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[Illustration: "THEY SAILED ON, IN THE MOONLIGHT"
(See page 297)]
The Sandman:
His Sea
Stories
By
William J. Hopkins
Author of "The Sandman: His Farm Stories,"
"The Sandman: More Farm Stories," "The
Sandman: His Ship Stories," etc.
With Forty Illustrations by
Diantha W. Horne
This special edition is published by arrangement
with the publisher of the regular edition,
The Page Company.
CADMUS BOOKS
E. M. HALE
AND COMPANY
CHICAGO
_Copyright, 1908_
BY THE PAGE COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
Made in U.S.A.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE SEPTEMBER-GALE STORY 1
THE FIRE STORY 31
THE PORPOISE STORY 44
THE SEAWEED STORY 57
THE FLYING-FISH STORY 74
THE LOG-BOOK STORY 85
THE SHARK STORY 102
THE CHRISTMAS STORY 120
THE SOUNDING STORY 139
THE TEAK-WOOD STORY 153
THE STOWAWAY STORY 171
THE ALBATROSS STORY 185
THE DERELICT STORY 194
THE LIGHTHOUSE STORY 210
THE RUNAWAY STORY 222
THE TRAFALGAR STORY 243
THE CARGO STORY 253
THE PRIVATEER STORY 270
THE RACE STORY 291
THE PILOT STORY 310
THE DRIFTWOOD STORY 325
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"They sailed on, in the moonlight." (See page 297) _Frontispiece_
"Sometimes he had to hold on to the fences" 11
"They saw all sorts of things going up the river" 23
"A great tree that was blown down" 29
"It floated, burning, for a few minutes" 42
"They swam in a funny sort of way" 48
"They had more porpoises on deck than you would
have thought that they could possibly use" 55
"The surface of the sea seemed covered with them" 65
"They amused themselves for a long time" 72
"A school of fish suddenly leaped out of the water" 78
"The sailors were having a good time" 81
The Hour Glass 90
"Little Jacob liked to watch Captain Solomon" 93
"'Right there,' he said, 'you can see his back fin'" 109
The Shark 114
"'Yes, little lad,' he said. 'For you--if you want it'" 129
Christmas Island, 1st View, bearing N by E 132
Christmas Island, 2nd View, bearing SW 133
"Little Jacob watched it ... settle into the ocean" 138
The Lead 149
"He walked all around the great yard with the boys on
his back" 167
"He was in the hold of the ship" 177
The Albatross 188
"They watched it the day after the next, too" 192
"Captain Solomon ... was watching the moon" 199
"The fire blazed up, higher and higher" 207
"At last he went to sleep" 213
The Lighthouse 220
"It was a beautiful farm" 225
"Took up his bundle and went out the wide gate" 231
"He started up, thinking of the farm at home" 235
The Bags of Money 251
"Ran to get another bucket" 267
"With guns and swords and cutlasses" 272
"That was a signal for the _Industry_ to stop" 277
"It was a bigger flag than the first one" 280
"He took it up and looked, very carefully" 315
"The sloop was on her way" 319
"Many times had she been tied up at that wharf" 329
"At last the arm-chair was all done" 338
The Model of the _Industry_ 342
_The Sandman: His Sea Stories_
MORE STORIES OF THE BRIG "INDUSTRY"
THE SEPTEMBER-GALE STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years, and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalks were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and
always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a
city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for
it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown
up with weeds and grass.
Once, more than a hundred years ago, when ships still came to that
wharf, the brig _Industry_ came sailing into that river. For she was
one of the ships that used to come to that wharf, and she used to sail
from it to India and China, and she always brought back silks and cloth
of goats' hair and camels' hair shawls and sets of china and pretty
lacquered tables and trays, and things carved out of ebony and ivory and
teakwood, and logs of teakwood and tea and spices. And she had just got
back from those far countries and Captain Solomon and all the sailors
were very glad to get back. For it was more than a year since she had
sailed out of the little river, and they hadn't seen their families for
all that long time. And a year is a pretty long time for a man to be
sailing on the great ocean and not to see his wife and his dear little
boys and girls.
So they hurried and tied the _Industry_ to the wharf with great ropes
and they went away just as soon as they could. And the men that had
wives and little boys and girls went to see them, and the others went
somewhere. Perhaps they went to the Sailors' Home and perhaps they
didn't. But Captain Solomon went to the office of Captain Jonathan and
Captain Jacob, who were the owners of the _Industry_. Their office was
just at the head of the wharf, so he didn't have far to go. And Captain
Jonathan and Captain Jacob were there waiting for him, and they shook
hands with him and sent him packing off home, to see his wife and baby.
For Captain Solomon hadn't been married much more than a year and he had
sailed away on that long voyage after he had been married four months
and he had left his wife behind. And the baby had been born while he
was gone, so that he hadn't seen him yet. That baby was the one that was
called little Sol, that is told about in some of the Ship Stories.
