Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  Juno had taken the children down to the cove, and, walking out into thewater up to her knees, had dipped them in all over, as the shortest wayof washing them, and had then dressed them and left them with theirmother, while she assisted William to get the cups and saucers andplates for breakfast. Everything was laid out nice and tidy between thetwo tents, and then William proposed that he should awaken Ready.

  "Yes, my boy, you may as well now--he will want his breakfast."

  William went and pushed Ready on the shoulder. "Ready, have you hadsleep enough?" said William, as the old man sat up.

  "Yes, William. I have had a good nap, I expect; and now I will get up,and see what I can get for breakfast for you all."

  "Do," replied William, laughing.

  Ready was soon dressed, for he had only taken off his jacket when he laydown. He put it on, and came out of the tent; when, to hisastonishment, he found the whole party (Mrs Seagrave having come outwith the children) standing round the breakfast, which was spread on theground.

  "Good-morning, Ready!" said Mrs Seagrave, extending her hand. MrSeagrave also shook hands with him.

  "You have had a good long sleep, Ready," said Mr Seagrave, "and I wouldnot waken you after your fatigue of yesterday."

  "I thank you, sir; and I am glad to see that Madam is so well: and I amnot sorry to see that you can do so well without me," continued Ready,smiling.

  "Indeed, but we cannot, I'm afraid," replied Mrs Seagrave; "had it notbeen for you and your kindness, where should we have been now?"

  "We can get a breakfast ready without you," said Mr Seagrave; "butwithout you, I think we never should have required another breakfast bythis time. But we will tell Ready all we have done while we eat ourbreakfast: now, my dear, if you please." Mrs Seagrave then read achapter from the Bible, and afterwards they all knelt down while MrSeagrave offered up a prayer.

  While they were at breakfast, William told Ready how they had gone onboard, and what they had brought on shore, and he also mentioned howJuno had dipped all the children in the sea.

  "But Juno must not do that again," replied Ready, "until I have made allsafe; you know that there are plenty of sharks about these islands, andit is very dangerous to go into the water."

  "Oh, what an escape they have had!" cried Mrs Seagrave, shuddering.

  "It's very true," continued Ready; "but they don't keep so much to thewindward of the islands where we are at present; but still that smoothcove is a very likely place for them to come into; so it's just as wellnot to go in again, Juno, until I have time to make a place for you tobathe in in safety. As soon as we can get as much as we want from theship, we must decide whether we shall stay here or not."

  "Stay here or not, Ready!--what do you mean?"

  "Why, we have not yet found any water, and that is the first necessaryof life--if there is no water on this side of the island, we must pitchour tents somewhere else."

  "That's very true," replied Mr Seagrave; "I wish we could find time toexplore a little."

  "So we can, sir; but we must not lose this fine weather to get a fewthings from the ship. We had better go now. You and William can remainon board to collect the things, and I will land them on the beach forJuno to bring up."

  The whole day was spent in landing every variety of article which theythought could be useful. All the small sails, cordage, twine, canvas,small casks, saws, chisels, and large nails, and elm and oak plank, werebrought on shore before dinner. After they had taken a hearty dinner,the cabin tables and chairs, all their clothes, some boxes of candles,two bags of coffee, two of rice, two more of biscuits, several pieces ofbeef and pork and bags of flour, some more water, the grindstone, andMrs Seagrave's medicine-chest were landed. When Ready came off again,he said, "Our poor boat is getting very leaky, and will not take muchmore on shore without being repaired; and Juno has not been able to gethalf the things up--they are too heavy for one person. I think we shalldo pretty well now, Mr Seagrave; and we had better, before it is dark,get all the animals on shore. I don't much like to trust them to swimon shore, but they are awkward things in a boat. We'll try a pig, atall events; and while I get one up, do you and William tie the legs ofthe fowls, and put them into the boat; as for the cow, she cannot bebrought on shore, she is still lying down, and, I expect, won't get upagain any more; however, I have given her plenty of hay, and if shedon't rise, why I will kill her, and we can salt her down."

