Captain Jack
[Illustration]
“It has been our lot to sail with many captains, not one of whom is
fit to be a patch on your back.”--_Letter of the Ship’s Company of
H.M.S.S. Royalist to Captain W. T. Bate._
All this time the albatross kept dropping down and down like a stone
till Jack was quite out of breath, and they fell or flew, whichever you
like to call it, straight through one of the great chasms which he had
thought were lakes, and he looked down as he sat on the bird’s back to
see what the world is like when you hang a good way above it at sunrise.
It was a very beautiful sight; the sheep and lambs were still fast
asleep on the green hills, and the sea birds were asleep in long rows
upon the ledges of the cliffs, with their heads under their wings.
“Are those young fairies awake yet?” asked the albatross.
“As sound asleep as ever,” answered Jack; “but, Albatross, is not that
the sea which lies under us? You are a sea bird, I know, but I am not a
sea boy, and I cannot live in the water.”
“Yes, that is the sea,” answered the albatross. “Don’t you observe that
it is covered with ships?”
“I see boats and vessels,” answered Jack, “and all their sails are set,
but they cannot sail because there is no wind.”
“The wind never does blow in this great bay,” said the bird; “and those
ships would all lie there becalmed till they dropped to pieces if one
of them was not wanted now and then to go up the wonderful river.”
“But how did they come there?” asked Jack.
[Illustration: “THOSE FIVE GRAND ONES WITH HIGH PROWS ... WERE PART OF
THE SPANISH ARMADA AND THOSE OPEN BOATS WITH THE BLUE SAILS BELONGED TO
THE ROMANS.”]
“Some of them had captains who ill-used their cabin-boys, some
were pirate ships, and others were going out on evil errands. The
consequence was, that when they chanced to sail within this great bay
they got becalmed; the fairies came and picked all the sailors out and
threw them into the water; they then took away the flags and pennons
to make their best coats of, threw the ship-biscuits and other
provisions to the fishes, and set all the sails. Many ships which are
supposed by men to have foundered lie becalmed in this quiet sea.
Look at those five grand ones with high prows, they are moored close
together, they were part of the Spanish Armada; and those open boats
with blue sails belonged to the Romans, they sailed with Cæsar when he
invaded Britain.”
By this time the albatross was hovering about among the vessels, making
choice of one to take Jack and the fairies up the wonderful river.
“It must not be a large one,” she said, “for the river in some places
is very shallow.”
Jack would have liked very much to have a fine three-master, all to
himself; but then he considered that he did not know anything about
sails and rigging, he thought it would be just as well to be contented
with whatever the albatross might choose, so he let her set him down
in a beautiful little open boat, with a great carved figure-head to
it. There he seated himself in great state, and the albatross perched
herself on the next bench, and faced him.
“You remember my name?” asked the albatross.
“Oh yes,” said Jack; but he was not attending--he was thinking what a
fine thing it was to have such a curious boat all to himself.
“That’s well,” answered the bird; “then, in the next place, are those
fairies awake yet?”
“No, they are not,” said Jack; and he took them out of his pockets, and
laid them down in a row before the albatross.
“They are certainly asleep,” said the bird. “Put them away again, and
take care of them. Mind you don’t lose any of them, for I really don’t
know what will happen if you do. Now I have one thing more to say to
you, and that is, are you hungry?”
“Rather,” said Jack.
“Then,” replied the albatross, “as soon as you feel _very_ hungry, lie
down in the bottom of the boat and go to sleep. You will dream that you
see before you a roasted fowl, some new potatoes, and an apple-pie.
Mind you don’t eat too much in your dream, or you will be sorry for it
when you wake. That is all. Good-bye! I must go.”
Jack put his arms round the neck of the bird, and hugged her; then she
spread her magnificent wings and sailed slowly away. At first he felt
very lonely, but in a few minutes he forgot that, because the little
boat began to swim so fast.
She was not sailing, for she had no sail, and he was not rowing, for
he had no oars; so I am obliged to call her motion swimming, because
I don’t know of a better word. In less than a quarter of an hour they
passed close under the bows of a splendid three-decker, a seventy-gun
ship. The gannets who live in those parts had taken possession of her,
and she was so covered with nests that you could not have walked one
step on her deck without treading on them. The father birds were aloft
in the rigging, or swimming in the warm green sea, and they made such a
clamour when they saw Jack that they nearly woke the fairies--nearly,
but not quite, for the little things turned round in Jack’s pockets,
and sneezed, and began to snore again.
Then the boat swam past a fine brig. Some sea fairies had just flung
her cargo overboard, and were playing at leap-frog on deck. These were
not at all like Jack’s own fairies; they were about the same height and
size as himself, and they had brown faces, and red flannel shirts and
red caps on. A large fleet of the pearly nautilus was collected close
under the vessel’s lee. The little creatures were feasting on what the
sea fairies had thrown overboard, and Jack’s boat, in its eagerness
to get on, went plunging through them so roughly that several were
capsized. Upon this the brown sea fairies looked over, and called out
angrily, “Boat ahoy!” and the boat stopped.
“Tell that boat of yours to mind what she is about,” said the fairy
sea-captain to Jack.
Jack touched his cap, and said, “Yes, sir,” and then called out to his
boat, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, running down these little
live fishing-vessels so carelessly. Go at a more gentle pace.”
So it swam more slowly; and Jack, being by this time hungry, curled
himself up in the bottom of the boat, and fell asleep.
He dreamt directly about a fowl and some potatoes, and he ate a wing,
and then he ate a merrythought, and then somebody said to him that
he had better not eat any more, but he did, he ate another wing; and
presently an apple-pie came, and he ate some of that, and then he ate
some more, and then he immediately woke.
“Now that bird told me not to eat too much,” said Jack, “and yet I have
done it. I never felt so full in my life,” and for more than half an
hour he scarcely noticed anything.
At last he lifted up his head, and saw straight before him two great
brown cliffs, and between them flowed in the wonderful river. Other
rivers flow out, but this river flowed in, and took with it far into
the land dolphins, sword-fish, mullet, sunfish, and many other strange
creatures; and that is one reason why it was called the magic river, or
the wonderful river.
At first it was rather wide, and Jack was alarmed to see what
multitudes of soldiers stood on either side to guard the banks, and
prevent any person from landing.
He wondered how he should get the fairies on shore. However, in about
an hour the river became much narrower, and then Jack saw that the
guards were not real soldiers, but rose-coloured flamingos. There they
stood, in long regiments, among the reeds, and never stirred. They are
the only foot-soldiers the fairies have in their pay; they are very
fierce, and never allow anything but a fairy ship to come up the river.
They guarded the banks for miles and miles, many thousands of them,
standing a little way into the water among the flags and rushes; but
at last there were no more reeds and no soldier guards, for the stream
became narrower, and flowed between such steep rocks that no one could
possibly have climbed them.
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