The first face I saw when I came to myself was that of my father. He
was bending over me and looking very anxious. I think he had been
crying.
"Better, Tom?" he said softly, as if afraid of making a noise and
frightening me back into unconsciousness--everything seeming to be
strangely still around me!
"Oh, I'm all right," I answered joyfully, much pleased at seeing him.
"Why, how did you come here?" and I tried to get up from the sofa on
which I discovered that I Was lying. But it was only an attempt, for I
fell back again in a heap, feeling pain all over me. It seemed just as
if I had been broken into little pieces and somebody was now separating
the bits!
"Bress de Lor', him 'peak again!" I heard Jake ejaculate, and then I
noticed his black face behind dad's, while there was another gentleman
there too. The latter now took hold of my hand and felt my pulse, I
suppose, although he didn't ask me to put out my tongue, as he generally
did when he came up to Mount Pleasant specially to prescribe for me!
"Hallo, Doctor Martin!" I exclaimed, recognising him. "What's the
matter with me? I can't rise, or move my legs, or do anything."
"You confounded young rascal!" he rejoined in his hearty voice, "a nice
mess you have got yourself into, alarming us all in this way. What do
you mean by galloping down Constitution Hill as if you were after a pack
of foxhounds? It's a mercy you haven't broken every bone in your body."
"Poor Prince isn't hurt, is he?" I asked abruptly, without answering
him directly.
"No, Mass' Tom," eagerly cried out Jake, glad of saying something to me
in order to show his sympathy; "he berry well, no scrape um knees or
nuffin', he--"
"There, that will do," said Doctor Martin, interrupting the flow of the
good-natured darkey's eloquence, "you mustn't agitate Master Tom now;
he's in a very critical state, and any excitement is bad for him. You'd
better go and see after the horses."
"Me no want agg-agg-tate um, Mass' Doctor," pitifully expostulated Jake,
almost blubbering at the accusation of his possibly wanting to do me
harm, "I'se only glad to hear him 'peak again, dat all;" and he went out
of the room quite crest-fallen.
"Oh, doctor!" I cried, but then, all at once, a sort of sick sensation
came over me. Dad and Doctor Martin seemed to be waltzing round me,
with the furniture and everything else following suit, and I fainted
away again, I fancy; although I could hear their whispering voices, as
of people who were far away in the distance. Then, there was a blank.
When I next opened my eyes, strange to say, I was in my own little bed
at home, with my mother sitting by my side.
I felt very weak, and one of my arms was tied up in bandages, while my
other limbs didn't seem to belong to me; but, at first, I had no
recollection of what had happened.
I could not imagine what was the reason for my being laid up like that;
and, seeing my mother there, I fancied for the moment that I had
overslept myself, as was frequently the case, and that she had come to
call me for breakfast.
"Why, mother," I said, "I'm sorry I'm so late."
"You've been ill, Tom," she replied soothingly, without referring to my
laziness as I expected; "I'm glad, though, you're recovering at last."
"Hi!" I exclaimed, much astonished.
"Yes, my dear, very ill," she repeated.
"Dear me! and for how long?" I asked, in wonder still.
"Well, it is more than three weeks since you were brought here, dear;
but take this now, Tom," she added, before telling me anything further,
putting her arm round me and lifting me up in a sitting position, so as
to be better able to swallow something in a wine-glass which she held to
my lips.
"Medicine, eh?" I said, making a wry face.
"Yes, dear, but it doesn't taste badly," she whispered coaxingly.
"Besides, Tom, if you won't take it the doctor says you are not to be
allowed to speak, and of course I shall not be able to answer your
questions."
This settled the point; so I at once tossed off the draught she handed
me, which, although slightly bitter, was not nearly as nasty as I
thought it would have been, having a wholesome horror of doctor's
mixtures. The draught, at all events, put fresh vigour into me. It
certainly gave me strength to speak again as soon as I had gulped it
down, for I was fidgeting to know what had occurred.
"Now, mother," I said, "tell me all about it. I can't be quiet till you
do. Have I had the fever again, or what?"
I may mention in explanation of this question of mine that, the year
before, I had been confined to bed with a sharp attack of a sort of
tertian ague, which is the scourge of most tropical countries. This was
the only illness I had ever suffered from in my young life; so, I
thought now that my old enemy had paid me another visit.
"No, dear, you have not had the fever," she answered. "Do you forget
all about going to town to meet your father, and how your pony threw you
over his head at the foot of Constitution Hill?"
