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diff --git a/21725.txt b/21725.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..777cb39 --- /dev/null +++ b/21725.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6067 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coxswain's Bride, by R.M. Ballantyne + +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: The Coxswain's Bride + also, Jack Frost and Sons; and, A Double Rescue + +Author: R.M. Ballantyne + +Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21725] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COXSWAIN'S BRIDE *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +THE COXSWAIN'S BRIDE, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 1. + +THE RISING TIDE--A TALE OF THE SEA. + +The coxswain went by the name of Sturdy Bob among his mates. Among the +women of the village he was better known as handsome Bob, and, looking +at him, you could not help seeing that both titles were appropriate, for +our coxswain was broad and strong as well as good-looking, with that +peculiar cast of features and calm decided manner which frequently +distinguish the men who are born to lead their fellows. + +Robert Massey, though quite young, was already a leader of men--not only +by nature but by profession--being coxswain of the Greyton lifeboat, +and, truly, the men who followed his lead had need to be made of good +stuff, with bold, enthusiastic, self-sacrificing spirits, for he often +led them into scenes of wild--but, hold! We must not forecast. + +Well, we introduce our hero to the reader on a calm September evening, +which blazed with sunshine. The sun need not have been mentioned, +however, but for the fact that it converted the head of a fair-haired +fisher-girl, seated beside Bob, into a ball of rippling gold, and +suffused her young cheeks with a glow that rudely intensified her +natural colour. + +She was the coxswain's bride-elect, and up to that date the course of +their true love had run quite smoothly in spite of adverse proverbs. + +"I can't believe my luck," said Bob, gravely. + +He said most things gravely, though there was not a man in Greyton who +could laugh more heartily than he at a good joke. + +"What luck do you mean, Bob?" asked Nellie Carr, lifting her eyes from +the net she was mending, and fixing them on the coxswain's bronzed face +with an air of charming innocence. Then, becoming suddenly aware of +what he meant without being told, she gave vent to a quick little laugh, +dropped her eyes on the net, and again became intent on repairs. + +"To think," continued Bob, taking two or three draws at his short pipe-- +for our hero was not perfect, being, like so many of his class, +afflicted with the delusion of tobacco!--"to think that there'll be no +Nellie Carr to-morrow afternoon, only a Mrs Massey! The tide o' my +life is risin' fast, Nellie--almost at flood now. It seems too good to +be true--" + +"Right you are, boy," interrupted a gruff but hearty voice, as a burly +fisherman "rolled" round the stern of the boat, in front of which the +lovers were seated on the sand. "W'en my Moggie an' me was a-coortin' +we thought, an' said, it was too good to be true, an' so it was; +leastwise it was too true to be good, for Moggie took me for better an' +wuss, though it stood to reason I couldn't be both, d'ee see? an' I soon +found her wuss than better, which--" + +"Come, come, Joe Slag," cried Bob, "let's have none o' your ill-omened +growls to-night. What brings you here?" + +"I've comed for the key o' the lifeboat," returned Slag, with a knowing +glance at Nellie. "If the glass ain't tellin' lies we may have use for +her before long." + +Massey pulled the key from his pocket, and gave it to Slag, who was his +bowman, and who, with the exception of himself, was the best man of the +lifeboat crew. + +"I'll have to follow him," said Bob, rising soon after his mate had +left, "so good-bye, Nellie, till to-morrow." + +He did not stoop to kiss her, for the wide sands lay before them with +fisher-boys playing thereon--apparently in their fathers' boots and +sou'-westers--and knots of observant comrades scattered about. + +"See that you're not late at church to-morrow, Bob," said the girl, with +a smile and a warning look. + +"Trust me," returned Bob. + +As he walked towards the lifeboat-house--a conspicuous little building +near the pier--he tried to blow off some of the joy in his capacious +breast, by whistling. + +"Why, Slag," he exclaimed on entering the shed, "I do believe you've +been an' put on the blue ribbon!" + +"That's just what I've done, Bob," returned the other. "I thought you'd +'ave noticed it at the boat; but I forgot you could see nothin' but the +blue of Nellie's eyes." + +"Of course not. Who'd expect me to see anything else when I'm beside +_her_?" retorted Bob. "But what has made you change your mind? I'm +sure the last time I tried to get you to hoist the blue-peter ye were +obstinate enough--dead against it." + +"True, Bob; but since that time I've seed a dear woman that I was fond +of _die_ from drink, an' I've seed Tom Riley, one of our best men, get +on the road to ruin through the same; so I've hoisted the blue flag, as +ye see." + +"That's a good job, Slag, but don't you forget, my lad, that the blue +ribbon won't save you. There's but _one_ Saviour of men. Nevertheless, +it's well to fight our battles under a flag, an' the blue is a good +one--as things go. Show your colours and never say die; that's my +motto. As you said, Slag, the glass _is_ uncommon low to-day. I +shouldn't wonder if there was dirty weather brewin' up somewhere." + +The coxswain was right, and the barometer on that occasion was a true +prophet. The weather which "brewed up" that evening was more than +"dirty," it was tempestuous; and before midnight a tremendous hurricane +was devastating the western shores of the kingdom. Many a good ship +fought a hard battle that night with tide and tempest, and many a bad +one went down. The gale was short-lived but fierce, and it strewed our +western shores with wreckage and corpses, while it called forth the +energies and heroism of our lifeboat and coastguard men from north to +south. + +Driving before the gale that night under close-reefed topsails, a small +but well-found schooner came careering over the foaming billows from the +regions of the far south, freighted with merchandise and gold and happy +human beings. Happy! Ay, they were happy, both passengers and crew, +for they were used by that time to facing and out-riding gales; and was +not the desired haven almost in sight--home close at hand? + +The captain, however, did not share in the general satisfaction. Out in +"blue water" he feared no gale, but no one knew better than himself that +the enemy was about to assail him at his weakest moment--when close to +land. No one, however, could guess his thoughts as he stood there upon +the quarter-deck, clad in oil-skins, drenched with spray, glancing now +at the compass, now at the sails, or at the scarce visible horizon. + +As darkness deepened and tempest increased, the passengers below became +less cheerful, with the exception of one curly-haired little girl, whose +exuberant spirit nothing could quell. Her young widowed mother had +given in to the little one's importunities, and allowed her to sit up +late on this the last night at sea, to lend a helping hand while she +packed up so as to be ready for landing next day. Consent had been the +more readily given that the white-haired grandfather of little Lizzie +volunteered to take care of her and keep her out of mischief. + +The other passengers were as yet only subdued, not alarmed. There were +men and women and little ones from the Australian cities, rough men from +the sheep farms, and bronzed men from the gold mines. All were busy +making preparations to land on the morrow. With the exception of those +preparations things on board went on much as they had been going on in +"dirty weather" all the voyage through. + +Suddenly there was a crash! Most of the male passengers, knowing well +what it meant, sprang to the companion-ladder--those of them at least +who had not been thrown down or paralysed--and rushed on deck. Shrieks +and yells burst forth as if in emulation of the howling winds. Crash +followed crash, as each billow lifted the doomed vessel, and let her +fall on the sands with a shock that no structure made by man could long +withstand. Next moment a terrific rending overhead told that one, or +both, of the masts had gone by the board. At the same time the sea +found entrance and poured down hatchways and through opening seams in +cataracts. The inclined position of the deck showed that she was +aground. + +The very thought of being _aground_ comforted some, for, to their minds, +it implied nearness to land, and _land_ was, in their idea, safety. +These simple ones were doomed to terrible enlightenment. Little Lizzie, +pale and silent from terror, clung to her grandfather's neck; the young +widow to his disengaged arm. With the other arm the old man held on to +a brass rod, and prevented all three from being swept to leeward, where +several of the women and children were already struggling to escape from +a mass of water and wrecked furniture. + +"Come on deck--all hands!" shouted a hoarse voice, as one of the +officers leaped into the cabin, followed by several men, who assisted +the people to rise. + +It is usual to keep passengers below as much as possible in such +circumstances, but the position of the schooner, with her bow high on a +bank, and her stern deep in the water, rendered a different course +needful on this occasion. + +With difficulty the passengers were got up to the bow, where they +clustered and clung about the windlass and other points of vantage. +Then it was that the true nature of their calamity was revealed, for no +land was visible, nothing was to be seen around them but a hell of +raging foam, which, in the almost total darkness of the night, leaped +and glimmered as if with phosphoric light. Beyond this circle of, as it +were, wild lambent flame, all was black, like a wall of ebony, from out +of which continually there rushed into view coiling, curling, +hoary-headed monsters, in the shape of roaring billows, which burst upon +and over them, deluging the decks, and causing the timbers of the ship +to writhe as if in pain. + +"We've got on the tail o' the sands," muttered a sailor to some one as +he passed, axe in hand, to cut away the wreckage of the masts, which +were pounding and tugging alongside. + +On the sands! Yes, but no sands were visible, for they had struck on an +outlying bank, far from shore, over which the ocean swept like the besom +of destruction. + +It was nearly low water at the time of the disaster. As the tide fell +the wreck ceased to heave. Then it became possible for the seamen to +move about without clinging to shrouds and stanchions for very life. + +"Fetch a rocket, Jim," said the captain to one of the men. + +Jim obeyed, and soon a whizzing line of light was seen athwart the black +sky. + +"They'll never see it," muttered the first mate, as he got ready another +rocket. "Weather's too thick." + +Several rockets were fired, and then, to make more sure of attracting +the lifeboat men, a tar-barrel, fastened to the end of a spar, was +thrust out ahead and set on fire. By the grand lurid flare of this +giant torch the surrounding desolation was made more apparent, and at +the fearful sight hearts which had hitherto held up began to sink in +despair. + +The mate's fears seemed to be well grounded, for no answering signal was +seen to rise from the land, towards which every eye was anxiously +strained. One hour passed, then another, and another, but still no help +came. Then the tide began to rise, and with it, of course, the danger +to increase. All this time rockets had been sent up at intervals, and +tar-barrels had been kept burning. + +"We had better make the women and children fast, sir," suggested the +mate, as a heavy mass of spray burst over the bulwarks and drenched +them. + +"Do so," replied the captain, gathering up a coil of rope to assist in +the work. + +"Is this necessary?" asked the widow, as the captain approached her. + +"I fear it is," he replied. "The tide is rising fast. In a short time +the waves will be breaking over us again, and you will run a chance of +bein' swept away if we don't make you fast. But don't despair, they +must have seen our signals by this time, an' we shall soon have the +lifeboat out." + +"God grant it," murmured the widow, fervently, as she strained poor +little trembling Lizzie to her breast. + +But as the moments flew by and no succour came, some gave way altogether +and moaned piteously, while others appeared to be bereft of all capacity +of thought or action. Many began to pray in frantic incoherence, and +several gave vent to their feelings in curses. Only a few maintained +absolute self-possession and silence. Among these were the widow and +one or two of the other women. + +They were in this condition when one of the crew who had been noted as a +first-rate singer of sea songs, and the "life of the fo'c's'l," had +occasion to pass the spot where the passengers were huddled under the +lee of the starboard bulwarks. + +"Is there never a one of ye," he asked, almost sternly, "who can pray +like a Christian without screechin'? You don't suppose the Almighty's +deaf, do you?" + +This unexpected speech quieted the noisy ones, and one of the women, +turning to a man beside her, said, "You pray for us, Joe." + +Joe was one of those who had remained, from the first, perfectly still, +except when required to move, or when those near him needed assistance. +He was a grave elderly man, whose quiet demeanour, dress, and general +appearance, suggested the idea of a city missionary--an idea which was +strengthened when, in obedience to the woman's request, he promptly +prayed, in measured sentences, yet with intense earnestness, for +deliverance--first from sin and then from impending death--in the name +of Jesus. His petition was very short, and it was barely finished when +a wave of unusual size struck the vessel with tremendous violence, burst +over the side and almost swept every one into the sea. Indeed, it was +evident that some of the weaker of the party would have perished then if +they had not been secured to the vessel with ropes. + +It seemed like a stern refusal of the prayer, and was regarded as such +by some of the despairing ones, when a sudden cheer was heard and a +light resembling a great star was seen to burst from the darkness to +windward. + +"The lifeboat!" shouted the captain, and they cheered with as much +hearty joy as if they were already safe. + +A few minutes more and the familiar blue and white boat of mercy leaped +out of darkness into the midst of the foaming waters like a living +creature. + +It was the boat from the neighbouring port of Brentley. Either the +storm-drift had not been so thick in that direction as in the +neighbourhood of Greyton, or the Brentley men had kept a better +look-out. She had run down to the wreck under sail. On reaching it--a +short distant to windward--the sail was lowered, the anchor dropped, the +cable payed out, and the boat eased down until it was under the lee of +the wreck. But the first joy at her appearance quickly died out of the +hearts of some, who were ignorant of the powers of lifeboats and +lifeboat men, when the little craft was seen at one moment tossed on the +leaping foam till on a level with the ship's bulwarks, at the next +moment far down in the swirling waters under the mizzen chains; now +sheering off as if about to forsake them altogether; anon rushing at +their sides with a violence that threatened swift destruction to the +boat; never for one instant still; always tugging and plunging like a +mad thing. "How can we ever get into that?" was the thought that +naturally sprang into the minds of some, with chilling power. + +Those, however, who understood the situation better, had more legitimate +ground for anxiety, for they knew that the lifeboat, if loaded to its +utmost capacity, could not carry more than half the souls that had to be +saved. On becoming aware of this the men soon began to reveal their +true characters. The unselfish and gentle made way for the women and +children. The coarse and brutal, casting shame and every manly feeling +aside, struggled to the front with oaths and curses, some of them even +using that false familiar motto, "Every man for himself, and God for us +all!" + +But these received a check at the gangway, for there stood the captain, +revolver in hand. He spoke but one word--"back," and the cravens slunk +away. The mild man who had offered prayer sat on the ship's bulwarks +calmly looking on. He understood the limited capacity of the boat, and +had made up his mind to die. + +"Now, madam, make haste," cried the mate, pushing his way towards the +widow. + +"Come, father," she said, holding out her hand; but the old man did not +move. + +"There are more women and little ones," he said, "than the boat can +hold. Good-bye, darling. We shall meet again--up yonder. Go." + +"Never!" exclaimed the widow, springing to his side. "I will die with +you, father! But here, boatman, save, oh, save my child!" + +No one attended to her. At such terrible moments men cannot afford to +wait on indecision. Other women were ready and only too glad to go. +With a sense almost of relief at the thought that separation was now +impossible, the widow strained the child to her bosom and clung to her +old father. + +At that moment the report of a pistol was heard, and a man fell dead +upon the deck. At the last moment he had resolved to risk all and +rushed to the side, intending to jump into the boat. + +"Shove off," was shouted. The boat shot from the vessel's side. The +bowman hauled on the cable. In a few seconds the oars were shipped, the +anchor was got in, and the overloaded but insubmergible craft +disappeared into the darkness out of which it had come. + +The wretched people thus left on the wreck knew well that the boat could +not make her port, land the rescued party, and return for them under +some hours. They also knew that the waves were increasing in power and +volume with the rising water, and that their vessel could not survive +another tide. Can we wonder that most of them again gave way to +despair--forgetting that with God "all things are possible?" + +They were not yet forsaken, however. On the pier-head at Greyton their +signals had indeed been observed, but while the Brentley boat, owing to +its position, could run down to the wreck with all sail set, it was +impossible for that of Greyton to reach it, except by pulling slowly +against wind and tide. + +The instant that Bob Massey saw the flare of the first tar-barrel he had +called out his men. One after another they came leaping over the +rocks--eager for the God-like work of saving life. + +It is one of the grand characteristics of our lifeboatmen that on being +summoned to the fight there are often far more volunteers than are +required. Joe Slag, as in duty bound, was first to answer the call. +Then several of the younger men came running down. Last of all--almost +too late--Tom Riley appeared, buckling on his lifebelt as he ran. His +gait was not quite steady, and his face was flushed. The coxswain was +quick to note these facts. + +"Take that lifebelt off!" he said, sternly, when Riley came up. + +No need to ask why. The tippler knew the reason why only too well, and +he also knew that it was useless, as well as dangerous, to disobey the +coxswain. He took off the belt at once, flung it down, and staggered +away back to his grog-shop. + +A powerful young fisherman--who had felt almost heart-broken by being +refused permission to go for want of room--gladly put on the belt and +took Riley's place. Another minute and they were out of the harbour, +battling with the billows and fighting their way inch by inch against +the howling blast. At last they got out so far that they could hoist +sail and run with a slant for the wreck. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 2. + +It was daylight by the time the Greyton lifeboat arrived at the scene of +action, but the thick, spray-charged atmosphere was almost as bad to see +through as the blackness of night. + +"I'm afeared she's gone," shouted Slag to the coxswain, putting his hand +to his mouth to prevent the words being blown bodily away. + +"No--I see her bearing sou'-west," was the brief reply, as Bob Massey +plied his steering oar. + +A few minutes later, and the despairing people on the wreck, catching +sight of the boat, greeted her with a long, wild cheer of reviving hope. + +"What is it?" asked the widow, faintly, for she had been growing +gradually weaker from prolonged exposure. + +"The lifeboat, darling," said her father. "Did I not say that He would +not forsake us?" + +"Thank God!" murmured the poor woman, fervently. "Look up, Lizzie; the +lifeboat is coming to save us!" + +The child, who had been comparatively warm and sheltered, at the expense +of her mother, looked up and smiled. + +Soon the boat was alongside, and much the same scene that we have +already described was re-enacted; but there were no rebels this time. +By the captain's resolute bearing at first many lives had probably been +saved. + +When most of the people had been lowered into the boat--not without +great risk and many bruises--the widow, who, cowering with her father +and child under the forecastle, had been overlooked, was led to the side +with her child. + +"Not together, ma'am," said the captain. "You'd likely drop her. Let +me lower the child down first; or come first yourself--that will be +better." + +"Give Lizzie to me," said the grandfather. "I'll hold her till you are +safe, and ready to receive her." + +"Look alive, ma'am," urged one of the lifeboat men, who had scrambled on +deck to render assistance. + +The widow was soon in the boat, and held out her arms for little Lizzie. +Somehow--no one could tell how--the men made a bungle of it. Perhaps +the very fear of doing so was the cause. Instead of being caught by the +boatmen, Lizzie slipped between the boat and the vessel into the boiling +sea. Giving one agonised cry, the grandfather leaped after her, but the +surging boat swept in at the moment, and the old man fortunately fell +into that instead of the sea. He was not hurt, for strong arms had been +upraised to receive him. The little child rose above the foam as she +was whirled past the stern of the boat by a swift current. Bob Massey +saw her little out-stretched arms. There was no time for thought or +consideration. With one bound the coxswain was overboard. Next moment +the crew saw him far astern with the child in his arms. + +"Get 'em all aboard _first_!" came back, even against the wind, in Bob's +powerful, deep-toned voice. + +Another moment, and he was lost to sight in the boiling waste of waters. +Slag knew well what he meant. If they should cast off the rope before +rescuing all, for the purpose of picking up the coxswain, there would be +no possibility of getting back again to the schooner, for she was fast +breaking up. Every current and eddy about these sands was well known to +Joe Slag, also the set of the tides--besides, had not Bob got on his +lifebelt? He felt, nevertheless, that it was a tremendous risk to let +him go. But what could poor Slag do? To cast off at once would have +been to sacrifice about a dozen lives for the sake of saving two. It +was a fearful trial. Joe loved Bob as a brother. His heart well nigh +burst, but it stood the trial. He did his duty, and held on to the +wreck! + +Duty, on that occasion, however, was done with a promptitude, and in a +fashion, that was not usual in one of his sedate nature. Fortunately, +none but men remained on the wreck by that time. + +"Tumble 'em in--sharp!" cried Slag. + +The lifeboat men obeyed literally, and tumbled them in with a celerity +that might almost have awakened surprise in a sack of potatoes! + +To haul up the anchor would have been slow work. Slag--economical by +nature--became extravagant for once. An axe made short work of cable +and anchor. + +"Let 'em go!" he growled, as the boat drifted away. + +The sail was set with miraculous speed, for now the wind was in their +favour, and the gay lifeboat bounded off in the direction where Bob had +disappeared, as though it felt a lively interest in the recovery of its +coxswain. It seemed as if the very elements sympathised with their +anxiety, for just then the gale sensibly abated, and the rising sun +broke through a rift in the grey clouds. + +"There he is--I see him!" shouted the man in the bow--pointing eagerly +ahead. + +"It's on'y a bit o' wreck, boy," cried a comrade. + +"Right you are," returned the bowman. + +"There he is, though, an' no mistake, this time. Port!--port! +hard-a-port!" + +As he spoke, the boat swept round into a sort of cross-current among the +waves, where an object resembling a man was observed spinning slowly +round like a lazy teetotum. They were soon alongside. A dozen +claw-like hands made a simultaneous grasp, and hauled the object on +board with a mighty cheer, for it was, indeed, the coxswain--alive, +though much exhausted--with his precious little curly-haired burden in +his arms. + +The burden was also alive, and not much exhausted, for the weather was +comparatively warm at the time, and Bob had thrust her little head into +the luxuriant thicket of his beard and whiskers; and, spreading his +great hands and arms all over her little body, had also kept her well +out of the water--all which the great buoyancy of his lifebelt enabled +him easily to do. + +Shall we describe the joy of the widow and the grandfather? No; there +are some sacred matters in life which are best left to the imagination. +The sunshine which had begun to scatter the clouds, and flood both land +and sea, was typical of the joy which could find no better means than +sobs wherewith to express gratitude to the God of mercy. + +We have said that the gale had begun to abate. When the lifeboat +escaped from the turmoil of cross-seas that raged over the sands and got +into deep water, all difficulties and dangers were past, and she was +able to lay her course for Greyton harbour. + +"Let's have another swig o' that cold tea," said Bob Massey, resuming +his rightful post at the helm. "It has done me a power o' good. I had +no notion that cold tea was so good for warmin' the cockles o' one's +heart." + +Ah! Bob Massey, it was not the cold tea, but the saving of that little +girl that sent the life's blood careering so warmly through your veins! +However, there's no harm done in putting it down to the credit of the +cold tea. Had the tea been hot, there might have been some truth in +your fancy. + +"What's the time?" asked Bob, with a sudden look of anxiety. + +"Just gone ten," said Slag, consulting a chronometer that bore some +resemblance to an antique warming-pan. + +The look of anxiety on the coxswain's countenance deepened. + +"Ease off the sheet a bit," he said, looking sternly over the weather +quarter, and whistling for a fresher breeze, though most men would have +thought the breeze fresh enough already. + +As if to accommodate him, and confirm the crew in the whistling +superstition, the breeze did increase at the moment, and sent the +lifeboat, as one of the men said, "snorin'" over the wild sea towards +the harbour of Greyton. + +It was a grand sight to behold the pier of the little port on that +stormy morning. Of course, it had soon become known that the lifeboat +was out. Although at starting it had been seen by only a few of the old +salts--whose delight it was to recall the memory of grand stormy times +long past, by facing the gales at all hours in oiled coats and +sou'-westers--the greater part of the fishing village only became aware +of the fact on turning out to work in the morning. We have said that +the gale had moderated, and the sun had come out, so that the pier was +crowded, not only with fisher-folk, but with visitors to the port, and +other landsmen. + +Great was the hope, and sanguine the expectation of the crowd, when, +after long and anxious waiting, the lifeboat was at last descried far +out at sea, making straight for the harbour. + +"All right, Bill," exclaimed an old fisherman, who had been for some +time past sweeping the horizon with his glass, "the flag's a-flyin'." + +"What does that mean?" asked a smart young lady, who had braved the +blast and run the risk of a salt-wash from the sprays at the pier-end in +her eager desire to see the boat arrive. + +"It means, Miss, that they've managed to save somebody--how many, in +course, we can't tell till they come." + +There was a strong disposition on the part of the crowd to cheer when +this was said. + +After a few minutes' further observation, the old man with the glass +murmured, as if speaking to himself, "I do believe she's chock-full o' +people." + +When this was repeated, the suppressed cheer broke forth, and the +excitement increased. Soon the people with good eyes could see for +themselves that the swiftly approaching boat was as full as she could +hold, of human beings. At the same time, those who were in the boat +could see the swarms of sympathisers on the pier who awaited their +arrival. + +But there was one man who took no note of these things, and seemed +indifferent to everything around him. The coxswain of the lifeboat was +spiritually absent from the scene. + +"You seem to've got the fidgets, Bob," remarked Joe Slag, looking +earnestly at his friend. "That swim has been too much for 'ee." + +"'Taint that, Joe," replied Bob, quickly. "What's the time now, lad?" + +Pulling out the antique warming-pan again, Slag said it was nigh a +quarter past ten, and added that he, (Bob), seemed to be "uncommon +consarned about the time o' day that mornin'." + +"And so would you be, lad," returned the coxswain, in a low voice, as he +advanced his mouth to his comrade's ear, "if you was in my fix. I've +got to be spliced this day before twelve, an' the church is more'n two +miles inland!" + +"That's awk'ard," returned Slag, with a troubled look. "But, I say, +Bob, you've kep' this uncommon close from us all--eh? I never heerd ye +was to be spliced so soon." + +"Of course I kep' it close, 'cos I wanted to give you an' my mates a +surprise, but it strikes me I'll give some other people a surprise +to-day, for there's no time to put on clean toggery." + +"You'll never manage it," said Slag, in a sympathetic tone, as he once +more consulted the warming-pan. "It's gettin' on for half arter ten +now, an' it takes a mortal time to rig out in them go-to-meetin' slops." + +"Do I look anything like a bridegroom as I am?" asked the coxswain with +a curious glance. + +"Sca'cely," replied Slag, surveying his friend with a grim smile--"(mind +your helm, Bob, there's a awk'ard run on the tide round the pier-head, +you know.) No; you're not wery much like one. Even if your toggery was +all ship-shape--which it ain't--it would stand dryin', and your hair +would be the better o' brushin'--to say nothin' o' your beard--an' it do +seem, too, as if a bit o' soap might improve your hands an' face arter +last night's work. No, Bob, I couldn't honestly say as you're exactly +ship-shape as you stand." + +"Listen, Joe Slag," said Bob Massey, with sudden earnestness. "I've +never yet come in after a rescue without seein' the boat hauled up an' +made snug. `Dooty first, an' pleasure arter,' that's bin my motto, as +_you_ know. But dooty lies in another direction _this_ day, so you +promise to see her hauled up, an' cleaned, an' properly housed, won't +you?" + +"In coorse I does." + +"Well, then," continued Bob, in the same low, earnest tone, "arter +that's done, you'll go an' invite all our mates an' friends to a jolly +blow-out in the big shed alongside o' my old mother's house. Don't tell +who invites 'em, or anything about it, an' ask as many as like to come-- +the shed's big enough to hold 'em all. Only be sure to make 'em +understand that they'll get no drink stronger than coffee an' tea. If +they can't enjoy themselves on that, they may go to the grog-shop, but +they needn't come to _me_. My mother will be there, and she'll keep 'em +in order!" + +"What!" exclaimed Slag, with a look of slight surprise. "Your mother! +Her what's bin bed-ridden for years, an' hasn't got no legs at all-- +leastwise not to speak of?" + +"Just so, lad. We'll lift her in, bed an' all. Now you be off to the +bow. Oars out, lads; stand by the halyards!" + +They were by that time close to the pier-head, where the people were +shouting and cheering, some of them even weeping, and waving hats, +'kerchiefs, sticks, and umbrellas, almost wild with joy at seeing so +many fellow-creatures rescued from the maw of the hungry sea. + +The first man who leaped out when the lifeboat touched the pier was the +coxswain, dripping, dirty, and dishevelled. + +"Bless you, my gallant fellow!" exclaimed an irrepressible old +enthusiast, stepping forward and attempting to grasp the coxswain's +hand. + +But Bob Massey, brushing past him, ran along the pier, leaped a fence, +and sprang up the steep path that led to the cliffs, over the top of +which he was finally seen to bound and disappear. + +"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the irrepressible enthusiast, looking aghast at +Slag, "exposure and excitement have driven him mad!" + +"Looks like it!" replied Slag, with a quiet grin, as he stooped to +assist the widow and little Lizzie to land, while ready hands were +out-stretched to aid and congratulate the old grandfather, and the rest +of the rescued people. + +The coxswain ran--ay, he ran as he had been wont to run when he was a +wild little fisher-boy--regardless alike of appearances and +consequences. The clock of the village steeple told him that the +appointed hour had almost arrived. Two miles was a long way to run in +heavy woollen garments and sea-boots, all soaked in sea-water. But Bob +was young, and strong, and active, and--you understand the rest, good +reader! + +The church had purposely been selected at that distance from the village +to prevent Bob's comrades from knowing anything about the wedding until +it should be over. It was a somewhat strange fancy, but the coxswain +was a man who, having taken a fancy, was not easily turned from it. + +In order to her being got comfortably ready in good time, Nellie Carr +had slept the night before at the house of an uncle, who was a farmer, +and lived near the church. The house was in a sheltered hollow, so that +the bride was scarcely aware of the gale that had been blowing so +fiercely out at sea. Besides, being much taken up with +cousin-bridesmaids and other matters, the thought of the lifeboat never +once entered her pretty head. + +At the appointed hour, arrayed in all the splendour of a fisherman's +bride, she was led to the church, but no bridegroom was there! + +"He won't be long. He's _never_ late," whispered a bridesmaid to +anxious Nellie. + +Minutes flew by, and Nellie became alarmed. The clergyman also looked +perplexed. + +"Something must have happened," said the farmer-uncle, apologetically. + +Watches were consulted and compared. + +At that moment a heavy rapid tread was heard outside. Another moment, +and Bob Massey sprang into the church, panting, flushed, dirty, wet, +wild, and, withal, grandly savage. + +"Nellie!" he exclaimed, stopping short, with a joyful gaze of +admiration, for he had never seen her so like an angel before. + +"Bob!" she cried in alarm, for she had never before seen him so like a +reprobate. + +"Young man," began the clergyman, sternly, but he got no further; for, +without paying any attention to him whatever, Bob strode forward and +seized Nellie's hands. + +"I dursen't kiss ye, Nell, for I'm all wet; but I hadn't one moment to +change. Bin out all night i' the lifeboat an' saved over thirty souls. +The Brentley boat's done as much. I'm ashamed, sir," he added, turning +to the clergyman, "for comin' here like this; but I couldn't help it. I +hope there's nothin' in Scriptur' agin' a man bein' spliced in wet +toggery?" + +Whether the clergyman consulted his Cruden's Concordance with a view to +clear up that theological question, we have never been able to +ascertain; but it is abundantly clear that he did not allow the +coxswain's condition to interfere with the ceremony, for in the _Greyton +Journal_, of next day, there appeared a paragraph to the following +effect: + + "The marriage of Robert Massey, the heroic coxswain of our lifeboat, + (which, with all its peculiar attendant circumstances, and the gallant + rescue that preceded it, will be found in another part of this day's + issue), was followed up in the afternoon by a feast, and what we may + style a jollification, which will live long in the memory of our + fisher-folk. + + "Several circumstances combined to render this wedding-feast unique. + To say nothing of the singular beauty of the bride, who is well known + as one of the most thrifty and modest girls in the town, and the + stalwart appearance of our coxswain, who, although so young, has + already helped to save hundreds of human lives from the raging sea, + the gathering was graced by the presence of the bridegroom's + bed-ridden mother. Old Mrs Massey had been carried in, bed and all, + to the scene of festivity; and it is due to the invalid to state that, + despite rheumatics and the singularity of her position, she seemed to + enjoy herself exceedingly. Besides this, the friends and comrades of + the coxswain--backed by the enthusiastic groomsman, Joe Slag--would + not permit Massey to don wedding garments, but insisted on his dancing + himself dry, in the rough garb in which he had effected the rescue. + This he had no difficulty in doing, having already run himself more + than half dry in hastening from the lifeboat to the church, which + latter he reached only just in time. + + "The little girl whom Massey personally saved was also present, with + her mother and grandfather; and one interesting episode of the evening + was the presentation to our coxswain of a gold watch and a purse of + fifty sovereigns by the grateful old grandfather. Another peculiarity + of the proceedings was that Massey insisted--although the clergyman + was present--on his old mother asking God's blessing on the feast + before it began. All who are acquainted with our liberal-minded vicar + will easily understand that he highly approved of the arrangement. + + "To crown all, the feast was conducted on strictly teetotal + principles. We have frequently advocated the principles of total + abstinence in these columns--at least for the young, the healthy, and + the strong--and we are glad to acknowledge that this wedding has + greatly helped our cause; for the fun and hilarity in all, the vigour + of limb in dancing, and of lung in singing--in short, the general + jollity--could not have been surpassed if the guests had been swilling + rivers of beer and brandy, instead of oceans of tea. Yes, as one of + the Irish guests remarked, `It was a great occasion intoirely,' and it + will be long before the event is forgotten, for the noble deeds of our + Greyton lifeboat are, from this day forward, intimately and + inseparably connected with her coxswain's wedding!" + +Thus spake the Greyton oracle; but, prophet though that journal +professed to be, the oracle failed to discern that from that time +forward the names of Robert Massey and Joe Slag would very soon cease to +be connected with the Greyton lifeboat. