A TEMPERANCE LARK
As Mrs. Cliff sat and talked with George Burke, she forgot the
calculations she had been making, she forgot her perplexities and her
anxieties concerning the rapid inroads which her income was making upon
her ability to dispose of it, in the recollection of the
good-fellowships which the presence of her companion recalled.
But Mr. Burke could give her no recent news of Captain Horn and Edna,
she having heard from them later than he had; and the only one of the
people of the _Castor_ of whom he could tell her was Edward Shirley, who
had gone into business.
He had bought a share in a shipyard, and, as he was a man who had a
great idea about the lines of a vessel, and all that sort of thing, he
had determined to put his money into that business. He was a long-headed
fellow, and Burke had no doubt but that he would soon hear of some fine
craft coming from the yard of his old shipmate.
"But how about yourself, Mr. Burke? I want to know what has happened to
you, and what you intend doing, and how you chanced to be coming this
way."
"Oh, I will tell you everything that has happened to me," said Mr.
Burke, "and it won't take long; but first let me ask you something, Mrs.
Cliff?" and as he spoke he quietly rose and shut the parlor door.
"Now then," said he, as he seated himself, "we have all been in the same
box, or, I should say, in the same boxes of different kinds, and
although I may not have the right to call myself a friend, I am just as
friendly to you as if I was, and feel as if people who have been through
what we have ought to stand by each other even after they've got through
their hardest rubs.
"Now, Mrs. Cliff, has anything happened to you? Have you had any
set-backs? I know that this is a mighty queer world, and that even the
richest people can often come down with a sudden thump just as if they
had slipped on the ice."
Mrs. Cliff smiled. "Nothing has happened to me," she said. "I have had
no set-backs, and I am just as rich to-day,--I should say a great deal
richer, than I was on the day when Captain Horn made the division of the
treasure. But I know very well why you thought something had happened to
me. You did not expect to find me living in this little house."
"No, by the Lord Harry, I didn't!" exclaimed Burke, slapping his knee.
"You must excuse me, Mrs. Cliff, for speaking out in that way, but
really I never was so much surprised as when I came into your front
yard. I thought I would find you in the finest house in the place until
you could have a stately mansion built somewhere in the outskirts of the
town, where there would be room enough for a park. But when I came to
this house, I couldn't help thinking that perhaps some beastly bank had
broke, and that your share of the golden business had been swept away.
Things like that do happen to women, you know, and I suppose they always
will; but I am mighty glad to hear you are all right!
"But, as you have asked me to tell you my story, I will make short work
of it, and then I would like to hear what has happened to you, as much
as you please to tell me about it.
"Now, when I got my money, Mrs. Cliff, which, when compared to what your
share must have been, was like a dory to a three-mast schooner, but
still quite enough for me, and, perhaps, more than enough if a public
vote could be taken on the subject, I was in Paris, a jolly place for a
rich sailor, and I said to myself,--
"'Now, Mr. Burke,' said I, for I might as well begin by using good
manners, 'the general disposition of a sea-faring man with a lot of
money is to go on a lark, or, perhaps, a good many larks, and so get rid
of it and then ship again before the mast for fourteen dollars per
month, or thereabouts.'
"But I made up my mind right there on the spot that that sort of thing
wouldn't suit me. The very idea of shipping again on a merchant vessel
made the blood run cold inside of me, and I swore to myself that I
wouldn't do it.
"To be sure, I wouldn't give up all notion of a lark. A sailor with
money,--and I don't believe there ever was an able-bodied seaman with
more money than I had,--who doesn't lark, at least to some degree, has
no right to call himself a whole-souled mariner; so I made up my mind to
have one lark and then stop."
Mrs. Cliff's countenance clouded. "I am sorry, Mr. Burke," said she,
"that you thought it necessary to do that. I do hope you didn't go on
one of those horrible--sprees, do they call them?"
"Oh no!" interrupted Burke, "I didn't do anything of that kind. If I'd
begun with a bottle, I'd have ended with nothing but a cork, and a badly
burnt one at that. No ma'am! drinking isn't in my line. I don't take
anything of that sort except at meals, and then only the best wine in
genteel quantities. But I was bound to have one lark, and then I would
stop and begin to live like a merchant-tailor, with no family nor poor
relations."
"But what did you do?" asked Mrs. Cliff. "If it was a lark without
liquor, I want to hear about it."
