LEMUEL MIZZEN, A.B.
Freddie looked at the Sailorman, and the Sailorman straightened up and
touched his cap. His face was brown as weathered oak, and creased like
bark; his one eye was black and glittering; the hand which he raised to
his cap was of the shape and nearly the size of a ham; and the chest and
throat which emerged from his wide-open shirt-collar was as brown as his
face, and big with muscles. There was a delicious odour of tar about
him; you positively could not look at him without hearing wind whistling
through ropes. He hitched up his trousers with his other hand and said:
"Ay, ay, skipper! Here I be as big as life, all ready fer orders!"
As Freddie gazed at him, the Little Boy slowly collected his wits, and a
light began to dawn upon him.
"Have you been to China?" said he.
"Right-o!" cried the Sailorman. "To China I have been----" in a queer
sing-song, as if he might have been marching in time to it round a
capstan, hauling in an anchor: "To China I have been, and a many ports
I've seen, near and far; I can sail before the mast or behind it just as
fast, I'm a tar, I'm a tar, I'm a tar!"
Freddie continued to stare at him with increasing astonishment.
"Are you a sailor, sir?" said he.
"Wot, me? I'm Lemuel Mizzen, A.B., that's me, and I sail the deep blue
sea from Maine to Afrikee, and round again on an even keel to Cochin
China for cochineal, and back to Chili for Chili sauce, and home again
to Banbury Cross--that's me! Lemuel Mizzen, able seaman! Fed on hard
tack or soft tack, or a starboard tack or a port tack, it's all the same
to me! Now then, skipper, you piped me up, wot's the orders?"
"Please, sir," said Freddie, "would you mind telling me what it is you
would like to have?"
"_Me?_ Douse my binnacle light, wot I want is a chew o' terbacker; but
the question before the chart-house is, wot do _you_ want, skipper?"
"I don't want anything," said Freddie.
"Wot? You piped me up, didn't you? Piped me up with a pipe?"
"No, sir," said Freddie.
"Sorry to entertain a different opinion from the skipper! Didn't you
smoke the Chinaman's 'baccy, _in_ a pipe?"
"Yes, sir," said Freddie, hanging his head.
"Then you did pipe me up with a pipe, and I hope I knows better than to
come aft without bein' piped. Didn't you know I've got to come when you
smoke the pipe with the Chinaman's 'baccy in it?"
"No, sir," said Freddie.
The Able Seaman fixed his black eye on Freddie in amazement.
"Well, bust my locker if this ain't the--Beggin' your pardon, skipper,
and no offense meant! Called me off from the China Sea, and don't want
me after all! Didn't go fer to do it, not him! And me off in the China
Sea amongst the Boxers, a-v'yaging hither and thither to pick up a cargo
o' boxes to box compasses with! Ye've brought me a fair long journey fer
nothin', skipper!"
[Illustration: "I'm Lemuel Mizzen, A.B., that's me!"]
"I'm very sorry, sir," said Freddie, "I didn't know you had to come when
the Chinaman's tobacco was smoked. Are you the one that brought that
tobacco here?"
"Ay, ay! That's me! Lemuel Mizzen, A.B.! And a fine long trip from the
China Sea, to come to a lad in Amerikee when I hears in my ears the
skipper's call, and all fer nothin' at all, at all! Ain't you got
nothin' to offer in extenuation?"
Freddie did not know what "extenuation" meant, but he could see by the
Sailorman's face that that gentleman was a good deal put out. He
remembered that Mr. Mizzen wanted a chew of tobacco.
"Would a little tobacco make you feel better?" said he.
"Now you've got yer hand on the right rope!" said the Able Seaman, his
face brightening. "I don't smoke. I chew. If you're goin' to offer a bit
of a chew, why then, says I, I don't care if I do."
Freddie took a long plug of chewing tobacco from the shelf behind him.
He knew that Mr. Toby would not mind making a little gift to the
sailorman after his long journey. He put the plug under the cutter on
the counter, and was about to press down the handle, to cut off a
portion, when the Able Seaman hitched up his trousers and said:
"Belay there, skipper! Put the whole cargo aboard! This here craft needs
ballast; hoist her over the side!" And he reached out his hand for the
whole plug of tobacco and took it from Freddie, and gnawed off a corner
with his teeth.
"Ah!" said he, his right cheek bulging out. "Too much ballast to
starboard." And he gnawed off another corner, so that his left cheek
bulged out like his right.
"All snug!" said he. "I'll just pay fer my cargo before I set sail, with
a bit of a draft on the owners, in a manner of speakin'. Here y'are,
sir. Stow that bit o' paper in yer sea-chest, and it'll come in handy
one o' these days. Pay as you go, says I."
He placed in Freddie's hand a folded sheet of soiled paper. It was
greasy with handling, and was evidently very old; it was folded small
and tight, and was beginning to break with age at the creases. On the
outside, it was blank; but there might have been writing inside.
"Got it in the Caribbean off a runaway sailor, fer a set of false
whiskers and a tattoo needle. Will it do to pay fer the cargo with?"
"Yes, sir; thank you," said Freddie, holding the paper in his hand
without unfolding it.
"Then all I got to say is, before I weighs anchor,--take good keer o'
that there bit o' paper. Aloft and alow, don't ye never let go; round
the yard take a bight and hold on to it tight; let the harricane blow
till yer fingers is blue, but wotever you do, don't ye never let go. And
skipper, mind wot I'm a-tellin' you; if you ever needs Lemuel Mizzen,
A.B., fer to give him his orders, all you got to do is to smoke a couple
o' whiffs of the Chinaman's 'baccy, and Lemuel Mizzen, A.B., he'll be on
deck before the smoke's cleared away. That's clear?"
"Yes, sir," said Freddie, with eyes wide open.
"And now as I see there's no orders to give, I'm off to my tight little
bark called The Sieve, and when I'm aboard I'll close all the shutters,
and lock up the parrot that sneezes and stutters, and wake all the
skippers, and put on my slippers, and get into bed while the mates
overhead are swabbing the decks and heaving the lead and baling the
bilge-water up with their dippers; and when they have gotten the vessel
to going, and settled all down to their knitting and sewing, and the
twenty-third mate, who is always so late, has learned what is meant by a
third and last warning, I'll turn up the gas, take a look at the glass,
and read me the Life of Old Chew until morning!----And so, sir,"
continued Mr. Mizzen, walking towards the street door, "I must give you
a view of my little stern-light, and bid you, dear sir, a very good
night."
So saying, he turned squarely towards Freddie, with one hand on the
door-knob, and with the other hand touched his cap respectfully. Freddie
saw that his trousers were very wide at the ankles and very tight at the
hips, and that he rolled a little when he walked. Having touched his cap
respectfully, he opened the door and went out, and disappeared in the
darkness outside.
Freddie stood looking after him with his mouth wide open.