Elijah Kellogg

“ But the wind now began to rise, and as fast as they beat it out in one place it caught in another, as the wind blew the tufts of blazing grass in all directions. Ben’s hair and clothes were singed. Sally was frequently on fire, and had it not been that she was clothed in woollen, and that Ben threw water on her, she would have been burned up. The baby, during all this time, had been quietly sleeping in the cradle, but now, waked by the smoke, it began to sneeze and cry.
“Charlie,” said Sally, “I can do more at fighting fire than you can; take the baby to the shore, and take care of it.” ”

“ The others gathered round him, and, with curious eyes, examined the treasure.
“Won’t we paint things!” cried Charlie. “I’ll paint everything in the house,—my sink, the baby’s cradle, my canoe, mother’s churn, the closet under the dressers, and my bedstead.”
“O, Charlie!” said John; “and your house under the maple.”
“Yes,” said Fred; “and all the drawers and shelves, too.”
“I,” said John, “mean to paint my steers’ yoke, my gunning float, sled, and the boat father made me, if we can get enough; and I’ll paint my bedroom, then put some into whitewash and paint the walls.” ”

“ John thought he had never seen a finer looking boy than Charlie, and Charlie was internally paying the same compliment to John.
“Uncle Isaac,” whispered Sally, “how shall we get these boys together? shall I introduce them?”
“Nonsense; I’ll soon fix that. Ben, have you got a bushel basket?”
“Yes.”
“Well, let this youngster—What’s your first name, my lad?”
“Charles, sir.”
“Well, let Charles go down with John to the canoe, and fetch up some things your father sent over. That’s the way,” said Uncle Isaac; “they don’t want any of our help; they will take care of themselves.” ”

“ Notwithstanding the mackerel were thick, neither John nor Uncle Isaac would start in the morning till they saw how it fared with Sally, who, to the great delight of all, was much better.
Uncle Isaac inspected Charlie’s sink, canoe, and baskets, and praised them very much.
“There’s the making of a mechanic in that boy,” said he, “and no mean one either.”
They then walked over the burn.
“I call that a first-rate burn,” said Joe; “a miss is as good as a mile, Ben. Sally is doing well, and this burn will give you your bread-stuffs for a year, and hay for your cattle after that.” ”

“ Where do you suppose he came from, father?”
“That is what I should like to know.”
“It came from Uncle Jonathan Smullen’s sow, I know,” said Joe; “for it’s just the color, and about the right age. I don’t believe but he brought it on, and is round here somewhere now.”
“He’s too old a man to come on here alone; besides, he never would leave the island without first coming to the house to get something to wet his whistle.”
“Didn’t Uncle Isaac,” said Sally, “know that you were going to have a pig of Smullen?”
“Yes; for I sent word to Smullen by him to save me one.” ”

“ He has, no doubt, been obliged to take up with company that was not his own choice, for misery makes strange bedfellows.”
“Turn out to be a good boy! He’s a good boy now! I know he is; he’s good clear through!”
“Well, time will show.”
John, finding it impossible to inspire Uncle Isaac with his own enthusiastic confidence, let the matter drop, and for a while they rowed on in silence. At length John said, “I tell you what makes me think that boy is a good friend for me; he knows a great many things that I don’t know, and I know a great many things that he don’t. I know he’s tender-hearted.” ”

“ They were John Strout, Henry and Joe Griffin, Seth Warren, Robert Yelf, Sam Edwards, Sydney Chase, and Uncle Isaac. He it was, that, with a coolness that never forsook him, stopped to cut an armful of switches for himself and the rest.
“God bless you, my old friend!” said Ben, grasping him by both hands, “and God bless the whole of you! ‘friends in need are friends indeed;’ I can’t find words to thank you.”
Poor Sally, now that the excitement was over, fainted away. ”

“ It was nearly night when Uncle Isaac dropped his oars into the water. The boys went directly to digging clams by the bright moonlight; and as Ben and Sally helped them,—Sally picking them up and washing them,—it was soon accomplished. While this was going on, Charlie, with his spear, poked some lobsters from beneath the rocks. Ben was so much occupied with thoughts about Uncle Yelf’s funeral, that he never asked a question in respect to the ball, or where they found it, merely saying, as he saw it in Fred’s hand, “So you got your ball.”
As tired as dogs, but happy, they lay down. ”

