CHAPTER XIII.
THE CORONATION.
In the afternoon, we had our grand rally at the Queen's Stair-way. Cornycouldn't come, because her mother said she must not be running around somuch. So she staid at home and worked on the new flag for thecoronation. We designed this flag among us. It had a black ground, witha yellow sun just rising out of the middle of it. It didn't cost much,and looked more like a yellow cog-wheel rolling in deep mud thananything else. But we thought it would do very well.
Rectus and I had barely reached the stairs, by the way of the old fort,when Priscilla made her appearance in the ravine at the head of a crowdof whooping barefooted young rascals, who came skipping along as if theyexpected something to eat.
"I'd never be a queen," said Rectus, "if I had to have such a lot ofsubjects as that."
"Don't think you would," said I; "but we mustn't let 'em come up thestairs. They must stay at the bottom, so that we can harangue 'em." Sowe charged down the stairs, and made the adherents bunch themselves onthe level ground.
Then we harangued them, and they laughed, and hurrahed, and whistled,and jumped, while Priscilla, as an active emissary, ran around amongthem, punching them, and trying to make them keep still and listen.
But as they all promised to stick to us and the royal queen throughthick and thin, we didn't mind a little disorder.
The next day but one was to be coronation day, and we impressed it onthe minds of the adherents that they must be sure to be on hand aboutten in the morning, in front of the queen's hut. We concluded not tocall it a palace until after the ceremony.
When we had said all we had to say, we told the assemblage that it mightgo home; but it didn't seem inclined to do anything of the kind.
"Look a here, boss," said one of them,--a stout, saucy fellow, with thebiggest hat and the biggest feet on the island,--"aint you agoin' togive us nothin' for comin' round here?"
"Give you anything!" cried Rectus, blazing up suddenly. "That's a prettyway to talk! It's the subjects that have to give. You'll see prettysoon----"
Just here I stopped him. If he had gone on a few minutes longer, hewould have wound up that kingdom with a snap.
"We didn't bring you here," said I, "to give you anything, for it oughtto be enough pay to any decent fellow to see a good old person likeQueen Poqua-dilla get her rights."
"Who's him?" asked several of the nearest fellows.
"He means Jane Henderson," said Priscilla. "You keep quiet."
"Jane Henderson! Dat's all right. Don' call her no names. Go ahead,boss!" they cried, laughing and shouting. I went ahead.
"We can't pay you any money; but if you will all promise again to be onhand before ten o'clock day after to-morrow, we'll take you down to theharbor now and give you a small dive."
A wild promise rang up the sides of the ravine.
A "small dive" is a ceremony somewhat peculiar to this island. Avisitor--no native white man would ever think of such a thing--stands onthe edge of a pier, or anywhere, where the water is quite deep, andtosses in a bit of money, while the darkey boys--who are sure to be allready when a visitor is standing on a pier--dive for it. It's a lot offun to see them do this, and Rectus and I had already chucked a gooddeal of small change into the harbor, and had seen it come up again,some of it before it got to the bottom. These dives are called "small,"because the darkeys want to put the thing mildly. They couldn't coaxanybody down to the water to give them a big dive.
"You see," said I to Rectus, as we started down the ravine toward theriver, with the crowd of adherents marching in front, "we've got to havethese fellows at the coronation. So it wont do to scare 'em off now."
We went down to a little public square in front of the town, where therewas a splendid diving-place. A good many people were strolling aboutthere, but I don't suppose that a single person who saw those darkeyfellows, with nothing on but their cotton trousers,--who stood in a lineon the edge of the sea-wall, and plunged in, head foremost, like a lotof frogs, when I threw out a couple of "big coppers,"--ever supposedthat these rascals were diving for monarchical purposes. The water wasso clear that we could see them down at the bottom, swimming andpaddling around after the coppers. When a fellow found one he'd stick itin his mouth, and come up as lively as a cricket, and all ready foranother scramble at the bottom.
Sometimes I threw in a silver "check," which is no bigger than athree-cent piece; but, although the water was about fifteen feet deep,it was never lost. The fellows seemed just as much at home in the wateras on land, and I suppose they don't know how to get drowned. We triedto toss the money in such a way that each one of them would havesomething, but some of them were not smart enough to get down to thebottom in time; and when we thought we had circulated enough specie, wefelt sure that there were two or three, and perhaps more, who hadn'tbrought up a penny.
