Christmas Penny Readings Part 16

"Hear, hear!" said my father, and Uncle Joe tasted his grog, and then winked very solemnly at my father, as much as to say "That's it exact."

"Little more rum?" hinted my father. Uncle Joe winked with his other eye and shook his head and went on:--

"You see, ours was a strong-built s.h.i.+p, fitted out on purpose for the North seas, and what we had to do was to go right up as far nor'ard as we could get, and leave depots of preserved meats, and spirits, and blankets, and pemmican, and all sorts of necessaries, at different places where it was likely that the party might reach; and to mark these spots we had to build up cairns of stones, so that they might be seen.

Well, we'd got as far as our captain thought it prudent to go, for we were back'ard in the year, in consequence of the ice having been very late before it broke up that year, and hindering us a good deal; and now that we had landed all as was necessary, and built up the last cairn, the captain says to the officers, he says, 'We'll go back now, or we shall be shut in for the winter.'

"'Twasn't so late in the autumn, and no doubt you were having nice warm weather, but things began looking precious winterly round about us.

Great icebergs were floating about, and fogs would hang round them.

Snowstorms would come on, with snow with such sharp edges that it would seem a'most to cut your ears off. The shrouds and clews and sheets would be all stiff and covered with ice, while, as to the sails, they were like so much board, and it got to be tough work up aloft.

"'Cold this here,' I says to a s.h.i.+pmet. 'Pooh,' he says, 'this ain't nothing yet.' Nor more it warn't nothing at all; and there we were going along as well as we could, with double lookouts, and plenty of need for them to use their eyes, for we might have been crash on to an iceberg ten times over. Captain used to shake his head and look serious, and enough to make him, with all his responsibility, and all of us looking up to him to take care of us; and last of all we seemed to be right in the thick of it, with the ice-pack all around, and ice and snow, ice and snow everywhere, and us just gently sailing along a narrow open channel of blue water, sometimes going east, sometimes west, just as it happened. Sometimes a little more wind would spring up, and the pack opened a bit, and made fresh channels, so that we got on; then the wind would drop, and the loose ice close round us, so that we hardly moved, and at last one morning when I turns out, we were froze in.

"But not hard stuck, you know; for we soon had that ice broken, and got hauling along by fixing ice-anchors, and then pulling at the cable; but our captain only did it by way of duty, and trying to the very last to get free; for his orders were not to winter up there if he could help it. But there we were next morning tighter in than ever, with the s.h.i.+p creaking and groaning at the pressure upon her ribs, and the ice tightening her up more and more, till at last if she weren't lifted right up ever so many foot, and hung over all on one side, so as we had cables and anchors out into the ice to make sure as she didn't capsize.

But there was no capsize in her; and there she sat, all on the careen, just as if she was mounting a big wave; and so she was, only it was solid.

"Days went by, and the sun got lower and lower, and the weather colder and colder. Sometimes we'd see flocks of birds going south, then a herd or two of deer, and once or twice we saw a bear, but they fought very shy of us; and, last of all, the captain seeing that we must make the best of our winter quarters, set us to work unbending sails, striking masts, and lowering spars on deck, and then the stuff was had up, and the deck regularly roofed in, so as to make a snug house of the s.h.i.+p.

Stoves were rigged, snow hauled up round the hull, steps made up to the side, and one way or another all looked so jolly, that I began to reckon on spending my Christmas out in the polar regions. Then, too, extra clothes were sarved out, and gloves, and masks, and fur caps; and one way and another we got to make such stuffed mummies of ourselves, that a rare lot of joking went on.

"'Wait a bit,' says my mate, 'it'll be colder yet;' and so it was, colder and colder, till I couldn't have believed it possible that it could be a bit worse. But it could, though; for, before the winter was over, there's been times when if a man went outside the vessel the cold would have cut him down dead almost in a moment, and he not able to help himself. Why, as I told you, down on the main-deck, the breath used to turn into a reg'lar fall of snow, and everything would freeze hard in spite of the roaring fires we kept up; and only think of it, just at this time it was always dark, for the sun had gone lower and lower, till at last he had not risen at all, and it was one long, dreary night, with every star seeming to shoot bright icy arrows at you to cut you down.

