Charlie Bell, The Waif of Elm Island

by Elijah Kellogg

  CHAPTER XIII.

  A NOVEL CRAFT.

  John Strout now came from the West Indies, and went to work with them.He brought home tamarinds, guava jelly, and other good things forSally; a hat made of palm-leaf for Ben, and some shells for Charlie.He also brought Ben a cocoanut to keep liquor in; the end of it, wherethe eyes are, was made in the shape of a negro’s face; the two littleround places, where we bore to let the milk out, serving the purpose ofeyes, with eyebrows cut over them, and filled with some red matter; inthe mouth was a lead pipe to drink from; large ears were also made, anda nose; the figure looked somewhere between a monkey and a negro, funnyenough, and was full of rum. He also brought them home twenty-fivepounds of coffee, and a hundred weight of sugar.

  Charlie was very much puzzled to know how the meat was got out of theshell without breaking it. John told him that he bored the hole for themouth, and then turned the milk out, filled it with salt water, andset it in the sun, when, the meat decaying, he washed it all out; thenscraping the outside with a knife and piece of glass, oiled it, andmade the face with an old file, which he ground to a sharp point.

  Ben and Joe now commenced their craft, laying the keel on the beach,making the rough skeleton of a vessel. As their object was neitherbeauty nor durability, only to serve the present occasion, they usedall the cedar possible, that she might be the more buoyant.

  They took the iron from the spars, and Joe, who had worked in ablacksmith shop, took it over to the main land to a shop, and madetheir fastening. They, however, used but very little iron, makingwooden treenails answer the purpose. They made a bow and stern frame,and set up two ribs on a side where the masts were to come, laid arough deck at the mast-holes, and forward for the windlass and the heelof the bowsprit to rest on; the remainder was all open. They then puton two streaks of plank next the keel, to hold the ends of the timbers,and hung the wales.

  As Uncle Isaac had finished his planting, he now came to work withthem; they made the windlass, rudder, and spars; they also sheathedthe bow and stern with boards, where she entered and left the water, soas to diminish the friction somewhat. The spars looked queer enough:they were beautiful sticks, as straight as a rush; but there was nolabor expended upon them, except what was absolutely necessary. She wasto be rigged into a schooner,--and an awful great one she was, carryingmore than three hundred thousand of timber. The masts, where the hoopswere to run, were as smooth as glass, but as to the part below the deckit was just as it grew; so with the other spars,--where there was nonecessity of their being smooth, the bark was left on the stick.

  Ben now ascertained that there was a large trade carried on fromWiscasset in spars and ton-timber, that was shipped to Europe. Heaccordingly took what he had, and making them into a raft, sold themthere, and bought his rudder-irons, a second-hand jib and flying-jib,and provisions for his workmen.

  She now sat on the beach ready for her sails and cargo, and the tideebbed and flowed, and the winds blew through her frame. It must beconfessed she was a craft of magnificent distances, and probablycould not have been insured at Lloyd’s. It was not desirable to loadher till near the time of starting, in order that the cargo mightnot water-soak, as the great object was to render her as buoyant aspossible. Ben therefore discharged his men, while he and his fatherwent to work on the rigging. Uncle Isaac went home, while Joe went on afishing cruise with John Strout.

  During all this period Charlie had been by no means idle; there were agreat many things he could do to help along. When the men were hewing,he, with his narrow axe, could score in and beat off for them (thatis, cut notches in the timber, close together, and then split out thewood between), which very much facilitated the labor of hewing. Hecould also drive treenails; and when the men were not using the broadaxe, would hew out small sticks with a skill that called forth manycompliments from Uncle Isaac, who took great pains to show him, andfound a most apt scholar.

  Charlie now became very anxious to see his mother. Every day or two hewould say to Ben, “What does make mother stay so long? she never didbefore; she used to think she could not go to be gone a day, and nowshe has been gone almost a month.”

  At length, one pleasant morning, Ben, to his great joy, took thecanoe, and went to bring her home. If Charlie went down to the easternpoint once that day with the spy-glass, he went fifty times.

  “I can’t do anything,” he said to Captain Rhines, “nor set myself aboutanything, till I know whether mother is coming.”

  It was about the middle of the afternoon when Charlie saw the whitesail of the canoe in Captain Rhines’s cove, and she soon came into viewbefore a light southerly wind. Charlie saw through the glass his mothersitting in the stern, and, jumping into his canoe, went to meet them.

  “Why, mother!” said he, “what makes you look so pale? are you sick?”

  “No, Charlie; I never was better in my life.”

  When they neared the shore Charlie pulled ahead, and landing, stoodready to hug his mother as soon as she should get out of the canoe.

  “Don’t hug me hard,” said she, kissing him, “for you might do somedamage.”

  “O, mother! what is that under your shawl? do let me see. Is it thecloth for my breeches?”

  “Look,” said she, opening the folds of her shawl.

  “O, a little baby! Whose is it? Where did you get it? What a wee bit ofa thing! what little mites of hands! I wish it would wake up and openits eyes. I do love babies so! and how I shall love your baby,--ourbaby. It will be my brother--won’t it, mother?”

  “Yes, Charlie; but let us go up to the house, and let Captain Rhinesand his wife see the grandchild.”

  “Now, mother,” said Charlie (after the grandparents had seen andadmired the baby, and they had drunk a cup of tea in honor of hisarrival), “I want you to go and see my pig, and the rabbits. You don’tknow how piggy has grown. Mrs. Rhines told me it would make him grow towash him; so every Monday, when she had done washing, I put him in thetub, and washed him, and the black on him is just as black as ink, andthe white as white as snow. I have made him a nest in the woods, and hegoes there every night and sleeps.”

