Which Shows the Old Man To Be a Man of His Word.
As we may well suppose, the Captain's little friends did not tarry at
home next day beyond the appointed time; but true as the hands of the
clock to mark the hour and minute on the dial-plate, they set out for
Captain Hardy's house as fast as they could go,--as if their very lives
depended on their speed. They found the Captain seated in the shady
arbor, smoking a long clay pipe. "I'm glad to see you, children," was
his greeting to them; and glad enough he was too,--much more glad,
maybe, than he would care to own,--as glad, perhaps, as the children
were themselves.
"And now, my dears," continued he, "shall we have the story? There is no
wind, you see, so we cannot have a sail."
"O, the story! yes, yes, the story," cried the children, all at once.
"Then the story it shall be," replied the old man; "but first you must
sit down,"--and the children sat down upon the rustic seat, and closed
their mouths, and opened wide their ears, prepared to listen; while the
Captain knocked the ashes from his long clay pipe, and stuck it in the
rafter overhead, and clearing up his throat, prepared to talk.
"Now you must know," began the Captain, "that I cannot finish the story
I'm going to tell you all in one day,--indeed, I can only just begin it.
It's a very long one, so you must come down to-morrow, and next day,
and every bright day after that until we've done. Does that please you?"
"Yes, yes," was the ready answer, and little Alice laughed loud with
joy.
"Will you be sure to remember the name of the place you come to? Will
you remember that its name is 'Mariner's Rest'? Will you remember that?"
"Yes, indeed we will."
"And now for the boat we're to have a sail in by and by; what do you
think I've called that?" asked the Captain.
"Sea-Gull?" guessed William.
"Water-Witch?" guessed Fred.
"White Dove?" guessed Alice.
"All wrong," said the Captain, smiling a smile of the greatest
satisfaction. "I've painted the name on her in bright golden letters,
and when you go down again to look at her, you'll see _Alice_ there, and
the letters are just the color of some little girl's hair I know of."
"Is that really her name?" shouted both the boys at once, glad as they
could be; "how jolly!" But little Alice said never a word, but crept
close to the old man's side, and the old man put his great, big arm
around the child's small body, and as the soft sunlight came stealing in
through the openings in the foliage of the trees, flinging patches of
brightness here and there upon the grass around, the Captain began his
story.
"Now, my little listeners," spoke the Captain, "you must know that what
I am going to tell you occurred to me at a very early period of my life,
when I was a mere boy; in fact, the adventures which I shall now relate
to you were the first I ever had.
"To begin, then, at the very beginning, I must tell you that I was born
quite near Rockdale. So you see I have good reason for always liking to
come back here. It is like coming home, you know. The place of my birth
is only eleven miles from Rockdale by the public road, which runs off
there in a west-nor'westerly direction.
"My mother died when I was six years old, but I remember her as a good
and gentle woman. She was taken away, however, too early to have left
any distinct impression upon my mind or character. I was thus left to
grow up with three brothers and two sisters, all but one of whom were
older than myself, without a mother's kindly care and instruction; and I
must here own, that I grew to be a self-willed and obstinate boy; and
this disposition led me into a course of disobedience which, but for the
protecting care of a merciful Providence, would have brought my life to
a speedy end.
"My father being poor, neither myself nor my brothers and sisters
received any other education than what was afforded by the common
country school. It was, indeed, as much as my father could do at any
time to support so large a family, and, at the end of the year, make
both ends meet.
"As for myself, I was altogether a very ungrateful fellow, and
appreciated neither the goodness of my father nor any of the other
blessings which I had. Of the advantages of a moderate education which
were offered to me I did not avail myself,--preferring mischief and
idleness to my studies; and I manifested so little desire to learn, and
was so troublesome to the master, that I was at length sent home, and
forbidden to come back any more; whereupon my father, very naturally,
grew angry with me, and no doubt thinking it hopeless to try further to
make anything of me, he regularly bound me over, or hired me out, for a
period of years, to a neighboring farmer, who compelled me to work very
hard; so I thought myself ill used, whereas, in truth, I did not receive
half my deserts.
"With this farmer I lived three years and a half before he made the
discovery that I was wholly useless to him, and that I did not do work
enough to pay for the food I ate; so the farmer complained to my father,
and threatened to send me home. This made me very indignant, as I
foolishly thought myself a greatly abused and injured person, and, in an
evil hour, I resolved to stand it no longer. I would spite the old
farmer, and punish my father for listening to him, by running away.
