would be still more incredible. He
+played the fiddle and sang to his own accompaniments, which were very
+droll, as he extracted very strange noises from his instrument.
+Sometimes his bow would be on the wrong side of the bridge, sometimes
+down at the keys; besides which he produced sounds by thumping the
+fiddle as well as by touching its strings as a guitar; indeed, he could
+imitate in a certain way almost every instrument and most of the noises
+made by animals. He had one fault, for which he used to be occasionally
+punished, which was, he was too fond of the bottle; but he was a great
+favorite, and therefore screened by the men, and as much as possible
+overlooked by the officers. The punishment for a pensioner getting drunk
+was, at that time, being made to wear a yellow instead of a blue coat,
+which made a man look very conspicuous.
+
+I recollect one day he had the yellow coat on, when a party of ladies
+and gentlemen came to see the hospital. Perceiving that he was dressed
+so differently from the other pensioners, one of the ladies' curiosity
+was excited, and at last she called him to her and said, "Pray, my good
+man, why do you wear a yellow coat when the other pensioners have blue
+ones?"
+
+"Bless your handsome face, ma'am!" replied Dick, "don't you really
+know?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied she.
+
+"Well, then, ma'am, perhaps you may have heard of the glorious battle of
+the Nile, in which Nelson gave the French such a drubbing?"
+
+"Oh, yes," cried all the ladies and gentlemen, who had now crowded about
+him.
+
+"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I had the good fortune to be in that great
+victory, and all we _Nilers_, as we are called, are permitted to wear a
+yellow coat as a mark of distinction, while the common pensioners wear
+nothing but blue."
+
+"Dear me!" said the lady, "and do I really speak to one of those brave
+fellows who fought at the battle of the Nile?" and she put her hand into
+her pocket and pulled out five shillings. "There," said she, "I hope
+you'll not be affronted, but accept this from me."
+
+"Not at all, ma'am," replied Dick, pocketing the money.
+
+Then the whole party made a subscription for him, and Dick went off with
+a handful of silver.
+
+There was, however, another man who contributed much to the fun created
+by Dick Harness. He was an American black, who had served as cook in the
+"Majestic," and had been wounded in the battle of the Nile, He had
+received a bullet in the knee, which had occasioned a stiff joint; and,
+as his leg was bent, he wore a short wooden stump. He also could play
+his fiddle and sing his songs, but in neither case so well as Dick
+Harness, although he thought otherwise himself. We used to call him
+Opposition Bill, but his name was Bill White; at least that was the
+purser's name that he went by when on board of a man-of-war. His
+pleasure was to follow Dick Harness everywhere; and if Dick sung he
+would sing, if Dick played he would play also--not at the same time, but
+if Dick stopped Bill would strike up. Dick used to call him his black
+shadow; and sometimes he would execute a flourish on his fiddle which
+would be quite a puzzler to Opposition Bill, who would attempt something
+of the kind, which invariably set every one laughing. At last Dick
+Harness's performances were not considered to be complete if Opposition
+Bill was not in his company; and, as they were both very good-tempered,
+funny fellows, they were a great amusement, especially in the fine
+weather, when they would sit on the benches upon the terrace about six
+or eight yards apart, for they seldom came nearer, and play and sing
+alternately. The songs sung by Dick Harness were chiefly old sea songs;
+those of Opposition Bill were picked up from every part of the world,
+principally, however, those sung by the negroes who worked on the
+plantations in Virginia and Carolina.
+
+Peter Anderson, my father, Ben, and many others were sitting on the
+benches, basking in the morning's sun, when Dick Harness made his
+appearance, limping along with his fiddle under his arm.
+
+"Come along, Dick," said Ben the Whaler, "we'll stow close, and make
+room for you here."
+
+"You must make elbow-room, too, my hearty, or I shan't be able to
+fiddle. Come, what will you have this fine morning?" said Harness,
+tuning his instrument. As soon as it was in tune he flourished a prelude
+from the top of the scale to the bottom, ending with an "Eh-haw!
+eh-haw!" in imitation of the braying of a donkey.
+
+"Give us the Spanish Ladies, Dick," said my father. As this song was
+very popular at that time among the seamen, and is now almost forgotten,
+I shall by inserting it here for a short time rescue it from oblivion.
+
+     "Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies,
+     Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain;
+       For we have received orders
+       For to sail to old England,
+     But we hope in a short time to see you again."
+
+"Stop a moment, lads. I must screw him up a little more."
+
+Dick regulated his first string, and then continued.
+
+     "We'll rant and we'll roar, like true British sailors,
+     We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas;
+       Until we strike soundings
+       In the Channel of old England
+     (From Ushant to Scilly 'tis thirty-five leagues).
+
+     "Then we hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west,
+           my boys,
+     Then we hove our ship to, for to strike soundings clear;
+       Then we filled the maintopsail
+       And bore right away, my boys,
+     And straight up the Channel of old England did steer.
+
+     "So the first land we made, it is called the Deadman,
+     Next Ram Head, off Plymouth, Start, Portland, and
+         the Wight;
+       We sail-ed by Beachy,
+       By Fairly and Dungeness,
+     And then bore away for the South Foreland light.
+
+     "Now the signal it was made for the grand fleet to
+         anchor,
+     All in the Downs that night for to meet;
+       Then stand by your stoppers,
+       See clear your shank painters,
+     Haul all your clew garnets, stick out tacks and sheets."
+
+Here Dick was interrupted by another fiddle, which went "turn,
+turn--scrape--turn, turn."
+
+"There's Opposition Bill, Dick," said my father; "I thought you would
+bring him out."
+
+"All's right," replied Dick; "hope he aren't affronted; but he looks
+very black this morning."
+
+     "Now let every man lake off his full bumper,
+     Let every man take off his full bowl;
+       For we will be jolly
+       And drown melancholy,
+     With a health to each jovial and true-hearted soul."
+
+"Now, then, Billy, fire away."
+
+"You tink I 'bey your order, you Dick? No, sar, suppose I fire away, I
+go off. I not go off, I stay here."
+
+"Well, but if you play, you'll get in trouble, Billy."
+
+"How I get in trouble?"
+
+"Why, you'll get in a scrape, won't you?"
+
+"Ho! you just got out of one, anyhow."
+
+Dick Harness then said to those who sat by him, "I'll make him sing the
+Negro General."
+
+"Well, if you will howl, Mr. Billy," cried out Harness, "at all events
+don't give us that abominable Nigger General. It always gives me the
+toothache."
+
+"Now I tink dat very fine song; so you may have whole jaw-ache for all I
+care. I sing dat, Mr. Dick; you jealous of dat song, I know."
+
+Opposition Billy flourished a little, and then commenced--
+
+     "Listen, my boys, and I will tell you
+     Tell you a leetle 'bout Gin'ral Gabriel.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Dey advertise de Nigger Gin'ral,
+     A dousand pounds dey advertise him.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "And who betrayed de Nigger Gin'ral?
+     A leetle boy betrayed de Gin'ral.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "A leetle boy by de name of Daniel,
+     Betrayed him down at Norfolk Landing.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "He says, how do, my uncle Gabriel?
+     But dis is not your uncle Gabriel.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Yes, it is my uncle Gabriel;
+     For I do know you, uncle Gabriel.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "De man belonged to Major Prosser,
+     So cum and hang de Nigger Gin'ral.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "For he's ruined old Virginny!
+     _Hard times_ in old Virginny.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey wrote a letter to de tailor,
+     To cut out de Gin'ral's ruffles.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Dey cut de ruffles out o' _iron_!
+     So they handcuff and chained him.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey went and called a troop of light horse
+     To come and guard de Nigger Gin'ral!
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "To guard him all to de city of Richmond,
+     To guard him up unto de justice.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "De justice _tuk_ him to de gobnor--
+     (Monroe he set up for gobnor).
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Command him to de Penetenshy;
+     On Thursday week come on his trial.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey went and called all de country
+     For to come and see de Nigger Gin'ral.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Some dey call him Archy Mullen--'My
+     right name is John Decullen.'
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "I'm here to-day and gone to-morrow;
+     I did not come for to stay for eber.'
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "So den dey tuk him to de gallows,
+     Drive him down dere in a wagon.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey drive him down unto de gallows,
+     Dey drive him down with four gray horses.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "(Price's Ben, he drive de wagon)
+     Very sad loss to Major Prosser.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey drove him right beneath de gallows,
+     And den dey hang him and dey swing him.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "And dat de fate of de Nigger Gin'ral,
+     Who almost ruined old Virginny!
+           Now, my boys, I'm quite done!"
+
+"You've quite done, have you, Billy?" said Harness; "take my advice and
+never begin again."
+
+"Eh, Mister Dick, you no ab song like dat in your budget, and I neber
+give you de tune."
+
+"I hope you won't; but now I'll play you a tune which will beat you
+hollow." Hereupon Dick Harness imitated the squeaking of pigs and
+caterwauling of cats upon his fiddle, so as to set everybody laughing,
+except Opposition Bill, who pretended to be very sulky.
+
+"Come, Dick, it's your turn now. Give us a regular forecastle song,"
+said Ben the Whaler.
+
+"Well, then, here's one that's been sung ever since the days of old
+Queen Anne:
+
+     "It was one November--the second day--
+     The admiral he bore away,
+     Intending for his native shore.
+     The wind at sou'sou'west did roar;
+     There was likewise a terrible sky,
+     Which made the sea to run mountains high.
+
+     "The tide of ebb it was not done,
+     But fiercely to the west did run;
+     Which put us all in terrible fear,
+     Because there was not room for to veer.
+     The wind and weather increased sore,
+     And drove ten sail of us on shore.
+
+     "Ashore went the 'Northumberland,'
+     The 'Harwich,' and the 'Cumberland,'
+     The 'Lion' and the 'Warwick' too;
+     But the 'Elizabeth' had the most to rue--
+     She came stem on--her fore-foot broke,
+     And she sunk the 'Gloucester' at one stroke.
+
+     "But now remains what is worse to tell,
+     The greatest ships had the greatest knell;
+     The brave 'C'ronation' and all her men
+     Was lost and drowned every one,
+     Except the mate and eighteen more
+     What in the longboat com'd ashore.
+
+     "And thus they lost their precious lives;
+     But the greatest loss was to their wives,
+     Who, with their children left on shore,
+     Their husbands' watery death deplore,
+     And wept their loss with many tears--
+     (But grief endureth not for years).
+
+     "Now you who've a mind to go to sea,
+     Pray take a useful hint from me,
+     And live at home, and be content
+     With what kind Providence has sent;
+     For they were punish'd for their misdeeds,
+     In grumbling when they had no needs.
+
+     "Now God preserve our noble Queen,
+     Likewise her Ministers serene;
+     And may they ever steer a course
+     To make things better 'stead of worse,
+     And England's flag triumphant fly,
+     The dread of hevery he-ne-my."
+
+"You call dat singing! Stop now! I sing a song you nebber hear in all
+your life," cried Opposition Bill, tuning his fiddle.
+
+"And never wish to hear again, most likely," replied Dick. "Out with it,
+Bill; your face shines beautifully this morning."
+
+"I take de shine out of you, Massa Dick; now you listen:
+
+     "Now your fader is asleep, maid, listen unto me;
+     Will you follow in my trail to Ken-tuck-y?
+     For cross de Alleghany to-morrow I must go,
+     To chase de bounding deer on'de O-hi-o.
+
+     "And will you lub me truly, and kind to me will be,
+     If I quit my fader's roof for Ken-tuck-y?
+     And will you nebber leave me, if I consent to go
+     To your shanty by de stream of de O-hi-o?
+
+     "Her fader's not asleep, and he will not agree,
+     Dat you take away his dater to Ken-tuck-y.
+     So alone by yourself, good hunter, you must go,
+     Where the Ingin's rifle cracks on de O-hi-o.
+
+     "Your moder, too, is near, aldough you did not see,
+     And wid her leave you nebber go to Ken-tuck-y.
+     He hab a wife already, as I do surely know,
+     Who weeps for his return to de O-hi-o.
+
+     "Man, I have dis purse of gold, half of it for ye;
+     Woman, I hab ne'er a wife in Ken-tuck-y;
+     Your dater is my only lub, so pridee let us go
+     To where my corn is ripening on de O-hi-o.
+
+     "De fader weighed de purse, he took his half wid glee,
+     De moder said her child might go to Ken-tuck-y.
+     So de hunter and de maid, arm-in-arm dey go,
+     Across de Alleghany to de O-hi-o."
+
+"Bravo, Billy, that's not so bad," said some of the pensioners.
+
+"I tell you, Dick, I take de shine out of you. You nebber believe till I
+make you fall in my wake, and den you soon be where de little boat
+was--long way astarn."
+
+"I'll tell you what, Billy," said Dick Harness, "you do improve, and
+we'll allow you to sing that song once more before you die, just by way
+of encouragement."
+
+Dick then played several flourishes on his fiddle. Opposition Bill tried
+to imitate him, but made sad work of it. It was near dinner-time, and
+the pensioners rose and proceeded to the Painted Hall, for at that time
+they dined there, and not below in the crypts as they do now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+     I get into very doubtful Company--I am tempted, and, like a true
+     Son of Adam, I fall.
+
+
+The reader must have observed that, under the tuition of Anderson, I
+promised to follow the right path, and, provided his good offices were
+not interfered with, there appeared little doubt but that such would be
+the case. But I was little aware, nor was he, that the humble profession
+which I had chosen for myself was beset with danger, and that the
+majority of those with whom I was associating were the most likely of
+all others to lead me into evil. Why I had not hitherto been tempted can
+only be ascribed to my tender years. In fact, I had not been considered
+strong enough, or of an age to be useful to them, but now that I was
+more than thirteen years old--being, moreover, very tall and strong for
+my age--the hour of temptation arrived; and fortunate was it for me
+that, previous to this epoch, I had been taken under the protection of
+Peter Anderson.
+
+I have said in a former chapter that I was a regular _mudlarker_. So I
+was, as far as the ostensible occupation of those who are so denominated
+went; to wit, "picking up pieces of old rope, wood, etc." But the
+mudlarkers, properly speaking, at that time composed a very extensive
+body on the river, and were a more humble portion of the numerous river
+depredators, of which I may hereafter speak. A mudlarker was a man who
+had an old boat, generally sold by some merchant vessel, furnished with
+an iron bar full of hooks, which was lowered down by a rope to catch
+pieces of cordage, oakum, canvas or other articles, which might fall
+overboard from the numerous vessels in the river; these were sold to the
+marine stores, such as were kept by old Nanny. But, as I observed, this
+was the _ostensible_ mode of livelihood; they had other resources, to
+which I shall presently refer. An old man of the name of Jones, who
+resided at Greenwich, was one of these mudlarkers by profession. He was
+a surly old fellow, his sharp nose and chin nearly meeting, and he
+usually went by the name of Old Grumble. I had occasionally assisted him
+with his boat, but without receiving money, or indeed thanks, for my
+pains, but for this I cared little. He was a very old man, and when he
+came on shore and went up to old Nanny with the few things he had
+collected during the day, I almost wondered how he could manage to
+subsist, and thought myself infinitely better off than he was.
+
+One evening he said to me, "Jack, I'm going up the river, I wish you'd
+come in the boat and help me, and if I make anything I will give you
+something for your trouble, but if I don't you can't expect it."
+
+As he was very infirm I went with him, more out of charity than with any
+hopes of profit. We pulled with the tide till we arrived a little above
+Deptford, where several ships were lying, and he went close to one and
+lowered down his grapnels. He dragged for a short time.
+
+"Just you make a little further off, old fellow," cried the mate of the
+vessel.
+
+"Won't allow a poor old man to earn a few pence, I suppose," replied Old
+Grumble, hauling up his grapnel and directing me to pull under the
+bows, where he dropped it down again. I now perceived, as I thought,
+some signs passing between him and one of the men in the head; but if
+so, they were soon over, and Old Grumble continued his avocation till
+the sun set.
+
+"How long do you intend to remain here?" inquired I.
+
+"Oh, not much longer, but I must wait a bit."
+
+At last it was quite dark, and then Grumble pulled up his grapnel and
+dropped down nearer to the cutwater of the vessel. I soon distinguished
+a tinkling, as it were, of metal; and Old Grumble, holding up his hands,
+received some sheets of copper, which were lowered down by a rope-yarn.
+As soon as they were quietly landed in the stern of the boat, down came
+a bag, which he cast off and laid beside the copper. I was all
+astonishment, but still more so when a large bag of something weighing
+very heavy was lowered down by a rope after the small bag. A low whistle
+was then given, and the words "Monday night" pronounced in a whisper.
+Grumble whistled in return, and then, hauling up the grapnel, he told me
+to put out the oars and pull, while he took his grapnel on board. We
+then pulled down the river again, for the tide had turned, and as soon
+as we were clear of the shipping I began to interrogate him.
+
+"Who gave you all these things?"
+
+"Who? Why, that man."
+
+"But what did he give them you for?"
+
+"Why, out of charity, to be sure! But I can't talk now, I've no breath
+to spare. Let's pull ashore, and then I'll talk to you."
+
+As we pulled down I observed that a lighter had broken adrift from her
+moorings, and was sweeping down the river with the ebb tide.
+
+"There's a lighter adrift," said I.
+
+"Yes," replied Grumble. "I'm too old for that work now; time was.
+There'll be pretty pickings as soon as she gets down a little lower. The
+Light Horsemen have cut her adrift."
+
+"Light Horsemen! Who are they?"
+
+"Bah! you know nothing. I tell ye again, I haven't no breath to spare; I
+can't pull and talk too."
+
+I was convinced in my own mind that Old Grumble had not obtained the
+articles in the boat by fair means, and, annoyed that I should have been
+made a participator in any dishonest dealings, I was resolved to
+question him closely as soon as we landed. There was no one at the
+steps, and when we beached the boat I asked him whether he was going to
+take the things up to old Nanny's.
+
+"Old Nanny! no. She's no fence now; she used to be a good one, but she
+was overhauled once or twice, and nearly sent on the other side of the
+water, and, since that, she's satisfied with little articles, sure
+profit and no risk."
+
+"What do you mean by a fence?" inquired I.
+
+"Why, don't you know that yet, boy? Well, a _fence_ is one who receives
+things that are brought for sale, and never asks no questions."
+
+"Well, but if these things were given you out of charity, as you say,
+why should you want to take them up to a fence, as you call it?"
+
+"I tell you what, Jack, I can't be answering all these questions here,
+where there may be twenty pair of ears a-listening."
+
+"Well, and if they do listen, what is the harm, if we are doing what is
+right?"
+
+"It won't do to argufy here, I tell you. In my opinion, a poor man who
+works hard to get some victuals to keep body and soul together is doing
+what is right."
+
+"Yes, if he works at an honest livelihood."
+
+"Don't talk so loud about _honesty_; the very word is enough to make
+people suspect something not right. I'll tell you all when you come up
+to my house; for you see, Jack, you must help me to carry these things
+up. D'ye think you can manage this bag of pease? Let's try." Between us
+we contrived to get the bag, which weighed about half a hundredweight,
+on my back, and I walked off with it, Grumble following me with the
+copper and the other small bag, which I afterward found contained copper
+nails. When we arrived at his dwelling, which was as dilapidated and
+miserable as old Nanny's, he took out his key and fumbled a long while
+at the lock; at last he opened it. "You had better stay till I get a
+light," said he. In a minute he came with one to the door, and told me
+to follow him. I went in, put down the bag, and, some grains falling
+out, I took them up.
+
+"Why, this is coffee, Grumble!"
+
+"Well, _pease_ is our name for coffee, _sand_ for sugar, and _vinegar_
+for rum, when we get any."
+
+"Well, but, Grumble, I wish to know how you came by these things?"
+
+"I'll tell you, Jack, if you ask everybody how they come by things, you
+will have enough to do; but the fact is, the man wants me to sell them
+for him."
+
+"Why, you said he gave them to you out of charity!"
+
+"Oh, that was only because I couldn't spare breath to tell you all about
+it."
+
+"But why should he lower them down in the dark, if they are his own
+property?"
+
+"Jack, I don't ask whose property it is; all I know is that I come by
+it honestly. I don't steal it, and I can't prove that the man does. Why,
+Jack, if one is to be so nice as that, you can't go into a grocer's shop
+to buy sugar, or coffee, or pepper, or indeed into almost any shop, if
+you first want to know whether the people have come by the goods
+honestly before you buy of them."
+
+"Still, it is so plain that the man must have stolen them."
+
+"Suppose it is; how are so many poor people to find their livelihood and
+support their families, if they refuse to get a shilling or two when it
+is offered? If we were only to live upon what we get honestly, why, we
+should starve; the rich take good care of that by grinding us down so
+close. Why, Jack, how many thousands get their living on this river! and
+do you think they could all get their living honestly, as you call it?
+No; we all plunder one another in this world[4]. You asked me who were
+Light Horsemen?--that's a name for one set of people who live by
+plunder. That lighter will have a good slice of her cargo out to-night;
+for those who cut her adrift know what's on board of her. Then we have
+the Heavy Horsemen--they do their work in the daytime, when they go on
+board as lumpers to clear the ships. And then we've the Coopers and
+Bumboat men, and the Ratcatchers and the Scuffle Hunters, and the River
+Pirates; and, last of all, we have the Mudlarkers: all different
+professions, Jack; never interfering with each other, and all living by
+their wits. I'm too old now; I was a flash pirate once, but I'm now
+nearly eighty, and am only fit for a mudlarker."
+
+[Footnote 4: These remarks of Grumble were, at the time, perfectly
+correct; it was before the Wet Docks or the River Police was
+established. Previously to the West India, London, St. Katharine's, and
+other docks having been made, all ships unloaded in the river, and the
+depredations were so enormous that Mr. Colquhoun, in his work, has
+estimated them at half a million sterling _annually_. At present the
+river may be said to be comparatively honest; the police is strict, and
+the temptations are removed.]
+
+"But," exclaimed I, with astonishment, "are they not discovered and
+punished?"
+
+"That's very seldom, Jack; for you see we have receivers all down the
+river; some of them great men, and dining with the mayor and common
+council; others in a small way--all sorts, Jack: and then we have what
+we call Jew Carts, always ready to take goods inland, where they will
+not be looked after. Old Nanny was a receiver and fence in a large way
+once."
+
+"Then the only honest people on the river are the watermen."
+
+Here old Grumble chuckled. "Why, Jack, they be the worst of all, for
+they be both receivers and thieves. Do you think the watermen live by
+their fares? If you do, just wait on the steps one night, and you'll
+find that their night work is worth more than the day work is. We all
+must live, Jack; and now I've shown you a way by which you can earn more
+money in a night than you can in a fortnight by asking for halfpence.
+Here's five shillings for you, my boy; and when I want you again I'll
+let you know."
+
+Alas! the five shillings, so easily and so unexpectedly earned, did, for
+the time, satisfy all my scruples: so easily are we bribed into what is
+wrong. I wished Old Grumble a good-night and left him. As I returned
+home, I thought of what he had said about night work, and, instead of
+making my way to Fisher's Alley, I returned to the landing-steps,
+resolving to watch for a time and see what occurred.
+
+I thought of what had passed. I was not satisfied with myself. I thought
+of what Anderson would say, and I felt that I had done wrong. And then I
+attempted to exculpate myself. I could not prove that the things were
+stolen. I did not go with any intent to help in such a business. Old
+Grumble had only paid me for my work; but then, why did he pay me so
+much money? My conscience told me that it was because the dealings were
+unfair. I could not persuade myself that I was right. I looked up at the
+heavens--for it was a clear night, and there was a very bright star just
+above me; and as I looked at it it appeared as if it were an eye beaming
+down upon me, and piercing into my breast. I turned away from it, and
+then looked at it again--still it had the same appearance. I thought it
+was the eye of God--I trembled, and I resolved to reveal the whole to
+Anderson the next day, when I heard the sound of oars. I looked in the
+direction, and perceived a wherry with two men pulling in. I was down on
+the steps, under the shadow of the wall, and they did not see me. They
+landed, and handed out of the wherry three large and full canvas bags.
+"It's more than we can carry," said the voice of a waterman I well knew;
+"we must leave one in the boat; and be quick, for they are on our scent.
+Hollo! who's that? what are you doing here? Poor Jack, I declare."
+
+"Well, mayn't I have a little night work as well as you?"
+
+"Oh! you've come to that, have you?" replied he. "Well, as you're
+waiting for something else, I suppose you could not help us with one of
+these bags?"
+
+"Yes, I can," replied I, forgetting all my resolutions; "put it on my
+back, if it's not too heavy."
+
+"No, no; you're stout enough to carry it. I say, Jack, can you tell us,
+does old Nanny fence again, or has she given it up?"
+
+"I believe she does not," replied I.
+
+"Well," said he, "just put the question to her to-morrow morning, for
+she used to be a good 'un; now follow us."
+
+I walked after them with my load until we came to a by-street; at the
+shutters of a shop they rapped three times on the iron bar outside which
+fixed them up; the door was opened, and we put the bags down in the
+passage, walked out again without a word, and the door was immediately
+closed.
+
+"Well, Jack," said the waterman, "I suppose we must tip handsome for the
+first time: here's ten shillings for you, and we'll let you know when we
+want you to be on the lookout for us."
+
+Ten shillings! and five before--fifteen shillings! I felt as I were a
+rich man; all scruples of conscience were, for the time, driven away. I
+hurried home rattling the silver in my pocket, and opening the door
+softly, I crept to bed. Did I say my prayers that night? No!!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+     I am tempted again--My Pride is roused, and my Course of Life is
+     changed in consequence.
+
+
+I passed a dreaming restless night, and woke early. I recalled all that
+had passed, and I felt very much dissatisfied with myself; the fifteen
+shillings, with the added prospect of receiving more, did not yield me
+the satisfaction I had anticipated. From what the men had said about old
+Nanny I thought that I would go and see her; and why? because I wished
+support against my own convictions. If I had not been actuated by such a
+feeling I should, as usual, have gone to old Anderson. When I went down
+to breakfast I felt confused, and I hardly dared to meet the clear
+bright eye of my little sister, and I wished the fifteen shillings out
+of my pocket. That I might appear to her and my mother as if I were not
+guilty, I swaggered; my sister was surprised, and my mother justifiably
+angry. As soon as breakfast was over, I hastened to old Nanny's.
+
+"Well, Jack," said she, "what brings you here so early?"
+
+"Why, mother, I was desired to ask you a question last night--between
+ourselves."
+
+"Well, why don't you ask it, since it's between ourselves?" replied she,
+with surprise.
+
+"Some of the people want to know if you _fence_ now?"
+
+"Jack," said old Nanny, harshly, "who asked you that question, and how
+did you fall into their company? Tell me directly; I will know."
+
+"Why, mother, is there any harm in it?" replied I, confused and holding
+down my head.
+
+"Harm in it! Ask your own conscience, Jack, whether there's harm in it.
+Why do you not look me in the face like an honest boy? Would they have
+dared to put that question to you, if you had not been a party to their
+evil deeds, Jack?" continued she, shaking her head. "I thought better of
+you; now you have filled me full of sorrow."
+
+I was smitten to the heart at this rebuke from a quarter whence I did
+not expect it; but my heart was still rebellious, and I would not
+acknowledge what I felt. I thought to turn the tables, and replied,
+"Why, mother, at all events they say that _once_ you were a real good
+one."
+
+"Is it indeed gone so far?" replied she. "Poor boy! poor boy! Yes, Jack,
+to my shame be it spoken, I once did receive things and buy them when
+they were not honestly come by, and now I'm rebuked by a child. But,
+Jack, I was almost mad then; I had that which would have turned any
+one's brain--I was reckless, wretched; but I don't do so any more. Even
+now I am a poor sinful wretch--I know it; but I'm not so crazy as I was
+then. I have done so, Jack, more's the shame for me, and I wish I could
+recall it; but, Jack, we can't recall the past. Oh, that we could!"
+
+Here old Nanny pressed her hands to her temples, and for some time was
+silent. At last she continued, "Why did I love you, Jack?--Because you
+were honest. Why did I lend you money--I, an old miserly wretch, who
+have been made to dote on money; I, who have never spent a shilling for
+my own comfort for these ten years?--But because you were honest. Why
+have I longed the whole day to see you, and have cared only for
+you?--Because I thought you honest, Jack. I don't care how soon I die
+now. I thought the world too bad to live in; you made me think better of
+it. Oh! Jack, Jack, how has this come to pass? How long have you known
+these bad people?"
+
+"Why, mother," replied I, much affected, "only last night."
+
+"Only last night? Tell me all about it; tell the truth, dear boy, do."
+
+I could hold out no longer, and I told her everything that had passed.
+
+"Jack," said she, "I'm not fit to talk to you; I'm a bad old woman, and
+you may say I don't practice what I preach; but, Jack, if you love me,
+go to Peter Anderson and tell him everything. Don't be afraid; only be
+afraid of doing what is wrong. Now, Jack, you must go."
+
+"I will, I will," replied I, bursting into tears.
+
+"Do, do, dear Jack! God bless your heart, I wish I could cry that way."
+
+I walked away quite humiliated; at last I ran, I was so eager to go to
+Anderson and confess everything. I found him in his cabin--I attempted
+to speak, but I could not--I pulled out the money, put it on the table,
+and then I knelt down and sobbed on his knee.
+
+"What is all this, Jack?" said Anderson, calmly; but I did not reply. "I
+think I know, Jack," said he, after a pause. "You have been doing
+wrong."
+
+"Yes, yes," replied I, sobbing.
+
+"Well, my dear boy, wait till you can speak, and then tell me all about
+it."
+
+As soon as I could I did. Anderson heard me without interruption.
+
+"Jack," said he, when I had done speaking, "the temptation" (pointing to
+the money) "has been very great; you did not resist at the moment, but
+you have, fortunately, seen your error in good time, for the money is
+still here. I have little to say to you, for your own feelings convince
+me that it is needless. Do you think that you can read a little? Then
+read this." Anderson turned to the parable of the Prodigal Son, which I
+read to him. "And now," said he, turning over the leaves, "here is one
+verse more." I read it: "There is more joy over one sinner that
+repenteth, than over ninety and nine that need no repentance." "Be
+careful, therefore, my dear boy, let this be a warning to you; think
+well of it, for you have escaped a great danger. The money shall be
+returned. Go now, my child, to your employment; and if you do receive
+only halfpence, you will have the satisfaction of feeling that they are
+honestly obtained."
+
+I can assure the reader that this was a lesson which I never forgot; it
+was, however, succeeded by another variety of temptation, which might
+have proved more dangerous to a young and ardent spirit, had it not
+ended as it did, in changing the course of my destiny and throwing me
+into a new path of action. To this I shall now refer.
+
+Hardly a month passed but we received additional pensioners into the
+hospital. Among others, a man was sent to the hospital who went by the
+name of Sam Spicer. I say went by the name, as it was not the custom for
+the seamen to give their real names when they were entered or pressed
+into the service, and of course they were discharged into the hospital
+by the same name which they bore on the ship's books. Spicer was upward
+of six feet in height, very large boned, and must, when he was in his
+prime, have been a man of prodigious strength. When he was admitted to
+the hospital he was nearly sixty years of age; his hair was black and
+gray mixed, his complexion very dark, and his countenance fierce and
+unprepossessing. He went by the name of Black Sam, on account of his
+appearance. He had lost his right hand in a frigate action, and to the
+stump he had fixed a sort of socket, into which he screwed his knife and
+the various articles which he wished to make use of--sometimes a file,
+sometimes a saw--having had every article made to fit into the socket,
+for he had been an armorer on board ship, and was very handy at such
+work. He was, generally speaking, very morose and savage to everybody,
+seldom entered into conversation, but sat apart, as if thinking, with a
+frown upon his countenance, and his eyes, surmounted with bushy
+eyebrows, fixed upon the ground. The pensioners who belonged to the same
+ward said that he talked in his sleep, and from what they could collect
+at those times he must have been a pirate; but no one dared to speak to
+him on the subject, for more than once he had been punished for striking
+those who had offended him; indeed, he nearly killed one old man who was
+jesting with him when he was at work, having made a stab at him with his
+knife screwed in his socket, but his foot slipped and the blow missed.
+Spicer was brought up before the council for this offense, and would
+have been discharged had he not declared that he had done it only by way
+of a joke to frighten the man; and, as no one else was present, it could
+not be proved to the contrary. For some reason or another, which I could
+not comprehend, Spicer appeared to have taken a liking to me; he would
+call me to him, and tell me stories about the West Indies and the
+Spanish Main, which I listened to very eagerly, for they were to me
+very interesting. But he seldom, if ever, spoke to me inside of the
+hospital; it was always when I was at the steps minding my vocation,
+where he would come down and lean over the rail at the top of the wharf.
+He made and gave me a boat-hook, which I found very convenient. He had a
+great deal of information, and as the ships came up the river he would
+point out the flags of the different nations, tell me where they traded
+from, and what their cargoes probably consisted of. If they had no
+ensign he would tell by their build and the cut of their sails what
+nation they belonged to, pointing out to me the differences, which I
+soon began to perceive. He had been in every part of the world, and
+scarcely a day passed in which I did not gain from him some amusing or
+useful information. Indeed, I became so fond of his company that Peter
+Anderson spoke to me on the subject, and asked me what Spicer talked
+about. I told him, and he replied:
+
+"Well, Jack, I daresay that he is a very pleasant companion to one who,
+like you, is so anxious for information, and I have nothing to say
+against him, for we have no right to listen to foolish reports which may
+probably have been raised from his savage appearance. Still, I confess I
+do not like the man, as he is decidedly of a violent temper. As long as
+he talks to you about what you say he does, there is no harm done; but
+when once he says anything which you think is wrong, promise me to let
+me know; and even now, if you will take my advice, you will not be so
+intimate with him."
+
+A little while afterward my father and Ben the Whaler both spoke to me
+on the same subject, but with much less reservation.
+
+My father said, "Jack, I don't like to see you always in company with
+that old pirate, no good can come of it; so haul off a little further
+for the future."
+
+And Ben told me, "That a man who couldn't sleep o' nights without
+talking of killing people must have a bad conscience, and something
+lying heavy on his soul. There's an old saying, Jack, 'Tell me whose
+company you keeps, and I'll tell you what sort of a chap you be.' You've
+the character of a good honest boy; steer clear of Sam Spicer, or you'll
+lose it."
+
+Admonitions from all those whom I loved were not without their effect,
+and I made a resolution to be less intimate with Spicer. But it was
+difficult to do so, as I was obliged to be at the landing-steps, and
+could not prevent his coming there.
+
+I acknowledge that it was a severe privation to me to follow the
+injunctions given to me, for I would listen for hours to the thrilling
+narratives, the strange and almost incredible accounts of battles,
+incidents, and wild adventures, which this man Spicer would relate to
+me; and when I thought over them I felt that the desire to rove was
+becoming more strong within me every day. One morning I said to him that
+"I had a great mind to go on board of a man-of-war."
+
+"On board of a man-of-war?" replied Spicer; "you'd soon be sick enough
+of that. Why, who would be at the beck and nod of others, ordered here,
+called there, by boy midshipmen; bullied by lieutenants, flogged by
+captains; have all the work and little of the pay, all the fighting and
+less of the prize-money; and, after having worn out your life in hard
+service, be sent here as a great favor, to wear a cocked hat and get a
+shilling a week for your 'baccy? Pshaw, boy! that's not life."
+
+"Then, what is life?' inquired I.
+
+"What is life? Why, to sail in a clipper with a jolly crew and a roving
+commission; take your prizes, share and share alike, of gold-dust and
+doubloons."
+
+"But what sort of vessel must that be, Spicer?"
+
+"What sort? why--a letter of marque--a privateer--a cruise on the
+Spanish Main--that's life. Many's the jolly day I've seen in those
+latitudes, where men-of-war do not bring vessels to and press the best
+men out of them. There the sun's warm, and the sky and the sea are deep
+blue, and the corals grow like forests underneath, and there are sandy
+coves and cool caves for retreat--and where you may hide your gold till
+you want it--ay, and your sweethearts too, if you have any."
+
+"I thought privateers always sent their prizes into port, to be
+condemned?"
+
+"Yes, in the Channel and these seas they do, but not down there--it's
+too far off. We condemn the vessels ourselves, and share the money on
+the capstan-head."
+
+"But is that lawful?"
+
+"Lawful! to be sure it is. Could we spare men to send prizes home to
+England, and put them into the hands of a rascally agent, who would rob
+us of three-fourths at least? No, no; that would never do. If I could
+have escaped from the man-of-war which picked up me and four others who
+were adrift in an open boat, I would now have been on the Coast. But
+when I lost my fin, I knew that all was over with me, so I came to the
+hospital; but I often think of old times, and the life of a rover. Now,
+if you have any thoughts of going to sea, look out for some vessel bound
+to the Gold Coast, and then you'll soon get in the right way."
+
+"The Gold Coast! Is not that to where the slavers go?"
+
+"Yes, slavers and other vessels besides. Some traffic for ivory and
+gold-dust; however, that's as may happen. You'd soon find yourself in
+good company, and wouldn't that be better than begging here for
+halfpence? I would be above _that_, at all events."
+
+This remark, the first of the kind ever made to me, stung me to the
+quick. Strange, I had never before considered myself in the light of a
+beggar; and yet, was I not so, just as much as a sweeper of a crossing?"
+
+"A beggar?" replied I.
+
+"Yes, a beggar. Don't you beg for halfpence, and say, 'Thank your honor;
+a copper for poor Jack, your honor'?" rejoined Spicer, mimicking me.
+"When I see that pretty sister of yours, that looks so like a real lady,
+I often thinks to myself, 'Fine and smart as you are, miss, your
+brother's only a beggar.' Now, would you not like to return from a
+cruise with a bag of doubloons to throw into her lap, proving that you
+were a gentleman, and above coppers thrown to you out of charity? Well,
+old as I am, and maimed, I'd sooner starve where I now stand.--But I
+must be off, so good-by, Jack; look sharp after the halfpence."
+
+As Spicer walked away my young blood boiled. A beggar! It was but too
+true; and yet I had never thought it a disgrace before. I sat down on
+the steps, and was soon in deep thought. Boat after boat came to the
+stairs, and yet I stirred not. Not one halfpenny did I take during the
+remainder of that day, for I could not, would not, ask for one. My
+pride, hitherto latent, was roused, and before I rose from where I had
+been seated I made a resolution that I would earn my livelihood in some
+other way. What hurt me most was his observations about Virginia and her
+beggar brother. I was so proud of Virginia, I felt that her brother
+ought not to be a beggar. Such was the effect produced in so short a
+time by the insidious discourse of this man. Had he still remained at
+the steps, I do believe that I should have asked, probably have
+followed, his advice. Fortunately he had left, and, after a little
+reflection, I had the wisdom to go and seek Peter Anderson, and consult
+him as to what I could do, for to change my mode of obtaining my
+livelihood I was determined upon.
+
+I found Anderson, as usual, seated under the colonnade, reading, and I
+went up to him.
+
+"Well, Jack, my-boy, you are home early," said he.
+
+"Yes," replied I gravely, and then I was silent.
+
+After a pause of about a minute, Peter Anderson said, "Jack, I see
+there's something the matter. Now, tell me what it is. Can I help you?"
+
+"I did wish to speak to you," replied I. "I've been thinking--about
+going to sea."
+
+"And how long have you thought of that, Jack?"
+
+"I've thought more of it lately," replied I.
+
+"Yes, since Spicer has been talking to you. Now, is that not the case?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"I knew that, Jack. I'm at your service for as long as you please; now
+sit down and tell me all he has said to you that you can remember. I
+shan't interrupt you."
+
+I did so; and before I had half finished, Anderson replied, "That is
+quite enough, Jack. One thing is evident to me--that Spicer has led a
+bad and lawless life, and would even now continue it, old as he is, only
+that he is prevented by being crippled. Jack, he has talked to you about
+privateers! God forgive me if I wrong him; but I think, had he said
+pirates, he would have told the truth. But say nothing about that
+observation of mine; I wish from my heart that you had never known him.
+But here comes your father. He has a right to know what we are talking
+about, for you owe duty to him as his son, and nothing can be done
+without his permission."
+
+When my father came up to us, Anderson begged him to sit down, and he
+told him what we had been discoursing about. I had already stated my
+objections to enter on board of a man-of-war.
+
+"Well," said my father, "I may come athwart hawse of that old piccaroon
+yet, if he don't look out. Not that I mind your going to sea, Jack, as
+your father did before you; but what he says about the sarvice is a
+confounded lie. Let a man do his duty, and the sarvice is a good one;
+and a man who is provided for as he is, ought to be ashamed of himself
+to speak as he has done, the old rascal. Still, I do not care for your
+entering the sarvice so young. It would be better that you were first
+apprentice and learned your duty; and as soon as your time is out, you
+will be pressed, of course, and then you would sarve the King. I see no
+objection to all that."
+
+"But why do you want so particularly to go to sea, Jack?" observed
+Anderson.
+
+"I don't like being a beggar--begging for halfpence!" replied I.
+
+"And Spicer told you that you were a beggar?" said Peter.
+
+"He did."
+
+"Jack, if that is the case, we are all beggars; for we all work, and
+receive what money we can get for our work. There is no shame in that."
+
+"I can't bear to think of it," replied I, as the tears came into my
+eyes.
+
+"Well, well! I see how it is," replied Anderson; "it's a pity you ever
+fell in with that man."
+
+"That's true as gospel," observed my father; "but still, if he had said
+nothing worse than that, I should not have minded. I do think that Jack
+is now old enough to do something better; and I must say, I do not
+dislike his wishing so to do--for it is begging for halfpence, arter
+all."
+
+"Well, boy," said Peter Anderson, "suppose you leave your father and me
+to talk over the matter; and to-morrow, by this time, we will tell you
+what we think will be best."
+
+"Anything--anything," replied I, "but being a beggar."
+
+"Go along, you are a foolish boy," said Anderson.
+
+"I like his spirit, though," said my father, as I walked away.
+
+On the next day the important question was to be decided. I did not go
+to the stairs to follow up my vocation. I had talked the matter over
+with Virginia, who, although she did not like that I should go away, had
+agreed with me that she objected to my begging for money. I waited very
+impatiently for the time that Anderson had appointed, and, at last, he
+and my father came together, when the former said:
+
+"Well, Jack, it appears that you do not like to be a waterman, and that
+you have no great fancy for a man-of-war, although you have a hankering
+for the sea. Now, as you cannot cruise with your friend Spicer on the
+Spanish Main, nor yet be safe from impressment in a privateer or
+merchantman, we have been thinking that, perhaps, you would have no
+objection to be a channel and river pilot; and if so, I have an old
+friend in that service who, I think, may help you. What do you say?"
+
+"I should like it very much."
+
+"Yes, it is a good service, and a man is usefully employed. You may be
+the means, as soon as you are out of your time, and have passed your
+examination, of saving many a vessel and more lives. You have had a
+pretty fair education, indeed quite sufficient; and, as you will often
+be coming up the river, you will have opportunities of seeing your
+father and your friends. If you decide, I will write at once."
+
+"It is the very thing that I should like," replied I; "and many thanks
+to you, Anderson."
+
+"And it's exactly what I should wish also," replied my father. "So that
+job's jobbed, as the saying is."
+
+After this arrangement, I walked away as proud as if I had been an
+emancipated slave. That very evening I announced my intention of
+resigning my office of "Poor Jack," and named as my successor the boy
+with whom I had fought so desperately to obtain it, when the prospect
+was held out to me, by old Ben, of my becoming Poor Jack--forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+     Much ado about Nothing; or, a Specimen of modern Patronage.
+
+
+I communicated to my mother and Virginia my father's intentions relative
+to my future employ, and was not surprised to find my mother very much
+pleased with the intelligence, for she had always considered my
+situation of "Poor Jack" as disgracing her family--declaring it the
+"most ungenteelest" of all occupations. Perhaps she was not only glad of
+my giving up the situation, but also of my quitting her house. My father
+desired me to wear my Sunday clothes during the week, and ordered me a
+new suit for my best, which he paid for out of the money which he had
+placed in the hands of the lieutenant of the hospital; and I was very
+much surprised to perceive my mother cutting out half-a-dozen new shirts
+for me, which she and Virginia were employed making up during the
+evenings. Not that my mother told me who the shirts were for--she said
+nothing; but Virginia whispered it to me: my mother could not be even
+gracious to me. Nevertheless, the shirts and several other necessaries,
+such as stockings and pocket-handkerchiefs, were placed for my use on my
+father's sea-chest, in my room, without any comment on her part,
+although she had paid for them out of her own purse. During the time
+that elapsed from my giving up the situation of "Poor Jack" to my
+quitting Greenwich, I remained very quietly in my mother's house, doing
+everything that I could for her, and employing myself chiefly in reading
+books, which I borrowed anywhere that I could. I was very anxious to get
+rid of my sobriquet of "Poor Jack," and when so called would tell
+everybody that my name was now "Thomas Saunders."
+
+One Sunday, about three weeks after I had given up my berth, I was
+walking with my father and Virginia on the terrace of the hospital, when
+we perceived a large party of ladies and gentlemen coming toward us. My
+father was very proud of us. I had this very day put on the new suit of
+clothes which he had ordered for me, and which had been cut out in the
+true man-of-war fashion; and Virginia was, as usual, very nicely
+dressed. We were walking toward the party who were advancing, when all
+of a sudden my father started, and exclaimed:
+
+"Well, shiver my timbers! if it ain't _she_--and _he_--by all that's
+blue!"
+
+Who _she_ or _he_ might be neither Virginia nor I could imagine; but I
+looked at the party, who were now close to us, and perceived, in advance
+of the rest, an enormous lady, dressed in a puce-colored pelisse and a
+white satin bonnet. Her features were good, and, had they been on a
+smaller scale, would have been considered handsome. She towered above
+the rest of the company, and there was but one man who could at all
+compete with her in height and size, and he was by her side.
+
+My father stopped, took off his cocked hat, and scraped the gravel with
+his timber toe, as he bowed a little forward.
+
+"Sarvant, your honor's ladyship. Sarvant, your honor Sir Hercules."
+
+"Ah! who have we here?" replied Sir Hercules, putting his hand up as a
+screen above his eyes. "Who are you, my man?" continued he.
+
+"Tom Saunders, your honor's coxswain, as was in the 'Druid,'" replied my
+father, with another scrape of the gravel, "taken in moorings at last,
+your honor. Hope to see your honor and your honorable ladyship quite
+well."
+
+"I recollect you now, my man," replied Sir Hercules, very stiffly. "And
+where did you lose your leg?"
+
+"Battle o' the Nile, your honor; Majesty's ship Oudacious.'"
+
+"How interesting!" observed one of the ladies; "one of Sir Hercules' old
+men."
+
+"Yes, madam, and one of my best men. Lady Hercules, you must recollect
+him," said Sir Hercules.
+
+"I should think so, Sir Hercules," replied the lady; "did I not give him
+my own lady's maid in marriage?"
+
+"Dear me, how _excessively_ interesting!" said another of the party.
+
+Now, this was a little event in which Sir Hercules and Lady Hercules
+stood prominent; it added to their importance for the moment, and
+therefore they were both pleased. Lady Hercules then said, "And pray, my
+good man, how is your wife?"
+
+"Quite well and hearty, at your ladyship's sarvice," replied my father;
+"and, please your ladyship, these two be our children."
+
+"Bless me, how interesting!" exclaimed another lady.
+
+"And remarkably well-bred 'uns," remarked a short gentleman in a
+fox-hunting coat, examining Virginia through his eye-glass; "coxswain,
+filly--dam, lady's maid."
+
+"What is your name, child?" said Lady Hercules to Virginia.
+
+"Virginia, ma'am," replied my sister, with a courtesy.
+
+"You must say 'Lady Hercules,' my dear," said my father, stooping down.
+
+"My name is Virginia, Lady Hercules," replied my sister, courtesying
+again.
+
+"Indeed; then I suppose you are named after me?"
+
+"Yes, your ladyship; hope no offense--but we did take the liberty,"
+replied my father.
+
+"And what is yours, boy?"
+
+"Thomas, Lady Hercules," replied I, with a bow and scrape, after my
+father's receipt for politeness.
+
+"And where is your mother?" said Sir Hercules.
+
+"Mother's at home, Lady Hercules," replied I, with another scrape.
+
+"How _very_ interesting!" exclaimed one of the party. "Quite an event!"
+said another. "A delightful rencontre!" cried a third. "How kind of you,
+Lady Hercules, to give up your own maid! and such handsome children,"
+etc., etc. "It's really quite charming."
+
+Lady Hercules was evidently much pleased, and she assumed the patroness.
+
+"Well, little girl, since you have been named after me, out of gratitude
+I must see what can be done for you. Tell your mother to come up to me
+to-morrow at three o'clock, and bring you with her."
+
+"Yes, Lady Hercules," replied Virginia, with a courtesy.
+
+"And, Saunders, you may as well come up at the same time, and bring your
+lad with you," added Sir Hercules.
+
+"Yes, your honor," replied my father, both he and I simultaneously
+scraping the gravel.
+
+"Wish your honor Sir Hercules, and your honorable lady, and all the
+honorable company, a very good-morning," continued my father, taking
+Virginia and me by the hand to lead us away.
+
+Sir Hercules touched his hat in return, and walked away as stiff as
+usual. The pensioners who had witnessed the interview between him and my
+father, concluding that Sir Hercules was a naval officer, now rose and
+touched their hats to him as he walked with her ladyship in advance of
+the party. We joined Anderson, who was sitting down at the other end of
+the walk, when my father communicated to him what had passed.
+
+As my father conducted Virginia home, she said to him, "Why do you call
+him _sir_ and her _lady_?"
+
+"Because they are quality people, child. He is a barrownight, and she is
+Lady Hercules."
+
+"Are all barrownights and ladies so much bigger than other people are in
+general?"
+
+"No, child, they don't go by size. I've seen many a lord who was a very
+little man."
+
+My mother was very much pleased when we narrated what had happened, as
+she considered that Lady Hercules might prove a valuable patron to
+Virginia, whom she did not fail to have ready at the time appointed;
+and, dressed in our very best, we all walked together to the Sun, at
+which Sir Hercules and his lady had taken up their quarters. Let it not
+be supposed that my mother had forgotten the unceremonious manner in
+which she had been dismissed from the service of Lady Hercules--it was
+still fresh in the memory of a person so revengeful in her disposition;
+but she considered that as Lady Hercules had forgotten it, it was her
+interest to do the same; so, when we were ushered into the room where
+sat Sir Hercules and her ladyship, my mother was all smiles and
+courtesies, and gratitude for past favors.
+
+There was an old gentleman, with a bald powdered head, dressed in black,
+standing with his back to the fire when we entered. He was the only
+other person in the room besides Sir Hercules and his lady. Lady
+Hercules first obtained from my mother a short history of what had
+happened since they had parted; and really, to hear my mother's
+explanation, it would have been supposed that she and my father had
+always been the most loving couple in the world.
+
+"Well," said Sir Hercules, "and what do you intend to do with your boy,
+Saunders?"
+
+"May it please your honor, I've been thinking of bringing him up as a
+channel pilot," replied my father.
+
+"Very good," replied Sir Hercules; "I can see to that; and with my
+interest at the Trinity Board, the _thing is done_, sir;" and Sir
+Hercules walked pompously about the room. "Saunders," said Sir Hercules,
+stopping, after he had taken three or four turns up and down, and
+joining his fingers behind his back, "I thought I perceived some
+difference in you when you first addressed me. What has become of your
+tail, sir?"
+
+"My tail, your honor?" replied my father, looking as much a delinquent
+as if he was still on board a man-of-war, and had been guilty of some
+misdemeanor, "why, please your honor Sir Hercules--"
+
+"I cut it off for him with my scissors," interrupted my mother, with a
+courtesy. "Saunders was very savage when he came for to know it; but he
+had a stupefaction of the brain, and was quite insensible at the time;
+and so, Sir Hercules and my lady" (here a courtesy), "I thought it was
+better--"
+
+"Ah! I see--a brain fever," observed Sir Hercules. "Well, under these
+circumstances you may have saved his life; but 'twas a pity, was it not,
+my lady?--quite altered the man. You recollect his tail, my lady?"
+
+"What a question, Sir Hercules!" replied her ladyship with great
+dignity, turning round toward my mother.
+
+My father appeared to be quite relieved from his dilemma by his wife's
+presence of mind, and really thankful to her for coming to his
+assistance; she had saved him from the mortification of telling the
+truth. How true it is that married people, however much they may
+quarrel, like to conceal their squabbles from the world!
+
+"And what are you thinking of doing with your little girl?" said Lady
+Hercules--"bringing her up to service, I presume. Leave that to me. As
+soon as she is old enough, _the thing is done_, you need say no more
+about it." Here her ladyship fell back in the large easy-chair on which
+she was seated, with a self-satisfied air of patronage, and looking even
+more dignified than her husband.
+
+But my mother had no such intentions, and having first thanked her
+ladyship for her great kindness, stated very humbly that she did not
+much like the idea of her daughter going out to service, that she was
+far from strong, and that her health would not allow her to undertake
+hard work.
+
+"Well, but I presume she may do the work of a lady's maid?" replied her
+ladyship haughtily; "and it was that service which I intended for her."
+
+"Indeed, Lady Hercules, you are very kind; but there is an objection,"
+replied my mother, to gain time.
+
+"Please your ladyship," said my father, who, to my great surprise, came
+to my mother's support, "I do not wish that my little girl should be a
+lady's maid."
+
+"And why not, pray?" said her ladyship, rather angrily.
+
+"Why, you see, your ladyship, my daughter is, after all, only the
+daughter of a poor Greenwich pensioner; and, although she has been so
+far pretty well educated, yet I wishes her not to forget her low
+situation in life, and ladies' maids do get so confounded proud
+('specially those who have the fortune to be ladies' ladies' maids),
+that I don't wish that she should take a situation which would make her
+forget herself and her poor old pensioner of a father; and, begging your
+honor's pardon, that is the real state of the case, my lady."
+
+What my mother felt at this slap at her I do not know, but certain it is
+that she was satisfied with my father taking the responsibility of
+refusal on his own shoulders, and she therefore continued: "I often have
+told Mr. Saunders how happy I was when under your ladyship's protection,
+and what a fortunate person I considered myself; but my husband has
+always had such an objection to my girl being brought up to it that I
+have (of course, my lady, as it is my duty to him to do so) given up my
+own wishes from the first; indeed, my lady, had I not known that my
+little girl was not to go to service, I never should have ventured to
+have called her Virginia, my lady."
+
+"What, then, do you intend her for?" said Sir Hercules to my father.
+"You don't mean to bring her up as a lady, do you?"
+
+"No, your honor, she's but a pensioner's daughter, and I wishes her to
+be humble, as she ought to be; so I've been thinking that something in
+the millinery line, or perhaps--"
+
+"As a governess, my lady," interrupted my mother, with a courtesy.
+
+"That will make her humble enough, at all events," observed the bald
+gentleman in black, with a smile.
+
+"I admit," replied Lady Hercules, "that your having given my name to
+your little girl is a strong reason for her not going into service; but
+there are many expenses attending the education necessary for a young
+person as governess."
+
+Here my mother entered into an explanation of how Virginia had been
+educated--an education which she should not have dreamed of giving, only
+that her child bore her ladyship's name, etc. My mother employed her
+usual flattery and humility, so as to reconcile her ladyship to the
+idea; who was the more inclined when she discovered that she was not
+likely to be put to any expense in her patronage of my sister. It was
+finally agreed that Virginia should be educated for the office of
+governess, and that when she was old enough Lady Hercules would take her
+under her august protection; but her ladyship did do her some service.
+Finding that Virginia was at a respectable school, she called there with
+a party of ladies, and informed the schoolmistress that the little girl
+was under her protection, and that she trusted that justice would be
+done to her education. In a school where the Misses Tippet were
+considered the aristocracy the appearance of so great a woman as Lady
+Hercules was an event, and I do not know whether my little sister did
+not after that take precedence in the school. At all events, she was
+much more carefully instructed and looked after than she had been
+before. Sir Hercules was also pleased to find, upon inquiry, that there
+was every prospect of my entering the pilot service, without any trouble
+on his part. Both Sir Hercules and his lady informed their friends of
+what their intentions were to their young proteges, and were inundated
+with praises and commendations for their kindness, the full extent of
+which the reader will appreciate. But, as my mother pointed out as we
+walked home, if we did not require their assistance at present, there
+was no saying but that we eventually might; and if so, that Sir
+Hercules and Lady Hawkingtrefylyan could not well refuse to perform
+their promises. I must say that this was the first instance in my
+recollection in which my parents appeared to draw amicably together; and
+I believe that nothing except regard for their children could have
+produced the effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+     A most important Present is made to me; and, as it will eventually
+     appear, the Generosity of the Giver is rewarded.
+
+
+Sir Hercules and Lady Hawkingtrefylyan quitted Greenwich the day after
+the interview narrated in the preceding chapter; and by that day's post
+Anderson received a letter, in reply to the one he had written, from his
+friend Philip Bramble, channel and river pilot, who had, as he said in
+his letter, put on shore at Deal, where he resided, but the day before,
+after knocking about in the Channel for three weeks. Bramble stated his
+willingness to receive and take charge of me, desiring that I would hold
+myself in readiness to be picked up at a minute's warning, and he would
+call for me the first time that he took a vessel up the river. A letter
+communicating this intelligence was forthwith dispatched by my mother to
+Sir Hercules, who sent a short reply, stating that if I conducted myself
+properly he would not lose sight of me. This letter, however, very much
+increased the family consequence in Fisher's Alley, for my mother did
+not fail to show it to everybody, and everybody was anxious to see the
+handwriting of a real baronet.
+
+About a week afterward I went to the shop of the widow St. Felix to
+purchase some tobacco for my father, when she said to me, "So, Jack--or
+Tom--as I hear you request to be called now--you are going to leave us?"
+
+"Yes," replied I, "and I shall be sorry to leave you, you have been so
+kind to me."
+
+"A little kindness goes a great way with some people, Tom, and that's
+the case with you, for you've a grateful heart. You're to be a pilot, I
+hear; well, Tom, I've a present to make you, which you will find very
+useful in your profession, and which will make you think of me
+sometimes. Stop a moment till I come down again."
+
+The widow went upstairs, and when she came down held in her hand a
+telescope, or spy-glass, as sailors generally call them. It was about
+two feet long, covered with white leather, and apparently had been well
+preserved.
+
+"Now, Tom, this is what a pilot ought not to be without, and if what was
+said by the person to whom it belonged is true, it is an excellent
+spy-glass; so now accept it from your loving friend, and long may you
+live to peep through it."
+
+"Thank you, thank you," replied I, delighted, as Mrs. St. Felix put it
+into my hands. I surveyed it all over, pulled out the tube, and then
+said to her, "Who did it belong to?"
+
+"Tom," replied the widow, "that's a sad trick you have of asking
+questions; it's quite sufficient that it is mine, and that I give it to
+you--is it not?"
+
+"Yes," replied I, "but you're the only person who says that I ask too
+many questions. Why, here's a name, F.I."
+
+The widow stretched herself over the counter with a sudden spring, and
+snatched the telescope out of my hand. When I looked at her she stood
+pale and trembling.
+
+"Why, what is the matter?" inquired I.
+
+She put her hand to her side, as if in great pain, and for some seconds
+could not speak.
+
+"Tom, I never knew that there was a name on the telescope; the name must
+not be known, that's the truth; you shall have it this evening, but you
+must go away now--do, that's a dear good boy."
+
+The widow turned to walk into the back parlor, with the telescope in her
+hand, and I obeyed her injunctions in silence and wondering. That there
+was a mystery about her was certain, and I felt very sorrowful, not that
+I did not know the secret, but that I could not be of service to her.
+That evening the telescope was brought to my mother's house by fat Jane.
+I percieved that the portion of the brass rim upon which the name had
+been cut with a knife, for it had not been engraved, as I thought, had
+been carefully filed down, so that not a vestige of the letters
+appeared.
+
+The next morning I was down at the steps long before breakfast, that I
+might try my new present. Bill Freeman was there, and he showed me how
+to adjust the focus. I amused myself looking at the vessels which were
+working up and down the Reach, and so much was I delighted that I quite
+forgot how time passed, and lost my breakfast. Every one asked to have a
+peep through the telescope, and every one declared that it was an
+excellent glass; at last Spicer came up to where I stood.
+
+"Well, Jack," said he, "what have you there--a spy-glass? Let's have a
+look; I'm a good judge of one, I can tell you."
+
+I handed the telescope over to him; he looked through it for some time.
+
+"A first-rate glass, Jack" (I was oftener called Jack than Tom at that
+time); "I never knew but one equal to it. Where did you get it?"
+
+I don't exactly know why, but perhaps the mystery evident in the widow,
+and the cautions I had received against Spicer, combined together,
+induced me not to answer the question.
+
+"It's odd," observed Spicer, who was now examining the outside of the
+telescope; "I could almost swear to it." He then looked at the small
+brass rim where the name had been, and perceived that it had been
+erased. "Now I'm positive! Jack, where did you get this glass?"
+
+"It was made a present to me," replied I.
+
+"Come here," said Spicer, leading me apart from the others standing by.
+"Now tell me directly," and Spicer spoke in an authoritative tone, "who
+gave you this glass?"
+
+I really was somewhat afraid of Spicer, who had gained much power over
+me. I dared not say that I would not tell him, and I did not like to
+tell a lie. I thought that if I told the truth I might somehow or
+another injure Mrs. St. Felix, and I therefore answered evasively, "It
+was sent to me as a present by a lady."
+
+"Oh!" replied Spicer, who had heard of Sir Hercules and his lady, "so
+the _lady_ sent it to you? It's very odd," continued he; "I could take
+my oath that I've had that glass in my hand a hundred times."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I. "Where?"
+
+But Spicer did not answer me; he had fallen into one of his dark moods,
+and appeared as if recalling former events to his mind. He still kept
+possession of the glass, and I was afraid that he would not return it,
+for I tried to take it softly out of his hand, and he would not let go.
+He remained in this way about a minute, when I perceived my father and
+Ben the Whaler coming up, at which I was delighted.
+
+"Father," said I, as they came near, "come and try my new spy-glass."
+
+Spicer started, and released the telescope, when I laid hold of it and
+put it into my father's hands. As neither my father nor Ben would ever
+speak to him, Spicer, with a lowering brow, walked away. After my father
+had examined the glass and praised it, he very naturally asked me where
+I obtained it. After what had passed with Spicer I was so fearful of his
+discovering, by other people, by whom the glass had been given to me,
+that I replied again, in the hearing of everybody, "A lady, father; you
+may easily guess who."
+
+"Well," replied my father, "I never thought that her ladyship could have
+been so generous. I take it very kindly of her."
+
+I was delighted at my father falling so easily into the mistake. As for
+my mother and Virginia, they were neither of them present when Jane
+brought the telescope to me, or I certainly should have stated, without
+reservation, to whom I had been indebted. I hardly could decide whether
+I would go to the widow and tell her what had occurred; but, upon some
+reflection, as she had accused me of asking too many questions, and
+might suppose that I wished to obtain her secrets, I determined upon
+saying nothing about it.
+
+For a week I occupied myself wholly with my telescope, and I became
+perfectly master of it, or rather quite used to it, which is of some
+importance. I avoided Spicer, always leaving the steps when I perceived
+him approaching, although once or twice he beckoned to me. At the
+expiration of the week a message was brought by a waterman from Philip
+Bramble, stating that he should pass Greenwich in a day or two, being
+about to take down a West Indiaman then lying below London Bridge. My
+clothes were therefore then packed up in readiness, and I went to bid
+farewell to my limited acquaintance.
+
+I called upon old Nanny, who was now quite strong again. I had before
+acquainted her with my future prospects.
+
+"Well, Jack," says she, "and so you're going away? I don't think you
+were quite right to give up a situation where you gained so many
+halfpence every day, and only for touching your cap; however, you know
+best. I shall have no more bargains after you are gone, that's certain.
+But, Jack, you'll be on board of vessels coming from the East and West
+Indies, and all other parts of the world, and they have plenty of pretty
+things on board, such as shells, and empty bottles, and hard biscuit,
+and bags of oakum; and, Jack, they will give them to you for nothing,
+for sailors don't care what they give away when they come from a long
+voyage; and so mind you beg for me as much as you can, that's a good
+boy; but don't take live monkeys or those things, they eat so much. You
+may bring me a parrot, I think I could sell one, and that don't cost
+much to feed. Do you understand, Jack? Will you do this for me?"
+
+"I don't know whether I can do all you wish, but depend upon it, mother,
+I won't forget you."
+
+"That's enough, Jack, you'll keep your word; and now, is there any nice
+thing that I can give you out of my shop, as a keepsake, Jack?"
+
+"Why, no, mother, I thank you--nothing."
+
+"Think of something, Jack," replied old Nanny; "you must have
+something."
+
+"Well, then, mother, you know I like reading; will you give me the old
+book that I was reading when I sat up with you one night?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, and welcome; what book is it? I don't know--I can't see to
+read large print without spectacles, and I broke mine many years ago."
+
+"Why do you not buy another pair?"
+
+"Another pair, Jack? Spectacles cost money. I've no money; and as I
+never read, I don't want spectacles. Go in and fetch the book; it's
+yours and welcome."
+
+I went in and brought out the Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" which I
+before mentioned. "This is it, mother."
+
+"Yes, yes, I recollect now, it's a very pretty book. What's it about,
+Jack? I can't see myself: never mind, take it, Jack, and don't forget
+your promise."
+
+I wished old Nanny good-by, and took the book home, which I gave into
+Virginia's care, as I wished her to read it. The next morning, at
+daybreak, I was summoned; the ship was dropping down the river. I bade
+farewell to my little sister, who wept on my shoulder; to my mother, who
+hardly condescended to answer me. My father helped me down with my
+luggage, which was not very heavy; and Anderson and old Ben accompanied
+us to the landing-steps; and having bid them all farewell, besides many
+others of my friends who were there, I stepped into the boat sent for
+me, and quitted Greenwich for my new avocation on the 6th of October,
+1799, being then, as Anderson had calculated, precisely thirteen years
+and seven months old.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
+
+     In which a Story is begun, and not finished, which I think the
+     Reader will regret as much as, at the time, I did.
+
+
+The boat was soon alongside of the West Indiaman, which had been tiding
+it down Limehouse Reach under her topsails, there being but little wind,
+and that contrary; but now that she had arrived to Greenwich Reach she
+had braced up, with her head the right way. My box was handed up the
+side, and I made my appearance on the deck soon afterward, with my
+telescope in my hand.
+
+"Are you the lad for whom the pilot sent the boat?" inquired a man, whom
+I afterward found to be the second mate.
+
+"Yes," replied I.
+
+"Well, there he is abaft, in a P-jacket," said he, walking to the
+gangway, and directing the men to drop the boat astern.
+
+I looked aft, and perceived my future master talking with the captain of
+the vessel. Philip Bramble was a spare man, about five feet seven inches
+high, he had on his head a low-crowned tarpaulin hat, a short P-jacket
+(so called from the abbreviation of _pilot's_ jacket) reached down to
+just above his knees. His features were regular, and, indeed, although
+weatherbeaten, they might be termed handsome. His nose was perfectly
+straight, his lips thin, his eyes gray and very keen; he had little or
+no whiskers, and, from his appearance and the intermixture of gray with
+his brown hair, I supposed him to be about fifty years of age. In one
+hand he held a short clay pipe, into which he was inserting the
+forefinger of the other, as he talked with the captain. At the time that
+he was pointed out to me by the second mate he was looking up aloft; I
+had, therefore, time to make the above observations before he cast his
+eyes down and perceived me, when I immediately went aft to him.
+
+"I suppose you are Tom Saunders?" said he, surveying me from head to
+foot.
+
+I replied in the affirmative.
+
+"Well, Anderson has given you a good character, mind you don't lose it.
+D'ye think you'll like to be a pilot?"
+
+"Yes," replied I.
+
+"Have you sharp eyes, a good memory, and plenty of nerve?"
+
+"I believe I've got the two first, I don't know about the other."
+
+"I suppose not, it hasn't been tried yet. How far can you see through a
+fog?"
+
+"According how thick it is."
+
+"I see you've a glass there: tell me what you make of that vessel just
+opening from Blackwall Reach."
+
+"What, that ship?"
+
+"Oh, you can make it out to be a ship, can you, with the naked eye?
+Well, then, you have good eyes."
+
+I fixed my glass upon the vessel, and, after a time, not having
+forgotten the lessons so repeatedly given me by Spicer, I said, "She has
+no colors up, but she's an Embden vessel by her build."
+
+"Oh," said he, "hand me the glass. The boy's right; and a good glass,
+too. Come, I see you do know something--and good knowledge, too, for a
+pilot. It often saves us a deal of trouble when we know a vessel by her
+build; them foreigners sail too close to take pilots. Can you stand
+cold? Have you got a P-jacket?"
+
+"Yes, father bought me one."
+
+"Well, you'll want it this winter, for the wild geese tell us that it
+will be a sharp one. Steady, starboard!"
+
+"Starboard it is."
+
+"D'ye know the compass?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, stop till we get down to Deal. Now, stand by me, and keep your
+eyes wide open; for, d'ye see, you've plenty to larn, and you can't
+begin too soon. We must square the mainyard, captain, if you please,"
+continued he, as we entered Blackwall Reach. "What could make the river
+so perverse as to take these two bends in Limehouse and Blackwall
+Reaches, unless to give pilots trouble, I can't say."
+
+The wind being now contrary from the sharp turn in the river, we were
+again tiding it down; that is, hove-to and allowing the tide to drift us
+through the Reach; but as soon as we were clear of Blackwall Reach, we
+could lay our course down the river. As we passed Gravesend, Bramble
+asked me whether I was ever so low down.
+
+"Yes," replied I, "I have been down as far as Sea Reach;" which I had
+been when I was upset in the wherry, and I told him the story.
+
+"Well, Tom, that's called the river now; but do you know that, many
+years ago, where we now are used to be considered as the mouth of the
+river, and that fort there" (pointing to Tilbury Fort) "was built to
+defend it? for they say the French fleet used to come and anchor down
+below."
+
+[Illustration: JACK AND BRAMBLE ABOARD THE INDIAMAN.--Marryat, Vol. X.,
+p. 207.]
+
+"Yes," replied I; "and they say, in the History of England, that the
+Danes used to come up much higher, even up to Greenwich; but that's a
+very long while ago."
+
+"Well, you beat me, Tom! I never heard that; and I think, if ever they
+did do so, they won't do it again in a hurry. What water have you got,
+my man? Port there!"
+
+"Port it is."
+
+"Steady--so."
+
+"Shall we get down to the Nore to-night, pilot?" said the captain.
+
+"Why, sir, I'm in hopes we shall. We have still nearly three hours'
+daylight; and now that we are clear of the Hope, we shall lay fairly
+down Sea Reach; and if the wind will only freshen a little (and it looks
+very like it), we shall be able to stem the _first_ of the flood, at all
+events."
+
+I ought to observe that Bramble, as soon as he had passed any shoal or
+danger, pointed it out to me. He said, "I tell it to you, because you
+can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that I tell you, I
+dare say. I don't expect it; but you may recollect a little, and every
+little helps."
+
+The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore Light and
+came to an anchor.
+
+"What lights are those?" inquired I.
+
+"That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. "We were talking of the French and
+Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more than one
+hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch fleet came up to Sheerness,
+destroyed the batteries, and landed troops there. Howsomever, as I said
+of the French and the other chaps, they won't do so again in a hurry."
+
+As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble accepted the
+invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin, when I went and
+joined the men, who were getting their supper forward. I was soon on
+good terms with them; and, after supper, as it was cold, they went down
+to the fore-peak, got out some beer and grog, and we sat round in a
+circle, with the bottles and mugs and a farthing candle in the center.
+Being right in the _eyes_ of her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear
+the water slapping against the bends outside of her, as it was divided
+by the keelson, and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a
+melancholy sound. I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I
+listened to it, one of the men observed, "Queer sound, boy, ain't it?
+You'd think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises
+aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No more
+did I at that time; the fact is that nothing conveys sound better than
+wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in consequence, on board of a
+vessel.
+
+"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were frightened
+with noises, sure enough," observed one of the men.
+
+"Come, that's right, Dick, give us a yarn," said the others.
+
+"Yes," replied Dick, "and it's a true yarn, too, and all about a ghost."
+
+"Well, stop a moment," said one of the men, "and let us top this glim a
+bit before you begin, for it seemed to get dimmer the moment you talked
+about a ghost."
+
+Dick waited till a little more light was obtained, and then commenced.
+"I had shipped on board of a vessel bound to Smyrna, now about seven
+years ago. We had gone down to Portsmouth, where we waited for one of
+the partners of the house by which we had been freighted, and who was
+going out as passenger. We were a man short, and the captain went on
+shore to get one from the crimps, whom he knew very well, and the
+fellows promised to send one on board the next morning. Well, sure
+enough a wherry came off with him just before break of day, and he and
+his traps were taken on board; but it was not perceived at the time what
+he had in his arms under his grego, and what do you think it proved to
+be at daylight? Why, a large black tom cat."
+
+"What, a black one?"
+
+"Yes, as black as the enemy himself. The fellow came down forward with
+it, and so says I, 'Why, messmate, you're not going to take that animal
+to sea with us?'
+
+"'Yes, I am,' said he, very surlily; 'it's an old friend of mine, and I
+never parts with him.'
+
+"'Well,' says I, 'you'll find the difference when the captain hears on
+it, I can tell you, and, for the matter of that, I won't promise you
+that it will be very safe if it comes near me when I've a handspike in
+my hand.'
+
+"'I tell you what,' says he, 'it ain't the taking of a cat on board what
+brings mischief, but it's turning one out of a ship what occasions ill
+luck. No cat ever sunk a ship till the animal was hove overboard and
+sunk first itself, and then it does drag the ship down after it.'
+
+"Well, one of the boys who did not care about such things, for he was
+young and ignorant, put his hand to the cat's head to stroke it, and the
+cat bit him right through the fingers, at which the boy gave a loud cry.
+
+"'Now, that will teach you to leave my cat alone,' said the man. 'He
+won't come near nobody but me, and he bites everybody else, so I give
+you fair warning.'
+
+[Illustration: THE FORE-PEAK YARN.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 211.]
+
+"And sure enough the brute, which was about as big as two common cats,
+was just as savage as a tiger. When the first mate called the man on
+deck, the fellow left his cat behind him in the fore-peak, just as if it
+were now here, and it got into a dark corner, growling and humping its
+back, with its eyes flashing fire at every one of us as we came anigh
+it. 'Oh!' says we, 'this here won't never do; wait till the captain
+comes on board, that's all.' Well, the hatches were off, and we were
+busy, re-stowing the upper tier of the cargo, which we had thrown in
+very carelessly in our hurry to get down the river; just putting the
+bales in order (it wasn't breaking bulk, you see), and we were at it all
+day. At last, toward evening, the captain comes on board with the
+gentleman passenger, a mighty timorsome sort of young chap he appeared
+for to be, and had never before set his foot upon the plank of a vessel.
+So as soon as the captain was on deck we all broke off our work, and
+went to him to tell him about this cat, and the captain he gets into a
+great rage as soon as he hears on it, and orders the man to send the cat
+on shore, or else he'd throw it overboard. Well, the man, who was a
+sulky, saucy sort of chap, and no seaman, I've a notion, gives cheek,
+and says he won't send his cat on shore for no man, whereupon the
+captain orders the cat to be caught, that he might send it in the boat;
+but nobody dared to catch it, for it was so fierce to everybody but its
+master. The second mate tried, and he got a devil of a bite, and came up
+from the fore-peak without the cat, looking very blue indeed. And then
+the first mate went down, and he tried; but the cat flew at him, and he
+came up as white as a sheet. And then the cat became so savage that it
+stood at the foot of the ladder, all ready to attack whoever should come
+down, and the man laughed heartily, and told us to fetch the cat.
+'Well,' says the first mate, 'I can't touch the cat, but I can you, you
+beggar, and I will too, if it costs me twenty pounds;' so he ups with a
+handspike and knocks the fellow down senseless on the deck, and there he
+laid. And it sarved him right.
+
+"Well, then the captain thought to shoot the cat, for it was for all the
+world like a wild beast, and one proposed one thing and one another. At
+last Jim, the cabin-boy, comes forward with some brimstone matches in a
+pan, and he lights them and lowers them down into the fore-peak by a
+rope-yarn to smother it out. And so it did sure enough, for all of a
+sudden the cat made a spring up to the deck, and then we all chased it
+here and there, until at last it got out to the end of the flying
+jib-boom, and then Jim, the cabin-boy, followed it out with a handspike,
+and poked at it as hard as he could, until at last it lost its hold, and
+down it went into the water, and Jim and the handspike went along with
+it, for Jim, in his last poke at the cat, lost his balance, so away they
+went together. Well, there was a great hurry in manning the boat, and
+picking up poor Jim and the handspike; but the cat we saw no more, for
+it was just dark at the time. Well, when it was all over, we began to
+think what we had done, and as soon as we had put on the hatches and
+secured the hold we went down below into the fore-peak, where the smell
+of brimstone did not make us feel more comfortable, I can tell you, and
+we began to talk over the matter, for you see the cat should not have
+been thrown overboard but put on shore. But we were called away to man
+the boat again, for the fellow had come to his senses, and swore that he
+would not stay in the ship, but go on shore and take the law of the
+first mate; and the first mate and captain thought the sooner he was out
+of the ship the better, for we were to sail before daylight, and there
+might not be a wherry for him to get into. So the fellow took his kit,
+and we pulled him on shore and landed him on Southsea beach, he swearing
+vengeance the whole way; and as he stepped out on the beach he turned
+round to us and said, as he shook his fist, 'You've thrown overboard a
+_black tom cat_, recollect that! and now you'll see the consequence; a
+pleasant voyage to you. I wouldn't sail in that vessel if you were to
+offer her to me as a present as soon as she got to Smyrna; because why,
+you've thrown overboard a _black tom cat_, and you'll never get
+there--_never!_' cried he again, and off he ran with his bundle.
+
+"Well, we didn't much like it, and if the second mate hadn't been in the
+boat, I'm not sure that we shouldn't all have gone on shore rather than
+sail in the vessel; but there was no help for it. The next morning
+before daylight we started, for the captain wouldn't wait to get another
+hand, and we were soon out of soundings, and well into the Bay of
+Biscay.
+
+"We had just passed Cape Finisterre, when Jim, the cabin-boy, says one
+morning, 'I'm blessed if I didn't hear that cat last night, or the ghost
+on it!' So we laughed at him; for, you see, he slept abaft, just outside
+the cabin door, close to the pantry, and not forward with the rest of
+us.
+
+"'Well,' says he, 'I heard her miaw, and when I awoke I think I seed two
+eyes looking at me.'
+
+"'Well, Jim,' said I, for we had got over our fears, 'it was you who
+knocked her overboard, so it's all right that she should haunt you and
+nobody else.' Jim, however, could not laugh, but looked very grave and
+unhappy. A few days afterward the captain and passenger complained that
+they could not sleep for the noise and racket that was kept up all night
+between the timbers and in the run aft. They said it was if a whole
+legion of devils were broken loose and scampering about; and the captain
+was very grave; and as for the passenger, he was frightened out of his
+wits. Still we laughed, because we had heard nothing ourselves, and
+thought that it must only be fancy on their parts, particularly as the
+captain used to _bowse his jib_ up pretty taut every night. Well, all
+went on very well; we arrived at the Rock, got our fresh provisions and
+vegetables, and then made sail again. The captain complained of no more
+noises, and Jim of no more eyes, and the whole matter was almost
+forgotten."
+
+Here the narrator was interrupted by the thumping of a handspike on the
+deck above. "Halloo! what's the matter now?"
+
+"Come, tumble up, my lads, and pump the ship out," said the mate from
+above; "we had almost forgotten that. Be smart, now; it's but a ten
+minutes' job."
+
+Thus broke off the story, much to my annoyance; but it could not be
+helped--ships must be pumped out--so the men went on deck, and I
+followed them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
+
+     "Recollect," says the Fellow, "you have thrown overboard a black
+     Tom Cat!"
+
+
+In a quarter of an hour the pump sucked, and we all hastened down below
+to our grog and the completion of our yarn. As soon as we were all
+comfortably seated as before, Dick recommenced.
+
+"Well, we were abreast of Malta, when the weather, which had hitherto on
+the voyage been very fine, changed. The clouds hung down very heavy, and
+there was every symptom of a fierce gale; and sure enough a worse gale I
+never was in than came on that night--and such a sea!--the ship rolled
+gunnel under, for the gale was fair, but the sea ran so high and so fast
+that we expected to be pooped every minute. It was about midnight when
+the rain came on in torrents, and the wind blew fiercer than ever. I was
+on deck, and so was the first mate and another man at the helm, for we
+were flying right before it, and she was hard to steer.
+
+"We shall have it worse yet," said the captain.
+
+"'_Miaw_!' was the reply, so clear, so loud, we could not tell where it
+came from. I thought it came from the maintop.
+
+"'Mercy on us! what was that?' said the first mate, the light from the
+binnacle showing his face as pale as a sheet.
+
+"'_Miaw!_' was the reply from somewhere.
+
+"'The black cat, by all that's blue!' cried the captain.
+
+"'The Lord have mercy upon us, we're all gone!' said the mate, clasping
+his hands in terror. To clasp his hands, of course he let go the wheel;
+and the other man, who was equally frightened, had not strength to hold
+it. Away he went, right over the wheel, knocking down the mate on the
+other side; and the ship taking a heavy lurch, they both went into the
+scuppers together. The ship broached-to, and our mainmast and mizzenmast
+went over the side."
+
+"Do top that glim, Bill," said one of the men, in a tremulous voice.
+
+Dick paused while the snuff was taken off the candle: and the water went
+tap, tap, tap against the bends, with a most melancholy sound. I really
+did feel rather queer myself.
+
+Dick continued. "Well, all hands were on deck immediately, and it was
+good two hours before we could clear the wreck, for the men were
+disheartened. They had heard the loud _miaw_ when in the fore-peak, and
+declared that it was close to them; and the passenger and Jim came out,
+frightened out of their wits. They had heard the _miaw_, and said that
+it was from under the cabin table. At last we were clear of the wreck,
+and the wind roared louder than ever.
+
+"The captain was a stout-hearted fellow, and as the men were collected
+together under the bulwark, he said, 'Well, this breeze will shorten our
+distance, at any rate, and if it holds we shall soon be at Smyrna,'
+
+"'We shall never see Smyrna!' replied the second mate, his teeth
+chattering.
+
+"'No, never!' cried the seamen.
+
+"The captain sent Jim down for his rum-bottle, and gave every man a
+stiff glass of liquor, and that made them feel more comfortable for a
+time; when there was a sort of lull, and again the loud _miaw_ was
+repeated.
+
+"'There it is!' cried the men; but they hardly had time to say so when
+the ship was pooped with a tremendous sea washing away the stern and
+quarter-boats, and sending all the men swimming forward. So loaded was
+the ship with water that she stopped, and appeared as if she was
+settling down. At last she rolled heavy to port and discharged it, and
+away we went before the wind, faster than ever. Well, there was some
+talk among the seamen of throwing poor Jim overboard to appease the
+ghost of the cat, for it was he who had thrown the cat overboard. But
+the captain heard what the men were saying, and he swore that he would
+knock the brains out of the first man who laid hold of the boy; and he
+sent Jim below out of harm's way. Poor Jim! how bitterly he cried, poor
+boy, when he heard what was going on.
+
+"Well, it's a long lane that has no turning, and no gale lasts forever.
+The next day it moderated, and the day after the weather was quite fine,
+and the sea had gone down. We recovered our spirits, the more so as we
+heard no more of the cat; and having jury-rigged her aft, we steered our
+course with a light breeze. We were now but a short distance from
+Smyrna, and hoped to be there by the next day; but the second mate shook
+his head. He said, 'The cat has not done with us, for it was a _black
+tom_ cat.'
+
+"The fourth day the captain came on deck, and said, 'I heard a great
+washing of water in the run last night, as I thought; have you sounded
+the well lately?'
+
+"'No,' replied the first mate, 'I left that to the carpenter.'
+
+"'Well, then, ask him.' Well, the carpenter had not sounded the well, as
+it appeared; and so he sounded it immediately, and found that we had
+_six feet water in the hold_.
+
+"'I knowed we were doomed,' said the second mate; 'we'll never get at
+port'; and so thought the men: but the captain said:
+
+"'Why, the fact is, my lads, we must have sprung a leak in the gale, and
+no wonder, beating against the wreck so as we did when the masts went
+over the side. Come, rig the pumps, and we shall soon clear her. The tom
+cat has nothing to do with this, at all events.'
+
+"Now, you see, our bottom cargo consisted of two or three tier of crates
+of crockery, which would not spoil by being wet; but the upper part of
+the cargo was bales of dry goods and linen; so the captain was very
+anxious that they should work the pumps before the water got higher: the
+weather was very fine, the sea smooth, and the wind, although fair, was
+light. Well, the seamen were terrified, and thought they were lost; they
+asked for liquor, and refused to work at the pumps; they said it was no
+use, the ship was doomed. Well, the captain he got very angry; he went
+down into the cabin, loaded his double-barreled gun, and swore that he
+would shoot the first man through the head who refused to work at the
+pumps. The men knew that he was in earnest, for he was a violent sort of
+fellow, and so they set to. We didn't gain much upon her; I thought we
+did a little, but the men said no. The captain declared that we did gain
+considerably, but it was supposed that he only said so to encourage the
+people. Well, the captain ordered the mate to take up the hatches that
+they might see the state of the cargo. This was done; the dry goods, as
+far as we could make out, were not injured, and the men pumped spell and
+spell until the evening, when the captain gave them a good allowance of
+grog, and an hour to rest themselves. It was a beautiful moonlight
+night: the sails were just asleep and no more; but the vessel was heavy,
+from the water in her, and we dragged slowly along. The captain, who had
+gone down below with the first mate, came up from the cabin, and said to
+the men, 'Now, my lads, we'll set to again'; when suddenly there was a
+loud, melancholy _miaw!_ which terrified us all. We looked from whence
+the sound appeared to come, and there, on the launch turned over
+amidship, we beheld the ghost of the black tom cat, so large, so black,
+with the broad moonlight shining on it; and so thin, it was the skeleton
+of the cat, only it looked as black as ever; its back was humped up and
+its tail curved; and, as it stood out in the broad moonlight, it did
+look twice as big as the original cat, which was the biggest I ever saw.
+Well, the men actually screamed; they ran aft, upsetting the captain and
+mate, and roiling over them and hiding their faces, with 'Lord, have
+mercy on us!' and 'God, forgive our sins!' and 'Oh! we're lost, we're
+lost!' and every sort of crying and groaning that could be thought of.
+At last the captain gets up from under them in a great rage and looks
+forward to see what was the matter, and there he sees the ghost of the
+tom cat standing just in the same place; and it gave another miserable
+_miaw!_ 'Why,' cried the captain (who had his grog on board, and was as
+brave as brass), 'it is the cussed cat himself. Stop a moment.' Down he
+goes to the cabin, reels up the hatchway again with his double-barreled
+gun, and lets fly at it"--(here Dick lowered his voice to almost a
+whisper)--"the cat gave a shriek--and then--"
+
+Here, during the pause, Bill put out his finger and thumb to snuff the
+candle, but his hand shook--he snuffed it out, and we were all left in
+darkness. I can hardly describe the feeling which appeared to pervade
+the whole of our party. Every one was shuffling and crowding with their
+shoulders, but still no one moved from his place.
+
+"Well," said Dick, the narrator, in a quiet subdued voice, "why don't
+one of you go and fetch a light? Come, jump up, Bill, you topped it
+out."
+
+"Ay, ay," replied Bill, evidently shaking; "where's the candle?"
+
+"Here," said one of the boys, handing it to him.
+
+"Well, then, jump up yourself, you young whelp, you're younger than me."
+
+"I didn't put it out," replied the boy, whining.
+
+"Up immediately, or I'll break every rib in your body," replied Bill.
+
+The boy, who was terribly frightened, got up at this threat, and began
+to ascend the ladder; he was about three steps up, when we heard from
+the deck a horrible _miaw!_ The boy gave a scream of terror, and fell
+down on his back among us all, smashing the glass and flattening the tin
+cans against the men's legs, who halloed with pain. At last there was a
+dead silence again, and I could plainly hear the loud throbbing of more
+than one heart.
+
+"Come," said Dick again, "what was the fool frightened about? Look for
+the candle, some of you."
+
+At last Bill found it in his breast, broke in two and half melted away,
+and was proceeding for a light when the carpenter stepped to the hatch
+with his lantern, and said, "Why, you're all in the dark there,
+shipmates! Here, take my lantern."
+
+I may as well here observe that the carpenter had been listening to the
+story as he sat by the hatchway on deck, and it was he who had favored
+us with the _miaw_ which had so frightened the boy. As soon as the
+lantern had been received and the candle relighted, Dick recommenced.
+
+"Well, my lads, I said that the captain went down below, brought up his
+gun, and let fly at the cat, and then--well, and then--the cat gave a
+loud shriek, and falls down upon the deck. The captain walks forward to
+it, takes it up by the tail, brings it aft, and shies it among the men.
+
+"'There, you fools,' said he, 'it is the cat himself; will you believe
+your own eyes?'
+
+"And sure enough, so it was; for, you see, when Jim tumbled overboard,
+it being then dark, and we so busy with Jim, we did not look after the
+cat, and so it must have crawled up the cable and run down into the hold
+while the hatches were off; and all that noise heard aft must have been
+the brute chasing the rats, I suppose. Jim may have heard, but he could
+not have seen, the cat; that was all fancy and fright. You know how long
+a cat will live without much food, and so the animal was pretty quiet
+after it had killed all the rats. Then when the gale came on, and the
+upper part of the cargo fetched way a little, for it was loosely stowed,
+we suppose that it got jammed now and then with the rolling, and that
+made it miaw; and then, when we took off the hatches to look at the
+cargo, after we had sprung the leak, the cat, o' course, came out, and a
+pretty skeleton it was, as you may suppose. Now do you understand the
+whole of it?"
+
+"Yes, that's all clear," replied Bill; "and it was no ghost, after all?
+But still the cat did do mischief, for if the mate had not been
+frightened by it, he wouldn't have let go the wheel, and the masts would
+not have gone by the lee."
+
+"That's true enough, and he might have done more mischief still if the
+captain had not shot him, for the men would never have gone to the pumps
+again; but when they found out that it was nothing but the cat himself,
+then they set to, and before the next evening the vessel was clear, and
+only required pumping out every two hours, for the leak wasn't great,
+after all. So there's a ghost story for you, and I believe that all
+others will be found, like mine, to end in moonshine. Now, suppose we
+turn in, for we shall weigh at three o'clock in the morning."
+
+We all tumbled into the standing berths in the fore-peak. I dreamed of
+black tom cats all night. The next morning we weighed with a fair wind;
+as before, I stood beside Bramble, who pointed out to me everything
+worth notice or memory as we passed, but at last the motion affected me
+so much that I could pay little attention, and I remained by his side as
+pale as a sheet. We rounded the North Foreland, and long before dark
+anchored in the Downs. Bramble went no further with the vessel, the
+captain himself being a good pilot for the Channel. A Deal boat came
+alongside, we got into it, they landed us on the shingle beach, and I
+followed Bramble up to his abode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
+
+     Bramble's Method of Education proves very effective--He also points
+     out a Position in which you may prefer your Enemies to your
+     Friends!
+
+
+The house of Philip Bramble was situated on the further side of a road
+which ran along the shore, just above the shingle beach. It was a large
+cottage on one floor, the street door entering at once into its only
+sitting-room. It was furnished as such tenements usually are, with a
+small dresser and shelves for crockery, and a table and chairs of cherry
+wood; on the broad mantelpiece, for the fireplace was large, were
+several brass candlesticks, very bright, ranged with foreign
+curiosities, and a few shells; half a dozen prints in frames ornamented
+the walls; and on large nails drove into the panels, wherever a space
+could be found, were hung coats, P-jackets, and other articles of dress,
+all ready for the pilot to change whenever he came on shore wet to the
+skin. Everything was neat and clean: the planks of the floor were white
+as snow, yet the floor itself was sanded with white sand, and there were
+one or two square wooden boxes, also filled with sand, for the use of
+those who smoked. When I add that, opposite to the fireplace, there was
+a set of drawers of walnut wood, with an escritoire at the top, upon
+the flat part of which were a few books neatly arranged, and over it an
+old-fashioned looking-glass, divided at the sides near to the frame into
+sections, I believe that I have given a catalogue of the whole
+furniture. When I followed Bramble into the room, a little girl of about
+nine or ten years old ran into his arms, as he stooped down to receive
+her. She was a pretty child, with a very fair skin and rosy cheeks, her
+hair and eyes of a very dark brown, almost approaching to black; but she
+was not, in my opinion, near so pretty as my sister Virginia. As Bramble
+kissed her, she exclaimed, "Oh, father, I am so glad you are come home!
+Mrs. Maddox has been in bed ever since you left; her leg is very bad
+indeed."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Bramble, "I'm sorry to hear that of the old lady; and
+how have you got on without her assistance?"
+
+"Why, don't you think I'm very tidy, father?" said she, looking round
+the room.
+
+"Yes, Bessy, you are very tidy; and it's a pleasure to come home to a
+tidy clean house. Here is a companion for you. I told you he was coming,
+and you know his name."
+
+"It's Tom Saunders, isn't it, father?"
+
+"Yes, that's his name, for want of a better--so I leave you to make
+friends, while I go up and see the poor old lady."
+
+"You look cold and pale, are you not well?" was the first question of
+little Bessy.
+
+"I'm cold, and not very well," replied I; "I have not been used to
+knocking about on board ship."
+
+"Very true; I forgot you had never been at sea before. Come to the fire,
+then, and sit in father's big chair."
+
+"I never knew that your father had been married. I thought Peter
+Anderson said that he was a bachelor."
+
+"And so he is," replied Bessy. "I'm not his daughter, although I call
+him father."
+
+"Indeed! then whose daughter are you? and who is the old lady upstairs?"
+
+"The old lady upstairs is the widow of the pilot with whom father served
+his time. Her husband was lost at sea, and she keeps father's house.
+Father picked me up at sea, and has taken care of me ever since."
+
+"Then you don't remember your own parents?"
+
+"No, I recollect nothing till I found myself in this house. Father says
+I'm a Dutchman, because it was a Dutch ship or a Dutch boat which I was
+taken out of."
+
+"And how long was that ago?"
+
+"Nine years ago. I am now, I believe, about ten years old."
+
+Bessy then catechised me relative to my own family, and I had not
+answered all her questions when Bramble came downstairs.
+
+"Bessy, dear, we must have the doctor to look at that leg again. I'm
+afeard that it will never get well. Missus is too old to shake it off."
+
+"Shall I go now, father?"
+
+"Yes, child, go now, for she's in great pain with it; and Tom, you go
+with Bessy and take care of her. But, before you go, give me some 'baccy
+and the odds and ends."
+
+As soon as Bessy had put the tobacco-pipes, some spirits, a rummer and
+water on the table, and the spittoon at his feet, she put on her bonnet,
+and off we set to the doctor's house, about half a mile distant. I was
+soon on intimate terms with Bessy: there was something so frank and
+winning about her, such perfect honesty of character, that it was
+impossible not to like her. We delivered our message, returned home,
+and, being very tired, I was glad to go to bed. Bessy showed me my room,
+which was very comfortable, and as soon as I laid my head on the pillow
+I was fast asleep.
+
+I was awakened the next morning by a knocking at the door by little
+Bessy; it was broad daylight, and I dressed myself and went downstairs,
+where I found her very busy putting everything in order.
+
+"It was I knocked," said little Bessy; "I thought you would like to come
+and help me."
+
+"And so I will," replied I; "what shall I do?"
+
+"Oh, there's plenty to do now that Mrs. Maddox is ill, and you and
+father are come back--almost too much for a little girl like me. Will
+you go to the pump and fetch the pails full of water, for they are too
+heavy for me?"
+
+I did as she wished. "Anything else, Bessy?" said I.
+
+"Oh, yes, plenty. You're very good-natured, Tom, and I'm so glad you're
+come."
+
+Bessy and I were fully employed for nearly an hour in the front room and
+kitchen, clearing up and cleaning and preparing for breakfast. All was
+ready before Bramble came down and took a seat in his big chair, close
+to the breakfast-table.
+
+"All ready, father," said little Bessy, going up to Bramble to be
+kissed. "Tom has been helping me."
+
+"All's right," said Bramble; "bring the book, dear." Bessy brought a
+large Bible, and read a chapter aloud, then closed it and put it away.
+
+"We can't always do this, Tom," observed Bramble, "when we're knocking
+about in the Channel; all we can do is to read it when we can. Come now
+to breakfast."
+
+When we had finished I assisted Bessy to put everything away, and then
+Bramble said to me, "Anderson tells me you're a good scholar, Tom; but
+you must now learn what will be of use to me as well as to you. The
+first thing you must learn, and which you can do on shore, are the
+points of the compass, to know them at sight and tell them quickly; for
+you see it's of great importance to a pilot to know exactly how a ship's
+head is; and the men at the helm, although good seamen and steering
+well, are not so ready at answering as a pilot wishes, and very often
+stammer at it--sometimes make mistakes. Now, you see, when I'm piloting
+a vessel, if you stand at the binnacle, watch the compass, and answer me
+quickly how the ship's head is, you'll be of use to me in a very short
+time. Go up into my room, and under the bed you will find a compass;
+bring it down carefully, and I'll give you a lesson at once." I brought
+the compass to him, and Bramble made me write down the whole thirty-two
+points at full length upon a piece of paper. When I had done so, he told
+me I must learn them by heart as fast as I could.
+
+I studied them the whole of that day; and in the evening, finding myself
+perfect, I went up to Bramble and repeated them without one mistake.
+
+"All's right," said Bramble. "Now, Tom, give me the paper; if you know
+them to-night you ought to know them to-morrow morning. I'll hear if you
+do, after breakfast."
+
+I went to bed, was tapped up as before by Bessy, assisted her to clean
+everything, taking off her hands all the heaviest of the work; indeed,
+what I have narrated of the first day may be taken as a sample of my
+life on shore at Deal. After breakfast I repeated the points of the
+compass correctly.
+
+"Well, Tom, you have a good memory, that's certain; all the better for
+you, for pilots carry everything in their heads, as you will find out.
+Now, then, look here." Bramble took the glass off the top of the
+compass-box, lifted up the card, and then showed me the needle below,
+which pointed to the north. He then showed me the north point above, and
+then the other points, making me repeat them as he put his finger on
+them. As soon as I understood them, he would put the stem of his pipe to
+one and ask me which it was. When I was perfect with the points, he
+explained the half points and quarter points. In two days I had gained
+them all by heart.
+
+"And now," says he, "we must try you. This iron skewer is the ship's
+head, recollect, and I shall stick it into the table. When I do so, you
+must tell me what point of the compass stands to it, and then that will
+be the direction of the ship's head. Do you understand? Practice makes
+perfect, and you must work at this all the time that you are ashore.
+When you know the compass well then I'll teach you something else. Now,
+then, how's her head, Tom?"
+
+"North-half-west," said I, after a little time.
+
+"Yes, very true; but you see, Tom, that wouldn't do aboard ship. That's
+just the way most of the seamen would puzzle at it. I must have the
+answer in a moment, and that's why you must practice."
+
+In the evening, when Bramble was smoking his pipe, I was seated by him,
+and every minute he would change the place of the iron skewer, with
+"How's her head, Tom?"
+
+"We must get your 'prentice papers signed before we go afloat again,"
+said Bramble, "for they pick up boys as well as men for the King's
+service, and you're a stout boy for your age."
+
+"Were you ever pressed yourself?" inquired I.
+
+"No, but I had a narrow chance once, and had not our captain been a
+smart fellow I and many more would have been serving the King at this
+present moment."
+
+"Tell me how that was," said I.
+
+"Well, as soon as Bessy has done rattling with the cups and saucers, I
+will."
+
+"I've done now, father," said Bessy, taking her seat on a stool close to
+Bramble's feet.
+
+"Well, then, before I passed for pilot, just after the breaking out of
+the war, I took it into my head to try my chance at privateering. There
+was plenty to pick up at that time, and some of the Deal men had been
+very fortunate, so I went on board of a twelve-gun lugger, commanded by
+Captain Shank, fitted out in the river, with a crew of sixty men. The
+press was very hot at that time, and our men were kept at the crimps'
+houses until all was ready, when we started, and got off clear into the
+Channel without being overhauled.
+
+"We had been out a fortnight, keeping well on the French coast, and had
+picked up two good prizes, when one morning, as the fog was cleared up
+with a sharp northerly wind, we found ourselves right under the lee of
+an English frigate, not a mile from us. There was a bubble of a sea, for
+the wind had been against the tide previous to its changing, and we were
+then about six or seven miles from the French coast, just between
+Boulogne and Cape Grisnez, lying to for the fog to clear away. As soon
+as we saw the frigate we knew that she would board us, and we were all
+in a terrible fright." Here Bramble shifted the skewer and said, "How's
+her head, Tom?"
+
+[Illustration: "HOW'S HER HEAD, TOM?"--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 281.]
+
+I replied, and he proceeded:
+
+"The frigate hoisted her colors, and of course we did the same. She then
+fired a gun as a signal for us to remain, hove to, and we perceived her
+boats lowering down. 'Now, my lads,' said our captain, 'if you don't
+mind a shot or two, I think I will save you from impressment this time.'
+We all declared that we would stand a hundred rather than be taken on
+board of a man-of-war. 'Very well,' says he, 'starboard a little, and
+keep her a little away, so as to let her go through the water; but keep
+the foresheet to windward, so that we may appear only to have fallen
+off.' By this plan we gradually increased our distance from the frigate,
+and got more on her bow. All this while the boat was pulling toward us,
+rising and tossing on the sea, but still nearing us fast. As she came
+nearer to us we let the lugger come up in the wind again for a short
+time, that we might not appear to be dodging away, and then, when the
+bowman was almost ready to lay in his oar, away we let her go through
+the water, so that she was left astern again. They could not well
+perceive this on board of the frigate, although the officer in the boat
+was very savage, for at one time he had his bow oar in and his boat-hook
+out. At last the frigate, perceiving that we were apparently slipping
+away, put her helm up, and fired a shot across our bows. 'Now's your
+time, my boys,' said the captain; 'let draw the sheets, the breeze is
+strong. She must wait to pick up her boat, and that will give us a mile
+at least.' Up went the helm, and we made all sail right for the French
+coast. How's her head, Tom?"
+
+I replied, and Bramble resumed:
+
+"The frigate ran down to her boat, and then rounded-to, to hoist it up.
+The sea was heavy, and she was delayed a minute or two, although, to do
+them justice, they were very smart on board of her. As soon as the boat
+was up she made all sail, and came foaming after us, as if she were in
+as great a rage as the captain and those on board of her. Every now and
+then she yawed to throw a shot at us from her bow-chasers; but that we
+didn't mind, as the yawing checked her way, and it's not very easy to
+hit a low vessel like a lugger in a toppling sea. Well, very soon we
+were not four miles from the French coast, so we hauled down our English
+colors and hoisted French. The frigate gained on us very fast, but we
+continued to steer on, and she in pursuit, until we were within gun-shot
+of the batteries, What the Frenchmen thought we did not know, at all
+events they did not fire, and we steered right on as if we were chased,
+and the frigate followed after us, until we were within a mile and a
+half of the batteries, when the frigate thought proper to haul her wind.
+Then the battery opened upon her, and we could see that she was hulled
+more than once, and, as she kept her wind along the shore, the other
+batteries opened upon her, and she got a good mauling. We saw her shift
+her foretopsail yard as soon as she went about again, and we afterward
+heard that she had several men hurt, which was a pity."
+
+"And did not the batteries fire upon _you?_"
+
+"No, for we kept the French colors up, and hove to within a mile of the
+coast. It was a lee shore, and there was too much surf and sea for them
+to send off a boat and ascertain whether we were a French privateer or
+not; so there we lay till dusk, and then made sail again, and, being so
+close into the French shore, we picked up a good prize that very night.
+When the cruise was over, I was satisfied. I got my prize-money, and
+then, as I knew our own coast well, I passed for pilot, and have served
+as one ever since. How's her head, Tom?"
+
+"S.W. almost."
+
+"S.W. _almost_ won't do, Tom. It's not quite S.W., quarter-south; so you
+must say S.W. southerly. D'ye understand?"
+
+When Bessy knocked at my door the next morning, she cried out, laughing,
+"How's her head, Tom?" and those words made me jump up like lightning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
+
+     In which Bramble points out to me that singing is part of the
+     Profession of a Pilot.
+
+
+In about a fortnight from the time that Bramble commenced his tuition I
+was quite perfect with the compass; his method certainly was very good,
+for by such reiterated catechising what you had to learn was graven on
+your memory. All day long the same system was pursued. Even if dinner
+was on the table, the compass was on a chair close by, and as I was
+putting my fork to my mouth, much to Bessy's amusement, out would come
+the question, "How's her head, Tom?" Bramble soon gained his point; I
+could answer like lightning. But whether I was by the fire indoors, or
+on the shingle beach, his system was ever the same. Every time that
+Bramble opened his lips I gained some information; he was never
+wearying, and often very amusing.
+
+One morning we were out on the beach--we had been conversing with the
+other pilots, and examining the vessels in the offing with my
+glass--when he pointed out to me, it being low neap tide, that the
+Goodwin Sands were partially dry. "Tom," continued he, "of all the
+dangers, not only of the Channel, but in the wide ocean, there is none
+to be compared with those sands--the lives that have been lost on them,
+the vessels that have been wrecked, and the property that has been
+sucked into them, would be a dozen kings' ransoms; for, you see, Tom,
+they are quicksands, and the vessel which goes on shore does not remain
+to be broken up, but in two tides she disappears, sinking down into the
+sands, which never give her or her cargo up again. There must be a
+mighty deal of wealth buried there, that is certain. They say that once
+they were a flourishing fertile island, belonging to an Earl Godwin,
+whose name they now bear; it may be so--the sea retreats from one place
+while it advances at another. Look at Romney Marshes, where so many
+thousands of sheep are now fed. They run up many miles inland; and yet
+formerly those very marshes were an arm of the sea, which vessels rode
+in deep water, and sea-fights, I am told, took place. Howsomever, when
+the sea took the Godwin island to itself it made the best trap for
+vessels that old Neptune now possesses, and he may consider it as the
+most productive spot in his dominions. Lord help us! what a deal of gold
+and merchandise must there be buried below yon yellow patch!"
+
+"Do you never save anything when vessels are run on shore there?"
+
+"When they only tail on, we occasionally get them off again; but when
+once fixed, there's an end of it. Yes, we save life occasionally, but at
+great risk of our own. I saved little Bessy from a vessel ashore on
+these sands."
+
+"Indeed! Pray tell me how it was."
+
+"Why, you see, Tom, it was just at the breaking out of the war. It was
+in this very month of October, '93, that I was out in a galley with some
+others, looking for vessels. I had just then left off privateering, and
+got my warrant as pilot (for you know I did serve my 'prenticeship,
+before I went a-privateering, as I told you the other night). Well, it
+was a blowing night, and we were running in for the Downs, intending to
+beach the galley and sleep on shore, for we had been out five days, and
+only put a pilot on board of one vessel. We were just to windward of the
+Sands, out there, where I am now pointing. The sea was very rough, but
+the night was clear, and the moon shone bright, when we saw a brig
+running down before the wind, under foresail and close-reefed topsails.
+'Why, Bill, as she steers she'll be right between the Callipers,' said I
+to the man sitting by me. 'There's no mistake about that,' replied he;
+'let's haul the foresheet to windward, and lay to, to hail him; he's
+coming right down upon us.' Well, we did so, and we hailed some time
+without any answer. At last a man looked over the gunnel, just as she
+was flying past us, and told us in Dutch to go to the devil. 'I think
+you'll go there if you don't look sharp,' replied Bill. 'Come, my lads,
+we may as well follow her, and see if we cannot prevent mischief.' So we
+bore up after her, and hailed her several times, for we sailed very
+fast, and there was a scuffling on deck. I think that the captain was
+drunk. All this passed in less than five minutes; and then, as I knew
+would be the case, she struck on the sands, and with such force that all
+her masts went over the side immediately. Now, the sea rolls awfully
+over the shallow water of those sands, Tom. We had kept with her as far
+as we dared, and then hove-to about two cables' lengths to windward of
+her, when she struck, for the ebb was still running strong under our
+lee, which only made the sea more cross and heavy. The waves made a
+clean breach over her, and we knew that she would go to pieces in less
+than half-an-hour; but we did not like to leave so many to perish
+without a trial to save them. So we kept away, so as to get abreast of
+them, and then lowered our sails and got out our oars. We pulled close
+to them, but it was impossible to board. We should have been stove to
+pieces and swamped immediately. The moon still shone bright, and we saw
+them as plain as we could wish, and we made every attempt to save them,
+for they were all crowded together forward. Once the sea drove the boat
+so close that we touched her sides, and then a woman pressed before the
+men, and reached over the gunnel, extending her arms which held the
+child, while several others attempted to get in; but the return of the
+wave carried us back so quick from the vessel that, as they attempted to
+jump in, they all went to the water, and never appeared again; but I had
+caught hold of the child, and laid it down in the sternsheets. We made a
+second and third attempt, but in vain. At last the vessel broke up, as
+it were, all at once--there was one loud cry, and all was still, except
+the roaring and breaking waves which buried them. It wasn't a scene to
+make us very lively, Tom; we hoisted the sail, and ran on to the beach
+in silence. I took the child in my arms--it had been snatched out of its
+warm bed, poor thing, and had nothing on but a calico nightgown. I took
+it up to the cottage, which was then Maddox's (I bought it afterward of
+the widow with the money I made a-privateering), and I gave it in charge
+to Mrs. Maddox. I did intend to have sent it to the workhouse, or
+something of that sort; but Mrs. Maddox took a fancy to it, and so did
+I, and so I thought I would take care of it, and I christened it by the
+name of Betsy Godwin."
+
+[Illustration: BRAMBLE SAVING BESSY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 237.]
+
+"You have no idea who she may be?"
+
+"Not a half one. Her cotton gown and cap told nothing; the vessel was
+Dutch, that's all I know. She may be the child of the Stadtholder or
+the child of the ship's cook. What's the matter?"
+
+"But did you notice any marks upon her person by which she might be
+reclaimed?"
+
+"Not I. I only axed Mrs. Maddox whether it were a boy or a girl."
+
+"How old was she then?"
+
+"Well, how can I tell? that's not in my way; but the knowing ones in
+these matters said that she must be about eighteen months old, so we
+have taken that for a _departure_ as to her age. I love her now as if
+she were my own child, and so will you, Tom, like a sister, when you
+know her. She calls me her father, and you may do the same, Tom, if you
+like, for I will be as good as a father to you, if you are as good a boy
+as you now seem to be, I like to be called father, somehow or
+another--it sounds pleasant to my ears. But come in now, I think you
+have compassed the compass, so you must learn something else.
+
+"There is another way, Tom," said Bramble, as he seated himself in his
+large chair, "in which a smart 'prentice may be useful to his master,
+and it is of quite as much importance as the compass, which is in
+heaving the lead. You see, Tom, the exact soundings being known will
+often enable a pilot to run over the tail of a bank and save a tide;
+that is, when he knows that he can trust the man in the chains. Some
+seamen are very particular in giving exact soundings, but all are not.
+They care more for the song than they do for anything else, and though
+the song is very musical, yet it won't get a ship off when she's on
+shore. Now, two-thirds of the seamen who are sent in the chains will not
+give the soundings within half a fathom, and, moreover, they do not give
+them quick enough for the pilot in many cases. If, therefore, you learn
+to heave the lead well, be correct in your soundings and quick in giving
+them, you will become of great use to me. You understand, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," replied I.
+
+"Well, go up into my room, and hanging on the nail behind the door you
+will see a lead-line--bring it me down here."
+
+I did so, and then Bramble explained to me how the fathoms were marked
+on the line, and how the soundings were given out.
+
+"You see," said he, "wherever there is a mark with a piece of leather or
+bunting, whether it be white or red, it is called a mark; and if you
+have five fathoms of water you would cry out by the _mark_ five; but at
+the other depths there are no marks, but so many knots tied as there are
+fathoms, as here at nine; and then you would say by the _deep_ nine. Now
+run the line through your hand, and see if you can repeat the marks and
+deeps as they pass."
+
+I did so.
+
+"Very well. Now for the song, for there is a sort of tune to it."
+Bramble then again passed the line through his hands, giving the song to
+each fathom, half-fathom, and quarter-fathom, and making me sing them
+after him, after which I had to repeat them by myself. The next day he
+took out the marks and knots from the whole line, and, giving me a
+two-foot rule to re-measure it, made me put them all in again. This I
+had to repeat three or four times. By this plan they were fully
+impressed on my memory; and as for the song, he made me sing it almost
+every half-hour for three or four days, Bessy generally repeating, in
+her clear voice, from the back kitchen or upstairs, "and a quarter
+seven--by the deep line."
+
+On the fourth day Bramble said, "Well, Tom, I think both you and Bessy
+may leave off singing now. You have yet to learn the most important
+part, which is to _heave_ the lead; but we must wait till we get on
+board of a vessel for that. Observe, Tom, it's all very well singing
+when you've plenty of water, and I like it, for it sounds musical and
+pleasant to the ear; but in shallow water the pilot's answer must be
+much shorter and quicker, as you will find out by-and-by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
+
+     In which I go Afloat, and obtain some Knowledge of the English
+     Channel.
+
+
+It may be as well here to remark that the system of pilotage is
+different now from what it used to be at the period of which I am
+writing. The Cinque Port pilots now carry vessels from the Downs to the
+river, and from the river to the Downs. Their pilotage extends no
+further. Vessels seldom require pilots for the Channel, and do not take
+them unless they are bound to some port in the Channel with which they
+are unacquainted, and those pilots who ply in the Channel are termed
+Hoblers; but at the time I refer to the regular pilots used to go out in
+their galleys to the chaps of the Channel and take charge of vessels all
+the way up, which, by the new regulations, they do not do. The
+arrangements for pilotage have been much improved of late years, and
+those employed are better qualified.
+
+I had remained at Deal about three weeks when an outward-bound Indiaman
+anchored in the Downs. Her pilot came on shore, and she made the signal
+for another. It was Bramble's turn, a galley was launched, and we went
+on board.
+
+The ship was bound to Plymouth, from whence she was to sail with convoy
+to a certain latitude. The weather was now fine and frosty, and we made
+sail when the tide served. As soon as we were fairly out in the Channel
+Bramble went with me into the main-chains, and showed me how to heave
+the lead. After several attempts, in which I sometimes would hit the
+spare topsail-yard upon which I stood, sometimes would nearly break my
+own head, and once contrived to throw the lead over the hammock-rails
+inboard, I succeeded in getting it round over my head; and when I had
+once gained that point I made fewer mistakes. In two days we arrived at
+Plymouth; and as Bramble kept me at it till my arms ached, nearly half
+the day, I could by that time heave the lead pretty fairly, that is to
+say, without danger to myself or other people. The day after we arrived
+at Plymouth we got into a pilot boat and went out in search of
+employment, which we soon found, and we continued chiefly taking vessels
+up to Portsmouth and down to Plymouth, or clear of soundings, for some
+time. During this time my practice at the lead was incessant, and I
+became very perfect. When I was not at the lead Bramble would make me
+stand at the binnacle and watch the compass, so that, by the time we
+arrived at Deal again, I was pretty competent in those two branches of
+my art, except that, having practiced the lead mostly in deep water, I
+had not acquired accuracy and expedition in giving the soundings. But I
+learned a great deal more of my profession; Bramble explaining to me the
+sails, rigging, and names and uses of the ropes, and the various
+maneuvers practiced, all of which he would catechise me in afterward, to
+ascertain if I was perfect, and had remembered what he told me. I was,
+therefore, under excellent tuition. Whatever port we entered Bramble
+would point out the landmarks to me, state the distances from point to
+point, and the dangers to be avoided. These I could not so well retain
+perfectly, and required occasional reminding, but altogether I gave him
+satisfaction. It was on New Year's Day, 1800, that we boarded a large
+homeward-bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings. She was a
+thousand-ton ship, with a rich cargo of tea on board, and full of
+passengers, besides more than one hundred invalids from the regiments
+out there, who had been sent home under the charge of two officers.
+
+What a difference there appeared to me to be between the Indiaman going
+out and this one coming home! the first so neat and clean in her decks,
+and this so crowded and so weatherworn by her long voyage. What with
+troops in old jackets, which had once been scarlet, Lascars with their
+curly black hair, and dark handsome features, yellow men, sickly women,
+and half-caste children, with their Hindoo ayahs, tigers, lions,
+turtles, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs, on the booms and main deck, the
+vessel was in a strange motley of confusion.
+
+As soon as we were put on board, the captain, officers, and passengers
+crowded round to inquire the news. Bramble, according to pilot custom,
+had brought off one or two late Plymouth papers (one of which, I
+recollect, gave the account of the cutting out of the "Hermione" by
+Captain Hamilton); but the people on board were eight months behindhand
+at least as regarded what had passed. They had not even heard of Sir
+Sydney Smith's defense of Acre against Bonaparte, or anything else which
+had subsequently occurred; so that as soon as Bramble had taken charge,
+and put the ship's head the right course (for the wind was fair), there
+was no end to question and answer, And while Bramble was questioned by
+the captain and passengers, I was attacked by the midshipmen or
+guinea-pigs, as they are called. Having a fair wind, we ran right for
+the Downs, where we arrived on the morning of the second day. Here the
+purser of the ship went on shore with his dispatches, and the ship
+anchored to await orders, by the next post, to go up the river.
+
+[Illustration: JACK HEAVING THE LEAD.--Marryat, Vol X., p. 245.]
+
+"Tom," said Bramble, as the vessel anchored, "I cannot quit the ship,
+but you may, so just get on shore in one of the boats, and see how
+little Bessy is, and poor old Mrs. Maddox's leg; and, Tom, take our
+dirty linen on shore and bring off clean."
+
+I was glad enough to obey his orders, for I was very anxious to see dear
+little Bessy again; so I dropped into a boat that was going on shore for
+fresh beef, taking with me two or three little presents for Bessy, out
+of the many which I had received when on board, for the officers and men
+were very kind to me, and had given me many things which they did not
+value, but which I did very much, as they were quite new to me.
+
+The custom officers at Deal were not very particular at that time. I was
+not searched, and arrived at the cottage, where I found Bessy sitting at
+her needle. She threw down her work and ran to me, and as I kissed her
+the tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+"Where is father, Tom? I'm so glad to see you; but where is father? I've
+been so frightened, the winter has been so rough."
+
+"He's on board of the Indiaman, but being in charge he cannot come on
+shore, so he sent me."
+
+"Oh! I'm so glad. You have been away so long, and we have had nothing
+but gales of wind; and do you know that Williams and Steers are both
+drowned?"
+
+"No, indeed, we know nothing; but father will be sorry to hear of it,
+for they were friends of his."
+
+"Well, Tom, it's not fair to leave a little girl like me alone here, for
+Mrs. Maddox has kept her bed ever since you left. Her leg is better, but
+she has pains in her limbs, and groans so all night, and here I am left
+by myself, to hear her groan and the wind roar."
+
+Here Bessy began to cry, and I to console her as well as I could,
+although I did feel that it was hard that such a child should be left so
+lonely. The presents I brought her made her wipe away her tears, and she
+was very soon as lively and joyous as ever.
+
+"I heard father say, Bessy" (I always called Bramble my father, as he
+had said I might), "that he had picked up something this winter, for he
+has had none but heavy vessels, and you know pilotage is paid by the
+draught of water."
+
+"Well, he may have made money, but I'm sure we haven't spent any to
+matter, for I have hardly been once a week to Mrs. Maddox for money
+since you have gone. She eats hardly anything, and I can't eat my meals
+when I'm alone down here. Will father come home after he has been up the
+river?"
+
+"Yes, Bessy, he said that we should take a spell on shore."
+
+"Tom, don't you think I might go on board and see him for half an hour?"
+
+"Yes, I don't see why not; speak to Mrs. Maddox."
+
+Bessy ran upstairs, and came down with the required permission, provided
+a neighbor's girl would remain in the house, and that she went under my
+escort. Her bonnet was soon on, and we obtained a passage in one of the
+Indiaman's boats which was shoving off, for the water was quite smooth,
+and the ship's boats could lie on the shingle without difficulty. The
+officer took Bessy under his boat cloak, and we were soon on board.
+Bramble was not on deck at the time, and when I went down to look for
+him, Bessy remained on the quarter-deck in admiration of all she saw.
+But Bramble was not below as I supposed--he had gone into the cuddy with
+the captain; and when he came out, his first knowledge of Bessy's being
+on board was being embraced by the waist with her little arms.
+
+"Why, Bessy, my child," said Bramble, just as I returned on deck. "This
+is Master Tom's doing," continued he, kissing her; "so you have come to
+see your father?"
+
+"Why, you would not come on shore to see me, father," said Bessy, as
+Bramble took her up and kissed her again.
+
+"Well, Tom, have you brought the clean things?"
+
+"No, I must go on shore again with Bessy, father."
+
+"Very true, so you must."
+
+Bessy was taken much notice of by the captain and all on board. No
+wonder: her fair skin and clear transparent red and white were in such
+contrast with the bilious-looking passengers that she appeared as if she
+was not of the same race. She was much admired, and received many little
+presents; and when she left the ship, after staying on board an hour,
+she was much delighted with her trip, and still more so with the promise
+of Bramble that he would stay ashore for some time as soon as he came
+back from the river. I remained with her on shore till dusk, and then,
+having collected the clean linen, as we were expected to sail early the
+next morning, I returned on board the Indiaman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
+
+     Showing the Importance, on board Ship, of a Rope's End well
+     applied.
+
+
+The next morning, as we expected, the orders came down for the Indiaman
+to go round to the river. The wind was fair, but light; we hove up and
+made sail, stemming the last of the ebb. When the flood made, the wind
+died away, so that we made but little progress, much to the annoyance of
+those on board, who were naturally impatient to land after so tedious a
+voyage. Toward the evening it fell calm, and a fog-bank rose on the
+horizon to the eastward. There were still two hours of daylight, when,
+as I was sweeping the horizon with my glass, I discovered the three
+masts of a vessel with no sails set on them. As she was a long way off I
+went half-way up the main rigging to have a better view of her, and made
+her out to be a large lugger. I went down to the poop, where Bramble
+stood smoking a cheroot with some of the officers of the ship. "Father,"
+says I, "there's a large lugger on our beam, with her sails lowered
+down. I caught her masts with the glass just now."
+
+"Then she's a French privateer, you may depend upon it," replied
+Bramble, "and she means to try to take us by surprise to-night."
+
+The officers went down and reported it to the captain: the glasses were
+fixed upon her, and there was little doubt as to what she was.
+
+"Lucky you discovered her, boy, for we might have been surprised, that's
+a fact," said the captain; "however, now she shall catch a Tartar."
+
+"She's waiting for the fog, captain," said Bramble, "which will come
+rolling down with the shift of wind in about an hour or two, I expect;
+and then we must allow her another hour to get alongside of us. Depend
+upon it she has plenty of men, and intends to try to board us in the
+fog."
+
+Everybody was now on the _qui vive_; the women were, as usual,
+frightened; the men passengers looked grave, the Lascars rather
+unsteady; but we had forty English seamen and a hundred invalid soldiers
+on board, who could all be depended upon. The guns were loaded and
+shotted, and the invalid soldiers were mustered; muskets and ammunition
+handed up; the bayonets fixed, unfixed again; and then they were ordered
+to remain on the booms with their accouterments on and their muskets by
+their sides. The officers still kept their glasses on the lugger, until
+at last the fog came down and we could see her no more.
+
+The officers who commanded the invalids, after a consultation with the
+captain at which Bramble assisted, told off their men into two parties,
+one of them being appointed to assist the seamen with their bayonets in
+repelling the boarders (should the attempt be made), and the other to
+fire upon them and into the deck of the vessel when she came alongside.
+The Lascars were stationed at the guns, in case they might be required;
+but no great dependence was placed upon their services.
+
+By the time that these arrangements had been made, the fog had reached
+the Indiaman, and we were at the same time taken aback with the easterly
+breeze which brought it down to us; being near to the land, we put the
+ship's head off shore. The wind continued light and the water smooth,
+but the fog thickened every minute: at last we could hardly see as far
+as the foremast of the vessel.
+
+"He'll be puzzled to find us, I think," said the captain.
+
+"He'll find us, never fear," replied Bramble. "He has calculated the
+time of the fog reaching us, and he knows that we must lay our head
+off-shore--to be sure, we might give him the go-by if we bore up and ran
+back again to the Downs."
+
+"I think I see myself bearing up and running away from a rascally French
+privateer," said the captain. "Keep a sharp lookout there forward."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," replied the chief officer.
+
+Half an hour more passed, and by our calculation the privateer should
+have been on board of us, but we could see nothing of her, although the
+fog had cleared up a little. The soldiers were now ordered to load their
+muskets. I was on the poop with Bramble, when, happening to turn and
+look aft (the very opposite direction from which the privateer was to be
+expected), I saw her three lugsails looming in the mist, just on the
+quarter, not half a cable's length from us. I jumped down to where the
+captain was standing, and said to him, "There she is, sir, close on our
+lee quarter." The captain sprang on the poop, saw the vessel, and
+ordered the men to come aft in silence. The tramp of the soldiers' feet
+was scarcely over when the lugger was alongside of us, her masts banging
+against our main and mizzen chains as she rolled with the swell under
+our lee. The Frenchmen gave a cheer, which told us how very numerous
+they were: they climbed up the side and into the chains like cats, and
+in a few seconds all was noise, confusion, and smoke. It was impossible
+to know what the result was to be for about a minute, when the cheers
+from our own men announced that the assailants had been beaten back. But
+hardly had the cheering ceased on our side when another cheer was heard
+from the lugger, and the attempt to gain our decks was repeated. This
+time the Frenchmen fought more obstinately than before, and it was
+nearly five minutes before they were repelled. It was not yet dark
+(although the fog was thick), and you could make out their countenances
+pretty clear; a more wild reckless set of fellows I never beheld, and
+they certainly fought very gallantly, but they were driven back again;
+and once more were the cheers from the British seamen and soldiers mixed
+up with the execrations and shouts of the still contending, although
+retreating, Frenchmen.
+
+Just at this period of the conflict I was standing on the poop by
+Bramble, who had been watching the result, when he said, "Tom, come with
+me: do you jump into the main chains with a double part of the topsail
+halyards fall, and when the lugger's mast strikes against the chains as
+she rolls into us, pass the fall round it underneath the rigging, and
+hand the end in to me."
+
+We both leaped off the poop; he gave me the bight of the halyards. I
+crept out of the port into the chains and passed it round the lugger's
+mainmast, as he told me, handing in the bight to him, which he belayed
+slack to the mainsheet kevel. At the time I perceived a man lying
+wounded or dead in the main chains, but I paid no attention to him
+until, as I was about to get on board, he attracted my attention by
+seizing my leg, and making his teeth meet in the small part of it, above
+the ankle. I could not help crying out, I was so taken by surprise with
+the pain; however, I kicked him off, and turning to look at him, I found
+it was a wounded Frenchman, who, perceiving what I was about, had paid
+me that compliment. As soon as I was on board I heard the captain say to
+Bramble, "Well, pilot, he has had enough of it."
+
+"Yes, and he won't escape, captain, for Tom has got him fast by the
+masthead, and they dare not climb up to cut themselves adrift. All that
+you have to do now it to let the soldiers fire on his decks until they
+run below, and then our men can board and take possession of her."
+
+The captain, perceiving that the vessel was made fast, gave the
+necessary orders. The soldiers lined the hammock nettings and chains,
+and such a shower of musketry was poured into her decks that the
+Frenchmen were soon driven below, and our seamen then slipped down her
+rigging, boarded, and took possession of her. The prisoners having been
+ordered up and passed into the forehold, the wounded men were then
+looked after. We had eleven wounded, but none killed; the Frenchman had
+eight killed and seventeen wounded; among others, the captain, who had
+headed the second attempt to board. She was called the "Pucelle
+d'Orleans," of twelve guns and a hundred and twenty-five men.
+
+It was two or three hours before we were again all to rights, and a
+party sent on board of the prize; and then there was again another kind
+of confusion, from the congratulations, drinking healths, the women
+coming up on deck, etc.; however, the weather continued light, so it was
+of no consequence. That Frenchman bit very hard, and I limped for three
+or four days afterward.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "I see you've got nerve, so all's right. You
+had better go and lie down now, for you must be tired; I'll call you in
+the morning."
+
+Very glad was I to limp to bed. All night I dreamed of nothing but
+volleys of musketry, and boarding and reboarding, and being wounded in
+the leg, and then I would awake with the smart of the Frenchman's teeth.
+
+The next morning when I came on deck, the captain thanked me for my
+services, and said that the lugger would have escaped had it not been
+for me. I replied that it was Bramble who prevented her escape, as I
+should not have thought of making her fast if I had not been told.
+
+"That's all true enough," replied the captain; "but how many of your
+age, having been told to do it, would have done it, Tom? I shall not
+forget you."
+
+I went on the poop to Bramble, who, as usual, had his short pipe in his
+hand; and I certainly was pleased when I saw what a beautiful craft we
+had helped to capture. She sat like a swan on the water, and sailed
+round and round us with the greatest ease.
+
+In the afternoon we anchored at the Nore, and sent away all the
+prisoners to Sheerness. I must not forget to say how very kind and
+generous the passengers were to me. They made a great many presents,
+some of value, as I afterward found out; and I was glad to receive them
+that I might give them to Virginia and those who had been friendly to
+me.
+
+The next morning we arrived off Greenwich, and Bramble told me to go on
+shore and remain with my father and mother until he came down, which he
+would do in a few days, and pay a visit to his old friend Anderson. I
+landed with all my contraband articles in the boat, but no one thought
+of stopping or searching the former "Poor Jack." My insignificance was
+my protection; and I arrived safely at Fisher's Alley with all my
+curiosities and prohibited effects. When I entered the house, I
+perceived that there was a third person sitting in company with my
+mother and Virginia; but Virginia sprang to me, and I threw down my
+bundles with which I was loaded, and pressed her in my arms. Although I
+had been absent but four months, she appeared to be very much grown, and
+in every way improved. As soon as I had released her, I offered my hand
+to my mother, who took it very coldly, and then observed, "Tom, you will
+be _so_ ungenteel; don't you see there is a gentleman here?"
+
+"I beg his pardon, mother," replied I; "but I could only see my sister
+just then."
+
+"And I admire your feeling, Tom," replied the party. "Mrs. Saunders, you
+must not scold him for that. How do you do, Tom, and how do you like
+your profession?" continued he, holding out his hand.
+
+I took his hand, and looking at him I recognized him. "Oh, sir! you are
+the gentleman who was sitting in the room when we called upon Sir
+Hercules and her ladyship."
+
+"I am so, Tom, and I promised Sir Hercules that I would have an eye to
+you all, and be of any use to you that I could. My name is Wilson, and
+I'm what the sailors call a shark, that is, I'm a lawyer."
+
+"Well, you don't appear as if you would bite, sir," replied I, as I
+looked at his venerable and kind face.
+
+"No, no, we never frighten people by our looks. We don't carry our teeth
+with us; but I have several rows of them, all upon shelves in my
+chambers, called the 'Statute at Large,' and by other names."
+
+He then entered into conversation with me, and I told him most of what
+had passed, of course not forgetting that the Indiaman we had brought up
+the river had captured a privateer. He sat about an hour, and then went
+away, desiring me to call upon him. I was not sorry when he went, as I
+wished to show my presents to Virginia, and give her those which she
+liked best. When Virginia had selected for herself, or rather I had
+forced upon her all she most admired, I gave a cut ivory card-case, a
+filigree needle-case, and a small red scarf to my mother, who, for the
+first time in her life, appeared pleased with me, and said that they
+were very _genteel_, and she was much obliged to me. The remainder I put
+away in my room upstairs, intending to keep some for Bessy, and give the
+others to Mrs. St. Felix, the doctor, and old Nanny.
+
+I then went to the hospital and found out my father, old Anderson and
+Ben. I narrated to them much more circumstantially than I did to the old
+lawyer the particulars of the capture of the privateer. Anderson put a
+great many inquiries to me, as to my liking my profession, and also
+concerning little Bessy, whose history I communicated to him. After my
+father and Ben had left, he gave me a great deal of advice, all of which
+I trust that I treasured up.
+
+"I hear," said he, "that Spicer has been talking a good deal about you,
+and inquiring very often when you were expected to return. Were you very
+intimate with that man?"
+
+I replied in the negative, and then narrated the whole history of the
+spy-glass, the erasure of the name by Mrs. St, Felix, and the
+recognition of it by Spicer.
+
+"You did right to leave him in his error relative to where you received
+the glass from," said Peter Anderson; "there is some mystery there which
+time may unravel, but do not say a word of it to any one, Tom. I am glad
+that you have told me, as, in case you are away, and anything should
+occur, I shall know how to act."
+
+I must acknowledge that I now walked proudly through the streets of
+Greenwich. I was no longer Poor Jack, but I was earning my livelihood
+in my profession. I had reason to be still prouder when, two days
+afterward, Mr. Wilson came to my mother's with the newspaper in his hand
+in which there was a long account of the capture of the privateer, and
+the conduct of Bramble and of me spoken of in the highest terms. This he
+read aloud to my mother and Virginia. I watched my sister. The tears
+filled her eyes as she listened, and when Mr. Wilson had done her arms
+were round my neck, and her smiles were mixed with her tears, and
+sometimes she would laugh as she cried. Oh! how I loved her then, for I
+felt how dearly she loved me; even my mother appeared gratified,
+although she said nothing, but continued to repair the lace veil upon
+which she had been employed. That evening I went with Virginia to call
+upon Mrs, St. Felix, taking with me the presents I had laid aside for
+her. She welcomed me as usual, and accepted what I brought for her
+without hesitation and with many thanks.
+
+"Well, Mr. Tom," said she, "I'll just put away all your nice little
+remembrances, and then I'll tell you that I've heard all about your
+behavior in the fight with the privateer, and I've no doubt but that, if
+you continue to go on as you have begun, you will one day have a leg the
+less, as your father has before you."
+
+"I hope not," replied I; "two legs are better than one."
+
+"Yes, when you want to run away, that's true. I see now why you're so
+anxious to save your legs."
+
+"But, Mrs. St. Felix, if it had not been for that good spy-glass you
+gave me, I never should have discovered the privateer, and we should not
+have been prepared for her."
+
+"Well, that's fortunate; it didn't prove a glass too much, anyhow, or
+you'd have seen double. I suppose, then, all these pretty things are my
+share of the prize-money."
+
+"No, they are no value, except to prove to you that Poor Jack has not
+forgotten your kindness, and never will."
+
+"That I believe; and, believing that, I suppose you have not forgotten
+old Nanny."
+
+"No; but I have not seen her yet. I intend to go to-morrow; but I have
+something for the doctor. He is not at home; will you give it to him?"
+
+"Certainly; you know I am as good as a mother to him."
+
+"I think the doctor would rather you'd be a wife to him."
+
+"That's a foolish idea that's in many people's heads, Tom, which I'll
+thank you to contradict. I never intend to change my name."
+
+"Don't make too sure," replied I; and I added at a venture (why, I know
+not, but I had formed the idea in my mind that St. Felix was not her
+proper name), "you may change it yet for your real name."
+
+"Tom, Tom," cried the widow, "what do you mean?" "Nothing," replied I,
+"I was only joking." "Well, then, don't talk such nonsense, or I shall
+send you out of the shop."
+
+I had, however, it appeared, struck upon a chord which jarred, and all
+the spirits of Mrs. St. Felix vanished at once. So Virginia and I wished
+her a good-evening and returned home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
+
+     Some little Difference in the Proceeds of this Chapter, and my
+     former "Copper for Poor Jack, your Honor".
+
+
+On our arrival at my mother's, I found a letter from Bramble, stating
+that he would be at Greenwich in two days, and, further, informing me
+that the honorable company had been pleased, in consequence of the
+report made of our good behavior, to award to him the sum of two hundred
+pounds, and to me the sum of one hundred pounds, as a remuneration for
+our assistance in the capture of the privateer.
+
+This was news indeed. One hundred pounds! I never thought that I should
+possess such a sum in my life. One hundred pounds! what should I do with
+it? My mother was astonished, and then fell into a very grave mood.
+Virginia was pleased, but appeared to care less about it than I thought
+she would have done. My father came in as usual with Ben the Whaler, and
+I read the letter.
+
+"Why, Tom, that's about as much prize-money as I have made in all my
+sarvice," said my father, "and you've been afloat only four months.
+Come, missis, send for some beer, and let us drink Tom's health and
+success to him. God bless you, my boy! the papers say you deserved it,
+and that's better than your getting it. I'm proud of you; I am, indeed,
+my boy. Your father's proud of you, Tom"--and here my father showed more
+emotion than ever I witnessed in him before; however, he put his lips to
+the porter-pot, and when he had drained it nearly to the bottom, he had
+quite recovered himself.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Ben, after he had finished the small modicum of beer
+left him by my father, "and what do you mean to do with all that money?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know--I have no want of it--I have everything I wish
+for."
+
+"Come, missis," said my father, "we must have another pot, for I drank
+deep, and Ben has been shared out." My mother very graciously sent for
+another pot of porter, which, with the newspaper, occupied Ben and my
+father till it was time for us to break up and go to bed.
+
+The next morning when I went down I found Virginia alone, my mother
+having returned to her room.
+
+"Tom," said she, "what do you think my mother said to me when we were
+going to bed last night?"
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"She said, 'Tom says he don't know what to do with his money. I only
+wish I had it; I would turn it into three times the sum in three years,
+and have a better home for you, my dear.'"
+
+"Did she say how?"
+
+"Yes, I asked her how; she said that she should take a new house with a
+shop up the town, and set up as a milliner, with apprentices; that, as
+soon as she was fairly employed, she should give up getting up fine
+linen, and only take in laces to wash and mend, which was a very
+profitable business."
+
+"Well," says I, "Virginia, my mother is a hard-working woman, and a
+clever woman, and I dare say she would do very well, and, as she says
+she would have a better home for you, I think I shall let her have the
+money; but I won't say so yet. I must talk about it to Peter Anderson,
+and if he don't say no, she shall have it with pleasure."
+
+"That will be very kind of you, Tom; and I hope mother will feel it, for
+you don't owe her much."
+
+"Never mind that; after breakfast I'll see Peter Anderson. Don't say a
+word about it till I come back."
+
+At breakfast-time my mother still appeared to be very thoughtful. The
+fact was, that the idea of what advantage the money would be had taken
+possession of her mind; and perhaps she thought that there was no chance
+of obtaining it. Perhaps she felt that, had she treated me better, she
+would have had it without difficulty--it was impossible to say exactly.
+
+After breakfast I walked with Virginia to her school, and then set off
+to Anderson, to whom I immediately imparted what had taken place. His
+answer was decided:
+
+"I think, Jack, you can't do better; but, at the same time, let us go to
+your father and hear his opinion."
+
+My father coincided with Anderson and me; and he added, "I tell you
+what, your mother is not parfect exactly--though I say it, as shouldn't
+say it--but still she does work hard, and she will work hard; she has
+paid my little girl's schooling out of her own arnings, and, moreover,
+she has found me one pot of porter at least every night, which has made
+me very comfortable. Now, I've still a matter of forty pounds in the
+lieutenant's hands. I'll add it to Tom's hundred pounds, and then she
+will have a fair start. What d'ye think, Peter?"
+
+"I think you are both right; and, Tom, you are doing your duty."
+
+I knew what Anderson meant. I thanked him for his advice, and my father
+and I went to my mother's house. I requested my father to stand
+spokesman, which he did, ending by telling my mother that my hundred
+pounds and his forty pounds were very much at her sarvice, and good luck
+to her. Virginia's eyes glistened as she took me by the hand. My mother
+replied, "Very well, if we pleased, she would do her best for us all."
+
+The answer was hardly gracious, but I watched her countenance and saw
+she was moved. Her thin lips quivered as she turned away and went
+upstairs, which she did immediately after her reply. In about
+half-an-hour, during which I was laughing with Virginia, my mother came
+downstairs in her shawl and bonnet.
+
+"Tom," said she, in a kind manner, "will you walk with Virginia to
+school this afternoon, as I am going to have some conversation with Mr.
+Wilson?"
+
+The alteration in her tone of voice to me was immediately perceived by
+Virginia.
+
+"You are a dear good Tom," said she, kissing me, as soon as my mother
+had left the house.
+
+As soon as I had left Virginia at school, I went to call upon old Nanny,
+whom I found quite brisk and lively, sorting old keys and rusty hinges.
+
+"Well, Jack," said she, "so you are come at last! I thought you would
+have been here yesterday, but nobody cares about an old woman like me. I
+heard all about you, and how you took the privateer, and how the Company
+have given you a hundred pounds; and when I heard that I said, Jack
+(Poor Jack that was, who came begging to old Nanny to lend him money)
+will not come to see me, he'll be too proud. Besides,' I said, 'his
+family is getting up in the world: there's a baronet and his lady who
+have taken them under their protection, and there's lawyer Wilson calls
+at the house. Oh, dear me! it's the way of us all.'"
+
+"And so you said all that to yourself, did you?" replied I.
+
+"Yes, and a great deal more, too."
+
+"Then, mother, you did me injustice. I could not well come before; I had
+to see my father and mother and my sister, and I had business to
+transact."
+
+"Mercy on us! business to transact! Poor Jack had business to transact!
+Here's a change from the time that his whole business was to touch his
+hat for coppers and dip his head in the mud for a penny."
+
+"Nevertheless, what I say is true, and you are very unjust to accuse me
+as you have done. I have always thought of you, and have now with me
+several things that I have collected for you."
+
+"Yes, you promised me. Jack, you do keep your promises; I will say that
+for you. Well, what have you got?"
+
+I opened my handkerchief and pulled out several little articles, such as
+fine worked baskets, shells, etc., and, among the rest, a pound of tea
+in a leaden canister.
+
+"There, mother, I have brought you them as a present, and I hope you
+will take them."
+
+Old Nanny turned them over one by one, rather contemptuously, as I
+thought, until she came to the tea. "That may do," said she. "Why, Jack,
+those are all very pretty things, but they are too pretty for my shop.
+Why didn't you bring me some empty ginger beer bottles? I could have
+sold them this very morning."
+
+"Why, mother, I really did not like to ask for such things."
+
+"No, there it is; you've grown so fine all of a sudden. These are no
+use, for nobody will come to my shop to buy them."
+
+"I thought you would like to keep them yourself, mother."
+
+"Keep them? Oh, they are keepsakes, are they? Look you, Jack, if they
+are to be kept you had better take them away at once, and give them to
+the young girls. Girls like keepsakes, old women like money."
+
+"Well, mother, sell them if you please; they are your own."
+
+"Sell them? let me see--yes, I think I know where there is a sort of
+curiosity-shop, in Church Street; but it's a long way to walk, Jack, and
+that--let me see," continued she, counting the different articles, "one,
+two, three--seven times, Jack."
+
+"But why not take them all at once?"
+
+"All at once, you stupid boy! I should get no more for two than for one.
+No, no; one at a time, and I may make a few shillings. Well, Jack, it's
+very kind of you, after all, so don't mind my being a little cross. It
+was not on account of the things, but because you did not come to see
+me, and I've been looking out for you."
+
+"If I had thought that, I would have come sooner, mother, although it
+would not have been convenient."
+
+"I believe you, Jack, I believe you; but you young people can't feel as
+an old woman like I do. There is but one thing I love in the world,
+Jack, now, and that's you; and when I get weary of waiting for that one
+thing, and it don't come, Jack, it does make a poor old woman like me a
+little cross for the time."
+
+I was touched with this last speech of old Nanny's, who had never shown
+me any such a decided mark of kindness before. "Mother," said I, "depend
+upon it, whenever I return to Greenwich, you shall be the first person
+that I come to see after I have been to my mother's."
+
+"That's kind, Jack, and you keep your promise always. Now sit down; you
+don't want to go away already, do you?"
+
+"No, mother, I came to spend the whole morning with you."
+
+"Well, then, sit down--take care, Jack, you'll knock down that bottle.
+Now tell me, what do you intend to do with your hundred pounds?"
+
+"I have settled that already, mother. I have given it away."
+
+"Already! Why, the boy has one hundred pounds given him on the morning,
+and he gives it away before night, Mercy on us! who would ever think of
+leaving you any money?"
+
+"No one, mother; and I never expect any except what I earn."
+
+"Why, Jack, do you know how much one hundred pounds is?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Now, Jack, tell me the truth, who did you give it to, your father, or
+your little sister, or who? for I can't understand how a person could
+give away one hundred pounds in any way or to anybody."
+
+"Well, then, I gave it to my mother."
+
+"Your mother! your mother, who has hated you, wished you dead,
+half-starved you! Jack, is that possible?"
+
+"My mother has not been fond of me, but she has worked hard for my
+sister. This hundred pounds will enable her to do much better than she
+does now, and it's of no use to me. Mother may love me yet, Nanny."
+
+"She ought to," replied old Nanny, gravely; and then she covered her
+face up with her hands. "Oh, what a difference!" ejaculated she at last.
+
+"Difference, mother, difference? in what?"
+
+"Oh, Jack, between you and--somebody else. Don't talk about it any more,
+Jack," said Nanny, casting her eyes down to the presents I had brought
+her. "I recollect the time," continued she, evidently talking to
+herself, "that I had plenty of presents; ay, and when it was thought a
+great favor. I would accept them. That was when I was young and
+beautiful; yes, people would laugh if they heard me--young and very
+beautiful, or men's smiles and women's hate were thrown away--
+
+     "'Why so pale and wan, fond lover;
+     Prithee, why so pale?'
+
+"Yes, yes, bygones are bygones."
+
+I was much surprised to hear old Nanny attempt to sing, and could hardly
+help laughing; but I restrained myself. She didn't speak again, but
+continued bent over one of the baskets, as if thinking about former
+days. I broke the silence by saying:
+
+"What part of the country did you live in when you were young, mother?"
+
+"In the north part. But never ask questions."
+
+"Yes, but, mother, I wish to ask questions. I wish you to tell me your
+whole history. I will not tell it again to any one, I promise you."
+
+"But why should you wish to know the history of a poor old thing like
+me?"
+
+"Because, mother, I am sure you must have seen better days."
+
+"And if I have, Jack, is it kind to ask me to bring up to memory the
+days when I was fair and rich, when the world smiled upon me, and I was
+fool enough to think that it would always smile? Is it kind to recall
+what was to an old, miserable, deserted wretch like me, struggling to
+keep out of the workhouse? Look at me now, Jack, and see what I now am.
+Is it not cruel to bring to my mind what I once was? Go to, Jack, you're
+a selfish boy, and I don't love you."
+
+"Indeed, mother, if I thought it would have given you pain, I never
+would have asked you; but you cannot wonder at me. Recollect that you
+have ever been my best friend; you trusted me when nobody else would;
+and can you be surprised at my feeling an interest about you? Why,
+mother, I don't even know your name."
+
+"Well, Jack, you have put things in a better light. I do believe that
+you care for me, and who else does? But, Jack, my name you never shall
+know, even if I am to tell you all the rest."
+
+"Were you ever married, mother?"
+
+"Yes, child, I was married. Now, what's the next question?" continued
+she, impatiently.
+
+"Had you any children?"
+
+"Yes, boy, I had one--one that was a source of misery and shame to his
+doting mother." Old Nanny pressed her eyeballs with her knuckles as if
+in agony.
+
+"I won't ask you any more questions," said I mournfully.
+
+"Not now, Jack, that's a good boy; some other day, perhaps, I'll tell
+you all. There's a lesson in every life, and a warning in too many.
+You'll come again, Jack--yes, I know you'll come to hear my story, so I
+shall see you once more before you leave. Go now." Old Nanny rose and
+went indoors, taking her stool in her hand, and leaving the presents
+where they lay, outside--a proof that she was in great agitation. I put
+them inside the threshold, and then went homeward.
+
+I could not help remarking, as I walked home, that old Nanny's language
+and manner appeared very superior when she broke out in these
+reminiscences of the past, and I felt more interest in her than I ever
+had before. On my return, I found Bramble, who had come down sooner than
+he was expected, sitting in the parlor with Peter Anderson and my
+father, all smoking, with porter on the table.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "here I am two days before my time, but
+that's better than being two days after it, and, what's more, I've got
+the money, both yours and mine. They told me I should not get it for
+three months at least; but I sent up my name to the Board, and explained
+to them that a pilot could not wait like a purser while they were
+passing accounts, so the gentlemen laughed, and gave me an order for it;
+and I've got all my pilotage, too, so I'm a rich man just now. Come,
+I'll give you yours at once, and I hope it may not be the last hundred
+pounds that you'll pick up."
+
+Bramble pulled his leathern case out of his pilot jacket, and counted
+out ten ten-pound notes. "There, Jack, you ought to give me a receipt,
+for I signed for you at the India House."
+
+"Oh, you've plenty of witnesses," replied I, as I collected the notes,
+and, giving them to Virginia, told her to take them to my mother, who
+was upstairs in her room.
+
+"To tell you the truth, Jack, this two hundred pounds, which I earned so
+easily, has just come in the right time, and with it and my pilotage I
+shall now be able to do what I have long wished."
+
+"And what's that?" inquired I. "Something for Bessy, I suppose."
+
+"Exactly, Tom, it is something for Bessy; that is, it will be by-and-by.
+I've a good matter of money, which I've laid by year after year, and
+worked hard for it, too, and I never have known what to do with it. I
+can't understand the Funds and those sort of things, so I have kept some
+here and some there. Now, you know the grass land at the back of the
+cottage: it forms part of a tidy little farm, which is rented for
+seventy pounds a year, by a good man, and it has been for sale these
+three years; but I never could manage the price till now. When we go
+back to Deal, I shall try if I can buy that farm; for, you see, money
+may slip through a man's fingers in many ways, but land can't run away;
+and, as you say, it will be Bessy's one of these days--and more, too, if
+I can scrape it up."
+
+"You are right, Bramble," said Peter Anderson, "and I am glad to hear
+that you can afford to buy the land."
+
+"Why, there's money to be picked up by pilotage if you work hard, and
+aren't afraid of heavy ships," replied Bramble.
+
+"Well, I never had a piece of land, and never shall have, I suppose,"
+said my father. "I wonder how a man must feel who can stand on a piece
+of ground and say, 'This is my own!'"
+
+"Who knows, father? it's not impossible but you may."
+
+"Impossible! No, nothing's impossible, as they say on board of a
+man-of-war. It's not impossible to get an apology out of a midshipman,
+but it's the next thing to it."
+
+"Why do they say that, father?"
+
+"Because midshipmen are so saucy--why, I don't know. They haven't no
+rank as officers, nor so much pay as a petty officer, and yet they give
+themselves more airs than a lieutenant."
+
+"I'll tell you why," replied Anderson. "A lieutenant takes care what he
+is about. He is an officer, and has something to lose; but a midshipman
+has nothing to lose, and therefore he cares about nothing. You can't
+break a midshipman, as the saying is, unless you break his neck. And
+they have necks which aren't easily broken, that's sartain."
+
+"They do seem to me to have more lives than a cat," observed my father,
+who, after a pause, continued: "Well, I was saying how hard it was to
+get an apology out of a midshipman. I'll just tell you what took place
+on board of one ship I served in. There was a young midshipman on board
+who was mighty free with his tongue; he didn't care what he said to
+anybody, from the captain downward. He'd have his joke, come what would,
+and he'd set everybody a-laughing; punish him as much as you please, it
+was all the same. One day, when we were off Halifax Harbor, the master,
+who was a good-tempered fellow enough, but not overbright, was angry
+with this young chap for something that he had not done, and called him
+a 'confounded young bear,' upon which the youngster runs to the
+Jacob-ladder of the main rigging, climbs up, and as soon as he had
+gained the main rattlings he cries out, 'Well, if I'm a bear, you aren't
+fit to carry guts to a bear.' 'What, sir?' cried the master. 'Mutiny, by
+heavens! Up to the masthead, sir, directly.' 'Don't you see that I was
+going of my own accord?' replied the midshipman; for, you see, he knew
+that he would be sent there, so he went up the rigging on purpose. Well,
+this was rather a serious affair, and so the master reports it to the
+first lieutenant, who reports it to the captain, who sends for the
+youngster on the quarter-deck, at the time that the ship's company were
+at quarters. 'Mr. ----' (I forget his name), said the captain (drawing
+himself up to his full height, and perhaps an inch or two above it, as
+they say), 'you have been guilty of disrespect to your superior officer,
+in telling him that he was not fit to carry guts to a bear' (the captain
+could hardly help laughing). 'Now, sir,' continued he, recovering
+himself, 'I give you your choice: either you will make an apology to Mr.
+Owen on this quarter-deck, or you must quit my ship immediately.' 'Sir,'
+replied the midshipman, 'I don't think it quite fair that the master
+should first punish me himself and then complain to you afterward. He
+has taken the law into his own hands already by mastheading me for eight
+hours, and now he makes a complaint to you; but I am always ready to do
+as you wish, and, to please you, I will make an apology.' 'There is some
+truth in your observation,' replied the captain, 'and I have pointed the
+same out to the master; but still, this is a breach of discipline which
+cannot be passed over, and requires a public retraction before the whole
+ship's company. I therefore insist upon your retracting what you have
+said.' 'Certainly, sir,' replied the youngster. 'Mr. Owen,' continued
+he, turning to the master, 'I said that you were _not_ fit to carry guts
+to a bear. I was in the wrong, and I retract with pleasure, for I am
+perfectly satisfied that you _are fit_ to carry them.' 'Sir!' cried the
+captain. 'Oh, Captain G----!' interrupted the master, who did not take
+the joke, 'I'm perfectly satisfied. The young gentleman sees his error,
+and has retracted; I ask no more.' 'If you are satisfied, sir,' replied
+the captain, biting his lips, 'of course I have nothing more to say.
+Youngster, you may go to your duty, and recollect that you never again
+use such expressions to your superior officer,' and, said he in a low
+tone, 'I may add, never venture in my presence to make such an apology
+as that again.'"
+
+I never saw old Anderson laugh so much as he did at this story of my
+father's. They continued to talk and smoke their pipes till about nine
+o'clock, when my father and he went to the hospital, and Bramble took
+possession of a bed which had been prepared for him in my mother's
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
+
+     In which I learn the History of Old Nanny.
+
+
+The next day, as soon as I had finished a letter to Bessy, in which I
+gave her a detail of what had passed, I went to old Nanny's to persuade
+her, if possible, to tell me her history. She was not at home, the door
+of her house was locked and the shutters of the shop fastened. I was
+about to return to Fisher's Alley, when I perceived her hobbling down
+the street. I thought it better to make it appear as if I met her by
+accident; so I crossed over the way and walked toward her. "Well,
+mother," said I, "are you out so early?"
+
+"Ah, Jack, is it you? Yes, it is through you that I have had to take so
+long a walk."
+
+"Through me?"
+
+"Yes, those presents you brought me. I'm almost dead. Why do you bring
+such things? But I did not do badly, that's the truth."
+
+I knew from this admission that old Nanny had sold them for more than
+she expected; indeed, she proved it by saying, as she arrived at her
+house, "Well, Jack, it's very troublesome to have to walk so far; but as
+you cannot get me bottles or those kind of things, you must bring me
+what you can, and I must make the best of them. I don't mind trouble
+for your sake, Jack. Now take the key, unlock the door, and then take
+down the shutters; and mind how you walk about, Jack, or you'll break
+half the things in my shop." I did as she requested, and then we sat
+down together at the door as usual.
+
+"I think I shall go away to-morrow, or early the next morning, mother,"
+said I, "for Bramble is here, and he never stays long from his work"
+
+"That's all right, he sets a good example; and, Jack, if you do go, see
+if you can't beg a few more shells for me. I like shells."
+
+"Yes, mother, I will not forget; but, as this is the last day I shall
+see you for some time, will you not keep your promise to me, and tell me
+your history?"
+
+"Jack, Jack, you are the most persevering creature I ever did see. I'm
+sure I shall be worried out of my life until I tell you, and so I may as
+well tell you at once, and there'll be an end of it; but I wish you had
+not asked me. Jack, I do indeed. I thought of it last night when I was
+in bed, and at one time I made up my mind that I would not tell you, and
+then I thought again that I would; for, Jack, as I said yesterday,
+there's a lesson in every life, and a warning in too many, and maybe
+mine will prove a warning to you, so far as to make you prevent a mother
+from being so foolish as I have been.
+
+[Illustration: NANNY RELATING HER STORY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 275.]
+
+"Now, Jack, listen to me: mine is an old story, but in most cases the
+consequences have not been so fatal. I shall not tell you my name; it
+was once a fair one, but now tarnished. I was the only daughter of a
+merchant and ship-owner, a rich man, and the first person in consequence
+in the seaport town where I was born and brought up. I never knew my
+mother, who died a year after I was born. I was brought up as most girls
+are who have no mother or brothers; in short, I was much indulged by my
+father and flattered by other people. I was well educated, as you may
+suppose; and, moreover, what you may not credit quite so easily, I was
+very handsome. In short, I was a beauty and a fortune, at the head of
+the society of the place, caressed, indulged, and flattered by all.
+This, if it did not spoil me, at least made me willful. I had many
+offers, and many intended offers, which I nipped in the bud, and I was
+twenty-three before I saw any one who pleased me. At last a vessel came
+in consigned to the house, and the captain was invited to dinner. He was
+a handsome careless young man, constantly talking about the qualities of
+his ship, and, to my surprise, paying me little or none of that
+attention which I now considered as my due. This piqued me, and in the
+end I set my affections on him; either he did not or would not perceive
+it, and he sailed without showing me any preference. In six months he
+returned, and whether it was that he was told of by others, or at last
+perceived, my feelings toward him, he joined the crowd of suitors, made
+a proposal in his offhand manner, as if he was indifferent as to my
+reply, and was accepted. My father, to whom he communicated the
+intelligence as carelessly as if he were talking about freight, did not
+approve of the match. 'Very well,' replied he, 'I shall say no more; as
+long as a man has a ship he does not want a wife.' He returned and
+stated what had passed, and my father also spoke to me. I was
+self-willed and determined, and my father yielded. We were married, and
+I certainly had no reason to complain of my husband, who was very kind
+to me. But I was jealous of--what do you think? Of his ship! For he
+cared more for it than he did for me; and three months after our
+marriage, notwithstanding all my tears and entreaties, and the
+expostulations of my father, he would sail again. He offered to take me
+with him, and I would gladly have gone, but my father would not listen
+to it. He sailed, and I never saw him again; his vessel, with all hands,
+foundered, with many others, in a heavy gale. The news did not arrive
+until many months afterward, and I had not been a mother more than six
+weeks when I found that I was a widow. I have passed all this over
+quickly, Jack, because it is of less moment--my trials had not
+commenced.
+
+"The loss of my husband, as may be supposed, only endeared my child the
+more to me, and I wept over him as he smiled upon me in his cradle. My
+father had reverses in his business, but those I cared little for. He
+did, however: he had been the richest man in the town, he was now
+comparatively poor; his pride was crushed, it broke his heart, and he
+died; the whole of his assets at the winding up of his affairs not
+exceeding ten thousand pounds. This was, however, quite enough, and more
+than enough, for me. I thought but of one object--it was my darling boy;
+he represented to me all I had lost; in him I saw my husband, father,
+and everything. I lived but for him. He was my idolatry, Jack. I
+worshiped the creature instead of the Creator.
+
+"As he grew up I indulged him in everything; he never was checked; I
+worried myself day and night to please him, and yet he never was
+pleased. He was so spoiled that he did not know what he wanted. He was a
+misery to himself and all about him, except to me, who was so blinded by
+my love. As he advanced to manhood his temper showed itself to be
+violent and uncontrollable; he was the terror of others, and prudent
+people would shake their heads and prophesy. He would not submit to any
+profession; the only wish that he had was to go to sea, and that was my
+terror. I implored him on my knees not to think of it, but in vain; at
+first he used to threaten when he wanted money for his extravagances,
+and it was a sure way to obtain it; but one day I discovered that he had
+quitted the port without saying farewell, and that he had sailed in a
+vessel bound to the coast of Africa. A short letter and a heavy bill was
+received from Portsmouth, and I did not hear of him for two years. I was
+heartbroken, but not weaned from him; I counted the days for his return.
+At last he came--browned by the climate, full of oaths, savage in his
+bearing, and occasionally referring to scenes which made me shudder; but
+he was my son, my only son, and I loved him as much as ever. He was now
+but seldom at home, for he lived almost at the gaming-tables; if he came
+to me, it was to extort money, and he never failed. I sold out my
+property to support his extravagance, and by degrees it was rapidly
+diminishing. I begged him, I entreated him, to be more prudent, but he
+laughed, and promised to return me all the first lucky hit he should
+make; but that lucky hit never came, and at last I had but two thousand
+pounds left. This I positively refused to part with: the interest of it
+was barely sufficient for my wants; I asked no more, but I expostulated
+and I reasoned with him in vain. He only begged me for five hundred
+pounds; if I sold the money out, he would tell me where I might have as
+good interest for the fifteen hundred pounds as I now received for the
+two thousand pounds. He begged and entreated me, he kissed, and he even
+wept. I could not withstand his importunities: I sold out the money, and
+gave him the sum he wanted; the fifteen hundred pounds I put by in my
+desk, to invest as he had pointed out. That very night he forced the
+lock, took out the money, and left me without a sixpence in the world."
+
+"What a villain!" exclaimed I.
+
+"Yes, you may so. Jack; but who made him such a villain but his foolish
+doting mother? Had I done him justice, had I checked him when young, had
+I brought him up as I ought to have done, he might now have been a
+happiness and a blessing to his mother. I was the person to blame, not
+he; and many years of anguish have I lamented my folly and my
+wretchedness."
+
+"You loved him too much, mother, but it was a fault on the right side."
+
+"No, Jack, that is an error of yours; it was a fault on the wrong side.
+There is no credit to a mother in loving her children, for she cannot
+help it. It is a natural instinct implanted in the mother's heart by the
+Almighty, and in following this instinct we do no more than the beasts
+of the field. The duty of a mother is to check that feeling as far as it
+interferes with the happiness and well-doing of her children, and it is
+her duty to do so, and to punish herself in correcting her children.
+Jack, it is a selfish feeling which induces mothers to spoil their
+children."
+
+"At all events my mother has never spoiled me," replied I.
+
+"No, Jack, she has not; but observe the consequence. You said just now
+that excessive tenderness was a fault on the right side; now, how
+completely have you proved the contrary! I do not intend to defend your
+mother's conduct toward you; she has been unkind to you in your
+childhood, and has never shown the affection that a mother ought; but is
+not her fault a fault on the right side? Jack, you recollect my saying
+'what a difference,' when you told me what you had done for your mother;
+I then referred to my son and to you. I indulged him in everything,
+sacrificed everything, and he robbed me and left me a beggar. Your
+mother has been severe upon you, and yet the first time you have the
+means of showing your duty you give her all the money you have in the
+world. You mother may not be right, Jack, but I was dreadfully wrong,
+and the result has proved it."
+
+"Well, mother, go on, pray."
+
+"My story is now soon told. I struggled on how I could for more than two
+years by selling my furniture and a few ornaments, then the blow came.
+When I heard it I would not remain in the town; I left for London,
+picked up my living how I could and where I could, till at last I came
+down here. Time was as a dream; reflection was too painful. I felt that
+it was all my fault, all my own doing. My heart became hardened, and
+continued so till I loved you, Jack; and now I have better feelings, at
+least I think so."
+
+"But, mother, what was the blow? Is he dead?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, dead--dead on the gibbet. He was hanged for piracy at Port
+Royal, Jamaica. Jack," said Nanny, seizing my hand, and pressing it in
+her long fingers, "this is a secret; recollect, a secret deep as the
+grave; promise me, as you hope for heaven!"
+
+"I do, mother, as I hope for heaven."
+
+"Now, Jack, leave me. Good-by. You will come and see me when you return,
+and never bring this subject up again. Bless you, my child! bless you!"
+
+I left poor old Nanny with her face buried in her apron; and it was in a
+very melancholy mood that I returned home. I could not help thinking of
+the picture in the spelling-book, where the young man at the gallows is
+biting off the ear of his mother, who, by her indulgence, had brought
+him to that disgrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY
+
+     Strong symptoms of Mutiny, which is fortunately Quelled by granting
+     a Supply.
+
+
+It was a beautiful sunshiny warm morning when I arose, and, as Bramble
+intended that we should leave Greenwich the next day, I thought I might
+as well call at the house of Dr. Tadpole, and try if I could see him
+before I went. When I arrived there he was not at home, but my namesake
+Tom was, as usual, in the shop. Tom was two or three years older than
+me, being between seventeen and eighteen, and he had now grown a great
+tall fellow. We always were very good friends, when we occasionally met,
+and he generally appeared to be as good tempered and grinning as ever;
+but when I now entered the shop I found him very grave and dejected, so
+much so that I could not help asking him what was the matter.
+
+"Matter enough, I think," said Tom, who was pounding something in the
+mortar. "I'll not stay here, that's flat. I'll break my indentures, as
+sure as my name's Tom Cob, and I'll set up an opposition, and I'll join
+the Friends of the People Society, and the Anti-Bible Society, and every
+other opposition Anti in the country."
+
+"Why, what has happened, Tom?"
+
+"I'll make speeches against Church and against State, and against the
+Aristocracy, and Habeas Corpus, and against Physic, and against Standing
+Armies, and Magna Charta, and every other rascally tyranny and
+oppression to which we are subjected, that I will!" Here Tom gave such a
+thump with the pestle that I thought he would have split the mortar.
+
+"But what is it, Tom?" inquired I, as I sat down. "What has the doctor
+done?"
+
+"Why, I'll tell you, the liquorice is all gone, and he won't order any
+more."
+
+"Well, that is because you have eaten it all."
+
+"No, I haven't; I haven't eaten a bit for these five weeks: it's all
+been used in pharmacopey, honestly used, and he can't deny it."
+
+"Who used it?"
+
+"Why, I did: he said he wouldn't stand my eating liquorice, and I told
+him that I shouldn't eat any more. No more I have, but I ain't well, and
+I prescribes for myself. Haven't I a right to do that? Mayn't I physic
+myself? I am a doctor as well as he is. Who makes up all the medicine, I
+should like to know? who ties up the bottles and writes directions?
+Well, my insides are out of order, and I prescribes for myself--black
+draughts 'omnes duas horas sumendum'; and now he says that, as the
+ingredients are all gone, I shan't take any more."
+
+"And pray what were the ingredients, Tom?"
+
+"Why, laxative and alterative, as suits my complaint--Extract.
+liquor.--aqua pura--haustus."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"_Liquorice and water_, to be sure; there's nothing else I can take.
+I've tasted everything in the shop, from plate powder to aqua fortis,
+and everything goes against my stomach."
+
+"Well, Tom, it's a hard case; but perhaps the doctor will think better
+of it"
+
+"He'd better, or I'll set up for myself, for I won't stand it any
+longer; it ain't only for myself but for others that I care. Why, I've a
+hankering for Anny Whistle (you know her, don't you?), a pretty little
+girl with red lips--lives in Church Street. Well, as long as I could
+bring her a bit of liquorice when I went to see her all was smooth
+enough, and I got many a kiss when no one was nigh; but now that I can't
+fork out a bit as big as a marble, she's getting quite shy of me, and is
+always walking with Bill, the butcher's boy. I know he gives her bull's
+eyes--I seed him one day buying a ha'p'orth. Now, ain't that hard?"
+
+"Why, certainly, the affair becomes serious; but, still, how you are to
+set up for yourself I don't know. You are not qualified."
+
+"Oh! ain't I? Just as much as most doctors are. There must be a
+beginning, and if I gives wrong medicine at first, then I'll try
+another, and so on, until I come to what will cure them. Soon learn,
+Tom."
+
+"Well, but how will you do about surgery?"
+
+"Surgery? Oh, I'll do very well; don't know much about it just now--soon
+learn."
+
+"Why, would you venture to take off a man's leg, Tom? Do you know how to
+take up the arteries?"
+
+"Would I take off a man's leg? To be sure I would, as quick as the
+doctor could. As for the arteries, why, I might puzzle a little about
+them; but by the time I had taken off three or four legs I should know
+something about them. Practice makes perfect--soon learn, Tom."
+
+"But all your first patients would die."
+
+"I don't know that. At all events I should do my best, and no man can do
+more, and if they did die, why, it would be by the visitation of God,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"Not altogether, I'm afraid. It won't do, Tom."
+
+"It has done from the beginning of the world, and will do. I say there's
+no learning without practice. People spoil at first in every trade, and
+make afterward, and a man ain't born a doctor any more than he is a
+carpenter."
+
+"No, but if I recollect right, to be a surgeon you ought to walk the
+hospital, as they term it."
+
+"Well, and haven't I for these last four years? When I carries out my
+basket of physic I walks the _hospital_ right through, twice at least
+every day in the week."
+
+"That's Greenwich Hospital."
+
+"Well, so it is, and plenty of surgical cases in it. However, the doctor
+and I must come to a proper understanding. I didn't clean his boots this
+morning. I wish, if you see him, Tom, you'd reason with him a little."
+
+"I'll see what I can do, but don't be rash. Good-by, Tom; mind you tell
+the doctor that I called."
+
+"Well, I will; but that's not in my indentures."
+
+I called in at the widow's after I left the doctor's shop, and
+communicated the intended rebellion on the part of Tom.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. St. Felix, "I shall not forget to make the Spanish
+claim, and prevent Tom from walking Spanish. The doctor is very
+inconsiderate; he forgets that Tom's regard for liquorice is quite as
+strong as his own liking for a cigar. Now, if the doctor don't promise
+me to have a fresh supply for Tom, I won't let him have a cigar for
+himself."
+
+The doctor was compelled to surrender at discretion. The next wagon
+brought down one hundred weight of liquorice, and Tom recovered his
+health and the smiles of Anny Whistle.
+
+When I left the widow's I proceeded to the hospital to find Anderson and
+my father. As I walked along I perceived Dick Harness on a bench, who
+hailed me.
+
+"Well, Tom, I haven't seen anything of you for I don't know how long,
+since you've taken to a seafaring life. This is a beautiful day, is it
+not? It makes one feel so happy and cheerful such a day as this.
+Everybody and everything looks gay, the birds seem so merry, and the
+little clouds seem to scud away as if their hearts were as light as
+themselves. Come, sit down a minute; here's a song for you you've never
+heard, one I don't often sing, because they say it's all about myself."
+
+"Well, then, I should like to hear that."
+
+"Here goes, then.
+
+     "Sam Swipes, he was a seaman true,
+       As brave and bold a tar
+     As e'er was dressed in navy blue
+       On board a man-of-war.
+
+     "One fault he had--on sea or land
+       He was a thirsty dog;
+     For Sammy never could withstand
+       A glass or so of grog.
+
+     "He always liked to be at sea,
+       For e'en on shore, the rover,
+     If not as drunk as he could be
+       Was always 'half seas over.'
+
+     "The gunner, who was apt to scoff,
+       With jokes most aptly timed,
+     Said Sam might any day go off,
+       'Cause he was always 'primed,'
+
+     "Sam didn't want a feeling heart,
+       Though never seen to cry;
+     Yet tears were always on the start,
+       'The drop was in his eye.'
+
+     "At fighting Sam was never shy,
+       A most undoubted merit;
+     His courage never failed, and why?
+       He was so full of 'spirit.'
+
+     "In action he had lost an eye,
+       But that gave him no trouble;
+     Quoth Sam, I have no cause to sigh,
+       I'm always 'seeing double.'
+
+     "A shot from an unlucky gun
+       Put Sam on timber pegs;
+     It didn't signify to one
+       Who ne'er could 'keep his legs.'
+
+     "One night he filled a pail with grog,
+       Determined he would suck it;
+     He drained it dry, the thirsty dog!
+       Hiccupped, and 'kicked the bucket.'"
+
+"There's Bill's fiddle, Dick," said I, getting up; "I thought you would
+bring him out."
+
+"Yes, I was sure of that. I'll sing another verse or two, and then be
+off to the park, and leave him in the lurch."
+
+"I can't wait any more, Dick; I must go to my father," said I.
+
+"Well, off with you, then, and I'm off, too. Sing tura la, tura la, tura
+lura la. Bill's coming down. How savage the nigger will be!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
+
+     In which my Father proves he can give good Advice as well as Peter
+     Anderson.
+
+
+I found my father under the colonnade, and inquired of him if Anderson
+was there.
+
+"No, he's not," replied my father; "he has been sent for by the
+officers; so stop, Tom--that is, if you can spare a minute for your own
+father."
+
+"Of course I can," replied I, taking my seat by him.
+
+"Why, you see, boy," said my father, "I have but very little of your
+company, and I feel it, Tom, I do indeed. I'm not jealous, and I know
+that Peter Anderson has done more for you than ever I could, for I've no
+larning to signify; but still, Tom, I am your father, and I don't think
+Peter, although he may be proud of your turning out so well, can feel
+exactly for you what a father does. I'm proud enough of you, Heaven
+knows, and it does hurt me a little when I find that, whenever you come
+here, it is for Peter Anderson, and it makes me wish sometimes that I
+had been Peter Anderson instead of your father."
+
+"Indeed, father," replied I, "I hope you don't think that I like
+Anderson better than I do you; but you recollect that I have been
+accustomed all my life to take his advice."
+
+"I know it, boy, I know it. I was serving my country and doing my duty
+on board of a King's ship, and you were left here, and therefore lucky
+it was that you fell in with old Peter; but, Tom, I could not be in two
+places at the same time, and if I did not do my duty as a father toward
+you, at all events I was doing my duty to my country."
+
+"To be sure you were, and it was of more importance than looking after a
+brat like me," replied I, soothingly, for I really never had the idea
+that my father could have showed so much feeling.
+
+"Why, Tom, I can't say that I thought so, for the fact is I didn't think
+about it; indeed, I thought about nothing. Sailors afloat have little
+time to think; they can't think when it's their watch on deck, for they
+are too busy; nor at their watch below, for they're too tired; nor at
+meal-times, for they must look after their share of the victuals;
+indeed, there is not any time to think on board ship, and that's a fact.
+But, Tom, since I've been laid up here I have thought a good deal. All
+is calm and quiet, and one day passes just like the other, and no fear
+of interruption when one don't wish it--and I have thought a good deal.
+At first I thought it a hard case to be shoved on the shelf at my age,
+but I don't think so now--I'm quite satisfied."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say so, father."
+
+"Yes, Tom. And then, you see, when I was afloat, I didn't think any good
+of your mother, and I was glad to keep out of her way; and then I didn't
+care about my children, for I didn't know them; but now I've other
+thoughts, Tom. I don't think your mother so bad, after all; to be sure,
+she looks down upon me 'cause I'm not genteel; but I suppose I aren't,
+and she has been used to the company of gentlefolk; besides she works
+hard, and now that I don't annoy her by getting tipsy, as I used to
+do, at all events she's civil; and then I never knew what it was to have
+children until I came here, and found Virginia and you; and I'm proud of
+you both, and love you both better than anything on earth; and, although
+I may not be so well brought up or so well taught as you both are,
+still, Tom, I'm your father, and all I can say is, I wish for your sakes
+I was better than I am."
+
+[Illustration: JACK AND HIS FATHER UNDER THE COLONNADE.--Marryat, Vol
+X., p. 289.]
+
+"Don't say so, father. You know that Virginia and I are both as fond of
+you as you are of us."
+
+"Well, mayhap you are; I don't say no. You are both good children, and
+at all events would try to like me; but still I do feel that you can't
+look up to me exactly; but that's my misfortune, Tom, more than my
+fault. I haven't larning like Anderson, or gentility like your mother.
+I've only a true heart to offer to you. You see, Tom, I've said all this
+because you are always after Anderson; not but that I like Anderson, for
+he's a good man, and has been of sarvice to me, and I don't think he
+would ever say anything to you that would make you think less of me."
+
+"No, indeed, father; on the contrary, I once asked him his opinion about
+you, and he spoke most highly of you; and whenever I go to him for
+advice, he always sends me to you to approve of what he has said."
+
+"Well, he is a good man, and I'm very sorry to have any feeling of envy
+in me, that's the truth; but still a father must have a father's
+feelings. Don't let us say anything more about it, Tom; only try next
+time, when you want advice, whether I can't give it. You can always go
+to Peter afterward, and see whether I'm right or wrong."
+
+"I will indeed, my dear father, now I know that you wish it."
+
+I never felt so warm toward my father as after this conversation; there
+was so much affection toward me, and yet so much humility shown by him,
+as respected himself, that I was quite touched with it, and I began to
+think that he really had had occasion to complain, and that I had not
+treated him with that respect which he deserved.
+
+"Now, Tom, I've something to say to you. When Anderson, Bramble, and I
+were taking a pipe together last night, Bramble said that he had a
+letter from the captain of the Indiaman, offering you a berth on board
+as guinea-pig, or midshipman. He said that he had not shown it to you as
+yet, because it was of no use, as he was sure you would not accept it.
+Well, Anderson and I said that at least you ought to know it, and have
+the refusal; and your mother pricked up her ears and said that it was
+much more genteel than being a pilot; so I now put the question to you.'
+
+"Thank you, father; but Bramble was right. I shall not accept of it,
+although I am much obliged to the captain."
+
+Here my father stopped me. "First, Tom," said he, "we must overhaul the
+pros and cons, as people call them. Old Anderson weighed them very
+closely, and now you shall hear them." Here my father commenced a long
+story, with which I shall not tire the reader, as to the prospects on
+either side; but as soon as he had finished I replied:
+
+"That all he said was very true; but that I had made up my mind that, if
+ever I were regularly to serve, it should be in a man-of-war, not in a
+merchant vessel; that it was certainly possible that I might, after
+serving many years, become a captain of an Indiaman, which was a high
+position, but I preferred being a pilot, and more my own master; that if
+there were no other objections, that of being absent for three years at
+a time from him and Virginia would be more than sufficient, and that I
+was very happy where I was, as Bramble and little Bessy were almost
+equal to another father and another sister. A rolling stone gathers no
+moss, they say, father. I have entered into the pilot service, and in
+that I hope to remain."
+
+"Well, you're right, Tom; Bramble said you would decide so. There's
+nothing like being contented with what we are and what we have got."
+
+"I might probably become a richer man if I were to be a captain of an
+Indiaman," observed I; "but I'm sure if ever I'm able to buy a little
+farm, as Bramble is now able to do, I shall think myself quite rich
+enough."
+
+"You see, Tom, it all depends upon what people's ideas are. One man
+thinks himself rich with what another would think that he was a beggar.
+Now I dare say old Nanny thinks that shop of old iron and rubbish that
+she has got together the finest shop in all Greenwich."
+
+"I believe she does, and the prettiest," replied I, laughing.
+
+"Well now, Tom, an odd thing happened the other day while you were away,
+just to prove how true that is. You may recollect a little old man in
+our ward, Phil Nobbs they called him, who walked with his chin half a
+yard before him. Well, he took to the sick ward and died, since you have
+been gone. I went to see him, of course, and he was always talking about
+his property; and none of us knew where it was, but we supposed that he
+had it somewhere. One day, as I was sitting by his bed, he says,
+'Saunders, the doctor's coming round, just tell him I want to make my
+will, for I feel as if I were slipping my wind.' Well, the doctor and
+the chaplain both came to his bedside with the paper, and Nobbs raised
+himself on his elbow, and said, 'Are you ready, sir? Well, then, I'll
+make short work of it. This is my last will and testament: first, I
+wish a white pall over me, when I'm buried, and that expense must be
+deducted, after which I bequeath to my nephews and nieces, James Strong,
+Walter Strong, Ellen Strong, Mary Williams, the one married, Peter
+Strong, all of Rotherhithe, and to Thomas Day, Henry Day, and Nicholas
+Day, of Eltham, the whole of my money and personal effects, _share and
+share alike_, equally divided among them all. There, sir, that will do.
+I can't write, but I'll put my cross to it.' Well, the old fellow died
+that night, and notice of his will was sent to his nephews and nieces,
+who all came on the day of his burial dressed in their best, for they
+were all mechanics and laborers, poor people, to whom, I suppose, a
+legacy was a great object. The chaplain had asked Nobbs where his money
+was, and he replied that it was in the hands of Lieutenant ----, who
+knew all about his affairs. After the funeral they all went in a body to
+the lieutenant, who stated that he had ten shillings belonging to Nobbs,
+out of which seven shillings were to be deducted for the white pall; and
+that as for his other effects, they must be in his cabin, as he never
+heard of his having anything but what was there. So we went to his
+cabin, and there we found five or six penny prints against the wall, two
+pair of old canvas trousers, and an old hat, six cups and saucers,
+cracked and mended; and this was all his property, altogether not worth
+(with the three shillings) more than seven or eight at the outside, if
+so much. You may guess the disappointment of his nephews and nieces, who
+had lost a good day's work and come so far for nothing; and I must say
+they were not very dutiful in their remarks upon their old uncle as they
+walked off. Now you see, Tom, this old fellow had been in the hospital
+for more than twenty years, and had been able to save no more than what
+he had out of his shilling per week, and in his eyes this small
+property was very large, for it was the saving of twenty years. He
+thought so, poor fellow, because he probably had never saved so many
+shillings in his life. There was no joking about it, I can assure you."
+
+"Well, father, I hope I may be able to save more than seven shillings
+before I die; but no one knows. I have made my decision as I think for
+the best, and we must leave the rest to Providence. We never know
+whether we do right or wrong."
+
+"Never, Jack; things which promise well turn out bad, and things which
+look very bad often turn out just as well. I recollect an instance which
+was told me, which I'll give you as a proof that we never know what is
+best for us in this world. A man may plan, and scheme, and think in his
+blindness that he has arranged everything so nicely that nothing can
+fail, and down he lies on his bed and goes to sleep quite satisfied that
+affairs must turn out well as he has ordered them, forgetting that
+Providence disposes as it thinks fit. There was a gentleman by birth, of
+the name of Seton, who lived at Greenock; he was very poor, and although
+he had high friends and relations well-to-do, he was too proud to ask
+for assistance. His wife was equally proud; and at last one day he died,
+leaving her with hardly a penny, and two fine boys of the names of
+Archibald and Andrew. Well, the widow struggled on, how she lived no one
+knew, but she fed the boys and herself, and was just as stately as ever.
+Her relations did offer to educate the boys and send them to sea, but
+she refused all assistance. There was a foundation or chartered school
+at Greenock, to which she was entitled to send her children to be
+educated without expense, and to that school they went. I don't know
+why, but they say the master had had a quarrel with their father when he
+was alive, and the master had not forgotten it now he was dead, and in
+consequence he was very severe upon these two boys, and used to beat
+them without mercy; at all events it did them good, for they learned
+faster than any of the others who were at all favored, and they soon
+proved the best boys in the school. Well, time ran on till Archibald was
+thirteen and Andrew twelve years old, and, being very tired of school,
+they asked their mother what profession they were to be of, and she
+answered, 'Anything except going to sea, for there you will never get
+on.' But times became harder with the widow; she had not enough to give
+the boys to eat, and they complained bitterly; but it was of no use, so
+they got on how they could, until one day Archy says to Andrew, 'Why,
+brother, we have nothing but ferrule for breakfast, dinner, and supper,
+and I see little chance of our getting anything more. Mother, poor soul!
+has not enough for herself to eat, and she very often gives us her
+dinner and goes without. I can't stand it any longer; what shall we do?
+shall we seek our fortunes?'
+
+"'Yes,' says Andrew, 'and when we are gone mother will have enough for
+herself.'
+
+"'Well, they say anything is better than going to sea, but I don't know
+how we can do anything else.'
+
+"'Well, Archy, going to sea may be the worst of all, but it's better
+than taking the victuals out of poor mother's mouth.'
+
+"'That's very true, so we'll be off, Andrew.'
+
+"They walked down to the pier, and then they fell in with the captain of
+a vessel going foreign, and they asked him whether he wanted any boys on
+board.
+
+"'Why,' says he, 'I wouldn't care, but you've never been to sea
+before.'
+
+"'No,' said Archy; 'but there must be a beginning to everything.'
+
+"'Well,' said the captain, 'I suppose you've run away from your friends,
+and, as I can't get apprentices now, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll
+take you on board, and as soon as we get round to another port in the
+Channel, I'll bind you as apprentices for three years. Will you agree to
+that?'
+
+"The boys said 'yes,' and the captain told them that he should sail the
+next morning about daylight, and that they must be down at the pier by
+that time; so they went back again to their mother, and said nothing
+about what had passed. There was no supper that night, which confirmed
+them in their resolution. They kissed their mother, and went up to bed,
+packed up all their clothes, and before she was downstairs the next
+morning they were on board of the vessel.
+
+"Well, they were duly apprenticed when the ship arrived at Weymouth, and
+then off they went. The other men on board were, as usual, very much
+afraid of being pressed, and every plan was hit upon for stowing away
+when they were boarded by a man-of-war. Well, time passed, and after
+many voyages they had both nearly served their time. They were tall,
+stout young men, and looked older than they really were. At last, one
+day, when off the Western Isles, they were boarded by a frigate, and the
+officer who came in the boat asked Archy what he was, and he replied he
+was an apprentice.
+
+"'You an apprentice!' cried he; 'that won't do.'
+
+"'But here are the indentures.'
+
+"'All forged,' cried the officer; 'just get into the boat, my lad.' (You
+see that's a very common trick of officers; if a boy's grown up and fit
+for service, they don't care about indentures.) Well, Archy found it was
+of no use, so he gets his kit and steps into the boat, shaking hands
+with Andrew, who was shedding tears at the thoughts of parting with his
+brother.
+
+[Illustration: A SURPRISE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 297.]
+
+"'It's no use crying, Andrew,' says he; 'I might have been second mate
+in three months, as the captain promised me when my time was up, and
+then I should have been protected, and might have risen from mate to
+captain; but now it's all over with me. May you have better luck, and I
+hope the captain will give you the berth instead of me.' Well, away went
+Archy on board of the man-of-war, looking very gloomy, as you may
+suppose. When he went aft on the quarter-deck the captain asked him his
+name and where he came from.
+
+"'Ah,' said the captain, 'and who are your friends? So Archy told him
+that he had only his mother left. The captain asked him a good many more
+questions as to whether he had been educated or not, and what he knew,
+and then rated him A.B., and put him into the maintop. Well, Archie
+remained there for about six months, and found that a man-of-war was not
+so bad a place after all; and he was well treated by the captain and
+officers, the more so as he was a good scholar. After the cruise was
+over the frigate ran into the Channel, and anchored in Portland Roads,
+where there were a great many vessels wind-bound. As usual, they sent
+round to press the men. Now Archy was one of those sent in the boats,
+and by this time, being a man-of-war's man all over, he was just as
+eager to get the men as the others were. They boarded several vessels,
+and got some men; about dark they boarded one which laid well in the
+offing. The captain was not on board, and the men were turned up, but
+they were very few, and all protected. Now Archy, who was up to the
+hiding-places on board a merchant vessel, goes down with his cutlass,
+and crawls about in the dark, until at last he gets hold of a man by the
+heels. 'Come out, you thief,' cries he, 'come out directly, or I'll give
+you an inch of my cutlass;' so the man, finding that he could not help
+himself, backs out, stern foremost. Archy collars him and takes him on
+deck, when who should it prove to be but his own brother Andrew!
+
+"'Oh, Archy, Archy, I didn't think this of you!'
+
+"'Well, Andrew, I didn't know it was you, but there's no help for it;
+you must come and serve in the maintop along with me, and give up all
+chance of being a mate or captain of a merchant vessel. We're in bad
+luck, that's clear, but it can't be helped.' There was a good laugh on
+board of the man-of-war at Archy pressing his own brother, and the
+captain was very much amused. 'I'm very sorry for it,' said Archy.
+
+"Now the captain was short of midshipmen, and, being obliged to sail
+immediately, he determined to put Archy on the quarter-deck, and so he
+did, while Andrew served in the maintop. But this did not last long. The
+captain, who liked Andrew quite as well, and who knew their family and
+connections, put Andrew also on the quarter-deck; and what was the
+consequence? Why, they are now both post-captains, commanding fine
+frigates. So you see, going on board of a man-of-war, which they
+conceived as their ruin, was the means of their rising to rank and
+riches, for they have been very lucky in the service. I heard Captain
+Archibald tell the story himself one day as I helped at dinner in the
+cabin when I was coxswain with Sir Hercules."
+
+"Well, father, that's a good story to the point, but I do not see that I
+ever have any chance of being a post-captain."
+
+"Don't seem much like it, certainly; but you've a good chance of being a
+pilot."
+
+"Yes, that I certainly have; and a pilot is always respected, go on
+board what ship he may."
+
+"To be sure he is, because he is supposed to have more knowledge than
+any one on board."
+
+"Then I am contented, father, with the prospect of being respectable; so
+there's an end of that business, except that I must write and thank the
+captain for his kindness."
+
+"Just so, Tom. Do you dine with me?"
+
+"No, father. I promised to meet Bramble at the 'Jolly Sailors.' We are
+going up to Mr. Wilson's."
+
+"Ay, about the farm he wants to buy. Well, the clock is striking, so
+good-by till this evening."
+
+I must explain to the reader that Mr. Wilson, having heard of Bramble's
+intention to purchase the farm, very kindly interfered. He had a son who
+was a solicitor at Dover, and he recommended Bramble not to appear
+personally, but let his son manage the affair for him, which he promised
+should be done without expense. The next morning Bramble and I took our
+leave and quitted Greenwich, taking the coach to Dover; for Bramble,
+having a good deal of money in his pocket, thought it better to do so
+than to wait till he could take a ship down the river. On our arrival at
+Dover we called upon Mr. Wilson's son, who had already made inquiries,
+and eventually obtained the farm for Bramble for two hundred pounds less
+than he expected to give for it, and, very handsomely, only charged him
+for the stamps of the conveyance. When we arrived at Deal we found Mrs.
+Maddox quite recovered, and sitting with little Bessy in the parlor
+below.
+
+After Mrs. Maddox and Bessy went upstairs to bed, Bramble said to me, as
+he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, "Tom, I've got this farm for Bessy
+for two hundred pounds less than I expected to give for it. Now, I've
+been thinking about this two hundred pounds, which I consider in a
+manner as her property, and what d'ye think I mean to do with it? I'll
+tell you. I'll give her education as well as money. This sum will keep
+her at a good school for a matter of four years, and I've made up my
+mind that she shall go. I don't like to part with her, that's certain;
+but it's for her good, so all's right. Don't you think so?"
+
+"I do, indeed, father," replied I. "I shall miss her as much as you do;
+but, as you say, it's all right, and I'm very glad that you have so
+decided."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
+
+     In which there is a Hop, Skip, and a Jump.
+
+
+Life has often, and with great truth, been compared to a river. In
+infancy a little rill, gradually increasing to the pure and limpid
+brook, which winds through flowery meads, "giving a gentle kiss to every
+ridge it overtaketh in its pilgrimage." Next it increases in its volume
+and its power, now rushing rapidly, now moving along in deep and
+tranquil water, until it swells into a bold stream, coursing its way
+over the shallows, dashing through the impeding rocks, descending in
+rapids swift as thought, or pouring its boiling water over the cataract.
+And thus does it vary its velocity, its appearance, and its course,
+until it swells into a broad expanse, gradually checking its career as
+it approaches, and at last mingles with the ocean of Eternity. I have
+been led into this somewhat trite metaphor, to account to the reader for
+the contents of this chapter. As in the river, after many miles of
+checkered and boisterous career, you will find that its waters will for
+some time flow in a smooth and tranquil course as almost to render you
+unconscious of the never-ceasing stream; so in the life of man, after an
+eventful and adventurous career, it will be found that for a time he is
+permitted to glide gently and quietly along, as if a respite were given
+to his feelings preparatory to fresh scenes of excitement. Such was the
+case with me for some time. I had now been under Bramble's tuition for
+more than a year and a half, and was consequently between fifteen and
+sixteen years old. The years from 1800 to the end of 1804 were of this
+description in my stream of life, unmarked by any peculiar or stirring
+events worthy of occupying the attention of my readers. It is therefore
+my intention, in this chapter, to play the part of the chorus in the old
+plays, and sum up the events in few words, so as not to break the chain
+of history, at the same time that I shall prepare my readers for what
+subsequently took place.
+
+I will first speak of myself. Up to the age of nineteen I continued my
+career under the care of Bramble; we seldom remained long on shore, for
+neither Bramble nor I found home so agreeable since little Bessy had
+been sent to school, and Mrs. Maddox, assisted by a little girl, had
+charge of the house; indeed, Bramble appeared resolved to make all the
+money he could, that he might the sooner be able to give up his
+profession. Mrs. Maddox I have spoken little of, because I had seen but
+little of her; now that she was downstairs, I will not say I saw, but I
+certainly heard too much of her, for she never ceased talking; not that
+she talked loud or screamed out--on the contrary, she was of a mild
+amiable temper, but could not hold her tongue. If she could not find any
+_one_ to talk to she would talk to any _thing_; if she was making the
+fire she would apostrophize the sticks for not burning properly. I
+watched her one morning as she was kneeling down before the grate:
+
+"Now, stick, you must go in," said she; "it's no use your resisting, and
+what's more, you must burn, and burn quickly too--d'ye hear? or the
+kettle won't boil in time for breakfast. Be quick, you little
+fellow--burn away and light the others, there's a good boy." Here she
+knocked down the tongs. "Tongs, be quiet; how dare you make that noise?"
+Then, as she replaced them, "Stand up, sir, in your place until you are
+wanted. Now, poker, your turn's coming, we must have a stir directly.
+Bless me, smoke, what's the matter with you now? can't you go up the
+chimney? You can't pretend to say the wind blows you down this fine
+morning, so none of your vagaries. Now, fender, it's your turn--stand
+still till I give you a bit of a rub. There, now you're all right.
+Table, you want your face washed--your master has spilled his grog last
+night--there now, you look as handsome as ever. Well, old chair, how are
+you this morning? You're older than I am, I reckon, and yet you're
+stouter on your legs. Why, candle, are you burning all this while? Why
+didn't you tell me? I would have put you out long ago. Come, now, don't
+be making a smell here--send it up the chimney."
+
+Thus would she talk to everything. We only had two animals in the
+house--a cat and a canary bird: of course they were not neglected, but
+somehow or another the cat appeared to get tired of it, for it would
+rise and very gently walk into the back kitchen; and as for the canary
+bird, like all other canary birds, as soon as he was talked to be would
+begin to sing, and that so loud that Mrs. Maddox was beaten out of the
+field. Bramble bore with her very well, but at the same time he did not
+like it: he once said to me, "Well, if Bessy were at Deal, I think I
+would take a short spell now; but as for that poor good old soul, whose
+tongue is hung on the middle and works at both ends, she does tire one,
+and that's the truth." But she really was a good-natured, kind creature,
+ready to oblige in everything; and I believe that she thought that she
+was amusing you when she talked on in this way. Unfortunately she had no
+anecdote, for she had a very bad memory, and therefore there was nothing
+to be gained from her. By way of amusing me, she used to say, "Now, Tom,
+sit down here, and I'll tell you all about my bad leg." And then she
+would commence with the first symptoms, the degrees of pain, the various
+plasters, bandages, and poultices which had been applied, and what the
+doctor had said this day and that day. I bore this very patiently for
+four or five times; but at last, after several days of increasing
+impatience (somewhere about the fifteenth time, I believe), I could
+stand it no more, so I jumped off my chair and ran away just as she
+commenced the interesting detail.
+
+"Mrs. Maddox," said I, "I cannot bear to hear of your sufferings; pray
+never mention them again."
+
+"What a kind-hearted creature you are!" said she. "Well, I won't, then.
+It's not many who have such pity in them. Cotton, where have you got
+to--always running away? One would think you don't like to be knitted.
+Now, cotton, don't be foolish; where have you hid yourself? You make
+others as bad as yourself. Scissors have got away now--there now, sit on
+my lap and be quiet."
+
+However, if Mrs. Maddox got back cotton and scissors, she did not get me
+back, for I bolted out of the front door, and joined the men who were
+lolling against the gunnel of a galley hauled up on the shingle.
+
+During the period of which I am speaking, I continued every day to add
+to my knowledge of my profession, and eventually I was competent to pass
+my examination at the Trinity House. When I went on board a vessel with
+Bramble, he would often give me charge of her, never interfering with me
+(although he watched me carefully) unless he considered that it was
+absolutely necessary, which I believe took place but twice. He used to
+tell the masters of the vessels that I was quite as good a pilot as he
+was, which certainly was not quite correct; however, it was of great
+consequence to me, as it gave me that confidence so necessary in my
+profession, and in due time I passed for a river pilot at the Trinity
+House. Some alteration occurred at the hospital during this interval.
+Anderson had been promoted from boatswain of the ward to inspecting
+boatswain, a place of trust, with very comfortable emoluments, his
+weekly allowance being increased to five shillings; and on his promotion
+my father was made a boatswain's mate of the Warriors' Ward. This was at
+first satisfactory to my mother, who was pleased that my father should
+wear lace upon his pensioner's coat; but, as she advanced in the world,
+she did not like the idea of my father being in the hospital, nor did
+she want him to be at her house--in fact, she could have done better
+without him; but as that could not be she made the best of it. It must
+be acknowledged that my father's boisterous and rude manner had been
+softening down ever since he had been in the hospital, and that he had
+become a very well-behaved, quiet, and sober person, and was very
+respectable in his appearance; but I shall say more about him when I
+talk of my mother again. Old Nanny went on much as usual, but on the
+whole she improved. I used to pick up for her anything I could, and put
+it in a large bag which I occasionally brought to Greenwich, and this
+bag, with its multifarious contents, would give her more pleasure than
+if I had brought her any single object more valuable. Old Anderson used
+to call upon her occasionally, but he did not do her much good. She
+appeared to think of hardly anything but getting money. She was always
+glad to see me, and I believe thought more of me than anybody else in
+the world, and I seldom failed to pay her a visit on the first day of my
+arrival.
+
+Dr. Tadpole and his apprentice Tom went on pretty well together until
+the hundredweight of liquorice was expended, and then there was a fresh
+rising on the part of the injured and oppressed representative of the
+lower orders, which continued till a fresh supply from London appeased
+his radical feelings which had been called forth, and then the liquorice
+made everything go on smoothly as before; but two years afterward Tom
+was out of his time, and then the doctor retained him as his assistant,
+with a salary added to his board, which enabled Tom to be independent of
+the shop, as far as liquorice was concerned, and to cut a very smart
+figure among the young men about Greenwich; for on Tom's promotion
+another boy was appointed to the carrying out of the medicine as well as
+the drudgery, and Tom took good care that this lad should clean his
+boots as well as the doctor's, and not make quite so free with the
+liquorice as he had done himself. I found out also that he had cut Anny
+Whistle.
+
+Mrs. St. Felix continued to vend her tobacco, and I never failed seeing
+her on my visits to Greenwich. She appeared to look just as young as she
+did when I first knew her, and every one said that there was no apparent
+alteration. She was as kind and as cheerful as ever; and I may as well
+here remark that during this period a great intimacy had grown up
+between her and my sister Virginia, very much to the annoyance of my
+mother, who still retained her feelings of ill-will against Mrs. St.
+Felix--why, I do not know, except that she was so good-looking a person,
+and such a favorite with everybody. But my father, who, when he chose,
+would not be contradicted, insisted upon Virginia's being on good terms
+with Mrs. St. Felix, and used to take her there himself; and Virginia,
+who had never forgotten the widow's kindness to me, was extremely
+partial to her, and was much more in her company than my mother had any
+idea of, for Virginia would not vex my mother unnecessarily by telling
+her she had been with the widow unless she was directly asked.
+
+It was about four months after my father and I had given our money to my
+mother that I returned to Greenwich. A letter from Virginia had
+acquainted me with the street and the number of the house which my
+mother had taken, and I therefore walked from the beach right to it; and
+I must say that when I came to the new abode I was very much surprised
+at its neat and even handsome appearance. The ground-floor was fitted up
+as a shop with large panes of glass, and inside upon stands were
+arranged a variety of bonnets and caps, set off with looking-glass and
+silk curtains, in the arrangement of which no little taste was
+displayed. Behind the show goods was a curtain hanging on a brass rod,
+drawn so as to conceal the workpeople who were within. There was a
+private door as well as a shop door, and I hardly knew which I was to go
+in at; however, as the shop door required no knocking, I went into that,
+and found myself in the company of eight young damsels, very busy at
+their needles, sitting on each side of a long table covered with
+half-made dresses. I inquired of them whether my mother was at home, and
+was answered by one, who was apparently the eldest, that she was down
+below getting the breakfast ready.
+
+"I suppose," continued she, "you are Mr. Tom Saunders, the pilot?"
+
+"I suppose I am," replied I; "and pray who are you?"
+
+"I am Miss Amelia Gozlin, apprentice to Mrs. Saunders, milliner--at your
+service, sir; and, in consequence of my being so very quiet and sedate,
+I have charge of all these young ladies you see with me."
+
+Here the others burst into a laugh.
+
+"They are in very good hands, Miss Amelia," replied I, "and under your
+care, and with your example, I have no doubt but they will turn out very
+useful members of society."
+
+"Thank you, sir; but allow me to say that I cannot permit young men,
+especially such enchanting young men as Mr. Tom Saunders, to remain
+here; as, if I do, your amiable mother would give me what is genteelly
+termed a wigging; so if you will be pleased, sir, just to remove
+yourself from our presence," continued she, with a mock courtesy, "and
+not make your appearance here again until you are certain your mother is
+gone out, you will oblige us very much."
+
+I obeyed the wishes of Miss Amelia Gozlin, who certainly was a very
+handsome girl, with fine black eyes, apparently about fifteen years old.
+I walked into the passage, and found my way down into the kitchen, where
+my mother and Virginia were employed as they had told me above. My
+mother received me kindly, but said little, for she appeared to be fully
+occupied; and Virginia had no time to dedicate to me until the breakfast
+was ready, when she called the apprentices, and we all sat down
+together, Miss Amelia and her companions looking so demure, that, if I
+had not seen them before, I should have thought that they could not
+speak.
+
+After breakfast was over Virginia showed me the house. The first floor
+was to let furnished, the second was occupied by my mother and Virginia,
+and the attics were appropriated to the apprentices. Everything appeared
+clean, neat, and well arranged, and I could not imagine how my mother
+had contrived to do so much with so little money; but Virginia told me
+that she thought Mr. Wilson had assisted her.
+
+When I returned, which might have been in six months, I found a great
+improvement, and every appearance of my mother succeeding well in her
+speculations. She had now a maid-servant, and her apprentices were
+increased to twelve, and there was every appearance of brisk and full
+employment.
+
+In 1803 I found that Virginia, who was then fourteen years old, had left
+school. She had told my mother that, during the last half-year, she had
+only repeated over again what she had learned the half-year before, and
+that she thought she could employ her time better at home in assisting
+her. My mother was of the same opinion, and Virginia now superintended
+the cutting-out department, and was very useful. She said that the
+increase of business had been very great, and that my mother could
+hardly execute the orders which she received. There were now two
+servants in the house, and additional workwomen. My mother also had very
+much altered in appearance: before, she was usually clean and neat, now
+she was well if not elegantly dressed, and appeared much younger and
+better looking. I must do her the justice to say that prosperity had not
+spoiled but improved her: she was more kind and more cheerful every time
+that I went to see her; and I may add that, with the exception of a
+little necessary castigation to Miss Amelia and her companions, she
+never scolded, and was kind to her servants. The last year she had been
+even more successful, and was now considered the first milliner in the
+town. I believed that she deserved her reputation, for she had a great
+deal of taste in dress; and when she had gone upstairs to decorate
+previous to the hour of arrival of her customers, and came down in a
+handsome silk dress and an elegant morning cap, I would often look at
+her with surprise, and say to myself, "Who would think that this was my
+mother, who used to shove the broom at me in the little parlor at
+Fisher's Alley?"
+
+The reader may inquire how my father and mother got on after such an
+alteration in her circumstances. I can only reply that they got on
+better than they did before; for my mother, who did not wish my father's
+company in the house, pointed out to him that, with so many young people
+living with her, it would be very inconvenient if he came there in the
+evenings to smoke his pipe, and that it would be better if he could
+smoke and drink his beer anywhere else. My father perceived the
+propriety of this, and assented with a good grace: my mother was very
+liberal to him, and he was now enabled, when he chose, to ask a
+companion or two to join him, so that it suited both parties. My father,
+therefore, never came to the house, except after the hospital supper,
+when he remained a few minutes to see Virginia, and then departed. On
+Sundays he spent the whole day there, and was kindly welcomed, but he
+always left in the evening to smoke his pipe elsewhere. As for me, when
+I did come I was always kindly received, and slept in a spare bed on the
+same floor with my mother and Virginia. Before my time was out I was too
+well supplied by Bramble ever to want anything, and afterward I made
+plenty of money, and seldom came home without bringing a present both to
+my mother and Virginia.
+
+Having thus given a general outline of affairs, I shall in the next
+chapter enter more minutely into some particulars, without which the
+detail of events will not be complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
+
+     In which the _sine quá non_ of all Novels is, for the first time,
+     introduced.
+
+
+In the last chapter I have said in few words that Bessy Godwin had been
+sent to school, and had since returned home. She had been home nearly a
+year before the period to which I brought up my history, but now she no
+longer was employed in any menial service, the girl who had been hired
+during her absence being still retained. Bessy now superintended the
+household, but did nothing more; and there was a greater degree of
+comfort and expenditure than had formerly been the case. Whether this
+was on Bessy's account, or from Bessy's imbibed ideas, I cannot pretend
+to say; but certainly there was a great change in our style of living,
+which Bramble appeared to sanction. Mrs. Maddox remained as a mere
+pensioner, sitting by the fire, and perhaps finishing a pair of
+stockings about every five or six weeks, talking as usual at and to
+everybody and with everything. In another point, also, there was a
+change in Bramble's house: it was much oftener filled with company; this
+was, I presume, to be ascribed to Bessy's personal charms, which
+certainly were very great. She was of a peculiar and much admired style
+of beauty, a description which strikes some people at first sight, and
+not others--those not perceiving it at first eventually admiring it even
+more than the others. She was taller than the middle height, her person
+finely developed, yet not so much so as to take away from its grace: her
+complexion was pale and clear, her eyes and hair very dark; there was a
+coldness about her beauty when in repose, like statuary marble; but if
+the least excited or animated, the color would mantle in her cheek; her
+eyes would beam, till they appeared as if, like bright planets, they
+could almost cast a shadow; and dimples, before concealed, would show
+themselves when she indulged in her silvery laugh. Although her form was
+commanding, still she was very feminine: there was great attraction in
+her face, even when in repose--she was cold, but not chilling.
+
+I had seen little of her for three years, during which she had sprung up
+to womanhood, for she was now seventeen, and appeared to be at least
+eighteen years old. Before, when we were living together, we kissed as
+brother and sister: since we had again become inmates of the same house,
+we had been friends, but nothing more. Bessy certainly showed as great a
+preference to me as our relative situations would admit; but still it
+appeared as if the extreme intimacy of childhood had been broken off,
+and that it was necessary that a renewed intimacy under another aspect
+should take place, to restore us to our former relations. Here it was
+for me to make the first overtures; not for her, as maidenly reserve
+would not permit it. Bramble seemed to be most anxious that such should
+be the case--indeed, considered it as a matter of course: perhaps Bessy
+thought so too in her own bosom; and the continual raillery of Bramble
+did more harm than good, as it appeared to warrant her thinking that it
+ought to be so. Why it was not I will now explain to the reader.
+
+I have already made mention of Mr. Wilson, the lawyer, whose
+acquaintance we procured through Sir Hercules and his lady. This
+intimacy had very much increased; and a Miss Janet Wilson had come home
+from a finishing seminary near town. Between this young lady and my
+sister Virginia a certain degree of intimacy had been formed, and of
+course I had seen a great deal of her at the times when I was at
+Greenwich. She was a very pretty and very diminutive girl, but
+beautifully proportioned, although so very small; indeed, she was
+considered quite a model in figure, at least my mother used to say so,
+and I never heard any one disagree with her. Janet had, moreover, large
+eyes, penciled eyebrows, and a dimpled chin. Now, as Bessy was away at
+the time when I first made her acquaintance, if all these perfections
+were not enough for me to fall in love with, I must have been difficult
+to please at the age of eighteen, when one is not so very difficult; and
+the consequence was, I was her most devoted slave. Mr. Wilson laughed at
+us, and seemed either to think that it would end in nothing, or that if
+it did end in something he had no objection. Thus was I fixed; and with
+Virginia for a confidante, what was to prevent the course of true love
+running smooth? Janet received all my sighs, all my protestations, all
+my oaths, and all my presents--and many were the latter, although
+perhaps not equal to the former three. It was, therefore, not surprising
+that Bessy, who had been out of the way, had been forestalled by this
+diamond edition of Nature's handiwork. Such was the state of my heart at
+the commencement of the year 1805.
+
+I have mentioned that my mother had taken a house in the principal
+street; but I must now add that in the year 1804 she found it necessary
+to remove into one much larger, and had therefore shifted more to the
+upper part of the town. Instead of being in a row, this house was
+detached, with a small garden in front and a good piece of ground at the
+back, which looked down toward the river. The situation not being so
+central did no harm to my mother, as she was so well known; on the
+contrary, it made her even more fashionable. She now kept no shop, but a
+show room; and had not only accommodation for more workpeople, but very
+handsome apartments to let. In another point it was advantageous, which
+was on account of my father. At the end of the garden there was an
+octangular summer-house, looking upon the river: it was a good-sized
+room, boarded floor, and, moreover, it had a fireplace in it, and when
+shut up was very warm and comfortable. My mother made this house over to
+my father as his own, to smoke and drink beer in; and my father
+preferred a place in which he could sit alone with his friends, to a
+public house, especially as the garden had a gate at the end of it by
+which he could admit himself whenever he pleased. Here my father, Ben
+the Whaler, Anderson, and others would sit, having a commanding view of
+the Thames and the vessels passing and repassing--in the summer-time,
+with all the windows open, and enjoying the fresh air and the fresh
+smoke from their pipes--in winter-time surrounding the fire and telling
+their yarns. It was an admirable arrangement, and Virginia and I always
+knew where to find him.
+
+I have said but little of my sister Virginia. I may be considered
+partial to her--perhaps I was; but to me she was, if not the handsomest,
+certainly one of the most captivating persons I ever saw: to prove that
+I thought so, I can only say that, deeply as I was smitten with Miss
+Janet Wilson, I often thought that I wished she was a facsimile of my
+sister. Virginia was now seventeen years old, slender and very
+graceful: she reminded me more of an antelope in her figure than
+anything I can compare her to; her head was so beautifully placed on her
+shoulders that it was the first thing which attracted your notice when
+you saw her. Her eyes were of a deep hazel, fringed by long black
+eyelashes, and her arching and delicate eyebrows nearly met; her nose
+was perfectly straight, but rather small; and her face ended in a sharp
+oval, which added to the brilliancy and animation of her countenance;
+her mouth was small and beautifully formed, and her little teeth like
+seed pearl. Every one declared that she was the handsomest creature that
+ever they had seen; and what every one says must be true. She was so;
+but she was not always lively--she was only so at times: she appeared to
+be of a serious, reflective turn of mind, and she read a great deal; but
+at times she was mirth personified. To my mother she was always dutiful
+and attentive, and was very useful to her.
+
+I could not at first imagine what made my mother so anxious to have
+lodgers in the house, as they must have proved a great nuisance to her,
+and her circumstances were above such an infliction. It was not long
+before I discovered the cause of this: it was no other but to make up
+some good match for my sister, whose beauty she considered would effect
+her purpose. Many were the applications for her lodgings, made by highly
+respectable gentlemen; but when she discovered, either that they were
+married, or that in other points they did not suit, she invariably
+refused, and for months her apartments continued vacant; but if anybody
+at all aristocratical, who was single, wished to inspect them, my mother
+was all smiles and eagerness. It may be supposed that she was not likely
+to meet with such people as she solicited at such a town as Greenwich,
+but such was not the case: before steamboats made Greenwich so
+come-at-able there were many families of distinction who resided there
+and in its environs--especially in the autumn of the year, when the
+river offered much amusement. It was just at that period that the
+whitebait parties became so much in vogue, and Greenwich was considered
+a pleasant retreat for a few months by many of the fashionable world.
+
+Although Virginia never mentioned her surmises directly, I perceived, by
+her occasional remarks, that she had latterly become aware of what were
+my mother's views; indeed, how could she do otherwise, when my mother
+would refuse her lodgings one day to a gentleman because he was married,
+and let them the next time merely because he was a single man? And that
+she was disgusted with my mother's conduct I was convinced; at the same
+time, she certainly kept her thoughts to herself, merely telling me how
+very uncomfortable it was to have lodgers, and to be obliged to go into
+their rooms with messages from my mother. There was an Honorable Mr.
+----, I really forget his name--indeed, I should not have mentioned him,
+except that he was the introduction of another personage who was several
+months in my mother's house, a harmless old bachelor. How old he was I
+cannot say, as he wore a very youthful wig and also false whiskers, but
+I should think about sixty. He was a great admirer of the fine arts, and
+a still greater admirer of his own performances in painting. He took
+lessons twice a day from two different masters, who came from London,
+and he was at it from morning to night. He came down to Greenwich, as he
+said, to study _tints_, and get up his coloring. I cannot say I thought
+his performances very good, but perhaps I was not a judge. My mother,
+who would, I believe, have sacrificed my sister to an ourang outang,
+provided he was an Honorable, took every opportunity of sending Virginia
+in to him, that he might study the delicate tints on her cheeks; but it
+would not do, even if Virginia had been a party to it. He looked at his
+palette instead of her pretty mouth, and his camelhair pencils attracted
+his attention more than her penciled eyebrows. He was wrapped up in his
+art, and overlooked the prettiest piece of nature in the world; and
+Virginia, seeing this to be the case, had no longer any objection to go
+into his room. But this gentleman had a nephew, a very different sort of
+a personage, a young heir to a marquisate, who used to pay attention to
+his bachelor uncle by paying him visits, at first because he was ordered
+so to do, and after once or twice because he had seen Virginia, and was
+struck with her appearance. He was a good-looking young man, about
+nineteen, but not very bright--indeed, I ought to say very silly,
+although at the same time not at all bashful. He made an acquaintance
+with my mother, who was delighted with his condescension, and declared
+that he was one of the most pleasant young men she had ever met with;
+and he would have been very intimate with Virginia had she not repulsed
+him. As soon as the leaves dropped off the trees the old bachelor
+declared that there were no more tints worth remaining for, and he took
+his departure. About a month afterward his nephew came down, accompanied
+by a young man who was his tutor, and hired the apartments, much to the
+joy of my mother, who now had hopes, and much to the annoyance of my
+sister, who had fears of being persecuted.
+
+And now, having in this chapter brought up my history to the
+commencement of the year 1805, I shall again enter into a more detailed
+narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
+
+     More Cry than Wool--Bramble would dig a Pit for another, and
+     tumbles in along with him.
+
+
+It was in the month of March, 1805, when the easterly winds prevailed,
+and vessels were detained in the Chops of the Channel, that I agreed
+with Bramble that we would return together and halve the pilotage. About
+eight leagues from the Lizard Point we boarded a small ship which had
+hoisted the signal, the weather at that time being fine and the wind
+variable. When we went on board it was but just daylight, and the
+captain was not yet on deck, but the mate received us. We were surprised
+to find that she mounted twelve brass guns, remarkably well fitted, and
+that everything was apparently ready for action, rammers and sponges,
+shot and wadding being all up and at hand.
+
+"A prime morning, shipmate," said Bramble; then casting his eye over the
+deck, "A letter of marque, I presume?"
+
+"Yes," replied the mate, "we have the papers, but still she has never
+run without convoy since I have been in her; we lost our convoy three
+days back, and the captain has been rather uneasy ever since."
+
+"Uneasy! why, I should think that you could beat off a good stout
+privateer with these guns of yours?"
+
+"Well, I don't know but what we might, but our cargo is valuable, and we
+might be overpowered."
+
+"Very true, and the captain must be anxious. Where are you from?"
+
+"Smyrna."
+
+"What's your cargo?"
+
+"Why, we have raw silk and drysalters' goods chiefly. D'ye think we
+shall have a fair wind? I don't care how soon, for we've at least twenty
+passengers on board, and our provisions and water are running rather
+short. Here's the skipper."
+
+The captain, who now made his appearance, was a tall good-looking young
+man about thirty, dressed rather fantastically, as I thought, having a
+laced cap on his head and a party-colored silk sash round his waist,
+such as they wear in the Mediterranean.
+
+"Well, pilot, what do you think of the wind?"
+
+"Well, sir, I expect we'll have a slant which will enable us to fetch
+well to windward of the Lizard, at all events, and then, when the tide
+turns inshore, we must stand out again."
+
+"Mr. Stubbs, turn the hands up to make sail."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate.
+
+The men came on deck, but the captain roared out for the idlers; these
+were the passengers who had agreed to work during the passage: at last
+they came up, a queer-looking set, and the captain sending down for his
+speaking-trumpet, sail was made on the ship.
+
+"Why, captain," said Bramble, "you do it in man-of-war fashion."
+
+"Well, I've not served the King for seven years for nothing," replied
+he, "and I hope, sir, not heard the bullets whistling about my head like
+hail in a hailstorm without knowing how to take care of my ship. I like
+everything man-of-war fashion, and then one's always prepared. Where's
+the boatswain? Pipe to breakfast."
+
+"You've plenty of hands on board, mate," said Bramble.
+
+"Yes, plenty of them, such as they are; we've twenty of the ship's
+company, and twenty-five passengers from Malta."
+
+After breakfast the captain ordered up the small-arm men; five seamen
+and fifteen of the passengers made their appearance with their muskets,
+which were examined, and they were dismissed. At eleven o'clock, as we
+neared the land, the men were ordered to quarters, the guns cast loose,
+and they were exercised as on board of a man-of-war, the captain giving
+his orders with his speaking-trumpet. "Double-shot your guns! Run out!
+Point your guns! Fire! Repel boarders on the bow! Repel boarders on the
+quarter!" etc. This continued for more than two hours, when the guns
+were again secured.
+
+"Well, pilot," said the captain to Bramble, "what do you think? do you
+fancy a privateer could take us in a hurry?"
+
+"Why, captain, if the men fight, I should say not; but, you see, these
+guns, handsome as they are, won't fight of themselves."
+
+"I'll answer for the men fighting; they'll have but their choice--fight,
+or the contents of my pistol through the first man's head who quits his
+gun. I'll nail the colors to the mast, and see who will be the man who
+will haul them down. Why, pilot, this vessel is insured at thirty
+thousand pounds."
+
+"Then she'll be a famous prize, if they should contrive to take her,
+that's all," said Bramble. "Halloo! what vessel's that coming down? Tom,
+hand your glass here."
+
+"I haven't got it with me."
+
+"Well, give me that one on the skylight. I can't make her out, but I
+don't much like the looks of her."
+
+"Heh! what's that?" said the captain. "Let me look--oh, she's a
+square-rigged vessel, ain't she?"
+
+"Can't tell," said Bramble.
+
+The mate, who had fetched his glass from below, looked at her, and said
+it was a coasting schooner.
+
+"Are you sure of that?" said the captain. "Let me see. Well, I don't
+know what to say--she does look rakish. I'll go forward and make her
+out."
+
+"Why, it's a coaster, Bramble," said I, as the captain walked forward.
+
+"I know that," replied Bramble, with a wink.
+
+The captain returned, probably satisfied that it was only a coaster, but
+he did not choose to say so, "Well, I don't know what to make of her,
+but at all events there's nothing like being ready. She's coming down
+fast upon us; Mr. Stubbs, we'll beat to quarters."
+
+Again the people were called up and the guns cast loose; the powder was
+handed up, and all was preparation. I did not think, however, that the
+passengers appeared at all zealous; but that I was not surprised at: the
+captain harangued them, calling them Britons, etc., and, hoping that
+they would show what stuff they were made of; talked about the honor of
+Old England, and a great deal more, and then examined the vessel again
+with his glass. "We'll give her the starboard broadside, and then wear
+round his stern and give her the other. Hoist the colors!"
+
+As soon as we hoisted the colors, the schooner hoisted English colors
+also.
+
+"English colors, sir!" said the mate, grinning.
+
+"English colors, heh? Very well; but that may be a feint--keep to your
+guns, my lads."
+
+The vessel now ran by us; she was deeply laden, and as broad as she was
+long.
+
+"No privateer this time, captain," said Bramble, laughing.
+
+"No, all's right; secure the guns, my lads. We'd have given her a nice
+peppering if she'd been a French privateer."
+
+The captain then went down below to put away his sword and pistols,
+which the cabin-boy had brought on deck.
+
+"It's my opinion, Tom," said Bramble, "that this skipper ain't quite so
+fond of fighting as he pretends to be. I'll see if I can't frighten him
+a little."
+
+As soon as the captain came on deck again, Bramble said, "We'll go
+about, if you please."
+
+"What! about already? why, we're good three leagues from the shore."
+
+"Yes, sir, but the tide has made, and we must now make a long
+stretch-out toward the French coast. We won't tack again till about
+dark."
+
+"Not tack till dark, pilot? Surely we will do better keeping on the
+English coast."
+
+"No, no, sir; if we were not so well manned and so well armed I should
+do it; but, as we are a match for any privateer, why, we may as well
+make a long leg--we shall be up Channel sooner."
+
+"Well, I don't know what to say. I've a heavy responsibility with such a
+valuable cargo."
+
+"Well, tack if you please, sir," said Bramble, shortly.
+
+"Oh, certainly. Hands, about ship."
+
+The vessel's head was put off-shore, and with a smart breeze we walked
+away fast from the land. At twelve o'clock the captain proposed
+standing inshore again, but Bramble refused. At three o'clock he became
+very uneasy, and expostulated with Bramble, who replied, "Well, sir, I'm
+doing all for the best, but if you are afraid--"
+
+"Afraid?" cried the captain; "afraid of what, I should like to know? No,
+I'm not afraid, but it appears to me that we ought to make the land
+again before night."
+
+"I'll answer for knowing where we are, sir, if that is your reason; at
+all events, I wish to stand out till six o'clock."
+
+"Well, do so, then, if you choose--I'm sure I don't care if you stand to
+within gunshot of the French coast;" and the captain, evidently very
+much annoyed, went down into the cabin.
+
+About half-past four o'clock the mate came aft and took up the glass,
+saying that there was an awkward-looking craft on the weather bow. He
+came aft again, and said, "Pilot, I wish you would take a squint at that
+craft, for I don't much like the look of her."
+
+Bramble went forward, and I followed him. "I say, Tom, that's a French
+privateer, as sure as we stand here," said he. "Look at her. Well, now
+we shall see what these guns are made of."
+
+"Don't put too much trust in them," said the mate. "I know what sort of
+people we have here. Had we only ten good men I wouldn't care for a
+privateer, but I'm afraid that we have not many we can trust to.
+However, we'll do our best, and we can do no more. I'll go down and tell
+the captain."
+
+"It is a Frenchman," replied I, "and no mistake--every rope and every
+sail on her are French;" for the vessel, which was a lugger, was not
+more than four miles from us.
+
+"Well," replied Bramble, "it would be odd if we were to be taken into a
+French port after all, wouldn't it? not very pleasant, though."
+
+"We've men enough to beat her off, or two of her, if that's all,"
+replied I.
+
+"Yes, Tom, but I doubt the captain, and without example men don't fight
+well. However, we'll do our best, and if he flinches we won't."
+
+The captain now came forward as red as a turkey-cock; he said nothing,
+looked at the vessel, and then turned as white as a sheet.
+
+"She's more than our match, if she's an enemy," said he.
+
+"I should rather think not, sir," replied Bramble. "All you have to do
+is to make your men fight, and nail your colors to the mast."
+
+"That's very true when there's a fair chance of success, but it's
+useless sacrificing the men against so very superior a force," replied
+the captain.
+
+"But it ain't superior, nor in guns is she your equal, if I know
+anything about a vessel. At all events, I suppose you'll have a trial
+for it. Won't you beat to quarters, captain?"
+
+"Oh, to be sure. Mr. Stubbs, beat to quarters. I think it would not be a
+bad thing to fire off our broadsides now, and let them see that we are
+well armed."
+
+The men were summoned up to quarters, and very unwillingly did they
+obey. Some said that they did not come on board to fight, others that
+they had agreed to work the passage home, but not to stand to be shot
+at; and some were actually going down below again, when Bramble and the
+mate spoke to them and persuaded them to remain on deck. Still there was
+no willingness shown; and although Bramble told them how many privateers
+had been beaten off, and mentioned particularly the Leith smack having
+the other day fought with one an hour and a half, and knocked her all to
+pieces, they still appeared uneasy and wavering.
+
+In the meantime the privateer was within a mile of us, and had hoisted
+French colors.
+
+"We'll keep away and give her the first broadside," cried the captain.
+
+"You'd better hoist your colors first," observed Bramble, quietly.
+
+"Hoist the colors, Mr. Stubbs! Port the helm! Look out, my men! Point
+the guns to the object! Fire!"
+
+Off went all the guns, not only on the starboard side, in the direction
+of the privateer, but all those on the larboard side as well; and this
+circumstance probably gave the people on board of the privateer some
+idea of the state of confusion we were in. She now rounded to, and gave
+us her broadside of three guns: they were well directed, and did us some
+damage in the upper works and rigging; but still more in frightening the
+people, who were now running down below, notwithstanding the exertions
+of the mate, Bramble, one or two of the seamen, and myself; but our fate
+was soon decided by the captain, who cried out, "It's useless contending
+against such a superior force." With this observation he ran aft and
+hauled down the colors. As soon as the men perceived this they all left
+the guns; at another broadside from the privateer they all scampered
+down below, and at the same time the captain went down into his cabin.
+There was none but the mate, the boatswain, Bramble, and myself left on
+deck.
+
+"Pleasant," said Bramble. "I thought as much. Well, Tom, here we are, in
+for it. Come with me to the helm, for these French fellows will board,
+and they make very free with their cutlasses, even after colors are
+hauled down. Well," said he, as he walked aft, "I did not think to see
+the English flag so disgraced. Poor Bessy, too! Well, never mind. I say,
+mate, just let go the weather main-braces and bow-lines, and square the
+yards, for it's better to be as humble as possible, now that we can't
+help ourselves; and do you and the boatswain go down below, for they cut
+right and left, these fellows. They do pay a little more civility to
+pilots, as they aren't belonging to the ship."
+
+This advice of Bramble's, which was very good, was followed by the mate
+and boatswain.
+
+"Shall I run down and look after our kits?" said I to Bramble.
+
+"No, Tom, don't have anything in your hand, or they will take it from
+you, and most likely give you a rap on the head with a cutlass at the
+same time; for privateer-men of all nations are little better than
+pirates, and don't how to behave in victory. Just keep where you
+are--look as if you had nothing to do with the ship except the steering
+of her. Here they come!"
+
+As he spoke the lugger touched our weather side, at the same time
+lowering down her foresail and mainsail with no little noise and
+confusion; in a second or two there were thirty of their men on our
+decks, flourishing their cutlasses, and looking round with their pistols
+ready cocked in their left hands for somebody to let fly at. At last
+they came aft. "Pilot!" cried Bramble, taking off his hat. I did the
+same. With reiterated _sacres_ and _diables_ of every description some
+now rushed down into the cabin, while others went down the
+fore-hatchway, while more of the men from the lugger poured upon our
+decks; but none of them molested Bramble or me, as we continued standing
+at the wheel. In about ten minutes order was to a certain degree
+restored by the captain of the privateer, who had come on board. I
+perceived him express his surprise to his officers who were with him at
+the armament of the ship, and he appeared very much pleased: it was not
+necessary to understand French for that. He then came up to Bramble, and
+spoke to him in French; but Bramble only pointed to me and then to
+himself, and said "Pilot." The captain called for a young Frenchman who
+could speak English, and then asked Bramble what was the cargo.
+
+Bramble, to please him, replied that it was silk and other goods to the
+value of thirty thousand pounds English.
+
+"How many men?"
+
+"Forty-five men."
+
+The French captain rubbed his hands with ecstasy, as well he might. Just
+at this moment the English captain came upon deck, followed by two of
+the privateer's men, one of whom had taken possession of his laced cap,
+and the other of his silk sash. He brought his sword in his hand, and
+presented it to the captain of the privateer, saying, "It is no disgrace
+for one brave man to deliver up his sword to another."
+
+"Que dit il?" said the captain of the privateer to the young man who
+interpreted. The young man translated this fine speech, upon which the
+French captain called the English one by a very contemptuous title, and
+turned away. The privateer's men now made their appearance from below,
+having helped themselves to everything they could find; the orders were
+then given for the prisoners to be brought upon deck; they were driven
+up, many of them bleeding from wounds received in attempts to rescue
+their personal property, and were handed over to the lugger. A
+prize-master with twenty men was put on board; the lugger was hauled
+off, the only Englishmen allowed to remain in the captured vessel being
+Bramble and myself. As soon as the vessels were clear they made sail,
+running about two points free for the French coast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
+
+     We have great Hopes of not seeing the Inside of a French Prison,
+     but we are disappointed.
