"Till now we quietly sailed on,
Yet never a breeze did blow;
Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
Moved onward from beneath.
"The upper air burst into life,
And a hundred fire-flags sheen,
To and fro they were hurried about,
And to and fro and in and out
The war stars danced between."
Coleridge.
"Deed and indeed," said Rory, "if it be my turn I won't be after
spoiling the fun; and sure, boys, thim is the very words my
great-grandfather said when he and a dozen more were going to be hanged
at Ballyporeen in the troublesome times.
"And is it a story you said?"
"Yes, Rory, a story."
Now Rory's religious feelings and his sense of humour used oftentimes to
be strangely at loggerheads. The fact is, he would not tell a wilful
falsehood for all he was worth.
"But, sure," he would say, "there can't be a taste of harm in telling a
story or two just to amuse the boys." Yet, to make assurance doubly
sure, and his conscience as easy as possible, he always prefaced his
yarns with a bit of advice such as follows--"Now, boys, believe me, it's
lies I'm going to be after telling you entirely. Believe me, there
isn't a morsel av truth in any av me stories, from beginning to ind, and
there's sorra a lie in that."
On this particular occasion, instead of commencing at once, Rory took
his pipe from his mouth, and sat gazing for about a minute into
dreamland, as one might say, with smiles playing at hide-and-seek all
over his face.
"Thim was the glorious toimes, boys," he said.
"What times, Rory?"
"Did I never tell you, then?" replied Rory, trying to look innocent.
"What! not about the beautiful island, and the mighty mountains, and the
goold, and the jewels, and the big turtle and all?"
"No, Rory, never a word."
"Well, then, to begin with, it's ten years ago, and maybe a bit more, so
I wasn't so old as I am now. I hadn't been more'n a year or two at sea,
and mostly coasting that same would be, though sure enough my great
ambition was to sail away beyond the sunrise, or away to the back av the
north wind and seek me fortune. It was living at home in ould Oirland I
was then, with mother and Molly--the saints be around them this
noight!--and a swater, claner, tidier bit av a lass than me sister Molly
there doesn't live 'tween here and Tralee, and sure that is the only bit
av real truth in the whole av me story."
"We perfectly believe that, Rory."
"Well thin, boys, it was crossing the bog I was one beautiful moonlight
night about five o'clock in the morning, and a big wild bog it was, too,
with never a house nor a cot in it, and nobody at all barrin' the
moor-snipes and the kelpies, when all at once, what or who should I see
standing right foreninst me, beside a rick av peats, but a gentleman in
sailor's clothes, with gold all round his hat, and a bunch av seals
dangling in front av him as big as turkey's eggs. And sure it wasn't
shy he was at spaking either, boys.
"`The top av the mornin' to ye,' says he.
"`The same to you,' says I, quite bold-like, though my heart felt as big
as peat; `the same to you and a thousand av them.'
"`Is it poor or rich ye are?' says he.
"`As poor as a peat creel,' says I.
"`Then sure,' says he, `I daresay it isn't sorry to make your fortune
you'd be.'
"`I'll do anything short of shootin' a fellow-bein',' says I, `for that
same.'
"`Well,' says he, `it's lookin' out for nate young fellows like yourself
I do be, and if you'll sail with me to a foreign shore, thir you'll see
what you'll see.'
"`I'm your man then,' I says.
"`You'll have lashin's o' atin' and drinkin',' says he, `and lashin's o'
gold for the gatherin', but there is one thing, and that isn't two,
which I must tell you; you'll have to fight, Rory lad.'
"`I'm your man again,' says I. `Sure there isn't a boy in all the
parish I can't bate black and blue before ye could sneeze. And I spat
in my fist as I spoke.'
"`Ah! but,' says he, `the cave where all the gold is is guarded by the
ugliest old goblin that ever was created. It is him you'll have to help
fight, Rory; it's him you'll have to help fight.'
