Arthur Brown, The Young Captain

by Elijah Kellogg

  CHAPTER XV.

  HOMEWARD BOUND.

  NED had of late recovered rapidly, could walk quite well, and was onboard the vessel very often, and went about the city some; but thedoctor advised that he should not go on board the vessel to live tillshe was ready to sail. Ned had not seen Walter since his promotion, butPeterson had been up and informed him of it.

  “Well, Ned,” said Walter, as he entered the room, “it has turned outjust as I told you it would; the basket-maker is Charlie’s father, andno mistake.”

  “I am so glad, Mr. Griffin! and he will go back with us—won’t he?”

  “Ned, my boy, just leave that handle off, and call me Walter, as youalways did. It makes me sick.”

  “But you are mate now; Peterson told me so.”

  “What of that? When we are on board ship, call me what you like; butnot when we are alone, as we are now, you little monkey,” patting hischeek.

  “We shan’t sleep together any more,” said Ned, in a desponding tone.

  “No, Ned, I shall have to live aft; and that is not the worst of it; weshall now be in different watches.”

  “I know it. I shall be in Mr. Baxter’s watch. And we used to have suchgood times in our watch on deck, talking about home, Pleasant Cove,and all the folks there. Walter, who do you like best of all the folksthere, out of your own family?”

  “Charlie Bell.”

  “So do I, and well I might. He saved my life. Ain’t he handsome?”

  “Yes; and just as good as he is handsome. A first ratewrestler—there’s none of the young ones can throw him but John Rhinesand Ben Peterson.”

  “What, this Ben aboard here?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m afraid, if I call you Walter all the time when we are alone, thatI shall forget to put the Sir on sometimes before the men.”

  “If you do, I shan’t hit you on the head with a belaying pin.”

  “I tell you what I could do, Walter.”

  “What?”

  “I might swap watches with Enoch Hadlock. He is in your watch.”

  “Yes, you _could_, but I wouldn’t.”

  “Why not? Then we should be in the same watch again, and we could walkthe deck, and talk, and have good times together, as we used to.”

  “I’ll tell you, Ned; if you should swap watches with Hadlock, and getinto my watch, it would make trouble. If I happened to give you a softjob, and somebody else a hard one, they would say I was partial—madefish of one, and flesh of another.”

  “I never thought of that.”

  “We shouldn’t be together any more for being in the same watch. Youwould be forward, and I should be aft.”

  “Shouldn’t we be together when it was my trick at the helm?”

  “Yes, but we couldn’t talk. It is against the rules of the ship, andvery unseamanlike, for an officer, or anybody, to make talk with a manat the helm. You couldn’t come aft to talk with me, and if I should goforward to talk with you, it would make growling directly, and set allthe men against you.”

  “I see how it is,” said Ned, sadly. “The good times are all over.There’s going to be a great, high, solid wall, reaching clear up to thesky, built right up between us.”

  “O, not so bad as that, Ned. There will be cracks and chinks in it,where we can peek through, and boys must change into men some time orother.”

  “I suppose so, Walter; but I wish the change had not come quite yet.”

  “I wish so, too. There’s time enough for me these some years yet. Butit would never have done for me to refuse the berth when it was offeredme. It would have looked as though I did not know how to appreciatekind treatment, and I should never have had another offer. We can’thave everything and keep everything.”

  The ambitions, cares, and responsibilities of practical life lay aruthless hand upon the sympathies and yearnings of young hearts, andthe conversation of the boys may, to the minds of older persons whoread these pages, recall similar experiences, when the relations ofmaster and servant were rudely thrust between playfellows and nearfriends.

  “Cheer up, Ned,” said Walter, noticing the downcast looks of hisfriend; “we will sleep together once more, at any rate. I’m going tostay here to-night, and take you aboard with me in the morning; that’sthe order.”

  When they were snug in bed, Ned lay for a long time silent. Walterthought him asleep, and had just begun to doze himself, when he wasroused by Ned exclaiming, abruptly, “I’m sure I shouldn’t want to be aking.”

  “Nor I either; I don’t believe in ‘em; but what in the world has putthat into your head just now?”

