Elijah Kellogg

“ About three o'clock in the afternoon,—which was beautiful, with a very light breeze that barely stirred the leaves on the evergreen oak,—Walter said, "How clear the sky looks! and the water in the cove—I can see the bottom from here. I can see those sea-fowl that are diving when they are on the bottom."
"Only hear the crows," said Ned; "what a yelling! Look in these pines; they are black with them. They are having a meeting just as they do at home." ”

“ As they were returning, Ned said, "Wouldn't it be nice if it was so at home, Mr. Griffin?" (putting on the Mr. before the crew.) "There's Captain Rhines's Cove: the water ebbs way out, quarter of a mile of mud. If you want to go out at low water, you must shove off a skiff, and wade in the mud. Only think how nice it would be to be able to go just when you pleased! no bother about the tide, and having to work in the night to save it; and only think what an everlasting sight of work and expense it would save in building those great long wharves, that vessels may lie afloat at low water!" ”

“ It was wonderful, and excited the surprise of Walter and Ned, to witness the instantaneous change wrought in the appearance of the peasants. They were now all energy and activity, seemed completely to have laid aside their listless, lounging attitudes, and manifested a fertility of resource that the boys never supposed pertained to them.
"All these people want," said Walter to Ned, "is opportunity. They are smart, only give them a chance."
It was night by the time Walter had made a horizontal shaft, which was to run through a square hole in the centre of the edge-stone. ”

“ Suppose before two days there should come a gale of wind, a real snorter, set the blockading fleet a flying, everything head over heels, and it is, up topgallant-mast, send up topgallant and royal yards, mast-head the topsail, man the windlass, up anchor and away for Marseilles. By and by we get home. Charlie Bell and Captain Rhines say (as I know they will) , 'Well, boys, have you seen any place you like better than home? What kind of land is it? What crops do they grow? Did the people seem happy, and do they live any better or know any more than we do? ”

“ She has never lost a spar or a man; and it's my belief she never will be cast away, but die a natural death in the head of Captain Rhines's Cove, where the squirrels will make nests in her cabin, and hoard their acorns, the robins will build on her spars, the little children have her for a play-house, and the big boys to dive from. ”

“ Gabriel scratched his head, and replied, "Citizen, so much work would make a man a slave."
"You are a slave now, and get nothing for it, either. I'd rather put things through, and get something, then, when I'm old, lay back and take the good of it, than to be forever a mulling, and eat up as fast as I get. If you would only raise corn instead of this miserable rye, you could have bread, pork, beef, fodder for your cattle, and dressing for your land." ”

“ There never was a boy more crazy to go to sea than I was—counting the days till the vessel was ready. She lay in the stream, ready to sail in the morning. After supper the second mate took me and three men whom he could trust, and went ashore. We were ordered to be down to the boat at nine o'clock. It was seven when I reached home. Didn't those two hours go quick as I sat on the sofa in the parlor, between father and mother, and my sisters before me. When the bell rang for nine, and I got up to start for the beach, I didn't feel altogether so keen for going as I did the week before. ”

“ Young citizens, you have been deceived. You have heard but one story—that of the aristocrats, of the oppressors. Listen now to that of the oppressed—to me, Gabriel Quesnard, a peasant born and bred on the soil of France, as were all my ancestors. I am not about to relate to you the cruelties practised in the days of my forefathers, when a noble has been known to kill a peasant, that he might warm his feet by thrusting them into his body on a cold day. ”

“ But the night following the same company assembled again in the cabin of the Arthur.
"Now," said Captain Rhines, "for the crew."
"Ned and I are officers and crew," said Walter; "we can handle her."
"You could handle her in good weather, or in a gale of wind, if it gave you time, but you might lose your masts in a sudden squall; besides, you must have more than one in a watch. You must have a lookout, and you might have a scuffle to get Peterson. You must have two men, and a boy for a cook: one stout, reliable man, an able seaman, and an ordinary, or stout, smart boy, eighteen or nineteen. ”

“ The new comer expressing equal surprise, they talked and gesticulated with such fury, that Ned whispered to Walter,—
"Do you believe, Wal, that a Frenchman could talk if you tied his hands?"
"I guess not; Captain Rhines says they couldn't."
"What kind of trees are those with such crooked limbs?" asked Ned.
"Mulberries."
"The bark and body look some like a maple; what are they good for?"
"We use the leaves to feed silkworms."
"Silkworms," said Walter,—"the worms that make silk?"
"Yes; they can't live on anything but mulberry leaves." ”

