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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of My First Cruise, by W.H.G. Kingston
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: My First Cruise
+       and Other stories
+
+Author: W.H.G. Kingston
+
+Illustrator: Anonymous
+
+Release Date: October 19, 2007 [EBook #23068]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY FIRST CRUISE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+My First Cruise, and other stories, by W.H.G. Kingston.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+There are four stories here, but it is not clear whether they are all by
+Kingston.  The first one, which gives the book its name, certainly is,
+and possibly the third, "The Enchanted Gate".
+
+The first story is a sort of diary or blog written by a young midshipman
+on his first voyage to sea, to his brother who was still at school.
+There are all the usual incidents, including swimming exercises.
+
+The other stories are well outside the Kingston style, but are certainly
+amusing and worth reading.  The book is quite short.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+MY FIRST CRUISE, AND OTHER STORIES, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 1.
+
+NOTES FROM PRINGLE RUSHFORTH'S SEA LOG.
+
+A LETTER TO BROTHER HARRY, AT ETON.
+
+It has become a reality, dear Harry.  I feel very strange--a curious
+sensation in the throat, just as if I was going to cry, and yet it is
+exactly what I have been longing for.  You know better than any one how
+I had set my heart on going to sea, and yet I thought that I should
+never manage it.  But, after all, here I am, really and truly a
+midshipman; at least a volunteer of the first class, as we are called
+now.  The first time I put on my uniform, with my gold-band cap and
+dirk, I could not help every now and then looking at the gold lace on my
+collar and the buttons with the anchor and crown, and very pretty and
+nice they looked; and I do believe that this half-reconciled poor mamma,
+and Fanny, and Mary, and dear little Emily to my going when they saw me
+with them on.  I'll tell you how it all happened.  Uncle Tom came to
+stay with us.  He had been at the Hall a week when, the very day before
+I was to go back to school, while we were all at breakfast, he got a
+long official-looking letter.  No sooner had he torn it open and glanced
+at its contents, than he jumped up and shook papa by the hand, then
+kissed mamma, exclaiming, "They do acknowledge my services, and in a
+handsome way too, and they have appointed me to the Juno intended for
+the South American station; the very ship I should have chosen!  I must
+have Pringle with me.  No nonsense, Mary.  He wants to be a sailor, and
+a sailor he shall be.  He's well fitted for it.  I'll have no denial.
+It's settled--that's all right."  (I had been telling him the day before
+how much I wanted to go to sea.)  He carried his point, and set all the
+household preparing my kit, and then posted off for London, and rattled
+down to Portsmouth to hoist his flag.  He is not a man to do things by
+halves.  In three days I followed him.  The ship was nearly ready for
+sea.  Most of the officers had joined.  There was only one vacancy,
+which I got.  Another captain had been appointed, who had been
+superseded, and he had selected most of the officers.  Many of my
+messmates are good fellows, but of others the less said about them the
+better, at least as far as I could judge from the way they behaved when
+I first went into the berth.  We carry thirty-six guns.  There is the
+main deck, on which most of them are placed, and the upper deck, which
+is open to the sky, and where all the ropes lead, and where some guns
+are, and the lower deck, where we sleep in hammocks slung to the beams,
+and where our berth is; that is the place where we live--our
+drawing-room, and parlour, and study, and anything else you please.
+There is a table in the centre, and lockers all round, and if you want
+to move about you have to get behind the other fellows' backs or over
+the table.  Under it are cases and hampers of all sorts, which the
+caterer has not unpacked.  He is an old mate, and keeps us all in order.
+His name is Gregson.  I don't know whether I shall like him.  He has
+been a great many years a midshipman; for a mate is only a passed
+midshipman who wants to be a lieutenant, but can't.  He has no
+interest--nobody to help him on--so there he is growling and grumbling
+from morning to night, declaring that he'll cut the service, and go and
+join the Russians, and make his country rue the day; but he doesn't, and
+I believe he wouldn't, if they would make him an admiral and a count
+off-hand.  My chief friend they call Dicky Snookes.  His real name,
+though, is Algernon Godolphin Stafford, on which he rather prides
+himself.  This was found out, so it was voted that he should be
+re-christened, and not be allowed under dreadful pains and penalties to
+assume his proper appellation in the berth; so no one thinks of calling
+him anything but Snookes.  He is getting not to mind it, which I am glad
+of, as he does not seem a bad fellow, and is up to fun of all sorts.
+There is another fellow who is always called Lord Jones or My Lord,
+because he is as unlike what you would suppose a nobleman to be as
+possible.  Then there is Polly.  His real name is Skeffington Scoulding,
+which was voted too long, so, as poor fellow he has lost an eye, he was
+dubbed Polyphemus, which was soon turned into Polly.  I haven't got a
+new name yet, so I hope to stick to my own.  I have picked up a good
+many more bits of information during the three days I have been on
+board, but I have not time to tell them now.  I will though, don't fear.
+I hope to be put in a watch when we get to sea.  I don't mean inside a
+silver case, to go on tick!--ha!--ha!--ha! but to keep watch under a
+lieutenant, to see what the ship is about, and to keep her out of
+scrapes.  Good-bye, dear old fellow, I'll tell you more when I can.--
+Your affect brother, Pringle Rushforth.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 2.
+
+NOTES FROM MY LOG.
+
+The capstern went round with a merry tune--the boatswain's whistle
+sounded shrilly along the decks with a magic effect--the anchor was hove
+up--the sails were let fall and but a few minutes had passed, after the
+captain gave the word of command, before the ship, under a wide spread
+of snowy canvas, was standing down the Solent towards the Needle
+passage.  It was a lovely summer's day, the sky was blue and so was the
+water, and the land looked green and bright, and the paint was so fresh,
+and the deck so white, and the officers in their glittering uniform had
+so polished an appearance, and the men in their white trousers and
+shirts with worked collars and natty hats, looked so neat and active as
+they sprang nimbly aloft, or flew about the decks, that I felt very
+proud of the frigate and everything about her, and very glad that I had
+come to sea.  To be sure matters below were not quite in the same order
+just then.  Still prouder was I when we saluted the Queen, who was at
+Osborne--firing away first on one side and then on the other, with a
+flash and a roar, and a huge puff of smoke.  We passed out at the
+Needles with the cheese-like castle of Hurst and its red ninepin-looking
+lighthouses on our right, and a little further to the west on our right
+with the high cliffs of Alum Bay striped curiously with coloured sand
+and three high-pointed rocks, wading out into the sea, as if wanting to
+get across to the north shore.  These are the Needle rocks.  We had run
+the high white cliff at the west end of the island out of sight before
+dark, and that, except a thin blue tint of land away to the north-east,
+was the last I saw of the shores of dear old happy England.  I daresay
+others felt as I did, but we all had so much to do that we hadn't time
+to talk about it.  Dickey Snookes had been to sea already for a few
+months, and of course knew a great deal more than I could--at least he
+said that he did, and on the strength of it offered to tell me all about
+everything.  I thought I saw a twinkle in his eye, but his eyes always
+are twinkling, so I did not suspect him of intending mischief.  We had
+some vegetables for dinner--some carrots and turnips--and he asked me if
+I knew where they grew?  I said in some garden, I supposed.  "Of course,
+young 'un," he answered.  But you wouldn't suppose we had a garden up in
+our foretop, where we grow all sorts of greens and other things.  You
+have not found your way there, I suspect.  I told him that I had not,
+and he said that I must go up there that very afternoon with him, and
+that he would introduce me to the head-gardener, who was always up there
+looking after the gooseberry bushes.  I knew that this was a joke, but
+still I wanted to see what he meant.  I said that I was ready at once,
+but he kept putting me off; and whenever he saw me going up the rigging
+he always got some one to send for me or to call me, so that it was
+quite late in the day before I succeeded in getting into the shrouds.
+The sun had now gone down, the sky was overcast, and the sea had a
+leaden gloomy look--there was a swell also, and the ship rolled so much
+from side to side, that, as I looked up and saw the mastheads forming
+arches in the sky, I could not help fancying that I should be sent off
+when I got up there like a stone from a sling, or an ancient catapult,
+right into the water.  The idea made me hold on very tight, let me tell
+you; yet, as it would never do to give it up, on I went with my teeth
+pretty closely clenched, and my eyes fixed on the top, which seemed to
+grow farther and farther away from me, like Jack's bean-stalk.  At last
+I got up just under the top.  There are two ways of getting on to it.
+One is by going along some ropes, called the futtock shrouds, when one
+hangs very much as a fly does crawling along the ceiling.  I didn't like
+it, being up there all alone in the gloom, for it was very different to
+climbing an apple-tree or the oak-tree at the bottom of the lawn, with
+our nest on the top of it, where you and I used to sit and smoke cane
+cigars, and fancy ourselves Istelson and Collingwood.  It wasn't
+pleasant going along the futtock shrouds, and still less getting round
+them outside into the top, for as the ship rolled it felt as if the mast
+was coming right down on the top of me.  I waited, however, holding on
+as a cat does to a bough when you shake it, till the ship rolled over
+the other way, and then up I sprang easily enough, and there I saw
+Dickey Snookes and Polly and My Lord all standing by the side of the
+captain of the top, and grinning from ear to ear, as if they had some
+very good joke in hand.  At first I thought that the captain of the top
+was a very important person, but I soon found that he was only one of
+the seamen who is more active and smarter than the rest, and takes
+command of those aloft.  "Here comes Midshipman Green," they all
+exclaimed, as they saw my head appearing between the topmast shrouds.
+When I stood in the top they all insisted on shaking hands with me,
+pinching my fingers terribly.  "And so you want to see our garden up
+here," said Snookes; "you're the greenest thing we've got in it just
+now, let me tell you--ha! ha! ha!"
+
+I didn't see anything to laugh at; but I laughed just to keep them
+company, thinking the joke was over.  However, before I knew what they
+were about they caught hold of me, and while one blinded my eyes with a
+handkerchief, I found myself lashed up to the rigging with my arms and
+legs spread out just like the eagle on a Russian flag.  Presently all
+was silent.  The ship kept rolling backwards and forwards as before, and
+I began to feel somewhat queer in the region of my waistband and right
+up to my throat, still I wouldn't cry out.  Suddenly I found the bandage
+whisked off my eyes, and then I could see only one top man standing on
+the other side of the top, but my messmates had disappeared.  I called
+to the man.  He touched his hat with the greatest respect.  I told him
+to cast me loose.  "My orders were, sir, not to touch you," he answered.
+I argued the point.  "Well, sir, if as how you pays your footing, I'll
+do it," he replied; "but, sir, you'll take care that I'm not tied up and
+get two dozen for disobeying orders."  I was ready to promise anything,
+for it was very unpleasant rolling about up there in the dark.  After
+some hesitation and further talk, Tom Hansard, that was the topman's
+name, cut off the lashings.  I gave him five shillings, all the money I
+had in my pocket.  "You'll keep it secret, sir," said he.  "You'll say
+nothing against a poor fellow like me, sir; that you won't, I know."  I
+promised him, and he then helped me down through the lubber's hole, for
+as to going down outside, I couldn't just then have done it to save my
+life.  When I got back to the berth, there were all my three messmates
+seated round the table, taking their tea, and pretending to be very much
+astonished at hearing all which had happened to me.  Of course, I said
+nothing about Tom Hansard, and they pretended that they could not make
+out how I had got loose.  I found out, however, that the whole plan was
+arranged beforehand by Dicky Snookes and my other messmates with the
+captain of the top, just to see what I was made of, and what I would do,
+it being understood that he was to keep whatever he could get out of me.
+Had I cried or made a fuss about the matter, or said that I would
+complain to my uncle, I should have been looked upon as a regular sneak.
+The fellows hate telling of one another here just as much as we did at
+school.  From the way I took the trick I believe they liked me better
+than they did before.  Of course, all about the garden and the
+vegetables was nonsense, and I should have been green to have believed
+it, which I didn't.  Away we went rolling along with a westerly swell
+and a northerly wind, while many of the fellows in the berth were
+singing: "There we lay, all the day, in the Bay of Biscay, O;" and
+others "Rule Britannia," old Gregson not forgetting his standing joke of
+"Bless the old girl; I wish, while she was about it, that she had ruled
+them straighter."  The very next morning the gale, of which the swell
+was the forerunner, came down upon us with a sudden gust.  "All hands
+shorten sail," was shouted along the decks.  The men flew aloft, that
+is, they climbed up so nimbly that they looked as if they were flying,
+and they lay out on the yards to reef the sail.  Snookes had to go also,
+as he was stationed in the foretop.  "Any greens up there to-day?"  I
+asked as he passed me, not looking happy, for the ship was tumbling
+about, the spray was flying over us, and the wind was howling
+terrifically in the rigging.  It was altogether very different to what
+it had been on the previous evening.  Still poor Snookes had to go up.
+The boatswain's whistle and the voices of the officers sounded loud
+above the gale, and so did the cries of the midshipmen.  I contrived to
+make myself heard, though, of course, I only sung out what I was told to
+say, and wasn't always certain what would happen after I had said it,
+any more than does a person in a fairy tale, who has got hold of some
+magic words and doesn't know what effect they will produce.  The
+topgallantsails and royals were quickly furled--those are the sails
+highest up, you know; and then the huge topsails came rattling down the
+masts, and the men lay out on the yards and caught hold of them, as they
+were bulging out and flapping fearfully about, to reef them.  One of the
+topmen, Tom Hansard, was at the weather yardarm, and had hold of the
+earing, which isn't a bit like those gold things our sisters wear in
+their ears, but is a long rope which helps to reef the sails.  Suddenly
+the ship gave a tremendous lurch, I heard a cry, I looked up, and there
+was Tom Hansard hanging by one hand to the earing from the yard-arm,
+right over the foaming ocean.  I felt as if I had swallowed a bucket
+full of snow.  I thought the poor fellow must be dropped overboard, and
+so did everybody else, and some were running to one of the boats to
+lower her to pick him up.  He swung fearfully about from side to side.
+No human power could save him.  I was watching to see him drop, when he
+made a great effort, and springing up, he caught the rope with his other
+hand.  Still he was only a degree better off.  Fancy dangling away at
+the end of a thin rope, jerked backwards and forwards high up in the
+air, with certain death were he to fall on board, and very small
+prospect of escape if he fell into the foaming, tumbling sea, through
+which the ship was flying at the rate of some ten knots an hour.  I felt
+inclined to shriek out in sympathy, for I am sure that I should have
+shrieked out, and very loudly too, had I been up there in his place.  I
+felt sure that he would come down when I saw two of the topmen going out
+to the end of the yard-arm and stretching out their arms towards him to
+help him.  He saw them, and began to climb up the thin rope till they
+could catch hold of his jacket, then up they pulled him, though the
+sails flapping about very nearly tore him out of their hands.  They held
+him on to the yard for a minute till he could recover himself, and then
+he scrambled in on to the top.  There was a general shout fore and aft
+when he was safe.  Another man went to the weather earing, and three
+reefs were taken in the topsails.  I heard the first lieutenant observe
+to Uncle Tom that he was very glad to get the ship snug at last; but I
+cannot say that I thought her snug, or anything snug about her, for
+there we were among clouds of sleet and spray, tumbling and rolling
+about in that undignified way in which I had not thought it possible so
+fine a frigate could have been tumbled and rolled about.  It brought
+down the ship a peg or two in my estimation, and took the shine out of
+many of us, let me tell you.  That fellow Snookes was continually
+offering me a lump of fat bacon, and at dinner he contrived to slip all
+the most greasy bits into my plate.  I held out manfully, and tried to
+look very heroic, or, at all events, indifferent; but, oh Harry, I did
+feel very wretched, and began to reflect that I might possibly have been
+rather happier on shore.  I suspect that the way my lips curled, and the
+yellow look of my eyes, betrayed me.  The gale lasted for three days.  I
+was very glad when it was over; so you understand it is not all sunshine
+at sea.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 3.
+
+THE SLAVER.
+
+It was reported that we were to touch at one or two places on the coast
+of Africa, and then to stand across to the Brazils.  The first land we
+made was that near Sierra Leone.  I always thought that negroes lived in
+thatched huts, and wore bits of white cloth round their loins.  We
+brought up before Free Town, the capital of the colony, when what was my
+surprise to see really a very handsome place, containing between fifteen
+and twenty thousand inhabitants, the greater number black or brown men,
+and as well-dressed and comfortable-looking as any white people could
+be.  What is more, they have schools and colleges where they are
+capitally taught, and all the little black children go to school; so
+that the truth is, that they are far better educated than are the
+children of the working classes in many parts of England, and are all
+just as good Christians as we are.  Sommers told me all this, and a
+great deal more.  I haven't spoken about him before.  He's a mate--such
+a good-natured, kind fellow, and is very merry, though he can be very
+serious; and do you know, when he's in the berth, none of the others,
+big or little, swear and talk about things they oughtn't to.  I like
+Sommers, and so even does Snookes and My Lord; and he never lets anybody
+bully Polly when he's near.  I think that I should have been bullied a
+good deal, but I took everything that was said or done in good part, or
+pretended to be unconscious of it, and lost no opportunity of
+retorting--good-naturedly of course--it would not have done otherwise.
+And now, the rest only play the same tricks with me that they do with
+each other.  No one makes any difference with me because I am the
+captain's nephew, any more than Uncle Tom does himself.  Uncle Tom is
+very kind, but he makes no difference that I can see between the rest of
+the midshipmen and me.  He does the best that he can for all of us, that
+is the truth: he punishes all alike if we do wrong, and has us all into
+the cabin and gives us good advice, and talks to us frequently.  Still
+we do, somehow or other, manage to get into scrapes.  I have been
+mastheaded twice, and Dickey Snookes five times, since we came to sea;
+once for dressing up the sheep in some of the men's clothes just before
+the crew were mustered, and then letting them out on the deck; and
+another time for cutting poor Polly's hammock down by the head, and very
+nearly cracking his skull--luckily it's rather thick.  After leaving
+Free Town we touched at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.  Have you ever
+read about that settlement?  It was established by the people of the
+United States, and colonised by men of colour, or blacks, who had been
+once slaves and had obtained their freedom.  It is a republic, and the
+chief magistrate as well as all the officers are brown or black men.  It
+is not nearly so large nor so flourishing a place as Sierra Leone.  In
+the latter, you see, there are a great many intelligent white men who
+set the blacks an example of industry and perseverance, in which
+qualities they are somewhat wanting generally.  Still it is wonderful to
+see what black men can do when left free with a good example before
+them.  Monrovia is really a very respectable-looking city.  There are a
+number of stone warehouses full of goods near the water, and a good many
+dwelling-houses of brick, nicely furnished, and of two storeys high, but
+the greater number of the habitations are of wood, on brick foundations.
+There are several churches, four or five at least, with black or
+coloured preachers.  The greater part of the principal inhabitants are
+engaged in trade, exchanging palm oil, ivory, cam-wood, which is a
+valuable dye, for European or American manufactures.  They have also a
+number of vessels manned by Liberian sailors, which sail along the coast
+to collect the produce of the country.  Uncle Tom took me on shore, but
+we remained only a very short time, so that I cannot give you a more
+particular account of the place.  Leaving the coast of Africa, we stood
+across the Atlantic towards that of America.  We had left the land some
+four or five days when the wind fell, and we lay becalmed, one side and
+then the other dipping provokingly into the smooth, glassy, and shining
+water, and very nearly rolling our masts out.  It was so hot, too, that
+the pitch bubbled up through the seams in the deck, and Dickey Snookes
+declared we could have roasted our dinners on the capstern-head.  I
+believe, indeed, that we could.  I was very glad when the sun went down,
+and the night came, but it was not so very much cooler even then, and
+most of the watch below remained on deck to swallow some fresh air, but
+very little any one of us benefited by it.  The next day, at all events,
+I thought that we should get a breeze, but it was much the same.  Hot!
+oh, how hot it was!  We all went gasping about the decks, not knowing
+what to do with ourselves, and the sea shone so brightly that it was
+positively painful to look at it.  I daresay that it would have been
+much worse on shore, for, at all events, the air we breathed was pure
+and clear, though it was pretty well roasted.  It was curious to see the
+same chips of wood and empty hampers, and all the odds and ends thrown
+overboard, floating around us day after day.  We had been a week thus
+becalmed when I was sent aloft, as the midshipmen occasionally are, to
+see what was to be seen.  I did not expect to see anything, but I did,
+and that was a long, thin, dark blue line away to the north-east.  I
+reported it to the officer of the watch.  He said it was all right, and
+that we should have a breeze before long, and ordered the watch to trim
+sails.  The blue line increased in width till it could be seen from the
+deck, and on it came, growing broader and broader every instant.  Sure
+enough it was a breeze stirring up the surface of the ocean.  In a
+little time the upper sails felt its influence, and then the topsails
+began to bulge out, and the courses moved, and away we glided through
+the still smooth water faster than we had done for many a day.  For some
+hours we ran on till a sail was reported right ahead still becalmed.  As
+we drew near we discovered her to be a large topsail schooner, with a
+very rakish appearance.  She was still becalmed, but as we brought the
+breeze up with us her sails bulged out, and she began to glide through
+the water.  There were many discussions as to what she was; some thought
+her an honest trader, others a slaver; some said she was American, and
+others Spanish or Portuguese.  "One thing is in her favour," observed
+old Gregson, "she does not attempt to run away."  "Good reason, Greggy,"
+said Dickey Snookes aside to me, "she can't--just see what she will do
+when she gets the wind!"  Though I had never seen a slaver, the stranger
+came exactly up to my idea of what a slaver was like.  We always at sea
+call a vessel, whose name and country we don't know, a stranger.  Still
+she did not run away even when she got the breeze, but hove her topsail
+to the mast, and kept bobbing gracefully away at us as we came up, while
+the stars and stripes of the United States flew out at her peak.  All
+doubts as to the honesty of her character were dissipated when an
+officer standing at her gangway hailed and asked what frigate we were.