So when they all climbed out, with their brown shoulders glistening, Iasked which one of them had come out without getting anything. Everyman-jack of them stepped forward and said he hadn't got a copper. Wepicked out three little fellows, gave them a few pennies apiece, andcame home.
A FAMILY DIVE]
The next day we were all hard at work. Corny and her mother went down tothe queen's house, and planned what they could get to fit up the placeso that it would be a little more comfortable. Mrs. Chipperton must haveadded something to our eight dollars, for she and Corny came up into thetown, and bought a lot of things, which made Poqua-dilla's best roomlook like another place. The rocking-chair was fixed up quite royally.Mrs. Chipperton turned out to be a better kind of a woman than Ithought she was at first.
We hired a man to cut a pole and set it up in the queen's front yard,for the flag; and then Rectus and I started out to get the crown. I hadthought that if we could find some sheet-brass, I could manage to make apretty good crown, but there didn't seem to be anything of the kind inthe place. But, after a good deal of looking, we found a brass saucepan,in a store, which I thought would do very well for the foundation of acrown. We bought this, and took it around to a shop where a man mendedpots and kettles. For a shilling we hired the use of his tools for anhour, and then Rectus and I went to work. We unriveted the handle, andthen I held the bottom edge of the saucepan to the grindstone, whileRectus turned, and we soon ground the bottom off. This left us a deepbrass band, quite big enough for a crown, and as the top edge wasrounded off, it could be turned over on a person's head, so as to sitquite comfortably. With a cold-chisel I cut long points in what would bethe upper part of the crown, and when I had filed these up a little, thecrown looked quite nobby. We finished it by punching a lot of holes inthe front part, making them in the form of stars and circles. Withsomething red behind these, the effect would be prodigious.
At ten o'clock, sharp, the next morning, we were all at the queen'shouse. Mrs. Chipperton was with us, for she wished very much to see theceremony. I think Mr. Chipperton would have been along, but a gentlemantook him out in his yacht that morning, and I must admit that we allbreathed a little bit freer without him. There was a pretty fair crowdsitting around in the front yard when we reached the house, and beforelong a good many more people came to see what was going on. They wereall negroes; but I don't believe half of them were genuine nativeAfricans. The queen was sitting inside, with a red shawl on, although itwas a pretty warm day, and wearing a new turban.
We had arranged, on the way, to appoint a lot of court officials,because there was no use of our being stingy in this respect, when itdidn't cost anything to do up the thing right. So we picked out a goodlooking man for Lord High Chancellor, and gave him a piece of red ribbonto tie in his button-hole. He hadn't any button-hole anywhere, except inhis trousers, so he tied it to the string which fastened his shirttogether at the collar. Four old men we appointed to be courtiers, andmade them button up their coats. For a wonder, they all had coats. Wealso made a Lord High Sheriff and a Royal Beadle, and an Usher of theWhite Wand, an officer Mrs. Chipperton had read about, and to whom wegave a whittled stick,
with strict instructions not to jab anybody withit. Corny had been reading a German novel, and she wanted us to appointa "Hof-rath," who is a German court officer of some kind. He was a nicefellow in the novel, and so we picked out the best-looking young darkeywe could find, for the position.
We each had our posts. Corny was to do the crowning, and I was to makethe speech. Rectus had his place by the flag, which he was to haul up atthe proper moment. Mrs. Chipperton undertook to stand by the oldlady,--that is, the queen,--and give her any support she might happen toneed during the ceremony.
We intended having the coronation in the house; but we found the crowdtoo large for this, so we brought the rocking-chair out-of-doors, andset it in front of the only window in the palace. The yard was largeenough to accommodate a good many people, and those who could not get inhad plenty of room out in the road. We tried to make Poqua-dilla takeoff her turban, because a crown on a turban seemed to us somethingentirely out of order; but she wouldn't listen to it. We had thepleasant-faced neighbor-woman as an interpreter, and she said that itwasn't any use; the queen would almost as soon appear in public withouther head as without her turban. So we let this pass, for we saw veryplainly that it wouldn't do to try to force too much on Poqua-dilla, forshe looked now as if she thought we had come there to perform someoperation on her,--perhaps to cut off her leg.
