THE RETURN--THE SURPRISE--BUZZBY'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS--THE NARRATIVE--
FIGHTING BATTLES O'ER AGAIN--CONCLUSION.
Once again we are on the end of the quay at Grayton. As Fred stands
there, all that has occurred during the past year seems to him but a
vivid dream.
Captain Guy is there, and Captain Ellice, and Buzzby, and Mrs Buzzby
too, and the two little Buzzbys also, and Mrs Bright, and Isobel, and
Tom Singleton, and old Mr Singleton, and the crew of the wrecked
_Dolphin_, and, in short, the "whole world"--of that part of the
country.
It was a great day for Grayton, that. It was a wonderful day--quite an
indescribable day; but there were also some things about it that made
Captain Ellice feel somehow that it was a mysterious day, for, while
there were hearty congratulations, and much sobbing for joy on the part
of Mrs Bright, there were also whisperings which puzzled him a good
deal.
"Come with me, brother," said Mrs Bright at length, taking him by the
arm, "I have to tell you something."
Isobel, who was on the watch, joined them, and Fred also went with them
towards the cottage.
"Dear brother," said Mrs Bright, "I--I--Oh, Isobel, tell him! _I_
cannot."
"What means all this mystery?" said the captain in an earnest tone, for
he felt that they had something serious to communicate.
"Dear Uncle," said Isobel, "you remember the time when the pirates
attacked--"
She paused, for her uncle's look frightened her.
"Go on, Isobel," he said quickly.
"Your dear wife, Uncle, _was not lost at that time_--"
Captain Ellice turned pale. "What mean you, girl? How came you to know
this?" Then a thought flashed across him. Seizing Isobel by the
shoulder he gasped, rather than said:
"Speak quick--is--is she alive?"
"Yes, dear Uncle, she--"
The captain heard no more. He would have fallen to the ground had not
Fred, who was almost as much overpowered as his father, supported him.
In a few minutes he recovered, and he was told that Alice was alive--in
England--_in the cottage_. This was said as they approached the door.
Alice was aware of her husband's arrival. In another moment husband,
and wife, and son were reunited.
Scenes of intense joy cannot be adequately described, and there are
meetings in this world which ought not to be too closely touched upon.
Such was the present. We will therefore leave Captain Ellice and his
wife and son to pour out the deep feelings of their hearts to each
other, and follow the footsteps of honest John Buzzby, as he sailed down
the village with his wife and children, and a host of admiring friends
in tow.
Buzzby's feelings had been rather powerfully stirred up by the joy of
all around, and a tear _would_ occasionally tumble over his
weather-beaten cheek, and hang at the point of his sunburnt, and oft
frost-bitten nose, despite his utmost efforts to subdue such outrageous
demonstrations.
"Sit down, John, dear," said Mrs Buzzby in kind but commanding tones,
when she got her husband fairly into his cottage, the little parlour of
which was instantly crowded to excess. "Sit down, John, dear, and tell
us all about it."
"Wot! begin to spin the whole yarn o' the voyage afore I've had time to
say `How d'ye do?'" exclaimed Buzzby, at the same time grasping his two
uproarious sons, who had, the instant he sat down, rushed at his legs
like two miniature midshipmen, climbed up them as if they had been two
masts, and settled on his knees as if they had been their own favourite
cross-trees!
"No, John, not the yarn of the voyage," replied his wife, while she
spread the board before him with bread and cheese and beer, "but tell us
how you found old Captain Ellice, and where, and what's comed of the
crew."
"Werry good, then here goes!"
Buzzby was a man of action. He screwed up his weather-eye (the one next
his wife, _of course_, that being the quarter from which squalls might
be expected) and began a yarn which lasted the better part of two hours.
It is not to be supposed that Buzzby spun it off without interruption.
Besides the questions that broke in upon him from all quarters, the two
Buzzbys junior scrambled, as far as was possible, into his pockets,
pulled his whiskers as if they had been hoisting a main-sail therewith,
and, generally, behaved in such an obstreperous manner as to render
coherent discourse all but impracticable. He got through with it,
however, and then Mrs Buzzby intimated her wish, pretty strongly, that
the neighbours should vacate the premises; which they did, laughingly,
pronouncing Buzzby to be a "trump", and his better half a "true blue."
"Good-day, old chap," said the last who made his exit; "tiller's fixed
agin--nailed amidships? eh!"
"Hard and fast," replied Buzzby with a broad grin, as he shut the door
and returned to the bosom of his family.
Two days later a grand feast was given at Mrs Bright's cottage, to
which all the friends of the family were invited to meet with Captain
Ellice and those who had returned from their long and perilous voyage.
It was a joyful gathering, that, and glad and grateful hearts were
there.
