Bevis: The Story of a Boy

over it."

  "Poles stuck in and leaning down and thatched."

  "Yes, and a palisade of thick stakes stuck in, in front of the door."

  "So that no one could take us by surprise at night."

  "And far enough off for us to have our fire inside."

  "Twist bushes in between the stakes."

  "Quite impassable to naked savages."

  "How high?"

  "Seven feet."

  "Or very nearly."

  "We could make a bed, and sleep all night."

  "Wouldn't it be splendid to stop here altogether?"

  "First-rate; no stupid sillinesses."

  "No bother."

  "Have your dinner when you like."

  "Nobody to bother where you've been to."

  "Let's live here."

  "All right. Only we must have a gun to shoot birds and things to eat,"said Bevis. "It's no use unless we have a gun; it's not proper, noranything."

  "No more it is," said Mark; "we _must_ have a gun. Go and stare atFrances."

  "But it takes such a time, and then you know how slow Jack is. It wouldtake him three months to make up his mind to lend us the rifle."

  "So it would," said Mark; "Jack's awful slow, like his old mill-wheel upthere."

  "Round and round," said Bevis. "Boom and splash and rumble,"--swinginghis arm--"round and round, and never get any farther."

  "Not an inch," said Mark. "Stop; there's Tom's gun." He meant thebird-keeper's.

  "Pooh!" said Bevis, "that's rotten old rusty rubbish. Isn't thereanybody we could borrow one of?"

  "Nobody," said Mark; "they're all so stupid and afraid."

  "Donks."

  "Awful donks! Let's sell our watches, and buy one," said Mark. "Onlythey would ask what we had done with our watches."

  "I know," said Bevis, suddenly kicking up his heels, then standing onone foot and spinning round--"I know!"

  "What is it! Quick! Tell me!"

  "Make one," said Bevis.

  "Make one?"

  "A matchlock," said Bevis. "Make a matchlock. And a matchlock is quiteproper, and just what they used to have--"

  "But the barrel?"

  "Buy an iron tube," said Bevis. "They have lots at Latten, at theironmonger's; buy an iron pipe, and stop one end--"

  "I see," said Mark. "Hurrah!" and up went his heels, and there was awild capering for half a minute.

  "The bother is to make the breech," said Bevis. "It ought to screw, butwe can't do that."

  "Ask the blacksmith," said Mark; "we need not let him know what it'sfor."

  "If he doesn't know we'll find out somehow," said Bevis. "Come on,let's do it directly. Why didn't we think of it before."

  They returned towards the boat.

  "Just won't it be splendid," said Mark. "First, we'll get everythingready, and then get shipwrecked proper, and be as jolly as anything."

  "Matchlocks are capital guns," said Bevis; "they're slow to shoot with,you know, but they kill better than rifles. They have long barrels, andyou put them on a rest to take steady aim, and we'll have an iron ramrodtoo, so as not to have the bother of making a place to put the rod inthe stock, and to ram down bullets to shoot the tigers or savages."

  "Jolly!"

  "The stock must be curved," said Bevis; "not like the guns, broad andflat, but just curved, and there must be a thing to hold the match; andjust remind me to buy a spring to keep the hammer up, so that it shallnot fall till we pull the trigger--it's just opposite to other guns,don't you see? The spring is to keep the match up, and you pull againstthe spring. And there's a pan and a cover to it--a bit of tin would docapital--and you push it open with your thumb. I've seen lots ofmatchlocks in glass cases, all inlaid gold and silver."

  "We don't want that."

  "No all we want is the shooting. The match is the bother--"

  "Would tar-cord do?"

  "We'll try; first let's make the breech. Take up the anchor."

  Mark picked up the anchor, and put it on board. They launched thePinta, and set sail homewards, Mark steering. As they were runningright before the wind, the ship went at a great pace.

  "That's the Mozambique," said Bevis, as they passed through the straitwhere they had had to make so many tacks before.

  "Land ho!" said Mark, as they approached the harbour. "We've had acapital sail."

  "First-rate," said Bevis. "But let's make the matchlock."

  Now that he had succeeded in tacking he was eager to go on to the nextthing, especially the matchlock-gun. The hope of shooting made himthree times as ready to carry out Mark's plan of the cave on the island.After furling the sails, and leaving everything ship-shape, they ranhome and changed their jackets, which were soaked.

  Volume Two, Chapter X.

  MAKING A GUN--THE CAVE.

  Talking upstairs about the barrel of the gun, they began to think itwould be an awkward thing to bring home, people would look at themwalking through the town with an iron pipe, and when they had got ithome, other people might ask what it was for. Presently Mark rememberedthat John Young went to Latten that day with the horse and cart to fetchthings; now if they bought the tube, Young could call for it, and bringit in the cart and leave it at his cottage. Downstairs they ran, and upto the stables, and as they came near, heard the stamp of a cart-horse,as it came over. Mark began to whistle the tune,--

  "John Young went to town On a little pony, Stuck a feather in his hat, And called him Macaroni."

  "Macaroni!" said he, as they looked in at the stable-door. "Macaroni"did not answer; the leather of the harness creaked as he moved it.

  "Macaroni!" shouted Mark. He did not choose to reply to such anickname.

  "John!" said Bevis.

  "Eez--eez," replied the man, looking under the horse's neck, and meaning"Yes, yes."

  "Fetch something for us," said Mark.

  "Pint?" said John laconically.

  "Two," said Bevis.

  "Ar-right," ["all right"] said John, his little brown eyes twinkling."Ar-right, you." For a quart of ale there were few things he would nothave done: for a gallon his soul would not have had a moment'sconsideration, if it had stood in the way.

  Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back When pewter tankardbeckons to come on!

  They explained to him what they wanted him to do.

  "Have you got a grate in your house?" said Bevis.

  "A yarth," said John, meaning an open hearth. "Burns wood."

  "Can you make a hot fire--very hot on it?"

  "Rayther. Boilers." By using the bellows. "What could we have for ananvil?"

  "Be you going a blacksmithing?"

  "Yes--what will do for an anvil?"

  "Iron quarter," said John. "There's an ould iron in the shed. Shall Itake he whoam?" An iron quarter is a square iron weight weighing 28pounds: it would make a useful anvil. It was agreed that he should doso, and they saw him put the old iron weight, rusty and long disused, upin the cart.

  "If you wants anybody to blow the bellers," said he, "there's our Loo--she'll blow for yer. Be you going to ride?"

  "No," said Bevis; "we'll go across the fields."

  Away they went by the meadow foot-path, a shorter route to the littletown, and reached it before John and his cart. At the ironmonger's theyexamined a number of pipes, iron and brass tubes. The brass lookedbest, and tempted them, but on turning it round they fancied the joinshowed, and was not perfect, and of course that would not do. Nor didit look so strong as the iron, so they chose the iron, and bought fivefeet of a stout tube--the best in the shop--with a bore of 5-eighths;and afterwards a brass rod, which was to form the ramrod. Brass wouldnot cause a spark in the barrel.

  John called for these in due course, and left them at his cottage. Theold rogue had his quart, and the promise of a shilling, if the hearthanswered for the blacksmithing. In the evening, Mark, well primed as towhat he was to ask, casually looked in at the blacksmith's down thehamlet. The blacksmith
was not in the least surprised; they were bothold frequenters; he was only surprised one or both had not been before.

  Mark pulled some of the tools about, lifted the sledge which stoodupright, and had left it's mark on the iron "scale" which lay