“ Captain Rhines, at length worn out with the solicitations of John, which were aided by his own desire to know the truth of the matter, went over to Uncle Isaac’s, and said to him, “I wish you would take John and my canoe, and go over to the island (for I can’t go) , and see how many Ben’s killed, or if he’s killed anybody; and about that boy, or if there is any boy. John is teasing me to death about it, and he won’t be able to do any work till that is settled; for he’s thinking so much about it, he can’t drive a nail into a shingle without pounding his fingers.” ”

“ Since that he had gone with Fred, and was right glad of it, for he had become a real good boy, and he’s as smart as lightning. I saw that the day I was over to see John.”
“He has become a first-rate boy. Everybody that goes to the mill says there is not a better, more obliging boy in town; and they are always glad 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 sacrifice to get him good, I ought to help keep him good.”
“That’s right, Charlie; that is a good principle.” ”

“ Charlie, to whom such scenes were altogether new, was in raptures.
“I didn’t know before,” he said, “that you could make a fire in the woods in a rain-storm. I never saw any woods till I came to this country, and don’t know anything about such things as you and Fred, that have been brought up in them.”
“There are always places,” replied John, “in thick forests,—hollow trees, the north-west side of logs, and in hollow logs, where the wet never gets: in those places you can always find dry stuff, and, when you get a hot fire, wet or green wood will burn.” ”

“ The reason John was so much attached to his brother Ben, who was so much older, arose, not merely from his being his brother, but because Ben not only loved him, but always made due allowance for a boy’s nature and feelings. The amusements and employments of men, and boys also, in those old times, were not so far apart as they are now; they could fish and hunt in company, and the boy could be very useful to the man, and this brought them together, and kept their mutual sympathies59 alive and fresh. ”

“ It is one of those breakers I have heard father tell of, that break only once in a good while; he said, that while some break every three minutes, and oftener, others break only once in fifteen minutes, or half an hour; and you cannot see such breakers in the night, and might be running right over one when it broke, as we came near doing just now.”
“Luff!” cried Fred; and, as they looked under the sail, they saw the white foam of the surf to the leeward.
“There’s breakers all around us,” said Charlie; “let’s take to the oars, and then we can keep clear of them.” ”

“ We didn’t think they would press my father, because he was neither a rope-maker nor carpenter; but they were short of men, and all was fish that came to their net. Nevertheless, we kept such strict watch that my father would not have been taken; but he was sold to them by a blood-seller.”
“What is a blood-seller?” said Sally.
“A man that will go to the captain of the press-gang, and tell him where he can find a man, and how he can get hold of him; and they get paid for it.” ”

“ The wind had now moderated to a light breeze, and was sufficiently favorable to have laid their course with a boat, but a canoe will do nothing on the wind.
“What makes everybody have canoes?” asked Charlie. “In England they have boats with keels, masts, and sails, just like sloops and schooners; they will sail on the wind, and beat to windward as well as the Perseverance.” ”

“ Still the gain was in proportion to the risk.
“If,” reasoned Ben, “men can go thirty miles up the rivers, cut logs, raft them down, manufacture them into boards, take them to Portland, Boston, or Wiscasset, sell them to another party, pay wharfage, pay for handling them over two or three times, freight them to the West Indies, and then make money, how much could a man make who cut them at his own door, made them into boards at a tithe of the expense, transported them at a trifling expense compared with the others, and sold them in the same market!” ”

“ He had put the table by the big fire, and on a bench beside it sat Hannah Murch, with her white apron on, knitting, and Uncle Isaac smoking his pipe, and striving to keep from laughing.
“I hope they’ve got the table big enough,” said John; “it’s big enough for a dozen people. But only see Tige; just you look there, Charlie; he’s got a chip in his mouth; when he’s awful glad he always gets a chip, and gives little, short barks. O, I wish he could talk! Look, Fred! ”