"`Och!' I cries, `no matter at all, at all; the uglier the better, so
long as he's got the goold behind him. Rory will walk through him like
daylight through a dishcloth. Hurrah!'
"And I began to jump about, and spar at all the ugly old imaginary
goblins I could think of.
"The gintleman laughed.
"`You'll do fust-rate,' he says, says he; `shake hands on the subject.'
"And he gave me his hand, and truth, boys, it felt as cold and damp as
the tail av a fish. And more betoken, I couldn't help noticing that all
the time he was speakin' to me, he kept changing his size. At one
moment he didn't look a morsel bigger than a pint bottle, and next--
troth, he was tall enough to spit on me hat.
"`But two heads are better than one,' says I to myself; `next mornin'
I'll go and see the priest.'
"`It was a mere optical allusion,' said the priest, when I told him how
the gintleman was sometimes big and sometimes small, a `mere optical
allusion, Rory,' he says; `had you been tasting the crayture?'
"`Troth, maybe I had,' says I.
"`Well,' says he, `that was it. To my thinking this sailor gintleman is
an honest man enough. Meet him, Rory, in Dublin as he axed you, and
sail with him, Tim; sure it'll make a man o' ye, and your mother and
Molly as well, Rory.'
"`Well,' says I, `give me your blessin', your riverance, and I'll be
after going.'
"`I'll not be denying ye that same,' says his riverance.
"But it was mother and Molly that wept when I told them where I was
going. Och! they did weep, to be sure; but when I told them of all the
foine countries I'd see, and all the goold I'd bring home, troth it's
brighten up they did wonderful, and for all the fortnight before I
sailed we did nothing but talk, and talk, and talk, bar that all the
time they were talking it is mending me shirts and darning me stockings
the dear craytures were.
"Well wi' this and wi' that the time passed away quickly enough, and at
long last I bade them good-bye, and with a big lump in me throat, away I
started for Dublin Bay.
"I mind it well, boys; it was the dark hour av midnight when we got up
anchor and sailed away, and there was such a thunderstorm rattling over
the big hill o' Howth as I'd never seen the likes of in my born days.
There wasn't a breath av wind either, but somehow that didn't make a
morsel av difference to the ship one way or another. She was a quare
ship.
"We were far out of sight av land next morning, and with niver another
ship to be seen. It didn't seem sailing we were, boys, but flying; it
didn't seem through the water we went, but over it, boys. It's a foine
ship she was, and a purty one as well.
"Talk av white decks, boys! ours were alabaster, and the copper nails in
her weren't copper at all, but the purest av gold, and the brass work
the same. Sure didn't I get me ould knife out just to try it.
"`Don't you be scraping at that,' says the captain, right behind me,
`and spoiling the looks av the ship. It's plenty of that we'll get
where we're going to.'
"Then I looks up, and there stood the captain right a-top av the
binnacle, and sorra more than one eye had he. `By the powers!' says I,
`what have ye done with your other eye, captain?'
"`Whisht, Rory!' says he; `it's in the locker down below I keep the
other. One eye is enough to use at a time.'
"`If it's a good one,' says I, talking friendly loike.
"`It's me weather eye, Rory,' says he; `but go and do your duty, Rory,
and keep silence when ye talk to your supairior officer.'
"The crew av this strange ship, boys, were forty av the foinest fellows
that ever walked on two legs, barrin' that niver a one o' them had more
than one leg apiece, and it was hop they did instead av walking like
dacint Christians. `Only one leg apiece,' says I to the bo'swain's
mate.
"`One leg is enough to go to sea with,' says he; `but go and do your
duty, Rory, and keep silence when ye spake to your supairior officer.'
"It was a quare ship, boys, with a one-eyed captain and a one-legged
crew.
"It was, maybe, a fortnight after we sailed, and maybe more, when one
day the sky grew all dark, the wind blew, and the thunders rolled and
rattled, and the seas rose mountains high, and sure I thought the end of
the world had come, and what would poor mother and Molly do without me.
