Uncle Joe came and spent Christmas with us last year; a fine, dry,
mahogany-visaged old man-o'-war's-man as ever hitched up his trousers,
and called it, "hauling in slack."
"Forty-five years' boy and man, I've been a sailor," he'd say; "rated
AB, I am; and AB I hope to keep till I'm sewed up in my hammock and sent
overboard; for none of your rotting in harbour for me, thanky."
Uncle Joe ran away to sea when quite a boy, and he had served enough
years in the Royal Navy to have been an admiral, but what with our
scheme of promotion, and some want of ability on the old fellow's part,
he was a first-rate able seaman, but he never got a step farther. One
can always picture him in his blue trousers and loose guernsey, with its
wide turn-down collar, his cap set right back on his head, and the name
of his ship on the band, in gilt letters, while his big clasp-knife hung
by the white lanyard round his waist. Clean, neat, and active, the
sinewy old chap came rolling in after my father; neck open, eyes bright,
and face shining and good-humoured.
"Cold, cold, cold," said my father, entering the room where we were
clustered round the fire. "Freezes sharp; and, bless my heart, there's
a great ball of snow sticking to my boot," saying which, the old
gentleman, who had just been round the farmyard for the last time that
night, went back into the passage and rubbed off the snow, while Uncle
Joe, chuckling and laughing, walked up to the fireplace and scraped his
shoes on the front bar, so that the pieces of hard snow began sputtering
and cissing as they fell in the fire.
"Cold?" said Uncle Joe, filling his pipe, and then shutting his brass
tobacco-box with a snap; "Cold? 'taint cold a bit, no more nor that's
hot," and then, stooping down, he thrust a finger and thumb in between
the bottom bars, caught hold of a piece of glowing coal and laid it upon
the bowl of his pipe, which means soon ignited the tobacco within. "My
hands are hard enough for anything," he growled, taking the place made
for him beside the fire, when he tucked his cap beneath the chair, and
then took one leg upon his knee, and nursed it as he smoked for awhile
in silence.
"Now, come, Christmas-night," cried my father, "and you're all as quiet
as so many mice. What's it to be, Joe--the old thing?"
"Well, yes," growled my uncle; "I won't say no to a tot o' grog," and
then he smoked on abstractedly, while my father mixed for the wanderer
whom he had not seen for five years.
"Wish to goodness I'd brought a hammock," said my uncle, at last. "I
did try whether I couldn't lash the curtains together last night, but
they're too weak."
"I should think so, indeed," exclaimed my mother. "That chintz, too.
How can you be so foolish, Joe?"
My uncle smoked on, apparently thinking with great disgust of the
comfortably-furnished bedroom in which he had to sleep, as compared with
the main-deck of his frigate.
"But 'taint cold," he all at once burst out.
"Three or four degrees of frost, at all events," said my father.
"Pooh; what's that?" said my uncle. "That's hot weather, that is. How
should you like to sleep where yours and your mate's breath all turns
into a fall of snow, and comes tumbling on to you? How should you like
to nibble your rum as if it was sugar-candy, and never touch nothing of
iron for fear of burning your fingers like, and leaving all the skin
behind? This ain't cold."
"Here, draw round close," cried my father; "throw on another log or two,
and Uncle Joe will spin you a yarn."
The fire was replenished, and as the many-hued flames leaped and danced,
and the sparks flew up the chimney, every face was lit up with the
golden glow. The wind roared round the house, and sung in the chimney,
but the red curtains were closely-drawn, the table was well spread with
those creature comforts so oft seen at the genial season, and closing
tightly in--chair against chair--we all watched for the next opening of
Uncle Joe's oracular lips. And we had not long to wait; for, taking his
pipe out of his mouth, he began to point with the stem, describe
circles, and flourish it oratorically, as he once more exclaimed--
"'Taint cold; not a bit! How should you like to spend Christmas up
close aside the North Pole?"
No one answering with anything further than a shiver, the old tar went
on:--
"I can't spin yarns, I can't, for I allus gets things in a tangle and
can't find the ends again, but I'll tell you about going up after Sir
John Franklin."
"Hear, hear!" said my father, and Uncle Joe tasted his grog, and then
winked very solemnly at my father, as much as to say "That's it exact."
"Little more rum?" hinted my father. Uncle Joe winked with his other
eye and shook his head and went on:--
"You see, ours was a strong-built ship, fitted out on purpose for the
North seas, and what we had to do was to go right up as far nor'ard as
we could get, and leave depots of preserved meats, and spirits, and
blankets, and pemmican, and all sorts of necessaries, at different
places where it was likely that the party might reach; and to mark these
spots we had to build up cairns of stones, so that they might be seen.
Well, we'd got as far as our captain thought it prudent to go, for we
were back'ard in the year, in consequence of the ice having been very
late before it broke up that year, and hindering us a good deal; and now
that we had landed all as was necessary, and built up the last cairn,
the captain says to the officers, he says, `We'll go back now, or we
shall be shut in for the winter.'