“ As Walter sat thus, with the crackling of the fire in his ear, and the ruddy blaze playing on his cheek, he said,—
"I think this is a nice country, after all; rather dry, to be sure; a good deal of waste land, covered with gravel and stones brought down from the mountains. We have seen some beautiful valleys of most excellent land. The people are kind and hospitable, and, if they were not so shiftless, might, with their climate and soil, raise two crops a year. What are you thinking about, Ned?" ”

“ Dick hailed him with shout and gesture that drew the eyes of all upon him in an instant.
"Shipmates," he cried, "as I'm alive and a sinner, if here ain't my old cap'n, Cap'n Ben Rhines, the best man that ever sailed salt water; as knows how to carry sail, and how to take in sail; none of your kid-glove gentry! Ah, my boys, he's sailed for it! None of your ship's cousins; a man as knows when a man does his duty, and how to keep good dis-cip-line on board ship" (emphasizing the second syllable of "discipline," as seamen generally do) . ”

“ The crew, having little or nothing to do, except that they hauled the brigantine ashore, cleaned her bottom, and covered it with a fresh coat of soap and tallow, mended the sails, and overhauled the rigging, spent the time in the manner most agreeable to their own inclinations, mended and made clothes and hats, lounged, bathed, or slept. Boys so well conditioned and full of life as Walter and Ned, could not pass their time in any such way as that. ”

“ They lay thus for an hour, when an order was given to man the windlass. The crew, all young, athletic men, having enjoyed a long repose,—stimulated by the strongest motives, self-interest, pride of seamanship, and manly emulation,—sprang like tigers to their work, and "catted" the anchor by hand.
"There's your bed, Mr. Griffin," said Ned, as they shot by the high bluff.
"Never mind; I've had one good night's sleep in it."
"There's Nelson," said Jacques, as they rounded the first prominent headland; "he means to hold on. ”

“ The fleet has taken scarcely any prizes, so that all are hungry for prize-money. Every one of us from the admiral to the powder-monkeys, feel chagrined at being thus bearded; that our reputation as seamen will suffer if you should again escape us. There's another motive. We all know if we could take the Arthur Brown, and put a few light guns on board of her, she would catch everything on the coast, and fill our pockets with prize-money. Add to this, your slapping our captain in the face with your flag, the other day, and you will perceive how matters stand between us. ”

“ Skirting the base of the hill upon which the castle stood, they came again upon the stream that watered the vale,—now increased in volume by affluents from the mountains,—falling over a cliff upon which were the remnants of a dam, and just below it a mass of half-burned timber and large stones, that Walter, more familiar than Ned with such matters, declared to be the ruins of some kind of a mill. These large circular stones lay embedded in a mass of coals and brands, the shafts burned out of them, white from the action of fire, and every one split in two. ”

“ At length the tide began to flow, the ship began to bury forward; down she went, till the water was coming into the hawse-holes, the cable sung, and the tar began to stand in drops on it with the strain, when all at once the anchor let go with a surge that threw every man from his feet. The tide was very convenient then; if it had not been for it, we must have gone ashore, got a grappling, and grappled to the fluke of the anchor, or left it. Again the tide is very convenient for a timepiece; if you keep the run of the tide, you have the time of day. ”

“ When the boat came alongside, and the apparently lifeless body was conveyed to the cabin of the brigantine, every heart was touched.
"Dear little fellow! He can't be more than eighteen; and what a noble face!" said the captain, while they were stripping off his wet clothing, rubbing the body, and wrapping him in blankets. "There's life," said he after he was placed in the captain's own berth. ”

“ In the afternoon, while waiting for the fire-ship, Ned had written with chalk on the slide of the companion-way the value of the Arthur Brown's cargo, showing the man-o'-war's men what a rich prize they had lost, closing with some reflections upon the disappointments to which mankind are liable, and leaving the best respects of himself and Walter. ”

“ You will live in my family, get all the salt junk and bad rum out of you, be amongst steady people, away from temptation, go out in the vessel with the boys, and, perhaps, a couple more of our young men; no rum, no landlords, no drunken shipmates. I'll give you better wages than you ever had in your life, because you shall have a share of the profits when the voyage is up. I'll build you a vessel; and, as you are no navigator, you shall coast along the shore in her, Captain Richard Cameron, marry some one of our good girls, and be a man. Is not there a chance to be decent? ”

