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diff --git a/18156.txt b/18156.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aac7c61 --- /dev/null +++ b/18156.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6310 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of We and the World, Part II. (of II.), by +Juliana Horatia Ewing + +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: We and the World, Part II. (of II.) + A Book for Boys + +Author: Juliana Horatia Ewing + +Release Date: April 12, 2006 [EBook #18156] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WE AND THE WORLD, PART II. *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Erik Bent, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + WE AND THE WORLD: + + A BOOK FOR BOYS. + + + PART II. + + + BY + JULIANA HORATIA EWING. + + + + SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, + LONDON: NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. + BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET. + NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO. + + +[Published under the direction of the General Literature +Committee.] + + +WE AND THE WORLD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "A friend in need is a friend indeed."--_Old Proverb_. + + +I have often thought that the biggest bit of good luck (and I was +lucky), which befell me on my outset into the world, was that the man I +sat next to in the railway carriage was not a rogue. I travelled third +class to Liverpool for more than one reason--it was the cheapest way, +besides which I did not wish to meet any family friends--and the man I +speak of was a third-class passenger, and he went to Liverpool too. + +At the time I was puzzled to think how he came to guess that I was +running away, that I had money with me, and that I had never been to +Liverpool before; but I can well imagine now how my ignorance and +anxiety must have betrayed themselves at every station I mistook for the +end of my journey, and with every question which I put, as I flattered +myself, in the careless tones of common conversation, I really wonder I +had not thought beforehand about my clothes, which fitted very badly on +the character I assumed, and the company I chose; but it was not perhaps +to be expected that I should know then, as I know now, how conspicuous +all over me must have been the absence of those outward signs of +hardship and poverty, which they who know poverty and hardship know so +well. + +I wish _I_ had known them, because then I should have given the man some +of my money when we parted, instead of feeling too delicate to do so. I +can remember his face too well not to know now how much he must have +needed it, and how heroic a virtue honesty must have been in him. + +It did not seem to strike him as at all strange or unnatural that a lad +of my age should be seeking his own fortune, but I feel sure that he +thought it was misconduct on my part which had made me run away from +home. I had no grievance to describe which he could recognize as +grievous enough to drive me out into the world. However, I felt very +glad that he saw no impossibility in my earning my own livelihood, or +even anything very unusual in my situation. + +"I suppose lots of young fellows run away from home and go to sea from a +place like this?" said I, when we had reached Liverpool. + +"And there's plenty more goes that has no homes to run from," replied he +sententiously. + +Prefacing each fresh counsel with the formula, "You'll excuse _me_," he +gave me some excellent advice as we threaded the greasy streets, and +jostled the disreputable-looking population of the lower part of the +town. General counsels as to my conduct, and the desirableness of +turning over a new leaf for "young chaps" who had been wild and got into +scrapes at home. And particular counsels which were invaluable to me, as +to changing my dress, how to hide my money, what to turn my hand to with +the quickest chance of bread-winning in strange places, and how to keep +my own affairs to myself among strange people. + +It was in the greasiest street, and among the most disreputable-looking +people, that we found the "slop-shop" where, by my friend's orders, I +was to "rig out" in clothes befitting my new line of life. He went in +first, so he did not see the qualm that seized me on the doorstep. A +revulsion so violent that it nearly made me sick then and there; and if +some one had seized me by the nape of my neck, and landed me straightway +at my desk in Uncle Henry's office, would, I believe, have left me tamed +for life. For if this unutterable vileness of sights and sounds and +smells which hung around the dark entry of the slop shop were indeed +the world, I felt a sudden and most vehement conviction that I would +willingly renounce the world for ever. As it happened, I had not at that +moment the choice. My friend had gone in, and I dared not stay among the +people outside. I groped my way into the shop, which was so dark as well +as dingy that they had lighted a small oil-lamp just above the head of +the man who served out the slops. Even so the light that fell on him was +dim and fitful, and was the means of giving me another start in which I +gasped out--"Moses Benson!" + +The man turned and smiled (he had the Jew-clerk's exact smile), and said +softly, + +"Cohen, my dear, not Benson." + +And as he bent at another angle of the oil-lamp I saw that he was older +than the clerk, and dirtier; and though his coat was quite curiously +like the one I had so often cleaned, he had evidently either never met +with the invaluable "scouring drops," or did not feel it worth while to +make use of them in such a dingy hole. + +One shock helped to cure the other. Come what might, I could not sneak +back now to the civil congratulations of that other Moses, and the scorn +of his eye. But I was so nervous that my fellow-traveller transacted my +business for me, and when the oil-lamp flared and I caught Moses Cohen +looking at me, I jumped as if Snuffy had come behind me. And when we got +out (and it was no easy matter to escape from the various benevolent +offers of the owner of the slop-shop), my friend said, + +"You'll excuse me telling you, but whatever you do don't go near that +there Jew again. He's no friend for a young chap like you." + +"I should have got your slops cheaper," he added, "if I could have taken +your clothes in without you." + +My "slops" were a very loose suit of clothes made of much coarser +material than my own, and I suppose they were called "slops" because +they fitted in such a peculiarly sloppy manner. The whole "rig out" (it +included a strong clasp-knife, and a little leathern bag to keep my +money in, which I was instructed to carry round my neck) was provided by +Mr. Cohen in exchange for the clothes I had been wearing before, with +the addition of ten shillings in cash. I dipped again into the leathern +bag to provide a meal for myself and my friend; then, by his advice, I +put a shilling and some coppers into my pocket, that I might not have to +bring out my purse in public, and with a few parting words of counsel he +wrung my hand, and we parted--he towards some place of business where he +hoped to get employment, and I in the direction of the docks, where the +ships come and go. + +"I hope you _will_ get work," were my last words. + +"The same to you, my lad," was his reply, and it seemed to acknowledge +me as one of that big brotherhood of toilers who, when they want +"something to do," want it not to pass time but to earn daily bread. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "Deark d'on Dearka." ("_Beg of a Beggar_.") + _Irish Proverb_. + + "... From her way of speaking they also saw immediately that she + too was an Eirisher.... They must be a bonny family when they are + all at home!"--_The Life of Mansie Tailor in Dalkeith_. + + +"Dock" (so ran the 536th of the 'Penny Numbers') is "a place +artificially formed for the reception of ships, the entrance of which is +generally closed by gates. There are two kinds of docks, dry-docks and +wet-docks. The former are used for receiving ships in order to their +being inspected and repaired. For this purpose the dock must be so +contrived that the water may be admitted or excluded at pleasure, so +that a vessel can be floated in when the tide is high, and that the +water may run out with the fall of the tide, or be pumped out, the +closing of the gates preventing its return. Wet-docks are formed for the +purpose of keeping vessels always afloat.... One of the chief uses of a +dock is to keep a uniform level of water, so that the business of +loading and unloading ships can be carried on without any +interruption.... The first wet-dock for commercial purposes made in this +kingdom was formed in the year 1708 at Liverpool, then a place of no +importance." + +_The business of loading and unloading ships can be carried on without +any interruption._ If everything that the Penny Numbers told of were as +true to the life as that, the world's wonders (at least those of them +which begin with the first four letters of the alphabet) must be all +that I had hoped; and perhaps that bee-hive about which Master Isaac and +I had had our jokes, did really yield a "considerable income" to the +fortunate French bee-master! + +Loading and unloading, coming and going, lifting and lowering, shouting +and replying, swearing and retorting, creaking and jangling, shrieking +and bumping, cursing and chaffing, the noise and restlessness of men and +things were utterly bewildering. I had often heard of a Babel of sounds, +but I had never before heard anything so like what one might fancy it +must have been when that great crowd of workmen broke up, and left +building their tower, in a confounding of language and misunderstanding +of speech. For the men who went to and fro in these docks, each his own +way, jostling and yelling to each other, were men of all nations, and +the confusion was of tongues as well as of work. At one minute I found +myself standing next to a live Chinaman in a pigtail, who was staring as +hard as I at some swarthy supple-bodied sailors with eager faces, and +scant clothing wrapped tightly round them, chatting to each other in a +language as strange to the Chinaman as to me, their large lustrous eyes +returning our curiosity with interest, and contrasting strangely with +the tea-caddy countenance of my elbow neighbour. Then a turbaned Turk +went by, and then two grinning negroes, and there were lots of men who +looked more like Englishmen, but who spoke with other tongues, and +amongst those who loaded and unloaded in this busy place, which was once +of no importance, Irish brogue seemed the commonest language of all. + +One thing made me hopeful--there were plenty of boys no bigger than +myself who were busy working, and therefore earning wages, and as I saw +several lads who were dressed in suits the very counterpart of my own, I +felt sure that my travelling companion had done me a good turn when he +rigged me out in slops. An incident that occurred in the afternoon made +me a little more doubtful about this. + +I really had found much to counterbalance the anxieties of my position +in the delightful novelty and variety of life around me, and not a +little to raise my hopes; for I had watched keenly for several hours as +much as I could see from the wharf of what was going on in this ship +and that, and I began to feel less confused. I perceived plainly that a +great deal of every-day sort of work went on in ships as well as in +houses, with the chief difference, in dock at any rate, of being done in +public. In the most free and easy fashion, to the untiring entertainment +of crowds of idlers besides myself, the men and boys on vessel after +vessel lying alongside, washed out their shirts and socks, and hung them +up to dry, cooked their food, cleaned out their pots and pans, tidied +their holes and corners, swept and brushed, and fetched and carried, and +did scores of things which I knew I could do perfectly, for want of +something better to do. + +"It's clear there's plenty of dirty work to go on with till one learns +seamanship," I thought, and the thought was an honest satisfaction to +me. + +I had always swept Uncle Henry's office, and that had been light work +after cleaning the school-room at Snuffy's. My hands were never likely +to be more chapped at sea than they had been with dirt and snow and want +of things to dry oneself with at school; and as to coal-carrying-- + +Talking of coals, on board the big ship, out of which great white bales, +strapped with bars of iron, were being pulled up by machinery, and +caught and flung about by the "unloaders," there was a man whose +business it seemed to be to look after the fires, and who seemed also to +have taken a roll in the coal-hole for pleasure; and I saw him find a +tin basin and a square of soap, and a decent rough towel to wash his +face and hands, such as would have been reckoned luxurious in a +dormitory at Snuffy's. Altogether--when a heavy hand was laid suddenly +on my shoulder, and a gruff voice said, + +"Well, my young star-gazing greenhorn, and what do you want?" + +I replied with alacrity, as well as with more respect than the +stranger's appearance was calculated to inspire, "Please, sir, I want to +go to sea, and I should like to ship for America." + +He was not a nice-looking man by any means--far too suggestive of +Snuffy, when Snuffy was partly drunk. But after a pause, he said, + +"All right. Where are your papers? What was your ship, and why did ye +run?" + +"I have not served in a ship yet, sir," said I, "but I'm sure--" + +He did not allow me to go on. With a sudden fierce look that made him +more horribly like Snuffy than before, he caught me by my sleeve and a +bit of my arm, and shoved me back from the edge of the dock till we +stood alone. "Then where did ye steal your slops?" he hissed at me with +oaths. "Look here, ye young gallows-bird, if ye don't stand me a liquor, +I'll run ye in as a runaway apprentice. So cash up, and look sharp." + +I was startled, but I was not quite such a fool as I looked, mind or +body. I had once had a hardish struggle with Snuffy himself when he was +savage, and I was strong and agile beyond my seeming. I dived deeply +into my trousers-pocket, as if feeling for the price of a "liquor," and +the man having involuntarily allowed me a little swing for this, I +suddenly put up my shoulders, and ran at him as if my head were a +battering-ram, and his moleskin waistcoat the wall of a beleaguered +city, and then wrenching myself from his grasp, and dodging the leg he +had put out to trip me, I fled blindly down the quay. + +No one can take orange-peel into account, however. I slipped on a large +piece and came headlong, with the aggravation of hearing my enemy +breathing hoarsely close above me. As regards him, I suppose it was +lucky that my fall jerked the shilling and the penny out of my pocket, +for as the shilling rolled away he went after it, and I saw him no more. +What I did see when I sat up was the last of my penny (which had rolled +in another direction), as it gave one final turn and fell into the dock. + +I could have cried with vexation, and partly with fatigue, for it was +getting late, and I was getting tired. I had fallen soft enough, as it +happened, for I found myself on a heap of seeds, some kind of small +bean, and the yielding mass made a pleasant resting-place. There was no +one very near, and I moved round to the back of the heap to be still +more out of sight, and sat down to try and think what it was best to do. +If my slops were really a sort of uniform to which I was not entitled, +they would do me more harm than good. But whom could I ask? If there +were an honest, friendly soul in all this crowd, and I could come across +him, I felt that (without telling too much of my affairs) I could +explain that I had exchanged some good shore clothes of my own for what +I had been told were more suitable to the work I was looking out for, +and say further that though I had never yet been at sea, I was hardy, +and willing to make myself useful in any way. But how could I tell whom +to trust? I might speak fair to some likely-looking man, and he might +take me somewhere and strip me of my slops, and find my leather +money-bag, and steal that too. When I thought how easily my +fellow-traveller might have treated me thus, I felt a thrill of +gratitude towards him, and then I wondered how he had prospered in his +search for work. As for me, it was pretty clear that if I hoped to work +my way in this wicked world, I must suspect a scoundrel in every man I +met, and forestall mischief by suspicion. As I sat and thought, I sifted +the beans through my fingers, and saw that there were lots of strange +seeds mixed with them, some of very fantastic shapes; and I wondered +what countries they came from, and with what shape and scent and colour +the plants blossomed, and thought how Charlie would like some of them to +sow in pots and watch. As I drove my hands deeper into the heap, I felt +that it was quite warm inside, and then I put my head down to smell if +there was any fragrance in the seeds, and I did not lift it up again, +for I fell fast asleep. + +I was awakened by a touch on my head, and a voice just above me, saying: +"He's alive anyhow, thank GOD!" and sitting up among the beans I found +that it was dark and foggy, but a lamp at some distance gave me a pretty +good view of an old woman who was bending over me. + +She was dressed, apparently, in several skirts of unequal lengths, each +one dingier and more useless-looking than the one beneath it. She had a +man's coat, with a short pipe in the breast-pocket; and what her bonnet +was like one could not tell, for it was comfortably tied down by a +crimson handkerchief with big white spots, which covered it completely. +Her face was as crumpled and as dirty as her clothes, but she had as +fine eyes and as kind eyes as mine had ever met. And every idea of +needful wariness and of the wickedness of the world went quite naturally +out of my head, and I said, "Did you think I was dead, Mother?" + +"I did not; though how would I know what would be the matter wid ye, +lying there those three hours on your face, and not a stir out o' ye?" + +"You're very kind," I said, dusting the bean-dust off my trousers, and I +suppose I looked a little puzzled, for the old woman (helping me by +flicking at my sleeve) went on: "I'll not deceive ye, my dear. It was my +own Micky that was on my mind; though now you've lifted your face, +barring the colour of his hair, there's no likeness betwixt ye, and I'm +the disappointed woman again, GOD help me!" + +"Is Micky your son?" I asked. + +"He is, and a better child woman never had, till he tired of everything +I would do for him, being always the boy for a change, and went for a +stowaway from this very port." + +"Sit down, Mother; stowaways are lads that hide on board ship, and get +taken to sea for nothing, aren't they?" + +"They are, darlin'; but it's not for nothing they get kept at sea, ye +may take your oath. And many's the one that leaves this in the highest +of expictations, and is glad enough to get back to it in a tattered +shirt and a whole skin, and with an increase of contintment under the +ways of home upon his mind." + +"And you hope Micky'll come back, I suppose?" + +"Why wouldn't I, acushla? Sure it was by reason o' that I got bothered +with the washin' after me poor boy left me, from my mind being +continually in the docks, instead of with the clothes. And there I would +be at the end of the week, with the Captain's jerseys gone to old Miss +Harding, and _his_ washing no corricter than _hers_, though he'd more +good nature in him over the accidents, and iron-moulds on the +table-cloths, and pocket-handkerchers missin', and me ruined entirely +with making them good, and no thanks for it, till a good-natured sowl of +a foreigner that kept a pie-shop larned me to make the coffee, and lint +me the money to buy a barra, and he says: 'Go as convanient to the ships +as ye can, Mother; it'll aise your mind. My own heart,' says he, laying +his hand to it, 'knows what it is to have my body here, and the whole +sowl of me far away.'" + +"Did you pay him back?" I asked. I spoke without thinking, and still +less did I mean to be rude; but it suddenly struck me that I was young +and hearty, and that it would be almost a duty to share the contents of +my leather bag with this poor old woman, if there were no chance of her +being able to repay the generous foreigner. + +"Did I pay him back?" she screamed. "Would I be the black-hearted thief +to him that was kind to me? Sorra bit nor sup but dry bread and water +passed me lips till he had his own agin, and the heart's blessings of +owld Biddy Macartney along with it." + +I made my peace with old Biddy as well as I could, and turned the +conversation back to her son. + +"So you live in the docks with your coffee-barrow, Mother, that you may +be sure not to miss Micky when he comes ashore?" + +"I do, darlin'. Fourteen years all but three days. He'll be gone fifteen +if we all live till Wednesday week." + +"_Fifteen_? But, Mother, if he were like me when he went, he can't be +very like me now. He must be a middle-aged man. Do you think you'd know +him?" + +This question was more unfortunate than the other, and produced such +howling and weeping, and beating of Biddy's knees as she rocked herself +among the beans, that I should have thought every soul in the docks +would have crowded round us. But no one took any notice of us, and by +degrees I calmed her, chiefly by the assertion--"He'll know you, Mother, +anyhow." + +"He will so, GOD bless him!" said she, "And haven't I gone over it all +in me own mind, often and often, when I'd see the vessels feelin' their +way home through the darkness, and the coffee staymin' enough to cheer +your heart wid the smell of it, and the laste taste in life of something +betther in the stone bottle under me petticoats. And then the big ship +would be coming in with her lights at the head of her, and myself +sitting alone with me patience, GOD helping me, and one and another +strange face going by. And then he comes along, cold maybe, and smells +the coffee. 'Bedad, but that's a fine smell with it,' says he, for Micky +was mighty particular in his aitin' and drinkin'. 'I'll take a dhrop of +that,' says he, not noticing me particular, and if ever I'd the saycret +of a good cup he gets it, me consayling me face. 'What will it be?' says +he, setting down the mug, 'What would it be, Micky, from your Mother?' +says I, and I lifts me head. Arrah, but then there's the heart's delight +between us. 'Mother!' says he. 'Micky!' says I. And he lifts his foot +and kicks over the barra, and dances me round in his arms, 'Ochone!' +says the spictators; 'there's the fine coffee that's running into the +dock.' 'Let it run,' says I, in the joy of me heart, 'and you after it, +and the barra on the top of ye, now Micky me son's come home!'" + +"Wonderfully jolly!" said I. "And it must be pleasant even to think of +it." + +But Biddy's effort of imagination seemed to have exhausted her, and she +relapsed into the lowest possible spirits, from which she suddenly +roused herself to return to her neglected coffee-stall. + +"Bad manners to me, for an old fool! sitting here whineging and +lamenting, when there's folks, maybe, waiting for their coffee, and +yourself would have been the betther of some this half-hour. Come along +wid ye." + +And giving a tighter knot to the red kerchief, which had been disordered +by her lamentations, the old woman went down the dock, I following her. + +We had not to go far. Biddy's coffee-barrow was placed just as the +pieman had advised. It was as near the ships as possible. In fact it was +actually under the shadow of a big black-looking vessel which loomed +large through the fog, and to and from which men were coming and going +as usual. With several of these the old woman interchanged some +good-humoured chaff as she settled herself in her place, and bade me sit +beside her. + +"Tuck your legs under ye, agra! on that bit of an ould sack. Tis what I +wrap round me shoulders when the nights do be wet, as it isn't this +evening, thank GOD! And there's the coffee for ye." + +"Mother," said I, "do you think you could sit so as to hide me for a few +minutes? All the money I have is in a bag round my neck, and I don't +want strangers to see it." + +"Ye'll just keep it there, then," replied Biddy, irately, "and don't go +an' insult me wid the show of it." + +And she turned her back on me, whilst I drank my coffee, and ate some +excellent cakes, which formed part of her stock-in-trade. One of these +she insisted on my putting into my pocket "against the hungry hour." I +thanked her warmly for the gift, whereupon she became mollified, and +said I was kindly welcome; and whilst she was serving some customers, I +turned round and looked at the ship. Late as it was, people seemed very +busy about her, rather more so than about any I had seen. As I sat, I +was just opposite to a yawning hole in the ship's side, into which men +were noisily running great bales and boxes, which other men on board +were lowering into the depths of the vessel with very noisy machinery +and with much shouting in a sort of uncouth rhythm, to which the grating +and bumping of the crane and its chains was a trifle. I was so absorbed +by looking, and it was so impossible to hear anything else unless one +were attending, that I never discovered that Biddy and I were alone +again, till the touch of her hand on my head made me jump. + +"I beg your pardon, Mother," I said; "I couldn't think what it was." + +"I ax yours, dear. It's just the curls, and I'm the foolish woman to +look at 'em. Barrin' the hair, ye don't favour each other the laste." + +I had really heard a good deal about Micky, and was getting tired of +him, and inclined to revert to my own affairs. + +"Mother, do you know where this ship comes from?" + +"I do not. But she sails with the morning for Halifax, I'm told. And +that's America way, and I insensed the cook--that was him that axed me +where I bought my coffee--to have an eye out for Micky, in case he might +come across him anywhere." + +America way! To-morrow morning! A storm of thoughts rushed through my +head, and in my passionate longing for help I knelt up by the old +Irishwoman and laid my hand upon hers. + +"Mother dear, do help me! You are so kind, and you've a boy of your own +at sea. I want to go to America, and I've no papers or anything. +Couldn't I stow away as Micky did? Couldn't I stow away on this one? I +can work well enough when they find me out, if I could only hide so as +to get off; and you know the ships and the docks so well, you could tell +me how, if only you would." + +I am always ashamed to remember the feeble way in which I finished off +by breaking down, though I do not know that I could have used any +argument that would have gone so far with Biddy. If it had been a man +who had been befriending me, I'm sure I shouldn't have played the fool, +but it was a woman, so I felt doubly helpless in having to depend on +her, and she felt doubly kind, and, in short, I put my face in my hands +and sobbed. + +For quite four hours after this I was puzzled to death by smelling stale +bad tobacco about myself; then I discovered that by some extraordinary +jerk in the vehemence of the embrace which was Biddy's first response to +my appeal, the little black pipe had got out of her coat-pocket and +tumbled down the breast of my slops. + +I hope my breakdown was partly due to the infectious nature of emotion, +of which Biddy was so lavish that my prospects were discussed in a sadly +unbusiness-like fashion. My conscience is really quite clear of having +led her to hope that I would look out for Micky on the other side of the +Atlantic, but I fear that she had made up her mind that we should meet, +and that this went far towards converting her to my views for stowing +away on the vessel lying alongside of us. However, that important point +once reached, the old woman threw herself into the enterprise with a +practical knowledge of the realities of the undertaking and a zest for +the romance of it which were alike invaluable to me. + +"The botheration of it is," said Biddy, after some talk, tangling her +bonnet and handkerchief over her face till I felt inclined to beg her to +let me put her straight--"the botheration of it is, that it's near to +closing-time, and when the bell rings every soul'll be cleared out, +labourers and idlers, and myself among 'em. Ye'll have to hide, me +darlin', but there'll be no mighty difficulty in that, for I see a fine +bit of tarpaulin yonder that'd consale a dozen of the likes of you. But +there's that fool of a watchman that'll come parading and meandering up +and down wid all the airs of a sentry on him and none of his good looks, +and wid a sneaking bull's-eye of a lantern in his hand. He's at the end +of the wharf now, purshuin' to him! Maybe I'll get him to taste a dhrop +of me coffee before the bell rings. Many's the cup I gave to the old +watchman before him, peace to his sowl, the kindly craythur! that never +did a more ill-natured thing on his beat than sleep like a child. Hide +now, darlin', and keep the tail of your eye at the corner where ye'll +see the ship. Maybe he'll take a nap yet, for all his airs, and then +there's the chance for ye! And mind now, keep snug till the pilot's gone +as I warned ye, and then it's the bold heart and the civil tongue, and +just the good-nature of your ways, that'll be your best friends. The +cook tells me the captain's as dacent a man as iver he served with, so +you might aisy do worse, and are not likely to do better. Are ye hid +now? Whisht! Whisht!" + +I heard most of this through a lifted corner of the tarpaulin, under +which I had the good luck to secrete myself without observation and +without difficulty. In the same manner I became witness to the admirable +air of indifference with which Biddy was mixing herself a cup of coffee +as the watchman approached. I say _mixing_ advisedly, for as he came up +she was conspicuously pouring some of the contents of the stone bottle +into her cup. Whether this drew the watchman's attention in an unusual +degree, of course I do not know, but he stopped to say, "Good-evening, +Biddy." + +"Good-evening to ye, me dear, and a nasty damp evening it is." + +"You're taking something to keep the damp out, I see, missus." + +"I am, dear; but it's not for a foine milithrary-looking man like +yourself to be having the laugh at a poor old craythur with nothin' but +the wind and weather in her bones." + +"The wind and weather get into my bones, I can tell you," said the +watchman; "and I begin my work in the fog just when you're getting out +of it." + +"And that's thrue, worse luck. Take a dhrop of coffee, allanna, before I +lave ye." + +"No, thank ye, missus; I've just had my supper." + +"And would that privint ye from takin' the cup I'd be offering ye, wid a +taste of somethin' in it against the damps, barrin' the bottle was +empty?" + +"Well, I'm not particular--as you are so pressing. Thank ye, mum; here's +your good health." + +I heard the watchman say this, though at the moment I dared not peep, +and then I heard him cough. + +"My sakes, Biddy, you make your--coffee--strong." + +"Strong, darlin'? It's pure, ye mane. It's the rale craythur, that, and +bedad! there's a dhrop or two left that's not worth the removing, and +we'll share it anyhow. Here's to them that's far--r away." + +"Thank you, thank you, woman." + +"Thim that's _near_, and thim that's far away!" said Biddy, improving +upon her toast. + +There was a pause. I could hear the old woman packing up her traps, and +then the man (upon whom the coffee and whisky seemed to produce a +roughening rather than a soothing effect) said coarsely, "You're a rum +lot, you Irish!" + +"We are, dear," replied Biddy, blandly; "and that's why we'd be comin' +all the way to Lancashire for the improvement of our manners." And she +threw the sacking round her neck, and lifted the handles of her barrow. + +"Good-night, me darlin'!" said she, raising her voice as she moved off. +"_We'll meet again_, GOD willing." + +"Safe enough, unless you tumble into the dock," replied the watchman. +"Go steady, missus. I hope you'll get safe home with that barra o' +yours." + +"GOD send all safe home that's far from it!" shouted Biddy, in tones +that rose above the rumbling of the wheel and the shuffling of her +shoes. + +"Haw! haw!" laughed the watchman, and with increased brutalness in his +voice he reiterated, "You're a rum lot, Biddy! and free of most things, +blessings and all." + +I was not surprised that the sound of the wheel and the shoes ceased +suddenly. Biddy had set down her barrow to retort. But it was with deep +gratitude that I found her postpone her own wrath to my safety, and +content herself with making her enemy "a prisint of the contimpt of a +rogue." + +"And what would I be doing but blessing ye?" she cried, in a voice of +such dramatic variety as only quick wits and warm feelings can give, it +was so full at once of suppressed rage, humorous triumph, contemptuous +irony, and infinite tenderness. And I need hardly say that it was raised +to a ringing pitch that would have reached my ears had they been buried +under twenty tarpaulins, "GOD bless ye for ivermore! Good luck to ye! +fine weather to ye! health and strength to ye! May the knaves that would +harm ye be made fools for your benefit, and may niver worse luck light +on one hair of your head than the best blessings of Biddy Macartney!" + +Something peculiar in the sound of Biddy's retreating movements made me +risk another glance from an angle of the tarpaulin. + +And upon my honour it is strictly true that I saw the old Irish woman +drive her barrow down the dock till she passed out of sight, and that +she went neither walking nor running, but _dancing_; and a good high +stepping dance too, that showed her stockings, and shook the +handkerchief on her head. And when she reached the end of the wharf she +snapped her fingers in the air. + +Then I drew my head back, and I could hear the watchman guffaw as if he +would have split his sides. And even after he began to tramp up and down +I could hear him still chuckling as he paced by. + +And if I did not hear Biddy chuckle, it was perhaps because the joke on +her side lay deeper down. