Lion Ben of Elm Island

by Elijah Kellogg

  CHAPTER XII.

  THE “PULL UP.”

  “As we can’t have any kissing without the girls,” said Joe, “let’s play‘Pull up.’”

  The handle of one of the axes was knocked out, and the game began. Itwas a most severe test of strength. Two of the company, sitting uponthe floor, and putting the soles of their feet together, took hold ofthe axe-handle, and endeavored to pull each other up. If either brokehis hold he was adjudged beaten. Victory in this game depends notmerely upon weight, as it might seem at first, but upon strength in thehands, and power of endurance. A man may be very heavy, and have greatstrength in his arms, and not be strong in his fingers to retain hishold upon the axe-handle.

  The young men would sit there and pull, with their teeth set, and theperspiration streaming down their faces, and their eyes almost startingfrom their sockets. When they were pretty equally matched, one wouldraise the other from the floor an inch or two, and then lose it again,as his opponent made desperate efforts, and recovered the ground, theirfriends meanwhile encouraging either party; and as the weakest menwere brought on first, and afterwards the strongest and most equallymatched, the game became, towards the close, most intensely interesting.

  Joe Bradish had pulled up four of his opponents, and being a veryconceited fellow, strutted about the floor, and challenged the crowdto pull him up. The challenge would not have remained long unaccepted,but the contest had now become limited to a few of the strongest men,who, knowing they were to be pitted against each other, were savingthemselves for the final struggle.

  Uncle Isaac saw how it was; and, as he wished to see how the sportwould go on, and to teach the braggart a little modesty, he rose up,threw off his outer garment, and accepted the challenge. His proposalwas received with shouts of laughter.

  “I’m sorry he’s done it,” said Seth to Joe Griffin, “though I can’thelp laughing. I should be sorry to see him pulled up before thiscrowd, for I know it would mortify him; he is just as much of a boy asany of us.”

  “He won’t be pulled. Uncle Isaac, I can tell you, is an all firedstrong man; it don’t lay in Joe Bradish’s breeches to pull him up.”

  “I know that; but he’s getting in years.”

  “He can’t wrestle and jump quite as well as he could once; but he canlift as much, and pull up as well, as ever he could. Joe Bradish willget a good lesson; he’ll never hear the last of it as long as he lives.”

  “Well, boys,” said Uncle Isaac, “fling on some pitch knots; if I amgoing to be beat, I want everybody to see it.”

  “What did I tell you?” said Joe, giving Seth a poke in the ribs; “theold man knows what he’s about.”

  The two champions sat down.

  “Say when you’re ready, Joe,” said Uncle Isaac.

  “Ready,” says Joe.

  Uncle Isaac was not only strong, but of very quick strength; and beforethe words were well out of the other’s mouth, he pulled him over hishead, into Joe Griffin’s arms, who was eagerly looking over Uncle Isaac.

  “It ain’t fair,” said Joe, his face as red as fire; “I wasn’t ready.”

  “You said you was.”

  “Well, I thought I was; but I wasn’t.”

  “Try it again,” was the cry. They sat down. Uncle Isaac waitedpatiently till Joe had spit on his hands, and said he was completelyready, when he pulled him up just as easily as before.

  “I thought you was some, Joe,” said Uncle Isaac; “but you ain’tnothing.”

  John Strout, a large, muscular man, whose occupation as a sailor hadthe effect to concentrate strength in the fingers and chest, had pulledup all who opposed him. The call was now for Joe Griffin, as no onethought of pulling with Rhines. Joe came forward at the summons. Severewas the struggle; and, as these were the last antagonists, the interestwas proportionally great. Joe finally pulled John from the floor, butthe blood spun from his nose in consequence of his efforts; and Johnwas so exhausted that he could scarcely stand.

  “I could not have done it, John, if you had taken hold of me when youwere fresh, for an ounce more would have broken my hold.”

  Uncle Isaac now gave the wink to Seth, who said, loud enough foreverybody to hear, “I think it’s a pity, now we’re here, that wecouldn’t shingle the house, and build Ben a hovel to put his cow in,and hang the doors; then all he would have to do would be to getmarried.”