Captain Solomon wanted to see his wife and his baby, so he hurried off
when Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob told him to.
Then the mate of the _Industry_ got a lot of men and had them take out
of the ship all the things that she had brought from those far
countries. And they wheeled them, on little trucks, into the building
where Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob had their office, and they
piled them up in a great empty room that smelled strangely of camphor
and spices and tea and all sorts of other things that make a nice
smell.
At last all the things were taken out of the _Industry_, so that she
floated very high up in the water and the top of her rail, which the
sailors look over, was high above the wharf. And Captain Jonathan and
Captain Jacob came out of their office to speak to the mate. And the
mate said that the _Industry_ was all unloaded; for he was rather proud
that he had got all those many things out so quickly.
And Captain Jonathan answered the mate and said how quick he had been.
But Captain Jacob didn't say anything, for he was looking around at the
sky. The mate saw that Captain Jacob was looking at the sky, and he
looked up, too.
"Looks as though we might have a breeze o' wind," he said. For little
white feathery clouds were coming up from the southwest and covering
the sky like a thin veil.
Captain Jacob nodded. "More than a breeze," he said; for Captain Jacob
had been a truly captain and he knew about the weather.
"I've got out double warps," said the mate; and he meant that he had
tied the _Industry_ to the wharf with two ropes instead of one at each
place.
Captain Jacob nodded again. "That's well," he said. "That's just as
well."
And the mate said "Good night, sir," to Captain Jonathan and he said it
to Captain Jacob, too, and they bade him good night, and he went home.
That evening Captain Jacob heard the wind as he was playing chess with
Lois. Lois was Captain Jacob's wife. And Captain Jacob listened to the
wind and forgot about the game of chess that he was playing, so that
Lois beat him two games. That made Captain Jacob angry, for Lois didn't
care much about chess and couldn't play as well as Captain Jacob could.
She only played to please Captain Jacob, anyway. And Captain Jacob got
so angry that he put the chessmen away and went to bed; but he didn't
sleep very well, the wind howled so.
Very early in the morning, long before daylight, Captain Jacob got up.
He had been awake for some time, listening to the sound of the rain
against his windows and to the howling and shrieking of the wind. And he
wondered what was happening down on the river and if the _Industry_ was
all right. He knew well enough what was happening along the shore, and
that they would be hearing of wrecks for the next two weeks. They didn't
have the telegraph then, so that they wouldn't read in a morning paper
what had happened far away during the night, but would have to wait for
the stage to bring them the news, or for some boat to bring it. So
Captain Jacob got more and more uneasy, until, at last, he couldn't
stand it any longer.
And he dressed himself as fast as he could and put on his heavy boots
and his great cloak, and he pulled his hat down hard, and he lighted a
lantern and started down to the wharf. It was hard work, for the wind
was so strong that it almost took him up right off the ground, and blew
him along. And sometimes he had to hold on to the fences to keep
himself from blowing away; and he had to watch for a chance, when the
wind wasn't so strong for a minute, to cross the streets. Once he heard
a great crash, and he knew that that was the sound of a chimney that the
wind had blown over. But he couldn't stop to attend to that.
[Illustration: "SOMETIMES HE HAD TO HOLD ON TO THE FENCES"]
When he got to the wharf, he was surprised to see how high the hull of
the _Industry_ was. It wasn't daylight yet, but he could just make out
the bulk of it against the sky. And he was surprised because he knew
that it would not be time for the tide to be high for three hours yet,
and the _Industry_ was floating as high as she would at a very high
tide. So Captain Jacob made his way very carefully out on the wharf,
holding on to ropes and to other things when there were other things
to hold on to, and crouching down low, for he didn't want to be blown
off into the water.
At last he got to the edge, and he held his lantern over and looked down
at the water. And the top of the water was only about three feet down,
for the wind was blowing straight up the river from the ocean, and it
was so strong that it had blown the water from the ocean into the river.
And it was still blowing it in, and was getting stronger every minute.
Captain Jacob looked at the water a minute. "Hello!" he said. But nobody
could have heard him, there was such a noise of the wind and of the
waves washing against the wharf. He didn't say it to anybody in
particular, so he wasn't disappointed that nobody heard him. And he
listened again, and he thought he heard a noise as though somebody was
on the _Industry_. So he climbed up the side, with his lantern, and
there he saw the mate, for it was just beginning to be a little bit
light in the east. The mate was trying to do something with an anchor;
but the anchors were great, enormous, heavy things, and one man couldn't
do anything with them at all.
Captain Jacob went close beside the mate. "What you trying to do?" he
yelled, as loud as he could.
"What, sir?" asked the mate, yelling as loud as he could.
"What--you--trying--to--do?" asked Captain Jacob again. The wind was
playing a tune on every rope on the ship and singing a song besides, so
that the noise, up there on the deck, was fearful.