+
+
+"Well, Tom, this is a bad job," said Bramble to me, taking his seat upon
+the hencoop aft. "By to-morrow noon, unless we fall in with a
+cruiser--and I see little chance of that--we shall be locked up in a
+French prison; ay, and Heaven knows how long we may stay there! What's
+to become of poor little Bessy? I'm sure I don't know. I must contrive
+to write over to lawyer Wilson, and put him in charge of everything. But
+I'm sorry for you, my poor lad; it's hard for you to be locked up,
+perhaps for years, when you might have been making money for yourself."
+
+"Well, it can't be helped, father; we must make the best of it," replied
+I, with a deep sigh, for I was anything but happy at the prospect.
+
+"If it had not been for that swaggering coward this might not have
+happened," replied Bramble. "It's somewhat my own fault. I was so
+anxious to frighten him about nothing that at last I run us into real
+danger, and I might have known that he never would have fought, although
+I certainly had no idea of falling in with a privateer. Well, Tom, we
+must not lose a chance."
+
+[Illustration: BRAMBLE AND JACK CARRIED INTO A FRENCH PORT.--Marryat,
+Vol X. p. 331.]
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that if there is any possibility of getting away, I shall; and
+you, of course, will not stay behind. I don't know where they are going
+to, but you see, Tom, our only chance of getting off is while we are on
+the coast; if once we are marched into the interior, why, then it will
+be almost hopeless. What we must try for is to get away at the port
+where we land. We shall see."
+
+"I am afraid that there's very little chance for us," replied I; "but
+I'm ready to attempt anything."
+
+"We shall see, Tom--where there's a will there's a way. However, it's no
+use talking about it just now." Here Bramble filled his pipe, took out
+his flint and steel, and lighted it.
+
+After smoking for ten minutes, during which I stood by him, he said, "I
+wonder where they will take us to--St. Malo's or Morlaix; for the course
+they are steering will fetch, I should think, thereabout. One thing is
+certain--they've got a good prize, and they mean to keep it if they can;
+and, my eyes! if they won't make a fuss about it! A ship with twelve
+guns taken by a lugger with only six! They'll make the ship mount
+eighteen or twenty guns, and have a hundred and fifty men on board, and
+they'll swear they fought us for three hours. They have something to
+boast of, that's certain; and I suspect that French captain is a brave
+sort of chap, from the sneer he gave when our cowardly English lubber
+gave him so fine a speech. Well, it's our disgrace!"
+
+Here Bramble was silent for some time, when I said to him, "You were
+stating to the men how a Leith smack beat off a privateer the other day.
+I never heard of it."
+
+"Yes, I heard it when I was up above Greenwich. I met an old friend who
+was on board of her, for he took his passage in her from London.
+
+"'Why,' says he to me, 'Bramble, I thought we never should have got away
+from the river, for the old captain, who was as big round as a puncheon,
+and not unlike one, declared that he would not sail until the powder
+came up from Woolwich; for the "Queen Charlotte" (that was the name of
+the smack) carried six eighteen-pound carronades. We waited nearly a
+week for the powder, and many a laugh we all had about it, thinking old
+Nesbitt was not much of a fighter, from his making so much fuss. Well,
+at last we boomed her off from the wharf, and about seven that night got
+clear of the Thames; it was a fair breeze all night, and we ran through
+the Swin by the lead, which is what every one won't attempt. Next
+morning we were off Yarmouth Roads, with the water as yellow as pea
+soup: never saw it otherwise, and I'm an old collier; reason why, the
+swells of the ocean thrashes up the sands off there--ay, and shifts them
+too occasionally, which is of more consequence. Well, Bramble,' says he,
+'well, on we went; hauled in through Harborough Gut; then the sun had so
+much power--for it was in the Dog Days--that it eat up the wind, and we
+were obliged to content ourselves with getting four knots out of her.
+Just as we made the Dudgeon Lightboat, old Nesbitt's son comes aft to
+his father, who was steering the craft, and says, "Father, do you see
+that 'ere brig crowding all sail after us? I think it be the New Custom
+House brig trying his rate of sailing with us."
+
+"'"Never you mind what she is, boy," says the captain, "but away up and
+furl the gaff-topsail."
+
+"'Meanwhile the brig overhauled us fast, and old Nesbitt kept a-looking
+round at her every two or three minutes. At last he says to the mate,
+"Take the wheel a bit," and he goes first and looks over the quarter.
+"I see," says he; "I say, you sergeant and corporal" (for we had a
+recruiting party on board), "suppose now you just help us to load our
+guns and work them a little, for I expect this here craft will give us
+plenty to do."
+
+"'Well, Bramble, as I stand here, if six of them lobsters didn't say
+nothing, but just walk down below; but the sergeant was a trump of a
+fellow, and so was his wife. He threw off his coat and cap covered with
+ribbons, tied a handkerchief round his head, and set to work with a
+will; and his wife backed him to the last, handing the powder and
+everything else. Well, we had with us ten men who all stood to guns; but
+the passengers went down below with the soldiers. Well, on comes the
+brig upon our starboard quarter as if to board; all her fore rigging,
+and forechains, and forecastle being full of men as bees in a swarm.
+
+"Are you all ready, my men?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes, all ready, sir."
+
+"Yes, and I be ready too, massa!" cried the black cook, bringing out
+from the caboose the red-hot poker.
+
+"Well, then, up on the wind with her, and fire when the guns bear."
+
+"'The men kept their eyes on the guns; and when they cried "Fire!" the
+cook set them all off, one after another, with the hot poker, and no
+small mischief did these three guns do. His forecastle was cleared of
+men in no time; down came his gaff and foretopsail, and being now right
+on our beam, he put his helm up to lay us on board; but we were too
+quick for him--we wore round too, and gave him the three other guns,
+which did him no good.
+
+[Illustration: THE LEITH SMACK AND THE PRIVATEER.--Marryat, Vol. X., p.
+335.]
+
+"'Well, he came after us on the other tack, and pelted us with musketry
+in a cruel way. The mate was hit in the head, and taken down below;
+and poor old Nesbitt, who was at the wheel, steering the craft
+beautifully, had a bullet right into his bow-window, as they call it.
+"Well," the old fellow says, "here's a shot between wind and water, I
+reckon--we must have a plug;" so he puts his flippers into his
+waistband, and stuffs his flannel jacket into the hole. Then we throws
+her up in the wind again, and rakes him with our three guns well into
+him, and carries away more of his gear, and stops his sailing--and so we
+goes on for a whole hour and thirty-five minutes; and, to make a long
+story short, we beat him off, and he turned tail and ran for it with
+both pumps going.'
+
+"Now you see, Tom, that's the account of the affair given to me by a man
+who I can trust; and there you see what can be done if men are resolute
+and determined to fight. Some little difference between that affair and
+this one, Tom."
+
+"Did old Nesbitt die or recover?"
+
+"I asked that question. He was doing well when my friend left. Somehow
+or another no vital part was injured, and he has had many presents made
+him for his gallant conduct, and the sergeant was well rewarded also.
+Well, my pipe's out, and it's not far from midnight; I should think we
+may just as well try for a little sleep, Tom, for perhaps we may not get
+any for some time to come."
+
+Bramble coiled himself up under the bulwark, I did the same; and in a
+few minutes we both had forgotten whether we were in our beds at our
+house at Deal or prisoners bound for the French coast.
+
+At daylight the next morning Bramble roused me up.
+
+"Here we are now, Tom! here's the French coast not four leagues from us;
+but it's hazy, and I cannot make it out very clear; however, the sun
+will soon drive all this away, and we shall have a fine day; but the
+wind has gone down, and I think we shall have still less of it."
+
+And so it proved; for, as the sun rose, the wind became very light, so
+that we did not go through the water more than three knots. We were
+looking at the coast, when the report of a gun saluted our ears. It was
+from the privateer. We turned to that quarter, and found that there was
+a cutter about two miles from the privateer, crowding all sail toward
+us.
+
+"Tom!" cried Bramble, "there's a chance for us yet--that's an English
+privateer, and she will try to retake us for the sake of the salvage.
+But here's a boat coming from the Frenchman--what can that be for?"
+
+The boat rowed alongside of us, and out jumped the captain of the French
+privateer with twenty of his best men, and the boat was then dropped
+astern.
+
+The Frenchman immediately cast loose the guns, went down for the powder,
+and prepared for action.
+
+"I see, Tom," said Bramble, "he's a clever fellow, this skipper. He
+knows that this ship and cargo is worth a dozen of his little privateer,
+and his object is to get her in--so he's come with all his best men on
+board of us, leaving his first officer to make the best fight with the
+privateer that he can. Well, he's right; and if it wasn't that I don't
+like to go to prison, I wish he may succeed, for he has got sense as
+well as courage, I think."
+
+The ship was now kept away two points more, that she might go through
+the water as fast as she could; and in the meantime the action commenced
+between the English cutter and the French privateer, the latter
+evidently attempting to cripple the masts and rigging of the former. The
+cutter, however, steered right for us, and evidently came up fast; the
+French privateer, weak-handed as she must have been, behaved very well,
+throwing herself across the cutter's bows, and doing everything she
+could to prevent her coming up with us. Both vessels were very much cut
+up before the cutter came within three cables' lengths of us, when the
+French captain ordered French colors to be hoisted, and, rounding to,
+poured in a well-directed broadside, which quite astonished the English
+privateer, who imagined that we were an unarmed merchantman. The action
+now became very warm; we standing on, and every now and then rounding to
+and raking the cutter, while the French privateer engaged her broadside
+to broadside. The French captain was abaft, giving his orders with the
+greatest coolness and ability, when a shot from the cutter came in on
+deck, and a large splinter which it tore off knocked him down on his
+back. Bramble and I both ran to him and helped him up--we could not help
+it, although he was an enemy. He was not hurt, and as soon as he was on
+his legs he laughed, and thanked us in French. The cutter still
+continued the fight until we were within three miles of the coast, when,
+all her spars and sails being cut to pieces, she hauled to the wind and
+stood out to the offing.
+
+"Well, Tom, there's all our hopes ended," said Bramble; "so now I'll
+light my pipe. Well, I say it's been a good fight on both sides."
+
+Here the captain came up to us and said, "Bien oblige--tank you."
+
+The cutter did not, however, stand out for more than a few minutes, when
+she hove to and repaired damages, evidently intending to renew the
+action. I pointed this out to Bramble. "I see, I see," replied he; "she
+intends to try and cut us off from Morlaix, which is to windward, and
+oblige us to fight or run for St. Malo's, which is a long way to
+leeward. In either case she will be able to attack us again, as she
+out-sails us. Perhaps the fight is not over yet."
+
+But the Frenchman also understood what he was about, and he now steered
+a course. When we were about two miles from the land, and about the same
+distance from the cutter, the latter kept away so as to oblige the ship
+to come to action again before she reached Morlaix; but, before she
+closed with us, we discovered that we were entering a small French port,
+which had not been visible to us, called (I think) Lanion, situated
+between Isle Bichat and Morlaix. When within half a mile of the land,
+French over English was hoisted at our peak, and a French pennant over
+an English pennant at our main.
+
+"I told you so," said Bramble; "they have made a man-of-war out of us,
+and now there'll be no end to the lies that they will tell; for though
+these French fellows do not fight quite so well as we do, at lying
+they'll beat us hollow, any day of the week. Never mind, Tom, we must
+keep a sharp lookout, and there's no saying--keep your eyes open as we
+go into the harbor--I never was here before, but I suspect it's nothing
+better than a poor fishing town."
+
+In a quarter of an hour the ship and privateer were both made fast to an
+old stone pier which ran out from the town; but there were no other
+vessels in the harbor except two small coasting chasses marées, and
+about a dozen fishing-boats.
+
+The harbor was formed by the mouth of a small river, which ran down
+through a very narrow alluvial flat, backed by precipitous rocks. On the
+right side of the river on entering, and on the level ground above
+mentioned, which extended back perhaps two hundred yards, until it was
+met by the rocky cliffs, was situated the village which, centuries back,
+must have been the town of Lanion. It consisted of perhaps one hundred
+to one hundred and twenty houses, few of them of any size, the major
+portion with walls built of mud and whitewashed over. The only remains
+of the former town were a stone-built market-place, the portion of the
+Hôtel de Ville in which the mayor resided, and the old church, which,
+although perfect in its walls, was sadly dilapidated in the roof. It had
+long been deserted, and a small chapel had been built in lieu of it, in
+which the only curé  of the place performed the service. The massive
+stones of which the now neglected pier had once been built proved that
+at one time considerable expense had been incurred in the formation of
+this small harbor.
+
+A battery mounting two guns at the end of the pier protected the mouth
+of the harbor; and there was a guard of a sergeant and twelve invalids,
+who were stationed there to man the guns upon the approach of an enemy.
+
+It would be difficult to describe the confusion which took place as soon
+as the two vessels were fairly alongside the wharf, and made fast with
+hawsers to the massive iron rings which had for centuries been fixed in
+the ponderous stones of which the pier was composed. There was the mayor
+with his cocked hat on, but his leather apron still tied in front, for
+he had been working at his calling; there was the sergeant of the
+invalids, who, perhaps, was a greater man than the mayor, all beard and
+mustachios, but so thin in his person that he looked as if a stout
+breeze would have blown him away; and there were the soldiers leaning on
+their muskets. These were the most important personages, but they were
+backed by the whole population of the town, amounting to about three
+hundred men, women, and children, all talking, jabbering, and screaming.
+Add to them the captain of the privateer, so important that he could
+not attend to even the mayor or the sergeant; and the privateer's men,
+dressed in every fashion, armed to the teeth, all explaining, or pushing
+away, or running here and there obeying orders; then the wounded
+men--for they had several men killed and others hurt in the conflict
+with the cutter--handed up one by one, bandaged here and there, and
+exciting the compassion and even screams of the women; the prisoners,
+who had been ordered to come on deck, half dressed and chapfallen; the
+sails of the vessels only clewed up, and still fluttering; ensigns and
+pennants hoisted upon every mast, and waving over the heads of the crowd
+assembled at the pier--and you may have some idea of the confused and
+bustling scene.
+
+[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF THE PRIVATEER AT LANION.--Marryat, Vol.
+X., p. 841.]
+
+At last, as there appeared no chance of anything being arranged while
+the people crowded round, the captain of the privateer ordered his men
+to draw their weapons and drive back the crowd, which was soon effected,
+notwithstanding many oaths, and more screaming on the part of the fairer
+sex; and when the crowd had been thus driven the men were stationed so
+as to keep them back. At first this gave offense to all parties--to the
+crowd, because they didn't like to be driven away--to the mayor, who
+remained with the sergeant and invalids in the area which had been
+cleared by the privateer's people, because he thought that they had
+interfered with his civil authority--and to the sergeant of invalids,
+because he thought that the marine force had interfered with his
+military authority; but the captain of the privateer having taken off
+his hat and bowed, first to the mayor and then to the sergeant, and
+saying how much he was obliged to them for their assistance, both
+parties were satisfied; and now a consultation was held between them how
+to proceed, while the privateer's men, who kept back the crowd, amused
+them by giving a detail of the two desperate actions which had been
+fought--no two accounts agreeing, certainly, but that was of no
+consequence.
+
+The first question to be canvassed was, what was to be done with the
+prisoners? Morlaix was the nearest town in which they would be under
+safe keeping, but that was twenty miles distant, and it would be
+necessary to send over an express, so that a sufficient force might be
+dispatched to Lanion to escort the prisoners there. This Mr. Mayor
+undertook to do immediately; a boy was summoned to take over the
+communication, and the mayor went up to write his letter to the
+authorities, while the wounded men were carried away, and by the
+direction of the cure, who had just arrived and joined the consultation,
+billeted upon different houses in the town. The express having been
+dispatched, and the wounded safely housed and under the care of the
+village Æsculapius, who never had such a job in his whole life, the next
+point of consultation was how to dispose of the prisoners until the
+force should arrive from Morlaix. Here the sergeant became the principal
+person, being military commandant; forty-seven prisoners were a heavy
+charge for twelve invalids; and as for the privateer's men, there was no
+dependence upon them, for, as the captain said, they had had enough to
+do to take them, and it was the business of the authorities to look
+after them now, while the privateer's men made merry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
+
+     With those powerful agents, Fire and Water, we contrive to Escape
+     from a French Prison.
+
+
+After more than an hour of confusion and loud talking it was at last
+proposed and agreed to, _nem. con._, that the prisoners should be
+confined in the old church; the twelve invalids to be divided into two
+parties, who were to be sentinels over them, relieving each other every
+four hours. The mayor immediately went forward with the village
+blacksmith to examine the state of the church doors, and ascertain how
+they might be secured; while the prisoners, having been summoned out of
+the privateer, were escorted up between two files of the privateer's men
+with their swords drawn, and followed by the whole population. As soon
+as we arrived at the church door the name of every prisoner was taken
+down by the mayor, attended by a notary, and then he was passed into the
+church. Bramble and I of course were marched up with the others, the
+captain of the privateer talking with us the whole way, through the
+young man who interpreted, informing us that an express had been sent
+over to Morlaix, to which town we should be escorted the next day, and
+then have better accommodation. As we stood at the huge doors of the
+church, which were opened for our reception, we perceived that the
+altar and all the decorations had been removed, and that, with the
+exception of the large wooden screen of carved oak near the altar, the
+church was completely bare. Bramble spoke to the interpreter, and said
+that he hoped the captain would request the mayor to allow the prisoners
+to have straw to lie down upon, as the pavement would be very cold.
+Although the mayor at first demurred at this demand, yet the captain of
+the privateer, probably out of goodwill to Bramble, insisted, and the
+straw was ordered to be sent in. At last the mayor became impatient, we
+could delay no longer, and the doors were closed.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRISON.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 345.]
+
+I had surveyed the church as we were escorted up to it. It was very
+large, capable, I should think, of holding more than two thousand
+people. The walls of the church were very massive, and the windows had
+but very few panes of glass remaining in them, but they were so very
+high as to prevent our climbing out of them, even if there had not been
+six sentinels guarding us outside. At one corner, to the right of the
+end of the church where the altar-piece had been, was a narrow stone
+tower, apparently an addition made to the Lady's Chapel long after the
+church had been originally built. When we were shut up we were enabled
+to survey the interior at our leisure. The whole was completely bare to
+the pavement until you came to the chancel part, near to which the altar
+had been, where the wooden screens and seats still remained, in a sad
+dilapidated state; but they must have once been very handsome, for the
+carving, where it was perfect, was very beautiful. A small, thick wooden
+door, loaded with ironwork, communicated with the narrow tower, which
+had a flight of stone steps running up to the top, and narrow loopholes
+to give light as you ascended. While the majority of the prisoners were
+sitting down here and there on the pavement, few of them entering into
+conversation, Bramble had, with me, taken a full survey of our locality.
+
+"I tell you what, Tom; if we once get to Morlaix, all chance is over,"
+said he. "We must either get out of this church this very night, or we
+must make up our minds to remain in prison Heaven knows how long."
+
+"Have we any chance?"
+
+"I'll tell you more about that in a little while."
+
+The door of the church now opened, and the people brought in the straw
+for the beds, which they threw all in a heap in the center of the
+church, and the doors were again closed.
+
+"I see daylight now," said Bramble. "Tom, find the mate and boatswain,
+and bring them here to me quickly."
+
+I did so, and Bramble asked them whether they were inclined to make an
+attempt to get clear.
+
+They replied that they would join us in anything--they did not care what
+it was, and against any odds.
+
+"Well, then," said Bramble, "my idea is this. You see there are but
+twelve old soldiers to guard us; for you may be certain that, before
+long, all the privateer's men will be as drunk as owls--that's but
+natural; not that I think of coming to any fight with them, but I make
+the observation because, if we get out, we shall have little to fear
+afterward. Now, you see, I asked for the straw because the idea came in
+my head that it might be useful. You see, what I propose is, as there is
+plenty of wood in this part of the church, that we should wait till
+about three hours after dark--that is, until ten or eleven o'clock--and
+then set fire to the church. They must come and let us out, you know; at
+least I take it for granted that they will before the roof comes down.
+If they don't, we must force the doors ourselves--I've looked at
+them--and until we do there is no fear of suffocating, for there are no
+panes to the windows. So, after all, it will only be a bonfire, without
+danger to anybody."
+
+"Well, but what shall we gain by it?" said the mate. "We shall be walked
+out with the other prisoners, and how shall we then escape?"
+
+"There it is: we will not be walked out with the other prisoners; and,
+in the confusion and hurry of taking them away to one place or another,
+they will not be likely to miss us. We will all go up this narrow tower,
+where we may remain, till the church falls in, with perfect safety; and
+then, when all is quiet again, and the people have left the spot, we
+will make for the pier, get one of the fishing boats and be off. How do
+you like the idea?"
+
+We all agreed that the plan was very feasible, and would attempt it.
+
+"Well, then, we must remain quiet for the present; all you have to do is
+to fetch as much straw this way as you can by degrees: I expect they
+will bring us something to eat before long."
+
+We removed a large portion of the straw to the chancel; in half an hour
+afterward the doors were opened and rations of bread were brought in.
+What still more assisted our plans was, that the captain of the
+privateer at the same time, very good-naturedly, brought a demijohn of
+brandy, which he gave to Bramble.
+
+Bramble thanked him through the interpreter, and told him that he would
+get well drunk that night.
+
+"Yes, drive away care, captain says," replied the interpreter.
+
+Once more the doors were closed, and we had no chance of further
+interruption.
+
+[Illustration: JACK A PRISONER.--Marryat, Vol X., p. 349.]
+
+By Bramble's direction, the mate, assisted by me and the boatswain,
+cast loose the remaining bundles of straw and shook them down as beds
+for the prisoners at the end of the church nearest to the door; and as
+soon as they had eaten their bread, Bramble gave them all a portion of
+the brandy, advising them to turn in soon, as we were to march very
+early the next morning. We remained with them at first, having taken our
+seats on the straw as if we also intended to repose. At last it became
+dusk, and then dark; the prisoners settled themselves to sleep; we left
+them and joined Bramble. Having arranged our straw so as to secure
+ignition, and leaving the mate and boatswain down below, Bramble and I,
+now that there was no chance of our being seen by the sentinels,
+ascended the tower. It commanded a view of the town and harbor. We
+looked down upon the main street--all was mirth and revelry; fiddling
+and dancing and singing were to be heard from more than one house; women
+in the street laughing, and now and then running and screaming when
+pursued by the men.
+
+"This is all right," observed Bramble; "in an hour or two you'll see how
+quiet everything will be; but I shall not let them all go to bed before
+I set fire, for there may be some difficulty in waking them. I don't see
+that there's any lights down at the pier, where the vessels lie."
+
+We stayed up there till about eleven o'clock, Bramble watching the
+lights and sounds; and when he considered that they had sufficiently
+decreased, he said, "Now we'll try it, Tom, and may success attend us!"
+
+We descended and found the mate and boatswain anxiously waiting for us.
+Bramble struck a light with his flint, and we carried it to the screen
+where we had piled the straw under the seats and against the panels.
+
+"Now then, messmates," said Bramble, "as long as the others sleep the
+better; but if they waken in the confusion, bring here all the straw you
+can collect, for we must not fail for want of fuel."
+
+But of this there was no chance, for the wood of the screen and benches
+was so dry that it was alight immediately. For ten minutes the other
+prisoners and the guard outside did not appear to be aware of what was
+going on; but at last the church was so filled with smoke that they were
+roused up. Still the principal smoke was in that portion of the church
+where we were; at the other end they were not much inconvenienced, as it
+found vent by the windows. What the invalids were about outside I do not
+know, but they did not perceive it; probably they had left their guard
+to go and carouse. At all events the flames had climbed up from the
+screen and had caught a portion of the roof before the Frenchmen knew
+that the church was on fire; the smoke was now exchanged for a bright
+clear flame, which had already found its way through the slating, and
+the prisoners were halloaing and screaming as loud as they could. We
+went to the part of the church where the others were, and joined the
+outcry. The voices of the people outside were now to be heard, for men
+and women had been summoned by the cry of the church being on fire:
+still there was no danger until the roof fell in, and that would not be
+the case for perhaps an hour, although it was now burning furiously, and
+the sparks and cinders were borne away to leeward by the breeze. The
+screams of the prisoners now became dreadful: frightened out of their
+wits, they fully expected to be burned alive; still the door was not
+opened, although we heard a loud consultation of many voices without.
+
+"Well," said Bramble, "I hope they really don't mean to let us burn
+here; at all events, if they do, I can save the poor devils, for
+there's room enough on the stairs of the tower for twice as many. At all
+events we must hold on till the last moment."
+
+As he said this we heard them outside put the key in the door, and
+immediately Bramble, the boatswain, mate, and I retreated from the crowd
+and gained the other portion of the church, which was most in flames. As
+the door opened we hastened to the tower door, and closing it after us,
+gained the staircase near the top, where we remained quiet; there was no
+want of smoke there, but still we could breathe pretty freely, as the
+fire from the roof was borne down by the wind from us and toward the
+people, who were at the front of the church. How they disposed of the
+other prisoners we do not know, as we dared not show ourselves; but in
+about half an hour the whole of the roof fell down upon the pavement,
+and nothing but the bare walls of the church were left standing.
+
+After the roof fell in the light from the flames was so small that we
+ventured to the top of the tower to look out. There were still many
+people standing about, but the major part of them were gone. As the fire
+sank down so did the people go away; at last there was no one to be
+seen: we remained more than half an hour watching; light after light
+disappeared, and all was quiet as death.
+
+"Now's our time," said Bramble, "but still we must be cautious; let us
+follow one another at about ten yards apart: if we meet with any one,
+pretend to be reeling as if drunk, and they may think we are
+privateer's-men not yet gone to bed."
+
+[Illustration: THE ESCAPE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 353.]
+
+We followed him down the stairs, gained the church, and trod over the
+still burning embers; as soon as we were clear of the walls we turned to
+the right in our way down to the harbor, keeping in the gloom as much as
+possible. We arrived safely at the pier, for there was not a soul
+stirring; all our fear was that we should find some one keeping watch on
+board of the vessels, which we must pass after we had possession of one
+of the fishing-boats, as they laid inside of them. But fortune favored
+us every way: the boat we selected had her sails bent, and was not
+fastened with a chain; we were, therefore, in the stream in a moment;
+the tide was also running out strong, and we passed the vessels without
+having occasion to use our oars. The battery at the entrance of the
+harbor was also without its usual sentry, for the men had been called up
+to guard the prisoners. In half an hour we were clear of the harbor, and
+steering with a fine breeze for the English coast; and when daylight
+broke the French land was but just perceptible.
+
+"Well," said Bramble, "praised be Heaven for all things. I expected to
+have lost my precious liberty for years, and I have only lost two
+shirts, one pair of trousers, and three pair of worsted stockings."
+
+We had nothing to eat or drink, but that we cared little for, as the
+wind was fair. About ten o'clock that night we landed at Cawsand Bay
+near Plymouth, where we sat down to a hearty supper; and when we went to
+bed, I did not forget to thank Providence for my unexpected escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
+
+     Another Escape, more fortunate than the one recorded in the
+     preceding Chapter.
+
+
+From the time that I had passed my examination, and worked as a pilot on
+my own account, until the period of our escape, which I have narrated in
+the preceding chapter, I had continued to live in the cottage with
+Bramble, without contributing any share to the expenses. I had at first
+proposed it, but Bramble would not listen to any such arrangement; he
+considered me, he said, as his son, and who knew, he added, but that the
+cottage would be mine after he was gone. The fact was that Bramble
+ardently wished that Bessy and I should be united. He continually hinted
+at it, joked with Bessy about me; and I believe that, in consequence,
+Bessy's feelings toward me had taken the same bent. She was prepared for
+the issue; the regard naturally felt for me from her long intimacy, now
+that the indulgence of it was so openly sanctioned by him whom she
+considered as her father, was not checked on her part; indeed, there was
+no doubt but that it had ripened into love. She showed it in every
+little way that her maiden modesty did not interfere with, and old
+Bramble would at times throw out such strong hints of our eventual union
+as to make me feel very uncomfortable. They neither of them had any idea
+of my heart having been pre-engaged, and the strangeness of my manner
+was ascribed by Bramble to my feelings toward Bessy. Bessy, however, was
+not so easily deceived; my conduct toward her appeared, to say the best
+of it, very inconsistent. So often had I had opportunities, especially
+when I was at home and Bramble was away, of speaking on the subject, and
+so often had these opportunities been neglected, that it filled her mind
+with doubt and anxiety. After having accepted my addresses at first,
+Janet had once or twice written to me; lately, however, she had not
+written herself--all her messages were through Virginia's letters, or,
+perhaps, she would add a little postscript. Had letters arrived for me
+in any other handwriting than that of Virginia, Bessy, after her
+suspicions were roused, might have easily guessed the truth; but it was
+the absence of any clew to guide her as to the state of my feelings
+which so much puzzled her. She was fully convinced that my heart was not
+hers, but she had no reason to suppose that it was in the possession of
+another. Thus did my passion for Janet Wilson in every way prove to me a
+source of anxiety. I knew that it was my duty to undeceive Bramble and
+Bessy, yet the task was too painful, and I could not make up my mind to
+make them unhappy. I felt that I had no right to remain under Bramble's
+roof and live at his expense, and, at the same time, I could not find an
+opportunity of telling him what my feelings and wishes were, the very
+mention of which would at once explain to him that the desire of his old
+age would never be accomplished. I often accused myself of ingratitude,
+and felt as if it were my duty to make every sacrifice to one who had
+been so kind a protector; but I was bound by vows to Janet Wilson, and
+how was it possible that I could retract?
+
+Virginia's letters were not satisfactory: at first she told me how much
+she had been annoyed by the attentions of the young nobleman, and how
+very indelicate my mother had been in her conduct; eventually she
+informed me that she had been insulted by him, and that, upon
+complaining to my mother, the latter had, much to her surprise and
+indignation, not only laughed at his extreme forwardness, but pointed
+out to Virginia a line of conduct by which he might be entrapped into
+marriage; that her refusal to accede to such unworthy devices had
+created a serious breach between her mother and herself. She stated the
+young man to be extremely silly and weak, and that my mother had gained
+great influence over him; and were it not that the presence of the
+tutor, who seldom quitted the house, had proved a check, that there was
+little doubt but, as far as the young man was concerned, the
+disproportionate match would be readily acceded to; that the only person
+she had ventured to consult was her dear friend Mrs. St. Felix, who had
+promised her, if the persecution did not cease, that she would make Mr.
+Sommerville the tutor aware of what was going on. Virginia described the
+latter as an amiable modest young man, who did all in his power to
+instruct his pupil, but who was treated with anything but deference in
+return.
+
+Relative to Janet she said little, except that she generally called
+there every day to make inquiries after me: once or twice she did say
+that it was a pity that I was not able to come oftener to Greenwich, as
+Janet was not very steady; indeed, considering how young she was,
+without a mother, and so little controlled by her father, it was not to
+be wondered at.
+
+Such was the state of affairs when I made up my mind that I would speak
+to Bramble about my paying my share of the expenses, which I thought
+would open his eyes to the real state of my feeling toward Bessy. I did
+so; I pointed out to him that I was now earning money fast, and that I
+considered it but fair that I should support myself, and not put him to
+further expense; that perhaps it would be better that I should take a
+house for myself, as I must give a great deal of trouble to Bessy and
+Mrs. Maddox.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "you've been at me about this before, and I
+believe it's a proper feeling, after all. It certainly does seem to me
+to be a matter of little consequence, as things stand; however, I can't
+consent to your leaving us. You have been with me ever since you were a
+lad, and I should feel like a fish out of water if I were to be without
+you or Bessy; so pay just what you please--I'll take it since you wish
+it--and there's an end of the matter."
+
+This was not the end to which I was driving; but Bramble's eyes would
+not be opened, and I could not help it. He had never directly spoken to
+me about a union with Bessy, and therefore it was impossible for me to
+say any more. Bramble, however, did not fail to communicate what I had
+said to her; and one evening when we were standing on the shingle beach,
+she said to me, "So Emerson has been convicted for smuggling, and
+sentenced beyond the seas."
+
+"I am sorry for it," replied I.
+
+"His house is to be let now, Tom; would it not suit you? for my father
+told me that you wished to leave us."
+
+"Why should I live upon you when I am able to support myself?"
+
+"Certainly not. If it were not that I could not bear to see father
+miserable, I think it would be better if you did take Emerson's house;
+but it would vex him, poor good man."
+
+"But not you, Bessy; is it that you mean?"
+
+"Perhaps it is. Tell me yourself, Tom, would it not be better?"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Well," replied Bessy, "think of me as you please; I will speak now,
+Tom. I am not considering you, Tom, nor am I thinking of myself; I am
+only induced so to do on account of my father. We have been brought up
+together as children, Tom, and, as children, we were great friends, and,
+I believe, sincerely attached to each other. I believe it to be very
+true that those who are brought up together as brothers and sisters do
+not change that affection for any other more serious in after life. It
+is therefore not our faults if we cannot feel as, you must know, Tom, my
+father wishes we should. Am I not right?"
+
+"You are, I believe, Bessy," replied I.
+
+"My father, therefore, is deceiving himself with the hopes of what never
+can take place, but I know him even better than you do, Tom; it is the
+object of his daily thoughts--his only wish before he sinks into his
+grave. I cannot bear to undeceive him; no more can you, if I have truly
+judged your feelings."
+
+"You have judged right, Bessy."
+
+"The very circumstance of our knowing his wishes, the hints which he
+throws out, his joking on the subject, have been a source of annoyance
+to both of us; and not only a source of annoyance, Tom, it has estranged
+us--we no longer feel that affection which we should feel for each
+other, that kindness as between brother and sister which might exist; on
+the contrary, not being exactly aware of each other's feelings, we
+avoid each other, and fearful that the least kindness might be
+misconstrued, we do not really treat each as we otherwise would; in
+fact, it has destroyed our mutual confidence. Is it not so?"
+
+"It is, I acknowledge, but too true, Bessy, and I thank you for having
+entered into this explanation--"
+
+"Which, as I said before," continued Bessy, "I should not have done
+except for the sake of my father; but now that I have done so" (and here
+Bessy's voice became tremulous), "let us consult at once how we shall
+act so as to secure his happiness, and that in future we may return to
+the former confidence and regard which should exist between us as
+brother and sister."
+
+"Point out how this is to be done, Bessy, and I will cheerfully enter
+into your wishes."
+
+"We must laugh when he laughs, Tom, even if not inclined; we must gain
+time--that is very easy. I may refuse as long as he lives--you may put
+it off; and then, Tom, circumstances may help us--who knows what even a
+day may bring forth?"
+
+"Very true," replied I, "there's only one thing--"
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Suppose I was to marry?"
+
+"Then," replied Bessy, in a voice half choked, as she turned away, "my
+father would be very unhappy."
+
+I looked round to reply, but she had gone into the cottage. This
+conversation gave me great satisfaction. I felt convinced that if I had
+at one time formed the idea that Bessy was attached to me, I had been
+mistaken, and I was as indifferent to her as she was to me. I was just
+as anxious as she was not to vex Bramble, and equally glad that
+confidence was restored between us. Alas! I must have been very blind
+not to have perceived what was the true state of her feelings, but I
+did not, and after some reflection I determined that I would make her a
+confidante of my passion for Janet Wilson; and then I walked to the
+post-office to see if there were any letters from Virginia. There was a
+letter for me--a double one. As soon as I had paid the money, I opened
+it; it was very closely written, and evidently Virginia had much to
+communicate to me. I forgot for the moment Bessy and Bramble, thought
+only of Janet, and put the letter to my lips as I walked away, that I
+might go home and read it. I hurried past Bessy, who was in the parlor,
+and went up the stairs into my bedroom, where I took my letter out of my
+pocket and commenced it.
+
+     "15th April.
+
+"MY DEAR TOM--I shall begin a letter to you now, and fill it up as a
+sort of a diary; as it is the best plan, I think, to narrate
+circumstances as they actually take place. It is unpleasant to say
+anything against my mother, the more so as I believe that she thinks she
+has been doing right, and has my interest sincerely at heart: she
+appears to consider that an alliance with people of rank cannot be
+purchased too dear, and that every attempt is justifiable to secure for
+me such an advantage. Little does she know me. If she forgets, I never
+shall, that I am the daughter of a Greenwich pensioner, and never would
+ally myself with those whose relations would look upon me as a disgrace
+to their family. No, Tom; even if I were so heedless as to allow my
+affections to be enthralled, I would at any sacrifice refuse to enter
+into a family much beyond my condition. I have thought of this often,
+and I confess that I am sometimes unhappy. I have been brought up and
+educated above my situation in life, and I do not think I ever could
+marry a person who was not more refined and educated than those who are
+really and truly my equals, But as, at the same time, I never will enter
+into a family who might look down upon my parentage, I presume your
+little Virginia must remain unmarried. If so, I am content--I have no
+wish to alter my present condition. I am happy and respected; and with
+the exception of the trifling annoyances which we all must expect and
+must submit to, I have no reason to be dissatisfied; on the contrary, I
+have to be grateful for many blessings, and I trust that I am so. My
+poor mother is the cause of all my present vexations. She tells me that
+my beauty, as she is partially pleased to call it, is sufficient for my
+aspiring to the hand of a duke, and that it will be my own fault if I do
+not make a high connection. Every night she has been overwhelming me
+with alternate reproaches and entreaties to permit the attentions of the
+gay gentleman who is now lodging at our house, stating that it was on my
+account only that he took the apartments, and that, if I play my cards
+well, he will be caught in his own trap, which, I presume, is as much as
+to say that he came here with different intentions, and finding that he
+cannot succeed, will secure his intended prize or victim by marriage
+rather than not obtain her at all. Very flattering, truly! and this is
+the man to whom my mother would induce me to confide my future
+happiness--a man who, independent of his want of probity, is a fool into
+the bargain. But the persecution on his part and on that of my mother
+now becomes so annoying that I have requested Mrs. St. Felix to speak to
+Mr. Sommerville the tutor, who, if he does his duty--and I have every
+reason to believe that he will do so--will take some measures to remove
+his pupil from our house.
+
+"17th. Mrs. St. Felix and Mr. Sommerville have had a meeting. He
+generally walks out every afternoon in the park; and Mrs. St. Felix and
+he have already been introduced. She therefore went out and met him, and
+after exchanging a few words she introduced the subject, stating that
+she did so at my request. Mr. Sommerville, although he had not been
+blind, had had no idea that things had proceeded so far; and he promised
+Mrs. St. Felix that he would soon put an end to the persecution, or
+remove him from our house. Janet has been here to-day, and I told her
+what had passed; she very much approved of the steps which I had taken.
+I must, however, say that latterly she has not appeared to take that
+interest about you that she used to do, and I fear that your continual
+absence is injurious to your prospects. She is very young and very
+giddy, Tom. I wish she had been older, as, even when she is your wife,
+she will require much looking after, and a firm hand to settle her down
+into what a married woman in my opinion ought to be. Mr. Sommerville has
+requested me to favor him with a few minutes' conversation; and as I
+cannot do it in our house, for my mother never leaves me a minute to
+myself, I told him that I should be at Mrs. St. Felix's this afternoon,
+and he could speak to me then. He knows that I have no secrets from Mrs.
+St. Felix; and although it is not pleasant to resort to such means,
+still there can be no impropriety in my hearing what he has to tell me
+in her presence.
+
+"I have seen Mr. Sommerville--he thanked me very much for having
+communicated, through Mrs. St. Felix, my mother's plot against his
+protege, and paid me many compliments upon my behavior, which were quite
+unnecessary. He told me that he had spoken to his pupil, who had most
+positively denied his having any such intention, and stated that he was
+merely amusing himself, and he had pledged himself not to take the least
+notice of me for the future. 'I am well aware,' said he, 'that what he
+has stated is not correct; he has not deceived me by his assertions; and
+were it not that I feel confidence in you, Miss Virginia,' continued he,
+'I would write to his father that he might be immediately removed. I
+hardly need say that should anything of this kind take place, I should
+be most severely blamed. It is not the first time that I have been
+compelled to interfere, for my pupil is of a very susceptible
+disposition, and has fancied himself in love with at least five young
+people since he has been under my charge. In this instance,' continued
+he, making me a bow, 'he has some extenuation to offer. Will you oblige
+me by informing me if he adheres to his promise? or do you wish that I
+should speak to your mother?'
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix replied that it would be unnecessary; indeed, that if
+Lord ---- left the house I should only be subject to fresh persecution.
+Mr. Sommerville, at her request, stayed to drink tea, and is certainly a
+very pleasant, well-informed, amiable young man.
+
+"23d. I have received no molestation since the explanation with Mr.
+Sommerville, except from my mother, who accuses me of having affronted
+Lord ----; and although I deny it, she asserts that he never could have
+so changed his conduct toward both of us if I had not so done. I have
+not seen Janet this week--I cannot imagine what has become of her.
+
+"24th. You may imagine my joy, my dear Tom. Mr. Sommerville has received
+a letter, stating that his lordship is to go down to his father's seat
+in the country, as he will be of age in a month, and he is to make
+acquaintance with the tenants; there are to be great rejoicings there
+upon his coming of age. I am sure no one can rejoice more than I shall
+when he leaves, which is to be next Saturday. I am also very glad to say
+that the Marquess has presented Mr. Sommerville with a valuable living,
+now that he gives up his tutorship. I really think he will do justice to
+his profession, for I have seen more of him lately, and esteem him very
+much.
+
+"27th. They are gone, much to my mother's mortification and to my
+delight; and now, as I have written so much about myself, I shall leave
+this letter open till I see Janet, that I may tell you something about
+her, otherwise I know my letter will not be interesting to you.
+
+"31st. My dear Tom, you must prepare yourself for painful intelligence.
+
+"Janet has disappeared. She left her father's house last night after the
+family had retired, but no one knows where. She left a few lines on her
+table, stating that they would hear from her soon. Poor Mr. Wilson was
+here to-day--he is half distracted--and the whole town is full of the
+scandal. Mrs. St. Felix told me this morning that she has discovered
+that within the last week she has been seen walking on the London Road
+with Lord ----. Is it possible?
+
+"May 2d. It is all true--Mrs. St. Felix has a letter from Mr.
+Sommerville, stating that Janet was brought up to town and married to
+Lord ---- two days ago. It appears that from the time that I repulsed
+his attentions he fixed them upon Janet; that she encouraged him, and
+used to meet him every night, as Mrs. St. Felix was informed. Mr.
+Sommerville has seen his father, and fully exculpated himself; but the
+Marquess declares, as his son is a minor, that the marriage shall not be
+binding. How it will end Heaven only knows; but she is much to be
+pitied. This will account for her not coming to me as usual. Now, Tom, I
+do not suppose you will pay attention to me at present, but from what I
+knew of Janet, and which her conduct has fully proved, she was not
+worthy to be your wife, and could not have contributed to your
+happiness. I pity you from my heart, as I know what you will feel; but
+still I congratulate you, and eventually you will congratulate yourself
+at your fortunate escape.
+
+"I will say no more at present, except that I am, and ever will be,
+
+"Your truly attached sister,
+
+"VIRGINIA."
+
+I had courage to finish the letter, and then it dropped from my hands. I
+was bewildered, stupefied, maddened. As my sister said, I did indeed
+feel. Was it possible? Janet, who had--mercy on me! I threw myself on
+the bed, and there I remained till the next morning in a state most
+pitiable.
+
+It is only those who have been deceived in their first attachment who
+can appreciate my agony of feeling. For the first few hours I hated the
+whole world, and, had then the means been at hand, should in all
+probability have hastened into another; but gradually my excitement
+abated; I found relief in tears of sorrow and indignation. I arose at
+daylight the next morning, worn out with contending feelings, heavy and
+prostrated in mind. I went out--stood on the beach, the keen breeze
+cooled my fevered cheek. For hours I leaned motionless upon an anchor,
+all hope of future happiness abandoned forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
+
+     Which is all about Love--Bramble confides to me all his
+     Acquaintance with the tender Passion.
+
+
+To conceal from Bramble or Bessy the state of mind to which I was
+reduced was impossible. I was in a condition of prostration against
+which I could not rally; and I believe that there never was a person who
+had been disappointed in his first love who did not feel as I did--that
+is, if he really loved with a sincere, pure, and holy feeling; for I do
+not refer to the fancied attachments of youth, which may be said to be
+like the mere flaws of wind which precede the steady gale. I could not,
+for several days, trust myself to speak; I sat silent and brooding over
+the words, the looks, the smiles, the scenes which had promised me a
+store of future happiness--such as would probably have been the case, as
+far as we can be happy in this world, had I fixed my affections upon a
+true and honest, instead of a fickle and vain, woman; had I built my
+house upon a rock, instead of one upon the sand--which, as pointed out
+by the Scriptures, had been washed away, and had disappeared forever!
+Bramble and Bessy in vain attempted to gain from me the cause of my
+dejection; I believe that they had many conversations upon it when I was
+absent, but whatever may have been their surmises, they treated me with
+every kindness and consideration. About a week after I had received the
+letter, Bramble said to me, "Come, Tom, we have had an easterly wind for
+ten days now, they are going off in a galley to-morrow--suppose we go
+too; it's no use staying here moping and doing nothing. You've been out
+of sorts lately, and it will do you good." I thought so too, and
+consented; but the other pilots were not ready, and our departure was
+deferred till the day after. Bramble had acquainted me in the morning
+with this delay; I was annoyed at it, for I was restless and wished for
+change. My bundle had been prepared; I had passed the best part of the
+night in writing to Virginia, and was, as people very often are when
+under such oppressed feelings, in anything but a good humor at being
+obliged to remain another day at Deal. I had walked out to the beach
+after we had breakfasted, and had remained there some time. Bramble had
+gone out in the direction of the post-office, and I asked him to inquire
+if there was a letter for me, for I thought it very likely that Virginia
+might have written to me again. I had remained for an hour on the beach,
+when I recollected that my knife required to be sharpened, and I walked
+round the cottage to the back yard, where there was a small grindstone.
+I had not put my knife to it when I heard Bramble come in and say to
+Bessy:
+
+"Well, girl, I've found it all out; for, you see, I thought old Anderson
+might know something about it, or, if he did not, he could inquire--and
+I've got the whole story. Here's Anderson's letter. I thought there must
+be something of that sort."
+
+Here there was a pause, as if Bessy was reading the letter.
+
+"Only to think--she's run away with a young lord," said Bramble.
+
+"So it seems," replied Bessy. "I'm sorry for poor Tom, for he feels it
+severely."
+
+"I'm not sorry," rejoined Bramble; "she wasn't deserving of him; and,
+Bessy, I'm glad for your sake."
+
+"Don't say that, father; Tom will never think of me, nor do I care about
+him."
+
+"I don't exactly believe that, Bessy, for all you say so. It's my wish,
+and you know it, Bessy, to see you and Tom spliced before I die; and I
+thank Heaven that this false girl is out of the way--I've more hopes
+now."
+
+"Marriages are made in heaven, father," replied Bessy; "so, pray don't
+say any thing more about it. It will be time enough for me to think of
+Tom when Tom appears to think of me. I shall always love him as a
+brother."
+
+"Well, God's will be done! We must now try and console him, poor fellow;
+and I'm very glad that we're off to-morrow. Salt water cures love, they
+say, sooner than anything else."
+
+"It may, perhaps," replied Bessy; "but I feel that if I were once really
+in love the whole ocean itself could not wash my love out. However,
+women are not men."
+
+"That's true. You hug your love as you do your babies, all day long, and
+never tire. Now, you see, a man gets tired of nursing in no time. I
+never was in love but once."
+
+"Oh, father, I've heard that story so often."
+
+"Well, then, you shan't hear it again. Now, I'll go out and see where
+Tom may be. I suppose he's looking at the wind, and thinking how it
+changes like a woman. But I'll light my pipe first."
+
+"Do, father; and while Tom looks at the wind and thinks of women, do you
+just watch the smoke out of your pipe, and think of men and their
+constancy."
+
+"Well, I will, if it pleases you. Put the letter by, Bessy, for I
+shouldn't like Tom to see it. What have you got for dinner?"
+
+"I left that to Mrs. Maddox, so I can't tell. But there's cold pudding
+in the larder; I'll put it out for Tom."
+
+"Nay, Bessy, you must not jest with him."
+
+"Am I likely, think you, father?" replied Bessy. "Can't I feel for him?"
+
+"Come, come, dearest, I didn't mean to make you cry."
+
+"I'm not crying, but I'm very sorry for Tom, and that's the truth. Now
+go away with your pipe and leave me alone."
+
+It was impossible for me to have returned without being perceived, and I
+therefore remained during the whole of this conversation. I was annoyed
+to discover that they knew my secret; and still more vexed at the
+remainder of this colloquy, by which I discovered that Bramble had so
+completely set his heart upon a union between me and Bessy, which I
+considered as impossible. I felt, as all do at the time, as if I never
+could love again. I walked away, and did not return home till
+dinner-time. Bramble and Bessy were very kind, although they did not
+talk much; and when I went away the next day I was moved with the
+affectionate farewell of the latter.
+
+It was a beautiful night, and we were running before the east wind, the
+Portland Light upon our starboard beam; the other men in the boat had
+lain down in their gregos and pilot jackets, and were fast asleep, while
+Bramble was at the helm steering; and I, who was too restless in my mind
+to feel any inclination to repose, was sitting on the sternsheets beside
+him.
+
+"Do you see the line of the _Race_" said Bramble; "it seems strong
+to-night."
+
+Bramble referred to what is called by the mariners the Race of Portland,
+where the uneven ground over which the water runs creates a very heavy
+sea even in a calm. Small smuggling vessels and boats, forced into it in
+bad weather, have often foundered. The tide, however, runs so rapidly
+over it that you are generally swept through it in a few minutes, and
+then find yourself again in comparatively smooth water.
+
+"Yes," replied I; "it is very strong to-night, from the long continuance
+of the easterly wind."
+
+"Exactly so, Tom," continued Bramble. "I've often thought that getting
+into that Race is just like failing in love."
+
+"Why so?" replied I, rather pettishly, for I was not pleased at his
+referring to the subject.
+
+"I'll tell you why, Tom," said Bramble; "because, you see, when we get
+into the Race it's all boiling and bubbling and tossing about--rudder
+and sails are of no use; and you are carried along by a fierce tide,
+which there's no resisting, with no small damage to the upper works,
+until you are fairly out again, and find breath to thank God for it.
+Now, aren't that like love?"
+
+"I suppose it is as you say so; you know best."
+
+"Well, I think I do know best; because, you see, I have long been clear
+of it. I never was in love but once, Tom; did I ever tell you about it?"
+
+"Never," replied I.
+
+"Well, then, as 'twill pass time away, I'll just give you the long and
+the short of it, as the saying is. When I was just about twenty, and a
+smart lad in my own opinion, I was on board of a transport, and we had
+gone round to Portsmouth with a load of timber for the dockyard. It was
+not my first trip there, for, you see, the transport was employed
+wholly on that service; and during my cruising on shore I had taken up
+my quarters at the Chequer Board, a house a little way from the common
+Hard, in the street facing the dockyard wall; for, you see, Tom, it was
+handy to us, as our ship laid at the wharf, off the mast pond, it being
+just outside the dockyard gates. The old fellow who kept the house was
+as round as a ball, for he never started out by any chance from one
+year's end to another; his wife was dead; and he had an only daughter,
+who served at the bar, in a white cap with blue streamers; and when her
+hair was out of papers, and she put on clean shoes and stockings, which
+she did every day after dinner, she was a very smart neat built little
+heifer; and, being an only daughter, she was considered as a great catch
+to any one who could get hold of her. She had quite the upper hand of
+her father, who dared not say a word; and with others she would give
+herself no few airs. At one time she would be as sweet as sugar, and the
+next, without any cause, she'd 'wonder at your imperance.' It was
+difficult to know how to take her. It's a bad thing for a girl to have a
+great fortune; they get so much flattery that it turns their heads.
+Well, Tom, I wasn't looking after the money, as you'll believe when I
+tell you so; but as she was very chatty with me, and allowed me to come
+inside the bar, which was considered as a great favor, to help rinse the
+glasses, and so on, and as the other men used to joke with me, and tell
+me that I should carry off the prize, I began to think that she was fond
+of me, and so very naturally I became fond of her; and we met and we
+parted (and she would allow me to kiss her when we parted), until I was
+quite gone altogether, and did nothing but think of her all day and
+dream of her all night. Well, the last time that I was in the transport
+to Portsmouth, I had made up my mind to clinch the business, and as soon
+as the sails were furled, I dressed myself in my best toggery and made
+all sail for the old house. When I came in I found Peggy in the bar, and
+a very fancy sort of young chap alongside of her. I did not think so
+much of that, and I was going inside the bar to shake hands as usual,
+when says she, 'Well, I should not wonder,' pulling to the half-door, as
+if she were surprised at my attempting to come in.
+
+"'Oh, ho!' says I, 'are you on that tack? what next?' and then I looked
+more at the chap, and he was a very nice young man, as the saying is. As
+I afterward found out, he was in the smuggling line between Cherbourg
+and our coast, and he had Frenchified manners, and he talked little bits
+of French, and he had French gloves for presents, and had earrings in
+his ears, and lots of rings on his fingers. So I took my seat at the
+wooden benches near the fire, just as sulky as a bear with a sore head,
+watching their maneuvers. At last he walked out, kissing his hand as she
+smiles. As the coast was clear I went up to the bar.
+
+"'Well,' says I, 'Peggy, so the wind's shifted, is it?'
+
+"'What do you mean?' says she. 'I suppose I may be civil to another
+person as well as to you.'
+
+"'Yes, I see no objection,' says I; 'but why was he to be inside the
+bar, and I put out?'
+
+"'Oh,' replied she, 'one at a time, you know, Mr. Philip. I haven't made
+any promises to you that I know of.'
+
+"'That's very true,' replied I, 'but--'
+
+"'Oh, you mustn't fret here,' interrupted she. 'I'm my own mistress, I
+suppose. However, I'll tell you this much, that I don't care a bit about
+him, and that's the truth of it--but I did not like your coming inside
+the bar so quietly, as if you had a right there, for I don't want people
+to make remarks.'
+
+"Well, the end of it was that she pacified me, and we were as great
+friends almost as ever. I say almost, for I had my eyes upon her and
+that chap, and did not much like it. A week after my arrival there was
+to be a fair over at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, and I asked Peggy
+whether she would go with me; but she refused, saying that she was
+obliged to go to her aunt's out at Limberhook, who was very old, and had
+sent for her, so I thought nothing more about the matter. Well, the day
+before the fair, as we were busy in the fore noon getting the timber out
+of the vessel, one of my shipmates, who went to the same house, says to
+me, 'I say, Tom, when I was at the Chequers last night, I overheard
+Peggy promise to go to the Ryde Fair with that Frenchified smuggling
+chap.'
+
+"'Did you?' said I.
+
+"'Yes,' replied he, 'and they agreed to start at twelve o'clock, just
+after the dockyard bell rang. I thought at the time it was just to give
+you the slip before you left the ship, and that she is turning you
+over.'
+
+"Well, when I heard this, did not my blood boil? for the hussy had told
+me a lie in saying that she was going to her aunt's; and it was evident
+that she had done so that she might go with this other fellow to the
+fair. I thought the matter over and over again, for, to tell you the
+truth, all I wanted then was revenge. I felt nothing but scorn for a
+woman who could act in so base a manner; at the same time I wished to
+punish both her and him by spoiling their day's sport; so at last I
+determined that I would start right away for the fair myself, and not
+only put her to shame, but give her fancy man a good drubbing, which I
+was well able to do. So I walks down to Point and gets into a wherry,
+keeping a sharp lookout for their coming down from the Hard. At last I
+spied them, and then I made the waterman pull away, so as to keep about
+three cables' lengths ahead of them, and thus I continued watching their
+billing and cooing, and grinding my teeth with rage, until we had come
+over to the other side. Now, you see, Tom, at that time there was no
+wooden pier at Ryde as there is now, and when the tide was out there was
+such a long flat of mud that there was no landing; so the way it was
+managed was, the wherries came in as far as they could, and were met by
+a horse and cart, which took out the passengers and carried them through
+the mud and water to the hard ground. Well, when I pulled in, the man
+was there with his horse and cart, and I paid my fare, and stepped out
+of the wherry, expecting the man to drive off and put me on shore; but
+he, seeing that there was another wherry close at hand, says he must
+wait for her passengers, and make one trip of it. I did not care how
+soon we met, and waited very patiently until they pulled up to us. They
+were not a little surprised to see me, and not a little annoyed either.
+As for Peggy, she colored to her elbows, and then tried to put up an
+impudent face on the matter. He looked both foolish and angry. They were
+both very smart. She had on a white gown with a yellow handkerchief on
+her shoulders, a green silk bonnet and blue feathers, and he was figged
+out as fine as fivepence, with white jean trousers, and rings and
+chains, and Lord knows what.
+
+"'Well,' says Peggy, as bold as brass, 'who'd have thought to have seen
+you here?'
+
+"'I did not say that I was going to see my aunt,' replied I; 'but as you
+did, who would have expected to see you here?'
+
+"'Don't talk to me, young man,' said she, as red as fire, and turning
+away to her beau.
+
+"Just as she said this, the cart drove off, the horse floundering
+through the mud, which was about three feet deep, with a matter of six
+inches of water above it. As she turned away aft, I turned forward,
+thinking what I should do next, and then I cast my eyes down, and
+observed that it was a tilting cart as they use for carrying out manure,
+and that if I took the two pegs out it would fall right back. I thought
+this a capital trick. The carman was sitting on his horse, and it
+couldn't matter to him, so I stepped out on the front of the cart, and
+standing on the shafts, I first pulled out one peg and then another,
+while they were busy talking to each other, with their heads so close
+that his face was under her bonnet. As soon as the second peg was out, I
+helped up the front of the cart a little, and back it went, shooting
+them out right headforemost in the mud. You never saw such a scramble,
+for they had caught hold of each other in their fright, and they rolled
+and floundered, and were half smothered before they could recover their
+feet; and then a pretty pickle they were in, wet to the skin, and
+covered with mud from one end to the other; they could not see out of
+their eyes. Peggy did nothing but scream and flounder--she was
+frightened out of her wits--while the carman and I laughed ready to
+split. I gave him half a crown to drive on shore without them, which he
+did, and we left them to make their way out how they could; and a pretty
+pickle they did come out at last. Thus was their day's pleasure, as well
+as their clothes, all spoiled; and instead of dancing at the fair and
+seeing all the sights, they were shivering in their wet clothes, and the
+laughingstocks to all that saw them.
+
+"Depend upon it, I did not leave them after they had crawled out to the
+beach. The fellow was, as you may suppose, as savage as a bull, and very
+saucy, so I took off my jacket that I might not dirty myself, and gave
+him a couple of black eyes and a bloody nose for his trouble; and as for
+Peggy, I pretended to be so sorry for her, and condoled with her so
+much, that at last she flew at me like a tigress--and as I knew that
+there was no honor, and plenty of mud, to be gained by the conflict, I
+took to my heels and ran off to the fair, where I met some of my friends
+and told them what had happened, and then we had a very merry day of it,
+and I felt quite cured of my love; for, you see, Peggy looked so ugly
+and miserable when she was in the state I left her, that I had only to
+think of her as when I last saw her, and all my love was gone."
+
+"Did you ever meet her again?"
+
+"I met her that very night; for, you see, she had gone to a cottage and
+taken off her clothes, having insisted upon her fancy man going back to
+Portsmouth to fetch her others to go home in. He dared not refuse, so
+off he went in the pickle that he was. But he didn't come back again,
+for, you see, there was a warrant out against him for an affray at Bear
+Haven, in which a King's officer was killed; and after he had changed
+his own clothes, and was proceeding to get some for her from the
+Chequers, he was met by the constable who had the warrant, and carried
+off handcuffed to jail, and afterward he was transported--so she never
+saw him again. Well, Peggy, poor creature, had been waiting for him for
+hours, expecting his return; and it was past ten o'clock when I was
+coming down with some others, and saw her at the door of the cottage
+weeping.
+
+"'Good-night, Peggy,' says I.
+
+"'Oh, Philip, do be kind, do come to me; I'm frightened out of my life.
+I shall have to stay here all night.'
+
+"So, you see, I did feel some little pity for her, and I went up to
+her, and she told me how she had sent him, and he had never come back
+again.
+
+"'The fact is,' says I, 'Peggy, you aren't smart enough for such a
+Frenchified chap as he is. He don't like to be seen in your company.
+Come, get up, and I will see you home, at all events;' so I took charge
+of her, and saw her safe to her father's door.
+
+"'Won't you come in?' said she.
+
+"'No, thank you,' says I.
+
+"'Won't you forgive me, Philip?' said she.
+
+"'Yes," says I, 'I'll forgive you, for old acquaintance' sake, and for
+one more reason.'
+
+"'What's that?' says Peggy.
+
+"'Why,' says I, 'for the lesson which you've learned me. I've been made
+a fool of once, and it's your fault; but if ever a woman makes a fool of
+me again, why, then it's mine. And so, Peggy, good-by forever.'
+
+"So I turned away on my heel, and as I left the transport the next trip,
+I never saw her again."
+
+"Well, Bramble," replied I, "I agree with you; and if ever a woman makes
+a fool of me _again_, it will be my fault. You know what's happened, so
+I don't mind saying so."
+
+"Why, Tom, in your present humor, you think so; but all do not keep to
+the same way of thinking as I did till it was too late to think about
+marrying; but still I do not think that I should have been happy as a
+single man, if it had not been for my falling in with Bessy. I should
+have been very lonely, I expect, for I began to feel so. When you come
+to your own door, Tom, home looks cheerless if there is no bright eye to
+welcome you, and the older a man gets the more he feels that he was not
+intended to live single. My yearning after something to love and to love
+me, which is in our nature, was satisfied, first by having Bessy, and
+then by having you--and I'm thankful."
+
+"You might have married, and have been very unhappy."
+
+"I might, and I might have been very happy, had I chosen a wife as a man
+should do."
+
+"And how is that, pray, Bramble?"
+
+"Why, Tom, I've often thought upon it. In the first place look out for
+good temper: if you find that you may be happy, even if your wife is a
+silly woman; assure yourself first of her temper, and then you must
+judge her by the way in which she does those duties which have fallen to
+her lot; for if a girl is a dutiful and affectionate daughter there is
+little fear but that she will prove a loving and obedient wife. But I
+think we have had our spell here, Tom, and it's rather cold: rouse up
+one of those chaps, and tell him to come to the helm. I'll coil myself
+up and have a snooze till the morning, and do you do the same."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
+
+     In which I receive a very severe Blow from a Party or Parties
+     unknown.
+
+
+The day after this conversation we fell in with several vessels
+windbound at the entrance of the Channel. I took charge of one, and the
+wind shifting to the S.W., and blowing strong, I carried her up to the
+Pool. As soon as I could leave her I took a boat to go down to
+Greenwich, as I was most anxious to have a long conversation with
+Virginia. It was a dark squally night, with rain at intervals between
+the gusts of wind, and I was wet through long before I landed at the
+stairs, which was not until past eleven o'clock. I paid the waterman,
+and hastened up to my mother's house, being aware that they would either
+be all in bed or about to retire. It so happened that I did not go the
+usual way, but passed by the house of old Nanny; and as I walked by with
+a quick step, and was thinking of her and her misfortunes, I fell over
+something which, in the dark, I did not perceive, and which proved to be
+some iron railings, which the workmen who were fixing them up had
+carelessly left on the ground, previous to their returning to their work
+on the ensuing morning. Fortunately the spikes at the ends of them were
+from me, and I received no injury, except a severe blow on the shin; and
+as I stopped a moment to rub it, I thought that I heard a cry from the
+direction of old Nanny's house; but the wind was very high, and I was
+not certain. I stopped and listened, and it was repeated. I gained the
+door. It was so dark that I groped for the latch. The door was open, and
+when I went in I heard a gurgling kind of noise and a rustling in her
+chamber. "Who's there?--What's this?" cried I; for I had a foreboding
+that something was wrong. I tumbled over some old iron, knocked down the
+range of keys, and made a terrible din, when, of a sudden, just as I had
+recovered my legs, I was thrown down again by somebody who rushed by me
+and darted out of the door. As the person rushed by me I attempted to
+seize his arm, but I received a severe blow on the mouth, which cut my
+lip through, and at first I thought I had lost all my front teeth.
+
+I rose up. I heard a heavy groaning; so, instead of pursuing the robber,
+I felt my way into Nanny's chamber. "Nanny," said I, "mother, what's the
+matter?" but there was no reply, except another groan. I knew where she
+kept her tinderbox and matches; I found them, and struck a light; and by
+the light of the match I perceived the candle and candlestick lying on
+the floor. I picked it up, lighted it, and then turned to the bed; the
+flock mattress was above all, and the groans proceeded from beneath. I
+threw it off, and found old Nanny still breathing, but in a state of
+exhaustion and quite insensible. By throwing water on her face, after
+some little while I brought her to her senses. The flaring of the candle
+reminded me that the shop door was open. I went and made it fast, and
+then spoke to her. It was a long while before I could obtain any
+rational answer. She continued to groan and cry at intervals, "Don't
+leave me, Jack, don't leave me." At last she fell into a sort of slumber
+from exhaustion, and in this state she remained for more than an hour.
+One thing was evident to me, which was, that the party, whoever it might
+be, had attempted to smother the poor old woman, and that in a few
+seconds more he would have perpetrated the deed.
+
+At last old Nanny roused up, and turning to me, said, "It's Jack, is it
+not? I thought so. Oh, my poor head! What has happened?"
+
+"That's what I want to know from you, mother," replied I; "but first I
+will tell you what I know of the business." Which I did, to give her
+time to collect her thoughts.
+
+"Yes," said she, "so it was. I was just in bed, and my candle was not
+out, when I heard a noise at the door, as if they were turning a key in
+it, and then a man entered; but he had something over his face, I
+thought, or he had blacked it. 'What do you want?' cried I. 'I come for
+a light, old woman,' said he. I cried 'Thieves! murder!' as loud as I
+could, and he ran up to me just as I was getting out of bed, and tried
+to smother me. I don't recollect anything more till I heard your voice.
+Thank you, Jack, and God bless you; if you hadn't come to the assistance
+of a poor old wretch like me, I should have been dead by this time."
+
+I felt that what she said was true, and I then asked her many questions,
+so as to lead to the discovery of the party.
+
+"How was he dressed?" inquired I.
+
+"I can't exactly say. But, do you know, Jack, I fancied that he had a
+pensioner's coat on; indeed, I am almost sure of it. I think I tore off
+one of his buttons, I recollect its giving way; I may be wrong--my head
+wanders."
+
+But I thought that most likely Nanny was right, so I looked down on the
+floor with the candle, and there I picked up a pensioner's button.
+
+"You're right, Nanny; here is the button."
+
+"Well, now, Jack, I can't talk anymore; you won't leave me to-night, I'm
+sure."
+
+"No, no, mother, that I will not. Try to go to sleep."
+
+Hardly had Nanny laid her head down again, when it came across my mind
+like a flash of lightning that it must have been Spicer who had
+attempted the deed; and my reason for so thinking was that the blow I
+had received on the mouth was not like that from the hand of a man, but
+from the wooden socket fixed to the stump of his right arm. The more I
+reflected upon it the more I was convinced. He was a clever armorer, and
+had picked the lock; and I now recalled to mind what had never struck me
+before, that he had often asked me questions about old Nanny, and
+whether I thought the report that she had money was correct.
+
+It was daylight before old Nanny woke up, and then she appeared to be
+quite recovered. I told her my suspicions, and my intentions to
+ascertain the truth of them as far as I possibly could.
+
+"Well, and what then?" said old Nanny.
+
+"Why, then, if we bring it home to him, he will be hanged, as he
+deserves."
+
+"Now, Jack, hear me," said old Nanny. "You won't do anything I don't
+wish, I'm sure; and now I'll tell you that I never would give evidence
+against him, or any other man, to have him hanged. So, if you find out
+that it is him, do not say a word about it. Promise me, Jack."
+
+"Why, mother, I can't exactly say that I will; but I will talk to Peter
+Anderson about it."
+
+"It's no use talking to him; and, if you do, it must be under promise of
+secrecy, or I will not consent to it. Jack, Jack, recollect that my poor
+boy was hanged from my fault. Do you think I will hang another? Oh, no.
+Perhaps this very man had a foolish wicked mother, like me, and has,
+like my boy, been led into guilt. Jack, you must do as I wish--you
+shall, Jack."
+
+"Well, mother, I have no animosity against the man himself; and, if you
+forgive him, I do not see why I should do anything."
+
+"I don't forgive him, Jack; but I think of my own poor boy."
+
+"Well, mother, since you wish it, it shall be so; and if I do prove that
+the man I suspect is the party, I will say nothing, and make Anderson
+promise the same, as I think he will. But how is it that people come to
+rob a poor old woman like you? How is it, mother, that there is a report
+going about that you have money?"
+
+"Is there such a report, Jack?"
+
+"Yes, mother, every one says so; why, I do not know; and as long as it
+is supposed, you will always be subject to attacks like this, unless,
+indeed, if you have money, you were to put it away safely, and let
+everybody know that you have done so. Tell me truly, mother, have you
+any money?"
+
+"Jack, what a boy you are to ask questions. Well, perhaps I have a
+little--a very little; but no one will ever find out where I have hidden
+it."
+
+"But they will try, mother, as this man has done, and you will always be
+in peril of your life. Why not place it in the hands of some safe
+person?"
+
+"Safe person! Who's safe nowadays?"
+
+"Why, for instance, there's Mr. Wilson."
+
+"Wilson! what do you know about him, Jack, except that he has a smooth
+face and a bald head? You're young, Jack, and don't know the world. The
+money's safe where it is, and no one will ever find it."
+
+"If so, who is to find it after--" I stopped, for I did not like to say,
+after she was dead.
+
+"I know what you would have said, Jack; who's to find it after my death?
+That's very true. I never thought of that, and I must will it away. I
+never thought of that, Jack, it's very true, and I'm glad that you have
+mentioned it. But who dare I tell? who can I trust?--Can I trust you,
+Jack?--can I?--I ought, for it's all for you, Jack, when I die."
+
+"Mother, whoever it may be for, you may, I hope, trust me."
+
+"Well, I think I can. I'll tell you where it is, Jack, and that will
+prove that it is for you, for nobody else will know where to find it.
+But, Jack, dear, dear Jack, don't you rob me, as my son did; don't rob
+me, and leave me penniless, as he did; promise me?"
+
+"I never will, mother; you need not be afraid."
+
+"Yes; so you say, and so he said; he swore and he cried too, Jack, and
+then he took it all, and left his mother without a farthing."
+
+"Well, mother, then don't tell me; I'd rather not know. You will only be
+uncomfortable, and so let the money go."
+
+"No, Jack, that won't do either; I will tell you, for I can trust you.
+But first, Jack, go out and look behind the house, that there is no one
+listening at the window; for if any one should hear--go, look round
+carefully, and then come back."
+
+I did as she wished, and then Nanny bid me hold my head closer to her,
+while she whispered, "You must take the back out of the fireplace, and
+then pull out three bricks, and then put your hand into the hole, and
+you will find a small box; and there you will find a little money--a
+very little, Jack, hardly worth having, but still it may be of some
+use; and it's all yours when I die. Jack--I give it to you."
+
+"Mother, I'm thankful for your kindness, but I cannot touch it if you do
+die without you leave it to me by your will."
+
+"Ah! that's true, Jack. Well, tell Anderson to come here, and I'll tell
+him I'll leave the money to you; but I won't tell him where it is, I'll
+only say that I leave you everything I have. They'll suppose that it's
+the shop and all the pretty things." Here she chuckled for some time.
+
+It was now broad daylight, and Nanny told me that she would like to get
+up, and see about a padlock being put to her door before night; so I
+wished her good-by, and left her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY
+
+     Showing the great Advantages to be derived from Patronage.
+
+
+I left old Nanny, and arrived at my mother's house in time for
+breakfast. I did not, however, find her in a very good humor; something
+had evidently ruffled her. Virginia also, who welcomed me most
+cordially, was taciturn and grave. My mother made but one observation
+during our repast.
+
+"Well, Tom," said she, "you've found out what it is to wish to marry for
+love. I only wish it may be a lesson to others."
+
+To this evident attack upon Virginia, at the expense of my feelings, I
+made no reply, and soon afterward my mother went to superintend her
+establishment, leaving me and my sister alone.
+
+"Tom," said she, "I hope by this time you are no longer suffering from
+your late cruel disappointment. I have felt for you, I assure you, and,
+assuring you of that, will not again revert to the subject. Let her be
+blotted from your memory as soon as possible."
+
+"Be it so, my dear Virginia; but you are grave, and my mother is
+evidently out of humor. You must explain this."
+
+"That is easily done. I have made a sad mistake. I was so much annoyed
+at my mother's system toward me that I ventured, without her knowledge,
+to write to Lady Hercules, requesting her protection and influence to
+procure me some situation as a companion to a lady, amanuensis, or
+reader. It appears that her ladyship was not very sincere in her
+professions when we had an interview with her; at all events, her reply
+was anything but satisfactory, and, unfortunately, it was addressed to
+my mother and not to me. You can have no idea of my mother's indignation
+upon the receipt of it, and she has not been sparing in her reproaches
+to me for having written without her knowledge, and having, by so doing,
+subjected her to such a mortification. I certainly am sorry to have done
+so. As for her ladyship's answer, it would have been to me more a
+subject of mirth than any other feeling. It has, however, proved the
+cause of much annoyance from my mother's continually harping upon it."
+
+"Have you the letter of Lady Hercules?"
+
+"I have a copy of it, which I took, intending to have sent it to you the
+next time that I wrote. I will bring it down if you will wait a minute."
+
+When Virginia returned she put the following epistle into my hand:
+
+     MRS. SAUNDERS--I have received a letter from your daughter, which,
+     I presume, was forwarded as a specimen of her penmanship; otherwise
+     it was your duty to have addressed me yourself. I said to you, when
+     I met you at Greenwich, that you were educating your daughter above
+     her condition in life, and I now repeat it. My patronage is
+     extended only to those who are not above their situations, which, I
+     am sorry to observe, most people are now. Nevertheless, as I did
+     say that I would exert my influence in your daughter's behalf, in
+     consequence of your having been a decent, well-behaved menial to
+     me, I have made inquiry among my acquaintances, and find that I may
+     be, _possibly_, able to place her with my friend, Lady Towser, as a
+     'boudoir-assistant.' I have said _possibly_, as I am by no means
+     sure that she will be equal to the situation, and the number of
+     applicants are very numerous. The inclosed paper from Lady Towser
+     will give you an idea of what will be requisite:
+
+     "Morning, up at 6, and nicely dressed; come in in list shoes, and
+     wait at bedside, in case Lady Towser should be troubled with her
+     morning cough, to hand the emulsion, etc. At 9, to call and assist
+     to dress Lady Towser's head tirewoman; follow her to Lady T.'s
+     chamber, and obey orders. Breakfast in housekeeper's room. After
+     breakfast assist housemaid to dust ornaments, and on Saturdays and
+     Wednesdays, _wash_, comb, and examine dogs; other days comb and
+     examine them only; clean and feed macaw, cockatoo, and parrot, also
+     canary and other birds; bring up dogs' dinners, and prevent them
+     fighting at meals. After dogs' dinners read to Lady T., if
+     required; if not, get up collars and flounces, laces, etc., for
+     Lady T. and Lady T.'s tirewoman. After your own dinner assist
+     housekeeper as required in the still-room; fine needlework; repair
+     clothes before they go to wash; dress and brush Lady T.'s perukes;
+     walk out with dogs if weather is fine, and be careful to prevent
+     their making any acquaintances whatever.
+
+     "Evening--Read to Lady T., write notes, look over bills, and keep
+     general accounts; if not wanted, to make herself useful in
+     housekeeper's room, and obey all orders received from her or head
+     tirewoman. At night see that the hot water is ready for Lady T.'s
+     feet, and wait for her retiring to bed; wash Lady T.'s feet, and
+     cut corns, as required; read Lady T. to sleep, or, if not required
+     to read, wait till she is certain that Lady T. is so.
+
+     "Now the only points in which I think your daughter may fail is in
+     properly washing, combing, and examining the dogs, and cutting her
+     ladyship's corns; but surely she can practice a little of both, as
+     she will not be wanted for a month. There can be no difficulty
+     about the first; and as for the latter, as all people in your rank
+     of life have corns, she may practice upon yours or her father's. At
+     all events, there can be no want of corns in Greenwich Hospital
+     among the pensioners. I am desired to say that Lady T. gives no
+     wages the first year; and you will be expected to send your
+     daughter neatly fitted out, that she may be able to remain in the
+     room when there is company. If this offer will not suit, I can do
+     nothing more; the difficulty of patronage increases every day. You
+     will send an answer.
+
+     "VIRGINIA HAWKINGTREFYLYAN.
+
+"I was just closing my letter when Lady Scrimmage came in; she tells me
+that Lady Towser is suited, and that you have no hopes of this
+situation. I have done my best. Lady Scrimmage has, however, informed me
+that she thinks she can, upon my recommendation, do something for you in
+Greenwich, as she deals largely with a highly respectable and
+fashionable milliner of the same name as your own, and with whom it
+would be of the greatest advantage to your daughter to be placed as an
+apprentice, or something of that sort. This is an opportunity not to be
+lost, and I therefore have requested Lady S. to write immediately, and I
+trust by _my patronage_, she will gain a _most enviable situation_."
+
+"That postscript is admirable," observed I, "and ought to have put my
+mother in a good humor. Is she not called by Lady Hercules 'highly
+respectable and fashionable'?"
+
+"Very true," replied Virginia; "but my mother cannot get over the first
+part of the letter, in which she is mentioned as 'a decent and
+well-behaved menial.' She has since received a note from Lady Scrimmage,
+requesting her to take me in some capacity or another, adding, by way of
+postscript, 'You know you need not keep her if you do not like--it is
+very easy to send her away for idleness or impertinence; but I wish to
+oblige Lady Hercules, and so, pray, at all events, write and say that
+you will try her."
+
+"And what has my mother said in reply?"
+
+"She did not show me the answer; but, from what I have collected from
+her conversation, she has written a most haughty, and, I presume it will
+be said, a most impertinent letter to both the ladies; the one to Lady
+Scrimmage accompanied with her bill, which has not been paid these three
+years. I am sorry that my mother has been annoyed. My father, to whom I
+related what had taken place, told me that my mother was very ill
+treated by Lady Hercules, and that she had smothered her resentment with
+the hopes of benefiting her children by her patronage; but that was at a
+time when she little expected to be so prosperous as she is now."
+
+"It is all true, my dear girl; I recollect my father telling me the
+whole story. However, I presume my mother, now that she can venture upon
+defiance, has not failed to resort to it."
+
+"That I am convinced of. I only hope that she will carry her indignation
+against great people so far as not to court them as she has done, and
+abandon all her ridiculous ideas of making a match for me. After all,
+she has my welfare sincerely at heart, and, although mistaken in the
+means of securing it, I cannot but feel that she is actuated solely by
+her love for me."
+
+We then changed the conversation to Janet, about whom I could now speak
+calmly; after which I narrated to her what had occurred during the
+night, and my intention to consult with my father and Anderson upon the
+subject.
+
+Virginia then left me that she might assist her mother, and I hastened
+to my father's ward, where I found him, and, after our first greeting,
+requested that he would accompany me to Anderson's office, as I had
+something to communicate to them both. As I walked along with my father
+I perceived Spicer at a corner with his foot on a stone step and his
+hand to his knee, as if in pain. At last he turned round and saw us. I
+walked up to him, and he appeared a little confused as he said, "Ah!
+Tom, is that you? I did not know you were at Greenwich."
+
+"I came here last night," replied I; "and I must be off again soon. Are
+you lame?"
+
+"Lame! No; what should make me lame?" replied he, walking by the side of
+us as if he were not so.
+
+I looked at his coat, and perceived that the third button on the right
+side was missing.
+
+"You've lost a button, Spicer," observed I.
+
+"So I have," replied he; and, as we had now arrived at Anderson's door,
+my father and I turned from him to walk in and wished him good-by.
+
+Anderson was in his office, and as soon as the door was closed I
+communicated to them what had occurred during the night, expressing my
+conviction that Spicer was the party who had attempted the murder. In
+corroboration I reminded my father of the loss of the button from
+Spicer's coat, and produced the one which Nanny had torn off.
+
+"This is something more than suspicion," observed Anderson; "but if, as
+you say, old Nanny will not give evidence against him, I know not what
+can be done. Did you say that the old woman wanted to speak with me?"
+
+"Yes, and I really wish that you would call there oftener."
+
+"Well," replied Anderson, "I'll go, Tom; but, to be plain with you, I do
+not think that I can be of much use there. I have been several times.
+She will gossip as long as you please; but if you would talk seriously,
+she turns a deaf ear. You see, Tom, there's little to be gained when you
+have to contend with such a besetting sin as avarice. It is so powerful,
+especially in old age, that it absorbs all other feelings. Still it is
+my duty, and it is also my sincere wish, to call her to a proper sense
+of her condition. The poor old creature is, like myself, not very far
+from the grave; and, when once in it, it will be too late. I will go,
+Tom, and most thankful shall I be if, with God's help, I may prove of
+service to her."
+
+We then left old Anderson to his duties, and my father went home with
+me. We had a long conversation relative to my sister, as well as about
+my own affairs. I had intended to have remained some days at Greenwich,
+but this was the first time that I had been there since Janet's
+desertion, and the sight of everything so reminded me of her, and made
+everything so hateful to me, that I became very melancholy. My mother
+was, moreover, very cross, and my sister anything but comfortable; and,
+on the third day, having received a letter from Bramble, stating that he
+had arrived at Deal, and that the easterly winds having again set in,
+they talked, of setting out again in the galley, I made this an excuse
+for leaving; and for the first time did I quit Greenwich without regret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
+
+     In which it is proved that Sailors have very correct Ideas as to
+     Metempsychosis.
+
+
+The day after my return to Deal I again embarked with Bramble and three
+others, to follow up our vocation. The second day we were abreast of the
+Ram Head, when the men in another pilot boat, which had come out of
+Plymouth and was close to us, waved their hats and kept away to speak to
+us. We hove-to for them.
+
+"Have you heard the news?" cried one of the men.
+
+"No."
+
+"Lord Nelson has beat the French and Spanish fleet."
+
+"Glad to hear it--huzza!"
+
+"Lord Nelson's killed."
+
+"Lord Nelson's killed!" The intelligence was repeated from mouth to
+mouth, and then every voice was hushed; the other boat hauled her wind
+without further communication, nor did we at the time think of asking
+for any more. The shock which was given to the whole country was equally
+felt by those who were seeking their bread in a small boat, and for some
+little while we steered our course in silence.
+
+"What d'ye say, my lads?" said Bramble, who first broke silence; "shall
+we haul up for Cawsand, and get a paper? I shan't be content till I know
+the whole history."
+
+This was consented to unanimously; no one thought of piloting vessels
+for the moment and earning food for their families. When the country
+awarded a public funeral to our naval hero, it did not pay him a more
+sincere tribute than was done in this instance by five pilots in a
+galley. At Cawsand we obtained the newspaper, and after a few pots of
+beer we again made sail for the mouth of the Channel. It hardly need be
+observed that the account of this winding-up, as it proved, of our naval
+triumphs, with the death of Nelson, was the subject of conversation for
+more than one day. On the third we were all separated, having fallen in
+with many windbound vessels who required our services. The one I took
+charge of was a West Indiaman, deeply laden with rum and sugar, one of a
+convoy which were beating about in the Chops of the Channel. As we were
+standing out from the English coast the captain and one of the
+passengers were at the taffrail close to me.
+
+"What do you think of the weather, pilot?" said the captain.
+
+"I think we shall have a change of wind, and dirty weather before twelve
+hours are over our heads," replied I.
+
+"Well," said he, "that's my opinion. There is a cloud rising in the
+southwest; and, look, there are some Mother Carey's chickens dipping in
+the water astern."
+
+"Where?" said the passenger, a curly-headed Creole, about twenty years
+old.
+
+"Those small birds," replied the captain, walking forward.
+
+The passenger went down below, and soon returned with his
+double-barreled fowling-piece.
+
+"I have long wished to shoot one of those birds," said he; "and now they
+are so near, I think I may get a shot."
+
+He raised his piece several times without firing, when the captain came
+aft, and, perceiving his intention, caught his arm as he was about to
+level again.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Higgins, but I really must request that you will
+not fire at those birds."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I cannot permit it."
+
+"But what's to hinder me?" replied the young man, coloring up; "they are
+not in your manifest, I presume."
+
+"No, sir, they are not; but I tell you frankly that I would not kill one
+for a hundred pounds. Nay, I would as soon murder one of my
+fellow-creatures."
+
+"Well, that may be your feeling, but it's not mine."
+
+"Nevertheless, sir, as it is, to say the least of it, very unlucky, you
+will oblige me by yielding to my request."
+
+"Nonsense!--just to humor your superstitious feeling."
+
+"We are not in port yet, Mr. Higgins; and I must insist upon it you do
+not fire. You have taken my gunpowder, and I cannot allow it to be used
+in that way."
+
+During this altercation I observed that many of the sailors had come
+aft, and, although they said nothing, were evidently of the same opinion
+as the captain. I was aware that there was a superstitious feeling among
+the seamen relative to these birds, but I had never seen it so strongly
+exemplified before.
+
+The mate gave a wink to the captain, behind the passenger's back, and
+made a motion to him to go forward, which the captain did. The passenger
+again raised his gun, when it was seized by two of the seamen.
+
+"You must not fire at these birds, sir!" said one of them.
+
+"Why, you scoundrel?--I'll give you the contents of both barrels if you
+don't leave my gun alone."
+
+"No, you won't--you're not among niggers now, master," replied the
+seaman; "and as you have threatened to shoot me, I must take the gun
+from you."
+
+A scuffle ensued, during which both barrels were discharged in the air,
+and the gun taken from Mr. Higgins, who was boiling with rage. The gun
+was handed forward, and I saw it no more. Mr. Higgins, in a state of
+great excitement, went down into the cabin.
+
+The captain then came aft to me, when I observed that I had no idea that
+seamen were so very particular on that point; and I thought that they
+had gone too far.
+
+"You may think so, pilot," replied he, "but when I tell you that I fully
+believe that these birds are as good as ourselves, you will not be
+surprised--"
+
+"How do you mean, as good as ourselves?"
+
+"I believe that they _were_ every one sailors like ourselves in former
+times. They are now the sailors' friends, come to warn us of the
+approaching storm, and I can tell you a circumstance which occurred in
+the West Indies, which fully proves to me that they are not wantonly
+killed without a judgment upon those who do so. I never believed it
+myself till then; but old Mason, who is now on board, was one of the
+seamen of the vessel in which the circumstance happened."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I, "I should like to hear it."
+
+"I can't tell you now," said he; "I must go down and satisfy that puppy
+Creole, whose sugars are on board. He will otherwise make such a row
+between me and the owners that I may lose the command of the vessel. And
+yet, would you imagine it? although he will not credit what I tell him
+about Mother Carey's chickens, the foolish young man firmly believes in
+the Obi."
+
+I did not think one superstition more ridiculous than the other, but
+still as I always found that it was useless to argue such points, I said
+nothing, and the captain went down into the cabin to pacify Mr. Higgins.
+
+It was late in the first watch, and when the passengers had retired to
+bed, that the captain came on deck. "Well," said he, "I told Mr. Higgins
+my story, and as there was a bit of Obi nonsense in it, he believed it,
+and he has not only made friends, but thanked me for not having allowed
+him to shoot the birds; and now I'll tell you the real story:
+
+"A schooner was coming down from the Virgin Isles with sugar and
+passengers to Antigua, where I was lying with my ship. She had a fine
+young fellow of the name of Shedden on board; and, besides other
+passengers, there was an old black woman, who, where she resided, had
+always been considered as an Obi woman. I saw her afterward; and you
+never beheld such a complication of wrinkles as she was, from her
+forehead to her feet, and her woolly head was as white as snow. They
+were becalmed as soon as they were clear of the islands; and, as it
+happened, some Mother Carey's chickens were flying about the stern.
+Shedden must needs get at his gun to shoot them. The old black woman sat
+near the taffrail; she saw him with his gun, but she said nothing. At
+last he fired, and killed three of them.
+
+"'There are three down!' cried out some of the other passengers.
+
+"'How many?' said the old woman, raising her head; '_three!_ Then count
+the sharks which are coming up.'
+
+"'Count the sharks, mother! why count them? There's plenty of them,'
+replied Shedden, laughing.
+
+"'I tell you that there will be but three sent,' replied the old woman,
+who then sunk down her head and said no more.
+
+"Well, the negroes who were passengers on board, most of them Mr.
+Shedden's slaves, looked very blank, for they knew that old Etau never
+spoke without reason. In about ten minutes afterward, three large sharks
+swam up to the vessel, with their fins above water.
+
+"'There's the three sharks, sure enough!' said the passengers.
+
+"'Are they come?' said Etau, raising her head.
+
+"'Yes, moder, dere dey be--very large shark,' replied one of the
+negroes.
+
+"'Then three are doomed,' said the old woman, 'and here we stay, and the
+waves shall not run, nor the wind blow, till the three sharks have their
+food. I say three are doomed!'
+
+"The passengers were more or less alarmed with this prophecy of old
+Etau's, according as they put faith in her. However, they all went to
+bed quite well, and the next morning they got up the same. Still there
+was not a breath of wind, the whole sea was as smooth as glass, and the
+vessel laid where she was the night before, in about six fathoms of
+water, about a mile from the reef, and you could see the coral rocks
+beneath her bottom as plain as if they were high and dry; and what
+alarmed them the next morning was that the three large sharks were still
+slowly swimming round and round the schooner. All that day it remained a
+dead calm, and the heat was dreadful, although the awnings were spread.
+Night came on, and the people, becoming more frightened, questioned old
+Etau, but all the answer she gave was, '_Three_ are doomed!'
+
+"The passengers and crew were now terrified out of their wits, and they
+all went to bed with very melancholy forebodings, for the elements
+appeared as if they were arrested till the penalty was paid. For, you
+observe, pilot, there is always a light breeze as regular as the sun
+rises and goes down; but now the breezes only appeared to skirt the
+land, and when they came from the offing invariably stopped two or three
+miles from the schooner. It was about midnight that there was a stir in
+the cabin, and it appeared that Mr. Shedden had the yellow fever, and
+shortly afterward another white man, a sailor belonging to the schooner,
+then one of Mr. Shedden's slaves. Well, there the fever stopped--no one
+else was taken ill--the usual remedies were applied, but before morning
+they were all three delirious. At sunrise it was still calm, and
+continued so till sunset; and all the day the passengers were annoyed by
+the back fins of the three sharks, which continued to swim about. Again
+they went to bed, and just before one o'clock in the morning Mr.
+Shedden, in his delirium, got out of his bed, and, rushing on the deck,
+jumped overboard before any one could prevent him; and old Etau, who
+never left where she sat, was heard to say, '_One_!' and the bell was
+struck _one_ by the seaman forward, who did not know what had happened.
+Morning came on again and there were but two sharks to be seen. About
+noon the other white man died and he was thrown overboard; and as one
+shark seized his body and swam away, old Etau cried out, '_Two!_' An
+hour afterward the negro died, and was thrown overboard and carried away
+by the third shark, and old Etau cried out, '_Three!_ the price is
+paid!'
+
+"Well, every one crowded around the old woman to hear what she would
+say, and they asked her if all was over, and whether they should have
+any wind? and her reply was, 'When the three birds come from the sea to
+replace those which were killed.' For you see, pilot, if one of these
+birds is killed, it is certain that some one of the crew must die and
+be thrown overboard to become a Mother Carey chicken, and replace the
+one that has been destroyed. Well, after a time, although we never saw
+them rise, three Mother Carey's chickens were seen dipping and flying
+about astern of the schooner; and they told old Etau, who said, 'You'll
+have wind and plenty--and plenty of waves to make up for the calm;' and
+so they had sure enough, for it came on almost a hurricane, and the
+schooner scudded before it under bare poles until she arrived at
+Antigua, with her bulwarks washed away, and a complete wreck. I was
+there at the time, and old Mason, who was on board, told me the story,
+and asked me to take him, as he would not remain on board of the
+schooner. And now I leave you to judge, after knowing this to be a fact,
+whether I was not right in preventing Mr. Higgins from shooting the
+Mother Carey chickens?"
+
+"Why, yes," replied I, "with such a _fact_ before my eyes, I should have
+done the same."
+
+Mr. Higgins not venturing to kill any of these receptacles for the souls
+of departed seamen, we arrived safely at the Downs, where I gave up
+charge to a river pilot, for the other vessels which Bramble and our
+companions had taken charge of were all bound to the Downs, and arrived
+at nearly the same time that I did, and we had agreed to embark again in
+the galley, and run out in quest of the remainder of the convoy.
+
+This we did on the following day, much to the vexation of Bessy, who
+declared we only came on shore to be off again.
+
+I ought to observe that Bessy and I had become much more intimate since
+the explanation which had taken place; and although it never entered my
+head that I should ever feel toward her more than as a brother to a
+sister, I was pleased and soothed with the touching proofs of kindness
+and commiseration which she took every opportunity of showing toward me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
+
+     A heavy Gale, a Wreck, and a Rescue.
+
+
+We had run out in our galley as far as the Start, when the appearance of
+the weather became very threatening. It was just about the time of the
+equinoctial gales, and there was a consultation among us whether we
+should run into Torquay or return to Deal.
+
+Bramble observed, that as the gale coming on would, in all probability,
+blow for three days, he thought it was no use remaining all that time at
+Torquay, where we should be put to extra expense, and that we should be
+better on shore at our own homes. This remark decided the point, and
+about dusk we put the boat's head along shore for up Channel. The wind
+was at that time about S.S.W., but occasionally shifting a point or two.
+The sky had become covered over with one black mass of clouds, which
+hung down so low that they appeared almost to rest on the water; and
+there was that peculiar fitful moaning which is ever the precursor of a
+violent gale of wind. At nightfall we reefed our lug-sails; and, while
+one sat at the helm, the rest of us lounged against the gunnel, buttoned
+up in our pilot jackets; some shutting their eyes, as if to invite
+sleep, others watching the waves, which now rose fast, and danced and
+lapped at the weather broadside as if they would fain have entered into
+the boat. But of that we had little fear; our galley was one of the
+finest boats that ever swam, and we felt as secure as if we were on
+board of a three-decked ship. As the night advanced, so did the wind
+increase and the sea rise; lightning darted through the dense clouds,
+and for a moment we could scan the horizon. Everything was threatening;
+yet our boat, with the wind about two points free, rushed gallantly
+along, rising on the waves like a sea-bird, and sinking into the hollow
+of the waters as if she had no fear of any attempt on their part to
+overwhelm her. Thus did we continue to run on during the night, every
+hour the gale increasing, the billows mounting up until they broke in
+awful and majestic crests, and often so near to us that we presented our
+backs in a close file against the weather bulwarks to prevent any body
+of water from pouring in.
+
+"We shall have light soon," observed one of the men.
+
+"And we shall want it to beach the boat in such weather as this,"
+replied another. "We shall have it harder yet before day."
+
+"Depend upon it this will be a mischievous gale," observed Bramble, "and
+our coast will be strewed with wrecks. Any ships under canvas now,
+between the Channel shores, will stand but a poor chance against this
+heavy sea, which bears down with such force. I'd rather be in this boat
+now than in any vessel in mid-Channel."
+
+"And I had rather be on shore than in either," rejoined I.
+
+"Well, Tom," said one of the pilots, "I do really believe you this
+time."
+
+When it was broad daylight, the coast to leeward presented a wild and
+terrific scene, lashed as it was by the furious surf, which dashed its
+spray half-way up the towering white cliffs, for it was within two hours
+of high water. The waves were now really mountains high, and their broad
+surfaces were pitted into little waves by the force of the wind, which
+covered the whole expanse of waters with one continued foam. On our
+weather bow a vessel with her foremast gone was pitching heavily, and at
+times nearly buried beneath the wild tumult. Her fate was sealed; to
+leeward were the cliffs of the South Foreland, and on our lee-bow lay
+the shelving beach of Deal.
+
+"This will be awkward landing, shipmates," said Bramble; "and yet we
+must try it. I'll fill my pipe--hope it won't be the last."
+
+Although not said in a serious manner, there were few of us whose hearts
+did not flutter responsively to this surmise, for the danger became
+every minute more imminent, and we knew what a terrific surf there must
+be then running on the shingle beach. But we now rapidly approached the
+shore; we were near to the floating light, and in the roadstead not a
+vessel remained; all had weighed and preferred being under what canvas
+they could bear. At last we were within two cables' lengths of the
+beach, and even at this distance from it we were surrounded with the
+breakers; the surf broke many feet high, and roared as it rushed up with
+a velocity that was appalling, dashing the foam right to the door of
+Bramble's cottage, which was forty or fifty yards higher than it
+generally gained to even in very bad weather. We now lowered our sails,
+stowed them in the boat, and got our oars to pass, backing against the
+surf to prevent it from forcing us on the beach until the proper time.
+
+It may not, perhaps, be known to many of my readers that there is a sort
+of regularity even in the wild waves; that is, occasionally a master
+wave, as it is termed, from being of larger dimensions than its
+predecessors, pours its whole volume on the beach; after which, by
+watching your time, you will find that two waves will run into one
+another, and, as it were, neutralize each other, so that, for a few
+seconds, you have what they call a smooth; the safest plan of landing
+then is to watch these two chances, either to run in on the master wave,
+or to wait till the arrival of the smooth.
+
+The latter is generally preferred, and with good reason, as unless a
+boat can be forced in as fast as the master wave runs in, you are worse
+off than if you had landed at any other time.
+
+The helm had been resigned to Bramble, who ordered me to go forward with
+the boat's painter, a long coil of rope, and stand ready either to leap
+out with it or throw it to those on shore, as might be most advisable;
+the other men were sitting on the thwarts, their long oars in the
+rowlocks, backing out as desired, and all ready to strain every nerve
+when the order was given by Bramble to pull in.
+
+The danger which we were about to incur was fully evident to the crowds
+which were assembled on the beach; not only the pilots, who stood there
+ready to assist us--some with ropes with iron hooks at the end of
+them--others all ready to dart into the surf to hold on the boat, or, if
+required, to link their arms together, so as to form a living chain
+which the undertow could not drag away with it; higher up, women and
+children, their clothes driven by the furious gale, with one hand
+holding on their caps, and with the other supporting themselves by the
+gunnels of the boats hauled up, the capstans, or perhaps an anchor with
+its fluke buried in the shingle, were looking on with dismay and with
+beating hearts, awaiting the result of the venturous attempt, and I
+soon discovered the form of Bessy, who was in advance of all the
+others.
+
+[Illustration: WRECK OF THE GALLEY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 407.]
+
+After a careful watching for perhaps two minutes on the part of Bramble,
+he gave the word, and on dashed the galley toward the strand, keeping
+pace with the wild surges, and although buried in the foam, not shipping
+one drop of water.
+
+"Now, my men, give way--for your lives, give way," cried Bramble, as a
+cresting wave came towering on, as if in angry pursuit of us. The men
+obeyed, but, in their exertions, the stroke oar snapped in two, the man
+fell back, and prevented the one behind him from pulling. Our fate was
+sealed; the surge poured over, and throwing us broadside to the beach,
+we were rolled over and over in the boiling surf. A cry was heard--a cry
+of terror and despair--on the part of the women. I heard it as I was
+swept away by the undertow, and the next wave poured over me; but all
+was activity and energy on the part of the men who were on the beach:
+the next wave that run in, they recovered me and two more by linking
+their arms and allowing the surf to break over them. We were so much
+bruised that we could not stand; they dragged us up, and left us to the
+women. Bramble and four others were still struggling for life; again two
+were saved--but the men on the beach were exhausted by their strenuous
+exertions.
+
+[Illustration: WE FOUND BOTH BRAMBLE AND BESSY CLINGING TO THE
+ROPE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 409.]
+
+I had just recovered myself so as to sit up, when I perceived that they
+were not acting in concert as before; indeed, in the last attempt,
+several of them had narrowly escaped with their own lives. Bessy was now
+down among them wildly gesticulating; Bramble still floated on the
+boiling surf, but no chain was again formed; the wave poured in bearing
+him on its crest; it broke, and he was swept away again by the
+undertow, which dragged him back with a confused heap of singles
+clattering one over the other as they descended. I saw him again, just
+as another wave several feet in height was breaking over him--I felt
+that he was lost; when Bessy, with a hook rope in her hand, darted
+toward him right under the wave as it turned over, and as she clasped
+his body, they both disappeared under the mountain surge. Another shriek
+was raised by the women, while the men stood as if paralyzed. In my
+excitement I had gained my legs, and I hastened to seize the part of the
+rope which remained on the beach. Others then came and helped; we hauled
+upon it, and found that there was weight at the end. Another sea poured
+in; we hastily gathered in the slack of the rope, and when the water
+retreated, we found both Bramble and Bessy clinging to the rope. In a
+moment the men rushed down and hauled up the bodies. Bramble had hold of
+the rope by both hands--it was the clutch of death; Bessy had her arms
+round her father's neck; both were senseless. The boatmen carried them
+up to the cottage, and the usual methods of recovery were resorted to
+with success. Still we had to lament the death of two of our best
+pilots, whose loss their wives and children were loudly wailing, and
+whose bodies were not found for many days afterward. Alas! they were not
+the only ones who were lamented. Upward of three hundred vessels were
+lost during that dreadful gale, and hardly a seaport or fishing town but
+bewailed its many dead.
+
+Whether it was that the women who attended Bessy were more active than
+the men, or that she was younger, and her circulation of blood was more
+rapid, or because she was a female, certain it is that Bessy first
+recovered her speech, and her first question was, "Where was her
+father?" Bramble did not speak, but fell into a sleep immediately after
+he was brought to life. I had changed my clothes, and was watching by
+him for an hour or more when he woke up.
+
+[Illustration: BRAMBLE HAD KNELT BY THE BEDSIDE, AND WAS EVIDENTLY IN
+PRAYER--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 411]
+
+"Ah! Tom, is that you? Where's Bessy?"
+
+"She is in bed, but quite recovered."
+
+"Quite recovered--I recollect. I say, Tom, ain't she a fine creature?
+God bless her. Well, she owes me nothing now, at all events. I think I
+should like to get up, Tom. I wonder whether I smashed my old pipe on
+the shingle? Just look into my wet jacket. I say, Tom, were they all
+saved?"
+
+"No," I replied; "Fisher and Harrison were both drowned."
+
+"Poor fellows! I wish they had been spared. Fisher has seven
+children--and Harrison, he has a wife, I think."
+
+"Yes, and two children, father."
+
+"Poor woman! God's will be done! He giveth and He taketh away! Tom, I
+must get up and see Bessy."
+
+I assisted Bramble to dress, and as soon as he had put on his clothes he
+went to Bessy's room. I stayed at the door. "You may come in, Tom; she's
+muffled up in her blankets, and fast asleep."
+
+"Quite fast," said Mrs. Maddox; "she has slept more than an hour. Dear
+heart, it will do her good."
+
+Bramble kissed Bessy's pale forehead, but it did not waken her. "Look,
+Tom," said Bramble, "look at that smooth, clear skin--those pretty
+features. Look at the delicate creature! and would you have thought that
+she would have dared what no man dared to do--that she would have defied
+those elements raging in their might, and have snatched their prey from
+their very grasp? Did I ever imagine, when I brought her as a helpless
+baby on shore, that she would ever have repaid the debt with such
+interest, or that such a weak instrument should have been chosen by the
+Lord to save one who otherwise must have perished? But His ways are not
+our ways, and He works as He thinks fit. Bless you, bless you, my
+Bessy--and may your fond heart never be again put to such trial! Is she
+not beautiful, Tom? just like a piece of cold marble. Thank Heaven, she
+is not dead, but sleepeth!"
+
+I certainly never did look upon Bessy with so much interest; there was
+something so beautifully calm in her countenance as she lay there like
+an effigy on a tomb, hardly appearing to breathe; and when I thought of
+the courage and devotion shown but a few hours before by the present
+almost inanimate form, I bent over her with admiration, and felt as if I
+could kneel before the beautiful shrine which contained such an
+energetic and noble spirit. While this was passing through my mind,
+Bramble had knelt by the bedside, and was evidently in prayer. When he
+rose up he said, "Come away, Tom: she is a maiden, and may feel ashamed
+if she awaken and find us men standing by her bedside. Let me know when
+she wakes up, Mrs. Maddox, and tell her I have been in to see her; and
+now, Tom, let's go down. I never felt the want of a pipe so much as I do
+now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
+
+     A Scene in the Hospital, and a strange Discovery.
+
+
+In a very few days Bramble and Bessy were sufficiently recovered to
+resume their usual avocations; but the former expressed no willingness
+to embark again, and Bessy's persuasions assisted to retain him at the
+cottage. With me it was different. I was still restless, and anxious for
+change; my feelings toward Bessy were those of admiration and esteem,
+but not yet of love. Yet I could not help recalling to mind the words of
+Bramble, "Observe how she performs those duties which fall to her lot;
+if she is a good daughter she will make a good wife." I felt that she
+would make a good wife, and I wished that I could have torn from my
+bosom the remembrance of Janet, and have substituted the form of Bessy
+in her place. We had been at the cottage nearly a week, when I received
+a letter from Anderson; he informed me that he had visited old Nanny,
+who had made her will in due form, and confided to him, and that he
+thought she was more inclined to listen to him than she had before been;
+that my father and mother and sister were well, and that Spicer had been
+obliged to go into the hospital with an abscess in his knee, occasioned
+by running something into it, and that it was reported that he was very
+ill, and, in all probability, amputation must take place. I felt
+convinced that Spicer must have, in his hasty retreat, fallen over the
+iron railings which lay on the ground, and which had, as I mentioned,
+tripped me up; but with this difference, that, as the spikes of the
+railing were from me, and consequently I met with little injury, they
+must have been toward him, and had penetrated his knee, and thus it was
+that he had received the injury. Anderson also stated that they were
+very busy at the hospital, receiving the men who had been maimed in the
+glorious battle of Trafalgar. Altogether, I made up my mind that I would
+take the first ship that was offered for pilotage up the river, that I
+might know more of what was going on; and, as we sat down to supper, I
+mentioned my intentions to Bramble.
+
+"All's right. Tom, you're young, and ought to be moving; but just now I
+intend to take a spell on shore. I have promised Bessy, and how can I
+refuse her anything, dear girl? I don't mean to say that I shall never
+pilot a vessel again, but I do feel that I am not so young as I was, and
+this last affair has shaken me not a little, that's the truth of it.
+There's a time for all things, and when a man has enough he ought to be
+content, and not venture more. Besides, I can't bear to make Bessy
+unhappy; so, you see, I've half promised--only half, Bessy, you know."
+
+"I think you would have done right if you had promised altogether,"
+replied I; "you have plenty to live upon, and are now getting a little
+in years. Why should you not stay on shore, and leave them to work who
+want the money?"
+
+Bessy's eyes beamed gratefully toward me, as I thus assisted her wishes.
+"You hear, father," said she, fondling him, "Tom agrees with me."
+
+"Ah!" replied Bramble, with a sigh, "if--but we cannot have all we wish
+in this world."
+
+Bessy and I both felt what he would have referred to, and we were
+silent. She cast down her eyes, and appeared busy with her fork,
+although she was eating nothing. I no longer felt the repugnance that I
+had a short time before, and I was in deep reverie, watching the changes
+of her beautiful countenance, when she looked up. Our eyes met: she must
+have read my thoughts in mine, for from that moment each hour increased
+our intimacy and confidence. We were no longer afraid of each other.
+
+A day or two after this conversation an opportunity was given to me of
+going up the river, which I did not neglect; and having delivered up
+charge of the ship, I hastened down to Greenwich. I found everything in
+_statu quo_ at my mother's house, and Virginia much pleased at there
+being no lodgers. Anderson I met walking with Ben the Whaler and my
+father. He told me that Spicer had refused to have his leg amputated,
+when the surgeon had pointed out the necessity of the operation; and
+that it was now said that it was too late to have the operation
+performed, and that there was little or no chance of his recovery. They
+asked me many questions relative to the narrow escape of Bramble, and
+the behavior of Bessy.
+
+As soon as I could get away, I set off to the hospital to see Spicer;
+for, as the reader must be aware, I had many reasons for having
+communication with him--not that I expected that at first he would
+acknowledge anything. I knew that his heart was hardened, and that he
+had no idea of his danger; but I had his secret--he was indeed in my
+power, and I hoped by terrifying him to obtain the information which I
+wished.
+
+I found him in bed, in the corner of the hospital ward, to the left. He
+was looking very pale, and apparently was in great pain.
+
+"Spicer," said I, "I have come to see you; I am sorry to hear of your
+accident. How is your leg? is it better?"
+
+"No, not much," replied he, writhing, "I am in great pain; another man
+would scream out with agony, but I'm like the wolf--I'll die without
+complaint."
+
+"But you don't think that you're going to die, Spicer?"
+
+"No, Jack, I don't think that; I never have thought that, when I have
+been worse than now. I'll never believe that I'm dead until I find
+myself so. It must come some time or another, but I'm hale and hearty in
+constitution as yet, and my time is not yet come."
+
+"It was the iron railings which you fell over, was it not? I fell over
+them myself the same night when I landed, on the Monday, going up to old
+Nanny's."
+
+"Who told you it was those cursed spikes? Well, well, so it was; but not
+on the Monday, Jack, it was on the Wednesday."
+
+"Nay, that cannot be; for on the Tuesday, as I went down to the beach, I
+saw them all fixed up in the stonework, and soldered in. It must have
+been on the Monday--the night on which old Nanny was nearly smothered by
+some one who went in to rob her. I came there just in time to save her
+life; indeed, if you recollect, you were lame the next day, when I met
+you in the hospital."
+
+"Well, Jack, you may think what you please; but I tell you it was on the
+Wednesday."
+
+"Then you must have fallen over something else."
+
+"Perhaps I did."
+
+"Well, it's of no consequence. I'm glad to find that you're so much
+better, for I was told that the doctor had said--"
+
+"What did the doctor say?" interrupted Spicer.
+
+"Why, it's better to tell the truth; he said it was impossible for you
+to get over it; that the inflammation was too great to allow of
+amputation now, and that it must end in mortification."
+
+"He said that!" said Spicer, wildly, raising himself on his elbow.
+
+"Yes, he did; and it's known all over the hospital."
+
+"Well," replied Spicer, "he may have said so; but I think I ought to
+know best how I feel. He'll be here in half an hour or so, and then I'll
+put the question to him. I'm a little tired, Jack, so don't speak to me
+any more just now."
+
+"Shall I go away, Spicer?"
+
+"No, no, stay here. There's a book or two; read them till I feel a
+little stronger."
+
+That my communication had had an effect upon Spicer was evident. He was
+startled at the idea of the near approach of death, which he had not
+contemplated. Alas! who is not? He shut his eyes, and I watched him; the
+perspiration trickled down his forehead. I took up the book he had
+pointed out to me; it was the History of the Buccaneers, with plates,
+and I thought then that it was a parallel of Spicer's own career. I
+looked at the plates, for I was not much inclined to read. In a few
+minutes Spicer opened his eyes. "I am better now, Jack; the faintness
+has passed away. What book is that? Oh, the Buccaneers. That and
+Dampier's Voyages were the only two books of my father's library that I
+ever thought worth reading. Have you ever read it?"
+
+"No," replied I, "I never have. Will you lend it to me?"
+
+"Yes; I'll give it to you, Jack, if you like."
+
+"Thank you. Was your father a sailor, Spicer, as well as you?"
+
+"Yes, Jack; a sailor, every inch of him."
+
+"Did you ever sail with him?"
+
+"No, he died about the time that I was born." Here the doctor, who was
+going round the wards, came up to Spicer and asked him how he felt.
+"Pretty well, doctor," said he.
+
+"Come, we must look at your leg, my man; it will require dressing. Is it
+very painful?"
+
+"Why, yes, sir; it has been very painful indeed all night."
+
+The hospital mates unbandaged Spicer's leg, and took off the poultices,
+and I was horrified when I saw the state which his leg was in: one mass
+of ulceration from the middle of the thigh down to half-way below his
+knee, and his ankle and foot swelled twice their size, a similar
+inflammation extending up to his hip. The doctor compressed his lips and
+looked very grave. He removed some pieces of flesh, it was then cleaned
+and fresh poultices put on.
+
+"Doctor," said Spicer, who had watched his countenance, "they say in the
+hospital that you have stated that I cannot live. Now, I should wish to
+know your opinion myself on this subject, as I believe I am the most
+interested party."
+
+"Why, my man," said the doctor, "you certainly are in great danger, and
+if you have any affairs to settle, perhaps it will be prudent so to do."
+
+"That's a quiet way of saying there is no hope for me; is it not,
+doctor?" replied Spicer.
+
+"I fear, my good man, there is very little."
+
+"Tell me plainly, sir, if you please," replied Spicer; "is there _any_?"
+
+"I am afraid that there is not, my good man; it's unpleasant to say so,
+but perhaps it is kindness to tell the truth."
+
+"Well, sir, that is honest. May I ask you how long I may expect to
+live?"
+
+"That will depend upon when the mortification takes place, about three
+days; after that, my poor fellow, you will probably be no more. Would
+you like the chaplain to come and see you?"
+
+"Thank you, sir; when I do, I'll send for him."
+
+The doctor and the attendants went away to the other patients. I was
+silent. At last Spicer spoke.
+
+"Well, Jack, you were right; so it is all over with me. Somehow or
+another, although I bore up against it, I had an inkling of it myself,
+the pain has been so dreadful. Well, we can die but once, and I shall
+die game."
+
+"Spicer," said I, "that you will die without fear I know very well; but
+still, you know that you should not die without feeling sorry for the
+sins you have committed, and praying for pardon. We have all of us, the
+very best of us, to make our peace with Heaven; so, had I not better
+tell the chaplain to come and talk with you?"
+
+"No, Jack, no; I want no parsons praying by my side. What's done is
+done, and can't be undone. Go now, Jack, I wish to get a little sleep."
+
+"Shall I come and see you to-morrow, Spicer?"
+
+"Yes, come when you will; I like to have some one to talk to; it keeps
+me from thinking."
+
+I wished him good day, and went away with the book in my hand. Before I
+went home I sought out old Anderson and told him what had passed. "He
+will not see the chaplain, Anderson, but perhaps he will see you; and,
+by degrees, you can bring him to the subject. It is dreadful that a man
+should die in that way."
+
+"Alas for the pride of us wretched worms!" ejaculated Anderson; "he
+talks of dying game--that is to say, he defies his Maker. Yes, Jack, I
+will go and see him; and happy I am that he has a few days to live. I
+will see him to-night, but will not say much to him, or he might refuse
+my coming again."
+
+I went home. I was not in a very gay humor, for the sight of Spicer's
+leg, and the announcement of his situation, had made a deep impression
+upon me. I sat down to read the book which Spicer had made me a present
+of. I was interrupted by my mother requesting me to go a message for
+her, and during my absence Virginia had taken up the book.
+
+"Who lent you this book, Tom?" said she, when I returned.
+
+"Spicer, the man whom they call Black Sam, who is now dying in the
+hospital."
+
+"Well, that's not the name on the title-page--it is Walter James,
+Tynemouth."
+
+"Walter James, did you say, dear? Let me look! Even so."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Tom?" said my sister; "you look as if you were
+puzzled."
+
+And indeed I do not doubt but I did, for it at once recalled to my mind
+that old Nanny's married name was _James_, and that Spicer had said that
+his father was a sailor, and that he had died at the time that he was
+born, which agreed with the narrative of old Nanny. The conclusions
+which I came to in a moment made me shudder.
+
+"Well, my dear, I was surprised, if not frightened; but you don't know
+why, nor can I tell you, for it's not my secret. Let me look at the book
+again."
+
+Here my father came in, and the conversation took a different turn,
+which I was not sorry for. I wished, however, to be left to my own
+reflections; so I soon afterward took up my candle and retired to my
+room.
+
+I turned the subject over in my mind in a hundred ways, but could not
+come to any conclusion as to the best method of proceeding. At last I
+thought I would see Peter Anderson the next day, and take his advice. I
+was out immediately after breakfast; but I could not find Anderson, so I
+walked to the hospital to see Spicer. I found Anderson sitting by his
+bedside, but they were not then conversing. After a short time Anderson
+rose, and giving a slight shake of the head, as if to inform me that he
+had had no success, he walked away.
+
+"He has been trying to convert me," said Spicer, with a grim smile.
+
+"He has been trying, Spicer, to bring you to a sense of your condition;
+and is he not kind? he can have no interest but your own good. Do you
+think that no one knows the sins you have committed except
+yourself?--there is one eye which sees all."
+
+"Come, Jack, no preaching."
+
+"Spicer, you are here under a false name, and you think no one knows
+anything about you; but everything has been discovered by me; and I
+cannot help thinking that it has been made known providentially, and for
+your good."
+
+"Ah!" replied Spicer, "and pray what do you know? Perhaps you can tell
+me all the sins I have committed."
+
+"No, Spicer, but perhaps I can tell you of sins which you yourself are
+not aware of. But first answer me--you know that you cannot live long,
+Spicer; will you acknowledge that what I state is correct, should it
+really be so?"
+
+"I give you my word that if you tell me anything about me which is
+true, I will freely acknowledge it; so now, Mr. Fortuneteller, here's my
+hand--it may be useful, you know, in helping your discovery."
+
+"I do not want your hand, Spicer--now hear me. Is not your name
+James?--and were you not born at Tynemouth?"
+
+Spicer started. "How did you find that out? Well, Tom, it is so, and
+what then?"
+
+"As you told me yourself, although I knew it before, your father was
+lost at sea about the time that you were born. Spicer, I know how you
+left your mother, and how you returned from _you know where_--how you
+robbed her of every farthing, and left her again destitute and in
+misery. Is there nothing to repent of in that, Spicer?"
+
+"Who the devil--"
+
+"Nay, Spicer, the devil has had nothing to do with the discovery."
+
+"Strange, strange indeed," muttered Spicer; "but still, it is true."
+
+"Spicer, you know best how your life was passed from that time until you
+came into the hospital; but it was to be hoped that when laid up to rest
+in this haven, after such a stormy life, you would have amended your
+life; but what have you done?"
+
+"And what have I done?"
+
+"What would have brought you to the gallows if I had not held my tongue.
+You attempted to murder the old woman to obtain her money, and, in
+escaping, you received the wound which soon will bring you to your
+grave."
+
+"What proofs?"
+
+"Every proof: your stump struck me in the face when you rushed out--the
+button was off your coat the next morning when I met you--I had every
+proof, and, had I chosen, would have sworn on the Bible to your having
+been the party."
+
+"Well, I'll not deny it--why should I, when I cannot be taken out of
+this bed to be tried, even if you wished? Have you more to say?"
+
+"Yes, more."
+
+"I doubt it."
+
+"Then hear me. The poor woman whom you would have murdered, whom I found
+at her last gasp, and with difficulty restored to consciousness, that
+poor woman, Spicer, is _your own mother!_"
+
+"God of heaven!" exclaimed he, covering his face.
+
+"Yes, Spicer, your fond, indulgent mother, who thinks that you suffered
+the penalty of the law many years ago, and whose energies have been
+crushed by the supposed unhappy fate of her still loved and lamented
+son. Spicer, this is all true, and have you now nothing to repent of?"
+
+"I thought her dead, long dead. God, I thank Thee that I did not the
+deed; and, Jack, I am really grateful to you for having prevented it.
+Poor old woman!--yes, she did love me, and how cruelly I treated
+her!--and she is then still alive, and thinks that I was hanged--yes, I
+recollect now, she must think so. Oh! my brain, my brain!"
+
+"Spicer, I must leave you now."
+
+"Don't leave me, Jack--yes, do--come to-morrow morning."
+
+"Spicer, will you do me a favor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you see Anderson, and talk with him?"
+
+"Yes, if you wish it; but not now. This evening I will, if he'll come."
+
+I left Spicer, well satisfied with what had passed, and hastened to
+Anderson, to communicate it to him.
+
+"A strange and providential discovery, Tom, indeed," said he, "and good
+use it appears to me you have made of it. His heart is softened, that is
+evident. I will certainly go to him this evening."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
+
+     Spicer discloses strange Matters.
+
+
+The next day, when I called to see Spicer, I found him in great pain.
+Anderson had been with him, but he had been in such agony that he found
+it almost impossible to converse with him. Spicer did not like that I
+should leave him, although he could not talk, and I therefore remained
+by his bedside, occasionally assisting him to move from one position to
+another, or to take the drink that was by his bedside. Toward the
+evening he became more easy, and went to sleep. I left him, therefore,
+till the next day. As I supposed, the mortification had commenced, for
+the doctor told him so the next morning, when he visited him, and the
+chaplain pointed out to him that all hopes of living were now over.
+Spicer heard the communication unmoved. He asked the doctor how long he
+might live, and his reply was, it was possible four or five days, and
+that he would feel no more pain. He was now able to listen to Anderson,
+and he did so. I shall not trouble the reader with repeating what
+Anderson imparted to me, as I can give him an idea of Spicer's feelings
+by what passed between us.
+
+"Tom," said he, "I have led a very wicked life, so wicked that I hate
+to think of it, and I hate myself. I believe all that Anderson and the
+chaplain tell me, and I find that I may hope and do hope for mercy; but
+I can't cry, or wail, or tear my hair. The fact is, Tom, I can't feel
+afraid. If I am pardoned, and I do scarcely expect it, I shall be all
+gratitude, as well I may. Should I be condemned, I shall acknowledge my
+punishment just, and not complain, for I have deserved all; but I cannot
+feel fear. I believe I ought; but it is not in my nature, I suppose."
+
+"But you do not feel anything like defiance, Spicer?"
+
+"No, God forbid! no, nothing like that, but my spirit cannot quail."
+
+He was very anxious for the chaplain the last two days of his life, and
+I really believe was _sincere_ in his repentance; but before I wind up
+his history, I will narrate to the reader those portions of his life
+which are unknown, and which are necessary to the explanation of other
+matters.
+
+He told me that when he first went to sea he had joined a vessel
+employed in the slave trade, that he had left it at Gambia, and shipped
+on board of a vessel which was about to cruise on the Spanish Main. He
+was some time in her, and had been appointed second officer, when he
+resolved to fit out a vessel and cruise for himself. He had therefore
+quitted the vessel at Surinam, and worked his passage home in a sugar
+ship.
+
+It was on his return home this time that, as old Nanny had told me, he
+had taken to gaming, and eventually had robbed his mother. With the two
+thousand pounds in his pocket, he had repaired to Liverpool, where he
+fell in with Fitzgerald, a young man who had served as first mate in the
+vessel in which they had cruised on the Spanish Main, and to him he had
+proposed to join him as first officer in the vessel which he was about
+to fit out. It appeared that this young man had but a few days returned
+from Ireland, where he had married a young woman, to whom he had been
+some time attached, and that his disinclination to leave his young wife
+made him at first refuse the offer made by Spicer. Spicer, however, who
+was aware of his value, would not lose sight of him, and contrived, when
+Fitzgerald had taken too much wine, to win of him, by unfair means,
+about one thousand five hundred pounds. Spicer then offered Fitzgerald a
+release from the debt, provided he would sail with him; and he exacted
+as a further condition that he should not return and take a farewell of
+his wife. To these harsh terms Fitzgerald, being without means of
+liquidating the debt, consented, and they sailed accordingly.
+
+"And now, Jack, I will tell you why I was so curious about that
+spy-glass. I knew the moment that I saw it in your hands that it was one
+that belonged to Fitzgerald when we were on our first cruise together.
+It was the best glass I ever met with. When we left Liverpool this time,
+I asked him for the spy-glass, and he told me that, expecting to return
+to his wife before he sailed, he had left it at home. How it came into
+the lady's hands I can't tell."
+
+"I never said that Lady Hercules gave it to me," replied I; "although I
+did not undeceive you when you thought so. The fact is, it was given me
+by a very pretty young Irish widow."
+
+"Then, Jack, I should not wonder if she was the wife of Fitzgerald, whom
+I have been talking about; but that I leave to you. Let me finish my
+story. When we arrived on the Spanish coast I had as fine a crew with me
+as ever were on board of a vessel; but I had long made up my mind that I
+would hoist the black flag. Yes, Jack, it is but too true. But when I
+proposed it, Fitzgerald declared that the first act of piracy that was
+committed he would leave the vessel. I tried all I could to persuade
+him, but in vain. However, we did take an English vessel, and plundered
+her. Upon this Fitzgerald protested, and half the crew, at least, joined
+him. I threatened the men to shoot them through the head; but they were
+resolute; and, being rather the stronger party, I dared not make any
+attempt. They insisted upon leaving the vessel; and I, not being able to
+help it, landed them all in the Bay of Honduras, where I thought it very
+possible they would be taken by the Spaniards and imprisoned, if not
+hanged. They were imprisoned; but, after some time, they were released.
+The desertion of Fitzgerald and the other men left me with my vessel
+half manned; and I vowed vengeance against him if ever I had an
+opportunity. I now cruised as a pirate, and was very successful, and my
+name was a terror to those seas. A high reward was offered for me, dead
+or alive, which pleased me much, and I became more murderous than ever.
+Jack, all this rises up in judgment against me now; and I recollect
+every single life taken away by me, or by my orders, as well as if I had
+noted them down in a book. May God forgive me!" continued Spicer,
+covering his eyes up for a time.
+
+After a pause he continued: "I had ordered a vessel with a valuable
+cargo to be taken on to a rendezvous we had in the Caicos; but it was
+recaptured and taken into Port Royal, Jamaica. As the proofs of the
+piracy were well established, the men on board were thrown into prison
+to take their trial. I heard of this, for I was often on shore in
+disguise in one island or another, and a scheme entered my head which I
+thought would benefit myself and wreak my vengeance upon Fitzgerald. But
+I must leave off now. Here comes the chaplain; he promised to talk with
+me this evening, and you see that I have changed my opinion on that
+point, praised be God for it. Good-night, Jack; come to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
+
+     Spicer's Death.
+
+
+When I saw Spicer again he continued his narrative:
+
+"I told you that I was anxious to wreak my vengeance upon Fitzgerald,
+and the plan which I hit upon was as follows: I contrived to get to Port
+Royal, and to speak to the two men whom I had been on the best of terms
+with. I told them that the only chance of escape would be for them to
+give their names as those of _James_, which was mine, and of
+_Fitzgerald_, the first officer; and I explained to them why; because
+Fitzgerald and I had saved the life of the daughter of one of the chief
+planters, who, in gratitude, had promised that he would assist us if we
+were ever in difficulty. I told them that they must adhere to what they
+said, as they would be condemned with the others, but that a reprieve
+would be given when they were on the scaffold."
+
+"But why should you have done this?" inquired I.
+
+"First, because I wished people to believe that I was dead, that there
+might not be so great a hue and cry after me, and the temptation of so
+high a reward; next, because I knew that Fitzgerald was still in prison,
+and that his wife would read the account of his execution in the
+newspapers, which I hoped would break her heart, and so make him
+miserable."
+
+"Oh, Spicer, that was too cruel."
+
+"It was, but my plan succeeded. The men gave our names, went to the
+scaffold expecting a reprieve, and were hanged."
+
+"And thus it is that your poor mother thinks even now that you were
+hanged," said I.
+
+"Even so, Jack, even so. Well, after a time I quitted my vessel and
+returned to England; for I was actually tired of bloodshed, and I had
+collected a great deal of money. On my arrival I inquired after
+Fitzgerald. It appeared that his wife had heard the account of his
+execution; and, as her bonnet was found by the side of the mill-dam, it
+was supposed that she had destroyed herself. Fitzgerald returned home,
+and was distracted at the intelligence. I have always thought that she
+was dead; but, by what you say, Jack, I now doubt it."
+
+"And Fitzgerald, Spicer, what became of him?"
+
+"I really cannot tell. I heard that he had entered on board of a King's
+ship, but not under his own name. How far that was true or not I cannot
+say; but I have every reason to believe that such was the case."
+
+"And how came you on board of a man-of-war?"
+
+"Why, that's soon told, I spent my money, or lost it all in gambling,
+went out again, obtained command of a vessel, and did well for some
+time; but I was more tyrannical and absolute than ever. I had shot five
+or six of my own men, when the crew mutinied, and put me and two others
+who had always supported me in an open boat, and left us to our fate. We
+were picked up by a frigate going to the East Indies when we were in the
+last extremity. And now, Jack, I believe you have my whole history. I am
+tired now, and must go to sleep; but, Jack, I wish you to come to-morrow
+morning, for I have something to say to you of great importance.
+Good-by, Jack; don't forget."
+
+I promised Spicer that I would not fail, and quitted the hospital. When
+I called again upon him, I found him very low and weak; he could not
+raise himself from his pillow. "I feel that I am going now, Jack," said
+he--"going very fast--I have not many hours to live; but, I thank
+Heaven, I am not in any pain. A man who dies in agony cannot examine
+himself--cannot survey the past with calmness or feel convinced of the
+greatness of his offenses. I thank God for that; but, Jack, although I
+have committed many a foul and execrable murder, for which I am full of
+remorse--although I feel how detestable has been my life--I tell you
+candidly that, although those crimes may appear to others more heavy
+than the simple one of theft, to me the one that lies most heavy on my
+soul is the robbing of my poor mother, and my whole treatment of her.
+Jack, will you do one favor to a dying man?--and it must be done soon,
+or it will be too late. Will you go to my poor mother, acquaint her with
+my being here, still alive, and that my hours are numbered, and beg for
+me forgiveness? Obtain that for me, Jack--bring that to me, and so may
+you receive forgiveness yourself!"
+
+"I will, Spicer," replied I, "I will go directly; and I have little fear
+but that I shall succeed."
+
+"Go then, Jack; don't tarry, for my time is nearly come."
+
+I left the hospital immediately, and hastened to old Nanny's. I found
+her very busy sorting a lot of old bottles which she had just purchased.
+
+"Well, Jack," said she, "you are just come in time to help me. I was
+just a-saying if Jack was to call now he'd be of some use, for I can't
+well reach so high as the shelf where I put the bottles on, and when I
+get on a stool my old head swims."
+
+"Mother," said I, "suppose you put down the bottles for a little while,
+as I have that to say to you which must not be delayed."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, boy? And how pale you look! What has happened?
+You don't want money, do you?"
+
+"No, mother, I want no money; I only want you to listen to matters
+important, which I must disclose to you."
+
+"Well, well, what is it? about the fellow who tried to rob me, I
+suppose. I told you before, Jack, I won't hurt him, for my poor boy's
+sake."
+
+"It is about your poor boy I would speak, mother," replied I, hardly
+knowing how to begin. "Now, mother, did you not tell me that he was
+hanged at Port Royal?"
+
+"Yes, yes; but why come and talk about it again?"
+
+"Because, mother, you seem to feel the disgrace of his being hanged so
+much."
+
+"Well, to be sure I do--then why do you remind me of it, you bad boy?
+It's cruel of you, Jack; I thought you kinder."
+
+"Mother, it is because you do feel it so much that I have come to tell
+you that you have been deceived. Your son was not hanged."
+
+"Not hanged! Why, Jack, are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, mother, quite sure."
+
+"Not hanged, quite sure--"
+
+Here old Nanny burst out into a wild laugh, which ended in sobbing and
+tears. I was obliged to wait some minutes before she was composed enough
+to listen to me; at last I said, "Mother, I have more to say, and there
+is no time to be lost."
+
+"Why no time to be lost, my dear boy?" said she. "Oh! now that you have
+told me this, I could dwell for hours--ay, days--more. I shall dwell my
+whole life upon this kind news."
+
+"But listen to me, mother, for I must tell you how I discovered this."
+
+"Yes, yes, Jack--do, that's a good boy. I am quite calm now," said
+Nanny, wiping her eyes with her apron.
+
+I then acquainted her with what Spicer had told me relative to his
+inducing the man to take his name, and continued the history of Spicer's
+life until I left him on board of a man-of-war.
+
+"But where is he now? And who told you all this?"
+
+"He told me so himself," replied I. "He has been in the hospital some
+time, and living here close to you, without either of you being aware of
+it. But, mother, he is now ill--very ill in the hospital; he would not
+have confessed all this if he had not felt how ill he was."
+
+"Deary, deary me!" replied old Nanny, wringing her hands; "I must go see
+him."
+
+"Nay, mother, I fear you cannot. The fact is that he is dying, and he
+has sent me to ask your forgiveness for his conduct to you."
+
+"Deary, deary me!" continued old Nanny, seemingly half out of her wits;
+"in the hospital, so near to his poor mother--and dying. Dear Jemmy!"
+
+Then the old woman covered up her face with her apron and was silent. I
+waited a minute or two, and then I again spoke to her.
+
+"Will you not answer my question, mother? Your son has but an hour
+perhaps to live, and he dies penitent not only for his conduct to you,
+but for his lawless and wicked life; but he feels his treatment of you
+to be worse than all his other crimes, and he has sent me to beg that
+you will forgive him before he dies. Answer me, mother."
+
+"Jack," said Nanny, removing the apron from her face, "I feel as if it
+was I who ought to ask his pardon, and not he who should ask mine. Who
+made him bad?--his foolish mother. Who made him unable to control his
+passions?--his foolish mother. Who was the cause of his plunging into
+vice--of his intemperance, of his gaming, of his wild and desperate
+career--which might have ended, as I supposed it had done, on the
+gallows--but a foolish, weak, selfish mother, who did not do her duty to
+him in his childhood? It is I who was his great enemy--I who assisted
+the devil to lead him to destruction--I who, had he been hanged, had
+been, and have felt for years that I was, his executioner. Can I forgive
+him! Can _he_ forgive _me_?"
+
+"Mother, his time is short--I will come to you again, and tell you much
+more. But if you knew how earnest he is to have your forgiveness before
+he dies, you would at once send me away to him."
+
+"Then go, my child--go, and may you often be sent on such kind missions!
+Go, and tell my poor James that his mother forgives him--begs to be
+forgiven--still dotes upon him--and God knows with how much pleasure
+would die for him! Go quick, child--the sands of the glass run
+fast--quick, child--the dying cannot wait--quick--quick!"
+
+Nanny had risen from her stool and taken me by the arm; when we were
+clear of the threshold she loosed me, and sank down to the earth,
+whether overcome by her feelings, or in a state of insensibility, I did
+not wait to ascertain--I fled to execute my mission before it was too
+late.
+
+In a few minutes I was at the hospital--breathless, it was true. I went
+in, and found Spicer still alive, for his eyes turned to me. I went up
+to him; the nurse, who was standing by him, told me he was speechless,
+and would soon be gone. I told her I would remain with him, and she went
+to the other patients. I gave him his mother's message, and he was
+satisfied; he squeezed my hand, and a smile, which appeared to illumine
+like a rainbow his usual dark and moody countenance, intimated hope and
+joy; in a few seconds he was no more, but the smile continued on his
+features after death.
+
+I then returned to old Nanny, who, I found, had been put into bed by
+some neighbors, and at her bedside was Mrs. St. Felix, who had been
+passing by and had observed her situation. She was now recovered and
+quiet. As soon as they had left her I entered into a more full detail of
+how I became acquainted with the circumstances which led to the
+discovery. I did not conceal from her that it was her own son who had
+attempted the robbery; and I wound up by stating that he had died, I
+really believed, not only penitent, but happy from having received her
+forgiveness.
+
+"Jack--Jack--you have been as good as an angel to me, indeed you have.
+It was you also who prevented my poor James from killing his mother--it
+is you that have been the means of his making his peace with Heaven.
+Bless you, Jack, bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
+
+     In which Mrs. St. Felix refuses a splendid Offer, which I am duly
+     empowered to make to her.
+
+
+I left old Nanny as soon as she was more composed, for I was so anxious
+to have some conversation with old Anderson. I did not call on my
+father, as it was not a case on which he was likely to offer any
+opinion, and I thought it better that the secret which I possessed
+should be known but to one other person. I refer to the knowledge which
+I had obtained relative to the husband of Mrs. St. Felix, who, it
+appeared, was not hanged, as supposed by her. The information received
+from Spicer accounted for Mrs. St. Felix's conduct when any reference
+was made to her husband, and I was now aware how much pain she must have
+suffered when his name was mentioned. I found Anderson alone in his
+office, and I immediately made him acquainted with what I had learned,
+and asked him his opinion as to the propriety of communicating it to
+Mrs. St. Felix. Anderson rested his head upon his hand for some time in
+silence; at last he looked up at me.
+
+"Why, Tom, that she suffers much from the supposed ignominious fate of
+her husband is certain, but it is only occasionally; her spirits are
+good, and she is cheerful, except when reminded of it by any casual
+observation. That it would prove a great consolation to her to know that
+her husband did not forfeit his life on the scaffold is true; but what
+then? he is said to have entered the King's service under another name,
+and, of course, there is every probability of his being alive and well
+at this moment. Now she is comparatively tranquil and composed; but
+consider what anxiety, what suspense, what doubts, must ever fill her
+mind, must oppress her waking hours, must haunt her in her dreams, after
+she is made acquainted with his possible existence. Hope deferred maketh
+the heart sick; and her existence would be one of continued tumult, of
+constant anticipation, and I may say of misery. He may be dead, and then
+will her new-born hopes be crushed when she has ascertained the fact; he
+may never appear again, and she may linger out a life of continual
+fretting. I think, Tom, that were she my daughter, and I in possession
+of similar facts, I would not tell her--at least, not at present. We may
+be able to make inquiries without her knowledge. We know his name; an
+advertisement might come to his eyes or ears; and, moreover, you have
+the telescope, which may be of use if it is constantly seen in your
+hands. Let us at present do all we can without her knowledge, and leave
+the result in the hands of Providence, who, if it thinks fit, will work
+by its own means. Are you of my opinion, Tom?"
+
+"When I came to ask your advice, Anderson, it was with the intention of
+being guided by it, even if it had not coincided with my own opinion,
+which, now that I have heard your reasons, it certainly does. By the
+bye, I have not yet called upon Mrs. St. Felix, and I will go now. You
+will see old Nanny again?"
+
+"I will, my boy, this evening. Good-by! I'm very busy now, for the
+officers will inspect to-morrow morning."
+
+I quitted the hospital, and had arrived in Church Street, when, passing
+the doctor's house on my way to Mrs. St. Felix, Mr. Thomas Cobb, who had
+become a great dandy, and, in his own opinion at least, a great doctor,
+called to me, "Saunders, my dear fellow, just come in, I wish to speak
+with you particularly." I complied with his wishes. Mr. Cobb was
+remarkable in his dress. Having sprung up to the height of at least six
+feet in his stockings, he had become remarkably thin and spare, and the
+first idea that struck you when you saw him was that he was all
+pantaloons; for he wore blue cotton net tight pantaloons, and his
+Hessian boots were so low, and his waistcoat so short, that there was at
+least four feet, out of the sum total of six, composed of blue cotton
+net, which fitted very close to a very spare figure. He wore no cravat,
+but a turn-down collar with a black ribbon, his hair very long, with a
+very puny pair of mustachios on his upper lip, and something like a tuft
+on his chin. Altogether, he was a strange-looking being, especially when
+he had substituted for his long coat a short nankeen jacket, which was
+the case at the time I am speaking of.
+
+"Well, Mr. Cobb, what maybe your pleasure with me? You must not detain
+me long, as I was about to call on Mrs, St. Felix."
+
+"So I presumed, my dear sir," replied he; "and for that very reason I
+requested you to walk in. Take a chair. Friendship, Tom, is a great
+blessing; it is one of the charms of life. We have known each other
+long, and it is to tax your friendship that I have requested you to come
+in."
+
+"Well, be as quick as you can, that's all," replied I.
+
+"_Festina lent_, as Dr. Tadpole often says, adding that it is Latin for
+hat and boots. I am surprised at his ignorance of the classics; any
+schoolboy ought to know that _caput_ is the Latin for hat, and _Boötes_
+for boots. But lately I have abandoned the classics, and have given up
+my soul to poetry."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; 'Friendship and Love' is my toast, whenever I am called upon at
+the club. What does Campbell say?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know."
+
+"I'll tell you, Tom--
+
+"'Without the smile from heav'nly beauty won, Oh, what were man? A world
+without a sun.'"
+
+"Well, I daresay it's all true," replied I; "for if a woman does not
+smile upon a man he's not very likely to marry her, and therefore has no
+chance of having a _son_."
+
+"Tom, you have no soul for poetry."
+
+"Perhaps not; I have been too busy to read any."
+
+"But you should; youth is the age of poetry."
+
+"Well, I thought it was the time to work; moreover, I don't understand
+how youth can be age. But pray tell me what is it you want of me, for I
+want to see Mrs. St. Felix before dinner-time."
+
+"Well, then, Tom, I am in love--deeply, desperately, irrevocably, and
+everlastingly in love."
+
+"I wish you well out of it," replied I, with some bitterness. "And pray
+with whom may you be so dreadfully in love--Anny Whistle?"
+
+"Anny Whistle!--to the winds have I whistled her long ago. No, that was
+a juvenile fancy. Hear me. I am in love with the charming widow."
+
+"What, Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+"Yes. Felix means happy in Latin, and my happiness depends upon her. I
+must either succeed, or--Tom, do you see that bottle?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, it's laudanum; that's all."
+
+"But, Tom, you forget; you certainly would not supplant your patron,
+your master, I may say your benefactor--the doctor?"
+
+"Why not? he has tried, and failed. He has been trying to make an
+impression upon her these ten years, but it's _no go_. Ain't I a doctor,
+as good as he? Ay, better, for I'm a young doctor, and he is an old one!
+All the ladies are for me now. I'm a very rising young man."
+
+"Well, don't rise much higher, or your head will reach up to the shop
+ceiling. Have you anything more to say to me?"
+
+"Why, I have hardly begun. You see, Tom, the widow looks upon me with a
+favorable eye, and more than once I have thought of popping the question
+over the counter; but I never could muster up courage, my love is so
+intense. As the poet says--
+
+"'Silence in love betrays more woe Than words, howe'er so witty; The
+beggar that is dumb, you know, Deserves our double pity.'
+
+"Now, Tom, I wish to tax your friendship. I wish you to speak for me."
+
+"What, speak to Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+"Yes, be my embassador. I have attempted to write some verses; but
+somehow or another I never could find rhymes. The poetic feeling is in
+me, nevertheless. Tell me, Tom, will you do what I ask?"
+
+"But what makes you think that the widow is favorably inclined?"
+
+"What? why, her behavior, to be sure. I never pass her but she laughs or
+smiles. And then the doctor is evidently jealous; accuses me of making
+wrong mixtures; of paying too much attention to dress; of reading too
+much; always finding fault. However, the time may come--I repeat my
+request; Tom, will you oblige me? You ought to have a fellow-feeling."
+
+This last remark annoyed me. I felt convinced that Mrs. St. Felix was
+really laughing at him, so I replied, "I shall not refuse you, but
+recollect that he who has been so unsuccessful himself is not likely to
+succeed for others. You shall have your answer very soon."
+
+"Thanks, Tom, thanks. My toast, as I said before, when called upon, is
+'Friendship and Love.'"
+
+I quitted the shop, and went into that of Mrs. St. Felix, who, I
+thought, looked handsomer than ever.
+
+"Come at last, Tom!" said the widow, extending her hand. "I thought you
+would have called yesterday. Your sister was here."
+
+"I have been less pleasantly engaged. You know that Spicer is dead."
+
+"One of the pensioners--I never saw him that I know of, but I heard old
+Ben mention his death this morning, and that you were with him. Was he a
+friend of yours?"
+
+"No, indeed, I thought you knew something of him, or I should not have
+mentioned his name." I then changed the conversation, telling her what
+had passed at Deal, and listening to her remarks upon old Nanny, my
+mother, and our mutual acquaintances.
+
+"And the doctor--how is he?"
+
+"As busy as ever. I'm sorry, however, that he complains very much of Tom
+Cobb, and says that he must dismiss him. He has made some very serious
+mistakes in mixing the medicines, and nearly killed five or six people."
+
+"Had he killed them outright, their deaths must have been laid at your
+door," replied I, very seriously.
+
+"Good Heavens! what do you mean, Tom?"
+
+"I mean this, that your bright eyes have fascinated him; and that, to
+use his own expression, he is deeply, desperately, irrevocably, and
+everlastingly in love with _you_."
+
+Here Mrs. St. Felix burst out in a laugh so violent that I thought that
+it would end in hysterics. As soon as she had recovered herself, I
+continued:
+
+"It is all true, and independent of the five or six people half killed,
+you will have to answer for a _whole_ death besides, for Tom has
+intimated to me that if he fails in his suit he will have recourse to
+the big bottle of laudanum. You must further know that he has taxed my
+friendship to make known to you his deplorable condition, being unequal
+to the task himself."
+
+"He must be mad," observed Mrs. St. Felix, quietly.
+
+"He flatters himself that you have given him encouragement. I asked in
+what way; he says you always laugh at him."
+
+"True as the Bible--I can't help laughing at such a droll figure as he
+makes of himself. Mercy on me! what are men made of? Well, Tom, I'm sure
+I ought to be flattered, for (let it be a secret between us, Tom) this
+is the second offer I have received within these twenty-four hours."
+
+"The doctor, I presume; Tom says that he is jealous."
+
+"I mention no names. This is all very foolish."
+
+"But you have not yet rejected both. Tom awaits his answer."
+
+"Tell him anything that you please. By the bye, you may just as well add
+that, instead of taking the laudanum, he had better resort to his old
+remedy--of liquorice and water. It will look just as killing in the
+phial, and not be quite so fatal in its results."
+
+"I shall certainly execute your commission in as delicate a way as I
+possibly can."
+
+"Do, Tom, and pray let me hear no more of this nonsense, for, ridiculous
+as it may appear, it is to me very painful. Leave now--I am nervous and
+low-spirited. Good-by. Come this evening with your sister, I shall be
+better then."
+
+Mrs. St. Felix went into the back parlor, and I left the shop. I had
+turned the wrong way, almost forgetting to give Tom his answer, when I
+recollected myself, and returned to the doctor's house.
+
+"Well?" said Tom, eagerly.
+
+"Why," replied I, hardly having made my mind up what to say, yet not
+wishing to hurt his feelings, "the fact is, Tom, that the widow has a
+very good opinion of you."
+
+"I knew that," interrupted Tom.
+
+"And if she were ever to marry again--why, you would have quite as good
+a chance as the doctor."
+
+"I was sure of that," said he.
+
+"But at present, the widow--for reasons which she cannot explain to
+anybody--cannot think of entering into any new engagement."
+
+"I see--no regular engagement."
+
+"Exactly so; but as soon as she feels herself at liberty--"
+
+"Yes," said Tom, breathless.
+
+"Why, then she'll send, I presume, and let you know."
+
+"I see, then, I may hope."
+
+"Why, not exactly--but there will be no occasion to take laudanum."
+
+"Not a drop, my dear fellow, depend upon it."
+
+"There is no saying what may come to pass, you see, Tom: two, or three,
+or four years may--"
+
+"Four years--that's a very long time."
+
+"Nothing to a man sincerely in love."
+
+"No, nothing--that's very true."
+
+"So all you have to do is to follow up your profession quietly and
+steadily, and wait and see what time may bring forth."
+
+"So I will--I'll wait twenty years, if that's all."
+
+I wished Tom good-by, thinking that it was probable that he would wait a
+great deal longer; but at all events, he was pacified and contented for
+the time, and there would be no great harm done, even if he did continue
+to make the widow the object of his passion for a year or two longer. It
+would keep him out of mischief, and away from Anny Whistle.
+
+On my return home I met with a severe shock, in consequence of
+information which my mother did not scruple to communicate to me.
+Perhaps it was all for the best, as it broke the last link of an unhappy
+attachment. She informed me very abruptly that the shutters of Mr.
+Wilson's house were closed in consequence of his having received
+intelligence of the death of Lady ----. Poor Janet had expired in her
+first confinement, and the mother and child were to be consigned to the
+same tomb. This intelligence drove me to my chamber, and I may be
+considered weak, but I shed many tears for her untimely end. I did not
+go with my sister to Mrs. St. Felix, but remained alone till the next
+day, when Virginia came, and persuaded me to walk with her to the
+hospital, as she had a message for my father.
+
+After we had seen my father we walked down to the hospital terrace, by
+the riverside. We had been there but a few minutes when we heard Bill
+Harness strike up with his fiddle:
+
+Oh, cruel was my parents as tore my love from me, And cruel was the
+press-gang as took him off to sea; And cruel was the little boat as
+row'd him from the strand, But crueler the big ship as sail'd him from
+the land. Sing tura-la, tura-la, tura-lara ley.
+
+Oh, cruel was the water as bore my love from Mary, And cruel was the
+fair wind as wouldn't blow contrary; And cruel was the captain, his
+boatswain, and his men, As didn't care a farding if we never meet again.
+Sing tura-la, tura-la, tura-lara ley.
+
+Oh, cruel was th' engagement in which my true love fought, And cruel was
+the cannon-ball as knock'd his right eye out; He used to ogle me with
+peepers full of fun, But now he looks askew at me, because he's only
+one. Sing tura-la, etc., etc.
+
+"Eh! wid your turla-la. You call dat singing?" cried Opposition Bill,
+stumping up, with his fiddle in his hand. "Stop a little. How you do,
+Mr. Tom? how you do, pretty lady? Now I sing you a song, and show dat
+fellow how to make music. Stop a little, Miss Virginny."
+
+"Well," said Bill Harness, "I'll just let you sing, that Miss Saunders
+may judge between us."
+
+Virginia felt half inclined to go away; but as the pensioners always
+treated her with as much respect as any of the ladies of the officers of
+the hospital, I pressed her arm that she might stay. Opposition Bill
+then struck up as follows, saying, "Now I give you a new 'Getting
+upstairs.'"
+
+On board of a man-of-war dey hauled me one day, And pitch me up de side
+just like one truss of hay. Such a getting upstairs I nebber did see,
+Such a getting upstairs.
+
+Dey show me de masthead, and tell me I must go, I tumble on de rattling,
+and break my lilly toe. Such a getting upstairs I nebber did see, etc.
+
+Dey pipe de hands up anchor, and Massa Boatswain's cane Come rattle on
+our backs, for all de world like rain. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+And den dey man de rigging, the topsails for to reef, And up we scull
+together, just like a flock of sheep. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+Dey send de boats away, a Frenchman for to board, We climb de side with
+one hand, de oder hold de sword. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+Now here I sent to Greenwich because I lost a leg, And ab to climb up to
+de ward upon my wooden peg. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+"Dere, now; I ask you, Mister Tom, and de young lady, which sing best,
+dat fellow, or your humble servant Bill--dat's me?"
+
+"You sing very well, Bill," said Virginia, laughing, "but I'm not able
+to decide such a difficult point."
+
+"Nor more can I; it is impossible to say which I like best," continued
+I. "We must go home now, so good-by."
+
+"Thanky you, Mister Tom; thanky you, Missy. I see you wish to spare him
+feelings; but I know what you tink in your heart."
+
+Virginia and I now left the hospital. There was one subject which was
+often discussed between my sister and me, which was, my situation with
+regard to Bramble and Bessy. I had no secrets from her, and she
+earnestly advised me to try if I could not make up my mind to a union
+with a person of whom I could not possibly speak but with the highest
+encomiums.
+
+"Depend upon it, my dear Tom," said she, "she will make you a good wife;
+and with her as a companion you will soon forget the unhappy attachment
+which has made you so miserable. I am not qualified from experience to
+advise you on this point, but I have a conviction in my own mind that
+Bessy is really just the sort of partner for life who will make you
+happy. And then, you owe much to Bramble, and you are aware how happy it
+would make him; and as her partiality for you is already proved, I do
+wish that you would think seriously upon what I now say. I long to see
+and make her acquaintance, but I really long much more to embrace her as
+a sister."
+
+I could not help acknowledging that Bessy was as perfect as I could
+expect any one to be, where none are perfect. I admitted the truth and
+good sense of my sister's reasoning, and the death of Janet contributed
+not a little to assist her arguments; but she was not the only one who
+appeared to take an interest in this point: my father would hint at it
+jocosely, and Mrs. St. Felix did once compliment me on my good fortune
+in having the chance of success with a person whom every one admired and
+praised. The party, however, who had most weight with me was old
+Anderson, who spoke to me unreservedly and seriously.
+
+"Tom," said he, "you must be aware that Bramble and I are great friends,
+and have been so for many years. He has no secrets from me, and I have
+no hesitation in telling you that his regards and affections are so
+equally bestowed between you and his adopted child that it is difficult
+for himself to say to which he is the most attached; further, as he has
+told me, his fervent and his dearest wish--the one thing which will make
+him happy, and the only one without which he will not be happy, although
+he may be resigned--is that a union should take place between you and
+Bessy. I am not one of those who would persuade you to marry her out of
+gratitude to Bramble. Gratitude may be carried too far; but she is, by
+all accounts, amiable and beautiful, devoted to excess, and capable of
+any exertion and any sacrifice for those she loves; and, Tom, she loves
+you. With her I consider that you have every prospect of being happy in
+the most important step in life. You may say that you do not love her,
+although you respect, and admire, and esteem her: granted, but on such
+feelings toward a woman is the firmest love based, and must eventually
+grow. Depend upon it, Tom, that that hasty and violent attachment which
+is usually termed love, and which so blinds both parties that they
+cannot before marriage perceive each other's faults, those matches which
+are called love matches, seldom or ever turn out happily. I do not mean
+to say but that they sometimes do; but, like a lottery, there are many
+blanks for one prize. Believe me, Tom, there is no one who has your
+interest and welfare at heart more than I have. I have known you since
+you were a child, and have watched you with as much solicitude as any
+parent. Do you think, then, that I would persuade you to what I thought
+would not contribute to your happiness? Do, my dear boy, make Bramble,
+Bessy, yourself, and all of us happy, by weaning yourself from the
+memory of one who was undeserving of you, and fixing your affections
+upon her who will be as steadfast and as true to you as the other was
+false and capricious."
+
+I promised Anderson that I would think seriously of what he said; and I
+kept my word, using all my endeavors to drive the image of Janet from my
+memory, and substitute that of Bessy. I often recalled the latter to my
+mind as she lay, beautiful and motionless, after having rescued her
+father from the waves, and at last dwelt upon the image with something
+more than interest. The great point when you wish to bring yourself to
+do anything is to make up your mind to it. I did so, and soon found that
+Bessy was rapidly gaining possession of my heart.
+
+I remained several days at Greenwich. My mother was still as busy as
+ever, attempting to obtain lodgers in her house who were people of
+family; and this unwearied system was a source of great vexation to my
+sister. "Oh, Tom," she would sometimes say, "I almost wish sometimes,
+selfish as it is, that you were married to Bessy, for then I should be
+able to live with you, and escape from this persecution."
+
+"Better marry yourself, dear," replied I.
+
+"There is but little chance of that, Tom," replied Virginia, shaking her
+head.
+
+On my return to Deal I found that Bramble had remained at the cottage
+ever since my departure. Our greeting was warm, and when I went over to
+Bessy, for the first time since she had returned from school, I kissed
+her. She colored up, poor girl, burst into tears, and hastened to her
+own room.
+
+"I hope that was in earnest, Tom," said Bramble, fixing his eye upon me
+inquiringly, "otherwise it was cruel."
+
+"It was indeed, father," replied I, taking him by the hand.
+
+"Then all's right, and God bless you, my dear good boy. You don't know
+how happy you have made me--yes, and now I will say it--poor Bessy
+also."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
+
+In which a new Character appears upon the Stage, and I play the part of
+a Pilot on Shore.
+
+
+"A frigate has anchored in the Downs, Tom, and makes the signal for a
+pilot," said Bramble, coming into the cottage, with my telescope in his
+hand. "There is but you and I here--what do you say?--will you venture
+to take her up to the Medway?"
+
+"To be sure I will, father; I would not refuse a line-of-battle ship.
+Why should I? the tides are the same, and the sands have not shifted.
+Would you not trust me?"
+
+"Ay, that I would, Tom, and perhaps better that myself; for my eyes are
+not so good as they were. Well, then, you had better be off."
+
+I got my bundle ready, and was about to start, when I perceived my
+telescope lying down where Bramble had placed it on the table. "They are
+not very fond of letting pilots have their glasses on board of a King's
+ship," said I, "so I will take mine this time."
+
+"You're right, Tom; you can't take the spy-glass out of the captain's
+hand, as you do in a merchant vessel."
+
+"Well good-by, father; I shall come down again as soon as I can--there's
+another gun, the captain of the frigate is in a hurry."
+
+"They always are on board of a man-of-war, if no attention is paid to
+their orders or their signals. Come, start away." I went down to the
+beach, the men launched the galley, and I was soon on board. As I gained
+the quarter-deck I was met by the captain and first lieutenant, who were
+standing there.
+
+"Well," said the captain, "where's the pilot?"
+
+"I am, sir," replied I, taking off my hat.
+
+"Where's your warrant?"
+
+"There, sir," replied I, offering him the tin case in which I carried
+it.
+
+"Well, all is right, my good fellow; but you seem but a young hand."
+
+"Not so young as to lose so fine a vessel as this, I trust, sir,"
+replied I.
+
+"I hope not, too; and I dare say you are as good as many with gray
+hairs. At all events, your warrant is sufficient for me, and the frigate
+is now under your charge. Will you weigh directly?"
+
+"If you please; the wind will probably fail as the sun goes down, and,
+if so, we may just as well lie off the Foreland to-night."
+
+[Illustration: I WENT DOWN TO THE BEACH.... AND I WAS SOON ON
+BOARD.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 453.]
+
+The frigate was soon under way; she was evidently well manned, and as
+well commanded. The wind fell, as I expected, and after dark we barely
+stemmed the ebb tide. Of course I was up all night, as was my duty, and
+occasionally entered into conversation with the officer of the watch and
+midshipmen. From them I learned that the frigate, which was called the
+"Euphrosyne," had just returned from the West India station; that they
+had been out four years, during which they had two single-handed
+encounters, and captured two French frigates, besides assisting at many
+combined expeditions; that they were commanded by Sir James O'Connor,
+who had distinguished himself very much, and was considered one of the
+best officers in the service; that the frigate had suffered so from the
+conflicts in which they had been engaged that she had been sent home to
+be surveyed; it was found that she must be docked, and undergo a
+thorough repair, and consequently they had been ordered to Sheerness,
+where the ship would be paid off. At daylight there was a leading wind
+up the river, and we made sail, carrying with us three-fourths of the
+flood. The discipline and order of the ship's company were so great that
+I felt much more confidence in piloting this vessel, notwithstanding her
+greater draught of water, than I did a merchant vessel, in which you had
+to wait so long before the people could execute what you required:
+_here_, it was but to speak and it was done, well done, and done
+immediately; the vessel appeared to obey the will of the pilot as if
+endued with sense and volition, and the men at the lead gave quick and
+correct soundings; the consequence was that I had every confidence, and
+while the captain and officers sometimes appeared anxious at the
+decrease of the depth of water, I was indifferent, and I daresay
+appeared to them careless, but such was not the case.
+
+"Quarter less five."
+
+"Quarter less five. Pilot, do you know what water we draw?"
+
+"Yes, Sir James, I do; we shall have _half four_ directly, and after
+that the water will deepen."
+
+As it proved exactly as I stated, the captain had after that more
+confidence in me. At all events, the frigate was brought safely to an
+anchor in the river Medway, and Sir James O'Connor went down to his
+cabin, leaving the first lieutenant to moor her, for such were the port
+orders. As I had nothing more to do, I thought I might as well go on
+shore, and get a cast down by one of the night coaches to Dover. I
+therefore begged the first lieutenant to order my certificate of
+pilotage to be made out, and to inquire if I could take anything down to
+Deal for the captain. A few minutes afterward I was summoned down to the
+captain. I found him sitting at his table with wine before him. My
+certificates, which the clerk had before made out, were signed, but my
+name was not inserted.
+
+"I must have your name, pilot, to fill in here."
+
+"Thomas Saunders, Sir James," replied I.
+
+"Well, my lad, you're young for a pilot; but you appear to know your
+business well, and you have brought this ship up in good style. Here are
+your certificates," said he, as he filled in my name.
+
+I had my spy-glass in my hand, and, to take up the certificates and fold
+them to fit them into my tin case, I laid my glass down on the table
+close to him. Sir James looked at it as if surprised, took it up in his
+hand, turned it round, and appeared quite taken aback. He then looked at
+the brass rim where the name had been erased, and perceived where it had
+been filed away.
+
+"Mr. Saunders," said he at last, "if not taking a liberty, may I ask
+where you procured this spy-glass?"
+
+"Yes, Sir James, it was given me by a person who has been very kind to
+me ever since I was a boy."
+
+"Mr. Saunders, I beg your pardon--I do not ask this question out of mere
+curiosity--I have seen this glass before; it once belonged to a very
+dear friend of mine. Can you give me any further information? You said
+it was given you by--"
+
+"A very amiable woman, Sir James."
+
+"Did she ever tell you how it came into her hands?"
+
+"She never did, sir."
+
+"Mr. Saunders, oblige me by sitting down; and if you can give me any
+information on this point, you will confer on me a very great favor. Can
+you tell me what sort of a person this lady is--where she lives--and
+what countrywoman she is?"
+
+"Yes, Sir James; I will first state that she is Irish, and that she
+lives at present at Greenwich." I then described her person.
+
+"This is strange, very strange," said Sir James, with his hand up to his
+forehead as he leaned his elbow on the table.
+
+After a pause, "Mr. Saunders, will you answer me one question candidly?
+I feel I am not speaking to a mere Thames pilot--I do not wish to
+compliment, and if I did not feel as I state, I should not put these
+questions. Do you not know more about this person than you appear
+willing to divulge? There is something in your manner which tells me
+so."
+
+"That I know more than I have divulged is true, Sir James; but that I
+know more than I am willing to divulge is not the case, provided I find
+that the party who asks the question is sufficiently interested to
+warrant my so doing."
+
+"There can be no one more interested than I am," replied Sir James,
+mournfully. "You tell me she is Irish--you describe a person such as I
+expected would be described, and my curiosity is naturally excited. May
+I ask what is her name?"
+
+"The name that she goes by at present is St. Felix."
+
+[Illustration: "MR. SAUNDERS.... MAY I ASK WHERE YOU PROCURED THIS
+SPYGLASS?"--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 457.]
+
+"She had distant relations of that name; it may be one of them--yet
+how could they have obtained--? Yes, they might, sure enough!"
+
+"That is not her real name, Sir James."
+
+"Not her real name! Do you then know what is her real name?"
+
+"I believe I do, but I obtained it without her knowledge, from another
+party, who is since dead."
+
+"Ah! may I ask that name?"
+
+"A man who died in the hospital, who went by the name of Spicer, but
+whose real name was Walter James; he saw the glass in my hand,
+recognized it, and on his deathbed revealed all connected with it; but
+he never knew that the party was still alive when he did so."
+
+"If Walter James confessed all to you on his deathbed, Mr. Saunders, it
+is certain that you can answer me one question. Was not her real name
+Fitzgerald?"
+
+"It was, Sir James, as I have understood."
+
+Sir James O'Connor fell back in his chair and was silent for some time.
+He then poured out a tumbler of wine, and drank it off.
+
+"Mr. Saunders, do others know of this as well as you?"
+
+"I have never told any one, except to one old and dearest friend, in
+case of accident to myself. Mrs. St. Felix is ignorant of my knowledge,
+as well as others."
+
+"Mr. Saunders, that I am most deeply interested in that person I pledge
+you my honor as an officer and a gentleman. Will you now do me the favor
+to detail all you do know on this subject, and what were the confessions
+made you by that man Walter James?"
+
+"I have already, sir, told you more than I intended. I will be candid
+with you; so much do I respect and value the person in question that I
+will do nothing without I have your assurance that it will not tend to
+her unhappiness."
+
+"Then, on my honor, if it turns out as I expect, it will, I think, make
+her the happiest woman under the sun."
+
+"You said that the spy-glass belonged to a dear friend?"
+
+"I did, Mr. Saunders; and if I find, from what you can tell me, that
+Mrs. St. Felix is the real Mrs. Fitzgerald, I will produce that friend
+and her husband. Now are you satisfied?"
+
+"I am," replied I, "and I will now tell you everything." I then entered
+into a detail from the time that Mrs. St. Felix gave me the spy-glass,
+and erased the name, until the death of Spicer. "I have now done, sir,"
+replied I, "and you must draw your own conclusions."
+
+"I thank you, sir," replied he; "allow me now to ask you one or two
+other questions. How does Mrs. St. Felix gain her livelihood, and what
+character does she bear?"
+
+I replied to the former by stating that she kept a tobacconist's shop;
+and to the latter by saying that she was a person of most unimpeachable
+character, and highly respected.
+
+Sir James O'Connor filled a tumbler of wine for me, and then his own. As
+soon as he had drunk his own off, he said, "Mr. Saunders, you don't know
+how you have obliged me. I am excessively anxious about this matter, and
+I wish, if you are not obliged to go back to Deal immediately, that you
+would undertake for me a commission to Greenwich. Any trouble or
+expense--"
+
+"I will do anything for Mrs. St. Felix, Sir James; and I shall not
+consider trouble or expense," replied I.
+
+"Will you then oblige me by taking a letter to Greenwich immediately? I
+cannot leave my ship at present--it is impossible."
+
+"Certainly I will, Sir James."
+
+"And will you bring her down here?"
+
+"If she will come. The letter I presume will explain everything, and
+prevent any too sudden shock."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Saunders; and indeed I am wrong not to confide in
+you more. You have kept her secret so well that, trusting to your honor,
+you shall now have mine."
+
+"I pledge my honor, Sir James."
+
+"Then, Mr. Saunders, I spoke of a dear friend, but the truth is, _I_ am
+the owner of that spy-glass. When I returned to Ireland, and found that
+she had, as I supposed, made away with herself, as soon as my grief had
+a little subsided, I did perceive that, although her apparel remained,
+all her other articles of any value had disappeared; but I concluded
+that they had been pillaged by her relations, or other people. I then
+entered on board of a man-of-war, under the name of O'Connor, was put on
+the quarter-deck, and by great good fortune have risen to the station in
+which I now am. That is my secret--not that I care about its being
+divulged, now that I have found my wife. I did nothing to disgrace
+myself before I entered on board of a man-of-war, but having changed my
+name, I do not wish it to be known that I ever had another until I can
+change it again on a fitting opportunity. Now, Mr. Saunders, will you
+execute my message?"
+
+"Most joyfully, Sir James; and I now can do it with proper caution; by
+to-morrow morning I will be down here with Mrs. St. Felix."
+
+"You must post the whole way, as hard as you can, there and back, Mr.
+Saunders. Here is some money," said he, thrusting a bundle of notes in
+my hand, "you can return me what is left. Good-by, and many, many
+thanks."
+
+"But where shall I meet you, sir?"
+
+"Very true; I will be at the King's Arms Hotel, Chatham."
+
+I lost no time. As soon as the boat put me on shore, I hired a chaise,
+and posted to Greenwich, where I arrived about half-past nine o'clock. I
+dismissed the chaise at the upper end of the town, and walked down to
+Mrs. St. Felix's. I found her at home, as I expected, and to my great
+delight the doctor was not there.
+
+"Why, Mr. Pilot, when did you come back?" said she.
+
+"But this minute--I come from Chatham."
+
+"And have you been home?"
+
+"No, not yet; I thought I would come and spend the evening with you."
+
+"With me! Why, that's something new; I don't suppose you intend to court
+me, do you, as the doctor does?"
+
+"No, but I wish that you would give me some tea in your little back
+parlor, and let Jane mind the shop in the meantime."
+
+"Jane's very busy, Mr. Tom, so I'm afraid that I can't oblige you."
+
+"But you must, Mrs. St. Felix. I'm determined I will not leave this
+house till you give me some tea; I want to have a long talk with you."
+
+"Why, what's in the wind now?"
+
+"I'm not in the wind, at all events, for you see I'm perfectly sober;
+indeed, Mrs. St. Felix, I ask it as a particular favor. You have done me
+many kindnesses, now do oblige me this time; the fact is, something has
+happened to me of the greatest importance, and I must have your advice
+how to act; and, in this instance, I prefer yours to that of any other
+person."
+
+"Well, Tom, if it really is serious, and you wish to consult me, for
+such a compliment the least I can do is to give you a cup of tea." Mrs.
+St. Felix ordered Jane to take the tea things into the back parlor, and
+then to attend in the shop.
+
+"And pray say that you are not at home, even to the doctor."
+
+"Well, really the affair looks serious," replied she, "but it shall be
+so if you wish it."
+
+We took our tea before I opened the business, for I was thinking how I
+should commence: at last I put down my cup, and said, "Mrs. St. Felix, I
+must first acquaint you with what is known to no one here but myself." I
+then told her the history of old Nanny; then I went on to Spicer's
+recognition of the spy-glass--his attempt to murder his mother, the
+consequences, and the disclosure on his deathbed.
+
+Mrs. St. Felix was much moved.
+
+"But why tell me all this?" said she, at last; "it proves, certainly,
+that my husband was not hanged, which is some consolation, but now I
+shall be ever restless until I know what has become of him--perhaps he
+still lives."
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix, you ask me why do I tell you all this? I beg you to
+reply to my question: having known this so long, why have I not told you
+before?"
+
+"I cannot tell."
+
+"Then I will tell you: because I did feel that such knowledge as I had
+then would only make you, as you truly say, unhappy and restless. Nor
+would I have told you now, had it not been that I have gained further
+intelligence on board of a frigate which I this afternoon took into the
+Medway."
+
+Mrs. St. Felix gasped for breath. "And what is that?" said she, faintly.
+
+"The spy-glass was recognized by a person on board, who told me that
+your husband still lives."
+
+I ran out for a glass of water, for Mrs. St. Felix fell back in her
+chair as pale as death.
+
+I gave her the water, and threw some in her face: she recovered, and put
+her handkerchief up to her eyes. At first she was silent, then sobbed
+bitterly; after a while she sank from the chair down on her knees, and
+remained there some time. When she rose and resumed her seat, she took
+my hand and said, "You may tell me all now."
+
+As she was quite calm and composed, I did so; I repeated all that had
+passed between Sir James O'Connor and me, and ended with his wish that I
+should accompany her at once to Chatham.
+
+"And now, Mrs. St. Felix, you had better go to bed. I told Sir James
+that I would be down to-morrow morning. I will come here at seven
+o'clock, and then we will go to the upper part of the town and hire a
+chaise. Will you be ready?"
+
+"Yes," replied she, smiling. "Heaven bless you, Tom! and now
+good-night."
+
+I did not go to my mother's, but to an inn in the town, where I asked
+for a bed. In the morning I went down. As soon as Mrs. St. Felix saw me
+she came out, and followed me at a little distance. We went up to where
+the chaises were to be obtained, and in less than three hours were at
+the King's Arms, Chatham. I asked to be shown into a room, into which I
+led Mrs. St. Felix, trembling like an aspen leaf. I seated her on the
+sofa, and then asked to be shown in to Sir James O'Connor.
+
+"She is here, sir," said I.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Follow me, Sir James."
+
+I opened the door of the room, and closed it upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
+
+     My Sister Virginia is at last placed in a Situation which is
+     satisfactory to my Mother as well as to herself.
+
+
+I remained very quietly in the coffee-room of the hotel, in case I
+should be sent for; which I presumed I should be before the day was
+over. In the afternoon a waiter came to say that Sir James O'Connor
+wished to speak to me, and I was ushered into his room, where I found
+Mrs. St. Felix on the sofa.
+
+As soon as the door was closed, Sir James took me by the hand, and led
+me up, saying, "Allow me to introduce your old friend as Lady O'Connor."
+
+"My dear Tom," said she, taking me by the hand, "I am and ever shall be
+Mrs. St. Felix with you. Come, now, and sit down. You will again have to
+take charge of me, for I am to return to Greenwich, and leave it in a
+respectable manner. I daresay they have already reported that I have run
+away from my creditors. Sir James thinks I must go back as if nothing
+had happened, give out that I had some property left me by a relation,
+and then settle everything, and sell the goodwill of my shop. It
+certainly will be better than to give grounds for the surmises and
+reports which may take place at my sudden disappearance--not that I am
+very likely to fall in with my old acquaintances at Greenwich."
+
+"Don't you think so, Tom?--for Tom I must call you, in earnest of our
+future friendship," said Sir James.
+
+"I do think it will be the best plan, sir."
+
+"Well, then, you must convey her ladyship to Greenwich again this
+evening, and to-morrow the report must be spread, and the next day you
+will be able to re-escort her here. I hope you feel the compliment that
+I pay you in trusting you with my new-found treasure. Now let us sit
+down to dinner. Pray don't look at your dress, Tom; at all events, it's
+quite as respectable as her ladyship's."
+
+After dinner a chaise was ordered, and Lady O'Connor and I returned to
+Greenwich, arriving there after dark. "We walked down to her house. I
+then left her and hastened to my mother's.
+
+"Well, mother," said I, after the first salutations were over, "have you
+heard the news about Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+"No, what has she done now?"
+
+"Oh, she has done nothing, but a relation in Ireland has left her a lot
+of money, and she is going over there immediately. Whether she will come
+back again nobody knows."
+
+"Well, we can do without her," replied my mother, with pique. "I'm very
+glad that she's going, for I have always protested at Virginia's being
+so intimate with her--a tobacco shop is not a place for a young lady."
+
+"Mother," replied Virginia, "when we lived in Fisher's Alley Mrs. St.
+Felix was above us in situation."
+
+"I have desired you very often, Virginia, not to refer to Fisher's
+Alley; you know I do not like it--the very best families have had their
+reverses."
+
+"I cannot help thinking that such has been the case with Mrs. St.
+Felix," replied Virginia.
+
+"If you please, Miss Saunders, we'll drop the subject," replied my
+mother, haughtily.
+
+The news soon spread; indeed, I walked to several places where I knew it
+would be circulated, and before morning all Greenwich knew that Mrs. St.
+Felix had been left a fortune: some said ten thousand pounds, others had
+magnified it to ten thousand a year. When I called upon her the next
+day, I found that she had made arrangements for carrying on her business
+during her absence, not having stated that she quitted forever, but that
+she would write and let them know as soon as she arrived in Ireland what
+her decision would be, as she was not aware what might be the property
+left her. The doctor, who had undertaken to conduct her affairs during
+her absence, looked very woebegone indeed, and I pitied him; he had
+become so used to her company that he felt miserable at the idea of her
+departure, although all hopes of ever marrying her had long been
+dismissed from his mind. Mrs. St. Felix told me that she would be ready
+that evening, and I returned home and found Virginia in tears; her
+mother had again assailed her on account of her feelings toward Mrs. St.
+Felix; and Virginia told me that she was crying at the idea of Mrs. St.
+Felix going away much more than at what her mother had said; and she
+requested me to walk with her to Mrs. St. Felix that she might wish her
+farewell.
+
+When we arrived Mrs. St. Felix embraced Virginia warmly, and took her
+into the little back parlor. Virginia burst into tears. "You are the
+only friend in the town that I dearly love," said she, "and now you are
+going."
+
+"My dear girl, I am more sorry to part with you and Tom than I can well
+express--our pain is mutual, but we shall meet again."
+
+"I see no chance of that," said Virginia, mournfully.
+
+[Illustration: SIR J. O'CONNOR AND MRS. ST. FELIX.--Marryat, Vol. X.,
+p. 467.]
+
+"But I do; and what is more, I have thought about it since I have had
+the news. Tom, your sister, of course, only knows the common report?"
+
+"Of course she knows no more than anybody else."
+
+"Well, you do, at all events; and I give you leave, as I know she is to
+be trusted, to confide my secret to her. And, Virginia dear, when I tell
+you that I shall want you to come and stay with me, and shall arrange
+accordingly, after you have heard what your brother has to tell you you
+will understand that we may meet again. Good-by, and God bless you,
+dearest; go away now, for I have much to do."
+
+When I told Virginia what the reader is well acquainted with, her joy
+was excessive. "Yes," said she, "I see now. My mother is so anxious that
+I should be taken into some grand family as a companion; and when Lady
+O'Connor agrees to receive me, she will never have an idea that it is
+Mrs. St. Felix. If she had, nothing would induce her to let me go, that
+I am sure of; for she has taken an aversion to her for reasons known
+only to herself."
+
+I returned to Mrs. St. Felix's house as soon as I had escorted Virginia
+home, leaving her very happy. The doctor was there, mute and melancholy;
+and I was thinking that we should have some difficulty in getting rid of
+him, when Tom made his appearance.
+
+"If you please, sir," said he, "Mrs. Fallover wants you immediately;
+she's taken very bad."
+
+"I can't help it."
+
+"Indeed, but you must help it, doctor," said Mrs. St. Felix; "the poor
+woman is, as you know, in her first confinement, and you must not
+neglect her, so let's say good-by at once, and a happy return. I asked
+Tom to come down that I might call upon his sister and one or two other
+people before I go; so you see, doctor, as you can't go with me, you
+may just as well go and attend to the poor woman; so good-by, Dr.
+Tadpole, I will write to you as soon as I know what I'm to do."
+
+The doctor took her hand, and after a pause said, "Mrs. St. Felix, Eheu,
+me infelix!" and hastened out of the shop.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said she, "he'll miss me, and that's the truth. Good-by,
+Jane; mind you look after everything till I come back, and take care of
+the dog and cat. Come, Tom, we'll go now."
+
+I threw her trunk on my shoulders, and followed her till we came to the
+post-house. The chaise was ordered out, and we set off.
+
+"Tom," said Lady O'Connor, as I again call her, now that she is clear of
+Greenwich, "there is one portion of my history which you do not know--a
+very trifling part indeed. When I saw in the newspapers that my husband
+had, as I supposed, been executed, I am ashamed to say that I first
+thought of suicide; but my better feelings prevailed, and I then
+resolved to change my name and to let people _suppose_ that I was dead.
+It was for that reason that I left my bonnet by the river-side and all
+my apparel in the house, only taking away a few trinkets and valuables,
+to dispose of for my future subsistence. I obtained a passage in a
+transport bound to Woolwich, on the plea of my husband having arrived
+from abroad; and, by mere accident, I found the goodwill of the
+tobacconist's shop to be sold. It suited me--and there is the whole of
+my history which you do not know.
+
+"And now, as to Virginia, I intend to have her with me very soon. Your
+mother is anxious that she should get into a high family, trusting that
+her beauty will captivate some of the members--a bad kind of
+speculation. I will advertise for a companion, and so arrange that your
+mother shall not see me; and when your sister does come to me, it shall
+not be as a companion, but as a child of my own. I owe you much,
+Tom--indeed, almost everything; and it is the only way in which I can
+repay you. I have already spoken to Sir James on the subject. He is
+equally ready to pay the debt of gratitude, and therefore in future
+Virginia is our adopted child."
+
+"You are more than repaying me, Lady O'Connor," replied I, "and you are
+obliging me in the quarter where I feel the obligation the greatest."
+
+"That I believe, Tom; so now say no more about it."
+
+I may as well here inform the reader that I remained a week at Chatham,
+and that during that time Lady O'Connor put an advertisement in the
+county paper, such as we knew would be a bait to my mother. This paper I
+forwarded to Virginia, marking the advertisement. My mother immediately
+replied to it, and Sir James O'Connor went up to Greenwich and had an
+interview with my mother and Virginia, at apartments he had taken at the
+hotel; appeared pleased with my sister, and said that as soon as Lady
+O'Connor was sufficiently recovered she would send for her to Chatham.
+This took place in two days afterward; my mother escorted Virginia
+there. Sir James stated that her ladyship was too unwell to see anybody,
+but that she would speak a few words to Virginia and leave Sir James to
+settle the rest with my mother. Virginia came down to her mother,
+declared that Lady O'Connor was a very ladylike, elegant person, and
+that she should wish to take the situation. The terms were handsome, and
+my mother, although she regretted not seeing her ladyship, was
+satisfied, and Virginia was to come in two days afterward, which she
+did. Thus was my sister comfortably settled, and after remaining two
+days I took my leave of Sir James and Lady O'Connor, intending to return
+to Deal, when I received a letter from Peter Anderson, informing me that
+old Nanny had been suddenly taken very ill, and that Dr. Tadpole did not
+think it possible that she would survive more than twenty-four hours;
+that she was very anxious to see me, and that he hoped I would come up
+immediately.
+
+I showed the letter to Lady O'Connor, who said, "You will go, of course,
+Tom."
+
+"Immediately," replied I, "and the more so as this letter is dated three
+days back; how it has been delayed I do not know. Farewell, Lady
+O'Connor; and farewell, dearest Virginia. Old Nanny, as you both know,
+has many claims upon my gratitude."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
+
+     My Father, much to his surprise, has a bit of Land to put his Foot
+     upon, and say "This is my own".
+
+
+"You're too late, Tom," said Ben the Whaler, as I jumped down from off
+the basket of the coach; "the old woman died last night."
+
+"I'm sorry for it, Ben," replied I, "as she wished so much to see me;
+but I did not receive Anderson's letter till this morning, and I could
+not get here sooner."
+
+This intelligence induced me to direct my course to the hospital, where
+I had no doubt that I should find old Anderson, and obtain every
+information. I met him as he was walking toward the bench on the terrace
+facing the river, where he usually was seated when the weather was fine.
+"Well, Tom," said he, "I expected you, and did hope that you would have
+been here sooner. Come, sit down here, and I will give you the
+information which I know you have most at your heart. The old woman made
+a very happy end. I was with her till she died. She left many kind
+wishes for you, and I think her only regret was that she did not see you
+before she was called away."
+
+"Poor old Nanny! she had suffered much."
+
+"Yes, and there are great excuses to be made for her; and as we feel so
+here, surely there will be indulgence from above, where the secrets of
+all hearts are known. She was not insane, Tom; but from the time that
+she supposed that her son had been gibbeted, there was something like
+insanity about her: the blow had oppressed her brain--it had stupefied
+her, and blunted her moral sense of right and wrong. She told me, after
+you had communicated to her that her son was in the hospital, and had
+died penitent, that she felt as if a heavy weight had been taken off her
+mind; that she had been rid of an oppression which had ever borne down
+her faculties--a sort of giddiness and confusion in the brain which had
+made her indifferent, if not reckless, to everything; and I do believe
+it, from the change which took place in her during the short time which
+has since elapsed."
+
+"What change was that? for you know that I have been too busy during the
+short intervals I have been here to call upon her."
+
+"A change in her appearance and manners. She appeared to recover in part
+her former position in life; she was always clean in her person, as far
+as she could be in such a shop as hers; and if she had nothing else, she
+always had a clean cap and apron."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Yes; and on Sundays she dressed very neat and tidy. She did not go to
+church, but she purchased a large Bible and a pair of spectacles, and
+was often to be seen reading it at the door; and when I talked to her
+she was glad to enter upon serious things. I spoke to her about her
+fondness for money, and pointed out that it was a sin. She replied that
+she did feel very fond of money for a long while, for she always thought
+that some one was nigh her snatching at it, and had done so ever since
+her son had robbed her; but that since she knew what had become of him
+she did not feel fond of it--that is, not so fond of it as before; and I
+believe that such was the case. Her love of money arose from her
+peculiar state of mind. She had many comforts about her house when she
+died which were not in it when I called to see her at the time when she
+was first ill; but her purchasing the large Bible on account of the
+print was to me a satisfactory proof that she had no longer such
+avaricious feelings."
+
+"I am very glad to hear all this, Anderson, I assure you, for she was
+one of my earliest friends, and I loved her."
+
+"Not more than she loved you, Tom. Her last words almost were calling
+down blessings on your head; and, thanks be to God! she died as a
+Christian should die, and, I trust, is now happy."
+
+"Amen!" said I; for I was much moved at Anderson's discourse.
+
+After a pause Anderson said, "You know, Tom, that she has left you all
+that she had. She told me before that such was her intention, although I
+said nothing to you about it; but I thought it as well that Mr. Wilson
+should make out a paper for her to put her name to, which she did. Ben
+and I witnessed it, but as for what she has left you I cannot imagine it
+can be much; for we examined and found no money except about seven
+pounds, in two small boxes; and then in her will she has left your
+sister Virginia ten pounds. Now, when that comes to be paid, I'm sure I
+don't know whether the things in the shop will fetch so much money as
+will pay your sister's legacy and the expenses of her funeral."
+
+"It's of no consequence," replied I, smiling; "but we shall see. At all
+events all her debts shall be paid, and her funeral shall be decent and
+respectable. Good-by now, Anderson, I must go up and see my mother and
+sister."
+
+Old Nanny's remains were consigned to the tomb on the following Monday.
+Her funeral was, as I had desired it to be, very respectable, and she
+was followed to the grave by Anderson, my father, Ben, and me. As soon
+as it was over, I requested Anderson to walk with me to Mr. Wilson's.
+
+"I'm afraid, Tom," said Mr. Wilson, "you'll find, like a great many
+other residuary legatees, that you've not gained much by the
+compliment."
+
+"Nevertheless, will you oblige me by walking down with Anderson and me
+to her house?"
+
+"And take off the seals, I presume, in your presence? But the fact is,
+Tom, that not thinking the property quite safe there, even under seal, I
+have kept it all in my own pocket."
+
+"Nevertheless, oblige me by coming down."
+
+"Oh, with all my heart, since you do not like to take possession unless
+in due form."
+
+As soon as we arrived at the hovel I went into the bedroom and threw
+open the window. I then, to their great astonishment, went to the
+fire-grate, threw out some rubbish which was put into it, pulled up the
+iron back, and removed the bricks. In a short time I produced two small
+boxes, one of them very heavy. There was nothing else in the hole.
+
+"Here," said I, "Mr. Wilson, is a portion of the property which you have
+overlooked."
+
+"No wonder," replied he. "Pray let us see what it is."
+
+I opened the boxes, and, to their surprise, made up in a variety of
+packages, I counted out gold coin to the amount of four hundred and
+twenty pounds.
+
+"Not a bad legacy," said Mr. Wilson. "Then you knew of this?"
+
+"Of course; I have known it some time--ever since the attempt to rob
+her."
+
+"But what are those papers?"
+
+On one was written "_Arsenic--Poison_;" on the other, "_Receipt for
+Toothache_."
+
+"Nothing of any value," said I, "by the outside."
+
+I opened them, and found, to my surprise, bank-notes to the exact amount
+of two hundred pounds.
+
+"Well, I declare," said I, smiling, "I had nearly thrown all this money
+away."
+
+"And now you see what induced the old woman to write those labels on the
+outside of it; in case she should be robbed, that the robbers might have
+thrown the papers away--as you nearly did, and as very probably they
+might have done."
+
+"Well, Mr. Wilson, I have no further search to make. Will you oblige me
+by taking care of this money for me?"
+
+"Yes; that is, if you'll carry the gold, which is rather heavy, up to my
+house, and then I will give you a receipt for the whole."
+
+Anderson then left us, and I followed Mr. Wilson home. As soon as the
+money was all re-counted, and a note made of it, Mr. Wilson asked me
+what I wished that he should do with it. I replied, what was the truth,
+that I really did not know what to do with it, but still I should like
+to lay it out in something tangible.
+
+"You want to buy a farm, I suppose, and be a landed proprietor, like
+Bramble; but I'm afraid there is not enough. But I tell you what, Tom;
+we lawyers know many things which do not come to everybody's ears, and I
+know that the proprietor of the house in which your mother lives wishes
+to sell it; and I think, as he is much pinched for money, that this sum
+will about buy it. Now your mother pays fifty-five guineas a year for
+it, and if it sells for six hundred pounds, that will give you more than
+nine per cent for your money. What do you think?"
+
+"Well, sir, I think it's the very best thing I can do; if more should be
+necessary, I have saved a little besides which Bramble takes care of."
+
+"Well, then, I'll see about it."
+
+A few days afterward Mr. Wilson told me that the house was to be had for
+five hundred and sixty pounds, and that he had closed the bargain.
+
+"I thank you, sir," replied I. "Since I have been with you I have been
+thinking about it, and I wish now you would make it over to my father
+for his life. You see, sir, my father does put my mother to some
+expense, and I should like him to be more independent of her. If the
+house belongs to him, the rent will more than meet any demands he may
+make upon her purse--and it will be pleasant for both parties--and my
+mother will pay more respect to my father."
+
+"I shall do it with pleasure, Tom. You deserve money, for you make a
+good use of it--I must say that. Come to me to-morrow."
+
+The next day I went to my father, and gave him the deed by which he was
+owner of my mother's house. "Well, now, Tom," said he, after I had
+explained why I did so, "this is the kindest thing that ever was done,
+and God bless you, boy, and a thousand thanks. I shan't mind now calling
+for two extra pots of porter when I have friends--and I say, Tom, is the
+garden mine, too?"
+
+"Yes, and the summer-house, father, all your own property."
+
+"Well, then," replied he, chuckling, "I have a bit of land of my own to
+stick my timber toe on after all. Well, I never did expect that. I must
+go up there, and stand upon it, and feel how I feel."
+
+I communicated to my mother that my father was in future her landlord,
+at which she expressed much surprise, until I told her how I became
+possessed of the money. When my father came in, which he did shortly
+after, she said rather sharply:
+
+"Well, Mr. Saunders, I suppose I must pay you my rent now, every
+quarter?"
+
+"Pay me!" exclaimed my father; "come, not so bad as that, neither.
+Haven't you found me in beer, without a grumble, for these many years,
+and do you think I've forgotten it? No, no! You've been a kind woman to
+me, after all, although things did go a little cross at first, and so
+here's the paper for you to keep for me; and there's an end of the
+matter, only--"
+
+"Only what?" inquired my mother, looking very kindly at my father.
+
+"Only let's have a pot of beer now, to drink Tom's health, that's all."
+
+Having thus satisfactorily settled this point, I returned to Chatham. I
+had promised to take a farewell of my sister and the O'Connors, as I
+expected they would leave previous to my again coming up the river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY
+
+     An Adventure which at first promised to be the most Unfortunate,
+     and eventually proved the most Fortunate in my Life.
+
+
+As Sir James O'Connor would have to remain at least a fortnight longer
+at Chatham, until his ship was paid off, I made Lady O'Connor promise to
+write to me, and then started for Deal. I found Bramble and Bessy as
+usual delighted to see me, and Mrs. Maddox was as talkative as ever. I
+received a letter from Lady O'Connor, and also one from Dr. Tadpole,
+written at the request of my father, informing me that by a letter from
+Mrs. St. Felix there was little prospect of her return to Greenwich. I
+had not been a week at Deal when a large ship dropped her anchor in the
+Downs, and made the signal for a pilot.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "I think I shall take a turn now, for I want
+to go up and see old Anderson."
+
+"I will take her through, if you please, father; and you may go as a
+passenger. You don't want money, and I do."
+
+"All's right, Tom--well, then, I'll go as a passenger, and you shall be
+pilot."
+
+"Why must you go at all, father? Why not go to Greenwich by the stage?"
+exclaimed Bessy. "When will you leave off, my dear father? Surely you've
+enough now, and might let Tom go without you."
+
+"Quite enough money, but not quite enough of the salt water yet, Bessy,"
+replied Bramble; "and when I do travel, I won't go by land, when I can
+sail under canvas."
+
+"Well, you may go this time, father, but this is the last. If you won't
+leave off, I will not stay here, that's positive; so when you come on
+shore some fine day you may expect to find me absent without leave."
+
+"Very well; then I'll send Tom to look after you: he'll soon bring you
+back again."
+
+"Tom! he wouldn't take the trouble to look after me."
+
+"Very true," replied I. "Every woman who requires looking after is not
+worth the trouble; but I've no fear but we shall find you when we come
+back."
+
+"Tom, I hate you," replied Bessy. "Why do you not join me in persuading
+father to stay on shore?"
+
+"Well, if you hate me, Bessy, it proves, at all events, that I'm not
+indifferent to you," said I, laughing; "but really and truly, Bessy, I
+do not consider there is any very great risk in your father going up the
+river with me, as he will be in smooth water before dark."
+
+"Well, but, allowing that, why should father go at all?"
+
+"I want to see old Anderson, my love," replied Bramble, taking his pipe
+out of his mouth.
+
+"Yes, and if you once begin again, you'll not leave off--I know it well.
+You will never come home except to get clean linen, and be off again;
+and I shall be in a constant state of alarm and misery. How selfish of
+you, father! You had better by far have left me to drown on the Goodwin
+Sands--it would have been more kind," replied Bessy, weeping.
+
+"Bessy," said Bramble, "it's my opinion that you are in love."
+
+"In love!" cried Bessy, coloring to her throat.
+
+"Yes, in love, my dear, or you would not talk such nonsense."
+
+"If loving you as my father is being in love, I am, unfortunately."
+
+"That's only half of the story; now give us the other," said Bramble,
+smiling.
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Bessy, turning to him.
+
+"Why, how do you love Tom?"
+
+"Not half so much as I love her," said I.
+
+"Well, if that's the case," replied Bramble, "we may as well publish the
+bans; for Bessy's in love right over the ankles."
+
+"Father, this may be very pleasant mockery; but I think it is not kind
+to breed ill-will between those who live under the same roof. Now you
+may go away; and if the knowledge that you have made me unhappy will add
+to the pleasure of your journey, I can assure you that you have
+succeeded." Bessy, having said this, immediately left the room and went
+upstairs.
+
+"Well," said Bramble, after a pause, "I'm glad that I never was in love;
+for people so situated do make themselves very silly, that's a fact.
+Tom, if you're going, it's time to be off."
+
+"Why--" replied I, hesitatingly.
+
+"I know--but I tell you, Tom, no such thing. She'll have a good cry, and
+then she'll come down as well as ever. Leave her alone till we come
+back."
+
+Bramble and I then left the cottage, jumped into the galley, and were
+soon on board of the ship.
+
+On our arrival on board we found that the vessel was a Dutch Indiaman,
+which had been captured by one of our cruisers on her voyage home from
+Java. She was laden very deeply with cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, and
+other spices, besides pepper, and was valued at four hundred thousand
+pounds sterling. She had come home from the island of St. Helena, with
+convoy, and was now proceeding up the river, to be given in charge of
+the prize agents in London. Not only her hold, but even her main deck,
+as far aft as the mainmast, was filled up with her cargo; in short, she
+was a very valuable prize, and although when I came on board the pepper
+made me sneeze for ten minutes, the officer in charge told me very truly
+that she was a prize "not to be sneezed at." She was manned by a
+lieutenant and eighteen men belonging to the frigate which had captured
+her--hardly sufficient for so large a vessel, but no more could be
+spared.
+
+"We'll up anchor as soon as you please, pilot," said the lieutenant,
+"for I shall not be sorry to get rid of my charge, I assure you."
+
+"I don't doubt you, sir," replied Bramble. "Well, you've not much
+further to go."
+
+We weighed with the young flood; the weather was fine, but, as usual at
+that time of the year, thick fogs prevailed. We had, however, a leading
+wind, and had well rounded the North Foreland, and entered the Queen's
+Channel, when it came on very thick.
+
+"Tom, have you the bearings?" said Bramble; "if not, take them at once,
+for the fog will soon be over the land."
+
+"I have them," replied I, "and we may as well put them down on the
+log-board--North Foreland Light N.N.W. 1/4 W. Why, we should see the
+Tongue buoy. Now we'll drop the anchor and furl the sails, if you
+please, sir--we can do nothing at present." We did so: the fog came on
+thicker than before, and with it a drizzling rain and wind from the S.
+At dusk there was no change, or prospect of it. The men went down to
+supper, and the watch was set. Bramble and I did not turn in: we lay
+down on the lockers of the cabin, and every now and then went on deck to
+see how the weather was. About eleven o'clock we were awakened by a
+noise: we both started up, and went on deck. To our surprise it was full
+of men--we had been boarded by a French privateer, and they had gained
+possession of the deck without any alarm being given, for the men who
+had the watch had sheltered themselves from the rain down the hatchway.
+As soon as we came up, we were collared and seized.
+
+"Pilot," said Bramble.
+
+"Pilot," said I.
+
+They then asked us in English how many men were on board.
+
+As it was no use concealing the fact, we replied: a portion of the
+privateer's men then went down, and surprised them all in their beds. In
+about five minutes they came up again, leading the lieutenant and his
+men, in their shirts. By the directions of the French captain they were
+immediately passed over the side into the privateer, and Bramble and I
+were the only two Englishmen left on board of the ship.
+
+The French captain then asked us if we knew where we were, and whether
+there was any danger. We replied that we were among the sands, and that
+it would be difficult to get her out of them with that wind, and
+impossible until the tide turned.
+
+"When will the tide turn?" said the captain.
+
+"In an hour or less," replied Bramble, appealing to me.
+
+I replied in the affirmative.
+
+"Well, then, you will take this vessel clear of the shoals, my men; and
+if you do not, your lives are worth nothing.--Hold pistols to their
+heads," continued he to the officer, "and the moment that the ship
+touches, blow their brains out."
+
+Here Bramble, to my astonishment, went on his knees.
+
+"Spare our lives," said he, "and we will take the vessel safe to the
+French coast;" at the same time he gave me a pinch.
+
+"If you do not you shall not live a minute," said the captain (another
+pinch from Bramble). I now understood him, and I also went down on my
+knees, and pretended to cry. "We can't take her out if this weather
+lasts," said I, whimpering. "It's impossible."
+
+"No, no! not if this weather lasts," said Bramble, "but as soon as it
+changes we will do it."
+
+"Very well, so long as you do it when you can, that is all I ask. Now,"
+said he to the officer he had before addressed, "you'll have twenty
+men--keep a sharp lookout--and don't lose a moment in getting under way
+as soon as you can."
+
+The captain then returned to the privateer with the rest of the men,
+leaving the ship in charge of the prizemaster. The privateer was boomed
+off; but whether she dropped her anchor near to us, or remained under
+way, I could not tell. The men who had held the pistols to our heads now
+went away with the others to plunder, according to the manners and
+customs of all privateers' men, of whatever nation they may happen to
+be. Bramble and I walked aft.
+
+"Pinned once more, by all that's blue! Well, it can't be helped--but
+we're not in a French prison yet."
+
+"Why did you go down on your knees to those fellows?" said I, rather
+sulkily.
+
+"Why, because I wished them to think we were chicken-hearted, and that
+we should not be watched, and might have a chance--who knows?"
+
+"Two against twenty are heavy odds," replied I.
+
+"That depends upon whether you trust to your head or your arms. It must
+be headwork this time. You see, Tom, we have so far a chance that we
+cannot weigh till it clears up--they know that as well as we do. I'm
+pretty sure it will be thick all to-morrow, and perhaps longer; so you
+see something may turn up by that time. We are well in, and right in the
+Channel, for vessels up or down. I say again we are not in a French
+prison yet. They can't take her out of this--we must do it; and we may
+run on shore if we like: and I tell you what, Tom, if it wasn't for
+Bessy, I'd just as soon that my brains should be blown out as that these
+French fellows should take such a rich prize. Now let's go below--we
+mustn't be seen talking together too much; but look out sharp, Tom, and
+watch my motions."
+
+The officer who had charge of the vessel now came on deck, and looked
+round him: he could speak English sufficient to carry on a conversation.
+The weather was very thick, and the rain drove down with the wind: he
+saw that it was impossible that the ship could be moved. He told us that
+we should have a hundred guineas each and our liberty if we took the
+ship safe either to Ostend or any French port. We replied that we should
+be very glad to do so, as it would be ten times as much as we should
+have received for piloting her up the Thames; and then we went down
+below. In the meantime the men were sent for on deck, divided into
+watches, and when the watch was set the others went down below again.
+After taking a glass or two of wine, for the Frenchmen had soon rummaged
+out what there was to be drunk in the cabin, Bramble and I returned on
+deck. We found the Frenchmen in charge of the watch diligent: one was
+looking out forward, another at the taffrail; the remaining three were
+walking the deck. Bramble went to the gangway, and I followed him.
+
+"Tom, I see the hatchway grating is on deck--I only wish we once had
+them all beneath it."
+
+"I only wish we had all but the watch--I'd have a try for it then,"
+replied I.
+
+"No, no, Tom, that wouldn't do; but we must trust to Providence and a
+sharp lookout. See where you can put your hand upon a crowbar or
+handspike, in case you want it; but don't touch it. Come, there's
+nothing to be done in any way just now, so let's go down and take a
+snooze for an hour or two; and, Tom, if they ask us to drink, drink with
+them, and pretend to be half fuddled."
+
+We went down again, and found the privateer's men getting very jolly;
+but they did not offer us anything to drink, so we laid on some spare
+sails outside the cabin, and tried to go to sleep, but I could not, for
+I was very unhappy. I could see no chance of our escape, as nothing but
+a man-of-war would be likely to interfere and recapture us. I thought of
+Virginia and Lady O'Connor, and then I thought of poor Bessy, and having
+left her in such an unfriendly way, perhaps to remain in a French prison
+for years. Bramble and I were fully aware that the promises of the
+prizemaster were only to cajole us, and that once in a French port, had
+we claimed the fulfillment of them, a kick would have been all which we
+should, in all probability, receive for our pains.
+
+About one o'clock in the morning I rose and went on deck. The watch had
+been relieved, the weather also looked brighter, as if it were going, to
+clear up, and I became still more depressed. Bramble soon followed me.
+
+"It's clearing up," said I, "but I don't think it will last."
+
+"Never a bit," replied Bramble; "in half an hour it will be thicker than
+ever, so now I'll go and call the officer, and tell him he had better
+get under way: that will make him have less suspicion of us."
+
+Bramble did so. The officer came on deck, the men were turned out, and
+the windlass was manned; for, although so large a vessel, she had no
+capstan. The men hove in the cable in silence, and were short stay
+apeak, when, as we had foreseen, it came on thicker than ever. Bramble
+pointed it out to the officer, who was perfectly satisfied that nothing
+could be done; the cable was veered out again, and the men sent below.
+
+"We hope you'll think of your promise to us, sir," said Bramble to the
+officer, as he was going down.
+
+"Yes, I will, I swear," replied he, slapping Bramble on the back.
+
+The morning broke, and the weather continued the same; it was not
+possible to see ten yards clear of the ship, and, of course, in such
+weather it was not likely that any other vessels would be attempting to
+pass through the Channel. At noon it cleared up a little, and the
+windlass was again manned; but in a short time the fog became thicker
+than ever. The Frenchmen now became very impatient, but there was no
+help for it; they walked about the deck, swearing and stamping, and
+throwing out invectives against the fog and rain as they looked up at
+it. The night closed in; the men were kept on deck until eleven o'clock,
+when the flood time made, and then they were sent down again, as nothing
+could be done until the ebb. At twelve o'clock the weather became worse,
+the wind freshened considerably, and veered more to the southward, the
+rain poured down in torrents, and the men of the watch sheltered
+themselves down the hatchway. The officer came up on the deck, and
+called Bramble, who had been down below. Bramble told him, what was very
+true, that the wind would probably shift and the weather clear up in a
+few hours, and that we should be able to weigh with the coming down of
+the ebb. He asked Bramble whether he thought it would blow hard. Bramble
+could not say, but it would be better that the men should not turn in,
+as they might be wanted; and that if the fore-topmast staysail was
+hoisted, she would lie better at her anchor, and in case of parting, he
+would be able to manage her till sail was set. This advice was followed,
+and all the men sat up in the cabin drinking, those who had the watch
+occasionally coming down to refresh themselves.
+
+They gave us a glass of grog each that night, a proof that they had
+drunk until they were good-natured. Bramble said to me, as we sat down
+outside, "It will be clear to-morrow morning, Tom, that's sartain--it
+must be to-night or never. I've been thinking of lowering the quarter
+boat down, when they are a little more mizzled; they are getting on
+pretty fast, for Frenchmen haven't the heads for drinking that
+Englishmen have. Now it pours down beautifully, and here they come down
+again for shelter."
+
+For three hours we watched; it was then four o'clock, and the men were
+most of them asleep or more than half drunk. Those of the middle watch
+came down dripping wet, and called the others to relieve them, but only
+two of them answered to the call. They who had come down began to drink
+freely, to warm themselves after their ducking, and by half-past four,
+except the two men on deck, every Frenchman was either fast asleep or
+muddled.
+
+"Tom," said Bramble, "now's our time. Slip up on deck, go forward if no
+one is there, and saw through the cable as quickly as you can; it won't
+take long, for it's a coir rope. As soon as you have got through two
+strands out of the three, come aft."
+
+I went on deck, and looked round; I could not see the two men, it was so
+dark. I then walked forward, and looking well round to see that they
+were not on the forecastle, I sat down before the windlass and commenced
+operations. In a couple of minutes I had divided the two strands, and I
+went aft, where I found Bramble at the binnacle, in which a light was
+burning.
+
+"I have done it," said I, "and if the wind freshens at all, she will
+part."'
+
+"All's right," said Bramble, "those two fellows are fast asleep under
+the taffrail, covered up with the trysail, which lies there. Now, Tom,
+for a bold push: go down once more, and see how they are getting on in
+the cabin."
+
+I went down: every man was asleep--some on the locker, some with their
+heads on the table. I came on deck: it rained harder than ever.
+
+"This will be a clearing shower, Tom, depend upon it; and the wind is
+freshening up again. Now, have you looked out for a handspike or
+crowbar?"
+
+"Yes, I know where there are two."
+
+"Then come with me: we must unship the ladder, and pull it up on deck,
+and then put on the grating; after that we must take our chance: we may
+succeed, and we may not--all depends upon their not waking too soon."
+
+We went to the hatchway, cut the cleat-lashings, hauled the ladder on
+deck, and then put on the grating.
+
+"That will do, Tom, for the present. Now do you take the helm, with a
+crowbar all ready by your side. I will go forward and cut the cable: if
+those fellows rouse up while I am forward, you must do your best. I
+leave you, Tom, because you are more powerful than I am."
+
+"I'll manage them both, never fear," whispered I.
+
+"When she swings, mind you put the helm a-starboard, Tom," said Bramble
+in my ear.
+
+This was the most nervous part of the whole transaction: the men abaft
+might wake, and I should have to master them how I could--and even if I
+did, the scuffle might awake those below, who were not yet secured;
+although, for a time, it would be difficult for them to get on deck. But
+fortune favored us: the cable was severed, the ship swung round, and
+Bramble returned aft and took the helm.
+
+"Now is the time to see if I'm a pilot or not, Tom," said he. "I think I
+can steer her through by compass, now that it's nearly high
+water--luck's all. It was fortunate that we got the staysail hoisted for
+us, or we could have made nothing of it."
+
+"It's clearing up fast," said I, as I kept my eyes upon where the men
+were lying abaft; "and there'll be plenty of wind."
+
+"Yes, and we'll have daylight soon. Tom, I don't want you. I should like
+you to step aft, and stand over those two chaps; if they wake, knock
+them senseless--don't kill them, as you can easily bind them while they
+are stupefied. And, Tom, look about you for some seizings all ready. I
+wish they would wake, for we are not safe while they are not secure. Put
+a handspike by me, and, if necessary, I will leave the helm for a
+minute, and help you: it's better that she should go on shore than they
+should master us. We're pretty safe now, at all events. I see the
+land--all's right."
+
+It was now daylight. After this whispering with Bramble, I went aft with
+a handspike in my hand; and I had not been there more than two minutes
+when one of the privateer's men turned the canvas on one side, and
+looked up. The handspike came down upon his head, and he dropped
+senseless; but the noise roused up the other, and I dealt him a blow
+more severe than the first. I then threw down my weapon, and, perceiving
+the deep-sea lead-line coiled up on the reel, I cut off sufficient, and
+in a short time had bound them both by the hands and feet. They groaned
+heavily, and I was afraid that I had killed them; but there was no help
+for it.
+
+"They are safe," said I, returning to Bramble.
+
+"I thought I heard you, but I did not look round at the time. Half an
+hour more, Tom, and, even with this wind, we shall be safe--and, Tom,
+our fortune's made. If they wake below, we must fight hard for it, for
+we've a right to salvage, my boy--one-eighth of the whole cargo--that's
+worth fighting for. Depend upon it, they'll be stirring soon; so, Tom,
+go aft, and drag the trysail here, and put it on the hatchway
+grating--its weight will prevent their lifting it up in a hurry. If we
+can only hold our own for twenty minutes longer she is ours, and all
+right."
+
+As soon as I had stowed the trysail on the hatchway grating, I looked
+about to see what else I could put on the skylight, which they might
+also attempt to force up. I could find nothing but the coils of rope,
+which I piled on; but, while I was so doing, a pistol was fired at me
+from below, and the ball passed through the calf of my leg; it was,
+however, not a wound to disable me, and I bound it up with my
+handkerchief.
+
+"They're all alive now, Tom, so you must keep your eyes open. However,
+we're pretty safe--the light vessel is not a mile off. Keep away from
+the skylight--you had better stand upon the trysail, Tom--you will help
+to keep the hatchway down, for they are working at it."
+
+Another pistol was now fired at Bramble, which missed him.
+
+"Tom, see if there's no bunting aft, and, if so, just throw some over
+this part of the skylight, it will blind them, at all events; otherwise
+I'm just a capital mark for them."
+
+I ran aft, and gathered some flags, which I brought and laid over the
+skylight, so as to intercept their view of Bramble; but while I was so
+doing another pistol-shot was fired--it passed me, but hit Bramble,
+taking off one of his fingers.
+
+"That's no miss, but we've got through the worst of it, Tom--I don't
+think they can see me now--don't put that English ensign on, but hoist
+it Union downward. I shall round-to now; there's the men-of-war in the
+Medway. Why don't the fools look out, and they will see that they can't
+escape?"
+
+"They've only the stern windows to look out of: the quarter-galleries
+are boarded up."
+
+"Then, Tom, just look if they have not beat them out, for you know they
+may climb on deck by them."
+
+It was fortunate that Bramble mentioned this. I went aft with the
+handspike in my hand, and when I was about to look over, I met face to
+face a Frenchman, who had climbed out of the starboard quarter-gallery,
+and was just gaming the deck. A blow with the handspike sent him
+overboard, and he went astern; but another was following him, and I
+stood prepared to receive him. It was the officer in command, who spoke
+English. He paused at the sight of the other man falling overboard and
+my uplifted handspike; and I said to him, "It's of no use--look at the
+English men-of-war close to you: if you do not go back to the cabin, and
+keep your men quiet, when the men-of-war's men come on board we will
+show you no quarter."
+
+We were now entering the Medway; and the Frenchman perceived that they
+could not escape, and would only bring mischief on themselves by any
+farther assaults, so he got into the quarter-gallery again, and spoke to
+his men. As soon as I perceived that he was entering, I ran over to the
+other side to the larboard quarter-gallery, and there again I found a
+Frenchman had nearly gained the deck. I levelled the handspike at his
+head, but he dodged, and returned to the cabin by the way he came; and
+after that there were no more attempts at recovering the vessel. In five
+minutes more we were abreast of the Euphrosyne, Sir James O'Connor's
+frigate, which was now lying, with only her lower masts in, alongside of
+the hulk. I hailed for assistance, and let fly the foretop-mast staysail
+sheet, while Bramble rounded the ship to. The boats were sent on board
+immediately; and as we had not a cable bent, they made the ship fast to
+the hulk astern of them. We stated our case in few words to the officer;
+and having ascertained that Sir James O'Connor was on board, requested
+that we might be sent to the frigate.
+
+"Is it you?" said Sir James, as I came on the gangway; "what is it all
+about--are you hurt? Come down in the cabin."
+
+Bramble and I followed him down into the cabin; and I stated the whole
+particulars of the capture and re-capture.
+
+"Excellent--most excellent! I wish you both joy; but first we must have
+the surgeon here" Sir James rang the bell; and when the surgeon came he
+went on deck to give orders.
+
+[Illustration: I MET FACE TO FACE A FRENCHMAN.--Marryat, Vol. X., p.
+493.]
+
+The ball had passed through my leg, so that the surgeon had little to
+do to me. Bramble's finger was amputated, and in a few minutes we were
+all right, and Sir James came down again.
+
+"I should say, stay on board till you are able to get about again; but
+the ship will be paid off to-morrow, so I had better send you up to
+Chatham directly. You are entitled to salvage if ever men were, for you
+have earned it gloriously; and I will take care that you are done
+justice to. I must go now and report the vessel and particulars to the
+admiral, and the first lieutenant will send you to Chatham in one of the
+cutters. You'll be in good hands, Tom, for you will have two nurses."
+
+We were taken up to Chatham to the hotel, where we found Lady O'Connor
+and Virginia very much surprised, as may be imagined, at our being
+brought there wounded. However, we were neither of us ill enough to go
+to bed, and had a sitting-room next to theirs.
+
+This recapture made a great deal of noise. At first the agent for the
+prize wrote down a handsome letter to us, complimenting us upon our
+behavior and stating that he was authorized to present us each with five
+hundred pounds for our conduct. But Sir James O'Connor answered the
+letter, informing him that we claimed, and would have, our one-eighth,
+as entitled to by law, and that he would see us righted. Mr. Wilson,
+whom we employed as our legal adviser, immediately gave the prize agent
+notice of an action in the Court of Admiralty, and, finding we were so
+powerfully backed, and that he could not help himself, he offered forty
+thousand pounds, which was one-eighth, valuing the cargo at three
+hundred and twenty thousand pounds. The cargo proved to be worth more
+than four hundred thousand pounds, but Mr. Wilson advised us to close
+with the offer, as it was better than litigating the question; so we
+assented to it, and the money was paid over.
+
+In a fortnight we were both ready to travel again. Sir James O'Connor
+had remained a week longer than he intended to have done at Chatham on
+our account. We now took leave of them, and having presented Virginia
+with five thousand pounds, which I had directed Mr. Wilson to settle
+upon her, we parted, the O'Connors and Virginia for Leamington, and
+Bramble and I for Deal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
+
+     Being the last Chapter, the Reader may pretty well guess the
+     Contents of it.
+
+
+"Tom, do you know that I very often find myself looking about me, and
+asking myself if all that has happened is true or a dream," said Bramble
+to me, as we sat inside of the coach to Dover, for there were no other
+inside passengers but ourselves. "I can't help thinking that great good
+fortune is as astounding as great calamity. Who would have thought, when
+I would, in spite of all Bessy's remonstrances, go round in that ship
+with you, that in the first place we should have been taken possession
+of by a privateer in the very narrows (he was a bold cruiser, that
+Frenchman)? After we were captured I said to myself, Bessy must have had
+a forewarning of what was to happen, or she never would have been, as I
+thought, so perverse. And since it has turned out so fortunately, I
+can't help saying how fortunate it was that we did not allow her to
+persuade us; for had we not both gone, nothing could have been done.
+Well, I think we may promise Bessy this time when we meet her, that we
+will not trust ourselves to salt water again in a hurry. What do you
+think, Tom?"
+
+"No; I think the best thing I can do is to marry, and live on shore,"
+replied I.
+
+"Yes, Tom, that's it. Give me your hand, you don't know how happy you
+make me; we'll all live together. But where shall we live? for the poor
+little cottage that I thought quite big enough for us a month ago will
+not do now."
+
+"We have plenty of time to talk that over, father. I love the cottage
+for many reasons; although, as you say, it is not large enough now for
+our means or future way of living."
+
+"And I love it too, boy; I love to look out of the door and see the spot
+where my Bessy rescued me from death. God bless her! she is a noble
+girl, Tom, though I say it who--but I'm not her father, after all, and
+if I were, I would still say it."
+
+"It is evident, by her letter to you, that she has been most anxious
+about us. What will she say when she hears we have both been wounded?"
+
+"Ay! it wouldn't have done to have told her that, or she would have set
+off for Chatham, as sure as we are sitting here."
+
+Here a pause ensued for some time, and we were busied with our own
+thoughts. The silence was at last broken by me.
+
+"Father," said I, "I should like to ask my father and Peter Anderson to
+come down to us; they can easily get leave."
+
+"Is it to be present at your wedding, Tom?"
+
+"Exactly--if Bessy will consent."
+
+"Well, I have no doubt of that, Tom; but she will now require a little
+courting, you know why."
+
+"Why, because all women like it, I suppose."
+
+"No, Tom; it is because she was in love before you were, d'ye
+understand?--and now that things are all smooth, and you follow her,
+why, it's natural, I suppose, that she should shy off a little in her
+turn. You mustn't mind that, Tom; it's a sort of soothing to the
+mortification of having at one time found herself, as it were,
+rejected."
+
+"Well, I shan't mind that; it will only serve me right for being such a
+fool as not to have perceived her value before. But how do you
+understand women so well, father?"
+
+"Because, Tom, I've been looking on and not performing all my life:
+except in one instance in a long life, I've only been a bystander in the
+way of courtship and matrimony. Here we are at last, and now for a
+chaise to Deal. Thank God, we can afford to shorten the time, for
+Bessy's sake, poor thing!"
+
+We arrived at the cottage. The sound of the wheels had called out not
+only Bessy and Mrs. Maddox, but all the neighbors; for they had heard of
+our good fortune. Bessy, as soon as she had satisfied herself that it
+was Bramble and me, went into the cottage again. Once more we entered
+the humble roof. Bessy flew into her father's arms, and hung weeping on
+his shoulder.
+
+"Haven't you a kind word to say for Tom?" said Bramble kissing her as he
+released himself.
+
+"Does he deserve it, to leave me as he did, laughing at my distress?
+_He_ had no right to treat me so."
+
+"Indeed, Bessy, you do me injustice. I said at the time that I thought
+there was no risk, and I certainly did think there was none. Who would
+have expected a privateer half-way up the Thames, any more than a vessel
+with twenty men on board could be re-captured by two men?"
+
+"Well, Bessy, you ought to make friends with him, for, without his arm,
+your father would not have been back here quite so soon. He beat down
+the Frenchmen, one after another, in good style, when they attempted to
+recover the vessel--that he did, I can tell you, wounded as he was."
+
+"Wounded?" cried Bessy, starting, her eyes running over me to find out
+where.
+
+"Yes, with a bullet in his leg; I didn't like to say a word about it in
+the letter. But I suppose if he had been killed you would not have
+cared?"
+
+"Oh, father!" cried Bessy, as she turned toward me, and I received her
+in my arms.
+
+Bessy soon recovered her smiles, and thankful for our preservation and
+good fortune, and satisfied with our mutual affection, we passed a most
+happy evening. Somehow or another Bramble, having sent Mrs. Maddox on a
+message, found out that it was very sultry indoors, and that he would
+take his pipe on the beach. He left me alone with Bessy; and now, for
+the first time, I plainly told her the state of my affections, and asked
+her to consent to be my wife. I did not plead in vain, as the reader may
+suppose from what he has already been made acquainted with.
+
+After Bessy had retired, and I was sitting with Bramble, who had his
+glass of grog and pipe as usual, I made him acquainted with my success.
+
+"All right, Tom," said he, "I'm thankful--and God bless you both."
+
+And had I not reason also to be thankful? When I had retired to my room
+that night, I thought over the various passages in my life. What might I
+have been if Providence had not watched over me? When neglected in my
+youth, in a situation which exposed me to every temptation, had not old
+Anderson been sent as a guardian to keep me in the right path, to
+instruct me, and to give me that education without which my future
+success might have turned out a disadvantage instead of a source of
+gratitude? In Bramble, again, I had met with a father, to supply the
+place of one who was not in a situation to do his duty to me or forward
+me in life. In old Nanny I had met with a kind friend, one who, at the
+same time that she would lead me right, was a warning to me from her
+sufferings. To Mrs. St. Felix I was equally indebted, and had I not been
+permitted to pay the debt of gratitude to both of them? Even my mother's
+harshness, which appeared at first to my short-sightedness to have been
+so in-defensible, was of great advantage to me, as it had stimulated me
+to exertion and industry, and pointed out to me the value of
+independence. Was I not also most fortunate in having escaped from the
+entanglement of Janet, who, had I married her, would, in all
+probability, have proved a useless if not a faithless helpmate; and
+still more so, in finding that there was, as it were, especially
+reserved for me the affection of such a noble, right-minded creature as
+Bessy? My life, commenced in rags and poverty, had, by industry and
+exertion, and the kindness of others, step by step progressed to
+competence and every prospect of mundane happiness. Had I not,
+therefore, reason to be grateful, and to feel that there had been a
+little cherub who had watched over the life of Poor Jack? On my bended
+knees I acknowledged it fervently and gratefully, and prayed that,
+should it please Heaven that I should in after life meet any reverse, I
+might bear it without repining, and say, with all humility, "Thy will
+and not mine, O Lord, be done!"
+
+How bright was the next morning, and how cheerful did the dancing waves
+appear to me!--and Bessy's eyes were radiant as the day, and her smiles
+followed in rapid succession; and Bramble looked so many years
+younger--he was almost too happy to smoke--it was really the sunshine of
+the heart which illumined our cottage. And thus did the few days pass,
+until Anderson and my father made their appearance. They were both
+surprised at Bessy's beauty, and told me so. They had heard that she was
+handsome, but they were not prepared for her uncommon style; for now
+that her countenance was lighted up with joy, she was indeed lovely.
+
+"Well, Tom," observed my father, "there's only one thing which surprises
+me."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Why, how, with such a fine craft in view, you could ever have sailed in
+the wake of such a little privateer as--but I must not mention
+her--never mind, don't answer me that--but another question--when are
+you going to be spliced?"
+
+"Very soon, I hope; but I really don't exactly know. All I can say is
+the sooner the better."
+
+"And so say I. Shall I bring up the subject on the plea of my leave
+being only for ten days?"
+
+"Yes, father, I wish you would, as it is really a good reason to allege
+for its taking place immediately."
+
+"Tom, my dear boy," said old Anderson, "from what I can perceive, you
+have great reason to be thankful in having obtained this young woman for
+your future partner in life. I admire her exceedingly, and I trust in
+Heaven that you will be happy."
+
+"I ought to be," replied I, "and grateful also particularly to you, to
+whom, under Providence, I am so much indebted."
+
+"If the seed is sown upon good ground, it will always yield a good
+harvest, Tom. You are a proof of it, so thank Heaven, and not me. I wish
+to tell you what your father has mentioned to me. The fact is, Tom, he
+is in what may be called a false position at Greenwich. He is a
+pensioner, and has now sufficient not to require the charity, and he
+thinks that he ought not to avail himself of it, now that you have made
+him independent; but if he leaves the hospital and remains at Greenwich,
+he and your mother would not agree well together. They are very good
+friends at a certain distance, but I do not think, with her high
+notions, that they could ever live together in the same house. He says
+that he should like to live either with you or near you; and I think
+myself, now that he is become so very steady a character, it does
+require your consideration whether you ought not to permit him. He will
+be a very good companion for Bramble, and they will get on well
+together. I do not mean to say that it might not be more agreeable if he
+were to remain at Greenwich; but he is your father, Tom, and you should
+make some sacrifice for a parent."
+
+"As far as I am concerned, Anderson, I most gladly consent. Bramble is
+to live with us--that is arranged, and if no objections are raised by
+others you may be sure of my acceding, and, indeed, if objections should
+be raised, of persuading all I can."
+
+"You can do no more, Tom," replied Anderson; "nor can more be expected."
+
+This point was very satisfactorily arranged. Bramble and Bessy both gave
+their cheerful consent, and it was settled that as soon as we had a
+house to receive him, my father should quit Greenwich and live with us.
+The arguments of my father, added to the persuasions of Bramble and me,
+had their due weight, and on the 13th of September, 1807, Bessy and I
+exchanged our vows, and I embraced her as my own.
+
+
+
+
+FINALE
+
+
+If the reader will refer back to the first part of this narrative, he
+will find that I was born in the year 1786; and as I am writing this in
+the year 1840, I am now fifty-four years old. I was but little more than
+twenty-one when I married; I have, therefore, the experience of
+thirty-two years of a married life; but I will not anticipate. I ended
+the last chapter with my own happy union; I must now refer to those
+events which followed close upon that period.
+
+Sir James and Lady O'Connor had taken up their residence at Leamington,
+then a small village, and not the populous place which it has since
+become. After a few months' residence, during which I had repeated
+letters from Lady O'Connor and Virginia, they were so pleased with the
+locality and neighborhood that Sir James purchased a property of some
+hundred acres, and added to a house which was upon it, so as to make it
+a comfortable and elegant residence. Lady O'Connor, after the first
+year, presented her husband with a son, and has since that been very
+assiduous in increasing his family--more so, perhaps, than would have
+been convenient to Sir James O'Connor's income at the time that he
+purchased the property, had it not been that the increase of its value,
+in consequence of a large portion of it having been taken as building
+land, has been so great as to place them in most affluent circumstances.
+About a year after my marriage I had notice from Lady O'Connor that a
+certain gentleman had arrived there who had shown great attention to
+Virginia; and she added that he had been very well received by my
+sister, being an old acquaintance of the name of Sommerville, a
+clergyman with a good living, and a very superior young man. I
+immediately recollected him as the preceptor who had behaved with such
+propriety when my sister was persecuted by the addresses of the young
+nobleman; and I, therefore, felt very easy upon the subject. A few
+months afterward I had a letter from Virginia, stating that he had
+proposed, and that she had conditionally accepted him. I wrote to her,
+congratulating her upon the choice she had made, giving her father's
+consent and blessing (of my mother hereafter); and shortly after they
+were married; and I am happy to say that her marriage has turned out as
+fortunate as my own.
+
+We had remained in the cottage for some months after my own marriage,
+very undecided what we should do. Bramble did not like to quit the
+seaside, nor, I believe his old habits and localities. Money was of
+little value to him; indeed, on my marriage, he had insisted upon
+settling upon Bessy and her children the whole sum he had received for
+the salvage of the Dutch Indiaman, reserving for himself his farm near
+Deal. It did so happen, however, that about that period, while we were
+still in perplexity, I received a letter from Mr. Wilson's son, at
+Dover, telling me that the manor-house and three hundred acres of land,
+adjoining to Bramble's farm, were to be disposed of. This exactly
+suited, so I made the purchase and took possession, and then sent for my
+father to join us, which he hastened to do. Bramble did not, however,
+give up his cottage on the beach. He left Mrs. Maddox in it, and it was
+a favorite retirement for my father and him, who would remain there for
+several days together, amusing themselves with watching the shipping,
+and gaining intelligence from the various pilots as they landed, as they
+smoked their pipes on the shingle beach. It was not more than half a
+mile from the great house, so that it was very convenient; and Bessy and
+I would often go with the children and indulge in reminiscences of the
+former scenes which had there occurred.
+
+My father and mother parted very good friends. The fact was that she was
+pleased with the arrangement, as she did not like my father wearing a
+pensioner's coat, and did not want his company at her own house. When he
+left the hospital, she insisted upon paying him his rent; and she did so
+very punctually until she gave up business. On her marriage, my sister
+requested that we would come to Leamington and be present; to which we
+all consented, particularly as it was a good opportunity of introducing
+Bessy to her and Lady O'Connor. My mother was also to join the party on
+the occasion. The only circumstance worth mentioning was the surprise of
+my mother on being introduced to Lady O'Connor, and finding that in this
+great lady she met with her old acquaintance, Mrs. St. Felix. Whatever
+she may have felt, she certainly had tact enough to conceal it, and was
+as warm in her congratulations as the best well-wisher. I must say that
+I never knew my mother appear to such advantage as she did during this
+visit to Leamington. She dressed remarkably well, and would have
+persuaded those who did not know her history that she had always been in
+good society; but she had been a lady's maid and had learned her
+mistress's airs, and as she could dress others so well, it would have
+been odd if she did not know how to dress herself. A good copy will
+often pass for an original. It was not till about six years after our
+marriage that my mother decided upon retiring from business. She had
+made a very comfortable provision for herself, as Mr. Wilson informed
+me, and took up her abode at Cheltenham, where she lived in a very
+genteel way, was considered quite a catch at card-parties, and when she
+did ask people to tea she always did the thing in better style than
+anybody else. The consequence was she was not only visited by most
+people, but in time became rather a person of consideration. As she
+never mentioned her husband, it was supposed that she was a widow, and,
+in consequence of her well-regulated establishment, she received much
+attention from several Irish and foreign bachelors. In short, my mother
+obtained almost the pinnacle of her ambition when she was once fairly
+settled at Cheltenham. I ought to observe that when she arrived there
+she had taken the precaution of prefixing a name to her own to which by
+baptismal rite she certainly was not entitled, and called herself Mrs.
+Montague Saunders.
+
+Shortly after Mrs. St. Felix had given notice to the doctor that she
+should not return, and that her shop and the goodwill thereof were for
+sale, I received a letter from my friend Tom Cobb, the doctor's
+assistant, telling me that as he perceived he had now no chance of Mrs.
