THE MAROON
If yet there remained upon our southern coast a home for the rarer
virtues, such as gratitude, content, liberality (not of other people's
goods alone), faith in a gracious Providence, and strict abstinence from
rash labor, that home and stronghold was Springhaven. To most men good
success brings neither comfort, nor tranquillity, nor so much as a stool
to sit upon, but comes as a tread-mill which must be trodden without any
getting to the top of it. Not so did these wise men take their luck. If
ever they came from the fickle wave-bosom to the firm breast of land on
a Saturday, with a fine catch of fish, and sold it well--and such was
their sagacity that sooner would they keep it for cannibal temptation
than sell it badly--did they rush into the waves again, before they had
dried their breeches? Not they; nor did their wives, who were nearly
all good women, stir them up to be off again. Especially at this time of
year, with the days pulling out, and the season quickening, and the fish
coming back to wag their tails upon the shallows, a pleasant race of men
should take their pleasure, and leave flints to be skinned by the sons
of flint.
This was the reason why Miss Dolly Darling had watched in vain at
the Monday morning tide for the bold issue of the fishing fleet. The
weariless tide came up and lifted the bedded keel and the plunged
forefoot, and gurgled with a quiet wash among the straky bends, then
lurched the boats to this side and to that, to get their heft correctly,
and dandled them at last with their bowsprits dipped and their little
mast-heads nodding. Every brave smack then was mounted, and riding, and
ready for a canter upon the broad sea: but not a blessed man came to set
her free. Tethered by head and by heel, she could only enjoy the poised
pace of the rocking-horse, instead of the racer's delight in careering
across the free sweep of the distance.
Springhaven had done so well last week, that this week it meant to do
still better, by stopping at home till the money was gone, and making
short work afterward. Every man thoroughly enjoyed himself, keeping
sober whenever good manners allowed, foregoing all business, and
sauntering about to see the folk hard at work who had got no money. On
Wednesday, however, an order was issued by Captain Zebedee Tugwell that
all must be ready for a three days' trip when the tide should serve,
which would be at the first of the ebb, about ten in the morning. The
tides were slackening now, and the smacks had required some change of
berth, but still they were not very far from the Admiral's white gate.
“I shall go down to see them, papa, if you please,” Dolly said to her
father at breakfast-time. “They should have gone on Monday; but they
were too rich; and I think it very shameful of them. I dare say they
have not got a halfpenny left, and that makes them look so lively. Of
course they've been stuffing, and they won't move fast, and they can't
expect any more dinner till they catch it. But they have got so much
bacon that they don't care.”
“What could they have better, I should like to know?” asked the Admiral,
who had seen hard times. “Why, I gave seven men three dozen apiece for
turning their noses up at salt horse, just because he whisked his tail
in the copper. Lord bless my soul! what is the nation coming to, when a
man can't dine upon cold bacon?”
“No, it is not that, papa. They are very good in that way, as their
wives will tell you. Jenny Shanks tells me the very same thing, and
of course she knows all about them. She knew they would never think of
going out on Monday, and if I had asked her I might have known it too.
But she says that they are sure to catch this tide.”
“Very well, Dolly. Go you and catch them. You are never content without
seeing something. Though what there is to see in a lot of lubberly craft
pushing off with punt-poles--”
“Hush, papa, hush! Don't be so contemptuous. What did my godfather say
the other day? And I suppose he understands things.”
“Don't quote your godfather against your father. It was never intended
in the Catechism. And if it was, I would never put up with it.”
Dolly made off; for she knew that her father, while proud of his great
impartiality, candor, and scorn of all trumpery feeling, was sometimes
unable to make out the reason why a queer little middy of his own should
now stand upon the giddy truck of fame, while himself, still ahead of
him in the Navy List, might pace his quarter-deck and have hats touched
to him, but never a heart beat one pulse quicker. Jealous he was not;
but still, at least in his own family--
Leaving her dear father to his meditations, which Faith ran up to kiss
away, fair Dolly put on a plain hat and scarf, quite good enough for
the fishermen, and set off in haste for the Round-house, to see the
expedition start. By the time she was there, and had lifted the sashes,
and got the spy-glass ready, the flow of the tide was almost spent, and
the brimming moment of the slack was nigh. For this all the folk of the
village waited, according to the tradition of the place; the manhood
and boyhood, to launch forth; old age, womanhood, and childhood, to
contribute the comfort of kind looks and good-by. The tides, though not
to be compared to the winds in fickleness, are capricious here, having
sallies of irregularity when there has been a long period of northeast
winds, bringing a counter-flow to the Atlantic influx. And a man must
be thoroughly acquainted with the coast, as well as the moon and the
weather, to foretell how the water will rise and fall there. For the
present, however, there was no such puzzle. The last lift of the quiet
tide shone along the beach in three straight waves, shallow steps that
arose inshore, and spent themselves without breaking.