"Trying to get an anchor out in the river," yelled the mate, putting his
hands to his mouth like a trumpet. "Wharf's going to be flooded as the
tide rises. Afraid she'll capsize!"
"You can't do it alone," yelled Captain Jacob.
"No," yelled the mate. "Can't! Get some men!"
"Good!" yelled Captain Jacob. And the mate climbed down the side.
But the mate didn't have to go far, for some men were already coming as
well as they could, holding on by the fences on the way, and the mate
met those men. And they came on the _Industry_, and lowered the biggest
boat that she had into the water, and they all managed to get in,
somehow or other, and to hold the boat while Captain Jacob and the mate
lowered the anchor into the boat, winding the chain around the capstan.
The anchor was so heavy that it nearly sunk the boat, but it didn't
quite sink it. The end of the boat that the anchor was on was so near
the water that water kept splashing in.
Then the men all rowed very hard and the boat went ahead slowly, while
Captain Jacob and the mate let out more of the anchor chain. But they
couldn't go very far, for the wind was so strong and the waves were so
high and the heavy anchor chain held them back near the ship. When they
had got as far as they could, they managed to pry the anchor overboard.
It went into the water with a tremendous splash, wetting all the men;
but they didn't mind, for they were all wet through already with the
rain and the splashing of the waves. And the boat turned around and went
back to the shore. But the men didn't try to row it back to the
_Industry_. The wind blew them up the river, so that they got to the
shore three or four wharves up, beyond the railway where they pulled
ships up out of the water to mend them. They then walked back as quickly
as they could.
Captain Jacob and the mate had been working hard, taking in some of the
anchor chain. They put two of the bars in the capstan head and pushed as
hard as they could, and they had managed to get a strain on the anchor
by the time the men got back. It was daylight, by this time, and the
tide had risen so much that the men had to go splashing through water
that was up to their ankles all over the top of the wharf. But they
didn't care, and they got up on the ship, and some of them put more bars
in the capstan head and pushed, and some of them let out more of the
great ropes that held the ship to the wharf. They wanted to get her away
from the wharf and out in the river, for they were afraid that the wind
might blow her right over upon the wharf and tip her over. Then it would
be very hard to get her into the water again.
When the anchor chain was pulled in enough, they fastened it and went to
the stern and down one of the great ropes that held the _Industry_ to
the wharf. They went down, half sliding and half letting themselves down
by their hands, and Captain Jacob and the mate and all the men that were
on the ship went down that way. They all had been sailors, and a sailor
has to learn to do such things and not to be afraid. And they all
splashed into the water that was on the top of the wharf. Then they let
out the ropes from that end, but they didn't let them go. And the
_Industry_ lay out in the river, at anchor, about five fathoms from the
end of the wharf. A fathom is six feet, and sailors generally measure
distances in fathoms instead of in feet.
As soon as Captain Jacob had got to the wharf he yelled to the men and
waved his hand to them, for he was afraid that they could not hear him
if he tried to tell them anything. And he started very carefully across
the wharf, holding on to anything he could get hold of, and all the men
followed him. It was very hard work and very dangerous, too, going about
on top of the wharf, for the water was nearly up to the men's knees, and
it was all wavy. And Captain Jacob led the way to the office and opened
the door and they all went in.
As soon as they were inside, they began taking all the things that were
piled up in that great room that had the nice smell, and they carried
them up stairs. They didn't wait to be told what to do, for they knew
well enough that Captain Jacob was afraid that the tide might rise so
high that the floor of that room and of the office would be covered
with water and all the pretty things would be wet and spoiled. Of
course, water wouldn't spoil the china and such things, but it would
spoil the shawls and the silks and the tea and the spices. So they
worked hard until they had all the things up stairs.
And, by that time, the water was beginning to come in at the door and to
creep along over the floor; and Captain Jacob and the mate and all the
men went outside, and stood where they were sheltered from the wind, and
they watched the river, that stretched out very wide indeed, and they
watched the things that were being driven up on its surface by the wind,
and they watched the _Industry_.
They were all standing in the water, but they didn't know it. And they
saw all sorts of things going up the river, with the wind and the
waves: many small boats that had been dragged from their moorings or off
the beaches; and some larger boats that belonged to fishermen; and some
of the fishermen's huts that had stood in a row on a beach; and a part
of a house that had been built too near the water; and logs and boards
from the wharves and all kinds of drifting stuff. It was almost high
tide now, and the wind was stronger than ever. None of the men had had
any breakfast, but they didn't think of that.
"About the height of it, now," said the mate to Captain Jacob. They
could hear each other speak where they were standing, in a place that
was sheltered by the building. "Not so bad here, in the lee of the
office. And the wind'll go down as the tide turns, I'm thinking."
[Illustration: "THEY SAW ALL SORTS OF THINGS GOING UP THE RIVER"]
Captain Jacob nodded. He was watching the _Industry_ pitching in the
great seas that were coming up the river.
