MOTHER CARY’S CHICKENS--FISHING FOR TROUT--SAW-FISH--FRANK AND THE
SHARK---LOOMING---TOM STARBOARD--THE NAUTILUS--ARRIVAL AT TAMPA
Mary and Frank were affected with sea sickness shortly after entering
the rough and rolling water on the bar, and having, in consequence,
retired early to bed, they scarcely rose for six and thirty hours.
Indeed, all the passengers, except Harold, suffered in turn this usual
inconvenience of persons unaccustomed to the sea.
The only incident of interest that occurred during this part of the
voyage, was a fright received by Mary and Frank. It was as follows:
Having partially recovered from their indisposition, they were engaged
with childish glee in fishing from the stern windows. Directly over
head hung the jolly boat, and beneath them the water foamed and eddied
round the rudder. Mary was fishing for Mother Cary’s chickens--a
species of "poultry" well known to those who go to sea. Her apparatus
consisted of a strong thread, twenty or thirty yards long, having divers
loops upon it, and baited at the end with a little tuft of red. She had
not succeeded in taking any; but one, more daring than the rest, had
become entangled in the thread, and Mary eagerly drew it towards her,
exclaiming, "I have caught it! I have caught it!" Ere, however, she
could bring it within arm’s length, the struggling bird had escaped.
Frank had obtained a large fish-hook, which he tied to a piece of twine,
and baited with some raw beef; and he was fishing, he said, for _trout_.
A few minutes after Mary’s adventure with the bird, he saw a great fish,
twice as long as himself, having an enormous snout, set on both sides
with a multitude of sharp teeth, following in the vessel’s wake. He
drew himself quickly into the window, exclaiming, "Look, sister, look!"
The fish did not continue long to follow them. It seemed to have come
on a voyage of curiosity, and having satisfied itself that this great
swimming monster, the vessel, was neither whale nor kraken, it darted
off and returned no more.
"I should not like to hook _that_ fellow," said Frank, "for I am sure I
could not draw him in."
"No," replied Mary, "and I should not like to have such an ugly fellow
on board, if we could get him here."
"Ugh! what a long ugly nose he has," said Frank. "I wonder what he can
do with such a nose, and with all those teeth on the outside of it--only
see, sister, _teeth on his_ NOSE!"
"I do not know," she answered, "but we can ask father when we go on
deck."
"I think his nose must be long to smell things a great way off,"
conjectured Frank.
Thus they chatted until Mary called out, "See, Frank, there is a black
piece of wood sticking out of the water. See how it floats after us!
No, it cannot be a piece of wood, for it swims from side to side. It
must be a fish. It is! Draw in your head, Frank."
Unsuccessful in his trout fishing, Frank had attached a red silk
handkerchief to his line, and was amusing himself with letting it down
so as to touch along the water. When Mary said "it is a fish," he espied
an enormous creature, much larger than the sawfish, swimming almost
under him, and looking up hungrily to the window where they were. A
moment after it leaped directly towards them. Both screamed with
terror, and Frank’s wrist was jerked so violently, and pained him so
much, that he was certain his hand had been bitten off. He was about to
scream again; but looking down, he found his hand was safe, and the next
moment saw the fish swimming away with the end of the handkerchief
hanging from its mouth. The fish was a shark. It had been attracted
probably by the smell of Frank’s bait, and by the sight of the red silk.
When he drew his handkerchief from the water, the fish leaped after it,
and jerked the twine which had been wrapped around his wrist. From that
time they ceased all fishing from the cabin windows.
The history of that fishing, however, was not yet ended. On the day
following the company were much interested in watching a singular
phenomenon, which is sometimes visible at sea, though seldom in a
latitude so low as Florida. The looming of the land had been remarkably
distinct and beautiful; at one time the land looked as if lifted far
above the water; at another the shore was seen doubled, as if the water
were a perfect reflector, and the land and its shadow were united at the
base. But, on the present occasion, the shadow appeared in the wrong
place--united to its substance, not at the base, but at the top. It was
a most singular spectacle to behold trees growing topsy-turvy, from land
in the sky.
The sailors, as well as passengers, looked on with a curiosity not
unmixed with awe, and an old "salt" was heard to mutter, as he ominously
shook his head,
"I never seed the likes of that but something was sure to come after.
Yes," he continued, looking sullenly at Mary and Frank, "and yesterday,
when I was at the starn, I saw a chicken flutter in a string."
"A chicken, Tom?" inquired the captain, looking at the little culprits.
"Ah, have any of my young friends been troubling the sailor’s pets?"
