My poor mother was crying bitterly. It was at the thoughts of parting
with the Little Lady. In vain my father attempted to console her. Give
her up, she said she could not. She loved her almost as her own child.
Lieutenant Schank had written home to his mother and sisters, who, in
return, had expressed their perfect readiness to receive the Little
Lady. But how was she to be conveyed into Lincolnshire? Captain Cobb
amply fulfilled his promise by putting a handsome sum into the
Lieutenant's hands.
"There, Schank," he said; "it is not you who receive it, remember, it is
the little girl, so do not talk of thanking me. I only wish I had been
rather more certain of what Mrs Cobb would say, or that I felt
considerably more sure than I do that she would be pleased, and I should
have liked to have had the Little Lady myself. It would have been a
matter of interest to hear about her when one was away from home, and a
pleasure to look forward to see her again. She promises to be a sweet
little creature. Your womenkind will be well-pleased to see her, depend
on that; and I say, Schank, if I can help her on in the world in any way
I will do so. Remember, we are old shipmates, so do not stand on
ceremony." As Captain Cobb went on talking, and thought of parting from
the Little Lady, his heart warmed up; and at that time, I believe, if he
had had the will, he would have given her half his property. However,
there was one thing to be said of him: in spite of his peculiarities, he
was a man who would never depart from his word, and that Mr Schank knew
very well. But that in no way detracted from the Lieutenant's
generosity, for he had made up his mind to take charge of the Little
Lady, whether the Captain assisted him or not. Highly as he esteemed my
father and mother, he considered perhaps justly, that they were not in a
position to bring up a little girl whose parents were evidently
gentlefolks. Be that as it may, it was settled that she was to be sent
off as soon as an opportunity should occur, to old Mrs Schank's
residence, in the village of Whithyford, Lincolnshire. The difficulty
of sending her there was solved by the offer of my mother to convey her
herself, with the sanction of my father; indeed, he proposed to go down
also, provided the journey could be delayed till the ship was paid off.
"Two children, you see, sir," he said to Mr Schank, "would be rather
too much for my good woman to take charge of alone, and I suppose, sir,
it would not just do for you to go and help her. People might think
what was not the case."
Mr Schank laughed. He had never thought of that, and certainly had not
bargained either to take care of one child himself, or to assist my
mother in taking care of two.
"By all means, Burton," he said. "I have some business in London which
will keep me for a few days, and the Little Lady will give interest and
amusement enough to my family till I make my appearance."
The heavy coach took us to London under the escort of Lieutenant Schank,
who saw us off for Whithyford in another, far heavier and more
lumbering. My father and I went outside; my mother and the Little Lady
had an inside place. Behind sat a guard with a couple of blunderbusses
slung on either side of him, dressed in an ample red coat, and a brace
of pistols sticking out of his pockets. There were a good many
highwaymen about at the time, who robbed occasionally on one side of
London, and sometimes on the other, and an armed guard, from his
formidable appearance, gave the passengers confidence, though he might
possibly have proved no very efficient protector if attacked. My father
was in high spirits, and pointed out everything he thought worth
noticing to me on the road. Each time the coach stopped he was off his
seat with me clinging to his back, and looking in at the window to
inquire if my mother or the Little Lady wanted anything. Now he would
bring out a glass of ale for one, now a cup of milk for the other or for
me, or sandwiches, or cakes, or fruit. He had the wisdom never to let
me take either ale or grog. "Very good for big people," he used to say,
"but very bad for little chaps, Ben."
At length we were put down at the inn at Whithyford. Mrs Schank lived
down a lane a little way off the road, and thither, my mother carrying
the Little Lady on one arm and holding me by the other, and my father
laden with bundles and bandboxes, we proceeded. The cottage was
whitewashed, and covered with fresh, thick thatch. In front was the
neatest of neat little gardens, surrounded by a well-clipped privet
hedge, and the greenest of green gates. Indeed, neatness and order
reigned everywhere outside as it did, as I was soon to find, in the
interior. The Misses Schank had been expecting us. Three of them
appeared at the door. They all seemed much older than Lieutenant
Schank. Two of them were very like him, tall and thin, and the other
bore a strong resemblance, I thought, to our worthy Captain. Their
names I soon learned. There was Miss Martha, and Miss Jemima, and the
youngest--a fat one--was Anna Maria. They all shrieked out in different
tones as they saw us. Miss Anna Maria seized me in her arms and gave me
a kiss, and then, looking at me, exclaimed, "Why, I thought it was to be
a little girl! This surely is a boy!" at which her sisters laughed, and
bending forward, examined the Little Lady, who was still in my mother's
arms, and whom Miss Anna Maria had not observed. Miss Martha at length
ventured to take her in the gentlest possible manner and kissed her
brow, and said, "Well, she is a sweet little thing; why, Mrs Burton, I
wonder you like to part with her," at which observation my mother burst
into tears.