+The reply was given, and he was asked what schooner that was.  "`The
+Wide Awake,' from New Orleans, bound in for Sierra Leone.  Shall be
+happy to take any letters or packages you have to send for that
+settlement, captain," exclaimed the speaker through his trumpet.  This
+was all very polite.  Still more so was it when the American skipper
+offered to send his boat aboard us to receive our despatches.  As it
+happened, the captain had been wishing to send a letter back to Sierra
+Leone, and several of the officers wished to write, and as the delay
+would not be great, we told the polite American that we would trouble
+him.  He seemed well pleased, and said that he would get his boat ready,
+and drop aboard us.  I remained on deck watching the schooner, for there
+is something very attractive to my eye in the movements of another
+vessel at sea.  A boat was after some time lowered from the schooner and
+pulled towards us, when she filled her fore-topsail, stood a little way
+on, tacked, and then steered so as to get to windward of us.  I saw our
+first lieutenant watching her very narrowly when she did this, and then
+looking at her boat.  Presently he went into the captain's cabin.  He
+was not there long.  When he came out he ordered a boat to be manned,
+with the crew all armed, and directed the crews of three or four guns on
+either side to go quietly to their quarters.  I saw, meantime, that the
+American's boat, instead of pulling up alongside, was passing astern of
+us, so as to meet the schooner, now rapidly approaching our weather
+quarter.  She was still within hearing when the first lieutenant
+shouted, "Our despatches are ready--come on board!"  But the people in
+the boat pretended not to hear, and pulled on towards the schooner.  On
+this Sommers was ordered to take command of the boat, and to proceed on
+board the stranger.  To my great delight I got leave from Uncle Tom to
+accompany him.  It was very kind--it was the first piece of favouritism
+he had shown me.  Dickey Snookes was quite jealous when he saw me jump
+into the boat.  "Ah, Pringle, you'll get knocked on the head, my boy,
+depend on that!" was his encouraging observation.  Away we pulled
+towards the schooner.  Her boat had reached her, and was hoisted up.  We
+had before not observed more than a dozen or fifteen men at the utmost.
+There were now more than double that number on her deck, or about her
+rigging.  Every stitch of canvas she could carry was set; her yards were
+braced sharp up, and away she went like a shot on a bowline.  "Give way,
+my lads, give way!" cried Sommers, and the men did give way, pulling
+with all their might; but the schooner went through the water much
+faster than we did, and in spite of all our efforts soon left us far
+behind.  "That was the meaning of all his politeness about the letters--
+he expected to hoodwink us, did he? the rogue!" exclaimed Sommers.  "But
+though we do not catch him, the frigate will; there is no fear of that!"
+We pulled on after the schooner some time longer, but Sommers at length
+saw that the chase was perfectly hopeless.  "The worst of it is, that
+the frigate will have to heave to to pick us up," he observed.  He then
+asked me if I should mind letting the frigate stand on after the chase,
+and stand the chance of being picked up when she had caught her.  I
+cannot say that I particularly liked the notion of being left all alone
+in a boat in the middle of the Atlantic.  Still I did not like to say
+so.  However, the captain settled the point by heaving the frigate to as
+she came up to us, and ordering us to return on board.  This we did with
+as little delay, as possible, when once more the frigate stood on after
+the schooner.  Still the latter had gained a considerable advantage, but
+she was not beyond the range of our guns, and we now began to fire away
+at her to make her heave to again.  Of course she had no intention of
+doing this if she could help it.  Our shot went flying pretty thickly
+after her, but still, though several struck her and cut her ropes, and
+made eyelet holes in her sails, her damages were repaired as quickly as
+they were produced, and there seemed a considerable chance of her
+getting away from us altogether.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 4.
+
+THE CHASE.
+
+Our frigate sails very fast; there are few ships in the service sail
+faster, and none in most respects to surpass her, or indeed, I really
+believe, to equal her.  I do not know what she cannot do.  The boatswain
+says, and I believe him, that she can do everything but talk.  Still,
+somehow or other, that piccarooning-looking schooner managed to keep
+ahead of us, and after some time actually ran out of the range of our
+shot.  She was undoubtedly one of the fastest vessels of her class ever
+built, or it would not have happened.  The schooner made a number of
+short tacks right away in the wind's eye.  This would not have suited
+us, as we took longer to go about, so we had to stretch away to the
+eastward, while she, tacking once more, stood to the north-west.
+Sometimes we appeared to be a long way apart, then about we would go and
+be almost up with her again.  What we had to fear was night coming on
+before we could get up to her, when very probably she would contrive to
+escape in the dark.  Old Gregson watched her moodily.  "Of course she
+will escape," he observed.  "She is probably full of slaves, and would
+prove a rich prize to us.  We are not likely to have any luck; no ship
+has that I'm on board."  It seemed probable that in this case, at all
+events, he would be right.  We were all so eager in watching the chase
+that none of us felt inclined to go below.  The pangs of hunger at
+dinner-time, however, drove most of us there.  We had not got half
+through the meal before Dickey Snookes made his appearance with the
+announcement that the schooner's maintopmast had been carried away, and
+that we should be soon up to her.  We all rushed on deck to find matters
+very much as they were when we went below, and on our return to the
+berth there was Master Dickey comfortably seated at table, helping
+himself to the best bits of the boiled beef and duff, and laughing at
+our simplicity, or, as he remarked, at our being so easily sold.  He got
+a cobbing by the by, as a wind-up to his amusement, after dinner was
+over.  It is an operation by no means over-pleasant to the person on
+whom it is inflicted.  The weapon employed is a handkerchief with a
+corner knotted; or a stocking, with the end filled with socks, or
+something to make a hard knot.  The patient is laid across the
+mess-table, and each member of the berth inflicts a blow on a part of
+his body, over which his clothes are tightly drawn.  As the day drew on,
+the wind increased.  Dickey Snookes having been properly cobbed, we all
+hurried on deck.  As we looked through our glasses, we saw that the
+schooner was staggering along under as much canvas as she could carry;
+while the frigate glided on with becoming dignity, we having decidedly
+the advantage in a strong wind.  I asked Sommers what he thought about
+the matter.  "We are coming up with her, lad, hand over hand, and if the
+wind holds she will be under our guns before nightfall," he answered.
+As you may suppose, I was highly delighted with the thoughts of this,
+and hoped that I might be sent on board with the prize crew.  Still the
+schooner held on her course, and her determined attempts to escape
+convinced us more and more that she had good reason for so doing.  The
+evening was now drawing on.  We had gained on her very considerably, but
+still she was sufficiently ahead, should the night prove dark, to escape
+us.  The very idea that she would do so was provoking.  Some did not
+seem to care so much about it as others.  Dickey made a joke of the
+matter, and said how foolish we should all look in the morning when the
+schooner was nowhere; and Polly was provokingly indifferent.  The sun
+went down, and darkness came on, and very dark it was; and though I
+looked and looked I could not see the chase, but there were many on
+board who could, and we began firing away, the flashes of the guns
+looking very bright through the darkness.  At last I saw the schooner's
+dark hull and masts, like a shadow against the sky, and there then was a
+cry that her foretopmast was shot away, and our people gave a loud
+cheer.  Directly after this the first lieutenant shouted that she had
+struck, and we ceased firing.  Two boats were ordered away to take
+possession.  The second lieutenant went in one, and Sommers had command
+of the other.  I jumped into his boat, as if it were a matter of course;
+and away we pulled toward the schooner.  "I guess that you have pretty
+considerably outmanoeuvred us, gentlemen, but still I don't know, by
+what right you, or any other men alive, venture on board a free and
+independent merchantman of the United States of America," said a man who
+met us at the gangway.  "You come on board at your peril!"
+
+"We are well aware of that, friend," answered our lieutenant; "but we
+must be satisfied that you are an American before we let you go."
+
+Saying this, he led the way on board.  By the light of the lanterns we
+carried, we could see a very ill-looking crew scowling at us, and
+evidently wishing to heave us overboard.  It was lucky that we were all
+well armed.  I daresay that you will fancy I could not have done much,
+but I could fire off a pistol at all events, which was as likely to kill
+as that of a bigger fellow--that was one comfort.  The man who had
+hailed us, and pretended to be the captain, had said that the vessel was
+American.  Mr Talbot was only a short time in the cabin when he came
+out again, and telling us that he had no doubt she was a Portuguese or
+Brazilian, ordered the hatches, which were closed, to be lifted off.
+This took us some little time to do.  Never shall I forget the horrible
+stench--the shrieks and cries and groans which ascended from the hold as
+the hatches were got off.  We lowered our lanterns and looked down.
+There, arranged in rows along the deck, and chained two and two,
+squatting on their hams, were several hundreds of blacks--men, women,
+and children.  I cannot describe the dreadful faces of despair and
+horror and suffering which met our view as the light of our lanterns
+fell on them, while they looked up with their white eyes and black
+visages imploringly at us.  I fancy that they thought we were going to
+shoot them all; for the Portuguese crew had told them so, in the hopes,
+should we free them, that they might set upon us and throw us overboard.
+This amiable intention was frustrated, because Mr Talbot had been on
+the coast of Africa and was well up to the tricks of the slavers.  He
+consequently would not allow any of the poor wretches to be liberated
+till all necessary precautions had been taken to prevent them from doing
+any harm.  Our first care was to secure the slaver's crew.  They seemed
+as if inclined to make some resistance; but we pointed to the frigate,
+which was close to us, and intimated that if they did not behave
+themselves we should call her to our assistance; so, with no very good
+grace, they consented to step into one of our boats to be carried on
+board the Juno.  I was very glad to get rid of them, for I could not
+help feeling, as I walked about the deck, that any moment they might set
+upon us and knock us on the head.  As soon as they had gone, Mr Talbot
+sent Sommers and me round the deck with water and farinha; that is the
+food the blacks are fed on.  We had four men with us carrying the
+provisions.  I could not have supposed that human beings, with flesh and
+blood like ourselves, could have existed in such a horrible condition.
+In the first place, there was barely four feet between the decks, and
+that was very high for a slaver; many are only three feet.  Even I had
+to bend down to get along.  Close as they could be packed, the poor
+creatures sat on the bare, hard, dirty deck, without even room to
+stretch their legs.  I almost fainted, and even Sommers and the men had
+great difficulty in getting along.  Oh! how eagerly the poor creatures
+drank the water when we put it to their mouths, though they did not seem
+to care much about the food.  Many could not even lift up their heads to
+take the water.  Several were dying; and as we put the tin cups to their
+mouths, even while gazing at us, and, I am sure, feeling grateful, they
+fell back and died.  Many were already dead when we came to them, and
+there they lay, chained to the living.  Sometimes we found that a father
+had died, leaving two or three small children; sometimes a mother had
+sunk, leaving an infant still living.  Several poor children had died,
+and it was hard work, and cruel it seemed, to make the poor mothers give
+up the bodies to be thrown overboard.  We came to one black lad, who was
+sitting by the side of a woman, whom we guessed must be his mother.
+Sommers said that he thought she had not many minutes to live.  The poor
+fellow seemed so grateful when we gave her some water and food, which
+revived her somewhat.  I never saw a greater change in anybody's
+countenance.  He was at first the very picture of misery and despair.
+Then he thought that she was going to recover.  He looked up as if he
+could almost have worshipped us, with a smile which, though his
+countenance was black, was full of expression.  We knocked off her
+chains, and then those of the lad, and Sommers directed one of the men
+to assist me in carrying her on deck.  There were many in as deplorable
+a condition as this poor woman, and I scarcely know why it was I felt so
+anxious to assist her, except on account of her son; there was something
+in his face which had so interested me.  When we got her on deck, she
+sat up but she could not reply to her son, who, with tears in his eyes,
+spoke to her, imploring her, it seemed, to answer him.  The surgeon and
+assistant-surgeons had by this time come on board.  I begged the first
+to come and look at the poor woman before he went below.  When I
+returned, she had sunk back in her son's arms.  Our kind doctor took her
+hand--"It's all over with her; I can do nothing.  The poor lad will find
+it out," he observed, and then he had to hurry below.  It was some time
+before the poor lad could believe that his mother was dead, and then he
+burst into such a fit of tears that I thought he would have died
+himself.  It convinced me that negroes have got hearts just like ours,
+though Dickey Snookes always declares they have not, and that they once
+had tails, which is all nonsense.  We had now a strong body of seamen on
+board, and they kept bringing up the negroes from below--men, women, and
+children.  Several were dead, and two or three had been dead for a
+couple of days or more.  One poor woman had kept the dead body of her
+child, pretending that it was alive, nor bearing to part with it, till
+she herself fell sick.  At length it was taken from her, but she died as
+soon as she was brought on deck.  In spite of all the doctors could do,
+many others died also.  It was daylight before we got the slave hold in
+anything like order.  As soon as the sun rose, up went the glorious flag
+of old England, and from that moment every negro on board was free.  It
+is a proud thing to feel that not for a moment can a man remain a slave
+who rests under the shadow of that time-honoured banner.  The instant
+the slave, whatever his country, sets foot on British soil, he is free,
+or placed under the protection of the British flag.  It is a thing to be
+proud of.  Of that I am certain.  Not for a long time, however, could we
+persuade the poor slaves that we meant them well, and were doing all we
+could for their benefit.  When they once were convinced of this, they
+gave us their unlimited confidence.  We were then able to trust about a
+third at a time on deck, to enable us to clean out the hold.  It was not
+so much that we had reason to be on our guard against what the negroes
+could do to us, as to prevent them from injuring themselves.  Mr Talbot
+had ordered about fifty to be brought on deck soon after daylight.  He
+had their irons knocked off, and water and brushes were given them that
+they might clean themselves.  No sooner, however, did two of them find
+themselves free, than, before anybody could prevent them, they leaped
+overboard.  One poor fellow sunk at once, and disappeared from our
+sight; the other seemed to repent of the act, and swam to regain the
+schooner.  I, with others, instantly leaped into one of the boats
+alongside to go and pick him up.  Just as we were shoving off, I saw a
+black triangular fin sticking up above the surface dart from under the
+counter.  We shouted and splashed the oars as we pulled with all our
+might towards the poor fellow.  There was a terrible shriek; he gave one
+imploring gaze at us as he threw up his arms and sank from view.  We
+could see him going rapidly down, with a large dark object below him,
+while a red circle came up and filled the eddy he had made.  "Jack Shark
+musters pretty thick about here," observed the coxswain; "he knows well
+enough when he's likely to have a feast."  It was very dreadful, but, do
+you know, it is extraordinary how little one feels those sort of things
+at the time.  When I got on board I looked about for the poor lad whose
+mother had died.  I found him still sitting by her body.  That had to be
+taken from him, and then he was left alone.  He seemed not to know or to
+care for any of the other blacks, but when I spoke to him he knelt down
+and kissed my hand, and said some words which I thought meant--"You'll
+be kind to me and take care of me.  I know you will.  I'll trust to
+you."  I do not know whether this was really what he said or not, but,
+at all events, I determined to do my best, and to be a friend to him.
+Slavers, when captured, are usually sent into Sierra Leone to be
+condemned, when the slaves are set free, and the vessels are sold.  On
+examining our prize, however, it was discovered that she had but a short
+allowance of water and farinha, or provisions of any sort; and as the
+wind was fair for Rio de Janeiro, and contrary for Sierra Leone, the
+captain decided on carrying her to the former place, or to some other
+port on the Brazilian coast, where she might obtain a sufficient supply
+of necessaries, which we could not afford to give her from the frigate.
+Sommers was appointed to command the prize, and I was not a little
+gratified when he obtained leave to take me with him.  My traps were
+soon on board, and we then shaped a course for Rio de Janeiro.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 5.
+
+PETER PONGO.
+
+I forgot to say that Dickey Snookes was sent on board the prize to keep
+me company.  He told me that the captain had called him into the cabin,
+and given him a long lecture about playing tricks, and that he had made
+up his mind to behave very circumspectly.  I doubted that he would keep
+very long to his good resolution.  I felt excessively proud when I first
+walked the deck of the prize as officer of the watch, though that fellow
+Snookes would declare that the old quartermaster who kept it with me was
+my dry-nurse, and that I was a mere make-believe.  I know that I kept
+pacing up and down on the weather side of the quarter-deck with great
+dignity, looking up at the sails, and every now and then giving a glance
+at the compass, to assure myself that the man at the helm was steering a
+proper course.  I should like to know what officer in the service, under
+the circumstances, could do more.  We were ordered to keep the frigate
+always in sight, and as the prize sailed well, we had little difficulty
+in doing that.  In the day time we collected the poor blacks to come on
+deck in fifties at a time, and walk up and down.  We had a black man on
+board the frigate, who was now sent with us, and he understood the
+language of some of the slaves.  I had not forgotten the poor boy whose
+mother I had seen die, and I got permission for him to attend at our
+mess.  The other black seaman was able to explain to him what he had to
+do, and I set to work to teach him English.  He learned with surprising
+rapidity, and could soon exchange words with me.  I wished to give him a
+name, and succeeded in learning that his native one was Pongo.  He, of
+course, had no Christian name, so I proposed calling him Peter, and he
+was always afterwards known as Peter Pongo.  He soon became a capital
+servant, though he did now and then make curious mistakes.  Once he
+brought our soup into the cabin in a wash-bowl, and another time emptied
+into a pail two bottles of wine which he had been ordered to cool in
+water.  Snookes was for punishing him, but I saved the poor fellow, as I
+was certain that he had not done either of the things being aware of
+their incorrectness.  He exhibited, in consequence, the greatest
+gratitude towards me, and evidently looked up to me as his friend and
+protector.  He improved rapidly in his knowledge of English, and by the
+time we drew near the coast of South America he was able to explain
+himself with tolerable clearness.  With the aid of the negro seaman I
+spoke of, I got somewhat of poor Peter Pongo's simple history out of
+him.  I cannot put it in his words, for though at the time I could
+understand them, yet you certainly would not if I wrote them down.  One
+day I had gone forward, and when seated on the forecastle, under the
+shade of the fore-staysail, I listened to his narrative.  "Ah!  Massa
+Pringle, my country very good," he began.  He always called me Pringle,
+for he could not manage to pronounce my surname.  "Plenty yams there--
+plenty denge--plenty corn--plenty sheep--tall trees--high mountains--
+water come gushing out of rocks up among clouds--so cool with foam--loud
+roar--make grass grow--bright ponds--many animals come and drink.  Ah!
+no country like mine.  My father have good house too--very warm--very
+cool--no rain come in--all built round square--high roof, hang long way
+over wall--room for walk up and down under it.  Dere we all sit in
+middle of square, listen to stories--now we laugh, now we cry--sun go
+down, moon get up--star twinkle in dark sky, all so bright--still we
+talk--talk on--tell long stories--so happy--laugh still more.  Ah! what
+is dat?  Dreadful shriek--shriek--shriek--guns fire--we all start up--
+some run one way, some anoder--house on fire--flames rise up--fierce men
+come in--cut down some--kill--kill--take women, children--many young
+men--some fight--dey all killed--my father killed--mother, brother, and
+me all carried away together--hands tied behind our backs--hundreds--
+hundreds poor people, all drive away towards coast--then with long
+sticks and whips drive along--walk, walk--foot so sore--sleep at night
+under tree--all chained--up again before sun--walk, walk on all day--
+cruel men beat us--some grow sick.  My brother, him grow sick--lie down
+under tree--men beat him with stick--he look up--say, Oh, no beat me--
+give one sigh, fall back and die.  Dere he stay--many die like him--some
+lie down, and men beat him up again.  On we go--see at last blue ocean--
+put into Barracoon--all chained to iron bar--no move one side nor oder--
+wait dere many days.  Ship with white sail come at last--we all put on
+raft--carried to ship.  Oh, how many--more, more come--ship no hold
+them--many sick--many die--thrown overboard--shark eat them.  On we
+sail--oh, how hot--more, more die--many days no more--float on water
+like one log--den you come--white man, Spaniard, say you kill us--ah,
+no, no--you very good--we very happy--yes, massa, Peter Pongo very happy
+now."  Such was Peter's brief account of himself.  You will not consider
+it too much of a rigmarole.  I was, I know, much interested when he told
+it me, and I had some little difficulty in making out what he meant.
