CHAPTER VII.
In which the Reader will discover, as the Little Peopledid, how a Life was saved, and a Life was Begun.
The Captain and his little friends had barely reached the cottage whenthe storm came down in earnest. The tall trees bowed their heads beneaththe heavy blasts of wind, which shook them to their very roots, and themusic of the rustling and sighing leaves was heard until the sounds weredrowned by the fierce, dashing rain.
"Now this is a regular blow-hard, and no mistake," exclaimed theCaptain, as the party stood in the doorway watching the bending treesand the clouds that rushed so wildly overhead. "Good thing we picked upour anchor when we did, or just as like as not we should have had to liethere all night."
"Why, we couldn't have stayed there in such a storm, could we, CaptainHardy?" said Fred, inquiringly.
"To be sure we could," replied the Captain, "and snug enough too. Yes,indeed, the little _Alice_ would have ridden out the gale handsomely.Then we might have stowed ourselves away in the cabin as nice as couldbe, and have been just as dry as we are here."
"And gone without supper," put in William, with a practical eye to thecreature comforts.
"Easy there, my lad," answered the Captain. "Do you think you catch anancient mariner on the water without 'a shot in his locker'?"
"Wouldn't it have been jolly,--eating supper in the cabin," exclaimedWilliam; "and then, Captain Hardy, would you have gone on with thestory?"
"To be sure I would," answered the Captain.
"Then I'm sorry we didn't stay there," replied William.
"Good," said the Captain. "But what says little Alice?"
"I'd rather hear the story where we are," was the reply. And as thelightning flashed and the thunder rattled more and more, the little girlcrept closer to the old man's side.
"Then I'm glad we came away," replied the captain; "and we'll go righton too, for I see you don't like listening to the storm."
"O, I'm dreadfully afraid!" said Alice.
"Go on, go on! Captain Hardy," exclaimed both the boys together.
"But where was I when we left off to run away, in such a lubberlymanner, from the storm?" inquired the Captain. "Let me see," and he puthis finger to his nose, looking thoughtful.
"You were just beginning to cry," put in William.
"To be sure I was, that's it; and so would you cry, too, my boy, if youhad an empty stomach under your belt, and nothing but a jack-knife init," answered the Captain.
"That I would," exclaimed William, "I should have cried my eyes out.But, Captain Hardy,--if you'll excuse me,--was the jack-knife in theempty stomach or in the belt?"
"Ah, you little rogue! I'll not mind _you_ any more," said the Captain,laughing; "what would Fred have done?"
"I think I should have broke my heart," said Fred, promptly.
"That's not so easy done as crying," exclaimed the Captain. "But whatsays little Alice; what would she have done?"
"I don't know," replied Alice, gently; "but I think I should have goneand tried to get the poor boy to speak to me, and then I would havetried to comfort him."
"That's it, my charming little girl; that's just exactly what I did. Butit wasn't so easy either, I can tell you; for the boy was still as dullas ever. I tried to rouse him in every way I could think of; but hewould not arouse. I spoke to him, I called to him, I shouted to him; buthe would not answer me a single word."
"What was his name, Captain Hardy? Won't you tell us his name?" askedFred.
"Ah! that I should have done before; but I forgot it. His name wasRichard Dean. The sailors always called him 'the Dean.' He was a bright,lively boy, and everybody liked him. To see him in such a state made myvery heart ache. But he was growing warm under his great load ofeider-down, and that I was glad to see; and at last he showed somefeeble signs of consciousness. His eyes opened wide, his lips moved. Ithought he was saying something, though I could not understand for sometime what it was. Then I could make out, after a while, that he wasmurmuring, 'Mother, mother!' Then he looked at me, wildly like, and thenhe turned his head away, and then he turned it back and looked at meagain. 'Hardy,' said he, in a very low voice, 'is that you?' 'Yes,' Isaid; 'and I'm glad you know me,'--which you may be very sure I was.