Two days later still, and another feast was given. On this occasion
Buzzby was the host, and Buzzby's cottage was the scene. It was a
joyful meeting, too, and a jolly one to boot, for O'Riley was there, and
Peter Grim, and Amos Parr, and David Mizzle, and Mivins--in short the
entire crew of the lost _Dolphin_,--captain, mates, surgeon, and all.
Fred and his father were also there, and old Mr Singleton, and a number
of other friends, so that all the rooms in the house had to be thrown
open, and even then Mrs Buzzby had barely room to move. It was on this
occasion that Buzzby related to his shipmates how Mrs Ellice had
escaped from drowning on the night they were attacked by pirates on
board the Indiaman. He took occasion to relate the circumstances just
before the "people from the house" arrived, and as the reader may
perhaps prefer Buzzby's account to ours, we give it as it was delivered.
"You see, it happened this way," began Buzzby.
"Hand us a coal, Buzzby, to light my pipe, before ye begin," said Peter
Grim.
"Ah, then, howld yer tongue, Blunderbore!" cried O'Riley, handing the
glowing coal demanded, with as much nonchalance as if his fingers were
made of cast-iron.
"Well, ye see," resumed Buzzby, "when poor Mrs Ellice wos pitched
overboard, as I seed her with my own two eyes--"
"Stop, Buzzby," said Mivins, "'ow was 'er 'ead at the time?"
"Shut up!" cried several of the men; "go on, Buzzby."
"Well, I think her _'ead_ was sou'-west, if it warn't nor'-east. Anyhow
it was pintin' somewhere or other round the compass. But, as I wos
sayin', when Mrs Ellice struck the water (an' she told me all about it
herself, ye must know) she sank, and then she comed up, and didn't know
how it wos, but she caught hold of an oar that wos floatin' close beside
her, and screamed for help, but no help came, for it was dark, and the
ship had disappeared, so she gave herself up for lost, but in a little
the oar struck agin a big piece o' the wreck o' the pirate's boat, and
she managed to clamber upon it, and lay there, a'most dead with cold,
till mornin'. The first thing she saw when day broke forth wos a big
ship, bearin' right down on her, and she wos just about run down when
one o' the men observed her from the bow.
"`Hard a-port!' roared the man.
"`Port it is,' cried the man at the wheel, an' round went the ship like
a duck, jist missin' the bit of wreck as she passed. A boat wos
lowered, and Mrs Ellice wos took aboard. Well, she found that the ship
wos bound for the Sandwich Islands, and as they didn't mean to touch at
any port in passin', Mrs Ellice had to go on with her. Misfortins
don't come single, howsiver. The ship was wrecked on a coral reef, and
the crew had to take to their boats, w'ich they did, an' got safe to
land, but the land they got to wos an out-o'-the-way island among the
Feejees, and a spot where ships never come, so they had to make up their
minds to stop there."
"I thought," said Amos Parr, "that the Feejees were cannibals, and that
whoever was wrecked or cast ashore on their coasts was killed and
roasted, and eat up at once."
"So ye're right," rejoined Buzzby; "but Providence sent the crew to one
o' the islands that had bin visited by a native Christian missionary
from one o' the other islands, and the people had gin up some o' their
worst practices, and wos thinkin' o' turnin' over a new leaf altogether.
So the crew wos spared, and took to livin' among the natives, quite
comfortable like. But they soon got tired and took to their boats agin,
and left. Mrs Ellice, however, determined to remain and help the
native Christians, till a ship should pass that way. For three years
nothin' but canoes hove in sight o' that lonesome island; then, at last
a brig came, and cast anchor offshore. It wos an Australian trader that
had been blown out o' her course on her way to England, so they took
poor Mrs Ellice aboard, and brought her home--and that's how it wos."
Buzzby's outline, although meagre, is so comprehensive that we do not
think it necessary to add a word. Soon after he had concluded, the
guests of the evening came in, and the conversation became general.
"Buzzby's jollification", as it was called in the village, was long
remembered as one of the most interesting events that had occurred for
many years. One of the chief amusements of the evening was the spinning
of long yarns about the incidents of the late voyage, by men who could
spin them well.
Their battles in the Polar Seas were all fought o'er again. The
wondering listeners were told how Esquimaux were chased and captured;
how walrus were lanced and harpooned; how bears were speared and shot;
how long and weary journeys were undertaken on foot over immeasurable
fields of ice and snow; how icebergs had crashed around their ship, and
chains had been snapped asunder, and tough anchors had been torn from
the ground, or lost; how schools had been set agoing and a theatre got
up; and how, provisions having failed, rats were eaten--and eaten, too,
with gusto. All this and a great deal more was told on that celebrated
night--sometimes by one, sometimes by another, and sometimes, to the
confusion of the audience, by two or three at once, and, not
unfrequently, to the still greater confusion of story-tellers and
audience alike, the whole proceedings were interrupted by the outrageous
yells and turmoil of the two indomitable young Buzzbys, as they romped,
in reckless joviality, with Dumps and Poker. But at length the morning
light broke up the party, and stories of the World of Ice came to an
end.