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 3. + +Soon after the wedding recorded in the last chapter an event occurred +which entirely altered the character and current of our coxswain's +career, at least for a time. This was the sudden death of the +bed-ridden old mother, who had played such an interesting part at the +wedding-feast. + +To our hero, who was a tender-hearted man, and a most affectionate son, +the blow was almost overwhelming, although long expected. + +"I don't think I can stay here much longer," he said one evening to his +pretty wife, as they sat together outside their door and watched the +village children romping on the sands; "everything minds me o' the dear +old woman, an' takes the heart out me. If it wasn't for you, Nell, I'd +have been off to the other side o' the world long before now, but I find +it hard to think o' takin' you away from all your old friends and +playmates--and your Aunt Betty." + +A peculiar smile lit up Nellie's face as her husband concluded. + +"I should be sorry to leave the old friends here," she replied, "but +don't let that hinder you if ye want to go away. I'd leave everything +to please you, Bob. And as to Aunt Betty--well, I'm not ungrateful, I +hope, but--but _she_ wouldn't break her heart at partin' wi' _me_." + +"Right you are, Nell, as you always was, and always will be," said +Massey. He laughed a short, dry laugh, and was grave again. + +It was quite evident that Aunt Betty would not be a hindrance to the +departure of either of them and no wonder, for Betty had received Nellie +Carr into her family with a bad grace when her widowed brother, "old +Carr," died, leaving his only child without a home. From that day Betty +had brought the poor little orphan up--or, rather, had scolded and +banged her up--until Bob Massey relieved her of the charge. To do Aunt +Betty justice, she scolded and banged up her own children in the same +way; but for these--her own young ones--she entertained and expressed a +species of affection which mankind shares in common with cats, while for +Nellie Carr she had no such affection, and contrived to make the fact +abundantly plain. As we not infrequently find in such circumstances, +the favoured children--which numbered seven--became heart-breakers, +while the snubbed one turned out the flower of the flock. + +"Then you're sure you won't think it hard, Nell, if I ask you to leave +home and friends and go wi' me over the sea?" + +"Yes, Bob, I'm quite sure. I'm willin' to follow you to the end o' the +world, or further if that's possible!" + +"Then the thing's settled," said Massey, with decision, rising and +thrusting his short pipe into his vest pocket, the lining of which had +already been twice renewed in consequence of the inroads of that +half-extinguished implement. + +In pursuance of his "settled" purpose, our coxswain proceeded to the +lifeboat-shed in search of his bowman, Joe Slag, and found him there. + +"Joe," said he, in the quiet tone that was habitual to him, "Nell and I +have made up our minds to go to Australia." + +"To Austrailly!" exclaimed Slag, leaning his arms on the mop with which +he had been washing down the lifeboat. + +"Ay; I can't settle to work nohow since the dear old woman went away; +so, as Nell is agreeable, and there's nothin' to keep me here, I've +decided to up anchor and bear away for the southern seas." + +The bowman had seated himself on a cask while his friend was speaking, +and gazed at him with a bewildered air. + +"Are 'ee in arnest, Bob?" + +"Ay, Joe, in dead earnest." + +"An' you say that you've nothin' to keep you here! What's this?" said +Slag, laying his strong hand tenderly on the blue side of the boat. + +"Well, I'll be sorry to leave _her_, of course, an all my friends in +Greyton, but friends will get along well enough without me, an' as for +the boat, she'll never want a good coxswain while Joe Slag's alive an' +well." + +"You're wrong there, mate," returned the bowman, quickly, while a look +of decision overspread his bluff countenance, "there'll be both a noo +cox'n and a noo bowman wanted for her before long, for as sure as the +first goes away the tother follers." + +"Nonsense, Joe; you're jokin' now." + +"Yes, I'm jokin' if _you're_ jokin'; otherwise, I'm in dead arnest too-- +in as dead arnest as yourself, if not deader. Wasn't you an' me born on +the same day, Bob? Didn't our mothers crow over us cheek by jowl when +we was babbies? Haven't we rollicked together on the shore ever since +we was the height of our daddies' boots, an' gone fishin' in company, +fair weather an' foul, to the present hour, to say nothin' o' the times +we've lent a hand to rescue men an' women an' child'n i' the lifeboat? +No, no, Bob Massey! if you lay yer course for Austrailly, Joseph Slag +follers, as sure as a gun." + +Finding that his comrade was in downright earnest, and possessed of a +will as inflexible as his own, Bob made no effort to dissuade him from +his purpose. On the contrary, he approved of the determination, for he +was pleased at the unexpected demonstration of affection which his +announcement had called forth in one who was by nature undemonstrative, +and who, having thus given vent to his aroused feelings, quickly resumed +the reserve from which he had been so suddenly drawn out. Massey, +therefore, shook hands with him, by way of sealing an unspoken compact +of eternal friendship, and suggested that they should proceed together +to the office of an emigration agent, who had recently made his +appearance in the village. + +In the office they found a very small boy, with an air of +self-possession that would have been suitable in his grandfather. + +"Is the agent in?" asked the coxswain. + +"Yes, but engaged. Sit down; he'll attend to you directly." + +The lifeboat men obeyed, almost sheepishly, the one speculating as to +whether highly developed precocity was not almost criminal, the other +wondering how such a boy would look and act if obliged to undergo the +process of being rescued--say by the hair of his head--from a wreck. + +Their minds were diverted from this subject of contemplation by the +entrance of a man and woman. These, like themselves, were told to sit +down and wait. The man was long, thin, and lugubrious. The woman +short, slight, and lackadaisical, though rather pretty. + +Evidently the agent was a busy man, for he kept them waiting some time. +When he at length appeared he almost took the breath away from his +visitors, by the rapid and enthusiastic way in which he described the +advantages of the great island on the other side of the globe. There +was gold--yes, _enormous_ quantities of gold in all directions. There +was land of the finest quality to be had for next to nothing; work for +all who were blessed with good bone and muscle; a constant demand for +labour--skilled or unskilled--at high wages; a climate such as the +Olympian gods might revel in, and--in short, if all England had heard +the oration delivered by that man, and had believed it, the country +would, in less than a month, have been depopulated of its younger men +and women, and left to the tender mercies of the old and middle-aged. + +Our two fishermen were captivated. So were the lugubrious man and his +mild little wife. The end of it was that, three weeks later, these +four, with many other men and women of all ranks and conditions, found +themselves on board the good ship _Lapwing_, ploughing their way through +the billows of the broad Atlantic Ocean bound for the sunny isles of the +Antipodes. + +Wheels within wheels--worlds within worlds--seems to be the order of +nature everywhere. Someone has written, with more of truth than +elegance-- + + "Big fleas have little fleas upon their legs to bite 'em, + And little fleas have lesser fleas--and so _ad infinitum_." + +One's native land is to millions of people the world in which their +thoughts centre, and by which they are circumscribed. A farmer's +homestead is the world to him, and one of the farmer's cheeses contains +a mighty world in itself. But the most complete, compact, and exclusive +world in existence, perhaps, is a ship at sea--especially an emigrant +ship--for here we find an epitome of the great world itself. Here may +be seen, in small compass, the operations of love and hate, of wisdom +and stupidity, of selfishness and self-sacrifice, of pride, passion, +coarseness, urbanity, and all the other virtues and vices which tend to +make the world at large--a mysterious compound of heaven and hell. + +Wherever men and women--not to mention children--are crowded into small +space, friction ensues, and the inevitable result is moral electricity, +positive and negative--chiefly positive! Influences naturally follow, +pleasant and unpleasant--sometimes explosions, which call for the +interference of the captain or officer in charge of the deck at the time +being. + +For instance, Tomlin is a fiery but provident man, and has provided +himself with a deck-chair--a most important element of comfort on a long +voyage. Sopkin is a big sulky and heedless man, and has provided +himself with no such luxury. A few days after leaving port Sopkin finds +Tomlin's chair on deck, empty, and, being ignorant of social customs at +sea, seats himself thereon. Tomlin, coming on deck, observes the fact, +and experiences sudden impulses in his fiery spirit. The electricity is +at work. If it were allowable to venture on mental analysis, we might +say that Tomlin's sense of justice is violated. It is not fair that he +should be expected to spend money in providing comforts for any man, +much less for a man who carelessly neglects to provide them for himself. +His sense of propriety is shocked, for Sopkin has taken possession +without asking leave. His self-esteem is hurt, for, although Sopkin +knows it is his chair, he sits there doggedly, "like a big brute as he +is," and does not seem to care what Tomlin thinks or how he looks. +Besides, there is thrust upon Tomlin the disagreeable necessity of +claiming his own, and that, too, in a gentlemanly tone and manner--for +it will not do to assume beforehand that Sopkin is going to refuse +restitution. Tomlin is not aware that he thinks all this, but he knows +that he feels it, and, in spite of himself, demands his property in a +tone and with a look that sets agoing the electrical current in Sopkin, +who replies, in a growling tone, "it is _my_ chair just now." + +Ordinary men would remonstrate in a case of this kind, or explain, but +Tomlin is not ordinary. He is fiery. Seizing the back of his property, +he hitches it up, and, with a deft movement worthy of a juggler, +deposits the unreasonable Sopkin abruptly on the deck! Sopkin leaps up +with doubled fists. Tomlin stands on guard. Rumkin, a presumptuous +man, who thinks it his special mission in life to set everything wrong +right, rushes between them, and is told by both to "mind his own +business." The interruption, however, gives time to the captain to +interfere; he remarks in a mild tone, not unmixed with sarcasm, that +rough skylarking is not appropriate in the presence of ladies, and that +there is a convenient fo'c's'l to which the gentlemen may retire when +inclined for such amusement. + +There is a something in the captain's look and manner which puts out the +fire of Tomlin's spirit, and reduces the sulky Sopkin to obedience, +besides overawing the presumptuous Rumkin, and from that day forth there +is among the passengers a better understanding of the authority of a sea +captain, and the nature of the unwritten laws that exist, more or less, +on ship-board. + +We have referred to an incident of the quarter-deck, but the same laws +and influences prevailed in the forepart of the vessel, in which our +coxswain and his friend had embarked. + +It was the evening of the fifth day out, and Massey, Joe Slag, the long +lugubrious man, whose name was Mitford, and his pretty little +lackadaisical wife, whose name was Peggy, were seated at one end of a +long mess-table having supper--a meal which included tea and bread and +butter, as well as salt junk, etcetera. + +"You don't seem quite to have recovered your spirits yet, Mitford," said +Massey to the long comrade. "Have a bit o' pork? There's nothin' like +that for givin' heart to a man." + +"Ay, 'specially arter a bout o' sea-sickness," put in Slag, who was +himself busily engaged with a mass of the proposed remedy. "It 'ud do +yer wife good too. Try it, ma'am. You're not half yerself yit. +There's too much green round your eyes an' yaller about yer cheeks for a +healthy young ooman." + +"Thank you, I--I'd rather not," said poor Mrs Mitford, with a faint +smile--and, really, though faint, and called forth in adverse +circumstances, it was a very sweet little smile, despite the +objectionable colours above referred to. "I was never a great 'and with +victuals, an' I find that the sea don't improve appetite--though, after +all, I can't see why it should, and--" + +Poor Mrs Mitford stopped abruptly, for reasons best known to herself. +She was by nature rather a loquacious and, so to speak, irrelevant +talker. She delivered herself in a soft, unmeaning monotone, which, +like "the brook," flowed "on for ever"--at least until some desperate +listener interrupted her discourteously. In the present instance it was +her own indescribable feelings which interrupted her. + +"Try a bit o' plum-duff, Mrs Mitford," suggested Massey, with +well-intentioned sincerity, holding up a lump of the viand on his fork. + +"Oh! please--don't! Some tea! Quick! I'll go--" + +And she went. + +"Poor Peggy, she never _could_ stand much rough an' tumble," said her +husband, returning from the berth to which he had escorted his wife, and +seating himself again at the table. "She's been very bad since we left, +an' don't seem to be much on the mend." + +He spoke as one who not only felt but required sympathy--and he got it. + +"Och! niver give in," said the assistant cook, who had overheard the +remark in passing. "The ould girl'll be all right before the end o' +this wake. It niver lasts more nor tin days at the outside. An' the +waker the patients is, the sooner they comes round; so don't let yer +sperrits down, Mr Mitford." + +"Thank 'ee, kindly, Terrence, for your encouragin' words; but I'm +doubtful. My poor Peggy is so weak and helpless!" + +He sighed, shook his head as he concluded, and applied himself with such +energy to the plum-duff that it was evident he expected to find refuge +from his woes in solid food. + +"You don't seem to be much troubled wi' sickness yourself," remarked +Massey, after eyeing the lugubrious man for some time in silence. + +"No, I am not, which is a blessin'. I hope that Mrs Massey ain't ill?" + +"No; my Nell is never ill," returned the coxswain, in a hearty tone. +"She'd have been suppin' along with us to-night, but she's nursin' that +poor sick lad, Ian Stuart, that's dyin'." + +"Is the lad really dyin'?" asked Mitford, laying down his knife and +fork, and looking earnestly into his companion's face. + +"Well, it looks like it. The poor little fellow seemed to me past +recoverin' the day he came on board, and the stuffy cabin, wi' the +heavin' o' the ship, has bin over much for him." + +While he was speaking Nellie herself came softly to her husband's side +and sat down. Her face was very grave. + +"The doctor says there's no hope," she said. "The poor boy may last a +few days, so he tells us, but he may be taken away at any moment. Pour +me out a cup o' tea, Bob. I must go back to him immediately. His poor +mother is so broken down that she's not fit to attend to him, and the +father's o' no use at all. He can only go about groanin'. No wonder; +Ian is their only child, Bob--their first-born. I can't bear to think +of it." + +"But you'll break down yourself, Nell, if you go nursin' him every +night, an' all night, like this. Surely there's some o' the women on +board that'll be glad to lend a helpin' hand." + +"I know _one_ who'll be only too happy to do that, whether she's well or +ill," said Mitford, rising with unwonted alacrity, and hastening to his +wife's berth. + +Just then the bo's'n's stentorian voice was heard giving the order to +close reef tops'ls, and the hurried tramping of many feet on the deck +overhead, coupled with one or two heavy lurches of the ship, seemed to +justify the assistant cook's remark--"Sure it's durty weather we're +goin' to have, annyhow." + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 4. + +The indications of bad weather which had been observed were not +misleading, for it not only became what Terrence O'Connor had termed +"durty," but it went on next day to develop a regular gale, insomuch +that every rag of canvas, except storm-sails, had to be taken in and the +hatches battened down, thus confining the passengers to the cabins. + +These passengers looked at matters from wonderfully different points of +view, and felt accordingly. Surroundings had undoubtedly far greater +influence on some of them than was reasonable. Of course we refer to +the landsmen only. In the after-cabin, where all was light, cosy, and +comfortable, and well fastened, and where a considerable degree of +propriety existed, feelings were comparatively serene. Most of the +ladies sought the retirement of berths, and became invisible, though not +necessarily inaudible; a few, who were happily weather-proof, jammed +themselves into velvety corners, held on to something fixed, and lost +themselves in books. The gentlemen, linking themselves to articles of +stability, did the same, or, retiring to an appropriate room, played +cards and draughts and enveloped themselves in smoke. Few, if any of +them, bestowed much thought on the weather. Beyond giving them, +occasionally, a little involuntary exercise, it did not seriously affect +them. + +Very different was the state of matters in the steerage. There the +difference in comfort was not proportioned to the difference in +passage-money. There was no velvet, not much light, little space to +move about, and nothing soft. In short, discomfort reigned, so that the +unfortunate passengers could not easily read, and the falling of tin +panikins and plates, the crashing of things that had broken loose, the +rough exclamations of men, and the squalling of miserable children, +affected the nerves of the timid to such an extent that they naturally +took the most gloomy view of the situation. + +Of course the mere surroundings had no influence whatever on the views +held by Bob Massey and Joe Slag. + +"My dear," said the latter, in a kindly but vain endeavour to comfort +Mrs Mitford, "rumpusses below ain't got nothin' to do wi' rows +overhead--leastways they're only an effect, not a cause." + +"There! there's another," interrupted Mrs Mitford, with a little +scream, as a tremendous crash of crockery burst upon her ear. + +"Well, my dear," said Slag, in a soothing, fatherly tone, "if all the +crockery in the ship was to go in universal smash into the lee scuppers, +it couldn't make the wind blow harder." + +Poor Mrs Mitford failed to derive consolation from this remark. She +was still sick enough to be totally and hopelessly wretched, but not +sufficiently so to be indifferent to life or death. Every superlative +howl of the blast she echoed with a sigh, and each excessive plunge of +the ship she emphasised with a weak scream. + +"I don't know what _you_ think," she said, faintly, when two little boys +rolled out of their berths and went yelling to leeward with a mass of +miscellaneous rubbish, "but it do seem to be as if the end of the world +'ad come. Not that the sea _could_ be the end of the world, for if it +was, of course it would spill over and then we would be left dry on the +bottom--or moist, if not dry. I don't mean that, you know, but these +crashes are so dreadful, an' my poor 'ead is like to split--which the +planks of this ship will do if they go on creakin' so. I _know_ they +will, for 'uman-made things can't--" + +"You make your mind easy, my woman," said her husband, coming forward at +the moment and sitting down to comfort her. "Things are lookin' a +little better overhead, so one o' the men told me, an' I heard Terrence +say that we're goin' to have lobscouse for dinner to-day, though what +that may be I can't tell--somethin' good, I suppose." + +"Something thick, an' luke-warm, an' greasy, _I_ know," groaned Peggy, +with a shudder. + +There was a bad man on board the ship. There usually is a bad man on +board of most ships; sometimes more than one. But this one was +unusually bad, and was, unfortunately, an old acquaintance of the +Mitfords. Indeed, he had been a lover of Mrs Mitford, when she was +Peggy Owen, though her husband knew nothing of that. If Peggy had known +that this man--Ned Jarring by name--was to be a passenger, she would +have prevailed on her husband to go by another vessel; but she was not +aware of it until they met in the fore-cabin the day after leaving port. + +Being a dark-haired, sallow-complexioned man, he soon became known on +board by the name of Black Ned. Like many bad men, Jarring was a +drunkard, and, when under the influence of liquor, was apt to act +incautiously as well as wickedly. On the second day of the gale he +entered the fore-cabin with unsteady steps, and looked round with an air +of solemn stupidity. Besides being dark and swarthy, he was big and +strong, and had a good deal of the bully in his nature. Observing that +Mrs Mitford was seated alone in a dark corner of the cabin with a still +greenish face and an aspect of woe, he staggered towards her, and, +sitting down, took her hand affectionately. + +"Dear Peggy," he began, but he got no further, for the little woman +snatched her hand away, sprang up, and confronted him with a look of +blazing indignation. Every trace of her sickness vanished as if by +magic. The greenish complexion changed to crimson, and the woebegone +tones to those of firm resolution, as she exclaimed-- + +"Ned Jarring, if you ever again dare to take liberties with _me_, I'll +tell my 'usband, I will; an' as sure as you're a-sittin' on that seat +'e'll twist you up, turn you outside in, an' fling you overboard!" + +Little Mrs Mitford did not wait for a response, but, turning sharply +round, left the cabin with a stride which, for a woman of her size and +character, was most impressive. + +Jarring gazed after her with an expression of owlish and unutterable +surprise on his swarthy countenance. Then he smiled faintly at the +unexpected and appalling--not to say curious--fate that awaited him; but +reflecting that, although lugubrious and long, Mitford was deep-chested, +broad-shouldered, and wiry, he became grave again, shook his head, and +had the sense to make up his mind never again to arouse the slumbering +spirit of Peggy Mitford. + +It was a wild scene that presented itself to the eyes of the passengers +in the _Lapwing_ when the hatches were at last taken off, and they were +permitted once more to go on deck. Grey was the prevailing colour. The +great seas, which seemed unable to recover from the wild turmoil into +which they had been lashed, were of a cold greenish grey, flecked and +tipped with white. The sky was steely grey with clouds that verged on +black; and both were so mingled together that it seemed as if the little +vessel were imbedded in the very heart of a drizzling, heaving, hissing +ocean. + +The coxswain's wife stood leaning on her stalwart husband's arm, by the +foremast, gazing over the side. + +"It do seem more dreary than I expected," she said. "I wouldn't be a +sailor, Bob, much as I've bin used to the sea, an' like it." + +"Ah, Nell, that's 'cause you've only bin used to the _sea-shore_. You +haven't bin long enough on blue water, lass, to know that folks' +opinions change a good deal wi' their feelin's. Wait till we git to the +neighbour'ood o' the line, wi' smooth water an' blue skies an' sunshine, +sharks, and flyin' fish. You'll have a different opinion then about the +sea." + +"Right you are, Bob," said Joe Slagg, coming up at that moment. "Most +people change their opinions arter gittin' to the line, specially when +it comes blazin' hot, fit to bile the sea an' stew the ship, an' a dead +calm gits a hold of 'e an' keeps ye swelterin' in the doldrums for a +week or two." + +"But it wasn't that way we was lookin' at it, Joe," returned Nellie, +with a laugh. "Bob was explainin' to me how pleasant a change it would +be after the cold grey sea an' sky we're havin' just now." + +"Well, it may be so; but whatever way ye may look at it, you'll change +yer mind, more or less, when you cross the line. By the way, that minds +me that some of us in the steerage are invited to cross the line +to-night--the line that separates us from the cabin--to attend a lectur' +there--an' you'll niver guess the subjec', Bob." + +"I know that, Joe. I never made a right guess in my life, that I knows +on. Heave ahead, what is it?" + +"A lectur' on the `Lifeboat,' no less! But it aint our lifeboat +sarvice: it's the American one, cause it's to be given by that fine +young fellow, Dr Hayward, who looks as if suthin' had damaged his +constitootion somehow. I'm told he's a Yankee, though he looks uncommon +like an Englishman." + +"He's tall an' 'andsome enough, anyhow," remarked Massey. + +"Ay, an' he's good enough for anything," said Nellie, with enthusiasm. +"You should see the kind way he speaks to poor Ian when he comes to see +him--which is pretty much every day. He handles him, too, so tenderly-- +just like his mother; but he won't give him medicine or advice, for it +seems that wouldn't be thought fair by the ship's doctor. No more it +would, I suppose." + +"D'ee know what's the matter wi' him?" asked Mitford, who had joined the +group. + +"Not I," returned Massey. "It seems more like gineral weakness than +anything else." + +"I can tell you," said a voice close to them. The voice was that of +Tomlin, who, although a first-class passenger, was fond of visiting and +fraternising with the people of the fore-cabin. "He got himself +severely wounded some time ago when protecting a poor slave-girl from +her owner, and he's now slowly recovering. He is taking a long voyage +for his health. The girl, it seems, had run away from her owner, and +had nearly escaped into Canada, where of course, being on British soil, +she would be free--" + +"God bless the British soil!" interrupted little Mrs Mitford, in a tone +of enthusiasm which caused a laugh all round; but that did not prevent +some of the bystanders from responding with a hearty "Amen!" + +"I agree with you, Mrs Mitford," said Tomlin; "but the owner of the +poor slave did not think as you and I do. The girl was a quadroon--that +is, nearly, if not altogether, white. She was also very beautiful. +Well, the owner--a coarse brute--with two followers, overtook the +runaway slave near a lonely roadside tavern--I forget the name of the +place--but Dr Hayward happened to have arrived there just a few minutes +before them. His horse was standing at the door, and he was inside, +talking with the landlord, when he heard a loud shriek outside. Running +out, he found the girl struggling wildly in the hands of her captors. +Of course, he demanded an explanation, though he saw clearly enough how +matters stood. + +"`She's my slave,' said the owner, haughtily. He would not, perhaps, +have condescended even with that much explanation if he had not seen +that the landlord sympathised with the doctor. + +"This was enough, however, for Hayward, who is a man of few words and +swift action. He was unarmed, but carried a heavy-handled whip, with +this he instantly felled the slave-owner and one of his men to the +ground before they had time to wink, but the third man drew a pistol, +and, pointing it straight at the doctor's head, would have blown out his +brains if the landlord had not turned the weapon aside and tripped the +man up. Before he could recover Hayward had swung the girl on his +horse, leaped into the saddle, and dashed off at full speed. He did not +draw rein till he carried her over the frontier into Canada, and had +placed her beyond the reach of her enemies." + +"Brayvo! the doctor," exclaimed Slag, heartily. + +"Then he found," continued Tomlin, "that he had been wounded in the +chest by the ball that was meant for his head, but made light of the +wound until it was found to be serious. The ball was still in him, and +had to be extracted, after which he recovered slowly. The romantic part +of it is, however, that he fell in love with Eva--that was the girl's +name--and she with him, and they were married--" + +"Ah, poor thing," said Mitford; "then she died, and he married again?" + +"Not at all," returned Tomlin, "she did not die, and he did not marry +again." + +"How--what then about that splendid wife that he's got in the +after-cabin _now_?" asked Mitford. + +"That's her. That's Eva, the quadroon. She's not only as white as Mrs +Massey or Mrs Mitford there, but she's been educated and brought up as +a lady and among ladies, besides having the spirit of a _real_ lady, +which many a born one hasn't got at all." + +There were many fore-cabin passengers who "crossed the line" that night +in order to hear the gallant American lecture, but chiefly to see the +beautiful lady who had been so romantically rescued from slavery. + +"Not a drop of black blood in her body!" was Mrs Mitford's verdict +after the lecture was over. + +"An' what if there was?" demanded Slag, in a tone of indignation. "D'ee +think that white blood is worth more than black blood in the eyes o' the +Almighty as made 'em both?" + +The lecture itself was highly appreciated, being on a subject which Bob +and Joe had already made interesting to the steerage passengers. And +the lecturer not only treated it well, but was himself such a fine, +lion-like, yet soft-voiced fellow that his audience were quite charmed. + +Soon the _Lapwing_ was gliding through the warm waters of the equatorial +seas, and those of the passengers who had never visited such regions +before, were immensely interested by the sight of dolphins, sharks, and +especially flying-fish. + +"I _don't_ believe in 'em," said Mrs Mitford to Mrs Massey one day as +they stood looking over the side of the ship. + +"I do believe in 'em," said Mrs Massey, "because my Bob says he has +seen 'em." + +Not long after this double assertion of opinion there was a sudden cry +that flying-fish were to be seen alongside, and Mrs Mitford actually +beheld them with her own eyes leap out of the sea, skim over the waves a +short distance, and then drop into the water again; still she was +incredulous! "Flyin'" she exclaimed, "nothin' of the sort; they only +made a long jump out o' the water, an' wriggled their tails as they +went; at least they wriggled something, for I couldn't be rightly sure +they _'ad_ tails to wriggle, any more than wings--never 'avin' seen 'em +except in pictures, which is mostly lies. Indeed!" + +"Look-out!" exclaimed Slag at the moment, for a couple of fish flew over +the bulwarks just then, and fell on deck almost at Mrs Mitford's feet. +When she saw them there floundering about, wings and all, she felt +constrained to give in. + +"Well, well," she said, raising her hands and eyes to heaven, as though +she addressed her remarks chiefly to celestial ears, "did ever mortal +see the likes? Fish wi' wings an' no feathers! I'll believe _anything_ +after that!" + +Peggy Mitford is not the first, and won't be the last woman--to say +nothing of man--who has thus bounded from the depths of scepticism to +the heights of credulity. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 5. + +Dr Hayward, who had given great satisfaction with his lecture, +possessed so much urbanity and power of anecdote and song, that he soon +became a general favourite alike with steerage and cabin passengers. + +One sultry forenoon Terrence O'Connor, the assistant steward, went aft +and whispered to him that Ian Stuart, the sick boy, wanted very much to +see him. + +"I think he's dying, sor," said Terrence, in a low tone. + +"Has the doctor seen him this morning?" asked Hayward, as he rose +quickly and hurried forward. + +"He's seed him twice, sor," said Terrence, "an' both times he shook his +head as he left him." + +It was evident that the steerage passengers felt death to be hovering +over them, for they were unusually silent, and those who were in the +fore-cabin at the time Hayward passed, cast solemn glances at him as he +descended and went to the berth of the poor boy. It was a comparatively +large berth, and, being at the time on the weather side of the ship, had +the port open to admit fresh air. + +"My poor boy, do you suffer much?" said the doctor, in soothing tones, +as he sat down beside Ian, and took his hand. + +It was obvious that Ian suffered, for an expression of weariness and +pain sat on his emaciated countenance, but on the appearance of Hayward +the expression gave place to a glad smile on a face which was naturally +refined and intellectual. + +"Oh, thank you--thanks--" said Ian, in a low hesitating voice, for he +was almost too far gone to speak. + +"There, don't speak, dear boy," said the doctor, gently. "I see you +have been thinking about our last conversation. Shall I read to you?" + +"No--no. Jesus is speaking--to me. His words are crowding on me. No +need for--reading when He speaks; `Come--unto Me--I will _never_-- +leave--'" + +His breath suddenly failed him, and he ceased to speak, but the glad +look in his large eyes showed that the flow of Divine words, though +inaudible, had not ceased. + +"Mother--father," he said, after a short pause, "don't cry. You'll soon +join me. Don't let them cry, Dr Hayward. The parting won't be for +long." + +The Doctor made no reply, for at that moment the unmistakable signs of +dissolution began to overspread the pinched features, and in a few +minutes it became known throughout the ship that the "King of Terrors" +had been there in the guise of an Angel of Light to pluck a little +flower and transplant it into the garden of God. + +Hayward tried to impress this fact on the bereaved parents, but they +would not be comforted. + +They were a lowly couple, who could not see far in advance of them, even +in regard to things terrestrial. The last words of their child seemed +to have more weight than the comfort offered by the doctor. + +"Cheer up, David," said the poor wife, grasping her husband's hand, and +striving to check her sobs, "Ian said truth, it won't be long afore we +jine him, the dear, dear boy." + +But even as she uttered the words of cheer her own heart failed her, and +she again gave way to uncontrollable grief, while her husband, dazed and +motionless, sat gazing at the face of the dead. + +The funeral and its surroundings was as sad as the death. Everything +was done to shroud the terrible reality. The poor remains were tenderly +laid in a black deal coffin and carried to the port side of the ship by +kind and loving hands. A young Wesleyan minister, who had been an +unfailing comforter and help to the family all through the boy's +illness, gave a brief but very impressive address to those who stood +around, and offered up an earnest prayer; but nothing could blind the +mourners, especially the parents, to the harsh fact that the remains +were about to be consigned to a never resting grave, and that they were +going through the form rather than the reality of burial, while, as if +to emphasise this fact, the back fin of a great shark was seen to cut +the calm water not far astern. It followed the ship until the hollow +plunge was heard, and the weighted coffin sank into the unknown depths +of the sea. + +An impression that never faded quite away was made that day on some of +the more thoughtful and sensitive natures in the ship. And who can say +that even amongst the thoughtless and the depraved no effect was +produced! God's power is not usually exerted in visibly effective +processes. Seeds of life may have been sown by that death, which shall +grow and flourish in eternity. Certain it is that some of the reckless +were solemnised for a time, and that the young Wesleyan was held in +higher esteem throughout the ship from that day forward. + +Some of the passengers, however, seemed very soon to forget all about +the death, and relapsed into their usual frames of mind. Among these +was Ned Jarring. For several days after the funeral he kept sober, and +it was observed that the Wesleyan minister tried to get into +conversation with him several times, but he resisted the good man's +efforts, and, when one of his chums laughingly remarked that he, "seemed +to be hand and glove wi' the parson now," Black Ned swung angrily round, +took to drinking again, and, as is usually the case in such +circumstances, became worse than before. + +Thus the little world of ship-board went on from day to day, gradually +settling down into little coteries as like-minded men and women began to +find each other out. Gradually, also, the various qualities of the +people began to be recognised, and in a few weeks--as in the greater +world--each man and woman was more or less correctly gauged according to +worth. The courageous and the timid, the sensible and the vain, the +weak and the strong, the self-sacrificing and the selfish, all fell +naturally into their appropriate positions, subject to the moderate +confusion resulting from favouritism, abused power, and other forms of +sin. It was observable also that here, as elsewhere, all the coteries +commented with considerable freedom on each other, and that each coterie +esteemed itself unquestionably the best of the lot, although it might +not absolutely say so in words. There was one exception, namely in the +case of the worst or lowest coterie, which, so far from claiming to be +the best, openly proclaimed itself the worst, gloried in its shame, and +said that, "it didn't care a button," or words, even more expressive, to +the same effect. + +Ned Jarring belonged to this last class. He was probably the worst +member of it. + +One night an incident occurred which tested severely some of the +qualities of every one on board. It was sometime after midnight when +the dead silence of the slumbering ship was broken by perhaps the most +appalling of all sounds at sea--the cry of "Fire!" + +Smoke had been discovered somewhere near the fore-cabin. Fortunately +the captain had just come up at the time to speak with the officer of +the watch on deck. At the first cry he ran to the spot pointed out, +telling the officer to call all hands and rig the pumps, and especially +to keep order among the passengers. + +The first man who leaped from profound slumber into wide-awake activity +was Dr Hayward. Having just lain down to sleep on a locker, as he +expected to be called in the night to watch beside a friend who was ill, +he was already dressed, and would have been among the first at the scene +of the fire, but for an interruption. At the moment he was bounding up +the companion-ladder, a young man of feeble character--who would have +been repudiated by the sex, had he been born a woman--sprang down the +same ladder in abject terror. He went straight into the bosom of the +ascending doctor, and they both went with a crash to the bottom. + +Although somewhat stunned, Hayward was able to jump up and again make +for the region of the fire, where he found most of the men and male +passengers working with hose and buckets in the midst of dire confusion. +Fortunately the seat of the conflagration was soon discovered; and, +owing much to the cool energy of the captain and officers, the fire was +put out. + +It was about a week after this thrilling event that Mrs Massey was on +the forecastle talking with Peggy Mitford. A smart breeze was blowing-- +just enough to fill all the sails and carry the ship swiftly on her +course, without causing much of a sea. The moon shone fitfully through +a mass of drifting clouds, mingling its pallid light with the wondrous +phosphoric sheen of the tropical seas. + +Mrs Mitford had been regaling her companion with a long-winded and +irrelevant, though well-meant, yarn about things in general and nothing +in particular; and Nellie, who was the personification of considerate +patience, had seated herself on the starboard rail to listen to and +comment on her lucubrations. + +"Yes, as I was sayin', Nellie," remarked Peggy, in her soft voice, after +a brief pause, during which a variety of weak little expressions crossed +her pretty face, "I never could abide the sea. It always makes me sick, +an' when it doesn't make me sick, it makes me nervish. Not that I'm +given to bein' nervish; an', if I was, it wouldn't matter much, for the +sea would take it out o' me, whether or not. That's always the way--if +it's not one thing, it's sure to be another. Don't you think so, +Nellie? My John says 'e thinks so--though it isn't to be thought much +of what _'e_ says, dear man, for 'e's got a way of sayin' things when 'e +don't mean 'em--you understand?" + +"Well, I don't quite understand," answered Mrs Massey, cutting in at +this point with a laugh, "but I'm quite sure it's better to say things +when you don't mean them, than to mean things when you don't say them!" + +"Perhaps you're right, Nellie," rejoined Mrs Mitford, with a mild nod +of assent; "I've sometimes thought on these things when I've 'ad one o' +my sick 'eadaches, which prevents me from thinkin' altogether, almost; +an', bless you, you'd wonder what strange idears comes over me at such +times. Did you ever try to think things with a sick 'eadache, Nellie?" + +With a laugh, and a bright look, Mrs Massey replied that she had never +been in a position to try that curious experiment, never having had a +headache of any kind in her life. + +While she was speaking, a broad-backed wave caused the ship to roll +rather heavily to starboard, and Mrs Massey, losing her balance, fell +into the sea. + +Sedate and strong-minded though she was, Nellie could not help shrieking +as she went over; but the shriek given by Mrs Mitford was tenfold more +piercing. It was of a nature that defies description. Its effect was +to thrill the heart of every one who heard it. But Peggy did more than +shriek. Springing on the rail like an antelope, she would have plunged +overboard to the rescue of her friend, regardless of her own inability +to swim, and of everything else, had not a seaman, who chanced to be +listening to the conversation--caught her with a vice-like grip. + +"Hold on, Peggy!" he cried. + +But Peggy shrieked and struggled, thus preventing the poor fellow from +attempting a rescue, while shouts and cries of "man overboard" rang +through the ship from stem to stern, until it became known that it was a +woman. Then the cries redoubled. In the midst of the hubbub the strong +but calm voice of the captain was heard to give orders to lower a boat +and port the helm--"hard a-port." + +But, alas! for poor Nellie that night if her life had depended on +shouters, strugglers, shriekers, or boatmen. + +At the moment the accident happened two men chanced to be standing on +the starboard side of the ship--one on the quarter-deck, the other on +the forecastle. Both men were ready of resource and prompt in action, +invaluable qualities anywhere, but especially at sea! The instant the +cry arose each sprang to and cut adrift a life-buoy. Each knew that the +person overboard might fail to see or catch a buoy in the comparative +darkness. He on the forecastle, who chanced to see Nellie fall over, at +once followed her with the life-buoy in his arms. Ignorant of this act +the man near the stern saw something struggling in the water as the ship +flew past. Without an instant's hesitation he also plunged into the sea +with a life-buoy in his grasp. + +The faint light failed to reveal who had thus boldly plunged to the +rescue, but the act had been observed both at bow and stern, and a cheer +of hope went up as the ship came up to the wind, topsails were backed, +and the boat was dropped into the water. + +Twenty minutes elapsed before there was any sign of the boat returning, +during which time the ship's bell was rung continually. It may be +better imagined than described the state of poor Bob Massey, who had +been asleep on a locker in the fore-cabin when the accident occurred, +and who had to be forcibly prevented, at first, from jumping into the +sea when he heard that it was Nellie who was overboard. + +At last oars were heard in the distance. + +"Stop that bell! boat ahoy!" shouted the captain. + +"Ship aho-o-oy!" came faintly back on the breeze, while every voice was +hushed and ear strained to listen, "All right! all saved!" + +A loud "Thank the Lord!" burst from our coxswain's heaving chest, and a +wild ringing cheer leaped upwards alike from passengers and crew, while +warm tears overflowed from many an eye that was more intimate with cold +spray, for a noble deed and a life saved have always the effect of +stirring the deepest enthusiasm of mankind. + +A few minutes more and three dripping figures came up the gangway. +First came Nellie herself; dishevelled and pale, but strong and hearty +nevertheless, as might be expected of a fisher-girl and a lifeboat +coxswain's wife! She naturally fell into, or was caught up by, her +husband's arms, and was carried off to the cabin. + +Following her came two somewhat exhausted men. + +The cheer that greeted them was not unmingled with surprise. + +"The best an' the worst men i' the ship!" gasped Joe Slag, amid laughter +and hearty congratulations. + +He was probably right, for it was the young Wesleyan minister and Ned +Jarring who had effected this gallant rescue. + +The performance of a good action has undoubtedly a tendency to elevate, +as the perpetration of a bad one has to demoralise. + +From that day forward Black Ned felt that he had acquired a certain +character which might be retained or lost. Without absolutely saying +that he became a better man in consequence, we do assert that he became +more respectable to look at, and drank less! + +Thus the voyage progressed until the good ship _Lapwing_ sailed in among +some of the innumerable islands of the Southern seas. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 6. + +Darkness, whether physical, mental, or spiritual, is probably the +greatest evil that man has had to contend with since the fall. At all +events, the physical and mental forms of it were the cause of the good +ship _Lapwing_ sailing one night straight to destruction. + +It happened thus. A pretty stiff breeze, amounting almost to half a +gale, was blowing on the night in question, and the emigrant ship was +running before it under close-reefed topsails. For some days previously +the weather had been "dirty," and the captain had found it impossible to +obtain an observation, so that he was in the dark as to the exact part +of the ocean, in which he was sailing. + +In an open sea this is not of serious moment, but when one is nearing +land, or in the neighbourhood of islands, it becomes cause for much +anxiety. To make matters worse, the ship had been blown considerably +out of her course, and, worst of all, the night was so intensely dark +that it was not possible to see more than a few yards beyond the flying +jibboom. + +The captain and mate, with several of the men, stood on the forecastle +peering anxiously out into the darkness. + +"I don't like the look o' things at all," muttered the captain to the +chief mate. + +"Perhaps it would be well, sir, to lay-to till daylight," suggested the +mate. + +Whether the captain agreed with his chief officer or not was never +known, for just then a dull sound was heard which sent a thrill to the +bravest heart on board. + +"Breakers ahead!" cried the look-out, as in duty bound, but he was +instantly contradicted by the mate, who shouted that they were on the +starboard beam, while another voice roared that they were on the +port-bow. + +The helm was instantly put hard a-port, and immediately after the order +was given "hard a-starboard," for it was discovered that the sound of +breakers came from both sides of the vessel. They were, obviously, +either running in a narrow strait between two islands, or into a bay. +In the first case the danger was imminent, in the second case, +destruction was almost inevitable. + +"Clear the anchor, and stand by to let go!" cried the captain, in loud +sharp tones, for he felt that there was no room to turn and retreat. +The order was also given to take in all sail. + +But before either order could be obeyed, a cry of terror burst from many +throats, for right in front of them there suddenly loomed out of the +darkness an object like a great black cloud, which rose high above and +seemed about to fall upon them. There was no mistaking its nature, +however, for by that time the roar of the breakers right ahead told but +too plainly that they were rushing straight upon a high perpendicular +cliff. At this moment the vessel struck a rock. It was only a slight +touch at the stern, nevertheless it tore the rudder away, so that the +intention of the captain to put about and take his chance of striking on +the rocks to starboard was frustrated. + +"Let go," he shouted, in this extremity. + +Quick as lightning the anchor went to the bottom but with such way on +the ship, the sudden strain snapped the chain, and the _Lapwing_ rushed +upon her doom, while cries of terror and despair arose from the +passengers, who had by that time crowded on deck. + +To the surprise of the captain, and those who were capable of +intelligent observation, the ship did not immediately strike again, but +sailed straight on as if right against the towering cliffs. Still +onward it went, and as it did so there settled around them a darkness so +profound that no one could see even an inch before his eyes. Then at +last the ill-fated vessel struck, but not with her hull, as might have +been expected. High up above them a terrific crash was heard. + +"God help us," exclaimed the captain, "we've sailed straight into a +cave!" + +That he was right soon became evident, for immediately after the +crashing of the topmasts against the roof of the cave, a shower of small +stones and several large fragments fell on the deck with a rattle like +that of musketry. Some of the people were struck and injured, though +not seriously so, by the shower. + +"Get down below, all of you!" cried the captain, himself taking shelter +under the companion hatchway. But the order was needless, for the +danger was so obvious that every one sought the shelter of the cabins +without delay. + +The situation was not only terrible but exceedingly singular, as well as +trying, for as long as stones came thundering down on the deck it would +have been sheer madness to have attempted to do anything aboveboard, and +to sit idle in the cabins with almost certain death staring them in the +face, was a severe test of endurance. + +From the motion of the vessel several facts could be deduced. Although +the scraping and crashing of the masts overhead told eloquently of +destruction going on in that direction, the heaving of the ship, and her +striking occasionally on either side, proved that there was deep water +below her. That they were not progressing into an interminable cavern +was made evident by the frequent plunging of the shattered bowsprit +against the inner end of the cave. This action sent the vessel reeling +backwards, as it were, every time she struck, besides shattering the +bowsprit. That the cave, also, was open to the full force of the sea +was only too severely proved by the rush of the billows into it, and the +frequent and severe shocks to which they were in consequence subjected. +These shocks had extinguished the lamps, and it was only by the aid of a +few candles that they were delivered from sitting in absolute darkness. + +In these awful circumstances the young Wesleyan proved that, besides the +courage that he had already shown in facing danger on a sudden +emergency, he also possessed that far higher courage which can face the +slow and apparently sure approach of death with equanimity and +self-possession. Moreover, he proved that the Word of God and prayer +are the true resources of man in such extremities. + +Calling those who were willing, around him, he led them in prayer, and +then quieted the timid among them, as well as comforted all, not by +reading, but by quoting appropriate passages from Scripture, in which he +was profoundly versed. + +"D'ee know when it'll be low water, sir?" asked Joe Slag of the captain, +when the ship gave one of her upward heaves and rasped her timbers again +on the sides of the cave. + +"Not for three hours yet, but it's falling. I expect there will be less +sea on in a short time. If the ship holds together we may yet be +saved." + +There was a murmured "thank God" at these words. Then Bob Massey +expressed some fear that there might be a danger of striking the rocks +underneath before low water. + +"I wish it was the risin' tide," he said, and the words took his mind +back, like a flash of lightning, to the time when he used them in a very +different sense. Then all was peace, hope, sunshine, and his bride was +sitting like a good angel beside him, with a sweet smile on her fair +face. Now, something like darkness visible, showed him his poor wife-- +still beside him, thank God--but clinging to his arm with looks of +terror amounting almost to despair. "What a contrast!" he thought, and +for the first time a feeling of rebellion arose in his mind. + +"There's no use o' sittin' here to be drowned like rats," he cried, +starting up. "I'll go on deck an' take a cast o' the lead, an' see what +chances we have." + +"No, you won't, Bob," cried Nellie, throwing her arms firmly round him. +"There's big stones falling all about the deck yet. Don't you hear +them?" + +As if to corroborate her words, a piece of rock nearly half a ton in +weight fell on the sky-light at that moment, crashed completely through +it, through the table below, and even sank into the cabin floor. +Fortunately, no one was hurt, though Slag had a narrow escape, but that +worthy was not easily intimidated. He rose up, and, saying that, "it +was as well to be killed on deck doin' somethin' as in the cabin doin' +nothin'," was about to ascend the ladder when Dr Hayward suddenly +entered, all wet and dishevelled, and with blood trickling down his +face. + +"No use going up just now, Joe," he said, as he sat down beside his +wife, and permitted her to tie a kerchief round his head. "Only a +slight wound, Eva, got while taking soundings. I find that there are +sixteen fathoms of water under us, and, although I couldn't see my hand +held up before my face, I managed to make out by the flash of a match, +which burned for a moment before being blown out, that the sides of the +cave are quite perpendicular, not the smallest ledge to stand on. The +tide, however, is ebbing fast, and the water in the cave calming, so +that if no bad leak has been made by all this thumping we may yet be +saved. Our only chance is to stick to the ship." + +While he was speaking the vessel again surged violently against one side +of the cave, and another of the huge masses of rock that were brought +down by the swaying masts came crashing on the deck. + +"There is no bad leak as yet," said the captain, re-entering the cabin, +which he had quitted for the purpose of sounding the well. "If we can +keep afloat for an hour or two we may be able to use the boats. Just +now it would be useless to attempt launching them." + +Although the captain's words were not particularly reassuring, his +confident tone and manner infused hope, and comforted the people +greatly. Some of the male passengers even volunteered to face the +shower of stones, if need be, and lend a hand in launching the boats, +when the time for doing so arrived. + +These boats, three in number, were lying bottom up on deck, and to reach +them involved the risk of death to whoever should attempt it. They were +therefore compelled to wait. + +It is difficult to form even a slight conception of the horrors of that +night. For several hours they sat in the after-cabin, and the ship +surged and plunged in the wildly-heaving water, striking the sides +continually, while rocks fell at intervals on the deck, thus adding to +the noise of wind and waves as they raged with echoing, deafening noise +in the black cavern. Each moment it seemed as if the ship must have her +planks stove in and be sunk, but she was a new vessel and strong. Of +course she leaked considerably, but when the tide went down the sea +calmed a little, the rocks ceased falling from the roof, and they were +enabled to rig the pumps and work them vigorously. The boats, +meanwhile, were cast loose and got ready to launch at the first glimmer +of daylight! Fortunately, they had received no serious injury from the +falling rocks. + +Oh, how they longed and prayed for the day! It came at last, a gleam so +faint that it showed nothing of their surroundings save the outline of +the cavern's great mouth. + +"Shall we launch the boats now, sir?" asked the first mate, who was +becoming anxious, because the carpenter had just reported that the water +in the hold was increasing dangerously in spite of the pumps. + +"Not yet--not yet," returned the captain, hurriedly. "We must have more +light first. The loss of a boat would be fatal. I'm afraid of the +rising tide." + +"Afraid of the rising tide!" Again the words struck strangely on Bob +Massey's ears as he stood wiping the perspiration from his brow after a +long spell at the pumps--and once more carried him back to the sunlit +sands of Old England. + +Soon the increase of water in the hold was so great that the getting out +of the boats could no longer be delayed. The first launched was a small +one. It was lowered over the stern by means of the studding-sail boom, +with a block and whip, which kept it from dropping too quickly into the +water. Massey and his friend Slag, being recognised as expert boatmen +in trying circumstances, were sent in it, with two of the crew, to run +out a line and drop an anchor in the sea outside, so that the heavier +boats might be hauled out thereby. Two hundred and fifty fathoms of +rope were given them--more than sufficient for the purpose. On getting +outside, Bob and his friend, according to custom as lifeboat men, kept a +sharp look-out on everything around them, and the feeble daylight +enabled them to see that the black cliff which had, as it were, +swallowed up the _Lapwing_, was full six hundred feet high and a sheer +precipice, in some places overhanging at the top, and without the +symptom of a break as far as the eye could reach in either direction. + +"A black look-out, Joe," muttered Massey, as he assisted his comrade to +heave the anchor over the side. + +"Ay, Bob, an' the worst of it is that the tide's risin'. A boat can +live here as long as that ridge o' rocks keeps off the seas, but in an +hour or so it'll be rollin' in as bad as ever." + +"I knows it, Joe, an' the more need to look sharp." + +Returning to the ship, our coxswain made his report, and recommended +urgent haste. But the captain required no urging, for by that time the +ship's main deck was level with the water, and the seas were making a +clean breach over the stern. The passengers and crew crowded towards +the port gangway where the large boat was being brought round to receive +the women and children first. This was such a familiar scene to the two +lifeboat men that they kept cool and self-possessed from the mere force +of habit. Seeing this, the captain ordered Mitford to get into the boat +first, and help to stow the others, for it would be a tight pack, he +said, to stow them all. Dr Hayward was ordered to assist. Ned Jarring +volunteered to help to fend the boat off during the operation, and, +without waiting for permission, jumped into her. + +Mitford had consigned his wife to the care of his friend Massey, who at +once undertook the duty by tying a kerchief round Peggy's head to keep +her hair out of her eyes, after which he did the same for Nellie. Both +women were perfectly quiet and submissive--the first owing to fear and +exhaustion, the last from native courage, which enabled her to rise to +the occasion. Massey then stripped off all his own clothes, except +shirt and trousers, so as to be ready for swimming, and, catching up a +rope, advanced towards his wife, intending to fasten it round her waist. + +"Peggy first, Bob; I'll wait for _you_," said his wife. + +"Look sharp!" cried the captain. + +Bob turned at once to Peggy, and in a few seconds she was lowered into +the boat. Mrs Hayward followed. Then Massey insisted on his wife +going, and the obedient Nellie submitted, but, owing to a lurch of the +ship at the moment, she missed the boat, and dropped into the water. +One of the men attempted to pull her in, but could not, and, as all the +others were engaged at the moment in trying to fend off the rocks, +Massey at once jumped into the sea, and helped to get his wife into the +boat. + +At that moment there arose a cry that the ship was sinking, and a wild +rush was made for the long-boat, which had also been successfully +launched. Of course it was instantly overcrowded, for all discipline +was now at an end. Before anything else could be done the _Lapwing_ +sank in sixteen fathoms of water, carrying the long-boat and all the +people in her along with it, but those in the other boat had shoved off +at the first wild cry, and hauling on the anchored cable, just escaped +being sucked down by the sinking ship. + +Bob Massey clung to the boat's gunwale, and thus escaped. Rowing back +instantly, however, to the spot where the ship had gone down, they +sought eagerly for swimmers. Only three were discovered and rescued, +but the others--seventy souls in all--found a watery grave in the dark +cavern of that unknown land. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 7. + +So rapidly did the final catastrophe take place that it was difficult +for the rescued party at first to credit the evidence of their senses. +On the spot where the _Lapwing_ had been beating her sides against the +cruel walls of the cavern, and where so many hearts had been throbbing +wildly between hope and fear, no living creature remained; nothing but a +few feet of the shattered masts appearing now and then above the surging +waves, was left to tell of the terrible tragedy that had been enacted +there. + +For upwards of an hour the party in the boat hovered about the place, +not so much with the hope of rescuing any of their shipmates as on +account of the difficulty of tearing themselves away from the fatal +spot. Perhaps the natural tendency of man to hope against hope had +something to do with it. Then they passed silently out of the cavern +and rowed slowly along the base of the tremendous cliffs. + +At length the feeling of self-preservation began to assert itself, and +Bob Massey was the first to break silence with the question-- + +"Does any one know if there's anything to eat aboard?" + +"We'd better see to that," observed Dr Hayward, who was steering. + +Bob Massey pulled in his oar, and, without remark, began to search the +boat. It was found that all the food they had brought away consisted of +nine tins of preserved meat and three pieces of pork, a supply which +would not go far among ten persons. + +The ten survivors were Dr Hayward and his wife; Massey and Nellie; Joe +Slag; John Mitford and his wife Peggy; Terrence O'Connor, the assistant +cook; Tomlin, one of the cabin passengers; and Ned Jarring. All the +rest, as we have said, had perished with the ill-fated _Lapwing_. + +Little was said at first, for the hopelessness of their condition seemed +so obvious that the men shrank from expressing their gloomy fears to the +women who sat huddled together, wet and cold, in the bottom of the boat. + +As we have said, as far as the eye could see in any direction, the +frowning cliffs rose perpendicularly out of deep water. There was not +even a strip of sand or a bay into which they could run in case of the +wind increasing. + +"There is nothing for it but to push on till we come to an inlet, or +break of some sort in the cliffs, by which we may land," said Hayward, +speaking encouragingly to the women. "God helping us, we are sure to +find some such place ere long." + +"Don't look very like it," muttered Black Ned, gloomily. + +"We can see how it looks about as well as you can," retorted John +Mitford, indignantly. "If ye can't say somethin' to cheer the women, +there's no need for to look blue an' tell us what a mere babby could see +for itself." + +This remark, coming as it did from lugubrious Mitford, caused Terrence +O'Connor to smile. + +"True for ye," he said, "we can see what's fornint us, but even Black +Ned can't see round the corner." + +"Besides, there may be a flat shore on the other side o' the island," +added Bob Massey in a cheerful tone; "I've often noticed islands o' this +build, and when they're so high on one side they usually are low on the +opposite side; so we'll only have to pull round--an' mayhap there are +people on it--who knows?" + +"Ay, natives pr'aps," growled Jarring, "an' cannibals who are fond of +eatin' white folk--specially women!" + +"Shut up your black muzzle, or I'll heave ye overboard!" said Mitford, +fiercely, for like many easy-going, quiet men, he was unusually savage +when fairly roused. + +Whatever Black Ned may have felt, he gave no expression to his thoughts +or feelings by word or look, but continued calmly to pull his oar. + +All that day, and all that night, however, the party pulled steadily +along the shore without finding an opening in the cliffs or any part +which could be scaled by man. During this period their plight was +miserable in the extreme, for the weather at the time was bitterly cold; +they were drenched through and through with spray, which broke so +frequently over the side as to necessitate constant baling, and, to make +matters worse, towards evening of the second day snow began to fall and +continued to do so the greater part of the night. Fortunately, before +dark they came to some small rocky islets, on which they could not land +as the waves washed over them, but in the lee of which they cast anchor, +and thus were enabled to ride out a furious gale, which sprang up at +sunset and did not subside till morning. + +It need scarcely be said that the men did all that lay in their power to +shelter the poor women, who had exhibited great fortitude and +uncomplaining endurance all that weary time; but little could be done +for them, for there was not even a bit of sail to put over them as a +protection. + +"Nellie, dear," said Massey, when the boat was brought up under the lee +of the rocks, "d'ee feel _very_ cold?" + +"Not very," replied his wife, raising her head. "I'm strong, thank God, +and can stand it; but Peggy here is shudderin' awful bad. I believe +she'll die if somethin' isn't done for her." + +"I think if she could only ring the water out of her clothes," whispered +Mrs Hayward to her husband, "it might do her some good, but--" + +"I know that, Eva: it would do you all good, and we must have it done +somehow--" + +An exclamation in the bow of the boat at that moment attracted +attention. It was John Mitford, who, having taken off his own coat, and +wrapped it round his shivering wife, had gone to the bow to rummage in a +locker there, and had found a tarpaulin. Massey had overhauled the +locker for food before him, but the tarpaulin had been so well folded, +and laid so flat in the bottom, that it had escaped his notice. + +Retiring aft with this god-send, the lugubrious man speedily, with the +assistance of his comrades, covered over the centre of the boat so +completely that a small chamber was formed, into which the women could +retire. It was not high enough, indeed, to stand in, but it formed a +sufficient shelter from wind and spray. + +"Now, Peggy, my dear," said her husband when it was finished, "get in +there--off wi' your things an' wring 'em out." + +"Th-thank you, J-John," replied Peggy, whose teeth chattered like +castanets, "but 'ow am I t-to d-dry 'em? For wet c-clo'es won't dry +wi-without a fire. At least I n-never 'eard of--" + +The remainder of her remarks were lost to male ears as the tarpaulin +dropped around her after Eva Hayward and Nellie had led, or half-lifted, +her under its sheltering folds. How they managed to manipulate the +shivering Peggy it is not our province to tell, but there can be no +doubt that the treatment of her two friends in misfortune was the cause +of her emerging from under the tarpaulin the following morning alive and +comparatively well, though still far from dry. + +The aspect of things had changed greatly for the better when the +unfortunates resumed their voyage. The wind had abated, the sea, +although still heaving, was smooth. The snow had ceased, and the sun +arose in a cloudless sky, so that when poor Mrs Mitford raised her +dishevelled head and felt the sun's cheering rays she exclaimed, with a +sigh of relief: "La! if the sun ain't blazin' 'ot! An' I'm so 'ungry. +Dear, dear, 'ave you bin rowin' all night, John? 