The Cruise of the Frolic

  CHAPTER NINE.

  PREPARATIONS FOR A LONG CRUISE--HEARTY CONFESSES TO A SOFT IMPEACHMENT--THE O'WIGGINS AND HIS PASSENGERS--HOW WE GOT RID OF THEM.

  Hearty had long projected a voyage up the Mediterranean, and invitedCarstairs, and Bubble, and me to join him. Groggs, as may be supposed,had become a bore, unbearable; and, as soon as we arrived at Plymouth,had been sent back to cultivate his paternal acres and describe thewonders he had seen during his nautical career. While Porpoise wasattending to the refitting of the yacht, Bubble and I were busilyengaged in laying in stores of comestibles, and drinkables, andburnables and smokables, of all sorts. Food for the mind, as well asfor the body, was not forgotten; but Hearty would not allow a pack ofcards or dice on board. It was a fancy of his, he said, that he did notmuch mind being peculiar. "If a set of men with heads on theirshoulders and brains in their heads cannot amuse themselves, unless bythe aid of means invented for the use of idiots, and fit only for thehalf-witted, I would rather dispense with their society," he used toobserve. We had, however, chess and draughts, though he was no greatadmirer of either game, especially of the latter. "However," as hesaid, "though those games kill time which I think it would be wise ofmen if they tried to keep alive, as they, at all events, won't let afellow's mind go to sleep, we may as well have them."

  We exerted all our ingenuity and thought in laying in every thing whichcould possibly be required for a long voyage; and seldom has a yacht, Isuspect, been better found in this respect. Seldom, also, have fivejolly bachelors been brought together more ready to enjoy themselves.Three is generally considered the best number to form a travellingparty, and certainly on shore no party should exceed that number, unlessthere is some stronger bond of union than mere pleasure or convenience.Seldom when more men unite do they fail to separate before the end ofthe journey. For a yacht voyage, however, the case is different. Inthe first place, there is more discipline. The owner, if he is a man ofjudgment, assumes a certain amount of mild authority; acts as captainover every one on board, and keeps order. Should a dispute arise, heinstantly reconciles the disputants, and takes care himself never todispute with any one.

  Hearty was just the man for the occasion. "Now, my dear fellows," saidhe to all the party on giving us the invitation, "the first thing wehave to do is to sign articles to preserve good fellowship, and to doour best to make each other happy. I don't want to top the officer overmy guests; but all I want you to promise me is, that if there arises anydifference, you will allow me at once to be umpire. If I differ withany one, the rest must act the part of judge and jury." We, of course,were all too happy to agree to so reasonable a proposal, and so thematter was settled. With respect also to the numbers on board, inreality only Hearty and Carstairs were idlers; Porpoise was officiallymaster; Bubble had originally fitted out the yacht, and acted ascaterer; while I had undertaken to keep my watch, and aid Will in hisduties. We had with us guns and ammunition, and fishing-rods and nets,and camera-lucidas, and sketch-books; and musical instruments, flutes, aviolin, a guitar, and accordion. We had even some scientific apparatus;nor had we forgotten a good supply of writing materials. The truth wasthat Bubble and I had some claim to be authors. Will had written a gooddeal: indeed, his prolific pen had often supplied him with the means ofpaying his tailor's bill; while I had more than once appeared in print.We agreed, therefore, not to interfere with one another in our literarycompositions. While he took one department, I was to take the other.At last we were all ready for sea. Mizen came out in the "Fun" to seeus off, with Fanny Farlie, Miss Mizen, Mr and Mrs Rullock, and SusanSimms on board, as well as several of our friends, and we struck up, asthe yachts at length parted, with our voices and all the musicalinstruments we could bring into action, "The Girls we leave behind us."Hearty heaved a sigh as he was looking through his glass at thefast-receding "Fun."

  "What's the matter?" I asked.

  "Yes, she is a sweet girl!" he ejaculated, not answering me, however. Ispoke again.

  "Laura Mizen, to be sure," he replied. "Who else? She's unlike all therest of our yachting set away at Ryde there. They are all young ladies,cast in the same mould, differing only in paint, outside show; one maybe blue and the other red, another yellow, though I don't think youoften find them of any primitive colour; generally they are ofsecondary, or mixed colours, as the artists say. One again wishes to bethought fast, and another sentimental, another philanthropic orreligious, and another literary. I don't know which of the pretenders Idislike the most. The fast young ladies are the most difficult to dealwith. They do such impudent things, both to one and of one. If theyknew how some of the fast men speak of them in return, it would makethem wince not a little, I suspect, if they have not rattled away fromall delicacy themselves. Oh, give me a right honest, good girl, whodoes not dream of being any thing but herself; who is a dutifuldaughter, and is ready to be a loving, obedient wife of an honest man,and the affectionate mother of some fine hearty children, whom she maybring up with a knowledge of the object for which they were sent intothe world."