+St. Felix, he had some idea of taking her shop, and setting up as a
+tobacconist; his reasons were that physic was a bore, and going out of
+nights when called up a still greater. I wrote to Lady O'Connor
+inclosing Mr. Tom's letter, and pointed out to her that I thought it
+would be a public benefit to prevent Tom from killing so many people, as
+he certainly would do if he continued in his present profession, and
+eventually set up for himself. She replied that she agreed with me, but
+at the same time that she was anxious to benefit fat Jane, who really
+was a very good girl; and that, therefore, she empowered me to enter
+into a treaty with Mr. Thomas, by which, provided he could obtain the
+lady's consent, he was to wed her, and receive the stock in trade, its
+contents and fixtures, and goodwill, etc., as her portion.
+
+As this was an offer which required some consideration before it was
+refused, I wrote to Tom pointing out to him the advantages of settling
+down with a good business, with a wife to assist him, and a cat and dog
+all ready installed, upon such advantageous conditions. Tom agreed with
+me, won the love of fat Jane, which was easily done, as he had no rival,
+and in a short time was fairly set down as the successor of Mrs. St.
+Felix. As for the doctor, he appeared to envy Tom his having possession
+of the shop which his fair friend once occupied; he was inconsolable,
+and there is no doubt but that he, from the period of her quitting
+Greenwich, wasted away until he eventually was buried in the churchyard.
+A most excellent man was Dr. Tadpole, and his death was lamented by
+hundreds who esteemed his character, and many hundreds more who had
+benefited not only by his advice, but by his charitable disposition.
+About ten years after my marriage Ben the Whaler was summoned away. His
+complaint was in the liver, which is not to be surprised at, considering
+how many gallons of liquor he had drunk during his life.
+
+Peter Anderson--my father, my friend, my preceptor--was for many years
+inspecting boatswain of the hospital. At last he became to a certain
+degree vacant in mind, and his situation was filled up by another. He
+was removed to what they call the helpless ward, where he was well
+nursed and attended. It is no uncommon, indeed I may say it is a very
+common thing, for the old pensioners, as they gradually decay, to have
+their health quite perfect when the faculties are partly gone; and there
+is a helpless ward established for that very reason, where those who are
+infirm and feeble, without disease, or have lost their faculties while
+their bodily energies remain, are sent to, and there they pass a quiet,
+easy life, well attended, until they sink into the grave. Such was the
+case with Peter Anderson: he was ninety-seven when he died, but long
+before that time his mind was quite gone. Still he was treated with
+respect, and many were there who attended his funeral. I erected a
+handsome tombstone to his memory, the last tribute I could pay to a
+worthy, honest, sensible, and highly religious good man.
+
+Mr. Wilson has been dead some time; he left me a legacy of five hundred
+pounds. I believe I have mentioned all my old acquaintances now, except
+Bill Harness and Opposition Bill. In living long certainly Opposition
+Bill has beat his opponent, for Harness is in the churchyard, while
+Opposition Bill still struts about with his hair as white as snow, and
+his face shriveled up like an old monkey's. The last time I was at
+Greenwich, I heard the pensioners say to one another, "Why, you go ahead
+about as fast as Opposition Bill." I requested this enigma to me to be
+solved, and it appeared that one Greenwich fair, Opposition Bill had set
+off home rather the worse for what he had drank, and so it happened
+that, crossing the road next to the hospital, his wooden leg had stuck
+in one of the iron plug-holes of the water conduit. Bill did not, in his
+situation, perceive that anything particular had occurred, and continued
+playing his fiddle and singing, and, as he supposed, walking on the
+whole time, instead of which he was continually walking round and round
+the one leg in the plug-hole with the other that was free. After about
+half an hour's trotting round and round this way, he began to think that
+he did not get home quite so fast as he ought, but the continual
+circular motion had made him more confused than before.
+
+"By Gum!" said Bill, "this hospital is a confounded long way off. I'm
+sure I walk a mile, and I get no nearer; howsoebber, nebber mind--here
+goes."
+
+Here Billy struck up a tune, and commenced a song along with it, still
+walking round and round his wooden leg which was firmly fixed in the
+plug-hole, and so he continued till he fell down from giddiness, and he
+was picked up by some of the people, who carried him home to the
+hospital.
+
+I have but one more circumstance to relate. I was one day sitting with
+Bessy and my children, at the old cottage on the beach, Bramble and my
+father were smoking their pipes on a bench which they had set up
+outside, when one of the Deal boats landed with passengers. As they
+passed by us one old gentleman started, and then stopped short, as he
+beheld Bessy.
+
+"Mine frau!" he cried, "mine frau dat was in heaven!"
+
+We stared very much, as we did not comprehend him; but he then came up
+to me and said, "I beg your pardon, mynheer, but what is dat young
+woman?"
+
+"She is my wife," replied I.
+
+"I was going to say dat she was my wife, but dat is impossible. Look you
+here, sar."
+
+The old man pulled a miniature out of his breast, and certainly the
+resemblance to Bessy was most remarkable.
+
+"Now, sar, dat was my wife. Where did you get dis young woman?"
+
+I requested him to walk into the cottage, and then told him the history
+of Bessy.
+
+"Sar, my wife was coming home with her child in a brig, and the brig was
+never heard of. It was supposed that she did perish, and every one else
+too. Sar, this lady must be my daughter."
+
+"I'm sorry that we have no proofs to offer you," replied I; "she had
+only bedclothes on when she was taken into the boat, and there is
+nothing to establish her identity."
+
+"I am content, sar; she must be my daughter. She was in a brig with her
+mother, and she was saved the very same year that her mother come home.
+There, sar, look at this picture; it is the same person. I want no more
+proof--she is my daughter."
+
+Although this was what might be called only collateral proof, I did
+agree with the old gentleman that it was very strong; at all events, it
+was sufficient for him, and he claimed Bessy as his child. Had he
+claimed her to take her away, I might have disputed it; but as he loaded
+her with presents, and when he died, which he did three years afterward,
+and left twenty thousand rix dollars, of course I was perfectly
+satisfied with his relationship.
+
+So much for what has occurred since the time I married; and now, as the
+reader may, perhaps, wish to know something about the present condition
+of myself and family, I must inform him that my father and Bramble are
+still alive, and flourishing under their gray hairs. My sister has four
+children, and her husband is now a dean: they do say that, from the
+interest of his patron, he will in all probability be a bishop, a
+distinction not to be envied in these days, and therefore I do not wish
+him success. My mother is, however, of the contrary opinion, having been
+told that her daughter as a bishop's lady will take precedence and be
+led out before Lady Hercules. Sir James and Lady O'Connor are still
+well, and as happy as they well can be. Bessy has blessed me with three
+boys and three girls, now all grown up; but the boys came first. The
+eldest is a lieutenant in his Majesty's service, the second is a captain
+of an Indiaman, and the third commands a free trader. They are all well
+to do, and independent of their father. My girls, who are much younger,
+have been well educated, and people say that they are very handsome; at
+all events, they are modest and good-tempered. I have not attempted to
+conceal what I once was, yet Time has called away most of those who knew
+me in my profession. I am still considered as having been a seafaring
+man, but nevertheless, in consequence of my property, I am generally
+addressed by the title of Squire Saunders. By not assuming a station
+which does not become me, I find myself treated not only with respect,
+but with friendship, by those who are in birth, as well as other
+qualifications, my superiors. My daughters are invited out to all the
+balls and _fêtes_ in the neighborhood, and are great favorites wherever
+they go: they all of them are like their mother, not only in appearance,
+but in temper and disposition. We have plenty of young men who visit the
+house, and I am afraid that we shall soon have to part with two of them,
+my eldest, Virginia, being engaged to a ship-builder at Limehouse, and
+Elizabeth to a young clergyman in the neighborhood. Jane thinks she
+never will marry, and, as I tell her, I suppose she never will till she
+is asked. To wind up, I may say that Bessy and I have been very happy,
+and promise still to be as happy as most people are who pass through
+this pilgrimage. We have competence--the good opinion of the world--a
+family who have never caused us one hour's uneasiness (how few can say
+that?), and we have, I trust, a due sense of God's mercy and kindness
+toward us, and never lie down in our beds without thanking Him for the
+many mercies we have received, and acknowledging how unworthy we are to
+have been so signally blessed.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR JACK***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Poor Jack, by Frederick Marryat</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Poor Jack</p>
+<p>Author: Frederick Marryat</p>
+<p>Release Date: November 30, 2004  [eBook #14222]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR JACK***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="illus001.jpg" id=
+"illus001.jpg"></a> <a href="images/illus001.jpg"><img src=
+"images/thumb001.jpg" width="50%" alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>POOR JACK&mdash;FRONTISPIECE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat Vol. X.</b><br /></div>
+<h3>WORKS OF CAPTAIN MARRYAT</h3>
+<h4><i>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h4>
+<h3><i>VOLUME TEN</i></h3>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<h1>POOR JACK</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<p class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_ONE"><b>[1]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWO"><b>[2]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THREE"><b>[3]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FOUR"><b>[4]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FIVE"><b>[5]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_SIX"><b>[6]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_SEVEN"><b>[7]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_EIGHT"><b>[8]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_NINE"><b>[9]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TEN"><b>[10]</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ELEVEN"><b>[11]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWELVE"><b>[12]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTEEN"><b>[13]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FOURTEEN"><b>[14]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FIFTEEN"><b>[15]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_SIXTEEN"><b>[16]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN"><b>[17]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN"><b>[18]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_NINETEEN"><b>[19]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY"><b>[20]</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWENTY_ONE"><b>[21]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_TWO"><b>[22]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_THREE"><b>[23]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_FOUR"><b>[24]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_FIVE"><b>[25]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_SIX"><b>[26]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_SEVEN"><b>[27]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_EIGHT"><b>[28]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_TWENTY_NINE"><b>[29]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY"><b>[30]</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THIRTY_ONE"><b>[31]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_TWO"><b>[32]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_THREE"><b>[33]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_FOUR"><b>[34]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_FIVE"><b>[35]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_SIX"><b>[36]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_SEVEN"><b>[37]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_EIGHT"><b>[38]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_THIRTY_NINE"><b>[39]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY"><b>[40]</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FORTY_ONE"><b>[41]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_TWO"><b>[42]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_THREE"><b>[43]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_FOUR"><b>[44]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_FIVE"><b>[45</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_SIX"><b>[46]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_SEVEN"><b>[47]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_EIGHT"><b>[48]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FORTY_NINE"><b>[49]</b></a> <a href=
+"#CHAPTER_FIFTY"><b>[50]</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTY_ONE"><b>[51]</b></a> <a href=
+"#FINALE"><b>[FINALE]</b></a></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+<h4><i>VOLUME TEN.</i></h4>
+<div class="center">
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus001.jpg">Poor Jack</a> (Frontispiece)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus028.jpg">Fisher's Alley</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus074.jpg">I summoned all my strength, and called
+out long before we floated past her</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus090.jpg">Anderson reading the Bible to
+Jack</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus116.jpg">Anderson reading the news of the Battle
+of the Nile</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus134.jpg">Jack's Father landing after the Battle
+of the Nile</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus152.jpg">Jack in Nanny's Room</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus208.jpg">Jack and Bramble aboard the
+Indiaman</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus212.jpg">The Fore-peak Yarn</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus232.jpg">"How's her head, Tom?"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus238.jpg">Bramble saving Bessie</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus246.jpg">Jack heaving the lead</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus276.jpg">Nanny relating her story</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus290.jpg">Jack and his Father under the
+Colonnade</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus298.jpg">A Surprise</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus332.jpg">Bramble and Jack carried into a French
+Port</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus336.jpg">The Leith Smack and the
+Privateer</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus342.jpg">The Arrival of the Privateer at
+Lanion</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus346.jpg">The Prison</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus350.jpg">Jack a Prisoner</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus354.jpg">The Escape</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus408.jpg">Wreck of the Galley</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus410.jpg">We found both Bramble and Bessy
+clinging to the rope</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus412.jpg">Bramble had knelt by the bedside, and
+was evidently in prayer</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus454.jpg">I went down to the beach, ... and I was
+soon on board</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus458.jpg">"Mr. Saunders, ... may I ask where you
+procured this spyglass?"</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus468.jpg">Sir J. O'Connor and Mrs. St.
+Felix</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#illus493.jpg">I met face to face a Frenchman</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>POOR JACK</h2>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ONE" id="CHAPTER_ONE"></a>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which, like most People who tell their own Stories, I begin
+with the Histories of other People.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I have every reason to believe that I was born in the year of
+our Lord 1786, for more than once I put the question to my father,
+and he invariably made the same reply: "Why, Jack, you were
+launched a few months before the Druids were turned over to the
+Melpomene." I have since ascertained that this remarkable event
+occurred in January 1787. But my father always reckoned in this
+way: if you asked him when such an event took place, he would
+reply, so many years or months after such a naval engagement or
+remarkable occurrence; as, for instance, when I one day inquired
+how many years he had served the King, he responded, "I came into
+the sarvice a little afore the battle of Bunker's Hill, in which we
+licked the Americans clean out of Boston<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id=
+"FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class=
+"fnanchor">[1]</a>." As for Anno Domini, he had no notion of it
+whatever.</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> I have since
+heard a different version of the result of this battle.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Who my grandfather was, I cannot inform the reader, nor is it,
+perhaps, of much consequence. My father was a man who invariably
+looked forward, and hated anything like retrospection: he never
+mentioned either his father or his mother; perhaps he was not
+personally acquainted with them. All I could collect from him at
+intervals was, that he served in a collier from South Shields, and
+that a few months after his apprenticeship was out, he found
+himself one fine morning on board of a man-of-war, having been
+picked up in a state of unconsciousness, and hoisted up the side
+without his knowledge or consent. Some people may infer from this
+that he was at the time tipsy; he never told me so; all he said
+was, "Why, Jack, the fact is when they picked me up I was quite
+altogether <i>non pompus</i>." I also collected at various times
+the following facts&mdash;that he was put into the mizzentop, and
+served three years in the West Indies; that he was transferred to
+the maintop, and served five years in the Mediterranean; that he
+was made captain of the foretop, and sailed six years in the East
+Indies; and, at last, was rated captain's coxswain in the "Druid"
+frigate, attached to the Channel fleet cruising during the peace.
+Having thus condensed the genealogical and chronological part of
+this history, I now come to a portion of it in which it will be
+necessary that I should enter more into detail.</p>
+<p>The frigate in which my father eventually served as captain's
+coxswain was commanded by a Sir Hercules Hawkingtrefylyan, Baronet.
+He was very poor and very proud, for baronets were not so common in
+those days. He was a very large man, standing six feet high, and
+with what is termed a considerable <i>bow-window</i> in front; but
+at the same time portly in his carriage. He wore his hair well
+powdered, exacted the utmost degree of ceremony and respect, and
+considered that even speaking to one of his officers was paying
+them a very high compliment: as for being asked to his table, there
+were but few who could boast of having had that honor, and even
+those few perhaps not more than once in the year. But he was, as I
+have said, very poor; and moreover he was a married man, which
+reminds me that I must introduce his lady, who, as the ship was on
+Channel service, had lodgings at the port near to which the frigate
+was stationed, and occasionally came on board to take a passage
+when the frigate changed her station to the eastward or to the
+westward. Lady Hercules, as we were directed to call her by Sir
+Hercules, was as large in dimensions, and ten times more proud than
+her husband. She was an excessive fine lady in every respect; and
+whenever she made her appearance on board, the ship's company
+looked upon her with the greatest awe. She had a great dislike to
+ships and sailors; officers she seldom condescended to notice; and
+pitch and tar were her abomination. Sir Hercules himself submitted
+to her dictation; and, had she lived on board, she would have
+commanded the ship: fortunately for the service, she was always
+very seasick when she was taking a passage, and therefore did no
+mischief. "I recollect," said my father to me, "once when we were
+running down to Portsmouth, where we had been ordered for
+provisions, that my Lady Hercules, who was no fool of a weight,
+being one night seasick in her cot, the lanyard of the cot gave
+way, and she came down with a run by the head. The steward was
+called by the sentry, and there was a terrible shindy. I, of
+course, was sent for, as I had the hanging up of the cot. There was
+Sir Hercules with his shirt flapping in the wind, and a blanket
+over his shoulders, strutting about in a towering passion; there
+was the officer of the watch, who had been sent for by mistake, and
+who was ordered to quit the cabin immediately; and there was I,
+expecting to be put in irons, and have seven dozen for my
+breakfast. As for Sir Hercules, he didn't know what to do; he did
+nothing but storm at everybody, for my lady, with her head under
+the clothes, was serving him out at no small rate. She wouldn't,
+she declared, allow any man to come into the cabin to hoist her up
+again. So indecent, so indelicate, so shocking&mdash;she was
+ashamed of Sir Hercules&mdash;to send for the men; if they didn't
+leave the cabin immediately, she'd scream and she'd
+faint&mdash;that she would&mdash;there was no saying what she
+wouldn't do! Well, there we waited just outside until at last Sir
+Hercules and my lady came to a parley. She was too sick to get out
+of bed, and he was not able to hoist her up without assistance; so
+being, as I suppose, pretty well tired of lying with her head three
+feet lower than her heels, she consented, provided that she was
+properly kivered up, to allow us to come in and put all to rights.
+Well, first she made Sir Hercules throw over her his two boat
+cloaks, but that wouldn't do; so he threw the green cloth from off
+the table, but that warn't enough for her delicate sensibility, and
+she hollowed from under the clothes for more kivering; so Sir
+Hercules sent for two of the ship's ensigns, and coiled away the
+bunting on her till it was as high as a haycock, and then we were
+permitted to come in and hoist her ladyship up again to the
+battens. Fortunately it was not a slippery hitch that had let her
+down by the run, but the lanyard had given way from my lady's own
+weight, so my back was not scratched after all. Women ain't no good
+on board, Jack, that's sartain."</p>
+<p>But I must now introduce a more important personage than even
+Lady Hercules, which is my mother. They say "like master, like
+man," and I may add, "like lady, like maid." Lady Hercules was
+fine, but her maid was still finer. Most people when they write
+their biography, if their parents were poor, inform you that they
+left them a good name and nothing else. Some parents cannot even do
+that; but all parents can at all events leave their children a
+<i>pretty</i> name, by taking a little trouble at their baptism. My
+mother's name was Araminta, which, as my father truly observed, was
+"a touch above the common." She had originally gone into service as
+a nursery maid, living in her first situation one year and nine
+months; in her second she remained two years and four months; then
+she left to <i>better</i> herself, and obtained the situation of
+nurse in a family where she remained two years and one month; after
+which Lady Hercules then having a child of a year old, she was
+received into her service. At three years old the child died, and
+my mother was promoted to the situation of lady's maid. This
+advancement quite spoiled her; she was prouder than her mistress,
+and gave herself ten times more airs, and when, at first, my father
+(who as coxswain was constantly up at the house) offered to speak
+to her, she turned away from him in most ineffable disdain. Now my
+father was at that time about thirty years of age, and thought no
+small beer of himself, as the saying goes. He was a tall, handsome
+man, indeed, so good-looking that they used to call him "Handsome
+Jack" on board of the "Druid," and he had, moreover, a pigtail of
+most extraordinary size and length, of which he was not a little
+proud, as it hung down far below the waistband of his trousers. His
+hair was black and glossy, and his lovelocks, as the sailors term
+the curls which they wear on their temples, were of the most
+insinuating description. Now, as my father told me, when he first
+saw my mother with her sky-scraping cap at the back of her head, so
+different from the craft in general, he was very much inclined to
+board her; but when she boomed him off in that style, my father,
+who was quite the rage and fancy man among the ladies of Sally Port
+and Castle Rag, hauled his wind in no time, hitching up his white
+trousers and turning short round on his heel so as to present his
+back to her whenever they happened to meet. For a long time he gave
+her a wide berth. Now this fact of my father returning her disdain
+had the usual effect. At first she was very savage, and when she
+spoke of him to Lady Hercules, she designated him as "that proud
+coxswain, who seemed to think himself a greater man than Sir
+Hercules himself&mdash;with his filthy pigtail, indeed!" My father
+also, when he spoke of her to the boat's crew, termed her "that
+proud &mdash;&mdash; of a lady's maid," the word not mentionable
+being both canine and feminine. Thus matters went on for some time,
+until my mother, by a constant survey of my father's handsome
+proportions, every day thought him to be a more proper man, and a
+few advances on her part at last brought them to a mutual
+understanding.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus013.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWO" id="CHAPTER_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>My Father does what most Sailors do&mdash;he makes a foolish
+Marriage, one of the Consequences of which is brought to Light at
+the End of the Chapter.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I have observed at the finale of my first chapter, that at last
+my mother and father came to a good understanding; but at the same
+time Madam Araminta (for so my mother insisted upon being called)
+took good care to let my father understand that she considered that
+she was lowering herself by surrendering up her charms to a
+captain's coxswain. She informed him that her father might be said
+to have been royally connected, being a king's messenger (and so,
+indeed, he might be considered, having been a twopenny postman),
+and that her mother had long scores against the first nobles in the
+land (she was a milk-woman), and that she had dry-nursed a young
+baronet, and was now not merely a ladies' maid, but a <i>lady's</i>
+laides' maid. All this important and novel communication sunk deep
+in my father's mind, and when he heard it he could hardly believe
+his good fortune in having achieved such a conquest; but, as the
+sequel will prove, his marriage did not turn out very happily. He
+used to say to me, "Jack, take my advice, and never marry above
+your condition as I did; nothing would please me but a <i>lady's
+ladies'</i> maid; I had no right to look up to even a
+<i>ladies'</i> maid, and had your mother only been a simple maid,
+all might have been right." But these were after-reflections when
+it was too late. I do not wonder at my poor father's senses being
+dazzled, for, as he said to me, "You see, Jack, after being used to
+see nothing but Point women, all so slack in stays and their
+rigging out of order, to fall aboard of a craft like your mother,
+so trim and neat, ropes all taut, stays well set up, white
+hammock-cloths spread every day in the week, and when under way,
+with a shawl streaming out like a silk ensign, and such a rakish
+gaff topsail bonnet, with pink pennants; why, it was for all the
+world as if I was keeping company with a tight little frigate after
+rolling down channel with a fleet of colliers; but, howsomever,
+fine feathers don't make fine birds, and handsome is as handsome
+does."</p>
+<p>My father's marriage was, however, precipitated by
+circumstances. One afternoon, after he had been accepted, he had
+taken his quid out of his cheek, wiped his mouth with the back of
+his hand, and was in the act of giving and receiving a chaste
+salute, when Lady Hercules happened to come down into the
+kitchen&mdash;a most rare occurrence, and wholly unexpected from a
+lady of her refined and delicate ideas. She caught my father and
+mother in the very act; and (as my father expressed it) with an
+exclamation of horror, "She 'bout ship, and sculled upstairs like
+winkin'." A loud peal of the bell summoned up my mother, leaving my
+father in a state of no pleasant suspense, for he was calculating
+how far Sir Hercules could bring in "kissing a lady's ladies' maid"
+under the article of war as "contempt of superiors," and, if so,
+how many dozen kisses his back might receive from the cat in
+return. While he was absorbed in this pleasing speculation, Lady
+Hercules was pouring out anathemas against my mother's want of
+delicacy and decency, informing her that it was impossible she
+could submit the decoration of her person to one who has so
+contaminated herself with a tobacco-chewing seaman&mdash;who was
+all pigtail within and without; for, as the Scripture says, "Who
+can touch pitch without being defiled?"</p>
+<p>Although my mother had made up her mind that if it was to be a
+question between a place and a husband, she should decide upon
+retaining the latter, still she thought it advisable, if it were
+possible, to conciliate my lady. She therefore pulled out a cambric
+handkerchief, and while her ladyship scolded, she covered up her
+face and wept. Lady Hercules continued to scold until she was out
+of breath, and thereby compelled to stop. My mother then replied,
+with deep humility and many tears, "that indeed she had been so
+persuaded (sob) that she at last promised to (sob) marry; but only
+on one condition&mdash;yes, indeed&mdash;(sob) that her ladyship
+gave her consent&mdash;positively on no other (sob)&mdash;no,
+indeed, upon her honor! Mr. Saunders
+was&mdash;(sob)&mdash;excellent young man&mdash;(sob), so attached
+to Sir Hercules (sob), and had such a great respect for her
+ladyship, that&mdash;(sob&mdash;sob&mdash;sob)&mdash;he had won her
+heart."</p>
+<p>By this time her ladyship had regained her breath, and she
+interrupted my mother by pointing out to her, that allowing all she
+said to be correct, yet still that was no reason why she should
+allow such indecent liberties; that Sir Hercules had never obtained
+such favors from her until after the ring had been put on her
+finger. Then, indeed, such things might be&mdash;that is,
+occasionally; but the kitchen of all places!&mdash;And, besides,
+how did she know how many wives the coxswain had already? She
+shouldn't be surprised, if, with that long pigtail of his, he had
+five at least&mdash;nay, perhaps, six or seven. Here my mother
+replied that "it was out of gratitude to her (sob) for having
+consented to permit him to (sob) speak to Sir Hercules (sob), who
+would plead with her ladyship (sob), which had occasioned Mr.
+Saunders (sob) to take&mdash;such&mdash;a&mdash;liberty
+(sob&mdash;sob&mdash;sob)&mdash;which he had never&mdash;done
+before&mdash;(sob)&mdash;No!&mdash;never&mdash;upon her
+honor&mdash;never!&mdash;" And here my mother's sobs choked her
+utterance.</p>
+<p>This explanation somewhat pacified, and a little subsequent
+humility and flattery gained the mistress, who consented to settle
+the matter with Sir Hercules, alleging, as one principal reason for
+so doing, that after the familiarity which had taken place between
+them, the sooner they were married the better. The wishes of her
+ladyship were tantamount to commands. Sir Hercules pronounced my
+father to be a fool, and they were married.</p>
+<p>My mother was a good-looking person, perhaps two or three years
+older than my father; she was of a very bad temper, very vindictive
+and revengeful, and in every way she had a pleasure in annoying
+other people, and when she succeeded she invariably concluded her
+remarks with, "There&mdash;now you're vexed!" Whenever out of humor
+herself from the observations of others, she attempted to conceal
+her vexation by singing; and having been so many years of her life
+in the nursery, her songs were usually those little ditties used to
+pacify or amuse children in arms. "Saunders," she would cry out,
+"if you aren't the biggest fool that ever walked on two
+legs&mdash;to look at that long tail of yours you're so proud of,
+one would think I'd married a monkey&mdash;a
+<i>hourang-howtang</i>, instead of a man. There&mdash;now you're
+vexed! One can't open one's mouth." My mother knew where to strike;
+and this attack upon his pigtail was certain to provoke my father,
+who would retort in no measured language, till she, in her turn,
+lost her temper, and then out she would sing, in a sort of
+scream&mdash;</p>
+<p><span style="margin-left: 5em;">"Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and
+the fiddle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">The cow jumped over the moon,"
+etc.</span></p>
+<p>And thus she continued to sing (or squeal) until her wrath
+cooled down.</p>
+<p>The consequences of forming a matrimonial alliance with a
+captain's coxswain soon became visible. Six months after they had
+been married, Lady Hercules pronounced my mother's appearance to be
+quiet indecent, and declared her no longer fit for the office of
+lady's maid to a lady of her exquisite delicacy; and my mother, who
+became less active every day, received notice to quit, which she
+did, when her month was up, in great wrath, packing up her boxes,
+and slamming the door as she left the house, singing at the very
+highest pitch of her voice,</p>
+<p>"Dickory, dickory, dock; the mouse ran up the clock," etc.</p>
+<p>My father wished her to come and live with him on board the
+frigate; but to that my mother would not consent, saying that she
+had, it was true, degraded herself and her family by marrying a
+coxswain, but she was not going to further contaminate herself by
+mixing with the vulgar creatures on board. In this resolve I think
+my mother was right; but her dismissal and disgrace was followed up
+by my father being disrated and turned into the maintop, for no
+other reason in the world than such being the will and pleasure of
+Lady Hercules.</p>
+<p>Her ladyship considered that she had lost a good servant through
+my father's intervention; and having therefore taken a dislike to
+him, did not choose that he should, as coxswain, come up to the
+house as usual; and, as he no longer did the duty of coxswain, she
+asserted that he was not entitled to the rating. Thus, seven months
+had hardly passed away before my father's marriage became a source
+of vexation and annoyance; his pay was decreased, and he was no
+longer a petty officer. My mother's pride was hurt; and if she was
+resolute in not going on board to remain with him when he was
+captain's coxswain, she was still more so now that he was reduced
+to a common seaman. As for my father, he was the picture of
+misery&mdash;he had no consolation except turning his quid and
+tying his pigtail.</p>
+<p>But everything changes in this world, and among other changes
+was that of the station of the frigate, which was ordered foreign.
+Sir Hercules took leave of his lady, who retired to Tunbridge
+Wells. My father took leave of my mother, who retired to Woolwich.
+She had saved some money in service, and my father handed over to
+her all the pay which he received, when the ship's company were
+paid previous to the sailing of the ship. It is but justice to
+observe that the moment he was out of soundings and away from the
+influence of her ladyship, Sir Hercules reinstated my father, and
+gave him back his rating as coxswain. My father was indeed the
+smartest and best seaman in the ship; he could do his work from
+stem to stern&mdash;mouse a stay, pudding an anchor, and pass a
+gammoning, as well as he could work a Turk's head, cover a manrope,
+or point a lashing for the cabin table. Besides which, he had seen
+service, having fought under Rodney, and served at the siege of
+Gibraltar.</p>
+<p>But I must return to my mother, who, when she first went to
+Woolwich, which she did in a transport that was ordered round, took
+lodgings in the outskirts of the town; and not wishing to
+acknowledge that she had married a common sailor, as she supposed
+my father still to be, asserted that she was the wife of a captain
+of a merchant vessel, which had been taken up as a transport to
+convey troops to the West Indies. On this supposition, being
+received into a society above her real station, she was compelled
+to spend more money than she could afford, and her finances rapidly
+wasted away. In the meantime I was born&mdash;a fine baby, but with
+nothing to look up to but a penniless mother, an absent (if
+existing) father, the workhouse, and the sky.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus020.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THREE" id="CHAPTER_THREE"></a>CHAPTER
+THREE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which my Mother proves herself a tender Wife, and at the same
+time shows her Patriotism and Devotion to her Country.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I had almost unconsciously arrived at the age of two years
+before there were any tidings of my father. All the information
+that my mother could obtain was, that the ship's company of the
+"Druid" had been turned over to another frigate called the
+"Melpomene," the former having been declared not seaworthy, and in
+consequence condemned and broken up at Port Royal.</p>
+<p>But no letter had been received from my father, who indeed was
+not much of a scholar; he could read, but he could not write. By
+this time my mother's savings were expended, and she was in great
+tribulation lest the deceit she had practiced should be exposed.
+Indeed, there were already many surmises as to the truth of her
+story, it being so long that her husband had been absent. At last,
+when she had changed her only remaining guinea, a letter arrived
+from my father, dated from Portsmouth, stating that the ship was to
+be paid off in a few days, and then "he would clap on all sail and
+be on board of his old woman in no time."</p>
+<p>My mother, although not a little disgusted at being called an
+old woman&mdash;an affront which she determined to revenge upon a
+more fitting occasion&mdash;was in raptures with the contents of
+the letter. She therefore returned a kind answer, informing my
+father what a promising child he was blessed with, and giving him a
+direction to meet her at Greenwich, as she had resolved upon not
+receiving him at Woolwich, where her false assertions would have
+been exposed. Going round to all her acquaintances, she bade them
+farewell, telling them that her husband had returned well, and
+<i>well to-do</i>, and had ordered her to meet him at Greenwich.
+Having thus satisfactorily, as she imagined, got out of this little
+difficulty, she packed up and hastened to Greenwich, where she sunk
+her assumed rank and waited very impatiently for her husband. He
+came at last, seated with many others on the outside of a stage
+coach&mdash;his hat bedecked with ribbons, a pipe in one hand and
+flourishing a pewter pot in the other. It hardly need be added that
+he was more than half tipsy. Nevertheless, even in this state, he
+was well received; and after he had smothered her with kisses,
+dandled me on his knee, thrown into her lap all the pay he had
+left, and drank three more pots of porter, they went very peaceably
+and lovingly to repose.</p>
+<p>I regret to say that this amity did not last long. My father's
+manners, which perhaps had been softened down by the awe which he
+had of Lady Hercules when he first made my mother's acquaintance,
+were now more coarse, and so was his language; and the neatness and
+cleanliness of person which he was obliged to maintain while
+performing the duties of a coxswain to a married captain were not
+so observable. Besides which, being no longer under discipline, he
+was almost every night intoxicated; and, being so, was more
+self-willed and regardless of his wife's injunctions. The
+consequences were that having received from my father fifty pounds,
+my mother first locked that up, and then "unlocked her jaw."
+Disputes were now hourly occurring; and it was "now you're vexed,"
+and "hey diddle diddle," from morning till night.</p>
+<p>My father would repair to the grog-shops to have a dance and
+carouse with his messmates, and my mother would not accompany him
+to such a vulgar place; consequently he went alone, was out very
+late, coming home very drunk, if indeed he came home at all.
+Moreover, the wives and companions of the other seamen would insult
+her when she walked out, for pretending to be better than they
+were.</p>
+<p>One day when she was walking out arm-in-arm with my father,
+unluckily she was met by one of her Woolwich acquaintances. This
+was the severest stroke of all, as she had intended to return to
+Woolwich; but now she was discovered, and avoided by one party, as
+well as insulted by the other. I cannot defend my mother's conduct;
+nor indeed was she deserving of pity, as her treatment had been
+brought about by her own folly and pride. The effect of all this
+was, however, that of souring her temper still more; and the
+constant vituperation poured out upon my father so roused his
+indignation that one evening, when more than usually intoxicated,
+the "lady's ladies' maid" received such a severe box on the ear
+that the one candle turned to a general illumination. This blow was
+never forgotten nor forgiven, although my father was very sorry for
+it, and begged her pardon the next day, with promises of
+amendment.</p>
+<p>Just at this time the French Revolution commenced, and there was
+expectation of a war with France; the press-gangs were ordered out,
+and the seamen, aware of it, remained concealed until they should
+leave the town. But my mother had made up her mind. She found out
+an officer who commanded one of the press-gangs, gave her address,
+and, having supplied my father with spirits until he was stupefied,
+she let in the gang, and before morning my father was safe on board
+of the tender lying off the Tower. This treachery on her part my
+father did not discover until some time afterward; and it was the
+occasion of a scene between them, as I shall hereafter show. The
+next day my mother went on board of the tender to visit my father,
+put her cambric handkerchief to her eyes, pressed his hand between
+the iron bars, and lamented <i>his</i> hard fate, and <i>her</i>
+hard fate; but when requested by him to smuggle a little liquor in
+a bladder to comfort him with, she tossed up her head, and declared
+"that nothing could induce her to do anything so ungenteel."
+Whereupon my father turned away, lamenting the day that ever he had
+married a lady's ladies' maid.</p>
+<p>A day or two afterward my mother brought my father his kit of
+clothes, and two pounds of his own money. As a war was expected, my
+mother would have persuaded my father to give her his "will and
+power" to receive his prize money; but my father, grown
+comparatively wiser, positively refused. He turned away on his
+heel, and they parted.</p>
+<p>I shall, for the present, leave my father to his fortunes, and
+follow those of my mother. Convinced by his refusal to sign the
+deed, which she had brought ready prepared with her, that she had
+little in future to expect from my father, and aware probably of
+the risk incurred by a seaman from "battle, fire, and wreck," she
+determined this time to husband her resources, and try if she could
+not do something for herself. At first she thought of going again
+into service and putting me out to nurse; but she discovered that
+my father's return was not without its consequences, and that she
+was again to be a mother. She therefore hired rooms in Fisher's
+Alley, a small street still existing in Greenwich, and indeed still
+a general thoroughfare. Here, in due time, she was brought to bed
+of a daughter, whom she christened by the name of Virginia; not so
+much out of respect to her last mistress, who bore that name, as
+because she considered it peculiarly ladylike and genteel.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus025.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOUR" id="CHAPTER_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which I tell the Reader all I can recollect about myself, and
+moreover prove the Truth of the old Adage, "That it is a wise Child
+who knows its own Father".</p>
+</div>
+<p>My readers must not expect me to tell them much of what passed
+during the first four years of my existence. I have a recollection
+of a deal board put at the door of our house, which opened into
+Fisher's Alley, to prevent me, and afterward my sister, from
+crawling out. Fisher's Alley is a very narrow street, and what was
+said in a room on one side of it can be heard on the other, and I
+used to hang over the board and listen. There were drunken men and
+drunken women, and occasionally scolding and fighting. My mother,
+having made up her mind to be saving, had taken a lease of the
+house and furnished it; and every day I heard her saying at the
+door, "Walk in, gentlemen; I've a nice clean room and boiling hot
+water"&mdash;for the seamen used to come in to take tea, drink, and
+smoke; and so did the old pensioners occasionally, for my mother
+had made acquaintance with several of them. I was always very
+ragged and dirty, for my mother neglected and ill-treated me. As
+soon as my sister was born she turned all her affections over to
+Virginia, who was always very much petted, well dressed, and a very
+beautiful child.</p>
+<p>All this I recollect, but little more, except that my mother
+gave me several beatings for calling my sister "Jenny," which I had
+learned to do from others who knew her; but when my mother heard
+them, she was always very angry, and told them that her child had
+not such a vulgar name; at which many would laugh, and make a point
+of calling out "Jenny" to Virginia whenever they passed and saw her
+at the door. When I was a little more than four years old I would
+climb over the board, for I had no pleasure at home. As I grew
+older I used to hasten down to the landing-steps on the beach,
+where the new inn called the Trafalgar now stands, and watch the
+tide as it receded, and pick up anything I could find, such as bits
+of wood and oakum; and I would wonder at the ships which lay in the
+stream, and the vessels sailing up and down. I would sometimes
+remain out late to look at the moon and the lights on board of the
+vessels passing; and then I would turn my eyes to the stars, and
+repeat the lines which I had heard my mother teach little Virginia
+to lisp:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Pretty little twinkling star,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">How I wonder what you
+are;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">All above the earth so
+high,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Like a diamond in the
+sky;"</span></p>
+<p>and when I did stay out late I was sure of having no supper, and
+very often a good beating; and then Virginia would wake and cry,
+because my mother beat me, for we were fond of each other. And my
+mother used to take Virginia on her knee, and make her say her
+prayers every night; but she never did so to me; and I used to hear
+what Virginia said, and then go into a corner and repeat it to
+myself. I could not imagine why Virginia should be taught to pray
+and that I should not.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus028.jpg" id="illus028.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus028.jpg"><img src="images/thumb028.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>FISHER'S ALLEY.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X. p. 27.</b><br /></div>
+<p>As I said before, my mother let lodgings, and kept the
+ground-floor front room for people to drink tea and smoke in; and I
+used to take my little stool and sit at the knees of the pensioners
+who came in, and hear all their stories, and try to make out what
+they meant, for half was to me incomprehensible; and I brought them
+fire for their pipes, and ran messages. Old Ben the Whaler, as they
+called him, was the one who took most notice of me, and said that I
+should be a man one of these days, which I was very glad to hear
+then. And I made a little boat for my sister, which cost me a great
+deal of trouble and labor; and Ben helped me to paint it, and I
+gave it to Virginia, and she and I were both so pleased; but when
+my mother saw it, she threw it into the fire, saying it was "so
+ungenteel," and we both cried; and old Ben was very angry, and said
+something to my mother, which made her sing "High diddle diddle"
+for the whole day afterward.</p>
+<p>Such are the slight reminiscences, which must content the
+reader, of my early existence.</p>
+<p>When I was eight years old (about six years after his last
+visit), my father made his appearance; and then, for the first
+time, I knew that my father was alive, for I was but two years old
+when he left, and I remembered nothing about him, and I had never
+heard my mother mention his name as if he still existed.</p>
+<p>My father came in one day very unexpectedly, for he had given no
+notice of his return; and it so happened that as he came in, my
+mother was beating me with the frying-pan, for having dipped my
+finger in the grease in which she had been frying some slices of
+bacon. She was very angry, and as she banged me with it, Virginia
+was pulling at her skirts, crying and begging her to desist, "You
+little wretch," cried my mother, "you'll be just such a sea-monster
+as your father was&mdash;little wulgar animal, you must put your
+finger into the frying-pan, must you? There, now you've got it." So
+saying, she put down the frying-pan, and commenced singing as loud
+as she could, "Hush-a-by, baby, Pussy's a lady." "Ay, now you're
+vexed, I dare say," continued she, as she walked into the back
+kitchen.</p>
+<p>All this time my father had been at the door looking on, which
+she had not perceived. My father then came in. "What's your name,
+my lad?" said he.</p>
+<p>"Tommy Saunders," replied I, rubbing myself; for the frying-pan
+was very hot, and my trousers very much out of repair.</p>
+<p>"And who is that little girl?" said he.</p>
+<p>"That's my sister Virginia&mdash;but," continued I, "who are
+you? Do you want my mother?"</p>
+<p>"Not very particularly just now," said my father, taking up my
+sister and kissing her, and then patting me on the head.</p>
+<p>"Do you want any beer or 'baccy?" said I. "I'll run and get you
+some, if you give me the money, and bring back your change all
+right."</p>
+<p>"Well, so you shall, Jack, my boy," replied he; and he gave me a
+shilling. I soon returned with the pipes, tobacco, and beer, and
+offered him the change, which he told me to keep, to buy apples
+with. Virginia was on the knee of my father, who was coaxing and
+caressing her, and my mother had not yet returned from the back
+kitchen. I felt naturally quite friendly toward a man who had given
+me more money than I ever possessed in my life; and I took my stool
+and sat beside him; while, with my sister on his knee, and his
+porter before him, my father smoked his pipe.</p>
+<p>"Does your mother often beat you, Jack?" said my father, taking
+the pipe out of his mouth.</p>
+<p>"Yes, when I does wrong," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Oh! only when you do wrong&mdash;eh?"</p>
+<p>"Well, she says I do wrong; so I suppose I do."</p>
+<p>"You're a good boy," replied my father. "Does she ever beat you,
+dear?" said he to Virginia.</p>
+<p>"Oh, no!" interrupted I; "she never beats sister, she loves her
+too much; but she don't love me."</p>
+<p>My father puffed away, and said no more.</p>
+<p>I must inform the reader that my father's person was very much
+altered from what I have described it to have been at the
+commencement of this narrative. He was now a boatswain's mate, and
+wore a silver whistle hung round his neck by a lanyard, and with
+which little Virginia was then playing. He had grown more burly in
+appearance, spreading, as sailors usually do, when they arrive to
+about the age of forty; and, moreover, he had a dreadful scar from
+a cutlass wound, received in boarding, which had divided the whole
+left side of his face, from the eyebrow to the chin. This gave him
+a very fierce expression; still he was a fine-looking man, and his
+pigtail had grown to a surprising length and size. His ship, as I
+afterward found out, had not been paid off, but he had obtained a
+fortnight's leave of absence, while she was refitting. We were all
+very sociable together, without there being the least idea, on the
+part of my sister and myself, with whom we were in company, when in
+rolled old Ben the Whaler.</p>
+<p>"Sarvice to you," said Ben, nodding to my father. "Tommy, get me
+a pipe of 'baccy."</p>
+<p>"Here's pipe and 'baccy too, messmate," replied my father. "Sit
+down, and make yourself comfortable, old chap."</p>
+<p>"Won't refuse a good offer," replied Ben, "been too long in the
+sarvice for that&mdash;and you've seen sarvice, too, I think,"
+continued Ben, looking my father full in the face.</p>
+<p>"Chop from a French officer," replied my father; after a pause,
+he added, "but he didn't live to tell of it."</p>
+<p>Ben took one of the offered pipes, filled, and was soon very
+busy puffing away, alongside of my father.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus032.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIVE" id="CHAPTER_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>My Father and Mother meet after an absence of Six
+Years&mdash;She discovers that he is no longer a Coxswain but a
+Boatswain's Mate.</p>
+</div>
+<p>While my father and Ben are thus engaged, I will give the reader
+a description of the latter.</p>
+<p>Ben was a very tall, broad-shouldered old fellow, but stooping a
+little from age. I should think he must have been at least sixty,
+if not more; still he was a powerful, sinewy man. His nose, which
+was no small one, had been knocked on one side, as he told me, by
+the flukes (<i>i.e.</i>, tail) of a whale, which cut in half a boat
+of which he was steersman. He had a very large mouth, with very few
+teeth in it, having lost them by the same accident; which, to use
+his own expression, had at the time "knocked his figure-head all to
+smash." He had sailed many years in the whale fisheries, had at
+last been pressed, and served as quartermaster on board of a
+frigate for eight or nine years, when his ankle was broken by the
+rolling of a spar in a gale of wind. He was in consequence
+invalided for Greenwich. He walked stiff on this leg, and usually
+supported himself with a thick stick. Ben had noticed me from the
+time that my mother first came to Fisher's Alley. He was the friend
+of my early days, and I was very much attached to him.</p>
+<p>A minute or two afterward my father pushed the pot of porter to
+him. Ben drank, and then said:</p>
+<p>"Those be nice children, both on 'em&mdash;I know them
+well."</p>
+<p>"And what kind of a craft is the mother?" replied my father.</p>
+<p>"Oh! why, she's a little queer at times&mdash;she's always so
+mighty particular about gentility."</p>
+<p>"Do you know why?" replied my father.</p>
+<p>Ben shook his head.</p>
+<p>"Then I'll tell you: because she was once a lady's ladies'
+maid."</p>
+<p>"Well," replied Ben, "I don't understand much about titles and
+nobility, and those sort of things; but I'm sorry she's gone down
+in the world, for though a little particular about gentility, she's
+a good sort of woman in her way, and keeps up her character, and
+earns an honest livelihood."</p>
+<p>"So much the better for her," replied my father, who refilled
+his pipe and continued to smoke in silence.</p>
+<p>My mother had gone into the back kitchen to wash, which was the
+cause (not having been summoned) of her being so long absent.</p>
+<p>Virginia, who had become quite sociable, was passing her little
+fingers through my father's large whiskers, while he every now and
+then put his pipe out of his mouth to kiss her. I had the
+porter-pot on my knees, my father having told me to take a swig,
+when my mother entered the room.</p>
+<p>"Well, Mr. Benjamin, I shouldn't wonder&mdash;but&mdash;Oh!
+mercy, it's he!" cried my mother. "Oh! be
+quick&mdash;sal-wolatily!"</p>
+<p>"Sail who? What the devil does she mean?" said my father, rising
+up and putting my sister off his knee.</p>
+<p>"I never heard of her," replied Ben, also getting up; "but
+Mistress Saunders seems taken all aback, anyhow. Jack, run and
+fetch a bucket of water!"</p>
+<p>"Jack, stay where you are," cried my mother, springing from the
+chair on which she had thrown herself. "Oh, dear me! the shock was
+so sudden&mdash;I'm so flustered. Who'd have thought to have seen
+you?"</p>
+<p>"Are you her brother?" inquired Ben.</p>
+<p>"No; but I'm her husband," replied my father.</p>
+<p>"Well, it's the first time I've heard that she had one&mdash;but
+I'll be off, for Mistress Saunders is too genteel to kiss, I see,
+before company." Ben then took up his stick and left the house.</p>
+<p>It may be as well here to remark that during his absence my
+father had fallen in with one of the men who had been employed in
+the press-gang. From him he learned that a woman had given the
+information by which he was taken. He made the man, who was present
+when my mother called upon the officer, describe her person, and
+the description in every point was so accurate that my father had
+no doubt in his mind but that it was my mother who had betrayed
+him. This knowledge had for years rankled in his breast, and he had
+come home, not only from a wish to see how things were going on,
+but to reproach my mother with her treachery.</p>
+<p>Whether my mother's conscience smote her, or that she perceived
+by my father's looks that a squall was brewing, I know not; but as
+soon as Ben had left the house, she shut the street-door that the
+neighbors might not hear. Having so done, she turned to my father,
+who had resumed his seat and his pipe.</p>
+<p>"Well," said she, putting her apron to her eyes, "you have been
+away a good six years, and left me to get on how I could with these
+two poor orphanless children."</p>
+<p>"You know best why I went," replied my father, "and by whose
+means I was walked off in such a hurry."</p>
+<p>"Me?" replied my mother.</p>
+<p>"Yes, you," responded my father.</p>
+<p>"Well, what next?" cried she.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you what next," said my father, rising, and taking
+about eighteen inches of inch-and-a-half rope out of his pocket,
+"Look you, ma'am, when I first found out that it was by your
+peaching that I was sent on board of the tender, I made up this
+colt, and I vowed that I would keep it in my pocket till I served
+you out. Now the time's come."</p>
+<p>Here my father flourished his rope's end. My mother would have
+flown to the door, but my father was beforehand with her; he turned
+the key, and, to the astonishment of Virginia and me, he seized my
+mother, and, holding her at arm's length, gave her several
+blows&mdash;not severe ones, I must acknowledge, indeed, they could
+not have hurt her.</p>
+<p>"There," said my father, "it's well for you, my Lady's ladies'
+maid, that I did not fall in with you when I first made up this
+colt; and it's well for you that I've heard a good character of you
+from the old chap who has just now left the house, or you'd have
+smarted for the false trick you played upon me. Howsomever, I've
+kept my oath, and you may thank your stars that it's not
+worse."</p>
+<p>My mother, who had not uttered a cry during the punishment, but
+only looked very indignant, now that my father had finished his
+speech, and was rolling up his colt to put it in his pocket,
+suddenly threw herself down on the floor, screaming murder with all
+her might. The noise summoned the neighbors&mdash;all Fisher's
+Alley was in an uproar, and our house was besieged with people, who
+attempted to force their way in&mdash;for my mother continued her
+screams, and poor little Virginia became so frightened that she
+also roared as loud as her mother.</p>
+<p>"I've more than two minds," said my father, taking the rope's
+end out of his pocket again; "but howsomever, since you wish it,
+all the world shall know it."</p>
+<p>My father put his colt into his pocket, and went to unlock the
+door. My mother, perceiving what he was about, immediately rose and
+hastened upstairs to her own room. My father then told the
+neighbors what had occurred, and why my mother had been punished,
+and the verdict of Fisher's Alley was, "sarved her right." Ben the
+Whaler, who was outside with the others, espoused my father's
+cause, and as soon as the people dispersed my father invited him to
+join him in his pipe and pot.</p>
+<p>Little Virginia, still terrified, had crept up to her mother. I,
+on the contrary, felt the highest respect for one who could dare to
+punish my mother, who had so often punished me; and the knowledge
+that he was my father inspired me with a feeling of tenderness
+toward him which I could not repress. I was old enough to
+understand why my mother had received such treatment, and I could
+not feel angry with my father; I therefore stayed below, and went
+for the porter as was required.</p>
+<p>I believe that at first it had been my father's intentions to
+have administered a much severer castigation to my mother, and then
+to have left the house, taking me with him, for he had not been
+apprised of the birth of Virginia; but whatever were his intentions
+before he came, or for the morrow, it is certain that he continued
+to smoke and talk with old Ben the Whaler till a very late hour,
+while I sat by and listened.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIX" id="CHAPTER_SIX"></a>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A bright pleasant Evening after a Squall, in which the Art of
+Angling is introduced in a way which would have added to the
+Knowledge of Izaac Walton himself.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"I beg pardon, messmate," said Ben, as he and my father became
+more sociable; "but may I make so bold as to ask you how you
+contrived to get that seam across your figure-head? You did say
+something about a Frenchman, if I heard right; and as the war is
+now of two years' standing, I suppose you've had a rap or two at
+Mounseer."</p>
+<p>"'Xpect I have," replied my father. "Well, old chap, I'll just
+wet my whistle, and then I'll tell you all about it, and it won't
+take long, neither. The boats were ordered away&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Of what ship, messmate?"</p>
+<p>"Very true, I began in the middle. Well, it was in the ship I
+now belongs to, the 'Oudacious'&mdash;we were with the squadron off
+Ferrol; signal made to chase southeast&mdash;clapped every stitch
+on her after two gun-boats who were running down in-shore. Light
+winds&mdash;got well in for the land, and then it fell calm.
+Gun-boats four miles off using their sweeps&mdash;our boats in
+chase&mdash;I was coxswain of the first pinnace&mdash;a devilish
+fast boat, messmate, I can tell you, with a smart brass
+gun&mdash;pulled two feet to their one, and came up with them
+hand-over-hand&mdash;both cutters and the other pinnace well up
+with us&mdash;the old launch half a mile astern. Now you see, sir,
+I've got the picture for you, haven't I?"</p>
+<p>"Just exactly," replied old Ben.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, it was a long pull; and that reminds me that I'll
+have a long pull now, so hand me the porter, messmate." My father
+took a tremendous long pull at the pewter, and then handing it to
+Ben, he recommenced:</p>
+<p>"We were soon within gun-shot, and they turned their heads
+toward us and blazed away: very pretty shot they fired, for they
+cut away three of our starboard oars before we were near enough to
+return the fire with our small gun. However, the second pinnace and
+cutters came up and shared the shot with us; and at last the old
+fat launch came grunting along, for all the world like an old
+board, pitching into them round and grape. Now the first lieutenant
+was in the launch, and, of course, commanded, and he ordered the
+boats to separate more, which was very right, as it divided the
+shot; and then he passed the word that when he sounded the bugle we
+were all to pull to the headmost gun-boat and board her. D'ye
+understand, messmate?"</p>
+<p>"Perfectly," replied Ben, taking his pipe out to reply.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, just hand me the pot." My father drained it this
+time, and told me to go for another.</p>
+<p>"Then I shall lose the story," replied I.</p>
+<p>"No, boy, you won't," replied Ben; "I'll answer for it your
+father will heave-to till you come back."</p>
+<p>"So I will, Jack," replied my father. And having with every
+expedition executed my task, my father then continued:</p>
+<p>"Well, there we all were, waiting for the bugle, each boat
+creeping on a little every moment, so as to have a fair start, as
+they do in a race; when at last the signal was given, and away we
+all went like smoke, with our oars bending double. The first
+pinnace reached the gun-boat first; then the cutters banged
+alongside of her&mdash;all three of us to windward&mdash;while the
+second pinnace and launch took her to leeward. There's not much
+climbing in getting on board of a gun-boat; indeed, we were at it
+before we were out of the boat, for the Frenchmen had pikes as long
+as the spanker-boom; but we soon got inside of their points, and
+came to close work. They stood a good tussle, I will say that, and
+so they always do. We may laugh at 'em, and call 'em Johnny
+Crapows, but they are a right brave nation, if they aren't good
+seamen; but that I reckon's the fault of their lingo, for it's too
+noisy to carry on duty well with, and so they never will be sailors
+till they larn English."</p>
+<p>"I never heard them carry on duty in French," said Ben; "it
+quite beats my comprehension how they can do it at all."</p>
+<p>"Well, I have," replied my father; "and every word they use is
+as long as the maintop bowling, and the mast is over the side
+before they can get them out. Why, would you believe it? I once
+asked one of those fellows what he called the foremast in his
+language, and what d'ye think he said? Why, I'm blowed if he didn't
+call it a <i>'Mar-darty-marng'</i> (and that's the only bit of
+French I know); but how is it possible to work a ship in such
+gibberish?"</p>
+<p>"Quite unpossible," replied Ben.</p>
+<p>"Well, as I've yawed a little out of my course, suppose we have
+another swig before I takes a fresh departure?"</p>
+<p>After they had both drunk, my father proceeded:</p>
+<p>"Well, messmate, I was on the gunnel as soon as the others, and
+a sword came down upon me like a flash of lightning. I had just
+time to lift my cutlass and save my head, and then I found that it
+was the sword of the French lieutenant who commanded the gun-boat.
+He was a, tall, clean-built chap, with curls hanging down like a
+poodle dog's&mdash;every curl not thicker than a rope yarn, and
+mayhap a thousand of them&mdash;and he quite foamed at the mouth
+(that's another fault of these Frenchmen, they don't take things
+coolly, but puts themselves in a passion about nothing); so thinks
+I to myself it won't do for you to go on chopping at that rate, for
+when I fended off he made my whole hand tingle with the force of
+his blow; so I darts at him and drives the hilt of my cutlass right
+into his mouth, and he fell, and his own men trod him underfoot,
+and on we went, hammer and tongs. By this time the boarding of the
+launch and pinnace to leeward, for they could not get up as soon as
+we did, created a divarsion, and bothered the Frenchman, who hardly
+knew which way to turn; however, as there were more of our men on
+the other side, they most on 'em faced about; and the French
+officer was then able to get on his knees again, and while I was
+busy and did not see him he just give me this cut across the
+figure-head, which don't add to my beauty, anyhow. Well, it was cut
+for cut, messmate. I just took one look at the beggar, and I drove
+my cutlass into his skull, just as he was rising up, and he never
+rose again. That's my story."</p>
+<p>"I suppose you took the craft?"</p>
+<p>"Yes; and her consort, too. But many lost the number of their
+mess, and I lost all my beauty. Just hand me the 'baccy, messmate;
+and, Jack, go for the next pot of beer."</p>
+<p>I found them both smoking in silence when I returned; but, after
+a few minutes, my father said, "Messmate, as I have told you how I
+got this chalk, suppose you tell me in return how you got that nose
+of yours fixed so hard a starboard? That's fair play."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so," replied Ben. "Why, d'ye see? I sarved most of my
+early life in the whaling line. I was three voyages to the north;
+but taking the black whale counts for nothing; you must go south
+arter the sparmacitty if you wish to see sport."</p>
+<p>"I never was in that line," replied my father; "but I've heard
+fellows spin the devil's own yarns about it."</p>
+<p>"And so they may, and tell the truth, that's sartain, shipmate.
+You see, the sparmacitty don't take the harpoon quite so quietly as
+the black whale does; he fights hard to the last, and sometimes is
+very free with his jaws. The very large ones are the most easy to
+kill; so we always look out for them when we can, as they give less
+trouble, and more oil; the most dangerous are the half-grown, which
+we call 'forty-barrel bulls,' as that's about what oil we get out
+of them."</p>
+<p>"Well," said my father, "I'm blessed if ever I knew whales were
+called bulls before this night."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that's our term," replied Ben; "and now to my story. We
+were down off the coast of Japan; when, about one hour after
+daybreak, the man looking out at the masthead gave the usual word
+when he sees a whale blowing&mdash;'There she spouts.' And this he
+repeats every time the fish rises. We had a clean hold at the time,
+for we had but just come to our fishing-ground, and we were mighty
+eager. The boats were down in a jiffy, and away we pulled. We were
+within a quarter of a mile of the whale, when, to our
+disappointment, he peaked his flukes&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"What's that, messmate?" inquired my father.</p>
+<p>"Why, you see, it's the right term after all, for the tail of
+sparmacitty is like the flukes of an anchor; and, of course, now
+you understand me."</p>
+<p>"Yes, you mean to say he went down, I suppose."</p>
+<p>"Of course; for how could he go down headforemost, without
+peaking his tail in the air?"</p>
+<p>"One lives and larns as long as one lives," observed my father.
+"Heave ahead again, old boy."</p>
+<p>"Well, as you can't know what you haven't heard anything about,
+I must now tell you that these animals be as regular as the bells
+in a man-of-war; and whenever they goes down to fed, they always
+stays exactly about the time allowed for dinner in a comfortable
+ship; that is, seventy minutes exactly. An hour, you see, is the
+regular time allowed, and the other ten minutes are by favor of the
+officer of the watch, or first lieutenant. We knew that we must
+wait that time for him, so we tossed up our oars, and laid by."</p>
+<p>"I suppose them sparmacitty chaps have a watch in their
+pockets," said my father, smiling.</p>
+<p>"It's a true bill, nevertheless, messmate, and they never alter:
+how and why they keep to their time, the Lord who gave them the
+sense to do so only knows. It is one of the wonders of the deep,
+which they only who go on the great waters can bear witness
+to."</p>
+<p>"It beats my comprehension quite entirely," replied my father;
+"and yet I have seen animals with a great deal of sense. In one
+ship, we had a sheep who would chew tobacco and drink grog. Now go
+ahead again."</p>
+<p>"Well, we had waited about half an hour, when we saw a whiff at
+the masthead of the ship; we knew that it was to direct our
+attention to some other point, so we looked round the horizon, and
+perceived that there was a 'school' of young bulls, about three
+miles from us. We were four boats in all; and the first mate
+desired my boat and another to go in chase of them, while he
+remained with the other two, for this old whale to come up again.
+Well, off we went, and soon came up with the school: they are the
+most awkward part of whale fishing; for they are savage, and,
+moreover, easily 'gallied,' that is, frightened. I picked out one,
+and tried to come up with him; but he was very shy, and at last he
+raised his head clean out of the water, and set off at the rate of
+ten miles an hour; this showed that he was aware of danger. I had
+just thought of giving him up, and trying for another, when he
+suddenly turned round and came right toward the boats. That we knew
+meant mischief; but, in coming toward us, he passed close to the
+other boat and the steersman gave him the harpoon right well into
+him. This made him more savage, and he stood right for my boat,
+plowing up the sea as he rushed on. I was all ready in the bow with
+the harpoon, and the men were all ready with their oars to pull
+back, so as to keep clear of him. On he came, and when his snout
+was within six feet of us we pulled sharp across him; and as we
+went from him, I gave him the harpoon deep into the fin. 'Starn
+all!' was the cry as usual, that we might be clear of him. He
+'sounded' immediately, that is, down he went, headforemost, which
+was what we were afraid of, for you see we had only two hundred
+fathoms of line in each boat; and having both harpoons in him, we
+could not bend one to the other, in case he 'sounded' deep, for
+sometimes they will go down right perpendicular, and take four
+lines, or eight hundred fathoms, with them; so we expected that we
+should this time lose the whale as well as our lines, for when they
+were run out we must either cut or go down with him. Well, the
+lines ran out so swift that we poured water on them that they might
+not fire&mdash;and we thought that it was all over, for the lines
+were two-thirds out, and he was going down as fast as ever, when
+all of a sudden he stopped. We were hauling in the slack lines,
+when we saw him rise again, about a quarter of a mile off. It was a
+hurrah, for we now thought that we had him. Off he set with his
+nose up, right in the wind's eye, towing the two boats at the rate
+of twelve miles an hour; our stems cleaving through the sea, and
+throwing off the water like a plume of feathers on each side of the
+bows, while the sun's rays pierced through the spray and formed
+bright rainbows. We hoped soon to tire him, and to be able to haul
+in upon our lines, so as to get near enough to give him our lances;
+but that was only hope, as you'll hear. Of a sudden, he stopped,
+turned round, and made right for us, with his jaws open; then, all
+we had to do was to balk him, and give him the lance. He did not
+seem to have made up his mind which boat he would attack&mdash;we
+were pretty near together, and he yawed at one, and then at the
+other. At last he made right for the other boat, and the boatsetter
+dodged him very cleverly, while we pulled up to him, and I put the
+lance up to the stock into his side. He made a plunge as if he were
+going to 'sound' again; and as he did so, with his flukes he threw
+our boat into the air a matter of twenty feet, cutting it clean in
+half, and one of the boat's thwarts came right athwart of my nose,
+and it never has been straight since. So now you have it, messmate;
+and I shouldn't mind if you passed the beer this way, for this long
+yarn has made my throat somewhat dry."</p>
+<p>"When you've had your swig, old chap, you may as well tell us
+how the matter ended," observed my father.</p>
+<p>"Why, it just ended in our losing the whale in the first place,
+and the boat with her gear in the second. We were picked up by the
+other boat, and there was no time to be lost, for the sharks were
+brought together by the scent of the whale's blood; the whale
+sounded again, and we were obliged to cut the line and return on
+board. But God bless you, messmate, I could tell you many a longer
+yarn than that, and mayhap I shall some day or another."</p>
+<p>"Well, I hope you will," replied my father; "but your fishing
+story has put me in mind of rather a curious fish, caught by a lad
+on board of a man-of-war; and suppose I finish what's at the bottom
+of this here pot; send Jack for another, and when he comes back,
+I'll tell you all about it."</p>
+<p>"There's nothing gives me more satisfaction," replied Ben, "than
+to pass away the evening in a sober, quiet way, as we are doing
+now, telling and listening to long yarns. Ain't you sleepy,
+Jack?"</p>
+<p>"Oh! no," replied I, "not a bit. I'll run for the porter; and
+don't let father begin till I come back, Ben. The house will be
+shut up soon: shall I get more than a pot?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Jack; but not more beer," replied my father, putting some
+silver into my hand; "get one pot of beer and a bottle of rum.
+We'll have that by way of a nightcap, old boy."</p>
+<p>I ran for the beer and liquor, and was soon back. My father and
+Ben refilled their pipes, and the former commenced as follows:</p>
+<p>"When I was quartermaster on board of the 'Melpomene,' we had an
+old chap for first lieutenant whose name was Fletcher. He was a
+kind-hearted man enough, as he never worried the ship's company
+when there was no occasion; but, at the same time, he was what you
+call a great stickler for duty&mdash;made no allowances for neglect
+or disobedience of orders, although he would wink at any little
+skylarking, walking aft, shutting his eyes, and pretending not to
+see or hear it. His usual phrase was, 'My man, you've got your duty
+to do, and I've got mine.' And this he repeated fifty times a day;
+so at last he went by the name of 'Old Duty.' I think I see him
+now, walking up and down with his spy-glass under his left arm, and
+the hand of the other pushed into his breast, as if he were
+fumbling for a flea. His hat was always split and worn in the
+front, from constantly taking it off, instead of touching it, when
+he came on the quarter-deck; and, as soon as it was too far gone in
+front to raise the purchase off his head, he used to shift it end
+for end, bringing the back part in front, and then he would wear
+it, until, as the Yankees say, it was in 'taterations altogether,'
+and he was forced to bend a new one.</p>
+<p>"Now, we had a boy on board, who entered one day when the
+captain landed at Torquay to dine with a friend. His name was Jack
+Jervis: his father and his whole tribe had been fishermen for as
+long as could be remembered; and Jack himself had been drafted out
+of his cradle into a coble; and there he had continued day and
+night, from one year's end to another, helping his father to
+fish&mdash;so, you see, it had become second nature to him; and,
+after he came on board, his liking for his former calling still
+remained with him, and he never was so happy as when his line was
+overboard, or when he was snooding a hook in some corner or
+another. He went by the name of Jack the Fisherman; and a smart,
+active, willing lad he was, sure enough.</p>
+<p>"Now, there was a little difficulty between Old Duty and Jack
+the Fisherman. Old Duty would not allow the lines to be overboard
+when the ship was in harbor; as he said it was untidy in
+appearance, and that there was always plenty of work, and no time
+for fishing. So Jack hadn't pulled up his line ten or a dozen times
+before he was pulled up himself. 'Whose line's that?' says Old
+Duty. 'Mine, sir,' says Jack, touching his hat. 'I don't allow
+fishing, young man,' said the first lieutenant. 'You understand
+me?&mdash;I don't allow fishing. You've your duty to do, sir, and
+I've got mine.'</p>
+<p>"Jack, who had only been two or three days on board, and who, I
+believe, would never have entered, had he known that there would
+have been such a '<i>weto</i>,' as the boatswain used to call it,
+looked quite astonished, and said&mdash;</p>
+<p>"'What, mayn't I fish, sir?'</p>
+<p>"'No, my man, you must not fish without permission; and that I
+never give in harbor. If I catch you fishing again, you get two
+dozen at the gun, recollect that. You've got your duty to do, and
+I've got mine.'</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack could not give up his habit, so he used to fish at
+night, and all night long, out of the fore-chains; but it so
+happened that the ship's corporal caught Jack in the middle watch,
+and reports him to the first lieutenant.</p>
+<p>"'So, you've been fishing again, sir,' says Old Duty. 'No, sir,'
+replied Jack, 'not fishing&mdash;only laying night lines.'</p>
+<p>"'Oh! that's it,' replied the first lieutenant; 'only laying
+night lines! Pray, what's the difference?'</p>
+<p>"'Please, sir,' said Jack, touching his hat, 'the difference
+is&mdash;that it's not the same thing.'</p>
+<p>"'Well, sir, I see but one difference, and I'll meet it
+accordingly. You've your duty to do, and I've got mine.'</p>
+<p>"The boys' heads and ears having been pulled about and examined
+by the master-at-arms, they were dismissed; and Jack thought that
+he had got off&mdash;but he was mistaken.</p>
+<p>"After the hammocks had been piped down, and it was dark, the
+boys were ordered up by the master-at-arms; Jack was seized to the
+gun, and had his two dozen. 'There, sir,' said Old Duty, as they
+cast the seizings off, 'if fishing at night is not fishing,
+punishment at night is not punishment. Now we're quits. You've your
+duty to do, and I've got mine.'</p>
+<p>"I don't think that Jack perceived any more difference in the
+two dozen at night-time than the first lieutenant did between day
+and night fishing; however, Jack did not fish for some time
+afterward. But it so happened that the first lieutenant was asked
+on shore to dine with the port-admiral; and, although he seldom
+left the ship, he could not refuse such a compliment, and so he
+went. As soon as it was dark, Jack thought his absence too good an
+opportunity not to have a fish; so he goes into the mizzen-chains
+and drops his line. Well, he fished (but I don't know whether he
+caught any) till the boat was hailed in which the first lieutenant
+was coming on board, and then Jack thought it time to haul in his
+line; but, just at that moment, there was a jerk; and Jack, who
+knew that fish was at the bait, could not for the life of him pull
+up his line&mdash;for, you see, he was a fisherman heart and soul;
+so Jack trusted to Providence and the first lieutenant's going down
+below as soon as he came on deck.</p>
+<p>"Now, you see, the ship was lying at the time 'cross the tide,
+the wind blowing against the current: the starboard side (being to
+leeward as to the wind, but to windward as to the tide) had been
+cleared away, and manned for the boat, and Jack made sure that the
+first lieutenant would pull to that side; but he was mistaken.
+Whether it was that the first lieutenant wished to have a look
+round the ship or not, I do not know, but he pulled across the
+bows, and went round the stern, passing the larboard side: as he
+passed, Jack shrunk under the lee of the deadeyes and lanyards,
+hoping he might not be seen; but the first lieutenant, having the
+clear horizon on the other side, perceived the line which Jack had
+half hauled up, and, having an eye like a cat, makes out Jack
+also.</p>
+<p>"'I see you, sir&mdash;I see you, Mr. Jervis, fishing again,
+sir. Very well,' cried the first lieutenant, from the sternsheets
+of the boat, as he passed by. 'You've your duty to do, and I've got
+mine.' 'That's as good as two dozen to-morrow morning at muster,'
+thought Jack, who cursed his luck, and, in a very melancholy mood,
+began to haul up his line, which, as soon as he had been
+discovered, he had let go down to the bottom again. Now, it so
+happened that, as Old Duty went up the other side, his foot
+slipped; and, how it was I can't tell, for they say he wasn't the
+least groggy, but down he fell, between the boat's gunnel and the
+ship's side, just like a deep-sea lead, and disappeared. There
+being so few men on deck, there was not much of a
+bustle&mdash;there was a dive or two for him with the boat-hook,
+but all in vain&mdash;Old Duty was gone.</p>
+<p>"In the meantime, Jack on the other side was slowly hauling up
+his line; but he had not got it half-way up when he felt a heavy
+strain, and he thought that a large conger eel had followed the
+bait up, as they do sometimes, and he hauled and hauled with all
+his might. At last, who should he bring to the surface of the water
+but Old Duty, who had been sucked under the ship's bottom by the
+tide, and had been hooked by Jack, as he was pulling up. When Jack
+saw it was the first lieutenant, as he told me, his first idea was
+to let him down again; but that was only for a moment. The words of
+the first lieutenant still rang in his ears, 'You've your duty to
+do, and I've got mine'&mdash;so Jack did his duty. He hollows out
+that he had caught Old Duty, and the boat shifted round and took
+him on board. The old fellow was quite senseless; but as he had
+been but a short time in the water, he was put to bed, and
+resuscitated by the surgeon. The next morning he was all just as if
+nothing had happened, walking the deck with his right hand in his
+breast, and his spy-glass under his left arm, as usual.</p>
+<p>"Well, we all told Jack that he was safe this time, but Jack
+seemed to think otherwise. He shook his head; and now you'll learn
+who was right.</p>
+<p>"When the boys were all mustered next morning, toeing a line,
+and holding out their paws, the first lieutenant turns round and
+says, 'Jervis, you were fishing last night, against my orders.'
+'Yes, sir,' said Jervis, 'and I catched a first lieutenant;' for
+Jack had a good deal of fun in him. 'Yes, sir, and queer fishes
+they are sometimes,' replies Old Duty; 'but you forget that you
+have also catched two dozen. You have your duty to do, and I've got
+mine.'</p>
+<p>"Well, as you may suppose, there were many of us looking abaft,
+just to see what would take place, and were not a little astonished
+at the idea of his rewarding Jack with two dozen for saving his
+life; however, of course, we were mum. Jack was tied up; and the
+first lieutenant whispered a word into the ear of his
+master-at-arms, who again whispered to Williams, the boatswain's
+mate; and the effect of that whisper was, that the cat was laid on
+so lightly that Jack hardly felt it; so lightly, indeed, that the
+first lieutenant walked away aft, that he might not appear to be a
+party in the consarn, and Jack was cast off without having half a
+tear in either eye when Old Duty went up to him.</p>
+<p>"'You fished last night against orders, and therefore you have
+received your punishment. You saved my life last night, and
+therefore it is my duty to reward you. I could not let you off this
+punishment, as it would be making the King pay you for me, instead
+of my paying you myself. I'm not a rich man, but here's ten guineas
+for your purse, and here's my gold watch. Spend the first usefully,
+and keep the other; and observe, Jack Jervis, if ever you are again
+caught fishing in harbor, you will as surely get two dozen for your
+pains. <i>You've your duty to</i> do, <i>and I've got
+mine</i>.'"</p>
+<p>"Well, messmate, that's a queer story altogether, and queerer
+fellows in it. I wouldn't have minded sailing with that Old Duty.
+Suppose we drink his health?"</p>
+<p>"With all my heart; for you're right, old chap. When we knows
+what we are to expect, we're always ready to meet-it; but some
+officers I've sailed with shift about like a dog-vane, and there's
+no knowing how to meet them. I recollect&mdash;But I say, Jack,
+suppose you turn in&mdash;your eyes are winking and blinking like
+an owl's in the sunshine. You're tired, boy, so go to bed. We
+shan't tell any more yarns to-night."</p>
+<p>I was very tired indeed, and could not keep my eyes open any
+longer; so I went upstairs, and was asleep almost as soon as I laid
+my head upon the pillow.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus052.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER
+SEVEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which my Mother gives my Father a Scriptural Lesson&mdash;My
+Father's Grief at parting with an old Friend&mdash;He expostulates
+with my Mother and quits the House.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I Woke early the next morning; for the whole night I had been
+restless, and dreaming of the unusual occurrences of the day
+before. It was just daylight, and I was recalling what had passed,
+and wondering what had become of my father, when I heard a noise in
+my mother's room. I listened&mdash;the door opened, and she went
+downstairs.</p>
+<p>This surprised me; and being conscious, even at my age, of the
+vindictive temper shown by my mother upon every occasion, and
+anxious to know where my father was, I could not remain in bed. I
+put on my trousers, and crept softly downstairs without my shoes.
+The door of the front room was ajar, and I looked in. The light was
+dimly peering through the window which pointed to the alley; the
+table was covered with the empty pipes, tobacco, and large pools of
+beer and liquor which had been spilled on it; the sofa was empty,
+and my father, who evidently had become deeply intoxicated the
+night before, was lying on the sanded floor with his face downward;
+my mother, in her short dressing-gown and flannel petticoat, was
+standing over him, her teeth set, her fists clinched, and arms
+raised, with a dire expression of revenge in her countenance. I
+thought at the time that I never saw her look so ugly&mdash;I may
+say so horrid; even now her expression at that moment is not
+effaced from my memory. After a few minutes she knelt down and put
+her ear close to his head, as if to ascertain whether he was in a
+sound sleep. She then took a knife from off the table, felt the
+edge, looked at my prostrate father, and raised it. I would have
+screamed, but my tongue was glued to my lips with horror. She
+appeared to reflect, and, after a time, laid the knife down on the
+table, put the palm of her hand up to her forehead, and then a
+smile gleamed over her moody features. "Yes, if he murders me; but
+they will be better," muttered she at last. She went to the
+cupboard, took out a large pair of scissors, and, kneeling down by
+my father, commenced severing his long pigtail from his head. My
+father was too sound asleep to be roused: in a minute the tail was
+off, and my mother rose up, holding it, with an expression of the
+utmost contempt, between her finger and thumb. She then very softly
+laid it down by his side, and replaced the scissors in the
+cupboard. As I expected that she would go upstairs again, I
+concealed myself in the back kitchen. I was correct in my
+supposition. A moment afterward I heard her ascending the stairs
+and go into her own room.</p>
+<p>I must say that I felt indignant at this conduct of my mother's,
+as, so far from provocation, she had hardly received the reward of
+previous treachery. I believe, however, that, like most people, I
+was actuated by my own feelings toward my mother, who had treated
+me so unkindly. I thought for a little while&mdash;what would my
+mother do? She would hardly remain in the house, to meet the wrath
+of my father, when he made the discovery. She would escape him;
+this I had no wish that she should do; so I went softly into the
+front parlor and pushed my father to awake him. For some time this
+was useless; he muttered and growled, but it appeared impossible to
+rouse him. There were the remains of a jug of water on the table;
+and, as I had seen the same thing done before to a drunken sailor,
+I took the jug, and poured the water softly on the nape of his
+neck. In a minute or two this had the effect of waking him. He
+turned over, opened his eyes, and, when I put my finger to my lips
+to intimate silence, he looked at me with a vacant stare. Time
+pressed; I heard my mother moving about upstairs, and I was afraid
+that she would leave the house before my father had recovered his
+senses. I therefore took his pigtail from the floor and held it up
+before him. This appeared to surprise him. He fixed his eyes upon
+it for a few seconds, and then, as if at last suspecting what had
+taken place, he put his hand to the back of his head and found no
+pigtail there. Suddenly he jumped up; he appeared to be sobered all
+at once. He caught the tail out of my hand, looked at it, felt
+convinced of his loss, threw himself down on the sofa and wept like
+a child.</p>
+<p>"I saw my mother do it, father," said I, whispering in his ear.
+This appeared to recall him. He raised himself up, wiped his eyes
+with the back of his hand, ground his teeth, and shook his head. He
+threw his tail on the floor, and, as he eyed it, a deep melancholy
+spread over his countenance. After a minute or two he folded his
+arms, and thus lamented over it:</p>
+<p>"Well, I never would have thought it had they told me that you
+and I should have parted company. Many, many years has it taken you
+to grow to your present length; often have you been handled, often
+have you been combed, and often have you been tied. Many's the eel
+has been skinned for your sarvice, and many's the yard of ribbon
+which you have cost me. You have been the envy of my shipmates, the
+fancy of the women, and the pride of poor Tom Saunders. I thought
+we should never have parted on 'arth, and, if so be my sins were
+forgiven me, and I could show a fair log, that I might be permitted
+to wear you in the world which is to come. But there you
+are&mdash;parted for all the world like a limb shot off in action,
+never to be spliced again. What am I to say when I go on board? I
+shall have a short tale to tell, instead of a long tail to show.
+And the wife of my busum to do this! Well, I married too high, and
+now my pride is laid low. Jack, never marry a lady's ladies' maid;
+for it appears that the longer the names the more venomous the
+cattle be."</p>
+<p>Just as he had finished I heard my mother coming downstairs with
+Virginia, whom she had taken up and dressed, to take away with her.
+"Hush!" I heard her softly say to Virginia, "don't speak, dear, or
+you'll wake your naughty father."</p>
+<p>She had hardly said this when she made her appearance, with
+Virginia on one arm and a large bundle on the other. But as soon as
+she perceived that my father was awake, and cognizant of her
+revenge, she uttered a loud scream, dropped Virginia and the
+bundle, and, running upstairs to her own room, locked herself
+in.</p>
+<p>Poor little Virginia set up a roar at this very unusual (and I
+believe felonious) act of child-dropping on the part of my mother.
+I ran to her, and carried her to the sofa, while my father, with
+compressed lips, first taking two or three quarter-deck strides up
+and down the room, locked the street door, put the key in his
+pocket, and then ascended the stairs to pay a visit to my mother,
+who, I believe, would very willingly have been "not at home"; but
+some people are importunate, and will take no refusal; and, when my
+father retired three or four steps from the door, and with a sudden
+run brought the whole weight of his foot to bear upon it, it flew
+open. At first my mother was not visible, my father thought she had
+escaped; but at last he spied her legs under the bed. Seizing her
+by her extremities, he dragged her out, without any regard to
+propriety, until he had her into the middle of the room with his
+foot upon her. What a situation for a lady's ladies' maid! I had
+put Virginia down on the sofa, and crept up the stairs to see what
+took place. My father and mother were in these relative positions,
+and he thus addressed her:</p>
+<p>"I have heard say that a man mustn't thrash his wife with
+anything thicker than his own thumb. That's as may be&mdash;and I
+do recollect when the first lieutenant wanted to cut off the men's
+hair that the purser told him that it was felony, under the Act of
+cutting and maiming. I don't know whether the first lieutenant
+would have made a felony or not; but this I'm sartain of&mdash;he'd
+have made a mutiny. You desarve no mercy, and you shall have none.
+This pigtail of mine shall be what I shall use upon you, and if the
+colt is heavy, recollect you cut it for yourself; and as you may
+not be able to hear what I say by the time I have done with you,
+I'll just tell you now. I'll point the end, and work a mouse on
+this pigtail of mine, and never part with it. I'll keep it for your
+own particular use, and for nobody else's; and as sartain as I come
+back, so sartain every time I come you shall have a taste of
+pigtail without <i>chewing</i>', my lady's ladies' maid."</p>
+<p>Having made this uncommon long speech, to which my mother
+offered no reply, her eyes being fixed in terror upon the
+brandished tail, which was nearly as thick as her own arm, my
+father proceeded to put his threats into execution. Blow resounded
+after blow; my mother's cries became feebler and feebler, until at
+last she appeared senseless. Then I ran to my father, and, clinging
+to his leg, cried, "Oh, father, she's dead!"</p>
+<p>This observation induced him to leave off. He looked at my
+mother's face; her eyes were closed, and her jaw had fallen. "Well,
+she had enough of it this time," said my father, after a pause;
+"maybe too much on it. But when I looks at this tail in my hand, I
+feel as if I could still give her more. And if she be dead, I think
+the judge would not hang me, if I showed him what I have lost. I'd
+rather have parted with an arm or a leg any day of the week.
+There's been provocation enough, at all events, if she be
+dead&mdash;a saint in heaven couldn't stand it."</p>
+<p>During these remarks my mother gave no signs of returning
+animation, and at last my father became seriously alarmed. "Jack,"
+said he, "I must cut my stick, or they may put me into limbo. As
+soon as I have cleared out, do you run for a doctor to look at your
+mother; and mind you don't forget to tell that old chap who was
+boozing with me last night everything which has happened, and the
+people will say, come what will on it, that I was aggravated
+sufficient; and, Jack, if there be a crowner's inquest, mind you
+tell the truth. You know I didn't want to kill the old woman, don't
+you, my boy? for didn't I say that I'd keep the tail to give her
+another dose when I came back again?&mdash;that proves I didn't
+intend that she should slip her wind, you know, boy. I said I'd
+give her another dose, you know, Jack&mdash;and," continued my
+father, "so I will, if I find her above ground when I comes back
+again."</p>
+<p>My father then went downstairs. Little Virginia had fallen
+asleep again on the sofa; my father kissed her softly, shook hands
+with me, and put a crown in my hand. He then unlocked the door,
+and, thrusting the end of his pigtail into his breast, coiled it,
+as it were, round his body, hastened down the alley, and was soon
+out of sight.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus059.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHT" id="CHAPTER_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER
+EIGHT</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which the Doctor pays a Visit and receives no Fee; and I am
+obliged to work very hard to procure myself a Livelihood.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I did not forget my father's injunctions, for I was very much
+frightened. There was a doctor who lived half-way up Church Street,
+a short distance from Fisher's Alley. He was a little man with a
+large head sunk down between two broad shoulders. His eyes were
+small and twinkling, his nose snubbed, his pate nearly bald; but on
+the sides of his head the hair was long and flowing. But if his
+shoulders were broad the rest of his body was not in the same
+proportion&mdash;for he narrowed as he descended, his hips being
+very small, and his legs as thin as those of a goat. His real name
+was Todpoole, but the people invariably called him Tadpole, and he
+certainly in appearance somewhat reminded you of one. He was a
+facetious little fellow, and, it was said, very clever in his
+profession.</p>
+<p>"Dr. Tadpole," cried I, out of breath with running, "come quick,
+my mother is very bad indeed."</p>
+<p>"What's the matter?" said he, peering over a mortar in which he
+was rubbing up something with the pestle. "External or
+internal?"</p>
+<p>Although I did not know what he meant, I replied, "Both, doctor,
+and a great deal more besides."</p>
+<p>"That's bad indeed," replied Tadpole, still rubbing away.</p>
+<p>"But you must come directly," cried I. "Come
+along&mdash;quick!"</p>
+<p>"Festina lente, good boy&mdash;that's Latin for hat and boots.
+Tom, are my boots clean?"</p>
+<p>"Ye'es, sir," replied a carroty-haired boy, whom I knew
+well.</p>
+<p>The doctor laid down his pestle, and taking his seat on a chair,
+began very leisurely to pull on his boots, while I stamped with
+impatience.</p>
+<p>"Now do be quick, doctor, my mother will be dead."</p>
+<p>"Jack," said the doctor, grinning, as he pulled on his second
+boot, "people don't die so quick before the doctor comes&mdash;it's
+always afterward; however, I'm glad to see you are so fond of your
+mother. Tom, is my hat brushed?"</p>
+<p>"Ye'es, sir," replied Tom, bringing the doctor's hat.</p>
+<p>"Now then, Jack, I'm all ready. Tom, mind the shop, and don't
+eat the stick-liquorice&mdash;d'ye hear?"</p>
+<p>"Ye'es, sir," said Tom, with a grin from ear to ear.</p>
+<p>The doctor followed me very quick, for he thought from my
+impatience that something serious must be the matter. He walked up
+to my mother's room, and I hastened to open the door; when, to my
+surprise, I found my mother standing before the glass arranging her
+hair.</p>
+<p>"Well!" exclaimed my mother, "this is very pretty
+behavior&mdash;forcing your way into a lady's room."</p>
+<p>The doctor stared, and so did I. At last I exclaimed, "Well!
+father thought he'd killed her."</p>
+<p>"Yes," cried my mother, "and he's gone away with it on his
+conscience, that's some comfort. He won't come back in a hurry; he
+thinks he has committed murder, the unfeeling brute! Well, I've had
+my revenge."</p>
+<p>And as she twisted up her hair, my mother burst out
+screaming:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Little Bopeep, she lost her sheep.<br />
+And couldn't tell where to find him;<br />
+She found him, indeed, but it made her heart bleed,<br />
+For he left his tail behind him."</p>
+<p>"Why, then, doctor, it was all sham," exclaimed I.</p>
+<p>"Yes; and the doctor's come on a fool's errand&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'Goosey, Goosey Gander,<br />
+Whither dost thou wander?<br />
+Upstairs and downstairs,<br />
+And in a lady's chamber.'"</p>
+<p>The doctor shrugged up his shoulders so that his head
+disappeared between them. At last he said, "Your mother don't want
+me, Jack, that's very clear. Good-morning, Mrs. Saunders."</p>
+<p>"A very good-morning to you, Dr. Tadpole," replied my mother
+with a profound courtesy; "you'll oblige me by quitting this room
+and shutting the door after you, if you please." As the doctor and
+I went down, my mother continued the song&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"And then I met a little man,<br />
+Couldn't say his prayers,<br />
+I took him by the left leg<br />
+And sent him downstairs."</p>
+<p>As soon as we were in the parlor, I acquainted the doctor with
+what had happened. "I'm sure I thought she was dead," said I, when
+I had finished the story.</p>
+<p>"Jack, when I asked you where your mother was bad, external or
+internal, you replied both, and a great deal more besides. So she
+is&mdash;internally, externally, and infernally bad," said the
+doctor, laughing. "And so she amputated your father's pigtail, did
+she, the Delilah? Pity one could not amputate her head, it would
+make a good woman of her. Good-by, Jack; I must go and look after
+Tom, he's swallowed a whole yard of stick-liquorice by this
+time."</p>
+<p>Soon afterward Ben the Whaler came in to inquire after my
+father, and I told him what had occurred. He was very indignant at
+my mother's conduct, and, as soon as the affair was known, so were
+all the tenants of Fisher's Alley. When my mother went out, or had
+words with any of her neighbors, the retort was invariably, "Who
+sent the press-gang after her own husband?" or "Who cut off the
+tail from her husband's back? Wasn't that a <i>genteel</i> trick?"
+All this worried my mother, and she became very morose and
+ill-tempered. I believe she would have left the alley if she had
+not taken a long lease of the house. She had now imbibed a decided
+hatred for me, which she never failed to show upon every occasion,
+for she knew that it was I who had roused my father, and prevented
+her escape from his wrath. The consequence was that I was seldom at
+home, except to sleep. I sauntered to the beach, ran into the
+water, sometimes rowed in the wherries, at others hauling them in
+and holding them steady for the passengers to land. I was beginning
+to be useful to the watermen, and was very often rewarded with a
+piece of bread and cheese, or a drink of beer out of their pots.
+The first year after my father's visit I was seldom given a meal,
+and continually beaten&mdash;indeed, sometimes cruelly so&mdash;but
+as I grew stronger, I rebelled and fought, and with such success
+that, although I was hated more, I was punished less.</p>
+<p>One scene between my mother and me may serve as a specimen for
+all. I would come home with my trousers tucked up, and my
+<i>high-lows</i> unlaced and full of water, sucking every time that
+I lifted up my leg, and marking the white sanded floor of the front
+room, as I proceeded through it to the back kitchen. My mother
+would come downstairs, and perceiving the marks I had left, would
+get angry, and as usual commence singing&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'A frog he would a-wooing go,<br />
+Heigho, says Rowly.'</p>
+<p>"I see here's that little wretch been here&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'Whether his mother would let him or
+no,<br />
+Heigho, says Rowly.'</p>
+<p>"I'll rowly him with the rolling-pin when I get hold of him.
+He's worse than that beastly water-spaniel of Sir Hercules', who
+used to shake himself over my best cambric muslin. Well, we'll see.
+He'll be wanting his dinner; I only wish he may get it.</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,<br />
+Eating his Christmas pie;<br />
+He put in his thumb and pull'd out a plum,<br />
+And cried, What a good boy am I!'</p>
+<p>"'Good boy am I!' good-for-nothing brat, just like his father.
+Oh, dear!&mdash;if I could but get rid of him!</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'There was an old woman who lived in a
+shoe,<br />
+She'd so many children she didn't know what to do;<br />
+She gave them some broth without any bread,<br />
+She whipped them all round, and sent them to bed.'</p>
+<p>"And if I don't whip him, it's my fault, that's all. Virginia,
+my love, don't spit&mdash;that's not genteel. It's only sailors and
+Yankees who spit. Nasty little brute! Oh! here you are, are you?"
+cried my mother, as I entered. "Do you see what a dirty mess you
+have made, you little ungrateful animal? Take that, and that, and
+that," continued she, running the wet bristles of the long broom
+into my face, with sufficient force to make my nose bleed. I stood
+the first push, and the second; but the third roused my
+indignation&mdash;and I caught hold of the end of the broom toward
+me, and tried to force it out of her hands. It was push against
+push, for I was very strong&mdash;she, screaming as loud as she
+could, as she tried to wrest the broom from my clutches&mdash;I,
+shoving at her with all my force&mdash;like Punch and the devil at
+the two ends of the stick. At last, after she had held me in a
+corner for half a minute, I made a rush upon her, drove her right
+to the opposite corner, so that the end of the handle gave her a
+severe poke in the body, which made her give up the contest, and
+exclaim as soon as she recovered her breath&mdash;"Oh! you nasty,
+ungrateful, ungenteel brute! You little viper! Is that the way you
+treat your mother&mdash;and nearly kill her? Oh, dear me!"</p>
+<p>"Why don't you leave me alone, then? you never beats Jenny."</p>
+<p>"Who's Jenny, you wicked good-for-nothing boy? you mean your
+sister Virginia. Well, you'll have no dinner, I can tell you."</p>
+<p>I put my hand in my pocket, took out a sixpence which I had
+received, and held it up between my thumb and finger. "Won't
+I?"</p>
+<p>"You oudacious boy! that's the way you're spoiled by foolish
+people giving you money."</p>
+<p>"Good-by, mother." So saying, I leaped over the board fixed up
+at the door, and was again down at the beach. Indeed, I was now
+what is termed a regular <i>Mud-larker</i>, picking up halfpence by
+running into the water, offering my ragged arm to people getting
+out of the wherries, always saluting them with, "You haven't got
+never a halfpenny for poor Jack, your honor?" and sometimes I did
+get a halfpenny, sometimes a shove, according to the temper of
+those whom I addressed. When I was not on the beach, I was usually
+in company with Ben the Whaler, who, after my father's visit, was
+more kind to me than ever; and there were several other pensioners
+who were great friends of mine; and I used to listen to their long
+yarns, which were now becoming a source of great delight to me; at
+other times I would be with the watermen, assisting them to clean
+out their wherries, or pay the seams. In fact, I was here, there,
+and everywhere except at home&mdash;always active, always employed,
+and, I may add, almost always wet. My mother used to scold whenever
+I came in; but that I did not mind; her greatest punishment was
+refusing me a clean shirt on a Sunday. At last I picked up
+halfpence enough to pay, not only for my food, such as it was, but
+for my own washing, and every day I became more independent and
+more happy.</p>
+<p>There were other ways by which money was to be obtained during
+the summer season, which were from the company who used to come
+down to the whitebait parties at the Ship and other taverns. There
+were many other boys who frequented the beach besides me, and we
+used to stand under the windows, and attract attention by every
+means in our power, so as to induce the company to throw us
+halfpence to scramble for. This they would do to while away their
+time until their dinner was ready, or to amuse themselves and the
+ladies by seeing us roll and tumble one over the other. Sometimes
+they would throw a sixpence into the river, where the water was
+about two feet deep, to make us wet ourselves through in groping
+for it. Indeed, they were very generous when they wished to be
+amused; and every kind of offer was made to them which we thought
+suited to their tastes, or likely to extract money from their
+pockets.</p>
+<p>"Dip my head in the mud for sixpence, sir!" would one of us cry
+out; and then he would be outbid by another.</p>
+<p>"Roll myself all over and over, in the mud, face and all,
+sir&mdash;only give me sixpence!"</p>
+<p>Sometimes I would perceive a lovely countenance, beaming with
+pity and compassion at our rags and apparent wretchedness, and then
+the money thrown to me gave me much more pleasure; but the major
+portion of those who threw us silver for their own amusement would
+not have given us a farthing if we had asked charity for the love
+of God.</p>
+<p>It must not, however, be supposed that I gained the enviable
+situation of <i>Poor Jack</i> until I had been some time on the
+beach. There are competitors for every place, even the most humble;
+and there was no want of competitors for this office among the many
+idle boys who frequented the beach. When I first plied there, I was
+often pushed away by those who were older and stronger than myself,
+with a "Go along with you! He's not poor Jack&mdash;I'm poor Jack,
+your honor." This, at first, I submitted to; taking my chance for a
+stray halfpenny, which was occasionally thrown to me, trusting to
+my activity in being the first down to the boat, or to my quickness
+in a scramble. I never quarreled with the other boys, for I was
+remarkable for my good temper. The first idea I had of resistance
+was from oppression. One of the boys, who was older and taller than
+myself, attempted to take away a sixpence which I had gained in a
+scramble. Before that, I had not resented being pushed away, or
+even when they threw water or mud at me; but this was an act of
+violence which I could not put up with: the consequence was a
+fight; in which, to my surprise (for I was not aware of my
+strength), as well as to the surprise of the bystanders, I proved
+victorious, beating my opponent until he reeled into the water,
+following him up until he tumbled, and then holding his head down
+in the mud until he was almost stifled. I then allowed him to get
+up, and he went home crying to his mother. For this feat I was
+rewarded with the plaudits of the old pensioners and others who
+were looking on, and with a shilling which was thrown to me from
+the window of the inn. Ben the Whaler, who had witnessed the fray,
+told me, the next day, that I handled my fists remarkably well, and
+that I had but to keep a higher guard and I should fight well. He
+was an old pugilist himself, and he gave me a few directions which
+I did not forget. I soon had occasion to put them into practice;
+for, two days afterward, another boy, bigger than myself, as I was
+plying as "Poor Jack," pushed me back so hard that I fell off the
+steps into the deep water, and there was a general laugh against
+me. I did not care for the ducking, but the laugh I could not bear:
+as soon as I gained the steps again, I rushed upon him and threw
+him off, and he fell into the wherry, and, as it afterward
+appeared, he strained his back very much; nevertheless he came out
+to thrash me; and this time it was a regular fight, as the
+pensioners and watermen interfered, taking us both up on the higher
+ground, and seeing that it was fair play. Ben the Whaler acted as
+my second, and we set to. The boy was too powerful for me, had it
+not been for the hurt he had received and the instructions I
+obtained from Ben every time that I sat on his knee between each
+round. Still it was a very hard fight, and I was terribly beaten;
+but I could not give up, for so many betted upon my winning, and
+Ben told me, at the end of every round, that if I only stood up one
+more, I should be certain to beat him, and that then I should be
+<i>Poor Jack forever!</i> The last inducement stimulated me to
+immense exertion. We closed and wrestled, and my antagonist was
+thrown; and, in consequence of the strain he had before received,
+he could not stand up anymore. Poor fellow! he was in great pain;
+he was taken home, and obliged to have a doctor, and an abscess
+formed in his side. He was a long while getting well, and, when he
+came out of doors again, he was so pale. I was very sorry for him,
+and we were always the best friends afterward, and I gave him many
+a halfpenny, until I had an opportunity of serving him.</p>
+<p>I mention these two fights because they obtained for me a
+greater reputation than I deserved: this reputation perhaps saved
+me a great deal more fighting, and obtained me the mastery over the
+other boys on the beach. Indeed, I became such a favorite with the
+watermen that they would send the other boys away; and thus did I
+become, at last, the acknowledged, true, lawful, and legitimate
+"Poor Jack of Greenwich."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus069.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINE" id="CHAPTER_NINE"></a>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which I take a Cruise contrary to the received Rules of
+Navigation&mdash;On my Return from a cold Expedition, I meet with a
+cold Reception.</p>
+</div>
+<p>As soon as I was fairly in possession of my office, I gained
+sufficient money to render me almost entirely independent of my
+mother. Occasionally I procured an old jacket or trousers, or a
+pair of shoes, at the store of an old woman who dealt in everything
+that could be imagined; and, if ever I picked up oakum or drifting
+pieces of wood, I used to sell them to old Nanny&mdash;for that was
+the only name she was known by. My mother, having lost her lodgers
+by her ill temper and continual quarreling with her neighbors, had
+resorted to washing and getting up of fine linen, at which she was
+very expert, and earned a good deal of money. To do her justice,
+she was a very industrious woman, and, in some things, very clever.
+She was a very good dressmaker, and used to make up the gowns and
+bonnets for the lower classes of people, to whom she gave great
+satisfaction. She worked very hard for herself and my sister, about
+whose dress and appearance she was more particular than ever;
+indeed, she showed as much affection for her as she did ill-will
+toward me. To look at me, with my old trousers tucked up above my
+knees, my ragged jacket, and weatherbeaten cap; and then to see
+Virginia, so neatly and even expensively dressed, no one could have
+believed that we were brother and sister. My mother would always
+try to prevent Virginia from noticing me, if we ever met when she
+was walking out with her. But my sister appeared to love me more
+and more; and, in spite of my mother, as soon as she saw me, would
+run up to me, patting my dirty jacket with her pretty little hand;
+and, when she did so, I felt so proud of her. She grew up handsomer
+every day, and so sweet in disposition that my mother could not
+spoil her.</p>
+<p>It was in the autumn that I gained undisputed possession of the
+office of "Poor Jack"; and that winter I had an adventure which
+nearly occasioned my making a vacancy for somebody else, and which,
+the reader will agree with me, was anything but pleasant.</p>
+<p>It was in the month of January&mdash;the river was filled with
+floating ice, for it had frozen hard for several days; and, of
+course, there were but few people who trusted themselves in
+wherries&mdash;so that I had little employment, and less profit.
+One morning, as I was standing on the landing-steps, the breath
+coming out of my mouth like the steam of a tea-kettle&mdash;rubbing
+my nose, which was red from the sharpness of the frost&mdash;and
+looking at the sun, which was just mounting above a bank of clouds,
+a waterman called to me, and asked me whether I would go down the
+river with him, as he was engaged to take a mate down to join his
+ship, which was several miles below Greenwich; and, if so, he would
+give me sixpence and a breakfast. I had earned little for many
+days, and, hating to be obliged to my mother, I consented.</p>
+<p>In an hour we started: there was no wind&mdash;the water was
+smooth, and the sun's rays glittered on the floating patches of
+ice, which grated against the sides of the wherry as we cut through
+them with our sharp prow. Although we had the tide with us, it was
+three hours before we gained the ship. The mate paid the fare, and
+gave us something to drink; and we passed an hour or more warming
+ourselves at the caboose and talking with the seamen. At last a
+breeze sprung up, and the captain ordered the men to get the ship
+under way. We shoved off, the tide having flowed some time,
+expecting to be back to Greenwich before dark.</p>
+<p>But it clouded over, and a heavy snowstorm came on, so that we
+could not see in what direction we were pulling; the wind blew very
+fresh, and it was piercing cold; however, we pulled as hard as we
+could, not only to get back again, but to keep ourselves from
+freezing. Unfortunately, we had lost too much time on board of the
+vessel; and, what with that, and the delay arising from the
+snowstorm preventing us pulling straight back, the ebb-tide made
+again before we had gained more than two-thirds of our way. We were
+now nearly worn out with the severe cold and fatigue, but we pulled
+hard, keeping as close inshore as we could. It was necessary, at
+the end of one reach, to cross over to the other side of the river;
+and, in so doing, we were driven by the tide against a large buoy,
+when the wherry filled and upset in an instant. We both contrived
+to cling on to her, as she was turned bottom up; and away we were
+swept down among the drifting ice, the snowstorm still continuing
+to beat down on our heads. I was nearly frozen before I could climb
+on the bottom of the wherry; which I at last contrived to do, but
+the waterman could only hold on. There we both were, shivering and
+shaking; the wind piercing through our wet clothes&mdash;the snow
+beating down on us, and our feet freezing among the drifting
+ice&mdash;borne away with the tide toward the mouth of the
+river&mdash;not able to see two yards before us, or likely to be
+seen by any one, so as to be assisted. We were too cold to speak,
+but remained in silence, looking at each other, and with no
+pleasant forebodings as to our fate. The ice now formed in large
+masses; the icicles hung from our clothes and all sense was lost in
+our extremities. It was now dark as pitch; and so feeble were we
+that it was with difficulty we could keep in our positions. At last
+the storm abated, the sky cleared up, and the bright full moon
+shone in the heavens; but our case appeared hopeless&mdash;we felt
+that before morning we must perish. I tried to say what prayers I
+had learned by hearing my sister say them; but my teeth chattered,
+and I could only think them. At last I perceived a vessel at
+anchor: the tide was sweeping us past&mdash;we were close to her,
+and I contrived to cry out; but there was no reply. Again I
+screamed, but it was in vain. They were all in their warm beds,
+while we floated past, freezing to death. My hopes, which had been
+raised, and which had occasioned my heart to resume its beating,
+now sank down again, and I gave myself up in despair. I burst into
+tears; and, before the tears had rolled half-way down my cheeks,
+they had frozen hard. "I am indeed 'Poor Jack,' now," thought I; "I
+shall never see my father or Virginia any more." As I thought so, I
+saw another vessel ahead of us. I summoned all my strength, and
+called out long before we floated past her. The light wind bore my
+voice down; there was a man on deck, and he heard it; he walked
+forward, and I perceived him looking over the bows. I hallooed
+again, to direct his attention to where we were; for our wherry was
+so encrusted with ice that she might have been taken for a larger
+piece floating by. I saw him turn away, and heard him thump with a
+handspike on the deck. How my heart bounded! I almost felt warm. As
+we were passing the vessel, I cried out again and again, and the
+man answered me&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Ay, ay, hold on for a minute or two, and I'll send for
+you."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus074.jpg" id="illus074.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus074.jpg"><img src="images/thumb074.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>I SUMMONED ALL MY STRENGTH, AND CALLED OUT LONG BEFORE WE
+FLOATED PAST HER.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 73.</b><br /></div>
+<p>"We are saved," I cried to the waterman; but he was quite
+insensible, apparently frozen stiff where he was clinging. In a few
+minutes I heard the sound of oars, and then they stopped; the boat
+came quietly alongside, that they might not by the shock throw us
+off into the water; they dragged us both in, and took us on board,
+poured a glass of brandy down our throats, stripped off our frozen
+clothes, chafed our limbs, and put us between the hot blankets
+which they had just left. As soon as I was in bed the mate made me
+drink a tumbler of hot grog, and left me. I soon fell into a deep
+sleep, long before they had ceased their attempts to restore
+vitality to my companion, which at last they did. When I awoke the
+next morning I was quite well, and the waterman was also
+recovering, although not able to leave his hammock. The mate who
+had had the watch and had saved us, told me that the wherry was
+safe on board, and, as the ship was bound up the river, that we had
+better remain where we were. I narrated our accident; and my
+clothes having been dried at the caboose, I dressed myself and went
+on deck. My companion, the waterman, did not escape so well; his
+foot was frostbitten, and he lost four of his toes before he
+recovered. It was singular that he, who was a man grown up, should
+suffer so much more than I did. I cannot account for it, except
+that my habit of always being in the water had hardened me more to
+the cold. We remained on board two days, during which we were
+treated with great kindness.</p>
+<p>It was a fine bright morning, when, as the ship was passing the
+hospital, we shoved the wherry off, and landed at the steps; and
+when we jumped out we were greeted by all who were standing there.
+We had very naturally been given up for lost. They supposed that we
+had perished in the snowstorm. Old Ben was among those who were
+standing at the steps, and he walked up with me toward my mother's
+house.</p>
+<p>"I did go to the old woman and break the matter to her in a
+becoming way, Jack," said Ben; "but I can't say that she appeared
+to take it much to heart, and that's the truth. Had it been little
+Jenny, she'd have cried her eyes out."</p>
+<p>I arrived at Fisher's Alley, and the neighbors looked out; and
+as I nodded to them they cried, "Why, here's Jack come back again.
+Where have you been to, Jack?" This passing from mouth to mouth at
+last reached my mother's ears; she looked out and saw me and old
+Ben close to the door.</p>
+<p>"Here be your son, missus," said Ben; "so you may thank God for
+His mercy."</p>
+<p>But my mother did not appear to be very thankful. She turned
+round and went in. I followed her, while Ben was standing at the
+door in amazement at her not flying to me and kissing me. On the
+contrary she must have been angry at my return, for she commenced
+singing:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Jack and Gill went up the hill<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To fetch a pail of
+water;</span><br />
+Jack fell down and broke his crown,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Gill came tumbling
+after."</span></p>
+<p>And then she broke out: "And where have you been, you
+good-for-nothing boy, all this time? putting me to all this useless
+expense that you have; all my money thrown away for nothing." I
+looked at the table and perceived that she had been making a black
+dress and bonnet, to put little Virginia into mourning; for she
+never let slip an opportunity to dress out my sister.</p>
+<p>"Fifteen good shillings thrown away and lost, all by your coming
+back. Your sister would have looked so beautiful and interesting in
+it. Poor child! and now she will be disappointed. Never mind, my
+darling, you may have to wear them soon yet, if he goes on this
+way."</p>
+<p>Virginia did not seem to mind it at all; she was kissing and
+patting me, and was delighted to see me again. But my mother took
+her by the hand, and catching up the half-made dress and bonnet in
+her other, walked away upstairs to her room, singing:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"There was an old man who lived under a
+hill,<br />
+And if he's not dead, he lives there still."</p>
+<p>"So much for motherly love! Dang it, what's her heart made of?"
+said a voice. I turned round; it was old Ben, who had been an
+unobserved spectator of the scene.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus077.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TEN" id="CHAPTER_TEN"></a>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which I narrate what I consider the most fortunate Incident
+in my Life; and Ben the Whaler confides to me a very strange
+History</p>
+</div>
+<p>Among the pensioners there was one with whom I must make the
+reader acquainted, as he will be an important person in this
+narrative. His name was Peter Anderson, a north countryman, I
+believe, from Greenock; he had been gunner's mate in the service
+for many years, and, having been severely wounded in an action, he
+had been sent to Greenwich. He was a boatswain in Greenwich
+Hospital; that is, he had charge of a ward of twenty-five men, and
+Ben the Whaler had lately been appointed one of the boatswain's
+mates under him. He was a very good scholar, and had read a great
+deal. You could hardly put any question to him, but you would get
+from him a satisfactory sort of an answer; and he was generally
+referred to in all points of dispute, especially in matters
+connected with the service, which he had at his fingers' ends; and,
+moreover, he was a very religious good man. I never heard him
+swear, but correct all those who did so in his presence. He had
+saved some money in the service, the interest of which, with his
+allowances as boatswain, enabled him to obtain many little
+comforts, and to be generous to others. Before Ben was shifted over
+to Anderson's ward, which he was when he was appointed boatswain's
+mate under him, they had not been well acquainted; but, since that
+time, they were almost always together; so that now I knew
+Anderson, which I did not before, except by sight. He was a very
+venerable looking old man, with gray locks curling down on his
+shoulders, but very stout and hearty; and, as Ben had told him all
+about me, he took notice of me, and appeared also to take an
+interest. When I came back, after the providential escape I have
+mentioned in the last chapter, Ben had narrated to him the conduct
+of my mother; and a day or two afterward, when the frost had broken
+up, and they were both sitting down, basking in the sun, which was
+shining bright, I went up to them.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," said old Ben, "are you ready for another trip down
+the river?"</p>
+<p>"I hope I shall earn my sixpence at an easier rate, if I do go,"
+replied I.</p>
+<p>"It was wonderful that you were saved, boy," said Peter
+Anderson, "and you ought to very thankful to the Omniscient."</p>
+<p>I stared; for I had never heard that term applied to the
+Diety.</p>
+<p>"You mean God, don't you?" said I, at last; for I thought he
+couldn't mean any other.</p>
+<p>"Yes, boy; has not your mother taught you that name?"</p>
+<p>"She never would teach me anything. All the prayers I know I
+have stolen from my sister."</p>
+<p>"And what do you know, Jack?"</p>
+<p>"I know 'Our Father,' and 'Now I lay down to sleep,' and I
+believe that is all."</p>
+<p>"How old are you now, Jack?"</p>
+<p>"I am three years older than Virginia; she, I heard my mother
+say, was six the other day&mdash;then I suppose I'm nine."</p>
+<p>"Do you know your letters?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, some of them; I learned them on the boats."</p>
+<p>"But you cannot read?"</p>
+<p>"No, not a word."</p>
+<p>"Has your mother ever told you of the Bible?"</p>
+<p>"Not me; but I've heard her tell Virginia about it."</p>
+<p>"Don't you ever go to church?"</p>
+<p>"No, never. Mother takes little Virginia; but she says I'm too
+ragged and ungenteel."</p>
+<p>"Why does your mother neglect you? I suppose you are a bad
+boy?"</p>
+<p>"That he's not," interrupted Ben; "that's not the reason. But we
+must not talk about that now; only I must take Jack's part. Go on,
+Peter."</p>
+<p>"Would you like to learn to read, Jack?" said Anderson; "and
+would you like to hear me read the Bible to you, until you can read
+it yourself?"</p>
+<p>"Indeed I would," replied I. "There's many of the boys on the
+beach, smaller than me, who can both read and write."</p>
+<p>Peter Anderson then told me that he would teach me, provided I
+behaved myself well. He desired that I would come to his cabin
+every afternoon at six o'clock, a time which interfered little with
+my avocation of "Poor Jack," and that he would give me a lesson.
+Before he had finished talking, one of the lieutenants of the
+hospital sent for him; and Ben remained behind, to point out to me
+how valuable my knowing how to read and write might one day prove
+to me.</p>
+<p>"I've no larning myself, Jack," said he; "and I know the loss of
+it. Had I known how to read and write, I might have been something
+better than a poor Greenwich pensioner; but nevertheless I'm
+thankful that I'm no worse. Ever since I've been a man grown I've
+only regretted it once&mdash;and that's been all my life. Why,
+Jack, I'd give this right arm of mine&mdash;to be sure, it's no
+great things now, but once it could send a harpoon in, up to the
+hilt&mdash;but still a right arm is a right arm to the end of your
+days!&mdash;and I'd give it with pleasure, if I only knew how to
+read and write. Nay, I wouldn't care about the writing; but, if I
+could only read print, Jack, I'd give it; for then I could read the
+Bible, as Peter Anderson does. Why, Jack, when we do go to chapel
+on Sunday, there's not one in ten of us who can follow the parson
+with his book; all we can do is to listen; and when he has done
+speaking, we are done also, and must wait till he preaches again.
+Don't I feel ashamed, then, Jack, at not being able to read? and
+ought not they to feel proud who can&mdash;no, not proud, but
+thankful<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>? We don't think of the
+Bible much in our younger days, boy; but, when we are tripping our
+anchor for the other world, we long to read away our doubts and
+misgivings; and it's the only chart you can navigate by safely. I
+think a parent has much to answer for that don't teach its child to
+read; but I must not blame my father or mother, for I never knew
+them."</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Ben's
+observations were true at the time he spoke; but this is no longer
+the case. So much more general has education become, that now, in a
+ship's company, at least five out of seven can read.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"Never knew them?"</p>
+<p>"No, boy, no. My father and mother left me when I was one year
+old: he was drowned, and my mother&mdash;she died too, poor
+soul!"</p>
+<p>"How did your mother die, Ben?"</p>
+<p>"It's a sad, sad story, Jack, and I cannot bear to think of it;
+it was told me long afterward, by one who little thought to whom he
+was speaking."</p>
+<p>"Do tell me, Ben."</p>
+<p>"You're too young, boy, for such a tale; it's too shocking."</p>
+<p>"Was it worse than being froze to death, as I nearly was the
+other day?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, my lad, worse than that; although, for one so young as you
+are, that was quite bad enough."</p>
+<p>"Well, Ben, I won't ask you to tell me if it pains you to tell
+it. But you did not do wrong?"</p>
+<p>"How could a baby of two years old do wrong, and five thousand
+miles off at the time, you little fool? Well, I don't know if I
+won't tell you, Jack, after all, because you will then find out
+that there's a comfort in reading the Bible; but you must promise
+me never to speak about it. I'm a foolish old fellow to tell it to
+you, Jack, I do believe; but I'm fond of you, boy, and I don't like
+to say 'no' to you. Now come to an anchor close to me. The bells
+are ringing for dinner&mdash;I shall lose my meal, but you will not
+lose your story, and there will be no fear of interruption.</p>
+<p>"My father was brought up to the sea, Jack, and was a smart
+young man till he was about thirty, when a fall from the mainyard
+disabled him from hard duty and going aft; but still he had been
+brought up to sea, and was fit for nothing on shore. So, as he was
+a clean, likely fellow, he obtained the situation of purser's
+steward in an Indiaman. After that he was captain's steward on
+board of several ships. He sailed originally from Yarmouth, and
+going home after a voyage to see his relations, he fell in with my
+mother, and they were spliced. He was very fond of his wife, and I
+believe she was a very true and good woman, equally fond of him. He
+went to sea again, and I was born. He made another voyage to India,
+and when he came back I was two years old. I do not recollect him
+or my mother. My father had agreed to sail to the West Indies as
+captain's steward, and the captain, with whom he had sailed before,
+consented that he should take his wife with him, to attend upon the
+lady passengers; so I was left at Yarmouth, and put out to nurse
+till they came back. But they never came back, Jack; and, as soon
+as I can recollect, I found myself in the workhouse, and, when old
+enough, was sent to sea. I had been told that my father and mother
+had been lost at sea, but no one could tell me how, and I thought
+little more about it, for I had never known them, and those we
+don't know we do not love or care for, be they father or
+mother.</p>
+<p>"Well, I had sailed four or five voyages to the north in the
+whalers, and was then about twenty-five years old, when I thought I
+would go back to Yarmouth and show myself, for I was 'harpooner and
+steersman' at that early age, and not a little proud. I thought I
+would go and look at the old workhouse, for it was the only thing I
+could recollect, and see if the master and mistress were still
+alive, for they were kind to me when I was living with them. I went
+to Yarmouth, as I said. There was the workhouse, and the master and
+mistress both alive; and I made myself known to them, and the old
+people looked at me through their spectacles, and could not believe
+that I could possibly be the little Ben who used to run to the pump
+for water. I had money in my pocket, and I liked the old people,
+who offered me all they could give without hopes of receiving any
+thing in return, and, as I knew nobody else, I used to live much
+with them, and pay them handsomely. I gave the old man some
+curiosities and the old woman a teapot, and so on, and I remained
+with them till it was time for me to sail again. Now, you see,
+Jack, among the old folk in the workhouse was a man who had been at
+sea; and I often had long talks with him, and gave him tobacco,
+which he couldn't afford to buy&mdash;for they don't allow it in a
+workhouse, which is a great hardship, and I have often thought that
+I should not like to go into a workhouse because I never could have
+a bit of tobacco. This man's hair was as white as snow, much too
+white for his age, for he was more decrepit and worn out than,
+perhaps, he was old. He had come home to his parish, and, being
+unable to gain his living, they had sent him to the workhouse. I
+can't understand why a place should be called a workhouse where
+they do nothing at all. Well, Charley, as they called him, got very
+ill, and they thought he would not last long; and, when the old
+people were busy, I used to talk a great deal with him. He was
+generally very quiet and composed, and said he was comfortable, but
+that he knew he was going fast.</p>
+<p>"'But,' says he, 'here's my comfort;' and he pointed to a Bible
+that he had on his knees. 'If it had not been for this book,' said
+he, 'I do think, at times, I should have made away with
+myself.'</p>
+<p>"'Why,' says I, 'what have you done? Have you been very
+wicked?'</p>
+<p>"'We are all very wicked,' said he; 'but that's not exactly it.
+I have been <i>haunted</i> for so many years that I have been
+almost driven mad.'</p>
+<p>"'Why,' said I, 'what can you have done that you should have
+been haunted? You haven't committed murder, have you?'</p>
+<p>"'Well, I don't know what to say,' replied he; 'if a man looks
+on and don't prevent murder, is it not the same? I haven't long to
+live, and I feel as if I should be happier if I made a clean breast
+of it; for I have kept the secret a long while, and I think that
+you, as a sailor, and knowing what sailors suffer, may have a
+fellow-feeling; and perhaps you will tell me (for I'm somewhat
+uneasy about it) whether you think that I am so very much to blame
+in the business? I've suffered enough for it these many years, and
+I trust that it will not be forgotten that I have so, when I'm
+called up to be judged&mdash;as we all shall, if this book is true,
+as I fully believe it to be.'</p>
+<p>"Here he appeared to be a good deal upset; but he took a drink
+of water, and then he told me as follows:</p>
+<p>"'About twenty-three years ago I was a seaman on board of the
+"William and Caroline," West Indiaman, bound to Jamaica. We had two
+or three passengers on board, and the steward's wife attended upon
+them. She was a handsome, tall young woman; and when she and her
+husband came on board, they told me they had one child, which they
+had left at home. Now Yarmouth, you see, is my native place, and,
+although I did not know her husband, I knew her family very well.
+So we were very intimate, and used to talk about the people we
+knew, and so on. I mention this in consequence of what occurred
+afterward. We arrived very safe at Jamaica, and remained, as usual,
+some time at the island before the drogers brought round our cargo,
+and then we again sailed for England.</p>
+<p>"'Well, we got clear of the islands, and were getting well
+north, when there came on a terrible gale of wind which dismasted
+us; and for three weeks we were rolling about gunnel under, for we
+were very heavily laden, and we lost our reckoning. At last we
+found out that we had been blown down among the reefs to the
+southward of the Bahama Isles. We had at one time rigged
+jury-masts, but unfortunately the gale had blown up again, and
+carried them also over the side; and we had no means of doing
+anything, for we had no more small spars or sails, and all our
+hopes were of falling in with some vessel which might assist
+us.</p>
+<p>"'But we had no such good fortune; and one morning, when a heavy
+sea was running, we discovered that it was bearing us down upon a
+reef of rocks, from which there was no chance of escape. We had no
+resource but to get the boats out, and take our chance in them. The
+captain was very cool and collected; he ordered everything in which
+might be requisite; called up the men, and explained to them his
+intentions. All the water and provisions were put into the launch,
+for the sea ran so high that the small boats could not carry them;
+and it was intended that all the boats should keep company till it
+moderated, and then each boat should have its own supply. When all
+was ready, we were <i>told off</i> to our respective boats. The
+steward and his wife were to be in the same boat with me, and I had
+put her carefully in the sternsheets, for I was her great friend.
+Now the steward was called out by the captain to go for something
+which had been forgotten; and while he was away the ship was struck
+by a heavy sea, which occasioned such a breach over her that all
+was in confusion, and, to prevent the small boats from swamping,
+they were pushed off. The launch still held on for the captain, who
+hastened in with the mate and the steward, for they were the only
+three left on board; and away we all went. I mention this as the
+cause why the steward was separated (only for a time, as we
+supposed) from his wife. We had not been clear of the ship more
+than five minutes before we found that we, in our boat, could
+hardly make head 'gainst the wind and swell, which bore down on the
+reef close to us; the launch, which was a heavy-pulling boat and
+deeply laden, could not; and in a quarter of an hour we had the
+misery to see her in the breakers, swallowed up with all hands,
+together with all the provisions and water for our sustenance. I
+will not attempt to describe the agony of the steward's wife, who
+saw her husband perish before her eyes. She fainted; and it was a
+long time before she came to again; for no one could leave his oar
+for a minute to assist her, as we pulled for our lives. At last she
+did come to. Poor thing! I felt for her. Toward night the wind
+lulled, and we had every appearance of fine weather coming on; but
+we had nothing to eat, and only a barrico of water in the boat, and
+we were quite exhausted with fatigue.</p>
+<p>"'We knew that we must pull to the northward, and try and fetch
+the Bahama Isles, or, perhaps, some of the small quays to the
+southward of them, where we might procure turtle, and, perhaps,
+water; and when the sea had gone down, which it did very fast, we
+put the head of our boat in that direction, pulling all night. At
+daybreak the other boat was not to be seen; it was a dead clam, but
+there was still a long heavy swell. We shared out some water and
+rested till the evening, and then we took to our oars again.</p>
+<p>"'We rowed hard till the morning, but when the sun rose it
+scorched us up. It was impossible for us to keep to our oars
+without drinking, and, there being no one to take the command, our
+water was all gone, and we had not gained fifty miles to the
+northward. On the third morning we laid down exhausted at the
+bottom of the boat&mdash;we were dying not only with thirst, but
+with hunger; we had agreed that when night came on we would take to
+the oars again; but some would and some would not; so that, at
+last, those who had taken to their oars would pull no longer.</p>
+<p>"'The steward's wife at times sang psalms, and at times wept.
+She had a very sweet voice, but her lips were soon glued together
+for want of water, and she could sing no longer.</p>
+<p>"'When the sun rose on the fourth day there was no vessel to be
+seen. Some were raving for water, and others sat crouched under the
+boat's thwarts in silent despair. But, toward evening, the sky
+clouded over, and there fell a heavy rain, which refreshed us. We
+took the gown from off the steward's wife, and spread it, and
+caught the water; and we all drank until our thirst was
+quenched&mdash;even our wet clothes were a comfort to us; still we
+were gnawed with hunger. That night we slept; but the next morning
+every man's eyes flashed, and we all looked as if we would eat each
+other; and there were whisperings and noddings going on in the bow
+of the boat; and a negro who was with us took out his knife, and
+sharpened it on the boat's gunnel. No one asked him why. We spoke
+not, but we all had our own thoughts. It was dreadful to look at
+our hollow cheeks&mdash;our eyes sunken deep, but glaring like
+red-hot coals&mdash;our long beards and haggard faces&mdash;every
+one ready to raise his hand against the other. The poor woman never
+complained or said a word after she left off singing; her thoughts
+appeared elsewhere. She sat for hours motionless, with her eyes
+fixed on the still blue water, as if she would pierce its
+depth.</p>
+<p>"'At last the negro came aft; and we were each upon our guard as
+he passed us, for we had seen him sharpen his knife. He went to the
+sternsheets, where the poor woman sat, and we all knew what he
+intended to do, for he only acted our own thoughts. She was still
+hanging over the gunnel, with her eyes fixed downward, and she
+heeded not his approach. He caught her by the hair, and dragged her
+head toward him. She then held out her arms toward me, faintly
+calling me by name; but I&mdash;shame on me!&mdash;remained sitting
+on the afterthwart. The negro thrust his knife into her neck, below
+the ear; and, as soon as he had divided the artery, he glued his
+thick lips to the gash and sucked her blood.</p>
+<p>"'When the deed was done, others rose up and would have shared;
+but the negro kept his white eyes directed toward them&mdash;one
+arm thrust out, with his knife pointed at them, as he slaked his
+thirst, while, with his other round her waist, he supported her
+dying frame. The attitude was that of fondness, while the deed
+was&mdash;murder. He appeared as if he were caressing her, while
+her life's blood poured into his throat. At last we all drew our
+knives; and the negro knew that he must resign his prey or his
+life. He dropped the woman, and she fell, with her face forward, at
+my feet. She was quite dead. And then&mdash;our hunger was
+relieved.</p>
+<p>"'Three days passed away, and again we were mad for want of
+water&mdash;when we saw a vessel. We shouted, and shook hands, and
+threw out the oars, and pulled as if we had never suffered. It was
+still calm, and, as we approached the vessel, we threw what
+remained of the poor woman into the sea; and the sharks finished
+what we had left. We agreed to say nothing about her, for we were
+ashamed of ourselves.</p>
+<p>"'Now I did <i>not</i> murder, but I did <i>not</i> prevent it;
+and I have ever since been haunted by this poor woman. I see her
+and the negro constantly before me, and then I think of what
+passed, and I turn sick. I feel that I ought to have saved
+her&mdash;she is always holding out her arms to me, and I hear her
+faintly call "Charles"&mdash;then I read my Bible&mdash;and she
+disappears, and I feel as if I were forgiven. Tell me, what do you
+think, messmate?'</p>
+<p>"'Why,' replied I, 'sarcumstances will make us do what we
+otherwise would never think possible. I never was in such a
+predicament, and therefore can't tell what people may be brought to
+do. But tell me, messmate, what was the name of the poor
+woman?'</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus090.jpg" id="illus090.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus090.jpg"><img src="images/thumb090.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>ANDERSON READING THE BIBLE TO JACK.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 89.</b><br /></div>
+<p>"'The husband's name was Ben Rivers.'</p>
+<p>"'<i>Rivers</i>, did you say?' replied I, struck all of a
+heap.</p>
+<p>"'Yes,' replied he; 'that was her name; she was of this town.
+But never mind the name&mdash;tell me what you think,
+messmate?'</p>
+<p>"'Well,' says I (for I was quite bewildered), 'I'll tell you
+what, old fellow&mdash;as far as I'm consarned, you have my
+forgiveness, and now I must wish you good-by&mdash;and I pray to
+God that we may never meet again.'</p>
+<p>"'Stop a little,' said he; 'don't leave me this way. Ah! I see
+how it is&mdash;you think I'm a murderer.'</p>
+<p>"'No, I don't,' replied I; 'not exactly&mdash;still, there'll be
+no harm in your reading your Bible.'</p>
+<p>"And so I got up, and walked out of the room&mdash;for you see,
+Jack, although he mayn't have been so much to blame, still I didn't
+like to be in company with a man who had eaten up <i>my own
+mother!</i>"</p>
+<p>Here Ben paused, and sighed deeply. I was so much shocked with
+the narrative that I could not say a word. At last Ben
+continued:</p>
+<p>"I couldn't stay in the room&mdash;I couldn't stay in the
+workhouse. I couldn't even stay in the town. Before the day closed
+I was out of it, and I have never been there since. Now, Jack, I
+must go in&mdash;remember what I have said to you, and larn to read
+your Bible."</p>
+<p>I promised that I would, and that very evening I had my first
+lesson from Peter Anderson, and I continued to receive them until I
+could read well. He then taught me to write and cipher; but before
+I could do the latter, many events occurred, which must be made
+known to the reader.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ELEVEN" id="CHAPTER_ELEVEN"></a>CHAPTER
+ELEVEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which the Doctor lets out some very novel Modes of Medical
+Treatment, which are attended with the greatest Success.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Such a change has taken place since I can first recollect
+Greenwich that it will be somewhat difficult for me to make the
+reader aware of my localities. Narrow streets have been pulled
+down, handsome buildings erected&mdash;new hotels in lieu of small
+inns&mdash;gay shops have now usurped those which were furnished
+only with articles necessary for the outfit of the seamen.
+Formerly, long stages, with a basket to hold six behind, and
+dillies which plied at the Elephant and Castle, were the usual land
+conveyances&mdash;now they have made place for railroads and
+omnibuses. Formerly, the wherry conveyed the mariner and his wife,
+with his sea-chest, down to the landing-place&mdash;now steamboats
+pour out their hundreds at a trip. Even the view from Greenwich is
+much changed, here and there broken in upon by the high towers for
+shot and other manufactories, or some large building which rises
+boldly in the distance; while the "Dreadnaught's" splendid frame
+fills up half the river, and she that was used to deal out death
+and destruction with her terrible rows of teeth, is now dedicated
+by humanity to succor and relieve.</p>
+<p>I mention this because the house in which Dr. Tadpole formerly
+lived no longer exists; and I wish particularly to describe it to
+the reader.</p>
+<p>When I left Greenwich in 1817 or 1818, it was still standing,
+although certainly in a very dilapidated state. I will, however,
+give a slight sketch of it, as it is deeply impressed on my
+memory.</p>
+<p>It was a tall, narrow building of dark red brick, much
+ornamented, and probably built in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It
+had two benches on each side the door; for, previous to Tadpole's
+taking possession of it, it had been an alehouse, and much
+frequented by seamen. The doctor had not removed these benches, as
+they were convenient, when the weather was fine, for those who
+waited for medicine or advice; and moreover, being a jocular,
+sociable man, he liked people to sit down there, and would often
+converse with them. Indeed, this assisted much to bring him into
+notice, and made him so well known among the humbler classes that
+none of them, if they required medicine or advice, ever thought of
+going to any one but Dr. Tadpole. He was very liberal and kind, and
+I believe there was hardly a poor person in the town who was not in
+his debt, for he never troubled them much about payment. He had
+some little property of his own, or he never could have carried on
+such a losing concern as his business really must have been to him.
+In early life he had been a surgeon in the navy, and was said, and
+I believe with justice, to be very clever in his profession. In
+defending himself against some act of oppression on the part of his
+captain&mdash;for in those times the service was very different to
+what it is now&mdash;he had incurred the displeasure of the Navy
+Board, and had left the service. His enemies (for even the doctor
+had his enemies) asserted that he was turned out of the service;
+his friends, that he left the service in disgust; after all, a
+matter of little consequence. The doctor is now gone, and has left
+behind him in the town of Greenwich a character for charity and
+generosity of which no one can deprive him. He was buried in
+Greenwich churchyard; and never was there, perhaps, such a numerous
+procession as voluntarily followed his remains to the grave. The
+poor fully paid him the debt of gratitude, if they did not pay him
+their other debts; and when his will was opened, it was found that
+he had released them all from the latter. Peace be to him, and
+honor to his worth!</p>
+<p>The shop of Dr. Tadpole was fitted up in a very curious manner,
+and excited a great deal of admiration. During his service afloat
+he had collected various objects of natural history, which he had
+set up or prepared himself: the lower rows of bottles in the
+windows were full of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles; the
+second tier of bottles in the window were the same as are now
+generally seen&mdash;large globes containing blue and yellow
+mixtures, with gold hieroglyphics outside of them; but between each
+of these bottles was a stuffed animal of some kind, generally a
+small monkey, or of that description. The third row of bottles was
+the most incomprehensible: no one could tell what was in them; and
+the doctor, when asked, would laugh and shake his head: this made
+the women very curious. I believe they were chiefly preparations of
+the stomach, and other portions of the interior of the animal
+frame; but the doctor always said that it was his row of "secrets,"
+and used to amuse himself with evading the questions of the other
+sex. There were some larger specimens of natural history suspended
+from the ceiling, chiefly skulls and bones of animals; and on the
+shelves inside a great variety of stones and pebbles and fragments
+of marble figures, which the doctor had picked up, I believe, in
+the Mediterranean: altogether the shop was a strange medley, and
+made people stare very much when they came into it. The doctor kept
+an old woman to cook and clean the house, and his boy Tom, whom I
+have already mentioned. Tom was a good-natured lad, and, as his
+master said, very fond of liquorice; but the doctor used to laugh
+at that (when Tom was not by), saying, "It's very true that Tom
+cribs my <i>liquorice</i>; but I will say this for him, he is very
+honest about <i>jalap</i> and <i>rhubarb</i>, and I have never
+missed a grain."</p>
+<p>Next door to the doctor lived another person, who kept a small
+tobacconist's shop, which was a favorite resort of the pensioners
+and other poor people. She was an Irishwoman, with a strong accent
+of her country&mdash;a widow by her own account. Who her husband
+had been was not satisfactorily known: if the question was put, she
+always evaded it as much as possible. All she said was that his
+name was St. Felix, and that he had been of no profession. She was
+about twenty-two or twenty-three, very handsome, and very pleasing
+in her manners, which was perhaps one cause of the surmises and
+scandal which were continually afloat. Some said that her husband
+was still alive; others that he had been transported for seven
+years; and many (and among them my mother) declared that she could
+not produce her "marriage lines." Indeed, there was no end to
+ill-natured reports, as always will be the case when men are so
+unfortunate as to have a reputation, or women so unfortunate as to
+be pretty. But the widow appeared to be indifferent to what people
+said: she was always lively and cheerful, and a great favorite with
+the men, whatever she may have been with the women. Dr. Tadpole had
+courted her ever since she had settled at Greenwich: they were the
+best of friends, but the doctor's suit did not appear to advance.
+Nevertheless, the doctor seldom passed a day without paying her a
+visit, and she was very gracious to him. Although she sold every
+variety of tobacco, she would not permit people to smoke, and had
+no seats either in the shop or at the door&mdash;but to this rule
+an exception was made in favor of the doctor. He seldom failed to
+be there every evening; and, although she would not allow him a
+chair, she permitted him to remain standing at the counter and
+smoke his cigar while they conversed. It was this indulgence which
+occasioned people to think that she would marry the doctor; but at
+last they got tired of waiting, and it became a sort of proverb in
+Fisher's Alley and its precincts, when things were put off to an
+indefinite period, to say, "Yes, that will be done when the widow
+marries the doctor."</p>
+<p>One evening, Ben had sent me to fill his tobacco-box at Mrs. St.
+Felix's, and when I went in, I found the doctor in her shop.</p>
+<p>"Well, Master Tom Saunders or Mr. Poor Jack," said the widow,
+"what may your pleasure be?"</p>
+<p>"Pigtail," said I, putting down the penny.</p>
+<p>"Is it for your father, Jack, for report tells me that he's in
+want of it?"</p>
+<p>"No," replied I, "it's for old Ben&mdash;father's a long way
+from this, I expect."</p>
+<p>"And do you intend to follow him, Jack? It's my opinion you'll
+be the very revarse of a good sailor if you cruise bottom up as you
+did on your first voyage."</p>
+<p>"It's not the pleasantest way of sailing, is it, Jack?" observed
+the doctor.</p>
+<p>"Not in the winter-time," replied I.</p>
+<p>The widow measured the length of the pigtail, as milliners do
+tape, from the tip of the finger to the knuckle, and cut it
+off.</p>
+<p>"And now will you oblige me with a cigar?" said the doctor. "I
+think this is the sixth, is it not, Mrs. St. Felix? so here's my
+shilling."</p>
+<p>"Really, doctor, if it were not that the wry faces I make at
+physic would spoil my beauty, I'm almost in honor bound to send for
+something to take out of your shop, just by the way of return for
+your patronage."</p>
+<p>"I trust you will never require it, Mrs. St. Felix. I've no
+objection to your sending for anything you please, but don't take
+physic."</p>
+<p>"Well, my girl Jane shall have a dose, I declare, she is getting
+so fat and lumpy. Only don't let it be laudanum, doctor, she's so
+sleepy-headed already. I told her this morning that she was looking
+pale, just by way of preparing her."</p>
+<p>"Mrs. St. Felix, you must excuse me, but you've no right to
+interfere with my practice. I prescribe physic when I think it
+necessary, and Jane is perfectly well at present, and shall not
+have any."</p>
+<p>"And you've no right to interfere with my household, doctor. If
+I choose, I'll physic Jane, and the dog, and the cat, and the
+kitten, which I reckon to be the whole of my establishment, all
+four of them on the same day. Tell me, doctor, how much ipecacuanha
+will make a kitten sick?"</p>
+<p>"Mrs. St. Felix, I am not a veterinary surgeon, and therefore
+cannot answer."</p>
+<p>"Veterinary! Well, I thought they only doctored horses."</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, their practice extends further, as I can
+prove to you. I was once at the establishment of one in London, and
+I observed in a large room about a dozen little lap-dogs all tied
+up with strings. The poor little unwieldy waddling things were sent
+to him because they were asthmatic, and I don't know what all; and
+how do you think he cured them?"</p>
+<p>"It's for me to ask that question, doctor."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, he told me his secret. He tied them all up, and
+gave them nothing to eat, only water to drink; and in three weeks
+they were returned in as beautiful condition, and as frisky as
+young kids. Nothing but diet, Mrs. St. Felix."</p>
+<p>"I should rather think it was <i>no</i> diet, doctor. Well, I do
+declare, I'll tie up Jane for three weeks, and see if nothing but
+water will cure her complaints. Well, Mr. Jack, why don't you take
+the tobacco to Ben?"</p>
+<p>"Oh! he's in at supper now; there's no hurry," replied I; "and I
+like to hear you talk."</p>
+<p>"Well, there'll be less scandal in your remaining to hear us
+than there would be if we sent you away, anyhow. How's little Miss
+Virginia, sister to Poor Jack."</p>
+<p>"She's quite well, and wants to come and see you, only mother
+won't let her."</p>
+<p>"Many thanks to your sister for her compliment; and not
+forgetting your mother for hers, also. So your mother has given up
+'making <i>lay</i> on reasonable terms'?"</p>
+<p>"'Cause people wouldn't come."</p>
+<p>"And that is a sufficient reason, even if she had not another;
+which is, that she's never out of hot water without boiling more.
+Doctor, you're as mute as a fish. You told me how to cure Jane and
+the dogs, now tell me what's the dose for a cat and a kitten?"</p>
+<p>"A ha'p'orth of liver, cut into small pieces."</p>
+<p>"There'll be no difficulty in getting that down their throats,
+anyhow."</p>
+<p>"Talking about liver, Mrs. St. Felix, I once knew a friend of
+mine who cured some geese of a liver complaint."</p>
+<p>"Had they been long in the East Indies, poor creatures?"</p>
+<p>"No, but they had been in a very hot climate. You see, he was
+over in France during the last peace, and he went to the baths at
+Montpellier for the benefit of his health. He lodged with an old
+Frenchman. Now, you see, Mrs. St. Felix, in the south of France
+they have a custom of making certain pies, which are much esteemed,
+and are called p&acirc;tes de foie gras&mdash;that means livers of
+geese, in French."</p>
+<p>"It don't sound much like livers in English, doctor; but never
+mind that, go on with your story."</p>
+<p>"Here's a customer, Mrs. St. Felix; serve him first, and then I
+will go on with my story."</p>
+<p>An old pensioner came in, and laying the coppers on the counter,
+asked for a ha'p'orth of returns and a farthing of snuff.</p>
+<p>"That's a large ready money order, doctor," said the widow, as
+the man left the shop. "Ain't I making my fortune? Now go on; I'm
+as eager about the liver as my own cat."</p>
+<p>"Well, the great object is to increase the size of the geese's
+livers, that is, to bring on a regular liver complaint; and, to
+effect this, they put the poor animals in a hot closet next the
+kitchen fire, cram the food into their mouths through a funnel, and
+give them plenty of water to drink. This produces the disease; and
+the livers of the geese, when they are killed, very often weigh
+three or four pounds, while the animals themselves are mere
+skeletons."</p>
+<p>"And the French eat those liver complaints?" interrupted the
+widow, making a face.</p>
+<p>"Yes, they do, and are as fond of it as my boy Tom is of
+liquorice. Well, this doctor, who is a friend of mine, quarreled
+with his host, who boasted of his geese having the largest livers
+in Montpellier, and was very proud of it. My friend knew that he
+could not annoy him more than by preventing his success; so, having
+a large quantity of Cheltenham salts with him, he used every
+morning to put a quantity of them in the water which the geese were
+given to drink. This had the same effect upon them as it has upon
+men and women; and instead of becoming more diseased every day, the
+geese recovered their health and spirits. The Frenchman crammed and
+crammed, made his closet still hotter, and sacre bleu'd, and
+actually tore his hair, because his geese would be well and hearty;
+but, the more he tried to make them ill, the more salts were given
+to them by the doctor, who gained his point and his revenge."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's a funny story, doctor; and since you know how to
+cure it, the first time I meet with a sick goose I'll send him to
+you."</p>
+<p>"Many thanks; but, as it is, there's plenty of geese to send for
+the doctor."</p>
+<p>"That's true enough. And now, Master Jack, you've had quite
+enough for your penny, and I won't allow Ben to be kept waiting any
+longer."</p>
+<p>"You are not going to tell any more stories, doctor?" said
+I.</p>
+<p>"Why, you mud-larking vagabond, you don't mean to say that I've
+told stories? Be off with you! And, I say, as you pass round the
+corner, just tell Tom that I'm coming home directly."</p>
+<p>"Won't that be a story, doctor?" said I, as I went out of the
+door. I heard them both laugh, but I did not hear what they
+said.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWELVE" id="CHAPTER_TWELVE"></a>CHAPTER
+TWELVE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I prefer a Suit to Old Nanny, and procure a new Suit of
+Clothes&mdash;The advantage of being well dressed: you may walk out
+with the Ladies</p>
+</div>
+<p>The reader must not give me too much credit when I tell him
+that, ever since I had been under the tuition of Peter Anderson, I
+had quite a craving to go to church. Although what I had gained
+from his precepts and explanations had increased my desire, still I
+must acknowledge that the strongest reason for my being so anxious
+was that my mother would not take me, and did take Virginia.
+Further, my curiosity was excited by my absolute ignorance of what
+the church service consisted; I had heard the bells toll, and, as I
+sauntered by, would stop and listen to the organ and the singing. I
+would sometimes wait, and see the people coming out; and then I
+could not help comparing my ragged dress with their clean and gay
+attire.</p>
+<p>This wish continually worried me; but the more I reflected, the
+more impossible it appeared to be that I should be able to gratify
+it. How could I possibly go to church in my tattered and dirty
+clothes&mdash;and what chance had I of getting others? I certainly
+gained, at an average, eighteenpence per week, but I saved nothing.
+Would my mother give me clothes? No, that I was sure she would not,
+for she grudged me even the little victuals which I did apply for.
+I thought this matter over and over as I lay in bed. Ben had no
+money. Anderson I could not ask for it. I thought that I would
+apply to Dr. Tadpole, but I was afraid. At last it came into my
+head that I had better first ascertain how much money I should
+require before I took further measures. The next morning I went to
+a fitting-out shop, and asked the lad who attended how much money I
+should have to pay for a pair of blue trousers, waistcoat, and
+jacket. The lad told me that I might have a very nice suit for
+twenty-two shillings. Twenty-two shillings! What an enormous sum it
+appeared to me then; and then there was a straw hat to buy, and a
+pair of shoes and stockings. I inquired the price of these last
+articles, and found that my dross could not be made complete under
+thirty-three shillings. I was quite in despair, for the sum
+appeared to be a fortune. I sat down to calculate how long it would
+take me to save up so much money, at sixpence a week, which was all
+that I could afford; but, at that time, never having learned
+anything of figures, all I could make of it was that it was so long
+a time as to be beyond my calculation.</p>
+<p>It was Saturday evening. I sat down on the steps of the
+landing-place, very melancholy, thinking that to-morrow was Sunday,
+and abandoning all hopes of ever going to church, when a Thames
+fisherman, of the name of Freeman, who lived at Greenwich, and with
+whom I was acquainted&mdash;for I used to assist him on the
+Saturday night to moor his coble off the landing-place, and hang up
+his nets to dry&mdash;called out to me to come and help him. I did
+so; we furled the sails, hauled on board his little boat for
+keeping the fish alive, hoisted the nets up to the mast, and made
+all secure; and I was thinking to myself that he would go to church
+to-morrow, and I could not, when he asked me why I was so sad. I
+told him.</p>
+<p>"Why, Jack," said he, "I can't help you, for it is bad times
+with me just now; indeed, I could help you but little if times were
+ever so good&mdash;I've too many children of my own; but look ye,
+here's a good long piece of four-inch, which I picked up, and it's
+well worth a shilling. I'll give it you (for I do owe you
+something), and do you take it to old Nanny. She's a queer body;
+but suppose you try whether she'll let you have the money. She can
+if she chooses, and, as you have dealt with her so long, perhaps
+she will, if you promise to lay some by every week, and repay
+her."</p>
+<p>This idea had never occurred to me, for I knew old Nanny was
+very close, and drove very hard bargains with me; however, I
+thanked Freeman for his piece of rope and piece of advice, and when
+we landed I determined, at all events, I would try.</p>
+<p>I have before mentioned old Nanny, who kept a marine store, and
+to whom I used to sell whatever I picked up on the beach. She was a
+strange old woman, and appeared to know everything that was going
+on. How she gained her information I cannot tell. She was very
+miserly in general; but it was said she had done kind things in one
+or two instances. Nobody knew her history: all that anybody knew
+was that she was Old Nanny. She had no kith or kin that she ever
+mentioned; some people said she was rich, if the truth were known;
+but how are we to get at the truth in this world?</p>
+<p>I was soon at old Nanny's store, with the piece of rope coiled
+over my arm.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, what have you got here? a piece of good junk? no,
+it is not, for it is quite rotten. Why do you bring me such things?
+What can I do with them?"</p>
+<p>"Why, mother," says I, "it's new rope; not been used hardly;
+it's the very best of junk."</p>
+<p>"Boy, boy! do you pretend to teach me? Well, what do you want
+for it?"</p>
+<p>"I want a shilling," replied I.</p>
+<p>"A shilling!" cried she, "where am I to find a shilling? And if
+I could find one, why should I throw it away upon a thing not worth
+twopence, and which will only lumber my store till I die? The boy's
+demented!"</p>
+<p>"Mother," says I, "it's worth a shilling, and you know it; so
+give it to me, or I go elsewhere."</p>
+<p>"And where will you go to, good-for-nothing that you are? where
+will you go to?"</p>
+<p>"Oh! the fishermen will give me more."</p>
+<p>"The fishermen will give you a couple of stale flat-fish, to
+take home to your mother."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll try that," said I, going.</p>
+<p>"Not so fast, Jack, not so fast; if I make a penny by you one
+day, I suppose, to keep your custom, I must lose something by you
+the next. Now, I'll give you sixpence; and how I'm to get my money
+back I don't know."</p>
+<p>"No, Nanny," said I, "I must have a shilling."</p>
+<p>"A shilling, you little cheat! I can't give it; but what do you
+want? don't you want a key to your chest, or something of that
+sort?"</p>
+<p>"I've no chest, mother, and therefore don't want a key."</p>
+<p>"But you want something out of all the pretty things in my shop;
+boys always fancy something."</p>
+<p>I laughed at the idea of "pretty things" in her shop, for it
+contained nothing but old iron, empty bottles, dirty rags and
+phials; so I told her there was nothing that I wanted.</p>
+<p>"Well," says she, "sit down a little, and look about you;
+there's no hurry. So Mrs. East has got another boy, worse luck for
+the parish, with six children already!&mdash;Look about you, and
+take your time.&mdash;Did you hear of Peter James giving his wife a
+black eye last night because she wanted to get him out of the
+alehouse?&mdash;I wonder who that letter was from that Susan Davis
+had from the post-office. I think I could guess; poor girl! she has
+looked rather peaking for some weeks.&mdash;Don't be in a hurry,
+Jack; look about; there's plenty of pretty things in my
+shop.&mdash;So Davis the butcher has been pulled up for bad meat; I
+thought it would come to that, and I'm glad of it.&mdash;There's a
+capital lock and key, Jack, to put to your chest, when you get one;
+suppose you take that.&mdash;What's the doctor about? They say he
+is always sitting with the widow.&mdash;Does your mother make
+plenty of money by clear-starching? I know your sister had a
+spotted muslin frock on last Sunday, and that must have cost
+something.&mdash;There's a spade, Jack; very useful to dig on the
+beach; you may find something&mdash;money, perhaps&mdash;who knows?
+Take the spade, Jack, and then you'll owe me sixpence.&mdash;So
+Bill Freeman pawned his wife's best gown last Saturday night. I
+thought it would be so. He may say it's because he's caught no fish
+this bad weather. But I know more than people think.&mdash;Here's a
+nice glass bottle, Jack, wouldn't you like to give it to your
+mother, to put pickles in? it's white glass, you see. Look about,
+Jack; there's plenty of pretty things, you see.&mdash;So the
+Governor's daughter's going to be married; at least I suppose so,
+for I met her riding with a young gentleman; and nowadays the
+quality always make love on horseback.&mdash;Well, Jack, have you
+found anything?"</p>
+<p>"No, mother, I haven't; and I must have my shilling or go.
+Unless, indeed, you're inclined to help me to what I want, and then
+I'll give you the rope for nothing."</p>
+<p>"Give me the rope for nothing!" replied old Nanny. "Sit down,
+Jack, and let me know what it is you want."</p>
+<p>I thought it was of little use to make the application, but I
+determined to try; so I explained my wishes.</p>
+<p>"Humph!" said she, after a minute's thought, "so you want
+thirty-three shillings to buy clothes&mdash;to go to church in.
+Your mother dresses your sister in spotted muslin and leaves you in
+rags; suppose you wait till your father comes home again?"</p>
+<p>"That may not be for years."</p>
+<p>"Why, Jack, I don't go to church&mdash;I am too old&mdash;too
+poor to dress myself to go to church, even if I could go so
+far&mdash;why should you go?"</p>
+<p>"Well, mother," said I, rising up, "if you will not do it, I'm
+very sorry; I would have paid you honestly, and have given you good
+bargains, so good-by."</p>
+<p>"Not so fast, Jack&mdash;sit down, sit down, boy&mdash;look
+about the shop and see if you can find something that will suit
+you." Here Nanny communed with herself aloud: "Thirty-three
+shillings! that's a great deal of money&mdash;pay me
+honestly&mdash;and good bargains! His mother called me an old cat
+the other day&mdash;I think they could be got cheaper, they always
+cheat boys&mdash;she'd be vexed to see him dressed clean at
+church&mdash;honest boy, I do believe&mdash;a boy that wants to go
+to church must be a good boy. Oh, dear me, it is so much
+money!"</p>
+<p>"I'll work day and night to pay you, Nanny."</p>
+<p>"And mind, Jack, I'm to have good bargains, and this piece of
+rope for nothing; something paid every week."</p>
+<p>"If I can earn it, mother, as sure as I sit here."</p>
+<p>"Well, the old cat will do more for you, Jack, than your mother
+would. You shall have the money; but, Jack, I must bargain for the
+things."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Nanny, thank you!" replied I, jumping off my seat
+with delight.</p>
+<p>"Well, we can do nothing to-night, Jack. Come to me on Monday,
+and if I don't change my mind&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Change your mind!" said I, sorrowfully. "I thought you had
+promised!"</p>
+<p>"Well, so I did&mdash;and&mdash;and I'll keep my promise, Jack.
+Come on Monday; and as you can't go to church to-morrow, see if you
+can't pick up a little money."</p>
+<p>I did not neglect her injunctions, and was fortunate enough to
+be able to bring her sixpence on the Monday morning. Nanny went
+with me to the clothing-shop, haggled and fought until she reduced
+the articles to twenty-eight shillings, and then they were ordered
+to be made and sent to her house. I earned but little money that
+week, and more than once Nanny appeared to be very unhappy, and
+repent of her kind offices; but when Sunday came she was very
+cheerful; she washed me herself very carefully, and then put on my
+clothes. I cannot express the delight I felt at that moment; when
+Nanny said to me, as she placed the hat on my head:</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, I wouldn't have thought that you were such a
+handsome boy as you are. Why, you may walk with your sister
+Virginia, and she will have nothing to be ashamed of, pretty as she
+is. There, go and show yourself; and, Jack, don't forget your
+promise to pay me back soon and give me good bargains!"</p>
+<p>I repeated my promise and hastened to the hospital to find Peter
+Anderson. He did not know me when I came up to him. I told him how
+and why I had got the clothes; he patted my head, said I was a good
+lad, and that he would take me to the chapel at the hospital, where
+I could sit with the school-children; he could manage that. Then I
+met Ben and others, and they were all so surprised. I went to the
+chapel, and although I could not hear well what was said, for I was
+a long way off from the parson, and the old pensioners coughed so
+much, I was very much pleased, although a little tired before it
+was over. When the service was finished, I was proceeding to my
+mother's, when I met her and little Virginia coming home from the
+town church.</p>
+<p>"There's a nice little boy, Virginia," said my mother; "wouldn't
+you like to walk with him?"</p>
+<p>My mother did not know me, but Virginia did immediately; she
+burst away from her mother and ran into my arms, laughing and
+crying as she clung to me, and then she cried out, "Mother, yes,
+mother, I will walk with him!" and she hastened me away with her,
+much to my mother's annoyance, who would have run after us to stop
+her, but she didn't think it genteel to go so fast; so Virginia and
+I went off together, leaving my mother very angry indeed. We walked
+along toward the hospital, Virginia crying out to every one she
+knew, her large hazel eyes beaming with delight, "Look, this is
+brother Jack!" and I went with her to Peter Anderson and old Ben. I
+was so proud to have my sister with me; and Peter Anderson
+said:</p>
+<p>"This is as it should have been a long while ago." And then he
+continued, "Jack, you may happen not to earn any money in the week,
+and if so, come to me, for old Nanny must not be disappointed; but,
+recollect, you must pay for your own clothes out of your own
+earnings."</p>
+<p>When it was dinner-time Virginia and I went home together. As we
+came to Fisher's Alley I said to her, "Mother will be angry with
+you."</p>
+<p>"I can't help it, Jack," replied she; "you are my own brother,
+and we are not doing wrong."</p>
+<p>When we went in my mother looked hard at me; but, to my
+surprise, said nothing. She was sulky, but whether it was with
+Virginia or with me, or with my new clothes, or whether her
+conscience smote her for her neglect of me, I do not know. She put
+the dinner on the table in silence, and after it was over she went
+upstairs. Virginia and I did not neglect this opportunity. She put
+on her bonnet, we slipped out, and walked about together till
+tea-time. When we came back my mother seized my sister by the arm
+and carried her up to bed. Little Virginia made no resistance, but
+turned her head and smiled at me as she was led away. I never felt
+so happy in my life as I did when I went to bed and thought over
+the events of the day.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus109.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN" id="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+THIRTEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I am so Unfashionable as to pay my Debts&mdash;Ben's Opinion as
+to my Father's Return&mdash;The Chances exemplified in the List of
+killed and wounded&mdash;The "L'Orient" blowing up and the "Royal
+George" going down.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Time passed, and three years of it certainly were not
+unprofitably spent. Anderson had instructed me well. I could read,
+write, and cipher, and, what the reader will consider of more
+consequence, I was well acquainted with the Bible, and duly
+admonished by my preceptor of my duty toward God and man. Nor was
+my sister Virginia neglected. My mother, as soon as she was seven
+years old, sent her as a day scholar to a young ladies' seminary,
+where she was well taught, although the style of the school was
+much above my sister's situation in life; but my mother would not
+allow her to go anywhere else, although there were several schools
+more appropriate. She declared that Virginia should not mix with
+the vulgar, ungenteel girls of the place, and that, if <i>she</i>
+had demeaned herself by marrying below her rank, at all events
+<i>her</i> daughter should be brought up as she ought to be. The
+neighbors laughed at her, but my mother did not care. She worked
+hard, and always was ready to pay the quarter's bill for schooling
+whenever it was due.</p>
+<p>To me Sunday was a day of rejoicing; I was so glad to throw off
+my ragged apparel of "Poor Jack" and put on my best clothes, that I
+might walk with my sister, for my mother gradually softened down
+her asperity (perhaps out of prudence), as she could raise no
+objection to Virginia walking with her brother when he was clean
+and well dressed, and Virginia was very firm in supporting me when
+I requested permission. Indeed, latterly my requests were more like
+demanding a right than a favor, and my mother appeared to wish to
+avoid a contest with me. She knew that I was a good scholar, very
+independent of her, and very much liked. The favorable opinion of
+others induced her to treat me with more consideration; but we had
+no regard for each other, only preserving a sort of armed
+neutrality.</p>
+<p>There are grades in all classes of life; and the young ladies'
+seminary, to which Virginia went as a day scholar, had its
+distinctions of rank. The first in consequence among the young
+ladies were the two daughters of Mr. Tippet, the haberdasher; then
+came the hatter's daughter, Miss Beaver. The grades appeared to be
+as follows: manufactures held the first rank; then dry goods, as
+the tea-dealers, grocers, etc.; the third class consisted of the
+daughters of the substantial butchers and pastrycooks. The
+squabbles between the young ladies about rank and precedence were
+continual: what then must have been the position of poor little
+Virginia, whose mother was a clear-starcher and getter-up of fine
+linen? At first they called her the washerwoman's daughter, and
+would not associate with her, which made her very uncomfortable;
+and she used to tell me on the Sundays when we walked out how she
+had been treated during the week. But it was all for her advantage,
+and tended to correct the false pride and upstart ideas which in
+time must have been engendered by my mother's folly. Neither, after
+a few weeks, was my sister unhappy. She was too meek in disposition
+to reply, so that she disarmed those who would assail her; and
+being, as she was, of the lowest rank in the school, there could be
+no contest with the others as to precedence. Her mildness,
+humility, and sweetness of temper soon won upon both the
+schoolmistress and the scholars; eventually the Misses Tippet took
+Virginia under their protection, and this magnanimity on their part
+silenced all opposition. My mother had desired my sister to take
+lessons in dancing. At first the girls would not stand up with her;
+but, when the elder Miss Tippet took her as a partner, my sister
+became quite the fashion, and, what was better, a great favorite
+and pet with everybody; and they all patronized her as "little
+Virginia."</p>
+<p>I very soon paid off my debt to old Nanny, without having to
+apply to Peter Anderson. I had assistance (but without asking for
+it) as follows: The second Sunday after I had obtained my clothes I
+called, with Virginia, upon the widow of St. Felix. She was in the
+back parlor, and the doctor, as usual, sitting with her. She
+received us very kindly, spoke a deal to Virginia, and told me that
+I looked very handsome for "Poor Jack."</p>
+<p>"You'll be quite the fashion," continued she; "and I presume,
+like most fashionable gentlemen, your clothes are not paid
+for."</p>
+<p>I replied, laughing, that they were not; but that they should
+be, if I lived and could work.</p>
+<p>"I've heard the whole story from old Ben," replied she. "Come in
+to-morrow, Jack; I want to speak with you."</p>
+<p>I did so in the forenoon, when she put a five-shilling piece in
+my hand, and said, "That's from me, to help you to pay your debt to
+old Nanny. But that's not all, Jack; I've coaxed the doctor (not
+that he required much coaxing, to do him justice), and here's two
+half-crowns from him, which, I believe, will go about as far as my
+five shillings. Now, Jack, you look very happy; so, just out of
+gratitude, run as fast as you can, and make poor old Nanny happy,
+for she moans over her generous fit, and wonders all day long
+whether you will ever pay her again."</p>
+<p>I had listened all this while to Mrs. St. Felix, but I was so
+moved by her kindness and generosity that I could not speak. I had
+received money for services performed, and I had obtained it from
+Nanny as a loan, to be repaid with interest; but so much money, as
+a gift, had never entered into my imagination. I could not restrain
+my feelings. I dropped my face on the counter to conceal the tears
+which escaped.</p>
+<p>"I can't say 'thank you,' as I wish, indeed I can't," said I, as
+I looked up at her.</p>
+<p>"Why, you foolish boy, you have said thank you," replied the
+widow; "and now run away, for I must leave the shop a minute."</p>
+<p>This assistance made me redouble my exertions, and in three
+months I had repaid the whole. The last portion which was due I
+received from Virginia. She knew how much I paid off every week;
+and when on Sunday I told her that I had only one and sixpence
+owing, she ran upstairs, and, when she came down again, put the sum
+into my hand. She had been saving up all she could coax out of my
+mother ever since I had first obtained the clothes; and great
+indeed was her delight when she gave me the money&mdash;she kissed
+me, and began to dance, although it was Sunday, and then she
+proposed that we should walk together to old Nanny's, and close the
+account. We found the old woman sitting on her steps; the door was
+open, but the shop shutters were up. On the Saturday night I had
+paid her two shillings, so that she did not expect to see me.
+Virginia put the one and sixpence in her hand, saying, "Now brother
+has paid you all."</p>
+<p>"Yes, darling, he has," replied old Nanny; "but then he
+promised&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I know I did," interrupted I; "and I will keep my promise. I
+promised you good bargains."</p>
+<p>"You're an honest boy, Jack, and what's more strange, your
+sister isn't a spoiled girl; but that's not her mother's fault. My
+dear, if it was not Sunday you would be able to see all the pretty
+things in my shop, and perhaps you might like something. You must
+come another day."</p>
+<p>I thanked old Nanny once more for having trusted me, and then we
+left her, I did keep my word with, her, and gave her good bargains
+for a long while afterward.</p>
+<p>I often thought of my father, who had been absent now for nearly
+four years, and, as the time advanced, I became more anxious to
+hear of him. I seldom met old Ben the Whaler without talking about
+my father, and asking Ben what chance he thought there was of his
+return.</p>
+<p>"Why, you see, Jack," said Ben, "in these times it's hard to say
+whether a man be alive or not. Every day we hear of some naval
+action or another, and therefore every day some must lose the
+number of their mess; and then you see, Jack, a man may be supposed
+to be dead for years, and after all turn up in some French prison
+or another; and then ships change their stations, and ships'
+companies their ships; and then ships are sometimes wrecked, with
+all hands, or take fire, and are blown up. Many a good seaman loses
+his life by falling overboard in a gale&mdash;and who knows or
+cares? Whether your father be alive or be dead, Jack, it is
+impossible for me to say; but, howsomever, I hope he be."</p>
+<p>This was not a satisfactory, although a cautious reply, and I
+never could get Ben to give any other. I began to think that one of
+the mischances enumerated in Ben's catalogue might have occurred,
+and that I never should see my father again, when one morning, as I
+was standing at the landing-place, Ben came up to me and said,
+"Now, Jack, perhaps we may hear something of your father. Here's
+been a famous action fought, and a matter of a thousand men killed
+and wounded. I've only just heard about it. Nelson has licked the
+French on the coast of Egypt" (Ben here referred to the battle of
+the Nile), "and the 'Oudacious,' the ship on board of which your
+father was boatswain's mate, was in the action. Now, you see, the
+names of the killed will be sent into the office here, that their
+relations may receive the pay and prize-money due to them. So now,
+Jack, perhaps you'll hear something about your father."</p>
+<p>"But I shall only hear of his being killed, by your account. I
+don't want to hear that."</p>
+<p>"No, boy, of course you don't; but if you do, you'll hear the
+worst of it, and that's some comfort, and if he aren't killed, why,
+perhaps he's wounded, and perhaps he aren't; all perhapses in this
+world. Howsomever, come with me. I saw Anderson, with a paper in
+his hand, walking up to his retreat, as he calls it; so let's make
+all sail after him, and we shall overhaul him before he begins to
+read it."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus116.jpg" id="illus116.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus116.jpg"><img src="images/thumb116.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>ANDERSON READING THE NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 115.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>There is a small hill just inside of the Greenwich Park gates,
+commanding a beautiful view of the river and the hospital. Here
+Anderson was accustomed to repair when the weather was fine, that,
+as he told me, he might commune with himself. In this instance he
+had retired there to avoid the excitement and confusion which
+prevailed; he had, however, been accompanied by three other
+pensioners, whom we found on the hill when we arrived, and, before
+we had been there a minute, the pensioners had followed up so fast
+that there was quite a crowd. We were just in time to hear him
+commence reading the newspaper account. The wind was very high; old
+Anderson had taken off his hat (out of respect, I presume, for the
+service), and his long gray locks were swept by the wind, which,
+indeed, carried away his voice, so that it was with difficulty that
+I could hear what he said. "<i>Second Edition</i>. Glorious news!
+We have the felicity to inform our readers that, by dispatches
+received at the Admiralty this day, a splendid naval victory has
+been gained over the French fleet lying in Aboukir Bay, by
+Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, and the gallant seamen under his
+command. We refer our readers to the dispatch of Sir Horatio Nelson
+for the details. We have only to say, in few words, that the French
+fleet of thirteen sail of the line and four frigates were, on the
+1st of August last, when lying at anchor in Aboukir Bay, attacked
+by the English fleet of twelve sail of the line and one fifty-gun
+ship, and after a severe action, eleven sail of the line and two
+frigates belonging to the French were taken or burned. The loss on
+our side amounts to two hundred and eighteen killed, and six
+hundred and seventy-seven wounded."</p>
+<p>"Hurrah! three cheers, my lads!" cried Anderson, dropping the
+hand which held the newspaper, and raising the other with his hat
+in it above his head. The three hearty cheers were given by the
+crowd which had now assembled; and then Ben said to me:</p>
+<p>"You see, Jack, there's a lot of killed and wounded; so now,
+perhaps, you will hear something about your father."</p>
+<p>By this time I had been pushed back, first by one, and then by
+another, until I was a long way off from where Anderson stood.</p>
+<p>"I can't hear a word that Peter says," replied I to Ben.</p>
+<p>"No, because the wind's so high, and I myself am a little hard
+of hearing out of doors. Suppose we go now, and by-and-by you shall
+get the paper from Anderson, and read it all over to me."</p>
+<p>"Come away, Ben," replied I, impatiently, "I've got a shilling,
+and I'll buy one."</p>
+<p>We left the hill and went down into the town, directing our
+course to where we heard the horns blowing. I had not, however, to
+go to such an extraordinary expense, as "a full and particular
+account" had been struck off for twopence; one of these I
+purchased, and then Ben and I sat down on the bench outside of a
+public-house, and I commenced reading.</p>
+<p>"How good that porter looks!" observed Ben, after a pause, as he
+eyed a man near to him who was blowing off the froth from the top
+of the pot he held in his hand.</p>
+<p>"Well, Ben, as I have bought the account of the battle for
+twopence, suppose I spend the rest of the money I intended to pay
+for it in a pot of porter, to drink the health of Nelson?"</p>
+<p>"Ay, my boy, and of those who fought with him," replied Ben;
+"your own father, Jack, whether he be dead or alive."</p>
+<p>I sighed at the idea of my father being dead, for I had a great
+regard for him, although I had not seen much of him. The porter was
+brought, and after we had both drunk I recommenced reading. Having
+concluded Admiral Nelson's dispatch and the list of the ships
+taken, we then came to the loss in killed and wounded on board of
+the respective English ships.</p>
+<p>"'Vanguard'&mdash;thirty killed, seventy-five wounded; total, a
+hundred and five."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Jack, that was Nelson's own ship; and he is always to be
+found where the shot fly thickest."</p>
+<p>"'Bellerophon'&mdash;forty-nine killed, a hundred and
+forty-eight wounded; total, a hundred and ninety-seven."</p>
+<p>"Well, she was in the thick of it, anyhow!" observed Ben.</p>
+<p>"'Majestic'&mdash;fifty killed, a hundred and forty-three
+wounded; total, a hundred and ninety-three."</p>
+<p>"Why, she and the 'Bellyruffron' seem to have pretty well shared
+and shared alike. You see, Jack, they led into the action, and had
+all the cream of the fire."</p>
+<p>I went on reading and Ben remarking, until I came to the
+"Audacious."</p>
+<p>"'Audacious'"&mdash;one killed, and thirty-five wounded; total,
+thirty-six."</p>
+<p>"Well now, Jack, that's all in favor of your father being alive;
+'cause why should he be the one killed, more than any one else? I'd
+bet two pots of beer that he's among the wounded&mdash;but it's
+impossible to say; for you see, Jack, although they give us the
+names of the officers killed and wounded, they always <i>lump</i>
+the petty officers and common seamen. Well, here's to your father's
+health, Jack, anyhow; we shall soon hear something about him."</p>
+<p>"I hope so," replied I, folding up the paper.</p>
+<p>"And now, Jack," continued Ben, handing me the pot, "don't you
+feel how proud a thing it is to know how to read? Here I am, you
+see, old enough almost to be your grandfather, and don't I look
+like a helpless babby beside you? you can inform me of what is
+going on, but I cannot help myself. Don't I feel it, as I sit here,
+as if you were the man and I were the boy? indeed I do, Jack, and
+no mistake; but, arter all, there was no one to blame in my case;
+that's some comfort."</p>
+<p>I certainly did acknowledge to myself how much I had gained by
+the tuition of Peter Anderson, and what advantage it was to me that
+I had been instructed; and I could not help for a moment feeling
+that I had the advantage over my good friend Ben.</p>
+<p>According to the usual custom on the occasion of a great
+victory, the pensioners had, on the following day, what was called
+a holiday, that is, a day of rejoicing, on which they were supplied
+with an extra quantity of beer, to make merry with. On these
+occasions the rules of the hospital, with respect to sobriety, are,
+of course, not strictly observed. Most of those who prefer smoking
+collect in what is called the smoking-room, where they sit and
+enjoy themselves; but very often, as there is so much noise on
+these occasions, those who belong to the same ward collect
+together, club for some spirits to add to their extra allowance,
+and sit by the fire, which is in the corridor of the ward. The
+fireplace is generally a very large one, and surrounded by benches
+with high backs, to serve as screens against the cold and wind;
+and, as there are tables inside, you are very snug and comfortable.
+On this occasion many of the Warriors' Ward, of which Anderson was
+boatswain, and Ben one of the boatswain's mates, had repaired to
+their own fire, for it was now October, and very chilly after the
+sun went down.</p>
+<p>Ben, I suppose, in return for the pot of porter which I had
+given him, invited me to be of the party; they drank the health of
+Nelson, and talked about the different ships which were in the
+action. Some drank very fast, and then reeled off to their beds,
+which were close at hand; others were taken to bed by Peter
+Anderson and Ben; and at last there were but four or five left. One
+of these was the other boatswain's mate of the ward. I knew very
+little of him at that time, except that his name was James Turner.
+He was a very quiet well-behaved man, and seemed to be more fond of
+sitting or walking alone than of being in company; never was known
+to drink too much; and, indeed, as boatswain's mate, was more
+relied upon by Anderson than even Ben was&mdash;although, perhaps,
+Ben was his more constant companion. The conversation relative to
+the particulars of the battle of the Nile was resumed, and Anderson
+observed&mdash;</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"What an awful sight it must have been to behold the blowing up
+of the 'L'Orient' French three-decker, with upward of a thousand
+men on board! Merciful Heaven! so many poor fellows launched into
+eternity in one moment! They say there were but seventy-three
+saved."</p>
+<p>"There were nearly as many souls lost when the 'Royal George'
+went down at Spithead, with all the fleet at anchor round about
+her," replied Ben; "were there not, Turner, for you were on board
+of her?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I should think there were," replied Turner; "but it is
+impossible to say how many people were on board at the time."</p>
+<p>"Messmate," said Anderson, "as all the noisy ones are gone, and
+we shall be able to hear you, suppose that you let us know all
+about it? I have heard a good deal, but, I suspect, not the rights
+of it."</p>
+<p>"With all my heart," replied Turner. "It was a sad affair, and
+was all owing to the pride of an officer, who was not much of a
+sailor, at all events."</p>
+</div>
+<p>I drew nearer, that I might not lose a word of what Turner said;
+and then he narrated, in the following words,</p>
+<p>THE LOSS OF THE "ROYAL GEORGE"</p>
+<p>"Well, messmates, the 'Royal George' was a hundred-gun ship; and
+what we don't often see now, when I first belonged to her her guns
+were all brass. We had brass twenty-four-pounders on our
+quarter-deck, forecastle, poop, and main deck, brass thirty-twos on
+our middle deck, and brass forty-two-pounders on our lower deck. In
+the spring of '82, when we were at Plymouth (about six months
+before she sunk), it was considered that the brass forty-twos on
+the lower deck were too heavy for her, so they were put on shore,
+and we had iron thirty-twos instead. I don't think, myself, it made
+much difference in the weight of metal, and we were sorry to part
+with them. We were a flagship, you know&mdash;old Kempenfelt
+carrying his blue at the mizzen&mdash;and our poop lanterns were so
+large that the men used to get inside them to clean them. She was
+rather a top-heavy sort of ship, in my opinion, her upper works
+were so high&mdash;why, we measured sixty-six feet from the keelson
+up to the taffrail; but still, with proper attention, there was
+nothing to fear on that score.</p>
+<p>"Well, it was on the twenty-ninth of August, '82&mdash;that's
+just fourteen years and about six weeks ago&mdash;that we were
+lying at Spithead, in company with Lord Howe's fleet of between
+twenty and thirty sail of the line: there was the 'Victory,'
+'Barfleur,' 'Ocean,' and 'Union,' all three-deckers, I recollect,
+close to us. We were in good repair, not at all leaky, and were to
+have sailed in two days to join the fleet in the Mediterranean. We
+had been paid, in consequence of our being about to sail foreign;
+and we had been paid in golden guineas. I think that, could all the
+money be collected together, from the pockets of the seamen, the
+women, and the Jews, who went down in the ship, it would be a very
+pretty fortune even for a duke's daughter."</p>
+<p>Here Ben shoved the ale to Turner, who drank a little and
+proceeded, while Ben took a swig and passed it round.</p>
+<p>"Well, you see, messmates, the first lieutenant had been washing
+the decks on the morning before, and the carpenter had been ordered
+to let the water in, when it was found that the water-cock, which
+was about three feet below the water-line, was out of order, and it
+was necessary that it should be repaired. The foreman came off from
+the dockyard, and stated that it was necessary that the ship should
+be careened over to port sufficiently to raise the mouth of the
+pipe&mdash;which went through the ship's timbers below&mdash;clean
+out of the water, that they might work at it; so, between seven and
+eight o'clock on that morning, the whole of the larboard guns were
+run out as far as they could be, and of course the larboard lower
+deck ports were open; the starboard guns were also run in
+amidships, and secured by the tackles; the shifting over of this
+great weight of metal brought the larboard lower deck port-cills
+just level with the water; the men were then able to get at the
+mouth of the pipe to the water-cock on the starboard side, as it
+was clean out of water, and for about an hour they were working
+away hard at it.</p>
+<p>"It was about nine o'clock, we had just finished our breakfasts,
+and the hands had been turned up, when the last lighter, with the
+rum on board, came alongside. She was a sloop of fifty tons, called
+the 'Lark,' and belonged to three brothers, whose names I forget.
+She was secured to the larboard side of the ship; and the hands
+were piped 'clear lighter.' Some of our men were in the lighter
+slinging the casks, others at the yard tackle and stay-falls
+hoisting in, some in the spirit-room stowing away. I was in the
+waist, bearing the casks over, down the hatchway; none of us
+thinking that we should never mix our grog out of that liquor."</p>
+<p>"No, I suppose not," observed Anderson; "but we little know what
+the day may bring forth."</p>
+<p>"That's true as Gospel," said Ben.</p>
+<p>"That's a very old saying, that every little helps. I did not
+think of it at the time; but, you see, as we were clearing the
+lighter, almost all the men were on the larboard side, and that
+must have brought the ship down still more to port. Then, again,
+the water was not so smooth as it was when we first careened her,
+and it began to wash into the lower deck ports, and of course had
+no escape, so that there was very soon a good weight of water in
+the lower deck. There were mice in the ship, and they were
+disturbed by the water entering into their quarters, and the men
+were catching them, and laughing as they swam about, little
+thinking that it was to be a general swim so shortly afterward. But
+the carpenter was the first that perceived that there was danger;
+for again, you see, the casks of rum, hoisted in, and lying on the
+decks on the larboard side, before it could be lowered into the
+hold, made also a difference; and so the carpenter went on deck to
+the lieutenant, who was officer of the watch, requesting that he
+would be pleased to order the ship to be righted somewhat, as she
+could not bear it; but the lieutenant gave a very short answer to
+the carpenter, who then went down below."</p>
+<p>"Who was the lieutenant on deck?" inquired Anderson.</p>
+<p>"I don't recollect his right name&mdash;he was, I think, the
+third lieutenant&mdash;he went by the name of 'Jib and Foresail
+Jack,' for, whenever he had the watch, he did nothing but up jip
+and down jib, up foresail, down foresail, every five minutes,
+always worrying the men for nothing. He was not considered as a
+good officer, but a very troublesome one. He had a knack of
+twisting and moving his fingers about as he walked the deck, and
+the men were wont to say that 'he must have been a forty piany
+teacher.'"</p>
+<p>"And where were the captain and first lieutenant?" said
+Anderson.</p>
+<p>"The first lieutenant was at the time busy in the wing, I
+believe; and as for the captain, I don't know where he
+was&mdash;but, you know, a captain seldom interferes in
+harbor."</p>
+<p>"Where was the admiral?" inquired Ben.</p>
+<p>"The admiral was in his cabin. I saw the barber, who had been in
+to shave him, come out just before she went down."</p>
+<p>"What sort of a man was the admiral?" said Anderson.</p>
+<p>"He was a thin tall man, upward of seventy years of age, and he
+stooped a good deal in his walk."</p>
+<p>"Wet your whistle, Jim," said Ben, "for this is a long
+yarn."</p>
+<p>"Well," continued Turner, as soon as he had put down his pot,
+"the carpenter came up a second time on the quarter-deck to the
+lieutenant, and said to him&mdash;</p>
+<p>"'If you please, sir, to right the ship, it's my duty to tell
+you she will not bear it any longer.' He spoke in a very positive
+way, as was his duty; but the lieutenant answered, with an
+oath&mdash;</p>
+<p>"'If you think, sir, that you can manage the ship better than I
+can, you had better take the command.' I was in the waist at the
+time, with a good many more men, and we heard what the carpenter
+said, and what answer the lieutenant gave. Indeed, we were all
+aware of the danger, and felt very uncomfortable; there were plenty
+of good seamen on board, who knew what they were about almost as
+well as the officers, and certainly better than the one who had the
+watch.</p>
+<p>"A few minutes afterward (whether it was that he had remained
+that time doing nothing, merely because he would not be dictated to
+by the carpenter, I know not) the lieutenant ordered the drummer to
+be called to beat to quarters, that the guns might be run into
+their places and the ship righted. The drummer's name was passed
+along quick enough, for we were all alarmed at our situation, for
+the ship just then heeled over still more. I jumped down off the
+gangway as soon as the drummer was called, and hastened down to my
+quarters. The drum was not beat, for the man had not time to get
+his drum. All hands were now tumbling down the hatchways as fast as
+they could to their quarters, that they might run their guns into
+their places, and so right the ship. The gun I was stationed at was
+the third gun from forward on the starboard side of the lower
+gundeck. I said to Carroll, the second captain of the gun, 'I say,
+let us try to get our gun out without waiting for the drum, as the
+sooner we right the better.' We boused out our gun, which had been
+run in amidships; but the ship heeled over so much that, do all we
+could, it ran in again upon us, and at the same time the water made
+a heavy rush into the larboard lower deck ports. 'The ship is
+sinking, Carroll!' cried I. 'Lay hold of the ring-bolt and jump
+out; we shall all be drowned!' He made for the ring-bolt, caught
+it, climbed out of the port, and jumped into the sea. I presume he
+was drowned, for I never saw him afterward. I followed him as fast
+as I could out of the same port, which was the one belonging to our
+gun (the third from forward on the starboard side), and when I was
+outside I perceived that all the other port-holes were crowded as
+full as they could be with the heads of the men, all trying to
+escape, and jamming one another so that they could scarcely move
+either one way or the other. I caught hold of the sheet anchor,
+which was just above me, to prevent falling back inboard; and
+perceiving a woman struggling at the port, I caught hold of her,
+dragged her out, and threw her from me. The ship was now lying down
+so completely on her larboard broadside that the heads of the men
+in the ports disappeared all at once; they all dropped back into
+the ship, for the port-holes were now upright, and it was just as
+if men were trying to get out of the tops of so many chimneys, with
+nothing for their feet to purchase upon. Just after the men fell
+inboard, there came a rush of air through the ports, so violent as
+to blow my hat off. It was the air from the hold and lower deck,
+which, having no other vent, escaped as the water which poured in
+took up its space. The ship then sunk in a moment, righting as she
+went down. I was a good swimmer and diver, and when she was sinking
+I attempted to keep above water, but it was impossible; I was drawn
+down with the ship until she reached the bottom. As soon as she
+grounded, the water boiled and bubbled a great deal, and then I
+found that I could swim, and began to rise to the surface. A man
+tried to grapple me as I went up; his forefinger caught in my shoe,
+between the shoe and my foot. I succeeded in kicking off my shoe,
+and thus got rid of him, and then I rose to the surface of the
+water."</p>
+<p>"Take breath after that, Jim," said Ben, handing him the
+ale.</p>
+<p>"I can tell you that I could hardly take breath when I came to
+the surface, for my head came up through a quantity of tar, which
+floated like fat on a boiler, and it nearly smothered me; for, you
+see, there had been one or two casks of tar on the decks, which had
+stove when the ship was going down, and the tar got up to the top
+of the water before I did. It prevented me from seeing at first,
+but I heard the guns firing as signals of distress." Here Turner
+drank some ale.</p>
+<p>"Well," said he, after a short pause, "I may as well finish my
+story. As soon as I could clear the tar from my eyes, I saw the
+main topsail halyard-block about level with the water's edge about
+eight or ten yards from me; so I swam to it and rode on it, holding
+on by the halyards, and then I looked about me. The fore, main, and
+mizzentops were all above water, as was a part of the bowsprit, and
+also part of the ensign-staff, with the flag hoisted&mdash;for, you
+see, messmates, we went down in only thirteen and a half fathom
+water, that is, about eighty feet; and, as I said before, she
+measured sixty-six feet from the keelson up to the taffrail; and
+she grounded as nearly upright as a vessel could; for the lighter,
+which was fast to leeward when she went down, caught the main yard,
+which helped to right her as she sank&mdash;but the lighter went
+down with her. Well, as I looked round, I saw the admiral's baker
+in the mizzen shrouds, and there was the body of the woman I had
+dragged out of the port rolling about close to him. The baker was
+an Irishman, of the name of Claridge; and I called out to him,
+'Bob, reach out your hand and catch hold of that woman, I daresay
+she is not dead.'</p>
+<p>"He said, 'She's dead enough; it's no use to lay hold of
+her.'</p>
+<p>"I answered, 'She is not dead.' He caught hold of the woman and
+hung her head over one of the rattlings of the mizzen shrouds, and
+there she swung by her chin till a wash came and lifted her off,
+and then she rolled about again. Just then one of the captains of
+the frigates came up in his boat. I waved my hand toward the
+woman&mdash;he stopped pulling, the men dragged her into the boat,
+and laid her in the sternsheets.</p>
+<p>"'My man,' said the captain, 'I must pick up those who are in
+more danger than you.'</p>
+<p>"'All right, sir,' said I; 'I'm safe moored here.'</p>
+<p>"There was one of our men hanging on the mainstay, and roaring
+like a bull, as he tried to climb by it out of the water. Had he
+only remained quiet, he would have done well enough. The boat took
+him off first, and the others of the people who were clinging about
+the masts and rigging, including the baker and myself. It then
+pulled on board the 'Victory' with us; and I once more found a good
+dry plank between me and the salt water."</p>
+<p>"Was the captain and admiral saved?"</p>
+<p>"Captain Waghorn was. He could not swim; but one of the seamen
+held him up. The admiral was drowned in his cabin. Captain Waghorn
+tried to acquaint him that the ship was sinking; but the heeling
+over of the ship had so jammed the doors of the cabin that they
+could not be opened."</p>
+<p>"What became of the lieutenant of the watch and the
+carpenter?"</p>
+<p>"The lieutenant of the watch was drowned&mdash;and so indeed was
+the carpenter. His body was taken up, I believe, by the same boat
+which picked up Lieutenant Durham<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id=
+"FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class=
+"fnanchor">[3]</a>. When I went on board of the 'Victory,' I saw
+the carpenter's body before the galley fire&mdash;some women were
+attempting to recover him, but he was quite dead. There was a
+strong westerly breeze, although the day was fine; and the wind
+made the water so rough that there was great danger of the boats
+getting entangled in the rigging and spars, when they came to take
+the men off, or more would have been saved."</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Afterward
+Admiral Sir Philip Durham.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"How many do you think were lost altogether?" inquired
+Anderson.</p>
+<p>"We had our whole complement on board, eight hundred and
+sixty-five men; and there were more than three hundred women on
+board, besides a great many Jews with slops and watches; as there
+always are, you know, when a ship is paid and the men have any
+money to be swindled out of. I don't exactly know how many men were
+saved, but there was only one woman, which was the one I dragged
+out of the port. There was a great fat old bumboat woman, whom the
+sailors used to call the 'Royal George'&mdash;she was picked up
+floating, for she was too fat to sink; but she had been floating
+the wrong way uppermost, and she was dead. There was a poor little
+child saved rather strangely. He was picked up by a gentleman who
+was in a wherry, holding on to the wool of a sheep which had
+escaped and was swimming. His father and mother were drowned, and
+the boy did not know their names; all that he knew was that his own
+name was Jack; so they christened him John <i>Lamb</i>, and the
+gentleman took care of him."</p>
+<p>"Have you no idea how many men were saved, Turner?"</p>
+<p>"I only know this&mdash;that the Admiralty ordered five pounds a
+man to be given to the seamen who were saved, as a recompense for
+the loss of their clothes, and I heard that only seventy-five
+claimed it; but how many marines were saved, or other people who
+were on board, I do not know; but perhaps, altogether, there might
+be two hundred or more&mdash;for you see the seamen had the worst
+chance of being saved, as they were almost all down in the hold, or
+on the lower and main decks at their guns. A few days after the
+ship went down the bodies would come up, eight or ten almost the
+same time&mdash;rising to the top of the water so suddenly as to
+frighten people who were passing near. The watermen made a good
+thing of it; for, as the bodies rose, they took from them their
+shoe-buckles, money, and watches, and then towed them on shore to
+be buried."</p>
+<p>"That lieutenant had much to answer for," observed Ben. "His
+false pride was the cause of it all."</p>
+<p>"It would seem so&mdash;but God only knows," replied Anderson.
+"Come, my lads, the beer is out, and it's two bells in the middle
+watch. I think we had better turn in. Jack, what's to become of
+you?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I'll find a plank," said I.</p>
+<p>"So you shall, boy, and a bed upon it," replied Ben. "Come and
+turn in with me, and don't you dream that the larboard lower deck
+ports are open."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus131.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+FOURTEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>My Father makes his Appearance, having left his Leg, but not his
+Tail, behind him&mdash;My Father is pensioned off by my Mother as
+well as by his Country.</p>
+</div>
+<p>About six weeks after the intelligence of the battle of the
+Nile, as I was sweeping away from the steps the mud which had been
+left by the tide, a King's tender, that I had been watching as she
+came up the river, dropped her anchor in the stream, abreast of the
+hospital.</p>
+<p>Shortly afterward the lieutenant who commanded her pulled on
+shore in his boat, and, landing at the steps, proceeded to the
+governor's house. The men having orders not to leave the boat,
+requested me to procure them some porter, which I did; and on my
+return with it, they informed me that they had come round from
+Portsmouth with sixty-three men, who had lost their limbs, or had
+been otherwise so severely wounded in the late action as to have
+been recommended for Greenwich.</p>
+<p>I felt very anxious for the men to land, as it was possible that
+my father might be one of them. The lieutenant soon returned,
+jumped into the boat, and shoved off. I perceived that the disabled
+men were getting ready to land, hauling their chests and kits on
+deck. In about half-an-hour a boat full of them came to the steps.
+I ran down to assist; and as I held on to the gunnel of the boat,
+while they threw out their gang-board, the first person who stumped
+out was my father, minus his left leg.</p>
+<p>"Father!" cried I, half sorry and half pleased.</p>
+<p>"Who calls me father?" replied he, looking at me. "Why, you
+don't mean to say that you're my boy Tom?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, indeed!" said I.</p>
+<p>"Ah! yes&mdash;I recollect your smile now. Why, what a big
+fellow you've grown!"</p>
+<p>"It's four years since you left, father."</p>
+<p>"Well! I suppose it is, since you say so," replied he, taking me
+by the arm, and stumping a little to one side, when he said in a
+low tone, "I say, Jack, what became of the old woman? Did I settle
+her?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, no," replied I, laughing, "she was only shamming."</p>
+<p>"Shamming was she? Well! it's all the better&mdash;for she has
+been a little on my conscience, that's truth. Shamming? Heh! She
+won't sham next time, if I fall foul of her. How does she get
+on?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, very well indeed."</p>
+<p>"And how's your little sister? What's her name&mdash;Jenny
+lengthened at both ends? I never could recollect it, though I've
+often thought of her sweet little face."</p>
+<p>"She's quite well, and as pretty and as good as ever."</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, my boy, you stood by your father when he was in
+trouble, and now he'll stand by you. How does your mother treat
+you?"</p>
+<p>"We get on pretty well&mdash;not over-fond of each other."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus134.jpg" id="illus134.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus134.jpg"><img src="images/thumb134.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>JACK'S FATHER LANDING AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE NILE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol X., p. 133.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Well, Tom, I've only one pin left; but I say," continued my
+father, with a wink of his eye, "I haven't left my tail behind me,
+'cause it may be useful, you know. Now we must all go up to the
+governor of the hospital for inspection, and I suppose we shall be
+kept for some time; so you may run home and tell your mother that
+I've come back in a perfect good-humor, and that it will be her
+fault if she puts me out&mdash;that's all."</p>
+<p>"I will, father; and then I'll come to you at the hospital."</p>
+<p>I ran home to communicate the important intelligence to my
+mother and to Virginia, who had as usual come from school for her
+dinner.</p>
+<p>"Mother," says I, out of breath, "who do you think has come
+back?"</p>
+<p>"Comeback?" said she. "<i>Back?</i> Not your father?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," says I, "my father. I just left him."</p>
+<p>My mother turned deadly pale, and dropped the hot iron from her
+hand, so as to spoil a frilled nightcap belonging to one of her
+lady customers. She staggered to a chair, and trembled all over. I
+really believe that had she been aware of his being about to
+return, she would have quitted Greenwich before his arrival; but
+now it was too late. Virginia had run for the salts as soon as she
+perceived that her mother was unwell, and as she smelled them she
+gradually recovered. At last she inquired how my father looked and
+what he said.</p>
+<p>I told her that he had lost his leg, and had been sent as a
+pensioner to the hospital; that he had looked very well, and that
+he had told me to say that "he was in a perfect good humor, and it
+would be her fault if she put him out of it; and that if she
+did&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, what then?" inquired my mother.</p>
+<p>"Oh, the <i>tail</i>&mdash;that's all."</p>
+<p>At the mention of the tail my mother very nearly went off in a
+swoon&mdash;her head fell back, and I heard her mutter, "So vulgar!
+so ungenteel!" However, she recovered herself, and appeared to be
+for some time in deep thought. At last she rose up, ordered me to
+fetch something extra for supper, and recommenced her ironing.</p>
+<p>As soon as I had executed her commission I went to the hospital,
+where I found my father, who, with the other men, had just been
+dismissed. He accompanied me to my mother, shook hands with her
+very good-humoredly, kissed Virginia, whom he took on his knee,
+praised the supper, drank only one pot of porter, and then returned
+to the hospital, to sleep in the cabin which had been allotted to
+him in the Warriors' Ward, of which Anderson was the boatswain. My
+mother, although not very gracious, was much subdued, and for a few
+days everything went on very comfortably; but my mother's temper
+could not be long restrained. Displeased at something which she
+considered as very vulgar, she ventured to assail my father as
+before, concluding her tirade as usual, with "There&mdash;now
+you're vexed!"</p>
+<p>My father looked at her very sternly.&mdash;At last he said,
+"You're just right&mdash;I am vexed; and whenever you tell me so in
+future I'll prove that it's no lie." He then rose, stumped upstairs
+to my room, in which he had deposited his sea-chest, and soon made
+his appearance with the formidable and never-to-be-forgotten tail
+in his hand. "Mistress," said he, as my mother retreated, "you
+said, 'Now you're vexed' to me just now. I ask you again, am I
+vexed, or am I not?" and my father flourished the tail over his
+head.</p>
+<p>My mother looked at the strange weapon: the remembrance of the
+past was too painful; she was conquered by her fear.</p>
+<p>"Oh, no," cried she, falling on her knees. "You're not
+vexed&mdash;indeed you are not."</p>
+<p>"You're quite sure of that?" responded my father
+authoritatively, as he advanced toward her.</p>
+<p>"Oh! yes, yes," cried my mother, trembling; "indeed you're
+not."</p>
+<p>"Ain't I in a very good humor?" continued my father.</p>
+<p>"Yes, you are in the best of humors, and always are so,
+unless&mdash;I aggravate you," replied my mother, whimpering.</p>
+<p>"Well," replied my father, lowering his tail, "I expect we've
+come to a right understanding at last. So now get up and wipe your
+eyes; but recollect, that whenever you dare to tell me that I'm
+vexed, I won't be so ungenteel as to contradict you."</p>
+<p>Thus was the mastery gained by my father, and never lost. It is
+true that sometimes my mother would forget herself, and would get
+on as far as "There now, you're&mdash;," but she would stop there,
+and correct herself, saying, "No, you're not," and allow her temper
+to evaporate by singing one of her usual ditties, as "Hush-a-by,
+baby, on the tree-top;" but my father never took notice of her
+singing; and being really a very good-tempered man, my mother's
+temper gradually became improved.</p>
+<p>The return of my father made some alteration in our mode of
+life. He might, if he had pleased, have lived as an out-pensioner
+with my mother; but this he would not do. He used to come in almost
+every evening to see her, and she used to provide for him a pot of
+porter, which he seldom exceeded. If he had friends with him, they
+paid for what they drank. This pot of porter per diem was the only
+demand made upon my mother for permission to remain separate, and
+she did not grumble at it. His tobacco he found himself out of the
+tobacco money allowed at the hospital. He had received some pay,
+which, contrary to his former custom, he had laid by in the charge
+of one of the lieutenants of the hospital, for at that time there
+were no savings banks.</p>
+<p>As a married man my father had the liberty to introduce his wife
+and children into the hospital at meal-times, to share his
+allowance with them. This my mother would not listen to, as
+regarded herself and my sister; but my father messed in what is
+called the married men's room, on my account, and instead of buying
+my own dinner, or applying to my mother for it, I now always took
+it with my father in the hospital. In consequence of my father's
+admittance as a pensioner, both I and my sister might have been
+instructed at the hospital school; but my mother would not premit
+Virginia to go there, and I found it much more convenient to go to
+Peter Anderson in the evening, when I had nothing to do. On the
+whole, we all went on much more comfortably than we did before my
+father's return.</p>
+<p>One evening I was, as usual, with Anderson in his cabin; my
+father having been drafted into his ward, I could not help asking
+Anderson how he liked him. His reply was, "I like your father,
+Jack, for he is a straightforward, honest, good-tempered man, and,
+moreover, has a good natural judgment. I think it a great pity that
+such a man as he is should be so early in life lost, as it were, to
+the country. He is a first-rate seaman; and although there are many
+like him, still there are none to spare. However, if his country
+loses, he may himself gain, by being so soon called away from a
+service of great temptation. The sailor who has fought for his
+country, Jack, has much to be thankful for when he takes in
+moorings at Greenwich Hospital. He is well fed, well clothed,
+tended in sickness, and buried with respect; but all these are
+nothing compared with the greatest boon. When I reflect what lives
+sailors live, how reckless they are, how often they have been on
+the brink of eternity, and wonderfully preserved, without even a
+feeling of gratitude to Him who has watched over them, or taking
+their escapes as warnings; when I consider how they pass their
+whole lives in excess, intemperance, and, too often, blasphemy, it
+is indeed a mercy that they are allowed to repose here after such a
+venturous and careless career; that they have time to reflect upon
+what has passed, to listen to the words of the Gospel, to hate
+their former life, and trusting in God's mercy to secure their
+salvation. This is the greatest charity of this institution, and
+long may it flourish, a blessing to the country which has endowed
+it, and to the seamen, who are not only provided for in this world,
+but are prepared in it for the next."</p>
+<p>Such were continually the style of admonitions given me by this
+good old man, and I need not point out to the reader how fortunate
+it was for me that I had secured such a preceptor.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus139.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+FIFTEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which is proved the Truth of the Proverb, "When your own
+House is made of Glass, you never should be the first to throw
+Stones"</p>
+</div>
+<p>One evening, when I went to the shop of the widow St. Felix to
+purchase some tobacco for my father, she said, "Why don't your
+father come himself, Jack? I want to make his acquaintance, and see
+how he looks without his pigtail."</p>
+<p>"Why, you never saw him when he had it on," replied I.</p>
+<p>"No, that's the truth; but still I wish to have a sight of him:
+the fact is, I want to laugh at him."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I'll bring him here; but, recollect, it's a very
+sore subject with him," replied I, "and that you may have a sharp
+answer."</p>
+<p>"That I'll take my chance of, Jack," replied the widow,
+laughing.</p>
+<p>In consequence of this intimation, one evening when my father
+was walking in the hospital, I persuaded him to call at the
+shop.</p>
+<p>"This is my father, Mrs. St. Felix," said I.</p>
+<p>"Most happy to see him. What shall I have the pleasure of
+assisting you to, Mr. Saunders?" said the widow.</p>
+<p>"My sarvice to you, marm&mdash;if you please, to two penn'orth
+of pigtail and a paper of shorts."</p>
+<p>"Much obliged to you, Mr. Saunders," replied she. "Sure we're
+much indebted to Admiral Lord Nelson for sending us such
+fine-looking pensioners. I shouldn't wonder if I were to choose a
+husband out of the hospital yet."</p>
+<p>"I'm afeard we're all too mauled, marm, to suit a pretty young
+woman like you," replied my father, very gallantly.</p>
+<p>"Thank you for that, Mr. Saunders; but you're mistaken entirely.
+I don't consider the loss of a leg, for instance, as anything; I
+never look at men's legs, and therefore care little whether they
+are made of wood or not, provided they don't tread on my
+corns."</p>
+<p>"Well, marm, I'm glad that you don't consider a timber toe as
+any obstacle to matrimony; but, I fear, having a wife already may
+be considered by you a sort of objection."</p>
+<p>"Why, sure, I must have the whole of my husband; I couldn't
+afford to share him, especially when one limb is gone already. That
+puts me in mind of my want of manners. I hope Mrs. Saunders is
+quite well. I hear from Jack that you have a separate
+maintenance&mdash;that's very genteel."</p>
+<p>"Why, yes, marm," replied my father; "the King maintains me, and
+my wife maintains herself; so, as you say, we have a separate
+maintenance."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's the best way when married people don't agree. What
+are you laughing at, Mr. Jack? did I hint that your father and
+mother ever had any little matrimonial differences? I certainly did
+hear that there was a trifling dispute when they last parted; but
+when they bring me such tales I always <i>cut them short</i>.
+Here's your <i>pigtail</i>, Mr. Saunders," continued the widow,
+laughing, as she put the tobacco on the counter.</p>
+<p>I looked at my father, who did not seem to relish the hint, but
+he answered very frankly, "If you cut them as short as my wife cut
+mine, why, then you won't be troubled with them any more. I see,
+marm, you know all about it, and you may have your laugh if it
+pleases you; but I can tell you that my tail has done me better
+sarvice since it was off than when it hung down my back."</p>
+<p>"Become useful, instead of ornamental, I presume, Mr.
+Saunders."</p>
+<p>"Just made this difference&mdash;when it was on it made my
+wife's tongue to go; now it is off, it has stopped it."</p>
+<p>"An extraordinary powerful instrument, to stop a woman's
+tongue!"</p>
+<p>"Well, you've only to ax Mistress Saunders, she'll tell you all
+its virtues."</p>
+<p>"Well, Mr. Saunders, I don't know whether you have any idea of
+taking another wife some future day. If so, say nothing about it,
+or you'll never get one."</p>
+<p>"Well, marm&mdash;I don't know whether you ever think of taking
+another husband; but if so, I think it would be kind on my part to
+lend it to him. Can you tell me why widows' tongues run so much
+faster than other women's?"</p>
+<p>"Mercy! what put that idea in your head, Mr. Saunders?"</p>
+<p>"You, and half a dozen more that I happen to know. May I make so
+bold as to ask you, marm, how long you may have been a widow?"
+continued my father.</p>
+<p>"Bless me! so long that I quite forget all about it," replied
+Mrs. St. Felix, turning away from the counter to the jars
+behind.</p>
+<p>I gave my father a wink to let him know that it was his turn
+now: he understood me, hitched up his waistband and nodded.</p>
+<p>"How did you lose your first husband, marm? What did he die
+of?"</p>
+<p>The widow colored, and my father perceiving it, followed up his
+question.</p>
+<p>"Did he die of a fever, marm?"</p>
+<p>"I'm not exactly sure," replied she, hurriedly.</p>
+<p>"May I ask how long it is since he died?" continued my
+father.</p>
+<p>"Oh! Mr. Saunders," replied the widow, confusedly, "I really
+don't recollect just now. It's very painful to answer such
+questions."</p>
+<p>"Not if you've been a widow so long that you forget all about
+it; that's all sham and nonsense. So you ain't sure <i>what</i> he
+died of, nor <i>when</i> it was that he died? Are you quite sure,
+marm, that your husband <i>is</i> dead?"</p>
+<p>Mrs. St. Felix started, turned very red, and then very pale.</p>
+<p>"My sarvice to you for the present, marm," said my father, after
+a pause, taking off his hat. "I suspect that I've found a way to
+stop your tongue as well as my wife's. Broadside for broadside,
+that's fair play."</p>
+<p>So saying, my father stumped away out of the shop door. Mrs. St.
+Felix put her apron up to her eyes, with her elbows resting on the
+counter. I waited a little, and then I said, "What is the matter,
+Mrs. St. Felix?"</p>
+<p>She started at my voice.</p>
+<p>"You here, Jack? I thought you had gone out with your father.
+Well," continued she, wiping her eyes, "it serves me right. I
+forgot that in amusing myself I annoyed him. Jack, don't you
+mention anything about this. Do you think your father will?"</p>
+<p>"I don't think he will, for he cannot do so without talking
+about having his pigtail cut off, and I know he cannot bear to
+think of it."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, pray don't you, that's a good boy."</p>
+<p>"I never will, I promise you."</p>
+<p>"Then, good-night, Jack; you must leave me now, I don't feel
+quite well."</p>
+<p>I wished the widow good-night, and went back to my mother's
+house. My father was there, but he never hinted at the conversation
+which had taken place, neither at that time nor afterward.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus144.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+SIXTEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Showing how Old Nanny fell Sick and got Well again</p>
+</div>
+<p>Before I fell asleep that night I thought a great deal of what
+had passed between the widow St. Felix and my father. Why should
+she have shown such emotion, and why should she request of me not
+to mention what had passed? I had heard reports about her, as I
+have before mentioned; I had heard them from old Nanny, but I did
+not put any confidence in what she said. Thinking of old Nanny
+reminded me that I had not called upon her for some time, and I
+resolved that I would visit her the next day.</p>
+<p>It was not until late in the evening that I could spare time to
+call upon her, and, what was not usual, I went empty-handed. I
+found to my surprise that the door was shut to, and the shutters of
+the shop not taken down. I tried the latch, the door opened, and I
+went in.</p>
+<p>"Who's there?" screamed old Nanny from the inner room. "What do
+you want?"</p>
+<p>"It's only Poor Jack, mother," replied I, "come to see how you
+are."</p>
+<p>"Come in," replied she; "I'm very bad. Oh! oh! I thought it was
+some thief or another come to steal all the things in my shop."</p>
+<p>I entered the room and found old Nanny in bed; she looked very
+ill and miserable, and everything was very dirty.</p>
+<p>"Are you not well, mother?" said I.</p>
+<p>"Well, boy? No, very ill, very ill indeed, haven't left my bed
+these three days. Reach me a little water, Jack, there's a good
+boy. I've been dying for water."</p>
+<p>I handed her a broken jug which had some water in it. She drank
+greedily, so as to spill nearly half of it on the coverlid.</p>
+<p>"Oh, how good it is!" exclaimed the old woman, as soon as she
+recovered her breath. "I'm better now. I could not reach it myself.
+I've the rheumatiz so bad! I've been in such a fright because I
+could not lock the door; it kept me awake all night long. Oh, my
+poor back!"</p>
+<p>"But why did you not send for the doctor, mother?"</p>
+<p>"Doctor! Eh? who's to pay him? I've got no money, Jack."</p>
+<p>"Well, but Dr. Tadpole's very kind."</p>
+<p>"Yes, yes, kind to the widow; but not to old women like me,
+without any money."</p>
+<p>"But why not have some one to sit up with you, and help
+you?"</p>
+<p>"Sit up with me! Who'd sit up with me? Yes, if I paid them. But
+I've no money, Jack; and then, I don't know them. They might rob
+me&mdash;there's a great many pretty things in my shop."</p>
+<p>"But you might die, mother, lying here without any one to help
+you."</p>
+<p>"Die! Well, and who would care if a poor old woman like me died,
+Jack?"</p>
+<p>"I should care, for one, mother; and so would my sister
+Virginia, and many others besides."</p>
+<p>"You might care, Jack, for you're a good boy, and so might your
+little sister, for she has a kind heart; but nobody else,
+Jack&mdash;no, not one!"</p>
+<p>I could not reply to this remark, as I really did not know
+anybody who would have cared; so I said, "You must see the doctor,
+mother. I will go for him."</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, I can't afford it, it's no use; besides, I'm better
+now."</p>
+<p>"Well, if you can't afford it, you shall not pay him; and, if he
+will not come for nothing, I'll pay him myself."</p>
+<p>"Will you pay him, Jack? that's a good boy. You promised me
+bargains, you know; that shall be one of them."</p>
+<p>"Well, mother, I'll make the bargain that I'll pay him, if
+you'll see him&mdash;so good-by now. Do you want anything before I
+go?"</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, no; I don't want anything, only just lock the door
+and take the key with you when you go out, and then no one can rob
+me, Jack, while you're gone."</p>
+<p>I complied with her request, and ran for Dr. Tadpole, whom I
+found smoking his cigar in the widow's shop.</p>
+<p>"Doctor," said I, "old Nanny has been ill in bed these three
+days, and I want you to go and see her."</p>
+<p>"Does she send you to me, or do you ask it yourself?" said the
+doctor, "for I think she would die rather than pay the doctor."</p>
+<p>"As for that, Mr. Tadpole," said the widow, "there are many of
+your patients who send for the doctor without ever intending to pay
+him. Perhaps old Nanny may go on the same plan."</p>
+<p>"Certainly; that alters the case. Well, Jack, what's the matter
+with her?"</p>
+<p>"Rheumatism, and, I believe, fever; for her hand is hot, and her
+tongue very white. She was lying in bed with no one to help her,
+and had not strength to reach a drop of water, until I gave it to
+her."</p>
+<p>"Poor old soul!" said the widow. "And yet they say that she has
+money?"</p>
+<p>"I don't think that she has much," replied I; "for when she lent
+me the twenty-eight shillings, she had not ten shillings more in
+the bag. But, doctor, I'll pay you; I will, indeed. How much will
+it be?"</p>
+<p>"Now, doctor, just put on your hat, and set off as soon as you
+please; for if Poor Jack says he'll pay you, you know that your
+money is as safe as mine was in the bank&mdash;before it
+failed."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll just finish my cigar."</p>
+<p>"Of course you will&mdash;as you walk along, Mr. Tadpole,"
+replied the widow; "it's very pleasant to smoke in the air, and
+just as unpleasant to others your smoking in the house. So, doctor,
+just be off and see the poor old wretch directly, or&mdash;I'll be
+affronted."</p>
+<p>Hereupon the doctor took up his hat, and without reply walked
+off with me. When we arrived, I unlocked the door and we went
+in.</p>
+<p>"Well, old Nanny, what's the matter now?" said Dr. Tadpole.</p>
+<p>"Nothing, doctor, nothing; you've come on a useless message; I
+didn't send for you, recollect that; it was Jack who would go; I
+did not send, recollect that, doctor; I can't afford it; I've no
+money."</p>
+<p>"Very well, I shan't look to you for money. Put out your
+tongue," replied the doctor, as he felt her pulse.</p>
+<p>"Recollect, doctor, I did not send for you. Jack, you are
+witness&mdash;I've no money," repeated old Nanny.</p>
+<p>"Put out your tongue," repeated the doctor.</p>
+<p>"No, I won't, till it's all clearly settled."</p>
+<p>"It is, you old fool," said the doctor, impatiently; "put out
+your tongue."</p>
+<p>"Jack, you're witness it's all by force," said Nanny, who at
+last put out her tongue; "and now, doctor, I'll tell you."</p>
+<p>Whereupon Nanny commenced with a narrative of her ills; and by
+her own account there was not a portion of her body from top to toe
+which had not some ailment.</p>
+<p>"You've a very bad complaint," said the doctor; "what d'ye think
+it is? It's old age. I hardly know whether I can cure it."</p>
+<p>"Can your draw the pain out of my old bones?" said Nanny,
+groaning.</p>
+<p>"Why, I'll try, at all events. I must send you something to take
+inwardly."</p>
+<p>"Who's to pay for it?" said old Nanny.</p>
+<p>"I will, mother," said I.</p>
+<p>"You're witness, doctor&mdash;Jack says he'll pay for it. You're
+a good boy, Jack."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's settled&mdash;but now, we must have some one to
+sit up with you."</p>
+<p>"Sit up with me? nobody will sit up with an old thing like
+me."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I will, mother," said I, "and I'll look in upon you in the
+daytime, and see if you want to drink."</p>
+<p>"No, no, Jack! then you'll make no money."</p>
+<p>"Yes I will&mdash;never mind that."</p>
+<p>"Well, at all events," replied the doctor, "Jack will sit up
+with you this night; and we'll see how you are to-morrow. Now,
+Jack, come back with me, and I'll give you something for her.
+Good-night, Nanny," said the doctor, leaving the room.</p>
+<p>"Good-night," grumbled old Nanny; and as we were going through
+the shop I heard her continue: "It's very easy saying 'good-night,'
+but how can a poor wretch like me, with every bone aching as if it
+would split, expect to have a 'good night'?"</p>
+<p>As the doctor walked home, he appeared not to be in his usual
+talkative mood. He went to the shop, made up the medicines, and
+gave me the directions.</p>
+<p>"Here, Jack, take these; and it will be a kindness to sit up
+with her to-night. I will see her to-morrow; and as I can't allow
+you to be the only good Samaritan in the place, understand, Jack,
+that I attend the poor old woman and find medicine for
+nothing."</p>
+<p>I thanked him and hastened back. Old Nanny took her draught, and
+then turned round on her side. I suppose there was opium in it, for
+she soon fell fast asleep; not, however, until she had said, "Jack,
+have you locked the door?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, mother, I have."</p>
+<p>"Well, now, don't you think you could watch without burning a
+candle? You ain't afraid?"</p>
+<p>"No, mother, I'm not afraid; but if I do, I shall fall asleep;
+and, besides, if you wake and want anything, I shall not be able to
+find it. I should break the jug and other things, and they would
+cost more than a candle."</p>
+<p>"Very true, Jack. I feel sleepy already"&mdash;and old Nanny was
+soon in a loud snore.</p>
+<p>I had stopped at my mother's to say that I intended to stay with
+old Nanny, so that they might not sit up for me; and now all that I
+had to do was to keep myself awake. I had forgotten to bring a book
+with me, so I looked about the room for something to read; but I
+could find nothing. At last I ventured to open a drawer&mdash;it
+creaked, and old Nanny was roused. "Who's that?" cried she, but she
+did not wake up, the opiate was too powerful. I went to her; she
+was in a perspiration, which I knew was what the doctor wished. I
+put the clothes close up to her head, and left her. I then took the
+candle and looked into the drawer, and found a book lying in a
+corner with one side of the cover off. It was very dirty and
+stained. I took it out, and went again to my chair and opened it.
+It was Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and full of plates. I had
+never heard of the book, and did not know what the title meant. I
+first looked at all the plates, and then I turned to the opening of
+the book. On the blank leaf at the commencement, in very neat and
+lawyer-like handwriting, was "Anna James, on her marriage, from her
+dear friend Mary Farquhar, Tynemouth, June the 19th, 1738." By this
+I discovered, as I thought, the married but not the maiden name of
+old Nanny; and very probably, also, that Tynemouth was her native
+place. She was married, too, in 1738, that was more than sixty
+years back&mdash;and her age was, therefore, in all likelihood,
+nearly eighty years. I pondered over this for some time, and then I
+commenced reading; and so interested was I with the contents that I
+did not raise my head until the candle had burned to the socket: as
+I was about to light another, I perceived daylight through the
+chinks of the window shutter. So I laid down the book, and walking
+softly out of the room, unlocked the shop door to get a little
+fresh air; for the room that old Nanny was sleeping in was, from
+dirt and neglect, very close. I could not, however, unlock the door
+without waking up Nanny who screamed out "Thieves!&mdash;murder!
+thieves!" until she was wide awake.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus152.jpg" id="illus152.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus152.jpg"><img src="images/thumb152.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>JACK IN NANNY'S ROOM.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 151.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Oh! it is you, Jack?" said she at last. "I dreamed there were
+thieves breaking in."</p>
+<p>"Nothing but day breaking in, mother," said I. "How do you feel
+this morning?"</p>
+<p>"Better, Jack, better; I've not so much pain, but I'm very
+thirsty; give me some water."</p>
+<p>"No, mother; the doctor said you must not drink cold water. If
+you'll wait a little, I'll run and fetch you something warm. I
+won't be gone long, so try to go to sleep again."</p>
+<p>Old Nanny made no reply, but turned her face away from the
+light, as if in obedience to my orders. I locked the outer door and
+hastened home.</p>
+<p>I found my mother and Virginia sitting in the nice clean room,
+the fire blazing cheerfully and the breakfast on the table, and I
+could not help making the contrast in my own mind between it and
+the dirty abode I had just left. I ran into the back kitchen to
+wash my face and hands, and then returned, kissed Virginia, and
+wished my mother "Good-morning."</p>
+<p>Why, I do not know, but she was in one of her worst of
+humors.</p>
+<p>"Don't come near me, or near your sister Virginia," said she
+sharply; "who knows what vermin you may have brought from where you
+have been staying all night?"</p>
+<p>I did feel that what she said might be true.</p>
+<p>"Well, mother," said I, "I won't come near you if you don't
+like, but I want some tea for poor old Nanny."</p>
+<p>"I can't find tea for old Nannies," replied she.</p>
+<p>"I'll give her mine, Jack," cried Virginia.</p>
+<p>"Indeed, miss, you'll do no such thing," said my mother; "and
+sit up properly to table, instead of hanging your head down in that
+way; and don't pour your tea in your saucer&mdash;that's
+vulgar!"</p>
+<p>"The tea's so hot, mamma!" said Virginia.</p>
+<p>"Then wait till it's cool, miss. Leave the teapot alone,
+sir!"</p>
+<p>"I'll thank you for some tea, mother," replied I. "I shall give
+my breakfast to old Nanny."</p>
+<p>"You'll take no breakfast out of this house," was the reply.</p>
+<p>"Why, mother?&mdash;for a poor sick old woman."</p>
+<p>"Let her go to the parish."</p>
+<p>I now became angry myself. I took up the teapot and walked away
+into the back kitchen. My mother rose and followed me, insisting
+upon my putting the teapot down; but I would not, and I poured out
+the tea into a little milk-can. I did not answer her, but I felt
+that I was right and would not give in, and she was afraid to
+attempt force. My mother then ran back to the table, caught up the
+sugar-basin and carried it upstairs, singing as she went, at the
+highest pitch of her voice:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"What are little girls made of, made of<br />
+Sugar and spice, and all that's nice;<br />
+And that's what girls are made of!"</p>
+<p>While my mother was away, little Virginia poured her cup of tea,
+which was already sweetened, into the can. I seized some bread and
+butter, and before my mother came down I was clear of the house.
+Old Nanny made a good breakfast; the doctor came, and said that she
+was much better and would soon be well. The doctor had not left
+long before Peter Anderson came and told me to go and mind my
+business, and that he would sit by old Nanny. Old Ben, who had
+heard of it, also called in, and he sat up with her the next
+night.</p>
+<p>"Did I not tell you that there were others who cared for you,
+Nanny?" said I, a few days afterward.</p>
+<p>"Yes, you did, Jack, but I did not believe you; the world is
+better than I thought it was. But how will you pay the doctor,
+Jack?"</p>
+<p>"The doctor 'tended you for nothing; he told me so the first
+night."</p>
+<p>"Well, and that widow, too; it's kind of her to send me tea and
+sugar, and such nice things to eat."</p>
+<p>"Yes, mother, it is."</p>
+<p>"And your father, to bring your little dear sister, so nice and
+clean, to come and see an old wretch like me in such a dirty hole.
+Ah, Jack! now I'm getting well again I like the world better than I
+did."</p>
+<p>In a few days old Nanny had again opened her shop, sitting at
+the door as usual, and, as the spring was now well advanced, she
+gradually recovered her strength. When I gave up my office of nurse
+she did not, however, forget to tell me to bring her good bargains,
+as I had promised that I would.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus155.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+SEVENTEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A Morning Concert, in which the Opposition is as great as Black
+to White.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Among my father's associates there was a man of about forty
+years of age, Dick Harness by name. He had received a wound in the
+hip from a grape-shot, and his leg having in consequence
+contracted, it occasioned him to limp very much; but he was as
+strong and hearty in all other respects as a man could be. He was a
+very merry fellow, full of jokes, and if any one told a story which
+was at all verging on the marvelous, he was sure to tell another
+which would be still more incredible. He played the fiddle and sang
+to his own accompaniments, which were very droll, as he extracted
+very strange noises from his instrument. Sometimes his bow would be
+on the wrong side of the bridge, sometimes down at the keys;
+besides which he produced sounds by thumping the fiddle as well as
+by touching its strings as a guitar; indeed, he could imitate in a
+certain way almost every instrument and most of the noises made by
+animals. He had one fault, for which he used to be occasionally
+punished, which was, he was too fond of the bottle; but he was a
+great favorite, and therefore screened by the men, and as much as
+possible overlooked by the officers. The punishment for a pensioner
+getting drunk was, at that time, being made to wear a yellow
+instead of a blue coat, which made a man look very conspicuous.</p>
+<p>I recollect one day he had the yellow coat on, when a party of
+ladies and gentlemen came to see the hospital. Perceiving that he
+was dressed so differently from the other pensioners, one of the
+ladies' curiosity was excited, and at last she called him to her
+and said, "Pray, my good man, why do you wear a yellow coat when
+the other pensioners have blue ones?"</p>
+<p>"Bless your handsome face, ma'am!" replied Dick, "don't you
+really know?"</p>
+<p>"No, indeed," replied she.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, ma'am, perhaps you may have heard of the glorious
+battle of the Nile, in which Nelson gave the French such a
+drubbing?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes," cried all the ladies and gentlemen, who had now
+crowded about him.</p>
+<p>"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I had the good fortune to be in
+that great victory, and all we <i>Nilers</i>, as we are called, are
+permitted to wear a yellow coat as a mark of distinction, while the
+common pensioners wear nothing but blue."</p>
+<p>"Dear me!" said the lady, "and do I really speak to one of those
+brave fellows who fought at the battle of the Nile?" and she put
+her hand into her pocket and pulled out five shillings. "There,"
+said she, "I hope you'll not be affronted, but accept this from
+me."</p>
+<p>"Not at all, ma'am," replied Dick, pocketing the money.</p>
+<p>Then the whole party made a subscription for him, and Dick went
+off with a handful of silver.</p>
+<p>There was, however, another man who contributed much to the fun
+created by Dick Harness. He was an American black, who had served
+as cook in the "Majestic," and had been wounded in the battle of
+the Nile, He had received a bullet in the knee, which had
+occasioned a stiff joint; and, as his leg was bent, he wore a short
+wooden stump. He also could play his fiddle and sing his songs, but
+in neither case so well as Dick Harness, although he thought
+otherwise himself. We used to call him Opposition Bill, but his
+name was Bill White; at least that was the purser's name that he
+went by when on board of a man-of-war. His pleasure was to follow
+Dick Harness everywhere; and if Dick sung he would sing, if Dick
+played he would play also&mdash;not at the same time, but if Dick
+stopped Bill would strike up. Dick used to call him his black
+shadow; and sometimes he would execute a flourish on his fiddle
+which would be quite a puzzler to Opposition Bill, who would
+attempt something of the kind, which invariably set every one
+laughing. At last Dick Harness's performances were not considered
+to be complete if Opposition Bill was not in his company; and, as
+they were both very good-tempered, funny fellows, they were a great
+amusement, especially in the fine weather, when they would sit on
+the benches upon the terrace about six or eight yards apart, for
+they seldom came nearer, and play and sing alternately. The songs
+sung by Dick Harness were chiefly old sea songs; those of
+Opposition Bill were picked up from every part of the world,
+principally, however, those sung by the negroes who worked on the
+plantations in Virginia and Carolina.</p>
+<p>Peter Anderson, my father, Ben, and many others were sitting on
+the benches, basking in the morning's sun, when Dick Harness made
+his appearance, limping along with his fiddle under his arm.</p>
+<p>"Come along, Dick," said Ben the Whaler, "we'll stow close, and
+make room for you here."</p>
+<p>"You must make elbow-room, too, my hearty, or I shan't be able
+to fiddle. Come, what will you have this fine morning?" said
+Harness, tuning his instrument. As soon as it was in tune he
+flourished a prelude from the top of the scale to the bottom,
+ending with an "Eh-haw! eh-haw!" in imitation of the braying of a
+donkey.</p>
+<p>"Give us the Spanish Ladies, Dick," said my father. As this song
+was very popular at that time among the seamen, and is now almost
+forgotten, I shall by inserting it here for a short time rescue it
+from oblivion.</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish
+ladies,<br />
+Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For we have received
+orders</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For to sail to old
+England,</span><br />
+But we hope in a short time to see you again."</p>
+<p>"Stop a moment, lads. I must screw him up a little more."</p>
+<p>Dick regulated his first string, and then continued.</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"We'll rant and we'll roar, like true British
+sailors,<br />
+We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Until we strike
+soundings</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the Channel of old
+England</span><br />
+(From Ushant to Scilly 'tis thirty-five leagues).<br />
+<br />
+"Then we hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">my boys,</span><br />
+Then we hove our ship to, for to strike soundings clear;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then we filled the
+maintopsail</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And bore right away, my
+boys,</span><br />
+And straight up the Channel of old England did steer.<br />
+<br />
+"So the first land we made, it is called the Deadman,<br />
+Next Ram Head, off Plymouth, Start, Portland, and<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the Wight;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We sail-ed by Beachy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By Fairly and
+Dungeness,</span><br />
+And then bore away for the South Foreland light.<br />
+<br />
+"Now the signal it was made for the grand fleet to<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">anchor,</span><br />
+All in the Downs that night for to meet;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then stand by your
+stoppers,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">See clear your shank
+painters,</span><br />
+Haul all your clew garnets, stick out tacks and sheets."</p>
+<p>Here Dick was interrupted by another fiddle, which went "turn,
+turn&mdash;scrape&mdash;turn, turn."</p>
+<p>"There's Opposition Bill, Dick," said my father; "I thought you
+would bring him out."</p>
+<p>"All's right," replied Dick; "hope he aren't affronted; but he
+looks very black this morning."</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Now let every man lake off his full
+bumper,<br />
+Let every man take off his full bowl;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For we will be jolly</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And drown melancholy,</span><br />
+With a health to each jovial and true-hearted soul."</p>
+<p>"Now, then, Billy, fire away."</p>
+<p>"You tink I 'bey your order, you Dick? No, sar, suppose I fire
+away, I go off. I not go off, I stay here."</p>
+<p>"Well, but if you play, you'll get in trouble, Billy."</p>
+<p>"How I get in trouble?"</p>
+<p>"Why, you'll get in a scrape, won't you?"</p>
+<p>"Ho! you just got out of one, anyhow."</p>
+<p>Dick Harness then said to those who sat by him, "I'll make him
+sing the Negro General."</p>
+<p>"Well, if you will howl, Mr. Billy," cried out Harness, "at all
+events don't give us that abominable Nigger General. It always
+gives me the toothache."</p>
+<p>"Now I tink dat very fine song; so you may have whole jaw-ache
+for all I care. I sing dat, Mr. Dick; you jealous of dat song, I
+know."</p>
+<p>Opposition Billy flourished a little, and then
+commenced&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Listen, my boys, and I will tell you<br />
+Tell you a leetle 'bout Gin'ral Gabriel.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey advertise de Nigger Gin'ral,<br />
+A dousand pounds dey advertise him.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"And who betrayed de Nigger Gin'ral?<br />
+A leetle boy betrayed de Gin'ral.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"A leetle boy by de name of Daniel,<br />
+Betrayed him down at Norfolk Landing.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"He says, how do, my uncle Gabriel?<br />
+But dis is not your uncle Gabriel.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Yes, it is my uncle Gabriel;<br />
+For I do know you, uncle Gabriel.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"De man belonged to Major Prosser,<br />
+So cum and hang de Nigger Gin'ral.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"For he's ruined old Virginny!<br />
+<i>Hard times</i> in old Virginny.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey wrote a letter to de tailor,<br />
+To cut out de Gin'ral's ruffles.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey cut de ruffles out o' <i>iron</i>!<br />
+So they handcuff and chained him.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey went and called a troop of light horse<br />
+To come and guard de Nigger Gin'ral!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"To guard him all to de city of Richmond,<br />
+To guard him up unto de justice.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"De justice <i>tuk</i> him to de gobnor&mdash;<br />
+(Monroe he set up for gobnor).<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Command him to de Penetenshy;<br />
+On Thursday week come on his trial.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey went and called all de country<br />
+For to come and see de Nigger Gin'ral.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Some dey call him Archy Mullen&mdash;'My<br />
+right name is John Decullen.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"I'm here to-day and gone to-morrow;<br />
+I did not come for to stay for eber.'<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"So den dey tuk him to de gallows,<br />
+Drive him down dere in a wagon.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey drive him down unto de gallows,<br />
+Dey drive him down with four gray horses.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"(Price's Ben, he drive de wagon)<br />
+Very sad loss to Major Prosser.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh, my boys, I'm most
+done!</span><br />
+<br />
+"Dey drove him right beneath de gallows,<br />
+And den dey hang him and dey swing him.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!</span><br />
+<br />
+"And dat de fate of de Nigger Gin'ral,<br />
+Who almost ruined old Virginny!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Now, my boys, I'm quite
+done!"</span></p>
+<p>"You've quite done, have you, Billy?" said Harness; "take my
+advice and never begin again."</p>
+<p>"Eh, Mister Dick, you no ab song like dat in your budget, and I
+neber give you de tune."</p>
+<p>"I hope you won't; but now I'll play you a tune which will beat
+you hollow." Hereupon Dick Harness imitated the squeaking of pigs
+and caterwauling of cats upon his fiddle, so as to set everybody
+laughing, except Opposition Bill, who pretended to be very
+sulky.</p>
+<p>"Come, Dick, it's your turn now. Give us a regular forecastle
+song," said Ben the Whaler.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, here's one that's been sung ever since the days of
+old Queen Anne:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"It was one November&mdash;the second
+day&mdash;<br />
+The admiral he bore away,<br />
+Intending for his native shore.<br />
+The wind at sou'sou'west did roar;<br />
+There was likewise a terrible sky,<br />
+Which made the sea to run mountains high.<br />
+<br />
+"The tide of ebb it was not done,<br />
+But fiercely to the west did run;<br />
+Which put us all in terrible fear,<br />
+Because there was not room for to veer.<br />
+The wind and weather increased sore,<br />
+And drove ten sail of us on shore.<br />
+<br />
+"Ashore went the 'Northumberland,'<br />
+The 'Harwich,' and the 'Cumberland,'<br />
+The 'Lion' and the 'Warwick' too;<br />
+But the 'Elizabeth' had the most to rue&mdash;<br />
+She came stem on&mdash;her fore-foot broke,<br />
+And she sunk the 'Gloucester' at one stroke.<br />
+<br />
+"But now remains what is worse to tell,<br />
+The greatest ships had the greatest knell;<br />
+The brave 'C'ronation' and all her men<br />
+Was lost and drowned every one,<br />
+Except the mate and eighteen more<br />
+What in the longboat com'd ashore.<br />
+<br />
+"And thus they lost their precious lives;<br />
+But the greatest loss was to their wives,<br />
+Who, with their children left on shore,<br />
+Their husbands' watery death deplore,<br />
+And wept their loss with many tears&mdash;<br />
+(But grief endureth not for years).<br />
+<br />
+"Now you who've a mind to go to sea,<br />
+Pray take a useful hint from me,<br />
+And live at home, and be content<br />
+With what kind Providence has sent;<br />
+For they were punish'd for their misdeeds,<br />
+In grumbling when they had no needs.<br />
+<br />
+"Now God preserve our noble Queen,<br />
+Likewise her Ministers serene;<br />
+And may they ever steer a course<br />
+To make things better 'stead of worse,<br />
+And England's flag triumphant fly,<br />
+The dread of hevery he-ne-my."</p>
+<p>"You call dat singing! Stop now! I sing a song you nebber hear
+in all your life," cried Opposition Bill, tuning his fiddle.</p>
+<p>"And never wish to hear again, most likely," replied Dick. "Out
+with it, Bill; your face shines beautifully this morning."</p>
+<p>"I take de shine out of you, Massa Dick; now you listen:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Now your fader is asleep, maid, listen unto
+me;<br />
+Will you follow in my trail to Ken-tuck-y?<br />
+For cross de Alleghany to-morrow I must go,<br />
+To chase de bounding deer on'de O-hi-o.<br />
+<br />
+"And will you lub me truly, and kind to me will be,<br />
+If I quit my fader's roof for Ken-tuck-y?<br />
+And will you nebber leave me, if I consent to go<br />
+To your shanty by de stream of de O-hi-o?<br />
+<br />
+"Her fader's not asleep, and he will not agree,<br />
+Dat you take away his dater to Ken-tuck-y.<br />
+So alone by yourself, good hunter, you must go,<br />
+Where the Ingin's rifle cracks on de O-hi-o.<br />
+<br />
+"Your moder, too, is near, aldough you did not see,<br />
+And wid her leave you nebber go to Ken-tuck-y.<br />
+He hab a wife already, as I do surely know,<br />
+Who weeps for his return to de O-hi-o.<br />
+<br />
+"Man, I have dis purse of gold, half of it for ye;<br />
+Woman, I hab ne'er a wife in Ken-tuck-y;<br />
+Your dater is my only lub, so pridee let us go<br />
+To where my corn is ripening on de O-hi-o.<br />
+<br />
+"De fader weighed de purse, he took his half wid glee,<br />
+De moder said her child might go to Ken-tuck-y.<br />
+So de hunter and de maid, arm-in-arm dey go,<br />
+Across de Alleghany to de O-hi-o."</p>
+<p>"Bravo, Billy, that's not so bad," said some of the
+pensioners.</p>
+<p>"I tell you, Dick, I take de shine out of you. You nebber
+believe till I make you fall in my wake, and den you soon be where
+de little boat was&mdash;long way astarn."</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you what, Billy," said Dick Harness, "you do improve,
+and we'll allow you to sing that song once more before you die,
+just by way of encouragement."</p>
+<p>Dick then played several flourishes on his fiddle. Opposition
+Bill tried to imitate him, but made sad work of it. It was near
+dinner-time, and the pensioners rose and proceeded to the Painted
+Hall, for at that time they dined there, and not below in the
+crypts as they do now.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN" id="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+EIGHTEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I get into very doubtful Company&mdash;I am tempted, and, like a
+true Son of Adam, I fall.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The reader must have observed that, under the tuition of
+Anderson, I promised to follow the right path, and, provided his
+good offices were not interfered with, there appeared little doubt
+but that such would be the case. But I was little aware, nor was
+he, that the humble profession which I had chosen for myself was
+beset with danger, and that the majority of those with whom I was
+associating were the most likely of all others to lead me into
+evil. Why I had not hitherto been tempted can only be ascribed to
+my tender years. In fact, I had not been considered strong enough,
+or of an age to be useful to them, but now that I was more than
+thirteen years old&mdash;being, moreover, very tall and strong for
+my age&mdash;the hour of temptation arrived; and fortunate was it
+for me that, previous to this epoch, I had been taken under the
+protection of Peter Anderson.</p>
+<p>I have said in a former chapter that I was a regular
+<i>mudlarker</i>. So I was, as far as the ostensible occupation of
+those who are so denominated went; to wit, "picking up pieces of
+old rope, wood, etc." But the mudlarkers, properly speaking, at
+that time composed a very extensive body on the river, and were a
+more humble portion of the numerous river depredators, of which I
+may hereafter speak. A mudlarker was a man who had an old boat,
+generally sold by some merchant vessel, furnished with an iron bar
+full of hooks, which was lowered down by a rope to catch pieces of
+cordage, oakum, canvas or other articles, which might fall
+overboard from the numerous vessels in the river; these were sold
+to the marine stores, such as were kept by old Nanny. But, as I
+observed, this was the <i>ostensible</i> mode of livelihood; they
+had other resources, to which I shall presently refer. An old man
+of the name of Jones, who resided at Greenwich, was one of these
+mudlarkers by profession. He was a surly old fellow, his sharp nose
+and chin nearly meeting, and he usually went by the name of Old
+Grumble. I had occasionally assisted him with his boat, but without
+receiving money, or indeed thanks, for my pains, but for this I
+cared little. He was a very old man, and when he came on shore and
+went up to old Nanny with the few things he had collected during
+the day, I almost wondered how he could manage to subsist, and
+thought myself infinitely better off than he was.</p>
+<p>One evening he said to me, "Jack, I'm going up the river, I wish
+you'd come in the boat and help me, and if I make anything I will
+give you something for your trouble, but if I don't you can't
+expect it."</p>
+<p>As he was very infirm I went with him, more out of charity than
+with any hopes of profit. We pulled with the tide till we arrived a
+little above Deptford, where several ships were lying, and he went
+close to one and lowered down his grapnels. He dragged for a short
+time.</p>
+<p>"Just you make a little further off, old fellow," cried the mate
+of the vessel.</p>
+<p>"Won't allow a poor old man to earn a few pence, I suppose,"
+replied Old Grumble, hauling up his grapnel and directing me to
+pull under the bows, where he dropped it down again. I now
+perceived, as I thought, some signs passing between him and one of
+the men in the head; but if so, they were soon over, and Old
+Grumble continued his avocation till the sun set.</p>
+<p>"How long do you intend to remain here?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>"Oh, not much longer, but I must wait a bit."</p>
+<p>At last it was quite dark, and then Grumble pulled up his
+grapnel and dropped down nearer to the cutwater of the vessel. I
+soon distinguished a tinkling, as it were, of metal; and Old
+Grumble, holding up his hands, received some sheets of copper,
+which were lowered down by a rope-yarn. As soon as they were
+quietly landed in the stern of the boat, down came a bag, which he
+cast off and laid beside the copper. I was all astonishment, but
+still more so when a large bag of something weighing very heavy was
+lowered down by a rope after the small bag. A low whistle was then
+given, and the words "Monday night" pronounced in a whisper.