“ The poor man must loose his cattle from the plough, and work on the roads; or perhaps, in the midst of harvest, must leave his grain to spoil, and go and carry convicts to the galleys, haul ship-timber to the navy-yard, or supplies to some garrison, while the soldiers prick his cattle with their swords, and insult their driver. More than three hundred peasants, who owned their land, were made beggars by the filling up of one valley in Lorraine. Every peasant was compelled to buy, and pay a tax on, seven pounds of salt a year, whether he used it or not. ”

“ It was a good working breeze, the wind for a portion of the way nearly ahead—a direction well adapted to show the weatherly qualities of a vessel.
"Make sail," said Walter; "we'll be jogging."
With only her fore, mainsail, and jibs set, the Perseverance soon left the harbor astern. Hour after hour passed, and nothing was seen of Lemaire; but as they knew the general direction, and that there were no reefs or shoals, they kept on till they made Diamond Rock, on the port hand, when they must round the southern extremity of the island, and a pilot was needed. ”

“ I should think it would take half of their time to go and come."
"They don't know how to put things ahead with a rush, as we do," said Walter.
"How can a man think much of his time when it's worth only twenty cents a day?"
"It ain't worth that, for a sou ain't quite a cent. They will work all day in a half bushel, and don't know how to take advantage of work. I've heard the captain say that they were once little better than slaves to the aristocracy, and have been so long used to working at a slave jog that they keep it up, and always want to huddle together like a nest of rats." ”

“ If they thought of looking, they couldn't see so small a spar as this vessel's topgallant-mast without a glass."
The morning light revealed a most singular place. On the starboard hand, a rugged promontory, covered with a thick growth of pine and fir, mixed with oak and ash, rose perpendicularly from the sea. The other, and port side of the entrance, was formed by a small island, its extremity, like that of the other point, terminating in a long, rocky, and wooded bluff, but of less height. ”

“ At noon the boat came back, and, in company, a shore boat, in which was Pierre Lallemont, with his stock and tools, rowed by a negro boy. He was quite a contrast to Solomon, being a strong, tall, intelligent-looking man, pretty well bleached, and in the prime of life. He went to work directly, with his boy, on the water-cask. When the job was finished, Walter took him into the cabin alone, and, after paying him, said to him in French, "Did you do any work for Captain Aldrich, of the Casco, when he was here?" ”

“ How time runs away! 'Twas four years ago this very month, because it was three days before we sailed, that Lion Ben sarved Joe Bradish such a rinctum."
"What was that?" asked Captain Brown; "let us hear it, Lancaster."
"Wal, you see the Lion, besides being so all-fired strong, is a great teamster; they say the greatest in town (now Uncle Isaac Murch is gone) . He won't abuse an ox, neither, nor let anybody else; but Joe (he's no teamster at all, nor much else; when he gits stuck, he takes off the forrard cattle) , he can't make four oxen pull together; he's real cruel, too. ”

“ Let us do no more to-day, but enjoy ourselves with these good citizens; we can soon press the olives now."
As they sat conversing, after supper, Walter said to the peasants,—
"People in our country—when a person has done a foolish thing; injured himself in trying to hurt another—have a fashion of saying 'that he has bitten off his nose to spite his face.' It seems to me that you did a very silly thing when you broke the mill-stones and burnt up the oil and wine presses of the aristocrats. The stone never harmed you. ”

“ You see, cap'n, with all these shrouds, and head-stays, and back-stays to hold you up, you could take your liquor in moderation, and stop when you had enough. But here's old Dick comes ashore. He's no parents, no home; nothing but his shipmates. They go to a rum mill. He's a drunkard, they are drunkards, and you know the rest. I drew up a strong resolution this time. Before I come ashore, says I to myself, 'I'll take my glass in moderation, just as my old cap'n, Ben Rhines, used to, and not make a beast of myself.' But it all ended in smoke. ”

“ That dog starved to death because he would not leave his master."
"I shall always love a dog after this."
"They are noble creatures. Did you ever see what was on Tige Rhines's collar?"
"About his taking the little girl from the mill pond?"
"Yes; and that is not all he did; he saved the lives of John, Charlie Bell, and Fred Williams, by waking them up when they were asleep in a cave into which the tide was flowing."
"This must be that boy's father," said Ned. "Or his grandfather," replied Walter. "He was murdered, at any rate," pointing to the cloven skull. ”