"The captain used to do all he could to cheer us up, and keep the horrors off; for you know they will come out there when you're all in the dark and half froze, and wondering whether you'll see home any more.

Sometimes it would be exercise, sometimes a bit of a play, or skylarking. Then one officer or another would read, and we'd have have some music or yarn-spinning, and altogether we were very sociable; and so matters went on till it got to be Christmas-day."

In whose honour Uncle Joe treated himself to a hearty libation from his steaming tumbler.

"--Christmas-day," said my uncle, "and _pro_ceedings were made for a grand spread, in honour of the old day and them as we'd left behind us.

"Well, the officers made themselves very sociable, and the grog went round. Some chaps danced, others smoked, and one way and another things went on jolly; but though the little stoves roared till they got red-hot, yet there was a regular fog down between decks, while the captain said that it was about the coldest day we had had yet.

"Towards night it seemed to come on awful all at once, and first one and then another chap began s.h.i.+vering and twisting up his shoulders, and then I saw the captain, who was down, give a sharp look round, and then slip up on deck, where I heard him shout out.

"A dozen of us scrambled up on the covered-in deck, feeling cut in two with the icy wind that came down, and then we found as the door out of the bulwarks, and fitted in at the side, had been left open by some one--a door you know that just about this time used to mostly have a man aside it, and when our chaps went to the little ice-observatory it used to be banged to after 'em directly; while if it had been left open but one night, I daresay some on us wouldn't have woke up any more.

"'Who's gone out?' cries the captain, and then the men begins looking from one to the other, but no one answered.

"'Where's Joe Perry,' shouts out some one in front of me. 'It's Joe Perry as is gone.'

"'You're a--something,' I was going to say, but I was that vexed I didn't say it; but, forgetting all about the officers, I gives my gentleman such a cuff on the ear, as sent him staggering; when instead of being angry, I saw the Cap bite his lip, and no end of chaps began sn.i.g.g.e.ring.

"'But where's Bill Barker,' I says, looking round, for I remembered seeing Bill go up the companion ladder about ten minutes before.

"'Pa.s.s the word for William Barker,' says the captain, and they pa.s.sed it, but there was no answer, and then we knew that Bill must have slipped out against orders, thinking he wouldn't be missed, while the chaps were keeping up Christmas, and forgetting that we should feel the cold from the door he was obliged to leave open, so as to get in again.

"'Foolish fellow,' cried the captain, stamping about the deck.

'Volunteers there, who'll fetch him in? These five will do,' he says, and in a few minutes the first luff with five men, were all ready in their fur coats and boots, and masks over their faces, or I oughter say, our faces, for I was one of 'em. And yet you say it's cold here now.

Pooh! Why, we were no sooner outside in that bright starlight, with the northern lights hanging ahead of us, much like a rainbow, than it was as if your breath was taken away, and the wind cutting right through and through you, stiffening your joints, tingling powerfully in your nose, and seeming to make you numbed and stupid.

"'Double,' shouts the luff, and keeping our eyes about us, we began to trot along the snowy path towards the little observatory. But he wasn't there. Then we ran a little one way, then another, and all keeping together as well as we could for the rough ice we were going over. But there was nothing to be seen anywhere on that side of the s.h.i.+p, so we trotted round to the other side, always keeping a sharp look out for our poor mate, and hoping after all that he would be all right; but going by my own feelings, I could not help feeling sure that if he had come out without the same things on as we had, it would go hard with him.

"'Here look!' some one shouted in a thick m.u.f.fly voice, but we were all looking now towards where a couple of bears were coming slowly towards us, while quite plain between us lay on the white snow, the body of poor Bill Barker.

"'Back to the s.h.i.+p,' shouted the first luff, and we were soon once more a-top of the steps and inside, but you needn't think we were going to leave our s.h.i.+pmet in that way, for the next minute saw us going back at the double, but this time well armed.

