Part 39 (1/2)
The school prospered and became a vigorous inst.i.tution. The church not less so. More children were born to Thursday October, insomuch that he at last had one for every working-day in the week; more yam-fields were cultivated, and more marriages took place--but hold, this is antic.i.p.ating.
We have said that the school prospered. The entire community went to it, male and female, old and young. John Adams not only taught his pupils all he knew, but set himself laboriously to acquire all the knowledge that was to be obtained by severe study of the Bible, the Prayer-book. Carteret's Voyages, and by original meditation. From the first mine he gathered and taught the grand, plain, and blessed truths about salvation through Jesus, together with a few tares of error resulting from misconception and imperfect reasoning. From the second he adopted the forms of wors.h.i.+p of the Church of England. From the third he gleaned and amplified a modic.u.m of nautical, geographical, and general information; and from the fourth he extracted a flood of miscellaneous, incomplete, and disjointed facts, fancies, and fallacies, which at all events served the good purpose of interesting his pupils and exercising their mental powers.
But into the midst of all this life death stepped and claimed a victim.
The great destroyer came not, however, as an enemy but as a friend, to raise little James Young to that perfect rest of which he had already had a foretaste on the island.
It was the first death among the second generation, and naturally had a deeply solemnising effect on the young people. This occurred soon after the departure of the _Topaz_. The little grave was made under the shade of a palm-grove, where wild-flowers grew in abundance, and openings in the leafy canopy let in the glance of heaven's blue eye.
One evening, about six months after this event, Adams went up the hill to an eminence to which he was fond of retiring when a knotty problem in arithmetic had to be tackled. Arithmetic was his chief difficulty. The soliloquy which he uttered on reaching his place of meditation will explain his perplexities.
”That 'rithmetic do bother me, an' no mistake,” he said, with a grave shake of the head at a lively lizard which was looking up in his face.
”You see, history is easy. What I knows I knows an' can teach, an' what I don't know I let alone, an there's an end on't. There's no makin' a better o' _that_. Then, as to writin', though my hand is crabbed enough, and my pot-hooks are shaky and sprawly, still I know the shapes o' things, an' the youngsters are so quick that they can most of 'em write better than myself; but in regard to that 'rithmetic, it's a heartbreak altogether, for I've only just got enough of it to puzzle me.
Wi' the use o' my fingers I can do simple addition pretty well, an' I can screw round subtraction, but multiplication's a terrible business.
Unfort'nitely my edication has carried me only the length o' the fourth line, an' that ain't enough.”
He paused, and the lively lizard, ready to fly at a moment's notice, put its head on one side as if interested in the man's difficulty.
”Seven times eight, now,” continued Adams. ”I've no more notion what that is than the man in the moon. An' I've no table to tell me, an' no way o' findin' it out--eh? Why, yes I have. I'll mark 'em down one at a time an' count 'em up.”
He gave his thigh a slap, which sent the lively lizard into his hole, horrified.
”Poor thing, I didn't mean that,” he said to the absent animal.
”Hows'ever, I'll try it. Why, I'll make a multiplication-table for myself. Strange that that way never struck me before.”
As he went on muttering he busied himself in rubbing clean a flat surface of rock, on which, with a piece of reddish stone, he made a row of eight marks, one below another. Alongside of that he made another row of eight marks, and so on till he had put down seven rows, when he counted them up, and found the result to be fifty-six. This piece of acquired knowledge he jotted down in a little notebook, which, with a quant.i.ty of other stationery, had originally belonged to that great fountain of wealth, the _Bounty_.
”Why, I'll make out the whole table in this way,” he said, quite heartily, as he sat down again on the flat rock and went to work.
Of course he found the process laborious, especially when he got among the higher numbers; but Adams was not a man to be turned from his purpose by trifles. He persevered until his efforts were crowned with success.
While he was engaged with the multiplication problem on that day, he was interrupted by the sound of merry voices, and soon Otaheitan Sally, Bessy Mills, May Christian, Sarah Quintal, and his own daughter Dinah, came tripping up the hill towards him.
These five, ranging from fifteen to nineteen, were fond of rambling through the woods in company, being not only the older members of the young flock, but like-minded in many things. Sally was looked up to by the other four as being the eldest and wisest, as well as the most beautiful; and truly, the fine clear complexion of the pretty brunette contrasted well with their fairer skins and golden or light-brown locks.
”We came up to have a chat with you, father,” said Sally, as they drew near. ”Are you too busy to be bothered with us?”
”Never too busy to chat with such dear girls,” said the gallant seaman, throwing down his piece of red chalk, and taking one of Sally's hands in his. ”Sit down, Sall; sit down, May, on the other side--there. Now, what have you come to chat about?”
”About that dear _Topaz_, of course, and that darling Captain Folger, and Jack Brace, and all the rest of them,” answered Sarah Quintal, with sparkling eyes.
”Hallo, Sarah! you've sent your heart away with them, I fear,” said Adams.
”Not quite, but nearly,” returned Sarah. ”I would give anything if the whole crew would only have stayed with us altogether.”
”Oh! how charming! delightful! _so_ nice!” exclaimed three of the others. Sally said nothing, but gave a little smile, which sent a sparkle from her pearly teeth that harmonised well with the gleam of her laughter-loving eyes.