ON THE "WHITE GULL."
The breeze was crisp and fresh that morning, and the skipper anxious
to set sail. Everything was in readiness on board the "White Gull,"
but still its master did not give the word to cast off, and stumped up
and down the deck, muttering and grumbling to his mate.
"Allus jes' so!" he said, wrathfully; "these town folks never up to
time. Think on't, Jack, that 'ere lawyer, Gray, promised to get the
youngster here a good half-hour afore sunrise! Here it's sun-up
already, and this breeze won't last forever, nuther."
"Why don't ye go 'long 'thout him?" queried Jack Snape from his seat
on a bucket.
"Would, ef 'twa'n't fur that pesky lawyer!" growled the skipper; "an'
'tain't every day ye can get a passenger fur the Rock, nuther. Mought
as well take what passage-money he can, a fellow mought, Jack."
The mate of the "White Gull" began to whistle, and fumbling in his
pea-jacket brought out a pipe and tobacco, with which he proceeded to
console himself. Skipper Ben took a few more impatient turns up and
down the deck, and sat down at last in grim despair, while the wind
came in strong, steady puffs, and the craft rocked and swayed gently
on the swell of the tide. The city behind them was hardly awake yet.
Its roofs and steeples loomed through a veil of haze or smoke which
hovered over and clung about the towers, and only a faint murmur told
of the stir and bustle which were presently to reign. On the wharves a
few early drays were rumbling down after their loads of merchandise,
and one or two vessels had left their moorings, and, taking advantage
of the favorable breeze, were standing out to sea, which fact did not
at all add to Skipper Ben's good-nature.
"Here they come," drawled the mate, putting up his pipe; and then a
carriage came rattling down the wharf, stopping in front of the "White
Gull."
"Come at last, hev ye?" shouted the skipper, gruffly. "Call this a
half-hour afore sunrise, squire?"
"Well," said the lawyer, looking at his watch, "I thought we were
prodigiously early. Driver, put these trunks aboard in a hurry, since
the skipper is waiting; and--Noll, are you ready?"
The skipper left his craft and came to bear a hand with the trunks,
looking askance, meanwhile, at the boy who had got out of the carriage
and stood on the wharf's edge, surveying the "Gull."
"Hope you'll have a good run, skipper," said the lawyer, as the
baggage went over into a cavernous aperture in the deck; "fine breeze,
I should say. Have a good care of this passenger of yours, man."
"Ay, squire, we'll manage. Can't stop fur words from ye this morning;
should ha' been a long piece down the coast afore this time o' day.
Bear a hand there, Jack!"
"Good-by, Noll," said the lawyer; "keep up a stout heart, my boy, and
don't forget your city friends. You'll have a fine run down to Culm,
and you must send me a line back by the skipper. Good-by!" and Mr.
Gray got into his carriage and rolled back toward the city.
Noll Trafford stood leaning against a great post and looking after the
lawyer's carriage with a slight choking in his throat, till the
skipper's gruff "Get aboard here, lad!" warned him that the "Gull" was
about to cast off. Slowly the wharf glided away, and the little
coasting vessel stood out into the channel. The city spread itself out
behind them, a long maze of brick and slate, with spires and domes
showing dimly through the blue haze which wrapped them about. On the
far, watery horizon lay a belt of vapory clouds which presently began
to rend and tear and float off in ragged masses, and then a great red
sun gleamed through and made a golden roadway across the sea, and
transformed the misty fleeces of vapor to wonderful hangings of
amethyst, streaked with great threads of scarlet.
"Jes' sunrise!" muttered the skipper; "make the best o' this 'ere
breeze, eh, Jack?"
"Ay," drawled the mate, "we'll catch it afore long, skipper."
The city's old cold front suddenly gleamed out in vivid gold, the
spires grew rosy in the first rays of sunlight, and, all its dimness
and dulness gone, Hastings lay gleaming and glowing in the fair
morning light like some vision of fairyland.
Noll Trafford, sitting on a great bale of merchandise near the stern
of the "Gull," gazed at the city, slowly sinking and fading in the
sea, with a feeling somewhat akin to homesickness. It had never looked
so bright to him before as at this moment of his departure from it,
and he was leaving behind a great many friends--all his school
acquaintances, all the scenes and haunts that were dear to him--to
go--where? He hardly knew, himself, but his bright fancy had pictured
Culm as some pleasant little sea town, where there would, perhaps, be
a great beach to ramble upon and hunt for minerals and shells, and
where he would soon make plenty of new acquaintances. And Uncle
Richard he had pictured to himself as a gentle, kind man,--grave,
perhaps, but who would love him and try to fill the place of his own
dead father. So, with these bright visions filling his mind, it was
little wonder that he turned from the stern, after Hastings had faded
into the merest blue dot on the horizon-line, and looked forward to
the time when the journey's end should be reached, with happy
anticipations. Before them lay the vast and boundless sea, with no
trace of shore or island save a low blue belt in the south, like a
cloud, and the "Gull" began to pitch and toss somewhat with the great
ocean-swell. Skipper Ben, having got well in the way of the breeze
which was carrying his vessel steadily before it, began to regain his
good-humor. Sitting on the top of a cask, he puffed away at his pipe
and soliloquized to himself about his passenger, who sat regarding
Jack Snape's movements at the helm with much interest. The skipper
had three or four boys at home,--great sturdy, brown-faced,
stout-armed fellows,--between whom and this fair-faced, curly-headed
boy there was little resemblance, he felt. "Town breedin', town
breedin'," muttered he; "it's curi's what it'll make of a lad. This
chap'll grow up with his head full o' le'rnin' into a lawyer or parson
or somethin' like, and my lads'll be skippers like their dad, with no
le'rnin' to speak on. I'll warrant this lad could get off more
book-stuff in five minutes 'an mine ever heerd on." His eyes followed
the boy as he went out to stand by Jack's elbow and ply this
slow-witted gentleman with quick, eager questions. He was slender and
rather tall for one of his age, but lithe and agile, as the skipper
noted. "One o' mine could jes' trip him with a turn o' his hand,"
thought he; yet he regarded the lad with a mixture of kindness and
respect, after all. There were other things in the world beside bone
and muscle, he remembered, and when the boy came slowly along the
deck, after a fruitless attempt to coax the mate into conversation, he
put out one of his big red hands and stopped him. Noll looked up,
inquiringly.