"It was a temperance lark, ma'am," said Burke, "and this is what it was.
"Now, though I have been to sea ever since I was a boy, I never had
command of any kind of craft, and it struck me that I would like to
finish up my life on the ocean wave by taking command of a vessel. It
is generally understood that riches will give you anything you want, and
I said to myself that my riches should give me that. I didn't want a
sailin' vessel. I was tired of sailin' vessels. I wanted a steamer, and
when I commanded a steamer for a little while I would stop short and be
a landsman for the rest of my life.
"So I went up to Brest, where I thought I might find some sort of
steamer which might suit me, and in that harbor I did find an English
steamer, which had discharged her cargo and was expectin' to sail again
pretty much in ballast and brandy, so far as I could make out. I went to
this vessel and I made an offer to her captain to charter her for an
excursion of one week--that was all I wanted.
"Well, I'm not going to bother you, Mrs. Cliff, with all that was said
and done about this little business, which seemed simple enough, but
which wasn't. There are people in this world who think that if you have
money you can buy anything you want, but such people might as well get
ready to change their opinions if they ever expect to come into money."
"That is true," said Mrs. Cliff; "every word of it is true, as I have
found out for myself!"
"Well," continued Burke, "there had to be a lot of telegraphin' to the
owners in London and a general fuss with the officers of the port about
papers, and all that, but I got the business through all right; for if
money won't get you everything, it's a great help in making things slip
along easy. And so one fine afternoon I found myself on board that
steamer as commander for one week.
"Of course, I didn't want to give orders to the crew, but I intended to
give my orders to the captain, and tell him what he was to do and what
he was not to do for one week. He didn't like that very much, for he was
inclined to bulldogism, but I paid him extra wages, and he agreed to
knuckle under to me.
"So I gave him orders to sail out of the harbor and straight to the
Island of Ushant, some twenty-five miles to the west of northwest.
"'There's no use going there,' said the captain,--his name was
Dork,--'there's nothing on that blasted bit of rock for you to see.
There's no port I could run this steamer into.'
"I had been studying out my business on the chart, and this little
island just suited my idea, and though the name was 'Ushant,' I said to
him, 'You shall,' and I ordered him to sail to that island and lay to a
mile or two to the westward; and as to the landing, he needn't talk
about that until I mentioned it myself.
"So when we got about a couple of miles to the west of Ushant, we lay
to. Now I knew we were on the forty-eighth parallel of latitude, for I
had looked that out on the chart, so I said to Captain Dork,--
"'Now, sir!' says I, 'I want you to head your vessel, sir, due west, and
then to steam straight ahead for a hundred miles, keepin' your vessel
just as near as you can on that line of latitude.'"
"I see!" said Mrs. Cliff, very much interested. "If he once got on that
line of latitude and kept sailing west without turning one way or the
other, he would be bound to keep on it."
"That's exactly it!" said Mr. Burke. "'Twas pretty near midnight when we
started off to run along the forty-eighth parallel, but I kept my eyes
on the man at the wheel and on the compass, and I let them know that
that ship was under the command of an able-bodied seaman who knew what
he was about, and if they skipped to one side of that line or to the
other he would find it out in no time.
"I went below once to take a nap, but, as I promised the fellow at the
wheel ten shillings if he would keep her head due west, and told him he
would be sure to wake me up if he didn't, I felt certain we wouldn't
skip the line of latitude.
"Well, that steamer, which was called the _Duke of Dorchester_, and
which was a vessel of not more than a thousand tons, wasn't much of a
sailer, or perhaps they was saving coal, I don't know which, and, not
knowing how much coal ought to be used, I kept my mouth shut on that
point; but I had the log thrown a good deal, and I found that we never
quite came up to ten knots an hour, and when we took an observation at
noon the next day, we saw that we hadn't quite done the hundred miles;
but a little before one o'clock we did it, and then I ordered the
captain to stop the engine and lay to.
"There was a brig about a mile away, and when she saw us layin' to, she
put about and made for us, and when she was near enough she hailed to
know if anything was the matter. She was a French brig, but Captain Dork
understood her, and I told him to bid her 'Good morning,' and to tell
her that nothin' was the matter, but that we were just stoppin' to rest.
I don't know what he did tell her, but she put about her helm and was
off again on her own business.