+Grumble whistled in return, and then, hauling up the grapnel, he
+told me to put out the oars and pull, while he took his grapnel on
+board. We then pulled down the river again, for the tide had
+turned, and as soon as we were clear of the shipping I began to
+interrogate him.</p>
+<p>"Who gave you all these things?"</p>
+<p>"Who? Why, that man."</p>
+<p>"But what did he give them you for?"</p>
+<p>"Why, out of charity, to be sure! But I can't talk now, I've no
+breath to spare. Let's pull ashore, and then I'll talk to you."</p>
+<p>As we pulled down I observed that a lighter had broken adrift
+from her moorings, and was sweeping down the river with the ebb
+tide.</p>
+<p>"There's a lighter adrift," said I.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied Grumble. "I'm too old for that work now; time
+was. There'll be pretty pickings as soon as she gets down a little
+lower. The Light Horsemen have cut her adrift."</p>
+<p>"Light Horsemen! Who are they?"</p>
+<p>"Bah! you know nothing. I tell ye again, I haven't no breath to
+spare; I can't pull and talk too."</p>
+<p>I was convinced in my own mind that Old Grumble had not obtained
+the articles in the boat by fair means, and, annoyed that I should
+have been made a participator in any dishonest dealings, I was
+resolved to question him closely as soon as we landed. There was no
+one at the steps, and when we beached the boat I asked him whether
+he was going to take the things up to old Nanny's.</p>
+<p>"Old Nanny! no. She's no fence now; she used to be a good one,
+but she was overhauled once or twice, and nearly sent on the other
+side of the water, and, since that, she's satisfied with little
+articles, sure profit and no risk."</p>
+<p>"What do you mean by a fence?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>"Why, don't you know that yet, boy? Well, a <i>fence</i> is one
+who receives things that are brought for sale, and never asks no
+questions."</p>
+<p>"Well, but if these things were given you out of charity, as you
+say, why should you want to take them up to a fence, as you call
+it?"</p>
+<p>"I tell you what, Jack, I can't be answering all these questions
+here, where there may be twenty pair of ears a-listening."</p>
+<p>"Well, and if they do listen, what is the harm, if we are doing
+what is right?"</p>
+<p>"It won't do to argufy here, I tell you. In my opinion, a poor
+man who works hard to get some victuals to keep body and soul
+together is doing what is right."</p>
+<p>"Yes, if he works at an honest livelihood."</p>
+<p>"Don't talk so loud about <i>honesty</i>; the very word is
+enough to make people suspect something not right. I'll tell you
+all when you come up to my house; for you see, Jack, you must help
+me to carry these things up. D'ye think you can manage this bag of
+pease? Let's try." Between us we contrived to get the bag, which
+weighed about half a hundredweight, on my back, and I walked off
+with it, Grumble following me with the copper and the other small
+bag, which I afterward found contained copper nails. When we
+arrived at his dwelling, which was as dilapidated and miserable as
+old Nanny's, he took out his key and fumbled a long while at the
+lock; at last he opened it. "You had better stay till I get a
+light," said he. In a minute he came with one to the door, and told
+me to follow him. I went in, put down the bag, and, some grains
+falling out, I took them up.</p>
+<p>"Why, this is coffee, Grumble!"</p>
+<p>"Well, <i>pease</i> is our name for coffee, <i>sand</i> for
+sugar, and <i>vinegar</i> for rum, when we get any."</p>
+<p>"Well, but, Grumble, I wish to know how you came by these
+things?"</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you, Jack, if you ask everybody how they come by
+things, you will have enough to do; but the fact is, the man wants
+me to sell them for him."</p>
+<p>"Why, you said he gave them to you out of charity!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, that was only because I couldn't spare breath to tell you
+all about it."</p>
+<p>"But why should he lower them down in the dark, if they are his
+own property?"</p>
+<p>"Jack, I don't ask whose property it is; all I know is that I
+come by it honestly. I don't steal it, and I can't prove that the
+man does. Why, Jack, if one is to be so nice as that, you can't go
+into a grocer's shop to buy sugar, or coffee, or pepper, or indeed
+into almost any shop, if you first want to know whether the people
+have come by the goods honestly before you buy of them."</p>
+<p>"Still, it is so plain that the man must have stolen them."</p>
+<p>"Suppose it is; how are so many poor people to find their
+livelihood and support their families, if they refuse to get a
+shilling or two when it is offered? If we were only to live upon
+what we get honestly, why, we should starve; the rich take good
+care of that by grinding us down so close. Why, Jack, how many
+thousands get their living on this river! and do you think they
+could all get their living honestly, as you call it? No; we all
+plunder one another in this world<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id=
+"FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class=
+"fnanchor">[4]</a>. You asked me who were Light
+Horsemen?&mdash;that's a name for one set of people who live by
+plunder. That lighter will have a good slice of her cargo out
+to-night; for those who cut her adrift know what's on board of her.
+Then we have the Heavy Horsemen&mdash;they do their work in the
+daytime, when they go on board as lumpers to clear the ships. And
+then we've the Coopers and Bumboat men, and the Ratcatchers and the
+Scuffle Hunters, and the River Pirates; and, last of all, we have
+the Mudlarkers: all different professions, Jack; never interfering
+with each other, and all living by their wits. I'm too old now; I
+was a flash pirate once, but I'm now nearly eighty, and am only fit
+for a mudlarker."</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> These remarks of
+Grumble were, at the time, perfectly correct; it was before the Wet
+Docks or the River Police was established. Previously to the West
+India, London, St. Katharine's, and other docks having been made,
+all ships unloaded in the river, and the depredations were so
+enormous that Mr. Colquhoun, in his work, has estimated them at
+half a million sterling <i>annually</i>. At present the river may
+be said to be comparatively honest; the police is strict, and the
+temptations are removed.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"But," exclaimed I, with astonishment, "are they not discovered
+and punished?"</p>
+<p>"That's very seldom, Jack; for you see we have receivers all
+down the river; some of them great men, and dining with the mayor
+and common council; others in a small way&mdash;all sorts, Jack:
+and then we have what we call Jew Carts, always ready to take goods
+inland, where they will not be looked after. Old Nanny was a
+receiver and fence in a large way once."</p>
+<p>"Then the only honest people on the river are the watermen."</p>
+<p>Here old Grumble chuckled. "Why, Jack, they be the worst of all,
+for they be both receivers and thieves. Do you think the watermen
+live by their fares? If you do, just wait on the steps one night,
+and you'll find that their night work is worth more than the day
+work is. We all must live, Jack; and now I've shown you a way by
+which you can earn more money in a night than you can in a
+fortnight by asking for halfpence. Here's five shillings for you,
+my boy; and when I want you again I'll let you know."</p>
+<p>Alas! the five shillings, so easily and so unexpectedly earned,
+did, for the time, satisfy all my scruples: so easily are we bribed
+into what is wrong. I wished Old Grumble a good-night and left him.
+As I returned home, I thought of what he had said about night work,
+and, instead of making my way to Fisher's Alley, I returned to the
+landing-steps, resolving to watch for a time and see what
+occurred.</p>
+<p>I thought of what had passed. I was not satisfied with myself. I
+thought of what Anderson would say, and I felt that I had done
+wrong. And then I attempted to exculpate myself. I could not prove
+that the things were stolen. I did not go with any intent to help
+in such a business. Old Grumble had only paid me for my work; but
+then, why did he pay me so much money? My conscience told me that
+it was because the dealings were unfair. I could not persuade
+myself that I was right. I looked up at the heavens&mdash;for it
+was a clear night, and there was a very bright star just above me;
+and as I looked at it it appeared as if it were an eye beaming down
+upon me, and piercing into my breast. I turned away from it, and
+then looked at it again&mdash;still it had the same appearance. I
+thought it was the eye of God&mdash;I trembled, and I resolved to
+reveal the whole to Anderson the next day, when I heard the sound
+of oars. I looked in the direction, and perceived a wherry with two
+men pulling in. I was down on the steps, under the shadow of the
+wall, and they did not see me. They landed, and handed out of the
+wherry three large and full canvas bags. "It's more than we can
+carry," said the voice of a waterman I well knew; "we must leave
+one in the boat; and be quick, for they are on our scent. Hollo!
+who's that? what are you doing here? Poor Jack, I declare."</p>
+<p>"Well, mayn't I have a little night work as well as you?"</p>
+<p>"Oh! you've come to that, have you?" replied he. "Well, as
+you're waiting for something else, I suppose you could not help us
+with one of these bags?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I can," replied I, forgetting all my resolutions; "put it
+on my back, if it's not too heavy."</p>
+<p>"No, no; you're stout enough to carry it. I say, Jack, can you
+tell us, does old Nanny fence again, or has she given it up?"</p>
+<p>"I believe she does not," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Well," said he, "just put the question to her to-morrow
+morning, for she used to be a good 'un; now follow us."</p>
+<p>I walked after them with my load until we came to a by-street;
+at the shutters of a shop they rapped three times on the iron bar
+outside which fixed them up; the door was opened, and we put the
+bags down in the passage, walked out again without a word, and the
+door was immediately closed.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," said the waterman, "I suppose we must tip handsome
+for the first time: here's ten shillings for you, and we'll let you
+know when we want you to be on the lookout for us."</p>
+<p>Ten shillings! and five before&mdash;fifteen shillings! I felt
+as I were a rich man; all scruples of conscience were, for the
+time, driven away. I hurried home rattling the silver in my pocket,
+and opening the door softly, I crept to bed. Did I say my prayers
+that night? No!!</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus174.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINETEEN" id="CHAPTER_NINETEEN"></a>CHAPTER
+NINETEEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I am tempted again&mdash;My Pride is roused, and my Course of
+Life is changed in consequence.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I passed a dreaming restless night, and woke early. I recalled
+all that had passed, and I felt very much dissatisfied with myself;
+the fifteen shillings, with the added prospect of receiving more,
+did not yield me the satisfaction I had anticipated. From what the
+men had said about old Nanny I thought that I would go and see her;
+and why? because I wished support against my own convictions. If I
+had not been actuated by such a feeling I should, as usual, have
+gone to old Anderson. When I went down to breakfast I felt
+confused, and I hardly dared to meet the clear bright eye of my
+little sister, and I wished the fifteen shillings out of my pocket.
+That I might appear to her and my mother as if I were not guilty, I
+swaggered; my sister was surprised, and my mother justifiably
+angry. As soon as breakfast was over, I hastened to old
+Nanny's.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," said she, "what brings you here so early?"</p>
+<p>"Why, mother, I was desired to ask you a question last
+night&mdash;between ourselves."</p>
+<p>"Well, why don't you ask it, since it's between ourselves?"
+replied she, with surprise.</p>
+<p>"Some of the people want to know if you <i>fence</i> now?"</p>
+<p>"Jack," said old Nanny, harshly, "who asked you that question,
+and how did you fall into their company? Tell me directly; I will
+know."</p>
+<p>"Why, mother, is there any harm in it?" replied I, confused and
+holding down my head.</p>
+<p>"Harm in it! Ask your own conscience, Jack, whether there's harm
+in it. Why do you not look me in the face like an honest boy? Would
+they have dared to put that question to you, if you had not been a
+party to their evil deeds, Jack?" continued she, shaking her head.
+"I thought better of you; now you have filled me full of
+sorrow."</p>
+<p>I was smitten to the heart at this rebuke from a quarter whence
+I did not expect it; but my heart was still rebellious, and I would
+not acknowledge what I felt. I thought to turn the tables, and
+replied, "Why, mother, at all events they say that <i>once</i> you
+were a real good one."</p>
+<p>"Is it indeed gone so far?" replied she. "Poor boy! poor boy!
+Yes, Jack, to my shame be it spoken, I once did receive things and
+buy them when they were not honestly come by, and now I'm rebuked
+by a child. But, Jack, I was almost mad then; I had that which
+would have turned any one's brain&mdash;I was reckless, wretched;
+but I don't do so any more. Even now I am a poor sinful
+wretch&mdash;I know it; but I'm not so crazy as I was then. I have
+done so, Jack, more's the shame for me, and I wish I could recall
+it; but, Jack, we can't recall the past. Oh, that we could!"</p>
+<p>Here old Nanny pressed her hands to her temples, and for some
+time was silent. At last she continued, "Why did I love you,
+Jack?&mdash;Because you were honest. Why did I lend you
+money&mdash;I, an old miserly wretch, who have been made to dote on
+money; I, who have never spent a shilling for my own comfort for
+these ten years?&mdash;But because you were honest. Why have I
+longed the whole day to see you, and have cared only for
+you?&mdash;Because I thought you honest, Jack. I don't care how
+soon I die now. I thought the world too bad to live in; you made me
+think better of it. Oh! Jack, Jack, how has this come to pass? How
+long have you known these bad people?"</p>
+<p>"Why, mother," replied I, much affected, "only last night."</p>
+<p>"Only last night? Tell me all about it; tell the truth, dear
+boy, do."</p>
+<p>I could hold out no longer, and I told her everything that had
+passed.</p>
+<p>"Jack," said she, "I'm not fit to talk to you; I'm a bad old
+woman, and you may say I don't practice what I preach; but, Jack,
+if you love me, go to Peter Anderson and tell him everything. Don't
+be afraid; only be afraid of doing what is wrong. Now, Jack, you
+must go."</p>
+<p>"I will, I will," replied I, bursting into tears.</p>
+<p>"Do, do, dear Jack! God bless your heart, I wish I could cry
+that way."</p>
+<p>I walked away quite humiliated; at last I ran, I was so eager to
+go to Anderson and confess everything. I found him in his
+cabin&mdash;I attempted to speak, but I could not&mdash;I pulled
+out the money, put it on the table, and then I knelt down and
+sobbed on his knee.</p>
+<p>"What is all this, Jack?" said Anderson, calmly; but I did not
+reply. "I think I know, Jack," said he, after a pause. "You have
+been doing wrong."</p>
+<p>"Yes, yes," replied I, sobbing.</p>
+<p>"Well, my dear boy, wait till you can speak, and then tell me
+all about it."</p>
+<p>As soon as I could I did. Anderson heard me without
+interruption.</p>
+<p>"Jack," said he, when I had done speaking, "the temptation"
+(pointing to the money) "has been very great; you did not resist at
+the moment, but you have, fortunately, seen you*r error in good
+time, for the money is still here. I have little to say to you, for
+your own feelings convince me that it is needless. Do you think
+that you can read a little? Then read this." Anderson turned to the
+parable of the Prodigal Son, which I read to him. "And now," said
+he, turning over the leaves, "here is one verse more." I read it:
+"There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety
+and nine that need no repentance." "Be careful, therefore, my dear
+boy, let this be a warning to you; think well of it, for you have
+escaped a great danger. The money shall be returned. Go now, my
+child, to your employment; and if you do receive only halfpence,
+you will have the satisfaction of feeling that they are honestly
+obtained."</p>
+<p>I can assure the reader that this was a lesson which I never
+forgot; it was, however, succeeded by another variety of
+temptation, which might have proved more dangerous to a young and
+ardent spirit, had it not ended as it did, in changing the course
+of my destiny and throwing me into a new path of action. To this I
+shall now refer.</p>
+<p>Hardly a month passed but we received additional pensioners into
+the hospital. Among others, a man was sent to the hospital who went
+by the name of Sam Spicer. I say went by the name, as it was not
+the custom for the seamen to give their real names when they were
+entered or pressed into the service, and of course they were
+discharged into the hospital by the same name which they bore on
+the ship's books. Spicer was upward of six feet in height, very
+large boned, and must, when he was in his prime, have been a man of
+prodigious strength. When he was admitted to the hospital he was
+nearly sixty years of age; his hair was black and gray mixed, his
+complexion very dark, and his countenance fierce and
+unprepossessing. He went by the name of Black Sam, on account of
+his appearance. He had lost his right hand in a frigate action, and
+to the stump he had fixed a sort of socket, into which he screwed
+his knife and the various articles which he wished to make use
+of&mdash;sometimes a file, sometimes a saw&mdash;having had every
+article made to fit into the socket, for he had been an armorer on
+board ship, and was very handy at such work. He was, generally
+speaking, very morose and savage to everybody, seldom entered into
+conversation, but sat apart, as if thinking, with a frown upon his
+countenance, and his eyes, surmounted with bushy eyebrows, fixed
+upon the ground. The pensioners who belonged to the same ward said
+that he talked in his sleep, and from what they could collect at
+those times he must have been a pirate; but no one dared to speak
+to him on the subject, for more than once he had been punished for
+striking those who had offended him; indeed, he nearly killed one
+old man who was jesting with him when he was at work, having made a
+stab at him with his knife screwed in his socket, but his foot
+slipped and the blow missed. Spicer was brought up before the
+council for this offense, and would have been discharged had he not
+declared that he had done it only by way of a joke to frighten the
+man; and, as no one else was present, it could not be proved to the
+contrary. For some reason or another, which I could not comprehend,
+Spicer appeared to have taken a liking to me; he would call me to
+him, and tell me stories about the West Indies and the Spanish
+Main, which I listened to very eagerly, for they were to me very
+interesting. But he seldom, if ever, spoke to me inside of the
+hospital; it was always when I was at the steps minding my
+vocation, where he would come down and lean over the rail at the
+top of the wharf. He made and gave me a boat-hook, which I found
+very convenient. He had a great deal of information, and as the
+ships came up the river he would point out the flags of the
+different nations, tell me where they traded from, and what their
+cargoes probably consisted of. If they had no ensign he would tell
+by their build and the cut of their sails what nation they belonged
+to, pointing out to me the differences, which I soon began to
+perceive. He had been in every part of the world, and scarcely a
+day passed in which I did not gain from him some amusing or useful
+information. Indeed, I became so fond of his company that Peter
+Anderson spoke to me on the subject, and asked me what Spicer
+talked about. I told him, and he replied:</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, I daresay that he is a very pleasant companion to
+one who, like you, is so anxious for information, and I have
+nothing to say against him, for we have no right to listen to
+foolish reports which may probably have been raised from his savage
+appearance. Still, I confess I do not like the man, as he is
+decidedly of a violent temper. As long as he talks to you about
+what you say he does, there is no harm done; but when once he says
+anything which you think is wrong, promise me to let me know; and
+even now, if you will take my advice, you will not be so intimate
+with him."</p>
+<p>A little while afterward my father and Ben the Whaler both spoke
+to me on the same subject, but with much less reservation.</p>
+<p>My father said, "Jack, I don't like to see you always in company
+with that old pirate, no good can come of it; so haul off a little
+further for the future."</p>
+<p>And Ben told me, "That a man who couldn't sleep o' nights
+without talking of killing people must have a bad conscience, and
+something lying heavy on his soul. There's an old saying, Jack,
+'Tell me whose company you keeps, and I'll tell you what sort of a
+chap you be.' You've the character of a good honest boy; steer
+clear of Sam Spicer, or you'll lose it."</p>
+<p>Admonitions from all those whom I loved were not without their
+effect, and I made a resolution to be less intimate with Spicer.
+But it was difficult to do so, as I was obliged to be at the
+landing-steps, and could not prevent his coming there.</p>
+<p>I acknowledge that it was a severe privation to me to follow the
+injunctions given to me, for I would listen for hours to the
+thrilling narratives, the strange and almost incredible accounts of
+battles, incidents, and wild adventures, which this man Spicer
+would relate to me; and when I thought over them I felt that the
+desire to rove was becoming more strong within me every day. One
+morning I said to him that "I had a great mind to go on board of a
+man-of-war."</p>
+<p>"On board of a man-of-war?" replied Spicer; "you'd soon be sick
+enough of that. Why, who would be at the beck and nod of others,
+ordered here, called there, by boy midshipmen; bullied by
+lieutenants, flogged by captains; have all the work and little of
+the pay, all the fighting and less of the prize-money; and, after
+having worn out your life in hard service, be sent here as a great
+favor, to wear a cocked hat and get a shilling a week for your
+'baccy? Pshaw, boy! that's not life."</p>
+<p>"Then, what is life?' inquired I.</p>
+<p>"What is life? Why, to sail in a clipper with a jolly crew and a
+roving commission; take your prizes, share and share alike, of
+gold-dust and doubloons."</p>
+<p>"But what sort of vessel must that be, Spicer?"</p>
+<p>"What sort? why&mdash;a letter of marque&mdash;a
+privateer&mdash;a cruise on the Spanish Main&mdash;that's life.
+Many's the jolly day I've seen in those latitudes, where men-of-war
+do not bring vessels to and press the best men out of them. There
+the sun's warm, and the sky and the sea are deep blue, and the
+corals grow like forests underneath, and there are sandy coves and
+cool caves for retreat&mdash;and where you may hide your gold till
+you want it&mdash;ay, and your sweethearts too, if you have
+any."</p>
+<p>"I thought privateers always sent their prizes into port, to be
+condemned?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, in the Channel and these seas they do, but not down
+there&mdash;it's too far off. We condemn the vessels ourselves, and
+share the money on the capstan-head."</p>
+<p>"But is that lawful?"</p>
+<p>"Lawful! to be sure it is. Could we spare men to send prizes
+home to England, and put them into the hands of a rascally agent,
+who would rob us of three-fourths at least? No, no; that would
+never do. If I could have escaped from the man-of-war which picked
+up me and four others who were adrift in an open boat, I would now
+have been on the Coast. But when I lost my fin, I knew that all was
+over with me, so I came to the hospital; but I often think of old
+times, and the life of a rover. Now, if you have any thoughts of
+going to sea, look out for some vessel bound to the Gold Coast, and
+then you'll soon get in the right way."</p>
+<p>"The Gold Coast! Is not that to where the slavers go?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, slavers and other vessels besides. Some traffic for ivory
+and gold-dust; however, that's as may happen. You'd soon find
+yourself in good company, and wouldn't that be better than begging
+here for halfpence? I would be above <i>that</i>, at all
+events."</p>
+<p>This remark, the first of the kind ever made to me, stung me to
+the quick. Strange, I had never before considered myself in the
+light of a beggar; and yet, was I not so, just as much as a sweeper
+of a crossing?"</p>
+<p>"A beggar?" replied I.</p>
+<p>"Yes, a beggar. Don't you beg for halfpence, and say, 'Thank
+your honor; a copper for poor Jack, your honor'?" rejoined Spicer,
+mimicking me. "When I see that pretty sister of yours, that looks
+so like a real lady, I often thinks to myself, 'Fine and smart as
+you are, miss, your brother's only a beggar.' Now, would you not
+like to return from a cruise with a bag of doubloons to throw into
+her lap, proving that you were a gentleman, and above coppers
+thrown to you out of charity? Well, old as I am, and maimed, I'd
+sooner starve where I now stand.&mdash;But I must be off, so
+good-by, Jack; look sharp after the halfpence."</p>
+<p>As Spicer walked away my young blood boiled. A beggar! It was
+but too true; and yet I had never thought it a disgrace before. I
+sat down on the steps, and was soon in deep thought. Boat after
+boat came to the stairs, and yet I stirred not. Not one halfpenny
+did I take during the remainder of that day, for I could not, would
+not, ask for one. My pride, hitherto latent, was roused, and before
+I rose from where I had been seated I made a resolution that I
+would earn my livelihood in some other way. What hurt me most was
+his observations about Virginia and her beggar brother. I was so
+proud of Virginia, I felt that her brother ought not to be a
+beggar. Such was the effect produced in so short a time by the
+insidious discourse of this man. Had he still remained at the
+steps, I do believe that I should have asked, probably have
+followed, his advice. Fortunately he had left, and, after a little
+reflection, I had the wisdom to go and seek Peter Anderson, and
+consult him as to what I could do, for to change my mode of
+obtaining my livelihood I was determined upon.</p>
+<p>I found Anderson, as usual, seated under the colonnade, reading,
+and I went up to him.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, my-boy, you are home early," said he.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I gravely, and then I was silent.</p>
+<p>After a pause of about a minute, Peter Anderson said, "Jack, I
+see there's something the matter. Now, tell me what it is. Can I
+help you?"</p>
+<p>"I did wish to speak to you," replied I. "I've been
+thinking&mdash;about going to sea."</p>
+<p>"And how long have you thought of that, Jack?"</p>
+<p>"I've thought more of it lately," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Yes, since Spicer has been talking to you. Now, is that not the
+case?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, it is."</p>
+<p>"I knew that, Jack. I'm at your service for as long as you
+please; now sit down and tell me all he has said to you that you
+can remember. I shan't interrupt you."</p>
+<p>I did so; and before I had half finished, Anderson replied,
+"That is quite enough, Jack. One thing is evident to me&mdash;that
+Spicer has led a bad and lawless life, and would even now continue
+it, old as he is, only that he is prevented by being crippled.
+Jack, he has talked to you about privateers! God forgive me if I
+wrong him; but I think, had he said pirates, he would have told the
+truth. But say nothing about that observation of mine; I wish from
+my heart that you had never known him. But here comes your father.
+He has a right to know what we are talking about, for you owe duty
+to him as his son, and nothing can be done without his
+permission."</p>
+<p>When my father came up to us, Anderson begged him to sit down,
+and he told him what we had been discoursing about. I had already
+stated my objections to enter on board of a man-of-war.</p>
+<p>"Well," said my father, "I may come athwart hawse of that old
+piccaroon yet, if he don't look out. Not that I mind your going to
+sea, Jack, as your father did before you; but what he says about
+the sarvice is a confounded lie. Let a man do his duty, and the
+sarvice is a good one; and a man who is provided for as he is,
+ought to be ashamed of himself to speak as he has done, the old
+rascal. Still, I do not care for your entering the sarvice so
+young. It would be better that you were first apprentice and
+learned your duty; and as soon as your time is out, you will be
+pressed, of course, and then you would sarve the King. I see no
+objection to all that."</p>
+<p>"But why do you want so particularly to go to sea, Jack?"
+observed Anderson.</p>
+<p>"I don't like being a beggar&mdash;begging for halfpence!"
+replied I.</p>
+<p>"And Spicer told you that you were a beggar?" said Peter.</p>
+<p>"He did."</p>
+<p>"Jack, if that is the case, we are all beggars; for we all work,
+and receive what money we can get for our work. There is no shame
+in that."</p>
+<p>"I can't bear to think of it," replied I, as the tears came into
+my eyes.</p>
+<p>"Well, well! I see how it is," replied Anderson; "it's a pity
+you ever fell in with that man."</p>
+<p>"That's true as gospel," observed my father; "but still, if he
+had said nothing worse than that, I should not have minded. I do
+think that Jack is now old enough to do something better; and I
+must say, I do not dislike his wishing so to do&mdash;for it is
+begging for halfpence, arter all."</p>
+<p>"Well, boy," said Peter Anderson, "suppose you leave your father
+and me to talk over the matter; and to-morrow, by this time, we
+will tell you what we think will be best."</p>
+<p>"Anything&mdash;anything," replied I, "but being a beggar."</p>
+<p>"Go along, you are a foolish boy," said Anderson.</p>
+<p>"I like his spirit, though," said my father, as I walked
+away.</p>
+<p>On the next day the important question was to be decided. I did
+not go to the stairs to follow up my vocation. I had talked the
+matter over with Virginia, who, although she did not like that I
+should go away, had agreed with me that she objected to my begging
+for money. I waited very impatiently for the time that Anderson had
+appointed, and, at last, he and my father came together, when the
+former said:</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, it appears that you do not like to be a waterman,
+and that you have no great fancy for a man-of-war, although you
+have a hankering for the sea. Now, as you cannot cruise with your
+friend Spicer on the Spanish Main, nor yet be safe from impressment
+in a privateer or merchantman, we have been thinking that, perhaps,
+you would have no objection to be a channel and river pilot; and if
+so, I have an old friend in that service who, I think, may help
+you. What do you say?"</p>
+<p>"I should like it very much."</p>
+<p>"Yes, it is a good service, and a man is usefully employed. You
+may be the means, as soon as you are out of your time, and have
+passed your examination, of saving many a vessel and more lives.
+You have had a pretty fair education, indeed quite sufficient; and,
+as you will often be coming up the river, you will have
+opportunities of seeing your father and your friends. If you
+decide, I will write at once."</p>
+<p>"It is the very thing that I should like," replied I; "and many
+thanks to you, Anderson."</p>
+<p>"And it's exactly what I should wish also," replied my father.
+"So that job's jobbed, as the saying is."</p>
+<p>After this arrangement, I walked away as proud as if I had been
+an emancipated slave. That very evening I announced my intention of
+resigning my office of "Poor Jack," and named as my successor the
+boy with whom I had fought so desperately to obtain it, when the
+prospect was held out to me, by old Ben, of my becoming Poor
+Jack&mdash;forever.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus187.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY" id="CHAPTER_TWENTY"></a>CHAPTER
+TWENTY</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Much ado about Nothing; or, a Specimen of modern Patronage</p>
+</div>
+<p>I communicated to my mother and Virginia my father's intentions
+relative to my future employ, and was not surprised to find my
+mother very much pleased with the intelligence, for she had always
+considered my situation of "Poor Jack" as disgracing her
+family&mdash;declaring it the "most ungenteelest" of all
+occupations. Perhaps she was not only glad of my giving up the
+situation, but also of my quitting her house. My father desired me
+to wear my Sunday clothes during the week, and ordered me a new
+suit for my best, which he paid for out of the money which he had
+placed in the hands of the lieutenant of the hospital; and I was
+very much surprised to perceive my mother cutting out half-a-dozen
+new shirts for me, which she and Virginia were employed making up
+during the evenings. Not that my mother told me who the shirts were
+for&mdash;she said nothing; but Virginia whispered it to me: my
+mother could not be even gracious to me. Nevertheless, the shirts
+and several other necessaries, such as stockings and
+pocket-handkerchiefs, were placed for my use on my father's
+sea-chest, in my room, without any comment on her part, although
+she had paid for them out of her own purse. During the time that
+elapsed from my giving up the situation of "Poor Jack" to my
+quitting Greenwich, I remained very quietly in my mother's house,
+doing everything that I could for her, and employing myself chiefly
+in reading books, which I borrowed anywhere that I could. I was
+very anxious to get rid of my sobriquet of "Poor Jack," and when so
+called would tell everybody that my name was now "Thomas
+Saunders."</p>
+<p>One Sunday, about three weeks after I had given up my berth, I
+was walking with my father and Virginia on the terrace of the
+hospital, when we perceived a large party of ladies and gentlemen
+coming toward us. My father was very proud of us. I had this very
+day put on the new suit of clothes which he had ordered for me, and
+which had been cut out in the true man-of-war fashion; and Virginia
+was, as usual, very nicely dressed. We were walking toward the
+party who were advancing, when all of a sudden my father started,
+and exclaimed:</p>
+<p>"Well, shiver my timbers! if it ain't <i>she</i>&mdash;and
+<i>he</i>&mdash;by all that's blue!"</p>
+<p>Who <i>she</i> or <i>he</i> might be neither Virginia nor I
+could imagine; but I looked at the party, who were now close to us,
+and perceived, in advance of the rest, an enormous lady, dressed in
+a puce-colored pelisse and a white satin bonnet. Her features were
+good, and, had they been on a smaller scale, would have been
+considered handsome. She towered above the rest of the company, and
+there was but one man who could at all compete with her in height
+and size, and he was by her side.</p>
+<p>My father stopped, took off his cocked hat, and scraped the
+gravel with his timber toe, as he bowed a little forward.</p>
+<p>"Sarvant, your honor's ladyship. Sarvant, your honor Sir
+Hercules."</p>
+<p>"Ah! who have we here?" replied Sir Hercules, putting his hand
+up as a screen above his eyes. "Who are you, my man?" continued
+he.</p>
+<p>"Tom Saunders, your honor's coxswain, as was in the 'Druid,'"
+replied my father, with another scrape of the gravel, "taken in
+moorings at last, your honor. Hope to see your honor and your
+honorable ladyship quite well."</p>
+<p>"I recollect you now, my man," replied Sir Hercules, very
+stiffly. "And where did you lose your leg?"</p>
+<p>"Battle o' the Nile, your honor; Majesty's ship Oudacious.'"</p>
+<p>"How interesting!" observed one of the ladies; "one of Sir
+Hercules' old men."</p>
+<p>"Yes, madam, and one of my best men. Lady Hercules, you must
+recollect him," said Sir Hercules.</p>
+<p>"I should think so, Sir Hercules," replied the lady; "did I not
+give him my own lady's maid in marriage?"</p>
+<p>"Dear me, how <i>excessively</i> interesting!" said another of
+the party.</p>
+<p>Now, this was a little event in which Sir Hercules and Lady
+Hercules stood prominent; it added to their importance for the
+moment, and therefore they were both pleased. Lady Hercules then
+said, "And pray, my good man, how is your wife?"</p>
+<p>"Quite well and hearty, at your ladyship's sarvice," replied my
+father; "and, please your ladyship, these two be our children."</p>
+<p>"Bless me, how interesting!" exclaimed another lady.</p>
+<p>"And remarkably well-bred 'uns," remarked a short gentleman in a
+fox-hunting coat, examining Virginia through his eye-glass;
+"coxswain, filly&mdash;dam, lady's maid."</p>
+<p>"What is your name, child?" said Lady Hercules to Virginia.</p>
+<p>"Virginia, ma'am," replied my sister, with a courtesy.</p>
+<p>"You must say 'Lady Hercules,' my dear," said my father,
+stooping down.</p>
+<p>"My name is Virginia, Lady Hercules," replied my sister,
+courtesying again.</p>
+<p>"Indeed; then I suppose you are named after me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, your ladyship; hope no offense&mdash;but we did take the
+liberty," replied my father.</p>
+<p>"And what is yours, boy?"</p>
+<p>"Thomas, Lady Hercules," replied I, with a bow and scrape, after
+my father's receipt for politeness.</p>
+<p>"And where is your mother?" said Sir Hercules.</p>
+<p>"Mother's at home, Lady Hercules," replied I, with another
+scrape.</p>
+<p>"How <i>very</i> interesting!" exclaimed one of the party.
+"Quite an event!" said another. "A delightful rencontre!" cried a
+third. "How kind of you, Lady Hercules, to give up your own maid!
+and such handsome children," etc., etc. "It's really quite
+charming."</p>
+<p>Lady Hercules was evidently much pleased, and she assumed the
+patroness.</p>
+<p>"Well, little girl, since you have been named after me, out of
+gratitude I must see what can be done for you. Tell your mother to
+come up to me to-morrow at three o'clock, and bring you with
+her."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Lady Hercules," replied Virginia, with a courtesy.</p>
+<p>"And, Saunders, you may as well come up at the same time, and
+bring your lad with you," added Sir Hercules.</p>
+<p>"Yes, your honor," replied my father, both he and I
+simultaneously scraping the gravel.</p>
+<p>"Wish your honor Sir Hercules, and your honorable lady, and all
+the honorable company, a very good-morning," continued my father,
+taking Virginia and me by the hand to lead us away.</p>
+<p>Sir Hercules touched his hat in return, and walked away as stiff
+as usual. The pensioners who had witnessed the interview between
+him and my father, concluding that Sir Hercules was a naval
+officer, now rose and touched their hats to him as he walked with
+her ladyship in advance of the party. We joined Anderson, who was
+sitting down at the other end of the walk, when my father
+communicated to him what had passed.</p>
+<p>As my father conducted Virginia home, she said to him, "Why do
+you call him <i>sir</i> and her <i>lady</i>?"</p>
+<p>"Because they are quality people, child. He is a barrownight,
+and she is Lady Hercules."</p>
+<p>"Are all barrownights and ladies so much bigger than other
+people are in general?"</p>
+<p>"No, child, they don't go by size. I've seen many a lord who was
+a very little man."</p>
+<p>My mother was very much pleased when we narrated what had
+happened, as she considered that Lady Hercules might prove a
+valuable patron to Virginia, whom she did not fail to have ready at
+the time appointed; and, dressed in our very best, we all walked
+together to the Sun, at which Sir Hercules and his lady had taken
+up their quarters. Let it not be supposed that my mother had
+forgotten the unceremonious manner in which she had been dismissed
+from the service of Lady Hercules&mdash;it was still fresh in the
+memory of a person so revengeful in her disposition; but she
+considered that as Lady Hercules had forgotten it, it was her
+interest to do the same; so, when we were ushered into the room
+where sat Sir Hercules and her ladyship, my mother was all smiles
+and courtesies, and gratitude for past favors.</p>
+<p>There was an old gentleman, with a bald powdered head, dressed
+in black, standing with his back to the fire when we entered. He
+was the only other person in the room besides Sir Hercules and his
+lady. Lady Hercules first obtained from my mother a short history
+of what had happened since they had parted; and really, to hear my
+mother's explanation, it would have been supposed that she and my
+father had always been the most loving couple in the world.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Sir Hercules, "and what do you intend to do with
+your boy, Saunders?"</p>
+<p>"May it please your honor, I've been thinking of bringing him up
+as a channel pilot," replied my father.</p>
+<p>"Very good," replied Sir Hercules; "I can see to that; and with
+my interest at the Trinity Board, the <i>thing is done</i>, sir;"
+and Sir Hercules walked pompously about the room. "Saunders," said
+Sir Hercules, stopping, after he had taken three or four turns up
+and down, and joining his fingers behind his back, "I thought I
+perceived some difference in you when you first addressed me. What
+has become of your tail, sir?"</p>
+<p>"My tail, your honor?" replied my father, looking as much a
+delinquent as if he was still on board a man-of-war, and had been
+guilty of some misdemeanor, "why, please your honor Sir
+Hercules&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I cut it off for him with my scissors," interrupted my mother,
+with a courtesy. "Saunders was very savage when he came for to know
+it; but he had a stupefaction of the brain, and was quite
+insensible at the time; and so, Sir Hercules and my lady" (here a
+courtesy), "I thought it was better&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Ah! I see&mdash;a brain fever," observed Sir Hercules. "Well,
+under these circumstances you may have saved his life; but 'twas a
+pity, was it not, my lady?&mdash;quite altered the man. You
+recollect his tail, my lady?"</p>
+<p>"What a question, Sir Hercules!" replied her ladyship with great
+dignity, turning round toward my mother.</p>
+<p>My father appeared to be quite relieved from his dilemma by his
+wife's presence of mind, and really thankful to her for coming to
+his assistance; she had saved him from the mortification of telling
+the truth. How true it is that married people, however much they
+may quarrel, like to conceal their squabbles from the world!</p>
+<p>"And what are you thinking of doing with your little girl?" said
+Lady Hercules&mdash;"bringing her up to service, I presume. Leave
+that to me. As soon as she is old enough, <i>the thing is done</i>,
+you need say no more about it." Here her ladyship fell back in the
+large easy-chair on which she was seated, with a self-satisfied air
+of patronage, and looking even more dignified than her husband.</p>
+<p>But my mother had no such intentions, and having first thanked
+her ladyship for her great kindness, stated very humbly that she
+did not much like the idea of her daughter going out to service,
+that she was far from strong, and that her health would not allow
+her to undertake hard work.</p>
+<p>"Well, but I presume she may do the work of a lady's maid?"
+replied her ladyship haughtily; "and it was that service which I
+intended for her."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, Lady Hercules, you are very kind; but there is an
+objection," replied my mother, to gain time.</p>
+<p>"Please your ladyship," said my father, who, to my great
+surprise, came to my mother's support, "I do not wish that my
+little girl should be a lady's maid."</p>
+<p>"And why not, pray?" said her ladyship, rather angrily.</p>
+<p>"Why, you see, your ladyship, my daughter is, after all, only
+the daughter of a poor Greenwich pensioner; and, although she has
+been so far pretty well educated, yet I wishes her not to forget
+her low situation in life, and ladies' maids do get so confounded
+proud ('specially those who have the fortune to be ladies' ladies'
+maids), that I don't wish that she should take a situation which
+would make her forget herself and her poor old pensioner of a
+father; and, begging your honor's pardon, that is the real state of
+the case, my lady."</p>
+<p>What my mother felt at this slap at her I do not know, but
+certain it is that she was satisfied with my father taking the
+responsibility of refusal on his own shoulders, and she therefore
+continued: "I often have told Mr. Saunders how happy I was when
+under your ladyship's protection, and what a fortunate person I
+considered myself; but my husband has always had such an objection
+to my girl being brought up to it that I have (of course, my lady,
+as it is my duty to him to do so) given up my own wishes from the
+first; indeed, my lady, had I not known that my little girl was not
+to go to service, I never should have ventured to have called her
+Virginia, my lady."</p>
+<p>"What, then, do you intend her for?" said Sir Hercules to my
+father. "You don't mean to bring her up as a lady, do you?"</p>
+<p>"No, your honor, she's but a pensioner's daughter, and I wishes
+her to be humble, as she ought to be; so I've been thinking that
+something in the millinery line, or perhaps&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"As a governess, my lady," interrupted my mother, with a
+courtesy.</p>
+<p>"That will make her humble enough, at all events," observed the
+bald gentleman in black, with a smile.</p>
+<p>"I admit," replied Lady Hercules, "that your having given my
+name to your little girl is a strong reason for her not going into
+service; but there are many expenses attending the education
+necessary for a young person as governess."</p>
+<p>Here my mother entered into an explanation of how Virginia had
+been educated&mdash;an education which she should not have dreamed
+of giving, only that her child bore her ladyship's name, etc. My
+mother employed her usual flattery and humility, so as to reconcile
+her ladyship to the idea; who was the more inclined when she
+discovered that she was not likely to be put to any expense in her
+patronage of my sister. It was finally agreed that Virginia should
+be educated for the office of governess, and that when she was old
+enough Lady Hercules would take her under her august protection;
+but her ladyship did do her some service. Finding that Virginia was
+at a respectable school, she called there with a party of ladies,
+and informed the schoolmistress that the little girl was under her
+protection, and that she trusted that justice would be done to her
+education. In a school where the Misses Tippet were considered the
+aristocracy the appearance of so great a woman as Lady Hercules was
+an event, and I do not know whether my little sister did not after
+that take precedence in the school. At all events, she was much
+more carefully instructed and looked after than she had been
+before. Sir Hercules was also pleased to find, upon inquiry, that
+there was every prospect of my entering the pilot service, without
+any trouble on his part. Both Sir Hercules and his lady informed
+their friends of what their intentions were to their young
+proteges, and were inundated with praises and commendations for
+their kindness, the full extent of which the reader will
+appreciate. But, as my mother pointed out as we walked home, if we
+did not require their assistance at present, there was no saying
+but that we eventually might; and if so, that Sir Hercules and Lady
+Hawkingtrefylyan could not well refuse to perform their promises. I
+must say that this was the first instance in my recollection in
+which my parents appeared to draw amicably together; and I believe
+that nothing except regard for their children could have produced
+the effect.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus197.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_ONE" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_ONE"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A most important Present is made to me; and, as it will
+eventually appear, the Generosity of the Giver is rewarded.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Sir Hercules and Lady Hawkingtrefylyan quitted Greenwich the day
+after the interview narrated in the preceding chapter; and by that
+day's post Anderson received a letter, in reply to the one he had
+written, from his friend Philip Bramble, channel and river pilot,
+who had, as he said in his letter, put on shore at Deal, where he
+resided, but the day before, after knocking about in the Channel
+for three weeks. Bramble stated his willingness to receive and take
+charge of me, desiring that I would hold myself in readiness to be
+picked up at a minute's warning, and he would call for me the first
+time that he took a vessel up the river. A letter communicating
+this intelligence was forthwith dispatched by my mother to Sir
+Hercules, who sent a short reply, stating that if I conducted
+myself properly he would not lose sight of me. This letter,
+however, very much increased the family consequence in Fisher's
+Alley, for my mother did not fail to show it to everybody, and
+everybody was anxious to see the handwriting of a real baronet.</p>
+<p>About a week afterward I went to the shop of the widow St. Felix
+to purchase some tobacco for my father, when she said to me, "So,
+Jack&mdash;or Tom&mdash;as I hear you request to be called
+now&mdash;you are going to leave us?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I, "and I shall be sorry to leave you, you have
+been so kind to me."</p>
+<p>"A little kindness goes a great way with some people, Tom, and
+that's the case with you, for you've a grateful heart. You're to be
+a pilot, I hear; well, Tom, I've a present to make you, which you
+will find very useful in your profession, and which will make you
+think of me sometimes. Stop a moment till I come down again."</p>
+<p>The widow went upstairs, and when she came down held in her hand
+a telescope, or spy-glass, as sailors generally call them. It was
+about two feet long, covered with white leather, and apparently had
+been well preserved.</p>
+<p>"Now, Tom, this is what a pilot ought not to be without, and if
+what was said by the person to whom it belonged is true, it is an
+excellent spy-glass; so now accept it from your loving friend, and
+long may you live to peep through it."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, thank you," replied I, delighted, as Mrs. St. Felix
+put it into my hands. I surveyed it all over, pulled out the tube,
+and then said to her, "Who did it belong to?"</p>
+<p>"Tom," replied the widow, "that's a sad trick you have of asking
+questions; it's quite sufficient that it is mine, and that I give
+it to you&mdash;is it not?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I, "but you're the only person who says that I
+ask too many questions. Why, here's a name, F.I."</p>
+<p>The widow stretched herself over the counter with a sudden
+spring, and snatched the telescope out of my hand. When I looked at
+her she stood pale and trembling.</p>
+<p>"Why, what is the matter?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>She put her hand to her side, as if in great pain, and for some
+seconds could not speak.</p>
+<p>"Tom, I never knew that there was a name on the telescope; the
+name must not be known, that's the truth; you shall have it this
+evening, but you must go away now&mdash;do, that's a dear good
+boy."</p>
+<p>The widow turned to walk into the back parlor, with the
+telescope in her hand, and I obeyed her injunctions in silence and
+wondering. That there was a mystery about her was certain, and I
+felt very sorrowful, not that I did not know the secret, but that I
+could not be of service to her. That evening the telescope was
+brought to my mother's house by fat Jane. I percieved that the
+portion of the brass rim upon which the name had been cut with a
+knife, for it had not been engraved, as I thought, had been
+carefully filed down, so that not a vestige of the letters
+appeared.</p>
+<p>The next morning I was down at the steps long before breakfast,
+that I might try my new present. Bill Freeman was there, and he
+showed me how to adjust the focus. I amused myself looking at the
+vessels which were working up and down the Reach, and so much was I
+delighted that I quite forgot how time passed, and lost my
+breakfast. Every one asked to have a peep through the telescope,
+and every one declared that it was an excellent glass; at last
+Spicer came up to where I stood.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," said he, "what have you there&mdash;a spy-glass?
+Let's have a look; I'm a good judge of one, I can tell you."</p>
+<p>I handed the telescope over to him; he looked through it for
+some time.</p>
+<p>"A first-rate glass, Jack" (I was oftener called Jack than Tom
+at that time); "I never knew but one equal to it. Where did you get
+it?"</p>
+<p>I don't exactly know why, but perhaps the mystery evident in the
+widow, and the cautions I had received against Spicer, combined
+together, induced me not to answer the question.</p>
+<p>"It's odd," observed Spicer, who was now examining the outside
+of the telescope; "I could almost swear to it." He then looked at
+the small brass rim where the name had been, and perceived that it
+had been erased. "Now I'm positive! Jack, where did you get this
+glass?"</p>
+<p>"It was made a present to me," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Come here," said Spicer, leading me apart from the others
+standing by. "Now tell me directly," and Spicer spoke in an
+authoritative tone, "who gave you this glass?"</p>
+<p>I really was somewhat afraid of Spicer, who had gained much
+power over me. I dared not say that I would not tell him, and I did
+not like to tell a lie. I thought that if I told the truth I might
+somehow or another injure Mrs. St. Felix, and I therefore answered
+evasively, "It was sent to me as a present by a lady."</p>
+<p>"Oh!" replied Spicer, who had heard of Sir Hercules and his
+lady, "so the <i>lady</i> sent it to you? It's very odd," continued
+he; "I could take my oath that I've had that glass in my hand a
+hundred times."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied I. "Where?"</p>
+<p>But Spicer did not answer me; he had fallen into one of his dark
+moods, and appeared as if recalling former events to his mind. He
+still kept possession of the glass, and I was afraid that he would
+not return it, for I tried to take it softly out of his hand, and
+he would not let go. He remained in this way about a minute, when I
+perceived my father and Ben the Whaler coming up, at which I was
+delighted.</p>
+<p>"Father," said I, as they came near, "come and try my new
+spy-glass."</p>
+<p>Spicer started, and released the telescope, when I laid hold of
+it and put it into my father's hands. As neither my father nor Ben
+would ever speak to him, Spicer, with a lowering brow, walked away.
+After my father had examined the glass and praised it, he very
+naturally asked me where I obtained it. After what had passed with
+Spicer I was so fearful of his discovering, by other people, by
+whom the glass had been given to me, that I replied again, in the
+hearing of everybody, "A lady, father; you may easily guess
+who."</p>
+<p>"Well," replied my father, "I never thought that her ladyship
+could have been so generous. I take it very kindly of her."</p>
+<p>I was delighted at my father falling so easily into the mistake.
+As for my mother and Virginia, they were neither of them present
+when Jane brought the telescope to me, or I certainly should have
+stated, without reservation, to whom I had been indebted. I hardly
+could decide whether I would go to the widow and tell her what had
+occurred; but, upon some reflection, as she had accused me of
+asking too many questions, and might suppose that I wished to
+obtain her secrets, I determined upon saying nothing about it.</p>
+<p>For a week I occupied myself wholly with my telescope, and I
+became perfectly master of it, or rather quite used to it, which is
+of some importance. I avoided Spicer, always leaving the steps when
+I perceived him approaching, although once or twice he beckoned to
+me. At the expiration of the week a message was brought by a
+waterman from Philip Bramble, stating that he should pass Greenwich
+in a day or two, being about to take down a West Indiaman then
+lying below London Bridge. My clothes were therefore then packed up
+in readiness, and I went to bid farewell to my limited
+acquaintance.</p>
+<p>I called upon old Nanny, who was now quite strong again. I had
+before acquainted her with my future prospects.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," says she, "and so you're going away? I don't think
+you were quite right to give up a situation where you gained so
+many halfpence every day, and only for touching your cap; however,
+you know best. I shall have no more bargains after you are gone,
+that's certain. But, Jack, you'll be on board of vessels coming
+from the East and West Indies, and all other parts of the world,
+and they have plenty of pretty things on board, such as shells, and
+empty bottles, and hard biscuit, and bags of oakum; and, Jack, they
+will give them to you for nothing, for sailors don't care what they
+give away when they come from a long voyage; and so mind you beg
+for me as much as you can, that's a good boy; but don't take live
+monkeys or those things, they eat so much. You may bring me a
+parrot, I think I could sell one, and that don't cost much to feed.
+Do you understand, Jack? Will you do this for me?"</p>
+<p>"I don't know whether I can do all you wish, but depend upon it,
+mother, I won't forget you."</p>
+<p>"That's enough, Jack, you'll keep your word; and now, is there
+any nice thing that I can give you out of my shop, as a keepsake,
+Jack?"</p>
+<p>"Why, no, mother, I thank you&mdash;nothing."</p>
+<p>"Think of something, Jack," replied old Nanny; "you must have
+something."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, mother, you know I like reading; will you give me
+the old book that I was reading when I sat up with you one
+night?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Jack, and welcome; what book is it? I don't know&mdash;I
+can't see to read large print without spectacles, and I broke mine
+many years ago."</p>
+<p>"Why do you not buy another pair?"</p>
+<p>"Another pair, Jack? Spectacles cost money. I've no money; and
+as I never read, I don't want spectacles. Go in and fetch the book;
+it's yours and welcome."</p>
+<p>I went in and brought out the Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"
+which I before mentioned. "This is it, mother."</p>
+<p>"Yes, yes, I recollect now, it's a very pretty book. What's it
+about, Jack? I can't see myself: never mind, take it, Jack, and
+don't forget your promise."</p>
+<p>I wished old Nanny good-by, and took the book home, which I gave
+into Virginia's care, as I wished her to read it. The next morning,
+at daybreak, I was summoned; the ship was dropping down the river.
+I bade farewell to my little sister, who wept on my shoulder; to my
+mother, who hardly condescended to answer me. My father helped me
+down with my luggage, which was not very heavy; and Anderson and
+old Ben accompanied us to the landing-steps; and having bid them
+all farewell, besides many others of my friends who were there, I
+stepped into the boat sent for me, and quitted Greenwich for my new
+avocation on the 6th of October, 1799, being then, as Anderson had
+calculated, precisely thirteen years and seven months old.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus204.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_TWO" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which a Story is begun, and not finished, which I think the
+Reader will regret as much as, at the time, I did.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The boat was soon alongside of the West Indiaman, which had been
+tiding it down Limehouse Reach under her topsails, there being but
+little wind, and that contrary; but now that she had arrived to
+Greenwich Reach she had braced up, with her head the right way. My
+box was handed up the side, and I made my appearance on the deck
+soon afterward, with my telescope in my hand.</p>
+<p>"Are you the lad for whom the pilot sent the boat?" inquired a
+man, whom I afterward found to be the second mate.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Well, there he is abaft, in a P-jacket," said he, walking to
+the gangway, and directing the men to drop the boat astern.</p>
+<p>I looked aft, and perceived my future master talking with the
+captain of the vessel. Philip Bramble was a spare man, about five
+feet seven inches high, he had on his head a low-crowned tarpaulin
+hat, a short P-jacket (so called from the abbreviation of
+<i>pilot's</i> jacket) reached down to just above his knees. His
+features were regular, and, indeed, although weatherbeaten, they
+might be termed handsome. His nose was perfectly straight, his lips
+thin, his eyes gray and very keen; he had little or no whiskers,
+and, from his appearance and the intermixture of gray with his
+brown hair, I supposed him to be about fifty years of age. In one
+hand he held a short clay pipe, into which he was inserting the
+forefinger of the other, as he talked with the captain. At the time
+that he was pointed out to me by the second mate he was looking up
+aloft; I had, therefore, time to make the above observations before
+he cast his eyes down and perceived me, when I immediately went aft
+to him.</p>
+<p>"I suppose you are Tom Saunders?" said he, surveying me from
+head to foot.</p>
+<p>I replied in the affirmative.</p>
+<p>"Well, Anderson has given you a good character, mind you don't
+lose it. D'ye think you'll like to be a pilot?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Have you sharp eyes, a good memory, and plenty of nerve?"</p>
+<p>"I believe I've got the two first, I don't know about the
+other."</p>
+<p>"I suppose not, it hasn't been tried yet. How far can you see
+through a fog?"</p>
+<p>"According how thick it is."</p>
+<p>"I see you've a glass there: tell me what you make of that
+vessel just opening from Blackwall Reach."</p>
+<p>"What, that ship?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, you can make it out to be a ship, can you, with the naked
+eye? Well, then, you have good eyes."</p>
+<p>I fixed my glass upon the vessel, and, after a time, not having
+forgotten the lessons so repeatedly given me by Spicer, I said,
+"She has no colors up, but she's an Embden vessel by her
+build."</p>
+<p>"Oh," said he, "hand me the glass. The boy's right; and a good
+glass, too. Come, I see you do know something&mdash;and good
+knowledge, too, for a pilot. It often saves us a deal of trouble
+when we know a vessel by her build; them foreigners sail too close
+to take pilots. Can you stand cold? Have you got a P-jacket?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, father bought me one."</p>
+<p>"Well, you'll want it this winter, for the wild geese tell us
+that it will be a sharp one. Steady, starboard!"</p>
+<p>"Starboard it is."</p>
+<p>"D'ye know the compass?"</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Well, stop till we get down to Deal. Now, stand by me, and keep
+your eyes wide open; for, d'ye see, you've plenty to larn, and you
+can't begin too soon. We must square the mainyard, captain, if you
+please," continued he, as we entered Blackwall Reach. "What could
+make the river so perverse as to take these two bends in Limehouse
+and Blackwall Reaches, unless to give pilots trouble, I can't
+say."</p>
+<p>The wind being now contrary from the sharp turn in the river, we
+were again tiding it down; that is, hove-to and allowing the tide
+to drift us through the Reach; but as soon as we were clear of
+Blackwall Reach, we could lay our course down the river. As we
+passed Gravesend, Bramble asked me whether I was ever so low
+down.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I, "I have been down as far as Sea Reach;" which
+I had been when I was upset in the wherry, and I told him the
+story.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, that's called the river now; but do you know that,
+many years ago, where we now are used to be considered as the mouth
+of the river, and that fort there" (pointing to Tilbury Fort) "was
+built to defend it? for they say the French fleet used to come and
+anchor down below."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus208.jpg" id="illus208.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus208.jpg"><img src="images/thumb208.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>JACK AND BRAMBLE ABOARD THE INDIAMAN.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 207.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Yes," replied I; "and they say, in the History of England, that
+the Danes used to come up much higher, even up to Greenwich; but
+that's a very long while ago."</p>
+<p>"Well, you beat me, Tom! I never heard that; and I think, if
+ever they did do so, they won't do it again in a hurry. What water
+have you got, my man? Port there!"</p>
+<p>"Port it is."</p>
+<p>"Steady&mdash;so."</p>
+<p>"Shall we get down to the Nore to-night, pilot?" said the
+captain.</p>
+<p>"Why, sir, I'm in hopes we shall. We have still nearly three
+hours' daylight; and now that we are clear of the Hope, we shall
+lay fairly down Sea Reach; and if the wind will only freshen a
+little (and it looks very like it), we shall be able to stem the
+<i>first</i> of the flood, at all events."</p>
+<p>I ought to observe that Bramble, as soon as he had passed any
+shoal or danger, pointed it out to me. He said, "I tell it to you,
+because you can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that
+I tell you, I dare say. I don't expect it; but you may recollect a
+little, and every little helps."</p>
+<p>The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore
+Light and came to an anchor.</p>
+<p>"What lights are those?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>"That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. "We were talking of the
+French and Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more
+than one hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch fleet came up
+to Sheerness, destroyed the batteries, and landed troops there.
+Howsomever, as I said of the French and the other chaps, they won't
+do so again in a hurry."</p>
+<p>As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble
+accepted the invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin,
+when I went and joined the men, who were getting their supper
+forward. I was soon on good terms with them; and, after supper, as
+it was cold, they went down to the fore-peak, got out some beer and
+grog, and we sat round in a circle, with the bottles and mugs and a
+farthing candle in the center. Being right in the <i>eyes</i> of
+her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear the water slapping
+against the bends outside of her, as it was divided by the keelson,
+and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a melancholy sound.
+I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I listened to
+it, one of the men observed, "Queer sound, boy, ain't it? You'd
+think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises
+aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No
+more did I at that time; the fact is that nothing conveys sound
+better than wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in
+consequence, on board of a vessel.</p>
+<p>"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were
+frightened with noises, sure enough," observed one of the men.</p>
+<p>"Come, that's right, Dick, give us a yarn," said the others.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied Dick, "and it's a true yarn, too, and all about a
+ghost."</p>
+<p>"Well, stop a moment," said one of the men, "and let us top this
+glim a bit before you begin, for it seemed to get dimmer the moment
+you talked about a ghost."</p>
+<p>Dick waited till a little more light was obtained, and then
+commenced. "I had shipped on board of a vessel bound to Smyrna, now
+about seven years ago. We had gone down to Portsmouth, where we
+waited for one of the partners of the house by which we had been
+freighted, and who was going out as passenger. We were a man short,
+and the captain went on shore to get one from the crimps, whom he
+knew very well, and the fellows promised to send one on board the
+next morning. Well, sure enough a wherry came off with him just
+before break of day, and he and his traps were taken on board; but
+it was not perceived at the time what he had in his arms under his
+grego, and what do you think it proved to be at daylight? Why, a
+large black tom cat."</p>
+<p>"What, a black one?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, as black as the enemy himself. The fellow came down
+forward with it, and so says I, 'Why, messmate, you're not going to
+take that animal to sea with us?'</p>
+<p>"'Yes, I am,' said he, very surlily; 'it's an old friend of
+mine, and I never parts with him.'</p>
+<p>"'Well,' says I, 'you'll find the difference when the captain
+hears on it, I can tell you, and, for the matter of that, I won't
+promise you that it will be very safe if it comes near me when I've
+a handspike in my hand.'</p>
+<p>"'I tell you what,' says he, 'it ain't the taking of a cat on
+board what brings mischief, but it's turning one out of a ship what
+occasions ill luck. No cat ever sunk a ship till the animal was
+hove overboard and sunk first itself, and then it does drag the
+ship down after it.'</p>
+<p>"Well, one of the boys who did not care about such things, for
+he was young and ignorant, put his hand to the cat's head to stroke
+it, and the cat bit him right through the fingers, at which the boy
+gave a loud cry.</p>
+<p>"'Now, that will teach you to leave my cat alone,' said the man.
+'He won't come near nobody but me, and he bites everybody else, so
+I give you fair warning.'</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus212.jpg" id="illus212.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus212.jpg"><img src="images/thumb212.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>THE FORE-PEAK YARN.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 211.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"And sure enough the brute, which was about as big as two common
+cats, was just as savage as a tiger. When the first mate called the
+man on deck, the fellow left his cat behind him in the fore-peak,
+just as if it were now here, and it got into a dark corner,
+growling and humping its back, with its eyes flashing fire at every
+one of us as we came anigh it. 'Oh!' says we, 'this here won't
+never do; wait till the captain comes on board, that's all.' Well,
+the hatches were off, and we were busy, re-stowing the upper tier
+of the cargo, which we had thrown in very carelessly in our hurry
+to get down the river; just putting the bales in order (it wasn't
+breaking bulk, you see), and we were at it all day. At last, toward
+evening, the captain comes on board with the gentleman passenger, a
+mighty timorsome sort of young chap he appeared for to be, and had
+never before set his foot upon the plank of a vessel. So as soon as
+the captain was on deck we all broke off our work, and went to him
+to tell him about this cat, and the captain he gets into a great
+rage as soon as he hears on it, and orders the man to send the cat
+on shore, or else he'd throw it overboard. Well, the man, who was a
+sulky, saucy sort of chap, and no seaman, I've a notion, gives
+cheek, and says he won't send his cat on shore for no man,
+whereupon the captain orders the cat to be caught, that he might
+send it in the boat; but nobody dared to catch it, for it was so
+fierce to everybody but its master. The second mate tried, and he
+got a devil of a bite, and came up from the fore-peak without the
+cat, looking very blue indeed. And then the first mate went down,
+and he tried; but the cat flew at him, and he came up as white as a
+sheet. And then the cat became so savage that it stood at the foot
+of the ladder, all ready to attack whoever should come down, and
+the man laughed heartily, and told us to fetch the cat. 'Well,'
+says the first mate, 'I can't touch the cat, but I can you, you
+beggar, and I will too, if it costs me twenty pounds;' so he ups
+with a handspike and knocks the fellow down senseless on the deck,
+and there he laid. And it sarved him right.</p>
+<p>"Well, then the captain thought to shoot the cat, for it was for
+all the world like a wild beast, and one proposed one thing and one
+another. At last Jim, the cabin-boy, comes forward with some
+brimstone matches in a pan, and he lights them and lowers them down
+into the fore-peak by a rope-yarn to smother it out. And so it did
+sure enough, for all of a sudden the cat made a spring up to the
+deck, and then we all chased it here and there, until at last it
+got out to the end of the flying jib-boom, and then Jim, the
+cabin-boy, followed it out with a handspike, and poked at it as
+hard as he could, until at last it lost its hold, and down it went
+into the water, and Jim and the handspike went along with it, for
+Jim, in his last poke at the cat, lost his balance, so away they
+went together. Well, there was a great hurry in manning the boat,
+and picking up poor Jim and the handspike; but the cat we saw no
+more, for it was just dark at the time. Well, when it was all over,
+we began to think what we had done, and as soon as we had put on
+the hatches and secured the hold we went down below into the
+fore-peak, where the smell of brimstone did not make us feel more
+comfortable, I can tell you, and we began to talk over the matter,
+for you see the cat should not have been thrown overboard but put
+on shore. But we were called away to man the boat again, for the
+fellow had come to his senses, and swore that he would not stay in
+the ship, but go on shore and take the law of the first mate; and
+the first mate and captain thought the sooner he was out of the
+ship the better, for we were to sail before daylight, and there
+might not be a wherry for him to get into. So the fellow took his
+kit, and we pulled him on shore and landed him on Southsea beach,
+he swearing vengeance the whole way; and as he stepped out on the
+beach he turned round to us and said, as he shook his fist, 'You've
+thrown overboard a <i>black tom cat</i>, recollect that! and now
+you'll see the consequence; a pleasant voyage to you. I wouldn't
+sail in that vessel if you were to offer her to me as a present as
+soon as she got to Smyrna; because why, you've thrown overboard a
+<i>black tom cat</i>, and you'll never get
+there&mdash;<i>never!</i>' cried he again, and off he ran with his
+bundle.</p>
+<p>"Well, we didn't much like it, and if the second mate hadn't
+been in the boat, I'm not sure that we shouldn't all have gone on
+shore rather than sail in the vessel; but there was no help for it.
+The next morning before daylight we started, for the captain
+wouldn't wait to get another hand, and we were soon out of
+soundings, and well into the Bay of Biscay.</p>
+<p>"We had just passed Cape Finisterre, when Jim, the cabin-boy,
+says one morning, 'I'm blessed if I didn't hear that cat last
+night, or the ghost on it!' So we laughed at him; for, you see, he
+slept abaft, just outside the cabin door, close to the pantry, and
+not forward with the rest of us.</p>
+<p>"'Well,' says he, 'I heard her miaw, and when I awoke I think I
+seed two eyes looking at me.'</p>
+<p>"'Well, Jim,' said I, for we had got over our fears, 'it was you
+who knocked her overboard, so it's all right that she should haunt
+you and nobody else.' Jim, however, could not laugh, but looked
+very grave and unhappy. A few days afterward the captain and
+passenger complained that they could not sleep for the noise and
+racket that was kept up all night between the timbers and in the
+run aft. They said it was if a whole legion of devils were broken
+loose and scampering about; and the captain was very grave; and as
+for the passenger, he was frightened out of his wits. Still we
+laughed, because we had heard nothing ourselves, and thought that
+it must only be fancy on their parts, particularly as the captain
+used to <i>bowse his jib</i> up pretty taut every night. Well, all
+went on very well; we arrived at the Rock, got our fresh provisions
+and vegetables, and then made sail again. The captain complained of
+no more noises, and Jim of no more eyes, and the whole matter was
+almost forgotten."</p>
+<p>Here the narrator was interrupted by the thumping of a handspike
+on the deck above. "Halloo! what's the matter now?"</p>
+<p>"Come, tumble up, my lads, and pump the ship out," said the mate
+from above; "we had almost forgotten that. Be smart, now; it's but
+a ten minutes' job."</p>
+<p>Thus broke off the story, much to my annoyance; but it could not
+be helped&mdash;ships must be pumped out&mdash;so the men went on
+deck, and I followed them.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus216.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_THREE" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_THREE"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"Recollect," says the Fellow, "you have thrown overboard a black
+Tom Cat!"</p>
+</div>
+<p>In a quarter of an hour the pump sucked, and we all hastened
+down below to our grog and the completion of our yarn. As soon as
+we were all comfortably seated as before, Dick recommenced.</p>
+<p>"Well, we were abreast of Malta, when the weather, which had
+hitherto on the voyage been very fine, changed. The clouds hung
+down very heavy, and there was every symptom of a fierce gale; and
+sure enough a worse gale I never was in than came on that
+night&mdash;and such a sea!&mdash;the ship rolled gunnel under, for
+the gale was fair, but the sea ran so high and so fast that we
+expected to be pooped every minute. It was about midnight when the
+rain came on in torrents, and the wind blew fiercer than ever. I
+was on deck, and so was the first mate and another man at the helm,
+for we were flying right before it, and she was hard to steer.</p>
+<p>"We shall have it worse yet," said the captain.</p>
+<p>"'<i>Miaw</i>!' was the reply, so clear, so loud, we could not
+tell where it came from. I thought it came from the maintop.</p>
+<p>"'Mercy on us! what was that?' said the first mate, the light
+from the binnacle showing his face as pale as a sheet.</p>
+<p>"'<i>Miaw!</i>' was the reply from somewhere.</p>
+<p>"'The black cat, by all that's blue!' cried the captain.</p>
+<p>"'The Lord have mercy upon us, we're all gone!' said the mate,
+clasping his hands in terror. To clasp his hands, of course he let
+go the wheel; and the other man, who was equally frightened, had
+not strength to hold it. Away he went, right over the wheel,
+knocking down the mate on the other side; and the ship taking a
+heavy lurch, they both went into the scuppers together. The ship
+broached-to, and our mainmast and mizzenmast went over the
+side."</p>
+<p>"Do top that glim, Bill," said one of the men, in a tremulous
+voice.</p>
+<p>Dick paused while the snuff was taken off the candle: and the
+water went tap, tap, tap against the bends, with a most melancholy
+sound. I really did feel rather queer myself.</p>
+<p>Dick continued. "Well, all hands were on deck immediately, and
+it was good two hours before we could clear the wreck, for the men
+were disheartened. They had heard the loud <i>miaw</i> when in the
+fore-peak, and declared that it was close to them; and the
+passenger and Jim came out, frightened out of their wits. They had
+heard the <i>miaw</i>, and said that it was from under the cabin
+table. At last we were clear of the wreck, and the wind roared
+louder than ever.</p>
+<p>"The captain was a stout-hearted fellow, and as the men were
+collected together under the bulwark, he said, 'Well, this breeze
+will shorten our distance, at any rate, and if it holds we shall
+soon be at Smyrna,'</p>
+<p>"'We shall never see Smyrna!' replied the second mate, his teeth
+chattering.</p>
+<p>"'No, never!' cried the seamen.</p>
+<p>"The captain sent Jim down for his rum-bottle, and gave every
+man a stiff glass of liquor, and that made them feel more
+comfortable for a time; when there was a sort of lull, and again
+the loud <i>miaw</i> was repeated.</p>
+<p>"'There it is!' cried the men; but they hardly had time to say
+so when the ship was pooped with a tremendous sea washing away the
+stern and quarter-boats, and sending all the men swimming forward.
+So loaded was the ship with water that she stopped, and appeared as
+if she was settling down. At last she rolled heavy to port and
+discharged it, and away we went before the wind, faster than ever.
+Well, there was some talk among the seamen of throwing poor Jim
+overboard to appease the ghost of the cat, for it was he who had
+thrown the cat overboard. But the captain heard what the men were
+saying, and he swore that he would knock the brains out of the
+first man who laid hold of the boy; and he sent Jim below out of
+harm's way. Poor Jim! how bitterly he cried, poor boy, when he
+heard what was going on.</p>
+<p>"Well, it's a long lane that has no turning, and no gale lasts
+forever. The next day it moderated, and the day after the weather
+was quite fine, and the sea had gone down. We recovered our
+spirits, the more so as we heard no more of the cat; and having
+jury-rigged her aft, we steered our course with a light breeze. We
+were now but a short distance from Smyrna, and hoped to be there by
+the next day; but the second mate shook his head. He said, 'The cat
+has not done with us, for it was a <i>black tom</i> cat.'</p>
+<p>"The fourth day the captain came on deck, and said, 'I heard a
+great washing of water in the run last night, as I thought; have
+you sounded the well lately?'</p>
+<p>"'No,' replied the first mate, 'I left that to the
+carpenter.'</p>
+<p>"'Well, then, ask him.' Well, the carpenter had not sounded the
+well, as it appeared; and so he sounded it immediately, and found
+that we had <i>six feet water in the hold</i>.</p>
+<p>"'I knowed we were doomed,' said the second mate; 'we'll never
+get at port'; and so thought the men: but the captain said:</p>
+<p>"'Why, the fact is, my lads, we must have sprung a leak in the
+gale, and no wonder, beating against the wreck so as we did when
+the masts went over the side. Come, rig the pumps, and we shall
+soon clear her. The tom cat has nothing to do with this, at all
+events.'</p>
+<p>"Now, you see, our bottom cargo consisted of two or three tier
+of crates of crockery, which would not spoil by being wet; but the
+upper part of the cargo was bales of dry goods and linen; so the
+captain was very anxious that they should work the pumps before the
+water got higher: the weather was very fine, the sea smooth, and
+the wind, although fair, was light. Well, the seamen were
+terrified, and thought they were lost; they asked for liquor, and
+refused to work at the pumps; they said it was no use, the ship was
+doomed. Well, the captain he got very angry; he went down into the
+cabin, loaded his double-barreled gun, and swore that he would
+shoot the first man through the head who refused to work at the
+pumps. The men knew that he was in earnest, for he was a violent
+sort of fellow, and so they set to. We didn't gain much upon her; I
+thought we did a little, but the men said no. The captain declared
+that we did gain considerably, but it was supposed that he only
+said so to encourage the people. Well, the captain ordered the mate
+to take up the hatches that they might see the state of the cargo.
+This was done; the dry goods, as far as we could make out, were not
+injured, and the men pumped spell and spell until the evening, when
+the captain gave them a good allowance of grog, and an hour to rest
+themselves. It was a beautiful moonlight night: the sails were just
+asleep and no more; but the vessel was heavy, from the water in
+her, and we dragged slowly along. The captain, who had gone down
+below with the first mate, came up from the cabin, and said to the
+men, 'Now, my lads, we'll set to again'; when suddenly there was a
+loud, melancholy <i>miaw!</i> which terrified us all. We looked
+from whence the sound appeared to come, and there, on the launch
+turned over amidship, we beheld the ghost of the black tom cat, so
+large, so black, with the broad moonlight shining on it; and so
+thin, it was the skeleton of the cat, only it looked as black as
+ever; its back was humped up and its tail curved; and, as it stood
+out in the broad moonlight, it did look twice as big as the
+original cat, which was the biggest I ever saw. Well, the men
+actually screamed; they ran aft, upsetting the captain and mate,
+and roiling over them and hiding their faces, with 'Lord, have
+mercy on us!' and 'God, forgive our sins!' and 'Oh! we're lost,
+we're lost!' and every sort of crying and groaning that could be
+thought of. At last the captain gets up from under them in a great
+rage and looks forward to see what was the matter, and there he
+sees the ghost of the tom cat standing just in the same place; and
+it gave another miserable <i>miaw!</i> 'Why,' cried the captain
+(who had his grog on board, and was as brave as brass), 'it is the
+cussed cat himself. Stop a moment.' Down he goes to the cabin,
+reels up the hatchway again with his double-barreled gun, and lets
+fly at it"&mdash;(here Dick lowered his voice to almost a
+whisper)&mdash;"the cat gave a shriek&mdash;and then&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Here, during the pause, Bill put out his finger and thumb to
+snuff the candle, but his hand shook&mdash;he snuffed it out, and
+we were all left in darkness. I can hardly describe the feeling
+which appeared to pervade the whole of our party. Every one was
+shuffling and crowding with their shoulders, but still no one moved
+from his place.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Dick, the narrator, in a quiet subdued voice, "why
+don't one of you go and fetch a light? Come, jump up, Bill, you
+topped it out."</p>
+<p>"Ay, ay," replied Bill, evidently shaking; "where's the
+candle?"</p>
+<p>"Here," said one of the boys, handing it to him.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, jump up yourself, you young whelp, you're younger
+than me."</p>
+<p>"I didn't put it out," replied the boy, whining.</p>
+<p>"Up immediately, or I'll break every rib in your body," replied
+Bill.</p>
+<p>The boy, who was terribly frightened, got up at this threat, and
+began to ascend the ladder; he was about three steps up, when we
+heard from the deck a horrible <i>miaw!</i> The boy gave a scream
+of terror, and fell down on his back among us all, smashing the
+glass and flattening the tin cans against the men's legs, who
+halloed with pain. At last there was a dead silence again, and I
+could plainly hear the loud throbbing of more than one heart.</p>
+<p>"Come," said Dick again, "what was the fool frightened about?
+Look for the candle, some of you."</p>
+<p>At last Bill found it in his breast, broke in two and half
+melted away, and was proceeding for a light when the carpenter
+stepped to the hatch with his lantern, and said, "Why, you're all
+in the dark there, shipmates! Here, take my lantern."</p>
+<p>I may as well here observe that the carpenter had been listening
+to the story as he sat by the hatchway on deck, and it was he who
+had favored us with the <i>miaw</i> which had so frightened the
+boy. As soon as the lantern had been received and the candle
+relighted, Dick recommenced.</p>
+<p>"Well, my lads, I said that the captain went down below, brought
+up his gun, and let fly at the cat, and then&mdash;well, and
+then&mdash;the cat gave a loud shriek, and falls down upon the
+deck. The captain walks forward to it, takes it up by the tail,
+brings it aft, and shies it among the men.</p>
+<p>"'There, you fools,' said he, 'it is the cat himself; will you
+believe your own eyes?'</p>
+<p>"And sure enough, so it was; for, you see, when Jim tumbled
+overboard, it being then dark, and we so busy with Jim, we did not
+look after the cat, and so it must have crawled up the cable and
+run down into the hold while the hatches were off; and all that
+noise heard aft must have been the brute chasing the rats, I
+suppose. Jim may have heard, but he could not have seen, the cat;
+that was all fancy and fright. You know how long a cat will live
+without much food, and so the animal was pretty quiet after it had
+killed all the rats. Then when the gale came on, and the upper part
+of the cargo fetched way a little, for it was loosely stowed, we
+suppose that it got jammed now and then with the rolling, and that
+made it miaw; and then, when we took off the hatches to look at the
+cargo, after we had sprung the leak, the cat, o' course, came out,
+and a pretty skeleton it was, as you may suppose. Now do you
+understand the whole of it?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, that's all clear," replied Bill; "and it was no ghost,
+after all? But still the cat did do mischief, for if the mate had
+not been frightened by it, he wouldn't have let go the wheel, and
+the masts would not have gone by the lee."</p>
+<p>"That's true enough, and he might have done more mischief still
+if the captain had not shot him, for the men would never have gone
+to the pumps again; but when they found out that it was nothing but
+the cat himself, then they set to, and before the next evening the
+vessel was clear, and only required pumping out every two hours,
+for the leak wasn't great, after all. So there's a ghost story for
+you, and I believe that all others will be found, like mine, to end
+in moonshine. Now, suppose we turn in, for we shall weigh at three
+o'clock in the morning."</p>
+<p>We all tumbled into the standing berths in the fore-peak. I
+dreamed of black tom cats all night. The next morning we weighed
+with a fair wind; as before, I stood beside Bramble, who pointed
+out to me everything worth notice or memory as we passed, but at
+last the motion affected me so much that I could pay little
+attention, and I remained by his side as pale as a sheet. We
+rounded the North Foreland, and long before dark anchored in the
+Downs. Bramble went no further with the vessel, the captain himself
+being a good pilot for the Channel. A Deal boat came alongside, we
+got into it, they landed us on the shingle beach, and I followed
+Bramble up to his abode.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus224.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_FOUR" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Bramble's Method of Education proves very effective&mdash;He
+also points out a Position in which you may prefer your Enemies to
+your Friends!</p>
+</div>
+<p>The house of Philip Bramble was situated on the further side of
+a road which ran along the shore, just above the shingle beach. It
+was a large cottage on one floor, the street door entering at once
+into its only sitting-room. It was furnished as such tenements
+usually are, with a small dresser and shelves for crockery, and a
+table and chairs of cherry wood; on the broad mantelpiece, for the
+fireplace was large, were several brass candlesticks, very bright,
+ranged with foreign curiosities, and a few shells; half a dozen
+prints in frames ornamented the walls; and on large nails drove
+into the panels, wherever a space could be found, were hung coats,
+P-jackets, and other articles of dress, all ready for the pilot to
+change whenever he came on shore wet to the skin. Everything was
+neat and clean: the planks of the floor were white as snow, yet the
+floor itself was sanded with white sand, and there were one or two
+square wooden boxes, also filled with sand, for the use of those
+who smoked. When I add that, opposite to the fireplace, there was a
+set of drawers of walnut wood, with an escritoire at the top, upon
+the flat part of which were a few books neatly arranged, and over
+it an old-fashioned looking-glass, divided at the sides near to the
+frame into sections, I believe that I have given a catalogue of the
+whole furniture. When I followed Bramble into the room, a little
+girl of about nine or ten years old ran into his arms, as he
+stooped down to receive her. She was a pretty child, with a very
+fair skin and rosy cheeks, her hair and eyes of a very dark brown,
+almost approaching to black; but she was not, in my opinion, near
+so pretty as my sister Virginia. As Bramble kissed her, she
+exclaimed, "Oh, father, I am so glad you are come home! Mrs. Maddox
+has been in bed ever since you left; her leg is very bad
+indeed."</p>
+<p>"Whew!" whistled Bramble, "I'm sorry to hear that of the old
+lady; and how have you got on without her assistance?"</p>
+<p>"Why, don't you think I'm very tidy, father?" said she, looking
+round the room.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Bessy, you are very tidy; and it's a pleasure to come home
+to a tidy clean house. Here is a companion for you. I told you he
+was coming, and you know his name."</p>
+<p>"It's Tom Saunders, isn't it, father?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, that's his name, for want of a better&mdash;so I leave you
+to make friends, while I go up and see the poor old lady."</p>
+<p>"You look cold and pale, are you not well?" was the first
+question of little Bessy.</p>
+<p>"I'm cold, and not very well," replied I; "I have not been used
+to knocking about on board ship."</p>
+<p>"Very true; I forgot you had never been at sea before. Come to
+the fire, then, and sit in father's big chair."</p>
+<p>"I never knew that your father had been married. I thought Peter
+Anderson said that he was a bachelor."</p>
+<p>"And so he is," replied Bessy. "I'm not his daughter, although I
+call him father."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! then whose daughter are you? and who is the old lady
+upstairs?"</p>
+<p>"The old lady upstairs is the widow of the pilot with whom
+father served his time. Her husband was lost at sea, and she keeps
+father's house. Father picked me up at sea, and has taken care of
+me ever since."</p>
+<p>"Then you don't remember your own parents?"</p>
+<p>"No, I recollect nothing till I found myself in this house.
+Father says I'm a Dutchman, because it was a Dutch ship or a Dutch
+boat which I was taken out of."</p>
+<p>"And how long was that ago?"</p>
+<p>"Nine years ago. I am now, I believe, about ten years old."</p>
+<p>Bessy then catechised me relative to my own family, and I had
+not answered all her questions when Bramble came downstairs.</p>
+<p>"Bessy, dear, we must have the doctor to look at that leg again.
+I'm afeard that it will never get well. Missus is too old to shake
+it off."</p>
+<p>"Shall I go now, father?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, child, go now, for she's in great pain with it; and Tom,
+you go with Bessy and take care of her. But, before you go, give me
+some 'baccy and the odds and ends."</p>
+<p>As soon as Bessy had put the tobacco-pipes, some spirits, a
+rummer and water on the table, and the spittoon at his feet, she
+put on her bonnet, and off we set to the doctor's house, about half
+a mile distant. I was soon on intimate terms with Bessy: there was
+something so frank and winning about her, such perfect honesty of
+character, that it was impossible not to like her. We delivered our
+message, returned home, and, being very tired, I was glad to go to
+bed. Bessy showed me my room, which was very comfortable, and as
+soon as I laid my head on the pillow I was fast asleep.</p>
+<p>I was awakened the next morning by a knocking at the door by
+little Bessy; it was broad daylight, and I dressed myself and went
+downstairs, where I found her very busy putting everything in
+order.</p>
+<p>"It was I knocked," said little Bessy; "I thought you would like
+to come and help me."</p>
+<p>"And so I will," replied I; "what shall I do?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, there's plenty to do now that Mrs. Maddox is ill, and you
+and father are come back&mdash;almost too much for a little girl
+like me. Will you go to the pump and fetch the pails full of water,
+for they are too heavy for me?"</p>
+<p>I did as she wished. "Anything else, Bessy?" said I.</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, plenty. You're very good-natured, Tom, and I'm so glad
+you're come."</p>
+<p>Bessy and I were fully employed for nearly an hour in the front
+room and kitchen, clearing up and cleaning and preparing for
+breakfast. All was ready before Bramble came down and took a seat
+in his big chair, close to the breakfast-table.</p>
+<p>"All ready, father," said little Bessy, going up to Bramble to
+be kissed. "Tom has been helping me."</p>
+<p>"All's right," said Bramble; "bring the book, dear." Bessy
+brought a large Bible, and read a chapter aloud, then closed it and
+put it away.</p>
+<p>"We can't always do this, Tom," observed Bramble, "when we're
+knocking about in the Channel; all we can do is to read it when we
+can. Come now to breakfast."</p>
+<p>When we had finished I assisted Bessy to put everything away,
+and then Bramble said to me, "Anderson tells me you're a good
+scholar, Tom; but you must now learn what will be of use to me as
+well as to you. The first thing you must learn, and which you can
+do on shore, are the points of the compass, to know them at sight
+and tell them quickly; for you see it's of great importance to a
+pilot to know exactly how a ship's head is; and the men at the
+helm, although good seamen and steering well, are not so ready at
+answering as a pilot wishes, and very often stammer at
+it&mdash;sometimes make mistakes. Now, you see, when I'm piloting a
+vessel, if you stand at the binnacle, watch the compass, and answer
+me quickly how the ship's head is, you'll be of use to me in a very
+short time. Go up into my room, and under the bed you will find a
+compass; bring it down carefully, and I'll give you a lesson at
+once." I brought the compass to him, and Bramble made me write down
+the whole thirty-two points at full length upon a piece of paper.
+When I had done so, he told me I must learn them by heart as fast
+as I could.</p>
+<p>I studied them the whole of that day; and in the evening,
+finding myself perfect, I went up to Bramble and repeated them
+without one mistake.</p>
+<p>"All's right," said Bramble. "Now, Tom, give me the paper; if
+you know them to-night you ought to know them to-morrow morning.
+I'll hear if you do, after breakfast."</p>
+<p>I went to bed, was tapped up as before by Bessy, assisted her to
+clean everything, taking off her hands all the heaviest of the
+work; indeed, what I have narrated of the first day may be taken as
+a sample of my life on shore at Deal. After breakfast I repeated
+the points of the compass correctly.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, you have a good memory, that's certain; all the
+better for you, for pilots carry everything in their heads, as you
+will find out. Now, then, look here." Bramble took the glass off
+the top of the compass-box, lifted up the card, and then showed me
+the needle below, which pointed to the north. He then showed me the
+north point above, and then the other points, making me repeat them
+as he put his finger on them. As soon as I understood them, he
+would put the stem of his pipe to one and ask me which it was. When
+I was perfect with the points, he explained the half points and
+quarter points. In two days I had gained them all by heart.</p>
+<p>"And now," says he, "we must try you. This iron skewer is the
+ship's head, recollect, and I shall stick it into the table. When I
+do so, you must tell me what point of the compass stands to it, and
+then that will be the direction of the ship's head. Do you
+understand? Practice makes perfect, and you must work at this all
+the time that you are ashore. When you know the compass well then
+I'll teach you something else. Now, then, how's her head, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"North-half-west," said I, after a little time.</p>
+<p>"Yes, very true; but you see, Tom, that wouldn't do aboard ship.
+That's just the way most of the seamen would puzzle at it. I must
+have the answer in a moment, and that's why you must practice."</p>
+<p>In the evening, when Bramble was smoking his pipe, I was seated
+by him, and every minute he would change the place of the iron
+skewer, with "How's her head, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"We must get your 'prentice papers signed before we go afloat
+again," said Bramble, "for they pick up boys as well as men for the
+King's service, and you're a stout boy for your age."</p>
+<p>"Were you ever pressed yourself?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>"No, but I had a narrow chance once, and had not our captain
+been a smart fellow I and many more would have been serving the
+King at this present moment."</p>
+<p>"Tell me how that was," said I.</p>
+<p>"Well, as soon as Bessy has done rattling with the cups and
+saucers, I will."</p>
+<p>"I've done now, father," said Bessy, taking her seat on a stool
+close to Bramble's feet.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, before I passed for pilot, just after the breaking
+out of the war, I took it into my head to try my chance at
+privateering. There was plenty to pick up at that time, and some of
+the Deal men had been very fortunate, so I went on board of a
+twelve-gun lugger, commanded by Captain Shank, fitted out in the
+river, with a crew of sixty men. The press was very hot at that
+time, and our men were kept at the crimps' houses until all was
+ready, when we started, and got off clear into the Channel without
+being overhauled.</p>
+<p>"We had been out a fortnight, keeping well on the French coast,
+and had picked up two good prizes, when one morning, as the fog was
+cleared up with a sharp northerly wind, we found ourselves right
+under the lee of an English frigate, not a mile from us. There was
+a bubble of a sea, for the wind had been against the tide previous
+to its changing, and we were then about six or seven miles from the
+French coast, just between Boulogne and Cape Grisnez, lying to for
+the fog to clear away. As soon as we saw the frigate we knew that
+she would board us, and we were all in a terrible fright." Here
+Bramble shifted the skewer and said, "How's her head, Tom?"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus232.jpg" id="illus232.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus232.jpg"><img src="images/thumb232.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"HOW'S HER HEAD, TOM?"<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 281.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>I replied, and he proceeded:</p>
+<p>"The frigate hoisted her colors, and of course we did the same.
+She then fired a gun as a signal for us to remain, hove to, and we
+perceived her boats lowering down. 'Now, my lads,' said our
+captain, 'if you don't mind a shot or two, I think I will save you
+from impressment this time.' We all declared that we would stand a
+hundred rather than be taken on board of a man-of-war. 'Very well,'
+says he, 'starboard a little, and keep her a little away, so as to
+let her go through the water; but keep the foresheet to windward,
+so that we may appear only to have fallen off.' By this plan we
+gradually increased our distance from the frigate, and got more on
+her bow. All this while the boat was pulling toward us, rising and
+tossing on the sea, but still nearing us fast. As she came nearer
+to us we let the lugger come up in the wind again for a short time,
+that we might not appear to be dodging away, and then, when the
+bowman was almost ready to lay in his oar, away we let her go
+through the water, so that she was left astern again. They could
+not well perceive this on board of the frigate, although the
+officer in the boat was very savage, for at one time he had his bow
+oar in and his boat-hook out. At last the frigate, perceiving that
+we were apparently slipping away, put her helm up, and fired a shot
+across our bows. 'Now's your time, my boys,' said the captain; 'let
+draw the sheets, the breeze is strong. She must wait to pick up her
+boat, and that will give us a mile at least.' Up went the helm, and
+we made all sail right for the French coast. How's her head,
+Tom?"</p>
+<p>I replied, and Bramble resumed:</p>
+<p>"The frigate ran down to her boat, and then rounded-to, to hoist
+it up. The sea was heavy, and she was delayed a minute or two,
+although, to do them justice, they were very smart on board of her.
+As soon as the boat was up she made all sail, and came foaming
+after us, as if she were in as great a rage as the captain and
+those on board of her. Every now and then she yawed to throw a shot
+at us from her bow-chasers; but that we didn't mind, as the yawing
+checked her way, and it's not very easy to hit a low vessel like a
+lugger in a toppling sea. Well, very soon we were not four miles
+from the French coast, so we hauled down our English colors and
+hoisted French. The frigate gained on us very fast, but we
+continued to steer on, and she in pursuit, until we were within
+gun-shot of the batteries, What the Frenchmen thought we did not
+know, at all events they did not fire, and we steered right on as
+if we were chased, and the frigate followed after us, until we were
+within a mile and a half of the batteries, when the frigate thought
+proper to haul her wind. Then the battery opened upon her, and we
+could see that she was hulled more than once, and, as she kept her
+wind along the shore, the other batteries opened upon her, and she
+got a good mauling. We saw her shift her foretopsail yard as soon
+as she went about again, and we afterward heard that she had
+several men hurt, which was a pity."</p>
+<p>"And did not the batteries fire upon <i>you?</i>"</p>
+<p>"No, for we kept the French colors up, and hove to within a mile
+of the coast. It was a lee shore, and there was too much surf and
+sea for them to send off a boat and ascertain whether we were a
+French privateer or not; so there we lay till dusk, and then made
+sail again, and, being so close into the French shore, we picked up
+a good prize that very night. When the cruise was over, I was
+satisfied. I got my prize-money, and then, as I knew our own coast
+well, I passed for pilot, and have served as one ever since. How's
+her head, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"S.W. almost."</p>
+<p>"S.W. <i>almost</i> won't do, Tom. It's not quite S.W.,
+quarter-south; so you must say S.W. southerly. D'ye
+understand?"</p>
+<p>When Bessy knocked at my door the next morning, she cried out,
+laughing, "How's her head, Tom?" and those words made me jump up
+like lightning.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_FIVE" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which Bramble points out to me that singing is part of the
+Profession of a Pilot.</p>
+</div>
+<p>In about a fortnight from the time that Bramble commenced his
+tuition I was quite perfect with the compass; his method certainly
+was very good, for by such reiterated catechising what you had to
+learn was graven on your memory. All day long the same system was
+pursued. Even if dinner was on the table, the compass was on a
+chair close by, and as I was putting my fork to my mouth, much to
+Bessy's amusement, out would come the question, "How's her head,
+Tom?" Bramble soon gained his point; I could answer like lightning.
+But whether I was by the fire indoors, or on the shingle beach, his
+system was ever the same. Every time that Bramble opened his lips I
+gained some information; he was never wearying, and often very
+amusing.</p>
+<p>One morning we were out on the beach&mdash;we had been
+conversing with the other pilots, and examining the vessels in the
+offing with my glass&mdash;when he pointed out to me, it being low
+neap tide, that the Goodwin Sands were partially dry. "Tom,"
+continued he, "of all the dangers, not only of the Channel, but in
+the wide ocean, there is none to be compared with those
+sands&mdash;the lives that have been lost on them, the vessels that
+have been wrecked, and the property that has been sucked into them,
+would be a dozen kings' ransoms; for, you see, Tom, they are
+quicksands, and the vessel which goes on shore does not remain to
+be broken up, but in two tides she disappears, sinking down into
+the sands, which never give her or her cargo up again. There must
+be a mighty deal of wealth buried there, that is certain. They say
+that once they were a flourishing fertile island, belonging to an
+Earl Godwin, whose name they now bear; it may be so&mdash;the sea
+retreats from one place while it advances at another. Look at
+Romney Marshes, where so many thousands of sheep are now fed. They
+run up many miles inland; and yet formerly those very marshes were
+an arm of the sea, which vessels rode in deep water, and
+sea-fights, I am told, took place. Howsomever, when the sea took
+the Godwin island to itself it made the best trap for vessels that
+old Neptune now possesses, and he may consider it as the most
+productive spot in his dominions. Lord help us! what a deal of gold
+and merchandise must there be buried below yon yellow patch!"</p>
+<p>"Do you never save anything when vessels are run on shore
+there?"</p>
+<p>"When they only tail on, we occasionally get them off again; but
+when once fixed, there's an end of it. Yes, we save life
+occasionally, but at great risk of our own. I saved little Bessy
+from a vessel ashore on these sands."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! Pray tell me how it was."</p>
+<p>"Why, you see, Tom, it was just at the breaking out of the war.
+It was in this very month of October, '93, that I was out in a
+galley with some others, looking for vessels. I had just then left
+off privateering, and got my warrant as pilot (for you know I did
+serve my 'prenticeship, before I went a-privateering, as I told you
+the other night). Well, it was a blowing night, and we were running
+in for the Downs, intending to beach the galley and sleep on shore,
+for we had been out five days, and only put a pilot on board of one
+vessel. We were just to windward of the Sands, out there, where I
+am now pointing. The sea was very rough, but the night was clear,
+and the moon shone bright, when we saw a brig running down before
+the wind, under foresail and close-reefed topsails. 'Why, Bill, as
+she steers she'll be right between the Callipers,' said I to the
+man sitting by me. 'There's no mistake about that,' replied he;
+'let's haul the foresheet to windward, and lay to, to hail him;
+he's coming right down upon us.' Well, we did so, and we hailed
+some time without any answer. At last a man looked over the gunnel,
+just as she was flying past us, and told us in Dutch to go to the
+devil. 'I think you'll go there if you don't look sharp,' replied
+Bill. 'Come, my lads, we may as well follow her, and see if we
+cannot prevent mischief.' So we bore up after her, and hailed her
+several times, for we sailed very fast, and there was a scuffling
+on deck. I think that the captain was drunk. All this passed in
+less than five minutes; and then, as I knew would be the case, she
+struck on the sands, and with such force that all her masts went
+over the side immediately. Now, the sea rolls awfully over the
+shallow water of those sands, Tom. We had kept with her as far as
+we dared, and then hove-to about two cables' lengths to windward of
+her, when she struck, for the ebb was still running strong under
+our lee, which only made the sea more cross and heavy. The waves
+made a clean breach over her, and we knew that she would go to
+pieces in less than half-an-hour; but we did not like to leave so
+many to perish without a trial to save them. So we kept away, so as
+to get abreast of them, and then lowered our sails and got out our
+oars. We pulled close to them, but it was impossible to board. We
+should have been stove to pieces and swamped immediately. The moon
+still shone bright, and we saw them as plain as we could wish, and
+we made every attempt to save them, for they were all crowded
+together forward. Once the sea drove the boat so close that we
+touched her sides, and then a woman pressed before the men, and
+reached over the gunnel, extending her arms which held the child,
+while several others attempted to get in; but the return of the
+wave carried us back so quick from the vessel that, as they
+attempted to jump in, they all went to the water, and never
+appeared again; but I had caught hold of the child, and laid it
+down in the sternsheets. We made a second and third attempt, but in
+vain. At last the vessel broke up, as it were, all at
+once&mdash;there was one loud cry, and all was still, except the
+roaring and breaking waves which buried them. It wasn't a scene to
+make us very lively, Tom; we hoisted the sail, and ran on to the
+beach in silence. I took the child in my arms&mdash;it had been
+snatched out of its warm bed, poor thing, and had nothing on but a
+calico nightgown. I took it up to the cottage, which was then
+Maddox's (I bought it afterward of the widow with the money I made
+a-privateering), and I gave it in charge to Mrs. Maddox. I did
+intend to have sent it to the workhouse, or something of that sort;
+but Mrs. Maddox took a fancy to it, and so did I, and so I thought
+I would take care of it, and I christened it by the name of Betsy
+Godwin."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus238.jpg" id="illus238.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus238.jpg"><img src="images/thumb238.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>BRAMBLE SAVING BESSY.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 237.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"You have no idea who she may be?"</p>
+<p>"Not a half one. Her cotton gown and cap told nothing; the
+vessel was Dutch, that's all I know. She may be the child of the
+Stadtholder or the child of the ship's cook. What's the
+matter?"</p>
+<p>"But did you notice any marks upon her person by which she might
+be reclaimed?"</p>
+<p>"Not I. I only axed Mrs. Maddox whether it were a boy or a
+girl."</p>
+<p>"How old was she then?"</p>
+<p>"Well, how can I tell? that's not in my way; but the knowing
+ones in these matters said that she must be about eighteen months
+old, so we have taken that for a <i>departure</i> as to her age. I
+love her now as if she were my own child, and so will you, Tom,
+like a sister, when you know her. She calls me her father, and you
+may do the same, Tom, if you like, for I will be as good as a
+father to you, if you are as good a boy as you now seem to be, I
+like to be called father, somehow or another&mdash;it sounds
+pleasant to my ears. But come in now, I think you have compassed
+the compass, so you must learn something else.</p>
+<p>"There is another way, Tom," said Bramble, as he seated himself
+in his large chair, "in which a smart 'prentice may be useful to
+his master, and it is of quite as much importance as the compass,
+which is in heaving the lead. You see, Tom, the exact soundings
+being known will often enable a pilot to run over the tail of a
+bank and save a tide; that is, when he knows that he can trust the
+man in the chains. Some seamen are very particular in giving exact
+soundings, but all are not. They care more for the song than they
+do for anything else, and though the song is very musical, yet it
+won't get a ship off when she's on shore. Now, two-thirds of the
+seamen who are sent in the chains will not give the soundings
+within half a fathom, and, moreover, they do not give them quick
+enough for the pilot in many cases. If, therefore, you learn to
+heave the lead well, be correct in your soundings and quick in
+giving them, you will become of great use to me. You understand,
+don't you?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Well, go up into my room, and hanging on the nail behind the
+door you will see a lead-line&mdash;bring it me down here."</p>
+<p>I did so, and then Bramble explained to me how the fathoms were
+marked on the line, and how the soundings were given out.</p>
+<p>"You see," said he, "wherever there is a mark with a piece of
+leather or bunting, whether it be white or red, it is called a
+mark; and if you have five fathoms of water you would cry out by
+the <i>mark</i> five; but at the other depths there are no marks,
+but so many knots tied as there are fathoms, as here at nine; and
+then you would say by the <i>deep</i> nine. Now run the line
+through your hand, and see if you can repeat the marks and deeps as
+they pass."</p>
+<p>I did so.</p>
+<p>"Very well. Now for the song, for there is a sort of tune to
+it." Bramble then again passed the line through his hands, giving
+the song to each fathom, half-fathom, and quarter-fathom, and
+making me sing them after him, after which I had to repeat them by
+myself. The next day he took out the marks and knots from the whole
+line, and, giving me a two-foot rule to re-measure it, made me put
+them all in again. This I had to repeat three or four times. By
+this plan they were fully impressed on my memory; and as for the
+song, he made me sing it almost every half-hour for three or four
+days, Bessy generally repeating, in her clear voice, from the back
+kitchen or upstairs, "and a quarter seven&mdash;by the deep
+line."</p>
+<p>On the fourth day Bramble said, "Well, Tom, I think both you and
+Bessy may leave off singing now. You have yet to learn the most
+important part, which is to <i>heave</i> the lead; but we must wait
+till we get on board of a vessel for that. Observe, Tom, it's all
+very well singing when you've plenty of water, and I like it, for
+it sounds musical and pleasant to the ear; but in shallow water the
+pilot's answer must be much shorter and quicker, as you will find
+out by-and-by."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus242.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_SIX" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_SIX"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which I go Afloat, and obtain some Knowledge of the English
+Channel.</p>
+</div>
+<p>It may be as well here to remark that the system of pilotage is
+different now from what it used to be at the period of which I am
+writing. The Cinque Port pilots now carry vessels from the Downs to
+the river, and from the river to the Downs. Their pilotage extends
+no further. Vessels seldom require pilots for the Channel, and do
+not take them unless they are bound to some port in the Channel
+with which they are unacquainted, and those pilots who ply in the
+Channel are termed Hoblers; but at the time I refer to the regular
+pilots used to go out in their galleys to the chaps of the Channel
+and take charge of vessels all the way up, which, by the new
+regulations, they do not do. The arrangements for pilotage have
+been much improved of late years, and those employed are better
+qualified.</p>
+<p>I had remained at Deal about three weeks when an outward-bound
+Indiaman anchored in the Downs. Her pilot came on shore, and she
+made the signal for another. It was Bramble's turn, a galley was
+launched, and we went on board.</p>
+<p>The ship was bound to Plymouth, from whence she was to sail with
+convoy to a certain latitude. The weather was now fine and frosty,
+and we made sail when the tide served. As soon as we were fairly
+out in the Channel Bramble went with me into the main-chains, and
+showed me how to heave the lead. After several attempts, in which I
+sometimes would hit the spare topsail-yard upon which I stood,
+sometimes would nearly break my own head, and once contrived to
+throw the lead over the hammock-rails inboard, I succeeded in
+getting it round over my head; and when I had once gained that
+point I made fewer mistakes. In two days we arrived at Plymouth;
+and as Bramble kept me at it till my arms ached, nearly half the
+day, I could by that time heave the lead pretty fairly, that is to
+say, without danger to myself or other people. The day after we
+arrived at Plymouth we got into a pilot boat and went out in search
+of employment, which we soon found, and we continued chiefly taking
+vessels up to Portsmouth and down to Plymouth, or clear of
+soundings, for some time. During this time my practice at the lead
+was incessant, and I became very perfect. When I was not at the
+lead Bramble would make me stand at the binnacle and watch the
+compass, so that, by the time we arrived at Deal again, I was
+pretty competent in those two branches of my art, except that,
+having practiced the lead mostly in deep water, I had not acquired
+accuracy and expedition in giving the soundings. But I learned a
+great deal more of my profession; Bramble explaining to me the
+sails, rigging, and names and uses of the ropes, and the various
+maneuvers practiced, all of which he would catechise me in
+afterward, to ascertain if I was perfect, and had remembered what
+he told me. I was, therefore, under excellent tuition. Whatever
+port we entered Bramble would point out the landmarks to me, state
+the distances from point to point, and the dangers to be avoided.
+These I could not so well retain perfectly, and required occasional
+reminding, but altogether I gave him satisfaction. It was on New
+Year's Day, 1800, that we boarded a large homeward-bound Indiaman,
+which had just struck soundings. She was a thousand-ton ship, with
+a rich cargo of tea on board, and full of passengers, besides more
+than one hundred invalids from the regiments out there, who had
+been sent home under the charge of two officers.</p>
+<p>What a difference there appeared to me to be between the
+Indiaman going out and this one coming home! the first so neat and
+clean in her decks, and this so crowded and so weatherworn by her
+long voyage. What with troops in old jackets, which had once been
+scarlet, Lascars with their curly black hair, and dark handsome
+features, yellow men, sickly women, and half-caste children, with
+their Hindoo ayahs, tigers, lions, turtles, cows, sheep, goats, and
+pigs, on the booms and main deck, the vessel was in a strange
+motley of confusion.</p>
+<p>As soon as we were put on board, the captain, officers, and
+passengers crowded round to inquire the news. Bramble, according to
+pilot custom, had brought off one or two late Plymouth papers (one
+of which, I recollect, gave the account of the cutting out of the
+"Hermione" by Captain Hamilton); but the people on board were eight
+months behindhand at least as regarded what had passed. They had
+not even heard of Sir Sydney Smith's defense of Acre against
+Bonaparte, or anything else which had subsequently occurred; so
+that as soon as Bramble had taken charge, and put the ship's head
+the right course (for the wind was fair), there was no end to
+question and answer, And while Bramble was questioned by the
+captain and passengers, I was attacked by the midshipmen or
+guinea-pigs, as they are called. Having a fair wind, we ran right
+for the Downs, where we arrived on the morning of the second day.
+Here the purser of the ship went on shore with his dispatches, and
+the ship anchored to await orders, by the next post, to go up the
+river.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus246.jpg" id="illus246.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus246.jpg"><img src="images/thumb246.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>JACK HEAVING THE LEAD.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol X., p. 245.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Tom," said Bramble, as the vessel anchored, "I cannot quit the
+ship, but you may, so just get on shore in one of the boats, and
+see how little Bessy is, and poor old Mrs. Maddox's leg; and, Tom,
+take our dirty linen on shore and bring off clean."</p>
+<p>I was glad enough to obey his orders, for I was very anxious to
+see dear little Bessy again; so I dropped into a boat that was
+going on shore for fresh beef, taking with me two or three little
+presents for Bessy, out of the many which I had received when on
+board, for the officers and men were very kind to me, and had given
+me many things which they did not value, but which I did very much,
+as they were quite new to me.</p>
+<p>The custom officers at Deal were not very particular at that
+time. I was not searched, and arrived at the cottage, where I found
+Bessy sitting at her needle. She threw down her work and ran to me,
+and as I kissed her the tears ran down her cheeks.</p>
+<p>"Where is father, Tom? I'm so glad to see you; but where is
+father? I've been so frightened, the winter has been so rough."</p>
+<p>"He's on board of the Indiaman, but being in charge he cannot
+come on shore, so he sent me."</p>
+<p>"Oh! I'm so glad. You have been away so long, and we have had
+nothing but gales of wind; and do you know that Williams and Steers
+are both drowned?"</p>
+<p>"No, indeed, we know nothing; but father will be sorry to hear
+of it, for they were friends of his."</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, it's not fair to leave a little girl like me alone
+here, for Mrs. Maddox has kept her bed ever since you left. Her leg
+is better, but she has pains in her limbs, and groans so all night,
+and here I am left by myself, to hear her groan and the wind
+roar."</p>
+<p>Here Bessy began to cry, and I to console her as well as I
+could, although I did feel that it was hard that such a child
+should be left so lonely. The presents I brought her made her wipe
+away her tears, and she was very soon as lively and joyous as
+ever.</p>
+<p>"I heard father say, Bessy" (I always called Bramble my father,
+as he had said I might), "that he had picked up something this
+winter, for he has had none but heavy vessels, and you know
+pilotage is paid by the draught of water."</p>
+<p>"Well, he may have made money, but I'm sure we haven't spent any
+to matter, for I have hardly been once a week to Mrs. Maddox for
+money since you have gone. She eats hardly anything, and I can't
+eat my meals when I'm alone down here. Will father come home after
+he has been up the river?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Bessy, he said that we should take a spell on shore."</p>
+<p>"Tom, don't you think I might go on board and see him for half
+an hour?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I don't see why not; speak to Mrs. Maddox."</p>
+<p>Bessy ran upstairs, and came down with the required permission,
+provided a neighbor's girl would remain in the house, and that she
+went under my escort. Her bonnet was soon on, and we obtained a
+passage in one of the Indiaman's boats which was shoving off, for
+the water was quite smooth, and the ship's boats could lie on the
+shingle without difficulty. The officer took Bessy under his boat
+cloak, and we were soon on board. Bramble was not on deck at the
+time, and when I went down to look for him, Bessy remained on the
+quarter-deck in admiration of all she saw. But Bramble was not
+below as I supposed&mdash;he had gone into the cuddy with the
+captain; and when he came out, his first knowledge of Bessy's being
+on board was being embraced by the waist with her little arms.</p>
+<p>"Why, Bessy, my child," said Bramble, just as I returned on
+deck. "This is Master Tom's doing," continued he, kissing her; "so
+you have come to see your father?"</p>
+<p>"Why, you would not come on shore to see me, father," said
+Bessy, as Bramble took her up and kissed her again.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, have you brought the clean things?"</p>
+<p>"No, I must go on shore again with Bessy, father."</p>
+<p>"Very true, so you must."</p>
+<p>Bessy was taken much notice of by the captain and all on board.
+No wonder: her fair skin and clear transparent red and white were
+in such contrast with the bilious-looking passengers that she
+appeared as if she was not of the same race. She was much admired,
+and received many little presents; and when she left the ship,
+after staying on board an hour, she was much delighted with her
+trip, and still more so with the promise of Bramble that he would
+stay ashore for some time as soon as he came back from the river. I
+remained with her on shore till dusk, and then, having collected
+the clean linen, as we were expected to sail early the next
+morning, I returned on board the Indiaman.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_SEVEN" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Showing the Importance, on board Ship, of a Rope's End well
+applied.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The next morning, as we expected, the orders came down for the
+Indiaman to go round to the river. The wind was fair, but light; we
+hove up and made sail, stemming the last of the ebb. When the flood
+made, the wind died away, so that we made but little progress, much
+to the annoyance of those on board, who were naturally impatient to
+land after so tedious a voyage. Toward the evening it fell calm,
+and a fog-bank rose on the horizon to the eastward. There were
+still two hours of daylight, when, as I was sweeping the horizon
+with my glass, I discovered the three masts of a vessel with no
+sails set on them. As she was a long way off I went half-way up the
+main rigging to have a better view of her, and made her out to be a
+large lugger. I went down to the poop, where Bramble stood smoking
+a cheroot with some of the officers of the ship. "Father," says I,
+"there's a large lugger on our beam, with her sails lowered down. I
+caught her masts with the glass just now."</p>
+<p>"Then she's a French privateer, you may depend upon it," replied
+Bramble, "and she means to try to take us by surprise
+to-night."</p>
+<p>The officers went down and reported it to the captain: the
+glasses were fixed upon her, and there was little doubt as to what
+she was.</p>
+<p>"Lucky you discovered her, boy, for we might have been
+surprised, that's a fact," said the captain; "however, now she
+shall catch a Tartar."</p>
+<p>"She's waiting for the fog, captain," said Bramble, "which will
+come rolling down with the shift of wind in about an hour or two, I
+expect; and then we must allow her another hour to get alongside of
+us. Depend upon it she has plenty of men, and intends to try to
+board us in the fog."</p>
+<p>Everybody was now on the <i>qui vive</i>; the women were, as
+usual, frightened; the men passengers looked grave, the Lascars
+rather unsteady; but we had forty English seamen and a hundred
+invalid soldiers on board, who could all be depended upon. The guns
+were loaded and shotted, and the invalid soldiers were mustered;
+muskets and ammunition handed up; the bayonets fixed, unfixed
+again; and then they were ordered to remain on the booms with their
+accouterments on and their muskets by their sides. The officers
+still kept their glasses on the lugger, until at last the fog came
+down and we could see her no more.</p>
+<p>The officers who commanded the invalids, after a consultation
+with the captain at which Bramble assisted, told off their men into
+two parties, one of them being appointed to assist the seamen with
+their bayonets in repelling the boarders (should the attempt be
+made), and the other to fire upon them and into the deck of the
+vessel when she came alongside. The Lascars were stationed at the
+guns, in case they might be required; but no great dependence was
+placed upon their services.</p>
+<p>By the time that these arrangements had been made, the fog had
+reached the Indiaman, and we were at the same time taken aback with
+the easterly breeze which brought it down to us; being near to the
+land, we put the ship's head off shore. The wind continued light
+and the water smooth, but the fog thickened every minute: at last
+we could hardly see as far as the foremast of the vessel.</p>
+<p>"He'll be puzzled to find us, I think," said the captain.</p>
+<p>"He'll find us, never fear," replied Bramble. "He has calculated
+the time of the fog reaching us, and he knows that we must lay our
+head off-shore&mdash;to be sure, we might give him the go-by if we
+bore up and ran back again to the Downs."</p>
+<p>"I think I see myself bearing up and running away from a
+rascally French privateer," said the captain. "Keep a sharp lookout
+there forward."</p>
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," replied the chief officer.</p>
+<p>Half an hour more passed, and by our calculation the privateer
+should have been on board of us, but we could see nothing of her,
+although the fog had cleared up a little. The soldiers were now
+ordered to load their muskets. I was on the poop with Bramble,
+when, happening to turn and look aft (the very opposite direction
+from which the privateer was to be expected), I saw her three
+lugsails looming in the mist, just on the quarter, not half a
+cable's length from us. I jumped down to where the captain was
+standing, and said to him, "There she is, sir, close on our lee
+quarter." The captain sprang on the poop, saw the vessel, and
+ordered the men to come aft in silence. The tramp of the soldiers'
+feet was scarcely over when the lugger was alongside of us, her
+masts banging against our main and mizzen chains as she rolled with
+the swell under our lee. The Frenchmen gave a cheer, which told us
+how very numerous they were: they climbed up the side and into the
+chains like cats, and in a few seconds all was noise, confusion,
+and smoke. It was impossible to know what the result was to be for
+about a minute, when the cheers from our own men announced that the
+assailants had been beaten back. But hardly had the cheering ceased
+on our side when another cheer was heard from the lugger, and the
+attempt to gain our decks was repeated. This time the Frenchmen
+fought more obstinately than before, and it was nearly five minutes
+before they were repelled. It was not yet dark (although the fog
+was thick), and you could make out their countenances pretty clear;
+a more wild reckless set of fellows I never beheld, and they
+certainly fought very gallantly, but they were driven back again;
+and once more were the cheers from the British seamen and soldiers
+mixed up with the execrations and shouts of the still contending,
+although retreating, Frenchmen.</p>
+<p>Just at this period of the conflict I was standing on the poop
+by Bramble, who had been watching the result, when he said, "Tom,
+come with me: do you jump into the main chains with a double part
+of the topsail halyards fall, and when the lugger's mast strikes
+against the chains as she rolls into us, pass the fall round it
+underneath the rigging, and hand the end in to me."</p>
+<p>We both leaped off the poop; he gave me the bight of the
+halyards. I crept out of the port into the chains and passed it
+round the lugger's mainmast, as he told me, handing in the bight to
+him, which he belayed slack to the mainsheet kevel. At the time I
+perceived a man lying wounded or dead in the main chains, but I
+paid no attention to him until, as I was about to get on board, he
+attracted my attention by seizing my leg, and making his teeth meet
+in the small part of it, above the ankle. I could not help crying
+out, I was so taken by surprise with the pain; however, I kicked
+him off, and turning to look at him, I found it was a wounded
+Frenchman, who, perceiving what I was about, had paid me that
+compliment. As soon as I was on board I heard the captain say to
+Bramble, "Well, pilot, he has had enough of it."</p>
+<p>"Yes, and he won't escape, captain, for Tom has got him fast by
+the masthead, and they dare not climb up to cut themselves adrift.
+All that you have to do now it to let the soldiers fire on his
+decks until they run below, and then our men can board and take
+possession of her."</p>
+<p>The captain, perceiving that the vessel was made fast, gave the
+necessary orders. The soldiers lined the hammock nettings and
+chains, and such a shower of musketry was poured into her decks
+that the Frenchmen were soon driven below, and our seamen then
+slipped down her rigging, boarded, and took possession of her. The
+prisoners having been ordered up and passed into the forehold, the
+wounded men were then looked after. We had eleven wounded, but none
+killed; the Frenchman had eight killed and seventeen wounded; among
+others, the captain, who had headed the second attempt to board.
+She was called the "Pucelle d'Orleans," of twelve guns and a
+hundred and twenty-five men.</p>
+<p>It was two or three hours before we were again all to rights,
+and a party sent on board of the prize; and then there was again
+another kind of confusion, from the congratulations, drinking
+healths, the women coming up on deck, etc.; however, the weather
+continued light, so it was of no consequence. That Frenchman bit
+very hard, and I limped for three or four days afterward.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "I see you've got nerve, so all's
+right. You had better go and lie down now, for you must be tired;
+I'll call you in the morning."</p>
+<p>Very glad was I to limp to bed. All night I dreamed of nothing
+but volleys of musketry, and boarding and reboarding, and being
+wounded in the leg, and then I would awake with the smart of the
+Frenchman's teeth.</p>
+<p>The next morning when I came on deck, the captain thanked me for
+my services, and said that the lugger would have escaped had it not
+been for me. I replied that it was Bramble who prevented her
+escape, as I should not have thought of making her fast if I had
+not been told.</p>
+<p>"That's all true enough," replied the captain; "but how many of
+your age, having been told to do it, would have done it, Tom? I
+shall not forget you."</p>
+<p>I went on the poop to Bramble, who, as usual, had his short pipe
+in his hand; and I certainly was pleased when I saw what a
+beautiful craft we had helped to capture. She sat like a swan on
+the water, and sailed round and round us with the greatest
+ease.</p>
+<p>In the afternoon we anchored at the Nore, and sent away all the
+prisoners to Sheerness. I must not forget to say how very kind and
+generous the passengers were to me. They made a great many
+presents, some of value, as I afterward found out; and I was glad
+to receive them that I might give them to Virginia and those who
+had been friendly to me.</p>
+<p>The next morning we arrived off Greenwich, and Bramble told me
+to go on shore and remain with my father and mother until he came
+down, which he would do in a few days, and pay a visit to his old
+friend Anderson. I landed with all my contraband articles in the
+boat, but no one thought of stopping or searching the former "Poor
+Jack." My insignificance was my protection; and I arrived safely at
+Fisher's Alley with all my curiosities and prohibited effects. When
+I entered the house, I perceived that there was a third person
+sitting in company with my mother and Virginia; but Virginia sprang
+to me, and I threw down my bundles with which I was loaded, and
+pressed her in my arms. Although I had been absent but four months,
+she appeared to be very much grown, and in every way improved. As
+soon as I had released her, I offered my hand to my mother, who
+took it very coldly, and then observed, "Tom, you will be <i>so</i>
+ungenteel; don't you see there is a gentleman here?"</p>
+<p>"I beg his pardon, mother," replied I; "but I could only see my
+sister just then."</p>
+<p>"And I admire your feeling, Tom," replied the party. "Mrs.
+Saunders, you must not scold him for that. How do you do, Tom, and
+how do you like your profession?" continued he, holding out his
+hand.</p>
+<p>I took his hand, and looking at him I recognized him. "Oh, sir!
+you are the gentleman who was sitting in the room when we called
+upon Sir Hercules and her ladyship."</p>
+<p>"I am so, Tom, and I promised Sir Hercules that I would have an
+eye to you all, and be of any use to you that I could. My name is
+Wilson, and I'm what the sailors call a shark, that is, I'm a
+lawyer."</p>
+<p>"Well, you don't appear as if you would bite, sir," replied I,
+as I looked at his venerable and kind face.</p>
+<p>"No, no, we never frighten people by our looks. We don't carry
+our teeth with us; but I have several rows of them, all upon
+shelves in my chambers, called the 'Statute at Large,' and by other
+names."</p>
+<p>He then entered into conversation with me, and I told him most
+of what had passed, of course not forgetting that the Indiaman we
+had brought up the river had captured a privateer. He sat about an
+hour, and then went away, desiring me to call upon him. I was not
+sorry when he went, as I wished to show my presents to Virginia,
+and give her those which she liked best. When Virginia had selected
+for herself, or rather I had forced upon her all she most admired,
+I gave a cut ivory card-case, a filigree needle-case, and a small
+red scarf to my mother, who, for the first time in her life,
+appeared pleased with me, and said that they were very
+<i>genteel</i>, and she was much obliged to me. The remainder I put
+away in my room upstairs, intending to keep some for Bessy, and
+give the others to Mrs. St. Felix, the doctor, and old Nanny.</p>
+<p>I then went to the hospital and found out my father, old
+Anderson and Ben. I narrated to them much more circumstantially
+than I did to the old lawyer the particulars of the capture of the
+privateer. Anderson put a great many inquiries to me, as to my
+liking my profession, and also concerning little Bessy, whose
+history I communicated to him. After my father and Ben had left, he
+gave me a great deal of advice, all of which I trust that I
+treasured up.</p>
+<p>"I hear," said he, "that Spicer has been talking a good deal
+about you, and inquiring very often when you were expected to
+return. Were you very intimate with that man?"</p>
+<p>I replied in the negative, and then narrated the whole history
+of the spy-glass, the erasure of the name by Mrs. St, Felix, and
+the recognition of it by Spicer.</p>
+<p>"You did right to leave him in his error relative to where you
+received the glass from," said Peter Anderson; "there is some
+mystery there which time may unravel, but do not say a word of it
+to any one, Tom. I am glad that you have told me, as, in case you
+are away, and anything should occur, I shall know how to act."</p>
+<p>I must acknowledge that I now walked proudly through the streets
+of Greenwich. I was no longer Poor Jack, but I was earning my
+livelihood in my profession. I had reason to be still prouder when,
+two days afterward, Mr. Wilson came to my mother's with the
+newspaper in his hand in which there was a long account of the
+capture of the privateer, and the conduct of Bramble and of me
+spoken of in the highest terms. This he read aloud to my mother and
+Virginia. I watched my sister. The tears filled her eyes as she
+listened, and when Mr. Wilson had done her arms were round my neck,
+and her smiles were mixed with her tears, and sometimes she would
+laugh as she cried. Oh! how I loved her then, for I felt how dearly
+she loved me; even my mother appeared gratified, although she said
+nothing, but continued to repair the lace veil upon which she had
+been employed. That evening I went with Virginia to call upon Mrs,
+St. Felix, taking with me the presents I had laid aside for her.
+She welcomed me as usual, and accepted what I brought for her
+without hesitation and with many thanks.</p>
+<p>"Well, Mr. Tom," said she, "I'll just put away all your nice
+little remembrances, and then I'll tell you that I've heard all
+about your behavior in the fight with the privateer, and I've no
+doubt but that, if you continue to go on as you have begun, you
+will one day have a leg the less, as your father has before
+you."</p>
+<p>"I hope not," replied I; "two legs are better than one."</p>
+<p>"Yes, when you want to run away, that's true. I see now why
+you're so anxious to save your legs."</p>
+<p>"But, Mrs. St. Felix, if it had not been for that good spy-glass
+you gave me, I never should have discovered the privateer, and we
+should not have been prepared for her."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's fortunate; it didn't prove a glass too much,
+anyhow, or you'd have seen double. I suppose, then, all these
+pretty things are my share of the prize-money."</p>
+<p>"No, they are no value, except to prove to you that Poor Jack
+has not forgotten your kindness, and never will."</p>
+<p>"That I believe; and, believing that, I suppose you have not
+forgotten old Nanny."</p>
+<p>"No; but I have not seen her yet. I intend to go to-morrow; but
+I have something for the doctor. He is not at home; will you give
+it to him?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly; you know I am as good as a mother to him."</p>
+<p>"I think the doctor would rather you'd be a wife to him."</p>
+<p>"That's a foolish idea that's in many people's heads, Tom, which
+I'll thank you to contradict. I never intend to change my
+name."</p>
+<p>"Don't make too sure," replied I; and I added at a venture (why,
+I know not, but I had formed the idea in my mind that St. Felix was
+not her proper name), "you may change it yet for your real
+name."</p>
+<p>"Tom, Tom," cried the widow, "what do you mean?" "Nothing,"
+replied I, "I was only joking." "Well, then, don't talk such
+nonsense, or I shall send you out of the shop."</p>
+<p>I had, however, it appeared, struck upon a chord which jarred,
+and all the spirits of Mrs. St. Felix vanished at once. So Virginia
+and I wished her a good-evening and returned home.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus260.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_EIGHT" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Some little Difference in the Proceeds of this Chapter, and my
+former "Copper for Poor Jack, your Honor".</p>
+</div>
+<p>On our arrival at my mother's, I found a letter from Bramble,
+stating that he would be at Greenwich in two days, and, further,
+informing me that the honorable company had been pleased, in
+consequence of the report made of our good behavior, to award to
+him the sum of two hundred pounds, and to me the sum of one hundred
+pounds, as a remuneration for our assistance in the capture of the
+privateer.</p>
+<p>This was news indeed. One hundred pounds! I never thought that I
+should possess such a sum in my life. One hundred pounds! what
+should I do with it? My mother was astonished, and then fell into a
+very grave mood. Virginia was pleased, but appeared to care less
+about it than I thought she would have done. My father came in as
+usual with Ben the Whaler, and I read the letter.</p>
+<p>"Why, Tom, that's about as much prize-money as I have made in
+all my sarvice," said my father, "and you've been afloat only four
+months. Come, missis, send for some beer, and let us drink Tom's
+health and success to him. God bless you, my boy! the papers say
+you deserved it, and that's better than your getting it. I'm proud
+of you; I am, indeed, my boy. Your father's proud of you,
+Tom"&mdash;and here my father showed more emotion than ever I
+witnessed in him before; however, he put his lips to the
+porter-pot, and when he had drained it nearly to the bottom, he had
+quite recovered himself.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said Ben, after he had finished the small modicum
+of beer left him by my father, "and what do you mean to do with all
+that money?"</p>
+<p>"I'm sure I don't know&mdash;I have no want of it&mdash;I have
+everything I wish for."</p>
+<p>"Come, missis," said my father, "we must have another pot, for I
+drank deep, and Ben has been shared out." My mother very graciously
+sent for another pot of porter, which, with the newspaper, occupied
+Ben and my father till it was time for us to break up and go to
+bed.</p>
+<p>The next morning when I went down I found Virginia alone, my
+mother having returned to her room.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said she, "what do you think my mother said to me when we
+were going to bed last night?"</p>
+<p>"Tell me."</p>
+<p>"She said, 'Tom says he don't know what to do with his money. I
+only wish I had it; I would turn it into three times the sum in
+three years, and have a better home for you, my dear.'"</p>
+<p>"Did she say how?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I asked her how; she said that she should take a new house
+with a shop up the town, and set up as a milliner, with
+apprentices; that, as soon as she was fairly employed, she should
+give up getting up fine linen, and only take in laces to wash and
+mend, which was a very profitable business."</p>
+<p>"Well," says I, "Virginia, my mother is a hard-working woman,
+and a clever woman, and I dare say she would do very well, and, as
+she says she would have a better home for you, I think I shall let
+her have the money; but I won't say so yet. I must talk about it to
+Peter Anderson, and if he don't say no, she shall have it with
+pleasure."</p>
+<p>"That will be very kind of you, Tom; and I hope mother will feel
+it, for you don't owe her much."</p>
+<p>"Never mind that; after breakfast I'll see Peter Anderson. Don't
+say a word about it till I come back."</p>
+<p>At breakfast-time my mother still appeared to be very
+thoughtful. The fact was, that the idea of what advantage the money
+would be had taken possession of her mind; and perhaps she thought
+that there was no chance of obtaining it. Perhaps she felt that,
+had she treated me better, she would have had it without
+difficulty&mdash;it was impossible to say exactly.</p>
+<p>After breakfast I walked with Virginia to her school, and then
+set off to Anderson, to whom I immediately imparted what had taken
+place. His answer was decided:</p>
+<p>"I think, Jack, you can't do better; but, at the same time, let
+us go to your father and hear his opinion."</p>
+<p>My father coincided with Anderson and me; and he added, "I tell
+you what, your mother is not parfect exactly&mdash;though I say it,
+as shouldn't say it&mdash;but still she does work hard, and she
+will work hard; she has paid my little girl's schooling out of her
+own arnings, and, moreover, she has found me one pot of porter at
+least every night, which has made me very comfortable. Now, I've
+still a matter of forty pounds in the lieutenant's hands. I'll add
+it to Tom's hundred pounds, and then she will have a fair start.
+What d'ye think, Peter?"</p>
+<p>"I think you are both right; and, Tom, you are doing your
+duty."</p>
+<p>I knew what Anderson meant. I thanked him for his advice, and my
+father and I went to my mother's house. I requested my father to
+stand spokesman, which he did, ending by telling my mother that my
+hundred pounds and his forty pounds were very much at her sarvice,
+and good luck to her. Virginia's eyes glistened as she took me by
+the hand. My mother replied, "Very well, if we pleased, she would
+do her best for us all."</p>
+<p>The answer was hardly gracious, but I watched her countenance
+and saw she was moved. Her thin lips quivered as she turned away
+and went upstairs, which she did immediately after her reply. In
+about half-an-hour, during which I was laughing with Virginia, my
+mother came downstairs in her shawl and bonnet.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said she, in a kind manner, "will you walk with Virginia
+to school this afternoon, as I am going to have some conversation
+with Mr. Wilson?"</p>
+<p>The alteration in her tone of voice to me was immediately
+perceived by Virginia.</p>
+<p>"You are a dear good Tom," said she, kissing me, as soon as my
+mother had left the house.</p>
+<p>As soon as I had left Virginia at school, I went to call upon
+old Nanny, whom I found quite brisk and lively, sorting old keys
+and rusty hinges.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," said she, "so you are come at last! I thought you
+would have been here yesterday, but nobody cares about an old woman
+like me. I heard all about you, and how you took the privateer, and
+how the Company have given you a hundred pounds; and when I heard
+that I said, Jack (Poor Jack that was, who came begging to old
+Nanny to lend him money) will not come to see me, he'll be too
+proud. Besides,' I said, 'his family is getting up in the world:
+there's a baronet and his lady who have taken them under their
+protection, and there's lawyer Wilson calls at the house. Oh, dear
+me! it's the way of us all.'"</p>
+<p>"And so you said all that to yourself, did you?" replied I.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and a great deal more, too."</p>
+<p>"Then, mother, you did me injustice. I could not well come
+before; I had to see my father and mother and my sister, and I had
+business to transact."</p>
+<p>"Mercy on us! business to transact! Poor Jack had business to
+transact! Here's a change from the time that his whole business was
+to touch his hat for coppers and dip his head in the mud for a
+penny."</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, what I say is true, and you are very unjust to
+accuse me as you have done. I have always thought of you, and have
+now with me several things that I have collected for you."</p>
+<p>"Yes, you promised me. Jack, you do keep your promises; I will
+say that for you. Well, what have you got?"</p>
+<p>I opened my handkerchief and pulled out several little articles,
+such as fine worked baskets, shells, etc., and, among the rest, a
+pound of tea in a leaden canister.</p>
+<p>"There, mother, I have brought you them as a present, and I hope
+you will take them."</p>
+<p>Old Nanny turned them over one by one, rather contemptuously, as
+I thought, until she came to the tea. "That may do," said she.
+"Why, Jack, those are all very pretty things, but they are too
+pretty for my shop. Why didn't you bring me some empty ginger beer
+bottles? I could have sold them this very morning."</p>
+<p>"Why, mother, I really did not like to ask for such things."</p>
+<p>"No, there it is; you've grown so fine all of a sudden. These
+are no use, for nobody will come to my shop to buy them."</p>
+<p>"I thought you would like to keep them yourself, mother."</p>
+<p>"Keep them? Oh, they are keepsakes, are they? Look you, Jack, if
+they are to be kept you had better take them away at once, and give
+them to the young girls. Girls like keepsakes, old women like
+money."</p>
+<p>"Well, mother, sell them if you please; they are your own."</p>
+<p>"Sell them? let me see&mdash;yes, I think I know where there is
+a sort of curiosity-shop, in Church Street; but it's a long way to
+walk, Jack, and that&mdash;let me see," continued she, counting the
+different articles, "one, two, three&mdash;seven times, Jack."</p>
+<p>"But why not take them all at once?"</p>
+<p>"All at once, you stupid boy! I should get no more for two than
+for one. No, no; one at a time, and I may make a few shillings.
+Well, Jack, it's very kind of you, after all, so don't mind my
+being a little cross. It was not on account of the things, but
+because you did not come to see me, and I've been looking out for
+you."</p>
+<p>"If I had thought that, I would have come sooner, mother,
+although it would not have been convenient."</p>
+<p>"I believe you, Jack, I believe you; but you young people can't
+feel as an old woman like I do. There is but one thing I love in
+the world, Jack, now, and that's you; and when I get weary of
+waiting for that one thing, and it don't come, Jack, it does make a
+poor old woman like me a little cross for the time."</p>
+<p>I was touched with this last speech of old Nanny's, who had
+never shown me any such a decided mark of kindness before.
+"Mother," said I, "depend upon it, whenever I return to Greenwich,
+you shall be the first person that I come to see after I have been
+to my mother's."</p>
+<p>"That's kind, Jack, and you keep your promise always. Now sit
+down; you don't want to go away already, do you?"</p>
+<p>"No, mother, I came to spend the whole morning with you."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, sit down&mdash;take care, Jack, you'll knock down
+that bottle. Now tell me, what do you intend to do with your
+hundred pounds?"</p>
+<p>"I have settled that already, mother. I have given it away."</p>
+<p>"Already! Why, the boy has one hundred pounds given him on the
+morning, and he gives it away before night, Mercy on us! who would
+ever think of leaving you any money?"</p>
+<p>"No one, mother; and I never expect any except what I earn."</p>
+<p>"Why, Jack, do you know how much one hundred pounds is?"</p>
+<p>"I think so."</p>
+<p>"Now, Jack, tell me the truth, who did you give it to, your
+father, or your little sister, or who? for I can't understand how a
+person could give away one hundred pounds in any way or to
+anybody."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, I gave it to my mother."</p>
+<p>"Your mother! your mother, who has hated you, wished you dead,
+half-starved you! Jack, is that possible?"</p>
+<p>"My mother has not been fond of me, but she has worked hard for
+my sister. This hundred pounds will enable her to do much better
+than she does now, and it's of no use to me. Mother may love me
+yet, Nanny."</p>
+<p>"She ought to," replied old Nanny, gravely; and then she covered
+her face up with her hands. "Oh, what a difference!" ejaculated she
+at last.</p>
+<p>"Difference, mother, difference? in what?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, Jack, between you and&mdash;somebody else. Don't talk about
+it any more, Jack," said Nanny, casting her eyes down to the
+presents I had brought her. "I recollect the time," continued she,
+evidently talking to herself, "that I had plenty of presents; ay,
+and when it was thought a great favor. I would accept them. That
+was when I was young and beautiful; yes, people would laugh if they
+heard me&mdash;young and very beautiful, or men's smiles and
+women's hate were thrown away&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'Why so pale and wan, fond lover;<br />
+Prithee, why so pale?'</p>
+<p>"Yes, yes, bygones are bygones."</p>
+<p>I was much surprised to hear old Nanny attempt to sing, and
+could hardly help laughing; but I restrained myself. She didn't
+speak again, but continued bent over one of the baskets, as if
+thinking about former days. I broke the silence by saying:</p>
+<p>"What part of the country did you live in when you were young,
+mother?"</p>
+<p>"In the north part. But never ask questions."</p>
+<p>"Yes, but, mother, I wish to ask questions. I wish you to tell
+me your whole history. I will not tell it again to any one, I
+promise you."</p>
+<p>"But why should you wish to know the history of a poor old thing
+like me?"</p>
+<p>"Because, mother, I am sure you must have seen better days."</p>
+<p>"And if I have, Jack, is it kind to ask me to bring up to memory
+the days when I was fair and rich, when the world smiled upon me,
+and I was fool enough to think that it would always smile? Is it
+kind to recall what was to an old, miserable, deserted wretch like
+me, struggling to keep out of the workhouse? Look at me now, Jack,
+and see what I now am. Is it not cruel to bring to my mind what I
+once was? Go to, Jack, you're a selfish boy, and I don't love
+you."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, mother, if I thought it would have given you pain, I
+never would have asked you; but you cannot wonder at me. Recollect
+that you have ever been my best friend; you trusted me when nobody
+else would; and can you be surprised at my feeling an interest
+about you? Why, mother, I don't even know your name."</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, you have put things in a better light. I do believe
+that you care for me, and who else does? But, Jack, my name you
+never shall know, even if I am to tell you all the rest."</p>
+<p>"Were you ever married, mother?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, child, I was married. Now, what's the next question?"
+continued she, impatiently.</p>
+<p>"Had you any children?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, boy, I had one&mdash;one that was a source of misery and
+shame to his doting mother." Old Nanny pressed her eyeballs with
+her knuckles as if in agony.</p>
+<p>"I won't ask you any more questions," said I mournfully.</p>
+<p>"Not now, Jack, that's a good boy; some other day, perhaps, I'll
+tell you all. There's a lesson in every life, and a warning in too
+many. You'll come again, Jack&mdash;yes, I know you'll come to hear
+my story, so I shall see you once more before you leave. Go now."
+Old Nanny rose and went indoors, taking her stool in her hand, and
+leaving the presents where they lay, outside&mdash;a proof that she
+was in great agitation. I put them inside the threshold, and then
+went homeward.</p>
+<p>I could not help remarking, as I walked home, that old Nanny's
+language and manner appeared very superior when she broke out in
+these reminiscences of the past, and I felt more interest in her
+than I ever had before. On my return, I found Bramble, who had come
+down sooner than he was expected, sitting in the parlor with Peter
+Anderson and my father, all smoking, with porter on the table.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "here I am two days before my time,
+but that's better than being two days after it, and, what's more,
+I've got the money, both yours and mine. They told me I should not
+get it for three months at least; but I sent up my name to the
+Board, and explained to them that a pilot could not wait like a
+purser while they were passing accounts, so the gentlemen laughed,
+and gave me an order for it; and I've got all my pilotage, too, so
+I'm a rich man just now. Come, I'll give you yours at once, and I
+hope it may not be the last hundred pounds that you'll pick
+up."</p>
+<p>Bramble pulled his leathern case out of his pilot jacket, and
+counted out ten ten-pound notes. "There, Jack, you ought to give me
+a receipt, for I signed for you at the India House."</p>
+<p>"Oh, you've plenty of witnesses," replied I, as I collected the
+notes, and, giving them to Virginia, told her to take them to my
+mother, who was upstairs in her room.</p>
+<p>"To tell you the truth, Jack, this two hundred pounds, which I
+earned so easily, has just come in the right time, and with it and
+my pilotage I shall now be able to do what I have long wished."</p>
+<p>"And what's that?" inquired I. "Something for Bessy, I
+suppose."</p>
+<p>"Exactly, Tom, it is something for Bessy; that is, it will be
+by-and-by. I've a good matter of money, which I've laid by year
+after year, and worked hard for it, too, and I never have known
+what to do with it. I can't understand the Funds and those sort of
+things, so I have kept some here and some there. Now, you know the
+grass land at the back of the cottage: it forms part of a tidy
+little farm, which is rented for seventy pounds a year, by a good
+man, and it has been for sale these three years; but I never could
+manage the price till now. When we go back to Deal, I shall try if
+I can buy that farm; for, you see, money may slip through a man's
+fingers in many ways, but land can't run away; and, as you say, it
+will be Bessy's one of these days&mdash;and more, too, if I can
+scrape it up."</p>
+<p>"You are right, Bramble," said Peter Anderson, "and I am glad to
+hear that you can afford to buy the land."</p>
+<p>"Why, there's money to be picked up by pilotage if you work
+hard, and aren't afraid of heavy ships," replied Bramble.</p>
+<p>"Well, I never had a piece of land, and never shall have, I
+suppose," said my father. "I wonder how a man must feel who can
+stand on a piece of ground and say, 'This is my own!'"</p>
+<p>"Who knows, father? it's not impossible but you may."</p>
+<p>"Impossible! No, nothing's impossible, as they say on board of a
+man-of-war. It's not impossible to get an apology out of a
+midshipman, but it's the next thing to it."</p>
+<p>"Why do they say that, father?"</p>
+<p>"Because midshipmen are so saucy&mdash;why, I don't know. They
+haven't no rank as officers, nor so much pay as a petty officer,
+and yet they give themselves more airs than a lieutenant."</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you why," replied Anderson. "A lieutenant takes care
+what he is about. He is an officer, and has something to lose; but
+a midshipman has nothing to lose, and therefore he cares about
+nothing. You can't break a midshipman, as the saying is, unless you
+break his neck. And they have necks which aren't easily broken,
+that's sartain."</p>
+<p>"They do seem to me to have more lives than a cat," observed my
+father, who, after a pause, continued: "Well, I was saying how hard
+it was to get an apology out of a midshipman. I'll just tell you
+what took place on board of one ship I served in. There was a young
+midshipman on board who was mighty free with his tongue; he didn't
+care what he said to anybody, from the captain downward. He'd have
+his joke, come what would, and he'd set everybody a-laughing;
+punish him as much as you please, it was all the same. One day,
+when we were off Halifax Harbor, the master, who was a
+good-tempered fellow enough, but not overbright, was angry with
+this young chap for something that he had not done, and called him
+a 'confounded young bear,' upon which the youngster runs to the
+Jacob-ladder of the main rigging, climbs up, and as soon as he had
+gained the main rattlings he cries out, 'Well, if I'm a bear, you
+aren't fit to carry guts to a bear.' 'What, sir?' cried the master.
+'Mutiny, by heavens! Up to the masthead, sir, directly.' 'Don't you
+see that I was going of my own accord?' replied the midshipman;
+for, you see, he knew that he would be sent there, so he went up
+the rigging on purpose. Well, this was rather a serious affair, and
+so the master reports it to the first lieutenant, who reports it to
+the captain, who sends for the youngster on the quarter-deck, at
+the time that the ship's company were at quarters. 'Mr.
+&mdash;&mdash;' (I forget his name), said the captain (drawing
+himself up to his full height, and perhaps an inch or two above it,
+as they say), 'you have been guilty of disrespect to your superior
+officer, in telling him that he was not fit to carry guts to a
+bear' (the captain could hardly help laughing). 'Now, sir,'
+continued he, recovering himself, 'I give you your choice: either
+you will make an apology to Mr. Owen on this quarter-deck, or you
+must quit my ship immediately.' 'Sir,' replied the midshipman, 'I
+don't think it quite fair that the master should first punish me
+himself and then complain to you afterward. He has taken the law
+into his own hands already by mastheading me for eight hours, and
+now he makes a complaint to you; but I am always ready to do as you
+wish, and, to please you, I will make an apology.' 'There is some
+truth in your observation,' replied the captain, 'and I have
+pointed the same out to the master; but still, this is a breach of
+discipline which cannot be passed over, and requires a public
+retraction before the whole ship's company. I therefore insist upon
+your retracting what you have said.' 'Certainly, sir,' replied the
+youngster. 'Mr. Owen,' continued he, turning to the master, 'I said
+that you were <i>not</i> fit to carry guts to a bear. I was in the
+wrong, and I retract with pleasure, for I am perfectly satisfied
+that you <i>are fit</i> to carry them.' 'Sir!' cried the captain.
+'Oh, Captain G&mdash;&mdash;!' interrupted the master, who did not
+take the joke, 'I'm perfectly satisfied. The young gentleman sees
+his error, and has retracted; I ask no more.' 'If you are
+satisfied, sir,' replied the captain, biting his lips, 'of course I
+have nothing more to say. Youngster, you may go to your duty, and
+recollect that you never again use such expressions to your
+superior officer,' and, said he in a low tone, 'I may add, never
+venture in my presence to make such an apology as that again.'"</p>
+<p>I never saw old Anderson laugh so much as he did at this story
+of my father's. They continued to talk and smoke their pipes till
+about nine o'clock, when my father and he went to the hospital, and
+Bramble took possession of a bed which had been prepared for him in
+my mother's house.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus273.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWENTY_NINE" id=
+"CHAPTER_TWENTY_NINE"></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which I learn the History of Old Nanny.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The next day, as soon as I had finished a letter to Bessy, in
+which I gave her a detail of what had passed, I went to old Nanny's
+to persuade her, if possible, to tell me her history. She was not
+at home, the door of her house was locked and the shutters of the
+shop fastened. I was about to return to Fisher's Alley, when I
+perceived her hobbling down the street. I thought it better to make
+it appear as if I met her by accident; so I crossed over the way
+and walked toward her. "Well, mother," said I, "are you out so
+early?"</p>
+<p>"Ah, Jack, is it you? Yes, it is through you that I have had to
+take so long a walk."</p>
+<p>"Through me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, those presents you brought me. I'm almost dead. Why do you
+bring such things? But I did not do badly, that's the truth."</p>
+<p>I knew from this admission that old Nanny had sold them for more
+than she expected; indeed, she proved it by saying, as she arrived
+at her house, "Well, Jack, it's very troublesome to have to walk so
+far; but as you cannot get me bottles or those kind of things, you
+must bring me what you can, and I must make the best of them. I
+don't mind trouble for your sake, Jack. Now take the key, unlock
+the door, and then take down the shutters; and mind how you walk
+about, Jack, or you'll break half the things in my shop." I did as
+she requested, and then we sat down together at the door as
+usual.</p>
+<p>"I think I shall go away to-morrow, or early the next morning,
+mother," said I, "for Bramble is here, and he never stays long from
+his work"</p>
+<p>"That's all right, he sets a good example; and, Jack, if you do
+go, see if you can't beg a few more shells for me. I like
+shells."</p>
+<p>"Yes, mother, I will not forget; but, as this is the last day I
+shall see you for some time, will you not keep your promise to me,
+and tell me your history?"</p>
+<p>"Jack, Jack, you are the most persevering creature I ever did
+see. I'm sure I shall be worried out of my life until I tell you,
+and so I may as well tell you at once, and there'll be an end of
+it; but I wish you had not asked me. Jack, I do indeed. I thought
+of it last night when I was in bed, and at one time I made up my
+mind that I would not tell you, and then I thought again that I
+would; for, Jack, as I said yesterday, there's a lesson in every
+life, and a warning in too many, and maybe mine will prove a
+warning to you, so far as to make you prevent a mother from being
+so foolish as I have been.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus276.jpg" id="illus276.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus276.jpg"><img src="images/thumb276.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>NANNY RELATING HER STORY.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 275.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Now, Jack, listen to me: mine is an old story, but in most
+cases the consequences have not been so fatal. I shall not tell you
+my name; it was once a fair one, but now tarnished. I was the only
+daughter of a merchant and ship-owner, a rich man, and the first
+person in consequence in the seaport town where I was born and
+brought up. I never knew my mother, who died a year after I was
+born. I was brought up as most girls are who have no mother or
+brothers; in short, I was much indulged by my father and flattered
+by other people. I was well educated, as you may suppose; and,
+moreover, what you may not credit quite so easily, I was very
+handsome. In short, I was a beauty and a fortune, at the head of
+the society of the place, caressed, indulged, and flattered by all.
+This, if it did not spoil me, at least made me willful. I had many
+offers, and many intended offers, which I nipped in the bud, and I
+was twenty-three before I saw any one who pleased me. At last a
+vessel came in consigned to the house, and the captain was invited
+to dinner. He was a handsome careless young man, constantly talking
+about the qualities of his ship, and, to my surprise, paying me
+little or none of that attention which I now considered as my due.
+This piqued me, and in the end I set my affections on him; either
+he did not or would not perceive it, and he sailed without showing
+me any preference. In six months he returned, and whether it was
+that he was told of by others, or at last perceived, my feelings
+toward him, he joined the crowd of suitors, made a proposal in his
+offhand manner, as if he was indifferent as to my reply, and was
+accepted. My father, to whom he communicated the intelligence as
+carelessly as if he were talking about freight, did not approve of
+the match. 'Very well,' replied he, 'I shall say no more; as long
+as a man has a ship he does not want a wife.' He returned and
+stated what had passed, and my father also spoke to me. I was
+self-willed and determined, and my father yielded. We were married,
+and I certainly had no reason to complain of my husband, who was
+very kind to me. But I was jealous of&mdash;what do you think? Of
+his ship! For he cared more for it than he did for me; and three
+months after our marriage, notwithstanding all my tears and
+entreaties, and the expostulations of my father, he would sail
+again. He offered to take me with him, and I would gladly have
+gone, but my father would not listen to it. He sailed, and I never
+saw him again; his vessel, with all hands, foundered, with many
+others, in a heavy gale. The news did not arrive until many months
+afterward, and I had not been a mother more than six weeks when I
+found that I was a widow. I have passed all this over quickly,
+Jack, because it is of less moment&mdash;my trials had not
+commenced.</p>
+<p>"The loss of my husband, as may be supposed, only endeared my
+child the more to me, and I wept over him as he smiled upon me in
+his cradle. My father had reverses in his business, but those I
+cared little for. He did, however: he had been the richest man in
+the town, he was now comparatively poor; his pride was crushed, it
+broke his heart, and he died; the whole of his assets at the
+winding up of his affairs not exceeding ten thousand pounds. This
+was, however, quite enough, and more than enough, for me. I thought
+but of one object&mdash;it was my darling boy; he represented to me
+all I had lost; in him I saw my husband, father, and everything. I
+lived but for him. He was my idolatry, Jack. I worshiped the
+creature instead of the Creator.</p>
+<p>"As he grew up I indulged him in everything; he never was
+checked; I worried myself day and night to please him, and yet he
+never was pleased. He was so spoiled that he did not know what he
+wanted. He was a misery to himself and all about him, except to me,
+who was so blinded by my love. As he advanced to manhood his temper
+showed itself to be violent and uncontrollable; he was the terror
+of others, and prudent people would shake their heads and prophesy.
+He would not submit to any profession; the only wish that he had
+was to go to sea, and that was my terror. I implored him on my
+knees not to think of it, but in vain; at first he used to threaten
+when he wanted money for his extravagances, and it was a sure way
+to obtain it; but one day I discovered that he had quitted the port
+without saying farewell, and that he had sailed in a vessel bound
+to the coast of Africa. A short letter and a heavy bill was
+received from Portsmouth, and I did not hear of him for two years.
+I was heartbroken, but not weaned from him; I counted the days for
+his return. At last he came&mdash;browned by the climate, full of
+oaths, savage in his bearing, and occasionally referring to scenes
+which made me shudder; but he was my son, my only son, and I loved
+him as much as ever. He was now but seldom at home, for he lived
+almost at the gaming-tables; if he came to me, it was to extort
+money, and he never failed. I sold out my property to support his
+extravagance, and by degrees it was rapidly diminishing. I begged
+him, I entreated him, to be more prudent, but he laughed, and
+promised to return me all the first lucky hit he should make; but
+that lucky hit never came, and at last I had but two thousand
+pounds left. This I positively refused to part with: the interest
+of it was barely sufficient for my wants; I asked no more, but I
+expostulated and I reasoned with him in vain. He only begged me for
+five hundred pounds; if I sold the money out, he would tell me
+where I might have as good interest for the fifteen hundred pounds
+as I now received for the two thousand pounds. He begged and
+entreated me, he kissed, and he even wept. I could not withstand
+his importunities: I sold out the money, and gave him the sum he
+wanted; the fifteen hundred pounds I put by in my desk, to invest
+as he had pointed out. That very night he forced the lock, took out
+the money, and left me without a sixpence in the world."</p>
+<p>"What a villain!" exclaimed I.</p>
+<p>"Yes, you may so. Jack; but who made him such a villain but his
+foolish doting mother? Had I done him justice, had I checked him
+when young, had I brought him up as I ought to have done, he might
+now have been a happiness and a blessing to his mother. I was the
+person to blame, not he; and many years of anguish have I lamented
+my folly and my wretchedness."</p>
+<p>"You loved him too much, mother, but it was a fault on the right
+side."</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, that is an error of yours; it was a fault on the
+wrong side. There is no credit to a mother in loving her children,
+for she cannot help it. It is a natural instinct implanted in the
+mother's heart by the Almighty, and in following this instinct we
+do no more than the beasts of the field. The duty of a mother is to
+check that feeling as far as it interferes with the happiness and
+well-doing of her children, and it is her duty to do so, and to
+punish herself in correcting her children. Jack, it is a selfish
+feeling which induces mothers to spoil their children."</p>
+<p>"At all events my mother has never spoiled me," replied I.</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, she has not; but observe the consequence. You said
+just now that excessive tenderness was a fault on the right side;
+now, how completely have you proved the contrary! I do not intend
+to defend your mother's conduct toward you; she has been unkind to
+you in your childhood, and has never shown the affection that a
+mother ought; but is not her fault a fault on the right side? Jack,
+you recollect my saying 'what a difference,' when you told me what
+you had done for your mother; I then referred to my son and to you.
+I indulged him in everything, sacrificed everything, and he robbed
+me and left me a beggar. Your mother has been severe upon you, and
+yet the first time you have the means of showing your duty you give
+her all the money you have in the world. You mother may not be
+right, Jack, but I was dreadfully wrong, and the result has proved
+it."</p>
+<p>"Well, mother, go on, pray."</p>
+<p>"My story is now soon told. I struggled on how I could for more
+than two years by selling my furniture and a few ornaments, then
+the blow came. When I heard it I would not remain in the town; I
+left for London, picked up my living how I could and where I could,
+till at last I came down here. Time was as a dream; reflection was
+too painful. I felt that it was all my fault, all my own doing. My
+heart became hardened, and continued so till I loved you, Jack; and
+now I have better feelings, at least I think so."</p>
+<p>"But, mother, what was the blow? Is he dead?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Jack, dead&mdash;dead on the gibbet. He was hanged for
+piracy at Port Royal, Jamaica. Jack," said Nanny, seizing my hand,
+and pressing it in her long fingers, "this is a secret; recollect,
+a secret deep as the grave; promise me, as you hope for
+heaven!"</p>
+<p>"I do, mother, as I hope for heaven."</p>
+<p>"Now, Jack, leave me. Good-by. You will come and see me when you
+return, and never bring this subject up again. Bless you, my child!
+bless you!"</p>
+<p>I left poor old Nanny with her face buried in her apron; and it
+was in a very melancholy mood that I returned home. I could not
+help thinking of the picture in the spelling-book, where the young
+man at the gallows is biting off the ear of his mother, who, by her
+indulgence, had brought him to that disgrace.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY" id="CHAPTER_THIRTY"></a>CHAPTER
+THIRTY</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Strong symptoms of Mutiny, which is fortunately Quelled by
+granting a Supply.</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was a beautiful sunshiny warm morning when I arose, and, as
+Bramble intended that we should leave Greenwich the next day, I
+thought I might as well call at the house of Dr. Tadpole, and try
+if I could see him before I went. When I arrived there he was not
+at home, but my namesake Tom was, as usual, in the shop. Tom was
+two or three years older than me, being between seventeen and
+eighteen, and he had now grown a great tall fellow. We always were
+very good friends, when we occasionally met, and he generally
+appeared to be as good tempered and grinning as ever; but when I
+now entered the shop I found him very grave and dejected, so much
+so that I could not help asking him what was the matter.</p>
+<p>"Matter enough, I think," said Tom, who was pounding something
+in the mortar. "I'll not stay here, that's flat. I'll break my
+indentures, as sure as my name's Tom Cob, and I'll set up an
+opposition, and I'll join the Friends of the People Society, and
+the Anti-Bible Society, and every other opposition Anti in the
+country."</p>
+<p>"Why, what has happened, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"I'll make speeches against Church and against State, and
+against the Aristocracy, and Habeas Corpus, and against Physic, and
+against Standing Armies, and Magna Charta, and every other rascally
+tyranny and oppression to which we are subjected, that I will!"
+Here Tom gave such a thump with the pestle that I thought he would
+have split the mortar.</p>
+<p>"But what is it, Tom?" inquired I, as I sat down. "What has the
+doctor done?"</p>
+<p>"Why, I'll tell you, the liquorice is all gone, and he won't
+order any more."</p>
+<p>"Well, that is because you have eaten it all."</p>
+<p>"No, I haven't; I haven't eaten a bit for these five weeks: it's
+all been used in pharmacopey, honestly used, and he can't deny
+it."</p>
+<p>"Who used it?"</p>
+<p>"Why, I did: he said he wouldn't stand my eating liquorice, and
+I told him that I shouldn't eat any more. No more I have, but I
+ain't well, and I prescribes for myself. Haven't I a right to do
+that? Mayn't I physic myself? I am a doctor as well as he is. Who
+makes up all the medicine, I should like to know? who ties up the
+bottles and writes directions? Well, my insides are out of order,
+and I prescribes for myself&mdash;black draughts 'omnes duas horas
+sumendum'; and now he says that, as the ingredients are all gone, I
+shan't take any more."</p>
+<p>"And pray what were the ingredients, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"Why, laxative and alterative, as suits my
+complaint&mdash;Extract. liquor.&mdash;aqua
+pura&mdash;haustus."</p>
+<p>"And what is that?"</p>
+<p>"<i>Liquorice and water</i>, to be sure; there's nothing else I
+can take. I've tasted everything in the shop, from plate powder to
+aqua fortis, and everything goes against my stomach."</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, it's a hard case; but perhaps the doctor will think
+better of it"</p>
+<p>"He'd better, or I'll set up for myself, for I won't stand it
+any longer; it ain't only for myself but for others that I care.
+Why, I've a hankering for Anny Whistle (you know her, don't you?),
+a pretty little girl with red lips&mdash;lives in Church Street.
+Well, as long as I could bring her a bit of liquorice when I went
+to see her all was smooth enough, and I got many a kiss when no one
+was nigh; but now that I can't fork out a bit as big as a marble,
+she's getting quite shy of me, and is always walking with Bill, the
+butcher's boy. I know he gives her bull's eyes&mdash;I seed him one
+day buying a ha'p'orth. Now, ain't that hard?"</p>
+<p>"Why, certainly, the affair becomes serious; but, still, how you
+are to set up for yourself I don't know. You are not
+qualified."</p>
+<p>"Oh! ain't I? Just as much as most doctors are. There must be a
+beginning, and if I gives wrong medicine at first, then I'll try
+another, and so on, until I come to what will cure them. Soon
+learn, Tom."</p>
+<p>"Well, but how will you do about surgery?"</p>
+<p>"Surgery? Oh, I'll do very well; don't know much about it just
+now&mdash;soon learn."</p>
+<p>"Why, would you venture to take off a man's leg, Tom? Do you
+know how to take up the arteries?"</p>
+<p>"Would I take off a man's leg? To be sure I would, as quick as
+the doctor could. As for the arteries, why, I might puzzle a little
+about them; but by the time I had taken off three or four legs I
+should know something about them. Practice makes perfect&mdash;soon
+learn, Tom."</p>
+<p>"But all your first patients would die."</p>
+<p>"I don't know that. At all events I should do my best, and no
+man can do more, and if they did die, why, it would be by the
+visitation of God, wouldn't it?"</p>
+<p>"Not altogether, I'm afraid. It won't do, Tom."</p>
+<p>"It has done from the beginning of the world, and will do. I say
+there's no learning without practice. People spoil at first in
+every trade, and make afterward, and a man ain't born a doctor any
+more than he is a carpenter."</p>
+<p>"No, but if I recollect right, to be a surgeon you ought to walk
+the hospital, as they term it."</p>
+<p>"Well, and haven't I for these last four years? When I carries
+out my basket of physic I walks the <i>hospital</i> right through,
+twice at least every day in the week."</p>
+<p>"That's Greenwich Hospital."</p>
+<p>"Well, so it is, and plenty of surgical cases in it. However,
+the doctor and I must come to a proper understanding. I didn't
+clean his boots this morning. I wish, if you see him, Tom, you'd
+reason with him a little."</p>
+<p>"I'll see what I can do, but don't be rash. Good-by, Tom; mind
+you tell the doctor that I called."</p>
+<p>"Well, I will; but that's not in my indentures."</p>
+<p>I called in at the widow's after I left the doctor's shop, and
+communicated the intended rebellion on the part of Tom.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Mrs. St. Felix, "I shall not forget to make the
+Spanish claim, and prevent Tom from walking Spanish. The doctor is
+very inconsiderate; he forgets that Tom's regard for liquorice is
+quite as strong as his own liking for a cigar. Now, if the doctor
+don't promise me to have a fresh supply for Tom, I won't let him
+have a cigar for himself."</p>
+<p>The doctor was compelled to surrender at discretion. The next
+wagon brought down one hundred weight of liquorice, and Tom
+recovered his health and the smiles of Anny Whistle.</p>
+<p>When I left the widow's I proceeded to the hospital to find
+Anderson and my father. As I walked along I perceived Dick Harness
+on a bench, who hailed me.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, I haven't seen anything of you for I don't know how
+long, since you've taken to a seafaring life. This is a beautiful
+day, is it not? It makes one feel so happy and cheerful such a day
+as this. Everybody and everything looks gay, the birds seem so
+merry, and the little clouds seem to scud away as if their hearts
+were as light as themselves. Come, sit down a minute; here's a song
+for you you've never heard, one I don't often sing, because they
+say it's all about myself."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, I should like to hear that."</p>
+<p>"Here goes, then.</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"Sam Swipes, he was a seaman true,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As brave and bold a
+tar</span><br />
+As e'er was dressed in navy blue<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On board a man-of-war.</span><br />
+<br />
+"One fault he had&mdash;on sea or land<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He was a thirsty dog;</span><br />
+For Sammy never could withstand<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A glass or so of grog.</span><br />
+<br />
+"He always liked to be at sea,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For e'en on shore, the
+rover,</span><br />
+If not as drunk as he could be<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was always 'half seas
+over.'</span><br />
+<br />
+"The gunner, who was apt to scoff,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With jokes most aptly
+timed,</span><br />
+Said Sam might any day go off,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Cause he was always
+'primed,'</span><br />
+<br />
+"Sam didn't want a feeling heart,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though never seen to
+cry;</span><br />
+Yet tears were always on the start,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The drop was in his
+eye.'</span><br />
+<br />
+"At fighting Sam was never shy,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A most undoubted
+merit;</span><br />
+His courage never failed, and why?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He was so full of
+'spirit.'</span><br />
+<br />
+"In action he had lost an eye,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But that gave him no
+trouble;</span><br />
+Quoth Sam, I have no cause to sigh,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I'm always 'seeing
+double.'</span><br />
+<br />
+"A shot from an unlucky gun<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Put Sam on timber
+pegs;</span><br />
+It didn't signify to one<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who ne'er could 'keep his
+legs.'</span><br />
+<br />
+"One night he filled a pail with grog,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Determined he would suck
+it;</span><br />
+He drained it dry, the thirsty dog!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hiccupped, and 'kicked the
+bucket.'"</span></p>
+<p>"There's Bill's fiddle, Dick," said I, getting up; "I thought
+you would bring him out."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I was sure of that. I'll sing another verse or two, and
+then be off to the park, and leave him in the lurch."</p>
+<p>"I can't wait any more, Dick; I must go to my father," said
+I.</p>
+<p>"Well, off with you, then, and I'm off, too. Sing tura la, tura
+la, tura lura la. Bill's coming down. How savage the nigger will
+be!"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus287.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_ONE" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_ONE"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which my Father proves he can give good Advice as well as
+Peter Anderson.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I found my father under the colonnade, and inquired of him if
+Anderson was there.</p>
+<p>"No, he's not," replied my father; "he has been sent for by the
+officers; so stop, Tom&mdash;that is, if you can spare a minute for
+your own father."</p>
+<p>"Of course I can," replied I, taking my seat by him.</p>
+<p>"Why, you see, boy," said my father, "I have but very little of
+your company, and I feel it, Tom, I do indeed. I'm not jealous, and
+I know that Peter Anderson has done more for you than ever I could,
+for I've no larning to signify; but still, Tom, I am your father,
+and I don't think Peter, although he may be proud of your turning
+out so well, can feel exactly for you what a father does. I'm proud
+enough of you, Heaven knows, and it does hurt me a little when I
+find that, whenever you come here, it is for Peter Anderson, and it
+makes me wish sometimes that I had been Peter Anderson instead of
+your father."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, father," replied I, "I hope you don't think that I like
+Anderson better than I do you; but you recollect that I have been
+accustomed all my life to take his advice."</p>
+<p>"I know it, boy, I know it. I was serving my country and doing
+my duty on board of a King's ship, and you were left here, and
+therefore lucky it was that you fell in with old Peter; but, Tom, I
+could not be in two places at the same time, and if I did not do my
+duty as a father toward you, at all events I was doing my duty to
+my country."</p>
+<p>"To be sure you were, and it was of more importance than looking
+after a brat like me," replied I, soothingly, for I really never
+had the idea that my father could have showed so much feeling.</p>
+<p>"Why, Tom, I can't say that I thought so, for the fact is I
+didn't think about it; indeed, I thought about nothing. Sailors
+afloat have little time to think; they can't think when it's their
+watch on deck, for they are too busy; nor at their watch below, for
+they're too tired; nor at meal-times, for they must look after
+their share of the victuals; indeed, there is not any time to think
+on board ship, and that's a fact. But, Tom, since I've been laid up
+here I have thought a good deal. All is calm and quiet, and one day
+passes just like the other, and no fear of interruption when one
+don't wish it&mdash;and I have thought a good deal. At first I
+thought it a hard case to be shoved on the shelf at my age, but I
+don't think so now&mdash;I'm quite satisfied."</p>
+<p>"I'm glad to hear you say so, father."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Tom. And then, you see, when I was afloat, I didn't think
+any good of your mother, and I was glad to keep out of her way; and
+then I didn't care about my children, for I didn't know them; but
+now I've other thoughts, Tom. I don't think your mother so bad,
+after all; to be sure, she looks down upon me 'cause I'm not
+genteel; but I suppose I aren't, and she has been used to the
+company of gentlefolk; besides she works hard, and now that I don't
+annoy her by getting tipsy, as I used to do, at all events she's
+civil; and then I never knew what it was to have children until I
+came here, and found Virginia and you; and I'm proud of you both,
+and love you both better than anything on earth; and, although I
+may not be so well brought up or so well taught as you both are,
+still, Tom, I'm your father, and all I can say is, I wish for your
+sakes I was better than I am."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus290.jpg" id="illus290.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus290.jpg"><img src="images/thumb290.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>JACK AND HIS FATHER UNDER THE COLONNADE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol X., p. 289.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Don't say so, father. You know that Virginia and I are both as
+fond of you as you are of us."</p>
+<p>"Well, mayhap you are; I don't say no. You are both good
+children, and at all events would try to like me; but still I do
+feel that you can't look up to me exactly; but that's my
+misfortune, Tom, more than my fault. I haven't larning like
+Anderson, or gentility like your mother. I've only a true heart to
+offer to you. You see, Tom, I've said all this because you are
+always after Anderson; not but that I like Anderson, for he's a
+good man, and has been of sarvice to me, and I don't think he would
+ever say anything to you that would make you think less of me."</p>
+<p>"No, indeed, father; on the contrary, I once asked him his
+opinion about you, and he spoke most highly of you; and whenever I
+go to him for advice, he always sends me to you to approve of what
+he has said."</p>
+<p>"Well, he is a good man, and I'm very sorry to have any feeling
+of envy in me, that's the truth; but still a father must have a
+father's feelings. Don't let us say anything more about it, Tom;
+only try next time, when you want advice, whether I can't give it.
+You can always go to Peter afterward, and see whether I'm right or
+wrong."</p>
+<p>"I will indeed, my dear father, now I know that you wish
+it."</p>
+<p>I never felt so warm toward my father as after this
+conversation; there was so much affection toward me, and yet so
+much humility shown by him, as respected himself, that I was quite
+touched with it, and I began to think that he really had had
+occasion to complain, and that I had not treated him with that
+respect which he deserved.</p>
+<p>"Now, Tom, I've something to say to you. When Anderson, Bramble,
+and I were taking a pipe together last night, Bramble said that he
+had a letter from the captain of the Indiaman, offering you a berth
+on board as guinea-pig, or midshipman. He said that he had not
+shown it to you as yet, because it was of no use, as he was sure
+you would not accept it. Well, Anderson and I said that at least
+you ought to know it, and have the refusal; and your mother pricked
+up her ears and said that it was much more genteel than being a
+pilot; so I now put the question to you.'</p>
+<p>"Thank you, father; but Bramble was right. I shall not accept of
+it, although I am much obliged to the captain."</p>
+<p>Here my father stopped me. "First, Tom," said he, "we must
+overhaul the pros and cons, as people call them. Old Anderson
+weighed them very closely, and now you shall hear them." Here my
+father commenced a long story, with which I shall not tire the
+reader, as to the prospects on either side; but as soon as he had
+finished I replied:</p>
+<p>"That all he said was very true; but that I had made up my mind
+that, if ever I were regularly to serve, it should be in a
+man-of-war, not in a merchant vessel; that it was certainly
+possible that I might, after serving many years, become a captain
+of an Indiaman, which was a high position, but I preferred being a
+pilot, and more my own master; that if there were no other
+objections, that of being absent for three years at a time from him
+and Virginia would be more than sufficient, and that I was very
+happy where I was, as Bramble and little Bessy were almost equal to
+another father and another sister. A rolling stone gathers no moss,
+they say, father. I have entered into the pilot service, and in
+that I hope to remain."</p>
+<p>"Well, you're right, Tom; Bramble said you would decide so.
+There's nothing like being contented with what we are and what we
+have got."</p>
+<p>"I might probably become a richer man if I were to be a captain
+of an Indiaman," observed I; "but I'm sure if ever I'm able to buy
+a little farm, as Bramble is now able to do, I shall think myself
+quite rich enough."</p>
+<p>"You see, Tom, it all depends upon what people's ideas are. One
+man thinks himself rich with what another would think that he was a
+beggar. Now I dare say old Nanny thinks that shop of old iron and
+rubbish that she has got together the finest shop in all
+Greenwich."</p>
+<p>"I believe she does, and the prettiest," replied I,
+laughing.</p>
+<p>"Well now, Tom, an odd thing happened the other day while you
+were away, just to prove how true that is. You may recollect a
+little old man in our ward, Phil Nobbs they called him, who walked
+with his chin half a yard before him. Well, he took to the sick
+ward and died, since you have been gone. I went to see him, of
+course, and he was always talking about his property; and none of
+us knew where it was, but we supposed that he had it somewhere. One
+day, as I was sitting by his bed, he says, 'Saunders, the doctor's
+coming round, just tell him I want to make my will, for I feel as
+if I were slipping my wind.' Well, the doctor and the chaplain both
+came to his bedside with the paper, and Nobbs raised himself on his
+elbow, and said, 'Are you ready, sir? Well, then, I'll make short
+work of it. This is my last will and testament: first, I wish a
+white pall over me, when I'm buried, and that expense must be
+deducted, after which I bequeath to my nephews and nieces, James
+Strong, Walter Strong, Ellen Strong, Mary Williams, the one
+married, Peter Strong, all of Rotherhithe, and to Thomas Day, Henry
+Day, and Nicholas Day, of Eltham, the whole of my money and
+personal effects, <i>share and share alike</i>, equally divided
+among them all. There, sir, that will do. I can't write, but I'll
+put my cross to it.' Well, the old fellow died that night, and
+notice of his will was sent to his nephews and nieces, who all came
+on the day of his burial dressed in their best, for they were all
+mechanics and laborers, poor people, to whom, I suppose, a legacy
+was a great object. The chaplain had asked Nobbs where his money
+was, and he replied that it was in the hands of Lieutenant
+&mdash;&mdash;, who knew all about his affairs. After the funeral
+they all went in a body to the lieutenant, who stated that he had
+ten shillings belonging to Nobbs, out of which seven shillings were
+to be deducted for the white pall; and that as for his other
+effects, they must be in his cabin, as he never heard of his having
+anything but what was there. So we went to his cabin, and there we
+found five or six penny prints against the wall, two pair of old
+canvas trousers, and an old hat, six cups and saucers, cracked and
+mended; and this was all his property, altogether not worth (with
+the three shillings) more than seven or eight at the outside, if so
+much. You may guess the disappointment of his nephews and nieces,
+who had lost a good day's work and come so far for nothing; and I
+must say they were not very dutiful in their remarks upon their old
+uncle as they walked off. Now you see, Tom, this old fellow had
+been in the hospital for more than twenty years, and had been able
+to save no more than what he had out of his shilling per week, and
+in his eyes this small property was very large, for it was the
+saving of twenty years. He thought so, poor fellow, because he
+probably had never saved so many shillings in his life. There was
+no joking about it, I can assure you."</p>
+<p>"Well, father, I hope I may be able to save more than seven
+shillings before I die; but no one knows. I have made my decision
+as I think for the best, and we must leave the rest to Providence.
+We never know whether we do right or wrong."</p>
+<p>"Never, Jack; things which promise well turn out bad, and things
+which look very bad often turn out just as well. I recollect an
+instance which was told me, which I'll give you as a proof that we
+never know what is best for us in this world. A man may plan, and
+scheme, and think in his blindness that he has arranged everything
+so nicely that nothing can fail, and down he lies on his bed and
+goes to sleep quite satisfied that affairs must turn out well as he
+has ordered them, forgetting that Providence disposes as it thinks
+fit. There was a gentleman by birth, of the name of Seton, who
+lived at Greenock; he was very poor, and although he had high
+friends and relations well-to-do, he was too proud to ask for
+assistance. His wife was equally proud; and at last one day he
+died, leaving her with hardly a penny, and two fine boys of the
+names of Archibald and Andrew. Well, the widow struggled on, how
+she lived no one knew, but she fed the boys and herself, and was
+just as stately as ever. Her relations did offer to educate the
+boys and send them to sea, but she refused all assistance. There
+was a foundation or chartered school at Greenock, to which she was
+entitled to send her children to be educated without expense, and
+to that school they went. I don't know why, but they say the master
+had had a quarrel with their father when he was alive, and the
+master had not forgotten it now he was dead, and in consequence he
+was very severe upon these two boys, and used to beat them without
+mercy; at all events it did them good, for they learned faster than
+any of the others who were at all favored, and they soon proved the
+best boys in the school. Well, time ran on till Archibald was
+thirteen and Andrew twelve years old, and, being very tired of
+school, they asked their mother what profession they were to be of,
+and she answered, 'Anything except going to sea, for there you will
+never get on.' But times became harder with the widow; she had not
+enough to give the boys to eat, and they complained bitterly; but
+it was of no use, so they got on how they could, until one day
+Archy says to Andrew, 'Why, brother, we have nothing but ferrule
+for breakfast, dinner, and supper, and I see little chance of our
+getting anything more. Mother, poor soul! has not enough for
+herself to eat, and she very often gives us her dinner and goes
+without. I can't stand it any longer; what shall we do? shall we
+seek our fortunes?'</p>
+<p>"'Yes,' says Andrew, 'and when we are gone mother will have
+enough for herself.'</p>
+<p>"'Well, they say anything is better than going to sea, but I
+don't know how we can do anything else.'</p>
+<p>"'Well, Archy, going to sea may be the worst of all, but it's
+better than taking the victuals out of poor mother's mouth.'</p>
+<p>"'That's very true, so we'll be off, Andrew.'</p>
+<p>"They walked down to the pier, and then they fell in with the
+captain of a vessel going foreign, and they asked him whether he
+wanted any boys on board.</p>
+<p>"'Why,' says he, 'I wouldn't care, but you've never been to sea
+before.'</p>
+<p>"'No,' said Archy; 'but there must be a beginning to
+everything.'</p>
+<p>"'Well,' said the captain, 'I suppose you've run away from your
+friends, and, as I can't get apprentices now, I'll tell you what
+I'll do. I'll take you on board, and as soon as we get round to
+another port in the Channel, I'll bind you as apprentices for three
+years. Will you agree to that?'</p>
+<p>"The boys said 'yes,' and the captain told them that he should
+sail the next morning about daylight, and that they must be down at
+the pier by that time; so they went back again to their mother, and
+said nothing about what had passed. There was no supper that night,
+which confirmed them in their resolution. They kissed their mother,
+and went up to bed, packed up all their clothes, and before she was
+downstairs the next morning they were on board of the vessel.</p>
+<p>"Well, they were duly apprenticed when the ship arrived at
+Weymouth, and then off they went. The other men on board were, as
+usual, very much afraid of being pressed, and every plan was hit
+upon for stowing away when they were boarded by a man-of-war. Well,
+time passed, and after many voyages they had both nearly served
+their time. They were tall, stout young men, and looked older than
+they really were. At last, one day, when off the Western Isles,
+they were boarded by a frigate, and the officer who came in the
+boat asked Archy what he was, and he replied he was an
+apprentice.</p>
+<p>"'You an apprentice!' cried he; 'that won't do.'</p>
+<p>"'But here are the indentures.'</p>
+<p>"'All forged,' cried the officer; 'just get into the boat, my
+lad.' (You see that's a very common trick of officers; if a boy's
+grown up and fit for service, they don't care about indentures.)
+Well, Archy found it was of no use, so he gets his kit and steps
+into the boat, shaking hands with Andrew, who was shedding tears at
+the thoughts of parting with his brother.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus298.jpg" id="illus298.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus298.jpg"><img src="images/thumb298.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>A SURPRISE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 297.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"'It's no use crying, Andrew,' says he; 'I might have been
+second mate in three months, as the captain promised me when my
+time was up, and then I should have been protected, and might have
+risen from mate to captain; but now it's all over with me. May you
+have better luck, and I hope the captain will give you the berth
+instead of me.' Well, away went Archy on board of the man-of-war,
+looking very gloomy, as you may suppose. When he went aft on the
+quarter-deck the captain asked him his name and where he came
+from.</p>
+<p>"'Ah,' said the captain, 'and who are your friends? So Archy
+told him that he had only his mother left. The captain asked him a
+good many more questions as to whether he had been educated or not,
+and what he knew, and then rated him A.B., and put him into the
+maintop. Well, Archie remained there for about six months, and
+found that a man-of-war was not so bad a place after all; and he
+was well treated by the captain and officers, the more so as he was
+a good scholar. After the cruise was over the frigate ran into the
+Channel, and anchored in Portland Roads, where there were a great
+many vessels wind-bound. As usual, they sent round to press the
+men. Now Archy was one of those sent in the boats, and by this
+time, being a man-of-war's man all over, he was just as eager to
+get the men as the others were. They boarded several vessels, and
+got some men; about dark they boarded one which laid well in the
+offing. The captain was not on board, and the men were turned up,
+but they were very few, and all protected. Now Archy, who was up to
+the hiding-places on board a merchant vessel, goes down with his
+cutlass, and crawls about in the dark, until at last he gets hold
+of a man by the heels. 'Come out, you thief,' cries he, 'come out
+directly, or I'll give you an inch of my cutlass;' so the man,
+finding that he could not help himself, backs out, stern foremost.
+Archy collars him and takes him on deck, when who should it prove
+to be but his own brother Andrew!</p>
+<p>"'Oh, Archy, Archy, I didn't think this of you!'</p>
+<p>"'Well, Andrew, I didn't know it was you, but there's no help
+for it; you must come and serve in the maintop along with me, and
+give up all chance of being a mate or captain of a merchant vessel.
+We're in bad luck, that's clear, but it can't be helped.' There was
+a good laugh on board of the man-of-war at Archy pressing his own
+brother, and the captain was very much amused. 'I'm very sorry for
+it,' said Archy.</p>
+<p>"Now the captain was short of midshipmen, and, being obliged to
+sail immediately, he determined to put Archy on the quarter-deck,
+and so he did, while Andrew served in the maintop. But this did not
+last long. The captain, who liked Andrew quite as well, and who
+knew their family and connections, put Andrew also on the
+quarter-deck; and what was the consequence? Why, they are now both
+post-captains, commanding fine frigates. So you see, going on board
+of a man-of-war, which they conceived as their ruin, was the means
+of their rising to rank and riches, for they have been very lucky
+in the service. I heard Captain Archibald tell the story himself
+one day as I helped at dinner in the cabin when I was coxswain with
+Sir Hercules."</p>
+<p>"Well, father, that's a good story to the point, but I do not
+see that I ever have any chance of being a post-captain."</p>
+<p>"Don't seem much like it, certainly; but you've a good chance of
+being a pilot."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that I certainly have; and a pilot is always respected, go
+on board what ship he may."</p>
+<p>"To be sure he is, because he is supposed to have more knowledge
+than any one on board."</p>
+<p>"Then I am contented, father, with the prospect of being
+respectable; so there's an end of that business, except that I must
+write and thank the captain for his kindness."</p>
+<p>"Just so, Tom. Do you dine with me?"</p>
+<p>"No, father. I promised to meet Bramble at the 'Jolly Sailors.'
+We are going up to Mr. Wilson's."</p>
+<p>"Ay, about the farm he wants to buy. Well, the clock is
+striking, so good-by till this evening."</p>
+<p>I must explain to the reader that Mr. Wilson, having heard of
+Bramble's intention to purchase the farm, very kindly interfered.
+He had a son who was a solicitor at Dover, and he recommended
+Bramble not to appear personally, but let his son manage the affair
+for him, which he promised should be done without expense. The next
+morning Bramble and I took our leave and quitted Greenwich, taking
+the coach to Dover; for Bramble, having a good deal of money in his
+pocket, thought it better to do so than to wait till he could take
+a ship down the river. On our arrival at Dover we called upon Mr.
+Wilson's son, who had already made inquiries, and eventually
+obtained the farm for Bramble for two hundred pounds less than he
+expected to give for it, and, very handsomely, only charged him for
+the stamps of the conveyance. When we arrived at Deal we found Mrs.
+Maddox quite recovered, and sitting with little Bessy in the parlor
+below.</p>
+<p>After Mrs. Maddox and Bessy went upstairs to bed, Bramble said
+to me, as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, "Tom, I've got this
+farm for Bessy for two hundred pounds less than I expected to give
+for it. Now, I've been thinking about this two hundred pounds,
+which I consider in a manner as her property, and what d'ye think I
+mean to do with it? I'll tell you. I'll give her education as well
+as money. This sum will keep her at a good school for a matter of
+four years, and I've made up my mind that she shall go. I don't
+like to part with her, that's certain; but it's for her good, so
+all's right. Don't you think so?"</p>
+<p>"I do, indeed, father," replied I. "I shall miss her as much as
+you do; but, as you say, it's all right, and I'm very glad that you
+have so decided."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus302.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_TWO" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_TWO"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which there is a Hop, Skip, and a Jump.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Life has often, and with great truth, been compared to a river.
+In infancy a little rill, gradually increasing to the pure and
+limpid brook, which winds through flowery meads, "giving a gentle
+kiss to every ridge it overtaketh in its pilgrimage." Next it
+increases in its volume and its power, now rushing rapidly, now
+moving along in deep and tranquil water, until it swells into a
+bold stream, coursing its way over the shallows, dashing through
+the impeding rocks, descending in rapids swift as thought, or
+pouring its boiling water over the cataract. And thus does it vary
+its velocity, its appearance, and its course, until it swells into
+a broad expanse, gradually checking its career as it approaches,
+and at last mingles with the ocean of Eternity. I have been led
+into this somewhat trite metaphor, to account to the reader for the
+contents of this chapter. As in the river, after many miles of
+checkered and boisterous career, you will find that its waters will
+for some time flow in a smooth and tranquil course as almost to
+render you unconscious of the never-ceasing stream; so in the life
+of man, after an eventful and adventurous career, it will be found
+that for a time he is permitted to glide gently and quietly along,
+as if a respite were given to his feelings preparatory to fresh
+scenes of excitement. Such was the case with me for some time. I
+had now been under Bramble's tuition for more than a year and a
+half, and was consequently between fifteen and sixteen years old.
+The years from 1800 to the end of 1804 were of this description in
+my stream of life, unmarked by any peculiar or stirring events
+worthy of occupying the attention of my readers. It is therefore my
+intention, in this chapter, to play the part of the chorus in the
+old plays, and sum up the events in few words, so as not to break
+the chain of history, at the same time that I shall prepare my
+readers for what subsequently took place.</p>
+<p>I will first speak of myself. Up to the age of nineteen I
+continued my career under the care of Bramble; we seldom remained
+long on shore, for neither Bramble nor I found home so agreeable
+since little Bessy had been sent to school, and Mrs. Maddox,
+assisted by a little girl, had charge of the house; indeed, Bramble
+appeared resolved to make all the money he could, that he might the
+sooner be able to give up his profession. Mrs. Maddox I have spoken
+little of, because I had seen but little of her; now that she was
+downstairs, I will not say I saw, but I certainly heard too much of
+her, for she never ceased talking; not that she talked loud or
+screamed out&mdash;on the contrary, she was of a mild amiable
+temper, but could not hold her tongue. If she could not find any
+<i>one</i> to talk to she would talk to any <i>thing</i>; if she
+was making the fire she would apostrophize the sticks for not
+burning properly. I watched her one morning as she was kneeling
+down before the grate:</p>
+<p>"Now, stick, you must go in," said she; "it's no use your
+resisting, and what's more, you must burn, and burn quickly
+too&mdash;d'ye hear? or the kettle won't boil in time for
+breakfast. Be quick, you little fellow&mdash;burn away and light
+the others, there's a good boy." Here she knocked down the tongs.
+"Tongs, be quiet; how dare you make that noise?" Then, as she
+replaced them, "Stand up, sir, in your place until you are wanted.
+Now, poker, your turn's coming, we must have a stir directly. Bless
+me, smoke, what's the matter with you now? can't you go up the
+chimney? You can't pretend to say the wind blows you down this fine
+morning, so none of your vagaries. Now, fender, it's your
+turn&mdash;stand still till I give you a bit of a rub. There, now
+you're all right. Table, you want your face washed&mdash;your
+master has spilled his grog last night&mdash;there now, you look as
+handsome as ever. Well, old chair, how are you this morning? You're
+older than I am, I reckon, and yet you're stouter on your legs.
+Why, candle, are you burning all this while? Why didn't you tell
+me? I would have put you out long ago. Come, now, don't be making a
+smell here&mdash;send it up the chimney."</p>
+<p>Thus would she talk to everything. We only had two animals in
+the house&mdash;a cat and a canary bird: of course they were not
+neglected, but somehow or another the cat appeared to get tired of
+it, for it would rise and very gently walk into the back kitchen;
+and as for the canary bird, like all other canary birds, as soon as
+he was talked to be would begin to sing, and that so loud that Mrs.
+Maddox was beaten out of the field. Bramble bore with her very
+well, but at the same time he did not like it: he once said to me,
+"Well, if Bessy were at Deal, I think I would take a short spell
+now; but as for that poor good old soul, whose tongue is hung on
+the middle and works at both ends, she does tire one, and that's
+the truth." But she really was a good-natured, kind creature, ready
+to oblige in everything; and I believe that she thought that she
+was amusing you when she talked on in this way. Unfortunately she
+had no anecdote, for she had a very bad memory, and therefore there
+was nothing to be gained from her. By way of amusing me, she used
+to say, "Now, Tom, sit down here, and I'll tell you all about my
+bad leg." And then she would commence with the first symptoms, the
+degrees of pain, the various plasters, bandages, and poultices
+which had been applied, and what the doctor had said this day and
+that day. I bore this very patiently for four or five times; but at
+last, after several days of increasing impatience (somewhere about
+the fifteenth time, I believe), I could stand it no more, so I
+jumped off my chair and ran away just as she commenced the
+interesting detail.</p>
+<p>"Mrs. Maddox," said I, "I cannot bear to hear of your
+sufferings; pray never mention them again."</p>
+<p>"What a kind-hearted creature you are!" said she. "Well, I
+won't, then. It's not many who have such pity in them. Cotton,
+where have you got to&mdash;always running away? One would think
+you don't like to be knitted. Now, cotton, don't be foolish; where
+have you hid yourself? You make others as bad as yourself. Scissors
+have got away now&mdash;there now, sit on my lap and be quiet."</p>
+<p>However, if Mrs. Maddox got back cotton and scissors, she did
+not get me back, for I bolted out of the front door, and joined the
+men who were lolling against the gunnel of a galley hauled up on
+the shingle.</p>
+<p>During the period of which I am speaking, I continued every day
+to add to my knowledge of my profession, and eventually I was
+competent to pass my examination at the Trinity House. When I went
+on board a vessel with Bramble, he would often give me charge of
+her, never interfering with me (although he watched me carefully)
+unless he considered that it was absolutely necessary, which I
+believe took place but twice. He used to tell the masters of the
+vessels that I was quite as good a pilot as he was, which certainly
+was not quite correct; however, it was of great consequence to me,
+as it gave me that confidence so necessary in my profession, and in
+due time I passed for a river pilot at the Trinity House. Some
+alteration occurred at the hospital during this interval. Anderson
+had been promoted from boatswain of the ward to inspecting
+boatswain, a place of trust, with very comfortable emoluments, his
+weekly allowance being increased to five shillings; and on his
+promotion my father was made a boatswain's mate of the Warriors'
+Ward. This was at first satisfactory to my mother, who was pleased
+that my father should wear lace upon his pensioner's coat; but, as
+she advanced in the world, she did not like the idea of my father
+being in the hospital, nor did she want him to be at her
+house&mdash;in fact, she could have done better without him; but as
+that could not be she made the best of it. It must be acknowledged
+that my father's boisterous and rude manner had been softening down
+ever since he had been in the hospital, and that he had become a
+very well-behaved, quiet, and sober person, and was very
+respectable in his appearance; but I shall say more about him when
+I talk of my mother again. Old Nanny went on much as usual, but on
+the whole she improved. I used to pick up for her anything I could,
+and put it in a large bag which I occasionally brought to
+Greenwich, and this bag, with its multifarious contents, would give
+her more pleasure than if I had brought her any single object more
+valuable. Old Anderson used to call upon her occasionally, but he
+did not do her much good. She appeared to think of hardly anything
+but getting money. She was always glad to see me, and I believe
+thought more of me than anybody else in the world, and I seldom
+failed to pay her a visit on the first day of my arrival.</p>
+<p>Dr. Tadpole and his apprentice Tom went on pretty well together
+until the hundredweight of liquorice was expended, and then there
+was a fresh rising on the part of the injured and oppressed
+representative of the lower orders, which continued till a fresh
+supply from London appeased his radical feelings which had been
+called forth, and then the liquorice made everything go on smoothly
+as before; but two years afterward Tom was out of his time, and
+then the doctor retained him as his assistant, with a salary added
+to his board, which enabled Tom to be independent of the shop, as
+far as liquorice was concerned, and to cut a very smart figure
+among the young men about Greenwich; for on Tom's promotion another
+boy was appointed to the carrying out of the medicine as well as
+the drudgery, and Tom took good care that this lad should clean his
+boots as well as the doctor's, and not make quite so free with the
+liquorice as he had done himself. I found out also that he had cut
+Anny Whistle.</p>
+<p>Mrs. St. Felix continued to vend her tobacco, and I never failed
+seeing her on my visits to Greenwich. She appeared to look just as
+young as she did when I first knew her, and every one said that
+there was no apparent alteration. She was as kind and as cheerful
+as ever; and I may as well here remark that during this period a
+great intimacy had grown up between her and my sister Virginia,
+very much to the annoyance of my mother, who still retained her
+feelings of ill-will against Mrs. St. Felix&mdash;why, I do not
+know, except that she was so good-looking a person, and such a
+favorite with everybody. But my father, who, when he chose, would
+not be contradicted, insisted upon Virginia's being on good terms
+with Mrs. St. Felix, and used to take her there himself; and
+Virginia, who had never forgotten the widow's kindness to me, was
+extremely partial to her, and was much more in her company than my
+mother had any idea of, for Virginia would not vex my mother
+unnecessarily by telling her she had been with the widow unless she
+was directly asked.</p>
+<p>It was about four months after my father and I had given our
+money to my mother that I returned to Greenwich. A letter from
+Virginia had acquainted me with the street and the number of the
+house which my mother had taken, and I therefore walked from the
+beach right to it; and I must say that when I came to the new abode
+I was very much surprised at its neat and even handsome appearance.
+The ground-floor was fitted up as a shop with large panes of glass,
+and inside upon stands were arranged a variety of bonnets and caps,
+set off with looking-glass and silk curtains, in the arrangement of
+which no little taste was displayed. Behind the show goods was a
+curtain hanging on a brass rod, drawn so as to conceal the
+workpeople who were within. There was a private door as well as a
+shop door, and I hardly knew which I was to go in at; however, as
+the shop door required no knocking, I went into that, and found
+myself in the company of eight young damsels, very busy at their
+needles, sitting on each side of a long table covered with
+half-made dresses. I inquired of them whether my mother was at
+home, and was answered by one, who was apparently the eldest, that
+she was down below getting the breakfast ready.</p>
+<p>"I suppose," continued she, "you are Mr. Tom Saunders, the
+pilot?"</p>
+<p>"I suppose I am," replied I; "and pray who are you?"</p>
+<p>"I am Miss Amelia Gozlin, apprentice to Mrs. Saunders,
+milliner&mdash;at your service, sir; and, in consequence of my
+being so very quiet and sedate, I have charge of all these young
+ladies you see with me."</p>
+<p>Here the others burst into a laugh.</p>
+<p>"They are in very good hands, Miss Amelia," replied I, "and
+under your care, and with your example, I have no doubt but they
+will turn out very useful members of society."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, sir; but allow me to say that I cannot permit young
+men, especially such enchanting young men as Mr. Tom Saunders, to
+remain here; as, if I do, your amiable mother would give me what is
+genteelly termed a wigging; so if you will be pleased, sir, just to
+remove yourself from our presence," continued she, with a mock
+courtesy, "and not make your appearance here again until you are
+certain your mother is gone out, you will oblige us very much."</p>
+<p>I obeyed the wishes of Miss Amelia Gozlin, who certainly was a
+very handsome girl, with fine black eyes, apparently about fifteen
+years old. I walked into the passage, and found my way down into
+the kitchen, where my mother and Virginia were employed as they had
+told me above. My mother received me kindly, but said little, for
+she appeared to be fully occupied; and Virginia had no time to
+dedicate to me until the breakfast was ready, when she called the
+apprentices, and we all sat down together, Miss Amelia and her
+companions looking so demure, that, if I had not seen them before,
+I should have thought that they could not speak.</p>
+<p>After breakfast was over Virginia showed me the house. The first
+floor was to let furnished, the second was occupied by my mother
+and Virginia, and the attics were appropriated to the apprentices.
+Everything appeared clean, neat, and well arranged, and I could not
+imagine how my mother had contrived to do so much with so little
+money; but Virginia told me that she thought Mr. Wilson had
+assisted her.</p>
+<p>When I returned, which might have been in six months, I found a
+great improvement, and every appearance of my mother succeeding
+well in her speculations. She had now a maid-servant, and her
+apprentices were increased to twelve, and there was every
+appearance of brisk and full employment.</p>
+<p>In 1803 I found that Virginia, who was then fourteen years old,
+had left school. She had told my mother that, during the last
+half-year, she had only repeated over again what she had learned
+the half-year before, and that she thought she could employ her
+time better at home in assisting her. My mother was of the same
+opinion, and Virginia now superintended the cutting-out department,
+and was very useful. She said that the increase of business had
+been very great, and that my mother could hardly execute the orders
+which she received. There were now two servants in the house, and
+additional workwomen. My mother also had very much altered in
+appearance: before, she was usually clean and neat, now she was
+well if not elegantly dressed, and appeared much younger and better
+looking. I must do her the justice to say that prosperity had not
+spoiled but improved her: she was more kind and more cheerful every
+time that I went to see her; and I may add that, with the exception
+of a little necessary castigation to Miss Amelia and her
+companions, she never scolded, and was kind to her servants. The
+last year she had been even more successful, and was now considered
+the first milliner in the town. I believed that she deserved her
+reputation, for she had a great deal of taste in dress; and when
+she had gone upstairs to decorate previous to the hour of arrival
+of her customers, and came down in a handsome silk dress and an
+elegant morning cap, I would often look at her with surprise, and
+say to myself, "Who would think that this was my mother, who used
+to shove the broom at me in the little parlor at Fisher's
+Alley?"</p>
+<p>The reader may inquire how my father and mother got on after
+such an alteration in her circumstances. I can only reply that they
+got on better than they did before; for my mother, who did not wish
+my father's company in the house, pointed out to him that, with so
+many young people living with her, it would be very inconvenient if
+he came there in the evenings to smoke his pipe, and that it would
+be better if he could smoke and drink his beer anywhere else. My
+father perceived the propriety of this, and assented with a good
+grace: my mother was very liberal to him, and he was now enabled,
+when he chose, to ask a companion or two to join him, so that it
+suited both parties. My father, therefore, never came to the house,
+except after the hospital supper, when he remained a few minutes to
+see Virginia, and then departed. On Sundays he spent the whole day
+there, and was kindly welcomed, but he always left in the evening
+to smoke his pipe elsewhere. As for me, when I did come I was
+always kindly received, and slept in a spare bed on the same floor
+with my mother and Virginia. Before my time was out I was too well
+supplied by Bramble ever to want anything, and afterward I made
+plenty of money, and seldom came home without bringing a present
+both to my mother and Virginia.</p>
+<p>Having thus given a general outline of affairs, I shall in the
+next chapter enter more minutely into some particulars, without
+which the detail of events will not be complete.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_THREE" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_THREE"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which the <i>sine qu&aacute; non</i> of all Novels is, for
+the first time, introduced.</p>
+</div>
+<p>In the last chapter I have said in few words that Bessy Godwin
+had been sent to school, and had since returned home. She had been
+home nearly a year before the period to which I brought up my
+history, but now she no longer was employed in any menial service,
+the girl who had been hired during her absence being still
+retained. Bessy now superintended the household, but did nothing
+more; and there was a greater degree of comfort and expenditure
+than had formerly been the case. Whether this was on Bessy's
+account, or from Bessy's imbibed ideas, I cannot pretend to say;
+but certainly there was a great change in our style of living,
+which Bramble appeared to sanction. Mrs. Maddox remained as a mere
+pensioner, sitting by the fire, and perhaps finishing a pair of
+stockings about every five or six weeks, talking as usual at and to
+everybody and with everything. In another point, also, there was a
+change in Bramble's house: it was much oftener filled with company;
+this was, I presume, to be ascribed to Bessy's personal charms,
+which certainly were very great. She was of a peculiar and much
+admired style of beauty, a description which strikes some people at
+first sight, and not others&mdash;those not perceiving it at first
+eventually admiring it even more than the others. She was taller
+than the middle height, her person finely developed, yet not so
+much so as to take away from its grace: her complexion was pale and
+clear, her eyes and hair very dark; there was a coldness about her
+beauty when in repose, like statuary marble; but if the least
+excited or animated, the color would mantle in her cheek; her eyes
+would beam, till they appeared as if, like bright planets, they
+could almost cast a shadow; and dimples, before concealed, would
+show themselves when she indulged in her silvery laugh. Although
+her form was commanding, still she was very feminine: there was
+great attraction in her face, even when in repose&mdash;she was
+cold, but not chilling.</p>
+<p>I had seen little of her for three years, during which she had
+sprung up to womanhood, for she was now seventeen, and appeared to
+be at least eighteen years old. Before, when we were living
+together, we kissed as brother and sister: since we had again
+become inmates of the same house, we had been friends, but nothing
+more. Bessy certainly showed as great a preference to me as our
+relative situations would admit; but still it appeared as if the
+extreme intimacy of childhood had been broken off, and that it was
+necessary that a renewed intimacy under another aspect should take
+place, to restore us to our former relations. Here it was for me to
+make the first overtures; not for her, as maidenly reserve would
+not permit it. Bramble seemed to be most anxious that such should
+be the case&mdash;indeed, considered it as a matter of course:
+perhaps Bessy thought so too in her own bosom; and the continual
+raillery of Bramble did more harm than good, as it appeared to
+warrant her thinking that it ought to be so. Why it was not I will
+now explain to the reader.</p>
+<p>I have already made mention of Mr. Wilson, the lawyer, whose
+acquaintance we procured through Sir Hercules and his lady. This
+intimacy had very much increased; and a Miss Janet Wilson had come
+home from a finishing seminary near town. Between this young lady
+and my sister Virginia a certain degree of intimacy had been
+formed, and of course I had seen a great deal of her at the times
+when I was at Greenwich. She was a very pretty and very diminutive
+girl, but beautifully proportioned, although so very small; indeed,
+she was considered quite a model in figure, at least my mother used
+to say so, and I never heard any one disagree with her. Janet had,
+moreover, large eyes, penciled eyebrows, and a dimpled chin. Now,
+as Bessy was away at the time when I first made her acquaintance,
+if all these perfections were not enough for me to fall in love
+with, I must have been difficult to please at the age of eighteen,
+when one is not so very difficult; and the consequence was, I was
+her most devoted slave. Mr. Wilson laughed at us, and seemed either
+to think that it would end in nothing, or that if it did end in
+something he had no objection. Thus was I fixed; and with Virginia
+for a confidante, what was to prevent the course of true love
+running smooth? Janet received all my sighs, all my protestations,
+all my oaths, and all my presents&mdash;and many were the latter,
+although perhaps not equal to the former three. It was, therefore,
+not surprising that Bessy, who had been out of the way, had been
+forestalled by this diamond edition of Nature's handiwork. Such was
+the state of my heart at the commencement of the year 1805.</p>
+<p>I have mentioned that my mother had taken a house in the
+principal street; but I must now add that in the year 1804 she
+found it necessary to remove into one much larger, and had
+therefore shifted more to the upper part of the town. Instead of
+being in a row, this house was detached, with a small garden in
+front and a good piece of ground at the back, which looked down
+toward the river. The situation not being so central did no harm to
+my mother, as she was so well known; on the contrary, it made her
+even more fashionable. She now kept no shop, but a show room; and
+had not only accommodation for more workpeople, but very handsome
+apartments to let. In another point it was advantageous, which was
+on account of my father. At the end of the garden there was an
+octangular summer-house, looking upon the river: it was a
+good-sized room, boarded floor, and, moreover, it had a fireplace
+in it, and when shut up was very warm and comfortable. My mother
+made this house over to my father as his own, to smoke and drink
+beer in; and my father preferred a place in which he could sit
+alone with his friends, to a public house, especially as the garden
+had a gate at the end of it by which he could admit himself
+whenever he pleased. Here my father, Ben the Whaler, Anderson, and
+others would sit, having a commanding view of the Thames and the
+vessels passing and repassing&mdash;in the summer-time, with all
+the windows open, and enjoying the fresh air and the fresh smoke
+from their pipes&mdash;in winter-time surrounding the fire and
+telling their yarns. It was an admirable arrangement, and Virginia
+and I always knew where to find him.</p>
+<p>I have said but little of my sister Virginia. I may be
+considered partial to her&mdash;perhaps I was; but to me she was,
+if not the handsomest, certainly one of the most captivating
+persons I ever saw: to prove that I thought so, I can only say
+that, deeply as I was smitten with Miss Janet Wilson, I often
+thought that I wished she was a facsimile of my sister. Virginia
+was now seventeen years old, slender and very graceful: she
+reminded me more of an antelope in her figure than anything I can
+compare her to; her head was so beautifully placed on her shoulders
+that it was the first thing which attracted your notice when you
+saw her. Her eyes were of a deep hazel, fringed by long black
+eyelashes, and her arching and delicate eyebrows nearly met; her
+nose was perfectly straight, but rather small; and her face ended
+in a sharp oval, which added to the brilliancy and animation of her
+countenance; her mouth was small and beautifully formed, and her
+little teeth like seed pearl. Every one declared that she was the
+handsomest creature that ever they had seen; and what every one
+says must be true. She was so; but she was not always
+lively&mdash;she was only so at times: she appeared to be of a
+serious, reflective turn of mind, and she read a great deal; but at
+times she was mirth personified. To my mother she was always
+dutiful and attentive, and was very useful to her.</p>
+<p>I could not at first imagine what made my mother so anxious to
+have lodgers in the house, as they must have proved a great
+nuisance to her, and her circumstances were above such an
+infliction. It was not long before I discovered the cause of this:
+it was no other but to make up some good match for my sister, whose
+beauty she considered would effect her purpose. Many were the
+applications for her lodgings, made by highly respectable
+gentlemen; but when she discovered, either that they were married,
+or that in other points they did not suit, she invariably refused,
+and for months her apartments continued vacant; but if anybody at
+all aristocratical, who was single, wished to inspect them, my
+mother was all smiles and eagerness. It may be supposed that she
+was not likely to meet with such people as she solicited at such a
+town as Greenwich, but such was not the case: before steamboats
+made Greenwich so come-at-able there were many families of
+distinction who resided there and in its environs&mdash;especially
+in the autumn of the year, when the river offered much amusement.
+It was just at that period that the whitebait parties became so
+much in vogue, and Greenwich was considered a pleasant retreat for
+a few months by many of the fashionable world.</p>
+<p>Although Virginia never mentioned her surmises directly, I
+perceived, by her occasional remarks, that she had latterly become
+aware of what were my mother's views; indeed, how could she do
+otherwise, when my mother would refuse her lodgings one day to a
+gentleman because he was married, and let them the next time merely
+because he was a single man? And that she was disgusted with my
+mother's conduct I was convinced; at the same time, she certainly
+kept her thoughts to herself, merely telling me how very
+uncomfortable it was to have lodgers, and to be obliged to go into
+their rooms with messages from my mother. There was an Honorable
+Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, I really forget his name&mdash;indeed, I should
+not have mentioned him, except that he was the introduction of
+another personage who was several months in my mother's house, a
+harmless old bachelor. How old he was I cannot say, as he wore a
+very youthful wig and also false whiskers, but I should think about
+sixty. He was a great admirer of the fine arts, and a still greater
+admirer of his own performances in painting. He took lessons twice
+a day from two different masters, who came from London, and he was
+at it from morning to night. He came down to Greenwich, as he said,
+to study <i>tints</i>, and get up his coloring. I cannot say I
+thought his performances very good, but perhaps I was not a judge.
+My mother, who would, I believe, have sacrificed my sister to an
+ourang outang, provided he was an Honorable, took every opportunity
+of sending Virginia in to him, that he might study the delicate
+tints on her cheeks; but it would not do, even if Virginia had been
+a party to it. He looked at his palette instead of her pretty
+mouth, and his camelhair pencils attracted his attention more than
+her penciled eyebrows. He was wrapped up in his art, and overlooked
+the prettiest piece of nature in the world; and Virginia, seeing
+this to be the case, had no longer any objection to go into his
+room. But this gentleman had a nephew, a very different sort of a
+personage, a young heir to a marquisate, who used to pay attention
+to his bachelor uncle by paying him visits, at first because he was
+ordered so to do, and after once or twice because he had seen
+Virginia, and was struck with her appearance. He was a good-looking
+young man, about nineteen, but not very bright&mdash;indeed, I
+ought to say very silly, although at the same time not at all
+bashful. He made an acquaintance with my mother, who was delighted
+with his condescension, and declared that he was one of the most
+pleasant young men she had ever met with; and he would have been
+very intimate with Virginia had she not repulsed him. As soon as
+the leaves dropped off the trees the old bachelor declared that
+there were no more tints worth remaining for, and he took his
+departure. About a month afterward his nephew came down,
+accompanied by a young man who was his tutor, and hired the
+apartments, much to the joy of my mother, who now had hopes, and
+much to the annoyance of my sister, who had fears of being
+persecuted.</p>
+<p>And now, having in this chapter brought up my history to the
+commencement of the year 1805, I shall again enter into a more
+detailed narrative.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_FOUR" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>More Cry than Wool&mdash;Bramble would dig a Pit for another,
+and tumbles in along with him.</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was in the month of March, 1805, when the easterly winds
+prevailed, and vessels were detained in the Chops of the Channel,
+that I agreed with Bramble that we would return together and halve
+the pilotage. About eight leagues from the Lizard Point we boarded
+a small ship which had hoisted the signal, the weather at that time
+being fine and the wind variable. When we went on board it was but
+just daylight, and the captain was not yet on deck, but the mate
+received us. We were surprised to find that she mounted twelve
+brass guns, remarkably well fitted, and that everything was
+apparently ready for action, rammers and sponges, shot and wadding
+being all up and at hand.</p>
+<p>"A prime morning, shipmate," said Bramble; then casting his eye
+over the deck, "A letter of marque, I presume?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied the mate, "we have the papers, but still she has
+never run without convoy since I have been in her; we lost our
+convoy three days back, and the captain has been rather uneasy ever
+since."</p>
+<p>"Uneasy! why, I should think that you could beat off a good
+stout privateer with these guns of yours?"</p>
+<p>"Well, I don't know but what we might, but our cargo is
+valuable, and we might be overpowered."</p>
+<p>"Very true, and the captain must be anxious. Where are you
+from?"</p>
+<p>"Smyrna."</p>
+<p>"What's your cargo?"</p>
+<p>"Why, we have raw silk and drysalters' goods chiefly. D'ye think
+we shall have a fair wind? I don't care how soon, for we've at
+least twenty passengers on board, and our provisions and water are
+running rather short. Here's the skipper."</p>
+<p>The captain, who now made his appearance, was a tall
+good-looking young man about thirty, dressed rather fantastically,
+as I thought, having a laced cap on his head and a party-colored
+silk sash round his waist, such as they wear in the
+Mediterranean.</p>
+<p>"Well, pilot, what do you think of the wind?"</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, I expect we'll have a slant which will enable us to
+fetch well to windward of the Lizard, at all events, and then, when
+the tide turns inshore, we must stand out again."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Stubbs, turn the hands up to make sail."</p>
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate.</p>
+<p>The men came on deck, but the captain roared out for the idlers;
+these were the passengers who had agreed to work during the
+passage: at last they came up, a queer-looking set, and the captain
+sending down for his speaking-trumpet, sail was made on the
+ship.</p>
+<p>"Why, captain," said Bramble, "you do it in man-of-war
+fashion."</p>
+<p>"Well, I've not served the King for seven years for nothing,"
+replied he, "and I hope, sir, not heard the bullets whistling about
+my head like hail in a hailstorm without knowing how to take care
+of my ship. I like everything man-of-war fashion, and then one's
+always prepared. Where's the boatswain? Pipe to breakfast."</p>
+<p>"You've plenty of hands on board, mate," said Bramble.</p>
+<p>"Yes, plenty of them, such as they are; we've twenty of the
+ship's company, and twenty-five passengers from Malta."</p>
+<p>After breakfast the captain ordered up the small-arm men; five
+seamen and fifteen of the passengers made their appearance with
+their muskets, which were examined, and they were dismissed. At
+eleven o'clock, as we neared the land, the men were ordered to
+quarters, the guns cast loose, and they were exercised as on board
+of a man-of-war, the captain giving his orders with his
+speaking-trumpet. "Double-shot your guns! Run out! Point your guns!
+Fire! Repel boarders on the bow! Repel boarders on the quarter!"
+etc. This continued for more than two hours, when the guns were
+again secured.</p>
+<p>"Well, pilot," said the captain to Bramble, "what do you think?
+do you fancy a privateer could take us in a hurry?"</p>
+<p>"Why, captain, if the men fight, I should say not; but, you see,
+these guns, handsome as they are, won't fight of themselves."</p>
+<p>"I'll answer for the men fighting; they'll have but their
+choice&mdash;fight, or the contents of my pistol through the first
+man's head who quits his gun. I'll nail the colors to the mast, and
+see who will be the man who will haul them down. Why, pilot, this
+vessel is insured at thirty thousand pounds."</p>
+<p>"Then she'll be a famous prize, if they should contrive to take
+her, that's all," said Bramble. "Halloo! what vessel's that coming
+down? Tom, hand your glass here."</p>
+<p>"I haven't got it with me."</p>
+<p>"Well, give me that one on the skylight. I can't make her out,
+but I don't much like the looks of her."</p>
+<p>"Heh! what's that?" said the captain. "Let me look&mdash;oh,
+she's a square-rigged vessel, ain't she?"</p>
+<p>"Can't tell," said Bramble.</p>
+<p>The mate, who had fetched his glass from below, looked at her,
+and said it was a coasting schooner.</p>
+<p>"Are you sure of that?" said the captain. "Let me see. Well, I
+don't know what to say&mdash;she does look rakish. I'll go forward
+and make her out."</p>
+<p>"Why, it's a coaster, Bramble," said I, as the captain walked
+forward.</p>
+<p>"I know that," replied Bramble, with a wink.</p>
+<p>The captain returned, probably satisfied that it was only a
+coaster, but he did not choose to say so, "Well, I don't know what
+to make of her, but at all events there's nothing like being ready.
+She's coming down fast upon us; Mr. Stubbs, we'll beat to
+quarters."</p>
+<p>Again the people were called up and the guns cast loose; the
+powder was handed up, and all was preparation. I did not think,
+however, that the passengers appeared at all zealous; but that I
+was not surprised at: the captain harangued them, calling them
+Britons, etc., and, hoping that they would show what stuff they
+were made of; talked about the honor of Old England, and a great
+deal more, and then examined the vessel again with his glass.
+"We'll give her the starboard broadside, and then wear round his
+stern and give her the other. Hoist the colors!"</p>
+<p>As soon as we hoisted the colors, the schooner hoisted English
+colors also.</p>
+<p>"English colors, sir!" said the mate, grinning.</p>
+<p>"English colors, heh? Very well; but that may be a
+feint&mdash;keep to your guns, my lads."</p>
+<p>The vessel now ran by us; she was deeply laden, and as broad as
+she was long.</p>
+<p>"No privateer this time, captain," said Bramble, laughing.</p>
+<p>"No, all's right; secure the guns, my lads. We'd have given her
+a nice peppering if she'd been a French privateer."</p>
+<p>The captain then went down below to put away his sword and
+pistols, which the cabin-boy had brought on deck.</p>
+<p>"It's my opinion, Tom," said Bramble, "that this skipper ain't
+quite so fond of fighting as he pretends to be. I'll see if I can't
+frighten him a little."</p>
+<p>As soon as the captain came on deck again, Bramble said, "We'll
+go about, if you please."</p>
+<p>"What! about already? why, we're good three leagues from the
+shore."</p>
+<p>"Yes, sir, but the tide has made, and we must now make a long
+stretch-out toward the French coast. We won't tack again till about
+dark."</p>
+<p>"Not tack till dark, pilot? Surely we will do better keeping on
+the English coast."</p>
+<p>"No, no, sir; if we were not so well manned and so well armed I
+should do it; but, as we are a match for any privateer, why, we may
+as well make a long leg&mdash;we shall be up Channel sooner."</p>
+<p>"Well, I don't know what to say. I've a heavy responsibility
+with such a valuable cargo."</p>
+<p>"Well, tack if you please, sir," said Bramble, shortly.</p>
+<p>"Oh, certainly. Hands, about ship."</p>
+<p>The vessel's head was put off-shore, and with a smart breeze we
+walked away fast from the land. At twelve o'clock the captain
+proposed standing inshore again, but Bramble refused. At three
+o'clock he became very uneasy, and expostulated with Bramble, who
+replied, "Well, sir, I'm doing all for the best, but if you are
+afraid&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Afraid?" cried the captain; "afraid of what, I should like to
+know? No, I'm not afraid, but it appears to me that we ought to
+make the land again before night."</p>
+<p>"I'll answer for knowing where we are, sir, if that is your
+reason; at all events, I wish to stand out till six o'clock."</p>
+<p>"Well, do so, then, if you choose&mdash;I'm sure I don't care if
+you stand to within gunshot of the French coast;" and the captain,
+evidently very much annoyed, went down into the cabin.</p>
+<p>About half-past four o'clock the mate came aft and took up the
+glass, saying that there was an awkward-looking craft on the
+weather bow. He came aft again, and said, "Pilot, I wish you would
+take a squint at that craft, for I don't much like the look of
+her."</p>
+<p>Bramble went forward, and I followed him. "I say, Tom, that's a
+French privateer, as sure as we stand here," said he. "Look at her.
+Well, now we shall see what these guns are made of."</p>
+<p>"Don't put too much trust in them," said the mate. "I know what
+sort of people we have here. Had we only ten good men I wouldn't
+care for a privateer, but I'm afraid that we have not many we can
+trust to. However, we'll do our best, and we can do no more. I'll
+go down and tell the captain."</p>
+<p>"It is a Frenchman," replied I, "and no mistake&mdash;every rope
+and every sail on her are French;" for the vessel, which was a
+lugger, was not more than four miles from us.</p>
+<p>"Well," replied Bramble, "it would be odd if we were to be taken
+into a French port after all, wouldn't it? not very pleasant,
+though."</p>
+<p>"We've men enough to beat her off, or two of her, if that's
+all," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Tom, but I doubt the captain, and without example men
+don't fight well. However, we'll do our best, and if he flinches we
+won't."</p>
+<p>The captain now came forward as red as a turkey-cock; he said
+nothing, looked at the vessel, and then turned as white as a
+sheet.</p>
+<p>"She's more than our match, if she's an enemy," said he.</p>
+<p>"I should rather think not, sir," replied Bramble. "All you have
+to do is to make your men fight, and nail your colors to the
+mast."</p>
+<p>"That's very true when there's a fair chance of success, but
+it's useless sacrificing the men against so very superior a force,"
+replied the captain.</p>
+<p>"But it ain't superior, nor in guns is she your equal, if I know
+anything about a vessel. At all events, I suppose you'll have a
+trial for it. Won't you beat to quarters, captain?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, to be sure. Mr. Stubbs, beat to quarters. I think it would
+not be a bad thing to fire off our broadsides now, and let them see
+that we are well armed."</p>
+<p>The men were summoned up to quarters, and very unwillingly did
+they obey. Some said that they did not come on board to fight,
+others that they had agreed to work the passage home, but not to
+stand to be shot at; and some were actually going down below again,
+when Bramble and the mate spoke to them and persuaded them to
+remain on deck. Still there was no willingness shown; and although
+Bramble told them how many privateers had been beaten off, and
+mentioned particularly the Leith smack having the other day fought
+with one an hour and a half, and knocked her all to pieces, they
+still appeared uneasy and wavering.</p>
+<p>In the meantime the privateer was within a mile of us, and had
+hoisted French colors.</p>
+<p>"We'll keep away and give her the first broadside," cried the
+captain.</p>
+<p>"You'd better hoist your colors first," observed Bramble,
+quietly.</p>
+<p>"Hoist the colors, Mr. Stubbs! Port the helm! Look out, my men!
+Point the guns to the object! Fire!"</p>
+<p>Off went all the guns, not only on the starboard side, in the
+direction of the privateer, but all those on the larboard side as
+well; and this circumstance probably gave the people on board of
+the privateer some idea of the state of confusion we were in. She
+now rounded to, and gave us her broadside of three guns: they were
+well directed, and did us some damage in the upper works and
+rigging; but still more in frightening the people, who were now
+running down below, notwithstanding the exertions of the mate,
+Bramble, one or two of the seamen, and myself; but our fate was
+soon decided by the captain, who cried out, "It's useless
+contending against such a superior force." With this observation he
+ran aft and hauled down the colors. As soon as the men perceived
+this they all left the guns; at another broadside from the
+privateer they all scampered down below, and at the same time the
+captain went down into his cabin. There was none but the mate, the
+boatswain, Bramble, and myself left on deck.</p>
+<p>"Pleasant," said Bramble. "I thought as much. Well, Tom, here we
+are, in for it. Come with me to the helm, for these French fellows
+will board, and they make very free with their cutlasses, even
+after colors are hauled down. Well," said he, as he walked aft, "I
+did not think to see the English flag so disgraced. Poor Bessy,
+too! Well, never mind. I say, mate, just let go the weather
+main-braces and bow-lines, and square the yards, for it's better to
+be as humble as possible, now that we can't help ourselves; and do
+you and the boatswain go down below, for they cut right and left,
+these fellows. They do pay a little more civility to pilots, as
+they aren't belonging to the ship."</p>
+<p>This advice of Bramble's, which was very good, was followed by
+the mate and boatswain.</p>
+<p>"Shall I run down and look after our kits?" said I to
+Bramble.</p>
+<p>"No, Tom, don't have anything in your hand, or they will take it
+from you, and most likely give you a rap on the head with a cutlass
+at the same time; for privateer-men of all nations are little
+better than pirates, and don't how to behave in victory. Just keep
+where you are&mdash;look as if you had nothing to do with the ship
+except the steering of her. Here they come!"</p>
+<p>As he spoke the lugger touched our weather side, at the same
+time lowering down her foresail and mainsail with no little noise
+and confusion; in a second or two there were thirty of their men on
+our decks, flourishing their cutlasses, and looking round with
+their pistols ready cocked in their left hands for somebody to let
+fly at. At last they came aft. "Pilot!" cried Bramble, taking off
+his hat. I did the same. With reiterated <i>sacres</i> and
+<i>diables</i> of every description some now rushed down into the
+cabin, while others went down the fore-hatchway, while more of the
+men from the lugger poured upon our decks; but none of them
+molested Bramble or me, as we continued standing at the wheel. In
+about ten minutes order was to a certain degree restored by the
+captain of the privateer, who had come on board. I perceived him
+express his surprise to his officers who were with him at the
+armament of the ship, and he appeared very much pleased: it was not
+necessary to understand French for that. He then came up to
+Bramble, and spoke to him in French; but Bramble only pointed to me
+and then to himself, and said "Pilot." The captain called for a
+young Frenchman who could speak English, and then asked Bramble
+what was the cargo.</p>
+<p>Bramble, to please him, replied that it was silk and other goods
+to the value of thirty thousand pounds English.</p>
+<p>"How many men?"</p>
+<p>"Forty-five men."</p>
+<p>The French captain rubbed his hands with ecstasy, as well he
+might. Just at this moment the English captain came upon deck,
+followed by two of the privateer's men, one of whom had taken
+possession of his laced cap, and the other of his silk sash. He
+brought his sword in his hand, and presented it to the captain of
+the privateer, saying, "It is no disgrace for one brave man to
+deliver up his sword to another."</p>
+<p>"Que dit il?" said the captain of the privateer to the young man
+who interpreted. The young man translated this fine speech, upon
+which the French captain called the English one by a very
+contemptuous title, and turned away. The privateer's men now made
+their appearance from below, having helped themselves to everything
+they could find; the orders were then given for the prisoners to be
+brought upon deck; they were driven up, many of them bleeding from
+wounds received in attempts to rescue their personal property, and
+were handed over to the lugger. A prize-master with twenty men was
+put on board; the lugger was hauled off, the only Englishmen
+allowed to remain in the captured vessel being Bramble and myself.