'Ow tired you must be; +an' your 'ands blistered, though you are pretty tough in the 'ands, but +you couldn't 'old a candle to Bob Massey at that--Yes, yes, Nellie, I +'ear you, but la! what does it matter 'ow your 'air an' things is +deranged w'en you're wrecked at sea and--" + +The abrupt disappearance of the dishevelled head at that moment +suggested the idea that Mrs Mitford had either fallen backward suddenly +or been pulled under cover by her companions. + +"She's all right, anyhow," said O'Connor, adjusting his oar. + +"She's always all right," remarked Mitford in a funereal tone, which, +however, was meant to be confidential. "Bless your heart, I've seen +that woman under all circumstances, but although she's timid by nature, +an' not over strong in body, I've never seen her give in or fairly cast +down. No doubt she was pretty low last night, poor thing, but that was +'cause she was nigh dead wi' cold--yet her spirit wasn't crushed. It's +my solemn conviction that if my Peggy ever dies at all she'll die game." + +With a profound sigh of satisfaction at having thus borne testimony to +the rare and admirable qualities of his wife, the worthy man applied +himself to his oar with redoubled vigour. + +It is quite a pleasure in this censorious world to see any man +absolutely blind to his wife's faults, and thoroughly awake to her good +qualities. The opinion formed of Peggy--by Mrs Massey and Mrs Hayward +respectively, did not quite coincide with that of John Mitford. + +"How did you get on with poor Peggy last night, Eva?" asked Dr Hayward +of his wife, in an undertone, as they breakfasted that forenoon beside +the tiller, while the rest of their companions were similarly engaged in +the middle of the boat, and at the bow. + +"Pretty well, Tom, but she's troublesome to manage. She is so unusually +timid, poor creature, so prone to give way to despair when things look +bad, yet so sweetly apt to bound into high spirits when things are +looking hopeful,--and withal, so amusingly garrulous!" + +Strange to say, at the very moment that this was uttered, Nellie was +remarking to her husband in a low tone that, "poor Peggy was quite a +puzzle, that she was all but dead at one moment, and quite lively at +another, that she professed to be all submission, but was as obstinate +as a pig, and that her tongue--soft though it was--went like the clapper +of a mill!" + +We have referred to breakfast, but the meal spread before the castaways +hardly merits that name, for it consisted of only a small slice of pork +to each; a few pieces of ship's biscuit that Slag had discovered in his +pockets; and a cup of water drawn from the pond which had accumulated in +a hollow of the tarpaulin during the night. + +"It is lucky that one of the pieces of pork happened to be cooked," +observed Dr Hayward, as he served out the allowance, "for I would have +been sorry to break into the preserved meat tins till forced to do so. +We must keep these as a reserve as long as possible." + +"Right you are, sir!" said Slag, with his mouth full, while with a +clasp-knife he carefully cut off another morsel to be ready, "right you +are! That 'minds me when we was starvin', me and my shipmates in the +Arctic regions, so as our ribs was all but comin' through our skins, an' +we was beginnin' to cast an evil eye on the stooard who'd kep' fatter +than the rest of us somehow, an' was therefore likely to prove a more +satisfyin' kind o' grub, d'ee see--" + +"I say, Joe," said Hayward, interrupting, for he feared that Slag's +anecdote might not tend to render the pork breakfast more palatable. + +"Sir?" said Slag. + +"Will you just go to the bow and take a squint ahead? I think there +seems to be something like an end o' the cliffs in view--your eyes are +better than mine." + +Slag swallowed the mouthful on which he was engaged, thrust after it the +morsel that was ready to follow, wiped the clasp-knife on his thigh, and +went forward to "take a squint." + +It turned out that the "end" of the cliffs which the doctor had only +supposed possible, was a reality, for, after a long gaze, Slag turned +and said-- + +"Your eyes are better than you think, sir, for the end o' the cliff is +visible, an' a spit o' sand beyond is quite plain." + +As this report was corroborated by Bob Massey, and then by all the other +men, it sent a thrill of gratitude into the hearts of most of the +party--especially the women, who, having lain so long wet and almost +motionless, were nearly benumbed in spite of the sunshine. Longer +exposure, indeed, would probably have proved fatal to poor Mrs Mitford, +possibly also to Mrs Hayward, who was by no means robust. As for our +coxswain's wife, having been reared among the health-giving breezes of +the sea-shore, and inured from infancy to exposure and hard work, she +suffered much less than her female companions, and busied herself a +great part of the time in chafing their cold limbs. In doing this she +reaped the natural advantage of being herself both warmed and +invigorated. Thus virtue not only "is," but inevitably brings, its own +reward! Similarly, vice produced its natural consequences in the case +of Black Ned, for that selfish man, being lazy, shirked work a good +deal. It is possible to pull an oar in such a way that, though the +rower may be apparently doing his best, he is, in reality, taking the +work very lightly and doing next to nothing. Acting in this way, Ned +Jarring became cold when the sleet and spray were driving in his face, +his blood flowed sluggishly in his veins, and his sufferings were, +consequently, much more severe than those of his comrades. Towards the +afternoon of that day, they rounded the spit of sand mentioned by Joe +Slag, and came upon a low-lying coast. After proceeding a considerable +distance along which, they discovered a good harbour. This was +fortunate, for grey clouds had again covered the sun and a bitter east +wind began to blow. + +"Thank God, Eva," said Hayward, as he steered into the bay, "for if we +had not come upon this harbour, your strength and that of poor Peggy, I +fear, would have failed, but now you'll be all right in a short time." + +"Oh, no, sir, I don't think as _my_ strength would fail," said Peggy, in +a feeble voice, for she had overheard the remark. "Not that I shouldn't +be thankful all the same, I allow--for thankfulness for mercies received +is a dooty, an' most on us do fail in that, though I say it that +shouldn't, but my strength ain't quite gone yet--" + +"Stand by, Slag, to fend off with your oar when we get close in," said +the doctor, interrupting Peggy's discourse. + +"Have any of you got matches in your pockets?" asked Massey, clapping +his hands suddenly to the various receptacles about his person, with a +look of unwonted anxiety. + +"Ye may well ax that, Bob," said O'Connor, using his own hands in the +same way. "Cold, wet weather, and no house! It 'ud be death to the +women, sure, av--" + +"Here you are!" shouted Tomlin in a burst of triumph, in spite of his +naturally reserved disposition. + +He held up a box of vestas which, being a smoker, he fortunately had in +his pocket. + +"I hope they ain't wet," remarked Black Ned, suggestively. + +"Wrap 'em well up," said Slag. + +Tomlin drew out his handkerchief and proceeded to do so. At the same +moment the boat's keel grated softly on the shingly shore. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 8. + +Seldom have the mysterious sparks of life been sought for more +anxiously, or tended and nursed with greater care, than were the little +sparks of fire which were evoked with difficulty from Tomlin's +match-box. + +Drizzling rain had commenced just as the wrecked party landed. The +tarpaulin had been set up as a slight, though very imperfect, shelter; +the ground underneath had been strewn with twigs and grass, and a large +pile of dead branches had been arranged to receive the vital spark +before any attempt was made to create it. + +"Everything must be quite ready, first," said Hayward to Tomlin, "for +our very lives depend, under God, on our securing fire; so keep the +matches snug in your pocket till I ask for them." + +"I will," replied Tomlin, "D'you know it never occurred to me before how +tremendously important the element of fire is? But how will you ever +manage to make the branches catch, everything being so thoroughly +soaked?" + +"You shall see. I have had to make a fire in worse circumstances than +the present," returned Hayward, "though I admit they are bad enough. +Have you got the small twigs broken and ready, Slag?" + +"All ready, sir." + +"Now look here, Tomlin." + +As he spoke, the doctor picked up a dead but wet branch, and, sheltering +himself under the tarpaulin, began to whittle it with his penknife. He +found, of course, that the interior of the branch was dry. The thin +morsels which he sliced off were handed to Slag, who placed them with +great care in the heart of a bundle of very small twigs resembling a +crow's nest. A place had been reserved for this bundle or nest, in the +heart of the large pile of branches lying on the ground. Meanwhile, +Slag held the nest ready in his hands. + +"Now, Tomlin, get out your matches," said the doctor. + +With the utmost care the anxious man unfolded the kerchief, and, opening +the box, looked into it earnestly. + +"Wet?" asked Hayward. + +Tomlin shook his head. "I fear they are." He took one out, while the +whole party assembled round him to note the result. + +The first match dropped its head like a piece of soft putty when scraped +on the lid. The second did the same, and a suppressed groan escaped +from the little group, for it could be seen that there were not more +than ten or twelve matches in the box altogether. Again and again a +match was struck with similar result. The fifth, however, crackled a +little, and rekindled, sinking hope in the observers, though it failed +to kindle itself. The seventh burst at once into a bright blaze and +almost drew forth a cheer, which, however, was checked when a puff of +wind blew out the new-born flame. + +"Och! let Bob Massey try it!" cried O'Connor. "Sure he's used to +workin' in throublesome weather." + +"Right, boy," said Slag, "hand it to the coxs'n." + +Tomlin readily obeyed, only too glad to get some of the failure shifted +to other shoulders. + +Massey readily undertook the task, and success attended his first +effort. + +"I knowed it!" said Nellie, in a quiet tone, as she saw the bright flame +leap up and almost set her husband's beard on fire. "Bob never fails!" + +The burning match was quickly plunged into Hayward's handful of +shavings, which blazed up as he thrust it into Slag's nest; and Slag, +holding the nest with the tender care of a loving sick-nurse, and the +cool indifference of a salamander, till it was a flaming ball, crammed +it into the heart of the pile of sticks. Tremendous was the volume of +smoke that arose from the pile, and anxious were the looks riveted on +it. + +"Sure ye've smothered it intirely," gasped O'Connor. + +"Oh, me!" sighed Peggy in a voice of mild despair. + +"No fear, it's all right," said Massey, in a confident tone, while Joe +Slag, on his knees, with cheeks inflated and nose all but kindling, blew +at the glowing heart with unwearied determination, regardless alike of +friend and foe. + +"It's going to do," remarked John Mitford in his most dismal tone. + +"Any child might tell that," said Nellie, with a light laugh. + +The laugh seemed infectious, for the whole party joined in as a glorious +gush of flame rushed among the sticks, dried up the dampness, and +effectually changed the pillar of smoke into a pillar of fire. + +The fire thus kindled was rightly deemed of such vital importance that +it was not permitted to go out thereafter for many months, being watched +night and day by members of the party appointed to the duty by turns. +It had, indeed, not a few narrow escapes, and more than once succeeded +in reaching what appeared to be its last spark, but was always caught in +time and recovered, and thus was kept burning, until a discovery was +made which rendered such constant attendance and care unnecessary. + +"Now," said Dr Hayward, when the fire was safely established, "we have +not much daylight left, so it behoves us to make the most of it. You +are a man of action and experience, Robert Massey, what would you advise +us to do first?" + +"Well, doctor, since you're good enough to ask me, I would advise that +we should appoint a leader. You see, mates," he continued, addressing +himself to the company in general, "there's no possibility of a ship +gettin' along without a captain, or an army without a general. If we +was going off to a wreck now, with or without a lifeboat, I would claim +a sort o' right to be coxswain in virtue o' past experience; but, as +we've now begun a sort o' shore-goin' business, which requires a deal o' +general knowledge, besides seamanship, an' as Dr Hayward has got that +by edication, I move that we make him our leader." + +"Right you are, Bob," said Joe Slag. ("As he always is," said Nellie, +_sotto voce_.) "So I second the move--if that's the reg'lar way to do +it." + +"Hear, hear!" said every one with right good will, and a gleam of pride +flashed from Eva's pretty brown eyes as her husband was thus unanimously +appointed leader of the shipwrecked band. + +Like a sensible man, knowing his capacity, he at once accepted the +command without any display of undue modesty, and proved his fitness by +at once going to work. + +"The first thing, then, is to thank God for our deliverance, which we +all do, I am sure, most heartily." + +This was received with a responsive "Amen" from every one--not even +excepting Black Ned. + +"Next, we must find fresh water and boil a bit of pork--" + +"Ah, then, we haven't a kittle!" exclaimed O'Connor. + +"Haven't we a big baling-dish, Terrence?" said Hayward. + +"Sure we have, sor, an' it's a tin wan as'll stand fire," returned +Terrence with a reproved look. + +"Well, then, you go fetch it; wash it well out, and get the pork ready. +Jarring and Tomlin will gather as much dead wood as they can find and +pile it beside the fire. Mitford will search for fresh water--there +must be a spring or brook not far off--and Massey and I will rig up some +sort of shelter for the night." + +"Please, sir, may I go with Mitford to seek for water?" asked Nellie. + +"By all means, if you wish to." + +"And I will keep you company, Nell," said Mrs Hayward energetically. + +"So will I," chimed in little Mrs Mitford, feebly. "I was always fond +of water. As a child I used to paddle about in it continually, an' +sometimes tumbled into it, for of course young people will--" + +"No, Peggy, you must sit by the fire with my wife," said the doctor. +"Neither of you is fit for work of any kind yet, so sit down and warm +yourselves." + +Eva was too wise, and Peggy too weak, to offer objection, so these two +sat by the fire while the others went to work. + +Energy of action tends to lighten the burdens that may be laid on human +spirits, and to induce the most favourable view of the worst +circumstances. The toil which the party now undertook was such a +blessed relief to them after the prolonged exposure to cold and +comparative inaction in the boat, that all returned to the camp-fire in +a much more cheerful state of mind than they left it. The searchers for +water came back first, having found what they sought close at hand; and +Terrence, filling his baling-dish, soon had the pork boiling, along with +some mysterious herbs gathered by the doctor to convert the liquid into +soup. Tomlin and Black Ned returned heavily laden with firewood, and +Bob Massey discovered a tree with branches sufficiently spreading and +leafy to protect them to some extent from rain. + +"'Tis as well we have found overhead protection, Massey," said the +doctor, when our coxswain led him to the spot, "for I have been thinking +that as we have no blankets, we shall be obliged to use our tarpaulin as +a quilt rather than an umbrella." + +"That's true, sir," returned Massey, "but how about the women?" + +"Well, I've been thinking about that," said Hayward, "and I've devised a +plan for to-night at least; to-morrow I hope to hit on a better +arrangement. First of all, we'll spread in front of a fire, which we +will kindle beneath this tree, a layer of branches and grass. In the +middle of this the women will lie down side by side, after having dried +and warmed themselves thoroughly at the fire. Then we'll take two of +the floor planks from the boat, and put one on each side of them-- +partially frame them, as it were. Then one half of us men will lie down +on one side of the frame, the other half on the other side, and we'll +draw the tarpaulin over us all." + +"Hm! not very comfortable," said Massey, "for the poor women to be +framed like that." + +"Admitted; but what else can we do?" said Hayward. "It would risk our +lives to sleep without covering of any kind in such cold weather, and +with sleet falling as it does now. Better have the sheet spread upon us +than merely over our heads. So now let's kindle another fire, and do +you arrange our couch, Bob." + +In spite of the cold and the sleet, things looked much more cosy than +persons unacquainted with "roughing it" could believe possible, and they +became comparatively happy when the couch was spread, and they were +seated under the sheltering tree, with the fire blazing and crackling in +front of them, suffusing their faces and persons and the leaf-canopy +overhead with a deep red glare, that contrasted well with the +ebony-black surroundings, while a rich odour of pork soup exhaled from +the baling-dish. + +"Ah! now there's nothin' wantin' to produce parfit felicity but a pipe," +said O'Connor with a sigh. + +"That's so, lad," assented Tomlin, echoing the sigh, and feeling in his +pocket from force of habit, though he knew too well that nothing was to +be found there. + +"Here, Terrence," said Massey, handing him an empty pipe, at the same +time asking him to shut his eyes and draw, and try to imagine himself +smoking, but Terrence shook his head. + +"I couldn't do that, Bob," he said, "but I'll sing ye a stave in praise +o' the weed." + +Without waiting for permission, the jovial Irishman at once began: + + "Oh! it's 'baccy as is my chief joy, + At mornin', noon and night; + An' it's verily my belief, boy, + That I love it with all my might. + If your liver an' lungs are squeakin', + An' your head is growin' cracky, + There's nothin' so sure to kill or cure, + As fumes o' the strongest 'baccy." + +"If it would improve your voice, Terrence," observed Mr Mitford, +meekly, "I'm sure I wish ye had pounds of it, for it's that harsh-- +though, of course, I make no pretence to music myself, but--" + +"Just listen to that now, `Harsh!' an' that to a man whose own mother, +by the father's side, towld him he shud make music his purfession! +Arrah, howld on, Black Ned, ye spalpeen; ye've had two helpin's +already!" + +This latter remark had reference to the baling-dish of soup which was +being passed round the party, so that each might help himself to two +mouthfuls of soup before passing it on. As they had no spoons, the +doctor had extemporised ladles of folded bark, which served the purpose +pretty well. + +"Haven't ye a small bit o' 'baccy in the corner o' wan o' yer pockets, +doctor, dear?" asked Terrence, insinuatingly. "May be ye'd find a +morsel if ye'd try." + +"Quite useless to try, my poor fellow," returned the doctor, with a look +of affected pity, "for I'm a non-smoker. I never indulge in such an +absurdity." + +"Sure, it's a true proverb that says `doctor's differ,'" retorted +O'Connor, "for most o' the saw-bones of my acquaintance have smoked like +lime kilns." + +"More's the pity, Terrence, but if you'll heave on some more firewood +you'll have a smoke that may do as a substitute at present." + +By heaping quantities of fresh branches on the fire till it was large +enough to roast an ox, the party managed to pass the night in +comparative comfort, in spite of cold and sleet. Hayward watched the +fire during the first part of the night. Then he was relieved by our +coxswain, who was succeeded by Joe Slag, and no Vestal virgins ever +tended their fire with more anxious solicitude than those three men +guarded theirs during that first night on the island. + +As if to make up for the sufferings of the past few days, the morning +that followed broke with unclouded splendour, and the rising sun shone +upon as beautiful a scene as could well be imagined, for it revealed an +island richly clothed with verdure, which, rising out of a calm blue +sea, sloped gradually upwards, until its western ridge met the bright +sky. Evidently that terminating ridge was the place whence descended +the precipitous cliffs, along which they had sailed immediately after +leaving the cave of the wreck. + +There is no accounting for the eccentricities of weak-minded females, +whether pretty or plain. The first thing that pretty little Mrs +Mitford exclaimed on opening her eyes and beholding the glorious view +was-- + +"Oh! I _do_ so wish that we had oysters for breakfast!" + +If she had expressed a desire for elephant chops, she could not have +taken Eva Hayward more by surprise. As for Nell Massey, she went off +into a hilarious giggle. + +"I fear there are no oysters hereabouts," said Hayward, "but I shouldn't +wonder if we were to find mussels and things of that sort. Come, lads, +we'll go and have a search for them, while the ladies fill and boil our +kettle." + +Limpets, mussels, and other shell-fish were found in great abundance. +With these warm soup was soon made, and after a hearty breakfast, +Hayward organised the party in two bands which were sent off in +different directions to explore the island, Peggy and her husband being +left behind to cook the dinner and keep up the fire. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 9. + +For several days the shipwrecked party continued to live chiefly on +limpets and mussels gathered on the sea-shore. Only a very little of +the pork was used, for the purpose of converting the food into soup. As +they could not tell, of course, how long they might be compelled to live +there, it behoved them to be very careful of the food-supply already in +possession. Fortunately, the weather continued fine, though cold, so +that it was not necessary at first to make any alteration in their camp +arrangements. + +During this period much of their time was necessarily spent in laying in +a stock of shell-fish, and in attempting to bring down with stones some +of the gulls which flew inquisitively about and very temptingly near to +the camp, but none of the party was a good marksman with stone +ammunition, and it soon became evident that unless some other means of +obtaining food were discovered there was every prospect of starvation +ending their career. + +In this emergency Dr Hayward organised an exploring expedition on a +more extended scale. He divided the party into three bands--one +consisting of Ned Jarring, Tomlin, and himself, to examine the shores; +another comprising Joe Slag, John Mitford, and O'Connor, to penetrate +the interior and higher lands; while it was appointed to Bob Massey, who +had by that time come to be more frequently addressed by his old title +of "coxswain," to stay at the camp, keep the all-important fire going, +and guard the women. + +"You see, we must go about this business thoroughly," said the doctor, +when they were all assembled in the camp one day after their frugal +meal, excepting O'Connor, who was a short distance off, trying, with +unwearied perseverance and unvaried failure, to kill gulls with stones. +"And for this purpose, we must hold a council of war. Where's +Terrence?" + +"He's pelting the gulls as usual," said Black Ned. + +"A-missin' of 'em, you mean," suggested Mitford. + +"Hallo, Terrence!" shouted Hayward, catching sight of the Irishman at +that moment. "Here! we want you." + +"Comin', sor, jist wan more shot at this baste. He's bin flyin' round +me hid for half-an-hour at laste, winkin' at the stones as they go by +him. Och! missed again--bad luck to ye!" + +As he uttered the malediction the disappointed man heaved a last stone, +angrily and without an attempt at an aim. He did not even look up to +observe the result, but turned sharply round towards the camp. + +That stone, however, was like the arrow shot at a venture. It hit the +bird full on the breast and brought it down, which fact was made known +to the sportsman by a cheer from the camp and a heavy thud behind him. + +"Well done, Terrence!" cried Hayward as he came up with his prize. "I +regard it as a good omen--a sort of turn in the tide which will +encourage us on our contemplated expedition." + +The leader then gave minute instructions as to how long they were to be +away; how much food they were to take; the direction to be followed, and +the work to be done. + +"In short," said the doctor in conclusion, "we must use our eyes, ears, +and limbs to the best advantage; but bear in mind that the grand object +of the expedition is--" + +"Grub," suggested O'Connor. + +"Just so. Grub is our first and greatest necessity. Meanwhile, Peggy, +Nell, and Eva will do what they can to make our camp comfortable: gather +mussels and other shell-fish and see that the coxswain does not eat more +than a fair share of victuals, and conducts himself in all respects like +an obedient and trusted servant." + +With such and similar touches of pleasantry Hayward sought to cheer the +spirits of the party, and divert their minds from dwelling too much on +the fact that their case was a very serious one--almost desperate, for +they were on a comparatively small island, far to the southward of the +usual track of ships, without food or shelter, and without any of the +ordinary means of procuring either. + +The remainder of that day was spent in making preparation for the +projected expedition. As they had no offensive or defensive arms, +except two gully knives, their first business was to provide each man +with a spear. Fortunately, some of the surrounding trees had very +straight branches of various sizes, so they had only to cut down such as +were suitable, and peel the bark off. But the formation of hard points +gave them some anxiety, until Tomlin hit upon the idea of utilising the +bones of their pork. + +"The very thing!" said Mitford, with a look of melancholy satisfaction. + +Having no turn whatever for mechanics, he never saw difficulties till +they met and overcame him, and was always ready to rush in where +mechanical angels--if we may say so--feared to tread. + +"And how would you propose to cut the bones, John?" asked Slag, with an +air of modest simplicity. + +"Cut 'em? eh! well--wi' the knife, of course." + +It was found, however, that the knife made but slight impression on the +bones, and after one or two vain attempts, they turned to a more +effective method. Finding a huge boulder of some kind of sandstone they +broke it up, and on the rough surface thus produced, ground the bones +into sharp points, and by an ingenious method known to Slag, who learned +it from the Eskimos, they fixed these firmly on the ends of their +spears. + +Thus armed, and with a small quantity of cold pork, and a large +allowance of cold boiled limpets and mussels in their wallets, they set +out on their explorations. + +It is impossible to accompany two parties at once. Let us follow just +now the one composed of Joe Slag, Terrence O'Connor, and John Mitford. +These, with Joe as their leader, proceeded along the shore some miles in +a northerly direction; and then, turning into the bush, which was +nowhere thick, they pushed into the interior of the island. After +advancing about ten miles they came on a wide stretch of sandhills or +downs, and found that, having crossed a sort of isthmus, they had come +out again on the sea-shore. + +"This won't do," said Slag, on making the discovery. "We'll have to +steer d'rect for the highest land." + +"That's so, Joe," said Mitford, "and yonder's a height away there, right +in the wind's eye, that will act as a beacon to us." + +"I sees it, John--but, I say, what's the matter wi' Terrence?" + +This question was drawn forth by the action of the Irishman, who had +walked on about fifty yards in advance of his comrades. He was standing +in the attitude of an ancient Roman about to discharge a javelin. +Stooping low as if to render themselves less conspicuous, Mitford +muttered, "hallo!" and his comrade whispered, "Sh! he sees suthin'!" + +Whatever it was he saw, O'Connor evidently felt too far off to act +effectively, for, after standing a moment in the classic position just +referred to, he suddenly lowered his spear, dropped on hands and knees, +and made a slow, undignified advance of a few yards. Then he rose +again, became classic once more and discharged his spear, in a manner +that would have done credit to Achilles himself. + +The growl that followed, and the "bad luck to ye," that came faintly +back on the breeze, told too plainly that the result was a miss. + +"Sure it's a rabbit I saw," he said, returning to his companions, "an' +if I'd only sent it two yards more to the left, I'd have hit the baste!" + +To the satisfaction of the explorers, it was found that the sandhills +were burrowed all over by rabbits, and that there existed there a large +colony of them. Cheered by this--in spite of their bad javelin play-- +they made for the high ground, and soon found themselves threading a +belt of wood, after crossing which they reached the foot of the range of +hills that bounded the island to the westward. + +It was a weird, rugged spot, covered with great boulders that had rolled +down the hill-sides, and with gaps and chasms here and there of +considerable depth, that suggested the idea of volcanic action having +visited the place at some remote period. These chasms or rents in the +earth were overgrown with trees or bushes in many places, and obliged +the travellers to make wide detours in some places to avoid them. + +Thus they were so much delayed that night was upon them before they had +reached the higher parts of the hill-range where they had intended to +encamp. + +The difference between blanketing and gossamer is great, yet it is +inconceivably slight compared with the difference between gossamer and +nothing! In the pride of their strength the members of the exploring +party lay down to sleep without covering of any kind, for the good +reason that they possessed none, and before morning they would gladly +have given a fabulous price for even a gossamer coverlet. + +"It's freezin' I am, if not froze," said Terrence O'Connor at the end of +the second sleepless hour. "If we could have only brought away some o' +the fire in our pockets, what a comfort it would have bin!" + +He got up, shook himself, and slapped his arms across his breast +vigorously. + +Slag and Mitford followed his example. + +"I'm beginnin' to feel better on the outside," continued O'Connor, +pausing, "but my spinal marrow isn't properly warm yet." + +"'Minds me o' Baffin's Bay," growled Slag, with a mighty slap of the +arms between each word. + +Mitford seemed to think any remark superfluous, for he only groaned. + +"Pity it's too dark to see yer face, John," said Terrence. "It must be +a sight worth seein'. Och, av I only had a good-sized pocket-han'kicher +I'd wrap me feet in it, anyhow." + +"Suppose we cut some grass and try that?" suggested Mitford. + +The suggestion was acted on. + +It was slow work cutting grass with a clasp-knife; tearing it up in +handfuls was still slower, but the labour warmed the tired explorers, +and when they lay down again under this Adam-an'-Eveic bedding, they +fell asleep almost immediately, and did not waken till the sun was +pretty well up in the eastern sky. + +"Breakfast fust," said Slag, on completing a tremendous stretch and +yawn. "It's always bin my way since I was a babby--business first; +pleasure to foller. Grub is business, an' work is pleasure--leastwise, +it ought to be to any man who's rated `A. One' on the ship's books. +Hallo! sorrowful-monkey-face, clap a stopper on yer nose an' tumble +up,--d'ye hear?" + +Mitford did not hear, but a touch of Slag's toe caused him to feel and +to rise. + +O'Connor was already astir, preparing breakfast. Cold boiled mussels +and a bit of pork may be good food, but it is not appetising. +Consequently they did not linger long over the meal, but were soon +striding up the mountain-side rejoicing in the fresh air and sunshine. + +There was a certain phase in John Mitford's character which had not yet +been discovered by his friends, and was known only to his wife. He was +romantic--powerfully so. To wander through unknown lands and be a +discoverer had been the dream of his youth. He was naturally reticent, +and had never said so to any one but Peggy, who, being the reverse of +romantic, was somewhat awe-stricken by the discovery, and, in an +imbecile way, encouraged him to hope that, "one of these days he'd 'ave +'is desires gratified, as there was nothink to prevent 'im from goin' to +Novazealand--if that was the right way to pronounce it--or to Van Demons +land--not in a sinful way of course, for they had given up transportin' +people there now--though wherever they transported 'em to she couldn't +imagine--anyhow, there was nothink to prevent his tryin'." And John did +try, which was the primary cause of his being a member of the exploring +party now under consideration. + +Influenced by his romantic spirit, Mitford betrayed a troublesome +tendency to wander from his comrades in pursuit of the Unknown. +O'Connor, with the straightforward simplicity of his nation, set it down +to pig-headedness. Slag, being a man of feeling, opined that it was +absence of mind. + +"The spalpeen! he's off again," said O'Connor, turning round as they +halted to rest a minute, after breasting the hill for half-an-hour. +"Hallo, John! Where are ye, boy?" + +"Here--all right," shouted a voice in the distance, "I'm exploring +behind the knoll here. Go ahead; I'll meet ye at the top o' the hill." + +By that time they were within about an hour's walk of the highest ridge +of the island, so they pushed on without delay, expecting to find their +lugubrious friend there before them, or not far behind them. It turned +out as had been supposed. The mountain ridge formed the summit of the +great precipice, along the foot of which they had sailed after quitting +the cavern, or, as they had come to call it, the wreck-cave. For some +time the two stood on the giddy edge, looking in silence on the +tremendous depths below, and the sublime spectacle of illimitable sea +beyond, with its myriad facets gleaming in the sunshine. + +Then they bethought them of their comrade, and turned back to look for +him; hallooing now and then as they went, and expecting every moment to +see him emerge from one of the gorges that led to the ridge. But there +was no answering shout, or any sign of his having been there. Soon, +becoming anxious and then alarmed, the two men set to work in earnest to +search for their lost comrade, but they sought in vain. Returning to +the spot where they had last heard his voice, they continued the search +in that direction, and made the rocks echo with their shouting. Still +no John Mitford was to be found, and the curious thing was that there +seemed to be no very rugged or precipitous formation of land where he +could easily have met with an accident. At last, evening approached. + +"We must go back at wance," said O'Connor, with anxious looks, "an' +rouse all the men out to seek for him wi' torches." + +Without another word they turned and made for the camp as fast as they +could go. + +Meanwhile, Dr Hayward and his party had been successful in their +exploration, for they not only discovered a rabbit-warren, but had +observed seals basking on the rocks, and found the tracks of goats, or +some animal of that kind with divided hoofs. They had even succeeded in +getting between a young seal and the water and speared it, so that there +was something like jubilation in the camp on their return at the +prospect of a fresh meal and better fare in future. + +But this was abruptly put an end to by the arrival of Slag and his +comrade with the news of Mitford's disappearance. Poor Mrs Mitford was +thrown into a state of terrible alarm, and at first insisted on +accompanying the search party, but under the united entreaties of Eva +and Nelly she was prevailed on to remain behind. + +With torches made of resinous wood, which burnt admirably, they searched +all that night, and, taking only a few hours' rest, continued the search +all the following day, but without success. Day after day the search +was continued, even after all hope of ever again seeing their comrade +alive had died out, but at last they were compelled to give it up and +devote themselves to the urgent duty of procuring better shelter and +food. + +As for poor Mrs Mitford, she sank into a state of helpless and hopeless +despair. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 10. + +Men in straits cannot afford to sit down to grieve and mope over their +sorrows. Although a deep gloom had been cast over the shipwrecked party +by the loss of one whom they had learned to respect, the urgent need of +obtaining better food and shelter compelled them, as we have said, to +give their whole mind and attention to this work. + +They pitied poor Peggy sincerely, however, and endeavoured to comfort +her a little by raising the hope that her husband might have merely lost +himself in the woods of the island, and would yet, perhaps, be found +alive and well. But, although their intentions were kindly, they could +comfort neither Peggy nor themselves with such a hope; for their +experience convinced them that the woods, although thick and tangled, +were not extensive enough for any one to be permanently lost in them, +and it seemed quite certain that if the lost man had not met with some +fatal accident, he would certainly have made his way to the coast, by +following which he could have easily found the camp. + +"It is very sad to give over our search for poor Mitford," said Dr +Hayward one morning, while seated on a ledge of rock near the beach, +taking counsel with his male companions as to the order of procedure for +the day, "but we cannot afford to delay our operations longer. This +poor fare of mussel soup, with such a small allowance of pork, is +beginning to injure the health of our women, not to mention ourselves; +besides, the pork won't last long, even though we put ourselves on the +shortest possible allowance; so I think that to-day we must go on an +expedition after the seals we saw the last time we went to the southern +end of the island. What say you, comrades?" + +"All right, cap'n," answered Massey. "You've only got to say the word. +But who's to stop at home to mind the camp-fire and the women?" + +"I'm afraid," returned Hayward, with a deprecatory smile, "that it's +your own turn, Bob. I would say that I'm sorry for you, were it not +ungallant to pity a man for being condemned for a day to female +society." + +The way in which the coxswain received this showed that he did not +repine at his fate. He did not even object to O'Connor's remark that, +"Faix, he might consider himself the luckiest man o' the lot!" + +Accordingly, Massey remained at the camp while the doctor, Slag, +O'Connor, Tomlin, and Jarring set out on a hunting expedition with two +days' cooked provisions in their wallets. The doctor and Tomlin armed +themselves with spears, but Jarring and Slag preferred clubs. + +"You see," said the latter, "I've heard--though I can't rightly say I've +seed it done myself--that the seal-hunters o' the north do their work +wi' clubs; so, if one man can kill a seal wi' such a thing, I don't see +why another shouldn't." + +And, truly, there was some reason for this covert boast; for Joe, +besides possessing arms of prodigious power, had cut and shaped for +himself a knotted club which might have suited the hand of Hercules +himself. + +It turned out that Bob Massey's satisfaction at being left behind that +day was not altogether the result of regard for female society. While +he was sauntering back to the camp, after his comrades had left, he +congratulated himself aloud on having at last a chance of making his +experiment without being laughed at during the trial. "That is--if +Nellie has got enough of line made." + +At that moment Nell was busy with the line in question, and at the same +time doing her best to comfort Mrs Mitford--Mrs Hayward being engaged +in preparing dinner; by no means a difficult duty, which the women +undertook day about. + +"Keep up your spirits, dear Peggy," said Nell, in that sweet, cosy +tone--if we may say so--which played such havoc in Bob's bosom at the +time when she was known as the coxswain's bride. "I feel _sure_ that +your dear husband will return to us. No doubt, some sort o' misfortune +has come to him; but he's such a sensible, handy man, is John, that I +can't help feelin' he'll come back to us; an' when I _feel_ anything +very strongly, d'ee know, I've almost always found it come true. Do you +believe in strong feelin', Peggy?" + +Poor Mrs Mitford, who had been sitting with her hands clasped in her +lap, and an utterly woebegone expression on her pale face, raised her +head with a troubled look on being thus directly appealed to. + +"Believe in strong feelin's, Nellie? I should just think I do. Not to +mention my own feelin's--which are so strong that I never felt nothink +like 'em before--any one who has been married to my John must know well +what st-strong--oh! no, I shall never see 'im again; dear Nellie, don't +tell me," she said, beginning to cry. "I know--I know--" + +"There, now--there's a good soul. Don't go off again. Look! D'ee know +what this is for?" + +As she spoke, Nellie held up a ball of what appeared to be twine, and +her companion--whose mind resembled that of a child, in that it could be +easily diverted--said no, she didn't know what it was for, and that she, +(Peggy), had seen her making it when the men were off excursioning, and +had asked about it; and why didn't she, (Nellie), relieve her curiosity +before, upon the point, instead of waitin' till now? + +"Well, you see, Peggy," replied her friend, with the confidential air of +one who has a secret to tell, "my Bob has took it into his head to give +his mates a surprise by fishin' for albatrosses." + +"Lawks! Nellie, an' that _will_ give 'em a surprise!" interrupted Mrs +Mitford, drying her eyes. "How ever can any man _fish_ for a bird-- +unless, indeed, it goes under water an' changes its nature, which no +creetur can do; though, now I come to think of it, I have seen flyin' +fish, an' so, perhaps, there may be albytresses, or other birds, that--" + +"Hallo! Nellie, hard at the twine, lass? You've made about enough of +it now," cried our coxswain, entering the camp at that moment, sitting +down beside his wife, and examining the ball of cord which she had been +so busily spinning. + +"I'm glad you think there's enough, Bob, for I've come to the end o' the +stuff you gathered for me." + +"Plenty more where that came from, Nell; but there's no need to gather +more than enough; for enough, you know, is as good as a feast. Well, +Peggy," he added, turning to the poor woman, and patting her gently on +the shoulder, "has Nell been tellin' you what I'm goin' to try?" + +"She was beginnin' to tell me, Mr Massey, when you came in, something +about fishin' for albytresses, an' I always thought albytresses was +birds, and--" + +"Quite right, Peggy. See, this is how it is: you bait a hook--but +come," said the coxswain, rising suddenly, and taking up the ball of +twine, "they do say example's better than precept. Come along wi' me +an' Nell, an' we'll show you how to do it." + +So saying, Massey led the two women down to the boat, telling Mrs +Hayward, whom they passed on the way, to heave some more sticks on the +fire, as it was getting low. + +"Never fear," said Eva, who carried the baling-dish full of shell-fish +in her hands. "I shall never forget the fright we got that time Joe let +it get so low that it was almost at the last spark. You won't be long +away, will you?" + +"Not long. Anyhow, we'll be sure to turn up for dinner." + +During their short residence on the island, the coxswain had observed +that albatrosses paid them frequent visits. The giant birds had +exhibited some signs of curiosity as to the doings of the new arrivals +on the island; so he resolved to capture one of them, with a view to +soup! + +Embarking in the boat, he rowed towards a point of rocks jutting out +into the sea, over which albatrosses had been seen hovering many times. +On the way, Nellie, who had previously been taught what to do, fastened +a small bit of wood to the end of the line she had spun. Hanging from +this was a hook that the coxswain had made from a gull's breast-bone. +It was baited with a piece of pork. Before arriving at the point of +rocks, they saw that an albatross was soaring over it on its mighty +outspread wings. On observing the boat, it flew away and disappeared in +the distance; but Bob was not much concerned about that. + +"Now, Nell," he said, on landing, "carry this bait out to sea as far as +the line will let you, lay it on the water, an' then pull back into yon +cove, and see that you hide the boat an' yourselves well, and keep +quiet. You mustn't even talk, Peggy! Yon fellow will soon be back." + +Nellie did exactly as she was directed; and then her husband, holding +the shore-end of the line, concealed himself among the rocks. + +He was right about the bird. Ere long, it was seen returning, and soon, +on motionless, expanded wings, it hovered over the rocky point. Then it +caught sight of the floating bait. With a majestic swoop, it dived, +caught it up, and next moment was flouncing wildly about, hooked by the +tongue, while Bob Massey hauled in the line. He had provided himself +with a stick, and when the huge bird came within reach he felled it, to +the immense delight of the watchers in the cove, who had already begun +to smell savoury soup by anticipation! + +While these were thus engaged, the sealing party was even more +successful in the opposite direction. They had not gone half-a-dozen +miles when they sighted a group of seals, sleeping--or sunning +themselves--on a flat rock, near high-water mark. + +"Now, then, Hercules, lead the way with your club," said the doctor to +Joe Slag, in a whisper. Joe at once shouldered his weapon and led the +party round by some sheltering rocks, so as to get between the seals and +the sea; then, rushing forward in a body, they took the creatures by +surprise, and intercepted two of them. On coming to close quarters, +however, they found that the seals were much more formidable to look at +than anything that any of them had ever seen in the Arctic Seas; and +when Joe brought his club down on the skull of the foremost with a +terrible thwack, it refused to tumble over, but continued to splutter +and flounder towards the sea. Dr Hayward, however, used his spear at +this moment with such effect that the seal fell, and another blow from +the Herculean club finished its career. + +As this animal was about half-a-ton in weight, they left it on the beach +with the intention of cutting off some steaks on their return, and +sending the boat round afterwards to fetch the remainder of the carcass. + +Considerably elated by their success, they pushed on. In a valley which +led towards the interior hills they found fresh tracks of goats, and saw +one of those animals in the distance. Rabbits were also seen, but none +killed at that time. They had not gone far into this valley, when a +most interesting discovery was made. On opening up a new turn in the +valley they came on the ruins of a hut. + +With feelings of profound interest, they entered--for there was no door +to bar their progress--and gazed around on the silent, mouldering walls. + +"Good luck!" exclaimed O'Connor, springing forward, and grasping an +object which lay on the ground. It was a hatchet, covered with red +rust. "Here is something else that will be useful," said Tomlin, +picking up a file, which was also covered with rust. + +The party at once began an eager search in the hope of finding other +things that might be of use to them, and they were not altogether +disappointed; for Jarring found a clasp-knife--much rust-eaten, of +course, but still fit for use. Slag found a much-battered frying-pan, +and Tomlin discovered a large cast-iron pot behind the hut, with a chip +out of its rim. A bottle was also found, and the party crowded round to +watch while the doctor examined it. + +"Gin, I hope," said Jarring, in a low tone. + +"Physic, I think," murmured Slag. + +"A paper!" exclaimed the doctor, holding it up to the light; then, +breaking the bottle, he unfolded the paper, but much of the writing on +it had been obliterated by water which had leaked in. The few +sentences, however, that were more or less legible, conveyed the fact +that a vessel had been wrecked on the island in 1848; that the crew had +lived there eighteen months when a ship, chancing to pass that way, +rescued them; that they had no provisions to leave for the use of +unfortunates who might chance to be cast away there in future; and that +there was a garden, with some vegetables in it, about-- + +Here the writing became quite illegible. + +"Now, we must find that garden," said the doctor, "and as we've not much +daylight left, we must begin at once. Come along, lads." + +In half an hour they found the garden, with potatoes growing in it, and +a few other roots that were new to them. + +Rejoicing over their discoveries the party started back without delay +for the camp, carrying the pot, the frying-pan, etcetera, along with +them, and not forgetting a good slice of the seal in passing. Arriving +late that night, they found Bob Massey and the women already enjoying a +supper of albatross soup. + +"Hooroo, Bob!" exclaimed O'Connor, flourishing the frying-pan in his +excitement, "we've found some praties, boy! Shovel out some o' that +into this, honey, an' I'll soon let ye smell the smell of an Irish +stew!" + +Next day the party removed from the camp and took up their abode in the +old hut, which was soon repaired sufficiently to keep out wind and rain, +and the skin of the seal--with that of another killed next day--was +large enough to screen off part of the hut as a separate chamber for the +women. + +From that time forward they had no lack of food, for they succeeded in +killing plenty of seals, and in snaring a great many rabbits, though +they failed entirely to kill any of the goats. And thus they lived for +several months in comparative comfort, though suffering considerably +from cold and bad weather. + +During all that time the poor women were kept pretty busy cooking, +looking after domestic matters, and mending the garments of the men. +This last they accomplished by means of needles made from albatross +bones and the finely divided sinews of various animals, instead of +thread. When the European garments were worn out--which they were, long +before deliverance was sent to them--Nell Massey proved her fitness for +a Robinson Crusoe life, by actually splitting the sealskins--which were +as thick as sole leather--so as to obtain material thin enough for +clothing. + +Of course, a flagstaff had been among the first things erected. It +stood on a prominent hill, and a seal-skin flag was hoisted thereon, to +attract any vessel that might chance to pass that way, but the flag +fluttered in vain, for, as we have said, the island lay far out of the +usual track of commerce. + +Although poor Mrs Mitford appeared to become resigned to her great loss +as time passed by, it was evident to her kind-hearted female companions +that she was not recovering from the shock she had received. In spite +of their care of her she grew thinner and older-looking every day, and +although she quietly took her share of the work, she had become sad and +silent--caring little apparently for what was going on around her, and +never indulging in those prolonged observations of an irrelevant nature, +to which she had been addicted before her husband's disappearance. + +Things were in this state when, about two months after their landing, a +boat-voyage to the western cliffs of the island was arranged for +purposes of further exploration. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 11. + +Within the dark recesses of a great cavern in the western cliffs, in the +midst of a mass of wreckage, there sat one morning a man whose general +appearance might have suggested to a beholder "the wild man of the +cave"--or, at the least, an unhappy maniac--for his grey locks were long +and unkempt, his eyes bloodshot and wild, his garments torn, so that his +wasted limbs were exposed in numerous places, and his beard and +moustache dishevelled and bristling. + +No one looking at that gaunt creature--not even the mother who bore +him--would have easily recognised John Mitford; yet it was he. + +On the day when he mysteriously disappeared he had come upon a great +hollow, or hole, of about sixty yards in diameter, which appeared to +descend into the very depths of the earth. The sides of the hollow +sloped towards the centre, and were covered with bushes. Noting this, +our romantic friend resolved to explore the spot. He descended +cautiously till he came to a place where the hole had narrowed to about +twenty feet in diameter, and the herbage ceased because of the absence +of the earth to sustain it. Filled with eager curiosity, the reckless +man held on to a branch and stretched his head over the edge of the +hole. He saw nothing but blackness. He soon felt something, however, +for the branch suddenly broke off, and John went headlong down into that +hole! + +Then and there he would certainly have paid for his curiosity with his +life, had not a mass of earth, a few feet further down, and against +which he struck, broken his fall in some measure, and shunted him off to +the opposite wall of the rock. This latter proved to be a slope so +steep that it let him slide, like lightning, to the bottom, a depth of +about thirty feet or more, where he was stopped with such violence that +he lay stunned for a considerable time. + +Recovering, he found that no bones were broken, and that, indeed, he was +not much damaged considering the violence of the fall; but the +satisfaction and thankfulness that this undoubtedly caused him were +diminished by the fact that he was in total darkness, and at the bottom +of a hole of unknown depth. A feeling of horror rushed over him at the +thought of being thus, as it were, buried alive. Springing up, he felt +all round the walls of his prison for some inequalities or projections, +by which he might climb out, but none such could he find. The place was +like a well of not more than about ten feet wide, with smooth rocky +sides, which were almost perpendicular as far up as he could reach. On +looking upward, he could see the mouth of the hole, through which he had +fallen, glimmering like a little star above him. + +After a fruitless search of nearly half-an-hour the poor man sat down on +a piece of fallen rock, over which he had stumbled several times in his +search, and a deep groan burst from him as he began to realise the fact +that escape from the place was impossible, and that a lingering death +awaited him--for he could scarcely hope that his companions would find +him in such a place. Hope, however, is hard to kill in the human +breast. Perhaps they might hear him if he shouted. Immediately he +began to shout for help with all the strength of his lungs. Then, as no +answering shout came down from the little star above--at which he +continuously gazed--a feeling of wild despair took possession of him, +and he yelled and shrieked in mortal agony until his vocal chords +refused to act, and nothing but a hoarse whisper passed his parched +lips. Overcome at last, alike with horror and exhaustion, he fell to +the ground and became partially unconscious. + +How long he lay thus he could not tell; but, on recovering and looking +up, he found that the star was gone--telling plainly that night had set +in. + +Then it was, when all hope of delivering himself, or of being delivered +by others, had fled, that a word which had been uttered by Dr Hayward +to a dying man on board the ship, leaped into John Mitford's mind like a +gleam of light. "Call upon Me in the time of trouble and I will deliver +thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." He had seen this invitation accepted +by the dying man and deliverance obtained--if a happy smile and a +triumphant gaze across the river of death were to be regarded as +testimony. "But, then," thought John Mitford, "that was spiritual +deliverance. Here it is a hard physical fact, from which nothing short +of a miracle can deliver me. No--it is impossible!" + +Was it a voice within him, or an old memory, that immediately whispered +the words, "With God all things are possible?" At all events, the poor +man rose up slowly in a somewhat calmer frame of mind, and began once +more to feel round the walls of his narrow prison. He found nothing +mew, save that once he narrowly escaped falling down what seemed to be a +still deeper hole among the fallen rocks already referred to. Then he +lay down--or rather fell on the floor exhausted--and slept till morning. +The fact that another day had begun was only ascertainable by the +shining of the star-like mouth of the hole. He attempted again to +shout, but found that his voice had left him, and that even if his +comrades should return to the place he could not make them hear! In the +fit of despair which followed he went round and round his living tomb +like some wild beast in a cage. During one of these perambulations, he +stumbled again over the fallen rocks, dropped into the hole behind them, +and slid a few feet downwards, but not rapidly, for the slope was +gradual, and it terminated on a flat floor. Looking cautiously round, +on reaching this lower depth, he saw what appeared to be a faint light +far beneath him, and considerably in advance of the spot where he stood, +or rather to which he clung. + +Gradually his mind calmed, and, resolving to make for this light, he +groped his way downward. It was a long and wearisome scramble, +involving many a slip and slide, and not a few falls, (for it was made, +of course, in total darkness), and the distant light did not appear to +become stronger or nearer. At last it seemed as though it were growing. +Then John found himself on ground over which he could walk, guiding +himself by touching perpendicular walls of rock on either side with his +hands. It was a great split in the mountain, caused perhaps by those +mighty subterranean forces, which some men recognise as volcanic action, +whilst others, admitting--but passing beyond--second causes, recognise +them as tools with which God is moulding this world according to His +will. + +"Strange!" thought the man, as he moved slowly forward. "Was this split +made hundreds--perhaps thousands--of years ago, for the purpose of +enabling me to escape?" + +"Certainly not--absurd, presumptuous idea," answered Unbelief, smartly. + +"It was," remarked Faith, slowly, "made, no doubt, for hundreds--it may +be millions--of other purposes, but among these purposes the saving of +your life was certainly in the mind of Him who `knows all things from +the beginning,' and with whom even the falling of a sparrow is a matter +for consideration." + +We do not assert that John Mitford's reasoning took the precise form of +these words, for many minds can think somewhat profoundly without being +able to express themselves clearly; but some such thoughts undoubtedly +coursed through John's mind, as he moved through that subterranean +labyrinth, and finally emerged--through a narrow crack, not so large as +an ordinary door--upon the inner margin of a stupendous cavern. + +With a fervent "Thank God!" and a hopeful leap of the heart, the poor +man beheld the waters of the sea rushing up to his very feet; and beyond +the cave's mouth lay the grand ocean itself, like a bright picture in a +black frame. But what was that projecting from the water, not twenty +yards from where he stood? The broken mast of a sunken wreck! +Mitford's heart almost stood still, for he became aware that he had made +his way to the very cavern, in which the ill-fated _Lapwing_ had met her +doom, and around him were masses of wreckage that had been washed up and +thrown on the rocks at the inner end of the cave where he stood. + +An involuntary shudder passed through the man's frame as he glanced +round expecting to see the dead bodies of his late shipmates. But +nothing of the kind was visible, and the spars, masts, and other +wreckage which had reached the rocks had been shattered into "matchwood" +by frequent gales. + +John Mitford now hastened in eager hope along the sides of the cave +towards its mouth, intending to go out to the base of the cliffs, +forgetting, in his eagerness, that the mouth could not be reached +without a boat. He soon discovered this, and was then thrown into +another fit of despair by remembering that he could not swim. + +Oh! how bitterly he blamed himself for having neglected to acquire such +a simple accomplishment. He might have learnt it when young, had he not +been indifferent, or lazy about it. Often had he been advised to learn +it by companions, but had treated the matter lightly and let the chance +go by--and now, only fifty yards or so of deep water intervened between +the end of the ledges of rock and the outside of the cavern, where he +might perhaps find foothold enough to scramble along the base of the +cliffs--but those fifty yards were equal to the Atlantic to him, he +could not swim that distance to save his life. Once or twice, in a fit +of desperation, he had almost plunged in to attempt it, and take his +chance. Fortunately his courage failed. Had he taken the plunge his +fate would no doubt have been sealed. + +Returning to the inner end of the cave he searched among the wreckage +for wood, with which to make a raft, but it was so shattered that he +found no pieces large enough to be thus used. He found, however, a +barrel of pork and another of pease jammed into a crevice. These proved +an immense relief to his feelings, for they secured him against absolute +starvation, which he had begun to think stared him in the face. + +From that time forward the unfortunate man made incessant and wild +efforts to get out of the cave. He climbed and scrambled about until +his clothes were almost torn off his back. He gathered the largest +masses of wood he could find and tied them together in bundles, until he +had made something like a raft; but John was not a handy workman; his +raft overturned the first time he tried it, and went to pieces, and he +would have been drowned at that time if he had not been within grasping +distance of the rocks. As it was, he got a fright which made him +finally turn from that method of escape in despair. + +Then the raw pork and hard pease tried him severely, and brought on a +complaint which lasted a considerable time and greatly reduced his +strength, but John was tough, and recovered--though not much more than +the skeleton of his former self remained. + +Thus he continued to exist in that cavern, during all the time that his +wife and friends were mourning him as dead; and in this condition was he +there seated, on the morning in which this chapter opens. + +"Weary, weary--desolation!" moaned the unfortunate man, lifting his head +and gazing round, with the air of one from whom all hope has long since +departed. + +It is said, or supposed, that when a spoke in Fortune's wheel is at the +lowest, there must needs be a rise. Mitford's experience at this time +would seem to give ground for belief in the saying; for the word +"desolation" had scarcely passed his lips, when distant voices of men +were heard, causing his heart to bound violently. Next moment a boat +glided in front of the cave's mouth. + +John Mitford sprang up and gave vent to a yell! + +Hope raised to strong life after being long deferred; despair suddenly +trampled in the dust; joy bounding as from the tomb into rampant being-- +and a host of indescribable sentiments and passions found vent in that +tremendous, that inconceivable howl! + +And its effect on those in the boat?--Well-- + +That morning our exploring party had resumed their voyage with somewhat +saddened hearts, for they remembered the look of the coast well, and +knew that an hour or so would bring them to the cave where the _Lapwing_ +had gone down. Even Black Ned had become sentimental, and given vent to +a few expressions of a semi-religious nature! + +"We can't be far from it now," said Dr Hayward, as the men ceased +rowing, and the boat glided slowly, silently along. + +"It's a gruesome place," remarked Black Ned, in a low voice. + +"To think that so many lives were lost here--or hereabouts," murmured +Tomlin. + +"An' their ghost, maybe, hangin' about!" suggested Slag, with a +superstitious glance over his shoulder. + +Just then Hayward bade O'Connor get up and stand in the bow with the +boat-hook, ready to fend off,--an order which the Irishman, having been +somewhat awed by the tone of the conversation, obeyed in silence. + +It was at this point that they glided in front of the cave, and drew +forth the yell which burst upon them like a clap of thunder. The shock +to the nervous system of each was terrific. In the case of O'Connor it +was visible, for he fell flat back into the bottom of the boat and +fetched Jarring a tremendous whack on the head with the boat-hook in +falling. Afterwards, Terrence asserted stoutly that a slip of the foot +as he stood on the th'ort was the cause, but those who knew him best +held that it was "a case of nerves." + +Need it be said that, on recovering nervous equilibrium, the joy of +rescuers and rescued was intense? + +"Come along, let's take 'im home at wanst," cried the Irishman, when +they had got the poor dazed man into the boat. "Isn't it Peggy that'll +open her eyes an' screech for joy when she sots her eyes on ye!" + +"We'll have to wash and comb an' clothe him first," said Tomlin. + +He did not say "shave," for they had no razors,--and by that time the +beards of most of the party were as long as Mitford's; but their locks +had been trimmed by means of a clasp-knife super-sharpened, whereas +Mitford's were in wildest disorder. + +That night they encamped in the wreck-cave, made a fire, and prepared a +splendid supper of pork and pea-soup for John and themselves, after +which they subjected their recovered comrade to a scrubbing and cropping +and repairing of habiliments that almost proved fatal to his +constitution. Next day they loaded the boat with all the pork and pease +they could find, as well as portions of cordage that might be useful. +Then they started off on the return journey. + +It was a fine day when they reached the encampment, where the coxswain +and the women were on the look-out. Massey, of course, was the first to +observe, as the boat approached, that an extra hand was in it; but he +wisely said nothing at first. Then his heart began to beat as it used +to do when he brought in rescued men and women from wrecks, for the +truth suddenly flashed upon him. He glanced at Peggy. Poor thing, her +sad eyes had wandered from the approaching boat and were resting +wistfully on the horizon beyond. + +"Nell," murmured the coxswain in a deep, earnest whisper to his wife, +who stood at his elbow, "the tide's a-goin' to rise again wi' poor +Peggy, if my eyes are tellin' truth." + +"What d'ee mean, Bob?" asked Nellie, with a quick, anxious look. + +"Five men went away, Nell; _six_ are comin' back!" + +As he spoke, a tall figure rose up in the stern of the boat and waved a +hand. + +Nellie glanced quickly at her friend. She was standing with glaring +eyes, parted lips, and a deathly pallor on her worn face. + +"Peggy!" + +The familiar word came rolling to the shore, and a piercing shriek +replied to it as the poor woman threw up both hands and fell backward +into the ready arms of the coxswain's wife, who had sprung to her side +in anticipation of some such catastrophe. + +There was the voice of prayer and thanksgiving that night in the hut on +the lonely shore--such thanksgiving as we might conceive filled the +hearts of Jairus and of the widow of Nain in the days of old. + + + +STORY ONE, CHAPTER 12. + +The state of things on the island was now considerably improved. Peggy, +under the influence of gratitude for restored felicity, became more +helpful than she had formerly been, and more loquacious than ever. Her +female companions, being amiable and easily pleased, were rather amused +than otherwise, at the continuous flow of discursive, sometimes +incomprehensible, and always good-natured small talk--particularly small +talk--with which she beguiled the hours that might have otherwise hung +heavily on their minds while their hands were busily engaged with the +bone-needles and sinew threads which the coxswain had manufactured for +them. For the clothes with which they had landed on the island-- +especially those of the men--had begun to wear out after eight or ten +months, and new garments had to be made, while repairs never ceased. + +Meanwhile, the men were fully occupied each day in hunting seals or +fishing, cutting firewood with the axe they had found in the hut, and in +making their home more comfortable. A door was fitted to the hut; a +wooden partition was put up to cut off more effectually the women's +apartment from that of the men; the open crevices in the walls were +stopped up with moss, and many other improvements were made. A few +nails extracted from the walls of the hut were converted into +fish-hooks, by means of the file which had been found, and Nellie spun +some excellent fishing-lines from flax found growing wild in abundance. +The file also enabled them to strike fire with broken flints picked up +on the shore. The ash of burnt cotton, as the doctor knew, makes good +tinder; so in the public interest, John Mitford agreed to part with the +ragged remains of the cotton shirt he had long worn--quite +unnecessarily--over his woollen jersey. Thus they could afford to let +the fire go out, and were relieved from constant watching, as well as +anxiety in regard to it. + +They did not, however, cease their nocturnal vigils, for the hope of +deliverance never died out, though it at last sank very low. Besides +keeping their seal-skin flag flying, they kindled a beacon-fire every +night, to guard and replenish which became the nightly duty of one or +other of the men--watch and watch about--all the time they stayed on the +island. + +During the earlier part of each night, however, the beacon-fire was not +watched. It was merely lighted and left for some hours to look after +itself. During this period, after supper, the whole party were wont to +draw round the blazing fire in the hut, and each contributed his or her +share to the entertainment of the social circle. Then it was that +lugubrious John Mitford developed amazing powers of inventive +story-telling, and Joe Slag came out strong with thrilling lifeboat +tales, every word of which Bob Massey corroborated, while Terrence +O'Connor displayed powers of sarcastic criticism of the highest order, +and Tomlin, Black Ned, and the women proved an intensely appreciative +audience. But the latter were not merely listeners. True, Peggy did +nothing for the general good. Having quite exhausted her lungs with +incessant talk during each day, she was fortunately almost incapable of +speech in the evening, but Nellie, who possessed a voice as sweet as +herself, and clear and true as