"No, sir," responded Frank, promptly and indignantly. "We did not
trouble anybody’s chickens. I only went to the coop, and pulled the old
drake’s tail; but I did that to make him look at the bread I brought
him."
"I do not mean the chickens on board, but the chickens that fly around
us--Mother Cary’s chickens," said the captain, trying hard to smother
down a laugh. "Don’t you know that they all belong to the sailors; and
that whoever troubles them is sure to bring trouble on the ship?"
"No, sir," Frank persisted, evidently convinced that the captain was
trying to tease him. "I did not know that they belonged to anybody. I
thought that they were all wild."
Mary, however, looked guilty. She knew well the sailor’s superstition
about the "chickens," but having had at that time nothing to do, she had
been urged on by an irrepressible desire for fun, and until this moment
had imagined that her fishing was unnoticed. She timidly answered,
"I did not _catch_ it, sir; I only tangled it in the thread, and it got
away before I touched it."
"Well, Tom," said the captain to the sailor, who seemed to be in doubt
after Frank’s defence whether to appear pleased or angry, "I think you
will have to forgive the offence this time, especially as the sharks
took it in hand so soon to revenge the insult, and ran away with the
little fellow’s handkerchief."
Old Tom smiled grimly at the allusion to the shark; for he had been
sitting quietly in the jolly boat picking rope, and had witnessed the
whole adventure.
The wind, which had continued favourable ever since they left
Charleston, now gradually died away. The boatswain whistled often and
shrilly to bring it back; but it was like "calling spirits from the
vasty deep." The sails hung listlessly down, and moved only as the
vessel rocked sluggishly upon the scarce undulating surface. The only
circumstance which enlivened this scene was the appearance of a
nautilus, or Portuguese man-of-war. Mary was the first to discern it.
She fancied that it was a tiny toy boat, launched by some child on
shore, and wafted by the wind to this distant point. It was certainly a
toy vessel, though one of nature’s workmanship; for there was the
floating body corresponding to the hull, there the living passenger,
there the sails spread or furled at will, and there the oars (Mary could
see them move) by which the little adventurer paddled itself along.
The young people were very anxious to obtain it. Frank went first to old
Tom Starboard (as the sailor was called who had scolded him and Mary,
but who was now on excellent terms with both) to ask whether they might
have the nautilus if they could catch it.
"Have the man-o’-war!" ejaculated the old man, opening wide his eyes,
"who ever heered of sich a thing? O yes, have it, if you can get it; but
how will you do that?"
"Brother Robert and cousin Harold will row after it and pick it up, if
the captain will let them have his boat."
Tom chuckled at the idea, and said he doubted not the captain would let
them have his boat, and be glad, too, to see the fun. Frank then went
to the captain, and told him that old Tom had given him leave to have
the man-of-war if he could get it; and that his brother and cousin would
go out and pick it up, if the captain would let them have his boat.
With a good-natured smile, he answered,
"You are perfectly welcome to the boat, my little man; but if your
brother and cousin catch that little sailor out there, they will be much
smarter than most folks."
"Can they not pick it up?"
"Easily enough, if it will wait till they come. But if they do not wish
to be hurt, they had better take a basket or net for dipping it from the
water."
Frank went finally to his father to obtain his consent, which after a
moment’s hesitation was granted, the doctor well knowing what the
probable result would be, yet pleased to afford them any innocent
amusement by which to enliven their voyage.
"Tom," said the captain, "lower away the jolly boat, and do you go with
these young gentlemen. Row softly as you can, and give them the best
chance for getting what they want."
The boat was soon alongside. Old Tom slid down by a rope, but Robert
and Harold were let down more securely. They shoved off from the
vessel’s side, and glided so noiselessly along, that the water was
scarcely rippled. Harold stood in the bow, and Robert amidships, one
with a basket, and the other with a scoop net, ready to dip it from the
water. A cat creeping upon a shy bird could not have been more stealthy
in its approach. But somehow the little sensitive thing became aware of
its danger, and ere the boat’s prow had come within ten feet, it quickly
drew in its many arms, and sank like lead beyond their sight.
"Umph!" said old Tom, with an expressive grunt, "I said you might have
it, if you could catch it."
On the first day of September the voyagers approached some placid
looking islands, tasselled above with lofty palmettoes, and varied
beneath with every hue of green, from the soft colour of the mallow to
the sombre tint of the cedar and the glossy green of the live oak.
Between these islands the vessel passed, so near to one that they could
see a herd of deer peeping at them through the thin growth of the bluff,
and a flock of wild turkeys flying to a distant grove.
Beyond the islands lay, in perfect repose, the waters of that bay whose
tranquil beauty has been a theme of admiration with every one whose
privilege it has been to look upon it.