+As soon as the vessels were clear they made sail, running about two
+points free for the French coast.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus330.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_FIVE" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>We have great Hopes of not seeing the Inside of a French Prison,
+but we are disappointed.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"Well, Tom, this is a bad job," said Bramble to me, taking his
+seat upon the hencoop aft. "By to-morrow noon, unless we fall in
+with a cruiser&mdash;and I see little chance of that&mdash;we shall
+be locked up in a French prison; ay, and Heaven knows how long we
+may stay there! What's to become of poor little Bessy? I'm sure I
+don't know. I must contrive to write over to lawyer Wilson, and put
+him in charge of everything. But I'm sorry for you, my poor lad;
+it's hard for you to be locked up, perhaps for years, when you
+might have been making money for yourself."</p>
+<p>"Well, it can't be helped, father; we must make the best of it,"
+replied I, with a deep sigh, for I was anything but happy at the
+prospect.</p>
+<p>"If it had not been for that swaggering coward this might not
+have happened," replied Bramble. "It's somewhat my own fault. I was
+so anxious to frighten him about nothing that at last I run us into
+real danger, and I might have known that he never would have
+fought, although I certainly had no idea of falling in with a
+privateer. Well, Tom, we must not lose a chance."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus332.jpg" id="illus332.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus332.jpg"><img src="images/thumb332.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>BRAMBLE AND JACK CARRIED INTO A FRENCH PORT.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol X. p. 331.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"How do you mean?"</p>
+<p>"I mean that if there is any possibility of getting away, I
+shall; and you, of course, will not stay behind. I don't know where
+they are going to, but you see, Tom, our only chance of getting off
+is while we are on the coast; if once we are marched into the
+interior, why, then it will be almost hopeless. What we must try
+for is to get away at the port where we land. We shall see."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid that there's very little chance for us," replied I;
+"but I'm ready to attempt anything."</p>
+<p>"We shall see, Tom&mdash;where there's a will there's a way.
+However, it's no use talking about it just now." Here Bramble
+filled his pipe, took out his flint and steel, and lighted it.</p>
+<p>After smoking for ten minutes, during which I stood by him, he
+said, "I wonder where they will take us to&mdash;St. Malo's or
+Morlaix; for the course they are steering will fetch, I should
+think, thereabout. One thing is certain&mdash;they've got a good
+prize, and they mean to keep it if they can; and, my eyes! if they
+won't make a fuss about it! A ship with twelve guns taken by a
+lugger with only six! They'll make the ship mount eighteen or
+twenty guns, and have a hundred and fifty men on board, and they'll
+swear they fought us for three hours. They have something to boast
+of, that's certain; and I suspect that French captain is a brave
+sort of chap, from the sneer he gave when our cowardly English
+lubber gave him so fine a speech. Well, it's our disgrace!"</p>
+<p>Here Bramble was silent for some time, when I said to him, "You
+were stating to the men how a Leith smack beat off a privateer the
+other day. I never heard of it."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I heard it when I was up above Greenwich. I met an old
+friend who was on board of her, for he took his passage in her from
+London.</p>
+<p>"'Why,' says he to me, 'Bramble, I thought we never should have
+got away from the river, for the old captain, who was as big round
+as a puncheon, and not unlike one, declared that he would not sail
+until the powder came up from Woolwich; for the "Queen Charlotte"
+(that was the name of the smack) carried six eighteen-pound
+carronades. We waited nearly a week for the powder, and many a
+laugh we all had about it, thinking old Nesbitt was not much of a
+fighter, from his making so much fuss. Well, at last we boomed her
+off from the wharf, and about seven that night got clear of the
+Thames; it was a fair breeze all night, and we ran through the Swin
+by the lead, which is what every one won't attempt. Next morning we
+were off Yarmouth Roads, with the water as yellow as pea soup:
+never saw it otherwise, and I'm an old collier; reason why, the
+swells of the ocean thrashes up the sands off there&mdash;ay, and
+shifts them too occasionally, which is of more consequence. Well,
+Bramble,' says he, 'well, on we went; hauled in through Harborough
+Gut; then the sun had so much power&mdash;for it was in the Dog
+Days&mdash;that it eat up the wind, and we were obliged to content
+ourselves with getting four knots out of her. Just as we made the
+Dudgeon Lightboat, old Nesbitt's son comes aft to his father, who
+was steering the craft, and says, "Father, do you see that 'ere
+brig crowding all sail after us? I think it be the New Custom House
+brig trying his rate of sailing with us."</p>
+<p>"'"Never you mind what she is, boy," says the captain, "but away
+up and furl the gaff-topsail."</p>
+<p>"'Meanwhile the brig overhauled us fast, and old Nesbitt kept
+a-looking round at her every two or three minutes. At last he says
+to the mate, "Take the wheel a bit," and he goes first and looks
+over the quarter. "I see," says he; "I say, you sergeant and
+corporal" (for we had a recruiting party on board), "suppose now
+you just help us to load our guns and work them a little, for I
+expect this here craft will give us plenty to do."</p>
+<p>"'Well, Bramble, as I stand here, if six of them lobsters didn't
+say nothing, but just walk down below; but the sergeant was a trump
+of a fellow, and so was his wife. He threw off his coat and cap
+covered with ribbons, tied a handkerchief round his head, and set
+to work with a will; and his wife backed him to the last, handing
+the powder and everything else. Well, we had with us ten men who
+all stood to guns; but the passengers went down below with the
+soldiers. Well, on comes the brig upon our starboard quarter as if
+to board; all her fore rigging, and forechains, and forecastle
+being full of men as bees in a swarm.</p>
+<p>"Are you all ready, my men?" said the captain.</p>
+<p>"Yes, all ready, sir."</p>
+<p>"Yes, and I be ready too, massa!" cried the black cook, bringing
+out from the caboose the red-hot poker.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, up on the wind with her, and fire when the guns
+bear."</p>
+<p>"'The men kept their eyes on the guns; and when they cried
+"Fire!" the cook set them all off, one after another, with the hot
+poker, and no small mischief did these three guns do. His
+forecastle was cleared of men in no time; down came his gaff and
+foretopsail, and being now right on our beam, he put his helm up to
+lay us on board; but we were too quick for him&mdash;we wore round
+too, and gave him the three other guns, which did him no good.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus336.jpg" id="illus336.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus336.jpg"><img src="images/thumb336.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>THE LEITH SMACK AND THE PRIVATEER.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 335.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"'Well, he came after us on the other tack, and pelted us with
+musketry in a cruel way. The mate was hit in the head, and taken
+down below; and poor old Nesbitt, who was at the wheel, steering
+the craft beautifully, had a bullet right into his bow-window, as
+they call it. "Well," the old fellow says, "here's a shot between
+wind and water, I reckon&mdash;we must have a plug;" so he puts his
+flippers into his waistband, and stuffs his flannel jacket into the
+hole. Then we throws her up in the wind again, and rakes him with
+our three guns well into him, and carries away more of his gear,
+and stops his sailing&mdash;and so we goes on for a whole hour and
+thirty-five minutes; and, to make a long story short, we beat him
+off, and he turned tail and ran for it with both pumps going.'</p>
+<p>"Now you see, Tom, that's the account of the affair given to me
+by a man who I can trust; and there you see what can be done if men
+are resolute and determined to fight. Some little difference
+between that affair and this one, Tom."</p>
+<p>"Did old Nesbitt die or recover?"</p>
+<p>"I asked that question. He was doing well when my friend left.
+Somehow or another no vital part was injured, and he has had many
+presents made him for his gallant conduct, and the sergeant was
+well rewarded also. Well, my pipe's out, and it's not far from
+midnight; I should think we may just as well try for a little
+sleep, Tom, for perhaps we may not get any for some time to
+come."</p>
+<p>Bramble coiled himself up under the bulwark, I did the same; and
+in a few minutes we both had forgotten whether we were in our beds
+at our house at Deal or prisoners bound for the French coast.</p>
+<p>At daylight the next morning Bramble roused me up.</p>
+<p>"Here we are now, Tom! here's the French coast not four leagues
+from us; but it's hazy, and I cannot make it out very clear;
+however, the sun will soon drive all this away, and we shall have a
+fine day; but the wind has gone down, and I think we shall have
+still less of it."</p>
+<p>And so it proved; for, as the sun rose, the wind became very
+light, so that we did not go through the water more than three
+knots. We were looking at the coast, when the report of a gun
+saluted our ears. It was from the privateer. We turned to that
+quarter, and found that there was a cutter about two miles from the
+privateer, crowding all sail toward us.</p>
+<p>"Tom!" cried Bramble, "there's a chance for us yet&mdash;that's
+an English privateer, and she will try to retake us for the sake of
+the salvage. But here's a boat coming from the Frenchman&mdash;what
+can that be for?"</p>
+<p>The boat rowed alongside of us, and out jumped the captain of
+the French privateer with twenty of his best men, and the boat was
+then dropped astern.</p>
+<p>The Frenchman immediately cast loose the guns, went down for the
+powder, and prepared for action.</p>
+<p>"I see, Tom," said Bramble, "he's a clever fellow, this skipper.
+He knows that this ship and cargo is worth a dozen of his little
+privateer, and his object is to get her in&mdash;so he's come with
+all his best men on board of us, leaving his first officer to make
+the best fight with the privateer that he can. Well, he's right;
+and if it wasn't that I don't like to go to prison, I wish he may
+succeed, for he has got sense as well as courage, I think."</p>
+<p>The ship was now kept away two points more, that she might go
+through the water as fast as she could; and in the meantime the
+action commenced between the English cutter and the French
+privateer, the latter evidently attempting to cripple the masts and
+rigging of the former. The cutter, however, steered right for us,
+and evidently came up fast; the French privateer, weak-handed as
+she must have been, behaved very well, throwing herself across the
+cutter's bows, and doing everything she could to prevent her coming
+up with us. Both vessels were very much cut up before the cutter
+came within three cables' lengths of us, when the French captain
+ordered French colors to be hoisted, and, rounding to, poured in a
+well-directed broadside, which quite astonished the English
+privateer, who imagined that we were an unarmed merchantman. The
+action now became very warm; we standing on, and every now and then
+rounding to and raking the cutter, while the French privateer
+engaged her broadside to broadside. The French captain was abaft,
+giving his orders with the greatest coolness and ability, when a
+shot from the cutter came in on deck, and a large splinter which it
+tore off knocked him down on his back. Bramble and I both ran to
+him and helped him up&mdash;we could not help it, although he was
+an enemy. He was not hurt, and as soon as he was on his legs he
+laughed, and thanked us in French. The cutter still continued the
+fight until we were within three miles of the coast, when, all her
+spars and sails being cut to pieces, she hauled to the wind and
+stood out to the offing.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, there's all our hopes ended," said Bramble; "so now
+I'll light my pipe. Well, I say it's been a good fight on both
+sides."</p>
+<p>Here the captain came up to us and said, "Bien oblige&mdash;tank
+you."</p>
+<p>The cutter did not, however, stand out for more than a few
+minutes, when she hove to and repaired damages, evidently intending
+to renew the action. I pointed this out to Bramble. "I see, I see,"
+replied he; "she intends to try and cut us off from Morlaix, which
+is to windward, and oblige us to fight or run for St. Malo's, which
+is a long way to leeward. In either case she will be able to attack
+us again, as she out-sails us. Perhaps the fight is not over
+yet."</p>
+<p>But the Frenchman also understood what he was about, and he now
+steered a course. When we were about two miles from the land, and
+about the same distance from the cutter, the latter kept away so as
+to oblige the ship to come to action again before she reached
+Morlaix; but, before she closed with us, we discovered that we were
+entering a small French port, which had not been visible to us,
+called (I think) Lanion, situated between Isle Bichat and Morlaix.
+When within half a mile of the land, French over English was
+hoisted at our peak, and a French pennant over an English pennant
+at our main.</p>
+<p>"I told you so," said Bramble; "they have made a man-of-war out
+of us, and now there'll be no end to the lies that they will tell;
+for though these French fellows do not fight quite so well as we
+do, at lying they'll beat us hollow, any day of the week. Never
+mind, Tom, we must keep a sharp lookout, and there's no
+saying&mdash;keep your eyes open as we go into the harbor&mdash;I
+never was here before, but I suspect it's nothing better than a
+poor fishing town."</p>
+<p>In a quarter of an hour the ship and privateer were both made
+fast to an old stone pier which ran out from the town; but there
+were no other vessels in the harbor except two small coasting
+chasses mar&eacute;es, and about a dozen fishing-boats.</p>
+<p>The harbor was formed by the mouth of a small river, which ran
+down through a very narrow alluvial flat, backed by precipitous
+rocks. On the right side of the river on entering, and on the level
+ground above mentioned, which extended back perhaps two hundred
+yards, until it was met by the rocky cliffs, was situated the
+village which, centuries back, must have been the town of Lanion.
+It consisted of perhaps one hundred to one hundred and twenty
+houses, few of them of any size, the major portion with walls built
+of mud and whitewashed over. The only remains of the former town
+were a stone-built market-place, the portion of the H&ocirc;tel de
+Ville in which the mayor resided, and the old church, which,
+although perfect in its walls, was sadly dilapidated in the roof.
+It had long been deserted, and a small chapel had been built in
+lieu of it, in which the only curé  of the place performed the
+service. The massive stones of which the now neglected pier had
+once been built proved that at one time considerable expense had
+been incurred in the formation of this small harbor.</p>
+<p>A battery mounting two guns at the end of the pier protected the
+mouth of the harbor; and there was a guard of a sergeant and twelve
+invalids, who were stationed there to man the guns upon the
+approach of an enemy.</p>
+<p>It would be difficult to describe the confusion which took place
+as soon as the two vessels were fairly alongside the wharf, and
+made fast with hawsers to the massive iron rings which had for
+centuries been fixed in the ponderous stones of which the pier was
+composed. There was the mayor with his cocked hat on, but his
+leather apron still tied in front, for he had been working at his
+calling; there was the sergeant of the invalids, who, perhaps, was
+a greater man than the mayor, all beard and mustachios, but so thin
+in his person that he looked as if a stout breeze would have blown
+him away; and there were the soldiers leaning on their muskets.
+These were the most important personages, but they were backed by
+the whole population of the town, amounting to about three hundred
+men, women, and children, all talking, jabbering, and screaming.
+Add to them the captain of the privateer, so important that he
+could not attend to even the mayor or the sergeant; and the
+privateer's men, dressed in every fashion, armed to the teeth, all
+explaining, or pushing away, or running here and there obeying
+orders; then the wounded men&mdash;for they had several men killed
+and others hurt in the conflict with the cutter&mdash;handed up one
+by one, bandaged here and there, and exciting the compassion and
+even screams of the women; the prisoners, who had been ordered to
+come on deck, half dressed and chapfallen; the sails of the vessels
+only clewed up, and still fluttering; ensigns and pennants hoisted
+upon every mast, and waving over the heads of the crowd assembled
+at the pier&mdash;and you may have some idea of the confused and
+bustling scene.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus342.jpg" id="illus342.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus342.jpg"><img src="images/thumb342.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>THE ARRIVAL OF THE PRIVATEER AT LANION.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 841.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>At last, as there appeared no chance of anything being arranged
+while the people crowded round, the captain of the privateer
+ordered his men to draw their weapons and drive back the crowd,
+which was soon effected, notwithstanding many oaths, and more
+screaming on the part of the fairer sex; and when the crowd had
+been thus driven the men were stationed so as to keep them back. At
+first this gave offense to all parties&mdash;to the crowd, because
+they didn't like to be driven away&mdash;to the mayor, who remained
+with the sergeant and invalids in the area which had been cleared
+by the privateer's people, because he thought that they had
+interfered with his civil authority&mdash;and to the sergeant of
+invalids, because he thought that the marine force had interfered
+with his military authority; but the captain of the privateer
+having taken off his hat and bowed, first to the mayor and then to
+the sergeant, and saying how much he was obliged to them for their
+assistance, both parties were satisfied; and now a consultation was
+held between them how to proceed, while the privateer's men, who
+kept back the crowd, amused them by giving a detail of the two
+desperate actions which had been fought&mdash;no two accounts
+agreeing, certainly, but that was of no consequence.</p>
+<p>The first question to be canvassed was, what was to be done with
+the prisoners? Morlaix was the nearest town in which they would be
+under safe keeping, but that was twenty miles distant, and it would
+be necessary to send over an express, so that a sufficient force
+might be dispatched to Lanion to escort the prisoners there. This
+Mr. Mayor undertook to do immediately; a boy was summoned to take
+over the communication, and the mayor went up to write his letter
+to the authorities, while the wounded men were carried away, and by
+the direction of the cure, who had just arrived and joined the
+consultation, billeted upon different houses in the town. The
+express having been dispatched, and the wounded safely housed and
+under the care of the village &AElig;sculapius, who never had such
+a job in his whole life, the next point of consultation was how to
+dispose of the prisoners until the force should arrive from
+Morlaix. Here the sergeant became the principal person, being
+military commandant; forty-seven prisoners were a heavy charge for
+twelve invalids; and as for the privateer's men, there was no
+dependence upon them, for, as the captain said, they had had enough
+to do to take them, and it was the business of the authorities to
+look after them now, while the privateer's men made merry.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus345.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_SIX" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_SIX"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>With those powerful agents, Fire and Water, we contrive to
+Escape from a French Prison.</p>
+</div>
+<p>After more than an hour of confusion and loud talking it was at
+last proposed and agreed to, <i>nem. con.</i>, that the prisoners
+should be confined in the old church; the twelve invalids to be
+divided into two parties, who were to be sentinels over them,
+relieving each other every four hours. The mayor immediately went
+forward with the village blacksmith to examine the state of the
+church doors, and ascertain how they might be secured; while the
+prisoners, having been summoned out of the privateer, were escorted
+up between two files of the privateer's men with their swords
+drawn, and followed by the whole population. As soon as we arrived
+at the church door the name of every prisoner was taken down by the
+mayor, attended by a notary, and then he was passed into the
+church. Bramble and I of course were marched up with the others,
+the captain of the privateer talking with us the whole way, through
+the young man who interpreted, informing us that an express had
+been sent over to Morlaix, to which town we should be escorted the
+next day, and then have better accommodation. As we stood at the
+huge doors of the church, which were opened for our reception, we
+perceived that the altar and all the decorations had been removed,
+and that, with the exception of the large wooden screen of carved
+oak near the altar, the church was completely bare. Bramble spoke
+to the interpreter, and said that he hoped the captain would
+request the mayor to allow the prisoners to have straw to lie down
+upon, as the pavement would be very cold. Although the mayor at
+first demurred at this demand, yet the captain of the privateer,
+probably out of goodwill to Bramble, insisted, and the straw was
+ordered to be sent in. At last the mayor became impatient, we could
+delay no longer, and the doors were closed.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus346.jpg" id="illus346.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus346.jpg"><img src="images/thumb346.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>THE PRISON.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 345.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>I had surveyed the church as we were escorted up to it. It was
+very large, capable, I should think, of holding more than two
+thousand people. The walls of the church were very massive, and the
+windows had but very few panes of glass remaining in them, but they
+were so very high as to prevent our climbing out of them, even if
+there had not been six sentinels guarding us outside. At one
+corner, to the right of the end of the church where the altar-piece
+had been, was a narrow stone tower, apparently an addition made to
+the Lady's Chapel long after the church had been originally built.
+When we were shut up we were enabled to survey the interior at our
+leisure. The whole was completely bare to the pavement until you
+came to the chancel part, near to which the altar had been, where
+the wooden screens and seats still remained, in a sad dilapidated
+state; but they must have once been very handsome, for the carving,
+where it was perfect, was very beautiful. A small, thick wooden
+door, loaded with ironwork, communicated with the narrow tower,
+which had a flight of stone steps running up to the top, and narrow
+loopholes to give light as you ascended. While the majority of the
+prisoners were sitting down here and there on the pavement, few of
+them entering into conversation, Bramble had, with me, taken a full
+survey of our locality.</p>
+<p>"I tell you what, Tom; if we once get to Morlaix, all chance is
+over," said he. "We must either get out of this church this very
+night, or we must make up our minds to remain in prison Heaven
+knows how long."</p>
+<p>"Have we any chance?"</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you more about that in a little while."</p>
+<p>The door of the church now opened, and the people brought in the
+straw for the beds, which they threw all in a heap in the center of
+the church, and the doors were again closed.</p>
+<p>"I see daylight now," said Bramble. "Tom, find the mate and
+boatswain, and bring them here to me quickly."</p>
+<p>I did so, and Bramble asked them whether they were inclined to
+make an attempt to get clear.</p>
+<p>They replied that they would join us in anything&mdash;they did
+not care what it was, and against any odds.</p>
+<p>"Well, then," said Bramble, "my idea is this. You see there are
+but twelve old soldiers to guard us; for you may be certain that,
+before long, all the privateer's men will be as drunk as
+owls&mdash;that's but natural; not that I think of coming to any
+fight with them, but I make the observation because, if we get out,
+we shall have little to fear afterward. Now, you see, I asked for
+the straw because the idea came in my head that it might be useful.
+You see, what I propose is, as there is plenty of wood in this part
+of the church, that we should wait till about three hours after
+dark&mdash;that is, until ten or eleven o'clock&mdash;and then set
+fire to the church. They must come and let us out, you know; at
+least I take it for granted that they will before the roof comes
+down. If they don't, we must force the doors ourselves&mdash;I've
+looked at them&mdash;and until we do there is no fear of
+suffocating, for there are no panes to the windows. So, after all,
+it will only be a bonfire, without danger to anybody."</p>
+<p>"Well, but what shall we gain by it?" said the mate. "We shall
+be walked out with the other prisoners, and how shall we then
+escape?"</p>
+<p>"There it is: we will not be walked out with the other
+prisoners; and, in the confusion and hurry of taking them away to
+one place or another, they will not be likely to miss us. We will
+all go up this narrow tower, where we may remain, till the church
+falls in, with perfect safety; and then, when all is quiet again,
+and the people have left the spot, we will make for the pier, get
+one of the fishing boats and be off. How do you like the idea?"</p>
+<p>We all agreed that the plan was very feasible, and would attempt
+it.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, we must remain quiet for the present; all you have
+to do is to fetch as much straw this way as you can by degrees: I
+expect they will bring us something to eat before long."</p>
+<p>We removed a large portion of the straw to the chancel; in half
+an hour afterward the doors were opened and rations of bread were
+brought in. What still more assisted our plans was, that the
+captain of the privateer at the same time, very good-naturedly,
+brought a demijohn of brandy, which he gave to Bramble.</p>
+<p>Bramble thanked him through the interpreter, and told him that
+he would get well drunk that night.</p>
+<p>"Yes, drive away care, captain says," replied the
+interpreter.</p>
+<p>Once more the doors were closed, and we had no chance of further
+interruption.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus350.jpg" id="illus350.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus350.jpg"><img src="images/thumb350.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>JACK A PRISONER.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol X., p. 349.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>By Bramble's direction, the mate, assisted by me and the
+boatswain, cast loose the remaining bundles of straw and shook them
+down as beds for the prisoners at the end of the church nearest to
+the door; and as soon as they had eaten their bread, Bramble gave
+them all a portion of the brandy, advising them to turn in soon, as
+we were to march very early the next morning. We remained with them
+at first, having taken our seats on the straw as if we also
+intended to repose. At last it became dusk, and then dark; the
+prisoners settled themselves to sleep; we left them and joined
+Bramble. Having arranged our straw so as to secure ignition, and
+leaving the mate and boatswain down below, Bramble and I, now that
+there was no chance of our being seen by the sentinels, ascended
+the tower. It commanded a view of the town and harbor. We looked
+down upon the main street&mdash;all was mirth and revelry; fiddling
+and dancing and singing were to be heard from more than one house;
+women in the street laughing, and now and then running and
+screaming when pursued by the men.</p>
+<p>"This is all right," observed Bramble; "in an hour or two you'll
+see how quiet everything will be; but I shall not let them all go
+to bed before I set fire, for there may be some difficulty in
+waking them. I don't see that there's any lights down at the pier,
+where the vessels lie."</p>
+<p>We stayed up there till about eleven o'clock, Bramble watching
+the lights and sounds; and when he considered that they had
+sufficiently decreased, he said, "Now we'll try it, Tom, and may
+success attend us!"</p>
+<p>We descended and found the mate and boatswain anxiously waiting
+for us. Bramble struck a light with his flint, and we carried it to
+the screen where we had piled the straw under the seats and against
+the panels.</p>
+<p>"Now then, messmates," said Bramble, "as long as the others
+sleep the better; but if they waken in the confusion, bring here
+all the straw you can collect, for we must not fail for want of
+fuel."</p>
+<p>But of this there was no chance, for the wood of the screen and
+benches was so dry that it was alight immediately. For ten minutes
+the other prisoners and the guard outside did not appear to be
+aware of what was going on; but at last the church was so filled
+with smoke that they were roused up. Still the principal smoke was
+in that portion of the church where we were; at the other end they
+were not much inconvenienced, as it found vent by the windows. What
+the invalids were about outside I do not know, but they did not
+perceive it; probably they had left their guard to go and carouse.
+At all events the flames had climbed up from the screen and had
+caught a portion of the roof before the Frenchmen knew that the
+church was on fire; the smoke was now exchanged for a bright clear
+flame, which had already found its way through the slating, and the
+prisoners were halloaing and screaming as loud as they could. We
+went to the part of the church where the others were, and joined
+the outcry. The voices of the people outside were now to be heard,
+for men and women had been summoned by the cry of the church being
+on fire: still there was no danger until the roof fell in, and that
+would not be the case for perhaps an hour, although it was now
+burning furiously, and the sparks and cinders were borne away to
+leeward by the breeze. The screams of the prisoners now became
+dreadful: frightened out of their wits, they fully expected to be
+burned alive; still the door was not opened, although we heard a
+loud consultation of many voices without.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Bramble, "I hope they really don't mean to let us
+burn here; at all events, if they do, I can save the poor devils,
+for there's room enough on the stairs of the tower for twice as
+many. At all events we must hold on till the last moment."</p>
+<p>As he said this we heard them outside put the key in the door,
+and immediately Bramble, the boatswain, mate, and I retreated from
+the crowd and gained the other portion of the church, which was
+most in flames. As the door opened we hastened to the tower door,
+and closing it after us, gained the staircase near the top, where
+we remained quiet; there was no want of smoke there, but still we
+could breathe pretty freely, as the fire from the roof was borne
+down by the wind from us and toward the people, who were at the
+front of the church. How they disposed of the other prisoners we do
+not know, as we dared not show ourselves; but in about half an hour
+the whole of the roof fell down upon the pavement, and nothing but
+the bare walls of the church were left standing.</p>
+<p>After the roof fell in the light from the flames was so small
+that we ventured to the top of the tower to look out. There were
+still many people standing about, but the major part of them were
+gone. As the fire sank down so did the people go away; at last
+there was no one to be seen: we remained more than half an hour
+watching; light after light disappeared, and all was quiet as
+death.</p>
+<p>"Now's our time," said Bramble, "but still we must be cautious;
+let us follow one another at about ten yards apart: if we meet with
+any one, pretend to be reeling as if drunk, and they may think we
+are privateer's-men not yet gone to bed."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus354.jpg" id="illus354.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus354.jpg"><img src="images/thumb354.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>THE ESCAPE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 353.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>We followed him down the stairs, gained the church, and trod
+over the still burning embers; as soon as we were clear of the
+walls we turned to the right in our way down to the harbor, keeping
+in the gloom as much as possible. We arrived safely at the pier,
+for there was not a soul stirring; all our fear was that we should
+find some one keeping watch on board of the vessels, which we must
+pass after we had possession of one of the fishing-boats, as they
+laid inside of them. But fortune favored us every way: the boat we
+selected had her sails bent, and was not fastened with a chain; we
+were, therefore, in the stream in a moment; the tide was also
+running out strong, and we passed the vessels without having
+occasion to use our oars. The battery at the entrance of the harbor
+was also without its usual sentry, for the men had been called up
+to guard the prisoners. In half an hour we were clear of the
+harbor, and steering with a fine breeze for the English coast; and
+when daylight broke the French land was but just perceptible.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Bramble, "praised be Heaven for all things. I
+expected to have lost my precious liberty for years, and I have
+only lost two shirts, one pair of trousers, and three pair of
+worsted stockings."</p>
+<p>We had nothing to eat or drink, but that we cared little for, as
+the wind was fair. About ten o'clock that night we landed at
+Cawsand Bay near Plymouth, where we sat down to a hearty supper;
+and when we went to bed, I did not forget to thank Providence for
+my unexpected escape.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus355.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_SEVEN" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Another Escape, more fortunate than the one recorded in the
+preceding Chapter.</p>
+</div>
+<p>From the time that I had passed my examination, and worked as a
+pilot on my own account, until the period of our escape, which I
+have narrated in the preceding chapter, I had continued to live in
+the cottage with Bramble, without contributing any share to the
+expenses. I had at first proposed it, but Bramble would not listen
+to any such arrangement; he considered me, he said, as his son, and
+who knew, he added, but that the cottage would be mine after he was
+gone. The fact was that Bramble ardently wished that Bessy and I
+should be united. He continually hinted at it, joked with Bessy
+about me; and I believe that, in consequence, Bessy's feelings
+toward me had taken the same bent. She was prepared for the issue;
+the regard naturally felt for me from her long intimacy, now that
+the indulgence of it was so openly sanctioned by him whom she
+considered as her father, was not checked on her part; indeed,
+there was no doubt but that it had ripened into love. She showed it
+in every little way that her maiden modesty did not interfere with,
+and old Bramble would at times throw out such strong hints of our
+eventual union as to make me feel very uncomfortable. They neither
+of them had any idea of my heart having been pre-engaged, and the
+strangeness of my manner was ascribed by Bramble to my feelings
+toward Bessy. Bessy, however, was not so easily deceived; my
+conduct toward her appeared, to say the best of it, very
+inconsistent. So often had I had opportunities, especially when I
+was at home and Bramble was away, of speaking on the subject, and
+so often had these opportunities been neglected, that it filled her
+mind with doubt and anxiety. After having accepted my addresses at
+first, Janet had once or twice written to me; lately, however, she
+had not written herself&mdash;all her messages were through
+Virginia's letters, or, perhaps, she would add a little postscript.
+Had letters arrived for me in any other handwriting than that of
+Virginia, Bessy, after her suspicions were roused, might have
+easily guessed the truth; but it was the absence of any clew to
+guide her as to the state of my feelings which so much puzzled her.
+She was fully convinced that my heart was not hers, but she had no
+reason to suppose that it was in the possession of another. Thus
+did my passion for Janet Wilson in every way prove to me a source
+of anxiety. I knew that it was my duty to undeceive Bramble and
+Bessy, yet the task was too painful, and I could not make up my
+mind to make them unhappy. I felt that I had no right to remain
+under Bramble's roof and live at his expense, and, at the same
+time, I could not find an opportunity of telling him what my
+feelings and wishes were, the very mention of which would at once
+explain to him that the desire of his old age would never be
+accomplished. I often accused myself of ingratitude, and felt as if
+it were my duty to make every sacrifice to one who had been so kind
+a protector; but I was bound by vows to Janet Wilson, and how was
+it possible that I could retract?</p>
+<p>Virginia's letters were not satisfactory: at first she told me
+how much she had been annoyed by the attentions of the young
+nobleman, and how very indelicate my mother had been in her
+conduct; eventually she informed me that she had been insulted by
+him, and that, upon complaining to my mother, the latter had, much
+to her surprise and indignation, not only laughed at his extreme
+forwardness, but pointed out to Virginia a line of conduct by which
+he might be entrapped into marriage; that her refusal to accede to
+such unworthy devices had created a serious breach between her
+mother and herself. She stated the young man to be extremely silly
+and weak, and that my mother had gained great influence over him;
+and were it not that the presence of the tutor, who seldom quitted
+the house, had proved a check, that there was little doubt but, as
+far as the young man was concerned, the disproportionate match
+would be readily acceded to; that the only person she had ventured
+to consult was her dear friend Mrs. St. Felix, who had promised
+her, if the persecution did not cease, that she would make Mr.
+Sommerville the tutor aware of what was going on. Virginia
+described the latter as an amiable modest young man, who did all in
+his power to instruct his pupil, but who was treated with anything
+but deference in return.</p>
+<p>Relative to Janet she said little, except that she generally
+called there every day to make inquiries after me: once or twice
+she did say that it was a pity that I was not able to come oftener
+to Greenwich, as Janet was not very steady; indeed, considering how
+young she was, without a mother, and so little controlled by her
+father, it was not to be wondered at.</p>
+<p>Such was the state of affairs when I made up my mind that I
+would speak to Bramble about my paying my share of the expenses,
+which I thought would open his eyes to the real state of my feeling
+toward Bessy. I did so; I pointed out to him that I was now earning
+money fast, and that I considered it but fair that I should support
+myself, and not put him to further expense; that perhaps it would
+be better that I should take a house for myself, as I must give a
+great deal of trouble to Bessy and Mrs. Maddox.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "you've been at me about this before,
+and I believe it's a proper feeling, after all. It certainly does
+seem to me to be a matter of little consequence, as things stand;
+however, I can't consent to your leaving us. You have been with me
+ever since you were a lad, and I should feel like a fish out of
+water if I were to be without you or Bessy; so pay just what you
+please&mdash;I'll take it since you wish it&mdash;and there's an
+end of the matter."</p>
+<p>This was not the end to which I was driving; but Bramble's eyes
+would not be opened, and I could not help it. He had never directly
+spoken to me about a union with Bessy, and therefore it was
+impossible for me to say any more. Bramble, however, did not fail
+to communicate what I had said to her; and one evening when we were
+standing on the shingle beach, she said to me, "So Emerson has been
+convicted for smuggling, and sentenced beyond the seas."</p>
+<p>"I am sorry for it," replied I.</p>
+<p>"His house is to be let now, Tom; would it not suit you? for my
+father told me that you wished to leave us."</p>
+<p>"Why should I live upon you when I am able to support
+myself?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly not. If it were not that I could not bear to see
+father miserable, I think it would be better if you did take
+Emerson's house; but it would vex him, poor good man."</p>
+<p>"But not you, Bessy; is it that you mean?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps it is. Tell me yourself, Tom, would it not be
+better?"</p>
+<p>I made no reply.</p>
+<p>"Well," replied Bessy, "think of me as you please; I will speak
+now, Tom. I am not considering you, Tom, nor am I thinking of
+myself; I am only induced so to do on account of my father. We have
+been brought up together as children, Tom, and, as children, we
+were great friends, and, I believe, sincerely attached to each
+other. I believe it to be very true that those who are brought up
+together as brothers and sisters do not change that affection for
+any other more serious in after life. It is therefore not our
+faults if we cannot feel as, you must know, Tom, my father wishes
+we should. Am I not right?"</p>
+<p>"You are, I believe, Bessy," replied I.</p>
+<p>"My father, therefore, is deceiving himself with the hopes of
+what never can take place, but I know him even better than you do,
+Tom; it is the object of his daily thoughts&mdash;his only wish
+before he sinks into his grave. I cannot bear to undeceive him; no
+more can you, if I have truly judged your feelings."</p>
+<p>"You have judged right, Bessy."</p>
+<p>"The very circumstance of our knowing his wishes, the hints
+which he throws out, his joking on the subject, have been a source
+of annoyance to both of us; and not only a source of annoyance,
+Tom, it has estranged us&mdash;we no longer feel that affection
+which we should feel for each other, that kindness as between
+brother and sister which might exist; on the contrary, not being
+exactly aware of each other's feelings, we avoid each other, and
+fearful that the least kindness might be misconstrued, we do not
+really treat each as we otherwise would; in fact, it has destroyed
+our mutual confidence. Is it not so?"</p>
+<p>"It is, I acknowledge, but too true, Bessy, and I thank you for
+having entered into this explanation&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Which, as I said before," continued Bessy, "I should not have
+done except for the sake of my father; but now that I have done so"
+(and here Bessy's voice became tremulous), "let us consult at once
+how we shall act so as to secure his happiness, and that in future
+we may return to the former confidence and regard which should
+exist between us as brother and sister."</p>
+<p>"Point out how this is to be done, Bessy, and I will cheerfully
+enter into your wishes."</p>
+<p>"We must laugh when he laughs, Tom, even if not inclined; we
+must gain time&mdash;that is very easy. I may refuse as long as he
+lives&mdash;you may put it off; and then, Tom, circumstances may
+help us&mdash;who knows what even a day may bring forth?"</p>
+<p>"Very true," replied I, "there's only one thing&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"What is that?"</p>
+<p>"Suppose I was to marry?"</p>
+<p>"Then," replied Bessy, in a voice half choked, as she turned
+away, "my father would be very unhappy."</p>
+<p>I looked round to reply, but she had gone into the cottage. This
+conversation gave me great satisfaction. I felt convinced that if I
+had at one time formed the idea that Bessy was attached to me, I
+had been mistaken, and I was as indifferent to her as she was to
+me. I was just as anxious as she was not to vex Bramble, and
+equally glad that confidence was restored between us. Alas! I must
+have been very blind not to have perceived what was the true state
+of her feelings, but I did not, and after some reflection I
+determined that I would make her a confidante of my passion for
+Janet Wilson; and then I walked to the post-office to see if there
+were any letters from Virginia. There was a letter for me&mdash;a
+double one. As soon as I had paid the money, I opened it; it was
+very closely written, and evidently Virginia had much to
+communicate to me. I forgot for the moment Bessy and Bramble,
+thought only of Janet, and put the letter to my lips as I walked
+away, that I might go home and read it. I hurried past Bessy, who
+was in the parlor, and went up the stairs into my bedroom, where I
+took my letter out of my pocket and commenced it.</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"15th April.,</p>
+<p>"MY DEAR TOM&mdash;I shall begin a letter to you now, and fill
+it up as a sort of a diary; as it is the best plan, I think, to
+narrate circumstances as they actually take place. It is unpleasant
+to say anything against my mother, the more so as I believe that
+she thinks she has been doing right, and has my interest sincerely
+at heart: she appears to consider that an alliance with people of
+rank cannot be purchased too dear, and that every attempt is
+justifiable to secure for me such an advantage. Little does she
+know me. If she forgets, I never shall, that I am the daughter of a
+Greenwich pensioner, and never would ally myself with those whose
+relations would look upon me as a disgrace to their family. No,
+Tom; even if I were so heedless as to allow my affections to be
+enthralled, I would at any sacrifice refuse to enter into a family
+much beyond my condition. I have thought of this often, and I
+confess that I am sometimes unhappy. I have been brought up and
+educated above my situation in life, and I do not think I ever
+could marry a person who was not more refined and educated than
+those who are really and truly my equals, But as, at the same time,
+I never will enter into a family who might look down upon my
+parentage, I presume your little Virginia must remain unmarried. If
+so, I am content&mdash;I have no wish to alter my present
+condition. I am happy and respected; and with the exception of the
+trifling annoyances which we all must expect and must submit to, I
+have no reason to be dissatisfied; on the contrary, I have to be
+grateful for many blessings, and I trust that I am so. My poor
+mother is the cause of all my present vexations. She tells me that
+my beauty, as she is partially pleased to call it, is sufficient
+for my aspiring to the hand of a duke, and that it will be my own
+fault if I do not make a high connection. Every night she has been
+overwhelming me with alternate reproaches and entreaties to permit
+the attentions of the gay gentleman who is now lodging at our
+house, stating that it was on my account only that he took the
+apartments, and that, if I play my cards well, he will be caught in
+his own trap, which, I presume, is as much as to say that he came
+here with different intentions, and finding that he cannot succeed,
+will secure his intended prize or victim by marriage rather than
+not obtain her at all. Very flattering, truly! and this is the man
+to whom my mother would induce me to confide my future
+happiness&mdash;a man who, independent of his want of probity, is a
+fool into the bargain. But the persecution on his part and on that
+of my mother now becomes so annoying that I have requested Mrs. St.
+Felix to speak to Mr. Sommerville the tutor, who, if he does his
+duty&mdash;and I have every reason to believe that he will do
+so&mdash;will take some measures to remove his pupil from our
+house.</p>
+<p>"17th. Mrs. St. Felix and Mr. Sommerville have had a meeting. He
+generally walks out every afternoon in the park; and Mrs. St. Felix
+and he have already been introduced. She therefore went out and met
+him, and after exchanging a few words she introduced the subject,
+stating that she did so at my request. Mr. Sommerville, although he
+had not been blind, had had no idea that things had proceeded so
+far; and he promised Mrs. St. Felix that he would soon put an end
+to the persecution, or remove him from our house. Janet has been
+here to-day, and I told her what had passed; she very much approved
+of the steps which I had taken. I must, however, say that latterly
+she has not appeared to take that interest about you that she used
+to do, and I fear that your continual absence is injurious to your
+prospects. She is very young and very giddy, Tom. I wish she had
+been older, as, even when she is your wife, she will require much
+looking after, and a firm hand to settle her down into what a
+married woman in my opinion ought to be. Mr. Sommerville has
+requested me to favor him with a few minutes' conversation; and as
+I cannot do it in our house, for my mother never leaves me a minute
+to myself, I told him that I should be at Mrs. St. Felix's this
+afternoon, and he could speak to me then. He knows that I have no
+secrets from Mrs. St. Felix; and although it is not pleasant to
+resort to such means, still there can be no impropriety in my
+hearing what he has to tell me in her presence.</p>
+<p>"I have seen Mr. Sommerville&mdash;he thanked me very much for
+having communicated, through Mrs. St. Felix, my mother's plot
+against his protege, and paid me many compliments upon my behavior,
+which were quite unnecessary. He told me that he had spoken to his
+pupil, who had most positively denied his having any such
+intention, and stated that he was merely amusing himself, and he
+had pledged himself not to take the least notice of me for the
+future. 'I am well aware,' said he, 'that what he has stated is not
+correct; he has not deceived me by his assertions; and were it not
+that I feel confidence in you, Miss Virginia,' continued he, 'I
+would write to his father that he might be immediately removed. I
+hardly need say that should anything of this kind take place, I
+should be most severely blamed. It is not the first time that I
+have been compelled to interfere, for my pupil is of a very
+susceptible disposition, and has fancied himself in love with at
+least five young people since he has been under my charge. In this
+instance,' continued he, making me a bow, 'he has some extenuation
+to offer. Will you oblige me by informing me if he adheres to his
+promise? or do you wish that I should speak to your mother?'</p>
+<p>"Mrs. St. Felix replied that it would be unnecessary; indeed,
+that if Lord &mdash;&mdash; left the house I should only be subject
+to fresh persecution. Mr. Sommerville, at her request, stayed to
+drink tea, and is certainly a very pleasant, well-informed, amiable
+young man.</p>
+<p>"23d. I have received no molestation since the explanation with
+Mr. Sommerville, except from my mother, who accuses me of having
+affronted Lord &mdash;&mdash;; and although I deny it, she asserts
+that he never could have so changed his conduct toward both of us
+if I had not so done. I have not seen Janet this week&mdash;I
+cannot imagine what has become of her.</p>
+<p>"24th. You may imagine my joy, my dear Tom. Mr. Sommerville has
+received a letter, stating that his lordship is to go down to his
+father's seat in the country, as he will be of age in a month, and
+he is to make acquaintance with the tenants; there are to be great
+rejoicings there upon his coming of age. I am sure no one can
+rejoice more than I shall when he leaves, which is to be next
+Saturday. I am also very glad to say that the Marquess has
+presented Mr. Sommerville with a valuable living, now that he gives
+up his tutorship. I really think he will do justice to his
+profession, for I have seen more of him lately, and esteem him very
+much.</p>
+<p>"27th. They are gone, much to my mother's mortification and to
+my delight; and now, as I have written so much about myself, I
+shall leave this letter open till I see Janet, that I may tell you
+something about her, otherwise I know my letter will not be
+interesting to you.</p>
+<p>"31st. My dear Tom, you must prepare yourself for painful
+intelligence.</p>
+<p>"Janet has disappeared. She left her father's house last night
+after the family had retired, but no one knows where. She left a
+few lines on her table, stating that they would hear from her soon.
+Poor Mr. Wilson was here to-day&mdash;he is half
+distracted&mdash;and the whole town is full of the scandal. Mrs.
+St. Felix told me this morning that she has discovered that within
+the last week she has been seen walking on the London Road with
+Lord &mdash;&mdash;. Is it possible?</p>
+<p>"May 2d. It is all true&mdash;Mrs. St. Felix has a letter from
+Mr. Sommerville, stating that Janet was brought up to town and
+married to Lord &mdash;&mdash; two days ago. It appears that from
+the time that I repulsed his attentions he fixed them upon Janet;
+that she encouraged him, and used to meet him every night, as Mrs.
+St. Felix was informed. Mr. Sommerville has seen his father, and
+fully exculpated himself; but the Marquess declares, as his son is
+a minor, that the marriage shall not be binding. How it will end
+Heaven only knows; but she is much to be pitied. This will account
+for her not coming to me as usual. Now, Tom, I do not suppose you
+will pay attention to me at present, but from what I knew of Janet,
+and which her conduct has fully proved, she was not worthy to be
+your wife, and could not have contributed to your happiness. I pity
+you from my heart, as I know what you will feel; but still I
+congratulate you, and eventually you will congratulate yourself at
+your fortunate escape.</p>
+<p>"I will say no more at present, except that I am, and ever will
+be,</p>
+<p>"Your truly attached sister,</p>
+<p>"VIRGINIA."</p>
+</div>
+<p>I had courage to finish the letter, and then it dropped from my
+hands. I was bewildered, stupefied, maddened. As my sister said, I
+did indeed feel. Was it possible? Janet, who had&mdash;mercy on me!
+I threw myself on the bed, and there I remained till the next
+morning in a state most pitiable.</p>
+<p>It is only those who have been deceived in their first
+attachment who can appreciate my agony of feeling. For the first
+few hours I hated the whole world, and, had then the means been at
+hand, should in all probability have hastened into another; but
+gradually my excitement abated; I found relief in tears of sorrow
+and indignation. I arose at daylight the next morning, worn out
+with contending feelings, heavy and prostrated in mind. I went
+out&mdash;stood on the beach, the keen breeze cooled my fevered
+cheek. For hours I leaned motionless upon an anchor, all hope of
+future happiness abandoned forever.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus367.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_EIGHT" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Which is all about Love&mdash;Bramble confides to me all his
+Acquaintance with the tender Passion.</p>
+</div>
+<p>To conceal from Bramble or Bessy the state of mind to which I
+was reduced was impossible. I was in a condition of prostration
+against which I could not rally; and I believe that there never was
+a person who had been disappointed in his first love who did not
+feel as I did&mdash;that is, if he really loved with a sincere,
+pure, and holy feeling; for I do not refer to the fancied
+attachments of youth, which may be said to be like the mere flaws
+of wind which precede the steady gale. I could not, for several
+days, trust myself to speak; I sat silent and brooding over the
+words, the looks, the smiles, the scenes which had promised me a
+store of future happiness&mdash;such as would probably have been
+the case, as far as we can be happy in this world, had I fixed my
+affections upon a true and honest, instead of a fickle and vain,
+woman; had I built my house upon a rock, instead of one upon the
+sand&mdash;which, as pointed out by the Scriptures, had been washed
+away, and had disappeared forever! Bramble and Bessy in vain
+attempted to gain from me the cause of my dejection; I believe that
+they had many conversations upon it when I was absent, but whatever
+may have been their surmises, they treated me with every kindness
+and consideration. About a week after I had received the letter,
+Bramble said to me, "Come, Tom, we have had an easterly wind for
+ten days now, they are going off in a galley
+to-morrow&mdash;suppose we go too; it's no use staying here moping
+and doing nothing. You've been out of sorts lately, and it will do
+you good." I thought so too, and consented; but the other pilots
+were not ready, and our departure was deferred till the day after.
+Bramble had acquainted me in the morning with this delay; I was
+annoyed at it, for I was restless and wished for change. My bundle
+had been prepared; I had passed the best part of the night in
+writing to Virginia, and was, as people very often are when under
+such oppressed feelings, in anything but a good humor at being
+obliged to remain another day at Deal. I had walked out to the
+beach after we had breakfasted, and had remained there some time.
+Bramble had gone out in the direction of the post-office, and I
+asked him to inquire if there was a letter for me, for I thought it
+very likely that Virginia might have written to me again. I had
+remained for an hour on the beach, when I recollected that my knife
+required to be sharpened, and I walked round the cottage to the
+back yard, where there was a small grindstone. I had not put my
+knife to it when I heard Bramble come in and say to Bessy:</p>
+<p>"Well, girl, I've found it all out; for, you see, I thought old
+Anderson might know something about it, or, if he did not, he could
+inquire&mdash;and I've got the whole story. Here's Anderson's
+letter. I thought there must be something of that sort."</p>
+<p>Here there was a pause, as if Bessy was reading the letter.</p>
+<p>"Only to think&mdash;she's run away with a young lord," said
+Bramble.</p>
+<p>"So it seems," replied Bessy. "I'm sorry for poor Tom, for he
+feels it severely."</p>
+<p>"I'm not sorry," rejoined Bramble; "she wasn't deserving of him;
+and, Bessy, I'm glad for your sake."</p>
+<p>"Don't say that, father; Tom will never think of me, nor do I
+care about him."</p>
+<p>"I don't exactly believe that, Bessy, for all you say so. It's
+my wish, and you know it, Bessy, to see you and Tom spliced before
+I die; and I thank Heaven that this false girl is out of the
+way&mdash;I've more hopes now."</p>
+<p>"Marriages are made in heaven, father," replied Bessy; "so, pray
+don't say any thing more about it. It will be time enough for me to
+think of Tom when Tom appears to think of me. I shall always love
+him as a brother."</p>
+<p>"Well, God's will be done! We must now try and console him, poor
+fellow; and I'm very glad that we're off to-morrow. Salt water
+cures love, they say, sooner than anything else."</p>
+<p>"It may, perhaps," replied Bessy; "but I feel that if I were
+once really in love the whole ocean itself could not wash my love
+out. However, women are not men."</p>
+<p>"That's true. You hug your love as you do your babies, all day
+long, and never tire. Now, you see, a man gets tired of nursing in
+no time. I never was in love but once."</p>
+<p>"Oh, father, I've heard that story so often."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, you shan't hear it again. Now, I'll go out and see
+where Tom may be. I suppose he's looking at the wind, and thinking
+how it changes like a woman. But I'll light my pipe first."</p>
+<p>"Do, father; and while Tom looks at the wind and thinks of
+women, do you just watch the smoke out of your pipe, and think of
+men and their constancy."</p>
+<p>"Well, I will, if it pleases you. Put the letter by, Bessy, for
+I shouldn't like Tom to see it. What have you got for dinner?"</p>
+<p>"I left that to Mrs. Maddox, so I can't tell. But there's cold
+pudding in the larder; I'll put it out for Tom."</p>
+<p>"Nay, Bessy, you must not jest with him."</p>
+<p>"Am I likely, think you, father?" replied Bessy. "Can't I feel
+for him?"</p>
+<p>"Come, come, dearest, I didn't mean to make you cry."</p>
+<p>"I'm not crying, but I'm very sorry for Tom, and that's the
+truth. Now go away with your pipe and leave me alone."</p>
+<p>It was impossible for me to have returned without being
+perceived, and I therefore remained during the whole of this
+conversation. I was annoyed to discover that they knew my secret;
+and still more vexed at the remainder of this colloquy, by which I
+discovered that Bramble had so completely set his heart upon a
+union between me and Bessy, which I considered as impossible. I
+felt, as all do at the time, as if I never could love again. I
+walked away, and did not return home till dinner-time. Bramble and
+Bessy were very kind, although they did not talk much; and when I
+went away the next day I was moved with the affectionate farewell
+of the latter.</p>
+<p>It was a beautiful night, and we were running before the east
+wind, the Portland Light upon our starboard beam; the other men in
+the boat had lain down in their gregos and pilot jackets, and were
+fast asleep, while Bramble was at the helm steering; and I, who was
+too restless in my mind to feel any inclination to repose, was
+sitting on the sternsheets beside him.</p>
+<p>"Do you see the line of the <i>Race</i>" said Bramble; "it seems
+strong to-night."</p>
+<p>Bramble referred to what is called by the mariners the Race of
+Portland, where the uneven ground over which the water runs creates
+a very heavy sea even in a calm. Small smuggling vessels and boats,
+forced into it in bad weather, have often foundered. The tide,
+however, runs so rapidly over it that you are generally swept
+through it in a few minutes, and then find yourself again in
+comparatively smooth water.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied I; "it is very strong to-night, from the long
+continuance of the easterly wind."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so, Tom," continued Bramble. "I've often thought that
+getting into that Race is just like failing in love."</p>
+<p>"Why so?" replied I, rather pettishly, for I was not pleased at
+his referring to the subject.</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you why, Tom," said Bramble; "because, you see, when
+we get into the Race it's all boiling and bubbling and tossing
+about&mdash;rudder and sails are of no use; and you are carried
+along by a fierce tide, which there's no resisting, with no small
+damage to the upper works, until you are fairly out again, and find
+breath to thank God for it. Now, aren't that like love?"</p>
+<p>"I suppose it is as you say so; you know best."</p>
+<p>"Well, I think I do know best; because, you see, I have long
+been clear of it. I never was in love but once, Tom; did I ever
+tell you about it?"</p>
+<p>"Never," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, as 'twill pass time away, I'll just give you the
+long and the short of it, as the saying is. When I was just about
+twenty, and a smart lad in my own opinion, I was on board of a
+transport, and we had gone round to Portsmouth with a load of
+timber for the dockyard. It was not my first trip there, for, you
+see, the transport was employed wholly on that service; and during
+my cruising on shore I had taken up my quarters at the Chequer
+Board, a house a little way from the common Hard, in the street
+facing the dockyard wall; for, you see, Tom, it was handy to us, as
+our ship laid at the wharf, off the mast pond, it being just
+outside the dockyard gates. The old fellow who kept the house was
+as round as a ball, for he never started out by any chance from one
+year's end to another; his wife was dead; and he had an only
+daughter, who served at the bar, in a white cap with blue
+streamers; and when her hair was out of papers, and she put on
+clean shoes and stockings, which she did every day after dinner,
+she was a very smart neat built little heifer; and, being an only
+daughter, she was considered as a great catch to any one who could
+get hold of her. She had quite the upper hand of her father, who
+dared not say a word; and with others she would give herself no few
+airs. At one time she would be as sweet as sugar, and the next,
+without any cause, she'd 'wonder at your imperance.' It was
+difficult to know how to take her. It's a bad thing for a girl to
+have a great fortune; they get so much flattery that it turns their
+heads. Well, Tom, I wasn't looking after the money, as you'll
+believe when I tell you so; but as she was very chatty with me, and
+allowed me to come inside the bar, which was considered as a great
+favor, to help rinse the glasses, and so on, and as the other men
+used to joke with me, and tell me that I should carry off the
+prize, I began to think that she was fond of me, and so very
+naturally I became fond of her; and we met and we parted (and she
+would allow me to kiss her when we parted), until I was quite gone
+altogether, and did nothing but think of her all day and dream of
+her all night. Well, the last time that I was in the transport to
+Portsmouth, I had made up my mind to clinch the business, and as
+soon as the sails were furled, I dressed myself in my best toggery
+and made all sail for the old house. When I came in I found Peggy
+in the bar, and a very fancy sort of young chap alongside of her. I
+did not think so much of that, and I was going inside the bar to
+shake hands as usual, when says she, 'Well, I should not wonder,'
+pulling to the half-door, as if she were surprised at my attempting
+to come in.</p>
+<p>"'Oh, ho!' says I, 'are you on that tack? what next?' and then I
+looked more at the chap, and he was a very nice young man, as the
+saying is. As I afterward found out, he was in the smuggling line
+between Cherbourg and our coast, and he had Frenchified manners,
+and he talked little bits of French, and he had French gloves for
+presents, and had earrings in his ears, and lots of rings on his
+fingers. So I took my seat at the wooden benches near the fire,
+just as sulky as a bear with a sore head, watching their maneuvers.
+At last he walked out, kissing his hand as she smiles. As the coast
+was clear I went up to the bar.</p>
+<p>"'Well,' says I, 'Peggy, so the wind's shifted, is it?'</p>
+<p>"'What do you mean?' says she. 'I suppose I may be civil to
+another person as well as to you.'</p>
+<p>"'Yes, I see no objection,' says I; 'but why was he to be inside
+the bar, and I put out?'</p>
+<p>"'Oh,' replied she, 'one at a time, you know, Mr. Philip. I
+haven't made any promises to you that I know of.'</p>
+<p>"'That's very true,' replied I, 'but&mdash;'</p>
+<p>"'Oh, you mustn't fret here,' interrupted she. 'I'm my own
+mistress, I suppose. However, I'll tell you this much, that I don't
+care a bit about him, and that's the truth of it&mdash;but I did
+not like your coming inside the bar so quietly, as if you had a
+right there, for I don't want people to make remarks.'</p>
+<p>"Well, the end of it was that she pacified me, and we were as
+great friends almost as ever. I say almost, for I had my eyes upon
+her and that chap, and did not much like it. A week after my
+arrival there was to be a fair over at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight,
+and I asked Peggy whether she would go with me; but she refused,
+saying that she was obliged to go to her aunt's out at Limberhook,
+who was very old, and had sent for her, so I thought nothing more
+about the matter. Well, the day before the fair, as we were busy in
+the fore noon getting the timber out of the vessel, one of my
+shipmates, who went to the same house, says to me, 'I say, Tom,
+when I was at the Chequers last night, I overheard Peggy promise to
+go to the Ryde Fair with that Frenchified smuggling chap.'</p>
+<p>"'Did you?' said I.</p>
+<p>"'Yes,' replied he, 'and they agreed to start at twelve o'clock,
+just after the dockyard bell rang. I thought at the time it was
+just to give you the slip before you left the ship, and that she is
+turning you over.'</p>
+<p>"Well, when I heard this, did not my blood boil? for the hussy
+had told me a lie in saying that she was going to her aunt's; and
+it was evident that she had done so that she might go with this
+other fellow to the fair. I thought the matter over and over again,
+for, to tell you the truth, all I wanted then was revenge. I felt
+nothing but scorn for a woman who could act in so base a manner; at
+the same time I wished to punish both her and him by spoiling their
+day's sport; so at last I determined that I would start right away
+for the fair myself, and not only put her to shame, but give her
+fancy man a good drubbing, which I was well able to do. So I walks
+down to Point and gets into a wherry, keeping a sharp lookout for
+their coming down from the Hard. At last I spied them, and then I
+made the waterman pull away, so as to keep about three cables'
+lengths ahead of them, and thus I continued watching their billing
+and cooing, and grinding my teeth with rage, until we had come over
+to the other side. Now, you see, Tom, at that time there was no
+wooden pier at Ryde as there is now, and when the tide was out
+there was such a long flat of mud that there was no landing; so the
+way it was managed was, the wherries came in as far as they could,
+and were met by a horse and cart, which took out the passengers and
+carried them through the mud and water to the hard ground. Well,
+when I pulled in, the man was there with his horse and cart, and I
+paid my fare, and stepped out of the wherry, expecting the man to
+drive off and put me on shore; but he, seeing that there was
+another wherry close at hand, says he must wait for her passengers,
+and make one trip of it. I did not care how soon we met, and waited
+very patiently until they pulled up to us. They were not a little
+surprised to see me, and not a little annoyed either. As for Peggy,
+she colored to her elbows, and then tried to put up an impudent
+face on the matter. He looked both foolish and angry. They were
+both very smart. She had on a white gown with a yellow handkerchief
+on her shoulders, a green silk bonnet and blue feathers, and he was
+figged out as fine as fivepence, with white jean trousers, and
+rings and chains, and Lord knows what.</p>
+<p>"'Well,' says Peggy, as bold as brass, 'who'd have thought to
+have seen you here?'</p>
+<p>"'I did not say that I was going to see my aunt,' replied I;
+'but as you did, who would have expected to see you here?'</p>
+<p>"'Don't talk to me, young man,' said she, as red as fire, and
+turning away to her beau.</p>
+<p>"Just as she said this, the cart drove off, the horse
+floundering through the mud, which was about three feet deep, with
+a matter of six inches of water above it. As she turned away aft, I
+turned forward, thinking what I should do next, and then I cast my
+eyes down, and observed that it was a tilting cart as they use for
+carrying out manure, and that if I took the two pegs out it would
+fall right back. I thought this a capital trick. The carman was
+sitting on his horse, and it couldn't matter to him, so I stepped
+out on the front of the cart, and standing on the shafts, I first
+pulled out one peg and then another, while they were busy talking
+to each other, with their heads so close that his face was under
+her bonnet. As soon as the second peg was out, I helped up the
+front of the cart a little, and back it went, shooting them out
+right headforemost in the mud. You never saw such a scramble, for
+they had caught hold of each other in their fright, and they rolled
+and floundered, and were half smothered before they could recover
+their feet; and then a pretty pickle they were in, wet to the skin,
+and covered with mud from one end to the other; they could not see
+out of their eyes. Peggy did nothing but scream and
+flounder&mdash;she was frightened out of her wits&mdash;while the
+carman and I laughed ready to split. I gave him half a crown to
+drive on shore without them, which he did, and we left them to make
+their way out how they could; and a pretty pickle they did come out
+at last. Thus was their day's pleasure, as well as their clothes,
+all spoiled; and instead of dancing at the fair and seeing all the
+sights, they were shivering in their wet clothes, and the
+laughingstocks to all that saw them.</p>
+<p>"Depend upon it, I did not leave them after they had crawled out
+to the beach. The fellow was, as you may suppose, as savage as a
+bull, and very saucy, so I took off my jacket that I might not
+dirty myself, and gave him a couple of black eyes and a bloody nose
+for his trouble; and as for Peggy, I pretended to be so sorry for
+her, and condoled with her so much, that at last she flew at me
+like a tigress&mdash;and as I knew that there was no honor, and
+plenty of mud, to be gained by the conflict, I took to my heels and
+ran off to the fair, where I met some of my friends and told them
+what had happened, and then we had a very merry day of it, and I
+felt quite cured of my love; for, you see, Peggy looked so ugly and
+miserable when she was in the state I left her, that I had only to
+think of her as when I last saw her, and all my love was gone."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever meet her again?"</p>
+<p>"I met her that very night; for, you see, she had gone to a
+cottage and taken off her clothes, having insisted upon her fancy
+man going back to Portsmouth to fetch her others to go home in. He
+dared not refuse, so off he went in the pickle that he was. But he
+didn't come back again, for, you see, there was a warrant out
+against him for an affray at Bear Haven, in which a King's officer
+was killed; and after he had changed his own clothes, and was
+proceeding to get some for her from the Chequers, he was met by the
+constable who had the warrant, and carried off handcuffed to jail,
+and afterward he was transported&mdash;so she never saw him again.
+Well, Peggy, poor creature, had been waiting for him for hours,
+expecting his return; and it was past ten o'clock when I was coming
+down with some others, and saw her at the door of the cottage
+weeping.</p>
+<p>"'Good-night, Peggy,' says I.</p>
+<p>"'Oh, Philip, do be kind, do come to me; I'm frightened out of
+my life. I shall have to stay here all night.'</p>
+<p>"So, you see, I did feel some little pity for her, and I went up
+to her, and she told me how she had sent him, and he had never come
+back again.</p>
+<p>"'The fact is,' says I, 'Peggy, you aren't smart enough for such
+a Frenchified chap as he is. He don't like to be seen in your
+company. Come, get up, and I will see you home, at all events;' so
+I took charge of her, and saw her safe to her father's door.</p>
+<p>"'Won't you come in?' said she.</p>
+<p>"'No, thank you,' says I.</p>
+<p>"'Won't you forgive me, Philip?' said she.</p>
+<p>"'Yes," says I, 'I'll forgive you, for old acquaintance' sake,
+and for one more reason.'</p>
+<p>"'What's that?' says Peggy.</p>
+<p>"'Why,' says I, 'for the lesson which you've learned me. I've
+been made a fool of once, and it's your fault; but if ever a woman
+makes a fool of me again, why, then it's mine. And so, Peggy,
+good-by forever.'</p>
+<p>"So I turned away on my heel, and as I left the transport the
+next trip, I never saw her again."</p>
+<p>"Well, Bramble," replied I, "I agree with you; and if ever a
+woman makes a fool of me <i>again</i>, it will be my fault. You
+know what's happened, so I don't mind saying so."</p>
+<p>"Why, Tom, in your present humor, you think so; but all do not
+keep to the same way of thinking as I did till it was too late to
+think about marrying; but still I do not think that I should have
+been happy as a single man, if it had not been for my falling in
+with Bessy. I should have been very lonely, I expect, for I began
+to feel so. When you come to your own door, Tom, home looks
+cheerless if there is no bright eye to welcome you, and the older a
+man gets the more he feels that he was not intended to live single.
+My yearning after something to love and to love me, which is in our
+nature, was satisfied, first by having Bessy, and then by having
+you&mdash;and I'm thankful."</p>
+<p>"You might have married, and have been very unhappy."</p>
+<p>"I might, and I might have been very happy, had I chosen a wife
+as a man should do."</p>
+<p>"And how is that, pray, Bramble?"</p>
+<p>"Why, Tom, I've often thought upon it. In the first place look
+out for good temper: if you find that you may be happy, even if
+your wife is a silly woman; assure yourself first of her temper,
+and then you must judge her by the way in which she does those
+duties which have fallen to her lot; for if a girl is a dutiful and
+affectionate daughter there is little fear but that she will prove
+a loving and obedient wife. But I think we have had our spell here,
+Tom, and it's rather cold: rouse up one of those chaps, and tell
+him to come to the helm. I'll coil myself up and have a snooze till
+the morning, and do you do the same."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus380.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTY_NINE" id=
+"CHAPTER_THIRTY_NINE"></a>CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which I receive a very severe Blow from a Party or Parties
+unknown.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The day after this conversation we fell in with several vessels
+windbound at the entrance of the Channel. I took charge of one, and
+the wind shifting to the S.W., and blowing strong, I carried her up
+to the Pool. As soon as I could leave her I took a boat to go down
+to Greenwich, as I was most anxious to have a long conversation
+with Virginia. It was a dark squally night, with rain at intervals
+between the gusts of wind, and I was wet through long before I
+landed at the stairs, which was not until past eleven o'clock. I
+paid the waterman, and hastened up to my mother's house, being
+aware that they would either be all in bed or about to retire. It
+so happened that I did not go the usual way, but passed by the
+house of old Nanny; and as I walked by with a quick step, and was
+thinking of her and her misfortunes, I fell over something which,
+in the dark, I did not perceive, and which proved to be some iron
+railings, which the workmen who were fixing them up had carelessly
+left on the ground, previous to their returning to their work on
+the ensuing morning. Fortunately the spikes at the ends of them
+were from me, and I received no injury, except a severe blow on the
+shin; and as I stopped a moment to rub it, I thought that I heard a
+cry from the direction of old Nanny's house; but the wind was very
+high, and I was not certain. I stopped and listened, and it was
+repeated. I gained the door. It was so dark that I groped for the
+latch. The door was open, and when I went in I heard a gurgling
+kind of noise and a rustling in her chamber. "Who's
+there?&mdash;What's this?" cried I; for I had a foreboding that
+something was wrong. I tumbled over some old iron, knocked down the
+range of keys, and made a terrible din, when, of a sudden, just as
+I had recovered my legs, I was thrown down again by somebody who
+rushed by me and darted out of the door. As the person rushed by me
+I attempted to seize his arm, but I received a severe blow on the
+mouth, which cut my lip through, and at first I thought I had lost
+all my front teeth.</p>
+<p>I rose up. I heard a heavy groaning; so, instead of pursuing the
+robber, I felt my way into Nanny's chamber. "Nanny," said I,
+"mother, what's the matter?" but there was no reply, except another
+groan. I knew where she kept her tinderbox and matches; I found
+them, and struck a light; and by the light of the match I perceived
+the candle and candlestick lying on the floor. I picked it up,
+lighted it, and then turned to the bed; the flock mattress was
+above all, and the groans proceeded from beneath. I threw it off,
+and found old Nanny still breathing, but in a state of exhaustion
+and quite insensible. By throwing water on her face, after some
+little while I brought her to her senses. The flaring of the candle
+reminded me that the shop door was open. I went and made it fast,
+and then spoke to her. It was a long while before I could obtain
+any rational answer. She continued to groan and cry at intervals,
+"Don't leave me, Jack, don't leave me." At last she fell into a
+sort of slumber from exhaustion, and in this state she remained for
+more than an hour. One thing was evident to me, which was, that the
+party, whoever it might be, had attempted to smother the poor old
+woman, and that in a few seconds more he would have perpetrated the
+deed.</p>
+<p>At last old Nanny roused up, and turning to me, said, "It's
+Jack, is it not? I thought so. Oh, my poor head! What has
+happened?"</p>
+<p>"That's what I want to know from you, mother," replied I; "but
+first I will tell you what I know of the business." Which I did, to
+give her time to collect her thoughts.</p>
+<p>"Yes," said she, "so it was. I was just in bed, and my candle
+was not out, when I heard a noise at the door, as if they were
+turning a key in it, and then a man entered; but he had something
+over his face, I thought, or he had blacked it. 'What do you want?'
+cried I. 'I come for a light, old woman,' said he. I cried
+'Thieves! murder!' as loud as I could, and he ran up to me just as
+I was getting out of bed, and tried to smother me. I don't
+recollect anything more till I heard your voice. Thank you, Jack,
+and God bless you; if you hadn't come to the assistance of a poor
+old wretch like me, I should have been dead by this time."</p>
+<p>I felt that what she said was true, and I then asked her many
+questions, so as to lead to the discovery of the party.</p>
+<p>"How was he dressed?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>"I can't exactly say. But, do you know, Jack, I fancied that he
+had a pensioner's coat on; indeed, I am almost sure of it. I think
+I tore off one of his buttons, I recollect its giving way; I may be
+wrong&mdash;my head wanders."</p>
+<p>But I thought that most likely Nanny was right, so I looked down
+on the floor with the candle, and there I picked up a pensioner's
+button.</p>
+<p>"You're right, Nanny; here is the button."</p>
+<p>"Well, now, Jack, I can't talk anymore; you won't leave me
+to-night, I'm sure."</p>
+<p>"No, no, mother, that I will not. Try to go to sleep."</p>
+<p>Hardly had Nanny laid her head down again, when it came across
+my mind like a flash of lightning that it must have been Spicer who
+had attempted the deed; and my reason for so thinking was that the
+blow I had received on the mouth was not like that from the hand of
+a man, but from the wooden socket fixed to the stump of his right
+arm. The more I reflected upon it the more I was convinced. He was
+a clever armorer, and had picked the lock; and I now recalled to
+mind what had never struck me before, that he had often asked me
+questions about old Nanny, and whether I thought the report that
+she had money was correct.</p>
+<p>It was daylight before old Nanny woke up, and then she appeared
+to be quite recovered. I told her my suspicions, and my intentions
+to ascertain the truth of them as far as I possibly could.</p>
+<p>"Well, and what then?" said old Nanny.</p>
+<p>"Why, then, if we bring it home to him, he will be hanged, as he
+deserves."</p>
+<p>"Now, Jack, hear me," said old Nanny. "You won't do anything I
+don't wish, I'm sure; and now I'll tell you that I never would give
+evidence against him, or any other man, to have him hanged. So, if
+you find out that it is him, do not say a word about it. Promise
+me, Jack."</p>
+<p>"Why, mother, I can't exactly say that I will; but I will talk
+to Peter Anderson about it."</p>
+<p>"It's no use talking to him; and, if you do, it must be under
+promise of secrecy, or I will not consent to it. Jack, Jack,
+recollect that my poor boy was hanged from my fault. Do you think I
+will hang another? Oh, no. Perhaps this very man had a foolish
+wicked mother, like me, and has, like my boy, been led into guilt.
+Jack, you must do as I wish&mdash;you shall, Jack."</p>
+<p>"Well, mother, I have no animosity against the man himself; and,
+if you forgive him, I do not see why I should do anything."</p>
+<p>"I don't forgive him, Jack; but I think of my own poor boy."</p>
+<p>"Well, mother, since you wish it, it shall be so; and if I do
+prove that the man I suspect is the party, I will say nothing, and
+make Anderson promise the same, as I think he will. But how is it
+that people come to rob a poor old woman like you? How is it,
+mother, that there is a report going about that you have
+money?"</p>
+<p>"Is there such a report, Jack?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, mother, every one says so; why, I do not know; and as long
+as it is supposed, you will always be subject to attacks like this,
+unless, indeed, if you have money, you were to put it away safely,
+and let everybody know that you have done so. Tell me truly,
+mother, have you any money?"</p>
+<p>"Jack, what a boy you are to ask questions. Well, perhaps I have
+a little&mdash;a very little; but no one will ever find out where I
+have hidden it."</p>
+<p>"But they will try, mother, as this man has done, and you will
+always be in peril of your life. Why not place it in the hands of
+some safe person?"</p>
+<p>"Safe person! Who's safe nowadays?"</p>
+<p>"Why, for instance, there's Mr. Wilson."</p>
+<p>"Wilson! what do you know about him, Jack, except that he has a
+smooth face and a bald head? You're young, Jack, and don't know the
+world. The money's safe where it is, and no one will ever find
+it."</p>
+<p>"If so, who is to find it after&mdash;" I stopped, for I did not
+like to say, after she was dead.</p>
+<p>"I know what you would have said, Jack; who's to find it after
+my death? That's very true. I never thought of that, and I must
+will it away. I never thought of that, Jack, it's very true, and
+I'm glad that you have mentioned it. But who dare I tell? who can I
+trust?&mdash;Can I trust you, Jack?&mdash;can I?&mdash;I ought, for
+it's all for you, Jack, when I die."</p>
+<p>"Mother, whoever it may be for, you may, I hope, trust me."</p>
+<p>"Well, I think I can. I'll tell you where it is, Jack, and that
+will prove that it is for you, for nobody else will know where to
+find it. But, Jack, dear, dear Jack, don't you rob me, as my son
+did; don't rob me, and leave me penniless, as he did; promise
+me?"</p>
+<p>"I never will, mother; you need not be afraid."</p>
+<p>"Yes; so you say, and so he said; he swore and he cried too,
+Jack, and then he took it all, and left his mother without a
+farthing."</p>
+<p>"Well, mother, then don't tell me; I'd rather not know. You will
+only be uncomfortable, and so let the money go."</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, that won't do either; I will tell you, for I can
+trust you. But first, Jack, go out and look behind the house, that
+there is no one listening at the window; for if any one should
+hear&mdash;go, look round carefully, and then come back."</p>
+<p>I did as she wished, and then Nanny bid me hold my head closer
+to her, while she whispered, "You must take the back out of the
+fireplace, and then pull out three bricks, and then put your hand
+into the hole, and you will find a small box; and there you will
+find a little money&mdash;a very little, Jack, hardly worth having,
+but still it may be of some use; and it's all yours when I die.
+Jack&mdash;I give it to you."</p>
+<p>"Mother, I'm thankful for your kindness, but I cannot touch it
+if you do die without you leave it to me by your will."</p>
+<p>"Ah! that's true, Jack. Well, tell Anderson to come here, and
+I'll tell him I'll leave the money to you; but I won't tell him
+where it is, I'll only say that I leave you everything I have.
+They'll suppose that it's the shop and all the pretty things." Here
+she chuckled for some time.</p>
+<p>It was now broad daylight, and Nanny told me that she would like
+to get up, and see about a padlock being put to her door before
+night; so I wished her good-by, and left her.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus387.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY" id="CHAPTER_FORTY"></a>CHAPTER
+FORTY</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Showing the great Advantages to be derived from Patronage.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I left old Nanny, and arrived at my mother's house in time for
+breakfast. I did not, however, find her in a very good humor;
+something had evidently ruffled her. Virginia also, who welcomed me
+most cordially, was taciturn and grave. My mother made but one
+observation during our repast.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said she, "you've found out what it is to wish to
+marry for love. I only wish it may be a lesson to others."</p>
+<p>To this evident attack upon Virginia, at the expense of my
+feelings, I made no reply, and soon afterward my mother went to
+superintend her establishment, leaving me and my sister alone.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said she, "I hope by this time you are no longer
+suffering from your late cruel disappointment. I have felt for you,
+I assure you, and, assuring you of that, will not again revert to
+the subject. Let her be blotted from your memory as soon as
+possible."</p>
+<p>"Be it so, my dear Virginia; but you are grave, and my mother is
+evidently out of humor. You must explain this."</p>
+<p>"That is easily done. I have made a sad mistake. I was so much
+annoyed at my mother's system toward me that I ventured, without
+her knowledge, to write to Lady Hercules, requesting her protection
+and influence to procure me some situation as a companion to a
+lady, amanuensis, or reader. It appears that her ladyship was not
+very sincere in her professions when we had an interview with her;
+at all events, her reply was anything but satisfactory, and,
+unfortunately, it was addressed to my mother and not to me. You can
+have no idea of my mother's indignation upon the receipt of it, and
+she has not been sparing in her reproaches to me for having written
+without her knowledge, and having, by so doing, subjected her to
+such a mortification. I certainly am sorry to have done so. As for
+her ladyship's answer, it would have been to me more a subject of
+mirth than any other feeling. It has, however, proved the cause of
+much annoyance from my mother's continually harping upon it."</p>
+<p>"Have you the letter of Lady Hercules?"</p>
+<p>"I have a copy of it, which I took, intending to have sent it to
+you the next time that I wrote. I will bring it down if you will
+wait a minute."</p>
+<p>When Virginia returned she put the following epistle into my
+hand:</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>MRS. SAUNDERS&mdash;I have received a letter from your daughter,
+which, I presume, was forwarded as a specimen of her penmanship;
+otherwise it was your duty to have addressed me yourself. I said to
+you, when I met you at Greenwich, that you were educating your
+daughter above her condition in life, and I now repeat it. My
+patronage is extended only to those who are not above their
+situations, which, I am sorry to observe, most people are now.
+Nevertheless, as I did say that I would exert my influence in your
+daughter's behalf, in consequence of your having been a decent,
+well-behaved menial to me, I have made inquiry among my
+acquaintances, and find that I may be, <i>possibly</i>, able to
+place her with my friend, Lady Towser, as a 'boudoir-assistant.' I
+have said <i>possibly</i>, as I am by no means sure that she will
+be equal to the situation, and the number of applicants are very
+numerous. The inclosed paper from Lady Towser will give you an idea
+of what will be requisite:</p>
+<p>"Morning, up at 6, and nicely dressed; come in in list shoes,
+and wait at bedside, in case Lady Towser should be troubled with
+her morning cough, to hand the emulsion, etc. At 9, to call and
+assist to dress Lady Towser's head tirewoman; follow her to Lady
+T.'s chamber, and obey orders. Breakfast in housekeeper's room.
+After breakfast assist housemaid to dust ornaments, and on
+Saturdays and Wednesdays, <i>wash</i>, comb, and examine dogs;
+other days comb and examine them only; clean and feed macaw,
+cockatoo, and parrot, also canary and other birds; bring up dogs'
+dinners, and prevent them fighting at meals. After dogs' dinners
+read to Lady T., if required; if not, get up collars and flounces,
+laces, etc., for Lady T. and Lady T.'s tirewoman. After your own
+dinner assist housekeeper as required in the still-room; fine
+needlework; repair clothes before they go to wash; dress and brush
+Lady T.'s perukes; walk out with dogs if weather is fine, and be
+careful to prevent their making any acquaintances whatever.</p>
+<p>"Evening&mdash;Read to Lady T., write notes, look over bills,
+and keep general accounts; if not wanted, to make herself useful in
+housekeeper's room, and obey all orders received from her or head
+tirewoman. At night see that the hot water is ready for Lady T.'s
+feet, and wait for her retiring to bed; wash Lady T.'s feet, and
+cut corns, as required; read Lady T. to sleep, or, if not required
+to read, wait till she is certain that Lady T. is so.</p>
+<p>"Now the only points in which I think your daughter may fail is
+in properly washing, combing, and examining the dogs, and cutting
+her ladyship's corns; but surely she can practice a little of both,
+as she will not be wanted for a month. There can be no difficulty
+about the first; and as for the latter, as all people in your rank
+of life have corns, she may practice upon yours or her father's. At
+all events, there can be no want of corns in Greenwich Hospital
+among the pensioners. I am desired to say that Lady T. gives no
+wages the first year; and you will be expected to send your
+daughter neatly fitted out, that she may be able to remain in the
+room when there is company. If this offer will not suit, I can do
+nothing more; the difficulty of patronage increases every day. You
+will send an answer.</p>
+<p>"VIRGINIA HAWKINGTREFYLYAN.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"I was just closing my letter when Lady Scrimmage came in; she
+tells me that Lady Towser is suited, and that you have no hopes of
+this situation. I have done my best. Lady Scrimmage has, however,
+informed me that she thinks she can, upon my recommendation, do
+something for you in Greenwich, as she deals largely with a highly
+respectable and fashionable milliner of the same name as your own,
+and with whom it would be of the greatest advantage to your
+daughter to be placed as an apprentice, or something of that sort.
+This is an opportunity not to be lost, and I therefore have
+requested Lady S. to write immediately, and I trust by <i>my
+patronage</i>, she will gain a <i>most enviable situation</i>."</p>
+<p>"That postscript is admirable," observed I, "and ought to have
+put my mother in a good humor. Is she not called by Lady Hercules
+'highly respectable and fashionable'?"</p>
+<p>"Very true," replied Virginia; "but my mother cannot get over
+the first part of the letter, in which she is mentioned as 'a
+decent and well-behaved menial.' She has since received a note from
+Lady Scrimmage, requesting her to take me in some capacity or
+another, adding, by way of postscript, 'You know you need not keep
+her if you do not like&mdash;it is very easy to send her away for
+idleness or impertinence; but I wish to oblige Lady Hercules, and
+so, pray, at all events, write and say that you will try her."</p>
+<p>"And what has my mother said in reply?"</p>
+<p>"She did not show me the answer; but, from what I have collected
+from her conversation, she has written a most haughty, and, I
+presume it will be said, a most impertinent letter to both the
+ladies; the one to Lady Scrimmage accompanied with her bill, which
+has not been paid these three years. I am sorry that my mother has
+been annoyed. My father, to whom I related what had taken place,
+told me that my mother was very ill treated by Lady Hercules, and
+that she had smothered her resentment with the hopes of benefiting
+her children by her patronage; but that was at a time when she
+little expected to be so prosperous as she is now."</p>
+<p>"It is all true, my dear girl; I recollect my father telling me
+the whole story. However, I presume my mother, now that she can
+venture upon defiance, has not failed to resort to it."</p>
+<p>"That I am convinced of. I only hope that she will carry her
+indignation against great people so far as not to court them as she
+has done, and abandon all her ridiculous ideas of making a match
+for me. After all, she has my welfare sincerely at heart, and,
+although mistaken in the means of securing it, I cannot but feel
+that she is actuated solely by her love for me."</p>
+<p>We then changed the conversation to Janet, about whom I could
+now speak calmly; after which I narrated to her what had occurred
+during the night, and my intention to consult with my father and
+Anderson upon the subject.</p>
+<p>Virginia then left me that she might assist her mother, and I
+hastened to my father's ward, where I found him, and, after our
+first greeting, requested that he would accompany me to Anderson's
+office, as I had something to communicate to them both. As I walked
+along with my father I perceived Spicer at a corner with his foot
+on a stone step and his hand to his knee, as if in pain. At last he
+turned round and saw us. I walked up to him, and he appeared a
+little confused as he said, "Ah! Tom, is that you? I did not know
+you were at Greenwich."</p>
+<p>"I came here last night," replied I; "and I must be off again
+soon. Are you lame?"</p>
+<p>"Lame! No; what should make me lame?" replied he, walking by the
+side of us as if he were not so.</p>
+<p>I looked at his coat, and perceived that the third button on the
+right side was missing.</p>
+<p>"You've lost a button, Spicer," observed I.</p>
+<p>"So I have," replied he; and, as we had now arrived at
+Anderson's door, my father and I turned from him to walk in and
+wished him good-by.</p>
+<p>Anderson was in his office, and as soon as the door was closed I
+communicated to them what had occurred during the night, expressing
+my conviction that Spicer was the party who had attempted the
+murder. In corroboration I reminded my father of the loss of the
+button from Spicer's coat, and produced the one which Nanny had
+torn off.</p>
+<p>"This is something more than suspicion," observed Anderson; "but
+if, as you say, old Nanny will not give evidence against him, I
+know not what can be done. Did you say that the old woman wanted to
+speak with me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, and I really wish that you would call there oftener."</p>
+<p>"Well," replied Anderson, "I'll go, Tom; but, to be plain with
+you, I do not think that I can be of much use there. I have been
+several times. She will gossip as long as you please; but if you
+would talk seriously, she turns a deaf ear. You see, Tom, there's
+little to be gained when you have to contend with such a besetting
+sin as avarice. It is so powerful, especially in old age, that it
+absorbs all other feelings. Still it is my duty, and it is also my
+sincere wish, to call her to a proper sense of her condition. The
+poor old creature is, like myself, not very far from the grave;
+and, when once in it, it will be too late. I will go, Tom, and most
+thankful shall I be if, with God's help, I may prove of service to
+her."</p>
+<p>We then left old Anderson to his duties, and my father went home
+with me. We had a long conversation relative to my sister, as well
+as about my own affairs. I had intended to have remained some days
+at Greenwich, but this was the first time that I had been there
+since Janet's desertion, and the sight of everything so reminded me
+of her, and made everything so hateful to me, that I became very
+melancholy. My mother was, moreover, very cross, and my sister
+anything but comfortable; and, on the third day, having received a
+letter from Bramble, stating that he had arrived at Deal, and that
+the easterly winds having again set in, they talked, of setting out
+again in the galley, I made this an excuse for leaving; and for the
+first time did I quit Greenwich without regret.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_ONE" id="CHAPTER_FORTY_ONE"></a>CHAPTER
+FORTY-ONE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which it is proved that Sailors have very correct Ideas as to
+Metempsychosis.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The day after my return to Deal I again embarked with Bramble
+and three others, to follow up our vocation. The second day we were
+abreast of the Ram Head, when the men in another pilot boat, which
+had come out of Plymouth and was close to us, waved their hats and
+kept away to speak to us. We hove-to for them.</p>
+<p>"Have you heard the news?" cried one of the men.</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Lord Nelson has beat the French and Spanish fleet."</p>
+<p>"Glad to hear it&mdash;huzza!"</p>
+<p>"Lord Nelson's killed."</p>
+<p>"Lord Nelson's killed!" The intelligence was repeated from mouth
+to mouth, and then every voice was hushed; the other boat hauled
+her wind without further communication, nor did we at the time
+think of asking for any more. The shock which was given to the
+whole country was equally felt by those who were seeking their
+bread in a small boat, and for some little while we steered our
+course in silence.</p>
+<p>"What d'ye say, my lads?" said Bramble, who first broke silence;
+"shall we haul up for Cawsand, and get a paper? I shan't be content
+till I know the whole history."</p>
+<p>This was consented to unanimously; no one thought of piloting
+vessels for the moment and earning food for their families. When
+the country awarded a public funeral to our naval hero, it did not
+pay him a more sincere tribute than was done in this instance by
+five pilots in a galley. At Cawsand we obtained the newspaper, and
+after a few pots of beer we again made sail for the mouth of the
+Channel. It hardly need be observed that the account of this
+winding-up, as it proved, of our naval triumphs, with the death of
+Nelson, was the subject of conversation for more than one day. On
+the third we were all separated, having fallen in with many
+windbound vessels who required our services. The one I took charge
+of was a West Indiaman, deeply laden with rum and sugar, one of a
+convoy which were beating about in the Chops of the Channel. As we
+were standing out from the English coast the captain and one of the
+passengers were at the taffrail close to me.</p>
+<p>"What do you think of the weather, pilot?" said the captain.</p>
+<p>"I think we shall have a change of wind, and dirty weather
+before twelve hours are over our heads," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Well," said he, "that's my opinion. There is a cloud rising in
+the southwest; and, look, there are some Mother Carey's chickens
+dipping in the water astern."</p>
+<p>"Where?" said the passenger, a curly-headed Creole, about twenty
+years old.</p>
+<p>"Those small birds," replied the captain, walking forward.</p>
+<p>The passenger went down below, and soon returned with his
+double-barreled fowling-piece.</p>
+<p>"I have long wished to shoot one of those birds," said he; "and
+now they are so near, I think I may get a shot."</p>
+<p>He raised his piece several times without firing, when the
+captain came aft, and, perceiving his intention, caught his arm as
+he was about to level again.</p>
+<p>"I beg your pardon, Mr. Higgins, but I really must request that
+you will not fire at those birds."</p>
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+<p>"Because I cannot permit it."</p>
+<p>"But what's to hinder me?" replied the young man, coloring up;
+"they are not in your manifest, I presume."</p>
+<p>"No, sir, they are not; but I tell you frankly that I would not
+kill one for a hundred pounds. Nay, I would as soon murder one of
+my fellow-creatures."</p>
+<p>"Well, that may be your feeling, but it's not mine."</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, sir, as it is, to say the least of it, very
+unlucky, you will oblige me by yielding to my request."</p>
+<p>"Nonsense!&mdash;just to humor your superstitious feeling."</p>
+<p>"We are not in port yet, Mr. Higgins; and I must insist upon it
+you do not fire. You have taken my gunpowder, and I cannot allow it
+to be used in that way."</p>
+<p>During this altercation I observed that many of the sailors had
+come aft, and, although they said nothing, were evidently of the
+same opinion as the captain. I was aware that there was a
+superstitious feeling among the seamen relative to these birds, but
+I had never seen it so strongly exemplified before.</p>
+<p>The mate gave a wink to the captain, behind the passenger's
+back, and made a motion to him to go forward, which the captain
+did. The passenger again raised his gun, when it was seized by two
+of the seamen.</p>
+<p>"You must not fire at these birds, sir!" said one of them.</p>
+<p>"Why, you scoundrel?&mdash;I'll give you the contents of both
+barrels if you don't leave my gun alone."</p>
+<p>"No, you won't&mdash;you're not among niggers now, master,"
+replied the seaman; "and as you have threatened to shoot me, I must
+take the gun from you."</p>
+<p>A scuffle ensued, during which both barrels were discharged in
+the air, and the gun taken from Mr. Higgins, who was boiling with
+rage. The gun was handed forward, and I saw it no more. Mr.
+Higgins, in a state of great excitement, went down into the
+cabin.</p>
+<p>The captain then came aft to me, when I observed that I had no
+idea that seamen were so very particular on that point; and I
+thought that they had gone too far.</p>
+<p>"You may think so, pilot," replied he, "but when I tell you that
+I fully believe that these birds are as good as ourselves, you will
+not be surprised&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"How do you mean, as good as ourselves?"</p>
+<p>"I believe that they <i>were</i> every one sailors like
+ourselves in former times. They are now the sailors' friends, come
+to warn us of the approaching storm, and I can tell you a
+circumstance which occurred in the West Indies, which fully proves
+to me that they are not wantonly killed without a judgment upon
+those who do so. I never believed it myself till then; but old
+Mason, who is now on board, was one of the seamen of the vessel in
+which the circumstance happened."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied I, "I should like to hear it."</p>
+<p>"I can't tell you now," said he; "I must go down and satisfy
+that puppy Creole, whose sugars are on board. He will otherwise
+make such a row between me and the owners that I may lose the
+command of the vessel. And yet, would you imagine it? although he
+will not credit what I tell him about Mother Carey's chickens, the
+foolish young man firmly believes in the Obi."</p>
+<p>I did not think one superstition more ridiculous than the other,
+but still as I always found that it was useless to argue such
+points, I said nothing, and the captain went down into the cabin to
+pacify Mr. Higgins.</p>
+<p>It was late in the first watch, and when the passengers had
+retired to bed, that the captain came on deck. "Well," said he, "I
+told Mr. Higgins my story, and as there was a bit of Obi nonsense
+in it, he believed it, and he has not only made friends, but
+thanked me for not having allowed him to shoot the birds; and now
+I'll tell you the real story:</p>
+<p>"A schooner was coming down from the Virgin Isles with sugar and
+passengers to Antigua, where I was lying with my ship. She had a
+fine young fellow of the name of Shedden on board; and, besides
+other passengers, there was an old black woman, who, where she
+resided, had always been considered as an Obi woman. I saw her
+afterward; and you never beheld such a complication of wrinkles as
+she was, from her forehead to her feet, and her woolly head was as
+white as snow. They were becalmed as soon as they were clear of the
+islands; and, as it happened, some Mother Carey's chickens were
+flying about the stern. Shedden must needs get at his gun to shoot
+them. The old black woman sat near the taffrail; she saw him with
+his gun, but she said nothing. At last he fired, and killed three
+of them.</p>
+<p>"'There are three down!' cried out some of the other
+passengers.</p>
+<p>"'How many?' said the old woman, raising her head;
+'<i>three!</i> Then count the sharks which are coming up.'</p>
+<p>"'Count the sharks, mother! why count them? There's plenty of
+them,' replied Shedden, laughing.</p>
+<p>"'I tell you that there will be but three sent,' replied the old
+woman, who then sunk down her head and said no more.</p>
+<p>"Well, the negroes who were passengers on board, most of them
+Mr. Shedden's slaves, looked very blank, for they knew that old
+Etau never spoke without reason. In about ten minutes afterward,
+three large sharks swam up to the vessel, with their fins above
+water.</p>
+<p>"'There's the three sharks, sure enough!' said the
+passengers.</p>
+<p>"'Are they come?' said Etau, raising her head.</p>
+<p>"'Yes, moder, dere dey be&mdash;very large shark,' replied one
+of the negroes.</p>
+<p>"'Then three are doomed,' said the old woman, 'and here we stay,
+and the waves shall not run, nor the wind blow, till the three
+sharks have their food. I say three are doomed!'</p>
+<p>"The passengers were more or less alarmed with this prophecy of
+old Etau's, according as they put faith in her. However, they all
+went to bed quite well, and the next morning they got up the same.
+Still there was not a breath of wind, the whole sea was as smooth
+as glass, and the vessel laid where she was the night before, in
+about six fathoms of water, about a mile from the reef, and you
+could see the coral rocks beneath her bottom as plain as if they
+were high and dry; and what alarmed them the next morning was that
+the three large sharks were still slowly swimming round and round
+the schooner. All that day it remained a dead calm, and the heat
+was dreadful, although the awnings were spread. Night came on, and
+the people, becoming more frightened, questioned old Etau, but all
+the answer she gave was, '<i>Three</i> are doomed!'</p>
+<p>"The passengers and crew were now terrified out of their wits,
+and they all went to bed with very melancholy forebodings, for the
+elements appeared as if they were arrested till the penalty was
+paid. For, you observe, pilot, there is always a light breeze as
+regular as the sun rises and goes down; but now the breezes only
+appeared to skirt the land, and when they came from the offing
+invariably stopped two or three miles from the schooner. It was
+about midnight that there was a stir in the cabin, and it appeared
+that Mr. Shedden had the yellow fever, and shortly afterward
+another white man, a sailor belonging to the schooner, then one of
+Mr. Shedden's slaves. Well, there the fever stopped&mdash;no one
+else was taken ill&mdash;the usual remedies were applied, but
+before morning they were all three delirious. At sunrise it was
+still calm, and continued so till sunset; and all the day the
+passengers were annoyed by the back fins of the three sharks, which
+continued to swim about. Again they went to bed, and just before
+one o'clock in the morning Mr. Shedden, in his delirium, got out of
+his bed, and, rushing on the deck, jumped overboard before any one
+could prevent him; and old Etau, who never left where she sat, was
+heard to say, '<i>One</i>!' and the bell was struck <i>one</i> by
+the seaman forward, who did not know what had happened. Morning
+came on again and there were but two sharks to be seen. About noon
+the other white man died and he was thrown overboard; and as one
+shark seized his body and swam away, old Etau cried out,
+'<i>Two!</i>' An hour afterward the negro died, and was thrown
+overboard and carried away by the third shark, and old Etau cried
+out, '<i>Three!</i> the price is paid!'</p>
+<p>"Well, every one crowded around the old woman to hear what she
+would say, and they asked her if all was over, and whether they
+should have any wind? and her reply was, 'When the three birds come
+from the sea to replace those which were killed.' For you see,
+pilot, if one of these birds is killed, it is certain that some one
+of the crew must die and be thrown overboard to become a Mother
+Carey chicken, and replace the one that has been destroyed. Well,
+after a time, although we never saw them rise, three Mother Carey's
+chickens were seen dipping and flying about astern of the schooner;
+and they told old Etau, who said, 'You'll have wind and
+plenty&mdash;and plenty of waves to make up for the calm;' and so
+they had sure enough, for it came on almost a hurricane, and the
+schooner scudded before it under bare poles until she arrived at
+Antigua, with her bulwarks washed away, and a complete wreck. I was
+there at the time, and old Mason, who was on board, told me the
+story, and asked me to take him, as he would not remain on board of
+the schooner. And now I leave you to judge, after knowing this to
+be a fact, whether I was not right in preventing Mr. Higgins from
+shooting the Mother Carey chickens?"</p>
+<p>"Why, yes," replied I, "with such a <i>fact</i> before my eyes,
+I should have done the same."</p>
+<p>Mr. Higgins not venturing to kill any of these receptacles for
+the souls of departed seamen, we arrived safely at the Downs, where
+I gave up charge to a river pilot, for the other vessels which
+Bramble and our companions had taken charge of were all bound to
+the Downs, and arrived at nearly the same time that I did, and we
+had agreed to embark again in the galley, and run out in quest of
+the remainder of the convoy.</p>
+<p>This we did on the following day, much to the vexation of Bessy,
+who declared we only came on shore to be off again.</p>
+<p>I ought to observe that Bessy and I had become much more
+intimate since the explanation which had taken place; and although
+it never entered my head that I should ever feel toward her more
+than as a brother to a sister, I was pleased and soothed with the
+touching proofs of kindness and commiseration which she took every
+opportunity of showing toward me.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus403.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_TWO" id="CHAPTER_FORTY_TWO"></a>CHAPTER
+FORTY-TWO</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A heavy Gale, a Wreck, and a Rescue.</p>
+</div>
+<p>We had run out in our galley as far as the Start, when the
+appearance of the weather became very threatening. It was just
+about the time of the equinoctial gales, and there was a
+consultation among us whether we should run into Torquay or return
+to Deal.</p>
+<p>Bramble observed, that as the gale coming on would, in all
+probability, blow for three days, he thought it was no use
+remaining all that time at Torquay, where we should be put to extra
+expense, and that we should be better on shore at our own homes.
+This remark decided the point, and about dusk we put the boat's
+head along shore for up Channel. The wind was at that time about
+S.S.W., but occasionally shifting a point or two. The sky had
+become covered over with one black mass of clouds, which hung down
+so low that they appeared almost to rest on the water; and there
+was that peculiar fitful moaning which is ever the precursor of a
+violent gale of wind. At nightfall we reefed our lug-sails; and,
+while one sat at the helm, the rest of us lounged against the
+gunnel, buttoned up in our pilot jackets; some shutting their eyes,
+as if to invite sleep, others watching the waves, which now rose
+fast, and danced and lapped at the weather broadside as if they
+would fain have entered into the boat. But of that we had little
+fear; our galley was one of the finest boats that ever swam, and we
+felt as secure as if we were on board of a three-decked ship. As
+the night advanced, so did the wind increase and the sea rise;
+lightning darted through the dense clouds, and for a moment we
+could scan the horizon. Everything was threatening; yet our boat,
+with the wind about two points free, rushed gallantly along, rising
+on the waves like a sea-bird, and sinking into the hollow of the
+waters as if she had no fear of any attempt on their part to
+overwhelm her. Thus did we continue to run on during the night,
+every hour the gale increasing, the billows mounting up until they
+broke in awful and majestic crests, and often so near to us that we
+presented our backs in a close file against the weather bulwarks to
+prevent any body of water from pouring in.</p>
+<p>"We shall have light soon," observed one of the men.</p>
+<p>"And we shall want it to beach the boat in such weather as
+this," replied another. "We shall have it harder yet before
+day."</p>
+<p>"Depend upon it this will be a mischievous gale," observed
+Bramble, "and our coast will be strewed with wrecks. Any ships
+under canvas now, between the Channel shores, will stand but a poor
+chance against this heavy sea, which bears down with such force.
+I'd rather be in this boat now than in any vessel in
+mid-Channel."</p>
+<p>"And I had rather be on shore than in either," rejoined I.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said one of the pilots, "I do really believe you
+this time."</p>
+<p>When it was broad daylight, the coast to leeward presented a
+wild and terrific scene, lashed as it was by the furious surf,
+which dashed its spray half-way up the towering white cliffs, for
+it was within two hours of high water. The waves were now really
+mountains high, and their broad surfaces were pitted into little
+waves by the force of the wind, which covered the whole expanse of
+waters with one continued foam. On our weather bow a vessel with
+her foremast gone was pitching heavily, and at times nearly buried
+beneath the wild tumult. Her fate was sealed; to leeward were the
+cliffs of the South Foreland, and on our lee-bow lay the shelving
+beach of Deal.</p>
+<p>"This will be awkward landing, shipmates," said Bramble; "and
+yet we must try it. I'll fill my pipe&mdash;hope it won't be the
+last."</p>
+<p>Although not said in a serious manner, there were few of us
+whose hearts did not flutter responsively to this surmise, for the
+danger became every minute more imminent, and we knew what a
+terrific surf there must be then running on the shingle beach. But
+we now rapidly approached the shore; we were near to the floating
+light, and in the roadstead not a vessel remained; all had weighed
+and preferred being under what canvas they could bear. At last we
+were within two cables' lengths of the beach, and even at this
+distance from it we were surrounded with the breakers; the surf
+broke many feet high, and roared as it rushed up with a velocity
+that was appalling, dashing the foam right to the door of Bramble's
+cottage, which was forty or fifty yards higher than it generally
+gained to even in very bad weather. We now lowered our sails,
+stowed them in the boat, and got our oars to pass, backing against
+the surf to prevent it from forcing us on the beach until the
+proper time.</p>
+<p>It may not, perhaps, be known to many of my readers that there
+is a sort of regularity even in the wild waves; that is,
+occasionally a master wave, as it is termed, from being of larger
+dimensions than its predecessors, pours its whole volume on the
+beach; after which, by watching your time, you will find that two
+waves will run into one another, and, as it were, neutralize each
+other, so that, for a few seconds, you have what they call a
+smooth; the safest plan of landing then is to watch these two
+chances, either to run in on the master wave, or to wait till the
+arrival of the smooth.</p>
+<p>The latter is generally preferred, and with good reason, as
+unless a boat can be forced in as fast as the master wave runs in,
+you are worse off than if you had landed at any other time.</p>
+<p>The helm had been resigned to Bramble, who ordered me to go
+forward with the boat's painter, a long coil of rope, and stand
+ready either to leap out with it or throw it to those on shore, as
+might be most advisable; the other men were sitting on the thwarts,
+their long oars in the rowlocks, backing out as desired, and all
+ready to strain every nerve when the order was given by Bramble to
+pull in.</p>
+<p>The danger which we were about to incur was fully evident to the
+crowds which were assembled on the beach; not only the pilots, who
+stood there ready to assist us&mdash;some with ropes with iron
+hooks at the end of them&mdash;others all ready to dart into the
+surf to hold on the boat, or, if required, to link their arms
+together, so as to form a living chain which the undertow could not
+drag away with it; higher up, women and children, their clothes
+driven by the furious gale, with one hand holding on their caps,
+and with the other supporting themselves by the gunnels of the
+boats hauled up, the capstans, or perhaps an anchor with its fluke
+buried in the shingle, were looking on with dismay and with beating
+hearts, awaiting the result of the venturous attempt, and I soon
+discovered the form of Bessy, who was in advance of all the
+others.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus408.jpg" id="illus408.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus408.jpg"><img src="images/thumb408.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>WRECK OF THE GALLEY.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 407.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>After a careful watching for perhaps two minutes on the part of
+Bramble, he gave the word, and on dashed the galley toward the
+strand, keeping pace with the wild surges, and although buried in
+the foam, not shipping one drop of water.</p>
+<p>"Now, my men, give way&mdash;for your lives, give way," cried
+Bramble, as a cresting wave came towering on, as if in angry
+pursuit of us. The men obeyed, but, in their exertions, the stroke
+oar snapped in two, the man fell back, and prevented the one behind
+him from pulling. Our fate was sealed; the surge poured over, and
+throwing us broadside to the beach, we were rolled over and over in
+the boiling surf. A cry was heard&mdash;a cry of terror and
+despair&mdash;on the part of the women. I heard it as I was swept
+away by the undertow, and the next wave poured over me; but all was
+activity and energy on the part of the men who were on the beach:
+the next wave that run in, they recovered me and two more by
+linking their arms and allowing the surf to break over them. We
+were so much bruised that we could not stand; they dragged us up,
+and left us to the women. Bramble and four others were still
+struggling for life; again two were saved&mdash;but the men on the
+beach were exhausted by their strenuous exertions.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus410.jpg" id="illus410.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus410.jpg"><img src="images/thumb410.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>WE FOUND BOTH BRAMBLE AND BESSY CLINGING TO THE ROPE.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 409.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>I had just recovered myself so as to sit up, when I perceived
+that they were not acting in concert as before; indeed, in the last
+attempt, several of them had narrowly escaped with their own lives.
+Bessy was now down among them wildly gesticulating; Bramble still
+floated on the boiling surf, but no chain was again formed; the
+wave poured in bearing him on its crest; it broke, and he was swept
+away again by the undertow, which dragged him back with a confused
+heap of singles clattering one over the other as they descended. I
+saw him again, just as another wave several feet in height was
+breaking over him&mdash;I felt that he was lost; when Bessy, with a
+hook rope in her hand, darted toward him right under the wave as it
+turned over, and as she clasped his body, they both disappeared
+under the mountain surge. Another shriek was raised by the women,
+while the men stood as if paralyzed. In my excitement I had gained
+my legs, and I hastened to seize the part of the rope which
+remained on the beach. Others then came and helped; we hauled upon
+it, and found that there was weight at the end. Another sea poured
+in; we hastily gathered in the slack of the rope, and when the
+water retreated, we found both Bramble and Bessy clinging to the
+rope. In a moment the men rushed down and hauled up the bodies.
+Bramble had hold of the rope by both hands&mdash;it was the clutch
+of death; Bessy had her arms round her father's neck; both were
+senseless. The boatmen carried them up to the cottage, and the
+usual methods of recovery were resorted to with success. Still we
+had to lament the death of two of our best pilots, whose loss their
+wives and children were loudly wailing, and whose bodies were not
+found for many days afterward. Alas! they were not the only ones
+who were lamented. Upward of three hundred vessels were lost during
+that dreadful gale, and hardly a seaport or fishing town but
+bewailed its many dead.</p>
+<p>Whether it was that the women who attended Bessy were more
+active than the men, or that she was younger, and her circulation
+of blood was more rapid, or because she was a female, certain it is
+that Bessy first recovered her speech, and her first question was,
+"Where was her father?" Bramble did not speak, but fell into a
+sleep immediately after he was brought to life. I had changed my
+clothes, and was watching by him for an hour or more when he woke
+up.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus412.jpg" id="illus412.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus412.jpg"><img src="images/thumb412.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>BRAMBLE HAD KNELT BY THE BEDSIDE, AND WAS EVIDENTLY IN
+PRAYER.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 411.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"Ah! Tom, is that you? Where's Bessy?"</p>
+<p>"She is in bed, but quite recovered."</p>
+<p>"Quite recovered&mdash;I recollect. I say, Tom, ain't she a fine
+creature? God bless her. Well, she owes me nothing now, at all
+events. I think I should like to get up, Tom. I wonder whether I
+smashed my old pipe on the shingle? Just look into my wet jacket. I
+say, Tom, were they all saved?"</p>
+<p>"No," I replied; "Fisher and Harrison were both drowned."</p>
+<p>"Poor fellows! I wish they had been spared. Fisher has seven
+children&mdash;and Harrison, he has a wife, I think."</p>
+<p>"Yes, and two children, father."</p>
+<p>"Poor woman! God's will be done! He giveth and He taketh away!
+Tom, I must get up and see Bessy."</p>
+<p>I assisted Bramble to dress, and as soon as he had put on his
+clothes he went to Bessy's room. I stayed at the door. "You may
+come in, Tom; she's muffled up in her blankets, and fast
+asleep."</p>
+<p>"Quite fast," said Mrs. Maddox; "she has slept more than an
+hour. Dear heart, it will do her good."</p>
+<p>Bramble kissed Bessy's pale forehead, but it did not waken her.
+"Look, Tom," said Bramble, "look at that smooth, clear
+skin&mdash;those pretty features. Look at the delicate creature!
+and would you have thought that she would have dared what no man
+dared to do&mdash;that she would have defied those elements raging
+in their might, and have snatched their prey from their very grasp?
+Did I ever imagine, when I brought her as a helpless baby on shore,
+that she would ever have repaid the debt with such interest, or
+that such a weak instrument should have been chosen by the Lord to
+save one who otherwise must have perished? But His ways are not our
+ways, and He works as He thinks fit. Bless you, bless you, my
+Bessy&mdash;and may your fond heart never be again put to such
+trial! Is she not beautiful, Tom? just like a piece of cold marble.
+Thank Heaven, she is not dead, but sleepeth!"</p>
+<p>I certainly never did look upon Bessy with so much interest;
+there was something so beautifully calm in her countenance as she
+lay there like an effigy on a tomb, hardly appearing to breathe;
+and when I thought of the courage and devotion shown but a few
+hours before by the present almost inanimate form, I bent over her
+with admiration, and felt as if I could kneel before the beautiful
+shrine which contained such an energetic and noble spirit. While
+this was passing through my mind, Bramble had knelt by the bedside,
+and was evidently in prayer. When he rose up he said, "Come away,
+Tom: she is a maiden, and may feel ashamed if she awaken and find
+us men standing by her bedside. Let me know when she wakes up, Mrs.
+Maddox, and tell her I have been in to see her; and now, Tom, let's
+go down. I never felt the want of a pipe so much as I do now."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus414.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_THREE" id=
+"CHAPTER_FORTY_THREE"></a>CHAPTER FORTY-THREE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A Scene in the Hospital, and a strange Discovery.</p>
+</div>
+<p>In a very few days Bramble and Bessy were sufficiently recovered
+to resume their usual avocations; but the former expressed no
+willingness to embark again, and Bessy's persuasions assisted to
+retain him at the cottage. With me it was different. I was still
+restless, and anxious for change; my feelings toward Bessy were
+those of admiration and esteem, but not yet of love. Yet I could
+not help recalling to mind the words of Bramble, "Observe how she
+performs those duties which fall to her lot; if she is a good
+daughter she will make a good wife." I felt that she would make a
+good wife, and I wished that I could have torn from my bosom the
+remembrance of Janet, and have substituted the form of Bessy in her
+place. We had been at the cottage nearly a week, when I received a
+letter from Anderson; he informed me that he had visited old Nanny,
+who had made her will in due form, and confided to him, and that he
+thought she was more inclined to listen to him than she had before
+been; that my father and mother and sister were well, and that
+Spicer had been obliged to go into the hospital with an abscess in
+his knee, occasioned by running something into it, and that it was
+reported that he was very ill, and, in all probability, amputation
+must take place. I felt convinced that Spicer must have, in his
+hasty retreat, fallen over the iron railings which lay on the
+ground, and which had, as I mentioned, tripped me up; but with this
+difference, that, as the spikes of the railing were from me, and
+consequently I met with little injury, they must have been toward
+him, and had penetrated his knee, and thus it was that he had
+received the injury. Anderson also stated that they were very busy
+at the hospital, receiving the men who had been maimed in the
+glorious battle of Trafalgar. Altogether, I made up my mind that I
+would take the first ship that was offered for pilotage up the
+river, that I might know more of what was going on; and, as we sat
+down to supper, I mentioned my intentions to Bramble.</p>
+<p>"All's right. Tom, you're young, and ought to be moving; but
+just now I intend to take a spell on shore. I have promised Bessy,
+and how can I refuse her anything, dear girl? I don't mean to say
+that I shall never pilot a vessel again, but I do feel that I am
+not so young as I was, and this last affair has shaken me not a
+little, that's the truth of it. There's a time for all things, and
+when a man has enough he ought to be content, and not venture more.
+Besides, I can't bear to make Bessy unhappy; so, you see, I've half
+promised&mdash;only half, Bessy, you know."</p>
+<p>"I think you would have done right if you had promised
+altogether," replied I; "you have plenty to live upon, and are now
+getting a little in years. Why should you not stay on shore, and
+leave them to work who want the money?"</p>
+<p>Bessy's eyes beamed gratefully toward me, as I thus assisted her
+wishes. "You hear, father," said she, fondling him, "Tom agrees
+with me."</p>
+<p>"Ah!" replied Bramble, with a sigh, "if&mdash;but we cannot have
+all we wish in this world."</p>
+<p>Bessy and I both felt what he would have referred to, and we
+were silent. She cast down her eyes, and appeared busy with her
+fork, although she was eating nothing. I no longer felt the
+repugnance that I had a short time before, and I was in deep
+reverie, watching the changes of her beautiful countenance, when
+she looked up. Our eyes met: she must have read my thoughts in
+mine, for from that moment each hour increased our intimacy and
+confidence. We were no longer afraid of each other.</p>
+<p>A day or two after this conversation an opportunity was given to
+me of going up the river, which I did not neglect; and having
+delivered up charge of the ship, I hastened down to Greenwich. I
+found everything in <i>statu quo</i> at my mother's house, and
+Virginia much pleased at there being no lodgers. Anderson I met
+walking with Ben the Whaler and my father. He told me that Spicer
+had refused to have his leg amputated, when the surgeon had pointed
+out the necessity of the operation; and that it was now said that
+it was too late to have the operation performed, and that there was
+little or no chance of his recovery. They asked me many questions
+relative to the narrow escape of Bramble, and the behavior of
+Bessy.</p>
+<p>As soon as I could get away, I set off to the hospital to see
+Spicer; for, as the reader must be aware, I had many reasons for
+having communication with him&mdash;not that I expected that at
+first he would acknowledge anything. I knew that his heart was
+hardened, and that he had no idea of his danger; but I had his
+secret&mdash;he was indeed in my power, and I hoped by terrifying
+him to obtain the information which I wished.</p>
+<p>I found him in bed, in the corner of the hospital ward, to the
+left. He was looking very pale, and apparently was in great
+pain.</p>
+<p>"Spicer," said I, "I have come to see you; I am sorry to hear of
+your accident. How is your leg? is it better?"</p>
+<p>"No, not much," replied he, writhing, "I am in great pain;
+another man would scream out with agony, but I'm like the
+wolf&mdash;I'll die without complaint."</p>
+<p>"But you don't think that you're going to die, Spicer?"</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, I don't think that; I never have thought that, when I
+have been worse than now. I'll never believe that I'm dead until I
+find myself so. It must come some time or another, but I'm hale and
+hearty in constitution as yet, and my time is not yet come."</p>
+<p>"It was the iron railings which you fell over, was it not? I
+fell over them myself the same night when I landed, on the Monday,
+going up to old Nanny's."</p>
+<p>"Who told you it was those cursed spikes? Well, well, so it was;
+but not on the Monday, Jack, it was on the Wednesday."</p>
+<p>"Nay, that cannot be; for on the Tuesday, as I went down to the
+beach, I saw them all fixed up in the stonework, and soldered in.
+It must have been on the Monday&mdash;the night on which old Nanny
+was nearly smothered by some one who went in to rob her. I came
+there just in time to save her life; indeed, if you recollect, you
+were lame the next day, when I met you in the hospital."</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, you may think what you please; but I tell you it
+was on the Wednesday."</p>
+<p>"Then you must have fallen over something else."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I did."</p>
+<p>"Well, it's of no consequence. I'm glad to find that you're so
+much better, for I was told that the doctor had said&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"What did the doctor say?" interrupted Spicer.</p>
+<p>"Why, it's better to tell the truth; he said it was impossible
+for you to get over it; that the inflammation was too great to
+allow of amputation now, and that it must end in
+mortification."</p>
+<p>"He said that!" said Spicer, wildly, raising himself on his
+elbow.</p>
+<p>"Yes, he did; and it's known all over the hospital."</p>
+<p>"Well," replied Spicer, "he may have said so; but I think I
+ought to know best how I feel. He'll be here in half an hour or so,
+and then I'll put the question to him. I'm a little tired, Jack, so
+don't speak to me any more just now."</p>
+<p>"Shall I go away, Spicer?"</p>
+<p>"No, no, stay here. There's a book or two; read them till I feel
+a little stronger."</p>
+<p>That my communication had had an effect upon Spicer was evident.
+He was startled at the idea of the near approach of death, which he
+had not contemplated. Alas! who is not? He shut his eyes, and I
+watched him; the perspiration trickled down his forehead. I took up
+the book he had pointed out to me; it was the History of the
+Buccaneers, with plates, and I thought then that it was a parallel
+of Spicer's own career. I looked at the plates, for I was not much
+inclined to read. In a few minutes Spicer opened his eyes. "I am
+better now, Jack; the faintness has passed away. What book is that?
+Oh, the Buccaneers. That and Dampier's Voyages were the only two
+books of my father's library that I ever thought worth reading.
+Have you ever read it?"</p>
+<p>"No," replied I, "I never have. Will you lend it to me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes; I'll give it to you, Jack, if you like."</p>
+<p>"Thank you. Was your father a sailor, Spicer, as well as
+you?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Jack; a sailor, every inch of him."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever sail with him?"</p>
+<p>"No, he died about the time that I was born." Here the doctor,
+who was going round the wards, came up to Spicer and asked him how
+he felt. "Pretty well, doctor," said he.</p>
+<p>"Come, we must look at your leg, my man; it will require
+dressing. Is it very painful?"</p>
+<p>"Why, yes, sir; it has been very painful indeed all night."</p>
+<p>The hospital mates unbandaged Spicer's leg, and took off the
+poultices, and I was horrified when I saw the state which his leg
+was in: one mass of ulceration from the middle of the thigh down to
+half-way below his knee, and his ankle and foot swelled twice their
+size, a similar inflammation extending up to his hip. The doctor
+compressed his lips and looked very grave. He removed some pieces
+of flesh, it was then cleaned and fresh poultices put on.</p>
+<p>"Doctor," said Spicer, who had watched his countenance, "they
+say in the hospital that you have stated that I cannot live. Now, I
+should wish to know your opinion myself on this subject, as I
+believe I am the most interested party."</p>
+<p>"Why, my man," said the doctor, "you certainly are in great
+danger, and if you have any affairs to settle, perhaps it will be
+prudent so to do."</p>
+<p>"That's a quiet way of saying there is no hope for me; is it
+not, doctor?" replied Spicer.</p>
+<p>"I fear, my good man, there is very little."</p>
+<p>"Tell me plainly, sir, if you please," replied Spicer; "is there
+<i>any</i>?"</p>
+<p>"I am afraid that there is not, my good man; it's unpleasant to
+say so, but perhaps it is kindness to tell the truth."</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, that is honest. May I ask you how long I may expect
+to live?"</p>
+<p>"That will depend upon when the mortification takes place, about
+three days; after that, my poor fellow, you will probably be no
+more. Would you like the chaplain to come and see you?"</p>
+<p>"Thank you, sir; when I do, I'll send for him."</p>
+<p>The doctor and the attendants went away to the other patients. I
+was silent. At last Spicer spoke.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack, you were right; so it is all over with me. Somehow
+or another, although I bore up against it, I had an inkling of it
+myself, the pain has been so dreadful. Well, we can die but once,
+and I shall die game."</p>
+<p>"Spicer," said I, "that you will die without fear I know very
+well; but still, you know that you should not die without feeling
+sorry for the sins you have committed, and praying for pardon. We
+have all of us, the very best of us, to make our peace with Heaven;
+so, had I not better tell the chaplain to come and talk with
+you?"</p>
+<p>"No, Jack, no; I want no parsons praying by my side. What's done
+is done, and can't be undone. Go now, Jack, I wish to get a little
+sleep."</p>
+<p>"Shall I come and see you to-morrow, Spicer?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, come when you will; I like to have some one to talk to; it
+keeps me from thinking."</p>
+<p>I wished him good day, and went away with the book in my hand.
+Before I went home I sought out old Anderson and told him what had
+passed. "He will not see the chaplain, Anderson, but perhaps he
+will see you; and, by degrees, you can bring him to the subject. It
+is dreadful that a man should die in that way."</p>
+<p>"Alas for the pride of us wretched worms!" ejaculated Anderson;
+"he talks of dying game&mdash;that is to say, he defies his Maker.
+Yes, Jack, I will go and see him; and happy I am that he has a few
+days to live. I will see him to-night, but will not say much to
+him, or he might refuse my coming again."</p>
+<p>I went home. I was not in a very gay humor, for the sight of
+Spicer's leg, and the announcement of his situation, had made a
+deep impression upon me. I sat down to read the book which Spicer
+had made me a present of. I was interrupted by my mother requesting
+me to go a message for her, and during my absence Virginia had
+taken up the book.</p>
+<p>"Who lent you this book, Tom?" said she, when I returned.</p>
+<p>"Spicer, the man whom they call Black Sam, who is now dying in
+the hospital."</p>
+<p>"Well, that's not the name on the title-page&mdash;it is Walter
+James, Tynemouth."</p>
+<p>"Walter James, did you say, dear? Let me look! Even so."</p>
+<p>"Why, what's the matter, Tom?" said my sister; "you look as if
+you were puzzled."</p>
+<p>And indeed I do not doubt but I did, for it at once recalled to
+my mind that old Nanny's married name was <i>James</i>, and that
+Spicer had said that his father was a sailor, and that he had died
+at the time that he was born, which agreed with the narrative of
+old Nanny. The conclusions which I came to in a moment made me
+shudder.</p>
+<p>"Well, my dear, I was surprised, if not frightened; but you
+don't know why, nor can I tell you, for it's not my secret. Let me
+look at the book again."</p>
+<p>Here my father came in, and the conversation took a different
+turn, which I was not sorry for. I wished, however, to be left to
+my own reflections; so I soon afterward took up my candle and
+retired to my room.</p>
+<p>I turned the subject over in my mind in a hundred ways, but
+could not come to any conclusion as to the best method of
+proceeding. At last I thought I would see Peter Anderson the next
+day, and take his advice. I was out immediately after breakfast;
+but I could not find Anderson, so I walked to the hospital to see
+Spicer. I found Anderson sitting by his bedside, but they were not
+then conversing. After a short time Anderson rose, and giving a
+slight shake of the head, as if to inform me that he had had no
+success, he walked away.</p>
+<p>"He has been trying to convert me," said Spicer, with a grim
+smile.</p>
+<p>"He has been trying, Spicer, to bring you to a sense of your
+condition; and is he not kind? he can have no interest but your own
+good. Do you think that no one knows the sins you have committed
+except yourself?&mdash;there is one eye which sees all."</p>
+<p>"Come, Jack, no preaching."</p>
+<p>"Spicer, you are here under a false name, and you think no one
+knows anything about you; but everything has been discovered by me;
+and I cannot help thinking that it has been made known
+providentially, and for your good."</p>
+<p>"Ah!" replied Spicer, "and pray what do you know? Perhaps you
+can tell me all the sins I have committed."</p>
+<p>"No, Spicer, but perhaps I can tell you of sins which you
+yourself are not aware of. But first answer me&mdash;you know that
+you cannot live long, Spicer; will you acknowledge that what I
+state is correct, should it really be so?"</p>
+<p>"I give you my word that if you tell me anything about me which
+is true, I will freely acknowledge it; so now, Mr. Fortuneteller,
+here's my hand&mdash;it may be useful, you know, in helping your
+discovery."</p>
+<p>"I do not want your hand, Spicer&mdash;now hear me. Is not your
+name James?&mdash;and were you not born at Tynemouth?"</p>
+<p>Spicer started. "How did you find that out? Well, Tom, it is so,
+and what then?"</p>
+<p>"As you told me yourself, although I knew it before, your father
+was lost at sea about the time that you were born. Spicer, I know
+how you left your mother, and how you returned from <i>you know
+where</i>&mdash;how you robbed her of every farthing, and left her
+again destitute and in misery. Is there nothing to repent of in
+that, Spicer?"</p>
+<p>"Who the devil&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Nay, Spicer, the devil has had nothing to do with the
+discovery."</p>
+<p>"Strange, strange indeed," muttered Spicer; "but still, it is
+true."</p>
+<p>"Spicer, you know best how your life was passed from that time
+until you came into the hospital; but it was to be hoped that when
+laid up to rest in this haven, after such a stormy life, you would
+have amended your life; but what have you done?"</p>
+<p>"And what have I done?"</p>
+<p>"What would have brought you to the gallows if I had not held my
+tongue. You attempted to murder the old woman to obtain her money,
+and, in escaping, you received the wound which soon will bring you
+to your grave."</p>
+<p>"What proofs?"</p>
+<p>"Every proof: your stump struck me in the face when you rushed
+out&mdash;the button was off your coat the next morning when I met
+you&mdash;I had every proof, and, had I chosen, would have sworn on
+the Bible to your having been the party."</p>
+<p>"Well, I'll not deny it&mdash;why should I, when I cannot be
+taken out of this bed to be tried, even if you wished? Have you
+more to say?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, more."</p>
+<p>"I doubt it."</p>
+<p>"Then hear me. The poor woman whom you would have murdered, whom
+I found at her last gasp, and with difficulty restored to
+consciousness, that poor woman, Spicer, is <i>your own
+mother!</i>"</p>
+<p>"God of heaven!" exclaimed he, covering his face.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Spicer, your fond, indulgent mother, who thinks that you
+suffered the penalty of the law many years ago, and whose energies
+have been crushed by the supposed unhappy fate of her still loved
+and lamented son. Spicer, this is all true, and have you now
+nothing to repent of?"</p>
+<p>"I thought her dead, long dead. God, I thank Thee that I did not
+the deed; and, Jack, I am really grateful to you for having
+prevented it. Poor old woman!&mdash;yes, she did love me, and how
+cruelly I treated her!&mdash;and she is then still alive, and
+thinks that I was hanged&mdash;yes, I recollect now, she must think
+so. Oh! my brain, my brain!"</p>
+<p>"Spicer, I must leave you now."</p>
+<p>"Don't leave me, Jack&mdash;yes, do&mdash;come to-morrow
+morning."</p>
+<p>"Spicer, will you do me a favor?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Will you see Anderson, and talk with him?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, if you wish it; but not now. This evening I will, if he'll
+come."</p>
+<p>I left Spicer, well satisfied with what had passed, and hastened
+to Anderson, to communicate it to him.</p>
+<p>"A strange and providential discovery, Tom, indeed," said he,
+"and good use it appears to me you have made of it. His heart is
+softened, that is evident. I will certainly go to him this
+evening."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus426.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_FOUR" id=
+"CHAPTER_FORTY_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Spicer discloses strange Matters.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The next day, when I called to see Spicer, I found him in great
+pain. Anderson had been with him, but he had been in such agony
+that he found it almost impossible to converse with him. Spicer did
+not like that I should leave him, although he could not talk, and I
+therefore remained by his bedside, occasionally assisting him to
+move from one position to another, or to take the drink that was by
+his bedside. Toward the evening he became more easy, and went to
+sleep. I left him, therefore, till the next day. As I supposed, the
+mortification had commenced, for the doctor told him so the next
+morning, when he visited him, and the chaplain pointed out to him
+that all hopes of living were now over. Spicer heard the
+communication unmoved. He asked the doctor how long he might live,
+and his reply was, it was possible four or five days, and that he
+would feel no more pain. He was now able to listen to Anderson, and
+he did so. I shall not trouble the reader with repeating what
+Anderson imparted to me, as I can give him an idea of Spicer's
+feelings by what passed between us.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said he, "I have led a very wicked life, so wicked that I
+hate to think of it, and I hate myself. I believe all that Anderson
+and the chaplain tell me, and I find that I may hope and do hope
+for mercy; but I can't cry, or wail, or tear my hair. The fact is,
+Tom, I can't feel afraid. If I am pardoned, and I do scarcely
+expect it, I shall be all gratitude, as well I may. Should I be
+condemned, I shall acknowledge my punishment just, and not
+complain, for I have deserved all; but I cannot feel fear. I
+believe I ought; but it is not in my nature, I suppose."</p>
+<p>"But you do not feel anything like defiance, Spicer?"</p>
+<p>"No, God forbid! no, nothing like that, but my spirit cannot
+quail."</p>
+<p>He was very anxious for the chaplain the last two days of his
+life, and I really believe was <i>sincere</i> in his repentance;
+but before I wind up his history, I will narrate to the reader
+those portions of his life which are unknown, and which are
+necessary to the explanation of other matters.</p>
+<p>He told me that when he first went to sea he had joined a vessel
+employed in the slave trade, that he had left it at Gambia, and
+shipped on board of a vessel which was about to cruise on the
+Spanish Main. He was some time in her, and had been appointed
+second officer, when he resolved to fit out a vessel and cruise for
+himself. He had therefore quitted the vessel at Surinam, and worked
+his passage home in a sugar ship.</p>
+<p>It was on his return home this time that, as old Nanny had told
+me, he had taken to gaming, and eventually had robbed his mother.
+With the two thousand pounds in his pocket, he had repaired to
+Liverpool, where he fell in with Fitzgerald, a young man who had
+served as first mate in the vessel in which they had cruised on the
+Spanish Main, and to him he had proposed to join him as first
+officer in the vessel which he was about to fit out. It appeared
+that this young man had but a few days returned from Ireland, where
+he had married a young woman, to whom he had been some time
+attached, and that his disinclination to leave his young wife made
+him at first refuse the offer made by Spicer. Spicer, however, who
+was aware of his value, would not lose sight of him, and contrived,
+when Fitzgerald had taken too much wine, to win of him, by unfair
+means, about one thousand five hundred pounds. Spicer then offered
+Fitzgerald a release from the debt, provided he would sail with
+him; and he exacted as a further condition that he should not
+return and take a farewell of his wife. To these harsh terms
+Fitzgerald, being without means of liquidating the debt, consented,
+and they sailed accordingly.</p>
+<p>"And now, Jack, I will tell you why I was so curious about that
+spy-glass. I knew the moment that I saw it in your hands that it
+was one that belonged to Fitzgerald when we were on our first
+cruise together. It was the best glass I ever met with. When we
+left Liverpool this time, I asked him for the spy-glass, and he
+told me that, expecting to return to his wife before he sailed, he
+had left it at home. How it came into the lady's hands I can't
+tell."</p>
+<p>"I never said that Lady Hercules gave it to me," replied I;
+"although I did not undeceive you when you thought so. The fact is,
+it was given me by a very pretty young Irish widow."</p>
+<p>"Then, Jack, I should not wonder if she was the wife of
+Fitzgerald, whom I have been talking about; but that I leave to
+you. Let me finish my story. When we arrived on the Spanish coast I
+had as fine a crew with me as ever were on board of a vessel; but I
+had long made up my mind that I would hoist the black flag. Yes,
+Jack, it is but too true. But when I proposed it, Fitzgerald
+declared that the first act of piracy that was committed he would
+leave the vessel. I tried all I could to persuade him, but in vain.
+However, we did take an English vessel, and plundered her. Upon
+this Fitzgerald protested, and half the crew, at least, joined him.
+I threatened the men to shoot them through the head; but they were
+resolute; and, being rather the stronger party, I dared not make
+any attempt. They insisted upon leaving the vessel; and I, not
+being able to help it, landed them all in the Bay of Honduras,
+where I thought it very possible they would be taken by the
+Spaniards and imprisoned, if not hanged. They were imprisoned; but,
+after some time, they were released. The desertion of Fitzgerald
+and the other men left me with my vessel half manned; and I vowed
+vengeance against him if ever I had an opportunity. I now cruised
+as a pirate, and was very successful, and my name was a terror to
+those seas. A high reward was offered for me, dead or alive, which
+pleased me much, and I became more murderous than ever. Jack, all
+this rises up in judgment against me now; and I recollect every
+single life taken away by me, or by my orders, as well as if I had
+noted them down in a book. May God forgive me!" continued Spicer,
+covering his eyes up for a time.</p>
+<p>After a pause he continued: "I had ordered a vessel with a
+valuable cargo to be taken on to a rendezvous we had in the Caicos;
+but it was recaptured and taken into Port Royal, Jamaica. As the
+proofs of the piracy were well established, the men on board were
+thrown into prison to take their trial. I heard of this, for I was
+often on shore in disguise in one island or another, and a scheme
+entered my head which I thought would benefit myself and wreak my
+vengeance upon Fitzgerald. But I must leave off now. Here comes the
+chaplain; he promised to talk with me this evening, and you see
+that I have changed my opinion on that point, praised be God for
+it. Good-night, Jack; come to-morrow."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus431.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_FIVE" id=
+"CHAPTER_FORTY_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Spicer's Death.</p>
+</div>
+<p>When I saw Spicer again he continued his narrative:</p>
+<p>"I told you that I was anxious to wreak my vengeance upon
+Fitzgerald, and the plan which I hit upon was as follows: I
+contrived to get to Port Royal, and to speak to the two men whom I
+had been on the best of terms with. I told them that the only
+chance of escape would be for them to give their names as those of
+<i>James</i>, which was mine, and of <i>Fitzgerald</i>, the first
+officer; and I explained to them why; because Fitzgerald and I had
+saved the life of the daughter of one of the chief planters, who,
+in gratitude, had promised that he would assist us if we were ever
+in difficulty. I told them that they must adhere to what they said,
+as they would be condemned with the others, but that a reprieve
+would be given when they were on the scaffold."</p>
+<p>"But why should you have done this?" inquired I.</p>
+<p>"First, because I wished people to believe that I was dead, that
+there might not be so great a hue and cry after me, and the
+temptation of so high a reward; next, because I knew that
+Fitzgerald was still in prison, and that his wife would read the
+account of his execution in the newspapers, which I hoped would
+break her heart, and so make him miserable."</p>
+<p>"Oh, Spicer, that was too cruel."</p>
+<p>"It was, but my plan succeeded. The men gave our names, went to
+the scaffold expecting a reprieve, and were hanged."</p>
+<p>"And thus it is that your poor mother thinks even now that you
+were hanged," said I.</p>
+<p>"Even so, Jack, even so. Well, after a time I quitted my vessel
+and returned to England; for I was actually tired of bloodshed, and
+I had collected a great deal of money. On my arrival I inquired
+after Fitzgerald. It appeared that his wife had heard the account
+of his execution; and, as her bonnet was found by the side of the
+mill-dam, it was supposed that she had destroyed herself.
+Fitzgerald returned home, and was distracted at the intelligence. I
+have always thought that she was dead; but, by what you say, Jack,
+I now doubt it."</p>
+<p>"And Fitzgerald, Spicer, what became of him?"</p>
+<p>"I really cannot tell. I heard that he had entered on board of a
+King's ship, but not under his own name. How far that was true or
+not I cannot say; but I have every reason to believe that such was
+the case."</p>
+<p>"And how came you on board of a man-of-war?"</p>
+<p>"Why, that's soon told, I spent my money, or lost it all in
+gambling, went out again, obtained command of a vessel, and did
+well for some time; but I was more tyrannical and absolute than
+ever. I had shot five or six of my own men, when the crew mutinied,
+and put me and two others who had always supported me in an open
+boat, and left us to our fate. We were picked up by a frigate going
+to the East Indies when we were in the last extremity. And now,
+Jack, I believe you have my whole history. I am tired now, and must
+go to sleep; but, Jack, I wish you to come to-morrow morning, for I
+have something to say to you of great importance. Good-by, Jack;
+don't forget."</p>
+<p>I promised Spicer that I would not fail, and quitted the
+hospital. When I called again upon him, I found him very low and
+weak; he could not raise himself from his pillow. "I feel that I am
+going now, Jack," said he&mdash;"going very fast&mdash;I have not
+many hours to live; but, I thank Heaven, I am not in any pain. A
+man who dies in agony cannot examine himself&mdash;cannot survey
+the past with calmness or feel convinced of the greatness of his
+offenses. I thank God for that; but, Jack, although I have
+committed many a foul and execrable murder, for which I am full of
+remorse&mdash;although I feel how detestable has been my
+life&mdash;I tell you candidly that, although those crimes may
+appear to others more heavy than the simple one of theft, to me the
+one that lies most heavy on my soul is the robbing of my poor
+mother, and my whole treatment of her. Jack, will you do one favor
+to a dying man?&mdash;and it must be done soon, or it will be too
+late. Will you go to my poor mother, acquaint her with my being
+here, still alive, and that my hours are numbered, and beg for me
+forgiveness? Obtain that for me, Jack&mdash;bring that to me, and
+so may you receive forgiveness yourself!"</p>
+<p>"I will, Spicer," replied I, "I will go directly; and I have
+little fear but that I shall succeed."</p>
+<p>"Go then, Jack; don't tarry, for my time is nearly come."</p>
+<p>I left the hospital immediately, and hastened to old Nanny's. I
+found her very busy sorting a lot of old bottles which she had just
+purchased.</p>
+<p>"Well, Jack," said she, "you are just come in time to help me. I
+was just a-saying if Jack was to call now he'd be of some use, for
+I can't well reach so high as the shelf where I put the bottles on,
+and when I get on a stool my old head swims."</p>
+<p>"Mother," said I, "suppose you put down the bottles for a little
+while, as I have that to say to you which must not be delayed."</p>
+<p>"Why, what's the matter, boy? And how pale you look! What has
+happened? You don't want money, do you?"</p>
+<p>"No, mother, I want no money; I only want you to listen to
+matters important, which I must disclose to you."</p>
+<p>"Well, well, what is it? about the fellow who tried to rob me, I
+suppose. I told you before, Jack, I won't hurt him, for my poor
+boy's sake."</p>
+<p>"It is about your poor boy I would speak, mother," replied I,
+hardly knowing how to begin. "Now, mother, did you not tell me that
+he was hanged at Port Royal?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, yes; but why come and talk about it again?"</p>
+<p>"Because, mother, you seem to feel the disgrace of his being
+hanged so much."</p>
+<p>"Well, to be sure I do&mdash;then why do you remind me of it,
+you bad boy? It's cruel of you, Jack; I thought you kinder."</p>
+<p>"Mother, it is because you do feel it so much that I have come
+to tell you that you have been deceived. Your son was not
+hanged."</p>
+<p>"Not hanged! Why, Jack, are you sure?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, mother, quite sure."</p>
+<p>"Not hanged, quite sure&mdash;"</p>
+<p>Here old Nanny burst out into a wild laugh, which ended in
+sobbing and tears. I was obliged to wait some minutes before she
+was composed enough to listen to me; at last I said, "Mother, I
+have more to say, and there is no time to be lost."</p>
+<p>"Why no time to be lost, my dear boy?" said she. "Oh! now that
+you have told me this, I could dwell for hours&mdash;ay,
+days&mdash;more. I shall dwell my whole life upon this kind
+news."</p>
+<p>"But listen to me, mother, for I must tell you how I discovered
+this."</p>
+<p>"Yes, yes, Jack&mdash;do, that's a good boy. I am quite calm
+now," said Nanny, wiping her eyes with her apron.</p>
+<p>I then acquainted her with what Spicer had told me relative to
+his inducing the man to take his name, and continued the history of
+Spicer's life until I left him on board of a man-of-war.</p>
+<p>"But where is he now? And who told you all this?"</p>
+<p>"He told me so himself," replied I. "He has been in the hospital
+some time, and living here close to you, without either of you
+being aware of it. But, mother, he is now ill&mdash;very ill in the
+hospital; he would not have confessed all this if he had not felt
+how ill he was."</p>
+<p>"Deary, deary me!" replied old Nanny, wringing her hands; "I
+must go see him."</p>
+<p>"Nay, mother, I fear you cannot. The fact is that he is dying,
+and he has sent me to ask your forgiveness for his conduct to
+you."</p>
+<p>"Deary, deary me!" continued old Nanny, seemingly half out of
+her wits; "in the hospital, so near to his poor mother&mdash;and
+dying. Dear Jemmy!"</p>
+<p>Then the old woman covered up her face with her apron and was
+silent. I waited a minute or two, and then I again spoke to
+her.</p>
+<p>"Will you not answer my question, mother? Your son has but an
+hour perhaps to live, and he dies penitent not only for his conduct
+to you, but for his lawless and wicked life; but he feels his
+treatment of you to be worse than all his other crimes, and he has
+sent me to beg that you will forgive him before he dies. Answer me,
+mother."</p>
+<p>"Jack," said Nanny, removing the apron from her face, "I feel as
+if it was I who ought to ask his pardon, and not he who should ask
+mine. Who made him bad?&mdash;his foolish mother. Who made him
+unable to control his passions?&mdash;his foolish mother. Who was
+the cause of his plunging into vice&mdash;of his intemperance, of
+his gaming, of his wild and desperate career&mdash;which might have
+ended, as I supposed it had done, on the gallows&mdash;but a
+foolish, weak, selfish mother, who did not do her duty to him in
+his childhood? It is I who was his great enemy&mdash;I who assisted
+the devil to lead him to destruction&mdash;I who, had he been
+hanged, had been, and have felt for years that I was, his
+executioner. Can I forgive him! Can <i>he</i> forgive
+<i>me</i>?"</p>
+<p>"Mother, his time is short&mdash;I will come to you again, and
+tell you much more. But if you knew how earnest he is to have your
+forgiveness before he dies, you would at once send me away to
+him."</p>
+<p>"Then go, my child&mdash;go, and may you often be sent on such
+kind missions! Go, and tell my poor James that his mother forgives
+him&mdash;begs to be forgiven&mdash;still dotes upon him&mdash;and
+God knows with how much pleasure would die for him! Go quick,
+child&mdash;the sands of the glass run fast&mdash;quick,
+child&mdash;the dying cannot wait&mdash;quick&mdash;quick!"</p>
+<p>Nanny had risen from her stool and taken me by the arm; when we
+were clear of the threshold she loosed me, and sank down to the
+earth, whether overcome by her feelings, or in a state of
+insensibility, I did not wait to ascertain&mdash;I fled to execute
+my mission before it was too late.</p>
+<p>In a few minutes I was at the hospital&mdash;breathless, it was
+true. I went in, and found Spicer still alive, for his eyes turned
+to me. I went up to him; the nurse, who was standing by him, told
+me he was speechless, and would soon be gone. I told her I would
+remain with him, and she went to the other patients. I gave him his
+mother's message, and he was satisfied; he squeezed my hand, and a
+smile, which appeared to illumine like a rainbow his usual dark and
+moody countenance, intimated hope and joy; in a few seconds he was
+no more, but the smile continued on his features after death.</p>
+<p>I then returned to old Nanny, who, I found, had been put into
+bed by some neighbors, and at her bedside was Mrs. St. Felix, who
+had been passing by and had observed her situation. She was now
+recovered and quiet. As soon as they had left her I entered into a
+more full detail of how I became acquainted with the circumstances
+which led to the discovery. I did not conceal from her that it was
+her own son who had attempted the robbery; and I wound up by
+stating that he had died, I really believed, not only penitent, but
+happy from having received her forgiveness.</p>
+<p>"Jack&mdash;Jack&mdash;you have been as good as an angel to me,
+indeed you have. It was you also who prevented my poor James from
+killing his mother&mdash;it is you that have been the means of his
+making his peace with Heaven. Bless you, Jack, bless you!"</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus437.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_SIX" id="CHAPTER_FORTY_SIX"></a>CHAPTER
+FORTY-SIX</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which Mrs. St. Felix refuses a splendid Offer, which I am
+duly empowered to make to her.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I left old Nanny as soon as she was more composed, for I was so
+anxious to have some conversation with old Anderson. I did not call
+on my father, as it was not a case on which he was likely to offer
+any opinion, and I thought it better that the secret which I
+possessed should be known but to one other person. I refer to the
+knowledge which I had obtained relative to the husband of Mrs. St.
+Felix, who, it appeared, was not hanged, as supposed by her. The
+information received from Spicer accounted for Mrs. St. Felix's
+conduct when any reference was made to her husband, and I was now
+aware how much pain she must have suffered when his name was
+mentioned. I found Anderson alone in his office, and I immediately
+made him acquainted with what I had learned, and asked him his
+opinion as to the propriety of communicating it to Mrs. St. Felix.
+Anderson rested his head upon his hand for some time in silence; at
+last he looked up at me.</p>
+<p>"Why, Tom, that she suffers much from the supposed ignominious
+fate of her husband is certain, but it is only occasionally; her
+spirits are good, and she is cheerful, except when reminded of it
+by any casual observation. That it would prove a great consolation
+to her to know that her husband did not forfeit his life on the
+scaffold is true; but what then? he is said to have entered the
+King's service under another name, and, of course, there is every
+probability of his being alive and well at this moment. Now she is
+comparatively tranquil and composed; but consider what anxiety,
+what suspense, what doubts, must ever fill her mind, must oppress
+her waking hours, must haunt her in her dreams, after she is made
+acquainted with his possible existence. Hope deferred maketh the
+heart sick; and her existence would be one of continued tumult, of
+constant anticipation, and I may say of misery. He may be dead, and
+then will her new-born hopes be crushed when she has ascertained
+the fact; he may never appear again, and she may linger out a life
+of continual fretting. I think, Tom, that were she my daughter, and
+I in possession of similar facts, I would not tell her&mdash;at
+least, not at present. We may be able to make inquiries without her
+knowledge. We know his name; an advertisement might come to his
+eyes or ears; and, moreover, you have the telescope, which may be
+of use if it is constantly seen in your hands. Let us at present do
+all we can without her knowledge, and leave the result in the hands
+of Providence, who, if it thinks fit, will work by its own means.
+Are you of my opinion, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"When I came to ask your advice, Anderson, it was with the
+intention of being guided by it, even if it had not coincided with
+my own opinion, which, now that I have heard your reasons, it
+certainly does. By the bye, I have not yet called upon Mrs. St.
+Felix, and I will go now. You will see old Nanny again?"</p>
+<p>"I will, my boy, this evening. Good-by! I'm very busy now, for
+the officers will inspect to-morrow morning."</p>
+<p>I quitted the hospital, and had arrived in Church Street, when,
+passing the doctor's house on my way to Mrs. St. Felix, Mr. Thomas
+Cobb, who had become a great dandy, and, in his own opinion at
+least, a great doctor, called to me, "Saunders, my dear fellow,
+just come in, I wish to speak with you particularly." I complied
+with his wishes. Mr. Cobb was remarkable in his dress. Having
+sprung up to the height of at least six feet in his stockings, he
+had become remarkably thin and spare, and the first idea that
+struck you when you saw him was that he was all pantaloons; for he
+wore blue cotton net tight pantaloons, and his Hessian boots were
+so low, and his waistcoat so short, that there was at least four
+feet, out of the sum total of six, composed of blue cotton net,
+which fitted very close to a very spare figure. He wore no cravat,
+but a turn-down collar with a black ribbon, his hair very long,
+with a very puny pair of mustachios on his upper lip, and something
+like a tuft on his chin. Altogether, he was a strange-looking
+being, especially when he had substituted for his long coat a short
+nankeen jacket, which was the case at the time I am speaking
+of.</p>
+<p>"Well, Mr. Cobb, what maybe your pleasure with me? You must not
+detain me long, as I was about to call on Mrs, St. Felix."</p>
+<p>"So I presumed, my dear sir," replied he; "and for that very
+reason I requested you to walk in. Take a chair. Friendship, Tom,
+is a great blessing; it is one of the charms of life. We have known
+each other long, and it is to tax your friendship that I have
+requested you to come in."</p>
+<p>"Well, be as quick as you can, that's all," replied I.</p>
+<p>"<i>Festina lent</i>, as Dr. Tadpole often says, adding that it
+is Latin for hat and boots. I am surprised at his ignorance of the
+classics; any schoolboy ought to know that <i>caput</i> is the
+Latin for hat, and <i>Bo&ouml;tes</i> for boots. But lately I have
+abandoned the classics, and have given up my soul to poetry."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!"</p>
+<p>"Yes; 'Friendship and Love' is my toast, whenever I am called
+upon at the club. What does Campbell say?"</p>
+<p>"I'm sure I don't know."</p>
+<p>"I'll tell you, Tom&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'Without the smile from heav'nly beauty
+won,<br />
+Oh, what were man? A world without a sun.'"</p>
+<p>"Well, I daresay it's all true," replied I; "for if a woman does
+not smile upon a man he's not very likely to marry her, and
+therefore has no chance of having a <i>son</i>."</p>
+<p>"Tom, you have no soul for poetry."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps not; I have been too busy to read any."</p>
+<p>"But you should; youth is the age of poetry."</p>
+<p>"Well, I thought it was the time to work; moreover, I don't
+understand how youth can be age. But pray tell me what is it you
+want of me, for I want to see Mrs. St. Felix before
+dinner-time."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, Tom, I am in love&mdash;deeply, desperately,
+irrevocably, and everlastingly in love."</p>
+<p>"I wish you well out of it," replied I, with some bitterness.
+"And pray with whom may you be so dreadfully in love&mdash;Anny
+Whistle?"</p>
+<p>"Anny Whistle!&mdash;to the winds have I whistled her long ago.
+No, that was a juvenile fancy. Hear me. I am in love with the
+charming widow."</p>
+<p>"What, Mrs. St. Felix?"</p>
+<p>"Yes. Felix means happy in Latin, and my happiness depends upon
+her. I must either succeed, or&mdash;Tom, do you see that
+bottle?"</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"Well, it's laudanum; that's all."</p>
+<p>"But, Tom, you forget; you certainly would not supplant your
+patron, your master, I may say your benefactor&mdash;the
+doctor?"</p>
+<p>"Why not? he has tried, and failed. He has been trying to make
+an impression upon her these ten years, but it's <i>no go</i>.
+Ain't I a doctor, as good as he? Ay, better, for I'm a young
+doctor, and he is an old one! All the ladies are for me now. I'm a
+very rising young man."</p>
+<p>"Well, don't rise much higher, or your head will reach up to the
+shop ceiling. Have you anything more to say to me?"</p>
+<p>"Why, I have hardly begun. You see, Tom, the widow looks upon me
+with a favorable eye, and more than once I have thought of popping
+the question over the counter; but I never could muster up courage,
+my love is so intense. As the poet says&mdash;</p>
+<p class="blockquot">"'Silence in love betrays more woe<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Than words, howe'er so
+witty;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The beggar that is dumb, you
+know,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Deserves our double
+pity.'</span></p>
+<p>"Now, Tom, I wish to tax your friendship. I wish you to speak
+for me."</p>
+<p>"What, speak to Mrs. St. Felix?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, be my embassador. I have attempted to write some verses;
+but somehow or another I never could find rhymes. The poetic
+feeling is in me, nevertheless. Tell me, Tom, will you do what I
+ask?"</p>
+<p>"But what makes you think that the widow is favorably
+inclined?"</p>
+<p>"What? why, her behavior, to be sure. I never pass her but she
+laughs or smiles. And then the doctor is evidently jealous; accuses
+me of making wrong mixtures; of paying too much attention to dress;
+of reading too much; always finding fault. However, the time may
+come&mdash;I repeat my request; Tom, will you oblige me? You ought
+to have a fellow-feeling."</p>
+<p>This last remark annoyed me. I felt convinced that Mrs. St.
+Felix was really laughing at him, so I replied, "I shall not refuse
+you, but recollect that he who has been so unsuccessful himself is
+not likely to succeed for others. You shall have your answer very
+soon."</p>
+<p>"Thanks, Tom, thanks. My toast, as I said before, when called
+upon, is 'Friendship and Love.'"</p>
+<p>I quitted the shop, and went into that of Mrs. St. Felix, who, I
+thought, looked handsomer than ever.</p>
+<p>"Come at last, Tom!" said the widow, extending her hand. "I
+thought you would have called yesterday. Your sister was here."</p>
+<p>"I have been less pleasantly engaged. You know that Spicer is
+dead."</p>
+<p>"One of the pensioners&mdash;I never saw him that I know of, but
+I heard old Ben mention his death this morning, and that you were
+with him. Was he a friend of yours?"</p>
+<p>"No, indeed, I thought you knew something of him, or I should
+not have mentioned his name." I then changed the conversation,
+telling her what had passed at Deal, and listening to her remarks
+upon old Nanny, my mother, and our mutual acquaintances.</p>
+<p>"And the doctor&mdash;how is he?"</p>
+<p>"As busy as ever. I'm sorry, however, that he complains very
+much of Tom Cobb, and says that he must dismiss him. He has made
+some very serious mistakes in mixing the medicines, and nearly
+killed five or six people."</p>
+<p>"Had he killed them outright, their deaths must have been laid
+at your door," replied I, very seriously.</p>
+<p>"Good Heavens! what do you mean, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"I mean this, that your bright eyes have fascinated him; and
+that, to use his own expression, he is deeply, desperately,
+irrevocably, and everlastingly in love with <i>you</i>."</p>
+<p>Here Mrs. St. Felix burst out in a laugh so violent that I
+thought that it would end in hysterics. As soon as she had
+recovered herself, I continued:</p>
+<p>"It is all true, and independent of the five or six people half
+killed, you will have to answer for a <i>whole</i> death besides,
+for Tom has intimated to me that if he fails in his suit he will
+have recourse to the big bottle of laudanum. You must further know
+that he has taxed my friendship to make known to you his deplorable
+condition, being unequal to the task himself."</p>
+<p>"He must be mad," observed Mrs. St. Felix, quietly.</p>
+<p>"He flatters himself that you have given him encouragement. I
+asked in what way; he says you always laugh at him."</p>
+<p>"True as the Bible&mdash;I can't help laughing at such a droll
+figure as he makes of himself. Mercy on me! what are men made of?
+Well, Tom, I'm sure I ought to be flattered, for (let it be a
+secret between us, Tom) this is the second offer I have received
+within these twenty-four hours."</p>
+<p>"The doctor, I presume; Tom says that he is jealous."</p>
+<p>"I mention no names. This is all very foolish."</p>
+<p>"But you have not yet rejected both. Tom awaits his answer."</p>
+<p>"Tell him anything that you please. By the bye, you may just as
+well add that, instead of taking the laudanum, he had better resort
+to his old remedy&mdash;of liquorice and water. It will look just
+as killing in the phial, and not be quite so fatal in its
+results."</p>
+<p>"I shall certainly execute your commission in as delicate a way
+as I possibly can."</p>
+<p>"Do, Tom, and pray let me hear no more of this nonsense, for,
+ridiculous as it may appear, it is to me very painful. Leave
+now&mdash;I am nervous and low-spirited. Good-by. Come this evening
+with your sister, I shall be better then."</p>
+<p>Mrs. St. Felix went into the back parlor, and I left the shop. I
+had turned the wrong way, almost forgetting to give Tom his answer,
+when I recollected myself, and returned to the doctor's house.</p>
+<p>"Well?" said Tom, eagerly.</p>
+<p>"Why," replied I, hardly having made my mind up what to say, yet
+not wishing to hurt his feelings, "the fact is, Tom, that the widow
+has a very good opinion of you."</p>
+<p>"I knew that," interrupted Tom.</p>
+<p>"And if she were ever to marry again&mdash;why, you would have
+quite as good a chance as the doctor."</p>
+<p>"I was sure of that," said he.</p>
+<p>"But at present, the widow&mdash;for reasons which she cannot
+explain to anybody&mdash;cannot think of entering into any new
+engagement."</p>
+<p>"I see&mdash;no regular engagement."</p>
+<p>"Exactly so; but as soon as she feels herself at
+liberty&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Yes," said Tom, breathless.</p>
+<p>"Why, then she'll send, I presume, and let you know."</p>
+<p>"I see, then, I may hope."</p>
+<p>"Why, not exactly&mdash;but there will be no occasion to take
+laudanum."</p>
+<p>"Not a drop, my dear fellow, depend upon it."</p>
+<p>"There is no saying what may come to pass, you see, Tom: two, or
+three, or four years may&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Four years&mdash;that's a very long time."</p>
+<p>"Nothing to a man sincerely in love."</p>
+<p>"No, nothing&mdash;that's very true."</p>
+<p>"So all you have to do is to follow up your profession quietly
+and steadily, and wait and see what time may bring forth."</p>
+<p>"So I will&mdash;I'll wait twenty years, if that's all."</p>
+<p>I wished Tom good-by, thinking that it was probable that he
+would wait a great deal longer; but at all events, he was pacified
+and contented for the time, and there would be no great harm done,
+even if he did continue to make the widow the object of his passion
+for a year or two longer. It would keep him out of mischief, and
+away from Anny Whistle.</p>
+<p>On my return home I met with a severe shock, in consequence of
+information which my mother did not scruple to communicate to me.
+Perhaps it was all for the best, as it broke the last link of an
+unhappy attachment. She informed me very abruptly that the shutters
+of Mr. Wilson's house were closed in consequence of his having
+received intelligence of the death of Lady &mdash;&mdash;. Poor
+Janet had expired in her first confinement, and the mother and
+child were to be consigned to the same tomb. This intelligence
+drove me to my chamber, and I may be considered weak, but I shed
+many tears for her untimely end. I did not go with my sister to
+Mrs. St. Felix, but remained alone till the next day, when Virginia
+came, and persuaded me to walk with her to the hospital, as she had
+a message for my father.</p>
+<p>After we had seen my father we walked down to the hospital
+terrace, by the riverside. We had been there but a few minutes when
+we heard Bill Harness strike up with his fiddle:</p>
+<p class="blockquot">Oh, cruel was my parents as tore my love from
+me,<br />
+And cruel was the press-gang as took him off to sea;<br />
+And cruel was the little boat as row'd him from the strand,<br />
+But crueler the big ship as sail'd him from the land.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Sing tura-la, tura-la, tura-lara
+ley.</span><br />
+<br />
+Oh, cruel was the water as bore my love from Mary,<br />
+And cruel was the fair wind as wouldn't blow contrary;<br />
+And cruel was the captain, his boatswain, and his men,<br />
+As didn't care a farding if we never meet again.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Sing tura-la, tura-la, tura-lara
+ley.</span><br />
+<br />
+Oh, cruel was th' engagement in which my true love fought,<br />
+And cruel was the cannon-ball as knock'd his right eye out;<br />
+He used to ogle me with peepers full of fun,<br />
+But now he looks askew at me, because he's only one.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Sing tura-la, etc.,
+etc.</span></p>
+<p>"Eh! wid your turla-la. You call dat singing?" cried Opposition
+Bill, stumping up, with his fiddle in his hand. "Stop a little. How
+you do, Mr. Tom? how you do, pretty lady? Now I sing you a song,
+and show dat fellow how to make music. Stop a little, Miss
+Virginny."</p>
+<p>"Well," said Bill Harness, "I'll just let you sing, that Miss
+Saunders may judge between us."</p>
+<p>Virginia felt half inclined to go away; but as the pensioners
+always treated her with as much respect as any of the ladies of the
+officers of the hospital, I pressed her arm that she might stay.
+Opposition Bill then struck up as follows, saying, "Now I give you
+a new 'Getting upstairs.'"</p>
+<p class="blockquot">On board of a man-of-war dey hauled me one
+day,<br />
+And pitch me up de side just like one truss of hay.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting upstairs I nebber
+did see,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting
+upstairs.</span><br />
+<br />
+Dey show me de masthead, and tell me I must go,<br />
+I tumble on de rattling, and break my lilly toe.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting upstairs I nebber
+did see, etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+Dey pipe de hands up anchor, and Massa Boatswain's cane<br />
+Come rattle on our backs, for all de world like rain.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting upstairs,
+etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+And den dey man de rigging, the topsails for to reef,<br />
+And up we scull together, just like a flock of sheep.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting upstairs,
+etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+Dey send de boats away, a Frenchman for to board,<br />
+We climb de side with one hand, de oder hold de sword.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting upstairs,
+etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+Now here I sent to Greenwich because I lost a leg,<br />
+And ab to climb up to de ward upon my wooden peg.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Such a getting upstairs,
+etc.</span></p>
+<p>"Dere, now; I ask you, Mister Tom, and de young lady, which sing
+best, dat fellow, or your humble servant Bill&mdash;dat's me?"</p>
+<p>"You sing very well, Bill," said Virginia, laughing, "but I'm
+not able to decide such a difficult point."</p>
+<p>"Nor more can I; it is impossible to say which I like best,"
+continued I. "We must go home now, so good-by."</p>
+<p>"Thanky you, Mister Tom; thanky you, Missy. I see you wish to
+spare him feelings; but I know what you tink in your heart."</p>
+<p>Virginia and I now left the hospital. There was one subject
+which was often discussed between my sister and me, which was, my
+situation with regard to Bramble and Bessy. I had no secrets from
+her, and she earnestly advised me to try if I could not make up my
+mind to a union with a person of whom I could not possibly speak
+but with the highest encomiums.</p>
+<p>"Depend upon it, my dear Tom," said she, "she will make you a
+good wife; and with her as a companion you will soon forget the
+unhappy attachment which has made you so miserable. I am not
+qualified from experience to advise you on this point, but I have a
+conviction in my own mind that Bessy is really just the sort of
+partner for life who will make you happy. And then, you owe much to
+Bramble, and you are aware how happy it would make him; and as her
+partiality for you is already proved, I do wish that you would
+think seriously upon what I now say. I long to see and make her
+acquaintance, but I really long much more to embrace her as a
+sister."</p>
+<p>I could not help acknowledging that Bessy was as perfect as I
+could expect any one to be, where none are perfect. I admitted the
+truth and good sense of my sister's reasoning, and the death of
+Janet contributed not a little to assist her arguments; but she was
+not the only one who appeared to take an interest in this point: my
+father would hint at it jocosely, and Mrs. St. Felix did once
+compliment me on my good fortune in having the chance of success
+with a person whom every one admired and praised. The party,
+however, who had most weight with me was old Anderson, who spoke to
+me unreservedly and seriously.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said he, "you must be aware that Bramble and I are great
+friends, and have been so for many years. He has no secrets from
+me, and I have no hesitation in telling you that his regards and
+affections are so equally bestowed between you and his adopted
+child that it is difficult for himself to say to which he is the
+most attached; further, as he has told me, his fervent and his
+dearest wish&mdash;the one thing which will make him happy, and the
+only one without which he will not be happy, although he may be
+resigned&mdash;is that a union should take place between you and
+Bessy. I am not one of those who would persuade you to marry her
+out of gratitude to Bramble. Gratitude may be carried too far; but
+she is, by all accounts, amiable and beautiful, devoted to excess,
+and capable of any exertion and any sacrifice for those she loves;
+and, Tom, she loves you. With her I consider that you have every
+prospect of being happy in the most important step in life. You may
+say that you do not love her, although you respect, and admire, and
+esteem her: granted, but on such feelings toward a woman is the
+firmest love based, and must eventually grow. Depend upon it, Tom,
+that that hasty and violent attachment which is usually termed
+love, and which so blinds both parties that they cannot before
+marriage perceive each other's faults, those matches which are
+called love matches, seldom or ever turn out happily. I do not mean
+to say but that they sometimes do; but, like a lottery, there are
+many blanks for one prize. Believe me, Tom, there is no one who has
+your interest and welfare at heart more than I have. I have known
+you since you were a child, and have watched you with as much
+solicitude as any parent. Do you think, then, that I would persuade
+you to what I thought would not contribute to your happiness? Do,
+my dear boy, make Bramble, Bessy, yourself, and all of us happy, by
+weaning yourself from the memory of one who was undeserving of you,
+and fixing your affections upon her who will be as steadfast and as
+true to you as the other was false and capricious."</p>
+<p>I promised Anderson that I would think seriously of what he
+said; and I kept my word, using all my endeavors to drive the image
+of Janet from my memory, and substitute that of Bessy. I often
+recalled the latter to my mind as she lay, beautiful and
+motionless, after having rescued her father from the waves, and at
+last dwelt upon the image with something more than interest. The
+great point when you wish to bring yourself to do anything is to
+make up your mind to it. I did so, and soon found that Bessy was
+rapidly gaining possession of my heart.</p>
+<p>I remained several days at Greenwich. My mother was still as
+busy as ever, attempting to obtain lodgers in her house who were
+people of family; and this unwearied system was a source of great
+vexation to my sister. "Oh, Tom," she would sometimes say, "I
+almost wish sometimes, selfish as it is, that you were married to
+Bessy, for then I should be able to live with you, and escape from
+this persecution."</p>
+<p>"Better marry yourself, dear," replied I.</p>
+<p>"There is but little chance of that, Tom," replied Virginia,
+shaking her head.</p>
+<p>On my return to Deal I found that Bramble had remained at the
+cottage ever since my departure. Our greeting was warm, and when I
+went over to Bessy, for the first time since she had returned from
+school, I kissed her. She colored up, poor girl, burst into tears,
+and hastened to her own room.</p>
+<p>"I hope that was in earnest, Tom," said Bramble, fixing his eye
+upon me inquiringly, "otherwise it was cruel."</p>
+<p>"It was indeed, father," replied I, taking him by the hand.</p>
+<p>"Then all's right, and God bless you, my dear good boy. You
+don't know how happy you have made me&mdash;yes, and now I will say
+it&mdash;poor Bessy also."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus451.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_SEVEN" id=
+"CHAPTER_FORTY_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>In which a new Character appears upon the Stage, and I play the
+part of a Pilot on Shore.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"A frigate has anchored in the Downs, Tom, and makes the signal
+for a pilot," said Bramble, coming into the cottage, with my
+telescope in his hand. "There is but you and I here&mdash;what do
+you say?&mdash;will you venture to take her up to the Medway?"</p>
+<p>"To be sure I will, father; I would not refuse a line-of-battle
+ship. Why should I? the tides are the same, and the sands have not
+shifted. Would you not trust me?"</p>
+<p>"Ay, that I would, Tom, and perhaps better that myself; for my
+eyes are not so good as they were. Well, then, you had better be
+off."</p>
+<p>I got my bundle ready, and was about to start, when I perceived
+my telescope lying down where Bramble had placed it on the table.
+"They are not very fond of letting pilots have their glasses on
+board of a King's ship," said I, "so I will take mine this
+time."</p>
+<p>"You're right, Tom; you can't take the spy-glass out of the
+captain's hand, as you do in a merchant vessel."</p>
+<p>"Well good-by, father; I shall come down again as soon as I
+can&mdash;there's another gun, the captain of the frigate is in a
+hurry."</p>
+<p>"They always are on board of a man-of-war, if no attention is
+paid to their orders or their signals. Come, start away." I went
+down to the beach, the men launched the galley, and I was soon on
+board. As I gained the quarter-deck I was met by the captain and
+first lieutenant, who were standing there.</p>
+<p>"Well," said the captain, "where's the pilot?"</p>
+<p>"I am, sir," replied I, taking off my hat.</p>
+<p>"Where's your warrant?"</p>
+<p>"There, sir," replied I, offering him the tin case in which I
+carried it.</p>
+<p>"Well, all is right, my good fellow; but you seem but a young
+hand."</p>
+<p>"Not so young as to lose so fine a vessel as this, I trust,
+sir," replied I.</p>
+<p>"I hope not, too; and I dare say you are as good as many with
+gray hairs. At all events, your warrant is sufficient for me, and
+the frigate is now under your charge. Will you weigh directly?"</p>
+<p>"If you please; the wind will probably fail as the sun goes
+down, and, if so, we may just as well lie off the Foreland
+to-night."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus454.jpg" id="illus454.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus454.jpg"><img src="images/thumb454.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>I WENT DOWN TO THE BEACH.... AND I WAS SOON ON BOARD.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 453.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>The frigate was soon under way; she was evidently well manned,
+and as well commanded. The wind fell, as I expected, and after dark
+we barely stemmed the ebb tide. Of course I was up all night, as
+was my duty, and occasionally entered into conversation with the
+officer of the watch and midshipmen. From them I learned that the
+frigate, which was called the "Euphrosyne," had just returned from
+the West India station; that they had been out four years, during
+which they had two single-handed encounters, and captured two
+French frigates, besides assisting at many combined expeditions;
+that they were commanded by Sir James O'Connor, who had
+distinguished himself very much, and was considered one of the best
+officers in the service; that the frigate had suffered so from the
+conflicts in which they had been engaged that she had been sent
+home to be surveyed; it was found that she must be docked, and
+undergo a thorough repair, and consequently they had been ordered
+to Sheerness, where the ship would be paid off. At daylight there
+was a leading wind up the river, and we made sail, carrying with us
+three-fourths of the flood. The discipline and order of the ship's
+company were so great that I felt much more confidence in piloting
+this vessel, notwithstanding her greater draught of water, than I
+did a merchant vessel, in which you had to wait so long before the
+people could execute what you required: <i>here</i>, it was but to
+speak and it was done, well done, and done immediately; the vessel
+appeared to obey the will of the pilot as if endued with sense and
+volition, and the men at the lead gave quick and correct soundings;
+the consequence was that I had every confidence, and while the
+captain and officers sometimes appeared anxious at the decrease of
+the depth of water, I was indifferent, and I daresay appeared to
+them careless, but such was not the case.</p>
+<p>"Quarter less five."</p>
+<p>"Quarter less five. Pilot, do you know what water we draw?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Sir James, I do; we shall have <i>half four</i> directly,
+and after that the water will deepen."</p>
+<p>As it proved exactly as I stated, the captain had after that
+more confidence in me. At all events, the frigate was brought
+safely to an anchor in the river Medway, and Sir James O'Connor
+went down to his cabin, leaving the first lieutenant to moor her,
+for such were the port orders. As I had nothing more to do, I
+thought I might as well go on shore, and get a cast down by one of
+the night coaches to Dover. I therefore begged the first lieutenant
+to order my certificate of pilotage to be made out, and to inquire
+if I could take anything down to Deal for the captain. A few
+minutes afterward I was summoned down to the captain. I found him
+sitting at his table with wine before him. My certificates, which
+the clerk had before made out, were signed, but my name was not
+inserted.</p>
+<p>"I must have your name, pilot, to fill in here."</p>
+<p>"Thomas Saunders, Sir James," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Well, my lad, you're young for a pilot; but you appear to know
+your business well, and you have brought this ship up in good
+style. Here are your certificates," said he, as he filled in my
+name.</p>
+<p>I had my spy-glass in my hand, and, to take up the certificates
+and fold them to fit them into my tin case, I laid my glass down on
+the table close to him. Sir James looked at it as if surprised,
+took it up in his hand, turned it round, and appeared quite taken
+aback. He then looked at the brass rim where the name had been
+erased, and perceived where it had been filed away.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Saunders," said he at last, "if not taking a liberty, may I
+ask where you procured this spy-glass?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Sir James, it was given me by a person who has been very
+kind to me ever since I was a boy."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Saunders, I beg your pardon&mdash;I do not ask this
+question out of mere curiosity&mdash;I have seen this glass before;
+it once belonged to a very dear friend of mine. Can you give me any
+further information? You said it was given you by&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"A very amiable woman, Sir James."</p>
+<p>"Did she ever tell you how it came into her hands?"</p>
+<p>"She never did, sir."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Saunders, oblige me by sitting down; and if you can give me
+any information on this point, you will confer on me a very great
+favor. Can you tell me what sort of a person this lady
+is&mdash;where she lives&mdash;and what countrywoman she is?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Sir James; I will first state that she is Irish, and that
+she lives at present at Greenwich." I then described her
+person.</p>
+<p>"This is strange, very strange," said Sir James, with his hand
+up to his forehead as he leaned his elbow on the table.</p>
+<p>After a pause, "Mr. Saunders, will you answer me one question
+candidly? I feel I am not speaking to a mere Thames pilot&mdash;I
+do not wish to compliment, and if I did not feel as I state, I
+should not put these questions. Do you not know more about this
+person than you appear willing to divulge? There is something in
+your manner which tells me so."</p>
+<p>"That I know more than I have divulged is true, Sir James; but
+that I know more than I am willing to divulge is not the case,
+provided I find that the party who asks the question is
+sufficiently interested to warrant my so doing."</p>
+<p>"There can be no one more interested than I am," replied Sir
+James, mournfully. "You tell me she is Irish&mdash;you describe a
+person such as I expected would be described, and my curiosity is
+naturally excited. May I ask what is her name?"</p>
+<p>"The name that she goes by at present is St. Felix."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus458.jpg" id="illus458.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus458.jpg"><img src="images/thumb458.jpg" width="50%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>"MR. SAUNDERS.... MAY I ASK WHERE YOU PROCURED THIS
+SPYGLASS?"<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 457.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"She had distant relations of that name; it may be one of
+them&mdash;yet how could they have obtained&mdash;? Yes, they
+might, sure enough!"</p>
+<p>"That is not her real name, Sir James."</p>
+<p>"Not her real name! Do you then know what is her real name?"</p>
+<p>"I believe I do, but I obtained it without her knowledge, from
+another party, who is since dead."</p>
+<p>"Ah! may I ask that name?"</p>
+<p>"A man who died in the hospital, who went by the name of Spicer,
+but whose real name was Walter James; he saw the glass in my hand,
+recognized it, and on his deathbed revealed all connected with it;
+but he never knew that the party was still alive when he did
+so."</p>
+<p>"If Walter James confessed all to you on his deathbed, Mr.
+Saunders, it is certain that you can answer me one question. Was
+not her real name Fitzgerald?"</p>
+<p>"It was, Sir James, as I have understood."</p>
+<p>Sir James O'Connor fell back in his chair and was silent for
+some time. He then poured out a tumbler of wine, and drank it
+off.</p>
+<p>"Mr. Saunders, do others know of this as well as you?"</p>
+<p>"I have never told any one, except to one old and dearest
+friend, in case of accident to myself. Mrs. St. Felix is ignorant
+of my knowledge, as well as others."</p>
+<p>"Mr. Saunders, that I am most deeply interested in that person I
+pledge you my honor as an officer and a gentleman. Will you now do
+me the favor to detail all you do know on this subject, and what
+were the confessions made you by that man Walter James?"</p>
+<p>"I have already, sir, told you more than I intended. I will be
+candid with you; so much do I respect and value the person in
+question that I will do nothing without I have your assurance that
+it will not tend to her unhappiness."</p>
+<p>"Then, on my honor, if it turns out as I expect, it will, I
+think, make her the happiest woman under the sun."</p>
+<p>"You said that the spy-glass belonged to a dear friend?"</p>
+<p>"I did, Mr. Saunders; and if I find, from what you can tell me,
+that Mrs. St. Felix is the real Mrs. Fitzgerald, I will produce
+that friend and her husband. Now are you satisfied?"</p>
+<p>"I am," replied I, "and I will now tell you everything." I then
+entered into a detail from the time that Mrs. St. Felix gave me the
+spy-glass, and erased the name, until the death of Spicer. "I have
+now done, sir," replied I, "and you must draw your own
+conclusions."</p>
+<p>"I thank you, sir," replied he; "allow me now to ask you one or
+two other questions. How does Mrs. St. Felix gain her livelihood,
+and what character does she bear?"</p>
+<p>I replied to the former by stating that she kept a tobacconist's
+shop; and to the latter by saying that she was a person of most
+unimpeachable character, and highly respected.</p>
+<p>Sir James O'Connor filled a tumbler of wine for me, and then his
+own. As soon as he had drunk his own off, he said, "Mr. Saunders,
+you don't know how you have obliged me. I am excessively anxious
+about this matter, and I wish, if you are not obliged to go back to
+Deal immediately, that you would undertake for me a commission to
+Greenwich. Any trouble or expense&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"I will do anything for Mrs. St. Felix, Sir James; and I shall
+not consider trouble or expense," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Will you then oblige me by taking a letter to Greenwich
+immediately? I cannot leave my ship at present&mdash;it is
+impossible."</p>
+<p>"Certainly I will, Sir James."</p>
+<p>"And will you bring her down here?"</p>
+<p>"If she will come. The letter I presume will explain everything,
+and prevent any too sudden shock."</p>
+<p>"You are right, Mr. Saunders; and indeed I am wrong not to
+confide in you more. You have kept her secret so well that,
+trusting to your honor, you shall now have mine."</p>
+<p>"I pledge my honor, Sir James."</p>
+<p>"Then, Mr. Saunders, I spoke of a dear friend, but the truth is,
+<i>I</i> am the owner of that spy-glass. When I returned to
+Ireland, and found that she had, as I supposed, made away with
+herself, as soon as my grief had a little subsided, I did perceive
+that, although her apparel remained, all her other articles of any
+value had disappeared; but I concluded that they had been pillaged
+by her relations, or other people. I then entered on board of a
+man-of-war, under the name of O'Connor, was put on the
+quarter-deck, and by great good fortune have risen to the station
+in which I now am. That is my secret&mdash;not that I care about
+its being divulged, now that I have found my wife. I did nothing to
+disgrace myself before I entered on board of a man-of-war, but
+having changed my name, I do not wish it to be known that I ever
+had another until I can change it again on a fitting opportunity.
+Now, Mr. Saunders, will you execute my message?"</p>
+<p>"Most joyfully, Sir James; and I now can do it with proper
+caution; by to-morrow morning I will be down here with Mrs. St.
+Felix."</p>
+<p>"You must post the whole way, as hard as you can, there and
+back, Mr. Saunders. Here is some money," said he, thrusting a
+bundle of notes in my hand, "you can return me what is left.
+Good-by, and many, many thanks."</p>
+<p>"But where shall I meet you, sir?"</p>
+<p>"Very true; I will be at the King's Arms Hotel, Chatham."</p>
+<p>I lost no time. As soon as the boat put me on shore, I hired a
+chaise, and posted to Greenwich, where I arrived about half-past
+nine o'clock. I dismissed the chaise at the upper end of the town,
+and walked down to Mrs. St. Felix's. I found her at home, as I
+expected, and to my great delight the doctor was not there.</p>
+<p>"Why, Mr. Pilot, when did you come back?" said she.</p>
+<p>"But this minute&mdash;I come from Chatham."</p>
+<p>"And have you been home?"</p>
+<p>"No, not yet; I thought I would come and spend the evening with
+you."</p>
+<p>"With me! Why, that's something new; I don't suppose you intend
+to court me, do you, as the doctor does?"</p>
+<p>"No, but I wish that you would give me some tea in your little
+back parlor, and let Jane mind the shop in the meantime."</p>
+<p>"Jane's very busy, Mr. Tom, so I'm afraid that I can't oblige
+you."</p>
+<p>"But you must, Mrs. St. Felix. I'm determined I will not leave
+this house till you give me some tea; I want to have a long talk
+with you."</p>
+<p>"Why, what's in the wind now?"</p>
+<p>"I'm not in the wind, at all events, for you see I'm perfectly
+sober; indeed, Mrs. St. Felix, I ask it as a particular favor. You
+have done me many kindnesses, now do oblige me this time; the fact
+is, something has happened to me of the greatest importance, and I
+must have your advice how to act; and, in this instance, I prefer
+yours to that of any other person."</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom, if it really is serious, and you wish to consult me,
+for such a compliment the least I can do is to give you a cup of
+tea." Mrs. St. Felix ordered Jane to take the tea things into the
+back parlor, and then to attend in the shop.</p>
+<p>"And pray say that you are not at home, even to the doctor."</p>
+<p>"Well, really the affair looks serious," replied she, "but it
+shall be so if you wish it."</p>
+<p>We took our tea before I opened the business, for I was thinking
+how I should commence: at last I put down my cup, and said, "Mrs.
+St. Felix, I must first acquaint you with what is known to no one
+here but myself." I then told her the history of old Nanny; then I
+went on to Spicer's recognition of the spy-glass&mdash;his attempt
+to murder his mother, the consequences, and the disclosure on his
+deathbed.</p>
+<p>Mrs. St. Felix was much moved.</p>
+<p>"But why tell me all this?" said she, at last; "it proves,
+certainly, that my husband was not hanged, which is some
+consolation, but now I shall be ever restless until I know what has
+become of him&mdash;perhaps he still lives."</p>
+<p>"Mrs. St. Felix, you ask me why do I tell you all this? I beg
+you to reply to my question: having known this so long, why have I
+not told you before?"</p>
+<p>"I cannot tell."</p>
+<p>"Then I will tell you: because I did feel that such knowledge as
+I had then would only make you, as you truly say, unhappy and
+restless. Nor would I have told you now, had it not been that I
+have gained further intelligence on board of a frigate which I this
+afternoon took into the Medway."</p>
+<p>Mrs. St. Felix gasped for breath. "And what is that?" said she,
+faintly.</p>
+<p>"The spy-glass was recognized by a person on board, who told me
+that your husband still lives."</p>
+<p>I ran out for a glass of water, for Mrs. St. Felix fell back in
+her chair as pale as death.</p>
+<p>I gave her the water, and threw some in her face: she recovered,
+and put her handkerchief up to her eyes. At first she was silent,
+then sobbed bitterly; after a while she sank from the chair down on
+her knees, and remained there some time. When she rose and resumed
+her seat, she took my hand and said, "You may tell me all now."</p>
+<p>As she was quite calm and composed, I did so; I repeated all
+that had passed between Sir James O'Connor and me, and ended with
+his wish that I should accompany her at once to Chatham.</p>
+<p>"And now, Mrs. St. Felix, you had better go to bed. I told Sir
+James that I would be down to-morrow morning. I will come here at
+seven o'clock, and then we will go to the upper part of the town
+and hire a chaise. Will you be ready?"</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied she, smiling. "Heaven bless you, Tom! and now
+good-night."</p>
+<p>I did not go to my mother's, but to an inn in the town, where I
+asked for a bed. In the morning I went down. As soon as Mrs. St.
+Felix saw me she came out, and followed me at a little distance. We
+went up to where the chaises were to be obtained, and in less than
+three hours were at the King's Arms, Chatham. I asked to be shown
+into a room, into which I led Mrs. St. Felix, trembling like an
+aspen leaf. I seated her on the sofa, and then asked to be shown in
+to Sir James O'Connor.</p>
+<p>"She is here, sir," said I.</p>
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+<p>"Follow me, Sir James."</p>
+<p>I opened the door of the room, and closed it upon them.</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_EIGHT" id=
+"CHAPTER_FORTY_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>My Sister Virginia is at last placed in a Situation which is
+satisfactory to my Mother as well as to herself.</p>
+</div>
+<p>I remained very quietly in the coffee-room of the hotel, in case
+I should be sent for; which I presumed I should be before the day
+was over. In the afternoon a waiter came to say that Sir James
+O'Connor wished to speak to me, and I was ushered into his room,
+where I found Mrs. St. Felix on the sofa.</p>
+<p>As soon as the door was closed, Sir James took me by the hand,
+and led me up, saying, "Allow me to introduce your old friend as
+Lady O'Connor."</p>
+<p>"My dear Tom," said she, taking me by the hand, "I am and ever
+shall be Mrs. St. Felix with you. Come, now, and sit down. You will
+again have to take charge of me, for I am to return to Greenwich,
+and leave it in a respectable manner. I daresay they have already
+reported that I have run away from my creditors. Sir James thinks I
+must go back as if nothing had happened, give out that I had some
+property left me by a relation, and then settle everything, and
+sell the goodwill of my shop. It certainly will be better than to
+give grounds for the surmises and reports which may take place at
+my sudden disappearance&mdash;not that I am very likely to fall in
+with my old acquaintances at Greenwich."</p>
+<p>"Don't you think so, Tom?&mdash;for Tom I must call you, in
+earnest of our future friendship," said Sir James.</p>
+<p>"I do think it will be the best plan, sir."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, you must convey her ladyship to Greenwich again
+this evening, and to-morrow the report must be spread, and the next
+day you will be able to re-escort her here. I hope you feel the
+compliment that I pay you in trusting you with my new-found
+treasure. Now let us sit down to dinner. Pray don't look at your
+dress, Tom; at all events, it's quite as respectable as her
+ladyship's."</p>
+<p>After dinner a chaise was ordered, and Lady O'Connor and I
+returned to Greenwich, arriving there after dark. "We walked down
+to her house. I then left her and hastened to my mother's.</p>
+<p>"Well, mother," said I, after the first salutations were over,
+"have you heard the news about Mrs. St. Felix?"</p>
+<p>"No, what has she done now?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, she has done nothing, but a relation in Ireland has left
+her a lot of money, and she is going over there immediately.
+Whether she will come back again nobody knows."</p>
+<p>"Well, we can do without her," replied my mother, with pique.
+"I'm very glad that she's going, for I have always protested at
+Virginia's being so intimate with her&mdash;a tobacco shop is not a
+place for a young lady."</p>
+<p>"Mother," replied Virginia, "when we lived in Fisher's Alley
+Mrs. St. Felix was above us in situation."</p>
+<p>"I have desired you very often, Virginia, not to refer to
+Fisher's Alley; you know I do not like it&mdash;the very best
+families have had their reverses."</p>
+<p>"I cannot help thinking that such has been the case with Mrs.
+St. Felix," replied Virginia.</p>
+<p>"If you please, Miss Saunders, we'll drop the subject," replied
+my mother, haughtily.</p>
+<p>The news soon spread; indeed, I walked to several places where I
+knew it would be circulated, and before morning all Greenwich knew
+that Mrs. St. Felix had been left a fortune: some said ten thousand
+pounds, others had magnified it to ten thousand a year. When I
+called upon her the next day, I found that she had made
+arrangements for carrying on her business during her absence, not
+having stated that she quitted forever, but that she would write
+and let them know as soon as she arrived in Ireland what her
+decision would be, as she was not aware what might be the property
+left her. The doctor, who had undertaken to conduct her affairs
+during her absence, looked very woebegone indeed, and I pitied him;
+he had become so used to her company that he felt miserable at the
+idea of her departure, although all hopes of ever marrying her had
+long been dismissed from his mind. Mrs. St. Felix told me that she
+would be ready that evening, and I returned home and found Virginia
+in tears; her mother had again assailed her on account of her
+feelings toward Mrs. St. Felix; and Virginia told me that she was
+crying at the idea of Mrs. St. Felix going away much more than at
+what her mother had said; and she requested me to walk with her to
+Mrs. St. Felix that she might wish her farewell.</p>
+<p>When we arrived Mrs. St. Felix embraced Virginia warmly, and
+took her into the little back parlor. Virginia burst into tears.
+"You are the only friend in the town that I dearly love," said she,
+"and now you are going."</p>
+<p>"My dear girl, I am more sorry to part with you and Tom than I
+can well express&mdash;our pain is mutual, but we shall meet
+again."</p>
+<p>"I see no chance of that," said Virginia, mournfully.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus468.jpg" id="illus468.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus468.jpg"><img src="images/thumb468.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>SIR J. O'CONNOR AND MRS. ST. FELIX.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 467.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>"But I do; and what is more, I have thought about it since I
+have had the news. Tom, your sister, of course, only knows the
+common report?"</p>
+<p>"Of course she knows no more than anybody else."</p>
+<p>"Well, you do, at all events; and I give you leave, as I know
+she is to be trusted, to confide my secret to her. And, Virginia
+dear, when I tell you that I shall want you to come and stay with
+me, and shall arrange accordingly, after you have heard what your
+brother has to tell you you will understand that we may meet again.
+Good-by, and God bless you, dearest; go away now, for I have much
+to do."</p>
+<p>When I told Virginia what the reader is well acquainted with,
+her joy was excessive. "Yes," said she, "I see now. My mother is so
+anxious that I should be taken into some grand family as a
+companion; and when Lady O'Connor agrees to receive me, she will
+never have an idea that it is Mrs. St. Felix. If she had, nothing
+would induce her to let me go, that I am sure of; for she has taken
+an aversion to her for reasons known only to herself."</p>
+<p>I returned to Mrs. St. Felix's house as soon as I had escorted
+Virginia home, leaving her very happy. The doctor was there, mute
+and melancholy; and I was thinking that we should have some
+difficulty in getting rid of him, when Tom made his appearance.</p>
+<p>"If you please, sir," said he, "Mrs. Fallover wants you
+immediately; she's taken very bad."</p>
+<p>"I can't help it."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, but you must help it, doctor," said Mrs. St. Felix;
+"the poor woman is, as you know, in her first confinement, and you
+must not neglect her, so let's say good-by at once, and a happy
+return. I asked Tom to come down that I might call upon his sister
+and one or two other people before I go; so you see, doctor, as you
+can't go with me, you may just as well go and attend to the poor
+woman; so good-by, Dr. Tadpole, I will write to you as soon as I
+know what I'm to do."</p>
+<p>The doctor took her hand, and after a pause said, "Mrs. St.
+Felix, Eheu, me infelix!" and hastened out of the shop.</p>
+<p>"Poor fellow!" said she, "he'll miss me, and that's the truth.
+Good-by, Jane; mind you look after everything till I come back, and
+take care of the dog and cat. Come, Tom, we'll go now."</p>
+<p>I threw her trunk on my shoulders, and followed her till we came
+to the post-house. The chaise was ordered out, and we set off.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said Lady O'Connor, as I again call her, now that she is
+clear of Greenwich, "there is one portion of my history which you
+do not know&mdash;a very trifling part indeed. When I saw in the
+newspapers that my husband had, as I supposed, been executed, I am
+ashamed to say that I first thought of suicide; but my better
+feelings prevailed, and I then resolved to change my name and to
+let people <i>suppose</i> that I was dead. It was for that reason
+that I left my bonnet by the river-side and all my apparel in the
+house, only taking away a few trinkets and valuables, to dispose of
+for my future subsistence. I obtained a passage in a transport
+bound to Woolwich, on the plea of my husband having arrived from
+abroad; and, by mere accident, I found the goodwill of the
+tobacconist's shop to be sold. It suited me&mdash;and there is the
+whole of my history which you do not know.</p>
+<p>"And now, as to Virginia, I intend to have her with me very
+soon. Your mother is anxious that she should get into a high
+family, trusting that her beauty will captivate some of the
+members&mdash;a bad kind of speculation. I will advertise for a
+companion, and so arrange that your mother shall not see me; and
+when your sister does come to me, it shall not be as a companion,
+but as a child of my own. I owe you much, Tom&mdash;indeed, almost
+everything; and it is the only way in which I can repay you. I have
+already spoken to Sir James on the subject. He is equally ready to
+pay the debt of gratitude, and therefore in future Virginia is our
+adopted child."</p>
+<p>"You are more than repaying me, Lady O'Connor," replied I, "and
+you are obliging me in the quarter where I feel the obligation the
+greatest."</p>
+<p>"That I believe, Tom; so now say no more about it."</p>
+<p>I may as well here inform the reader that I remained a week at
+Chatham, and that during that time Lady O'Connor put an
+advertisement in the county paper, such as we knew would be a bait
+to my mother. This paper I forwarded to Virginia, marking the
+advertisement. My mother immediately replied to it, and Sir James
+O'Connor went up to Greenwich and had an interview with my mother
+and Virginia, at apartments he had taken at the hotel; appeared
+pleased with my sister, and said that as soon as Lady O'Connor was
+sufficiently recovered she would send for her to Chatham. This took
+place in two days afterward; my mother escorted Virginia there. Sir
+James stated that her ladyship was too unwell to see anybody, but
+that she would speak a few words to Virginia and leave Sir James to
+settle the rest with my mother. Virginia came down to her mother,
+declared that Lady O'Connor was a very ladylike, elegant person,
+and that she should wish to take the situation. The terms were
+handsome, and my mother, although she regretted not seeing her
+ladyship, was satisfied, and Virginia was to come in two days
+afterward, which she did. Thus was my sister comfortably settled,
+and after remaining two days I took my leave of Sir James and Lady
+O'Connor, intending to return to Deal, when I received a letter
+from Peter Anderson, informing me that old Nanny had been suddenly
+taken very ill, and that Dr. Tadpole did not think it possible that
+she would survive more than twenty-four hours; that she was very
+anxious to see me, and that he hoped I would come up
+immediately.</p>
+<p>I showed the letter to Lady O'Connor, who said, "You will go, of
+course, Tom."</p>
+<p>"Immediately," replied I, "and the more so as this letter is
+dated three days back; how it has been delayed I do not know.
+Farewell, Lady O'Connor; and farewell, dearest Virginia. Old Nanny,
+as you both know, has many claims upon my gratitude."</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus472.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FORTY_NINE" id=
+"CHAPTER_FORTY_NINE"></a>CHAPTER FORTY-NINE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>My Father, much to his surprise, has a bit of Land to put his
+Foot upon, and say "This is my own".</p>
+</div>
+<p>"You're too late, Tom," said Ben the Whaler, as I jumped down
+from off the basket of the coach; "the old woman died last
+night."</p>
+<p>"I'm sorry for it, Ben," replied I, "as she wished so much to
+see me; but I did not receive Anderson's letter till this morning,
+and I could not get here sooner."</p>
+<p>This intelligence induced me to direct my course to the
+hospital, where I had no doubt that I should find old Anderson, and
+obtain every information. I met him as he was walking toward the
+bench on the terrace facing the river, where he usually was seated
+when the weather was fine. "Well, Tom," said he, "I expected you,
+and did hope that you would have been here sooner. Come, sit down
+here, and I will give you the information which I know you have
+most at your heart. The old woman made a very happy end. I was with
+her till she died. She left many kind wishes for you, and I think
+her only regret was that she did not see you before she was called
+away."</p>
+<p>"Poor old Nanny! she had suffered much."</p>
+<p>"Yes, and there are great excuses to be made for her; and as we
+feel so here, surely there will be indulgence from above, where the
+secrets of all hearts are known. She was not insane, Tom; but from
+the time that she supposed that her son had been gibbeted, there
+was something like insanity about her: the blow had oppressed her
+brain&mdash;it had stupefied her, and blunted her moral sense of
+right and wrong. She told me, after you had communicated to her
+that her son was in the hospital, and had died penitent, that she
+felt as if a heavy weight had been taken off her mind; that she had
+been rid of an oppression which had ever borne down her
+faculties&mdash;a sort of giddiness and confusion in the brain
+which had made her indifferent, if not reckless, to everything; and
+I do believe it, from the change which took place in her during the
+short time which has since elapsed."</p>
+<p>"What change was that? for you know that I have been too busy
+during the short intervals I have been here to call upon her."</p>
+<p>"A change in her appearance and manners. She appeared to recover
+in part her former position in life; she was always clean in her
+person, as far as she could be in such a shop as hers; and if she
+had nothing else, she always had a clean cap and apron."</p>
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+<p>"Yes; and on Sundays she dressed very neat and tidy. She did not
+go to church, but she purchased a large Bible and a pair of
+spectacles, and was often to be seen reading it at the door; and
+when I talked to her she was glad to enter upon serious things. I
+spoke to her about her fondness for money, and pointed out that it
+was a sin. She replied that she did feel very fond of money for a
+long while, for she always thought that some one was nigh her
+snatching at it, and had done so ever since her son had robbed her;
+but that since she knew what had become of him she did not feel
+fond of it&mdash;that is, not so fond of it as before; and I
+believe that such was the case. Her love of money arose from her
+peculiar state of mind. She had many comforts about her house when
+she died which were not in it when I called to see her at the time
+when she was first ill; but her purchasing the large Bible on
+account of the print was to me a satisfactory proof that she had no
+longer such avaricious feelings."</p>
+<p>"I am very glad to hear all this, Anderson, I assure you, for
+she was one of my earliest friends, and I loved her."</p>
+<p>"Not more than she loved you, Tom. Her last words almost were
+calling down blessings on your head; and, thanks be to God! she
+died as a Christian should die, and, I trust, is now happy."</p>
+<p>"Amen!" said I; for I was much moved at Anderson's
+discourse.</p>
+<p>After a pause Anderson said, "You know, Tom, that she has left
+you all that she had. She told me before that such was her
+intention, although I said nothing to you about it; but I thought
+it as well that Mr. Wilson should make out a paper for her to put
+her name to, which she did. Ben and I witnessed it, but as for what
+she has left you I cannot imagine it can be much; for we examined
+and found no money except about seven pounds, in two small boxes;
+and then in her will she has left your sister Virginia ten pounds.
+Now, when that comes to be paid, I'm sure I don't know whether the
+things in the shop will fetch so much money as will pay your
+sister's legacy and the expenses of her funeral."</p>
+<p>"It's of no consequence," replied I, smiling; "but we shall see.
+At all events all her debts shall be paid, and her funeral shall be
+decent and respectable. Good-by now, Anderson, I must go up and see
+my mother and sister."</p>
+<p>Old Nanny's remains were consigned to the tomb on the following
+Monday. Her funeral was, as I had desired it to be, very
+respectable, and she was followed to the grave by Anderson, my
+father, Ben, and me. As soon as it was over, I requested Anderson
+to walk with me to Mr. Wilson's.</p>
+<p>"I'm afraid, Tom," said Mr. Wilson, "you'll find, like a great
+many other residuary legatees, that you've not gained much by the
+compliment."</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, will you oblige me by walking down with Anderson
+and me to her house?"</p>
+<p>"And take off the seals, I presume, in your presence? But the
+fact is, Tom, that not thinking the property quite safe there, even
+under seal, I have kept it all in my own pocket."</p>
+<p>"Nevertheless, oblige me by coming down."</p>
+<p>"Oh, with all my heart, since you do not like to take possession
+unless in due form."</p>
+<p>As soon as we arrived at the hovel I went into the bedroom and
+threw open the window. I then, to their great astonishment, went to
+the fire-grate, threw out some rubbish which was put into it,
+pulled up the iron back, and removed the bricks. In a short time I
+produced two small boxes, one of them very heavy. There was nothing
+else in the hole.</p>
+<p>"Here," said I, "Mr. Wilson, is a portion of the property which
+you have overlooked."</p>
+<p>"No wonder," replied he. "Pray let us see what it is."</p>
+<p>I opened the boxes, and, to their surprise, made up in a variety
+of packages, I counted out gold coin to the amount of four hundred
+and twenty pounds.</p>
+<p>"Not a bad legacy," said Mr. Wilson. "Then you knew of
+this?"</p>
+<p>"Of course; I have known it some time&mdash;ever since the
+attempt to rob her."</p>
+<p>"But what are those papers?"</p>
+<p>On one was written "<i>Arsenic&mdash;Poison</i>;" on the other,
+"<i>Receipt for Toothache</i>."</p>
+<p>"Nothing of any value," said I, "by the outside."</p>
+<p>I opened them, and found, to my surprise, bank-notes to the
+exact amount of two hundred pounds.</p>
+<p>"Well, I declare," said I, smiling, "I had nearly thrown all
+this money away."</p>
+<p>"And now you see what induced the old woman to write those
+labels on the outside of it; in case she should be robbed, that the
+robbers might have thrown the papers away&mdash;as you nearly did,
+and as very probably they might have done."</p>
+<p>"Well, Mr. Wilson, I have no further search to make. Will you
+oblige me by taking care of this money for me?"</p>
+<p>"Yes; that is, if you'll carry the gold, which is rather heavy,
+up to my house, and then I will give you a receipt for the
+whole."</p>
+<p>Anderson then left us, and I followed Mr. Wilson home. As soon
+as the money was all re-counted, and a note made of it, Mr. Wilson
+asked me what I wished that he should do with it. I replied, what
+was the truth, that I really did not know what to do with it, but
+still I should like to lay it out in something tangible.</p>
+<p>"You want to buy a farm, I suppose, and be a landed proprietor,
+like Bramble; but I'm afraid there is not enough. But I tell you
+what, Tom; we lawyers know many things which do not come to
+everybody's ears, and I know that the proprietor of the house in
+which your mother lives wishes to sell it; and I think, as he is
+much pinched for money, that this sum will about buy it. Now your
+mother pays fifty-five guineas a year for it, and if it sells for
+six hundred pounds, that will give you more than nine per cent for
+your money. What do you think?"</p>
+<p>"Well, sir, I think it's the very best thing I can do; if more
+should be necessary, I have saved a little besides which Bramble
+takes care of."</p>
+<p>"Well, then, I'll see about it."</p>
+<p>A few days afterward Mr. Wilson told me that the house was to be
+had for five hundred and sixty pounds, and that he had closed the
+bargain.</p>
+<p>"I thank you, sir," replied I. "Since I have been with you I
+have been thinking about it, and I wish now you would make it over
+to my father for his life. You see, sir, my father does put my
+mother to some expense, and I should like him to be more
+independent of her. If the house belongs to him, the rent will more
+than meet any demands he may make upon her purse&mdash;and it will
+be pleasant for both parties&mdash;and my mother will pay more
+respect to my father."</p>
+<p>"I shall do it with pleasure, Tom. You deserve money, for you
+make a good use of it&mdash;I must say that. Come to me
+to-morrow."</p>
+<p>The next day I went to my father, and gave him the deed by which
+he was owner of my mother's house. "Well, now, Tom," said he, after
+I had explained why I did so, "this is the kindest thing that ever
+was done, and God bless you, boy, and a thousand thanks. I shan't
+mind now calling for two extra pots of porter when I have
+friends&mdash;and I say, Tom, is the garden mine, too?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, and the summer-house, father, all your own property."</p>
+<p>"Well, then," replied he, chuckling, "I have a bit of land of my
+own to stick my timber toe on after all. Well, I never did expect
+that. I must go up there, and stand upon it, and feel how I
+feel."</p>
+<p>I communicated to my mother that my father was in future her
+landlord, at which she expressed much surprise, until I told her
+how I became possessed of the money. When my father came in, which
+he did shortly after, she said rather sharply:</p>
+<p>"Well, Mr. Saunders, I suppose I must pay you my rent now, every
+quarter?"</p>
+<p>"Pay me!" exclaimed my father; "come, not so bad as that,
+neither. Haven't you found me in beer, without a grumble, for these
+many years, and do you think I've forgotten it? No, no! You've been
+a kind woman to me, after all, although things did go a little
+cross at first, and so here's the paper for you to keep for me; and
+there's an end of the matter, only&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Only what?" inquired my mother, looking very kindly at my
+father.</p>
+<p>"Only let's have a pot of beer now, to drink Tom's health,
+that's all."</p>
+<p>Having thus satisfactorily settled this point, I returned to
+Chatham. I had promised to take a farewell of my sister and the
+O'Connors, as I expected they would leave previous to my again
+coming up the river.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus479.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTY" id="CHAPTER_FIFTY"></a>CHAPTER
+FIFTY</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>An Adventure which at first promised to be the most Unfortunate,
+and eventually proved the most Fortunate in my Life.</p>
+</div>
+<p>As Sir James O'Connor would have to remain at least a fortnight
+longer at Chatham, until his ship was paid off, I made Lady
+O'Connor promise to write to me, and then started for Deal. I found
+Bramble and Bessy as usual delighted to see me, and Mrs. Maddox was
+as talkative as ever. I received a letter from Lady O'Connor, and
+also one from Dr. Tadpole, written at the request of my father,
+informing me that by a letter from Mrs. St. Felix there was little
+prospect of her return to Greenwich. I had not been a week at Deal
+when a large ship dropped her anchor in the Downs, and made the
+signal for a pilot.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "I think I shall take a turn now, for
+I want to go up and see old Anderson."</p>
+<p>"I will take her through, if you please, father; and you may go
+as a passenger. You don't want money, and I do."</p>
+<p>"All's right, Tom&mdash;well, then, I'll go as a passenger, and
+you shall be pilot."</p>
+<p>"Why must you go at all, father? Why not go to Greenwich by the
+stage?" exclaimed Bessy. "When will you leave off, my dear father?
+Surely you've enough now, and might let Tom go without you."</p>
+<p>"Quite enough money, but not quite enough of the salt water yet,
+Bessy," replied Bramble; "and when I do travel, I won't go by land,
+when I can sail under canvas."</p>
+<p>"Well, you may go this time, father, but this is the last. If
+you won't leave off, I will not stay here, that's positive; so when
+you come on shore some fine day you may expect to find me absent
+without leave."</p>
+<p>"Very well; then I'll send Tom to look after you: he'll soon
+bring you back again."</p>
+<p>"Tom! he wouldn't take the trouble to look after me."</p>
+<p>"Very true," replied I. "Every woman who requires looking after
+is not worth the trouble; but I've no fear but we shall find you
+when we come back."</p>
+<p>"Tom, I hate you," replied Bessy. "Why do you not join me in
+persuading father to stay on shore?"</p>
+<p>"Well, if you hate me, Bessy, it proves, at all events, that I'm
+not indifferent to you," said I, laughing; "but really and truly,
+Bessy, I do not consider there is any very great risk in your
+father going up the river with me, as he will be in smooth water
+before dark."</p>
+<p>"Well, but, allowing that, why should father go at all?"</p>
+<p>"I want to see old Anderson, my love," replied Bramble, taking
+his pipe out of his mouth.</p>
+<p>"Yes, and if you once begin again, you'll not leave off&mdash;I
+know it well. You will never come home except to get clean linen,
+and be off again; and I shall be in a constant state of alarm and
+misery. How selfish of you, father! You had better by far have left
+me to drown on the Goodwin Sands&mdash;it would have been more
+kind," replied Bessy, weeping.</p>
+<p>"Bessy," said Bramble, "it's my opinion that you are in
+love."</p>
+<p>"In love!" cried Bessy, coloring to her throat.</p>
+<p>"Yes, in love, my dear, or you would not talk such
+nonsense."</p>
+<p>"If loving you as my father is being in love, I am,
+unfortunately."</p>
+<p>"That's only half of the story; now give us the other," said
+Bramble, smiling.</p>
+<p>"What do you mean?" inquired Bessy, turning to him.</p>
+<p>"Why, how do you love Tom?"</p>
+<p>"Not half so much as I love her," said I.</p>
+<p>"Well, if that's the case," replied Bramble, "we may as well
+publish the bans; for Bessy's in love right over the ankles."</p>
+<p>"Father, this may be very pleasant mockery; but I think it is
+not kind to breed ill-will between those who live under the same
+roof. Now you may go away; and if the knowledge that you have made
+me unhappy will add to the pleasure of your journey, I can assure
+you that you have succeeded." Bessy, having said this, immediately
+left the room and went upstairs.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Bramble, after a pause, "I'm glad that I never was
+in love; for people so situated do make themselves very silly,
+that's a fact. Tom, if you're going, it's time to be off."</p>
+<p>"Why&mdash;" replied I, hesitatingly.</p>
+<p>"I know&mdash;but I tell you, Tom, no such thing. She'll have a
+good cry, and then she'll come down as well as ever. Leave her
+alone till we come back."</p>
+<p>Bramble and I then left the cottage, jumped into the galley, and
+were soon on board of the ship.</p>
+<p>On our arrival on board we found that the vessel was a Dutch
+Indiaman, which had been captured by one of our cruisers on her
+voyage home from Java. She was laden very deeply with cinnamon,
+nutmegs, cloves, and other spices, besides pepper, and was valued
+at four hundred thousand pounds sterling. She had come home from
+the island of St. Helena, with convoy, and was now proceeding up
+the river, to be given in charge of the prize agents in London. Not
+only her hold, but even her main deck, as far aft as the mainmast,
+was filled up with her cargo; in short, she was a very valuable
+prize, and although when I came on board the pepper made me sneeze
+for ten minutes, the officer in charge told me very truly that she
+was a prize "not to be sneezed at." She was manned by a lieutenant
+and eighteen men belonging to the frigate which had captured
+her&mdash;hardly sufficient for so large a vessel, but no more
+could be spared.</p>
+<p>"We'll up anchor as soon as you please, pilot," said the
+lieutenant, "for I shall not be sorry to get rid of my charge, I
+assure you."</p>
+<p>"I don't doubt you, sir," replied Bramble. "Well, you've not
+much further to go."</p>
+<p>We weighed with the young flood; the weather was fine, but, as
+usual at that time of the year, thick fogs prevailed. We had,
+however, a leading wind, and had well rounded the North Foreland,
+and entered the Queen's Channel, when it came on very thick.</p>
+<p>"Tom, have you the bearings?" said Bramble; "if not, take them
+at once, for the fog will soon be over the land."</p>
+<p>"I have them," replied I, "and we may as well put them down on
+the log-board&mdash;North Foreland Light N.N.W. 1/4 W. Why, we
+should see the Tongue buoy. Now we'll drop the anchor and furl the
+sails, if you please, sir&mdash;we can do nothing at present." We
+did so: the fog came on thicker than before, and with it a
+drizzling rain and wind from the S. At dusk there was no change, or
+prospect of it. The men went down to supper, and the watch was set.
+Bramble and I did not turn in: we lay down on the lockers of the
+cabin, and every now and then went on deck to see how the weather
+was. About eleven o'clock we were awakened by a noise: we both
+started up, and went on deck. To our surprise it was full of
+men&mdash;we had been boarded by a French privateer, and they had
+gained possession of the deck without any alarm being given, for
+the men who had the watch had sheltered themselves from the rain
+down the hatchway. As soon as we came up, we were collared and
+seized.</p>
+<p>"Pilot," said Bramble.</p>
+<p>"Pilot," said I.</p>
+<p>They then asked us in English how many men were on board.</p>
+<p>As it was no use concealing the fact, we replied: a portion of
+the privateer's men then went down, and surprised them all in their
+beds. In about five minutes they came up again, leading the
+lieutenant and his men, in their shirts. By the directions of the
+French captain they were immediately passed over the side into the
+privateer, and Bramble and I were the only two Englishmen left on
+board of the ship.</p>
+<p>The French captain then asked us if we knew where we were, and
+whether there was any danger. We replied that we were among the
+sands, and that it would be difficult to get her out of them with
+that wind, and impossible until the tide turned.</p>
+<p>"When will the tide turn?" said the captain.</p>
+<p>"In an hour or less," replied Bramble, appealing to me.</p>
+<p>I replied in the affirmative.</p>
+<p>"Well, then, you will take this vessel clear of the shoals, my
+men; and if you do not, your lives are worth nothing.&mdash;Hold
+pistols to their heads," continued he to the officer, "and the
+moment that the ship touches, blow their brains out."</p>
+<p>Here Bramble, to my astonishment, went on his knees.</p>
+<p>"Spare our lives," said he, "and we will take the vessel safe to
+the French coast;" at the same time he gave me a pinch.</p>
+<p>"If you do not you shall not live a minute," said the captain
+(another pinch from Bramble). I now understood him, and I also went
+down on my knees, and pretended to cry. "We can't take her out if
+this weather lasts," said I, whimpering. "It's impossible."</p>
+<p>"No, no! not if this weather lasts," said Bramble, "but as soon
+as it changes we will do it."</p>
+<p>"Very well, so long as you do it when you can, that is all I
+ask. Now," said he to the officer he had before addressed, "you'll
+have twenty men&mdash;keep a sharp lookout&mdash;and don't lose a
+moment in getting under way as soon as you can."</p>
+<p>The captain then returned to the privateer with the rest of the
+men, leaving the ship in charge of the prizemaster. The privateer
+was boomed off; but whether she dropped her anchor near to us, or
+remained under way, I could not tell. The men who had held the
+pistols to our heads now went away with the others to plunder,
+according to the manners and customs of all privateers' men, of
+whatever nation they may happen to be. Bramble and I walked
+aft.</p>
+<p>"Pinned once more, by all that's blue! Well, it can't be
+helped&mdash;but we're not in a French prison yet."</p>
+<p>"Why did you go down on your knees to those fellows?" said I,
+rather sulkily.</p>
+<p>"Why, because I wished them to think we were chicken-hearted,
+and that we should not be watched, and might have a
+chance&mdash;who knows?"</p>
+<p>"Two against twenty are heavy odds," replied I.</p>
+<p>"That depends upon whether you trust to your head or your arms.
+It must be headwork this time. You see, Tom, we have so far a
+chance that we cannot weigh till it clears up&mdash;they know that
+as well as we do. I'm pretty sure it will be thick all to-morrow,
+and perhaps longer; so you see something may turn up by that time.
+We are well in, and right in the Channel, for vessels up or down. I
+say again we are not in a French prison yet. They can't take her
+out of this&mdash;we must do it; and we may run on shore if we
+like: and I tell you what, Tom, if it wasn't for Bessy, I'd just as
+soon that my brains should be blown out as that these French
+fellows should take such a rich prize. Now let's go below&mdash;we
+mustn't be seen talking together too much; but look out sharp, Tom,
+and watch my motions."</p>
+<p>The officer who had charge of the vessel now came on deck, and
+looked round him: he could speak English sufficient to carry on a
+conversation. The weather was very thick, and the rain drove down
+with the wind: he saw that it was impossible that the ship could be
+moved. He told us that we should have a hundred guineas each and
+our liberty if we took the ship safe either to Ostend or any French
+port. We replied that we should be very glad to do so, as it would
+be ten times as much as we should have received for piloting her up
+the Thames; and then we went down below. In the meantime the men
+were sent for on deck, divided into watches, and when the watch was
+set the others went down below again. After taking a glass or two
+of wine, for the Frenchmen had soon rummaged out what there was to
+be drunk in the cabin, Bramble and I returned on deck. We found the
+Frenchmen in charge of the watch diligent: one was looking out
+forward, another at the taffrail; the remaining three were walking
+the deck. Bramble went to the gangway, and I followed him.</p>
+<p>"Tom, I see the hatchway grating is on deck&mdash;I only wish we
+once had them all beneath it."</p>
+<p>"I only wish we had all but the watch&mdash;I'd have a try for
+it then," replied I.</p>
+<p>"No, no, Tom, that wouldn't do; but we must trust to Providence
+and a sharp lookout. See where you can put your hand upon a crowbar
+or handspike, in case you want it; but don't touch it. Come,
+there's nothing to be done in any way just now, so let's go down
+and take a snooze for an hour or two; and, Tom, if they ask us to
+drink, drink with them, and pretend to be half fuddled."</p>
+<p>We went down again, and found the privateer's men getting very
+jolly; but they did not offer us anything to drink, so we laid on
+some spare sails outside the cabin, and tried to go to sleep, but I
+could not, for I was very unhappy. I could see no chance of our
+escape, as nothing but a man-of-war would be likely to interfere
+and recapture us. I thought of Virginia and Lady O'Connor, and then
+I thought of poor Bessy, and having left her in such an unfriendly
+way, perhaps to remain in a French prison for years. Bramble and I
+were fully aware that the promises of the prizemaster were only to
+cajole us, and that once in a French port, had we claimed the
+fulfillment of them, a kick would have been all which we should, in
+all probability, receive for our pains.</p>
+<p>About one o'clock in the morning I rose and went on deck. The
+watch had been relieved, the weather also looked brighter, as if it
+were going, to clear up, and I became still more depressed. Bramble
+soon followed me.</p>
+<p>"It's clearing up," said I, "but I don't think it will
+last."</p>
+<p>"Never a bit," replied Bramble; "in half an hour it will be
+thicker than ever, so now I'll go and call the officer, and tell
+him he had better get under way: that will make him have less
+suspicion of us."</p>
+<p>Bramble did so. The officer came on deck, the men were turned
+out, and the windlass was manned; for, although so large a vessel,
+she had no capstan. The men hove in the cable in silence, and were
+short stay apeak, when, as we had foreseen, it came on thicker than
+ever. Bramble pointed it out to the officer, who was perfectly
+satisfied that nothing could be done; the cable was veered out
+again, and the men sent below.</p>
+<p>"We hope you'll think of your promise to us, sir," said Bramble
+to the officer, as he was going down.</p>
+<p>"Yes, I will, I swear," replied he, slapping Bramble on the
+back.</p>
+<p>The morning broke, and the weather continued the same; it was
+not possible to see ten yards clear of the ship, and, of course, in
+such weather it was not likely that any other vessels would be
+attempting to pass through the Channel. At noon it cleared up a
+little, and the windlass was again manned; but in a short time the
+fog became thicker than ever. The Frenchmen now became very
+impatient, but there was no help for it; they walked about the
+deck, swearing and stamping, and throwing out invectives against
+the fog and rain as they looked up at it. The night closed in; the
+men were kept on deck until eleven o'clock, when the flood time
+made, and then they were sent down again, as nothing could be done
+until the ebb. At twelve o'clock the weather became worse, the wind
+freshened considerably, and veered more to the southward, the rain
+poured down in torrents, and the men of the watch sheltered
+themselves down the hatchway. The officer came up on the deck, and
+called Bramble, who had been down below. Bramble told him, what was
+very true, that the wind would probably shift and the weather clear
+up in a few hours, and that we should be able to weigh with the
+coming down of the ebb. He asked Bramble whether he thought it
+would blow hard. Bramble could not say, but it would be better that
+the men should not turn in, as they might be wanted; and that if
+the fore-topmast staysail was hoisted, she would lie better at her
+anchor, and in case of parting, he would be able to manage her till
+sail was set. This advice was followed, and all the men sat up in
+the cabin drinking, those who had the watch occasionally coming
+down to refresh themselves.</p>
+<p>They gave us a glass of grog each that night, a proof that they
+had drunk until they were good-natured. Bramble said to me, as we
+sat down outside, "It will be clear to-morrow morning, Tom, that's
+sartain&mdash;it must be to-night or never. I've been thinking of
+lowering the quarter boat down, when they are a little more
+mizzled; they are getting on pretty fast, for Frenchmen haven't the
+heads for drinking that Englishmen have. Now it pours down
+beautifully, and here they come down again for shelter."</p>
+<p>For three hours we watched; it was then four o'clock, and the
+men were most of them asleep or more than half drunk. Those of the
+middle watch came down dripping wet, and called the others to
+relieve them, but only two of them answered to the call. They who
+had come down began to drink freely, to warm themselves after their
+ducking, and by half-past four, except the two men on deck, every
+Frenchman was either fast asleep or muddled.</p>
+<p>"Tom," said Bramble, "now's our time. Slip up on deck, go
+forward if no one is there, and saw through the cable as quickly as
+you can; it won't take long, for it's a coir rope. As soon as you
+have got through two strands out of the three, come aft."</p>
+<p>I went on deck, and looked round; I could not see the two men,
+it was so dark. I then walked forward, and looking well round to
+see that they were not on the forecastle, I sat down before the
+windlass and commenced operations. In a couple of minutes I had
+divided the two strands, and I went aft, where I found Bramble at
+the binnacle, in which a light was burning.</p>
+<p>"I have done it," said I, "and if the wind freshens at all, she
+will part."'</p>
+<p>"All's right," said Bramble, "those two fellows are fast asleep
+under the taffrail, covered up with the trysail, which lies there.
+Now, Tom, for a bold push: go down once more, and see how they are
+getting on in the cabin."</p>
+<p>I went down: every man was asleep&mdash;some on the locker, some
+with their heads on the table. I came on deck: it rained harder
+than ever.</p>
+<p>"This will be a clearing shower, Tom, depend upon it; and the
+wind is freshening up again. Now, have you looked out for a
+handspike or crowbar?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I know where there are two."</p>
+<p>"Then come with me: we must unship the ladder, and pull it up on
+deck, and then put on the grating; after that we must take our
+chance: we may succeed, and we may not&mdash;all depends upon their
+not waking too soon."</p>
+<p>We went to the hatchway, cut the cleat-lashings, hauled the
+ladder on deck, and then put on the grating.</p>
+<p>"That will do, Tom, for the present. Now do you take the helm,
+with a crowbar all ready by your side. I will go forward and cut
+the cable: if those fellows rouse up while I am forward, you must
+do your best. I leave you, Tom, because you are more powerful than
+I am."</p>
+<p>"I'll manage them both, never fear," whispered I.</p>
+<p>"When she swings, mind you put the helm a-starboard, Tom," said
+Bramble in my ear.</p>
+<p>This was the most nervous part of the whole transaction: the men
+abaft might wake, and I should have to master them how I
+could&mdash;and even if I did, the scuffle might awake those below,
+who were not yet secured; although, for a time, it would be
+difficult for them to get on deck. But fortune favored us: the
+cable was severed, the ship swung round, and Bramble returned aft
+and took the helm.</p>
+<p>"Now is the time to see if I'm a pilot or not, Tom," said he. "I
+think I can steer her through by compass, now that it's nearly high
+water&mdash;luck's all. It was fortunate that we got the staysail
+hoisted for us, or we could have made nothing of it."</p>
+<p>"It's clearing up fast," said I, as I kept my eyes upon where
+the men were lying abaft; "and there'll be plenty of wind."</p>
+<p>"Yes, and we'll have daylight soon. Tom, I don't want you. I
+should like you to step aft, and stand over those two chaps; if
+they wake, knock them senseless&mdash;don't kill them, as you can
+easily bind them while they are stupefied. And, Tom, look about you
+for some seizings all ready. I wish they would wake, for we are not
+safe while they are not secure. Put a handspike by me, and, if
+necessary, I will leave the helm for a minute, and help you: it's
+better that she should go on shore than they should master us.
+We're pretty safe now, at all events. I see the land&mdash;all's
+right."</p>
+<p>It was now daylight. After this whispering with Bramble, I went
+aft with a handspike in my hand; and I had not been there more than
+two minutes when one of the privateer's men turned the canvas on
+one side, and looked up. The handspike came down upon his head, and
+he dropped senseless; but the noise roused up the other, and I
+dealt him a blow more severe than the first. I then threw down my
+weapon, and, perceiving the deep-sea lead-line coiled up on the
+reel, I cut off sufficient, and in a short time had bound them both
+by the hands and feet. They groaned heavily, and I was afraid that
+I had killed them; but there was no help for it.</p>
+<p>"They are safe," said I, returning to Bramble.</p>
+<p>"I thought I heard you, but I did not look round at the time.
+Half an hour more, Tom, and, even with this wind, we shall be
+safe&mdash;and, Tom, our fortune's made. If they wake below, we
+must fight hard for it, for we've a right to salvage, my
+boy&mdash;one-eighth of the whole cargo&mdash;that's worth fighting
+for. Depend upon it, they'll be stirring soon; so, Tom, go aft, and
+drag the trysail here, and put it on the hatchway grating&mdash;its
+weight will prevent their lifting it up in a hurry. If we can only
+hold our own for twenty minutes longer she is ours, and all
+right."</p>
+<p>As soon as I had stowed the trysail on the hatchway grating, I
+looked about to see what else I could put on the skylight, which
+they might also attempt to force up. I could find nothing but the
+coils of rope, which I piled on; but, while I was so doing, a
+pistol was fired at me from below, and the ball passed through the
+calf of my leg; it was, however, not a wound to disable me, and I
+bound it up with my handkerchief.</p>
+<p>"They're all alive now, Tom, so you must keep your eyes open.
+However, we're pretty safe&mdash;the light vessel is not a mile
+off. Keep away from the skylight&mdash;you had better stand upon
+the trysail, Tom&mdash;you will help to keep the hatchway down, for
+they are working at it."</p>
+<p>Another pistol was now fired at Bramble, which missed him.</p>
+<p>"Tom, see if there's no bunting aft, and, if so, just throw some
+over this part of the skylight, it will blind them, at all events;
+otherwise I'm just a capital mark for them."</p>
+<p>I ran aft, and gathered some flags, which I brought and laid
+over the skylight, so as to intercept their view of Bramble; but
+while I was so doing another pistol-shot was fired&mdash;it passed
+me, but hit Bramble, taking off one of his fingers.</p>
+<p>"That's no miss, but we've got through the worst of it,
+Tom&mdash;I don't think they can see me now&mdash;don't put that
+English ensign on, but hoist it Union downward. I shall round-to
+now; there's the men-of-war in the Medway. Why don't the fools look
+out, and they will see that they can't escape?"</p>
+<p>"They've only the stern windows to look out of: the
+quarter-galleries are boarded up."</p>
+<p>"Then, Tom, just look if they have not beat them out, for you
+know they may climb on deck by them."</p>
+<p>It was fortunate that Bramble mentioned this. I went aft with
+the handspike in my hand, and when I was about to look over, I met
+face to face a Frenchman, who had climbed out of the starboard
+quarter-gallery, and was just gaming the deck. A blow with the
+handspike sent him overboard, and he went astern; but another was
+following him, and I stood prepared to receive him. It was the
+officer in command, who spoke English. He paused at the sight of
+the other man falling overboard and my uplifted handspike; and I
+said to him, "It's of no use&mdash;look at the English men-of-war
+close to you: if you do not go back to the cabin, and keep your men
+quiet, when the men-of-war's men come on board we will show you no
+quarter."</p>
+<p>We were now entering the Medway; and the Frenchman perceived
+that they could not escape, and would only bring mischief on
+themselves by any farther assaults, so he got into the
+quarter-gallery again, and spoke to his men. As soon as I perceived
+that he was entering, I ran over to the other side to the larboard
+quarter-gallery, and there again I found a Frenchman had nearly
+gained the deck. I levelled the handspike at his head, but he
+dodged, and returned to the cabin by the way he came; and after
+that there were no more attempts at recovering the vessel. In five
+minutes more we were abreast of the Euphrosyne, Sir James
+O'Connor's frigate, which was now lying, with only her lower masts
+in, alongside of the hulk. I hailed for assistance, and let fly the
+foretop-mast staysail sheet, while Bramble rounded the ship to. The
+boats were sent on board immediately; and as we had not a cable
+bent, they made the ship fast to the hulk astern of them. We stated
+our case in few words to the officer; and having ascertained that
+Sir James O'Connor was on board, requested that we might be sent to
+the frigate.</p>
+<p>"Is it you?" said Sir James, as I came on the gangway; "what is
+it all about&mdash;are you hurt? Come down in the cabin."</p>
+<p>Bramble and I followed him down into the cabin; and I stated the
+whole particulars of the capture and re-capture.</p>
+<p>"Excellent&mdash;most excellent! I wish you both joy; but first
+we must have the surgeon here" Sir James rang the bell; and when
+the surgeon came he went on deck to give orders.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<a name="illus493.jpg" id="illus493.jpg"></a> <a href=
+"images/illus493.jpg"><img src="images/thumb493.jpg" width="20%"
+alt="" title="" /></a><br />
+<b>I MET FACE TO FACE A FRENCHMAN.<br />
+&mdash;Marryat, Vol. X., p. 493.</b>
+<br /></div>
+<p>The ball had passed through my leg, so that the surgeon had
+little to do to me. Bramble's finger was amputated, and in a few
+minutes we were all right, and Sir James came down again.</p>
+<p>"I should say, stay on board till you are able to get about
+again; but the ship will be paid off to-morrow, so I had better
+send you up to Chatham directly. You are entitled to salvage if
+ever men were, for you have earned it gloriously; and I will take
+care that you are done justice to. I must go now and report the
+vessel and particulars to the admiral, and the first lieutenant
+will send you to Chatham in one of the cutters. You'll be in good
+hands, Tom, for you will have two nurses."</p>
+<p>We were taken up to Chatham to the hotel, where we found Lady
+O'Connor and Virginia very much surprised, as may be imagined, at
+our being brought there wounded. However, we were neither of us ill
+enough to go to bed, and had a sitting-room next to theirs.</p>
+<p>This recapture made a great deal of noise. At first the agent
+for the prize wrote down a handsome letter to us, complimenting us
+upon our behavior and stating that he was authorized to present us
+each with five hundred pounds for our conduct. But Sir James
+O'Connor answered the letter, informing him that we claimed, and
+would have, our one-eighth, as entitled to by law, and that he
+would see us righted. Mr. Wilson, whom we employed as our legal
+adviser, immediately gave the prize agent notice of an action in
+the Court of Admiralty, and, finding we were so powerfully backed,
+and that he could not help himself, he offered forty thousand
+pounds, which was one-eighth, valuing the cargo at three hundred
+and twenty thousand pounds. The cargo proved to be worth more than
+four hundred thousand pounds, but Mr. Wilson advised us to close
+with the offer, as it was better than litigating the question; so
+we assented to it, and the money was paid over.</p>
+<p>In a fortnight we were both ready to travel again. Sir James
+O'Connor had remained a week longer than he intended to have done
+at Chatham on our account. We now took leave of them, and having
+presented Virginia with five thousand pounds, which I had directed
+Mr. Wilson to settle upon her, we parted, the O'Connors and
+Virginia for Leamington, and Bramble and I for Deal.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus495.jpg" width="30%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTY_ONE" id="CHAPTER_FIFTY_ONE"></a>CHAPTER
+FIFTY-ONE</h2>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Being the last Chapter, the Reader may pretty well guess the
+Contents of it.</p>
+</div>
+<p>"Tom, do you know that I very often find myself looking about
+me, and asking myself if all that has happened is true or a dream,"
+said Bramble to me, as we sat inside of the coach to Dover, for
+there were no other inside passengers but ourselves. "I can't help
+thinking that great good fortune is as astounding as great
+calamity. Who would have thought, when I would, in spite of all
+Bessy's remonstrances, go round in that ship with you, that in the
+first place we should have been taken possession of by a privateer
+in the very narrows (he was a bold cruiser, that Frenchman)? After
+we were captured I said to myself, Bessy must have had a
+forewarning of what was to happen, or she never would have been, as
+I thought, so perverse. And since it has turned out so fortunately,
+I can't help saying how fortunate it was that we did not allow her
+to persuade us; for had we not both gone, nothing could have been
+done. Well, I think we may promise Bessy this time when we meet
+her, that we will not trust ourselves to salt water again in a
+hurry. What do you think, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"No; I think the best thing I can do is to marry, and live on
+shore," replied I.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Tom, that's it. Give me your hand, you don't know how
+happy you make me; we'll all live together. But where shall we
+live? for the poor little cottage that I thought quite big enough
+for us a month ago will not do now."</p>
+<p>"We have plenty of time to talk that over, father. I love the
+cottage for many reasons; although, as you say, it is not large
+enough now for our means or future way of living."</p>
+<p>"And I love it too, boy; I love to look out of the door and see
+the spot where my Bessy rescued me from death. God bless her! she
+is a noble girl, Tom, though I say it who&mdash;but I'm not her
+father, after all, and if I were, I would still say it."</p>
+<p>"It is evident, by her letter to you, that she has been most
+anxious about us. What will she say when she hears we have both
+been wounded?"</p>
+<p>"Ay! it wouldn't have done to have told her that, or she would
+have set off for Chatham, as sure as we are sitting here."</p>
+<p>Here a pause ensued for some time, and we were busied with our
+own thoughts. The silence was at last broken by me.</p>
+<p>"Father," said I, "I should like to ask my father and Peter
+Anderson to come down to us; they can easily get leave."</p>
+<p>"Is it to be present at your wedding, Tom?"</p>
+<p>"Exactly&mdash;if Bessy will consent."</p>
+<p>"Well, I have no doubt of that, Tom; but she will now require a
+little courting, you know why."</p>
+<p>"Why, because all women like it, I suppose."</p>
+<p>"No, Tom; it is because she was in love before you were, d'ye
+understand?&mdash;and now that things are all smooth, and you
+follow her, why, it's natural, I suppose, that she should shy off a
+little in her turn. You mustn't mind that, Tom; it's a sort of
+soothing to the mortification of having at one time found herself,
+as it were, rejected."</p>
+<p>"Well, I shan't mind that; it will only serve me right for being
+such a fool as not to have perceived her value before. But how do
+you understand women so well, father?"</p>
+<p>"Because, Tom, I've been looking on and not performing all my
+life: except in one instance in a long life, I've only been a
+bystander in the way of courtship and matrimony. Here we are at
+last, and now for a chaise to Deal. Thank God, we can afford to
+shorten the time, for Bessy's sake, poor thing!"</p>
+<p>We arrived at the cottage. The sound of the wheels had called
+out not only Bessy and Mrs. Maddox, but all the neighbors; for they
+had heard of our good fortune. Bessy, as soon as she had satisfied
+herself that it was Bramble and me, went into the cottage again.