  It was not the custom in those days to put pigs in pens and keep themthere; they let them run about the door, and feed in the pasture withthe cattle, only putting them up in the fall to fatten; or when theybought a strange one in the spring, they shut him up till he got tame.

  “Mother, would you believe that a pig knew anything? I’ve taught himto follow me all round, just like a dog, and come running out of thewoods when I call him. I’ve named him Rover; and don’t you think heknows when the tide is down just as well as I do; then he goes to thebeach, and digs clams with his nose; he never goes a clamming at highwater. When I am fishing for flounders he will sit by me till I pullup a fish, and then he will swallow it in no time; sometimes I say,‘Rover, you can’t have that; it is for the house;’ and he will look sowishful I have to give it to him.”

  “I never heard of such a pig before, Charlie; I expect you will learnhim to play with sea ducks.”

  “I never thought of that, mother; I don’t believe but I will. Mother,you know Fred Williams gave me some rabbits?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, they have got young ones. O, they are the prettiest littlethings that ever were; come and see them;” and, getting her by thehand, he drew her out of doors.

  “Mother,” he said, “it was not altogether to see the pig that I got youout here.”

  “I thought as much, Charlie.”

  “Well, sit down on this nice log; I want to tell you what good peopleCaptain Rhines and his wife are; you don’t know how good they are.”

  “Yes, I do, Charlie; they’re real estate--both of them. I nevershall forget when my father died, and mother was left poor andbroken-hearted, with a family of little children, and knew not whichway to turn. Captain Rhines was at home that year; they were building avessel for him; he came over every night to see her, and every time heseemed to lift some of the load from mother’s heart
. Somehow, it seemedto me that he did more good than the minister, for when he came shewould sit and cry all the while he was talking to her, and after he wasgone; but when Captain Rhines came, he gave her life and courage, andshe would go about the house quite cheerful; sometimes he would slipmoney into her hand.”

  “I suppose,” said Charlie, “she needed that more than praying, becauseshe could pray for herself.”

  “I tell you what it is, Charlie; if Captain Rhines should live to beold, and needed some of his children to take care of him, wouldn’t Ipay that debt up, principal and interest, as far as was in my power?”

  “I’ll bet you would, mother; and I’d help you.”

  “I’ve waked up at sunrise many times, and seen Captain Rhines and Benploughing for mother; they would plough till nine o’clock, then gohome, eat their breakfast, and then do their own work, while mother andI, with Sam to drop the seed, would plant it, and the next day theywould get more ready.”

  “Now, mother, I want you to see the pig.” Charlie began to slap hishands on his sides, and cry, ‘Rover, Rover,’ when a great rustling washeard in the woods, and the pig came on the gallop, his black and whitesides glistening in the sun as he ran. Living on grass, and in thewoods, with the milk from the house, he had not that protuberance ofbelly which swine reared in sties possess, and really merited Charlie’sencomium of being handsome; he jumped up on his master and rubbedagainst his legs, with low grunts, expressive of satisfaction.

  Ben and his father now built a shed just sufficient to shelter themfrom the sun and rain, and let in the cool summer breeze. Here theyfitted the rigging, and altered the ship’s sails into those of aschooner; and so well versed were Captain Rhines and his son in allnautical matters, that, by dint of splicing and piecing, they managedto get all the standing rigging, and nearly all the running gear, outof the materials of the wreck. They now put the rigging over themast-heads, and set it up, and all was ready, except bending the sails.

  In the spring, soon after Ben had told his father of his plan, thecaptain said to Charlie, “Now you set all the hens you can, and raisechickens, and when I go to the West Indies you can send them out as aventure, and get coffee, sugar, and cocoa-nuts.”

  Charlie told his mother, and they put their heads together, and setevery hen that was broody, insomuch that Ben complained that he couldnot get an egg to eat. In addition to this, Charlie went and borrowedsitting hens of Uncle Isaac, Sam Yelf, and Joe Bradish.

  “I tell you another thing you do,” said the captain: “negroes there uselots of baskets, that they carry on their heads, filled with orangesand other things; they also use them in loading and unloading vessels,and sometimes they carry them by straps of green hide that go overtheir shoulders. Now, you make some handsome square baskets, with flatbottoms, and they will be so much better than theirs that they, ortheir masters, will buy them.”

  “How can the slaves buy them? Do they have money?”

  “Money! yes.”

  “How do they get it?”

  “Why, they have Sundays and holidays to themselves, and what they earnthey have. Many of them have earned enough to buy their freedom, andare well off. Do you go over to our house, and ask John to give yousome turnip-seed, and sow it on that ground you burned over when youwas roasting Joe Griffin, and see what turnips will grow there; you canhack the seed in with the hoe; turnips will sell first rate in the WestIndies; I’ll tell them they are Yankee yams.”

  “But how will you get your things home? you will have no vessel to comein.”

  “Let me alone for that, Charlie; I’m an old traveller.”

  It may be well to inform our readers that in those days butcomparatively few vegetables were carried there, and they brought ahigh price in the way of barter.

  Charlie was by no means slack in acting upon these suggestions, andmade baskets with all his might.

  It was a most comical sight to see Ben holding his baby; his thumbwas bigger than the infant’s leg, and his great hairy arms contrastedstrangely enough with the white, delicate flesh of the new-born child.He held it, too, in such a funny way, with the tips of his fingers,as if afraid he should squat it to death, and with an expression ofanxiety upon his face amounting almost to anguish.

  “I mean to make a cradle for him,” said Charlie.

  “You are too late,” said Ben; “for the cradle was made before he wasborn, long enough.”

  He then told Charlie to go up chamber, and look under some boards inthe north-east corner; and there he found the cradle that Sam Atkinsmade for the boy, whose birth Seth Warren, in a spirit of prophecy,foretold upon the day the house was raised.