+Soon after this we entered the magnificent harbour of Rio de Janeiro,
+which looks like a lake surrounded by lofty hills, the curious
+sugar-loaf rising above all.  I have heard it said that it would contain
+all the ships in the world; but, large as it is, I have an idea that
+they would be very close packed if they were all brought together there.
+The city is large, built on level ground, or rather on a swamp, with
+mountains covered with trees rising directly behind it.  There are
+numerous churches and fine palaces, and many large public buildings, but
+the white inhabitants are very brown and dirty, and the black, who seem
+to be very numerous, wear a remarkably small amount of clothing.  Though
+the greater number are slaves, they are very merry slaves, and it was
+amusing to see one party meet another.  They would stop, pull off their
+straw hats, make a series of mock polite bows, and some remarks which
+were sure to produce roars of laughter; how they would twist and turn
+about, and at last lean against each other's backs, that they might more
+at their ease indulge in fresh cachinnations.  I have never seen any but
+blacks twist themselves into such curious attitudes.  I cannot give a
+more lucid account of this imperial city, because I was so very little
+on shore.  We had a great deal of work in getting the schooner refitted.
+All the poor blacks were taken on board the frigate, for we could not
+trust them on shore lest the Brazilians might have spirited them away,
+while the schooner was thoroughly cleansed and fumigated.  We then took
+in an ample supply of water and provisions, and prepared to recross the
+Atlantic.  The Brazilians could not understand why we took so much
+trouble about a few miserable blacks, and thought that we should have
+done much more wisely had we sold them to them at half-price.  Mr
+Talbot had still charge of the prize, and having Sommers as his
+lieutenant, with Dickey Snookes and me, he was ordered to carry her back
+to Sierra Leone.  We flattered ourselves that both My Lord and Polly
+looked at us with a considerable amount of envy as we wished them
+farewell.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 6.
+
+OVERBOARD.
+
+Once more we were at sea.  Had it not been for the honour of the thing,
+we should have preferred being on board the frigate, for although I have
+a great respect for many Africans, I must say that it is not agreeable
+to have some hundreds of them as shipmates.  We had happily very fine
+weather, and the poor people were able constantly to take the air on
+deck.  They seemed to have forgotten all their sufferings and miseries,
+and would sing and dance and tell stories, and laugh all day long.  I
+still continued to take Peter Pongo in hand, and began to teach him not
+only to speak but to read and write English.  Snookes used to laugh at
+me at first, but when he saw the progress Peter made he wanted to teach
+him likewise.  To this I said No, he might try and teach some one else,
+but he was not to interfere with my pupil.  He agreed to this, but
+either he selected a stupid subject, or his mode of teaching was not
+good, for he made wonderfully little progress.  For a week he was trying
+to teach his pupil Tommy Toad, as he called him, three letters of the
+alphabet, and at the end of the time he could not tell B from C.  Mr
+Talbot took care also that we should not be idle, and kept us knotting
+and splicing and doing all sorts of work aloft.  We were approaching our
+port, and were congratulating ourselves on having made a favourable
+passage, when two of our men were taken sick, then another and another,
+till our strength was sadly reduced.  One poor fellow died, and there
+appeared every prospect of our losing more.  The negroes were generally
+ready enough to work, but as they did not know how, they were of little
+use.  Mr Talbot and Sommers worked away most heroically, attending to
+the sick, pulling and hauling, and often steering the vessel.  Dickey
+and I did our best to help them.  While the fine weather lasted our
+difficulties were not very great; at the same time, we were so short
+handed that the labour fell heavily on those who remained well.  Dickey
+and I, though not very big or strong, from going constantly aloft, were
+of no little use, we flattered ourselves.  One evening as we were
+approaching our destination, being closed hauled under all sail and
+standing on our course--Sommers was at the helm, Mr Talbot was below,
+and Dickey and I with two men were on deck, all we could muster for the
+watch--Sommers kept looking anxiously round the horizon, especially to
+the southward, where I observed some dark clouds banking up.  As I
+watched them, they seemed suddenly to take it into their heads to roll
+rapidly onward, and down they bore upon us like a flock of sheep
+scouring over the downs.  "All hands shorten sail," shouted Sommers.
+"Stafford.  Rushforth, aloft lads, and furl the fore-topgallantsail."
+Up we sprang into the rigging.  As yet the breeze was very light, and
+there was no difficulty in what we had to do, but a few minutes' delay
+might make the task impracticable.  Dickey was spirited enough in
+reality.  We lay along on the yard, and had begun to haul the sail,
+when, as I was stretching over to get a hold of the canvas to gather it
+up, I lost my balance, and over I went head first.  I heard a shriek.
+It was from Dickey.  He thought I should be killed.  So should I, if I
+had had time to think about the matter; but providentially at that
+moment a sudden puff of wind bulged out the foretopsail to its utmost
+extent, and I striking it at the moment, away it sent me, as from a
+catapult, right over the bows, clear of the vessel.  Had I struck the
+deck or bulwarks I should have been killed.  I sank, but quickly coming
+to the surface, looked about me with very little hope of being saved,
+for there was the schooner flying on before the fast-increasing gale;
+and as I knew full well, with so few seamen on board, that it would take
+some time to put about to come to my relief.  All this flashed rapidly
+through my mind.  Farther and farther away flew the schooner, still I
+determined not to give in.  I could swim pretty well, and I managed to
+throw off my jacket and kick off my shoes, and as only a thin pair of
+trousers and a shirt remained, I had no difficulty in keeping myself
+above water; but the knowledge that sharks abounded in those seas, and
+that any moment one of those horrid monsters might catch hold of my leg
+and haul me down, gave me very unpleasant sensations.  I watched the
+receding vessel--moments seemed hours.  There was no sign of her putting
+about.  I at length was about to give way to despair, when my eye fell
+on an object floating between her and me.  It was of some size--a
+grating I concluded--and I made out a black ball on the other side of
+it.  The grating was moving towards me.  I struck out to make it, and
+then I saw that it was pushed by a negro.  "Keep up, Massa Pringle, keep
+up," said a voice in a cheery tone, which I recognised as that of Peter
+Pongo.  My spirits returned.  I had been a careless, thoughtless fellow,
+but I prayed then as I never prayed before, that the dreadful sharks
+might be kept from me, that I might reach the grating, and might by some
+means or other be saved.  I felt a strength and courage I had not felt
+before.  I struck out with all my power, still it seemed very very long
+before I reached the grating, and in my agitation I almost sank as I was
+catching hold of it.  Peter Pongo had, however, sprang on to it and
+caught hold of me.  I soon recovered.  Words enough did not just then
+come into my head to thank him, but I took his hand, and he understood
+me.  So far I was safe, for the grating was large enough to hold us
+both, but the sea was rapidly rising, and we might easily again be
+washed off.  We looked about us, the schooner had not yet tacked, and
+the squall had already caught her.  She was heeling over on her
+beam-ends, and everything seemed in confusion on board--yards swinging
+about, ropes flying away, and sails shivering to tatters.  It was late
+in the evening, the sky was obscured, and darkness was coming on.  The
+seas, too, began to dance wildly about us; their white tops, curling
+over and leaving dark cavern-looking hollows underneath, into which it
+seemed every instant that we must glide and be swallowed up.  The
+prospect altogether was gloomy in the extreme.  I felt how much I owed
+to poor Peter Pongo, who had voluntarily exposed himself to it for my
+sake, and I felt that had he not done so, I should long before this have
+been numbered with the dead.  I still thought that we should both be
+saved.  There were some bits of rope fastened to the grating, and by
+these we lashed ourselves to it, or we should inevitably have been
+washed off.  We were constantly under water, but as it was warm that did
+not signify, as we soon again came to the surface.  Our fear was lest
+some hungry shark should make a dart at us on those occasions and pick
+us off.  Darker and darker it grew, the seas as they dashed wildly about
+made a loud prolonged roar, and at last, as we cast our eyes forward,
+not a glimpse of the schooner could we see.  As the conviction of our
+forlorn condition broke upon me--I could not help it--I gave way to
+tears.  I could not wring my hands because they were busy holding on to
+the grating.  I thought of you, mother, and papa, and dear Harry, and
+our sisters, and that I should never see you any more; or old England,
+or the Hall, or Uncle Tom, or any of my friends.  Peter wasn't so
+unhappy, because he had no friends remaining, and his native village was
+in ruins.  The darkness came thicker and thicker down upon us.  Nothing
+could we see but the dark waves rising up on every side against the sky.
+Not a star was visible.  We no longer, indeed, knew in which direction
+to look for the schooner.  It appeared, I remember exactly, as if we
+were being tossed about inside a black ball.  I could not calculate how
+long a time had passed since I had fallen overboard, when I began to
+feel very hungry.  I had had a bit of biscuit in my pocket, but that had
+been lost with my jacket, and now I had nothing to eat.  I bore it for
+some time, and then I felt very faint, and thought that I could not
+possibly hold on any longer.  Still I did my best not to let go, and
+every now and then Peter spoke to me and encouraged me, "Neber fear,
+massa," said he.  "Him you tell me of, live up in sky, Him watch over
+us."  We did not speak much, however; we could not, I do not know why.
+Oh, that was a dreary, awful night, not likely to be forgotten!  Yet
+here I am alive.  I shall never despair after that, and shall always
+feel, in however terrible a position I am placed, that a merciful God is
+watching over me, and that He will find means to save me.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 7.
+
+CAUSE FOR GRATITUDE.
+
+The longest night must come to an end.  Many people, when kept awake in
+a comfortable bed with the toothache or some other pain, or perhaps with
+a little fever, think themselves very miserable, and much to be pitied.
+Peter Pongo and I were rather worse off, tossing about on the grating
+out on the Atlantic there, not having anything to eat, and not knowing
+any moment when we might be washed away from our unsteady raft.  How we
+held on during all that night I cannot tell.  The light came at last.
+We knew where the east was by seeing a bright red streak in the sky.  We
+kept our eyes turned eagerly in that direction, for we fancied that
+there we should see the schooner.  Our view, however, was very much
+circumscribed, and it was only as we were tossed up to the top of a sea
+that we could obtain even a glimpse of the horizon.  We had scarcely
+time to assure ourselves whether or not there was a sail there before
+either a foam-topped sea jumped up before us, or we sank down again into
+the trough.  We gazed, but we gazed in vain.  No sail was to be seen.
+In spite of our almost hopeless position we became very hungry, and,
+what was worse, thirsty also.  As the sun rose and struck down on our
+heads my thirst increased.  I felt certain that I could not hold on much
+longer.  Peter Pongo did not care so much about the hot sun, but he was
+very hungry.  Suddenly I saw some red objects floating near us in the
+water.  I looked again.  Oh, how eager I felt to get them--they were
+oranges.  They were too far off to reach.  I was afraid to quit the
+grating.  I had no strength left to swim.  No sooner did Peter see them
+than he slid off the raft, and swimming round them collected a dozen or
+more before him, and pushing them on enabled me to pick them out of the
+water.  I felt greatly relieved when he was once more safe on the
+grating.  Oh, how delicious those oranges were!  They were the means, I
+doubt not, of preserving our lives.  They quenched our thirst, but they
+could not stop the pangs of hunger.  The sun rose higher and higher,
+till we guessed it was noon.  The wind went down, but the sea still
+continued to tumble us about most uncomfortably.  Both of us were
+becoming very drowsy when we started up--a loud shout sounded in our
+ears.  "Why, lads, you keep a bad look-out on board your craft," said a
+voice.  We looked up--a large ship was passing us.  "Don't fear--we'll
+pick you up," said the former speaker.  I heard the cry of "helm's
+alee!"  The yards swung round, and the ship was rounded too.  By that
+time she seemed to have got a long way from us.  Presently, however, we
+saw a boat dashing among the seas towards us.  I thought that her bow
+would have come right down on our raft, but just then I felt a strong
+arm grasp me by the shoulder, and haul me in, while Peter was treated in
+the same way, and we were quickly alongside the ship.  We were lifted on
+board.  She appeared full of people, who looked very kindly at us.  At
+first I could not speak a word; I did not know why.  I thought that I
+was going to say something, but no sound was produced.  The people who
+stood round remarked that I was a foreigner, and two or three people
+came up and addressed me in strange languages, but of course I was not
+more likely to answer them than I was my own countrymen.  At last I
+heard Peter Pongo, who had been much concerned at my silence, say, "Him
+officer--speakie by and by."  This remark seemed to satisfy those
+present, and in about an hour I was able to sit up and explain what had
+happened.  I found that we had been rescued by an emigrant ship bound
+for the Cape of Good Hope.  I was in hope that she might be able to land
+us at Sierra Leone, but I found that she could not possibly go out of
+her course; indeed, that we were much to the southward of that place,
+and that on to the Cape we also must go.  In a very few minutes I
+became, I must own, reconciled to the necessity.  When the cabin
+passengers found that I was a midshipman they rigged me out in very
+comfortable clothes, and clubbing together presented me with a sum of
+money, as they said, to enable me to live comfortably, till I could find
+my way back to my ship.  When, also, they heard how gallantly Peter
+Pongo had rescued me, they gave him a handsome present.  He could
+scarcely comprehend his good fortune, and as he looked at the money he
+evidently thought himself the owner of boundless wealth.  I had the best
+of everything at the chief cabin table, and could not help thinking how
+pleasant it would be to live the life of a passenger on board an
+emigrant ship all the year round.  I was therefore very much surprised
+to hear some of them grumbling from morning to night, complaining of
+having nothing to do, and wishing that the voyage was over.  If they had
+lived in a midshipman's berth for a few months, I rather suspect that
+they would have thought themselves well off.  I need not describe our
+passage to the Cape; it was a very pleasant one.  I was very happy
+during the short time I remained at that curious old Dutch place, Cape
+Town.  I saw the table-mountain and the tablecloth on the top of it, and
+then a sloop of war called there, and the commodore, who was there,
+ordered me and Peter Pongo a passage back to Sierra Leone.  I was never
+idle, for I found ample employment in teaching Peter to read, and
+wonderful was the progress he made.  He was a great favourite on board
+the corvette on account of his intelligence and amiable manners, and the
+gallant way in which he had preserved my life.  On entering the harbour
+of Sierra Leone, there, to my great satisfaction, lay our schooner, with
+the pennant flying at her masthead, and the British ensign at her peak.
+I got a boat from the corvette, and at once pulled on board.  I could
+see at a glance that the schooner had been turned into a man-of-war.
+She had been bought, as I afterwards found, into the service.  I was in
+plain clothes, and Peter Pongo who accompanied me, was very nicely
+dressed, and no one would have recognised him as the little slave boy he
+had before appeared.  Dickey Snookes looked over the side.  I sprang up
+the side.  "What do you want?" he asked.  "To see that very important
+personage, Mr Algernon Godolphin Stafford, commonly known as Dickey
+Snookes," I answered, taking his hand.  He started, and looked at me
+very hard, really gasping for breath, so astonished was he.  "What! is
+it you yourself, Rushforth, my dear fellow?" he exclaimed.  "I am indeed
+glad.  We thought you were lost; gobbled up by a shark, or sunk to the
+bottom of the sea.  Here, Sommers--here's Rushforth come to life again,
+and the black boy too."  Sommers, who was below, came on deck, and
+received me most cordially.  Mr Talbot, who had command of the
+schooner, now called the Liberia, was on shore.  She was to sail, I
+found, the very next day for Rio Janeiro, to act as a tender to our
+ship.  I consulted with Sommers what would be most to the advantage of
+Peter Pongo to do.  He strongly advised his going to the college at
+Sierra Leone, where he would receive a very good education, and he
+undertook to arrange the matter.  I had still the greater part of the
+money given me by the passengers of the emigrant ship, which I had kept
+for the purpose of devoting it to Peter's use.  This, with what he had
+of his own, would enable him to make a fair start in life.  Peter
+himself, though very sorry to leave me, was much pleased with the
+proposal.  That very afternoon he and I accompanied Sommers on shore,
+when the whole matter was arranged in a very satisfactory way with some
+of the gentlemen connected with the college, who undertook to invest the
+sum I have mentioned for Peter's benefit.  Peter burst into tears as I
+wished him good-bye, and I felt a very curious sensation about the
+throat.  The next day we sailed for Rio.
+
+
+
+STORY ONE, CHAPTER 8.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+We had a fast run across the Atlantic.  The news of my supposed loss had
+reached the frigate, and the kind way in which my uncle and the gun-room
+officers, as well as my messmates, received me, showed me that I had
+been regretted--of course a midshipman cannot expect to create any very
+great sorrow when he loses the number of his mess, as an admiral or a
+post-captain would.  I did not meet with any other very extraordinary
+adventures during the remainder of the four years the frigate was in
+commission.  I found the South American station a very pleasant one.  I
+might have found Rio dull, but that I was constantly sent away in the
+Liberia, which did good service by capturing several slavers.  We used
+to make her look like what she formerly was, and in that way she acted
+as a decoy, and entrapped several slavers who approached her without
+suspicion.  We had one long trip round Cape Horn, and visited the coast
+of Chili and Peru.  That was the most interesting we took.  I feel that
+I have a right to be considered something of a sailor after having
+doubled Cape Horn, and crossed and re-crossed the Line.  At length the
+frigate was ordered home; the schooner remained at Rio to do duty as
+before as a tender.  On our way we touched at Sierra Leone.  My uncle
+gave me leave to go on shore.  I hurried off to the college, for I was
+anxious to hear something of my old friend and the preserver of my life.
+Three years had passed since I had seen him.  He was then little more
+than fourteen.  I was shown into a room where several pupil teachers
+were engaged in giving instruction to a number of young lads and boys.
+One teacher was evidently taking the lead of the rest.  In very eloquent
+language he was explaining the truths of Christianity to a class of most
+attentive listeners.  Though the skin of the speaker was black, the
+voice was that of an educated Englishman.  I waited till he had ceased
+speaking.  There is Mr Pongo, said the person who had conducted me to
+the room.  His eye brightened as he saw me, and in an instant springing
+from his desk his hands were warmly pressed in mine.  What immense
+progress he has made! how little I have advanced since we parted!  I
+thought as I looked at him and heard him describe his work.  I felt
+humbled and ashamed of myself.  I thought over the matter, and resolved
+in future to employ my time, as far as I had the power, to the advantage
+of myself as well as that of others.  Pongo came on board the frigate,
+and was received most kindly by my uncle and all the officers.  He was,
+I found, training to become a missionary of the Gospel among his
+countrymen, and hoped ultimately to be ordained.  I have since
+frequently heard from him.  We spent only three days at Sierra Leone,
+and arrived at last safely in old England, and thus ended my first
+cruise.
+
+
+
+STORY TWO, CHAPTER 1.
+
+THE TRAVELLING TIN-MAN, FOUNDED ON FACT, BY MISS LESLIE.
+
+Micajah Warner was owner and cultivator of a small farm in one of the
+oldest, most fertile, and most beautiful counties of the State of
+Pennsylvania, not far from Maryland line.  Micajah was a plain Quaker,
+and a man of quiet and primitive habits.  He was totally devoid of all
+ambitious cravings after tracts of ten thousand acres, and he aspired
+not to the honour and glory of having his name given to a town in the
+western wilderness (though Warnerville would not have sounded badly),
+neither was he possessed of an unconquerable desire of becoming a judge,
+or of going to Congress.  Therefore, he had always been able to resist
+the persuasions and example of those of his neighbours who left the home
+of their fathers, and the comforts of an old settlement, to seek a less
+tedious road to wealth and consequence, on the other side of the
+Allegany.  He was satisfied with the possession of two hundred acres,
+one half of which he had lent (not given) to his son Israel, who
+expected shortly to be married to a very pretty and notable young woman
+in the neighbourhood, who was, however, no heiress.  Upon this event,
+Israel was to be established in an old frame-house that had long since
+been abandoned by his father in favour of the substantial stone dwelling
+which the family occupied at the period of our story.  The house had
+been taken up and transplanted to that part of the farm now allotted to
+Israel, and he very prudently deferred repairing it till he saw whether
+it survived its progress across the domain.  But as it did not fall
+asunder during the journey, it was judged worthy of a new front-door,
+new window-panes, and new shingles to cover the vast chasms of the roof,
+all which improvements were made by Israel's own hands.  This house was
+deposited in the vicinity of the upper branch of the creek, and
+conveniently near to a saw-mill, which had been built by Israel in
+person.
+
+Like all of her sect, whether in town or country, Bulah, the wife of
+Micajah Warner, was a woman of even temper, untiring industry, and great
+skill in housewifery.
+
+Her daughters, commonly called Amy and Orphy, were neat pretty little
+Quaker girls, extremely alert, and accustomed from their earliest
+childhood to assist in the work of the house.  As her daughters were so
+handy and industrious, and only went half the year to school, Mrs
+Warner did not think it necessary to keep any other help than an
+indentured negro girl, named Chloe.