Thereupon the whole thing flashed back upon my mind in an instant.
"But how did I get here?" I inquired, puzzled at this part of the
affair. "I remember now about my tumble, and seeing dad and Doctor
Martin at some place in Saint George's, with old Jake crying behind
them, but I don't recollect anything else."
"My boy," said my mother seriously, her lips trembling as she spoke,
"you've had a very narrow escape from an awful death! Do you know that
had you fallen on your head in the street when Prince pitched you over,
nothing could have saved your life? As it was, you got your left arm
broken and face cut, besides which you have been suffering from a slight
concussion of the brain, Doctor Martin says. It is the latter which has
made you insensible for so long a time. At one time, indeed, we all
despaired of you!"
"Really!" I exclaimed, drawing a long breath of dismay at this
catalogue of my injuries.
"Yes, really, Tom," said she; "it is a wonder to me that you are now
lying here in your right senses again."
"But how did I get home, mother?" I asked, pressing my inquiries so as
to learn every incident of the accident.
"Well, dear, being unconscious, and as moving you could not affect your
head much, Doctor Martin thought you would recover sooner if removed to
the fresh country air of Mount Pleasant than if you were allowed to
remain in the stifling atmosphere of the town. So you were brought up
here, borne on the very sofa on which you were placed when they picked
you up after your fall, four negroes acting as your palanquin bearers."
"Jake was one, I bet!" I here put in, interrupting her. "I am sure he
wouldn't have let anyone else carry me if he could help it."
"Oh, yes, Jake assisted," she said; "and I gave him a fine scolding,
too, afterwards, for allowing you to ride down that hill at such a pace.
It was a mercy you were not killed outright!"
"It wasn't his fault, mother," I interposed at this point. Really, I
was not going to let poor Jake be blamed for my obstinacy! "I made
Prince gallop into the town as hard as I could, in spite of all he could
say, for I was anxious to get down to the wharf before the passengers
had landed from the steamer. I wished to be the first to meet dad."
"And you've found out now, Tom, the truth of the old proverb, `more
haste, worse speed,' eh, my dear?"
"Yes, mother," I said with a laugh, "I never got there at all. But, dad
came all right, for I saw him, you know. Where is he?"
"He'll be here presently," she replied; "he has been very anxious about
you, and has sat up every night with you."
"I'm very sorry," I said; but then, feeling about my face and head with
the solitary hand I was now only able to move, I noticed something
strange. "Why, hullo, mother!" I cried out, "what is the matter with
the top of my head--where is my hair gone? All seems so smooth!"
She couldn't help laughing--I suppose it was at my comical look of
mingled astonishment and perplexity.
"It had to be shaved off when you were delirious, Tom," she said with a
smile; "you feel funny without it, no doubt, but it will soon grow
again, my boy."
"Oh dear, oh dear!" I exclaimed lugubriously; "I suppose I will be bald
and have to wear a wig, like old Mr Bunting! My arm, too, mother,
hurts awfully! and I can't move it at all."
"Never mind, Tom, it might have been worse, you know," she said in her
quiet soothing way. "You ought to thank God for sparing your life,
instead of grumbling at what your own recklessness has produced.
However, my dear boy, you'll soon pull round and be yourself again if
you will only keep quiet and obey all the doctor's directions."
"But, mother, it's a terrible task for me to keep quiet," I cried in
such a serious manner that I made her laugh again.
"No doubt it is," she said, "but you must learn to do it if you wish to
get well again; and, Tom, I can't help reminding you that your being
laid up now has greatly interfered with our plans. Your father wished
to have sold the estate, and for us all to go home to England. Indeed,
but for your accident we would have gone by the last packet."
This was news with a vengeance! It almost made me jump out of bed,
crippled as I was, and my mother had to put her hand on my shoulder to
restrain me.
"What! sell Mount Pleasant?" I ejaculated.
"Yes," she replied.
"And all of us go home together, instead of my being sent to England
alone to school?" I continued.
"That was what your father thought of," said my mother in answer to this
question of mine; "but your illness has made him alter his mind
somewhat, as you will learn when you are able to get up and move about.
You must now, dear, remain quiet, and not excite yourself; otherwise,
your recovery will be retarded and that will worry your father more."
"All right, mother, I promise to be good," I said resolutely, nestling
down amongst the pillows which had been comfortably fixed around me, and
trying to be as still as a mouse. "I will do all that you and the
doctor tells me, if you'll only make me well again."
