CHAPTER XVII.
WHAT BOY HAS DONE, BOY MAY DO.
There was one place that I wished, particularly, to visit before I left,and that was what the people in Nassau called the Coral-reef. There werelots of coral-reefs all about the islands, but this one was easilyvisited, and for this reason, I suppose, was chosen as a representativeof its class. I had been there before, and had seen all the wonders ofthe reef through a water-glass,--which is a wooden box, with a pane ofglass at one end and open at the other. You hold the glass end of thisbox just under the water, and put your face to the open end, and thenyou can see down under the water, exactly as if you were looking throughthe air. And on this coral-reef, where the water was not more thantwelve or fourteen feet deep, there were lots of beautiful things tosee. It was like a submarine garden. There was coral in every form andshape, and of different colors; there were sea-feathers, which stood uplike waving purple trees, most of them a foot or two high, but some agood deal higher; there were sea-fans, purple and yellow, that spreadthemselves up from the curious bits of coral-rock on the bottom, andthere were ever so many other things that grew like bushes and vines,and of all sorts of colors. Among all these you could see the fishesswimming about, as if they were in a great aquarium. Some of thesefishes were very large, with handsome black bands across their backs,but the prettiest were some little fellows, no bigger than sardines,that swam in among the branches of the sea-feathers and fans. They werecolored bright blue, and yellow and red; some of them with two or threecolors apiece. Rectus called them "humming-fishes." They did remind meof humming-birds, although they didn't hum.
When I came here before, I was with a party of ladies and gentlemen. Wewent in a large sail-boat, and took several divers with us, to go downand bring up to us the curious things that we would select, as we lookedthrough the water-glass. There wasn't anything peculiar about thesedivers. They wore linen breeches for diving dresses, and were the samekind of fellows as those who dived for pennies at the town.
Now, what I wanted to do, was to go to the coral-reef and dive down andget something for myself. It would be worth while to take home a sea-fanor something of that kind, and say you brought it up from the bottom ofthe sea yourself. Any one could get things that the divers had broughtup. To be sure, the sea wasn't very deep here, but it had a bottom, allthe same. I was not so good a swimmer as these darkeys, who ducked anddived as if they had been born in the water, but I could swim betterthan most fellows, and was particularly good at diving. So I determined,if I could get a chance, to go down after some of those things on thecoral-reef.
I couldn't try this, before, because there were too many people along,but Rectus, who thought the idea was splendid, although he didn't intendto dive himself, agreed to hire a sail-boat with me, and go off to thereef, with only the darkey captain.
We started as early as we could get off, on the morning after we hadbeen at Fort Charlotte. The captain of the yacht--they give themselvesand their sail-boats big titles here--was a tall colored man, namedChris, and he took two big darkey boys with him, although we told him wedidn't want any divers. But I suppose he thought we might change ourminds. I didn't tell him _I_ was going to dive. He might not have beenwilling to go in that case.
We had a nice sail up the harbor, between the large island upon whichthe town stands, and the smaller ones that separate the harbor from theocean. After sailing about five miles, we turned out to sea between twoislands, and pretty soon were anchored over the reef.
"Now, then, boss," said Captain Chris, "don't ye want these here boys todo some divin' for ye?"
"I told you I wouldn't want them," said I. "I'm going to dive, myself."
"_You_ dive, boss!" cried all three of the darkeys at once, and the twoboys began to laugh.
"Ye can't do that, boss," said the captain. "Ef ye aint used to thishere kind o' divin', ye can't do nothin' at all, under this water. Yebetter let the boys go for ye."
"No," said I, "I'm going myself," and I began to take off my clothes.
The colored fellows didn't like it much, for it seemed like taking theirbusiness away from them; but they couldn't help it, and so they just satand waited to see how things would turn out.
"You'd better take a look through the glass, before you dive," saidRectus, "and choose what you're going to get."
"I'm not going to be particular," I replied. "I shall get whatever Ican."
"The tide's pretty strong," said the captain. "You've got to calkelatefur that."
I was obliged for this information, which was generous on his part,considering the circumstances, and I dived from the bow, as far out as Icould jump. Down I went, but I didn't reach the bottom, at all. My legsgrazed against some branches and things, but the tide had me back to theboat in no time, and I came up near the stern, which I seized, and goton board.
Both the colored boys were grinning, and the captain said:
"Ye can't dive that-a-way, boss. You'll never git to the bottom, at all,that-a-way. You must go right down, ef you go at all."