"Goin' down to Culm for a bit o' vacation?--to git scarce o' the
books, eh?" queried the skipper.
"Vacation? Oh, no," said the boy, quickly; "I'm going there to
live,--to have a home."
The master of the "Gull" came near dropping his pipe with amazement.
"_You_ live at Culm!" said he, incredulous; "what ye goin' to live
in?"
It was Noll's turn to look amazed. He suddenly faced the skipper,
saying, very earnestly, "What kind of a place is Culm Rock, anyhow?
Isn't it a town?"
A broad grin stretched across the old sailor's face, then he laughed
aloud. "Did ye hear that, Jack?" he cried; "here's a lad what's goin'
to Culm to live, an' he wants to know ef it's a town!"
"'Twon't take him long to find out arter he gets there," drawled Mr.
Snape.
Noll turned away and walked to the stern, thinking the skipper was a
very uncivil fellow to laugh at his ignorance, and sat down again on
the bale, secretly ill at ease on account of these sailors' words.
What kind of a place could Culm Rock be?
All around the boundless waste of waves flashed and glittered under
the sun, and the "Gull" sailed steadily on her course with not a
fleck of land in sight,--nothing around but the vast blue of the
sea,--above, only the great azure arch of sky. It was a new and
strange sight to Noll Trafford. He lay on his back on the bale, and
looked up into the wonderful depths of the blue dome, where no clouds
sailed, and speculated about his destination. Somehow, the bright
vision of a pleasant sea town with a shining beach of sand and pebbles
had faded, and in its stead there was doubt and perplexity. Was it
only a rock, as the name suggested, and no town? However, Uncle
Richard was there, and that was one comfort; and perhaps the skipper
was only joking, after all. He wished, though, that he might know what
to expect; he wondered why he had not thought to ask Mr. Gray before
starting. He lay a long time listening to the rush of water about the
vessel, a strange and unusual sound to his ears. By and by a brawny
hand touched his shoulder, and a gruff voice said,--
"Lookee here, lad!" Noll turned about and saw the skipper. "'Twa'n't
manners in me to laugh at ye, I 'low," said he, good-humoredly; "but
'twas droll, ennyhow. Hain't ye never been to Culm afore?"
"Never," said Noll.
"An' ye don't know nuthin' what it's like?"
"No; how should I?" said his passenger; "I didn't know there was such
a place in the world a month ago."
The skipper looked incredulous once more. "An' now ye goin' there to
live!" he exclaimed; "why, there ben't but one house there fit fur
such as you, an' 'tain't there ye're bound, not by a long shot!"
"But _one_ house! Whose is it?" cried Noll, eagerly.
"Why, it be one Trafford's, one o' the strangest--" A sudden
expression in the boy's face checked the words on the skipper's
tongue, and the truth began to dawn upon his slow brain. "Great
fishes!" cried he, falling back a step or two, "ye ben't goin'
_there_?"
"Yes," said Noll, as quietly as he could. "Why not?"
The skipper gave him a long, steady survey, and then stumped away
across the deck without another word, leaned over the rail, and began
to whistle. Noll looked after him, half determined to follow and
demand what he meant, yet half dreading to learn that all his visions
were a great way from the truth. Perhaps it would be better to wait,
he thought; night would bring the journey to an end, and then he
should know all. So he did not follow the skipper, but kept his seat,
while a great many shadowy forebodings crept into his heart, and he
began to look back over the trackless waste which they had come, and
wish, almost, that he was back in dear old Hastings--in the old home
where papa and he had spent so many happy hours--and that Culm Rock
was a myth. The sun rose royally up to noon, and odors of dinner began
to ascend from the hatchway. Noll had a dinner of his own somewhere in
a basket, which he brought forth and ate on the bale which served him
for a seat, enjoying the novelty in spite of the anxious speculations
concerning his new home in which he could not help indulging.
After dinner the skipper was in better humor than ever, and took his
turn at the helm. Noll, wandering about the deck, stopped to watch
him, whereupon the master of the "Gull" good-naturedly answered all
his questions, and even allowed him to take the tiller a few minutes,
laughing the while at his white hands that could hardly grasp it.
"Wish ye could see my lads' hands!" he said; "could take both 'o'
yourn in one uv 'em, an' not know they was holding anything. But
you'll have browner paws afore ye leave Culm!"
"Of course!" said Noll, "for I'm going to get Uncle Richard to teach
me to row,--I can swim now,--and I'm going to be around the shore half
the time."
"Likely enough, likely enough!" said the skipper, meditatively; and
when Noll had passed on, he muttered, "It's a pesky shame fur the lad
to be sent off and cooped up on the Rock! Don't know what he's comin'
to, nuther. I'll be blamed ef I ain't sorry for the boy!"