When we met the following morning, my mother, as I shall in future call
her, said to me, "This will be a busy day, Frank, for we have a great
many arrangements to make in the cabin, so that we may be comfortable.
In future the cabin must be kept much more clean and tidy than it
is--but that is my business more than yours. Let us get our breakfasts,
and then we will begin."
"I don't know what you want me to do," replied I; "but I will do it if
I can, as soon as you tell me."
"My dear boy, a woman requires a portion of the cabin to herself, as it
is not the custom for women to live altogether with men. Now, what I
wish is, that the hinder part of the cabin, where you used to stow away
your dried birds, should be made over to me. We have oars with which we
can make a division, and then nail up seal skins, so that I may have
that part of the cabin to myself. Now, do you understand what I want?"
"Yes, but the oars are longer than the cabin is wide," observed I. "How
shall we manage it?"
"We have the old saw, and that will do well enough to cut them off,
without its being sharpened."
"I never saw one used," replied I, "and I don't understand it."
"I will soon show you. First, we must measure the width of the cabin. I
shall not take away more than one third of it."
My mother went into the cabin, and I followed her. With a piece of
fishing-line, she took the width of the cabin, and then the height up
to the rafters for the door posts. We then went out, and with the saw,
which she showed me how to use, and which astonished me very much, when
I perceived its effects, the oars were cut up to the proper length.
Gimlets I had already from the sea-chest, and nails and hammer we had
just obtained from the boat, so that before the forenoon was over, the
framework was all ready for nailing on the seal skins. The bag of
broad-headed short nails, which had been thrown on the rocks, were
excellent for this purpose, and, as I had plenty of skins, the cabin
was soon divided off, with a skin between the door-jambs hanging down
loose, so that any one might enter. I went inside after it was
complete. "But," said I, "you have no light to see what you are about."
"Not yet, but I soon will have," replied my mother. "Bring the saw
here, Frank. Observe, you must cut through the side of the cabin here,
a square hole of this size; three of the planks cut through will be
sufficient. Begin here."
I did as she directed me, and in the course of half an hour, I had cut
out of the south side of the cabin a window about two feet square,
which admitted plenty of light.
"But won't it make it cold at night?" said I.
"We will prevent that," replied she, and she took out a piece of white
linen, and with some broad-headed nails, she nailed it up, so as to
prevent the air from coming in, although there was still plenty of
light. "There," said she, "that is but a coarse job, which I will mend
bye-and-bye, but it will do for the present."
"Well, it is very nice and comfortable now," said I, looking round it.
"Now what shall I bring in?"
"Nothing for the bed but seal skins," said she. "I do not like the
feathers. The seal skins are stiff at present, but I think we may be
able to soften them bye-and-bye. Now, Frank, your chest had better come
in here, as it is of no use where it is, and we will make a storeroom
of it, to hold all our valuables."
"What, the diamonds?" replied I.
"My dear boy, we have articles to put into the chest, which, in our
present position, are more valuable to us than all the diamonds in the
world. Tell me now, yourself, what do you prefer and set most value
upon, your belt of diamonds, or the iron kettle?"
"The iron kettle, to be sure," replied I.
"Exactly so; and there are many things in our possession as valuable as
the iron kettle, as you will hereafter acknowledge. Now do you go and
get ready some fire for us, and I will finish here by myself. Nero,
keep out, sir--you are never to come into this cabin."
I went with Nero for a fish and when I returned, I determined that I
would use the iron kettle. I put it on with water and boiled the fish,
and I thought that it ate better than broiled on the embers, which made
it too dry.
As we sat at our meal, I said, "Dear mother, what are we to do next?"
"To-morrow morning we will put the cabin into better order, and put
away all our things instead of leaving them about the platform in this
way. Then I will carefully look over all that we have got, and put them
away in the chest. I have not yet seen the contents of the chest."
The next day it was very cloudy and, rough weather, blowing fresh.
After breakfast we set to work. We cleared out the floor of the cabin,
which was strewed with all manner of things, for Jackson and I had not
been very particular. The whale line was coiled up and put into one
corner, and every thing else was brought in and a place found for it.
