THE CORONATION.
In the afternoon, we had our grand rally at the Queen's Stair-way. Corny
couldn't come, because her mother said she must not be running around so
much. So she staid at home and worked on the new flag for the
coronation. We designed this flag among us. It had a black ground, with
a yellow sun just rising out of the middle of it. It didn't cost much,
and looked more like a yellow cog-wheel rolling in deep mud than
anything else. But we thought it would do very well.
Rectus and I had barely reached the stairs, by the way of the old fort,
when Priscilla made her appearance in the ravine at the head of a crowd
of whooping barefooted young rascals, who came skipping along as if they
expected something to eat.
"I'd never be a queen," said Rectus, "if I had to have such a lot of
subjects as that."
"Don't think you would," said I; "but we mustn't let 'em come up the
stairs. They must stay at the bottom, so that we can harangue 'em." So
we charged down the stairs, and made the adherents bunch themselves on
the level ground.
Then we harangued them, and they laughed, and hurrahed, and whistled,
and jumped, while Priscilla, as an active emissary, ran around among
them, punching them, and trying to make them keep still and listen.
But as they all promised to stick to us and the royal queen through
thick and thin, we didn't mind a little disorder.
The next day but one was to be coronation day, and we impressed it on
the minds of the adherents that they must be sure to be on hand about
ten in the morning, in front of the queen's hut. We concluded not to
call it a palace until after the ceremony.
When we had said all we had to say, we told the assemblage that it might
go home; but it didn't seem inclined to do anything of the kind.
"Look a here, boss," said one of them,--a stout, saucy fellow, with the
biggest hat and the biggest feet on the island,--"aint you agoin' to
give us nothin' for comin' round here?"
"Give you anything!" cried Rectus, blazing up suddenly. "That's a pretty
way to talk! It's the subjects that have to give. You'll see pretty
soon----"
Just here I stopped him. If he had gone on a few minutes longer, he
would have wound up that kingdom with a snap.
"We didn't bring you here," said I, "to give you anything, for it ought
to be enough pay to any decent fellow to see a good old person like
Queen Poqua-dilla get her rights."
"Who's him?" asked several of the nearest fellows.
"He means Jane Henderson," said Priscilla. "You keep quiet."
"Jane Henderson! Dat's all right. Don' call her no names. Go ahead,
boss!" they cried, laughing and shouting. I went ahead.
"We can't pay you any money; but if you will all promise again to be on
hand before ten o'clock day after to-morrow, we'll take you down to the
harbor now and give you a small dive."
A wild promise rang up the sides of the ravine.
A "small dive" is a ceremony somewhat peculiar to this island. A
visitor--no native white man would ever think of such a thing--stands on
the edge of a pier, or anywhere, where the water is quite deep, and
tosses in a bit of money, while the darkey boys--who are sure to be all
ready when a visitor is standing on a pier--dive for it. It's a lot of
fun to see them do this, and Rectus and I had already chucked a good
deal of small change into the harbor, and had seen it come up again,
some of it before it got to the bottom. These dives are called "small,"
because the darkeys want to put the thing mildly. They couldn't coax
anybody down to the water to give them a big dive.
"You see," said I to Rectus, as we started down the ravine toward the
river, with the crowd of adherents marching in front, "we've got to have
these fellows at the coronation. So it wont do to scare 'em off now."
We went down to a little public square in front of the town, where there
was a splendid diving-place. A good many people were strolling about
there, but I don't suppose that a single person who saw those darkey
fellows, with nothing on but their cotton trousers,--who stood in a line
on the edge of the sea-wall, and plunged in, head foremost, like a lot
of frogs, when I threw out a couple of "big coppers,"--ever supposed
that these rascals were diving for monarchical purposes. The water was
so clear that we could see them down at the bottom, swimming and
paddling around after the coppers. When a fellow found one he'd stick it
in his mouth, and come up as lively as a cricket, and all ready for
another scramble at the bottom.
Sometimes I threw in a silver "check," which is no bigger than a
three-cent piece; but, although the water was about fifteen feet deep,
it was never lost. The fellows seemed just as much at home in the water
as on land, and I suppose they don't know how to get drowned. We tried
to toss the money in such a way that each one of them would have
something, but some of them were not smart enough to get down to the
bottom in time; and when we thought we had circulated enough specie, we
felt sure that there were two or three, and perhaps more, who hadn't
brought up a penny.