"I was now in my eighteenth year,--old enough, as one would have
thought, to have more manliness and self-respect; but about this I had
not reflected much.
"I set out on my ridiculous journey without one pang of regret,--so
hardened was I in heart and conscience,--carrying with me only a change
of clothing, and having in my pocket only one small piece of bread, and
two small pieces of silver. It was rather a bold adventure, but I
thought I should have no difficulty in reaching New Bedford, where I was
fully resolved to take ship and go to sea.
"The journey to New Bedford was a much more difficult undertaking than I
had counted upon, and, I believe, but for the wound which it would have
caused to my pride, I should have gone back at the end of the first five
miles. I held on, however, and reached my destination on the second day,
having stopped overnight at a public house or inn, where my two pieces
of silver disappeared in paying for my supper and lodging and
breakfast.
"I arrived at New Bedford near the middle of the afternoon of the second
day, very hot and dusty, for I had walked all the way through the
broiling sun along the high-road; and I was very tired and hungry, too,
for I had tasted no food since morning, having no more money to buy any
with, and not liking to beg. So I wandered on through the town towards
the place where the masts of ships were to be seen as I looked down the
street,--feeling miserable enough, I can assure you.
"Up to this period of my life, I had never been ten miles from home, and
had never seen a city, so of course everything was new to me. By this
time, however, I had come to reflect seriously on my folly, and this,
coupled with hunger and fatigue, so far banished curiosity from my mind
that I was not in the least impressed by what I saw. In truth, I very
heartily wished myself back on the farm; for if the labor there was not
to my liking, it was at least not so hard as what I had performed these
past two days, in walking along the dusty road,--and then I was, when on
the farm, never without the means to satisfy my hunger.
"What I should have done at this critical stage, had not some one come
to my assistance, I cannot imagine. I was afraid to ask any questions of
the passers-by, for I did not really know what to ask them, or how to
explain my situation; and, seeing that everybody was gaping at me with
wonder and curiosity (and many of them were clearly laughing at my
absurd appearance), I hurried on, not having the least idea of where I
should go or what I should do.
"At length I saw a man with a very red face approaching on the opposite
side of the street, and from his general appearance I guessed him to be
a sailor; so, driven almost to desperation, I crossed over to him,
looking, I am sure, the very picture of despair, and I thus accosted
him: 'If you please, sir, can you tell me where I can go and ship for a
voyage?'
"'A voyage!' shouted he, in reply, 'a voyage! A pretty looking fellow
you for a voyage!'--which observation very much confused me. Then he
asked me a great many questions, using a great many hard names, the
meaning of which I did not at all understand, and the necessity for
which I could not exactly see. I noticed that he called me 'landlubber'
very frequently, but I had no idea whether he meant to compliment or
abuse me, though it seemed more likely to me that it was the latter.
After a while, however, he seemed to have grown tired of talking, or had
exhausted all his strange words, for he turned short round and bade me
follow him, which I did, with very much the feelings a culprit must have
when he is going to prison.
"We went down a steep hill, and arrived presently at a low, dingy place,
the only peculiar feature of which was that it smelled of tar and had a
great many people lounging about in it. It was, as I soon found out, a
'shipping office,'--that is, a place where sailors engage themselves for
a voyage. No sooner had we entered than my conductor led me up to a tall
desk, and then, addressing himself to a sharp-faced man on the other
side of it, he said something which I did not clearly comprehend. Then I
was told to sign a paper, which I did without even reading a word of it,
and then the red-faced man cried out in a very loud and startling tone
of voice, 'Bill!' when somebody at once rolled off a bench, and
scrambled to his feet. This was evidently the 'Bill' alluded to.
"When Bill had got upon his feet, he surveyed me for an instant, as I
thought, with a very needlessly firm expression of countenance, and then
started towards the door, saying to me as he set off, 'This way, you
lubber.' I followed after him with much the same feelings which I had
before when I followed the man with the red face, until we came down to
where the ships were, and then we descended a sort of ladder, or stairs,
at the foot of which I stumbled into a boat, and had like to have gone
overboard into the water. At this, the people in the boat set up a great
laugh at my clumsiness,--just as if I had ever been in a boat before,
and could help being clumsy. To make the matter worse, I sat down in the
wrong place, where one of the men was to pull an oar; and when, after
being told to 'get out of that,' with no end of hard names, I asked what
bench I should sit on, they all laughed louder than before, which still
further overwhelmed me with confusion. I did not then know that what I
called a 'bench,' they called a 'thwart,' or more commonly 'thawt.'