+Once more we entered the humble roof. Bessy flew into her father's
+arms, and hung weeping on his shoulder.</p>
+<p>"Haven't you a kind word to say for Tom?" said Bramble kissing
+her as he released himself.</p>
+<p>"Does he deserve it, to leave me as he did, laughing at my
+distress? <i>He</i> had no right to treat me so."</p>
+<p>"Indeed, Bessy, you do me injustice. I said at the time that I
+thought there was no risk, and I certainly did think there was
+none. Who would have expected a privateer half-way up the Thames,
+any more than a vessel with twenty men on board could be
+re-captured by two men?"</p>
+<p>"Well, Bessy, you ought to make friends with him, for, without
+his arm, your father would not have been back here quite so soon.
+He beat down the Frenchmen, one after another, in good style, when
+they attempted to recover the vessel&mdash;that he did, I can tell
+you, wounded as he was."</p>
+<p>"Wounded?" cried Bessy, starting, her eyes running over me to
+find out where.</p>
+<p>"Yes, with a bullet in his leg; I didn't like to say a word
+about it in the letter. But I suppose if he had been killed you
+would not have cared?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, father!" cried Bessy, as she turned toward me, and I
+received her in my arms.</p>
+<p>Bessy soon recovered her smiles, and thankful for our
+preservation and good fortune, and satisfied with our mutual
+affection, we passed a most happy evening. Somehow or another
+Bramble, having sent Mrs. Maddox on a message, found out that it
+was very sultry indoors, and that he would take his pipe on the
+beach. He left me alone with Bessy; and now, for the first time, I
+plainly told her the state of my affections, and asked her to
+consent to be my wife. I did not plead in vain, as the reader may
+suppose from what he has already been made acquainted with.</p>
+<p>After Bessy had retired, and I was sitting with Bramble, who had
+his glass of grog and pipe as usual, I made him acquainted with my
+success.</p>
+<p>"All right, Tom," said he, "I'm thankful&mdash;and God bless you
+both."</p>
+<p>And had I not reason also to be thankful? When I had retired to
+my room that night, I thought over the various passages in my life.
+What might I have been if Providence had not watched over me? When
+neglected in my youth, in a situation which exposed me to every
+temptation, had not old Anderson been sent as a guardian to keep me
+in the right path, to instruct me, and to give me that education
+without which my future success might have turned out a
+disadvantage instead of a source of gratitude? In Bramble, again, I
+had met with a father, to supply the place of one who was not in a
+situation to do his duty to me or forward me in life. In old Nanny
+I had met with a kind friend, one who, at the same time that she
+would lead me right, was a warning to me from her sufferings. To
+Mrs. St. Felix I was equally indebted, and had I not been permitted
+to pay the debt of gratitude to both of them? Even my mother's
+harshness, which appeared at first to my short-sightedness to have
+been so in-defensible, was of great advantage to me, as it had
+stimulated me to exertion and industry, and pointed out to me the
+value of independence. Was I not also most fortunate in having
+escaped from the entanglement of Janet, who, had I married her,
+would, in all probability, have proved a useless if not a faithless
+helpmate; and still more so, in finding that there was, as it were,
+especially reserved for me the affection of such a noble,
+right-minded creature as Bessy? My life, commenced in rags and
+poverty, had, by industry and exertion, and the kindness of others,
+step by step progressed to competence and every prospect of mundane
+happiness. Had I not, therefore, reason to be grateful, and to feel
+that there had been a little cherub who had watched over the life
+of Poor Jack? On my bended knees I acknowledged it fervently and
+gratefully, and prayed that, should it please Heaven that I should
+in after life meet any reverse, I might bear it without repining,
+and say, with all humility, "Thy will and not mine, O Lord, be
+done!"</p>
+<p>How bright was the next morning, and how cheerful did the
+dancing waves appear to me!&mdash;and Bessy's eyes were radiant as
+the day, and her smiles followed in rapid succession; and Bramble
+looked so many years younger&mdash;he was almost too happy to
+smoke&mdash;it was really the sunshine of the heart which illumined
+our cottage. And thus did the few days pass, until Anderson and my
+father made their appearance. They were both surprised at Bessy's
+beauty, and told me so. They had heard that she was handsome, but
+they were not prepared for her uncommon style; for now that her
+countenance was lighted up with joy, she was indeed lovely.</p>
+<p>"Well, Tom," observed my father, "there's only one thing which
+surprises me."</p>
+<p>"What is that?"</p>
+<p>"Why, how, with such a fine craft in view, you could ever have
+sailed in the wake of such a little privateer as&mdash;but I must
+not mention her&mdash;never mind, don't answer me that&mdash;but
+another question&mdash;when are you going to be spliced?"</p>
+<p>"Very soon, I hope; but I really don't exactly know. All I can
+say is the sooner the better."</p>
+<p>"And so say I. Shall I bring up the subject on the plea of my
+leave being only for ten days?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, father, I wish you would, as it is really a good reason to
+allege for its taking place immediately."</p>
+<p>"Tom, my dear boy," said old Anderson, "from what I can
+perceive, you have great reason to be thankful in having obtained
+this young woman for your future partner in life. I admire her
+exceedingly, and I trust in Heaven that you will be happy."</p>
+<p>"I ought to be," replied I, "and grateful also particularly to
+you, to whom, under Providence, I am so much indebted."</p>
+<p>"If the seed is sown upon good ground, it will always yield a
+good harvest, Tom. You are a proof of it, so thank Heaven, and not
+me. I wish to tell you what your father has mentioned to me. The
+fact is, Tom, he is in what may be called a false position at
+Greenwich. He is a pensioner, and has now sufficient not to require
+the charity, and he thinks that he ought not to avail himself of
+it, now that you have made him independent; but if he leaves the
+hospital and remains at Greenwich, he and your mother would not
+agree well together. They are very good friends at a certain
+distance, but I do not think, with her high notions, that they
+could ever live together in the same house. He says that he should
+like to live either with you or near you; and I think myself, now
+that he is become so very steady a character, it does require your
+consideration whether you ought not to permit him. He will be a
+very good companion for Bramble, and they will get on well
+together. I do not mean to say that it might not be more agreeable
+if he were to remain at Greenwich; but he is your father, Tom, and
+you should make some sacrifice for a parent."</p>
+<p>"As far as I am concerned, Anderson, I most gladly consent.
+Bramble is to live with us&mdash;that is arranged, and if no
+objections are raised by others you may be sure of my acceding,
+and, indeed, if objections should be raised, of persuading all I
+can."</p>
+<p>"You can do no more, Tom," replied Anderson; "nor can more be
+expected."</p>
+<p>This point was very satisfactorily arranged. Bramble and Bessy
+both gave their cheerful consent, and it was settled that as soon
+as we had a house to receive him, my father should quit Greenwich
+and live with us. The arguments of my father, added to the
+persuasions of Bramble and me, had their due weight, and on the
+13th of September, 1807, Bessy and I exchanged our vows, and I
+embraced her as my own.</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><br />
+<img src="images/illus502.jpg" width="20%" alt="" title="" /></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="FINALE" id="FINALE"></a>FINALE</h2>
+<p>If the reader will refer back to the first part of this
+narrative, he will find that I was born in the year 1786; and as I
+am writing this in the year 1840, I am now fifty-four years old. I
+was but little more than twenty-one when I married; I have,
+therefore, the experience of thirty-two years of a married life;
+but I will not anticipate. I ended the last chapter with my own
+happy union; I must now refer to those events which followed close
+upon that period.</p>
+<p>Sir James and Lady O'Connor had taken up their residence at
+Leamington, then a small village, and not the populous place which
+it has since become. After a few months' residence, during which I
+had repeated letters from Lady O'Connor and Virginia, they were so
+pleased with the locality and neighborhood that Sir James purchased
+a property of some hundred acres, and added to a house which was
+upon it, so as to make it a comfortable and elegant residence. Lady
+O'Connor, after the first year, presented her husband with a son,
+and has since that been very assiduous in increasing his
+family&mdash;more so, perhaps, than would have been convenient to
+Sir James O'Connor's income at the time that he purchased the
+property, had it not been that the increase of its value, in
+consequence of a large portion of it having been taken as building
+land, has been so great as to place them in most affluent
+circumstances. About a year after my marriage I had notice from
+Lady O'Connor that a certain gentleman had arrived there who had
+shown great attention to Virginia; and she added that he had been
+very well received by my sister, being an old acquaintance of the
+name of Sommerville, a clergyman with a good living, and a very
+superior young man. I immediately recollected him as the preceptor
+who had behaved with such propriety when my sister was persecuted
+by the addresses of the young nobleman; and I, therefore, felt very
+easy upon the subject. A few months afterward I had a letter from
+Virginia, stating that he had proposed, and that she had
+conditionally accepted him. I wrote to her, congratulating her upon
+the choice she had made, giving her father's consent and blessing
+(of my mother hereafter); and shortly after they were married; and
+I am happy to say that her marriage has turned out as fortunate as
+my own.</p>
+<p>We had remained in the cottage for some months after my own
+marriage, very undecided what we should do. Bramble did not like to
+quit the seaside, nor, I believe his old habits and localities.
+Money was of little value to him; indeed, on my marriage, he had
+insisted upon settling upon Bessy and her children the whole sum he
+had received for the salvage of the Dutch Indiaman, reserving for
+himself his farm near Deal. It did so happen, however, that about
+that period, while we were still in perplexity, I received a letter
+from Mr. Wilson's son, at Dover, telling me that the manor-house
+and three hundred acres of land, adjoining to Bramble's farm, were
+to be disposed of. This exactly suited, so I made the purchase and
+took possession, and then sent for my father to join us, which he
+hastened to do. Bramble did not, however, give up his cottage on
+the beach. He left Mrs. Maddox in it, and it was a favorite
+retirement for my father and him, who would remain there for
+several days together, amusing themselves with watching the
+shipping, and gaining intelligence from the various pilots as they
+landed, as they smoked their pipes on the shingle beach. It was not
+more than half a mile from the great house, so that it was very
+convenient; and Bessy and I would often go with the children and
+indulge in reminiscences of the former scenes which had there
+occurred.</p>
+<p>My father and mother parted very good friends. The fact was that
+she was pleased with the arrangement, as she did not like my father
+wearing a pensioner's coat, and did not want his company at her own
+house. When he left the hospital, she insisted upon paying him his
+rent; and she did so very punctually until she gave up business. On
+her marriage, my sister requested that we would come to Leamington
+and be present; to which we all consented, particularly as it was a
+good opportunity of introducing Bessy to her and Lady O'Connor. My
+mother was also to join the party on the occasion. The only
+circumstance worth mentioning was the surprise of my mother on
+being introduced to Lady O'Connor, and finding that in this great
+lady she met with her old acquaintance, Mrs. St. Felix. Whatever
+she may have felt, she certainly had tact enough to conceal it, and
+was as warm in her congratulations as the best well-wisher. I must
+say that I never knew my mother appear to such advantage as she did
+during this visit to Leamington. She dressed remarkably well, and
+would have persuaded those who did not know her history that she
+had always been in good society; but she had been a lady's maid and
+had learned her mistress's airs, and as she could dress others so
+well, it would have been odd if she did not know how to dress
+herself. A good copy will often pass for an original. It was not
+till about six years after our marriage that my mother decided upon
+retiring from business. She had made a very comfortable provision
+for herself, as Mr. Wilson informed me, and took up her abode at
+Cheltenham, where she lived in a very genteel way, was considered
+quite a catch at card-parties, and when she did ask people to tea
+she always did the thing in better style than anybody else. The
+consequence was she was not only visited by most people, but in
+time became rather a person of consideration. As she never
+mentioned her husband, it was supposed that she was a widow, and,
+in consequence of her well-regulated establishment, she received
+much attention from several Irish and foreign bachelors. In short,
+my mother obtained almost the pinnacle of her ambition when she was
+once fairly settled at Cheltenham. I ought to observe that when she
+arrived there she had taken the precaution of prefixing a name to
+her own to which by baptismal rite she certainly was not entitled,
+and called herself Mrs. Montague Saunders.</p>
+<p>Shortly after Mrs. St. Felix had given notice to the doctor that
+she should not return, and that her shop and the goodwill thereof
+were for sale, I received a letter from my friend Tom Cobb, the
+doctor's assistant, telling me that as he perceived he had now no
+chance of Mrs. St. Felix, he had some idea of taking her shop, and
+setting up as a tobacconist; his reasons were that physic was a
+bore, and going out of nights when called up a still greater. I
+wrote to Lady O'Connor inclosing Mr. Tom's letter, and pointed out
+to her that I thought it would be a public benefit to prevent Tom
+from killing so many people, as he certainly would do if he
+continued in his present profession, and eventually set up for
+himself. She replied that she agreed with me, but at the same time
+that she was anxious to benefit fat Jane, who really was a very
+good girl; and that, therefore, she empowered me to enter into a
+treaty with Mr. Thomas, by which, provided he could obtain the
+lady's consent, he was to wed her, and receive the stock in trade,
+its contents and fixtures, and goodwill, etc., as her portion.</p>
+<p>As this was an offer which required some consideration before it
+was refused, I wrote to Tom pointing out to him the advantages of
+settling down with a good business, with a wife to assist him, and
+a cat and dog all ready installed, upon such advantageous
+conditions. Tom agreed with me, won the love of fat Jane, which was
+easily done, as he had no rival, and in a short time was fairly set
+down as the successor of Mrs. St. Felix. As for the doctor, he
+appeared to envy Tom his having possession of the shop which his
+fair friend once occupied; he was inconsolable, and there is no
+doubt but that he, from the period of her quitting Greenwich,
+wasted away until he eventually was buried in the churchyard. A
+most excellent man was Dr. Tadpole, and his death was lamented by
+hundreds who esteemed his character, and many hundreds more who had
+benefited not only by his advice, but by his charitable
+disposition. About ten years after my marriage Ben the Whaler was
+summoned away. His complaint was in the liver, which is not to be
+surprised at, considering how many gallons of liquor he had drunk
+during his life.</p>
+<p>Peter Anderson&mdash;my father, my friend, my
+preceptor&mdash;was for many years inspecting boatswain of the
+hospital. At last he became to a certain degree vacant in mind, and
+his situation was filled up by another. He was removed to what they
+call the helpless ward, where he was well nursed and attended. It
+is no uncommon, indeed I may say it is a very common thing, for the
+old pensioners, as they gradually decay, to have their health quite
+perfect when the faculties are partly gone; and there is a helpless
+ward established for that very reason, where those who are infirm
+and feeble, without disease, or have lost their faculties while
+their bodily energies remain, are sent to, and there they pass a
+quiet, easy life, well attended, until they sink into the grave.
+Such was the case with Peter Anderson: he was ninety-seven when he
+died, but long before that time his mind was quite gone. Still he
+was treated with respect, and many were there who attended his
+funeral. I erected a handsome tombstone to his memory, the last
+tribute I could pay to a worthy, honest, sensible, and highly
+religious good man.</p>
+<p>Mr. Wilson has been dead some time; he left me a legacy of five
+hundred pounds. I believe I have mentioned all my old acquaintances
+now, except Bill Harness and Opposition Bill. In living long
+certainly Opposition Bill has beat his opponent, for Harness is in
+the churchyard, while Opposition Bill still struts about with his
+hair as white as snow, and his face shriveled up like an old
+monkey's. The last time I was at Greenwich, I heard the pensioners
+say to one another, "Why, you go ahead about as fast as Opposition
+Bill." I requested this enigma to me to be solved, and it appeared
+that one Greenwich fair, Opposition Bill had set off home rather
+the worse for what he had drank, and so it happened that, crossing
+the road next to the hospital, his wooden leg had stuck in one of
+the iron plug-holes of the water conduit. Bill did not, in his
+situation, perceive that anything particular had occurred, and
+continued playing his fiddle and singing, and, as he supposed,
+walking on the whole time, instead of which he was continually
+walking round and round the one leg in the plug-hole with the other
+that was free. After about half an hour's trotting round and round
+this way, he began to think that he did not get home quite so fast
+as he ought, but the continual circular motion had made him more
+confused than before.</p>
+<p>"By Gum!" said Bill, "this hospital is a confounded long way
+off. I'm sure I walk a mile, and I get no nearer; howsoebber,
+nebber mind&mdash;here goes."</p>
+<p>Here Billy struck up a tune, and commenced a song along with it,
+still walking round and round his wooden leg which was firmly fixed
+in the plug-hole, and so he continued till he fell down from
+giddiness, and he was picked up by some of the people, who carried
+him home to the hospital.</p>
+<p>I have but one more circumstance to relate. I was one day
+sitting with Bessy and my children, at the old cottage on the
+beach, Bramble and my father were smoking their pipes on a bench
+which they had set up outside, when one of the Deal boats landed
+with passengers. As they passed by us one old gentleman started,
+and then stopped short, as he beheld Bessy.</p>
+<p>"Mine frau!" he cried, "mine frau dat was in heaven!"</p>
+<p>We stared very much, as we did not comprehend him; but he then
+came up to me and said, "I beg your pardon, mynheer, but what is
+dat young woman?"</p>
+<p>"She is my wife," replied I.</p>
+<p>"I was going to say dat she was my wife, but dat is impossible.
+Look you here, sar."</p>
+<p>The old man pulled a miniature out of his breast, and certainly
+the resemblance to Bessy was most remarkable.</p>
+<p>"Now, sar, dat was my wife. Where did you get dis young
+woman?"</p>
+<p>I requested him to walk into the cottage, and then told him the
+history of Bessy.</p>
+<p>"Sar, my wife was coming home with her child in a brig, and the
+brig was never heard of. It was supposed that she did perish, and
+every one else too. Sar, this lady must be my daughter."</p>
+<p>"I'm sorry that we have no proofs to offer you," replied I; "she
+had only bedclothes on when she was taken into the boat, and there
+is nothing to establish her identity."</p>
+<p>"I am content, sar; she must be my daughter. She was in a brig
+with her mother, and she was saved the very same year that her
+mother come home. There, sar, look at this picture; it is the same
+person. I want no more proof&mdash;she is my daughter."</p>
+<p>Although this was what might be called only collateral proof, I
+did agree with the old gentleman that it was very strong; at all
+events, it was sufficient for him, and he claimed Bessy as his
+child. Had he claimed her to take her away, I might have disputed
+it; but as he loaded her with presents, and when he died, which he
+did three years afterward, and left twenty thousand rix dollars, of
+course I was perfectly satisfied with his relationship.</p>
+<p>So much for what has occurred since the time I married; and now,
+as the reader may, perhaps, wish to know something about the
+present condition of myself and family, I must inform him that my
+father and Bramble are still alive, and flourishing under their
+gray hairs. My sister has four children, and her husband is now a
+dean: they do say that, from the interest of his patron, he will in
+all probability be a bishop, a distinction not to be envied in
+these days, and therefore I do not wish him success. My mother is,
+however, of the contrary opinion, having been told that her
+daughter as a bishop's lady will take precedence and be led out
+before Lady Hercules. Sir James and Lady O'Connor are still well,
+and as happy as they well can be. Bessy has blessed me with three
+boys and three girls, now all grown up; but the boys came first.
+The eldest is a lieutenant in his Majesty's service, the second is
+a captain of an Indiaman, and the third commands a free trader.
+They are all well to do, and independent of their father. My girls,
+who are much younger, have been well educated, and people say that
+they are very handsome; at all events, they are modest and
+good-tempered. I have not attempted to conceal what I once was, yet
+Time has called away most of those who knew me in my profession. I
+am still considered as having been a seafaring man, but
+nevertheless, in consequence of my property, I am generally
+addressed by the title of Squire Saunders. By not assuming a
+station which does not become me, I find myself treated not only
+with respect, but with friendship, by those who are in birth, as
+well as other qualifications, my superiors. My daughters are
+invited out to all the balls and <i>f&ecirc;tes</i> in the
+neighborhood, and are great favorites wherever they go: they all of
+them are like their mother, not only in appearance, but in temper
+and disposition. We have plenty of young men who visit the house,
+and I am afraid that we shall soon have to part with two of them,
+my eldest, Virginia, being engaged to a ship-builder at Limehouse,
+and Elizabeth to a young clergyman in the neighborhood. Jane thinks
+she never will marry, and, as I tell her, I suppose she never will
+till she is asked. To wind up, I may say that Bessy and I have been
+very happy, and promise still to be as happy as most people are who
+pass through this pilgrimage. We have competence&mdash;the good
+opinion of the world&mdash;a family who have never caused us one
+hour's uneasiness (how few can say that?), and we have, I trust, a
+due sense of God's mercy and kindness toward us, and never lie down
+in our beds without thanking Him for the many mercies we have
+received, and acknowledging how unworthy we are to have been so
+signally blessed.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Poor Jack, by Frederick Marryat
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Poor Jack
+
+Author: Frederick Marryat
+
+Release Date: November 30, 2004  [eBook #14222]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR JACK***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14222-h.htm or 14222-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/2/2/14222/14222-h/14222-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/2/2/14222/14222-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+POOR JACK
+
+by
+
+CAPTAIN MARRYAT
+
+Works of Captain Marryat, Volume Ten
+
+With Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: POOR JACK--FRONTISPIECE--Marryat Vol. X.]
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME TEN
+
+FRONTISPIECE--Poor Jack
+Fisher's Alley
+I summoned all my strength, and called out long before we floated past her
+Anderson reading the Bible to Jack
+Anderson reading the news of the Battle of the Nile
+Jack's Father landing after the Battle of the Nile
+Jack in Nanny's Room
+Jack and Bramble aboard the Indiaman
+The Fore-peak Yarn
+"How's her head, Tom?"
+Bramble saving Bessie
+Jack heaving the lead
+Nanny relating her story
+Jack and his Father under the Colonnade
+A Surprise
+Bramble and Jack carried into a French Port
+The Leith Smack and the Privateer
+The Arrival of the Privateer at Lanion
+The Prison
+Jack a Prisoner
+The Escape
+Wreck of the Galley
+We found both Bramble and Bessy clinging to the rope
+Bramble had knelt by the bedside, and was evidently in prayer
+I went down to the beach, ... and I was soon on board
+"Mr. Saunders, ... may I ask where you procured this spy-glass?"
+Sir J. O'Connor and Mrs. St. Felix
+I met face to face a Frenchman
+
+
+
+
+POOR JACK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+     In which, like most People who tell their own Stories, I begin with
+     the Histories of other People.
+
+
+I have every reason to believe that I was born in the year of our Lord
+1786, for more than once I put the question to my father, and he
+invariably made the same reply: "Why, Jack, you were launched a few
+months before the Druids were turned over to the Melpomene." I have
+since ascertained that this remarkable event occurred in January 1787.
+But my father always reckoned in this way: if you asked him when such an
+event took place, he would reply, so many years or months after such a
+naval engagement or remarkable occurrence; as, for instance, when I one
+day inquired how many years he had served the King, he responded, "I
+came into the sarvice a little afore the battle of Bunker's Hill, in
+which we licked the Americans clean out of Boston[1]." As for Anno
+Domini, he had no notion of it whatever.
+
+[Footnote 1: I have since heard a different version of the result of
+this battle.]
+
+Who my grandfather was, I cannot inform the reader, nor is it, perhaps,
+of much consequence. My father was a man who invariably looked forward,
+and hated anything like retrospection: he never mentioned either his
+father or his mother; perhaps he was not personally acquainted with
+them. All I could collect from him at intervals was, that he served in a
+collier from South Shields, and that a few months after his
+apprenticeship was out, he found himself one fine morning on board of a
+man-of-war, having been picked up in a state of unconsciousness, and
+hoisted up the side without his knowledge or consent. Some people may
+infer from this that he was at the time tipsy; he never told me so; all
+he said was, "Why, Jack, the fact is when they picked me up I was quite
+altogether _non pompus_." I also collected at various times the
+following facts--that he was put into the mizzentop, and served three
+years in the West Indies; that he was transferred to the maintop, and
+served five years in the Mediterranean; that he was made captain of the
+foretop, and sailed six years in the East Indies; and, at last, was
+rated captain's coxswain in the "Druid" frigate, attached to the Channel
+fleet cruising during the peace. Having thus condensed the genealogical
+and chronological part of this history, I now come to a portion of it in
+which it will be necessary that I should enter more into detail.
+
+The frigate in which my father eventually served as captain's coxswain
+was commanded by a Sir Hercules Hawkingtrefylyan, Baronet. He was very
+poor and very proud, for baronets were not so common in those days. He
+was a very large man, standing six feet high, and with what is termed a
+considerable _bow-window_ in front; but at the same time portly in his
+carriage. He wore his hair well powdered, exacted the utmost degree of
+ceremony and respect, and considered that even speaking to one of his
+officers was paying them a very high compliment: as for being asked to
+his table, there were but few who could boast of having had that honor,
+and even those few perhaps not more than once in the year. But he was,
+as I have said, very poor; and moreover he was a married man, which
+reminds me that I must introduce his lady, who, as the ship was on
+Channel service, had lodgings at the port near to which the frigate was
+stationed, and occasionally came on board to take a passage when the
+frigate changed her station to the eastward or to the westward. Lady
+Hercules, as we were directed to call her by Sir Hercules, was as large
+in dimensions, and ten times more proud than her husband. She was an
+excessive fine lady in every respect; and whenever she made her
+appearance on board, the ship's company looked upon her with the
+greatest awe. She had a great dislike to ships and sailors; officers she
+seldom condescended to notice; and pitch and tar were her abomination.
+Sir Hercules himself submitted to her dictation; and, had she lived on
+board, she would have commanded the ship: fortunately for the service,
+she was always very seasick when she was taking a passage, and therefore
+did no mischief. "I recollect," said my father to me, "once when we were
+running down to Portsmouth, where we had been ordered for provisions,
+that my Lady Hercules, who was no fool of a weight, being one night
+seasick in her cot, the lanyard of the cot gave way, and she came down
+with a run by the head. The steward was called by the sentry, and there
+was a terrible shindy. I, of course, was sent for, as I had the hanging
+up of the cot. There was Sir Hercules with his shirt flapping in the
+wind, and a blanket over his shoulders, strutting about in a towering
+passion; there was the officer of the watch, who had been sent for by
+mistake, and who was ordered to quit the cabin immediately; and there
+was I, expecting to be put in irons, and have seven dozen for my
+breakfast. As for Sir Hercules, he didn't know what to do; he did
+nothing but storm at everybody, for my lady, with her head under the
+clothes, was serving him out at no small rate. She wouldn't, she
+declared, allow any man to come into the cabin to hoist her up again. So
+indecent, so indelicate, so shocking--she was ashamed of Sir
+Hercules--to send for the men; if they didn't leave the cabin
+immediately, she'd scream and she'd faint--that she would--there was no
+saying what she wouldn't do! Well, there we waited just outside until at
+last Sir Hercules and my lady came to a parley. She was too sick to get
+out of bed, and he was not able to hoist her up without assistance; so
+being, as I suppose, pretty well tired of lying with her head three feet
+lower than her heels, she consented, provided that she was properly
+kivered up, to allow us to come in and put all to rights. Well, first
+she made Sir Hercules throw over her his two boat cloaks, but that
+wouldn't do; so he threw the green cloth from off the table, but that
+warn't enough for her delicate sensibility, and she hollowed from under
+the clothes for more kivering; so Sir Hercules sent for two of the
+ship's ensigns, and coiled away the bunting on her till it was as high
+as a haycock, and then we were permitted to come in and hoist her
+ladyship up again to the battens. Fortunately it was not a slippery
+hitch that had let her down by the run, but the lanyard had given way
+from my lady's own weight, so my back was not scratched after all. Women
+ain't no good on board, Jack, that's sartain."
+
+But I must now introduce a more important personage than even Lady
+Hercules, which is my mother. They say "like master, like man," and I
+may add, "like lady, like maid." Lady Hercules was fine, but her maid
+was still finer. Most people when they write their biography, if their
+parents were poor, inform you that they left them a good name and
+nothing else. Some parents cannot even do that; but all parents can at
+all events leave their children a _pretty_ name, by taking a little
+trouble at their baptism. My mother's name was Araminta, which, as my
+father truly observed, was "a touch above the common." She had
+originally gone into service as a nursery maid, living in her first
+situation one year and nine months; in her second she remained two years
+and four months; then she left to _better_ herself, and obtained the
+situation of nurse in a family where she remained two years and one
+month; after which Lady Hercules then having a child of a year old, she
+was received into her service. At three years old the child died, and my
+mother was promoted to the situation of lady's maid. This advancement
+quite spoiled her; she was prouder than her mistress, and gave herself
+ten times more airs, and when, at first, my father (who as coxswain was
+constantly up at the house) offered to speak to her, she turned away
+from him in most ineffable disdain. Now my father was at that time about
+thirty years of age, and thought no small beer of himself, as the saying
+goes. He was a tall, handsome man, indeed, so good-looking that they
+used to call him "Handsome Jack" on board of the "Druid," and he had,
+moreover, a pigtail of most extraordinary size and length, of which he
+was not a little proud, as it hung down far below the waistband of his
+trousers. His hair was black and glossy, and his lovelocks, as the
+sailors term the curls which they wear on their temples, were of the
+most insinuating description. Now, as my father told me, when he first
+saw my mother with her sky-scraping cap at the back of her head, so
+different from the craft in general, he was very much inclined to board
+her; but when she boomed him off in that style, my father, who was
+quite the rage and fancy man among the ladies of Sally Port and Castle
+Rag, hauled his wind in no time, hitching up his white trousers and
+turning short round on his heel so as to present his back to her
+whenever they happened to meet. For a long time he gave her a wide
+berth. Now this fact of my father returning her disdain had the usual
+effect. At first she was very savage, and when she spoke of him to Lady
+Hercules, she designated him as "that proud coxswain, who seemed to
+think himself a greater man than Sir Hercules himself--with his filthy
+pigtail, indeed!" My father also, when he spoke of her to the boat's
+crew, termed her "that proud ---- of a lady's maid," the word not
+mentionable being both canine and feminine. Thus matters went on for
+some time, until my mother, by a constant survey of my father's handsome
+proportions, every day thought him to be a more proper man, and a few
+advances on her part at last brought them to a mutual understanding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+     My Father does what most Sailors do--he makes a foolish Marriage,
+     one of the Consequences of which is brought to Light at the End of
+     the Chapter.
+
+
+I have observed at the finale of my first chapter, that at last my
+mother and father came to a good understanding; but at the same time
+Madam Araminta (for so my mother insisted upon being called) took good
+care to let my father understand that she considered that she was
+lowering herself by surrendering up her charms to a captain's coxswain.
+She informed him that her father might be said to have been royally
+connected, being a king's messenger (and so, indeed, he might be
+considered, having been a twopenny postman), and that her mother had
+long scores against the first nobles in the land (she was a milk-woman),
+and that she had dry-nursed a young baronet, and was now not merely a
+ladies' maid, but a _lady's_ laides' maid. All this important and novel
+communication sunk deep in my father's mind, and when he heard it he
+could hardly believe his good fortune in having achieved such a
+conquest; but, as the sequel will prove, his marriage did not turn out
+very happily. He used to say to me, "Jack, take my advice, and never
+marry above your condition as I did; nothing would please me but a
+_lady's ladies'_ maid; I had no right to look up to even a _ladies'_
+maid, and had your mother only been a simple maid, all might have been
+right." But these were after-reflections when it was too late. I do not
+wonder at my poor father's senses being dazzled, for, as he said to me,
+"You see, Jack, after being used to see nothing but Point women, all so
+slack in stays and their rigging out of order, to fall aboard of a craft
+like your mother, so trim and neat, ropes all taut, stays well set up,
+white hammock-cloths spread every day in the week, and when under way,
+with a shawl streaming out like a silk ensign, and such a rakish gaff
+topsail bonnet, with pink pennants; why, it was for all the world as if
+I was keeping company with a tight little frigate after rolling down
+channel with a fleet of colliers; but, howsomever, fine feathers don't
+make fine birds, and handsome is as handsome does."
+
+My father's marriage was, however, precipitated by circumstances. One
+afternoon, after he had been accepted, he had taken his quid out of his
+cheek, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and was in the act of
+giving and receiving a chaste salute, when Lady Hercules happened to
+come down into the kitchen--a most rare occurrence, and wholly
+unexpected from a lady of her refined and delicate ideas. She caught my
+father and mother in the very act; and (as my father expressed it) with
+an exclamation of horror, "She 'bout ship, and sculled upstairs like
+winkin'." A loud peal of the bell summoned up my mother, leaving my
+father in a state of no pleasant suspense, for he was calculating how
+far Sir Hercules could bring in "kissing a lady's ladies' maid" under
+the article of war as "contempt of superiors," and, if so, how many
+dozen kisses his back might receive from the cat in return. While he was
+absorbed in this pleasing speculation, Lady Hercules was pouring out
+anathemas against my mother's want of delicacy and decency, informing
+her that it was impossible she could submit the decoration of her person
+to one who has so contaminated herself with a tobacco-chewing
+seaman--who was all pigtail within and without; for, as the Scripture
+says, "Who can touch pitch without being defiled?"
+
+Although my mother had made up her mind that if it was to be a question
+between a place and a husband, she should decide upon retaining the
+latter, still she thought it advisable, if it were possible, to
+conciliate my lady. She therefore pulled out a cambric handkerchief, and
+while her ladyship scolded, she covered up her face and wept. Lady
+Hercules continued to scold until she was out of breath, and thereby
+compelled to stop. My mother then replied, with deep humility and many
+tears, "that indeed she had been so persuaded (sob) that she at last
+promised to (sob) marry; but only on one condition--yes, indeed--(sob)
+that her ladyship gave her consent--positively on no other (sob)--no,
+indeed, upon her honor! Mr. Saunders was--(sob)--excellent young
+man--(sob), so attached to Sir Hercules (sob), and had such a great
+respect for her ladyship, that--(sob--sob--sob)--he had won her heart."
+
+By this time her ladyship had regained her breath, and she interrupted
+my mother by pointing out to her, that allowing all she said to be
+correct, yet still that was no reason why she should allow such indecent
+liberties; that Sir Hercules had never obtained such favors from her
+until after the ring had been put on her finger. Then, indeed, such
+things might be--that is, occasionally; but the kitchen of all
+places!--And, besides, how did she know how many wives the coxswain had
+already? She shouldn't be surprised, if, with that long pigtail of his,
+he had five at least--nay, perhaps, six or seven. Here my mother
+replied that "it was out of gratitude to her (sob) for having consented
+to permit him to (sob) speak to Sir Hercules (sob), who would plead with
+her ladyship (sob), which had occasioned Mr. Saunders (sob) to
+take--such--a--liberty (sob--sob--sob)--which he had never--done
+before--(sob)--No!--never--upon her honor--never!--" And here my
+mother's sobs choked her utterance.
+
+This explanation somewhat pacified, and a little subsequent humility and
+flattery gained the mistress, who consented to settle the matter with
+Sir Hercules, alleging, as one principal reason for so doing, that after
+the familiarity which had taken place between them, the sooner they were
+married the better. The wishes of her ladyship were tantamount to
+commands. Sir Hercules pronounced my father to be a fool, and they were
+married.
+
+My mother was a good-looking person, perhaps two or three years older
+than my father; she was of a very bad temper, very vindictive and
+revengeful, and in every way she had a pleasure in annoying other
+people, and when she succeeded she invariably concluded her remarks
+with, "There--now you're vexed!" Whenever out of humor herself from the
+observations of others, she attempted to conceal her vexation by
+singing; and having been so many years of her life in the nursery, her
+songs were usually those little ditties used to pacify or amuse children
+in arms. "Saunders," she would cry out, "if you aren't the biggest fool
+that ever walked on two legs--to look at that long tail of yours you're
+so proud of, one would think I'd married a monkey--a _hourang-howtang_,
+instead of a man. There--now you're vexed! One can't open one's mouth."
+My mother knew where to strike; and this attack upon his pigtail was
+certain to provoke my father, who would retort in no measured language,
+till she, in her turn, lost her temper, and then out she would sing, in
+a sort of scream--
+
+     "Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
+      The cow jumped over the moon," etc.
+
+And thus she continued to sing (or squeal) until her wrath cooled down.
+
+The consequences of forming a matrimonial alliance with a captain's
+coxswain soon became visible. Six months after they had been married,
+Lady Hercules pronounced my mother's appearance to be quiet indecent,
+and declared her no longer fit for the office of lady's maid to a lady
+of her exquisite delicacy; and my mother, who became less active every
+day, received notice to quit, which she did, when her month was up, in
+great wrath, packing up her boxes, and slamming the door as she left the
+house, singing at the very highest pitch of her voice,
+
+"Dickory, dickory, dock; the mouse ran up the clock," etc.
+
+My father wished her to come and live with him on board the frigate; but
+to that my mother would not consent, saying that she had, it was true,
+degraded herself and her family by marrying a coxswain, but she was not
+going to further contaminate herself by mixing with the vulgar creatures
+on board. In this resolve I think my mother was right; but her dismissal
+and disgrace was followed up by my father being disrated and turned into
+the maintop, for no other reason in the world than such being the will
+and pleasure of Lady Hercules.
+
+Her ladyship considered that she had lost a good servant through my
+father's intervention; and having therefore taken a dislike to him, did
+not choose that he should, as coxswain, come up to the house as usual;
+and, as he no longer did the duty of coxswain, she asserted that he was
+not entitled to the rating. Thus, seven months had hardly passed away
+before my father's marriage became a source of vexation and annoyance;
+his pay was decreased, and he was no longer a petty officer. My mother's
+pride was hurt; and if she was resolute in not going on board to remain
+with him when he was captain's coxswain, she was still more so now that
+he was reduced to a common seaman. As for my father, he was the picture
+of misery--he had no consolation except turning his quid and tying his
+pigtail.
+
+But everything changes in this world, and among other changes was that
+of the station of the frigate, which was ordered foreign. Sir Hercules
+took leave of his lady, who retired to Tunbridge Wells. My father took
+leave of my mother, who retired to Woolwich. She had saved some money in
+service, and my father handed over to her all the pay which he received,
+when the ship's company were paid previous to the sailing of the ship.
+It is but justice to observe that the moment he was out of soundings and
+away from the influence of her ladyship, Sir Hercules reinstated my
+father, and gave him back his rating as coxswain. My father was indeed
+the smartest and best seaman in the ship; he could do his work from stem
+to stern--mouse a stay, pudding an anchor, and pass a gammoning, as well
+as he could work a Turk's head, cover a manrope, or point a lashing for
+the cabin table. Besides which, he had seen service, having fought under
+Rodney, and served at the siege of Gibraltar.
+
+But I must return to my mother, who, when she first went to Woolwich,
+which she did in a transport that was ordered round, took lodgings in
+the outskirts of the town; and not wishing to acknowledge that she had
+married a common sailor, as she supposed my father still to be,
+asserted that she was the wife of a captain of a merchant vessel, which
+had been taken up as a transport to convey troops to the West Indies. On
+this supposition, being received into a society above her real station,
+she was compelled to spend more money than she could afford, and her
+finances rapidly wasted away. In the meantime I was born--a fine baby,
+but with nothing to look up to but a penniless mother, an absent (if
+existing) father, the workhouse, and the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+     In which my Mother proves herself a tender Wife, and at the same
+     time shows her Patriotism and Devotion to her Country.
+
+
+I had almost unconsciously arrived at the age of two years before there
+were any tidings of my father. All the information that my mother could
+obtain was, that the ship's company of the "Druid" had been turned over
+to another frigate called the "Melpomene," the former having been
+declared not seaworthy, and in consequence condemned and broken up at
+Port Royal.
+
+But no letter had been received from my father, who indeed was not much
+of a scholar; he could read, but he could not write. By this time my
+mother's savings were expended, and she was in great tribulation lest
+the deceit she had practiced should be exposed. Indeed, there were
+already many surmises as to the truth of her story, it being so long
+that her husband had been absent. At last, when she had changed her only
+remaining guinea, a letter arrived from my father, dated from
+Portsmouth, stating that the ship was to be paid off in a few days, and
+then "he would clap on all sail and be on board of his old woman in no
+time."
+
+My mother, although not a little disgusted at being called an old
+woman--an affront which she determined to revenge upon a more fitting
+occasion--was in raptures with the contents of the letter. She therefore
+returned a kind answer, informing my father what a promising child he
+was blessed with, and giving him a direction to meet her at Greenwich,
+as she had resolved upon not receiving him at Woolwich, where her false
+assertions would have been exposed. Going round to all her
+acquaintances, she bade them farewell, telling them that her husband had
+returned well, and _well to-do_, and had ordered her to meet him at
+Greenwich. Having thus satisfactorily, as she imagined, got out of this
+little difficulty, she packed up and hastened to Greenwich, where she
+sunk her assumed rank and waited very impatiently for her husband. He
+came at last, seated with many others on the outside of a stage
+coach--his hat bedecked with ribbons, a pipe in one hand and flourishing
+a pewter pot in the other. It hardly need be added that he was more than
+half tipsy. Nevertheless, even in this state, he was well received; and
+after he had smothered her with kisses, dandled me on his knee, thrown
+into her lap all the pay he had left, and drank three more pots of
+porter, they went very peaceably and lovingly to repose.
+
+I regret to say that this amity did not last long. My father's manners,
+which perhaps had been softened down by the awe which he had of Lady
+Hercules when he first made my mother's acquaintance, were now more
+coarse, and so was his language; and the neatness and cleanliness of
+person which he was obliged to maintain while performing the duties of a
+coxswain to a married captain were not so observable. Besides which,
+being no longer under discipline, he was almost every night intoxicated;
+and, being so, was more self-willed and regardless of his wife's
+injunctions. The consequences were that having received from my father
+fifty pounds, my mother first locked that up, and then "unlocked her
+jaw." Disputes were now hourly occurring; and it was "now you're vexed,"
+and "hey diddle diddle," from morning till night.
+
+My father would repair to the grog-shops to have a dance and carouse
+with his messmates, and my mother would not accompany him to such a
+vulgar place; consequently he went alone, was out very late, coming home
+very drunk, if indeed he came home at all. Moreover, the wives and
+companions of the other seamen would insult her when she walked out, for
+pretending to be better than they were.
+
+One day when she was walking out arm-in-arm with my father, unluckily
+she was met by one of her Woolwich acquaintances. This was the severest
+stroke of all, as she had intended to return to Woolwich; but now she
+was discovered, and avoided by one party, as well as insulted by the
+other. I cannot defend my mother's conduct; nor indeed was she deserving
+of pity, as her treatment had been brought about by her own folly and
+pride. The effect of all this was, however, that of souring her temper
+still more; and the constant vituperation poured out upon my father so
+roused his indignation that one evening, when more than usually
+intoxicated, the "lady's ladies' maid" received such a severe box on the
+ear that the one candle turned to a general illumination. This blow was
+never forgotten nor forgiven, although my father was very sorry for it,
+and begged her pardon the next day, with promises of amendment.
+
+Just at this time the French Revolution commenced, and there was
+expectation of a war with France; the press-gangs were ordered out, and
+the seamen, aware of it, remained concealed until they should leave the
+town. But my mother had made up her mind. She found out an officer who
+commanded one of the press-gangs, gave her address, and, having supplied
+my father with spirits until he was stupefied, she let in the gang, and
+before morning my father was safe on board of the tender lying off the
+Tower. This treachery on her part my father did not discover until some
+time afterward; and it was the occasion of a scene between them, as I
+shall hereafter show. The next day my mother went on board of the tender
+to visit my father, put her cambric handkerchief to her eyes, pressed
+his hand between the iron bars, and lamented _his_ hard fate, and _her_
+hard fate; but when requested by him to smuggle a little liquor in a
+bladder to comfort him with, she tossed up her head, and declared "that
+nothing could induce her to do anything so ungenteel." Whereupon my
+father turned away, lamenting the day that ever he had married a lady's
+ladies' maid.
+
+A day or two afterward my mother brought my father his kit of clothes,
+and two pounds of his own money. As a war was expected, my mother would
+have persuaded my father to give her his "will and power" to receive his
+prize money; but my father, grown comparatively wiser, positively
+refused. He turned away on his heel, and they parted.
+
+I shall, for the present, leave my father to his fortunes, and follow
+those of my mother. Convinced by his refusal to sign the deed, which she
+had brought ready prepared with her, that she had little in future to
+expect from my father, and aware probably of the risk incurred by a
+seaman from "battle, fire, and wreck," she determined this time to
+husband her resources, and try if she could not do something for
+herself. At first she thought of going again into service and putting me
+out to nurse; but she discovered that my father's return was not without
+its consequences, and that she was again to be a mother. She therefore
+hired rooms in Fisher's Alley, a small street still existing in
+Greenwich, and indeed still a general thoroughfare. Here, in due time,
+she was brought to bed of a daughter, whom she christened by the name of
+Virginia; not so much out of respect to her last mistress, who bore that
+name, as because she considered it peculiarly ladylike and genteel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+     In which I tell the Reader all I can recollect about myself, and
+     moreover prove the Truth of the old Adage, "That it is a wise Child
+     who knows its own Father".
+
+
+My readers must not expect me to tell them much of what passed during
+the first four years of my existence. I have a recollection of a deal
+board put at the door of our house, which opened into Fisher's Alley, to
+prevent me, and afterward my sister, from crawling out. Fisher's Alley
+is a very narrow street, and what was said in a room on one side of it
+can be heard on the other, and I used to hang over the board and listen.
+There were drunken men and drunken women, and occasionally scolding and
+fighting. My mother, having made up her mind to be saving, had taken a
+lease of the house and furnished it; and every day I heard her saying at
+the door, "Walk in, gentlemen; I've a nice clean room and boiling hot
+water"--for the seamen used to come in to take tea, drink, and smoke;
+and so did the old pensioners occasionally, for my mother had made
+acquaintance with several of them. I was always very ragged and dirty,
+for my mother neglected and ill-treated me. As soon as my sister was
+born she turned all her affections over to Virginia, who was always very
+much petted, well dressed, and a very beautiful child.
+
+All this I recollect, but little more, except that my mother gave me
+several beatings for calling my sister "Jenny," which I had learned to
+do from others who knew her; but when my mother heard them, she was
+always very angry, and told them that her child had not such a vulgar
+name; at which many would laugh, and make a point of calling out "Jenny"
+to Virginia whenever they passed and saw her at the door. When I was a
+little more than four years old I would climb over the board, for I had
+no pleasure at home. As I grew older I used to hasten down to the
+landing-steps on the beach, where the new inn called the Trafalgar now
+stands, and watch the tide as it receded, and pick up anything I could
+find, such as bits of wood and oakum; and I would wonder at the ships
+which lay in the stream, and the vessels sailing up and down. I would
+sometimes remain out late to look at the moon and the lights on board of
+the vessels passing; and then I would turn my eyes to the stars, and
+repeat the lines which I had heard my mother teach little Virginia to
+lisp:
+
+     "Pretty little twinkling star,
+      How I wonder what you are;
+      All above the earth so high,
+      Like a diamond in the sky;"
+
+and when I did stay out late I was sure of having no supper, and very
+often a good beating; and then Virginia would wake and cry, because my
+mother beat me, for we were fond of each other. And my mother used to
+take Virginia on her knee, and make her say her prayers every night; but
+she never did so to me; and I used to hear what Virginia said, and then
+go into a corner and repeat it to myself. I could not imagine why
+Virginia should be taught to pray and that I should not.
+
+[Illustration: FISHER'S ALLEY.--Marryat, Vol. X. p. 27.]
+
+As I said before, my mother let lodgings, and kept the ground-floor
+front room for people to drink tea and smoke in; and I used to take my
+little stool and sit at the knees of the pensioners who came in, and
+hear all their stories, and try to make out what they meant, for half
+was to me incomprehensible; and I brought them fire for their pipes, and
+ran messages. Old Ben the Whaler, as they called him, was the one who
+took most notice of me, and said that I should be a man one of these
+days, which I was very glad to hear then. And I made a little boat for
+my sister, which cost me a great deal of trouble and labor; and Ben
+helped me to paint it, and I gave it to Virginia, and she and I were
+both so pleased; but when my mother saw it, she threw it into the fire,
+saying it was "so ungenteel," and we both cried; and old Ben was very
+angry, and said something to my mother, which made her sing "High diddle
+diddle" for the whole day afterward.
+
+Such are the slight reminiscences, which must content the reader, of my
+early existence.
+
+When I was eight years old (about six years after his last visit), my
+father made his appearance; and then, for the first time, I knew that my
+father was alive, for I was but two years old when he left, and I
+remembered nothing about him, and I had never heard my mother mention
+his name as if he still existed.
+
+My father came in one day very unexpectedly, for he had given no notice
+of his return; and it so happened that as he came in, my mother was
+beating me with the frying-pan, for having dipped my finger in the
+grease in which she had been frying some slices of bacon. She was very
+angry, and as she banged me with it, Virginia was pulling at her skirts,
+crying and begging her to desist, "You little wretch," cried my mother,
+"you'll be just such a sea-monster as your father was--little wulgar
+animal, you must put your finger into the frying-pan, must you? There,
+now you've got it." So saying, she put down the frying-pan, and
+commenced singing as loud as she could, "Hush-a-by, baby, Pussy's a
+lady." "Ay, now you're vexed, I dare say," continued she, as she walked
+into the back kitchen.
+
+All this time my father had been at the door looking on, which she had
+not perceived. My father then came in. "What's your name, my lad?" said
+he.
+
+"Tommy Saunders," replied I, rubbing myself; for the frying-pan was very
+hot, and my trousers very much out of repair.
+
+"And who is that little girl?" said he.
+
+"That's my sister Virginia--but," continued I, "who are you? Do you want
+my mother?"
+
+"Not very particularly just now," said my father, taking up my sister
+and kissing her, and then patting me on the head.
+
+"Do you want any beer or 'baccy?" said I. "I'll run and get you some, if
+you give me the money, and bring back your change all right."
+
+"Well, so you shall, Jack, my boy," replied he; and he gave me a
+shilling. I soon returned with the pipes, tobacco, and beer, and offered
+him the change, which he told me to keep, to buy apples with. Virginia
+was on the knee of my father, who was coaxing and caressing her, and my
+mother had not yet returned from the back kitchen. I felt naturally
+quite friendly toward a man who had given me more money than I ever
+possessed in my life; and I took my stool and sat beside him; while,
+with my sister on his knee, and his porter before him, my father smoked
+his pipe.
+
+"Does your mother often beat you, Jack?" said my father, taking the pipe
+out of his mouth.
+
+"Yes, when I does wrong," replied I.
+
+"Oh! only when you do wrong--eh?"
+
+"Well, she says I do wrong; so I suppose I do."
+
+"You're a good boy," replied my father. "Does she ever beat you, dear?"
+said he to Virginia.
+
+"Oh, no!" interrupted I; "she never beats sister, she loves her too
+much; but she don't love me."
+
+My father puffed away, and said no more.
+
+I must inform the reader that my father's person was very much altered
+from what I have described it to have been at the commencement of this
+narrative. He was now a boatswain's mate, and wore a silver whistle hung
+round his neck by a lanyard, and with which little Virginia was then
+playing. He had grown more burly in appearance, spreading, as sailors
+usually do, when they arrive to about the age of forty; and, moreover,
+he had a dreadful scar from a cutlass wound, received in boarding, which
+had divided the whole left side of his face, from the eyebrow to the
+chin. This gave him a very fierce expression; still he was a
+fine-looking man, and his pigtail had grown to a surprising length and
+size. His ship, as I afterward found out, had not been paid off, but he
+had obtained a fortnight's leave of absence, while she was refitting. We
+were all very sociable together, without there being the least idea, on
+the part of my sister and myself, with whom we were in company, when in
+rolled old Ben the Whaler.
+
+"Sarvice to you," said Ben, nodding to my father. "Tommy, get me a pipe
+of 'baccy."
+
+"Here's pipe and 'baccy too, messmate," replied my father. "Sit down,
+and make yourself comfortable, old chap."
+
+"Won't refuse a good offer," replied Ben, "been too long in the sarvice
+for that--and you've seen sarvice, too, I think," continued Ben, looking
+my father full in the face.
+
+"Chop from a French officer," replied my father; after a pause, he
+added, "but he didn't live to tell of it."
+
+Ben took one of the offered pipes, filled, and was soon very busy
+puffing away, alongside of my father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+     My Father and Mother meet after an absence of Six Years--She
+     discovers that he is no longer a Coxswain but a Boatswain's Mate.
+
+
+While my father and Ben are thus engaged, I will give the reader a
+description of the latter.
+
+Ben was a very tall, broad-shouldered old fellow, but stooping a little
+from age. I should think he must have been at least sixty, if not more;
+still he was a powerful, sinewy man. His nose, which was no small one,
+had been knocked on one side, as he told me, by the flukes (_i.e._,
+tail) of a whale, which cut in half a boat of which he was steersman. He
+had a very large mouth, with very few teeth in it, having lost them by
+the same accident; which, to use his own expression, had at the time
+"knocked his figure-head all to smash." He had sailed many years in the
+whale fisheries, had at last been pressed, and served as quartermaster
+on board of a frigate for eight or nine years, when his ankle was broken
+by the rolling of a spar in a gale of wind. He was in consequence
+invalided for Greenwich. He walked stiff on this leg, and usually
+supported himself with a thick stick. Ben had noticed me from the time
+that my mother first came to Fisher's Alley. He was the friend of my
+early days, and I was very much attached to him.
+
+A minute or two afterward my father pushed the pot of porter to him. Ben
+drank, and then said:
+
+"Those be nice children, both on 'em--I know them well."
+
+"And what kind of a craft is the mother?" replied my father.
+
+"Oh! why, she's a little queer at times--she's always so mighty
+particular about gentility."
+
+"Do you know why?" replied my father.
+
+Ben shook his head.
+
+"Then I'll tell you: because she was once a lady's ladies' maid."
+
+"Well," replied Ben, "I don't understand much about titles and nobility,
+and those sort of things; but I'm sorry she's gone down in the world,
+for though a little particular about gentility, she's a good sort of
+woman in her way, and keeps up her character, and earns an honest
+livelihood."
+
+"So much the better for her," replied my father, who refilled his pipe
+and continued to smoke in silence.
+
+My mother had gone into the back kitchen to wash, which was the cause
+(not having been summoned) of her being so long absent.
+
+Virginia, who had become quite sociable, was passing her little fingers
+through my father's large whiskers, while he every now and then put his
+pipe out of his mouth to kiss her. I had the porter-pot on my knees, my
+father having told me to take a swig, when my mother entered the room.
+
+"Well, Mr. Benjamin, I shouldn't wonder--but--Oh! mercy, it's he!" cried
+my mother. "Oh! be quick--sal-wolatily!"
+
+"Sail who? What the devil does she mean?" said my father, rising up and
+putting my sister off his knee.
+
+"I never heard of her," replied Ben, also getting up; "but Mistress
+Saunders seems taken all aback, anyhow. Jack, run and fetch a bucket of
+water!"
+
+"Jack, stay where you are," cried my mother, springing from the chair on
+which she had thrown herself. "Oh, dear me! the shock was so sudden--I'm
+so flustered. Who'd have thought to have seen you?"
+
+"Are you her brother?" inquired Ben.
+
+"No; but I'm her husband," replied my father.
+
+"Well, it's the first time I've heard that she had one--but I'll be off,
+for Mistress Saunders is too genteel to kiss, I see, before company."
+Ben then took up his stick and left the house.
+
+It may be as well here to remark that during his absence my father had
+fallen in with one of the men who had been employed in the press-gang.
+From him he learned that a woman had given the information by which he
+was taken. He made the man, who was present when my mother called upon
+the officer, describe her person, and the description in every point was
+so accurate that my father had no doubt in his mind but that it was my
+mother who had betrayed him. This knowledge had for years rankled in his
+breast, and he had come home, not only from a wish to see how things
+were going on, but to reproach my mother with her treachery.
+
+Whether my mother's conscience smote her, or that she perceived by my
+father's looks that a squall was brewing, I know not; but as soon as Ben
+had left the house, she shut the street-door that the neighbors might
+not hear. Having so done, she turned to my father, who had resumed his
+seat and his pipe.
+
+"Well," said she, putting her apron to her eyes, "you have been away a
+good six years, and left me to get on how I could with these two poor
+orphanless children."
+
+"You know best why I went," replied my father, "and by whose means I was
+walked off in such a hurry."
+
+"Me?" replied my mother.
+
+"Yes, you," responded my father.
+
+"Well, what next?" cried she.
+
+"I'll tell you what next," said my father, rising, and taking about
+eighteen inches of inch-and-a-half rope out of his pocket, "Look you,
+ma'am, when I first found out that it was by your peaching that I was
+sent on board of the tender, I made up this colt, and I vowed that I
+would keep it in my pocket till I served you out. Now the time's come."
+
+Here my father flourished his rope's end. My mother would have flown to
+the door, but my father was beforehand with her; he turned the key, and,
+to the astonishment of Virginia and me, he seized my mother, and,
+holding her at arm's length, gave her several blows--not severe ones, I
+must acknowledge, indeed, they could not have hurt her.
+
+"There," said my father, "it's well for you, my Lady's ladies' maid,
+that I did not fall in with you when I first made up this colt; and it's
+well for you that I've heard a good character of you from the old chap
+who has just now left the house, or you'd have smarted for the false
+trick you played upon me. Howsomever, I've kept my oath, and you may
+thank your stars that it's not worse."
+
+My mother, who had not uttered a cry during the punishment, but only
+looked very indignant, now that my father had finished his speech, and
+was rolling up his colt to put it in his pocket, suddenly threw herself
+down on the floor, screaming murder with all her might. The noise
+summoned the neighbors--all Fisher's Alley was in an uproar, and our
+house was besieged with people, who attempted to force their way in--for
+my mother continued her screams, and poor little Virginia became so
+frightened that she also roared as loud as her mother.
+
+"I've more than two minds," said my father, taking the rope's end out of
+his pocket again; "but howsomever, since you wish it, all the world
+shall know it."
+
+My father put his colt into his pocket, and went to unlock the door. My
+mother, perceiving what he was about, immediately rose and hastened
+upstairs to her own room. My father then told the neighbors what had
+occurred, and why my mother had been punished, and the verdict of
+Fisher's Alley was, "sarved her right." Ben the Whaler, who was outside
+with the others, espoused my father's cause, and as soon as the people
+dispersed my father invited him to join him in his pipe and pot.
+
+Little Virginia, still terrified, had crept up to her mother. I, on the
+contrary, felt the highest respect for one who could dare to punish my
+mother, who had so often punished me; and the knowledge that he was my
+father inspired me with a feeling of tenderness toward him which I could
+not repress. I was old enough to understand why my mother had received
+such treatment, and I could not feel angry with my father; I therefore
+stayed below, and went for the porter as was required.
+
+I believe that at first it had been my father's intentions to have
+administered a much severer castigation to my mother, and then to have
+left the house, taking me with him, for he had not been apprised of the
+birth of Virginia; but whatever were his intentions before he came, or
+for the morrow, it is certain that he continued to smoke and talk with
+old Ben the Whaler till a very late hour, while I sat by and listened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+     A bright pleasant Evening after a Squall, in which the Art of
+     Angling is introduced in a way which would have added to the
+     Knowledge of Izaac Walton himself.
+
+
+"I beg pardon, messmate," said Ben, as he and my father became more
+sociable; "but may I make so bold as to ask you how you contrived to get
+that seam across your figure-head? You did say something about a
+Frenchman, if I heard right; and as the war is now of two years'
+standing, I suppose you've had a rap or two at Mounseer."
+
+"'Xpect I have," replied my father. "Well, old chap, I'll just wet my
+whistle, and then I'll tell you all about it, and it won't take long,
+neither. The boats were ordered away--"
+
+"Of what ship, messmate?"
+
+"Very true, I began in the middle. Well, it was in the ship I now
+belongs to, the 'Oudacious'--we were with the squadron off Ferrol;
+signal made to chase southeast--clapped every stitch on her after two
+gun-boats who were running down in-shore. Light winds--got well in for
+the land, and then it fell calm. Gun-boats four miles off using their
+sweeps--our boats in chase--I was coxswain of the first pinnace--a
+devilish fast boat, messmate, I can tell you, with a smart brass
+gun--pulled two feet to their one, and came up with them
+hand-over-hand--both cutters and the other pinnace well up with us--the
+old launch half a mile astern. Now you see, sir, I've got the picture
+for you, haven't I?"
+
+"Just exactly," replied old Ben.
+
+"Well, then, it was a long pull; and that reminds me that I'll have a
+long pull now, so hand me the porter, messmate." My father took a
+tremendous long pull at the pewter, and then handing it to Ben, he
+recommenced:
+
+"We were soon within gun-shot, and they turned their heads toward us and
+blazed away: very pretty shot they fired, for they cut away three of our
+starboard oars before we were near enough to return the fire with our
+small gun. However, the second pinnace and cutters came up and shared
+the shot with us; and at last the old fat launch came grunting along,
+for all the world like an old board, pitching into them round and grape.
+Now the first lieutenant was in the launch, and, of course, commanded,
+and he ordered the boats to separate more, which was very right, as it
+divided the shot; and then he passed the word that when he sounded the
+bugle we were all to pull to the headmost gun-boat and board her. D'ye
+understand, messmate?"
+
+"Perfectly," replied Ben, taking his pipe out to reply.
+
+"Well, then, just hand me the pot." My father drained it this time, and
+told me to go for another.
+
+"Then I shall lose the story," replied I.
+
+"No, boy, you won't," replied Ben; "I'll answer for it your father will
+heave-to till you come back."
+
+"So I will, Jack," replied my father. And having with every expedition
+executed my task, my father then continued:
+
+"Well, there we all were, waiting for the bugle, each boat creeping on a
+little every moment, so as to have a fair start, as they do in a race;
+when at last the signal was given, and away we all went like smoke,
+with our oars bending double. The first pinnace reached the gun-boat
+first; then the cutters banged alongside of her--all three of us to
+windward--while the second pinnace and launch took her to leeward.
+There's not much climbing in getting on board of a gun-boat; indeed, we
+were at it before we were out of the boat, for the Frenchmen had pikes
+as long as the spanker-boom; but we soon got inside of their points, and
+came to close work. They stood a good tussle, I will say that, and so
+they always do. We may laugh at 'em, and call 'em Johnny Crapows, but
+they are a right brave nation, if they aren't good seamen; but that I
+reckon's the fault of their lingo, for it's too noisy to carry on duty
+well with, and so they never will be sailors till they larn English."
+
+"I never heard them carry on duty in French," said Ben; "it quite beats
+my comprehension how they can do it at all."
+
+"Well, I have," replied my father; "and every word they use is as long
+as the maintop bowling, and the mast is over the side before they can
+get them out. Why, would you believe it? I once asked one of those
+fellows what he called the foremast in his language, and what d'ye think
+he said? Why, I'm blowed if he didn't call it a _'Mar-darty-marng'_ (and
+that's the only bit of French I know); but how is it possible to work a
+ship in such gibberish?"
+
+"Quite unpossible," replied Ben.
+
+"Well, as I've yawed a little out of my course, suppose we have another
+swig before I takes a fresh departure?"
+
+After they had both drunk, my father proceeded:
+
+"Well, messmate, I was on the gunnel as soon as the others, and a sword
+came down upon me like a flash of lightning. I had just time to lift my
+cutlass and save my head, and then I found that it was the sword of the
+French lieutenant who commanded the gun-boat. He was a, tall,
+clean-built chap, with curls hanging down like a poodle dog's--every
+curl not thicker than a rope yarn, and mayhap a thousand of them--and he
+quite foamed at the mouth (that's another fault of these Frenchmen, they
+don't take things coolly, but puts themselves in a passion about
+nothing); so thinks I to myself it won't do for you to go on chopping at
+that rate, for when I fended off he made my whole hand tingle with the
+force of his blow; so I darts at him and drives the hilt of my cutlass
+right into his mouth, and he fell, and his own men trod him underfoot,
+and on we went, hammer and tongs. By this time the boarding of the
+launch and pinnace to leeward, for they could not get up as soon as we
+did, created a divarsion, and bothered the Frenchman, who hardly knew
+which way to turn; however, as there were more of our men on the other
+side, they most on 'em faced about; and the French officer was then able
+to get on his knees again, and while I was busy and did not see him he
+just give me this cut across the figure-head, which don't add to my
+beauty, anyhow. Well, it was cut for cut, messmate. I just took one look
+at the beggar, and I drove my cutlass into his skull, just as he was
+rising up, and he never rose again. That's my story."
+
+"I suppose you took the craft?"
+
+"Yes; and her consort, too. But many lost the number of their mess, and
+I lost all my beauty. Just hand me the 'baccy, messmate; and, Jack, go
+for the next pot of beer."
+
+I found them both smoking in silence when I returned; but, after a few
+minutes, my father said, "Messmate, as I have told you how I got this
+chalk, suppose you tell me in return how you got that nose of yours
+fixed so hard a starboard? That's fair play."
+
+"Exactly so," replied Ben. "Why, d'ye see? I sarved most of my early
+life in the whaling line. I was three voyages to the north; but taking
+the black whale counts for nothing; you must go south arter the
+sparmacitty if you wish to see sport."
+
+"I never was in that line," replied my father; "but I've heard fellows
+spin the devil's own yarns about it."
+
+"And so they may, and tell the truth, that's sartain, shipmate. You see,
+the sparmacitty don't take the harpoon quite so quietly as the black
+whale does; he fights hard to the last, and sometimes is very free with
+his jaws. The very large ones are the most easy to kill; so we always
+look out for them when we can, as they give less trouble, and more oil;
+the most dangerous are the half-grown, which we call 'forty-barrel
+bulls,' as that's about what oil we get out of them."
+
+"Well," said my father, "I'm blessed if ever I knew whales were called
+bulls before this night."
+
+"Yes, that's our term," replied Ben; "and now to my story. We were down
+off the coast of Japan; when, about one hour after daybreak, the man
+looking out at the masthead gave the usual word when he sees a whale
+blowing--'There she spouts.' And this he repeats every time the fish
+rises. We had a clean hold at the time, for we had but just come to our
+fishing-ground, and we were mighty eager. The boats were down in a
+jiffy, and away we pulled. We were within a quarter of a mile of the
+whale, when, to our disappointment, he peaked his flukes--"
+
+"What's that, messmate?" inquired my father.
+
+"Why, you see, it's the right term after all, for the tail of
+sparmacitty is like the flukes of an anchor; and, of course, now you
+understand me."
+
+"Yes, you mean to say he went down, I suppose."
+
+"Of course; for how could he go down headforemost, without peaking his
+tail in the air?"
+
+"One lives and larns as long as one lives," observed my father. "Heave
+ahead again, old boy."
+
+"Well, as you can't know what you haven't heard anything about, I must
+now tell you that these animals be as regular as the bells in a
+man-of-war; and whenever they goes down to fed, they always stays
+exactly about the time allowed for dinner in a comfortable ship; that
+is, seventy minutes exactly. An hour, you see, is the regular time
+allowed, and the other ten minutes are by favor of the officer of the
+watch, or first lieutenant. We knew that we must wait that time for him,
+so we tossed up our oars, and laid by."
+
+"I suppose them sparmacitty chaps have a watch in their pockets," said
+my father, smiling.
+
+"It's a true bill, nevertheless, messmate, and they never alter: how and
+why they keep to their time, the Lord who gave them the sense to do so
+only knows. It is one of the wonders of the deep, which they only who go
+on the great waters can bear witness to."
+
+"It beats my comprehension quite entirely," replied my father; "and yet
+I have seen animals with a great deal of sense. In one ship, we had a
+sheep who would chew tobacco and drink grog. Now go ahead again."
+
+"Well, we had waited about half an hour, when we saw a whiff at the
+masthead of the ship; we knew that it was to direct our attention to
+some other point, so we looked round the horizon, and perceived that
+there was a 'school' of young bulls, about three miles from us. We were
+four boats in all; and the first mate desired my boat and another to go
+in chase of them, while he remained with the other two, for this old
+whale to come up again. Well, off we went, and soon came up with the
+school: they are the most awkward part of whale fishing; for they are
+savage, and, moreover, easily 'gallied,' that is, frightened. I picked
+out one, and tried to come up with him; but he was very shy, and at last
+he raised his head clean out of the water, and set off at the rate of
+ten miles an hour; this showed that he was aware of danger. I had just
+thought of giving him up, and trying for another, when he suddenly
+turned round and came right toward the boats. That we knew meant
+mischief; but, in coming toward us, he passed close to the other boat
+and the steersman gave him the harpoon right well into him. This made
+him more savage, and he stood right for my boat, plowing up the sea as
+he rushed on. I was all ready in the bow with the harpoon, and the men
+were all ready with their oars to pull back, so as to keep clear of him.
+On he came, and when his snout was within six feet of us we pulled sharp
+across him; and as we went from him, I gave him the harpoon deep into
+the fin. 'Starn all!' was the cry as usual, that we might be clear of
+him. He 'sounded' immediately, that is, down he went, headforemost,
+which was what we were afraid of, for you see we had only two hundred
+fathoms of line in each boat; and having both harpoons in him, we could
+not bend one to the other, in case he 'sounded' deep, for sometimes they
+will go down right perpendicular, and take four lines, or eight hundred
+fathoms, with them; so we expected that we should this time lose the
+whale as well as our lines, for when they were run out we must either
+cut or go down with him. Well, the lines ran out so swift that we poured
+water on them that they might not fire--and we thought that it was all
+over, for the lines were two-thirds out, and he was going down as fast
+as ever, when all of a sudden he stopped. We were hauling in the slack
+lines, when we saw him rise again, about a quarter of a mile off. It
+was a hurrah, for we now thought that we had him. Off he set with his
+nose up, right in the wind's eye, towing the two boats at the rate of
+twelve miles an hour; our stems cleaving through the sea, and throwing
+off the water like a plume of feathers on each side of the bows, while
+the sun's rays pierced through the spray and formed bright rainbows. We
+hoped soon to tire him, and to be able to haul in upon our lines, so as
+to get near enough to give him our lances; but that was only hope, as
+you'll hear. Of a sudden, he stopped, turned round, and made right for
+us, with his jaws open; then, all we had to do was to balk him, and give
+him the lance. He did not seem to have made up his mind which boat he
+would attack--we were pretty near together, and he yawed at one, and
+then at the other. At last he made right for the other boat, and the
+boatsetter dodged him very cleverly, while we pulled up to him, and I
+put the lance up to the stock into his side. He made a plunge as if he
+were going to 'sound' again; and as he did so, with his flukes he threw
+our boat into the air a matter of twenty feet, cutting it clean in half,
+and one of the boat's thwarts came right athwart of my nose, and it
+never has been straight since. So now you have it, messmate; and I
+shouldn't mind if you passed the beer this way, for this long yarn has
+made my throat somewhat dry."
+
+"When you've had your swig, old chap, you may as well tell us how the
+matter ended," observed my father.
+
+"Why, it just ended in our losing the whale in the first place, and the
+boat with her gear in the second. We were picked up by the other boat,
+and there was no time to be lost, for the sharks were brought together
+by the scent of the whale's blood; the whale sounded again, and we were
+obliged to cut the line and return on board. But God bless you,
+messmate, I could tell you many a longer yarn than that, and mayhap I
+shall some day or another."
+
+"Well, I hope you will," replied my father; "but your fishing story has
+put me in mind of rather a curious fish, caught by a lad on board of a
+man-of-war; and suppose I finish what's at the bottom of this here pot;
+send Jack for another, and when he comes back, I'll tell you all about
+it."
+
+"There's nothing gives me more satisfaction," replied Ben, "than to pass
+away the evening in a sober, quiet way, as we are doing now, telling and
+listening to long yarns. Ain't you sleepy, Jack?"
+
+"Oh! no," replied I, "not a bit. I'll run for the porter; and don't let
+father begin till I come back, Ben. The house will be shut up soon:
+shall I get more than a pot?"
+
+"Yes, Jack; but not more beer," replied my father, putting some silver
+into my hand; "get one pot of beer and a bottle of rum. We'll have that
+by way of a nightcap, old boy."
+
+I ran for the beer and liquor, and was soon back. My father and Ben
+refilled their pipes, and the former commenced as follows:
+
+"When I was quartermaster on board of the 'Melpomene,' we had an old
+chap for first lieutenant whose name was Fletcher. He was a kind-hearted
+man enough, as he never worried the ship's company when there was no
+occasion; but, at the same time, he was what you call a great stickler
+for duty--made no allowances for neglect or disobedience of orders,
+although he would wink at any little skylarking, walking aft, shutting
+his eyes, and pretending not to see or hear it. His usual phrase was,
+'My man, you've got your duty to do, and I've got mine.' And this he
+repeated fifty times a day; so at last he went by the name of 'Old
+Duty.' I think I see him now, walking up and down with his spy-glass
+under his left arm, and the hand of the other pushed into his breast, as
+if he were fumbling for a flea. His hat was always split and worn in the
+front, from constantly taking it off, instead of touching it, when he
+came on the quarter-deck; and, as soon as it was too far gone in front
+to raise the purchase off his head, he used to shift it end for end,
+bringing the back part in front, and then he would wear it, until, as
+the Yankees say, it was in 'taterations altogether,' and he was forced
+to bend a new one.
+
+"Now, we had a boy on board, who entered one day when the captain landed
+at Torquay to dine with a friend. His name was Jack Jervis: his father
+and his whole tribe had been fishermen for as long as could be
+remembered; and Jack himself had been drafted out of his cradle into a
+coble; and there he had continued day and night, from one year's end to
+another, helping his father to fish--so, you see, it had become second
+nature to him; and, after he came on board, his liking for his former
+calling still remained with him, and he never was so happy as when his
+line was overboard, or when he was snooding a hook in some corner or
+another. He went by the name of Jack the Fisherman; and a smart, active,
+willing lad he was, sure enough.
+
+"Now, there was a little difficulty between Old Duty and Jack the
+Fisherman. Old Duty would not allow the lines to be overboard when the
+ship was in harbor; as he said it was untidy in appearance, and that
+there was always plenty of work, and no time for fishing. So Jack hadn't
+pulled up his line ten or a dozen times before he was pulled up himself.
+'Whose line's that?' says Old Duty. 'Mine, sir,' says Jack, touching his
+hat. 'I don't allow fishing, young man,' said the first lieutenant.
+'You understand me?--I don't allow fishing. You've your duty to do, sir,
+and I've got mine.'
+
+"Jack, who had only been two or three days on board, and who, I believe,
+would never have entered, had he known that there would have been such a
+'_weto_,' as the boatswain used to call it, looked quite astonished, and
+said--
+
+"'What, mayn't I fish, sir?'
+
+"'No, my man, you must not fish without permission; and that I never
+give in harbor. If I catch you fishing again, you get two dozen at the
+gun, recollect that. You've got your duty to do, and I've got mine.'
+
+"Well, Jack could not give up his habit, so he used to fish at night,
+and all night long, out of the fore-chains; but it so happened that the
+ship's corporal caught Jack in the middle watch, and reports him to the
+first lieutenant.
+
+"'So, you've been fishing again, sir,' says Old Duty. 'No, sir,' replied
+Jack, 'not fishing--only laying night lines.'
+
+"'Oh! that's it,' replied the first lieutenant; 'only laying night
+lines! Pray, what's the difference?'
+
+"'Please, sir,' said Jack, touching his hat, 'the difference is--that
+it's not the same thing.'
+
+"'Well, sir, I see but one difference, and I'll meet it accordingly.
+You've your duty to do, and I've got mine.'
+
+"The boys' heads and ears having been pulled about and examined by the
+master-at-arms, they were dismissed; and Jack thought that he had got
+off--but he was mistaken.
+
+"After the hammocks had been piped down, and it was dark, the boys were
+ordered up by the master-at-arms; Jack was seized to the gun, and had
+his two dozen. 'There, sir,' said Old Duty, as they cast the seizings
+off, 'if fishing at night is not fishing, punishment at night is not
+punishment. Now we're quits. You've your duty to do, and I've got
+mine.'
+
+"I don't think that Jack perceived any more difference in the two dozen
+at night-time than the first lieutenant did between day and night
+fishing; however, Jack did not fish for some time afterward. But it so
+happened that the first lieutenant was asked on shore to dine with the
+port-admiral; and, although he seldom left the ship, he could not refuse
+such a compliment, and so he went. As soon as it was dark, Jack thought
+his absence too good an opportunity not to have a fish; so he goes into
+the mizzen-chains and drops his line. Well, he fished (but I don't know
+whether he caught any) till the boat was hailed in which the first
+lieutenant was coming on board, and then Jack thought it time to haul in
+his line; but, just at that moment, there was a jerk; and Jack, who knew
+that fish was at the bait, could not for the life of him pull up his
+line--for, you see, he was a fisherman heart and soul; so Jack trusted
+to Providence and the first lieutenant's going down below as soon as he
+came on deck.
+
+"Now, you see, the ship was lying at the time 'cross the tide, the wind
+blowing against the current: the starboard side (being to leeward as to
+the wind, but to windward as to the tide) had been cleared away, and
+manned for the boat, and Jack made sure that the first lieutenant would
+pull to that side; but he was mistaken. Whether it was that the first
+lieutenant wished to have a look round the ship or not, I do not know,
+but he pulled across the bows, and went round the stern, passing the
+larboard side: as he passed, Jack shrunk under the lee of the deadeyes
+and lanyards, hoping he might not be seen; but the first lieutenant,
+having the clear horizon on the other side, perceived the line which
+Jack had half hauled up, and, having an eye like a cat, makes out Jack
+also.
+
+"'I see you, sir--I see you, Mr. Jervis, fishing again, sir. Very well,'
+cried the first lieutenant, from the sternsheets of the boat, as he
+passed by. 'You've your duty to do, and I've got mine.' 'That's as good
+as two dozen to-morrow morning at muster,' thought Jack, who cursed his
+luck, and, in a very melancholy mood, began to haul up his line, which,
+as soon as he had been discovered, he had let go down to the bottom
+again. Now, it so happened that, as Old Duty went up the other side, his
+foot slipped; and, how it was I can't tell, for they say he wasn't the
+least groggy, but down he fell, between the boat's gunnel and the ship's
+side, just like a deep-sea lead, and disappeared. There being so few men
+on deck, there was not much of a bustle--there was a dive or two for him
+with the boat-hook, but all in vain--Old Duty was gone.
+
+"In the meantime, Jack on the other side was slowly hauling up his line;
+but he had not got it half-way up when he felt a heavy strain, and he
+thought that a large conger eel had followed the bait up, as they do
+sometimes, and he hauled and hauled with all his might. At last, who
+should he bring to the surface of the water but Old Duty, who had been
+sucked under the ship's bottom by the tide, and had been hooked by Jack,
+as he was pulling up. When Jack saw it was the first lieutenant, as he
+told me, his first idea was to let him down again; but that was only for
+a moment. The words of the first lieutenant still rang in his ears,
+'You've your duty to do, and I've got mine'--so Jack did his duty. He
+hollows out that he had caught Old Duty, and the boat shifted round and
+took him on board. The old fellow was quite senseless; but as he had
+been but a short time in the water, he was put to bed, and resuscitated
+by the surgeon. The next morning he was all just as if nothing had
+happened, walking the deck with his right hand in his breast, and his
+spy-glass under his left arm, as usual.
+
+"Well, we all told Jack that he was safe this time, but Jack seemed to
+think otherwise. He shook his head; and now you'll learn who was right.
+
+"When the boys were all mustered next morning, toeing a line, and
+holding out their paws, the first lieutenant turns round and says,
+'Jervis, you were fishing last night, against my orders.' 'Yes, sir,'
+said Jervis, 'and I catched a first lieutenant;' for Jack had a good
+deal of fun in him. 'Yes, sir, and queer fishes they are sometimes,'
+replies Old Duty; 'but you forget that you have also catched two dozen.
+You have your duty to do, and I've got mine.'
+
+"Well, as you may suppose, there were many of us looking abaft, just to
+see what would take place, and were not a little astonished at the idea
+of his rewarding Jack with two dozen for saving his life; however, of
+course, we were mum. Jack was tied up; and the first lieutenant
+whispered a word into the ear of his master-at-arms, who again whispered
+to Williams, the boatswain's mate; and the effect of that whisper was,
+that the cat was laid on so lightly that Jack hardly felt it; so
+lightly, indeed, that the first lieutenant walked away aft, that he
+might not appear to be a party in the consarn, and Jack was cast off
+without having half a tear in either eye when Old Duty went up to him.
+
+"'You fished last night against orders, and therefore you have received
+your punishment. You saved my life last night, and therefore it is my
+duty to reward you. I could not let you off this punishment, as it would
+be making the King pay you for me, instead of my paying you myself. I'm
+not a rich man, but here's ten guineas for your purse, and here's my
+gold watch. Spend the first usefully, and keep the other; and observe,
+Jack Jervis, if ever you are again caught fishing in harbor, you will as
+surely get two dozen for your pains. _You've your duty to_ do, _and I've
+got mine_.'"
+
+"Well, messmate, that's a queer story altogether, and queerer fellows in
+it. I wouldn't have minded sailing with that Old Duty. Suppose we drink
+his health?"
+
+"With all my heart; for you're right, old chap. When we knows what we
+are to expect, we're always ready to meet-it; but some officers I've
+sailed with shift about like a dog-vane, and there's no knowing how to
+meet them. I recollect--But I say, Jack, suppose you turn in--your eyes
+are winking and blinking like an owl's in the sunshine. You're tired,
+boy, so go to bed. We shan't tell any more yarns to-night."
+
+I was very tired indeed, and could not keep my eyes open any longer; so
+I went upstairs, and was asleep almost as soon as I laid my head upon
+the pillow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+     In which my Mother gives my Father a Scriptural Lesson--My Father's
+     Grief at parting with an old Friend--He expostulates with my Mother
+     and quits the House.
+
+
+I Woke early the next morning; for the whole night I had been restless,
+and dreaming of the unusual occurrences of the day before. It was just
+daylight, and I was recalling what had passed, and wondering what had
+become of my father, when I heard a noise in my mother's room. I
+listened--the door opened, and she went downstairs.
+
+This surprised me; and being conscious, even at my age, of the
+vindictive temper shown by my mother upon every occasion, and anxious to
+know where my father was, I could not remain in bed. I put on my
+trousers, and crept softly downstairs without my shoes. The door of the
+front room was ajar, and I looked in. The light was dimly peering
+through the window which pointed to the alley; the table was covered
+with the empty pipes, tobacco, and large pools of beer and liquor which
+had been spilled on it; the sofa was empty, and my father, who evidently
+had become deeply intoxicated the night before, was lying on the sanded
+floor with his face downward; my mother, in her short dressing-gown and
+flannel petticoat, was standing over him, her teeth set, her fists
+clinched, and arms raised, with a dire expression of revenge in her
+countenance. I thought at the time that I never saw her look so ugly--I
+may say so horrid; even now her expression at that moment is not effaced
+from my memory. After a few minutes she knelt down and put her ear close
+to his head, as if to ascertain whether he was in a sound sleep. She
+then took a knife from off the table, felt the edge, looked at my
+prostrate father, and raised it. I would have screamed, but my tongue
+was glued to my lips with horror. She appeared to reflect, and, after a
+time, laid the knife down on the table, put the palm of her hand up to
+her forehead, and then a smile gleamed over her moody features. "Yes, if
+he murders me; but they will be better," muttered she at last. She went
+to the cupboard, took out a large pair of scissors, and, kneeling down
+by my father, commenced severing his long pigtail from his head. My
+father was too sound asleep to be roused: in a minute the tail was off,
+and my mother rose up, holding it, with an expression of the utmost
+contempt, between her finger and thumb. She then very softly laid it
+down by his side, and replaced the scissors in the cupboard. As I
+expected that she would go upstairs again, I concealed myself in the
+back kitchen. I was correct in my supposition. A moment afterward I
+heard her ascending the stairs and go into her own room.
+
+I must say that I felt indignant at this conduct of my mother's, as, so
+far from provocation, she had hardly received the reward of previous
+treachery. I believe, however, that, like most people, I was actuated by
+my own feelings toward my mother, who had treated me so unkindly. I
+thought for a little while--what would my mother do? She would hardly
+remain in the house, to meet the wrath of my father, when he made the
+discovery. She would escape him; this I had no wish that she should do;
+so I went softly into the front parlor and pushed my father to awake
+him. For some time this was useless; he muttered and growled, but it
+appeared impossible to rouse him. There were the remains of a jug of
+water on the table; and, as I had seen the same thing done before to a
+drunken sailor, I took the jug, and poured the water softly on the nape
+of his neck. In a minute or two this had the effect of waking him. He
+turned over, opened his eyes, and, when I put my finger to my lips to
+intimate silence, he looked at me with a vacant stare. Time pressed; I
+heard my mother moving about upstairs, and I was afraid that she would
+leave the house before my father had recovered his senses. I therefore
+took his pigtail from the floor and held it up before him. This appeared
+to surprise him. He fixed his eyes upon it for a few seconds, and then,
+as if at last suspecting what had taken place, he put his hand to the
+back of his head and found no pigtail there. Suddenly he jumped up; he
+appeared to be sobered all at once. He caught the tail out of my hand,
+looked at it, felt convinced of his loss, threw himself down on the sofa
+and wept like a child.
+
+"I saw my mother do it, father," said I, whispering in his ear. This
+appeared to recall him. He raised himself up, wiped his eyes with the
+back of his hand, ground his teeth, and shook his head. He threw his
+tail on the floor, and, as he eyed it, a deep melancholy spread over his
+countenance. After a minute or two he folded his arms, and thus lamented
+over it:
+
+"Well, I never would have thought it had they told me that you and I
+should have parted company. Many, many years has it taken you to grow to
+your present length; often have you been handled, often have you been
+combed, and often have you been tied. Many's the eel has been skinned
+for your sarvice, and many's the yard of ribbon which you have cost me.
+You have been the envy of my shipmates, the fancy of the women, and the
+pride of poor Tom Saunders. I thought we should never have parted on
+'arth, and, if so be my sins were forgiven me, and I could show a fair
+log, that I might be permitted to wear you in the world which is to
+come. But there you are--parted for all the world like a limb shot off
+in action, never to be spliced again. What am I to say when I go on
+board? I shall have a short tale to tell, instead of a long tail to
+show. And the wife of my busum to do this! Well, I married too high, and
+now my pride is laid low. Jack, never marry a lady's ladies' maid; for
+it appears that the longer the names the more venomous the cattle be."
+
+Just as he had finished I heard my mother coming downstairs with
+Virginia, whom she had taken up and dressed, to take away with her.
+"Hush!" I heard her softly say to Virginia, "don't speak, dear, or
+you'll wake your naughty father."
+
+She had hardly said this when she made her appearance, with Virginia on
+one arm and a large bundle on the other. But as soon as she perceived
+that my father was awake, and cognizant of her revenge, she uttered a
+loud scream, dropped Virginia and the bundle, and, running upstairs to
+her own room, locked herself in.
+
+Poor little Virginia set up a roar at this very unusual (and I believe
+felonious) act of child-dropping on the part of my mother. I ran to her,
+and carried her to the sofa, while my father, with compressed lips,
+first taking two or three quarter-deck strides up and down the room,
+locked the street door, put the key in his pocket, and then ascended the
+stairs to pay a visit to my mother, who, I believe, would very willingly
+have been "not at home"; but some people are importunate, and will take
+no refusal; and, when my father retired three or four steps from the
+door, and with a sudden run brought the whole weight of his foot to bear
+upon it, it flew open. At first my mother was not visible, my father
+thought she had escaped; but at last he spied her legs under the bed.
+Seizing her by her extremities, he dragged her out, without any regard
+to propriety, until he had her into the middle of the room with his foot
+upon her. What a situation for a lady's ladies' maid! I had put Virginia
+down on the sofa, and crept up the stairs to see what took place. My
+father and mother were in these relative positions, and he thus
+addressed her:
+
+"I have heard say that a man mustn't thrash his wife with anything
+thicker than his own thumb. That's as may be--and I do recollect when
+the first lieutenant wanted to cut off the men's hair that the purser
+told him that it was felony, under the Act of cutting and maiming. I
+don't know whether the first lieutenant would have made a felony or not;
+but this I'm sartain of--he'd have made a mutiny. You desarve no mercy,
+and you shall have none. This pigtail of mine shall be what I shall use
+upon you, and if the colt is heavy, recollect you cut it for yourself;
+and as you may not be able to hear what I say by the time I have done
+with you, I'll just tell you now. I'll point the end, and work a mouse
+on this pigtail of mine, and never part with it. I'll keep it for your
+own particular use, and for nobody else's; and as sartain as I come
+back, so sartain every time I come you shall have a taste of pigtail
+without _chewing_', my lady's ladies' maid."
+
+Having made this uncommon long speech, to which my mother offered no
+reply, her eyes being fixed in terror upon the brandished tail, which
+was nearly as thick as her own arm, my father proceeded to put his
+threats into execution. Blow resounded after blow; my mother's cries
+became feebler and feebler, until at last she appeared senseless. Then I
+ran to my father, and, clinging to his leg, cried, "Oh, father, she's
+dead!"
+
+This observation induced him to leave off. He looked at my mother's
+face; her eyes were closed, and her jaw had fallen. "Well, she had
+enough of it this time," said my father, after a pause; "maybe too much
+on it. But when I looks at this tail in my hand, I feel as if I could
+still give her more. And if she be dead, I think the judge would not
+hang me, if I showed him what I have lost. I'd rather have parted with
+an arm or a leg any day of the week. There's been provocation enough, at
+all events, if she be dead--a saint in heaven couldn't stand it."
+
+During these remarks my mother gave no signs of returning animation, and
+at last my father became seriously alarmed. "Jack," said he, "I must cut
+my stick, or they may put me into limbo. As soon as I have cleared out,
+do you run for a doctor to look at your mother; and mind you don't
+forget to tell that old chap who was boozing with me last night
+everything which has happened, and the people will say, come what will
+on it, that I was aggravated sufficient; and, Jack, if there be a
+crowner's inquest, mind you tell the truth. You know I didn't want to
+kill the old woman, don't you, my boy? for didn't I say that I'd keep
+the tail to give her another dose when I came back again?--that proves I
+didn't intend that she should slip her wind, you know, boy. I said I'd
+give her another dose, you know, Jack--and," continued my father, "so I
+will, if I find her above ground when I comes back again."
+
+My father then went downstairs. Little Virginia had fallen asleep again
+on the sofa; my father kissed her softly, shook hands with me, and put a
+crown in my hand. He then unlocked the door, and, thrusting the end of
+his pigtail into his breast, coiled it, as it were, round his body,
+hastened down the alley, and was soon out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+     In which the Doctor pays a Visit and receives no Fee; and I am
+     obliged to work very hard to procure myself a Livelihood.
+
+
+I did not forget my father's injunctions, for I was very much
+frightened. There was a doctor who lived half-way up Church Street, a
+short distance from Fisher's Alley. He was a little man with a large
+head sunk down between two broad shoulders. His eyes were small and
+twinkling, his nose snubbed, his pate nearly bald; but on the sides of
+his head the hair was long and flowing. But if his shoulders were broad
+the rest of his body was not in the same proportion--for he narrowed as
+he descended, his hips being very small, and his legs as thin as those
+of a goat. His real name was Todpoole, but the people invariably called
+him Tadpole, and he certainly in appearance somewhat reminded you of
+one. He was a facetious little fellow, and, it was said, very clever in
+his profession.
+
+"Dr. Tadpole," cried I, out of breath with running, "come quick, my
+mother is very bad indeed."
+
+"What's the matter?" said he, peering over a mortar in which he was
+rubbing up something with the pestle. "External or internal?"
+
+Although I did not know what he meant, I replied, "Both, doctor, and a
+great deal more besides."
+
+"That's bad indeed," replied Tadpole, still rubbing away.
+
+"But you must come directly," cried I. "Come along--quick!"
+
+"Festina lente, good boy--that's Latin for hat and boots. Tom, are my
+boots clean?"
+
+"Ye'es, sir," replied a carroty-haired boy, whom I knew well.
+
+The doctor laid down his pestle, and taking his seat on a chair, began
+very leisurely to pull on his boots, while I stamped with impatience.
+
+"Now do be quick, doctor, my mother will be dead."
+
+"Jack," said the doctor, grinning, as he pulled on his second boot,
+"people don't die so quick before the doctor comes--it's always
+afterward; however, I'm glad to see you are so fond of your mother. Tom,
+is my hat brushed?"
+
+"Ye'es, sir," replied Tom, bringing the doctor's hat.
+
+"Now then, Jack, I'm all ready. Tom, mind the shop, and don't eat the
+stick-liquorice--d'ye hear?"
+
+"Ye'es, sir," said Tom, with a grin from ear to ear.
+
+The doctor followed me very quick, for he thought from my impatience
+that something serious must be the matter. He walked up to my mother's
+room, and I hastened to open the door; when, to my surprise, I found my
+mother standing before the glass arranging her hair.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed my mother, "this is very pretty behavior--forcing your
+way into a lady's room."
+
+The doctor stared, and so did I. At last I exclaimed, "Well! father
+thought he'd killed her."
+
+"Yes," cried my mother, "and he's gone away with it on his conscience,
+that's some comfort. He won't come back in a hurry; he thinks he has
+committed murder, the unfeeling brute! Well, I've had my revenge."
+
+And as she twisted up her hair, my mother burst out screaming:
+
+     "Little Bopeep, she lost her sheep.
+     And couldn't tell where to find him;
+     She found him, indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
+     For he left his tail behind him."
+
+"Why, then, doctor, it was all sham," exclaimed I.
+
+"Yes; and the doctor's come on a fool's errand--
+
+     "'Goosey, Goosey Gander,
+     Whither dost thou wander?
+     Upstairs and downstairs,
+     And in a lady's chamber.'"
+
+The doctor shrugged up his shoulders so that his head disappeared
+between them. At last he said, "Your mother don't want me, Jack, that's
+very clear. Good-morning, Mrs. Saunders."
+
+"A very good-morning to you, Dr. Tadpole," replied my mother with a
+profound courtesy; "you'll oblige me by quitting this room and shutting
+the door after you, if you please." As the doctor and I went down, my
+mother continued the song--
+
+     "And then I met a little man,
+     Couldn't say his prayers,
+     I took him by the left leg
+     And sent him downstairs."
+
+As soon as we were in the parlor, I acquainted the doctor with what had
+happened. "I'm sure I thought she was dead," said I, when I had finished
+the story.
+
+"Jack, when I asked you where your mother was bad, external or
+internal, you replied both, and a great deal more besides. So she
+is--internally, externally, and infernally bad," said the doctor,
+laughing. "And so she amputated your father's pigtail, did she, the
+Delilah? Pity one could not amputate her head, it would make a good
+woman of her. Good-by, Jack; I must go and look after Tom, he's
+swallowed a whole yard of stick-liquorice by this time."
+
+Soon afterward Ben the Whaler came in to inquire after my father, and I
+told him what had occurred. He was very indignant at my mother's
+conduct, and, as soon as the affair was known, so were all the tenants
+of Fisher's Alley. When my mother went out, or had words with any of her
+neighbors, the retort was invariably, "Who sent the press-gang after her
+own husband?" or "Who cut off the tail from her husband's back? Wasn't
+that a _genteel_ trick?" All this worried my mother, and she became very
+morose and ill-tempered. I believe she would have left the alley if she
+had not taken a long lease of the house. She had now imbibed a decided
+hatred for me, which she never failed to show upon every occasion, for
+she knew that it was I who had roused my father, and prevented her
+escape from his wrath. The consequence was that I was seldom at home,
+except to sleep. I sauntered to the beach, ran into the water, sometimes
+rowed in the wherries, at others hauling them in and holding them steady
+for the passengers to land. I was beginning to be useful to the
+watermen, and was very often rewarded with a piece of bread and cheese,
+or a drink of beer out of their pots. The first year after my father's
+visit I was seldom given a meal, and continually beaten--indeed,
+sometimes cruelly so--but as I grew stronger, I rebelled and fought, and
+with such success that, although I was hated more, I was punished less.
+
+One scene between my mother and me may serve as a specimen for all. I
+would come home with my trousers tucked up, and my _high-lows_ unlaced
+and full of water, sucking every time that I lifted up my leg, and
+marking the white sanded floor of the front room, as I proceeded through
+it to the back kitchen. My mother would come downstairs, and perceiving
+the marks I had left, would get angry, and as usual commence singing--
+
+     "'A frog he would a-wooing go,
+     Heigho, says Rowly.'
+
+"I see here's that little wretch been here--
+
+     "'Whether his mother would let him or no,
+     Heigho, says Rowly.'
+
+"I'll rowly him with the rolling-pin when I get hold of him. He's worse
+than that beastly water-spaniel of Sir Hercules', who used to shake
+himself over my best cambric muslin. Well, we'll see. He'll be wanting
+his dinner; I only wish he may get it.
+
+     "'Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,
+     Eating his Christmas pie;
+     He put in his thumb and pull'd out a plum,
+     And cried, What a good boy am I!'
+
+"'Good boy am I!' good-for-nothing brat, just like his father. Oh,
+dear!--if I could but get rid of him!
+
+     "'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
+     She'd so many children she didn't know what to do;
+     She gave them some broth without any bread,
+     She whipped them all round, and sent them to bed.'
+
+"And if I don't whip him, it's my fault, that's all. Virginia, my love,
+don't spit--that's not genteel. It's only sailors and Yankees who spit.
+Nasty little brute! Oh! here you are, are you?" cried my mother, as I
+entered. "Do you see what a dirty mess you have made, you little
+ungrateful animal? Take that, and that, and that," continued she,
+running the wet bristles of the long broom into my face, with sufficient
+force to make my nose bleed. I stood the first push, and the second; but
+the third roused my indignation--and I caught hold of the end of the
+broom toward me, and tried to force it out of her hands. It was push
+against push, for I was very strong--she, screaming as loud as she
+could, as she tried to wrest the broom from my clutches--I, shoving at
+her with all my force--like Punch and the devil at the two ends of the
+stick. At last, after she had held me in a corner for half a minute, I
+made a rush upon her, drove her right to the opposite corner, so that
+the end of the handle gave her a severe poke in the body, which made her
+give up the contest, and exclaim as soon as she recovered her
+breath--"Oh! you nasty, ungrateful, ungenteel brute! You little viper!
+Is that the way you treat your mother--and nearly kill her? Oh, dear
+me!"
+
+"Why don't you leave me alone, then? you never beats Jenny."
+
+"Who's Jenny, you wicked good-for-nothing boy? you mean your sister
+Virginia. Well, you'll have no dinner, I can tell you."
+
+I put my hand in my pocket, took out a sixpence which I had received,
+and held it up between my thumb and finger. "Won't I?"
+
+"You oudacious boy! that's the way you're spoiled by foolish people
+giving you money."
+
+"Good-by, mother." So saying, I leaped over the board fixed up at the
+door, and was again down at the beach. Indeed, I was now what is termed
+a regular _Mud-larker_, picking up halfpence by running into the water,
+offering my ragged arm to people getting out of the wherries, always
+saluting them with, "You haven't got never a halfpenny for poor Jack,
+your honor?" and sometimes I did get a halfpenny, sometimes a shove,
+according to the temper of those whom I addressed. When I was not on the
+beach, I was usually in company with Ben the Whaler, who, after my
+father's visit, was more kind to me than ever; and there were several
+other pensioners who were great friends of mine; and I used to listen to
+their long yarns, which were now becoming a source of great delight to
+me; at other times I would be with the watermen, assisting them to clean
+out their wherries, or pay the seams. In fact, I was here, there, and
+everywhere except at home--always active, always employed, and, I may
+add, almost always wet. My mother used to scold whenever I came in; but
+that I did not mind; her greatest punishment was refusing me a clean
+shirt on a Sunday. At last I picked up halfpence enough to pay, not only
+for my food, such as it was, but for my own washing, and every day I
+became more independent and more happy.
+
+There were other ways by which money was to be obtained during the
+summer season, which were from the company who used to come down to the
+whitebait parties at the Ship and other taverns. There were many other
+boys who frequented the beach besides me, and we used to stand under the
+windows, and attract attention by every means in our power, so as to
+induce the company to throw us halfpence to scramble for. This they
+would do to while away their time until their dinner was ready, or to
+amuse themselves and the ladies by seeing us roll and tumble one over
+the other. Sometimes they would throw a sixpence into the river, where
+the water was about two feet deep, to make us wet ourselves through in
+groping for it. Indeed, they were very generous when they wished to be
+amused; and every kind of offer was made to them which we thought suited
+to their tastes, or likely to extract money from their pockets.
+
+"Dip my head in the mud for sixpence, sir!" would one of us cry out; and
+then he would be outbid by another.
+
+"Roll myself all over and over, in the mud, face and all, sir--only give
+me sixpence!"
+
+Sometimes I would perceive a lovely countenance, beaming with pity and
+compassion at our rags and apparent wretchedness, and then the money
+thrown to me gave me much more pleasure; but the major portion of those
+who threw us silver for their own amusement would not have given us a
+farthing if we had asked charity for the love of God.
+
+It must not, however, be supposed that I gained the enviable situation
+of _Poor Jack_ until I had been some time on the beach. There are
+competitors for every place, even the most humble; and there was no want
+of competitors for this office among the many idle boys who frequented
+the beach. When I first plied there, I was often pushed away by those
+who were older and stronger than myself, with a "Go along with you! He's
+not poor Jack--I'm poor Jack, your honor." This, at first, I submitted
+to; taking my chance for a stray halfpenny, which was occasionally
+thrown to me, trusting to my activity in being the first down to the
+boat, or to my quickness in a scramble. I never quarreled with the other
+boys, for I was remarkable for my good temper. The first idea I had of
+resistance was from oppression. One of the boys, who was older and
+taller than myself, attempted to take away a sixpence which I had gained
+in a scramble. Before that, I had not resented being pushed away, or
+even when they threw water or mud at me; but this was an act of violence
+which I could not put up with: the consequence was a fight; in which, to
+my surprise (for I was not aware of my strength), as well as to the
+surprise of the bystanders, I proved victorious, beating my opponent
+until he reeled into the water, following him up until he tumbled, and
+then holding his head down in the mud until he was almost stifled. I
+then allowed him to get up, and he went home crying to his mother. For
+this feat I was rewarded with the plaudits of the old pensioners and
+others who were looking on, and with a shilling which was thrown to me
+from the window of the inn. Ben the Whaler, who had witnessed the fray,
+told me, the next day, that I handled my fists remarkably well, and that
+I had but to keep a higher guard and I should fight well. He was an old
+pugilist himself, and he gave me a few directions which I did not
+forget. I soon had occasion to put them into practice; for, two days
+afterward, another boy, bigger than myself, as I was plying as "Poor
+Jack," pushed me back so hard that I fell off the steps into the deep
+water, and there was a general laugh against me. I did not care for the
+ducking, but the laugh I could not bear: as soon as I gained the steps
+again, I rushed upon him and threw him off, and he fell into the wherry,
+and, as it afterward appeared, he strained his back very much;
+nevertheless he came out to thrash me; and this time it was a regular
+fight, as the pensioners and watermen interfered, taking us both up on
+the higher ground, and seeing that it was fair play. Ben the Whaler
+acted as my second, and we set to. The boy was too powerful for me, had
+it not been for the hurt he had received and the instructions I obtained
+from Ben every time that I sat on his knee between each round. Still it
+was a very hard fight, and I was terribly beaten; but I could not give
+up, for so many betted upon my winning, and Ben told me, at the end of
+every round, that if I only stood up one more, I should be certain to
+beat him, and that then I should be _Poor Jack forever!_ The last
+inducement stimulated me to immense exertion. We closed and wrestled,
+and my antagonist was thrown; and, in consequence of the strain he had
+before received, he could not stand up anymore. Poor fellow! he was in
+great pain; he was taken home, and obliged to have a doctor, and an
+abscess formed in his side. He was a long while getting well, and, when
+he came out of doors again, he was so pale. I was very sorry for him,
+and we were always the best friends afterward, and I gave him many a
+halfpenny, until I had an opportunity of serving him.
+
+I mention these two fights because they obtained for me a greater
+reputation than I deserved: this reputation perhaps saved me a great
+deal more fighting, and obtained me the mastery over the other boys on
+the beach. Indeed, I became such a favorite with the watermen that they
+would send the other boys away; and thus did I become, at last, the
+acknowledged, true, lawful, and legitimate "Poor Jack of Greenwich."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+     In which I take a Cruise contrary to the received Rules of
+     Navigation--On my Return from a cold Expedition, I meet with a cold
+     Reception.
+
+
+As soon as I was fairly in possession of my office, I gained sufficient
+money to render me almost entirely independent of my mother.
+Occasionally I procured an old jacket or trousers, or a pair of shoes,
+at the store of an old woman who dealt in everything that could be
+imagined; and, if ever I picked up oakum or drifting pieces of wood, I
+used to sell them to old Nanny--for that was the only name she was known
+by. My mother, having lost her lodgers by her ill temper and continual
+quarreling with her neighbors, had resorted to washing and getting up of
+fine linen, at which she was very expert, and earned a good deal of
+money. To do her justice, she was a very industrious woman, and, in some
+things, very clever. She was a very good dressmaker, and used to make up
+the gowns and bonnets for the lower classes of people, to whom she gave
+great satisfaction. She worked very hard for herself and my sister,
+about whose dress and appearance she was more particular than ever;
+indeed, she showed as much affection for her as she did ill-will toward
+me. To look at me, with my old trousers tucked up above my knees, my
+ragged jacket, and weatherbeaten cap; and then to see Virginia, so
+neatly and even expensively dressed, no one could have believed that we
+were brother and sister. My mother would always try to prevent Virginia
+from noticing me, if we ever met when she was walking out with her. But
+my sister appeared to love me more and more; and, in spite of my mother,
+as soon as she saw me, would run up to me, patting my dirty jacket with
+her pretty little hand; and, when she did so, I felt so proud of her.
+She grew up handsomer every day, and so sweet in disposition that my
+mother could not spoil her.
+
+It was in the autumn that I gained undisputed possession of the office
+of "Poor Jack"; and that winter I had an adventure which nearly
+occasioned my making a vacancy for somebody else, and which, the reader
+will agree with me, was anything but pleasant.
+
+It was in the month of January--the river was filled with floating ice,
+for it had frozen hard for several days; and, of course, there were but
+few people who trusted themselves in wherries--so that I had little
+employment, and less profit. One morning, as I was standing on the
+landing-steps, the breath coming out of my mouth like the steam of a
+tea-kettle--rubbing my nose, which was red from the sharpness of the
+frost--and looking at the sun, which was just mounting above a bank of
+clouds, a waterman called to me, and asked me whether I would go down
+the river with him, as he was engaged to take a mate down to join his
+ship, which was several miles below Greenwich; and, if so, he would give
+me sixpence and a breakfast. I had earned little for many days, and,
+hating to be obliged to my mother, I consented.
+
+In an hour we started: there was no wind--the water was smooth, and the
+sun's rays glittered on the floating patches of ice, which grated
+against the sides of the wherry as we cut through them with our sharp
+prow. Although we had the tide with us, it was three hours before we
+gained the ship. The mate paid the fare, and gave us something to drink;
+and we passed an hour or more warming ourselves at the caboose and
+talking with the seamen. At last a breeze sprung up, and the captain
+ordered the men to get the ship under way. We shoved off, the tide
+having flowed some time, expecting to be back to Greenwich before dark.
+
+But it clouded over, and a heavy snowstorm came on, so that we could not
+see in what direction we were pulling; the wind blew very fresh, and it
+was piercing cold; however, we pulled as hard as we could, not only to
+get back again, but to keep ourselves from freezing. Unfortunately, we
+had lost too much time on board of the vessel; and, what with that, and
+the delay arising from the snowstorm preventing us pulling straight
+back, the ebb-tide made again before we had gained more than two-thirds
+of our way. We were now nearly worn out with the severe cold and
+fatigue, but we pulled hard, keeping as close inshore as we could. It
+was necessary, at the end of one reach, to cross over to the other side
+of the river; and, in so doing, we were driven by the tide against a
+large buoy, when the wherry filled and upset in an instant. We both
+contrived to cling on to her, as she was turned bottom up; and away we
+were swept down among the drifting ice, the snowstorm still continuing
+to beat down on our heads. I was nearly frozen before I could climb on
+the bottom of the wherry; which I at last contrived to do, but the
+waterman could only hold on. There we both were, shivering and shaking;
+the wind piercing through our wet clothes--the snow beating down on us,
+and our feet freezing among the drifting ice--borne away with the tide
+toward the mouth of the river--not able to see two yards before us, or
+likely to be seen by any one, so as to be assisted. We were too cold to
+speak, but remained in silence, looking at each other, and with no
+pleasant forebodings as to our fate. The ice now formed in large masses;
+the icicles hung from our clothes and all sense was lost in our
+extremities. It was now dark as pitch; and so feeble were we that it was
+with difficulty we could keep in our positions. At last the storm
+abated, the sky cleared up, and the bright full moon shone in the
+heavens; but our case appeared hopeless--we felt that before morning we
+must perish. I tried to say what prayers I had learned by hearing my
+sister say them; but my teeth chattered, and I could only think them. At
+last I perceived a vessel at anchor: the tide was sweeping us past--we
+were close to her, and I contrived to cry out; but there was no reply.
+Again I screamed, but it was in vain. They were all in their warm beds,
+while we floated past, freezing to death. My hopes, which had been
+raised, and which had occasioned my heart to resume its beating, now
+sank down again, and I gave myself up in despair. I burst into tears;
+and, before the tears had rolled half-way down my cheeks, they had
+frozen hard. "I am indeed 'Poor Jack,' now," thought I; "I shall never
+see my father or Virginia any more." As I thought so, I saw another
+vessel ahead of us. I summoned all my strength, and called out long
+before we floated past her. The light wind bore my voice down; there was
+a man on deck, and he heard it; he walked forward, and I perceived him
+looking over the bows. I hallooed again, to direct his attention to
+where we were; for our wherry was so encrusted with ice that she might
+have been taken for a larger piece floating by. I saw him turn away, and
+heard him thump with a handspike on the deck. How my heart bounded! I
+almost felt warm. As we were passing the vessel, I cried out again and
+again, and the man answered me--
+
+"Ay, ay, hold on for a minute or two, and I'll send for you."
+
+[Illustration: I SUMMONED ALL MY STRENGTH, AND CALLED OUT LONG BEFORE WE
+FLOATED PAST HER.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 73.]
+
+"We are saved," I cried to the waterman; but he was quite insensible,
+apparently frozen stiff where he was clinging. In a few minutes I heard
+the sound of oars, and then they stopped; the boat came quietly
+alongside, that they might not by the shock throw us off into the water;
+they dragged us both in, and took us on board, poured a glass of brandy
+down our throats, stripped off our frozen clothes, chafed our limbs, and
+put us between the hot blankets which they had just left. As soon as I
+was in bed the mate made me drink a tumbler of hot grog, and left me. I
+soon fell into a deep sleep, long before they had ceased their attempts
+to restore vitality to my companion, which at last they did. When I
+awoke the next morning I was quite well, and the waterman was also
+recovering, although not able to leave his hammock. The mate who had had
+the watch and had saved us, told me that the wherry was safe on board,
+and, as the ship was bound up the river, that we had better remain where
+we were. I narrated our accident; and my clothes having been dried at
+the caboose, I dressed myself and went on deck. My companion, the
+waterman, did not escape so well; his foot was frostbitten, and he lost
+four of his toes before he recovered. It was singular that he, who was a
+man grown up, should suffer so much more than I did. I cannot account
+for it, except that my habit of always being in the water had hardened
+me more to the cold. We remained on board two days, during which we were
+treated with great kindness.
+
+It was a fine bright morning, when, as the ship was passing the
+hospital, we shoved the wherry off, and landed at the steps; and when we
+jumped out we were greeted by all who were standing there. We had very
+naturally been given up for lost. They supposed that we had perished in
+the snowstorm. Old Ben was among those who were standing at the steps,
+and he walked up with me toward my mother's house.
+
+"I did go to the old woman and break the matter to her in a becoming
+way, Jack," said Ben; "but I can't say that she appeared to take it much
+to heart, and that's the truth. Had it been little Jenny, she'd have
+cried her eyes out."
+
+I arrived at Fisher's Alley, and the neighbors looked out; and as I
+nodded to them they cried, "Why, here's Jack come back again. Where have
+you been to, Jack?" This passing from mouth to mouth at last reached my
+mother's ears; she looked out and saw me and old Ben close to the door.
+
+"Here be your son, missus," said Ben; "so you may thank God for His
+mercy."
+
+But my mother did not appear to be very thankful. She turned round and
+went in. I followed her, while Ben was standing at the door in amazement
+at her not flying to me and kissing me. On the contrary she must have
+been angry at my return, for she commenced singing:
+
+     "Jack and Gill went up the hill
+       To fetch a pail of water;
+     Jack fell down and broke his crown,
+       And Gill came tumbling after."
+
+And then she broke out: "And where have you been, you good-for-nothing
+boy, all this time? putting me to all this useless expense that you
+have; all my money thrown away for nothing." I looked at the table and
+perceived that she had been making a black dress and bonnet, to put
+little Virginia into mourning; for she never let slip an opportunity to
+dress out my sister.
+
+"Fifteen good shillings thrown away and lost, all by your coming back.
+Your sister would have looked so beautiful and interesting in it. Poor
+child! and now she will be disappointed. Never mind, my darling, you may
+have to wear them soon yet, if he goes on this way."
+
+Virginia did not seem to mind it at all; she was kissing and patting me,
+and was delighted to see me again. But my mother took her by the hand,
+and catching up the half-made dress and bonnet in her other, walked away
+upstairs to her room, singing:
+
+     "There was an old man who lived under a hill,
+     And if he's not dead, he lives there still."
+
+"So much for motherly love! Dang it, what's her heart made of?" said a
+voice. I turned round; it was old Ben, who had been an unobserved
+spectator of the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+     In which I narrate what I consider the most fortunate Incident in
+     my Life; and Ben the Whaler confides to me a very strange History
+
+
+Among the pensioners there was one with whom I must make the reader
+acquainted, as he will be an important person in this narrative. His
+name was Peter Anderson, a north countryman, I believe, from Greenock;
+he had been gunner's mate in the service for many years, and, having
+been severely wounded in an action, he had been sent to Greenwich. He
+was a boatswain in Greenwich Hospital; that is, he had charge of a ward
+of twenty-five men, and Ben the Whaler had lately been appointed one of
+the boatswain's mates under him. He was a very good scholar, and had
+read a great deal. You could hardly put any question to him, but you
+would get from him a satisfactory sort of an answer; and he was
+generally referred to in all points of dispute, especially in matters
+connected with the service, which he had at his fingers' ends; and,
+moreover, he was a very religious good man. I never heard him swear, but
+correct all those who did so in his presence. He had saved some money in
+the service, the interest of which, with his allowances as boatswain,
+enabled him to obtain many little comforts, and to be generous to
+others. Before Ben was shifted over to Anderson's ward, which he was
+when he was appointed boatswain's mate under him, they had not been well
+acquainted; but, since that time, they were almost always together; so
+that now I knew Anderson, which I did not before, except by sight. He
+was a very venerable looking old man, with gray locks curling down on
+his shoulders, but very stout and hearty; and, as Ben had told him all
+about me, he took notice of me, and appeared also to take an interest.
+When I came back, after the providential escape I have mentioned in the
+last chapter, Ben had narrated to him the conduct of my mother; and a
+day or two afterward, when the frost had broken up, and they were both
+sitting down, basking in the sun, which was shining bright, I went up to
+them.
+
+"Well, Jack," said old Ben, "are you ready for another trip down the
+river?"
+
+"I hope I shall earn my sixpence at an easier rate, if I do go," replied
+I.
+
+"It was wonderful that you were saved, boy," said Peter Anderson, "and
+you ought to very thankful to the Omniscient."
+
+I stared; for I had never heard that term applied to the Diety.
+
+"You mean God, don't you?" said I, at last; for I thought he couldn't
+mean any other.
+
+"Yes, boy; has not your mother taught you that name?"
+
+"She never would teach me anything. All the prayers I know I have stolen
+from my sister."
+
+"And what do you know, Jack?"
+
+"I know 'Our Father,' and 'Now I lay down to sleep,' and I believe that
+is all."
+
+"How old are you now, Jack?"
+
+"I am three years older than Virginia; she, I heard my mother say, was
+six the other day--then I suppose I'm nine."
+
+"Do you know your letters?"
+
+"Yes, some of them; I learned them on the boats."
+
+"But you cannot read?"
+
+"No, not a word."
+
+"Has your mother ever told you of the Bible?"
+
+"Not me; but I've heard her tell Virginia about it."
+
+"Don't you ever go to church?"
+
+"No, never. Mother takes little Virginia; but she says I'm too ragged
+and ungenteel."
+
+"Why does your mother neglect you? I suppose you are a bad boy?"
+
+"That he's not," interrupted Ben; "that's not the reason. But we must
+not talk about that now; only I must take Jack's part. Go on, Peter."
+
+"Would you like to learn to read, Jack?" said Anderson; "and would you
+like to hear me read the Bible to you, until you can read it yourself?"
+
+"Indeed I would," replied I. "There's many of the boys on the beach,
+smaller than me, who can both read and write."
+
+Peter Anderson then told me that he would teach me, provided I behaved
+myself well. He desired that I would come to his cabin every afternoon
+at six o'clock, a time which interfered little with my avocation of
+"Poor Jack," and that he would give me a lesson. Before he had finished
+talking, one of the lieutenants of the hospital sent for him; and Ben
+remained behind, to point out to me how valuable my knowing how to read
+and write might one day prove to me.
+
+"I've no larning myself, Jack," said he; "and I know the loss of it. Had
+I known how to read and write, I might have been something better than
+a poor Greenwich pensioner; but nevertheless I'm thankful that I'm no
+worse. Ever since I've been a man grown I've only regretted it once--and
+that's been all my life. Why, Jack, I'd give this right arm of mine--to
+be sure, it's no great things now, but once it could send a harpoon in,
+up to the hilt--but still a right arm is a right arm to the end of your
+days!--and I'd give it with pleasure, if I only knew how to read and
+write. Nay, I wouldn't care about the writing; but, if I could only read
+print, Jack, I'd give it; for then I could read the Bible, as Peter
+Anderson does. Why, Jack, when we do go to chapel on Sunday, there's not
+one in ten of us who can follow the parson with his book; all we can do
+is to listen; and when he has done speaking, we are done also, and must
+wait till he preaches again. Don't I feel ashamed, then, Jack, at not
+being able to read? and ought not they to feel proud who can--no, not
+proud, but thankful[2]? We don't think of the Bible much in our younger
+days, boy; but, when we are tripping our anchor for the other world, we
+long to read away our doubts and misgivings; and it's the only chart you
+can navigate by safely. I think a parent has much to answer for that
+don't teach its child to read; but I must not blame my father or mother,
+for I never knew them."
+
+[Footnote 2: Ben's observations were true at the time he spoke; but this
+is no longer the case. So much more general has education become, that
+now, in a ship's company, at least five out of seven can read.]
+
+"Never knew them?"
+
+"No, boy, no. My father and mother left me when I was one year old: he
+was drowned, and my mother--she died too, poor soul!"
+
+"How did your mother die, Ben?"
+
+"It's a sad, sad story, Jack, and I cannot bear to think of it; it was
+told me long afterward, by one who little thought to whom he was
+speaking."
+
+"Do tell me, Ben."
+
+"You're too young, boy, for such a tale; it's too shocking."
+
+"Was it worse than being froze to death, as I nearly was the other day?"
+
+"Yes, my lad, worse than that; although, for one so young as you are,
+that was quite bad enough."
+
+"Well, Ben, I won't ask you to tell me if it pains you to tell it. But
+you did not do wrong?"
+
+"How could a baby of two years old do wrong, and five thousand miles off
+at the time, you little fool? Well, I don't know if I won't tell you,
+Jack, after all, because you will then find out that there's a comfort
+in reading the Bible; but you must promise me never to speak about it.
+I'm a foolish old fellow to tell it to you, Jack, I do believe; but I'm
+fond of you, boy, and I don't like to say 'no' to you. Now come to an
+anchor close to me. The bells are ringing for dinner--I shall lose my
+meal, but you will not lose your story, and there will be no fear of
+interruption.
+
+"My father was brought up to the sea, Jack, and was a smart young man
+till he was about thirty, when a fall from the mainyard disabled him
+from hard duty and going aft; but still he had been brought up to sea,
+and was fit for nothing on shore. So, as he was a clean, likely fellow,
+he obtained the situation of purser's steward in an Indiaman. After that
+he was captain's steward on board of several ships. He sailed originally
+from Yarmouth, and going home after a voyage to see his relations, he
+fell in with my mother, and they were spliced. He was very fond of his
+wife, and I believe she was a very true and good woman, equally fond of
+him. He went to sea again, and I was born. He made another voyage to
+India, and when he came back I was two years old. I do not recollect him
+or my mother. My father had agreed to sail to the West Indies as
+captain's steward, and the captain, with whom he had sailed before,
+consented that he should take his wife with him, to attend upon the lady
+passengers; so I was left at Yarmouth, and put out to nurse till they
+came back. But they never came back, Jack; and, as soon as I can
+recollect, I found myself in the workhouse, and, when old enough, was
+sent to sea. I had been told that my father and mother had been lost at
+sea, but no one could tell me how, and I thought little more about it,
+for I had never known them, and those we don't know we do not love or
+care for, be they father or mother.
+
+"Well, I had sailed four or five voyages to the north in the whalers,
+and was then about twenty-five years old, when I thought I would go back
+to Yarmouth and show myself, for I was 'harpooner and steersman' at that
+early age, and not a little proud. I thought I would go and look at the
+old workhouse, for it was the only thing I could recollect, and see if
+the master and mistress were still alive, for they were kind to me when
+I was living with them. I went to Yarmouth, as I said. There was the
+workhouse, and the master and mistress both alive; and I made myself
+known to them, and the old people looked at me through their spectacles,
+and could not believe that I could possibly be the little Ben who used
+to run to the pump for water. I had money in my pocket, and I liked the
+old people, who offered me all they could give without hopes of
+receiving any thing in return, and, as I knew nobody else, I used to
+live much with them, and pay them handsomely. I gave the old man some
+curiosities and the old woman a teapot, and so on, and I remained with
+them till it was time for me to sail again. Now, you see, Jack, among
+the old folk in the workhouse was a man who had been at sea; and I often
+had long talks with him, and gave him tobacco, which he couldn't afford
+to buy--for they don't allow it in a workhouse, which is a great
+hardship, and I have often thought that I should not like to go into a
+workhouse because I never could have a bit of tobacco. This man's hair
+was as white as snow, much too white for his age, for he was more
+decrepit and worn out than, perhaps, he was old. He had come home to his
+parish, and, being unable to gain his living, they had sent him to the
+workhouse. I can't understand why a place should be called a workhouse
+where they do nothing at all. Well, Charley, as they called him, got
+very ill, and they thought he would not last long; and, when the old
+people were busy, I used to talk a great deal with him. He was generally
+very quiet and composed, and said he was comfortable, but that he knew
+he was going fast.
+
+"'But,' says he, 'here's my comfort;' and he pointed to a Bible that he
+had on his knees. 'If it had not been for this book,' said he, 'I do
+think, at times, I should have made away with myself.'
+
+"'Why,' says I, 'what have you done? Have you been very wicked?'
+
+"'We are all very wicked,' said he; 'but that's not exactly it. I have
+been _haunted_ for so many years that I have been almost driven mad.'
+
+"'Why,' said I, 'what can you have done that you should have been
+haunted? You haven't committed murder, have you?'
+
+"'Well, I don't know what to say,' replied he; 'if a man looks on and
+don't prevent murder, is it not the same? I haven't long to live, and I
+feel as if I should be happier if I made a clean breast of it; for I
+have kept the secret a long while, and I think that you, as a sailor,
+and knowing what sailors suffer, may have a fellow-feeling; and perhaps
+you will tell me (for I'm somewhat uneasy about it) whether you think
+that I am so very much to blame in the business? I've suffered enough
+for it these many years, and I trust that it will not be forgotten that
+I have so, when I'm called up to be judged--as we all shall, if this
+book is true, as I fully believe it to be.'
+
+"Here he appeared to be a good deal upset; but he took a drink of water,
+and then he told me as follows:
+
+"'About twenty-three years ago I was a seaman on board of the "William
+and Caroline," West Indiaman, bound to Jamaica. We had two or three
+passengers on board, and the steward's wife attended upon them. She was
+a handsome, tall young woman; and when she and her husband came on
+board, they told me they had one child, which they had left at home. Now
+Yarmouth, you see, is my native place, and, although I did not know her
+husband, I knew her family very well. So we were very intimate, and used
+to talk about the people we knew, and so on. I mention this in
+consequence of what occurred afterward. We arrived very safe at Jamaica,
+and remained, as usual, some time at the island before the drogers
+brought round our cargo, and then we again sailed for England.
+
+"'Well, we got clear of the islands, and were getting well north, when
+there came on a terrible gale of wind which dismasted us; and for three
+weeks we were rolling about gunnel under, for we were very heavily
+laden, and we lost our reckoning. At last we found out that we had been
+blown down among the reefs to the southward of the Bahama Isles. We had
+at one time rigged jury-masts, but unfortunately the gale had blown up
+again, and carried them also over the side; and we had no means of doing
+anything, for we had no more small spars or sails, and all our hopes
+were of falling in with some vessel which might assist us.
+
+"'But we had no such good fortune; and one morning, when a heavy sea was
+running, we discovered that it was bearing us down upon a reef of rocks,
+from which there was no chance of escape. We had no resource but to get
+the boats out, and take our chance in them. The captain was very cool
+and collected; he ordered everything in which might be requisite; called
+up the men, and explained to them his intentions. All the water and
+provisions were put into the launch, for the sea ran so high that the
+small boats could not carry them; and it was intended that all the boats
+should keep company till it moderated, and then each boat should have
+its own supply. When all was ready, we were _told off_ to our respective
+boats. The steward and his wife were to be in the same boat with me, and
+I had put her carefully in the sternsheets, for I was her great friend.
+Now the steward was called out by the captain to go for something which
+had been forgotten; and while he was away the ship was struck by a heavy
+sea, which occasioned such a breach over her that all was in confusion,
+and, to prevent the small boats from swamping, they were pushed off. The
+launch still held on for the captain, who hastened in with the mate and
+the steward, for they were the only three left on board; and away we all
+went. I mention this as the cause why the steward was separated (only
+for a time, as we supposed) from his wife. We had not been clear of the
+ship more than five minutes before we found that we, in our boat, could
+hardly make head 'gainst the wind and swell, which bore down on the reef
+close to us; the launch, which was a heavy-pulling boat and deeply
+laden, could not; and in a quarter of an hour we had the misery to see
+her in the breakers, swallowed up with all hands, together with all the
+provisions and water for our sustenance. I will not attempt to describe
+the agony of the steward's wife, who saw her husband perish before her
+eyes. She fainted; and it was a long time before she came to again; for
+no one could leave his oar for a minute to assist her, as we pulled for
+our lives. At last she did come to. Poor thing! I felt for her. Toward
+night the wind lulled, and we had every appearance of fine weather
+coming on; but we had nothing to eat, and only a barrico of water in the
+boat, and we were quite exhausted with fatigue.
+
+"'We knew that we must pull to the northward, and try and fetch the
+Bahama Isles, or, perhaps, some of the small quays to the southward of
+them, where we might procure turtle, and, perhaps, water; and when the
+sea had gone down, which it did very fast, we put the head of our boat
+in that direction, pulling all night. At daybreak the other boat was not
+to be seen; it was a dead clam, but there was still a long heavy swell.
+We shared out some water and rested till the evening, and then we took
+to our oars again.
+
+"'We rowed hard till the morning, but when the sun rose it scorched us
+up. It was impossible for us to keep to our oars without drinking, and,
+there being no one to take the command, our water was all gone, and we
+had not gained fifty miles to the northward. On the third morning we
+laid down exhausted at the bottom of the boat--we were dying not only
+with thirst, but with hunger; we had agreed that when night came on we
+would take to the oars again; but some would and some would not; so
+that, at last, those who had taken to their oars would pull no longer.
+
+"'The steward's wife at times sang psalms, and at times wept. She had a
+very sweet voice, but her lips were soon glued together for want of
+water, and she could sing no longer.
+
+"'When the sun rose on the fourth day there was no vessel to be seen.
+Some were raving for water, and others sat crouched under the boat's
+thwarts in silent despair. But, toward evening, the sky clouded over,
+and there fell a heavy rain, which refreshed us. We took the gown from
+off the steward's wife, and spread it, and caught the water; and we all
+drank until our thirst was quenched--even our wet clothes were a comfort
+to us; still we were gnawed with hunger. That night we slept; but the
+next morning every man's eyes flashed, and we all looked as if we would
+eat each other; and there were whisperings and noddings going on in the
+bow of the boat; and a negro who was with us took out his knife, and
+sharpened it on the boat's gunnel. No one asked him why. We spoke not,
+but we all had our own thoughts. It was dreadful to look at our hollow
+cheeks--our eyes sunken deep, but glaring like red-hot coals--our long
+beards and haggard faces--every one ready to raise his hand against the
+other. The poor woman never complained or said a word after she left off
+singing; her thoughts appeared elsewhere. She sat for hours motionless,
+with her eyes fixed on the still blue water, as if she would pierce its
+depth.
+
+"'At last the negro came aft; and we were each upon our guard as he
+passed us, for we had seen him sharpen his knife. He went to the
+sternsheets, where the poor woman sat, and we all knew what he intended
+to do, for he only acted our own thoughts. She was still hanging over
+the gunnel, with her eyes fixed downward, and she heeded not his
+approach. He caught her by the hair, and dragged her head toward him.
+She then held out her arms toward me, faintly calling me by name; but
+I--shame on me!--remained sitting on the afterthwart. The negro thrust
+his knife into her neck, below the ear; and, as soon as he had divided
+the artery, he glued his thick lips to the gash and sucked her blood.
+
+"'When the deed was done, others rose up and would have shared; but the
+negro kept his white eyes directed toward them--one arm thrust out, with
+his knife pointed at them, as he slaked his thirst, while, with his
+other round her waist, he supported her dying frame. The attitude was
+that of fondness, while the deed was--murder. He appeared as if he were
+caressing her, while her life's blood poured into his throat. At last we
+all drew our knives; and the negro knew that he must resign his prey or
+his life. He dropped the woman, and she fell, with her face forward, at
+my feet. She was quite dead. And then--our hunger was relieved.
+
+"'Three days passed away, and again we were mad for want of water--when
+we saw a vessel. We shouted, and shook hands, and threw out the oars,
+and pulled as if we had never suffered. It was still calm, and, as we
+approached the vessel, we threw what remained of the poor woman into the
+sea; and the sharks finished what we had left. We agreed to say nothing
+about her, for we were ashamed of ourselves.
+
+"'Now I did _not_ murder, but I did _not_ prevent it; and I have ever
+since been haunted by this poor woman. I see her and the negro
+constantly before me, and then I think of what passed, and I turn sick.
+I feel that I ought to have saved her--she is always holding out her
+arms to me, and I hear her faintly call "Charles"--then I read my
+Bible--and she disappears, and I feel as if I were forgiven. Tell me,
+what do you think, messmate?'
+
+"'Why,' replied I, 'sarcumstances will make us do what we otherwise
+would never think possible. I never was in such a predicament, and
+therefore can't tell what people may be brought to do. But tell me,
+messmate, what was the name of the poor woman?'
+
+[Illustration: ANDERSON READING THE BIBLE TO JACK.--Marryat, Vol. X., p.
+89.]
+
+"'The husband's name was Ben Rivers.'
+
+"'_Rivers_, did you say?' replied I, struck all of a heap.
+
+"'Yes,' replied he; 'that was her name; she was of this town. But never
+mind the name--tell me what you think, messmate?'
+
+"'Well,' says I (for I was quite bewildered), 'I'll tell you what, old
+fellow--as far as I'm consarned, you have my forgiveness, and now I must
+wish you good-by--and I pray to God that we may never meet again.'
+
+"'Stop a little,' said he; 'don't leave me this way. Ah! I see how it
+is--you think I'm a murderer.'
+
+"'No, I don't,' replied I; 'not exactly--still, there'll be no harm in
+your reading your Bible.'
+
+"And so I got up, and walked out of the room--for you see, Jack,
+although he mayn't have been so much to blame, still I didn't like to be
+in company with a man who had eaten up _my own mother!_"
+
+Here Ben paused, and sighed deeply. I was so much shocked with the
+narrative that I could not say a word. At last Ben continued:
+
+"I couldn't stay in the room--I couldn't stay in the workhouse. I
+couldn't even stay in the town. Before the day closed I was out of it,
+and I have never been there since. Now, Jack, I must go in--remember
+what I have said to you, and larn to read your Bible."
+
+I promised that I would, and that very evening I had my first lesson
+from Peter Anderson, and I continued to receive them until I could read
+well. He then taught me to write and cipher; but before I could do the
+latter, many events occurred, which must be made known to the reader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+     In which the Doctor lets out some very novel Modes of Medical
+     Treatment, which are attended with the greatest Success.
+
+
+Such a change has taken place since I can first recollect Greenwich that
+it will be somewhat difficult for me to make the reader aware of my
+localities. Narrow streets have been pulled down, handsome buildings
+erected--new hotels in lieu of small inns--gay shops have now usurped
+those which were furnished only with articles necessary for the outfit
+of the seamen. Formerly, long stages, with a basket to hold six behind,
+and dillies which plied at the Elephant and Castle, were the usual land
+conveyances--now they have made place for railroads and omnibuses.
+Formerly, the wherry conveyed the mariner and his wife, with his
+sea-chest, down to the landing-place--now steamboats pour out their
+hundreds at a trip. Even the view from Greenwich is much changed, here
+and there broken in upon by the high towers for shot and other
+manufactories, or some large building which rises boldly in the
+distance; while the "Dreadnaught's" splendid frame fills up half the
+river, and she that was used to deal out death and destruction with her
+terrible rows of teeth, is now dedicated by humanity to succor and
+relieve.
+
+I mention this because the house in which Dr. Tadpole formerly lived no
+longer exists; and I wish particularly to describe it to the reader.
+
+When I left Greenwich in 1817 or 1818, it was still standing, although
+certainly in a very dilapidated state. I will, however, give a slight
+sketch of it, as it is deeply impressed on my memory.
+
+It was a tall, narrow building of dark red brick, much ornamented, and
+probably built in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It had two benches on
+each side the door; for, previous to Tadpole's taking possession of it,
+it had been an alehouse, and much frequented by seamen. The doctor had
+not removed these benches, as they were convenient, when the weather was
+fine, for those who waited for medicine or advice; and moreover, being a
+jocular, sociable man, he liked people to sit down there, and would
+often converse with them. Indeed, this assisted much to bring him into
+notice, and made him so well known among the humbler classes that none
+of them, if they required medicine or advice, ever thought of going to
+any one but Dr. Tadpole. He was very liberal and kind, and I believe
+there was hardly a poor person in the town who was not in his debt, for
+he never troubled them much about payment. He had some little property
+of his own, or he never could have carried on such a losing concern as
+his business really must have been to him. In early life he had been a
+surgeon in the navy, and was said, and I believe with justice, to be
+very clever in his profession. In defending himself against some act of
+oppression on the part of his captain--for in those times the service
+was very different to what it is now--he had incurred the displeasure of
+the Navy Board, and had left the service. His enemies (for even the
+doctor had his enemies) asserted that he was turned out of the service;
+his friends, that he left the service in disgust; after all, a matter of
+little consequence. The doctor is now gone, and has left behind him in
+the town of Greenwich a character for charity and generosity of which no
+one can deprive him. He was buried in Greenwich churchyard; and never
+was there, perhaps, such a numerous procession as voluntarily followed
+his remains to the grave. The poor fully paid him the debt of gratitude,
+if they did not pay him their other debts; and when his will was opened,
+it was found that he had released them all from the latter. Peace be to
+him, and honor to his worth!
+
+The shop of Dr. Tadpole was fitted up in a very curious manner, and
+excited a great deal of admiration. During his service afloat he had
+collected various objects of natural history, which he had set up or
+prepared himself: the lower rows of bottles in the windows were full of
+snakes, lizards, and other reptiles; the second tier of bottles in the
+window were the same as are now generally seen--large globes containing
+blue and yellow mixtures, with gold hieroglyphics outside of them; but
+between each of these bottles was a stuffed animal of some kind,
+generally a small monkey, or of that description. The third row of
+bottles was the most incomprehensible: no one could tell what was in
+them; and the doctor, when asked, would laugh and shake his head: this
+made the women very curious. I believe they were chiefly preparations of
+the stomach, and other portions of the interior of the animal frame; but
+the doctor always said that it was his row of "secrets," and used to
+amuse himself with evading the questions of the other sex. There were
+some larger specimens of natural history suspended from the ceiling,
+chiefly skulls and bones of animals; and on the shelves inside a great
+variety of stones and pebbles and fragments of marble figures, which
+the doctor had picked up, I believe, in the Mediterranean: altogether
+the shop was a strange medley, and made people stare very much when they
+came into it. The doctor kept an old woman to cook and clean the house,
+and his boy Tom, whom I have already mentioned. Tom was a good-natured
+lad, and, as his master said, very fond of liquorice; but the doctor
+used to laugh at that (when Tom was not by), saying, "It's very true
+that Tom cribs my _liquorice_; but I will say this for him, he is very
+honest about _jalap_ and _rhubarb_, and I have never missed a grain."
+
+Next door to the doctor lived another person, who kept a small
+tobacconist's shop, which was a favorite resort of the pensioners and
+other poor people. She was an Irishwoman, with a strong accent of her
+country--a widow by her own account. Who her husband had been was not
+satisfactorily known: if the question was put, she always evaded it as
+much as possible. All she said was that his name was St. Felix, and that
+he had been of no profession. She was about twenty-two or twenty-three,
+very handsome, and very pleasing in her manners, which was perhaps one
+cause of the surmises and scandal which were continually afloat. Some
+said that her husband was still alive; others that he had been
+transported for seven years; and many (and among them my mother)
+declared that she could not produce her "marriage lines." Indeed, there
+was no end to ill-natured reports, as always will be the case when men
+are so unfortunate as to have a reputation, or women so unfortunate as
+to be pretty. But the widow appeared to be indifferent to what people
+said: she was always lively and cheerful, and a great favorite with the
+men, whatever she may have been with the women. Dr. Tadpole had courted
+her ever since she had settled at Greenwich: they were the best of
+friends, but the doctor's suit did not appear to advance. Nevertheless,
+the doctor seldom passed a day without paying her a visit, and she was
+very gracious to him. Although she sold every variety of tobacco, she
+would not permit people to smoke, and had no seats either in the shop or
+at the door--but to this rule an exception was made in favor of the
+doctor. He seldom failed to be there every evening; and, although she
+would not allow him a chair, she permitted him to remain standing at the
+counter and smoke his cigar while they conversed. It was this indulgence
+which occasioned people to think that she would marry the doctor; but at
+last they got tired of waiting, and it became a sort of proverb in
+Fisher's Alley and its precincts, when things were put off to an
+indefinite period, to say, "Yes, that will be done when the widow
+marries the doctor."
+
+One evening, Ben had sent me to fill his tobacco-box at Mrs. St.
+Felix's, and when I went in, I found the doctor in her shop.
+
+"Well, Master Tom Saunders or Mr. Poor Jack," said the widow, "what may
+your pleasure be?"
+
+"Pigtail," said I, putting down the penny.
+
+"Is it for your father, Jack, for report tells me that he's in want of
+it?"
+
+"No," replied I, "it's for old Ben--father's a long way from this, I
+expect."
+
+"And do you intend to follow him, Jack? It's my opinion you'll be the
+very revarse of a good sailor if you cruise bottom up as you did on your
+first voyage."
+
+"It's not the pleasantest way of sailing, is it, Jack?" observed the
+doctor.
+
+"Not in the winter-time," replied I.
+
+The widow measured the length of the pigtail, as milliners do tape,
+from the tip of the finger to the knuckle, and cut it off.
+
+"And now will you oblige me with a cigar?" said the doctor. "I think
+this is the sixth, is it not, Mrs. St. Felix? so here's my shilling."
+
+"Really, doctor, if it were not that the wry faces I make at physic
+would spoil my beauty, I'm almost in honor bound to send for something
+to take out of your shop, just by the way of return for your patronage."
+
+"I trust you will never require it, Mrs. St. Felix. I've no objection to
+your sending for anything you please, but don't take physic."
+
+"Well, my girl Jane shall have a dose, I declare, she is getting so fat
+and lumpy. Only don't let it be laudanum, doctor, she's so sleepy-headed
+already. I told her this morning that she was looking pale, just by way
+of preparing her."
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix, you must excuse me, but you've no right to interfere
+with my practice. I prescribe physic when I think it necessary, and Jane
+is perfectly well at present, and shall not have any."
+
+"And you've no right to interfere with my household, doctor. If I
+choose, I'll physic Jane, and the dog, and the cat, and the kitten,
+which I reckon to be the whole of my establishment, all four of them on
+the same day. Tell me, doctor, how much ipecacuanha will make a kitten
+sick?"
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix, I am not a veterinary surgeon, and therefore cannot
+answer."
+
+"Veterinary! Well, I thought they only doctored horses."
+
+"I beg your pardon, their practice extends further, as I can prove to
+you. I was once at the establishment of one in London, and I observed in
+a large room about a dozen little lap-dogs all tied up with strings. The
+poor little unwieldy waddling things were sent to him because they were
+asthmatic, and I don't know what all; and how do you think he cured
+them?"
+
+"It's for me to ask that question, doctor."
+
+"Well, then, he told me his secret. He tied them all up, and gave them
+nothing to eat, only water to drink; and in three weeks they were
+returned in as beautiful condition, and as frisky as young kids. Nothing
+but diet, Mrs. St. Felix."
+
+"I should rather think it was _no_ diet, doctor. Well, I do declare,
+I'll tie up Jane for three weeks, and see if nothing but water will cure
+her complaints. Well, Mr. Jack, why don't you take the tobacco to Ben?"
+
+"Oh! he's in at supper now; there's no hurry," replied I; "and I like to
+hear you talk."
+
+"Well, there'll be less scandal in your remaining to hear us than there
+would be if we sent you away, anyhow. How's little Miss Virginia, sister
+to Poor Jack."
+
+"She's quite well, and wants to come and see you, only mother won't let
+her."
+
+"Many thanks to your sister for her compliment; and not forgetting your
+mother for hers, also. So your mother has given up 'making _lay_ on
+reasonable terms'?"
+
+"'Cause people wouldn't come."
+
+"And that is a sufficient reason, even if she had not another; which is,
+that she's never out of hot water without boiling more. Doctor, you're
+as mute as a fish. You told me how to cure Jane and the dogs, now tell
+me what's the dose for a cat and a kitten?"
+
+"A ha'p'orth of liver, cut into small pieces."
+
+"There'll be no difficulty in getting that down their throats, anyhow."
+
+"Talking about liver, Mrs. St. Felix, I once knew a friend of mine who
+cured some geese of a liver complaint."
+
+"Had they been long in the East Indies, poor creatures?"
+
+"No, but they had been in a very hot climate. You see, he was over in
+France during the last peace, and he went to the baths at Montpellier
+for the benefit of his health. He lodged with an old Frenchman. Now, you
+see, Mrs. St. Felix, in the south of France they have a custom of making
+certain pies, which are much esteemed, and are called pates de foie
+gras--that means livers of geese, in French."
+
+"It don't sound much like livers in English, doctor; but never mind
+that, go on with your story."
+
+"Here's a customer, Mrs. St. Felix; serve him first, and then I will go
+on with my story."
+
+An old pensioner came in, and laying the coppers on the counter, asked
+for a ha'p'orth of returns and a farthing of snuff.
+
+"That's a large ready money order, doctor," said the widow, as the man
+left the shop. "Ain't I making my fortune? Now go on; I'm as eager about
+the liver as my own cat."
+
+"Well, the great object is to increase the size of the geese's livers,
+that is, to bring on a regular liver complaint; and, to effect this,
+they put the poor animals in a hot closet next the kitchen fire, cram
+the food into their mouths through a funnel, and give them plenty of
+water to drink. This produces the disease; and the livers of the geese,
+when they are killed, very often weigh three or four pounds, while the
+animals themselves are mere skeletons."
+
+"And the French eat those liver complaints?" interrupted the widow,
+making a face.
+
+"Yes, they do, and are as fond of it as my boy Tom is of liquorice.
+Well, this doctor, who is a friend of mine, quarreled with his host, who
+boasted of his geese having the largest livers in Montpellier, and was
+very proud of it. My friend knew that he could not annoy him more than
+by preventing his success; so, having a large quantity of Cheltenham
+salts with him, he used every morning to put a quantity of them in the
+water which the geese were given to drink. This had the same effect upon
+them as it has upon men and women; and instead of becoming more diseased
+every day, the geese recovered their health and spirits. The Frenchman
+crammed and crammed, made his closet still hotter, and sacre bleu'd, and
+actually tore his hair, because his geese would be well and hearty; but,
+the more he tried to make them ill, the more salts were given to them by
+the doctor, who gained his point and his revenge."
+
+"Well, that's a funny story, doctor; and since you know how to cure it,
+the first time I meet with a sick goose I'll send him to you."
+
+"Many thanks; but, as it is, there's plenty of geese to send for the
+doctor."
+
+"That's true enough. And now, Master Jack, you've had quite enough for
+your penny, and I won't allow Ben to be kept waiting any longer."
+
+"You are not going to tell any more stories, doctor?" said I.
+
+"Why, you mud-larking vagabond, you don't mean to say that I've told
+stories? Be off with you! And, I say, as you pass round the corner, just
+tell Tom that I'm coming home directly."
+
+"Won't that be a story, doctor?" said I, as I went out of the door. I
+heard them both laugh, but I did not hear what they said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+     I prefer a Suit to Old Nanny, and procure a new Suit of
+     Clothes--The advantage of being well dressed: you may walk out with
+     the Ladies
+
+
+The reader must not give me too much credit when I tell him that, ever
+since I had been under the tuition of Peter Anderson, I had quite a
+craving to go to church. Although what I had gained from his precepts
+and explanations had increased my desire, still I must acknowledge that
+the strongest reason for my being so anxious was that my mother would
+not take me, and did take Virginia. Further, my curiosity was excited by
+my absolute ignorance of what the church service consisted; I had heard
+the bells toll, and, as I sauntered by, would stop and listen to the
+organ and the singing. I would sometimes wait, and see the people coming
+out; and then I could not help comparing my ragged dress with their
+clean and gay attire.
+
+This wish continually worried me; but the more I reflected, the more
+impossible it appeared to be that I should be able to gratify it. How
+could I possibly go to church in my tattered and dirty clothes--and what
+chance had I of getting others? I certainly gained, at an average,
+eighteenpence per week, but I saved nothing. Would my mother give me
+clothes? No, that I was sure she would not, for she grudged me even the
+little victuals which I did apply for. I thought this matter over and
+over as I lay in bed. Ben had no money. Anderson I could not ask for it.
+I thought that I would apply to Dr. Tadpole, but I was afraid. At last
+it came into my head that I had better first ascertain how much money I
+should require before I took further measures. The next morning I went
+to a fitting-out shop, and asked the lad who attended how much money I
+should have to pay for a pair of blue trousers, waistcoat, and jacket.
+The lad told me that I might have a very nice suit for twenty-two
+shillings. Twenty-two shillings! What an enormous sum it appeared to me
+then; and then there was a straw hat to buy, and a pair of shoes and
+stockings. I inquired the price of these last articles, and found that
+my dross could not be made complete under thirty-three shillings. I was
+quite in despair, for the sum appeared to be a fortune. I sat down to
+calculate how long it would take me to save up so much money, at
+sixpence a week, which was all that I could afford; but, at that time,
+never having learned anything of figures, all I could make of it was
+that it was so long a time as to be beyond my calculation.
+
+It was Saturday evening. I sat down on the steps of the landing-place,
+very melancholy, thinking that to-morrow was Sunday, and abandoning all
+hopes of ever going to church, when a Thames fisherman, of the name of
+Freeman, who lived at Greenwich, and with whom I was acquainted--for I
+used to assist him on the Saturday night to moor his coble off the
+landing-place, and hang up his nets to dry--called out to me to come and
+help him. I did so; we furled the sails, hauled on board his little boat
+for keeping the fish alive, hoisted the nets up to the mast, and made
+all secure; and I was thinking to myself that he would go to church
+to-morrow, and I could not, when he asked me why I was so sad. I told
+him.
+
+"Why, Jack," said he, "I can't help you, for it is bad times with me
+just now; indeed, I could help you but little if times were ever so
+good--I've too many children of my own; but look ye, here's a good long
+piece of four-inch, which I picked up, and it's well worth a shilling.
+I'll give it you (for I do owe you something), and do you take it to old
+Nanny. She's a queer body; but suppose you try whether she'll let you
+have the money. She can if she chooses, and, as you have dealt with her
+so long, perhaps she will, if you promise to lay some by every week, and
+repay her."
+
+This idea had never occurred to me, for I knew old Nanny was very close,
+and drove very hard bargains with me; however, I thanked Freeman for his
+piece of rope and piece of advice, and when we landed I determined, at
+all events, I would try.
+
+I have before mentioned old Nanny, who kept a marine store, and to whom
+I used to sell whatever I picked up on the beach. She was a strange old
+woman, and appeared to know everything that was going on. How she gained
+her information I cannot tell. She was very miserly in general; but it
+was said she had done kind things in one or two instances. Nobody knew
+her history: all that anybody knew was that she was Old Nanny. She had
+no kith or kin that she ever mentioned; some people said she was rich,
+if the truth were known; but how are we to get at the truth in this
+world?
+
+I was soon at old Nanny's store, with the piece of rope coiled over my
+arm.
+
+"Well, Jack, what have you got here? a piece of good junk? no, it is
+not, for it is quite rotten. Why do you bring me such things? What can I
+do with them?"
+
+"Why, mother," says I, "it's new rope; not been used hardly; it's the
+very best of junk."
+
+"Boy, boy! do you pretend to teach me? Well, what do you want for it?"
+
+"I want a shilling," replied I.
+
+"A shilling!" cried she, "where am I to find a shilling? And if I could
+find one, why should I throw it away upon a thing not worth twopence,
+and which will only lumber my store till I die? The boy's demented!"
+
+"Mother," says I, "it's worth a shilling, and you know it; so give it to
+me, or I go elsewhere."
+
+"And where will you go to, good-for-nothing that you are? where will you
+go to?"
+
+"Oh! the fishermen will give me more."
+
+"The fishermen will give you a couple of stale flat-fish, to take home
+to your mother."
+
+"Well, I'll try that," said I, going.
+
+"Not so fast, Jack, not so fast; if I make a penny by you one day, I
+suppose, to keep your custom, I must lose something by you the next.
+Now, I'll give you sixpence; and how I'm to get my money back I don't
+know."
+
+"No, Nanny," said I, "I must have a shilling."
+
+"A shilling, you little cheat! I can't give it; but what do you want?
+don't you want a key to your chest, or something of that sort?"
+
+"I've no chest, mother, and therefore don't want a key."
+
+"But you want something out of all the pretty things in my shop; boys
+always fancy something."
+
+I laughed at the idea of "pretty things" in her shop, for it contained
+nothing but old iron, empty bottles, dirty rags and phials; so I told
+her there was nothing that I wanted.
+
+"Well," says she, "sit down a little, and look about you; there's no
+hurry. So Mrs. East has got another boy, worse luck for the parish, with
+six children already!--Look about you, and take your time.--Did you hear
+of Peter James giving his wife a black eye last night because she wanted
+to get him out of the alehouse?--I wonder who that letter was from that
+Susan Davis had from the post-office. I think I could guess; poor girl!
+she has looked rather peaking for some weeks.--Don't be in a hurry,
+Jack; look about; there's plenty of pretty things in my shop.--So Davis
+the butcher has been pulled up for bad meat; I thought it would come to
+that, and I'm glad of it.--There's a capital lock and key, Jack, to put
+to your chest, when you get one; suppose you take that.--What's the
+doctor about? They say he is always sitting with the widow.--Does your
+mother make plenty of money by clear-starching? I know your sister had a
+spotted muslin frock on last Sunday, and that must have cost
+something.--There's a spade, Jack; very useful to dig on the beach; you
+may find something--money, perhaps--who knows? Take the spade, Jack, and
+then you'll owe me sixpence.--So Bill Freeman pawned his wife's best
+gown last Saturday night. I thought it would be so. He may say it's
+because he's caught no fish this bad weather. But I know more than
+people think.--Here's a nice glass bottle, Jack, wouldn't you like to
+give it to your mother, to put pickles in? it's white glass, you see.
+Look about, Jack; there's plenty of pretty things, you see.--So the
+Governor's daughter's going to be married; at least I suppose so, for I
+met her riding with a young gentleman; and nowadays the quality always
+make love on horseback.--Well, Jack, have you found anything?"
+
+"No, mother, I haven't; and I must have my shilling or go. Unless,
+indeed, you're inclined to help me to what I want, and then I'll give
+you the rope for nothing."
+
+"Give me the rope for nothing!" replied old Nanny. "Sit down, Jack, and
+let me know what it is you want."
+
+I thought it was of little use to make the application, but I determined
+to try; so I explained my wishes.
+
+"Humph!" said she, after a minute's thought, "so you want thirty-three
+shillings to buy clothes--to go to church in. Your mother dresses your
+sister in spotted muslin and leaves you in rags; suppose you wait till
+your father comes home again?"
+
+"That may not be for years."
+
+"Why, Jack, I don't go to church--I am too old--too poor to dress myself
+to go to church, even if I could go so far--why should you go?"
+
+"Well, mother," said I, rising up, "if you will not do it, I'm very
+sorry; I would have paid you honestly, and have given you good bargains,
+so good-by."
+
+"Not so fast, Jack--sit down, sit down, boy--look about the shop and see
+if you can find something that will suit you." Here Nanny communed with
+herself aloud: "Thirty-three shillings! that's a great deal of
+money--pay me honestly--and good bargains! His mother called me an old
+cat the other day--I think they could be got cheaper, they always cheat
+boys--she'd be vexed to see him dressed clean at church--honest boy, I
+do believe--a boy that wants to go to church must be a good boy. Oh,
+dear me, it is so much money!"
+
+"I'll work day and night to pay you, Nanny."
+
+"And mind, Jack, I'm to have good bargains, and this piece of rope for
+nothing; something paid every week."
+
+"If I can earn it, mother, as sure as I sit here."
+
+"Well, the old cat will do more for you, Jack, than your mother would.
+You shall have the money; but, Jack, I must bargain for the things."
+
+"Thank you, Nanny, thank you!" replied I, jumping off my seat with
+delight.
+
+"Well, we can do nothing to-night, Jack. Come to me on Monday, and if I
+don't change my mind--"
+
+"Change your mind!" said I, sorrowfully. "I thought you had promised!"
+
+"Well, so I did--and--and I'll keep my promise, Jack. Come on Monday;
+and as you can't go to church to-morrow, see if you can't pick up a
+little money."
+
+I did not neglect her injunctions, and was fortunate enough to be able
+to bring her sixpence on the Monday morning. Nanny went with me to the
+clothing-shop, haggled and fought until she reduced the articles to
+twenty-eight shillings, and then they were ordered to be made and sent
+to her house. I earned but little money that week, and more than once
+Nanny appeared to be very unhappy, and repent of her kind offices; but
+when Sunday came she was very cheerful; she washed me herself very
+carefully, and then put on my clothes. I cannot express the delight I
+felt at that moment; when Nanny said to me, as she placed the hat on my
+head:
+
+"Well, Jack, I wouldn't have thought that you were such a handsome boy
+as you are. Why, you may walk with your sister Virginia, and she will
+have nothing to be ashamed of, pretty as she is. There, go and show
+yourself; and, Jack, don't forget your promise to pay me back soon and
+give me good bargains!"
+
+I repeated my promise and hastened to the hospital to find Peter
+Anderson. He did not know me when I came up to him. I told him how and
+why I had got the clothes; he patted my head, said I was a good lad, and
+that he would take me to the chapel at the hospital, where I could sit
+with the school-children; he could manage that. Then I met Ben and
+others, and they were all so surprised. I went to the chapel, and
+although I could not hear well what was said, for I was a long way off
+from the parson, and the old pensioners coughed so much, I was very much
+pleased, although a little tired before it was over. When the service
+was finished, I was proceeding to my mother's, when I met her and little
+Virginia coming home from the town church.
+
+"There's a nice little boy, Virginia," said my mother; "wouldn't you
+like to walk with him?"
+
+My mother did not know me, but Virginia did immediately; she burst away
+from her mother and ran into my arms, laughing and crying as she clung
+to me, and then she cried out, "Mother, yes, mother, I will walk with
+him!" and she hastened me away with her, much to my mother's annoyance,
+who would have run after us to stop her, but she didn't think it genteel
+to go so fast; so Virginia and I went off together, leaving my mother
+very angry indeed. We walked along toward the hospital, Virginia crying
+out to every one she knew, her large hazel eyes beaming with delight,
+"Look, this is brother Jack!" and I went with her to Peter Anderson and
+old Ben. I was so proud to have my sister with me; and Peter Anderson
+said:
+
+"This is as it should have been a long while ago." And then he
+continued, "Jack, you may happen not to earn any money in the week, and
+if so, come to me, for old Nanny must not be disappointed; but,
+recollect, you must pay for your own clothes out of your own earnings."
+
+When it was dinner-time Virginia and I went home together. As we came
+to Fisher's Alley I said to her, "Mother will be angry with you."
+
+"I can't help it, Jack," replied she; "you are my own brother, and we
+are not doing wrong."
+
+When we went in my mother looked hard at me; but, to my surprise, said
+nothing. She was sulky, but whether it was with Virginia or with me, or
+with my new clothes, or whether her conscience smote her for her neglect
+of me, I do not know. She put the dinner on the table in silence, and
+after it was over she went upstairs. Virginia and I did not neglect this
+opportunity. She put on her bonnet, we slipped out, and walked about
+together till tea-time. When we came back my mother seized my sister by
+the arm and carried her up to bed. Little Virginia made no resistance,
+but turned her head and smiled at me as she was led away. I never felt
+so happy in my life as I did when I went to bed and thought over the
+events of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+     I am so Unfashionable as to pay my Debts--Ben's Opinion as to my
+     Father's Return--The Chances exemplified in the List of killed and
+     wounded--The "L'Orient" blowing up and the "Royal George" going
+     down.
+
+
+Time passed, and three years of it certainly were not unprofitably
+spent. Anderson had instructed me well. I could read, write, and cipher,
+and, what the reader will consider of more consequence, I was well
+acquainted with the Bible, and duly admonished by my preceptor of my
+duty toward God and man. Nor was my sister Virginia neglected. My
+mother, as soon as she was seven years old, sent her as a day scholar to
+a young ladies' seminary, where she was well taught, although the style
+of the school was much above my sister's situation in life; but my
+mother would not allow her to go anywhere else, although there were
+several schools more appropriate. She declared that Virginia should not
+mix with the vulgar, ungenteel girls of the place, and that, if _she_
+had demeaned herself by marrying below her rank, at all events _her_
+daughter should be brought up as she ought to be. The neighbors laughed
+at her, but my mother did not care. She worked hard, and always was
+ready to pay the quarter's bill for schooling whenever it was due.
+
+To me Sunday was a day of rejoicing; I was so glad to throw off my
+ragged apparel of "Poor Jack" and put on my best clothes, that I might
+walk with my sister, for my mother gradually softened down her asperity
+(perhaps out of prudence), as she could raise no objection to Virginia
+walking with her brother when he was clean and well dressed, and
+Virginia was very firm in supporting me when I requested permission.
+Indeed, latterly my requests were more like demanding a right than a
+favor, and my mother appeared to wish to avoid a contest with me. She
+knew that I was a good scholar, very independent of her, and very much
+liked. The favorable opinion of others induced her to treat me with more
+consideration; but we had no regard for each other, only preserving a
+sort of armed neutrality.
+
+There are grades in all classes of life; and the young ladies' seminary,
+to which Virginia went as a day scholar, had its distinctions of rank.
+The first in consequence among the young ladies were the two daughters
+of Mr. Tippet, the haberdasher; then came the hatter's daughter, Miss
+Beaver. The grades appeared to be as follows: manufactures held the
+first rank; then dry goods, as the tea-dealers, grocers, etc.; the third
+class consisted of the daughters of the substantial butchers and
+pastrycooks. The squabbles between the young ladies about rank and
+precedence were continual: what then must have been the position of poor
+little Virginia, whose mother was a clear-starcher and getter-up of fine
+linen? At first they called her the washerwoman's daughter, and would
+not associate with her, which made her very uncomfortable; and she used
+to tell me on the Sundays when we walked out how she had been treated
+during the week. But it was all for her advantage, and tended to correct
+the false pride and upstart ideas which in time must have been
+engendered by my mother's folly. Neither, after a few weeks, was my
+sister unhappy. She was too meek in disposition to reply, so that she
+disarmed those who would assail her; and being, as she was, of the
+lowest rank in the school, there could be no contest with the others as
+to precedence. Her mildness, humility, and sweetness of temper soon won
+upon both the schoolmistress and the scholars; eventually the Misses
+Tippet took Virginia under their protection, and this magnanimity on
+their part silenced all opposition. My mother had desired my sister to
+take lessons in dancing. At first the girls would not stand up with her;
+but, when the elder Miss Tippet took her as a partner, my sister became
+quite the fashion, and, what was better, a great favorite and pet with
+everybody; and they all patronized her as "little Virginia."
+
+I very soon paid off my debt to old Nanny, without having to apply to
+Peter Anderson. I had assistance (but without asking for it) as follows:
+The second Sunday after I had obtained my clothes I called, with
+Virginia, upon the widow of St. Felix. She was in the back parlor, and
+the doctor, as usual, sitting with her. She received us very kindly,
+spoke a deal to Virginia, and told me that I looked very handsome for
+"Poor Jack."
+
+"You'll be quite the fashion," continued she; "and I presume, like most
+fashionable gentlemen, your clothes are not paid for."
+
+I replied, laughing, that they were not; but that they should be, if I
+lived and could work.
+
+"I've heard the whole story from old Ben," replied she. "Come in
+to-morrow, Jack; I want to speak with you."
+
+I did so in the forenoon, when she put a five-shilling piece in my hand,
+and said, "That's from me, to help you to pay your debt to old Nanny.
+But that's not all, Jack; I've coaxed the doctor (not that he required
+much coaxing, to do him justice), and here's two half-crowns from him,
+which, I believe, will go about as far as my five shillings. Now, Jack,
+you look very happy; so, just out of gratitude, run as fast as you can,
+and make poor old Nanny happy, for she moans over her generous fit, and
+wonders all day long whether you will ever pay her again."
+
+I had listened all this while to Mrs. St. Felix, but I was so moved by
+her kindness and generosity that I could not speak. I had received money
+for services performed, and I had obtained it from Nanny as a loan, to
+be repaid with interest; but so much money, as a gift, had never entered
+into my imagination. I could not restrain my feelings. I dropped my face
+on the counter to conceal the tears which escaped.
+
+"I can't say 'thank you,' as I wish, indeed I can't," said I, as I
+looked up at her.
+
+"Why, you foolish boy, you have said thank you," replied the widow; "and
+now run away, for I must leave the shop a minute."
+
+This assistance made me redouble my exertions, and in three months I had
+repaid the whole. The last portion which was due I received from
+Virginia. She knew how much I paid off every week; and when on Sunday I
+told her that I had only one and sixpence owing, she ran upstairs, and,
+when she came down again, put the sum into my hand. She had been saving
+up all she could coax out of my mother ever since I had first obtained
+the clothes; and great indeed was her delight when she gave me the
+money--she kissed me, and began to dance, although it was Sunday, and
+then she proposed that we should walk together to old Nanny's, and close
+the account. We found the old woman sitting on her steps; the door was
+open, but the shop shutters were up. On the Saturday night I had paid
+her two shillings, so that she did not expect to see me. Virginia put
+the one and sixpence in her hand, saying, "Now brother has paid you
+all."
+
+"Yes, darling, he has," replied old Nanny; "but then he promised--"
+
+"I know I did," interrupted I; "and I will keep my promise. I promised
+you good bargains."
+
+"You're an honest boy, Jack, and what's more strange, your sister isn't
+a spoiled girl; but that's not her mother's fault. My dear, if it was
+not Sunday you would be able to see all the pretty things in my shop,
+and perhaps you might like something. You must come another day."
+
+I thanked old Nanny once more for having trusted me, and then we left
+her, I did keep my word with, her, and gave her good bargains for a long
+while afterward.
+
+I often thought of my father, who had been absent now for nearly four
+years, and, as the time advanced, I became more anxious to hear of him.
+I seldom met old Ben the Whaler without talking about my father, and
+asking Ben what chance he thought there was of his return.
+
+"Why, you see, Jack," said Ben, "in these times it's hard to say whether
+a man be alive or not. Every day we hear of some naval action or
+another, and therefore every day some must lose the number of their
+mess; and then you see, Jack, a man may be supposed to be dead for
+years, and after all turn up in some French prison or another; and then
+ships change their stations, and ships' companies their ships; and then
+ships are sometimes wrecked, with all hands, or take fire, and are blown
+up. Many a good seaman loses his life by falling overboard in a
+gale--and who knows or cares? Whether your father be alive or be dead,
+Jack, it is impossible for me to say; but, howsomever, I hope he be."
+
+This was not a satisfactory, although a cautious reply, and I never
+could get Ben to give any other. I began to think that one of the
+mischances enumerated in Ben's catalogue might have occurred, and that I
+never should see my father again, when one morning, as I was standing at
+the landing-place, Ben came up to me and said, "Now, Jack, perhaps we
+may hear something of your father. Here's been a famous action fought,
+and a matter of a thousand men killed and wounded. I've only just heard
+about it. Nelson has licked the French on the coast of Egypt" (Ben here
+referred to the battle of the Nile), "and the 'Oudacious,' the ship on
+board of which your father was boatswain's mate, was in the action. Now,
+you see, the names of the killed will be sent into the office here, that
+their relations may receive the pay and prize-money due to them. So now,
+Jack, perhaps you'll hear something about your father."
+
+"But I shall only hear of his being killed, by your account. I don't
+want to hear that."
+
+"No, boy, of course you don't; but if you do, you'll hear the worst of
+it, and that's some comfort, and if he aren't killed, why, perhaps he's
+wounded, and perhaps he aren't; all perhapses in this world. Howsomever,
+come with me. I saw Anderson, with a paper in his hand, walking up to
+his retreat, as he calls it; so let's make all sail after him, and we
+shall overhaul him before he begins to read it."
+
+[Illustration: ANDERSON READING THE NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF THE
+NILE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 115.]
+
+There is a small hill just inside of the Greenwich Park gates,
+commanding a beautiful view of the river and the hospital. Here Anderson
+was accustomed to repair when the weather was fine, that, as he told me,
+he might commune with himself. In this instance he had retired there to
+avoid the excitement and confusion which prevailed; he had, however,
+been accompanied by three other pensioners, whom we found on the hill
+when we arrived, and, before we had been there a minute, the pensioners
+had followed up so fast that there was quite a crowd. We were just in
+time to hear him commence reading the newspaper account. The wind was
+very high; old Anderson had taken off his hat (out of respect, I
+presume, for the service), and his long gray locks were swept by the
+wind, which, indeed, carried away his voice, so that it was with
+difficulty that I could hear what he said. "_Second Edition_. Glorious
+news! We have the felicity to inform our readers that, by dispatches
+received at the Admiralty this day, a splendid naval victory has been
+gained over the French fleet lying in Aboukir Bay, by Rear-Admiral Sir
+Horatio Nelson, and the gallant seamen under his command. We refer our
+readers to the dispatch of Sir Horatio Nelson for the details. We have
+only to say, in few words, that the French fleet of thirteen sail of the
+line and four frigates were, on the 1st of August last, when lying at
+anchor in Aboukir Bay, attacked by the English fleet of twelve sail of
+the line and one fifty-gun ship, and after a severe action, eleven sail
+of the line and two frigates belonging to the French were taken or
+burned. The loss on our side amounts to two hundred and eighteen killed,
+and six hundred and seventy-seven wounded."
+
+"Hurrah! three cheers, my lads!" cried Anderson, dropping the hand which
+held the newspaper, and raising the other with his hat in it above his
+head. The three hearty cheers were given by the crowd which had now
+assembled; and then Ben said to me:
+
+"You see, Jack, there's a lot of killed and wounded; so now, perhaps,
+you will hear something about your father."
+
+By this time I had been pushed back, first by one, and then by another,
+until I was a long way off from where Anderson stood.
+
+"I can't hear a word that Peter says," replied I to Ben.
+
+"No, because the wind's so high, and I myself am a little hard of
+hearing out of doors. Suppose we go now, and by-and-by you shall get the
+paper from Anderson, and read it all over to me."
+
+"Come away, Ben," replied I, impatiently, "I've got a shilling, and I'll
+buy one."
+
+We left the hill and went down into the town, directing our course to
+where we heard the horns blowing. I had not, however, to go to such an
+extraordinary expense, as "a full and particular account" had been
+struck off for twopence; one of these I purchased, and then Ben and I
+sat down on the bench outside of a public-house, and I commenced
+reading.
+
+"How good that porter looks!" observed Ben, after a pause, as he eyed a
+man near to him who was blowing off the froth from the top of the pot he
+held in his hand.
+
+"Well, Ben, as I have bought the account of the battle for twopence,
+suppose I spend the rest of the money I intended to pay for it in a pot
+of porter, to drink the health of Nelson?"
+
+"Ay, my boy, and of those who fought with him," replied Ben; "your own
+father, Jack, whether he be dead or alive."
+
+I sighed at the idea of my father being dead, for I had a great regard
+for him, although I had not seen much of him. The porter was brought,
+and after we had both drunk I recommenced reading. Having concluded
+Admiral Nelson's dispatch and the list of the ships taken, we then came
+to the loss in killed and wounded on board of the respective English
+ships.
+
+"'Vanguard'--thirty killed, seventy-five wounded; total, a hundred and
+five."
+
+"Yes, Jack, that was Nelson's own ship; and he is always to be found
+where the shot fly thickest."
+
+"'Bellerophon'--forty-nine killed, a hundred and forty-eight wounded;
+total, a hundred and ninety-seven."
+
+"Well, she was in the thick of it, anyhow!" observed Ben.
+
+"'Majestic'--fifty killed, a hundred and forty-three wounded; total, a
+hundred and ninety-three."
+
+"Why, she and the 'Bellyruffron' seem to have pretty well shared and
+shared alike. You see, Jack, they led into the action, and had all the
+cream of the fire."
+
+I went on reading and Ben remarking, until I came to the "Audacious."
+
+"'Audacious'"--one killed, and thirty-five wounded; total, thirty-six."
+
+"Well now, Jack, that's all in favor of your father being alive; 'cause
+why should he be the one killed, more than any one else? I'd bet two
+pots of beer that he's among the wounded--but it's impossible to say;
+for you see, Jack, although they give us the names of the officers
+killed and wounded, they always _lump_ the petty officers and common
+seamen. Well, here's to your father's health, Jack, anyhow; we shall
+soon hear something about him."
+
+"I hope so," replied I, folding up the paper.
+
+"And now, Jack," continued Ben, handing me the pot, "don't you feel how
+proud a thing it is to know how to read? Here I am, you see, old enough
+almost to be your grandfather, and don't I look like a helpless babby
+beside you? you can inform me of what is going on, but I cannot help
+myself. Don't I feel it, as I sit here, as if you were the man and I
+were the boy? indeed I do, Jack, and no mistake; but, arter all, there
+was no one to blame in my case; that's some comfort."
+
+I certainly did acknowledge to myself how much I had gained by the
+tuition of Peter Anderson, and what advantage it was to me that I had
+been instructed; and I could not help for a moment feeling that I had
+the advantage over my good friend Ben.
+
+According to the usual custom on the occasion of a great victory, the
+pensioners had, on the following day, what was called a holiday, that
+is, a day of rejoicing, on which they were supplied with an extra
+quantity of beer, to make merry with. On these occasions the rules of
+the hospital, with respect to sobriety, are, of course, not strictly
+observed. Most of those who prefer smoking collect in what is called the
+smoking-room, where they sit and enjoy themselves; but very often, as
+there is so much noise on these occasions, those who belong to the same
+ward collect together, club for some spirits to add to their extra
+allowance, and sit by the fire, which is in the corridor of the ward.
+The fireplace is generally a very large one, and surrounded by benches
+with high backs, to serve as screens against the cold and wind; and, as
+there are tables inside, you are very snug and comfortable. On this
+occasion many of the Warriors' Ward, of which Anderson was boatswain,
+and Ben one of the boatswain's mates, had repaired to their own fire,
+for it was now October, and very chilly after the sun went down.
+
+Ben, I suppose, in return for the pot of porter which I had given him,
+invited me to be of the party; they drank the health of Nelson, and
+talked about the different ships which were in the action. Some drank
+very fast, and then reeled off to their beds, which were close at hand;
+others were taken to bed by Peter Anderson and Ben; and at last there
+were but four or five left. One of these was the other boatswain's mate
+of the ward. I knew very little of him at that time, except that his
+name was James Turner. He was a very quiet well-behaved man, and seemed
+to be more fond of sitting or walking alone than of being in company;
+never was known to drink too much; and, indeed, as boatswain's mate, was
+more relied upon by Anderson than even Ben was--although, perhaps, Ben
+was his more constant companion. The conversation relative to the
+particulars of the battle of the Nile was resumed, and Anderson
+observed--
+
+     "What an awful sight it must have been to behold the blowing up of
+     the 'L'Orient' French three-decker, with upward of a thousand men
+     on board! Merciful Heaven! so many poor fellows launched into
+     eternity in one moment! They say there were but seventy-three
+     saved."
+
+     "There were nearly as many souls lost when the 'Royal George' went
+     down at Spithead, with all the fleet at anchor round about her,"
+     replied Ben; "were there not, Turner, for you were on board of
+     her?"
+
+     "Yes, I should think there were," replied Turner; "but it is
+     impossible to say how many people were on board at the time."
+
+     "Messmate," said Anderson, "as all the noisy ones are gone, and we
+     shall be able to hear you, suppose that you let us know all about
+     it? I have heard a good deal, but, I suspect, not the rights of
+     it."
+
+     "With all my heart," replied Turner. "It was a sad affair, and was
+     all owing to the pride of an officer, who was not much of a sailor,
+     at all events."
+
+I drew nearer, that I might not lose a word of what Turner said; and
+then he narrated, in the following words,
+
+THE LOSS OF THE "ROYAL GEORGE"
+
+"Well, messmates, the 'Royal George' was a hundred-gun ship; and what we
+don't often see now, when I first belonged to her her guns were all
+brass. We had brass twenty-four-pounders on our quarter-deck,
+forecastle, poop, and main deck, brass thirty-twos on our middle deck,
+and brass forty-two-pounders on our lower deck. In the spring of '82,
+when we were at Plymouth (about six months before she sunk), it was
+considered that the brass forty-twos on the lower deck were too heavy
+for her, so they were put on shore, and we had iron thirty-twos instead.
+I don't think, myself, it made much difference in the weight of metal,
+and we were sorry to part with them. We were a flagship, you know--old
+Kempenfelt carrying his blue at the mizzen--and our poop lanterns were
+so large that the men used to get inside them to clean them. She was
+rather a top-heavy sort of ship, in my opinion, her upper works were so
+high--why, we measured sixty-six feet from the keelson up to the
+taffrail; but still, with proper attention, there was nothing to fear on
+that score.
+
+"Well, it was on the twenty-ninth of August, '82--that's just fourteen
+years and about six weeks ago--that we were lying at Spithead, in
+company with Lord Howe's fleet of between twenty and thirty sail of the
+line: there was the 'Victory,' 'Barfleur,' 'Ocean,' and 'Union,' all
+three-deckers, I recollect, close to us. We were in good repair, not at
+all leaky, and were to have sailed in two days to join the fleet in the
+Mediterranean. We had been paid, in consequence of our being about to
+sail foreign; and we had been paid in golden guineas. I think that,
+could all the money be collected together, from the pockets of the
+seamen, the women, and the Jews, who went down in the ship, it would be
+a very pretty fortune even for a duke's daughter."
+
+Here Ben shoved the ale to Turner, who drank a little and proceeded,
+while Ben took a swig and passed it round.
+
+"Well, you see, messmates, the first lieutenant had been washing the
+decks on the morning before, and the carpenter had been ordered to let
+the water in, when it was found that the water-cock, which was about
+three feet below the water-line, was out of order, and it was necessary
+that it should be repaired. The foreman came off from the dockyard, and
+stated that it was necessary that the ship should be careened over to
+port sufficiently to raise the mouth of the pipe--which went through the
+ship's timbers below--clean out of the water, that they might work at
+it; so, between seven and eight o'clock on that morning, the whole of
+the larboard guns were run out as far as they could be, and of course
+the larboard lower deck ports were open; the starboard guns were also
+run in amidships, and secured by the tackles; the shifting over of this
+great weight of metal brought the larboard lower deck port-cills just
+level with the water; the men were then able to get at the mouth of the
+pipe to the water-cock on the starboard side, as it was clean out of
+water, and for about an hour they were working away hard at it.
+
+"It was about nine o'clock, we had just finished our breakfasts, and the
+hands had been turned up, when the last lighter, with the rum on board,
+came alongside. She was a sloop of fifty tons, called the 'Lark,' and
+belonged to three brothers, whose names I forget. She was secured to the
+larboard side of the ship; and the hands were piped 'clear lighter.'
+Some of our men were in the lighter slinging the casks, others at the
+yard tackle and stay-falls hoisting in, some in the spirit-room stowing
+away. I was in the waist, bearing the casks over, down the hatchway;
+none of us thinking that we should never mix our grog out of that
+liquor."
+
+"No, I suppose not," observed Anderson; "but we little know what the day
+may bring forth."
+
+"That's true as Gospel," said Ben.
+
+"That's a very old saying, that every little helps. I did not think of
+it at the time; but, you see, as we were clearing the lighter, almost
+all the men were on the larboard side, and that must have brought the
+ship down still more to port. Then, again, the water was not so smooth
+as it was when we first careened her, and it began to wash into the
+lower deck ports, and of course had no escape, so that there was very
+soon a good weight of water in the lower deck. There were mice in the
+ship, and they were disturbed by the water entering into their quarters,
+and the men were catching them, and laughing as they swam about, little
+thinking that it was to be a general swim so shortly afterward. But the
+carpenter was the first that perceived that there was danger; for again,
+you see, the casks of rum, hoisted in, and lying on the decks on the
+larboard side, before it could be lowered into the hold, made also a
+difference; and so the carpenter went on deck to the lieutenant, who was
+officer of the watch, requesting that he would be pleased to order the
+ship to be righted somewhat, as she could not bear it; but the
+lieutenant gave a very short answer to the carpenter, who then went down
+below."
+
+"Who was the lieutenant on deck?" inquired Anderson.
+
+"I don't recollect his right name--he was, I think, the third
+lieutenant--he went by the name of 'Jib and Foresail Jack,' for,
+whenever he had the watch, he did nothing but up jip and down jib, up
+foresail, down foresail, every five minutes, always worrying the men for
+nothing. He was not considered as a good officer, but a very troublesome
+one. He had a knack of twisting and moving his fingers about as he
+walked the deck, and the men were wont to say that 'he must have been a
+forty piany teacher.'"
+
+"And where were the captain and first lieutenant?" said Anderson.
+
+"The first lieutenant was at the time busy in the wing, I believe; and
+as for the captain, I don't know where he was--but, you know, a captain
+seldom interferes in harbor."
+
+"Where was the admiral?" inquired Ben.
+
+"The admiral was in his cabin. I saw the barber, who had been in to
+shave him, come out just before she went down."
+
+"What sort of a man was the admiral?" said Anderson.
+
+"He was a thin tall man, upward of seventy years of age, and he stooped
+a good deal in his walk."
+
+"Wet your whistle, Jim," said Ben, "for this is a long yarn."
+
+"Well," continued Turner, as soon as he had put down his pot, "the
+carpenter came up a second time on the quarter-deck to the lieutenant,
+and said to him--
+
+"'If you please, sir, to right the ship, it's my duty to tell you she
+will not bear it any longer.' He spoke in a very positive way, as was
+his duty; but the lieutenant answered, with an oath--
+
+"'If you think, sir, that you can manage the ship better than I can, you
+had better take the command.' I was in the waist at the time, with a
+good many more men, and we heard what the carpenter said, and what
+answer the lieutenant gave. Indeed, we were all aware of the danger, and
+felt very uncomfortable; there were plenty of good seamen on board, who
+knew what they were about almost as well as the officers, and certainly
+better than the one who had the watch.
+
+"A few minutes afterward (whether it was that he had remained that time
+doing nothing, merely because he would not be dictated to by the
+carpenter, I know not) the lieutenant ordered the drummer to be called
+to beat to quarters, that the guns might be run into their places and
+the ship righted. The drummer's name was passed along quick enough, for
+we were all alarmed at our situation, for the ship just then heeled over
+still more. I jumped down off the gangway as soon as the drummer was
+called, and hastened down to my quarters. The drum was not beat, for the
+man had not time to get his drum. All hands were now tumbling down the
+hatchways as fast as they could to their quarters, that they might run
+their guns into their places, and so right the ship. The gun I was
+stationed at was the third gun from forward on the starboard side of the
+lower gundeck. I said to Carroll, the second captain of the gun, 'I say,
+let us try to get our gun out without waiting for the drum, as the
+sooner we right the better.' We boused out our gun, which had been run
+in amidships; but the ship heeled over so much that, do all we could, it
+ran in again upon us, and at the same time the water made a heavy rush
+into the larboard lower deck ports. 'The ship is sinking, Carroll!'
+cried I. 'Lay hold of the ring-bolt and jump out; we shall all be
+drowned!' He made for the ring-bolt, caught it, climbed out of the port,
+and jumped into the sea. I presume he was drowned, for I never saw him
+afterward. I followed him as fast as I could out of the same port, which
+was the one belonging to our gun (the third from forward on the
+starboard side), and when I was outside I perceived that all the other
+port-holes were crowded as full as they could be with the heads of the
+men, all trying to escape, and jamming one another so that they could
+scarcely move either one way or the other. I caught hold of the sheet
+anchor, which was just above me, to prevent falling back inboard; and
+perceiving a woman struggling at the port, I caught hold of her, dragged
+her out, and threw her from me. The ship was now lying down so
+completely on her larboard broadside that the heads of the men in the
+ports disappeared all at once; they all dropped back into the ship, for
+the port-holes were now upright, and it was just as if men were trying
+to get out of the tops of so many chimneys, with nothing for their feet
+to purchase upon. Just after the men fell inboard, there came a rush of
+air through the ports, so violent as to blow my hat off. It was the air
+from the hold and lower deck, which, having no other vent, escaped as
+the water which poured in took up its space. The ship then sunk in a
+moment, righting as she went down. I was a good swimmer and diver, and
+when she was sinking I attempted to keep above water, but it was
+impossible; I was drawn down with the ship until she reached the bottom.
+As soon as she grounded, the water boiled and bubbled a great deal, and
+then I found that I could swim, and began to rise to the surface. A man
+tried to grapple me as I went up; his forefinger caught in my shoe,
+between the shoe and my foot. I succeeded in kicking off my shoe, and
+thus got rid of him, and then I rose to the surface of the water."
+
+"Take breath after that, Jim," said Ben, handing him the ale.
+
+"I can tell you that I could hardly take breath when I came to the
+surface, for my head came up through a quantity of tar, which floated
+like fat on a boiler, and it nearly smothered me; for, you see, there
+had been one or two casks of tar on the decks, which had stove when the
+ship was going down, and the tar got up to the top of the water before I
+did. It prevented me from seeing at first, but I heard the guns firing
+as signals of distress." Here Turner drank some ale.
+
+"Well," said he, after a short pause, "I may as well finish my story. As
+soon as I could clear the tar from my eyes, I saw the main topsail
+halyard-block about level with the water's edge about eight or ten yards
+from me; so I swam to it and rode on it, holding on by the halyards, and
+then I looked about me. The fore, main, and mizzentops were all above
+water, as was a part of the bowsprit, and also part of the ensign-staff,
+with the flag hoisted--for, you see, messmates, we went down in only
+thirteen and a half fathom water, that is, about eighty feet; and, as I
+said before, she measured sixty-six feet from the keelson up to the
+taffrail; and she grounded as nearly upright as a vessel could; for the
+lighter, which was fast to leeward when she went down, caught the main
+yard, which helped to right her as she sank--but the lighter went down
+with her. Well, as I looked round, I saw the admiral's baker in the
+mizzen shrouds, and there was the body of the woman I had dragged out of
+the port rolling about close to him. The baker was an Irishman, of the
+name of Claridge; and I called out to him, 'Bob, reach out your hand and
+catch hold of that woman, I daresay she is not dead.'
+
+"He said, 'She's dead enough; it's no use to lay hold of her.'
+
+"I answered, 'She is not dead.' He caught hold of the woman and hung her
+head over one of the rattlings of the mizzen shrouds, and there she
+swung by her chin till a wash came and lifted her off, and then she
+rolled about again. Just then one of the captains of the frigates came
+up in his boat. I waved my hand toward the woman--he stopped pulling,
+the men dragged her into the boat, and laid her in the sternsheets.
+
+"'My man,' said the captain, 'I must pick up those who are in more
+danger than you.'
+
+"'All right, sir,' said I; 'I'm safe moored here.'
+
+"There was one of our men hanging on the mainstay, and roaring like a
+bull, as he tried to climb by it out of the water. Had he only remained
+quiet, he would have done well enough. The boat took him off first, and
+the others of the people who were clinging about the masts and rigging,
+including the baker and myself. It then pulled on board the 'Victory'
+with us; and I once more found a good dry plank between me and the salt
+water."
+
+"Was the captain and admiral saved?"
+
+"Captain Waghorn was. He could not swim; but one of the seamen held him
+up. The admiral was drowned in his cabin. Captain Waghorn tried to
+acquaint him that the ship was sinking; but the heeling over of the ship
+had so jammed the doors of the cabin that they could not be opened."
+
+"What became of the lieutenant of the watch and the carpenter?"
+
+"The lieutenant of the watch was drowned--and so indeed was the
+carpenter. His body was taken up, I believe, by the same boat which
+picked up Lieutenant Durham[3]. When I went on board of the 'Victory,' I
+saw the carpenter's body before the galley fire--some women were
+attempting to recover him, but he was quite dead. There was a strong
+westerly breeze, although the day was fine; and the wind made the water
+so rough that there was great danger of the boats getting entangled in
+the rigging and spars, when they came to take the men off, or more would
+have been saved."
+
+[Footnote 3: Afterward Admiral Sir Philip Durham.]
+
+"How many do you think were lost altogether?" inquired Anderson.
+
+"We had our whole complement on board, eight hundred and sixty-five men;
+and there were more than three hundred women on board, besides a great
+many Jews with slops and watches; as there always are, you know, when a
+ship is paid and the men have any money to be swindled out of. I don't
+exactly know how many men were saved, but there was only one woman,
+which was the one I dragged out of the port. There was a great fat old
+bumboat woman, whom the sailors used to call the 'Royal George'--she was
+picked up floating, for she was too fat to sink; but she had been
+floating the wrong way uppermost, and she was dead. There was a poor
+little child saved rather strangely. He was picked up by a gentleman who
+was in a wherry, holding on to the wool of a sheep which had escaped and
+was swimming. His father and mother were drowned, and the boy did not
+know their names; all that he knew was that his own name was Jack; so
+they christened him John _Lamb_, and the gentleman took care of him."
+
+"Have you no idea how many men were saved, Turner?"
+
+"I only know this--that the Admiralty ordered five pounds a man to be
+given to the seamen who were saved, as a recompense for the loss of
+their clothes, and I heard that only seventy-five claimed it; but how
+many marines were saved, or other people who were on board, I do not
+know; but perhaps, altogether, there might be two hundred or more--for
+you see the seamen had the worst chance of being saved, as they were
+almost all down in the hold, or on the lower and main decks at their
+guns. A few days after the ship went down the bodies would come up,
+eight or ten almost the same time--rising to the top of the water so
+suddenly as to frighten people who were passing near. The watermen made
+a good thing of it; for, as the bodies rose, they took from them their
+shoe-buckles, money, and watches, and then towed them on shore to be
+buried."
+
+"That lieutenant had much to answer for," observed Ben. "His false pride
+was the cause of it all."
+
+"It would seem so--but God only knows," replied Anderson. "Come, my
+lads, the beer is out, and it's two bells in the middle watch. I think
+we had better turn in. Jack, what's to become of you?"
+
+"Oh, I'll find a plank," said I.
+
+"So you shall, boy, and a bed upon it," replied Ben. "Come and turn in
+with me, and don't you dream that the larboard lower deck ports are
+open."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+     My Father makes his Appearance, having left his Leg, but not his
+     Tail, behind him--My Father is pensioned off by my Mother as well
+     as by his Country.
+
+
+About six weeks after the intelligence of the battle of the Nile, as I
+was sweeping away from the steps the mud which had been left by the
+tide, a King's tender, that I had been watching as she came up the
+river, dropped her anchor in the stream, abreast of the hospital.
+
+Shortly afterward the lieutenant who commanded her pulled on shore in
+his boat, and, landing at the steps, proceeded to the governor's house.
+The men having orders not to leave the boat, requested me to procure
+them some porter, which I did; and on my return with it, they informed
+me that they had come round from Portsmouth with sixty-three men, who
+had lost their limbs, or had been otherwise so severely wounded in the
+late action as to have been recommended for Greenwich.
+
+I felt very anxious for the men to land, as it was possible that my
+father might be one of them. The lieutenant soon returned, jumped into
+the boat, and shoved off. I perceived that the disabled men were getting
+ready to land, hauling their chests and kits on deck. In about
+half-an-hour a boat full of them came to the steps. I ran down to
+assist; and as I held on to the gunnel of the boat, while they threw out
+their gang-board, the first person who stumped out was my father, minus
+his left leg.
+
+"Father!" cried I, half sorry and half pleased.
+
+"Who calls me father?" replied he, looking at me. "Why, you don't mean
+to say that you're my boy Tom?"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said I.
+
+"Ah! yes--I recollect your smile now. Why, what a big fellow you've
+grown!"
+
+"It's four years since you left, father."
+
+"Well! I suppose it is, since you say so," replied he, taking me by the
+arm, and stumping a little to one side, when he said in a low tone, "I
+say, Jack, what became of the old woman? Did I settle her?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied I, laughing, "she was only shamming."
+
+"Shamming was she? Well! it's all the better--for she has been a little
+on my conscience, that's truth. Shamming? Heh! She won't sham next time,
+if I fall foul of her. How does she get on?"
+
+"Oh, very well indeed."
+
+"And how's your little sister? What's her name--Jenny lengthened at both
+ends? I never could recollect it, though I've often thought of her sweet
+little face."
+
+"She's quite well, and as pretty and as good as ever."
+
+"Well, Tom, my boy, you stood by your father when he was in trouble, and
+now he'll stand by you. How does your mother treat you?"
+
+"We get on pretty well--not over-fond of each other."
+
+[Illustration: JACK'S FATHER LANDING AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE
+NILE.--Marryat, Vol X., p. 133.]
+
+"Well, Tom, I've only one pin left; but I say," continued my father,
+with a wink of his eye, "I haven't left my tail behind me, 'cause it may
+be useful, you know. Now we must all go up to the governor of the
+hospital for inspection, and I suppose we shall be kept for some time;
+so you may run home and tell your mother that I've come back in a
+perfect good-humor, and that it will be her fault if she puts me
+out--that's all."
+
+"I will, father; and then I'll come to you at the hospital."
+
+I ran home to communicate the important intelligence to my mother and to
+Virginia, who had as usual come from school for her dinner.
+
+"Mother," says I, out of breath, "who do you think has come back?"
+
+"Comeback?" said she. "_Back?_ Not your father?"
+
+"Yes," says I, "my father. I just left him."
+
+My mother turned deadly pale, and dropped the hot iron from her hand, so
+as to spoil a frilled nightcap belonging to one of her lady customers.
+She staggered to a chair, and trembled all over. I really believe that
+had she been aware of his being about to return, she would have quitted
+Greenwich before his arrival; but now it was too late. Virginia had run
+for the salts as soon as she perceived that her mother was unwell, and
+as she smelled them she gradually recovered. At last she inquired how my
+father looked and what he said.
+
+I told her that he had lost his leg, and had been sent as a pensioner to
+the hospital; that he had looked very well, and that he had told me to
+say that "he was in a perfect good humor, and it would be her fault if
+she put him out of it; and that if she did--"
+
+"Well, what then?" inquired my mother.
+
+"Oh, the _tail_--that's all."
+
+At the mention of the tail my mother very nearly went off in a
+swoon--her head fell back, and I heard her mutter, "So vulgar! so
+ungenteel!" However, she recovered herself, and appeared to be for some
+time in deep thought. At last she rose up, ordered me to fetch something
+extra for supper, and recommenced her ironing.
+
+As soon as I had executed her commission I went to the hospital, where I
+found my father, who, with the other men, had just been dismissed. He
+accompanied me to my mother, shook hands with her very good-humoredly,
+kissed Virginia, whom he took on his knee, praised the supper, drank
+only one pot of porter, and then returned to the hospital, to sleep in
+the cabin which had been allotted to him in the Warriors' Ward, of which
+Anderson was the boatswain. My mother, although not very gracious, was
+much subdued, and for a few days everything went on very comfortably;
+but my mother's temper could not be long restrained. Displeased at
+something which she considered as very vulgar, she ventured to assail my
+father as before, concluding her tirade as usual, with "There--now
+you're vexed!"
+
+My father looked at her very sternly.--At last he said, "You're just
+right--I am vexed; and whenever you tell me so in future I'll prove that
+it's no lie." He then rose, stumped upstairs to my room, in which he had
+deposited his sea-chest, and soon made his appearance with the
+formidable and never-to-be-forgotten tail in his hand. "Mistress," said
+he, as my mother retreated, "you said, 'Now you're vexed' to me just
+now. I ask you again, am I vexed, or am I not?" and my father flourished
+the tail over his head.
+
+My mother looked at the strange weapon: the remembrance of the past was
+too painful; she was conquered by her fear.
+
+"Oh, no," cried she, falling on her knees. "You're not vexed--indeed you
+are not."
+
+"You're quite sure of that?" responded my father authoritatively, as he
+advanced toward her.
+
+"Oh! yes, yes," cried my mother, trembling; "indeed you're not."
+
+"Ain't I in a very good humor?" continued my father.
+
+"Yes, you are in the best of humors, and always are so, unless--I
+aggravate you," replied my mother, whimpering.
+
+"Well," replied my father, lowering his tail, "I expect we've come to a
+right understanding at last. So now get up and wipe your eyes; but
+recollect, that whenever you dare to tell me that I'm vexed, I won't be
+so ungenteel as to contradict you."
+
+Thus was the mastery gained by my father, and never lost. It is true
+that sometimes my mother would forget herself, and would get on as far
+as "There now, you're--," but she would stop there, and correct herself,
+saying, "No, you're not," and allow her temper to evaporate by singing
+one of her usual ditties, as "Hush-a-by, baby, on the tree-top;" but my
+father never took notice of her singing; and being really a very
+good-tempered man, my mother's temper gradually became improved.
+
+The return of my father made some alteration in our mode of life. He
+might, if he had pleased, have lived as an out-pensioner with my mother;
+but this he would not do. He used to come in almost every evening to see
+her, and she used to provide for him a pot of porter, which he seldom
+exceeded. If he had friends with him, they paid for what they drank.
+This pot of porter per diem was the only demand made upon my mother for
+permission to remain separate, and she did not grumble at it. His
+tobacco he found himself out of the tobacco money allowed at the
+hospital. He had received some pay, which, contrary to his former
+custom, he had laid by in the charge of one of the lieutenants of the
+hospital, for at that time there were no savings banks.
+
+As a married man my father had the liberty to introduce his wife and
+children into the hospital at meal-times, to share his allowance with
+them. This my mother would not listen to, as regarded herself and my
+sister; but my father messed in what is called the married men's room,
+on my account, and instead of buying my own dinner, or applying to my
+mother for it, I now always took it with my father in the hospital. In
+consequence of my father's admittance as a pensioner, both I and my
+sister might have been instructed at the hospital school; but my mother
+would not premit Virginia to go there, and I found it much more
+convenient to go to Peter Anderson in the evening, when I had nothing to
+do. On the whole, we all went on much more comfortably than we did
+before my father's return.
+
+One evening I was, as usual, with Anderson in his cabin; my father
+having been drafted into his ward, I could not help asking Anderson how
+he liked him. His reply was, "I like your father, Jack, for he is a
+straightforward, honest, good-tempered man, and, moreover, has a good
+natural judgment. I think it a great pity that such a man as he is
+should be so early in life lost, as it were, to the country. He is a
+first-rate seaman; and although there are many like him, still there are
+none to spare. However, if his country loses, he may himself gain, by
+being so soon called away from a service of great temptation. The sailor
+who has fought for his country, Jack, has much to be thankful for when
+he takes in moorings at Greenwich Hospital. He is well fed, well
+clothed, tended in sickness, and buried with respect; but all these are
+nothing compared with the greatest boon. When I reflect what lives
+sailors live, how reckless they are, how often they have been on the
+brink of eternity, and wonderfully preserved, without even a feeling of
+gratitude to Him who has watched over them, or taking their escapes as
+warnings; when I consider how they pass their whole lives in excess,
+intemperance, and, too often, blasphemy, it is indeed a mercy that they
+are allowed to repose here after such a venturous and careless career;
+that they have time to reflect upon what has passed, to listen to the
+words of the Gospel, to hate their former life, and trusting in God's
+mercy to secure their salvation. This is the greatest charity of this
+institution, and long may it flourish, a blessing to the country which
+has endowed it, and to the seamen, who are not only provided for in this
+world, but are prepared in it for the next."
+
+Such were continually the style of admonitions given me by this good old
+man, and I need not point out to the reader how fortunate it was for me
+that I had secured such a preceptor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+     In which is proved the Truth of the Proverb, "When your own House
+     is made of Glass, you never should be the first to throw Stones"
+
+
+One evening, when I went to the shop of the widow St. Felix to purchase
+some tobacco for my father, she said, "Why don't your father come
+himself, Jack? I want to make his acquaintance, and see how he looks
+without his pigtail."
+
+"Why, you never saw him when he had it on," replied I.
+
+"No, that's the truth; but still I wish to have a sight of him: the fact
+is, I want to laugh at him."
+
+"Very well, I'll bring him here; but, recollect, it's a very sore
+subject with him," replied I, "and that you may have a sharp answer."
+
+"That I'll take my chance of, Jack," replied the widow, laughing.
+
+In consequence of this intimation, one evening when my father was
+walking in the hospital, I persuaded him to call at the shop.
+
+"This is my father, Mrs. St. Felix," said I.
+
+"Most happy to see him. What shall I have the pleasure of assisting you
+to, Mr. Saunders?" said the widow.
+
+"My sarvice to you, marm--if you please, to two penn'orth of pigtail and
+a paper of shorts."
+
+"Much obliged to you, Mr. Saunders," replied she. "Sure we're much
+indebted to Admiral Lord Nelson for sending us such fine-looking
+pensioners. I shouldn't wonder if I were to choose a husband out of the
+hospital yet."
+
+"I'm afeard we're all too mauled, marm, to suit a pretty young woman
+like you," replied my father, very gallantly.
+
+"Thank you for that, Mr. Saunders; but you're mistaken entirely. I don't
+consider the loss of a leg, for instance, as anything; I never look at
+men's legs, and therefore care little whether they are made of wood or
+not, provided they don't tread on my corns."
+
+"Well, marm, I'm glad that you don't consider a timber toe as any
+obstacle to matrimony; but, I fear, having a wife already may be
+considered by you a sort of objection."
+
+"Why, sure, I must have the whole of my husband; I couldn't afford to
+share him, especially when one limb is gone already. That puts me in
+mind of my want of manners. I hope Mrs. Saunders is quite well. I hear
+from Jack that you have a separate maintenance--that's very genteel."
+
+"Why, yes, marm," replied my father; "the King maintains me, and my wife
+maintains herself; so, as you say, we have a separate maintenance."
+
+"Well, that's the best way when married people don't agree. What are you
+laughing at, Mr. Jack? did I hint that your father and mother ever had
+any little matrimonial differences? I certainly did hear that there was
+a trifling dispute when they last parted; but when they bring me such
+tales I always _cut them short_. Here's your _pigtail_, Mr. Saunders,"
+continued the widow, laughing, as she put the tobacco on the counter.
+
+I looked at my father, who did not seem to relish the hint, but he
+answered very frankly, "If you cut them as short as my wife cut mine,
+why, then you won't be troubled with them any more. I see, marm, you
+know all about it, and you may have your laugh if it pleases you; but I
+can tell you that my tail has done me better sarvice since it was off
+than when it hung down my back."
+
+"Become useful, instead of ornamental, I presume, Mr. Saunders."
+
+"Just made this difference--when it was on it made my wife's tongue to
+go; now it is off, it has stopped it."
+
+"An extraordinary powerful instrument, to stop a woman's tongue!"
+
+"Well, you've only to ax Mistress Saunders, she'll tell you all its
+virtues."
+
+"Well, Mr. Saunders, I don't know whether you have any idea of taking
+another wife some future day. If so, say nothing about it, or you'll
+never get one."
+
+"Well, marm--I don't know whether you ever think of taking another
+husband; but if so, I think it would be kind on my part to lend it to
+him. Can you tell me why widows' tongues run so much faster than other
+women's?"
+
+"Mercy! what put that idea in your head, Mr. Saunders?"
+
+"You, and half a dozen more that I happen to know. May I make so bold as
+to ask you, marm, how long you may have been a widow?" continued my
+father.
+
+"Bless me! so long that I quite forget all about it," replied Mrs. St.
+Felix, turning away from the counter to the jars behind.
+
+I gave my father a wink to let him know that it was his turn now: he
+understood me, hitched up his waistband and nodded.
+
+"How did you lose your first husband, marm? What did he die of?"
+
+The widow colored, and my father perceiving it, followed up his
+question.
+
+"Did he die of a fever, marm?"
+
+"I'm not exactly sure," replied she, hurriedly.
+
+"May I ask how long it is since he died?" continued my father.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Saunders," replied the widow, confusedly, "I really don't
+recollect just now. It's very painful to answer such questions."
+
+"Not if you've been a widow so long that you forget all about it; that's
+all sham and nonsense. So you ain't sure _what_ he died of, nor _when_
+it was that he died? Are you quite sure, marm, that your husband _is_
+dead?"
+
+Mrs. St. Felix started, turned very red, and then very pale.
+
+"My sarvice to you for the present, marm," said my father, after a
+pause, taking off his hat. "I suspect that I've found a way to stop your
+tongue as well as my wife's. Broadside for broadside, that's fair play."
+
+So saying, my father stumped away out of the shop door. Mrs. St. Felix
+put her apron up to her eyes, with her elbows resting on the counter. I
+waited a little, and then I said, "What is the matter, Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+She started at my voice.
+
+"You here, Jack? I thought you had gone out with your father. Well,"
+continued she, wiping her eyes, "it serves me right. I forgot that in
+amusing myself I annoyed him. Jack, don't you mention anything about
+this. Do you think your father will?"
+
+"I don't think he will, for he cannot do so without talking about having
+his pigtail cut off, and I know he cannot bear to think of it."
+
+"Well, then, pray don't you, that's a good boy."
+
+"I never will, I promise you."
+
+"Then, good-night, Jack; you must leave me now, I don't feel quite
+well."
+
+I wished the widow good-night, and went back to my mother's house. My
+father was there, but he never hinted at the conversation which had
+taken place, neither at that time nor afterward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+     Showing how Old Nanny fell Sick and got Well again.
+
+
+Before I fell asleep that night I thought a great deal of what had
+passed between the widow St. Felix and my father. Why should she have
+shown such emotion, and why should she request of me not to mention what
+had passed? I had heard reports about her, as I have before mentioned; I
+had heard them from old Nanny, but I did not put any confidence in what
+she said. Thinking of old Nanny reminded me that I had not called upon
+her for some time, and I resolved that I would visit her the next day.
+
+It was not until late in the evening that I could spare time to call
+upon her, and, what was not usual, I went empty-handed. I found to my
+surprise that the door was shut to, and the shutters of the shop not
+taken down. I tried the latch, the door opened, and I went in.
+
+"Who's there?" screamed old Nanny from the inner room. "What do you
+want?"
+
+"It's only Poor Jack, mother," replied I, "come to see how you are."
+
+"Come in," replied she; "I'm very bad. Oh! oh! I thought it was some
+thief or another come to steal all the things in my shop."
+
+I entered the room and found old Nanny in bed; she looked very ill and
+miserable, and everything was very dirty.
+
+"Are you not well, mother?" said I.
+
+"Well, boy? No, very ill, very ill indeed, haven't left my bed these
+three days. Reach me a little water, Jack, there's a good boy. I've been
+dying for water."
+
+I handed her a broken jug which had some water in it. She drank
+greedily, so as to spill nearly half of it on the coverlid.
+
+"Oh, how good it is!" exclaimed the old woman, as soon as she recovered
+her breath. "I'm better now. I could not reach it myself. I've the
+rheumatiz so bad! I've been in such a fright because I could not lock
+the door; it kept me awake all night long. Oh, my poor back!"
+
+"But why did you not send for the doctor, mother?"
+
+"Doctor! Eh? who's to pay him? I've got no money, Jack."
+
+"Well, but Dr. Tadpole's very kind."
+
+"Yes, yes, kind to the widow; but not to old women like me, without any
+money."
+
+"But why not have some one to sit up with you, and help you?"
+
+"Sit up with me! Who'd sit up with me? Yes, if I paid them. But I've no
+money, Jack; and then, I don't know them. They might rob me--there's a
+great many pretty things in my shop."
+
+"But you might die, mother, lying here without any one to help you."
+
+"Die! Well, and who would care if a poor old woman like me died, Jack?"
+
+"I should care, for one, mother; and so would my sister Virginia, and
+many others besides."
+
+"You might care, Jack, for you're a good boy, and so might your little
+sister, for she has a kind heart; but nobody else, Jack--no, not one!"
+
+I could not reply to this remark, as I really did not know anybody who
+would have cared; so I said, "You must see the doctor, mother. I will go
+for him."
+
+"No, Jack, I can't afford it, it's no use; besides, I'm better now."
+
+"Well, if you can't afford it, you shall not pay him; and, if he will
+not come for nothing, I'll pay him myself."
+
+"Will you pay him, Jack? that's a good boy. You promised me bargains,
+you know; that shall be one of them."
+
+"Well, mother, I'll make the bargain that I'll pay him, if you'll see
+him--so good-by now. Do you want anything before I go?"
+
+"No, Jack, no; I don't want anything, only just lock the door and take
+the key with you when you go out, and then no one can rob me, Jack,
+while you're gone."
+
+I complied with her request, and ran for Dr. Tadpole, whom I found
+smoking his cigar in the widow's shop.
+
+"Doctor," said I, "old Nanny has been ill in bed these three days, and I
+want you to go and see her."
+
+"Does she send you to me, or do you ask it yourself?" said the doctor,
+"for I think she would die rather than pay the doctor."
+
+"As for that, Mr. Tadpole," said the widow, "there are many of your
+patients who send for the doctor without ever intending to pay him.
+Perhaps old Nanny may go on the same plan."
+
+"Certainly; that alters the case. Well, Jack, what's the matter with
+her?"
+
+"Rheumatism, and, I believe, fever; for her hand is hot, and her tongue
+very white. She was lying in bed with no one to help her, and had not
+strength to reach a drop of water, until I gave it to her."
+
+"Poor old soul!" said the widow. "And yet they say that she has money?"
+
+"I don't think that she has much," replied I; "for when she lent me the
+twenty-eight shillings, she had not ten shillings more in the bag. But,
+doctor, I'll pay you; I will, indeed. How much will it be?"
+
+"Now, doctor, just put on your hat, and set off as soon as you please;
+for if Poor Jack says he'll pay you, you know that your money is as safe
+as mine was in the bank--before it failed."
+
+"Well, I'll just finish my cigar."
+
+"Of course you will--as you walk along, Mr. Tadpole," replied the widow;
+"it's very pleasant to smoke in the air, and just as unpleasant to
+others your smoking in the house. So, doctor, just be off and see the
+poor old wretch directly, or--I'll be affronted."
+
+Hereupon the doctor took up his hat, and without reply walked off with
+me. When we arrived, I unlocked the door and we went in.
+
+"Well, old Nanny, what's the matter now?" said Dr. Tadpole.
+
+"Nothing, doctor, nothing; you've come on a useless message; I didn't
+send for you, recollect that; it was Jack who would go; I did not send,
+recollect that, doctor; I can't afford it; I've no money."
+
+"Very well, I shan't look to you for money. Put out your tongue,"
+replied the doctor, as he felt her pulse.
+
+"Recollect, doctor, I did not send for you. Jack, you are witness--I've
+no money," repeated old Nanny.
+
+"Put out your tongue," repeated the doctor.
+
+"No, I won't, till it's all clearly settled."
+
+"It is, you old fool," said the doctor, impatiently; "put out your
+tongue."
+
+"Jack, you're witness it's all by force," said Nanny, who at last put
+out her tongue; "and now, doctor, I'll tell you."
+
+Whereupon Nanny commenced with a narrative of her ills; and by her own
+account there was not a portion of her body from top to toe which had
+not some ailment.
+
+"You've a very bad complaint," said the doctor; "what d'ye think it is?
+It's old age. I hardly know whether I can cure it."
+
+"Can your draw the pain out of my old bones?" said Nanny, groaning.
+
+"Why, I'll try, at all events. I must send you something to take
+inwardly."
+
+"Who's to pay for it?" said old Nanny.
+
+"I will, mother," said I.
+
+"You're witness, doctor--Jack says he'll pay for it. You're a good boy,
+Jack."
+
+"Well, that's settled--but now, we must have some one to sit up with
+you."
+
+"Sit up with me? nobody will sit up with an old thing like me."
+
+"Yes, I will, mother," said I, "and I'll look in upon you in the
+daytime, and see if you want to drink."
+
+"No, no, Jack! then you'll make no money."
+
+"Yes I will--never mind that."
+
+"Well, at all events," replied the doctor, "Jack will sit up with you
+this night; and we'll see how you are to-morrow. Now, Jack, come back
+with me, and I'll give you something for her. Good-night, Nanny," said
+the doctor, leaving the room.
+
+"Good-night," grumbled old Nanny; and as we were going through the shop
+I heard her continue: "It's very easy saying 'good-night,' but how can a
+poor wretch like me, with every bone aching as if it would split, expect
+to have a 'good night'?"
+
+As the doctor walked home, he appeared not to be in his usual talkative
+mood. He went to the shop, made up the medicines, and gave me the
+directions.
+
+"Here, Jack, take these; and it will be a kindness to sit up with her
+to-night. I will see her to-morrow; and as I can't allow you to be the
+only good Samaritan in the place, understand, Jack, that I attend the
+poor old woman and find medicine for nothing."
+
+I thanked him and hastened back. Old Nanny took her draught, and then
+turned round on her side. I suppose there was opium in it, for she soon
+fell fast asleep; not, however, until she had said, "Jack, have you
+locked the door?"
+
+"Yes, mother, I have."
+
+"Well, now, don't you think you could watch without burning a candle?
+You ain't afraid?"
+
+"No, mother, I'm not afraid; but if I do, I shall fall asleep; and,
+besides, if you wake and want anything, I shall not be able to find it.
+I should break the jug and other things, and they would cost more than a
+candle."
+
+"Very true, Jack. I feel sleepy already"--and old Nanny was soon in a
+loud snore.
+
+I had stopped at my mother's to say that I intended to stay with old
+Nanny, so that they might not sit up for me; and now all that I had to
+do was to keep myself awake. I had forgotten to bring a book with me, so
+I looked about the room for something to read; but I could find
+nothing. At last I ventured to open a drawer--it creaked, and old Nanny
+was roused. "Who's that?" cried she, but she did not wake up, the opiate
+was too powerful. I went to her; she was in a perspiration, which I knew
+was what the doctor wished. I put the clothes close up to her head, and
+left her. I then took the candle and looked into the drawer, and found a
+book lying in a corner with one side of the cover off. It was very dirty
+and stained. I took it out, and went again to my chair and opened it. It
+was Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and full of plates. I had never heard
+of the book, and did not know what the title meant. I first looked at
+all the plates, and then I turned to the opening of the book. On the
+blank leaf at the commencement, in very neat and lawyer-like
+handwriting, was "Anna James, on her marriage, from her dear friend Mary
+Farquhar, Tynemouth, June the 19th, 1738." By this I discovered, as I
+thought, the married but not the maiden name of old Nanny; and very
+probably, also, that Tynemouth was her native place. She was married,
+too, in 1738, that was more than sixty years back--and her age was,
+therefore, in all likelihood, nearly eighty years. I pondered over this
+for some time, and then I commenced reading; and so interested was I
+with the contents that I did not raise my head until the candle had
+burned to the socket: as I was about to light another, I perceived
+daylight through the chinks of the window shutter. So I laid down the
+book, and walking softly out of the room, unlocked the shop door to get
+a little fresh air; for the room that old Nanny was sleeping in was,
+from dirt and neglect, very close. I could not, however, unlock the door
+without waking up Nanny who screamed out "Thieves!--murder! thieves!"
+until she was wide awake.
+
+[Illustration: JACK IN NANNY'S ROOM.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 151.]
+
+"Oh! it is you, Jack?" said she at last. "I dreamed there were thieves
+breaking in."
+
+"Nothing but day breaking in, mother," said I. "How do you feel this
+morning?"
+
+"Better, Jack, better; I've not so much pain, but I'm very thirsty; give
+me some water."
+
+"No, mother; the doctor said you must not drink cold water. If you'll
+wait a little, I'll run and fetch you something warm. I won't be gone
+long, so try to go to sleep again."
+
+Old Nanny made no reply, but turned her face away from the light, as if
+in obedience to my orders. I locked the outer door and hastened home.
+
+I found my mother and Virginia sitting in the nice clean room, the fire
+blazing cheerfully and the breakfast on the table, and I could not help
+making the contrast in my own mind between it and the dirty abode I had
+just left. I ran into the back kitchen to wash my face and hands, and
+then returned, kissed Virginia, and wished my mother "Good-morning."
+
+Why, I do not know, but she was in one of her worst of humors.
+
+"Don't come near me, or near your sister Virginia," said she sharply;
+"who knows what vermin you may have brought from where you have been
+staying all night?"
+
+I did feel that what she said might be true.
+
+"Well, mother," said I, "I won't come near you if you don't like, but I
+want some tea for poor old Nanny."
+
+"I can't find tea for old Nannies," replied she.
+
+"I'll give her mine, Jack," cried Virginia.
+
+"Indeed, miss, you'll do no such thing," said my mother; "and sit up
+properly to table, instead of hanging your head down in that way; and
+don't pour your tea in your saucer--that's vulgar!"
+
+"The tea's so hot, mamma!" said Virginia.
+
+"Then wait till it's cool, miss. Leave the teapot alone, sir!"
+
+"I'll thank you for some tea, mother," replied I. "I shall give my
+breakfast to old Nanny."
+
+"You'll take no breakfast out of this house," was the reply.
+
+"Why, mother?--for a poor sick old woman."
+
+"Let her go to the parish."
+
+I now became angry myself. I took up the teapot and walked away into the
+back kitchen. My mother rose and followed me, insisting upon my putting
+the teapot down; but I would not, and I poured out the tea into a little
+milk-can. I did not answer her, but I felt that I was right and would
+not give in, and she was afraid to attempt force. My mother then ran
+back to the table, caught up the sugar-basin and carried it upstairs,
+singing as she went, at the highest pitch of her voice:
+
+     "What are little girls made of, made of
+     Sugar and spice, and all that's nice;
+     And that's what girls are made of!"
+
+While my mother was away, little Virginia poured her cup of tea, which
+was already sweetened, into the can. I seized some bread and butter, and
+before my mother came down I was clear of the house. Old Nanny made a
+good breakfast; the doctor came, and said that she was much better and
+would soon be well. The doctor had not left long before Peter Anderson
+came and told me to go and mind my business, and that he would sit by
+old Nanny. Old Ben, who had heard of it, also called in, and he sat up
+with her the next night.
+
+"Did I not tell you that there were others who cared for you, Nanny?"
+said I, a few days afterward.
+
+"Yes, you did, Jack, but I did not believe you; the world is better than
+I thought it was. But how will you pay the doctor, Jack?"
+
+"The doctor 'tended you for nothing; he told me so the first night."
+
+"Well, and that widow, too; it's kind of her to send me tea and sugar,
+and such nice things to eat."
+
+"Yes, mother, it is."
+
+"And your father, to bring your little dear sister, so nice and clean,
+to come and see an old wretch like me in such a dirty hole. Ah, Jack!
+now I'm getting well again I like the world better than I did."
+
+In a few days old Nanny had again opened her shop, sitting at the door
+as usual, and, as the spring was now well advanced, she gradually
+recovered her strength. When I gave up my office of nurse she did not,
+however, forget to tell me to bring her good bargains, as I had promised
+that I would.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+     A Morning Concert, in which the Opposition is as great as Black to
+     White.
+
+
+Among my father's associates there was a man of about forty years of
+age, Dick Harness by name. He had received a wound in the hip from a
+grape-shot, and his leg having in consequence contracted, it occasioned
+him to limp very much; but he was as strong and hearty in all other
+respects as a man could be. He was a very merry fellow, full of jokes,
+and if any one told a story which was at all verging on the marvelous,
+he was sure to tell another which would be still more incredible. He
+played the fiddle and sang to his own accompaniments, which were very
+droll, as he extracted very strange noises from his instrument.
+Sometimes his bow would be on the wrong side of the bridge, sometimes
+down at the keys; besides which he produced sounds by thumping the
+fiddle as well as by touching its strings as a guitar; indeed, he could
+imitate in a certain way almost every instrument and most of the noises
+made by animals. He had one fault, for which he used to be occasionally
+punished, which was, he was too fond of the bottle; but he was a great
+favorite, and therefore screened by the men, and as much as possible
+overlooked by the officers. The punishment for a pensioner getting drunk
+was, at that time, being made to wear a yellow instead of a blue coat,
+which made a man look very conspicuous.
+
+I recollect one day he had the yellow coat on, when a party of ladies
+and gentlemen came to see the hospital. Perceiving that he was dressed
+so differently from the other pensioners, one of the ladies' curiosity
+was excited, and at last she called him to her and said, "Pray, my good
+man, why do you wear a yellow coat when the other pensioners have blue
+ones?"
+
+"Bless your handsome face, ma'am!" replied Dick, "don't you really
+know?"
+
+"No, indeed," replied she.
+
+"Well, then, ma'am, perhaps you may have heard of the glorious battle of
+the Nile, in which Nelson gave the French such a drubbing?"
+
+"Oh, yes," cried all the ladies and gentlemen, who had now crowded about
+him.
+
+"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I had the good fortune to be in that great
+victory, and all we _Nilers_, as we are called, are permitted to wear a
+yellow coat as a mark of distinction, while the common pensioners wear
+nothing but blue."
+
+"Dear me!" said the lady, "and do I really speak to one of those brave
+fellows who fought at the battle of the Nile?" and she put her hand into
+her pocket and pulled out five shillings. "There," said she, "I hope
+you'll not be affronted, but accept this from me."
+
+"Not at all, ma'am," replied Dick, pocketing the money.
+
+Then the whole party made a subscription for him, and Dick went off with
+a handful of silver.
+
+There was, however, another man who contributed much to the fun created
+by Dick Harness. He was an American black, who had served as cook in the
+"Majestic," and had been wounded in the battle of the Nile, He had
+received a bullet in the knee, which had occasioned a stiff joint; and,
+as his leg was bent, he wore a short wooden stump. He also could play
+his fiddle and sing his songs, but in neither case so well as Dick
+Harness, although he thought otherwise himself. We used to call him
+Opposition Bill, but his name was Bill White; at least that was the
+purser's name that he went by when on board of a man-of-war. His
+pleasure was to follow Dick Harness everywhere; and if Dick sung he
+would sing, if Dick played he would play also--not at the same time, but
+if Dick stopped Bill would strike up. Dick used to call him his black
+shadow; and sometimes he would execute a flourish on his fiddle which
+would be quite a puzzler to Opposition Bill, who would attempt something
+of the kind, which invariably set every one laughing. At last Dick
+Harness's performances were not considered to be complete if Opposition
+Bill was not in his company; and, as they were both very good-tempered,
+funny fellows, they were a great amusement, especially in the fine
+weather, when they would sit on the benches upon the terrace about six
+or eight yards apart, for they seldom came nearer, and play and sing
+alternately. The songs sung by Dick Harness were chiefly old sea songs;
+those of Opposition Bill were picked up from every part of the world,
+principally, however, those sung by the negroes who worked on the
+plantations in Virginia and Carolina.
+
+Peter Anderson, my father, Ben, and many others were sitting on the
+benches, basking in the morning's sun, when Dick Harness made his
+appearance, limping along with his fiddle under his arm.
+
+"Come along, Dick," said Ben the Whaler, "we'll stow close, and make
+room for you here."
+
+"You must make elbow-room, too, my hearty, or I shan't be able to
+fiddle. Come, what will you have this fine morning?" said Harness,
+tuning his instrument. As soon as it was in tune he flourished a prelude
+from the top of the scale to the bottom, ending with an "Eh-haw!
+eh-haw!" in imitation of the braying of a donkey.
+
+"Give us the Spanish Ladies, Dick," said my father. As this song was
+very popular at that time among the seamen, and is now almost forgotten,
+I shall by inserting it here for a short time rescue it from oblivion.
+
+     "Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies,
+     Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain;
+       For we have received orders
+       For to sail to old England,
+     But we hope in a short time to see you again."
+
+"Stop a moment, lads. I must screw him up a little more."
+
+Dick regulated his first string, and then continued.
+
+     "We'll rant and we'll roar, like true British sailors,
+     We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas;
+       Until we strike soundings
+       In the Channel of old England
+     (From Ushant to Scilly 'tis thirty-five leagues).
+
+     "Then we hove our ship to, with the wind at sou'west,
+           my boys,
+     Then we hove our ship to, for to strike soundings clear;
+       Then we filled the maintopsail
+       And bore right away, my boys,
+     And straight up the Channel of old England did steer.
+
+     "So the first land we made, it is called the Deadman,
+     Next Ram Head, off Plymouth, Start, Portland, and
+         the Wight;
+       We sail-ed by Beachy,
+       By Fairly and Dungeness,
+     And then bore away for the South Foreland light.
+
+     "Now the signal it was made for the grand fleet to
+         anchor,
+     All in the Downs that night for to meet;
+       Then stand by your stoppers,
+       See clear your shank painters,
+     Haul all your clew garnets, stick out tacks and sheets."
+
+Here Dick was interrupted by another fiddle, which went "turn,
+turn--scrape--turn, turn."
+
+"There's Opposition Bill, Dick," said my father; "I thought you would
+bring him out."
+
+"All's right," replied Dick; "hope he aren't affronted; but he looks
+very black this morning."
+
+     "Now let every man lake off his full bumper,
+     Let every man take off his full bowl;
+       For we will be jolly
+       And drown melancholy,
+     With a health to each jovial and true-hearted soul."
+
+"Now, then, Billy, fire away."
+
+"You tink I 'bey your order, you Dick? No, sar, suppose I fire away, I
+go off. I not go off, I stay here."
+
+"Well, but if you play, you'll get in trouble, Billy."
+
+"How I get in trouble?"
+
+"Why, you'll get in a scrape, won't you?"
+
+"Ho! you just got out of one, anyhow."
+
+Dick Harness then said to those who sat by him, "I'll make him sing the
+Negro General."
+
+"Well, if you will howl, Mr. Billy," cried out Harness, "at all events
+don't give us that abominable Nigger General. It always gives me the
+toothache."
+
+"Now I tink dat very fine song; so you may have whole jaw-ache for all I
+care. I sing dat, Mr. Dick; you jealous of dat song, I know."
+
+Opposition Billy flourished a little, and then commenced--
+
+     "Listen, my boys, and I will tell you
+     Tell you a leetle 'bout Gin'ral Gabriel.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Dey advertise de Nigger Gin'ral,
+     A dousand pounds dey advertise him.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "And who betrayed de Nigger Gin'ral?
+     A leetle boy betrayed de Gin'ral.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "A leetle boy by de name of Daniel,
+     Betrayed him down at Norfolk Landing.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "He says, how do, my uncle Gabriel?
+     But dis is not your uncle Gabriel.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Yes, it is my uncle Gabriel;
+     For I do know you, uncle Gabriel.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "De man belonged to Major Prosser,
+     So cum and hang de Nigger Gin'ral.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "For he's ruined old Virginny!
+     _Hard times_ in old Virginny.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey wrote a letter to de tailor,
+     To cut out de Gin'ral's ruffles.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Dey cut de ruffles out o' _iron_!
+     So they handcuff and chained him.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey went and called a troop of light horse
+     To come and guard de Nigger Gin'ral!
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "To guard him all to de city of Richmond,
+     To guard him up unto de justice.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "De justice _tuk_ him to de gobnor--
+     (Monroe he set up for gobnor).
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Command him to de Penetenshy;
+     On Thursday week come on his trial.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey went and called all de country
+     For to come and see de Nigger Gin'ral.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "Some dey call him Archy Mullen--'My
+     right name is John Decullen.'
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "I'm here to-day and gone to-morrow;
+     I did not come for to stay for eber.'
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "So den dey tuk him to de gallows,
+     Drive him down dere in a wagon.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey drive him down unto de gallows,
+     Dey drive him down with four gray horses.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "(Price's Ben, he drive de wagon)
+     Very sad loss to Major Prosser.
+           Oh, my boys, I'm most done!
+
+     "Dey drove him right beneath de gallows,
+     And den dey hang him and dey swing him.
+             Oh-e-oh! Oh-e-oh!
+
+     "And dat de fate of de Nigger Gin'ral,
+     Who almost ruined old Virginny!
+           Now, my boys, I'm quite done!"
+
+"You've quite done, have you, Billy?" said Harness; "take my advice and
+never begin again."
+
+"Eh, Mister Dick, you no ab song like dat in your budget, and I neber
+give you de tune."