"She ought to have more chain out," he said anxiously. "I wish we could
have given her more chain. It's a terrible strain."
"If a man was to go out to her," began the mate, slowly, "he might be
able to give her more. He could shin up those warps----"
"Don't think of it!" said Captain Jacob. "Don't think of it!"
As he spoke, the ship's bow lifted to a great sea, there was a dull
sound that was scarcely heard, and she began to drift, slowly, at first,
until she was broadside to the wind. The anchor chain had broken; but
the great ropes that were fastened to the wharf still held her by the
stern. Then she drifted faster, in toward the wharves. There was a sound
like the report of a small cannon; then another and another. The great
ropes that had held her to the wharf had snapped like thread.
"Well," said Captain Jacob, "now I wonder where she'll bring up. We
can't do anything."
So they watched her drifting in to the wharf where the railway was,
where they pulled ships up out of the water to mend them. And Captain
Jonathan was coming down to the office just as the _Industry_ broke
adrift, and he saw that she would come ashore at the railway. So he
stopped there and waited for her to come. They had there a sort of
cradle, that runs down into the water on rails; and a ship fits into the
cradle and is drawn up out of the water to be mended. And Captain
Jonathan thought of that, and he thought that it wouldn't do any harm to
lower the cradle and see if the _Industry_ wouldn't happen to fit into
it. It might not do any good, but it couldn't do any harm; and the
_Industry_ was all unloaded, and floated very high in the water.
So Captain Jonathan and two other men, who belonged at that railway,
lowered the cradle as much as they thought would be right, and the
_Industry_ drifted in and she did happen to catch on the cradle. She
didn't fit into it exactly, for she was heeled over by the wind, and
she caught on the cradle more on one side than the other; but Captain
Jonathan thought that she would go into the water all right when the
tide went down a little and the cradle was lowered more. And he was glad
that he had happened to think of it.
Then, pretty soon, the tide began to go out again, and the wind stopped
blowing so hard. And, in an hour, there was not more than a strong gale
blowing, and men began to go out in row boats that hadn't broken adrift,
and to pick things up as they came down with the tide. The sea was very
rough, but they were afraid that the things would drift out to sea if
they waited.
And, in a couple of hours more, Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob and
the mate and all the men had the _Industry_ afloat again and were
warping her back to her wharf. There was no great harm done; only some
marks of scraping and bumping and the anchor down at the bottom of the
river.
[Illustration]
Then Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob went home to dinner, and pretty
soon all the men went, too. And they saw a great many chimneys blown
over into yards and a great many fences blown down; and they came to a
great tree that was blown down across the street, and then they saw
another and a third. And they had to go through somebody's yard to get
around these trees. And, when they got home, they heard about an old
woman who had tried to go somewhere, who had been picked up by the wind
and carried a long way and set down again on her own doorstep. And she
had taken the hint and gone into the house.
That great wind, they called the Great September Gale, for it happened
in the early part of September. That is the time of the year that such
great winds are most apt to come. And all the people had it to talk
about for a long time, for there wasn't another such gale for more than
twenty years.
And that's all.
THE FIRE STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and
always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a
city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for
it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown
up with weeds and grass.
One day, in the long ago, the brig _Industry_ sailed away from that
wharf, on a voyage to India. And she sailed down the wide river and out
into the great ocean and on and on until the land was only a dim blue
streak on the horizon; and farther on, and the land sank out of sight,
and there was nothing to be seen, wherever Captain Solomon looked, but
that great, big water, that was so blue and that danced and sparkled in
the sunshine. For it was a beautiful afternoon and there was just a
gentle wind blowing, so that the _Industry_ had every bit of sail set
that could be set: mainsail and foresail and spanker, main-topsail, and
fore-topsail, main-topgallantsail and fore-topgallantsail and main-royal
and fore-royal and main-skysail and fore-skysail and staysails and all
her jibs and a studdingsail on every yard, out on its boom. She was
sailing very fast, and she was a pretty sight, with that cloud of
canvas. She looked like a great white bird. I wish that you and I could
have seen her.
And the crew didn't have much to do, when they had got all those sails
set. They had already been divided into watches, so that every man knew
what his duty would be, and when he would have to be on deck, ready to
work, and when he could sleep. And they stood at the rail, mostly, and
they leaned on it and looked out over the water in the direction of that
little city that they were leaving behind them and that they wouldn't
see again for nearly a year. They couldn't see the little city because
it was down behind the roundness of the world; but they saw the sun,
which was almost setting. And the sun sank lower and lower until it sank
into the sea. And there were all sorts of pretty colors, in the west,
which changed and grew dim, and disappeared. And the stars came out, one
by one, and it was night.