  Ready went below, and the squealing of the pig was soon heard; he cameon deck with it hanging over his back by the hind legs, and threw itinto the sea over the gunnel: the pig floundered at first; but after afew seconds, turned its head away from the ship and swam for the shore.

  "He goes ashore straight enough," said Ready, who, with Mr Seagrave andWilliam, was watching the animal; but a minute afterwards, Readyexclaimed:

  "I thought as much--we've lost him!"

  "How?" replied Mr Seagrave.

  "D'ye see that black thing above water pushing so fast to the animal?--that's the back fin of a shark, and he will have the poor thing--there,he's got him!" said Ready, as the pig disappeared under the water with aheavy splash. "Well, he's gone; better the pig than your littlechildren, Mr Seagrave."

  "Yes, indeed, God be praised!--that monster might have been close tothem at the time that Juno took them into the water."

  "He was not far off; I reckon," replied Ready. "We'll go down now andtie the legs of the other four pigs, and bring them up; with what'salready in the boat they will be a good load."

  As soon as the pigs were in the boat, Ready sculled it on shore, whileMr Seagrave and William brought up the goats and sheep ready for thenext trip. Ready soon returned. "Now this will be our last trip forto-day, and, if I am any judge of the weather, our last trip for somedays; it is banking up very thick in the offing. This trip we'll beable to put into the boat a bag of corn for the creatures, in case werequire it, and then we may say good-bye to the ship for a day or two atleast."

  They then all got into the boat, which was very deeply laden, for thecorn was heavy, but they got safe on shore, although they leaked verymuch. Having landed the goats and sheep, William led them up to thetent, where they remained very quietly; the pigs had run away, and sohad the fowls.

  "That's what I call a good day's work, Mr Seagrave," said Ready; "thelittle boat has done its duty well; but we must not venture in her againuntil I have put her into a little better condition."

  They were not at all sorry, after their hard day's work, to find thatJuno had prepared coffee for them; and while they were drinking it, theynarrated to Mrs Seagrave the tragically death of the poor pig by theshark. Poor Juno appeared quite frightened at the danger which thechildren had been in, even now that it was all over.

  "We shall have plenty to do here to-morrow," observed Mr Seagrave, "ingetting things into their places."

  "We shall have plenty to do for some time, I expect," replied Ready."In two months, or thereabouts, we shall have the rainy season come on,and we must be under cover before that time, if we possibly can."

  "What's the first thing we must do, Ready?" inquired Mr Seagrave.

  "To-morrow we had better fix up another tent or two, to stow away allthe articles we have brought on shore: that will be one good day's work;we shall then know where to lay our hands upon everything, and see whatwe want."

  "That's very true; and what shall we do then?"

  "Why then, sir, I think we must make a little expedition to explore theisland, and find out where we must build our house."

  "Can we build a house?" said William.

  "Oh, yes, sir, and with more ease than you would think. There's no treeso valuable as the cocoa-nut tree; and the wood is so light that we caneasily move it about."

  "Why, what are the great merits of the cocoa-nut tree?" said MrsSeagrave.

  "I'll tell you, madam: in the first place, you have the wood to buildthe house with; then you have the bark with which you can make ro
pes andlines, and fishing-nets if you please; then you have the leaves forthatching your house; then you have the fruit, which, as a nut, is goodto eat, and very useful in cooking; and in the young nut is the milk,which is also very wholesome; then you have the oil to burn, and theshell to make cups of, if you haven't any, and then you can draw toddyfrom the tree, which is very pleasant to drink when fresh, but will makeyou tipsy if it is kept too long. There is no tree which yields so manyuseful things to man, for it supplies him with almost everything."

  "At all events, we've plenty of them," said William.

  "Yes, William, there's no want of them; and I am glad of it, for hadthere been but few, I should not have liked to destroy them. Peoplemight be wrecked here, as well as ourselves, and without the goodfortune that we have had in getting so many necessaries on shore; andthey might be obliged to depend wholly upon the cocoa-nut trees fortheir support."