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "The mariners shout, + The ships swing about. + The yards are all hoisted, + The sails flutter out." + _The Saga of King Olaf_. + + +The docks were very quiet now. Only a few footfalls broke the silence, +and the water sobbed a little round the piles, and there was some +creaking and groaning and grinding, and the vessels drifted at their +moorings, and bumped against the wharves. + +The watchman paced up and down, and up and down. I did not hear him very +clearly from under the tarpaulin, and sometimes when he went farther +away I did not hear him at all. At last I was so long without hearing +him that I peeped cautiously out. What Biddy had said might be, seemed +really to have happened. The watchman was sitting in a sort of arm-chair +of ironbound cotton-bales; his long coat was tucked between his legs, +his hat was over his nose, and he was fast asleep. + +I did not need any one to tell me that now was my time; but it was with +limbs that almost refused their office from sheer fright, that I crept +past the sleeping man, and reached the edge of the wharf. There was the +vessel moving very slightly, and groaning dismally as she moved, and +there was the hole, and it was temptingly dark. But--the gangway that +had been laid across from the wharf was gone! I could have jumped the +chasm easily with a run, but I dared not take a run. If I did it at all +it must be done standing. I tried to fetch a breath free from +heart-throbs, but in vain; so I set my teeth, and pulled nerves and +sinews together and jumped. + +It was too much for me, and I jumped short and fell. Then my training +under the half-caste told in my favour. I caught the edge of the hole +with my hands, and swung suspended over the water, with quite presence +of mind enough to hear and think of what was going on about me. What I +heard was the watchman, who roused up to call out, "Who's there?" and +then he shot a sharp ray of light from his lantern right into the hole. +It was very lucky for me that I was so low, for the light went over my +head, and he saw nothing of me, my dark clothes making no mark against +the ship's black hull. + +My head was cool enough now, and my heart steady, and I listened with an +intensity that postponed fear, though my predicament was not a pleasant +one, and the rippling water below me was confusing. + +The suspense was no doubt shorter than it seemed, before the light +disappeared, and with a thankful heart I distinctly heard the watchman +flop down again among the cotton-bales. Then I drew myself up over the +edge and crept noiselessly into the ship. I took care to creep beyond +reach of the lantern, and then the swaying of the vessel made me feel so +giddy that I had to lie still for a while where I was, before I could +recover myself enough to feel about for a suitable hiding-place. + +As I afterwards learnt, I was on the lower deck, which was being used +for cargo instead of passengers. The said cargo seemed so tightly +packed, that in spite of creeping, and groping, and knocking myself +pretty hard, I could feel no nook or corner to my mind. Then I turned +giddy again and reeled against the door of a cabin, which gave way so +far as to let me fall inwards on to a heap of old sails, ropes, and +other softish ship lumber stowed away within. As I fell my hand struck +something warm, which I fancied gave a writhe out of my grasp. I groped +and seized it again, and now there was no mistake. It was somebody's +arm, who said in a quick undertone, "Gently, gently, sirs; I'm coming +along with ye. I'll gie ye my word I'm after no harm." + +I was taken aback, but thought it well to keep up my position, which +appeared to be one of advantage. The young man (for it was a youngster's +voice) was evidently no ship's officer. If he were a dockyard pilferer, +it was a nuisance, and a complication in my affairs, but I might pull +through the difficulty with presence of mind. + +"Speak low!" I whispered sharply. "What's your name, and where do you +come from?" + +"Alister Auchterlay, they call me" (the whisper was a reluctant one, but +I jogged his arm rather fiercely to shake the truth out of him). "I come +from Aberdeenshire. But, man! if ye're for having me up in court, for +GOD'S sake let me plead in another name, for my mother taks the papers." + +"What are you doing here?" I whispered in a not very steady whisper, as +I think my prisoner detected. + +"I'm just stowing away," he said eagerly; "I'm no harming a thing. Eh, +sir, if you're a ship's 'prentice, or whatever may be your duties on +this vessel, let me bide! There's scores of stowaways taken every day, +and I'll work as few could." + +"Do, _do_ try and speak low," I whispered; "or we shall both be found +out _I'm stowing away myself_!" + +"Whew, laddie! How long will ye have been in Liverpool?" + +"Only to-day. How long have you been here?" + +"A week, and a sore week too." + +"You've no friends here, have you?" + +"Freens, did ye say? I've no freens nearer than Scotland." + +"You must have had a hard time of it," I whispered. + +"Ye may say so. I've slept four nights in the docks, and never managed +to stow till to-night. There's a watchman about." + +"I know," said I. + +"I shouldn't have got in to-night, but the misconducted body's asleep, +though I'll say it's the first time I saw him sleeping these four days. +Eh, sirs! there's an awful indifference to responsibility, when a man +does a thing like yon. But it'll be whisky, I'm thinking; for I heard +him at clishmaclavers with one of these randy, drucken old Eirishers." + +My blood boiled. "She was _not_ drunk!" said I. "And she's--she's a +great friend of mine." + +"Whisht! whisht, man! We'll be heard. I ask your pardon, I'm sure." + +I made no reply. The Scotchman's tone was unpleasantly dry. Besides it +was very difficult to give vent to one's just indignation in whispers, +and I still felt giddy, though I was resting my back against some of the +lumber, rather comfortably. + +"You'll no be Eirish, yourself?" the Scotchman asked in his own accent, +which was as strong in its way as Biddy's. + +"I'm English," I said. + +"Just so. And edyucated, I dare say?" + +"I suppose so." + +"Ye've not forgiven me that I wronged the old lady? Indeed, but I ask +your pardon, and hers no less. It's not for the best of us to sit in +judgment on the erring, as my mother has often said to me, unless it +comes in the plain path of duty. But maybe your own temper would be a +bit soored if your head was as light and your heart as sick as mine with +starvation and hope deferred--" + +"Are you hungry?" I interrupted. + +"I'll not be sorry when we get a meal." + +"What have you had to-day?" I asked. + +"I've been in the dock all day," he answered evasively, "but I'm no +great eater at the best of times, and I chewed two bits of orange-peel, +not to speak of a handful of corn where there was a big heap had been +spilt by some wasteful body or another, that had small thoughts of it's +coming to use. Now hoo in this world's a man to make honest profit on a +commodity he entrusts--" + +"Sh! sh! You're raising your voice again," said I. "Where's your hand? +It's only a cake, but it'll be better than nothing." And I held out the +cake Biddy had made me put in my pocket. + +"I'll no take it from ye. Keep it for your own needs; I'm harder than +yourself, it's likely," he said, pushing my hand aside, and added almost +peevishly, "but keep the smell of it from me." + +"I can spare it perfectly," I whispered. "I've had plenty to eat quite +lately." + +I shall never forget how he clutched it then. I could hear his teeth +clash with the eagerness of his eating. It almost frightened me in the +darkness. + +"Eh! man, that was good!" he gasped. "Are ye sure indeed and in truth ye +could spare it all? I didn't think they made such bannocks out of +Scotland. But we've much to learn in all matters, doubtless. Thank ye a +thousand times." + +"The old Irishwoman gave it me!" I said with some malice. "She made me +put it in my pocket, though she had given me a good meal before, for +which she would take nothing." + +"It was leeberal of her," said Alister Auchterlay. "Verra leeberal; but +there are good Christians to be met with, amongst all sorts, there's not +a doot aboot it." + +I should probably have pursued my defence of Biddy against this +grudging--not to say insulting--tribute to her charity, if I had not +begun to feel too tired to talk, and very much teased by the heaving of +the vessel. + +"I wish the ship would be quiet till we start," I said. "We're not at +sea yet." + +In reply to this Alister at some length, and with as much emphasis as +whispering permitted, explained to me that a ship could not, in the +nature of things, keep still, except in certain circumstances, such as +being in dry dock for repairs or lying at anchor in absolutely still +water. + +"Good gracious!" I interrupted. "Of course I know all that. You don't +suppose I expect it not to move?" + +"I understood ye to say that ye wushed it," he replied with dignity, if +not offence. + +"I don't know what I wish!" I moaned. + +My companion's reply to this was to feel about for me and then to begin +scrambling over me; then he said--"Move on, laddie, to your right, and +ye'll find space to lie on the flat of your back, close by the ship's +side. I'm feared you're barely fit for the job ye've undertaken, but +ye'll be easier if ye lie down, and get some sleep." + +I moved as he told me, and the relief of lying flat was great--so great +that I began to pull myself together again, and made ready in my mind to +thank my unseen companion for the generosity with which he had +evidently given me the place he had picked for himself. But whilst I was +thinking about it I fell fast asleep. + +When I woke, for the first minute I thought I was at home, and I could +not conceive what Martha could be doing, that there should be, as far as +one could hear, chimney-sweeping, cinder-riddling, furniture-moving, +clock-winding, and Spring-cleaning, of the most awful nature, all going +on at once, and in a storm of yelling and scolding, which was no part of +our domestic ways. But in another minute I knew where I was, and by the +light coming through a little round porthole above me, I could see my +companion. + +He was still sleeping, so that I could satisfy my keen curiosity without +rudeness. He had indeed given up the only bit of space to me, and was +himself doubled up among lumber in a fashion that must have been very +trying to the length of his limbs. For he was taller than I, though not, +I thought, much older; two years or so, perhaps. The cut of his clothes +(not their raggedness, though they were ragged as well as patched) +confirmed me in my conviction that he was "not exactly a gentleman"; but +I felt a little puzzled about him, for, broad as his accent was, he was +even less exactly of the Tim Binder and Bob Furniss class. + +He was not good-looking, and yet I hardly know any word that would so +fittingly describe his face in the repose of sleep, and with that bit of +light concentrated upon it, as the word "noble." It was drawn and +pinched with pain and the endurance of pain, and I never saw anything so +thin, except his hands, which lay close to his sides--both clenched. But +I do think he would have been handsome if his face had not been almost +aggressively intelligent when awake, and if his eyebrows and eyelashes +had had any colour. His hair was fair but not bright, and it was +straight without being smooth, and tossed into locks that had no grace +or curl. And why he made me think of a Bible picture--Jacob lying at the +foot of the ladder to heaven, or something of that sort--I could not +tell, and did not puzzle myself to wonder, for the ship was moving, and +there was a great deal to be seen out of the window, tiny as it was. + +It looked on to the dock, where men were running about in the old +bewildering fashion. To-day it was not so bewildering to me, because I +could see that the men were working with some purpose that affected our +vessel, though the directions in which they ran, dragging ropes as thick +as my leg, to the grinding of equally monstrous chains, were as +mysterious as the figures of some dance one does not know. As to the +noises they made, men and boys anywhere are given to help on their work +with sounds of some sort, but I could not have believed in anything +approaching to these, out of a lunatic asylum, unless I had heard them. + +I could hear quite well, I could hear what was said, and a great deal of +it, I am sorry to say, would have been better unsaid. But the orders +which rang out interested me, for I tried to fit them on to what +followed, though without much result. At last the dock seemed to be +moving away from me--I saw men, but not the same men--and every man's +eye was fixed on us. Then the thick brown rope just below my window +quivered like a bow-string, and tightened (all the water starting from +it in a sparkling shower) till it looked as firm as a bar of iron, and I +held on tight, for we were swinging round. Suddenly the voice of command +sang out--(I fancied with a touch of triumph in the tone)--"Let go the +warp!" The thick rope sprang into the air, and wriggled like a long +snake, and it was all I could do to help joining in the shouts that rang +from the deck above and from the dock below. Then the very heart of the +ship began to beat with a new sound, and the Scotch lad leaped like a +deerhound to the window, and put his arm round my shoulder, and +whispered, "That's the screw, man! _we're off_!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "He that tholes o'ercomes." + "Tak' your venture, as mony a gude ship has done." + _Scotch Proverbs_. + + +I am disposed to think that a ship is a place where one has occasional +moments of excitement and enthusiasm that are rare elsewhere, but that +it is not to be beaten (if approached) for the deadliness of the +despondency to be experienced therein. + +For perhaps a quarter of an hour after our start I felt much excited, +and so, I think, did my companion. Shoulder to shoulder we were glued to +the little round window, pinching each other when the hurrying steps +hither and thither threatened to come down our way. We did not talk +much, we were too busy looking out, and listening to the rushing water, +and the throbbing of the screw. The land seemed to slip quickly by, +countless ships, boats, and steamers barely gave us time to have a look +at them, though Alister (who seemed to have learned a good deal during +his four days in the docks) whispered little bits of information about +one and another. Then the whole shore seemed to be covered by enormous +sheds, and later on it got farther off, and then the land lay distant, +and it was very low and marshy and most dreary-looking, and I fancied it +was becoming more difficult to keep my footing at the window; and just +when Alister had been pointing out a queer red ship with one stumpy mast +crowned by a sort of cage, and telling me that it was a light-ship, our +own vessel began to creak and groan worse than ever, and the floor under +our feet seemed to run away from them, and by the time you had got used +to going down, it caught you and jerked you up again, till my head +refused to think anything about anything, and I half dropped and was +half helped by Alister on to the flat of my back as before. + +As to him, I may as well say at once, that I never knew him affected at +sea by the roughest wind that could blow, and he sat on a box and looked +at me half pityingly, and half, I suppose, with the sort of curiosity I +had felt about him. + +"I'm feared the life 'll be a bit over rough for ye," he said kindly. +"Would ye think of going up and disclosing yourself before we're away +from all chance of getting ashore?" + +"No, no!" said I, vehemently, and added more feebly, "I dare say I shall +be all right soon." + +"Maybe," said the Scotchman. + +He went back to the window and gazed out, seeing, I have no doubt, +plenty to interest him; though my eyes, if opened for a moment, only +shrank back and closed again instinctively, with feelings of +indescribable misery. So indefinite time went on, Alister occasionally +making whispered comments which I did not hear, and did not trouble +myself to ask questions about, being utterly indifferent to the answers. +But I felt no temptation to give in, I only remember feeling one intense +desire, and it amounted to a prayer, that if these intolerable +sensations did not abate, I might at any rate become master enough of +them to do my duty in their teeth. The thought made me more alert, and +when the Scotch lad warned me that steps were coming our way, I implored +him to hide deeper under the sails, if he wished, without consideration +for me, as I had resolved to face my fate at once, and be either killed +or cured. + +"Thank ye kindly," said Alister, "but there's small use in hiding now. +They can but pitch us overboard, and I've read that drowning is by far +an easier death than being starved, if ye come to that." + +It was in this frame of mind that a sailor found us, and took us +prisoners with so little difficulty that he drew the scarcely fair +conclusion that we were the cheekiest, coolest hands of all the nasty, +sneaking, longshore loafers he had ever had to deal with in all his +blessed and otherwise than blessed born days. And wrathful as this +outburst was, it was colourless to the indignation in his voice, when +(replying to some questions from above) he answered, + +"Two on 'em!" + +Several other sailors came to the help of our captor, and we were +dragged up the ladder and on deck, where the young Scotchman looked to +better advantage than down below, and where I made the best presentment +of myself that my miserable condition would allow. We were soon hauled +before the captain, a sensible-faced, red-bearded man, with a Scotch +accent rather harsher than Alister's, in which he harangued us in very +unflattering phrases for our attempt to "steal a passage," and described +the evil fate of which we were certain, if we did not work uncommonly +hard for our victuals. + +With one breath I and my companion asserted our willingness to do +anything, and that to get a free passage as idlers was our last wish and +intention. To this, amid appreciating chuckles from the crew, the +captain replied, that, so sneaks and stowaways always _said_; a taunt +which was too vulgar as repartee to annoy me, though I saw Alister's +thin hands clenching at his sides. I don't know if the captain did, but +he called out--"Here! you lanky lad there, show your hands." + +"They're no idle set," said Alister, stretching them out. He lifted his +eyes as he said it, and I do not think he could have repressed the flash +in them to save his life. Every detail of the scene was of breathless +interest to me, and as I watched to see if the captain took offence, I +noticed that (though they were far less remarkable from being buried in +a fat and commonplace countenance) his eyes, like Alister's, were of +that bright, cold, sea-blue common among Scotchmen. He did not take +offence, and I believe I was right in thinking that the boy's wasted +hands struck him much as they had struck me. + +"Don't speak unless I question you. How long will ye have been hanging +round the docks before ye'd the impudence to come aboard here?" + +"I slept four nights in the docks, sir." + +"And where did ye take your meals?" + +A flush crept over Alister's bony face. "I'm no' a great eater, sir," he +said, with his eyes on the deck: and then suddenly lifting a glance at +me out of the corner of them, he added, "The last I had was just given +me by a freen'." + +"That'll do. Put your hands down. Can you sew?" + +"I ask your pardon, sir?" + +"Is the fool deaf? Can ye use a needle and thread?" + +"After a rough fashion, sir, and I can knit a bit." + +"Mr. Waters?" + +A man with a gold band round his cap stepped forward and touched it. + +"Take him to the sail-maker. He can help to patch the old fore-stay-sail +on the forecastle. And you can--" + +The rest of the order was in a low voice, but Mr. Waters saluted again +and replied, "Yes, sir." + +The captain saluted Mr. Waters, and then as Alister moved off, he said, +"You're not sick, I see. Have you sailed before?" + +"From Scotland, sir." + +Whether, being a Scotchman himself, the tones of Alister's voice, as it +lingered on the word "Scotland," touched a soft corner in the captain's +soul, or whether the blue eyes met with an involuntary feeling of +kinship, or whether the captain was merely struck by Alister's +powerful-looking frame, and thought he might be very useful when he was +better fed, I do not know; but I feel sure that as he returned my new +comrade's salute, he did so in a softened humour. Perhaps this made him +doubly rough to me, and I have no doubt I looked as miserable an object +as one could (not) wish to see. + +"_You're_ sick enough," he said; "stand straight, sir! we don't nurse +invalids here, and if you stop you'll have to work for your food, +whether you can eat it or not." + +"I will, sir," said I. + +"Put out your hands." + +I did, and he looked keenly, first at them, and then, from head to foot, +at me. And then to my horror, he asked the question I had been asked by +the man who robbed me of my shilling. + +"Where did you steal your slops?" + +I hastened to explain. "A working-man, sir, in Liverpool, who was kind +enough to advise me, said that I should have no chance of getting work +on board ship in the clothes I had on. So I exchanged them, and got +these, in a shop he took me to," and being anxious to prove the truth of +my tale, and also to speak with the utmost respect of everybody in this +critical state of my affairs, I added: "I don't remember the name of the +street, sir, but the shop was kept by a--by a Mr. Moses Cohen." + +"By Mister--_who_?" + +"Mr. Moses Cohen, sir." + +When I first uttered the name, I fancied I heard some sniggering among +the sailors who still kept guard over me, and this time the captain's +face wrinkled, and he turned to another officer standing near him and +repeated, + +"Mister Moses Cohen!" and they both burst into a fit of laughter, which +became a roar among the subordinates, till the captain cried--"Silence +there!" and still chuckling sardonically, added, "Your suit must have +been a very spic and span one, young gentleman, if _Mister_ Moses Cohen +accepted it in lieu of that rig out." + +"I paid ten shillings as well," said I. + +The laughter recommenced, but the captain looked wrathful. "Oh, you paid +ten shillings as well, did you? And what the thunder and lightning have +you tried to steal a passage for when you'd money to pay for one?" + +"I didn't mean to steal a passage, sir," said I, "and I don't mean it +now. I tried to get taken as a sailor-lad, but they seemed to expect me +to have been to sea before, and to have some papers to show it. So I +stowed away, and I'm very sorry if you think it dishonest, sir, but I +meant to work for my passage, and I will work hard." + +"And what do you suppose an ignorant land-lubber like you can do, as we +don't happen to be short of public speakers?" + +"I thought I could clean things, and carry coals, and do rough work till +I learnt my trade, sir." + +"Can you climb?" said the captain, looking at the rigging. + +"I've never climbed on board ship, sir, but I was good at athletics when +I was at school, and I believe I could." + +"We'll see," said the captain significantly. "And supposing you're of no +use, and we kick ye overboard, can ye swim?" + +"Yes, sir, and dive. I'm at home in the water." + +"It's more than you are _on_ it. Bo'sun!" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Take this accomplished young gentleman of fortune, and give him +something to do. Give him an oil-rag and let him rub some of our brass, +and stow his own. And, bo'sun!" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Take him first to Mr. Johnson, and say that I request Mr. Johnson to +ascertain how much change Mister Moses Cohen has left him, and to take +charge of it." + +"Yes, sir." + +The captain's witticisms raised renewed chuckling among the crew, as I +followed the boatswain, duly saluting my new master as I passed him, and +desperately trying to walk easily and steadily in my ordinary boots upon +the heaving deck. + +Mr. Johnson was the third mate, and I may as well say at once that his +shrewdness and kindness, his untiring energy and constant cheerfulness, +make his memory very pleasant to me and to all who served with him, and +whose reasons for being grateful to him belong to all hours of the day +and night, and to every department of our work and our play. + +I was far too giddy to hear what the boatswain said to Mr. Johnson, but +I was conscious that the third mate's eyes were scanning me closely as +he listened. Then he said, "_Have_ you got any money, youngster?" + +"Here, sir," said I; and after some struggles I got the leather bag from +my neck, and Mr. Johnson pocketed it. + +"Ran away from school, I suppose?" + +I tried to reply, and could not. Excitement had kept me up before the +captain, but the stress of it was subsiding, and putting my arms up to +get my purse had aggravated the intense nausea that was beginning to +overpower me. I managed to shake my head instead of speaking, after +which I thought I must have died then and there of the agony across my +brow. It seemed probable that I should go far to pay for my passage by +the amusement I afforded the crew. Even Mr. Johnson laughed, as he said, +"He seems pretty bad. Look after him, and then let him try his hand on +those stanchions--they're disgraceful. Show him how, and see that he +lays on--" + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +"And, bo'sun! don't be too rough on him just yet. We've all of us made +our first voyage." + +"Very true, sir." + +I could have fallen at the man's feet for those few kind words, but his +alert step had carried him far away; and the boatswain had gripped me by +the arm, and landed me on a seat, before I could think of how to express +my thanks. + +"Stay where ye are, young stowaway," said he, "and I'll fetch the oil +and things. But don't fall overboard; for we can't afford to send a +hexpedition on a voyage of discovery harter ye." + +Off went the boatswain, and by the time he came back with a bundle of +brass rods under his arm, and an old sardine-tin full of a mixture of +oil, vinegar, and sand, and a saturated fragment of a worn-out worsted +sock, I had more or less recovered from a violent attack of sickness, +and was trying to keep my teeth from being chattered out of my aching +head in the fit of shivering that succeeded it. + +"Now, my pea-green beauty!" said he, "pull yourself together, and bear a +hand with this tackle. I'll carry the stanchions for you." I jumped up, +thanked him, and took the oil-tin and etceteras, feeling very grateful +that he did carry the heavy brass rods for me on to the poop, where I +scrambled after him, and after a short lesson in an art the secret of +which appeared to be to rub hard enough and long enough, he left me with +the pointed hint that the more I did within the next hour or two, the +better it would be for me. "And _wicee the worser_--hif ye learnt what +_that_ means when ye wos at school," he added. + +Fully determined to do my best, I rubbed for the dear life, my bones and +teeth still shuddering as I did so; but whatever virtue there was in my +efforts was soon its own reward, for the vigorous use of my arms began +to warm me, so greatly to the relief of my headache and general misery, +that I began to hold myself up, and drink in the life-giving freshness +of the salt breezes with something that came quite close to hope, and +was not far off enjoyment. As to the stanchions, I was downright proud +of them, and was rubbing away, brightening the brass, and getting the +blood comfortably circulated through my body, when, with the usual +running and shouting, a crowd of men poured on to the poop with +long-handled scrubbing-brushes and big tubs, &c., followed by others +dragging a fire-hose. No time was lost in charging the hose with water +(a plentiful commodity!), and this was squirted into every hole and +cranny in all directions, whilst the first lot of men rubbed and +scrubbed and brushed most impartially all over the place. + +I went quietly on with my work, but when the stream threatened a group +of stanchions, so highly polished that I could not endure the notion of +a speck on their brightness, I lifted them out of harm's way, and with +the clatter of this movement drew the attention of the plier of the +hose. + +"Why, bless my stars, garters, and hornaments of hall sorts!" said he; +"if 'ere ain't the young gentleman of fortin on the poop deck in his +Sunday pumps!" and without more ado he let fly the water, first at my +feet and then upwards, till I was soused from head to foot, and the +scrubbers and swabbers laughed at my gasps as I know I could not have +moved their sense of humour if I had had the finest wit in the world. +However, I suppose they had had to take as well as give such merriment +in their time; and I keenly remember Biddy's parting hint that the +"good-nature of my ways" would be my best friend in this rough society. +So I laughed and shook myself, and turning up my sleeves to my elbows, +and my trousers to my knees, I also denuded myself of boots and socks +and put them aside. + +"Is this the correct fashion?" I inquired--a joke which passed muster +for very good humour; and I was squirted at no more on that occasion. +The chill had made me feel most miserable again, but I had found by +experience that the great thing was to keep my blood circulating, and +that rubbing-up the ship's brass answered this purpose exceedingly well. +I rubbed it so bright, that when the boatswain came to summon me to +dinner, he signified his approval in his own peculiar fashion, which +appeared to be that of an acknowledged wit. + +"H'm!" said he, "I'll say that for ye, young shore-loafer, that you've +learnt that the best part of polishing-paste is elbow-grease. It wasn't +all _parley-voo_ and the pianner where you was at boarding-school!" + +I said I hoped not, and laughed as respectfully as it becomes the small +to do at the jokes of the great. + +But when I was fairly squatted in a corner of the forecastle, with my +plate on my lap, in friendly proximity to Alister, I received a far +worse shock than the ship's hose had given me. For under cover of the +sailors' talk (and they were even noisier at their dinner than at their +work) my comrade contrived to whisper in my ear, "The pilot is still on +board." + +I got what comfort I could out of hearing the sail-maker praise Alister +as "an uncommon handy young chap," a compliment which he enforced by a +general appeal to some one to "give him" a lad that had been brought up +to make himself useful, and anybody else was welcome "for him" to fine +gentlemen with no learning but school learning. For this side attack on +me roused the boatswain to reproduce his jokes about elbow-grease +_versus parley-voo_ and the _pianner_, and to add a general principle on +his own account to the effect that it was nothing to him if a lad had +been "edicated" in a young ladies' boarding-school, so long as he'd been +taught to rub brass till you could "see something more of your face than +thumbmarks in it." The general and satisfactory conclusion being (so I +hoped) that we were neither of us quite useless, and might possibly be +spared the ignominy of a return voyage with the pilot. + +About an hour and a half after dinner, when I was "rubbing-up" some +"bright things" in the cook's galley, Alister looked in, and finding me +alone, said, "Would ye dare to come on deck? We're passing under bonny +big rocks, with a lighthouse perched up on the height above our heads, +for all the world like a big man keeping his outlook with glowering +eyes." + +"I don't think I dare," said I. "The cook told me not to stir till these +were done. Are we going slower? That pumping noise is slower than it +was, I'm sure." + +"We are so," said Alister; "I'm wondering if--" He ran out without +finishing his sentence, but soon returned with a face rather more +colourless than usual with repressed excitement. "Jack!" he gasped, +"they're lowering a boat. _The pilot's going ashore._" + +He remained with me now, sitting with his head on his hands. Suddenly a +shout of two or three voices from the water was answered by a hearty +cheer from the deck. By one impulse, Alister and I sprang to our feet +and gripped each other by the hand; and I do not believe there were any +two sailors on board who sped the parting pilot with more noise than we +two made in the cook's galley. + +It was gloriously true. They had kept us both. But, though I have no +doubt the captain would have got rid of us if we had proved feckless, I +think our being allowed to remain was largely due to the fact that the +vessel had left Liverpool short of her full complement of hands. Trade +was good at the time, and one man who had joined had afterwards +deserted, and another youngster had been taken to hospital only the day +before we sailed. He had epileptic fits, and though the second mate +(whose chief quality seemed to be an impartial distrust of everybody but +himself, and a burning desire to trip up his fellow-creatures at their +weak points and jump upon them accordingly) expressed in very strong +language his wish that the captain had not sent the lad off, but had +kept him for him (the second mate) to cure, the crew seemed all of +opinion that there was no "shamming" about it, and that the epileptic +sailor-boy would only have fallen from one of the yards in a fit, and +given more trouble than his services were worth over picking him up. + +The afternoon was far from being as fine as the morning had been. Each +time I turned my eyes that way it seemed to me that the grey sea was +looking drearier and more restless, but I stuck steadily to some +miscellaneous and very dirty work that I had been put to down below; +and, as the ship rolled more and more under me, as I ran unsteadily +about with buckets and the like, I began to wonder if this was the way +storms came, gradually on, and whether, if the ship went down to-night +"with all on board," I should find courage to fit my fate. + +I was meditating gloomily on this subject, when I heard a shrill +whistle, and then a series of awful noises, at the sound of which every +man below left whatever he was at, and rushed on deck. I had read too +many accounts of shipwrecks not to know that the deck is the place to +make for, so I bolted with the rest, and caught sight of Alister flying +in the same direction as we were. When we got up I looked about me as +well as I could, but I saw no rocks or vessels in collision with us. The +waves were not breaking over us, but four or five men standing on the +bulwarks were pulling things like monstrous grubs out of a sort of +trough, and chucking them with more or less accuracy at the heads of the +sailors who gathered round. + +"What is it, Alister?" I asked. + +"It's just the serving out of the hammocks that they sleep in," Alister +replied. "I'm thinking we'll not be entitled to them." + +"What's that fellow yelling about?" + +"He's crying to them to respond to their names and numbers. Whisht, man! +till I hear his unchristian lingo and see if he cries on us." + +But in a few minutes the crowd had dispersed, and the hammock-servers +with them, and Alister and I were left alone. I felt foolish, and I +suppose looked so, for Alister burst out laughing and said--"Hech, +laddie! it's a small matter. We'll find a corner to sleep in. And let me +tell ye I've tried getting into a hammock myself, and--" + +"Hi! you lads!" + +In no small confusion at having been found idle and together, we started +to salute the third mate, who pointed to a sailor behind him, and +said--"Follow Francis, and he'll give you hammocks and blankets, and +show you how to swing and stow them." + +We both exclaimed--"Thank you, sir!" with such warmth that as he +returned our renewed salutations he added--"I hear good accounts of +both of you. Keep it up, and you'll do." + +Alister's sentence had been left unfinished, but I learnt the rest of it by +experience. We scrambled down after Francis till we seemed to be about the +level where we had stowed away. I did not feel any the better for the +stuffiness of the air and an abominable smell of black beetles, but I +stumbled along till we arrived in a very tiny little office where the +purser sat surrounded by bags of ships' biscuits (which they pleasantly +call "bread" at sea) and with bins of sugar, coffee, &c., &c. I dare say +the stuffiness made him cross (as the nasty smells used to make us in Uncle +Henry's office), for he used a good deal of bad language, and seemed very +unwilling to let us have the hammocks and blankets. However, Francis got +them and banged us well with them before giving them to us to carry. They +were just like the others--canvas-coloured sausages wound about with tarred +rope; and warning us to observe how they were fastened up, as we should +have to put them away "ship-shape" the following morning, Francis helped us +to unfasten and "swing" them in the forecastle. There were hooks in the +beams, so that part of the business was easy enough, but, when bedtime +came, I found that getting into my hammock was not as easy as getting it +ready to get into. + +The sail-maker helped Alister out of his difficulties at once, by +showing him how to put his two hands in the middle of his hammock and +wriggle himself into it and roll his blankets round him in seaman-like +fashion. But my neighbours only watched with delight when I first sent +my hammock flying by trying to get in at the side as if it were a bed, +and then sent myself flying out on the other side after getting in. As I +picked myself up I caught sight of an end of thick rope hanging from a +beam close above my hammock, and being a good deal nettled by my own +stupidity and the jeers of the sailors, I sprang at the rope, caught it, +and swinging myself up, I dropped quietly and successfully into my new +resting-place. Once fairly in and rolled in my blanket, I felt as snug +as a chrysalis in his cocoon, and (besides the fact that lying down is a +great comfort to people who are not born with sea-legs) I found the +gentle swaying of my hammock a delightful relief from the bumping, +jumping, and jarring of the ship. I said my prayers, which made me think +of my mother, and cost me some tears in the privacy of darkness; but, as +I wept, there came back the familiar thought that I had "much to be +thankful for," and I added the General Thanksgiving with an "especially" +in the middle of it (as we always used to have when my father read +prayers at home, after anything like Jem and me getting well of scarlet +fever, or a good harvest being all carried). + +I got all through my "especially," and what with thinking of the +workman, and dear old Biddy, and Alister, and Mr. Johnson, and the +pilot, it was a very long one; and I think I finished the Thanksgiving +and said the Grace of our LORD after it. But I cannot be quite sure, for +it was such a comfort to be at peace, and the hammock swung and rocked +till it cradled me to sleep. + +A light sleep, I suppose, for I dreamed very vividly of being at home +again, and that I had missed getting off to sea after all; and that the +ship had only been a dream. I thought I was rather sorry it was not +real, because I wanted to see the world, but I was very glad to be with +Jem, and I thought he and I went down to the farm to look for Charlie, +and they told us he was sitting up in the ash-tree at the end of the +field. In my dream I did not feel at all surprised that Cripple Charlie +should have got into the ash-tree, or at finding him there high up among +the branches looking at a spider's web with a magnifying-glass. But I +thought that the wind was so high I could not make him hear, and the +leaves and boughs tossed so that I could barely see him; and when I +climbed up to him, the branch on which I sat swayed so deliciously that +I was quite content to rock myself and watch Charlie in silence, when +suddenly it cracked, and down I came with a hard bang on my back. + +I woke and sat up, and found that the latter part of my dream had come +true, as a lump on the back of my head bore witness for some days. +Francis had playfully let me down "with a run by the head," as it is +called; that is, he had undone my hammock-cord and landed me on the +floor. He left Alister in peace, and I can only think of two reasons for +his selecting me for the joke. First that the common sailors took much +more readily to Alister from his being more of their own rank in birth +and upbringing, though so vastly superior by education. And secondly, +that I was the weaker of the two; for what I have seen of the world has +taught me that there are plenty of strong people who will not only let +the weaker go to the wall, but who find an odd satisfaction in shoving +and squeezing them there. + +However, if I was young and sea-sick, I was not quite helpless, happily; +I refastened my hammock, and got into it again, and being pretty well +tired out by the day's work, I slept that sleep of the weary which knows +no dream. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "Yet more! The billows and the depths have more: + High hearts and brave are gathered to thy breast! + * * * * * * * + Keep thy red gold and gems, thou stormy grave! + Give back the true and brave!"--FELICIA HEMANS. + + "To them their duty was clear, and they did it successfully; and + the history of the island is written briefly in that little + formula!"