And now, reader, our tale is told. But we cannot close without a
parting word, in regard to those, with whom we have held intercourse so
long.
It must not be supposed that from this date everything in the affairs of
our various friends flowed on in a tranquil, uninterrupted course. This
world is a battle-field, on which no warrior finds rest until he dies;
and yet, to the Christian warrior on that field, the hour of death is
the hour of victory. "Change" is written in broad letters on everything
connected with Time; and he who would do his duty well, and enjoy the
greatest possible amount of happiness here, must seek to prepare himself
for _every_ change. Men cannot escape the general law. The current of
their particular stream may long run smooth, but, sooner or later, the
rugged channel and the precipice will come. Some streams run quietly
for many a league, and only at the last are troubled. Others burst from
their very birth on rocks of difficulty, and rush throughout their
course in tortuous, broken channels.
So was it with the actors in our story. Our hero's course was smooth.
Having fallen in love with his friend Tom Singleton's profession, he
studied medicine and surgery, became an M.D., and returned to practise
in Grayton, which was a flourishing sea-port, and, during the course of
Fred's career, extended considerably. Fred also fell in love with a
pretty young girl in a neighbouring town, and married her. Tom
Singleton also took up his abode in Grayton, there being, as he said,
"room for two". Ever since Tom had seen Isobel on the end of the quay,
on the day when the _Dolphin_ set sail for the Polar regions, his heart
had been taken prisoner. Isobel refused to give it back unless he, Tom,
should return the heart which he had stolen from her. This he could not
do, so it was agreed that the two hearts should be tied together, and
they two should be constituted joint guardians of both. In short, they
were married, and took Mrs Bright to live with them, not far from the
residence of old Mr Singleton, who was the fattest and jolliest old
gentleman in the place, and the very idol of dogs and boys, who loved
him to distraction.
Captain Ellice, having had, as he said, "more than his share of the
sea," resolved to live on shore, and, being possessed of a moderately
comfortable income, he purchased Mrs Bright's cottage on the green hill
that overlooked the harbour and the sea. Here he became celebrated for
his benevolence, and for the energy with which he entered into all the
schemes that were devised for the benefit of the town of Grayton. Like
Tom Singleton and Fred, he became deeply interested in the condition of
the poor, and had a special weakness for _poor old women_, which he
exhibited by searching up, and doing good to, every poor old woman in
the parish. Captain Ellice was also celebrated for his garden, which
was a remarkably fine one; for his flag-staff, which was a remarkably
tall and magnificent one; and for his telescope, which constantly
protruded from his drawing-room window, and pointed in the direction of
the sea.
As for the others--Captain Guy continued his career at sea, as commander
of an East Indiaman. He remained stout and true-hearted to the last,
like one of the oak timbers of his own good ship.
Bolton, Saunders, Mivins, Peter Grim, Amos Parr, and the rest of them,
were scattered in a few years, as sailors usually are, to the four
quarters of the globe. O'Riley alone was heard of again. He wrote to
Buzzby, "by manes of the ritin' he had larn'd aboord the _Dolfin_,"
informing him that he had forsaken the "say" and become a small farmer
near Cork. He had plenty of murphies and also a pig--the latter
"bein'," he said, "so like the wan that belonged to his owld grandmother
that he thought it must be the same wan comed alive agin, or its
darter."
And Buzzby--poor Buzzby--he, also, gave up the sea, much against his
will, by command of his wife, and took to miscellaneous work, of which
there was plenty for an active man in a seaport like Grayton. His
rudder, poor man, was again (and this time permanently) lashed
amidships, and whatever breeze Mrs Buzzby chanced to blow, his business
was to sail _right before it_. The two little Buzzbys were the joy of
their father's heart. They were genuine little true-blues, both of
them, and went to sea the moment their legs were long enough, and came
home, voyage after voyage, with gifts of curiosities and gifts of money
to their worthy parents.
Dumps resided during the remainder of his days with Captain Ellice, and
Poker dwelt with Buzzby. These truly remarkable dogs kept up their
attachment to each other to the end. Indeed, as time passed by, they
drew closer and closer together, for Poker became more sedate, and,
consequently, a more suitable companion for his ancient friend. The
dogs formed a connecting-link between the Buzzby and Ellice families--
constantly reminding each of the other's existence, by the daily
interchange of visits.
Fred and Tom soon came to be known as skilful doctors. Together they
went through life respected by all who knew them--each year as it passed
cementing closer and closer that undying friendship which had first
started into being in the gay season of boyhood, and had bloomed and
ripened amid the adventures, dangers, and vicissitudes of the World of
Ice.