+
+"I hope you won't; but now I'll play you a tune which will beat you
+hollow." Hereupon Dick Harness imitated the squeaking of pigs and
+caterwauling of cats upon his fiddle, so as to set everybody laughing,
+except Opposition Bill, who pretended to be very sulky.
+
+"Come, Dick, it's your turn now. Give us a regular forecastle song,"
+said Ben the Whaler.
+
+"Well, then, here's one that's been sung ever since the days of old
+Queen Anne:
+
+     "It was one November--the second day--
+     The admiral he bore away,
+     Intending for his native shore.
+     The wind at sou'sou'west did roar;
+     There was likewise a terrible sky,
+     Which made the sea to run mountains high.
+
+     "The tide of ebb it was not done,
+     But fiercely to the west did run;
+     Which put us all in terrible fear,
+     Because there was not room for to veer.
+     The wind and weather increased sore,
+     And drove ten sail of us on shore.
+
+     "Ashore went the 'Northumberland,'
+     The 'Harwich,' and the 'Cumberland,'
+     The 'Lion' and the 'Warwick' too;
+     But the 'Elizabeth' had the most to rue--
+     She came stem on--her fore-foot broke,
+     And she sunk the 'Gloucester' at one stroke.
+
+     "But now remains what is worse to tell,
+     The greatest ships had the greatest knell;
+     The brave 'C'ronation' and all her men
+     Was lost and drowned every one,
+     Except the mate and eighteen more
+     What in the longboat com'd ashore.
+
+     "And thus they lost their precious lives;
+     But the greatest loss was to their wives,
+     Who, with their children left on shore,
+     Their husbands' watery death deplore,
+     And wept their loss with many tears--
+     (But grief endureth not for years).
+
+     "Now you who've a mind to go to sea,
+     Pray take a useful hint from me,
+     And live at home, and be content
+     With what kind Providence has sent;
+     For they were punish'd for their misdeeds,
+     In grumbling when they had no needs.
+
+     "Now God preserve our noble Queen,
+     Likewise her Ministers serene;
+     And may they ever steer a course
+     To make things better 'stead of worse,
+     And England's flag triumphant fly,
+     The dread of hevery he-ne-my."
+
+"You call dat singing! Stop now! I sing a song you nebber hear in all
+your life," cried Opposition Bill, tuning his fiddle.
+
+"And never wish to hear again, most likely," replied Dick. "Out with it,
+Bill; your face shines beautifully this morning."
+
+"I take de shine out of you, Massa Dick; now you listen:
+
+     "Now your fader is asleep, maid, listen unto me;
+     Will you follow in my trail to Ken-tuck-y?
+     For cross de Alleghany to-morrow I must go,
+     To chase de bounding deer on'de O-hi-o.
+
+     "And will you lub me truly, and kind to me will be,
+     If I quit my fader's roof for Ken-tuck-y?
+     And will you nebber leave me, if I consent to go
+     To your shanty by de stream of de O-hi-o?
+
+     "Her fader's not asleep, and he will not agree,
+     Dat you take away his dater to Ken-tuck-y.
+     So alone by yourself, good hunter, you must go,
+     Where the Ingin's rifle cracks on de O-hi-o.
+
+     "Your moder, too, is near, aldough you did not see,
+     And wid her leave you nebber go to Ken-tuck-y.
+     He hab a wife already, as I do surely know,
+     Who weeps for his return to de O-hi-o.
+
+     "Man, I have dis purse of gold, half of it for ye;
+     Woman, I hab ne'er a wife in Ken-tuck-y;
+     Your dater is my only lub, so pridee let us go
+     To where my corn is ripening on de O-hi-o.
+
+     "De fader weighed de purse, he took his half wid glee,
+     De moder said her child might go to Ken-tuck-y.
+     So de hunter and de maid, arm-in-arm dey go,
+     Across de Alleghany to de O-hi-o."
+
+"Bravo, Billy, that's not so bad," said some of the pensioners.
+
+"I tell you, Dick, I take de shine out of you. You nebber believe till I
+make you fall in my wake, and den you soon be where de little boat
+was--long way astarn."
+
+"I'll tell you what, Billy," said Dick Harness, "you do improve, and
+we'll allow you to sing that song once more before you die, just by way
+of encouragement."
+
+Dick then played several flourishes on his fiddle. Opposition Bill tried
+to imitate him, but made sad work of it. It was near dinner-time, and
+the pensioners rose and proceeded to the Painted Hall, for at that time
+they dined there, and not below in the crypts as they do now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+     I get into very doubtful Company--I am tempted, and, like a true
+     Son of Adam, I fall.
+
+
+The reader must have observed that, under the tuition of Anderson, I
+promised to follow the right path, and, provided his good offices were
+not interfered with, there appeared little doubt but that such would be
+the case. But I was little aware, nor was he, that the humble profession
+which I had chosen for myself was beset with danger, and that the
+majority of those with whom I was associating were the most likely of
+all others to lead me into evil. Why I had not hitherto been tempted can
+only be ascribed to my tender years. In fact, I had not been considered
+strong enough, or of an age to be useful to them, but now that I was
+more than thirteen years old--being, moreover, very tall and strong for
+my age--the hour of temptation arrived; and fortunate was it for me
+that, previous to this epoch, I had been taken under the protection of
+Peter Anderson.
+
+I have said in a former chapter that I was a regular _mudlarker_. So I
+was, as far as the ostensible occupation of those who are so denominated
+went; to wit, "picking up pieces of old rope, wood, etc." But the
+mudlarkers, properly speaking, at that time composed a very extensive
+body on the river, and were a more humble portion of the numerous river
+depredators, of which I may hereafter speak. A mudlarker was a man who
+had an old boat, generally sold by some merchant vessel, furnished with
+an iron bar full of hooks, which was lowered down by a rope to catch
+pieces of cordage, oakum, canvas or other articles, which might fall
+overboard from the numerous vessels in the river; these were sold to the
+marine stores, such as were kept by old Nanny. But, as I observed, this
+was the _ostensible_ mode of livelihood; they had other resources, to
+which I shall presently refer. An old man of the name of Jones, who
+resided at Greenwich, was one of these mudlarkers by profession. He was
+a surly old fellow, his sharp nose and chin nearly meeting, and he
+usually went by the name of Old Grumble. I had occasionally assisted him
+with his boat, but without receiving money, or indeed thanks, for my
+pains, but for this I cared little. He was a very old man, and when he
+came on shore and went up to old Nanny with the few things he had
+collected during the day, I almost wondered how he could manage to
+subsist, and thought myself infinitely better off than he was.
+
+One evening he said to me, "Jack, I'm going up the river, I wish you'd
+come in the boat and help me, and if I make anything I will give you
+something for your trouble, but if I don't you can't expect it."
+
+As he was very infirm I went with him, more out of charity than with any
+hopes of profit. We pulled with the tide till we arrived a little above
+Deptford, where several ships were lying, and he went close to one and
+lowered down his grapnels. He dragged for a short time.
+
+"Just you make a little further off, old fellow," cried the mate of the
+vessel.
+
+"Won't allow a poor old man to earn a few pence, I suppose," replied Old
+Grumble, hauling up his grapnel and directing me to pull under the
+bows, where he dropped it down again. I now perceived, as I thought,
+some signs passing between him and one of the men in the head; but if
+so, they were soon over, and Old Grumble continued his avocation till
+the sun set.
+
+"How long do you intend to remain here?" inquired I.
+
+"Oh, not much longer, but I must wait a bit."
+
+At last it was quite dark, and then Grumble pulled up his grapnel and
+dropped down nearer to the cutwater of the vessel. I soon distinguished
+a tinkling, as it were, of metal; and Old Grumble, holding up his hands,
+received some sheets of copper, which were lowered down by a rope-yarn.
+As soon as they were quietly landed in the stern of the boat, down came
+a bag, which he cast off and laid beside the copper. I was all
+astonishment, but still more so when a large bag of something weighing
+very heavy was lowered down by a rope after the small bag. A low whistle
+was then given, and the words "Monday night" pronounced in a whisper.
+Grumble whistled in return, and then, hauling up the grapnel, he told me
+to put out the oars and pull, while he took his grapnel on board. We
+then pulled down the river again, for the tide had turned, and as soon
+as we were clear of the shipping I began to interrogate him.
+
+"Who gave you all these things?"
+
+"Who? Why, that man."
+
+"But what did he give them you for?"
+
+"Why, out of charity, to be sure! But I can't talk now, I've no breath
+to spare. Let's pull ashore, and then I'll talk to you."
+
+As we pulled down I observed that a lighter had broken adrift from her
+moorings, and was sweeping down the river with the ebb tide.
+
+"There's a lighter adrift," said I.
+
+"Yes," replied Grumble. "I'm too old for that work now; time was.
+There'll be pretty pickings as soon as she gets down a little lower. The
+Light Horsemen have cut her adrift."
+
+"Light Horsemen! Who are they?"
+
+"Bah! you know nothing. I tell ye again, I haven't no breath to spare; I
+can't pull and talk too."
+
+I was convinced in my own mind that Old Grumble had not obtained the
+articles in the boat by fair means, and, annoyed that I should have been
+made a participator in any dishonest dealings, I was resolved to
+question him closely as soon as we landed. There was no one at the
+steps, and when we beached the boat I asked him whether he was going to
+take the things up to old Nanny's.
+
+"Old Nanny! no. She's no fence now; she used to be a good one, but she
+was overhauled once or twice, and nearly sent on the other side of the
+water, and, since that, she's satisfied with little articles, sure
+profit and no risk."
+
+"What do you mean by a fence?" inquired I.
+
+"Why, don't you know that yet, boy? Well, a _fence_ is one who receives
+things that are brought for sale, and never asks no questions."
+
+"Well, but if these things were given you out of charity, as you say,
+why should you want to take them up to a fence, as you call it?"
+
+"I tell you what, Jack, I can't be answering all these questions here,
+where there may be twenty pair of ears a-listening."
+
+"Well, and if they do listen, what is the harm, if we are doing what is
+right?"
+
+"It won't do to argufy here, I tell you. In my opinion, a poor man who
+works hard to get some victuals to keep body and soul together is doing
+what is right."
+
+"Yes, if he works at an honest livelihood."
+
+"Don't talk so loud about _honesty_; the very word is enough to make
+people suspect something not right. I'll tell you all when you come up
+to my house; for you see, Jack, you must help me to carry these things
+up. D'ye think you can manage this bag of pease? Let's try." Between us
+we contrived to get the bag, which weighed about half a hundredweight,
+on my back, and I walked off with it, Grumble following me with the
+copper and the other small bag, which I afterward found contained copper
+nails. When we arrived at his dwelling, which was as dilapidated and
+miserable as old Nanny's, he took out his key and fumbled a long while
+at the lock; at last he opened it. "You had better stay till I get a
+light," said he. In a minute he came with one to the door, and told me
+to follow him. I went in, put down the bag, and, some grains falling
+out, I took them up.
+
+"Why, this is coffee, Grumble!"
+
+"Well, _pease_ is our name for coffee, _sand_ for sugar, and _vinegar_
+for rum, when we get any."
+
+"Well, but, Grumble, I wish to know how you came by these things?"
+
+"I'll tell you, Jack, if you ask everybody how they come by things, you
+will have enough to do; but the fact is, the man wants me to sell them
+for him."
+
+"Why, you said he gave them to you out of charity!"
+
+"Oh, that was only because I couldn't spare breath to tell you all about
+it."
+
+"But why should he lower them down in the dark, if they are his own
+property?"
+
+"Jack, I don't ask whose property it is; all I know is that I come by
+it honestly. I don't steal it, and I can't prove that the man does. Why,
+Jack, if one is to be so nice as that, you can't go into a grocer's shop
+to buy sugar, or coffee, or pepper, or indeed into almost any shop, if
+you first want to know whether the people have come by the goods
+honestly before you buy of them."
+
+"Still, it is so plain that the man must have stolen them."
+
+"Suppose it is; how are so many poor people to find their livelihood and
+support their families, if they refuse to get a shilling or two when it
+is offered? If we were only to live upon what we get honestly, why, we
+should starve; the rich take good care of that by grinding us down so
+close. Why, Jack, how many thousands get their living on this river! and
+do you think they could all get their living honestly, as you call it?
+No; we all plunder one another in this world[4]. You asked me who were
+Light Horsemen?--that's a name for one set of people who live by
+plunder. That lighter will have a good slice of her cargo out to-night;
+for those who cut her adrift know what's on board of her. Then we have
+the Heavy Horsemen--they do their work in the daytime, when they go on
+board as lumpers to clear the ships. And then we've the Coopers and
+Bumboat men, and the Ratcatchers and the Scuffle Hunters, and the River
+Pirates; and, last of all, we have the Mudlarkers: all different
+professions, Jack; never interfering with each other, and all living by
+their wits. I'm too old now; I was a flash pirate once, but I'm now
+nearly eighty, and am only fit for a mudlarker."
+
+[Footnote 4: These remarks of Grumble were, at the time, perfectly
+correct; it was before the Wet Docks or the River Police was
+established. Previously to the West India, London, St. Katharine's, and
+other docks having been made, all ships unloaded in the river, and the
+depredations were so enormous that Mr. Colquhoun, in his work, has
+estimated them at half a million sterling _annually_. At present the
+river may be said to be comparatively honest; the police is strict, and
+the temptations are removed.]
+
+"But," exclaimed I, with astonishment, "are they not discovered and
+punished?"
+
+"That's very seldom, Jack; for you see we have receivers all down the
+river; some of them great men, and dining with the mayor and common
+council; others in a small way--all sorts, Jack: and then we have what
+we call Jew Carts, always ready to take goods inland, where they will
+not be looked after. Old Nanny was a receiver and fence in a large way
+once."
+
+"Then the only honest people on the river are the watermen."
+
+Here old Grumble chuckled. "Why, Jack, they be the worst of all, for
+they be both receivers and thieves. Do you think the watermen live by
+their fares? If you do, just wait on the steps one night, and you'll
+find that their night work is worth more than the day work is. We all
+must live, Jack; and now I've shown you a way by which you can earn more
+money in a night than you can in a fortnight by asking for halfpence.
+Here's five shillings for you, my boy; and when I want you again I'll
+let you know."
+
+Alas! the five shillings, so easily and so unexpectedly earned, did, for
+the time, satisfy all my scruples: so easily are we bribed into what is
+wrong. I wished Old Grumble a good-night and left him. As I returned
+home, I thought of what he had said about night work, and, instead of
+making my way to Fisher's Alley, I returned to the landing-steps,
+resolving to watch for a time and see what occurred.
+
+I thought of what had passed. I was not satisfied with myself. I thought
+of what Anderson would say, and I felt that I had done wrong. And then I
+attempted to exculpate myself. I could not prove that the things were
+stolen. I did not go with any intent to help in such a business. Old
+Grumble had only paid me for my work; but then, why did he pay me so
+much money? My conscience told me that it was because the dealings were
+unfair. I could not persuade myself that I was right. I looked up at the
+heavens--for it was a clear night, and there was a very bright star just
+above me; and as I looked at it it appeared as if it were an eye beaming
+down upon me, and piercing into my breast. I turned away from it, and
+then looked at it again--still it had the same appearance. I thought it
+was the eye of God--I trembled, and I resolved to reveal the whole to
+Anderson the next day, when I heard the sound of oars. I looked in the
+direction, and perceived a wherry with two men pulling in. I was down on
+the steps, under the shadow of the wall, and they did not see me. They
+landed, and handed out of the wherry three large and full canvas bags.
+"It's more than we can carry," said the voice of a waterman I well knew;
+"we must leave one in the boat; and be quick, for they are on our scent.
+Hollo! who's that? what are you doing here? Poor Jack, I declare."
+
+"Well, mayn't I have a little night work as well as you?"
+
+"Oh! you've come to that, have you?" replied he. "Well, as you're
+waiting for something else, I suppose you could not help us with one of
+these bags?"
+
+"Yes, I can," replied I, forgetting all my resolutions; "put it on my
+back, if it's not too heavy."
+
+"No, no; you're stout enough to carry it. I say, Jack, can you tell us,
+does old Nanny fence again, or has she given it up?"
+
+"I believe she does not," replied I.
+
+"Well," said he, "just put the question to her to-morrow morning, for
+she used to be a good 'un; now follow us."
+
+I walked after them with my load until we came to a by-street; at the
+shutters of a shop they rapped three times on the iron bar outside which
+fixed them up; the door was opened, and we put the bags down in the
+passage, walked out again without a word, and the door was immediately
+closed.
+
+"Well, Jack," said the waterman, "I suppose we must tip handsome for the
+first time: here's ten shillings for you, and we'll let you know when we
+want you to be on the lookout for us."
+
+Ten shillings! and five before--fifteen shillings! I felt as I were a
+rich man; all scruples of conscience were, for the time, driven away. I
+hurried home rattling the silver in my pocket, and opening the door
+softly, I crept to bed. Did I say my prayers that night? No!!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+     I am tempted again--My Pride is roused, and my Course of Life is
+     changed in consequence.
+
+
+I passed a dreaming restless night, and woke early. I recalled all that
+had passed, and I felt very much dissatisfied with myself; the fifteen
+shillings, with the added prospect of receiving more, did not yield me
+the satisfaction I had anticipated. From what the men had said about old
+Nanny I thought that I would go and see her; and why? because I wished
+support against my own convictions. If I had not been actuated by such a
+feeling I should, as usual, have gone to old Anderson. When I went down
+to breakfast I felt confused, and I hardly dared to meet the clear
+bright eye of my little sister, and I wished the fifteen shillings out
+of my pocket. That I might appear to her and my mother as if I were not
+guilty, I swaggered; my sister was surprised, and my mother justifiably
+angry. As soon as breakfast was over, I hastened to old Nanny's.
+
+"Well, Jack," said she, "what brings you here so early?"
+
+"Why, mother, I was desired to ask you a question last night--between
+ourselves."
+
+"Well, why don't you ask it, since it's between ourselves?" replied she,
+with surprise.
+
+"Some of the people want to know if you _fence_ now?"
+
+"Jack," said old Nanny, harshly, "who asked you that question, and how
+did you fall into their company? Tell me directly; I will know."
+
+"Why, mother, is there any harm in it?" replied I, confused and holding
+down my head.
+
+"Harm in it! Ask your own conscience, Jack, whether there's harm in it.
+Why do you not look me in the face like an honest boy? Would they have
+dared to put that question to you, if you had not been a party to their
+evil deeds, Jack?" continued she, shaking her head. "I thought better of
+you; now you have filled me full of sorrow."
+
+I was smitten to the heart at this rebuke from a quarter whence I did
+not expect it; but my heart was still rebellious, and I would not
+acknowledge what I felt. I thought to turn the tables, and replied,
+"Why, mother, at all events they say that _once_ you were a real good
+one."
+
+"Is it indeed gone so far?" replied she. "Poor boy! poor boy! Yes, Jack,
+to my shame be it spoken, I once did receive things and buy them when
+they were not honestly come by, and now I'm rebuked by a child. But,
+Jack, I was almost mad then; I had that which would have turned any
+one's brain--I was reckless, wretched; but I don't do so any more. Even
+now I am a poor sinful wretch--I know it; but I'm not so crazy as I was
+then. I have done so, Jack, more's the shame for me, and I wish I could
+recall it; but, Jack, we can't recall the past. Oh, that we could!"
+
+Here old Nanny pressed her hands to her temples, and for some time was
+silent. At last she continued, "Why did I love you, Jack?--Because you
+were honest. Why did I lend you money--I, an old miserly wretch, who
+have been made to dote on money; I, who have never spent a shilling for
+my own comfort for these ten years?--But because you were honest. Why
+have I longed the whole day to see you, and have cared only for
+you?--Because I thought you honest, Jack. I don't care how soon I die
+now. I thought the world too bad to live in; you made me think better of
+it. Oh! Jack, Jack, how has this come to pass? How long have you known
+these bad people?"
+
+"Why, mother," replied I, much affected, "only last night."
+
+"Only last night? Tell me all about it; tell the truth, dear boy, do."
+
+I could hold out no longer, and I told her everything that had passed.
+
+"Jack," said she, "I'm not fit to talk to you; I'm a bad old woman, and
+you may say I don't practice what I preach; but, Jack, if you love me,
+go to Peter Anderson and tell him everything. Don't be afraid; only be
+afraid of doing what is wrong. Now, Jack, you must go."
+
+"I will, I will," replied I, bursting into tears.
+
+"Do, do, dear Jack! God bless your heart, I wish I could cry that way."
+
+I walked away quite humiliated; at last I ran, I was so eager to go to
+Anderson and confess everything. I found him in his cabin--I attempted
+to speak, but I could not--I pulled out the money, put it on the table,
+and then I knelt down and sobbed on his knee.
+
+"What is all this, Jack?" said Anderson, calmly; but I did not reply. "I
+think I know, Jack," said he, after a pause. "You have been doing
+wrong."
+
+"Yes, yes," replied I, sobbing.
+
+"Well, my dear boy, wait till you can speak, and then tell me all about
+it."
+
+As soon as I could I did. Anderson heard me without interruption.
+
+"Jack," said he, when I had done speaking, "the temptation" (pointing to
+the money) "has been very great; you did not resist at the moment, but
+you have, fortunately, seen your error in good time, for the money is
+still here. I have little to say to you, for your own feelings convince
+me that it is needless. Do you think that you can read a little? Then
+read this." Anderson turned to the parable of the Prodigal Son, which I
+read to him. "And now," said he, turning over the leaves, "here is one
+verse more." I read it: "There is more joy over one sinner that
+repenteth, than over ninety and nine that need no repentance." "Be
+careful, therefore, my dear boy, let this be a warning to you; think
+well of it, for you have escaped a great danger. The money shall be
+returned. Go now, my child, to your employment; and if you do receive
+only halfpence, you will have the satisfaction of feeling that they are
+honestly obtained."
+
+I can assure the reader that this was a lesson which I never forgot; it
+was, however, succeeded by another variety of temptation, which might
+have proved more dangerous to a young and ardent spirit, had it not
+ended as it did, in changing the course of my destiny and throwing me
+into a new path of action. To this I shall now refer.
+
+Hardly a month passed but we received additional pensioners into the
+hospital. Among others, a man was sent to the hospital who went by the
+name of Sam Spicer. I say went by the name, as it was not the custom for
+the seamen to give their real names when they were entered or pressed
+into the service, and of course they were discharged into the hospital
+by the same name which they bore on the ship's books. Spicer was upward
+of six feet in height, very large boned, and must, when he was in his
+prime, have been a man of prodigious strength. When he was admitted to
+the hospital he was nearly sixty years of age; his hair was black and
+gray mixed, his complexion very dark, and his countenance fierce and
+unprepossessing. He went by the name of Black Sam, on account of his
+appearance. He had lost his right hand in a frigate action, and to the
+stump he had fixed a sort of socket, into which he screwed his knife and
+the various articles which he wished to make use of--sometimes a file,
+sometimes a saw--having had every article made to fit into the socket,
+for he had been an armorer on board ship, and was very handy at such
+work. He was, generally speaking, very morose and savage to everybody,
+seldom entered into conversation, but sat apart, as if thinking, with a
+frown upon his countenance, and his eyes, surmounted with bushy
+eyebrows, fixed upon the ground. The pensioners who belonged to the same
+ward said that he talked in his sleep, and from what they could collect
+at those times he must have been a pirate; but no one dared to speak to
+him on the subject, for more than once he had been punished for striking
+those who had offended him; indeed, he nearly killed one old man who was
+jesting with him when he was at work, having made a stab at him with his
+knife screwed in his socket, but his foot slipped and the blow missed.
+Spicer was brought up before the council for this offense, and would
+have been discharged had he not declared that he had done it only by way
+of a joke to frighten the man; and, as no one else was present, it could
+not be proved to the contrary. For some reason or another, which I could
+not comprehend, Spicer appeared to have taken a liking to me; he would
+call me to him, and tell me stories about the West Indies and the
+Spanish Main, which I listened to very eagerly, for they were to me
+very interesting. But he seldom, if ever, spoke to me inside of the
+hospital; it was always when I was at the steps minding my vocation,
+where he would come down and lean over the rail at the top of the wharf.
+He made and gave me a boat-hook, which I found very convenient. He had a
+great deal of information, and as the ships came up the river he would
+point out the flags of the different nations, tell me where they traded
+from, and what their cargoes probably consisted of. If they had no
+ensign he would tell by their build and the cut of their sails what
+nation they belonged to, pointing out to me the differences, which I
+soon began to perceive. He had been in every part of the world, and
+scarcely a day passed in which I did not gain from him some amusing or
+useful information. Indeed, I became so fond of his company that Peter
+Anderson spoke to me on the subject, and asked me what Spicer talked
+about. I told him, and he replied:
+
+"Well, Jack, I daresay that he is a very pleasant companion to one who,
+like you, is so anxious for information, and I have nothing to say
+against him, for we have no right to listen to foolish reports which may
+probably have been raised from his savage appearance. Still, I confess I
+do not like the man, as he is decidedly of a violent temper. As long as
+he talks to you about what you say he does, there is no harm done; but
+when once he says anything which you think is wrong, promise me to let
+me know; and even now, if you will take my advice, you will not be so
+intimate with him."
+
+A little while afterward my father and Ben the Whaler both spoke to me
+on the same subject, but with much less reservation.
+
+My father said, "Jack, I don't like to see you always in company with
+that old pirate, no good can come of it; so haul off a little further
+for the future."
+
+And Ben told me, "That a man who couldn't sleep o' nights without
+talking of killing people must have a bad conscience, and something
+lying heavy on his soul. There's an old saying, Jack, 'Tell me whose
+company you keeps, and I'll tell you what sort of a chap you be.' You've
+the character of a good honest boy; steer clear of Sam Spicer, or you'll
+lose it."
+
+Admonitions from all those whom I loved were not without their effect,
+and I made a resolution to be less intimate with Spicer. But it was
+difficult to do so, as I was obliged to be at the landing-steps, and
+could not prevent his coming there.
+
+I acknowledge that it was a severe privation to me to follow the
+injunctions given to me, for I would listen for hours to the thrilling
+narratives, the strange and almost incredible accounts of battles,
+incidents, and wild adventures, which this man Spicer would relate to
+me; and when I thought over them I felt that the desire to rove was
+becoming more strong within me every day. One morning I said to him that
+"I had a great mind to go on board of a man-of-war."
+
+"On board of a man-of-war?" replied Spicer; "you'd soon be sick enough
+of that. Why, who would be at the beck and nod of others, ordered here,
+called there, by boy midshipmen; bullied by lieutenants, flogged by
+captains; have all the work and little of the pay, all the fighting and
+less of the prize-money; and, after having worn out your life in hard
+service, be sent here as a great favor, to wear a cocked hat and get a
+shilling a week for your 'baccy? Pshaw, boy! that's not life."
+
+"Then, what is life?' inquired I.
+
+"What is life? Why, to sail in a clipper with a jolly crew and a roving
+commission; take your prizes, share and share alike, of gold-dust and
+doubloons."
+
+"But what sort of vessel must that be, Spicer?"
+
+"What sort? why--a letter of marque--a privateer--a cruise on the
+Spanish Main--that's life. Many's the jolly day I've seen in those
+latitudes, where men-of-war do not bring vessels to and press the best
+men out of them. There the sun's warm, and the sky and the sea are deep
+blue, and the corals grow like forests underneath, and there are sandy
+coves and cool caves for retreat--and where you may hide your gold till
+you want it--ay, and your sweethearts too, if you have any."
+
+"I thought privateers always sent their prizes into port, to be
+condemned?"
+
+"Yes, in the Channel and these seas they do, but not down there--it's
+too far off. We condemn the vessels ourselves, and share the money on
+the capstan-head."
+
+"But is that lawful?"
+
+"Lawful! to be sure it is. Could we spare men to send prizes home to
+England, and put them into the hands of a rascally agent, who would rob
+us of three-fourths at least? No, no; that would never do. If I could
+have escaped from the man-of-war which picked up me and four others who
+were adrift in an open boat, I would now have been on the Coast. But
+when I lost my fin, I knew that all was over with me, so I came to the
+hospital; but I often think of old times, and the life of a rover. Now,
+if you have any thoughts of going to sea, look out for some vessel bound
+to the Gold Coast, and then you'll soon get in the right way."
+
+"The Gold Coast! Is not that to where the slavers go?"
+
+"Yes, slavers and other vessels besides. Some traffic for ivory and
+gold-dust; however, that's as may happen. You'd soon find yourself in
+good company, and wouldn't that be better than begging here for
+halfpence? I would be above _that_, at all events."
+
+This remark, the first of the kind ever made to me, stung me to the
+quick. Strange, I had never before considered myself in the light of a
+beggar; and yet, was I not so, just as much as a sweeper of a crossing?"
+
+"A beggar?" replied I.
+
+"Yes, a beggar. Don't you beg for halfpence, and say, 'Thank your honor;
+a copper for poor Jack, your honor'?" rejoined Spicer, mimicking me.
+"When I see that pretty sister of yours, that looks so like a real lady,
+I often thinks to myself, 'Fine and smart as you are, miss, your
+brother's only a beggar.' Now, would you not like to return from a
+cruise with a bag of doubloons to throw into her lap, proving that you
+were a gentleman, and above coppers thrown to you out of charity? Well,
+old as I am, and maimed, I'd sooner starve where I now stand.--But I
+must be off, so good-by, Jack; look sharp after the halfpence."
+
+As Spicer walked away my young blood boiled. A beggar! It was but too
+true; and yet I had never thought it a disgrace before. I sat down on
+the steps, and was soon in deep thought. Boat after boat came to the
+stairs, and yet I stirred not. Not one halfpenny did I take during the
+remainder of that day, for I could not, would not, ask for one. My
+pride, hitherto latent, was roused, and before I rose from where I had
+been seated I made a resolution that I would earn my livelihood in some
+other way. What hurt me most was his observations about Virginia and her
+beggar brother. I was so proud of Virginia, I felt that her brother
+ought not to be a beggar. Such was the effect produced in so short a
+time by the insidious discourse of this man. Had he still remained at
+the steps, I do believe that I should have asked, probably have
+followed, his advice. Fortunately he had left, and, after a little
+reflection, I had the wisdom to go and seek Peter Anderson, and consult
+him as to what I could do, for to change my mode of obtaining my
+livelihood I was determined upon.
+
+I found Anderson, as usual, seated under the colonnade, reading, and I
+went up to him.
+
+"Well, Jack, my-boy, you are home early," said he.
+
+"Yes," replied I gravely, and then I was silent.
+
+After a pause of about a minute, Peter Anderson said, "Jack, I see
+there's something the matter. Now, tell me what it is. Can I help you?"
+
+"I did wish to speak to you," replied I. "I've been thinking--about
+going to sea."
+
+"And how long have you thought of that, Jack?"
+
+"I've thought more of it lately," replied I.
+
+"Yes, since Spicer has been talking to you. Now, is that not the case?"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"I knew that, Jack. I'm at your service for as long as you please; now
+sit down and tell me all he has said to you that you can remember. I
+shan't interrupt you."
+
+I did so; and before I had half finished, Anderson replied, "That is
+quite enough, Jack. One thing is evident to me--that Spicer has led a
+bad and lawless life, and would even now continue it, old as he is, only
+that he is prevented by being crippled. Jack, he has talked to you about
+privateers! God forgive me if I wrong him; but I think, had he said
+pirates, he would have told the truth. But say nothing about that
+observation of mine; I wish from my heart that you had never known him.
+But here comes your father. He has a right to know what we are talking
+about, for you owe duty to him as his son, and nothing can be done
+without his permission."
+
+When my father came up to us, Anderson begged him to sit down, and he
+told him what we had been discoursing about. I had already stated my
+objections to enter on board of a man-of-war.
+
+"Well," said my father, "I may come athwart hawse of that old piccaroon
+yet, if he don't look out. Not that I mind your going to sea, Jack, as
+your father did before you; but what he says about the sarvice is a
+confounded lie. Let a man do his duty, and the sarvice is a good one;
+and a man who is provided for as he is, ought to be ashamed of himself
+to speak as he has done, the old rascal. Still, I do not care for your
+entering the sarvice so young. It would be better that you were first
+apprentice and learned your duty; and as soon as your time is out, you
+will be pressed, of course, and then you would sarve the King. I see no
+objection to all that."
+
+"But why do you want so particularly to go to sea, Jack?" observed
+Anderson.
+
+"I don't like being a beggar--begging for halfpence!" replied I.
+
+"And Spicer told you that you were a beggar?" said Peter.
+
+"He did."
+
+"Jack, if that is the case, we are all beggars; for we all work, and
+receive what money we can get for our work. There is no shame in that."
+
+"I can't bear to think of it," replied I, as the tears came into my
+eyes.
+
+"Well, well! I see how it is," replied Anderson; "it's a pity you ever
+fell in with that man."
+
+"That's true as gospel," observed my father; "but still, if he had said
+nothing worse than that, I should not have minded. I do think that Jack
+is now old enough to do something better; and I must say, I do not
+dislike his wishing so to do--for it is begging for halfpence, arter
+all."
+
+"Well, boy," said Peter Anderson, "suppose you leave your father and me
+to talk over the matter; and to-morrow, by this time, we will tell you
+what we think will be best."
+
+"Anything--anything," replied I, "but being a beggar."
+
+"Go along, you are a foolish boy," said Anderson.
+
+"I like his spirit, though," said my father, as I walked away.
+
+On the next day the important question was to be decided. I did not go
+to the stairs to follow up my vocation. I had talked the matter over
+with Virginia, who, although she did not like that I should go away, had
+agreed with me that she objected to my begging for money. I waited very
+impatiently for the time that Anderson had appointed, and, at last, he
+and my father came together, when the former said:
+
+"Well, Jack, it appears that you do not like to be a waterman, and that
+you have no great fancy for a man-of-war, although you have a hankering
+for the sea. Now, as you cannot cruise with your friend Spicer on the
+Spanish Main, nor yet be safe from impressment in a privateer or
+merchantman, we have been thinking that, perhaps, you would have no
+objection to be a channel and river pilot; and if so, I have an old
+friend in that service who, I think, may help you. What do you say?"
+
+"I should like it very much."
+
+"Yes, it is a good service, and a man is usefully employed. You may be
+the means, as soon as you are out of your time, and have passed your
+examination, of saving many a vessel and more lives. You have had a
+pretty fair education, indeed quite sufficient; and, as you will often
+be coming up the river, you will have opportunities of seeing your
+father and your friends. If you decide, I will write at once."
+
+"It is the very thing that I should like," replied I; "and many thanks
+to you, Anderson."
+
+"And it's exactly what I should wish also," replied my father. "So that
+job's jobbed, as the saying is."
+
+After this arrangement, I walked away as proud as if I had been an
+emancipated slave. That very evening I announced my intention of
+resigning my office of "Poor Jack," and named as my successor the boy
+with whom I had fought so desperately to obtain it, when the prospect
+was held out to me, by old Ben, of my becoming Poor Jack--forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+     Much ado about Nothing; or, a Specimen of modern Patronage.
+
+
+I communicated to my mother and Virginia my father's intentions relative
+to my future employ, and was not surprised to find my mother very much
+pleased with the intelligence, for she had always considered my
+situation of "Poor Jack" as disgracing her family--declaring it the
+"most ungenteelest" of all occupations. Perhaps she was not only glad of
+my giving up the situation, but also of my quitting her house. My father
+desired me to wear my Sunday clothes during the week, and ordered me a
+new suit for my best, which he paid for out of the money which he had
+placed in the hands of the lieutenant of the hospital; and I was very
+much surprised to perceive my mother cutting out half-a-dozen new shirts
+for me, which she and Virginia were employed making up during the
+evenings. Not that my mother told me who the shirts were for--she said
+nothing; but Virginia whispered it to me: my mother could not be even
+gracious to me. Nevertheless, the shirts and several other necessaries,
+such as stockings and pocket-handkerchiefs, were placed for my use on my
+father's sea-chest, in my room, without any comment on her part,
+although she had paid for them out of her own purse. During the time
+that elapsed from my giving up the situation of "Poor Jack" to my
+quitting Greenwich, I remained very quietly in my mother's house, doing
+everything that I could for her, and employing myself chiefly in reading
+books, which I borrowed anywhere that I could. I was very anxious to get
+rid of my sobriquet of "Poor Jack," and when so called would tell
+everybody that my name was now "Thomas Saunders."
+
+One Sunday, about three weeks after I had given up my berth, I was
+walking with my father and Virginia on the terrace of the hospital, when
+we perceived a large party of ladies and gentlemen coming toward us. My
+father was very proud of us. I had this very day put on the new suit of
+clothes which he had ordered for me, and which had been cut out in the
+true man-of-war fashion; and Virginia was, as usual, very nicely
+dressed. We were walking toward the party who were advancing, when all
+of a sudden my father started, and exclaimed:
+
+"Well, shiver my timbers! if it ain't _she_--and _he_--by all that's
+blue!"
+
+Who _she_ or _he_ might be neither Virginia nor I could imagine; but I
+looked at the party, who were now close to us, and perceived, in advance
+of the rest, an enormous lady, dressed in a puce-colored pelisse and a
+white satin bonnet. Her features were good, and, had they been on a
+smaller scale, would have been considered handsome. She towered above
+the rest of the company, and there was but one man who could at all
+compete with her in height and size, and he was by her side.
+
+My father stopped, took off his cocked hat, and scraped the gravel with
+his timber toe, as he bowed a little forward.
+
+"Sarvant, your honor's ladyship. Sarvant, your honor Sir Hercules."
+
+"Ah! who have we here?" replied Sir Hercules, putting his hand up as a
+screen above his eyes. "Who are you, my man?" continued he.
+
+"Tom Saunders, your honor's coxswain, as was in the 'Druid,'" replied my
+father, with another scrape of the gravel, "taken in moorings at last,
+your honor. Hope to see your honor and your honorable ladyship quite
+well."
+
+"I recollect you now, my man," replied Sir Hercules, very stiffly. "And
+where did you lose your leg?"
+
+"Battle o' the Nile, your honor; Majesty's ship Oudacious.'"
+
+"How interesting!" observed one of the ladies; "one of Sir Hercules' old
+men."
+
+"Yes, madam, and one of my best men. Lady Hercules, you must recollect
+him," said Sir Hercules.
+
+"I should think so, Sir Hercules," replied the lady; "did I not give him
+my own lady's maid in marriage?"
+
+"Dear me, how _excessively_ interesting!" said another of the party.
+
+Now, this was a little event in which Sir Hercules and Lady Hercules
+stood prominent; it added to their importance for the moment, and
+therefore they were both pleased. Lady Hercules then said, "And pray, my
+good man, how is your wife?"
+
+"Quite well and hearty, at your ladyship's sarvice," replied my father;
+"and, please your ladyship, these two be our children."
+
+"Bless me, how interesting!" exclaimed another lady.
+
+"And remarkably well-bred 'uns," remarked a short gentleman in a
+fox-hunting coat, examining Virginia through his eye-glass; "coxswain,
+filly--dam, lady's maid."
+
+"What is your name, child?" said Lady Hercules to Virginia.
+
+"Virginia, ma'am," replied my sister, with a courtesy.
+
+"You must say 'Lady Hercules,' my dear," said my father, stooping down.
+
+"My name is Virginia, Lady Hercules," replied my sister, courtesying
+again.
+
+"Indeed; then I suppose you are named after me?"
+
+"Yes, your ladyship; hope no offense--but we did take the liberty,"
+replied my father.
+
+"And what is yours, boy?"
+
+"Thomas, Lady Hercules," replied I, with a bow and scrape, after my
+father's receipt for politeness.
+
+"And where is your mother?" said Sir Hercules.
+
+"Mother's at home, Lady Hercules," replied I, with another scrape.
+
+"How _very_ interesting!" exclaimed one of the party. "Quite an event!"
+said another. "A delightful rencontre!" cried a third. "How kind of you,
+Lady Hercules, to give up your own maid! and such handsome children,"
+etc., etc. "It's really quite charming."
+
+Lady Hercules was evidently much pleased, and she assumed the patroness.
+
+"Well, little girl, since you have been named after me, out of gratitude
+I must see what can be done for you. Tell your mother to come up to me
+to-morrow at three o'clock, and bring you with her."
+
+"Yes, Lady Hercules," replied Virginia, with a courtesy.
+
+"And, Saunders, you may as well come up at the same time, and bring your
+lad with you," added Sir Hercules.
+
+"Yes, your honor," replied my father, both he and I simultaneously
+scraping the gravel.
+
+"Wish your honor Sir Hercules, and your honorable lady, and all the
+honorable company, a very good-morning," continued my father, taking
+Virginia and me by the hand to lead us away.
+
+Sir Hercules touched his hat in return, and walked away as stiff as
+usual. The pensioners who had witnessed the interview between him and my
+father, concluding that Sir Hercules was a naval officer, now rose and
+touched their hats to him as he walked with her ladyship in advance of
+the party. We joined Anderson, who was sitting down at the other end of
+the walk, when my father communicated to him what had passed.
+
+As my father conducted Virginia home, she said to him, "Why do you call
+him _sir_ and her _lady_?"
+
+"Because they are quality people, child. He is a barrownight, and she is
+Lady Hercules."
+
+"Are all barrownights and ladies so much bigger than other people are in
+general?"
+
+"No, child, they don't go by size. I've seen many a lord who was a very
+little man."
+
+My mother was very much pleased when we narrated what had happened, as
+she considered that Lady Hercules might prove a valuable patron to
+Virginia, whom she did not fail to have ready at the time appointed;
+and, dressed in our very best, we all walked together to the Sun, at
+which Sir Hercules and his lady had taken up their quarters. Let it not
+be supposed that my mother had forgotten the unceremonious manner in
+which she had been dismissed from the service of Lady Hercules--it was
+still fresh in the memory of a person so revengeful in her disposition;
+but she considered that as Lady Hercules had forgotten it, it was her
+interest to do the same; so, when we were ushered into the room where
+sat Sir Hercules and her ladyship, my mother was all smiles and
+courtesies, and gratitude for past favors.
+
+There was an old gentleman, with a bald powdered head, dressed in black,
+standing with his back to the fire when we entered. He was the only
+other person in the room besides Sir Hercules and his lady. Lady
+Hercules first obtained from my mother a short history of what had
+happened since they had parted; and really, to hear my mother's
+explanation, it would have been supposed that she and my father had
+always been the most loving couple in the world.
+
+"Well," said Sir Hercules, "and what do you intend to do with your boy,
+Saunders?"
+
+"May it please your honor, I've been thinking of bringing him up as a
+channel pilot," replied my father.
+
+"Very good," replied Sir Hercules; "I can see to that; and with my
+interest at the Trinity Board, the _thing is done_, sir;" and Sir
+Hercules walked pompously about the room. "Saunders," said Sir Hercules,
+stopping, after he had taken three or four turns up and down, and
+joining his fingers behind his back, "I thought I perceived some
+difference in you when you first addressed me. What has become of your
+tail, sir?"
+
+"My tail, your honor?" replied my father, looking as much a delinquent
+as if he was still on board a man-of-war, and had been guilty of some
+misdemeanor, "why, please your honor Sir Hercules--"
+
+"I cut it off for him with my scissors," interrupted my mother, with a
+courtesy. "Saunders was very savage when he came for to know it; but he
+had a stupefaction of the brain, and was quite insensible at the time;
+and so, Sir Hercules and my lady" (here a courtesy), "I thought it was
+better--"
+
+"Ah! I see--a brain fever," observed Sir Hercules. "Well, under these
+circumstances you may have saved his life; but 'twas a pity, was it not,
+my lady?--quite altered the man. You recollect his tail, my lady?"
+
+"What a question, Sir Hercules!" replied her ladyship with great
+dignity, turning round toward my mother.
+
+My father appeared to be quite relieved from his dilemma by his wife's
+presence of mind, and really thankful to her for coming to his
+assistance; she had saved him from the mortification of telling the
+truth. How true it is that married people, however much they may
+quarrel, like to conceal their squabbles from the world!
+
+"And what are you thinking of doing with your little girl?" said Lady
+Hercules--"bringing her up to service, I presume. Leave that to me. As
+soon as she is old enough, _the thing is done_, you need say no more
+about it." Here her ladyship fell back in the large easy-chair on which
+she was seated, with a self-satisfied air of patronage, and looking even
+more dignified than her husband.
+
+But my mother had no such intentions, and having first thanked her
+ladyship for her great kindness, stated very humbly that she did not
+much like the idea of her daughter going out to service, that she was
+far from strong, and that her health would not allow her to undertake
+hard work.
+
+"Well, but I presume she may do the work of a lady's maid?" replied her
+ladyship haughtily; "and it was that service which I intended for her."
+
+"Indeed, Lady Hercules, you are very kind; but there is an objection,"
+replied my mother, to gain time.
+
+"Please your ladyship," said my father, who, to my great surprise, came
+to my mother's support, "I do not wish that my little girl should be a
+lady's maid."
+
+"And why not, pray?" said her ladyship, rather angrily.
+
+"Why, you see, your ladyship, my daughter is, after all, only the
+daughter of a poor Greenwich pensioner; and, although she has been so
+far pretty well educated, yet I wishes her not to forget her low
+situation in life, and ladies' maids do get so confounded proud
+('specially those who have the fortune to be ladies' ladies' maids),
+that I don't wish that she should take a situation which would make her
+forget herself and her poor old pensioner of a father; and, begging your
+honor's pardon, that is the real state of the case, my lady."
+
+What my mother felt at this slap at her I do not know, but certain it is
+that she was satisfied with my father taking the responsibility of
+refusal on his own shoulders, and she therefore continued: "I often have
+told Mr. Saunders how happy I was when under your ladyship's protection,
+and what a fortunate person I considered myself; but my husband has
+always had such an objection to my girl being brought up to it that I
+have (of course, my lady, as it is my duty to him to do so) given up my
+own wishes from the first; indeed, my lady, had I not known that my
+little girl was not to go to service, I never should have ventured to
+have called her Virginia, my lady."
+
+"What, then, do you intend her for?" said Sir Hercules to my father.
+"You don't mean to bring her up as a lady, do you?"
+
+"No, your honor, she's but a pensioner's daughter, and I wishes her to
+be humble, as she ought to be; so I've been thinking that something in
+the millinery line, or perhaps--"
+
+"As a governess, my lady," interrupted my mother, with a courtesy.
+
+"That will make her humble enough, at all events," observed the bald
+gentleman in black, with a smile.
+
+"I admit," replied Lady Hercules, "that your having given my name to
+your little girl is a strong reason for her not going into service; but
+there are many expenses attending the education necessary for a young
+person as governess."
+
+Here my mother entered into an explanation of how Virginia had been
+educated--an education which she should not have dreamed of giving, only
+that her child bore her ladyship's name, etc. My mother employed her
+usual flattery and humility, so as to reconcile her ladyship to the
+idea; who was the more inclined when she discovered that she was not
+likely to be put to any expense in her patronage of my sister. It was
+finally agreed that Virginia should be educated for the office of
+governess, and that when she was old enough Lady Hercules would take her
+under her august protection; but her ladyship did do her some service.
+Finding that Virginia was at a respectable school, she called there with
+a party of ladies, and informed the schoolmistress that the little girl
+was under her protection, and that she trusted that justice would be
+done to her education. In a school where the Misses Tippet were
+considered the aristocracy the appearance of so great a woman as Lady
+Hercules was an event, and I do not know whether my little sister did
+not after that take precedence in the school. At all events, she was
+much more carefully instructed and looked after than she had been
+before. Sir Hercules was also pleased to find, upon inquiry, that there
+was every prospect of my entering the pilot service, without any trouble
+on his part. Both Sir Hercules and his lady informed their friends of
+what their intentions were to their young proteges, and were inundated
+with praises and commendations for their kindness, the full extent of
+which the reader will appreciate. But, as my mother pointed out as we
+walked home, if we did not require their assistance at present, there
+was no saying but that we eventually might; and if so, that Sir
+Hercules and Lady Hawkingtrefylyan could not well refuse to perform
+their promises. I must say that this was the first instance in my
+recollection in which my parents appeared to draw amicably together; and
+I believe that nothing except regard for their children could have
+produced the effect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+     A most important Present is made to me; and, as it will eventually
+     appear, the Generosity of the Giver is rewarded.
+
+
+Sir Hercules and Lady Hawkingtrefylyan quitted Greenwich the day after
+the interview narrated in the preceding chapter; and by that day's post
+Anderson received a letter, in reply to the one he had written, from his
+friend Philip Bramble, channel and river pilot, who had, as he said in
+his letter, put on shore at Deal, where he resided, but the day before,
+after knocking about in the Channel for three weeks. Bramble stated his
+willingness to receive and take charge of me, desiring that I would hold
+myself in readiness to be picked up at a minute's warning, and he would
+call for me the first time that he took a vessel up the river. A letter
+communicating this intelligence was forthwith dispatched by my mother to
+Sir Hercules, who sent a short reply, stating that if I conducted myself
+properly he would not lose sight of me. This letter, however, very much
+increased the family consequence in Fisher's Alley, for my mother did
+not fail to show it to everybody, and everybody was anxious to see the
+handwriting of a real baronet.
+
+About a week afterward I went to the shop of the widow St. Felix to
+purchase some tobacco for my father, when she said to me, "So, Jack--or
+Tom--as I hear you request to be called now--you are going to leave us?"
+
+"Yes," replied I, "and I shall be sorry to leave you, you have been so
+kind to me."
+
+"A little kindness goes a great way with some people, Tom, and that's
+the case with you, for you've a grateful heart. You're to be a pilot, I
+hear; well, Tom, I've a present to make you, which you will find very
+useful in your profession, and which will make you think of me
+sometimes. Stop a moment till I come down again."
+
+The widow went upstairs, and when she came down held in her hand a
+telescope, or spy-glass, as sailors generally call them. It was about
+two feet long, covered with white leather, and apparently had been well
+preserved.
+
+"Now, Tom, this is what a pilot ought not to be without, and if what was
+said by the person to whom it belonged is true, it is an excellent
+spy-glass; so now accept it from your loving friend, and long may you
+live to peep through it."
+
+"Thank you, thank you," replied I, delighted, as Mrs. St. Felix put it
+into my hands. I surveyed it all over, pulled out the tube, and then
+said to her, "Who did it belong to?"
+
+"Tom," replied the widow, "that's a sad trick you have of asking
+questions; it's quite sufficient that it is mine, and that I give it to
+you--is it not?"
+
+"Yes," replied I, "but you're the only person who says that I ask too
+many questions. Why, here's a name, F.I."
+
+The widow stretched herself over the counter with a sudden spring, and
+snatched the telescope out of my hand. When I looked at her she stood
+pale and trembling.
+
+"Why, what is the matter?" inquired I.
+
+She put her hand to her side, as if in great pain, and for some seconds
+could not speak.
+
+"Tom, I never knew that there was a name on the telescope; the name must
+not be known, that's the truth; you shall have it this evening, but you
+must go away now--do, that's a dear good boy."
+
+The widow turned to walk into the back parlor, with the telescope in her
+hand, and I obeyed her injunctions in silence and wondering. That there
+was a mystery about her was certain, and I felt very sorrowful, not that
+I did not know the secret, but that I could not be of service to her.
+That evening the telescope was brought to my mother's house by fat Jane.
+I percieved that the portion of the brass rim upon which the name had
+been cut with a knife, for it had not been engraved, as I thought, had
+been carefully filed down, so that not a vestige of the letters
+appeared.
+
+The next morning I was down at the steps long before breakfast, that I
+might try my new present. Bill Freeman was there, and he showed me how
+to adjust the focus. I amused myself looking at the vessels which were
+working up and down the Reach, and so much was I delighted that I quite
+forgot how time passed, and lost my breakfast. Every one asked to have a
+peep through the telescope, and every one declared that it was an
+excellent glass; at last Spicer came up to where I stood.
+
+"Well, Jack," said he, "what have you there--a spy-glass? Let's have a
+look; I'm a good judge of one, I can tell you."
+
+I handed the telescope over to him; he looked through it for some time.
+
+"A first-rate glass, Jack" (I was oftener called Jack than Tom at that
+time); "I never knew but one equal to it. Where did you get it?"
+
+I don't exactly know why, but perhaps the mystery evident in the widow,
+and the cautions I had received against Spicer, combined together,
+induced me not to answer the question.
+
+"It's odd," observed Spicer, who was now examining the outside of the
+telescope; "I could almost swear to it." He then looked at the small
+brass rim where the name had been, and perceived that it had been
+erased. "Now I'm positive! Jack, where did you get this glass?"
+
+"It was made a present to me," replied I.
+
+"Come here," said Spicer, leading me apart from the others standing by.
+"Now tell me directly," and Spicer spoke in an authoritative tone, "who
+gave you this glass?"
+
+I really was somewhat afraid of Spicer, who had gained much power over
+me. I dared not say that I would not tell him, and I did not like to
+tell a lie. I thought that if I told the truth I might somehow or
+another injure Mrs. St. Felix, and I therefore answered evasively, "It
+was sent to me as a present by a lady."
+
+"Oh!" replied Spicer, who had heard of Sir Hercules and his lady, "so
+the _lady_ sent it to you? It's very odd," continued he; "I could take
+my oath that I've had that glass in my hand a hundred times."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I. "Where?"
+
+But Spicer did not answer me; he had fallen into one of his dark moods,
+and appeared as if recalling former events to his mind. He still kept
+possession of the glass, and I was afraid that he would not return it,
+for I tried to take it softly out of his hand, and he would not let go.
+He remained in this way about a minute, when I perceived my father and
+Ben the Whaler coming up, at which I was delighted.
+
+"Father," said I, as they came near, "come and try my new spy-glass."
+
+Spicer started, and released the telescope, when I laid hold of it and
+put it into my father's hands. As neither my father nor Ben would ever
+speak to him, Spicer, with a lowering brow, walked away. After my father
+had examined the glass and praised it, he very naturally asked me where
+I obtained it. After what had passed with Spicer I was so fearful of his
+discovering, by other people, by whom the glass had been given to me,
+that I replied again, in the hearing of everybody, "A lady, father; you
+may easily guess who."
+
+"Well," replied my father, "I never thought that her ladyship could have
+been so generous. I take it very kindly of her."
+
+I was delighted at my father falling so easily into the mistake. As for
+my mother and Virginia, they were neither of them present when Jane
+brought the telescope to me, or I certainly should have stated, without
+reservation, to whom I had been indebted. I hardly could decide whether
+I would go to the widow and tell her what had occurred; but, upon some
+reflection, as she had accused me of asking too many questions, and
+might suppose that I wished to obtain her secrets, I determined upon
+saying nothing about it.
+
+For a week I occupied myself wholly with my telescope, and I became
+perfectly master of it, or rather quite used to it, which is of some
+importance. I avoided Spicer, always leaving the steps when I perceived
+him approaching, although once or twice he beckoned to me. At the
+expiration of the week a message was brought by a waterman from Philip
+Bramble, stating that he should pass Greenwich in a day or two, being
+about to take down a West Indiaman then lying below London Bridge. My
+clothes were therefore then packed up in readiness, and I went to bid
+farewell to my limited acquaintance.
+
+I called upon old Nanny, who was now quite strong again. I had before
+acquainted her with my future prospects.
+
+"Well, Jack," says she, "and so you're going away? I don't think you
+were quite right to give up a situation where you gained so many
+halfpence every day, and only for touching your cap; however, you know
+best. I shall have no more bargains after you are gone, that's certain.
+But, Jack, you'll be on board of vessels coming from the East and West
+Indies, and all other parts of the world, and they have plenty of pretty
+things on board, such as shells, and empty bottles, and hard biscuit,
+and bags of oakum; and, Jack, they will give them to you for nothing,
+for sailors don't care what they give away when they come from a long
+voyage; and so mind you beg for me as much as you can, that's a good
+boy; but don't take live monkeys or those things, they eat so much. You
+may bring me a parrot, I think I could sell one, and that don't cost
+much to feed. Do you understand, Jack? Will you do this for me?"
+
+"I don't know whether I can do all you wish, but depend upon it, mother,
+I won't forget you."
+
+"That's enough, Jack, you'll keep your word; and now, is there any nice
+thing that I can give you out of my shop, as a keepsake, Jack?"
+
+"Why, no, mother, I thank you--nothing."
+
+"Think of something, Jack," replied old Nanny; "you must have
+something."
+
+"Well, then, mother, you know I like reading; will you give me the old
+book that I was reading when I sat up with you one night?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, and welcome; what book is it? I don't know--I can't see to
+read large print without spectacles, and I broke mine many years ago."
+
+"Why do you not buy another pair?"
+
+"Another pair, Jack? Spectacles cost money. I've no money; and as I
+never read, I don't want spectacles. Go in and fetch the book; it's
+yours and welcome."
+
+I went in and brought out the Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" which I
+before mentioned. "This is it, mother."
+
+"Yes, yes, I recollect now, it's a very pretty book. What's it about,
+Jack? I can't see myself: never mind, take it, Jack, and don't forget
+your promise."
+
+I wished old Nanny good-by, and took the book home, which I gave into
+Virginia's care, as I wished her to read it. The next morning, at
+daybreak, I was summoned; the ship was dropping down the river. I bade
+farewell to my little sister, who wept on my shoulder; to my mother, who
+hardly condescended to answer me. My father helped me down with my
+luggage, which was not very heavy; and Anderson and old Ben accompanied
+us to the landing-steps; and having bid them all farewell, besides many
+others of my friends who were there, I stepped into the boat sent for
+me, and quitted Greenwich for my new avocation on the 6th of October,
+1799, being then, as Anderson had calculated, precisely thirteen years
+and seven months old.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
+
+     In which a Story is begun, and not finished, which I think the
+     Reader will regret as much as, at the time, I did.
+
+
+The boat was soon alongside of the West Indiaman, which had been tiding
+it down Limehouse Reach under her topsails, there being but little wind,
+and that contrary; but now that she had arrived to Greenwich Reach she
+had braced up, with her head the right way. My box was handed up the
+side, and I made my appearance on the deck soon afterward, with my
+telescope in my hand.
+
+"Are you the lad for whom the pilot sent the boat?" inquired a man, whom
+I afterward found to be the second mate.
+
+"Yes," replied I.
+
+"Well, there he is abaft, in a P-jacket," said he, walking to the
+gangway, and directing the men to drop the boat astern.
+
+I looked aft, and perceived my future master talking with the captain of
+the vessel. Philip Bramble was a spare man, about five feet seven inches
+high, he had on his head a low-crowned tarpaulin hat, a short P-jacket
+(so called from the abbreviation of _pilot's_ jacket) reached down to
+just above his knees. His features were regular, and, indeed, although
+weatherbeaten, they might be termed handsome. His nose was perfectly
+straight, his lips thin, his eyes gray and very keen; he had little or
+no whiskers, and, from his appearance and the intermixture of gray with
+his brown hair, I supposed him to be about fifty years of age. In one
+hand he held a short clay pipe, into which he was inserting the
+forefinger of the other, as he talked with the captain. At the time that
+he was pointed out to me by the second mate he was looking up aloft; I
+had, therefore, time to make the above observations before he cast his
+eyes down and perceived me, when I immediately went aft to him.
+
+"I suppose you are Tom Saunders?" said he, surveying me from head to
+foot.
+
+I replied in the affirmative.
+
+"Well, Anderson has given you a good character, mind you don't lose it.
+D'ye think you'll like to be a pilot?"
+
+"Yes," replied I.
+
+"Have you sharp eyes, a good memory, and plenty of nerve?"
+
+"I believe I've got the two first, I don't know about the other."
+
+"I suppose not, it hasn't been tried yet. How far can you see through a
+fog?"
+
+"According how thick it is."
+
+"I see you've a glass there: tell me what you make of that vessel just
+opening from Blackwall Reach."
+
+"What, that ship?"
+
+"Oh, you can make it out to be a ship, can you, with the naked eye?
+Well, then, you have good eyes."
+
+I fixed my glass upon the vessel, and, after a time, not having
+forgotten the lessons so repeatedly given me by Spicer, I said, "She has
+no colors up, but she's an Embden vessel by her build."
+
+"Oh," said he, "hand me the glass. The boy's right; and a good glass,
+too. Come, I see you do know something--and good knowledge, too, for a
+pilot. It often saves us a deal of trouble when we know a vessel by her
+build; them foreigners sail too close to take pilots. Can you stand
+cold? Have you got a P-jacket?"
+
+"Yes, father bought me one."
+
+"Well, you'll want it this winter, for the wild geese tell us that it
+will be a sharp one. Steady, starboard!"
+
+"Starboard it is."
+
+"D'ye know the compass?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, stop till we get down to Deal. Now, stand by me, and keep your
+eyes wide open; for, d'ye see, you've plenty to larn, and you can't
+begin too soon. We must square the mainyard, captain, if you please,"
+continued he, as we entered Blackwall Reach. "What could make the river
+so perverse as to take these two bends in Limehouse and Blackwall
+Reaches, unless to give pilots trouble, I can't say."
+
+The wind being now contrary from the sharp turn in the river, we were
+again tiding it down; that is, hove-to and allowing the tide to drift us
+through the Reach; but as soon as we were clear of Blackwall Reach, we
+could lay our course down the river. As we passed Gravesend, Bramble
+asked me whether I was ever so low down.
+
+"Yes," replied I, "I have been down as far as Sea Reach;" which I had
+been when I was upset in the wherry, and I told him the story.
+
+"Well, Tom, that's called the river now; but do you know that, many
+years ago, where we now are used to be considered as the mouth of the
+river, and that fort there" (pointing to Tilbury Fort) "was built to
+defend it? for they say the French fleet used to come and anchor down
+below."
+
+[Illustration: JACK AND BRAMBLE ABOARD THE INDIAMAN.--Marryat, Vol. X.,
+p. 207.]
+
+"Yes," replied I; "and they say, in the History of England, that the
+Danes used to come up much higher, even up to Greenwich; but that's a
+very long while ago."
+
+"Well, you beat me, Tom! I never heard that; and I think, if ever they
+did do so, they won't do it again in a hurry. What water have you got,
+my man? Port there!"
+
+"Port it is."
+
+"Steady--so."
+
+"Shall we get down to the Nore to-night, pilot?" said the captain.
+
+"Why, sir, I'm in hopes we shall. We have still nearly three hours'
+daylight; and now that we are clear of the Hope, we shall lay fairly
+down Sea Reach; and if the wind will only freshen a little (and it looks
+very like it), we shall be able to stem the _first_ of the flood, at all
+events."
+
+I ought to observe that Bramble, as soon as he had passed any shoal or
+danger, pointed it out to me. He said, "I tell it to you, because you
+can't be told too often. You won't recollect much that I tell you, I
+dare say. I don't expect it; but you may recollect a little, and every
+little helps."
+
+The tide had flowed more than an hour when we passed the Nore Light and
+came to an anchor.
+
+"What lights are those?" inquired I.
+
+"That's Sheerness," replied Bramble. "We were talking of the French and
+Danes coming up the river. Why, Tom, it is not much more than one
+hundred and fifty years ago when the Dutch fleet came up to Sheerness,
+destroyed the batteries, and landed troops there. Howsomever, as I said
+of the French and the other chaps, they won't do so again in a hurry."
+
+As soon as they had veered out sufficient cable, Bramble accepted the
+invitation of the captain to go down in the cabin, when I went and
+joined the men, who were getting their supper forward. I was soon on
+good terms with them; and, after supper, as it was cold, they went down
+to the fore-peak, got out some beer and grog, and we sat round in a
+circle, with the bottles and mugs and a farthing candle in the center.
+Being right in the _eyes_ of her, as it is termed, we could plainly hear
+the water slapping against the bends outside of her, as it was divided
+by the keelson, and borne away by the strong flood tide. It was a
+melancholy sound. I had never heard it before; and during a pause, as I
+listened to it, one of the men observed, "Queer sound, boy, ain't it?
+You'd think that the water was lapping in right among us. But noises
+aboard ship don't sound as they do on shore; I don't know why." No more
+did I at that time; the fact is that nothing conveys sound better than
+wood, and every slight noise is magnified, in consequence, on board of a
+vessel.
+
+"I recollect when I was on a Mediterranean voyage how we were frightened
+with noises, sure enough," observed one of the men.
+
+"Come, that's right, Dick, give us a yarn," said the others.
+
+"Yes," replied Dick, "and it's a true yarn, too, and all about a ghost."
+
+"Well, stop a moment," said one of the men, "and let us top this glim a
+bit before you begin, for it seemed to get dimmer the moment you talked
+about a ghost."
+
+Dick waited till a little more light was obtained, and then commenced.
+"I had shipped on board of a vessel bound to Smyrna, now about seven
+years ago. We had gone down to Portsmouth, where we waited for one of
+the partners of the house by which we had been freighted, and who was
+going out as passenger. We were a man short, and the captain went on
+shore to get one from the crimps, whom he knew very well, and the
+fellows promised to send one on board the next morning. Well, sure
+enough a wherry came off with him just before break of day, and he and
+his traps were taken on board; but it was not perceived at the time what
+he had in his arms under his grego, and what do you think it proved to
+be at daylight? Why, a large black tom cat."
+
+"What, a black one?"
+
+"Yes, as black as the enemy himself. The fellow came down forward with
+it, and so says I, 'Why, messmate, you're not going to take that animal
+to sea with us?'
+
+"'Yes, I am,' said he, very surlily; 'it's an old friend of mine, and I
+never parts with him.'
+
+"'Well,' says I, 'you'll find the difference when the captain hears on
+it, I can tell you, and, for the matter of that, I won't promise you
+that it will be very safe if it comes near me when I've a handspike in
+my hand.'
+
+"'I tell you what,' says he, 'it ain't the taking of a cat on board what
+brings mischief, but it's turning one out of a ship what occasions ill
+luck. No cat ever sunk a ship till the animal was hove overboard and
+sunk first itself, and then it does drag the ship down after it.'
+
+"Well, one of the boys who did not care about such things, for he was
+young and ignorant, put his hand to the cat's head to stroke it, and the
+cat bit him right through the fingers, at which the boy gave a loud cry.
+
+"'Now, that will teach you to leave my cat alone,' said the man. 'He
+won't come near nobody but me, and he bites everybody else, so I give
+you fair warning.'
+
+[Illustration: THE FORE-PEAK YARN.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 211.]
+
+"And sure enough the brute, which was about as big as two common cats,
+was just as savage as a tiger. When the first mate called the man on
+deck, the fellow left his cat behind him in the fore-peak, just as if it
+were now here, and it got into a dark corner, growling and humping its
+back, with its eyes flashing fire at every one of us as we came anigh
+it. 'Oh!' says we, 'this here won't never do; wait till the captain
+comes on board, that's all.' Well, the hatches were off, and we were
+busy, re-stowing the upper tier of the cargo, which we had thrown in
+very carelessly in our hurry to get down the river; just putting the
+bales in order (it wasn't breaking bulk, you see), and we were at it all
+day. At last, toward evening, the captain comes on board with the
+gentleman passenger, a mighty timorsome sort of young chap he appeared
+for to be, and had never before set his foot upon the plank of a vessel.
+So as soon as the captain was on deck we all broke off our work, and
+went to him to tell him about this cat, and the captain he gets into a
+great rage as soon as he hears on it, and orders the man to send the cat
+on shore, or else he'd throw it overboard. Well, the man, who was a
+sulky, saucy sort of chap, and no seaman, I've a notion, gives cheek,
+and says he won't send his cat on shore for no man, whereupon the
+captain orders the cat to be caught, that he might send it in the boat;
+but nobody dared to catch it, for it was so fierce to everybody but its
+master. The second mate tried, and he got a devil of a bite, and came up
+from the fore-peak without the cat, looking very blue indeed. And then
+the first mate went down, and he tried; but the cat flew at him, and he
+came up as white as a sheet. And then the cat became so savage that it
+stood at the foot of the ladder, all ready to attack whoever should come
+down, and the man laughed heartily, and told us to fetch the cat.
+'Well,' says the first mate, 'I can't touch the cat, but I can you, you
+beggar, and I will too, if it costs me twenty pounds;' so he ups with a
+handspike and knocks the fellow down senseless on the deck, and there he
+laid. And it sarved him right.
+
+"Well, then the captain thought to shoot the cat, for it was for all the
+world like a wild beast, and one proposed one thing and one another. At
+last Jim, the cabin-boy, comes forward with some brimstone matches in a
+pan, and he lights them and lowers them down into the fore-peak by a
+rope-yarn to smother it out. And so it did sure enough, for all of a
+sudden the cat made a spring up to the deck, and then we all chased it
+here and there, until at last it got out to the end of the flying
+jib-boom, and then Jim, the cabin-boy, followed it out with a handspike,
+and poked at it as hard as he could, until at last it lost its hold, and
+down it went into the water, and Jim and the handspike went along with
+it, for Jim, in his last poke at the cat, lost his balance, so away they
+went together. Well, there was a great hurry in manning the boat, and
+picking up poor Jim and the handspike; but the cat we saw no more, for
+it was just dark at the time. Well, when it was all over, we began to
+think what we had done, and as soon as we had put on the hatches and
+secured the hold we went down below into the fore-peak, where the smell
+of brimstone did not make us feel more comfortable, I can tell you, and
+we began to talk over the matter, for you see the cat should not have
+been thrown overboard but put on shore. But we were called away to man
+the boat again, for the fellow had come to his senses, and swore that he
+would not stay in the ship, but go on shore and take the law of the
+first mate; and the first mate and captain thought the sooner he was out
+of the ship the better, for we were to sail before daylight, and there
+might not be a wherry for him to get into. So the fellow took his kit,
+and we pulled him on shore and landed him on Southsea beach, he swearing
+vengeance the whole way; and as he stepped out on the beach he turned
+round to us and said, as he shook his fist, 'You've thrown overboard a
+_black tom cat_, recollect that! and now you'll see the consequence; a
+pleasant voyage to you. I wouldn't sail in that vessel if you were to
+offer her to me as a present as soon as she got to Smyrna; because why,
+you've thrown overboard a _black tom cat_, and you'll never get
+there--_never!_' cried he again, and off he ran with his bundle.
+
+"Well, we didn't much like it, and if the second mate hadn't been in the
+boat, I'm not sure that we shouldn't all have gone on shore rather than
+sail in the vessel; but there was no help for it. The next morning
+before daylight we started, for the captain wouldn't wait to get another
+hand, and we were soon out of soundings, and well into the Bay of
+Biscay.
+
+"We had just passed Cape Finisterre, when Jim, the cabin-boy, says one
+morning, 'I'm blessed if I didn't hear that cat last night, or the ghost
+on it!' So we laughed at him; for, you see, he slept abaft, just outside
+the cabin door, close to the pantry, and not forward with the rest of
+us.
+
+"'Well,' says he, 'I heard her miaw, and when I awoke I think I seed two
+eyes looking at me.'
+
+"'Well, Jim,' said I, for we had got over our fears, 'it was you who
+knocked her overboard, so it's all right that she should haunt you and
+nobody else.' Jim, however, could not laugh, but looked very grave and
+unhappy. A few days afterward the captain and passenger complained that
+they could not sleep for the noise and racket that was kept up all night
+between the timbers and in the run aft. They said it was if a whole
+legion of devils were broken loose and scampering about; and the captain
+was very grave; and as for the passenger, he was frightened out of his
+wits. Still we laughed, because we had heard nothing ourselves, and
+thought that it must only be fancy on their parts, particularly as the
+captain used to _bowse his jib_ up pretty taut every night. Well, all
+went on very well; we arrived at the Rock, got our fresh provisions and
+vegetables, and then made sail again. The captain complained of no more
+noises, and Jim of no more eyes, and the whole matter was almost
+forgotten."
+
+Here the narrator was interrupted by the thumping of a handspike on the
+deck above. "Halloo! what's the matter now?"
+
+"Come, tumble up, my lads, and pump the ship out," said the mate from
+above; "we had almost forgotten that. Be smart, now; it's but a ten
+minutes' job."
+
+Thus broke off the story, much to my annoyance; but it could not be
+helped--ships must be pumped out--so the men went on deck, and I
+followed them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
+
+     "Recollect," says the Fellow, "you have thrown overboard a black
+     Tom Cat!"
+
+
+In a quarter of an hour the pump sucked, and we all hastened down below
+to our grog and the completion of our yarn. As soon as we were all
+comfortably seated as before, Dick recommenced.
+
+"Well, we were abreast of Malta, when the weather, which had hitherto on
+the voyage been very fine, changed. The clouds hung down very heavy, and
+there was every symptom of a fierce gale; and sure enough a worse gale I
+never was in than came on that night--and such a sea!--the ship rolled
+gunnel under, for the gale was fair, but the sea ran so high and so fast
+that we expected to be pooped every minute. It was about midnight when
+the rain came on in torrents, and the wind blew fiercer than ever. I was
+on deck, and so was the first mate and another man at the helm, for we
+were flying right before it, and she was hard to steer.
+
+"We shall have it worse yet," said the captain.
+
+"'_Miaw_!' was the reply, so clear, so loud, we could not tell where it
+came from. I thought it came from the maintop.
+
+"'Mercy on us! what was that?' said the first mate, the light from the
+binnacle showing his face as pale as a sheet.
+
+"'_Miaw!_' was the reply from somewhere.
+
+"'The black cat, by all that's blue!' cried the captain.
+
+"'The Lord have mercy upon us, we're all gone!' said the mate, clasping
+his hands in terror. To clasp his hands, of course he let go the wheel;
+and the other man, who was equally frightened, had not strength to hold
+it. Away he went, right over the wheel, knocking down the mate on the
+other side; and the ship taking a heavy lurch, they both went into the
+scuppers together. The ship broached-to, and our mainmast and mizzenmast
+went over the side."
+
+"Do top that glim, Bill," said one of the men, in a tremulous voice.
+
+Dick paused while the snuff was taken off the candle: and the water went
+tap, tap, tap against the bends, with a most melancholy sound. I really
+did feel rather queer myself.
+
+Dick continued. "Well, all hands were on deck immediately, and it was
+good two hours before we could clear the wreck, for the men were
+disheartened. They had heard the loud _miaw_ when in the fore-peak, and
+declared that it was close to them; and the passenger and Jim came out,
+frightened out of their wits. They had heard the _miaw_, and said that
+it was from under the cabin table. At last we were clear of the wreck,
+and the wind roared louder than ever.
+
+"The captain was a stout-hearted fellow, and as the men were collected
+together under the bulwark, he said, 'Well, this breeze will shorten our
+distance, at any rate, and if it holds we shall soon be at Smyrna,'
+
+"'We shall never see Smyrna!' replied the second mate, his teeth
+chattering.
+
+"'No, never!' cried the seamen.
+
+"The captain sent Jim down for his rum-bottle, and gave every man a
+stiff glass of liquor, and that made them feel more comfortable for a
+time; when there was a sort of lull, and again the loud _miaw_ was
+repeated.
+
+"'There it is!' cried the men; but they hardly had time to say so when
+the ship was pooped with a tremendous sea washing away the stern and
+quarter-boats, and sending all the men swimming forward. So loaded was
+the ship with water that she stopped, and appeared as if she was
+settling down. At last she rolled heavy to port and discharged it, and
+away we went before the wind, faster than ever. Well, there was some
+talk among the seamen of throwing poor Jim overboard to appease the
+ghost of the cat, for it was he who had thrown the cat overboard. But
+the captain heard what the men were saying, and he swore that he would
+knock the brains out of the first man who laid hold of the boy; and he
+sent Jim below out of harm's way. Poor Jim! how bitterly he cried, poor
+boy, when he heard what was going on.
+
+"Well, it's a long lane that has no turning, and no gale lasts forever.
+The next day it moderated, and the day after the weather was quite fine,
+and the sea had gone down. We recovered our spirits, the more so as we
+heard no more of the cat; and having jury-rigged her aft, we steered our
+course with a light breeze. We were now but a short distance from
+Smyrna, and hoped to be there by the next day; but the second mate shook
+his head. He said, 'The cat has not done with us, for it was a _black
+tom_ cat.'
+
+"The fourth day the captain came on deck, and said, 'I heard a great
+washing of water in the run last night, as I thought; have you sounded
+the well lately?'
+
+"'No,' replied the first mate, 'I left that to the carpenter.'
+
+"'Well, then, ask him.' Well, the carpenter had not sounded the well, as
+it appeared; and so he sounded it immediately, and found that we had
+_six feet water in the hold_.
+
+"'I knowed we were doomed,' said the second mate; 'we'll never get at
+port'; and so thought the men: but the captain said:
+
+"'Why, the fact is, my lads, we must have sprung a leak in the gale, and
+no wonder, beating against the wreck so as we did when the masts went
+over the side. Come, rig the pumps, and we shall soon clear her. The tom
+cat has nothing to do with this, at all events.'
+
+"Now, you see, our bottom cargo consisted of two or three tier of crates
+of crockery, which would not spoil by being wet; but the upper part of
+the cargo was bales of dry goods and linen; so the captain was very
+anxious that they should work the pumps before the water got higher: the
+weather was very fine, the sea smooth, and the wind, although fair, was
+light. Well, the seamen were terrified, and thought they were lost; they
+asked for liquor, and refused to work at the pumps; they said it was no
+use, the ship was doomed. Well, the captain he got very angry; he went
+down into the cabin, loaded his double-barreled gun, and swore that he
+would shoot the first man through the head who refused to work at the
+pumps. The men knew that he was in earnest, for he was a violent sort of
+fellow, and so they set to. We didn't gain much upon her; I thought we
+did a little, but the men said no. The captain declared that we did gain
+considerably, but it was supposed that he only said so to encourage the
+people. Well, the captain ordered the mate to take up the hatches that
+they might see the state of the cargo. This was done; the dry goods, as
+far as we could make out, were not injured, and the men pumped spell and
+spell until the evening, when the captain gave them a good allowance of
+grog, and an hour to rest themselves. It was a beautiful moonlight
+night: the sails were just asleep and no more; but the vessel was heavy,
+from the water in her, and we dragged slowly along. The captain, who had
+gone down below with the first mate, came up from the cabin, and said to
+the men, 'Now, my lads, we'll set to again'; when suddenly there was a
+loud, melancholy _miaw!_ which terrified us all. We looked from whence
+the sound appeared to come, and there, on the launch turned over
+amidship, we beheld the ghost of the black tom cat, so large, so black,
+with the broad moonlight shining on it; and so thin, it was the skeleton
+of the cat, only it looked as black as ever; its back was humped up and
+its tail curved; and, as it stood out in the broad moonlight, it did
+look twice as big as the original cat, which was the biggest I ever saw.
+Well, the men actually screamed; they ran aft, upsetting the captain and
+mate, and roiling over them and hiding their faces, with 'Lord, have
+mercy on us!' and 'God, forgive our sins!' and 'Oh! we're lost, we're
+lost!' and every sort of crying and groaning that could be thought of.
+At last the captain gets up from under them in a great rage and looks
+forward to see what was the matter, and there he sees the ghost of the
+tom cat standing just in the same place; and it gave another miserable
+_miaw!_ 'Why,' cried the captain (who had his grog on board, and was as
+brave as brass), 'it is the cussed cat himself. Stop a moment.' Down he
+goes to the cabin, reels up the hatchway again with his double-barreled
+gun, and lets fly at it"--(here Dick lowered his voice to almost a
+whisper)--"the cat gave a shriek--and then--"
+
+Here, during the pause, Bill put out his finger and thumb to snuff the
+candle, but his hand shook--he snuffed it out, and we were all left in
+darkness. I can hardly describe the feeling which appeared to pervade
+the whole of our party. Every one was shuffling and crowding with their
+shoulders, but still no one moved from his place.
+
+"Well," said Dick, the narrator, in a quiet subdued voice, "why don't
+one of you go and fetch a light? Come, jump up, Bill, you topped it
+out."
+
+"Ay, ay," replied Bill, evidently shaking; "where's the candle?"
+
+"Here," said one of the boys, handing it to him.
+
+"Well, then, jump up yourself, you young whelp, you're younger than me."
+
+"I didn't put it out," replied the boy, whining.
+
+"Up immediately, or I'll break every rib in your body," replied Bill.
+
+The boy, who was terribly frightened, got up at this threat, and began
+to ascend the ladder; he was about three steps up, when we heard from
+the deck a horrible _miaw!_ The boy gave a scream of terror, and fell
+down on his back among us all, smashing the glass and flattening the tin
+cans against the men's legs, who halloed with pain. At last there was a
+dead silence again, and I could plainly hear the loud throbbing of more
+than one heart.
+
+"Come," said Dick again, "what was the fool frightened about? Look for
+the candle, some of you."
+
+At last Bill found it in his breast, broke in two and half melted away,
+and was proceeding for a light when the carpenter stepped to the hatch
+with his lantern, and said, "Why, you're all in the dark there,
+shipmates! Here, take my lantern."
+
+I may as well here observe that the carpenter had been listening to the
+story as he sat by the hatchway on deck, and it was he who had favored
+us with the _miaw_ which had so frightened the boy. As soon as the
+lantern had been received and the candle relighted, Dick recommenced.
+
+"Well, my lads, I said that the captain went down below, brought up his
+gun, and let fly at the cat, and then--well, and then--the cat gave a
+loud shriek, and falls down upon the deck. The captain walks forward to
+it, takes it up by the tail, brings it aft, and shies it among the men.
+
+"'There, you fools,' said he, 'it is the cat himself; will you believe
+your own eyes?'
+
+"And sure enough, so it was; for, you see, when Jim tumbled overboard,
+it being then dark, and we so busy with Jim, we did not look after the
+cat, and so it must have crawled up the cable and run down into the hold
+while the hatches were off; and all that noise heard aft must have been
+the brute chasing the rats, I suppose. Jim may have heard, but he could
+not have seen, the cat; that was all fancy and fright. You know how long
+a cat will live without much food, and so the animal was pretty quiet
+after it had killed all the rats. Then when the gale came on, and the
+upper part of the cargo fetched way a little, for it was loosely stowed,
+we suppose that it got jammed now and then with the rolling, and that
+made it miaw; and then, when we took off the hatches to look at the
+cargo, after we had sprung the leak, the cat, o' course, came out, and a
+pretty skeleton it was, as you may suppose. Now do you understand the
+whole of it?"
+
+"Yes, that's all clear," replied Bill; "and it was no ghost, after all?
+But still the cat did do mischief, for if the mate had not been
+frightened by it, he wouldn't have let go the wheel, and the masts would
+not have gone by the lee."
+
+"That's true enough, and he might have done more mischief still if the
+captain had not shot him, for the men would never have gone to the pumps
+again; but when they found out that it was nothing but the cat himself,
+then they set to, and before the next evening the vessel was clear, and
+only required pumping out every two hours, for the leak wasn't great,
+after all. So there's a ghost story for you, and I believe that all
+others will be found, like mine, to end in moonshine. Now, suppose we
+turn in, for we shall weigh at three o'clock in the morning."
+
+We all tumbled into the standing berths in the fore-peak. I dreamed of
+black tom cats all night. The next morning we weighed with a fair wind;
+as before, I stood beside Bramble, who pointed out to me everything
+worth notice or memory as we passed, but at last the motion affected me
+so much that I could pay little attention, and I remained by his side as
+pale as a sheet. We rounded the North Foreland, and long before dark
+anchored in the Downs. Bramble went no further with the vessel, the
+captain himself being a good pilot for the Channel. A Deal boat came
+alongside, we got into it, they landed us on the shingle beach, and I
+followed Bramble up to his abode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
+
+     Bramble's Method of Education proves very effective--He also points
+     out a Position in which you may prefer your Enemies to your
+     Friends!
+
+
+The house of Philip Bramble was situated on the further side of a road
+which ran along the shore, just above the shingle beach. It was a large
+cottage on one floor, the street door entering at once into its only
+sitting-room. It was furnished as such tenements usually are, with a
+small dresser and shelves for crockery, and a table and chairs of cherry
+wood; on the broad mantelpiece, for the fireplace was large, were
+several brass candlesticks, very bright, ranged with foreign
+curiosities, and a few shells; half a dozen prints in frames ornamented
+the walls; and on large nails drove into the panels, wherever a space
+could be found, were hung coats, P-jackets, and other articles of dress,
+all ready for the pilot to change whenever he came on shore wet to the
+skin. Everything was neat and clean: the planks of the floor were white
+as snow, yet the floor itself was sanded with white sand, and there were
+one or two square wooden boxes, also filled with sand, for the use of
+those who smoked. When I add that, opposite to the fireplace, there was
+a set of drawers of walnut wood, with an escritoire at the top, upon
+the flat part of which were a few books neatly arranged, and over it an
+old-fashioned looking-glass, divided at the sides near to the frame into
+sections, I believe that I have given a catalogue of the whole
+furniture. When I followed Bramble into the room, a little girl of about
+nine or ten years old ran into his arms, as he stooped down to receive
+her. She was a pretty child, with a very fair skin and rosy cheeks, her
+hair and eyes of a very dark brown, almost approaching to black; but she
+was not, in my opinion, near so pretty as my sister Virginia. As Bramble
+kissed her, she exclaimed, "Oh, father, I am so glad you are come home!
+Mrs. Maddox has been in bed ever since you left; her leg is very bad
+indeed."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Bramble, "I'm sorry to hear that of the old lady; and
+how have you got on without her assistance?"
+
+"Why, don't you think I'm very tidy, father?" said she, looking round
+the room.
+
+"Yes, Bessy, you are very tidy; and it's a pleasure to come home to a
+tidy clean house. Here is a companion for you. I told you he was coming,
+and you know his name."
+
+"It's Tom Saunders, isn't it, father?"
+
+"Yes, that's his name, for want of a better--so I leave you to make
+friends, while I go up and see the poor old lady."
+
+"You look cold and pale, are you not well?" was the first question of
+little Bessy.
+
+"I'm cold, and not very well," replied I; "I have not been used to
+knocking about on board ship."
+
+"Very true; I forgot you had never been at sea before. Come to the fire,
+then, and sit in father's big chair."
+
+"I never knew that your father had been married. I thought Peter
+Anderson said that he was a bachelor."
+
+"And so he is," replied Bessy. "I'm not his daughter, although I call
+him father."
+
+"Indeed! then whose daughter are you? and who is the old lady upstairs?"
+
+"The old lady upstairs is the widow of the pilot with whom father served
+his time. Her husband was lost at sea, and she keeps father's house.
+Father picked me up at sea, and has taken care of me ever since."
+
+"Then you don't remember your own parents?"
+
+"No, I recollect nothing till I found myself in this house. Father says
+I'm a Dutchman, because it was a Dutch ship or a Dutch boat which I was
+taken out of."
+
+"And how long was that ago?"
+
+"Nine years ago. I am now, I believe, about ten years old."
+
+Bessy then catechised me relative to my own family, and I had not
+answered all her questions when Bramble came downstairs.
+
+"Bessy, dear, we must have the doctor to look at that leg again. I'm
+afeard that it will never get well. Missus is too old to shake it off."
+
+"Shall I go now, father?"
+
+"Yes, child, go now, for she's in great pain with it; and Tom, you go
+with Bessy and take care of her. But, before you go, give me some 'baccy
+and the odds and ends."
+
+As soon as Bessy had put the tobacco-pipes, some spirits, a rummer and
+water on the table, and the spittoon at his feet, she put on her bonnet,
+and off we set to the doctor's house, about half a mile distant. I was
+soon on intimate terms with Bessy: there was something so frank and
+winning about her, such perfect honesty of character, that it was
+impossible not to like her. We delivered our message, returned home,
+and, being very tired, I was glad to go to bed. Bessy showed me my room,
+which was very comfortable, and as soon as I laid my head on the pillow
+I was fast asleep.
+
+I was awakened the next morning by a knocking at the door by little
+Bessy; it was broad daylight, and I dressed myself and went downstairs,
+where I found her very busy putting everything in order.
+
+"It was I knocked," said little Bessy; "I thought you would like to come
+and help me."
+
+"And so I will," replied I; "what shall I do?"
+
+"Oh, there's plenty to do now that Mrs. Maddox is ill, and you and
+father are come back--almost too much for a little girl like me. Will
+you go to the pump and fetch the pails full of water, for they are too
+heavy for me?"
+
+I did as she wished. "Anything else, Bessy?" said I.
+
+"Oh, yes, plenty. You're very good-natured, Tom, and I'm so glad you're
+come."
+
+Bessy and I were fully employed for nearly an hour in the front room and
+kitchen, clearing up and cleaning and preparing for breakfast. All was
+ready before Bramble came down and took a seat in his big chair, close
+to the breakfast-table.
+
+"All ready, father," said little Bessy, going up to Bramble to be
+kissed. "Tom has been helping me."
+
+"All's right," said Bramble; "bring the book, dear." Bessy brought a
+large Bible, and read a chapter aloud, then closed it and put it away.
+
+"We can't always do this, Tom," observed Bramble, "when we're knocking
+about in the Channel; all we can do is to read it when we can. Come now
+to breakfast."
+
+When we had finished I assisted Bessy to put everything away, and then
+Bramble said to me, "Anderson tells me you're a good scholar, Tom; but
+you must now learn what will be of use to me as well as to you. The
+first thing you must learn, and which you can do on shore, are the
+points of the compass, to know them at sight and tell them quickly; for
+you see it's of great importance to a pilot to know exactly how a ship's
+head is; and the men at the helm, although good seamen and steering
+well, are not so ready at answering as a pilot wishes, and very often
+stammer at it--sometimes make mistakes. Now, you see, when I'm piloting
+a vessel, if you stand at the binnacle, watch the compass, and answer me
+quickly how the ship's head is, you'll be of use to me in a very short
+time. Go up into my room, and under the bed you will find a compass;
+bring it down carefully, and I'll give you a lesson at once." I brought
+the compass to him, and Bramble made me write down the whole thirty-two
+points at full length upon a piece of paper. When I had done so, he told
+me I must learn them by heart as fast as I could.
+
+I studied them the whole of that day; and in the evening, finding myself
+perfect, I went up to Bramble and repeated them without one mistake.
+
+"All's right," said Bramble. "Now, Tom, give me the paper; if you know
+them to-night you ought to know them to-morrow morning. I'll hear if you
+do, after breakfast."
+
+I went to bed, was tapped up as before by Bessy, assisted her to clean
+everything, taking off her hands all the heaviest of the work; indeed,
+what I have narrated of the first day may be taken as a sample of my
+life on shore at Deal. After breakfast I repeated the points of the
+compass correctly.
+
+"Well, Tom, you have a good memory, that's certain; all the better for
+you, for pilots carry everything in their heads, as you will find out.
+Now, then, look here." Bramble took the glass off the top of the
+compass-box, lifted up the card, and then showed me the needle below,
+which pointed to the north. He then showed me the north point above, and
+then the other points, making me repeat them as he put his finger on
+them. As soon as I understood them, he would put the stem of his pipe to
+one and ask me which it was. When I was perfect with the points, he
+explained the half points and quarter points. In two days I had gained
+them all by heart.
+
+"And now," says he, "we must try you. This iron skewer is the ship's
+head, recollect, and I shall stick it into the table. When I do so, you
+must tell me what point of the compass stands to it, and then that will
+be the direction of the ship's head. Do you understand? Practice makes
+perfect, and you must work at this all the time that you are ashore.
+When you know the compass well then I'll teach you something else. Now,
+then, how's her head, Tom?"
+
+"North-half-west," said I, after a little time.
+
+"Yes, very true; but you see, Tom, that wouldn't do aboard ship. That's
+just the way most of the seamen would puzzle at it. I must have the
+answer in a moment, and that's why you must practice."
+
+In the evening, when Bramble was smoking his pipe, I was seated by him,
+and every minute he would change the place of the iron skewer, with
+"How's her head, Tom?"
+
+"We must get your 'prentice papers signed before we go afloat again,"
+said Bramble, "for they pick up boys as well as men for the King's
+service, and you're a stout boy for your age."
+
+"Were you ever pressed yourself?" inquired I.
+
+"No, but I had a narrow chance once, and had not our captain been a
+smart fellow I and many more would have been serving the King at this
+present moment."
+
+"Tell me how that was," said I.
+
+"Well, as soon as Bessy has done rattling with the cups and saucers, I
+will."
+
+"I've done now, father," said Bessy, taking her seat on a stool close to
+Bramble's feet.
+
+"Well, then, before I passed for pilot, just after the breaking out of
+the war, I took it into my head to try my chance at privateering. There
+was plenty to pick up at that time, and some of the Deal men had been
+very fortunate, so I went on board of a twelve-gun lugger, commanded by
+Captain Shank, fitted out in the river, with a crew of sixty men. The
+press was very hot at that time, and our men were kept at the crimps'
+houses until all was ready, when we started, and got off clear into the
+Channel without being overhauled.
+
+"We had been out a fortnight, keeping well on the French coast, and had
+picked up two good prizes, when one morning, as the fog was cleared up
+with a sharp northerly wind, we found ourselves right under the lee of
+an English frigate, not a mile from us. There was a bubble of a sea, for
+the wind had been against the tide previous to its changing, and we were
+then about six or seven miles from the French coast, just between
+Boulogne and Cape Grisnez, lying to for the fog to clear away. As soon
+as we saw the frigate we knew that she would board us, and we were all
+in a terrible fright." Here Bramble shifted the skewer and said, "How's
+her head, Tom?"
+
+[Illustration: "HOW'S HER HEAD, TOM?"--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 281.]
+
+I replied, and he proceeded:
+
+"The frigate hoisted her colors, and of course we did the same. She then
+fired a gun as a signal for us to remain, hove to, and we perceived her
+boats lowering down. 'Now, my lads,' said our captain, 'if you don't
+mind a shot or two, I think I will save you from impressment this time.'
+We all declared that we would stand a hundred rather than be taken on
+board of a man-of-war. 'Very well,' says he, 'starboard a little, and
+keep her a little away, so as to let her go through the water; but keep
+the foresheet to windward, so that we may appear only to have fallen
+off.' By this plan we gradually increased our distance from the frigate,
+and got more on her bow. All this while the boat was pulling toward us,
+rising and tossing on the sea, but still nearing us fast. As she came
+nearer to us we let the lugger come up in the wind again for a short
+time, that we might not appear to be dodging away, and then, when the
+bowman was almost ready to lay in his oar, away we let her go through
+the water, so that she was left astern again. They could not well
+perceive this on board of the frigate, although the officer in the boat
+was very savage, for at one time he had his bow oar in and his boat-hook
+out. At last the frigate, perceiving that we were apparently slipping
+away, put her helm up, and fired a shot across our bows. 'Now's your
+time, my boys,' said the captain; 'let draw the sheets, the breeze is
+strong. She must wait to pick up her boat, and that will give us a mile
+at least.' Up went the helm, and we made all sail right for the French
+coast. How's her head, Tom?"
+
+I replied, and Bramble resumed:
+
+"The frigate ran down to her boat, and then rounded-to, to hoist it up.
+The sea was heavy, and she was delayed a minute or two, although, to do
+them justice, they were very smart on board of her. As soon as the boat
+was up she made all sail, and came foaming after us, as if she were in
+as great a rage as the captain and those on board of her. Every now and
+then she yawed to throw a shot at us from her bow-chasers; but that we
+didn't mind, as the yawing checked her way, and it's not very easy to
+hit a low vessel like a lugger in a toppling sea. Well, very soon we
+were not four miles from the French coast, so we hauled down our English
+colors and hoisted French. The frigate gained on us very fast, but we
+continued to steer on, and she in pursuit, until we were within gun-shot
+of the batteries, What the Frenchmen thought we did not know, at all
+events they did not fire, and we steered right on as if we were chased,
+and the frigate followed after us, until we were within a mile and a
+half of the batteries, when the frigate thought proper to haul her wind.
+Then the battery opened upon her, and we could see that she was hulled
+more than once, and, as she kept her wind along the shore, the other
+batteries opened upon her, and she got a good mauling. We saw her shift
+her foretopsail yard as soon as she went about again, and we afterward
+heard that she had several men hurt, which was a pity."
+
+"And did not the batteries fire upon _you?_"
+
+"No, for we kept the French colors up, and hove to within a mile of the
+coast. It was a lee shore, and there was too much surf and sea for them
+to send off a boat and ascertain whether we were a French privateer or
+not; so there we lay till dusk, and then made sail again, and, being so
+close into the French shore, we picked up a good prize that very night.
+When the cruise was over, I was satisfied. I got my prize-money, and
+then, as I knew our own coast well, I passed for pilot, and have served
+as one ever since. How's her head, Tom?"
+
+"S.W. almost."
+
+"S.W. _almost_ won't do, Tom. It's not quite S.W., quarter-south; so you
+must say S.W. southerly. D'ye understand?"
+
+When Bessy knocked at my door the next morning, she cried out, laughing,
+"How's her head, Tom?" and those words made me jump up like lightning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
+
+     In which Bramble points out to me that singing is part of the
+     Profession of a Pilot.
+
+
+In about a fortnight from the time that Bramble commenced his tuition I
+was quite perfect with the compass; his method certainly was very good,
+for by such reiterated catechising what you had to learn was graven on
+your memory. All day long the same system was pursued. Even if dinner
+was on the table, the compass was on a chair close by, and as I was
+putting my fork to my mouth, much to Bessy's amusement, out would come
+the question, "How's her head, Tom?" Bramble soon gained his point; I
+could answer like lightning. But whether I was by the fire indoors, or
+on the shingle beach, his system was ever the same. Every time that
+Bramble opened his lips I gained some information; he was never
+wearying, and often very amusing.
+
+One morning we were out on the beach--we had been conversing with the
+other pilots, and examining the vessels in the offing with my
+glass--when he pointed out to me, it being low neap tide, that the
+Goodwin Sands were partially dry. "Tom," continued he, "of all the
+dangers, not only of the Channel, but in the wide ocean, there is none
+to be compared with those sands--the lives that have been lost on them,
+the vessels that have been wrecked, and the property that has been
+sucked into them, would be a dozen kings' ransoms; for, you see, Tom,
+they are quicksands, and the vessel which goes on shore does not remain
+to be broken up, but in two tides she disappears, sinking down into the
+sands, which never give her or her cargo up again. There must be a
+mighty deal of wealth buried there, that is certain. They say that once
+they were a flourishing fertile island, belonging to an Earl Godwin,
+whose name they now bear; it may be so--the sea retreats from one place
+while it advances at another. Look at Romney Marshes, where so many
+thousands of sheep are now fed. They run up many miles inland; and yet
+formerly those very marshes were an arm of the sea, which vessels rode
+in deep water, and sea-fights, I am told, took place. Howsomever, when
+the sea took the Godwin island to itself it made the best trap for
+vessels that old Neptune now possesses, and he may consider it as the
+most productive spot in his dominions. Lord help us! what a deal of gold
+and merchandise must there be buried below yon yellow patch!"
+
+"Do you never save anything when vessels are run on shore there?"
+
+"When they only tail on, we occasionally get them off again; but when
+once fixed, there's an end of it. Yes, we save life occasionally, but at
+great risk of our own. I saved little Bessy from a vessel ashore on
+these sands."
+
+"Indeed! Pray tell me how it was."
+
+"Why, you see, Tom, it was just at the breaking out of the war. It was
+in this very month of October, '93, that I was out in a galley with some
+others, looking for vessels. I had just then left off privateering, and
+got my warrant as pilot (for you know I did serve my 'prenticeship,
+before I went a-privateering, as I told you the other night). Well, it
+was a blowing night, and we were running in for the Downs, intending to
+beach the galley and sleep on shore, for we had been out five days, and
+only put a pilot on board of one vessel. We were just to windward of the
+Sands, out there, where I am now pointing. The sea was very rough, but
+the night was clear, and the moon shone bright, when we saw a brig
+running down before the wind, under foresail and close-reefed topsails.
+'Why, Bill, as she steers she'll be right between the Callipers,' said I
+to the man sitting by me. 'There's no mistake about that,' replied he;
+'let's haul the foresheet to windward, and lay to, to hail him; he's
+coming right down upon us.' Well, we did so, and we hailed some time
+without any answer. At last a man looked over the gunnel, just as she
+was flying past us, and told us in Dutch to go to the devil. 'I think
+you'll go there if you don't look sharp,' replied Bill. 'Come, my lads,
+we may as well follow her, and see if we cannot prevent mischief.' So we
+bore up after her, and hailed her several times, for we sailed very
+fast, and there was a scuffling on deck. I think that the captain was
+drunk. All this passed in less than five minutes; and then, as I knew
+would be the case, she struck on the sands, and with such force that all
+her masts went over the side immediately. Now, the sea rolls awfully
+over the shallow water of those sands, Tom. We had kept with her as far
+as we dared, and then hove-to about two cables' lengths to windward of
+her, when she struck, for the ebb was still running strong under our
+lee, which only made the sea more cross and heavy. The waves made a
+clean breach over her, and we knew that she would go to pieces in less
+than half-an-hour; but we did not like to leave so many to perish
+without a trial to save them. So we kept away, so as to get abreast of
+them, and then lowered our sails and got out our oars. We pulled close
+to them, but it was impossible to board. We should have been stove to
+pieces and swamped immediately. The moon still shone bright, and we saw
+them as plain as we could wish, and we made every attempt to save them,
+for they were all crowded together forward. Once the sea drove the boat
+so close that we touched her sides, and then a woman pressed before the
+men, and reached over the gunnel, extending her arms which held the
+child, while several others attempted to get in; but the return of the
+wave carried us back so quick from the vessel that, as they attempted to
+jump in, they all went to the water, and never appeared again; but I had
+caught hold of the child, and laid it down in the sternsheets. We made a
+second and third attempt, but in vain. At last the vessel broke up, as
+it were, all at once--there was one loud cry, and all was still, except
+the roaring and breaking waves which buried them. It wasn't a scene to
+make us very lively, Tom; we hoisted the sail, and ran on to the beach
+in silence. I took the child in my arms--it had been snatched out of its
+warm bed, poor thing, and had nothing on but a calico nightgown. I took
+it up to the cottage, which was then Maddox's (I bought it afterward of
+the widow with the money I made a-privateering), and I gave it in charge
+to Mrs. Maddox. I did intend to have sent it to the workhouse, or
+something of that sort; but Mrs. Maddox took a fancy to it, and so did
+I, and so I thought I would take care of it, and I christened it by the
+name of Betsy Godwin."
+
+[Illustration: BRAMBLE SAVING BESSY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 237.]
+
+"You have no idea who she may be?"
+
+"Not a half one. Her cotton gown and cap told nothing; the vessel was
+Dutch, that's all I know. She may be the child of the Stadtholder or
+the child of the ship's cook. What's the matter?"
+
+"But did you notice any marks upon her person by which she might be
+reclaimed?"
+
+"Not I. I only axed Mrs. Maddox whether it were a boy or a girl."
+
+"How old was she then?"
+
+"Well, how can I tell? that's not in my way; but the knowing ones in
+these matters said that she must be about eighteen months old, so we
+have taken that for a _departure_ as to her age. I love her now as if
+she were my own child, and so will you, Tom, like a sister, when you
+know her. She calls me her father, and you may do the same, Tom, if you
+like, for I will be as good as a father to you, if you are as good a boy
+as you now seem to be, I like to be called father, somehow or
+another--it sounds pleasant to my ears. But come in now, I think you
+have compassed the compass, so you must learn something else.
+
+"There is another way, Tom," said Bramble, as he seated himself in his
+large chair, "in which a smart 'prentice may be useful to his master,
+and it is of quite as much importance as the compass, which is in
+heaving the lead. You see, Tom, the exact soundings being known will
+often enable a pilot to run over the tail of a bank and save a tide;
+that is, when he knows that he can trust the man in the chains. Some
+seamen are very particular in giving exact soundings, but all are not.
+They care more for the song than they do for anything else, and though
+the song is very musical, yet it won't get a ship off when she's on
+shore. Now, two-thirds of the seamen who are sent in the chains will not
+give the soundings within half a fathom, and, moreover, they do not give
+them quick enough for the pilot in many cases. If, therefore, you learn
+to heave the lead well, be correct in your soundings and quick in giving
+them, you will become of great use to me. You understand, don't you?"
+
+"Yes," replied I.
+
+"Well, go up into my room, and hanging on the nail behind the door you
+will see a lead-line--bring it me down here."
+
+I did so, and then Bramble explained to me how the fathoms were marked
+on the line, and how the soundings were given out.
+
+"You see," said he, "wherever there is a mark with a piece of leather or
+bunting, whether it be white or red, it is called a mark; and if you
+have five fathoms of water you would cry out by the _mark_ five; but at
+the other depths there are no marks, but so many knots tied as there are
+fathoms, as here at nine; and then you would say by the _deep_ nine. Now
+run the line through your hand, and see if you can repeat the marks and
+deeps as they pass."
+
+I did so.
+
+"Very well. Now for the song, for there is a sort of tune to it."
+Bramble then again passed the line through his hands, giving the song to
+each fathom, half-fathom, and quarter-fathom, and making me sing them
+after him, after which I had to repeat them by myself. The next day he
+took out the marks and knots from the whole line, and, giving me a
+two-foot rule to re-measure it, made me put them all in again. This I
+had to repeat three or four times. By this plan they were fully
+impressed on my memory; and as for the song, he made me sing it almost
+every half-hour for three or four days, Bessy generally repeating, in
+her clear voice, from the back kitchen or upstairs, "and a quarter
+seven--by the deep line."
+
+On the fourth day Bramble said, "Well, Tom, I think both you and Bessy
+may leave off singing now. You have yet to learn the most important
+part, which is to _heave_ the lead; but we must wait till we get on
+board of a vessel for that. Observe, Tom, it's all very well singing
+when you've plenty of water, and I like it, for it sounds musical and
+pleasant to the ear; but in shallow water the pilot's answer must be
+much shorter and quicker, as you will find out by-and-by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
+
+     In which I go Afloat, and obtain some Knowledge of the English
+     Channel.
+
+
+It may be as well here to remark that the system of pilotage is
+different now from what it used to be at the period of which I am
+writing. The Cinque Port pilots now carry vessels from the Downs to the
+river, and from the river to the Downs. Their pilotage extends no
+further. Vessels seldom require pilots for the Channel, and do not take
+them unless they are bound to some port in the Channel with which they
+are unacquainted, and those pilots who ply in the Channel are termed
+Hoblers; but at the time I refer to the regular pilots used to go out in
+their galleys to the chaps of the Channel and take charge of vessels all
+the way up, which, by the new regulations, they do not do. The
+arrangements for pilotage have been much improved of late years, and
+those employed are better qualified.
+
+I had remained at Deal about three weeks when an outward-bound Indiaman
+anchored in the Downs. Her pilot came on shore, and she made the signal
+for another. It was Bramble's turn, a galley was launched, and we went
+on board.
+
+The ship was bound to Plymouth, from whence she was to sail with convoy
+to a certain latitude. The weather was now fine and frosty, and we made
+sail when the tide served. As soon as we were fairly out in the Channel
+Bramble went with me into the main-chains, and showed me how to heave
+the lead. After several attempts, in which I sometimes would hit the
+spare topsail-yard upon which I stood, sometimes would nearly break my
+own head, and once contrived to throw the lead over the hammock-rails
+inboard, I succeeded in getting it round over my head; and when I had
+once gained that point I made fewer mistakes. In two days we arrived at
+Plymouth; and as Bramble kept me at it till my arms ached, nearly half
+the day, I could by that time heave the lead pretty fairly, that is to
+say, without danger to myself or other people. The day after we arrived
+at Plymouth we got into a pilot boat and went out in search of
+employment, which we soon found, and we continued chiefly taking vessels
+up to Portsmouth and down to Plymouth, or clear of soundings, for some
+time. During this time my practice at the lead was incessant, and I
+became very perfect. When I was not at the lead Bramble would make me
+stand at the binnacle and watch the compass, so that, by the time we
+arrived at Deal again, I was pretty competent in those two branches of
+my art, except that, having practiced the lead mostly in deep water, I
+had not acquired accuracy and expedition in giving the soundings. But I
+learned a great deal more of my profession; Bramble explaining to me the
+sails, rigging, and names and uses of the ropes, and the various
+maneuvers practiced, all of which he would catechise me in afterward, to
+ascertain if I was perfect, and had remembered what he told me. I was,
+therefore, under excellent tuition. Whatever port we entered Bramble
+would point out the landmarks to me, state the distances from point to
+point, and the dangers to be avoided. These I could not so well retain
+perfectly, and required occasional reminding, but altogether I gave him
+satisfaction. It was on New Year's Day, 1800, that we boarded a large
+homeward-bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings. She was a
+thousand-ton ship, with a rich cargo of tea on board, and full of
+passengers, besides more than one hundred invalids from the regiments
+out there, who had been sent home under the charge of two officers.
+
+What a difference there appeared to me to be between the Indiaman going
+out and this one coming home! the first so neat and clean in her decks,
+and this so crowded and so weatherworn by her long voyage. What with
+troops in old jackets, which had once been scarlet, Lascars with their
+curly black hair, and dark handsome features, yellow men, sickly women,
+and half-caste children, with their Hindoo ayahs, tigers, lions,
+turtles, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs, on the booms and main deck, the
+vessel was in a strange motley of confusion.
+
+As soon as we were put on board, the captain, officers, and passengers
+crowded round to inquire the news. Bramble, according to pilot custom,
+had brought off one or two late Plymouth papers (one of which, I
+recollect, gave the account of the cutting out of the "Hermione" by
+Captain Hamilton); but the people on board were eight months behindhand
+at least as regarded what had passed. They had not even heard of Sir
+Sydney Smith's defense of Acre against Bonaparte, or anything else which
+had subsequently occurred; so that as soon as Bramble had taken charge,
+and put the ship's head the right course (for the wind was fair), there
+was no end to question and answer, And while Bramble was questioned by
+the captain and passengers, I was attacked by the midshipmen or
+guinea-pigs, as they are called. Having a fair wind, we ran right for
+the Downs, where we arrived on the morning of the second day. Here the
+purser of the ship went on shore with his dispatches, and the ship
+anchored to await orders, by the next post, to go up the river.
+
+[Illustration: JACK HEAVING THE LEAD.--Marryat, Vol X., p. 245.]
+
+"Tom," said Bramble, as the vessel anchored, "I cannot quit the ship,
+but you may, so just get on shore in one of the boats, and see how
+little Bessy is, and poor old Mrs. Maddox's leg; and, Tom, take our
+dirty linen on shore and bring off clean."
+
+I was glad enough to obey his orders, for I was very anxious to see dear
+little Bessy again; so I dropped into a boat that was going on shore for
+fresh beef, taking with me two or three little presents for Bessy, out
+of the many which I had received when on board, for the officers and men
+were very kind to me, and had given me many things which they did not
+value, but which I did very much, as they were quite new to me.
+
+The custom officers at Deal were not very particular at that time. I was
+not searched, and arrived at the cottage, where I found Bessy sitting at
+her needle. She threw down her work and ran to me, and as I kissed her
+the tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+"Where is father, Tom? I'm so glad to see you; but where is father? I've
+been so frightened, the winter has been so rough."
+
+"He's on board of the Indiaman, but being in charge he cannot come on
+shore, so he sent me."
+
+"Oh! I'm so glad. You have been away so long, and we have had nothing
+but gales of wind; and do you know that Williams and Steers are both
+drowned?"
+
+"No, indeed, we know nothing; but father will be sorry to hear of it,
+for they were friends of his."
+
+"Well, Tom, it's not fair to leave a little girl like me alone here, for
+Mrs. Maddox has kept her bed ever since you left. Her leg is better, but
+she has pains in her limbs, and groans so all night, and here I am left
+by myself, to hear her groan and the wind roar."
+
+Here Bessy began to cry, and I to console her as well as I could,
+although I did feel that it was hard that such a child should be left so
+lonely. The presents I brought her made her wipe away her tears, and she
+was very soon as lively and joyous as ever.
+
+"I heard father say, Bessy" (I always called Bramble my father, as he
+had said I might), "that he had picked up something this winter, for he
+has had none but heavy vessels, and you know pilotage is paid by the
+draught of water."
+
+"Well, he may have made money, but I'm sure we haven't spent any to
+matter, for I have hardly been once a week to Mrs. Maddox for money
+since you have gone. She eats hardly anything, and I can't eat my meals
+when I'm alone down here. Will father come home after he has been up the
+river?"
+
+"Yes, Bessy, he said that we should take a spell on shore."
+
+"Tom, don't you think I might go on board and see him for half an hour?"
+
+"Yes, I don't see why not; speak to Mrs. Maddox."
+
+Bessy ran upstairs, and came down with the required permission, provided
+a neighbor's girl would remain in the house, and that she went under my
+escort. Her bonnet was soon on, and we obtained a passage in one of the
+Indiaman's boats which was shoving off, for the water was quite smooth,
+and the ship's boats could lie on the shingle without difficulty. The
+officer took Bessy under his boat cloak, and we were soon on board.
+Bramble was not on deck at the time, and when I went down to look for
+him, Bessy remained on the quarter-deck in admiration of all she saw.
+But Bramble was not below as I supposed--he had gone into the cuddy with
+the captain; and when he came out, his first knowledge of Bessy's being
+on board was being embraced by the waist with her little arms.
+
+"Why, Bessy, my child," said Bramble, just as I returned on deck. "This
+is Master Tom's doing," continued he, kissing her; "so you have come to
+see your father?"
+
+"Why, you would not come on shore to see me, father," said Bessy, as
+Bramble took her up and kissed her again.
+
+"Well, Tom, have you brought the clean things?"
+
+"No, I must go on shore again with Bessy, father."
+
+"Very true, so you must."
+
+Bessy was taken much notice of by the captain and all on board. No
+wonder: her fair skin and clear transparent red and white were in such
+contrast with the bilious-looking passengers that she appeared as if she
+was not of the same race. She was much admired, and received many little
+presents; and when she left the ship, after staying on board an hour,
+she was much delighted with her trip, and still more so with the promise
+of Bramble that he would stay ashore for some time as soon as he came
+back from the river. I remained with her on shore till dusk, and then,
+having collected the clean linen, as we were expected to sail early the
+next morning, I returned on board the Indiaman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
+
+     Showing the Importance, on board Ship, of a Rope's End well
+     applied.
+
+
+The next morning, as we expected, the orders came down for the Indiaman
+to go round to the river. The wind was fair, but light; we hove up and
+made sail, stemming the last of the ebb. When the flood made, the wind
+died away, so that we made but little progress, much to the annoyance of
+those on board, who were naturally impatient to land after so tedious a
+voyage. Toward the evening it fell calm, and a fog-bank rose on the
+horizon to the eastward. There were still two hours of daylight, when,
+as I was sweeping the horizon with my glass, I discovered the three
+masts of a vessel with no sails set on them. As she was a long way off I
+went half-way up the main rigging to have a better view of her, and made
+her out to be a large lugger. I went down to the poop, where Bramble
+stood smoking a cheroot with some of the officers of the ship. "Father,"
+says I, "there's a large lugger on our beam, with her sails lowered
+down. I caught her masts with the glass just now."
+
+"Then she's a French privateer, you may depend upon it," replied
+Bramble, "and she means to try to take us by surprise to-night."
+
+The officers went down and reported it to the captain: the glasses were
+fixed upon her, and there was little doubt as to what she was.
+
+"Lucky you discovered her, boy, for we might have been surprised, that's
+a fact," said the captain; "however, now she shall catch a Tartar."
+
+"She's waiting for the fog, captain," said Bramble, "which will come
+rolling down with the shift of wind in about an hour or two, I expect;
+and then we must allow her another hour to get alongside of us. Depend
+upon it she has plenty of men, and intends to try to board us in the
+fog."
+
+Everybody was now on the _qui vive_; the women were, as usual,
+frightened; the men passengers looked grave, the Lascars rather
+unsteady; but we had forty English seamen and a hundred invalid soldiers
+on board, who could all be depended upon. The guns were loaded and
+shotted, and the invalid soldiers were mustered; muskets and ammunition
+handed up; the bayonets fixed, unfixed again; and then they were ordered
+to remain on the booms with their accouterments on and their muskets by
+their sides. The officers still kept their glasses on the lugger, until
+at last the fog came down and we could see her no more.
+
+The officers who commanded the invalids, after a consultation with the
+captain at which Bramble assisted, told off their men into two parties,
+one of them being appointed to assist the seamen with their bayonets in
+repelling the boarders (should the attempt be made), and the other to
+fire upon them and into the deck of the vessel when she came alongside.
+The Lascars were stationed at the guns, in case they might be required;
+but no great dependence was placed upon their services.
+
+By the time that these arrangements had been made, the fog had reached
+the Indiaman, and we were at the same time taken aback with the easterly
+breeze which brought it down to us; being near to the land, we put the
+ship's head off shore. The wind continued light and the water smooth,
+but the fog thickened every minute: at last we could hardly see as far
+as the foremast of the vessel.
+
+"He'll be puzzled to find us, I think," said the captain.
+
+"He'll find us, never fear," replied Bramble. "He has calculated the
+time of the fog reaching us, and he knows that we must lay our head
+off-shore--to be sure, we might give him the go-by if we bore up and ran
+back again to the Downs."
+
+"I think I see myself bearing up and running away from a rascally French
+privateer," said the captain. "Keep a sharp lookout there forward."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," replied the chief officer.
+
+Half an hour more passed, and by our calculation the privateer should
+have been on board of us, but we could see nothing of her, although the
+fog had cleared up a little. The soldiers were now ordered to load their
+muskets. I was on the poop with Bramble, when, happening to turn and
+look aft (the very opposite direction from which the privateer was to be
+expected), I saw her three lugsails looming in the mist, just on the
+quarter, not half a cable's length from us. I jumped down to where the
+captain was standing, and said to him, "There she is, sir, close on our
+lee quarter." The captain sprang on the poop, saw the vessel, and
+ordered the men to come aft in silence. The tramp of the soldiers' feet
+was scarcely over when the lugger was alongside of us, her masts banging
+against our main and mizzen chains as she rolled with the swell under
+our lee. The Frenchmen gave a cheer, which told us how very numerous
+they were: they climbed up the side and into the chains like cats, and
+in a few seconds all was noise, confusion, and smoke. It was impossible
+to know what the result was to be for about a minute, when the cheers
+from our own men announced that the assailants had been beaten back. But
+hardly had the cheering ceased on our side when another cheer was heard
+from the lugger, and the attempt to gain our decks was repeated. This
+time the Frenchmen fought more obstinately than before, and it was
+nearly five minutes before they were repelled. It was not yet dark
+(although the fog was thick), and you could make out their countenances
+pretty clear; a more wild reckless set of fellows I never beheld, and
+they certainly fought very gallantly, but they were driven back again;
+and once more were the cheers from the British seamen and soldiers mixed
+up with the execrations and shouts of the still contending, although
+retreating, Frenchmen.
+
+Just at this period of the conflict I was standing on the poop by
+Bramble, who had been watching the result, when he said, "Tom, come with
+me: do you jump into the main chains with a double part of the topsail
+halyards fall, and when the lugger's mast strikes against the chains as
+she rolls into us, pass the fall round it underneath the rigging, and
+hand the end in to me."
+
+We both leaped off the poop; he gave me the bight of the halyards. I
+crept out of the port into the chains and passed it round the lugger's
+mainmast, as he told me, handing in the bight to him, which he belayed
+slack to the mainsheet kevel. At the time I perceived a man lying
+wounded or dead in the main chains, but I paid no attention to him
+until, as I was about to get on board, he attracted my attention by
+seizing my leg, and making his teeth meet in the small part of it, above
+the ankle. I could not help crying out, I was so taken by surprise with
+the pain; however, I kicked him off, and turning to look at him, I found
+it was a wounded Frenchman, who, perceiving what I was about, had paid
+me that compliment. As soon as I was on board I heard the captain say to
+Bramble, "Well, pilot, he has had enough of it."
+
+"Yes, and he won't escape, captain, for Tom has got him fast by the
+masthead, and they dare not climb up to cut themselves adrift. All that
+you have to do now it to let the soldiers fire on his decks until they
+run below, and then our men can board and take possession of her."
+
+The captain, perceiving that the vessel was made fast, gave the
+necessary orders. The soldiers lined the hammock nettings and chains,
+and such a shower of musketry was poured into her decks that the
+Frenchmen were soon driven below, and our seamen then slipped down her
+rigging, boarded, and took possession of her. The prisoners having been
+ordered up and passed into the forehold, the wounded men were then
+looked after. We had eleven wounded, but none killed; the Frenchman had
+eight killed and seventeen wounded; among others, the captain, who had
+headed the second attempt to board. She was called the "Pucelle
+d'Orleans," of twelve guns and a hundred and twenty-five men.
+
+It was two or three hours before we were again all to rights, and a
+party sent on board of the prize; and then there was again another kind
+of confusion, from the congratulations, drinking healths, the women
+coming up on deck, etc.; however, the weather continued light, so it was
+of no consequence. That Frenchman bit very hard, and I limped for three
+or four days afterward.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "I see you've got nerve, so all's right. You
+had better go and lie down now, for you must be tired; I'll call you in
+the morning."
+
+Very glad was I to limp to bed. All night I dreamed of nothing but
+volleys of musketry, and boarding and reboarding, and being wounded in
+the leg, and then I would awake with the smart of the Frenchman's teeth.
+
+The next morning when I came on deck, the captain thanked me for my
+services, and said that the lugger would have escaped had it not been
+for me. I replied that it was Bramble who prevented her escape, as I
+should not have thought of making her fast if I had not been told.
+
+"That's all true enough," replied the captain; "but how many of your
+age, having been told to do it, would have done it, Tom? I shall not
+forget you."
+
+I went on the poop to Bramble, who, as usual, had his short pipe in his
+hand; and I certainly was pleased when I saw what a beautiful craft we
+had helped to capture. She sat like a swan on the water, and sailed
+round and round us with the greatest ease.
+
+In the afternoon we anchored at the Nore, and sent away all the
+prisoners to Sheerness. I must not forget to say how very kind and
+generous the passengers were to me. They made a great many presents,
+some of value, as I afterward found out; and I was glad to receive them
+that I might give them to Virginia and those who had been friendly to
+me.
+
+The next morning we arrived off Greenwich, and Bramble told me to go on
+shore and remain with my father and mother until he came down, which he
+would do in a few days, and pay a visit to his old friend Anderson. I
+landed with all my contraband articles in the boat, but no one thought
+of stopping or searching the former "Poor Jack." My insignificance was
+my protection; and I arrived safely at Fisher's Alley with all my
+curiosities and prohibited effects. When I entered the house, I
+perceived that there was a third person sitting in company with my
+mother and Virginia; but Virginia sprang to me, and I threw down my
+bundles with which I was loaded, and pressed her in my arms. Although I
+had been absent but four months, she appeared to be very much grown, and
+in every way improved. As soon as I had released her, I offered my hand
+to my mother, who took it very coldly, and then observed, "Tom, you will
+be _so_ ungenteel; don't you see there is a gentleman here?"
+
+"I beg his pardon, mother," replied I; "but I could only see my sister
+just then."
+
+"And I admire your feeling, Tom," replied the party. "Mrs. Saunders, you
+must not scold him for that. How do you do, Tom, and how do you like
+your profession?" continued he, holding out his hand.
+
+I took his hand, and looking at him I recognized him. "Oh, sir! you are
+the gentleman who was sitting in the room when we called upon Sir
+Hercules and her ladyship."
+
+"I am so, Tom, and I promised Sir Hercules that I would have an eye to
+you all, and be of any use to you that I could. My name is Wilson, and
+I'm what the sailors call a shark, that is, I'm a lawyer."
+
+"Well, you don't appear as if you would bite, sir," replied I, as I
+looked at his venerable and kind face.
+
+"No, no, we never frighten people by our looks. We don't carry our teeth
+with us; but I have several rows of them, all upon shelves in my
+chambers, called the 'Statute at Large,' and by other names."
+
+He then entered into conversation with me, and I told him most of what
+had passed, of course not forgetting that the Indiaman we had brought up
+the river had captured a privateer. He sat about an hour, and then went
+away, desiring me to call upon him. I was not sorry when he went, as I
+wished to show my presents to Virginia, and give her those which she
+liked best. When Virginia had selected for herself, or rather I had
+forced upon her all she most admired, I gave a cut ivory card-case, a
+filigree needle-case, and a small red scarf to my mother, who, for the
+first time in her life, appeared pleased with me, and said that they
+were very _genteel_, and she was much obliged to me. The remainder I put
+away in my room upstairs, intending to keep some for Bessy, and give the
+others to Mrs. St. Felix, the doctor, and old Nanny.
+
+I then went to the hospital and found out my father, old Anderson and
+Ben. I narrated to them much more circumstantially than I did to the old
+lawyer the particulars of the capture of the privateer. Anderson put a
+great many inquiries to me, as to my liking my profession, and also
+concerning little Bessy, whose history I communicated to him. After my
+father and Ben had left, he gave me a great deal of advice, all of which
+I trust that I treasured up.
+
+"I hear," said he, "that Spicer has been talking a good deal about you,
+and inquiring very often when you were expected to return. Were you very
+intimate with that man?"
+
+I replied in the negative, and then narrated the whole history of the
+spy-glass, the erasure of the name by Mrs. St, Felix, and the
+recognition of it by Spicer.
+
+"You did right to leave him in his error relative to where you received
+the glass from," said Peter Anderson; "there is some mystery there which
+time may unravel, but do not say a word of it to any one, Tom. I am glad
+that you have told me, as, in case you are away, and anything should
+occur, I shall know how to act."
+
+I must acknowledge that I now walked proudly through the streets of
+Greenwich. I was no longer Poor Jack, but I was earning my livelihood
+in my profession. I had reason to be still prouder when, two days
+afterward, Mr. Wilson came to my mother's with the newspaper in his hand
+in which there was a long account of the capture of the privateer, and
+the conduct of Bramble and of me spoken of in the highest terms. This he
+read aloud to my mother and Virginia. I watched my sister. The tears
+filled her eyes as she listened, and when Mr. Wilson had done her arms
+were round my neck, and her smiles were mixed with her tears, and
+sometimes she would laugh as she cried. Oh! how I loved her then, for I
+felt how dearly she loved me; even my mother appeared gratified,
+although she said nothing, but continued to repair the lace veil upon
+which she had been employed. That evening I went with Virginia to call
+upon Mrs, St. Felix, taking with me the presents I had laid aside for
+her. She welcomed me as usual, and accepted what I brought for her
+without hesitation and with many thanks.
+
+"Well, Mr. Tom," said she, "I'll just put away all your nice little
+remembrances, and then I'll tell you that I've heard all about your
+behavior in the fight with the privateer, and I've no doubt but that, if
+you continue to go on as you have begun, you will one day have a leg the
+less, as your father has before you."
+
+"I hope not," replied I; "two legs are better than one."
+
+"Yes, when you want to run away, that's true. I see now why you're so
+anxious to save your legs."
+
+"But, Mrs. St. Felix, if it had not been for that good spy-glass you
+gave me, I never should have discovered the privateer, and we should not
+have been prepared for her."
+
+"Well, that's fortunate; it didn't prove a glass too much, anyhow, or
+you'd have seen double. I suppose, then, all these pretty things are my
+share of the prize-money."
+
+"No, they are no value, except to prove to you that Poor Jack has not
+forgotten your kindness, and never will."
+
+"That I believe; and, believing that, I suppose you have not forgotten
+old Nanny."
+
+"No; but I have not seen her yet. I intend to go to-morrow; but I have
+something for the doctor. He is not at home; will you give it to him?"
+
+"Certainly; you know I am as good as a mother to him."
+
+"I think the doctor would rather you'd be a wife to him."
+
+"That's a foolish idea that's in many people's heads, Tom, which I'll
+thank you to contradict. I never intend to change my name."
+
+"Don't make too sure," replied I; and I added at a venture (why, I know
+not, but I had formed the idea in my mind that St. Felix was not her
+proper name), "you may change it yet for your real name."
+
+"Tom, Tom," cried the widow, "what do you mean?" "Nothing," replied I,
+"I was only joking." "Well, then, don't talk such nonsense, or I shall
+send you out of the shop."
+
+I had, however, it appeared, struck upon a chord which jarred, and all
+the spirits of Mrs. St. Felix vanished at once. So Virginia and I wished
+her a good-evening and returned home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
+
+     Some little Difference in the Proceeds of this Chapter, and my
+     former "Copper for Poor Jack, your Honor".
+
+
+On our arrival at my mother's, I found a letter from Bramble, stating
+that he would be at Greenwich in two days, and, further, informing me
+that the honorable company had been pleased, in consequence of the
+report made of our good behavior, to award to him the sum of two hundred
+pounds, and to me the sum of one hundred pounds, as a remuneration for
+our assistance in the capture of the privateer.
+
+This was news indeed. One hundred pounds! I never thought that I should
+possess such a sum in my life. One hundred pounds! what should I do with
+it? My mother was astonished, and then fell into a very grave mood.
+Virginia was pleased, but appeared to care less about it than I thought
+she would have done. My father came in as usual with Ben the Whaler, and
+I read the letter.
+
+"Why, Tom, that's about as much prize-money as I have made in all my
+sarvice," said my father, "and you've been afloat only four months.
+Come, missis, send for some beer, and let us drink Tom's health and
+success to him. God bless you, my boy! the papers say you deserved it,
+and that's better than your getting it. I'm proud of you; I am, indeed,
+my boy. Your father's proud of you, Tom"--and here my father showed more
+emotion than ever I witnessed in him before; however, he put his lips to
+the porter-pot, and when he had drained it nearly to the bottom, he had
+quite recovered himself.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Ben, after he had finished the small modicum of beer
+left him by my father, "and what do you mean to do with all that money?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know--I have no want of it--I have everything I wish
+for."
+
+"Come, missis," said my father, "we must have another pot, for I drank
+deep, and Ben has been shared out." My mother very graciously sent for
+another pot of porter, which, with the newspaper, occupied Ben and my
+father till it was time for us to break up and go to bed.
+
+The next morning when I went down I found Virginia alone, my mother
+having returned to her room.
+
+"Tom," said she, "what do you think my mother said to me when we were
+going to bed last night?"
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"She said, 'Tom says he don't know what to do with his money. I only
+wish I had it; I would turn it into three times the sum in three years,
+and have a better home for you, my dear.'"
+
+"Did she say how?"
+
+"Yes, I asked her how; she said that she should take a new house with a
+shop up the town, and set up as a milliner, with apprentices; that, as
+soon as she was fairly employed, she should give up getting up fine
+linen, and only take in laces to wash and mend, which was a very
+profitable business."
+
+"Well," says I, "Virginia, my mother is a hard-working woman, and a
+clever woman, and I dare say she would do very well, and, as she says
+she would have a better home for you, I think I shall let her have the
+money; but I won't say so yet. I must talk about it to Peter Anderson,
+and if he don't say no, she shall have it with pleasure."
+
+"That will be very kind of you, Tom; and I hope mother will feel it, for
+you don't owe her much."
+
+"Never mind that; after breakfast I'll see Peter Anderson. Don't say a
+word about it till I come back."
+
+At breakfast-time my mother still appeared to be very thoughtful. The
+fact was, that the idea of what advantage the money would be had taken
+possession of her mind; and perhaps she thought that there was no chance
+of obtaining it. Perhaps she felt that, had she treated me better, she
+would have had it without difficulty--it was impossible to say exactly.
+
+After breakfast I walked with Virginia to her school, and then set off
+to Anderson, to whom I immediately imparted what had taken place. His
+answer was decided:
+
+"I think, Jack, you can't do better; but, at the same time, let us go to
+your father and hear his opinion."
+
+My father coincided with Anderson and me; and he added, "I tell you
+what, your mother is not parfect exactly--though I say it, as shouldn't
+say it--but still she does work hard, and she will work hard; she has
+paid my little girl's schooling out of her own arnings, and, moreover,
+she has found me one pot of porter at least every night, which has made
+me very comfortable. Now, I've still a matter of forty pounds in the
+lieutenant's hands. I'll add it to Tom's hundred pounds, and then she
+will have a fair start. What d'ye think, Peter?"
+
+"I think you are both right; and, Tom, you are doing your duty."
+
+I knew what Anderson meant. I thanked him for his advice, and my father
+and I went to my mother's house. I requested my father to stand
+spokesman, which he did, ending by telling my mother that my hundred
+pounds and his forty pounds were very much at her sarvice, and good luck
+to her. Virginia's eyes glistened as she took me by the hand. My mother
+replied, "Very well, if we pleased, she would do her best for us all."
+
+The answer was hardly gracious, but I watched her countenance and saw
+she was moved. Her thin lips quivered as she turned away and went
+upstairs, which she did immediately after her reply. In about
+half-an-hour, during which I was laughing with Virginia, my mother came
+downstairs in her shawl and bonnet.
+
+"Tom," said she, in a kind manner, "will you walk with Virginia to
+school this afternoon, as I am going to have some conversation with Mr.
+Wilson?"
+
+The alteration in her tone of voice to me was immediately perceived by
+Virginia.
+
+"You are a dear good Tom," said she, kissing me, as soon as my mother
+had left the house.
+
+As soon as I had left Virginia at school, I went to call upon old Nanny,
+whom I found quite brisk and lively, sorting old keys and rusty hinges.
+
+"Well, Jack," said she, "so you are come at last! I thought you would
+have been here yesterday, but nobody cares about an old woman like me. I
+heard all about you, and how you took the privateer, and how the Company
+have given you a hundred pounds; and when I heard that I said, Jack
+(Poor Jack that was, who came begging to old Nanny to lend him money)
+will not come to see me, he'll be too proud. Besides,' I said, 'his
+family is getting up in the world: there's a baronet and his lady who
+have taken them under their protection, and there's lawyer Wilson calls
+at the house. Oh, dear me! it's the way of us all.'"
+
+"And so you said all that to yourself, did you?" replied I.
+
+"Yes, and a great deal more, too."
+
+"Then, mother, you did me injustice. I could not well come before; I had
+to see my father and mother and my sister, and I had business to
+transact."
+
+"Mercy on us! business to transact! Poor Jack had business to transact!
+Here's a change from the time that his whole business was to touch his
+hat for coppers and dip his head in the mud for a penny."
+
+"Nevertheless, what I say is true, and you are very unjust to accuse me
+as you have done. I have always thought of you, and have now with me
+several things that I have collected for you."
+
+"Yes, you promised me. Jack, you do keep your promises; I will say that
+for you. Well, what have you got?"
+
+I opened my handkerchief and pulled out several little articles, such as
+fine worked baskets, shells, etc., and, among the rest, a pound of tea
+in a leaden canister.
+
+"There, mother, I have brought you them as a present, and I hope you
+will take them."
+
+Old Nanny turned them over one by one, rather contemptuously, as I
+thought, until she came to the tea. "That may do," said she. "Why, Jack,
+those are all very pretty things, but they are too pretty for my shop.
+Why didn't you bring me some empty ginger beer bottles? I could have
+sold them this very morning."
+
+"Why, mother, I really did not like to ask for such things."
+
+"No, there it is; you've grown so fine all of a sudden. These are no
+use, for nobody will come to my shop to buy them."
+
+"I thought you would like to keep them yourself, mother."
+
+"Keep them? Oh, they are keepsakes, are they? Look you, Jack, if they
+are to be kept you had better take them away at once, and give them to
+the young girls. Girls like keepsakes, old women like money."
+
+"Well, mother, sell them if you please; they are your own."
+
+"Sell them? let me see--yes, I think I know where there is a sort of
+curiosity-shop, in Church Street; but it's a long way to walk, Jack, and
+that--let me see," continued she, counting the different articles, "one,
+two, three--seven times, Jack."
+
+"But why not take them all at once?"
+
+"All at once, you stupid boy! I should get no more for two than for one.
+No, no; one at a time, and I may make a few shillings. Well, Jack, it's
+very kind of you, after all, so don't mind my being a little cross. It
+was not on account of the things, but because you did not come to see
+me, and I've been looking out for you."
+
+"If I had thought that, I would have come sooner, mother, although it
+would not have been convenient."
+
+"I believe you, Jack, I believe you; but you young people can't feel as
+an old woman like I do. There is but one thing I love in the world,
+Jack, now, and that's you; and when I get weary of waiting for that one
+thing, and it don't come, Jack, it does make a poor old woman like me a
+little cross for the time."
+
+I was touched with this last speech of old Nanny's, who had never shown
+me any such a decided mark of kindness before. "Mother," said I, "depend
+upon it, whenever I return to Greenwich, you shall be the first person
+that I come to see after I have been to my mother's."
+
+"That's kind, Jack, and you keep your promise always. Now sit down; you
+don't want to go away already, do you?"
+
+"No, mother, I came to spend the whole morning with you."
+
+"Well, then, sit down--take care, Jack, you'll knock down that bottle.
+Now tell me, what do you intend to do with your hundred pounds?"
+
+"I have settled that already, mother. I have given it away."
+
+"Already! Why, the boy has one hundred pounds given him on the morning,
+and he gives it away before night, Mercy on us! who would ever think of
+leaving you any money?"
+
+"No one, mother; and I never expect any except what I earn."
+
+"Why, Jack, do you know how much one hundred pounds is?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Now, Jack, tell me the truth, who did you give it to, your father, or
+your little sister, or who? for I can't understand how a person could
+give away one hundred pounds in any way or to anybody."
+
+"Well, then, I gave it to my mother."
+
+"Your mother! your mother, who has hated you, wished you dead,
+half-starved you! Jack, is that possible?"
+
+"My mother has not been fond of me, but she has worked hard for my
+sister. This hundred pounds will enable her to do much better than she
+does now, and it's of no use to me. Mother may love me yet, Nanny."
+
+"She ought to," replied old Nanny, gravely; and then she covered her
+face up with her hands. "Oh, what a difference!" ejaculated she at last.
+
+"Difference, mother, difference? in what?"
+
+"Oh, Jack, between you and--somebody else. Don't talk about it any more,
+Jack," said Nanny, casting her eyes down to the presents I had brought
+her. "I recollect the time," continued she, evidently talking to
+herself, "that I had plenty of presents; ay, and when it was thought a
+great favor. I would accept them. That was when I was young and
+beautiful; yes, people would laugh if they heard me--young and very
+beautiful, or men's smiles and women's hate were thrown away--
+
+     "'Why so pale and wan, fond lover;
+     Prithee, why so pale?'
+
+"Yes, yes, bygones are bygones."
+
+I was much surprised to hear old Nanny attempt to sing, and could hardly
+help laughing; but I restrained myself. She didn't speak again, but
+continued bent over one of the baskets, as if thinking about former
+days. I broke the silence by saying:
+
+"What part of the country did you live in when you were young, mother?"
+
+"In the north part. But never ask questions."
+
+"Yes, but, mother, I wish to ask questions. I wish you to tell me your
+whole history. I will not tell it again to any one, I promise you."
+
+"But why should you wish to know the history of a poor old thing like
+me?"
+
+"Because, mother, I am sure you must have seen better days."
+
+"And if I have, Jack, is it kind to ask me to bring up to memory the
+days when I was fair and rich, when the world smiled upon me, and I was
+fool enough to think that it would always smile? Is it kind to recall
+what was to an old, miserable, deserted wretch like me, struggling to
+keep out of the workhouse? Look at me now, Jack, and see what I now am.
+Is it not cruel to bring to my mind what I once was? Go to, Jack, you're
+a selfish boy, and I don't love you."
+
+"Indeed, mother, if I thought it would have given you pain, I never
+would have asked you; but you cannot wonder at me. Recollect that you
+have ever been my best friend; you trusted me when nobody else would;
+and can you be surprised at my feeling an interest about you? Why,
+mother, I don't even know your name."
+
+"Well, Jack, you have put things in a better light. I do believe that
+you care for me, and who else does? But, Jack, my name you never shall
+know, even if I am to tell you all the rest."
+
+"Were you ever married, mother?"
+
+"Yes, child, I was married. Now, what's the next question?" continued
+she, impatiently.
+
+"Had you any children?"
+
+"Yes, boy, I had one--one that was a source of misery and shame to his
+doting mother." Old Nanny pressed her eyeballs with her knuckles as if
+in agony.
+
+"I won't ask you any more questions," said I mournfully.
+
+"Not now, Jack, that's a good boy; some other day, perhaps, I'll tell
+you all. There's a lesson in every life, and a warning in too many.
+You'll come again, Jack--yes, I know you'll come to hear my story, so I
+shall see you once more before you leave. Go now." Old Nanny rose and
+went indoors, taking her stool in her hand, and leaving the presents
+where they lay, outside--a proof that she was in great agitation. I put
+them inside the threshold, and then went homeward.
+
+I could not help remarking, as I walked home, that old Nanny's language
+and manner appeared very superior when she broke out in these
+reminiscences of the past, and I felt more interest in her than I ever
+had before. On my return, I found Bramble, who had come down sooner than
+he was expected, sitting in the parlor with Peter Anderson and my
+father, all smoking, with porter on the table.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "here I am two days before my time, but
+that's better than being two days after it, and, what's more, I've got
+the money, both yours and mine. They told me I should not get it for
+three months at least; but I sent up my name to the Board, and explained
+to them that a pilot could not wait like a purser while they were
+passing accounts, so the gentlemen laughed, and gave me an order for it;
+and I've got all my pilotage, too, so I'm a rich man just now. Come,
+I'll give you yours at once, and I hope it may not be the last hundred
+pounds that you'll pick up."
+
+Bramble pulled his leathern case out of his pilot jacket, and counted
+out ten ten-pound notes. "There, Jack, you ought to give me a receipt,
+for I signed for you at the India House."
+
+"Oh, you've plenty of witnesses," replied I, as I collected the notes,
+and, giving them to Virginia, told her to take them to my mother, who
+was upstairs in her room.
+
+"To tell you the truth, Jack, this two hundred pounds, which I earned so
+easily, has just come in the right time, and with it and my pilotage I
+shall now be able to do what I have long wished."
+
+"And what's that?" inquired I. "Something for Bessy, I suppose."
+
+"Exactly, Tom, it is something for Bessy; that is, it will be by-and-by.
+I've a good matter of money, which I've laid by year after year, and
+worked hard for it, too, and I never have known what to do with it. I
+can't understand the Funds and those sort of things, so I have kept some
+here and some there. Now, you know the grass land at the back of the
+cottage: it forms part of a tidy little farm, which is rented for
+seventy pounds a year, by a good man, and it has been for sale these
+three years; but I never could manage the price till now. When we go
+back to Deal, I shall try if I can buy that farm; for, you see, money
+may slip through a man's fingers in many ways, but land can't run away;
+and, as you say, it will be Bessy's one of these days--and more, too, if
+I can scrape it up."
+
+"You are right, Bramble," said Peter Anderson, "and I am glad to hear
+that you can afford to buy the land."
+
+"Why, there's money to be picked up by pilotage if you work hard, and
+aren't afraid of heavy ships," replied Bramble.
+
+"Well, I never had a piece of land, and never shall have, I suppose,"
+said my father. "I wonder how a man must feel who can stand on a piece
+of ground and say, 'This is my own!'"
+
+"Who knows, father? it's not impossible but you may."
+
+"Impossible! No, nothing's impossible, as they say on board of a
+man-of-war. It's not impossible to get an apology out of a midshipman,
+but it's the next thing to it."
+
+"Why do they say that, father?"
+
+"Because midshipmen are so saucy--why, I don't know. They haven't no
+rank as officers, nor so much pay as a petty officer, and yet they give
+themselves more airs than a lieutenant."
+
+"I'll tell you why," replied Anderson. "A lieutenant takes care what he
+is about. He is an officer, and has something to lose; but a midshipman
+has nothing to lose, and therefore he cares about nothing. You can't
+break a midshipman, as the saying is, unless you break his neck. And
+they have necks which aren't easily broken, that's sartain."
+
+"They do seem to me to have more lives than a cat," observed my father,
+who, after a pause, continued: "Well, I was saying how hard it was to
+get an apology out of a midshipman. I'll just tell you what took place
+on board of one ship I served in. There was a young midshipman on board
+who was mighty free with his tongue; he didn't care what he said to
+anybody, from the captain downward. He'd have his joke, come what would,
+and he'd set everybody a-laughing; punish him as much as you please, it
+was all the same. One day, when we were off Halifax Harbor, the master,
+who was a good-tempered fellow enough, but not overbright, was angry
+with this young chap for something that he had not done, and called him
+a 'confounded young bear,' upon which the youngster runs to the
+Jacob-ladder of the main rigging, climbs up, and as soon as he had
+gained the main rattlings he cries out, 'Well, if I'm a bear, you aren't
+fit to carry guts to a bear.' 'What, sir?' cried the master. 'Mutiny, by
+heavens! Up to the masthead, sir, directly.' 'Don't you see that I was
+going of my own accord?' replied the midshipman; for, you see, he knew
+that he would be sent there, so he went up the rigging on purpose. Well,
+this was rather a serious affair, and so the master reports it to the
+first lieutenant, who reports it to the captain, who sends for the
+youngster on the quarter-deck, at the time that the ship's company were
+at quarters. 'Mr. ----' (I forget his name), said the captain (drawing
+himself up to his full height, and perhaps an inch or two above it, as
+they say), 'you have been guilty of disrespect to your superior officer,
+in telling him that he was not fit to carry guts to a bear' (the captain
+could hardly help laughing). 'Now, sir,' continued he, recovering
+himself, 'I give you your choice: either you will make an apology to Mr.
+Owen on this quarter-deck, or you must quit my ship immediately.' 'Sir,'
+replied the midshipman, 'I don't think it quite fair that the master
+should first punish me himself and then complain to you afterward. He
+has taken the law into his own hands already by mastheading me for eight
+hours, and now he makes a complaint to you; but I am always ready to do
+as you wish, and, to please you, I will make an apology.' 'There is some
+truth in your observation,' replied the captain, 'and I have pointed the
+same out to the master; but still, this is a breach of discipline which
+cannot be passed over, and requires a public retraction before the whole
+ship's company. I therefore insist upon your retracting what you have
+said.' 'Certainly, sir,' replied the youngster. 'Mr. Owen,' continued
+he, turning to the master, 'I said that you were _not_ fit to carry guts
+to a bear. I was in the wrong, and I retract with pleasure, for I am
+perfectly satisfied that you _are fit_ to carry them.' 'Sir!' cried the
+captain. 'Oh, Captain G----!' interrupted the master, who did not take
+the joke, 'I'm perfectly satisfied. The young gentleman sees his error,
+and has retracted; I ask no more.' 'If you are satisfied, sir,' replied
+the captain, biting his lips, 'of course I have nothing more to say.
+Youngster, you may go to your duty, and recollect that you never again
+use such expressions to your superior officer,' and, said he in a low
+tone, 'I may add, never venture in my presence to make such an apology
+as that again.'"
+
+I never saw old Anderson laugh so much as he did at this story of my
+father's. They continued to talk and smoke their pipes till about nine
+o'clock, when my father and he went to the hospital, and Bramble took
+possession of a bed which had been prepared for him in my mother's
+house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
+
+     In which I learn the History of Old Nanny.
+
+
+The next day, as soon as I had finished a letter to Bessy, in which I
+gave her a detail of what had passed, I went to old Nanny's to persuade
+her, if possible, to tell me her history. She was not at home, the door
+of her house was locked and the shutters of the shop fastened. I was
+about to return to Fisher's Alley, when I perceived her hobbling down
+the street. I thought it better to make it appear as if I met her by
+accident; so I crossed over the way and walked toward her. "Well,
+mother," said I, "are you out so early?"
+
+"Ah, Jack, is it you? Yes, it is through you that I have had to take so
+long a walk."
+
+"Through me?"
+
+"Yes, those presents you brought me. I'm almost dead. Why do you bring
+such things? But I did not do badly, that's the truth."
+
+I knew from this admission that old Nanny had sold them for more than
+she expected; indeed, she proved it by saying, as she arrived at her
+house, "Well, Jack, it's very troublesome to have to walk so far; but as
+you cannot get me bottles or those kind of things, you must bring me
+what you can, and I must make the best of them. I don't mind trouble
+for your sake, Jack. Now take the key, unlock the door, and then take
+down the shutters; and mind how you walk about, Jack, or you'll break
+half the things in my shop." I did as she requested, and then we sat
+down together at the door as usual.
+
+"I think I shall go away to-morrow, or early the next morning, mother,"
+said I, "for Bramble is here, and he never stays long from his work"
+
+"That's all right, he sets a good example; and, Jack, if you do go, see
+if you can't beg a few more shells for me. I like shells."
+
+"Yes, mother, I will not forget; but, as this is the last day I shall
+see you for some time, will you not keep your promise to me, and tell me
+your history?"
+
+"Jack, Jack, you are the most persevering creature I ever did see. I'm
+sure I shall be worried out of my life until I tell you, and so I may as
+well tell you at once, and there'll be an end of it; but I wish you had
+not asked me. Jack, I do indeed. I thought of it last night when I was
+in bed, and at one time I made up my mind that I would not tell you, and
+then I thought again that I would; for, Jack, as I said yesterday,
+there's a lesson in every life, and a warning in too many, and maybe
+mine will prove a warning to you, so far as to make you prevent a mother
+from being so foolish as I have been.
+
+[Illustration: NANNY RELATING HER STORY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 275.]
+
+"Now, Jack, listen to me: mine is an old story, but in most cases the
+consequences have not been so fatal. I shall not tell you my name; it
+was once a fair one, but now tarnished. I was the only daughter of a
+merchant and ship-owner, a rich man, and the first person in consequence
+in the seaport town where I was born and brought up. I never knew my
+mother, who died a year after I was born. I was brought up as most girls
+are who have no mother or brothers; in short, I was much indulged by my
+father and flattered by other people. I was well educated, as you may
+suppose; and, moreover, what you may not credit quite so easily, I was
+very handsome. In short, I was a beauty and a fortune, at the head of
+the society of the place, caressed, indulged, and flattered by all.
+This, if it did not spoil me, at least made me willful. I had many
+offers, and many intended offers, which I nipped in the bud, and I was
+twenty-three before I saw any one who pleased me. At last a vessel came
+in consigned to the house, and the captain was invited to dinner. He was
+a handsome careless young man, constantly talking about the qualities of
+his ship, and, to my surprise, paying me little or none of that
+attention which I now considered as my due. This piqued me, and in the
+end I set my affections on him; either he did not or would not perceive
+it, and he sailed without showing me any preference. In six months he
+returned, and whether it was that he was told of by others, or at last
+perceived, my feelings toward him, he joined the crowd of suitors, made
+a proposal in his offhand manner, as if he was indifferent as to my
+reply, and was accepted. My father, to whom he communicated the
+intelligence as carelessly as if he were talking about freight, did not
+approve of the match. 'Very well,' replied he, 'I shall say no more; as
+long as a man has a ship he does not want a wife.' He returned and
+stated what had passed, and my father also spoke to me. I was
+self-willed and determined, and my father yielded. We were married, and
+I certainly had no reason to complain of my husband, who was very kind
+to me. But I was jealous of--what do you think? Of his ship! For he
+cared more for it than he did for me; and three months after our
+marriage, notwithstanding all my tears and entreaties, and the
+expostulations of my father, he would sail again. He offered to take me
+with him, and I would gladly have gone, but my father would not listen
+to it. He sailed, and I never saw him again; his vessel, with all hands,
+foundered, with many others, in a heavy gale. The news did not arrive
+until many months afterward, and I had not been a mother more than six
+weeks when I found that I was a widow. I have passed all this over
+quickly, Jack, because it is of less moment--my trials had not
+commenced.
+
+"The loss of my husband, as may be supposed, only endeared my child the
+more to me, and I wept over him as he smiled upon me in his cradle. My
+father had reverses in his business, but those I cared little for. He
+did, however: he had been the richest man in the town, he was now
+comparatively poor; his pride was crushed, it broke his heart, and he
+died; the whole of his assets at the winding up of his affairs not
+exceeding ten thousand pounds. This was, however, quite enough, and more
+than enough, for me. I thought but of one object--it was my darling boy;
+he represented to me all I had lost; in him I saw my husband, father,
+and everything. I lived but for him. He was my idolatry, Jack. I
+worshiped the creature instead of the Creator.
+
+"As he grew up I indulged him in everything; he never was checked; I
+worried myself day and night to please him, and yet he never was
+pleased. He was so spoiled that he did not know what he wanted. He was a
+misery to himself and all about him, except to me, who was so blinded by
+my love. As he advanced to manhood his temper showed itself to be
+violent and uncontrollable; he was the terror of others, and prudent
+people would shake their heads and prophesy. He would not submit to any
+profession; the only wish that he had was to go to sea, and that was my
+terror. I implored him on my knees not to think of it, but in vain; at
+first he used to threaten when he wanted money for his extravagances,
+and it was a sure way to obtain it; but one day I discovered that he had
+quitted the port without saying farewell, and that he had sailed in a
+vessel bound to the coast of Africa. A short letter and a heavy bill was
+received from Portsmouth, and I did not hear of him for two years. I was
+heartbroken, but not weaned from him; I counted the days for his return.
+At last he came--browned by the climate, full of oaths, savage in his
+bearing, and occasionally referring to scenes which made me shudder; but
+he was my son, my only son, and I loved him as much as ever. He was now
+but seldom at home, for he lived almost at the gaming-tables; if he came
+to me, it was to extort money, and he never failed. I sold out my
+property to support his extravagance, and by degrees it was rapidly
+diminishing. I begged him, I entreated him, to be more prudent, but he
+laughed, and promised to return me all the first lucky hit he should
+make; but that lucky hit never came, and at last I had but two thousand
+pounds left. This I positively refused to part with: the interest of it
+was barely sufficient for my wants; I asked no more, but I expostulated
+and I reasoned with him in vain. He only begged me for five hundred
+pounds; if I sold the money out, he would tell me where I might have as
+good interest for the fifteen hundred pounds as I now received for the
+two thousand pounds. He begged and entreated me, he kissed, and he even
+wept. I could not withstand his importunities: I sold out the money, and
+gave him the sum he wanted; the fifteen hundred pounds I put by in my
+desk, to invest as he had pointed out. That very night he forced the
+lock, took out the money, and left me without a sixpence in the world."
+
+"What a villain!" exclaimed I.
+
+"Yes, you may so. Jack; but who made him such a villain but his foolish
+doting mother? Had I done him justice, had I checked him when young, had
+I brought him up as I ought to have done, he might now have been a
+happiness and a blessing to his mother. I was the person to blame, not
+he; and many years of anguish have I lamented my folly and my
+wretchedness."
+
+"You loved him too much, mother, but it was a fault on the right side."
+
+"No, Jack, that is an error of yours; it was a fault on the wrong side.
+There is no credit to a mother in loving her children, for she cannot
+help it. It is a natural instinct implanted in the mother's heart by the
+Almighty, and in following this instinct we do no more than the beasts
+of the field. The duty of a mother is to check that feeling as far as it
+interferes with the happiness and well-doing of her children, and it is
+her duty to do so, and to punish herself in correcting her children.
+Jack, it is a selfish feeling which induces mothers to spoil their
+children."
+
+"At all events my mother has never spoiled me," replied I.
+
+"No, Jack, she has not; but observe the consequence. You said just now
+that excessive tenderness was a fault on the right side; now, how
+completely have you proved the contrary! I do not intend to defend your
+mother's conduct toward you; she has been unkind to you in your
+childhood, and has never shown the affection that a mother ought; but is
+not her fault a fault on the right side? Jack, you recollect my saying
+'what a difference,' when you told me what you had done for your mother;
+I then referred to my son and to you. I indulged him in everything,
+sacrificed everything, and he robbed me and left me a beggar. Your
+mother has been severe upon you, and yet the first time you have the
+means of showing your duty you give her all the money you have in the
+world. You mother may not be right, Jack, but I was dreadfully wrong,
+and the result has proved it."
+
+"Well, mother, go on, pray."
+
+"My story is now soon told. I struggled on how I could for more than two
+years by selling my furniture and a few ornaments, then the blow came.
+When I heard it I would not remain in the town; I left for London,
+picked up my living how I could and where I could, till at last I came
+down here. Time was as a dream; reflection was too painful. I felt that
+it was all my fault, all my own doing. My heart became hardened, and
+continued so till I loved you, Jack; and now I have better feelings, at
+least I think so."
+
+"But, mother, what was the blow? Is he dead?"
+
+"Yes, Jack, dead--dead on the gibbet. He was hanged for piracy at Port
+Royal, Jamaica. Jack," said Nanny, seizing my hand, and pressing it in
+her long fingers, "this is a secret; recollect, a secret deep as the
+grave; promise me, as you hope for heaven!"
+
+"I do, mother, as I hope for heaven."
+
+"Now, Jack, leave me. Good-by. You will come and see me when you return,
+and never bring this subject up again. Bless you, my child! bless you!"
+
+I left poor old Nanny with her face buried in her apron; and it was in a
+very melancholy mood that I returned home. I could not help thinking of
+the picture in the spelling-book, where the young man at the gallows is
+biting off the ear of his mother, who, by her indulgence, had brought
+him to that disgrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY
+
+     Strong symptoms of Mutiny, which is fortunately Quelled by granting
+     a Supply.
+
+
+It was a beautiful sunshiny warm morning when I arose, and, as Bramble
+intended that we should leave Greenwich the next day, I thought I might
+as well call at the house of Dr. Tadpole, and try if I could see him
+before I went. When I arrived there he was not at home, but my namesake
+Tom was, as usual, in the shop. Tom was two or three years older than
+me, being between seventeen and eighteen, and he had now grown a great
+tall fellow. We always were very good friends, when we occasionally met,
+and he generally appeared to be as good tempered and grinning as ever;
+but when I now entered the shop I found him very grave and dejected, so
+much so that I could not help asking him what was the matter.
+
+"Matter enough, I think," said Tom, who was pounding something in the
+mortar. "I'll not stay here, that's flat. I'll break my indentures, as
+sure as my name's Tom Cob, and I'll set up an opposition, and I'll join
+the Friends of the People Society, and the Anti-Bible Society, and every
+other opposition Anti in the country."
+
+"Why, what has happened, Tom?"
+
+"I'll make speeches against Church and against State, and against the
+Aristocracy, and Habeas Corpus, and against Physic, and against Standing
+Armies, and Magna Charta, and every other rascally tyranny and
+oppression to which we are subjected, that I will!" Here Tom gave such a
+thump with the pestle that I thought he would have split the mortar.
+
+"But what is it, Tom?" inquired I, as I sat down. "What has the doctor
+done?"
+
+"Why, I'll tell you, the liquorice is all gone, and he won't order any
+more."
+
+"Well, that is because you have eaten it all."
+
+"No, I haven't; I haven't eaten a bit for these five weeks: it's all
+been used in pharmacopey, honestly used, and he can't deny it."
+
+"Who used it?"
+
+"Why, I did: he said he wouldn't stand my eating liquorice, and I told
+him that I shouldn't eat any more. No more I have, but I ain't well, and
+I prescribes for myself. Haven't I a right to do that? Mayn't I physic
+myself? I am a doctor as well as he is. Who makes up all the medicine, I
+should like to know? who ties up the bottles and writes directions?
+Well, my insides are out of order, and I prescribes for myself--black
+draughts 'omnes duas horas sumendum'; and now he says that, as the
+ingredients are all gone, I shan't take any more."
+
+"And pray what were the ingredients, Tom?"
+
+"Why, laxative and alterative, as suits my complaint--Extract.
+liquor.--aqua pura--haustus."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"_Liquorice and water_, to be sure; there's nothing else I can take.
+I've tasted everything in the shop, from plate powder to aqua fortis,
+and everything goes against my stomach."
+
+"Well, Tom, it's a hard case; but perhaps the doctor will think better
+of it"
+
+"He'd better, or I'll set up for myself, for I won't stand it any
+longer; it ain't only for myself but for others that I care. Why, I've a
+hankering for Anny Whistle (you know her, don't you?), a pretty little
+girl with red lips--lives in Church Street. Well, as long as I could
+bring her a bit of liquorice when I went to see her all was smooth
+enough, and I got many a kiss when no one was nigh; but now that I can't
+fork out a bit as big as a marble, she's getting quite shy of me, and is
+always walking with Bill, the butcher's boy. I know he gives her bull's
+eyes--I seed him one day buying a ha'p'orth. Now, ain't that hard?"
+
+"Why, certainly, the affair becomes serious; but, still, how you are to
+set up for yourself I don't know. You are not qualified."
+
+"Oh! ain't I? Just as much as most doctors are. There must be a
+beginning, and if I gives wrong medicine at first, then I'll try
+another, and so on, until I come to what will cure them. Soon learn,
+Tom."
+
+"Well, but how will you do about surgery?"
+
+"Surgery? Oh, I'll do very well; don't know much about it just now--soon
+learn."
+
+"Why, would you venture to take off a man's leg, Tom? Do you know how to
+take up the arteries?"
+
+"Would I take off a man's leg? To be sure I would, as quick as the
+doctor could. As for the arteries, why, I might puzzle a little about
+them; but by the time I had taken off three or four legs I should know
+something about them. Practice makes perfect--soon learn, Tom."
+
+"But all your first patients would die."
+
+"I don't know that. At all events I should do my best, and no man can do
+more, and if they did die, why, it would be by the visitation of God,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"Not altogether, I'm afraid. It won't do, Tom."
+
+"It has done from the beginning of the world, and will do. I say there's
+no learning without practice. People spoil at first in every trade, and
+make afterward, and a man ain't born a doctor any more than he is a
+carpenter."
+
+"No, but if I recollect right, to be a surgeon you ought to walk the
+hospital, as they term it."
+
+"Well, and haven't I for these last four years? When I carries out my
+basket of physic I walks the _hospital_ right through, twice at least
+every day in the week."
+
+"That's Greenwich Hospital."
+
+"Well, so it is, and plenty of surgical cases in it. However, the doctor
+and I must come to a proper understanding. I didn't clean his boots this
+morning. I wish, if you see him, Tom, you'd reason with him a little."
+
+"I'll see what I can do, but don't be rash. Good-by, Tom; mind you tell
+the doctor that I called."
+
+"Well, I will; but that's not in my indentures."
+
+I called in at the widow's after I left the doctor's shop, and
+communicated the intended rebellion on the part of Tom.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. St. Felix, "I shall not forget to make the Spanish
+claim, and prevent Tom from walking Spanish. The doctor is very
+inconsiderate; he forgets that Tom's regard for liquorice is quite as
+strong as his own liking for a cigar. Now, if the doctor don't promise
+me to have a fresh supply for Tom, I won't let him have a cigar for
+himself."
+
+The doctor was compelled to surrender at discretion. The next wagon
+brought down one hundred weight of liquorice, and Tom recovered his
+health and the smiles of Anny Whistle.
+
+When I left the widow's I proceeded to the hospital to find Anderson and
+my father. As I walked along I perceived Dick Harness on a bench, who
+hailed me.
+
+"Well, Tom, I haven't seen anything of you for I don't know how long,
+since you've taken to a seafaring life. This is a beautiful day, is it
+not? It makes one feel so happy and cheerful such a day as this.
+Everybody and everything looks gay, the birds seem so merry, and the
+little clouds seem to scud away as if their hearts were as light as
+themselves. Come, sit down a minute; here's a song for you you've never
+heard, one I don't often sing, because they say it's all about myself."
+
+"Well, then, I should like to hear that."
+
+"Here goes, then.
+
+     "Sam Swipes, he was a seaman true,
+       As brave and bold a tar
+     As e'er was dressed in navy blue
+       On board a man-of-war.
+
+     "One fault he had--on sea or land
+       He was a thirsty dog;
+     For Sammy never could withstand
+       A glass or so of grog.
+
+     "He always liked to be at sea,
+       For e'en on shore, the rover,
+     If not as drunk as he could be
+       Was always 'half seas over.'
+
+     "The gunner, who was apt to scoff,
+       With jokes most aptly timed,
+     Said Sam might any day go off,
+       'Cause he was always 'primed,'
+
+     "Sam didn't want a feeling heart,
+       Though never seen to cry;
+     Yet tears were always on the start,
+       'The drop was in his eye.'
+
+     "At fighting Sam was never shy,
+       A most undoubted merit;
+     His courage never failed, and why?
+       He was so full of 'spirit.'
+
+     "In action he had lost an eye,
+       But that gave him no trouble;
+     Quoth Sam, I have no cause to sigh,
+       I'm always 'seeing double.'
+
+     "A shot from an unlucky gun
+       Put Sam on timber pegs;
+     It didn't signify to one
+       Who ne'er could 'keep his legs.'
+
+     "One night he filled a pail with grog,
+       Determined he would suck it;
+     He drained it dry, the thirsty dog!
+       Hiccupped, and 'kicked the bucket.'"
+
+"There's Bill's fiddle, Dick," said I, getting up; "I thought you would
+bring him out."
+
+"Yes, I was sure of that. I'll sing another verse or two, and then be
+off to the park, and leave him in the lurch."
+
+"I can't wait any more, Dick; I must go to my father," said I.
+
+"Well, off with you, then, and I'm off, too. Sing tura la, tura la, tura
+lura la. Bill's coming down. How savage the nigger will be!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
+
+     In which my Father proves he can give good Advice as well as Peter
+     Anderson.
+
+
+I found my father under the colonnade, and inquired of him if Anderson
+was there.
+
+"No, he's not," replied my father; "he has been sent for by the
+officers; so stop, Tom--that is, if you can spare a minute for your own
+father."
+
+"Of course I can," replied I, taking my seat by him.
+
+"Why, you see, boy," said my father, "I have but very little of your
+company, and I feel it, Tom, I do indeed. I'm not jealous, and I know
+that Peter Anderson has done more for you than ever I could, for I've no
+larning to signify; but still, Tom, I am your father, and I don't think
+Peter, although he may be proud of your turning out so well, can feel
+exactly for you what a father does. I'm proud enough of you, Heaven
+knows, and it does hurt me a little when I find that, whenever you come
+here, it is for Peter Anderson, and it makes me wish sometimes that I
+had been Peter Anderson instead of your father."
+
+"Indeed, father," replied I, "I hope you don't think that I like
+Anderson better than I do you; but you recollect that I have been
+accustomed all my life to take his advice."
+
+"I know it, boy, I know it. I was serving my country and doing my duty
+on board of a King's ship, and you were left here, and therefore lucky
+it was that you fell in with old Peter; but, Tom, I could not be in two
+places at the same time, and if I did not do my duty as a father toward
+you, at all events I was doing my duty to my country."
+
+"To be sure you were, and it was of more importance than looking after a
+brat like me," replied I, soothingly, for I really never had the idea
+that my father could have showed so much feeling.
+
+"Why, Tom, I can't say that I thought so, for the fact is I didn't think
+about it; indeed, I thought about nothing. Sailors afloat have little
+time to think; they can't think when it's their watch on deck, for they
+are too busy; nor at their watch below, for they're too tired; nor at
+meal-times, for they must look after their share of the victuals;
+indeed, there is not any time to think on board ship, and that's a fact.
+But, Tom, since I've been laid up here I have thought a good deal. All
+is calm and quiet, and one day passes just like the other, and no fear
+of interruption when one don't wish it--and I have thought a good deal.
+At first I thought it a hard case to be shoved on the shelf at my age,
+but I don't think so now--I'm quite satisfied."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say so, father."
+
+"Yes, Tom. And then, you see, when I was afloat, I didn't think any good
+of your mother, and I was glad to keep out of her way; and then I didn't
+care about my children, for I didn't know them; but now I've other
+thoughts, Tom. I don't think your mother so bad, after all; to be sure,
+she looks down upon me 'cause I'm not genteel; but I suppose I aren't,
+and she has been used to the company of gentlefolk; besides she works
+hard, and now that I don't annoy her by getting tipsy, as I used to
+do, at all events she's civil; and then I never knew what it was to have
+children until I came here, and found Virginia and you; and I'm proud of
+you both, and love you both better than anything on earth; and, although
+I may not be so well brought up or so well taught as you both are,
+still, Tom, I'm your father, and all I can say is, I wish for your sakes
+I was better than I am."
+
+[Illustration: JACK AND HIS FATHER UNDER THE COLONNADE.--Marryat, Vol
+X., p. 289.]
+
+"Don't say so, father. You know that Virginia and I are both as fond of
+you as you are of us."
+
+"Well, mayhap you are; I don't say no. You are both good children, and
+at all events would try to like me; but still I do feel that you can't
+look up to me exactly; but that's my misfortune, Tom, more than my
+fault. I haven't larning like Anderson, or gentility like your mother.
+I've only a true heart to offer to you. You see, Tom, I've said all this
+because you are always after Anderson; not but that I like Anderson, for
+he's a good man, and has been of sarvice to me, and I don't think he
+would ever say anything to you that would make you think less of me."
+
+"No, indeed, father; on the contrary, I once asked him his opinion about
+you, and he spoke most highly of you; and whenever I go to him for
+advice, he always sends me to you to approve of what he has said."
+
+"Well, he is a good man, and I'm very sorry to have any feeling of envy
+in me, that's the truth; but still a father must have a father's
+feelings. Don't let us say anything more about it, Tom; only try next
+time, when you want advice, whether I can't give it. You can always go
+to Peter afterward, and see whether I'm right or wrong."
+
+"I will indeed, my dear father, now I know that you wish it."
+
+I never felt so warm toward my father as after this conversation; there
+was so much affection toward me, and yet so much humility shown by him,
+as respected himself, that I was quite touched with it, and I began to
+think that he really had had occasion to complain, and that I had not
+treated him with that respect which he deserved.
+
+"Now, Tom, I've something to say to you. When Anderson, Bramble, and I
+were taking a pipe together last night, Bramble said that he had a
+letter from the captain of the Indiaman, offering you a berth on board
+as guinea-pig, or midshipman. He said that he had not shown it to you as
+yet, because it was of no use, as he was sure you would not accept it.
+Well, Anderson and I said that at least you ought to know it, and have
+the refusal; and your mother pricked up her ears and said that it was
+much more genteel than being a pilot; so I now put the question to you.'
+
+"Thank you, father; but Bramble was right. I shall not accept of it,
+although I am much obliged to the captain."
+
+Here my father stopped me. "First, Tom," said he, "we must overhaul the
+pros and cons, as people call them. Old Anderson weighed them very
+closely, and now you shall hear them." Here my father commenced a long
+story, with which I shall not tire the reader, as to the prospects on
+either side; but as soon as he had finished I replied:
+
+"That all he said was very true; but that I had made up my mind that, if
+ever I were regularly to serve, it should be in a man-of-war, not in a
+merchant vessel; that it was certainly possible that I might, after
+serving many years, become a captain of an Indiaman, which was a high
+position, but I preferred being a pilot, and more my own master; that if
+there were no other objections, that of being absent for three years at
+a time from him and Virginia would be more than sufficient, and that I
+was very happy where I was, as Bramble and little Bessy were almost
+equal to another father and another sister. A rolling stone gathers no
+moss, they say, father. I have entered into the pilot service, and in
+that I hope to remain."
+
+"Well, you're right, Tom; Bramble said you would decide so. There's
+nothing like being contented with what we are and what we have got."
+
+"I might probably become a richer man if I were to be a captain of an
+Indiaman," observed I; "but I'm sure if ever I'm able to buy a little
+farm, as Bramble is now able to do, I shall think myself quite rich
+enough."
+
+"You see, Tom, it all depends upon what people's ideas are. One man
+thinks himself rich with what another would think that he was a beggar.
+Now I dare say old Nanny thinks that shop of old iron and rubbish that
+she has got together the finest shop in all Greenwich."
+
+"I believe she does, and the prettiest," replied I, laughing.
+
+"Well now, Tom, an odd thing happened the other day while you were away,
+just to prove how true that is. You may recollect a little old man in
+our ward, Phil Nobbs they called him, who walked with his chin half a
+yard before him. Well, he took to the sick ward and died, since you have
+been gone. I went to see him, of course, and he was always talking about
+his property; and none of us knew where it was, but we supposed that he
+had it somewhere. One day, as I was sitting by his bed, he says,
+'Saunders, the doctor's coming round, just tell him I want to make my
+will, for I feel as if I were slipping my wind.' Well, the doctor and
+the chaplain both came to his bedside with the paper, and Nobbs raised
+himself on his elbow, and said, 'Are you ready, sir? Well, then, I'll
+make short work of it. This is my last will and testament: first, I
+wish a white pall over me, when I'm buried, and that expense must be
+deducted, after which I bequeath to my nephews and nieces, James Strong,
+Walter Strong, Ellen Strong, Mary Williams, the one married, Peter
+Strong, all of Rotherhithe, and to Thomas Day, Henry Day, and Nicholas
+Day, of Eltham, the whole of my money and personal effects, _share and
+share alike_, equally divided among them all. There, sir, that will do.
+I can't write, but I'll put my cross to it.' Well, the old fellow died
+that night, and notice of his will was sent to his nephews and nieces,
+who all came on the day of his burial dressed in their best, for they
+were all mechanics and laborers, poor people, to whom, I suppose, a
+legacy was a great object. The chaplain had asked Nobbs where his money
+was, and he replied that it was in the hands of Lieutenant ----, who
+knew all about his affairs. After the funeral they all went in a body to
+the lieutenant, who stated that he had ten shillings belonging to Nobbs,
+out of which seven shillings were to be deducted for the white pall; and
+that as for his other effects, they must be in his cabin, as he never
+heard of his having anything but what was there. So we went to his
+cabin, and there we found five or six penny prints against the wall, two
+pair of old canvas trousers, and an old hat, six cups and saucers,
+cracked and mended; and this was all his property, altogether not worth
+(with the three shillings) more than seven or eight at the outside, if
+so much. You may guess the disappointment of his nephews and nieces, who
+had lost a good day's work and come so far for nothing; and I must say
+they were not very dutiful in their remarks upon their old uncle as they
+walked off. Now you see, Tom, this old fellow had been in the hospital
+for more than twenty years, and had been able to save no more than what
+he had out of his shilling per week, and in his eyes this small
+property was very large, for it was the saving of twenty years. He
+thought so, poor fellow, because he probably had never saved so many
+shillings in his life. There was no joking about it, I can assure you."
+
+"Well, father, I hope I may be able to save more than seven shillings
+before I die; but no one knows. I have made my decision as I think for
+the best, and we must leave the rest to Providence. We never know
+whether we do right or wrong."
+
+"Never, Jack; things which promise well turn out bad, and things which
+look very bad often turn out just as well. I recollect an instance which
+was told me, which I'll give you as a proof that we never know what is
+best for us in this world. A man may plan, and scheme, and think in his
+blindness that he has arranged everything so nicely that nothing can
+fail, and down he lies on his bed and goes to sleep quite satisfied that
+affairs must turn out well as he has ordered them, forgetting that
+Providence disposes as it thinks fit. There was a gentleman by birth, of
+the name of Seton, who lived at Greenock; he was very poor, and although
+he had high friends and relations well-to-do, he was too proud to ask
+for assistance. His wife was equally proud; and at last one day he died,
+leaving her with hardly a penny, and two fine boys of the names of
+Archibald and Andrew. Well, the widow struggled on, how she lived no one
+knew, but she fed the boys and herself, and was just as stately as ever.
+Her relations did offer to educate the boys and send them to sea, but
+she refused all assistance. There was a foundation or chartered school
+at Greenock, to which she was entitled to send her children to be
+educated without expense, and to that school they went. I don't know
+why, but they say the master had had a quarrel with their father when he
+was alive, and the master had not forgotten it now he was dead, and in
+consequence he was very severe upon these two boys, and used to beat
+them without mercy; at all events it did them good, for they learned
+faster than any of the others who were at all favored, and they soon
+proved the best boys in the school. Well, time ran on till Archibald was
+thirteen and Andrew twelve years old, and, being very tired of school,
+they asked their mother what profession they were to be of, and she
+answered, 'Anything except going to sea, for there you will never get
+on.' But times became harder with the widow; she had not enough to give
+the boys to eat, and they complained bitterly; but it was of no use, so
+they got on how they could, until one day Archy says to Andrew, 'Why,
+brother, we have nothing but ferrule for breakfast, dinner, and supper,
+and I see little chance of our getting anything more. Mother, poor soul!
+has not enough for herself to eat, and she very often gives us her
+dinner and goes without. I can't stand it any longer; what shall we do?
+shall we seek our fortunes?'
+
+"'Yes,' says Andrew, 'and when we are gone mother will have enough for
+herself.'
+
+"'Well, they say anything is better than going to sea, but I don't know
+how we can do anything else.'
+
+"'Well, Archy, going to sea may be the worst of all, but it's better
+than taking the victuals out of poor mother's mouth.'
+
+"'That's very true, so we'll be off, Andrew.'
+
+"They walked down to the pier, and then they fell in with the captain of
+a vessel going foreign, and they asked him whether he wanted any boys on
+board.
+
+"'Why,' says he, 'I wouldn't care, but you've never been to sea
+before.'
+
+"'No,' said Archy; 'but there must be a beginning to everything.'
+
+"'Well,' said the captain, 'I suppose you've run away from your friends,
+and, as I can't get apprentices now, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll
+take you on board, and as soon as we get round to another port in the
+Channel, I'll bind you as apprentices for three years. Will you agree to
+that?'
+
+"The boys said 'yes,' and the captain told them that he should sail the
+next morning about daylight, and that they must be down at the pier by
+that time; so they went back again to their mother, and said nothing
+about what had passed. There was no supper that night, which confirmed
+them in their resolution. They kissed their mother, and went up to bed,
+packed up all their clothes, and before she was downstairs the next
+morning they were on board of the vessel.
+
+"Well, they were duly apprenticed when the ship arrived at Weymouth, and
+then off they went. The other men on board were, as usual, very much
+afraid of being pressed, and every plan was hit upon for stowing away
+when they were boarded by a man-of-war. Well, time passed, and after
+many voyages they had both nearly served their time. They were tall,
+stout young men, and looked older than they really were. At last, one
+day, when off the Western Isles, they were boarded by a frigate, and the
+officer who came in the boat asked Archy what he was, and he replied he
+was an apprentice.
+
+"'You an apprentice!' cried he; 'that won't do.'
+
+"'But here are the indentures.'
+
+"'All forged,' cried the officer; 'just get into the boat, my lad.' (You
+see that's a very common trick of officers; if a boy's grown up and fit
+for service, they don't care about indentures.) Well, Archy found it was
+of no use, so he gets his kit and steps into the boat, shaking hands
+with Andrew, who was shedding tears at the thoughts of parting with his
+brother.
+
+[Illustration: A SURPRISE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 297.]
+
+"'It's no use crying, Andrew,' says he; 'I might have been second mate
+in three months, as the captain promised me when my time was up, and
+then I should have been protected, and might have risen from mate to
+captain; but now it's all over with me. May you have better luck, and I
+hope the captain will give you the berth instead of me.' Well, away went
+Archy on board of the man-of-war, looking very gloomy, as you may
+suppose. When he went aft on the quarter-deck the captain asked him his
+name and where he came from.
+
+"'Ah,' said the captain, 'and who are your friends? So Archy told him
+that he had only his mother left. The captain asked him a good many more
+questions as to whether he had been educated or not, and what he knew,
+and then rated him A.B., and put him into the maintop. Well, Archie
+remained there for about six months, and found that a man-of-war was not
+so bad a place after all; and he was well treated by the captain and
+officers, the more so as he was a good scholar. After the cruise was
+over the frigate ran into the Channel, and anchored in Portland Roads,
+where there were a great many vessels wind-bound. As usual, they sent
+round to press the men. Now Archy was one of those sent in the boats,
+and by this time, being a man-of-war's man all over, he was just as
+eager to get the men as the others were. They boarded several vessels,
+and got some men; about dark they boarded one which laid well in the
+offing. The captain was not on board, and the men were turned up, but
+they were very few, and all protected. Now Archy, who was up to the
+hiding-places on board a merchant vessel, goes down with his cutlass,
+and crawls about in the dark, until at last he gets hold of a man by the
+heels. 'Come out, you thief,' cries he, 'come out directly, or I'll give
+you an inch of my cutlass;' so the man, finding that he could not help
+himself, backs out, stern foremost. Archy collars him and takes him on
+deck, when who should it prove to be but his own brother Andrew!
+
+"'Oh, Archy, Archy, I didn't think this of you!'
+
+"'Well, Andrew, I didn't know it was you, but there's no help for it;
+you must come and serve in the maintop along with me, and give up all
+chance of being a mate or captain of a merchant vessel. We're in bad
+luck, that's clear, but it can't be helped.' There was a good laugh on
+board of the man-of-war at Archy pressing his own brother, and the
+captain was very much amused. 'I'm very sorry for it,' said Archy.
+
+"Now the captain was short of midshipmen, and, being obliged to sail
+immediately, he determined to put Archy on the quarter-deck, and so he
+did, while Andrew served in the maintop. But this did not last long. The
+captain, who liked Andrew quite as well, and who knew their family and
+connections, put Andrew also on the quarter-deck; and what was the
+consequence? Why, they are now both post-captains, commanding fine
+frigates. So you see, going on board of a man-of-war, which they
+conceived as their ruin, was the means of their rising to rank and
+riches, for they have been very lucky in the service. I heard Captain
+Archibald tell the story himself one day as I helped at dinner in the
+cabin when I was coxswain with Sir Hercules."
+
+"Well, father, that's a good story to the point, but I do not see that I
+ever have any chance of being a post-captain."
+
+"Don't seem much like it, certainly; but you've a good chance of being a
+pilot."
+
+"Yes, that I certainly have; and a pilot is always respected, go on
+board what ship he may."
+
+"To be sure he is, because he is supposed to have more knowledge than
+any one on board."
+
+"Then I am contented, father, with the prospect of being respectable; so
+there's an end of that business, except that I must write and thank the
+captain for his kindness."
+
+"Just so, Tom. Do you dine with me?"
+
+"No, father. I promised to meet Bramble at the 'Jolly Sailors.' We are
+going up to Mr. Wilson's."
+
+"Ay, about the farm he wants to buy. Well, the clock is striking, so
+good-by till this evening."
+
+I must explain to the reader that Mr. Wilson, having heard of Bramble's
+intention to purchase the farm, very kindly interfered. He had a son who
+was a solicitor at Dover, and he recommended Bramble not to appear
+personally, but let his son manage the affair for him, which he promised
+should be done without expense. The next morning Bramble and I took our
+leave and quitted Greenwich, taking the coach to Dover; for Bramble,
+having a good deal of money in his pocket, thought it better to do so
+than to wait till he could take a ship down the river. On our arrival at
+Dover we called upon Mr. Wilson's son, who had already made inquiries,
+and eventually obtained the farm for Bramble for two hundred pounds less
+than he expected to give for it, and, very handsomely, only charged him
+for the stamps of the conveyance. When we arrived at Deal we found Mrs.
+Maddox quite recovered, and sitting with little Bessy in the parlor
+below.
+
+After Mrs. Maddox and Bessy went upstairs to bed, Bramble said to me, as
+he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, "Tom, I've got this farm for Bessy
+for two hundred pounds less than I expected to give for it. Now, I've
+been thinking about this two hundred pounds, which I consider in a
+manner as her property, and what d'ye think I mean to do with it? I'll
+tell you. I'll give her education as well as money. This sum will keep
+her at a good school for a matter of four years, and I've made up my
+mind that she shall go. I don't like to part with her, that's certain;
+but it's for her good, so all's right. Don't you think so?"
+
+"I do, indeed, father," replied I. "I shall miss her as much as you do;
+but, as you say, it's all right, and I'm very glad that you have so
+decided."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
+
+     In which there is a Hop, Skip, and a Jump.
+
+
+Life has often, and with great truth, been compared to a river. In
+infancy a little rill, gradually increasing to the pure and limpid
+brook, which winds through flowery meads, "giving a gentle kiss to every
+ridge it overtaketh in its pilgrimage." Next it increases in its volume
+and its power, now rushing rapidly, now moving along in deep and
+tranquil water, until it swells into a bold stream, coursing its way
+over the shallows, dashing through the impeding rocks, descending in
+rapids swift as thought, or pouring its boiling water over the cataract.
+And thus does it vary its velocity, its appearance, and its course,
+until it swells into a broad expanse, gradually checking its career as
+it approaches, and at last mingles with the ocean of Eternity. I have
+been led into this somewhat trite metaphor, to account to the reader for
+the contents of this chapter. As in the river, after many miles of
+checkered and boisterous career, you will find that its waters will for
+some time flow in a smooth and tranquil course as almost to render you
+unconscious of the never-ceasing stream; so in the life of man, after an
+eventful and adventurous career, it will be found that for a time he is
+permitted to glide gently and quietly along, as if a respite were given
+to his feelings preparatory to fresh scenes of excitement. Such was the
+case with me for some time. I had now been under Bramble's tuition for
+more than a year and a half, and was consequently between fifteen and
+sixteen years old. The years from 1800 to the end of 1804 were of this
+description in my stream of life, unmarked by any peculiar or stirring
+events worthy of occupying the attention of my readers. It is therefore
+my intention, in this chapter, to play the part of the chorus in the old
+plays, and sum up the events in few words, so as not to break the chain
+of history, at the same time that I shall prepare my readers for what
+subsequently took place.
+
+I will first speak of myself. Up to the age of nineteen I continued my
+career under the care of Bramble; we seldom remained long on shore, for
+neither Bramble nor I found home so agreeable since little Bessy had
+been sent to school, and Mrs. Maddox, assisted by a little girl, had
+charge of the house; indeed, Bramble appeared resolved to make all the
+money he could, that he might the sooner be able to give up his
+profession. Mrs. Maddox I have spoken little of, because I had seen but
+little of her; now that she was downstairs, I will not say I saw, but I
+certainly heard too much of her, for she never ceased talking; not that
+she talked loud or screamed out--on the contrary, she was of a mild
+amiable temper, but could not hold her tongue. If she could not find any
+_one_ to talk to she would talk to any _thing_; if she was making the
+fire she would apostrophize the sticks for not burning properly. I
+watched her one morning as she was kneeling down before the grate:
+
+"Now, stick, you must go in," said she; "it's no use your resisting, and
+what's more, you must burn, and burn quickly too--d'ye hear? or the
+kettle won't boil in time for breakfast. Be quick, you little
+fellow--burn away and light the others, there's a good boy." Here she
+knocked down the tongs. "Tongs, be quiet; how dare you make that noise?"
+Then, as she replaced them, "Stand up, sir, in your place until you are
+wanted. Now, poker, your turn's coming, we must have a stir directly.
+Bless me, smoke, what's the matter with you now? can't you go up the
+chimney? You can't pretend to say the wind blows you down this fine
+morning, so none of your vagaries. Now, fender, it's your turn--stand
+still till I give you a bit of a rub. There, now you're all right.
+Table, you want your face washed--your master has spilled his grog last
+night--there now, you look as handsome as ever. Well, old chair, how are
+you this morning? You're older than I am, I reckon, and yet you're
+stouter on your legs. Why, candle, are you burning all this while? Why
+didn't you tell me? I would have put you out long ago. Come, now, don't
+be making a smell here--send it up the chimney."
+
+Thus would she talk to everything. We only had two animals in the
+house--a cat and a canary bird: of course they were not neglected, but
+somehow or another the cat appeared to get tired of it, for it would
+rise and very gently walk into the back kitchen; and as for the canary
+bird, like all other canary birds, as soon as he was talked to be would
+begin to sing, and that so loud that Mrs. Maddox was beaten out of the
+field. Bramble bore with her very well, but at the same time he did not
+like it: he once said to me, "Well, if Bessy were at Deal, I think I
+would take a short spell now; but as for that poor good old soul, whose
+tongue is hung on the middle and works at both ends, she does tire one,
+and that's the truth." But she really was a good-natured, kind creature,
+ready to oblige in everything; and I believe that she thought that she
+was amusing you when she talked on in this way. Unfortunately she had no
+anecdote, for she had a very bad memory, and therefore there was nothing
+to be gained from her. By way of amusing me, she used to say, "Now, Tom,
+sit down here, and I'll tell you all about my bad leg." And then she
+would commence with the first symptoms, the degrees of pain, the various
+plasters, bandages, and poultices which had been applied, and what the
+doctor had said this day and that day. I bore this very patiently for
+four or five times; but at last, after several days of increasing
+impatience (somewhere about the fifteenth time, I believe), I could
+stand it no more, so I jumped off my chair and ran away just as she
+commenced the interesting detail.
+
+"Mrs. Maddox," said I, "I cannot bear to hear of your sufferings; pray
+never mention them again."
+
+"What a kind-hearted creature you are!" said she. "Well, I won't, then.
+It's not many who have such pity in them. Cotton, where have you got
+to--always running away? One would think you don't like to be knitted.
+Now, cotton, don't be foolish; where have you hid yourself? You make
+others as bad as yourself. Scissors have got away now--there now, sit on
+my lap and be quiet."
+
+However, if Mrs. Maddox got back cotton and scissors, she did not get me
+back, for I bolted out of the front door, and joined the men who were
+lolling against the gunnel of a galley hauled up on the shingle.
+
+During the period of which I am speaking, I continued every day to add
+to my knowledge of my profession, and eventually I was competent to pass
+my examination at the Trinity House. When I went on board a vessel with
+Bramble, he would often give me charge of her, never interfering with me
+(although he watched me carefully) unless he considered that it was
+absolutely necessary, which I believe took place but twice. He used to
+tell the masters of the vessels that I was quite as good a pilot as he
+was, which certainly was not quite correct; however, it was of great
+consequence to me, as it gave me that confidence so necessary in my
+profession, and in due time I passed for a river pilot at the Trinity
+House. Some alteration occurred at the hospital during this interval.
+Anderson had been promoted from boatswain of the ward to inspecting
+boatswain, a place of trust, with very comfortable emoluments, his
+weekly allowance being increased to five shillings; and on his promotion
+my father was made a boatswain's mate of the Warriors' Ward. This was at
+first satisfactory to my mother, who was pleased that my father should
+wear lace upon his pensioner's coat; but, as she advanced in the world,
+she did not like the idea of my father being in the hospital, nor did
+she want him to be at her house--in fact, she could have done better
+without him; but as that could not be she made the best of it. It must
+be acknowledged that my father's boisterous and rude manner had been
+softening down ever since he had been in the hospital, and that he had
+become a very well-behaved, quiet, and sober person, and was very
+respectable in his appearance; but I shall say more about him when I
+talk of my mother again. Old Nanny went on much as usual, but on the
+whole she improved. I used to pick up for her anything I could, and put
+it in a large bag which I occasionally brought to Greenwich, and this
+bag, with its multifarious contents, would give her more pleasure than
+if I had brought her any single object more valuable. Old Anderson used
+to call upon her occasionally, but he did not do her much good. She
+appeared to think of hardly anything but getting money. She was always
+glad to see me, and I believe thought more of me than anybody else in
+the world, and I seldom failed to pay her a visit on the first day of my
+arrival.
+
+Dr. Tadpole and his apprentice Tom went on pretty well together until
+the hundredweight of liquorice was expended, and then there was a fresh
+rising on the part of the injured and oppressed representative of the
+lower orders, which continued till a fresh supply from London appeased
+his radical feelings which had been called forth, and then the liquorice
+made everything go on smoothly as before; but two years afterward Tom
+was out of his time, and then the doctor retained him as his assistant,
+with a salary added to his board, which enabled Tom to be independent of
+the shop, as far as liquorice was concerned, and to cut a very smart
+figure among the young men about Greenwich; for on Tom's promotion
+another boy was appointed to the carrying out of the medicine as well as
+the drudgery, and Tom took good care that this lad should clean his
+boots as well as the doctor's, and not make quite so free with the
+liquorice as he had done himself. I found out also that he had cut Anny
+Whistle.
+
+Mrs. St. Felix continued to vend her tobacco, and I never failed seeing
+her on my visits to Greenwich. She appeared to look just as young as she
+did when I first knew her, and every one said that there was no apparent
+alteration. She was as kind and as cheerful as ever; and I may as well
+here remark that during this period a great intimacy had grown up
+between her and my sister Virginia, very much to the annoyance of my
+mother, who still retained her feelings of ill-will against Mrs. St.
+Felix--why, I do not know, except that she was so good-looking a person,
+and such a favorite with everybody. But my father, who, when he chose,
+would not be contradicted, insisted upon Virginia's being on good terms
+with Mrs. St. Felix, and used to take her there himself; and Virginia,
+who had never forgotten the widow's kindness to me, was extremely
+partial to her, and was much more in her company than my mother had any
+idea of, for Virginia would not vex my mother unnecessarily by telling
+her she had been with the widow unless she was directly asked.
+
+It was about four months after my father and I had given our money to my
+mother that I returned to Greenwich. A letter from Virginia had
+acquainted me with the street and the number of the house which my
+mother had taken, and I therefore walked from the beach right to it; and
+I must say that when I came to the new abode I was very much surprised
+at its neat and even handsome appearance. The ground-floor was fitted up
+as a shop with large panes of glass, and inside upon stands were
+arranged a variety of bonnets and caps, set off with looking-glass and
+silk curtains, in the arrangement of which no little taste was
+displayed. Behind the show goods was a curtain hanging on a brass rod,
+drawn so as to conceal the workpeople who were within. There was a
+private door as well as a shop door, and I hardly knew which I was to go
+in at; however, as the shop door required no knocking, I went into that,
+and found myself in the company of eight young damsels, very busy at
+their needles, sitting on each side of a long table covered with
+half-made dresses. I inquired of them whether my mother was at home, and
+was answered by one, who was apparently the eldest, that she was down
+below getting the breakfast ready.
+
+"I suppose," continued she, "you are Mr. Tom Saunders, the pilot?"
+
+"I suppose I am," replied I; "and pray who are you?"
+
+"I am Miss Amelia Gozlin, apprentice to Mrs. Saunders, milliner--at your
+service, sir; and, in consequence of my being so very quiet and sedate,
+I have charge of all these young ladies you see with me."
+
+Here the others burst into a laugh.
+
+"They are in very good hands, Miss Amelia," replied I, "and under your
+care, and with your example, I have no doubt but they will turn out very
+useful members of society."
+
+"Thank you, sir; but allow me to say that I cannot permit young men,
+especially such enchanting young men as Mr. Tom Saunders, to remain
+here; as, if I do, your amiable mother would give me what is genteelly
+termed a wigging; so if you will be pleased, sir, just to remove
+yourself from our presence," continued she, with a mock courtesy, "and
+not make your appearance here again until you are certain your mother is
+gone out, you will oblige us very much."
+
+I obeyed the wishes of Miss Amelia Gozlin, who certainly was a very
+handsome girl, with fine black eyes, apparently about fifteen years old.
+I walked into the passage, and found my way down into the kitchen, where
+my mother and Virginia were employed as they had told me above. My
+mother received me kindly, but said little, for she appeared to be fully
+occupied; and Virginia had no time to dedicate to me until the breakfast
+was ready, when she called the apprentices, and we all sat down
+together, Miss Amelia and her companions looking so demure, that, if I
+had not seen them before, I should have thought that they could not
+speak.
+
+After breakfast was over Virginia showed me the house. The first floor
+was to let furnished, the second was occupied by my mother and Virginia,
+and the attics were appropriated to the apprentices. Everything appeared
+clean, neat, and well arranged, and I could not imagine how my mother
+had contrived to do so much with so little money; but Virginia told me
+that she thought Mr. Wilson had assisted her.
+
+When I returned, which might have been in six months, I found a great
+improvement, and every appearance of my mother succeeding well in her
+speculations. She had now a maid-servant, and her apprentices were
+increased to twelve, and there was every appearance of brisk and full
+employment.
+
+In 1803 I found that Virginia, who was then fourteen years old, had left
+school. She had told my mother that, during the last half-year, she had
+only repeated over again what she had learned the half-year before, and
+that she thought she could employ her time better at home in assisting
+her. My mother was of the same opinion, and Virginia now superintended
+the cutting-out department, and was very useful. She said that the
+increase of business had been very great, and that my mother could
+hardly execute the orders which she received. There were now two
+servants in the house, and additional workwomen. My mother also had very
+much altered in appearance: before, she was usually clean and neat, now
+she was well if not elegantly dressed, and appeared much younger and
+better looking. I must do her the justice to say that prosperity had not
+spoiled but improved her: she was more kind and more cheerful every time
+that I went to see her; and I may add that, with the exception of a
+little necessary castigation to Miss Amelia and her companions, she
+never scolded, and was kind to her servants. The last year she had been
+even more successful, and was now considered the first milliner in the
+town. I believed that she deserved her reputation, for she had a great
+deal of taste in dress; and when she had gone upstairs to decorate
+previous to the hour of arrival of her customers, and came down in a
+handsome silk dress and an elegant morning cap, I would often look at
+her with surprise, and say to myself, "Who would think that this was my
+mother, who used to shove the broom at me in the little parlor at
+Fisher's Alley?"
+
+The reader may inquire how my father and mother got on after such an
+alteration in her circumstances. I can only reply that they got on
+better than they did before; for my mother, who did not wish my father's
+company in the house, pointed out to him that, with so many young people
+living with her, it would be very inconvenient if he came there in the
+evenings to smoke his pipe, and that it would be better if he could
+smoke and drink his beer anywhere else. My father perceived the
+propriety of this, and assented with a good grace: my mother was very
+liberal to him, and he was now enabled, when he chose, to ask a
+companion or two to join him, so that it suited both parties. My father,
+therefore, never came to the house, except after the hospital supper,
+when he remained a few minutes to see Virginia, and then departed. On
+Sundays he spent the whole day there, and was kindly welcomed, but he
+always left in the evening to smoke his pipe elsewhere. As for me, when
+I did come I was always kindly received, and slept in a spare bed on the
+same floor with my mother and Virginia. Before my time was out I was too
+well supplied by Bramble ever to want anything, and afterward I made
+plenty of money, and seldom came home without bringing a present both to
+my mother and Virginia.
+
+Having thus given a general outline of affairs, I shall in the next
+chapter enter more minutely into some particulars, without which the
+detail of events will not be complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
+
+     In which the _sine qua non_ of all Novels is, for the first time,
+     introduced.
+
+
+In the last chapter I have said in few words that Bessy Godwin had been
+sent to school, and had since returned home. She had been home nearly a
+year before the period to which I brought up my history, but now she no
+longer was employed in any menial service, the girl who had been hired
+during her absence being still retained. Bessy now superintended the
+household, but did nothing more; and there was a greater degree of
+comfort and expenditure than had formerly been the case. Whether this
+was on Bessy's account, or from Bessy's imbibed ideas, I cannot pretend
+to say; but certainly there was a great change in our style of living,
+which Bramble appeared to sanction. Mrs. Maddox remained as a mere
+pensioner, sitting by the fire, and perhaps finishing a pair of
+stockings about every five or six weeks, talking as usual at and to
+everybody and with everything. In another point, also, there was a
+change in Bramble's house: it was much oftener filled with company; this
+was, I presume, to be ascribed to Bessy's personal charms, which
+certainly were very great. She was of a peculiar and much admired style
+of beauty, a description which strikes some people at first sight, and
+not others--those not perceiving it at first eventually admiring it even
+more than the others. She was taller than the middle height, her person
+finely developed, yet not so much so as to take away from its grace: her
+complexion was pale and clear, her eyes and hair very dark; there was a
+coldness about her beauty when in repose, like statuary marble; but if
+the least excited or animated, the color would mantle in her cheek; her
+eyes would beam, till they appeared as if, like bright planets, they
+could almost cast a shadow; and dimples, before concealed, would show
+themselves when she indulged in her silvery laugh. Although her form was
+commanding, still she was very feminine: there was great attraction in
+her face, even when in repose--she was cold, but not chilling.
+
+I had seen little of her for three years, during which she had sprung up
+to womanhood, for she was now seventeen, and appeared to be at least
+eighteen years old. Before, when we were living together, we kissed as
+brother and sister: since we had again become inmates of the same house,
+we had been friends, but nothing more. Bessy certainly showed as great a
+preference to me as our relative situations would admit; but still it
+appeared as if the extreme intimacy of childhood had been broken off,
+and that it was necessary that a renewed intimacy under another aspect
+should take place, to restore us to our former relations. Here it was
+for me to make the first overtures; not for her, as maidenly reserve
+would not permit it. Bramble seemed to be most anxious that such should
+be the case--indeed, considered it as a matter of course: perhaps Bessy
+thought so too in her own bosom; and the continual raillery of Bramble
+did more harm than good, as it appeared to warrant her thinking that it
+ought to be so. Why it was not I will now explain to the reader.
+
+I have already made mention of Mr. Wilson, the lawyer, whose
+acquaintance we procured through Sir Hercules and his lady. This
+intimacy had very much increased; and a Miss Janet Wilson had come home
+from a finishing seminary near town. Between this young lady and my
+sister Virginia a certain degree of intimacy had been formed, and of
+course I had seen a great deal of her at the times when I was at
+Greenwich. She was a very pretty and very diminutive girl, but
+beautifully proportioned, although so very small; indeed, she was
+considered quite a model in figure, at least my mother used to say so,
+and I never heard any one disagree with her. Janet had, moreover, large
+eyes, penciled eyebrows, and a dimpled chin. Now, as Bessy was away at
+the time when I first made her acquaintance, if all these perfections
+were not enough for me to fall in love with, I must have been difficult
+to please at the age of eighteen, when one is not so very difficult; and
+the consequence was, I was her most devoted slave. Mr. Wilson laughed at
+us, and seemed either to think that it would end in nothing, or that if
+it did end in something he had no objection. Thus was I fixed; and with
+Virginia for a confidante, what was to prevent the course of true love
+running smooth? Janet received all my sighs, all my protestations, all
+my oaths, and all my presents--and many were the latter, although
+perhaps not equal to the former three. It was, therefore, not surprising
+that Bessy, who had been out of the way, had been forestalled by this
+diamond edition of Nature's handiwork. Such was the state of my heart at
+the commencement of the year 1805.
+
+I have mentioned that my mother had taken a house in the principal
+street; but I must now add that in the year 1804 she found it necessary
+to remove into one much larger, and had therefore shifted more to the
+upper part of the town. Instead of being in a row, this house was
+detached, with a small garden in front and a good piece of ground at the
+back, which looked down toward the river. The situation not being so
+central did no harm to my mother, as she was so well known; on the
+contrary, it made her even more fashionable. She now kept no shop, but a
+show room; and had not only accommodation for more workpeople, but very
+handsome apartments to let. In another point it was advantageous, which
+was on account of my father. At the end of the garden there was an
+octangular summer-house, looking upon the river: it was a good-sized
+room, boarded floor, and, moreover, it had a fireplace in it, and when
+shut up was very warm and comfortable. My mother made this house over to
+my father as his own, to smoke and drink beer in; and my father
+preferred a place in which he could sit alone with his friends, to a
+public house, especially as the garden had a gate at the end of it by
+which he could admit himself whenever he pleased. Here my father, Ben
+the Whaler, Anderson, and others would sit, having a commanding view of
+the Thames and the vessels passing and repassing--in the summer-time,
+with all the windows open, and enjoying the fresh air and the fresh
+smoke from their pipes--in winter-time surrounding the fire and telling
+their yarns. It was an admirable arrangement, and Virginia and I always
+knew where to find him.
+
+I have said but little of my sister Virginia. I may be considered
+partial to her--perhaps I was; but to me she was, if not the handsomest,
+certainly one of the most captivating persons I ever saw: to prove that
+I thought so, I can only say that, deeply as I was smitten with Miss
+Janet Wilson, I often thought that I wished she was a facsimile of my
+sister. Virginia was now seventeen years old, slender and very
+graceful: she reminded me more of an antelope in her figure than
+anything I can compare her to; her head was so beautifully placed on her
+shoulders that it was the first thing which attracted your notice when
+you saw her. Her eyes were of a deep hazel, fringed by long black
+eyelashes, and her arching and delicate eyebrows nearly met; her nose
+was perfectly straight, but rather small; and her face ended in a sharp
+oval, which added to the brilliancy and animation of her countenance;
+her mouth was small and beautifully formed, and her little teeth like
+seed pearl. Every one declared that she was the handsomest creature that
+ever they had seen; and what every one says must be true. She was so;
+but she was not always lively--she was only so at times: she appeared to
+be of a serious, reflective turn of mind, and she read a great deal; but
+at times she was mirth personified. To my mother she was always dutiful
+and attentive, and was very useful to her.
+
+I could not at first imagine what made my mother so anxious to have
+lodgers in the house, as they must have proved a great nuisance to her,
+and her circumstances were above such an infliction. It was not long
+before I discovered the cause of this: it was no other but to make up
+some good match for my sister, whose beauty she considered would effect
+her purpose. Many were the applications for her lodgings, made by highly
+respectable gentlemen; but when she discovered, either that they were
+married, or that in other points they did not suit, she invariably
+refused, and for months her apartments continued vacant; but if anybody
+at all aristocratical, who was single, wished to inspect them, my mother
+was all smiles and eagerness. It may be supposed that she was not likely
+to meet with such people as she solicited at such a town as Greenwich,
+but such was not the case: before steamboats made Greenwich so
+come-at-able there were many families of distinction who resided there
+and in its environs--especially in the autumn of the year, when the
+river offered much amusement. It was just at that period that the
+whitebait parties became so much in vogue, and Greenwich was considered
+a pleasant retreat for a few months by many of the fashionable world.
+
+Although Virginia never mentioned her surmises directly, I perceived, by
+her occasional remarks, that she had latterly become aware of what were
+my mother's views; indeed, how could she do otherwise, when my mother
+would refuse her lodgings one day to a gentleman because he was married,
+and let them the next time merely because he was a single man? And that
+she was disgusted with my mother's conduct I was convinced; at the same
+time, she certainly kept her thoughts to herself, merely telling me how
+very uncomfortable it was to have lodgers, and to be obliged to go into
+their rooms with messages from my mother. There was an Honorable Mr.
+----, I really forget his name--indeed, I should not have mentioned him,
+except that he was the introduction of another personage who was several
+months in my mother's house, a harmless old bachelor. How old he was I
+cannot say, as he wore a very youthful wig and also false whiskers, but
+I should think about sixty. He was a great admirer of the fine arts, and
+a still greater admirer of his own performances in painting. He took
+lessons twice a day from two different masters, who came from London,
+and he was at it from morning to night. He came down to Greenwich, as he
+said, to study _tints_, and get up his coloring. I cannot say I thought
+his performances very good, but perhaps I was not a judge. My mother,
+who would, I believe, have sacrificed my sister to an ourang outang,
+provided he was an Honorable, took every opportunity of sending Virginia
+in to him, that he might study the delicate tints on her cheeks; but it
+would not do, even if Virginia had been a party to it. He looked at his
+palette instead of her pretty mouth, and his camelhair pencils attracted
+his attention more than her penciled eyebrows. He was wrapped up in his
+art, and overlooked the prettiest piece of nature in the world; and
+Virginia, seeing this to be the case, had no longer any objection to go
+into his room. But this gentleman had a nephew, a very different sort of
+a personage, a young heir to a marquisate, who used to pay attention to
+his bachelor uncle by paying him visits, at first because he was ordered
+so to do, and after once or twice because he had seen Virginia, and was
+struck with her appearance. He was a good-looking young man, about
+nineteen, but not very bright--indeed, I ought to say very silly,
+although at the same time not at all bashful. He made an acquaintance
+with my mother, who was delighted with his condescension, and declared
+that he was one of the most pleasant young men she had ever met with;
+and he would have been very intimate with Virginia had she not repulsed
+him. As soon as the leaves dropped off the trees the old bachelor
+declared that there were no more tints worth remaining for, and he took
+his departure. About a month afterward his nephew came down, accompanied
+by a young man who was his tutor, and hired the apartments, much to the
+joy of my mother, who now had hopes, and much to the annoyance of my
+sister, who had fears of being persecuted.
+
+And now, having in this chapter brought up my history to the
+commencement of the year 1805, I shall again enter into a more detailed
+narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
+
+     More Cry than Wool--Bramble would dig a Pit for another, and
+     tumbles in along with him.
+
+
+It was in the month of March, 1805, when the easterly winds prevailed,
+and vessels were detained in the Chops of the Channel, that I agreed
+with Bramble that we would return together and halve the pilotage. About
+eight leagues from the Lizard Point we boarded a small ship which had
+hoisted the signal, the weather at that time being fine and the wind
+variable. When we went on board it was but just daylight, and the
+captain was not yet on deck, but the mate received us. We were surprised
+to find that she mounted twelve brass guns, remarkably well fitted, and
+that everything was apparently ready for action, rammers and sponges,
+shot and wadding being all up and at hand.
+
+"A prime morning, shipmate," said Bramble; then casting his eye over the
+deck, "A letter of marque, I presume?"
+
+"Yes," replied the mate, "we have the papers, but still she has never
+run without convoy since I have been in her; we lost our convoy three
+days back, and the captain has been rather uneasy ever since."
+
+"Uneasy! why, I should think that you could beat off a good stout
+privateer with these guns of yours?"
+
+"Well, I don't know but what we might, but our cargo is valuable, and we
+might be overpowered."
+
+"Very true, and the captain must be anxious. Where are you from?"
+
+"Smyrna."
+
+"What's your cargo?"
+
+"Why, we have raw silk and drysalters' goods chiefly. D'ye think we
+shall have a fair wind? I don't care how soon, for we've at least twenty
+passengers on board, and our provisions and water are running rather
+short. Here's the skipper."
+
+The captain, who now made his appearance, was a tall good-looking young
+man about thirty, dressed rather fantastically, as I thought, having a
+laced cap on his head and a party-colored silk sash round his waist,
+such as they wear in the Mediterranean.
+
+"Well, pilot, what do you think of the wind?"
+
+"Well, sir, I expect we'll have a slant which will enable us to fetch
+well to windward of the Lizard, at all events, and then, when the tide
+turns inshore, we must stand out again."
+
+"Mr. Stubbs, turn the hands up to make sail."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate.
+
+The men came on deck, but the captain roared out for the idlers; these
+were the passengers who had agreed to work during the passage: at last
+they came up, a queer-looking set, and the captain sending down for his
+speaking-trumpet, sail was made on the ship.
+
+"Why, captain," said Bramble, "you do it in man-of-war fashion."
+
+"Well, I've not served the King for seven years for nothing," replied
+he, "and I hope, sir, not heard the bullets whistling about my head like
+hail in a hailstorm without knowing how to take care of my ship. I like
+everything man-of-war fashion, and then one's always prepared. Where's
+the boatswain? Pipe to breakfast."
+
+"You've plenty of hands on board, mate," said Bramble.
+
+"Yes, plenty of them, such as they are; we've twenty of the ship's
+company, and twenty-five passengers from Malta."
+
+After breakfast the captain ordered up the small-arm men; five seamen
+and fifteen of the passengers made their appearance with their muskets,
+which were examined, and they were dismissed. At eleven o'clock, as we
+neared the land, the men were ordered to quarters, the guns cast loose,
+and they were exercised as on board of a man-of-war, the captain giving
+his orders with his speaking-trumpet. "Double-shot your guns! Run out!
+Point your guns! Fire! Repel boarders on the bow! Repel boarders on the
+quarter!" etc. This continued for more than two hours, when the guns
+were again secured.
+
+"Well, pilot," said the captain to Bramble, "what do you think? do you
+fancy a privateer could take us in a hurry?"
+
+"Why, captain, if the men fight, I should say not; but, you see, these
+guns, handsome as they are, won't fight of themselves."
+
+"I'll answer for the men fighting; they'll have but their choice--fight,
+or the contents of my pistol through the first man's head who quits his
+gun. I'll nail the colors to the mast, and see who will be the man who
+will haul them down. Why, pilot, this vessel is insured at thirty
+thousand pounds."
+
+"Then she'll be a famous prize, if they should contrive to take her,
+that's all," said Bramble. "Halloo! what vessel's that coming down? Tom,
+hand your glass here."
+
+"I haven't got it with me."
+
+"Well, give me that one on the skylight. I can't make her out, but I
+don't much like the looks of her."
+
+"Heh! what's that?" said the captain. "Let me look--oh, she's a
+square-rigged vessel, ain't she?"
+
+"Can't tell," said Bramble.
+
+The mate, who had fetched his glass from below, looked at her, and said
+it was a coasting schooner.
+
+"Are you sure of that?" said the captain. "Let me see. Well, I don't
+know what to say--she does look rakish. I'll go forward and make her
+out."
+
+"Why, it's a coaster, Bramble," said I, as the captain walked forward.
+
+"I know that," replied Bramble, with a wink.
+
+The captain returned, probably satisfied that it was only a coaster, but
+he did not choose to say so, "Well, I don't know what to make of her,
+but at all events there's nothing like being ready. She's coming down
+fast upon us; Mr. Stubbs, we'll beat to quarters."
+
+Again the people were called up and the guns cast loose; the powder was
+handed up, and all was preparation. I did not think, however, that the
+passengers appeared at all zealous; but that I was not surprised at: the
+captain harangued them, calling them Britons, etc., and, hoping that
+they would show what stuff they were made of; talked about the honor of
+Old England, and a great deal more, and then examined the vessel again
+with his glass. "We'll give her the starboard broadside, and then wear
+round his stern and give her the other. Hoist the colors!"
+
+As soon as we hoisted the colors, the schooner hoisted English colors
+also.
+
+"English colors, sir!" said the mate, grinning.
+
+"English colors, heh? Very well; but that may be a feint--keep to your
+guns, my lads."
+
+The vessel now ran by us; she was deeply laden, and as broad as she was
+long.
+
+"No privateer this time, captain," said Bramble, laughing.
+
+"No, all's right; secure the guns, my lads. We'd have given her a nice
+peppering if she'd been a French privateer."
+
+The captain then went down below to put away his sword and pistols,
+which the cabin-boy had brought on deck.
+
+"It's my opinion, Tom," said Bramble, "that this skipper ain't quite so
+fond of fighting as he pretends to be. I'll see if I can't frighten him
+a little."
+
+As soon as the captain came on deck again, Bramble said, "We'll go
+about, if you please."
+
+"What! about already? why, we're good three leagues from the shore."
+
+"Yes, sir, but the tide has made, and we must now make a long
+stretch-out toward the French coast. We won't tack again till about
+dark."
+
+"Not tack till dark, pilot? Surely we will do better keeping on the
+English coast."
+
+"No, no, sir; if we were not so well manned and so well armed I should
+do it; but, as we are a match for any privateer, why, we may as well
+make a long leg--we shall be up Channel sooner."
+
+"Well, I don't know what to say. I've a heavy responsibility with such a
+valuable cargo."
+
+"Well, tack if you please, sir," said Bramble, shortly.
+
+"Oh, certainly. Hands, about ship."
+
+The vessel's head was put off-shore, and with a smart breeze we walked
+away fast from the land. At twelve o'clock the captain proposed
+standing inshore again, but Bramble refused. At three o'clock he became
+very uneasy, and expostulated with Bramble, who replied, "Well, sir, I'm
+doing all for the best, but if you are afraid--"
+
+"Afraid?" cried the captain; "afraid of what, I should like to know? No,
+I'm not afraid, but it appears to me that we ought to make the land
+again before night."
+
+"I'll answer for knowing where we are, sir, if that is your reason; at
+all events, I wish to stand out till six o'clock."
+
+"Well, do so, then, if you choose--I'm sure I don't care if you stand to
+within gunshot of the French coast;" and the captain, evidently very
+much annoyed, went down into the cabin.
+
+About half-past four o'clock the mate came aft and took up the glass,
+saying that there was an awkward-looking craft on the weather bow. He
+came aft again, and said, "Pilot, I wish you would take a squint at that
+craft, for I don't much like the look of her."
+
+Bramble went forward, and I followed him. "I say, Tom, that's a French
+privateer, as sure as we stand here," said he. "Look at her. Well, now
+we shall see what these guns are made of."
+
+"Don't put too much trust in them," said the mate. "I know what sort of
+people we have here. Had we only ten good men I wouldn't care for a
+privateer, but I'm afraid that we have not many we can trust to.
+However, we'll do our best, and we can do no more. I'll go down and tell
+the captain."
+
+"It is a Frenchman," replied I, "and no mistake--every rope and every
+sail on her are French;" for the vessel, which was a lugger, was not
+more than four miles from us.
+
+"Well," replied Bramble, "it would be odd if we were to be taken into a
+French port after all, wouldn't it? not very pleasant, though."
+
+"We've men enough to beat her off, or two of her, if that's all,"
+replied I.
+
+"Yes, Tom, but I doubt the captain, and without example men don't fight
+well. However, we'll do our best, and if he flinches we won't."
+
+The captain now came forward as red as a turkey-cock; he said nothing,
+looked at the vessel, and then turned as white as a sheet.
+
+"She's more than our match, if she's an enemy," said he.
+
+"I should rather think not, sir," replied Bramble. "All you have to do
+is to make your men fight, and nail your colors to the mast."
+
+"That's very true when there's a fair chance of success, but it's
+useless sacrificing the men against so very superior a force," replied
+the captain.
+
+"But it ain't superior, nor in guns is she your equal, if I know
+anything about a vessel. At all events, I suppose you'll have a trial
+for it. Won't you beat to quarters, captain?"
+
+"Oh, to be sure. Mr. Stubbs, beat to quarters. I think it would not be a
+bad thing to fire off our broadsides now, and let them see that we are
+well armed."
+
+The men were summoned up to quarters, and very unwillingly did they
+obey. Some said that they did not come on board to fight, others that
+they had agreed to work the passage home, but not to stand to be shot
+at; and some were actually going down below again, when Bramble and the
+mate spoke to them and persuaded them to remain on deck. Still there was
+no willingness shown; and although Bramble told them how many privateers
+had been beaten off, and mentioned particularly the Leith smack having
+the other day fought with one an hour and a half, and knocked her all to
+pieces, they still appeared uneasy and wavering.
+
+In the meantime the privateer was within a mile of us, and had hoisted
+French colors.
+
+"We'll keep away and give her the first broadside," cried the captain.
+
+"You'd better hoist your colors first," observed Bramble, quietly.
+
+"Hoist the colors, Mr. Stubbs! Port the helm! Look out, my men! Point
+the guns to the object! Fire!"
+
+Off went all the guns, not only on the starboard side, in the direction
+of the privateer, but all those on the larboard side as well; and this
+circumstance probably gave the people on board of the privateer some
+idea of the state of confusion we were in. She now rounded to, and gave
+us her broadside of three guns: they were well directed, and did us some
+damage in the upper works and rigging; but still more in frightening the
+people, who were now running down below, notwithstanding the exertions
+of the mate, Bramble, one or two of the seamen, and myself; but our fate
+was soon decided by the captain, who cried out, "It's useless contending
+against such a superior force." With this observation he ran aft and
+hauled down the colors. As soon as the men perceived this they all left
+the guns; at another broadside from the privateer they all scampered
+down below, and at the same time the captain went down into his cabin.
+There was none but the mate, the boatswain, Bramble, and myself left on
+deck.
+
+"Pleasant," said Bramble. "I thought as much. Well, Tom, here we are, in
+for it. Come with me to the helm, for these French fellows will board,
+and they make very free with their cutlasses, even after colors are
+hauled down. Well," said he, as he walked aft, "I did not think to see
+the English flag so disgraced. Poor Bessy, too! Well, never mind. I say,
+mate, just let go the weather main-braces and bow-lines, and square the
+yards, for it's better to be as humble as possible, now that we can't
+help ourselves; and do you and the boatswain go down below, for they cut
+right and left, these fellows. They do pay a little more civility to
+pilots, as they aren't belonging to the ship."
+
+This advice of Bramble's, which was very good, was followed by the mate
+and boatswain.
+
+"Shall I run down and look after our kits?" said I to Bramble.
+
+"No, Tom, don't have anything in your hand, or they will take it from
+you, and most likely give you a rap on the head with a cutlass at the
+same time; for privateer-men of all nations are little better than
+pirates, and don't how to behave in victory. Just keep where you
+are--look as if you had nothing to do with the ship except the steering
+of her. Here they come!"
+
+As he spoke the lugger touched our weather side, at the same time
+lowering down her foresail and mainsail with no little noise and
+confusion; in a second or two there were thirty of their men on our
+decks, flourishing their cutlasses, and looking round with their pistols
+ready cocked in their left hands for somebody to let fly at. At last
+they came aft. "Pilot!" cried Bramble, taking off his hat. I did the
+same. With reiterated _sacres_ and _diables_ of every description some
+now rushed down into the cabin, while others went down the
+fore-hatchway, while more of the men from the lugger poured upon our
+decks; but none of them molested Bramble or me, as we continued standing
+at the wheel. In about ten minutes order was to a certain degree
+restored by the captain of the privateer, who had come on board. I
+perceived him express his surprise to his officers who were with him at
+the armament of the ship, and he appeared very much pleased: it was not
+necessary to understand French for that. He then came up to Bramble, and
+spoke to him in French; but Bramble only pointed to me and then to
+himself, and said "Pilot." The captain called for a young Frenchman who
+could speak English, and then asked Bramble what was the cargo.
+
+Bramble, to please him, replied that it was silk and other goods to the
+value of thirty thousand pounds English.
+
+"How many men?"
+
+"Forty-five men."
+
+The French captain rubbed his hands with ecstasy, as well he might. Just
+at this moment the English captain came upon deck, followed by two of
+the privateer's men, one of whom had taken possession of his laced cap,
+and the other of his silk sash. He brought his sword in his hand, and
+presented it to the captain of the privateer, saying, "It is no disgrace
+for one brave man to deliver up his sword to another."
+
+"Que dit il?" said the captain of the privateer to the young man who
+interpreted. The young man translated this fine speech, upon which the
+French captain called the English one by a very contemptuous title, and
+turned away. The privateer's men now made their appearance from below,
+having helped themselves to everything they could find; the orders were
+then given for the prisoners to be brought upon deck; they were driven
+up, many of them bleeding from wounds received in attempts to rescue
+their personal property, and were handed over to the lugger. A
+prize-master with twenty men was put on board; the lugger was hauled
+off, the only Englishmen allowed to remain in the captured vessel being
+Bramble and myself. As soon as the vessels were clear they made sail,
+running about two points free for the French coast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
+
+     We have great Hopes of not seeing the Inside of a French Prison,
+     but we are disappointed.
+
+
+"Well, Tom, this is a bad job," said Bramble to me, taking his seat upon
+the hencoop aft. "By to-morrow noon, unless we fall in with a
+cruiser--and I see little chance of that--we shall be locked up in a
+French prison; ay, and Heaven knows how long we may stay there! What's
+to become of poor little Bessy? I'm sure I don't know. I must contrive
+to write over to lawyer Wilson, and put him in charge of everything. But
+I'm sorry for you, my poor lad; it's hard for you to be locked up,
+perhaps for years, when you might have been making money for yourself."
+
+"Well, it can't be helped, father; we must make the best of it," replied
+I, with a deep sigh, for I was anything but happy at the prospect.
+
+"If it had not been for that swaggering coward this might not have
+happened," replied Bramble. "It's somewhat my own fault. I was so
+anxious to frighten him about nothing that at last I run us into real
+danger, and I might have known that he never would have fought, although
+I certainly had no idea of falling in with a privateer. Well, Tom, we
+must not lose a chance."
+
+[Illustration: BRAMBLE AND JACK CARRIED INTO A FRENCH PORT.--Marryat,
+Vol X. p. 331.]
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that if there is any possibility of getting away, I shall; and
+you, of course, will not stay behind. I don't know where they are going
+to, but you see, Tom, our only chance of getting off is while we are on
+the coast; if once we are marched into the interior, why, then it will
+be almost hopeless. What we must try for is to get away at the port
+where we land. We shall see."
+
+"I am afraid that there's very little chance for us," replied I; "but
+I'm ready to attempt anything."
+
+"We shall see, Tom--where there's a will there's a way. However, it's no
+use talking about it just now." Here Bramble filled his pipe, took out
+his flint and steel, and lighted it.
+
+After smoking for ten minutes, during which I stood by him, he said, "I
+wonder where they will take us to--St. Malo's or Morlaix; for the course
+they are steering will fetch, I should think, thereabout. One thing is
+certain--they've got a good prize, and they mean to keep it if they can;
+and, my eyes! if they won't make a fuss about it! A ship with twelve
+guns taken by a lugger with only six! They'll make the ship mount
+eighteen or twenty guns, and have a hundred and fifty men on board, and
+they'll swear they fought us for three hours. They have something to
+boast of, that's certain; and I suspect that French captain is a brave
+sort of chap, from the sneer he gave when our cowardly English lubber
+gave him so fine a speech. Well, it's our disgrace!"
+
+Here Bramble was silent for some time, when I said to him, "You were
+stating to the men how a Leith smack beat off a privateer the other day.
+I never heard of it."
+
+"Yes, I heard it when I was up above Greenwich. I met an old friend who
+was on board of her, for he took his passage in her from London.
+
+"'Why,' says he to me, 'Bramble, I thought we never should have got away
+from the river, for the old captain, who was as big round as a puncheon,
+and not unlike one, declared that he would not sail until the powder
+came up from Woolwich; for the "Queen Charlotte" (that was the name of
+the smack) carried six eighteen-pound carronades. We waited nearly a
+week for the powder, and many a laugh we all had about it, thinking old
+Nesbitt was not much of a fighter, from his making so much fuss. Well,
+at last we boomed her off from the wharf, and about seven that night got
+clear of the Thames; it was a fair breeze all night, and we ran through
+the Swin by the lead, which is what every one won't attempt. Next
+morning we were off Yarmouth Roads, with the water as yellow as pea
+soup: never saw it otherwise, and I'm an old collier; reason why, the
+swells of the ocean thrashes up the sands off there--ay, and shifts them
+too occasionally, which is of more consequence. Well, Bramble,' says he,
+'well, on we went; hauled in through Harborough Gut; then the sun had so
+much power--for it was in the Dog Days--that it eat up the wind, and we
+were obliged to content ourselves with getting four knots out of her.
+Just as we made the Dudgeon Lightboat, old Nesbitt's son comes aft to
+his father, who was steering the craft, and says, "Father, do you see
+that 'ere brig crowding all sail after us? I think it be the New Custom
+House brig trying his rate of sailing with us."
+
+"'"Never you mind what she is, boy," says the captain, "but away up and
+furl the gaff-topsail."
+
+"'Meanwhile the brig overhauled us fast, and old Nesbitt kept a-looking
+round at her every two or three minutes. At last he says to the mate,
+"Take the wheel a bit," and he goes first and looks over the quarter.
+"I see," says he; "I say, you sergeant and corporal" (for we had a
+recruiting party on board), "suppose now you just help us to load our
+guns and work them a little, for I expect this here craft will give us
+plenty to do."
+
+"'Well, Bramble, as I stand here, if six of them lobsters didn't say
+nothing, but just walk down below; but the sergeant was a trump of a
+fellow, and so was his wife. He threw off his coat and cap covered with
+ribbons, tied a handkerchief round his head, and set to work with a
+will; and his wife backed him to the last, handing the powder and
+everything else. Well, we had with us ten men who all stood to guns; but
+the passengers went down below with the soldiers. Well, on comes the
+brig upon our starboard quarter as if to board; all her fore rigging,
+and forechains, and forecastle being full of men as bees in a swarm.
+
+"Are you all ready, my men?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes, all ready, sir."
+
+"Yes, and I be ready too, massa!" cried the black cook, bringing out
+from the caboose the red-hot poker.
+
+"Well, then, up on the wind with her, and fire when the guns bear."
+
+"'The men kept their eyes on the guns; and when they cried "Fire!" the
+cook set them all off, one after another, with the hot poker, and no
+small mischief did these three guns do. His forecastle was cleared of
+men in no time; down came his gaff and foretopsail, and being now right
+on our beam, he put his helm up to lay us on board; but we were too
+quick for him--we wore round too, and gave him the three other guns,
+which did him no good.
+
+[Illustration: THE LEITH SMACK AND THE PRIVATEER.--Marryat, Vol. X., p.
+335.]
+
+"'Well, he came after us on the other tack, and pelted us with musketry
+in a cruel way. The mate was hit in the head, and taken down below;
+and poor old Nesbitt, who was at the wheel, steering the craft
+beautifully, had a bullet right into his bow-window, as they call it.
+"Well," the old fellow says, "here's a shot between wind and water, I
+reckon--we must have a plug;" so he puts his flippers into his
+waistband, and stuffs his flannel jacket into the hole. Then we throws
+her up in the wind again, and rakes him with our three guns well into
+him, and carries away more of his gear, and stops his sailing--and so we
+goes on for a whole hour and thirty-five minutes; and, to make a long
+story short, we beat him off, and he turned tail and ran for it with
+both pumps going.'
+
+"Now you see, Tom, that's the account of the affair given to me by a man
+who I can trust; and there you see what can be done if men are resolute
+and determined to fight. Some little difference between that affair and
+this one, Tom."
+
+"Did old Nesbitt die or recover?"
+
+"I asked that question. He was doing well when my friend left. Somehow
+or another no vital part was injured, and he has had many presents made
+him for his gallant conduct, and the sergeant was well rewarded also.
+Well, my pipe's out, and it's not far from midnight; I should think we
+may just as well try for a little sleep, Tom, for perhaps we may not get
+any for some time to come."
+
+Bramble coiled himself up under the bulwark, I did the same; and in a
+few minutes we both had forgotten whether we were in our beds at our
+house at Deal or prisoners bound for the French coast.
+
+At daylight the next morning Bramble roused me up.
+
+"Here we are now, Tom! here's the French coast not four leagues from us;
+but it's hazy, and I cannot make it out very clear; however, the sun
+will soon drive all this away, and we shall have a fine day; but the
+wind has gone down, and I think we shall have still less of it."
+
+And so it proved; for, as the sun rose, the wind became very light, so
+that we did not go through the water more than three knots. We were
+looking at the coast, when the report of a gun saluted our ears. It was
+from the privateer. We turned to that quarter, and found that there was
+a cutter about two miles from the privateer, crowding all sail toward
+us.