"That's my brave boy," she murmured softly, smoothing my poor hairless
head with her gentle hand in such a caressing way that it made me feel
drowsy, and in another minute I had dropped off into a sound sleep. I
did not wake again until some hours afterwards, when I was so refreshed
and hungry that I was able to demolish a large basin of jelly-like
chicken broth with some thin toast, which did me much good.
From that time I gradually got better; but my recovery was very slow, on
account of the thorough shaking I had received from my fall, and it was
quite another fortnight before I was able to be moved downstairs and
allowed to sit in the verandah, where the fresh breezes from the sea and
the scent of the flowers on the terrace completed my cure.
For some days even after this, however, I had to keep perfectly quiet,
in accordance with the orders of Doctor Martin, who feared that I had
sustained some injury to my spine in addition to my other contusions.
This suspicion of his turned out, fortunately for me, to be groundless;
but the rest he enjoined was very much out of keeping with my buoyant
and excitable nature, which was fidgety in the extreme.
Still, this period of convalescence was by no means irksome to me on the
whole, for I had plenty wherewith to occupy my attention and my sisters
for companions, little Totty, the youngest, never being so happy as when
with me.
In order the better to amuse me, and make me remain in a recumbent
position, dad rigged up an Indian grass hammock for me beneath the shade
of one of the large silk-cotton trees by the side of the house; and here
I used to swing at my ease for hour after hour, looking at the bright-
coloured humming-birds flitting about and watching the busy "Jack-
Spaniards," as the wild bees or hornets of the tropics are locally
styled, building their clay nests under the eaves of the verandah, just
in the same way as the sand-martens make their habitations at home.
I also read a great deal, for a kind neighbour luckily lent me at this
time a couple of odd volumes of Captain Marryat's works, so that I had
now the pleasure of gloating over the wonderful history of Mr
Midshipman Easy, besides enjoying the strange episodes of Peter Simple's
eventful career. Both of these books were previously unknown to my
boyish ken, and I need hardly say how entrancing I found them. Even
now, after the lapse of so many years, I cannot hear the titles of
either mentioned, without my memory taking me back in a moment to the
garden of my old island home in the West Indies--the very perfume of the
frangipanni and jessamine being almost perceptible to my vivid
imagination, while my fancy pictures the scene around, and my listening
ear catches the faint rustle of the wind through the tops of the cabbage
palms!
Once, I recollect, when lazily rocking to and fro in my hammock, I saw a
large armadillo crawl out from amidst the brushwood under the trees, he
having probably come down from his cave somewhere up in the mountains
for change of air. This animal is something like a tortoise, only ever
so much bigger; and as the negroes esteem them very good eating, saying
they are better than turtle, I at once gave Jake a hail to let him know
of the arrival of the strange visitor, when my darkey hastened speedily
to the spot, securing the armadillo without much difficulty. Jake was
all the more delighted with his prize from the fact that my accident had
prevented me from going manacou hunting with him as I had promised. He
argued that the armadillo would serve as a set-off to Pompey's iguana,
which had been constantly "thrown in his teeth," as it were, ever since
his rival had killed it in my presence, the one capture neutralising the
other.
It may be wondered that I introduce all these little details of my
illness and subsequent recovery, but, "there's a reason in everything,
even in the roasting of eggs," says the proverb; and, when it is
considered that, had it not been for my accident, dad and mother with my
sisters and myself would all have gone to England in the mail steamer
together, instead of my essaying the voyage alone in a sailing ship,
these incidents are naturally relevant, quite apart from the strong
impression they made upon me at the time, as but for what occurred I
should have nothing of any importance to tell with reference to my
subsequent adventures when alone on the Atlantic.
However, to make a long story short, I may briefly state that, after a
pretty long interval of lying still, Doctor Martin said one day that I
might get up and move about; when the change from inaction to action had
such an improving effect on me that, within a very short space, I was
myself again--although, perhaps, a much paler and thinner sort of Tom
Eastman than "the young rascal," as the doctor persisted in naming me,
"who tried to break his neck by galloping down Constitution Hill, but
couldn't because it was so tough!"
All this while, dad had said nothing to me either about selling the
estate or of my going home to school; but one morning when I was able
again to mount on the back of poor Prince, who had grown quite fat
during his long stay in the stable, he told me that I might accompany
him, if I liked, to Grenville Bay, on the other side of the island. Dad
said that there was a large merchant vessel lying off there, loading
sugar from one of the plantations, and he wished to consult the captain
about sending home some bags of cocoa in her. He added, that we would
probably have to go off to her in a boat.