+
+Except the marriage of Israel, which was now in prospect; a flood in the
+neighbouring creek, which had raised the water so high as to wash away
+the brick oven from the side of the house; a tornado that carried off
+the roof of the old stable, and landed it whole in an adjoining clover
+field; and a visit from a family of beggars (an extraordinary phenomenon
+in the country), nothing occurred among the Warners for a long
+succession of years that had occasioned more than a month's talk of the
+mother, and a month's listening of the children.
+
+  "They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."
+
+The occupations of Israel and his father (assisted occasionally by a few
+hired men) were, of course, those of the farm, except when Israel took a
+day now and then to attend to his saw-mill.  With regard to domestic
+arrangements, everything connected with household affairs went on in the
+same course year after year except that, as the daughters of the family
+improved in capability of work, Chloe the black girl, retrograded.  They
+washed on Monday (with the assistance of a woman, hired for the day),
+ironed on Tuesday, performed what they called "the little baking" on
+Wednesday, and "the big baking" on Friday; cleaned the house on
+Saturday, and clear-starched their book-muslin collars; rode on
+horseback to Friends' meeting on Sunday morning, and visited their
+neighbours on Sunday afternoon.
+
+It was the day after the one on which Israel and his bride-elect had
+passed meeting, and consequently, a month before the one fixed for the
+wedding, that something like an adventure fell among the Warner family.
+
+It was a beautiful evening at the close of August.  The father and son
+had been all day in the meadows, mowing the second crop of grass; Mrs
+Warner was darning stockings in the porch, with her two daughters
+knitting on the bench beside her; Amy being then fourteen, and Orphy
+about twelve.  Chloe was absent, having been borrowed by a relation,
+about five miles off, to do the general work of the house, while the
+family were engaged in preparing for a quilting frolic.
+
+"Come, girls," said Mrs Warner to her daughter, "it's just sun-down.
+The geese are coming home, and daddy and Israel will soon be here.  Amy,
+do thee go down to the spring-house, and bring up the milk and butter,
+and Orphy, thee can set the table."
+
+The two girls put up their knitting (not, however, till they had knit to
+the middle of the needle), and in a short time, Amy was seen coming back
+from the spring-house, with a large pitcher of milk and a plate of
+butter.  In the meantime, Orphy had drawn out the ponderous claw-footed
+walnut table that stood all summer in the porch, and spreading over it a
+brown linen cloth, placed in regular order their everyday supper
+equipage of pewter plates, earthen porringers, and iron spoons.
+
+The viands consisted of an immense round loaf of bread, nearly as large
+as a grindstone, and made of wheat and Indian meal, the half of a huge
+cheese, a piece of cold pork, a peach pie, an apple pie, and, as it had
+been baking day, there was the customary addition of a rice pudding, in
+an earthen pan of stupendous size.  The last finish of the decorations
+of the table was a large bowl of cool water, placed near the seat
+occupied by the father of the family, who never could begin any of his
+meals without a copious draught of the pure element.
+
+In a few minutes, the farmer and his son made their appearance as they
+turned the angle of the peach-orchard fence, preceded by the geese,
+their usual _avant-couriers_, who went out every morning to feed in an
+old field beyond the meadows.
+
+As soon as Micajah and Israel had hung up their scythes and washed
+themselves at the pump, they sat down to table, the farmer in his own
+blue-painted, high-backed, high-armed chair, and Israel taking the seat
+always allotted to him--a low chair, the rushes of which having long
+since deserted the bottom, had been replaced by cross pieces of cloth
+listing, ingeniously interwoven with each other; and this being,
+according to the general opinion, the worst seat in the house, always
+fell to the share of the young man, who was usually passive on all
+occasions, and never seemed to consider himself entitled to the same
+accommodation as the rest of the family.
+
+Suddenly, the shrill blast of a tin trumpet resounded through the woods,
+that covered the hill in front of the house, to the great disturbance of
+the geese, who had settled themselves quietly for the night in their
+usual bivouac around the ruins of an old waggon.  The Warners ceased
+their supper to listen and look; and they saw emerging from the woods,
+and rolling down the hill at a brisk trot, the cart of one of those
+itinerant tin merchants, who originate in New England, and travel from
+one end of the Union to the other, avoiding the cities, and seeking
+customers amongst the country people; who, besides buying their ware,
+always invite them to a meal and a bed.
+
+The tinman came blowing his horn to the steps of the porch, and there
+stopping his cart, addressed the farmer's wife in the true nasal twang
+that characterises the lower class of New Englanders, and inquired "if
+she had any notion of a bargain."
+
+She replied that "she believed she had no occasion for anything"--her
+customary answer to all such questions.
+
+But Israel, who looked into futurity, and entertained views towards his
+own housekeeping, stepped forward to the tin-cart, and began to take
+down and examine various mugs, pans, kettles, and coffee-pots--the
+latter particularly, as he had a passion for coffee, which he secretly
+determined to indulge both morning and evening, as soon as he was
+settled in his domicile.
+
+"Mother," said Amy, "I do wish thee would buy a new coffee-pot, for ours
+has been leaking all summer, and I have to stop it every morning with
+rye-meal.  Thee knows we can give the old one to Israel."
+
+"To be sure," replied Mrs Warner, "it will do well enough for young
+beginners.  But I cannot say I feel quite free to buy a new coffee-pot
+at this time.  I must consider about it."
+
+"And there's the cullender," said Orphy, "it has such a big crack at the
+bottom, that when I am smashing the squashes for dinner, not only the
+water, but the squashes themselves drip through.  Better give it to
+Israel, and get a new one for ourselves.  What's this?" she continued,
+taking up a tin water-dipper.
+
+"That is for dipping warter out of the bucket," replied the tinman.
+
+"Oh, yes," cried Amy, "I've seen such a one at Rachel Johnson's.  What a
+clever thing it is, with a good long handle, so that there's no danger
+of splashing the water on our clothes.  Do buy it, mother.  Thee knows
+that Israel can have the big calabash: I patched it myself, yesterday,
+where it was broken, and bound the edge with new tape, and it's now as
+good as ever."
+
+"I don't know," said the farmer, "that we want anything but a new
+lantern; for ours had the socket burnt out long before these moonlight
+nights, and it's dangerous work taking a candle into the stable."
+
+The tinman knowing that our plain old farmers, though extremely liberal
+of everything that is produced on their plantations, are, frequently,
+very tenacious of coin, and much averse to parting with actual money,
+recommended his wares more on account of their cheapness than their
+goodness; and, in fact, the price of most of the articles was two or
+three cents lower than they could be purchased for at the stores.
+
+Old Micajah thought there was no actual necessity for anything except
+the lantern; but his daughters were so importunate for the coffee-pot,
+the cullender, and the water-dipper, that finally all three were
+purchased and paid for.  The tinman in vain endeavoured to prevail on
+Mrs Warner to buy some patty-pans, which the girls looked at with
+longing eyes; and he reminded them how pretty the pumpkin pies would
+look at their next quilting, baked in scollop-edged tins.  But this
+purchase was peremptorily refused by the good Quaker woman, alleging
+that scollop-edged pies were all pride and vanity, and that, if properly
+made, they were quite good enough baked in round plates.
+
+The travelling merchant then produced divers boxes and phials of quack
+medicines, prepared at a celebrated manufactory of those articles, and
+duly sealed with the maker's own seal, and inscribed with his name in
+his own handwriting.  Amongst these, he said, "there were certain cures
+for every complaint in natur'--draps for the agur, the toothache, and
+the rhumatiz; salves for ringworms, corns, frostbitten heels, and sore
+eyes; and pills for consumption and fall fevers; beside that most
+valuable of all physic, Swain's Wormifuge."
+
+The young people exclaimed with one accord against the purchase of any
+of the medicines; and business being over, the tinman was invited by the
+farmer to sit down and take his supper with the family--an invitation as
+freely accepted as given.
+
+The twilight was now closing, but the full moon had risen, and afforded
+sufficient light for the supper table in the porch.  The tinman took a
+seat, and before Mrs Warner had finished her usual invitation to
+strangers, of--"reach to, and help thyself; we are poor hands at
+inviting, but thee's welcome to it, such as it is"--he had already cut
+himself a huge piece of the cold pork, and an enormous slice of bread.
+He next poured out a porringer of milk, to which he afterwards added
+one-third of the peach pie, and several platesful of rice pudding.  He
+then said, "I suppose you haven't got no cider about the house;" and
+Israel, at his father's request, immediately brought up a pitcher of
+that liquor from the cellar.
+
+During supper the tinman entertained his entertainers with anecdotes of
+the roguery of his own countrymen, or rather, as he called them, his
+"statesmen."  In his opinion of their general dishonesty, Mrs Warner
+most cordially joined.  She related a story of an itinerant Yankee who
+persuaded her to empty some of her pillows and bolsters, under colour of
+exchanging with him old feathers for new; a thing which she acknowledged
+had puzzled her not a little, as she thought it strange that any man
+should bargain so badly for himself.  He produced from his cart a bag of
+feathers which he declared were quite new; but after his departure she
+found that he had given her such short measure that she had not half
+enough to fill her ticking, and most of the feathers were proved, upon
+examination, to have belonged to chickens rather than to geese--nearly a
+whole cock's tail having been found amongst them.
+
+The farmer pointed into the open door of the house, and showed the
+tinman a large wooden clock put up without a case between two windows,
+the pendulum and the weights being "exposed and bare."  This clock he
+had bought for ten dollars of a travelling Yankee, who had set out to
+supply the country with machines.  It had only kept tolerable time for
+about two months, and had ever since been getting faster and faster,
+though it was still faithfully wound up every week.  The hands were now
+going merrily round at the rate of ten miles an hour, and it never
+struck less than twelve.
+
+The Yankee tinman, with a candour that excited the admiration of the
+whole family, acknowledged that his Statesmen were the greatest rogues
+"on the face of the yearth;" and recounted instances of their trickery
+that would have startled the belief of any but the inexperienced and
+credulous people who were now listening to him.  He told, for example,
+of sausages being brought to market in an eastern town, that, when
+purchased and prepared for frying, were found to be filled with chopped
+turnip and shreds of red flannel.
+
+For once, thought the Warners, we have found an honest Yankee.
+
+They sat a long time at table, and though the tinman seemed to talk all
+the time he was eating, the quantity of victuals that he caused to
+disappear surprised even Mrs Warner, accustomed as she was to the
+appetite of Israel.  When the Yankee had at last completed his supper,
+the farmer invited him to stay all night; but he replied, "It was
+moonshiny, and fine cool travelling after a warm day; he preferred
+putting on towards Maryland as soon as his creature was rested, and had
+a feed."
+
+He then, without more ceremony, led his horse and cart into the
+barn-yard, and stopping near the stable door, fed the animal by the
+light of the moon, and carried him a bucket of water from the pump.
+
+The girls being reminded by their mother that it was late, and that the
+cows had long since come home, they took their pails and went out to
+milk, while she washed up the supper things.  Whilst they were milking,
+the subsequent dialogue took place between them:--
+
+_Orphy_.  I know it's not right to notice strangers, and to be sure the
+man's welcome, but, Amy, did thee ever see anybody take victuals like
+this Yankee?
+
+_Amy_.  Yes, but he didn't eat all he took, for I saw him slip a great
+chunk of bread and cheese into his pocket, and then a big piece of pie,
+while he was talking and making us laugh.
+
+_Orphy_.  Well, I think a man must be very badly off to do such a thing.
+I wonder he did not ask for victuals to take away with him.  He need
+not have been afraid.  He must know that victuals is no object.  And
+then he has travelled the roads long enough to be sure that he can get a
+meal for nothing at any house he stops at, as all the tinmen do.  He
+must have seen us looking at his eating so much, and may be his pride is
+hurt, and so he's made up his mind, all of a sudden, to take his meals
+no more at people's houses.
+
+_Amy_.  Then why can't he stop at a tavern, and pay for his victuals?
+
+_Orphy_.  May be he don't want to spend his money in that trifling way.
+Who knows, he may be saving it up to help an old mother, or to buy back
+land, or something of that sort?  I'll be bound he calculates upon
+eating nothing to-morrow but what he slipped off from our table.
+
+_Amy_.  All he took will not last him a day.  It's a pity of him,
+anyhow.
+
+_Orphy_.  I wish he had not been too bashful to ask for victuals to take
+with him.
+
+_Amy_.  And still he did not strike me at all as a bashful man.
+
+_Orphy_.  Suppose we were just in a private way to put some victuals
+into his cart for him, without letting him know anything about it!
+Let's hide it among the tins, and how glad he'll be when he finds it
+to-morrow!
+
+_Amy_.  So we will; that's an excellent notion!  I never pitied anybody
+so much since the day the beggars came, which was five years ago last
+harvest; for I have kept count ever since; and I remember it as well as
+if it was yesterday.
+
+_Orphy_.  We don't know what a hard thing it is to want victuals, as the
+Irish schoolmaster used to tell us when he saw us emptying pans of milk
+into the pig-trough, and turning the cows into the orchard to eat the
+heaps of apples lying under the trees.
+
+_Amy_.  Yes, and it must be worse for an American to want victuals than
+for people from the old countries, who are used to it.
+
+After they had finished their milking, and strained and put away their
+milk, the kind-hearted little girls proceeded to accomplish their
+benevolent purpose.  They took from the large wire safe in the cellar a
+pie, half a loaf of bread, and a great piece of cheese, and putting them
+into a basket, they went to the barn-yard, intending to tell their
+mother as soon as the tinman was gone, and not for one moment doubting
+her approval--since in the house of an American farmer, victuals, as
+Orphy justly observed, are no object.
+
+As they approached the barn-yard they saw, by the light of the moon, the
+Yankee coming away from his cart, and returning to the house.  The girls
+crouched down behind the garden fence till he had passed, and then
+cautiously proceeded on their errand.  They went to the back of the
+cart, intending to deposit their provisions, when they were startled at
+seeing something evidently alive moving behind the round opening of the
+linen cover; and in a moment the head of a little black child peeped out
+of the hole.
+
+The girls were so surprised that they stopped short and could not utter
+a word, and the young negro, evidently afraid of being seen, immediately
+popped down its head among the tins.
+
+"Amy, did thee see that?" asked Orphy in a low voice.
+
+"Yes, I did so," replied Amy; "what can the Yankee be doing with that
+little nigger? and why does he hide it?  Let's go and ask the child."
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Orphy, "the tinman will be angry."
+
+"And who cares if he is?" said Amy; "he has done something he is ashamed
+of, and we need not be afraid of him."
+
+They went quite close to the back of the cart, and Amy said, "Here,
+little snow-ball, show thyself and speak, and do not be afraid, for
+nobody's going to hurt thee."
+
+"How did thee come into this cart?" asked Orphy, "and why does the
+Yankee hide thee?  Tell us all about it, and be sure not to speak above
+thy breath."
+
+The black child again peeped out of the hole, and looking cautiously
+round, said, "Are you quite sure the naughty man won't hear us?"
+
+"Quite sure," answered Amy; "but is thee boy or girl?"
+
+"I'm a little gal," replied the child; and with the characteristic
+volubility of her race she continued, "and my name's Dinah, and I'm five
+years old, and my daddy and mammy are free coloured people, and they
+lives a big piece off, and daddy works out, and mammy sells gingerbread
+and molasses-beer, and we have a sign over the door with a bottle and
+cake on it."
+
+_Amy_.  But how did this man get hold of thee, if thy father and mother
+are free people?  Thee can't be bound to him, or he need not hide thee.
+
+_Dinah_.  Oh, I know, I ain't bounded to him; I expect he stole me.
+
+_Amy_.  Stole thee!  What, here in the free state of Pennsylvania?
+
+_Dinah_.  I was out picking huckle-berries in the woods up the roads,
+and I strayed off a big piece from home.  Then the tinman comed along,
+driving his cart, and I run close to the side of the road to look, as I
+always does when anybody goes by.  So he told me to come into his cart,
+and he would give me a tin mug to put my huckle-berries in, and I might
+chuse it myself, and it would hold them a heap better than my old Indian
+basket.  So I was very glad, and he lifted me up into the cart; and I
+choosed the very best and biggest tin mug he had, and emptied my
+huckle-berries into it.  And then he told me he'd give me a ride in his
+cart, and then he set me far back on a box, and he whipped his creatur,
+and druv, and druv, and jolted me so, I tumbled all down among the tins.
+And then he picked me up, and tied me fast with his handkercher to one
+of the back posts of the cart, to keep me steady, he said.  And then,
+for all I was steady, I couldn't help crying, and I wanted him to take
+me home to daddy and mammy.  But he only sniggered at me, and said he
+wouldn't, and bid me hush; and then he got mad, and because I couldn't
+hush up just in a minute, he whipped me quite smart.
+
+_Orphy_.  Poor little thing!
+
+_Dinah_.  And then I got frightened, for he put on a wicked look, and
+said he'd kill me dead if I cried any more, or made the least noise.
+And so he has been carrying me along in his cart for two days and two
+nights, and he makes me hide away all the time, and he won't let nobody
+see me.  And I hate him, and yesterday, when I know'd he didn't see me,
+I spit on the crown of his hat.
+
+_Amy_.  Hush!  Thee must never say thee hates anybody.
+
+_Dinah_.  At night I sleeps upon the bag of feathers; and when he stops
+anywhere to eat, he comes sneaking to the back of the cart, and pokes in
+victuals (he has just now brung me some), and he tells me he wants me to
+be fat and good-looking.  I was afeard he was going to sell me to the
+butcher, as Nac Willet did his fat calf, and I thought I'd axe him about
+it, and he laughed and told me he was going to sell me, sure enough, but
+not to a butcher.  And I'm almost all the time very sorry, only
+sometimes I'm not; and then I should like to play with the tins, only he
+won't let me.  I don't dare to cry out loud, for fear the naughty man
+would whip me, but I always moan when we're going through woods, and
+there's nobody in sight to hear me.  He never lets me look out of the
+back of the cart, only when there's nobody to see me, and he won't let
+me sing even when I want to.  And I moan most when I think of daddy and
+mammy, and how they are wondering what has become of me; and I think
+moaning does me good, only he stops me short.
+
+_Amy_.  Now, Orphy, what is to be done?  The tinman has, of course,
+kidnapped this black child to take her into Maryland, where he can sell
+her for a good price, as she is a fat, healthy-looking thing, and that
+is a slave state.  Does thee think we ought to let him take her off.
+
+_Orphy_.  No, indeed!  I think I could feel free to fight for her
+myself; that is, if fighting was not forbidden by Friends.  Yonder's
+Israel coming to turn the cows into the clover-field.  Little girl, lie
+quiet, and don't offer to show thyself.
+
+Israel now advanced--"Well, girls," said he, "what's thee doing at the
+tinman's cart?  Not meddling among his tins, I hope?  Oh, the curiosity
+of women folks!"
+
+"Israel," said Amy, "step softly; we have something to show thee."
+
+The girls then lifted up the corner of the cart-cover, and displayed the
+little negro girl, crouched upon the bag of feathers--a part of his
+merchandise which the Yankee had not thought it expedient to produce,
+after hearing Mrs Warner's anecdote of one of his predecessors.  The
+young man was much amazed; and his two sisters began both at once to
+relate to him the story of the black child.  Israel looked almost
+indignant.  His sisters said to him, "To be sure we won't let the Yankee
+carry this child off with, him."
+
+"I judge we won't," answered Israel.
+
+"Then," said Amy, "let us take her out of the cart, and hide her in the
+barn, or somewhere, till he is gone."
+
+"No," replied Israel, "I can't say I feel free to do that.  It would be
+too much like stealing her over again; and I've no notion of evening
+myself to a Yankee in any of his ways.  Put her down in the cart, and
+let her alone.  I'll have no underhand work about her.  Let's all go
+back to the house.  Mother has got down all the broken crockery from the
+top shelf in the corner cupboard, and the Yankee's mending it with a
+sort of stuff like sticks of sealing-wax, that he carries about with
+him; and I dare say he'll get her to pay him more for it than the things
+are worth.  But I say nothing."
+
+The girls cautioned Dinah not to let the tinman know that they had
+discovered her, and to keep herself perfectly quiet; and they then
+accompanied their brother to the house, feeling very fidgety and uneasy.
+
+They found the table covered with old bowls, old tea-pots, old sugar
+dishes, and old pitchers, the fractures of which the Yankee was
+cementing together, whilst Mrs Warner held the candle, and her husband
+viewed the operation with great curiosity.
+
+"Israel," said his mother, as he entered, "this friend is making the
+china as good as new, only that we can't help seeing the join; and we
+are going to give all the mended things to thee."
+
+The Yankee having finished his work, and been paid for it, said it was
+high time for him to be about starting, and he must go and look after
+his cart.  He accordingly left the house for that purpose; and Israel,
+looking out at the end window, said, "I see he's not coming round to the
+house again, but going to try the short-cut into the back road.  I'll go
+and see that he puts up the bars after him."
+
+Israel went out, and his sisters followed him, to see the tinman off.
+
+The Yankee came to the bars, leading his horse with the cart, and found
+Israel there before him.  "Are you going to let down the bars for me?"
