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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Mugford, by W.H.G. Kingston
+
+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: Captain Mugford
+       Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors
+
+Author: W.H.G. Kingston
+
+Illustrator: Holloway
+
+Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN MUGFORD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Captain Mugford, or Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors, by W.H.G. Kingston.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+This is not a long book, but it is an absolutely delightful one.  The
+Tregellins had owned a large old house on a headland in Cornwall.  They
+had not lived there for some time, and had left it in the care of Clump
+and his wife Juno, West Indians, while the family lived in Bristol.
+Tregellin senior decides that he will install some of his young
+relatives there, in the care of the Clumps and two tutors, one of which,
+Mr Clare, has to deal with their academic needs, and the other, Captain
+Mugford, is to teach them watermanship. The date is early in the
+nineteenth century.
+
+There is also a brave and virtuous dog, Ugly.  The boys' sailing,
+swimming and rowing improve, and they rise to various challenges.
+Eventually they all set off for a longer sailing and fishing expedition.
+ But it all goes pear-shaped, as the weather turns very nasty, and they
+are marooned on a reef some way out to sea.  Clare is not on this
+expedition, but they need a way to alert him to where they are.  It is
+Ugly that saves the day.
+
+They had been using an old wrecked brig, high ashore in the bay, as a
+classroom, but unknown to them some smugglers have been using it as a
+base as well.  Open war breaks out, and things get nasty.  Read the book
+to find out what happens in the end.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+CAPTAIN MUGFORD, OR OUR SALT AND FRESH WATER TUTORS, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+We belong to a Cornish family of the greatest respectability and high
+antiquity--so say the county records, in which we have every reason to
+place the most unbounded confidence.  The Tregellins have possessed the
+same estate for I do not know exactly how long; only I suppose it must
+have been some time after Noah disembarked from the ark, and, at all
+events, for a very long time.  The estate of which I speak was in a wild
+part of the country, and not at that time very productive; but I believe
+that my father would not have parted with it for ten times its market
+value.  It contained between four and five hundred acres of hill and
+dale, and rock and copse, and wood; its chief feature a lofty cape,
+which ran out for a considerable distance into the sea.  On one side it
+was exposed to the almost unbroken sweep of the Atlantic Ocean; on the
+other it was washed by the tranquil waters of a deep bay, which formed a
+safe and picturesque harbour for numerous small craft which frequently
+took shelter there from press of weather when running up channel.
+
+That headland, where the happiest half-year of all my boyhood's days was
+passed, is now dotted with several pleasant summer residences; its acres
+are marked off by fences and walls, and variegated with the diverse
+crops of well-tilled fields, and on its bay-side are occasional small
+wharves for pleasure-boats.  Fifty years ago it was very different, and,
+(though, perhaps, I may be an old fogey and have that grey-hair fashion
+of thinking, with an expressive shrug, "Ah, things are not as they were
+when I was a boy!") I must say, far more beautiful to my eyes than it is
+now.  You have seen a bold, handsome-bearded, athletic sailor-fellow,
+with a manner combining the sunniness of calms, the dash of storms, and
+the romance of many strange lands about him.  Now, if our admired hero
+should abandon his adventurous profession, and settle down quietly into
+the civilised career of an innkeeper, or village constable, or shopman,
+or sedate church clerk, and we chanced to meet him years after his "life
+on the ocean wave," it would probably be to find a sober-faced
+gentleman, with forehead a little bald, with somewhat of a paunch, with
+sturdy legs and gaiters, perhaps with a stiff stock and dignified white
+collar--altogether a very respectable, useful citizen.  But the eye and
+the heart could not find in our excellent acquaintance the fascination
+which so charmed us in our _friend_ the brave sailor.  So with our cape:
+fifty years ago, in all its natural wildness; in the beauty of its
+lonely beaches strewn with pieces of shivered waterlogged spars and
+great rusty remnants of ship-knees and keels; in the melancholy of those
+strips of short brown heath on the seaside, disappearing in the white
+sand; in the frowning outlines of the determined rocks that like
+fortresses defied their enemy the ocean; in the roll of crisp pasturage
+that in unbroken swells covered the long backbone of the cape; in the
+few giant old trees, and, more than all, in its character of freedom,
+loneliness, and isolation, there was a savage charm and dignity that the
+thrift and cultivation, the usefulness and comfort of civilisation's
+beauty can never equal.
+
+My first sight of the old cape was when I was about nine years of age.
+My father took me with him in a chaise from Bristol--two days' journey
+in those times; and I do not think now that my year's tour of Europe,
+fifteen years after, was half as full of incident and delight as that my
+first expedition of a few hours.  I can recall how the man at the
+toll-gate hobbled to us on his crutch; how my father chatted with him
+for a few moments; how, as we drove off, the man straightened himself on
+his crutch and touched the brim of his hat with the back of his hand.
+How well I remember the amazement with which I then heard my father say,
+"Robert, that man lost his leg while fighting under the great Duke in
+the Peninsula."  I thrust my head far out of the chaise to look well at
+my first live hero.  That sight was romance enough for an hour.  Then
+the first glimpse of the top of the high cape, and my father's telling
+me that where I saw the haze beyond was the ocean, were sources of
+further reverie and mystery, dispelled, however, very suddenly when
+directly afterwards a wheel came off the chaise and pitched me into the
+road, with my father's small valise on my stomach.  I remember the walk
+to the nearest house, which happened to be an inn, and how my father
+took off a large tumbler of ale, and gave me some biscuits and a glass
+of water.  It occurred to me, I recollect, whether, when I became a man,
+I should be able to drink a full glass of ale and not be a drunkard, and
+whether my son would take biscuits and water and I not be conscious that
+he wanted to taste the ale.  A thousand things more I remember--mere
+trifles in reality, but abounding in great interest to me on my first
+journey, which really then seemed of as much importance as Captain
+Cook's voyage around the world or Mungo Park's travels in Africa.  It
+was a delightful day, the most interesting chapter in my life up to that
+time--brimful of novelty, thought, and excitement--but I shall not write
+its events in detail.  What I have already mentioned will do as a
+sample.  Late in the afternoon--it was the afternoon of a September day,
+the first fine one after a three days' storm--we reached the cape, just
+as the short sombre twilight of an autumn day settled down on land and
+sea.  As the horse trudged laboriously along through the heavy piece of
+sand connecting the cape and the mainland, I was almost terrified by the
+great sound of waves, whose spray tossed up in vast spouts from every
+rocky head before us.  The rush of waters, the rumbling of great stones
+receding with the current, the booming as of ships' broadsides--all
+these united to awe a little boy making his first acquaintance with the
+ocean.
+
+When we drove up to the house, which was the only habitation on the
+point, not a light was to be seen, and the dark stone walls were blacker
+than the night that had settled down so quickly on the land.  My father
+said there was no use to knock, for that old Juno lived in the back part
+of the house and was too deaf to hear us.  So he led the horse round,
+and we went to the back windows.  Through them we saw our old black
+castellan nodding, pipe in mouth, over the fireplace.  She had not heard
+the noise of our wheels, and it required a vigorous pounding on the
+heavy back-door before old Juno, in much trembling, opened it to us.
+
+"Oh my, Massa Tregellins, is dat you dis dark night!  And Clump, de ole
+nigger, gone to willage.  Lor, massa, how you did frighten me--and, oh
+my! thar's young Massa Bob!"
+
+Juno had often come up to Bristol to see us, and felt an engrossing
+interest in all of the family.  She now led me into the house, and went
+as briskly to work as her rheumatic old limbs would allow, to make a
+good fire--piling on logs, blowing with the bellows, and talking all the
+while with the volubility of a kind old soul of fully sixty years of
+age.  My father had gone to tie up the horse under the shed until Clump
+should return and take care of him.  Clump was Juno's husband, and her
+senior by many years.  The exact age of negroes is always of unreliable
+tradition.  The two had charge of the house, and were, indeed, rulers of
+the entire cape.  Clump cultivated vegetables sufficient for his wife
+and himself, and was also a skilful fisherman.  His duties were to look
+after the copses and fences and gates, and to tend the numerous sheep
+that found a living on the cape; in which tasks Juno helped him, besides
+keeping the old house free from ghosts and desolation--indeed, a model
+of neatness and coziness.
+
+I must now pause for a minute and describe how it happened that the two
+old negroes were living on that out-of-the-way farm in Cornwall.  My
+father had been a West Indian proprietor, and had resided out in the
+West Indies for many years.  It was in the days when Wilberforce and
+true and noble philanthropists who fought the battle of emancipation
+with him first began to promulgate their doctrines.  My father, like
+most other proprietors, was at first very indignant at hearing of
+proceedings which were considered to interfere with their rights and
+privileges, and he was their strenuous opponent.  To enable himself
+still more effectually to oppose the emancipists, he sent for all the
+works which appeared on the subject of emancipation, that he might
+refute them, as he believed himself fully able to do.  He read and read
+on, and got more and more puzzled how to contradict the statements which
+he saw put forth, till at length, his mind being an honest and clear
+one, he came completely round to the opinion of the emancipists.  He now
+conscientiously asked himself how, with his new opinions, he could
+remain a slaveholder.  The property was only partly his, and he acted as
+manager for the rest of the proprietors.  They, not seeing matters in
+the light in which he had been brought to view them, would not consent
+to free the slaves and, as they believed, not unnaturally, ruin the
+property as he desired.  Then he proposed having the negroes educated
+and prepared for that state of freedom which, he assured his partners,
+he was certain they would some day ere long obtain.  They replied that
+slaves were unfit for education, that the attempt would only set them up
+to think something of themselves, and certainly spoil them, and
+therefore neither to this proposition would they agree.  They were
+resolved that as the slaves were theirs by right of law--whatever God
+might have to say in the matter--slaves they should remain.  At length
+my father determined, after praying earnestly for guidance, to have
+nothing personally to do with the unclean thing.  Had he been able to
+improve the condition of the slaves, the case would have been different;
+but all the attempts he made were counteracted by his partners and by
+the surrounding proprietors, who looked upon him in the light of a
+dangerous lunatic.  He therefore offered to give up his share in the
+property, provided he might be allowed to emancipate some of the slaves.
+To this even they would not consent, as they were afraid he might
+select the most able-bodied, and thus deprive the ground of some of its
+best cultivators.  He did his best for the poor blacks, but the law was
+on the side of his partners, and, to do them justice, they, blinded by
+their interests and the contempt in which they held the negro race,
+considered they were right, and that he was wrong.  All they would do
+was to allow him to select ten negroes from among a certain number whom
+they pointed out, and they agreed to pay him over a sum of money for his
+share of the land.  To this proposal he was compelled to agree, and as
+West India property was at that time considered of great value, he
+received a very handsome sum, yet it must be owned not half what he
+might properly have claimed.  With this he returned to England, and, as
+he was a man who could not bear to be idle, he commenced business as a
+general merchant at Bristol.  Shortly after that he married, and my
+brothers and sisters and I in due course came into the world.  Among the
+negroes he set free were Clump and his sable partner Juno, and so
+attached were they to him that they entreated that he would take them
+with him to England.  Clump was, properly speaking, a free man; for
+having in his younger days, after he had married Juno, gone a short trip
+to sea, he was wrecked, and after meeting many adventures, finally
+pressed on board a man-of-war.  He saw a good deal of service, (about
+which he was very fond of talking, by the by), and at last obtaining his
+discharge, or rather taking it, I suspect, with French leave--ever
+mindful of his beloved Juno, he returned voluntarily to a state of
+slavery, that he might enjoy life with her.  The navy in those days was
+not what it now is, and he had not been in the enjoyment of any large
+amount of freedom.  He had, indeed, being a good-natured, simple-hearted
+fellow, been sadly put upon both in the merchant service and navy.  It
+was always, he used to say, "Clump, you don't want to go on shore, you
+stay and take care of the ship;" or, "Clump, you stay in the boat while
+we just take a run along the quay for five minutes;" or, "Clump, leave
+is no use to you, just let me have it instead of you;" or, "Clump, rum
+is a bad thing for niggers.  I'll drink your grog to-day, and if you
+just tip me a wink I'll take half of it to-morrow, and let you have the
+rest, or Bill Noakes'll have the whole of it, and you'll get none."
+Clump and Juno being intelligent, trustworthy people, my father, as I
+have said, put them in charge of the farm on the cape, which they in a
+short time learned to manage with great judgment.  Two other negroes he
+took into his service at Bristol.  One of them became his butler, and it
+would have been difficult to find his equal in that capacity.
+
+Now a lesson may be learned from this history.  My father did what he
+considered right, and prospered; his partners, neglecting to enlighten
+themselves as they might have done, persisted in holding their black
+fellow-creatures in abject slavery, refusing one of the great rights of
+man--a sound education.  Emancipation was carried, and they received a
+large compensation, and rejoiced, spending their money extravagantly;
+but the half-savage negroes whom they had neglected to educate refused
+to work.  Their estates were left uncultivated for want of labourers,
+and they were ruined.  My father, managing his mercantile affairs
+wisely, was a prosperous man.
+
+His business on this visit was to see an adjoining property which had
+once belonged to the family, and which, being in the market, he hoped to
+repurchase.
+
+The house had been built as long back as 1540-1550.  It was of stone--
+the rough stone, as it had been taken from the beaches and cliffs, of
+different shades and kinds.  Above the ground floor was only an attic
+storey; and the main part of the ground floor consisted of four large
+low rooms, panelled in wood, and with ceiling of dark, heavy beams.
+Adjoining the rear of these, my grandfather had built a comparatively
+modern kitchen; but every fireplace in the old house preserved the
+generous cheerful style of ample spread and fire-dogs.  From the great
+door of the main floor a narrow stairway, like cabin steps, led up, with
+quaintly carved banisters, to five real old-fashioned bedrooms, rising
+above to the ridge of the steep-sloping roof and its uncovered but
+whitewashed rafters.  The windows were at least five feet above the
+floor, and had the many small panes we sometimes yet see in very old
+houses.  No doubt it was a house of pretension in its day.  When I was a
+boy it remained a precious ark of family legends and associations.  How
+splendid it is to possess a house nearly three hundred years old.
+To-day nothing could induce me to exchange the walls of that dear old
+house for the handsomest residence in Belgravia.  A house can be built
+in a few months; but to make a home--that is beyond the craft and
+quickness of masons, carpenters, and architects.
+
+Alone on that bold, sea-beaten cape, so sturdy, dark, and time-worn, it
+looked out always with shrewd, steady little window-eyes on the great
+troubled ocean, across which it had watched the Pilgrim Fathers sailing
+away towards the new home they sought in the Western world, and many a
+rich argosy in days of yore go forth, never to return.  It might have
+seen, too, the proud Spanish Armada gliding up channel for the purpose
+of establishing Popery and the Inquisition in Protestant England, to
+meet from the hands of a merciful Providence utter discomfiture and
+destruction.  With satisfaction and becoming dignity, too, it seemed on
+fresh sunny mornings to gaze at the hundreds of sails dotting the sea,
+and bound for all parts of the globe, recalling, perhaps with some
+mournfulness, the days of its youth and the many other varied scenes of
+interest which it had witnessed on those same tossing billows from its
+lofty height.
+
+All through our supper, which was laid in the largest of the first floor
+rooms, did Juno stand by, repeating the refrain--
+
+"Oh dat nigger, dat Clump,--why he no come?  And here's Massa er waitten
+and er waitten; but Clump, ole mon, he get berry slow--berry, berry
+slow.  Now Massa Bob, vy you laff at ole Juno so?--hi! hi!"
+
+However, Clump came at last; and when he beheld us, great and comical
+was his surprise.  He dropped his basket to the floor, and, with
+battered hat in hand and both hands on his knees, stood for a moment and
+stared at us, and then his mouth stretched wide with joy and his sides
+shook with delight, while the tears trickled down from the wrinkled eyes
+to the laughing ivory.
+
+"Tank de Lord! tank de Lord!  Clump lib to see his ole Massa agin; and
+dat young gemmen,--vy, lem'me see! vy, sure as I'm dat nigger Clump, ef
+dat ain't--Massa Drake?--no,--Massa Walter?--no,--vy Juno, ole woman!
+dat are Massa Bob!"  He took my hands and shook and squeezed them,
+saying over and over again, "Massa Bob am cum ter see de ole cradle.
+Oh! hi hi!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+THE DREAM CONFIRMED BY REALITY.
+
+Three years elapsed before I saw the cape again.  Indeed the remembrance
+of that visit there, of a few days only, began to assume indistinctness
+as a dream, and sometimes as I thought of it, recalling the events of
+the journey there and back in the chaise, the wild scenery and the
+strange sound of the surf, the old dark house and the devoted black
+servants--sometimes, I say, as I thought of all these, as I loved to do
+when I settled myself in bed for the night, or when in summer I lay on
+my back in the grass looking up at the flying clouds, I would have to
+stop and fix my attention sharp, to be sure whether it ever had been a
+reality, or whether it might not be, after all, only a dream.  I think
+my father was afraid of the fascination of the cape for us boys--afraid
+its charms, if we once partook of them freely, might distract our
+attention from the order and duties of school life.  To be sure, we
+always went to the country with our parents for a month or six weeks,
+and enjoyed it exceedingly, laying up a stock of trout, squirrel, and
+badger stories to last us through the winter.  But there was no other
+country, we imagined, like the cape; and as our father and mother never
+lived there, and rarely spent even a single night on the whole property,
+they thought it best, I suppose, that we should not run wild there and
+get a relish for what all boys seem to have, in some degree, by nature.
+I mean the spirit of adventure, and love of the sea.
+
+However, the good time came at last, or a reliable promise of it first,
+just fifty years ago this very February.  We older boys--Walter, sixteen
+years of age, Drake, fourteen, and I, Robert, twelve--were attending
+school at Bristol, and were, as usual too in the winter evenings, at
+work over our lessons at the library table, when, on one
+never-to-be-forgotten evening, our father, who was sitting in an easy
+chair by the fire, suddenly asked, "Boys, how would you like to pass
+next summer on the cape?"  Ah! didn't we three give a terrific chorus of
+assent?  "Jolly! magnificent! splendid!" we cried, while Walter just
+quietly vaulted over half a dozen chairs, two or three at a time,
+backwards and forwards, till he had expended some of the animal vivacity
+stored up in abundance within him.  Drake, as usual when extremely
+pleased, tried to accomplish the rubbing of his stomach and the patting
+of his head both at the same time; and I climbed into the chair with my
+father, and patted his cheeks and thanked him with a fierce shake of the
+hands.
+
+"Bob, boy, you are the only one of my youngsters who has been at the old
+place, and you must have painted it as a wonderful corner of the earth,
+that Walter and Drake should testify their pleasure in such eccentric
+ways.--And look here, Walter: when you wish to turn acrobat again, let
+it not be in this library or over those chairs; choose some piece of
+green grass out of doors.--Well, boys, _perhaps_ you can pass the summer
+at the cape.  I do not promise it, but shall try to arrange it so if
+your mother is willing; but under the unfailing condition that you make
+good progress in your studies until that time."
+
+"Shall we all be there together, father, and for the whole summer, and
+without any school?  How delightful!"
+
+"Not too fast, Drake.  Without school?  What an idea!  Why, in six
+months you would be as wild and ignorant as the sheep there.  No; you
+shall have a strict tutor, who will keep you in harness, and help Walter
+to prepare for going up next year to Cambridge.  But only you three will
+be there.  I have some business in London, and I shall take your mother
+and Aggie and Charley with me."
+
+During those February evenings there were many more conversations on the
+same subject, full of interest to us boys, and finally it was fully
+decided by our father and mother that we should go in May, and stay
+there until autumn; that a certain Mr Clare should be our tutor, and
+that Clump and Juno should be our housekeepers and victuallers.
+
+Never did a springtime appear longer and more wearisome.  We counted
+every day, and were disgusted with March for having thirty-one of them.
+What greatly increased our impatience and the splendour of our
+anticipation was that, some time in March, our father told us that a
+brig had been cast away in a curious manner on the shore of the cape,
+and that he had purchased the wreck as it lay, well preserved and firmly
+held in the rocks above ordinary high-tide.  He proposed, at some future
+time, to make use of it as a sort of storehouse, or perhaps dwelling for
+labourers.  A shipwreck! a real wreck! and on our cape! stranded on the
+very shore of our Robinson Crusoe-like paradise!  Just imagine our
+excitement.
+
+The particulars of the wreck were as follows:--A brig of 300 tons
+burden, on a voyage from South America to the Thames, having lost her
+reckoning in consequence of several days' heavy gale and thick weather,
+suddenly made the light on the Lizard, and as quickly lost it again in
+the fog which surrounded her.  The captain, mistaking the light he had
+seen for some other well-known beacon, set his course accordingly.  That
+was near nine o'clock in the evening.  The wind and tide helped him on
+the course steered, and a little after midnight the misguided brig
+struck on a rock three-quarters of a mile south-west of our point of
+land.  The wind had then increased to a gale, and was gathering new
+strength with every moment.  In less than an hour the thumping and
+grating of the vessel's keel ceased, and then the captain knew that the
+rising tide had set him off the rock; but, alas! his good brig was
+leaking badly, and the fierce wind was driving her--whither the captain
+knew not; and in five minutes more, by the force of the wind and suction
+of the shore current, she was thrown high up on a rocky projection of
+our cape.  One sailor was washed overboard by the breakers as she passed
+through them, and was dashed to death, probably in an instant, by the
+fierce waves.  The next day, when the storm had abated, the body was
+found far above where the brig lay fastened immovably in the vice-like
+fissure of enormous rocks.  Twenty sovereigns, which perhaps the poor
+fellow had saved to bring home to his old mother, were found in a belt
+around his waist.
+
+The damaged cargo was removed, and the wreck sold at auction, my father
+being the purchaser.
+
+There was an old church situated on the summit of a neighbouring point
+of land, and to its now seldom used churchyard the body of the poor
+sailor was conveyed.  His grave was one of the first points of interest
+to us when our visit to the cape commenced; and many a time that season
+did I sit and watch the brown headstone topping the bleakest part of the
+sea-bluff, and as the great voice of the sea, dashing and foaming on the
+stony beach beneath, sang in its eternal melancholy grandeur, I fancied
+long, long histories of what might have been that sailor's life; and I
+wondered sadly if the poor mother knew where her son's grave was, and
+whether she would ever come to look at it.  On the stone was written:--
+
+                             HARRY BREESE
+           LIES HERE, NEAR WHERE A CRUEL SHIPWRECK CAST HIM,
+                           MARCH 23RD, 1814:
+                 AGED 24 YEARS, 2 MONTHS, AND 17 DAYS.
+                       REST IN PEACE, POOR BODY;
+                  THY SHIPMATE, SOUL, HAS GONE ALOFT,
+                  WHERE THY DEAR CAPTAIN, JESUS, IS.
+
+By the 7th May everything was prepared for our departure.  On the next
+morning early we were to start in the stage-coach, and, what had lately
+added to our brilliant anticipations, Harry and Alfred Higginson, two of
+our most intimate friends, were to go with us--to be with us all the
+summer, join our studies and our fun.  But we were to separate from our
+father and mother, and from our dear sister Aggie and the little
+Charley--from all those dear ones from whom we had never been parted for
+a day and night before.  We were to leave for half a year.  All this,
+covered at first by the hopes and fancies we had built, and by the noise
+and activity of preparation, appeared then, when everything was packed,
+and we, the evening before the journey, drew our chairs about the
+tea-table.  The prospect of such a magnificent time as we expected to
+have on the cape lost some of its brilliancy.  Indeed, I positively
+regretted that we were to go.  We boys were as hushed as frightened
+mice.
+
+After tea, Drake and I got very close to our mother on the sofa, but
+Walter lounged nervously about, trying to appear, I think, as if such an
+affair--a parting for six months--were nothing to such a big fellow as
+he.  Aggie came and held my hand.  When our father had taken his usual
+seat, he and our mother commenced to give us careful instructions how we
+were to regulate our time and conduct during our separation from them;
+we were directed about our lessons, clothes, language, and play; to be
+kind and patient with Clump and Juno; and very particular were our
+orders about the new tutor, Mr Clare, to whom we had been formally
+introduced a few days before, and we were required to promise solemnly
+that we would obey him implicitly in every respect.  Besides which our
+father delighted us very much by the information that he had engaged an
+old seaman, Mugford by name, once boatswain of an Indiaman, who had
+taken up his abode at the fishing town across the bay from our cape, to
+be with us often through the summer in our out-of-school hours; that he
+would be, as it were, our skipper--perhaps reside with us--and that he
+was to have full command in all our water amusements; he would teach us
+to swim, to row, and to sail.  That last subject cheered us up a bit,
+and when I saw Walter, who was still walking up and down the room, going
+through a pantomimic swim, striking out his arms in big circles, right
+and left, I commenced to smile, and Drake to laugh outright.  So our
+conference ended in good spirits.  And then we all kneeled in family
+prayer, and that evening before the parting, as we kneeled and heard my
+father's earnest words, I realised fully, perhaps for the first time,
+how, more than parents or friends, God was our Father; how, though we
+were going away from home and its securities, yet God was to be with us,
+stronger and kinder than any on earth, to guard and care for us.
+
+During the few days we had known Mr Clare, he had been with us
+constantly, but we had not decided whether to like him or not.  He
+seemed pleasant, and was easy enough, both in his manners and
+conversation, but yet he had a calm and decided way that was rather
+provoking; as if to say, "I have read you through and through, boys, and
+can govern you as easily as possible."  Now we had no idea of resisting
+him; we intended to behave well, and therefore his manner rather nettled
+us.  However, there was not much to object to.  His appearance was
+certainly all right--a large, bright, manly face and hearty smile, and a
+strong, agile figure.  We five boys had talked him over, and at the last
+balloting our votes were a tie, for Walter declined to express an
+opinion yet whether Mr Clare was a "screw" or a "good fellow."  Harry
+Higginson and Drake voted "screw," whilst Alfred and I said "good
+fellow."
+
+We must pass over the "goodbyes" of the next morning.  Let us imagine
+there were no wet eyes and sinking hearts.  However it may have been,
+the big rumbling old stage-coach containing Mr Clare and five boys, and
+loaded well with trunks and boxes, rattled from our house in --- Street
+at about six o'clock on that eighth morning in May, fifty years ago.
+Our hearts cheered up with the growth of the sun.  By ten o'clock we
+were very talkative; by one, very hungry.  The contents of a basket,
+well-stored by our mother, and put in just as we were starting, settled
+that complaint.  The afternoon was tedious, and we were not sorry when
+the coach dropped us at the quiet little country inn where we were to
+sleep.  I need not describe the journey of the next day.  We were too
+eager to get to its termination to care much for the beautiful scenery
+through which we passed.  As the evening drew on the weather became
+chilly.  Ah! we were approaching the sea.  By nine at night innumerable
+stars were twinkling over a dusky point of land which seemed to have
+waded out as far as possible into the indefinable expanse mirroring
+unsteadily a host of lights.  A strong, damp, briny breath came up to
+us, and a vast murmur as if thousands of unseen, mysterious, deep-voiced
+spirits were chanting some wonderful religious service.  "Whoa!" with a
+heavy lurch the yellow post-chaise, in which we had performed the second
+day's journey, came to a stand.  We had arrived before the old stone ark
+that was to be our home for half a year.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+INTRODUCTION TO OUR SALT TUTOR AND THE WRECK.
+
+It was on Wednesday night that we became the guests of Clump and Juno,
+and commenced our cape life.  The next morning at breakfast--and what a
+breakfast! eggs and bacon, lard cakes, clotted cream, honey preserves,
+and as much fresh milk as we wanted--Mr Clare told us that we need not
+commence our studies until the next week; that we could have the
+remainder of this week as holidays in which to make a thorough
+acquaintance with our new world.
+
+Our first wishes were to see the wreck and old Mr Mugford, whom we
+agreed to dub Captain Mugford; and so, immediately after breakfast, we
+started out with Mr Clare to find those items of principal interest.
+When we had got beyond a hillock and an immense boulder of
+pudding-stone, which stood up to shut out the beach view from the west
+side of the house, we saw the wreck, only about half a mile off, and
+hurried down to it.  Mr Clare joined in the race and beat us, although
+Walter pushed him pretty hard.
+
+The brig sat high up on the rocky cliff, where only the fullest tides
+reached it.  The deck careened at a small angle, and the stern projected
+several feet beyond the rocks hanging over the sea.  The bow pointed
+toward the house.  The brig's foremast only was standing, to the head of
+which old Mugford used to hoist, on all grand occasions, or on such as
+he chose to consider grand, a Union Jack or a red ensign, which had been
+saved from the wreck.  The bowsprit was but little injured, and the
+cordage of that and of the foremast was there, and the shrouds--all of
+which had been replaced by old Mugford, who, having made the wreck his
+residence by my father's wishes, restored to it some of the grace and
+order the good brig possessed before misfortune overtook her, and now it
+looked fit for either a sailor or a landsman--a curious mongrel, half
+ship, half house.  By the stump of the mainmast there stood a stove-pipe
+projecting from the deck.
+
+When near the brig, which we always afterwards called by the name she
+had sailed under--_Clear the Track_--we hailed "Brig ahoy!"  In a moment
+the head and shoulders of the Captain appeared above the
+companion-hatch, and his sonorous voice answered heartily, "Ah! ahoy, my
+hearties: this is the good brig _Clear the Track_; come aboard."  He
+cast over the side a rope-ladder, such as is in common use on board
+ships, and we climbed to the quarterdeck, over the stern-board of which,
+and covering the companion-hatch, there had been built a roof, or open
+cabin, making that part of the brig answer the same purposes as the
+porch of a house.  There were benches along the sides, a spyglass
+hanging overhead in beckets, and a binnacle close by where the wheel had
+once stood.
+
+The Captain, as we will henceforth call him, however, just then fixed
+our attention more than the strangely fitted--up wreck.  He was short,
+only about five feet four in height, with very heavy, broad, straight
+shoulders, immense chest, long arms, very narrow, compact hips, and
+short, sturdy legs, much bowed.  His features were large, straight, and
+determined, and with something of the bulldog in them, yet stamped with
+kindness, intelligence, and humour--a face that might be a terror to an
+enemy, as it was a surety to a friend.  It was well bronzed by many a
+storm and tropical sun, and a dark beard grew on it, as the wild moss on
+the sea-rocks, in a luxuriant, disorderly manner.  His hair was very
+thick, black, and glossy, only here and there flecked with the grey of
+age, and hung in curls that almost made his rough and powerful head even
+handsome.  Walter said that night that he was sure Samson and Neptune
+were relatives, for without doubt the Captain was descended from both of
+them.  With the jawbone of an ass he might put to flight a thousand
+Philistines, and with a trident drive a four-in-hand of porpoises.
+
+We told that to the Captain afterwards, when we got to know him well,
+and it tickled him greatly.  He declared it was the finest compliment he
+had ever received, and took Walter high in his favour from that moment.
+
+Our new friend never wore either collar or vest.  When not "on duty," as
+he expressed it, he went about in his shirt-sleeves.  His breeches were
+of the ample sailor-cut, and hung from suspenders as intricate as a
+ship's rigging.  His shirts were spotlessly white, and of very fine
+linen.  A short black pipe was always in his mouth, or sticking its clay
+stem from a waist-band pocket.
+
+Such, my dear boys, was Captain Mugford, whom we fellows dubbed "our
+salt tute," in contradistinction to Mr Clare, who was afterwards known
+as "our fresh tutor."
+
+As Mr Clare came over the brig's side, he said, with a bow, "Captain
+Mugford, I believe.  These boys are to be both your crew and my
+scholars.  I am their tutor, Richard Clare."
+
+"I am happy to see you, Mr Clare.  Give me your hand, sir.  I hope our
+different commands will not clash."
+
+As the skipper shook hands, he looked Mr Clare all over at a glance,
+and smiled as if pleased with the inspection.
+
+"Come here, boys; if I'm not out in my calculation, these boys will do
+to sail any craft on land or water!  Well, my hearties, we are often to
+be shipmates, so let's be friends to start with.  I don't know your
+different names, boys, only that three of you are sons of my old and
+respected friend and owner--that's good enough--and you all look as if
+you hated lies and kept above-board."
+
+"These," said Mr Clare, laying his hands on Harry's and Alfred's
+shoulders, "are Higginsons!"
+
+"Higginsons?  Fancy I knew your father, young gentlemen--an honest man,
+and a kind man, and a true man, and a brave man, if he was John
+Higginson; and brother of David Higginson, under whom I once served, and
+a better sailor never stepped.  As he died unmarried, I take you to be
+John Higginson's sons.  And if all you boys act as honest as you look,
+you need not care for shipwrecks of any kind--love or money, lands or
+goods, by land or by water."
+
+Well, we thought the Captain a brick.  So he was.  So he proved.
+
+We passed all the morning on the wreck.  Each one of its details was a
+new delight.  The Captain talked about the brig as if she were a human
+being in misfortune.  An old invalid, he said--a veteran old salt laid
+up in a sailor's snug harbour; laid up and pensioned for the remainder
+of life, where it was able to overlook, by the side and in the very
+spray of its well-loved brine, the billows it had often gloried in.
+
+We went below to the Captain's cabin and stateroom.  There everything
+bore the marks of a sea habitation, and when hearing the dash of the
+waves on the shore and listening to the Captain's talk, I could not help
+fancying myself on a voyage.  Not a nook or hole of that vessel but we
+explored, and numberless questions had each one of us to ask.  Mr Clare
+seemed as much pleased and interested as we were.  When at play, indeed,
+he was as heartily a boy as any of us.
+
+Great was our astonishment--Mr Clare, however, was prepared for it--
+upon going between decks, where the cargo had once been stored, to find
+ourselves in a _schoolroom_--a long, low schoolroom.  Thick glass
+windows, only about eighteen inches square, had been set in on each
+side, and protected with dead-lights to fasten tight in case a heavy
+surf should dash up so high, and the entire hold--where on many and many
+long voyages there had been stored, in darkness, spices, coffee, sugar,
+and perhaps gold and jewels--was now transformed to a schoolroom.
+
+There was a long table and there were globes and maps, shelves of books,
+and a blackboard.  That schoolroom had, I am sure, none of the dulness
+and repulsiveness of other schoolrooms to us.  No; it rather seemed a
+delightful place--an Arabian Nights' sort of study, with a romantic
+salty influence pervading it to comfort us at our tasks.  We could take
+hold there of geography and history.  Mathematics in a vessel's hold,
+what was it but a foreshadowing of navigation?  We felt no hostility to
+Latin and Greek, for we were but reading of foreign lands and strange
+people across the ocean in old times, the occurrences of which were but
+storm-cast hulks like our old brig.
+
+So low was our roof, the deck, that the crown of Walter's cap touched
+it, and Mr Clare had to bend his neck when he moved about.  The square,
+dwarf windows looked out on nothing but jagged rocks and rolling blue
+waves.
+
+Away forward and aft our schoolroom was dark, and the distance between
+decks so narrowed that we could only explore those extremes of the hold
+by going on hands and knees--with the chance, too, of starting some big
+rat, an old grey navigator, perhaps, who, believing firmly in "Don't
+give up the ship!" could not get over his surprise at seeing his once
+rolling and well-stored residence now stationary, and furnishing no
+better victuals than book-leaves, chalk, and sometimes the crumbs of a
+boy's lunch.  I imagined the crew of old rats assembling beneath the
+globes at night, when a moon streamed through the small windows; and the
+captain, a surly grey fellow, with long whiskers and brown, broken
+grinders, taking his place on a Greek lexicon, and then the speeches of
+inquiry and indignation shrilly uttered in the mass meeting.  "Long
+tails!"--would commence some orator with a fierce squeak--"long tails,
+long tails, I say! what in the name of all that's marine does this mean?
+Cheese and spices! how things are changed.  Will this craft never sail,
+and our parents waiting for us in the New World over the sea!  Where is
+our `life on the ocean wave'? where is, I say, where `a home in the
+rolling deep'?  Can it be that our young are no longer to be nourished
+on sago, rice, or maize?  Alas! if it has come to that, I myself will
+gnaw the beard from the old curmudgeon who thinks he sleeps here safely.
+Is the degradation of effeminate land rats, cheese-eaters, wharf
+robbers, stable vermin, to come upon us?  Fates forbid it!  Soon,
+perhaps, some fierce tabby may come to make our once brave hearts
+tremble.  Then, then,"--but I imagined the eloquence broken off there
+and giving place to a furious scamper, as perhaps old Captain Mugford,
+arrayed in a long nightshirt and red bandanna nightcap, would fling open
+his stateroom door and send a boot-jack flying amid the noisy, noxious
+animals.
+
+To think that our schoolhouse was on such a wild seashore--in a wrecked
+vessel, the same craft in which poor Harry Breese, who rested in the
+churchyard near by, had voyaged and been lost from--to have the smell of
+tar, and be surrounded by a thousand other sailor-like associations.
+What a glorious school-house, that old wreck by the ocean!  What boy
+ever had a finer one!
+
+The afternoon of that first day of novelty on the cape I remember with
+minute distinctness.  We strolled about the beaches and climbed the
+rocks, everything being marvellous and delightful to us.  In the evening
+Captain Mugford came in, and Mr Clare and he talked whilst we boys
+listened.  After the Captain had gone, Mr Clare read the evening
+prayers to us, and that grand Psalm, the one hundred and seventh.  The
+words reached us with the noise of the waves they sang of:--
+
+  _They that go down to the sea in ships_,
+  _that do business in great waters_.
+  _These see the works of the Lord_,
+  _and His wonders in the deep_.
+  _For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind_,
+  _which lifteth up the waves thereof_.
+  _They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths_:
+  _their soul is melted because of trouble_.
+  _They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man_,
+  _and are at their wit's end_.
+  _Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble_,
+  _and He bringeth them out of their distresses_.
+  _He maketh the storm a calm_,
+  _so that the waves thereof are still_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+CAPTAIN MUGFORD'S SATURDAY LESSON.
+
+With a new week commenced our studies--order in tasks and play taking
+the place of the licence and excitement of the first days of novelty.
+
+By Mr Clare's rule we reached our school-house in the wreck every
+morning at eight--that is, every morning except Saturday and Sunday.