--_Daily Telegraph_, Dec. 5, 1878. + + +I did not feel as if I had been asleep five minutes, when I was rudely +awakened, of course by noise, whistling, and inarticulate roaring, and I +found that it was morning, and that the boatswain's mate was "turning +the hands up" to wash decks. Alister was ready, and I found that my +toilet was, if possible, shorter than at Snuffy's in winter. + +"We puts hon our togs fust, and takes our shower-baths harterwards," the +boatswain humorously explained, as he saw me trying to get the very +awkward collar of my "slops" tidy as I followed with the crowd. + +The boatswain was a curious old fellow. He was born in London, "within +sound of Bow bells," as he told me; but though a Cockney by birth, he +could hardly be called a native of anywhere but the world at large. He +had sailed in all seas, and seemed to have tried his hand at most +trades. He had at one time been a sort of man-of-all-work in a boys' +school, and I think it was partly from this, and partly out of +opposition to the sail-maker, that he never seemed to grudge my not +having been born a poor person, or to fancy I gave myself airs (which I +never did), or to take a pleasure in making me feel the roughest edge of +the menial work I had to do, like so many of the men. But he knew very +well just where things did feel strangest and hardest to me, and showed +that he knew it by many a bit of not unkindly chaff. + +His joke about the shower-bath came very strictly true to me. We were +all on the main deck, bare-armed and bare-legged, mopping and slopping +and swabbing about in the cold sea-water, which was liberally supplied +to us by the steam-pump and hose. I had been furnished with a _squeegee_ +(a sort of scraper made of india-rubber at the end of broom-stick), and +was putting as much "elbow-grease" into my work as renewed sea-sickness +left me strength for, when the boatswain's mate turned the hose upon me +once more. I happened to be standing rather loosely, and my thoughts had +flown home on the wings of a wonder what Martha would think of this way +of scrubbing a floor--all wedded as the domestic mind is to hairy +flannel and sticky soap and swollen knees,--when the stream of sea-water +came in full force against my neck, and I and my squeegee went +head-over-heels into the lee scuppers. It was the boatswain himself who +picked me out, and who avenged me on his subordinate by a round of abuse +which it was barely possible to follow, so mixed were the metaphors, and +so cosmopolitan the slang. + +On the whole I got on pretty well that day, and began to get accustomed +to the motion of the ship, in spite of the fact that she rolled more +than on the day before. The sky and sea were grey enough when we were +swabbing the decks in the early morning; as the day wore on, they only +took the deeper tints of gathering clouds which hid the sun. + +If the weather was dull, our course was not less so. We only saw one +ship from the deck, a mail-steamer, as neat and trim as a yacht, which +passed us at a tremendous pace, with a knot of officers on the bridge. +Some black objects bobbing up and down in the distance were pointed out +to me as porpoises, and a good many sea-gulls went by, flying landwards. +Not only was the sky overcast, but the crew seemed to share the +depression of the barometer, which, as everybody told everybody else, +was falling rapidly. The captain's voice rang out in brief but frequent +orders, and the officers clustered in knots on the bridge, their gold +cap-bands gleaming against the stormy sky. + +I worked hard through the day, and was sick off and on as the ship +rolled, and the great green waves hit her on the bows, and ran away +along her side, and the wind blew and blew, and most of the sails were +hauled in and made fast, and one or two were reefed up close, and the +big chimney swayed, and the threatening clouds drifted forwards at a +different pace from our own, till my very fingers felt giddy with +unrest; but not another practical joke did I suffer from that day, for +every man's hand was needed for the ship. + +In the afternoon she had rolled so heavily in the trough of the large +waves, that no one made any pretence of finding his sea-legs strong +enough to keep him steady without clutching here and there for help, and +I had been thankful, in a brief interval when nobody had ordered me to +do anything, to scramble into a quiet corner of the forecastle and lie +on the boards, rolling as the ship rolled, and very much resigned to +going down with her if she chose to go. + +Towards evening it was thick and foggy, but as the sun set it began to +clear, and I heard the men saying that the moon (which was nearly at +the full) would make a clear night of it. It was unquestionably clearer +overhead, and the waves ran smoother, as if the sea were recovering its +temper, and Alister and I went below at 9 P.M. and turned into our +hammocks for a few hours' sleep, before taking our part in the +night-watch that lasts from 12 midnight till 4 A.M. + +It is astonishing what a prompt narcotic the knowledge that you'll have +to be up again in an hour or two is. Alister and I wasted no time in +conversation. He told me the fall in the barometer was "by-ordinar" +(which I knew as well as he); and I told him the wind was undoubtedly +falling (which he knew as well as I): and after this inevitable +interchange of the uppermost news and anxieties of the occasion, we bade +GOD bless each other, and I said the prayers of my babyhood because they +were shortest, and fell fast asleep. + +The noises that woke us were new noises, but they made up the whole of +that peculiar sound which is the sum of human excitement. "We are going +down this time," was my thought, and I found myself less philosophical +about it than I had imagined. Neither Alister nor I were long in putting +on our clothes, and we rushed up on deck without exchanging a word. By +the time we got there, where the whole ship's crew had gone before us, +we were as wildly excited as any one of them, though we had not a notion +what it was all about. I knew enough now for the first glance to tell me +that the ship was in no special danger. Even I could tell that the gale +had gone down, the night was clear, and between the scudding of black +clouds with silver linings, the moon and stars shone very beautifully, +though it made one giddy to look at them from the weird way in which the +masts and yards seemed to whip across the sky. + +We still rolled, and when the side of the ship went up, it felt almost +overhead, and I could see absolutely nothing of the sea, which was +vexatious, as that was obviously the point of interest. The rigging on +that side was as full of men as a bare garden-tree might be of sparrows, +and all along the lee bulwarks they sat and crouched like sea-birds on a +line of rock. Suddenly we rolled, down went the leeside, and I with it, +but I caught hold of the lowest step of the forecastle ladder and sat +fast. Then as we dipped I saw all that they were seeing from the masts +and rigging--the yet restless sea with fast-running waves, alternately +inky black, and of a strange bright metallic lead-colour, on which the +scud as it drove across the moon made queer racing shadows. And it was +on this stormy sea that every eye from the captain's to the cook's was +strained. + +Roll! down we went again to starboard, and up went the bulwarks and I +could see nothing but the sky and the stars, and the masts and yards +whipping across them as before, though the excitement grew till I could +bear it no longer, and scrambled up the ladder on to the forecastle, and +pushed my way to the edge and lay face downwards, holding on for my life +that I might not be blown away, whilst I was trying to see what was to +be seen. + +I found myself by Alister once more, and he helped me to hold on, and +pointed where every one else was pointing. There was a lull in the eager +talking of the men, and the knot of captain and the officers on the +bridge stood still, and Alister roared through the wind into my +ear--"Bide a wee, the moon 'll be out again." + +I waited, and the cloud passed from her face or she sailed from beneath +it, and at the same instant I saw a streak of light upon the water in +which a black object bobbed up and down as the porpoises had bobbed, and +all the men burst out again, and a crowd rushed up on to the forecastle. + +"It's half-a-mile aft."--"A bit of wreck."--"An old sugar +hogshead."--"The emperor of the porpoises."--"Is it the sea sarpint +ye're maning?"--"Will hany gentleman lend me 'is hopera-glass?"--"I'm +blessed if I don't think we're going to go half speed. I sailed seven +years in the _Amiable_ with old Savage, and I'm blessed if he ever put +her a point out of her course for anything. 'Every boat for herself, and +the sea for us all,' he used to say, and allus kept his eyes forwards in +foul weather."--"Aisy, Tom, aisy, ye're out of it entirely. It's the +Humane Society's gold medal we'll all be getting for saving +firewood."--"Stow your jaw, Pat, _that's_ not wreck, it's--" + +At this moment the third mate's voice rang through the ship-- + +"A boat bottom up!" + +The men passed from chaff to a silence whose eagerness could be felt, +through which another voice came through the wind from the +poop--"_there's something on her_!" and I turned that way, and saw the +captain put down his glass, and put his hand to his mouth; and when he +sang out "A MAN!" we all sprang to our feet, and opened our lips, but +the boatswain put up his hand, and cried, "Silence, fore and aft! +Steady, lads! Look to the captain!" + +The gold cap-bands glittered close together, and then, clear to be seen +in a sudden gleam of moonlight, the captain leaned forward and shouted +to the crew, "Fo'cs'le there!" And they sang out, "Aye, aye, sir!" + +"Volunteers for the whaleboat!" + +My heart was beating fast enough, but I do not think I could have +counted a dozen throbs, before, with a wild hurrah, every man had leaped +from the forecastle, Alister among them, and I was left alone. + +I was just wondering if I could possibly be of use, when I heard the +captain's voice again. (He had come down, and was where the whaleboat +was hanging, which, I learned, was fitted like a lifeboat, and the crew +were crowding round him.) + +"Steady, lads! Stand back. Come as you're called. Thunder and lightning, +we want to man the boat, not sink her. Mr. Johnson!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"A! B! C! D!" &c. + +"Here, sir!" "Here, sir!" "Here, sir!" + +"Fall back there! Thank you all, my lads, but she's manned." + +A loud cheer drowned every other sound, and I saw men busy with the +boat, and Alister coming back with a dejected air, and the captain +jumping up and down, and roaring louder than the wind: "Steward! rum, +and a couple of blankets. Look sharp. Stand back; in you go; steady! +Now, mind what I say; I shall bear up towards the boat. Hi, there! +Stand by the lowering-tackle, and when I say 'Now!' lower away +handsomely and steadily. Are you ready, Mr. Johnson? Keep steady, all, +and fend her off well when you touch the water. Mr. Waters! let her go +off a point or two to the north'ard. Half speed; port a little--steady! +All ready in the boat?" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"GOD bless you. Steady--ready--Now!" + +I hardly know which more roused my amazement and admiration--the +behaviour of the men or the behaviour of the whaleboat. Were these alert +and silent seamen, sitting side by side, each with his oar held upright +in his hand, and his eyes upon his captain, the rowdy roughs of the +forecastle? And were those their like companions who crowded the +bulwarks, and bent over to cheer, and bless, and _envy_ them? + +As to boats--the only one I had been accustomed to used to be launched +on the canal with scraping and shoving, and struggling and balancing, +and we did occasionally upset her--but when the captain gave the word, +the ship's whaleboat and its crew were smoothly lowered by a patent +apparatus till it all but touched the big black waves that ran and +roared at it. Then came a few moments of intense anxiety till the boat +was fairly clear of the ship; but even when it was quite free, and the +men bending to their oars, I thought more than once that it had gone +down for ever on the other side of the hills and dales of water which +kept hiding it completely from all except those who were high up upon +the masts. It was a relief when we could see it, miserable speck as it +looked, and we all strained our eyes after it, through many difficulties +from the spiteful ways of the winds and waves and clouds, which blinded +and buffeted and drenched us when we tried to look, and sent black veils +of shadow to hide our comrades from our eyes. In the teeth of the +elements, however, the captain was bearing up towards the other boat, +and it was now and then quite possible to see with the naked eye that +she was upside down, and that a man was clinging to her keel. At such +glimpses an inarticulate murmur ran through our midst, but for the most +part we, who were only watching, were silent till the whaleboat was +fairly alongside of the object of her gallant expedition. Then by good +luck the moon sailed forth and gave us a fair view, but it was rather a +disappointing one, for the two boats seemed to do nothing but bob about +like two burnt corks in the moonlight, and we began to talk again. + +"What's she doing?"--"The LORD knows!"--"Something's gone wrong."--"Why +doesn't she go nearer?"--"'Cos she'd be stove in, ye fool!"--"Gude save +us! they're both gone."--"Not they, they're to the left; but what the +winds and waves they're after ----"--"They're trying to make him hear, +likely enough, and they might as well call on my grandmother. He's as +dead as a herring."--"Whisht! whisht! He's a living soul! Hech, sirs! +there's nought but the grip o' despair would haud a man on the keel of +'s boat in waves like yon."--"Silence, all!" + +We turned our heads, for a voice rang from the look-out-- + +"Man overboard from the whaleboat!" + +The men were so excited, and crowded so together, that I could hardly +find a peeping-place. + +"He's got him."--"Nay, they're both gone."--"Man! I'm just thinking that +it's ill interfering with the designs of Providence. We may lose Peter +and not save Paul."--"Stow your discourses, Sandy!"--"They're hauling in +our man, and time they did." + +The captain's voice now called to the first mate-- + +"Do you make it one or both, Mr. Waters?" + +"_Both_, sir!" + +"Thank GOD!" + +We hurrahed again, and the whaleboat-men replied--but their cheer only +came faintly to us, like a wail upon the wind. + +Several men of our group were now called to work, and I was ordered +below to bring up a hammock, and swing it in the steerage. I was vexed, +as I would have given anything to have helped to welcome the whaleboat +back. + +When the odd jobs I had been called to were done with, and I returned to +the deck, it was just too late to see her hauled up. I could not see +over the thick standing group of men, and I did not, of course, dare to +push through them to catch sight of our heroes and the man they had +saved. But a little apart from the rest, two Irish sailors were standing +and bandying the harshest of brogues with such vehemence that I drew +near, hoping at least to hear something of what I could not see. It was +a spirited, and one would have guessed an angry dialogue, so like did it +sound to the yapping and snapping of two peppery-tempered terriers. But +it was only vehement, and this was the sum of it. + +"Bedad! but it's quare ye must have felt at the time." + +"I did not, unless it would be when Tom stepped out into the water, GOD +bless him! with the rope aisy round his waist, and the waves drowning +him intirely, and the corpse holding on to the boat's bottom for the +dear life." + +"Pat!" said the other in mysterious tones, "would that that's hanging +round his neck be the presarving of him, what?" + +"And why wouldn't it? But isn't he the big fool to be having it dangling +where the wash of a wave, or a pickpocket, or a worse timptation than +either might be staling it away from him?" + +"And where else would he put it?" + +"Did ye ever git the sight of mine?" + +"I did not." + +"On the back of me?" + +"What?" + +"Look here, now!" cried Pat, in the tones of one whose patience was +entirely exhausted. His friend drew nearer, and I also ventured to +accept an invitation not intended for me, so greatly was my curiosity +roused by what the men said. + +Pat turned his back to us as rapidly as he had spoken, and stooping at +about half-leap-frog-angle, whipped his wet shirt upwards out of his +loosely-strapped trousers, baring his back from his waist to his +shoulder-blades. The moon was somewhat overcast, but there was light +enough for us to see a grotesque semblance of the Crucifixion tattooed +upon his flesh in more than one colour, and some accompanying symbols +and initials which we could hardly distinguish. + +"Now am I safe for Christian burial or not, in the case I'd be +misfortunate enough to be washed up on the shores of a haythen +counthry?" + +"Ye are so!" + +I never saw a funnier sight than Pat craning and twisting his head in +futile efforts to look at it under his own arm. + +"It's a foin piece of work, I'm told," said he. + +"They tould ye no less than the truth that said that, Pat. It's a mighty +foin piece of work." + +"They all say so that see it," sighed Pat, tucking his shirt in again, +"and that'll be ivry soul but meself, worse luck!" + +"Shaughnessey!" + +"Sir!" + +Pat ran off, and as I turned I saw that the crew of the whaleboat were +going below with a crowd of satellites, and that a space was cleared +through which I could see the man they had saved still lying on the +deck, with the captain kneeling at his head, and looking back as if he +were waiting for something. And at that moment the moon shone out once +more, and showed me a sight that I'll forget when I forget you--Dennis +O'Moore! + + * * * * * + +It was a lad that they had saved, not a full-grown man, except in the +sense of his height, which was nearly an inch beyond Alister's. He was +insensible, and I thought he was dead, so death-like was the pallor of +his face in contrast with the dark curls of his head and the lashes of +his closed eyes. We were dipping to leeward, his head rolled a little on +the rough pillow that had been heaped to raise him, and his white face +against the inky waves reminded me of the face of the young lord in +Charlie's father's church, who died abroad, and a marble figure of him +was sent home from Italy, with his dog lying at his feet. His shoulders +were raised as well as his head, and his jacket and shirt had both been +washed open by the waves. + +And that was how I got the key to the Irishmen's dialogue. For round the +lad's throat was a black ribbon, pendant from which a small cross of +ebony was clear to be seen upon his naked breast; and on this there +glittered in the moonlight a silver image of the Redeemer of the World. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Why, what's that to you, if my eyes I'm a wiping? + A tear is a pleasure, d'ye see, in its way; + 'Tis nonsense for trifles, I own, to be piping, + But they that ha'n't pity, why I pities they. + * * * * * * * * + The heart and the eyes, you see feel the same motion, + And if both shed their drops, 'tis all the same end; + And thus 'tis that every tight lad of the ocean + Sheds his blood for his country, his tears for his friend." + CHARLES DIBDIN. + + +If one wants to find the value of all he has learned in the way of +righteousness, common-sense, and real skill of any sort; or to reap most +quickly what he has sown to obedience, industry, and endurance, let him +go out and rough it in the world. + +There he shall find that a conscience early trained to resist temptation +and to feel shame will be to him the instinctive clutch that may now and +again--in an ungraceful, anyhow fashion--keep him from slipping down to +perdition, and save his soul alive. There he shall find that whatever he +has really learned by labour or grasped with inborn talent, will sooner +or later come to the surface to his credit and for his good; but that +what he swaggers will not even find fair play. There, in brief, he shall +find his level--a great matter for most men. There, in fine, he will +discover that there being a great deal of human nature in all men, and a +great deal that is common to all lives--if he has learned to learn and +is good-natured withal, he may live pretty comfortably anywhere-- + + "As a rough rule, + The rough world's a good school,"-- + +and if there are a few parlour-boarders it is very little advantage to +them. + +For my own part I was almost startled to find how quickly I was +beginning to learn something of the ways of the ship and her crew; and +though, when I asked for information about all the various appliances +which come under the comprehensive sea-name of "tackle," I was again and +again made the victim of a hoax, I soon learned to correct one piece of +information by another, and to feel less of an April fool and more of a +sailor. Reading sea-novels had not really taught me much, for there was +not one in all that the Jew-clerk lent or sold me which _explained_ +ship's language and customs. But the school-master had given me many +useful hints, and experience soon taught me how to apply them. + +The watch in which Alister and I shared just after we picked up Dennis +O'Moore, was naturally very much enlivened by news and surmises +regarding our new "hand." Word soon came up from below that he was alive +and likely to recover, and for a brief period I found my society in +great request, because I had been employed in some fetching and carrying +between the galley and the steerage, and had "heard the drowned man +groan." We should have gossiped more than we did if the vessel had not +exacted unusual attention, for the winds and the waves had "plenty of +mischief in 'em" yet, as I was well able to testify when I was sent aft +to help the man at the wheel. + +"That'll take the starch out o' yer Sunday stick-ups!" said the +boatswain's mate, on hearing where I was bound for, when he met me +clinging to the wet deck with my stocking-feet, and catching with my +hands at every bit of tackle capable of giving support. And as I put out +all my strength to help the steersman to force his wheel in the +direction he meant it to go, and the salt spray smacked my face and +soaked my slops, and every wind of heaven seemed to blow down my neck +and up my sleeves and trousers--I heartily agreed with him. + +The man I was helping never spoke, except to shout some brief order into +my ear or an occasional reply to the words of command which rang over +our heads from the captain on the bridge. Of course I did not speak, I +had quite enough to do to keep my footing and take my small part in this +fierce bitting and bridling of the elements; but uncomfortable as it +was, I "took a pride and pleasure in it," as we used to say at home, and +I already felt that strenuous something which blows in sea-breezes and +gives vigour to mind and body even when it chills you to the bone. + +That is, to some people; there are plenty of men, as I have since +discovered, who spend their lives at sea and hate it to the end. Boy and +man, they do their hard duty and live by its pitiful recompense. They +know the sea as well as other mariners, are used to her uncertain ways, +bear her rough usage, control her stormy humours, learn all her moods, +and _never feel her charm_. + +I have seen two such cases, and I have heard of more, yarned with all +their melancholy details during those night watches in which men will +tell you the ins and outs of many a queer story that they "never talk +about." And it has convinced me that there is no more cruel blunder than +to send a boy to sea, if there is good reason to believe that he will +never like it; unless it be that of withholding from its noble service +those sailor lads born, in whose ears the sea-shell will murmur till +they die. + +It had murmured in mine, and enticed me to my fate. I thought so now +that I knew the roughest of the other side of the question, just as much +as when I sat comfortably on the frilled cushion of the round-backed +arm-chair and read the Penny Numbers to the bee-master. Barefoot, +bareheaded, cold, wet, seasick, hard worked and half-rested, would I +even now exchange the life I had chosen for the life I had left?--for +the desk next to the Jew-clerk, for the partnership, to be my uncle's +heir, to be mayor, to be member? I asked myself the question as I stood +by the steersman, and with every drive of the wheel I answered it--"No, +Moses! No! No!" + +It is not wise to think hard when you are working hard at mechanical +work, in a blustering wind and a night watch. Fatigue and open air make +you sleepy, and thinking makes you forget where you are, and if your +work is mechanical you do it unconsciously, and may fall asleep over it. +I dozed more than once, and woke with the horrible idea that I had lost +my hold, and was not doing my work. That woke me effectually, but even +then I had to look at my hands to see that they were there. I pushed, +but I could not feel, my fingers were so numb with cold. + +The second time I dozed and started again, I heard the captain's voice +close beside us. He was bawling upwards now, to Mr. Waters on the +bridge. Then he pushed me on one side and took my place at the wheel, +shouting to the steersman--"I meant the Scotch lad, not that boy." + +"He's strong enough, and steady too," was the reply. + +They both drove the wheel in silence, and I held on by a coil of heavy +rope, and sucked my fingers to warm them, and very salt they tasted. +Then the captain left the wheel and turned to me again. + +"Are you cold?" + +"Rather, sir." + +"You may go below, and see if the cook can spare you a cup of coffee." + +"Thank you, sir." + +"But first find Mr. Johnson, and send him here." + +"Yes, sir." + +Whilst the captain was talking, I began to think of Dennis O'Moore, and +how he groaned, and to wonder whether it was true that he would get +better, and whether it would be improper to ask the captain, who would +not be likely to humbug me, if he answered at all. + +"Well?" said the captain sharply, "what are you standing there like a +stuck pig for?" + +I saluted. "Please, sir, _will_ he get better?" + +"What the ---- Oh, yes. And hi, you!" + +"Yes, sir?" + +"He's in the steerage. You may go and see if he wants anything, and +attend on him. You may remain below at present." + +"Thank you, sir." + +I lost no time in finding Mr. Johnson, and I got a delicious cup of +coffee and half a biscuit from the cook, who favoured me in consequence +of the conscientious scouring I had bestowed upon his pans. Then +mightily warmed and refreshed, I made my way to the side of the hammock +I had swung for the rescued lad, and by the light of a swinging lamp saw +his dark head buried in his arms. + +When I said, "Do you want anything?" he lifted his face with a jerk, and +looked at me. + +"Not I--much obliged," he said, smiling, and still staring hard. He had +teeth like the half-caste, but the resemblance stopped there. + +"The captain said I might come and look after you, but if you want to go +to sleep, do," said I. + +"Why would I, if you'll talk to me a bit?" was his reply; and resting +his head on the edge of his hammock and looking me well over, he added, +"Did they pick you up as well?" + +I laughed and wrung some salt water out of my sleeve. + +"No. I've not been in the sea, but I've been on deck, and it's just as +wet. It always _is_ wet at sea," I added in a tone of experience. + +His eyes twinkled as if I amused him. "That, indeed? And yourself, are +ye--a midshipman?" + +It had been taken for granted that our new hand was "a gentleman." I +never doubted it, though he spoke with an accent that certainly recalled +old Biddy Macartney; a sort of soft ghost of a brogue with a turn up at +the end of it, as if every sentence came sliding and finished with a +spring, and I did wish I could have introduced myself as a +midshipman--instead of having to mutter, "No, I'm a stowaway." + +He raised himself higher in his hammock. + +"A stowaway? What fun! And what made ye go? Were ye up to some kind of +diversion at home, and had to come out of it, eh? Or were ye bored to +extinction, or what? (Country life in England is mighty dull, so they +tell me.) I suppose it was French leave that ye took, as ye say you're a +stowaway? I'm asking ye a heap of impertinent questions, bad manners to +me!" + +Which was true. But he asked them so kindly and eagerly, I could only +feel that sympathy is a very pleasant thing, even when it takes the form +of a catechism that is all questions, and no room for the answers. +Moreover, I suspect that he rattled on partly to give me time to leave +off blushing and feel at ease with him. + +"I ran away because of several things," said I. + +"I always did want to see the world"--("And why wouldn't ye?" my new +friend hastily interpolated). "But even if I had stayed at home I don't +believe I should ever have got to like being a lawyer"--("Small chance +of it, I should say, the quill-driving thievery!") "It was my uncle's +office"--("I ask his pardon and yours.") "Oh, you may say what you like. +I never could get on with him. I don't mean that he was cruel to me in +the least, though I think he behaved shabbily--" + +"Faith, it's a way they have! I've an uncle myself that's a sort of +first cousin of my father's, and six foot three in his stockings, +without a drop of good-nature in the full length of him." + +"Where is your home?" said I, for it certainly was my turn to ask +questions. + +"Where would it be but ould Ireland?" And after a moment's pause he +added, "They call me Dennis O'Moore. What's _your_ name, ye enterprising +little stowaway?" + +I told him. "And where were you going in your boat, and how did you get +upset?" I asked. + +He sighed. "It was the old hooker we started in, bad luck to her!" + +"Is that the name of the boat you were holding on to?" + +"_That_ boat? No! We borrowed _her_--and now ye remind me, I wouldn't +be surprised if Tim Brady was missing her by this, for I had no leisure +to ask his leave at the time, and, as a rule, we take our own coracle in +the hooker--" + +"What _is_ a hooker?" I interrupted, for I was resolved to know. + +"What's a hooker? A hooker--what a catechetical little chatterbox ye +are! A man can't get a word in edgeways--a hooker's a boat. Ours was a +twenty-ton, half-decked, cutter-rigged sort of thing, built for nothing +in particular, and always used for everything. It was lucky for me we +took Tim Brady's boat instead of the coracle, or I'd be now where--where +poor Barney is. Oh, Barney, Barney! How'll I ever get over it? Why did +ye never learn to swim, so fond of the water as ye were? Why couldn't ye +hold on to me when I got a good grip of ye! Barney, dear, I've a notion +in my heart that ye left your hold on purpose, and threw away your own +life that ye mightn't risk mine. And now I'll never know, for ye'll never +be able to tell me. Tim Brady's boat would have held two as easy as one, +Barney, and maybe the old hooker'd have weathered the storm with a few +more repairs about her, that the squire always intended, as no one knows +better than yourself! Oh, dear! oh, dear! But--Heaven forgive +us!--putting off's been the ruin of the O'Moores from time out of mind. +And now you're dead and gone--dead and gone! But oh, Barney, Barney, if +prayers can give your soul ease, you'll not want them while Dennis +O'Moore has breath to pray!" + +I was beginning to discover that one of the first wonders of the world +is that it contains a great many very good people, who are quite +different from oneself and one's near relations. For I really was not +conceited enough to disapprove of my new friend because he astonished +me, though he certainly did do so. From the moment when Barney (whoever +Barney might be) came into his head, everything else apparently went out +of it. I am sure he quite forgot me. + +For my own part I gazed at him in blank amazement. I was not used to +seeing a man give way to his feelings in public, still less to seeing a +man cry in company, and least of all to see a man say his prayers when +he was neither getting up nor going to bed, nor at church, nor at family +worship, and before a stranger too! For, as he finished his sentence he +touched his curls, and then the place where his crucifix lay, and then +made a rapid movement from shoulder to shoulder, and then buried his +head in his hands, and lay silent, praying, I had no manner of doubt, +for "Barney's" soul. + +His prayers did not take him very long, and he finished with a big +sigh, and lifted his head again. When his eyes met mine he blushed, and +said, "I ask your pardon, Jack; I'd forgotten ye. You're a kind-hearted +little soul, and I'm mighty dull company for ye." + +"No, you're not," said I. "But--I'm very sorry for you. Was 'Barney' +your--?" and I stopped because I really did not know what relationship +to suggest that would account for the outburst I had witnessed. + +"Ah! ye may well say what was he--for what wasn't he--to me, anyhow? +Jack! my mother died when I was born, and never a soul but Barney +brought me up, for I wouldn't let 'em. He'd come with her from her old +home when she married; and when she lay dead he was let into the room to +look at her pretty face once more. Times out of mind has he told me how +she lay, with the black lashes on her white cheeks, and the black +crucifix on her breast, that they were going to bury with her; the women +howling, and me kicking up an indecent row in a cradle in the next +apartment, carrying on like a Turk if the nurse came near me, and most +outrageously disturbing the chamber of death. And what does Barney do, +when he's said a prayer by the side of the mistress, but ask for the +crucifix off her neck, that she'd worn all her girlhood? If the women +howled before, they double-howled then, and would have turned him out +neck and crop, but my father lifted his head from where he was lying +speechless in a kind of a fit at the foot of the bed, and says he, +'Barney Barton! ye knew the sweet lady that lies there long before that +too brief privilege was mine. Ye served her well, and ye've served me +well for her sake; whatever ye ask for of hers in this hour ye'll get, +Barney Barton. She trusted ye--and I may.' 'GOD bless ye, squire,' says +Barney; and what does he do but go up to her and unloose the ribbon from +her throat with his own hands. And away he went with the crucifix, past +the women that couldn't get a sound out of them now, and past my father +as silent as themselves, and into the room where I lay kicking up the +devil's own din in my cradle. And when he held it up to me, with the +light shining on the silver, and the black ribbons hanging down, never +believe him if I didn't stop squalling, and stretch out my hands with a +smile as sweet as sunshine. And Barney tied it round my neck, and took +me into his arms. And they said he spoke never a word when they told him +my mother was dead, and shed never a tear when he saw her lie, but he +sobbed his heart out over me." + +"You may well care for him!" said I. + +"Indeed I may. He kept my mother's memory green in my heart, and he +taught me all ever I knew but books. He taught me to walk, and he taught +me to ride, and shooting, and fishing, and such like country diversions; +and strange to say, he taught me to swim, the way they learn in my +mother's country, with a bundle of bull-rushes--for the old man couldn't +swim a stroke himself, or he might be here now, alive and hearty, please +GOD." + +"Were there only you and he in the hooker?" + +"That's all. It was altogether sheer madness, for the old boat was +barely fit for a day's fishing in fine weather, and though Barney nearly +killed himself overhauling her, and patching her sails, I doubt if he +knew very well what he was after. I've been thinking, Jack, that his +mind was not what it was. He was always a bit obstinate, if he got a +notion into his head, but of late the squire himself couldn't turn him. +When he wanted to do a thing about the place that Barney didn't approve, +if he didn't give in (as he was apt to do, being easy-tempered) I can +tell ye he had to do it on the sly. That was how he ordered the new +ploughs that nearly broke Barney's heart, both because of being +new-fangled machines, and ready money having to be paid for them. 'I'll +see the ould place ruined before ye come to your own, Master Dennis,' he +told me. And--Jack! that's another thing makes me think what I tell ye. +He was for ever talking as if the place was coming to me, and I've two +brothers older than myself, let alone my sister. But ye might as well +reason with the rock of Croagh Patrick! Well, if he didn't ask my father +to let him and me run round in the hooker with a load of sea-weed for +Tim Brady's farm, and of course we got leave, and started as pleasant as +could be; barring that if Barney'd been a year or two younger, there'd +have been wigs on the green over the cold potatoes, before we got off." + +"_Wigs on the green over cold potatoes?_" I repeated, in bewilderment. + +"Tst! tst! little Saxon! I mean we'd have had a row over the provisions. +It wasn't too hours' run round to Tim Brady's, and I found the old man +stowing away half-a-peck of cold boiled potatoes, and big bottles of +tea, and goodness knows what. 'Is it for ballast ye're using the +potatoes, Barney?' says I. 'Mind your own business, Master Dennis'--(and +I could see he was cross as two sticks),--'and leave the provisioning to +them that understands it,' says he. 'How many meals d'ye reckon to eat +between this and Tim Brady's?' I went on, just poking my fun at him, +when--would ye believe it?--the old fellow fired up like a sky-rocket, +and asked me if I grudged him the bit of food he ate, and Heaven knows +what besides. 