Captain Solomon didn't have any of those many sails taken in, because
he knew that it would be pleasant weather all night, and that the wind
would be less rather than more. And it was such a beautiful night that
he didn't go to bed early, but stayed on deck until it was very late;
and he watched the stars and the water and he listened to the wash of
the waves as the ship went through them and he saw the foam that she
made; and he felt the gentle wind blowing on his cheek, and it all
seemed very good to him. Captain Solomon loved the sea. Then, when it
was very late, and they were just going to change the watch, he went
into the cabin to go to bed.
Before he had got his clothes off, he heard a commotion on deck, and the
mate came running down.
"The ship's on fire, sir," he said. "There's smoke coming out of the
forward hatch."
Captain Solomon said something and threw on his clothes that he had
taken off and ran out on deck. It was less than half a minute from the
time the mate had told him. And he saw a little, thin column of smoke
rising out of the forward hatchway, just as the mate had said. They had
the hatch off by this time, and the sailors were all on deck. The
hatchway is a square hole in the deck that leads down into the hold,
where the things are put that the ship carries. It has a cover made of
planks, and the cover fits on tightly and can be fastened down. It
usually is fastened when the ship is going.
Captain Solomon spoke to the mate. "Put her about on the other tack,"
he said, "and head for Boston, while we fight it. If we get it under, as
I think we will, we'll lose only a couple of hours. If we don't, we can
get help there. We ought to make Boston by daylight."
"Aye, aye, sir," said the mate. And he gave the orders in a sharp voice,
and most of the crew jumped for the sails and the ropes and pulled and
hauled, and they soon had the ship heading for Boston. But the second
mate and a few of the sailors got lanterns and lighted them.
And, when they had lighted their lanterns, the second mate jumped down
the hatchway into the smoke, and four sailors jumped down after him. And
they began tumbling about the bales of things; but they couldn't tumble
them about very much, for there wasn't room, the cargo had been stowed
so tightly. And the second mate asked Captain Solomon to rig a tackle to
hoist some of the things out on deck.
"Doing it, now," answered Captain Solomon. "It'll be ready in half a
minute."
And they got the tackle rigged right over the hatchway, and they let
down one end of the rope to the second mate. This end of the rope that
was let down had two great, iron hooks that could be hooked into a bale,
one on each side. And the second mate and the sailors that were down
there with him hooked them into a bale and yelled. Then a great many of
the sailors, who already had hold of the other end of the rope, ran away
with it, so that the bale came up as if it had been blown up through
the hatchway. Then other sailors caught it, and threw it over to one
side and unhooked the hooks, and they let them down into the hold again.
They got up a great many bales in this way, and they did it faster than
the _Industry_ had ever been unloaded before. And the sailors that ran
away with the rope sang as they ran.
"What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"
was the chanty that they sang. And, at last, the second mate and the
four sailors came out of the hold, and they were choking with the smoke
and rubbing their eyes.
"Getting down to it, sir," said the second mate, "but we couldn't stand
any more."
So the first mate didn't wait, but he took the second mate's lantern and
jumped down.
"Four men follow me!" he cried; and all the other sailors, who hadn't
been down yet, jumped for the lanterns of the four sailors who had been
down, and Captain Solomon laughed.
"That's the way to do it!" he cried. "That's the sort of spirit I like
to see. We'll have it out in a jiffy. Four of you men at a time. You'll
all have a turn. Man the pumps, some of you, and be ready to turn a
stream down there if it's wanted."
So the four who had been nearest to the lanterns went down, and some of
the others tailed on to the rope, and still others got the pumps ready
and rigged a hose and put the end of it down the hatchway. But they
didn't pump, because Captain Solomon knew that water would do harm to
the cargo that wasn't harmed yet, and he didn't want to pump water into
the hold unless he had to.
Then they all hurried some more and got out more bales, until the mate
and his four men had to come up; but there were more men waiting to go
down, and, this time, Captain Solomon led them.
He hadn't been there long before he called out. "Here she is!" he said.
And the sailors hoisted out a bale that was smoking. As soon as it was
on deck, out in the air, it burst into flames.
Captain Solomon had come up. "Heave it overboard!" he cried. And four
sailors took hold of it and heaved it over the side into the water. The
_Industry_ was sailing pretty fast and quickly left it astern, where it
floated, burning, for a few minutes; then, as the water soaked into the
bale, it got heavier, and sank, and the sailors saw the light go out,
suddenly.
[Illustration]
Captain Solomon drew a long breath. "Put her on her course again, Mr.
Steele," he said to the mate. "We won't lose any more time. You can have
this mess cleared up in the morning."
And the sailors jumped for the ropes, although they were pretty tired,
and they swung the yards around, two at a time, with a chanty for each.
The _Industry_ was sailing away for India again. And, the next day they
cleared the smoke out of the hold, and they stowed the cargo that had
been taken out in the night, and they put on the hatch and fastened it.
And that's all.