+The brig's bell was our summons.  Captain Mugford struck it as
+punctually as if the good order and safety of a large crew were
+dependent on his correctness.  Our school-hours continued until
+half-after one.  The remainder of each day was our own, only subject to
+the general directions of Mr Clare and the instructions of Captain
+Mugford in boating.  Of course that was no task--rather the very best
+sport we had.  Mr Clare grew fast in our good opinions.  He was strict;
+but boys do not dislike strictness when it is mated with justice and
+guided by a firm and amiable disposition, as it was with our tutor.
+
+We soon got to see that Mr Clare, in his way, was as much of a _man_ as
+Captain Mugford, and that the Captain respected him highly.  The Captain
+always liked to have an evening smoke with our tutor, and the boating
+excursions were much jollier when Mr Clare made one of the party, as he
+often did.  He was our master in school, but only wished to be our
+companion in play.  In every athletic exercise he excelled, and I dare
+say that was one great reason of the powerful influence he soon gained
+with us--for boldness, strength, and agility are strong recommendations
+to boyish admiration.  About two weeks after the commencement of our
+cape life, as we were going to bed one night, "our fresh tute" became
+the subject of discussion; and our first opinions were changed by a
+vote, in which all but Drake joined, that Mr Clare was a regular brick.
+Drake had a prejudice against tutors that required more than two weeks
+to break up.  He allowed that Mr Clare seemed a very respectable sort
+of fellow, but then he said--
+
+"I can't join in all the praise you boys give him; now my idea of a
+`regular brick' is our `salt tute.'  He's the sort of man for me.  If
+Captain Mugford _only_ knew Latin and Greek!"
+
+Mr Clare was from the north of England.  His parents being poor, he had
+obtained his education under difficulties, and did not enter college
+until he was twenty-three years of age.  His parents had emigrated when
+he was a child to Canada, where he had seen a good deal of wild life
+among the Indians.  For some cause his father returned--to take
+possession of a small property, I believe--and brought him with him.
+After the common country schooling he could pick up in winter, he began
+to prepare himself for college in the hours he was off work on his
+father's farm, or had to take from sleep.  So he had a life of some
+difficulty and adventure; and now, in his own hours, he was studying to
+become a clergyman.  Notwithstanding such a boyhood of labour, his
+manners were good and agreeable, and no one would ever have guessed that
+his training until he went to college had been little above that of a
+farm servant.
+
+It was some time before we made acquaintance with the sailing-boat which
+had been provided by our father, for the first weeks of our new life
+were stormy and cold.  What whetted our desire for a sail was that
+Captain Mugford would not even show us the boat.  We would tease him,
+and guess at every mast we saw in the bay; but the Captain only laughed,
+and put us off with such remarks as "Keep your powder dry, my young
+hearties!"  "Avast heaving! the skipper is dumb."
+
+However, one fine morning the Captain steered into our breakfast-room
+before all the fresh brown bread and clotted cream and eggs and bacon
+had been quite stowed away.  "At it, ain't you, boys, with forecastle
+appetites?  Pitch in, old fellows; make the butter fly!"  He had wished
+Mr Clare a good morning, sat down on a corner of a side-table, wiped
+his forehead with a great red silk handkerchief, and got his elbows well
+akimbo, before he directed the remark to us.  There he sat shaking with
+a pleasant little interior rumble of laughter at our earnestness in the
+meal, and expressing his appreciation every few moments with, "Well!
+that's jolly!" which remark each time portended another series of
+sub-waistcoat convulsions.  He got through laughing as we finished
+breakfast, and then each of us went up for a shake of his hand.
+
+"Your cargoes are in.  When do you sail?"
+
+"O Captain! can we sail to-day?" we all cried, for the joke and his
+unusually radiant face signified something better to come.
+
+"I have a fancy that way, if Mr Clare says yes.  That's my business
+here this fine Saturday.  Yes, Mr Clare?  Thank you! the youngsters are
+mad for a trip under canvas.  You will go with us, sir, I hope?  Thank
+you again!--Scamper, boys, for your caps!  Ha! ha! ha!--With your
+permission, Mr Clare, I will fill my pipe.--Juno!  Juno!  Ah! there you
+are.  Do, like a good old woman, get me a coal out of your wood-fire--
+just such a red, round piece of oak as Clump always chooses."
+
+Presently Juno trudged smiling back, with a hot coal held in the tongs.
+
+"Here, massa! here, Capting, is de berry heart of de fire!" and laying
+it carefully in the bowl of his pipe--"dat, sar, will keep yer terbacker
+gwine all day."
+
+"Thank you, marm Juno!  We shall try and bring you home some fish for
+dinner.  A ninety-pound halibut, eh?"
+
+The Captain having performed that operation so very necessary to his
+comfort, we all sallied forth for the long-anticipated sail.
+
+The cape was about three-quarters of a mile wide where our house stood--
+it being on high ground, about halfway between the ocean and bay-side.
+The ground fell gradually in wavelike hillocks in both directions, and
+its chief growth was a short fine grass on which the sheep throve well.
+Here and there we saw them in little companies of eight or ten, but
+before we could get within fifty yards they scampered off in a fright,
+so unaccustomed were they to strangers.
+
+Soon we descried a boat with pennant flying at moorings just off the bay
+shore before us.  That, the Captain told us, was our "school-ship."
+
+"And now come, boys," said he, "let us see which one of you will be the
+best hand on watch when we sail a frigate together--let us see which one
+can first read the boat's name; it is on the pennant."
+
+At that distance we were all baffled.
+
+"Well, try ten yards nearer; there, halt.  Now try."
+
+We all strained our eyes.  I thought it read, _Wave_.
+
+"No, Robert, it is not _Wave_.--Come, boys, sharpen your eyes on the
+sides of your noses, and try again."
+
+"I can read it," shouted Harry Higginson, throwing up his hat.
+"_Youth_!  _Youth_!--that's it."
+
+"Yes, that's it.  Hurrah for you, Master Harry!  I promote you on the
+spot captain of the maintop."
+
+We hurried down to a white sand-beach on which lay a punt.  In that the
+Captain pulled us, three at a time, out to the _Youth_.  When well under
+sail and standing out for more open water, our good skipper at the
+tiller, having filled his pipe, rolled up his sleeves, and tautened the
+sheet a bit, said--
+
+"Boys, this craft is yours, but I am Commodore until each and all of you
+have learned to sail her as well as I can.  May you prove quick to
+learn, and I quick to teach.  But as I'm an old seadog, my pipe is out
+already.  Give us a light, shipmate?"--I was trying with flint and steel
+to strike a few sparks into our old tinder-box--"there!--puff--puff--
+puff--that will do.  I must talk less and smoke more."
+
+As the jolly Captain got up a storm of smoke, slapped me a stinger on
+the knee, and winked at the pennant, Mr Clare jumped up, and swinging
+his hat, cried--
+
+"Boys, let's give cheers, three rousing cheers, for our brave boat, the
+_Youth_, and her good master, Captain Mugford!"
+
+And didn't we give them!!!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+BATH BAY LESSON--THE MIDNIGHT COUNCIL.
+
+June came before we had made acquaintance with all the corners of our
+little new world.  Every day it grew in interest to us, and, with the
+increasing fine weather, was the most beautiful spot on earth in our
+eyes.  Once a week one of us was allowed to go over to the town with
+Clump, in his rowboat, and get letters from the post-office.  That
+opportunity was always improved to purchase stores of groceries and
+other requisites.  Each one's turn to be commissary only came once in
+five weeks.
+
+Clump enjoyed those trips as much as we did.  He would have meat or
+other things to get for the table, but would always reach the boat first
+in returning, and when he saw his "young master?"--as he called each of
+us boys--coming down the wharf loaded with a week's supply of various
+things, the old darky would commence to grin and slap his sharp knees,
+the slaps growing quicker and the grin breaking into "yha! yha! yhi!" as
+we drew near enough to show him our different purchases.
+
+There was always a new pipe or a paper of tobacco for Clump, which he
+would lay on the seat beside him, and then put out the oars and pull
+with long, slow sweeps for our neck, each swing accompanied by a grunt,
+which, however, did not break the conversation he carried on, chiefly
+telling us stories of my father when he came as a boy, which often
+lasted till we reached our destination.  Many a frolic and adventure
+would he thus relate with great gusto, and he had generally, too, some
+remembrance of my grandfather to repeat.
+
+About the twentieth of June, the water was warm enough to allow us to
+bathe, and then began that exercise, the most useful and most wholesome,
+and perhaps among the most manly that a boy can practise.
+
+Walter and both the Higginsons could swim.  Drake and I were beginners.
+Captain Mugford was our teacher.  He chose a little bay within, as it
+were, the large bay on the neck end of our cape.  Bath Bay, as we named
+it, was about two hundred and fifty yards long, and sixty to seventy
+yards wide.  Its shores were rocks, except at its bow end, where a soft
+beach sloped gradually for forty feet from the shore.  About fifteen
+feet beyond our depth the Captain had anchored a stationary staging,
+which was merely an old flatboat caulked and floored over.  It had steps
+and ropes from its sides, and was intended as the first object to reach
+and rest on when we had learned to swim a dozen or more strokes.
+Farther on, halfway the length of Bath Bay, was a large flat rock, which
+stood at high-tide two feet above water.  Its sides were almost
+perpendicular, and were made accessible in the same way as "Youngster's
+Wharf."  By that name those who could already swim called our staging
+near the beach.  Leander's Rock, for we had a name for everything, had a
+depth of nearly thirty feet, and a finer place for diving cannot be
+imagined.  Bath Bay was shut in by its wall-like sides and a bluff
+behind the sand-beach from all the severe winds, but after a storm out
+at sea we would get an even swell that was very pleasant to float on.
+
+Our time for bathing was between the close of school at half-after one
+and our dinner-hour, three.  All through the season, until early in
+October, we never lost a bath unless rain was falling heavily, so
+greatly did we enjoy it under the Captain's care.  He would not have
+bathing-houses for us, as he said that the sun-bath after a swim was
+almost as good as the salt water itself.  The Captain was always near
+the swimmers, in his punt, that in case of accident his assistance might
+be immediate.
+
+Boys, if you have ever read Benjamin Franklin's directions to those
+learning to swim, you will understand the methods our Captain pursued to
+teach us.  In his boat he was always dressed in bathing-clothes, and
+would often jump out to show us by example how to swim under water, how
+to float, how to dive, etcetera.  I can assure you we enjoyed that sport
+as much as any we had, and before many weeks had passed we could all
+swim a few strokes.  By the close of the season, I, the youngest pupil,
+could swim out to Leander's Rock, dive from it twenty feet deep, and
+swim ashore again easily.  But more about Bath Bay, and our adventures
+there, hereafter.
+
+After our baths and Juno's nice dinners we usually went to sail, and in
+a few weeks the Captain let some of us take the helm, he sitting by to
+instruct us, and to remedy, if need be, any mistake of the young sailor
+who happened to be our skipper at the time.  Sometimes, instead of
+sailing, we would row in an excellent boat which we had for that
+purpose, and, four of us being at the oars, try how quick time we could
+make from point to point of the shore.  With such practice, we made
+rapid improvements and by the middle of July could row a mile in twelve
+minutes; a month before we could only do that in twenty minutes.
+Sometimes Mr Clare and the captain took oars in our boat; at other
+times they rowed against us in the Captain's punt.  That was glorious
+fun, and how we fellows did strive to beat our tutors, and often came
+very near it too--so near that we determined, if there was any merit in
+TRY, to do it yet.
+
+One night--it was about the 2nd of June, if my memory serves me--when we
+had gone up to our rooms for bed, and got undressed, Walter, who had
+been very quiet ever since our row in the afternoon when our tutors
+contended with and beat us as usual, called us to order, that we might
+organise, he said, as a regular boat club.  We answered, "Good!"
+"Good!" and each boy, putting a pillow on his footboard, took a
+senatorial seat--each boy arrayed in the flowing cotton nightgown.  When
+silence ensued, Walter addressed us in his energetic, determined way,
+but lowered his voice that not a whisper of our deliberations might
+reach the ears of Mr Clare, who was only separated from us by a
+partition.
+
+"Fellows, we _must_ beat our tutes--we _must_ beat them, that is what I
+say.  Let's get our boat in good order immediately--let's call her the
+_Pupil_--let's row every day, but not alongside of our adversary--no,
+no!--but where we can't be seen, and for two hard hours each day.  And I
+move we have a coxswain, and that Bob be the boy--he is small, quick,
+and cool.  Let's challenge our tutes to-morrow for a race."
+
+"Agreed--agreed! hurrah!" we all shouted.
+
+"For a race, I say, on, let me see, the anniversary of the glorious
+battle of Waterloo."
+
+"Grand! splendid! hurrah!" were our interruptions again, and Drake
+expressed his delight by taking the pillow from beneath him, and
+slinging it with tremendous speed at Alf Higginson's head, who in
+consequence fell off his perch like a dead squirrel from a pine-tree.
+Alf fell heavily on his side, and we roared with laughter; but he was up
+in a moment, and rushed at Drake with a bolster.  Walter, our dignified
+chairman, swooped down from his perch in a second, and catching the
+incensed Alfred by the extremity of his flying robe, slung him under a
+bed.
+
+"Order!  Order, boys!" he cried.  "Pretty fellows you are to hold a
+meeting.  You, Drake! pitch any more pillows, and we'll slide you out of
+the window.  There, stop your racket!  Mr Clare is up.  Before he comes
+hurry up and say, all together, `We will beat.'"
+
+"We will beat," was responded as fiercely as if life was at stake, and,
+as Mr Clare opened the door to ascertain what was the disturbance, five
+innocent boys were under blankets and apparently sleeping the deepest
+slumber.  Drake had even reached a regular bass snore.  The moonlight
+streaming in the room, and which showed us a smile breaking irresistibly
+on Mr Clare's face, was not more placid than we.  The door had hardly
+closed behind Mr Clare before Harry Higginson had sprung from his bed,
+and, almost on the space our tutor had stood a half second before, was
+enacting a ridiculous and vigorous pantomime of kicking our "fresh tute"
+from the room.  As quickly the door opened again, and before Harry could
+get a single limb in order, Mr Clare had him by the arm.  But the whole
+affair was too humorous for even Mr Clare's dignity.  He could only say
+"So you are the noisy one, Henry Higginson.  You can get in bed now as
+quickly as you got out of it, and to-morrow, when the afternoon's study
+is done, recite to me fifty lines of Virgil--from the twentieth to the
+seventieth line of the first book."
+
+With that, Mr Clare went from the room, and Harry, with a low, long,
+whistled "phew," sought his bed disconsolately.
+
+The next day after lessons I, as coxswain, by Walter's order, handed
+copies of the following note to Captain Mugford and Mr Clare:--
+
+  "Cape ---, June 3, 1816.
+
+  "Messrs. Mugford and Clare,
+
+  "The oarsmen of the galley _Pupil_ would hereby challenge the
+  gentlemen of the boat _Tutor_ to a race on the eighteenth of June, in
+  Bath Bay waters.  The course to be from Youngster's Wharf around
+  Leander's Rock, and return.  Stakes to be--the championship of Bath
+  Bay.  The oarsmen of the _Pupil_ would respectfully propose three p.m.
+  as the hour for the race, and the firing of a gun the signal for the
+  start.  The oldest inhabitant, Clump, offers his services as umpire,
+  referee, judge, and signalman.
+
+  "All which is submitted for the acceptance and concurrence of the
+  gentlemen of the _Tutor_.
+
+  "(Signed) Walter Tregellin, Henry C. Higginson, Drake Quincy
+  Tregellin, Alfred Higginson, _Oarsmen_,
+
+  "Robert Tregellin, _Coxswain_."
+
+Mr Clare, when he read it, smiled and said he would see about it, and
+then turned to Henry and asked him if he had learned those fifty lines
+yet.
+
+Captain Mugford was presented with his copy as he entered the house for
+dinner.  "Hu-um!" he said, as he took the note in the hand with his hat,
+and wiped his red, wet forehead with an immense silk handkerchief
+printed with the maritime flags of all nations.  "A note!  Who writes me
+notes?  Some of your nonsense, boys, eh?"  So he hitched up his trousers
+and sat down on the doorstep, placing the red handkerchief in his hat
+beside him.  "Let's see!"
+
+"Good! good! that's very good.  The middies have got their courage up.
+The idea of such a stiff old seadog racing with you youngsters!"
+
+"But you will though, won't you, Captain, and make Mr Clare, too?" said
+Harry.
+
+"Perhaps, boys, if Mr Clare will join, and then we will make you smart.
+And I tell you what, young gentlemen, if you beat I'll give you a
+splendid Malay race-boat that I have had stored in my ship-loft these
+three years."
+
+"Hurrah!  Captain, we shall win the boat!" we all cried.
+
+"Ha! ha! what boys for warm weather!  You talk as brave as a west wind.
+But I smell Juno's cooking; let's go in and talk it over with Mr Clare
+and a warm dish of stew."
+
+It was all settled to our satisfaction before dinner was over.  Mr
+Clare enjoyed the thing as much as the Captain, and declared they would
+have to practise together once a week.  As for us, we never missed our
+two hours' pull every afternoon, rain or shine, blow high or blow low,
+until the all-important day proposed for the race.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+DISSENSIONS IN CAMP.
+
+For every afternoon of those beautiful June and July days we rowed for
+two hours, from five to seven.  Our studies were not relaxed in the
+morning, and our hours for swimming were regularly enjoyed, but the
+absorbing topic of thought and conversation was the approaching
+boat-race.  Twice on Saturday afternoons we had seen Captain Mugford and
+Mr Clare pulling in their boat.  They did not condescend to practise
+oftener, but we noticed that they worked in earnest when they did row.
+With the confidence of youth we feared not, feeling sanguine that we
+must beat them.
+
+There was a vein of discord, however, in our little colony.  Alfred
+Higginson and my brother Drake, who only differed by a few months in
+age, in other respects differed greatly, and had never been able, since
+our first acquaintance, to get along together.  Alfred Higginson was of
+a nervous, sensitive disposition, quick in temper, and easily provoked.
+His tastes were fastidious.  He was an excellent scholar, (much better
+than my brother Drake), and very fond of reading.  He entered fully into
+all our sports, but preferred fishing, sailing, and swimming to our
+rougher harder amusements.  He drew excellently, landscape and marine
+views and figures.  He was a healthy, active boy, and could beat us all
+in running.  I have said his was a quick temper, but it was a forgiving
+one.  If he laughed not as loud and often as many of us, he caused us to
+laugh oftener than any, for he had a quick dry humour and witty tongue.
+When it came to chaffing, he was always conqueror.
+
+My brother Drake was entirely unlike Alfred Higginson.  He was a hardy,
+rough, jolly boy, overflowing with fun and animal life, what is called a
+"regular boy."  Never quiet--laughing, singing, whistling all the time,
+heels over head in everything, pitching into his studies as
+irrepressibly as into his games, but with more success in the latter,
+though he was a fair student; better in his mathematics and other
+English studies than in the languages.  The only reading he cared for
+was that of travel and adventure, voyages of whalemen and discoveries,
+histories of pirates, Indian scenes, hunting stories, war histories,
+Walter Scott's novels, "Gulliver's Travels," and the unequalled
+"Robinson Crusoe."  Everything he could find about the Crusaders he
+revelled in, and even went at Latin with a rush when, Caesar and Nepos
+being put aside, the dramatic narrative of Virgil opened to him, and the
+adventures of the Trojan heroes became his daily lesson.  But that he
+had to feed his interest, crumb by crumb, painfully gathered by
+dictionary and grammar, made him chafe.  He enjoyed it, though, with all
+of us, when, after each day's recitation--after we boys had marred and
+blurred the elegance and spirit of Virgil's eloquence with all sorts of
+laboured, limping translations, that made Mr Clare fairly writhe in his
+chair--our tutor would drop a word of commendation for Walter's better
+rendering of the poem, and then read the lesson himself, and go over in
+advance the one for the next day.  Then the ribs and decks of our
+schoolroom in the wrecked brig melted away as the scenes of the Aeneid
+surrounded us.  The dash of the waves we heard was on the Trojan shore,
+or the coast of Latium, as we wandered with storm-tossed Aeneas.  Or we
+walked the splendid court of Dido, or were contending in battle with the
+warlike Turnus for our settlement in Latium.  Turnus and the fierce
+Mezentius were Drake's favourites.  He never liked Aeneas, who was
+always Alfred Higginson's hero.  Those readings were often disturbed by
+Drake's exclamations.  His overflowing, outspoken disposition could not
+be restrained when his interest was powerfully enlisted; and as Mr
+Clare read, in his clear, impassioned manner, some exciting passage,
+Drake would shout out an exclamation of encouragement or satisfaction
+with a favourite warrior, and bring down his fist on the desk, as
+another favourite was discomfited or came to grief.  I remember very
+well how often Drake was reproved for such unseasonable enthusiasm,
+which always caused an after sarcasm or witticism from Alfred Higginson;
+and I distinctly recall how, notwithstanding the formality of
+school-hours, when we came to the single combat between Aeneas and
+Turnus, and the death of the latter, Drake flung his book from the
+table, and shouted out in an angry voice, "I'll bet anything Virgil
+tells fibs!"
+
+Those readings were treats to all of us.  Drake having told Captain
+Mugford of them, and discussed the incidents that vexed him with the
+Captain, got him so interested that he asked Mr Clare to allow him to
+come in at the close of our recitations.  Of course that favour was
+readily granted, and after that time the Captain always made one of the
+auditors.  He used to laugh and shake over Drake's excitement, and yet
+entered into it himself, and I have seen salt drops running down his
+cheeks and Mr Clare's, as the latter rendered in a voice slightly
+trembling some of the pathetic passages in which Virgil is so
+exquisitely beautiful.
+
+I am glad to write of those lessons in the old brig's carcass, for they
+are remembered so pleasantly.  Moreover, it came naturally in drawing my
+dear brother Drake's character, and the effect of those heroical
+classics influenced, in a manner very quixotic, the crisis of the
+continued quarrel between Drake and Alfred Higginson, to which we are
+coming.  The great dissimilarity in the characters of the two was a
+reason for their want of sympathy and agreement, one with the other, but
+the causes of the open warfare which existed between them were the
+faults of each--the irritability, slight conceit, and stinging tongue of
+Alfred Higginson; the teasing practices, want of toleration for the
+feelings and peculiarities of others, and a certain recklessness of
+Drake's.  And yet they were both noble boys, with nothing false or
+ungenerous or underhanded about either of them.
+
+Ever since we had come to the cape, their skirmishes of words and
+disagreement had been continual, and several more tangible collisions,
+where blows had been exchanged between them, were nipped in the bud by
+Walter and the others of us, and once by the Captain, who, wrought up by
+their quarrelsomeness, separated them pretty fiercely, and, holding each
+at arm's length, told them that, if there was any fighting to be done
+among his crew, he must have a hand in it.  Then he laughed one of his
+bars of rollicking "ha-has," and dropped the boys with the injunction
+that if they had another "mill," he should certainly let their fathers
+know.  "Now, boys, try if you cannot get along better, and when you have
+a quarrel again, bring it to Mr Clare or to me, and we will settle it
+better than your blows and frowns can do."
+
+You remember how Drake knocked Alfred from the footboard of his bed on
+the occasion of our night meeting to get up the boat-race.  That was a
+good example of Drake's reckless rudeness, proceeding merely from his
+boisterous disposition, but somehow those outbreaks were always directed
+to Alfred, just as the rough points of Alfred's disposition were sure to
+be turned to Drake.  That fall had hurt Alfred, and from the date of the
+commencement of our boat-practice, the war between the two had waxed
+hotter and hotter.  The contest seemed only to amuse Harry Higginson,
+but Walter--our mentor, my conscientious, tender-hearted brother, who
+led us all in games as well as in lessons--worried over it, and each day
+he exhorted the two to govern their tempers, and, with great tact and
+decision, whenever he saw a storm brewing, managed to throw oil upon the
+waters.  However, his influence did not heal up the difference, and in
+about a fortnight, a few days before the intended race, there occurred
+during our afternoon boat-practice a little row between the two
+antagonists, which proved a final skirmish before the severe but
+ludicrous battle which crowned the civil war.
+
+We were rowing in Bath Bay as usual, Walter pulling the stroke oar, and
+Harry Higginson the bow, whilst Drake and Alfred held the intermediate
+positions, Drake sitting behind Alfred--that is, nearer the bow.  I had
+my place at the tiller.
+
+Alfred Higginson had made a very ridiculous blunder in a French
+translation that morning.  Such a thing was unusual for him, and was
+such a comical one that it set the others of the class in a roar of
+laughter.  Drake was so extravagantly affected by Alf's blunder that Mr
+Clare had to stop his laughter, which was half genuine and half
+pretence, by ordering him out of the room.  Even then we heard him
+ha-ha-ing outside.  Poor Alfred was terribly mortified, and did not
+recover his composure even when the school-hours were over, and the
+first greeting he received, on emerging from the house, was from Drake,
+who immediately mimicked Alfred's mistake, and performed a variety of
+antics supposed to proceed from convulsions of mirth.  On the way to the
+boat, Drake continued to tease Alfred.  Walter reproved him continually,
+and even took hold of him once to compel him to stop; but he was in one
+of his most boisterous moods, and was so very funny that he kept every
+one but Alfred in shouts of laughter.  But Alfred lashed him with the
+bitterest satire, and, as they say, sometimes "made him laugh on the
+other side of his mouth," until by the time we had reached the bay Drake
+had subsided into silence, and the tight closing of his lips, and quick
+walk, proved that Alfred's sharp wit was more fatal than Drake's broad
+fun.  Both of the boys rowed sullenly, and we all felt that a storm was
+brewing.  In the final round, when we made the course at our best and
+timed the performance, so as to notice what improvement we were making,
+Alfred caught a crab with his oar, in consequence of which the head of
+Drake's oar hit him sharply in the back.  The mortification of a miss
+stroke is enough to anger a boatman, but coming as it did after the
+morning's blunder in class, and made, too, a pain of the flesh by
+Drake's blow, it was too much for Alfred's temper, and as Drake
+increased the irritation by calling him an "awkward lout," and then
+mimicking the blunder of translation with the accompaniment of a shout
+of laughter, Alfred turned quickly, and hit his opponent a stinging blow
+in the face.
+
+In a moment the two boys grappled each other, and in a shorter period
+than it takes my pen to write it, the boat was upset, and we were all in
+the water.  The combatants still clung to one another, and disappeared
+together.  The adage, however, that "discretion is the better part of
+valour," enforced by such a deep, cold plunge, bore proof; for the irate
+youths came to the surface apart, and we all struck out for the rocks,
+distant about eighty yards.  We climbed like half-drowned rats up the
+shore, where the fight was not resumed.  Its very strange continuation
+was postponed until the Saturday after the boat-race, which must be
+reserved for another chapter.  We, however, read then, in the faces of
+the discomfited antagonists, as plainly as you read here--
+
+"To be continued."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+BEFORE THE BOAT-RACE--CLUMP'S STORY.
+
+The _day_ before the eighteenth was a Monday.  In consideration of
+beginning a week's study to have it broken off again on Tuesday, and
+because of the many preparations there were to make for the great day,
+Mr Clare gave us the two holidays.  We had our swim and boat-practice
+on Monday morning, and then set to work to make arrangements for the
+next day, every one taking a part with real zest.  First the boat was
+carefully hauled up on the shore, and turned over on a way of joists we
+had prepared for her.  The bottom was then carefully washed, and, after
+that, thoroughly rubbed with the sand-paper--about an hour's work, at
+which we all had a hand.  Having got the sides and keel beautifully
+smooth in that way, Clump brought a kettle of pure grease, which was
+placed over a little fire of driftwood, and when the grease had become
+liquid, Walter, with a large fine paint-brush, anointed the entire
+boat's bottom in a most painstaking manner.  We boys stood by, entering
+into the operation, which was supposed to prove wonderfully efficacious
+in increasing our boat's speed, with great interest, and Clump bent over
+the kettle, stirring the oil, and puffing at the short stern of his pipe
+eagerly.
+
+Grouped with such absorbing concern about the body of the boat, Walter
+moving slowly from stem to stern, and stern to stem, laying on the magic
+oil, (unctuous of victory to our noses), with steady sweeps, and the
+bent figure of black old Clump beside the caldron, from which rose a
+curling smoke, we must have made a tableau of heathen offering
+sacrifice, or some other savage mystery.
+
+The all-important job was at length completed, and we left our ark of
+many hopes to rest until the exciting hour of the morrow.
+
+Clump was a sharer in our great expectations.  His heart was set upon
+our success.  He had to fill his pipe again before we left the boat, and
+pulled at it nervously and wrinkled his black skin into countless
+puckers as he walked beside us, thinking of the vast interests at stake
+and listening to our excited conversation.  As we left him to go over to
+the town for a small cannon we had borrowed to fire the signals, he
+touched Walter on the sleeve, and said in the most slow and earnest
+manner, as he drew the pipe from his mouth and knocked its ashes on the
+ground--
+
+"An I'se to be judge an' udder ting you'se talk of, Massa Walter, eh?
+An I'se to fire de gun, eh?  W-a-all, I'se an ole nigger, an my heart
+ees shree-veled up like, I s'pose, but my gorry, young massas, ef you
+don't beat, old Clump will jist loaden up do musket again an'--an'--an'
+_but_ 'is 'ed agin de rock!  Yah, fur sure!"
+
+Having delivered himself of that tragical decision in a manner mixed of
+sadness and frenzy, he hobbled off, amidst our laughter and assurances
+that we should never allow him to injure the rock in that way, to
+consult with Juno, and probably load his pipe again.
+
+No noble lord, with his thousands of pounds wagered on the Derby or
+Saint Leger, or perhaps, rather, I should say on some of the crack
+yachts of the day, was ever half so excited as was this good old darky
+about our boat-race.
+
+Under the escort of Walter, Harry, Alfred, and Drake, the cannon arrived
+in the afternoon, and, by their united efforts and the assistance of the
+Captain, was mounted before sundown on a heavy piece of timber in the
+_Clear the Track's_ bow.
+
+By night the flags, ammunition, and many other necessaries for the
+morrow's undertaking were in order and readiness for service.
+
+After the day's work, and filled with anticipations of the eventful
+morrow, we felt no desire for our usual outdoor games that evening, but
+found seats on the great boulder beside our house, where Mr Clare was
+resting, and the Captain was enjoying his smoke.  Old Clump, too, having
+finished his tea and swept out Juno's kitchen, loitered toward us with
+his comforter--the pipe--and edged up respectfully within hearing of our
+conversation.  So we boys leaned on our elbows, looking out at the dimly
+defined water, sometimes lighted in streaks by gleams of phosphorescence
+where shoals of fish were jumping; or, stretched on our backs, we
+watched the shooting-stars hurrying with speed quick as thought from one
+part of the immeasurable blue to another; while our tutors talked
+earnestly of former times, and we heard the shrill calls of gulls and
+other sea birds, the occasional tender bleating of the lambs in the
+distant sheepfold, and the soft regular splash of a summer sea on the
+rocks, until the delicate young crescent had dozed slowly down to its
+bed in the ocean,--and we, profiting by example, sought slumber in the
+old dreamful attic.
+
+Harry Higginson was the first one up in the morning.  He shook us to our
+senses, and whispered to get out of the house quietly, that we might
+call our tutors with the cannon's voice.  That was an acceptable
+proposition, and we were soon stealing down the creaking stairs, shoes
+in hand.  Having put those on, seated by the door-stone, we started on a
+run for the _Clear the Track_.  It was just light, the soft dawn of a
+warm summer's day--not yet half-past four.  Walter said he would bet old
+Sol had already fired a gun in honour of the glorious battle won that
+day by England and her Allies, but so far off we could not hear it.
+
+We got on board the wreck as carefully as we had quitted the house, and
+I, being delegated to descend to the Captain's cabin and steal one of
+the flannel powder cartridges, was soon creeping by the snoring Captain
+with my booty secured.  It took but a moment to ram home the charge and
+pack it over with pockets full of wadding; and then Harry, our gunner,
+touched it off.  As the old brig shook with the report, Alfred jumped to
+the bell, and the way that clanged was splendid.
+
+"Boys," said Drake, who was shaking with the fun, "can't you see old
+topgallant sail down below springing up in his berth with a lurch and
+cracking his head against the beams, and our dignified fresh tute
+jerking those long, thin legs out of bed, and wondering what's about to
+happen this fine morning, and old Clump and Juno groaning out `O de
+Lord!' and knocking their black pates together as they both try to get
+out of bed at the same instant.  How jolly!"
+
+An immense red bandanna handkerchief at that moment popped above the
+companionway--then a hearty, weather-marked face we well knew--then a
+portion of an ample East Indian nightshirt, which threw up a pair of
+arms and fired off a couple of boarding-pistols.  The discharge was
+followed by a stentorian "Three cheers for the great and glorious battle
+won this day!--hip! hip! hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" in which we fellows
+joined with a yell.
+
+"Ah! you young rascals have got before me this morning, but this
+afternoon it will be my turn--mine and Mr Clare's, you roystering
+middies!" and the Captain popped down again to finish his toilet.
+
+We were soon joined by the Captain, and a little while after by Mr
+Clare, who was in the best of spirits, complimented us on our display of
+zeal and patriotism, and touched off the old gun once himself--"for
+practice," he said.
+
+"But," continued the jolly old Captain, having taken Mr Clare's arm,
+"suppose we visit Ethiopia and see if a hot breakfast is not waiting for
+us there.  These boys would rather stay here and load this cannon."
+
+"No sir, no sir!" replied Harry, "we must load our own personal guns,
+for we mean to make our _report_ this afternoon."
+
+Laughing over that threat to our tutors, we went with them to breakfast,
+which we found ready as soon as our morning prayers were read.  Clump
+brought in the dishes--Clump in uniform--and I never saw a funnier
+figure in my life.  The coat was once my grandfather's--a colonel of
+West India Militia, I believe.  Now my grandfather had been a rather
+short man, but very broad and stout, particularly round the stomach.
+Old Clump was tall and thin as a spectre, so the epaulettes fell over
+his shoulders, the waist flapped loosely eight inches above his
+trousers, and the short swallow-tails did not sufficiently cover the
+spot which the venerable darky usually placed on the chair to hide a
+patch, the bigness of a frying-pan and of a different material from the
+breeches themselves, that Juno's affectionate care had strengthened her
+liege lord's garments with--which garments, far more pastoral than
+military, and forced by suspenders as near the coat as Clump's anatomy
+otherwise would allow, failed by three inches of woollen stocking to
+meet his shoes.  When you think how comical the excellent, old,
+white-woolled darky appeared, remember, too, that he was perfectly
+unconscious, until our laughter startled him, that he was not becomingly
+attired.
+
+As our irrepressible appreciation of the fun was shouted out, Clump did
+not realise at first that he was its cause, but when he did all the
+pride and alacrity died from his face in an instant.  In a bewildered,
+palsied way he put down the dish he carried, and, heaving a sad sigh,
+drew himself up until the rheumatic spine must have twinged, and, fixing
+his eyes on some point far above our head, stood in motionless dignity.
+
+Even Mr Clare had laughed, but, recovering equanimity immediately that
+he saw how deeply Clump was wounded, he said:
+
+"Boys, stop that laughing."  He might have addressed his reproof to the
+Captain, too, for he was in paroxysms, and had his face buried in the
+countless flags of that great red silk bandanna of his.  "Is it so very
+funny to see Clump doing honour to a day once so big with the fate of
+England and the world?  Had the Allies been beaten at Waterloo, what
+might not have become of our beloved country?  Instead of Napoleon being
+an exile in Saint Helena, he might have carried out his darling project
+of invading and humbling England to the dust.  Though he cares no more
+for the Pope of Rome than does the Sultan of Turkey or the Shah of
+Persia, he would probably have established Popery with all its horrors
+and impositions, for the sake of more completely bringing our country
+into subjection to his will; and, once established, it would have been a
+hard matter to throw off its iron shackles.  Boys, you do not
+sufficiently value your privileges as Englishmen and Protestants--or
+rather, I should say, as inhabitants of this free and favoured island of
+Great Britain.  We are free to read our Bibles; we are free to worship
+God as we think fit; we are free to go and come as we list; we have a
+good constitution and good laws; we may think freely, speak freely, and
+act freely."
+
+"Yes, Massa Clare; you may tell de young gemmen dey may laff freely
+too," broke in Clump.  "I laff freely, I know, when I first set foot on
+de English land.  I no longer slave, I free man, and so dey may laff as
+much as dey likes at ole Clump, perwided dey laffs wid him.  I know one
+ting, dey would not have laff if dey had been in deir grandfather's coat
+when dis hole was made right through it into his arm."  Clump held up
+his right arm and showed the bullet-hole in the coat, and what he
+declared to be the stain of blood still on it; and he then continued in
+a triumphant strain--
+
+"Dis ole man Clump was 'is body-sarvant: but Clump was not ole den, and
+he follow his massa to de war--dat was long, long before dose young
+gemmen was born--afore dey was tinked of--and Massa Tregellin deir fader
+was young gemmen like dose, but more politer.  We was sent wid de seamen
+to take de island of Martinique; and so we landed and looked bery
+fierce, and de Frenchmen thought we had come to eat dem; so dey say, no
+use fighting; and so, after firing a great many shot at us; but doing no
+harm, dey say when we land, `We give in, we no fight more.'  So we take
+de island, and no one hurt except one man scratch anoder's nose wid his
+bagonet, and make blood come.  When de generals and de admirals see we
+done so well, dey say we go and take anoder island; so we all sets sail
+for to take Guadeloupe.  Some of de ships got in one day, some anoder,
+and anchored in Grozier Bay.  Ah, de enemy thought we come to eat him
+up, but dis time he stop.  Dere was de frigate _Winchelsea_, of which
+Lord Garlies was de cap'en.  He tun in, and bring his guns to bear on de
+shore, and under deir cover de soldiers and de bluejackets landed.  Dere
+was a high hill, wid de fort full of French soldiers on de top of it.
+`Dere, my brave fellow, we have to go up dere,' said de Kunnel.  De
+seamen was commanded by Cap'en Robert Faulkner.  He bery brave man.  I
+could just tall you how many brave tings he did; how he lash de bowsprit
+of de enemy to his own mainmast, and neber let her go till he took her,
+and den was shot through de heart in de hour of victory.  Well, de
+gen'ral say to us--`Now, boys, we don't want firing, but just let de
+enemy feel de cold steel.  Dey don't like dat.  Soldiers, use bagonets.