+said the tinman.
+
+"No," replied Israel, "I'm not going to be so polite; but I intend to
+see that thee carries off nothing more than belongs to thee."
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed the Yankee, changing colour.
+
+"I expect I can show thee," answered Israel.  Then, stepping up to the
+back of the cart, and putting in his hands, he pulled out the black
+child, and held her up before him, saying, "Now, if thee offers to touch
+this girl, I think we shall be apt to differ."
+
+The tinman then advanced towards Israel, and, with a menacing look,
+raised his whip; but the fearless young Quaker (having consigned the
+little girl to his sisters, who held her between them) immediately broke
+a stick from a tree that grew near, and stood on the defensive, with a
+most steadfast look of calm resolution.
+
+The Yankee went close up to him, brandishing his whip, but, before he
+had time to strike, Israel, with the utmost coolness, and with great
+strength and dexterity, seized him by the collar, and swinging him round
+to some distance, flung him to the ground with such force as to stun
+him, saying, "Mind I don't call myself a fighting character, but if thee
+offers to get up I shall feel free to keep thee down."
+
+The tinman began to move, and the girls ran shrieking to the house for
+their father, dragging with them the little black girl, whose screams
+(as is usual with all of her colour) were the loudest of the loud.
+
+In an instant the stout old farmer was at the side of his son, and
+notwithstanding the struggle of the Yankee, they succeeded by main force
+in conveying him to the stable, into which they fastened him for the
+night.
+
+Early next morning, Israel and his father went to the nearest magistrate
+for a warrant and a constable, and were followed home by half the
+township.  The county court was then in session; the tinman was tried,
+and convicted of having kidnapped a free black child, with the design of
+selling her as a slave in one of the Southern States; and he was
+punished by fine and imprisonment.
+
+The Warner family would have felt more compassion for him than they did,
+only that all the mended china fell to pieces again the next day, and
+his tins were so badly soldered that all their bottoms came out before
+the end of the month.
+
+Mrs Warner declared that she had done with Yankee tinmen for ever, and
+in short with all other Yankees.  But the storekeeper, Philip Thompson,
+who was the sensible man of the neighbourhood, and took two Philadelphia
+newspapers, convinced her that some of the best and greatest men America
+can boast of, were natives of the New England States; and he even
+asserted, that in the course of his life (and his age did not exceed
+sixty-seven) he had met with no less than five perfectly honest Yankee
+tinmen; and besides being honest, two of them were not in the least
+impudent.  Amongst the latter, however, he did not of course include a
+very handsome fellow, that a few years since made the tour of the United
+States with his tin-cart, calling himself the Boston Beauty, and wearing
+his own miniature round his neck.
+
+To conclude:--An advertisement having been inserted in several of the
+papers to designate where Dinah, the little black girl, was to be found,
+and the tinman's trial having also been noticed in the public prints, in
+about a fortnight her father and mother (two very decent free negroes)
+arrived to claim her, having walked all the way from their cottage at
+the extremity of the next county.  They immediately identified her, and
+the meeting was most joyful to them and to her.  They told at full
+length every particular of their anxious search after their child, which
+was ended by a gentleman bringing a newspaper to their house, containing
+the welcome intelligence that she was safe at Micajah Warner's.
+
+Amy and Orphy were desirous of retaining little Dinah in the family, and
+as the child's parents seemed very willing, the girls urged their mother
+to keep her instead of Chloe, who, they said, could very easily be made
+over to Israel.  But to the astonishment of the whole family, Israel on
+this occasion proved refractory, declaring that he would not allow his
+wife to be plagued with such an imp as Chloe, and that he chose to have
+little Dinah herself, if her parents would bind her to him till she was
+eighteen.
+
+This affair was soon satisfactorily arranged.
+
+Israel was married at the appointed time, and took possession of the
+house near the saw-mill.  He prospered; and in a few years was able to
+buy a farm of his own, and to build a stone-house on it.  Dinah turned
+out extremely well, and the Warner family still talk of the night when
+she was discovered in the cart of the travelling tinman.
+
+
+
+STORY THREE, CHAPTER 1.
+
+THE BEAUTIFUL GATE.
+
+One morning, by break of day, old Josiah, who lived in the little
+cottage he had built, on the borders of the Great Forest, found his wife
+awake long before him--indeed she had scarcely closed her eyes that
+night; and she was ready to speak the moment his eyes opened; for she
+had promised their dear Tiny, their only child, that she would have a
+private talk with his father.  So she said in a low, but distinct voice,
+as though she were talking to herself:
+
+"I have nursed him, and watched over him year after year.  He has been
+like the sun shining in my path, and precious as a flower.  There is not
+another like him.  I love him better than I do my eyes.  If he were away
+I might as well be blind."
+
+"That puts me in mind of what I've been dreaming," said the old man.
+"If I was only sure that he would come at last to the Beautiful Gate, I
+wouldn't say another word.  But who can tell?  And it it actually
+happened that he lost his sight--poor Tiny!"
+
+Josiah did not finish what he had begun to say, but hid his face in the
+bed-clothes, and then the good wife knew that he was weeping, and her
+own tears began to fall, and she could not say a word.
+
+After breakfast, when Josiah had gone off into the woods, the mother
+told Tiny of this bit of a conversation, but of course she could not
+explain about the dream.  She knew no more what the boy's father had
+dreamed than you or I do, only she knew it was something curious and
+fanciful about the Beautiful Gate.
+
+Tiny listened with great interest to his mother's words, and he smiled
+as he kissed her when she had done speaking; and he said, "Wait till
+this evening, mother dear, and you shall see."
+
+And so she waited till the evening.
+
+When they were gathered around the kitchen-fire at night, Tiny took down
+the harp that hung on the kitchen wall.
+
+It had hung there ever since the day that Tiny was born.  A poor old
+pilgrim gave it on that very day to Josiah in exchange for a loaf of
+bread.  By that I do not mean that Josiah sold the loaf to the poor old
+hungry pilgrim.  Josiah was too charitable to make a trade with a
+beggar.  But the stranger said this strange thing to Josiah:--"I am near
+to death--I shall sing no more--I am going home.  Keep my harp for me
+until a singer asks you for it, and promises you that he will sing unto
+the Lord a New Song.  Give it to _him_; but be sure before you do so
+that he is worthy to sing the song unto the Lord."
+
+So Josiah had taken the harp home with him, and hung it on the wall, as
+I said, on the day that Tiny was born.  And he waited for the coming of
+the poet who should have that wondrous song to sing.
+
+The father, when he saw what it was the boy would do, made a little move
+as if he would prevent him; but the mother playfully caught the old
+man's hand, and held it in hers, while she said aloud, "Only one song,
+Tiny.  Your father's rest was disturbed last night--so get through with
+it as quickly as you can."
+
+At these last words the old man looked well pleased, for he fancied that
+his wife agreed with him, because he would not yet allow himself to
+believe that it was for his boy Tiny that the old pilgrim left the harp.
+
+And yet never was a sweeter voice than that of the young singer--old
+Josiah acknowledged that to himself, and old Josiah knew--he was a judge
+of such things, for all his life he had been singing songs in his heart.
+
+Yes! though you would never have imagined such a thing, that is, if you
+are in the habit of judging folks from their outward appearance--he had
+such a rough, wrinkled face, brown with freckles and tan, such coarse,
+shaggy grey hair, and such a short, crooked, awkward figure, you never
+would have guessed what songs he was for ever singing in his heart with
+his inward voice--they were songs which worldly people would never
+hear--only God and the angels heard them.  Only God and the holy
+angels!--for as to Kitty, though she was Josiah's best earthly friend,
+though she knew he was such an excellent man, though she believed that
+there was not a better man than he in all the world, though year by year
+he had been growing lovelier and lovelier in her eyes--yes! though his
+hair, of course, became rougher and greyer, and his figure more bent,
+and his hands harder, and his teeth were nearly all gone!--growing
+lovelier because of his excellence, which increased with age as good
+wine does--still even she, who knew him better than any person on earth,
+even she knew him so little that she never so much as dreamed that this
+wonderful voice of Tiny's was but the echo of what had been going on in
+Josiah's heart and mind ever since he was himself a child!
+
+It was because he understood all this so very well that Josiah was
+troubled when he thought about his son.
+
+But to go back to the singer in the chimney-corner.  Tiny sat alone on
+his side of the fire-place, in the little chair fashioned out of knotted
+twigs of oak which his father had made for him long ago.  Opposite him
+were the old folks--the father with his arms folded on his broad chest,
+the mother knitting beside him, now and then casting a sidelong glance
+at the old man to see how it went with him.
+
+Wonderful was that song which Tiny sung!
+
+Even the winter wind seemed hushing its voice to hear it, and through
+the little windows looked the astonished moon.
+
+Josiah lifted up his eyes in great amazement as he heard it, as if he
+had altogether lost himself.  It was nothing like his dream that Tiny
+sang, though to be sure it was all about a Beautiful Gate.
+
+Altogether about the Beautiful Gate! and of the young poet, who, passing
+through it, went his way into the great Temple of the World, singing his
+great songs, borne like a conqueror with a golden canopy carried over
+him, and a golden crown upon his head!  Riding upon a white horse
+splendidly caparisoned, and crowds of people strewing multitudes of
+flowers before him!  And of the lady who placed the victor's crown upon
+his head!  She was by his side, more beautiful than any dream, rejoicing
+in his triumph, and leading him on towards her father's palace, the
+Beautiful Pearl Gates of which were thrown wide open, and the king
+himself with a bare head stood there on foot, to welcome the poet to the
+great feast.
+
+With this the song ended, and with a grand sweep of the silver strings
+Tiny gently arose, and hung the harp against the wall, and sat down
+again with folded hands and blushing cheek, half frightened, now when
+all was over, to think what he had done.  The fire had vanished from his
+eyes, and the red glow of his cheek went following after; and if you had
+gone into Josiah's kitchen just then, you never would have guessed that
+_he_ was the enchanter who had been raising such a storm of splendid
+music.
+
+At first the old man could not speak--tears choked his words.  "Ahem,"
+said he once or twice, and he cleared his voice with the intention of
+speaking; but for a long time no words followed.  At length he said,
+shaking his head,--"It isn't like what I dreamed--it isn't like what I
+dreamed;" and one would have supposed that the old man felt himself
+guilty of a sin by the way he looked at Tiny, it was with so very sad a
+look.
+
+"But beautifuller," said the mother, "beautifuller, isn't it, Josiah!"
+
+"Yes," answered Josiah; but still he spoke as if he had some secret
+misgiving--as if he were not quite sure that the beauty of the song had
+a right to do away with the sadness of his dream.
+
+"But," said Tiny, timidly, yet as if determined that he would have the
+matter quite settled now and for ever--"_am_ I a singer, father? _am_ I
+a poet?"
+
+Slowly came the answer--but it actually came, "Yes," with a broken voice
+and troubled look, and then the old man buried his face in his hands, as
+if he had pronounced some dreadful doom upon his only son.
+
+"Then," said Tiny boldly, rising from his seat, "I must go into the
+world.  It says it needs me; and father, shall _your_ son hide himself
+when any one in need calls to him for help?  I never would have gone,
+father, if you and mother had not said that I was a singer and a poet.
+For you I know would never deceive me; and I made a vow that if ever a
+time came when you should say that to me, then I would go.  But this is
+my home, father and mother; I shall never get another.  The wide world
+could not give me one.  It is not rich enough to build me a home like
+this."
+
+"Don't speak in that way," said the old man; and he turned away that
+Tiny should not see his face, and he bent his head upon the back of his
+chair.
+
+Presently Tiny went softly up to him and laid his hand upon Josiah's
+arm, and his voice trembled while he said, "Dear father, are you angry
+with me?"
+
+"No, Tiny," said Josiah; "but what are you going to do with the world?
+You! ... my poor boy."
+
+"Good!" said Tiny with a loud, courageous voice--as if he were prepared,
+single handed, to fight all the evil there was in the world--"Good,
+father, or I would not have dared to take the pilgrim's harp down from
+the wall.  I will sing," continued he still more hopefully, and looking
+up smiling into the old man's face--"I will sing for the sick and the
+weary, and cheer them; I will tell the people that God smiles on patient
+labour, and has a reward in store for the faithful, better than gold and
+rubies.  I will get money for my songs, and feed the hungry; I will
+comfort the afflicted; I will--"
+
+"But," said Josiah solemnly, lifting his head from the back of the
+chair, and looking at Tiny as if he would read every thought there was
+in the boy's heart, "What did all that mean about the Beautiful Gate?
+Ah, my son, you were thinking more of your own pride and glory, than of
+the miserable and the poor!"
+
+"It was only to prove to you that I had a voice, and that I could sing,
+father," answered Tiny.
+
+Long gazed Josiah upon the face of his son as he heard this.  Then he
+closed his eyes, and bent his head, and Tiny knew that he was praying.
+That was a solemn silence--you could have heard a pin drop on the
+kitchen floor.
+
+Presently the old man arose, and without speaking, went softly and took
+the harp down from the wall.  "Take it," said he, handing it to Tiny,
+"Take it--it is yours.  Do what you will.  The Lord direct your goings."
+
+"Without your blessing, father?" said Tiny, stepping back and folding
+his arms upon his breast.  He would not take the harp.  Then, with both
+hands pressed on Tiny's head, the old man said, "May God bless you, my
+son."
+
+The old man's face was very calm then, and there was not a tear in his
+eyes as he spoke; he had begun to hope again.  And he turned away from
+Tiny to comfort his poor wife.
+
+"Many, many years we lived alone before our Tiny came," said he, "and we
+were very happy; and we will be very happy yet, though he is going away.
+He is our all; but if the world needs him he shall go and serve it."
+Nothing more said Josiah, for his heart was full--too full for further
+speech.
+
+Well, Tiny the singer went sailing down the river one bright morning, on
+a boat loaded with wood, which in that part of the country is called
+lumber; his harp was on his arm, and the rest of his worldly goods upon
+his back.
+
+Tiny sat upon the top of the lumber, the most valuable part of the
+ship's load by far, though the seamen and the owner of the lumber
+thought him only a silly country lad, who was going down to the city,
+probably on a foolish errand.  And Tiny looked at the banks of the
+river, right and left, as they floated down it, and thought of all the
+songs he would sing.
+
+All the first day it was of the poor he would help, of the desolate
+hearts he would cheer, of the weary lives he would encourage, that he
+thought; the world that had need of him should never find him hard of
+hearing when it called to him for help.  And much he wondered--the poet
+Tiny sailing down the river towards the world, how it happened that the
+world with all its mighty riches, and its hosts on hosts of helpers,
+should ever stand in need of him!  But though he wondered, his joy was
+none the less that it had happened so.  On the first night he dreamed of
+pale faces growing rosy, and sad hearts becoming lighter, and weary
+hands strengthened, all by his own efforts.  The world that had need of
+him felt itself better off on account of his labours!
+
+But on the second day of Tiny's journey other thoughts began to mingle
+with these.  About his father and mother he thought, not in such a way
+as they would have been glad to know, but proudly and loftily!  What
+could he do for them?  Bring home a name that the world never mentioned
+except with praises and a blessing!  And that thought made his cheek
+glow and his eyes flash, and at night he dreamed of a trumpeter shouting
+his name abroad, and going up the river to tell old Josiah how famous
+his boy had become in the earth!
+
+And the third day he dreamed, with his eyes wide open, the livelong day,
+of the Beautiful Gate, and the palace of Fame and Wealth to which it
+led! and he saw himself entering therein, and the multitude following
+him.  He ate upon a throne, and wise men came with gifts, and offered
+them to him.  Alas, poor Tiny! the world had already too many helpers
+thinking just such thoughts--it had need of no more coming with such
+offerings as these.  Would no one tell him so?  Would no one tell him
+that the new song to be sung unto our Lord was very different from this?
+
+At the end of the third day, Tiny's journey was ended...  And he was
+landed in the world...  Slowly the ship came sailing into harbour, and
+took its place among a thousand other ships, and Tiny went ashore.
+
+It was about sunset that Tiny found himself in the street of the great
+city.  The workmen were going home from their labour, he thought at
+first; but could it be a city full of workmen? he asked himself as the
+crowd passed by him and he stood gazing on the poor.  For he saw only
+the poor: now and then something dazzling and splendid went past, but if
+he turned again to discover what it was that made his eyes ache so with
+the brightness, the strange sight was lost in the crowd, and all he
+could see were pale faces, and hungry voices, and the half-clad forms of
+men, and women, and children.  And then he said to himself with a groan,
+"The city is full of beggars."
+
+As he said that, another thought occurred to Tiny, and he unfastened his
+harp, and touched the strings.  But in the din and roar of the city
+wagons, and in the confusion of voices, for every one seemed to be
+talking at the top of his voice, what chance had that harp-player of
+being heard?  Still, though the crowd brushed past him as if there was
+no sound whatever in the harp strings, and no power at all in the hand
+that struck them, Tiny kept on playing, and presently he began to sing.
+
+It was _that_ they wanted--the living human voice, that trembled and
+grew strong again, that was sorrowful and joyous, that prayed and wept,
+and gave thanks, just as the human heart does!  It was _that_ the people
+wanted; and so well did they know their want that the moment Tiny began
+to sing, the crowd going past him, heard his voice.  And the people
+gathered round him, and more than one said to himself with joy, "Our
+brother has come at last!"
+
+They gathered around him--the poor, and lame, and sick, and blind;
+ragged children, weary men, desponding women, whose want and sorrow
+spoke from every look, and word, and dress.  Closely they crowded around
+him; and angry voices were hushed, and troubled hearts for the moment
+forgot their trouble, and the weary forgot that another day of toil was
+before them.  The pale woman nearest Tiny who held the little baby in
+her arms, felt its limbs growing colder and colder, and once she looked
+under her shawl and quickly laid her hand upon her darling's heart, but
+though she knew then that the child was dead, still she stood there
+smiling, and looking up towards heaven where Tiny's eyes so often
+looked, because at that very moment he was singing of the Father in
+Heaven, whose house of many mansions is large enough for all the world.
+
+It was strange to see the effect of Tiny's song upon those people!  How
+bright their faces grew! kind words from a human heart are such an
+excellent medicine--they make such astonishing cures!  You would have
+thought, had you been passing by the crowd that gathered around Tiny,
+you would have thought an angel had been promising some good thing to
+them.  Whereas it was only this young Tiny, this country lad, who had
+journeyed from the shadow of the Great Forest, who was telling them of a
+good time surely coming!
+
+When he had finished his song, Tiny would have put up his harp, and gone
+his way, but that he could not do, because of the crowd.
+
+"Sing again!" the people cried,--the beggars and rich men together (it
+was a long time since they had spoken with one voice).  Did I tell you
+that a number of rich men had gathered, like a sort of outer wall,
+around the crowd of poor people which stood next to Tiny?
+
+"Sing again," they cried; and loud and clear above the other voices said
+one, "There is but a solitary singer in the world that sings in such a
+strain as that.  And he, I thought, was far away.  Can this be he?"
+
+Then Tiny's heart leaped within him, hearing it, and he said to himself:
+"If my father and mother were but here to see it!"  And he sang again--
+and still for the poor, and the weary, and the sick, and the
+faint-hearted, until the street became as silent as a church where the
+minister is saying, "Glory be unto the Father."  And indeed it was just
+then a sacred temple, where a sacred voice was preaching in a most
+sacred cause.
+
+I'm sure you know by this time what the "cause" was?  And while he sang,
+the rich men of the outer circle were busy among themselves, even while
+they listened, and presently the person who had before spoken, made his
+way through the crowd, carrying a great purse filled with silver, and he
+said, "You are the poet himself--do with this what you think best.  We
+have a long time been looking for you in the world.  Come home with me,
+and dwell in my house, oh, Poet, I pray you."
+
+Tiny took the heavy purse, and looked at it, and from it to the people.
+
+Then said he--oh, what melody was in his voice, how sweet his
+words!--"None of you but are my friends--you are more--my brothers and
+sisters.  Come and tell me how much you need."  As he spoke, he looked
+at the woman who stood nearest him, with the dead baby in her arms.  Her
+eyes met his, and she threw back the old, ragged shawl, and showed him
+her little child.  "Give me," said she, "only enough to bury it.  I want
+nothing for myself.  I had nothing but my baby to care for."
+
+The poet bowed his head over the little one, and fast his tears fell on
+the poor, pale face, and like pearls the tears shone on the soft, white
+cheek, while he whispered in the ear of the woman, "Their angels do
+always behold the face of Our Father."  And he gave her what she needed,
+and gently covered the baby's face again with the tattered shawl, and
+the mother went away.
+
+Then a child came up and said--now this was a poor street beggar,
+remember, a boy whom people called _as bold as a thief_--he came and
+looked at Tiny, and said gently, as if speaking to an elder brother whom
+he loved and trusted: "My father and mother are dead; I have a little
+brother and sister at home, and they depend on me; I have been trying to
+get work, but no one believes my story.  I would like to take a loaf of
+bread home to them."