THE PORPOISE STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and
always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a
city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for
it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown
up with weeds and grass.
Once, in the long ago, the brig _Industry_ had sailed away from the
wharf and out into the great ocean on a voyage to India. And she had
been gone from the wide river three or four days, and she was well out
into the ocean and no land was in sight, but only water and once in a
while another ship. But they didn't see ships as often as they had at
first, and it was good weather and the wind was fair, so that there
wasn't anything much for the sailors to do. The mates kept them as busy
as they could, washing down the deck and coiling ropes, and doing a lot
of other things that didn't need to be done, for the _Industry_ had just
been fixed up and painted and made as clean as she could be made. And
that was pretty clean. So the sailors didn't care very much about doing
a lot of things that didn't need to be done, but they did them, as
slowly as they could, because, if they said that they wouldn't do things
that the mates or the captain told them to do, that would be mutiny. And
mutiny, at sea, is a very serious thing for everybody. It satisfied
Captain Solomon and the mate well enough to have the men do things
slowly, so long as they did them. For they knew that the men would do
things quickly if there was any need for quickness.
Then, one morning, just as it began to be light, the man who was the
lookout thought that he saw something in the water about the ship that
didn't look quite like waves. And it got a little lighter so that he
could make sure, and he called some others of his watch and told them to
look and see the school of porpoises. And they all looked, and those men
told others who looked over the side, too, and pretty soon all the men
of that watch were leaning on the rail and looking at the porpoises.
That made the mate who was on watch look over, too, so that every man on
deck was looking over the side into the water. Then the sun came up out
of the water.
[Illustration]
What they saw was a great many big fishes, all black and shining, and
each one had spots of white on its side and a funny-shaped head. Most of
them seemed to be about the size of a man, and they swam in a funny sort
of way, in and out of the water, so that their backs showed most of the
time, and they glistened and shone and their spots of white made them
rather a pretty sight. And now and then they spouted little jets of
water and spray out of their heads into the air, just as if they were
little whales. Porpoises are more like little whales than they are like
fishes, for they have to breathe air, just as whales do, and they spout
just as whales do, and they are like whales in other ways. They aren't
really fishes, at all.
The _Industry_ was sailing very fast, for the wind was fair and strong,
and she had all the sails set that she could set; but the porpoises
didn't seem to think she was going very fast, for they had no trouble at
all to keep up with her and they could play by the way, too. And so
they did, hundreds of them. Some of them kept just ahead of her stem,
where it cut through the water, and they leaped and gambolled, but the
ship never caught up with them. And they were doing the same thing all
about.
Seeing the porpoises that kept just ahead of the _Industry_ made the
sailors think of something and they all thought of the same thing at
once. Perhaps it was because it was about breakfast time. Four of the
men went aft to speak to the mate, who was standing where the deck is
higher. And the mate didn't wait for them to speak, for he knew just
what they were going to ask him. The men had their hats in their hands
by the time they got near.
The mate smiled. "Yes, you may," he said. "I'll get 'em." And he went
into the cabin.
When he had gone the men grinned at each other and looked pleased and
each man was thinking that the mate was not so bad, after all, even if
he did make them do work that didn't need to be done, just to kept them
busy. But they didn't say anything.
Then the mate came out, and he had two harpoons in his hand.
"There!" he said. "Two's enough. You'd only get in each other's way if
there were more. Bend a line on to each, and make it fast, somewhere."
Then Captain Solomon came on deck, and he offered a prize of half a
pound of tobacco to the best harpooner. And the men cheered when they
heard him, and they took the harpoons and ran forward.
They hurried and fastened a rather small rope on to each harpoon, in the
way a rope ought to be fastened to a harpoon, and two of the sailors
took the two harpoons and went down under the bowsprit, in among the
chains that go from the end of the bowsprit to the stem of the ship.
They went there so as to be near the water. They might get wet there,
but they didn't care about that. And the other end of the rope, that was
fastened to each harpoon, was made fast up on deck, so that the harpoon
shouldn't be lost if it wasn't stuck into a porpoise, and so that the
porpoise shouldn't get away if it was stuck into him.
One of the sailors was so excited that he didn't hit anything with his
harpoon, and the sailors up on deck hauled it in. The other sailor
managed to hit a porpoise, but he was excited, too, and the harpoon
didn't go in the right place. When the sailors up on deck tried to haul
the porpoise in, it broke away, and went swimming off.
Then those sailors came back on deck and two others took their places.
One of those others had been harpooner on a whaleship before he went on
the _Industry_. He didn't get excited at harpooning a porpoise, but
drove his harpoon in at just exactly the right place, and the sailors up
on deck hauled that porpoise in. Afterwards, that sailor got the half
pound of tobacco that Captain Solomon had offered as a prize, because he
harpooned his porpoise just exactly the right way.
The sailor that went with him struck a porpoise, too, but it wasn't
quite in the right place, and the men had hard work to get him.