“Toorn o' the tide!” the Captain shouted; “all aboord, aboord, my lads!
The more 'ee bide ashore, the wuss 'ee be. See to Master Cheeseman's
craft! Got a good hour afront of us. Dannel, what be mooning at? Fetch
'un a clout on his head, Harry Shanks; or Tim, you run up and do it.
Doubt the young hosebird were struck last moon, and his brains put to
salt in a herring-tub. Home with you, wife! And take Dan, if you will.
He'd do more good at the chipping job, with the full moon in his head
so.”
“Then home I will take my son, Master Tugwell,” his wife answered, with
much dignity, for all the good wives of Springhaven heard him, and what
would they think of her if she said nothing? “Home I will take my son
and yours, and the wisest place for him to abide in, with his father set
agin him so. Dannel, you come along of me. I won't have my eldest boy
gainsaid so.”
Zebedee Tugwell closed his lips, and went on with his proper business.
All the women would side with him if he left them the use of their own
minds, and the sound of his wife's voice last; while all the men in
their hearts felt wisdom. But the young man, loath to be left behind,
came doubtfully down to the stern of the boat, which was pushed off for
the Rosalie. And he looked at the place where he generally sat, and then
at his father and the rest of them.
“No gappermouths here!” cried his father, sternly. “Get theezell home
with the vemmelvolk. Shove off without him, Tim! How many more tides
would 'ee lose?”
Young Dan, whose stout legs were in the swirling water, snatched up his
striped woolsey from under the tiller, threw it on his shoulder, and
walked off, without a farewell to any one. The whole of Springhaven that
could see saw it, and they never had seen such a thing before. Captain
Zeb stood up and stared, with his big forehead coming out under his
hat, and his golden beard shining in the morning sun; but the only
satisfaction for his eyes was the back of his son growing smaller and
smaller.
“Chip of the old block!” “Sarve 'ee right, Cap'en!” “Starve 'un back
to his manners again!” the inferior chieftains of the expedition cried,
according to their several views of life. But Zebedee Tugwell paid no
heed to thoughts outside of his own hat and coat. “Spake when I ax you,”
he said, urbanely, but with a glance which conveyed to any too urgent
sympathizer that he would be knocked down, when accessible.
But, alas! the less-disciplined women rejoiced, with a wink at their
departing lords, as Mrs. Zebedee set off in chase of her long-striding
Daniel. The mother, enriched by home affections and course of duties
well performed, was of a rounded and ample figure, while the son was
tall, and thin as might be one of strong and well-knit frame. And the
sense of wrong would not permit him to turn his neck, or take a glance
at the enterprise which had rejected him.
“How grand he does look! what a noble profile!” thought Dolly, who had
seen everything without the glass, but now brought it to bear upon his
countenance. “He is like the centurion in the painted window, or a Roman
medallion with a hat on. But that old woman will never catch him. She
might just as well go home again. He is walking about ten miles an hour,
and how beautifully straight his legs are! What a shame that he should
not be a gentleman! He is ten times more like one than most of the
officers that used to come bothering me so. I wonder how far he means
to go? I do hope he won't make away with himself. It is almost enough
to make him do it, to be so insulted by his own father, and disgraced
before all the village, simply because he can't help having his poor
head so full of me! Nobody shall ever say that I did anything to give
him the faintest encouragement, because it would be so very wicked and
so cruel, considering all he has done for me. But if he comes back,
when his father is out of sight, and he has walked off his righteous
indignation, and all these people are gone to dinner, it might give a
turn to his thoughts if I were to put on my shell-colored frock and
the pale blue sash, and just go and see, on the other side of the
stepping-stones, how much longer they mean to be with that boat they
began so long ago.”