"At length, after much abuse and more laughter, I managed to get into
the forward part of the boat, which was called, as I found out, 'the
bows,' where there was barely room to coil myself up, and the boat being
soon pushed off from the wharf, the oars were put out, and then I heard
an order to 'give way,' and then the oars splashed in the water, and I
felt the boat moving; and now, as I realized that I was in truth leaving
my home and native land, perhaps to see them no more forever, my heart
sank heavy in my breast; and it was as much as I could do to keep the
tears from pouring out of my eyes, as we glided on over the harbor.
Indeed, my eyes were so bedimmed that I scarcely saw anything at all
until we came around under the stern of a ship, when I heard the order
'lay in your oars.' Then one of the men caught hold of the end of a
rope, which was thrown from the ship; and, the boat being made fast, we
all scrambled up the ship's side; and then I was hustled along to a hole
in the forward part of the deck (having what looked like a box turned
upside down over it), through which, now utterly bewildered, I
descended, by means of a ladder, to a dark, damp, mouldy place, which
was filled with the foul smells of tar and bilge-water, and thick with
tobacco-smoke. This, they told me, was the 'fo'casle,' that is,
forecastle, where lived the 'crew,' of which I became now painfully
conscious that I was one. If there had been the slightest chance, I
should have run away; but running away from a ship is a very different
thing from running away from a farm.
[Illustration: The Romance of the Sea.]
"If I had wished myself back on the farm before, how much more did I
wish it now! But too late, too late, for we were all ordered up out of
the forecastle even before I had tasted a mouthful of food. In truth,
however, it is very likely that I was too sick with the foul odors,
tobacco-smoke, and heart-burnings to have eaten anything, even had it
been set before me.
"Upon reaching the deck, I was immediately ordered to lay hold of a
wooden shaft, about six feet long, which ran through the end of an iron
lever; and being joined by some more of the crew, we pushed down and
lifted up this lever, just like firemen working an old-fashioned
fire-engine. Opposite to us was another party pushing down when we were
lifting up, and lifting up when we were pushing down. I soon found out
that by this operation we were turning over and over what seemed to be a
great log of wood, with iron bands at the ends of it, and having a great
chain winding up around it. The chain came in through a round hole in
the ship's side, with a loud 'click, click,' and I learned that they
called it a 'cable,' while the machine we were working was called a
'windlass.' The cable was of course fast to the anchor, and it was very
evident to me that we were going to put to sea immediately. The idea of
it was now as dreadful to me as it had before been agreeable, when I had
contemplated it from the stand-point of a quiet farm, a good many miles
away from the sea. But I could not help myself. No matter what might
happen, my fate was sealed, so far as concerned this ship.
"We had not been long engaged at this work of turning the windlass,
before my companions set up a song, keeping time with the lever which we
were pushing up and down, one of them leading off by reciting a single
line, in which something was said about Sallie coming, or having come,
or going to come to 'New York town'; after which they all united in a
dismal chorus, that had not a particle of sense in it, so far as I could
see, from beginning to end. When they had finished off with the chorus,
the leader set to screaming again about 'Sallie' and 'New York town,'
and then as before came the chorus. Having completely exhausted himself
on the subject of Sallie, he began to invent, and his inventive genius
was rewarded with a laugh which interfered with the chorus through about
two turns of the windlass. What he invented I will recite, that you may
see how senseless it was; and I will drawl it out very slow to imitate
them. But first let me say, when they were through with this chorus, the
leader put in his tongue again, inventing a sentiment to rhyme with the
first, howling it out as if he would split his throat in the endeavor.
This is what it all was:--
'We've picked up a lubber in New Bedford town,--
Come away, away, sto-r-m along, John,
Get a-long, storm a-long, storm's g-one along,'
'Our lubber's lugger-rigged, and we'll do him brown,--
Come away, away, sto-r-m along, John,
Get a-long, storm a-long, storm's g-one along.'
