CHAPTER VIII.
In which the Mariner's Rest and the Ancient Marinerhimself receive particular Attention.
The next day being Sunday, the Captain's little friends did not go downto see him, and the day after being stormy, they could not. So, whenTuesday came, they were all the more eager for the visit that it hadbeen delayed; and accordingly they hurried off at a very early hour.Indeed, the old man was only too glad to have them come down at anytime, for he had during these past few days become so used to theirbeing with him, and he had taken such a fancy to them, that he felthimself quite lost and lonely when a day passed by without seeing them.He was, as we have already seen, rather afraid they might disturb him ifhe said, "Come at any hour you please," instead of "Come at fouro'clock, or three, or two o'clock," as the case might be; but he haddiscovered them to be such well-behaved and gentle children, that hemade up his mind they could never trouble or annoy him. So when lastthey parted, he said to them, "Come in the morning, if you like, andplay all day about the grounds, and if I have work to do you must notmind. Nobody will disturb you";--and, in truth, there was nobody thereto disturb them, for besides the old man and his boy, Main Brace, therewas no living thing about the house, if we except two fine oldNewfoundland dogs which the Captain had brought home with him from hislast voyage, and which he called "Port" and "Starboard." He had also aflock of handsome chickens, and some foreign ducks. "And now," said he,"when you have seen all these, and Main Brace, and me, you have seen myfamily, for this is all the family that I have, unless I count thepretty little birds that hop and skip and sing among the trees."
Main Brace did all the work about the house, except what the Captain didhimself. He cooked, and set the Captain's table, and kept the Captain'shouse in order generally. As for the house itself, there was not much ofit to keep in order. We have already seen that it was very small and butone story high. There was no hall in it, and only five rooms upon thefloor. Let us look into it more particularly.
Entering it from the front through the little porch covered over withhoneysuckle vines that are smelling sweet all the summer through, wecome at once into the largest of the rooms, where the Captain takes hismeals and does many other things. But he never calls it his dining-room.Nothing can induce him to call it anything but his "quarter-deck." Onthe right-hand side there are two doors, and there are two more on theleft-hand side, and directly before us there are two windows, lookingout into the Captain's garden, where there are fruits and vegetables ofevery kind growing in abundance. The first door on the right opens intoa little room where Main Brace sleeps. This the Captain calls the"forecastle." The other door on the right opens into the kitchen, whichthe Captain calls his "galley." The first door on the left is closed,but the second opens into what the Captain calls his "cabin," and thisconnects with a little room behind the door that is closed, which hecalls his "state-room,"--and, in truth, it looks more like a state-roomof a ship than a chamber. It has no bed in it, but a narrow berth on oneside, just like a state-room berth. All sorts of odd-fashioned clothesare hanging on the walls, which the Captain says he has worn in thedifferent countries where he has travelled. Odd though this state-roomis, it is not half so odd as the Captain's cabin.
Let us examine this cabin of the Captain. There is an old table in thecentre of it. There are a few old books in an old-fashioned bookcase.There is no carpet to be seen, but the floor is almost covered over withskins of different kinds of animals, among which are a Bengal tiger, aPolar bear, a South American ocelot, a Rocky Mountain wolf, and aSiberian fox. In a great glass case, standing against the wall, there isa variety of stuffed birds. On the very top of this case there is a hugewhite-headed eagle, with his large wings spread out, and at the bottomof it there is a pelican with no wings at all. On the right-hand sidethere is an enormous albatross, and on the left-hand side there is atall red flamingo; while in the very centre a snowy owl stands straightup and looks straight at you out of his great glass eyes. And then thereare still other birds,--birds little and birds big, birds bright andbirds dingy, all scattered about wherever there is room, each sitting orstanding on its separate perch, and looking, for all the world, as ifit were alive and would fly away only for the glass.
On the walls of this singular room are hanging all sorts of singularweapons, and many other things which the Captain has picked up in histravels. There is a Turkish scimitar, a Moorish gun, an Italianstiletto, a Japanese "happy despatch," a Norman battle-axe, besidesspears and lances and swords of shapes and kinds too numerous tomention. In one corner, on a bracket, there is a model of a ship, inanother a Chinese junk, in a third an old Dutch clock, and in the fourththere is a stone idol of the Incas, while above the door there is thefigure-head of a small vessel, probably a schooner.
When the children came down, running all the way at a very lively rate,the Captain was in his cabin overhauling all these treasures, anddusting and placing them so that they would show to the very bestadvantage. Indeed, there were so many "traps," as he called them,hanging and lying about, that the place might well have been called a"curiosity shop" rather than a cabin. In truth, it had nothing of thelook of a cabin about it.
When the Captain heard the children coming, he said to himself, "I'llgive them a surprise to-day," and he looked out through the open window,and called to them. They answered with a merry laugh, and, runningaround to the door, rushed into the "quarter-deck," and were with theCaptain in a twinkling.
"O, what a jolly place!" exclaimed William; "such a jolly lot of things!Why didn't you show them to us before, Captain Hardy?"
"One thing at a time, my lad; I can't show you everything at once,"answered the old man.
"But where did you get them all, Captain Hardy?"
"As for that, I picked them up all about the world, and I could tell astory about every one of them."
"O, isn't that splendid?--won't you tell us now?" inquired William.
"And knock off telling you what the Dean and I were doing up there bythe North Pole, on that island without a name?"
William was a little puzzled to know what reply he should make to that,for he thought the Captain looked as if he did not half like what he hadsaid; so he satisfied himself with exclaiming, "No, no, no," a greatnumber of times, and then asked, "But won't you tell us all about themwhen you get out of the North Pole scrape?"
"Maybe so, my lad, maybe so; we'll see about that; one thing at a timeis a good rule in story-telling as well as in other matters. And now youmay look at all these things, and when you are satisfied, and I have gotdone putting them to rights, we'll go on with the story again."
The children were greatly delighted with everything they saw, and theypassed a very happy hour, helping the Captain to put his cabin in"ship-shape order," as he said. Then they all crowded up into onecorner, and the Captain, seated on an old camp-stool, which hadevidently seen much service in a great number of places, did as he hadpromised.
What he said, however, deserves a chapter by itself; and so we'll turnanother leaf and start fresh again.