"As soon as we were within shot, the first luff kneels down, and taking aim, fired his double rifle right and left at the two great brutes that stood growling over poor Bill Barker.

"'Stand firm, men,' he says, then 'prepare to charge.' And then we five stood with our guns and bayonets ready for the brutes as began to come down upon us, while the luff got behind us, and began to load. You see he wouldn't let us fire on account of poor Bill, and I s'pose he had more trust in his own gun than in ours, for he kept on fumbling away in the cold till he was loaded, which was when the brutes were only about a dozen yards off, when he drops on one knee aside me, and taking a good long aim fired when one brute was only five or six yards off--both barrels right into him, and rolled him over and over, just as he would have done a rabbit. But the next moment it was helter-skelter, and hooraying, for t'other bear was down on us with a rush, taking no more notice of our bayonets than if they had been so many toothpicks, and downing two of our chaps like nine-pins.

"'Be firm, men,' shouts the luff, and we three ran at the great brute that stood growling over our two mates, and I don't know about what t'others did, but at one and the same moment, I drove the bayonet up to the gun muzzle right in the bear's flank, and fired as well. Then it seemed that the gun was wrenched out of my hand, and I saw the great brute rear up above me, fetch me a pat with one of its paws, when I caught a glimpse of the luff and heard the sharp ring of his rifle again, and then I seemed to be smothered, for the great beast fell right upon me.

"I don't know how long it was before they got help from the s.h.i.+p, and the great brute dragged off me; but I know that the next thing I remember is being carried into the s.h.i.+p through the doorway, and hearing some one say, that Bill Barker was frozen stiff and cold. But I soon came to, and excepting the bruises, there was nothing worse the matter than a broken rib, which I soon got the better of. But poor Bill was dead and frozen hard when they got him aboard, with his gun tight fixed in his hand, so that they could not get it away for some time; for though the poor chap knew all the orders well enough about going out without proper preparations, like many more of us, he couldn't believe as the frost would have such power--power enough to cut him down before he'd walked a couple hundred yards, for it was something awful that night, though the little brawny chaps that live in those parts, seem to bear it very well.

"Freeze! why this is nothing: them two bears were ma.s.ses of ice next morning when they hauled 'em on board, while everything we cut, had to be thawed first before the stove-fires. But then we had plenty of provisions, and I don't think I once saw the grog get down so low, as in this here gla.s.s of mine--here present."

My father took the hint, and replenished the old sailor's gla.s.s.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

ASHER'S LAST HOUR.

"Now, once for all," said Asher Skurge, "if I don't get my bit o' rent by to-morrow at four o'clock, out you goes, bag and baggage, Christmas-eve or no Christmas-eve. If you can't afford to pay rent, you'd best go in the house, and let them pay as will." And Asher girded up his loins, and left Widow Bond and her children in their bare cottage, to moan over their bitter fate.

And then came Christmas-eve and four o'clock, and no money; and, what was better, no Asher Skurge to turn out Widow Bond, "bag and baggage,"

not a very difficult task, for there was not much of it. The cottage was well-furnished before Frank Bond's s.h.i.+p was lost at sea, and the widow had to live by needlework, which, in her case, meant starving, although she found two or three friends in the village who were very sorry for her, or at all events said they were, which answered the same purpose.

However, four o'clock grew near--came--pa.s.sed--and no Asher. It was not very dark, for there was snow--bright, glittering snow upon the ground; but it gradually grew darker and darker, and with the deepening gloom.

Mrs Bond's spirits rose, for she felt that, leaving heart out of the question, old Skurge, the parish clerk, dare not turn her out that night on account of his own character. Five o'clock came, and then six, and still no Asher; and Widow Bond reasonably thought that something must be keeping him.