"I don't, ma'am, indeed I don't," she answered; when gentle Miss Martha
observed, "I did not wish to hurt your feelings, Mrs Burton"; and Miss
Anna Maria, who was fond of laughing, said something which made her
laugh, and then she laughed herself, so that with between crying and
laughing we all entered the cottage and were conducted into the parlour,
on one side of which sat old Mrs Schank in a high-back chair, and in a
very high cap, and looking very tall and thin and solemn, I thought at
first.
My father followed with the bundles and bandboxes, but stood in the
passage, not thinking it correct for him to advance into the parlour.
"Who is that?" asked the old lady, looking up and seeing him through the
open door.
"Please, ma'am, that is my husband," answered my mother, courtesying.
"What is he?" inquired the old lady.
"A sailor, ma'am."
"Eh, my son is a sailor, my Jack is a sailor, and I love sailors for his
sake. Let him come in. Come in, sailor, and put those bundles down;
they may tire you. There, sit down and rest yourself. And this is the
little girl my son wrote about. Let me see her, Mrs--what is your
name?"
"Burton, ma'am," answered my mother.
"Let me see her, Mrs Burton. A very pretty sweet little damsel she is;
and whose child is she, do you say?"
"That is what we do not know, ma'am," answered my mother.
"And I am sure I do not," said the old lady, who, I should observe,
never was at a loss for a remark.
"Well, that does not much signify; we shall like her for herself. And
who is that little boy?"
"That is my son, ma'am," answered my mother.
"Oh! Then he is not the little girl's brother, I suppose?"
"No, ma'am," answered my mother, "though I love the little girl as if
she were my own child, and indeed I sorely feel the thoughts of parting
with her."
"Very natural, and right, and proper," remarked the old lady. "I am
sure I should love such a pretty little damsel, especially if I had
nursed her as I suppose you have. However, we will not talk about that
just now. You and your husband must stay here for some days, and your
little boy too, until this little lady gets accustomed to us. I
suppose, sailor, you do not want to go to sea in a hurry? What is his
name, my good woman?"
"Richard Burton," answered my mother, "late quarter-master of HM frigate
`Boreas'."
"Well, Richard Burton, you may make yourself at home here, and as happy
as you can. My son Jack has written to us about you, only I could not
recollect your name."
Although the old lady did not appear at first very wise, she had,
however, a fair amount of shrewd good sense, and she was excessively
kind, and liberal, and generous as far as she had the means. The ladies
had prepared a very nice room for my mother and father, and I had a bed
in a corner of it, and they really treated them as if they were guests
of consequence.
While the old lady was speaking, Miss Anna Maria stood laughing and
smiling at me, trying to gain my attention and confidence. As I looked
at her I thought she must be very good-natured. She was short, and very
round and fat, with black twinkling eyes and a somewhat dark complexion,
a smile constantly playing on her mouth. Her sisters, as I have
remarked, reminded me very strongly of their brother. They all made a
great deal of me, and still more of the Little Lady. Having no
servants, they did everything themselves, and were busily occupied from
morning till night, each having her own department. Miss Anna Maria was
cook, and I used to think that perhaps that made her so fat and dark. I
took great delight in helping her, and soon learned to peel the
potatoes, and wash the cabbages, and stone the raisins for plum
puddings. Indeed, knowing well that occupation is useful, not only for
small boys but for big ones, she set me to work immediately. Not only
did they work indoors but out of doors also, and kept the garden in
perfect order, trimming the hedges and mowing and digging. Besides
this, they found time to read to their old mother, as well as to
themselves; and from the way they talked of books and things, I have no
doubt were very well informed, though I was no judge in those days. In
the parish in which they had all been born they were looked up to with
the greatest affection. They had done much to civilise the people and
to keep them from falling back into a state of barbarism, or, I may say,
heathenism, for the vicar of the parish was a hunting parson who was
seen once a week in the church, where he hurried over the service, and
read a sermon which lasted some twelve or fifteen minutes; the shorter
the better, however, considering its quality. His horse used to be led
up and down by a groom during the time, and as soon as his work was over
he remounted and rode off again, not to be seen till the following week
unless one of his parishioners died, and he could get no one else to
perform the funeral service. He seemed to think that the Misses Schank
had a prescriptive right to labour in the parish; but he was excessively
indignant when on one or two occasions a dissenting minister came to
preach in a barn; and he declared that, should so irregular a proceeding
be repeated, he would proceed against him as far as the law would allow.
My kind friends' father had had three or four successors. The one I
speak of, I think, was the fourth, and, I hope, an exception to the
general rule.