“ In a moment he ran to the beach, rooted up a clam with his nose, and brought it to his master. The boys were full of amazement to see a pig do such things.
“Will he bring birds ashore?” asked John.
“No; he won’t go near the water, except a mud puddle; he’s afraid of the water. A hog can’t swim much more than a hen; but I tell you what he will do, he’ll haul the baby in a cart.”
Charlie had made a cart, with arms to it, for the baby, and a harness of canvas for Rover; so he harnessed up the pig, who drew the baby all along the green between the house and the water. ”

“ Dear me, how young folks do grow out of old people’s knowledge!”
“This,” said John, “is Charlie Bell; he’s an English boy, and lives with our Ben on Elm Island.”
“I remember now hearing Hannah Murch tell about him; she said he was a nice, steady boy, and that Ben and Sally set great store by him. He looks like a good boy.”
“He’s a real smart boy, too,” said John (giving Fred a punch under the table) ; “he catches all the fish they eat, and a good many to sell, and has made lots of baskets, and sent them to the West Indies by father.” ”

“ CHARLIE IN A SNOW SQUALL.
Charles would have been more than human if he could have rested easy without a sail for his canoe, after seeing John’s, and sailing with him in his float. He tried a hemlock bush, but he came near filling his boat by means of it. He didn’t like to ask Sally to weave him cloth to make one, as she had to buy her flax and cotton, nor to ask Ben to let him sell fish for it. He therefore set his wits to work to compass his end. He noticed the bottom of the chairs, and asked Ben what they were made of: he told him, of basket-stuff, and how it was made. ”

“ The wind was fair, but light, and they steered for the lone spruce on Birch Point, and, passing it, kept on to the north-east, having resolved to run the shore along, keeping a bright lookout for the high rock with the spruce on its summit, till they judged by the tide it was midnight, when, if they could not find the place, they would go ashore and camp, continuing their search in the morning. ”

“ An enormous volume of smoke and flame instantly arose, and swept down before the wind, presenting a truly magnificent spectacle. In clearing land they are not particular to cut every tree. Sometimes there will be an old dead pine full of pitch, that, as it makes no shade to hurt a crop, and draws nothing from the soil, they let it alone. At other times they make what they call a drive ”

“ Rhines says. Ben,” said she, going out to where he was talking with John, “that boy wants to stay with us; he is, I believe, a real good boy; he is afraid those fellows will kill him, or will be hauled up for their wickedness, and he shall have to suffer with them.”
“There’s a great risk in taking up with a boy like that; we can’t know anything about him; they all tell a good story.”
“I know that’s a good boy, Ben; I feel it in my bones.”
“It will make you a great deal of work, Sally; you will have to spin and weave, make clothes, knit stockings, and wash for him.” ”

“ How great a matter sometimes hinges upon a very little thing! Ben and Joe were in the thickest part of the woods, so busily at work getting down a tree that had lodged as not to notice the sudden change in the weather. As soon as they heard the roar of the wind they ran for the beach. On the White Bull was a breastwork of stones that Ben had made, to stand behind and shoot ducks.
“Joe,” he cried, “get the range of that canoe over the breastwork, and keep it, while I go and get the compass.” When he returned with the compass, Charlie’s canoe was entirely hidden by the snow ”

“ It was about the middle of the afternoon when Charlie saw the white sail of the canoe in Captain Rhines’s cove, and she soon came into view before a light southerly wind. Charlie saw through the glass his mother sitting 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?” ”

“ He was as well thought of as any man in town, and bid fair to be a rich man. But he carried all that stock and land to the store (except one acre and a half) in a two-quart jug, and died drunk among the hogs. Now, that poor woman, who has counted her cheese by scores, and her butter by tubs, has not a drop of milk except what the neighbors give her, nor a stick of wood but what she picks up.”
Uncle Isaac’s voice was broken, and the tears ran down his cheeks. The boys were greatly affected; they had never seen the calm, resolute man moved before, and the tears stood in their eyes. ”

“ Sometimes a cusk would stray in among them, and a sea-nettle come drifting along just outside the kelp, his long feelers streaming a yard behind him.
“Look at the muscles down there,” said Fred; “I never knew muscles grew on rocks way out in the sea; I thought they grew in the mud.”
“These,” replied John, “are rock muscles, a much smaller kind; they are what the sea-ducks live on; they dive down and tear them off the rocks with their bills.” ”