"CAP'N COD," SABELLA, AND THE _WHATNOT_.
In order to explain the presence beside that tow-head of the queer
craft on board which Winn had found shelter, and of its several
occupants, who were making such kindly efforts to relieve his distress,
it is necessary to take a twenty-year glance backward. At that time
Aleck Fifield, a Yankee jack-of-all-trades, who had been by turns a
school-teacher, sailor, mechanic, boat-builder, and several other
things as well, found himself employed as stage-carpenter in a Boston
theatre. He had always been possessed of artistic tastes, though they
had never carried him beyond sign-painting, and of dramatic longings,
which had thus far been satisfied with a diligent reading of
Shakespeare and attending the theatre at every opportunity. Now, being
regularly connected with the stage, both these tastes expanded, until
through one of them he blossomed into a very passable scene-painter.
Through the other he overwhelmed himself with despair, and convulsed an
audience with laughter, by appearing once, and once only, as Captain
Thomas Codringhampton in the popular sea drama of "Blue Billows." His
failure as an actor was so dismal and complete as to be notorious.
Unkind comparisons of other bad acting with that of Cap'n Cod became
stock jokes in every theatre of the country. From that day the stage
name clung to him; and though it galled at first, the passage of time
soothed the wound, until finally Aleck Fifield became proud of the
name. As he grew older, it represented to him the fame for which he
had longed when young. When the war broke out and he became one of the
bravest defenders of the Union, he was everywhere known as "Cap'n Cod."
After the war, in which he managed to lose a leg, he went to Iowa to
live with his only relative, a widowed niece, who had but one child, a
little girl.
Between this child, Sabella, and the white-haired veteran, who could
tell more tales than a fairy-book, and construct more toys than Santa
Claus ever dreamed of, there sprang up an affection that could not have
been stronger had they been father and daughter. On one side it was
based upon boundless love and admiration, and on the other upon
admiration and boundless love. When Sabella went to school, the
Captain's business kept him within sight of the school-house; and when
school was out, the little girl was nowhere happier than in his
company. For her sake he was the friend of her friends, and among the
children of Dubuque no one was so popular as Cap'n Cod. They did not
live in the city, but on a small farm a few miles from it, and this
Cap'n Cod was supposed to manage. Farming was, however, the one
occupation for which he had no taste, and but for his capable niece the
annual crops would not have paid the expense of raising them.
When Sabella was twelve years old and rapidly developing into beautiful
girlhood, her mother died, leaving her and her little property to the
unrestricted guardianship of Cap'n Cod. Now matters went from bad to
worse so far as the farm was concerned, until, to save it from the
hammer, it was deemed best to rent it to a more practical farmer than
the child's devoted guardian.
This gave Cap'n Cod the opportunity and an excuse for carrying out a
cherished scheme that, but for the opposition of his niece, he would
have put into operation long before. It was the painting of a
panorama, the building of a boat to hold it, and thus equipped, to
float away down the great river in search of fame and fortune. Now
Sabella must of course be included in the plan; for not only did she
and Cap'n Cod consider it impossible to get along without each other,
but the latter declared that such a bit of travel would be the very
best kind of an education for his grand-niece.
This scheme had been in the old man's mind for so long that the
panorama, worked on at odd moments for more than two years, was nearly
finished at the time of his niece's death. With his own savings, and
largely by his own labor, he now built his boat, the _Whatnot_. When
she was completed, his money was gone. But what of that? Was he not
prepared to realize a fortune? He knew that it would shortly be
theirs, and Sabella's faith was strong as his. She never for a moment
doubted that her dear guardian was the artist he claimed to be, or that
the panorama he had painted was the most perfect thing of its kind ever
seen. So she was as enthusiastic concerning the project as the old man
himself, and eagerly aided in his preparations to the full extent of
her ability. There was but one point on which they disagreed. When
Cap'n Cod had exhausted his own resources, and the motive power of the
_Whatnot_ still remained unprovided, Sabella begged that he would draw
some of her money from the bank and use it, but this the old man firmly
declined to do.