  “Well, I have been thinking over all the good times we’ve had whenwe were in the same watch, slept in the same berth, and ate out ofthe same kid. In good weather we could sit side by side under the leeof the boat, or under the rail, and talk and enjoy ourselves. In ourforenoon watch below, we could comb each other’s hair, tie our cues,read and study navigation; then, being in the same watch, we always gotliberty ashore together. Right in the midst of all these good timescomes up this chief mate’s affair, takes you right away from me, andsticks you up on the quarter-deck. It’s no longer Ned and Walter; O,no; it’s Mr. Griffin and Gates. I can’t speak to you, for fear the menshould think I was currying favor; you can’t speak to me, lest thereshould be growling about partiality. O, I shouldn’t want to be a king,to be stuck up for everybody to look at, and nobody to love. If peopleobeyed me, I should know it was because they couldn’t help it; if theypretended to love me, I should be sure they lied.”

  “But I ain’t a king, Ned.”

  “No; but you are a mate, and if just being a mate is going to make suchan awful gap, what must being a king make? It must be a lonesome thingto be a king.”

  “What a queer fellow you are, Ned! I always thought you were about asspunky and ambitious a boy as I ever knew. You wouldn’t want to be aboy always—would you?”

  “No; I don’t know as I should want to be _always_ a boy; but I don’tlike stepping over the edge all of a sudden; at any rate, I don’t liketo see everybody else stepping over, and leaving me to be boy alone.”

  “Perhaps you’ll get to be second mate next voyage, and then we can betogether again.”

  “I might if I was older, or if I was only a Griffin, or a Murch, or aRhines, who are as big when they are seventeen as others when they aremen grown. Here you are, a great fellow, your feet sticking out of bed,while my toes are only down to your knees.”

  “But you are growing all the time; you can steer a good trick now, anddo anything that your strength is equal to, as well as any man in thevessel; you must be patient, Ned.”

  “O, if I was only a little bigger, so that I could furl the royal inwet weather, or when it blows hard! I didn’t use to care so much foryou, but I should so hate to have any of the crew come up to help me!”

  “I’ll have a bunt-line rove for it.”

  “O, thank you; then I can handle it any time.”

  “Ned, do you think it is the beef makes the man?”

  “Not altogether; but I think there must be more beef than I’ve got.”

  “That is a fault that will be daily mending: see how much you’vedone since you left home; you have obtained a very good knowledge ofnavigation.”

  “I shouldn’t have done so much, if I had not been wounded. I have hadlots of time to study since I have been getting better; so there’s somegood come out of it. That’s just what mother’s always saying—everything is for the best. I wonder if she’d been here the night I was hit,if she would have thought _that_ was for the best.”

  “I’ll warrant she’ll think it is all for the best, Ned, when you gethome safe and sound.”

  “That she will, when she gets me in that old bed again, prays with meand kisses me. Ain’t I a great baby, Walter?”

  “Not a bit of it, Ned; you’re just right.”

  “I wish I was good, Wal, just to please my mother, it’s all she thinksabout.”

  “I wish _I_ was
, just to please Charlie Bell; at any rate, we’ll do thebest we can.”

  “O, Wal, it’s nothing at all to be good here, with such a crew asthis, all nice, steady men, well brought up. You never sailed in an oldcountry vessel—did you?”

  “No; I have only sailed with just such a crew as we have here, and partof them are the same men.”

  “Then you don’t know anything about it. Such a set of reprobates as wehad in that ship I was cast away in, cursing, swearing, fighting allthe time; the captain never came on deck without his pistols in hispockets; half the crew didn’t know who their father or mother was; thecrew were fighting among themselves, and the captain quarrelling withhis mates, full of liquor all the time; and such deviltry as they triedto put into my head! I tell you, Walter, there was not the least needof that ship being lost (and I heard Mr. Brown tell Captain Rhines thesame thing); the men might have kept her free just as well as not; wewere not far from land.”

  “Why didn’t they, then?”

  In the first place, the men were harassed to death, kept out of theirwatch, working up jobs all the time, and half starved; the captain’sidea seemed to be to keep them so used up that they wouldn’t havestrength or pluck to rise and take the ship from him, and it came backon his own head; they hadn’t strength enough, when the ship sprunga-leak, to work the pumps; and besides, they were so worn out, andhated him so, that they were desperate, thought it was their turn now,and if they could only drown him, they didn’t care what became ofthemselves. I tell you, Wal, I think, when a boy is away from home,and thrown into bad places and bad company, it makes a good deal ofdifference how he’s been brought up, and whether he’s come of nicefolks.”