+
+"Tom!" cried Bramble, "there's a chance for us yet--that's an English
+privateer, and she will try to retake us for the sake of the salvage.
+But here's a boat coming from the Frenchman--what can that be for?"
+
+The boat rowed alongside of us, and out jumped the captain of the French
+privateer with twenty of his best men, and the boat was then dropped
+astern.
+
+The Frenchman immediately cast loose the guns, went down for the powder,
+and prepared for action.
+
+"I see, Tom," said Bramble, "he's a clever fellow, this skipper. He
+knows that this ship and cargo is worth a dozen of his little privateer,
+and his object is to get her in--so he's come with all his best men on
+board of us, leaving his first officer to make the best fight with the
+privateer that he can. Well, he's right; and if it wasn't that I don't
+like to go to prison, I wish he may succeed, for he has got sense as
+well as courage, I think."
+
+The ship was now kept away two points more, that she might go through
+the water as fast as she could; and in the meantime the action commenced
+between the English cutter and the French privateer, the latter
+evidently attempting to cripple the masts and rigging of the former. The
+cutter, however, steered right for us, and evidently came up fast; the
+French privateer, weak-handed as she must have been, behaved very well,
+throwing herself across the cutter's bows, and doing everything she
+could to prevent her coming up with us. Both vessels were very much cut
+up before the cutter came within three cables' lengths of us, when the
+French captain ordered French colors to be hoisted, and, rounding to,
+poured in a well-directed broadside, which quite astonished the English
+privateer, who imagined that we were an unarmed merchantman. The action
+now became very warm; we standing on, and every now and then rounding to
+and raking the cutter, while the French privateer engaged her broadside
+to broadside. The French captain was abaft, giving his orders with the
+greatest coolness and ability, when a shot from the cutter came in on
+deck, and a large splinter which it tore off knocked him down on his
+back. Bramble and I both ran to him and helped him up--we could not help
+it, although he was an enemy. He was not hurt, and as soon as he was on
+his legs he laughed, and thanked us in French. The cutter still
+continued the fight until we were within three miles of the coast, when,
+all her spars and sails being cut to pieces, she hauled to the wind and
+stood out to the offing.
+
+"Well, Tom, there's all our hopes ended," said Bramble; "so now I'll
+light my pipe. Well, I say it's been a good fight on both sides."
+
+Here the captain came up to us and said, "Bien oblige--tank you."
+
+The cutter did not, however, stand out for more than a few minutes, when
+she hove to and repaired damages, evidently intending to renew the
+action. I pointed this out to Bramble. "I see, I see," replied he; "she
+intends to try and cut us off from Morlaix, which is to windward, and
+oblige us to fight or run for St. Malo's, which is a long way to
+leeward. In either case she will be able to attack us again, as she
+out-sails us. Perhaps the fight is not over yet."
+
+But the Frenchman also understood what he was about, and he now steered
+a course. When we were about two miles from the land, and about the same
+distance from the cutter, the latter kept away so as to oblige the ship
+to come to action again before she reached Morlaix; but, before she
+closed with us, we discovered that we were entering a small French port,
+which had not been visible to us, called (I think) Lanion, situated
+between Isle Bichat and Morlaix. When within half a mile of the land,
+French over English was hoisted at our peak, and a French pennant over
+an English pennant at our main.
+
+"I told you so," said Bramble; "they have made a man-of-war out of us,
+and now there'll be no end to the lies that they will tell; for though
+these French fellows do not fight quite so well as we do, at lying
+they'll beat us hollow, any day of the week. Never mind, Tom, we must
+keep a sharp lookout, and there's no saying--keep your eyes open as we
+go into the harbor--I never was here before, but I suspect it's nothing
+better than a poor fishing town."
+
+In a quarter of an hour the ship and privateer were both made fast to an
+old stone pier which ran out from the town; but there were no other
+vessels in the harbor except two small coasting chasses marees, and
+about a dozen fishing-boats.
+
+The harbor was formed by the mouth of a small river, which ran down
+through a very narrow alluvial flat, backed by precipitous rocks. On the
+right side of the river on entering, and on the level ground above
+mentioned, which extended back perhaps two hundred yards, until it was
+met by the rocky cliffs, was situated the village which, centuries back,
+must have been the town of Lanion. It consisted of perhaps one hundred
+to one hundred and twenty houses, few of them of any size, the major
+portion with walls built of mud and whitewashed over. The only remains
+of the former town were a stone-built market-place, the portion of the
+Hotel de Ville in which the mayor resided, and the old church, which,
+although perfect in its walls, was sadly dilapidated in the roof. It had
+long been deserted, and a small chapel had been built in lieu of it, in
+which the only cure of the place performed the service. The massive
+stones of which the now neglected pier had once been built proved that
+at one time considerable expense had been incurred in the formation of
+this small harbor.
+
+A battery mounting two guns at the end of the pier protected the mouth
+of the harbor; and there was a guard of a sergeant and twelve invalids,
+who were stationed there to man the guns upon the approach of an enemy.
+
+It would be difficult to describe the confusion which took place as soon
+as the two vessels were fairly alongside the wharf, and made fast with
+hawsers to the massive iron rings which had for centuries been fixed in
+the ponderous stones of which the pier was composed. There was the mayor
+with his cocked hat on, but his leather apron still tied in front, for
+he had been working at his calling; there was the sergeant of the
+invalids, who, perhaps, was a greater man than the mayor, all beard and
+mustachios, but so thin in his person that he looked as if a stout
+breeze would have blown him away; and there were the soldiers leaning on
+their muskets. These were the most important personages, but they were
+backed by the whole population of the town, amounting to about three
+hundred men, women, and children, all talking, jabbering, and screaming.
+Add to them the captain of the privateer, so important that he could
+not attend to even the mayor or the sergeant; and the privateer's men,
+dressed in every fashion, armed to the teeth, all explaining, or pushing
+away, or running here and there obeying orders; then the wounded
+men--for they had several men killed and others hurt in the conflict
+with the cutter--handed up one by one, bandaged here and there, and
+exciting the compassion and even screams of the women; the prisoners,
+who had been ordered to come on deck, half dressed and chapfallen; the
+sails of the vessels only clewed up, and still fluttering; ensigns and
+pennants hoisted upon every mast, and waving over the heads of the crowd
+assembled at the pier--and you may have some idea of the confused and
+bustling scene.
+
+[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF THE PRIVATEER AT LANION.--Marryat, Vol.
+X., p. 841.]
+
+At last, as there appeared no chance of anything being arranged while
+the people crowded round, the captain of the privateer ordered his men
+to draw their weapons and drive back the crowd, which was soon effected,
+notwithstanding many oaths, and more screaming on the part of the fairer
+sex; and when the crowd had been thus driven the men were stationed so
+as to keep them back. At first this gave offense to all parties--to the
+crowd, because they didn't like to be driven away--to the mayor, who
+remained with the sergeant and invalids in the area which had been
+cleared by the privateer's people, because he thought that they had
+interfered with his civil authority--and to the sergeant of invalids,
+because he thought that the marine force had interfered with his
+military authority; but the captain of the privateer having taken off
+his hat and bowed, first to the mayor and then to the sergeant, and
+saying how much he was obliged to them for their assistance, both
+parties were satisfied; and now a consultation was held between them how
+to proceed, while the privateer's men, who kept back the crowd, amused
+them by giving a detail of the two desperate actions which had been
+fought--no two accounts agreeing, certainly, but that was of no
+consequence.
+
+The first question to be canvassed was, what was to be done with the
+prisoners? Morlaix was the nearest town in which they would be under
+safe keeping, but that was twenty miles distant, and it would be
+necessary to send over an express, so that a sufficient force might be
+dispatched to Lanion to escort the prisoners there. This Mr. Mayor
+undertook to do immediately; a boy was summoned to take over the
+communication, and the mayor went up to write his letter to the
+authorities, while the wounded men were carried away, and by the
+direction of the cure, who had just arrived and joined the consultation,
+billeted upon different houses in the town. The express having been
+dispatched, and the wounded safely housed and under the care of the
+village AEsculapius, who never had such a job in his whole life, the next
+point of consultation was how to dispose of the prisoners until the
+force should arrive from Morlaix. Here the sergeant became the principal
+person, being military commandant; forty-seven prisoners were a heavy
+charge for twelve invalids; and as for the privateer's men, there was no
+dependence upon them, for, as the captain said, they had had enough to
+do to take them, and it was the business of the authorities to look
+after them now, while the privateer's men made merry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
+
+     With those powerful agents, Fire and Water, we contrive to Escape
+     from a French Prison.
+
+
+After more than an hour of confusion and loud talking it was at last
+proposed and agreed to, _nem. con._, that the prisoners should be
+confined in the old church; the twelve invalids to be divided into two
+parties, who were to be sentinels over them, relieving each other every
+four hours. The mayor immediately went forward with the village
+blacksmith to examine the state of the church doors, and ascertain how
+they might be secured; while the prisoners, having been summoned out of
+the privateer, were escorted up between two files of the privateer's men
+with their swords drawn, and followed by the whole population. As soon
+as we arrived at the church door the name of every prisoner was taken
+down by the mayor, attended by a notary, and then he was passed into the
+church. Bramble and I of course were marched up with the others, the
+captain of the privateer talking with us the whole way, through the
+young man who interpreted, informing us that an express had been sent
+over to Morlaix, to which town we should be escorted the next day, and
+then have better accommodation. As we stood at the huge doors of the
+church, which were opened for our reception, we perceived that the
+altar and all the decorations had been removed, and that, with the
+exception of the large wooden screen of carved oak near the altar, the
+church was completely bare. Bramble spoke to the interpreter, and said
+that he hoped the captain would request the mayor to allow the prisoners
+to have straw to lie down upon, as the pavement would be very cold.
+Although the mayor at first demurred at this demand, yet the captain of
+the privateer, probably out of goodwill to Bramble, insisted, and the
+straw was ordered to be sent in. At last the mayor became impatient, we
+could delay no longer, and the doors were closed.
+
+[Illustration: THE PRISON.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 345.]
+
+I had surveyed the church as we were escorted up to it. It was very
+large, capable, I should think, of holding more than two thousand
+people. The walls of the church were very massive, and the windows had
+but very few panes of glass remaining in them, but they were so very
+high as to prevent our climbing out of them, even if there had not been
+six sentinels guarding us outside. At one corner, to the right of the
+end of the church where the altar-piece had been, was a narrow stone
+tower, apparently an addition made to the Lady's Chapel long after the
+church had been originally built. When we were shut up we were enabled
+to survey the interior at our leisure. The whole was completely bare to
+the pavement until you came to the chancel part, near to which the altar
+had been, where the wooden screens and seats still remained, in a sad
+dilapidated state; but they must have once been very handsome, for the
+carving, where it was perfect, was very beautiful. A small, thick wooden
+door, loaded with ironwork, communicated with the narrow tower, which
+had a flight of stone steps running up to the top, and narrow loopholes
+to give light as you ascended. While the majority of the prisoners were
+sitting down here and there on the pavement, few of them entering into
+conversation, Bramble had, with me, taken a full survey of our locality.
+
+"I tell you what, Tom; if we once get to Morlaix, all chance is over,"
+said he. "We must either get out of this church this very night, or we
+must make up our minds to remain in prison Heaven knows how long."
+
+"Have we any chance?"
+
+"I'll tell you more about that in a little while."
+
+The door of the church now opened, and the people brought in the straw
+for the beds, which they threw all in a heap in the center of the
+church, and the doors were again closed.
+
+"I see daylight now," said Bramble. "Tom, find the mate and boatswain,
+and bring them here to me quickly."
+
+I did so, and Bramble asked them whether they were inclined to make an
+attempt to get clear.
+
+They replied that they would join us in anything--they did not care what
+it was, and against any odds.
+
+"Well, then," said Bramble, "my idea is this. You see there are but
+twelve old soldiers to guard us; for you may be certain that, before
+long, all the privateer's men will be as drunk as owls--that's but
+natural; not that I think of coming to any fight with them, but I make
+the observation because, if we get out, we shall have little to fear
+afterward. Now, you see, I asked for the straw because the idea came in
+my head that it might be useful. You see, what I propose is, as there is
+plenty of wood in this part of the church, that we should wait till
+about three hours after dark--that is, until ten or eleven o'clock--and
+then set fire to the church. They must come and let us out, you know; at
+least I take it for granted that they will before the roof comes down.
+If they don't, we must force the doors ourselves--I've looked at
+them--and until we do there is no fear of suffocating, for there are no
+panes to the windows. So, after all, it will only be a bonfire, without
+danger to anybody."
+
+"Well, but what shall we gain by it?" said the mate. "We shall be walked
+out with the other prisoners, and how shall we then escape?"
+
+"There it is: we will not be walked out with the other prisoners; and,
+in the confusion and hurry of taking them away to one place or another,
+they will not be likely to miss us. We will all go up this narrow tower,
+where we may remain, till the church falls in, with perfect safety; and
+then, when all is quiet again, and the people have left the spot, we
+will make for the pier, get one of the fishing boats and be off. How do
+you like the idea?"
+
+We all agreed that the plan was very feasible, and would attempt it.
+
+"Well, then, we must remain quiet for the present; all you have to do is
+to fetch as much straw this way as you can by degrees: I expect they
+will bring us something to eat before long."
+
+We removed a large portion of the straw to the chancel; in half an hour
+afterward the doors were opened and rations of bread were brought in.
+What still more assisted our plans was, that the captain of the
+privateer at the same time, very good-naturedly, brought a demijohn of
+brandy, which he gave to Bramble.
+
+Bramble thanked him through the interpreter, and told him that he would
+get well drunk that night.
+
+"Yes, drive away care, captain says," replied the interpreter.
+
+Once more the doors were closed, and we had no chance of further
+interruption.
+
+[Illustration: JACK A PRISONER.--Marryat, Vol X., p. 349.]
+
+By Bramble's direction, the mate, assisted by me and the boatswain,
+cast loose the remaining bundles of straw and shook them down as beds
+for the prisoners at the end of the church nearest to the door; and as
+soon as they had eaten their bread, Bramble gave them all a portion of
+the brandy, advising them to turn in soon, as we were to march very
+early the next morning. We remained with them at first, having taken our
+seats on the straw as if we also intended to repose. At last it became
+dusk, and then dark; the prisoners settled themselves to sleep; we left
+them and joined Bramble. Having arranged our straw so as to secure
+ignition, and leaving the mate and boatswain down below, Bramble and I,
+now that there was no chance of our being seen by the sentinels,
+ascended the tower. It commanded a view of the town and harbor. We
+looked down upon the main street--all was mirth and revelry; fiddling
+and dancing and singing were to be heard from more than one house; women
+in the street laughing, and now and then running and screaming when
+pursued by the men.
+
+"This is all right," observed Bramble; "in an hour or two you'll see how
+quiet everything will be; but I shall not let them all go to bed before
+I set fire, for there may be some difficulty in waking them. I don't see
+that there's any lights down at the pier, where the vessels lie."
+
+We stayed up there till about eleven o'clock, Bramble watching the
+lights and sounds; and when he considered that they had sufficiently
+decreased, he said, "Now we'll try it, Tom, and may success attend us!"
+
+We descended and found the mate and boatswain anxiously waiting for us.
+Bramble struck a light with his flint, and we carried it to the screen
+where we had piled the straw under the seats and against the panels.
+
+"Now then, messmates," said Bramble, "as long as the others sleep the
+better; but if they waken in the confusion, bring here all the straw you
+can collect, for we must not fail for want of fuel."
+
+But of this there was no chance, for the wood of the screen and benches
+was so dry that it was alight immediately. For ten minutes the other
+prisoners and the guard outside did not appear to be aware of what was
+going on; but at last the church was so filled with smoke that they were
+roused up. Still the principal smoke was in that portion of the church
+where we were; at the other end they were not much inconvenienced, as it
+found vent by the windows. What the invalids were about outside I do not
+know, but they did not perceive it; probably they had left their guard
+to go and carouse. At all events the flames had climbed up from the
+screen and had caught a portion of the roof before the Frenchmen knew
+that the church was on fire; the smoke was now exchanged for a bright
+clear flame, which had already found its way through the slating, and
+the prisoners were halloaing and screaming as loud as they could. We
+went to the part of the church where the others were, and joined the
+outcry. The voices of the people outside were now to be heard, for men
+and women had been summoned by the cry of the church being on fire:
+still there was no danger until the roof fell in, and that would not be
+the case for perhaps an hour, although it was now burning furiously, and
+the sparks and cinders were borne away to leeward by the breeze. The
+screams of the prisoners now became dreadful: frightened out of their
+wits, they fully expected to be burned alive; still the door was not
+opened, although we heard a loud consultation of many voices without.
+
+"Well," said Bramble, "I hope they really don't mean to let us burn
+here; at all events, if they do, I can save the poor devils, for
+there's room enough on the stairs of the tower for twice as many. At all
+events we must hold on till the last moment."
+
+As he said this we heard them outside put the key in the door, and
+immediately Bramble, the boatswain, mate, and I retreated from the crowd
+and gained the other portion of the church, which was most in flames. As
+the door opened we hastened to the tower door, and closing it after us,
+gained the staircase near the top, where we remained quiet; there was no
+want of smoke there, but still we could breathe pretty freely, as the
+fire from the roof was borne down by the wind from us and toward the
+people, who were at the front of the church. How they disposed of the
+other prisoners we do not know, as we dared not show ourselves; but in
+about half an hour the whole of the roof fell down upon the pavement,
+and nothing but the bare walls of the church were left standing.
+
+After the roof fell in the light from the flames was so small that we
+ventured to the top of the tower to look out. There were still many
+people standing about, but the major part of them were gone. As the fire
+sank down so did the people go away; at last there was no one to be
+seen: we remained more than half an hour watching; light after light
+disappeared, and all was quiet as death.
+
+"Now's our time," said Bramble, "but still we must be cautious; let us
+follow one another at about ten yards apart: if we meet with any one,
+pretend to be reeling as if drunk, and they may think we are
+privateer's-men not yet gone to bed."
+
+[Illustration: THE ESCAPE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 353.]
+
+We followed him down the stairs, gained the church, and trod over the
+still burning embers; as soon as we were clear of the walls we turned to
+the right in our way down to the harbor, keeping in the gloom as much as
+possible. We arrived safely at the pier, for there was not a soul
+stirring; all our fear was that we should find some one keeping watch on
+board of the vessels, which we must pass after we had possession of one
+of the fishing-boats, as they laid inside of them. But fortune favored
+us every way: the boat we selected had her sails bent, and was not
+fastened with a chain; we were, therefore, in the stream in a moment;
+the tide was also running out strong, and we passed the vessels without
+having occasion to use our oars. The battery at the entrance of the
+harbor was also without its usual sentry, for the men had been called up
+to guard the prisoners. In half an hour we were clear of the harbor, and
+steering with a fine breeze for the English coast; and when daylight
+broke the French land was but just perceptible.
+
+"Well," said Bramble, "praised be Heaven for all things. I expected to
+have lost my precious liberty for years, and I have only lost two
+shirts, one pair of trousers, and three pair of worsted stockings."
+
+We had nothing to eat or drink, but that we cared little for, as the
+wind was fair. About ten o'clock that night we landed at Cawsand Bay
+near Plymouth, where we sat down to a hearty supper; and when we went to
+bed, I did not forget to thank Providence for my unexpected escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
+
+     Another Escape, more fortunate than the one recorded in the
+     preceding Chapter.
+
+
+From the time that I had passed my examination, and worked as a pilot on
+my own account, until the period of our escape, which I have narrated in
+the preceding chapter, I had continued to live in the cottage with
+Bramble, without contributing any share to the expenses. I had at first
+proposed it, but Bramble would not listen to any such arrangement; he
+considered me, he said, as his son, and who knew, he added, but that the
+cottage would be mine after he was gone. The fact was that Bramble
+ardently wished that Bessy and I should be united. He continually hinted
+at it, joked with Bessy about me; and I believe that, in consequence,
+Bessy's feelings toward me had taken the same bent. She was prepared for
+the issue; the regard naturally felt for me from her long intimacy, now
+that the indulgence of it was so openly sanctioned by him whom she
+considered as her father, was not checked on her part; indeed, there was
+no doubt but that it had ripened into love. She showed it in every
+little way that her maiden modesty did not interfere with, and old
+Bramble would at times throw out such strong hints of our eventual union
+as to make me feel very uncomfortable. They neither of them had any idea
+of my heart having been pre-engaged, and the strangeness of my manner
+was ascribed by Bramble to my feelings toward Bessy. Bessy, however, was
+not so easily deceived; my conduct toward her appeared, to say the best
+of it, very inconsistent. So often had I had opportunities, especially
+when I was at home and Bramble was away, of speaking on the subject, and
+so often had these opportunities been neglected, that it filled her mind
+with doubt and anxiety. After having accepted my addresses at first,
+Janet had once or twice written to me; lately, however, she had not
+written herself--all her messages were through Virginia's letters, or,
+perhaps, she would add a little postscript. Had letters arrived for me
+in any other handwriting than that of Virginia, Bessy, after her
+suspicions were roused, might have easily guessed the truth; but it was
+the absence of any clew to guide her as to the state of my feelings
+which so much puzzled her. She was fully convinced that my heart was not
+hers, but she had no reason to suppose that it was in the possession of
+another. Thus did my passion for Janet Wilson in every way prove to me a
+source of anxiety. I knew that it was my duty to undeceive Bramble and
+Bessy, yet the task was too painful, and I could not make up my mind to
+make them unhappy. I felt that I had no right to remain under Bramble's
+roof and live at his expense, and, at the same time, I could not find an
+opportunity of telling him what my feelings and wishes were, the very
+mention of which would at once explain to him that the desire of his old
+age would never be accomplished. I often accused myself of ingratitude,
+and felt as if it were my duty to make every sacrifice to one who had
+been so kind a protector; but I was bound by vows to Janet Wilson, and
+how was it possible that I could retract?
+
+Virginia's letters were not satisfactory: at first she told me how much
+she had been annoyed by the attentions of the young nobleman, and how
+very indelicate my mother had been in her conduct; eventually she
+informed me that she had been insulted by him, and that, upon
+complaining to my mother, the latter had, much to her surprise and
+indignation, not only laughed at his extreme forwardness, but pointed
+out to Virginia a line of conduct by which he might be entrapped into
+marriage; that her refusal to accede to such unworthy devices had
+created a serious breach between her mother and herself. She stated the
+young man to be extremely silly and weak, and that my mother had gained
+great influence over him; and were it not that the presence of the
+tutor, who seldom quitted the house, had proved a check, that there was
+little doubt but, as far as the young man was concerned, the
+disproportionate match would be readily acceded to; that the only person
+she had ventured to consult was her dear friend Mrs. St. Felix, who had
+promised her, if the persecution did not cease, that she would make Mr.
+Sommerville the tutor aware of what was going on. Virginia described the
+latter as an amiable modest young man, who did all in his power to
+instruct his pupil, but who was treated with anything but deference in
+return.
+
+Relative to Janet she said little, except that she generally called
+there every day to make inquiries after me: once or twice she did say
+that it was a pity that I was not able to come oftener to Greenwich, as
+Janet was not very steady; indeed, considering how young she was,
+without a mother, and so little controlled by her father, it was not to
+be wondered at.
+
+Such was the state of affairs when I made up my mind that I would speak
+to Bramble about my paying my share of the expenses, which I thought
+would open his eyes to the real state of my feeling toward Bessy. I did
+so; I pointed out to him that I was now earning money fast, and that I
+considered it but fair that I should support myself, and not put him to
+further expense; that perhaps it would be better that I should take a
+house for myself, as I must give a great deal of trouble to Bessy and
+Mrs. Maddox.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "you've been at me about this before, and I
+believe it's a proper feeling, after all. It certainly does seem to me
+to be a matter of little consequence, as things stand; however, I can't
+consent to your leaving us. You have been with me ever since you were a
+lad, and I should feel like a fish out of water if I were to be without
+you or Bessy; so pay just what you please--I'll take it since you wish
+it--and there's an end of the matter."
+
+This was not the end to which I was driving; but Bramble's eyes would
+not be opened, and I could not help it. He had never directly spoken to
+me about a union with Bessy, and therefore it was impossible for me to
+say any more. Bramble, however, did not fail to communicate what I had
+said to her; and one evening when we were standing on the shingle beach,
+she said to me, "So Emerson has been convicted for smuggling, and
+sentenced beyond the seas."
+
+"I am sorry for it," replied I.
+
+"His house is to be let now, Tom; would it not suit you? for my father
+told me that you wished to leave us."
+
+"Why should I live upon you when I am able to support myself?"
+
+"Certainly not. If it were not that I could not bear to see father
+miserable, I think it would be better if you did take Emerson's house;
+but it would vex him, poor good man."
+
+"But not you, Bessy; is it that you mean?"
+
+"Perhaps it is. Tell me yourself, Tom, would it not be better?"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Well," replied Bessy, "think of me as you please; I will speak now,
+Tom. I am not considering you, Tom, nor am I thinking of myself; I am
+only induced so to do on account of my father. We have been brought up
+together as children, Tom, and, as children, we were great friends, and,
+I believe, sincerely attached to each other. I believe it to be very
+true that those who are brought up together as brothers and sisters do
+not change that affection for any other more serious in after life. It
+is therefore not our faults if we cannot feel as, you must know, Tom, my
+father wishes we should. Am I not right?"
+
+"You are, I believe, Bessy," replied I.
+
+"My father, therefore, is deceiving himself with the hopes of what never
+can take place, but I know him even better than you do, Tom; it is the
+object of his daily thoughts--his only wish before he sinks into his
+grave. I cannot bear to undeceive him; no more can you, if I have truly
+judged your feelings."
+
+"You have judged right, Bessy."
+
+"The very circumstance of our knowing his wishes, the hints which he
+throws out, his joking on the subject, have been a source of annoyance
+to both of us; and not only a source of annoyance, Tom, it has estranged
+us--we no longer feel that affection which we should feel for each
+other, that kindness as between brother and sister which might exist; on
+the contrary, not being exactly aware of each other's feelings, we
+avoid each other, and fearful that the least kindness might be
+misconstrued, we do not really treat each as we otherwise would; in
+fact, it has destroyed our mutual confidence. Is it not so?"
+
+"It is, I acknowledge, but too true, Bessy, and I thank you for having
+entered into this explanation--"
+
+"Which, as I said before," continued Bessy, "I should not have done
+except for the sake of my father; but now that I have done so" (and here
+Bessy's voice became tremulous), "let us consult at once how we shall
+act so as to secure his happiness, and that in future we may return to
+the former confidence and regard which should exist between us as
+brother and sister."
+
+"Point out how this is to be done, Bessy, and I will cheerfully enter
+into your wishes."
+
+"We must laugh when he laughs, Tom, even if not inclined; we must gain
+time--that is very easy. I may refuse as long as he lives--you may put
+it off; and then, Tom, circumstances may help us--who knows what even a
+day may bring forth?"
+
+"Very true," replied I, "there's only one thing--"
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Suppose I was to marry?"
+
+"Then," replied Bessy, in a voice half choked, as she turned away, "my
+father would be very unhappy."
+
+I looked round to reply, but she had gone into the cottage. This
+conversation gave me great satisfaction. I felt convinced that if I had
+at one time formed the idea that Bessy was attached to me, I had been
+mistaken, and I was as indifferent to her as she was to me. I was just
+as anxious as she was not to vex Bramble, and equally glad that
+confidence was restored between us. Alas! I must have been very blind
+not to have perceived what was the true state of her feelings, but I
+did not, and after some reflection I determined that I would make her a
+confidante of my passion for Janet Wilson; and then I walked to the
+post-office to see if there were any letters from Virginia. There was a
+letter for me--a double one. As soon as I had paid the money, I opened
+it; it was very closely written, and evidently Virginia had much to
+communicate to me. I forgot for the moment Bessy and Bramble, thought
+only of Janet, and put the letter to my lips as I walked away, that I
+might go home and read it. I hurried past Bessy, who was in the parlor,
+and went up the stairs into my bedroom, where I took my letter out of my
+pocket and commenced it.
+
+     "15th April.
+
+"MY DEAR TOM--I shall begin a letter to you now, and fill it up as a
+sort of a diary; as it is the best plan, I think, to narrate
+circumstances as they actually take place. It is unpleasant to say
+anything against my mother, the more so as I believe that she thinks she
+has been doing right, and has my interest sincerely at heart: she
+appears to consider that an alliance with people of rank cannot be
+purchased too dear, and that every attempt is justifiable to secure for
+me such an advantage. Little does she know me. If she forgets, I never
+shall, that I am the daughter of a Greenwich pensioner, and never would
+ally myself with those whose relations would look upon me as a disgrace
+to their family. No, Tom; even if I were so heedless as to allow my
+affections to be enthralled, I would at any sacrifice refuse to enter
+into a family much beyond my condition. I have thought of this often,
+and I confess that I am sometimes unhappy. I have been brought up and
+educated above my situation in life, and I do not think I ever could
+marry a person who was not more refined and educated than those who are
+really and truly my equals, But as, at the same time, I never will enter
+into a family who might look down upon my parentage, I presume your
+little Virginia must remain unmarried. If so, I am content--I have no
+wish to alter my present condition. I am happy and respected; and with
+the exception of the trifling annoyances which we all must expect and
+must submit to, I have no reason to be dissatisfied; on the contrary, I
+have to be grateful for many blessings, and I trust that I am so. My
+poor mother is the cause of all my present vexations. She tells me that
+my beauty, as she is partially pleased to call it, is sufficient for my
+aspiring to the hand of a duke, and that it will be my own fault if I do
+not make a high connection. Every night she has been overwhelming me
+with alternate reproaches and entreaties to permit the attentions of the
+gay gentleman who is now lodging at our house, stating that it was on my
+account only that he took the apartments, and that, if I play my cards
+well, he will be caught in his own trap, which, I presume, is as much as
+to say that he came here with different intentions, and finding that he
+cannot succeed, will secure his intended prize or victim by marriage
+rather than not obtain her at all. Very flattering, truly! and this is
+the man to whom my mother would induce me to confide my future
+happiness--a man who, independent of his want of probity, is a fool into
+the bargain. But the persecution on his part and on that of my mother
+now becomes so annoying that I have requested Mrs. St. Felix to speak to
+Mr. Sommerville the tutor, who, if he does his duty--and I have every
+reason to believe that he will do so--will take some measures to remove
+his pupil from our house.
+
+"17th. Mrs. St. Felix and Mr. Sommerville have had a meeting. He
+generally walks out every afternoon in the park; and Mrs. St. Felix and
+he have already been introduced. She therefore went out and met him, and
+after exchanging a few words she introduced the subject, stating that
+she did so at my request. Mr. Sommerville, although he had not been
+blind, had had no idea that things had proceeded so far; and he promised
+Mrs. St. Felix that he would soon put an end to the persecution, or
+remove him from our house. Janet has been here to-day, and I told her
+what had passed; she very much approved of the steps which I had taken.
+I must, however, say that latterly she has not appeared to take that
+interest about you that she used to do, and I fear that your continual
+absence is injurious to your prospects. She is very young and very
+giddy, Tom. I wish she had been older, as, even when she is your wife,
+she will require much looking after, and a firm hand to settle her down
+into what a married woman in my opinion ought to be. Mr. Sommerville has
+requested me to favor him with a few minutes' conversation; and as I
+cannot do it in our house, for my mother never leaves me a minute to
+myself, I told him that I should be at Mrs. St. Felix's this afternoon,
+and he could speak to me then. He knows that I have no secrets from Mrs.
+St. Felix; and although it is not pleasant to resort to such means,
+still there can be no impropriety in my hearing what he has to tell me
+in her presence.
+
+"I have seen Mr. Sommerville--he thanked me very much for having
+communicated, through Mrs. St. Felix, my mother's plot against his
+protege, and paid me many compliments upon my behavior, which were quite
+unnecessary. He told me that he had spoken to his pupil, who had most
+positively denied his having any such intention, and stated that he was
+merely amusing himself, and he had pledged himself not to take the least
+notice of me for the future. 'I am well aware,' said he, 'that what he
+has stated is not correct; he has not deceived me by his assertions; and
+were it not that I feel confidence in you, Miss Virginia,' continued he,
+'I would write to his father that he might be immediately removed. I
+hardly need say that should anything of this kind take place, I should
+be most severely blamed. It is not the first time that I have been
+compelled to interfere, for my pupil is of a very susceptible
+disposition, and has fancied himself in love with at least five young
+people since he has been under my charge. In this instance,' continued
+he, making me a bow, 'he has some extenuation to offer. Will you oblige
+me by informing me if he adheres to his promise? or do you wish that I
+should speak to your mother?'
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix replied that it would be unnecessary; indeed, that if
+Lord ---- left the house I should only be subject to fresh persecution.
+Mr. Sommerville, at her request, stayed to drink tea, and is certainly a
+very pleasant, well-informed, amiable young man.
+
+"23d. I have received no molestation since the explanation with Mr.
+Sommerville, except from my mother, who accuses me of having affronted
+Lord ----; and although I deny it, she asserts that he never could have
+so changed his conduct toward both of us if I had not so done. I have
+not seen Janet this week--I cannot imagine what has become of her.
+
+"24th. You may imagine my joy, my dear Tom. Mr. Sommerville has received
+a letter, stating that his lordship is to go down to his father's seat
+in the country, as he will be of age in a month, and he is to make
+acquaintance with the tenants; there are to be great rejoicings there
+upon his coming of age. I am sure no one can rejoice more than I shall
+when he leaves, which is to be next Saturday. I am also very glad to say
+that the Marquess has presented Mr. Sommerville with a valuable living,
+now that he gives up his tutorship. I really think he will do justice to
+his profession, for I have seen more of him lately, and esteem him very
+much.
+
+"27th. They are gone, much to my mother's mortification and to my
+delight; and now, as I have written so much about myself, I shall leave
+this letter open till I see Janet, that I may tell you something about
+her, otherwise I know my letter will not be interesting to you.
+
+"31st. My dear Tom, you must prepare yourself for painful intelligence.
+
+"Janet has disappeared. She left her father's house last night after the
+family had retired, but no one knows where. She left a few lines on her
+table, stating that they would hear from her soon. Poor Mr. Wilson was
+here to-day--he is half distracted--and the whole town is full of the
+scandal. Mrs. St. Felix told me this morning that she has discovered
+that within the last week she has been seen walking on the London Road
+with Lord ----. Is it possible?
+
+"May 2d. It is all true--Mrs. St. Felix has a letter from Mr.
+Sommerville, stating that Janet was brought up to town and married to
+Lord ---- two days ago. It appears that from the time that I repulsed
+his attentions he fixed them upon Janet; that she encouraged him, and
+used to meet him every night, as Mrs. St. Felix was informed. Mr.
+Sommerville has seen his father, and fully exculpated himself; but the
+Marquess declares, as his son is a minor, that the marriage shall not be
+binding. How it will end Heaven only knows; but she is much to be
+pitied. This will account for her not coming to me as usual. Now, Tom, I
+do not suppose you will pay attention to me at present, but from what I
+knew of Janet, and which her conduct has fully proved, she was not
+worthy to be your wife, and could not have contributed to your
+happiness. I pity you from my heart, as I know what you will feel; but
+still I congratulate you, and eventually you will congratulate yourself
+at your fortunate escape.
+
+"I will say no more at present, except that I am, and ever will be,
+
+"Your truly attached sister,
+
+"VIRGINIA."
+
+I had courage to finish the letter, and then it dropped from my hands. I
+was bewildered, stupefied, maddened. As my sister said, I did indeed
+feel. Was it possible? Janet, who had--mercy on me! I threw myself on
+the bed, and there I remained till the next morning in a state most
+pitiable.
+
+It is only those who have been deceived in their first attachment who
+can appreciate my agony of feeling. For the first few hours I hated the
+whole world, and, had then the means been at hand, should in all
+probability have hastened into another; but gradually my excitement
+abated; I found relief in tears of sorrow and indignation. I arose at
+daylight the next morning, worn out with contending feelings, heavy and
+prostrated in mind. I went out--stood on the beach, the keen breeze
+cooled my fevered cheek. For hours I leaned motionless upon an anchor,
+all hope of future happiness abandoned forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
+
+     Which is all about Love--Bramble confides to me all his
+     Acquaintance with the tender Passion.
+
+
+To conceal from Bramble or Bessy the state of mind to which I was
+reduced was impossible. I was in a condition of prostration against
+which I could not rally; and I believe that there never was a person who
+had been disappointed in his first love who did not feel as I did--that
+is, if he really loved with a sincere, pure, and holy feeling; for I do
+not refer to the fancied attachments of youth, which may be said to be
+like the mere flaws of wind which precede the steady gale. I could not,
+for several days, trust myself to speak; I sat silent and brooding over
+the words, the looks, the smiles, the scenes which had promised me a
+store of future happiness--such as would probably have been the case, as
+far as we can be happy in this world, had I fixed my affections upon a
+true and honest, instead of a fickle and vain, woman; had I built my
+house upon a rock, instead of one upon the sand--which, as pointed out
+by the Scriptures, had been washed away, and had disappeared forever!
+Bramble and Bessy in vain attempted to gain from me the cause of my
+dejection; I believe that they had many conversations upon it when I was
+absent, but whatever may have been their surmises, they treated me with
+every kindness and consideration. About a week after I had received the
+letter, Bramble said to me, "Come, Tom, we have had an easterly wind for
+ten days now, they are going off in a galley to-morrow--suppose we go
+too; it's no use staying here moping and doing nothing. You've been out
+of sorts lately, and it will do you good." I thought so too, and
+consented; but the other pilots were not ready, and our departure was
+deferred till the day after. Bramble had acquainted me in the morning
+with this delay; I was annoyed at it, for I was restless and wished for
+change. My bundle had been prepared; I had passed the best part of the
+night in writing to Virginia, and was, as people very often are when
+under such oppressed feelings, in anything but a good humor at being
+obliged to remain another day at Deal. I had walked out to the beach
+after we had breakfasted, and had remained there some time. Bramble had
+gone out in the direction of the post-office, and I asked him to inquire
+if there was a letter for me, for I thought it very likely that Virginia
+might have written to me again. I had remained for an hour on the beach,
+when I recollected that my knife required to be sharpened, and I walked
+round the cottage to the back yard, where there was a small grindstone.
+I had not put my knife to it when I heard Bramble come in and say to
+Bessy:
+
+"Well, girl, I've found it all out; for, you see, I thought old Anderson
+might know something about it, or, if he did not, he could inquire--and
+I've got the whole story. Here's Anderson's letter. I thought there must
+be something of that sort."
+
+Here there was a pause, as if Bessy was reading the letter.
+
+"Only to think--she's run away with a young lord," said Bramble.
+
+"So it seems," replied Bessy. "I'm sorry for poor Tom, for he feels it
+severely."
+
+"I'm not sorry," rejoined Bramble; "she wasn't deserving of him; and,
+Bessy, I'm glad for your sake."
+
+"Don't say that, father; Tom will never think of me, nor do I care about
+him."
+
+"I don't exactly believe that, Bessy, for all you say so. It's my wish,
+and you know it, Bessy, to see you and Tom spliced before I die; and I
+thank Heaven that this false girl is out of the way--I've more hopes
+now."
+
+"Marriages are made in heaven, father," replied Bessy; "so, pray don't
+say any thing more about it. It will be time enough for me to think of
+Tom when Tom appears to think of me. I shall always love him as a
+brother."
+
+"Well, God's will be done! We must now try and console him, poor fellow;
+and I'm very glad that we're off to-morrow. Salt water cures love, they
+say, sooner than anything else."
+
+"It may, perhaps," replied Bessy; "but I feel that if I were once really
+in love the whole ocean itself could not wash my love out. However,
+women are not men."
+
+"That's true. You hug your love as you do your babies, all day long, and
+never tire. Now, you see, a man gets tired of nursing in no time. I
+never was in love but once."
+
+"Oh, father, I've heard that story so often."
+
+"Well, then, you shan't hear it again. Now, I'll go out and see where
+Tom may be. I suppose he's looking at the wind, and thinking how it
+changes like a woman. But I'll light my pipe first."
+
+"Do, father; and while Tom looks at the wind and thinks of women, do you
+just watch the smoke out of your pipe, and think of men and their
+constancy."
+
+"Well, I will, if it pleases you. Put the letter by, Bessy, for I
+shouldn't like Tom to see it. What have you got for dinner?"
+
+"I left that to Mrs. Maddox, so I can't tell. But there's cold pudding
+in the larder; I'll put it out for Tom."
+
+"Nay, Bessy, you must not jest with him."
+
+"Am I likely, think you, father?" replied Bessy. "Can't I feel for him?"
+
+"Come, come, dearest, I didn't mean to make you cry."
+
+"I'm not crying, but I'm very sorry for Tom, and that's the truth. Now
+go away with your pipe and leave me alone."
+
+It was impossible for me to have returned without being perceived, and I
+therefore remained during the whole of this conversation. I was annoyed
+to discover that they knew my secret; and still more vexed at the
+remainder of this colloquy, by which I discovered that Bramble had so
+completely set his heart upon a union between me and Bessy, which I
+considered as impossible. I felt, as all do at the time, as if I never
+could love again. I walked away, and did not return home till
+dinner-time. Bramble and Bessy were very kind, although they did not
+talk much; and when I went away the next day I was moved with the
+affectionate farewell of the latter.
+
+It was a beautiful night, and we were running before the east wind, the
+Portland Light upon our starboard beam; the other men in the boat had
+lain down in their gregos and pilot jackets, and were fast asleep, while
+Bramble was at the helm steering; and I, who was too restless in my mind
+to feel any inclination to repose, was sitting on the sternsheets beside
+him.
+
+"Do you see the line of the _Race_" said Bramble; "it seems strong
+to-night."
+
+Bramble referred to what is called by the mariners the Race of Portland,
+where the uneven ground over which the water runs creates a very heavy
+sea even in a calm. Small smuggling vessels and boats, forced into it in
+bad weather, have often foundered. The tide, however, runs so rapidly
+over it that you are generally swept through it in a few minutes, and
+then find yourself again in comparatively smooth water.
+
+"Yes," replied I; "it is very strong to-night, from the long continuance
+of the easterly wind."
+
+"Exactly so, Tom," continued Bramble. "I've often thought that getting
+into that Race is just like failing in love."
+
+"Why so?" replied I, rather pettishly, for I was not pleased at his
+referring to the subject.
+
+"I'll tell you why, Tom," said Bramble; "because, you see, when we get
+into the Race it's all boiling and bubbling and tossing about--rudder
+and sails are of no use; and you are carried along by a fierce tide,
+which there's no resisting, with no small damage to the upper works,
+until you are fairly out again, and find breath to thank God for it.
+Now, aren't that like love?"
+
+"I suppose it is as you say so; you know best."
+
+"Well, I think I do know best; because, you see, I have long been clear
+of it. I never was in love but once, Tom; did I ever tell you about it?"
+
+"Never," replied I.
+
+"Well, then, as 'twill pass time away, I'll just give you the long and
+the short of it, as the saying is. When I was just about twenty, and a
+smart lad in my own opinion, I was on board of a transport, and we had
+gone round to Portsmouth with a load of timber for the dockyard. It was
+not my first trip there, for, you see, the transport was employed
+wholly on that service; and during my cruising on shore I had taken up
+my quarters at the Chequer Board, a house a little way from the common
+Hard, in the street facing the dockyard wall; for, you see, Tom, it was
+handy to us, as our ship laid at the wharf, off the mast pond, it being
+just outside the dockyard gates. The old fellow who kept the house was
+as round as a ball, for he never started out by any chance from one
+year's end to another; his wife was dead; and he had an only daughter,
+who served at the bar, in a white cap with blue streamers; and when her
+hair was out of papers, and she put on clean shoes and stockings, which
+she did every day after dinner, she was a very smart neat built little
+heifer; and, being an only daughter, she was considered as a great catch
+to any one who could get hold of her. She had quite the upper hand of
+her father, who dared not say a word; and with others she would give
+herself no few airs. At one time she would be as sweet as sugar, and the
+next, without any cause, she'd 'wonder at your imperance.' It was
+difficult to know how to take her. It's a bad thing for a girl to have a
+great fortune; they get so much flattery that it turns their heads.
+Well, Tom, I wasn't looking after the money, as you'll believe when I
+tell you so; but as she was very chatty with me, and allowed me to come
+inside the bar, which was considered as a great favor, to help rinse the
+glasses, and so on, and as the other men used to joke with me, and tell
+me that I should carry off the prize, I began to think that she was fond
+of me, and so very naturally I became fond of her; and we met and we
+parted (and she would allow me to kiss her when we parted), until I was
+quite gone altogether, and did nothing but think of her all day and
+dream of her all night. Well, the last time that I was in the transport
+to Portsmouth, I had made up my mind to clinch the business, and as soon
+as the sails were furled, I dressed myself in my best toggery and made
+all sail for the old house. When I came in I found Peggy in the bar, and
+a very fancy sort of young chap alongside of her. I did not think so
+much of that, and I was going inside the bar to shake hands as usual,
+when says she, 'Well, I should not wonder,' pulling to the half-door, as
+if she were surprised at my attempting to come in.
+
+"'Oh, ho!' says I, 'are you on that tack? what next?' and then I looked
+more at the chap, and he was a very nice young man, as the saying is. As
+I afterward found out, he was in the smuggling line between Cherbourg
+and our coast, and he had Frenchified manners, and he talked little bits
+of French, and he had French gloves for presents, and had earrings in
+his ears, and lots of rings on his fingers. So I took my seat at the
+wooden benches near the fire, just as sulky as a bear with a sore head,
+watching their maneuvers. At last he walked out, kissing his hand as she
+smiles. As the coast was clear I went up to the bar.
+
+"'Well,' says I, 'Peggy, so the wind's shifted, is it?'
+
+"'What do you mean?' says she. 'I suppose I may be civil to another
+person as well as to you.'
+
+"'Yes, I see no objection,' says I; 'but why was he to be inside the
+bar, and I put out?'
+
+"'Oh,' replied she, 'one at a time, you know, Mr. Philip. I haven't made
+any promises to you that I know of.'
+
+"'That's very true,' replied I, 'but--'
+
+"'Oh, you mustn't fret here,' interrupted she. 'I'm my own mistress, I
+suppose. However, I'll tell you this much, that I don't care a bit about
+him, and that's the truth of it--but I did not like your coming inside
+the bar so quietly, as if you had a right there, for I don't want people
+to make remarks.'
+
+"Well, the end of it was that she pacified me, and we were as great
+friends almost as ever. I say almost, for I had my eyes upon her and
+that chap, and did not much like it. A week after my arrival there was
+to be a fair over at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, and I asked Peggy
+whether she would go with me; but she refused, saying that she was
+obliged to go to her aunt's out at Limberhook, who was very old, and had
+sent for her, so I thought nothing more about the matter. Well, the day
+before the fair, as we were busy in the fore noon getting the timber out
+of the vessel, one of my shipmates, who went to the same house, says to
+me, 'I say, Tom, when I was at the Chequers last night, I overheard
+Peggy promise to go to the Ryde Fair with that Frenchified smuggling
+chap.'
+
+"'Did you?' said I.
+
+"'Yes,' replied he, 'and they agreed to start at twelve o'clock, just
+after the dockyard bell rang. I thought at the time it was just to give
+you the slip before you left the ship, and that she is turning you
+over.'
+
+"Well, when I heard this, did not my blood boil? for the hussy had told
+me a lie in saying that she was going to her aunt's; and it was evident
+that she had done so that she might go with this other fellow to the
+fair. I thought the matter over and over again, for, to tell you the
+truth, all I wanted then was revenge. I felt nothing but scorn for a
+woman who could act in so base a manner; at the same time I wished to
+punish both her and him by spoiling their day's sport; so at last I
+determined that I would start right away for the fair myself, and not
+only put her to shame, but give her fancy man a good drubbing, which I
+was well able to do. So I walks down to Point and gets into a wherry,
+keeping a sharp lookout for their coming down from the Hard. At last I
+spied them, and then I made the waterman pull away, so as to keep about
+three cables' lengths ahead of them, and thus I continued watching their
+billing and cooing, and grinding my teeth with rage, until we had come
+over to the other side. Now, you see, Tom, at that time there was no
+wooden pier at Ryde as there is now, and when the tide was out there was
+such a long flat of mud that there was no landing; so the way it was
+managed was, the wherries came in as far as they could, and were met by
+a horse and cart, which took out the passengers and carried them through
+the mud and water to the hard ground. Well, when I pulled in, the man
+was there with his horse and cart, and I paid my fare, and stepped out
+of the wherry, expecting the man to drive off and put me on shore; but
+he, seeing that there was another wherry close at hand, says he must
+wait for her passengers, and make one trip of it. I did not care how
+soon we met, and waited very patiently until they pulled up to us. They
+were not a little surprised to see me, and not a little annoyed either.
+As for Peggy, she colored to her elbows, and then tried to put up an
+impudent face on the matter. He looked both foolish and angry. They were
+both very smart. She had on a white gown with a yellow handkerchief on
+her shoulders, a green silk bonnet and blue feathers, and he was figged
+out as fine as fivepence, with white jean trousers, and rings and
+chains, and Lord knows what.
+
+"'Well,' says Peggy, as bold as brass, 'who'd have thought to have seen
+you here?'
+
+"'I did not say that I was going to see my aunt,' replied I; 'but as you
+did, who would have expected to see you here?'
+
+"'Don't talk to me, young man,' said she, as red as fire, and turning
+away to her beau.
+
+"Just as she said this, the cart drove off, the horse floundering
+through the mud, which was about three feet deep, with a matter of six
+inches of water above it. As she turned away aft, I turned forward,
+thinking what I should do next, and then I cast my eyes down, and
+observed that it was a tilting cart as they use for carrying out manure,
+and that if I took the two pegs out it would fall right back. I thought
+this a capital trick. The carman was sitting on his horse, and it
+couldn't matter to him, so I stepped out on the front of the cart, and
+standing on the shafts, I first pulled out one peg and then another,
+while they were busy talking to each other, with their heads so close
+that his face was under her bonnet. As soon as the second peg was out, I
+helped up the front of the cart a little, and back it went, shooting
+them out right headforemost in the mud. You never saw such a scramble,
+for they had caught hold of each other in their fright, and they rolled
+and floundered, and were half smothered before they could recover their
+feet; and then a pretty pickle they were in, wet to the skin, and
+covered with mud from one end to the other; they could not see out of
+their eyes. Peggy did nothing but scream and flounder--she was
+frightened out of her wits--while the carman and I laughed ready to
+split. I gave him half a crown to drive on shore without them, which he
+did, and we left them to make their way out how they could; and a pretty
+pickle they did come out at last. Thus was their day's pleasure, as well
+as their clothes, all spoiled; and instead of dancing at the fair and
+seeing all the sights, they were shivering in their wet clothes, and the
+laughingstocks to all that saw them.
+
+"Depend upon it, I did not leave them after they had crawled out to the
+beach. The fellow was, as you may suppose, as savage as a bull, and very
+saucy, so I took off my jacket that I might not dirty myself, and gave
+him a couple of black eyes and a bloody nose for his trouble; and as for
+Peggy, I pretended to be so sorry for her, and condoled with her so
+much, that at last she flew at me like a tigress--and as I knew that
+there was no honor, and plenty of mud, to be gained by the conflict, I
+took to my heels and ran off to the fair, where I met some of my friends
+and told them what had happened, and then we had a very merry day of it,
+and I felt quite cured of my love; for, you see, Peggy looked so ugly
+and miserable when she was in the state I left her, that I had only to
+think of her as when I last saw her, and all my love was gone."
+
+"Did you ever meet her again?"
+
+"I met her that very night; for, you see, she had gone to a cottage and
+taken off her clothes, having insisted upon her fancy man going back to
+Portsmouth to fetch her others to go home in. He dared not refuse, so
+off he went in the pickle that he was. But he didn't come back again,
+for, you see, there was a warrant out against him for an affray at Bear
+Haven, in which a King's officer was killed; and after he had changed
+his own clothes, and was proceeding to get some for her from the
+Chequers, he was met by the constable who had the warrant, and carried
+off handcuffed to jail, and afterward he was transported--so she never
+saw him again. Well, Peggy, poor creature, had been waiting for him for
+hours, expecting his return; and it was past ten o'clock when I was
+coming down with some others, and saw her at the door of the cottage
+weeping.
+
+"'Good-night, Peggy,' says I.
+
+"'Oh, Philip, do be kind, do come to me; I'm frightened out of my life.
+I shall have to stay here all night.'
+
+"So, you see, I did feel some little pity for her, and I went up to
+her, and she told me how she had sent him, and he had never come back
+again.
+
+"'The fact is,' says I, 'Peggy, you aren't smart enough for such a
+Frenchified chap as he is. He don't like to be seen in your company.
+Come, get up, and I will see you home, at all events;' so I took charge
+of her, and saw her safe to her father's door.
+
+"'Won't you come in?' said she.
+
+"'No, thank you,' says I.
+
+"'Won't you forgive me, Philip?' said she.
+
+"'Yes," says I, 'I'll forgive you, for old acquaintance' sake, and for
+one more reason.'
+
+"'What's that?' says Peggy.
+
+"'Why,' says I, 'for the lesson which you've learned me. I've been made
+a fool of once, and it's your fault; but if ever a woman makes a fool of
+me again, why, then it's mine. And so, Peggy, good-by forever.'
+
+"So I turned away on my heel, and as I left the transport the next trip,
+I never saw her again."
+
+"Well, Bramble," replied I, "I agree with you; and if ever a woman makes
+a fool of me _again_, it will be my fault. You know what's happened, so
+I don't mind saying so."
+
+"Why, Tom, in your present humor, you think so; but all do not keep to
+the same way of thinking as I did till it was too late to think about
+marrying; but still I do not think that I should have been happy as a
+single man, if it had not been for my falling in with Bessy. I should
+have been very lonely, I expect, for I began to feel so. When you come
+to your own door, Tom, home looks cheerless if there is no bright eye to
+welcome you, and the older a man gets the more he feels that he was not
+intended to live single. My yearning after something to love and to love
+me, which is in our nature, was satisfied, first by having Bessy, and
+then by having you--and I'm thankful."
+
+"You might have married, and have been very unhappy."
+
+"I might, and I might have been very happy, had I chosen a wife as a man
+should do."
+
+"And how is that, pray, Bramble?"
+
+"Why, Tom, I've often thought upon it. In the first place look out for
+good temper: if you find that you may be happy, even if your wife is a
+silly woman; assure yourself first of her temper, and then you must
+judge her by the way in which she does those duties which have fallen to
+her lot; for if a girl is a dutiful and affectionate daughter there is
+little fear but that she will prove a loving and obedient wife. But I
+think we have had our spell here, Tom, and it's rather cold: rouse up
+one of those chaps, and tell him to come to the helm. I'll coil myself
+up and have a snooze till the morning, and do you do the same."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
+
+     In which I receive a very severe Blow from a Party or Parties
+     unknown.
+
+
+The day after this conversation we fell in with several vessels
+windbound at the entrance of the Channel. I took charge of one, and the
+wind shifting to the S.W., and blowing strong, I carried her up to the
+Pool. As soon as I could leave her I took a boat to go down to
+Greenwich, as I was most anxious to have a long conversation with
+Virginia. It was a dark squally night, with rain at intervals between
+the gusts of wind, and I was wet through long before I landed at the
+stairs, which was not until past eleven o'clock. I paid the waterman,
+and hastened up to my mother's house, being aware that they would either
+be all in bed or about to retire. It so happened that I did not go the
+usual way, but passed by the house of old Nanny; and as I walked by with
+a quick step, and was thinking of her and her misfortunes, I fell over
+something which, in the dark, I did not perceive, and which proved to be
+some iron railings, which the workmen who were fixing them up had
+carelessly left on the ground, previous to their returning to their work
+on the ensuing morning. Fortunately the spikes at the ends of them were
+from me, and I received no injury, except a severe blow on the shin; and
+as I stopped a moment to rub it, I thought that I heard a cry from the
+direction of old Nanny's house; but the wind was very high, and I was
+not certain. I stopped and listened, and it was repeated. I gained the
+door. It was so dark that I groped for the latch. The door was open, and
+when I went in I heard a gurgling kind of noise and a rustling in her
+chamber. "Who's there?--What's this?" cried I; for I had a foreboding
+that something was wrong. I tumbled over some old iron, knocked down the
+range of keys, and made a terrible din, when, of a sudden, just as I had
+recovered my legs, I was thrown down again by somebody who rushed by me
+and darted out of the door. As the person rushed by me I attempted to
+seize his arm, but I received a severe blow on the mouth, which cut my
+lip through, and at first I thought I had lost all my front teeth.
+
+I rose up. I heard a heavy groaning; so, instead of pursuing the robber,
+I felt my way into Nanny's chamber. "Nanny," said I, "mother, what's the
+matter?" but there was no reply, except another groan. I knew where she
+kept her tinderbox and matches; I found them, and struck a light; and by
+the light of the match I perceived the candle and candlestick lying on
+the floor. I picked it up, lighted it, and then turned to the bed; the
+flock mattress was above all, and the groans proceeded from beneath. I
+threw it off, and found old Nanny still breathing, but in a state of
+exhaustion and quite insensible. By throwing water on her face, after
+some little while I brought her to her senses. The flaring of the candle
+reminded me that the shop door was open. I went and made it fast, and
+then spoke to her. It was a long while before I could obtain any
+rational answer. She continued to groan and cry at intervals, "Don't
+leave me, Jack, don't leave me." At last she fell into a sort of slumber
+from exhaustion, and in this state she remained for more than an hour.
+One thing was evident to me, which was, that the party, whoever it might
+be, had attempted to smother the poor old woman, and that in a few
+seconds more he would have perpetrated the deed.
+
+At last old Nanny roused up, and turning to me, said, "It's Jack, is it
+not? I thought so. Oh, my poor head! What has happened?"
+
+"That's what I want to know from you, mother," replied I; "but first I
+will tell you what I know of the business." Which I did, to give her
+time to collect her thoughts.
+
+"Yes," said she, "so it was. I was just in bed, and my candle was not
+out, when I heard a noise at the door, as if they were turning a key in
+it, and then a man entered; but he had something over his face, I
+thought, or he had blacked it. 'What do you want?' cried I. 'I come for
+a light, old woman,' said he. I cried 'Thieves! murder!' as loud as I
+could, and he ran up to me just as I was getting out of bed, and tried
+to smother me. I don't recollect anything more till I heard your voice.
+Thank you, Jack, and God bless you; if you hadn't come to the assistance
+of a poor old wretch like me, I should have been dead by this time."
+
+I felt that what she said was true, and I then asked her many questions,
+so as to lead to the discovery of the party.
+
+"How was he dressed?" inquired I.
+
+"I can't exactly say. But, do you know, Jack, I fancied that he had a
+pensioner's coat on; indeed, I am almost sure of it. I think I tore off
+one of his buttons, I recollect its giving way; I may be wrong--my head
+wanders."
+
+But I thought that most likely Nanny was right, so I looked down on the
+floor with the candle, and there I picked up a pensioner's button.
+
+"You're right, Nanny; here is the button."
+
+"Well, now, Jack, I can't talk anymore; you won't leave me to-night, I'm
+sure."
+
+"No, no, mother, that I will not. Try to go to sleep."
+
+Hardly had Nanny laid her head down again, when it came across my mind
+like a flash of lightning that it must have been Spicer who had
+attempted the deed; and my reason for so thinking was that the blow I
+had received on the mouth was not like that from the hand of a man, but
+from the wooden socket fixed to the stump of his right arm. The more I
+reflected upon it the more I was convinced. He was a clever armorer, and
+had picked the lock; and I now recalled to mind what had never struck me
+before, that he had often asked me questions about old Nanny, and
+whether I thought the report that she had money was correct.
+
+It was daylight before old Nanny woke up, and then she appeared to be
+quite recovered. I told her my suspicions, and my intentions to
+ascertain the truth of them as far as I possibly could.
+
+"Well, and what then?" said old Nanny.
+
+"Why, then, if we bring it home to him, he will be hanged, as he
+deserves."
+
+"Now, Jack, hear me," said old Nanny. "You won't do anything I don't
+wish, I'm sure; and now I'll tell you that I never would give evidence
+against him, or any other man, to have him hanged. So, if you find out
+that it is him, do not say a word about it. Promise me, Jack."
+
+"Why, mother, I can't exactly say that I will; but I will talk to Peter
+Anderson about it."
+
+"It's no use talking to him; and, if you do, it must be under promise of
+secrecy, or I will not consent to it. Jack, Jack, recollect that my poor
+boy was hanged from my fault. Do you think I will hang another? Oh, no.
+Perhaps this very man had a foolish wicked mother, like me, and has,
+like my boy, been led into guilt. Jack, you must do as I wish--you
+shall, Jack."
+
+"Well, mother, I have no animosity against the man himself; and, if you
+forgive him, I do not see why I should do anything."
+
+"I don't forgive him, Jack; but I think of my own poor boy."
+
+"Well, mother, since you wish it, it shall be so; and if I do prove that
+the man I suspect is the party, I will say nothing, and make Anderson
+promise the same, as I think he will. But how is it that people come to
+rob a poor old woman like you? How is it, mother, that there is a report
+going about that you have money?"
+
+"Is there such a report, Jack?"
+
+"Yes, mother, every one says so; why, I do not know; and as long as it
+is supposed, you will always be subject to attacks like this, unless,
+indeed, if you have money, you were to put it away safely, and let
+everybody know that you have done so. Tell me truly, mother, have you
+any money?"
+
+"Jack, what a boy you are to ask questions. Well, perhaps I have a
+little--a very little; but no one will ever find out where I have hidden
+it."
+
+"But they will try, mother, as this man has done, and you will always be
+in peril of your life. Why not place it in the hands of some safe
+person?"
+
+"Safe person! Who's safe nowadays?"
+
+"Why, for instance, there's Mr. Wilson."
+
+"Wilson! what do you know about him, Jack, except that he has a smooth
+face and a bald head? You're young, Jack, and don't know the world. The
+money's safe where it is, and no one will ever find it."
+
+"If so, who is to find it after--" I stopped, for I did not like to say,
+after she was dead.
+
+"I know what you would have said, Jack; who's to find it after my death?
+That's very true. I never thought of that, and I must will it away. I
+never thought of that, Jack, it's very true, and I'm glad that you have
+mentioned it. But who dare I tell? who can I trust?--Can I trust you,
+Jack?--can I?--I ought, for it's all for you, Jack, when I die."
+
+"Mother, whoever it may be for, you may, I hope, trust me."
+
+"Well, I think I can. I'll tell you where it is, Jack, and that will
+prove that it is for you, for nobody else will know where to find it.
+But, Jack, dear, dear Jack, don't you rob me, as my son did; don't rob
+me, and leave me penniless, as he did; promise me?"
+
+"I never will, mother; you need not be afraid."
+
+"Yes; so you say, and so he said; he swore and he cried too, Jack, and
+then he took it all, and left his mother without a farthing."
+
+"Well, mother, then don't tell me; I'd rather not know. You will only be
+uncomfortable, and so let the money go."
+
+"No, Jack, that won't do either; I will tell you, for I can trust you.
+But first, Jack, go out and look behind the house, that there is no one
+listening at the window; for if any one should hear--go, look round
+carefully, and then come back."
+
+I did as she wished, and then Nanny bid me hold my head closer to her,
+while she whispered, "You must take the back out of the fireplace, and
+then pull out three bricks, and then put your hand into the hole, and
+you will find a small box; and there you will find a little money--a
+very little, Jack, hardly worth having, but still it may be of some
+use; and it's all yours when I die. Jack--I give it to you."
+
+"Mother, I'm thankful for your kindness, but I cannot touch it if you do
+die without you leave it to me by your will."
+
+"Ah! that's true, Jack. Well, tell Anderson to come here, and I'll tell
+him I'll leave the money to you; but I won't tell him where it is, I'll
+only say that I leave you everything I have. They'll suppose that it's
+the shop and all the pretty things." Here she chuckled for some time.
+
+It was now broad daylight, and Nanny told me that she would like to get
+up, and see about a padlock being put to her door before night; so I
+wished her good-by, and left her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY
+
+     Showing the great Advantages to be derived from Patronage.
+
+
+I left old Nanny, and arrived at my mother's house in time for
+breakfast. I did not, however, find her in a very good humor; something
+had evidently ruffled her. Virginia also, who welcomed me most
+cordially, was taciturn and grave. My mother made but one observation
+during our repast.
+
+"Well, Tom," said she, "you've found out what it is to wish to marry for
+love. I only wish it may be a lesson to others."
+
+To this evident attack upon Virginia, at the expense of my feelings, I
+made no reply, and soon afterward my mother went to superintend her
+establishment, leaving me and my sister alone.
+
+"Tom," said she, "I hope by this time you are no longer suffering from
+your late cruel disappointment. I have felt for you, I assure you, and,
+assuring you of that, will not again revert to the subject. Let her be
+blotted from your memory as soon as possible."
+
+"Be it so, my dear Virginia; but you are grave, and my mother is
+evidently out of humor. You must explain this."
+
+"That is easily done. I have made a sad mistake. I was so much annoyed
+at my mother's system toward me that I ventured, without her knowledge,
+to write to Lady Hercules, requesting her protection and influence to
+procure me some situation as a companion to a lady, amanuensis, or
+reader. It appears that her ladyship was not very sincere in her
+professions when we had an interview with her; at all events, her reply
+was anything but satisfactory, and, unfortunately, it was addressed to
+my mother and not to me. You can have no idea of my mother's indignation
+upon the receipt of it, and she has not been sparing in her reproaches
+to me for having written without her knowledge, and having, by so doing,
+subjected her to such a mortification. I certainly am sorry to have done
+so. As for her ladyship's answer, it would have been to me more a
+subject of mirth than any other feeling. It has, however, proved the
+cause of much annoyance from my mother's continually harping upon it."
+
+"Have you the letter of Lady Hercules?"
+
+"I have a copy of it, which I took, intending to have sent it to you the
+next time that I wrote. I will bring it down if you will wait a minute."
+
+When Virginia returned she put the following epistle into my hand:
+
+     MRS. SAUNDERS--I have received a letter from your daughter, which,
+     I presume, was forwarded as a specimen of her penmanship; otherwise
+     it was your duty to have addressed me yourself. I said to you, when
+     I met you at Greenwich, that you were educating your daughter above
+     her condition in life, and I now repeat it. My patronage is
+     extended only to those who are not above their situations, which, I
+     am sorry to observe, most people are now. Nevertheless, as I did
+     say that I would exert my influence in your daughter's behalf, in
+     consequence of your having been a decent, well-behaved menial to
+     me, I have made inquiry among my acquaintances, and find that I may
+     be, _possibly_, able to place her with my friend, Lady Towser, as a
+     'boudoir-assistant.' I have said _possibly_, as I am by no means
+     sure that she will be equal to the situation, and the number of
+     applicants are very numerous. The inclosed paper from Lady Towser
+     will give you an idea of what will be requisite:
+
+     "Morning, up at 6, and nicely dressed; come in in list shoes, and
+     wait at bedside, in case Lady Towser should be troubled with her
+     morning cough, to hand the emulsion, etc. At 9, to call and assist
+     to dress Lady Towser's head tirewoman; follow her to Lady T.'s
+     chamber, and obey orders. Breakfast in housekeeper's room. After
+     breakfast assist housemaid to dust ornaments, and on Saturdays and
+     Wednesdays, _wash_, comb, and examine dogs; other days comb and
+     examine them only; clean and feed macaw, cockatoo, and parrot, also
+     canary and other birds; bring up dogs' dinners, and prevent them
+     fighting at meals. After dogs' dinners read to Lady T., if
+     required; if not, get up collars and flounces, laces, etc., for
+     Lady T. and Lady T.'s tirewoman. After your own dinner assist
+     housekeeper as required in the still-room; fine needlework; repair
+     clothes before they go to wash; dress and brush Lady T.'s perukes;
+     walk out with dogs if weather is fine, and be careful to prevent
+     their making any acquaintances whatever.
+
+     "Evening--Read to Lady T., write notes, look over bills, and keep
+     general accounts; if not wanted, to make herself useful in
+     housekeeper's room, and obey all orders received from her or head
+     tirewoman. At night see that the hot water is ready for Lady T.'s
+     feet, and wait for her retiring to bed; wash Lady T.'s feet, and
+     cut corns, as required; read Lady T. to sleep, or, if not required
+     to read, wait till she is certain that Lady T. is so.
+
+     "Now the only points in which I think your daughter may fail is in
+     properly washing, combing, and examining the dogs, and cutting her
+     ladyship's corns; but surely she can practice a little of both, as
+     she will not be wanted for a month. There can be no difficulty
+     about the first; and as for the latter, as all people in your rank
+     of life have corns, she may practice upon yours or her father's. At
+     all events, there can be no want of corns in Greenwich Hospital
+     among the pensioners. I am desired to say that Lady T. gives no
+     wages the first year; and you will be expected to send your
+     daughter neatly fitted out, that she may be able to remain in the
+     room when there is company. If this offer will not suit, I can do
+     nothing more; the difficulty of patronage increases every day. You
+     will send an answer.
+
+     "VIRGINIA HAWKINGTREFYLYAN.
+
+"I was just closing my letter when Lady Scrimmage came in; she tells me
+that Lady Towser is suited, and that you have no hopes of this
+situation. I have done my best. Lady Scrimmage has, however, informed me
+that she thinks she can, upon my recommendation, do something for you in
+Greenwich, as she deals largely with a highly respectable and
+fashionable milliner of the same name as your own, and with whom it
+would be of the greatest advantage to your daughter to be placed as an
+apprentice, or something of that sort. This is an opportunity not to be
+lost, and I therefore have requested Lady S. to write immediately, and I
+trust by _my patronage_, she will gain a _most enviable situation_."
+
+"That postscript is admirable," observed I, "and ought to have put my
+mother in a good humor. Is she not called by Lady Hercules 'highly
+respectable and fashionable'?"
+
+"Very true," replied Virginia; "but my mother cannot get over the first
+part of the letter, in which she is mentioned as 'a decent and
+well-behaved menial.' She has since received a note from Lady Scrimmage,
+requesting her to take me in some capacity or another, adding, by way of
+postscript, 'You know you need not keep her if you do not like--it is
+very easy to send her away for idleness or impertinence; but I wish to
+oblige Lady Hercules, and so, pray, at all events, write and say that
+you will try her."
+
+"And what has my mother said in reply?"
+
+"She did not show me the answer; but, from what I have collected from
+her conversation, she has written a most haughty, and, I presume it will
+be said, a most impertinent letter to both the ladies; the one to Lady
+Scrimmage accompanied with her bill, which has not been paid these three
+years. I am sorry that my mother has been annoyed. My father, to whom I
+related what had taken place, told me that my mother was very ill
+treated by Lady Hercules, and that she had smothered her resentment with
+the hopes of benefiting her children by her patronage; but that was at a
+time when she little expected to be so prosperous as she is now."
+
+"It is all true, my dear girl; I recollect my father telling me the
+whole story. However, I presume my mother, now that she can venture upon
+defiance, has not failed to resort to it."
+
+"That I am convinced of. I only hope that she will carry her indignation
+against great people so far as not to court them as she has done, and
+abandon all her ridiculous ideas of making a match for me. After all,
+she has my welfare sincerely at heart, and, although mistaken in the
+means of securing it, I cannot but feel that she is actuated solely by
+her love for me."
+
+We then changed the conversation to Janet, about whom I could now speak
+calmly; after which I narrated to her what had occurred during the
+night, and my intention to consult with my father and Anderson upon the
+subject.
+
+Virginia then left me that she might assist her mother, and I hastened
+to my father's ward, where I found him, and, after our first greeting,
+requested that he would accompany me to Anderson's office, as I had
+something to communicate to them both. As I walked along with my father
+I perceived Spicer at a corner with his foot on a stone step and his
+hand to his knee, as if in pain. At last he turned round and saw us. I
+walked up to him, and he appeared a little confused as he said, "Ah!
+Tom, is that you? I did not know you were at Greenwich."
+
+"I came here last night," replied I; "and I must be off again soon. Are
+you lame?"
+
+"Lame! No; what should make me lame?" replied he, walking by the side of
+us as if he were not so.
+
+I looked at his coat, and perceived that the third button on the right
+side was missing.
+
+"You've lost a button, Spicer," observed I.
+
+"So I have," replied he; and, as we had now arrived at Anderson's door,
+my father and I turned from him to walk in and wished him good-by.
+
+Anderson was in his office, and as soon as the door was closed I
+communicated to them what had occurred during the night, expressing my
+conviction that Spicer was the party who had attempted the murder. In
+corroboration I reminded my father of the loss of the button from
+Spicer's coat, and produced the one which Nanny had torn off.
+
+"This is something more than suspicion," observed Anderson; "but if, as
+you say, old Nanny will not give evidence against him, I know not what
+can be done. Did you say that the old woman wanted to speak with me?"
+
+"Yes, and I really wish that you would call there oftener."
+
+"Well," replied Anderson, "I'll go, Tom; but, to be plain with you, I do
+not think that I can be of much use there. I have been several times.
+She will gossip as long as you please; but if you would talk seriously,
+she turns a deaf ear. You see, Tom, there's little to be gained when you
+have to contend with such a besetting sin as avarice. It is so powerful,
+especially in old age, that it absorbs all other feelings. Still it is
+my duty, and it is also my sincere wish, to call her to a proper sense
+of her condition. The poor old creature is, like myself, not very far
+from the grave; and, when once in it, it will be too late. I will go,
+Tom, and most thankful shall I be if, with God's help, I may prove of
+service to her."
+
+We then left old Anderson to his duties, and my father went home with
+me. We had a long conversation relative to my sister, as well as about
+my own affairs. I had intended to have remained some days at Greenwich,
+but this was the first time that I had been there since Janet's
+desertion, and the sight of everything so reminded me of her, and made
+everything so hateful to me, that I became very melancholy. My mother
+was, moreover, very cross, and my sister anything but comfortable; and,
+on the third day, having received a letter from Bramble, stating that he
+had arrived at Deal, and that the easterly winds having again set in,
+they talked, of setting out again in the galley, I made this an excuse
+for leaving; and for the first time did I quit Greenwich without regret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
+
+     In which it is proved that Sailors have very correct Ideas as to
+     Metempsychosis.
+
+
+The day after my return to Deal I again embarked with Bramble and three
+others, to follow up our vocation. The second day we were abreast of the
+Ram Head, when the men in another pilot boat, which had come out of
+Plymouth and was close to us, waved their hats and kept away to speak to
+us. We hove-to for them.
+
+"Have you heard the news?" cried one of the men.
+
+"No."
+
+"Lord Nelson has beat the French and Spanish fleet."
+
+"Glad to hear it--huzza!"
+
+"Lord Nelson's killed."
+
+"Lord Nelson's killed!" The intelligence was repeated from mouth to
+mouth, and then every voice was hushed; the other boat hauled her wind
+without further communication, nor did we at the time think of asking
+for any more. The shock which was given to the whole country was equally
+felt by those who were seeking their bread in a small boat, and for some
+little while we steered our course in silence.
+
+"What d'ye say, my lads?" said Bramble, who first broke silence; "shall
+we haul up for Cawsand, and get a paper? I shan't be content till I know
+the whole history."
+
+This was consented to unanimously; no one thought of piloting vessels
+for the moment and earning food for their families. When the country
+awarded a public funeral to our naval hero, it did not pay him a more
+sincere tribute than was done in this instance by five pilots in a
+galley. At Cawsand we obtained the newspaper, and after a few pots of
+beer we again made sail for the mouth of the Channel. It hardly need be
+observed that the account of this winding-up, as it proved, of our naval
+triumphs, with the death of Nelson, was the subject of conversation for
+more than one day. On the third we were all separated, having fallen in
+with many windbound vessels who required our services. The one I took
+charge of was a West Indiaman, deeply laden with rum and sugar, one of a
+convoy which were beating about in the Chops of the Channel. As we were
+standing out from the English coast the captain and one of the
+passengers were at the taffrail close to me.
+
+"What do you think of the weather, pilot?" said the captain.
+
+"I think we shall have a change of wind, and dirty weather before twelve
+hours are over our heads," replied I.
+
+"Well," said he, "that's my opinion. There is a cloud rising in the
+southwest; and, look, there are some Mother Carey's chickens dipping in
+the water astern."
+
+"Where?" said the passenger, a curly-headed Creole, about twenty years
+old.
+
+"Those small birds," replied the captain, walking forward.
+
+The passenger went down below, and soon returned with his
+double-barreled fowling-piece.
+
+"I have long wished to shoot one of those birds," said he; "and now they
+are so near, I think I may get a shot."
+
+He raised his piece several times without firing, when the captain came
+aft, and, perceiving his intention, caught his arm as he was about to
+level again.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Higgins, but I really must request that you will
+not fire at those birds."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I cannot permit it."
+
+"But what's to hinder me?" replied the young man, coloring up; "they are
+not in your manifest, I presume."
+
+"No, sir, they are not; but I tell you frankly that I would not kill one
+for a hundred pounds. Nay, I would as soon murder one of my
+fellow-creatures."
+
+"Well, that may be your feeling, but it's not mine."
+
+"Nevertheless, sir, as it is, to say the least of it, very unlucky, you
+will oblige me by yielding to my request."
+
+"Nonsense!--just to humor your superstitious feeling."
+
+"We are not in port yet, Mr. Higgins; and I must insist upon it you do
+not fire. You have taken my gunpowder, and I cannot allow it to be used
+in that way."
+
+During this altercation I observed that many of the sailors had come
+aft, and, although they said nothing, were evidently of the same opinion
+as the captain. I was aware that there was a superstitious feeling among
+the seamen relative to these birds, but I had never seen it so strongly
+exemplified before.
+
+The mate gave a wink to the captain, behind the passenger's back, and
+made a motion to him to go forward, which the captain did. The passenger
+again raised his gun, when it was seized by two of the seamen.
+
+"You must not fire at these birds, sir!" said one of them.
+
+"Why, you scoundrel?--I'll give you the contents of both barrels if you
+don't leave my gun alone."
+
+"No, you won't--you're not among niggers now, master," replied the
+seaman; "and as you have threatened to shoot me, I must take the gun
+from you."
+
+A scuffle ensued, during which both barrels were discharged in the air,
+and the gun taken from Mr. Higgins, who was boiling with rage. The gun
+was handed forward, and I saw it no more. Mr. Higgins, in a state of
+great excitement, went down into the cabin.
+
+The captain then came aft to me, when I observed that I had no idea that
+seamen were so very particular on that point; and I thought that they
+had gone too far.
+
+"You may think so, pilot," replied he, "but when I tell you that I fully
+believe that these birds are as good as ourselves, you will not be
+surprised--"
+
+"How do you mean, as good as ourselves?"
+
+"I believe that they _were_ every one sailors like ourselves in former
+times. They are now the sailors' friends, come to warn us of the
+approaching storm, and I can tell you a circumstance which occurred in
+the West Indies, which fully proves to me that they are not wantonly
+killed without a judgment upon those who do so. I never believed it
+myself till then; but old Mason, who is now on board, was one of the
+seamen of the vessel in which the circumstance happened."
+
+"Indeed!" replied I, "I should like to hear it."
+
+"I can't tell you now," said he; "I must go down and satisfy that puppy
+Creole, whose sugars are on board. He will otherwise make such a row
+between me and the owners that I may lose the command of the vessel. And
+yet, would you imagine it? although he will not credit what I tell him
+about Mother Carey's chickens, the foolish young man firmly believes in
+the Obi."
+
+I did not think one superstition more ridiculous than the other, but
+still as I always found that it was useless to argue such points, I said
+nothing, and the captain went down into the cabin to pacify Mr. Higgins.
+
+It was late in the first watch, and when the passengers had retired to
+bed, that the captain came on deck. "Well," said he, "I told Mr. Higgins
+my story, and as there was a bit of Obi nonsense in it, he believed it,
+and he has not only made friends, but thanked me for not having allowed
+him to shoot the birds; and now I'll tell you the real story:
+
+"A schooner was coming down from the Virgin Isles with sugar and
+passengers to Antigua, where I was lying with my ship. She had a fine
+young fellow of the name of Shedden on board; and, besides other
+passengers, there was an old black woman, who, where she resided, had
+always been considered as an Obi woman. I saw her afterward; and you
+never beheld such a complication of wrinkles as she was, from her
+forehead to her feet, and her woolly head was as white as snow. They
+were becalmed as soon as they were clear of the islands; and, as it
+happened, some Mother Carey's chickens were flying about the stern.
+Shedden must needs get at his gun to shoot them. The old black woman sat
+near the taffrail; she saw him with his gun, but she said nothing. At
+last he fired, and killed three of them.
+
+"'There are three down!' cried out some of the other passengers.
+
+"'How many?' said the old woman, raising her head; '_three!_ Then count
+the sharks which are coming up.'
+
+"'Count the sharks, mother! why count them? There's plenty of them,'
+replied Shedden, laughing.
+
+"'I tell you that there will be but three sent,' replied the old woman,
+who then sunk down her head and said no more.
+
+"Well, the negroes who were passengers on board, most of them Mr.
+Shedden's slaves, looked very blank, for they knew that old Etau never
+spoke without reason. In about ten minutes afterward, three large sharks
+swam up to the vessel, with their fins above water.
+
+"'There's the three sharks, sure enough!' said the passengers.
+
+"'Are they come?' said Etau, raising her head.
+
+"'Yes, moder, dere dey be--very large shark,' replied one of the
+negroes.
+
+"'Then three are doomed,' said the old woman, 'and here we stay, and the
+waves shall not run, nor the wind blow, till the three sharks have their
+food. I say three are doomed!'
+
+"The passengers were more or less alarmed with this prophecy of old
+Etau's, according as they put faith in her. However, they all went to
+bed quite well, and the next morning they got up the same. Still there
+was not a breath of wind, the whole sea was as smooth as glass, and the
+vessel laid where she was the night before, in about six fathoms of
+water, about a mile from the reef, and you could see the coral rocks
+beneath her bottom as plain as if they were high and dry; and what
+alarmed them the next morning was that the three large sharks were still
+slowly swimming round and round the schooner. All that day it remained a
+dead calm, and the heat was dreadful, although the awnings were spread.
+Night came on, and the people, becoming more frightened, questioned old
+Etau, but all the answer she gave was, '_Three_ are doomed!'
+
+"The passengers and crew were now terrified out of their wits, and they
+all went to bed with very melancholy forebodings, for the elements
+appeared as if they were arrested till the penalty was paid. For, you
+observe, pilot, there is always a light breeze as regular as the sun
+rises and goes down; but now the breezes only appeared to skirt the
+land, and when they came from the offing invariably stopped two or three
+miles from the schooner. It was about midnight that there was a stir in
+the cabin, and it appeared that Mr. Shedden had the yellow fever, and
+shortly afterward another white man, a sailor belonging to the schooner,
+then one of Mr. Shedden's slaves. Well, there the fever stopped--no one
+else was taken ill--the usual remedies were applied, but before morning
+they were all three delirious. At sunrise it was still calm, and
+continued so till sunset; and all the day the passengers were annoyed by
+the back fins of the three sharks, which continued to swim about. Again
+they went to bed, and just before one o'clock in the morning Mr.
+Shedden, in his delirium, got out of his bed, and, rushing on the deck,
+jumped overboard before any one could prevent him; and old Etau, who
+never left where she sat, was heard to say, '_One_!' and the bell was
+struck _one_ by the seaman forward, who did not know what had happened.
+Morning came on again and there were but two sharks to be seen. About
+noon the other white man died and he was thrown overboard; and as one
+shark seized his body and swam away, old Etau cried out, '_Two!_' An
+hour afterward the negro died, and was thrown overboard and carried away
+by the third shark, and old Etau cried out, '_Three!_ the price is
+paid!'
+
+"Well, every one crowded around the old woman to hear what she would
+say, and they asked her if all was over, and whether they should have
+any wind? and her reply was, 'When the three birds come from the sea to
+replace those which were killed.' For you see, pilot, if one of these
+birds is killed, it is certain that some one of the crew must die and
+be thrown overboard to become a Mother Carey chicken, and replace the
+one that has been destroyed. Well, after a time, although we never saw
+them rise, three Mother Carey's chickens were seen dipping and flying
+about astern of the schooner; and they told old Etau, who said, 'You'll
+have wind and plenty--and plenty of waves to make up for the calm;' and
+so they had sure enough, for it came on almost a hurricane, and the
+schooner scudded before it under bare poles until she arrived at
+Antigua, with her bulwarks washed away, and a complete wreck. I was
+there at the time, and old Mason, who was on board, told me the story,
+and asked me to take him, as he would not remain on board of the
+schooner. And now I leave you to judge, after knowing this to be a fact,
+whether I was not right in preventing Mr. Higgins from shooting the
+Mother Carey chickens?"
+
+"Why, yes," replied I, "with such a _fact_ before my eyes, I should have
+done the same."
+
+Mr. Higgins not venturing to kill any of these receptacles for the souls
+of departed seamen, we arrived safely at the Downs, where I gave up
+charge to a river pilot, for the other vessels which Bramble and our
+companions had taken charge of were all bound to the Downs, and arrived
+at nearly the same time that I did, and we had agreed to embark again in
+the galley, and run out in quest of the remainder of the convoy.
+
+This we did on the following day, much to the vexation of Bessy, who
+declared we only came on shore to be off again.
+
+I ought to observe that Bessy and I had become much more intimate since
+the explanation which had taken place; and although it never entered my
+head that I should ever feel toward her more than as a brother to a
+sister, I was pleased and soothed with the touching proofs of kindness
+and commiseration which she took every opportunity of showing toward me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
+
+     A heavy Gale, a Wreck, and a Rescue.
+
+
+We had run out in our galley as far as the Start, when the appearance of
+the weather became very threatening. It was just about the time of the
+equinoctial gales, and there was a consultation among us whether we
+should run into Torquay or return to Deal.
+
+Bramble observed, that as the gale coming on would, in all probability,
+blow for three days, he thought it was no use remaining all that time at
+Torquay, where we should be put to extra expense, and that we should be
+better on shore at our own homes. This remark decided the point, and
+about dusk we put the boat's head along shore for up Channel. The wind
+was at that time about S.S.W., but occasionally shifting a point or two.
+The sky had become covered over with one black mass of clouds, which
+hung down so low that they appeared almost to rest on the water; and
+there was that peculiar fitful moaning which is ever the precursor of a
+violent gale of wind. At nightfall we reefed our lug-sails; and, while
+one sat at the helm, the rest of us lounged against the gunnel, buttoned
+up in our pilot jackets; some shutting their eyes, as if to invite
+sleep, others watching the waves, which now rose fast, and danced and
+lapped at the weather broadside as if they would fain have entered into
+the boat. But of that we had little fear; our galley was one of the
+finest boats that ever swam, and we felt as secure as if we were on
+board of a three-decked ship. As the night advanced, so did the wind
+increase and the sea rise; lightning darted through the dense clouds,
+and for a moment we could scan the horizon. Everything was threatening;
+yet our boat, with the wind about two points free, rushed gallantly
+along, rising on the waves like a sea-bird, and sinking into the hollow
+of the waters as if she had no fear of any attempt on their part to
+overwhelm her. Thus did we continue to run on during the night, every
+hour the gale increasing, the billows mounting up until they broke in
+awful and majestic crests, and often so near to us that we presented our
+backs in a close file against the weather bulwarks to prevent any body
+of water from pouring in.
+
+"We shall have light soon," observed one of the men.
+
+"And we shall want it to beach the boat in such weather as this,"
+replied another. "We shall have it harder yet before day."
+
+"Depend upon it this will be a mischievous gale," observed Bramble, "and
+our coast will be strewed with wrecks. Any ships under canvas now,
+between the Channel shores, will stand but a poor chance against this
+heavy sea, which bears down with such force. I'd rather be in this boat
+now than in any vessel in mid-Channel."
+
+"And I had rather be on shore than in either," rejoined I.
+
+"Well, Tom," said one of the pilots, "I do really believe you this
+time."
+
+When it was broad daylight, the coast to leeward presented a wild and
+terrific scene, lashed as it was by the furious surf, which dashed its
+spray half-way up the towering white cliffs, for it was within two hours
+of high water. The waves were now really mountains high, and their broad
+surfaces were pitted into little waves by the force of the wind, which
+covered the whole expanse of waters with one continued foam. On our
+weather bow a vessel with her foremast gone was pitching heavily, and at
+times nearly buried beneath the wild tumult. Her fate was sealed; to
+leeward were the cliffs of the South Foreland, and on our lee-bow lay
+the shelving beach of Deal.
+
+"This will be awkward landing, shipmates," said Bramble; "and yet we
+must try it. I'll fill my pipe--hope it won't be the last."
+
+Although not said in a serious manner, there were few of us whose hearts
+did not flutter responsively to this surmise, for the danger became
+every minute more imminent, and we knew what a terrific surf there must
+be then running on the shingle beach. But we now rapidly approached the
+shore; we were near to the floating light, and in the roadstead not a
+vessel remained; all had weighed and preferred being under what canvas
+they could bear. At last we were within two cables' lengths of the
+beach, and even at this distance from it we were surrounded with the
+breakers; the surf broke many feet high, and roared as it rushed up with
+a velocity that was appalling, dashing the foam right to the door of
+Bramble's cottage, which was forty or fifty yards higher than it
+generally gained to even in very bad weather. We now lowered our sails,
+stowed them in the boat, and got our oars to pass, backing against the
+surf to prevent it from forcing us on the beach until the proper time.
+
+It may not, perhaps, be known to many of my readers that there is a sort
+of regularity even in the wild waves; that is, occasionally a master
+wave, as it is termed, from being of larger dimensions than its
+predecessors, pours its whole volume on the beach; after which, by
+watching your time, you will find that two waves will run into one
+another, and, as it were, neutralize each other, so that, for a few
+seconds, you have what they call a smooth; the safest plan of landing
+then is to watch these two chances, either to run in on the master wave,
+or to wait till the arrival of the smooth.
+
+The latter is generally preferred, and with good reason, as unless a
+boat can be forced in as fast as the master wave runs in, you are worse
+off than if you had landed at any other time.
+
+The helm had been resigned to Bramble, who ordered me to go forward with
+the boat's painter, a long coil of rope, and stand ready either to leap
+out with it or throw it to those on shore, as might be most advisable;
+the other men were sitting on the thwarts, their long oars in the
+rowlocks, backing out as desired, and all ready to strain every nerve
+when the order was given by Bramble to pull in.
+
+The danger which we were about to incur was fully evident to the crowds
+which were assembled on the beach; not only the pilots, who stood there
+ready to assist us--some with ropes with iron hooks at the end of
+them--others all ready to dart into the surf to hold on the boat, or, if
+required, to link their arms together, so as to form a living chain
+which the undertow could not drag away with it; higher up, women and
+children, their clothes driven by the furious gale, with one hand
+holding on their caps, and with the other supporting themselves by the
+gunnels of the boats hauled up, the capstans, or perhaps an anchor with
+its fluke buried in the shingle, were looking on with dismay and with
+beating hearts, awaiting the result of the venturous attempt, and I
+soon discovered the form of Bessy, who was in advance of all the
+others.
+
+[Illustration: WRECK OF THE GALLEY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 407.]
+
+After a careful watching for perhaps two minutes on the part of Bramble,
+he gave the word, and on dashed the galley toward the strand, keeping
+pace with the wild surges, and although buried in the foam, not shipping
+one drop of water.
+
+"Now, my men, give way--for your lives, give way," cried Bramble, as a
+cresting wave came towering on, as if in angry pursuit of us. The men
+obeyed, but, in their exertions, the stroke oar snapped in two, the man
+fell back, and prevented the one behind him from pulling. Our fate was
+sealed; the surge poured over, and throwing us broadside to the beach,
+we were rolled over and over in the boiling surf. A cry was heard--a cry
+of terror and despair--on the part of the women. I heard it as I was
+swept away by the undertow, and the next wave poured over me; but all
+was activity and energy on the part of the men who were on the beach:
+the next wave that run in, they recovered me and two more by linking
+their arms and allowing the surf to break over them. We were so much
+bruised that we could not stand; they dragged us up, and left us to the
+women. Bramble and four others were still struggling for life; again two
+were saved--but the men on the beach were exhausted by their strenuous
+exertions.
+
+[Illustration: WE FOUND BOTH BRAMBLE AND BESSY CLINGING TO THE
+ROPE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 409.]
+
+I had just recovered myself so as to sit up, when I perceived that they
+were not acting in concert as before; indeed, in the last attempt,
+several of them had narrowly escaped with their own lives. Bessy was now
+down among them wildly gesticulating; Bramble still floated on the
+boiling surf, but no chain was again formed; the wave poured in bearing
+him on its crest; it broke, and he was swept away again by the
+undertow, which dragged him back with a confused heap of singles
+clattering one over the other as they descended. I saw him again, just
+as another wave several feet in height was breaking over him--I felt
+that he was lost; when Bessy, with a hook rope in her hand, darted
+toward him right under the wave as it turned over, and as she clasped
+his body, they both disappeared under the mountain surge. Another shriek
+was raised by the women, while the men stood as if paralyzed. In my
+excitement I had gained my legs, and I hastened to seize the part of the
+rope which remained on the beach. Others then came and helped; we hauled
+upon it, and found that there was weight at the end. Another sea poured
+in; we hastily gathered in the slack of the rope, and when the water
+retreated, we found both Bramble and Bessy clinging to the rope. In a
+moment the men rushed down and hauled up the bodies. Bramble had hold of
+the rope by both hands--it was the clutch of death; Bessy had her arms
+round her father's neck; both were senseless. The boatmen carried them
+up to the cottage, and the usual methods of recovery were resorted to
+with success. Still we had to lament the death of two of our best
+pilots, whose loss their wives and children were loudly wailing, and
+whose bodies were not found for many days afterward. Alas! they were not
+the only ones who were lamented. Upward of three hundred vessels were
+lost during that dreadful gale, and hardly a seaport or fishing town but
+bewailed its many dead.
+
+Whether it was that the women who attended Bessy were more active than
+the men, or that she was younger, and her circulation of blood was more
+rapid, or because she was a female, certain it is that Bessy first
+recovered her speech, and her first question was, "Where was her
+father?" Bramble did not speak, but fell into a sleep immediately after
+he was brought to life. I had changed my clothes, and was watching by
+him for an hour or more when he woke up.
+
+[Illustration: BRAMBLE HAD KNELT BY THE BEDSIDE, AND WAS EVIDENTLY IN
+PRAYER--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 411]
+
+"Ah! Tom, is that you? Where's Bessy?"
+
+"She is in bed, but quite recovered."
+
+"Quite recovered--I recollect. I say, Tom, ain't she a fine creature?
+God bless her. Well, she owes me nothing now, at all events. I think I
+should like to get up, Tom. I wonder whether I smashed my old pipe on
+the shingle? Just look into my wet jacket. I say, Tom, were they all
+saved?"
+
+"No," I replied; "Fisher and Harrison were both drowned."
+
+"Poor fellows! I wish they had been spared. Fisher has seven
+children--and Harrison, he has a wife, I think."
+
+"Yes, and two children, father."
+
+"Poor woman! God's will be done! He giveth and He taketh away! Tom, I
+must get up and see Bessy."
+
+I assisted Bramble to dress, and as soon as he had put on his clothes he
+went to Bessy's room. I stayed at the door. "You may come in, Tom; she's
+muffled up in her blankets, and fast asleep."
+
+"Quite fast," said Mrs. Maddox; "she has slept more than an hour. Dear
+heart, it will do her good."
+
+Bramble kissed Bessy's pale forehead, but it did not waken her. "Look,
+Tom," said Bramble, "look at that smooth, clear skin--those pretty
+features. Look at the delicate creature! and would you have thought that
+she would have dared what no man dared to do--that she would have defied
+those elements raging in their might, and have snatched their prey from
+their very grasp? Did I ever imagine, when I brought her as a helpless
+baby on shore, that she would ever have repaid the debt with such
+interest, or that such a weak instrument should have been chosen by the
+Lord to save one who otherwise must have perished? But His ways are not
+our ways, and He works as He thinks fit. Bless you, bless you, my
+Bessy--and may your fond heart never be again put to such trial! Is she
+not beautiful, Tom? just like a piece of cold marble. Thank Heaven, she
+is not dead, but sleepeth!"
+
+I certainly never did look upon Bessy with so much interest; there was
+something so beautifully calm in her countenance as she lay there like
+an effigy on a tomb, hardly appearing to breathe; and when I thought of
+the courage and devotion shown but a few hours before by the present
+almost inanimate form, I bent over her with admiration, and felt as if I
+could kneel before the beautiful shrine which contained such an
+energetic and noble spirit. While this was passing through my mind,
+Bramble had knelt by the bedside, and was evidently in prayer. When he
+rose up he said, "Come away, Tom: she is a maiden, and may feel ashamed
+if she awaken and find us men standing by her bedside. Let me know when
+she wakes up, Mrs. Maddox, and tell her I have been in to see her; and
+now, Tom, let's go down. I never felt the want of a pipe so much as I do
+now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
+
+     A Scene in the Hospital, and a strange Discovery.
+
+
+In a very few days Bramble and Bessy were sufficiently recovered to
+resume their usual avocations; but the former expressed no willingness
+to embark again, and Bessy's persuasions assisted to retain him at the
+cottage. With me it was different. I was still restless, and anxious for
+change; my feelings toward Bessy were those of admiration and esteem,
+but not yet of love. Yet I could not help recalling to mind the words of
+Bramble, "Observe how she performs those duties which fall to her lot;
+if she is a good daughter she will make a good wife." I felt that she
+would make a good wife, and I wished that I could have torn from my
+bosom the remembrance of Janet, and have substituted the form of Bessy
+in her place. We had been at the cottage nearly a week, when I received
+a letter from Anderson; he informed me that he had visited old Nanny,
+who had made her will in due form, and confided to him, and that he
+thought she was more inclined to listen to him than she had before been;
+that my father and mother and sister were well, and that Spicer had been
+obliged to go into the hospital with an abscess in his knee, occasioned
+by running something into it, and that it was reported that he was very
+ill, and, in all probability, amputation must take place. I felt
+convinced that Spicer must have, in his hasty retreat, fallen over the
+iron railings which lay on the ground, and which had, as I mentioned,
+tripped me up; but with this difference, that, as the spikes of the
+railing were from me, and consequently I met with little injury, they
+must have been toward him, and had penetrated his knee, and thus it was
+that he had received the injury. Anderson also stated that they were
+very busy at the hospital, receiving the men who had been maimed in the
+glorious battle of Trafalgar. Altogether, I made up my mind that I would
+take the first ship that was offered for pilotage up the river, that I
+might know more of what was going on; and, as we sat down to supper, I
+mentioned my intentions to Bramble.
+
+"All's right. Tom, you're young, and ought to be moving; but just now I
+intend to take a spell on shore. I have promised Bessy, and how can I
+refuse her anything, dear girl? I don't mean to say that I shall never
+pilot a vessel again, but I do feel that I am not so young as I was, and
+this last affair has shaken me not a little, that's the truth of it.
+There's a time for all things, and when a man has enough he ought to be
+content, and not venture more. Besides, I can't bear to make Bessy
+unhappy; so, you see, I've half promised--only half, Bessy, you know."
+
+"I think you would have done right if you had promised altogether,"
+replied I; "you have plenty to live upon, and are now getting a little
+in years. Why should you not stay on shore, and leave them to work who
+want the money?"
+
+Bessy's eyes beamed gratefully toward me, as I thus assisted her wishes.
+"You hear, father," said she, fondling him, "Tom agrees with me."
+
+"Ah!" replied Bramble, with a sigh, "if--but we cannot have all we wish
+in this world."
+
+Bessy and I both felt what he would have referred to, and we were
+silent. She cast down her eyes, and appeared busy with her fork,
+although she was eating nothing. I no longer felt the repugnance that I
+had a short time before, and I was in deep reverie, watching the changes
+of her beautiful countenance, when she looked up. Our eyes met: she must
+have read my thoughts in mine, for from that moment each hour increased
+our intimacy and confidence. We were no longer afraid of each other.
+
+A day or two after this conversation an opportunity was given to me of
+going up the river, which I did not neglect; and having delivered up
+charge of the ship, I hastened down to Greenwich. I found everything in
+_statu quo_ at my mother's house, and Virginia much pleased at there
+being no lodgers. Anderson I met walking with Ben the Whaler and my
+father. He told me that Spicer had refused to have his leg amputated,
+when the surgeon had pointed out the necessity of the operation; and
+that it was now said that it was too late to have the operation
+performed, and that there was little or no chance of his recovery. They
+asked me many questions relative to the narrow escape of Bramble, and
+the behavior of Bessy.
+
+As soon as I could get away, I set off to the hospital to see Spicer;
+for, as the reader must be aware, I had many reasons for having
+communication with him--not that I expected that at first he would
+acknowledge anything. I knew that his heart was hardened, and that he
+had no idea of his danger; but I had his secret--he was indeed in my
+power, and I hoped by terrifying him to obtain the information which I
+wished.
+
+I found him in bed, in the corner of the hospital ward, to the left. He
+was looking very pale, and apparently was in great pain.
+
+"Spicer," said I, "I have come to see you; I am sorry to hear of your
+accident. How is your leg? is it better?"
+
+"No, not much," replied he, writhing, "I am in great pain; another man
+would scream out with agony, but I'm like the wolf--I'll die without
+complaint."
+
+"But you don't think that you're going to die, Spicer?"
+
+"No, Jack, I don't think that; I never have thought that, when I have
+been worse than now. I'll never believe that I'm dead until I find
+myself so. It must come some time or another, but I'm hale and hearty in
+constitution as yet, and my time is not yet come."
+
+"It was the iron railings which you fell over, was it not? I fell over
+them myself the same night when I landed, on the Monday, going up to old
+Nanny's."
+
+"Who told you it was those cursed spikes? Well, well, so it was; but not
+on the Monday, Jack, it was on the Wednesday."
+
+"Nay, that cannot be; for on the Tuesday, as I went down to the beach, I
+saw them all fixed up in the stonework, and soldered in. It must have
+been on the Monday--the night on which old Nanny was nearly smothered by
+some one who went in to rob her. I came there just in time to save her
+life; indeed, if you recollect, you were lame the next day, when I met
+you in the hospital."
+
+"Well, Jack, you may think what you please; but I tell you it was on the
+Wednesday."
+
+"Then you must have fallen over something else."
+
+"Perhaps I did."
+
+"Well, it's of no consequence. I'm glad to find that you're so much
+better, for I was told that the doctor had said--"
+
+"What did the doctor say?" interrupted Spicer.
+
+"Why, it's better to tell the truth; he said it was impossible for you
+to get over it; that the inflammation was too great to allow of
+amputation now, and that it must end in mortification."
+
+"He said that!" said Spicer, wildly, raising himself on his elbow.
+
+"Yes, he did; and it's known all over the hospital."
+
+"Well," replied Spicer, "he may have said so; but I think I ought to
+know best how I feel. He'll be here in half an hour or so, and then I'll
+put the question to him. I'm a little tired, Jack, so don't speak to me
+any more just now."
+
+"Shall I go away, Spicer?"
+
+"No, no, stay here. There's a book or two; read them till I feel a
+little stronger."
+
+That my communication had had an effect upon Spicer was evident. He was
+startled at the idea of the near approach of death, which he had not
+contemplated. Alas! who is not? He shut his eyes, and I watched him; the
+perspiration trickled down his forehead. I took up the book he had
+pointed out to me; it was the History of the Buccaneers, with plates,
+and I thought then that it was a parallel of Spicer's own career. I
+looked at the plates, for I was not much inclined to read. In a few
+minutes Spicer opened his eyes. "I am better now, Jack; the faintness
+has passed away. What book is that? Oh, the Buccaneers. That and
+Dampier's Voyages were the only two books of my father's library that I
+ever thought worth reading. Have you ever read it?"
+
+"No," replied I, "I never have. Will you lend it to me?"
+
+"Yes; I'll give it to you, Jack, if you like."
+
+"Thank you. Was your father a sailor, Spicer, as well as you?"
+
+"Yes, Jack; a sailor, every inch of him."
+
+"Did you ever sail with him?"
+
+"No, he died about the time that I was born." Here the doctor, who was
+going round the wards, came up to Spicer and asked him how he felt.
+"Pretty well, doctor," said he.
+
+"Come, we must look at your leg, my man; it will require dressing. Is it
+very painful?"
+
+"Why, yes, sir; it has been very painful indeed all night."
+
+The hospital mates unbandaged Spicer's leg, and took off the poultices,
+and I was horrified when I saw the state which his leg was in: one mass
+of ulceration from the middle of the thigh down to half-way below his
+knee, and his ankle and foot swelled twice their size, a similar
+inflammation extending up to his hip. The doctor compressed his lips and
+looked very grave. He removed some pieces of flesh, it was then cleaned
+and fresh poultices put on.
+
+"Doctor," said Spicer, who had watched his countenance, "they say in the
+hospital that you have stated that I cannot live. Now, I should wish to
+know your opinion myself on this subject, as I believe I am the most
+interested party."
+
+"Why, my man," said the doctor, "you certainly are in great danger, and
+if you have any affairs to settle, perhaps it will be prudent so to do."
+
+"That's a quiet way of saying there is no hope for me; is it not,
+doctor?" replied Spicer.
+
+"I fear, my good man, there is very little."
+
+"Tell me plainly, sir, if you please," replied Spicer; "is there _any_?"
+
+"I am afraid that there is not, my good man; it's unpleasant to say so,
+but perhaps it is kindness to tell the truth."
+
+"Well, sir, that is honest. May I ask you how long I may expect to
+live?"
+
+"That will depend upon when the mortification takes place, about three
+days; after that, my poor fellow, you will probably be no more. Would
+you like the chaplain to come and see you?"
+
+"Thank you, sir; when I do, I'll send for him."
+
+The doctor and the attendants went away to the other patients. I was
+silent. At last Spicer spoke.
+
+"Well, Jack, you were right; so it is all over with me. Somehow or
+another, although I bore up against it, I had an inkling of it myself,
+the pain has been so dreadful. Well, we can die but once, and I shall
+die game."
+
+"Spicer," said I, "that you will die without fear I know very well; but
+still, you know that you should not die without feeling sorry for the
+sins you have committed, and praying for pardon. We have all of us, the
+very best of us, to make our peace with Heaven; so, had I not better
+tell the chaplain to come and talk with you?"
+
+"No, Jack, no; I want no parsons praying by my side. What's done is
+done, and can't be undone. Go now, Jack, I wish to get a little sleep."
+
+"Shall I come and see you to-morrow, Spicer?"
+
+"Yes, come when you will; I like to have some one to talk to; it keeps
+me from thinking."
+
+I wished him good day, and went away with the book in my hand. Before I
+went home I sought out old Anderson and told him what had passed. "He
+will not see the chaplain, Anderson, but perhaps he will see you; and,
+by degrees, you can bring him to the subject. It is dreadful that a man
+should die in that way."
+
+"Alas for the pride of us wretched worms!" ejaculated Anderson; "he
+talks of dying game--that is to say, he defies his Maker. Yes, Jack, I
+will go and see him; and happy I am that he has a few days to live. I
+will see him to-night, but will not say much to him, or he might refuse
+my coming again."
+
+I went home. I was not in a very gay humor, for the sight of Spicer's
+leg, and the announcement of his situation, had made a deep impression
+upon me. I sat down to read the book which Spicer had made me a present
+of. I was interrupted by my mother requesting me to go a message for
+her, and during my absence Virginia had taken up the book.
+
+"Who lent you this book, Tom?" said she, when I returned.
+
+"Spicer, the man whom they call Black Sam, who is now dying in the
+hospital."
+
+"Well, that's not the name on the title-page--it is Walter James,
+Tynemouth."
+
+"Walter James, did you say, dear? Let me look! Even so."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Tom?" said my sister; "you look as if you were
+puzzled."
+
+And indeed I do not doubt but I did, for it at once recalled to my mind
+that old Nanny's married name was _James_, and that Spicer had said that
+his father was a sailor, and that he had died at the time that he was
+born, which agreed with the narrative of old Nanny. The conclusions
+which I came to in a moment made me shudder.
+
+"Well, my dear, I was surprised, if not frightened; but you don't know
+why, nor can I tell you, for it's not my secret. Let me look at the book
+again."
+
+Here my father came in, and the conversation took a different turn,
+which I was not sorry for. I wished, however, to be left to my own
+reflections; so I soon afterward took up my candle and retired to my
+room.
+
+I turned the subject over in my mind in a hundred ways, but could not
+come to any conclusion as to the best method of proceeding. At last I
+thought I would see Peter Anderson the next day, and take his advice. I
+was out immediately after breakfast; but I could not find Anderson, so I
+walked to the hospital to see Spicer. I found Anderson sitting by his
+bedside, but they were not then conversing. After a short time Anderson
+rose, and giving a slight shake of the head, as if to inform me that he
+had had no success, he walked away.
+
+"He has been trying to convert me," said Spicer, with a grim smile.
+
+"He has been trying, Spicer, to bring you to a sense of your condition;
+and is he not kind? he can have no interest but your own good. Do you
+think that no one knows the sins you have committed except
+yourself?--there is one eye which sees all."
+
+"Come, Jack, no preaching."
+
+"Spicer, you are here under a false name, and you think no one knows
+anything about you; but everything has been discovered by me; and I
+cannot help thinking that it has been made known providentially, and for
+your good."
+
+"Ah!" replied Spicer, "and pray what do you know? Perhaps you can tell
+me all the sins I have committed."
+
+"No, Spicer, but perhaps I can tell you of sins which you yourself are
+not aware of. But first answer me--you know that you cannot live long,
+Spicer; will you acknowledge that what I state is correct, should it
+really be so?"
+
+"I give you my word that if you tell me anything about me which is
+true, I will freely acknowledge it; so now, Mr. Fortuneteller, here's my
+hand--it may be useful, you know, in helping your discovery."
+
+"I do not want your hand, Spicer--now hear me. Is not your name
+James?--and were you not born at Tynemouth?"
+
+Spicer started. "How did you find that out? Well, Tom, it is so, and
+what then?"
+
+"As you told me yourself, although I knew it before, your father was
+lost at sea about the time that you were born. Spicer, I know how you
+left your mother, and how you returned from _you know where_--how you
+robbed her of every farthing, and left her again destitute and in
+misery. Is there nothing to repent of in that, Spicer?"
+
+"Who the devil--"
+
+"Nay, Spicer, the devil has had nothing to do with the discovery."
+
+"Strange, strange indeed," muttered Spicer; "but still, it is true."
+
+"Spicer, you know best how your life was passed from that time until you
+came into the hospital; but it was to be hoped that when laid up to rest
+in this haven, after such a stormy life, you would have amended your
+life; but what have you done?"
+
+"And what have I done?"
+
+"What would have brought you to the gallows if I had not held my tongue.
+You attempted to murder the old woman to obtain her money, and, in
+escaping, you received the wound which soon will bring you to your
+grave."
+
+"What proofs?"
+
+"Every proof: your stump struck me in the face when you rushed out--the
+button was off your coat the next morning when I met you--I had every
+proof, and, had I chosen, would have sworn on the Bible to your having
+been the party."
+
+"Well, I'll not deny it--why should I, when I cannot be taken out of
+this bed to be tried, even if you wished? Have you more to say?"
+
+"Yes, more."
+
+"I doubt it."
+
+"Then hear me. The poor woman whom you would have murdered, whom I found
+at her last gasp, and with difficulty restored to consciousness, that
+poor woman, Spicer, is _your own mother!_"
+
+"God of heaven!" exclaimed he, covering his face.
+
+"Yes, Spicer, your fond, indulgent mother, who thinks that you suffered
+the penalty of the law many years ago, and whose energies have been
+crushed by the supposed unhappy fate of her still loved and lamented
+son. Spicer, this is all true, and have you now nothing to repent of?"
+
+"I thought her dead, long dead. God, I thank Thee that I did not the
+deed; and, Jack, I am really grateful to you for having prevented it.
+Poor old woman!--yes, she did love me, and how cruelly I treated
+her!--and she is then still alive, and thinks that I was hanged--yes, I
+recollect now, she must think so. Oh! my brain, my brain!"
+
+"Spicer, I must leave you now."
+
+"Don't leave me, Jack--yes, do--come to-morrow morning."
+
+"Spicer, will you do me a favor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you see Anderson, and talk with him?"
+
+"Yes, if you wish it; but not now. This evening I will, if he'll come."
+
+I left Spicer, well satisfied with what had passed, and hastened to
+Anderson, to communicate it to him.
+
+"A strange and providential discovery, Tom, indeed," said he, "and good
+use it appears to me you have made of it. His heart is softened, that is
+evident. I will certainly go to him this evening."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
+
+     Spicer discloses strange Matters.
+
+
+The next day, when I called to see Spicer, I found him in great pain.
+Anderson had been with him, but he had been in such agony that he found
+it almost impossible to converse with him. Spicer did not like that I
+should leave him, although he could not talk, and I therefore remained
+by his bedside, occasionally assisting him to move from one position to
+another, or to take the drink that was by his bedside. Toward the
+evening he became more easy, and went to sleep. I left him, therefore,
+till the next day. As I supposed, the mortification had commenced, for
+the doctor told him so the next morning, when he visited him, and the
+chaplain pointed out to him that all hopes of living were now over.
+Spicer heard the communication unmoved. He asked the doctor how long he
+might live, and his reply was, it was possible four or five days, and
+that he would feel no more pain. He was now able to listen to Anderson,
+and he did so. I shall not trouble the reader with repeating what
+Anderson imparted to me, as I can give him an idea of Spicer's feelings
+by what passed between us.
+
+"Tom," said he, "I have led a very wicked life, so wicked that I hate
+to think of it, and I hate myself. I believe all that Anderson and the
+chaplain tell me, and I find that I may hope and do hope for mercy; but
+I can't cry, or wail, or tear my hair. The fact is, Tom, I can't feel
+afraid. If I am pardoned, and I do scarcely expect it, I shall be all
+gratitude, as well I may. Should I be condemned, I shall acknowledge my
+punishment just, and not complain, for I have deserved all; but I cannot
+feel fear. I believe I ought; but it is not in my nature, I suppose."
+
+"But you do not feel anything like defiance, Spicer?"
+
+"No, God forbid! no, nothing like that, but my spirit cannot quail."
+
+He was very anxious for the chaplain the last two days of his life, and
+I really believe was _sincere_ in his repentance; but before I wind up
+his history, I will narrate to the reader those portions of his life
+which are unknown, and which are necessary to the explanation of other
+matters.
+
+He told me that when he first went to sea he had joined a vessel
+employed in the slave trade, that he had left it at Gambia, and shipped
+on board of a vessel which was about to cruise on the Spanish Main. He
+was some time in her, and had been appointed second officer, when he
+resolved to fit out a vessel and cruise for himself. He had therefore
+quitted the vessel at Surinam, and worked his passage home in a sugar
+ship.
+
+It was on his return home this time that, as old Nanny had told me, he
+had taken to gaming, and eventually had robbed his mother. With the two
+thousand pounds in his pocket, he had repaired to Liverpool, where he
+fell in with Fitzgerald, a young man who had served as first mate in the
+vessel in which they had cruised on the Spanish Main, and to him he had
+proposed to join him as first officer in the vessel which he was about
+to fit out. It appeared that this young man had but a few days returned
+from Ireland, where he had married a young woman, to whom he had been
+some time attached, and that his disinclination to leave his young wife
+made him at first refuse the offer made by Spicer. Spicer, however, who
+was aware of his value, would not lose sight of him, and contrived, when
+Fitzgerald had taken too much wine, to win of him, by unfair means,
+about one thousand five hundred pounds. Spicer then offered Fitzgerald a
+release from the debt, provided he would sail with him; and he exacted
+as a further condition that he should not return and take a farewell of
+his wife. To these harsh terms Fitzgerald, being without means of
+liquidating the debt, consented, and they sailed accordingly.
+
+"And now, Jack, I will tell you why I was so curious about that
+spy-glass. I knew the moment that I saw it in your hands that it was one
+that belonged to Fitzgerald when we were on our first cruise together.
+It was the best glass I ever met with. When we left Liverpool this time,
+I asked him for the spy-glass, and he told me that, expecting to return
+to his wife before he sailed, he had left it at home. How it came into
+the lady's hands I can't tell."
+
+"I never said that Lady Hercules gave it to me," replied I; "although I
+did not undeceive you when you thought so. The fact is, it was given me
+by a very pretty young Irish widow."
+
+"Then, Jack, I should not wonder if she was the wife of Fitzgerald, whom
+I have been talking about; but that I leave to you. Let me finish my
+story. When we arrived on the Spanish coast I had as fine a crew with me
+as ever were on board of a vessel; but I had long made up my mind that I
+would hoist the black flag. Yes, Jack, it is but too true. But when I
+proposed it, Fitzgerald declared that the first act of piracy that was
+committed he would leave the vessel. I tried all I could to persuade
+him, but in vain. However, we did take an English vessel, and plundered
+her. Upon this Fitzgerald protested, and half the crew, at least, joined
+him. I threatened the men to shoot them through the head; but they were
+resolute; and, being rather the stronger party, I dared not make any
+attempt. They insisted upon leaving the vessel; and I, not being able to
+help it, landed them all in the Bay of Honduras, where I thought it very
+possible they would be taken by the Spaniards and imprisoned, if not
+hanged. They were imprisoned; but, after some time, they were released.
+The desertion of Fitzgerald and the other men left me with my vessel
+half manned; and I vowed vengeance against him if ever I had an
+opportunity. I now cruised as a pirate, and was very successful, and my
+name was a terror to those seas. A high reward was offered for me, dead
+or alive, which pleased me much, and I became more murderous than ever.
+Jack, all this rises up in judgment against me now; and I recollect
+every single life taken away by me, or by my orders, as well as if I had
+noted them down in a book. May God forgive me!" continued Spicer,
+covering his eyes up for a time.
+
+After a pause he continued: "I had ordered a vessel with a valuable
+cargo to be taken on to a rendezvous we had in the Caicos; but it was
+recaptured and taken into Port Royal, Jamaica. As the proofs of the
+piracy were well established, the men on board were thrown into prison
+to take their trial. I heard of this, for I was often on shore in
+disguise in one island or another, and a scheme entered my head which I
+thought would benefit myself and wreak my vengeance upon Fitzgerald. But
+I must leave off now. Here comes the chaplain; he promised to talk with
+me this evening, and you see that I have changed my opinion on that
+point, praised be God for it. Good-night, Jack; come to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
+
+     Spicer's Death.
+
+
+When I saw Spicer again he continued his narrative:
+
+"I told you that I was anxious to wreak my vengeance upon Fitzgerald,
+and the plan which I hit upon was as follows: I contrived to get to Port
+Royal, and to speak to the two men whom I had been on the best of terms
+with. I told them that the only chance of escape would be for them to
+give their names as those of _James_, which was mine, and of
+_Fitzgerald_, the first officer; and I explained to them why; because
+Fitzgerald and I had saved the life of the daughter of one of the chief
+planters, who, in gratitude, had promised that he would assist us if we
+were ever in difficulty. I told them that they must adhere to what they
+said, as they would be condemned with the others, but that a reprieve
+would be given when they were on the scaffold."
+
+"But why should you have done this?" inquired I.
+
+"First, because I wished people to believe that I was dead, that there
+might not be so great a hue and cry after me, and the temptation of so
+high a reward; next, because I knew that Fitzgerald was still in prison,
+and that his wife would read the account of his execution in the
+newspapers, which I hoped would break her heart, and so make him
+miserable."
+
+"Oh, Spicer, that was too cruel."
+
+"It was, but my plan succeeded. The men gave our names, went to the
+scaffold expecting a reprieve, and were hanged."
+
+"And thus it is that your poor mother thinks even now that you were
+hanged," said I.
+
+"Even so, Jack, even so. Well, after a time I quitted my vessel and
+returned to England; for I was actually tired of bloodshed, and I had
+collected a great deal of money. On my arrival I inquired after
+Fitzgerald. It appeared that his wife had heard the account of his
+execution; and, as her bonnet was found by the side of the mill-dam, it
+was supposed that she had destroyed herself. Fitzgerald returned home,
+and was distracted at the intelligence. I have always thought that she
+was dead; but, by what you say, Jack, I now doubt it."
+
+"And Fitzgerald, Spicer, what became of him?"
+
+"I really cannot tell. I heard that he had entered on board of a King's
+ship, but not under his own name. How far that was true or not I cannot
+say; but I have every reason to believe that such was the case."
+
+"And how came you on board of a man-of-war?"
+
+"Why, that's soon told, I spent my money, or lost it all in gambling,
+went out again, obtained command of a vessel, and did well for some
+time; but I was more tyrannical and absolute than ever. I had shot five
+or six of my own men, when the crew mutinied, and put me and two others
+who had always supported me in an open boat, and left us to our fate. We
+were picked up by a frigate going to the East Indies when we were in the
+last extremity. And now, Jack, I believe you have my whole history. I am
+tired now, and must go to sleep; but, Jack, I wish you to come to-morrow
+morning, for I have something to say to you of great importance.
+Good-by, Jack; don't forget."
+
+I promised Spicer that I would not fail, and quitted the hospital. When
+I called again upon him, I found him very low and weak; he could not
+raise himself from his pillow. "I feel that I am going now, Jack," said
+he--"going very fast--I have not many hours to live; but, I thank
+Heaven, I am not in any pain. A man who dies in agony cannot examine
+himself--cannot survey the past with calmness or feel convinced of the
+greatness of his offenses. I thank God for that; but, Jack, although I
+have committed many a foul and execrable murder, for which I am full of
+remorse--although I feel how detestable has been my life--I tell you
+candidly that, although those crimes may appear to others more heavy
+than the simple one of theft, to me the one that lies most heavy on my
+soul is the robbing of my poor mother, and my whole treatment of her.
+Jack, will you do one favor to a dying man?--and it must be done soon,
+or it will be too late. Will you go to my poor mother, acquaint her with
+my being here, still alive, and that my hours are numbered, and beg for
+me forgiveness? Obtain that for me, Jack--bring that to me, and so may
+you receive forgiveness yourself!"
+
+"I will, Spicer," replied I, "I will go directly; and I have little fear
+but that I shall succeed."
+
+"Go then, Jack; don't tarry, for my time is nearly come."
+
+I left the hospital immediately, and hastened to old Nanny's. I found
+her very busy sorting a lot of old bottles which she had just purchased.
+
+"Well, Jack," said she, "you are just come in time to help me. I was
+just a-saying if Jack was to call now he'd be of some use, for I can't
+well reach so high as the shelf where I put the bottles on, and when I
+get on a stool my old head swims."
+
+"Mother," said I, "suppose you put down the bottles for a little while,
+as I have that to say to you which must not be delayed."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, boy? And how pale you look! What has happened?
+You don't want money, do you?"
+
+"No, mother, I want no money; I only want you to listen to matters
+important, which I must disclose to you."
+
+"Well, well, what is it? about the fellow who tried to rob me, I
+suppose. I told you before, Jack, I won't hurt him, for my poor boy's
+sake."
+
+"It is about your poor boy I would speak, mother," replied I, hardly
+knowing how to begin. "Now, mother, did you not tell me that he was
+hanged at Port Royal?"
+
+"Yes, yes; but why come and talk about it again?"
+
+"Because, mother, you seem to feel the disgrace of his being hanged so
+much."
+
+"Well, to be sure I do--then why do you remind me of it, you bad boy?
+It's cruel of you, Jack; I thought you kinder."
+
+"Mother, it is because you do feel it so much that I have come to tell
+you that you have been deceived. Your son was not hanged."
+
+"Not hanged! Why, Jack, are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, mother, quite sure."
+
+"Not hanged, quite sure--"
+
+Here old Nanny burst out into a wild laugh, which ended in sobbing and
+tears. I was obliged to wait some minutes before she was composed enough
+to listen to me; at last I said, "Mother, I have more to say, and there
+is no time to be lost."
+
+"Why no time to be lost, my dear boy?" said she. "Oh! now that you have
+told me this, I could dwell for hours--ay, days--more. I shall dwell my
+whole life upon this kind news."
+
+"But listen to me, mother, for I must tell you how I discovered this."
+
+"Yes, yes, Jack--do, that's a good boy. I am quite calm now," said
+Nanny, wiping her eyes with her apron.
+
+I then acquainted her with what Spicer had told me relative to his
+inducing the man to take his name, and continued the history of Spicer's
+life until I left him on board of a man-of-war.
+
+"But where is he now? And who told you all this?"
+
+"He told me so himself," replied I. "He has been in the hospital some
+time, and living here close to you, without either of you being aware of
+it. But, mother, he is now ill--very ill in the hospital; he would not
+have confessed all this if he had not felt how ill he was."
+
+"Deary, deary me!" replied old Nanny, wringing her hands; "I must go see
+him."
+
+"Nay, mother, I fear you cannot. The fact is that he is dying, and he
+has sent me to ask your forgiveness for his conduct to you."
+
+"Deary, deary me!" continued old Nanny, seemingly half out of her wits;
+"in the hospital, so near to his poor mother--and dying. Dear Jemmy!"
+
+Then the old woman covered up her face with her apron and was silent. I
+waited a minute or two, and then I again spoke to her.
+
+"Will you not answer my question, mother? Your son has but an hour
+perhaps to live, and he dies penitent not only for his conduct to you,
+but for his lawless and wicked life; but he feels his treatment of you
+to be worse than all his other crimes, and he has sent me to beg that
+you will forgive him before he dies. Answer me, mother."
+
+"Jack," said Nanny, removing the apron from her face, "I feel as if it
+was I who ought to ask his pardon, and not he who should ask mine. Who
+made him bad?--his foolish mother. Who made him unable to control his
+passions?--his foolish mother. Who was the cause of his plunging into
+vice--of his intemperance, of his gaming, of his wild and desperate
+career--which might have ended, as I supposed it had done, on the
+gallows--but a foolish, weak, selfish mother, who did not do her duty to
+him in his childhood? It is I who was his great enemy--I who assisted
+the devil to lead him to destruction--I who, had he been hanged, had
+been, and have felt for years that I was, his executioner. Can I forgive
+him! Can _he_ forgive _me_?"
+
+"Mother, his time is short--I will come to you again, and tell you much
+more. But if you knew how earnest he is to have your forgiveness before
+he dies, you would at once send me away to him."
+
+"Then go, my child--go, and may you often be sent on such kind missions!
+Go, and tell my poor James that his mother forgives him--begs to be
+forgiven--still dotes upon him--and God knows with how much pleasure
+would die for him! Go quick, child--the sands of the glass run
+fast--quick, child--the dying cannot wait--quick--quick!"
+
+Nanny had risen from her stool and taken me by the arm; when we were
+clear of the threshold she loosed me, and sank down to the earth,
+whether overcome by her feelings, or in a state of insensibility, I did
+not wait to ascertain--I fled to execute my mission before it was too
+late.
+
+In a few minutes I was at the hospital--breathless, it was true. I went
+in, and found Spicer still alive, for his eyes turned to me. I went up
+to him; the nurse, who was standing by him, told me he was speechless,
+and would soon be gone. I told her I would remain with him, and she went
+to the other patients. I gave him his mother's message, and he was
+satisfied; he squeezed my hand, and a smile, which appeared to illumine
+like a rainbow his usual dark and moody countenance, intimated hope and
+joy; in a few seconds he was no more, but the smile continued on his
+features after death.
+
+I then returned to old Nanny, who, I found, had been put into bed by
+some neighbors, and at her bedside was Mrs. St. Felix, who had been
+passing by and had observed her situation. She was now recovered and
+quiet. As soon as they had left her I entered into a more full detail of
+how I became acquainted with the circumstances which led to the
+discovery. I did not conceal from her that it was her own son who had
+attempted the robbery; and I wound up by stating that he had died, I
+really believed, not only penitent, but happy from having received her
+forgiveness.
+
+"Jack--Jack--you have been as good as an angel to me, indeed you have.
+It was you also who prevented my poor James from killing his mother--it
+is you that have been the means of his making his peace with Heaven.
+Bless you, Jack, bless you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
+
+     In which Mrs. St. Felix refuses a splendid Offer, which I am duly
+     empowered to make to her.
+
+
+I left old Nanny as soon as she was more composed, for I was so anxious
+to have some conversation with old Anderson. I did not call on my
+father, as it was not a case on which he was likely to offer any
+opinion, and I thought it better that the secret which I possessed
+should be known but to one other person. I refer to the knowledge which
+I had obtained relative to the husband of Mrs. St. Felix, who, it
+appeared, was not hanged, as supposed by her. The information received
+from Spicer accounted for Mrs. St. Felix's conduct when any reference
+was made to her husband, and I was now aware how much pain she must have
+suffered when his name was mentioned. I found Anderson alone in his
+office, and I immediately made him acquainted with what I had learned,
+and asked him his opinion as to the propriety of communicating it to
+Mrs. St. Felix. Anderson rested his head upon his hand for some time in
+silence; at last he looked up at me.
+
+"Why, Tom, that she suffers much from the supposed ignominious fate of
+her husband is certain, but it is only occasionally; her spirits are
+good, and she is cheerful, except when reminded of it by any casual
+observation. That it would prove a great consolation to her to know that
+her husband did not forfeit his life on the scaffold is true; but what
+then? he is said to have entered the King's service under another name,
+and, of course, there is every probability of his being alive and well
+at this moment. Now she is comparatively tranquil and composed; but
+consider what anxiety, what suspense, what doubts, must ever fill her
+mind, must oppress her waking hours, must haunt her in her dreams, after
+she is made acquainted with his possible existence. Hope deferred maketh
+the heart sick; and her existence would be one of continued tumult, of
+constant anticipation, and I may say of misery. He may be dead, and then
+will her new-born hopes be crushed when she has ascertained the fact; he
+may never appear again, and she may linger out a life of continual
+fretting. I think, Tom, that were she my daughter, and I in possession
+of similar facts, I would not tell her--at least, not at present. We may
+be able to make inquiries without her knowledge. We know his name; an
+advertisement might come to his eyes or ears; and, moreover, you have
+the telescope, which may be of use if it is constantly seen in your
+hands. Let us at present do all we can without her knowledge, and leave
+the result in the hands of Providence, who, if it thinks fit, will work
+by its own means. Are you of my opinion, Tom?"
+
+"When I came to ask your advice, Anderson, it was with the intention of
+being guided by it, even if it had not coincided with my own opinion,
+which, now that I have heard your reasons, it certainly does. By the
+bye, I have not yet called upon Mrs. St. Felix, and I will go now. You
+will see old Nanny again?"
+
+"I will, my boy, this evening. Good-by! I'm very busy now, for the
+officers will inspect to-morrow morning."
+
+I quitted the hospital, and had arrived in Church Street, when, passing
+the doctor's house on my way to Mrs. St. Felix, Mr. Thomas Cobb, who had
+become a great dandy, and, in his own opinion at least, a great doctor,
+called to me, "Saunders, my dear fellow, just come in, I wish to speak
+with you particularly." I complied with his wishes. Mr. Cobb was
+remarkable in his dress. Having sprung up to the height of at least six
+feet in his stockings, he had become remarkably thin and spare, and the
+first idea that struck you when you saw him was that he was all
+pantaloons; for he wore blue cotton net tight pantaloons, and his
+Hessian boots were so low, and his waistcoat so short, that there was at
+least four feet, out of the sum total of six, composed of blue cotton
+net, which fitted very close to a very spare figure. He wore no cravat,
+but a turn-down collar with a black ribbon, his hair very long, with a
+very puny pair of mustachios on his upper lip, and something like a tuft
+on his chin. Altogether, he was a strange-looking being, especially when
+he had substituted for his long coat a short nankeen jacket, which was
+the case at the time I am speaking of.
+
+"Well, Mr. Cobb, what maybe your pleasure with me? You must not detain
+me long, as I was about to call on Mrs, St. Felix."
+
+"So I presumed, my dear sir," replied he; "and for that very reason I
+requested you to walk in. Take a chair. Friendship, Tom, is a great
+blessing; it is one of the charms of life. We have known each other
+long, and it is to tax your friendship that I have requested you to come
+in."
+
+"Well, be as quick as you can, that's all," replied I.
+
+"_Festina lent_, as Dr. Tadpole often says, adding that it is Latin for
+hat and boots. I am surprised at his ignorance of the classics; any
+schoolboy ought to know that _caput_ is the Latin for hat, and _Booetes_
+for boots. But lately I have abandoned the classics, and have given up
+my soul to poetry."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; 'Friendship and Love' is my toast, whenever I am called upon at
+the club. What does Campbell say?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know."
+
+"I'll tell you, Tom--
+
+"'Without the smile from heav'nly beauty won, Oh, what were man? A world
+without a sun.'"
+
+"Well, I daresay it's all true," replied I; "for if a woman does not
+smile upon a man he's not very likely to marry her, and therefore has no
+chance of having a _son_."
+
+"Tom, you have no soul for poetry."
+
+"Perhaps not; I have been too busy to read any."
+
+"But you should; youth is the age of poetry."
+
+"Well, I thought it was the time to work; moreover, I don't understand
+how youth can be age. But pray tell me what is it you want of me, for I
+want to see Mrs. St. Felix before dinner-time."
+
+"Well, then, Tom, I am in love--deeply, desperately, irrevocably, and
+everlastingly in love."
+
+"I wish you well out of it," replied I, with some bitterness. "And pray
+with whom may you be so dreadfully in love--Anny Whistle?"
+
+"Anny Whistle!--to the winds have I whistled her long ago. No, that was
+a juvenile fancy. Hear me. I am in love with the charming widow."
+
+"What, Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+"Yes. Felix means happy in Latin, and my happiness depends upon her. I
+must either succeed, or--Tom, do you see that bottle?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, it's laudanum; that's all."
+
+"But, Tom, you forget; you certainly would not supplant your patron,
+your master, I may say your benefactor--the doctor?"
+
+"Why not? he has tried, and failed. He has been trying to make an
+impression upon her these ten years, but it's _no go_. Ain't I a doctor,
+as good as he? Ay, better, for I'm a young doctor, and he is an old one!
+All the ladies are for me now. I'm a very rising young man."
+
+"Well, don't rise much higher, or your head will reach up to the shop
+ceiling. Have you anything more to say to me?"
+
+"Why, I have hardly begun. You see, Tom, the widow looks upon me with a
+favorable eye, and more than once I have thought of popping the question
+over the counter; but I never could muster up courage, my love is so
+intense. As the poet says--
+
+"'Silence in love betrays more woe Than words, howe'er so witty; The
+beggar that is dumb, you know, Deserves our double pity.'
+
+"Now, Tom, I wish to tax your friendship. I wish you to speak for me."
+
+"What, speak to Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+"Yes, be my embassador. I have attempted to write some verses; but
+somehow or another I never could find rhymes. The poetic feeling is in
+me, nevertheless. Tell me, Tom, will you do what I ask?"
+
+"But what makes you think that the widow is favorably inclined?"
+
+"What? why, her behavior, to be sure. I never pass her but she laughs or
+smiles. And then the doctor is evidently jealous; accuses me of making
+wrong mixtures; of paying too much attention to dress; of reading too
+much; always finding fault. However, the time may come--I repeat my
+request; Tom, will you oblige me? You ought to have a fellow-feeling."
+
+This last remark annoyed me. I felt convinced that Mrs. St. Felix was
+really laughing at him, so I replied, "I shall not refuse you, but
+recollect that he who has been so unsuccessful himself is not likely to
+succeed for others. You shall have your answer very soon."
+
+"Thanks, Tom, thanks. My toast, as I said before, when called upon, is
+'Friendship and Love.'"
+
+I quitted the shop, and went into that of Mrs. St. Felix, who, I
+thought, looked handsomer than ever.
+
+"Come at last, Tom!" said the widow, extending her hand. "I thought you
+would have called yesterday. Your sister was here."
+
+"I have been less pleasantly engaged. You know that Spicer is dead."
+
+"One of the pensioners--I never saw him that I know of, but I heard old
+Ben mention his death this morning, and that you were with him. Was he a
+friend of yours?"
+
+"No, indeed, I thought you knew something of him, or I should not have
+mentioned his name." I then changed the conversation, telling her what
+had passed at Deal, and listening to her remarks upon old Nanny, my
+mother, and our mutual acquaintances.
+
+"And the doctor--how is he?"
+
+"As busy as ever. I'm sorry, however, that he complains very much of Tom
+Cobb, and says that he must dismiss him. He has made some very serious
+mistakes in mixing the medicines, and nearly killed five or six people."
+
+"Had he killed them outright, their deaths must have been laid at your
+door," replied I, very seriously.
+
+"Good Heavens! what do you mean, Tom?"
+
+"I mean this, that your bright eyes have fascinated him; and that, to
+use his own expression, he is deeply, desperately, irrevocably, and
+everlastingly in love with _you_."
+
+Here Mrs. St. Felix burst out in a laugh so violent that I thought that
+it would end in hysterics. As soon as she had recovered herself, I
+continued:
+
+"It is all true, and independent of the five or six people half killed,
+you will have to answer for a _whole_ death besides, for Tom has
+intimated to me that if he fails in his suit he will have recourse to
+the big bottle of laudanum. You must further know that he has taxed my
+friendship to make known to you his deplorable condition, being unequal
+to the task himself."
+
+"He must be mad," observed Mrs. St. Felix, quietly.
+
+"He flatters himself that you have given him encouragement. I asked in
+what way; he says you always laugh at him."
+
+"True as the Bible--I can't help laughing at such a droll figure as he
+makes of himself. Mercy on me! what are men made of? Well, Tom, I'm sure
+I ought to be flattered, for (let it be a secret between us, Tom) this
+is the second offer I have received within these twenty-four hours."
+
+"The doctor, I presume; Tom says that he is jealous."
+
+"I mention no names. This is all very foolish."
+
+"But you have not yet rejected both. Tom awaits his answer."
+
+"Tell him anything that you please. By the bye, you may just as well add
+that, instead of taking the laudanum, he had better resort to his old
+remedy--of liquorice and water. It will look just as killing in the
+phial, and not be quite so fatal in its results."
+
+"I shall certainly execute your commission in as delicate a way as I
+possibly can."
+
+"Do, Tom, and pray let me hear no more of this nonsense, for, ridiculous
+as it may appear, it is to me very painful. Leave now--I am nervous and
+low-spirited. Good-by. Come this evening with your sister, I shall be
+better then."
+
+Mrs. St. Felix went into the back parlor, and I left the shop. I had
+turned the wrong way, almost forgetting to give Tom his answer, when I
+recollected myself, and returned to the doctor's house.
+
+"Well?" said Tom, eagerly.
+
+"Why," replied I, hardly having made my mind up what to say, yet not
+wishing to hurt his feelings, "the fact is, Tom, that the widow has a
+very good opinion of you."
+
+"I knew that," interrupted Tom.
+
+"And if she were ever to marry again--why, you would have quite as good
+a chance as the doctor."
+
+"I was sure of that," said he.
+
+"But at present, the widow--for reasons which she cannot explain to
+anybody--cannot think of entering into any new engagement."
+
+"I see--no regular engagement."
+
+"Exactly so; but as soon as she feels herself at liberty--"
+
+"Yes," said Tom, breathless.
+
+"Why, then she'll send, I presume, and let you know."
+
+"I see, then, I may hope."
+
+"Why, not exactly--but there will be no occasion to take laudanum."
+
+"Not a drop, my dear fellow, depend upon it."
+
+"There is no saying what may come to pass, you see, Tom: two, or three,
+or four years may--"
+
+"Four years--that's a very long time."
+
+"Nothing to a man sincerely in love."
+
+"No, nothing--that's very true."
+
+"So all you have to do is to follow up your profession quietly and
+steadily, and wait and see what time may bring forth."
+
+"So I will--I'll wait twenty years, if that's all."
+
+I wished Tom good-by, thinking that it was probable that he would wait a
+great deal longer; but at all events, he was pacified and contented for
+the time, and there would be no great harm done, even if he did continue
+to make the widow the object of his passion for a year or two longer. It
+would keep him out of mischief, and away from Anny Whistle.
+
+On my return home I met with a severe shock, in consequence of
+information which my mother did not scruple to communicate to me.
+Perhaps it was all for the best, as it broke the last link of an unhappy
+attachment. She informed me very abruptly that the shutters of Mr.
+Wilson's house were closed in consequence of his having received
+intelligence of the death of Lady ----. Poor Janet had expired in her
+first confinement, and the mother and child were to be consigned to the
+same tomb. This intelligence drove me to my chamber, and I may be
+considered weak, but I shed many tears for her untimely end. I did not
+go with my sister to Mrs. St. Felix, but remained alone till the next
+day, when Virginia came, and persuaded me to walk with her to the
+hospital, as she had a message for my father.
+
+After we had seen my father we walked down to the hospital terrace, by
+the riverside. We had been there but a few minutes when we heard Bill
+Harness strike up with his fiddle:
+
+Oh, cruel was my parents as tore my love from me, And cruel was the
+press-gang as took him off to sea; And cruel was the little boat as
+row'd him from the strand, But crueler the big ship as sail'd him from
+the land. Sing tura-la, tura-la, tura-lara ley.
+
+Oh, cruel was the water as bore my love from Mary, And cruel was the
+fair wind as wouldn't blow contrary; And cruel was the captain, his
+boatswain, and his men, As didn't care a farding if we never meet again.
+Sing tura-la, tura-la, tura-lara ley.
+
+Oh, cruel was th' engagement in which my true love fought, And cruel was
+the cannon-ball as knock'd his right eye out; He used to ogle me with
+peepers full of fun, But now he looks askew at me, because he's only
+one. Sing tura-la, etc., etc.
+
+"Eh! wid your turla-la. You call dat singing?" cried Opposition Bill,
+stumping up, with his fiddle in his hand. "Stop a little. How you do,
+Mr. Tom? how you do, pretty lady? Now I sing you a song, and show dat
+fellow how to make music. Stop a little, Miss Virginny."
+
+"Well," said Bill Harness, "I'll just let you sing, that Miss Saunders
+may judge between us."
+
+Virginia felt half inclined to go away; but as the pensioners always
+treated her with as much respect as any of the ladies of the officers of
+the hospital, I pressed her arm that she might stay. Opposition Bill
+then struck up as follows, saying, "Now I give you a new 'Getting
+upstairs.'"
+
+On board of a man-of-war dey hauled me one day, And pitch me up de side
+just like one truss of hay. Such a getting upstairs I nebber did see,
+Such a getting upstairs.
+
+Dey show me de masthead, and tell me I must go, I tumble on de rattling,
+and break my lilly toe. Such a getting upstairs I nebber did see, etc.
+
+Dey pipe de hands up anchor, and Massa Boatswain's cane Come rattle on
+our backs, for all de world like rain. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+And den dey man de rigging, the topsails for to reef, And up we scull
+together, just like a flock of sheep. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+Dey send de boats away, a Frenchman for to board, We climb de side with
+one hand, de oder hold de sword. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+Now here I sent to Greenwich because I lost a leg, And ab to climb up to
+de ward upon my wooden peg. Such a getting upstairs, etc.
+
+"Dere, now; I ask you, Mister Tom, and de young lady, which sing best,
+dat fellow, or your humble servant Bill--dat's me?"
+
+"You sing very well, Bill," said Virginia, laughing, "but I'm not able
+to decide such a difficult point."
+
+"Nor more can I; it is impossible to say which I like best," continued
+I. "We must go home now, so good-by."
+
+"Thanky you, Mister Tom; thanky you, Missy. I see you wish to spare him
+feelings; but I know what you tink in your heart."
+
+Virginia and I now left the hospital. There was one subject which was
+often discussed between my sister and me, which was, my situation with
+regard to Bramble and Bessy. I had no secrets from her, and she
+earnestly advised me to try if I could not make up my mind to a union
+with a person of whom I could not possibly speak but with the highest
+encomiums.
+
+"Depend upon it, my dear Tom," said she, "she will make you a good wife;
+and with her as a companion you will soon forget the unhappy attachment
+which has made you so miserable. I am not qualified from experience to
+advise you on this point, but I have a conviction in my own mind that
+Bessy is really just the sort of partner for life who will make you
+happy. And then, you owe much to Bramble, and you are aware how happy it
+would make him; and as her partiality for you is already proved, I do
+wish that you would think seriously upon what I now say. I long to see
+and make her acquaintance, but I really long much more to embrace her as
+a sister."
+
+I could not help acknowledging that Bessy was as perfect as I could
+expect any one to be, where none are perfect. I admitted the truth and
+good sense of my sister's reasoning, and the death of Janet contributed
+not a little to assist her arguments; but she was not the only one who
+appeared to take an interest in this point: my father would hint at it
+jocosely, and Mrs. St. Felix did once compliment me on my good fortune
+in having the chance of success with a person whom every one admired and
+praised. The party, however, who had most weight with me was old
+Anderson, who spoke to me unreservedly and seriously.
+
+"Tom," said he, "you must be aware that Bramble and I are great friends,
+and have been so for many years. He has no secrets from me, and I have
+no hesitation in telling you that his regards and affections are so
+equally bestowed between you and his adopted child that it is difficult
+for himself to say to which he is the most attached; further, as he has
+told me, his fervent and his dearest wish--the one thing which will make
+him happy, and the only one without which he will not be happy, although
+he may be resigned--is that a union should take place between you and
+Bessy. I am not one of those who would persuade you to marry her out of
+gratitude to Bramble. Gratitude may be carried too far; but she is, by
+all accounts, amiable and beautiful, devoted to excess, and capable of
+any exertion and any sacrifice for those she loves; and, Tom, she loves
+you. With her I consider that you have every prospect of being happy in
+the most important step in life. You may say that you do not love her,
+although you respect, and admire, and esteem her: granted, but on such
+feelings toward a woman is the firmest love based, and must eventually
+grow. Depend upon it, Tom, that that hasty and violent attachment which
+is usually termed love, and which so blinds both parties that they
+cannot before marriage perceive each other's faults, those matches which
+are called love matches, seldom or ever turn out happily. I do not mean
+to say but that they sometimes do; but, like a lottery, there are many
+blanks for one prize. Believe me, Tom, there is no one who has your
+interest and welfare at heart more than I have. I have known you since
+you were a child, and have watched you with as much solicitude as any
+parent. Do you think, then, that I would persuade you to what I thought
+would not contribute to your happiness? Do, my dear boy, make Bramble,
+Bessy, yourself, and all of us happy, by weaning yourself from the
+memory of one who was undeserving of you, and fixing your affections
+upon her who will be as steadfast and as true to you as the other was
+false and capricious."
+
+I promised Anderson that I would think seriously of what he said; and I
+kept my word, using all my endeavors to drive the image of Janet from my
+memory, and substitute that of Bessy. I often recalled the latter to my
+mind as she lay, beautiful and motionless, after having rescued her
+father from the waves, and at last dwelt upon the image with something
+more than interest. The great point when you wish to bring yourself to
+do anything is to make up your mind to it. I did so, and soon found that
+Bessy was rapidly gaining possession of my heart.
+
+I remained several days at Greenwich. My mother was still as busy as
+ever, attempting to obtain lodgers in her house who were people of
+family; and this unwearied system was a source of great vexation to my
+sister. "Oh, Tom," she would sometimes say, "I almost wish sometimes,
+selfish as it is, that you were married to Bessy, for then I should be
+able to live with you, and escape from this persecution."
+
+"Better marry yourself, dear," replied I.
+
+"There is but little chance of that, Tom," replied Virginia, shaking her
+head.
+
+On my return to Deal I found that Bramble had remained at the cottage
+ever since my departure. Our greeting was warm, and when I went over to
+Bessy, for the first time since she had returned from school, I kissed
+her. She colored up, poor girl, burst into tears, and hastened to her
+own room.
+
+"I hope that was in earnest, Tom," said Bramble, fixing his eye upon me
+inquiringly, "otherwise it was cruel."
+
+"It was indeed, father," replied I, taking him by the hand.
+
+"Then all's right, and God bless you, my dear good boy. You don't know
+how happy you have made me--yes, and now I will say it--poor Bessy
+also."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
+
+In which a new Character appears upon the Stage, and I play the part of
+a Pilot on Shore.
+
+
+"A frigate has anchored in the Downs, Tom, and makes the signal for a
+pilot," said Bramble, coming into the cottage, with my telescope in his
+hand. "There is but you and I here--what do you say?--will you venture
+to take her up to the Medway?"
+
+"To be sure I will, father; I would not refuse a line-of-battle ship.
+Why should I? the tides are the same, and the sands have not shifted.
+Would you not trust me?"
+
+"Ay, that I would, Tom, and perhaps better that myself; for my eyes are
+not so good as they were. Well, then, you had better be off."
+
+I got my bundle ready, and was about to start, when I perceived my
+telescope lying down where Bramble had placed it on the table. "They are
+not very fond of letting pilots have their glasses on board of a King's
+ship," said I, "so I will take mine this time."
+
+"You're right, Tom; you can't take the spy-glass out of the captain's
+hand, as you do in a merchant vessel."
+
+"Well good-by, father; I shall come down again as soon as I can--there's
+another gun, the captain of the frigate is in a hurry."
+
+"They always are on board of a man-of-war, if no attention is paid to
+their orders or their signals. Come, start away." I went down to the
+beach, the men launched the galley, and I was soon on board. As I gained
+the quarter-deck I was met by the captain and first lieutenant, who were
+standing there.
+
+"Well," said the captain, "where's the pilot?"
+
+"I am, sir," replied I, taking off my hat.
+
+"Where's your warrant?"
+
+"There, sir," replied I, offering him the tin case in which I carried
+it.
+
+"Well, all is right, my good fellow; but you seem but a young hand."
+
+"Not so young as to lose so fine a vessel as this, I trust, sir,"
+replied I.
+
+"I hope not, too; and I dare say you are as good as many with gray
+hairs. At all events, your warrant is sufficient for me, and the frigate
+is now under your charge. Will you weigh directly?"
+
+"If you please; the wind will probably fail as the sun goes down, and,
+if so, we may just as well lie off the Foreland to-night."
+
+[Illustration: I WENT DOWN TO THE BEACH.... AND I WAS SOON ON
+BOARD.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 453.]
+
+The frigate was soon under way; she was evidently well manned, and as
+well commanded. The wind fell, as I expected, and after dark we barely
+stemmed the ebb tide. Of course I was up all night, as was my duty, and
+occasionally entered into conversation with the officer of the watch and
+midshipmen. From them I learned that the frigate, which was called the
+"Euphrosyne," had just returned from the West India station; that they
+had been out four years, during which they had two single-handed
+encounters, and captured two French frigates, besides assisting at many
+combined expeditions; that they were commanded by Sir James O'Connor,
+who had distinguished himself very much, and was considered one of the
+best officers in the service; that the frigate had suffered so from the
+conflicts in which they had been engaged that she had been sent home to
+be surveyed; it was found that she must be docked, and undergo a
+thorough repair, and consequently they had been ordered to Sheerness,
+where the ship would be paid off. At daylight there was a leading wind
+up the river, and we made sail, carrying with us three-fourths of the
+flood. The discipline and order of the ship's company were so great that
+I felt much more confidence in piloting this vessel, notwithstanding her
+greater draught of water, than I did a merchant vessel, in which you had
+to wait so long before the people could execute what you required:
+_here_, it was but to speak and it was done, well done, and done
+immediately; the vessel appeared to obey the will of the pilot as if
+endued with sense and volition, and the men at the lead gave quick and
+correct soundings; the consequence was that I had every confidence, and
+while the captain and officers sometimes appeared anxious at the
+decrease of the depth of water, I was indifferent, and I daresay
+appeared to them careless, but such was not the case.
+
+"Quarter less five."
+
+"Quarter less five. Pilot, do you know what water we draw?"
+
+"Yes, Sir James, I do; we shall have _half four_ directly, and after
+that the water will deepen."
+
+As it proved exactly as I stated, the captain had after that more
+confidence in me. At all events, the frigate was brought safely to an
+anchor in the river Medway, and Sir James O'Connor went down to his
+cabin, leaving the first lieutenant to moor her, for such were the port
+orders. As I had nothing more to do, I thought I might as well go on
+shore, and get a cast down by one of the night coaches to Dover. I
+therefore begged the first lieutenant to order my certificate of
+pilotage to be made out, and to inquire if I could take anything down to
+Deal for the captain. A few minutes afterward I was summoned down to the
+captain. I found him sitting at his table with wine before him. My
+certificates, which the clerk had before made out, were signed, but my
+name was not inserted.
+
+"I must have your name, pilot, to fill in here."
+
+"Thomas Saunders, Sir James," replied I.
+
+"Well, my lad, you're young for a pilot; but you appear to know your
+business well, and you have brought this ship up in good style. Here are
+your certificates," said he, as he filled in my name.
+
+I had my spy-glass in my hand, and, to take up the certificates and fold
+them to fit them into my tin case, I laid my glass down on the table
+close to him. Sir James looked at it as if surprised, took it up in his
+hand, turned it round, and appeared quite taken aback. He then looked at
+the brass rim where the name had been erased, and perceived where it had
+been filed away.
+
+"Mr. Saunders," said he at last, "if not taking a liberty, may I ask
+where you procured this spy-glass?"
+
+"Yes, Sir James, it was given me by a person who has been very kind to
+me ever since I was a boy."
+
+"Mr. Saunders, I beg your pardon--I do not ask this question out of mere
+curiosity--I have seen this glass before; it once belonged to a very
+dear friend of mine. Can you give me any further information? You said
+it was given you by--"
+
+"A very amiable woman, Sir James."
+
+"Did she ever tell you how it came into her hands?"
+
+"She never did, sir."
+
+"Mr. Saunders, oblige me by sitting down; and if you can give me any
+information on this point, you will confer on me a very great favor. Can
+you tell me what sort of a person this lady is--where she lives--and
+what countrywoman she is?"
+
+"Yes, Sir James; I will first state that she is Irish, and that she
+lives at present at Greenwich." I then described her person.
+
+"This is strange, very strange," said Sir James, with his hand up to his
+forehead as he leaned his elbow on the table.
+
+After a pause, "Mr. Saunders, will you answer me one question candidly?
+I feel I am not speaking to a mere Thames pilot--I do not wish to
+compliment, and if I did not feel as I state, I should not put these
+questions. Do you not know more about this person than you appear
+willing to divulge? There is something in your manner which tells me
+so."
+
+"That I know more than I have divulged is true, Sir James; but that I
+know more than I am willing to divulge is not the case, provided I find
+that the party who asks the question is sufficiently interested to
+warrant my so doing."
+
+"There can be no one more interested than I am," replied Sir James,
+mournfully. "You tell me she is Irish--you describe a person such as I
+expected would be described, and my curiosity is naturally excited. May
+I ask what is her name?"
+
+"The name that she goes by at present is St. Felix."
+
+[Illustration: "MR. SAUNDERS.... MAY I ASK WHERE YOU PROCURED THIS
+SPYGLASS?"--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 457.]
+
+"She had distant relations of that name; it may be one of them--yet
+how could they have obtained--? Yes, they might, sure enough!"
+
+"That is not her real name, Sir James."
+
+"Not her real name! Do you then know what is her real name?"
+
+"I believe I do, but I obtained it without her knowledge, from another
+party, who is since dead."
+
+"Ah! may I ask that name?"
+
+"A man who died in the hospital, who went by the name of Spicer, but
+whose real name was Walter James; he saw the glass in my hand,
+recognized it, and on his deathbed revealed all connected with it; but
+he never knew that the party was still alive when he did so."
+
+"If Walter James confessed all to you on his deathbed, Mr. Saunders, it
+is certain that you can answer me one question. Was not her real name
+Fitzgerald?"
+
+"It was, Sir James, as I have understood."
+
+Sir James O'Connor fell back in his chair and was silent for some time.
+He then poured out a tumbler of wine, and drank it off.
+
+"Mr. Saunders, do others know of this as well as you?"
+
+"I have never told any one, except to one old and dearest friend, in
+case of accident to myself. Mrs. St. Felix is ignorant of my knowledge,
+as well as others."
+
+"Mr. Saunders, that I am most deeply interested in that person I pledge
+you my honor as an officer and a gentleman. Will you now do me the favor
+to detail all you do know on this subject, and what were the confessions
+made you by that man Walter James?"
+
+"I have already, sir, told you more than I intended. I will be candid
+with you; so much do I respect and value the person in question that I
+will do nothing without I have your assurance that it will not tend to
+her unhappiness."
+
+"Then, on my honor, if it turns out as I expect, it will, I think, make
+her the happiest woman under the sun."
+
+"You said that the spy-glass belonged to a dear friend?"
+
+"I did, Mr. Saunders; and if I find, from what you can tell me, that
+Mrs. St. Felix is the real Mrs. Fitzgerald, I will produce that friend
+and her husband. Now are you satisfied?"
+
+"I am," replied I, "and I will now tell you everything." I then entered
+into a detail from the time that Mrs. St. Felix gave me the spy-glass,
+and erased the name, until the death of Spicer. "I have now done, sir,"
+replied I, "and you must draw your own conclusions."
+
+"I thank you, sir," replied he; "allow me now to ask you one or two
+other questions. How does Mrs. St. Felix gain her livelihood, and what
+character does she bear?"
+
+I replied to the former by stating that she kept a tobacconist's shop;
+and to the latter by saying that she was a person of most unimpeachable
+character, and highly respected.
+
+Sir James O'Connor filled a tumbler of wine for me, and then his own. As
+soon as he had drunk his own off, he said, "Mr. Saunders, you don't know
+how you have obliged me. I am excessively anxious about this matter, and
+I wish, if you are not obliged to go back to Deal immediately, that you
+would undertake for me a commission to Greenwich. Any trouble or
+expense--"
+
+"I will do anything for Mrs. St. Felix, Sir James; and I shall not
+consider trouble or expense," replied I.
+
+"Will you then oblige me by taking a letter to Greenwich immediately? I
+cannot leave my ship at present--it is impossible."
+
+"Certainly I will, Sir James."
+
+"And will you bring her down here?"
+
+"If she will come. The letter I presume will explain everything, and
+prevent any too sudden shock."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Saunders; and indeed I am wrong not to confide in
+you more. You have kept her secret so well that, trusting to your honor,
+you shall now have mine."
+
+"I pledge my honor, Sir James."
+
+"Then, Mr. Saunders, I spoke of a dear friend, but the truth is, _I_ am
+the owner of that spy-glass. When I returned to Ireland, and found that
+she had, as I supposed, made away with herself, as soon as my grief had
+a little subsided, I did perceive that, although her apparel remained,
+all her other articles of any value had disappeared; but I concluded
+that they had been pillaged by her relations, or other people. I then
+entered on board of a man-of-war, under the name of O'Connor, was put on
+the quarter-deck, and by great good fortune have risen to the station in
+which I now am. That is my secret--not that I care about its being
+divulged, now that I have found my wife. I did nothing to disgrace
+myself before I entered on board of a man-of-war, but having changed my
+name, I do not wish it to be known that I ever had another until I can
+change it again on a fitting opportunity. Now, Mr. Saunders, will you
+execute my message?"
+
+"Most joyfully, Sir James; and I now can do it with proper caution; by
+to-morrow morning I will be down here with Mrs. St. Felix."
+
+"You must post the whole way, as hard as you can, there and back, Mr.
+Saunders. Here is some money," said he, thrusting a bundle of notes in
+my hand, "you can return me what is left. Good-by, and many, many
+thanks."
+
+"But where shall I meet you, sir?"
+
+"Very true; I will be at the King's Arms Hotel, Chatham."
+
+I lost no time. As soon as the boat put me on shore, I hired a chaise,
+and posted to Greenwich, where I arrived about half-past nine o'clock. I
+dismissed the chaise at the upper end of the town, and walked down to
+Mrs. St. Felix's. I found her at home, as I expected, and to my great
+delight the doctor was not there.
+
+"Why, Mr. Pilot, when did you come back?" said she.
+
+"But this minute--I come from Chatham."
+
+"And have you been home?"
+
+"No, not yet; I thought I would come and spend the evening with you."
+
+"With me! Why, that's something new; I don't suppose you intend to court
+me, do you, as the doctor does?"
+
+"No, but I wish that you would give me some tea in your little back
+parlor, and let Jane mind the shop in the meantime."
+
+"Jane's very busy, Mr. Tom, so I'm afraid that I can't oblige you."
+
+"But you must, Mrs. St. Felix. I'm determined I will not leave this
+house till you give me some tea; I want to have a long talk with you."
+
+"Why, what's in the wind now?"
+
+"I'm not in the wind, at all events, for you see I'm perfectly sober;
+indeed, Mrs. St. Felix, I ask it as a particular favor. You have done me
+many kindnesses, now do oblige me this time; the fact is, something has
+happened to me of the greatest importance, and I must have your advice
+how to act; and, in this instance, I prefer yours to that of any other
+person."
+
+"Well, Tom, if it really is serious, and you wish to consult me, for
+such a compliment the least I can do is to give you a cup of tea." Mrs.
+St. Felix ordered Jane to take the tea things into the back parlor, and
+then to attend in the shop.
+
+"And pray say that you are not at home, even to the doctor."
+
+"Well, really the affair looks serious," replied she, "but it shall be
+so if you wish it."
+
+We took our tea before I opened the business, for I was thinking how I
+should commence: at last I put down my cup, and said, "Mrs. St. Felix, I
+must first acquaint you with what is known to no one here but myself." I
+then told her the history of old Nanny; then I went on to Spicer's
+recognition of the spy-glass--his attempt to murder his mother, the
+consequences, and the disclosure on his deathbed.
+
+Mrs. St. Felix was much moved.
+
+"But why tell me all this?" said she, at last; "it proves, certainly,
+that my husband was not hanged, which is some consolation, but now I
+shall be ever restless until I know what has become of him--perhaps he
+still lives."
+
+"Mrs. St. Felix, you ask me why do I tell you all this? I beg you to
+reply to my question: having known this so long, why have I not told you
+before?"
+
+"I cannot tell."
+
+"Then I will tell you: because I did feel that such knowledge as I had
+then would only make you, as you truly say, unhappy and restless. Nor
+would I have told you now, had it not been that I have gained further
+intelligence on board of a frigate which I this afternoon took into the
+Medway."
+
+Mrs. St. Felix gasped for breath. "And what is that?" said she, faintly.
+
+"The spy-glass was recognized by a person on board, who told me that
+your husband still lives."
+
+I ran out for a glass of water, for Mrs. St. Felix fell back in her
+chair as pale as death.
+
+I gave her the water, and threw some in her face: she recovered, and put
+her handkerchief up to her eyes. At first she was silent, then sobbed
+bitterly; after a while she sank from the chair down on her knees, and
+remained there some time. When she rose and resumed her seat, she took
+my hand and said, "You may tell me all now."
+
+As she was quite calm and composed, I did so; I repeated all that had
+passed between Sir James O'Connor and me, and ended with his wish that I
+should accompany her at once to Chatham.
+
+"And now, Mrs. St. Felix, you had better go to bed. I told Sir James
+that I would be down to-morrow morning. I will come here at seven
+o'clock, and then we will go to the upper part of the town and hire a
+chaise. Will you be ready?"
+
+"Yes," replied she, smiling. "Heaven bless you, Tom! and now
+good-night."
+
+I did not go to my mother's, but to an inn in the town, where I asked
+for a bed. In the morning I went down. As soon as Mrs. St. Felix saw me
+she came out, and followed me at a little distance. We went up to where
+the chaises were to be obtained, and in less than three hours were at
+the King's Arms, Chatham. I asked to be shown into a room, into which I
+led Mrs. St. Felix, trembling like an aspen leaf. I seated her on the
+sofa, and then asked to be shown in to Sir James O'Connor.
+
+"She is here, sir," said I.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Follow me, Sir James."
+
+I opened the door of the room, and closed it upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
+
+     My Sister Virginia is at last placed in a Situation which is
+     satisfactory to my Mother as well as to herself.
+
+
+I remained very quietly in the coffee-room of the hotel, in case I
+should be sent for; which I presumed I should be before the day was
+over. In the afternoon a waiter came to say that Sir James O'Connor
+wished to speak to me, and I was ushered into his room, where I found
+Mrs. St. Felix on the sofa.
+
+As soon as the door was closed, Sir James took me by the hand, and led
+me up, saying, "Allow me to introduce your old friend as Lady O'Connor."
+
+"My dear Tom," said she, taking me by the hand, "I am and ever shall be
+Mrs. St. Felix with you. Come, now, and sit down. You will again have to
+take charge of me, for I am to return to Greenwich, and leave it in a
+respectable manner. I daresay they have already reported that I have run
+away from my creditors. Sir James thinks I must go back as if nothing
+had happened, give out that I had some property left me by a relation,
+and then settle everything, and sell the goodwill of my shop. It
+certainly will be better than to give grounds for the surmises and
+reports which may take place at my sudden disappearance--not that I am
+very likely to fall in with my old acquaintances at Greenwich."
+
+"Don't you think so, Tom?--for Tom I must call you, in earnest of our
+future friendship," said Sir James.
+
+"I do think it will be the best plan, sir."
+
+"Well, then, you must convey her ladyship to Greenwich again this
+evening, and to-morrow the report must be spread, and the next day you
+will be able to re-escort her here. I hope you feel the compliment that
+I pay you in trusting you with my new-found treasure. Now let us sit
+down to dinner. Pray don't look at your dress, Tom; at all events, it's
+quite as respectable as her ladyship's."
+
+After dinner a chaise was ordered, and Lady O'Connor and I returned to
+Greenwich, arriving there after dark. "We walked down to her house. I
+then left her and hastened to my mother's.
+
+"Well, mother," said I, after the first salutations were over, "have you
+heard the news about Mrs. St. Felix?"
+
+"No, what has she done now?"
+
+"Oh, she has done nothing, but a relation in Ireland has left her a lot
+of money, and she is going over there immediately. Whether she will come
+back again nobody knows."
+
+"Well, we can do without her," replied my mother, with pique. "I'm very
+glad that she's going, for I have always protested at Virginia's being
+so intimate with her--a tobacco shop is not a place for a young lady."
+
+"Mother," replied Virginia, "when we lived in Fisher's Alley Mrs. St.
+Felix was above us in situation."
+
+"I have desired you very often, Virginia, not to refer to Fisher's
+Alley; you know I do not like it--the very best families have had their
+reverses."
+
+"I cannot help thinking that such has been the case with Mrs. St.
+Felix," replied Virginia.
+
+"If you please, Miss Saunders, we'll drop the subject," replied my
+mother, haughtily.
+
+The news soon spread; indeed, I walked to several places where I knew it
+would be circulated, and before morning all Greenwich knew that Mrs. St.
+Felix had been left a fortune: some said ten thousand pounds, others had
+magnified it to ten thousand a year. When I called upon her the next
+day, I found that she had made arrangements for carrying on her business
+during her absence, not having stated that she quitted forever, but that
+she would write and let them know as soon as she arrived in Ireland what
+her decision would be, as she was not aware what might be the property
+left her. The doctor, who had undertaken to conduct her affairs during
+her absence, looked very woebegone indeed, and I pitied him; he had
+become so used to her company that he felt miserable at the idea of her
+departure, although all hopes of ever marrying her had long been
+dismissed from his mind. Mrs. St. Felix told me that she would be ready
+that evening, and I returned home and found Virginia in tears; her
+mother had again assailed her on account of her feelings toward Mrs. St.
+Felix; and Virginia told me that she was crying at the idea of Mrs. St.
+Felix going away much more than at what her mother had said; and she
+requested me to walk with her to Mrs. St. Felix that she might wish her
+farewell.
+
+When we arrived Mrs. St. Felix embraced Virginia warmly, and took her
+into the little back parlor. Virginia burst into tears. "You are the
+only friend in the town that I dearly love," said she, "and now you are
+going."
+
+"My dear girl, I am more sorry to part with you and Tom than I can well
+express--our pain is mutual, but we shall meet again."
+
+"I see no chance of that," said Virginia, mournfully.
+
+[Illustration: SIR J. O'CONNOR AND MRS. ST. FELIX.--Marryat, Vol. X.,
+p. 467.]
+
+"But I do; and what is more, I have thought about it since I have had
+the news. Tom, your sister, of course, only knows the common report?"
+
+"Of course she knows no more than anybody else."
+
+"Well, you do, at all events; and I give you leave, as I know she is to
+be trusted, to confide my secret to her. And, Virginia dear, when I tell
+you that I shall want you to come and stay with me, and shall arrange
+accordingly, after you have heard what your brother has to tell you you
+will understand that we may meet again. Good-by, and God bless you,
+dearest; go away now, for I have much to do."
+
+When I told Virginia what the reader is well acquainted with, her joy
+was excessive. "Yes," said she, "I see now. My mother is so anxious that
+I should be taken into some grand family as a companion; and when Lady
+O'Connor agrees to receive me, she will never have an idea that it is
+Mrs. St. Felix. If she had, nothing would induce her to let me go, that
+I am sure of; for she has taken an aversion to her for reasons known
+only to herself."
+
+I returned to Mrs. St. Felix's house as soon as I had escorted Virginia
+home, leaving her very happy. The doctor was there, mute and melancholy;
+and I was thinking that we should have some difficulty in getting rid of
+him, when Tom made his appearance.
+
+"If you please, sir," said he, "Mrs. Fallover wants you immediately;
+she's taken very bad."
+
+"I can't help it."
+
+"Indeed, but you must help it, doctor," said Mrs. St. Felix; "the poor
+woman is, as you know, in her first confinement, and you must not
+neglect her, so let's say good-by at once, and a happy return. I asked
+Tom to come down that I might call upon his sister and one or two other
+people before I go; so you see, doctor, as you can't go with me, you
+may just as well go and attend to the poor woman; so good-by, Dr.
+Tadpole, I will write to you as soon as I know what I'm to do."
+
+The doctor took her hand, and after a pause said, "Mrs. St. Felix, Eheu,
+me infelix!" and hastened out of the shop.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said she, "he'll miss me, and that's the truth. Good-by,
+Jane; mind you look after everything till I come back, and take care of
+the dog and cat. Come, Tom, we'll go now."
+
+I threw her trunk on my shoulders, and followed her till we came to the
+post-house. The chaise was ordered out, and we set off.
+
+"Tom," said Lady O'Connor, as I again call her, now that she is clear of
+Greenwich, "there is one portion of my history which you do not know--a
+very trifling part indeed. When I saw in the newspapers that my husband
+had, as I supposed, been executed, I am ashamed to say that I first
+thought of suicide; but my better feelings prevailed, and I then
+resolved to change my name and to let people _suppose_ that I was dead.
+It was for that reason that I left my bonnet by the river-side and all
+my apparel in the house, only taking away a few trinkets and valuables,
+to dispose of for my future subsistence. I obtained a passage in a
+transport bound to Woolwich, on the plea of my husband having arrived
+from abroad; and, by mere accident, I found the goodwill of the
+tobacconist's shop to be sold. It suited me--and there is the whole of
+my history which you do not know.
+
+"And now, as to Virginia, I intend to have her with me very soon. Your
+mother is anxious that she should get into a high family, trusting that
+her beauty will captivate some of the members--a bad kind of
+speculation. I will advertise for a companion, and so arrange that your
+mother shall not see me; and when your sister does come to me, it shall
+not be as a companion, but as a child of my own. I owe you much,
+Tom--indeed, almost everything; and it is the only way in which I can
+repay you. I have already spoken to Sir James on the subject. He is
+equally ready to pay the debt of gratitude, and therefore in future
+Virginia is our adopted child."
+
+"You are more than repaying me, Lady O'Connor," replied I, "and you are
+obliging me in the quarter where I feel the obligation the greatest."
+
+"That I believe, Tom; so now say no more about it."
+
+I may as well here inform the reader that I remained a week at Chatham,
+and that during that time Lady O'Connor put an advertisement in the
+county paper, such as we knew would be a bait to my mother. This paper I
+forwarded to Virginia, marking the advertisement. My mother immediately
+replied to it, and Sir James O'Connor went up to Greenwich and had an
+interview with my mother and Virginia, at apartments he had taken at the
+hotel; appeared pleased with my sister, and said that as soon as Lady
+O'Connor was sufficiently recovered she would send for her to Chatham.
+This took place in two days afterward; my mother escorted Virginia
+there. Sir James stated that her ladyship was too unwell to see anybody,
+but that she would speak a few words to Virginia and leave Sir James to
+settle the rest with my mother. Virginia came down to her mother,
+declared that Lady O'Connor was a very ladylike, elegant person, and
+that she should wish to take the situation. The terms were handsome, and
+my mother, although she regretted not seeing her ladyship, was
+satisfied, and Virginia was to come in two days afterward, which she
+did. Thus was my sister comfortably settled, and after remaining two
+days I took my leave of Sir James and Lady O'Connor, intending to return
+to Deal, when I received a letter from Peter Anderson, informing me that
+old Nanny had been suddenly taken very ill, and that Dr. Tadpole did not
+think it possible that she would survive more than twenty-four hours;
+that she was very anxious to see me, and that he hoped I would come up
+immediately.
+
+I showed the letter to Lady O'Connor, who said, "You will go, of course,
+Tom."
+
+"Immediately," replied I, "and the more so as this letter is dated three
+days back; how it has been delayed I do not know. Farewell, Lady
+O'Connor; and farewell, dearest Virginia. Old Nanny, as you both know,
+has many claims upon my gratitude."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
+
+     My Father, much to his surprise, has a bit of Land to put his Foot
+     upon, and say "This is my own".
+
+
+"You're too late, Tom," said Ben the Whaler, as I jumped down from off
+the basket of the coach; "the old woman died last night."
+
+"I'm sorry for it, Ben," replied I, "as she wished so much to see me;
+but I did not receive Anderson's letter till this morning, and I could
+not get here sooner."
+
+This intelligence induced me to direct my course to the hospital, where
+I had no doubt that I should find old Anderson, and obtain every
+information. I met him as he was walking toward the bench on the terrace
+facing the river, where he usually was seated when the weather was fine.
+"Well, Tom," said he, "I expected you, and did hope that you would have
+been here sooner. Come, sit down here, and I will give you the
+information which I know you have most at your heart. The old woman made
+a very happy end. I was with her till she died. She left many kind
+wishes for you, and I think her only regret was that she did not see you
+before she was called away."
+
+"Poor old Nanny! she had suffered much."
+
+"Yes, and there are great excuses to be made for her; and as we feel so
+here, surely there will be indulgence from above, where the secrets of
+all hearts are known. She was not insane, Tom; but from the time that
+she supposed that her son had been gibbeted, there was something like
+insanity about her: the blow had oppressed her brain--it had stupefied
+her, and blunted her moral sense of right and wrong. She told me, after
+you had communicated to her that her son was in the hospital, and had
+died penitent, that she felt as if a heavy weight had been taken off her
+mind; that she had been rid of an oppression which had ever borne down
+her faculties--a sort of giddiness and confusion in the brain which had
+made her indifferent, if not reckless, to everything; and I do believe
+it, from the change which took place in her during the short time which
+has since elapsed."
+
+"What change was that? for you know that I have been too busy during the
+short intervals I have been here to call upon her."
+
+"A change in her appearance and manners. She appeared to recover in part
+her former position in life; she was always clean in her person, as far
+as she could be in such a shop as hers; and if she had nothing else, she
+always had a clean cap and apron."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Yes; and on Sundays she dressed very neat and tidy. She did not go to
+church, but she purchased a large Bible and a pair of spectacles, and
+was often to be seen reading it at the door; and when I talked to her
+she was glad to enter upon serious things. I spoke to her about her
+fondness for money, and pointed out that it was a sin. She replied that
+she did feel very fond of money for a long while, for she always thought
+that some one was nigh her snatching at it, and had done so ever since
+her son had robbed her; but that since she knew what had become of him
+she did not feel fond of it--that is, not so fond of it as before; and I
+believe that such was the case. Her love of money arose from her
+peculiar state of mind. She had many comforts about her house when she
+died which were not in it when I called to see her at the time when she
+was first ill; but her purchasing the large Bible on account of the
+print was to me a satisfactory proof that she had no longer such
+avaricious feelings."
+
+"I am very glad to hear all this, Anderson, I assure you, for she was
+one of my earliest friends, and I loved her."
+
+"Not more than she loved you, Tom. Her last words almost were calling
+down blessings on your head; and, thanks be to God! she died as a
+Christian should die, and, I trust, is now happy."
+
+"Amen!" said I; for I was much moved at Anderson's discourse.
+
+After a pause Anderson said, "You know, Tom, that she has left you all
+that she had. She told me before that such was her intention, although I
+said nothing to you about it; but I thought it as well that Mr. Wilson
+should make out a paper for her to put her name to, which she did. Ben
+and I witnessed it, but as for what she has left you I cannot imagine it
+can be much; for we examined and found no money except about seven
+pounds, in two small boxes; and then in her will she has left your
+sister Virginia ten pounds. Now, when that comes to be paid, I'm sure I
+don't know whether the things in the shop will fetch so much money as
+will pay your sister's legacy and the expenses of her funeral."
+
+"It's of no consequence," replied I, smiling; "but we shall see. At all
+events all her debts shall be paid, and her funeral shall be decent and
+respectable. Good-by now, Anderson, I must go up and see my mother and
+sister."
+
+Old Nanny's remains were consigned to the tomb on the following Monday.
+Her funeral was, as I had desired it to be, very respectable, and she
+was followed to the grave by Anderson, my father, Ben, and me. As soon
+as it was over, I requested Anderson to walk with me to Mr. Wilson's.
+
+"I'm afraid, Tom," said Mr. Wilson, "you'll find, like a great many
+other residuary legatees, that you've not gained much by the
+compliment."
+
+"Nevertheless, will you oblige me by walking down with Anderson and me
+to her house?"
+
+"And take off the seals, I presume, in your presence? But the fact is,
+Tom, that not thinking the property quite safe there, even under seal, I
+have kept it all in my own pocket."
+
+"Nevertheless, oblige me by coming down."
+
+"Oh, with all my heart, since you do not like to take possession unless
+in due form."
+
+As soon as we arrived at the hovel I went into the bedroom and threw
+open the window. I then, to their great astonishment, went to the
+fire-grate, threw out some rubbish which was put into it, pulled up the
+iron back, and removed the bricks. In a short time I produced two small
+boxes, one of them very heavy. There was nothing else in the hole.
+
+"Here," said I, "Mr. Wilson, is a portion of the property which you have
+overlooked."
+
+"No wonder," replied he. "Pray let us see what it is."
+
+I opened the boxes, and, to their surprise, made up in a variety of
+packages, I counted out gold coin to the amount of four hundred and
+twenty pounds.
+
+"Not a bad legacy," said Mr. Wilson. "Then you knew of this?"
+
+"Of course; I have known it some time--ever since the attempt to rob
+her."
+
+"But what are those papers?"
+
+On one was written "_Arsenic--Poison_;" on the other, "_Receipt for
+Toothache_."
+
+"Nothing of any value," said I, "by the outside."
+
+I opened them, and found, to my surprise, bank-notes to the exact amount
+of two hundred pounds.
+
+"Well, I declare," said I, smiling, "I had nearly thrown all this money
+away."
+
+"And now you see what induced the old woman to write those labels on the
+outside of it; in case she should be robbed, that the robbers might have
+thrown the papers away--as you nearly did, and as very probably they
+might have done."
+
+"Well, Mr. Wilson, I have no further search to make. Will you oblige me
+by taking care of this money for me?"
+
+"Yes; that is, if you'll carry the gold, which is rather heavy, up to my
+house, and then I will give you a receipt for the whole."
+
+Anderson then left us, and I followed Mr. Wilson home. As soon as the
+money was all re-counted, and a note made of it, Mr. Wilson asked me
+what I wished that he should do with it. I replied, what was the truth,
+that I really did not know what to do with it, but still I should like
+to lay it out in something tangible.
+
+"You want to buy a farm, I suppose, and be a landed proprietor, like
+Bramble; but I'm afraid there is not enough. But I tell you what, Tom;
+we lawyers know many things which do not come to everybody's ears, and I
+know that the proprietor of the house in which your mother lives wishes
+to sell it; and I think, as he is much pinched for money, that this sum
+will about buy it. Now your mother pays fifty-five guineas a year for
+it, and if it sells for six hundred pounds, that will give you more than
+nine per cent for your money. What do you think?"
+
+"Well, sir, I think it's the very best thing I can do; if more should be
+necessary, I have saved a little besides which Bramble takes care of."
+
+"Well, then, I'll see about it."
+
+A few days afterward Mr. Wilson told me that the house was to be had for
+five hundred and sixty pounds, and that he had closed the bargain.
+
+"I thank you, sir," replied I. "Since I have been with you I have been
+thinking about it, and I wish now you would make it over to my father
+for his life. You see, sir, my father does put my mother to some
+expense, and I should like him to be more independent of her. If the
+house belongs to him, the rent will more than meet any demands he may
+make upon her purse--and it will be pleasant for both parties--and my
+mother will pay more respect to my father."
+
+"I shall do it with pleasure, Tom. You deserve money, for you make a
+good use of it--I must say that. Come to me to-morrow."
+
+The next day I went to my father, and gave him the deed by which he was
+owner of my mother's house. "Well, now, Tom," said he, after I had
+explained why I did so, "this is the kindest thing that ever was done,
+and God bless you, boy, and a thousand thanks. I shan't mind now calling
+for two extra pots of porter when I have friends--and I say, Tom, is the
+garden mine, too?"
+
+"Yes, and the summer-house, father, all your own property."
+
+"Well, then," replied he, chuckling, "I have a bit of land of my own to
+stick my timber toe on after all. Well, I never did expect that. I must
+go up there, and stand upon it, and feel how I feel."
+
+I communicated to my mother that my father was in future her landlord,
+at which she expressed much surprise, until I told her how I became
+possessed of the money. When my father came in, which he did shortly
+after, she said rather sharply:
+
+"Well, Mr. Saunders, I suppose I must pay you my rent now, every
+quarter?"
+
+"Pay me!" exclaimed my father; "come, not so bad as that, neither.
+Haven't you found me in beer, without a grumble, for these many years,
+and do you think I've forgotten it? No, no! You've been a kind woman to
+me, after all, although things did go a little cross at first, and so
+here's the paper for you to keep for me; and there's an end of the
+matter, only--"
+
+"Only what?" inquired my mother, looking very kindly at my father.
+
+"Only let's have a pot of beer now, to drink Tom's health, that's all."
+
+Having thus satisfactorily settled this point, I returned to Chatham. I
+had promised to take a farewell of my sister and the O'Connors, as I
+expected they would leave previous to my again coming up the river.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY
+
+     An Adventure which at first promised to be the most Unfortunate,
+     and eventually proved the most Fortunate in my Life.
+
+
+As Sir James O'Connor would have to remain at least a fortnight longer
+at Chatham, until his ship was paid off, I made Lady O'Connor promise to
+write to me, and then started for Deal. I found Bramble and Bessy as
+usual delighted to see me, and Mrs. Maddox was as talkative as ever. I
+received a letter from Lady O'Connor, and also one from Dr. Tadpole,
+written at the request of my father, informing me that by a letter from
+Mrs. St. Felix there was little prospect of her return to Greenwich. I
+had not been a week at Deal when a large ship dropped her anchor in the
+Downs, and made the signal for a pilot.
+
+"Well, Tom," said Bramble, "I think I shall take a turn now, for I want
+to go up and see old Anderson."
+
+"I will take her through, if you please, father; and you may go as a
+passenger. You don't want money, and I do."
+
+"All's right, Tom--well, then, I'll go as a passenger, and you shall be
+pilot."
+
+"Why must you go at all, father? Why not go to Greenwich by the stage?"
+exclaimed Bessy. "When will you leave off, my dear father? Surely you've
+enough now, and might let Tom go without you."
+
+"Quite enough money, but not quite enough of the salt water yet, Bessy,"
+replied Bramble; "and when I do travel, I won't go by land, when I can
+sail under canvas."
+
+"Well, you may go this time, father, but this is the last. If you won't
+leave off, I will not stay here, that's positive; so when you come on
+shore some fine day you may expect to find me absent without leave."
+
+"Very well; then I'll send Tom to look after you: he'll soon bring you
+back again."
+
+"Tom! he wouldn't take the trouble to look after me."
+
+"Very true," replied I. "Every woman who requires looking after is not
+worth the trouble; but I've no fear but we shall find you when we come
+back."
+
+"Tom, I hate you," replied Bessy. "Why do you not join me in persuading
+father to stay on shore?"
+
+"Well, if you hate me, Bessy, it proves, at all events, that I'm not
+indifferent to you," said I, laughing; "but really and truly, Bessy, I
+do not consider there is any very great risk in your father going up the
+river with me, as he will be in smooth water before dark."
+
+"Well, but, allowing that, why should father go at all?"
+
+"I want to see old Anderson, my love," replied Bramble, taking his pipe
+out of his mouth.
+
+"Yes, and if you once begin again, you'll not leave off--I know it well.
+You will never come home except to get clean linen, and be off again;
+and I shall be in a constant state of alarm and misery. How selfish of
+you, father! You had better by far have left me to drown on the Goodwin
+Sands--it would have been more kind," replied Bessy, weeping.
+
+"Bessy," said Bramble, "it's my opinion that you are in love."
+
+"In love!" cried Bessy, coloring to her throat.
+
+"Yes, in love, my dear, or you would not talk such nonsense."
+
+"If loving you as my father is being in love, I am, unfortunately."
+
+"That's only half of the story; now give us the other," said Bramble,
+smiling.
+
+"What do you mean?" inquired Bessy, turning to him.
+
+"Why, how do you love Tom?"
+
+"Not half so much as I love her," said I.
+
+"Well, if that's the case," replied Bramble, "we may as well publish the
+bans; for Bessy's in love right over the ankles."
+
+"Father, this may be very pleasant mockery; but I think it is not kind
+to breed ill-will between those who live under the same roof. Now you
+may go away; and if the knowledge that you have made me unhappy will add
+to the pleasure of your journey, I can assure you that you have
+succeeded." Bessy, having said this, immediately left the room and went
+upstairs.
+
+"Well," said Bramble, after a pause, "I'm glad that I never was in love;
+for people so situated do make themselves very silly, that's a fact.
+Tom, if you're going, it's time to be off."
+
+"Why--" replied I, hesitatingly.
+
+"I know--but I tell you, Tom, no such thing. She'll have a good cry, and
+then she'll come down as well as ever. Leave her alone till we come
+back."
+
+Bramble and I then left the cottage, jumped into the galley, and were
+soon on board of the ship.
+
+On our arrival on board we found that the vessel was a Dutch Indiaman,
+which had been captured by one of our cruisers on her voyage home from
+Java. She was laden very deeply with cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, and
+other spices, besides pepper, and was valued at four hundred thousand
+pounds sterling. She had come home from the island of St. Helena, with
+convoy, and was now proceeding up the river, to be given in charge of
+the prize agents in London. Not only her hold, but even her main deck,
+as far aft as the mainmast, was filled up with her cargo; in short, she
+was a very valuable prize, and although when I came on board the pepper
+made me sneeze for ten minutes, the officer in charge told me very truly
+that she was a prize "not to be sneezed at." She was manned by a
+lieutenant and eighteen men belonging to the frigate which had captured
+her--hardly sufficient for so large a vessel, but no more could be
+spared.
+
+"We'll up anchor as soon as you please, pilot," said the lieutenant,
+"for I shall not be sorry to get rid of my charge, I assure you."
+
+"I don't doubt you, sir," replied Bramble. "Well, you've not much
+further to go."
+
+We weighed with the young flood; the weather was fine, but, as usual at
+that time of the year, thick fogs prevailed. We had, however, a leading
+wind, and had well rounded the North Foreland, and entered the Queen's
+Channel, when it came on very thick.
+
+"Tom, have you the bearings?" said Bramble; "if not, take them at once,
+for the fog will soon be over the land."
+
+"I have them," replied I, "and we may as well put them down on the
+log-board--North Foreland Light N.N.W. 1/4 W. Why, we should see the
+Tongue buoy. Now we'll drop the anchor and furl the sails, if you
+please, sir--we can do nothing at present." We did so: the fog came on
+thicker than before, and with it a drizzling rain and wind from the S.
+At dusk there was no change, or prospect of it. The men went down to
+supper, and the watch was set. Bramble and I did not turn in: we lay
+down on the lockers of the cabin, and every now and then went on deck to
+see how the weather was. About eleven o'clock we were awakened by a
+noise: we both started up, and went on deck. To our surprise it was full
+of men--we had been boarded by a French privateer, and they had gained
+possession of the deck without any alarm being given, for the men who
+had the watch had sheltered themselves from the rain down the hatchway.
+As soon as we came up, we were collared and seized.
+
+"Pilot," said Bramble.
+
+"Pilot," said I.
+
+They then asked us in English how many men were on board.
+
+As it was no use concealing the fact, we replied: a portion of the
+privateer's men then went down, and surprised them all in their beds. In
+about five minutes they came up again, leading the lieutenant and his
+men, in their shirts. By the directions of the French captain they were
+immediately passed over the side into the privateer, and Bramble and I
+were the only two Englishmen left on board of the ship.
+
+The French captain then asked us if we knew where we were, and whether
+there was any danger. We replied that we were among the sands, and that
+it would be difficult to get her out of them with that wind, and
+impossible until the tide turned.
+
+"When will the tide turn?" said the captain.
+
+"In an hour or less," replied Bramble, appealing to me.
+
+I replied in the affirmative.
+
+"Well, then, you will take this vessel clear of the shoals, my men; and
+if you do not, your lives are worth nothing.--Hold pistols to their
+heads," continued he to the officer, "and the moment that the ship
+touches, blow their brains out."
+
+Here Bramble, to my astonishment, went on his knees.
+
+"Spare our lives," said he, "and we will take the vessel safe to the
+French coast;" at the same time he gave me a pinch.
+
+"If you do not you shall not live a minute," said the captain (another
+pinch from Bramble). I now understood him, and I also went down on my
+knees, and pretended to cry. "We can't take her out if this weather
+lasts," said I, whimpering. "It's impossible."
+
+"No, no! not if this weather lasts," said Bramble, "but as soon as it
+changes we will do it."
+
+"Very well, so long as you do it when you can, that is all I ask. Now,"
+said he to the officer he had before addressed, "you'll have twenty
+men--keep a sharp lookout--and don't lose a moment in getting under way
+as soon as you can."
+
+The captain then returned to the privateer with the rest of the men,
+leaving the ship in charge of the prizemaster. The privateer was boomed
+off; but whether she dropped her anchor near to us, or remained under
+way, I could not tell. The men who had held the pistols to our heads now
+went away with the others to plunder, according to the manners and
+customs of all privateers' men, of whatever nation they may happen to
+be. Bramble and I walked aft.
+
+"Pinned once more, by all that's blue! Well, it can't be helped--but
+we're not in a French prison yet."
+
+"Why did you go down on your knees to those fellows?" said I, rather
+sulkily.
+
+"Why, because I wished them to think we were chicken-hearted, and that
+we should not be watched, and might have a chance--who knows?"
+
+"Two against twenty are heavy odds," replied I.
+
+"That depends upon whether you trust to your head or your arms. It must
+be headwork this time. You see, Tom, we have so far a chance that we
+cannot weigh till it clears up--they know that as well as we do. I'm
+pretty sure it will be thick all to-morrow, and perhaps longer; so you
+see something may turn up by that time. We are well in, and right in the
+Channel, for vessels up or down. I say again we are not in a French
+prison yet. They can't take her out of this--we must do it; and we may
+run on shore if we like: and I tell you what, Tom, if it wasn't for
+Bessy, I'd just as soon that my brains should be blown out as that these
+French fellows should take such a rich prize. Now let's go below--we
+mustn't be seen talking together too much; but look out sharp, Tom, and
+watch my motions."
+
+The officer who had charge of the vessel now came on deck, and looked
+round him: he could speak English sufficient to carry on a conversation.
+The weather was very thick, and the rain drove down with the wind: he
+saw that it was impossible that the ship could be moved. He told us that
+we should have a hundred guineas each and our liberty if we took the
+ship safe either to Ostend or any French port. We replied that we should
+be very glad to do so, as it would be ten times as much as we should
+have received for piloting her up the Thames; and then we went down
+below. In the meantime the men were sent for on deck, divided into
+watches, and when the watch was set the others went down below again.
+After taking a glass or two of wine, for the Frenchmen had soon rummaged
+out what there was to be drunk in the cabin, Bramble and I returned on
+deck. We found the Frenchmen in charge of the watch diligent: one was
+looking out forward, another at the taffrail; the remaining three were
+walking the deck. Bramble went to the gangway, and I followed him.
+
+"Tom, I see the hatchway grating is on deck--I only wish we once had
+them all beneath it."
+
+"I only wish we had all but the watch--I'd have a try for it then,"
+replied I.
+
+"No, no, Tom, that wouldn't do; but we must trust to Providence and a
+sharp lookout. See where you can put your hand upon a crowbar or
+handspike, in case you want it; but don't touch it. Come, there's
+nothing to be done in any way just now, so let's go down and take a
+snooze for an hour or two; and, Tom, if they ask us to drink, drink with
+them, and pretend to be half fuddled."
+
+We went down again, and found the privateer's men getting very jolly;
+but they did not offer us anything to drink, so we laid on some spare
+sails outside the cabin, and tried to go to sleep, but I could not, for
+I was very unhappy. I could see no chance of our escape, as nothing but
+a man-of-war would be likely to interfere and recapture us. I thought of
+Virginia and Lady O'Connor, and then I thought of poor Bessy, and having
+left her in such an unfriendly way, perhaps to remain in a French prison
+for years. Bramble and I were fully aware that the promises of the
+prizemaster were only to cajole us, and that once in a French port, had
+we claimed the fulfillment of them, a kick would have been all which we
+should, in all probability, receive for our pains.
+
+About one o'clock in the morning I rose and went on deck. The watch had
+been relieved, the weather also looked brighter, as if it were going, to
+clear up, and I became still more depressed. Bramble soon followed me.
+
+"It's clearing up," said I, "but I don't think it will last."
+
+"Never a bit," replied Bramble; "in half an hour it will be thicker than
+ever, so now I'll go and call the officer, and tell him he had better
+get under way: that will make him have less suspicion of us."
+
+Bramble did so. The officer came on deck, the men were turned out, and
+the windlass was manned; for, although so large a vessel, she had no
+capstan. The men hove in the cable in silence, and were short stay
+apeak, when, as we had foreseen, it came on thicker than ever. Bramble
+pointed it out to the officer, who was perfectly satisfied that nothing
+could be done; the cable was veered out again, and the men sent below.
+
+"We hope you'll think of your promise to us, sir," said Bramble to the
+officer, as he was going down.
+
+"Yes, I will, I swear," replied he, slapping Bramble on the back.
+
+The morning broke, and the weather continued the same; it was not
+possible to see ten yards clear of the ship, and, of course, in such
+weather it was not likely that any other vessels would be attempting to
+pass through the Channel. At noon it cleared up a little, and the
+windlass was again manned; but in a short time the fog became thicker
+than ever. The Frenchmen now became very impatient, but there was no
+help for it; they walked about the deck, swearing and stamping, and
+throwing out invectives against the fog and rain as they looked up at
+it. The night closed in; the men were kept on deck until eleven o'clock,
+when the flood time made, and then they were sent down again, as nothing
+could be done until the ebb. At twelve o'clock the weather became worse,
+the wind freshened considerably, and veered more to the southward, the
+rain poured down in torrents, and the men of the watch sheltered
+themselves down the hatchway. The officer came up on the deck, and
+called Bramble, who had been down below. Bramble told him, what was very
+true, that the wind would probably shift and the weather clear up in a
+few hours, and that we should be able to weigh with the coming down of
+the ebb. He asked Bramble whether he thought it would blow hard. Bramble
+could not say, but it would be better that the men should not turn in,
+as they might be wanted; and that if the fore-topmast staysail was
+hoisted, she would lie better at her anchor, and in case of parting, he
+would be able to manage her till sail was set. This advice was followed,
+and all the men sat up in the cabin drinking, those who had the watch
+occasionally coming down to refresh themselves.
+
+They gave us a glass of grog each that night, a proof that they had
+drunk until they were good-natured. Bramble said to me, as we sat down
+outside, "It will be clear to-morrow morning, Tom, that's sartain--it
+must be to-night or never. I've been thinking of lowering the quarter
+boat down, when they are a little more mizzled; they are getting on
+pretty fast, for Frenchmen haven't the heads for drinking that
+Englishmen have. Now it pours down beautifully, and here they come down
+again for shelter."
+
+For three hours we watched; it was then four o'clock, and the men were
+most of them asleep or more than half drunk. Those of the middle watch
+came down dripping wet, and called the others to relieve them, but only
+two of them answered to the call. They who had come down began to drink
+freely, to warm themselves after their ducking, and by half-past four,
+except the two men on deck, every Frenchman was either fast asleep or
+muddled.
+
+"Tom," said Bramble, "now's our time. Slip up on deck, go forward if no
+one is there, and saw through the cable as quickly as you can; it won't
+take long, for it's a coir rope. As soon as you have got through two
+strands out of the three, come aft."
+
+I went on deck, and looked round; I could not see the two men, it was so
+dark. I then walked forward, and looking well round to see that they
+were not on the forecastle, I sat down before the windlass and commenced
+operations. In a couple of minutes I had divided the two strands, and I
+went aft, where I found Bramble at the binnacle, in which a light was
+burning.
+
+"I have done it," said I, "and if the wind freshens at all, she will
+part."'
+
+"All's right," said Bramble, "those two fellows are fast asleep under
+the taffrail, covered up with the trysail, which lies there. Now, Tom,
+for a bold push: go down once more, and see how they are getting on in
+the cabin."
+
+I went down: every man was asleep--some on the locker, some with their
+heads on the table. I came on deck: it rained harder than ever.
+
+"This will be a clearing shower, Tom, depend upon it; and the wind is
+freshening up again. Now, have you looked out for a handspike or
+crowbar?"
+
+"Yes, I know where there are two."
+
+"Then come with me: we must unship the ladder, and pull it up on deck,
+and then put on the grating; after that we must take our chance: we may
+succeed, and we may not--all depends upon their not waking too soon."
+
+We went to the hatchway, cut the cleat-lashings, hauled the ladder on
+deck, and then put on the grating.
+
+"That will do, Tom, for the present. Now do you take the helm, with a
+crowbar all ready by your side. I will go forward and cut the cable: if
+those fellows rouse up while I am forward, you must do your best. I
+leave you, Tom, because you are more powerful than I am."
+
+"I'll manage them both, never fear," whispered I.
+
+"When she swings, mind you put the helm a-starboard, Tom," said Bramble
+in my ear.
+
+This was the most nervous part of the whole transaction: the men abaft
+might wake, and I should have to master them how I could--and even if I
+did, the scuffle might awake those below, who were not yet secured;
+although, for a time, it would be difficult for them to get on deck. But
+fortune favored us: the cable was severed, the ship swung round, and
+Bramble returned aft and took the helm.
+
+"Now is the time to see if I'm a pilot or not, Tom," said he. "I think I
+can steer her through by compass, now that it's nearly high
+water--luck's all. It was fortunate that we got the staysail hoisted for
+us, or we could have made nothing of it."
+
+"It's clearing up fast," said I, as I kept my eyes upon where the men
+were lying abaft; "and there'll be plenty of wind."
+
+"Yes, and we'll have daylight soon. Tom, I don't want you. I should like
+you to step aft, and stand over those two chaps; if they wake, knock
+them senseless--don't kill them, as you can easily bind them while they
+are stupefied. And, Tom, look about you for some seizings all ready. I
+wish they would wake, for we are not safe while they are not secure. Put
+a handspike by me, and, if necessary, I will leave the helm for a
+minute, and help you: it's better that she should go on shore than they
+should master us. We're pretty safe now, at all events. I see the
+land--all's right."
+
+It was now daylight. After this whispering with Bramble, I went aft with
+a handspike in my hand; and I had not been there more than two minutes
+when one of the privateer's men turned the canvas on one side, and
+looked up. The handspike came down upon his head, and he dropped
+senseless; but the noise roused up the other, and I dealt him a blow
+more severe than the first. I then threw down my weapon, and, perceiving
+the deep-sea lead-line coiled up on the reel, I cut off sufficient, and
+in a short time had bound them both by the hands and feet. They groaned
+heavily, and I was afraid that I had killed them; but there was no help
+for it.
+
+"They are safe," said I, returning to Bramble.
+
+"I thought I heard you, but I did not look round at the time. Half an
+hour more, Tom, and, even with this wind, we shall be safe--and, Tom,
+our fortune's made. If they wake below, we must fight hard for it, for
+we've a right to salvage, my boy--one-eighth of the whole cargo--that's
+worth fighting for. Depend upon it, they'll be stirring soon; so, Tom,
+go aft, and drag the trysail here, and put it on the hatchway
+grating--its weight will prevent their lifting it up in a hurry. If we
+can only hold our own for twenty minutes longer she is ours, and all
+right."
+
+As soon as I had stowed the trysail on the hatchway grating, I looked
+about to see what else I could put on the skylight, which they might
+also attempt to force up. I could find nothing but the coils of rope,
+which I piled on; but, while I was so doing, a pistol was fired at me
+from below, and the ball passed through the calf of my leg; it was,
+however, not a wound to disable me, and I bound it up with my
+handkerchief.
+
+"They're all alive now, Tom, so you must keep your eyes open. However,
+we're pretty safe--the light vessel is not a mile off. Keep away from
+the skylight--you had better stand upon the trysail, Tom--you will help
+to keep the hatchway down, for they are working at it."
+
+Another pistol was now fired at Bramble, which missed him.
+
+"Tom, see if there's no bunting aft, and, if so, just throw some over
+this part of the skylight, it will blind them, at all events; otherwise
+I'm just a capital mark for them."
+
+I ran aft, and gathered some flags, which I brought and laid over the
+skylight, so as to intercept their view of Bramble; but while I was so
+doing another pistol-shot was fired--it passed me, but hit Bramble,
+taking off one of his fingers.
+
+"That's no miss, but we've got through the worst of it, Tom--I don't
+think they can see me now--don't put that English ensign on, but hoist
+it Union downward. I shall round-to now; there's the men-of-war in the
+Medway. Why don't the fools look out, and they will see that they can't
+escape?"
+
+"They've only the stern windows to look out of: the quarter-galleries
+are boarded up."
+
+"Then, Tom, just look if they have not beat them out, for you know they
+may climb on deck by them."
+
+It was fortunate that Bramble mentioned this. I went aft with the
+handspike in my hand, and when I was about to look over, I met face to
+face a Frenchman, who had climbed out of the starboard quarter-gallery,
+and was just gaming the deck. A blow with the handspike sent him
+overboard, and he went astern; but another was following him, and I
+stood prepared to receive him. It was the officer in command, who spoke
+English. He paused at the sight of the other man falling overboard and
+my uplifted handspike; and I said to him, "It's of no use--look at the
+English men-of-war close to you: if you do not go back to the cabin, and
+keep your men quiet, when the men-of-war's men come on board we will
+show you no quarter."
+
+We were now entering the Medway; and the Frenchman perceived that they
+could not escape, and would only bring mischief on themselves by any
+farther assaults, so he got into the quarter-gallery again, and spoke to
+his men. As soon as I perceived that he was entering, I ran over to the
+other side to the larboard quarter-gallery, and there again I found a
+Frenchman had nearly gained the deck. I levelled the handspike at his
+head, but he dodged, and returned to the cabin by the way he came; and
+after that there were no more attempts at recovering the vessel. In five
+minutes more we were abreast of the Euphrosyne, Sir James O'Connor's
+frigate, which was now lying, with only her lower masts in, alongside of
+the hulk. I hailed for assistance, and let fly the foretop-mast staysail
+sheet, while Bramble rounded the ship to. The boats were sent on board
+immediately; and as we had not a cable bent, they made the ship fast to
+the hulk astern of them. We stated our case in few words to the officer;
+and having ascertained that Sir James O'Connor was on board, requested
+that we might be sent to the frigate.
+
+"Is it you?" said Sir James, as I came on the gangway; "what is it all
+about--are you hurt? Come down in the cabin."
+
+Bramble and I followed him down into the cabin; and I stated the whole
+particulars of the capture and re-capture.
+
+"Excellent--most excellent! I wish you both joy; but first we must have
+the surgeon here" Sir James rang the bell; and when the surgeon came he
+went on deck to give orders.
+
+[Illustration: I MET FACE TO FACE A FRENCHMAN.--Marryat, Vol. X., p.
+493.]
+
+The ball had passed through my leg, so that the surgeon had little to
+do to me. Bramble's finger was amputated, and in a few minutes we were
+all right, and Sir James came down again.
+
+"I should say, stay on board till you are able to get about again; but
+the ship will be paid off to-morrow, so I had better send you up to
+Chatham directly. You are entitled to salvage if ever men were, for you
+have earned it gloriously; and I will take care that you are done
+justice to. I must go now and report the vessel and particulars to the
+admiral, and the first lieutenant will send you to Chatham in one of the
+cutters. You'll be in good hands, Tom, for you will have two nurses."
+
+We were taken up to Chatham to the hotel, where we found Lady O'Connor
+and Virginia very much surprised, as may be imagined, at our being
+brought there wounded. However, we were neither of us ill enough to go
+to bed, and had a sitting-room next to theirs.
+
+This recapture made a great deal of noise. At first the agent for the
+prize wrote down a handsome letter to us, complimenting us upon our
+behavior and stating that he was authorized to present us each with five
+hundred pounds for our conduct. But Sir James O'Connor answered the
+letter, informing him that we claimed, and would have, our one-eighth,
+as entitled to by law, and that he would see us righted. Mr. Wilson,
+whom we employed as our legal adviser, immediately gave the prize agent
+notice of an action in the Court of Admiralty, and, finding we were so
+powerfully backed, and that he could not help himself, he offered forty
+thousand pounds, which was one-eighth, valuing the cargo at three
+hundred and twenty thousand pounds. The cargo proved to be worth more
+than four hundred thousand pounds, but Mr. Wilson advised us to close
+with the offer, as it was better than litigating the question; so we
+assented to it, and the money was paid over.
+
+In a fortnight we were both ready to travel again. Sir James O'Connor
+had remained a week longer than he intended to have done at Chatham on
+our account. We now took leave of them, and having presented Virginia
+with five thousand pounds, which I had directed Mr. Wilson to settle
+upon her, we parted, the O'Connors and Virginia for Leamington, and
+Bramble and I for Deal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
+
+     Being the last Chapter, the Reader may pretty well guess the
+     Contents of it.
+
+
+"Tom, do you know that I very often find myself looking about me, and
+asking myself if all that has happened is true or a dream," said Bramble
+to me, as we sat inside of the coach to Dover, for there were no other
+inside passengers but ourselves. "I can't help thinking that great good
+fortune is as astounding as great calamity. Who would have thought, when
+I would, in spite of all Bessy's remonstrances, go round in that ship
+with you, that in the first place we should have been taken possession
+of by a privateer in the very narrows (he was a bold cruiser, that
+Frenchman)? After we were captured I said to myself, Bessy must have had
+a forewarning of what was to happen, or she never would have been, as I
+thought, so perverse. And since it has turned out so fortunately, I
+can't help saying how fortunate it was that we did not allow her to
+persuade us; for had we not both gone, nothing could have been done.
+Well, I think we may promise Bessy this time when we meet her, that we
+will not trust ourselves to salt water again in a hurry. What do you
+think, Tom?"
+
+"No; I think the best thing I can do is to marry, and live on shore,"
+replied I.
+
+"Yes, Tom, that's it. Give me your hand, you don't know how happy you
+make me; we'll all live together. But where shall we live? for the poor
+little cottage that I thought quite big enough for us a month ago will
+not do now."
+
+"We have plenty of time to talk that over, father. I love the cottage
+for many reasons; although, as you say, it is not large enough now for
+our means or future way of living."
+
+"And I love it too, boy; I love to look out of the door and see the spot
+where my Bessy rescued me from death. God bless her! she is a noble
+girl, Tom, though I say it who--but I'm not her father, after all, and
+if I were, I would still say it."
+
+"It is evident, by her letter to you, that she has been most anxious
+about us. What will she say when she hears we have both been wounded?"
+
+"Ay! it wouldn't have done to have told her that, or she would have set
+off for Chatham, as sure as we are sitting here."
+
+Here a pause ensued for some time, and we were busied with our own
+thoughts. The silence was at last broken by me.
+
+"Father," said I, "I should like to ask my father and Peter Anderson to
+come down to us; they can easily get leave."
+
+"Is it to be present at your wedding, Tom?"
+
+"Exactly--if Bessy will consent."
+
+"Well, I have no doubt of that, Tom; but she will now require a little
+courting, you know why."
+
+"Why, because all women like it, I suppose."
+
+"No, Tom; it is because she was in love before you were, d'ye
+understand?--and now that things are all smooth, and you follow her,
+why, it's natural, I suppose, that she should shy off a little in her
+turn. You mustn't mind that, Tom; it's a sort of soothing to the
+mortification of having at one time found herself, as it were,
+rejected."
+
+"Well, I shan't mind that; it will only serve me right for being such a
+fool as not to have perceived her value before. But how do you
+understand women so well, father?"
+
+"Because, Tom, I've been looking on and not performing all my life:
+except in one instance in a long life, I've only been a bystander in the
+way of courtship and matrimony. Here we are at last, and now for a
+chaise to Deal. Thank God, we can afford to shorten the time, for
+Bessy's sake, poor thing!"
+
+We arrived at the cottage. The sound of the wheels had called out not
+only Bessy and Mrs. Maddox, but all the neighbors; for they had heard of
+our good fortune. Bessy, as soon as she had satisfied herself that it
+was Bramble and me, went into the cottage again. Once more we entered
+the humble roof. Bessy flew into her father's arms, and hung weeping on
+his shoulder.
+
+"Haven't you a kind word to say for Tom?" said Bramble kissing her as he
+released himself.
+
+"Does he deserve it, to leave me as he did, laughing at my distress?
+_He_ had no right to treat me so."
+
+"Indeed, Bessy, you do me injustice. I said at the time that I thought
+there was no risk, and I certainly did think there was none. Who would
+have expected a privateer half-way up the Thames, any more than a vessel
+with twenty men on board could be re-captured by two men?"
+
+"Well, Bessy, you ought to make friends with him, for, without his arm,
+your father would not have been back here quite so soon. He beat down
+the Frenchmen, one after another, in good style, when they attempted to
+recover the vessel--that he did, I can tell you, wounded as he was."
+
+"Wounded?" cried Bessy, starting, her eyes running over me to find out
+where.
+
+"Yes, with a bullet in his leg; I didn't like to say a word about it in
+the letter. But I suppose if he had been killed you would not have
+cared?"
+
+"Oh, father!" cried Bessy, as she turned toward me, and I received her
+in my arms.
+
+Bessy soon recovered her smiles, and thankful for our preservation and
+good fortune, and satisfied with our mutual affection, we passed a most
+happy evening. Somehow or another Bramble, having sent Mrs. Maddox on a
+message, found out that it was very sultry indoors, and that he would
+take his pipe on the beach. He left me alone with Bessy; and now, for
+the first time, I plainly told her the state of my affections, and asked
+her to consent to be my wife. I did not plead in vain, as the reader may
+suppose from what he has already been made acquainted with.
+
+After Bessy had retired, and I was sitting with Bramble, who had his
+glass of grog and pipe as usual, I made him acquainted with my success.
+
+"All right, Tom," said he, "I'm thankful--and God bless you both."
+
+And had I not reason also to be thankful? When I had retired to my room
+that night, I thought over the various passages in my life. What might I
+have been if Providence had not watched over me? When neglected in my
+youth, in a situation which exposed me to every temptation, had not old
+Anderson been sent as a guardian to keep me in the right path, to
+instruct me, and to give me that education without which my future
+success might have turned out a disadvantage instead of a source of
+gratitude? In Bramble, again, I had met with a father, to supply the
+place of one who was not in a situation to do his duty to me or forward
+me in life. In old Nanny I had met with a kind friend, one who, at the
+same time that she would lead me right, was a warning to me from her
+sufferings. To Mrs. St. Felix I was equally indebted, and had I not been
+permitted to pay the debt of gratitude to both of them? Even my mother's
+harshness, which appeared at first to my short-sightedness to have been
+so in-defensible, was of great advantage to me, as it had stimulated me
+to exertion and industry, and pointed out to me the value of
+independence. Was I not also most fortunate in having escaped from the
+entanglement of Janet, who, had I married her, would, in all
+probability, have proved a useless if not a faithless helpmate; and
+still more so, in finding that there was, as it were, especially
+reserved for me the affection of such a noble, right-minded creature as
+Bessy? My life, commenced in rags and poverty, had, by industry and
+exertion, and the kindness of others, step by step progressed to
+competence and every prospect of mundane happiness. Had I not,
+therefore, reason to be grateful, and to feel that there had been a
+little cherub who had watched over the life of Poor Jack? On my bended
+knees I acknowledged it fervently and gratefully, and prayed that,
+should it please Heaven that I should in after life meet any reverse, I
+might bear it without repining, and say, with all humility, "Thy will
+and not mine, O Lord, be done!"
+
+How bright was the next morning, and how cheerful did the dancing waves
+appear to me!--and Bessy's eyes were radiant as the day, and her smiles
+followed in rapid succession; and Bramble looked so many years
+younger--he was almost too happy to smoke--it was really the sunshine of
+the heart which illumined our cottage. And thus did the few days pass,
+until Anderson and my father made their appearance. They were both
+surprised at Bessy's beauty, and told me so. They had heard that she was
+handsome, but they were not prepared for her uncommon style; for now
+that her countenance was lighted up with joy, she was indeed lovely.
+
+"Well, Tom," observed my father, "there's only one thing which surprises
+me."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Why, how, with such a fine craft in view, you could ever have sailed in
+the wake of such a little privateer as--but I must not mention
+her--never mind, don't answer me that--but another question--when are
+you going to be spliced?"
+
+"Very soon, I hope; but I really don't exactly know. All I can say is
+the sooner the better."
+
+"And so say I. Shall I bring up the subject on the plea of my leave
+being only for ten days?"
+
+"Yes, father, I wish you would, as it is really a good reason to allege
+for its taking place immediately."
+
+"Tom, my dear boy," said old Anderson, "from what I can perceive, you
+have great reason to be thankful in having obtained this young woman for
+your future partner in life. I admire her exceedingly, and I trust in
+Heaven that you will be happy."
+
+"I ought to be," replied I, "and grateful also particularly to you, to
+whom, under Providence, I am so much indebted."
+
+"If the seed is sown upon good ground, it will always yield a good
+harvest, Tom. You are a proof of it, so thank Heaven, and not me. I wish
+to tell you what your father has mentioned to me. The fact is, Tom, he
+is in what may be called a false position at Greenwich. He is a
+pensioner, and has now sufficient not to require the charity, and he
+thinks that he ought not to avail himself of it, now that you have made
+him independent; but if he leaves the hospital and remains at Greenwich,
+he and your mother would not agree well together. They are very good
+friends at a certain distance, but I do not think, with her high
+notions, that they could ever live together in the same house. He says
+that he should like to live either with you or near you; and I think
+myself, now that he is become so very steady a character, it does
+require your consideration whether you ought not to permit him. He will
+be a very good companion for Bramble, and they will get on well
+together. I do not mean to say that it might not be more agreeable if he
+were to remain at Greenwich; but he is your father, Tom, and you should
+make some sacrifice for a parent."
+
+"As far as I am concerned, Anderson, I most gladly consent. Bramble is
+to live with us--that is arranged, and if no objections are raised by
+others you may be sure of my acceding, and, indeed, if objections should
+be raised, of persuading all I can."
+
+"You can do no more, Tom," replied Anderson; "nor can more be expected."
+
+This point was very satisfactorily arranged. Bramble and Bessy both gave
+their cheerful consent, and it was settled that as soon as we had a
+house to receive him, my father should quit Greenwich and live with us.
+The arguments of my father, added to the persuasions of Bramble and me,
+had their due weight, and on the 13th of September, 1807, Bessy and I
+exchanged our vows, and I embraced her as my own.
+
+
+
+
+FINALE
+
+
+If the reader will refer back to the first part of this narrative, he
+will find that I was born in the year 1786; and as I am writing this in
+the year 1840, I am now fifty-four years old. I was but little more than
+twenty-one when I married; I have, therefore, the experience of
+thirty-two years of a married life; but I will not anticipate. I ended
+the last chapter with my own happy union; I must now refer to those
+events which followed close upon that period.
+
+Sir James and Lady O'Connor had taken up their residence at Leamington,
+then a small village, and not the populous place which it has since
+become. After a few months' residence, during which I had repeated
+letters from Lady O'Connor and Virginia, they were so pleased with the
+locality and neighborhood that Sir James purchased a property of some
+hundred acres, and added to a house which was upon it, so as to make it
+a comfortable and elegant residence. Lady O'Connor, after the first
+year, presented her husband with a son, and has since that been very
+assiduous in increasing his family--more so, perhaps, than would have
+been convenient to Sir James O'Connor's income at the time that he
+purchased the property, had it not been that the increase of its value,
+in consequence of a large portion of it having been taken as building
+land, has been so great as to place them in most affluent circumstances.
+About a year after my marriage I had notice from Lady O'Connor that a
+certain gentleman had arrived there who had shown great attention to
+Virginia; and she added that he had been very well received by my
+sister, being an old acquaintance of the name of Sommerville, a
+clergyman with a good living, and a very superior young man. I
+immediately recollected him as the preceptor who had behaved with such
+propriety when my sister was persecuted by the addresses of the young
+nobleman; and I, therefore, felt very easy upon the subject. A few
+months afterward I had a letter from Virginia, stating that he had
+proposed, and that she had conditionally accepted him. I wrote to her,
+congratulating her upon the choice she had made, giving her father's
+consent and blessing (of my mother hereafter); and shortly after they
+were married; and I am happy to say that her marriage has turned out as
+fortunate as my own.
+
+We had remained in the cottage for some months after my own marriage,
+very undecided what we should do. Bramble did not like to quit the
+seaside, nor, I believe his old habits and localities. Money was of
+little value to him; indeed, on my marriage, he had insisted upon
+settling upon Bessy and her children the whole sum he had received for
+the salvage of the Dutch Indiaman, reserving for himself his farm near
+Deal. It did so happen, however, that about that period, while we were
+still in perplexity, I received a letter from Mr. Wilson's son, at
+Dover, telling me that the manor-house and three hundred acres of land,
+adjoining to Bramble's farm, were to be disposed of. This exactly
+suited, so I made the purchase and took possession, and then sent for my
+father to join us, which he hastened to do. Bramble did not, however,
+give up his cottage on the beach. He left Mrs. Maddox in it, and it was
+a favorite retirement for my father and him, who would remain there for
+several days together, amusing themselves with watching the shipping,
+and gaining intelligence from the various pilots as they landed, as they
+smoked their pipes on the shingle beach. It was not more than half a
+mile from the great house, so that it was very convenient; and Bessy and
+I would often go with the children and indulge in reminiscences of the
+former scenes which had there occurred.
+
+My father and mother parted very good friends. The fact was that she was
+pleased with the arrangement, as she did not like my father wearing a
+pensioner's coat, and did not want his company at her own house. When he
+left the hospital, she insisted upon paying him his rent; and she did so
+very punctually until she gave up business. On her marriage, my sister
+requested that we would come to Leamington and be present; to which we
+all consented, particularly as it was a good opportunity of introducing
+Bessy to her and Lady O'Connor. My mother was also to join the party on
+the occasion. The only circumstance worth mentioning was the surprise of
+my mother on being introduced to Lady O'Connor, and finding that in this
+great lady she met with her old acquaintance, Mrs. St. Felix. Whatever
+she may have felt, she certainly had tact enough to conceal it, and was
+as warm in her congratulations as the best well-wisher. I must say that
+I never knew my mother appear to such advantage as she did during this
+visit to Leamington. She dressed remarkably well, and would have
+persuaded those who did not know her history that she had always been in
+good society; but she had been a lady's maid and had learned her
+mistress's airs, and as she could dress others so well, it would have
+been odd if she did not know how to dress herself. A good copy will
+often pass for an original. It was not till about six years after our
+marriage that my mother decided upon retiring from business. She had
+made a very comfortable provision for herself, as Mr. Wilson informed
+me, and took up her abode at Cheltenham, where she lived in a very
+genteel way, was considered quite a catch at card-parties, and when she
+did ask people to tea she always did the thing in better style than
+anybody else. The consequence was she was not only visited by most
+people, but in time became rather a person of consideration. As she
+never mentioned her husband, it was supposed that she was a widow, and,
+in consequence of her well-regulated establishment, she received much
+attention from several Irish and foreign bachelors. In short, my mother
+obtained almost the pinnacle of her ambition when she was once fairly
+settled at Cheltenham. I ought to observe that when she arrived there
+she had taken the precaution of prefixing a name to her own to which by
+baptismal rite she certainly was not entitled, and called herself Mrs.
+Montague Saunders.
+
+Shortly after Mrs. St. Felix had given notice to the doctor that she
+should not return, and that her shop and the goodwill thereof were for
+sale, I received a letter from my friend Tom Cobb, the doctor's
+assistant, telling me that as he perceived he had now no chance of Mrs.
+St. Felix, he had some idea of taking her shop, and setting up as a
+tobacconist; his reasons were that physic was a bore, and going out of
+nights when called up a still greater. I wrote to Lady O'Connor
+inclosing Mr. Tom's letter, and pointed out to her that I thought it
+would be a public benefit to prevent Tom from killing so many people, as
+he certainly would do if he continued in his present profession, and
+eventually set up for himself. She replied that she agreed with me, but
+at the same time that she was anxious to benefit fat Jane, who really
+was a very good girl; and that, therefore, she empowered me to enter
+into a treaty with Mr. Thomas, by which, provided he could obtain the
+lady's consent, he was to wed her, and receive the stock in trade, its
+contents and fixtures, and goodwill, etc., as her portion.
+
+As this was an offer which required some consideration before it was
+refused, I wrote to Tom pointing out to him the advantages of settling
+down with a good business, with a wife to assist him, and a cat and dog
+all ready installed, upon such advantageous conditions. Tom agreed with
+me, won the love of fat Jane, which was easily done, as he had no rival,
+and in a short time was fairly set down as the successor of Mrs. St.
+Felix. As for the doctor, he appeared to envy Tom his having possession
+of the shop which his fair friend once occupied; he was inconsolable,
+and there is no doubt but that he, from the period of her quitting
+Greenwich, wasted away until he eventually was buried in the churchyard.
+A most excellent man was Dr. Tadpole, and his death was lamented by
+hundreds who esteemed his character, and many hundreds more who had
+benefited not only by his advice, but by his charitable disposition.
+About ten years after my marriage Ben the Whaler was summoned away. His
+complaint was in the liver, which is not to be surprised at, considering
+how many gallons of liquor he had drunk during his life.
+
+Peter Anderson--my father, my friend, my preceptor--was for many years
+inspecting boatswain of the hospital. At last he became to a certain
+degree vacant in mind, and his situation was filled up by another. He
+was removed to what they call the helpless ward, where he was well
+nursed and attended. It is no uncommon, indeed I may say it is a very
+common thing, for the old pensioners, as they gradually decay, to have
+their health quite perfect when the faculties are partly gone; and there
+is a helpless ward established for that very reason, where those who are
+infirm and feeble, without disease, or have lost their faculties while
+their bodily energies remain, are sent to, and there they pass a quiet,
+easy life, well attended, until they sink into the grave. Such was the
+case with Peter Anderson: he was ninety-seven when he died, but long
+before that time his mind was quite gone. Still he was treated with
+respect, and many were there who attended his funeral. I erected a
+handsome tombstone to his memory, the last tribute I could pay to a
+worthy, honest, sensible, and highly religious good man.
+
+Mr. Wilson has been dead some time; he left me a legacy of five hundred
+pounds. I believe I have mentioned all my old acquaintances now, except
+Bill Harness and Opposition Bill. In living long certainly Opposition
+Bill has beat his opponent, for Harness is in the churchyard, while
+Opposition Bill still struts about with his hair as white as snow, and
+his face shriveled up like an old monkey's. The last time I was at
+Greenwich, I heard the pensioners say to one another, "Why, you go ahead
+about as fast as Opposition Bill." I requested this enigma to me to be
+solved, and it appeared that one Greenwich fair, Opposition Bill had set
+off home rather the worse for what he had drank, and so it happened
+that, crossing the road next to the hospital, his wooden leg had stuck
+in one of the iron plug-holes of the water conduit. Bill did not, in his
+situation, perceive that anything particular had occurred, and continued
+playing his fiddle and singing, and, as he supposed, walking on the
+whole time, instead of which he was continually walking round and round
+the one leg in the plug-hole with the other that was free. After about
+half an hour's trotting round and round this way, he began to think that
+he did not get home quite so fast as he ought, but the continual
+circular motion had made him more confused than before.
+
+"By Gum!" said Bill, "this hospital is a confounded long way off. I'm
+sure I walk a mile, and I get no nearer; howsoebber, nebber mind--here
+goes."
+
+Here Billy struck up a tune, and commenced a song along with it, still
+walking round and round his wooden leg which was firmly fixed in the
+plug-hole, and so he continued till he fell down from giddiness, and he
+was picked up by some of the people, who carried him home to the
+hospital.
+
+I have but one more circumstance to relate. I was one day sitting with
+Bessy and my children, at the old cottage on the beach, Bramble and my
+father were smoking their pipes on a bench which they had set up
+outside, when one of the Deal boats landed with passengers. As they
+passed by us one old gentleman started, and then stopped short, as he
+beheld Bessy.
+
+"Mine frau!" he cried, "mine frau dat was in heaven!"
+
+We stared very much, as we did not comprehend him; but he then came up
+to me and said, "I beg your pardon, mynheer, but what is dat young
+woman?"
+
+"She is my wife," replied I.
+
+"I was going to say dat she was my wife, but dat is impossible. Look you
+here, sar."
+
+The old man pulled a miniature out of his breast, and certainly the
+resemblance to Bessy was most remarkable.
+
+"Now, sar, dat was my wife. Where did you get dis young woman?"
+
+I requested him to walk into the cottage, and then told him the history
+of Bessy.
+
+"Sar, my wife was coming home with her child in a brig, and the brig was
+never heard of. It was supposed that she did perish, and every one else
+too. Sar, this lady must be my daughter."
+
+"I'm sorry that we have no proofs to offer you," replied I; "she had
+only bedclothes on when she was taken into the boat, and there is
+nothing to establish her identity."
+
+"I am content, sar; she must be my daughter. She was in a brig with her
+mother, and she was saved the very same year that her mother come home.
+There, sar, look at this picture; it is the same person. I want no more
+proof--she is my daughter."
+
+Although this was what might be called only collateral proof, I did
+agree with the old gentleman that it was very strong; at all events, it
+was sufficient for him, and he claimed Bessy as his child. Had he
+claimed her to take her away, I might have disputed it; but as he loaded
+her with presents, and when he died, which he did three years afterward,
+and left twenty thousand rix dollars, of course I was perfectly
+satisfied with his relationship.
+
+So much for what has occurred since the time I married; and now, as the
+reader may, perhaps, wish to know something about the present condition
+of myself and family, I must inform him that my father and Bramble are
+still alive, and flourishing under their gray hairs. My sister has four
+children, and her husband is now a dean: they do say that, from the
+interest of his patron, he will in all probability be a bishop, a
+distinction not to be envied in these days, and therefore I do not wish
+him success. My mother is, however, of the contrary opinion, having been
+told that her daughter as a bishop's lady will take precedence and be
+led out before Lady Hercules. Sir James and Lady O'Connor are still
+well, and as happy as they well can be. Bessy has blessed me with three
+boys and three girls, now all grown up; but the boys came first. The
+eldest is a lieutenant in his Majesty's service, the second is a captain
+of an Indiaman, and the third commands a free trader. They are all well
+to do, and independent of their father. My girls, who are much younger,
+have been well educated, and people say that they are very handsome; at
+all events, they are modest and good-tempered. I have not attempted to
+conceal what I once was, yet Time has called away most of those who knew
+me in my profession. I am still considered as having been a seafaring
+man, but nevertheless, in consequence of my property, I am generally
+addressed by the title of Squire Saunders. By not assuming a station
+which does not become me, I find myself treated not only with respect,
+but with friendship, by those who are in birth, as well as other
+qualifications, my superiors. My daughters are invited out to all the
+balls and _fetes_ in the neighborhood, and are great favorites wherever
+they go: they all of them are like their mother, not only in appearance,
+but in temper and disposition. We have plenty of young men who visit the
+house, and I am afraid that we shall soon have to part with two of them,
+my eldest, Virginia, being engaged to a ship-builder at Limehouse, and
+Elizabeth to a young clergyman in the neighborhood. Jane thinks she
+never will marry, and, as I tell her, I suppose she never will till she
+is asked. To wind up, I may say that Bessy and I have been very happy,
+and promise still to be as happy as most people are who pass through
+this pilgrimage. We have competence--the good opinion of the world--a
+family who have never caused us one hour's uneasiness (how few can say
+that?), and we have, I trust, a due sense of God's mercy and kindness
+toward us, and never lie down in our beds without thanking Him for the
+many mercies we have received, and acknowledging how unworthy we are to
+have been so signally blessed.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POOR JACK***
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