+
+And Tiny, looking at the boy, seemed to read his heart, and he said,
+laying his hand on the poor fellow's shoulder, "Be always as patient,
+and gentle, and believing as you are now, and you will have bread for
+them and to spare, without fear."
+
+Then came an old, old man bending on his staff, and he spoke out
+sharply, as if he were half starved, and all he said was, "Bread!" and
+with that he held out his hand as if all he had to do was to ask, in
+order to get what he wanted.
+
+For a moment Tiny made him no answer, and some persons who had heard the
+demand, and saw that Tiny gave him nothing, began to laugh.  But at that
+sound Tiny rebuked them with his look, and put his hand into the purse.
+
+The old man saw all this, and he said, "I am tired of begging, I am
+tired of saying, `for mercy's sake give to me,'--for people don't have
+mercy--they know nothing about being merciful, and they don't care for
+mercy's sake.  I don't beg of you, Mr Poet.  I only ask you as if you
+were my son, and that's all.  Give me bread.  I'm starving."
+
+And Tiny said, "For my dear father's sake take this--God forbid that _I_
+should ever be deaf when an old man with a wrinkled face and white hair
+speaks to me."
+
+Afar off stood a young girl looking at the poet.  Tiny saw her, and that
+she needed something of him, though she did not come and ask, and so he
+beckoned to her.  She came at that, and as she drew nearer he fancied
+that she had been weeping, and that her grief had kept her back.  She
+had wept so violently that when Tiny spoke to her and said, "What is
+it?" she could not answer him.  But at length, while he waited so
+patiently, she made a great effort, and controlled herself and said, "My
+mother!"
+
+That was all she said--and Tiny asked no more.  He knew that some great
+grief had fallen on her--that was all he needed to know; he laid his
+hand in hers, and turned away before she could thank him, but he left
+with her a word that he had spoken which had power to comfort her long
+after the money he gave her was all gone--long after the day when her
+poor mother had no more need for bread.  "When my father and mother
+forsake me, then the Lord will lift me up."  That was what he whispered
+to her as he left her.
+
+And thus he went through that crowd of miserable people, comforting them
+all.  But it was remarkable how much more value the poor folks seemed to
+put upon his word than they did upon the money he gave them, much as
+they stood in need of that!  I wonder if you ever thought about the
+wonderful power there is in words?
+
+At length, when the purse was empty, he stood alone in the midst of the
+circle of rich men who had given him the silver to distribute as he
+would.  Then the man who handed him the purse went up and said to Tiny,
+"Poet, come home with me.  You are come at last! the city ought to be
+illuminated--we have stood so long in need of you, expecting you."
+
+So Tiny, believing what the rich man said, went home with the stranger--
+and for a long time he abode in that house.
+
+And rich men feasted Tiny, and taught him to drink wine: and great men
+praised him, and flattered him till he believed that their praise was
+precious above all things, and that he could not live without it!  Was
+not that absurd?  Nay, children, was not that most terrible, that our
+dear Tiny should ever have been tempted to believe such wicked trash and
+falsehood!  He, too, who was to sing that sweet and holy New Song to the
+Lord!
+
+They surrounded him day and night, these rich, gay men, and these great
+men, and they fed upon the delicious thoughts he gave them, and they
+kept him in such a whirl of pleasure that he had no time to work for the
+poor, and hardly any time to think of them--excepting at the dead of
+night, when he sometimes fancied or dreamed that the old pilgrim owner
+of the harp had come, or would come quickly, and take it away from him.
+At these times poor Tiny would make excellent resolutions, but the next
+day was sure to see them broken.  He seemed no stronger when he
+attempted to keep them than a poor little bird who is determined that he
+will be free, and so goes driving against the wires of his cage!
+
+When Tiny spoke with his friend, as he sometimes did, about the plan
+with which he had come into the world, his friend always made him very
+polite answers, and good promises--oh, yes, certainly he would do all
+that _he_ could to help him on in such an excellent cause!  But the fact
+was, he did everything to prevent him.  I wonder if anybody else has got
+any such friend in his heart, or in his house, as our Tiny found in his
+very first walk through that city street?  If I knew of any one that
+had, I should say, look out for him!  Beware of him.
+
+And so Tiny lived, and presently it happened just as you would expect;
+his conscience troubled him no longer; he only sang such songs on feast
+days, and holidays, and even in the church, as his companions liked; and
+he became very well pleased with his employment!  That was the very
+worst of it.
+
+I shall tell you in a very few words what happened next.  Tiny suddenly
+fell ill of a very curious disease, which caused all his rich friends to
+forsake him, and he almost died of it.
+
+In those days his only helper was a poor young beggar girl--one of those
+persons whom he had relieved by his songs, and by the money he
+distributed from the rich man's purse that happy day,--the little girl
+who had wept so bitterly, and whose only word was, when he questioned
+her,--"My mother!"
+
+He recovered from his disease in time, but all his old acquaintances had
+forsaken him; and he must have felt their loss exceedingly, for now he
+had an attack of a desperate complaint, which I pray you may never
+have!--called Despair--and Tiny crept away from the sight of all men,
+into a garret, and thought that he would die there.
+
+A garret at Home is a very different place from a garret in the World;
+and so our poet thought, when he compared this miserable, dismal place
+with the little attic far, far away in his own father's cottage, where
+he was next-door neighbour to the swallows who slept in their little mud
+cabins under the cottage eaves!
+
+Never in his life was Tiny so lonely.  He had come to help the World,
+said he, talking to himself, and the World cared not half so much about
+it as it would about the doings of a wonderful "learned pig," or the
+extraordinary spectacle of a man cutting profiles with his toes in black
+paper!
+
+"Have you been all the while helping the World, and is this all the pay
+you get?" said the girl, his poor friend, who remembered what he had
+done for her, when she was in her worst need.
+
+"Yes," said Tiny; but there was no truth in what he said.  He did not
+intend to speak falsely, however,--which proves the sad pass he had
+arrived at; he did not even know when he was deceiving himself!  And
+when Tiny said, that "yes," what do you suppose he thought of?  Not of
+all the precious time that he had wasted--not of the Pilgrim's Harp--not
+of the promises he had made his father--nor of the great hope of the
+poor which he had no cruelly disappointed--but only of the evil fortune
+which had fallen on himself!  This beggar girl to wait on him, instead
+of the most beautiful lady in the world for a crown bearer!  This garret
+for a home, instead of a place at the king's table.  And more fiercely
+than ever raged that sickness called Despair.
+
+But at length his strength began to return to him a little, and then for
+the first time poor Tiny discovered that he was blind.  And all the days
+and weeks that came and went were like one long, dark night.  In those
+dreadful days our singer had nothing to do but to think, and the little
+beggar girl had nothing to do but to beg; for Tiny's charity and
+goodness of heart seemed to have all forsaken him, and one day in his
+anger he drove her out of his garret, and bade her return no more, for
+that the very thought of her was hateful to him.  In doing this, Tiny
+brought a terrible calamity upon himself; he fell against his harp and
+broke it.
+
+After that, while he sat pondering on the sad plight he was in, hungry
+and cold and blind, he suddenly started up.  A new thought had come to
+him.  "I will go home to my father's house," he said.  "There is no
+other way for me.  Oh, my mother!" and bitterly he wept as he pronounced
+that name, and thought how little like her tender and serene love was
+the love of the best of all the friends he had found in that great city
+of the world.
+
+As he started up so quickly in a sort of frenzy, his foot struck against
+the broken harp, and instantly the instrument gave forth a wailing
+sound, that pierced the poet's heart.  He lifted up the harp: alas! it
+was _so_ broken he could do nothing with it; from his hands it fell back
+upon the floor where it had lain neglected, forgotten, so long.  But
+Tiny's heart was now fairly awakened, and stooping to the floor, he
+raised the precious treasure again.  "I will carry back the broken
+fragments," said he; "they shall go back to my father with me.  The harp
+is his; I can do nothing more with it for ever.  I have ruined it; I
+have done nothing for the world, as I promised him.  A fine thing it is
+for me to go back to him in this dreadful plight.  But if he says to me,
+`Thou art no son of mine,' I will say, `Father, I am no more _worthy_ to
+be called thy son; make me thy hired servant--only pay me in love.'"
+
+And so saying, Tiny began to descend from his attic.  Carefully he went
+down the stairs, ready to ask help of the first person whose voice he
+should hear.  But he had groped his way as far as the street door,
+before he met a soul.  As he stepped upon the threshold, and was about
+to move on into the street, a voice--a child's voice--said to him--
+
+"I'm very hungry, sir."
+
+The patient tone of the speaker arrested Tiny's steps, and he pondered a
+moment.  It was the hearts that belonged to voices like this, which he
+had vowed to help!  His own heart sunk within him at that thought.
+"Wretched soul that I am," said he to himself, thinking of the
+opportunities which he had lost.  But to the child he said--
+
+"I'm blinder than a bat, and hungry, too.  So I'm worse off than you
+are.  Do you live about here?"
+
+"Just round the corner," said the little girl.
+
+"Is there a physician near here?" he asked next; for a now thought--a
+new hope, rather--had come into his heart.
+
+"Yes, sir--very near.  I know where it is," said the child.  "I got him
+once for my mother."
+
+"If you will lead me to him," said Tiny, his voice broken as his heart
+was, "I will do a good turn for you.  You won't be the loser by it.  Who
+takes care of you?"
+
+"Of me, sir?" asked the girl, as if surprised that he should think that
+any one took care of her.  "Nobody.  I'm all alone."
+
+"Alone! alone!" repeated Tiny: "your hand is very little; you are a mite
+of a girl to be alone."
+
+"They're all dead but me, every one of 'em.  Yes, sir, they are."
+
+"No mother?" said Tiny, with a choking voice--thinking of the kind heart
+and tender loving eyes away off in the lonely little cottage on the
+border of the forest--"no mother, little girl?  Was _that_ what you
+said?"
+
+"Dead," replied the child.
+
+"Did you love her?" asked Tiny, the poet, while his heart wept burning
+tears.
+
+The girl said not a word, but Tiny heard her sob, and held her hand
+close in his own, as though he would protect her, even if he were blind,
+while he said aloud--
+
+"Lead me to the physician, little friend."
+
+Quietly and swiftly she led him, and as they went, Tiny never once
+thought, What if any of the great folks who once courted and praised him
+should see him led on foot through the streets by a little beggar girl,
+himself looking hardly more respectable than the poorest of all beggars!
+
+"Shall I ring the door bell?" asked she, at length coming to a sudden
+halt.
+
+"King it," said he.
+
+But before she could do that the house door opened, and the physician
+himself appeared, prepared for a drive; his carriage was already in
+waiting at the door.
+
+"Here he is," exclaimed the girl; and at the same moment a gruff voice
+demanded--
+
+"What do you want, you two, eh?  Speak quick, for I'm off."
+
+In one word Tiny told what it was he wanted.
+
+"Blind, eh?" said the doctor, stooping and looking into the pale face of
+the unhappy singer; "_born_ blind!  I can do nothing for you.  John!
+drive the horses away from that curb-stone."
+
+He stepped forward, as he spoke, as if about to leave the children, but
+he stood still again the next minute, arrested by the sound of Tiny's
+indignant voice.
+
+"Born blind!" the singer cried; "no more than you were, sir.  If you
+knew how to use your eyes to any good purpose, you never would say such
+a thing.  Since I was ill I've been blind, but never a moment before."
+
+"Come into the house a minute," said the doctor, who had been carefully
+studying Tiny's face during the last few seconds.  "Come in, and I'll
+soon settle that point for you."
+
+"For yourself, you mean," said Tiny, in an under tone, as he and the
+beggar girl went in.
+
+"What's that you carry?" said the physician.  "Lay down your pack for a
+moment."
+
+But Tiny would not do that.  He had taken up his harp in much the same
+spirit as if it had been a cross, and he was determined never to lay it
+down again until he came to his father's house.  So he merely said,
+"Don't call it a pack; it was a harp once, but now it's only some bits
+of wood and cord."
+
+"Broken!" said the doctor; and you would have been in doubt, if you had
+heard him, as to whether he meant Tiny's harp or heart.  "Broken! ah,
+...;" and he seemed to get a little new light on the subject when he
+looked again into Tiny's face.  "Ah," he said again, and still more
+thoughtfully; "now! about those eyes.  You went into a great rage just
+now when I told you that you were born blind.  On a closer examination
+of them, I am still tempted to think that if you were not born blind,
+you never had the full use of your eyes.  How are you going to prove to
+me that I'm mistaken?  If you can prove that it came after your
+sickness,"--he hesitated a little--"I'm not so sure but that something
+might be done for you."
+
+At that Tiny's anger was not much lessened; and he was in doubt as to
+what he should do, until the child said to him, "Sing to him about your
+mother."  The words had the effect of a broad ray of light streaming
+into a dark and dismal place, and without another word Tiny began to
+sing.  His voice was faint and broken; it never once rose into a high
+strain of pride, as if he had his merits as a singer to support; he sung
+with tears, and such pathos as singer never did before, of his Mother
+and her Love.  By the words of his song he brought her there into that
+very room, with her good and pleasant looks, her loving eyes and tender
+smile, so that they who heard could also behold her.  He sung of all
+that she had been to him in his childhood, of the brightness she made in
+their home, of all that she had done for him, and concluded with the
+prayerful longing that his eyes might once more receive their sight,
+that so he might behold her.
+
+"The doctor is weeping," whispered the little girl in Tiny's ear.
+
+It was a long time before the doctor spoke; but at length he arose and
+laid some pieces of silver in Tiny's hand; and he said, "I cannot help
+you.  But what you have to do is to go to the Beautiful Gate, and there
+you will find a physician famous for the cure of such cases as yours.
+True enough you weren't _born_ blind--far from it.  I ask your pardon
+for the mistake.  I wish there were more blind in the way you were.  Go
+your way to the Beautiful Gate."
+
+As the doctor spoke he arose and walked quickly towards the door, and
+the children followed him out.  All at once Tiny recollected that they
+had yet one very important thing to learn, and he cried out--
+
+"But, sir, which way shall we go in order to arrive at the Beautiful
+Gate?"
+
+Too late! while he spoke the doctor stepped into his carriage, the
+coachman closed the door with a loud bang and drove away, and Tiny and
+the little girl were left quite in the dark as to what they should do
+next.  For a long time they stood still in perfect silence.  At last
+Tiny said, "Lead the way, little girl, for I am blind and cannot see.
+Come! we will go on, if you have an idea that we shall ever come to the
+BEAUTIFUL GATE."
+
+"In all my life I never heard of it before," said she sadly.
+
+"But I have," cried Tiny, trying to keep his courage up by speaking
+brave words.  "Come on with me!" yet, in spite of his words, he held
+fast to the girl's hand, and she led him down the street.
+
+Presently, towards nightfall, they came up to a crowd of people, a mob
+of men and boys who were quarrelling.
+
+Well did Tiny understand the angry sound; and, as for the girl walking
+with him, she trembled with fear, and said, "Shall we turn down this
+street?  They are having a terrible fight.  I am afraid you will be
+hurt."
+
+"Not I," said Tiny.  "Is the sun near setting?"
+
+"It has set," said the girl.
+
+"And does the red light shine on the men's faces?" asked the poet.
+
+"Yes," answered the girl, wondering.
+
+"On the night when I first came into this city's streets it was so.  My
+harp was perfect then; but it was the voice, and not the other music,
+that the people eared for, when I sang.  Wait now."
+
+The little girl obediently stood still, and all at once Tiny began to
+sing.  None of his gay songs sung at feasts, and revels, or on holidays,
+but a song of peace, as grand and solemn as a psalm; and the quarrelling
+men and boys stood still and listened, and, before the song was ended,
+the ringleaders of the fight had crept away in shame.  Other voices then
+began to shout in praise of the young stranger, who with a few simple
+words had stilled their angry passions.  "The brave fellow is blind,"
+said they; "we will do something good for him!"  And one, and another,
+and another, cried out, "Come with us, and we will do you good."
+
+But instead of answering a word, Tiny went his way as if he were deaf as
+a post, as well as blind as a bat, and by his side, holding his hand
+close, went the little beggar girl.
+
+Until they came in the increasing darkness to a narrow, crooked lane,
+and met a woman who was running, crying, with a young child in her arms.
+"What is this?" asked Tiny.
+
+"A woman, pale as death, with a child in her arms," said the girl.
+
+"Wait!" shouted Tiny, stopping just before the woman.  His cry so
+astonished her that she stood, in an instant, as still as a statue.
+"What is it that you want?"
+
+"Food! medicine! clothes! a home!" answered she, with a loud cry.
+
+"Give me the child--take this--get what you need, and I will wait here
+with the little one," said Tiny.
+
+Without a word the woman gave her child--it was a poor little cripple--
+into his arms; and then she went on to obey him; and softly on the
+evening air, in that damp, dismal lane, arose the songs which Tiny sang
+to soothe and comfort the poor little creature.  And in his arms it
+slept, hushed by the melody, a slumber such as had not for a long time
+visited his eyes.
+
+Wonderful singer! blessed songs! sung for a wretched sickly stranger,
+who could not even thank him!  But you think they died away upon the
+air, those songs? that they did no other good than merely hushing a
+hungry child to sleep?
+
+A student in an attic heard the song, and smiled, and murmured to
+himself, "That is like having a long walk in in the woods, and hearing
+all the birds sing."
+
+A sick girl, who had writhed upon her bed in pain all the day, heard the
+gentle singing voice, and it was like a charm upon her--she lay resting
+in a sweet calm, and said, "Hark! it is an angel!"  A blind old man
+started up from a troubled slumber, and smiled a happy smile that said
+as plain as any voice, "It gives me back my youth, my children, and my
+country home;" and he smiled again and again, and listened at his
+window, scarcely daring to breathe lest he should lose a single word.  A
+baby clad in rags, and sheltered from the cold with them, a baby in its
+cradle--what do you think that cradle was? as truly as you live, nothing
+but a box such as a merchant packs his goods in! that baby, sleeping,
+heard it, and a light like sunshine spread over its pretty face.  A
+thief skulking along in the shadow of the great high building, heard
+that voice and was struck to the heart, and crept back to his den, and
+did no wicked thing that night.  A prisoner who was condemned to die
+heard it in his cell near by, and he forgot his chains, and dreamed that
+he was once more innocent and free--a boy playing with his mates, and
+loved and trusted by them.
+
+At length the mother of the crippled infant came back, and brought food
+for her child, and a warm blanket for it, and she, and Tiny, and the
+beggar girl, Tiny's companion, ate their supper there upon the sidewalk
+of that dark, narrow lane, and then they went their separate ways--Tiny
+and his friend, taking the poor woman's blessing with them, going in one
+direction, and the mother and her baby in another, but they all slept in
+the street that night.
+
+The next morning by daybreak Tiny was again on his way down that same
+long, narrow, dingy street, the little girl still walking by his side.
+Swiftly they walked, and in silence, like persons who are sure of their
+destination, and know that they are in the right way, though they had
+not said a word to each other on that subject since they set out in the
+path.
+
+"What is that?" at length asked Tiny, stopping short in the street.
+
+"A tolling bell," said the girl.
+
+"Do you see a funeral?"
+
+"Yes; don't you?"
+
+Tiny made no answer at first; at length he said, "Let us go into the
+churchyard;" and he waited for the beggar girl to lead the way, which
+she did, and together they went in at the open churchyard gate.
+
+As they did so, a clergyman was thanking the friends who had kindly come
+to help in burying the mother of orphan children.  Tiny heard that word,
+and he said to the girl, whose name, I ought long ago to have told you,
+was Grace--he said, "Are there many friends with the children?"
+
+"No," she answered sadly.
+
+"Are the people poor?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, very poor," said she.
+
+Then Tiny stepped forward when the clergyman had done speaking, and
+raised a Hymn for the Dead, and a prayer to the Father of the
+fatherless.
+
+When he had made an end, he stepped back again, and took the hand of
+Grace, and walked away with her in the deep silence, for everybody in
+the churchyard was weeping.  But as they went through the gate the
+silence was broken, and Tiny heard the clergyman saying, "Weep no
+longer, children; my house shall be your home, my wife shall be your
+mother.  Come, let us go back to our home."
+
+And Grace and Tiny went their way.  On, and on, and on, through the
+narrow filthy street, out into the open country,--through a desert, and
+a forest; and it seemed as if poor Tiny would sing his very life away.
+For wherever those appeared who seemed to need the voice of human pity,
+or brotherly love, or any act of charity, the voice and Hand of Tiny
+were upraised.  And every hour, whichever way he went, he found THE
+WORLD HAD NEED OF HIM!
+
+They had no better guide than that with which they set out on their
+search for the BEAUTIFUL GATE.  But Tiny's heart was opened, and it led
+him wherever there was misery, and want, and sin, and grief; and flowers
+grew up in the path he trod, and sparkling springs burst forth in desert
+places.
+
+And then as to his blindness.
