A MIXED COMPANY IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE
After Aunt Amanda had stopped reading, it was a moment or two before
anyone spoke. "If all those things," said Mr. Toby thoughtfully, "could
be done in that Island, I'd be in favor of going there."
There was a general murmur of assent, and Mr. Hanlon nodded his head.
"Well," went on Mr. Toby, "we'd better make up our minds what we want to
do about it. The Churchwarden ain't had his say yet, what with all these
interruptions, and I move we give him a chance to have his say, right
now. Speak up, Warden; what do you think we ought to do?"
"As I was saying," said the Churchwarden, looking around solemnly,
"while I don't hold to my own opinion if anybody else can think up
something better, still it seems to me--But maybe you'd ruther hear from
the others first."
"No, no!" cried the whole company,--except Mr. Hanlon, who shook his
head vigorously.
"Well, then, being as you've asked me so particular, and having thought
about it considerable,--as I was saying, it appears to me that the best
thing to do would be to--This is only the way it looks to me, you
understand, and I ain't speaking for nobody but myself, and I don't
pretend that my opinion is worth----"
"By crackey!" cried Mr. Toby, very rudely. "Ain't you the most maddening
old feller that ever was in the world? Come on, now, tell us what to
do, and be quick about it!"
"Call up the Able Seaman!"
This was so unexpected that nobody spoke for a moment.
"Hurrah!" cried Toby. "Now you've said it. We'll call up Mr. Lemuel
Mizzen--is that his name? That's the thing to do! Do you all agree to
that?" Everybody approved, and Mr. Toby turned to Freddie. "He's your
man, Freddie, and if you've done it once, I reckon it won't be any harm
for you to do it again. Wait a minute." And he ran into the shop, and
immediately returned with the Chinaman's head and a churchwarden pipe.
"Now, then, Freddie," he said. "Will you do it again?"
"No, sir," said Freddie. "I'd rather not."
"You shouldn't make him do it," said Aunt Amanda.
"Nonsense, Aunt Amanda!" cried Toby. "He's as bad now as he'll ever be,
and it ain't a-going to do him no harm. I'll fill the pipe."
"Hit's quite a lark," said Mr. Punch, laughing heartily. "Fancy the
little beggar's smoking a pipe!"
"My dear little friend," began the Sly Old Fox, beaming upon Freddie.
"You must always remember that your elders know best----"
"Here, Freddie," said Mr. Toby, having filled the pipe, "sit down here."
And he pushed Freddie gently down upon his accustomed hassock at Aunt
Amanda's feet.
Freddie shook his head, but Mr. Toby put the pipe into his mouth and lit
a match. All the others sat in silence, watching Freddie intently.
"Now, then!" said Toby. "Pull away!" And he touched the lighted match to
the pipeful of black tobacco.
Freddie gave a pull, and blew out a cloud of smoke. He did not choke
this time. He gave another pull, and blew out another cloud. The white
smoke lay above the heads of the company in a thick mass; it grew
thicker, so that he could not see through it; it began to move, as if in
a high wind. He drew on the pipe once more, and blew out another cloud
of smoke. He knew what was coming, and in fact the same thing happened
that had happened to him before. The white cloud churned about, with its
barber-poles and jets of fire, coming down closer and closer upon him,
and in a jiffy he was sitting in midair on his hassock, and then he felt
himself falling, falling; and as he struck the bottom with a jar, he
heard, very distinctly, a knock on the door; and he was sitting again on
his hassock at Aunt Amanda's feet in the quiet room, with no sign of a
cloud anywhere to be seen.
"Come in!" he heard Mr. Toby cry.
The door opened, and in walked Mr. Lemuel Mizzen, A.B., as cool as a
cucumber.
He took off his flat blue cap with the black ribbon, and made a bow to
the company.
"Piped me aft again, and good evening to you all!" said he, in his
hoarse voice. "Lemuel Mizzen, A.B.! That's me! What'll it be? All ready
for orders, skipper! It was just half past by the starboard watch, and
the skippers their apples were quietly peeling, when I locked up the
last of the lemons and Scotch, and lay on my bed looking up at the
ceiling, to snatch forty winks, as I foolishly reckoned; but just as I
thinks, 'Thirty-first, thirty-second,' there's a ring at the bell of the
big front-door, and the mates come and yell that I'm wanted ashore; so I
tucks in my cap the eight points of my nap, and just before stopping to
turn down the lights, I runs to the dresser and puts it to rights, and
then before giving a last look behind, I goes to the bed and takes off
the spread, and lays out to air the three sheets in the wind! And here I
be," concluded the Able Seaman, "all ready for orders." And he looked
very hard at Freddie.
"Well!" said Aunt Amanda, gasping. "I never in my life heard such a----"
"I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Mizzen," said Toby. "It's about
Correction Island, on the Spanish Main."