"'Twasn't so late in the autumn, and no doubt you were having nice warm
weather, but things began looking precious winterly round about us.
Great icebergs were floating about, and fogs would hang round them.
Snowstorms would come on, with snow with such sharp edges that it would
seem a'most to cut your ears off. The shrouds and clews and sheets
would be all stiff and covered with ice, while, as to the sails, they
were like so much board, and it got to be tough work up aloft.
"`Cold this here,' I says to a shipmet. `Pooh,' he says, `this ain't
nothing yet.' Nor more it warn't nothing at all; and there we were
going along as well as we could, with double lookouts, and plenty of
need for them to use their eyes, for we might have been crash on to an
iceberg ten times over. Captain used to shake his head and look
serious, and enough to make him, with all his responsibility, and all of
us looking up to him to take care of us; and last of all we seemed to be
right in the thick of it, with the ice-pack all around, and ice and
snow, ice and snow everywhere, and us just gently sailing along a narrow
open channel of blue water, sometimes going east, sometimes west, just
as it happened. Sometimes a little more wind would spring up, and the
pack opened a bit, and made fresh channels, so that we got on; then the
wind would drop, and the loose ice close round us, so that we hardly
moved, and at last one morning when I turns out, we were froze in.
"But not hard stuck, you know; for we soon had that ice broken, and got
hauling along by fixing ice-anchors, and then pulling at the cable; but
our captain only did it by way of duty, and trying to the very last to
get free; for his orders were not to winter up there if he could help
it. But there we were next morning tighter in than ever, with the ship
creaking and groaning at the pressure upon her ribs, and the ice
tightening her up more and more, till at last if she weren't lifted
right up ever so many foot, and hung over all on one side, so as we had
cables and anchors out into the ice to make sure as she didn't capsize.
But there was no capsize in her; and there she sat, all on the careen,
just as if she was mounting a big wave; and so she was, only it was
solid.
"Days went by, and the sun got lower and lower, and the weather colder
and colder. Sometimes we'd see flocks of birds going south, then a herd
or two of deer, and once or twice we saw a bear, but they fought very
shy of us; and, last of all, the captain seeing that we must make the
best of our winter quarters, set us to work unbending sails, striking
masts, and lowering spars on deck, and then the stuff was had up, and
the deck regularly roofed in, so as to make a snug house of the ship.
Stoves were rigged, snow hauled up round the hull, steps made up to the
side, and one way or another all looked so jolly, that I began to reckon
on spending my Christmas out in the polar regions. Then, too, extra
clothes were sarved out, and gloves, and masks, and fur caps; and one
way and another we got to make such stuffed mummies of ourselves, that a
rare lot of joking went on.
"`Wait a bit,' says my mate, `it'll be colder yet;' and so it was,
colder and colder, till I couldn't have believed it possible that it
could be a bit worse. But it could, though; for, before the winter was
over, there's been times when if a man went outside the vessel the cold
would have cut him down dead almost in a moment, and he not able to help
himself. Why, as I told you, down on the main-deck, the breath used to
turn into a reg'lar fall of snow, and everything would freeze hard in
spite of the roaring fires we kept up; and only think of it, just at
this time it was always dark, for the sun had gone lower and lower, till
at last he had not risen at all, and it was one long, dreary night, with
every star seeming to shoot bright icy arrows at you to cut you down.
"The captain used to do all he could to cheer us up, and keep the
horrors off; for you know they will come out there when you're all in
the dark and half froze, and wondering whether you'll see home any more.
Sometimes it would be exercise, sometimes a bit of a play, or
skylarking. Then one officer or another would read, and we'd have have
some music or yarn-spinning, and altogether we were very sociable; and
so matters went on till it got to be Christmas-day."
In whose honour Uncle Joe treated himself to a hearty libation from his
steaming tumbler.
"--Christmas-day," said my uncle, "and _pro_ceedings were made for a
grand spread, in honour of the old day and them as we'd left behind us.
"Well, the officers made themselves very sociable, and the grog went
round. Some chaps danced, others smoked, and one way and another things
went on jolly; but though the little stoves roared till they got
red-hot, yet there was a regular fog down between decks, while the
captain said that it was about the coldest day we had had yet.
"Towards night it seemed to come on awful all at once, and first one and
then another chap began shivering and twisting up his shoulders, and
then I saw the captain, who was down, give a sharp look round, and then
slip up on deck, where I heard him shout out.
"A dozen of us scrambled up on the covered-in deck, feeling cut in two
with the icy wind that came down, and then we found as the door out of
the bulwarks, and fitted in at the side, had been left open by some
one--a door you know that just about this time used to mostly have a man
aside it, and when our chaps went to the little ice-observatory it used
to be banged to after 'em directly; while if it had been left open but
one night, I daresay some on us wouldn't have woke up any more.
