Part 11 (1/2)
As he spoke, they were both thrown back half-stunned; a crash of thunder burst over the house, which shook everything in it; a sulphurous s, and soon afterwards, when they recovered their feet, they perceived that the house was full of s of the women and the shrieks of the children in the bed-places on the other side
”God have mercy on us!” exclaimed Ready, as the first to recover himself, and who now attehtning has struck us, and I fear that the house is on fire sorave; ”are they all safe?”
”Yes, yes!” cried Mrs Seagrave, ”all safe; Tommy has come to me; but where is Juno? Juno!”
Juno answered not Willia on her side, motionless
”She is dead, father,” cried Williarave,” said Ready, who had lifted up the poor girl; ”she may be only stunned”
They carried Juno out of the house, and laid her on the ground; the rain poured down in torrents
Ready left them for a minute, to ascertain if the house was on fire; he found that it had been in flauished it He then went back to Mr Seagrave and Williairl, sir,” said Ready; ”go you and Master Williahtened if she is left alone at such an awful time See, sir! Juno is not dead - her chest heaves - she will come to very soon; thank God for it!”
Williarave fainting with anxiety and fear The infor, did much to restore her William soothed little Albert, and Toain in his father's aran to break, Ready appeared with Juno, as sufficiently recovered to he able to walk in with his support; she was put into her bed, and then Ready and Mr Seagrave went to exa had come in at the further end of the house, at the part where the fireplace was intended to have been made
”We have been rave
”Yes, sir, thanks be to God for all his goodness,” replied Ready
”I think we have a large roll of copper wire, Ready; have we not?” said Mr Seagrave
”Yes, sir, I was just thinking of it ”
It was now broad daylight Mrs Seagrave dressed herself and the children, and as soon as she was ready, Mr Seagrave read such portions of the Psalms as were appropriate, and they earnestly joined in a prayer of thankfulness and humility William went out to prepare the breakfast, and Ready procured the coil of copper wire from those stores which were stowed under the bed-places This he unrolled, and stretched it out straight, and then went for the ladder, which was at the outhouse they had co As soon as breakfast was over, Ready and Mr Seagrave went out again to fix up the lightning-conductor, leaving William to do the work of Juno, who still remained fast asleep in her bed
”I think,” said Ready, ”that one of those two trees which are close together will suit the best; they are not too near the house, and yet quite near enough for the wire to attract the lightning”
”I agree with you, Ready; but we ”
”No, sir, but we shall require theet up and fix the wire; after that ill cut down the other”
Ready put his ladder against one of the trees, and, taking with hie spike-nails, drove one of the nails into the trunk of the tree till it was deep enough in to bear his weight; he then drove in another above it, and so he continued to do, standing upon one of them while he drove in another above, till he had reached the top of the tree, close to the boughs; he then descended, and, leaving the hammer behind him, took up a saw and small axe, and in about ten minutes he had cut off the head of the cocoa-nut tree, which remained a tall, bare pole
”Take care, Ready, how you corave anxiously
”Never fear, sir,” replied Ready; ”I' as I was, but I have been too often at the ain, and then cut down a small pole, to fix with a thick piece of pointed wire at the top of it, on the head of the cocoa-nut tree He then went up, lashed the small pole to the head of the tree, made the end of the copper wire fast to the pointed wire, and then he descended The other tree near to it was then cut down, and the lower end of the wire buried in the ground at the botto-conductor had been fixed
”That's a good job done, sir,” said Ready, wiping his face, for he ith the work
”Yes,” replied Mr Seagrave; ”and we must put up another near the outhouse, or we may lose our stores”
”Very true, sir”
”You understand this, Willia is attracted by metal, and will now strike the point instead of the house, run down the wire, and only tear up the ground below”
”It's coain, sir, as thick as ever,” observed the old o and see where the stock are”
Juno was now up again, and said that she was quite well, with the exception of a headache As Ready had predicted, the rain now careat violence, and it was impossible to do any work out of doors At the request of William he continued his narrative
Narrative of Old Ready
”Well, Williao their anchor in Table Bay, ere all ordered on shore, and sent up to a prison close to the Government Gardens We were not very carefully watched, as it appeared iet away, and I must say ell treated in every respect; but ere told that we should be sent to Holland in the first man-of-hich came into the bay, and we did not much like the idea
”There were, as I told you, soed to the Indiaether, not only because ereTwo of these boys, one of whos, wereunder the ar ourselves, for it inter tiet away, if we only knehere to go to!'
”`Yes,' replied Hastings; `but where are we to go to, if it is not to the Hottentots and wild savages; and e get there, what can we do? - we can't get any further' `Well,' said I, `I would rather be living free aes, than be shut up in a prison' That was our first talk on the subject, but we had many others afterwards; and as the one or two Dutch soldiers who stood sentry spoke English, and we could talk a little Dutch, we obtained a good deal of information from them; for they had very often been sent to the frontiers of the colony We continued to ask questions, and to talk a ourselves for about two months, and at last we resolved that ould make our escape We should have done much better if we had re old heads upon young shoulders We saved up our provisions, bought so Dutch knives, tied our few clothes up in bundles, and one dark night we contrived to re perceived, when the prisoners were locked up; and raising a long pole, which lay in the yard, to the top of the wall, with a good deal of scraet over it, and made off as fast as we could for the Table Mountain”
”What was your reason for going there, Ready?”