that of a nightingale, was induced to +"favour the company"--chiefly with pathetic or patriotic ditties and +hymns--while Eva thrilled her audience with terrible tales of slavery, +in many of which she had acted a part. Of course Dr Hayward lent his +aid, both with song and story; but, like a true leader, he devoted +himself chiefly to drawing out the powers of his companions, directing +or diverting the flow of conversation, and keeping order. He also +instituted what may be truly styled family worship at night, by +repeating from memory portions of the word of, God and engaging in +prayer just before retiring to rest. Bob Massey and Tomlin were induced +to help him in this, and never was a prayer put up from that hut in +which there was not an earnest petition that a ship might be sent for +their deliverance. + +"But a ship is long, long o' comin'," said Slag to Jarring as he +accompanied the latter part of the way to the beacon-fire one night when +it was Black Ned's turn to watch. + +"A ship'll come, Joe, when God sees fit to send it," said Ned. + +Slag glanced at his comrade in surprise, the reply was so very unlike +Ned's usual style of speech that he felt uncertain whether it was +uttered in earnest. + +"The only thing I feel an awful longin' for now, at times, is a bit o' +'baccy," continued Ned. + +"So does I, Ned, an' I sometimes think Dr Hayward has got the advantage +of us there, for he never smoked, so he says, an' in coorse it stands to +reason that he can't have no longin' for a thing he don't want--an' he +seems as jolly an' happy as the best of us without it!" + +"Ay, jollier and happier!" replied Ned, shortly. + +"But, I say, Ned, don't ye ever feel a longin' for grog? Ye used to be +raither fond of it." + +"No--not now, Joe. It's the best thing as ever happened to me, bein' +cast on this here island--wi' Dr Hayward to give a feller a word of +advice." + +Slag, who felt a sort of self-righteous superiority over his comrade, +inasmuch as _he_ had never given way to drink, said, "You should be +thankful for that, Ned." + +"I _am_ thankful," returned the other in a tone that induced Slag to say +no more. + +It was a very dark night, and cold, so that Black Ned involuntarily +shuddered as he approached the beacon-fire alone--Joe having left him-- +and commenced to heap on fuel. Then rain began to fall heavily. There +was no shelter, and the watchman was soon drenched to the skin. Heaping +on more logs till the fire roared again, he tried to warm himself, and +stood so close to the blaze that his garments smoked--they would have +burnt had they not been wet--but no heat seemed to penetrate the +shivering frame of Black Ned. + +Next morning the poor man was smitten with a raging fever. From the +first the doctor had little hope of his recovery. With a constitution +fatally injured by dissipation and drink, his chance was very small; but +of course every effort was made to save him. He was laid on a soft bed +of moss in the warmest corner of the hut, and the women took their turn +in nursing him, night and day--the coxswain's wife, however, being the +chief nurse; for, besides being sympathetic and tender by nature, she +had been trained in a rough school where self-reliance and capacity were +constantly called into action in circumstances of difficulty, so that +she was better fitted for the post than either of her companions. But +their efforts were of no avail. After a week, Black Ned died, with a +smile of gratitude on his dark face as he gazed in Hayward's eyes, and +held his hand until the spirit returned to God who gave it. + +The gloom cast over the little community by this sudden appearance of +the King of Terrors lasted for many days, and had the good effect of +turning the thoughts of all of them to those subjects which are +obviously and naturally distasteful to fallen man--the soul and the +world to come. But gradually the gloom passed away, though it left in +the party a greater longing than ever to escape from their island +prison. + +One day, while some of them were at breakfast, Terrence O'Connor rushed +into the hut with the news that a ship was in sight! Instantly the boat +was manned, and they rowed with all their might towards the vessel, +which was seen like a white speck on the horizon. They rowed to within +four miles of her, with an oar set up as a mast, and a jacket attached +thereto as a flag, but a breeze sprang up, and the strange sail actually +passed on without taking the slightest notice of them--though the people +on board could not have failed to see the boat! + +Profound was the disappointment, and violent the indignation, that +filled the thoughts of the castaways as they rowed slowly back to land. + +"Sure it's devils that must live in the bodies o' some men," growled +O'Connor, in the bitterness of his soul. + +"You're too hard on the devils, Terrence," said Bob Massey. "Some men +in this world do the worst _that they can_, an' surely devils can do no +more than that." + +This incident, however, aroused the hopes and expectations of the party +to a high pitch, so that the beacon-fire was kept burning more steadily +and brightly than before, and the look-out hill was more frequently +visited; still, weeks and months passed by, and no deliverance came to +them. + +During this period, the seal-hunting, fishing, clothes-mending, +etcetera, were carried on with unflagging energy, and the nightly +entertainments became more and more entertaining, by reason of use and +effort developing new capacities and talents that might in less +favourable circumstances have lain altogether dormant. All this was due +very much to their leader; for, besides being a God-fearing man, Hayward +was pre-eminently cheery, and full of fun as well as vigour. The +coxswain, too, was like-minded, and of great capacity in every way; +while his wife's voice was so charming that the party became almost +dependent on it. They could scarcely have gone to rest at last without +Nellie's hymn or song as a lullaby! We must state, however, that Tomlin +did not share in this pleasure. That poor man had been born musically +deaf, as some people are born physically blind. There was no musical +inlet to his soul! There was, indeed, a door for sound to enter, and +music, of course, sought an entrance by that door; but it was +effectually destroyed, somehow, in passing through the doorway, so that +poor Tomlin showed no symptom of pleasure. What he heard, and how he +heard it, is known only to himself! + +Once or twice during this time they visited the cavern of the wreck, +with the view, if possible, of recovering something from the sunk +vessel, but though most of the men could swim, none of them could dive, +therefore the result was failure. + +They succeeded, however, in making soap by boiling wood-ash and seal's +fat in their cast-iron pot. Those who are accustomed to the celebrated +"Pears" can scarcely understand what an addition to cleanliness and +comfort resulted from this coarsely manufactured article. + +Gulls' eggs were found in great quantity on the cliffs, and the +discovery and capture of wild pigs added to the luxury of their table-- +which latter, by the way, was an ingenious contrivance of Joe Slag. +Binding four sticks together in the form of a stout oblong frame, Joe +had covered this--filled it in as it were--with straight branches about +a finger thick, laid side by side and tied to the frame. This he fixed +on four posts driven into the ground, and thus formed an excellent, if +not an elegant, table. + +One morning at breakfast, Terrence O'Connor was observed to be unusually +busy with a large hook. + +"Are you goin' to fish for sharks to-day?" asked Slag. + +"Faix, no; it's to the woods I'll go fishin' to-day, Joe. Now, Nell, +gi' me the stoutest line ye've got on hand, mavourneen." + +"Will that do? I made it the other day specially for sharks--or +whales!" said Nellie, with a light laugh, for she expected him to reject +the line she held up. + +"The very thing, Nell. Hand it over. Now, boys, I'm off to try my luck +i' the woods, for I'm gittin' tired o' the say." + +O'Connor went off alone, bestowing a mysterious wink on Peggy Mitford as +he left. + +The Irishman had observed that the wild pigs were particularly fond of a +certain root which was plentiful in a valley about three miles distant +from the hut. Repairing to that valley, he dug up one of the roots, +baited his hook with it, hung it from a low branch to attract attention, +fastened the other end of the line to a tree, and went off to hide and +bide his time. Before half-an-hour had elapsed, a gay young pig visited +the scene of its former festivities, saw the pendent bait, smelt it, +took it in its mouth, and straightway filled the woods with frantic +lamentations. The struggle between the Irishman and that pig was worthy +of record, but we prefer leaving it to the reader's imagination. The +upshot was, that the pig was overcome, carried--bound, and shrieking--to +the hut, and tamed by Peggy. In a short time, other pigs were caught +and tamed. So, also, were rabbits. These bred and multiplied. The +original pig became the mother of a large family, and in a short time +something like the sounds and aspects of a farm began to surround the +old hut. Still further--by means of the cast-iron pot, which already +boiled their soup and their soap--they managed to boil sea-water down +into salt, and with this some of the pigs were converted into salt +pork--in short, the place began to assume the appearance of a busy and +thriving backwoods settlement. + +"It's risin' tide with us again, after a fashion, Nell," said the +coxswain to his wife, as they stood one evening on the sea-shore +watching the sunset. + +Nellie sighed. "It is, Bob," she said, "and I'm very thankful; but--but +I'd rather be at home in Old England among kith and kin, even though the +tide was low!" + +"What! alongside o' Aunt Betty?" + +"Yes, even alongside o' Aunt Betty; for if this voyage has taught me +anything at all, it has taught me that, after all, `there's no place +like home!'" + +"Right you are, Nell," said Joe Slag, who came up at that moment, +"there's no place like home--when it's a happy one; but if it ain't a +happy one, there may be difference of opinion even on that pint, d'ee +see?" + +That very night, a great ocean steamer, bound from the Antipodes to Old +England, chanced to diverge from her true course, and sighted the +beacon-fire which Tomlin--on duty at the time--was stirring up to +fervent heat. The Captain was not one of those whom Terrence O'Connor +credited with diabolic possession. He was a good man; and, knowing that +men did not light beacon-fires on lonely islands merely for amusement, +he resolved to lay-to till daylight, which was due in about an hour from +the time the island was sighted. Meanwhile, he sounded his steam +whistle. + +At the sound, the hut instantly disgorged its male inmates, who, +recognising the familiar noise and the steamer's lights, sent up a shout +of mingled joy and thanksgiving. + +"Get out the boat, boys!" cried Hayward, as he ran back to the hut to +rouse the women. + +"Get ready, quick! Eva; a steamer at last, thank God, in the offing! +Don't lose a moment. They may have little time to wait. Boat will be +ready in a few minutes." + +"Ay, an' pack up all you want to carry away," cried the coxswain, +crossing the threshold at that moment. + +"So it is all going to end suddenly like a dream!" said Eva, as she +hastened to obey orders. + +"Home, sweet home!" murmured Nellie, trembling with joy at the prospect. + +"Wherever you are, my dear, the home will be sweet," said Peggy. +"Though of course it wouldn't be that without your 'usband, for it takes +two to make a fight, you know, an' it takes two no less, I think, to +make things pleasant, but--dear, dear, what a disagreeable thing it is +to 'ave to dress in a 'urry, though one shouldn't--" + +"Look alive, there! look al-i-ve!" roared O'Connor, putting his head in +at the door. "Daylight's a-breakin', an' they won't--" + +"Oh! Terrence, that reminds me--don't forget our pets," cried Nellie, +who had steadily declined to speak of them as "live stock." + +"All right, missis. It's lookin' after them I am this minnit." + +The Irishman ran, as he spoke, to the styes and hutches where the pigs +and rabbits were kept and opened the doors. + +"Out wid ye!" he cried, "the Act of Emancipation's passed, and ye're all +free--ivery mother's son of ye." + +Accustomed to his voice and his caressing hand, the astonished creatures +seemed to look up at him in surprise. + +"Be aff, at wance, hooroo!" cried the excited man, with a clap of his +hands and a Donnybrook yell that sent all the "pets" leaping and +squealing into their native jungle. + +Soon after that the boat was bounding out to sea under the impulse of +strong arms and willing hearts. A few minutes more, and they were +receiving the warm congratulations of the passengers and crew of the +steamer. Then the order was given to go ahead full speed, and the +engine's great heart seemed to throb sympathetically within the hearts +of the rescued ones as the vessel cut her way swiftly through the +Southern Ocean--homeward bound for Old England! Nevertheless, there was +a touch of sadness in the breasts of all as they turned their farewell +gaze on the receding island and thought of the pets, the old hut, the +long period of mingled pleasure and suffering, and the lonely grave. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +We cannot part from the friends whose footsteps we have followed so long +and so far without a parting word or two. + +On returning to his native village, Bob Massey found that his successor +as coxswain had died, and that another man had not yet been appointed to +the lifeboat--he was therefore installed, with much rejoicing, in his +old position as a rescuer of human lives. Joe Slag, naturally and +pleasantly, also fell into his old post at the bow. Nellie found that +Aunt Betty had had what the villagers called "a stroke" during her +absence; which crushing blow had the effect of opening her eyes to many +things regarding herself and others, to which she had been particularly +blind before. It also had the effect--indirectly--of subduing much of +the evil in her character and bringing out much of the good. As evil +begets evil, so good begets good; and one result of this law was, that +the seven children, whom she had brought--or banged--up, became seven +repentant and sympathetic and reasonably good creatures when they saw +the old mother, whom they used to think so harsh and so physically +strong, reduced to amiable helplessness. Thus it came to pass that +there was not in all the village an old woman who was so well looked +after by her progeny as Aunt Betty. + +Terrence O'Connor continued to rove about the world in the capacity of a +ship's cook till near the end of his days. John Mitford and Peggy +unexpectedly came into a small inheritance soon after returning home, +and settled down for life close to the coxswain's cottage. Tomlin went +to New Zealand to seek his fortune. Whether he found it or not, we +cannot tell! Last, but not least, Dr Hayward and his wife returned to +their native land, and for many years afterwards kept up a steady +correspondence with Nell Massey, in which, you may be sure, there were +frequent and pleasant allusions to the time which they had spent +together on the lonely isle in the southern seas. + +One morning, Nellie presented her husband with a baby boy. Bob was out +with the lifeboat rescuing a shipwrecked crew at the time the +presentation was made. On his return, he opened the door and stood +before his wife dripping wet. + +"Fifteen saved this time, Nell," he began, but the nurse stopped him by +exhibiting the baby boy. + +"Thank the Lord!" he said, with a glad look in his wet eyes. + +"You mustn't come near us," said the nurse, with a look of warning. +"Only a look just now." + +"The tide has risen to the flood now, Bob," murmured the young mother, +softly. + +"Ay," said the coxswain in a deep voice, "an' it's a high spring tide +too. God bless you, Nell!" + +THE END. + + + +STORY TWO, CHAPTER 1. + +JACK FROST AND SONS--A SHORT STORY. + +One year in the last quarter of the present century John Frost, Esquire, +of Arctic Hall, paid an unusually long visit to the British Islands. + +John, or Jack, Frost, as he was familiarly called by those who did not +fear him, was a powerful fellow; an amazingly active, vigorous, +self-willed fellow, whom it was difficult to resist, and, in some +circumstances, quite impossible to overcome. + +Jack was a giant. Indeed, it is not improbable that he was also a +"giant-killer,"--an insolent, self-assertive, cold-hearted giant, who +swaggered with equal freedom into the palaces of the rich and the +cottages of the poor; but he did not by any means meet with the same +reception everywhere. + +In palaces and mansions he was usually met in the entrance hall by a +sturdy footman who kicked him out and slammed the door in his face, +while in cottages and lowly dwellings he was so feebly opposed that he +gained entrance easily--for he was a bullying shameless fellow, who +forced his way wherever he could--and was induced to quit only after +much remonstrance and persuasion, and even then, he usually left an +unpleasant flavour of his visit behind him. + +But there were some abodes in which our hero met with no opposition at +all, where the inmates scarcely made any attempt to keep him out, but +remained still and trembled, or moaned feebly, while he walked in and +sat down beside them. + +Jack was somewhat of a deceiver too. He had, for the most part, a +bright, beaming, jovial outward aspect, which made the bitter coldness +of his heart all the more terrible by contrast. He was most deadly in +his feelings in calm weather, but there were occasions when he took +pleasure in sallying forth accompanied by his like-minded sons, Colonel +Wind and Major Snow. And it was a tremendous sight, that few people +cared to see except through windows, when those three, arm-in-arm, went +swaggering through the land together. + +One Christmas morning, at the time we write of, Jack and his two sons +went careering, in a happy-go-lucky sort of way, along the London +streets towards the "west end," blinding people's eyes as they went, +reversing umbrellas, overturning old women, causing young men to +stagger, and treating hats in general as if they had been black +footballs. Turning into Saint James's Park they rushed at the royal +palace, but, finding that edifice securely guarded from basement to +roof-tree, they turned round, and, with fearless audacity, assaulted the +Admiralty and the Horse-Guards--taking a shot at the clubs in passing. +It need scarcely be recorded that they made no impression whatever on +those centres of wealth and power. + +Undismayed--for Jack and his sons knew nothing either of fear or +favour--they went careering westward until they came to a palatial +mansion, at the half-open front door of which a pretty servant girl +stood peeping out. It was early. Perhaps she was looking for the +milkman--possibly for the policeman. With that quick perception which +characterises men of war, Major Snow saw and seized his opportunity. +Dashing forward he sprang into the hall. Colonel Wind, not a whit less +prompt, burst the door wide open, and the three assailants tumbled over +each other as they took possession of the outworks of the mansion. + +But "Jeames" was not far distant. The screams of Mary drew him forth, +he leaped into the hall, drove out the intruders, and shut the door with +a crash, but with no further damage to the foe than the snipping off +part of Major Snow's tails, which Mary swept up into a dust shovel and +deposited in the coal-hole, or some such dark region below. + +Our trio possessed neither fear nor pride. They were also destitute of +taste, and had no respect for persons. Treating their repulse as a good +joke, they turned round and went hilariously along the Strand, embracing +every one they met, young and old, rich and poor, pretty and plain, with +pointed impartiality, until they reached the City. There we will leave +them to revel amongst the poor, while we return to the mansion at the +west end. + +In two snug bedrooms thereof two young men lay in their comfortable +beds, partially awake and yawning--the one flat on his back as if laid +out for his last sleep; the other coiled into a bundle with the +bedclothes, as if ready to be carried off to the laundry with the next +washing. The rooms were connected by a door which stood open, for the +occupants were twin brothers; their united ages amounting to forty +years. + +"Ned," said the straight one to the bundle. + +"Well, Tom," (sleepily). + +"Did you hear that noise--like a cannon-shot?" + +"Ya-i-o-u yes--som'ing tumbled--door bang'd," (snore). + +"Hallo, Ned!" cried Tom, suddenly leaping out of bed and beginning to +dress in haste; "why, it's Christmas morning! I had almost forgot. A +Merry Christmas to you, my boy!" + +"M'rry Kissm's, ol' man, but don' waken me. What's use o' gettin' up?" + +"The use?" echoed Tom, proceeding rapidly with his toilet; "why, Ned, +the use of rising early is that it enables a man to get through with his +work in good time, and I've a deal of work to do to-day at the +east-end." + +"So 'v' I," murmured Ned, "at th' wes' end." + +"Indeed. What are you going to do?" + +"Sk-t." + +"Sk-t? What's that?" + +"Skate--ol' man, let m' 'lone," growled Ned, as he uncoiled himself to +some extent and re-arranged the bundle for another snooze. + +With a light laugh Tom Westlake left his brother to enjoy his repose, +and descended to the breakfast-room, where his sister Matilda, better +known as Matty, met him with a warm reception. + +Everything that met him in that breakfast-parlour was warm. The fire, +of course, was warm, and it seemed to leap and splutter with a +distinctly Christmas morning air; the curtains and carpets and +arm-chairs were warm and cosy in aspect; the tea-urn was warm, indeed it +was hot, and so were the muffins, while the atmosphere itself was +unusually warm. The tiny thermometer on the chimney-piece told that it +was 65 degrees of Fahrenheit. Outside, the self-registering thermometer +indicated 5 degrees below zero! + +"Why, Matty," exclaimed Tom, as he looked frowningly at the instrument, +"I have not seen it so low as that for years. It will freeze the Thames +if it lasts long enough." + +Matty made no reply, but stood with her hands clasped on her brother's +arm gazing contemplatively at the driving snow. + +"What are you thinking about?" asked Tom. + +"About the poor," answered Matty, as she went and seated herself at the +breakfast-table. "On such a terrible morning as this I feel so +inexpressibly selfish in sitting down to an overflowing meal in the +midst of such warmth and comfort, when I know that there are hundreds +and thousands of men and women and children all round us who have +neither fire nor food sufficient--little clothing, and no comfort. It +is dreadful," added Matty, as an unusually fierce gust dashed the snow +against the windows. + +Tom was like-minded with his sister, but he could not suppress a smile +as he looked into her pretty little anxious face. + +"Yes, Matty, it _is_ dreadful," he replied, "and the worst of it is that +we can do so little, so very little, to mend matters. Yet I don't feel +as you do about the selfishness of enjoying a good breakfast in +comfortable circumstances, for it is God who has given us all that we +have, as well as the power to enjoy it. I grant, that if we simply +enjoyed our good things, and neither thought of nor cared for the poor, +we should indeed be most abominably selfish, but happily that is not our +case this morning. Have we not risen an hour earlier than usual to go +out and do what we can to mitigate the sorrows of the poor? Are we not +about to face the bitter blast and the driving snow on this Christmas +morning for that very purpose? and should we not be rendered much less +capable of doing so, if we were to start off on our mission with cold +bodies and half-filled--I beg pardon, pass the muffins, dear. Besides, +sister mine, if you were to go out on such a morning cold and underfed, +would it not be probable that I should have to go and fetch a doctor for +you instead of taking you out to help me in aiding and comforting poor +people?" + +"That may be all very true, Tom," returned Matty, with a dissatisfied +and puzzled look, "but I cannot help feeling that I have so much, so +_very_ much, more than I need of everything, while the thousands I speak +of have so little--so very little. Why could not rich people like us be +content with plainer things, and use fewer things, and so have more to +give to the poor?" + +"You have broached a very wide and profound subject, Matty, and it would +probably take us a week to go into it exhaustively, but a few words may +suffice to show you that your remedy would not meet the case. Suppose +that all the people in England were all at once smitten with your desire +to retrench in order to have more to spare to the poor--and were to act +upon their convictions; to determine that henceforth they would live on +the plainest food, such as potatoes, mutton, and bread; what, I ask you, +would become of the great army of confectioners? Would they not be +thrown out of employment, and help, perhaps, to swell the ranks of the +poor? If the rich ceased to buy pictures, what would become of +painters? If they gave up books, (horrible to think of!) what would be +the consequences to authors, and what the result to themselves? If +carriages and horses were not kept, what would become of coachmen and +grooms and ostlers--to say nothing of coach-makers, saddlers, +harness-makers, and their innumerable dependants? No--living plainly or +simply is not what is wanted, but living reasonably--according to one's +means. Then, as to your having, as you say, much more than you need-- +that does not injure the poor, for nothing of it is wasted. Does not +part of the surplus go to Mary and James and the other servants, and +much of what they do not consume goes in charity, directly, to the poor +themselves?" + +"Well, but," returned Matty, with the distressed and puzzled look still +unabated, "though all you tell me may be quite true, it does not in the +least degree alter the fact that there _is_ something quite wrong in the +condition of the poor of our great cities, which _ought_ to be +remedied." + +"Of course it does not, little woman, but it relieves my mind, and it +ought to relieve yours, as to the selfishness of enjoying a good +breakfast." + +"But, surely," resumed Matty, with a slightly indignant look and tone, +"surely you don't mean to tell me that there is no remedy for the +miserable condition of the poor, and that the rich must just sigh over +it, or shut their eyes to it, while they continue to revel in luxury?" + +"How you fly to extremes, sister!" said Tom, with a laugh, as he neatly +cut the top off a fourth egg. "I combat your erroneous views, and +straightway you charge me, by implication, with having no views at all! +A remedy there surely is, but the wisest among us are not agreed as to +_what_ it is--chiefly, I think, because the remedy is not simple but +extremely complex. It cannot be stated in a few words. It consists in +the wise and prompt application of multiform means--" + +"Brother," interrupted Matty with a smile, "do you think I am to be +turned from my quest after this great truth by the stringing together of +words without meaning--at least words vague and incomprehensible?" + +"By no means, Matty. I hope that nothing will ever turn you from your +quest after the best method of helping the poor. But my words are not +meant to be vague. By multiform means I would indicate legislation in +numerous channels, and social effort in all its ramifications, besides +the correction of many erroneous modes of thought--such, for instance, +as the putting of the less before the greater--" + +"Tom," again interrupted Matty, "I think it is about time to go and put +on my things." + +"Not so, sister dear," said Tom impressively; "I intend that you shall +hear me out. I think that you put the less before the greater when you +talk of `giving' to the poor instead of `considering' the poor. The +greater, you know, includes the less. Consideration includes judicious +giving, and the teaching of Scripture is, not to give to, but to +_consider_, the poor. Now you may be off and get ready--as quickly as +you can, too, for it would never do to keep the poor waiting breakfast!" + +With a light laugh and a vigorous step--the result of goodwill to +mankind, good intentions, good feeding, and, generally, good +circumstances--Matilda Westlake ran upstairs to her room at the top of +the house to put on a charming little winter bonnet, a dear little cloak +lined with thick fur, and everything else to match, while Tom busied +himself in meditating on the particular passage of God's Word which he +hoped, by the Spirit's influence, to bring home to the hearts of some of +the poor that Christmas morning. + +Half an hour after these two had gone forth to do battle with John Frost +and Sons, Edward Westlake sauntered into the breakfast-room, his right +hand in his pocket and his left twirling the end of an exceedingly +juvenile moustache. + +Turning his back to the fire he perused the morning paper and enjoyed +himself thoroughly, while James re-arranged the table for another +sumptuous meal. + +Ned was by no means a bad fellow. On the contrary, his companions +thought and called him a "jolly good fellow." His father was a jolly, +though a gouty old widower. Perhaps it was owing to the fact that there +was no mother in the household that Ned smoked a meerschaum in the +breakfast-room while he read the paper. + +"Have my skates been sharpened?" he asked, looking over the top of the +paper. + +James said that they had been sharpened, and were then lying ready on +the hall table. + +Sauntering to the window Ned looked out, and, James having retired, he +made a few remarks himself, which showed the direction of his thoughts. + +"Capital! Ice will be splendid. Snow won't matter. Lots of men to +sweep it. Looks as if the wind would fall, and there's a little bit of +blue sky. Even if it doesn't clear, the pond is well sheltered. I do +like a sharp, stinging, frosty day. Makes one's blood career so +pleasantly!" + +With such agreeable thoughts and a splendid appetite Ned Westlake sat +down to breakfast. Thereafter he put on a thick overcoat, edged with +sable, a thick pair of boots and softly lined gloves, and went out with +the skates swinging on his arm. + +Jack Frost and his two sons were still holding high revelry outside. +They met him with impartial violence, but Ned bent forward with a smile +of good-humoured defiance, and went on his way unchecked. + +Not so a stout and short old female of the coster-monger class, who, +after a series of wild gyrations that might have put a dancing dervish +to shame, bore down on Ned after the manner of a fat teetotum, and +finally launched herself into his arms. + +"Hallo old girl--steady," exclaimed Ned, holding her up with an effort. +"You carry too much sail to venture abroad in such weather." + +"Which it were my only one!" gasped the old woman, holding out her +umbrella that had been reversed and obviously shattered beyond repair. +Then, looking up at Ned, "You'd better leave a-go of me, young man. +What will the neighbours think of us?" + +Which remark she uttered sternly--all the more that she had securely +hooked herself to the railings and could afford to cast off her friend. + +With a solemn assurance that he esteemed her, "the sweetest of the +fair," Ned went smilingly on his way, receiving in reply, "La, now, +who'd 'a' thought it!" + +Having twisted this lady's bonnet off, blown her unkempt hair straight +out, and otherwise maltreated her, Colonel Wind, with his father and +brother, went raging along the streets until he came to the +neighbourhood of Whitechapel. The three seemed rather fond of this +region, and no wonder; for, although never welcomed, they found +themselves strong enough to force an entrance into many a poor home, and +to remain in possession. + +Swaggering, in their own noisy and violent manner, into several courts +and blind alleys, they caught up all the lighter articles of rubbish +that lay about, hurled them against the frail and cracked windows--some +of which they broke, and others of which they could not break by reason +of their having been broken already. They did what was next best, +however,--drove in the old hats and coats and other garments, with which +the square holes had been inefficiently stopped. + +"Jolly! ain't it?" remarked a street boy, with a ruddy face and hair +blown straight on end all round, to another street boy with a cast-iron +look and a red nose--both being powerfully robust. + +"Prime!" asserted the knight of the red nose. + +And then both went eagerly to take liberties with a neighbouring pump, +from the spout of which hung an icicle like a stalactite, the droppings +from which, at an earlier period, had formed a considerable stalagmite +on the stones below. + +It is probable that the sick old man on the poor bed in the small room +close to the pump did not think the state of matters either "jolly" or +"prime," for, besides being very old, he was very weak and thin and cold +and hungry; in addition to which Jack Frost had seated himself on the +rickety chair beside the empty grate, and seemed bent on remaining--the +colonel having previously blown open the door and removed a garment +which had sheltered the old man's head, thus permitting the major to +sprinkle a miniature drift on his pillow. + +"I hardly like to leave you, gran'father, in such blustery weather," +said a little maiden of about ten years of age, with filthy garments and +a dirty face, who, if she had been washed and dressed, would have been +distinctly pretty, but who, in the circumstances, was rather plain. As +she spoke she re-adjusted the garment-screen and removed the snowdrift. + +"Don't say that, Martha," replied the old man in a thin weak voice--it +had been strong and deep and resonant once, but Time and Want and +Disease play sad havoc with strong men. + +"You _must_ go, darling," resumed the old man after a few seconds' pause +to recover breath. "You've no chance of a breakfast otherwise. And-- +perhaps--they may give you a bit to bring home for--" + +Martha eagerly interrupted the hesitating voice,--and it was easily +interrupted! "Yes, yes, gran'father. They'll be sure to let me bring +home some for you. I'll be quite, _quite_ sure to do it." + +She made the promise with great decision, as well she might, for she had +made up her mind to pocket all the food that was given to her except +just a small morsel, which she would nibble in order to make believe +that she was feeding! + +"Lock the door and put the key in your pocket," said the old man, while +the child tucked in about him the thin torn counterpane which formed the +only covering to his straw bed. "An' don't fear for me, darling. The +Lord is with me. Be sure to eat as much as you can." + +Having regard to her secret intentions, Martha refrained from pledging +herself, but she laughed and nodded significantly as she quitted the +cold, dismal, and shabby room. + +It was little Martha's first experience of a "free breakfast." She had, +indeed, heard of such a thing before, but had not up to that time met +with anything of the kind, so she advanced to "the hall" with some +timidity and much expectation. + +The hall was very full, and, as poor little Martha was rather late, she +could not manage to crush in much beyond the door. Besides, being +small, she could see nothing. In these depressing circumstances her +heart began to sink, when her attention was attracted by a slight stir +outside the door. A lady and gentleman were coming in. It so happened +that the lady in passing trod upon one of Martha's cold little toes, and +drew from the child a sharp cry. + +"Oh, my dear, _dear_ little girl!" cried the shocked lady, with a gush +of self-reproach and sympathy, "I'm _so_ sorry--so _very, very_ sorry. +It was so stupid of me! Have I hurt you much, _dear_ little girl? +Come--come with me." + +"Bring her to the stove, Matty, there's more room there to have it +looked to," said the gentleman, in a kind voice. + +Much consoled by all this, though still whimpering, little Martha +suffered herself to be led to the front seats, and set on a bench just +below the platform, where she began to bloom under the genial influence +of the stove, and to wonder, with inexpressible surprise, at the mighty +sea of upturned faces in front of her. As for the toe, it was utterly +forgotten. The lady's foot, you see, being almost as light as her +heart, had done it no serious injury. Nevertheless, she continued for a +few minutes to inspect it earnestly and inquire for it tenderly, +regardless of dirt! + +"You're _sure_ it is better, dear little child?" + +"Oh yes, ma'am, thank you. I don't feel it at all now. An' it's _so_ +nice to feel warm again!" + +What a depth of meaning was unwittingly given to the last two words by +the emphasis of the child-voice.