And then other sailors came and tried, and they took turns until they
had more porpoises on deck than you would have thought that they could
possibly use.
And all the men had porpoise steak for breakfast that morning and
porpoise steak for dinner, and porpoise steak for supper. Sailors call
porpoises "puffing pigs," and porpoise steak tastes something like pork
steak, and sailors like it. But they had it for every meal until there
was only one porpoise left, and that one they had to throw overboard.
And that's all.
[Illustration: "THEY HAD MORE PORPOISES ON DECK THAN YOU WOULD HAVE
THOUGHT THAT THEY COULD POSSIBLY USE"]
THE SEAWEED STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and
always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a
city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for
it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown
up with weeds and grass.
The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the
ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from
that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they made up their
minds that they ought to move their office to Boston. And so they did.
And, after that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston and Captain
Jonathan and Captain Jacob had their office on India street. Then the
change began in that little city and that wharf.
Once, in the long ago, the brig _Industry_ had sailed from Boston for a
far country, and little Jacob had gone on that voyage. Little Jacob was
Captain Jacob's son and Lois's, and the grandson of Captain Jonathan,
and when he went on that voyage he was almost thirteen years old. And
little Sol went, too. He was Captain Solomon's son, and he was only a
few months younger than little Jacob. Captain Solomon had taken him in
the hope that the voyage would discourage him from going to sea. But, as
it turned out, it didn't discourage him at all, but he liked going to
sea, so that afterwards he ran away and went to sea, and became the
captain of that very ship, as you shall hear.
The _Industry_ had been out a little more than a week, and she had run
into a storm. The storm didn't do any harm except to blow her out of her
course, and then she ran out of it. And the next morning little Jacob
came out on deck and he looked for little Sol. The first place that he
looked in was out on the bowsprit; for little Sol liked to be out there,
where he could see all about him and could see the ship making the wave
at her bow and feel as if he wasn't on the ship, at all, but free as
air. It was a perfectly safe place to be in, for there were nettings on
each side to keep him from falling, and he didn't go out beyond the
nettings onto the part that was just a round spar sticking out.
When little Jacob got to the bow of the ship, he looked out on the
bowsprit, and there was little Sol; but he wasn't lying on his back as
he was most apt to be, nor he wasn't lying down with one hand propping
up his head, which was the way he liked to lie to watch the wave that
the ship made. He was lying stretched out on his stomach, with both
hands propping up his chin, and he was looking straight out ahead, so
that he didn't see little Jacob. And the _Industry_ was pitching a good
deal, for the storm had made great waves, like mountains, and the waves
that were left were still great. The ship made a sort of growling noise
as she went down into a wave, and a sort of hissing noise as she came
up out of it, and little Jacob was--well, not afraid, exactly, but he
didn't just like to go out there where little Sol was, with the ship
making all those queer noises. You see, it was little Jacob's first
storm at sea. It was little Sol's first storm, too; but then, boys are
different.
So little Jacob called. "Sol!" he said.
Little Sol turned his head quickly. "Hello, Jake," said he. "Come on
out. There's lots to see out here to-day."
"Are--are there things to see that I couldn't see from here?" asked
little Jacob.
"Of course there are," answered little Sol, scornfully. "You can't see
anything from there--anything much."
"The ship pitches a good deal," remarked little Jacob. "Don't you think
so?"
"Oh, some," said little Sol, "but it's safe enough after you get here.
You could crawl out. I walked out. See here, I'll walk in, to where you
are, on my hands."
And little Sol scrambled up and walked in on his hands, with his feet in
the air. He let his feet down carelessly. "There!" he said. "You see."
"Well," said little Jacob. "I can't walk on my hands, because I don't
know how. You show me, Sol, will you?--when it's calm. And I'll walk out
on my feet."
Little Jacob was rather white, but he didn't hesitate, and he walked out
on the bowsprit to the place where he generally sat. It was rather hard
work keeping his balance, but he did it. And little Sol came after, and
said he would show him how to walk on his hands, some day when it was
calm enough. For little Sol didn't think little Jacob was afraid, and
the two boys liked each other very much.
"There!" said little Sol, when they were settled, "you look out ahead,
and see if you see anything."
So little Jacob looked and looked for a long time, but he didn't know
what he was looking for, and that makes a great difference about seeing
a thing.
"I don't see anything," said he. "What is it, Sol--a ship!"
"No, oh no," answered little Sol. "It's on the water--on the surface.
We've almost got to one of 'em."
