Part 24 (1/2)
It is always a relief to escape from the confine the vacant sands of some naked beach As soon as the vessels were secured, we poured ashore in a body, and the people were given a holiday There was no longer an enemy to apprehend; and we all enjoyed the liberty of movement, and the freedom from care that accompanied our peculiar situation So; others hauled the seine; while the less industriously disposed lounged about, selected the fruit of the cocoa-nut tree, or hunted for shells, of which there werethe inner and outer beaches, or lying, visible, just within the wash of the water I ordered two or three of the hands tothem, as a matter of course, for their extra services Their success was great; and I still possess the fruits of their search, as memorials of my youthful adventures
Emily and her maid took possession of their old tents, neither of which had been disturbed; and I directed that the necessary articles of furniture should be landed for their use As we intended to reeneral disposition to make ourselves cos ashore as they desired, care being had for the necessary duties of the shi+ps Since quitting London, we had been prisoners, with the short interval of our forive the people a little relaxation To all this, I was advised by Marble; who, though a severe, and so often seerant as ence, at suitable moments, as any officer I ever sailed with There was an ironical severity, at times, about the man, which ish boatswain in the navy, hen disposed to menace the creith some of his official visitations, used to cry out, ”Fellow-citizens, I' you;” and the anecdote never recurs toMarble back to my recollection When in spirits, he had much of this bitter irony in his manner; and his own early experience had rendered hi; but, on the whole, I always thought hioon, before the sun had risen; and before the breakfast hour of those who lived aft, we had everything landed that was necessary, and were in possession of our tents I had ordered Neb to attend particularly to the wants of the Mertons; and, precisely as the bell of the shi+p struck eight, which, at that tiht o'clock, the black caford and ”_Captain_” Marble to breakfast
”So it goes, Miles,” addedto join the party in a few ement about the schooner leaves us both captains, and prevents anything like your downhill work, which is always unpleasant business _Captain_ Marble and _Captain_ Wallingford sound well; and I hope theysail in company But natur' or art neverthis, where there are _two_ captains, one must outrank the other, and the senior commands You should be called _Commodore_ Marble”
”None of your pleasantry, Miles,” returned Marble, with a severe look and a shake of the head; ”it is by your favour, and I hope by your good opinion, that I am master of even that little, half-blooded, part French, part Yankee, schooner It is eneralized over e scale, within the last ten days, and have come to the conclusion that the Lord created me to be your mate, and not you to bepartic'lar, she doesn't set his, as I was set adrift”
”I do not understand you, sir--perhaps you will give me an outline of your history; and then all will be plain”
”Miles, oblige le, and will considerably relieve my mind”
”You have only to name it, sir, to be certain it will be done”
”Drop that bloody _sir_, then; it's unbeco now, as between you and me Call me Marble, or Moses; as I call you, Miles”
”Well, be it so Now for this history of yours, which you have proive me, by the way, any time these two years”
”It can be told in a feords; and I hope it eneralized on, is at any tiood as most sermons
It is full of what I call the morality of idees I suppose you knohat I owe my names?”
”Not I--to your sponsors in baptism, like all the rest of us, I suppose”
”You're nearer the truth than you ine, this time, boy I was found, a child of a week old, they tell , in a stone-cutter's yard, on the North River side of the town, placed upon a bit of stone that was hewing out for the head of a grave, in order, as I suppose, that the workmen would be sure to find h I have passed for a down-easter, having sailed in their craft in the early part of my life, I'm in truth York born”
”And is this all you know of your origin, my dear Marble?”
”All I _want_ to know, after such a hint A man is never anxious to make the acquaintance of parents who are afraid to own him I dare say, now, Miles, that _you_ knew, and loved, and respected _your_ mother?”
”Love, and respect her! I worshi+pped her, Marble; and she deserved it all, if ever hu did!”
”Yes, yes; I can understand _that_,” returned Marble,both thoughtful and reat comfort to love and respect a ht set quite as much store by their ot into one of poor Captain Robbins's bloody currents at the first start, and have been drifting about ever since, just like the whale-boat hich we fell in, pretty much as the wind blew They hadn't the decency to pin even a naot one out of a novel or a story-book, you know, to start a poor fellow in life with--to my shi+rt; no--they just set me afloat on that bit of a to part of what fastened eneralize on the 'arth and its ways, to , by the stone-cutter, when he caain, to use his chisel”
”Prophecy couldn't have better foretold what happened There I was found, sure enough; and there Ithe basket, which it seeht his own dinner, the day before, and forgotten to carry aith his, before he handed it to the child who had coain, when out I rolled on the cold stone There I lay, as near the grave as a tomb-stone, when I was just a week old”
”Poor fellow--you could only know this by report, however And as done with you?”
”I suppose, if the truth were known, my father was soentles I was sent to the Al nat'rally hard-hearted, I suppose The fact that I was left a such people, makes me think so much the more, that my own father must have been one of them, or it never could have happened At all events, I was soon rated on the Alive e of fourteen days, I became Moses Marble”
”It was an odd selection, that your 'sponsors in baptism' made!”
”Somewhat--Moses ca a person of that name, as I understand, as turned adrift pretty much as I was, myself”
”Why, yes--so far as the basket and the abandonment were concerned; but he was put afloat fairly, and not clapped on a torave at the very outset”