CHAPTER XIII.
A Grizzly Bear.--Gossamers.--Strike only on the Box.
After Frank's cuts and bruises were plastered up, the boys turned intotheir berths and were soon fast asleep. Now the hawks had been placed ina corner at the foot of Jimmy's berth, and crouched together quiet andsullen. The foot of Jimmy's bed was only about six inches from them, andas he turned and twisted in his sleep, he pushed his foot out of thebottom of the bed, exposing his toes within tempting reach of the younghawks' talons. The natural consequence followed. One of the birds seeingthis capital chance of avenging himself on his enemies, seized fast holdof Jimmy's big toe with his sharp beak. Jimmy jumped up with a loudyell, and hitting his forehead against the roof of the cabin fell downagain on the floor. Frank, hearing a noise, started up not more thanhalf awake, and fell out of his hammock on to the top of Jimmy, whom heseized by the throat. Dick awoke from a dream of Arctic exploration, andcried out,--
"Is that a grizzly bear?"
"Grizzly bear!" said Jimmy, whom Frank had released. "Something tentimes worse than a bear has seized my toe and bitten it off, or nearlyso, and then I hit my head against the roof, and Frank half choked me. Ithink it is a great deal too bad."
"You must have been dreaming, Jimmy," said Frank; "there is nothing herethat could bite your toe."
"But I can feel that it is bleeding!" answered Jimmy, in a very injuredtone of voice.
At that moment a noise in the corner of his berth attracted theirattention.
"Oh, it must have been the hawks!" said Dick, and he and Frank went offinto fits of laughter, which only grew more boisterous as Jimmyproceeded to light a candle, and bind his toe up with a piece ofsticking-plaster, grumbling all the time, and casting savage glances atthe offending birds.
The light was put out, and they once more went to bed, Jimmy taking careto tuck his feet well under him. Every now and then a smothered burst oflaughter from the other berths told him that his friends were stillenjoying the joke, and then, as his toe began to pain him less, hissense of the ludicrous overcame his sense of outraged dignity, and justas Dick and Frank were dropping off to sleep, they were again startledby a peal of laughter from Jimmy.
"Oh dear!" said Frank, "you will be the death of us, Jimmy. Have youonly now discovered the joke?"
"Oh, don't make me laugh any more. My sides are aching so," said Dick.
Once more composed, they went to sleep, and awoke early in the morningto find that the gale had spent itself, and that a soft air from thesouth blew warmly over the land. The sun shone his brightest, and thebirds sang their merriest. They had a bathe in the clear river water,and dressed leisurely on the top of their cabin, while the sun, whichhad not risen very long, threw their shadows, gigantic in size, over thegreen meadows, which were covered with silvery gossamers--and then theywere witnesses of a curious phenomenon. Their shadows had halos of lightaround them, extending about eighteen inches from each figure, allaround it. The strong light from behind them, shining on the wet andgleaming gossamers, was no doubt the cause of this singular appearance.The same sight has been seen when the grass was wet with dew.
"The fields are quite silvery with the gossamer," said Dick. "Is it notpretty!"
"Yes, what a number of spiders there must be to cause such anappearance," answered Frank. "It always puzzles me how those spidersmove about--and how is it that on some mornings they appear in suchimmense quantities, while on the next morning, perhaps, not one will beseen?"
"I think they are always there," replied Dick, "but they are onlyvisible when the dew is falling heavily, and wetting them so that theybecome visible. In the clear air, too, the sun will dry them so that weshall not be able to see them; but they will be there all the same. Letus gather a bunch of rushes with a lot of them on and examine them."
He did so, and they saw great numbers of tiny spiders gliding abouttheir tiny webs. By and by, as they watched them, the little spidersshot out long silvery threads, which floated out to leeward, and thenthe spiders let go their hold and launched themselves into the air, andwere borne away by the faint south wind.
"Oh, so that is the secret of their wandering, is it? Don't you wish youcould send a long floating thread from your stomach, Jimmy, and sailaway over the marshes? It would be as good as having wings."
"Don't be so absurd, Frank."
A wherry was being pushed up the stream by its two stalwart boatmen, bythe process known in Norfolk as quanting. The men placed their longpoles or quants into the river at the bow of the wherry, and, placingtheir shoulders against them, walked to the stern, propelling the boatalong with their feet. By this laborious method, when the wind failsthem, do the wherrymen work their craft to their destination. As theypassed the yacht, one of them cried out--
"We have got no matches, guv'nor. Can you give us some?"
"Certainly," replied Frank; and diving into the cabin, he returned witha handful. These he handed to the wherryman, who thanked him and passedon. The man stopped quanting and tried to strike a match by rubbing iton the sole of his shoe. It failed to ignite, and he threw it down.Another met with the same fate, and another also. Then he tried strikingthem on wood, then on iron, then on his rough jacket, but all to nopurpose, and they could see him trying one after another, and throwingthem down with every symptom of disgust.
"Why, Frank, those matches strike only on the box," said Dick.
"I know that," replied Frank, laughing quietly.
"Oh, that's too bad. Fancy the fellow's disgust!"
They sailed up to the pretty little town of Beccles, where they took inprovisions, and Frank bought some more sticking-plaster in case of anyfurther accident. They then had a good dinner at the principal inn, andafterwards called upon a friend, who took them over the largeprinting-works near the town, where many books published in London areprinted. They began with the compositors' room, where, with marvellousrapidity, the workmen were selecting the letters from their respectiveboxes in the case of type, and arranging them in their proper order. Theextraordinary illegibility of some of the MSS. from which thecompositors were reading with apparent ease astonished our boys, whocould make nothing of them. They then paid a visit to the reader, whohas the wearisome and eye-tiring task of reading over and correcting theproofs. When the proofs have been corrected and the "revise" submittedto the author, and his corrections made, the process of stereotypingcomes in. The sheet of type is covered with a layer of plaster-of-paris,which takes a perfect impression of the words on the sheet of type. Fromthis plaster-of-paris cast another cast is taken in metal, and thisforms the stereotype plate from which the book is printed. The type,which is very valuable, can then be distributed to its proper places,and used again. The stereotype plates are always kept stored in stacks,like bottles in a wine-bin.
Jimmy, being of a mechanical turn of mind, was very much interested inthe stereotyping process, and more particularly in the account theyreceived of the way in which many daily papers are printed. Theimpression is in the first instance taken by means of a soft wet paperof sufficient thickness. This is dried, and the molten metal is pouredupon it, and takes a perfect impression, without in any way spoiling thepaper mould, or "matrix," which can be used again, while a plaster onecannot. Jimmy asked to be shown some wooden blocks from which woodengravings are printed, and the boys examined them curiously.
They received an invitation to spend the evening at their friend'shouse, and after returning to the boat to feed the hawks with some"lights" bought at a butcher's shop, they had a very pleasant evening,and slept that night on shore.
The Swan and Her Crew Page 15