"`Who's gone out?' cries the captain, and then the men begins looking
from one to the other, but no one answered.
"`Where's Joe Perry,' shouts out some one in front of me. `It's Joe
Perry as is gone.'
"`You're a--something,' I was going to say, but I was that vexed I
didn't say it; but, forgetting all about the officers, I gives my
gentleman such a cuff on the ear, as sent him staggering; when instead
of being angry, I saw the Cap bite his lip, and no end of chaps began
sniggering.
"`But where's Bill Barker,' I says, looking round, for I remembered
seeing Bill go up the companion ladder about ten minutes before.
"`Pass the word for William Barker,' says the captain, and they passed
it, but there was no answer, and then we knew that Bill must have
slipped out against orders, thinking he wouldn't be missed, while the
chaps were keeping up Christmas, and forgetting that we should feel the
cold from the door he was obliged to leave open, so as to get in again.
"`Foolish fellow,' cried the captain, stamping about the deck.
`Volunteers there, who'll fetch him in? These five will do,' he says,
and in a few minutes the first luff with five men, were all ready in
their fur coats and boots, and masks over their faces, or I oughter say,
our faces, for I was one of 'em. And yet you say it's cold here now.
Pooh! Why, we were no sooner outside in that bright starlight, with the
northern lights hanging ahead of us, much like a rainbow, than it was as
if your breath was taken away, and the wind cutting right through and
through you, stiffening your joints, tingling powerfully in your nose,
and seeming to make you numbed and stupid.
"`Double,' shouts the luff, and keeping our eyes about us, we began to
trot along the snowy path towards the little observatory. But he wasn't
there. Then we ran a little one way, then another, and all keeping
together as well as we could for the rough ice we were going over. But
there was nothing to be seen anywhere on that side of the ship, so we
trotted round to the other side, always keeping a sharp look out for our
poor mate, and hoping after all that he would be all right; but going by
my own feelings, I could not help feeling sure that if he had come out
without the same things on as we had, it would go hard with him.
"`Here look!' some one shouted in a thick muffly voice, but we were all
looking now towards where a couple of bears were coming slowly towards
us, while quite plain between us lay on the white snow, the body of poor
Bill Barker.
"`Back to the ship,' shouted the first luff, and we were soon once more
a-top of the steps and inside, but you needn't think we were going to
leave our shipmet in that way, for the next minute saw us going back at
the double, but this time well armed.
"As soon as we were within shot, the first luff kneels down, and taking
aim, fired his double rifle right and left at the two great brutes that
stood growling over poor Bill Barker.
"`Stand firm, men,' he says, then `prepare to charge.' And then we five
stood with our guns and bayonets ready for the brutes as began to come
down upon us, while the luff got behind us, and began to load. You see
he wouldn't let us fire on account of poor Bill, and I s'pose he had
more trust in his own gun than in ours, for he kept on fumbling away in
the cold till he was loaded, which was when the brutes were only about a
dozen yards off, when he drops on one knee aside me, and taking a good
long aim fired when one brute was only five or six yards off--both
barrels right into him, and rolled him over and over, just as he would
have done a rabbit. But the next moment it was helter-skelter, and
hooraying, for t'other bear was down on us with a rush, taking no more
notice of our bayonets than if they had been so many toothpicks, and
downing two of our chaps like nine-pins.
"`Be firm, men,' shouts the luff, and we three ran at the great brute
that stood growling over our two mates, and I don't know about what
t'others did, but at one and the same moment, I drove the bayonet up to
the gun muzzle right in the bear's flank, and fired as well. Then it
seemed that the gun was wrenched out of my hand, and I saw the great
brute rear up above me, fetch me a pat with one of its paws, when I
caught a glimpse of the luff and heard the sharp ring of his rifle
again, and then I seemed to be smothered, for the great beast fell right
upon me.
"I don't know how long it was before they got help from the ship, and
the great brute dragged off me; but I know that the next thing I
remember is being carried into the ship through the doorway, and hearing
some one say, that Bill Barker was frozen stiff and cold. But I soon
came to, and excepting the bruises, there was nothing worse the matter
than a broken rib, which I soon got the better of. But poor Bill was
dead and frozen hard when they got him aboard, with his gun tight fixed
in his hand, so that they could not get it away for some time; for
though the poor chap knew all the orders well enough about going out
without proper preparations, like many more of us, he couldn't believe
as the frost would have such power--power enough to cut him down before
he'd walked a couple hundred yards, for it was something awful that
night, though the little brawny chaps that live in those parts, seem to
bear it very well.
"Freeze! why this is nothing: them two bears were masses of ice next
morning when they hauled 'em on board, while everything we cut, had to
be thawed first before the stove-fires. But then we had plenty of
provisions, and I don't think I once saw the grog get down so low, as in
this here glass of mine--here present."
My father took the hint, and replenished the old sailor's glass.