"But the poor fellow's mind soon wandered away from me again; and Icould see that it was disturbed by visions of something dreadful.'There! there!' he cried, 'it's tumbling on me!--the ice! the ice! it'stumbling on me!' and he tried to spring up from where he lay. 'There'snothing there at all, Dean,' said I, as I pressed him down. 'Come, lookup; don't you see me?' He was quiet in an instant; and then, looking upinto my face, he said, 'Yes, it's Hardy, I know; but what has happenedto us,--anything?' Without pausing to give me time to answer, he closedhis eyes and went on,--'O, I've had an awful dream! I thought an icebergwas falling on the ship. I saw it coming, and sprang away! As it fell,the ship went down, and I went down with it,--down, down, down; then Icame up, clinging to some pieces of the wreck. Another man was with me;we were drifted with the waves to the land. I kept above the water untilI saw somebody running towards me. When he had nearly reached me, Idrowned. O, it was an awful dream!--Did you come to call me,Hardy?'--and he opened wide his eyes. 'Is it four bells? Did you come tocall me?'--'No, no, I haven't come to call you, it isn't four bellsyet,' I answered, scarcely knowing what I said; 'sleep on, Dean.'--'I'mglad you didn't come to call me, Hardy. I want to sleep. The dreamhaunts me. I dreamed that I was fast to something that hurt me, when Itried to get away. It was an awful dream,--awful, awful, awful!'--andhis voice died away into the faintest whisper, and then it ceasedentirely. 'Sleep, sleep on, poor Dean!' murmured I; and I prayed withall my heart that his reason might not be gone.
"'What could I do?' 'What should I do?' were the questions which sooncrossed my mind respecting the Dean. There was, however, one veryobvious answer,--'Let him alone'; so I rose up from his side, and saw,as I did so, that he was now sleeping soundly,--a genuine, quiet sleep.He had become quite warm; and, after some minutes' watching, it appearedto me very likely that he would, after a while, wake up all right,--aconclusion which made me very happy; that is, as happy as one sosituated could be.
"After leaving the Dean I once more considered my condition. It seemedto me that I had grown many years older in these few hours, and Icommenced reasoning with myself. Instead of sitting down on the rock,and beginning to cry, as I had done before, I sat down to reflect. Andthis is the way I reflected:--
"'1st,' I said, 'while there is life there is hope'; and,
"'2d. So long as the land remains unexplored, I have a right to concludethat it is inhabited'; and,
"'3d. Being inhabited, there is a good chance of our being saved; foreven the worst savages cannot refuse two such helpless creatures foodand clothing.'
"Having thus reflected, I arrived at these conclusions respecting what Ishould do; namely,--
"'1st. I will go at once in search of these inhabitants, and when I findthem, I will beg them to come and help me with a sick companion.'
"'2d. On my way I will make my dinner off raw eggs, of which there areso many hereabout, for I am so frightfully hungry that I can no longerresist the repulsive food.'
"'3d. I will also hunt on my way for some water, as I am so thirsty thatI scarcely know what to do.'
"'4th. For the rest I will trust to Providence.'
"Having thus resolved, I immediately set out, and in a very few minutesI had eaten a whole dozen raw eggs,--and that, too, without any disgustat all. Then, as I walked on a little farther, I discovered that therewere a multitude of small streams dashing over the rocks, the waterbeing quite pure and clear,--coming from great snow-banks on thehill-tops, which were melting away before the sun.
"Being thus refreshed with meat and drink, it occurred to me to climb upto an elevation, and see what more I could discover. The ice was verythick and closely packed together all along the shore; but beyond wherethe wreck had happened the sea was quite open, only a few stragglingbits of field-ic
e mixed up with a great many icebergs,--indeed, theicebergs were too thick to be counted. I thought I saw a boat turnedupside down; but it was so far away that I could not make out distinctlywhat it was. It was clear enough to me that nobody had been saved fromthe wreck except the Dean and myself.
"As I looked around, it appeared very evident to me that the land onwhich I stood was an island.
"After hallooing several times, without any other result than to startlea great number of birds, as I had done before, I set out again, brisklyjumping from rock to rock, the birds all the while springing up beforeme and fluttering away in great flocks. There seemed to be no end tothem.
"As I went along, I soon found that I was turning rapidly to the left,and that I was not only on an island, but on a very small one at that. Icould not have been more than two hours in going all the way around it,although I had to clamber most of the way over very stony places,stopping frequently to shout at the top of my voice, with the hope ofbeing heard by some human beings; but not a soul was there to answer me,nor could I discover the least sign of anybody ever having been there.
"This failure greatly discouraged me, but still I was not so much castdown as you might think. Perhaps it was because I had eaten so manyeggs, and was no longer hungry; for, let me tell you, when one's stomachgets empty, the courage has pretty much all gone out of him.