+Bluejackets, use your pikes and cutlashes.'  `Ay, ay, sir,' we shout;
+and den up de hill we go--up! up!  De faster we go de better for us, for
+de French bullets come down peppering pretty sharp.  We just near de
+top, and de enemy begin to look bery blue, when I see de Kunnel's right
+arm drop--he was only a cap'en den--his sword fell from his hand, but he
+seize it wid de oder hand, and wave it above his head, shouting, `On,
+boys, on.'  We reach de fort: de Frenchmen fire wid de guns, and poke at
+us wid de pikes, and swear at us wid deir mouds, and grapeshot and
+musket-balls come rattling down about our heads; but dat no stop us; and
+on we went till we got into de fort, and trou de gates, and den de
+Frenchmen, who had fought bery well, but could fight no more, rushed
+away.  Just den I see de Kunnel look bery pale, just like one nigger
+when he frightened, and he goed round and round, and would hab fallen,
+but Clump caught him in de arms, and den Clump put him on de ground, and
+shouted for de doctor, and ran and got some water, and de doctors came
+and splashed water in de Kunnel's face, and he oped his eyes, and he
+say, `Tank you, Clump.'  Yes, de Kunnel, dis ole nigger's massa, tank
+him on de field of battle.  When de dear Massa got better, he one day
+take de coat and say to me, `Here, Clump, you and I went up dat hill,
+and it's a mercy we eber came down again.  It's my belief if you hadn't
+got de water dat day to throw in my face, I should never have come round
+again; and so, Clump, here, take dis coat, I'll gub tur you to r'member
+dis fite.'  And now dese gemmen laff at deir gran'pa's coat! but black
+Clump, ole nigger, _lub_ it!  Yaas, he'll lub it till he's 'posited in
+de bowels ob de arth."
+
+The remembrance of my grandfather and that proud day for Clump, the
+keenness with which he had felt our rudeness, and the excitement of
+recital were, all together, too much for our good old castellan.  The
+erectness of his figure gave way as he concluded, the enthusiasm in his
+features faded into dejection, and, as he turned from the table to leave
+the room, I saw a big drop, that had trickled down his wrinkled face,
+fall on his extended hand.
+
+The cruelty of boys is an idiosyncrasy in their otherwise generous
+character.  Of course there are mean boys, hard-hearted boys, cowardly
+boys; but Boyhood is more generous, open, tender-hearted, daring, than
+Manhood, yet its cruelty stands out a distinguishing trait.  An old
+French teacher, loving children, wanting in dignity, broken in English,
+irritable in disposition; a sensitive young stranger, fresh from home,
+charming in innocence, sad with thoughts of a dear mother; a poor,
+frightened kitten, are all objects for boys' cruelty to gloat over.
+
+And so, too, on the oddities of that dear old Clump, that excellent,
+noble-hearted old black man, who loved us with surpassing pride and
+tenderness, we delighted to prey on as vultures on a carcass, and yet, I
+am sure, we were neither vicious nor hard-hearted, but simply and
+entirely--Boys.
+
+All this time, since our Saturday afternoon, when the fight overset our
+boat, Alfred Higginson and Drake had not spoken to one another.  This
+eighteenth of June, even, Drake did not wake Alfred, but left others of
+us to do so.  Thrown together so intimately every minute of the day, and
+so often on the point of speaking--often almost necessitated to do so by
+circumstances, and frequently through forgetfulness--their unfortunate
+difficulty and enmity stole the freshness from their sports, and acted
+as a check and damper on the spirits of all our little company.
+However, the _finale_ was not far-distant, but it was postponed until
+after the boat-race.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE REGATTA--THE DUEL.
+
+By agreement we rested through the middle of the day, and, in place of
+our usual hearty dinner, took an early lunch.  It was irksome, though,
+to be quiet when so excited, and when, too, a multitude of pastimes were
+suggested to our senses by the loveliness of that June day.
+
+Mr Clare and Captain Mugford had gone to fish in the Race off the
+extreme point.
+
+When half-past one o'clock came, Harry, who seemed the most impatient,
+proposed that we should go down to Bath Bay then, and wait there until
+three, the hour of the race.  That we agreed to, but left directions
+with Clump to hurry our tutors up as soon as they returned, and have
+them ready for the race.
+
+We had time to launch our boat carefully, and take a nice swim, before
+we descried our tutors, followed by Clump with a long musket, descending
+the knoll toward us.  So we hastened our dressing, and, when they
+reached the beach, were ready to receive them in our extemporised
+costume of blue shirts and white trousers.  Captain Mugford was already
+in a perspiration from his walk, and, what we boys also noticed with
+delight, seemed somewhat blown.  However, he was jolly, and, flourishing
+the ever active handkerchief, proposed to Mr Clare that they should row
+round Leander's Rock, and _let the boys follow them_!  "But at a
+respectful distance, remember, boys!"  We laughed scornfully at his
+chaff.  Harry touched his cap like a middy, and promised for our boat
+that it should keep at a _very_ "respectful distance."
+
+It took but a short time to complete preparations.  Our tutors threw off
+hats, coats, and vests, and tied handkerchiefs about their heads.  Then
+they lifted their boat into the water, and stood smiling at the
+excitement we could not help betraying.  Clump was on his way to
+Youngster's Wharf, where, at the proper moment, he was to give the
+signal for starting by firing the musket.  A flag waved from Leander's
+Rock; another was flying over our heads.  The clear water of the bay
+soused in impatient little ripples against the boats we stood ready to
+enter, as if to say, "Well, why don't you come on?" and then, purling a
+few feet farther, skipped over the spar which was to be our goal.  Clump
+had reached Youngster's Wharf.  Seeing that, we entered our boats,
+seated ourselves carefully, balancing the oars ready to spring, and
+waited the signal.  I alone could see Clump; the oarsmen had their backs
+to him.  The long gun was brought up to his shoulder, and his eyes fixed
+on us.  I saw his finger twitch, and as the hammer fell, my body gave
+way to help the start.  The oarsmen, with their eyes on mine, acted in
+sympathy, and every oar touched the water; but the old flintlock had
+only snapped.  How our adversaries laughed!  The old man sprang about on
+the rock like a wounded baboon.  He was indignant at the failure.  Again
+we were in order.  Again I saw the musket brought up.  Bang!  We were
+off, and were opposite Youngster's Wharf before the smoke had cleared
+from above Clump's head.  The boats were side by side then.
+Notwithstanding the eagerness with which I swayed forward with every
+pull of the oars, and the frenzy that filled me, as in a moment more I
+saw our tutors' boat drawing slightly ahead, I had to laugh at the
+antics of Clump, who was rushing from side to side of his floating
+staging, dancing up and down like a rheumatic lunatic, tossing his arms
+wildly about his uncovered head, his face a kaleidoscope of grimaces,
+while he shouted to each one of us by name, in encouragement, in
+entreaty, in fear: "Oh, Massa Drake! pull, pull!"  "Massa Walter!  Massa
+Walter! dus you let 'em beat!"  "Day'se gwine ahead!  Oh dear! oh dear!
+oh dear!"
+
+His voice was lost in another moment.  We were nearly half across the
+bay, and our tutors' boat a full length ahead.  I saw that my crew were
+too excited to do their best, so I called to them: "Boys, steady now!
+Keep cool, cool.  Only think of what your arms are doing."
+
+"There, that's better already!  We're gaining!  Hurrah!  Stick to it!"
+
+"Come, boys," called Mr Clare.  "Come, we can't wait for you longer!"
+
+I believe that lent five pounds of extra strength to every arm in my
+boat.
+
+We were nearing Leander's Rock.  Ay! and we were steadily gaining on our
+tutors.
+
+They, too, saw that, but could do no better.  Having a steersman, gave
+our boat an advantage of rounding the Rock closely.
+
+We gained distance.  In five minutes we were thirty or forty feet ahead.
+
+But then, terrible to see, our adversaries made a spurt, and were coming
+up again, hand over hand.
+
+They gained, _gained_, gained, until their stern was opposite Harry's
+oar-blade.  I was almost wild with excitement.  I called upon the boys,
+with every entreaty I could think of, to pull harder; urging on Alfred,
+who was evidently the weakest oar, and whose strength seemed waning.
+
+But our tutors could not pull harder.  They had done their best.  Could
+we but keep our speed.
+
+So we went, without widening or lessening the distance between us, for a
+hundred yards.  But was it possible for us to hold out?  How I prayed we
+might!  We neared Clump again.  The comic sight cheered me.  Truly, if
+hopping about and entreaties could help us, what aid must that old
+nigger give us.  I almost expected to see him soar off to us, he looked
+so like a crow taking flight.
+
+"Fellows! keep a morsel of extra strength to use when we pass Clump,
+then just let us put forth our utmost breath and strength for those
+forty yards.  But don't let our tutes gain.  Look! look!"
+
+But they were coming up--only by inches, to be sure, but coming.
+
+We rushed past Youngster's Wharf.  Clump stretched out his body as if to
+pull us on.
+
+Hurrah! hurrah!  Their bow is a foot beyond our stern.
+
+"Hi! hi! hi!  Yah! yah!  Hurrah! hurrah!  My young--"
+
+Splash!!!
+
+Clump had pitched in sure enough, head first.  But there was no stop to
+our engines.  Our tutors were four feet behind; but they were working
+with a last hope and mad effort.
+
+"One more, boys!"
+
+Cr-u-a-nk! we touched the spar, slid over its roundness as it sunk
+beneath our keel, and were on the soft beach--Victors!
+
+We were crazy with joy, and completely used up.  The boys jumped from
+the boat and threw themselves, laughing hysterically, on the sand.
+
+Our tutors only said, in tones of mingled chagrin and exhaustion, "Boys,
+we are beaten, well and fairly;" and they pushed off again to pick up
+Clump.
+
+I do not know any successes or honours of after-life sweeter or more
+satisfying than that boat victory.
+
+Until bedtime, we remained just tired and happy enough to sit quietly
+and talk over the events of the afternoon.
+
+In resuming study for the few days before Saturday, we had in
+anticipation for that time a fishing party on the rocks, for bass, which
+were beginning to bite sharply, and for which our bait was lobster and
+the crabs that were found under the small rocks at low tide.
+
+In talking over the project together, Drake said he would not go this
+time, but would wait to see our luck.  Alfred Higginson expressed
+neither assent nor dissent with the general arrangement, and of course
+we supposed he was to be of our party, until Saturday came and we were
+ready to start, poles, bait and basket in hand, when he was not to be
+found.  We wondered at his disappearance, but had no time to hunt him
+up.  Drake was there to see us off.  The Captain and Mr Clare, who were
+going with us, told Drake they thought that boat-race had proved too
+much for him.  He laughed, but was not as ready at an answer as usual.
+Indeed, he appeared rather low-spirited.  However, we started on our
+excursion without a suspicion of the affair which prevented both fellows
+from joining it.  It afterwards appeared that Drake had addressed the
+following note to Alfred Higginson on the day before the boat-race:--
+
+  "Cape ---, June 17, 1816.
+
+  "Alfred Higginson,
+
+  "Our quarrels have gone nearly far enough, disturbing the peace of our
+  entire company, and increasing the irritation between us.  Let us
+  conclude the dissension in a thorough and honourable way that may
+  satisfy both and prove a final contest.  After that I will agree to
+  strive not to give offence to you, and also to bear silently whatever
+  conceit and insults may escape you.  Perhaps we may become friends.
+  But we cannot remain as we are.  The blow you struck the other day
+  _must_ be answered for.  _I ask satisfaction_, and the incompleteness
+  and vulgarity of a pugilistic encounter will not suit me.  I propose,
+  therefore, as we cannot resort to the regular duel of pistols, (for
+  reasons so good and evident that I need not name them), that after the
+  example of the ancients, whose history we are now daily reading, we
+  have our combat.  Arms of their fashion our ingenuity can supply, not
+  of the same materials, I know, but of wood, which should prove
+  effective enough for our purposes.  I propose Saturday as the time,
+  when those who might otherwise disturb our meeting are absent: and I
+  propose the hold of the wreck as a suitable spot.  Your sense of
+  honour will, of course, keep this affair secret, and I ask a speedy
+  reply.
+
+  "Drake Tregellin."
+
+Only a warm, fierce, reckless-natured boy of fourteen could have hit
+upon such an absurdly quixotic way of deciding a quarrel.  Indian
+combats between Red Indians in the Far West, the deeds of Sir Kenneth,
+Saladin, and Coeur de Lion in his favourite "Talisman," and the entire
+character of Drake's reading, had joined with and gathered romance from
+his late study of Virgil to misdirect an innate chivalry.
+
+Alfred Higginson's reply was also characteristic:--
+
+  "Drake Tregellin,
+
+  "I have received your _cartel_.  In my humble opinion nothing could be
+  more stupid and silly than the resort you propose.  I suppose you
+  think your proposition very _grand_ and _chivalric_.  It endangers the
+  continuance of our stay on the cape; it rebels against the rule we are
+  under here; and it would make our parents unhappy.  Its spirit of
+  selfishness and indifference to everything but your own impulse is the
+  same which causes and continues our quarrelling.  But I shall be a
+  fool with you this time.  I have not the courage to balk your desire.
+  I agree to the contest, if you agree to keep the peace after that.  I
+  suppose javelins and shields of wood are to be our weapons.  What
+  nonsense!  But I shall be at hand, Saturday, at the brig, when the
+  others have gone fishing.
+
+  "Alfred Higginson."
+
+About an hour after we had got settled on Bass Rocks, and just as we
+commenced catching fish, and I had a mighty fellow slashing my line
+about and trying to snap the pole, we heard the voice of some one
+calling to us in distress, and, turning, saw Juno hurrying towards us as
+fast as her old limbs and breathless state would allow.  She was
+chattering all the while, but it was impossible for us to understand the
+cause of her mission until she had come up to us and had taken a
+moment's rest.  Then, the tears springing from her eyes and terror in
+her voice, she exclaimed: "De yun' gem'men--Massa Drake, Massa Alf'fed,
+dey is fiteten and tarr'en one udder to pieces.  Dey is down dare in de
+ole ship and fire'en sticks and poke-en guns; an' oh Lord, I fear dey is
+all dead now!"  Her excitement could no longer be contained, but broke
+forth in cries and ejaculations: "Oh! oh! oh! marssaful Hebbens!  Oh de
+Lord, please top de yun' gem'men!  Massa Clare, Massa Capting, ar'n't
+yous gwine?  Ar'n't yous gwine afore dey is done dead?  Dat dis ole
+woman mus' see such tings!"
+
+We also gleaned from her, that, hearing a noise at the wreck, as she was
+passing near by, she had scrambled on board the vessel and there seen
+the two boys engaged in a severe fight; that she had hurried off for
+Clump, but could not find him; and that then she had run to where she
+knew we were; but we had to hasten her broken narrative to get at the
+whole matter, and then we all started for the wreck as fast as we could
+run, fearful that a tragedy was to meet our sight--that we might be too
+late to prevent it.
+
+What a sight met our eyes as we hurried down the stairs to the brig's
+schoolroom!
+
+Chairs, desks, and tables had been pushed back against the sides to make
+room for the duel, and there, in the so-formed arena, the atmosphere of
+which was thick with disturbed dust, lay in common confusion a split
+shield, two swords, a padded glove, a splintered lance, and a torn cap.
+The weapons--the shield in particular--reflected skill upon Clump or
+whatever carpenter had fashioned them.  In some charge of one of the
+combatants, the round table, although intended to be in a place of
+safety, had been overturned, adding a globe, a streaming inkstand, and
+sundry books to the medley on the floor.
+
+But our astonishment culminated when we saw Drake leaning back in Mr
+Clare's big chair in the farther end of the hold, his head bleeding, a
+sleeve torn off, and an expression of comically blended fatigue and
+dignified indifference in his face, while near the opposite side of the
+schoolroom, and on one side of the stairway we had descended, was Alfred
+Higginson lying on the floor, his head supported on an arm, his
+countenance the picture of pain and mortification.
+
+Evidently the battle was over.  The parties spoke not a word; and the
+first exclamation that came from us was Harry's: "Hillo!  A real duel,
+and no one killed."
+
+Our good Captain, his face full of tenderness and anxiety, hurried to
+Alf and lifted him up, but as he was so much hurt as to be only able to
+hobble a few steps, Captain Mugford lifted him in his arms and carried
+him on deck.
+
+"What is all this, my poor fellow?" asked the Captain, as he got him on
+a bench there.
+
+"Rather a long story, Captain, but no one to blame but Drake and me.  He
+ain't much hurt, is he?"
+
+"That is what I want to ask you, Alf.  Where is your pain?"
+
+"There, sir, in my side.  It is only stiff and bruised, but don't touch
+it hard, please.  There! where your hand is.  And I believe my hand is
+somewhat cut."
+
+As it proved on examination by the doctor from the village, whom I
+brought over an hour afterwards, one of Alf's ribs was broken and the
+palm of his left hand badly gashed.
+
+Whilst the Captain and Harry Higginson had attended to Alfred, Mr Clare
+and Walter took care of Drake.  He was very laconic in his replies to
+their questions, and made light of the injury; but he was faint from the
+wound in the head, and his sleeveless arm was so stiff as to be useless
+to him then.
+
+Juno, who had found Clump, joined us before we reached the house with
+our wounded comrades; but at the sight of Drake's bleeding head and
+Alfred carried in the Captain's arms, Juno's ejaculations recommenced,
+and Clump followed, only wringing his hands in mute despair.
+
+Of the particulars of the fight we never knew further than I have
+related.  Both of the principals in the affair hated to have it alluded
+to, and we spared their feelings.
+
+When we had got them comfortably settled in their rooms, Mr Clare
+called the remainder of us aside and enjoined upon us that we should not
+question Drake and Alfred, nor mention the matter in their presence; and
+that in the meantime he would decide with Captain Mugford what steps to
+take when the boys had recovered.
+
+In another week Drake was as well as ever, but hardly as noisy and
+reckless as of old.  Alfred remained an invalid for some time longer.
+
+When both were perfectly recovered, Mr Clare called us all together in
+the brig's schoolroom one afternoon, and then addressed us, particularly
+the two combatants, in a manner that I can never forget--it was so
+sensible, so manly, so solemn.  He pointed out the faults of each, which
+had fed the long quarrel and finally serious conclusion.  He painted the
+wickedness of that duel, (for it could be called nothing else), and all
+such affairs, which in former times were ignorantly considered necessary
+and honourable.  He told us in what he thought true manliness, courage,
+and _chivalry_ consisted.  Then, in a simple, touching way, he suggested
+higher thoughts--our duty to our Father in heaven as brothers of one
+common family, and more than all of the example which our blessed Lord
+and Master set us while He was on earth--to forgive injuries--to
+overlook insults; and he spoke of charity as forbearance, and conquest
+as governing ourselves; and then begged us to join him in earnest
+entreaty to the Holy Spirit for the strength to practise that charity
+and make those conquests, to the Source whence such virtues came, and to
+the Ear which was never deaf to supplication.  How simple and noble was
+that whole address!  And I cannot forbear testimony to the fruitfulness
+of a Christian practice such as that of our then tutor, dear Mr Clare.
+Even thoughtless boys could not sneer at the constant manly practice of
+his life.  We had to see that it gave the loftiest aims even to the
+smallest acts of his everyday life--that where he spoke one word he
+acted fifty in that service which ennobles the commonest deed.  So that
+religion, which youth often regards as something whining and
+hypocritical, something only for the old and sick, we boys _began_ to
+look up to as something which, if we could only _partly_ understand,
+was, at the least, truly beautiful and noble.
+
+The lesson and bearing of Mr Clare on that occasion was enforced by the
+fact that as he concluded, Captain Mugford, rubbing the back of a rough
+hand on his cheek for some reason, got up and crossed the room to Mr
+Clare, whose hand he took in both his, and said--
+
+"Mr Clare, I am but a rough, wicked old sailor, but the words you have
+spoken to these boys have touched an older boy than they, and I thank
+you--I thank you!"
+
+The parents of both Drake and Alfred were duly informed, by both Mr
+Clare and the boys themselves, of the affair.
+
+From that time Drake and Alfred were changed boys.  The old dominant
+faults I have told of had now to _fight_ for sway and were generally
+mastered, whilst the conduct of one to the other grew generous and
+considerate, and the two boys became and ever afterward remained close
+friends.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+BIG FISHING--A STRANGE DISSECTION.
+
+The dog-days and the sultriness of August extended some of their
+influence even in our fresh kingdom by the sea.  The only exercise that
+tempted us was swimming, and that, by Captain Mugford's permission, we
+now enjoyed twice each day--before breakfast and after tea.  What else
+is so delightful and health-giving?  The header from the brown rock from
+whose sides wave the cool, green tresses of the sea! off, with a whoop,
+and hands above your head, as the sun pats tricklingly your back! off,
+with a spring, down head first through the deliciously cool, clear,
+bracing water, that effervesces about you in bubbles of sport.  Then, as
+the long delicate tendrils beneath swing like sirens' arms to welcome
+you, to arch the back and, leaving the alluring depths, rise through the
+dark water with the ease of an eagle on his wings until your head pops
+into the upper world of noise and sunlight again.  The long, sharp,
+regular strokes now, every muscle stretching elastically and the whole
+frame electric with vigour and freshness--oh, how delicious!
+
+Reeking with wet, we climb the rock, picking a spot where limpets are
+not, and sit in that glorious sunlight, each atom of which seems to melt
+into the blood.  Clasping our hands about our knees, we can watch the
+glory of the sun climbing higher and higher above the ocean, and, if we
+choose, fancy ourselves big grapes ripening on "Lusitanian summers,"
+until we are dry--which is too soon--and then with what overflowing
+spirits and ravenous appetites we go, like hunters, to the house!
+
+"Come, Marm Juno, send in the eggs and bacon.  We're as hungry as
+bears!"
+
+"He! he! he!  How you yun' gemmen do go on.  Seems as ef you'se nebber
+git nuffen ter eat at hum.  'Spects you'll git fat down 'ere!  He! he!"
+
+But our studies did not slacken because of the warm weather.  Copying
+Mr Clare, we all worked with a will.  There was not a laggard amongst
+us, I believe.  There was a disposition to please one who had so grown
+in our affection and respect as even to have outstripped our dear old
+salt tute.  He understood our youthful difficulties, sympathised with
+our interests, and, not limiting his duties to hearing us recite, taught
+us _how to study_.
+
+As August waned the fishing improved, and with the little fiddler or
+soldier crab we caught fish of three and four pounds instead of those of
+one and two pounds that had a month ago employed us.  And then the
+striped bass, the _Labrus lineatus_, the king of saltwater game fish--
+what splendid sport they furnished!
+
+These last we caught, some of us with the pole and reel, some with the
+hand-line.  But it was active work to throw out about sixty yards of
+line and then troll it quickly back through the eddies off the rocks,
+where the bass fed and sported.  The Captain was great at this;
+despising the pole and waving the bait round and round his head, he
+would throw it full a hundred yards to sea.
+
+I tell you it was exciting to hook a five or six pounder and have him
+make off with a lurch.  Pay out then, quick, quick, just keeping a
+"feel" of the fellow's mouth, and as he slacks his speed, tauten your
+line, and pull in with all your strength.  Slower now, as he begins to
+haul back.  Now look out; he is off again with a mightier spring and
+greater speed than before.  Pay out, quick and steady.  So, again and
+again, his strength getting less and less, until you can tow him up to
+the rock, and your companion put the gaff in his ruddy gills.
+
+Many a noble fish escaped; many a line and hook snapped in the warfare.
+Sometimes a much larger fish would take hold, and two of us would have
+to pull on the line stretched like wire.  During the season we took a
+seven-pounder, one of eight, and one of ten pounds, and Captain Mugford,
+alone on the rocks, one stormy morning, when we boys were in school,
+captured a royal fellow of twelve pounds, and brought it for our
+admiring gaze as we went to dinner.  Mr Clare promised to beat that,
+but he never did.
+
+One Saturday afternoon, about the last of August, just after a somewhat
+heavy gale, which had been blowing for a couple of days, we all repaired
+to Bass Rocks, though the sky was drizzling yet, and the spray of the
+waves dashed at every blow clear over our stand.
+
+It was apparently a splendid time for our friends, the labrus, but we
+did not get a bite.  We persevered, however, fresh baiting the hooks,
+and throwing out again and again, with not a fin to flash after them
+through the curdled waters.
+
+Harry Higginson, having been very unlucky before this, losing several
+strong lines, had provided himself this time with one which, he said,
+could hold a hundred-pounder--the line consisting of two thick flaxen
+lines plaited together.  He had it rigged on his pole.  Grown careless
+from the ill-luck we had met, he at length let his bait sink to the
+bottom, about thirty yards from the rocks, and got talking with the
+Captain, who had given up fishing, and, with his sou'wester pulled about
+his ears, was taking a comfortable pipe in a crevice of the biggest
+rock.
+
+Suddenly I heard a reel go clork--cle-erk cleerk! and saw Harry's pole
+fall from his hands to the rock.  He seized it in a second, but as he
+stopped the revolving of the reel, the pole bent, and he pulled back on
+it--Snap!  It was gone in the middle of the second joint.  Of course the
+line remained, and that he commenced pulling in, bestowing the while
+some pretty hard expressions on his bad luck, for it really seemed as if
+the once-hooked fish had gone off in safety.  About ten yards of the
+line came in slack, and then it stopped.
+
+"Fast to a rock!  What luck!" cried Harry, and then he commenced to
+jerk.
+
+As he turned to look at us, with an expression of sarcastic
+indifference, I saw the line straightening out again in a steady, slow
+way, as if it was attached to an invisible canal-boat.
+
+"Hold fast," I cried; "look! you have got something.  What can it be?"
+saying which, Harry commenced to pull, but in vain--the prey went ahead.
+
+Captain Mugford had taken the pipe from his mouth as his attention was
+fastened by the strange manoeuvres of Harry's game.  Things having come
+to such a bewildering pass, he put up his pipe and, shaking the folds of
+the sou'wester from about his head, sprung forward and took hold of the
+line with Harry, but it still ran out through their hands.
+
+"Seventeen seventy-six! what a whopper," exclaimed the Captain.  "We
+must let go another anchor--eh, Harry?"
+
+"Indeed! yes," replied Harry.  "Look! he is stopping, and seems to be
+shaking the hook as a cat would a mouse.  What can it be?"
+
+Now the unknown took a tack towards us, and the line was gathered in and
+kept tight, and, as he began to go about on another course, his enemies
+took advantage of his momentary sluggishness to haul with considerable
+effect on the line.  That brought the rascal right under the rocks.  We
+could not see him; only the commotion of the water.  Being brought up
+with such a short turn maddened the fellow, and perhaps he began to
+realise what was giving him such a jaw-ache.  At any rate, just then he
+showed his speed to the whole length of the line, rushing off like a
+locomotive, and cutting his enemies fingers to the bones.  They held on,
+however, and were able to bring him to as his charge slackened.
+
+Of course the others of us hauled in our lines and watched with
+eagerness the combat so exciting.  We proffered advice of all kinds to
+the two fishers, which they did not heed but devised schemes as the
+moment required, and certainly they managed with great skill.  You would
+have thought the Captain was on deck in a hurricane, or repelling the
+boarders of a Malay pirate.  The pipe was jammed up to its bowl in the
+side of his mouth, and all he said came in jerks through his teeth.
+
+We were perfectly in the dark as to what the fish might be--whether an
+immense cod or halibut, or a princely bass.
+
+The fight went on for half an hour without any decided result.  But
+after that the struggles of the fish occupied a smaller space, never
+taking more than half the line out now.  He was nearer the surface too,
+and the quick slaps of a tremendous tail lashed the sea.
+
+"Mr Clare," called out Captain Mugford, "won't you twist two of the
+boys' lines together and bend them on that gaff?  By the way, there is a
+hatchet with us, is there not?  Good!  Have that and the gaff ready.  We
+are tiring the animal, whatever it is--a shark, I suspect."
+
+Whilst we were carrying out the Captain's orders, Harry cried, "See,
+see! there is the whole length of him.  Yes, a shark.  What a grand
+beast!"
+
+They were tiring him--worrying the strength and fierceness out of him.
+Every turn was bringing him nearer the rock.  Every dash of his was
+weaker.  But it must have been fully an hour from the first rush he made
+before he was brought exhausted alongside of the rocks, and the Captain
+cried, "Put in the gaff, Mr Clare--hard deep!"
+
+Well was it that a strong line had been made fast to the gaff, for as
+its big hook struck him behind the gills, he uttered a sound like the
+moan of a child, and flapped off, the gaff remaining in him, into deep
+water.
+
+With the two lines and his exhausted state, it was comparatively easy to
+bring him to the rocks again, and then with blows of the hatchet we had
+soon murdered him.  Even then it was a job of some moment to get the
+body safely up the slimy and uneven rocks.
+
+At length our prey was well secured, and we stood about him in triumph.
+It was a shark, measuring five feet and three inches in length, and he
+must certainly have weighed nearly a hundred pounds.
+
+From the study Mr Clare made of the subject, we found that the name by
+which the shark is technically known is _Squalidae_, which includes a
+large family fitly designated, as your Latin dictionary will prove when
+you find the adjective _squalidus_--"filthy, slovenly, loathsome."  It
+is a family of many species, there being some thirty or forty cousins;
+and the different forms of the teeth, snout, mouth, lips, and tail-fins,
+the existence or absence of eyelids, spiracles, (those are the apertures
+by which the water taken in for respiration is thrown out again), the
+situation of the different fins, etcetera, distinguish the different
+divisions of the common family.  The cousin who, wandering about that
+stormy Saturday, had frightened away the bass, and finally astonished
+himself by swallowing a fish-hook when he only thought to suck a dainty
+bit of his family's favourite delicacy, was known as the _Zygaena_--so
+Mr Clare introduced him to us when his sharkship had grown so
+exceedingly diffident as not to be able to say one word for himself--a
+genus distinguished by having the sides of the head greatly prolonged in
+a horizontal direction, from which circumstance they are commonly known
+as the hammer-headed sharks.
+
+His teeth were in three rows, the points of the teeth being directed
+towards the corners of the mouth.  The two back rows were bent down, and
+only intended, Mr Clare told us, to replace the foremost when injured.
+These horrible teeth were notched like a saw.
+
+I think the face, if so you might call it, of that piratical fish wore
+the most fearfully cruel and rapacious expression I had ever seen.  That
+_Zygaena_ family of the _Squalidae_, (I think they sound more horribly
+devilish when called by their classical titles), is one dangerous to
+man, and it is very rare that a man-eating or man-biting shark is ever
+found on the English coast.
+
+I proposed to cut him open, and so we did.  Among the half-digested
+food, most of which was fish, I found something that at first looked
+like a leather strap.  I seized it and pulled it out.  Surely there was
+a buckle.  I washed and laid it out on the rock, while we all gathered
+about in great excitement to make out what our dead enemy had been
+preying on.  There was no longer a doubt that it was a dog-collar--the
+collar of a medium-sized dog, perhaps a spaniel or terrier.  There was a
+plate on it, which, with a little rubbing, we made to read, "David
+Atherton, Newcastle."  How very strange!  Had the little fellow been
+washed overboard from some vessel? or had he swum off some neighbouring
+beach to bring a stick for his master?
+
+We could never discover any antecedents of any kind whatever to that
+mysterious sequel to "The Romance of the Poor Young Dog."  Was there a
+fond master mourning for him in Newcastle, England, or in Newcastle,
+Pennsylvania?  Alas, poor dog! thou wert hastily snatched from this
+world--the ocean thy grave and a shark's belly thy coffin.  Thy collar
+hangs, as I write this, over my study table, and many a time has my old
+Ponto sniffed at that relic of a fellow-dog, and his eyes grown moist as
+I repeated to him my surmises of the sad fate of David Atherton's
+companion.
+
+Mr Clare told us a good deal about sharks.  Of the many varieties, the
+most hideous is the Wolf-fish, (_Anarrhicas lupus_).  Though much
+smaller than the white shark, he is a very formidable creature.  He has
+six rows of grinders in each jaw, excellently adapted for bruising the
+crabs, lobsters, scallops, and large whelks, which the voracious animal
+grinds to pieces, and swallows along with the shells.  When caught, it
+fastens with indiscriminate rage upon anything within its reach, fights
+desperately, even when out of the water, and inflicts severe wounds if
+not avoided cautiously.  Schonfeld relates this wolf-fish will seize on
+an anchor and leave the marks of its teeth in it, and Steller mentions
+one on the coast of Kamschatka, which he saw lay hold of a cutlass, with
+which a man was attempting to kill it, and break it to bits as if it had
+been made of glass.  This monster is, from its great size, one of the
+most formidable denizens of the ocean; in the British waters it attains
+the length of six or seven feet, and is said to be much larger in the
+more Northern seas.  It usually frequents the deep parts of the sea, but
+comes among the marine plants of the coast in spring, to deposit its
+spawn.  It swims rather slowly, and glides along with somewhat of the
+motion of an eel.
+
+The white shark is far more dreadful, from its gigantic size and
+strength; its jaws are also furnished with from three to six rows of
+strong, flat, triangular, sharp-pointed, and finely serrated teeth,
+which it can raise or depress at will.
+
+This brute grows to a length of thirty feet, and its strength may be
+imagined from the fact that a young shark, only six feet long, has been
+known to break a man's leg by a stroke of its tail.  Therefore, when
+sailors have caught a shark at sea, with a baited hook, the first thing
+they do when it is drawn upon deck is to chop off its tail, to prevent
+the mischief to be dreaded from its immense strength.
+
+Hughes, the author of the "Natural History of Barbadoes," relates an
+anecdote which gives a good idea of the nature of this monster: "In the
+reign of Queen Anne a merchant ship from England arrived at Barbadoes;
+some of the crew, ignorant of the danger of doing so, were bathing in
+the sea, when a large shark suddenly appeared swimming directly towards
+them.  All hurried on board, and escaped, except one unfortunate fellow,
+who was bit in two by the shark.  A comrade and friend of the man,
+seeing the severed body of his companion, vowed instant revenge.  The
+voracious shark was seen swimming about in search of the rest of his
+prey, when the brave lad leaped into the water.  He carried in his hand
+a long, sharp-pointed knife, and the fierce monster pushed furiously
+towards him.  Already he had turned over, and opened his huge, deadly
+jaws, when the youth, diving cleverly, seized the shark somewhere near
+the fins with his left hand, and stabbed him several times in the belly.
+The creature, mad with pain and streaming with blood, attempted vainly
+to escape.  The crews of the ships near saw that the fight was over, but
+knew not which was slain, till, as the shark became exhausted, he rose
+nearer the shore, and the gallant assailant still continuing his
+efforts, was able, with assistance, to drag him on shore.  There he
+ripped open the stomach of the shark and took from it the half of his
+friend's body, which he then buried together with the trunk half."
+
+The negroes are admirable swimmers and divers, and they sometimes attack
+and vanquish the terrible shark, but great skill is necessary.
+
+When Sir Brooke Watson, as a youth, was in the West Indies, he was once
+swimming near a ship when he saw a shark making towards him.  He cried
+out in terror for help, and caught a rope thrown to him; but even as the
+men were drawing him up the side of the vessel, the monster darted
+after, and took off his leg at a single snap.
+
+Fortunately for sea-bathers on our shores, the white shark and the
+monstrous hammer-headed _zygaena_ seldom appear in the colder latitudes,
+though both have occasionally been seen on the British coasts.
+
+The northern ocean has its peculiar sharks, but some are good-natured,
+like the huge basking shark, (_S maximus_), and feed on seaweeds and
+medusae and the rest, such as the _picked_ dog-fish, (_Galeus
+acanthius_), are, although fierce, of too small a size to be dangerous
+to man.
+
+But the dog-fish and others, such as the blue shark, are very
+troublesome and injurious to the fisherman; though they do not venture
+to attack him, for they hover about his boat and cut the hooks from his
+lines.  Indeed, this sometimes leads to their own destruction; and when
+their teeth do not deliver them from their difficulty, the blue sharks,
+which hover about the coast of Cornwall during the pilchard season, roll
+their bodies round so as to twine the line about them in its whole
+length, and often in such a way that Mr Yarrell has known a fisherman
+give up as hopeless the attempt to unroll it.
+
+This shark is very dangerous to the pilchard drift-net, and very often
+will pass along the whole length of net, cutting out, as if with shears,
+the fish and the net which holds them, and swallowing both together.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+UGLY--PLOVER, SNIPE, AND RABBIT SHOOTING--A CRUISE PROPOSED.
+
+Recounting that last event reminds me of a well-beloved character in our
+cape days--one, too, that was destined to play an important part in our
+little drama.
+
+Ugly was his name; Trusty Greatheart it should have been.
+
+Ugly was a clipped-eared, setter-tailed, short-legged, long-haired,
+black-nosed, bright-eyed little mongrel.  In limiting his ancestry to no
+particular aristocratic family, he could prove some of the blood of
+many.  There were evident traces of the water-spaniel, the Skye terrier,
+and that most beautiful of all the hound family--the beagle.
+
+I do not know what education Ugly may have had in his earlier days, but
+I believe it to have been limited, though his acquirements were great.
+I believe him to have been a canine genius.  He was as ready on the
+water as on the land.  His feats of diving and swimming were remarkable;
+and a better rabbit-dog and more sagacious, courageous watchdog never
+lived.  As to the languages, I will acknowledge he could speak none; but
+he understood English perfectly, and never failed to construe rightly
+any of Mr Clare's Latin addresses--much better than ever Walter could
+do.  Indeed, Mr Clare's commands to and conversations with Ugly were
+always in Latin.
+
+Of his rare sagacity and unbounded affection there are proofs to be
+furnished further on in this narrative.
+
+Harry Higginson and Walter had guns, and they alone of our number were
+allowed to use them.  That exclusion never caused me any regrets, nor do
+I think it troubled Alfred Higginson, but it was a constant pain to
+Drake.  He loved a gun, and his most golden dream of manhood's happiness
+was the possession of a good fowling-piece.  The prohibition of our
+parents, however, was so stringent in this particular that poor Drake
+never sighted along the bright barrels nor even touched the well-oiled
+stocks but once while we were at the cape.