So when they all climbed out, with their brown shoulders glistening, I
asked which one of them had come out without getting anything. Every
man-jack of them stepped forward and said he hadn't got a copper. We
picked out three little fellows, gave them a few pennies apiece, and
came home.
[Illustration: A FAMILY DIVE]
The next day we were all hard at work. Corny and her mother went down to
the queen's house, and planned what they could get to fit up the place
so that it would be a little more comfortable. Mrs. Chipperton must have
added something to our eight dollars, for she and Corny came up into the
town, and bought a lot of things, which made Poqua-dilla's best room
look like another place. The rocking-chair was fixed up quite royally.
Mrs. Chipperton turned out to be a better kind of a woman than I
thought she was at first.
We hired a man to cut a pole and set it up in the queen's front yard,
for the flag; and then Rectus and I started out to get the crown. I had
thought that if we could find some sheet-brass, I could manage to make a
pretty good crown, but there didn't seem to be anything of the kind in
the place. But, after a good deal of looking, we found a brass saucepan,
in a store, which I thought would do very well for the foundation of a
crown. We bought this, and took it around to a shop where a man mended
pots and kettles. For a shilling we hired the use of his tools for an
hour, and then Rectus and I went to work. We unriveted the handle, and
then I held the bottom edge of the saucepan to the grindstone, while
Rectus turned, and we soon ground the bottom off. This left us a deep
brass band, quite big enough for a crown, and as the top edge was
rounded off, it could be turned over on a person's head, so as to sit
quite comfortably. With a cold-chisel I cut long points in what would be
the upper part of the crown, and when I had filed these up a little, the
crown looked quite nobby. We finished it by punching a lot of holes in
the front part, making them in the form of stars and circles. With
something red behind these, the effect would be prodigious.
At ten o'clock, sharp, the next morning, we were all at the queen's
house. Mrs. Chipperton was with us, for she wished very much to see the
ceremony. I think Mr. Chipperton would have been along, but a gentleman
took him out in his yacht that morning, and I must admit that we all
breathed a little bit freer without him. There was a pretty fair crowd
sitting around in the front yard when we reached the house, and before
long a good many more people came to see what was going on. They were
all negroes; but I don't believe half of them were genuine native
Africans. The queen was sitting inside, with a red shawl on, although it
was a pretty warm day, and wearing a new turban.
We had arranged, on the way, to appoint a lot of court officials,
because there was no use of our being stingy in this respect, when it
didn't cost anything to do up the thing right. So we picked out a good
looking man for Lord High Chancellor, and gave him a piece of red ribbon
to tie in his button-hole. He hadn't any button-hole anywhere, except in
his trousers, so he tied it to the string which fastened his shirt
together at the collar. Four old men we appointed to be courtiers, and
made them button up their coats. For a wonder, they all had coats. We
also made a Lord High Sheriff and a Royal Beadle, and an Usher of the
White Wand, an officer Mrs. Chipperton had read about, and to whom we
gave a whittled stick, with strict instructions not to jab anybody with
it. Corny had been reading a German novel, and she wanted us to appoint
a "Hof-rath," who is a German court officer of some kind. He was a nice
fellow in the novel, and so we picked out the best-looking young darkey
we could find, for the position.
We each had our posts. Corny was to do the crowning, and I was to make
the speech. Rectus had his place by the flag, which he was to haul up at
the proper moment. Mrs. Chipperton undertook to stand by the old
lady,--that is, the queen,--and give her any support she might happen to
need during the ceremony.
We intended having the coronation in the house; but we found the crowd
too large for this, so we brought the rocking-chair out-of-doors, and
set it in front of the only window in the palace. The yard was large
enough to accommodate a good many people, and those who could not get in
had plenty of room out in the road. We tried to make Poqua-dilla take
off her turban, because a crown on a turban seemed to us something
entirely out of order; but she wouldn't listen to it. We had the
pleasant-faced neighbor-woman as an interpreter, and she said that it
wasn't any use; the queen would almost as soon appear in public without
her head as without her turban. So we let this pass, for we saw very
plainly that it wouldn't do to try to force too much on Poqua-dilla, for
she looked now as if she thought we had come there to perform some
operation on her,--perhaps to cut off her leg.