Mrs Bond was right--something was keeping the clerk, and that something was the prettiest, yellow-haired, violet-eyed maiden that ever turned out not to be a dreadful heroine given to breaking up, and then pounding, the whole of the ten commandments in a way that would have staggered Moses himself. No; Amy Frith, the rector's daughter, was not a wicked heroine, and now that she was busy giving the finis.h.i.+ng touches to the altar-screen, and p.r.i.c.king her little fingers with holly till they bled, she would not let the old man go because young Harry Thornton, her father's pupil, was there. And Amy knew that so sure as old Skurge took himself off, the young man would begin making love, which, though it may be crowned in a church, ought not to be made in the same place.

The young man fumed and fretted; and the old man coughed and groaned and told of his rheumatics; but it was of no use; the maiden pitied them both, and would have set them at liberty on her own terms, but remained inexorable in other respects till the clock chimed half-past six, when the candles were extinguished, the dim old church left to its repose, and the late occupants took their departure to the rectory, and the long low cottage fifty yards from the church gates.

"No; it couldn't be done at any price--turn the woman out on such a night; the whole place would be up in arms; but he would go and see if there was any money for him;" and so Asher Skurge partook of his frugal tea by his very frugal fire, a fire which seemed to make him colder, for it was so small that the wintry winds, which came pelting in at keyhole and cranny, all hooted, and teased, and laughed at it, and rushed, and danced, and flitted round, so that they made a terrible commotion all about Asher's chair, and gave him far more cause to complain of rheumatics than he had before.

So Asher b.u.t.toned himself up, body and soul too; he b.u.t.toned his soul up so tight that there was not s.p.a.ce for the smallest, tiniest shade of a glance or a ray of good feeling to peep out; and then he sallied forth out into the night-wind, with his nose as sharp and blue as if it had been made of steel; and, as he hurried along, it split the frosty wind right up, like the prow of a boat does water, and the sharp wind was thus split into two sharper winds, which went screeching behind him, to cut up the last remains of anything left growing.

He was a keen man was Asher; as keen a man as ever said "Amen" after a prayer and didn't mean it. Ill-natured folks said he only seemed in his element on Commination-day, when, after all the Curseds, he rolled out the Amens with the greatest of gusto, and as if he really did mean it, while the rector would quite s.h.i.+ver--but then the wind generally is easterly at commination time, in the cold spring. He used to boast that he had neither chick nor child, did Asher; and here again people would say it was a blessing, for one Skurge was enough in a village; and that it was a further blessing that his was a slow race. He was a cold-blooded old rascal; but for all that he was warm, inasmuch as he had well feathered his nest, and might by this time have been churchwarden; but he preferred being clerk, to the very great disgust of Parson Frith, who would gladly have been rid of him long enough before.

It did seem too bad to go worrying a poor widow for rent on a Christmas-eve; but nothing was too bad for Asher, who soon made the poor woman's heart leap, and then sink with despair.

Old Skurge was soon back in his own room, and the wind at last blew so very cold that he indulged in the extravagance of an extra shovel of coals, and a small chump of wood, and then he drew his pipe from the corner and began to smoke, filling the bowl out of a small white gallipot containing a mixture, half tobacco, half herbs, which he found most economical; for it did not merely spin out the tobacco, but no dropper-in ever cared about having a pipe of "Skurge's particular," as it was named in the village.

Then, after smoking a bit, Asher seemed moved to proceed to further extravagance, in consequence of its being Christmas-eve; so he laid down his pipe, rubbed his ear, and then plunged his hand into his pocket and brought out a small key. The small key opened a small cupboard, wherein hung upon nails some half-dozen larger keys, one of which was taken down and used to open a larger cupboard, from which Asher Skurge brought forth a well-corked and tied-down bottle.

A cunning, inhospitable old rascal, bringing out his hidden treasures to bib on a winter's night alone. What was it in the old black bottle?

Curacoa, maraschino, cherry brandy, genuine hollands, potent rum, cognac? Hus.h.!.+ was it smuggled-up remains, or an odd bottle of sacramental wine? No, it was none of these; but it poured forth clear, bright, and amber-hued, with a creaming foam on the top; and--"blob;"

what was that? a swollen raisin, and the grains that slipped to the bottom were rice.