+
+There they stood, always ready, in a corner of our attic--where Drake,
+Alf, and I could not touch them, but ready at any time for the pleasure
+of Walter and Harry.
+
+Walter was an accomplished shot, and Harry was not a bad one.  Harry had
+not had the training of Walter, whom my father had taught--not
+commencing with stationary objects, but with targets thrown in the air,
+and small, slow-winged birds as they flitted near the ground.  My father
+had at first made him practise for a long time without caps, powder, or
+shot, merely in quickly bringing the stock close to the shoulder, and
+getting the eye directly behind the breech.  When proficiency in that
+had become a mechanical habit, the gun was loaded, and then commenced
+the practice of shooting at moving objects.  As the art of bringing the
+gun properly to the cheek had been so thoroughly mastered as to require
+no effort nor attention, Walter could, when an object was thrown up,
+direct all his care to bringing the muzzle of the piece--the sight--
+directly on that object.  My father's reason for teaching him first to
+shoot at flying marks was to prevent the habit of dwelling long on an
+aim--that habit of following or _poking_ at the bird which ruins good
+shooting, and prevents the possibility of becoming a good snap shot.
+And so, afterwards, Drake and I were taught; and boys who are learning
+to shoot will find, that by remembering and practising the method I have
+described, instead of commencing by taking long, deliberate aims at
+stationary objects, they will get ahead surprisingly fast, far
+outstripping those who learn by the latter way.
+
+In our rambles about the cape, Ugly soon displayed his talent for
+rabbit-hunting.  He would smell where Bunny had been wandering and
+follow the track until he started Miss Long-ears from her covert, and
+then the fun began--the rabbit leaping off in frightened haste, running
+for life, winding and dodging about over the swells of the sparse grass
+hillocks, while Ugly, mad with excitement, spread his long, low body
+down to the chase.  How the little fellow would put in his nose close to
+the ground, staunch on the trail as the best-blooded hound, and making
+the air ring with his sharp but musical bark!  I tell you that was fun!
+Ugly always stuck to his game until he had run it to its burrow.  He had
+not the speed to overtake it.
+
+The summer is not the proper season for rabbit-shooting; so Walter, who
+was never to be tempted by the best chance of killing game even a day
+out of season, would not permit either Harry or himself to shoot at the
+objects of Ugly's furious energy until it was legitimate.  That conduct
+of Walter and Harry was beyond Ugly's comprehension.  I have often seen
+him try to understand it.  The chase having ended as usual in a safe
+burrow, I have noticed Ugly--who, after a very short experience, had
+learned not to waste his time in vain digging--turn toward us with a
+waddling, disconsolate trot, and having approached a few rods, stop and
+sit down to revolve the puzzle over in his mind.  He would look where
+the rabbit had housed himself, then drop his head, cock up an ear, and
+cast an inquiring glance toward us, as much as to say: "Why, _do_ tell
+Ugly why you did not shoot that old lap-ears?  Ah!"  That operation he
+would repeat several times before rejoining us, and when he had come up
+he would cock his head first one side and then the other, and look into
+our faces with most beseeching questioning in those great, keen, brown
+eyes of his.  Then he would hang behind on our way home, evidently
+greatly distressed at his ignorance.
+
+Never mind, good Ugly!  I believe you were fully rewarded for weeks of
+bewilderment when the time did come for knocking over bunnies.
+
+One afternoon, in returning from one of those rambles, we met our salt
+tute hurrying towards us in a great state of haste and perspiration.
+When near enough for his hoarse bass voice to reach us, he hailed--
+
+"Well, there you are, boys, at last!  I have been hunting for you all
+over the cape for the last hour.  Ah!  Ugly, boy, are you glad to see
+the old Captain trudging over the rabbit-ground?  Eh? shaggy boy!  And
+you have been running the bunnies till you are blown, and your masters
+would not shoot--eh?  Well, no matter; the Captain shall bring his
+marline-spike along some day, and help you bag them.  But, my
+affectionate pup, do you take a turn in that tail, or you'll wag it off
+some windy day."
+
+So Ugly sat down--a long, red, wet tongue hanging from the side of his
+mouth--and whipped the grass between the Captain's boots with that
+restless tail until we came up.
+
+"Why, Captain Mugford," said Walter, "I did not know you ever wanted
+_us_."
+
+"No?  Well, I do though, just now.  You see, boys, as to-morrow will be
+Saturday, with every prospect of fair weather and a good breeze, I
+thought we might go on a cruise--start early, get our meals on board,
+run off to the fishing-grounds, and make a voyage of general
+exploration.  And to do this we must get our traps aboard this evening,
+and see that everything is in order on board the _Youth_."
+
+"Good! nothing could suit us better, Captain.  I'll run to the house
+with the guns," said Harry, "and we can all go at once off to the
+_Youth_."
+
+"Mr Clare," continued Captain Mugford, "can't go with us, he says, but
+must walk over to Q---town and spend the day.  That's a pity, for I
+calculated on having a capital time all together, on a voyage like this
+one we propose."
+
+"Well, we boys," said Walter, "will ask him this evening to put off his
+visit.  Perhaps he may change his mind."
+
+When Harry returned we went down to our cutter, all in great spirits on
+account of the fun proposed for the next day.
+
+Getting on board, we mopped and swabbed her out well, overhauled the
+ropes and sails, and hauled down the pennant to take home with us for
+Juno to mend where it had frayed out on the point.  That work being
+completed, we went to the house for such provisions as we should want on
+our excursion.  Juno put up a large supply for one day--ground coffee,
+eggs, biscuit, cold mutton, a cold turkey, and several currant and apple
+pies, besides butter, salt, etcetera--and Clump conveyed it down to the
+_Youth_ for us on a wheelbarrow.
+
+The provisions were carefully stowed in the forepeak, and everything
+being arranged, we appointed Ugly to act as a guard over our craft
+during the night.
+
+Harry briefly explained it to him.  "Look here, Ugly, you are to stay
+here to-night and look after the things.  Of course you are not to come
+ashore or leave duty for a minute.  We shall be down early in the
+morning.  Be ready to receive us with proper ceremonies, for we are off
+on a cruise, old boatswain, to-morrow.  Look, Ugly; I put your supper in
+this stern locker.  Do you see?"
+
+Ugly was at first rather disappointed at the prospect of being separated
+from us for the night, but as Harry's harangue proceeded and he began to
+comprehend the honour of the duty required aboard ship, he bristled up
+and grew as stiff and important as his inches would allow.  He turned
+his nose to watch where the supper was placed, and then walked forward
+and took a seat on the bow assuming a comical air of "captaincy;" so
+pantomimic was it that Captain Mugford laughed aloud, and said: "Well
+done, Ugly; where, my fine fellow, did you learn quarterdeck airs?"
+
+"Good-night, Captain Ugly," we cried, as we pushed for the shore in the
+punt.  "Good-night, boy; can't you say something, Captain Gruff?"
+
+At which address Ugly rose up and, putting his forefeet on the larboard
+gunwale, barked three loud, clear notes, and we gave three laughing
+cheers as he returned to his post by the bowsprit.
+
+Before going to bed that night, I went out in the kitchen to put a pair
+of my shoes to dry, and found Clump and Juno, as usual in the evenings,
+smoking and dozing over the fire.
+
+Wondering at the amount of comfort these old folk seemed to find in
+tobacco, I asked Clump why he smoked so much.
+
+"Fur constellation, Massa Bob--fur constellation; dat's ol," he
+answered.
+
+"Oh, that is it, Clump--consolation, eh?  Well, I must get a pipe some
+time and try it," I said.
+
+"No, Massa Bob," joined in Juno, who was knocking out the ashes from her
+pipe on the head of the fire-dog--"no, Massa Bob you'se munno 'moke.
+'Spects, ef you'se do, you find de way tur constollaton, dat ole Clump
+talk of, cum tru much tribble-laison--he! he! he!"
+
+I had to laugh at the old woman's wit.  As for Clump, he rubbed his
+shins and "yaw-ha'd" over his wife's speech for five minutes.
+
+As I was going off to bed, Juno called me back in a hesitating way, and
+said in a low, frightened voice: "Massa Bob, sum-how dis ole woman ees
+'feared 'bout ter'morrow.  You'se gwine sure?"
+
+"Of course, Juno," I replied.  "And what are you afraid of?  I would not
+stay at home for ten pounds."
+
+"Dis chile's sorry--sorry," she continued, "but de Lor' ees my strong
+'an my sheel."  She was speaking very slowly, and had bent over the fire
+to rake the ashes together.  She went on muttering some more of the
+Bible texts she always called on in any perplexity, until a new idea
+flashed to her from some uncovered ember, and she turned quickly,
+laughing in a low, shrill way, "He! he! he! woy'se ole Juno afeer'd?
+He! he! he! 'spects it on'y debbil dat has tole lies to dis poor ole
+nigger when she's 'sleep."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+A MEMORABLE CRUISE COMMENCES.
+
+We had nearly reached our cutter before the sun lifted its yellowish,
+red sphere, with just such an expression as a jolly, fat, old alderman
+accustomed to good cheer might present, on raising his head from the
+folds of a comfortable night's pillow.
+
+It looked about in a dim, bewildered way at first, as if trying to wake
+up and make out what was the matter--that dark, vast, heaving, rolling
+sea, the rocks and capes touched with light, and a great land behind
+them yet dark and undefined; all so quiet too; and the soft, pink mist
+that rolled away in smoke-like clouds--rolled away over the billowy
+surface of the ocean toward the land, and, frightened, perhaps, by that
+red apparition on the eastern horizon, faded from sight, or rose for
+shelter to the sky above.
+
+It was bravely up now; had mastered the situation, dispelled the night.
+The great honest face took a king's expression, and breathing bounty,
+warmth, and courage, blessed the scene it looked upon.
+
+Then how the birds sang out, how sea and land grew beautiful and full of
+voice, how the clouds dressed their ranks and marched on their way.  And
+the irrepressible exclamation came from all our boy lips at once, "How
+glorious!"
+
+Ugly saluted us in a most vociferous manner, continuing his welcome from
+the time we left the shore to the moment we reached the yacht.
+"Behold," said Harry, "our rear-admiral waving his ta--I beg his
+honour's pardon--flag."
+
+Yes--old Ugly kept his tail going in utmost delight, whilst he ran from
+one end to the other of the gunwale, assuring us that all was safe.
+
+Sure enough, everything was in good order, but the supper had not been
+eaten.  It had been pulled out of the after-cabin and inspected--that
+was all.  Now Ugly's supper consisted of two things he could never be
+induced to eat--ham and cold potatoes; and Harry, from mischief--he
+knew, however, that the dog had had a hearty dinner--prepared those
+things purposely, supposing that Ugly's daintiness would fail in a
+twelve hours fast.  But no; there the edibles were untouched.
+
+"Come here, sir," said Harry to Ugly; "now why have you not eaten this
+nice meal, eh?"
+
+Ugly's answer was merely to turn his head one side and look out at the
+sea, as if very much interested in something he saw--so much so as not
+to be able to attend to what Harry asked him.
+
+"You dainty rascal, come along and eat this meal; it is good enough for
+any dog."  And Harry put the despised victuals on another part of the
+deck, and, quite unintentionally, within a foot of the port scuppers.
+"Here, Ugly, eat it, sir, every bit of it."
+
+Ugly's sensitive little spirit could not brook such a public
+mortification; but he was obedient in part.  He approached the pieces
+slowly--in a dignified, contemptuous way--as he would have gone up to a
+cat, and, putting his nose to them, gave a push--away they flew into the
+sea.
+
+Shouts of laughter greeted the act--Harry's the loudest--and he
+completed his attempt at discipline by calling to Ugly, "Come here, thou
+pluckiest and smartest of dogs.  If you won't eat sailors' rations, come
+feast at the officers' mess on the luxuries of the fleet.  How will that
+do, eh, old fellow?" cutting him off, as he spoke, a fat slice of
+mutton.  "Another? well there!  Bread and butter?  Well, there is as
+much as you can eat;" and Ugly stowed it all away, triumph beaming in
+his eyes and wagging from his tail.
+
+"Come, boys, now," said the Captain, "let's get under way.  Cast loose
+the sails, Alfred and Bob.  Drake, stand by to hoist the mainsail.
+Walter, take the helm.  I want you to act as sailing-master this
+morning.  Drake and I will get up the anchor.  Is the mainsail ready for
+hoisting?"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," replied Drake.
+
+"Then up with it.  There--good!"
+
+"Are your halliards all clear there, boys?"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," came from Alf and Bob.
+
+"Hoist the jib, my hearties," cried the Captain, as the anchor came up.
+"Keep her head for the old church tower, Walter.  There--steady,
+steady."
+
+The Captain and Drake now secured the anchor, and the next order given
+was--
+
+"Now, Alf, another pull on your main halliards.  Get them well up.  All
+right?  Make fast."
+
+The Captain lifted his hat and wiped with the bandanna his red forehead.
+Then he shook out a reef in his suspenders, and threw back his coat.
+"By golly! my hearties, we are snug now, ship and cargo; and what an air
+to breathe!  I only wish this was a good ship of twelve hundred tons or
+so, Captain Mugford the skipper, and we were all bound for Calcutta
+together this splendid morning."
+
+"Don't I--don't I," came from each of us in response.
+
+"Now, my mates," called the Captain again, "we'll go about presently,
+when we get abreast of that tanned-sailed fishing-boat there off the
+port bow, and then, Walter, you can head her right out of the harbour.
+Let her go south-east-by-east, and we'll about fetch in ten miles as
+nice a bank for cod and halibut as there is off the coast.  It is a
+small spot to get on nicely, and difficult to drop on often in just the
+right place; but it's no riddle to me, and if this breeze freshens a
+bit, as I think it will with the young flood, you can get out your lines
+in about one hour.  So now let's have breakfast--the little
+rear-admiral, you know, had his long ago."
+
+Yes--and the consequential Ugly was occupying a comfortable seat right
+under the jib, and only turned his head the least bit when he heard the
+Captain's mention of him.
+
+"Keep her full now, Walter, ready to go about.  Let go the jib-sheet,
+Bob; and now, down with your helm, Walter!"
+
+The mainsail flapped twice.  By that time the foresail had filled on the
+other tack.  The cutter went about like a dancer on her heel, and we
+were off on the other tack, standing out of the harbour for the open sea
+ahead.
+
+Then, the breakfast having been got out of the cuddy in the meanwhile,
+and arranged for our onset by Drake, we seized cups, knives and forks,
+and were soon very busy.
+
+What a glorious thing to remember and marvel at, and wish back again, is
+a boy's appetite.  And if any good old fellow is reading, who is not
+ashamed to recall those best of days--boyhood days--who is not ashamed
+to recall them, aye, with pride and smiles, let him think now of the
+suppers after Saturday tramps, of the Christmas and Michaelmas dinners,
+and of meals like that I am describing, when, after two hours in the
+early morning air, bowling along in our cutter, the sea-breeze swelling
+out our lungs as it did the sails, with merry hearts and perfect
+digestions, we found real fun--true animal happiness--in good bread and
+butter, a leg of cold mutton, and a cup of coffee.  And to see the best
+of good skippers--as our dear old salt tute was--let himself down in a
+right angle after that on the deck, his back against the weather-side of
+the mast, and, heaving a sigh of vast internal satisfaction, draw out
+his pipe slowly, as if it was a ceremony too precious to be hurried,
+and, having put it just right in his lips and lighted it, puff the first
+long sweet wreaths of smoke; ah! that was a picture of creature
+happiness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+GOOD SPORT--AN EXCITING SAIL--CAST AWAY.
+
+The absence of Mr Clare was the only drawback to our pleasure that
+morning.  He had told us the evening before that he should probably
+return from his visit the same day, getting home about the time we
+expected to be back--about sundown, which at that date in September was
+at twenty minutes after six.  He said, however, that possibly he might
+remain in Q---town until after Sunday morning service.
+
+When Captain Mugford had completed his smoke, by which time we had a
+fine steady breeze from the south-east, he rose from his luxurious
+position and took Walter's place at the helm, saying--
+
+"Not a permanent removal, Walter, but only until I can put the cutter
+just where I want her for fish.  Fifteen minutes more will do that; so
+you had better go forward to Drake and get the anchor all ready to let
+go.  You other boys can stand by the sails."
+
+The Captain noted carefully the changing colour of the water as we drew
+over some bank, and he took bearings, too, from points on the land we
+had left nearly ten miles astern.  In a few minutes he luffed a bit and
+sang out--
+
+"Down with your foresail!  Get in the jib."
+
+The bowsprit pointed right in the wind's eye, and the boom hung fore and
+aft, the sail empty, as the cutter lost her headway.
+
+"Is that anchor ready?"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" replied Walter and Drake.
+
+"Let go!  About five fathoms, is it?" called the Captain.
+
+"About that!" the boys answered.
+
+"That's just what we want.  Make fast!  Now stow the mainsail, so that
+it won't be in the way of your lines, and fish.  There, that will do!
+Now, all to the lines!  Who'll have the first fish?"
+
+In a minute Drake hauled that up--a cod--and the fun commenced.  Cod and
+bass, and now and then a halibut, as fast as we could bait and pull!
+There was soon a lively flopping in our craft, and now and then a
+dog-fish would take hold, much to our annoyance, for generally he broke
+the hook or line, or else, if we got him in, made such a furious lashing
+about our legs that we had to finish him with a hatchet.
+
+We lay at anchor there until we had had fishing enough.  About two
+o'clock we stopped, having caught, as near as the Captain could
+estimate, between one and two hundred pounds of cod, a dog-fish, and
+eleven sea-bass--not the striped bass, such as we took off the rocks
+with a troll line in rough water: that was the _Labrax lineatus_; but
+the sea-bass, the _Centropristes nigricans_, superior in title, but
+inferior in every other way to the striped bass.
+
+It was a job to pitch the fish together and out of the way, and then
+clean the blood, slime, and wet from our deck and get ready for making
+sail; but after some work it was done, and our lines stowed away.
+
+"Now, boys," said the Captain, "we will have dinner, and get under way
+again.  As the wind has hauled around to the east, we will take our
+course for the north.  I want to show you that shore, it is so bold and
+wild.  With such a stiff wind I reckon we can run up ten miles nearly,
+and then turn about and get home _easily_ before dark.  I say, boys,
+won't Mr Clare wish he had had a hand in catching that haul?"
+
+Having finished the cold dinner with such an appetite as pleasure,
+exercise, and sea air give, we made sail and stood to the northward.
+The breeze was so fresh before long that the Captain told us to take a
+reef in our mainsail.  Walter held the helm, and in little more than an
+hour we were sailing near the grand rugged shore that Captain Mugford
+had wished us to see.  Here and there, in little coves defended by rocky
+sides, were the cottages of fishermen, and then great headlands of
+cavernous stone dashed by the waves.  Again the shore fell to a lower
+level, and pines and other trees clustered together to defy the storms,
+and give pleasure to the eye.  Farther on, the roughness of the coast
+vanished for a few hundred yards to make place for a yellow sandy beach
+where was stretched a long seine.  Opposite that piece of strand, and
+close by our cutter's course stood a small stony island, bearing a
+single invalid old pine, from whose topmost branch a great bald eagle
+rose and hovered over our craft.  Then the shore grew again like an
+impregnable fortification, and made out to a sharp cape, on the point of
+which stood a lonely, snow-white lighthouse.
+
+"There, boys, we must go about now," said the Captain, as we neared the
+cape.  "But see how the wind has fallen.  If it holds on in this way we
+shan't have enough to take us home before night.  Let's see what o'clock
+it is.  That lighthouse is seventeen miles from the point of our own
+cape."
+
+The Captain fumbled away at his waist-band--encircling a rotundity like
+that described of Saint Nicholas--and pulled out his immense gold
+turnip.
+
+"Columbus' compass!  Twenty minutes to five!  Come, Walter, haul in the
+mainsheet, and come up to the wind.  Are you ready to go about?  Well,
+down with the helm then.  I'll tend the jib.  Those boys are so busy
+examining the fish that we will not interrupt them."
+
+"No, sir," I said, "we are ready for anything."
+
+"Oh no, Bob," replied the Captain, "go on with your studies.  There is
+nothing to do just now.  Walter, you may steer by the shore.  But I
+don't like this slackening of the breeze, and it is drawing more to the
+south-west; we shall have it right ahead soon.  The sun looks ugly, too.
+That murky red face foretells a row of some kind."
+
+"I hope that we shall get the _Youth_ safe at her moorings before night
+comes, or a storm either--shall we not?" asked Harry.
+
+"We'll hope so," answered Captain Mugford, who pulled out his pipe and
+filled it hard, continuing, "Who'll hand me out a light from the cuddy?"
+I went in and struck one, and brought him a match, blazing famously.
+"Thank, you," he said.  "Drake--just," (puff puff)--"just shake--oh!
+there goes that light!"  I quickly brought him another--"just shake
+out--that--that--" (puff, puff).  He had it all right now, the smoke
+coming in vast volumes; so he replaced his hat and removed the pipe from
+his teeth for a moment to complete the order--
+
+"Drake, just shake that reef out of the mainsail."
+
+"All right, sir!" said Drake.  I helped him; but in half an hour the
+wind, as the Captain had foretold, was ahead, and not strong enough to
+fill the sails.
+
+Fifteen or sixteen miles we were from home, with every indication that a
+heavy squall was to follow the calm settling down upon us.  The dancing
+white caps of the morning had died away in a quiet, sullen sea, which
+only a land-swell moved.  The sun had gone down to within a half-hour's
+distance of the horizon, shining on the distant western cliffs, whose
+variety, boldness, and ruggedness were magnified in outline and
+intensified in colouring by the heavy, yellowish-red glare which fell on
+them, and the sun's rays shot out in long forks, piercing the dark blue
+of the sea at all points in the western semicircle of our view.  The
+atmosphere had grown warm--very warm for a September afternoon.
+
+We boys felt something portentous in the scene.  The Captain grew
+uncomfortable, too, no longer laughing heartily or joining in our talk.
+He kept his eyes on the sky, and smoked pipe after pipe.
+
+Even Ugly ceased napping beside Walter, and, uttering a whining yawn, as
+if sleepy but uneasy, walked forward to the idle foresail, and stood
+there with extended nose to smell out, if he could, what was wrong.
+
+So we lay for nearly an hour, our only movement being with the outgoing
+tide, the sails flapping with the slow swell of the sea.  But when the
+sun had disappeared the wind commenced to come, first in little puffs,
+now from one quarter and then from another.  The gale would be on us in
+a moment.
+
+The Captain took the helm then, and ordered us to stand by and be ready
+to tend the sails.
+
+"Look out, too, for the swinging of that boom," he said, "and make Ugly
+get out of the way and lie down somewhere."
+
+Ugly, hearing that speech, did not wait for further commands, but stowed
+himself away at the foot of the mast.
+
+Now the wind came in heavier puffs, and then in squalls from the east.
+
+"I hope it will settle there," spoke out the Captain.  "It is coming
+heavier, but I hope steady."
+
+He kept his eyes on all parts of the now lowering sky, and presently
+added--
+
+"Take two reefs in the mainsail and shift the jib!  Get the storm-jib
+up.  Now hook on.  Run it out.  Hoist away."
+
+That was done, no easy matter for novices in a heavy sea, and we flew
+away before the increasing gale.  Fortunately the night was not very
+dark, there being a quarter moon to throw its light through the rifts of
+clouds.
+
+How fast the sea got up!  The wind grew heavier every moment.  The mast
+of our little cutter creaked with each plunge, and the plunges were hard
+and quick.  The scene was truly alarming, and we felt the danger of our
+situation.  To be sure, we were comparatively safe if the gale should
+grow no worse; but it was increasing every moment in a manner that
+threatened in another hour to be too much for us.  There was danger,
+too, that something might be carried away, or that, in the frothy sea
+and uncertain light, we might strike some of the sunken rocks that now
+and then stood off from shore like sentries.  But the _Youth_ leapt
+furiously onward from one mad wave to another, our good Captain steering
+with a strong hand.
+
+The black, broken clouds rolled close to the sea, which seemed striving
+madly to swallow them; but on they flew with the screams of the wind.
+The thin moonlight, streaming unsteadily through the troops of clouds
+across the riven waves, had a ghastly effect--sometimes obscuring,
+sometimes exaggerating the terrors surrounding us.  The shore, a mile to
+leeward, was to our sight only a bristling, indefinite terror; for
+there, where loomed the land we longed for, was the greatest peril--the
+line of fierce breakers that shouted their threats in terrible chorus.
+
+I suppose we boys were all much terrified.  I _quailed_ with dread, for
+it was my first experience of a storm on the water, and its time and
+appearance were so imposing.
+
+One would never have suspected from Captain Mugford's manner that we
+were in any danger.  His face was as calm and his hand as steady as if
+we were having the pleasantest sail imaginable; only the violence with
+which he smoked, ramming fingers full of tobacco into his pipe every few
+minutes, betokened any unusual excitement, but we knew how absorbed he
+was in his charge by his silence.
+
+We were speechless, too, holding on fast to the backstays or gunwale to
+keep our places in the desperate leaps and lurches the gallant little
+craft was making.  Ugly was soon thrown from his station, and, finding
+he could not keep legs or position anywhere unaided, went and ensconced
+himself between our skipper's legs.
+
+Harder, heavier blew the wind, and wilder grew the sea, so that it
+seemed sometimes as if we must go over, and the bowsprit now buried
+itself in every billow.  Then the Captain said to us in a calm, steady
+voice--
+
+"Boys, you must get another reef in the mainsail and lower the foresail.
+Now, be careful and steady about it.  There is no hurry.  Bob, you come
+here; the others can manage that work.  You sit aft out of the way."
+
+I did as directed; and the orders were speedily carried out without
+accident.
+
+Boatswain's Half-Acre Reef, a low rock that stood out at sea, about
+three and a half miles south-east-by-east from our cape, now came in
+sight ahead of us to the windward.  In the spectral light, and beaten on
+by the waves, it looked like some sea monster moving in the water.  As
+we were going we should probably pass close to its lee side in about ten
+minutes, but the wind blew a tempest, and the sea increased so in a few
+minutes that our peril was terrible.  For two hours we had battled--
+though evidently the storm was soon to be the conqueror.
+
+Several seas came aboard in angry haste, and the punt, which had been in
+tow all day, broke loose and was carried away.  Another sea, stronger
+than its fellows, suddenly struck us a tremendous blow.  The cutter
+heeled over, so that the water boiled above the lee gunwale.  The
+assaulting sea, too, broke up and over the weather-side, and drenched us
+all in its cataract.  To increase our terror, a cry came from Alfred,
+who had been tossed from his hold and nearly cast overboard, but he
+caught the backstay as our yet unconquered boat rose from the blow like
+some brave but wounded animal.  The water was several inches deep about
+our feet, and the good _Youth_ had lost half its buoyancy.
+
+Then came the Captain's voice again, steady and strong, but full of
+feeling--
+
+"We'll get through it yet, lads, God protecting us," he sung out.  "But
+all hands must try and do their duty.  You know Nelson's last general
+order--`England expects that every man this day will do his duty.'  That
+same motto carried out has saved many a stout ship and rich cargo, and
+the neglect of it has lost many more.  Now, there's work for all of you.
+Walter, do you rig the pump, and Bob, do you help him, and the rest of
+you set to and bale.  Be smart, now.  There are two skids and a bucket,
+or use your hats.  Anyhow, the boat must be cleared."
+
+He spoke deliberately, not to alarm us, but at the same time we all saw
+that there was no time to be lost.  Walter and I now got the pump to
+work, while the rest set to and baled away with might and main.  I also
+joined them, using my hat as the Captain advised, for Walter could
+easily work the pump by himself.  Still, in spite of the excellent
+steering of the old skipper, the seas came tumbling in over the bows and
+sides also so rapidly that it was hard work for us to keep the boat
+clear.  Besides this, (notwithstanding her name, being an old boat), she
+strained so much that the seams opened and made her leak fearfully.  It
+soon, indeed, became a question--and a very serious one--whether the
+boat could be kept afloat till we should reach our own harbour.  We were
+now laying well up for the cape, though we were making what sailors call
+"very bad weather of it;" but, should the wind shift a little, and come
+more ahead, we might have a dead beat of several hours before us.  We
+saw the skipper looking out anxiously at the reef I have described.  A
+considerable portion, even at the highest tides, was several feet above
+water, and easily accessible.  As the rock also afforded a shelter to
+numerous seafowl, which built their nests in its crevices, it would
+afford some security to a few human beings.  Still, during a gale such
+as was now blowing, the sea washed tumultuously round the rock, and
+rendered the landing--even on the lee side--not only difficult but
+dangerous.  I, for one, did not at all like the condition of the boat;
+still, as the skipper had hitherto said nothing, I did not like to
+propose that we should try to land on the reef.  The old man was silent
+for some time; he again scanned the reef, and then he turned his eyes to
+the distant shore.
+
+"Boys," he said at last, "I wish you not to be alarmed.  The boat may
+very possibly keep above water till we reach the cape, if you can bale
+out the seas as fast as they wash in; but I am bound to tell you that
+there is a risk of our being swamped if we were to meet such a sea as I
+have seen, under like circumstances, come rolling in.  There lies
+Boatswain's Reef--in five minutes we may be safe upon it--but much
+depends on your coolness and courage.  The most difficult and dangerous
+movement will be the leaping on shore.  Do you, Walter, make a rope fast
+round the bits; unreeve the fore halliards, they will suit best, and are
+new and strong.  That will do; secure them well, and coil the rope
+carefully, so that it may run out free of everything.  Now stand with
+the rope in your hand, and as I bring the boat up to the rock, do you
+leap out, and spring up to the upper part, where you will find a jagged
+point or more to which to make it fast.  The rest of you, when the boat
+touches the rock, be ready to spring on shore; but remember, don't
+spring till I tell you.  I'll call each of you by name, and the first on
+shore must stand by to help the others.  There, I can't say more, except
+one word--be steady, and cool, and trust in God."
+
+Walter did as directed, and we all stood watching the skipper's eye,
+that we might obey him directly he gave the word.  It is a most
+important thing to have confidence in a commander.  It is the great
+secret of England's success in most instances.  Although there may be
+many shortcomings, both her soldiers and sailors know that, in nine
+cases out of ten, they will be well and bravely led, and the officers
+know also that they will be thoroughly supported by the men.  If they go
+ahead, there will never be a want of men to follow them, even to the
+cannon's mouth.
+
+On we dashed, amid the boiling, foaming seas.  We had to continue
+pumping and baling as energetically as before.  Had we ceased, but for
+half a minute, it seemed as if the boat would to a certainty go down,
+even before we could reach the rock.  Captain Mugford did not address us
+again, but kept his eyes watching, now the heavy seas which came rolling
+up on the weather bow, and now the black rock towards which we were
+standing.  All the time we kept carefully edging away, till we were
+under the lee of the reef--of that part, however, over which the sea
+broke with great force.  Still, the water was smoother than it had been
+for some time.  We stood on, continuing to bale.
+
+Suddenly the Captain cried out, "Now, lads, to your feet, and be ready
+to spring on shore when I give the word."  We all jumped up.  Walter
+stepped forward and took the rope in his hand, as he had been directed.
+The Captain luffed up, and ran the boat alongside the rock; but there
+was still great way on her, and a tremendous crashing sound showed us
+that she had struck the rock below water.  Walter sprang on shore, Drake
+and Harry followed, and as he leapt to the top of the rock, followed to
+help him make fast the rope round one of its roughest projections.  Ugly
+sprang at the same time, and the rest of us went next--not a moment too
+soon.  I was the last of the boys.  The Captain came close behind me.
+He was securing another rope round the mast, and, with the end of it in
+his hand, he leapt on to the rock.  As he left the deck, the boat seemed
+to glide from under him.  "Haul, boys! haul! all together," he shouted.
+Our united efforts, aided by the surging water, got the fast sinking
+boat on to a rock.  There the boat lay, little better than a wreck; but
+we were safe.  We now saw how anxious our good skipper had been, for,
+taking off his hat, and looking up to heaven, he exclaimed, with a
+fervour I did not expect, "Thank God for His great mercy--they are all
+safe."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+NIGHT ON THE REEF--OUR SALT TUTE'S SERMON.
+
+Our "salt tute" had gone through many a storm at sea; had once escaped,
+the only soul saved out of fifty-three, from a foundered bark, and
+endured five days' suffering, without bread or water, on a raft.  But,
+as I heard him tell Mr Clare afterwards, he had never undergone an
+experience more painful than those two or three hours of gale in our
+little cutter.  It was his affection for us boys; the reflection that he
+had proposed the pleasure sail, and the terrible sense of
+responsibility: those together had tried the old man's heart, head, and
+nerves, as they had never been tried before.
+
+Among the exciting events of that night, one circumstance impressed me
+with astonishment, though it was but small matter perhaps for a boy to
+have noticed at such a time.  It was that the Captain several times
+expressed himself in terms of piety, and even ejaculated that prayer
+when our safety was secured.  We had sometimes heard him swear before
+that, and had always noticed, in contrast to Mr Clare, his indifference
+to any religious service or subject; indeed, the only emotion we had
+ever seen him display with regard to such matters was on the occasion of
+Mr Clare's address after the combat between Drake and Alfred.
+
+It was eight o'clock when we landed on our little rocky island of
+deliverance.  Boatswain's Reef was, as its name described, only half an
+acre in extent--a jagged, stony reef, raised but a few yards at its
+highest point above high-tide mark.
+
+Very cold, somewhat anxious, and much exhausted, we found in a few
+moments the only shelter it afforded--a level place of sand and sea
+grass, about six yards square, defended on the south-west by a miniature
+cliff.  There a lot of seaweed had accumulated, and the driftings of
+many gales collected.  Several barrel staves, a large worm-eaten ship's
+knee, part of a vessel's stern, with all but the letters "Conq"
+obliterated, (the name had probably been _Conqueror_, conquered now, as
+Alfred observed, by old ocean); and many pieces and splinters of spar.
+The Captain made the discovery with us, and immediately suggested that
+we should shelter ourselves there and light a fire.
+
+"Thanks, boys, to the necessities of my pipe, I always have a tinder-box
+in my pockets.  Perhaps there are some not wet.  Here, hunt for them;
+I'll throw off my pea-jacket, for I must go to work and try to save
+something from the poor _Youth_--our grub at least.  I want you to stay
+where you are, out of the storm, and to get a good fire going.  It may
+possibly show them on the cape that we are safe."
+
+"O Captain!" exclaimed Walter, "do let me help you.  I don't want to sit
+here and do nothing but build a fire whilst you are at work and perhaps
+in danger."
+
+"Come along, then, as you are the biggest and strongest--come along,"
+replied the Captain, and away they hurried to where our good old boat
+was groaning on the beach and pounding against rocks with every beat of
+the sea.
+
+She had been driven up too far to get off easily, but with a big hole in
+her bows it seemed probable that she would go to pieces before morning.
+
+The sky was black everywhere.  The roar of wind and waves was
+tremendous.  The spray dashed in sheets, at every blow of the sea, over
+our spot of defence, so that it was difficult to start a fire.  We were
+successful, though, and its light showed the figures of the Captain and
+Walter, by the stranded boat, climbing on board through the froth of the
+surf; pitched up and down as she tossed and bumped; getting down the
+tattered sail and hauling it ashore; jumping on the beach again with
+coils of rope; saving all that could be saved.  And then, the tide
+having risen high, both together left her for the last time, bearing, at
+much risk, the anchor with them, which they fastened in a cleft of the
+rocks, that when our dear old boat--the home of many and many a fine
+time--did break up, something might be left of her.
+
+We could not hear their voices, but saw the gestures for us to come and
+help, and in a few minutes we were all engaged carrying the rescued
+remnants up to our safe place.
+
+Ugly helped.  First he dragged a coil of rope and laid it beside the
+cliff; then he got hold of a loaf of bread which had dropped from among
+the other provisions, and carried that with some trouble but much pride.
+
+In the storm and darkness, only fitfully broken by the firelight, we ate
+our supper under what shelter the low cliff afforded.  Our boyish
+spirits were much subdued and awed by the peril we had passed through
+and the sombre scene about us.
+
+The meal being finished, we made some preparations for the night,
+fastening the sail, by the weight of large stones laid on one edge of
+it, to the top of the rock, and then bringing its other edge, the boom
+side, to the ground and steadying it there with pegs.  In that way we
+constructed a kind of tent, in which we piled a bedding and covering of
+dry seaweed.
+
+The Captain stood by the fire, smoking his pipe and watching our
+arrangements.  When they were completed, and we boys, gratified with our
+success, began to declare our situation "rather jolly," he interrupted
+us somewhat abruptly in this way:--
+
+"You chaps always say your prayers before you sleep, I dare say.  If so,
+you'll not forget them to-night--will you?"
+
+"No, sir," we answered.
+
+"Young shipmates, you remember how Mr Clare talked to you one day in
+the _Clear the Track_--eh?  Well, then, for the first time in nigh forty
+years--think of that, nigh _forty_ years--I said my prayers, the only
+ones I ever said, that my--mo--ther taught me; and somehow they came so
+clear to me that I felt like as if my--mo--ther was kneeling beside me.
+I ran away to sea, like the young fool that I was, when I was eleven
+years old.  It was going on four years before I came back to my old
+home.  I had forgotten my prayers.  I tried hard to remember them, too,
+_then_, and some of the Scripture stories and lessons my--mo--ther used
+to teach me; for she was--gone."
+
+His voice did not tremble, but he spoke very slowly, as if he wanted to
+speak out to us, and yet wished to do it without betraying the deep
+feeling that the events of the evening had intensified.  Each time
+before he spoke the words "my mother," he took the pipe from his mouth
+and hesitated a moment, as if to steady himself.  Somehow the old
+Captain's voice was softer, I thought, than I had ever heard it before--
+it may have been fatigue and the noises of the storm that made it sound
+so.  His face, too, looked to me as if it had lost its hard lines and
+roughness--perhaps the firelight caused that to seem so.  And those
+bold, sharp eyes of his were as gentle as my little sister Aggie's.  He
+continued:--
+
+"Hard times a youngster often has at sea, not in all ships, but in many,
+I tell you, and bad companions on every side.  No gentle looks or kind
+words, but knocks and oaths.  No time to read, and all that; hardly a
+chance to think.  Well, I was a bad one, and worse when I went back
+again, and had my--mo--ther no longer to love me, and no one anywhere in
+the world to care a button for Rowly," (his Christian name was Roland).