  “Well, we would do it, if we had the shingles to do it with--wouldn’twe, boys?” said Joe Griffin.

  “Yes,” was the reply from twenty voices; “and we’ll build the hovel andhang the doors, at any rate; we’ve got all the materials for that.”

  “Well, boys,” said Uncle Isaac, “since you are so free-hearted, I’lltell you what I’ve been thinking of, for I feel about nineteen, since Ipulled up Joe Bradish. I’ve been thinking I should like first rate tohave a clam bake.”

  “A clam bake! a clam bake!” was the cry.

  “But then, you see, we have no hoes to dig clams with; and we want someeggs, potatoes, and apples to bake with them. Now, I’ve got a whole lotof hemlock bark on the edge of the bank on my point, where you can goto it with the gundelow--enough to cover three such houses. I’ll lendit to Ben, and when he peels bark next June he can pay me; and I’vegot nails likewise. If we can get an early start in the morning, wecan do the whole, clam bake and all. The bark is all piled up, so thatit is flat, and will lay first rate; it will make as tight a roof asshingles, and last seven or eight years, and by that time Ben can makehis own shingles. Some of you can load the gundelow, and some can getthe hoes and nails; and tell Hannah to give you some corn that growsin the western field,--it’s a late piece--the frost hasn’t touched ityet,--it’s just right to roast; and also get all the apples, eggs, andpotatoes you want.”

  Uncle Isaac’s plan met with a hearty approval; and they brought in somebrush, and lay down to sleep.

  The next morning, at daybreak, John Strout, with a strong party,started after the bark, taking a jug of coffee and a cold bite withthem.

  The others went to work making preparations to cover the roof of thehouse, and build the hovel. Uncle Isaac gave Joe Griffin a gang, andset him to build the hovel. Sam Atkins, with the ship carpenters, wentto work upon the doors, while the rest put up the staging upon which towork while covering the roof.

  The hovel was built of round logs, notched together, with a roof on oneside,--what is called a half-faced cabin,--just high enough to clearthe cattle’s backs, and large enough to hold a cow and yoke of oxen.Nothing was hewed except the poles that made the floor, which wereflatted on the upper side; and the openings between the logs filledwith clay and mortar.

  The crew now arrived with the bark, when, who should come with them,but Uncle Sam Yelf and Jonathan Smullen! Yelf was seventy, Smullenseventy-five. The old men wanted to share in the clam bake, have alittle milk punch, and, above all, to witness the wrestling: they hadboth been champions of the ring in their day.

  All hands, except the carpenters, now joined in putting on the sheetsof bark; they were lapped like shingles, and, being four feet inlength, were laid with great rapidity.

  “There are more of you here than can work to advantage,” said UncleIsaac; “some of you, dig clams.”

  In the mean time the carpenters hung the doors. The hinges and latcheswere all made of wood. The latch was lifted by a leather string, whichwas put through a hole in the door above it, and hung down on theoutside. Thence came the phrase, “the latch-string out,” to denoteopen doors and hospitality; since, when it was pulled in there was noentrance.

  “What on airth,” said Uncle Isaac, “has become of Sam Atkins? I haven’tset eyes on him this whole forenoon.”

  While the rest were preparing for the clam bake, he went everywherelooking for Sam. A great fire was now built in the hollow of a ledge,till the rocks were red hot. Into this were put the clams, togetherwith eggs, potatoes, and corn with the husk on; the whole was thencovered with sea-weed, to keep in the steam while they were cooking.


  There was a short log left in the building of the house, and, in orderto pass the time away, while waiting for the dinner, they dug it out,and made a hog’s trough: thus Ben’s _first_ article of furniture was ahog’s trough.

  The clams formed the first course; eggs, corn, apples, and cheese, thesecond; concluding with milk punch, which passed from hand to hand in atin quart.

  If ever there was real enjoyment, it was to be found among thatfrolicsome throng of young men, conscious that they had done a nobleact, and, in aiding a neighbor, had found the purest happiness forthemselves.