'Is it Dennis O'Moore you're speaking to?' says I, for +I've not got the squire's easy temper, GOD forgive me! We were mighty +near to a quarrel, Jack, I can tell ye, but some shadow of a notion +flitting across my brain that the dear soul was not responsible +entirely, stopped my tongue, and something else stopped his which I +didn't know till we got to Tim Brady's, and found that all we wanted +with him was to borrow his boat, and that the sea-weed business was no +better than a blind; for Barney had planned it all out that we were to +go down to Galway and fetch the new ploughs home in the hooker, to save +the cost of the land-carriage. 'Sure it's bad enough for the squire to +be soiling his hands with trumpery made by them English thieves, that's +no more conscience over bothering a gentleman for money nor if he was +one of themselves,' said Barney; 'sorra a halfpenny shall the railway +rogues rob him of.' Ah, little stowaway, ye may guess my delight! And +hadn't we glorious weather at first, and wasn't the dear old man happy +and proud! I can tell ye I yelled, and I sang, and I laughed, when I +felt the old hooker begin to bound on the swell when we got into the +open, but not a look would Barney turn on me for minding the boat; but I +could hear him chuckling to himself and muttering about the railway +rogues. It wasn't much time we either of us had for talking, by and by. +I steered and saw to the main sheet, and Barney did look-out and minded +the foresail, Tim Brady's boat towing astern, getting such a dance as +it never had before, and at last dragging upside down. We'd one thing in +our favour, anyhow. There was no disputing or disturbing of our minds as +to whether we'd turn back or not, for the gale was at our backs; and the +old hooker was like my father's black mare--you might guide her, but she +was neither to stop nor turn. How the gallant old boat held out as she +did, Heaven knows! It was not till the main-sail had split into ribbons +with a noise like a gun going off, and every seam was strained to +leaking, and the sea came in faster than we could bale it out, that we +righted Tim Brady's tub and got into her, and bade the old hooker +good-bye. The boat was weather-tight enough--it was a false move of +Barney's capsized her,--and I'd a good hold of her with one hand when I +gripped him with the other. Oh! Barney dear! Why would ye always have +your own way? Oh, why--why did ye lose your hold? Ye thought all hope +was over, darling, didn't ye? Ah, if ye had but known the brave hearts +that--" + +I suppose it was because I was crying as well as Dennis that I did not +see Mr. Johnson till he was standing by the Irish boy's hammock. I know +I got a sound scolding for the state of his pulse (which the third mate +seemed to understand, as he understood most things), and was dismissed +with some pithy hints about cultivating common-sense and not making a +fool of myself. I sneaked off, and was thankful to meet Alister and pour +out my tale to him, and ask if he thought that our new friend would have +brain-fever, because I had let him talk about his shipwreck. + +Alister was not quite so sympathetic as I had expected. He was so much +shocked about the crucifix and about Dennis praying for Barney's soul, +that he could think of nothing else. He didn't seem to think that he +would have fever, but he said he feared we had small reason to reckon on +the prayers of the idolatrous ascending to the throne of grace. He told +me a long story about the Protestant martyrs who were shut up in a +dungeon under the sea, on the coast of Aberdeenshire, and it would have +been very interesting if I hadn't been thinking of Dennis. + +We had turned in for some sleep, and I was rolling myself in my blanket, +when Alister called me-- + +"Jack! did ye ever read Fox's _Book of Martyrs_?" + +"No." + +"It's a gran' work, and it has some awful tales in it. When we've a bit +of holiday leesure I'll tell ye some." + +"Thank you, Alister." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + "A very wise man believed that, if a man were permitted to make all + the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a + nation."--_Fletcher of Saltoun in a letter to the Marquis of + Montrose_. + + +The weather was fair enough, and we went along very steadily and +pleasantly that afternoon. I was undoubtedly getting my sea-legs, which +was well for me, as they were put to the test unexpectedly. I happened +to be standing near Alister (we were tarring ropes), when some orders +rang out in Mr. Waters' voice, which I found had reference to something +to be done to some of the sails. At last came the words "Away aloft!" +which were responded to by a rush of several sailors, who ran and leaped +and caught ropes and began climbing the rigging with a nimbleness and +dexterity which my own small powers in that line enabled me to +appreciate, as I gazed upwards after them. The next order bore +unexpected and far from flattering references to me. + +"Hi, there. Francis!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"Take that gaping booby up with you. I hear he's 'good at athletics.'" + +The sailors who were rope-tarring sniggered audibly, and Alister lifted +his face with a look of anxiety, that did as much as the sniggering to +stimulate me not to disgrace myself. + +"Kick off your shoes, and come along," said Francis. "Jump on the +bulwarks and then follow me. Look aloft--that's up, ye know--never mind +your feet, but keep tight hold of the ratlins--so, with your hands, and +when you _are_ up aloft, don't let one hand go till you're sure of your +hold with the other." + +Up we went, gripping the swaying ropes with toes and fingers, till we +reached the main-top, where I was allowed to creep through the "Lubber's +Hole," and Francis swung himself neatly over the outside edge of the +top, and there he and I stood for a few minutes to rest. + +I cannot say I derived much comfort from his favourable comments on my +first attempt. I was painfully absorbed by realizing that to climb what +is steady, and to climb what is swaying with every wave, are quite +different things. Then, in spite of warnings, I was fascinated by the +desire to look down; and when I looked I felt more uncomfortable than +ever; the ship's deck was like a dancing tea-tray far below; my legs +and arms began to feel very light, and my head heavy, and I did not hear +what Francis was saying to me, so he pinched my arm and then repeated +it. + +"Come along--and if the other chaps put any larks on you, keep your eyes +open, and never lose a grip by one hand somewhere. So long as you hold +on to some of the ship's ropes you're bound to find your way back +somehow." + +"I'll try," I said. + +Then through the confusion in my head I heard a screaming whistle, and a +voice from beneath, and Francis pricked his ears, and then suddenly +swung himself back on to the ladder of ropes by which we had climbed. + +"Lucky for you, young shaver," said he. "Come along!" + +I desired no more definite explanation. Francis was going down, and I +willingly did the same, but when my foot touched the deck I staggered +and fell. It was Mr. Johnson who picked me up by the neck of my slops, +saying, as he did so, "Boatswain! The captain will give an extra lot of +grog to drink Mr. O'Moore's good health." + +This announcement was received with a cheer, and I heard the boatswain +calling to "stow your cleaning-tackle, my lads, and for'ards to the +break of the fo'c'sle. Them that has white ties and kid gloves can wear +'em; and them that's hout of sech articles must come as they can. Pick +up that tar-pot, ye fool! Now are ye all coming and bringing your voices +along with ye? Hany gentleman as 'as 'ad the misfortin' to leave his +music behind will oblige the ship's company with an ex-tem-por." + +"Long life to ye, bo'sun; it's a neat hand at a speech ye are, upon my +conscience!" cried Dennis, over my shoulder, and then his arm was around +it, shaking with laughter, as we were hurried along by the eager crowd. + +"He's a wag, that old fellow, too. Come along, little Jack! You're +mighty shaky on your feet, considering the festivities that we're bound +for. Step it out, my boy, or I'll have to carry ye." + +"Are ye coming to the fo'c'sle?" said I, being well aware that this was +equivalent to a drawing-room visitor taking tea in the kitchen. "You +know it's where the common sailors, and Alister and I have our meals?" I +added, for his private ear. + +"Thank ye for the hint. I know it's where I hope to meet the men that +offered their lives for mine." + +"That's true, Dennis, I know; but don't be cross. They'll be awfully +pleased to see you." + +"And not without reason, I can tell ye! Didn't I beard the lion in his +den, the captain in his cabin, to beg for the grog? And talking of +beards, of all the fiery----, upon my soul he's not safe to be near +gunpowder. Jack, is he Scotch?" + +"Yes." + +"They're bad to blarney, and I did my best, I can tell you, for my own +sake as well as for the men. I'm as shy with strangers as an owl by +daylight, and I'll never get a thank ye out of my throat, unless we've +the chance of a bit of sociability. However, at last he called to that +nice fellow--third mate, isn't he?--and gave orders for the rum. +'Two-water grog, Mr. Johnson,' says he. 'Ah, captain,' I said, 'don't be +throwing cold water on the entertainment; they got their share of that +last night. It's only the rum that's required to complete us now.' But +he's as deaf to fun as he is to blarney. Is he good to you, little +stowaway?" + +"Oh, very," said I. "And you should hear what the men tell about other +captains. They all like this one." + +"He has an air of uprightness about him; and so has that +brother-in-adversity of yours, more polish to him! He must be a noble +fellow, though. I can't get over _his_ volunteering, without the most +distant obligation to risk his life for me--not even a sailor. And yet +he won't be friendly, do what I will. As formal as you please--that's +pride, I suppose--he's Scotch too, isn't he? Blarney's no go with him. +Faith, it's like trying to butter short-bread with the thermometer at +zero. By Jove, there he is ahead of us. Alister, man! Not the ghost of a +look will he give me. He's fine-looking, too, if his hair wasn't so +insanely distracted, and his brow ridged and furrowed deep enough to +plant potatoes in. What in the name of fortune's he doing to his hands?" + +"He's _washing_ them with a lump of grease," said I. "I saw Francis give +it him. It's to get the tar off." + +"That indeed? Alister! _Alister_! Have ye no eyes in the back of ye? +Here's Jack and myself." + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said Alister, stiffly. + +"Oh, confound your _sir_-liness!" muttered Dennis, and added aloud, "Is +that pomatum for your hair?" + +Alister laughed in spite of himself. + +"More like hair-_dye_, sir," said he, and rubbing desperately at his +fingers, he added, "I can't get them decent." + +"Ah, let them rest!" said Dennis. "It's painting the lily to adorn them. +On ye go; and mind ye keep near to us, and we'll make a landlubber's +parliament in a corner to ourselves." + +My first friend had thawed, and went cheerfully ahead of us, as I was +very glad to see. Dennis saw it too, but only to relapse into mischief. +He held me back, as Alister strode in front, and putting out his thumb +and finger, so close to a tuft of hay-coloured hair that stood cocked +defiantly up on the Scotchman's crown that I was in all the agony he +meant me to be for fear of detection, he chattered in my ear, "Jack, did +ye ever study physiognomy, or any of the science of externals? Look at +this independent tuft. Isn't the whole character of the man in it? Could +mortal man force it down? Could the fingers of woman coax it? Would ye +appeal to it with argument? Would hair's grease, bear's grease ----" + +But his peroration was suddenly cut short by a rush from behind, one man +tumbling over another on the road to the forecastle. Dennis himself was +thrown against Alister, and his hand came heavily down on the stubborn +lock of hair. + +"It's these fellows, bad manners to them," he explained; but I think +Alister suspected a joke at his expense, and putting his arms suddenly +behind him, he seized Dennis by the legs and hoisted him on to his back +as if he had been a child. In this fashion the hero of the occasion was +carried to a place of honour, and deposited (not too gently) on the top +of an inverted deck-tub, amid the cheers and laughter of all concerned. + +Round another tub--a shallow oak one, tidily hooped with cooper--which +served as spittoon, a solemn circle of smokers was already assembled. +They disturbed themselves to salute Dennis, and to make room for others +to join them, and then the enlarged circle puffed and kept silence as +before. I was watching the colour come and go on the Irish boy's face, +and he was making comical signs to me to show his embarrassment, when +Mr. Johnson shouted for the grog-tub to be sent aft, and the boatswain +summoned me to get it and follow him. + +The smokers were not more silent than we, as the third mate slowly +measured the rum--half a gill a head--into the grog-tub. But when this +solemnity was over and he began to add the water, a very spirited +dialogue ensued; Mr. Johnson (so far as I could understand it) +maintaining that "two-water grog" was the rule of the ships on their +line, and the boatswain pleading that this being a "special issue" was +apart from general rules, and that it would be more complimentary to the +"young gentleman" to have the grog a little stronger. How it ended I do +not know; I know I thought my "tot" very nasty, and not improved by the +reek of strong tobacco in the midst of which we drank it, to Dennis +O'Moore's very good health. + +When the boatswain and I got back to the forecastle, carrying the +grog-tub, we found the company as we had left it, except that there was +a peculiarly bland expression on every man's face as he listened to a +song that the cook was singing. It was a very love-lorn, lamentable, and +lengthy song, three qualities which alone would recommend it to any +audience of Jack Tars, as I have since had many occasions to observe. +The intense dolefulness of the ditty was not diminished by the fact that +the cook had no musical ear, and having started on a note that was no +note in particular, he flattened with every long-drawn lamentation till +the ballad became more of a groan than a song. When the grog-tub was +deposited, Dennis beckoned to the boatswain, and we made our way to his +side. + +"Your cook's a vocal genius, anyhow, bo'sun," said he. "But don't ye +think we'd do more justice to our accomplishments, _and keep in tune_, +if we'd an accompaniment? Have ye such a thing as a fiddle about ye?" + +The boatswain was delighted. Of course there was a fiddle, and I was +despatched for it. I should find it hanging on a hook at the end of the +plate-rack, and if the bow was not beside it it would be upon the shelf, +and there used to be a lump of resin and a spare string or two in an +empty division of the spice-box. The whole kit had belonged to a former +cook, a very musical nigger, who had died at sea, and bequeathed his +violin to his ship. Sambo had been well liked, and there were some old +hands would be well pleased to hear his fiddle once more. + +It took me some little time to find everything, and when I got back to +Dennis another song had begun. A young sailor I did not know was singing +it, and the less said about it the better, except that it very nearly +led to a row. It was by way of being a comic song, but except for one +line which was rather witty as well as very nasty, there was nothing +humorous about it, unless that it was funny that any one could have been +indecent enough to write it, and any one else unblushing enough to sing +it. I am ashamed to say I had heard some compositions of a similar type +at Snuffy's, and it filled me with no particular amazement to hear a +good deal of sniggering in the circle round the spittoon, though I felt +miserably uncomfortable, and wondered what Mr. O'Moore would think. I +had forgotten Alister. + +I was not likely soon to forget his face as I saw it, the blood swelling +his forehead, and the white wrath round his lips, when he gripped me by +the shoulder, saying, in broader Scotch than usual, "Come awa' wi' ye, +laddie! I'll no let ye stay. Come awa' oot of this accurst hole. I +wonder he doesna think black burning shame of himsel' to stand up before +grey-heided men and fill a callant's ears with filth like yon." + +Happily just indignation had choked Alister's voice as well as his +veins, and I don't think many of the company heard this too accurate +summary of the situation. The boatswain did, but before he could speak, +Dennis O'Moore had sprung to the ground between them, and laying the +fiddle over his shoulder played a wild sort of jig that most effectually +and unceremoniously drowned the rest of the song, and diverted the +attention of the men. + +"The fiddle's an old friend, so the bo'sun tells me," he said, nodding +towards the faces that turned to him. + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +"Why, I'm blessed if it isn't Sambo's old thing." + +"It's your honour knows how to bring the heart out of it, anyhow." + +"My eyes, Pat! You should ha' heerd it at the dignity ball we went +ashore for at Barbadoes. Did you ever foot the floor with a black +washerwoman of eighteen stun, dressed out in muslin the colour of orange +marmalade, and white kid shoes?" + +"I did not, the darlin'!" + +As the circle gossiped, Dennis tuned the fiddle, talking vehemently to +the boatswain between whiles. + +"Bo'sun! ye're not to say a word to the boy. (Sit down, Alister, I tell +ye!) I ask it as a favour. He didn't mince matters, I'll allow, but it +was GOD'S truth, and no less, that he spoke. Come, bo'sun, who's a +better judge of manners than yourself? We'd had enough and to spare of +that, (Will ye keep quiet, ye cantankerous Scotchman! Who's harming ye +now? Jack, if ye move an inch, I'll break this fiddle over your head.) +Bo'sun! we're perishing for our grog, are ye aware?" + +The diversion was successful. The boatswain, with a few indignant +mutterings, devoted himself to doling out the tots of grog, and then +proposed Dennis O'Moore's health in a speech full of his own style of +humour, which raised loud applause; Dennis commenting freely on the +text, and filling up awkward pauses with flourishes on Sambo's fiddle. +The boatswain's final suggestion that the ship's guest should return +thanks by a song, instead of a sentiment, was received with +acclamations, during which he sat down, after casting a mischievous +glance at Dennis, who was once more blushing and fidgeting with shyness. + +"Ye've taken your revenge, bo'sun," said he. + +"Them that blames should do better, sir," replied the boatswain, folding +his arms. + +"A song! a song! Mr. O'Moore!" shouted the men. + +"I only know a few old Irish songs," pleaded Dennis. + +"Ould Ireland for ever!" cried Pat Shaughnessy. + +"Hear! hear! Encore, Pat!" roared the men. They were still laughing. +Then one or two of those nearest to us put up their hands to get +silence. Sambo's fiddle was singing (as only voices and fiddles can +sing) a melody to which the heads and toes of the company soon began to +nod and beat: + + "La, l[)e] l[=a] la la, la la la, l[=a] l[)e] la, la + L[=a], le l[=a] la la, la la la, la--l[)e] la la," + +hummed the boatswain. "Lor' bless me, Mr. O'Moore, I heard that afore +you were born, though I'm blessed if I know where. But it's a genteel +pretty thing!" + +"It's all about roses and nightingales!" shouted Dennis, with comical +grimaces. + +"Hear! hear!" answered the oldest and hairiest-looking of the sailors, +and the echoes of his approbation only died away to let the song begin. +Then the notes of Sambo's fiddle also dropped off, and I heard Dennis +O'Moore's beautiful voice for the first time as he gave his head one +desperate toss and began: + + "There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream, + And the nightingale sings round it all the night long. + In the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream + To sit in the roses and hear the bird's song." + +One by one the pipes were rested on the smokers' knees; they wanted +their mouths to hear with. I don't think the assembled company can have +looked much like exiles from flowery haunts of the nightingale, but we +all shook our heads, not only in time but in sympathy, as the clear +voice rose to a more passionate strain: + + "That bower and its music I never forget; + But oft when alone in the bloom of the year, + I think--is the nightingale singing there yet? + Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer?" + +I and the oldest and hairiest sailor were sighing like furnaces as the +melody recommenced with the second verse: + + "No, the roses soon withered that hung o'er the wave, + But some blossoms were gathered while freshly they shone, + And a dew was distilled from their flowers, that gave + All the fragrance of summer when summer was gone." + +If making pot-pourri after my mother's old family recipe had been the +chief duty of able-bodied seamen, this could not have elicited more nods +of approbation. But we listened spell-bound and immovable to the passion +and pathos with which the singer poured forth the conclusion of his +song: + + "Thus memory draws from delight, ere it dies, + An essence that breathes of it many a year; + Thus bright to my soul--as 'twas then to my eyes-- + Is that bower on the banks of the calm Bendemeer." + +And then (as somebody said) the noise we made was enough to scare the +sea-gulls off the tops of the waves. + +"You scored that time, Mr. O'Moore," said the boatswain. "You'd make +your fortune in a music-hall, sir." + +"Thank ye, bo'sun. Glad I didn't give ye your revenge, anyhow." + +But the boatswain meant to strike nearer home. A ship's favourite might +have hesitated to sing after Dennis, so Alister's feelings may be +guessed on hearing the following speech: + +"Mr. O'Moore, and comrades all. I believe I speak for all hands on this +vessel, when I say that we ain't likely to forget sech an agreeable +addition to a ship's company as the gentleman who has just given us a +taste of the nightingale's quality" (loud cheers). "But we've been +out-o'-way favoured as I may say, this voyage. We mustn't forget that +there's two other little strangers aboard" (roars of laughter). "They +'olds their 'eads rather 'igh p'raps, for _stowaways_" ("Hear! hear!"), +"but no doubt their talents bears 'em out" ("Hear, hear!" from Dennis, +which found a few friendly echoes). "Anyway, as they've paid us a visit, +without waiting to ask if we was at 'ome to callers, we may look to 'em +to contribute to the general entertainment. Alister Auchterlay will now +favour the company with a song." + +The boatswain stood back and folded his arms, and fixed his eyes on the +sea-line, from which attitude no appeals could move him. I was very +sorry for Alister, and so was Dennis, I am sure, for he did his best to +encourage him. + +"Sing 'GOD save the Queen,' and I'll keep well after ye with the +fiddle," he suggested. But Alister shook his head. "I know one or two +Scotch tunes," Dennis added, and he began to sketch out an air or two +with his fingers on the strings. + +Presently Alister stopped him. "Yon's the 'Land o' the Leal'?" + +"It is," said Dennis. + +"Play it a bit quicker, man, and I'll try 'Scots wha hae.'" + +Dennis quickened at once, and Alister stood forward. He neither fidgeted +nor complained of feeling shy, but as my eyes (I was squatted +cross-legged on the deck) were at the level of his knees, I could see +them shaking, and pitied him none the less, that I was doubtful as to +what might not be before _me_. Dennis had to make two or three false +starts before poor Alister could get a note out of his throat, but when +he had fairly broken the ice with the word "Scots!" he faltered no more. + +The boatswain was cheated a second time of his malice. Alister could not +sing in the least like Dennis, but he had a strong manly voice, and it +had a ring that stirred one's blood, as he clenched his hands, and +rolled his Rs to the rugged appeal: + + "Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, + Scots, wham Bruce has aften led; + Welcome to your gory bed, + Or to victory!" + +Applause didn't seem to steady his legs in the least, and he never moved +his eyes from the sea, and his face only grew whiter by the time he +drove all the blood to my heart with + + "Wha will be a traitor knave? + Wha can fill a coward's grave? + Wha sae base as be a slave? + Let him turn and flee!" + +"GOD forbid!" cried Dennis impetuously. "Sing that verse again, me boy, +and give us a chance to sing with ye!" which we did accordingly; but as +Alister and Dennis were rolling Rs like the rattle of musketry on the +word _turn_, Alister did turn, and stopped suddenly short. The captain +had come up unobserved. + +"Go on!" said he, waving us back to our places. + +By this time the solo had become a chorus. Beautifully unconscious, for +the most part, that the song was by way of stirring Scot against Saxon, +its deeper patriotism had seized upon us all. Englishmen, Scotchmen, and +sons of Erin, we all shouted at the top of our voices, Sambo's fiddle +not being silent. And I maintain that we all felt the sentiment with +our whole hearts, though I doubt if any but Alister and the captain knew +and sang the precise words: + + "Wha for Scotland's king and law + Freedom's sword will strongly draw, + Freeman stand, or freeman fa', + Let him on wi' me!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + "'Tis strange--but true; for truth is always strange-- + Stranger than fiction."--BYRON. + + "Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows."--GRAY. + + +The least agreeable part of our voyage came near the end. It was when we +were in the fogs off the coast of Newfoundland. The work that tired one +to death was not sufficient to keep one warm; the cold mist seemed to +soak through one's flesh as well as one's slops, and to cling to one's +bones as it clung to the ship's gear. The deck was slippery and cold, +everything, except the funnel, was sticky and cold, and the fog-horn +made day and night hideous with noises like some unmusical giant trying +in vain to hit the note Fa. The density of the fog varied. Sometimes we +could not see each other a few feet off, at others we could see pretty +well what we were about on the vessel, but could see nothing beyond. + +We went very slowly, and the fog lasted unusually long. It included a +Sunday, which is a blessed day to Jack at sea. No tarring, greasing, +oiling, painting, scraping or scrubbing but what is positively +necessary, and no yarn-spinning but that of telling travellers' tales, +which seamen aptly describe as spinning yarns. I heard a great many that +day which recalled the school-master's stories, and filled my head and +heart with indefinable longings and impatience. More and more did it +seem impossible that one could live content in one little corner of this +interesting world when one has eyes to see and ears to hear, and hands +for work, and legs to run away with. + +Not that the tales that were told on this occasion were of an +encouraging nature, for they were all about fogs and ice; but they were +very interesting. One man had made this very voyage in a ship that got +out of her course as it might be where we were then. She was too far to +the north'ard when a fog came on, as it might be the very fog we were in +at that moment, and it lasted, lifting a bit and falling again worse +than ever, just the very same as it was a-doing now. Cold? He believed +you this fog was cold, and you might believe him that fog was cold, but +the cold of both together would not be a patch upon what it was when +your bones chattered in your skin and you heard the ship's keel +grinding, and said "Ice!" "He'd seen some queer faces--dead and +living--in his time, but when _that_ fog lifted and the sun shone upon +walls of green ice on both sides above our head, and the captain's face +as cold and as green as them with knowing all was up--" + +At this point the narrator was called away, and somebody asked, + +"Has any one heard him tell how it ended?" + +"I did," said Pat Shaughnessy, "and it spoilt me dinner that time." + +"Go on, Pat! What happened to them?" + +"The lowest depths of misfortune. Sorra a soul but himself and a boy +escaped by climbing to a ledge on the topmost peak of one of the +icebergs just in the nick of time to see the ship cracked like a walnut +between your fingers. And the worst was to come, bad luck!" + +"What? Go on, Paddy! What did he and the boy do?" + +"They just eat each other," faltered Pat. "But, Heaven be praised! a +whaler fetched off the survivor. It was then that he got the bad fever +though, so maybe he dreamt the worst." + +I felt great sympathy with Pat's evident disrelish for this tale, but +the oldest and hairiest sailor seemed hardly to regard it as worth +calling an adventure. If you wanted to see ice that was ice, you should +try the coast of Greenland, he said. "Hartic Hexploration for choice, +but seals or blubber took you pretty far up. He remembered the +Christmas he lost _them two_." (And cocking one leg over the other, he +drew a worsted sock from his foot, and displayed the fact that his great +toe and the one next to it were gone.) "They lost more than toes that +time too. You might believe it gave you a lonelyish kind of feel when +there was no more to be done for the ship but get as much firewood out +of her timber as you could, and all you had in the way of a home was +huts on an ice-floe, and a white fox, with a black tip to its tail, for +a pet. It wouldn't have lasted long, except for discipline," we young +'uns might take notice. "Pleasure's all very well ashore, where a man +may go his own way a long time, and show his nasty temper at home, and +there's other folks about him doing double duty to make up for it and +keep things together; but when you come to a handful of men cast adrift +to make a world for themselves, as one may say, Lord bless you! there's +nothing's any good then but making every man do as he's bid and be +content with what he gets--and clearing him out if he won't. It was a +hard winter at that. But regularity pulled us through. Reg'lar work, +reg'lar ways, reg'lar rations and reg'lar lime-juice, as long as it +lasted. And not half a bad Christmas we didn't have neither, and poor +Sal's Christmas-tree was the best part of it. 'What sort of a +Christmas-tree, and why Sal's?' Well, the carpenter put it up, and an +uncommon neat thing he made too, of pinewood and birch-broom, and some +of the men hung it over with paper chains. And then the carpenter opened +the bundle Sal made him take his oath he wouldn't open till Christmas, +whatever came, and I'm blest if there wasn't a pair of brand-new socks +for every soul of the ship's crew. Not that we were so badly off for +socks, but washing 'em reg'lar, and never being able to get 'em really +dry, and putting 'em on again like stones, was a mighty different thing +to getting all our feet into something dry and warm. 'Who was Sal?' +Well, poor Sal was a rum 'un, but she's dead. It's a queer thing, we +only lost one hand, and that was the carpenter, and he died the same day +poor Sal was murdered down Bermondsey way. It's a queer world, this, no +matter where you're cruising! But there's one thing you'll learn if you +live as long as me; a woman's heart and the ocean deep's much about the +same. You can't reckon on 'em, and GOD A'mighty, as made 'em, alone +knows the depths of 'em; but as our doctor used to say (and he was +always fetching things out and putting 'em into bottles), it's the rough +weather brings the best of it up." + +This was not a cheerful story, but it was soon driven out of our heads +by others. Fog was the prevailing topic; yarns of the fogs of the +northern seas being varied by "red fogs" off the Cape de Verd Islands; +and not the least dismal of the narratives was told by Alister +Auchterlay, of a fog on Ben Nevis, in which his own grandmother's uncle +perished, chiefly, as it appeared, in consequence of a constitutional +objection to taking advice, or to "going back upon his word," when he +had made up his mind to do something or to go somewhere. And this drew +from the boatswain the sad fate of a comrade of his, who had sailed +twice round the world, been ship-wrecked four times, in three +collisions, and twice aboard ships that took fire, had Yellow Jack in +the West Indies, and sunstroke at the Cape, lost a middle finger from +frost-bite in the north of China, and one eye in a bit of a row at San +Francisco, and came safe home after it all, and married a snug widow in +a pork-shop at Wapping Old Stairs, and got out of his course steering +home through a London fog on Guy Fawkes Day, and walked straight into +the river, and was found at low tide next morning with a quid of tobacco +in his cheek, and nothing missing about him but his glass eye, which +shows, as the boatswain said, that "Fogs is fogs anywhere, and a nasty +thing too." + +It was towards dark, when we had been fourteen days at sea, that our own +fog suddenly lifted, and the good news flew from mouth to mouth that we +might be "in about midnight." But the fog came down again, and I do not +think that the whole fourteen days put together felt so long as the +hours of that one night through which the fog-horn blew, and we longed +for day. + +I was leaning against the bulwarks at eight o'clock the next morning. +White mist was all around us, a sea with no horizon. Suddenly, like the +curtain of a theatre, the mist rose. Gradually the horizon-line +appeared, then a line of low coast, which, muddy-looking as it was, made +one's heart beat thick and fast. Then lines of dark wood; then the shore +was dotted with grey huts; then the sun came out, the breeze was soft +and mild, and the air became strangely scented, and redolent of pine +forests. Nearer the coast took more shape, though it was still low, +rather bare and dotted with brushwood and grey stones low down, and +always crowned with pines. Then habitations began to sparkle along the +shore. Red roofs, cardboard-looking churches, little white wooden +houses, and stiffish trees mixed everywhere. And the pine odour on the +breeze was sweeter and sweeter with every breath one drew. + +Suddenly I found Alister's arm round my shoulder. + +"Isn't it glorious?" I exclaimed. + +"Aye, aye," he said, and then, as if afraid he had not said enough, he +added with an effort: "The toun's built almost entirely of wood, I'm +told, with a population of close on 30,000 inhabitants." + +"What a fellow you are!" I groaned: "Alister, aren't you glad we're safe +here? Are you ever pleased about anything?" + +He didn't speak, and I turned in his arm to look up at his face. His +eyes, which always remind me of the sea, were looking away over it, but +he brought them back to meet mine, and pressed my shoulder. + +"It is bonnie," he said, "verra bonnie. But eh, man! if strange land +shines like yon, hoo'll oor ain shores look whenever we win Home?" