In which the Mariner's Rest and the Ancient Mariner
himself receive particular Attention.
[Illustration]
The next day being Sunday, the Captain's little friends did not go down
to see him, and the day after being stormy, they could not. So, when
Tuesday came, they were all the more eager for the visit that it had
been delayed; and accordingly they hurried off at a very early hour.
Indeed, the old man was only too glad to have them come down at any
time, for he had during these past few days become so used to their
being with him, and he had taken such a fancy to them, that he felt
himself quite lost and lonely when a day passed by without seeing them.
He was, as we have already seen, rather afraid they might disturb him if
he said, "Come at any hour you please," instead of "Come at four
o'clock, or three, or two o'clock," as the case might be; but he had
discovered them to be such well-behaved and gentle children, that he
made up his mind they could never trouble or annoy him. So when last
they parted, he said to them, "Come in the morning, if you like, and
play all day about the grounds, and if I have work to do you must not
mind. Nobody will disturb you";--and, in truth, there was nobody there
to disturb them, for besides the old man and his boy, Main Brace, there
was no living thing about the house, if we except two fine old
Newfoundland dogs which the Captain had brought home with him from his
last voyage, and which he called "Port" and "Starboard." He had also a
flock of handsome chickens, and some foreign ducks. "And now," said he,
"when you have seen all these, and Main Brace, and me, you have seen my
family, for this is all the family that I have, unless I count the
pretty little birds that hop and skip and sing among the trees."
Main Brace did all the work about the house, except what the Captain did
himself. He cooked, and set the Captain's table, and kept the Captain's
house in order generally. As for the house itself, there was not much of
it to keep in order. We have already seen that it was very small and but
one story high. There was no hall in it, and only five rooms upon the
floor. Let us look into it more particularly.
Entering it from the front through the little porch covered over with
honeysuckle vines that are smelling sweet all the summer through, we
come at once into the largest of the rooms, where the Captain takes his
meals and does many other things. But he never calls it his dining-room.
Nothing can induce him to call it anything but his "quarter-deck." On
the right-hand side there are two doors, and there are two more on the
left-hand side, and directly before us there are two windows, looking
out into the Captain's garden, where there are fruits and vegetables of
every kind growing in abundance. The first door on the right opens into
a little room where Main Brace sleeps. This the Captain calls the
"forecastle." The other door on the right opens into the kitchen, which
the Captain calls his "galley." The first door on the left is closed,
but the second opens into what the Captain calls his "cabin," and this
connects with a little room behind the door that is closed, which he
calls his "state-room,"--and, in truth, it looks more like a state-room
of a ship than a chamber. It has no bed in it, but a narrow berth on one
side, just like a state-room berth. All sorts of odd-fashioned clothes
are hanging on the walls, which the Captain says he has worn in the
different countries where he has travelled. Odd though this state-room
is, it is not half so odd as the Captain's cabin.
Let us examine this cabin of the Captain. There is an old table in the
centre of it. There are a few old books in an old-fashioned bookcase.
There is no carpet to be seen, but the floor is almost covered over with
skins of different kinds of animals, among which are a Bengal tiger, a
Polar bear, a South American ocelot, a Rocky Mountain wolf, and a
Siberian fox. In a great glass case, standing against the wall, there is
a variety of stuffed birds. On the very top of this case there is a huge
white-headed eagle, with his large wings spread out, and at the bottom
of it there is a pelican with no wings at all. On the right-hand side
there is an enormous albatross, and on the left-hand side there is a
tall red flamingo; while in the very centre a snowy owl stands straight
up and looks straight at you out of his great glass eyes. And then there
are still other birds,--birds little and birds big, birds bright and
birds dingy, all scattered about wherever there is room, each sitting or
standing on its separate perch, and looking, for all the world, as if
it were alive and would fly away only for the glass.
On the walls of this singular room are hanging all sorts of singular
weapons, and many other things which the Captain has picked up in his
travels. There is a Turkish scimitar, a Moorish gun, an Italian
stiletto, a Japanese "happy despatch," a Norman battle-axe, besides
spears and lances and swords of shapes and kinds too numerous to
mention. In one corner, on a bracket, there is a model of a ship, in
another a Chinese junk, in a third an old Dutch clock, and in the fourth
there is a stone idol of the Incas, while above the door there is the
figure-head of a small vessel, probably a schooner.
When the children came down, running all the way at a very lively rate,
the Captain was in his cabin overhauling all these treasures, and
dusting and placing them so that they would show to the very best
advantage. Indeed, there were so many "traps," as he called them,
hanging and lying about, that the place might well have been called a
"curiosity shop" rather than a cabin. In truth, it had nothing of the
look of a cabin about it.
When the Captain heard the children coming, he said to himself, "I'll
give them a surprise to-day," and he looked out through the open window,
and called to them. They answered with a merry laugh, and, running
around to the door, rushed into the "quarter-deck," and were with the
Captain in a twinkling.
"O, what a jolly place!" exclaimed William; "such a jolly lot of things!
Why didn't you show them to us before, Captain Hardy?"
"One thing at a time, my lad; I can't show you everything at once,"
answered the old man.
"But where did you get them all, Captain Hardy?"
"As for that, I picked them up all about the world, and I could tell a
story about every one of them."
"O, isn't that splendid?--won't you tell us now?" inquired William.
"And knock off telling you what the Dean and I were doing up there by
the North Pole, on that island without a name?"
William was a little puzzled to know what reply he should make to that,
for he thought the Captain looked as if he did not half like what he had
said; so he satisfied himself with exclaiming, "No, no, no," a great
number of times, and then asked, "But won't you tell us all about them
when you get out of the North Pole scrape?"
"Maybe so, my lad, maybe so; we'll see about that; one thing at a time
is a good rule in story-telling as well as in other matters. And now you
may look at all these things, and when you are satisfied, and I have got
done putting them to rights, we'll go on with the story again."
The children were greatly delighted with everything they saw, and they
passed a very happy hour, helping the Captain to put his cabin in
"ship-shape order," as he said. Then they all crowded up into one
corner, and the Captain, seated on an old camp-stool, which had
evidently seen much service in a great number of places, did as he had
promised.
What he said, however, deserves a chapter by itself; and so we'll turn
another leaf and start fresh again.