"We must contrive some shelves," said my mother, "that we may put
things on them, or else we never can be tidy; and we have not one
except that which holds the books. I think we can manage it. We have
two oars left besides the boat's yard; we will nail them along the side
of the cabin, about a foot or more from it, and then we will cut some
of the boat's sail, and nail the canvas from the side of the cabin to
the oars, and that will make a sort of shelf which will hold our
things."
I brought in the oars, they were measured and cut off and nailed up.
The canvas was then stretched from the side of the cabin to the oar,
and nailed with the broad-headed nails, and made two capital shelves on
each side of the cabin, running from one end to the other.
"There," said my mother, "that is a good job. Now we will examine the
chest and put everything away and in its place."
My mother took out all the clothes, and folded them up. When she found
the roll of duck which was at the bottom, she said--
"I am glad to find this as I can make a dress for myself much better
for this island than this black stuff dress which I now wear, and which
I will put by to wear in case we should be taken off the island some of
these days, for I must dress like other people when I am again among
them. The clothes are sufficient to last you for a long while, but I
shall only alter two shirts and two pair of trousers to your present
size, as you will grow very fast. How old do you think you are now?"
I replied, "About sixteen years old, or perhaps more."
"I should think that was about your age."
Having examined and folded up every article of clothing in the chest,
the tools, spyglass, &c., were put by me on the shelves, and then we
examined the box containing the thread, needles, fishhooks, and other
articles, such as buttons, &c.
"These are valuable," said she; "I have some of my own to put along
with them. Go and fetch my basket, I have not yet had time to look into
it since I left the ship."
"What is there in it?"
"Except brushes and combs, I can hardly say. When I travelled about, I
always carried my basket, containing those things most requisite for
daily use, and in the basket I put everything that I wished to
preserve, till I had an opportunity to put it away. When I embarked on
board of the whaler, I brought my basket on my arm as usual, but except
opening it for my brushes and combs or scissors, I have not examined it
for months."
"What are brushes and combs and scissors?"
"That I will shew you," replied she, opening the lid of the basket.
"These are the brushes and combs for cleaning the hair, and these are
scissors. Now we will take everything out."
The basket did indeed appear to contain a wonderful quantity of things,
almost all new to me. There were two brushes, twelve combs, three pair
of scissors, a penknife, a little bottle of ink, some pens, a woman's
thimble, a piece of wax, a case of needles, thread and silk, a piece of
India ink, and a camel's-hair brush, sealing-wax, sticking plaster, a
box of pills, some tape and bobbin, paper of pins, a magnifying glass,
silver pencil case, some money in a purse, black shoe ribbon, and many
other articles which I have forgotten. All I know is that I never was
so much interested ever after at any show as I was with the contents of
this basket, all of which were explained to me by my mother, as to
their uses, and how they were made. There were several little papers at
the bottom of the basket which she said were seeds of plants, which she
had collected to take to England with her, and that we would plant them
here. As she shook the dust out of the basket after it was empty, two
or three white things tumbled out, which she asked me to pick up and
give to her.
"I don't know how they came here," said she, "but three of them are
orange-pips which we will sow to-morrow, and the other is a pea, but of
what kind I know not, we will sow that also--but I fear it will not
come up, as it appears to me to be one of the peas served out to the
sailors on board ship, and will be too old to grow. We can but try. Now
we will put into the chest, with the other things that you have, what
we do not want for present use, and then I can drive a nail into the
side of my bedroom and hang my basket on it."
"But," said I, "this round glass--what is that for?"
"Put it on one side," replied she, "and to-morrow, if it is fine, I
will shew you the use of it; but there are some things we have
forgotten, which are your belt and the other articles you gave me to
take for you when you thought we were to leave the island. They are in
the bed-place opposite to yours."
I brought them, and she put away the mate's watch and sleeve buttons,
and the other trinkets, &c., saying that she would examine the letters
and papers at another time. The belt was examined, counting how many of
the squares had stones in them, and then, with her scissors, she cut
open one of the squares, and took out a white glittering thing like
glass as it appeared to me, and looked at it carefully.
"I am no great judge of these things," said she, "but still I have
picked up some little knowledge. This belt, if it contain all stones
like this, must be of considerable value; now I must get out my needle
and thread and sew it up again." She did, and put the belt away with
the other articles in the chest. "And now," said she, "we have done a
good day's work, and it is time to have something to eat."