  "Well said, my dear fellow," I answered, warmly; for I seriouslyresponded to his sentiments, though, it must be confessed, they werevery different to the style which had been usual on board the "Frolic.""Why did you not ask her, though?" I continued.

  "Because I was a fool," he answered. "Those Rattler girls, Masons andSandons, and that Miss Mary Masthead, and others of her stamp, wererunning in my head, and I couldn't believe that Laura Mizen was inreality superior to them. I used to talk the same nonsense to her thatI rattled into their willing ears; and it is only now that I havethought over the replies she made, and many things she lately said tome, and that I have discovered the vast difference there is between herand the rest."

  "Well, 'bout ship, and propose," said I; "though sorry to lose thecruise, your happiness shall be the first consideration."

  "Oh, no, no! that will never do," he answered. "I doubt if she willhave me now. When we come back next summer I will find her out, and ifshe appears to receive me favourably, I will propose. Now she thinks meonly a harum-scarum rattler. It would never do."

  I could say nothing to this. I truly believed that though Hearty'sfortune would weigh with most girls, it would but little with her; and Icould only hope that in the mean time she would not bestow heraffections on any one else.

  Just as we got outside the breakwater we sighted a schooner, standing infor the Sound, which we had no difficulty in making out to be the"Popple." As soon as she discovered us, she bore down on us,signalising away as rapidly as possible.

  "What are they saying?" asked Hearty, as he saw the bunting run up toher masthead.

  "Heave-to, I want to speak to you," I answered, turning over the leavesof the signal-book.

  "Shall we?" asked Porpoise.

  "Oh, by all means," replied Hearty. "O'Wiggins may have something ofimportance to communicate."

  "Down with the helm; let fly the jib-sheet; haul the foresail towindward," sung out Porpoise, and the cutter lay bobbing her headgracefully to the sea, while the schooner approached her.

  Still they continued running up and down the bunting on board the"Popple." I had some difficulty in making out what they intended tosay. "Ladies aboard--trust to gallantry," I continued to interpret, asI made out the words by reference to the book.

  "What can they wish to say?" exclaimed Hearty.

  "They wish to lay an embargo on us of some sort, and begin bycomplimenting us on our gallantry," observed Bubble.

  "By the pricking of my thumbs, something evil this way comes," exclaimedCarstairs. "As I am a living gentleman, there are petticoats on board.Who has been acting the part of a perfidious wretch, and breaking tendervows? An avenging Nemesis is in his wake in the person of MrsSkyscraper, or the Rattler girls, or Mary Masthead. Even at thisdistance I can make them out."

  So it was, as the schooner approached, the very dames Carstairs hadnamed were seen on board.

  We had observed, as w
e went down the Sound, a large schooner beating upfrom the westward. There had been discussions as to what she was. Ourglasses had now once more been turned towards her, when we discoveredher to be the "Sea Eagle." Seeing our bunting going up and down sorapidly, Sir Charles Drummore, her owner, curious to know what we weretalking about, stood towards us.

  The "Popple" hove-to to windward of us, and a boat being lowered,O'Wiggins pulled on board. "My dear fellow, I'm so glad we've overtakenyou," he began. "Your friend, Mrs Skyscraper, and those young ladieswith her, were so anxious to have another cruise on board the `Frolic'before the summer is over, that I consented to bring them down here, asI made sure that you would be delighted to see them!" Never didHearty's face assume a more puzzled and vexed expression. "Heavendefend me from them!" he exclaimed. "Tell them that we've got theyellow-fever--or the plague, or the cholera, or the measles, or thewhooping-cough, or any thing dreadful you can think of; make everyexcuse--or no excuse; the thing is impossible, not to be thought of fora moment: they can't come. We are bound foreign, say to the North Pole,or the West Indies, or the coast of Africa, or the South Pacific, or tothe Antipodes. They don't want to go there, at all events, I suppose."

  "But if you don't take them, what am I to do with them?" exclaimedO'Wiggins. "I'm bound down Channel, and if they don't worry me out ofhouse and home, they'll drive me overboard with the very clatter oftheir tongues."

  A bright thought struck Hearty. Just then the "Sea Eagle" came up, andhove-to on our quarter.

  "Much obliged to you for your kind intentions towards us, but, instead,just hand them over to Drummore," said he, rubbing his hands. "If anyman can manage so delicate an affair, you can, O'Wiggins, withoutwishing to pay you an undue compliment."

  Sir Charles Drummore was a baronet, one of our yachting acquaintances,and had lately purchased the "Sea Eagle." A worthy old fellow, thoughhe had the character of being somewhat of a busybody. He certainlylooked more in his place in his club than on board his yacht. "Well,I'll try it," answered the O'Wiggins, who was himself easily won by thevery bait he offered so liberally to others. "Trust me, I'll do it ifmortal man can. I'll weave a piteous tale of peerless damsels indistress, and all that sort of thing. Thank you for the hint; it willtake, depend on it."