+"I was a pretty reckless, hearty, devil-me-care fellow, I tell you.  I
+could rough it and fight my way with the strongest, and never thought
+further ahead than the moment I was living in.  So, for thirty years and
+more I knocked about the world, coming scot-free through a thousand
+dangers.  Yes, and I got ahead all the time and prospered, thinking
+mighty well of myself, my _good luck_, clear head, and tough arm.  I
+never thought of God.  I don't know but that I had almost forgotten that
+there was a God; at any rate, if I thought of Him, it was with doubt and
+indifference.  Yet, boys, in all that time, `He cared for me, upheld me,
+_blessed me_.'"
+
+His words grew hurried and thick, his head was turned so I could not see
+his face, and the old black pipe had fallen from his fingers to the
+ground.  Ugly walked around and snuffed at it in amazement.  But the
+Captain went on:--
+
+"Now I feel it all--_how_ I _feel_ it--since I heard Mr Clare that day.
+Nearly forty years deaf, but I hear God's voice within me _now_, louder
+and louder every day; and what has He done for us to-day?  How He has
+spoken!  Ah! boys, you'll never be the old sinner I have been.
+`Remember _thy_ Creator in the days of thy youth.'  Part of the only
+hymn I can remember, of my mother's, has come again and again to my ear
+to-night--that--
+
+  "`God moves in a mysterious way,
+  His wonders to perform;
+  He plants His footsteps in the sea,
+  And rides upon the storm.'
+
+"I forget the rest, except--
+
+  "`Trust Him for His grace:
+  Behind a frowning Providence
+  He hides a smiling face.'
+
+"Boys! turn in now.  I am on watch, and shall keep the fire going.  Turn
+in, I tell you."
+
+With those last words to finish his talk and order us to bed, his voice
+regained its sailor-like strength and roughness, but it melted again as
+he added--
+
+"My dear old boys, we shall all pray to-night, eh? and from wiser and
+better hearts.  _Thank God_!"
+
+The last things I was conscious of that night were the whistling of the
+wind and the roaring of the waves, and the snapping and fizzing of the
+red embers, thus telling their stories to the storm of the brave ships
+of which they once formed parts.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+UGLY VOLUNTEERS--OUR FRESH TUTE TO THE RESCUE!
+
+  "Poor old Robinson Crusoe! poor old Robinson Crusoe!
+  They made him a coat of an old nanny-goat:
+  I wonder how they could do so!
+  With a ring a ting tang, and a ring a ting tang,
+  Poor old Robinson Crusoe."  _Mother Goose_.
+
+The storm broke before morning, and a clear fresh September day opened
+on us castaways.  There was no exertion of ours that could get us home,
+for our little cutter was a complete wreck, and we had but one of the
+many requisites for constructing a boat or raft--it consisted of the few
+planks and timbers of the wreck of the boat which still held together or
+had been washed upon the beach, and which, if we were not rescued before
+another morning, must be employed in feeding our fire.  All the
+provisions we had taken with us on our day's voyage were consumed,
+except one loaf of bread and two pies, but a sufficient supply of the
+fish had been brought from the cutter to feed us for several meals.  Of
+water--the greatest necessity--there was not a drop on Boatswain's
+Half-Acre.  During the morning, the want of that became a pain, and
+before night any one of us would have given all he possessed for a
+single glass of cold water.  Captain Mugford told us that now, for the
+fourth time in his life, he knew the suffering of thirst.
+
+We must wait to be discovered, to be rescued, and before that we _might
+die_ of thirst, for our island was only a low rock, and vessels going up
+and down channel kept generally too far from the reef to allow us to be
+seen by them on board.  We could see our cape, and even the old house,
+but had no way of making signals, except by the fire at night.
+
+Beautiful as was the day, it was one only of pain and anxiety to us.  Of
+the few sails we saw, not one came within three miles of us.  Where
+could Mr Clare be all this time?
+
+The sea fell so fast that by two o'clock in the afternoon it was smooth
+as a lake.  Harry Higginson and I sat looking at it on a point of the
+reef, with Ugly by our side.  Ugly's tongue hung dry from his mouth, and
+he panted for a drop of water, but he was pained, too, I am sure,
+because of our silence and dejection.  Watching our faces, as if
+wondering what he could do for us, he at length walked down to the
+waterline and looked across to the cape with a long whine.  Then he ran
+back and put his paws on Harry's knee, as if he would have him say
+something.  So Harry patted his head and said, "Yes, old boy, I wish we
+could get there."
+
+He sprang down again and commenced to bark, pointing his nose towards
+the cape.
+
+I called to him, "Don't be a fool, Ugly; your little bark can't reach
+them."
+
+He cried and ran back to Harry, but in a second more, barking like fury,
+he ran to the water and swam off in the direction of our home.
+
+We called to him again and again, entreating and commanding his return;
+but he paid no attention to us, and swam on.  We were filled with sorrow
+and alarm, for surely little Ugly could not swim that distance--over
+three miles.  We called to the Captain and the boys, and in a few
+minutes we were all standing watching the progress of brave Ugly.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+What was going on at the cape all this time?
+
+Mr Clare did not return on Saturday, and as night set in without our
+appearance, Clump and Juno got anxious.  Having, however, great
+confidence in the Captain's care and skill, they were not so much
+alarmed as they might have been, supposing that he, seeing the
+approaching gale, had made some harbour, and that there we should stay
+until the weather changed.  For some reason, both Clump and Juno
+supposed we had gone to the westward.  That shore was broken by several
+bays and small rivers, and eleven miles westward was the fishing-village
+of ---.  Nevertheless, the good old people were somewhat alarmed, and
+sat up all night over their kitchen fire.
+
+By ten o'clock of the next day their fears had grown too troublesome to
+allow further inaction.  Clump pulled over in his punt to the village,
+across the bay.  There he got some sailors to take a boat and go down
+the south coast to look for us, and gathering all the advice and
+surmises he could, (which were not consoling), from seafaring men he
+knew, returned to the cape.
+
+When Juno heard Clump's report, her distress was very great.  As she
+groaned, and wiped her wet, shrivelled eyes with a duster, she said--
+
+"Lor' o' Marsy!  Clump, ef harm's cum ter dem chiles ob Massa
+Tregellin--den--den--you berry me--berry dis ole 'ooman deep."
+
+"Now, toff your mout, June--toff your mout!  Wen I'se done berry you, ou
+yer 'spects gwine 'posit Clump en de bowels ob de arth, ay?  He jist
+stay here and _tink_."--He did not mean _think_, but another word
+commencing with that unpronounceable _s_--"You'se fool, ole 'ooman; when
+you'se begin mittrut de Lor', ay?"
+
+Clump was so frightened himself that he had to talk pretty strong to his
+spouse.
+
+Mr Clare, after morning service in the church at Q---town, where he had
+gone to hear a college friend preach, took advantage of the lovely
+autumn day to walk home, which was about ten miles.  He made his way
+slowly, enjoying every foot of the road, little contemplating the shock
+he was to receive at his journey's end.
+
+He heard Clump and Juno's report without a word, only growing paler and
+paler.  Then he sat down and covered his face, and, after a moment of
+silence, asked the negroes certain questions as to the course they
+supposed us to have taken, as to the storm on the cape, etcetera,
+etcetera.
+
+He started off after that on a hard run for Bath Bay, where he jumped
+into a boat, and, pulling out into the greater bay, rowed with all his
+strength over to the village; but his inquiries there could gain no
+information, so he hired a small schooner-rigged boat and its owner to
+go out with him and hunt us up, or find some trace of our fate.
+
+Mr Clare could not be still whilst the boatman, who had to go up to his
+home first, was getting ready, but ordered him to make all haste and
+call for him off the cape, and then he jumped into his own boat again
+and recrossed to the cape.  But the boatman took a long time in coming,
+Mr Clare walking up and down the cape in the meanwhile, a prey to the
+gloomiest apprehensions.  It was nearly five o'clock before Mr Clare
+saw his boat drawing near.  At the same moment he heard a scampering
+through the short, dry grass behind him, and the wheezing of some animal
+breathing thick and quick.  Turning, he saw, greatly to his surprise,
+Ugly coming towards him as fast as he could run.  Poor little Ugly was
+dripping with water, and completely blown and tired out--so tired that,
+when he had reached Mr Clare's feet, he could only lie down there and
+pant.  Mr Clare knew there was some important reason for Ugly's
+appearing in that manner, and though he did not suspect the exact state
+of the case, yet he lifted him in his arms and got on board the boat,
+which had now hauled in close to the rocks.
+
+"Which way will're go, sir?" asked the grey, gruff boatman.
+
+"Keep down south of the cape, near in shore.  Clump says they went
+west," answered Mr Clare.
+
+Poor Ugly had somewhat recovered by being wrapped up in Mr Clare's warm
+coat, and when he had put his nose into a pail of water that was on
+board, he kept it there until the bucket was empty, much to the surprise
+of both Mr Clare and Phil Grayson, the old boatman.  Further
+strengthened and refreshed by something to eat, Ugly jumped up on the
+bow to see where they were going.
+
+He showed evident signs of disapprobation when he saw the boat steering
+west; running to the stern, he there stretched his nose out to the east,
+and barked furiously.  Mr Clare, thinking from the negroes' assertions
+that he must be on the right track, could not understand Ugly's
+uneasiness.  How he had reached the cape, although it was evident he had
+been in the water somewhere, Mr Clare did not know, nor could he guess,
+of course, whence he had come.  He only hoped that Ugly had left us in
+safety, and had come in some way to get assistance.  It was nearly dark,
+and the wind had gone down with the sun.  Soon the boat lay becalmed.
+Ugly showed an unmistakable disposition to jump overboard, which,
+however, was partly quieted when he saw Mr Clare and old Phil use the
+oars; but when they persevered on the westerly course, Ugly, with an
+angry bark, sprang overboard and swam in an opposite direction.  That
+movement proved to Mr Clare that they were going wrong, so the boat was
+turned and pulled in Ugly's wake until he was overhauled and taken on
+board.  He shook himself, wagged his tail frantically, and kissed the
+hands of both Phil and Mr Clare.  It was but slow progress with the
+oars against the ebb-tide.  In about an hour, however, the first whiffs
+of the night-breeze came to fill the sails, and the oars were put in.
+They had rounded the cape, and old Phil asked again--
+
+"Whar ne-e-ow, Capting--in shore, you think, or straight ahead?"
+
+"Near the shore, I should think, just br--" but Mr Clare's reply was
+interrupted by Ugly's barking.
+
+Skipper Phil put the boat's head to the north-east, to get nearer in
+shore as Mr Clare had said, and--splash!  Ugly was overboard again and
+making for the east.
+
+"You see, Phil," said Mr Clare, "you must get sailing-orders from Ugly,
+not me; and, Phil, I begin to be much encouraged by that dog's actions.
+He does not hesitate, but seems to have something important to do, and
+to feel confidence in his ability to do it."
+
+"That's so, Capting," answered Phil, as, having got the boat about, he
+belayed the sheets and put the other hand to the helm; "he's a clever
+animal, he is.  It seems to me that ar dog understands talk like a
+Christian.  Did you take notice h-e-ow he was overboard as quick as you
+spoke, afore I started a shut?  But whar are we going?--that's what I
+want to know."
+
+"Phil," interrupted Mr Clare, "what light is that flaring up away ahead
+there on your lee bow?"
+
+"By God, I see! the sails hid that--they did," Phil grumbled, and bent
+down to see beneath the sails.  He chuckled some time before he
+answered, and his chuckle grew to a laugh.  "Ha! ha! ha!--that ar light
+is on Boatswain's Reef, just as sure as my name is Phil Grayson.  Mr
+Clare--hurrah!--your boys are safe."
+
+Ugly, who had been lifted on board before that, joined his rejoicing
+bark to the skipper's merriment, and from the reef came a distant
+hallooing.
+
+The flames at the reef grew brighter and higher.  The sparks flashed and
+flew up to the dark sky.  The shouting increased to yells.  The rescuers
+on the schooner answered; and as for Ugly, the hero of our deliverance,
+he was almost frantic with delight.
+
+The first words that were distinguishable from the reef were--
+
+"Is that you, Mr Clare?  Have you any water on board?"
+
+"Yes!" was responded.
+
+"Oh! do hurry, then--we can't stand this any longer!" cried out Harry.
+
+In two hours more as happy a boatload as ever floated was springing
+before a fresh breeze toward the cape.  Long before we touched shore our
+glad halloos had reached the old house, and lifted a heavy weight from
+the hearts of Clump and Juno.
+
+They met us on the rocks, and each one of us had to undergo an embrace
+from their sable excellencies, ay, excellencies indeed, in devotion and
+uprightness such as this world seldom sees surpassed.  Even Captain
+Mugford did not escape the ardour of the welcome; and whilst they hugged
+us the dear old negroes were crying like children, from joy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+EVENINGS ON THE WRECK, WITH A STORY FROM THE CAPTAIN.
+
+The favourite season of girls is, I think, Spring; and of boys, Autumn.
+One is the time of dreams, flowers, and emotions; the other, the period
+of hopes, courage, and accomplishment.
+
+October, the fulness of Autumn, with its cool, clear, bracing air; with
+its gathered crops, rustling leaves, and golden light: October, when
+days of furious storm are succeeded by weeks of hazy sunshine and
+muffled quiet; when the fish are fat but greedy; when quacking seafowl
+and game of every kind tempt the lovers of good sport--
+
+Ah! that is the time for boys.
+
+We fellows gulped it up as the hounds do their meat when distributed to
+them, for by the end of October we should finish our six months at the
+cape.
+
+This dashed our cup of happiness with regret, as the falling leaves and
+low winds moaning of winter touch October with a tint of sadness.  But
+in one case, as in the other, the spice of regret was just what gave
+zest to the enjoyment of our pleasure.
+
+The days being so short, it got to be our habit to improve every one of
+our daylight hours, out of school, in the many sports which invited us,
+and to do our studying in the evenings.  So every night, as soon as
+supper was finished, we repaired with Mr Clare to the schoolroom in the
+old brig.  There would be a wood-fire crackling in the stove, and two
+shaded, bright lamps hanging over the tables.
+
+We took up our studies, and Mr Clare sat by, ready to answer questions
+or give explanations.  When not busied with us he smoked and chatted
+with Captain Mugford, or read the papers and magazines.  Ugly had his
+place on a mat where he could hear and see all that was going on.
+
+Generally, during some portion of the evening, the Captain spread out
+his great red bandanna on his knees, and took a loud-snoring nap.  Every
+movement of our salt tute's was interpreted by some corresponding signal
+of the bandanna handkerchief.  When perplexed, he wiped his forehead
+with it; when amused, it blew a merry peal on his nose; in moments of
+excitement or delight, it was snapped by his side; when sleepy, he
+spread it on his lap; and once, I remember, he suddenly stowed it away--
+when much enraged by an impudent fellow who was shooting on our cape--in
+the stomach of his breeches instead of in the usual hind-pocket of his
+coat.  The intruder seemed to understand the warlike signal, for he
+immediately stopped his insolence and made off.  In fact, the Captain's
+red bandanna was like the Spanish woman's fan--a language in itself.
+
+One evening we all finished our lessons early and drew our stools about
+the stove.  Our salt tute was snoring bass and Ugly treble, so we did
+not disturb their dreams, but talked in low voices to Mr Clare, until,
+whether intentionally or irresistibly I know not, Drake gave a
+tremendous sneeze, so loud and shrill that Ugly sprang to his legs with
+a loud bark, and the Captain's head bounced from his chest and struck
+the back of his chair with a bang.
+
+"Bless my heart!" said the Captain, clutching the handkerchief from his
+knees, and commencing to wipe his head with it.  "Bless my soul, I
+rather think that I must have been napping.  There you are, all laughing
+around the fire, whilst I have been dreaming of--well, never mind--days
+gone by--you may depend on that; but, Ugly, what were your dreams about,
+eh?"
+
+"We should like to hear, though, something about those days gone by,
+Captain," said Mr Clare, suspecting that the worthy old seaman was in
+the vein for story-telling.  "It is a long time since you have spun us a
+yarn, and the boys have been much wishing for one."
+
+"Ay, that we have, Captain," we all sang out together; "we should like
+to hear something about those days gone by which you were dreaming of
+just now.  We are sure from your countenance that there is something
+interesting; come, tell us all about it."
+
+"You'll be disappointed, then.  It's curious, and that is all I can say
+in its favour," answered the skipper; "I was thinking, or dreaming
+rather, of a circumstance which I haven't thought of for many a year
+that I can remember, which occurred during my first voyage.  However,
+I'll undertake to tell it you if, when I've done, Mr Clare will spin
+you one of his yarns.  He can spin one better than I can.  Come, make
+him promise, and I will begin.  If not, I'll shut up my mouth."
+
+On this, of course, we all turned on our fresh water tutor and attacked
+him.  "Come; Mr Clare, do promise us to give us one of your stories.
+Something about your life in America; you saw a good many curious things
+out there in the backwoods, which we should like to hear.  Do promise
+us, now."  Thus appealed to, Mr Clare gave the desired promise; and on
+this the skipper, blowing his nose with his red bandanna, which he
+afterwards placed across his knees, began what I will call:--
+
+                            THE CASTAWAYS.
+                     A TALE OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA.
+
+"Land, ho!  Land, ho!" was shouted one morning, soon after daybreak,
+from the mast-head.  I was on my first voyage to the West Indies, in the
+good ship _Banana_.
+
+"Where away?" asked the captain, whom the sound called out of his berth
+on deck.
+
+"A little on the starboard bow," was the answer.
+
+The ship was kept away towards the point indicated, while the captain,
+with his glass slung on his back, went aloft.  The passengers, of whom I
+forgot to say we had several, and all the crew, were on the lookout,
+wondering what land it could be.  We found, after the captain came below
+and had consulted his chart, that it was a little rock or key to the
+southward of Barbadoes.
+
+"We'll get a nearer look at them, in case any poor fellows may have been
+cast away there.  I have known the survivors of a ship's company remain
+on them for weeks together, and in some instances they have died of
+starvation before relief has reached them."
+
+As we approached the rock all the glasses on board were directed towards
+it, to ascertain if there were signs of human beings there.  The spot
+looked silent and deserted.
+
+"If there are any poor fellows there, how eagerly they will watch our
+approach--how anxious they will be lest we should sail away without
+looking for them," I said to myself.
+
+While these thoughts were passing through my mind, I heard the first
+mate say that he could make out something white on the shore, which he
+took for a tent or a boat's sail.  As we drew nearer it became evident
+that there was a tent, but no human being was stirring that we could
+see.  Nearer still a boat was observed, drawn up on the rocks.  On
+further inspection she was discovered to be a complete wreck.
+Melancholy indeed was the spectacle which told so clearly its own
+story--how the shipwrecked mariners had been cast on the island in their
+boat--how they had gone on waiting for relief, and how at length famine
+had carried them off, one by one, till none remained.  Still our captain
+was not a man to quit the spot after so cursory an inspection.  The
+ship, having got under the lee of the land, was hove to, and a boat was
+lowered.  Charley, another midshipman, or apprentice rather, and I
+formed part of her crew, while Mr Merton, our first officer, went in
+charge of her, accompanied by some of the passengers.
+
+It was a long, low, coral-formed island, with a white beach--a very
+untempting spot for a habitation in that burning climate.  When we
+landed, Mr Merton told us to accompany him, leaving two other men in
+the boat.  We followed close after him, with the boat's stretchers in
+our hands, proceeding along the beach, for the tent we had seen was some
+little distance from where we had landed.  We had got within a hundred
+yards of it, when suddenly part of it was thrown back, and out there
+rushed towards us two figures, whose frantic and threatening gestures
+made us start back with no little surprise, if not with some slight
+degree of apprehension.  They were both tall, gaunt men, their hair was
+long and matted, their eyes were starting out of their heads, and their
+cheeks were hollow and shrivelled.  They looked more like skeletons
+covered with parchment than human beings.  Their clothes were in rags,
+and their large straw hats were in tatters, and, to increase their
+strange appearance, they had covered themselves with long streamers of
+dried seaweed, strings of shells, and wreaths of the feathers of wild
+birds.  Each of them flourished in his hand a piece of timber--a rib,
+apparently, of a boat.
+
+"Who are you, who dare to come and invade our territory?" exclaimed one,
+advancing before the other.  "Away--away--away!  We are monarchs and
+rulers here.  This land is ours, won by our trusty swords and
+battle-axes.  Away, I say! or meet the consequences of your temerity."
+
+I was at first puzzled to know who the people could be, but our mate at
+once comprehended the true state of the case, and with great tact
+endeavoured to calm the strangers instead of irritating them, as many
+would have done.
+
+"Don't be afraid that we are come to interfere with you, or to trespass
+on your territories, most mighty sovereigns, as you undoubtedly are," he
+answered, stopping short and holding up his hands.  "Just hear what I
+have to say.  Lower your weapons, and let us hoist a flag of truce."
+
+"Granted, granted.  Spoke like a sensible man, most worthy ambassadors,"
+exclaimed the person who had hitherto not said anything.  And both,
+lowering their clubs, stood still, gazing inquiringly at us.  I had
+never before seen the effect of a few calm words, and a steady,
+determined look, in tranquillising the fury of madmen.  Such were,
+undoubtedly, these unfortunate occupants of the island.
+
+"Listen, then," continued Mr Merton.  I had never before heard him say
+so much at a time.  "You see yonder ship: she is bound on a far-distant
+trip, and on her way she called here on the chance of finding any one in
+distress who might need aid.  Should no one require it, she will at once
+take her departure.  Can you tell me if any people are residing on your
+island who may wish to leave it?  At all events, you yourselves may have
+letters to send home.  If you will at once get them ready, I will gladly
+be the bearer."
+
+The two unfortunate maniacs looked at each other with a bewildered look.
+The idea of writing home, and not going themselves, seemed to strike
+them forcibly.
+
+"Home!" cried one, in a deep, hollow voice.  "Home! where is that?"
+
+"Old England, I conclude," answered our mate.  "You have many friends
+there who would be glad to see you--father, mother, sisters, wife and
+children; or perhaps one who has long, long been expecting you, and
+mourned for you, and wondered and wondered, till the heart grew sick,
+that you did not come--yet even now faithful, and believing against
+hope, fondly expects your return."
+
+Mr Merton had been skilfully watching the effect of his remarks.  They
+were most successful.  He had touched a chord which had long ceased to
+vibrate.  Again the two madmen looked inquiringly into each other's
+faces.
+
+"Is it possible?" said one, touching his forehead.  "Has all this been
+an hallucination?"
+
+"Norton, I do not longer doubt it," answered the other.  "We have
+conjured up many wild fancies, but the sight of that ship and the sound
+of a countryman's voice have dispelled them.  We are ready to go with
+you, friend."
+
+The person who had last spoken seemed at the first to be less mad than
+his companion.
+
+"I am glad of your decision, gentlemen, and the sooner we get on board
+the better.  But tell me, did you come here alone?  Have you no
+companions?"
+
+"Companions!  Yes, we had.  We frightened them away.  They fled from
+us."
+
+"Where are they now?" asked the mate.
+
+"On the other side of the island," answered the least mad of the
+strangers.  "They dare not approach us.  Perhaps you may find them.
+They will gladly go away.  While you search for them we will prepare for
+our departure."
+
+"Very well, gentlemen, we will return for you," answered Mr Merton, in
+his usual calm tone.  It had a wonderful effect in soothing the
+irritation of the madmen.
+
+We took our way in the direction they pointed across the island.  After
+walking and climbing some way over the uneven ground, we came in sight
+of a hut built of driftwood and pieces of wreck, almost hid from view in
+the sheltered nook of the rock.  No one was moving about it.  Its
+appearance was very sad and desolate.
+
+"Perhaps the unfortunate people are all dead," remarked Charley to me.
+"I think, from what those two strange men down there said, they have not
+seen them for a long time."
+
+We went on, apprehending the worst.  As we got nearer, we hallooed to
+warn anybody who might be there of our coming, so as not to take them by
+surprise.  Again we hallooed, and directly afterwards we saw the head of
+a man appear at an opening in the hut which served as a window, while he
+thrust out of it the muzzle of a musket.
+
+"Hillo, mate! don't fire.  We come as friends," shouted Mr Merton.
+
+The musket was speedily withdrawn, and a man appeared at the door of the
+hut, followed closely by another.  There they both stood, closely
+regarding us with looks of wonder.  As they saw us they called to some
+one inside, and two more men appeared at the door of the hut, stretching
+out their hands towards us.  Their clothes were in rags and tatters, and
+they had a very wretched, starved appearance.
+
+"Are you come to take us from this?" inquired the man we had at first
+seen, in a hollow, cavernous voice.
+
+"I hope so, if you wish to go," answered the mate.
+
+"Go! yes, yes, at once--at once!" shouted the poor wretches, in the same
+hollow tones.  "We thought at first you were two madmen who are living
+on the opposite side of the island."
+
+Mr Merton told them that they need be no longer afraid of the madmen,
+and that as he had no time to remain, they must accompany him at once to
+the boat.
+
+The first speaker, who said that he was the mate of the vessel to which
+the rest belonged, replied that he was afraid none of them would be able
+to walk across the island, as they had scarcely any strength remaining,
+and that he believed a few days more would have finished their miseries.
+
+While Mr Merton and the mate were speaking, the rest beckoned us to
+come into the hut.  Heaps of empty shells and bones of fish showed what
+had been for long their principal food.  Some dried seaweed had served
+as their beds, and a tin saucepan appeared to have been their only
+cooking utensil, while a cask contained a very small supply of water.
+
+From their appearance, I do not think that they could have existed many
+days longer.  The only weapon they had was the musket which had been
+presented at our approach, but the mate confessed that they had not a
+grain of gunpowder, but that he thought by showing it he might frighten
+away the madmen, for whom he mistook us.  They had, consequently, been
+unable to shoot any of the birds which frequented the rock, though they
+had collected some eggs, which had proved a valuable change in their
+diet.  As time pressed, Mr Merton urged them to prepare for their
+departure.  Having collected a few trifling articles, relics of their
+long imprisonment, they declared themselves ready to make the attempt to
+move.  Charley and I helped along the mate, who was the strongest, while
+Mr Merton and the two seamen who had accompanied us assisted the other
+three.  Even as it was, so weak were they, that without the utmost aid
+we could afford them they could not have crossed the island.  They had
+frequently to sit down, and almost cried like children with the pain and
+fatigue they suffered.
+
+Poor fellows! we had not stopped to ask any questions as to the
+particulars of their disaster, but as we went along the mate gave us
+some of the details.  From the way he spoke, I saw that, though a very
+quiet, well-disposed young man, he was not one formed to command his
+fellow-men.  He told us that his name was Jabez Brand.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"I was second mate of the _North Star_, a large brig, bound from
+Honduras to London.  We had a crew of fifteen hands, all told.  Several
+gentlemen also took their passage in the cabin.  Among them were two
+brothers, Messrs. Raymonds, fine, tall, handsome men.  They had made
+their fortunes out in the West Indies, and were returning home, as they
+thought and said, to enjoy their wealth.  How their money had been made
+I do not know, but it was said they were in no ways particular.  Be that
+as it may, they had very pleasant manners, and were very open and free
+in their talk.  One thing I remarked, that they seemed to think that
+they were going to be very great people with all their wealth, when they
+got home.  Some of the other gentlemen, it seemed to me, fought rather
+shy of them, perhaps because, as it was said, they had supplied slave
+vessels with stores, or had had shares in them, which is not unlikely.
+The _North Star_ was an old vessel, though, to look at her, you would
+not have supposed it, for she had been painted up and fitted out so as
+to look as good as new.  She was not the first ship I have seen sent to
+sea which ought to have been sold for firewood.  In our run out we had
+only had fine weather, so she was in no way tried.  On this our return
+trip, we had not long left port when a heavy squall came suddenly off
+the land and carried away our mainmast, and, the wind continuing from
+the same quarter, we were unable to return.  We had managed to rig a
+jury-mast and to continue our voyage, when another gale sprung up, and
+blowing with redoubled fury, the ship began to labour very much in the
+heavy sea which quickly got up.  Still, for a couple of days after this
+gale began, there did not seem to be much cause for apprehension, though
+the ship was making more water than usual.  However, on the evening of
+the third day, finding the pumps not sucking as they ought to have done,
+I went down into the hold, and then, to my dismay, I found that the
+water was already over the ground tier of casks.  I went on deck, and
+quietly told the captain.  He turned pale, for he knew too well what
+sort of a craft we were aboard.  However, he did not show any further
+signs of alarm, but told the first mate to call all hands to man the
+pumps, while he sent me below to tell the passengers that they would be
+required to lend a hand.  We had been driven about, now in one
+direction, now in another, but were some way to the northward of the
+equator.  The wind was at this time, however, blowing strong from the
+north-east, and to let both our pumps work we were obliged to put the
+ship right before it.
+
+"All hands worked with a will, for we knew that our lives depended on
+our exertions.  Even the Messrs. Raymonds set to; but while others were
+calm and collected, they were excited and evidently alarmed.  I thought
+to myself what good will all their wealth be to them if the ship goes
+down?  More than once I went below with a lantern to see if we were
+keeping the water under, but I saw too plainly that, in spite of all we
+were doing, it was gaining on us.  We searched about to try and find out
+where the leak was, but we might as well have tried to stop the holes in
+a sieve.  At midnight the water had risen halfway to the second tier of
+casks.  Still all hands worked on, hoping that by sunrise a sail might
+appear to take us off.  I saw too plainly that the ship was sinking, but
+it was very important to have light, that we might see how best to
+launch the boats.  Day seemed very, very long in coming.  The captain
+tried to cheer the people, but he must have known as well as any on
+board that perhaps none of us might live to see the sun rise over the
+waters.
+
+"All that night we laboured without a moment's rest.  Dawn came, and I
+went to the mast-head to learn if a sail was in sight.  I scarcely
+expected to see one, yet I hoped against hope.  Not a speck could I
+discover on the clearly-defined circle of the horizon.  The old ship was
+now fast settling down, and the sea was making a complete breach over
+her.  To enable the water to run off the decks and to allow us to launch
+the boats, we cut away the stanchions and bulwarks between the fore and
+main rigging.  Such food and water as could be got at was then handed up
+on deck, ready to be placed in the boats.  The crew did not wait the
+captain's orders to lower them.  He seemed unwilling to abandon the ship
+till the last moment.  There was a dinghy stowed in the longboat.  While
+the men were getting it out a sea broke on board, and, dashing it
+against the spars, drove in the starboard bilge, and at the same time
+washed two of the poor fellows overboard.  We then got the stores into
+the longboat.  A warp was next passed over the port bow of the ship
+outside the fore-rigging, and then inboard again through the gangway,
+and secured to the bow of the boat, sufficient slack being left to allow
+her to go astern.  However, just as we were launching the boat a sea
+struck her, and stove in two planks of the port bilge.  I now thought
+that it was all up with us, for though there was the jollyboat, she
+could not carry half the number on board; still it was possible that we
+might get the planks back to their places and stop the leak; so, in
+spite of the accident to her, we managed by great exertions to launch
+her, and I, with some of the crew and passengers, jumped into her with
+buckets and began to bail her out.  Happily, the carpenter was one of
+the party.  Some blankets had been thrown into the boat, which he
+immediately thrust over the leak and stood on them, while he got ready a
+plank and some nails which he had brought with him.  While he and I were
+working away the boat was shipping many seas, in consequence of the
+weight of the warp ahead; I sang out that we must have it shifted, and
+after a light rope had been hove to us and made fast, it was let go.
+Meantime the quarterboat was lowered and several men got into her, but
+their painter was too short, and before they had got their oars into her
+she broke adrift and dropped astern.  The men in her lifted up their
+hands for help; the captain, who was still on deck, hove them an oar,
+and we hove another, but they missed both of them, and before long a sea
+struck the boat and turned her over.  It was very sad, for we could give
+her no help.  We, meantime, in the longboat, were not in a very much
+better condition, for we were shipping a great deal of water.  The
+captain now ordered us to haul up the boat, that the people might get
+into her; but while we were so doing, the roughness of the sea causing a
+sudden jerk on the rope, it parted, and we dropped astern.  Cries of
+despair rose from many of those on board when they saw what had
+occurred.  We instantly got out our oars and endeavoured to pull up to
+the ship, but the quantity of water in her made all our efforts
+unavailing.  To prevent the boat going down we were obliged to turn to
+and bail.  Away we drifted, every moment, increasing our distance from
+the ship, and lessening our hope of being able to return.  There stood
+our late companions on the poop of the sinking ship, some waving to us,
+some shouting and imploring us to return.  Summoned by the captain, we
+saw that they then were endeavouring to form a raft.  The thought that
+the lives of all on board depended mainly on our exertions stimulated us
+once more to attempt to pull up to them.  We got out the oars, and while
+the landsmen bailed we pulled away till the stout ash-sticks almost
+broke.  By shouts and gestures I encouraged the people; every muscle was
+stretched to the utmost--no one spared himself--but our strength could
+not contend with the fearful gale blowing in our teeth.  The seas broke
+over us, and almost swamped the boat; still, if we could but hold our
+own, a lull might come before the ship went down.  But vain were all our
+hopes; even while our eyes were fixed on the brig, her stern for an
+instant lifted up on a foam-crested sea, and then her bow, plunging
+downwards, never rose again.  Most of those who remained on board were
+engulfed with the wreck, but a few, springing overboard before she sank,
+struck out towards us.  It would, indeed, have required a strong swimmer
+to contend with that sea.  One after another the heads of those who
+still floated disappeared beneath the foaming waves, till not one
+remained; the other boats also had disappeared, and we were left alone
+on the waste of waters.  The instant the brig went down a cry arose from
+some in our boat, so piercing, so full of despair, that I thought that
+some relations or dear friends of one of those who had escaped had been
+lost in her; but on looking again I discovered that it had proceeded
+from the two brothers I have spoken of.  They had lost what they had set
+their hearts on--what they valued more than relations and friends--their
+long-hoarded wealth.  There they sat, the picture of blank despair.  I
+knew that it would never do to let the people's minds rest on what had
+occurred, so I cheered them up as best I could, and told them that I
+thought we should very likely be able to reach some port or other in
+four or five days.  On examining our stores, I found that with economy
+they might hold out for nearly two weeks, and before that time I hoped
+we might reach some civilised place.  I was more concerned with the
+state of our boat.  She was originally not a strong one, and, what with
+the injury she received when launched from the sinking ship, and the
+battering she had since got, she had become very leaky.  The crew,
+severely taxed as their strength had been, behaved very well, but two of
+our passengers gave signs of becoming very troublesome.  I did not
+suspect at the time that their minds were going.  At first they were
+very much cast down, but then one of them roused up and began to talk
+very wildly, and at last the other took up the same strain, and off they
+went together.  They insisted on taking command, and having twice as
+much food served out to them as others got.  At one time they wanted the
+boat to be steered to the northward, declaring that we should have no
+difficulty in reaching England.  I had to hide the compass from them,
+and at last they were pacified under the belief that we were going
+there.  Each morning when they woke up they asked how much nearer they
+were to our native land.  There were three other passengers--an old man,
+a lad, and an invalid gentleman.  Consumption had already brought him
+near the grave, still he lasted longer than the other two.  The young
+boy died first; fear had told on his strength; then the old man died.  I
+could not tell exactly where we were.  We were always on the lookout for
+land, or a sail to pick us up.  One morning at daybreak the man who had
+taken my place at the helm roused us up with the cry of `Land! land
+ahead!'
+
+"`Old England--old England!' shouted the madmen, springing up and waving
+their hands.
+
+"`My native land--my own loved home!' cried the invalid, sitting up as
+he awoke and gazing long and anxiously at the rock which rose out of the
+blue water before us.
+
+"Drawing a deep sigh when he discovered his mistake, he sank back into
+his place.  Soon afterwards, finding that he did not stir, I was about
+to raise him up.  There was no need for my so doing.  He had gone to
+that long home whence there is no return.  Those who loved him on earth
+would see him no more.  Some of the people were in a very weak and sad
+condition.  They had been sick on board--scarcely fit for duty.  I knew
+what the land was--the rock we are now on; but, barren as it is, I
+thought it would be better to recruit our strength on shore than to
+attempt to continue our course to the mainland in our present condition.
+I therefore steered for it, and was looking out for a secure spot where
+I might beach the boat, when the madmen, growing impatient, seized the
+tiller and ran her on shore, where she now lies.  We were nearly
+swamped, and everything in the boat was wetted.  She also was so much
+injured that she was totally unfit again to launch, and we had no means
+of repairing her.  However, we set to work to make things as comfortable
+as we could, and the first thing I did was to erect a tent to shelter
+the sick men from the rays of the sun.  Poor fellows, they did not long
+require it.  Three of them very soon died.  We had now only six
+survivors of those who had escaped from the foundering ship.  We were
+all getting weaker and weaker, except the madmen, who seemed to be
+endowed with supernatural strength.  One day I, with the three seamen
+who remained, went out to collect shellfish and birds' eggs.  I carried
+the only musket we had saved, having dried some gunpowder which I had in
+a flask.  We had come back with a supply; but as we approached the tent
+we saw the two madmen standing in front of it, flourishing pieces of
+wood and swearing that we should not enter it, and that they were the
+kings of the country.  Some of our people wanted me to shoot them, but
+that, of course, I would not on any account do.  I could not even say
+that our lives were threatened.  I stopped and tried to reason with the
+poor men.  At last they consented to give us up a saucepan and some of
+the provisions, and we, glad to be rid of their company, resolved to go
+to the other side of the island, and to build ourselves a hut from the
+driftwood which we had seen there in abundance.  This we did, but we all
+have been growing weaker and weaker ever since, and had you not come to
+our rescue I do not think we should have held out much longer."
+
+The mate finished his account--on which, from what he afterwards told
+me, I have somewhat enlarged--just as we got up to the tent.  The
+unhappy madmen stood in front of it waiting for us.  Though excited in
+their looks and wild in their conversation, they seemed perfectly
+prepared to accompany us.  They looked with eyes askant at the mate and
+his three companions, but said nothing to them.