"Besides this, I had made some discoveries which seemed in some way toforebode good, though I could not exactly say why. I found the birdsthicker and thicker as I proceeded. Their nests were in some places soclose together that I could hardly walk without treading on their eggs.I also saw several foxes, some of which were white and others were darkgray. As I walked on, they scampered away over the stones ahead of me,and then perched themselves on a tall rock near by, apparently very muchastonished to see me. They seemed to look upon me as an intruder, and Ithought they would ask, 'What business have you coming here?' They hadlittle idea how glad I should have been to be almost anywhere else,--onthe farm from which I had run away, for instance,--and leave them inundisputed possession of their miserable island. They seemed to be verysleek and well-contented foxes; for they were gorging themselves withraw eggs, just as I had been doing, and they were evidently the terrorof the birds. I saw one who had managed in some way to capture a ducknearly as large as himself, and was bouncing up the hill--to his den, nodoubt--with the poor thing's neck in his mouth, and its body across hisshoulder.
"Then, too, I discovered, from the east side of the island, where theice was solid, a great number of seals lying in the sun, as if asleep,on the ice; and when I came around on the west side, where the sea wasopen, great schools of walruses, with their long tusks and ugly heads,were sporting about in the water as if at play, and an equally largenumber of the narwhal, with their long horns, were also playing there.Only that they are larger, and have these hideous-looking tusks,walruses are much like seals. The narwhal is a small species of whale,being about twenty feet long, and spotted something like an iron-grayhorse. Its great peculiarity is the horn, which grows, like that of asword-fish, straight out of the nose, and is nearly half as long as thebody. Like all the other whales, it must come up to the surface of thewater to breathe; and its breathing is done through a hole in the top ofthe head, like any other whale's. You know the breathing of a whale iscalled 'spouting,' or 'blowing,'--that is, when he breathes out it is socalled, and when he does this he makes the spray fly up into the air.
"This breathing of the largest whales can be seen several miles; thatis, I should say, the spray thrown up by their breath. So you see thecommon expression of the whale-fishers, 'There she blows!' is a verygood one; for sometimes, when the whale is very large, the spray lookslike a small waterspout in the sea.
"Besides the narwhal, which I have told you about, I saw another kind ofwhale, even smaller still. This is called the white whale, though itisn't exactly white, but a sort of cream-color. They had no horns,however, like the narwhal; and they skimmed along through the water ingreat numbers, and very close together, and when they come to thesurface they breathe so quickly that the noise they make is like a sharphiss.
John Hardy making Discoveries.]
"Considering the numbers of these animals,--the seals and walruses andnarwhals and white whales,--I was not surprised, when I went close downto the beach, to find a great quantity of their bones there, evidentlyof animals that had died in the sea and been washed ashore. Indeed, asI went along a little farther, and had reached nearly to the place whereI had left the Dean, I found the whole carcass of a narwhal lying amongthe rocks, where it had been thrown by the waves, and very near it Idiscovered also a dead seal. About these there were several foxes, whichwent scampering away as soon as they saw me. They had evidently comethere to get their dinner; for they had torn a great hole in the side ofthe dead narwhal, and two of them had begun on the seal. I thought if Icould get some of the skins of these pretty foxes, they would be nicewarm things to wrap the Dean's hands and feet in, so I began flingingstones at them as hard as I could; but the cunning beasts dodged everyone of them, and, running away up the hillside, chattered in such alively manner that it seemed as if they were laughing at me, whichprovoked me so much that I went on vowing to get the better of them inone way or another.
"All this time, you must remember, I had left the poor Dean by himself,and you may be sure I was very anxious to get back to him; but before Itell you anything more about him, I must stop a minute longer todescribe more particularly this island on which I had been cast away.You must understand there were no trees on it at all; and, indeed, therewere scarcely any signs of vegetation whatever. On the south side, wherewe landed after the wreck, the hillside was covered for a short distancewith thick grass, and above this green slope there were great tallcliffs like the palisades of the Hudson River,--which you must all seesome time; but all the rest of the way around the island I saw scarcelyanything but rough rocks, very sharp and hard to walk over. In someplaces, however, where the streams of melted snow had spread out in thelevel places, patches of moss had grown, making a sort of marsh. Here Idiscovered some flowers in full bloom, and among them were the buttercupand dandelion, just like what we find in the meadows here, only not aquarter so large; but my head was too much filled with more seriousthoughts at that time to care about flowers.
"You can hardly imagine anything so dreary as this island was. Indeed,nothing could be worse except the prospect of living on it all alone,without any shelter, or fire, or proper clothing, and without anyapparent chance of ever escaping from it.
"I found, however, a sort of apology for a tree growing among the mossbeds. I have learned since that it is called a 'dwarf willow.' The stemof the tree, if such it might be called, was not larger than my littlefinger; and its branches, which lay flat on the ground, were in no casemore than a foot long.
