Charlie Bell, The Waif of Elm Island

by Elijah Kellogg

  CHAPTER IX.

  BEN FINDS A PRIZE.

  The next morning Charles went to look at the willows. He said they weredifferent from the sallies they made baskets of; that the same kindgrew in England, but they called them wild sallies there, and nevermade baskets of them; but he thought if they could be made to growstraight he could make a basket of them. So he got the axe, and cut offa whole parcel of them, in order that they might sprout up the nextspring and grow straight.

  Intercourse with the main shore was so difficult and dangerous in thewinter, as there was nothing better to go in than a canoe, that Benwent off to procure provisions and breadstuff to last him till spring.When he returned he brought Charles powder and shot.

  “Father,” said Charles, “you never got all this powder and shot withthe money I gave you.”

  “No, Charles; I put a little to it, because I wanted to make my littleboy a present.”

  “Thank you, father.”

  “John told me that he would like very much to go into the basketbusiness with you, and would pound a lot of basket-stuff, and make itall of a width, and trim the edges smooth and handsome, and get outthe rims and handles. He wants to know if you are willing to take FredWilliams into partnership with you and him, because he wants to go in.His father is a miller, and he can sell a good many baskets to folksthat come to the mill. Nova Scotia people often come there after corn,and he could sell them to them, to sell again to the fishermen downtheir way.”

  “Yes, father; I should like first rate to have him.”

  “John Strout is going to the West Indies this winter, and will bringthe Perseverance over here, and leave her, because she’ll be safe. Johnwill send basket-stuff over by him, and you can send back word whetheryou will take Williams into partnership.”

  “I don’t know what would have become of me, if you and mother had nottaken me in. Now, John told me all about Fred. He said that he didn’twant him to go with him and Uncle Isaac, because he knew that theyshould have so much better time together; but he said one day, whenthey were off together in a boat, Uncle Isaac told him that we oughtto deny ourselves to help others, and talked to him in such a way thathe felt ashamed of himself, and couldn’t look Uncle Isaac in the face,but had to look right down in the bottom of the boat. Since that he hadgone with Fred, and was right glad of it, for he had become a real goodboy, and he’s as smart as lightning. I saw that the day I was over tosee John.”

  “He has become a first-rate boy. Everybody that goes to the mill saysthere is not a better, more obliging boy in town; and they are alwaysglad when he is in the mill, his father is so cross.”

  “You know I would rather be with John alone; but if he made a sacrificeto get him good, I ought to help keep him good.”

  “That’s right, Charlie; that is a good principle.”

  “Do you know, father, it seems to me just like this about Fred. When Iget out an ash rim for a basket, it is hard work to bend it; and if,after I have bent it, I don’t fasten it, but throw it down on the floorand leave it, in the morning it will be straightened out just where itwas before; but if I fasten it till it gets dry and set, it will stayso; and I think we ought to do all we can to keep Fred good till hegets fairly set in good ways, and then he’ll stay set.”

  Ben had scarcely removed the provisions from the canoe, and put it allunder cover, when the weather suddenly changed. As night came on, thewind increased, with snow; and afterwards hauling to the south-east,blew a hurricane, the rain falling in torrents through the night; butat daylight hauled to the south-west, when it became fair.

  Ben and Joe were at work in the front room making shingles. At morninghigh-water they heard a constant thumping in the direction of the WhiteBull for more than an hour, when it gradually ceased. At night theyheard it again.

  “Joe,” said Ben, “let us take the canoe after supper, and go over andsee what that thumping is. It is not the surf, nor rocks grinding oneach other, I know.”

  When they reached the spot they found the bowsprit of a vessel, withthe bobstays hanging to it, having been broken off at the gammoning,with the gripe attached to it. There was also the fore-mast andfore-topmast, with the yards and head-stays, the mast being carriedaway at the deck. The chain-plates also on the starboard side andchannels had been torn out, and hung to the shrouds by the lanyards.On the port side there were only the shrouds and the upper dead-eyes.The sails were on the yards, while braces, clew-garnets, clew-lines,leach-lines, bunt-lines, and reef-tackles,--some nearly of their entirelength, others cut and parted,--were rolled around the spars, andmatted with kelps and eel-grass, in almost inextricable confusion. Inthe fore-top was a chest lashed fast, and filled with studding-sailgear, which having been fastened, the rigging remained in it. Theseropes were very long, and had been but little worn.

  “Well,” said Ben, looking upon the mass with that peculiar interestthat a wreck always inspires in the heart of a seaman, “I am sorry forthe poor fellows who have met with a misfortune; but this rigging,these sails and iron-work, are a most precious God-send to me.”

  Iron and cordage were both very valuable articles in the country atthat time, as the British government had forbidden the erection ofrolling and slitting mills before the Revolution, and the manufacturesof the country were just struggling into life. Withes of wood were usedin lieu of ropes and chains.

  “The long bolts in that gripe,” said Joe, “will make you a crane.A few more links put to the chain on that bobstay will make you afirst-rate draught chain. The straps of the dead-eyes welded together,and a little steel put on the point, will make a good crowbar.”

  But Ben had ideas, which he did not make known to Joe, very differentfrom the construction of cranes or crowbars. These it were whichoccasioned his joy at the sight of the wreck.

  “These are the spars of a big ship,” said Ben; “neither the sea nor thewind took these sticks out of her.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because, if the ship had gone ashore, and gone to pieces, the sparsand this gripe would have gone where she did. She never lost that mastby the wind. If she had, the chain-plates wouldn’t be hanging to theshrouds, for no rigging would hold to tear the channels from a ship’sside.”