  “I guess it does, Ned, because he has a good character to sustain, andthinks, when he’s tempted, ‘How can I disgrace my folks? what would myparents, brothers and sisters say? and how would they feel if I shoulddo this thing?’ Then there’s another thing comes of being well broughtup.”

  “What is that, Wal?”

  “A boy that has been well brought up, and has learning, has hopes; heknows he can make something of himself, and means to; whereas thosepoor fellows, who, as you say, didn’t know who their fathers andmothers were, had no ambition or hope of ever rising, and so made uptheir minds to enjoy themselves after their own fashion.”

  “That’s so, for I’ve heard them say so. There was one of them, mywatch-mate, Dick Cameron, a very decent fellow when the rum was outof him, and I used to talk with him; but all he would say was, ‘It’sall well for you, who have learning, and friends, and a chance to besomething; but it’s no use for me.’”

  “How big a man was Dick Cameron?”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Why, I mean, how much did he weigh?”

  “O, he was a stout, thick-set man—the strongest man in the ship, andalways took the bunt of a sail. I shouldn’t wonder if he weighed nearlytwo hundred.”

  “Now, see; it’s just as I told you a while ago. It isn’t beef thatmakes a man, but it’s pluck, knowledge, and good principles.”

  “And friends.”

  “He’ll have friends if he has those things. They will raise him upfriends anywhere. Here you are, fretting because you don’t weigh twohundred, like Dick Cameron, and are not twenty-one. But if anythingshould happen to the officers of this vessel, all this crew of twentygreat, stout men, second mate and all, couldn’t get this vessel home.They would have to fall back on Ned Gates, if he hasn’t got any cue tospeak of, and can’t furl the royal when it blows hard, and the sail iswet and heavy.”

  “I won’t whine any more, Walter.”

  “It wouldn’t make one farthing’s difference as to age or size, withsuch a crew as this, all neighbors. If you are only modest, and knowyour duty, they would take pride in seeing you go ahead.”

  “Well, I won’t feel so any more. Let us talk about something else.”

  “I’ll tell you when we can get together, and it will be nobody’sbusiness.”

  “When?”

  “When the voyage is up, then you can go home with me to my house.”

  “But shall we have time before the vessel goes again?”

  “Plenty. They will have to pick up a cargo. The articles to carry, manyof them, have to be imported from other countries—the salt-petre fromEngland or the East Indies.”

  “Wouldn’t I like it? Wouldn’t I have the best time that ever was inthis world?”

  “You better believe it.”

  “I shall see Charlie Bell and his wife, and the baby, Lion Ben, UncleIsaac, and old Tige.”

  “Yes, and I’ll get Uncle Isaac, our Joe, and Charlie Bell to go huntingwith us. It will be right in bear time, and about town-meeting time,and they’ll have a wrestling match. Our Joe is champion, but father canthrow him; only he’s done wrestling in the ring. But I suppose, if anystranger came along, as Ricker did, he’d take hold, for the credit ofthe place. But father never saw the day he was so stout as grandfather.Did you ever see my grandsir?”

  “No, I never saw any of your folks but Joe.”

  “Well, he’s an old man now, but you can see, by his great bones andcords, as big as an ox’s, what he was once. When Hen, and I, and Willwere little boys, he used to get us up in the floor, and set us towrestling.”

  “I shouldn’t think an old man would care about wrestling and suchthings.”

  “He ain’t old _inside_; no older than ever he was. O, I’ll tell you thefunniest thing. You must know, we milk seven cows, and have awful bigchurnings. One rainy day mother had our great churn, full of cream,sitting in the chimney corner, because it was a rainy day, and fatherwas going to churn for her. Grandsir he ties a string to the churnhandle, sat in his chair, and held the end of it, and told us boys tojump over it, and see which could jump the highest. Every little whilehe would put the string up a little higher. It was Hen’s turn to jump,and just as he was going over, grandsir twitched up the string, andcaught his feet. Over went the churn, the cover came out, and there wasthat cream all over the floor. Grandsir was too old to get out of theway; it filled his shoes full, ran into the fireplace, and soaked Henall through in front before he could get up. The dog lay asleep beforethe fire. It ran all over him. He jumped up, and went all round theroom, switching his tail, and flinging the cream over everything. Welaughed; it frightened the baby; he began to scream, and you never sawsuch a scrape.”

  “What did your mother say?”

  “She didn’t say much. She is one of the best mothers that ever was,always one way. She isn’t religious, like your mother, ‘cause thereain’t any religion in our folks. She is too good to have such a tearingset of boys round her.”