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + "One, two, three, and away!" + + +We three were fast friends when our voyage ended, and in planning our +future we planned to stick together, "Like the three leaves of the +shamrock," as Dennis O'Moore said. + +The captain would have kept Alister as one of his crew, but the Scotch +lad had definite plans for looking up a cousin on this side of the +Atlantic, and pushing his fortunes by the help of his relative, so he +did not care to make the return voyage. The captain did not offer the +berth to me, but he was very kind, and returned my money, and gave us a +written paper testifying to our good conduct and capabilities. He also +gave Alister his address, and he and the other officers collected a +small sum of money for him as a parting gift. + +That afternoon we three crossed the harbour, and went for a walk in the +pine-woods. How I longed for Charlie! I would have given anything if he +could have been there, warmed through by the hot sun, refreshed by the +smell of pines, resting his poor back in the deep moss, and getting +excited over the strange flowers that grew wild all round our feet. One +never forgets the first time one sees unknown flowers growing wild; and +though we were not botanical, like Charlie, we had made ourselves very +hot with gathering nosegays by the time that Dennis summoned us to sit +down and talk seriously over our affairs. Our place of council was by +the side of a lake, which reflected a sky more blue than I had ever +seen. It stretched out of sight, and all about it were pines--pines. It +was very lovely, and very hot, and very sweet, and the little black +flies which swarmed about took tiny bits out of our cheek, and left the +blood trickling down, so cleverly, that one did not feel it--till +afterwards. We did feel the mosquitoes, and fought with them as well as +we could, whilst Dennis O'Moore, defending his own face with a big bunch +of jack-in-pulpits striped like tabby cats, explained his plans as +follows: + +Of course we had no notion of going home awhile. Alister and I had come +away on purpose; and for his own part it had always been the longing of +his soul to see the world. Times out of mind when he and Barney were on +board one of these emigrant ships, that had put into the bay, +GOD-speeding an old tenant or acquaintance with good wishes and whisky +and what not, he had been more than half inclined to give old Barney and +the hooker the slip, and take his luck with the outward bound. And now +he was here, and no blame for it, why would he hurry home? The race of +the O'Moores was not likely to become extinct for the loss of him, at +the worst; and the Squire wouldn't grudge him a few months' diversion +and a peep at the wide world. Far from it; he'd send him some money, and +why not? He (Dennis) was a bit of a favourite for his mother's sake, and +the Squire had a fine heart. The real difficulty was that it would be at +least a month before the Squire could get a letter and Dennis could get +his money; but if we couldn't keep our heads above water for a month +we'd small chance of pushing our way in the world. + +It is needless to say that I was willing to fall in with Dennis +O'Moore's plans, being only too thankful for such companions in my +wanderings. I said so, and added that what little money I had was to be +regarded as a common purse so long as it lasted. + +When Alister was appealed to, he cast in his lot with no less +willingness, but it seemed that he must first look up a relation of his +mother's, who lived in Halifax, and to whom his mother had given him a +letter of introduction. Alister had never told us his history, and of +course we had not asked for it; but on this occasion some of it crept +out. His father had been the minister of a country parish in Scotland, +but he had died young, and Alister had been reared in poverty. Dennis +and I gathered that he had well-to-do relatives on his father's side, +but, as Dennis said, "more kinship than kindness about them." "Though I +wouldn't wonder if the widow herself had a touch of stiff-neckedness in +her," he added. + +However that might be, Alister held with his mother, of course, and he +said little enough about his paternal relations, except one, whom he +described as "a guid man, and _verra_ canny, but hard on the failings of +the young." What youthful failings in our comrade had helped to snap the +ties of home we did not know, but we knew enough of Alister by this time +to feel sure they could not have been very unpardonable. + +It was not difficult to see that it was under the sting of this man's +reproaches that the lad had taken his fate into his own hands. + +"I'm not blaming him," said Alister in impartial tones; and then he +added, with a flash of his eyes, "but I'll no be indebted to him!" + +We had returned to the town, and were strolling up the shady side of one +of the clean wooden streets, when a strange figure came down it with a +swinging gait, at a leisurely pace. She (for, after a moment's +hesitation, we decided that it was a woman) was of gipsy colouring, but +not of gipsy beauty. Her black hair was in a loose knot on her back, she +wore a curious skull-cap of black cloth embroidered with beads, a short +cloth skirt, a pair of old trousers tucked into leather socks, a small +blanket with striped ends folded cunningly over her shoulders, and on +her breast a gold cross about twice as large as the one concealed +beneath the Irish boy's shirt. And I looked at her with a curious +feeling that my dreams were coming true. Dark--high-cheeked--a +blanket--and (unless the eyes with which I gazed almost reverentially at +the dirty leather socks deceived me) moccasins--she was, she must be, a +_squaw_! + +Probably Dennis had come to the same conclusion, when, waving the +tabby-coloured _arums_ he said, "I'll ask her what these are," and gaily +advanced to carry out his purpose. + +"Ye're daft," said Alister, getting red. + +"It's a North American Indian!" said I. + +"It's a woman, anyhow!" retorted Dennis over his shoulder, with a +twinkle of his eyelashes that drew from Alister in his broadest accent, +"The lad's a pairrfect libberrteen!" an expression which he afterwards +retracted and apologized for at considerable length. + +Within a few feet of the squaw Dennis lifted the broad-brimmed hat +which I had bought for him directly we landed, and then advancing with a +winning smile, he asked the name of the flowers in very good Irish. The +squaw smiled too; she touched the flowers, and nodded and said something +in a soft, rapid and unknown tongue, which only made Dennis shake his +head and smile again, on which she spoke in a language still dark to +Alister and me, but not so to Dennis, who, to our amazement, replied in +the same, and a dialogue so spirited ensued, that they both seemed to be +talking at once. Alister's face was a study when Dennis put out his hand +towards the squaw's gold cross, and all but touched it, and then (both +chattering faster than ever) unbuttoned his throat and drew out his +crucifix to show her. His last act was to give her half the +tabby-striped _arums_ as they parted. Then he lifted the broad hat once +more and stood bareheaded, as the squaw came slowly down the wooden +causeway, not without one glance at us as she passed. But at the bottom +of the street she turned round to look at Dennis. His hat was still in +his hand, and he swung it round his head, crying, "A Dieu, Madame!" + +"A Dieu!" said the squaw, and she held up the tabby-striped _arums_. +Very mingled feelings seemed to have been working in Alister's mind, but +his respect for the fruits of education was stronger even than his +sense of propriety. He forgot to scold Dennis for his unseemly +familiarity with a stranger, he was so anxious to know in what language +he had been speaking. + +"French," said Dennis. "There seems to be a French mission somewhere +near here. She's a good Catholic too, but she has a mighty queer accent, +and awful feet!" + +"It's a grand thing to speak with other tongues!" said Alister. + +"If ye want to learn French, I'll teach ye all I can," said Dennis. +"Sh--sh! No kindness whatever. I wish we mayn't have idle time for any +amount of philology!" + +At the top of the hill we parted for a time, and went our ways. Alister +to look up his relation, I to buy stationery and stamps for our letters +home, and Dennis to convert his gold ring into the currency of the +colony. We would not let him pawn his watch, which he was most anxious +to do, though Alister and I pointed out how invaluable it might prove to +us (it was a good hunting-watch, and had been little damaged by the +sea), because, as he said, "he would feel as if he was doing +_something_, anyhow." + +Alister and I were the last to part, and as we did so, having been +talking about Dennis O'Moore, I said, "I knew it was French when I got +nearer, but I never learnt French, though my mother began to teach me +once. You don't really think you'll learn it from him, do you?" + +"With perseverance," replied Alister, simply. + +"What good will French be to you?" I asked. + +"Knowledge is a light burden, and it may carry ye yet," was Alister's +reply. + +When we met again, Dennis was jingling some money in his pocket, which +was added to the common fund of which the miser's legacy had formed the +base. I had got paper and stamps, and information as to mails, and some +more information which was postponed till we found out what was amiss +with the Scotch leaf of our shamrock. For there were deep furrows on +Alister's brow, but far deeper was the despondency of his soul. He was +in the lowest possible spirits, and with a Scotchman that is low indeed. +He had made out his way to his cousin's place of business, and had heard +a very satisfactory report of the commercial success, but--the cousin +had gone "to the States." + +Alister felt himself very much ill-used by fate, and I believe Dennis +felt himself very much ill-used by Alister, that evening, but I maintain +that I alone was the person really to be pitied, because I had to keep +matters smooth between the two. The gloom into which Alister relapsed, +his prophecies, prognostications, warnings, raven-like croakings, +parallel instances, general reflections and personal applications, as +well as his obstinate notion that he would be "a burden and a curse" to +"the two of us," and that it would have been small wonder had the +sailors cast him forth into the Atlantic, like the Prophet Jonah, as +being certain to draw ill-luck on his companions, were trying enough; +but it was no joke that misfortune had precisely the opposite effect +upon Dennis. If there was a bit of chaff left unchaffed in all Ireland, +from Malin Head to Barley Cove, I believe it came into Dennis's head on +this inappropriate occasion, and he forthwith discharged it at +Alister's. To put some natures into a desperate situation seems like +putting tartaric acid into soda and water--they sparkle up and froth. It +certainly was so with Dennis O'Moore; and if Alister could hardly have +been more raven-like upon the crack of doom, the levity of Dennis would, +in our present circumstances, have been discreditable to a paroquet. + +For it was no light matter to have lost our one hope of a friend in this +strange land; and yet this was practically what it meant, when we knew +that Alister Auchterlay's cousin had gone to the States. But the idea of +kinship at last suggested something more sensible than jokes to Dennis +O'Moore. + +"Why, I've a cousin of my own in Demerara, and I'd forgotten him +entirely!" he suddenly announced. + +"You haven't a cousin in New York, have you?" I asked, and I proceeded +to explain, that having done my business, I had been drawn back to the +harbour by all the attractions shipping has for me, and had there been +accosted by the mate of a coasting-vessel bound for New York with salt +fish, who was in want of hands both to load and man her. The +_Water-Lily_ had been pointed out to me from a distance, and we might go +and see her to-morrow morning if we liked. With the prospect of living +for at least a month on our slender stocking, the idea of immediate +employment was very welcome, to say nothing of the attraction of further +adventures. Alister began to cheer up, and Dennis to sober down. We +wrote home, and posted our letters, after which we secured a decent +sleeping-room and a good meal of broiled salmon, saffron-coloured cakes, +and hot coffee, for a very reasonable sum; but, moderate as it was, it +confirmed us in the conviction that we could not afford to eat the bread +of idleness. + +Next day we were early at the wharf. The _Water-Lily_ was by no means so +white as she was named, and the smell of the salt fish was abominable. +But we knew we could not pick and choose when we wanted employment, and +wanted to be together; and to this latter point we had nailed our +colours. With Alister and me the mate came to terms at once, but for a +time he made difficulties about Dennis. We "stowaways" had had so much +dirty work to do in all weathers for the past fortnight, that we looked +sailor-like enough, I dare say; and as it had honestly been our +endeavour to learn all we could, and shirk nothing, and as the captain's +paper spoke well of us, I think the mate got a very good bargain--for we +were green enough to take lower wages than the customary rate on the +strength of a long string of special reasons which he made us swallow. +This probably helped towards his giving in about Dennis. The matter +about Dennis was that he looked too much of the fine gentleman still, +though his homespun suit had seen salt water, and was far from innocent +of tar and grease, for he had turned his hand to plenty of rough work +during the voyage, partly out of good-nature, and partly to learn all he +could get the sailors to teach him. However, his coaxing tongue clinched +the bargain at last; indeed the mate seemed a good deal struck by the +idea that he would find it "mighty convenient" to have a man on board +who was a good scholar and could help him to keep the log. So we signed +articles, and went to our duty. + +The _Water-Lily_ was loaded, and we sailed in her, and we got to New +York. But of all the ill-found tubs that ever put to sea, I should think +she might have taken the first prize. We were overhauling her rotten +rigging, taking off, putting on, and mending chafing gear every bit of +our time, Sunday included. The carpenter used horrible language, but for +his vexation I could have forgiven him if he had expressed it more +decently, for he never had a moment's rest by day; and though a ship's +carpenter is exempt from watches and allowed to sleep at night as a +rule, I doubt if he had two nights' rest between Halifax and New York. + +As Dennis put it, there was "any amount of chicanery about the whole +affair." Some of our pay was "set against" supplying "duds" for Dennis +to do dirty work in; Alister was employed as sail-maker, and then, like +the carpenter, was cheated of his rest. As to food, we were nearly +starved, and should have fared even worse than we did, but that the +black cook was friendly towards us. + +"Dis _Water-Lily_ ob ours a leetle ober-blown, Dennis, I'm tinking," +said Alfonso, showing all his white teeth. "Hope she not fall to pieces +dis voyage." + +"Hope not, Alfonso. She hasn't lost her scent, anyhow!" At which +allusion to our unsavoury cargo Alfonso yelled with laughter. + +For our favour with the cook (and it means hot coffee, dry socks, and +other little comforts being in favour with the cook) we had chiefly to +thank Dennis. Our coal-black comrade loved jokes much, but his own +dignity just a little more; and the instinctive courtesy which was as +natural to Dennis as the flow of his fun, made him particularly +acceptable to Alfonso. + +And for the rest, we came to feel that if we could keep the _Water-Lily_ +afloat to the end of her voyage, most other considerations were minor +ones. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "May it please GOD not to make our friends so happy as to forget + us!"--_Old Proverb_. + + +The _Water-Lily_ was re-christened by Dennis, with many flourishes of +speech and a deck tub of salt water long before we reached our journey's +end. The _Slut_, as we now privately called her, defied all our efforts +to make her look creditable for New York harbour, but we were glad +enough to get her there at all. + +We made the lights of Barnegat at about six o'clock one fine morning, +took a pilot on board at Sandy Hook, and the _Slut_ being by this time +as ship-shape as we could get her, we cleaned ourselves to somewhat +better purpose, put on our shore-togs, and were at leisure to enjoy one +of the most charming sensations in the world, that of making one's way +into a beautiful harbour on a beautiful morning. The fresh breeze that +favoured us, the sunshine that--helped by the enchantment of +distance--made warehouses look like public buildings, and stone houses +like marble palaces, a softening hue of morning mist still clinging about +the heights of Brooklyn and over the distant stretch of the Hudson +river islands, the sparkling waves and dancing craft in the bay, and all +the dear familiar maze of spars and rigging in the docks; it is +wonderful how such sights, and the knowledge that you are close to the +haven where you would be, charm away the sore memories of the voyage +past, and incline you to feel that it hasn't been such a bad cruise +after all. + +"Poor ole _Water-Lily_!" sighed Alfonso, under the influence of this +feeling, "you and me's called her a heap o' bad names, Dennis; I 'spects +we has to have our grumbles, Dennis. Dat's 'bout whar 'tis." + +"She's weathered the storm and got into port, anyhow," said Dennis, "and +I suppose you think the best can do no more. Eh?" + +"Jes' so, Dennis." + +Alfonso was not far wrong on the subject of grumbling. It is one of a +sailor's few luxuries and privileges, and acts as safety-valve for heats +of just and unjust indignation, which might otherwise come to dangerous +explosion. We three had really learned no mean amount of rough-and-ready +seamanship by this time, and we had certainly practised the art of +grumbling as well. That "of all the dirty ill-found tubs," the _Slut_ +was the worst we had ever known, our limited experience had made us safe +in declaring, and we had also been voluble about the undue length of +time during which we had been "humbugging about" between Halifax and New +York. But these by-gones we now willingly allowed to be by-gones, +especially as we had had duff-pudding the day before, though it was not +Sunday--(Oh, Crayshaw's! that I should have lived to find duff-pudding a +treat--but it _is_ a pleasant change from salt meat),--and as the +captain had promised some repairs to the ship before we returned to +Halifax. + +We were not long in discovering that the promise was a safe one, for he +did not mean to return to Halifax at all. Gradually it leaked out, that +when the salt fish was disposed of we were not going to take in ballast +and go back, as we had thought, but to stow away a "general cargo" of +cheap manufactured articles (chiefly hardware, toys, trumpery pictures, +and looking-glasses) and proceed with them on a trading voyage "down +south."--"West Indies," said the carpenter. "Bermuda for certain," was +another opinion; but Alfonso smiled and said, "Demerara." + +"Cap'n berry poor sailor, but berry good trader," he informed us in +confidence. "Sell 'm stinking fish and buy gimcracks cheap; sell +gimcracks dear to Portugee store in Georgetown, take in sugar--berry +good sugar, Demerara sugar--and come back to New York." + +Alfonso had made the voyage before on these principles, and was all the +more willing to believe that this was to be the programme, because he +was--at such uncertain intervals as his fate ordained--courting a young +lady of colour in Georgetown, Demerara. I don't think Dennis O'Moore +could help sympathizing with people, and as a result of this +good-natured weakness, he heard a great deal about that young lady of +colour, and her genteel clothes, and how she played the piano, and +belonged to the Baptist congregation. + +"I've a cousin myself in Demerara, Alfonso," said Dennis. + +"Hope she'm kind to you, Dennis. Hope you can trust her, 'specially if +the members walks home with her after meeting." And Alfonso sighed. + +But jokes were far too precious on board the _Slut_ for Dennis to spoil +this one by explaining that his cousin was a middle-aged gentleman in +partnership with the owner of a sugar estate. + +As we had sailed on the understanding that the _Water-Lily_ was bound to +New York and back again to Halifax, of course we made a fuss and +protested at the change. But we had not really much practical choice in +the matter, whatever our strict rights were, and on the whole we found +it would be to our advantage to go through with it, especially as we did +secure a better understanding about our wages, and the captain promised +us more rest on Sundays. On one point we still felt anxious--our home +letters; so Dennis wrote to the post-master at Halifax, and arranged for +them to be forwarded to us at the post-office, Georgetown, Demerara. For +Alfonso was right, we were bound for British Guiana, it being however +understood that we three were not under obligation to make the return +voyage in the _Water-Lily_. + +An odd incident occurred during our brief stay in New York. It was after +the interview in which we came to terms with the captain, and he had +given us leave for three hours ashore. You can't see very much of a city +when you have no money to spend in it; but we had walked about till we +were very hungry, and yet more thirsty, for it was hot, when we all +three caught sight of a small shop (or store, as Americans would call +it), and we all spoke at once. + +"Cooling drinks!" exclaimed Dennis. + +"There's cakes yonder," said Alister. + +"Michael Macartney," muttered I, for that was the name over the door. + +We went in as a customer came out, followed by Michael Macartney's +parting words in a rich brogue that might have been old Biddy's own. I +took a good look at him, which he returned with a civil comment on the +heat, and an inquiry as to what I would take, which Dennis, in the +thirstiness of his throat, answered for me, leaving me a few moments +more of observation. I made a mental calculation, and decided that the +man's age would fit Micky, and in the indescribableness of the colour of +his clothes and his complexion he was undoubtedly like Biddy, but if +they had been born in different worlds the expression of his eyes could +not have been more different. I had the clearest remembrance of hers. +One does not so often look into the eyes of a stranger and see genuine +feeling that one should forget it. For the rest of him, I was glad that +Biddy had allowed that there was no similarity "betwixt us." He had a +low forehead, a broad nose, a very wide mouth, full of very large teeth, +and the humorous twinkle in his eye did not atone for the complete +absence of that steady light of honest tenderness which shone from +Biddy's as freely and fearlessly as the sun shines. He served Dennis and +Alister and turned to me. + +"Have you a mother in Liverpool?" I asked, before he had time to ask me +which "pop" I wanted. + +As I have said, his mouth was big, but I was almost aghast at the size +to which it opened, before he was able to say, "Murther and ages! Was ye +there lately? Did ye know her?" + +"Yes; I know her." + +"And why would ye be standing there with the cold pop, when there's +something better within? Come in, me boy. So you're acquainted with my +mother? And how was she?" + +"No, thank you, I don't drink spirits. Yes; your mother was well when I +saw her." + +"GOD be praised! It's a mighty long time since I seen the ould +craythur." + +"Fifteen years," said I. + +I looked at Mr. Macartney as I said it, but he had evasive eyes, and +they wandered to the doorway. No customers appeared, however, and he +looked back to Dennis and Alister, but they had both folded their arms, +and were watching us in silence. + +"Murther and ages!" he repeated, "it doesn't feel the half of it." + +"I fancy it seems longer, if anything, to her. But she has been on the +look-out for you every day, you see. You've a good business, Mr. +Macartney, so I dare say you're a ready reckoner. Fifteen times three +hundred and sixty-five? Five thousand four hundred and seventy-five, +isn't it?" + +"It's a fine scholar for a sailor-boy that ye are!" said Micky; and +there was a touch of mischief in his eye and voice which showed that he +was losing his temper. I suppose Dennis heard it, too, for he took one +bound to my side in a way that almost made me laugh to feel how ready he +was for a row. But I knew that, after all, I had no right over the man's +private affairs, warm as was my zeal for old Biddy. + +"And you think I might mind my business and leave you to yours, Mr. +Macartney?" I said. "But you see your mother was very kind to me, very +kind indeed; and when I left Liverpool I promised her if ever I came +across you, you should hear of her, and she should hear of you." + +"And why not?" he answered in mollified tones. "It's mighty good-natured +in ye too. But come in, all the three of ye, and have somethin' to eat +and drink for the sake of the old country." + +We followed him into a back parlour, where there were several wooden +rocking-chairs, and a strong smell of stale tobacco. Here he busied +himself in producing cold meat, a squash pie, and a bottle of whisky, +and was as voluble as civil about every subject except the one I wished +to talk of. But the memory of his mother was strong upon me, and I had +no intention of letting it slide. + +"I'm so glad to have found you," I said. "I am sure you can't have +known what a trouble it has been to your mother never to have heard from +you all these years." + +"Arrah! And why should she bother herself over me?" he answered +impatiently. "Sure I never was anything _but_ a trouble to her, worse +luck!" And before I could speak again, he went on. "But make your mind +aisy, I'll be writing to her. Many's the time that I've all but indited +the letter, but I'll do it now. Upon me conscience, ye may dipind upon +me." + +Could I depend upon his shambling conscience? Every instinct of an +honest man about me answered, No. As he had done for fifteen years past, +so he would do for fifteen years to come. As long as he was comfortable +himself, his mother would never get a line out of him. Perhaps his voice +recalled hers, but I almost fancied I could hear her as I sat there.--"I +ax your pardon, darlin'. It was my own Micky that was on my mind." + +"Look here, Mr. Macartney," said I; "I want you to do me a favour. I owe +your mother a good turn, and it'll ease my mind to repay it. Sit down +whilst we're enjoying your hospitality, and just write her a line, and +let me have the pleasure of finding a stamp and putting it in the post +with my own hands." + +We argued the point for some time, but Micky found the writing materials +at last, and sat down to write. As he proceeded he seemed to become +more reconciled to the task; though he was obviously no great scribe, +and followed the sentiments he was expressing with curious contortions +of his countenance which it was most funny to behold. By and by I was +glad to see a tear or two drop on to the paper, though I was sorry that +he wiped them up with his third finger, and wrote over the place before +it had time to dry. + +"Murther and ages! But it's mighty pleased that she'll be," said Mr. +Macartney when he had finished. He looked mighty pleased with himself, +and he held the letter out to me. + +"Do you mean me to read it?" I asked. + +"I did. And ye can let your friends hear too." + +I read it aloud, wondering as I read. If pen and ink spoke the truth, +Biddy's own Micky's heart was broke entirely with the parting from his +mother. Sorra a bit of taste had there been in his food, or a drop of +natural rest had he enjoyed for the last fifteen years. "Five thousand +four hundred and seventy-five days--no less." (When I reached this +skilful adoption of my calculations, I involuntarily looked up. There +sat Mr. Macartney in his rocking-chair. He was just lighting a short +pipe, but he paused in the operation to acknowledge what he evidently +believed to be my look of admiration with a nod and a wink. I read on.) +Times were cruel bad out there for a poor boy that lived by his +industry, but thank GOD he'd been spared the worst pangs of starvation +(I glanced round the pop-shop, but, as Micky himself would have said, No +matther!); and didn't it lighten his heart to hear of his dear mother +sitting content and comfortable at her own coffee-stall. It was +murderously hot in these parts, and New York--bad luck to it--was a +mighty different place from the dear old Ballywhack where he was born. +Would they ever see old Ireland again? (Here a big blot betrayed how +much Mr. Macartney had been moved by his own eloquence.) The rest of the +letter was rich with phrases both of piety and affection. How much of +the whole composition was conscious humbug, and whether any of it was +genuine feeling, I have as little idea now as I had then. The shallows +of the human heart are at least as difficult to sound as its depths, and +Micky Macartney's was quite beyond me. One thing about the letter was +true enough. As he said, it would "plaze the ould craythur intirely." + +By the time I had addressed it, "Mrs. Biddy Macartney, coffee-seller," +to the care of the Dockgate-keeper, we had not much spare time left in +which to stamp and post it, so we took leave of the owner of the +pop-shop. He was now very unwilling to let us go. He did not ask another +question about his mother, but he was consumed with trivial curiosity +about us. Once again he alluded to Biddy. We were standing outside, and +his eye fell upon the row of shining pop-taps-- + +"Wouldn't she be the proud woman now, av she could see me!" he cried. + +"Why don't you get her out to live with you?" I asked. + +He shook his head, "I'm a married man, Mr. ---- bad luck to me, I've +forgotten your name now!" + +"I didn't trouble you with it. Well, I hope you'll go and see her before +she dies." + +But when I came to think of it, I did not feel sure if that was what I +wished. Not being a woman, how could I balance the choice of pain? How +could I tell if it were better for her to be disappointed with every +ship and every tide, still having faith in her own Micky, and hope of +his coming, or for the tide and the ship to bring him with all his +meanness upon the head she loved, a huge disappointment, once for all! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + "Roose the fair day at e'en." + _Scotch Proverb_. + + +After leaving New York, we no longer hugged the coast. We stood right +off, and to my great delight, I found we were going to put in at Bermuda +for repairs. I never knew, but I always fancy that these were done +cheaper there than at New York. Or it may merely have been because when +we had been at sea two days the wretched _Slut_ leaked so that, though +we were pumping day and night, till we were nearly worn out, we couldn't +keep the wet from the gimcrack cargo. + +Fortunately for us the weather was absolutely lovely, and though it was +hot by day, we wore uncommonly little clothing, and "carried our change +of air with us," as Dennis said. + +As to the nights, I never can forget the ideal beauty of the last three +before we reached Bermuda. I had had no conception of what starlight can +be and what stars can look like. These hanging lamps of the vast +heavens seemed so strangely different from the stars that "twinkle, +twinkle," as the nursery book has it, through our misty skies at home. +We were, in short, approaching the tropics. Very beautiful were the +strange constellations of the midnight sky, the magic loveliness of the +moonlight, and the phosphorescence of the warm waves, whilst the last +exquisite touch of delight was given by the balmy air. By day the heat +(especially as we had to work so hard in it) made one's enjoyment less +luxurious, but if my love for the sea had known no touch of +disappointment on the cold swell of the northern Atlantic, it would have +needed very dire discomfort to spoil the pleasure of living on these +ever-varying blue waters, flecked with white foam and foam-like birds, +through the clearness of which we now and then got a peep of a +peacock-green dolphin, changing his colour with every leap and gambol, +as if he were himself a wave. + +Of living things (and, for that matter, of ships) we saw far less than I +expected, though it was more than a fortnight from the time of our +leaving Sandy Hook to the night we lay off to the east of the +Bermudas--the warm lights from human habitations twinkling among the +islands, and the cold light of the moon making the surf and coral reefs +doubly clear against the dark waters--waiting, but scarcely wishing, for +the day. + +As I have said, Alfonso was very black, and Alfonso was very dignified. +But his blackness, compared with the blackness of the pilot who came off +at St. George's Island, and piloted us through the Narrows, was as that +of a kid shoe to a boot that has been polished by blacking. As to +dignity, no comparison can be made. The dignity of that nigger pilot +exceeded anything, regal, municipal, or even parochial, that I have ever +seen. As he came up the ship's side, Dennis was looking over it, and +when the pilot stood on deck Dennis fled abruptly, and Alister declares +it took two buckets of water to recover him from the fit of hysterics in +which he found him rolling in the forecastle. + +The pilot's costume bore even more reference to his dignity than to the +weather. He wore a pea-coat, a tall and very shiny black hat, white +trousers, and neither shoes nor socks. His feet were like flat-irons +turned the wrong way, and his legs seemed to be slipped into the middle +of them, like the handles of two queer-shaped hoes. His intense, +magnificent importance, and the bombastic way he swaggered about the +deck, were so perfectly absurd, that we three youngsters should probably +have never had any feeling towards him but that of contempt, if it had +not been that we were now quite enough of seamen to appreciate the skill +with which he took us safely on our dangerous and intricate passage +into harbour. How we ever got through the Narrows, how he picked our way +amongst the reefs and islands, was a marvel. We came in so close to +shore that I thought we must strike every instant, and so we should have +done had there been any blundering on his part. + +We went very slowly that day, as became the atmosphere and the scene, +the dangers of our way, and the dignity of our guide. + +"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Dennis, as we hung over +the side. "If it's for repairs we've put into Paradise, long life to the +old tub and her rotten timbers! I wouldn't have missed _this_ for a +lady's berth in the West Indian Mail, and my passage paid!" + +"Nor I." + +"Nor I." + +_This_ was indeed worth having gone through a good deal to see. The +channel through which we picked our way was marked out by little buoys, +half white and half black, and on either side the coral was just awash. +Close at hand the water was emerald green or rosy purple, according to +its depth and the growths below; half-a-mile away it was deep blue +against lines of dazzling surf and coral sand; and the reefs and rocks +amongst whose deadly edges our hideous pilot steered for our lives, were +like beds of flowers blooming under water. Red, purple, yellow, orange, +pale green, dark green, in patches quite milky, and in patches a mass of +all sorts of sea-weed, a gay garden on a white ground, shimmering +through crystal! And down below the crabs crawled about, and the fishes +shot hither and thither; and over the surface of the water, from reef to +reef and island to island, the tern and sea-gulls skimmed and swooped +about. + +We anchored that evening, and the pilot went ashore. Lovely as the day +had been, we were (for some mysterious reason) more tired at the end of +it than on days when we had been working three times as hard. This, with +Dennis, invariably led to mischief, and with Alister to intolerance. The +phase was quite familiar to me now, and I knew it was coming on when +they would talk about the pilot. That the pilot was admirably skilful in +his trade, and that he was a most comical-looking specimen of humanity, +were obvious facts. I quite agreed with both Alister and Dennis, but +that, unfortunately, did not make them agree with each other. Not that +Dennis contradicted Alister (he pretended to be afraid to do so), but he +made comments that were highly aggravating. He did not attempt to deny +that it was "a gran' sight to see ony man do his wark weel," or that the +African negro shared with us "our common humanity and our immortal +hopes," but he introduced the quite irrelevant question of whether it +was not a loss to the Presbyterian Ministry that Alister had gone to +sea. He warmly allowed that the pilot probably had his feelings, and +added that even he had his; that the Hat tried them, but that the Feet +were "altogether too many for them intirely." He received the +information that the pilot's feet were "as his Creator made them," in +respectful silence, and a few minutes afterwards asked me if I was aware +of the "curious fact in physiology," that it took a surgical operation +to get a joke through a Scotchman's brain-pan. + +I was feeling all-overish and rather cross myself towards evening, and +found Alister's cantankerousness and Dennis O'Moore's chaff almost +equally tiresome. To make matters worse, I perceived that Dennis was now +so on edge, that to catch sight of the black pilot made him really +hysterical, and the distracting thing was, that either because I was +done up, or because such folly is far more contagious than any amount of +wisdom, I began to get quite as bad, and Alister's disgust only made me +worse. I unfeignedly dreaded the approach of that black hat and those +triangular feet, for they made me giggle in spite of myself, and I knew +a ship's rules far too well not to know how fearful would be the result +of any public exhibition of disrespect. + +However, we three were not always together, and we had been apart a +good bit when we met (as ill-luck would have it) at the moment when the +pilot's boat was just alongside, ready for his departure. + +"What's the boat for?" asked Alister, who had been below. + +"And who would it be for," replied Dennis, "but the gentleman in the +black hat? Alister, dear! what's the reason I can't tread on a nigger's +heels without treading on your toes?" + +"Hush!" cried I, in torment, "he's coming." + +We stood at attention, but never can I forget the agony of the next few +minutes. That hat, that face, those flat black feet, that strut, that +smile. I felt a sob of laughter beginning somewhere about my waist-belt, +and yet my heart ached with fear for Dennis. Oh, if only His +Magnificence would move a little quicker, and let us have it over! + +There's a fish at Bermuda that is known as the toad-fish (so Alfonso +told me), and when you tickle it it blows itself out after the manner of +the frog who tried to be as big as an ox. It becomes as round as a +football, and if you throw it on the water it floats. If you touch it it +sounds (according to Alfonso) "all same as a banjo." It will live some +time out of water; and if it shows any signs of subsiding, another +tickle will blow it out again. "Too muchee tickle him burst," said +Alfonso. I had heard this decidedly nasty story just before the pilot's +departure, and it was now the culmination of all the foolish thoughts +that gibbered in my head. I couldn't help thinking of it as I held my +breath to suppress my laughter, and quaked for the yet more volatile +Dennis. Oh, dear! Why wouldn't that mass of absurdity walk quicker? His +feet were big enough. Meanwhile we stood like mutes--eyes front! To have +looked at each other would have been fatal. "Too muchee tickle him +burst." I hope we looked grave (I have little doubt now that we looked +as if we were having our photographs taken). The sob had mounted from my +waist to my throat. My teeth were set, my eyes watered, but the pilot +was here now. In a moment he would be down the side. With an excess of +zeal I found strength to raise my hand for a salute. + +I fear it was this that pleased him, and made him stop; and we couldn't +help looking at him. His hat was a little set back for the heat, his +black triangular feet were in the third position of dancing. He smiled. + +There was an explosive sound to my right. I knew what it meant. Dennis +had "burst." + +And then I never felt less like laughing in my life. Visions of +insubordination, disrespect, mutiny, flogging, and black-hole, rushed +through my head, and I had serious thoughts of falling on my knees +before the insulted pilot. With unfeigned gratitude I record that he +was as magnanimous as he was magnificent. He took no revenge, except in +words. What he said was, + +"Me one coloured gentleman. You one dam mean white trash ob common +sailor. YAH!" + +And with unimpaired