About half-past ten, we led her out, and made her sit down in the
rocking-chair. Mrs. Chipperton stood on one side of her, holding one of
her hands, while the neighbor-woman stood on the other side, and held
the other hand. This arrangement, however, did not last long, for
Poqua-dilla soon jerked her hands away, thinking, perhaps, that if
anything was done that hurt, it might be better to be free for a jump.
Corny stood in front, a little at one side, holding the crown, which she
had padded and lined with red flannel. I took my place just before Mrs.
Chipperton, facing the crowd. Rectus was at the flag-pole, near the
front of the yard, holding the halyards in his hands, ready to haul. The
_Hof-rath_ was by him, to help if anything got tangled, and the four
courtiers and the other officials had places in the front row of the
spectators, while Priscilla stood by Corny, to be on hand should she be
needed.
When all was ready, and Corny had felt in her pocket to see that the
"permission paper" was all right, I began my speech. It was the second
regular speech I had ever made,--the first one was at a school
celebration,--and I had studied it out pretty carefully. It was
intended, of course, for the negroes, but I really addressed the most of
it to Mrs. Chipperton, because I knew that she could understand a speech
better than any one else in the yard. When I had shown the matter up as
plainly as I knew how, and had given all the whys and wherefores, I made
a little stop for applause. But I didn't get any. They all stood waiting
to see what would happen next. As there was nothing more to say, I
nodded to Corny to clap on the crown. The moment she felt it on her
head, the queen stood up as straight as a hoe-handle, and looked quickly
from side to side. Then I called out in my best voice:
"Africans! Behold your queen!"
At this instant Rectus ran up the black flag with the yellow cog-wheel,
and we white people gave a cheer. As soon as they got a cue, the darkeys
knew what to do. They burst out into a wild yell, they waved their hats,
they laid down on the grass and kicked, they jumped, and danced, and
laughed, and screamed. I was afraid the queen would bolt, so I took a
quiet hold of her shawl. But she stood still until the crowd cooled down
a little, and then she made a courtesy and sat down.
"Is that all?" asked the neighbor-woman, after she had waited a few
moments.
"Yes," said I. "You can take her in."
When the queen had been led within doors, and while the crowd was still
in a state of wild commotion, I took a heavy bag of coppers from my
coat-pocket--where it had been worrying me all through the ceremony--and
gave it to Priscilla.
"Scatter that among the subjects," said I.
"Give 'em a big scr_ah_mble in the road?" said she, her eyes crackling
with delight.
"Yes," said I, and out she ran, followed by the whole kingdom. We white
folk stood inside to watch the fun. Priscilla threw out a handful of
pennies, and the darkeys just piled themselves up in the road on top of
the money. You could see nothing but madly waving legs. The mass heaved
and tossed and moved from one side of the road to the other. The Lord
High Chancellor was at the bottom of the heap, while the _Hof-rath_
wiggled his bare feet high in the air. Every fellow who grabbed a penny
had ten fellows pulling at him. The women and small fry did not get
into this mess, but they dodged around, and made snatches wherever they
could get their hands into the pile of boys and men.
They all yelled, and shouted and tussled and scrambled, until Priscilla,
who was dancing around with her bag, gave another throw into a different
part of the road. Then every fellow jerked himself loose from the rest,
and a fresh rush was made, and a fresh pile of darkeys arose in a
minute.
We stood and laughed until our backs ached, but, as I happened to look
around at the house, I saw the queen standing on her door-step looking
mournfully at the fun. She was alone, for even her good neighbor had
rushed out to see what she could pick up. I was glad to find that the
new monarch, who still wore her crown,--which no one would have imagined
to have ever been a saucepan,--had sense enough to keep out of such a
scrimmage of the populace, and I went back and gave her a shilling. Her
face shone, and I could see that she felt that she never could have
grabbed that much.
When there had been three or four good scrambles, Priscilla ran up the
road, a little way, and threw out all the pennies that were left in the
bag. Then she made a rush for them, and, having a good start, she got
there first, and had both hands full of dust and pennies before any one
else reached the spot. She was not to be counted out of that game.
After this last scramble, we came away. The queen had taken her throne
indoors, and we went in and shook hands with her, telling her we would
soon come and see how she was getting along. I don't suppose she
understood us, but it didn't matter. When we had gone some distance, we
looked back, and there was still a pile of darkeys rolling and tumbling
in the dust.