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diff --git a/23068.txt b/23068.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dec3a92 --- /dev/null +++ b/23068.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3720 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY FIRST CRUISE *** + +***** This file should be named 23068.txt or 23068.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/6/23068/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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