  "Well, be quick about it," we exclaimed, "or Drummore will be toppinghis boom, and you will miss your chance." Thereon O'Wiggins tumbledinto his boat, and pulled aboard the "Sea Eagle." What story he told--what arguments he used--we never heard; but very shortly we had thesatisfaction of seeing the Misses Rattler and Mary Masthead, with theirskittish chaperone, Mrs Skyscraper, transferred to the deck of the "SeaEagle."

  We strongly suspected that the prim baronet had not the slightestconception as to who formed the component parts of the company with whomhe was to be favoured. He bowed rather stiffly as he received them andtheir bandboxes on deck; but he was in for it; his gallantry would notallow him to send them back to the "Popple," and he had, therefore, onlyto wish sincerely for a fair breeze, that he might land them as speedilyas possible at Ryde. The O'Wiggins waved his cap with an extra amountof vehemence, and putting up his helm, and easing off his sheets, stoodaway for Falmouth. We, at the same time, shaped a course down Channel,mightily glad that we were free of all fast young ladies and flirtingwidows.

  "O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire, and behold our home!"

  spouted Carstairs, pointing to the wide Atlantic which rolled before us.

  "The sea, the sea, the open sea!-- The wide, the blue, the ever free; Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth's wide region round! I'm on the sea-- I am where I would ever be: With the blue above, and the blue below, And silence wheresoe'er I go,"

  chimed in Hearty, whose quotations and sketches were always from authorsof more modern date.

  "You'll sing different songs to those, gentlemen, if it comes on to blowa gale of wind while we are crossing the Bay," said Porpoise, laughing."The sea always puts me in mind of a woman, very delightful when she'scalm and smiling, but very much the contrary when a gale is blowing.I've knocked about all my life at sea, and have got pretty tired ofstorms, which I don't like a bit better than when I first went afloat."

  "Never fear for us," answered Hearty. "I never was in a storm in mylife, and I want to see how the `Frolic' will behave."

  "As to that, I dare say she will behave well enough," said Porpoise."There's no craft like a cutter for lying-to, or for beating off alee-shore; or working through a narrow channel, for that matter, thougha man-of-war's man says it. We have the credit of preferring our ownsquare-rigged vessels to all others, and not knowing how to handle afore-and-after."

  "Come what may, we'll trust to you to do the best which can be doneunder any chances which may occur," said Hearty. "And now here comesLadle to summon us to dinner." To dinner we went, and a good one weate, and many a good one after it. Many a joke was uttered, many astory told, and many a song was sung. In truth, the days slipped awaymore rapidly even than on shore.

  "Well, after all, I can't say that there is much romance in a sea-life,"exclaimed Carstairs, stretching out his legs, as he leaned back in anarm-chair on deck, and allowed the smoke of his fragrant Havana to risecurling over his upturned countenance, for there was very little wind atthe time, and from what there was we were running away.

  "I can't quite agree with you on that point: there is romance enough atsea, as well as everywhere else, if people only know how to look forit," observed Will Bubble, who had been scribbling away most assiduouslyall the morning in a large note-book which he kept carefully closed fromvulgar eyes!

  "Oh, I know, of course, `Books in the running brooks, sermons in stones,and good in every thing,'" answered Carstairs, who was seldom at a lossfor a quotation from Shakespeare. "But I mean, who ever meets a good,exciting, romantic adventure with pirate-smugglers, savages, or something of that sort? Perhaps you, Bubble, have got something of thatsort in your book there which you will give us, but then it will be onlyfiction: I want a stern reality. The world has grown too matter-of-factto keep a fellow awake."

  "I'll own to the soft impeachment," answered Bubble, laughing. "But mystory's real; I've been merely putting some notes into form for ouramusement, and I hope all hands will be duly grateful." We all thankedBubble for his promise.

  "I cannot agree with you, in any way, as to there being no romance in asea-life," said I. "Only last year I took part in a very pretty littlebit of romance, which would have made the fortune of any paper intowhich it had been allowed to find its way; but for the sake of theactors we kept the affair a profound secret, or you would certainly haveheard of it."

  "Let's have it all out now," exclaimed Hearty; "we won't peach: we'll beas tight as the `Frolic' herself."

  "I wouldn't trust you in the club," said I. "But, out here, I don'tthink it will go beyond the bulwarks, so you shall hear my story."While the rest of our party sat round, and drew, or netted, or smoked, Igave an account of the incident to which I alluded. As it is animportant introduction to our subsequent adventures, it is, I feel, wellworthy of a chapter to itself.