"'Now,' said I to Captain Dork, 'I want you to back this steamer due
east to the Island of Ushant.'
"He looked at me and began to swear. He took me for a maniac,--a wild,
crazy man, and told me the best thing I could do would be to go below
and turn in, and he would take me back to my friends, if I had any.
"I didn't want to tell him what I was up to, but I found I had to, and
so I explained to him that I was a rich sailor takin' a lark, and the
lark I wanted to take was, to sail on a parallel of latitude a hundred
miles in a steamer, and then to back that steamer along that same
parallel to the place where she started from. I didn't believe that
there was ever a ship in the world that had done that, and bein' on a
lark, I wanted to do it, and was willin' to pay for it; and if his
engineers and his crew grumbled about backing the steamer for a hundred
miles, he could explain to them how the matter stood, and tell them that
bein' on a lark I was willin' to pay for all extra trouble I might put
them to, and for any disturbances in their minds which might rise from
sailin' a vessel in a way which didn't seem to be accordin' to the
ordinary rules of navigation.
"Now, when Captain Dork knew that I was a rich sailor on a lark, he
understood me, and he made no more objections, though he said he
wouldn't have spent his money in that way; and when he told his crew and
his engineers and men about the extra pay, they understood the matter,
and they agreed to back her along the forty-eighth parallel just as nigh
as they could until they lay to two miles west of Ushant.
"So back we went, and they kept her due east just as nigh as they could,
and they seemed to take an interest in it, as if all of them wanted me
to have as good a lark as I could for my money, and we didn't skip that
parallel very much, although it wasn't an easy job, I can tell you, to
keep her head due west and her stern due east, and steam backwards. They
had to rig up the compass abaft the wheel, and do some other things that
you wouldn't understand, madam, such as running a spar out to stern to
take sight by."
"I declare," said Mrs. Cliff, "that sort of sailing must have astonished
any ship that saw it. Did you meet any other vessels?"
"Oh yes," said Burke. "After daybreak we fell in with a good many sail
and some steamers, and most of them ran close and hailed us, but there
wasn't any answer to give them, except that we were returning to port
and didn't want no help; but some of the skippers of the smaller crafts
were so full of curiosity that they stuck to us, and when we arrived off
Ushant, which wasn't until nearly dark the next day, the _Duke of
Dorchester_ had a convoy of five sloops, two schooners, a brig, eight
pilot boats, and four tugs."
Although Mr. Burke had said that he was going to make very short work
with his story, it had already occupied a good deal of time, and he was
not half through with it; but Mrs. Cliff listened with the greatest
interest, and the rich sailor went on with his recital of adventures.
"Now, when I had finished scoring that forty-eighth parallel backward
and forward for a hundred miles, I took out my purse and I paid that
captain and all the crew what I promised to give them, and then we
steamed back to Brest, where I told him to drop anchor and make himself
comfortable.
"I stayed on board for a day and a night just to get my fill feeling I
was in command of a steamer, before I gave up a sea-faring life forever.
I threw up the rest of the week that I was entitled to and went ashore,
and my lark was over.
"I went to England and took passage for home, and I had a first-class
state-room, and laid in a lot of good clothes before I started. I don't
think I ever had greater comfort in my life than sittin' on deck,
smokin' a good cigar, and watchin' the able-bodied seamen at their work.
"I hope I'm not tiring you, madam, but I'm trying to cut things as short
as I can. It's often said that a sailor is all at sea when he is on
shore, but I was a country fellow before I was a sailor, and land doings
come naturally to me when I fix my mind on them.
"I'd made up my mind I was going to build my mother a house on Cape Cod,
but when I got home I thought it better to buy her one already built,
and that's what I did, and I stayed there with her a little while, but I
didn't like it. I'd had a notion of having another house near my
mother's, but I gave up that. There's too much sea about Cape Cod.
"Now, she liked it, for she's a regular sailor's mother, but I couldn't
feel that I was really a rich fellow livin' ashore until I got out of
hearin' of the ocean, and out of smellin' of salt and tar, so I made up
my mind that I'd go inland and settle somewhere on a place of my own,
where I might have command of some sort of farm.
"I didn't know just exactly what I wanted, nor just exactly where I
wanted to go, so I thought it best to look around a little and hold
council with somebody or other. I couldn't hold council with my mother,
because she wanted me to buy a ship and take command of her. And then I
thought of Captain Horn, and goin' to ask him. But the captain is a
great man--"
"Indeed he is!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. "We all know that!"
