Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

  Mr Seagrave and Ready then set to work, and made a rough sort of bed ofcocoa-nut branches; and, after eating their supper, committed themselvesto the divine protection, and went to sleep. The next morning theyresumed their labour, and opened every other case and package that hadbeen saved from the wreck; they found more books, four boxes of candles,three casks of rice, and several other useful articles, besides manyothers which were of no value to them.

  A chest of tea, and two bags of coffee, which Ready had brought onshore, were, much to their delight, found in good order; but there wasno sugar, the little which they had saved having been melted away.

  "That's unfortunate, sir."

  "We cannot expect to get things here, as though we were a hundred yardsfrom a grocer's shop. Now let us go to where we covered up the otherarticles with sand."

  The sand was shovelled up, and the barrels of beef and pork and the dealboards found in good order, but many other things were quite spoilt.About noon they had finished, and as they had plenty of time, MrSeagrave took the bearings of the different points of land with thecompasses. They then shouldered their muskets, and set off on theirreturn.

  They gained the house in the bay, and having rested a little while atthe storehouse, they proceeded on their way to the tents in the meadow.They had about half a mile to go, when Ready heard a noise, and made asign to Mr Seagrave to stop. Ready, whispering to Mr Seagrave thatthe pigs were all close to them, loaded his musket; Mr Seagrave did thesame, and they walked very softly to where they now heard theirgrunting; they did not see them till they were within twenty yards, andthen they came upon the whole herd; the pigs raised their heads; the oldones gave a loud grunt, and then, just as Ready fired his musket, theyall set off at full speed. Mr Seagrave had no opportunity of firing,but Ready had shot one, which lay kicking and struggling under acocoa-nut tree.

  "A piece of fresh pork will be quite a treat, Mr Seagrave," said Ready,as they walked up to where the animal was lying.

  "It will, indeed, Ready," replied Mr Seagrave; "we must contrive tocarry the beast home between us."

  "We will sling it on the musket, sir, and it will not be very heavy. Itis one of those born on the island, and a very fine fellow for his age."

  The pig was soon slung, and they carried it between them. As theycleared the wood, they perceived Mrs Seagrave and William, who hadheard the report of the musket, and had come out to meet them.

  William took the load from his father, who walked on with Mrs Seagrave.

  "Well, William, what news have you?" said Ready.

  "Why, very good, Ready. Yesterday evening, when I was tired of work, Ithought I would take the boat, and try if there was any fish to becaught on this side of the island in the deep water, and I caught threelarge ones, quite different from those we took among the reefs. We hadone for breakfast and dinner to-day, and it was excellent."

  "Did you go out in the boat by yourself?"

  "No; I took Juno with me. She pulls very well, Ready."

  "She is a handy girl, William. Well, we have had our survey, and therewill be plenty of work for you and me, I can tell you; I don't think wecan bring everything round in a week; so I suppose to-morrow we hadbetter be off."

  "Well, I like boating better than ditching, I can tell you, Ready,"replied William. "I shan't be sorry to leave that work to my father."

  "I suppose it must fall to him; as he will, of course, prefer stayingwith Mrs Seagrave and the children."

  As soon as they were at the tents, Ready hung up the pig to the crosspole of the tent in which he and William and Mr Seagrave slept, andhaving propped the muskets up against the side of the tent, he went withWilliam to get his knife and some stretchers of wood to open the pigwith. While he and William were away, Caroline and Tommy came out tolook at it, and Tommy, after telling Caroline how glad he was that theywere to have roast pig for dinner, took up one of the muskets, and said,"Now, Caroline, I'll shoot the pig."

  "Oh! Tommy, you must not touch the gun," cried Caroline; "papa will bevery angry."

  "I don't care," replied Tommy. "I'll show you how to shoot the pig."

  "Don't, Tommy," cried Caroline; "if you do, I'll go and tell mamma."

  "Then I'll shoot you," replied Tommy, trying to point the musket at her.

  Caroline was so frightened, that she ran away as fast as she could, andthen Tommy, using all his strength, contrived to get the musket up tohis shoulder, and pulled the trigger.

  It so happened that Tommy had taken up Mr Seagrave's musket, which hadnot been fired, and when he pulled the trigger it went off, and as hedid not hold it tight to his shoulder, it recoiled, and hit him with thebutt right on his face, knocking out two of his teeth, besides makinghis nose bleed very fast.

  Tommy was so astonished and frightened at the musket going off, and theblow which he received, that he gave a loud yell, dropped the musket,and ran to the tent where his father and mother were, just as they hadstarted up and had rushed out at hearing the report.

  When Mrs Seagrave saw Tommy all covered with blood, and screaming soloud, she was so alarmed that she could not stand, and fell fainting inMr Seagrave's arms. Ready and William, on hearing the musket go off,had run as fast as they could, fearing that some accident had happened;and while Mr Seagrave supported his wife, Ready went to Tommy, andwiping the blood off his face with the palm of his hand, perceived thatthere was no wound or serious mischief, and cried out to Mr Seagrave,"He's not hurt, sir; it's only his nose bleeding."

  "Musket knocked me down," cried Tommy, sobbing as the blood ran out ofhis mouth.

  "Serve you right, Tommy; you'll take care not to touch the musketagain."

  "I won't touch it again," cried Tommy, blubbering.

  Juno now came up with some water to wash his face; Mrs Seagrave hadrecovered, and gone back into the tent, on Mr Seagrave telling her thatit was only Tommy's nose which was bleeding.

  In about half-an-hour Tommy had ceased crying, and his nose had left offbleeding; his face was washed, and then it was discovered that he hadlost two front teeth, and that his cheek and lips were very muchbruised. He was undressed, and put to bed, and was soon fast asleep.

  "I should not have left the muskets," said Ready to William; "it was myfault; but I thought Tommy had been told so often not to touchfire-arms, that he would not dare to do so."

  "He pointed it at me, and tried to shoot me," said Caroline, "but I ranaway."

  "Merciful heavens! what an escape!" cried Mrs Seagrave.

  "He has been well punished this time, madam, and I'll venture to say hewill not touch a musket again in a hurry."

  "Yes; but he must be punished more," said Mr Seagrave. "He mustremember it."

  "Well, sir, if he is to be punished more, I think you cannot punish himbetter than by not allowing him to have any of the pig when it iscooked."

  "I think so too, Ready; and therefore that is a settled thing--no pigfor Tommy."