[Illustration]
So little Jacob looked again, and he saw what looked, at first, like a
calm streak on the water. There seemed to be little sticks sticking up
out of the calm streak. Then he saw that it looked like a narrow island,
except that it went up and down with the waves. Sometimes he saw one
part of it, and then he saw another part. And the island was all covered
with water, and the water near it was calm, and it was a yellowish
brown, like seaweed. In a minute or two the _Industry_ was ploughing
through it, and he could see that it was a great mass of floating
seaweed that gave way, before the ship, like water, and the little
sticks that he had seen, sticking up, were the stems. A little way ahead
there was another of the floating islands; and another and another,
until the surface of the sea seemed covered with them. They were really
fifteen or twenty fathoms apart; but, from a distance, it didn't look as
if they were.
"Why, Sol," said little Jacob, in surprise, "it doesn't stop the ship at
all. I should think it would. What is it?"
"Well," answered little Sol. "I asked one of the men, and he laughed and
said it was nothing but seaweed--that the ship would make nothing of it.
I was afraid we were running aground. And the man said that the rows--it
gets in windrows, like hay that's being raked up--he said that the
windrows were broken up a good deal by the storm; that he's often seen
'em stretching as far as the eye could see, and a good deal thicker than
these are."
Little Jacob laughed. "What are you laughing at?" asked little Sol,
looking up.
"'As far as the eye could see,'" said little Jacob.
"Well," said little Sol, "that's just what he said, anyway."
"I'm going to ask your father about it," said little Jacob. "He'll know
all about it. He always knows." And he got up, carefully, and made his
way inboard; then he ran aft, to look for Captain Solomon.
He found Captain Solomon on the quarter deck, leaning against the part
of the cabin that stuck up through the deck. He was half sitting on it
and looking out at the rows of seaweed that they passed. So little Jacob
asked him.
"Yes, Jacob," answered Captain Solomon, "it's just seaweed, nothing but
seaweed. We're just on the edge of the Sargasso Sea, and that means
nothing but Seaweed Sea. The weed gets in long rows, just as you see it
now, only the rows are apt to be longer and not so broken up. It's the
wind that does it, and the ocean currents. It's my belief that the wind
is the cause of the currents, too. I've seen acres of this weed packed
so tight together that it looked as if we were sailing on my south
meadow just at haying time. I don't see that south meadow at haying time
very often, now, but I shall see it, please God, pretty soon."
"Well," said little Jacob, "I should think that it would get all tangled
up so that it would stop the ship."
"My south meadow?" asked Captain Solomon. He was thinking of haying, and
he had forgotten the Seaweed Sea.
Little Jacob laughed. "No, sir," he answered. "The seaweed. Why doesn't
it get all tangled like ropes, so that it stops the ship?"
"The plants aren't long enough," said Captain Solomon. "Come, we'll get
some of it for you."
"Oh!" cried little Jacob. "Will you? Thank you, sir."
And Captain Solomon told two of the sailors to come and to bring a big
bucket. The bucket had a long rope fastened across, and the end was long
enough to reach from the water up to the deck of the _Industry_. They
use buckets like that to dip up the salt water; and, when the ship is
going the sailors have to be very careful and very quick or they will
lose the bucket, it pulls so hard.
So one sailor dipped the bucket just as they were passing over one of
the rows of seaweed; and the other sailor took hold of the rope, too, as
soon as he had dipped the bucket, and they pulled it up and set it on
deck. Captain Solomon stooped and took up a plant. There were two plants
in the bucket. Little Sol had come when he saw the sailors with the
bucket.
And Captain Solomon showed the boys that a plant was about the size of a
cabbage, and that it had a great many little balloons that grew on it
about as big as a pea, and these balloons were filled with air to make
the plant float. Some of them were almost as big as a nut, and little
Sol and little Jacob had fun trying to make them pop.
[Illustration]
Then little Sol found a tiny fish in the bucket that was just the color
of the weed; and little Jacob saw another, and then he saw a crab drop
from the weed that Captain Solomon was holding, and the crab was just
the color of the weed, too. And they amused themselves for a long time
with hunting for the queer fishes and crabs and shrimps, and something
that was like a mussel, but it wasn't just like one, either. And they
found a place in the weed where were some little balls. And they opened
the balls, and little Sol said he'd bet that they were where some
animal laid its eggs. But little Jacob didn't say anything, for he
didn't pretend to know anything about it. But Captain Solomon got tired
of holding that weed, so he dropped it back into the bucket and went
away. And, at last, when little Jacob and little Sol got tired of
hunting for things in the weed, the sailors threw it over into the ocean
again.
And that's all.
THE FLYING-FISH STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go
down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way.
And because ships had come there for a great many years and all the
sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the
ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the
sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and
always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a
city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for
it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown
up with weeds and grass.
The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the
ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from
that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their
office to Boston. After that their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.
Once, the brig _Industry_ had sailed from Boston for a far country and
she had got down into the warm parts of the ocean. Little Jacob and
little Sol had gone on that voyage. Little Sol always got out on deck,
in the morning, a little while before little Jacob got out. And, one
morning, he had gone on deck and little Jacob was hurrying to finish his
breakfast, when little Sol came running back and stuck his head in at
the cabin door.