"But he is off on his own business," continued Burke, "and what sort of
a princely concern he's got on hand I don't know. Anyway, he wouldn't
want me followin' him about and botherin' him, and so I thought of
everybody I could, and at last it struck me that there wasn't anybody
better than you, Mrs. Cliff, to give me the points I wanted, for I
always liked you, Mrs. Cliff, and I consider you a woman of good sense
down to the keel. And, as I heard you were livin' in sort of a country
place, I thought you'd be the very person that I could come and talk to
and get points.
"I felt a hankerin', anyway, after some of the old people of the
_Castor_; for, after having had all that money divided among us, it made
me feel as if we belonged to the same family. I suppose that was one
reason why I felt a sort of drawing to you, you know. Anyway, I knew
where you lived, and I came right here, and arrived this morning. After
I'd taken a room at the hotel, I asked for your house and came straight
here."
"And very glad am I to see you, Mr. Burke!" said Mrs. Cliff, speaking
honestly from the bottom of her heart.
She had not known Burke very well, but she had always looked upon him as
a fine, manly sailor; and now that he had come to her, she was conscious
of the family feeling which he had spoken of, and she was very glad to
see him.
She saw that Burke was very anxious to know why she was living in a
plain fashion in this unpretentious house, but she found it would be
very difficult to explain the matter to him. Hers was not a
straightforward tale, which she could simply sit and tell, and,
moreover, although she liked Burke and thought it probable that he was a
man of a very good heart, she did not believe that he was capable of
advising her in the perplexities which her wealth had thrown about her.
Still, she talked to him and told him what she thought she could make
him properly understand, and so, from one point to another, she went on
until she had given the ex-sailor a very good idea of the state of her
mind in regard to what she was doing, and what she thought she ought to
do.
When Mrs. Cliff had finished speaking, Burke thrust his hands into his
pockets, leaned back in his chair, and looked at the ceiling of the
room, the walls, and the floor. He wanted to say something, but he was
not prepared to do so. His mind, still nautical, desired to take an
observation and determine the latitude and longitude of Mrs. Cliff, but
the skies were very much overcast.
At this moment Willy Croup knocked at the parlor door, and when Mrs.
Cliff went to her, she asked if the gentleman was going to stay to
dinner.
Mrs. Cliff was surprised. She had no idea it was so late, but she went
back to Mr. Burke and urged him to stay to dinner. He consented
instantly, declaring that this was the first time that anybody, not his
mother, had asked him to dinner since he came into his fortune.
When Mrs. Cliff had excused herself to give some directions about the
meal, Burke walked about the parlor, carefully examining everything in
it. When he had finished his survey, he sat down and shook his head.
"The trouble with her is," he said to himself, "that she's so dreadfully
afraid of running ashore that she will never reach any port, that's
what's the matter!"
When Mrs. Cliff returned, she asked her visitor if he would like to see
her house, and she showed him over it with great satisfaction, for she
had filled every room with all the handsome and appropriate things she
could get into it. Burke noticed everything, and spoke with approbation
of many things, but as he walked behind his hostess, he kept shaking his
head.
He went down to dinner, and was introduced to Willy Croup, who had been
ordered to go and dress herself that she might appear at the meal. He
shook hands with her very cordially, and then looked all around the
little dining-room, taking in every feature of its furnishing and
adornment. When he had finished, he would have been glad to shake his
head again, but this would have been observed.
When the dinner came on, however, Mr. Burke had no desire to shake his
head. It was what might have been called a family dinner, but there was
such a variety, such an abundance, everything was so admirably cooked,
and the elderberry wine, which was produced in his honor, was so much
more rich and fragrant to his taste than the wines he had had at hotels,
that Mr. Burke was delighted.
Now he felt that in forming an opinion as to Mrs. Cliff's manner of
living he had some grounds to stand upon. "What she wants," thought he,
"is all the solid, sensible comfort her money can give her, and where
she knows what she wants, she gets it; but the trouble seems to be that
in most things she doesn't know what she wants!"
When Mr. Burke that afternoon walked back to the hotel, wrapped in his
fur-trimmed coat and carefully puffing a fine Havana cigar, he had
entirely forgotten his own plans and purposes in life, and was engrossed
in those of Mrs. Cliff.