  “No more it wouldn’t. I never thought of that; but how did she lose it?”

  “She has run full splinter on to an iceberg, and struck it with herstarboard bow. An iceberg would scrub her chain off as easy as youwould pull a mitten off your hand.”

  “Then she went down with all hands.”

  “Perhaps not. I’ve seen a vessel keep up, and get into port, that hadher stem cut off within four inches of the hood ends. Look there,”pointing to the larboard shrouds of the fore-rigging; on the dead-eyesand the shrouds were the marks of an axe. “Somebody did that in cuttingthe lanyard to let the spars go clear of the ship. They would not havedone that if she had been going down.”

  They built a shed of boards to put the rigging and sails under, andyards, while Charles burnt the mast, bowsprit, and caps to get the iron.

  Snow having now fallen, they began to haul their spars and logs tothe beach. John Strout now came over and brought the basket-stuff,and Charles sent word by him to John that he would like to take FredWilliams into partnership.

  John brought word that Fred’s father was going to repair the mill, andthat while that was going on, Fred would like to come over and seeCharles, and learn to make baskets. Charles sent word back that itwould be agreeable to him to have him come. He was now quite excited.Here was company coming, and nowhere for them to sleep but on thefloor. There were but two bedsteads in the house,--one in the kitchen,where Ben and his wife slept, and the other in the front room, whereJoe slept. This was the spare bed, and the best room, though it wasmade a workshop of, and was half full of shingles and staves; but theycould do no better.

  Charlie, as usual, went to Sally for counsel.

  “I should not care for him,” said she; “I should as lief he would sleepon the floor as not. If yo
u give him as good as you have yourself, thatis good enough.”

  “But, mother, I shouldn’t want him to go home and say that he came tosee me, and had to sleep on the floor; besides, John might hear of it,and then he wouldn’t like to come.”

  “John! he’d sleep on the door-steps, or a brush-heap, and think it wasbeautiful. I’ll tell you; I’ll ask Joe to sleep in your bed, and letyou and Fred have the front room.”

  “O, no, mother! I’m afraid he won’t like it; and then he will play sometrick on us. I have thought of a plan, mother.”

  “Let us hear it.”

  “There are some yellow-birch joist up chamber, all curly, with realhandsome whorls in them. I think I could make a bedstead of them;and then, you know, it would be my own, and we should have it if anycompany came. I have got an auger that I borrowed of Uncle Isaac, tobore the holes for the cord, and the earings on the sails that cameashore would make a nice cord.”

  “I would, Charlie; that will be a first-rate plan.”

  “But I don’t like to ask father for the wood. He has saved it to makesomething, and perhaps I might spoil it, and not make a bedstead afterall.”

  “Ask him yourself. I’ll risk your spoiling the stuff. If you do,there’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Charlie asked for and obtained the joist. As he didn’t want Joe to lookat and criticise him, when he saw him coming from the woods to hismeals, he put it up chamber. At length he finished making it. Then hescraped it with a scraper made of a piece of saw-plate, and then rubbedit with dogfish skin, which made all the curls and veins in the woodto show, and put it in the front room for Ben and Joe to see when theycame in to dinner.

  “If I only had,” said Charles, “some dye-stuff, how handsome I couldmake this look!”

  Joe told him there was a little red ochre in the schooner, which hewould get for him. This Charles mixed with vinegar, and rubbed a littleon the wood, which brought out the beauty of the wood, and gave it anice color.

  “If I were you, Charlie,” said Ben, “I would have a sacking bottom toyour bed, instead of bare cords.”

  “What is that?”

  “Why, there is a piece of canvas that was torn from one of the sails,take that, and make it almost large enough to fill up the bedstead;then hem it, and make a row of eyelet-holes all around the edges, andcord it tight into the bedstead. It will be first rate to sleep on.”

  “Ben, shew Charles how to sew with a sailor’s thimble, which is held inthe hollow of the hand;” and he made it and put it in.

  Fred now came over, and Charles taught him to set up and make a basket.He made a good many, and burnt them up in the fire, till at length hemade one that would do. After this he got along very well.

  The two boys now began to fire at a mark, as Fred had brought somepowder and shot, and a gun with him. Charles, at first, shut up botheyes when he fired, and almost dropped the gun when it went off,and was afraid it would kick; and Fred could show him as much aboutshooting as he could Fred about basket-making; but he soon got so thathe could fire without winking, and hold the gun firm to his shoulder,and hit a mark quite well. Then they took a block of wood, and made itin the shape of a Whistler, and anchored it in the water, and firedat that, as it was bobbing up and down in the water; and at lengthCharles got so he could hit that twice out of four times. When theyhad expended their ammunition, they took, instead of shot, peas andgravel-stones.

  One day, after dinner, Charles came running into the house all out ofbreath, saying there was a little child in the woods.

  “How do you know?” said Ben.

  “I have seen its tracks and its bare foot-prints in the snow. O,father! do come and help me find it; it will freeze to death.”

  “It is not a child’s track, Charles.”

  “What is it?”

  “It is a raccoon track thawed out; they look like a child’s track.”

  “What is a raccoon, father?”

  “They are about twice as large as Sailor, and live in the woods onmice, fish, and berries. I will show you one some day.”

  “May I shoot him; me and Fred?”

  “No; I want them to breed.”

  They now began to take what Charles called real solid comfort. The dayswere short; as Ben said, only two ends to them. They had abundance oftime to sleep, and were all in full health and vigor.