Old Farm Fairies Part 29

All eyes turned in the direction of the poor fellow's hand. There stood Pipe the Boatswain! A chorus of mingled groans, shrieks and cries arose from the company. The sailors scattered into the ferns and bushes. The officers stood their ground, but there was not one among them who would not have run had he dared.

The figure slowly advanced. The eyes were sunken, the face pale, the hair hung damp and matted around the face and brow. The clothes were ragged and clung closely to the body. The eyes had, or seemed to have, an unnatural brightness. They were fixed steadily upon the officers.

Step by step, nearer and nearer the figure came. But it spoke no word.

There could be no mistake about it. It was Pipe the drowned boatswain!

Now Sergeant True, like most sensible persons, knew that if there were such things as ghosts they must be harmless creatures. He had often said that; and declared that he would like to meet a ghost. But if the truth were known, he would rather have been excused just then. However, he spoke at last.

"Speak! whatever you be! Spirit, ghost, or living flesh,--tell us what you are, and why you are come here!"

The figure stopped. A strange, familiar light played upon the pale face, and glimmered around the corner of the eyes. Then into the death-like silence the image spoke with a husky voice:

"Well, s.h.i.+pmates, this is a rather tough greeting on one's return from a long voyage! What's i' the wind, that you all run from your old comrade, and stand staring at me as though I were a ghost? Hey, my boy, don't you know Sophie's daddy?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 105.--"A Colony of Youngling Orbweavers as Snugly Tented Under a Jack-in-the-Pulpit."]

"Pipe, Pipe! it is Pipe himself!" exclaimed True, and he rushed forward and took the dear old sailor in his arms.

"There, there," said the boatswain, "that'll do for the present. Cast off grapnels, please, and save your hugging for some one who likes it better. h.e.l.lo, you lubbers!"--addressing the sailors,--"get up, here!

I'm ashamed of the cloth, I am. Yes, it's Pipe--who else? Want proof of it, do you?" The sailors were sitting upon the ground staring, dumb and incredulous, upon their old officer. "Well, here goes then. You know the sound of pipe to quarters, I'll be bound." So saying he put his whistle to his lips, and sounded the old familiar note.

It was enough. The frightened foragers rose and shook hands with Pipe.

The scattered runaways came back. An eager crowd surrounded the boatswain to hear him explain this marvelous resurrection from the deep.

"Well, it's easily enough explained. Come to think of it now, I don't wonder that you took me for a ghost. In sooth, it is not often that a Brownie stays under water for a whole day, and comes up again, unless, may be, as a ghost."

"What! Under water a whole day?" cried Help. "You don't mean that seriously, do you?"

"Aye, aye, s.h.i.+pmate, that I do. It has not been half an hour since I left the depths of the lake there. I went down with the rest under the keel of that infernal old pot that the Pixies set afloat. I supposed my time had come at last. But no one seems to be willing to die even when his time has come; so you see, I struck out pretty lively, so as to get clear of the wreck and the drowning crews as I came up, and then allowed myself to rise. First thing I knew I was diving straight through the door of a water pixie's nest! You know there are some of those creatures who make a kind of hollow globe or diving bell under the water."

"Yes," said True eagerly, "the Argyroneta pixies."

"Aye, those are the fellows. Well, they stay and balance their nest with cables, which they fasten to stems of water plants; then they mount to the surface, catch a bubble of air in the little hairs of their legs and hands, sink with it and shoot it up into the nest. When it is filled they have a water-tight house filled with air, down in the very midst of the lake. It is a cunning thing even if it is made by a Pixie.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 106.--Pipe's Escape from the Water Pixie's Den.]

"Well there I was, snug and comfortable enough. The housekeeper didn't happen to be at home, and I had full possession of the premises. I couldn't make up my mind what to do. Of course, I knew that I couldn't stay there always; but I feared to crawl out and mount to the surface.

Either way my chance seemed pretty slim for life. I concluded to wait a while anyhow, and stretched myself upon a sort of web hammock that hung from the sides. I looked every moment for the landlady to report, and loosened my knife to welcome her home. However, she didn't come, and after a long waiting I fell asleep. How long I slept I don't know. I was aroused by a slight swaying of the diving bell nest. The proprietor was coming in, sure as the world! She was already half way through the port-hole. I clutched my knife and got ready to cut away. But a thought struck me. Think's I, can't I lay hold of the old lady, and get her to tow me out of this, and may be ash.o.r.e? I put my knife between my teeth and waited quietly until Mrs. Argyroneta had got fairly into her cabin.

Then I leaped from my hammock, grabbed her by a hind leg, and yelled at the top of my lungs. Whew! you ought to have seen that Pixie get. She turned and made through the port, mounted to the surface, and flew across it like the flying Dutchman. I found it a little hard to hold on to her leg. But the creature had cast out of her spinnerets a good stout cable as she turned to leave her nest, which I seized with both hands.[AV]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOY'S ILl.u.s.tRATION.

FIG. 107.--Pipe and the Pixie.]

"I should hate to say how many knots an hour we rated. The Pixie went so fast that my head was kept above water by the swiftness of the motion.

She made straight for the island, and upon my word, I believe she would have towed me clear ash.o.r.e if it hadn't been for an accident. In doubling the edge of a cl.u.s.ter of water lilies my tug struck a snag and capsized. The rope slackened and I had to swim for it. Mrs. Argyroneta dived. Not relis.h.i.+ng a second journey to the bottom of the lake, I cut the cable with my knife and clambered on top of a lily leaf. After some trouble I managed to cut the leaf loose, and as the wind and current set in toward the island, I drifted ash.o.r.e just below here. I had scarcely landed when I met these hearties here, who broke off into the woods at a livelier rate than even my Pixie tug had made. That is the whole of my yarn. And now if you please, give me something to eat for I'm mortal hungry."