About half-past ten, we led her out, and made her sit down in therocking-chair. Mrs. Chipperton stood on one side of her, holding one ofher hands, while the neighbor-woman stood on the other side, and heldthe other hand. This arrangement, however, did not last long, forPoqua-dilla soon jerked her hands away, thinking, perhaps, that ifanything was done that hurt, it might be better to be free for a jump.
Corny stood in front, a little at one side, holding the crown, which shehad padded and lined with red flannel. I took my place just before Mrs.Chipperton, facing the crowd. Rectus was at the flag-pole, near thefront of the yard, holding the halyards in his hands, ready to haul. The_Hof-rath_ was by him, to help if anything got tangled, and the fourcourtiers and the other officials had places in the front row of thespectators, while Priscilla stood by Corny, to be on hand should she beneeded.
When all was ready, and Corny had felt in her pocket to see that the"permission paper" was all right, I began my speech. It was the secondregular speech I had ever made,--the first one was at a schoolcelebration,--and I had studied it out pretty carefully. It wasintended, of course, for the negroes, but I really addressed the most ofit to Mrs. Chipperton, because I knew that she could understand a speechbetter than any one else in the yard. When I had shown the matter up asplainly as I knew how, and had given all the whys and wherefores, I madea little stop for applause. But I didn't get any. They all stood waitingto see what would happen next. As there was nothing more to say, Inodded to Corny to clap on the crown. The moment she felt it on herhead, the queen stood up as straight as a hoe-handle, and looked quicklyfrom side to side. Then I called out in my best voice:
"Africans! Behold your queen!"
At this instant Rectus ran up the black flag with the yellow cog-wheel,and we white people gave a cheer. As soon as they got a cue, the darkeysknew what to do. They burst out into a wild yell, they waved their hats,they laid down on the grass and kicked, they jumped, and danced, andlaughed, and screamed. I was afraid the queen would bolt, so I took aquiet hold of her shawl. But she stood still until the crowd cooled downa little, and then she made a courtesy and sat down.
"Is that all?" asked the neighbor-woman, after she had waited a fewmoments.
"Yes," said I. "You can take her in."
When the queen had been led within doors, and while the crowd was stillin a state of wild commotion, I took a heavy bag of coppers from mycoat-pocket--where it had been worrying me all through the ceremony--andgave it to Priscilla.
"Scatter that among the subjects," said I.
"Give 'em a big scr_ah_mble in the road?" said she, her eyes cracklingwith delight.
"Yes," said I, and out she ran, followed by the whole kingdom. We whitefolk stood inside to watch the fun. Priscilla threw out a handful ofpennies, and the darkeys just piled themselves up in the road on top ofthe money. You could see nothing but madly waving legs. The mass heavedand tossed and moved from one side of the road to the other. The LordHigh Chancellor was at the bottom of the heap, while the _Hof-rath_wiggled his bare feet high in the air. Every fellow who grabbed a pennyhad ten fellows pulling at him. The women and small fry did not getinto this mess, but they dodged around, and made snatches wherever theycould get their hands into the pile of boys and men.
They all yelled, and shouted and tussled and scrambled, until Priscilla,who was dancing around with her bag, gave another throw into a differentpart of the road. Then every fellow jerked himself loose from the rest,and a fresh rush was made, and a fresh pile of darkeys arose in aminute.
We stood and laughed until our backs ached, but, as I happened to lookaround at the house, I saw the queen standing on her door-step lookingmournfully at the fun. She was alone, for even her good neighbor hadrushed out to see what she could pick up. I was glad to find that thenew monarch, who still wore her crown,--which no one would have imaginedto have ever been a saucepan,--had sense enough to keep out of such ascrimmage of the populace, and I went back and gave her a shilling. Herface shone, and I could see that she felt that she never could havegrabbed that much.
When there had been three or four good scrambles, Priscilla ran up theroad, a little way, and threw out all the pennies that were left in thebag. Then she made a rush for them, and, having a good start, she gotthere first, and had both hands full of dust and pennies before any oneelse reached the spot. She was not to be counted out of that game.
After this last scramble, we came away. The queen had taken her throneindoors, and we went in and shook hands with her, telling her we wouldsoon come and see how she was getting along. I don't suppose sheunderstood us, but it didn't matter. When we had gone some distance, welooked back, and there was still a pile of darkeys rolling and tumblingin the dust.