CHAPTER XIX.
AN UNGRATEFUL BOY.
It may seem very singular to some of our readers, that Captain Rhines,whom we have spoken of as having a strong attachment to the soil,should express a willingness so soon to leave it. But this will notseem at all remarkable to any seafaring man whose eye may chance toglance over our pages.
He had in early years been prevented from gratifying this inclination.On the other hand, his life from boyhood had been spent at sea,in company with seafaring men, and amid excitement and peril. Thehabits of years are not easily to be overcome; and as age had madeno impression upon his iron constitution, after being at home a fewmonths, an almost irresistible longing came over him, at times, to beonce more among the very perils he had so congratulated himself uponhaving escaped, and to hear some talk except about barley and butter.
He also, the moment he came home, began to make improvements--as hesaid, made things look “ship-shape.” But this required money, and hemissed the cash he was accustomed to receive at the end of a voyage;besides, a trip to the West Indies seemed to the old sailor as mererecreation, which would enable him to carry out some of his farmproduce as a venture, and get his sugar, molasses, coffee, and rum. Hadhe abandoned the sea at Ben’s age, before its habits had ripened into asecond nature, it would have been another matter.
John remained on the island a week. On his return he received a warmwelcome from Tige, who met him at the shore, and almost wagged his tailoff, he was so glad to see him. He had been perfectly miserable withoutJohn, for they were inseparable companions. Not knowing how otherwiseto express his joy, he began to take up sticks in his mouth, and runabout with them.
“Here, old fellow,” said John; “if you want something to do, take thesebirds and carry them to the house, for our dinner.”
“John,” said his father, “have you had as good a time as you expected?”
“O, father, I never had such a good time in all my life! You know thebrook?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s the greatest place for frost-fish you ever did see. Thesea-fowl come in there to drink, and there is the best chance to creepto them behind the wood. You never saw such a good dog to play asSailor is; you throw him a stone, and he’ll play half an hour with it.What’s Tige been about, father, since I’ve been gone?”
“Well, when he wan’t down on the beach watching for you, barking andwhining, he was smelling all round the barn and orchard, and going upin your bedroom: he has rooted the clothes of your bed a dozen times,to see if you was in it; and every night he has slept on your oldjacket.”
The opinion expressed by John’s mother, that ’twas much better heshould be on the island than in the company of some of the boys he wentwith, grew out of the following circumstances:--
During the past summer, a boy by the name of Peter Clash ran away froma Nova Scotia vessel, that came in for a harbor. Old Mr. Smullen hadtaken him in, out of charity. This boy was eighteen years of age, andbelonged in Halifax, where, having the run of the streets and wharves,he learned all kinds of vice. He was of a malicious disposition, andintolerably lazy.
He soon made the acquaintance of all the boys in the neighborhood, butconsorted chiefly with Fred Williams, the miller’s son, John Pettigrew,Isaac Godsoe, Henry Griffin, and some others.
None of these boys would have been disposed to engage in any mischiefbeyond mere fun, or that was injurious to any one’s person or property,if left to themselves; they also had but little leisure, as, whennot at school, they were at work; but Peter, who did very much as hepleased at old Uncle Smullen’s, had a great deal of spare time, whenhe both planned mischief and persuaded the others to aid him in theexecution. He had been in the place but a month, when he manifestedhis mean, cowardly disposition by a trick that he played upon hisbenefactors.
The old people had fed, clothed, and sheltered him when he had no placeto put his head, for which the little labor he performed was by nomeans an equivalent, as he generally contrived to be out of the wayjust when his help was needed.
In those days nobody thought of hauling up a year’s stock of wood, andhaving it cut and dried; but they picked it up as they wanted it, andhauled it home on a sled, as wheels were by no means common in thosedays. The old folks were in the habit of getting on the sled, andriding out in the woods with Peter, helping him load, and then ridingback.
Peter had found a large hornet’s nest in a heap of beech limbs; so hedrives the sled right over it, and stops the cattle; when the enragedinsects, who were of the yellow-bellied kind, and the most cruel ofstingers, attacked the old people, and stung them terribly, as theywere too feeble to get quickly away.
It was thought the old gentleman would never see again. They thenturned upon the oxen, who, frantic with fear and agony, ran into thewoods, tore the sled in pieces against the trees, and ran into thewater, where they would have been drowned but for Joe Bradish andCaptain Rhines.
Peter pretended that he didn’t know the hornets were there, and thekind old people believed him; but it came out afterwards that he haddone it on purpose.
He used also to torment small boys, whenever he could get a goodopportunity.
It was the influence of these boys which Mrs. Rhines feared; but sheapprehended danger where none existed. Peter, John despised: as to theothers, they were too much below him in point of intelligence and forceof character to exert any influence over him.
He was now in his fifteenth year, very large of his age, beautifullyproportioned, with his father’s gray eyes and dark hair; excelled inwrestling, swimming, and all kinds of boys’ sports, and bade fairalmost to rival Ben in strength. He had an eye that you could lookright into, as you can look down into the depths of a clear spring.The whole expression of his face was so manly and frank, it was feltat once to be an index of his character. According to Fred Williams,John Rhines was just as full of principle as he could stick; and theboys never thought of proposing to him any plan which their consciencestold them was of doubtful morality. John was less accessible totemptation, for the reason that he loved out of doors, and thestimulus his nature craved was of a healthy character. He delighted ineverything that required great physical force and endurance; and wecannot but think that the wrestling, jumping, pulling up, and roughout-door sports of that period, though a man’s leg was broken now andthen, or somebody killed outright, were infinitely preferable to theeffeminate amusements of the present day, which turn boys into coxcombsand men-milliners, and destroy both soul and body. Nothing was moreagreeable to him than the pleasure derived from contrasts between greatextremes. Those pursuits which promised neither peril nor hardshippossessed for him very little attraction.
He loved to fly through the water in a boat, with all the sail shewould suffer, while the spray came by bucketfuls on to the side of hisneck, and then, rounding a densely-wooded point, run her into a calm,sunny nook, among the green leaves, exchanging the dash of the coldspray and the shrill whistle of the wind for the warm sunshine and thesong of birds.
His father used to say he believed that John would pound his fingerfor the sake of having it feel better when it was done aching; notconsidering that the boy inherited his own temperament, and that hehad manifested the same disposition, when, basking in the warmth of ablazing fire, filled to repletion with sea pie and pudding, he told hiswife how much the recollection of his past perils added to his presenthappiness.
To complete the sum of John’s attractions, his voice was naturallymodulated to express every shade of feeling; as Uncle Isaac said, “itcame from the right place, and went to the right place.”
Lion Ben of Elm Island Page 20