But short was the time given me to think, boys.
"`It's all your fault,' cried my messmates, swarming round me.
"`Out with one eye,' cries the captain.
"`Off with one leg,' cries the crew.
"`Never a one av me eyes will ye have, ye spalpeens!' I roars; `and as
for me legs, I manes to stick to the whole lot av the two av them. Come
on,' I cries; `stand up foreninst Rory if there is a bit av courage
among ye.'
"But what could one man do among so many av them, boys? And it's down
they'd have had me, and me one leg would have been off in a jiffey, if I
hadn't made the best use av the pair av them. `Bad success to ye all,'
I cries, jumping on to the bowsprit, `ye bog-trotting crew; I'll trust
to the tinder mercies av the sharks afore I'll stop longer among ye.'
And over I leapt into the boiling sea. The water went surging into my
ears as I sank, but even at that moment it was me poor mother and Molly
I was thinking most about, and whativer they'd do athout me at all, at
all.
"Boys, when I came to the top av the wather agin, sorra a ship was to be
seen anywhere; the sky was clear and blue, and the wind had all gone
down. `Rory O'Reilly!' says a voice near me.
"And with that I looks round, and what should I see, but the ugliest
craythure av an ould man that ever was born.
"`You're well rid o' the lot,' says the craythure.
"`Thrue for you,' says I; `and as ye spake so frindly loike, maybe you'd
be after tellin' me how far it is to the nearest house av
entertainment.'
"`Take a howld av me tail,' says the craythure, `and sure I'll tow ye
there in a twinklin'.'
"`Is it a merman ye are, then,' says I, `or the little ould man av the
sea?'
"`It's a merman, sure enough,' he replied; and wi' that I catches howld
av his tail, and away we goes as cheerful as ye plaze, boys, and all the
toime the ould craythure kept tellin' me about the beautiful home av the
mermaids beneath the blue says, and their couches av pearl and coralline
halls, and the lovely gardens, with the flowers all growing and moving
with the wash av the warm waves, and av the strange-shaped fishes with
diamonds and sparkling gems in their heads, that swim round and round av
a noight to give the purty damsels light, to ate and to drink and to
dance in.
"`And do you dwell among all this beauty?' says I to the ugly old
craythure.
"`What!' says he, `the loikes o' me dwell in sich places? No,' says he,
`Rory O'Reilly, it's only a slave I am, for there is a moighty
difference twixt a _mermaid_ and a _merman_. But here you are at the
island.'
"And with that he gave his tail a shake, and I found myself lying in the
sunshine on the coral sands, with no little ould man near me at all, at
all.
"Now, boys, what should happen next, but I should fall as sound asleep
as a babe in its cradle. Maybe it was the pangs of hunger that wakened
me, and maybe it wasn't, for before I opened me eyes, I had opened me
ears, and such a confusion av swate sounds I'd never heard before, and
sartainly never since.
"I kept me eyes firmly closed, wondering where I was, and trying to
think back; and think back I did to the goblin ship and its goblin crew,
and the little ould man av the sea that towed me on shore with his tail.
The sounds were at first like the murmur av bees, then bird songs were
added to them, sweeter than all delicious strains av music, that stirred
every pulse in me body. And with that I opened me eyes.
"I'll give ye me word av honour, boys, and me hand on it as well, I was
so astonished at all I saw around me, that never a thing could I do at
all, at all, but lie still and stare.
"It was in fairyland I was, sure enough. What were those beautiful
beings, I kept asking myself, that glided over the golden ground, or,
with trailing, gauzy garments and flowing hair, went floating through
the sky itself, keeping time every one of them to the dreamy rhythm of
the music that filled the air, and didn't seem to come from any
direction in particular? Were they peris, sylphs, fays, or fairies, or
a choice selection of mermaids come on shore for a dance?
