CASTLE OF THE AMERICAN CRUSOE.
Pearce's gloomy views of society began to brighten a good deal when he
found that we were not disposed to tear down his house or burn it, or
wantonly ruin his furniture. He was not a bad-hearted man by any means,
though rather crusty from having lived too long alone, and somewhat
prejudiced against the Californians on account of the rough treatment he
had received from them. A little flattery regarding his skill in
architecture, and a word of praise on the subject of his furniture,
seemed to mollify him a good deal; and he smiled grimly once or twice at
our folly in coming ashore, when we could have done so much better, as
he alleged, by staying aboard the ship, and going ahead about our
business.
Regarding the house, which afforded him so much anxiety, there did not
appear to us to be any thing quite so original and Crusoe-like in any
other part of the world. It was a little straw hut, just big enough to
creep into and turn round in; with a steep peaked roof, projecting all
round, very rustic and rugged-looking, and, withal, very well adapted to
the climate. The straw was woven through upright stakes, and made a
tolerably secure wall; outside, growing up around the house in every
direction, were running vines and wild flowers; and at a little distance
were various smaller sheds and out-houses, in which our worthy host kept
his domestic animals, and what wood he required during the bad weather.
The furniture of his main abode, which was such a source of honest pride
to him, consisted chiefly of a few three-legged stools, made of the
rough wood with the bark still on; a kind of bench for a lounge; a rough
bedstead in one corner, partly shut off by a straw partition; a broken
looking-glass, and an iron kettle and frying-pan, besides sundry strange
articles of domestic economy of which we could form no correct idea,
inasmuch as they were made upon novel principles of his own, and were
entirely beyond our comprehension. Over head, the rafters were covered
with goatskins; a sailor's pea-jacket, a sou'wester, and some colored
shirts hung at the head of the bed. In one corner there was a rude
wooden cupboard, containing a few broken cups and plates, and a Chinese
tea-box; in another a sea-chest, which, when pulled out, served for a
table. The floor was of mud, and not very dry after the rain; for the
roof had sprung a leak, and, moreover, what water was cast off from
above eventually found its way in under the walls below. Doubtless, like
the man with the fiddle, our host thought it useless to mend it when the
weather was fine, and too wet to work at it when the weather was rainy.
It was a very queer and original place altogether; and with a good fire,
and a little precaution in keeping from under the leaks in the roof, not
at all uncomfortable. Our Crusoe friend, overhearing us say that it was
a glorious place to live in, a regular castle, where a man might spend
his days like a king, smiled again a crusty smile, and growled,
"There's tea in that 'ere box. Ef you want some you kin have it. I got
it out'n a ship that came from China. There ain't better tea nowhere."
We thanked him heartily for his kindness, and declared at the same time
that we regarded good tea as the very rarest luxury of life. Again his
face cracked into something like a smile, and he said,
"Better tea never was drunk in China. Ef you like, I'll put sugar in
it."
We declared that sugar was the very thing of all the luxuries in the
world that we were most attached to, but we could not drink it with any
sort of relish if we thought it would be robbing him of his stores. If
he had these things to spare we would cheerfully use them, and pay him
three or four times their value in provisions from the ship.
"Darn the ship!" cried Crusoe; "I don't care a cuss about the ship, so
long as you don't get drunk and tear my house down!"
Upon this we protested that we would sooner tear the hair out of our
heads by the roots than tear down so unique and extraordinary a
structure as his house; and as to his furniture, it was worth its weight
in gold; every stick of it would bring five hundred dollars in the city
of New York.
Whereupon Pearce stirred about in the obscure corners with wonderful
alacrity, rooting up all sorts of queer things out of dark places, and
muttering to himself meantime,
"I'm as fond of company as any body, ef they're the right sort; and I'll
be squarmed ef I ain't an independent character too. I don't owe nobody
for a buildin' of my house, or a makin' of my furniture. I did it all
myself, long before California was skeer'd up."
He then put down the old kettle on the fire, and, as soon as the water
was boiled, emptied a large cupful of tea into it, and set it near the
fire to draw. While the tea was drawing, he fried a panful of kid, and
broiled some fish on the coals; and when it was all done, he gave us
each a tin plate, and told us to eat as much as we wanted, and be darn'd
to the ship, so long as we behaved like Christians. Then he furnished us
with cups for the tea, and some sea-biscuit, which he dug out of the
cupboard; and I must declare, in all sincerity, that we made a most
excellent supper.