--"Warm"--"Again!" The lady almost +burst into tears as she thought of all that they implied. But her +services were required at the harmonium. With a parting pat on Martha's +curly head, and a bright smile, she hurried away to ascend the platform. + +The preliminaries of a feast at which most of the feasters are cold and +hungry--some of them starving--should not be long. Full well did Tom +Westlake know and appreciate this truth, and, being the donor, +originator, and prime mover in the matter, he happily had it all his own +way. + +In the fewest possible words, and in a good loud voice which produced +sudden silence, he asked God to give His blessing with the food +provided, and to send His Holy Spirit into the hearts of all present, so +that they might be made to hunger and thirst for Jesus, the Bread and +Water of Life. Then the poor people had scarcely recovered from their +surprise at the brevity of the prayer, when they were again charmed to +silence by the sweet strains of the harmonium. You see, they had not +yet become _blase_ and incapable of enjoying anything short of an organ. +Indeed, there were some among them who deliberately said they preferred +a harmonium to an organ! + +But no instrument either of ancient or modern invention could drown the +clatter that ensued when enormous mugs of earthenware were distributed +to the company, by more or less rich and well-off "workers"; so the +clatter and the hymns went on together until each lung was filled with +some delectable fluid, smoking hot, and each mouth crammed with +excellent bread and meat. Then comparative quiet ensued, during which +temporary calm Tom read a few verses of the Word of God, commenting on +them briefly in language so forcible that it went right home to many +hearts, yet so simple that even little Martha understood it. + +True to her intention, little Martha, although much surprised and +charmed and perplexed by all that was going on around her, did not +forget to pocket something for gran'father. She was met, however, by an +exasperating difficulty at the very outset. Her pocket was not large +enough to contain the huge roll which, with some meat, had been put +hastily into her small hand by a lady with a red rose in her bonnet. To +achieve her object with the roll and meat in one hand and the mug in the +other was, she found, impossible, so she set the mug on the floor +between her feet and proceeded to wrestle with the loaf and pocket, +having previously torn off a very small portion of the bread for her own +use. Still the loaf was too large; so she tore off another morsel, and +finally, after a severe struggle, succeeded in getting it and the bit of +meat in. + +"You'll go for to kick it over, if you don't mind," said a small boy +near her, referring to the mug. + +"You mind your own business--Imperence!" replied Martha, sharply. It +must be remembered that she was a child of the "slums." + +"Wot a cheeky little shrimp it is," retorted the boy, with as much of a +grin as a stuffed mouth would admit of. + +Just then Matilda Westlake, having finished a hymn, and being mindful of +the little toe, came quietly down to where Martha was sitting. + +"Why, dear child," she said, in surprise, "have they not given you +something to eat?" + +"Oh yes, ma'am. But I've--" + +She was going to say, "I've eaten it," but gran'father had so earnestly +impressed on her mind the sinfulness of telling lies, that she felt +constrained to hesitate, and, with a trembling lip, finished by saying +she had eaten _some_ of it. + +"And what has become of the rest, dear?" + +"Please, miss, she've putt it in 'er pocket," said "Imperence" promptly. + +Without noticing the remark, Matty moved so as to make herself an +effectual screen between Imperence and Martha. + +"Tell me, dear child," she said, stooping low and putting a gentle hand +on Martha's shoulder, "are you not hungry?" + +"Oh yes," answered the little one quickly; "I'm so 'ungry. You can't +think 'ow 'ungry; but I promised to--to--" + +At this point her lip quivered, and she began to cry quietly. + +"Stay, don't tell me anything more about it, dear, till you have +breakfasted. Here, eat _this_ before you say another word." + +She took a roll from the basket of a passing "worker" and put it in the +child's hand. Nothing loth, Martha began to eat and drink, mingling a +warm tear or two with the hot soup, and venting a sob now and then as +she proceeded. + +Watching her for a few moments, Matty left her. + +In passing she stopped and said to Imperence, in a whisper of terrible +intensity, "If you speak to that girl again you shall have--_no more_." + +No more! To be "hanged by the neck till you are dead" would not have +sounded so appalling just at that time. So Imperence collapsed. + +It is not our purpose to go much further into the details of the feast. +Suffice it to say that the poorest of the poor were there; that they +were encouraged to eat as much as possible, and allowed to carry away +what they could not eat, and there is reason to believe that, judging +from the prominence of pockets, a considerable quantity found its way to +hungry mouths which had been found incapable of attending the feast. + +Among those who did great execution in the pocketing line was, as you +may well believe, little Martha. Finding, to her ineffable joy, that +there was no limit assigned to consumption, and that pocketing was not +esteemed a sin, she proceeded, after stuffing herself, to stuff to +overflowing the pocket with which she had previously wrestled, as +already described, and then attempted to fill the pocket on the other +side. She did so in utter and child-like forgetfulness of the fact that +she had recently lost several small articles in consequence of the +condition of that pocket, and her memory was not awakened until, having +just completed the satisfactory filling of it, she beheld, or rather +felt, the entire mass of edibles descending to the floor, proving that +the pocket was indeed a very bottomless pit. + +"Never mind, little one," said Tom Westlake, coming forward at the +moment, for he had just closed the meeting; "I'll find a bag for you to +put it in. I hope the toe is all right." + +"Oh yes, sir, thank you, it's quite well," answered Martha, blushing +through the dirt on her face, as she eyed the fallen food anxiously. + +"Tell me now, little one," continued Tom, sitting down on the bench and +drawing the child gently towards him, "whom are you pocketing all these +good things for?--not for yourself, I'm quite sure of that." + +"Oh dear, no, sir; it's for gran'father." + +"Indeed. Is grandfather very poor?" + +"Oh yes, sir, very, _very_ poor; an' he's got nobody but me to take care +of him." + +"If that be so, who is taking care of him just now?" asked Matty, who +had joined her brother, leaving another "worker" at the harmonium to +play the people out,--a difficult thing to do, by the way, for the +people seemed very unwilling to go. + +You see, among other things, Jack Frost and Sons could gain no footing +in that hall, and the people knew only too well that the firm was in +great force awaiting them outside. + +"Nobody's takin' care on 'im, ma'am," replied Martha, somewhat shyly. +"I locked 'im in, an' he's takin' care of hisself." + +"Would you like to give grandfather anything in particular, little +woman, if a fairy were to offer to give it you?" + +"Oh, wouldn't I just?" + +"Yes? What would you ask for?" + +Martha pursed her little mouth and knitted her brows in thought for a +minute. Then she said slowly, "I'd ask for a mug of hot soup, an' a +blanket, an' some coals, and--oh! I forgot, a teapot, for ours is +cracked an' won't 'old in now." + +"Do you live far from this hall?" asked Tom. + +"No, sir, quite close." + +"Come, Matty, you and I will go with this little one and see +grandfather. What is your name, child?" + +"Martha Burns, sir." + +"Well, Martha, give me your hand, and come along." + +They were soon in the shabby little room,--for Martha was eager to give +the food to the old man. Of course Jack Frost and Sons were still in +possession, but there had come another visitor during the child's +absence, whom they were scarce prepared to meet. + +Death sat beside the lowly bed. He had not yet laid his hand on his +victim, but his chill presence was evidently felt. + +"Darling, I'm glad you've come," said the old man, faintly. "I've been +longing so for you. Give me your hand, dear. I'm so cold--so cold." + +He shivered as he spoke until the miserable bed shook. Poor Martha +forgot the food in her anxiety, for a striking change had come over +gran'father--such as she had never seen before. She took his thin hand +in hers, and began to weep softly. + +But Matilda Westlake did not forget the food. She took up the tin can +in which it had been brought there, and poured some of the still warm +contents into a cracked soup plate that stood on the table. Finding a +pewter spoon, she at once put her hand under the pillow, and raising the +old man's head gently, began to feed him like a child. Meanwhile Tom +Westlake took off his thick overcoat and spread it over the bed. Then +he went out, bought some sticks and coal from a neighbour, and, +returning, soon kindled a fire in the rusty grate. + +The old man did not seem surprised. His face wore a dazed, yet +thoroughly pleased, look as he quietly accepted these attentions. All +the time he kept fast hold of Martha's hand, and smiled to her once or +twice. It was evident that he relished the soup. Only once he broke +silence to thank them and say, "Jesus sent you, I suppose?" + +"Yes, Jesus sent us," replied Matty, thoroughly meaning what she said. + +At that moment Death raised his hand and laid it gently on the old man's +brow. The hoary head bowed to the summons, and, with a soft sigh, the +glad spirit fled to that region where suffering cannot enter. + +Oh, it was sad to witness the child-grief when Martha at last came to +understand that gran'father was really gone. And it required no little +persuasion to induce her to leave the lowly sordid room that she had +known as "home." + +While his sister comforted the child, Tom went to the "authorities" to +inform them that an old pauper had gone the way of all flesh. + +When at last Martha permitted her new friends to remove her, she was led +by Miss Westlake to the not far distant house of a lady friend, whose +sympathies with the suffering, the sorrowful, and the fallen were so +keen that she had given up all and gone to dwell in the midst of them, +in the sanguine hope of rescuing some. To this lady's care Martha was +in the meantime committed, and then Tom and his sister went their way. + +Their way led them to a very different scene not far from the same +region. + +"We're rather late," remarked Tom, consulting his watch as they turned +into a narrow street. + +"Not too late, I think," said his sister. + +"I hope not, for I should be sorry to go in upon them at dinner-time." + +They were not too late. David Butts, whom they were about to visit, was +a dock-labourer. In early youth he had been a footman, in which +capacity he had made the acquaintance of the Westlakes' nursery-maid, +and, having captivated her heart, had carried her off in triumph and +married her. + +David had not been quite as steady as might have been desired. He had +acquired, while in service, a liking for beer, which had degenerated +into a decided craving for brandy, so that he naturally came down in the +world, until, having lost one situation after another, he finally, with +his poor wife and numerous children, was reduced to a state bordering on +beggary. But God, who never forgets His fallen creatures, came to this +man's help when the tide with him was at its lowest ebb. A +humble-minded city missionary was sent to him. He was the means of +bringing him to Jesus. The Saviour, using one of the man's companions +as an instrument, brought him to a temperance meeting, and there an +eloquent, though uneducated, speaker flung out a rope to the struggling +man in the shape of a blue ribbon. David Butts seized it, and held on +for life. His wife gladly sewed a bit of it on every garment he +possessed--including his night-shirt--and the result was that he got to +be known at the docks as a steady, dependable man, and found pretty +constant employment. + +How far Matilda Westlake was instrumental in this work of rescue we need +not stop to tell. It is enough to say that she had a hand in it--for +her heart yearned towards the nurse, who had been very kind to her when +she was a little child. + +Jack Frost and his sons, with their usual presumption, were in close +attendance on the Westlakes when they knocked at David's door, and when +it was opened they rudely brushed past the visitors and sought to enter, +but a gush of genial heat from a roaring fire effectually stopped Jack +and the major on the threshold, and almost killed them. Colonel Wind, +however, succeeded in bursting in, overturning a few light articles, +causing the flames to sway, leap, and roar wildly, and scattering ashes +all over the room, but his triumph was short-lived. The instant the +visitors entered he was locked out, and the door shut against him with a +bang. + +"It do come rather awkward, sir, 'avin' no entrance 'all," said David, +as he made the door fast. "If we even 'ad a porch it would 'elp to keep +the wind and snow hout, but I ain't complainin', sir. I've on'y too +good reason to be thankful." + +"Dear Miss Matilda," said the old nurse, dusting a wooden chair with her +apron, and beaming all over with joy, "it's good for sore eyes to see +you. Don't mind the child'n, miss, an' do sit down near the fire. I'm +sure your feet must be wet--such dreadful weather." + +"No, indeed, nurse,--thank you," said Miss Westlake, laughing as she sat +down, "my feet are not a bit wet. The frost is so hard that everything +is quite dry." + +"Now it's no use to tell me that, Miss Matty," said Mrs Butts, with the +memory of nursing days strong upon her. "You was always such a dear, +thoughtless child! Don't you remember that day when you waded in baby's +bath, an' then said you wasn't wet a bit, only a _very_ little, an' you +rather liked it? Indeed she did: you needn't laugh, Master Tom, I +remember it as well as if it happened yesterday." + +"I don't in the least doubt you, Mrs Butts," said Tom, "I was only +laughing at my sister's idea of dryness. But you must not let us +interrupt you in your cooking operations, else we will go away directly. +Just go about it as if we were not here, for I have some business +matters to talk over with your husband." + +"Go away?" echoed Mrs Butts; "you must not talk of going away till +you've had a bite of lunch with us. It's our dinner, you know, but +lawks! what do it matter what you calls it so long as you've got it to +eat? An' there's such a splendid apple dumplin' in the pot, miss; you +see, it's Tommy's birthday, for he was born on a Christmas Day, an' he's +very fond of apple dumplin', is Tommy." + +The six children, of various ages and sizes scattered about the small +room, betrayed lively interest in this invitation--some hoping that it +would be accepted; others as evidently hoping that it would be declined. +As for Tommy, his fear that the dumpling would be too small for the +occasion, filled his heart with anxiety that showed itself strongly in +his face, but he was promptly relieved by Miss Matty assuring his mother +that to stay was impossible, as they had other visits to pay that day. + +Thus the lady and nurse chatted of past and present days, while Tom +Westlake talked "business" with the dock-labourer. + +"You seem to be getting on pretty comfortably now," remarked Tom. + +"Yes, sir, thank God I am. Ever since I was enabled to cry, `God be +merciful to me a sinner,' things 'as gone well with me. An' the puttin' +on o' the blue ribbon, sir, 'as done me a power o' good. You see, +before that I was sorely tempted by comrades offerin' me a glass, and by +my own wish to _'ave_ a glass, but when I mounted the blue I was let +alone, though they chaffed me now an' then, an' I felt it was no use +thinkin' about it, 'owever much I might wish for it. The missus, bless +'er 'art, sewed a bit o' blue on my night-shirt in fun, but d'ee know, +sir, I do believe it's that 'as cured me o' dreamin' about it, as I used +to do." + +"I'm glad to hear that, Butts," said Tom, with a laugh. "Now, tell me; +how long is it since you tasted strong drink?" + +"Six months this very day, sir." + +"And are you satisfied that you are better without it?" + +"Better without it, sir," repeated Butts, with energy, "in course I am-- +better in body and better in soul, also in pocket. Of course you know, +sir, we don't carry on every day with such fires an' dinners as we're +a-goin' in for to-day--for Christmas on'y comes once a year, and +sometimes we've been slack at the docks, an' once or twice I've bin laid +up, so that we've bin pinched a bit now an' then, but we've bin able to +make the two ends meet, and the older child'n is beginnin' to turn in a +penny now an' again, so, you see, sir, though the fires ain't always +bright, an Jack Frost do manage to git in through the key 'ole rather +often just now, on the whole we're pretty comfortable." + +"I'm glad to hear it, Butts; very glad to hear it indeed," said Tom, +"because I'm anxious to help you, and I make it a point only to help +those who help themselves. Six months of steadiness goes a long way to +prove that your craving for drink has been cured, and that your +reformation is genuine; therefore, I am able now to offer you a +situation as porter in a bank, which for some time I have kept open on +purpose to be ready for you. How will that suit you--eh?" + +Whatever David Butts replied, or meant to reply, could only be gathered +from his gratified expression, for at that moment his voice was drowned +by a shriek of delight from the youngest children, in consequence of +Mrs Butts, at Matilda's request, having removed the lid of the pot +which held the dumpling, and let out a deliciously-scented cloud of +steam. It was almost too much for the little ones, whose mouths watered +with anticipation, and who felt half inclined to lay violent hands on +the pot and begin dinner without delay. + +"Now, I know by the smell that it is quite ready, so we will say +good-bye at once," said Matilda, getting up with a smile, and drawing +her warm cloak round her. "Be sure to send your eldest girl to me +to-morrow along with your husband." + +"And come early, Butts," said Tom Westlake, buttoning up his coat. + +"You may depend on me, sir." + +"Stand by to shut the door quickly after us," added Tom as he grasped +the handle, "else the wind will get in and blow the fire about." + +The brother and sister, being young and active, were pretty smart in +making their exit, and David Butts, being used to doors, was not slow to +shut his own, but they could not altogether baffle the colonel, for he +was waiting outside. Indeed, he had been whistling with furious +insolence through the keyhole all the time of the visit. Sliding in +edgewise, at the moment of opening, he managed to scatter the ashes +again, and whirl about some of the light articles before he was fairly +expelled. + +Thereafter, along with his father and brother, he went riotously after +Tom and Matilda Westlake, sometimes shrieking over their heads; now and +then dashing on in front, and, whirling round in an eddy, plunging +straight back into their faces, but they could make nothing of it. The +brother and sister merely laughed at them, and defied them to do their +worst, even, in the joy of their hearts, going the length of saying to +several utter but beaming strangers, that it was "splendid Christmas +weather." And so it was,--to the young and strong. Not so, alas! to +the old and feeble. + +It almost seemed as if Colonel Wind and Major Snow had taken offence at +this last sally, for about that time of the day they forsook their +father and left London--probably to visit the country. At all events, +the clouds cleared away, the sky became blue, and the sun shone out +gloriously--though without perceptibly diminishing the frost. + +After spending another hour or two in paying visits, during which they +passed abruptly, more than once, from poverty-stricken scenes of +moderate mirth to abodes of sickness and desolation, Tom and Matilda, by +means of 'bus and cab, at last found themselves in the neighbourhood of +the Serpentine. + +"What say you to a turn on the ice, Matty?" + +"Charming," cried Matty. + +Society on the Serpentine, when frozen over, is not very select, but the +brother and sister were not particular on that point just then. They +hired skates; they skimmed about over the well-swept surface; they +tripped over innumerable bits of stick or stone or orange-peel; they ran +into, or were run into by, various beings whose wrong-headedness induced +a preference for skating backwards. In short, they conducted themselves +as people usually do on skates, and returned home pretty well exhausted +and blooming. + +That evening, after a family dinner, at which a number of young cousins +and other relatives were present, Tom and his sister left the festive +circle round the fire, and retired to a glass conservatory opening out +of the drawing-room. There was a sofa in it and there they found Ned +Westlake extended at full length. He rose at once and made room for +them. + +"Well, Ned, how have you enjoyed yourself to-day?" asked Tom. + +"Oh, splendidly! There was such a jolly party in Wharton's grounds-- +most of them able to skate splendidly. The pond is so sheltered that +the wind scarcely affected us, and a staff of sweepers cleared away the +snow as fast as it fell. Afterwards, when it cleared up and the sun +shone through the trees, it was absolutely magnificent. It's the +jolliest day I've had on the ice for years, though I'm almost knocked up +by it. Jovially fatigued, in fact. But where have you been?" + +"We also have been skating," said Matilda. + +"Indeed! I thought you had intended to spend the day somewhere in the +east-end attending some of those free breakfasts, and visiting the poor, +or something of that sort--as if there were not enough of city +missionaries, and sisters of mercy, or charity, or whatever you call +them, to look after such things." + +"You are right, Ned," said Tom, "such was our intention, and we carried +it out too. It was only at the end of the day that we took to skating +on the Serpentine, and, considering the number of people we have run +into, or overturned, or tumbled over, we found a couple of hours of it +quite sufficient." + +From this point Tom Westlake "harked back" and related his experiences +of the day. He possessed considerable power of graphic delineation, and +gradually aroused the interest of his gay and volatile but +kindly-disposed brother. + +"Ned," said he, at last, "do you really believe in the truth of these +words, `Blessed are they that consider the poor?'" + +"Yes, Tom, I do," replied Ned, becoming suddenly serious. + +What Tom said to his brother after that we will not relate, but the +result was that, before that Christmas evening closed, he succeeded in +convincing Ned that a day of "jolly good fun" may be rendered +inexpressibly more "jolly," by being commenced with an effort to cheer +and lighten the lot of those into whose sad lives there enter but a +small amount of jollity and far too little fun. + + + +STORY THREE, CHAPTER 1. + +A DOUBLE RESCUE--INTRODUCTION. + +It is a curious and interesting fact that Christmas-tide seemed to have +a peculiar influence on the prospects of our hero Jack Matterby, all +through his life. All the chief events of his career, somehow, happened +on or about Christmas Day. + +Jack was born, to begin with, on a Christmas morning. His father, who +was a farmer in the middle ranks of life, rejoiced in the fact, +esteeming it full of promise for the future. So did his mother. Jack +himself did not at first seem to have any particular feeling on the +subject. If one might judge his opinions by his conduct, it seemed that +he was rather displeased than otherwise at having been born; for he +spent all the first part of his natal day in squalling and making faces, +as though he did not like the world at all, and would rather not have +come into it. + +"John, dear," said his mother to his father, one day not long after his +birth, "I'm so glad he is a boy. He might have been a girl, you know." + +"No, Molly; _he_ could never have been a girl!" replied the husband, as +he gently patted his wife's shoulder. + +"Now, don't laugh at me, John, dear. You know what I mean. But what +shall we call him?" + +"John, of course," replied the farmer, with decision. "My father was +called John, and _his_ father was called John, and also his grandfather, +and so on back, I have no doubt, to the very beginning of time." + +"Nay, John," returned his wife, simply, "that could hardly be; for +however many of your ancestors may have been Johns, the first, you know, +was Adam." + +"Why, Molly, you're getting to be quite sharp," returned the farmer. +"Nevertheless this little man is to be John, like the rest of us." + +Mrs Matterby, being meek, gave in; but she did so with a sigh, for she +wished the little one to be named Joseph, after her own deceased father. + +Thus it came to pass that the child was named John. The name was +expanded to Johnny during the first period of childhood. Afterwards it +was contracted to Jack, and did not attain to the simple grandeur of +John till the owner of it became a man. + +In the Johnny period of life our hero confined his attention almost +exclusively to smashing and overturning. To overturn and to destroy +were his chief amusements. He made war on crockery to such an extent +that tea-cups and saucers were usually scarce in the family. He +assaulted looking-glasses so constantly, that there was, ere long, +barely enough of mirror left for his father to shave in. As to which +fact the farmer used to say, "Never mind, Molly. Don't look so +down-hearted, lass. If he only leaves a bit enough to see a corner of +my chin and the half of my razor, that will do well enough." No window +in the family mansion was thoroughly whole, and the appearance of a fat +little fist, on the wrong side of a pane of glass, was quite a familiar +object in the nursery. + +As for toys--Johnny had none, so to speak. He had only a large basket +full of bits, the misapplication of which to each other gave him many +hours of profound recreation. Everything that would turn inside out was +so turned. Whatever was by nature straight he bent, whatever bent he +straightened. Round things he made square when possible, and square +things round; soft things hard, and hard things soft. In short, nothing +was too hard for Johnny. Everything that came into his clutches, was +subjected to what we may style the influence of experimental philosophy; +and if Farmer Matterby had been a poor man he must soon have been +ruined, but, being what is styled "well-to-do," he only said, in +reference to these things-- + +"Go ahead, my boy. Make hay while the sun shines. If you carry on as +you've begun, you'll make your mark _somewhere_ in this world." + +"Alas!" remarked poor Mrs Matterby, "he has made his mark already +_everywhere_, and that a little too freely!" + +Nevertheless she was proud of her boy, and sought to subdue his spirit +by teaching him lessons of self-denial and love out of the Word of God. +Johnny listened intently to these lessons, gazing with large wondering +eyes, though he understood little of the teaching at first. It was not +all lost on him, however; and he thoroughly understood and reciprocated +the deep love that beamed in his mother's eyes. + +Soon after Johnny had slid into the Jack period of life he became +acquainted with a fisher-boy of his own age, whose parents dwelt in a +cottage on the sea-shore, not a quarter of a mile from his own home, and +close to the village of Blackby. + +Natty Grove was as fine a little fellow as one could wish to see: fair, +curly-headed, blue-eyed, rough-jacketed, and almost swallowed up in a +pair of his father's sea-boots, which had been cut down in the legs to +fit him. As to the feet!--well, as his father Ned Grove remarked, there +was plenty of room for growth. Natty had no mother, but he had a little +sister about three years of age, and a grandmother, who might have been +about thirty times three. No one could tell her age for certain; but +she was so old and wrinkled and dried up and withered and small, that +she might certainly have claimed to be "the oldest inhabitant." She had +been bed-ridden for many years because of what her son called +rum-matticks and her grandson styled rum-ticks. + +The name of Natty's little sister was Nellie; that of his grandmother, +Nell--old Nell, as people affectionately called her. + +Now it may perhaps surprise the reader to be told that Jack Matterby, at +the age of nine years, was deeply in love. He had, indeed, been in that +condition, more or less from the age of three, but the passion became +more decided at nine. He was in love with Nell--not blue-eyed little +Nellie, but with wrinkled old Nell; for that antiquated creature was +brimming over with love to mankind, specially to children. On our hero +she poured out such wealth of affection that he was powerfully attracted +to her even in the period of Johnny-hood, and, as we have said, she +captured him entirely when he reached Jack-hood. + +Old Nell was a splendid story-teller. That was one of the baits with +which she was fond of hooking young people. It was interesting to sit +in the fisherman's poor cottage and watch the little ones sitting +open-mouthed and eyed, gazing at the withered little face, in which +loving-kindness, mingling with fun, beamed from the old eyes, played +among the wrinkles, smiled on the lips, and asserted itself in the +gentle tones. + +"Jack," said Mrs Matterby, on the Christmas morning which ushered in +her boy's ninth birthday, "come, I'm going to give you a treat to-day." + +"You always do, mammy, on my birthdays," said Jack. + +"I want you to go with a message to a poor woman," continued the mother. + +"Is that all?" exclaimed Jack, with a disappointed look. + +"Yes, that's all--or nearly all," replied his mother, with a twinkle in +her eye, however, which kept her son from open rebellion. "I want you +to carry this basket of good things, with my best love and Christmas +good-wishes, to old Nell Grove." + +"Oho!" exclaimed Jack, brightening up at once, "I'm your man; here, give +me the basket. But, mother," he added with a sudden look of perplexity, +"you called old Nell a _poor_ woman, and I've heard her sometimes say +that she has _everything_ that she needs and _more_ than she deserves! +She can't be poor if that's true, and it _must_ be true; for you know +that old Nell never, _never_ tells lies." + +"True, Jack; old Nell is not poor in one sense: she is rich in faith. +She has got `contentment with godliness,' and many rich people have not +got that. Nevertheless she has none too much of the necessaries of this +life, and none at all of the luxuries, so that she is what people +usually call poor." + +"That's a puzzler, mammy--poor and rich both!" + +"I daresay it is a puzzler," replied Mrs Matterby, with a laugh, "but +be off with your basket and message, my son; some day you shall +understand it better." + +Pondering deeply on this "puzzler," the boy went off on his mission, +trudging through the deep snow which whitened the earth and brightened +that Christmas morning. + +"She's as merry as a cricket to-day," said Natty Grove, who opened the +cottage door when his friend knocked. + +"Yes, as 'erry as a kiket," echoed flaxen-haired Nellie, who stood +beside him. + +"She's always 'erry," said Jack, giving the little girl a gentle pull of +the nose by way of expressing good will. "A merry Christmas both! How +are you? See here, what mother has sent to old Nell." + +He opened the lid of the basket. Nattie and Nellie peeped in and +snuffed. + +"Oh! I _say_!" said the fisher-boy. He could say no more, for the +sight and scent of apples, jelly, roast fowl, home-made pastry, and +other things was almost too much for him. + +"I expected it, dearie," said old Nell, extending her withered hand to +the boy as he set the basket on the table. "Every Christmas morning, +for years gone by, she has sent me the same, though I don't deserve it, +and I've no claim on her but helplessness. But it's the first time she +has sent it by you, Jack. Come, I'll tell ye a story." + +Jack was already open-eyed with expectancy and he was soon open-mouthed, +forgetful of past and future, absorbed entirely in the present. Natty +and Nelly were similarly affected and like-minded, while the little old +woman swept them away to the wilds of Siberia, and told them of an +escape from unjust banishment, of wanderings in the icy wilderness, and +of starvation so dire that the fugitives were reduced to gnawing and +sucking the leathern covers of their wallets for dear life. Then she +told of food sent at the last moment, almost by miracle, and of +hair-breadth escapes, and final deliverance. Somehow--the listeners +could not have told how--old Nell inserted a reference to the real +miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand, and she worked round to it +so deftly, that it seemed an essential part of the story; and so indeed +it was, for Nell intended the key-stone of the arch of her story to be +the fact that, when man is reduced to the last extremity God steps in to +save. + +It is certain that little Nellie did not understand the moral of the +story, and it is uncertain how far the boys appreciated it; but it was +old Nell's business to sow the seed beside all waters, and leave the +rest to Him who gave the command. + +"Yes, dearies," she said in conclusion, laying her hand on the basket, +"I expected this gift this morning; but many a time does our Father in +heaven send a blessin' when an' where we _don't_ expect it. Mind +that--_mind ye that_." + +Jack had more than enough of mental food to digest that morning as he +retraced his steps homeward through the deep snow; for he found that old +Nell, not less than his mother, had treated him to a few puzzlers. Poor +boy, he little knew as he plodded on that he was that day about to enter +into one of the darkest clouds of his young life. + +During his absence a letter had been received by his father, intimating +that through the failure of a bank he was a ruined man. The shock had +paralysed the farmer, and when Jack entered his home he found him lying +on his bed in a state of insensibility, from which he could not be +rallied. A few days later the old man died. + +Farmer Matterby's widow had few relatives, and none of these were in +circumstances to help her in the day of trial. They and her numerous +friends did indeed what they could. Besides offering sincere sympathy, +they subscribed and raised a small sum to