[Illustration: THE TIDE AGAINST THEM. [_Page 23._]
THE MORAL PIRATES
BY
W. L. ALDEN
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1881
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
_All rights reserved._
ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE TIDE AGAINST THEM _Frontispiece_
THE “WHITEWING” AT HARLEM _faces page_ 13
HARRY SWIMS FOR THE EDDY “ “ 27
“IF YOU WANT TO DIG, DIG. I DON’T INTEND TO DO ANY
MORE DIGGING” “ “ 43
THE SOUP EXPLOSION “ “ 53
THE BOYS BUILT A ROARING FIRE ON A LARGE FLAT ROCK “ “ 58
JOE IS CAUGHT “ “ 64
MUMBLE-THE-PEG “ “ 72
LIFTING THE BOAT OVER THE PILES “ “ 81
GOING THROUGH THE LOCK “ “ 93
THE FIGHT WITH THE TRAMPS “ “ 104
HARRY AND JOE IN A TRAP “ “ 112
HARRY SETS OUT IN PURSUIT OF THE BOAT “ “ 124
BIDDING JIM GOOD-BYE “ “ 130
THE EXPLOSION IN CAMP “ “ 143
THE MORAL PIRATES.
CHAPTER I.
“The truth is, John,” said Mr. Wilson to his brother, “I am troubled
about my boy. Here it is the first of July, and he can’t go back to
school until the middle of September. He will be idle all that time,
and I’m afraid he’ll get into mischief. Now, the other day I found him
reading a wretched story about pirates. Why should a son of mine care
to read about pirates?”
“Because he’s a boy. All boys like piratical stories. I know, when
I was a boy, I thought that if I could be either a pirate or a
stage-driver I should be perfectly happy. Of course you don’t want
Harry to read rubbish; but it doesn’t follow because a boy reads
stories about piracy, that he wants to commit murder and robbery. I
didn’t want to kill anybody: I wanted to be a moral and benevolent
pirate. But here comes Harry across the lawn. What will you give me
if I will find something for him to do this summer that will make him
forget all about piracy?”
“I only wish you would. Tell me what your plan is.”
“Come here a minute, Harry,” said Uncle John. “Now own up; do you like
books about pirates?”
“Well, yes, uncle, I do.”
“So did I when I was your age. I thought it would be the best fun in
the world to be a Red Revenger of the Seas.”
“Wouldn’t it, though!” exclaimed Harry. “I don’t mean it would be fun
to kill people, and to steal watches, but to have a schooner of your
own, and go cruising everywhere, and have storms and--and--hurricanes,
you know.”
“Why shouldn’t you do it this summer?” asked Uncle John. “If you want
to cruise in a craft of your own, you shall do it; that is, if your
father doesn’t object. A schooner would be a little too big for a
boy of thirteen; but you and two or three other fellows might make a
splendid cruise in a row-boat. You could have a mast and sail, and
you could take provisions and things, and cruise from Harlem all the
way up into the lakes in the Northern woods. It would be all the same
as piracy, except that you would not be committing crimes, and making
innocent people wretched.”
“Uncle John, it would be just gorgeous! We’d have a gun and a lot of
fishing-lines, and we could live on fish and bears. There’s bears in
the woods, you know.”
“You won’t find many bears, I’m afraid; but you would have to take a
gun, and you might possibly find a wild-cat or two. Who is there that
would go with you?”
“Oh, there’s Tom Schuyler, and Joe and Jim Sharpe; and there’s Sam
M‘Grath--though he’d be quarrelling all the time. Maybe Charley Smith’s
father would let him go. He is a first-rate fellow. You’d ought to see
him play base-ball once!”
“Three boys besides yourself would be enough. If you have too many,
there will be too much risk of quarrelling. There is one thing you must
be sure of--no boy must go who can’t swim.”
“Oh, all the fellows can swim, except Bill Town. He was pretty near
drowned last summer. He’d been bragging about what a stunning swimmer
he was, and the boys believed him; so one day one of the fellows shoved
him off the float, where we go in swimming at our school, and he
thought he was dead for sure. The water was only up to his neck, but he
couldn’t swim a stroke.”
“Well, if you can get three good fellows to go with you--boys that you
know are not blackguards, but are the kind of boys that your father
would be willing to have you associate with--I’ll give you a boat and a
tent, and you shall have a better cruise than any pirate ever had; for
no real pirate ever found any fun in being a thief and a murderer. You
go and see Tom and the Sharpe boys, and tell them about it. I’ll see
about the boat as soon as you have shipped your crew.”
“You are quite sure that your plan is a good one?” asked Mr. Wilson,
as the boy vanished, with sparkling eyes, to search for his comrades.