+
+Fast he held by the hand of the beggar girl as they went on their way
+together, but the film was withdrawing from his eye-balls.  When he
+turned them up towards the heaven, if they could not yet discern that,
+they could get a glimpse of the earth!  So he said within himself,
+"Surely we are in the right way; we shall yet come to the Beautiful
+Gate, and I shall have my sight again.  Then will I hasten to my
+father's house, and when all is forgiven me, I will say to my mother,
+Receive this child I bring thee for a daughter, for she has been my
+guide through a weary way; and I know that my mother will love my little
+sister Grace."
+
+"And what then?" asked a voice in Tiny's soul, "_What_ then wilt thou
+do?"
+
+"Labour till I die!" exclaimed Tiny aloud, with flashing eyes.
+
+"But for what, Poet, wilt thou labour?"
+
+"FOR THE POOR WORLD THAT NEEDS ME," bravely cried he with a mighty
+voice.
+
+"Ah," whispered something faintly in his ear, with a taunting voice that
+pierced his heart like a sharp sword--"Ah, you said that once before;
+and fine work you made of it!"
+
+Tiny made no answer to this taunt, with words, but with all the strength
+of his great poet mind he cried again, "For the poor world that needs
+me!" and the vow was registered in Heaven, and angels were sent to
+strengthen him in that determination--him who was to sing the New Song
+to the Lord.
+
+A long way further Grace and Tiny walked together on their journey; they
+walked in silence, thinking so fast that, without knowing it, they were
+almost on a run in the attempt their feet were making to keep pace with
+their thoughts.  At length Grace broke the silence with a sudden cry--
+
+"Oh, Tiny! what is this?"
+
+Tiny looked up at the sound of her voice, and then he stood stock still
+as if he were turned to stone.
+
+"Oh, Tiny! can you see?" again exclaimed Grace, who was watching her
+companion's face in a great wonder; it became so changed all at once.
+"Oh, Tiny, Tiny, can you see?" she cried again, in terror, for he did
+not answer her, but grew paler and paler, swaying to and fro like a reed
+in the wind, until he fell like one dead upon the ground, saying--"My
+home! my home! and the Beautiful Gate is here!"
+
+Just then an old man came slowly from the forest, near to which they had
+come in their journey.  His head was bent, he moved slowly like one in
+troubled thought, and as he walked he said to himself, "Long have I
+toiled, bringing these forest trees into this shape; and people know
+what I have done--of their own free will they call it a Beautiful Gate.
+But oh, if I could only find the blind one lying before it, ready to be
+carried through it to his mother! then, indeed, it would be beautiful to
+me.  Oh Tiny! oh my child, when wilt thou return from thy long
+wanderings?"
+
+"Please, sir," said a child's voice--it was the voice of our little
+Grace, you know--"please, sir, will you come and help me?" and she ran
+back to the place where Tiny lay.
+
+Swiftly as a bird on wing went Josiah with the child.  Without a word he
+lifted up the senseless Poet and the Broken Harp; and with the precious
+burden passed on through the Beautiful Gate of the Forest, into the
+Cottage Home--Grace following him!
+
+Once more the Broken Harp hung on the kitchen wall--no longer broken.
+Once more the swallows and the poet slept side by side, in their
+comfortable nests.  Once more old Kitty's eyes grew bright.  Once more
+Josiah smiled.  Again a singing voice went echoing through the world,
+working miracles of good.  Rich men heard it and opened their purses.
+Proud men heard it and grew humble.  Angry voices heard it and grew
+soft.  Wicked spirits heard it and grew beautiful in charities.  The
+sick, and sad, and desolate heard it and were at peace.  Mourners heard
+it and rejoiced.  The songs that voice sang, echoed through the
+churches, through the streets; and by ten thousand thousand firesides
+they were sung again and yet again.  But all the while the great heart,
+the mighty, loving human heart from which they came, was nestled in that
+little nest of home on the border of the forest, far away from all the
+world's temptations, in the safe shelter of a household's love.
+
+
+
+STORY FOUR, CHAPTER 1.
+
+THE CHIMAERA, BY N. HAWTHORNE.
+
+Once in the old, old times (for all the strange things which I tell you
+about happened long before anybody can remember), a fountain gushed out
+of a hill-side in the marvellous land of Greece; and, for aught I know,
+after so many thousand years, it is still gushing out of the very
+self-same spot.  At any rate, there was the pleasant fountain welling
+freshly forth and sparkling adown the hillside, in the golden sunset,
+when a handsome young man named Bellerophon drew near its margin.  In
+his hand he held a bridle, studded with brilliant gems, and adorned with
+a golden bit.  Seeing an old man, and another of middle age, and a
+little boy, near the fountain, and like wise a maiden, who was dipping
+up some of the water in a pitcher, he paused, and begged that he might
+refresh himself with a draught.
+
+"This is very delicious water," he said to the maiden, as he rinsed and
+filled her pitcher, after drinking out of it.  "Will you be kind enough
+to tell me whether the fountain has any name?"
+
+"Yes; it is called the Fountain of Pirene," answered the maiden; and
+then she added, "My grandmother has told me that this clear fountain was
+once a beautiful woman, and when her son was killed by the arrows of the
+huntress Diana, she melted all away into tears.  And so the water, which
+you find so cool and sweet, is the sorrow of that poor mother's heart!"
+
+"I should not have dreamed," observed the young stranger, "that so clear
+a well-spring, with its gush and gurgle, and its cheery dance out of the
+shade into the sunlight, had so much as one tear-drop in its bosom!  And
+this, then, is Pirene?  I thank you, pretty maiden, for telling me its
+name.  I have come from a far-away country to find this very spot."
+
+A middle-aged country fellow (he had driven his cow to drink out of the
+spring) stared hard at young Bellerophon, and at the handsome bridle
+which he carried in his hand.
+
+"The water-courses must be getting low, friend, in your part of the
+world," remarked he, "if you come so far only to find the Fountain of
+Pirene.  But, pray, have you lost a horse?  I see you carry the bridle
+in your hand; and a very pretty one it is, with that double row of
+bright stones upon it.  If the horse was as fine as the bridle, you are
+much to be pitied for losing him."
+
+"I have lost no horse," said Bellerophon, with a smile.  "But I happen
+to be seeking a very famous one, which, as wise people have informed me,
+must be found hereabouts, if anywhere.  Do you know whether the winged
+horse Pegasus still haunts the Fountain of Pirene, as he used to do, in
+your forefathers' days?"
+
+But then the country fellow laughed.
+
+Some of you, my little friends, have probably heard that this Pegasus
+was a snow-white steed, with beautiful silvery wings, who spent most of
+his time on the summit of Mount Helicon.  He was as wild, and as swift,
+and as buoyant, in his flight through the air, as any eagle that ever
+soared into the clouds.  There was nothing else like him in the world.
+He had no mate; he had never been backed or bridled by a master; and,
+for many a long year, he led a solitary and a happy life.
+
+Oh, how fine a thing it is to be a winged horse!  Sleeping at night, as
+he did, on a lofty mountain-top, and passing the greater part of the day
+in the air, Pegasus seemed hardly to be a creature of the earth.
+Whenever he was seen, up very high above people's heads, with the
+sunshine on his silvery wings, you would have thought that he belonged
+to the sky, and that, skimming a little too low, he had got astray among
+our mists and vapours, and was seeking his way back again.  It was very
+pretty to behold him plunge into the fleecy bosom of a bright cloud, and
+be lost in it for a moment or two, and then break forth from the other
+side; or, in a sullen rain-storm, when there was a grey pavement of
+clouds over the whole sky, it would sometimes happen that the winged
+horse descended right through it, and the glad light of the upper region
+would gleam after him.  In another instant, it is true, both Pegasus and
+the pleasant light would be gone away together.  But any one that was
+fortunate enough to see this wondrous spectacle felt cheerful the whole
+day afterwards, and as much longer as the storm lasted.
+
+In the summer time, and in the beautifullest of weather, Pegasus often
+alighted on the solid earth, and, closing his silvery wings, would
+gallop over hill and dale for pastime, as fleetly as the wind.  Oftener
+than in any other place, he had been seen near the Fountain of Pirene,
+drinking the delicious water, or rolling himself upon the soft grass of
+the margin.  Sometimes, too (but Pegasus was very dainty in his food),
+he would crop a few of the clover-blossoms that happened to be the
+sweetest.
+
+To the Fountain of Pirene, therefore, people's great-grandfathers had
+been in the habit of going (as long as they were youthful, and retained
+their faith in winged horses), in hopes of getting a glimpse at the
+beautiful Pegasus.  But, of late years, he had been very seldom seen.
+Indeed, there were many of the country folks, dwelling within half an
+hour's walk of the fountain, who had never beheld Pegasus, and did not
+believe that there was any such creature in existence.  The country
+fellow to whom Bellerophon was speaking chanced to be one of those
+incredulous persons.
+
+And that was the reason why he laughed.
+
+"Pegasus, indeed!" cried he, turning up his nose as high as such a flat
+nose could be turned up, "Pegasus, indeed!  A winged horse, truly!  Why,
+friend, are you in your senses?  Of what use would wings be to a horse?
+Could he drag the plough so well, think you?  To be sure, there might be
+a little saving in the expense of shoes; but then, how would a man like
+to see his horse flying out of the stable window?--yes; or whisking him
+up above the clouds, when he only wanted to ride to mill!  No, no!  I
+don't believe in Pegasus.  There never was such a ridiculous kind of a
+horse-fowl made!"
+
+"I have some reason to think otherwise," said Bellerophon, quietly.
+
+And then he turned to an old, grey man who was leaning on a staff, and
+listening very attentively, with his head stretched forward, and one
+hand at his ear, because for the last twenty years he had been getting
+rather deaf.
+
+"And what say you, venerable sir?" inquired he.  "In your younger days,
+I should imagine you must frequently have seen the winged steed!"
+
+"Ah, young stranger, my memory is very poor!" said the aged man.  "When
+I was a lad, if I remember rightly, I used to believe there was such a
+horse, and so did everybody else.  But, now-a-days, I hardly know what
+to think, and very seldom think about the winged horse at all.  If I
+ever saw the creature, it was a long, long while ago; and, to tell you
+the truth, I doubt whether I ever did see him.  One day, to be sure,
+when I was quite a youth, I remember seeing some hoof-tramps round about
+the brink of the fountain.  Pegasus might have made those hoof-marks;
+and so might some other horse."
+
+"And have you never seen him, my fair maiden?" asked Bellerophon of the
+girl, who stood with the pitcher on her head, while this talk went on.
+"You certainly could see Pegasus if anybody can, for your eyes are very
+bright."
+
+"Once I thought I saw him," replied the maiden, with a smile and a
+blush.  "It was either Pegasus, or a large white bird, a very great way
+up in the air.  And one other time, as I was coming to the fountain with
+my pitcher, I heard a neigh.  Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh as
+that was!  My very heart leaped with delight at the sound.  But it
+startled me, nevertheless; so that I ran home without filling my
+pitcher."
+
+"That was truly a pity!" said Bellerophon.
+
+And he turned to the child, whom I mentioned at the beginning of the
+story, and who was gazing at him, as children are apt to gaze at
+strangers, with his rosy mouth wide open.
+
+"Well, my little fellow," cried Bellerophon, playfully pulling one of
+his curls, "I suppose you have often seen the winged horse."
+
+"That I have," answered the child very readily.  "I saw him yesterday,
+and many times before."
+
+"You are a fine little man!" said Bellerophon, drawing the child closer
+to him.  "Come, tell me all about it."
+
+"Why," replied the child, "I often come here to sail little boats in the
+fountain, and to gather pretty pebbles out of its basin.  And sometimes
+when I look down into the water, I see the image of the winged horse, in
+the picture of the sky that is there.  I wish he would come down and
+take me on his back, and let me ride him up to the moon!  But, if I so
+much as stir to look at him, he flies far away out of sight."
+
+And Bellerophon put his faith in the child, who had seen the image of
+Pegasus in the water, and in the maiden, who had heard him neigh so
+melodiously, rather than in the middle-aged clown, who believed only in
+cart-horses, or in the old man, who had forgotten the beautiful things
+of his youth.
+
+Therefore he haunted about the Fountain of Pirene for a great many days
+afterwards.  He kept continually on the watch, looking upward at the
+sky, or else down into the water, hoping for ever that he should see
+either the reflected image of the winged horse, or the marvellous
+reality.  He held the bridle, with its bright gems and golden bit,
+always ready in his hand.  The rustic people, who dwelt in the
+neighbourhood, and drove their cattle to the fountain to drink, would
+often laugh at poor Bellerophon, and sometimes take him pretty severely
+to task.  They told him that an able-bodied young man, like himself,
+ought to have better business than to be wasting his time in such an
+idle pursuit.  They offered to sell him a horse, if he wanted one; and
+when Bellerophon declined the purchase they tried to drive a bargain
+with him for his fine bridle.
+
+Even the country boys thought him so very foolish, that they used to
+have a great deal of sport about him; and were rude enough not to care a
+fig, although Bellerophon saw and heard it.  One little urchin, for
+example, would play Pegasus, and cut the oddest imaginable capers, by
+way of flying, while one of his schoolfellows would scamper after him,
+holding forth a twist of bulrushes, which was intended to represent
+Bellerophon's ornamented bridle.  But the gentle child, who had seen the
+picture of Pegasus in the water, comforted the young stranger more than
+all the naughty boys could torment him.  The dear little fellow, in his
+play-hours, often sat down beside him, and, without speaking a word,
+would look down into the fountain and up towards the sky, with so
+innocent a faith that Bellerophon could not help feeling encouraged.
+
+Now you will, perhaps, wish to be told why it was that Bellerophon had
+undertaken to catch the winged horse.  And we shall find no better
+opportunity to speak about this matter than while he is waiting for
+Pegasus to appear.
+
+If I were to relate the whole of Bellerophon's previous adventures, they
+might easily grow into a very long story.  It will be quite enough to
+say, that, in a certain country of Asia, a terrible monster, called a
+Chimaera, had made its appearance, and was doing more mischief than
+could be talked about between now and sunset.  According to the best
+accounts which I have been able to obtain, this Chimaera was nearly, if
+not quite, the ugliest and most poisonous creature, and the strangest
+and unaccountablest, and the hardest to fight with, and the most
+difficult to run away from, that ever came out of the earth's inside.
+It had a tail like a boa-constrictor; its body was like I do not care
+what; and it had three separate heads, one of which was a lion's, the
+second a goat's, and the third an abominably great snake's.  And a hot
+blast of fire came flaming out of each of its three mouths!  Being an
+earthly monster, I doubt whether it had any wings; but, wings or no, it
+ran like a goat and a lion, and wriggled along like a serpent, and thus
+contrived to make about as much speed as all three together.
+
+Oh, the mischief, and mischief, and mischief, that this naughty creature
+did!  With its flaming breath, it could set a forest on fire, or burn up
+a field of grain, or, for that matter, a village, with all its fences
+and houses.  It laid waste the whole country round about, and used to
+eat up people and animals alive, and cook them afterwards in the burning
+oven of its stomach.  Mercy on us, little children, I hope neither you
+nor I will ever happen to meet a Chimaera!
+
+While the hateful beast (if a beast we can anywise call it) was doing
+all these horrible things, it so chanced that Bellerophon came to that
+part of the world, on a visit to the king.  The king's name was Iobates,
+and Lycia was the country which he ruled over.  Bellerophon was one of
+the bravest youths in the world, and desired nothing so much as to do
+some valiant and beneficent deed, such as would make all mankind admire
+and love him.  In those days, the only way for a young man to
+distinguish himself was by fighting battles, either with the enemies of
+his country, or with wicked giants, or with troublesome dragons, or with
+wild beasts, when he could find nothing more dangerous to encounter.
+King Iobates, perceiving the courage of his youthful visitor, proposed
+to him to go and fight the Chimaera, which everybody else was afraid of,
+and which, unless it should be soon killed, was likely to convert Lycia
+into a desert.  Bellerophon hesitated not a moment, but assured the king
+that he would either slay this dreaded Chimaera, or perish in the
+attempt.
+
+But, in the first place, as the monster was so prodigiously swift, he
+bethought himself that he should never win the victory by fighting on
+foot.  The wisest thing he could do, therefore, was to get the very best
+and fleetest horse that could anywhere be found.  And what other horse,
+in all the world, was half so fleet as the marvellous horse Pegasus, who
+had wings as well as legs, and was even more active in the air than on
+the earth?  To be sure, a great many people denied that there was any
+such horse with wings, and said that the stories about him were all
+poetry and nonsense.  But, wonderful as it appeared, Bellerophon
+believed that Pegasus was a real steed, and hoped that he himself might
+be fortunate enough to find him; and, once fairly mounted on his back,
+he would be able to fight the Chimaera at better advantage.
+
+And this was the purpose with which he had travelled from Lycia to
+Greece, and had brought the beautifully ornamented bridle in his hand.
+It was an enchanted bridle.  If he could only succeed in putting the
+golden bit into the mouth of Pegasus, the winged horse would be
+submissive, and would own Bellerophon for his master, and fly
+whithersoever he might choose to turn the rein.
+
+But, indeed, it was a weary and anxious time, while Bellerophon waited
+and waited for Pegasus, in hopes that he would come and drink at the
+Fountain of Pirene.  He was afraid lest King Iobates should imagine that
+he had fled from the Chimaera.  It pained him, too, to think how much
+mischief the monster was doing, while he himself, instead of fighting
+with it, was compelled to sit idly poring over the bright waters of
+Pirene, as they gushed out of the sparkling sand.  And as Pegasus had
+come thither so seldom, in these latter days, and scarcely alighted
+there more than once in a lifetime, Bellerophon feared that he might
+grow an old man, and have no strength left in his arms nor courage in
+his heart, before the winged horse would appear.  Oh, how heavily passes
+the time while an adventurous youth is yearning to do his part in life,
+and to gather in the harvest of his renown!  How hard a lesson it is to
+wait!  Our life is brief, and how much of it is spent in teaching us
+only this!
+
+Well was it for Bellerophon that the gentle child had grown so fond of
+him, and was never weary of keeping him company.  Every morning the
+child gave him a new hope to put in his bosom, instead of yesterday's
+withered one.
+
+"Dear Bellerophon," he would cry, looking up hopefully into his face, "I
+think we shall see Pegasus to-day!"
+
+And, at length, if it had not been for the little boy's unwavering
+faith, Bellerophon would have given up all hope, and would have gone
+back to Lycia, and have done his best to slay the Chimaera without the
+help of his winged horse.  And in that case poor Bellerophon would at
+least have been terribly scorched by the creature's breath, and would
+most probably have been killed and devoured.  Nobody should ever try to
+fight an earth-born Chimaera, unless he can first get upon the back of
+an aerial steed.
+
+One morning the child spoke to Bellerophon even more hopefully than
+usual.
+
+"Dear, dear Bellerophon," cried he, "I know not why it is, but I feel as
+if we should certainly see Pegasus to-day!"
+
+And all that day he would not stir a step from Bellerophon's side; so
+they ate a crust of bread together, and drank some of the water of the
+fountain.  In the afternoon, there they sat, and Bellerophon had thrown
+his arm around the child, who likewise had put one of his little hands
+into Bellerophon's.  The latter was lost in his own thoughts, and was
+fixing his eyes vacantly on the trunks of the trees that overshadowed
+the fountain, and on the grape vines that clambered up among their
+branches.  But the gentle child was gazing down into the water.  He was
+grieved, for Bellerophon's sake, that the hope of another day should be
+deceived like so many before it; and two or three quiet tear-drops fell
+from his eyes, and mingled with what were said to be the many tears of
+Pirene, when she wept for her slain children.
+
+But, when he least thought of it, Bellerophon felt the pressure of the
+child's little hand, and heard a soft, almost breathless whisper.
+
+"See there, dear Bellerophon!  There is an image in the water!"
+
+The young man looked down into the dimpling mirror of the fountain, and
+saw what he took to be the reflection of the bird, which seemed to be
+flying at a great height in the air, with a gleam of sunshine on its
+snowy or silvery wings.
+
+"What a splendid bird it must be!" said he.  "And how very large it
+looks, though it must really be flying higher than the clouds!"
+
+"It makes me tremble!" whispered the child.  "I am afraid to look up
+into the air!  It is very beautiful, and yet I dare only look at its
+image in the water.  Dear Bellerophon, do you not see that it is no
+bird?  It is the winged horse Pegasus!"
+
+Bellerophon's heart began to throb!  He gazed keenly upward, but could
+not see the winged creature, whether bird or horse, because, just then,
+it had plunged into the fleecy depths of a summer cloud.  It was but a
+moment, however, before the object re-appeared, sinking lightly down out
+of the cloud, although still at a vast distance from the earth.
+Bellerophon caught the child in his arms, and shrunk back with him, so
+that they were both hidden among the thick shrubbery which grew all
+around the fountain.  Not that he was afraid of any harm, but he dreaded
+lest, if Pegasus caught a glimpse of them, he would fly far away, and
+alight in some inaccessible mountain-top.  For it was really the winged
+horse.  After they had expected him so long, he was coming to quench his
+thirst with the water of Pirene.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the aerial wonder, flying in great circles, as
+you may have seen a dove when about to alight.  Downward came Pegasus,
+in those wide, sweeping circles, which grew narrower and narrower still,
+as he gradually approached the earth.