"Ay, ay, sir!" said Mr. Mizzen. "Would you like to go there?"
"Ah!" said everyone at once, except Mr. Hanlon, who nodded his head.
"No trouble at all," said Mr. Mizzen. "Just step into The Sieve, and
we'll be off. A sweet little bark is The Sieve, provided there's plenty
of dippers; but we always go well provided. Is the whole party going?"
"One moment, if you please," said the Sly Old Codger. "There is one
little point on which I--that is to say--Will there be any expense?"
"Not a penny," said Mr. Mizzen. "Everything's found. Orders from the
skipper. What he says goes."
"Ah!" said the Sly Old Fox. "The Spanish Main! With all the little
parrots and monkeys flitting about in the branches of the upas trees!--I
think I will join."
"I reckon we're all going," said Mr. Toby. "Is everybody agreed? All
right. It's settled. And my vote is, to go right now, while we've got
hold of our Able Seaman here."
"Shouldn't I tell mother first?" asked Freddie.
"I'll write her a note in the morning," said Toby. "I'll fix it; you
leave it to me."
"I suppose I really ought to finish this sewing," said Aunt Amanda.
"No time," said Toby, who seemed to be managing everything. "Where's the
ship, Mr. Mizzen?"
"Made fast to the wharf at the foot of this street," said Mr. Mizzen.
"Then let's go," said Toby.
He ran out of the room, and returned with his white derby hat on his
head, and his hand-painted necktie neatly in its place. He helped Aunt
Amanda to get up, and brought her her little black bonnet, which she put
on and tied under her chin, and her cashmere shawl, which she put around
her shoulders.
"All right!" cried Toby. "We're off! Come along!"
"We're off to the Spanish Main," said Mr. Mizzen, in his curious
sing-song, "to the wet Antipodee; but dry or wet we need not fret, for
we are bold as bold can be; and on the way at Botany Bay we'll probably
stay a week or two, to gather ferns as the Botanists do, and then we'll
stop at the door of Spain, to ask the way to the Spanish Main, and so
without any more delay, on the Spanish Main we'll all alight, where the
star-fish shines in the sea all night, and the dog-star barks in the sky
all day--Here, skipper, put this in your pocket, and hold fast to it."
He handed Freddie the map, and Freddie put it away safely in his pocket.
"Have you got the Odour of Sanctity?" said Mr. Toby to the Churchwarden.
"Right here," said the fat man, tapping his back pocket.
"I'll carry the Chinaman's tobacco," said Toby. "We may need it." And he
tucked the Chinaman's head under his arm.
In a few moments the whole party were standing on the pavement outside,
and Toby locked the shop-door behind them. They crossed the street, and
as they did so they heard a faint voice halloing from the top of the
church tower, and they could make out that it said, "Punch! Punch!" But
Mr. Punch only sniffed and shrugged his shoulders, and made no answer.
It was very dark. The gas-lamps at the corners only made the darkness
gloomier. The only sound they heard, after Mr. Punch's father's voice
had died away behind them, was the stump-stump of the Old Codger's
wooden leg on the brick pavement. All the dwelling-houses were closed,
and as they came nearer to the wharves all the warehouses were dark and
awful. Not a soul was to be seen, except that once they saw the back of
a policeman as he disappeared around a dark corner in advance. At the
sight of this policeman's back, and in the shadow of a great gloomy
building alongside an alley, Freddie slipped his hand into the Able
Seaman's big paw. He wondered if he were doing quite right in leaving
home without saying a word to his mother, but Mr. Toby had promised to
do whatever was necessary, and anyway, he was going aboard a ship! If he
should stop to speak to his mother about going away on a voyage in a
ship, he felt somehow that he might never go. He could already smell the
delicious odour of tarred ropes.
Their progress was very slow, on account of Aunt Amanda's lameness.
First came Mr. Mizzen, leading the way with Freddie by his side. Next
came Aunt Amanda, limping with her cane, and supported on one side by
Mr. Toby and on the other by Mr. Punch. Behind them walked the
Churchwarden and the Sly Old Fox, and last of all Mr. Hanlon and the Old
Codger with the Wooden Leg.
They could see not far before them the ghost-like masts and shrouds of
ships, looking as if they were growing up from the street among the
buildings; and in another moment they found themselves standing in a
group on a wide wharf, piled up with bales and boxes, and before them,
against the edge of the wharf, where the black water was lapping the
piles, stood a tall ship with most of her sails set. Freddie thrilled in
every vein of his body. At that moment he did not think of his father or
mother; he thought of nothing but the smell of brackish water and tarred
ropes, and the deck of a ship on the open sea under a cloud of canvas,
and the far-away Spanish Main.
The Able Seaman led the company of adventurers forward between the bales
and boxes, until they stood beside the dark hull of the ship. He turned
round and faced them and touched his cap respectfully.
"Come aboard," said he.