This was about a week after the doctor had released me from my hammock-
prison; so, as I had not as yet had a canter on Prince since my unlucky
escapade, it may be imagined with what delight I prepared for the
excursion, as, independently of the pleasure of a long country ride with
dad, who was one of the jolliest companions anybody could be out with, I
had never been on board a real ship before. I had frequently observed
vessels at a distance from the shore, when anchored in the Carenage, as
the harbour of Saint George is called, or else sailing round the coast
inwards or outwards bound, but had never inspected one closely.
"Golly, Mass' Tom, dis sight am good for sore eyes!" cried Jake,
laughing from ear to ear with joy at seeing me well again. "Me nebber
fought you ebber lift leg ober Prince again!"
"Oh, I'm all right," I said gleefully, jumping into the saddle in my old
style, the pony going off instanter at a canter in his customary way.
"Take care, Tom, take care!" cried my mother after me anxiously; so, to
ease her alarm at my venturing too much for one who had so recently been
an invalid, I reined in Prince, and as soon as dad had mounted Dandy, we
started away at a steady jog-trot, Jake following up close behind the
heels of the horses, with which he could at any time keep pace when put
to it, even when we went at a gallop.
Dear me! I shall never forget that ride.
Part of our way was past a wide stretching extent of primeval forest
that clothed the mountain-side with green. Here were wonderful
specimens of trees, some of which would rival the oaks of England--aye,
even those in Windsor great park! There was the sandbox, whose seeds
are contained in an oval pod about the size of a penny roll; which when
dry bursts like a shell, scattering its missiles about in every
direction; the iron-wood tree, which turns the edge of any axe, and can
only be brought low by fire; the caoutchouc-tree with its broad leaves
and milk-white sap, the original source from which all our waterproof
garments are made. Besides these were a host of others, such as the
avocado pear, soursop, sapodilla, and sapota, all of which, in addition
to their size and grand appearance, bear excellent fruit. But it would
have puzzled anyone to explore this almost impenetrable forest growth
without the aid of a cutlass to clear the path; for, tall vines, like
ship's cordage, hung from the limbs of the trees and knitted their
branches together in the most inextricable fashion, the lianas rooting
themselves down into the earth and then springing up again for fresh
entanglements, in the same way as the banyan-tree of India spreads
itself.
This was the outlook from one side only of our route. On the other were
to be seen patches of sugar-cane, planted with almost mathematical
regularity and looking like so many fields of some gigantic species of
wheat; green plantations of cocoa, with their ripe yellow fruit showing
out between the leaves, similar to that of ours at Mount Pleasant; and
several detached gardens, where the negro squatters were cultivating
their yams and tanias, or else preparing their farina for cassava from
the root of the manioc plant. The process consisted in first squeezing
out, by means of an old sack and a heavy stone for a press, the viscid
juice, which is a strong poison--the same, indeed, with which the Caribs
used to tip their arrows in the old days of the aborigines--and then
baking the flour on a griddle over a charcoal fire.
Passing through this varied scenery on either hand, our road led
presently downwards through a series of valleys, clothed with vegetation
and smiling in flowers. We crossed now and again some little stream
rippling along over its pebbly bed, wherein were crawfish and tiny
things like whitebait playing amongst the water-cresses that grew over
the banks; until, at last, we reached a wide horse-shoe bay facing the
wide blue sea, that stretched out to the distant horizon, laving its
silver sand with happy little waves that seemed to chuckle with a murmur
of pleasure as they washed the shore in rhythmical cadence.
There was but a single vessel here, and she was riding at anchor out in
the offing some two miles from land, looking quite lonesome by herself
in the distance.
She was a barque of some four or five hundred tons, with a broad, bluff-
bowed hull that rose well out of the water on account of her not having
completed loading her cargo. There was a long row of white ports along
her side; and, as she rolled with the motion of the ground-swell, now
setting inshore with the wind, she showed her bright copper sheathing
almost to her keel.
"Is that the ship, dad?" I asked my father, gazing at her with longing
eyes and wondering how we were to reach her.
"Yes, Tom, that's the vessel I told you of, and we must now see about
getting aboard if we can," said he, preparing to dismount from his
horse, whose bridle Jake had already taken hold of.
"And what's her name, dad?" I then inquired, jumping down from Prince's
back as I spoke and giving the reins also in charge of our darkey groom.
"The _Josephine_ of London," he replied in regular ship-shape fashion;
"Captain Miles, master and part owner."