”Why, Hastings, as the oldest, and, I will say, the sharpest of the three, said that we had better stay up there for a few days, till we had made up our minds what to do, and try if we could not procure a musket or two, and ammunition; for, you see, we had money, as, when the India of rupees, which was on board, aes due to the it was better for the crew to have the money than to leave it for the Frenchmen; and we had spent very little while in prison There was also another reason why he persuaded us to go to the Table Mountain, which was, that as soon as our escape was found out, they would send parties to look for us; thinking, of course, that we hadretaken if we travelled after the first search was over The soldiers had told us of the lions, and other wild anis said, that not finding us, they would suppose we had been destroyed by the wild beasts, and would not look for us any rave, ”to set off you knew not where, in a country full of wild beasts and savages”
”True enough, madam,” replied Ready ”We ran at first until ere out of breath, and then alked on as fast as we could - not going right up thedirection to the south-west, so as to get away from the town, and more towards False Bay
”We had walked about four hours, and began to feel very tired, when the day dawned, and then we looked out for a place to conceal ourselves in We soon found a cave with a narrow entrance, large enough inside to hold half-a-dozen of such lads as ere, and we crawled in It was quite dry, and, as ere very tired, we lay doith our heads on our bundles, intending to take a nap; but we had hardly made ourselves co and barking that ere frightened out of our lives als peeped out, and began to laugh; so Homer and I looked out also, and thereabout one hundred and fifty large baboons leaping and tuer than ere - indeed, when they stood on their hind legs they were e white tusks So ones on their backs, and they were just as active as the males At last they played such antics, that we all burst out into a loud laugh, and we had not ceased e found the grinning face of one of the largest of those brutes close to our own He had dropped froic We all three backed into the cave, very htened, for the teeth of the aniave a shrill cry, and we perceived all the rest of the herd co to hih to hold six of us; but there was a sort of inner cave which we had not gone into, as the entrance was o into the inside cave - we can get in one by one;' and he backed in; Hastings folloith his bundle, and I hurried in after hi to each other for half a minute, came into the outer cave just as I crawled into the inner Five or six of the they did was to lay hold of Homer's bundle, which they soon opened - at once they seized his provisions and rammed thes and tore them all to pieces As soon as they had done with the bundle, two of the paw in to seize us; but Hastings gave hiain fast enough It was laughable to see him hold out his hand to the others, and then taste the blood with the tip of his tongue, and such a chattering I never heard - they were evidently very angry, and more came into the cave and joined them; then another put in his hand, and received a cut just as before At last, two or three at once tried to pull us out, but we beat the them all very severely For about an hour they continued their attempts, and then they went away out of the cave, but rean to be very tired of this work, and Hoain; and so did I, I can assure you; but there was no getting out, for had we gone out the anireed that we had no chance but the ani away; and most anxious ere, for the excitement had made us very thirsty, and anted water We remained for two hours in this way iiven by one of the ani off as fast as they could, screa louder than ever We waited for a short tis crawled out first, and looking out of the cave very cautiously, said that they were all gone, and that he could see nothing but a Hottentot sitting doatching some cattle; we therefore all came out, very happy at our release That was our first adventure; we had plenty afterwards; but I think it is now tio to bed It is my opinion we shall have a fine day to-”
”I do so want to hear what happened to you afterwards, Ready,” said William
”Well, so you shall; but there's a tio with me; the weather has cleared up, and I want to catch a fish or two for to-morrow”
Chapter xxxV
As Ready had predicted, the weather set in fine after the violent storht, with little inter that tiht till dusk at the storehouse, which they were so anxious to complete, and were so tired when their as over, that even Williao on with his history At last the storehouse was co one open for ventilation; the lower part, which had been arranged for the folding of the stock at night and during the rainy season, was also wattled in with cocoa-nut boughs on three sides, andpath to the storehouse was also cut through the cocoa-nut grove, but the stumps were not removed, as they could not spare the tiht round were put into the storehouse, and they were now ready to take up soreed that, on the day after the building was finished, they should all have a day's holiday, which they certainly did require Williaht some fish, a turtle was speared and wheeled up to the house; and they not only had a holiday, but a feast Mr Seagrave and Williarave and the children, while Ready was assisting Juno in cutting up the turtle; they had shown Mrs Seagrave the storehouse, and the goats with the four kids had been led there, as there was no longer any occasion for them to rereed to go and exaarden They found that the seeds had not yet co the heavy rains
”I should have thought that so rave
”No, rave; ”they require more of the sun than they will have till the rainy season is nearly over; a few days like this, and they will soon be above-ground”
”Let us sit down on this knoll, it is quite dry,” said Mrs Seagrave ”I little thought,” continued she, ”that I could have been so happy in a desert island I thought I should feel the loss of books very severely, but I really do not think that I could have found time to read”
”Employment is a source of happiness, especially when you are usefully employed An industrious person is always a happy person, provided he is not obliged to work too hard; and even where you have cause for unhappiness, nothing et it so soon as occupation”