We had not been many days in harbour, when Rullock received orders to
take a cruise to the westward to practise his crew, who, being mostly
raw hands quickly raised at Plymouth, required no little practice to
turn them into men-of-war's men.
As plenty of sea-air had been prescribed for Miss Mizen, and change of
scene--not that I think she now required either--it was arranged that
she and her mother should take a cruise in the "Zebra." Had Mrs Mizen
been his wife instead of his sister, Captain Rullock could not have
taken her, as the rules of the service do not allow a captain to take
his wife to sea with him, though he may any other man's wife, or any
relative, or any lady whatever.
Under such circumstances, it was not to be supposed that the "Frolic"
would remain at anchor. Accordingly she put to sea with the
brig-of-war. Carstairs, however, had metal more attractive to his taste
at Valetta, so decided on remaining on shore. We did not fail to miss
him, and to wish for his quaint, dry, comic remarks, and apt quotations
from Shakespeare. Never, certainly, was a party better constituted than
ours for amusing each other, all of us having that indispensable
ingredient of harmony, perfect good humour; and had not that arch
mischief-maker Cupid found his way among us, we should have continued in
united brotherhood till the yacht was laid up.
A light breeze brought off faintly the sound of the evening gun from the
castle of St. Elmo, as, in company with the "Zebra," we stood away from
Malta to the westward. Hearty walked his deck with a prouder air and
firmer step than was his wont. Nothing so much gives dignity to a man
as the consciousness of having won the affections of a true, good girl.
His eye was seldom or never off the brig, even after the shades of night
prevented the possibility of distinguishing much more than her mere
outline, as her taut masts and square yards, and the tracery of her
rigging appeared against the starlit sky. He had charged Porpoise to
have a very sharp look-out kept that we might run no chance of parting
from our consort; but, not content with that, he was on deck every
half-hour during the night to ascertain that his directions were obeyed.
"I say, Bill, the gov'nor seems to fancy that no one has got any eyes in
his head worth two farthing rushlights but hisself, this here cruise," I
heard old Sleet remark to his chum, Frost. "What can a come over him?"
"What, don't you know, Bo?" answered Bill; "I thought any one with half
an eye could have seen that. Why, he's been and courted the niece of
the skipper of the brig there, and soon they'll be going and getting
spliced, and then good-bye to the `Frolic.' She'll be laid up to a
certainty. It's always so. The young gentlemen as soon as they comes
into their fortunes goes and buys a yacht. We'll always be living at
sea, say they. It goes on at first very well while they've only friends
comes aboard, but soon they takes to asking ladies, and soon its all up
with them. Either they takes to boxing about in the Channel, between
the Wight and the main; for ever up and down anchor, running into
harbour to dine, and spending the day pulling on shore, waiting
alongside the yacht-house slip for hours, and coming aboard with a cargo
of boat-cloaks and shawls, or else, as I have said, they goes and gives
up the yacht altogether." Old Sleet gave a munch at his grub and then
replied,--"But if I don't judge altogether wrong by the cut of this here
young lady's jib, I don't think she's one of those who'd be for wishing
her husband to do any such thing. When she came aboard of us, t'other
day, she stepped along the thwarts just as if she'd been born at sea.
Says I to myself, when I saw her, she's a sailor's daughter, and a
sailor's niece, and should be a sailor's wife; but if what you say is
true, Bo, she's going to be next door to it, as a chap may say, and
that's the wife of a true, honest yachtsman. No, no, there's no fear,
she won't let him lay up the `Frolic,' depend on't."
"Well, I hope so," observed Frost; "I should just like to have a fine
young girl like she aboard, they keeps things alive somehow, when they
are good, though when they are t'other they are worse than one of old
Nick's imps for playing tricks and doing mischief."
"You are right there again, and no mistake, Bo," answered Sleet. "I
once sailed with a skipper who had his wife aboard: I never seed such
goings on before nor since. The poor man couldn't call his soul his
own, or his sleep his own. She was a downright double-fisted woman, a
regular white sergeant. She wouldn't allow a drop of grog to be served
out without she did it, nor a candle end to be burned without logging it
down; she almost starved the poor skipper--she used to tell him it was
for his spirit's welfare. He never put the ship about without
consulting her. One day, when it was blowing big guns and small-arms,
she was out of sorts, and says he--
"`Molly, love, I think we ought for to be shortening sail, or we may
chance to have the masts going over the sides.'