+
+At length--not that he was weary, but only idle and luxurious--Pegasus
+folded his wings, and lay down on the soft green turf.  But, being too
+full of aerial life to remain quiet for many moments together, he soon
+rolled over on his back, with his four slender legs in the air.  It was
+beautiful to see him, this one solitary creature, whose mate had never
+been created, but who needed no companion, and, living a great many
+hundred years, was as happy as the centuries were long.  The more he did
+such things as mortal horses are accustomed to do, the less earthly and
+the more wonderful he seemed.  Bellerophon and the child almost held
+their breath, partly from a delightful awe, but still more because they
+dreaded lest the slightest stir or murmur should send him up, with the
+speed of an arrow-flight, into the furthest blue of the sky.
+
+Finally, when he had had enough of rolling over and over, Pegasus turned
+himself about, and, indolently, like any other horse, put out his
+fore-legs, in order to rise from the ground; and Bellerophon, who had
+guessed that he would do so, darted suddenly from the thicket, and
+leaped astride on his back.
+
+Yes, there he sat, on the back of the winged horse!
+
+But what a bound did Pegasus make, when, for the first time, he felt the
+weight of a mortal man upon his loins!  A bound, indeed!  Before he had
+time to draw a breath, Bellerophon found himself five hundred feet
+aloft, and still shooting upward, while the winged horse snorted and
+trembled with terror and anger.  Upward he went, up, up, up, until he
+plunged into the cold, misty bosom of a cloud, at which only a little
+while before Bellerophon had been gazing and fancying it a very pleasant
+spot.  Then again, out of the heart of the cloud, Pegasus shot down like
+a thunder-bolt, as if he meant to dash both himself and his rider
+headlong against a rock.  Then he went through about a thousand of the
+wildest caprioles that had ever been performed either by a bird or a
+horse.
+
+I cannot tell you half that he did.  He skimmed straightforward, and
+sideways, and backward.  He reared himself erect, with his fore-legs on
+a wreath of mist, and his hind-legs on nothing at all.  He flung out his
+heels behind, and put down his head between his legs, with his wings
+pointing right upward.  At about two miles' height above the earth, he
+turned a somersault, so that Bellerophon's heels were where his head
+should have been, and he seemed to look down into the sky, instead of
+up.  He twisted his head about, and, looking Bellerophon in the face,
+with fire flashing from his eyes, made a terrible attempt to bite him.
+He fluttered his pinions so wildly that one of the silver feathers was
+shaken out, and floating earthward, was picked up by the child, who kept
+it as long as he lived, in memory of Pegasus and Bellerophon.
+
+But the latter (who, as you may judge, was as good a horseman as ever
+galloped) had been watching his opportunity, and at last clapped the
+golden bit of the enchanted bridle between the winged steed's jaws.  No
+sooner was this done, than Pegasus became as manageable as if he had
+taken food, all his life, out of Bellerophon's hand.  To speak what I
+really feel, it was almost a sadness to see so wild a creature grow
+suddenly so tame.  And Pegasus seemed to feel it so likewise.  He looked
+round to Bellerophon, with the tears in his beautiful eyes, instead of
+the fire that so recently flashed from them.  But when Bellerophon
+patted his head, and spoke a few authoritative, yet kind and soothing
+words, another look came into the eyes of Pegasus; for he was glad at
+heart, after so many lonely centuries, to have found a companion and a
+master.
+
+Thus it always is with winged horses, and with all such wild and
+solitary creatures.  If you can catch and overcome them, it is the
+surest way to win their love.
+
+While Pegasus had been doing his utmost to shake Bellerophon off his
+back, he had flown a very long distance, and they had come within sight
+of a lofty mountain by the time the bit was in his mouth.  Bellerophon
+had seen this mountain before, and knew it to be Helicon, on the summit
+of which was the winged horse's abode.  Thither (after looking gently
+into his rider's face, as if to ask leave) Pegasus now flew, and,
+alighting, waited patiently until Bellerophon should please to dismount.
+The young man accordingly leaped from his steed's back, but still held
+him fast by the bridle.  Meeting his eyes, however, he was so affected
+by the gentleness of his aspect, and by his beauty, and by the thought
+of the free life which Pegasus had heretofore lived, that he could not
+bear to keep him a prisoner, if he really desired his liberty.
+
+Obeying this generous impulse, he slipped the enchanted bridle off the
+head of Pegasus, and took the bit from his mouth.
+
+"Leave me, Pegasus!" said he.  "Either leave me, or love me."
+
+In an instant the winged horse shot almost out of sight, soaring
+straight upward from the summit of Mount Helicon.  Being long after
+sunset, it was now twilight on the mountain-top, and dusky evening over
+all the country round about.  But Pegasus flew so high that he overtook
+the departed day, and was bathed in the upper radiance of the sun.
+Ascending higher and higher, he looked like a bright speck, and at last
+could no longer be seen in the hollow waste of the sky.  And Bellerophon
+was afraid that he should never behold him more; but, while he was
+lamenting his own folly, the bright speck re-appeared, and drew nearer
+and nearer, until it descended lower than the sunshine; and, behold,
+Pegasus had come back!  After this trial, there was no more fear of the
+winged horse's making his escape.  He and Bellerophon were friends, and
+put loving faith in one another.
+
+That night they lay down and slept together, with Bellerophon's arm
+about the neck of Pegasus, not as a caution, but for kindness; and they
+awoke at peep of day, and bade one another good-morning, each in his own
+language.
+
+In this manner, Bellerophon and the wondrous steed spent several days,
+and grew better acquainted and fonder of each other all the time.  They
+went on long aerial journeys, and sometimes ascended so high that the
+earth looked hardly bigger than--the moon.  They visited distant
+countries and amazed the inhabitants, who thought that the beautiful
+young man, on the back of the winged horse, must have come down out of
+the sky.  A thousand miles a day was no more than an easy space for the
+fleet Pegasus to pass over.  Bellerophon was delighted with this kind of
+life, and would have liked nothing better than to live always in the
+same way, aloft in the clear atmosphere; for it was always sunny weather
+up there, however cheerless and rainy it might be in the lower region.
+But he could not forget the horrible Chimaera which he had promised King
+Iobates to slay.  So at last, when he had become well accustomed to
+feats of horsemanship in the air, could manage Pegasus with the least
+motion of his hand, and had taught him to obey his voice, he determined
+to attempt the performance of this perilous adventure.
+
+At daybreak, therefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes, he gently
+pinched the winged horse's ear, in order to arouse him.  Pegasus
+immediately started from the ground, and pranced about a quarter of a
+mile aloft, and made a grand sweep around the mountain-top, by way of
+showing that he was wide awake, and ready for any kind of an excursion.
+During the whole of this little flight he uttered a loud, brisk, and
+melodious neigh, and finally came down at Bellerophon's side as lightly
+as ever you saw a sparrow hop upon a twig.
+
+"Well done, dear Pegasus; well done, my sky-skimmer," cried Bellerophon,
+fondly stroking the horse's neck.  "And now, my fleet and beautiful
+friend, we must break our fast.  To-day we are to fight the terrible
+Chimaera."
+
+As soon as they had eaten their morning meal, and drank some sparkling
+water from a spring called Hippocrene, Pegasus held out his head, of his
+own accord, so that his master might put on the bridle.  Then, with a
+great many playful leaps and airy caperings, he showed his impatience to
+be gone; while Bellerophon was girding on his sword, and hanging his
+shield about his neck, and preparing himself for battle.  When
+everything was ready, the rider mounted, and (as was his custom when
+going a long distance) ascended five miles perpendicularly, so as the
+better to see whither he was directing his course.  He then turned the
+head of Pegasus towards the east, and set out for Lycia.  In their
+flight they overtook an eagle, and came so nigh him, before he could get
+out of their way, that Bellerophon might easily have caught him by the
+leg.  Hastening onward at this rate, it was still early in the forenoon
+when they beheld the lofty mountains of Lycia, with their deep and
+shaggy valleys.  If Bellerophon had been told truly, it was in one of
+those dismal valleys that the hideous Chimaera had taken up its abode.
+
+Being now so near their journey's end, the winged horse gradually
+descended with his rider; and they took advantage of some clouds that
+were floating over the mountain-tops, in order to conceal themselves.
+Hovering on the upper surface of a cloud, and peeping over its edge,
+Bellerophon had a pretty distinct view of the mountainous part of Lycia,
+and could look into all its shadowy vales at once.  At first there
+appeared to be nothing remarkable.  It was a wild, savage, and rocky
+tract of high and precipitous hills.  In the more level part of the
+country, there were the ruins of houses that had been burnt, and, here
+and there, the carcases of dead cattle strewn about the pastures where
+they had been feeding.
+
+"The Chimaera must have done this mischief," thought Bellerophon.  "But
+where can the monster be?"
+
+As I have already said, there was nothing remarkable to be detected, at
+first sight, in any of the valleys and dells that lay among the
+precipitous heights of the mountains.  Nothing at all; unless, indeed,
+it were three spires of black smoke, which issued from what seemed to be
+the mouth of a cavern, and clambered suddenly into the atmosphere.
+Before reaching the mountain-top, these three black smoke-wreaths
+mingled themselves into one.  The cavern was almost directly beneath the
+winged horse and his rider, at the distance of about a thousand feet.
+The smoke, as it, crept heavily upward, had an ugly, sulphurous,
+stifling scent, which caused Pegasus to snort and Bellerophon to sneeze.
+So disagreeable was it to the marvellous steed (who was accustomed to
+breathe only the purest air), that he waved his wings, and shot half a
+mile out of the range of this offensive vapour.
+
+But, on looking behind him, Bellerophon saw something that induced him
+first to draw the bridle, and then to turn Pegasus about.  He made a
+sign which the winged horse understood, and sunk slowly through the air,
+until his hoofs were scarcely more than a man's height above the rocky
+bottom of the valley.  In front, as far off as you could throw a stone,
+was the cavern's mouth, with the three smoke-wreaths oozing out of it.
+And what else did Bellerophon behold there?
+
+There seemed to be a heap of strange and terrible creatures curled up
+within the cavern.  Their bodies lay so close together, that Bellerophon
+could not distinguish them apart: but judging by their heads, one of
+these creatures was a huge snake, the second a fierce lion, and the
+third an ugly goat.  The lion and the goat were asleep; the snake was
+broad awake, and kept staring around him with a great pair of fiery
+eyes.  But--and this was the most wonderful part of the matter, the
+three spires of smoke evidently issued from the nostrils of these three
+heads!  So strange was the spectacle, that, though Bellerophon had been
+all along expecting it, the truth did not immediately occur to him, that
+here was the terrible three-headed Chimaera.  He had found out the
+Chimaera's cavern.  The snake, the lion, a and the goat, as he supposed
+them to be, were not three separate creatures, but one monster!
+
+The wicked, hateful thing!  Slumbering as two-thirds of it were, it
+still held, in its abominable claws, the remnant of an unfortunate
+lamb--or possibly (but I hate to think so) it was a dear little boy--
+which its three mouths had been gnawing before two of them fell asleep!
+
+All at once, Bellerophon started as from a dream, and knew it to be the
+Chimaera.  Pegasus seemed to know it at the same instant, and sent forth
+a neigh, that sounded like the call of a trumpet to battle.  At this
+sound the three heads reared themselves erect, and belched out great
+flashes of flame.  Before Bellerophon had time to consider what to do
+next, the monster flung itself out of the cavern and sprung straight
+towards him, with its immense claws extended and its snaky tail twisting
+itself venomously behind.  If Pegasus had not been as nimble as a bird,
+both he and his rider would have been overthrown by the Chimaera's
+headlong rush, and thus the battle have been ended before it was well
+begun.  But the winged horse was not to be caught so.  In the twinkling
+of an eye he was up aloft, half-way to the clouds, snorting with anger.
+He shuddered, too, not with affright, but with utter disgust at the
+loathsomeness of this poisonous thing with three heads.
+
+The Chimaera, on the other hand, raised itself up so as to stand
+absolutely on the tip-end of its tail, with its talons pawing fiercely
+in the air, and its three heads spluttering fire at Pegasus and his
+rider.  My stars, how it roared, and hissed, and bellowed!  Bellerophon,
+meanwhile, was fitting his shield on his arm, and drawing his sword.
+
+"Now, my beloved Pegasus," he whispered in the winged horse's ear, "thou
+must help me to slay this insufferable monster; or else thou shalt fly
+back to thy solitary mountain peak without thy friend Bellerophon.  For
+either the Chimaera dies, or its three mouths shall gnaw this head of
+mine, which has slumbered upon thy neck!"
+
+Pegasus whinnied, and, turning back his head, rubbed his nose tenderly
+against his rider's cheek.  It was his way of telling him that, though
+he had wings and was an immortal horse, yet he would perish, if it were
+possible for immortality to perish, rather than leave Bellerophon
+behind.
+
+"I thank you, Pegasus," answered Bellerophon.  "Now, then, let us make a
+dash at the monster!"
+
+Uttering these words, he shook the bridle; and Pegasus darted down
+aslant, as swift as the flight of an arrow, right towards the Chimaera's
+threefold head, which, all this time, was poking itself as high as it
+could into the air.  As he came within arm's length, Bellerophon made a
+cut at the monster, but was carried onward by his steed, before he could
+see whether the blow had been successful.  Pegasus continued his course,
+but soon wheeled round, at about the same distance from the Chimaera as
+before.  Bellerophon then perceived that he had cut the goat's head of
+the monster almost off, so that it dangled downward by the skin, and
+seemed quite dead.
+
+But to make amends, the snake's head and the lion's head had taken all
+the fierceness of the dead one into themselves, and spit flame, and
+hissed, and roared, with a vast deal more fury than before.
+
+"Never mind, my brave Pegasus!" cried Bellerophon.  "With another stroke
+like that we will stop either its hissing or its roaring."
+
+And again he shook the bridle.  Dashing aslant-wise, as before, the
+winged horse made another arrow-flight towards the Chimaera, and
+Bellerophon aimed another downright stroke at one of the two remaining
+heads, as he shot by.  But, this time, neither he nor Pegasus escaped so
+well as at first.  With one of its claws, the Chimaera had given the
+young man a deep scratch in his shoulder, and had slightly damaged the
+left wing of the flying steed with the other.  On his part, Bellerophon
+had mortally wounded the lion's head of the monster, insomuch that it
+now hung downward, with its fire almost extinguished, and sending out
+gasps of thick black smoke.  The snake's head, however (which was the
+only one now left), was twice as fierce and venomous as ever before.  It
+belched forth shoots of fire five hundred yards long, and emitted hisses
+so loud, so harsh, and so ear-piercing, that King Iobates heard them,
+fifty miles off, and trembled till the throne shook under him.
+
+"Well-a-day!" thought the poor king; "the Chimaera is certainly coming
+to devour me!"
+
+Meanwhile, Pegasus had again paused in the air, and neighed angrily,
+while sparkles of a pure crystal flame darted out of his eyes.  How
+unlike the lurid fire of the Chimaera!  The aerial steed's spirit was
+all aroused, and so was that of Bellerophon.
+
+"Dost thou bleed, my immortal horse?" cried the young man, caring less
+for his own hurt than for the anguish of this glorious creature, that
+ought never to have tasted pain.  "The execrable Chimaera shall pay for
+this mischief, with his last head!"
+
+Then he shook the bridle, shouted loudly, and guided Pegasus, not
+aslant-wise as before, but straight at the monster's hideous front.  So
+rapid was the onset, that it seemed but a dazzle and a flash, before
+Bellerophon was at close gripes with the enemy.
+
+The Chimaera, by this time, after losing its second head, had got into a
+red-hot passion of pain and rampant rage.  It so flounced about, half on
+earth and partly in the air, that it was impossible to say which element
+it rested upon.  It opened its snake-jaws to such an abominable width,
+that Pegasus might almost, I was going to say, have flown right down its
+throat, wings outspread, rider and all?  At their approach it shot out a
+tremendous blast of its fiery breath, and enveloped Bellerophon and his
+stead in a perfect atmosphere of flame, singeing the wings of Pegasus,
+scorching off one whole side of the young man's golden ringlets, and
+making them both far hotter than was comfortable, from head to foot.
+
+But this was nothing to what followed.
+
+When the airy rush of the winged horse had brought him within the
+distance of a hundred yards, the Chimaera gave a spring, and flung its
+huge, awkward, venomous, and utterly detestable carcase a right upon
+poor Pegasus, clung round him with might and main, and tied up its snaky
+tail into a knot!  Up flew the aerial steed, higher, higher, higher,
+above the mountain peaks, above the clouds, and almost out of sight of
+the solid earth.  But still the earth-born monster kept its hold, and
+was borne upward, along with the creature of light and air.
+Bellerophon, meanwhile turning about, found himself face to face with
+the ugly grimness of the Chimaera's visage, and could only avoid being
+scorched to death, or bitten right in twain, by holding up his shield.
+Over the upper edge of the shield, he looked sternly into the savage
+eyes of the monster.
+
+But the Chimaera was so mad and wild with pain, that it did not guard
+itself so well as might else have been the case.  Perhaps, after all,
+the best way to fight a Chimaera is by getting as close to it as you
+can.  In its efforts to stick its horrible iron claws into its enemy,
+the creature left its own breast quite exposed; and perceiving this,
+Bellerophon thrust his sword up to the hilt into its cruel heart.
+Immediately the snaky tail untied its knot.  The monster let go its hold
+of Pegasus, and fell from that vast height downward; while the fire
+within its bosom, instead of being put out, burned fiercer than ever,
+and quickly began to consume the dead carcase.  Thus it fell out of the
+sky, all a-flame, and (it being nightfall before it reached the earth)
+was mistaken for a shooting star or a comet.  But at early sunrise, some
+cottager's were going to their day's labour, and saw, to their
+astonishment, that several acres of ground were strewn with black ashes.
+In the middle of a field there was a heap of whitened bones, a great
+deal higher than a haystack.  Nothing else was ever seen of the dreadful
+Chimaera!
+
+And when Bellerophon had won the victory, he bent forward and kissed
+Pegasus, while the tears stood in his eyes.
+
+"Back now, my beloved steed!" said he.  "Back to the Fountain of
+Pirene!"
+
+Pegasus skimmed through the air, quicker than ever he did before, and
+reached the fountain in a very short time.  And there he found the old
+man leaning on his staff, and the country fellow watering his cow, and
+the pretty maiden filling her pitcher.
+
+"I remember now," quoth the old man, "I saw this winged horse once
+before, when I was quite a lad.  But he was ten times handsomer in those
+days."
+
+"I own a cart-horse worth three of him!" said the country fellow.  "If
+this pony were mine, the first thing I should do would be to clip his
+wings!"
+
+But the poor maiden said nothing, for she had always the luck to be
+afraid at the wrong time.  So she ran away, and let her pitcher tumble
+down, and broke it.
+
+"Where is the gentle child," asked Bellerophon, "who used to keep me
+company, and never lost his faith, and never was weary of gazing into
+the fountain?"
+
+"Here am I, dear Bellerophon!" said the child, softly.
+
+For the little boy had spent day after day, on the margin of Pirene,
+waiting for his friend to come back; but when he perceived Bellerophon
+descending through the clouds, mounted on the winged horse, he had
+shrunk back into the shrubbery.  He was a delicate and tender child, and
+dreaded lest the old man and the country fellow should see the tears
+gushing from his eyes.
+
+"Thou hast won the victory," said he, joyfully, running to the knee of
+Bellerophon, who still sat on the back of Pegasus.  "I knew thou
+wouldst."
+
+"Yes, dear child!" replied Bellerophon, alighting from the winged horse.
+"But if thy faith had not helped me, I should never have waited for
+Pegasus, and never have gone up above the clouds, and never have
+conquered the terrible Chimaera.  Thou, my beloved little friend, hast
+done it all.  And now let us give Pegasus his liberty."
+
+So he slipped off the enchanted bridle from the head of the marvellous
+steed.
+
+"Be free, for evermore, my Pegasus!" cried he with a shade of sadness in
+his tone.  "Be as free as thou art fleet!"
+
+But Pegasus rested his head on Bellerophon's shoulder, and would not be
+persuaded to take flight.
+
+"Well, then," said Bellerophon, caressing the airy horse, "thou shalt be
+with me as long as thou wilt; and we will go together forthwith, and
+tell King Iobates that the Chimaera is destroyed."
+
+Then Bellerophon embraced the gentle child, and promised to come to him
+again, and departed.  But, in after years, that child took higher
+flights upon the aerial steed than ever did Bellerophon, and achieved
+more honourable deeds than his friend's victory over the Chimaera.  For,
+gentle and tender as he was, he grew to be a mighty poet!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My First Cruise, by W.H.G. Kingston
+
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