+
+"Well, gentlemen, are you ready to proceed?" exclaimed Mr Brand as we
+got up to them.
+
+"Certainly, noble mariners--certainly," answered one of them.  "But
+stay, we have some freight to accompany us."
+
+And, going into the tent, they dragged out a sea-chest, which appeared
+to be very heavy.  The mate looked surprised, and when they were not
+looking he whispered to me that he did not believe that the chest
+contained anything of value.  He, however, had not an opportunity of
+speaking to Mr Merton, who told them that as soon as he had seen the
+people into the boat he would come back and help them along with their
+chest.  This reply satisfied them, and they sat themselves down
+composedly on the chest while we helped the other poor men into the
+boat.  As soon as this was done, two of our crew were sent back to bring
+along the chest.  Though strong men, they had no little difficulty in
+lifting it; but whether or not it was full of gold, no one could have
+watched over it more jealously than did the two madmen.  It was very
+remarkable how completely they seemed inspired by the same spirit, and
+any phantasy which might enter the head of one was instantly adopted by
+the other.
+
+"There's enough gold there to buy the Indies!" cried Ben Brown, a
+seaman, as he handed in the chest.  "Take care we don't let it
+overboard, mates, or the gentlemen won't forgive us in a hurry."
+
+"It is more than your lives are worth if you do so!" cried the madmen.
+"Be careful--be careful, now."
+
+The boat was loaded, and we pulled away for the ship.  Our captain
+seemed somewhat astonished at the extraordinary appearance of the people
+we brought on board.  The mate and other men of the lost vessel were
+carefully handed up.  They were not heavier than children, but the
+Messrs. Raymonds would not leave the boat till they saw their chest
+hoisted up in safety.  Their first care on reaching the deck was about
+it, and, going aft to the captain, they begged he would be very careful
+where it was stowed.
+
+"Stay!  Before these gentlemen lose sight of it let it be opened, that
+there may be no mistake about its contents," said Mr Merton.
+
+"What, and expose all our hoarded wealth to the eyes of the avaricious
+crew!" they cried out vehemently.  "We shall be robbed and murdered for
+the sake of it, and this chest will be sent where many others have
+gone--to the bottom of the sea."
+
+"You are perfectly safe on board this ship, I trust, gentlemen,"
+remarked our captain.  "Is the chest secured with a key?"
+
+"Whether or not, with our consent never shall it be opened!" exclaimed
+one of the brothers.
+
+"Then remember I can in no way be answerable for what is found in it
+when it is opened," observed the captain.
+
+What new idea came into the heads of the two brothers I do not know, but
+they instantly agreed that the chest should be opened.
+
+"Call the carpenter," said our captain, who wanted to bring the matter
+to a conclusion, and who probably by this time had begun to suspect the
+sad condition of the two gentlemen.
+
+Mr Pincott, the carpenter, and one of his mates came aft, and made
+short work in opening the mysterious chest.  Those who claimed it as
+their property started back with looks of dismay.  It was full to the
+brim of stones and sand and shells.  Again and again they looked at it;
+they rubbed their eyes and brows; they clutched it frantically and
+examined it with intense eagerness; they plunged their hands deep down
+among the rubbish; it was long before they appeared able to convince
+themselves of the reality; over and over again they went through the
+same action.  At last one of them, the most sane of the two, drew
+himself up, and, pointing to the chest, said in a deep, mournful voice--
+
+"Captain, we have been the victims of a strange hallucination, it seems.
+We have not lost sight of that chest since we filled it.  We thought
+that we had stored it with gold and precious stones.  I know how it was.
+Hunger, anxiety, hardships, had turned our brains.  We had lost all--
+all for which we had been so long toiling.  We conjured up this phantasy
+as our consolation.  Is it not so, Jacob?"
+
+The other brother thus addressed shook his head and looked incredulous.
+Once more he applied himself to the examination of the chest.  At last
+he got up, and looked long and fixedly at the other, as if to read the
+thoughts passing through his head.
+
+"You are right, brother Simon," he said, after some time, in a deep,
+low, mournful voice; "it's dross--dross--all dross.  What is it worse
+than what we have been working for?  That's gone--all gone--let this go
+too--down--down to the bottom of the sea."
+
+Again influenced by the same impulse, they dragged the chest to the side
+of the vessel, and with hurried gestures threw the contents with their
+hands over into the sea.  It appeared as if they were trying which could
+heave overboard the greatest quantity in the shortest time.  When they
+had emptied it, they lifted up the chest, and before any one could
+prevent them that also was cast into the sea.
+
+"There perish all memorial of our folly!" exclaimed the one who was
+called Simon.  "We shall have to begin the world anew.  Captain, where
+do you propose landing us?  The sooner we begin the work the better."
+
+The captain told them that must depend on circumstances, but it was
+finally arranged that they were to be put on shore at Barbadoes, where,
+after a long conversation together, they expressed a wish to be landed.
+The scene was a very strange one; the rapid changes of ideas, the
+quickly succeeding impulses, and the extraordinary understanding between
+the two.  We found, however, that they were twins, and had always lived
+together, so that they seemed to have but one mind in common.
+
+I never met an officer who took so much interest in the apprentices--
+indeed, in all the men under him.  He took occasion to speak to me and
+Charley of what had occurred.
+
+"How utterly incapable of affording satisfaction is wealth unless
+honestly obtained and righteously employed!" he remarked.  "We have also
+before us an example of the little reliance which can be placed on
+wealth.  These two poor men have lost theirs and their minds at the same
+time.  Their senses have been mercifully restored to them.  It remains
+to be seen by what means they will attempt to regain their fortunes."
+
+I cannot say that Mr Merton's remarks made any very deep impression on
+me or Charley at the time, though I trust they produced their fruit in
+after years.  Every kindness was shown the two poor men on board, and,
+as far as I could judge, they appeared to have become perfectly sane.
+The same kindness was also shown the mate and the other rescued seamen
+of the lost brig.  We landed the mate and seamen, as well as the two
+brothers, at Bridge Town, in the island of Barbadoes, but from that day
+to this I have never heard a word about them.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Harry Higginson, some time before the Captain's yarn concluded, got up
+from his seat and went to the side of our cabin schoolroom and stood
+there, looking through a dead-light which was open to ventilate the
+room.  He had remembered that it was about the time of the moon's
+rising, and went to watch it come up.  As our salt tute finished, Harry
+turned from his lookout, and, catching my eye, beckoned me to join him,
+and so I did.  Coming beside him, Harry pointed and whispered--for the
+spell of the story still lingered over us, and no one seemed willing to
+break it roughly--
+
+"What do you make of that, Bob?"
+
+The big mellow moon was right before us, and, as one would say, about
+the height of a house, above the eastern horizon.  Its light silvered a
+path on the sea to us--a path that was bounded on one side by the bold,
+dark rocks of the southern shore of the cape, and whose limit to our
+right was as undefined as the undulating waters it was lost in.  Across
+the stretch of moonlight, and a half-mile from the wreck, I saw a lugger
+heading for a point that made the southern side of a snug little cove
+which afterwards got the name of "Smuggler's Cove."  It was the sight of
+that boat at such a time coming towards the shore of our rough cape that
+caused Harry's question to me.
+
+"Singular--very singular," I answered; "we must watch that craft."
+
+Mr Clare called to us, "Boys, what are you whispering about over
+there?"
+
+We wanted to keep watch quietly by ourselves, on the discovery which
+promised some interest, so we did not answer, and Walter at that moment
+called on Mr Clare for his story.
+
+"Well," said Mr Clare, "I promised a story as the only way of getting
+Captain Mugford's.  I bought a great deal cheaply, and must pay now.  In
+common honesty, therefore, I am bound to commence my story.  I am afraid
+that I cannot make it as interesting as Captain Mugford's, inasmuch as
+his was about the sea, while mine relates to the land.  However, I will
+begin."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+MR. CLARE'S STORY.
+
+The year before I left Canada, in the fall, as the autumn is called
+there, I started with a number of other young men in our neighbourhood,
+the county town of C---, to go about seventy-five miles up the Ottawa,
+what is called lumbering.  The winter work is cutting down the trees and
+getting them to the riverbank ready for the spring thaw, when they are
+gathered in rafts and floated down to a seaport.  We went provided for
+six months' severe life in the snowbound forests.  Almost every man,
+too, took his gun or rifle.  The journey to the site of our winter's
+encampment was made on foot; our clothes, provision, stoves, and cooking
+utensils being loaded on an ox-cart that accompanied us, the oxen being
+necessary to haul the timber to the river, as our work extended back.
+
+After a week's journey, we came to the spot selected for our winter's
+work, on a bend of the river, ten miles above where the M--- joins the
+Ottawa.  Of course it is an utterly wild region there, never trodden
+except by hunters, and away beyond the usual search of lumbermen.  I do
+not know why my uncle, the lumber-boss of our expedition, went sixty
+miles beyond ordinary timber-cuttings.  Perhaps it was to procure, on a
+special order, a remarkably fine choice of oak and pine, and that that
+spot had been marked by him in some hunting trip or Indian survey as
+producing the finest timber in the colony.  It was grandly beautiful
+there, where a valley, running at a right angle to the river's course,
+spread out at the bank to a semicircle, containing a hundred acres and
+more of most magnificent trees--a vast forest city, inhabited by immense
+patriarchs, grey-bearded with moss.  Their dignity and stateliness and
+venerable air were most impressive; and when they sang to the strong
+wind, chanting like the Druids of old, even I, who had so long lived in
+a country of forests, was filled with awe.  And we, pigmies of twenty
+and thirty years, had invaded this sanctuary to slay its lords, who
+counted age by centuries, and had lived and reigned here before our
+forefathers first trode the continent.  The quietude and hazy light of
+Indian summer floated through the aisles and arches of the solemn forest
+city as we first saw it--a leaf falling lazily now and then across the
+slanting beams of the setting sun--a startled caribou, on the discovery
+of our approach, hurrying from his favourite haunt with lofty strides.
+All else in the picture before us was silent and motionless.  Our
+winter's home!  Those lofty coverts to be levelled to a bare,
+stump-marked plane!  The old vikings of the primeval forests, to be
+fashioned by the axe, to battle with the fury of the ocean, and
+reverberate with reports of hostile broadsides--to bear the flag of
+their country in peace and commerce, too, to far-distant lands--all as
+triumphantly as they had for ages wrestled only with the winds!
+
+You laugh, Drake; and you are right, for I doubt if many of us thought
+then in that strain.  No, there is not much sentiment among lumbermen,
+and as we regarded those mighty oaks and pines, it was principally with
+speculative calculation as to how many solid feet of prime timber "that
+'ar thicket would yield."
+
+The first task was that of building log-houses--two for our twenty
+hands.  In each was an immense chimney-piece, a cooking-stove, and a bed
+stretching the width of the house on the floor, with a mattress of
+hemlock boughs.  The rifles and shotguns hanging over the wide
+fireplace, and a long pine table and rustic benches, completed the
+furniture of our houses.  The oxen and a company of hounds and mongrels
+had their quarters in a low log barn between the houses.  Our supplies
+of fresh meat for the winter depended upon the good use of the firearms,
+and each week some one man of our number was detailed as hunter.
+
+That winter of 1824 proved the coldest ever remembered in America, but
+the long mild autumn gave no threats of the season that was to succeed
+it.  Before the first snow--which was, I remember, on November 20--our
+little forest colony was comfortably established, and a score of big
+trees laid stretched in the leaves.
+
+In our company were many fine, intelligent young men--all taught
+somewhat, some tolerably well educated.  None had been to college.  I
+little thought at that time of becoming a scholar and a clergyman.  They
+were frank, generous, honourable fellows--honest and brave, but
+perfectly ungodly and reckless of Heaven's displeasure or the life
+hereafter.  After the day's labour, the evening was dissipated in
+card-playing, swearing, and hard drinking.  Many a scene of riot and
+orgies did those log-walls witness.  Such is generally the life in a
+lumber-camp: hard, wholesome labour in the day, loud revelling at night.
+The rough, adventurous life, with no home charm or female influence to
+refine or restrain, is probably the principal reason of such low
+practice of life in the lumberman's camp.
+
+The worst character in our company--and he happened to be in the same
+house with me--was a man of twenty-eight years of age, the son of a
+French father and American mother, and whose mother's grandfather had
+been an Indian warrior of some renown in the early history of our
+province.  In him were united the savageness of the red man, the gaiety
+of the Frenchman, and the shrewdness of the Yankee.  He was a large,
+handsome, and immensely muscular man, with dark complexion, small
+straight features, quick black eyes, and long raven-coloured beard and
+hair that hung down to his shoulders.  Utterly wicked and unprincipled
+as he was, his merriment, off-hand and daring, lent him a certain
+fascination and popularity among us.  He was very witty, his laugh was
+rich and constant, he sang well, and played in a dashing way the violin.
+Every night he found some one to gamble with him.  Every night he drank
+a pint of whisky, and kept the cabin in an uproar.
+
+I greatly disliked this Guyon Vidocq; because he exerted a most baneful
+influence in our company, all of whom except the boss were younger than
+himself.
+
+The best man of our number was John Bar, and a fine Christian,
+cheerful-hearted fellow he was.  Although differing so widely from Guyon
+Vidocq, he, without any effort to do so, and indeed unconsciously,
+disputed the palm of popularity with him.  He was an active, powerful
+man too, and though terribly pockmarked, had a most agreeable
+countenance.  He could troll a pleasant stave, and loved, when off
+hunting or at work with his axe sometimes, to sing one of our
+C--- Sunday hymns, and whenever there was a respectable party in the
+evening, instead of the usual rioting set, he would willingly give them
+"The Fireside at home," "Merrily row, the Boat row," or any of the good
+old-fashioned songs, pure and inspiriting.  Not another of us was so
+cheerful and industrious as John Bar.  Drinking, gambling, or swearing,
+he was never guilty of, and when the evening orgies commenced he
+generally spoke to me, and we went off together to visit at the other
+cabin, or, if they were as bad there, find a warm corner with our
+blankets in the log barn, and there chat away the hours until our
+companions had calmed down and turned into their bunks.  John Bar was
+not a meddler, nor what is contemptuously called, in such reckless
+societies as ours was, "a preacher;" but as he was loyal to his country,
+and loyal to his parents, he was far more loyal to his God.  It would
+madden any _man_ to hear his mother's name profanely used; it made John
+Bar's heart sick--yes, and I have seen him tremble with rage--when the
+name of his Saviour was taken as an oath.  Sometimes then, and at other
+times when the wickedness in camp was rampant, he would break out in
+words of fire--words of fire that soon mingled with, and at last wholly
+changed to, words of love and entreaty.  The others never resented these
+attacks, these living sermons that his overpowering sense of duty and
+outraged feeling made him speak.  They felt the power of his influence,
+and acknowledged his goodness, for it was full of charity.  Even Guyon
+Vidocq resented not John Bar's corrections.  He laughed, uttered another
+oath, and took himself away.  But, alone, his face grew dark and angry,
+for he feared the power of John's goodness, and _hated_ him.
+
+My turn as hunter did not come until December 18, and my companion from
+the other house was an old acquaintance of mine in C---.  We had been
+schoolmates and near neighbours when boys, but since that he had been
+away at sea.  He was a quiet, amiable young man, and one of the
+steadiest in our camp.
+
+Sometimes such an expedition kept the hunters away for the entire week,
+and sometimes they would get separated.  In either case the night's
+shelter was a rough one, and dependent for safety and comfort upon the
+man's ingenuity and hardihood.  But where two could keep together, both
+the labour and danger of those night camps in the snow were lessened.
+As game was killed, it was stowed away in what hunters call a _cache_--
+that is, a hole for hiding and securing what we wished from the
+depredations of wolves and other wild animals; and then the ox-cart,
+when it was practicable--but generally, in winter, a sled drawn by
+hand--was sent out to bring in the game.  My companion, Maine Mallory,
+and I started together up the frozen river; we agreed to keep together,
+if possible, and for that reason I carried a rifle and he a
+double-barrelled shotgun of large bore for throwing buckshot.  We were
+dressed as warmly as our exercise would allow, and had, strapped on our
+backs, blankets and snow-shoes.  Besides which, each one's wallet held
+five pounds of bread, pepper and salt, powder, shot, and bullets, and
+pipe and tobacco, not forgetting the most important of all, flint and
+steel.  We proposed to follow up a branch of the Ottawa to a lake
+south-east of Mount K---, and there hunt with a party of very friendly
+Indians, who had a most comfortable camp in a spot near the lake.  They
+were collecting winter skins to send down by us in the spring for sale
+in Montreal.  Our first day's journey was about twenty miles on the hard
+frozen river, covered with a crust of snow so stiff as to render
+snow-shoes unnecessary; but it was hard work, for the weather was
+bitterly cold.  We shot--that is, Maine Mallory did--a couple of
+partridges and a rabbit for our suppers, and halted early in a hemlock
+wood, where there was a northerly shelter of rocks; indeed, a crevice in
+the rocks was almost a cave for us, a cave where we gathered quantities
+of hemlock for bedding, and built at its entrance a huge fire, which, by
+night--when we had cut wood enough to last until morning, and had cooked
+and eaten our game--had made a deep hot bed of ashes.  It was so cold,
+though, that we feared to sleep much; each took a turn at napping whilst
+the other fed the fire.  The wood was as quiet as the grave; not a
+breath of wind; no night-bird nor prowling animal; nothing but the fine
+crackling of the cold.  When I watched, I almost _wished_ to see a wolf
+or bear--something to come in on the ghostly, silvered circle that the
+firelight illumined; something to start my congealing blood with a roar
+or spring.  In the morning we took to the river course again, and went
+on, but resolved to try as hard as we could to reach the Indians' camp
+before another night.  It was twenty-seven miles, we calculated, but we
+did it; and about nine o'clock heard the yelping of the Indian dogs that
+sounded our approach while we were yet half a mile from the camp.  We
+knew the five Indians there; two came out to learn who drew near.  Worn
+out and benumbed with cold, we gladly gave ourselves into their hands to
+be warmed and fed.  They were well provided against severe cold, and
+soon made us comfortable; but we were too wearied the next day to do any
+hunting.
+
+The Indians said the weather was growing colder every day, and the
+head-man, a middle-aged chief, called Ollabearqui, or Trick the Bear,
+told with an ominous grunt, that when the cold "grow bigger and bigger
+and the winds stay asleep, then Ollabearqui is afraid."
+
+On the second morning of our stay among the Indians four of us went out
+after moose.  Two, Mallory and an Indian, were to go around a mountain
+to the eastward, and Ollabearqui and I were to follow a valley which
+would bring us to the foot of the same mountain on the farther side,
+where we agreed to meet the others.  A large, gaunt, savage-faced hound
+followed my Indian companion.  He and I had each a rifle.  We went
+quickly and silently through the white-clothed forests for about four
+miles.  At length, where the small fall of the valley stream was held in
+great ice-shackles by the severe cold, and only a little pool of six
+inches diameter kept alive just beneath the icicles, we came out of the
+woods to a rocky, bushy foot and projection of the bare, stone-marked
+mountain.  We had advanced to follow its base a short distance when my
+Indian companion, who had grown more careful and earnest lately, turned
+suddenly one side to a stiffly frozen covert of low bushes.  The dog,
+before this most dull and dejected in his walk at his master's heels,
+now sprang ahead and into the bushes.  In a moment he came out again
+with his nose close to the snow, and as he emerged raised his head and
+gave one short, fierce howl.  Ollabearqui spoke to him in the Indian
+tongue, and the dog renewed his search, going back again to the little
+spring.  The Indian at the same time pointed to the ground for me to see
+a track, but no mark of any kind was visible to my eye--not a scratch or
+impression on the hard snow-crust.  Now the dog left the trees again and
+led us up the steep, rough side of the mountain--a most difficult path
+to climb, frozen as it was.  One hundred and fifty feet or more up, the
+dog stopped before a mass of wildly piled rocks, and there barked loudly
+and angrily.  We reached the spot, Ollabearqui some minutes before me,
+and discovered the narrow mouth of a cavern, at which the hound was
+furiously digging.  The Indian cocked his rifle, saying, "Panther!  Look
+out!"  In a few moments the dog had made the hole big enough to admit
+his head and fore paws, and he attempted to crawl in, but at the same
+moment we heard a rumbling growl, like an infuriated cat's, but twenty
+times as strong, and the dog came out with a deep gash on the side of
+his head, cutting the mouth back a couple of inches.  Again his master
+ordered him in.  This time he entered entirely, and then we listened to
+the furious noises of the two beasts, in a desperate struggle evidently.
+In ten minutes the commotion ceased, but the hound did not return.  I
+peered into the cavern, but could see nothing.  As I rose to my feet
+after the attempt, I saw Ollabearqui, who had jumped to a point somewhat
+above the cavern's entrance, with his rifle at his shoulder.  I looked
+where it pointed, and saw a tremendous panther-cat springing up the
+mountain-side--it had probably crawled out from some other opening of
+the cave.  At the same moment I heard a report, and saw the beast roll
+forward on its breast, but as quick as a flash it rose again and dashed
+at the shooter.  It was all done in a second, but I could see
+Ollabearqui trying to draw his knife.  The panther struck him, and he
+lost his footing and rolled backwards from the ledge on which he stood;
+the panther saved itself from the fall, but bounded back, from the mere
+force of the spring, I suppose, to the other side of the rock.  The
+savage beast was not more than twelve yards from me, but seemed to be
+unconscious of my presence.  Stunned by the heavy fall, Ollabearqui did
+not rise, and I saw the panther crawl around the ledge to spring on his
+prostrate foe.  I brought up my rifle, and took deliberate aim at the
+animal's shoulder.  I fired.  The panther made one tremendous leap, and
+fell with a dying yell on Ollabearqui's breast.  I ran up, and, as I
+supposed, found the Indian only bruised and stunned by his tumble.  As I
+removed the dead beast from his body, Ollabearqui grunted and uttered a
+laconic "Good!"  He then rose somewhat lamely, and he and I set about
+digging at the cave.  Soon we managed to pull out the dog, which was
+dead, and then, pushing the panther's corpse into the cavern, we stopped
+up both ends with heavy stones and went on, descending to a track
+through the forest again.
+
+The luck was all mine that day, for when we had nearly reached the point
+where we were to meet our fellow-hunters, we heard, at a long distance
+beyond, a noise that the Maine hunter knows well--a dull, clacking
+noise, like the regular blows in a blacksmith's shop ever so far away.
+It was the trot of a moose.  When at a slow pace they always strike
+their hoofs together in that way, as a horse overreaches.  We drew
+behind some large trees, and, after ten minutes of anxious waiting,
+discerned a very large bull moose coming on a waddling trot towards us.
+He had probably been started by our companions, for he had his ears
+pointed back, and turned his neck every few minutes as if to catch some
+sound behind.  He passed near Ollabearqui first, at about eighty yards.
+There was only a click!  Ollabearqui's rifle had snapped.  The moose,
+alarmed by the noise, increased his pace greatly, but came directly
+towards me, so that when I pulled trigger he was not farther off than
+twenty-five feet.  He fell dead, a bullet right through his heart.  My
+companion was not envious because of my good fortune.  He scolded the
+erring rifle in his own language, and then said to me, "Good! good!  You
+white-man very big shoot--ugh!"  We joined Mallory and the other Indian
+soon after.  They had only killed a fox.  Together we made two
+sled-drags of the thickest, heaviest hemlock boughs, and loading the
+game--the panther-cat and fox on one sled, and the moose on the other--
+pulled them to the Indian camp.
+
+The weather was too bitterly cold for hunting.  Even the wild animals
+seemed not to go about any more than their wants required.  So Mallory
+and I decided to buy some more meat from the Indians, and get them to go
+with us back to our lumbering station and help to carry the game on
+hand-sleds, which we could do with comparative ease on the river.  The
+bargain was made, and Ollabearqui and two other Indians started with us
+the next morning, that we might reach our camp on the twenty-fourth, or
+on Christmas morning.  No doubt the hope of getting whisky from our men
+induced the Indians to assent so readily to the proposition.  The sled
+enabled us to take plenty of heavy furs and blankets for protection
+against the intense cold.  Mallory and I also made a gallon of strong
+coffee before leaving the Indian camp; that we were able to heat three
+or four times a day, and would prove the greatest ally against the cold.
+
+We made a long march the first day--nearly thirty miles--but suffered
+greatly from the unusually severe weather; and if our red friends had
+not taken us to an Indian mound to pass the night--which we used as a
+hut, packing all our furs against its stone sides and keeping up an
+immense fire in the centre, the smoke escaping where we removed a stone
+on the top--and had we not had the coffee to heat and drink continually,
+I really believe we should all have been frozen to death that terrible
+night.  As it was, I remember it as the most painful and comfortless
+night I ever passed.
+
+The morning came, and we could stir about; but the sun seemed to give no
+warmth, and a light wind was blowing to make the cold more searching.
+For some reason I could not explain to myself, I felt strangely anxious
+to get home.  In the fitful naps I had caught during the night I had
+suffered from most painful dreams; but all I could remember of them were
+the faces of Guyon Vidocq and John Bar, and no sight of the camp or of
+the other men, only heaps of cinders where the log-houses stood.  As
+soon as we had had our breakfast I urged my companions to get under way
+quickly.  To my astonishment the Indians answered, "Us no go--us go
+back--so cold, ugh!--pipe of the Great Spirit gone out--us go back!"  To
+our questionings and urgings they only grunted, shook their heads, and
+answered as before.  So all Mallory and I could do was to let the
+fellows take their way.  We packed the game in the stone mound, and
+piled stones and brushwood against its entrance and smoke-hole; and then
+with our guns, and the jug of what was left of the coffee on a sling
+between us, we started on our way.
+
+That day's journey is a distressing remembrance.  Despite the cold, we
+advanced briskly enough until noon.  Then the wind grew stronger, whilst
+we got weak from the exposure.  The cold increased.  A numbness of mind
+and body was creeping over us, and our limbs were heavy to move.  At
+about three we stopped, and in what shelter we could find, built a great
+fire; and heating the coffee as hot as we could swallow it, drank nearly
+all that remained, and ate a dinner.  That strengthened and warmed us up
+enough to help us along until sunset.  We were then only four or five
+miles from camp; but had not the wind gone down with the sun, we must
+have perished before reaching home, for from that time our sufferings
+increased, and both of us grew drowsy.  Several times Mallory's halting
+steps stopped entirely, and he would have gone into the fatal sleep
+which precedes death from freezing, had I not shaken him and pushed and
+urged him.  To me it was like walking in a sleep.
+
+I dragged along almost unconsciously, and yet knowing enough to keep the
+river track and move my legs.  The fact that Mallory was nearer death
+than I--which was shown by his constant attempts to lie down--kept me
+up.  The sense of responsibility aroused my mind.  I would implore him
+to try to walk for a little while longer, and then push him along again.
+About eight o'clock I got a fire going again, and made Mallory drink,
+the last drop.  I told him we were not more than half a mile from the
+cabins--that he must rouse up now, and strive with me to reach our
+friends.  "Was he willing to die," I asked, "just as we were on the
+threshold of safety?"  The coffee helped him a little, but I had had
+none, so in that last struggle he was as strong as I.  That half-mile
+was only accomplished after an hour's walking, and in every minute of
+that hour I felt that I could not make another effort.
+
+At length we staggered to the door of Maine Mallory's cabin, and were
+_saved_!  John Bar, who was in there, a refugee from the Christmas Eve
+frolic in our own cabin, rubbed my limbs, and poured cup after cup of
+strong coffee down my throat, and, when I was sufficiently recovered,
+gave me a good supper.  The same was done for Mallory.  But even in the
+cabin, with two immense fires and warm clothing, it was difficult to
+keep warm.  The water in the drinking pail, four feet from the stove,
+was one mass of ice.  Outside, that terrible night, the thermometer in
+Montreal, I heard afterwards, fell to 23 degrees below zero.  With us
+there was no thermometer to mark the temperature, but it must have been
+lower.
+
+Half of the gang of my log-house, including John Bar, were spending the
+evening where I had sought shelter, too wearied to go a hundred yards
+farther to my own quarters.  The other five, one of whom was Guyon
+Vidocq, were having a regular drinking and gambling bout in the other
+cabin.  We heard their yells from time to time.  At about eleven o'clock
+John Bar left us to seek his bed.  I doubted if he would find his bed
+very agreeable amid such an orgy as was reported to be going on under
+the other roof; so I, thoroughly enjoying the bright fire and new life
+after the exposure of the last few days, lingered a while longer, though
+utterly wearied, and answered the questions about our hunt.  Maine
+Mallory had turned into bed long ago.  But when my watch showed it was
+twelve, I got up to seek a night's sleep.
+
+As I stepped into the intensely cold air, I was actually startled by the
+solemnity and beauty of the scene; for the moon had risen since my
+return to camp, and flooded the winter scene in the most glorious
+radiance.  The gigantic trees were magnified in the pure, clear light,
+and their dark shadows stretched far on the glistening snow.  Here and
+there were the fallen timbers mounded over by drifts.  Beyond, the white
+mountains faded away to the pale sky.  Not a sound, not a murmur of
+wind, not a voice to break the awful stillness.
+
+With great thankfulness for my deliverance from the stark death that had
+been so near me all day, I looked up to heaven and remembered the
+blessed birth eighteen centuries ago when Jesus Christ came to the earth
+as a little babe.
+
+Turning my steps to the other log-house, I wondered to see no light, and
+was surprised, too, that the riot there had ceased by midnight.  As I
+walked the hundred yards, the song of the heavenly hosts of old sounded
+in my heart: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
+toward men!"
+
+Drawing near the cabin, I was amazed to see the door stretched wide
+open, and no light within.  Instantly a dark foreboding fell upon me,
+and I remembered the fearful visions of the night before.  What could it
+be that I was to encounter?  I ran to the open door, and entered.  No
+fire! only those few dull ashes.  What did it mean?  "Boys," I cried,
+"boys, where are you?"  No reply.  "Boys!  Langdon!  Vidocq!  Bar!" and
+there came from near me a stifled answer, as if the speaker was but half
+awake.  Trembling violently, I struck a match, and beheld John Bar,
+lying almost at my feet in a bundle of furs, and a pool of blood by him,
+and four other figures in everyday garments, without any other covering,
+stretched in different attitudes on the floor--sleeping, I thought.
+Yes, they were sleeping, but in death.  Where they had fallen in drunken
+stupor the ice-breath of Death had stiffened them for his own.
+
+"Is that you, Clare?  Thank God!  I am bleeding and freezing to death."
+
+"Who harmed you, Bar?  Tell me first--Vidocq?  I thought so.  In a
+second we'll help you."
+
+Quicker than I can write it, I had run to the other cabin, aroused the
+inmates, and we had all reached the fatal cabin.
+
+Some of us carefully removed Bar to the second house, whilst others
+chafed the bodies on the floor and poured warm drinks into their mouths
+to revive the spark of life, if it yet lingered.  But they were frozen
+to death.  The log-cabin in which my companions and I had lived for
+three months was now the lumberman's dead-house.  There the four bodies
+were to rest until they could be moved to their graves.  The next
+morning Guyon Vidocq's body was laid beside those of his companions.  He
+had been found stretched dead on the riverbank.
+
+Such was our Christmas.
+
+It appeared that when John Bar had gone to his cabin he found four of
+the inmates lying drunk on the floor, the fires expiring, and Guyon
+Vidocq in a delirium of intoxication pulling everything to pieces--
+table, benches, etcetera--to pile them in the corner, and, then, as he
+said, light a real Christmas bonfire.  John Bar immediately saw the
+danger that the poor creatures on the floor were in, and whilst he tried
+to get fires going in the stove and chimney-place as quickly as
+possible, he also exerted his influence to soothe Guyon Vidocq and make
+him cease his crazy work.  But the presence of Bar seemed to madden
+Vidocq immediately.  From the time the former entered the house, Vidocq
+cursed him with every vile oath his drunken lips could frame, and, when
+Bar attempted remonstrance and command, the infuriated maniac suddenly
+caught up a table knife, and plunged it in his opponent's side.  Then
+with a yell Vidocq rushed from the house, leaving the door thrown back
+for the deadly cold to enter and complete his work.  John Bar said that
+he fell when the knife struck him; that he had strength to crawl to a
+pile of furs and blankets; that he even tried to cover his companions,
+but could not; that he called for help as long as he had voice; and
+that, when I entered, an hour after the assault, he had lost all
+consciousness.  The bleeding had ceased, but the sleep of the frozen was
+falling on him.
+
+Those events of Christmas Day broke up the lumber-camp.
+
+John Bar was not dangerously wounded, and when we were able to carry him
+on a sled to the nearest settlement he quickly recovered.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"And now, boys, you have had your stories, so let's off to bed.  Captain
+Mugford, Ugly has gone to sleep over mine.  He prefers sea narratives."
+
+But Ugly heard his name, and broke off in the middle of a snore to come
+and put his paws apologetically on Mr Clare's knee.
+
+The sail Harry and I had watched disappeared behind the point of rocks
+soon after Mr Clare commenced his story, and while waiting anxiously
+for her reappearance we listened with much interest to Mr Clare; and as
+he was finishing she came out again and stood to the south-west.
+Determined to investigate the mystery ourselves, we said nothing to the
+others.  By the time we reached the deck to take our way homeward the
+little sail was hardly distinguishable.  As no one noticed it, Harry and
+I went to bed, partners in a secret full of romance to us.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+AN EXCITING DISCOVERY--THE COVE WINS A NAME.
+
+The next morning, at breakfast, Walter proposed that he and Harry
+Higginson should, after school, go down to the neck and shoot ducks, for
+Clump had reported that he had seen several flying over the cape.  Our
+salt tute was at the table, and Harry, in reply, turned to him and
+said--
+
+"Captain, won't you take my gun this afternoon and go with Walter in my
+place?  Bob and I have a little secret service to attend to, which can't
+be postponed; so will you shoot the ducks for me?"
+
+"No, Harry," the Captain replied, "I shall not think of shooting here,
+where we have the hunter of the Ottawa--the companion of Ollabearqui,
+the slayer of moose and panther-cats--ha! ha!  Eh, Mr Clare?"
+
+"Well, Captain Mugford, I will accept your kind offer, as I should like
+very much to have a few hours' shooting with Walter.  I shall try it;
+but a fowling-piece and birds on the wing are different things from a
+rifle and running game as large as those I used to practise on, and I
+imagine that Walter will not commend me as the Indian did," was Mr
+Clare's answer.
+
+After the morning lessons and dinner were over, Harry and I stole off
+together to make an investigation of last night's mystery.  We took our
+way to the cove, which was soon to win a name.  Although but
+three-quarters of a mile from our house, that part of the cape about the
+cove was the roughest and most inaccessible quarter in our possessions.
+I do not know that any of us ever climbed down to the water there
+before.  The attractions in every other direction of fishing, bathing,
+shooting, and boating were so numerous that we had not carried our
+explorations in that direction.  You may possibly remember there are
+places, sometimes within little more than a stone's-throw of your house,
+with which you never think of making acquaintance.  Just such a place
+was the cove.  It did not invite us particularly.  It was not on the
+route of any of our pleasure expeditions, and, as I have said, there
+were points of interest in every other direction.  But just above the
+cove was a high knob-shaped piece of grass and shrubs, dotted with many
+slabs of sharp stones that stood up like tombstones, and made the knoll
+look so much like a grave yard that we used to call it "our cemetery."
+There the sheep liked to feed just before night.  It was a favourite
+spot, where they often came for their evening bite.
+
+We crossed that, and commenced a scramble down a jagged, rocky declivity
+almost perpendicular.  It reminded us of the cliffs in the islands of
+Orkney and Shetland, pictures of which, with the men suspended by ropes
+getting eggs from the nests that fill the crevices, have interested
+every boy in his geography book.  With bruised hands and knees, and
+rather tattered trousers, we reached a ledge just above the high-tide
+mark.  The cove was a perfect harbour.  A boat there would be defended
+from every gale but a south-wester, and partly from that, whilst it
+would also be completely hidden unless from a boat right off the
+entrance of the cove, or unless some one peered over the dangerous cliff
+above; and what would one think of looking for in there?  But we found
+enough to excite our astonishment.  First there were a strand of rope
+and an oar on the narrow ledge, which we followed a couple of yards, and
+then saw an opening between two immense strata of stone.  We looked in,
+and a ray of light that came through the fissure at the other extremity
+showed us a number of kegs, several bales of goods, sails, numerous
+coils of rope, and various other articles.  We climbed in, and found
+also a rusty flintlock musket, standing between two barrels.  If not as
+much frightened, we were as much astonished as Robinson Crusoe, when he
+discovered in the sand the print of a human foot.
+
+As hastily as the difficulties would allow, we climbed up the rocks, and
+hurried towards the house, talking eagerly with each other while we ran
+as to what those kegs and bales might contain.  Had they been hidden
+there by smugglers, or by whom?  Were they now our property?  What was
+to be the result?
+
+Out of breath we reached the house, to find for our audience only
+Captain Mugford.  He was reading in the sitting-room, and put down his
+book to hear our exciting revelation.  When we had told him all, he
+asked us not to go to the cove again, until Mr Clare and he had had
+time to act on the information we had given, and told us to caution the
+other boys in the same way if we met them before he did.  "And now,"
+said he, "I will go out and meet Mr Clare and Walter--down on the neck,
+are they not?  I have no doubt that the cave is the storehouse of
+smugglers."
+
+"Smugglers!" we exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," he answered, pulling on the pea-jacket that always came off in
+the house, and stowing his pipe in the breast-pocket.  "Yes, smugglers,
+good-for-nothing scoundrels! who enjoy the good laws of the country, and
+all the advantages which a settled Government and established
+institutions give them, and yet play all sorts of tricks to avoid paying
+the required taxes to support that Government; while they do their best
+to prevent honest, straightforward-dealing traders from gaining a
+livelihood.  Then, see to what an expense they put the country to keep
+up an army of coastguard men and a fleet of revenue vessels.  There's
+the _Hind_ sloop of war, with a crew of a hundred and twenty men, and
+some fifty cutters, large and small, with crews of from fifteen to forty
+men, on this south coast alone.  If it wasn't for these idle rascals of
+smugglers, these men might be manning England's fleets, or navigating
+her merchantmen to bring back to her shores the wealth which makes her
+great and powerful.  People talk of the Government paying for all this.