  “Will you go in the woods, and camp out? I never was in the big woods.There ain’t any woods round Salem.”

  “Well, there’s woods enough round our way. It’s all woods. You can getbear’s grease enough to make your cue grow three inches a night, andeat bear’s meat till you grow big enough to fill up the boots of asecond mate. Come, let’s go to sleep.”

  When they went on board in the morning, the wind was blowing fresh, andthe sea beginning to heave into the roadstead.

  The captain made his way to the observatory (taking Walter with him),from which he enjoyed a view of the roadstead and all in it. Here hesat, watching the blockading fleet with all the interest with whicha beleaguered rat contemplates the movements of his enemy, the cat.Ned Gates had been despatched to find Mr. Bell, and tell him to gethis things on board the vessel, accompanied by the fisherman’s boyas pilot. Ned traversed alleys and by-ways, till, in the dark, dampbasement of a squalid tenement he found the object of his search. Itwas a wretched place, the walls low and dripping with moisture; in onecorner was a large trough, nearly full of water, in which the willowrods lay soaking, in order to make them pliable to work; the floor waslittered with pieces of willows, of all colors, which had been trimmedoff; the walls were hung all round with willows, stripped into thinshavings, and made into skeins. In another corner was a
rough berth,built up like those on shipboard, where the old gentleman slept, and ona shelf, at the head of it, his Bible; evincing that, in his lonelinessand sorrow, he found consolation in the Word of God. There was also arusty stove, a few cooking utensils, a rickety table, and some roughchairs, made of willow with the bark on.

  The old gentleman was seated on a wooden platform, a little inclined,with his back against the wall, employed in finishing a basket of suchdelicate workmanship, such tastefully arranged and beautiful colors, asto elicit the most unbounded expressions of admiration from Ned.

  The old gentleman was evidently highly gratified with the praisebestowed upon his work.

  “I am glad you like it,” said he; “I have spent a vast deal of timeand work upon it; indeed, it is all I have done since I heard my sonwas living. I design it as a present for my daughter, if I am everpermitted to see her. It is said, self-praise goes but little ways;yet, when I was working at my trade in England, I had the reputationof doing the best work of any man in the fens, and that is saying agood deal. I used to think, when Charles was growing up, he would makea first-rate workman; but he has found better business than makingbaskets.”

  “He can do anything,” said Ned. “He can make a ship, a bedstead, or afiddle.”

  “He takes that from his mother’s folks. They were shipwrights andjoiners; but mine were all basket-makers, from the beginning. I’m goingto take my tools, some basket-rods, and dye-stuffs; the rest I havegiven to a young man who learned his trade of me.”

  He then drew from a chest a pair of nice broad-cloth breeches, silkhose, and other things to correspond, a nice pair of shoes, with silverbuckles, and, arraying himself, accompanied Ned on board the vessel.

  The gale increased as the day wore away.

  “There they go,” said the captain, as one of the frigates loosed hertopsails and made sail.

  “I reckon,” said Walter, “they’ll find that when the cat’s away themice will play.”

  The frigate was soon followed by another, till at length only theline-of-battle ship remained. Long she held on against a tremendoussea, till, at length, Walter, who had taken her bearings over aprojecting point, exclaimed, “She drags; she will have to go.”

  In a few moments the men were seen mounting the rigging, and she alsojoined the rest. She, under short sail, drifted very fast to leeward.The frigates, carrying all the sail they could smother to, and sharperbuilt, made desperate efforts to keep to windward, and did better,especially one which had been taken from the French, that outsailedall the rest; but they all gradually fell to leeward, leaving a clearoffing.

  “Good by, dear friends,” said Captain Brown, highly elated with theturn matters were taking; “sorry to part, but your room is better thanyour company.”

  When the basket-maker made his appearance with Ned, he was scarcelyrecognized by the captain and Walter, so changed was his appearance,and so sprightly were his looks. Noticing their astonishment, heobserved to the captain, “I had contrived to lay by a little, byprudence and hard work, for I couldn’t bear the thought of being apauper in a foreign land, and that I might have somewhat to give meChristian burial; and I thought I would fix myself up a bit, that myson might not be ashamed of me, should I be spared to see him.”

  By twelve o’clock at night the gale moderated, the brigantine got underway, and as the sun rose was far beyond the reach of her enemies.