"Besides these willows, I discovered also, growing about the rocks, atrailing plant, with very small stem, and thick, dry leaves. It had apretty little purple blossom on it, and was the only thing I saw thatlooked as if it would burn. I can assure you that I wished hard enoughthat I had some way of proving whether it would burn or not. However,since I had discovered so many other things on this my first journeyaround the island, I was not without hope that I should light upon someway of starting a fire. So I named the plant at once 'the fire plant;'but I have since been told by a wise doctor that I met down in Boston,that its right name is 'Andromeda.' It is a sort of heather, like theScotch heather that you have all heard about, only it is as much smallerthan the Scotch heather as the dwarf willow I told you of is smallerthan the tall willow-tree that grows out there in front of the door.
"Although I had not, as I have said, discovered any natives living onthe island, yet I came back from my journey feeling less disappointedthan I would have thought. No doubt my anxiety to see how the Dean wasso occupied my mind that I did not dwell as much upon my own unhappycondition as I otherwise would have done. In truth, I think the Deanmust have saved me from de
spair and death; for, if I had not feltobliged to exert myself in his behalf, I must have sunk under the heavyload of my misfortunes.
"When I came back to the Dean, I found that the poor boy was stillsleeping soundly,--a sort of dead, heavy sleep. At first, I thought toarouse him; but then, again, since I found he was quite warm, Iconcluded the best thing was not to disturb him. Some color had comeinto his face; indeed, there was quite a flush there, and he seemed tobe a little feverish. The only thing I now feared was that his reasonmight have left him; and this thought filled me with a kind of dread ofseeing him rouse up, just as every one, when he fears some greatcalamity, tries to postpone the realization of it as long as possible.So I suffered him to remain sleeping, and satisfied myself with watchinghis now somewhat heavy breathing for a little while, when, growingchilly (for the sun had by this time gone behind the island, thusleaving us in the shadow of the tall cliffs), I began to move aboutagain. I set to work collecting more of the eider-down, so that, when Ishould be freed from my anxiety about the Dean, I might roll myself upunder this warm covering and get some sleep; for, although my mind wasmuch excited, yet I was growing sleepy, besides being chilly. I alsocollected a number of eggs, and ate some more of them; and, usingseveral of the shells for cups, I brought some water, setting the cupsup carefully in the grass, knowing that when the Dean opened his eyes hemust needs be thirsty as well as hungry.
"All this being done, I fell to reflecting again, and, as was mostnatural, my thoughts first ran upon what I should do to make a fire. Ihad found--or at least I thought I had found--something that would burn,as I have said before; but what should I do for _the first spark_? True,with my jack-knife for a steel, and a flint-stone, of which there wereplenty, I could strike a spark without any difficulty; but what wasthere to strike it into, so that it would catch and make a blaze? I knewthat in some countries people make a blaze by rubbing two pieces of drywood together; but this I could not do, as I had not a particle of wood.In other countries, I knew, they have punk, into which they strike aspark, and the spark will not go out until the punk is all burned up, sothat they have only to blow it on some inflammable substance until ablaze comes; but where was I to get the punk from? I had also heard thatfire had been made with lenses of glass, which, being held up to thesun, concentrate the rays and make a great heat, sufficient to set woodand like combustible things on fire; but I had no lens. Of course, Ihave no need to tell you that I had no matches, such as we havenow-a-days here.
"Thus the night wore on. I say _night_, but you must bear in mind, as Itold you before, that there was really no night at all,--the sun beingabove the horizon all the time; and the only difference now in thedifferent periods of the day was, that when the sun was in the south itshone upon us, while when it was at the north we were under the shadowof the cliffs. The sun, you must observe, in the Arctic regions, circlesaround during the summer, only a little way above the horizon, neverrising overhead, as it does here, but being always quite low down; andhence it never gives a very strong heat, although the air is sometimeswarm enough to be very comfortable.
"I was glad when the shadow of the cliff passed from over me, and thesun was once more in view.
"I now grew quite warm, though my great fatigue did not vanish; but Iwas so anxious about the Dean that I would not sleep, and kept myselfawake by moving about all the time, staying always near the Dean. Atlength, soon after the sun appeared, the boy began to show somerestlessness; and as I approached him, I found that his eyes were wideopen. He raised himself a little on one arm, and turned towards me as Icame up to him, and looked straight at me, so calmly and intelligentlythat I saw at once he had come to his senses entirely; and so rejoicedwas I, that, without thinking at all about what I was doing, I fell downbeside him, and clasped him in my arms, and cried out, 'O Dean, Dean!'over and over a great many times. You cannot imagine how glad I was!