+Silly dolts that they are!  It is not the Government pays; it is they
+who pay out of their own pockets; and when they encourage smugglers,
+which they too often do, they are just increasing the amount of their
+own taxes; and if they don't feel the increase much themselves, they are
+cheating their neighbours, though they have the impudence to call
+themselves honest men.  I have no patience with those who encourage
+smugglers, and would transport every smuggler who is caught to Botany
+Bay, and still think the fate too good for him."
+
+Having thus delivered himself, our worthy nautical instructor strode out
+to meet our fresh tute.
+
+We took the news to Clump and Juno, who received it in mingled terror
+and amazement; and then we ran to find Drake and Alf, and pour it out to
+them.
+
+Well, we had frequently heard about the doings of smugglers, but to have
+them burrowing on our cape, and be in a plot for their overthrow, were
+better than volumes of "Flying Dutchmen," "Pirates of the Gulf,"
+"Gulliver's Travels," "Roderick Randoms," or even possibly of "Robinson
+Crusoes," and all other such made-up stories.  Here they were fresh; we
+had watched their boat the night before; we had just come from their
+cave; and there was plenty ahead to imagine.
+
+"Hurrah for our cape!" said Harry; "was there ever a jollier place for
+fun?"
+
+Those days were palmy times for smugglers.  High duties, in order to
+raise a revenue for carrying on the wars in which England had been
+engaged, had been placed on nearly all foreign articles.  Wines,
+spirits, tobacco, silks, laces, ribbons, and indeed a vast number of
+other manufactures, were taxed more than cent per cent on their value,
+and some, if I recollect rightly, two or three hundred per cent.  In
+fact, the high duties acted as an encouragement to smugglers, foreigners
+as well as Englishmen, and the whole coast swarmed with their luggers
+and other craft.  Sometimes large armed cutters were employed, and their
+bold crews did not hesitate to defend themselves if attacked by revenue
+vessels, and sometimes came off the victors.  The most disgraceful
+circumstance connected with these transactions was, that there were
+large mercantile houses in London who in some instances actually
+employed the smugglers, and in others gave them direct encouragement by
+receiving the silks and ribbons and laces, and other goods of that
+description, and disposing of them openly as if they had paid duty.
+Here, were men of wealth, and intelligence, and education, for the lust
+of gain inducing their fellow-men to commit a serious crime.  They had
+relays of fleet horses, with light carts and wagons, running regularly
+to the coast, in which the smuggled goods were conveyed up to London.
+They bribed, when they could, the revenue men, and they had spies in
+every direction to give notice of the approach of those whom they could
+not bribe.  They had lookout men on the watch for the approach of an
+expected smuggling vessel, and spots-men to select he best place on
+which she could run her cargo.  They had also large parties on the
+beach, frequently strongly armed, to assist in landing the goods and to
+carry them up to the carts, or to the caves and other hiding-places,
+where they were stored when the carts were not in readiness.  Every
+stratagem and other device was employed to draw the revenue men and
+military away from the spot where it was proposed to run a cargo.
+Sometimes a few goods, or bales of rubbish to look like goods, were
+landed in a particular spot, and allowed to fall into the hands of the
+coast guard, while the real cargo was being landed some miles away and
+rapidly conveyed up to London.  When hard-pressed by a revenue vessel,
+if of a force too great to render fighting hopeless, the smuggling craft
+would throw the whole of her cargo overboard, so that when overtaken
+nothing contraband might be found in her.  When the smugglers' cargo
+consisted of spirits, under such circumstances the casks, heavily
+weighted, were frequently, when in sight of land, dropped overboard, the
+landmarks on the shore being carefully taken.  Thus the smuggler could
+return, when not watched, and regain her cargo.  Sometimes the keen-eyed
+revenue officers had observed her proceedings when letting go the kegs,
+and on her return they could no longer be found.  Sometimes the
+hard-pressed smuggler had not time to sink her cargo, and the kegs,
+still floating, were made prizes of by the cutter.  At other times they
+were captured when on the point of being landed, or when actually
+landed, and it was on these occasions that the fiercest battles took
+place between the smugglers, aided by their numerous coadjutors on
+shore, and the revenue officers.  If the lives of any of the revenue
+officers were lost during these encounters, the smugglers who were seen
+to have fired, when captured, were hung, while the less criminal in the
+eye of the law were transported, or imprisoned, or sent to serve on
+board men-of-war.  It is scarcely too much to say that a large portion
+of the coast population of England was engaged in this illicit traffic.
+It bred also a great amount of ill-feeling between them and the coast
+guard, whom they endeavoured to mislead, annoy, and injure by every
+means in their power.  Our worthy salt tutor had friends among the
+revenue officers, with whom he sided strongly; indeed, his natural good
+sense and right feeling would have prevented him from supporting a class
+of men who were so clearly acting against the laws of the country and
+all rules of right and justice.
+
+Our tutors that evening held a consultation on board the brig, and
+decided that it was their duty to go over the next morning to inform the
+commander of the coast guard of the discovery Harry and I had made, and
+to let him take the steps which he might consider necessary.  We two, of
+course, for the time became perfect heroes of romance, and could talk of
+nothing else during the evening but of smugglers and smuggling
+adventures.  Captain Mugford possessed a large amount of lore on that
+subject, some of which he produced, much to our edification.  He gave us
+an account of the fight between the _Peggy_ smuggling lugger and the
+_Bramble_ King's cutter.  Three men were killed and five wounded on
+board the revenue cruiser, and a still greater number of smugglers lost
+their lives, though the lugger escaped on that occasion.  She was,
+however, afterwards fallen in with by the very same cutter, when the
+smugglers showed fight at first; but so fiercely were they attacked by
+the brave commander of the cutter, that, their consciences making
+cowards of them, they yielded after a short struggle.  It would have
+been difficult to convict the crew then on board of the murder of the
+cutter's people on the previous occasion, had not one of their number
+turned king's evidence.  The captain and mate and two other men were
+accordingly hung, and the rest transported; but this summary mode of
+proceeding in no way put a stop to smuggling.  The profits were too
+large, the temptations too great, to allow even the risk of being hung
+or transported to interfere with the traffic.
+
+One story led to another, and at length our skipper came out with one
+which was voted, by general acclamation, to be superior to all the
+others.  I cannot pretend to give it in old Mugford's language, so I
+present it in my own, keeping, however, closely to the facts he
+narrated.  He called his tale:
+
+"JAN JOHNSON, THE SMUGGLER."
+
+Some forty years ago, ay, more than that, I belonged for a few months to
+a revenue cruiser, on board which I volunteered, soon after my return
+from my second voyage, I think it was, or about that time.  The cutter
+was stationed off this coast, and a hard life we had of it, for in those
+days the smuggling craft were large armed vessels, full of desperate
+men, who, when they could not outsail, more than once beat off the
+cruisers of the king.  Among the most daring of his class was a fellow
+called Jan Johnson, though from having at different times many other
+names, it was difficult from them to determine to what nation he
+belonged; indeed, it was suspected that he was an Englishman born on
+this very coast, with every inch of which he was intimately acquainted.
+
+He seemed to take absolute delight in setting at defiance all laws of
+God and man, and, among many other acts of atrocity, he was strongly
+suspected of the murder of a revenue officer.  The officer had, it
+appears, been the means of taking a valuable cargo of goods belonging to
+Johnson, who some time after encountered him, when in discharge of his
+duty, near this place.  It is supposed that the smuggler had attacked
+the unfortunate man, and, being by far the more powerful of the two, had
+grappled with him, and, plunging a long knife into his bosom, had thrown
+him over the cliffs.  The next morning the body was discovered above
+high-water mark, with a knife known to belong to Johnson close to it,
+and on the top of the cliffs were seen the impressions of men's feet, as
+if engaged in a fierce struggle.  A handkerchief, similar to one the
+smuggler had been observed to wear, was found in the dead man's grasp,
+and at a late hour of the night he had been met without one round his
+throat.  A reward was therefore offered for his apprehension, but
+notwithstanding the sharp lookout we kept for his craft at sea, and the
+vigilance of the revenue people on shore, he had hitherto escaped
+capture.
+
+He commanded at this time a large lugger, called the _Polly_, a
+fast-sailing boat, which could almost eat into the wind's eye, and when
+going free nothing could hope to come up with her; so that our only
+chance of capturing her was to jam her in with the shore, or to find
+ourselves near her in a calm, when we might get alongside her in our
+boats.
+
+So daring was the smuggler that, though he well knew his life was at
+stake, he still continued to carry on his free trade with the coast,
+where he had many friends; yet, notwithstanding that his vessel was
+constantly seen, she was never approached except by those he trusted.
+
+It was towards the end of October--I remember the time well--the days
+were growing shorter, and the night-watches darker and colder, when,
+after cruising up and down a week or so at sea, in hopes of falling in
+with a prize, it came on to blow very hard from the south-west.  Our
+skipper was not a man to be frightened by a capful of wind, so, setting
+our storm sails, we stood off shore and faced the gale like men; for, do
+ye see, it is just such weather as this was that the smugglers choose to
+run across the channel, when they think no one will be on the lookout
+for them.  Towards evening, however, it came on to blow harder than
+ever, so that at last we were obliged to up with the helm, and run for
+shelter into harbour; but just as we were keeping away, a sea struck the
+cutter, carried away our stern boat, and stove in one of our quarter
+boats.  In this squall the wind seemed to have worn itself out, for
+before we made the land it suddenly fell, and by daylight a dead calm
+came on, followed by a dense fog.  Our soundings told us that we were
+within a short distance of the coast, so that our eyes were busily
+employed in trying to get, through the mist, a sight of it, or of any
+strange sail which might be in the neighbourhood.  At last, for an
+instant the fog lifted towards the north, like when the curtain of a
+theatre is drawn up, exposing close in with the land the white sails of
+a lugger, on which, as she rose and fell on the heavy swell remaining
+after the storm of the previous night, were now glancing the bright
+beams of the morning sun, exposing her thus more clearly to our view.
+
+Before we could bring our glasses to bear, the fog again closed in, but
+every eye was turned in that direction to get another sight of her; we,
+doubtless, from our position, and the greater thickness of the mist
+round us, remaining hid from her view.
+
+"What think you, Davis? which way shall we have the breeze when it does
+come?" asked our skipper of the old quartermaster, who was the oracle on
+such occasions.
+
+"Why, sir, I should say, off the land; it looks clearer there away than
+it is out here."
+
+As the old man delivered himself of this opinion, he turned his one open
+eye towards the point he indicated: for, though he had two orbs, and
+they were piercers, he never used more than one at a time--we youngsters
+used to suppose, to give each alternately a rest.
+
+As he spoke, the fog once more opened a little.
+
+"And, what do you say to yonder craft?" continued the skipper.
+
+The old man's right eye surveyed her intently before he answered--
+
+"I thought I knowed her, sir.  As sure as we're alive she's the _Polly_,
+with Jan Johnson on board."
+
+How he arrived at the latter conclusion we did not stop to consider.
+The words had an electric effect on board.
+
+"You are right, Davis--you are right!" exclaimed our commander; then, in
+a tone of vexation, "And we have only one boat to chase her.  If there
+comes a breeze, that fellow will sneak alongshore, and get out of our
+way.  He calculated on being able to do so when he remained there, and
+no doubt has information that the revenue boats belonging to the station
+are sent off in other directions."
+
+Every glass was now turned towards the direction where the smuggler was
+seen; for you must remember the mist quickly again hid her from us.  Our
+skipper walked over to where the carpenter was employed in putting the
+boat to rights; but soon saw that there was a good day's work or more
+before she could be made to swim.
+
+"It will never do to let that fellow--escape us!" he exclaimed briskly.
+"Mr Robertson," addressing his senior officer, a passed midshipman--an
+oldster in every sense of the word I then thought him,--"pipe the gig's
+crew away, with two extra hands, and let them all be fully armed.  Do
+you take charge of the ship; and if a breeze gets up, press every stitch
+of canvas on her, and stand after the lugger.  That fellow may give us
+some work; and I intend to go myself."
+
+Having given these orders, he dived into his cabin, and quickly
+reappeared, with his cocked hat on and his sword by his side.
+
+I belonged to the gig.
+
+The boat was, as you may suppose, quickly ready.  The order was given to
+shove off, and away we pulled, with hearty strokes, in the direction of
+the lugger.  The fog for some time favoured our approach towards the
+spot where we guessed she was to be found, for we could no more see her
+than the people on board could us.  Never, when roasting in the tropics
+under a burning sun, have I wished more earnestly for a breeze than we
+now did that the calm would continue till we could get alongside the
+long-looked-for craft.  Not a word was spoken above a whisper, though we
+knew that the splash of our oars in the water would soon betray our
+approach to the sharpened ears of the smugglers, even before they could
+see us.  We redoubled, therefore, our efforts to get alongside, when a
+light air coming off the land much thinned the intervening mist, showing
+us the _Polly_, with her largest canvas spread to catch the breeze, and
+now, as she loomed through the fog, appearing twice her real size, while
+her people clearly made us out.  In a moment her sails were trimmed, her
+long sweeps were run out, and she was moving through the water, though
+not near so fast as we were pulling.
+
+"Give way, my boys, give way," shouted our skipper, all necessity for
+silence being now removed.  "Give way, and the lugger is ours."
+
+With a hearty cheer the men bent to their oars and sent the boat flying
+through the calm blue water, casting aside the light sparkling foam
+which bubbled and hissed round her bows, as the story books about
+seagoing affairs say, such as you youngsters are so fond of reading.
+Well, the breeze freshened, however, before long, and we found that,
+though still decreasing our distance from the lugger, we were not
+gaining on her as fast as when she first made us out.  We had, however,
+got within about a quarter of a mile of her, when we saw a man jump on
+the taffrail, and wave his hat at us as if in derision.  Even at that
+distance, some of our people declared they recognised him as Jan
+Johnson, whom all of us knew well enough by sight.  The next instant a
+skiff was launched from her decks, into which he jumped, and pulled as
+hard as he could towards the shore, to which he was already nearer than
+we were to him.
+
+Here was a dilemma for our skipper.  If we followed the outlaw, his
+lugger would very likely get away; and if we made chase after her, he
+would certainly escape, and she, probably, even if we came up with her,
+would not be condemned.  The thought of the murdered man decided our
+commander, and in a moment the boat's head was turned towards the shore
+in chase of the skiff.  Away we went, as fast as six ash oars in stout
+hands could send us through the water, while Johnson, still undaunted,
+continued his course; yet, in spite of his audacity, he well knew that
+it was with him a matter of life and death.  It was indeed astonishing,
+when putting forth all his vast strength, how fast he sent along his
+light skiff; indeed, we gained but slightly on him in our six-oared
+galley, and we soon saw that he would reach the shore before we could
+overtake him.
+
+"Give way, my lads, give way," shouted our skipper, though the men were
+straining every nerve to the utmost.  "Give way, and we shall soon be up
+with him."
+
+Talk of the excitement of a stag-hunt! it is tame in comparison with the
+interest men take in the chase of a fellow-creature.  There is something
+of the nature of the bloodhound, I suspect, in our composition which
+delights in the pursuit of such noble game.  A few minutes more decided
+the point, a cry of vexation escaping us as his boat touched the shore,
+and, coolly drawing her up on the strand, he was seen to make towards
+the woods.
+
+"Shall I bring him down, sir?" asked the seaman who sat in the
+sternsheets with a musket, marine fashion, between his knees.
+
+"No, no," was the answer.  "We must take the fellow alive; he cannot
+escape us, if we put our best feet foremost."
+
+Just as our boat's keel grated on the sand, Johnson disappeared among
+the rocks and trees, and we could hear a shout of derisive laughter
+ringing through the wood.
+
+"After him, my boys, after him," shouted our skipper, as we all leaped
+on shore.  "A five-pound note to the man who first gets hold of him."
+
+And, except a youth who was left in charge of the boat, away we all
+went, helter-skelter, in the direction the outlaw had taken.  He made,
+it appeared, straight inland, for we could hear his shouts ahead of us
+as we rushed on, hallooing to each other from among the trees.  Not one
+of the party seemed inclined to get before the other--not so much that
+one was unwilling to deprive the other of the promised reward, but I
+suspect that no one was anxious to encounter Johnson singlehanded, well
+armed as of course he was, and desperate as we knew him to be.  Our
+commander, being a stout man and short-winded, was soon left far behind,
+though, as he hurried on, puffing and blowing with the exertion he was
+using, his voice, as long as we could hear him, encouraged us in the
+pursuit.  We had thus made good half a mile or more, when coming
+suddenly to the confines of the wood, or copse it might rather be
+called, a wide extent of open ground appeared before us, but not a trace
+of the fugitive could be perceived.  Some of the foremost ran on to a
+spot of high ground near at hand, whence they could see in every
+direction, but not a figure was moving in the landscape.  In the
+meantime our skipper came up, and ordered us to turn back and beat about
+the wood.
+
+We had been thus fruitlessly engaged for some time, when we were
+recalled to the shore by a shout from one of our people, and, hastening
+down to the beach, we beheld, to our dismay, our own boat floating some
+way out in the bay, while Johnson, in his skiff, was pulling towards his
+lugger, now creeping alongshore out of the reach of the cutter, which
+still lay becalmed in the offing.  What was most extraordinary, the lad
+who had been left in charge of the boat was nowhere to be seen, and, as
+far as we could make out, he was neither in her nor in Johnson's skiff.
+You may just picture to yourself our rage and disappointment; indeed, I
+thought, what from his exertions and excitement, our commander would
+have been beside himself with vexation.  After we had stood for a
+moment, looking with blank astonishment at each other, he ordered us, in
+a sharp voice, some to run one way, some another, along the shore, in
+search of a boat by which we might get on board our galley, for she was
+too far off for anyone to attempt to swim to her.  At last, some way on,
+we discovered, hauled up on the beach, a heavy fishing-boat, which with
+some work we managed to launch, and, by means of the bottom boards and a
+few pieces of plank we found in her, to paddle towards our gig.  In our
+course, we picked up two of our oars which had been thrown overboard,
+and we were thus able to reach her sooner than we could otherwise have
+done.  What could have become of our young shipmate? we asked each
+other; but not a conjecture could be offered.  Johnson could not have
+carried him off; he would not have ventured to have injured him, and the
+lad was not likely to have deserted his post.  At last we got alongside
+the gig, and on looking into her we saw Jim Bolton, our young shipmate,
+stretched along the thwarts, to which he was lashed.  At first we
+thought he was dead; but a second glance showed us that a gag, made out
+of a thole-pin and a lump of oakum, had been put into his mouth.  On
+being released it was some time before he could speak.  He then told us
+that he was sitting quietly in the boat, when suddenly a man sprang on
+him with a force which knocked him over, and before he could collect his
+senses he found himself lashed to the thwarts with a lump in his mouth
+which prevented him crying out, and the boat moving away from the shore,
+and that was all he knew about the matter.
+
+As Jim Bolton was very much hurt, we placed him in the fishing-boat with
+a midshipman who volunteered to look after him, and anchored her to
+await our return, while we with hearty goodwill pulled away in full
+chase of the smuggler.  By this time, however, a fresh breeze had come
+off the land, which filled the sails of the lugger just as Johnson
+sprang from his boat upon her deck, and before a breath of air had
+reached the cutter he had run her far out of sight, winding his way
+among those reefs yonder.  Seeing there was no chance of overtaking him
+in the gig, we pulled on board, and as soon as the uncertain air put the
+vessel through the water, we made chase in the direction we calculated
+the _Polly_ would take.  For some time we cruised up and down over the
+ground where we thought we might fall in with her, but could see nothing
+of her, and we then returned to take out the midshipman and Jim, and to
+restore the boat to the fisherman.
+
+We, with several other cruisers, were employed for some weeks in looking
+out for Johnson, but neither he nor the _Polly_ was ever again heard of
+on this coast.
+
+Ten years passed away, and I belonged to a brig in the West Indies, that
+clime of yellow fevers and sugar-canes.  In those days the slave-trade
+flourished, for, as we had not become philanthropists, we did not
+interfere with those whose consciences did not prevent them from
+bartering for gold their own souls and the blood of their
+fellow-creatures.  There was, however, a particular craft we were
+ordered to look after which had made herself amenable to the laws,
+having gone somewhat out of the usual line of trade, by committing
+several very atrocious acts of piracy.  She was commanded, it was said,
+by an Englishman, a villain of no ordinary cast, who never intentionally
+left alive any of those he plundered to tell the tale of their wrongs.
+He sailed his vessel, a schooner carrying twelve guns, under Spanish
+colours, though of course he hoisted, on occasion, those of any other
+nation to suit his purpose.  We all knew both him and his schooner, for
+before her real character was suspected, we had for some days laid
+alongside her at the Havanna, and were in consequence selected by the
+admiral to look out for her.  We had been so employed for several weeks,
+when, one day towards noon, we made out a sail to the southward, towards
+which we ran down with a light northerly wind.  As we neared her, which
+we rapidly did, we saw that she was a lofty ship--a merchantman
+evidently--and that she was not only not moving through the waters, but
+that her braces were loose, and her yards swinging about in every
+direction.  Not a soul was looking over her bulwarks when we came within
+hail, but the men in the tops sang out that they could see several
+people lying about the decks either asleep or dead.  We ran almost
+alongside, when I was ordered to board her with one of the gigs.  Never
+shall I forget the scene which met my sight as I stepped on her decks;
+they were a complete shambles: a dozen or more men lay about in the
+after part of the ship, the blood yet oozing from deep gashes on their
+heads and shoulders, not one of them alive; while on the steps of the
+companion-ladder were two women, young and fair they appeared to have
+been, clasped in each other's arms, and both dead.
+
+On descending below, we discovered an old lady and a venerable, old
+gentleman on the deck of the state cabin with the marks of pistol
+bullets in their foreheads, while at the door of an inner cabin lay a
+black servant with his head completely twisted round.
+
+I will not mention all the sights of horror we encountered; the
+murderers seemed to have exerted their ingenuity in disfiguring their
+victims.  There were several other dead people below, and at last,
+searching round the ship, we found stowed away in the forehold a seaman,
+who, though desperately wounded, still breathed.  When brought on deck
+and a few drops of spirits were poured down his throat, he after some
+time came to himself, then told us that they had in the morning been
+attacked by a pirate, who, after they had made a desperate resistance,
+had carried them by boarding, when every soul in the ship was cut down
+or thrown into the sea except himself; that he, having fallen down the
+hatchway just before the pirates rushed on board, had stowed himself
+away amongst the cargo, and there after some time had fainted from loss
+of blood.  While he lay there, he could hear the shrieks of his
+shipmates and the shouts and execrations of their butchers, he
+expecting, every instant, to share the fate of the rest.  At last all
+was silent, the pirates made an ineffectual attempt to scuttle the ship,
+but were hurried off, probably, by seeing a sail which they mistook for
+us, or for some other cruiser.
+
+Scarcely had the unfortunate fellow given this account, when the man at
+the mast-head of the brig hailed that there was a sail on the lee bow,
+and we were ordered forthwith to return on board.  We all hoped that
+this might prove the pirate, for we were anxious to punish the
+miscreants.  Taking, therefore, the wounded man with us--for being,
+thanks to the yellow fever, already short of hands, we were compelled to
+abandon the ship--we made sail in chase.  For some time we carried a
+fresh breeze with us, while the stranger, which we soon made out to be a
+large topsail schooner, lay almost becalmed; but before we got her
+within range of our guns the wind also filled her sails, and away she
+went before it with every stitch of canvas they could pack on her.  We
+also used every means of increasing our rate of sailing; but though our
+brig was reckoned a remarkably fast vessel, we found that, since we had
+both the same breeze, we had not in any way decreased our distance from
+her.
+
+It was, however, a satisfaction to find that she did not outsail us
+before the wind, though there was every probability that, should she
+haul her wind, she would be able to do so; we therefore kept directly in
+her wake, to be ready to run down on her, on whichever tack she might
+haul up.  At last, as the breeze freshened, we gained somewhat on her,
+when she hoisted Spanish colours: she had hitherto shown none, but this
+did not prevent us from trying the range of our bow-chasers on her, to
+bring her to.  Several guns were fired without effect; at last a shot
+struck her main boom and severely wounded it.  I never saw a better aim.
+After this, finding we lost ground by firing, we did not for another
+hour throw a single shot, nor had the schooner as yet returned our
+compliment, though she showed no inclination to heave to.
+
+Away we bowled along before the breeze, throwing aside the now
+white-crested waves from our bows as we tore through the water.  Every
+brace was stretched to the utmost, our spars bent and cracked, but not a
+sheet was slackened, though our captain kept his glance anxiously aloft
+to see how long he might let them bear the pressure.  Again we
+overhauled her, and got her within range of our long guns, when a shot,
+directed more by chance, as the sea was running high, or, it might be
+said, a just Providence weary of the miscreants, than by skill, killed
+the man at the wheel, and lodged in the mainmast.  Before another man
+could run to the helm the vessel yawed to port; the boom, already
+wounded, jibbed over and parted amidships, rendering the huge mainsail
+of no use, and creating much confusion on board.  There was now no fear
+of her being able to haul her wind for some time, and coming up, hand
+over hand, with her, we ranged alongside.
+
+If we had before any doubts of her real character, we had now none, for
+the Spanish ensign being hauled down, a black flag was hoisted at each
+mast-head, and the accursed pirate was confessed.  The outlaws,
+doubtless knowing that victory or death alone awaited them, showed their
+dark symbols in the hopes of intimidating our men, and made up their
+minds to fight it out to the last.  At the same moment they let fly
+their whole broadside, which, though it did some damage, served to warm
+up the blood of our people, and made them return it with a hearty good
+will.
+
+For half an hour or more, as we ran on, we thus continued exchanging
+broadsides, considerably thinning their crowded decks; but as some of
+our spars were wounded, our captain, fearing lest any being carried
+away, the enemy might escape, determined without delay to lay him on
+board, and to try the mettle of true men against their ruffian crew of
+desperadoes.
+
+After receiving her broadside and pouring in ours, we put our helm to
+port, for she was, you must know, on our starboard side, when, running
+our bow anchor into her fore chains, our grappling irons were thrown,
+and we had her fast.  With a loud cheer, our boarders sprang to the
+forecastle, and on to the rigging of the enemy.
+
+Never shall I forget, if I was to live as long again as I have done,
+which is not very likely, the set of ferocious countenances which met
+our sight as we rushed on board.  It was fearful work we were about, but
+our blood was up, and there was no quarter asked or given on either
+side.  We did not stop to think.  The pirates knew that there was no
+pardon for them, and seemed determined to sell their lives dearly.  Our
+onset was too furious to be withstood, and in a minute we had cleared a
+small space on the schooner's decks abaft the foremast, but beyond that
+every foot was desperately disputed.
+
+We had gained some ground forward, when, from the after part of the
+vessel, a determined band, led by the captain, pressed us hard.  Twice
+we were driven back almost to our own ship, many of our men losing the
+number of their mess, but, finally, determined courage got the better of
+desperation.  Inch by inch we drove the pirates aft--the chief of them,
+to do him justice, keeping always in the front rank, and I believe he
+killed, with his own hand, more of our people than did all his crew
+together, though he himself did not receive a scratch.  During all this
+time the marines kept up a hot fire, pikes and pistols were used through
+the ports, and such guns as could be brought to bear were fired from
+each of the ships.  I have seen plenty of hard fighting, and let me tell
+you, my boys, though it is very fine reading about, it is very dreadful
+in reality; yet never in my life have I gone through hotter work, on a
+small scale, than I did that day--the vessels, too, all the time rolling
+and pitching tremendously, and tearing away each other's rigging;
+indeed, it is surprising we did not both founder on the spot.
+
+Well, we at last managed to clear the fore part of the schooner, by
+cutting down some and driving others of the pirates overboard, but fifty
+fellows still held the after part of the deck, uttering fearful oaths
+and execrations--they continued fighting on--when the deck lifted;
+fearful shrieks arose, a loud, dull sound was heard, and many of the
+pirates were hurled into the air, their mangled remains falling among
+us.  For an instant every hand seemed paralysed, and we looked round to
+see what would happen next; but the explosion had been only partial, and
+during the confusion the remainder of the band making a rush forward, we
+again set to at the bloody work, and drove them back.  A second attempt
+to fire the magazine was made, and failed.  We were, by this time,
+secure of victory, though the remnant of the pirates refused to yield.
+
+Their captain, whom I have spoken of, I now saw leap into the main
+rigging, when, waving his bloody sword above his head, he hurled it with
+the fiercest imprecations among us, severely wounding one of our people,
+and then, with a look of despair not to be forgotten, he plunged into
+the raging ocean, where a troop of sharks were ready to devour him.  At
+that moment it struck me that I had seen his features in times long
+passed, and I found afterwards I was right.
+
+When their leader was lost, the rest of the pirates submitted, and we
+had barely time to remove them, and to cut ourselves clear of the
+schooner, when, with the dying and dead on board, she went down; and on
+the spot where she had been, the hungry sharks were seen tearing their
+bodies in pieces, while the sea was tinged around with a ruddy hue.  We
+afterwards fell in with the ship the pirates had attacked, for which we
+got a good round sum as salvage money, besides other substantial marks
+of the gratitude of the merchants in the West Indies, for having
+destroyed one of the greatest pests their trade had for a long time
+known.
+
+The pirates were hung at Port Royal, in Jamaica, and the evening before
+their execution, one of them, for reasons I will some day tell you,
+desired to see me.  I visited him in his cell, and from him I learned
+that the chief of their band, whose dreadful death I had witnessed, the
+man who had led them into crime and ruin, was, as I suspected, Jan
+Johnson, the smuggler.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The next morning Mr Clare and Captain Mugford went over to ---, where
+they found Commander Treenail, to whom they gave all the information
+they possessed about the smugglers' cave.  He heard this account with
+surprise, for he did not suppose it possible that any spot of ground had
+remained in that neighbourhood unvisited by his people.  However, he was
+a man of action; and immediately that he comprehended the facts of the
+case, he signalled from his residence to a cutter which lay off in the
+bay to get under way, and to wait for him to come on board.  "You will
+accompany me, gentlemen," he said to our tutors; "and as soon as we can
+get the lads on board who discovered the cave to show us its entrance,
+we will lose no time in routing out these smuggling vagabonds."
+
+The old lieutenant commanding the cutter was waiting with his gig for
+Captain Treenail at the quay, and they, with our tutors, were quickly on
+board the _Scout_.
+
+How proud Harry and I felt when the _Scout's_ gig pulled up to the
+wreck, and we were summoned to show the way to the smugglers' cave.  We
+jumped with alacrity into the gig, feeling as if we had the whole weight
+and responsibility on our shoulders of leading some important
+expedition.  Captain Treenail received us very kindly, and
+cross-questioned us minutely as to the whereabouts of the cave and the
+various articles we had found within it.  The cutter, when rounding the
+cape, had kept some distance from the little bay near which the cave
+lay, so that, even had smugglers been on the watch near it, they would
+probably not have been alarmed; the captain had hopes, therefore, that
+not only their goods but they themselves would be taken.  To make the
+matter more sure, it was arranged that one party, led by Walter, who
+knew the cape as if he had been born on it, should go by land,
+accompanied by Mr Clare; while our salt tutor, with the rest of us, was
+to go in the cutter.  Five seamen, with a petty officer, formed the land
+party, all well armed.  They were to proceed cautiously across the
+downs, watching the movements of the cutter, and keeping themselves as
+much as possible under cover, so as not to be seen by any smugglers who
+might be on the lookout.  As soon as the boat which took them on shore
+returned, the cutter's foresail was let draw, and with a fresh breeze
+she stood out of our cove.  Our hearts beat quick as we glided rapidly
+on towards the scene of our proposed exploit.  We might possibly soon be
+engaged in a scene of real fighting.  There might be ten or perhaps even
+fifty smugglers concealed in the cave, with large stores of silks, and
+tobacco, and spirits; and if so, it was not likely that they would give
+in without striking some hard blows for their liberty.  The breeze
+freshened, and our speed increased, though, as the wind was off the
+land, the water was smooth.  Every inch of canvas the cutter could carry
+was clapped on her, that we might have the better chance of taking the
+smugglers by surprise.  She heeled over to the breeze till her lee
+gunwale was under water, while we stood holding on to the weather
+rigging, and looking out for the entrance to the little cove.  We neared
+it at last.  Our hearts beat quicker than ever as we luffed up round a
+point which formed one of the sides of the little cove.  Sail was
+rapidly shortened, the foresail hauled down, the jib-sheet let fly, and
+in half a minute we were at anchor.  The next instant the crew, already
+fully armed and prepared, flew to the falls, and two boats were lowered,
+into which they and we, with Captain Treenail, the commander, and one of
+the mates of the cutter, and our own salt tutor, immediately jumped.
+Literally, before a minute had elapsed, two boats were pulling as fast
+as boats could pull for the shore.  Harry and I now felt ourselves of
+more consequence than we had ever been in our lives before.  We were
+expected to show the way to the cavern, and therefore, as soon as the
+boats touched the shore, we leaped out, and, pointing to the spot where
+the mouth of the cavern was to be found, ran towards it along the beach
+at full speed, followed by the officers and men, who might have had
+better sea legs, but certainly had not such good shore legs as we
+possessed.  We were some little way ahead of the rest, and our object
+must have been very evident to any persons acquainted with the existence
+of the cavern.  Just then the report of a firearm was heard, and a
+bullet whistled by us close to our ears.  It did not stop us though, but
+made us dart on still more rapidly; and as we did so we saw a man
+climbing up the cliff above the cavern.  Had any of the men with muskets
+been with us, they might have shot him.  He turned round for an instant,
+and shook his fist at us; but before our companions came up he had
+disappeared.  It took some time before the seamen who volunteered to go
+managed to climb up the slippery rock to the mouth of the cavern.  When
+once two or three had gained a footing, they let down ropes, by which
+the rest easily got up.  The forlorn hope, as the first party might be
+called, then dashed into the cavern, expecting, perhaps, to meet with a
+hot fire of musketry.  Not a sound, however, was heard; no one appeared;
+on they boldly went.  The smugglers might have had still more deadly
+intentions, and, it was possible, had prepared a mine to blow up anyone
+venturing into their cave.  They were capable, according to our salt
+tutor's notion, of any atrocity.  Still the forlorn hope went on without
+meeting with any impediment.  More seamen entered, led by Captain
+Treenail, and others followed, till we were all inside; and torches
+being lit, the cavern was thoroughly examined.  Not a human being was
+discovered, but the cave contained a far larger amount of bales of
+silks, and ribbons, and tobacco, and kegs of spirits, than we had
+supposed.  It was, indeed, a far larger seizure than the coast guard on
+that station had ever before made.  They were proportionably delighted,
+though they would have liked still more to have caught a dozen or two of
+smugglers, though not quite so valuable a prize as they would have been
+during the height of the war, when they would have been sent off to man
+our ships, and to fight the naval battles of old England.
+
+When we found that no one was inside we told Captain Treenail of the man
+we had seen climbing up the cliff.  He instantly ordered some of the
+most active young men of the cutter's crew to go in chase; but after
+hunting about for some time, they could find no possible way of getting
+up, and therefore had to abandon the attempt.  The next thing was to
+convey the captured goods to the cutter.  This occupied some time, as
+there were literally several boatloads of goods, to the value, I fancy,
+of a couple of thousand pounds.  It must have been vexatious in the
+extreme, to any of the smugglers witnessing our proceedings, to see
+their property thus carried off before their eyes.  It must have made
+them vow vengeance against those who captured it, and against us
+especially, who, they must have suspected, had given the information
+respecting the cave.
+
+Among the articles found in the cavern was a rusty old musket.  The old
+lieutenant, Mr Mophead, commanding the cutter, was a curiosity.  I
+should like to describe him.  He was very fat and very short, and very
+red-faced, which is not surprising, considering the hot suns which had
+shone on that face of his, and the vast amount of strong liquor which he
+had poured down his throat.  Just as the last boatload had been got on
+board, Walter and his party appeared, not having seen any smugglers.
+Mr Mophead politely invited him on board.  As soon as the boats were
+hoisted up, and the cutter was once more under way, standing from
+harbour, Mr Mophead took the musket in his hand, and, approaching
+Walter, said, with great form, "Mr Walter Tregellin, with Captain
+Treenail's leave--and I am sure that he will give me leave--I beg to
+present to you this weapon, that you may hand it to your respected
+father.  He may like to possess it, to remind him how the cutter
+_Scout_, Lieutenant Mophead commander, was the means of relieving his
+property of a nest of smugglers, who would very soon, in my opinion,
+have taken possession of it."
+
+Walter took the musket respectfully, though he could not help smiling;
+and our salt tutor blew his nose steadily for ten minutes.  The same old
+musket my father afterwards gave to Harry and me, the discoverers of the
+smugglers' cave; and Harry relinquished all his rights in it to me.
+
+It hangs now in my study, not far from the dog-collar--another memento
+of those good old times.  We got back to our own cove in a very short
+time, and we landing, the cutter returned, with her valuable cargo, to
+her usual port.  Clump, who had remained to take care of the house,
+informed us that he had been watching the downs above the cave, and that
+he had seen several men pass across the downs, and, running quickly, go
+towards the boat harbour often mentioned.  They then jumped into a boat
+and pulled across the harbour to the village, where they disappeared.
+Such was the termination of the adventure for that day; but the romance,
+unfortunately for us, had not come to an end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+OCTOBER SPORT--A BLACK JOKE.
+
+Only two weeks more!  Letters had come from our parents to us and to our
+tutors, saying that we must return to Bristol on November the first.