I knew that, but I must admit I didn't care much to go all the way downwhen I made the first dive. Just as I jumped, I thought of the hardsharp things at the bottom, and I guess I was a little too careful notto dive into them.
But now I made a second dive, and I went down beautifully. I made a grabat the first thing my hand touched. It was a purple knob of coral. Butit stuck tight to its mother-rock, and I was ready to go up before itwas ready to come loose, and so I went up without it.
"'T aint easy to git them things," said the captain, and the two boyssaid:
"No indeed, boss, ye cahn't git them things dat-a-way."
I didn't say anything, but in a few minutes I made another dive. Idetermined to look around a little, this time, and seize something thatI could break off or pull up. I found that I couldn't stay under water,like the darkeys could. That required practice, and perhaps more fishylungs.
Down I went, and I came right down on a small sea-fan, which I grabbedinstantly. That ought to give way easily. But as I seized it, I broughtdown my right foot into the middle of a big round sponge. I started, asif I had had an electric shock. The thing seemed colder and wetter thanthe water; it was slimy and sticky and horrid. I did not see what itwas, and it felt as if some great sucker-fish, with a cold woolly mouth,was trying to swallow my foot. I let go of everything, and came rightup, and drew myself, puffing and blowing, on board the boat.
How Captain Chris laughed! He had been watching me through thewater-glass, and saw what had scared me.
"Why, boss!" said he, "sponges don't eat people! That was nice and sof'to tread on. A sight better than cuttin' yer foot on a piece o' coral."
That was all very well, but I'm sure Captain Chris jumped the first timehe ever put his bare foot into a sponge under water.
"I s'pose ye're goin' to gib it up now, boss," said the captain.
"No, I'm not," I answered. "I haven't brought up anything yet. I'm goingdown again."
"You'd better not," said Rectus. "Three times is all that anybody evertries to do anything. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.One, two, three. You're not expected to try four times. And, besides,you're tired."
"I'll be rested in a minute," said I, "and then I'll try once more. I'mall right. You needn't worry."
But Rectus did worry. I must have looked frightened when I came up, andI believe he had caught the scare. Boys will do that. The captain triedto keep me from going in again, but I knew it was all nonsense to befrightened. I was going to bring up something from the bottom, if it wasonly a pebble.
So, after resting a little while, and getting my breath again, down Iwent. I was in for anything now, and the moment I reached the bottom, Iswept my arm around and seized the first thing I touched. It was apretty big thing, for it was a sea-feather over five feet high,--aregular tree. I gave a jerk at it, but it held fast. I wished, mostearnestly, that I had taken hold of something smaller, but I didn't liketo let go. I might get nothing else. I gave anoth
er jerk, but it was ofno use. I felt that I couldn't hold my breath much longer, and must goup. I clutched the stem of the thing with both hands; I braced my feetagainst the bottom; I gave a tremendous tug and push, and up I came tothe top, sea-feather and all!
With both my hands full I couldn't do much swimming, and the tidecarried me astern of the boat before I knew it.
Rectus was the first to shout to me.
"Drop it, and strike out!" he yelled; but I didn't drop it. I took it inone hand and swam with the other. But the tide was strong, and I didn'tmake any headway. Indeed, I floated further away from the boat.
Directly, I heard a splash, and in a moment afterward, it seemed, thetwo darkey divers were swimming up to me.
"Drop dat," said one of them, "an' we'll take ye in."
"No, I wont," I spluttered, still striking out with my legs and one arm."Take hold of this, and we can all go in together."
I thought that if one of them would help me with the sea-feather, whichseemed awfully heavy, two of us could certainly swim to the boat withfour legs and two arms between us.
But neither of them would do it. They wanted me to drop my prize, andthen they'd take hold of me and take me in. We were disputing andpuffing, and floating further and further away, when up came CaptainChris, swimming like a shark. He had jerked off his clothes and jumpedin, when he saw what was going on. He just put one hand under my rightarm, in which I held the sea-feather, and then we struck out togetherfor the boat. It was like getting a tow from a tug-boat. We werealongside in no time. Captain Chris was the strongest and best swimmer Iever saw.
"WE STRUCK OUT TOGETHER FOR THE BOAT."]
Rectus was leaning over, ready to help, and he caught me by the arm as Ireached up for the side of the boat.
"No," said I, "take this," and he seized the sea-feather and pulled itin. Then the captain gave me a hoist, and I clambered on board.