dignity he descended the ladder and was rowed away +over the prismatic waters. And Alister and I turned round to look for +Dennis, and found him sitting in the scuppers, wiping the laughter-tears +out of his thick eyelashes. + +There was something fateful about that evening, which was perhaps what +made the air so heavy. If I had been keeping the log, I should have made +the following entry: "Captain got drunk. A ring round the moon. Alister +and Dennis quarrelsome." + +I saw the ring round the moon when I was rowing the captain and the mate +back from one of the islands, where they had been ashore. Alfonso +afterwards pointed it out to me and said, "Tell you, Jack, I'm glad dis +ole tub in harbour now!" from which I concluded that it was an omen of +bad weather. + +Alister and Dennis were still sparring. I began to think we'd better +stretch a rope and let them have it out with their fists, but I could +not make out that there was anything to fight about except that Alister +had accused Dennis of playing the fool, and Dennis had said that +Alister was about as good company as a grave-digger. I felt very +feverish and said so, on which they both began to apologize, and we all +turned in for some sleep. + +Next day we were the best of friends, and we got leave to go ashore for +a few hours. We were anchored in Grassy Bay, off Ireland Island--that +is, off the island where the hulks are, and where the school-master +spent those ten long years. Alister and Dennis wanted to take a boat and +make for Harrington Sound, a very beautiful land-locked sheet of water, +with one narrow entrance through which the tide rushes like a mill-race, +but when they heard my reason for wanting to have a look at my friend's +old place of labour and imprisonment, they decided to stay with me, +which, as it happened, was very lucky for us all. + +We were all three so languid, that though there was much to see and +little time in which to see it, when we found three firm and comfortable +resting-places among the blocks of white stone in the dockyard, we sat +down on them, and contented ourselves with enjoying the beautiful +prospect before us. And it so happened that as Dennis said, "if we'd +taken a box for the Opera" we could not have placed ourselves better for +the marvellous spectacle that it was our good luck to witness. I must +try and tell it in order. + +The first thing we noticed was a change among the sea-birds. They left +their careless, graceful skimming and swooping, and got into groups, +wheeling about like starlings, and uttering curious cries. And scarcely +had we become conscious of this change among the birds, than a +simultaneous flutter ran through the Bermudian "rig-boats" which had +been skimming with equal carelessness about the bay. Now they were +hurriedly thrown up into the wind, their wide mainsails lowered and +reefed, whilst the impulse spread as if by magic to the men-of-war and +ships in the anchorage. Down came the sails like falling leaves, the +rigging swarmed with men bracing yards, lowering top-gallant masts, and +preparing--we could not conceive for what. + +"What, in the name of fortune--" said Dennis. + +But at this moment Alister cried, "Look behind ye, man!" + +We turned round, and this was what we saw:-- + +The sky out to seaward was one great half-circle of blue-black, but in +what sailors call the eye of the storm was another very regular patch, +with true curved outlines of the arc and the horizon. Under this the sea +was dazzlingly white, and then in front of that it was a curious +green-black, and it was tossing and flopping about as if it did not know +what to be at. The wind was scarcely to be felt as wind, but we could +hear it moaning in a dull way that was indescribably terrifying. +Gradually the blackness seemed to come down over us as if it would +swallow us up, and when I looked back to the bay not a bird was to be +seen, and every boat was flying into shelter. + +And as they fled, there arose from the empty sea and sky a strange +hissing sound, which gradually grew so intense that it became almost a +roar; and, as the noise increased, the white line on the horizon widened +and widened. + +Suddenly there came a lull. It quite startled us. But about half-a-mile +away, I could see over Alister's shoulders that the clouds were blacker, +and the sea took up the colour and seemed to heave and rock more sulkily +than before. There was no white water here, only a greenish ink. And at +the same moment Dennis and Alister each laid a hand upon my arm, but +none of us spoke. We lost ourselves in intense watching. + +For by degrees the black water, leaving its natural motion, seemed to +pile up under the black cloud, and then, very suddenly, before one could +see how it happened, either the cloud stretched out a trunk to the sea, +or the sea to the cloud, and two funnel-shaped masses were joined +together by a long, twisting, whirling column of water that neither sea +nor sky seemed able to break away from. It was a weird sight to see +this dark shape writhe and spin before the storm, and at last the base +of it struck a coral reef, and it disappeared, leaving nothing but a +blinding squall of rain and a tumult of white waves breaking on the +reef. And then the water whirled and tossed, and flung its white arms +about, till the whole sea, which had been ink a few minutes before, had +lashed itself into a vast sheet of foam. + +We relaxed our grip of each other, and drew breath, and Alister, +stretching his arms seawards after a fashion peculiar to him in moments +of extreme excitement, gave vent to his feelings in the following +words-- + +"Sirs! yon's a water-spout." + +But before we had time to reply, a convict warder, whom we had not +noticed, called sharply to us, "Lie down, or you'll be blown down!" and +the gale was upon us. We had quite enough to do to hold on to the +ground, and keep the stone-dust out of our eyes by shutting them. +Further observations were impossible, though it felt as if everything in +the world was breaking up, and tumbling about one's ears. + +Luckily nothing did strike us, though not more than a hundred yards away +a row of fine trees went down like a pack of cards, each one parallel +with its neighbour. House-tiles flew in every direction, shutters were +whipped off and whirled away; palm-trees snapped like fishing-rods, and +when the wind-squall had passed, and we sat up, and tried to get the +sand out of our ears, we found the whole place a mass of _debris_. + +But when we looked seaward we saw the black arch going as fast as it +came. All sense of fever and lassitude had left us. The air was fresh, +and calm, and bright, and within half-an-hour the tern and sea-gulls +were fishing over the reef and skimming and swooping above the prismatic +waters as before. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + "Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; + ... so shall inferior eyes, + That borrow their behaviours from the great, + Grow great by your example, and put on + The dauntless spirit of resolution." + _King John_, V. i. + + +"Creaky doors" are said to "hang long," and leaky ships may enjoy a +similar longevity. It certainly was a curious fact that the _Water-Lily_ +hardly suffered in that storm, though the damage done to shipping was +very great. Big and little, men-of-war and merchantmen, very few escaped +scot-free, and some dragged their anchors and were either on the reef in +the harbour, or ran foul of one another. + +Repairs were the order of the day, but we managed to get ours done and +to proceed on our voyage, with very little extra delay. + +I cannot say it was a pleasant cruise, though it brought unexpected +promotion to one of the Shamrock three. In this wise: + +The mate was a wicked brute, neither more nor less. I do not want to +get into the sailor fashion of using strong terms about trifles, but to +call him less than wicked would be to insult goodness, and if brutality +makes a brute, he was brute enough in all conscience! Being short-handed +at Bermuda, we had shipped a wretched little cabin-boy of Portuguese +extraction, who was a native of Demerara, and glad to work his passage +there, and the mate's systematic ill-treatment of this poor lad was not +less of a torture to us than to Pedro himself, so agonizing was it to +see, and not dare to interfere; all we could do was to aid him to the +best of our power on the sly. + +The captain, though a sneaking, unprincipled kind of man, was neither so +brutal nor, unfortunately, so good a seaman as the mate; and the +consequence of this was, that the mate was practically the master, and +indulged his Snuffy-like passion for cruelty with impunity, and with a +double edge. For, as he was well aware, in ill-treating Pedro he made us +suffer, and we were all helpless alike. + +His hold over the captain was not from superior seamanship alone. The +_Water-Lily_ was nominally a "temperance" vessel, but in our case this +only meant that no rum was issued to the crew. In the captain's cabin +there was plenty of "liquor," and the captain occasionally got drunk, +and each time that he did so, the influence of the mate seemed riveted +firmer than before. Crews are often divided in their allegiance, but the +crew of the _Water-Lily_ were of one mind. From the oldest to the +youngest we all detested the mate, and a natural manliness of feeling +made us like the captain better than we ought otherwise have done, +because (especially as regards the drinking) we considered his relations +with the mate to be characterized by anything but "fair play." No love +was really lost between them, and if the captain came on deck and took +the lead, they were almost certain to quarrel (and none the less so, +that _we_ rushed with alacrity to obey the captain's orders, whereas +with the mate's it was all "dragging work," as nearly as we dare show +unwillingness). + +What led to the extraordinary scene I am about to relate, I do not quite +know. I suppose a mixture of things. Alister's minute, unbroken study of +what was now his profession, the "almost monotonous" (so Dennis said) +perseverance with which he improved every opportunity, and absorbed all +experience and information on the subject of seamanship, could hardly +escape the notice of any intelligent captain. Our captain was not much +of a seaman, but he was a cute trader, and knew "a good article" in any +line. The Scotch boy was soon a better sailor than the mate, which will +be the less surprising, when one remembers how few men in any trade +give more than about a third of their real powers to their work--and +Alister gave all his. This, and the knowledge that he was supported by +the public opinion of a small but able-bodied crew, may have screwed the +captain's courage to the sticking-point, or the mate may have pushed +matters just too far; what happened was this: + +The captain and the mate had a worse quarrel than usual, after which the +mate rope's-ended poor Pedro till the lad lost consciousness, and whilst +I was comforting him below, the brute fumed up and down deck like a +hyena ("sight o' blood all same as drink to the likes of him," said +Alfonso, "make he drunk for more")--and vented some of his rage in abuse +of the captain, such as we had often heard, but which no one had ever +ventured to report. On this occasion Alfonso did report it. As I have +said, I only knew results. + +At eight o'clock next morning all hands were called aft. + +The captain was quite sober, and he made very short work of it. He told +us briefly and plainly that the mate was mate no longer, and asked if we +had any wish as to his successor, who would be chosen from the crew. We +left the matter in his hands, as he probably expected, on which, +beckoning to Alister, he said, "Then I select Alister Auchterlay. He has +proved himself a good and careful seaman, and I believe you all like +and trust him. I beg you to show this now by obeying him. And for the +rest of the voyage remember that he is _Mister_ Auchterlay." + +"Mr. Auchterlay" more than justified the captain's choice. His elevation +made no change in our friendship, though the etiquette of the vessel +kept us a good deal apart, and Dennis and I were all the "thicker" in +consequence. Alister was not only absolutely loyal to his trust, but his +gratitude never wearied of displaying itself in zeal. I often wondered +how much of this the captain had foreseen. As Alfonso said, he was "good +trader." + +The latter part of the voyage was, in these altered circumstances, a +holiday to what had gone before. The captain was never actually drunk +again, and the _Water-Lily_ got to look clean, thanks largely to the way +Pedro slaved at scraping, sweeping, swabbing, rubbing, and polishing, to +please his new master. She was really in something like respectable +harbour trim when we approached the coast of British Guiana. + +Georgetown, so Alfonso told me, looks very odd from the sea. The first +thing that strikes you being the tops of the trees, which seem to be +growing out of the water; but as you get nearer you discover that this +effect is produced by the low level of the land, which is protected from +the sea by a sea-wall and embankment, I have no doubt Alfonso was +right, but when the time came I forgot all about it, for it was not in +ordinary circumstances that I first saw Georgetown. + +It was one of those balmy, moonlit tropical nights of which I have +spoken; but when we were within about an hour's sail of the mouth of the +Demerara river, the sky ahead of us began to redden, as if the evening +had forgotten itself and was going back to sunset. We made numberless +suggestions, including that of a display of fireworks in our honour; but +as the crimson spread and palpitated like an Aurora Borealis, and then +shot up higher and flooded a large area of sky, Alister sang out "Fire!" +and we all crowded forward in anxious curiosity. + +As might be expected, Alfonso and Pedro were in a state of the wildest +excitement. Alfonso, of course, thought of his lady-love, and would +probably have collapsed into complete despair, but for the necessity of +keeping up his spirits sufficiently to snub every suggestion made by the +cabin-boy, whose rival familiarity with the topography of Georgetown he +could by no means tolerate; whilst Pedro, though docile as a spaniel to +us, despised Alfonso as only a half-caste can despise a negro somewhat +blacker than himself, and burned for safe opportunities of displaying +his superiority. But when Pedro expressed a somewhat contemptuous +conviction that this glowing sky was the result of rubbish burning on +plantations up the country, and skilfully introduced an allusion to +relatives of his own who had some property in canefields, Alfonso's +wrath became sublime. + +"You no listen to dat trash ob cabin-boy," said he. "Wait a bit, and +I'se find him dirty work below dat's fit for he. Keep him from troubling +gentlemen like us wid him lies. Plantation? Yah! He make me sick. Tell +you, me know Demerary well 'nuff. De town is in flames. Oh, my +Georgiana!" + +So much, indeed, was beyond doubt before long, and as the fire seemed +perilously close to the wharves and shipping, the captain decided to lie +off for the night. The thermometer in his cabin stood at ninety degrees, +which perhaps accounted for his having no anxiety to go ashore; but, in +spite of the heat, Dennis and I were wild to see what was going on, and +when Alister called to us to help to lower the jolly-boat, and we found +we were to accompany him, we were not dilatory with the necessary +preparations, and were soon rapidly approaching the burning town. + +It was a strange sight as we drew nearer and nearer. Before us, on the +sea, there was a line where the cold silver of the moonshine met the +lurid reflections of the fiery sky, and the same cool light and hot glow +changed places over our cheeks as we turned our heads, and contrasted +on the two sides of the sail of the jolly-boat. And then we got within +earshot. A great fire is terrible to see, but it is almost more +terrible to hear, and it is curious how like it is to the sound of great +waters or a great wind. The roar, the hiss, the crackle, the pitiless +approach--as Dennis said, + +"I'll tell ye what it is, Jack. These elemental giants, when they do +break loose from our service, have one note of defiance amongst them; +and it's that awe-ful roar!" + +When we stood in the street where the fire was, it was deafening, and it +kept its own distinctness above all other noises; and with the +fire-bells, the saving and losing of household goods, and the trampling +and talking of the crowd, there were noises not a few. Dennis and I were +together, for Alister had business to do, but he had given us leave to +gratify our curiosity, adding a kindly warning to me to take care of +myself, and keep "that feather-brained laddie," Dennis, out of danger's +way. We had no difficulty in reaching the point of interest, for, +ludicrous to say, the fire was in Water Street; that is, it was in the +street running parallel with the river and the wharves, the main +business street of Georgetown. We were soon in the thick of the crowd, +protecting our eyes from the falling fragments of burning wood, and +acquiring information. That heap of smoking embers--so we were +told--was the big store where it first broke out; the house yonder, +where the engines were squirting away, and the fire putting tongues of +flame out of the windows at them, as if in derision, cost two thousand +dollars--"Ah! there goes the roof!" + +It fell in accordingly; and, in the sudden blaze of its destruction, I +saw a man come riding along, before whom the people made way, and then +some one pulled me back and said, + +"The governor." + +He stopped near us, and beckoned some one to his side. + +"Is he coming?" + +"He's here, sir;" and then into the vivid glare stepped a tall, +graceful, and rather fantastical-looking young gentleman in a white +jacket, and with a long fair moustache, who raised his hand with a quick +salute, and then stood at the governor's stirrup. + +"I know that fellow, I'm sure," said Dennis. + +"Royal Engineers officer," said my neighbour. "Mark my words, that means +gunpowder," and the good man, who was stout and steaming with +perspiration, seemed to feel like one who has asked for a remedy for +toothache and been answered by the dentist--"Gunpowder is what it means! +And if our governor had sent for a cobbler, _he'd_ have said, 'Nothing +like leather,' and mended the hose of the steam-pump. And that store of +mine, sir, didn't cost a cent less than--" + +But I was watching the engineer officer, and catching fragments of the +rapid consultation. + +"Quite inevitable, sir, in my opinion." + +"Very good. You have full powers--instruct--colonel--magazine--do your +best." + +The engineer officer had very long white hands, which I noticed as one +went rapidly to his forehead, whilst with the other he caressed the dark +nose of the governor's horse, which had been rubbing its head against +his shoulder. And then the governor rode away and left him. + +The word "gunpowder" seemed to have brought soldiers to the spot in a +sort of natural sequence. There was more quick saluting and short +orders, and then all disappeared but one bronzed-looking sergeant, who +followed the engineer stripling up and down as he jerked his head, and +pulled his moustache, and seemed to have some design upon the gutters of +the house-eaves, which took a good deal of explaining and saluting. Then +we heard wheels and running footsteps, and I became sensible of great +relief from the pressure of the crowd. The soldiers had come back again, +running a hand-cart with four barrels of gunpowder, and the public made +way for them even more respectfully than for the governor. As they set +it down and wiped their faces, the sergeant began to give orders rather +more authoritatively than his superior, and he also pointed to the +gutters; on which the soldiers vanished as before. + +"Can't we help, I wonder?" said I. + +"That's just what I'm thinking," said Dennis, and he strode up to the +officer. But he was busy with his subordinate. + +"Well, sergeant?" + +"Not a fuse in the place, sir." + +"Pretty state of things! Get a hatchet." + +"They sent one, sir." + +"All right. This is the house." + +"The roof _'as_ caught, you know, sir?" + +"The less time to waste," was the reply, and the young man took up a +barrel in his hands and walked in with it, kicking the door open with +his foot. The sergeant must almost have trodden on his officer's heels, +as he followed with the second, and before I could speak Dennis had +shouldered the third. + +"Here's diversion!" said he, and away he went. + +There was the fourth barrel and there was I. I confess that I felt a +twinge, but I followed the rest, and my barrel behaved as well as if it +had been a cask of molasses, though the burning wood fell thickly over +us all. As I groped my way in, the sergeant and Dennis came out, and by +the time that they and some soldiers returned, dragging pieces of +house-gutters after them, the fantastic young officer was pouring the +gunpowder into a heap in the middle of the floor, by the light of a +corner of the ceiling which was now on fire, and I was holding up a +shutter, under his orders, to protect it from premature sparks. When he +set down the barrel he shook some dirt from his fingers, and then +pushing back his white shirt-sleeves from his wrists; he filled his +joined hands as full with gunpowder as they would hold, and separating +them very slightly let a tiny stream run out on to the floor as he +walked backwards; and, as fast as this train was laid, the thin line was +covered from falling embers by the gutters turned over it upside down. +Through the room, down along a passage between two houses, and so into +the street, where the crowd had more or less assembled again. Then the +officer emptied his hands, dusted them together, and said, "Clear +everybody out." + +The sergeant saluted--"May I fire it, sir?" + +"No, thank you, sergeant; clear everybody out." The sergeant was +evidently disappointed, and vented this on the civilian +public.--"_That_" said he, turning a blackened thumb over his shoulder, +"is a 'eap of gunpowder. It's just a going to be hexploded." There was +no need to "clear everybody out." _They went_. And we found ourselves +alone with the soldiers, who were laughing, and saying that the crowd +had taken a big cast-iron tank for the heap of gunpowder. We stood a +little aside in obedience to a wave of the young officer's arm. Then he +crossed the street to pick up a long piece of burning wood, and came +back, the moonlight and the firelight playing by turns upon him. + +I honestly confess that, fierce as the heat was, I turned cold. The +experiences of the next few minutes were as follows: I saw the young +engineer fire the train, and I heard a puff, and then I saw him fall, +face downwards, behind the tank. I gave a cry, and started forward, and +was brought up short by a back-hander on my chest from the sergeant. +Then came a scrambling, rushing sound, which widened into a deep roar, +shaking the ground beneath our feet, and then the big building at which +we were gaping seemed to breathe out a monstrous sigh, and then it fell +in, and tumbled to pieces, quietly, swiftly, and utterly, like a house +of cards. + +And the fantastic-looking young officer got up and shook himself, and +worried the bits of charred wood out of his long yellow moustaches. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + "Die Welt kann dir nichts darbieten, was sie von dir nicht + empfinge."--SCHILLER, _Der Menschenfeind_. + + +After Alister had done the captain's business, he made his way to the +post-office and got our letters, thinking, as he cannily observed, that +in widespread misfortunes the big are implicated with the little, that +fire spares public buildings no more than private residences, and that +if the post-office was overtaken by the flames, we might lose not only +words of affection, but perhaps enclosures of value. In short, he had +brought our letters, and dearly welcome they were. + +I had three; one from my father, one from my mother (with a postscript +by Jem), and a long one from Charlie. I read my father's first; the +others were sure to be tender and chatty, and I could enjoy them at +leisure. + +My father's letter was, for him, a wonderful effort of composition, and +it was far kinder than I had expected or deserved. He blamed me; but he +took some blame to himself for our misunderstandings, which he hoped +would never recur. He said (very justly) that if he had spoken harshly, +he had acted as he believed to be best for me. Uncle Henry's office was +an opening many parents envied for their sons, and he had not really +believed that my fancy for the sea was more than a boyish whim. He was +the last man in the world to thwart a real vocation, and no doubt (as my +Uncle Henry and he had agreed, and, thank GOD, they had had a very +pleasant brotherly bit of chat over old times, and a glass of my +grandfather's 1815 port) every Briton had a natural tendency to rule the +waves, and it was stronger in some lads than others, as _Robinson +Crusoe_ alone would prove, a book which my uncle remembered had nearly +cost him his life on a badly-made raft on the mill-dam, when he was a +lad, and which would be read by boys with the real stuff in them, when +half these modern books the Woods littered the farm parlour with were +lighting the fire. My Uncle Henry had come forward in a very gratifying +way. He had mentioned that Benson, an exceedingly intelligent clerk of +his, had spoken of me in the highest terms, and seemed to think that +there was hardly anything in the way of distinction in an adventurous +career which might not be open to me. I was not to be made vain by +this, as Benson appeared to be an affectionate fellow, with a respect +for the family of his employer very rare in these days. It had been a +great comfort to my father, this visit from Uncle Henry. They were both +greyheaded now, and Jem and I were all they had to come after them. +Blood was thicker than water. As to my poor mother-- + +For a few minutes the letter danced up and down as if writ in water; +then I dried my eyes, and found that she bore up pretty well in hopes of +my return, and that Uncle Henry was communicating by this mail with a +man of business in Halifax, N.S., who was instructed to take a passage +home for me in a good vessel, and to defray any expenses of a reasonable +nature in connection with my affairs. When I was safe home, my father +added, he would take the best advice as to sending me to sea in a proper +and suitable way. Dr. Brown had some relatives who were large +ship-owners, and he seemed to be much interested in my career, out of +regard to the family. I was to let nothing hinder me from coming home at +once, as I valued the love and blessing of my affectionate father. + +My mother's letter was infinitely tender, and it was curiously strong. +Not a reproach or a lamentation, but some good counsel, shrewd as well +as noble, and plenty of home news. Only at the end did she even speak +of herself: "You see, my son, I have never had men belonging to me who +earned their livelihood in foreign countries and by dangerous ways, but +you may trust your old mother to learn to do and bear what other mothers +go through with. She will learn to love the sea because you are a +sailor, but, Jack, you must always give her a woman's bitter-sweet +privilege of saying good-bye, and of packing up your things. I am +getting the time over till you come back with socks. I am afraid they +will blister your feet. Martha does not like them because they are like +what the boys wear in the coal-pits, but Dr. Brown declares they are +just right. He chose the worsted when we went to see Miss Bennet's +mother at the Berlin shop, and left it himself as he drove home, with a +bottle of red lavender for my palpitations. I shall never forget his +kindness. He sat here for an hour and a half on Sunday, and spoke of you +to your father as if you had been his own son; and he said himself as he +walked up and down Miss Bennet's, right through the shop and into the +back parlour and out again, talking about you, till the place was quite +full, and Mrs. Simpson could not remember what she had dropped in for, +which, as Dr. Brown said, was not to be wondered at, considering Miss +Bennet completely forgot to take him up-stairs to see her mother, and +it never crossed his own mind till he stopped at our door and found the +old lady's sleeping draught with my red drops. He says he called at your +Uncle Henry's office, and congratulated him on having a nephew of +spirit, and it was market day, so the office was full. Jem says I am to +leave room for him, as he can't think of enough to say to fill a letter +of his own, so I will only say GOD bless you! my darling boy, and bring +you safe home to your poor mother. + +"P.S.--If you love me come as quick as you can. You shall go off again." + +This was Charlie's letter: + + +"MY DEAR JACK--I was so glad to get your letter. I knew you had gone off +at last. It did not surprise me, for I was sure you would go some day. I +believe I have a very mean spirit, for I felt rather hurt at first that +you did not tell me; but Mr. Wood gave me a good scolding, and said I +was not fit to have a friend if I could not trust him out of sight or +out of hearing. And that's quite true. Besides, I think I knew more +about it after Jem had been down. He has been so jolly to me since you +left. It must be a splendid life on board ship, and I am glad you have +been in the rigging, and didn't fall off. I wish you had seen an iceberg +or a water-spout, but perhaps you will. For two days and two nights I +was very miserable, and then Jenny rode down on Shag, and brought me a +book that did me a great deal of good, and I'll tell you why. It's about +a man whose friend is going to travel round the world, like you, and he +has to be left behind, like me. Well, what does he do but make up his +mind to travel round his own garden, and write a history of his +adventures, just as if he had been abroad. And that's the book; and you +can't tell what a jolly one it is. I mean to do the same, only as you +are at sea I shall call it a Log, 'Log of a Voyage round the Garden, the +Croft, and the Orchard, by the Friend he left behind him.' That's good, +isn't it? I've been rather bothered about whether I should have separate +books for each, or mix them all up; and then, besides, I've got to +consider how to manage about the different times of year, for you know, +of course, the plants and the beasts and everything are different at +different times; but if I have a log of each place for each month, it +would not be done by the time you come home. I think perhaps I shall +have note-books for the four seasons, and that'll take a good while. Two +of the best chapters in Jenny's book are called 'on my face' and 'on my +back,' and they are about what he sees lying on his face and then on his +back. I'm going to do the same, and put down everything, just as it +comes; beetles, chrysalises, flowers, funguses, mosses, earth-nuts, and +land-snails, all just as I find them. If one began with different +note-books for the creatures, and the plants, and the shells, it would +be quite endless. I think I shall start at that place in the hedge in +the croft where we found the bumble-bee's nest. I should like to find a +mole-cricket, but I don't know if they live about here. Perhaps our soil +isn't light enough for them to make their tunnels in, but one ought to +find no end of curious burrowing creatures when one is on one's face, +besides grubs of moths to hatch afterwards. When I am on my back, I +fancy what I shall see most of are spiders. You can't conceive what a +lot of spiders there are in the world, all sorts and sizes. They are +divided into hunters, wanderers, weavers, and swimmers. I expect you'll +see some queer ones, if you go to hot places. And oh, Jack! talking of +burrows, of course you're in Nova Scotia, and that's where Cape Sable +is, where the stormy petrels make their houses in the sand. They are +what sailors call Mother Carey's chickens, you know. I'm sure we've read +about them in adventure books; they always come with storms, and sailors +think they build their nests on the wave. But they don't, Jack, so _you_ +mustn't think so. They make burrows in the sand, and all day they are +out on the wing, picking up what the storms toss to the top, and what +the cooks throw overboard, and then they go home, miles and miles and +miles at night, and feed their young. They don't take the trouble to +make houses if they can find any old rabbit-burrows near enough to the +sea, Mr. Wood says; like the puffins. Do you know, one evening when old +Isaac came to see me, I made him laugh about the puffins till the tears +ran down his face. It was with showing him that old stuffed puffin, and +telling him how the puffin gets into a rabbit-burrow, and when the +rabbit comes back they set to and fight, and the puffin generally gets +the best of it with having such a great hooked nose. Isaac _was_ so +funny. He said he'd seen the rabbits out on the spree many and many a +moonlight night when sober folks were in bed; and then he smacked his +knees and said, 'But I'd give owt to see one on 'em just nip home and +find a Pooffin upon t' hearthstun.' And, my dear Jack, who else has been +to see me, do you think? Fancy! Lorraine! You remember our hearing the +poor Colonel was dead, and had left Lorraine all that he had? Well, do +you know it is a great deal more than we thought. I mean he's got a +regular estate and a big house with old pictures inside, and old trees +outside. Quite a swell. Poor Lorraine! I don't mean poor because of the +estate, because he's rich, of course; but do you know, I think he's +sadder than ever. He's very much cut up that the Colonel died, of +course, but he seems desperate about everything, and talks more about +suicide than he did at Snuffy's, Jem says. One thing he is quite changed +about; he's so clean! and quite a dandy. He looked awfully handsome, and +Jenny said he was beautifully dressed. She says his pocket-handkerchief +and his tie matched, and that his clothes fitted him so splendidly, +though they were rough. Well, he's got a straight back, Jack; like you! +It's hard he can't be happy. But I'm so sorry for him. He went on +dreadfully because you'd gone, and said that was just his luck, and then +he wished to Heaven he were with you, and said you were a lucky dog, to +be leading a devil-me-care life in the open air, with nothing to bother +you. He didn't tell me what he'd got to bother him. Lots of things, he +said. And he said life was a wretched affair, all round, and the only +comfort was none of his family lived to be old. + +"_Wednesday._ I had to stop on Monday, my head and back were so bad, and +all yesterday too. Dr. Brown came to see me, and talked a lot about you. +I am better to-day. I think I had rather wound up my head with +note-books. You know I do like having lists of everything, and my +sisters have been very good. They got a lot of ruled paper very cheap, +and have made me no end of books with brown-paper backs, and Dr. Brown +has given me a packet of bottle labels. You've only got to lick them and +stick them on, and write the titles. He gave me some before, you +remember, to cut into strips to fasten the specimens in my fern +collection. I've got a dozen and a half books, but there will not be one +too many. You see eight will go at once, with the four seasons 'on my +face,' and the four 'on my back.' Then I want two or three for the +garden. For one thing I must have a list of our perennials. I am +collecting a good lot. Old Isaac has brought me no end of new ones out +of different gardens in the village, and now the villagers know I want +them, they bring me plants from all kinds of out-of-the-way places, when +they go to see their friends. I've taken to it a good deal the last few +weeks, and I'll tell you why. It was the week before you ran away that +Bob Furniss came up one evening, and for a long time I could not think +what he was after. He brought me a Jack-in-the-green polyanthus and a +crimson Bergamot from his mother, and he set them and watered them, and +said he 'reckoned flowers was a nice pastime for any one that was +afflicted,' but I felt sure he'd got something more to say, and at last +it came out. He is vexed that he used to play truant so at school and +never learned anything. He can't read a newspaper, and he can't write or +reckon, and he said he was 'shamed' to go to school and learn among +little boys, and he knew I was a good scholar, and he'd come to ask if I +would teach him now and then in the evening, and he would work in the +garden for me in return. I told him I'd teach him without that, but he +said he 'liked things square and fair,' and Mr. Wood said I was to let +him; so he comes up after work-hours one night and I teach him, and then +he comes up the next evening and works in the garden. It's very jolly, +because now I can plot things out my own way, and do them without +hurting my back. I'm going to clear all the old rose-bushes out of the +shady border. The trees are so big now, it's so shady that the roses +never come to anything but blight, and I mean to make a fernery there +instead. Bob says there's a little wood belonging to Lord Beckwith that +the trustees have cut down completely, and it's going to be ploughed up. +They're stubbing up the stumps now, and we can have as many as we like +for the carting away. Nothing makes such good ferneries, you get so many +crannies and corners. Bob says it's not far from the canal, and he +thinks he could borrow a hand-cart from the man that keeps the +post-office up there, and get a load or two down to the canal-bank, and +then fetch them down to our place in the _Adela_. Oh, how I wish you +were here to help! Jem's going to. He's awfully kind to me now you're +gone. Talking of the _Adela_ if you are very long away (and some +voyages last two or three years), I think I shall finish the garden, and +the croft and the orchard, or at any rate one journey round them; and I +think for another of your voyages I will do the log of the _Adela_ on +the canal, for with water-plants, and shells, and larvae, and beasts that +live in the banks, it would be splendid. Do you know, one might give a +whole book up easily to a list of nothing but willows and osiers, and +the different kinds of birds and insects that live in them. But the +number of kinds there are of some things is quite wonderful. What do you +think of more than a hundred species of iris, and I've only got five in +the garden, but one of them is white. I don't suppose you'll have much +time to collect things, but I keep hoping that some day, if I live, +you'll command a ship of your own, and take me with you, as they do take +scientific men some voyages. I hope I shall live. I don't think I get +any worse. Cripples do sometimes live a long time. I asked Dr. Brown if +he believed any cripple had ever lived to be a hundred, and he said he +didn't know of one, nor yet ninety, nor eighty, for I asked him. But +he's sure cripples have lived to be seventy. If I do, I've got +fifty-four years yet. That sounds pretty well, but it soon goes, if one +has a lot to do. Mr. Wood doesn't think it likely you could command a +vessel for twenty years at least. That only leaves thirty-four for +scientific research, and all the arranging at home besides. I've given +up one of my books to plotting this out in the rough, and I see that +there's plenty of English work for twenty years, even if I could count +on all my time, which (that's the worst of having a bad back and head!) +I can't. There's one thing I should like to find out, if ever you think +of going to Japan, and that's how they dwarf big plants like white +lilacs, and get them to flower in tiny pots. Isaac says he thinks it +must be continual shifting that does it--shifting and forcing. But I +fancy they must have some dodge of taking very small cuttings from +particular growths of the wood. I mean to try some experiments. I am +marking your journeys on a map, and where anything happens to you I put +A, for adventure, in red ink. I have put A where you picked up Dennis +O'Moore. He must be very nice. Tell him I hope I shall see him some day, +and your Scotch friend too; I hope they won't make you quite forget your +poor friend Charlie. + +"P.S.