"No, Sabella," he would say; "what is mine is yours; but what is yours
is your own, and it would be as bad as stealing for me to touch it."
"But it is mine," the girl would argue; "and if I want to give it to
you, more than I want to do anything else with it, I don't see why you
shouldn't let me."
"No, dear," her guardian would reply. "It is not yours. It is only
held in trust for you until you become of age, by which time you will
have many other uses for money besides gratifying an old man's whim."
"But you will pay it back long before then."
"I might, and then again I might not. There is nothing more uncertain
than the things we think we are sure of."
Then the girl would throw her arms about his neck and exclaim, "Oh, you
dear old stupid! How horridly honest you are! and what a beautiful
world this would be if everybody in it was just like you."
"Yes, my dear; Stupidity and Honesty are apt to be comrades, and
undoubtedly they would make a beautiful world if left to themselves;
but it would be frightfully dull. Now don't you worry your pretty
head about the mule, for we can drift with the current until we have
given two or three exhibitions, and so made money enough to buy one.
Then, having earned him, how much more shall we enjoy him than if he
were only a borrowed mule?"
Cap'n Cod would have preferred a steamboat to one propelled by
mule-power, but the expenses of machinery and an engineer were too
great to be considered. He made the _Whatnot_ look as much like a
steamboat as he could, and even proposed ornamenting her with an
imitation chimney as soon as he could afford such a luxury. He also
hoped soon to be able to engage some active young fellow as deck hand
and general assistant. In the mean time the _Whatnot's_ crew consisted
of himself, Sabella, and Solon, an old negro who had been cook of the
mess to which Cap'n Cod had belonged in the army, and who had followed
his fortunes ever since.
As nearly every one in Dubuque who was at all interested in such things
had seen the panorama during its painting and construction, and as
Cap'n Cod's dramatic reputation was well known there, he deemed it
advisable to give the first exhibitions of his show in some smaller and
less critical places. He called it a "show," because, even at the
outset, it contained two attractions besides the panorama, and he hoped
in the course of time to add still others.
Those already on hand were a monkey and a hand-organ, both of which
were much greater rarities in the Mississippi Valley at that time than
they are now. They formerly belonged to an Italian, who, sick,
penniless, and friendless, had sunk exhausted by the road-side a few
miles from Dubuque. Several persons passed him without heeding his
feeble appeals for aid before Cap'n Cod happened along and discovered
him. The old soldier at once engaged a team, carried the dying
stranger home, and there, with Sabella's pitying aid, cared for him
until the end, which came a few days later. During these last days his
monkey was the man's inseparable companion. It cuddled beside him in
bed, and answered his feeble terms of endearment with voluble
chatterings. With his latest breath the dying stranger consigned his
helpless pet to the same pitying care that had helped him over the
bitterest of all human journeys. He said, "Monka, Don Bolossi, you
keep-a him alway."
So Don Bolossi, Americanized to "Don Blossom," transferred all his
affections to Sabella, and with the hand-organ, for which no claimant
could be found, was added to the attractions of "Cap'n Cod's Great
Panoramic Show."
One of the Captain's last bits of work in Dubuque was to build a skiff
for Sheriff Riley, and with the money thus earned to defray immediate
expenses, the _Whatnot_ started on her voyage down the river at sunrise
of the very morning on which Winn Caspar unconsciously drifted past
Dubuque in that very skiff. Being deeper in the water, the show-boat
drifted somewhat faster than the skiff, and so had nearly caught up
with it by the time the tow-head was reached. Here Cap'n Cod
determined to tie up for the night, as he did not wish to stop at a
town until his final preparations for an exhibition were made.
Among these was the painting of a life-sized representation of Don
Blossom hanging by his tail from the limb of a tree, which was to be
displayed on the outside of the boat as an advertisement. This was the
labor upon which the Captain was engaged when Winn Caspar discovered
the _Whatnot_. Sabella had undertaken to hold the restless little
model from which the white-headed artist was painting, and the peals of
laughter that attracted Winn's attention were called forth by the
absurdities of this situation.