The captain had some towels under the little forward deck, and I gavemyself a good rub down and dressed. Then I went to look at my prize. Nowonder it was heavy. It had a young rock, a foot long, fast to its root.
"You sp'iled one o' de puttiest things in that garden down there," saidthe captain. "I allus anchored near that tall feather, and all devis'tors used to talk about it. I didn't think you'd bring it up when Iseed you grab it. But you must 'a' give a powerful heave to come up withall that stone."
"I don't think you ought to have tried to do that," said Rectus, wholooked as if he hadn't enjoyed himself. "I didn't know you were soobstinate."
"Well," said I, "the truth of the matter is that I am a fool, sometimes,and I might as well admit it. But now let's see what we've got on thisstone."
There was a lot of curious things on the piece of rock which had come upwith the sea-feather. There were small shells, of different shapes andcolors, with the living creatures inside of them, and there were mosses,and sea-weed, and little sponges, and small sea-plants, tipped with redand yellow, and more things of the kind than I can remember. It was thehandsomest and most interesting piece of coral-rock that I had seen yet.
As for the big purple sea-feather, it was a whopper, but too big for meto do anything with it. When we got home, Rectus showed it around tothe Chippertons, and some of the people at the hotel, and told them thatI dived down and brought it up, myself, but I couldn't take it away withme, for it was much too long to go in my trunk. So I gave it next day toCaptain Chris, to sell, if he chose, but I believe he took it back andplanted it again in the submarine garden, so that his passengers couldsee how tall a sea-feather could grow, when it tried. I chipped off apiece of the rock, however, to carry home as a memento. I was told thatthe things growing on it--I picked off all the shells--would make theclothes in my trunk smell badly, but I thought I'd risk it.
"After all," said Rectus, that night, "what was the good of it? Thatlittle piece of stone don't amount to anything, and you might have beendrowned."
"I don't think I could have been drowned," said I, "for I should havedropped the old thing, and floated, if I had felt myself giving out. Butthe good of it was this: It showed me what a disagreeable sort of placea sea-garden is, when you go down into it to pick things."
"Which you wont do again, in a hurry, I reckon," said Rectus.
"You're right there, my boy," I answered.
The next day, the Chippertons and ourselves took a two-horse barouche,and rode to the "caves," some six or seven miles from the town. We had along walk through the pineapple fields before we came to the biggestcave, and found it wasn't very much of a cave, after all, though therewas a sort of a room, on one side, which looked like a church, withaltar, pillars and arches. There was a little hole, on one side of thisroom, about three feet wide, which led, our negro guide said, to a greatcave, which ran along about a mile, until it reached the sea. There wasno knowing what skeletons, and treasures, and old half-decayed boxes ofcoins, hidden by pirates, and swords with jewels in the handles, andloose jewels, and silver plate, and other things we might have found inthat cave, if we had only had a lantern or some candles to light uswhile we were wandering about in it. But we had no candles or lantern,and so did not become a pirate's heirs. It was Corny who was mostanxious to go in. She had read about Blackbeard, and the other pirateswho used to live on this island, and she felt sure that some of theirtreasures were to be found in that cave. If she had thought of it, shewould have brought a candle.
The only treasures we got were some long things, like thin ropes, whichhung from the roof to the floor of the cave we were in. This cave wasn'tdark, because nearly all of one side of it was open. These ropes wereroots or young trunks from banyan-trees, growing on the ground above,and which came through the cracks in the rocks, and stretched themselvesdown so as to root in the floor of the cave, and make a lot ofunderground trunks for the tree above. The banyan-tree is the mostenterprising trunk-maker I ever heard of.
We pulled down a lot of these banyan ropes, some of them more thantwenty feet long, to take away as curiosities. Corny thought it wouldbe splendid to have a jumping-rope made of a banyan root, or rathertrunklet. The banyans here are called wild fig-trees, which they reallyare, wherever they grow. There is a big one, not far from the town,which stands by itself, and has a lot of trunks coming down from thebranches. It would take the conceit out of a hurricane, I think, if ittried to blow down a banyan-tree.
The next day was Sunday, and our party went to a negro church to hear apreacher who was quite celebrated as a colored orator. He preached agood sensible sermon, although he didn't meddle much with grammar. Thepeople were poorly dressed, and some of the deacons were barefooted, butthey were all very clean and neat, and they appeared to be just asreligious as if they had all ridden in carriages to some Fifth Avenuechurch in New York.