--Since I finished, a parcel came. What do you think Lorraine has +done? He has paid for me to be a life member of a great London library, +and sent me the catalogue. I can have out fifteen books at a time. There +are hundreds of volumes. I can't write any more, my back aches so with +putting crosses against the books I want to read. The catalogue is +rather heavy. I think I shall use one of my books to make a list in of +what I want to read during this year. Isn't it good of Lorraine? Poor +Lorraine!" + + +Having devoured my own letters, I looked up to see how my comrades were +enjoying their share of the budget which the Halifax postmaster had +faithfully forwarded. + +The expression on Dennis O'Moore's face was so mixed that it puzzled me, +but he did not look satisfied with his letter, for he kept drawing it +out again, and shaking it, and peeping into the envelope as if he had +lost something. At last he put the whole thing into his pocket with a +resigned air, and drove his hands through his black curls, saying, + +"The squire all over, GOD help him!" + +"What has he done now?" I asked. + +"Sent me twenty pounds, and forgotten to enclose it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + "Thus the merry Pau-Puk-Keewis + Danced his Beggar's Dance to please them, + And, returning, sat down laughing."--_Hiawatha_. + + "GOD be thanked, the meanest of His creatures + Boasts two soul-sides; one to face the world with, + One to show a woman when he loves her." + ROBERT BROWNING. + + +The fact that when we got back to the _Water-Lily_, Alister found the +captain dead drunk in his cabin, sealed our resolution to have nothing +more to do with her when we were paid off, and our engagement ended (as +had been agreed upon) in the Georgetown harbour. There was no fear that +we should fail to get berths as common seamen now, if we wanted them; +and there was not a thing to regret about the _Slut_, except perhaps +Alfonso, of whom we were really fond. As it turned out, we had not even +to mourn for him, for he cut cable from the _Water-Lily_ too, having +plans of his own, about which he made a great deal of mystery and +displayed his wonted importance, but whether they were matrimonial or +professional, I doubt if even Dennis knew at the time. + +Alister _had_ something to lose. It was not a small consideration to +give up his mate's berth, but he said the whole conduct of the ship was +"against his conscience," and that settled the matter, to him. + +When we were our own masters once more, we held another big council +about our future. If I went home at once, I must, somehow or other, get +back to Halifax before I could profit by Uncle Henry's arrangement. If +Dennis went home, he must equally depend on himself, for there was no +saying when the Squire would, or would not, find out and rectify his +omission. Alister's mother had sent him some stamps for postage, and his +paternal relative had sent him a message to the effect that having had +neither word nor wittens of him for a considerable period, and having +feared the worst, he was thankful to learn of his safe arrival in +Halifax, Nova Scotia; and trusted that the step he had taken, if a +thought presumptuous at his years, yet betokened a spirit of +self-reliance, and might prove not otherwise than conducive to his +welfare in the outcome. + +Altogether, we were, practically, as much dependent on ourselves as when +we sat under the pine-trees in Nova Scotia. + +"We'll look up my cousin, to begin with," said Dennis. + +"Are ye pairfectly convinced that he's here?" asked Alister, warned by +his own experience. + +"Certainly," said Dennis. + +"Have ye corresponded with him of late?" pursued Alister. + +"Not I, indeed. The O'Moores are by no means good letter-writers at the +best of times, but he'd have let us know if he was dead, anyhow, and if +he's alive, we'll be as welcome as the flowers." + +Before Alister could reply, he was interrupted by a message from our +late captain. The _Water-Lily_ was still in harbour, and the captain +wanted the ex-mate to help him on some matters connected with the ship +or her cargo. Alister would not refuse, and he was to be paid for the +job, so we hastily arranged that he should go, and that Dennis and I +should devote the evening to looking up the Irish cousin, and we +appointed to meet on the "stelling" or wharf, alongside of which the +_Water-Lily_ lay, at eleven o'clock on the following morning. + +"I was a fool not to speak to that engineer fellow the other night," +said Dennis, as we strolled on the shady side of a wide street, down the +middle of which ran a wide water-dyke fringed with oleanders. "He would +be certain to know where my cousin's place is." + +"Do you know him?" I asked, with some eagerness, for the young officer +was no small hero in my eyes. + +"Oh, yes, quite well. He's a lieutenant in the Engineers. He has often +stayed at my father's for shooting. But he has been abroad the last two +or three years, and I suppose I've grown. He didn't know--" + +"There he is!" said I. + +He was coming out of a garden-gate on the other side of the street. But +he crossed the road, saying, "Hi, my lads!" and putting his hand into +his pocket as he came. + +"Here's diversion, Jack!" chuckled Dennis; "he's going to tip us for our +assistance in the gunpowder plot. Look at him now! Faith, he's as short +of change as myself. How that half-crown's eluding him in the corner of +his pocket! It'll be no less, I assure ye. He's a liberal soul. Now for +it!" + +And as the young lieutenant drew near, Dennis performed an elaborate +salute. But his eyes were brimming with roguishness, and in another +moment he burst out laughing, and after one rapid glance, and a twist of +his moustache that I thought must have torn it up by the roots, the +young officer exploded in the same fashion. + +"DENNIS!--What in the name of the mother of mischief (and I'm sure she +was an O'Moore) are you masquerading in that dress for, out here?" But +before Dennis could reply, the lieutenant became quite grave, and +turning him round by the arm, said, "But this isn't masquerading, I see. +Dennis, my dear fellow, what does it mean?" + +"It means that I was a stowaway, and my friend here a castaway--I mean +that I was a castaway, and Jack was a stowaway. Willie, do you remember +Barton?" + +"Old Barney? Of course I do. How did he come to let you out of his +sight?" + +Dennis did not speak. I saw that he could not, so I took upon me to +explain. + +"They were out in the hooker, off the Irish coast, and she went to +pieces in a gale. Old Barney was lost, and we picked Dennis up." + +He nodded to me, and with his hand through Dennis O'Moore's arm, said +kindly, "We'll go to my quarters, and talk it over. Where are you +putting up?" + +"We're only just paid off," said I. + +"Then you'll rough it with me, of course, both of you." + +I thanked him, and Dennis said, "Willie, the one thing I've been wanting +to ask you is, if you know where that cousin of my father's lives, who +is in business out here. Do you know him?" + +"Certainly. I'm going there to-night, for a dance, and you shall come +with me. I can rig you out." + +They went ahead, arm-in-arm, and I followed at just sufficient distance +behind to catch the backward looks of amazement which the young +officer's passing friends were too polite to indulge when exactly on a +level with him. He capped first one and then another with an air of +apparent unconsciousness, but the contrast between his smart appearance +and spotless white uniform, and the patched remains of Dennis's homespun +suit (to say nothing of the big bundle in which he carried his "duds"), +justified a good deal of staring, of which I experienced a humble share +myself. + +Very good and pleasant are the comforts of civilization, as we felt when +we were fairly established in our new friend's quarters. Not that the +first object of life is to be comfortable, or that I was moved by a +hair's-breadth from my aims and ambitions, but I certainly enjoyed it; +and, as Dennis said, "Oh, the luxury of a fresh-water wash!"--for salt +water really will not clean one, and the only way to get a fresh-water +wash at sea is to save out of one's limited allowance. We had done this, +to the extent of two-thirds of a pailful, as we approached Guiana, and +had been glad enough all to soap in the same bucket (tossing for turns) +and rinse off with clean sea-water, but real "tubs" were a treat indeed! + +I had had mine, and, clothed in a white suit, nearly as much too big +for me as the old miser's funeral gloves, was reposing in a very easy +chair, when Dennis and his friend began to dress for the dance. The +lieutenant was in his bedroom, which opened to the left out of the +sitting-room where I sat, and Dennis was tubbing in another room +similarly placed on the right. Every door and window was open to catch +what air was stirring, and they shouted to each other, over my head, so +to speak, while the lieutenant's body-servant ran backwards and forwards +from one to the other. He was, like so many soldiers, an Irishman, and +having been with his master when he visited the O'Moores, he treated +Dennis with the utmost respect, and me with civility for Dennis' sake. +He was waiting on his master when the lieutenant shouted, + +"Dennis! what's your length, you lanky fellow?" + +"Six foot two by the last notch on the front door. I stood in my socks, +and the squire measured it with his tape." + +"Well, there's half-an-inch between us if he's right; but that tape's +been measuring the O'Moores from the days of St. Patrick, and I've a +notion it has shrunk with age. I think my clothes will do for you." + +"Thank you, thank you, Willie! You're very good." + +In a few minutes O'Brien came out with his arms full of clothes, and +pursued by his master's voice. + +"O'Brien's bringing you the things; can he go in? Be quick and finish +off that fresh-water business, old fellow, and get into them. I promised +not to be late." + +I tried to read a newspaper, but the cross-fire of talk forbade anything +like attention. + +"Was ye wanting me, sorr?" + +"No, no. Never mind me, O'Brien. Attend to Mr. O'Moore. Can he manage +with those things?" + +"He can, sorr. He looks illigant," replied O'Brien from the right-hand +chamber. We all laughed, and Dennis began to sing: + + "Oh, once we were illigant people, + Though we now live in cabins of mud; + And the land that ye see from the steeple, + Belonged to us all from the flood. + My father was then king of Connaught ----" + +"And mislaid his crown, I'll be bound!" shouted the lieutenant. "Look +here, Dennis, you'll get no good partners if we're late, and if you +don't get a dance with your cousin's daughter, you'll miss a treat, I +can tell you. But dancing out here isn't trifled with as it is in +temperate climates, and cards are made up early." + +By and by he shouted again, + +"O'Brien!" + +"Coming, your honour." + +"I don't want you. But _is_ Mr. O'Moore ready?" + +"He is, sorr, barring the waistcoat. _Take a fresh tie, Master Dennis. +The master 'll not be pleased to take ye out with one like that. Sure +it's haste that's the ruin of the white ties all along._ Did ye find the +young gentleman a pair of shoes, sorr?" + +"Won't those I threw in fit you?" asked our host. + +"I've got them. The least bit too large. A thousand thanks." + +"Can you dance in them?" + +"I'll try," replied Dennis, and judging by the sound, he did try then +and there, singing as he twirled, + + "Bad luck to this marching, + Pipe-claying and starching, + How neat one must be to be killed by the French!" + +But O'Brien's audible delight and the progress of the song were checked +by the lieutenant, who had dressed himself, and was now in the +sitting-room. + +"O'Brien!" + +"Sorr!" + +"If Mr. O'Moore is not ready, I must go without him." + +"He's ready and waiting, sorr," replied O'Brien. + +"_Have ye got a pocket-handkerchief, Master Dennis, dear? There's the +flower for your coat. Ye'll be apt to give it away, maybe; let me use a +small pin. Did the master not find ye any gloves? Now av the squire saw +ye, its a proud man he'd be!_ Will I give the young gentleman one of +your hats, sorr?" + +"Yes, of course. Be quick! So there you are at last, you young puppy. +Bless me! how like the squire you are." + +The squire must have been amazingly handsome, I thought, as I gazed +admiringly at my comrade. Our staring made him shy, and as he blushed +and touched up the stephanotis in his buttonhole, the engineer changed +the subject by saying, "Talking of the squire, is it true, Dennis, what +Jack tells me about the twenty pounds? Did he really forget to put it +in?" + +"As true as gospel," said Dennis, and taking up the tails of his coat he +waltzed round the room to the tune of + + "They say some disaster + Befell the paymaster, + On my conscience, I think that the money's not there!" + +I stood out on the verandah to see them off, Dennis singing and chaffing +and chattering to the last. He waved his hat to me as his friend +gathered the reins, a groom sprang up behind, and they were whirled +away. The only part of the business I envied them was the drive. + +It was a glorious night, despite the oppressive heat and the almost +intolerable biting of mosquitoes and sandflies. In the wake of the +departing trap flew a solitary beetle, making a noise exactly like a +scissor-grinder at work. Soft and silent moths--some as big as small +birds--went past my face, I fear to the hanging lamp behind me. Passing +footfalls echoed bluntly from the wooden pavement, and in the far-away +distance the bull-frogs croaked monotonously. And down below, as I +looked upon the trees, I could see fireflies coming and going, like +pulsations of light, amongst the leaves. + +O'Brien waited on me with the utmost care and civility; served me an +excellent supper with plenty of ice and cooling drinks, and taught me +the use of the "swizzle stick" for mixing them. I am sure he did not +omit a thing he could think of for my comfort. He had been gone for some +time, and I had been writing letters, turning over the engineer's books, +and finally dozing in his chair, when I was startled by sounds from his +bedroom, as if O'Brien were engaged, first in high argument, and then in +deadly struggle with some intruder. I rushed to his assistance, and +found him alone, stamping vehemently on the floor. + +"What's the matter?" said I. + +"Matther is it? Murther's the matther," and he gave another vicious +stamp, and then took a stride that nearly cost him his balance, and gave +another. "I beg yor pardon, sorr; but it's the cockroaches. The place +swarms wid 'em. Av they'd keep peaceably below, now, but invading the +master's bedroom--that's for ye, ye thief!" and he stamped again. + +"The creatures here are a great plague," said I, slapping a mosquito +upon my forehead. + +"And that as true a word as your honour ever spoke. They're murderous no +less! Many's the time I'm wishing myself back in old Ireland, where +there's no venomous beasts at all, at all. Arrah! Would ye, ye +skulking--" + +I left him stamping and streaming with perspiration, but labouring +loyally on in a temperature where labour was little short of heroism. + +I went back to my chair, and began to think over my prospects. It is a +disadvantage of idleness that one wearies oneself with thinking, though +one cannot act. I wondered how the prosperous sugar-planter was +receiving Dennis, and whether he would do more for him than one's rich +relations are apt to do. The stars began to pale in the dawn without my +being any the wiser for my speculations, and then my friends came home. +The young officer was full of hopes that I had been comfortable, and +Dennis of regrets that I had not gone with them. His hair was tossed, +his cheeks were crimson, and he had lost the flower from his buttonhole. + +"How did you get on with your cousin?" I asked. The reply confounded me. + +"Oh, charmingly! Dances like a fairy. I say, Willie, as a mere matter of +natural history, d'ye believe any other human being ever had such feet?" + +A vague wonder crept into my brain whether the cousin could possibly +have become half a nigger, from the climate, which really felt capable +of anything, and have developed feet like our friend the pilot; but I +was diverted from this speculation by seeing that Dennis was clapping +his pockets and hunting for something. + +"What have you lost now?" asked his friend. + +"My pocket-handkerchief. Ah, there it is!" and he drew it from within +his waistcoat, and with it came his gloves, and a third one, and they +fell on the floor. As he picked the odd one up the lieutenant laughed. + +"What size does she wear, Dennis--sixes?" + +"Five and three-quarters--long fingers; so she tells me." He sighed, and +then wandered to the window, whistling "Robin Adair." + +"Now, Dennis, you promised me to go straight to bed. Turn in we must, +for I have to be on an early parade." + +"All right, Willie. Good-night, and a thousand thanks to you. It's been +a great evening--I never was so happy in my life. Come along, Jack." + +And off he went, tossing his head and singing to the air he had been +whistling, + + "Who in the song so sweet? + Eileen aroon! + Who in the dance so fleet? + Eileen aroon! + Dear were her charms to me, + Dearer her laughter free, + Dearest her constancy, + Eileen aroon!" + +"She'll be married to a sugar-planter before you've cut your wisdom +teeth!" bawled the engineer from his bedroom. + +"_Will she_?" retorted Dennis, and half-laughing, half-sentimentally, he +sang on louder than before, + + "Were she no longer true, + Eileen aroon! + What should her lover do? + Eileen aroon! + Fly with his broken chain, + Far o'er the bounding main, + Never to love again, + Eileen aroon!" + +Willie made no reply. He evidently meant to secure what sleep there was +to be had, and as Dennis did not seem in the mood for discussing our +prospects as seamen, I turned into my hammock and pulled it well round +my ears to keep out bats, night-moths, and the like. + +It was thus that I failed at first to hear when Dennis began to talk to +somebody out of the window. But when I lifted my head I could hear what +he said, and from the context I gathered that the other speaker was no +less than Alister, who, having taken his sleep early in the night, was +now refreshing himself by a stroll at dawn. That they were squabbling +with unusual vehemence was too patent, and I was at once inclined to lay +the blame on Dennis, who ought, I felt, to have been brimming over with +generous sympathy, considering how comfortable we had been, and poor +Alister had not. But I soon discovered that the matter was no personal +one, being neither more nor less than an indignant discussion as to +whether the air which Dennis was singing was "Scotch" or "Irish." As I +only caught the Irish side of the argument, I am not qualified to +pronounce any opinion. + +"Of course facts are facts, no one denies that. And it's likely enough +your grandmother sang 'Robin Adair' to it, and your great-grandmother +too, rest her soul! But it would take an uncommonly _great-grandmother_ +of mine to have sung it when it was new, for it's one of the oldest of +old Irish airs." + + * * * * * + +"Stole it of course! as they did plenty more in those times--cattle and +what not. I'd forgive them the theft, if they hadn't spoilt the tune +with a nasty jerk or two that murders the tender grace of it intirely." + + * * * * * + +"Alister, me boy! You're not going? Ye're not cross, are ye? Faith, I'd +give my life for ye, but I can't give ye Eileen aroon. Come in and have +some swizzle! We're in the height of luxury here, and hospitality as +well, and you'll be as welcome as daylight." + + * * * * * + +"Up so late? Up so early you mean! Ah, don't put on that air of +incorruptible morality. Wait now till I get in on the one side of my +hammock and out at the other, and I'll look as early-rising-proud as +yourself. Alister! Alister dear!--" + +Through all this the engineer made no sign, and it struck me how wise he +was, so I pulled the hammock round me again and fell asleep; not for +long, I fancy, for those intolerable sandflies woke me once more before +Dennis had turned in. + +I looked out and saw him still at the window, his eyes on a waning +planet, his cheek resting on the little glove laid in his right hand, +and singing more sweetly than any nightingale: + + "Youth must with time decay, + Eileen aroon! + Beauty must fade away, + Eileen aroon! + Castles are sacked in war, + Chieftains are scattered far, + Truth is a fixed star, + Eileen aroon!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + "Which is why I remark, + And my language is plain, + That for ways that are dark, + And for tricks that are vain, + The heathen Chinee is peculiar." + BRET HARTE. + + +Alister did more than pick pink-pale oleanders by the dyke side that +morning. His business with the captain was soon despatched, and in the +course of it he "fore-gathered," as he called it, with the man of +business who had spoken to us on the night of the great fire, and whose +own warehouse was in ruins. He proved to be a Scotchman by birth, and a +man of energy (not a common quality in the tropics), and he was already +busy about retrieving his fortune. The hasty repair of part of the +building, in which to secure some salvage, and other similar matters, +was his first object; and he complained bitterly of the difficulty of +inducing any of the coloured gentlemen to do a "fair day's work for a +fair day's wage," except when immediate need pressed them. They would +then work, he said, but they would not go on working till the job was +done, only till they had earned enough wages to take another idle +"spell" upon. + +Several Chinamen were already busy among the ruins of the burnt houses, +as we saw, and it was Chinese labour that Alister's friend had resolved +to employ; but he seemed to think that, though industrious, those +smiling, smooth-faced individuals, who looked as if they had come to +life off one of my mother's old tea-cups, were not to be trusted alone +among the salvage. + +"Every thief among 'em 's as good as a conjurer," he declared, "and can +conceal just anything up his sleeve." + +Thus it came about that when Dennis and I went down to the stelling to +meet Alister, as we had agreed, and delivered the messages of +hospitality with which the young engineer and Dennis's cousin had +charged us, we found that he had made an engagement to help the +burnt-out store-owner for such time as we should be out of seamen's +work, on terms which were to include his board and lodging. + +"Alister, dear! I admire ye with all me heart," said Dennis impetuously. +"I never saw such an industrious, persevering fellow. If all Scotch +lads take the tide of life at the flood as you do, small blame to ye for +making your fortunes; and well ye deserve it." + +"There's not a doubt about it," replied Alister complacently. "And I'll +tell ye more. Find me arty grand work, if it's at the other end of the +airth, whether it's digging a dyke in the desert, or bigging a mountain +up to the moon, and I'll find ye an Aberdeenshire man not far from the +head of it." + +Dennis's face seemed to twitch with a dozen quick thoughts and smiles, +as Alister turned away to meet his new employer, who had just appeared +on the stelling. + +"They have wonderful qualities," he said gently. "I envy them, I can +tell ye, Jack. What's an idle lout like me good for? Will I ever be able +to make a home for myself, or for any one else? _They do!_" He spoke +earnestly, and then suddenly relapsing into an imitation of Alister's +accent, which was his latest joke, he added with twinkling eyes, "and +they save a _wee_ in wages to their _ain_ trumpeters--_whiles!_" + +And having drawled out the word "whiles" to the uttermost possible +length, he suddenly began to snap his fingers and dance an Irish jig +upon the wooden planks of the stelling. This performance completely +demoralized the Chinamen who caught sight of it. "Eyah!" they cried, +they stopped work, they chuckled, they yelled; they doubled themselves +up, some of their pig-tails came down, and one and all they laughed so +frankly and immoderately, it was hard to believe that anything like +deception could be amongst the faults of these almond-eyed children of +the Flowery-Land. + +Mr. Macdonald (the store-owner) seemed, however, to think that they +required pretty close watching, and I do not think he would have been +willing to let Alister go back with us to luncheon at Willie's, but for +his appreciation of social rank. It was obvious that it did Alister no +harm that he had a friend in an officer of her Majesty's Service, and a +comrade in the nephew of a sugar-planter of the uppermost level of +Demerara society. + +We three held a fresh council as we sat with the young engineer. He and +Alister got on admirably, and he threw himself into our affairs with +wonderful kindness. One point he disposed of at once, and that was _my_ +fate! There could be no question, he said, that my duty was to get back +to Halifax, "report myself" to Uncle Henry's agent there, and then go +home. + +"You're ruthlessly dismembering the Shamrock, Willie," Dennis objected. + +"I don't see that. _You're_ not to stay here, for instance." + +"You're mighty positive," said Dennis, blushing. + +"Of course I am. I wouldn't encourage you to waste sentiment anyhow; and +the West Indies is no latitude for boys, to go on with. And you know as +well as I do, that it's rather more than time the squire started you in +life. You must go home, Dennis!" + +"If I do, I go with Jack. And what about Alister?" + +The young officer tugged his moustaches right and left. Then he said, +"If I were exactly in your place, Auchterlay--" + +"Well, sir?" said Alister, for he had hesitated. + +--"I should--enlist in the Royal Engineers." + +"Nothing like gunpowder," whispered Dennis to me. I kicked him in +return. + +The pros and cons of the matter were not lengthy. If Alister enlisted in +any regiment, the two advantages of good behaviour and good education +would tell towards his advancement more rapidly and more certainly than +perhaps in any other line of life. If he enlisted into a scientific +corps, the chance of being almost immediately employed as a clerk was +good, very much of the work would be interesting to an educated and +practical man; the "marching, pipe-claying and starching," of which +Dennis sang, was a secondary part of "R.E." duties at any time, and +there were special opportunities of employment in foreign countries for +superior men. Alister was not at all likely to remain long a private, +and it was quite "on the cards" that he might get a commission while he +was still young. So much for "peace time." But if--in the event of--and +supposing (here the young engineer made a rapid diversion into the +politics of the day) there was a chance of "active service"--the Royal +Engineers not only offered far more than drill and barrack duties in +time of peace, but no branch of the army gave nobler opportunities for +distinguished service in time of war. At this point he spoke with such +obvious relish, that I saw Dennis was ready to take the Queen's Shilling +on the spot. Alister's eyes gave a flash or two, but on the whole he +"kept a calm sough," and put the other side of the question. + +He said a good deal, but the matter really lay in small compass. The +profession of arms is not highly paid. It was true that the pay was poor +enough as a seaman, and the life far harder, but then he was only bound +for each voyage. At other times he was his own master, and having +"gained an insight into" trading from his late captain, he saw +indefinite possibilities before him. Alister seemed to have great faith +in openings, opportunities, chances, &c., and he said frankly that he +looked upon his acquired seamanship simply as a means of paying his +passage to any part of the habitable globe where fortunes could be made. + +"Then why not stick together?" cried Dennis. "Make your way up to +Halifax with us, Alister dear. Maybe you'll find your cousin at home +this time, and if not, at the worst, there's the captain of our old ship +promised ye employment. Who knows but we'll all go home in her together? +Ah, let's keep the Shamrock whole if we can." + +"But you see, Dennis," said the lieutenant, "Alister would regard a +voyage to England as a step backward, as far as his objects are +concerned." + +Dennis always maintained that you could never contrive to agree with +Alister so closely that he would not find room to differ from you. + +So he nudged me again (and I kicked him once more), when Alister began +to explain that he wouldn't just say _that_, for that during the two or +three days when he was idle at Liverpool he had been into a free library +to look at the papers, and had had a few words of converse with a decent +kind of an old body, who was a care-taker in a museum where they bought +birds and beasts and the like from seafaring men that got them in +foreign parts. So that it had occurred to him that if he could pick up a +few natural curiosities in the tropics, he might do worse, supposing his +cousin be still absent from Halifax, than keep himself from idleness, by +taking service in our old ship, with the chance of doing a little +trading at the Liverpool Museum. + +"I wish I hadn't broken that gorgeous lump of coral Alfonso gave me," +said Dennis. "But it's as brittle as egg-shell, though I rather fancy +the half of it would astonish most museums. You're a wonderful boy, +Alister! Ah, we'll all live to see the day when you're a millionaire, +laying the foundation-stone of some of these big things the Aberdeen men +build, and speechifying away to the rising generation of how ye began +life with nothing but a stuffed Demerary parrot in your pocket. Willie, +can't ye lend me some kind of a gun, that I may get him a few of these +highly-painted fowl of the air? If I had but old Barney at my elbow +now--GOD rest his soul!--we'd give a good account of ourselves among the +cockatoos. Many's the lot of sea-birds we've brought home in the hooker +to stuff the family pillows. But I'm no hand at preparing a bird for +stuffing." + +"I'll cure them," said I; "the school-master taught me." + +"Then we're complete entirely, and Alister 'll die Provost of Aberdeen. +Haven't I got the whole plan in my head? (And it's the first of the +O'Moores that ever developed a genius for business!) Swap crimson macaws +with green breasts in Liverpool for cheap fizzing drinks; trade them in +the thirsty tropics for palm-oil; steer for the north pole, and retail +that to the oleaginous Esquimaux for furs; sell them in Paris in the +autumn for what's left of the summer fashions, and bring these back to +the ladies of Demerary; buy--" + +"Dennis! stop that chattering," cried our host; "there's some one at the +door." + +We listened. There was a disturbance below stairs, and the young officer +opened the door and shouted for his servant, on which O'Brien came up +three at a time. + +"What is it, O'Brien?" + +"A Chinese, your honour. I asked him his business, and not a word but +gibberish will he let out of him. But he's brought no papers nor parcels +at all, and sorra peep will I let him have of your honour's room. The +haythen thief!" + +But even as O'Brien spoke, a Chinaman, in a China blue dress, passed +between him and the door-post, and stood in the room. + +"Who are you?" asked the engineer peremptorily. + +"Ah-Fo," was the reply, and the Chinaman bowed low. + +"You can understand English, if you can't speak it, eh?" + +The Chinaman smiled. His eyes rolled round the room till he caught sight +of Alister, then suddenly producing three letters, fanwise, as if he +were holding a hand at whist, he jerked up the centre one, like a +"forced" card in a trick, and said softly, "For you"--and still looking +round with the others in his hand, he added, "For two; allee same as +you," and as Alister distributed them to Dennis and me, his wooden face +took a few wrinkles of contempt, and he added, "One nigger bringee. +Mister Macdonald, he send me." + +After this explanation he stood quite still. Even his face was unmoved, +but his eyes went round and to every corner of the room. I was so +absorbed in watching him that Dennis was reading his letter aloud before +I had opened mine. But they were all alike, with the exception of our +names. They were on pink paper, and highly scented. This was Dennis +O'Moore's: + +"_Hymeneal_.--Mr. Alfonso St. Vincent and Miss Georgiana Juba's +compliments are respectfully offered, and will be happy of Mr. Dennis +O'Moore's company on the occasion of the celebration of their nuptials. +Luncheon at twelve on the auspicious day, Saturday ----" + +"Oh, botheration! It's six weeks hence," said Dennis. "Will we be here, +I wonder?" + +"We'll go if we are." "Poor old Alfonso!" "Well done, Alfonso!" Such +were our sentiments, and we expressed them in three polite notes, which +the Chinaman instantaneously absorbed into some part of his person, and +having put the hand with which he took them to his head and bowed lowly +as before, he went away. And O'Brien, giving one vicious dust with his +coat-sleeve of the door-post, which Ah-Fo had contaminated by a passing +touch, followed the "heathen thief" to see him safe off the premises. + +"That's a strange race, now----" began Alister, but I ran to the window, +for Dennis was on the balcony watching for the Chinaman, and remembering +the scene on the stelling, I anticipated fun. + +"Hi, there! Fe-fo-fum, or whatever it is that they call ye!" + +Ah-Fo looked up with a smile of delighted recognition, which, as Dennis +gave a few preliminary stamps, and began to whistle and shuffle, +expanded into such hearty laughter, that he was obliged to sit down to +it by the roadside. + +"Look here, Dennis," said our host; "we shall have a crowd collecting if +you go on with this tomfoolery. Send him off." + +"All right, old fellow. Beg your pardon. Good-bye, Te-to-tum." + +It was not a respectful farewell, but there is a freemasonry of +friendliness apart from words. Dennis had a kindly heart toward his +fellow-creatures everywhere, and I never knew his fellow-creatures fail +to find it out. + +"Good-bye," said Ah-Fo, lingeringly. + +"Good-bye again. I say, old mandarin," added the incorrigible Dennis, +leaning confidentially over the balcony, "got on pretty well below +there? Or did O'Brien keep the tail of his eye too tight on ye? Did ye +manage to coax a greatcoat of a hall-table or any other trifle of the +kind up those sleeves of yours?" + +This time Ah-Fo looked genuinely bewildered, but he gazed at Dennis as +if he would have given anything to understand him. + +"Uppee sleevee--you know?" said Dennis, illustrating his meaning by +signs. ("Chinese is a mighty easy language, Willie, I find, when you're +used to it.") + +A grin of intelligence spread from ear to ear on Ah-Fo's countenance. + +"Eyah!" said he, and with one jerk he produced our three letters, +fan-fashion, in his right hand, and then they vanished as quickly, and +he clapped his empty palms and cried, "Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" + +"It's clever, there's no denying," said Alister, "but it's an uncanny +kind of cleverness." + +Something uncannier was to come. Ah-Fo had stood irresolute for a minute +or two, then he appeared to make up his mind, and coming close under the +balcony he smiled at Dennis and said, "You lookee here." Then feeling +rapidly in the inner part of his dress he brought out a common needle, +which he held up to us, then pricked his finger to show that it was +sharp, and held it up again, crying, "You see?" + +"I see," said Dennis. "Needle. Allee same as pin, barring that a pin's +got a head with no eye in it, and a needle's got an eye with no head to +it." + +"You no talkee, you lookee," pleaded Ah-Fo. + +"One for you, Dennis," laughed the engineer. We looked, and Ah-Fo put +the needle into his mouth and swallowed it. He gave himself a pat or two +and made some grimaces to show that it felt rather prickly going down, +and then he produced a second needle, and tested and then swallowed +that. In this way he seemed to swallow twelve needles, nor, with the +closest watching, could we detect that they went anywhere but into his +mouth. + +"Will he make it a baker's dozen, I wonder?" gasped Dennis. + +But this time Ah-Fo produced a small ball of thread, and it followed the +needles, after which he doubled himself up in uneasy contortions, which +sent us into fits of laughter. Then he put his fingers into his +mouth--we watched closely--and slowly, yard after yard, he drew forth +the unwound thread, and all the twelve needles were upon it. And whilst +we were clapping and cheering him, both needles and thread disappeared +as before. + +Ah-Fo was evidently pleased by our approval, and by the shower of coins +with which our host rewarded his performance, but when he had disposed +of them in his own mysterious fashion, some source of discontent seemed +yet to remain. He looked sadly at Dennis and said, "Ah-Fo like to do so, +allee same as you." And then began gravely to shuffle his feet about, in +vain efforts, as became evident, to dance an Irish jig. We tried to +stifle our laughter, but he was mournfully conscious of his own failure, +and, when Dennis whistled the tune, seemed to abandon the task in +despair, and console himself by an effort to recall the original +performance. After standing for a few seconds with his eyes shut and his +head thrown back, so that his pig-tail nearly touched the ground, the +scene appeared to return to his memory. "Eyah!" he chuckled, and turned +to go, laughing as he went. + +"Don't forget the letters. Uppee sleevee, old Tea-tray!" roared Dennis. + +Ah-Fo flirted them out once more. "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed he, and went +finally away. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + "Das Haar trennt."--_German Proverb_. + + +We three were not able to be present at Alfonso's wedding, for the very +good reason that we were no longer in British Guiana. But the day we +sailed for Halifax, Alfonso and his Georgiana came down to see us on the +stelling. "Georgiana" was as black as a coal, but Alfonso had not +boasted without reason of the cut of her clothes. She had an upright +pretty figure, and her dress fitted it to perfection. It was a white +dress, and she had a very gorgeous parasol, deeply fringed, and she wore +a kerchief of many colours round her shoulders, and an equally bright +silk one cleverly twisted into a little cap on her woolly head. Her +costume was, in short, very gay indeed. + +"Out of all the bounds of nature and feminine modesty," said Alister. + +"Of your grandmother's nature and modesty, maybe," retorted Dennis. "But +she's no gayer than the birds of the neighbourhood, anyway, and she's as +neat, which is more than ye can say for many a young lady that's not so +black in the face." + +In short, Dennis approved of Alfonso's bride, and I think the lady was +conscious of it. She had a soft voice, and very gentle manners, and to +Dennis she chatted away so briskly that I wondered what she could have +found to talk about, till I discovered from what Dennis said to Alister +afterwards, that the subject of her conversation was Alfonso's +professional prospects. + +"Look here, Alister dear," said Dennis; "don't be bothering yourself +whether she employs your aunt's dressmaker or no, but when you're about +half-way up that ladder of success that I'll never be climbing (or I'd +do it myself), say a good word for Alfonso to some of these Scotch +captains with big ships, that want a steward and stewardess. That's what +she's got her eye on for Alfonso, and Alfonso has been a good friend to +us." + +"I'll mind," said Alister. And he did. For (to use his own expression) +our Scotch comrade was "aye better than his word." + +Dennis O'Moore's cousin behaved very kindly to us. He was not only +willing to find Dennis the money which the squire had failed to send, +but he would have advanced my passage-money to Halifax. I declined the +offer for two reasons. In the first place, Uncle Henry had only spoken +of paying my passage from Halifax to England, and I did not feel that I +was entitled to spend any money that I could avoid spending; and, +secondly, as Alister had to go north before the mast, I chose to stick +by my comrade, and rough it with him. This decided Dennis. If Alister +and I were going as seamen, he would not "sneak home as a passenger." + +The elderly cousin did not quite approve of this, but the engineer +officer warmly supported Dennis, and he was also upheld in a quarter +where praise was still dearer to him, as I knew, for he took me into his +confidence, when his feelings became more than he could comfortably keep +to himself. + +"Perhaps she won't like your being a common sailor, Dennis," I had said, +"and you know Alister and I shall quite understand about it. We know +well enough what a true mate you've been to us, and Alister was talking +to me about it last night. He said he didn't like to say anything to +you, as he wouldn't take the liberty of alluding to the young lady, but +he's quite sure she won't like it, and I think so too." + +I said more than I might otherwise have done, because I was very much +impressed by Alister's unusual vehemence on the subject. He seldom +indeed said a word that was less than a boast of Scotland in general, +and Aberdeenshire in particular, but on this occasion it had burst +forth that though he had been little "in society" in his native country, +he had "seen enough to know that a man would easier live down a breach +of a' the ten commandments than of any three of its customs." And when I +remembered for my own part, how fatal in my own neighbourhood were any +proceedings of an unusual nature, and how all his innocence, and his ten +years of martyrdom, had not sufficed with many of Mr. Wood's neighbours +to condone the "fact" that he had been a convict, I agreed with Alister +that Dennis ought not to risk the possible ill effects of what, as he +said, had a ne'er-do-weel, out-at-elbows, or, at last and least, an +uncommon look about it; and that having resumed his proper social +position, our Irish comrade would be wise to keep it in the eyes he +cared most to please. + +"Alister has a fine heart," said Dennis, "but you may tell him I told +her," and he paused. + +"What did she say?" I asked anxiously. + +"She said," answered Dennis slowly, "that she'd small belief that a girl +could tell if a man were true or no by what he seemed as a lover, but +there was something to be done in the way of judging of his heart by +seeing if he was kind with his kith and faithful to his friends." + +It took me two or three revolutions of my brain to perceive how this +answer bore upon the question, and when I repeated it to Alister, his +comment was almost as enigmatical. + +"A man," he said sententiously, "that has been blessed with a guid +mother, and that gives the love of his heart to a guid woman, may aye +gang through the ills o' this life like the children of Israel through +the Red Sea, with a wall on's right hand and a wall on's left." + +But it was plain to be seen that the young lady approved of Dennis +O'Moore's resolve, when she made us three scarlet night-caps for +deck-wear, with a tiny shamrock embroidered on the front of each. + +Indeed, as to clothes and comforts of all sorts, we began our homeward +voyage in a greatly renovated condition, thanks to our friends. The many +kindnesses of the engineer officer were only matched by his brusque +annoyance if we "made a fuss about nothing," and between these, and what +the sugar-planter thought due to his relative, and what the +sugar-planter's daughter did for the sake of Dennis, the only difficulty +was to get our kits stowed within reasonable seamen's limits. The +sugar-planter's influence was of course invaluable to us in the choice +of a ship, and we were very fortunate. The evening we went on board I +accompanied Dennis to his cousin's house to bid good-bye, and when we +left, Miss Eileen came with us through the garden to let us out by a +short cut and a wicket-gate. She looked prettier even than usual, in +some sort of pale greenish-grey muslin, with knots of pink ribbon about +it, and I felt very much for Dennis's deplorable condition, and did my +best in the way of friendship by going well ahead among the oleanders +and evergreens, with a bundle which contained the final gifts of our +friends. Indeed I waited at the wicket-gate not only till I was +thoroughly tired of waiting, but till I knew we dare wait no longer, and +then I went back to look for Dennis. + +About twenty yards back I saw him, as I thought, mixed up in some way +with an oleander-bush in pink blossom, but, coming nearer, I found that +it was Eileen's grey-green dress with the pink bows, which, like a +slackened sail, was flapping against him in the evening breeze, as he +knelt in front of her. + +"Dennis," said I, not too loud; not loud enough in fact, for they did +not hear me; and all that Dennis said was, "Take plenty, Darlin'!" + +He was kneeling up, and holding back some of the muslin and ribbons with +one hand, whilst with the other he held out a forelock of his black +curls, and she cut it off with the scissors out of the sailor's +housewife which she had made for him. I turned my back and called +louder. + +"I know, Jack. I'm coming this instant," said Dennis. + +The night was noisy with the croaking of frogs, the whirring and +whizzing of insects, the cheeping of bats, and the distant cries of +birds, but Dennis and Eileen were silent. Then she called out, +"Good-bye, Jack, GOD bless you." + +"Good-bye, Miss Eileen, and GOD bless you," said I, feeling nearly as +miserable as if I were in love myself. And then we ran all the rest of +the way to the stelling. + +Alister was already on board, and the young officer was there to bid us +GOD speed, and Dennis was cheerful almost to noisiness. + +But when the shores of British Guiana had become a muddy-looking horizon +line, I found him, with his cropped forehead pressed to the open +housewife, shedding bitter tears among the new needles and buttons. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + "Zur tiefen Ruh, wie er sich auch gefunden. + * * * * * * + Sein Geist ist's, der mich ruft." + _Wallenstein's Tod_. + + +Not the least troublesome part of our enlarged kit was the collection of +gay-plumaged birds. Their preservation was by no means complete, and I +continued it at sea. But between climate and creatures, the +destructiveness of the tropics is distracting to the collector, and one +or two of my finest specimens fell into heaps of mangled feathers, dust, +and hideous larvae under my eyes. It was Dennis O'Moore's collection. He +and his engineer friend were both good shots, and they had made an +expedition on purpose to get these birds for Alister. There were some +most splendid specimens, and the grandest of all, to my thinking, was a +Roseate Spoonbill, a wading, fish-catching bird of all shades of rose, +from pale pink to crimson. Even his long horny legs were red. But he was +not a pleasant subject for my part of the work. He smelt like the +_Water-Lily_ at her worst, before we got rid of the fish cargo. + +Knowing that he had got them for Alister, I was rather surprised one day +when Dennis began picking out some of the rarest birds and put them +aside. It was so unlike him to keep things for himself. But as he turned +over the specimens, he began to ask me about Cripple Charlie, whose +letter he had read. Meanwhile he kept selecting specimens, and then, +returning them to the main body again, "Ah, we mustn't be robbing +Alister, or he'll never die Provost of Aberdeen." In the end he had +gathered a very choice and gorgeous little lot, and then I discovered +their destination. "We'll get them set up when we get home," he said; "I +hope Charlie 'll like 'em. They'll put the old puffin's nose out of +joint, anyway, for as big as it is!" + +Our ship was a steamship, a well-found vessel, and we made a good +passage. The first mate was an educated man, and fond of science. He +kept a meteorological log, and the pleasantest work we ever did was in +helping him to take observations. We became very much bitten with the +subject, and I bought three pickle-bottles from the cook, and filled +them with gulf-weed and other curiosities for Charlie, and stowed these +away with the birds. + +Dennis found another letter from his father awaiting him at the Halifax +post-office. The squire had discovered his blunder, and sent the money, +and the way in which Dennis immediately began to plan purchases of all +sorts, from a birch-bark canoe to a bearskin rug, gave me a clue to the +fortunes of the O'Moores. I do not think he would have had enough left +to pay his passage if we had been delayed for long. But our old ship was +expected any hour, and when she came in we made our way to her at once, +and the upshot of it all was, that Dennis and I shipped in her for the +return voyage as passengers, and Alister as a seaman. + +Nothing can make the North Atlantic a pleasant sea. Of the beauty and +variety of warmer waters we had nothing, but we had the excitement of +some rough weather, and a good deal of sociability and singing when it +was fair, and we were very glad to be with our old mates again, and yet +more glad that every knot on our course was a step nearer home. Dennis +and I were not idle because we were independent, and we enjoyed +ourselves thoroughly. As to Alister, there was no difficulty in seeing +how well he stood with the red-bearded captain, and how good a friend +his own energy and perseverance (with perhaps some touch of clannishness +to boot) had gained for him. Dennis and I always shared his watches, and +they were generally devoted to the discussing and re-discussing of our +prospects, interspersed with fragmentary French lessons. + +From the day that Alister had heard Dennis chatter to the squaw, through +all our ups and downs, at sea and ashore, he had never flagged in his +persistent profiting by Dennis's offer to teach him to speak French. It +was not, perhaps, a very scholarly method which they pursued, but we had +no time for study, so Dennis started Alister every day with a new word +or sentence, and Alister hammered this into his head as he went about +his work, and recapitulated what he had learned before. By the time we +were on our homeward voyage, the sentences had become very complex, and +it seemed probable that Alister's ambition to take part in a "two-handed +crack" in French with his teacher, before the shamrock fell to pieces, +would be realized. + +"What he has learnt is wonderful, I can tell ye," said Dennis to me, +"but his accent's horrid! And we'd get on faster than we do if he didn't +argue every step we go, though he doesn't know a word that I've not +taught him." + +But far funnier than Alister's corrections of his teacher, was a curious +jealousy which the boatswain had of the Scotch lad's new accomplishment. +We could not quite make out the grounds of it, except that the boatswain +himself had learned one or two words of what he called _parly voo_ when +he was in service at the boys' school, and he was jealously careful of +the importance which his shreds and scraps of education gave him in the +eyes of the ordinary uneducated seaman. With Dennis and me he was +uniformly friendly, and he was a most entertaining companion. + +Owing to head winds, our passage was longer than the average. A strange +thing happened towards the end of it. We had turned in for sleep one +night, when I woke to the consciousness that Dennis had got out of his +berth, and was climbing past mine, but I was so sleepy that I did not +speak, and was only sure that it was not a dream, when Alister and I +went on deck for the next watch, and found Dennis walking up and down in +the morning mist. + +"Have you had no sleep?" I asked, for his face looked haggard. + +"I couldn't. For dreaming," he said, awkwardly. + +I laughed at him. + +"What have you been dreaming about?" + +"Don't laugh, Jack. I dreamt of Barney." + +"Well, that's natural enough, Dennis. This end of the voyage must recall +the poor fellow." + +"I wouldn't mind if it was a kindly dream. But I dreamed he'd an old +woman's bonnet on and a handkerchief tied over it. It haunts me." + +"Go back to bed," I advised. "Perhaps you'll dream of him again looking +like himself, and that will put this out of your head." + +Dennis took my advice, and I stood Alister's watch with him, and by and +by Dennis appeared on deck again looking more at ease. + +"Did you dream of him again?" I asked. He nodded. + +"I did--just his own dear self. But he was sitting alone on the edge of +some wharf gazing down into the water, and not a look could I get out of +him till I woke." + +The following morning Dennis was still sound asleep when I rose and went +on deck. The coast of Ireland was just coming into sight through the +haze when he joined me, but before pointing it out to him, I felt +curious to know whether he had dreamed a third time of old Barney. + +"Not I," said he; "all I dreamed of was a big rock standing up out of +the sea, and two children sitting on it had hold of each other's hands." + +"Children you know?" + +"Oh dear, no! Just a little barefoot brother and sister." + +He seemed to wish to drop the subject, and at this moment a gleam of +sunshine lit up the distant coast-line with such ethereal tints, that I +did not wonder to see him spring upon the bulwarks and, catching a +ratlin with one hand, wave his cap above his head with the other, +crying, "GOD bless the Emerald Isle!" + +We reached Liverpool about four o'clock in the afternoon, and as we drew +up alongside of the old wharf, my first thought was to look for Biddy +Macartney. Alister had to remain on board for a time, but Dennis came +willingly with me in search of the old woman and her coffee-barrow. At +last we betook ourselves to the dock-gatekeeper, to make inquiries, and +from him we heard a sad story. The old woman had "failed a deal of +late," he said. He "_had_ heard she wasn't right in her mind, but +whether they'd shifted her to a 'sylum or not, he couldn't say." If she +was at home, she was at an address which he gave us. + +"Will you go, Dennis? I must. At once." + +"Of course." + +Biddy was at home, and never whilst I live can I forget the "home." Four +blocks of high houses enclosed a small court into which there was one +entrance, an archway through one of the buildings. All the houses opened +into the court. There were no back-doors, and no back premises whatever. +All the dirt and (as to washing) all the cleanliness of a crowded +community living in rooms in flats, the quarrelling and the love-making, +the old people's resting, and the children's playing;--from emptying a +slop-pail to getting a breath of evening air--this court was all there +was for it. I have since been told that if we had been dressed like +gentlemen, we should not have been safe in it, but I do not think we +should have met with any worse welcome if we had come on the same +errand--"to see old Biddy Macartney." + +Roughly enough, it is true, we were directed to one of the houses, the +almost intolerable stench of which increased as we went up the stairs. +By the help of one inmate and another, we made our way to Biddy's door, +and then we found it locked. + +"The missis 'll be out," said a deformed girl who was pulling herself +along by the balustrades. She was decent-looking and spoke civilly, so I +ventured to ask, "Do you mean that old Biddy is out?" + +"Nay, not Biddy. The woman that sees to her. When she's got to go out +she locks t' old lass up to be safe," and volunteering no further help, +the girl rested for a minute against the wall, with her hand to her +side, and then dragged herself into one of the rooms, and shut the door +in our faces. + +The court without and the houses within already resounded so to the +squalling of children, that I paid no attention to the fact that more of +this particular noise was coming up the stairs; but in another moment a +woman, shaking a screaming baby in her arms, and dragging two crying +children at her skirts, clenched her disengaged fist (it had a key in +it) close to our faces and said, "And which of you vagabones is t' old +lass's son?" + +"Neither of us," said I, "but we want to see her, if we may. Are you the +woman who takes care of her?" + +"I've plenty to do minding my own, I can tell ye," she grumbled, "but I +couldn't abear to see t' ould lass taken to a 'sylum. They're queer +places some on 'em, as I know. And as to t' House! there's a many folks +says, 'Well, if t' guardians won't give her no relief, let her go in.' +But she got hold on me one day, and she says, 'Sally, darling' (that's +t' ould lass's way, is calling ye Darling. It sounds soft, but she is +but an old Irish woman, as one may say), 'if ever,' she says, 'you hear +tell of their coming to fetch me, GOD bless ye,' she says, 'just give me +a look out of your eye, and I'm gone. I'll be no more trouble to any +one,' she says, 'and maybe I'll make it worth your while too.'" + +At this point in her narrative the woman looked mysterious, nodded her +head, craned over the banisters to see that no one was near, slapped the +children and shook up the baby as a sort of mechanical protest against +the noise they were making (as to effects they only howled the louder), +and drawing nearer to us, spoke in lower tones: + +"T' old lass has money, it's my belief, though she gives me nowt for her +lodging, and she spends nowt on herself. She's many a time fair clemmed, +I'll assure ye, till I can't abear to see it, and I give her the bit and +sup I might have had myself, for I'm not going to rob t' children +neither for her nor nobody. Ye see it's her son that's preying on her +mind. He wrote her a letter awhile ago, saying times was bad out yonder, +and he was fair heart-broke to be so far away from her, and she's been +queer ever since. She's wanted for everything herself, slaving and +saving to get enough to fetch him home. Where she hides it I know no +more nor you, but she wears a sight of old rags, one atop of another, +and pockets in all of 'em for aught I know--hold your din, ye unrewly +children!--there's folks coming. I'll let ye in. I lock t' old lass up +when I go out, for she might be wandering, and there's them hereabouts +that would reckon nought of putting her out of t' way and taking what +she's got, if they heard tell on't." + +At last the door was unlocked, and we went in. And sitting on a low box, +dressed as before, even to the old coat and the spotted kerchief over +her bonnet, sat Biddy Macartney. + +When she lifted her face, I saw that it was much wasted, and that her +fine eyes had got a restless uneasy look in them. Suddenly this ceased, +and they lit up with the old intelligence. For half an instant I +thought it was at the sight of me, but she did not even see me. It was +on Dennis O'Moore that her eyes were bent, and they never moved as she +struggled to her feet, and gazed anxiously at his face, his cap, and his +seafaring clothes, whilst, for his part, Dennis gazed almost as wildly +at her. At last she spoke: + +"GOD save ye, squire! Has the old counthry come to this? Is the O'Moore +an alien, and all?" + +"No, no. I'm the squire's son," said Dennis. "But tell me quick, woman, +what are you to Barney Barton?" + +"Barney is it? Sure he was brother to me, as who knows better than your +honour?" + +"Did _you_ live with us, too?" + +"I did, acushla. In the heighth of ease and comfort, and done nothin' +for it. Wasn't I the big fool to be marryin' so early, not knowin' when +I was well off!" + +"I know. Barney has told me. A Cork man, your husband, wasn't he? A +lazy, drunken, ill-natured rascal of a fellow." + +"That's him, your honour!" + +"Well, you're quit of him long since. And, as your son's in New York, +and all I have left of Barney is you ----" + +"She doesn't hear you, Dennis." + +I interrupted him, because in his impetuosity he had not noticed that +the wandering look had come back over the old woman's face, and that she +sat down on the box, and fumbled among her pockets for Micky's letter, +and then crouched weeping over it. + +We stayed a long time with her, but she did not really revive. With +infinite patience and tenderness, Dennis knelt beside her, and listened +to her ramblings about Micky, and Micky's hardships, and Micky's +longings for home. Once or twice, I think, she was on the point of +telling about her savings, but she glanced uneasily round the room and +forbore. Dennis gave the other woman some money, and told her to give +Biddy a good meal--to have given money to her would have been +useless--and he tried hard to convince the old woman that Micky was +quite able to leave America if he wished. At last she seemed to take +this in, and it gave her, I fear, undue comfort, from the conviction +that, if this were so, he would soon be home. + +After we left Biddy we went to seek decent lodgings for the night. For +Dennis was anxious to see her again in the morning, and of course I +stayed with him. + +"Had you ever seen her before?" I asked, as we walked. + +"Not to remember her. But, Jack, it wasn't Barney I saw in that first +dream. It was Bridget." + +Dennis was full of plans for getting her home with him to Ireland; but +when we went back next day, we found a crowd round the archway that led +into the court. Prominent in the group was the woman who "cared for" +Biddy. Her baby was crying, her children were crying, and she was crying +too. And with every moment that passed the crowd grew larger and larger, +as few things but bad news can make a crowd grow. + +We learnt it very quickly. Biddy had been so much cheered up by our +visit, that when the woman went out to buy supper for them, she did not +lock the door. When she came back, Biddy was gone. To do her neighbours +justice, we could not doubt--considering how they talked then--that they +had made inquiries in all the streets and courts around. + +"And wherever t' owld lass _can_ ha' gone!" sobbed the woman who had +been her neighbour in the noblest sense of neighbourhood. + +I was beginning to comfort her when Dennis gripped me by the arm: + +"I know," said he. "Come along." + +His face was white, his eyes shone, and he tossed his head so wildly, he +looked madder than Biddy had looked; but when he began to run, and +roughs in the streets began to pursue him, I ran too, as a matter of +safety. We drew breath at the dock gates. + +The gatekeeper told us that old Biddy, "looking quite herself, only a +bit thinner like," had gone through the evening before, to meet some one +who was coming off one of the vessels, as he understood, but he had not +noticed her on her return. He had heard her ask some man about a ship +from New York. + +I wanted to hear more, but Dennis clutched me again and dragged me on. + +"I'll know the wharf when I see it," said he. + +Suddenly he stopped, and pointed. A wharf, but no vessel, only the water +sobbing against the stones. + +"That's the wharf," he gasped. "That's where he sat and looked down. +_She's there_!" + + * * * * * + +He was right. We found her there at ebb of tide, with no sign of turmoil +or trouble about her, except the grip that never could be loosened with +which she held Micky's one letter fast in her hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + "Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed + The lighthouse-top I see? + Is this the hill? Is this the Kirk? + Is this mine own countree? + + We drifted o'er the harbour bar, + And I with sobs did pray-- + O let me be awake, my GOD! + Or let me sleep alway." + _The Ancient Mariner_. + +When Alister joined us the first evening after we came back from poor +Biddy, he was so deeply interested in hearing about her, that he would +have gone with us the next morning, if he had not had business on hand. +He had a funny sort of remorse for having misjudged her the day she +befooled the sentry to get me off. Business connected with Biddy's death +detained Dennis in Liverpool for a day or two, and as I had not given +any warning of the date of my return to my people, I willingly stayed +with him. My comrades had promised to go home with me before proceeding +on their respective ways, but (in answer to the letter which announced +his safe arrival in Liverpool) Alister got a message from his mother +summoning him to Scotland at once on important family matters, and the +Shamrock fell to pieces sooner than we had intended. In the course of a +few days, Dennis and I heard from our old comrade. + + + "The Braes of Buie. + +"MY DEAR JACK AND DENNIS: I am home safe and sound, though not in time +for the funeral, which (as partly consequent on the breaking of a tube +in one engine, and a trifling damage to the wheels of a second that was +attached, if ye understand me, with the purpose of rectifying the +deficiencies of the first, the Company being, in my humble judgment, +unwisely thrifty in the matter of second-hand boilers) may be regarded +as a dispensation of Providence, and was in no degree looked upon by any +member of the family as a wanting of respect towards the memory of the +deceased. With the sole and single exception of Miss Margaret +MacCantywhapple, a far-away cousin by marriage, who, though in good +circumstances, and a very virtuous woman, may be said to have seen her +best days, and is not what she was in her intellectual judgment, being +afflicted with deafness and a species of palsy, besides other +infirmities in her faculties. I misdoubt if I was wise in using my +endeavours to make the poor body understand that I was at the other +side of the world when my cousin was taken sick, all her response being, +'_they aye say so_.' However, at long and last, she was brought to admit +that the best of us may misjudge, and as we all have our faults, and +hers are for the most part her misfortunes, I tholed her imputations on +my veracity in the consideration of her bodily infirmities. + +"My dear mother, thank GOD, is in her usual, and overjoyed to see my +face once more. She desires me to present her respects to both of you, +with an old woman's blessing. I'm aware that it will be a matter of +kindly satisfaction to you to learn that her old age is secured in +carnal comforts through my father's cousin having left all his worldly +gear for her support; that is, he left it to me, which is the same +thing. Not without a testimony of respect for my father's memory, that +all the gear of Scotland would be cheap to me by the side of; and a few +words as to industry, energy, and the like, which, though far from being +deserved on my part, sound--like voices out of the mist upon the +mountain side--sweeter and weightier, it may be, than they deserve, when +a body hears them, as ye may say, out of the grave. + +"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and it's not for me to +complain of the down-break in the engines, seeing that in place of +rushing past the coast, we just crawled along the top of these grand +cliffs in the bonny sunshine, which hardly wakes a smile upon the stern +faces of them, while the white foam breaks at no allowance about their +feet. Many's the hour, Jack, I've lain on the moss, and looked down into +a dark cove to watch the tide come in, and turn blue, and green, and +tawny purple over the weeds and rocks, and fall back again to where the +black crags sit in creamy surf with sea-birds on their shoulders. Eh! +man, it's sweet to come home and see it all again; the folk standing at +their doors, and bairns sitting on the dykes with flowers in their +hands, and the waving barley-fields on the cliff tops shining against +the sea and sky, as lights and shades change their places over a woman's +hair. There were some decent bodies in the train beside me, that thought +I was daft, with my head out of the window, in an awful draught, at the +serious risk of brow-ague, not to speak of coal-smuts, which are horrid +if ye get them in your eye. And not without reason did they think so, +for I'll assure ye I would have been loth to swear whether it was spray +or tears that made my cheeks so salt when I saw the bit herring-boats +stealing away out into the blue mist, for all the world as if they were +laddies leaving home to seek their fortunes, as it might be ourselves. + +"But I'm taking up your time with havers about my own country, and I +ask your pardon; though I'm not ashamed to say that, for what I've seen +of the world--tropics and all--give me the north-east coast of Scotland! + +"I am hoping, at your leisure, to hear that ye both reached home, and +found all belonging to ye as ye could wish; and I'm thinking that if +Dennis wrote in French, I might make it out, for I've come by an old +French Dictionary that was my father's. GOD save the Shamrock! Your +affectionate friend, + "ALISTER AUCHTERLAY. + + +"I am ill at saying all that I feel, but I'll never forget." + + +Dennis and I tramped from Liverpool. Partly for the walk, and partly +because we were nearly penniless. His system, as I told him, seemed to +be to empty his pockets first, and to think about how he was going to +get along afterwards. However, it must be confessed that the number and +the needs of the poor Irish we came across in connection with Biddy's +death and its attendant ceremonies, were enough to be "the ruination" of +a far less tender-hearted Paddy than Dennis O'Moore. + +And so--a real sailor with a real bundle under my arm--I tramped Home. + +Dennis had been a good comrade out in the world; but that was a trifle +to the tact and sympathy he displayed when my mother and father and I +were making fools of ourselves in each other's arms. + +He saw everything, and he pretended he saw nothing. He picked up my +father's spectacles, and waltzed with the dogs whilst the old gentleman +was blowing his nose. When Martha broke down in hysterics (for which, it +was not difficult to see, she would punish herself and us later on, with +sulking and sandpaper), Dennis "brought her to" by an affectionate +hugging, which, as she afterwards explained, seemed "that natteral" that +she never realized its impropriety till it was twenty-four hours too +late to remonstrate. + +When my dear mother was calmer, and very anxious about our supper and +beds, I ascertained from my father that the Woods were from home, and +that Jem had gone down to the farm to sit for an hour or so with +Charlie; so, pending the preparation of our fatted calf, Dennis and I +went to bring both Jem and Charlie back for the night. + +It was a dark, moonless night, only tempered by the reflections of +furnace fires among the hills. Dennis thought they were northern lights. +The lane was cool, and fresh and damp, and full of autumn scents of +fading leaves, and toadstools, and Herb Robert and late Meadow Sweet. +And as we crossed the grass under the walnut-trees, I saw that the old +school-room window was open to the evening air, and lighted from within. + +I signalled silence to Dennis, and we crept up, as Jem and I had crept +years ago to see the pale-faced relation hunting for the miser's will in +the tea-caddy. + +In the old arm-chair sat Charlie, propped with cushions. On one side of +him Jem leant with elbows on the table, and on the other side sat Master +Isaac, spectacles on nose. + +The whole table was covered by a Map of the World, and Charlie's high, +eager voice came clearly out into the night. + +"Isaac and I have marked every step they've gone, Jem, but we don't +think it would be lucky to make the back-mark over the Atlantic till +they are quite safe Home." + +Dennis says, in his teasing way, he never believed in my "athletics" +till he saw me leap in through that window. He was not far behind. + +"Jem!" + +"Jack!" + +When Jem released me and I looked round, Charlie was resting in Dennis +O'Moore's arms and gazing up in his own odd, abrupt, searching way into +the Irish boy's face. + +"Isaac!" he half laughed, half sobbed: "Dennis is afraid of hurting this +poor rickety body of mine. Come here, will you, and pinch me, or pull my +hair, that I may be sure it isn't all a dream!" + + + THE END. + + * * * * * + + RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, + LONDON & BUNGAY. + + +_The present Series of Mrs. Ewing's Works is the only authorized, +complete, and uniform Edition published._ + +_It will consist of 18 volumes, Small Crown 8vo, at 2s. 6d. per vol., +issued, as far as possible, in chronological order, and these will +appear at the rate of two volumes every two months, so that the Series +will be completed within 18 months. The device of the cover was +specially designed by a Friend of Mrs. Ewing._ + +_The following is a list of the books included in the Series--_ + + +1. MELCHIOR'S DREAM, AND OTHER TALES. + +2. MRS. OVERTHEWAY'S REMEMBRANCES. + +3. OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY TALES. + +4. A FLAT IRON FOR A FARTHING. + +5. THE BROWNIES, AND OTHER TALES. + +6. SIX TO SIXTEEN. + +7. LOB LIE-BY-THE-FIRE, AND OTHER TALES. + +8. JAN OF THE WINDMILL. + +9. VERSES FOR CHILDREN, AND SONGS. + +10. THE PEACE EGG--A CHRISTMAS MUMMING PLAY--HINTS FOR PRIVATE + THEATRICALS, &c. + +11. A GREAT EMERGENCY, AND OTHER TALES. + +12. BROTHERS OF PITY, AND OTHER TALES OF BEASTS AND MEN. + +13. WE AND THE WORLD, Part I. + +14. WE AND THE WORLD, Part II. + +15. JACKANAPES--DADDY DARWIN'S DOVE-COTE--THE STORY OF A SHORT LIFE. + +16. MARY'S MEADOW, AND OTHER TALES OF FIELDS AND FLOWERS. + +17. MISCELLANEA, including The Mystery of the Bloody Hand--Wonder + Stories--Tales of the Khoja, and other translations. + +18. JULIANA HORATIA EWING AND HER BOOKS, with a selection from Mrs. + Ewing's Letters. + + * * * * * + +S.P.C.K., NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, LONDON, W.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of We and the World, Part II. 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