"What became of your Pixie?" asked Blythe.

"Never saw her after she dived," returned Pipe. "I reckon she's going yet, for a worse scared creature, barring these three Jacks of ours, of course, I never saw. But, come comrades, here I have been spinning my yarn about my own miserable carca.s.s, and all the time have heard nothing of the fleet. To tell the truth, I've been afraid to ask. But let me know the worst, all of it, while the cooks are getting supper ready."

The story was soon told. The good sailor was glad to find affairs had gone no worse. His joy over the ign.o.ble end of the Pixie monitor was particularly keen.

"Humph!" he said, "just what I thought. A lubberly old pot! And any seaman that would sail in such an affair deserves no better fate than to be sent to the bottom by a dragoon's cutla.s.s."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AV: Appendix, Note A.]

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE WISDOM OF THE PIXIES.

In the meantime how fared it with Faith and Sophia? The hours of captivity dragged wearily along. The nagging and petty annoyance of their keeper were hard to bear, but their chief dread was the coming of Spite and Hide. They knew nothing of pa.s.sing events, for not a creature had been seen or heard since Spite and Raft left, except Tigrina. In the depths of that Pixie cave they were shut off from the upper world, and their grim and vigilant guardian kept them strictly to their rooms.

They had no heart at first to note the furnis.h.i.+ngs of their prison. But as time pa.s.sed their spirits somewhat rallied. They began to observe the things around them, which were wrought with exquisite taste and skill.

Tapestry, carpets, sofas, cus.h.i.+ons, stools, couches all were woven of silk. There were pictures and statuary, books and portfolios bound elegantly in yellow, purple and white silk, and illuminated with gold, bronze and divers colors.[AW] The Nurses wandered from one to another of these objects, which compelled their admiration and interest. The works of art were exquisitely done.

Many of the books, the maidens noticed, treated of natural objects, laws, forces, and phenomena. The wonders of air, earth, and sea were told and ill.u.s.trated in many volumes. Faith and Sophia were much interested in these. Their fondness for Nature was great, and the books and prints which lay around them in such wealth well nigh beguiled their thoughts from their griefs.

"Look at this, Sophie," cried Faith, who had just happened upon a rare volume rich in the arts of type, graver and brush. It lay by itself on a circular stand, as one sometimes sees a costly family Bible in American homes. It was plainly one of the treasures of Arachne Hall. Sophia came to her friend's side and bent over the t.i.tle page which read thus:

"THE WISDOM OF THE PIXIES.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL OF THE LAWS OF PLUTO, AND THE WISE SAYINGS OF THE SAGES OF PIXIELAND.

ANNO MUNDI;...[=M] [=M]...,...MDCCC."

"The Wisdom of the Pixies!" exclaimed Sophia. "That must be a curious book indeed. I never knew before that our wicked enemies professed to have a sacred book, or held to any religious notions at all. I am anxious to know what these laws of Pluto may be. Turn over the page, Faith."

"I am trying to make out this date," answered Faith. "The numerals have been erased; they appear to have been written several times, amended again and again, and finally left in this uncertain condition."

"That is just it, Faith. Observe that for the common date, 'Anno Domini--year of our Lord,' has been placed 'Anno Mundi--year of the World.' It is hard for a Pixie to acknowledge in any way the Blessed Author of Salvation to Men. Let me see!--M stands for one thousand; M, M for two thousand; the bar over the top means a thousand also. [=M] is one thousand thousand, [=M], [=M] two thousand thousand, and just there is a gap. The other legible figures count up eighteen hundred. That is all I can make out; but I suppose the Pixies mean to say that the world is a good many thousand times two hundred thousand years old! Do you believe it?"

"That's a ripe old age, Sophie," said Faith, "and I neither believe nor disbelieve. How can one tell? Our fathers only say that 'in the beginning,' whenever that was, the world was made. But the further back one can trace the being of the earth by established facts, just so much further can we 'walk by sight' into the Eternity whose sovereign Lord we receive by faith."

"True enough," replied Sophia, "the question interests me as a matter of fact simply. As a matter of religion, I suppose it has little value. At least, I have so heard the good minister Dr. Comingo say in conversation with Governor Wille. But turn the page, please!"

Faith turned the leaves of the book, reading aloud the t.i.tles of the chapters. Now and then she stopped, read a sentence or two, commented upon the sentiment, and contrasted it with the good, pure, unselfish laws of Brownieland. Our story need not be burdened with much of what Faith and Sophia saw in the "Wisdom of the Pixies," but some of our older readers will be curious to have a few extracts. Here they are, with the headings or t.i.tles of the chapters given, for the most part:

Chapter I. On the First and Great Law--Take Care of Number One....

Chapter II. On the Chief End of Life--Eat, Drink and be Merry, for To-morrow You Die.... Chapter IX. The End Justifies the Means....

Chapter X. On Attaining One's End: By Fair Means if You Can, by Foul Means if You Must.... Chapter XV. Showing That an Individual Cannot Wrong a Corporation--On the Right of Corporations to Plunder the People.... Chapter XVI. Showing That it Cannot be Wrong to Rob a Government.... Chapter XVII. Showing That Since the World Loves to be "Humbugged," it is Quite Lawful to Gratify it, for One's Own Advantage.... Chapter x.x.xV. Is Man an Automaton?

"Why, what a strange notion!" cried Sophie. "What sage starts that question?"