We had nearly reached our cutter before the sun lifted its yellowish,
red sphere, with just such an expression as a jolly, fat, old alderman
accustomed to good cheer might present, on raising his head from the
folds of a comfortable night's pillow.
It looked about in a dim, bewildered way at first, as if trying to wake
up and make out what was the matter--that dark, vast, heaving, rolling
sea, the rocks and capes touched with light, and a great land behind
them yet dark and undefined; all so quiet too; and the soft, pink mist
that rolled away in smoke-like clouds--rolled away over the billowy
surface of the ocean toward the land, and, frightened, perhaps, by that
red apparition on the eastern horizon, faded from sight, or rose for
shelter to the sky above.
It was bravely up now; had mastered the situation, dispelled the night.
The great honest face took a king's expression, and breathing bounty,
warmth, and courage, blessed the scene it looked upon.
Then how the birds sang out, how sea and land grew beautiful and full of
voice, how the clouds dressed their ranks and marched on their way. And
the irrepressible exclamation came from all our boy lips at once, "How
glorious!"
Ugly saluted us in a most vociferous manner, continuing his welcome from
the time we left the shore to the moment we reached the yacht.
"Behold," said Harry, "our rear-admiral waving his ta--I beg his
honour's pardon--flag."
Yes--old Ugly kept his tail going in utmost delight, whilst he ran from
one end to the other of the gunwale, assuring us that all was safe.
Sure enough, everything was in good order, but the supper had not been
eaten. It had been pulled out of the after-cabin and inspected--that
was all. Now Ugly's supper consisted of two things he could never be
induced to eat--ham and cold potatoes; and Harry, from mischief--he
knew, however, that the dog had had a hearty dinner--prepared those
things purposely, supposing that Ugly's daintiness would fail in a
twelve hours fast. But no; there the edibles were untouched.
"Come here, sir," said Harry to Ugly; "now why have you not eaten this
nice meal, eh?"
Ugly's answer was merely to turn his head one side and look out at the
sea, as if very much interested in something he saw--so much so as not
to be able to attend to what Harry asked him.
"You dainty rascal, come along and eat this meal; it is good enough for
any dog." And Harry put the despised victuals on another part of the
deck, and, quite unintentionally, within a foot of the port scuppers.
"Here, Ugly, eat it, sir, every bit of it."
Ugly's sensitive little spirit could not brook such a public
mortification; but he was obedient in part. He approached the pieces
slowly--in a dignified, contemptuous way--as he would have gone up to a
cat, and, putting his nose to them, gave a push--away they flew into the
sea.
Shouts of laughter greeted the act--Harry's the loudest--and he
completed his attempt at discipline by calling to Ugly, "Come here, thou
pluckiest and smartest of dogs. If you won't eat sailors' rations, come
feast at the officers' mess on the luxuries of the fleet. How will that
do, eh, old fellow?" cutting him off, as he spoke, a fat slice of
mutton. "Another? well there! Bread and butter? Well, there is as
much as you can eat;" and Ugly stowed it all away, triumph beaming in
his eyes and wagging from his tail.
"Come, boys, now," said the Captain, "let's get under way. Cast loose
the sails, Alfred and Bob. Drake, stand by to hoist the mainsail.
Walter, take the helm. I want you to act as sailing-master this
morning. Drake and I will get up the anchor. Is the mainsail ready for
hoisting?"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied Drake.
"Then up with it. There--good!"
"Are your halliards all clear there, boys?"
"Aye, aye, sir," came from Alf and Bob.
"Hoist the jib, my hearties," cried the Captain, as the anchor came up.
"Keep her head for the old church tower, Walter. There--steady,
steady."
The Captain and Drake now secured the anchor, and the next order given
was--
"Now, Alf, another pull on your main halliards. Get them well up. All
right? Make fast."
The Captain lifted his hat and wiped with the bandanna his red forehead.
Then he shook out a reef in his suspenders, and threw back his coat.
"By golly! my hearties, we are snug now, ship and cargo; and what an air
to breathe! I only wish this was a good ship of twelve hundred tons or
so, Captain Mugford the skipper, and we were all bound for Calcutta
together this splendid morning."
"Don't I--don't I," came from each of us in response.
"Now, my mates," called the Captain again, "we'll go about presently,
when we get abreast of that tanned-sailed fishing-boat there off the
port bow, and then, Walter, you can head her right out of the harbour.
Let her go south-east-by-east, and we'll about fetch in ten miles as
nice a bank for cod and halibut as there is off the coast. It is a
small spot to get on nicely, and difficult to drop on often in just the
right place; but it's no riddle to me, and if this breeze freshens a
bit, as I think it will with the young flood, you can get out your lines
in about one hour. So now let's have breakfast--the little
rear-admiral, you know, had his long ago."
Yes--and the consequential Ugly was occupying a comfortable seat right
under the jib, and only turned his head the least bit when he heard the
Captain's mention of him.
"Keep her full now, Walter, ready to go about. Let go the jib-sheet,
Bob; and now, down with your helm, Walter!"
The mainsail flapped twice. By that time the foresail had filled on the
other tack. The cutter went about like a dancer on her heel, and we
were off on the other tack, standing out of the harbour for the open sea
ahead.
Then, the breakfast having been got out of the cuddy in the meanwhile,
and arranged for our onset by Drake, we seized cups, knives and forks,
and were soon very busy.
What a glorious thing to remember and marvel at, and wish back again, is
a boy's appetite. And if any good old fellow is reading, who is not
ashamed to recall those best of days--boyhood days--who is not ashamed
to recall them, aye, with pride and smiles, let him think now of the
suppers after Saturday tramps, of the Christmas and Michaelmas dinners,
and of meals like that I am describing, when, after two hours in the
early morning air, bowling along in our cutter, the sea-breeze swelling
out our lungs as it did the sails, with merry hearts and perfect
digestions, we found real fun--true animal happiness--in good bread and
butter, a leg of cold mutton, and a cup of coffee. And to see the best
of good skippers--as our dear old salt tute was--let himself down in a
right angle after that on the deck, his back against the weather-side of
the mast, and, heaving a sigh of vast internal satisfaction, draw out
his pipe slowly, as if it was a ceremony too precious to be hurried,
and, having put it just right in his lips and lighted it, puff the first
long sweet wreaths of smoke; ah! that was a picture of creature
happiness.