+
+Our great amusement at this time was shooting, as boating had become
+somewhat cold work.  Now and then we knocked down a few straggling wild
+fowl, which at that early season had incautiously approached our cape,
+not aware of the sportsmen residing on it.  Our tutors entered
+enthusiastically into the sport, borrowing guns from the town across the
+bay, and joining Walter and Harry every afternoon.  We other fellows
+were also allowed to be there to take charge of Ugly, who entered into
+the sport as warmly as any of us.  We generally stayed on the neck until
+near sunset, and just as the rabbits were out for their supper, started
+for home.  That was Ugly's half-hour of sport, in which he was always
+sure to bring two or three rabbits round to the guns.  Mr Clare could
+not shoot as well as Walter, or even Harry, at flying game, but he was
+first-rate at rabbits; let them jump as fast and high as they might,
+with Ugly only ten feet behind, and if our fresh tute pulled on them;
+they were sure to fall.  With the Captain things went differently, much
+to our amusement; for our salt tute cared not how much we laughed at his
+failures, which all his shots were.  He brought up his gun as if it were
+a harpoon, and always gave it a jerk, to help it shoot farther, when he
+pulled the trigger.  The butt was seldom at his shoulder; and as he
+insisted upon putting immense loads in his gun, the results were
+sometimes disastrous to him and ridiculous to us.  He often sprang back
+after a shot, as if he had been kicked by a horse, or wrung his hands,
+which had borne the recoil.  His misses and misfortunes, however, never
+made him angry or dejected.  After each failure, out came the red
+bandanna to wipe his brow, and as a shout of laughter greeted the
+performance, he would say calmly, with only a gleam of a smile, "So,
+boys, you think I missed, eh?  Well, _perhaps_ I did."
+
+Clump and Juno having been much alarmed and excited by the discovery of
+the smugglers, we boys determined to profit by their disquieted state of
+mind, and hatched a scheme to afford some fun.  We watched an
+opportunity to put it in execution.  The time came one evening when our
+tutors did not return with us to the house after the afternoon's
+shooting, but went to the _Clear the Track_, to chat and settle some
+other matters until tea-time at seven.
+
+Delighted with the arrangement, we boys ran to the house, and, getting
+up into our attic, began to make preparations for the trick we had
+concocted.  There was nothing very original in our plan, I must own, nor
+was it, I confess, a very grand or noble thing to try and frighten a
+couple of poor ignorant negroes, for such was the object just then of
+our plans and preparations.  Clump and Juno had a wholesome dread of
+smugglers and of the acts of vengeance of which they were supposed to be
+capable.  We therefore arranged to dress up so as to make ourselves look
+as formidable as possible, and then to appear suddenly before the old
+couple.  For this purpose we brought up from the wreck all the boat
+cloaks, greatcoats, and pieces of canvas which we could find, and
+sou'westers and tarpaulin hats, not forgetting some pistols and rusty
+swords.  Besides these we laid in a store of pasteboard, and brown and
+coloured paper, and some laths, and string, and paint, and corks, and
+tow.  With this abundant supply of materials we set to work to fabricate
+a variety of garments, such as we supposed smugglers would wear; at all
+events, such as were worn on the stage.  We made a sufficient number of
+false noses to supply each of our faces, and long curling moustaches,
+which made those who wore them look very fierce.  Some had wigs with
+wonderfully long shaggy hair, and others beards of prodigious growth.
+The greatcoats and cloaks served for most of the party, with belts round
+their waists stuck full of daggers made of wood, and a real pistol or
+two.  Then we manufactured out of the canvas some high boots of huge
+proportions; the upper part capable of containing the whole of a man's
+personal luggage, and a day's supply of provender into the bargain.
+Nothing could exceed, either, the wild and ferocious appearance of our
+hats.  Two of us wore black feathers in them, and two others were
+adorned with death's heads and cross bones: indeed, it must be confessed
+that we represented much more a band of pirates of two or three
+centuries back than a party of such smugglers as it was probable could
+be found on the British coast.  Besides the real swords we possessed, we
+manufactured some hangers out of wood, which we hung by sashes at our
+sides.  In fact, our disguises were complete in every respect, and so
+fierce did we all appear, that I truly believe, had one of us met
+another in any gloomy, half-lighted place, both heroes would have run
+away.  Walter took an active part in all the arrangements, and being the
+tallest and well stuffed out, looked every inch of him a bold smuggler.
+It is wonderful what burnt cork and rouge and dark locks will effect in
+turning a mild, gentle-looking person into a fierce leader of outlaws.
+It was arranged that Drake and I should go down first before dressing
+up, to prepare the way for the rest of the actors, then he was first to
+step out, and I was to follow, and get ready.  All being at length
+prepared, we descended to the kitchen, and strolled in there in a tired
+way, as if we were just in the humour to listen to the old blackies'
+talk and receive their petting.  Clump, sitting bent over the fire to
+get light for his work, was cutting some tholes for the boat with his
+knife.  "Hi," he said, as he saw us enter, "dat's good fur sore eyes."
+
+And Juno, taking the pipe from her mouth, greeted us with a long whiff
+of smoke, and--
+
+"I'se glad you'se cum--getten dark an glum 'ere, only ole Clump an me.
+What do yun Massas shoot?"  Drake held up a couple of rabbits and three
+wild fowl.  "Oh! de gorry--all dem!--well, dis chile nebber sees de
+like; an you'se gwine ter gib dem ter Clump agin--'spects so, all you'se
+don't want.  De ole niggers be rich dis winter."
+
+Clump, when he had got us seats, dusting the kitchen chairs with his
+long coat-tails, resumed his task, and as Juno's garrulousness ran on,
+he shook his head and chuckled, and muttered and grinned, just as if he
+were behind the scenes and prompting her to amuse us.  He always had
+that funny way of grimacing and conversing with himself gaily, whilst
+Juno indulged in her talkative fits.  He admired his old partner hugely.
+Once, when travelling with my father, he heard at an Assize some great
+lawyer make a speech, and said, when the orator had concluded--
+
+"De'clar, Massa, dat's fine; dis nigger nebber hear anyone speak like
+dat afore, 'cept--'cept Juno."
+
+By-and-by, as Juno's talk ran sluggishly, and the pipe required much
+picking and blowing, Clump got up to put by his work and light a lamp.
+But that we forbid, saying the firelight was so much pleasanter.
+
+"Dat's so," said Juno, who had got her solace in good order again, and
+was all ready to start off on a new stream of jabber.  "Dat's so--Clump
+not ole nuff ter know dat fire-lite more good dan lam-lite.  Hi! hi! he
+only chile yit."
+
+Drake interrupted there, to turn the conversation into another channel,
+by saying that we should leave the old house soon to go back to Bristol,
+and Clump asked, having taken a seat on the wood-box directly under the
+trap-door, "An you'se glad--glad?  'Spects de ole house git cole an dull
+to yous now; 'spects de yun Massas want git home?"
+
+"Well, no, Clump," answered Drake; "I don't want to go away--that is, we
+would not want to go if--if--if we had not been somewhat frightened this
+evening."
+
+Juno, because of her deafness, did not plainly hear what Drake had said,
+but she judged it in part from his manner and the assumed look of terror
+that he cast over his shoulder.  So she bent forward anxiously, and
+asked him in a voice full of concern--
+
+"Wat's dat, Massa Drake--wat's dat you say?"  Drake drew nearer to her
+and repeated what he had said.  "My hebbens, Massa Drake, wat did scar
+you?"
+
+"Well, you see, Aunt Juno," replied Drake, looking cautiously about him
+again in the darkness of the room--"Bob and I were coming round at the
+back of the house, when we heard, or thought we heard, whispering, and
+on drawing nearer, we heard some fearful threats uttered; I cannot say
+what they were, they were so dreadful."
+
+"Oh! don't talk so, Massa Drake, if dere was anybody, dey must be de
+smugglers, and dey will come to cut all our troats," exclaimed Juno,
+looking cautiously round over her shoulder.
+
+I cannot say that even then, thoughtless as I was, I liked what Drake
+had said, because he had told a positive falsehood, and it was no excuse
+to declare that it was said in joke.  Drake continued, his voice growing
+more and more tremulous every instant, as if with terror--"That's not
+all.  As we crept away undiscovered, we heard the tramp of many feet
+coming up from the shore, and we shouldn't be surprised if at this very
+moment the house was surrounded by smugglers, come to carry us all off
+to foreign lands, to make slaves of us."
+
+"Or to make soup of us," I cried out, wringing my hands.  "Oh dear, oh
+dear, oh dear!"
+
+"What has become of Walter and the rest, it is impossible to say," added
+Drake.  "Too probably they have been already spirited away by the
+smugglers.  Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" he exclaimed, and, jumping up,
+ran out as if to look for them.
+
+Juno and Clump were, it seemed, very much alarmed, both rolling their
+large eyes round and round till they grew bigger and bigger.  Certain
+noises outside increased the terror of the two poor souls, but I knew
+that they indicated impatience on the part of my companions.
+Accordingly, exclaiming that I would bear it no longer, I too jumped up,
+and ran after Drake.  As neither of us returned, it was but natural that
+Juno and Clump should have supposed that we had been carried off by the
+smugglers.  There the two poor souls sat, shivering and trembling with
+alarm, not daring to go out, for fear of finding their worst
+anticipations realised.  At last, Clump--who was really a brave fellow
+at heart, though just then overtaken by a nervous fit--got up, and,
+taking his old gun from over the mantelpiece, prepared to load it.
+Several pair of sharp eyes had been watching proceedings from outside.
+Now was the moment for action.  Led by Walter, in we rushed, and then
+advanced with threatening gestures towards the old couple.  We were
+afraid of uttering any sound, lest the well-known tones of our voices
+should have betrayed us.  Juno was at first the most alarmed.  She did
+not scream or shriek, however, but, falling on her knees, appeared as if
+she was thus resolved to meet her death.  Poor old Clump meantime stood
+gazing at us with an almost idiotic stare, till Walter, advancing, gave
+him a slap on the back, sufficient, it must be owned, to rouse him up.
+At first, the blow adding to his overwhelming terror, he rolled over, a
+mere bundle of blackness, into the wood-box, nothing being visible to us
+but two long quivering feet and five black fingers.  But in a moment
+after, with his still unloaded gun in his hand, he sprang up like a
+madman, jumped over the table, and, not trying to open the door, burst
+through the window, smashing half a dozen panes of glass.
+
+Who should open the door just then and come in, as Clump demolished the
+window and went out, but Captain Mugford!  Having left Mr Clare
+enjoying a nap on a sofa in the brig, he had come up to the house, and,
+hearing the frightful noises in the kitchen, rushed in there.  So much
+was he prepared by the yells that escaped for some tragic scene of
+scalding or other accident, that it required two or three minutes before
+he could take in the meaning of the commotion.  But when he recognised
+in the fierce smugglers a party of his young friends, and when he beheld
+Juno's situation, and the shattered frame through which Clump had
+struggled, he took the joke, and broke into the most elephantine
+convulsions of laughter that I ever heard or witnessed.  For half a
+minute, at least, he shook and shook internally, and then exploded.  An
+explosion was no sooner finished than the internal spasm recommenced,
+and so he went on until I really feared he might injure himself.  After
+five minutes of such attack, he managed to draw out his bandanna and
+cover his face with it, and then, whilst we watched his figure shaking
+and quivering, we heard, like groans, from beneath the handkerchief, "Oh
+ur-rh-ha--ar--uh!  Bless me!"  When he took down his handkerchief and
+happened to see Juno rising from her knees, he swelled up again like a
+balloon, and then eased off gradually in splutterings and moans as a
+dying porpoise.  After which, he went and pacified Juno, and tried to
+explain to her what a wicked trick we had been guilty of, and that the
+band of smugglers, after all, were only the boys she knew so well, and
+he proceeded to disrobe us, one by one, so that the old woman might
+comprehend the joke.  And so she did, but she sat motionless for a time,
+until some portion of her usual composure returned; and then she got up
+with many a sigh and mutterings of "Ki! ki! tink dat's wicked--frite ole
+Juno so--oh Lor!" but before tea was served, I heard her chuckling
+slyly, and turning towards us again and again as she poured the hot milk
+on the toast she was dishing up.  We meantime were employed in peeling,
+and by degrees got restored to our usual appearance, and we then hurried
+up to our rooms to wash off the rouge and the marks of burnt cork with
+which our faces were covered.  But the Captain sat down and shook
+quietly for a long while, the tears rolling down his face, and his
+fingers opening and closing convulsively on the handkerchief.  And when
+tea was quite ready, he went off to hunt up Clump.
+
+Mr Clare came in soon after, but we had, by that time, got the better
+of the fun, and removed all traces of the commotion.  When the Captain
+joined us at the table, he had another laughing spasm before he could
+say or eat anything; but for the remainder of the evening he controlled
+himself pretty well, only breaking out about half a dozen times, and
+blowing his nose until it was very red and swollen.  However, Mr Clare
+never heard of the way the poor negroes had been frightened by a
+practical joke, a thing he particularly disliked and had often spoken
+against.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+LAST DAYS ON THE CAPE--A TERRIBLE NIGHT.
+
+And now, the time of our stay on the cape was drawing to a close.  Only
+three days more remained, and they were to be occupied in collecting our
+books, packing trunks, and all the unpleasant little duties that become
+so tedious and dispiriting when, like a drop curtain, they announce the
+end of the play.
+
+Perhaps if the days of our cape life had been prolonged, we should have
+regretted the detention from home, and yearned for our dear parents,
+looking on the cape, that had already lost some of its attractions, as
+soon to become a dreary point beaten by winter winds and seas and
+drifted across by the snow.  But because we _must_ go, therefore it was
+hard to go.  What cannot be done, cannot be had, cannot be reached--that
+is just what the boy wants.  As we could not yet actually realise the
+desolateness and barrenness of winter there, but only remember the
+delights and beauties of summer and autumn, we lost cheerfulness over
+the boxes and trunks, and sighed because of the brick walls, narrow
+streets, and toilsome school-work that were soon to bound our lives.
+
+On a Wednesday we had been for our last afternoon's shooting on the
+moor.  Our tutors had walked round to return their guns to the lenders
+over in the town.  We strolled to the house through the fast fading
+afternoon light, talking of the memorable events in our half-year just
+closing.
+
+"Now, I think," said Drake, "that our boat-race was the best fun of
+all."
+
+"I don't," Alf answered, "though we had a good time then, I know; but
+what is there to compare with the cruise and shipwreck?--the excitement
+lasted so long and came out all right."
+
+"Yes, it came out all right, but there was only a tight squeak that it
+did not go all wrong.  I tell you what, fellows, I was horribly
+frightened that night, before we struck on Boatswain's Reef," said
+Harry.
+
+Each of us but Walter added, "So was I."
+
+"Walter, now you were frightened, too.  Own now!" continued Harry.
+
+"No, I was not, really!" answered Walter.  "Somehow I never feel afraid
+on the water; and I think it must be because I was born at sea, you
+know, when our father and mother were returning from the West Indies.
+Now if I had been behind a pair of runaway horses, instead of aboard a
+good boat, I might have got shaky, I daresay."
+
+"Well, my opinion is," said I, "that just the best time of all was
+finding the smugglers' cave; but I am afraid that, after we are gone,
+they may come down hard on Clump and Juno, and when we have--"
+
+Walter interrupted me with "Nonsense, those fellows will know enough to
+keep hid or give the cape a wide berth after this.  But talking about
+the good times we have had, I have enjoyed our shooting best of all, and
+so has Ugly, I'll bet--haven't you, Ugly?"
+
+To which our bright little dog answered as well as he could by barking
+an assent, and jumping before us to wag his tail energetically.
+
+"Hallo!"  Harry exclaimed, stopping, as he spoke, to look off to sea;
+"there's a rakish-looking lugger--don't you see?--just there, to the
+south-east, near Bass Rocks.  I wonder what she is after."
+
+"After?" answered Drake, "why, probably running down to Penzance."
+
+"I don't know about that," said Harry, who continued to watch the vessel
+with much interest; "it looks to me as if she were running close in, to
+anchor."
+
+"Well, let her anchor if she likes.  There's nothing strange in that,
+when there's not wind enough to fly a feather;" and after a few moments
+more, in which we resumed our way to the house, Drake continued--
+
+"Haven't our tutors proved splendid fellows?  I think the Captain is the
+finest old chap that I ever came across; and when Mr Clare is a
+clergyman I should like to go to his church--shouldn't feel a bit like
+going to sleep then."
+
+To which we all gave a cordial assent, and, having reached the house,
+turned in there with the prospect of having some fun with Clump and Juno
+before our tutors should return.  I stood at the door a few minutes.
+Sure enough Harry was right.  Though it was too dark now to distinguish
+anything more than a hundred yards away, I heard the running out of a
+cable and then the lowering of the sails.  "An odd place to anchor for
+the night," thought I, and so did Ugly, who was beside me, for he gave a
+low, uneasy howl.
+
+Juno was laying the plates for tea, as I went in.  After teasing her for
+awhile I joined the other boys.  Soon Juno came out to the kitchen, and
+when she commenced to fry the hasty-pudding, we induced Clump to tell us
+some of his sea adventures, in the middle of which Ugly set up a furious
+barking, and a moment afterwards there came a heavy rap at the front
+door.  It was the first time there had been a knock at a door of our old
+house since we had been in it.
+
+Clump, leaving his story unfinished, took a candle, and Drake and I
+followed him into the dining-room, which he had to cross to get to the
+front door.  But by the time we had entered the dining-room a stranger
+had walked into the hall, and had also proceeded to open the door
+opposite us.  Ugly, who was greatly incensed, jumped forward and took
+hold of a leg of the stranger's trousers.
+
+Our visitor was a small, rough, ugly man, with a terrible squint in his
+eyes and a voice as unpleasant as his face.  He had no collar, only a
+handkerchief about his neck, and wore a large, shaggy flushing jacket.
+His first act was to kick Ugly halfway across the room, with the
+salutation: "Take that, you damned cur, for your manners, damn you!"
+
+Ugly made at him again fiercer than ever, but I caught him in time and
+held him.
+
+"Wat will you 'ab, sir?" asked Clump in a dignified voice.
+
+"What will I have, ay?  I'll have that cur's life if he comes at me
+agin, and I want to know, old nigger, if,"--here the rough customer spit
+some tobacco-juice on the floor--"I want to know if you kin 'commodate
+four or five gents for the night, ay?"
+
+All of Clump's spirit was aroused, and he stammered as he replied--
+
+"No, mon; n-o-o-o!  We dussen keeps no ho-o-o--hotel 'ere, we dussen.
+You'se find tabben ober end de town.  Dis am Massa Tre-gel--Tre-gel--
+Massa Tregellin's privet mansion."
+
+"Ho! ho!" answered the man, slapping his hat down on his head and
+spitting again.  "_Massa_ Tregellin's house, is it?  Look here, boys,
+you just tell your dad, when you see him, that he has got a foolish,
+consequential nigger and a mean, tumbledown affair of a hut, if it can't
+'commodate some poor sailors.  Howsumever, I'll go back to my lugger,
+and bad luck to your _mansion_!  Old nig, look 'er here--perhaps we'll
+see each other again."  He looked slowly all round the room, and went
+out, slamming the doors after him.
+
+Fifteen minutes afterwards our tutors came in, and when they heard of
+our visitor Captain Mugford waxed wroth.
+
+"I wish I had been here," he exclaimed; "if I wouldn't have put that
+scoundrel off soundings in about half a splice!  The impudent fellow, to
+attempt to lord it in that style in a gentleman's house.  What do you
+think of it, Mr Clare, eh?"
+
+"Oh, not much, Captain Mugford.  The man was probably tipsy, and was of
+course a bully, or he would never have talked so before boys and a poor
+old negro.  I am glad neither Walter nor Harry was in the room."
+
+"So am I, sir," said Walter; "we were in the kitchen and came in when we
+heard the loud talking, just as the man slammed the doors in going out.
+We could have done nothing more than order him out."
+
+After tea we boys went into the kitchen again, leaving our tutors
+playing at chess, which Mr Clare was trying to teach Captain Mugford.
+That kitchen was a favourite resort of ours in the evenings, and Clump
+and Juno liked to have us there.  There was a famous fire--three or four
+fresh logs singing over a red mass of coal; plenty of ashes; and a
+whistled tune with a jet of smoke right from the heart of each stick.
+The brass fire-dogs were extra bright, reflecting the blaze on all
+sides.  Some chestnuts and potatoes were roasting in the ashes, and
+Clump had provided some cider to treat us to, this last night of ours on
+the cape.  So we pulled our chairs close around the fire, Clump sitting
+at one end, almost inside the chimney-place, smoking his pipe, and Juno
+at the other end, also almost inside the chimney-place, and smoking,
+too, her pipe.  Hi!  How they grinned, and chatted, and smoked.  After
+awhile, when we had had a full hour of real fun, quizzing the old folks,
+telling stories, eating chestnuts and potatoes, drinking cider, and
+listening to stories of the West Indies, Walter and Harry got up to
+clean their guns.
+
+"Wen you'se cum 'ere nudder time, 'spect dese ole black folks be gwine
+'way--be gwine 'crost de ribber Jordan?"--exclaimed Juno, with a long
+sigh.
+
+"Now, don't talk in that way," said Harry; "why, marm Juno, you and
+Clump will live to dance at my wedding; see if you don't; and now, Juno,
+just give us a kettle of hot water, will you, to rinse out these
+gun-barrels with."
+
+When the guns were washed, dried, and rubbed off with oil, I said to
+Clump, "Have you got any bullets or buckshot?"
+
+"Don't know, Massa Bob--'spects so, en my ole tool-box."
+
+"Why," asked Drake, "what are you going to do, Bob, with bullets and
+buckshot?"
+
+Clump was down on his knees in the closet, overhauling the tool-box he
+had spoken of.
+
+"Well, Drake, I'll tell you if Clump finds the articles," I answered.
+
+"Have you got any, Clump?"
+
+"Yah, Massa, 'ere's a han'ful."
+
+"These bullets and buckshot," I continued, "are for Walter and Harry to
+load their guns with; for, just as sure as that fellow came here this
+afternoon, just so sure, I believe, he will be back here before morning
+with more like him."
+
+"What stuff," sang out Walter, laughing; "what puts that in your head,
+Bob?"
+
+"I don't know exactly what, Walter, but I suspect it, and I have not
+liked to say anything about it before, because I was afraid of being
+laughed at.  But the more I think of it, the more certain I am that the
+man who was here to-night is one of the band of smugglers who owned the
+goods taken through our means by the revenue men.  There are others with
+him, and, mark my word, they have not come back for nothing.  Now do,
+fellows, load your guns.  We needn't say anything and get laughed at,
+for the Captain will surely laugh if we tell him my suspicions.  You can
+take your guns upstairs, and then, if anything does happen before
+morning, you'll be all ready."
+
+"Well, Walter," said Harry, "suppose we do--it's good fun at any rate to
+make believe that robbers, and outlaws, and smugglers, and all other
+sorts of odd visitors are coming--and--I cannot help owning that what
+Bob says sounds probable.  So here go two bullets for this barrel, and
+nine buckshot for the other.  Come, Walt, load up!  Don't you shake in
+your boots already? ugh!"
+
+"It is curious that we should have pretended to be smugglers if
+smugglers really do come.  Probably that makes Bob fancy they will come;
+still, I wish that we had not frightened the old people so," said
+Walter, loading his gun; and a few minutes later Mr Clare opened the
+kitchen door and called us in to evening prayers.  As they always did,
+Clump and Juno assembled with us in the dining-room.
+
+There was something very impressive in those few moments before the
+chapter for reading was found.  There was the sound of the turning over
+of the Bible leaves, and that of a light, pattering autumn rain without,
+(it had commenced after dark), besides the comfortable crackling of the
+wood-fire, and the occasional snapping of the fresh logs.  The old,
+devoted, pious negroes; the rugged, benevolent Captain, with an
+expression of thought and reverent waiting in his face; and we boys, so
+full of youth and spirits, sat thinking--soberly, and perhaps solemnly--
+how neither sickness nor harm had come near us; what blessings of
+pleasure, health, and strength had waited on us all during half a year;
+how those dear ones separated from us had been preserved from suffering
+and calamity, and were hoping to meet us before another week had
+commenced; how the common ties and associations that had united us so
+happily and so long were soon to be sundered.  Those and many other--
+some graver, some lighter--thoughts, in those few seconds, occupied our
+minds, whilst Mr Clare turned over the leaves beneath the table lamp,
+and then his clear, strong voice slowly and feelingly uttered the words:
+"I will say of the Lord, _He is_ my refuge and my fortress: my God; in
+Him will I trust.  Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the
+fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  He shall cover thee with His
+feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth _shall_ be
+_thy_ shield and buckler.  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
+night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that
+walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday...
+Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High,
+thy habitation...  For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to
+keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest
+thou dash thy foot against a stone...  He shall call upon Me, and I will
+answer him.  I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him and
+honour him.  With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My
+salvation."
+
+And when the prayers had ended, we separated quietly for our beds, the
+Captain going off as usual to the brig.
+
+I turned the key in the hall-door as he went out--the first time such a
+thing had been done during our stay on the cape.  Ugly coiled himself up
+on the horsehair sofa in the dining-room, and in half an hour more, I
+suppose, every soul in the old house was asleep.
+
+I dreamed that a lot of rabbits were in a hole together and making a
+humming noise, which, I believed, was a whispering they were having
+together, and I wanted to hear what they said, but that Ugly made such a
+barking I could not.  I woke up, and, sure enough, Ugly was very noisy
+in the room below, barking regularly and harshly.  No one else in the
+house seemed to be disturbed.  There was a placid snoring in the attic,
+a pattering of rain on the roof, and a splashing of water, as it ran off
+steadily in a stream to the ground.  But in a minute or two, between
+Ugly's barks I thought I heard something which recalled what I had been
+dreaming of, the rabbits whispering in their burrow.  I listened.  Yes,
+some persons outside the house were talking together in low voices.  I
+crawled to a window and looked out.  There was an indistinct group of
+three or four persons standing by the rock, twenty yards from the house.
+Their talk was only a murmur of different voices in discussion,
+sometimes louder, sometimes fainter; but as I watched, one of the group
+struck a light, and I saw in the flash four or five or more figures, and
+the face of the man who had entered the house in the evening, who was
+now holding a lantern to be lighted, and was also looking up at the
+house.  It was a dark lantern, I suppose, for the light was shut up in
+some way after that.  I shook each of the boys and told them to look out
+of the window, and then I ran into Mr Clare's room and woke him.  When
+he saw that some sort of robbery or attack was to be made on the house,
+he exclaimed, "I hope they do not know that the Captain is alone in the
+brig," and ran downstairs to bolt all the doors and windows as securely
+as they could be fastened, and awaken Clump and Juno, who slept in a
+little room off the kitchen.  Not a lamp was lighted in the house, but
+the smugglers had heard the noises made, and now, talking and swearing
+aloud, approached the door and turned the handle.  Being bolted within,
+they could not open it.
+
+"Hullo! hullo!  I say, you Tregellin fellows, wake up!"--it was the
+voice we had heard before--"wake up and let us in?"--it sounded as if he
+turned to his companions then, and laughed and muttered
+something--"here's some decent sailor-boys as wants a drop and a bite,
+so wake up quick, boys and niggers!--let us in, I say, or we'll break
+open the doors, and break your bones into the bargain."
+
+At the conclusion of the speech, they all beat on the door and house
+with fists and sticks, and laughed loudly at their leader's joke.  Mr
+Clare now went down the narrow, creaking stairs again to the big door
+they were pounding against so fiercely, and from behind its defence
+answered the summons.
+
+"Men: this is a private house, and you must go away.  You will get
+nothing here, and we are armed."
+
+"Hurrah!" they answered without.  I shall omit the terrible oaths with
+which they loaded every breath they spoke.  "Who are you, big voice?"
+
+"No matter," called out Mr Clare, "who I am.  I suspect who you are,
+and we do not intend to let you get in here--that is all."
+
+"That's a lie--we'll be in in ten minutes and make your bass a squeak.
+If you don't open this 'ere door in a jiffy--we'll make grease-pots of
+you along with them niggers.  Look what we'll do with your castle--just
+what we have been doing with the old hulk down there on the rocks."
+
+As he spoke, the darkness in the house withdrew to the holes and
+corners, and flashes of red and white light shot into every window and
+played on the walls, reflected from the midnight sky that had suddenly
+kindled to a blaze.  The outlaws had set the old wreck on fire--our dear
+old school-house.
+
+Could the Captain be there, sleeping yet? or had they killed him?
+
+Ah! that doubt about Captain Mugford's safety magnified the danger of
+our own situation to our imaginations.  If those outlaws could burn, in
+madness, such a harmless thing as the castaway brig, and could conquer
+such a powerful man as our salt tute, what might they not do here to us?
+
+The hour--the yelling and swearing and banging at the doors--the lurid
+glare flashing from the sky to show us each other's fear-stamped
+countenances--those united to bewilder and appal us boys at least.
+
+Juno, too, was upstairs in our room, sitting on a low chair, perfectly
+silent, but overcome by dread.  But Clump, who now showed the courage he
+really possessed, was active with Mr Clare downstairs, strengthening
+every window and door.  He was not afraid.  His old spirit was aroused,
+and, in the defence of his dear master's children, he was anxious to
+prove his courage and fidelity.
+
+"Harry," Mr Clare called up the stairs, "bring me your gun.  I shall
+want that down here.  You say it is all loaded and ready, eh?  Well,
+bring it down.  Walter, you keep yours upstairs, and all you boys remain
+there until it is necessary to come down; and now, Walter, don't fire
+unless there is absolute necessity.  The rascals can't burn this house
+unless they light the roof, and they can't stay here all night to do
+that, for the light of the _Clear the Track_ will bring over some of the
+townspeople.  Poor Mugford! poor Mugford!  Bob, you climb up to that
+little window in the south gable-end, and see if you can detect any
+movement about the wreck."
+
+Harry handed him the gun, and I climbed to the lookout, relinquishing
+Ugly, whom I had been holding, to Juno's care.  He had been ordered not
+to bark, so now he only panted fiercely and listened intently.
+
+The smugglers, after vain attempts at the front door--they could have
+smashed in the windows, shutters, latches, glass, and all, but their
+small size and height from the ground made them most dangerous to enter
+by when there were defenders within went round to the back of the house,
+and presently I heard a great ripping and banging of boards there, and
+Mr Clare's voice call quickly--
+
+"If one inch of you enter there, I will fire--understand that."
+
+Then we heard a shot, but knew by the report that it was not Harry's
+gun, and Drake called down the stairs, "Clump, who fired?"
+
+"De smugglers, Massa; one den shoot tru de winder at Massa Clare, but
+tank de Lor, the scoundrel miss."
+
+Just then I saw--and how the blood coursed with one cold sweep from my
+heart and back again--amid the hot flames of the burning wreck, Captain
+Mugford's figure.  He sprang from the deck to the rocks and was rushing
+towards the house.  I turned and called the good news, but found that
+Juno and I were alone.  The others, too much excited and interested in
+the contest to remain longer prisoners in the attic, had got on the
+stairway, and when I looked down on them Walter was on the bottom step
+with his gun cocked.
+
+Now many steps and the yelled-out blasphemy of the smugglers came round
+the house again to the front.  Though, as we knew afterwards, two
+remained to keep Mr Clare occupied there, whilst the three others were
+to try the windows again.
+
+Captain Mugford must be near.  Oh! that he could get here safely.  Ugly
+jumped by me, and, uttering a savage bark, sprang downstairs and past
+Walter.  He had escaped from Juno's charge.  As he flew about the rooms
+downstairs, a whole sash and shutter in the south-east room were driven
+in by a blow of an immense beam, and in another second half the body of
+a smuggler was above the window-sill.  But with a tremendous leap Ugly
+reached him and pinned him by the throat.  They tumbled back together.
+Then we heard a new voice--Captain Mugford's!
+
+"You cowards, you hang-dogs, you scum of the sea, you dark-hearted
+blackguards--take that!  Aye, villains!--and that!"
+
+Two pistol shots were heard.  Harry jumped to open the door for Captain
+Mugford.  Walter stood ready beside him with the gun.  I ran with Drake
+to the open window, to see if harm had come to our dear salt tute, and
+Alfred had hurried in to where Mr Clare was alone guarding the
+back-door and broken windows, for he had sent Clump, not knowing of our
+being downstairs and of the Captain's coming, to fight where we were.
+Clump had a short iron bar in his hands.  I saw the man whom Ugly had
+gripped fallen on his knees and cutting our gallant little dog from his
+neck with a knife.  One outlaw was stretched on the ground.  Another was
+struggling with the Captain.  He was a large, powerful fellow, and
+seemed to be getting the better of our now much-exhausted tutor.  As I
+looked, the prostrate man rose, and both he and the one whom poor Ugly--
+now dead on the grass--had attacked came to help crush the Captain.
+Then the front door was flung open.  Walter fired, and the man who had
+killed our brave dog dropped the knife he held, and, clasping his left
+shoulder with his right hand, screamed out a terrible oath, and, yelling
+with pain, ran from the struggle.  At the same moment--all these events,
+from the time Captain Mugford arrived until the door was opened to admit
+him, not occupying probably three minutes--the Captain fell beneath his
+adversary, whose fingers clutched his throat, and the infuriated outlaw
+seemed determined to finish him.  Walter could not fire again without
+shooting the very one for whose safety alone he would fire.  But Clump
+jumped out with his iron bar and struck the assailant on the head.  The
+Captain was released just as I saw the other miscreant level a pistol at
+Clump.  I called, "Oh, Clump, Clump, take care!"  With the sound of my
+voice came the sharp, fatal crack of the pistol, and Clump fell
+back--_dead_!
+
+Two minutes more and all the smugglers were in full flight.  The old,
+grey-headed, faithful, true-hearted Clump was dead, and Juno stretched
+unconscious on her husband's body.  Ugly, all hacked to pieces, lay in a
+pool of blood, yet gasping.  Captain Mugford, wounded, bruised, and
+exhausted, sat on the doorstep.  Mr Clare was leaning over Clump with a
+hand on the pulseless heart.  The burning wreck yet lighted the heavens,
+and the horrid scene at the very doorstep of our home of such a happy
+half-year.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+A RETROSPECT AND FAREWELL.
+
+It is fifty years ago and some months since that rainy, bloody,
+flame-lit October night.  And now this cold, wintery, blustering
+midnight, I--the Bob Tregellin of my story--sit writing this concluding
+chapter.
+
+There is a coal-fire glowing hot in the grate.  There are shelves and
+shelves of books; easy-chairs sprawling their indolent figures here and
+there; a curled-up bunch of fur purring in one; an old black setter-dog
+dreaming--as I can see by the whine in his quick breathing and the
+kicking of his outstretched legs--on a bearskin rug before the fire; and
+a circle of bright light from a well-shaded lamp falls about my table.
+Yes--but I shall get up now for a minute and take down the old musket
+and dog-collar, the sight of which always vividly recalls those happiest
+months of my life--Fifty Years Ago.
+
+As I replace them the storm without comes in a heavier, fiercer gust.  I
+hear it rush in a whirl up the street.  I see it almost lift the heavy
+curtains over the window, as if it would come in and rest itself.  I
+hear it whistling through all the cracks and keyholes of the house--
+whistling dismally.  Its voices, and the rumbling of a hack in some
+neighbouring street, remind me of storms I have heard, lying comfortably
+in my snug attic bed in the old house on the cape--the wind and the
+waves dashing up the rocky shore.
+
+That strong whiff disturbed pussy's and "the Captain's" (so I have
+called my old setter friend) nap, for puss stands up on her morocco bed
+and arches her back like a horseshoe, and then springs, with a
+jolted-out "mew-r-r-r," right on my table, and proceeds to walk over
+this manuscript, carrying her tail up as if she wanted to light it by
+the gas and beg me then to touch it to my pipe and stop scribbling.  So
+I shall presently.  And the Captain strolls up to lay his cold nose on
+my knee, slowly wag his silky tail, and look kindly into my face with
+those soft, big eyes, as if he would say, "Come, master, don't be
+low-spirited."
+
+You are right, old fellow!  I was somewhat sad about leaving the
+pleasant companionship I have held through my pen with brothers and
+friends of the old time, and a goodly number of those who are young now,
+while I am so no longer, except in memory and heart.  Youth has come
+back with these pages, and perhaps you are tired with me, but I--I shall
+never tire of the _young_--the glorious companionship of the pure,
+merry, brave hearts that look undaunted and without suspicion on the
+great road stretching far into the Future, and fading only to reappear
+in mirages of splendour in a brilliant sky.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+There!  I have smoked my pipe: and now, Miss Puss, stretch yourself in
+the chair again, and you, Captain, resume that dream by the fire.  I
+have got a few more lines to write before my invisible friends leave me.
+
+From that autumn night, 1830, to this winter night of 1872, no clue has
+ever been discovered to the murderers of faithful old Clump.  About
+Christmas time of the same year Juno closed her earthly eyes in the old
+Cape House--to open them again, I fervently believe, in heaven.
+
+Mr Clare lives--a venerable clergyman in one of our great cities--his
+head and heart yet labouring earnestly in the Great Cause he serves.
+
+Captain Mugford sleeps in the home of his adoption--the ocean.  Five
+years after our six months together he sailed from Bristol as boatswain
+of a splendid ship for the Pacific.  A fortnight after, he was spoken by
+a homeward-bound brig, and that was the last ever heard of honest Roland
+Mugford, or the ship he sailed in.  I hope seas, winds, and
+undercurrents, however rough they may have been, left undisturbed the
+red bandanna and the short black pipe.  And we feel sure that the
+mother's prayers were answered, and that the boy who ran away from her
+in his youth came back to her,--whither her memory was a beacon light--
+the Eternal Harbour, unstirred by storms.
+
+Walter is a man of eminence--a diplomatist--and Harry a merchant, a
+cheerful, generous-hearted man, whose name is the synonym of honour, and
+whose hands "to do good, and to distribute, forget not."
+
+Drake, who entered the army after travelling in every strange and dim
+corner of the globe--frozen up in the Arctic Seas, perspiring in the
+interior of Africa, exploring among the western wilds of the Rocky
+Mountains, and doing other things adventurous in every out-of-the-way
+part--finally went with all his honest, hot zeal to India, where,
+fighting his country's battles, he spent many years of his life, and
+came back a general and one-legged man.  Now he _stumps_ about in this
+same library, but manages to take me travelling thousands of never-weary
+miles; and many and many a time do we walk, and shoot, and swim, and
+race, and fight over and over again that happy time at the cape.
+
+Poor Alfred--the best of all of us--died before his thirtieth year,
+nursed by a few devoted Africans, at his missionary station in the
+southern Atlantic.
+
+And I, whom the general calls "Vieux Moustache," have finished an old
+Boy's Story of "Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Mugford, by W.H.G. Kingston
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