enable the bereaved woman and +her only child to tide over present difficulties, but they could not +enable her to continue to work the farm, and as most of her late +husband's kindred had migrated to Canada, she had no one from whom she +could naturally claim counsel or aid. She was therefore thrown entirely +on God; and it was with strange and solemn feelings that Jack kneeled by +her side, and heard her pray in tones of anguish for help, light, and +guidance, and especially that, whatever might become of herself, her +dear boy might be preserved from evil and guided in ways of +righteousness. + +A few months later, and the widow, gathering the small remnant of her +possessions together, set off with her little boy to seek employment in +London. How many poor souls, in various ranks of life, must have turned +their steps, in days gone by, towards that giant city in the sanguine +hope of bettering their condition! Mrs Matterby had no friends to whom +she could go in London; but she could paint and draw and sing, and was +fairly educated. She would teach. In the meantime she had a little +money to start with. Entertaining a suspicion that it might be +considered a wildish scheme by her friends and neighbours, she resolved +to say nothing about her plans to any one, save that she was going to +London for a time. + +It was a touching scene, the parting of Jack and the Grove family. The +sturdy fisherman was at sea at the time, but old Nell was in her +accustomed corner in the lowly bed with the ragged counterpane, where +her uneventful, yet happy, life was spent; and little curly-headed +Nellie was there, playing with the cat; and Natty was there, cutting out +a first-rate man of war with a huge knife. + +"Granny," (Jack always called her "granny" like the rest), "granny, I've +come to say good-bye. I am going away f-f-for ever an' ever!" + +"Amen!" responded Natty, from the mere force of habit, for he was a +constant responder at granny's family worship. + +"Ye don't know that, darlin'," replied old Nell. "The Lord leads us in +ways that we know not, an' it may be His good pleasure to bring you here +again." + +"N-no; I'm quite _sure_ I'll never see you again," returned the boy, +giving way to the sobs which he could not restrain. "M-mother says we +will never come back again,--n-never, _never_ more--" + +He broke down entirely at this point, and a few silent tears trickled +over the kind old face of Nell. Natty was too much of a man to give way +out and out, but he snivelled a little in spite of himself. As for +Nellie, she stood there in open-eyed wonder, for she failed to quite +understand the situation. We will not prolong the painful scene. When +at length Jack had taken leave of them all--had kissed the two Nells and +shaken hands with Natty--the younger Nell seemed to realise the facts of +the case; for Jack saw her, as he glanced back for the last time, +suddenly shut her large blue eyes, throw back her curly little head, +open wide her pretty little mouth, and howl miserably. + + + +STORY THREE, CHAPTER 2. + +LOST IN LONDON. + +London in a fog is too well known to require description. In an +uncommonly thick fog, on a day in December of the following year, Mrs +Matterby hurried along Fleet Street in the direction of the city, +leading Jack by the hand. Both were very wet, very cold, ravenously +hungry, and rather poorly clad. It was evident that things had not +prospered with the widow. + +"Dear Jack," she said in a choking voice, as they hurried along the +streets towards the wretched abode in the Tower Hamlets, to which they +had been at length reduced, "dear Jack, my last human hope has failed. +Mr Block has told me that I need not go there again; he has no more +work for me." + +Jack's experience of life was too limited to enable him to understand +fully the depth of distress, to which his mother had fallen--with health +broken, money expended, and work not to be had except on terms which +rendered life a misery, and prolonged existence almost an impossibility. +But Jack's power of sympathy was strong and his passions were vehement. + +"Mother," he said, with tearful eyes, as he clung closer to her side, "I +would _kill_ Mr Block if I could!" + +"Hush, dear boy! You know that would be wrong and could do no good. It +is sinful even to feel such a desire." + +"How can I help it, mother!" returned Jack indignantly. Then he asked, +"What are we going to do now, mother?" + +For some time the poor widow did not reply; then she spoke in a low +tone, as if murmuring to herself, "The last sixpence gone; the cupboard +empty; nothing--nothing left to pawn--" + +She stopped short, and glanced hastily at her marriage ring. + +"Mother," said Jack, "have you not often told me that God will not +forsake us? Does it not seem as if He _had_ forsaken us now?" + +"It only seems like it, darling," returned the widow hurriedly. "We +don't understand His ways. `Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!'" + +It seemed as if God were about to test the faith of His servant, for at +that moment a cab drove furiously round the corner of a street and +knocked her down. Jack was overturned at the same time. Recovering +himself, instantly, he found his mother in a state of unconsciousness, +with blood flowing from a deep cut in her forehead. In a state of +semi-bewilderment the poor boy followed the stretcher, on which Mrs +Matterby was carried to the nearest hospital, where he waited while his +mother's injuries were examined. + +"My boy," said a young surgeon, returning to the waiting room, and +patting Jack's head, "your mother has been rather badly hurt. We must +keep her here to look after her. I daresay we shall soon make her well. +Meanwhile you had better run home, and tell your father--if, that is-- +your father is at home, I suppose?" + +"No, sir; father's dead." + +"Well then your sister or aunt--I suppose there's some relative at home +older than yourself?" + +"No, sir; none but mother an' me," whispered Jack. + +"No relations of any kind at all in London?" + +"None, sir. We know nobody--at least not many, and they're all +strangers." + +"A sad case," murmured the surgeon. "Your mother is poor, I suppose?" + +"_Very_ poor, sir." + +"But of course you have a home of some sort, somewhere?" + +"Yes, it's not far from here." + +"Well, them, you'd better go home just now, for you can't see your +mother to-night. We dare not let her speak, but come back early +to-morrow, and you shall hear about her--perhaps see her. Here, put +that in your pocket." + +Poor Jack took the shilling which the sympathetic surgeon thrust into +his hand, and ran home in a state bordering on distraction; but it was +not till he entered the shabby little room which he had begun to +consider "home" that he realised the full weight of the calamity that +had befallen him. No mother's voice to welcome him; no bit of fire in +the grate to warm; no singing kettle to cheer, or light of candle to +dispel the gloom of rapidly approaching night. + +It was Christmas Day too. In the morning he had gone forth with his +mother--she in the sanguine hope of renewing an engagement in a +clothier's shop, which terminated that day; he in the expectation of +getting a few jobs of some sort--messages to run or horses to hold. +Such were the circumstances to which they had been reduced in twelve +months, Jack had arranged to call for his mother and walk home with her. +On the way they were to invest a _very_ small part of the widow's +earnings in "something nice" for their Christmas supper, and spend the +evening together, chatting about the old home in Blackby, and father, +and Natty Grove, and Nellie, and old Nell, in the happy days gone by. + +"And now!" thought Jack, seating himself on his little bed and glancing +at that of his mother, which stood empty in the opposite +corner--"now!--" + +But Jack could think no more. A tremendous agony rent his breast, and a +sharp cry escaped from him as he flung himself on his bed and burst into +a passion of tears. + +Child-like, he sobbed himself to sleep, and did not awake till the sun +was high next morning. It was some time before he could recall what had +occurred. When he did so he began to weep afresh. Leaping up, he was +about to rush out of the house and make for the hospital, when he was +checked at the door by the landlord--a hard, grinding, heartless man, +who grew rich in oppressing the poor. + +"You seem to be in a hurry, youngster," he said, dragging the boy back +by the collar, and looking hurriedly round the room. "I've come for the +rent. Where's your mother?" + +In a sobbing voice Jack told him about the accident. + +"Well, I don't really believe you," said the man, with an angry frown; +"but I'll soon find out if you're telling lies. I'll go to the hospital +and inquire for myself. D'ee know anything about your mother's +affairs?" + +"No, sir," said Jack, meekly, for he began to entertain a vague terror +of the man. + +"No; I thought not. Well, I'll enlighten you. Your mother owes me +three weeks' rent of this here room, and has got nothing to pay it with, +as far as I knows, except these sticks o' furniture. Now, if your +mother is really in hospital, I'll come back here and bundle you out, +an' sell the furniture to pay my rent. I ain't a-goin' to be done out +o' my money because your mother chooses to git run'd over." + +The landlord did not wait for a reply, but went out and slammed the +door. + +Jack followed him in silent horror. He watched him while he inquired at +the gate of the hospital, and, after he had gone, went up timidly, rang +the bell, and asked for his mother. + +"Mrs Matterby?" repeated the porter. "Come in; I'll make inquiry." + +The report which he brought back fell like the blow of a sledge-hammer +on the poor boy's heart. His mother, they told him, was dead. She had +died suddenly in the night. + +There are times of affliction, when the human soul fails to find relief +in tears or cries. Poor Jack Matterby stood for some time motionless, +as if paralysed, with glaring eyes and a face not unlike to that of +death. They sought to rouse him, but he could not speak. Suddenly, +observing the front door open, he darted out into the street, and ran +straight home, where he flung himself on his mother's bed, and burst +into an uncontrollable flood of tears. By degrees the passion subsided, +leaving only a stunned feeling behind, under the influence of which he +lay perfectly still. + +The first thing that roused him was the sound of a heavy foot on the +stair. The memory of the landlord flashed into his mind and filled him +with indescribable dread--dread caused partly by the man's savage aspect +and nature, but much more by the brutal way in which he had spoken about +his mother. The only way in which to avoid a meeting was to rush past +the man on the stair. Fear and loathing made the poor boy forget, for +the moment, his crushing sorrow. He leaped up, opened the door, and, +dashing downstairs, almost overturned the man who was coming up. Once +in the street, he ran straight on without thought, until he felt that he +was safe from pursuit. Then he stopped, and sat down on a door-step--to +think what he should do; for, having been told that the furniture of his +old home was to be sold, and himself turned out, he felt that returning +there would be useless, and would only expose him to the risk of meeting +the awful landlord. While he was yet buried in thought, one of those +sprightly creatures of the great city, known as street arabs, accosted +him in a grave and friendly tone. + +"My sweet little toolip," he said, "can I do anythink for you?" + +Despite his grief Jack could scarcely forbear smiling at the absurdity +of the question. + +"No, thank you," he replied. + +"Well now, look 'ere, my toolip," returned the arab in a confidential +tone, "I've took quite a fancy to you; you've got such a look, some'ow, +of my poor old grandmother. Now, if you've no objection, I'd like to +give you your breakfast. You're 'ungry, I suppose?" + +Jack admitted that he was, and, after a moment's hesitation, accepted +this surprisingly kind and liberal offer. Taking him promptly by the +arm his new friend hurried him to a pastry-cook's shop, and bade him +"smell that," referring to the odours that ascended through a grating. + +"Ain't it 'eavenly?" he asked, with sparkling eyes. + +Jack admitted that it was very nice. + +"_So_ green, an' yet so fair!" murmured the arab, casting a look of +admiration on his companion. "Now I means to go into that there shop," +he added, returning to the confidential tone, "an' buy breakfast for +you--for both on us. But I couldn't go in, you know, with this 'ere +shabby coat on, 'cause they wouldn't give me such good wittles if I did. +Just change coats with me for a few minutes. What! You doubt me? No +one ever doubted Bob Snobbins without--without a-'urtin' of his +feelin's." + +Whatever might have caused Jack to hesitate, the injured look on young +Snobbins' countenance and the hurt tone were too much for him. He +exchanged coats with the young rascal, who, suddenly directing Jack's +attention to some imaginary object of interest at one end of the street, +made off at full speed towards the other end. Our hero was, however, a +famous runner. He gave chase, caught the arab in a retired alley, and +gave him an indignant punch in the head. + +But although Jack had plenty of courage and a good deal of strength, he +was no match for a street warrior like Bob Snobbins, who turned about +promptly, blackened both his opponent's eyes, bled his nose, swelled his +lips, and finally knocked him into a pool of dirty water, after which he +fled, just as a policeman came on the scene. + +The constable was a kindly man. He asked Jack a few questions, which, +however, the latter was too miserable to answer. + +"Well, well, my boy," said the constable gently, "you'd as well give up +fightin'. It don't pay, you see, in the long run. Besides, you don't +seem fit for it. Cut away home now, and get your mother to clean you." + +This last remark caused Jack to run away fast enough with a bursting +heart. All day he wandered about the crowded streets, and no one took +any notice of him, save a very few among the thousands, who cast on him +a passing glance of pity. But what could these do to help him? Were +not the streets swarming with such boys? + +And in truth Jack Matterby was a very pitiable object, at least +according to the report of shop-mirrors, which told him that his face +was discoloured and bloody, his coat indescribably dirty and ragged, +besides being out of harmony with his trousers, and that his person +generally was bedaubed with mud. Hunger at last induced him to overcome +his feelings of shame so far that he entered a baker's shop, but he was +promptly ordered to be off. Later in the day he entered another shop, +the owner of which seemed to be of a better disposition. Changing his +shilling, he purchased a penny roll, with which he retired to a dark +passage and dined. + +When night came on he expended another penny and supped, after which he +sought for some place of shelter in which to sleep. But wherever he +went he found the guardians of the public requiring him to "move on." +Several street arabs sought to make his acquaintance, but, with the +memory of Bob Snobbins strong upon him, he declined their friendship. +At last, wearied out and broken-hearted, he found a quiet corner under +an archway, where he sat down and leaned his head against the wall, +exclaiming, "I'm lost--lost!" Then he wept quietly, and sought to find +temporary relief in slumber. + +He was indeed lost, and more completely so, in the feeling of lonely +isolation, perhaps, than he would have been if lost in the backwoods of +America. Yet he was not utterly lost, for the tender Shepherd was on +his track. Some such thought seemed to cross his mind; for he suddenly +began to pray, and thoughts about the old home in Blackby, and of the +Grove family, comforted him a little until he fell asleep on his hard +bed. + +But, for the time being, the poor boy _was_ lost--lost in London! His +disreputable face and discreditable coat argued a dissipated character-- +hence no one would employ him. Ere long necessity compelled him to +accept the society of street arabs, and soon he became quite as sharp, +though not quite as wicked, as they. But day by day he sank lower and +lower, and evil at which he would have shuddered at first became at last +familiar. + +He did not sink without a struggle, however, and he would have returned +to the place where his mother had died, to ask help of the young surgeon +who had expressed sympathy with him, but, with the carelessness of +boyhood, he had forgotten the name of the hospital, and did not know +where, in the great wilderness of bricks and mortar, to search for it. +As for the home from which he had fled, the memory of the landlord still +kept him carefully clear of that. + +But Jack's mother was _not_ dead! In hospitals--as in the best of +well-regulated families--mistakes will sometimes happen. The report +which had proved so disastrous to our poor hero referred to another +woman who had died. A messenger had been at once sent, by the young +surgeon before mentioned, to tell Jack of the error; but when the +messenger arrived the boy had flown--as already described. Indeed, it +was he whom Jack had passed on the stair. + +It was long before Mrs Matterby recovered, for the disappearance of her +boy caused a relapse; and when at last she left the hospital, feeble and +homeless, she went about for many months, searching at once for work and +for her lost treasure. + +Christmas came again, and found Jack Matterby at nearly the lowest point +in his downward career. It is due to him to say, however, that he had +not up to that time, been guilty of any criminal act that could bring +him with the grasp of human law; but in word and deed he had begun, more +and more, to break the law of God: so that if poor Mrs Matterby had at +that time succeeded in finding her son, it is probable that her joy +would have been overwhelmed with terrible grief. + +It was not exactly Christmas morning, but it was the Christmas season of +the year, when our little hero, wearied in spirit and body with the hard +struggle for life, sauntered down the now familiar Strand in the hope of +finding some odd job to do. He paused before a confectioner's shop, +and, being very hungry, was debating with himself the propriety of +giving up the struggle, and coolly helping himself to a pie! You may be +sure that bad invisible spirits were at his elbow just then to encourage +him. But God sent a good angel also, and she was visible--being in the +form of a thin little old lady. + +"You'd like a bun, I know," she said, putting a penny into Jack's hand. + +"God bless you, ma'am--yes," burst from the astonished boy. + +"Go in and buy one. Then, come and tell me all about you." + +The thin little old lady was one of those followers of the Lamb who do +not wait for Christmas to unlock their sympathies. The river of her +love and pity was _always_ overflowing, so that there was no room for +increase to a deluge at Christmas time--though she rejoiced to note the +increase in the case of others, and wished that the flood might become +perennial. To this lady Jack laid bare his inmost heart, and she led +him back to the Saviour. + +"Now, Jack, let me ask you one question," she said; "would you like to +go to Canada?" + +With tremendous energy Jack answered, "_Wouldn't_ I!" + +"Then," said the old lady, "to Canada you shall go." + + + +STORY THREE, CHAPTER 3. + +THE DOUBLE RESCUE. + +And Jack Matterby went! But before he went he had to go through a +preliminary training, for his regular schooling had ceased when his +father died, and he had learned no trade. + +In those days there were no splendid institutions for waifs and strays +such as now exist, but it must not be supposed that there was no such +thing as "hasting to the rescue." Thin little old Mrs Seaford had +struck out the idea for herself, and had acted on it for some years in +her own vigorous way. She took Jack home, and lodged him in her own +house with two or three other boys of the same stamp--waifs. Jack +elected to learn the trade of a carpenter, and Mrs Seaford, finding +that he had been pretty well grounded in English, taught him French, as +that language, she told him, was much spoken in Canada. Above all, she +taught him those principles of God's law without which a human being is +but poorly furnished even for the life that now is, to say nothing of +that which is to come. + +In a few months Jack was ready for exportation! A few months more, and +he found himself apprenticed to a farmer, not far from the shores of +that mighty fresh-water sea, Ontario. Time passed, and Jack Matterby +became a trusted servant and a thorough farmer. He also became a big, +dashing, and earnest boy. More time passed, and Jack became a handsome +young man, the bosom friend of his employer. Yet a little more time +winged its silent way, and Jack became John Matterby, Esquire, of Fair +Creek Farm, heir to his former master's property, and one of the +wealthiest men of the province--not a common experience of poor emigrant +waifs, doubtless, but, on the other hand, by no means unprecedented. + +It must not be supposed that during all those years Jack forgot the +scenes and people of the old land. On the contrary, the longer he +absented himself from the old home the more firmly and tenderly did the +old memories cling and cluster round his heart; and many a story and +anecdote did he relate about these, especially during the Christmas +season of each year, to his old master and to Nancy Briggs, in the log +homestead of Ontario. + +Nancy was a waif, who had been sent out by the same thin little old lady +who had sent Jack out. She was very pretty, and possessed of +delightfully amiable domestic qualities. She grew up to be a very +handsome girl, and was a very bright sunbeam in the homestead. But Jack +did not fall in love with her. All unknown to himself his heart was +pre-occupied. Neither did Nancy fall in love with Jack. All +unwittingly she was reserving herself for another lot. Of course our +hero corresponded diligently with the thin little old lady, and +gladdened her heart by showing and expressing strong sympathy with the +waifs of the great city; more than once, in his earlier letters, +mentioning one named Bob Snobbins, about whose fate he felt some +curiosity, but in regard to whose home, if such existed, he could give +no information. + +Twice during those years Jack also wrote to the Grove family; but as he +received no answer on either occasion, he concluded that the father must +have been drowned, that old Nell was dead, and the family broken up. +Need we add that the memory of his dear mother never faded or grew dim? +But this was a sacred memory, in regard to which he opened his lips to +no one. + +At last there came a day when John Matterby, being in the prime of life, +with ample means and time to spare, set his heart on a holiday and a +visit to the old country--the thin little old lady being yet alive. It +was not so easy, however, for our hero to get away from home as one +might imagine; for, besides being a farmer, he was manager of a branch +bank, secretary to several philanthropic societies, superintendent of a +Sunday-school, and, generally, a helper of, and sympathiser with, all +who loved the Lord and sought to benefit their fellow-men. But, being a +man of resolution, he cut the cords that attached him to these things, +appointed Miss Briggs to superintend the Sunday-school in his absence, +and set sail for England--not in a steamer, as most rich men would have +done, but in a sailing ship, because the vessel happened to be bound for +the port of Blackby, the home of his childhood. + +It was winter when he set sail, and the storms of winter were having +high jinks and revels on the deep in the usual way at that season of the +year. Jack's vessel weathered them all till it reached the shores of +old England. Then the storm-fiend broke loose with unwonted fury, and, +as if out of spite, cast the good ship on the rocks lying a little to +the eastward of the port of Blackby. + +It was a tremendous storm! The oldest inhabitant of Blackby said, as +well as his toothless gums would let him, that, "it wos the wust gale as +had blow'd since he wos a leetle booy--an' that warn't yesterday--no, +nor yet the day before!" + +The gale was at its height, in the grey of early morning, when the ship +struck, and all the manhood of the port and neighbouring village were +out to render aid, if possible, and to gaze and sympathise. But who +could render aid to a vessel which was rolling on those black rocks in a +caldron of white foam, with a hundred yards of swirling breakers that +raged and roared like a thousand lions between it and the base of the +cliffs? Even the noble lifeboat would have been useless in such a +place. But hark! a cry is raised--the coastguardmen and the rocket! +Yes, there is one hope for them yet--under God. Far below the men are +seen staggering along over the shingle, with their life-saving apparatus +in a hand-cart. + +Soon the tripod is set up, and the rocket is fired, but the line falls +to leeward. Another is tried; it falls short. Still another--it goes +far to windward. Again and again they try, but without success, until +all their rockets are expended. But these bold men of the coastguard +are not often or easily foiled. They send for more rockets to the next +station. Meanwhile the terrible waves are doing their awful work, +dashing the ship on the rocks as if she were a mere toy--as indeed she +is, in their grasp. Can nothing be done? + +"She'll never hold together till the rockets come," said a young seaman +stepping out from the crowd. "Here, let me have the line, and stand by +to pay out." + +"Don't try it, lad, it'll be your death." + +The youth paid no regard to this advice. "A man can only die once," he +remarked in a low voice, more as if speaking to himself than replying to +the caution, while he quickly tied the end of the light rope round his +waist and dashed into the sea. + +Oh! it is grand and heart-stirring to see a stalwart youth imperilling +life and limb for the sake of others; to see a powerful swimmer +breasting the billows with a fixed purpose to do or die. But it is +terrible and spirit-crushing to see such a one tossed by the breakers as +if he were a mere baby, and hurled back helpless on the sand. Twice did +the young sailor dash in, and twice was he caught up like a cork and +hurled back, while the people on shore, finding their remonstrances +useless, began to talk of using force. + +The man's object was to dive _through_ the first wave. If he could +manage this--and the second--the rest would not be beyond the power of a +strong man. A third time he leaped into the rushing flood, and this +time was successful. Soon he stood panting on the deck of the stranded +vessel, almost unable to stand, and well he knew that there was not a +moment to lose, for the ship was going to pieces! Jack Matterby, +however, knew well what to do. He drew out the hawser of the rocket +apparatus, fixed the various ropes, and signalled to those on shore to +send out the sling life-buoy, and then the men of the coastguard began +to haul the passengers and crew ashore, one at a time. + +The young sailor, recovering in a few minutes, lent a hand. Jack knew +him the instant he heard his voice, but took no notice of him, for it +was a stern matter of life or death with them all just then. + +When Jack and the captain stood at last awaiting their turn, and +watching the last of the crew being dragged over the boiling surf, our +hero turned suddenly, and, grasping the young sailor's hand with the +grip of a vice, said, "God bless you, Natty Grove!" + +Nat gazed as if he had been stunned. "_Can_ it be?" he exclaimed. "We +had thought you dead years ago!" + +"Thank God, I'm not only alive but hearty. Here comes the life-buoy. +Your turn next. But one word before--old Nell; and--Nellie?" + +"Both well, and living with your mother--" + +"My--" Jack could not speak, a tremendous shock seemed to rend his +heart. Young Grove felt that he had been too precipitate. + +"Your mother is alive, Jack, and--" + +He stopped, for the captain said quickly, "Now, then, get in. No time +to lose." + +But Jack could not get in. If he had not been a strong man he must have +fallen on the deck. As it was, he felt stunned and helpless. + +"Here, captain," cried Nat Grove, leaping into the life-buoy, "lift him +into my arms. The ropes are strong enough for both." + +Scarce knowing what he did, Jack allowed himself to be half-lifted into +the buoy, in which his old friend held him fast. A few minutes more, +and they were dragged safely to land and the ringing cheers and +congratulations of the assembled multitude. The captain came last, so +that, when the ship finally went to pieces, not a human life was lost-- +even the ship's cat was among the number of the saved, the captain +having carried it ashore in his arms. + +Now, there are some scenes in this life which will not bear description +in detail. Such was the meeting of our hero with his long-lost mother. +We refrain from lifting the curtain here. But there is no reason why we +should not re-introduce the joyful and grateful pair at a later period +of that same eventful day, when, seated together by the bedside of old +Nell, they recounted their experiences--yes, the same old woman, but +thinner and wrinkleder, and smaller in every way; and the same bed, as +far as appearance went, though softer and cosier, and bigger in all +ways. On the other side of the bed sat the manly form of Natty Grove. +But who is that fair girl with the curling golden hair, whose face +exhibits one continuous blush, and whose entire body, soul and spirit is +apparently enchained by an insignificant piece of needlework? Can that +be Nellie Grove, whom we last saw with her eyes shut and her mouth +open--howling? Yes, it is she, and--but let Mrs Matterby explain. + +"Now, Jack," said that lady in a firm tone, "it's of no use your asking +question after question of every one in this way, and not even waiting +for answers, and everybody speaking at once--" + +"Excuse me, dearest mother, Miss Nellie Grove has not yet spoken at +all." + +"_Miss_ Nellie, indeed! Times are changed,"--murmured Natty, with a +look of surprise. + +"Her not speaking proves her the wisest of us all," resumed the widow, +looking at Old Nell, who with tremulous head nodded violent approval. +You must know, old Nell had become as deaf as a post, and, being +incapable of understanding anything, she gratified her natural +amiability by approving of everything--at least everything that was +uttered by speakers with a visible smile. When they spoke with gravity, +old Nell shook her tremulous head, and put on a look of alarmingly +solemn sympathy. On the present occasion, however, the antique old +thing seemed to have been affected with some absolutely new, and +evidently quaint, ideas, for she laughed frequently and immoderately, +especially when she gazed hard at Jack Matterby after having looked long +at Nellie Grove! + +"Now, Jack," resumed the widow for the fiftieth time, "you must know +that after I lost you, and had given you up for dead, I came back here, +feeling an intense longing to see once more the old home, and I began a +school. In course of years God sent me prosperity, notwithstanding the +murmurings of rebellion which rose in my heart when I thought of _you_. +The school became so big that I had to take a new house--that in which +you now sit--and sought about for a teacher to help me. Long before +that time poor Ned Grove had been drowned at sea. Your old friend Natty +there had become the first mate to a merchantman, and helped to support +his grandmother. Nellie, whose education I had begun, as you know, when +you were a boy, had grown into a remarkably clever and pretty girl, as, +no doubt, you will admit. She had become a daily governess in the +family of a gentleman who had come to live in the neighbourhood. Thus +she was enabled to assist her brother in keeping up the old home, and +took care of granny." + +At this point our hero, as he looked at the fair face and modest +carriage of his old playmate heartily admitted, (to himself), that she +was much more than "pretty," and felt that he now understood how a +fisherman's daughter had, to his intense surprise, grown up with so much +of gentle manners, and such soft lady-like hands. But he said never a +word! + +"Most happily for me," continued Mrs Matterby, "Nellie lost her +situation at the time I speak of, owing to the death of her employer. +Thus I had the chance of securing her at once. And now, here we have +been together for some years, and I hope we may never part as long as we +live. We had considerable difficulty in getting old Nell to quit the +cottage and come here. Indeed, we should never have succeeded, I think, +had it not been for Natty--" + +"That's true," interrupted Nat, with a laugh. + +"The dear old woman was too deaf to understand, and too obstinate to +move: so one day I put the bed clothes over her head, gathered her and +them up in my arms, and brought her up here bodily, very much as I +carried _you_ ashore, Jack, in the life-buoy, without asking leave. And +she has been content and happy ever since." + +What more of this tale there is to tell shall be told, reader, by +excerpts from our hero's Christmas letter to thin little Mrs Seaford, +as follows:-- + + "Pardon my seeming neglect, dear old friend. I meant to have run up + to town to see you the instant I set foot in England, but you must + admit that my dear, long-lost mother had prior claims. Pardon, also, + my impudence in now asking you to come and see _me_. You _must_ come. + I will take no denial, for I want you to rejoice at my wedding! Yes, + as old Nell once said to me, `God sends us a blessing sometimes when + we least expect it.' He has not only restored to me my mother, but + has raised me from the lowest rung in the ladder to the very highest, + and given me the sweetest, and most--. But enough. Come and see for + yourself. Her name is Nellie. But I have more to astonish you with. + Not only do I take Nellie back with me to my home in the new world, + but I take my mother also, and Natty Grove, and _old Nell herself_! + How we got her to understand what we want her to do, could not be told + in less than four hundred pages of small type. Nat did it, by means + of signs, symbols, and what _he_ styles facial-logarithms. At all + events she has agreed to go, and we hope to set sail next June. + Moreover, I expect to get _you_ to join us. Don't laugh. I mean it. + There is good work to be done. Canada needs philanthropic Christians + as well as England. + + "You will scarcely credit me when I say that I have become a + match-maker--not one of those `little' ones, in whose welfare you are + so much interested, but a real one. My deep design is upon your + partner, Natty Grove. Yes, your _partner_--for were not _you_ the + instrument used in rescuing my soul, and _he_ my body? so that you + have been partners in this double rescue. Well, it is my intention to + introduce Natty Grove to Nancy Briggs, and abide the result! Once on + a time I had meant her for Bob Snobbins, but as you have failed to + hunt him up, he must be left to suffer the consequences. D'you know I + have quite a pathetic feeling of tenderness for the memory of that too + sharp little boy. Little does he know how gladly I would give him the + best coat in my possession--if I could only find him! + + "Now, dearest of old friends, I must stop. Nellie is sitting on one + side of me, mother on the other, and old Nell in front--which will + account to you, in some degree, for the madness of my condition. + + "Once more, in the hope of a joyful meeting, I wish you `a merry + Christmas and a happy New Year.'" + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coxswain's Bride, by R.M. 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