"The last sentiment about lugger-rigged lubber being done brown made them
all laugh even more than the other, and caused an interruption of the
chorus to the extent of at least four revolutions of the windlass; but
when the laugh was over, they went at the dismal chorus with double the
energy they had shown before, repeating all they had then said about
'John's getting along,' and 'storming along,' as if they rather liked
John for doing these things. Thus they went on without much variety,
until I was sick and tired enough of it. The 'lubber' part of it was too
clearly aimed at me to be mistaken; but I could not discover in it
anything but nonsense all the way through to the end.
"After a while I heard some one cry out, 'The anchor's away,' which as I
afterwards learned, meant the anchor had been lifted from the bottom;
and then the sailors all scattered to obey an order to do something,
which I had not the least idea of, with a sail, and with some ropes,
which appeared to me to be so mixed up that nobody could tell one from
the other, nor make head nor tail of them. In the twinkling of an eye,
however, in spite of the mixed-up ropes, there was a great flapping of
white canvas, and a creaking and rattling of pulleys. Then the huge
white sail was fully spread, the wind was bulging it out in the middle
like a balloon, the ship's head was turned away from the town, and we
were moving off. Next came an order to 'lay aloft and shake out the
topsail'; but happily in this order I was not included, but was,
instead, directed to 'lend a hand to get the anchor aboard,' which
operation was quickly accomplished, and the heavy mass of crooked iron
which had held the ship firmly in the harbor was soon fastened in its
proper place on the bow, to what is called a 'cat-head.' By the time
this was done, every sail was set, and we were flying before the wind
out into the great ocean.
"And now you see my wish was gratified. I was in a ship and off on the
'world of waters,' with the career of a sailor before me,--a career to
my imagination when on the farm full of romance, and presenting
everything that was desirable in life. But was it so in reality when I
was brought face to face with it,--when I had exchanged the farm for the
forecastle? By no means. Indeed, I was filled with nothing but disgust
first, and terror afterwards. The first sight which I had of the ocean
was much less satisfactory to me than would have been my father's
duck-pond. I soon got miserably sick; night came on, dark and fearful;
the winds rose; the waves dashed with great force against the ship's
sides, often breaking over the deck, and wetting me to the skin. I was
shivering with cold; I was afraid that I should be washed overboard; I
was afraid that I should be killed by something tumbling on me from
aloft, for there was such a great rattling up there in the darkness that
I thought everything was broken loose. I could not stand on the deck
without support, and was knocked about when I attempted to move; every
time the ship went down into the trough of a sea I thought all my
insides were coming up. So, altogether, you see I was in a very bad way.
How, indeed, should it be otherwise? for can you imagine any ills so
great as these?
1st, To have all your clothes wet;
2d, To have a sick stomach; and,
3d, To be in a dreadful fright.
"Now that was precisely my condition; and I was already reaping the
fruits of my folly in running away from home and exchanging a farm for a
forecastle."
* * * * *
The Captain here paused and laughed heartily at the picture he had drawn
of himself in his ridiculous _rôle_ of "the young sailor-boy," and,
after clearing his throat again, was about to proceed with the story,
when he perceived that the shades of evening had already begun to fall
upon the arbor. Looking out among the trees, he saw the leaves and
branches standing sharply out against the golden sky, which showed him
that the day was ended and the sun was set. So he told his little
friends to hasten home before the dews began to fall upon the grass, and
come again next day. This they promised thankfully, and told the Captain
that they "never, never, never would forget it."
But the head of William was filled with a bright idea, and he was bound
to discharge it before he left the place. "O Captain Hardy," cried the
little fellow, "do you know what I was thinking of?"
"How should I, before you tell me?" was the Captain's very natural
answer.
"Why, I was thinking how nice it would be to write all this down on
paper. It would read just like a printed book."
The Captain said he "liked the idea," but he doubted if William could
remember it. But William thought he could remember every word of it, and
declared that it was splendid; and Fred and Alice, following after, said
that it was splendid too. But whether the story that the Captain told
was splendid, or the idea of writing it down was splendid, or exactly
what was splendid, was not then and there settled; yet it was fully
settled that William was to write the story down the best he could, and
ask his father to correct the worst mistakes. And now, when this was
done, the happy children said "Good evening" to the Captain, and set out
merrily for home, little Alice holding to her brother's hand, as she
tripped lightly over the green field, turning every dozen steps to throw
back through the tender evening air, from her dainty little fingertips,
a laughing kiss to the ancient mariner, whose face beamed kindly on her
from the arbor door.