"`Shorten sail?' she sings out, `let the masts go, and you go with them,
for what I care. Let the ship drive, she'll bring up somewhere as well
without you as with you.'
"The poor skipper hadn't a word to say, but for his life he daren't take
the canvas off the ship.
"`My love, it blows very hard,' says he again, in a mild, gentle voice.
"`Let it blow harder,' answers the lady; and you might have supposed it
was a boatswain's mate who'd swallowed a marlinspike who spoke.
"Presently down came the gale heavier than ever on us. Crack, crack,
went the masts, and in another second we hadn't a stick standing.
"`Where's the ship going to drive to, now?' asks the skipper, turning to
his wife. `I've been a fool a long time, but I don't mean to be a fool
any longer; just you get the ship put to rights, or overboard you go.'
"`How am I to do that same?' asks Mrs Molly, very considerably
mollified; `I don't know how.'
"`Then overboard you goes,' says the skipper, quite coolly, but firmly.
`If the wind shifts three or four points only we shall have an ugly
shore under our lee, which will knock every timber of the ship into ten
thousand atoms in no time, and you may thank yourself for being the
cause of the wreck.'
"`Oh, spare my life, spare my life, and I'll never more interfere with
the duty of the ship,' cries the lady, in an agony of fear.
"The captain pretended to be softened. `Well,' says he, `take the oaths
and go below, and I'll think about it.'
"Mrs Molly, as we always called her, sneaked to her cabin without
saying another word. All hands set to work with a will, and obeyed the
skipper much more willingly than we had ever done before. We got
jury-masts up, and carried the ship safely into port, but from that time
to this I've always fought shy of a ship with petticoats in the cabin,
and so I always shall, except I happen to know the sort of woman who
wears them."
I was much amused with old Sleet's remarks, and in most respects I
agreed, with him.
A day or two afterwards the crew had their suspicions confirmed by the
appearance of Mrs and Miss Mizen on the deck of the cutter. In the
mean time Hearty had been constantly on board the brig-of-war. He dined
on board every day, as indeed we all did, only we dined in the gun-room,
and he with the captain and ladies. The accommodation, however, on
board the brig was rather confined, and as the weather promised to
continue fine, he became naturally anxious to get them on board the
yacht. At last he broached the subject. Old Rullock did not object;
the ladies finding that there was nothing incorrect in the proceeding
were very willing; and to give them more accommodation, an exchange was
effected between them and Bubble, who took up his quarters on board the
brig. I should have gone also, but Porpoise begged I would remain and
keep him company, so I doubled up in his cabin to give the ladies more
accommodation. Hearty took Snow's berth, and the old man was very glad
on such an occasion to swing in a hammock forward. The thought of those
days are truly sunny memories of foreign seas.
Miss Mizen, by her kind and lively manners, her readiness to converse
with the crew, her wish to pick up information about the sea and the
places they had visited, and their own histories, and her unwillingness
to give trouble, soon won the love of all on board; while her mother,
whose character was very similar to her daughter's, was a general
favourite, and I heard old Sleet declare to Frost that the old lady
wasn't a bit like Mrs Molly Magrath, and as for the young girl she was
an angel, and old as he was he'd be ready to go round the world to serve
her, that he would.
"Now don't you think Mr Hearty, that you could find some one who can
spin a regular sea matter-of-fact yarn about things which really have
been?" said Miss Mizen, one fine afternoon, with one of those sweet
smiles which would have been irresistible, even if a far more important
request had been made.
The owner of the "Frolic" thought a little. "Yes, by the by, I have
it," he exclaimed; "one of the men I have on board is a first-rate
yarn-spinner. Once set his tongue a going, it is difficult to stop it,
and yet there is very little romance about the old man. He has, I
conclude, a first-rate memory, and just tells what he has seen and
heard. I'll call him aft, and will try what we can get out of him."
Hearty on this went forward, and after a little confab with the crew,
returned with old Sleet, who, instead of being bashful, was looking as
pleased as Punch in his most frolicsome humour, at the honour about to
be done him. Without hesitation he doffed his hat, threw his quid
overboard, smoothed down his hair, and began his tale. I must confess
that I have not given it in his language, which was somewhat a departure
from the orthodox vernacular, and might weary my readers.
"Now, gentlemen and ladies all, I'm going to tell you--"