"'Why, Hardy,' said he, in a very feeble voice, 'where are we? What'sthe matter? What has happened to us?' Seeing that it was useless for meto attempt to evade the question, I told him all the circumstances ofthe shipwreck, and how I had carried him there, and what I had beendoing. I thought at first this would disturb him, but it did not seem toin the least. After I had finished, he simply said: 'I thought it wasall a dream. It comes back to me now. I remember a frightful crash, ofbeing in the water on the wreck, of seeing some one approaching me, ofbeing held down first by a drowning man and then by a rope, of trying tofree myself, and then I must have swooned, for I remember nothing more.I have now a vague remembrance of some one talking to me about a dream Ihad, but nothing distinct.'
"'But,' said I, 'Dean, don't talk any more about it just now, it willfatigue you; tell me how you feel.' 'No,' answered he, 'it does notfatigue me, and I want to collect myself. Things are getting clearer tome. My memory returns to me gradually. I see the terrified crew. It wasbut an instant. I heard the crash. The great body of the ice fell rightamidships,--right upon the galley. Poor cook! he must have been killedinstantly. Some of the crew jumped overboard; I tried to, but got nofarther than the bulwarks, and then was in the water; I don't know how Igot there. When I came up there was a man under me, and I was tangledamong some rigging, but was lifted up out of the water on some largemass of wreck. The man I told you of tried to get up too; but his feetwere caught, and I saw him drowning. I saw another man holding on to thewreck, but a piece of ice struck him, and he must have fallen offimmediately.'
"'Dean, Dean!' said I, 'do stop! you are feverish; quiet yourself, andwe'll talk of these things by and by';--and the boy fell back quiteexhausted. His skin was very hot, and his face flushed. 'O my head, myhead!' exclaimed he; 'it pains me dreadfully! Am I hurt?' and he put hishand to the side of his head where he had been struck, and, finding thathe was wounded, said: 'I remember it now perfectly. A heavy wave came,and was tossing a piece of timber over me, and I tried to avoid beingstruck by it. After that I remember nothing. It must have struck me. I'mnot much hurt,--am I?'
"'No, Dean,' I answered, 'not much hurt, only a little bruised.'
"'Have you any water, Hardy?' he asked, 'I am so thirsty!'
"It was fortunate that I had brought some in the eggshells, and in amoment I had given him a drink. It did me good to see him smile, as Ihanded him the water, and ask where I got such odd cups from. 'Thanks,thanks!' said he; 'I'm better now.' Then after a moment's pause headded, 'I want to get up and see where we are. I'm very weak; won't youhelp me?' But I told him that I would not do it now, for the present hemust lie quiet. 'Then raise me up and let me look about.' So I raisedhim up, and he took first a look at the strange pile of eider-down thatwas upon him, and then at the ice-covered sea, but he spoke not a word.Then he lay down, and after a short time said calmly: 'I see it all now.Hard,--isn't it? But we must do the best we can. I feel that I'll soonbe well, and will not be a trouble to you long. Do you know that untilthis moment I could hardly get it out of my head that I had beendreaming? We must trust in Heaven, Hardy, and do the best we can.'
"Being now fully satisfied as to the complete recovery of the Dean, Igave myself no further concern about watching him; but at once, after hehad, in his quiet way, asked me if I was not very tired, I buried myselfup in the heap of eider-down close beside him, and was soon as deeplyburied in a sound sleep."
* * * * *
The Captain, evidently thinking that he had gone far enough for one day,now broke off suddenly. The children had listened to the recital moreeagerly than on any previous occasion,--so much so, indeed, that theyhad wholly disregarded the storm; and little Alice was so absorbed inlearning the fate of the poor shipwrecked Dean, that her fears about thethunder and lightning had been quite forgotten. When the Captain paused,the storm had passed over, the sun had burst through the scatteringclouds, and in the last lingering drops his silver rays were melted intogorgeous hues; for
"A rainbow--thrown brightly Across the dark sky-- (Soft curving, proud arching In beauty on high)
"Had circled the even,-- A bridal ring, given To wed earth with heaven, As it smiled 'neath the veil of the glittering rain."
The little birds had come out of their hiding-places, and were merrilysinging,
"Farewell to the rain, the beautiful rain";
and the party of little folks that had been hidden away in the"Mariner's Rest," following their example, were soon gayly hasteningacross the fresh fields,--the old man carrying laughing Alice in hisarms, to keep her tender feet from the wet grass.