"It will not do for us to complain," observed the mild Miss Martha, "but
I do wish that our vicar more resembled a shepherd who cares for his
sheep, than the wolf he must appear to the poor people of the parish.
He takes to the last penny all he can get out of them, and gives them
only hard words and stones in return." Miss Martha, however, bless her
kind heart, gave the poor people not only gentle words, but many "a cup
of cold water," in the name of Christ, and to the utmost of her means
assisted her poorer neighbours, as, indeed, did also her sisters. Many
a day their meals were dry crusts and tea, when they were giving
nourishing food, good beef and mutton, to some of the poor around them,
requiring strengthening. I mention these things because it will show
that the Little Lady had fallen into good hands. My father and mother
did all they could to help them, and certainly their labours were
lightened after our arrival. The very first morning my father was up by
daylight, with spade in hand, digging in the garden, while my mother
helped Miss Anna Maria in the kitchen. Indeed, my father was not a man
to eat the bread of idleness either ashore or afloat.
The happiest day we had yet spent was that on which Mr Schank arrived.
It was delightful to see the way in which his old mother welcomed him;
how she rose from her seat and stretched out her arms, and placed her
hands on his shoulders, and gazed into his weather-beaten face; and how
his sisters hung about him, and how Miss Anna Maria, who, I ought to
say, was generally called the baby, came and put her short fat arms
round his neck and kissed him again and again, just as she used to do
when she was a little girl. Indeed, just then she evidently had
forgotten her own age and his, and probably thought of him just as she
did when he came home a young midshipman the first time from sea, proud
of his dirk and uniform, and full of the scenes he had witnessed and the
wonders of the foreign lands he had visited. He patted me on the head
very kindly, and told me he hoped I would some day be as good a seaman
as my father. Then he told his sisters that he had been making interest
to obtain a warrant for Burton as a boatswain, and that he had little
doubt he would get it, for a better seaman never stepped, while it was
hard to find a more trustworthy or braver man. "Not that I have any
interest myself," he observed, "but I have put young Harry Oliver up to
it, and he has plenty of interest, and so he made the application in my
name through his friends."
"If it is a good thing, brother Jack, to be a boatswain, I shall be so
glad to tell Mrs Burton," said Miss Anna Maria. "She is a very nice
good creature, and I should like to make her happy."
"Yes, baby, it is a great rise for a seaman," answered Mr Schank, "and
I have no doubt Dick Burton is the man to appreciate it; so if you like,
you can go and tell them, for I feel very sure he will obtain it."
I understood very clearly all that was said. Miss Anna Maria, taking me
by the hand, hurried off to the kitchen, where my father and mother were
sitting. I scarcely know which was the better pleased to hear this good
news. I rather think my father was. My mother remarked that it was
what her Richard fully deserved; indeed, I rather suspect that if she
had been told he had been made a lieutenant or even a commander, she
would only have thought that he had received his deserts; but that was
all very right and proper. It is a great thing that a woman should have
a high opinion of her husband, and it is a very unhappy matter for her
when she has not, or at all events when he does not deserve it.
I believe my father had several times proposed leaving Whithyford, and
looking out for a ship; but my mother urged him to stay a day or two
longer, for she could not bear to part from the Little Lady. At length
he said he must go; and though Mr Schank told him that he was welcome
to remain, he said that he had been idle long enough, and must now look
out for another ship.
"But, Burton, do you intend to take your wife to sea again with you?"
asked the Lieutenant.
"I should like to, sir; and yet I am rather doubting about it," he
answered, "even if I can obtain permission; but if I do not, she would
like to go and pay a visit to her friends in Ireland. It is a long time
since she has seen them, and they made her promise to go when she could,
and now that I am likely to be a warrant officer, they will look upon
her and her boy with more respect than they might have done. Do you
see, sir, they are a somewhat upper class of people. Polly loved me,
and so we married; but they seemed to think that she was letting herself
down greatly in splicing with a seaman, and would not, indeed, for some
time have anything to say to her."
Mr Schank reported this to his sisters. They, however, had taken such
a liking to my mother, that they had made up their minds to ask her to
stay with them instead. They knew that they had a powerful inducement
to make her accept their invitation; and Miss Martha, with a good deal
of tact, took care to make the offer, holding the Little Lady in her
arms, and when she smiled and held out her hands to my mother, very
speedily gained the victory. My father was too glad to leave his wife
in such safe keeping, and so the matter was soon arranged.
My father was appointed to a sloop of war, which he at once joined, and
in which he saw a good deal of hard service.
Several captains applied for Mr Schank, who was looked upon as such an
excellent First-Lieutenant, that even his best friends declared that it
would be a pity to have him promoted. The Admiralty, however, sent him
to look after a young lord in delicate health and indolent disposition,
who required a cruise to improve the first, and a man who would do all
his work for him, in order that he might indulge in the second.