“Isn’t it very risky to let the boys go off by themselves in a boat?
Won’t they get drowned?”
“There is always more or less danger in boating,” replied Uncle
John; “but the boys can swim; and they cannot learn prudence and
self-reliance without running some risks. Yes, it is a good plan, I am
sure. It will give them plenty of exercise in the open air, and will
teach them to like manly, honest sports. You see that the reason Harry
likes piratical stories is his natural love of adventure. I venture to
predict that if their cruise turns out well, those four boys will think
stories of pirates are stupid as well as silly.”
So the matter was decided. Harry found that Tom Schuyler and the Sharpe
boys were delighted with the plan, and Uncle John soon obtained the
consent of Mr. Schuyler and Mr. Sharpe. The boys immediately began to
make preparations for the cruise; and Uncle John bought a row-boat, and
employed a boat-builder to make such alterations as were necessary to
fit his for service.
The boat was what is called a Whitehall row-boat. She was seventeen
feet long, and rowed very easily, and she carried a small mast with
a spritsail. By Uncle John’s orders an air-tight box, made of tin,
was fitted into each end of the boat, so that, even if she were to
be filled with water, the air in the tin boxes would float her.
She was painted white outside, with a narrow blue streak, and dark
brown inside. Harry named her the _Whitewing_; and his mother made a
beautiful silk signal for her, which was to be carried at the sprit
when under sail, and on a small staff at the bow of the boat at other
times. For oars there were two pairs of light seven-foot sculls, and
a pair of ten-foot oars, each of which was to be pulled by a single
boy. The rudder was fitted with a yoke and a pair of lines, and the
sail was of new and very light canvas. On one side of the boat was a
little locker, made to hold a gun; and on the other side were places
for fishing-rods and fishing-tackle. When she was brought around to
Harlem, and Harry saw her for the first time, he was so overjoyed that
he turned two or three hand-springs, bringing up during the last one
against a post--an exploit which nearly broke his shin, and induced
his uncle to remark that he would never rise to distinction as a Moral
Pirate unless he could give up turning hand-springs while on duty.
[Illustration: THE “WHITEWING” AT HARLEM.]
Harry could row very fairly, for he belonged to a boat-club at school.
It was not very much of a club; but then the club-boat was not very
much of a boat, being a small, flat-bottomed skiff, which leaked so
badly that she could not be kept afloat unless one boy kept constantly
at work bailing. However, Harry learned to row in her, and he now
found this knowledge very useful. He was anxious to start on the
cruise immediately, but his uncle insisted that the crew must first be
trained. “I must teach you to sail, and you must teach your crew to
row,” said Uncle John. “The Department will never consent to let a boat
go on a cruise unless her commander and her crew know their duty.”
“What’s the Department?” asked Harry.
“The Navy Department in the United States service has the whole charge
of the Navy, and sends vessels where it pleases. Now, I consider that
I represent a Department of Moral Piracy, and I therefore superintend
the fitting out of the _Whitewing_. You can’t expect moral piracy to
flourish unless you respect the Department, and obey its orders.”
“All right, uncle,” replied Harry. “Of course the Department furnishes
stores and everything else for a cruise, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose it must,” said his uncle, laughing. “I didn’t think of that
when I proposed to become a department.”
The boys met every day at Harlem and practised rowing. Uncle John
taught them how to sail the boat, by letting them take her out under
sail when there was very little breeze, while he kept close along-side
in another boat very much like the _Whitewing_. Harry sat in the
stern-sheets, holding the yoke-lines. Tom Schuyler, who was fourteen
years old, and a boy of more than usual prudence, sat on the nearest
thwart and held the sheet, which passed under a cleat without being
made fast to it, in his hand. Next came Jim Sharpe, whose business it
was to unship the mast when the captain should order sail to be taken
in; and on the forward thwart sat Joe Sharpe, who was not quite twelve,
and who kept the boat-hook within reach, so as to use it on coming
to shore. The boys kept the same positions when rowing, Tom Schuyler
being the stroke. Uncle John told them that if every one always had the
same seat, and had a particular duty assigned to him, it would prevent
confusion and dispute, and greatly increase the safety of the vessel
and crew.
It was not long before Harry could sail the boat nicely, and the
others, by attending closely to Uncle John’s lessons, learned almost as
much as their young captain. So far as boat-sailing can be taught in
fair weather, Harry was carefully and thoroughly taught in six or seven
lessons, and could handle the _Whitewing_ beautifully; but the ability
to judge of the weather, to tell when it is going to blow, and how
the wind will probably shift, can of course be learned only by actual
experience.