"I'd fallen asleep on the snow-white sand. There was no sand here now,
sure; all was green and gold, and shrubs and flowers and coloured
fountains were all around me. But it was night all the same. And the
strange thing was this, every leaf and flower gave out light of its own
colour. But, glimmering down through the beautiful haze, I could see
the twinkling stars, and I offered up a prayer and felt safe.
"The music grew quicker, merrier, madder, and at last sure I couldn't
stand it a moment longer, and up I starts.
"`Och! if you plaze,' I says, `I'll mingle in the mazy dance meself, and
there isn't a boy in Ballyporeen can bate me at the rale ould Oirish
jig.'
"But sure, boys, as Burns says--
"`In a moment all was dark.'
"Away went shrubs and flowers and fountains and sylphs and fairies and
fays and all, and there stood poor Rory O'Reilly on the sands once more,
with the wee waves frothing up at his feet, and scratching his head, and
feeling more like a fool than ever he did in his born days.
"`Well, sure,' says I to myself, `there is no knowing what to make av
it. But,' I says, `a little more sleep won't hurt me, anyhow.'
"So down I lies again on the sand.
"It was daylight when I awoke again once more. But where was I now? No
fairies this time. But sure I was among the strangest race of beings
imagination could conceive av. The country all around me was honest and
purty enough; trees, fields, hills, and houses, and all might have been
a part of ould Oirland itself. But the people, boys--why, it was
indiarubber they must have been made av, and nothing else. At one
moment a man would be as tall and thin as a flagstaff, next moment about
the shape and fashion of a bull frog. They could stretch their arms out
till twenty yards long, and make their mouths big enough to swallow a
sheep. It wasn't in at the door either they'd be going when entering
their dwellings, but straight through the keyhole.
"It was, maybe, a handy arrangement one way or the other, but troth it
frightened poor Rory O'Reilly, and as none av the ugly craytures seemed
to take any notice av me, I made my feet my friends, and got quietly
away.
Well, after wandering in this enchanted island for more than a week, and
never tasting a bit or a sup all the time, right glad I was to find
meself by the sea once more.
"Escape I must, at all hazards. But how was I to get a boat I was
thinking and wondering, when all at once me eyes fell on a great
turtle-shell.
"The very thing, boys; nothing could be easier than to make a boat and
sail away in this.
"It didn't take me long either to step a mast, and to load up with fruit
and with shell-fish; then I got my boat afloat, and with my jacket for a
sail away I went, and before long the enchanted island went down below
the horizon, and I niver felt happier in my life before, than when I saw
the last of it."
Rory O'Reilly stopped to fill his pipe, and having done so, smoked
quietly on for a few minutes, while all waited patiently for the
completion of his yarn.
"Well, Rory," said Skipper James at last. "Go on; that isn't all,
surely? How did your adventurous voyage end?"
"Is it how did it end?" said Rory. "Well, boys, there arose a terrible
storm, and the waves dashed over me, and the cowld hail and snow and
rain--"
"And thunder and lightning, Rory?"
"Yes, Captain James, and thunder and lightning; but sure in the midst av
it all came an angel's voice from the clouds, singing--oh! iver so
sweetly--
"`There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As the dear little vale where the waters do meet.
Ah! the last link of freedom and life shall depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.'
"And by this and by that, boys, I opened me eyes again."
"Opened your eyes again, Rory?" cried the skipper.
"Yes, sure, and there I was in me own mother's cabin, and there was my
sister Biddy, the darlint, standing foreninst me and singing like a
sylph, and sprinkling me face wid wather. And troth, boys, it was all a
drame, ivery word I've been telling ye."
"Well done, Rory," cried Skipper James, "and now for a song and dance,
boys, for Saturday night only comes once a week."
The fiddler struck up a hornpipe, and once more the deck was filled; and
so with music, with dancing, and song the night sped merrily on.
Book 2--CHAPTER TEN.