FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111  
112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   >>  
eption to the rule, for they appeared absolutely to number thousands; and what should they do when they neared us but settle down in their thousands on the masts and rigging of the brig _Granite_. They were tired, poor things, no doubt, with long flying; and I have been told that it is a common custom for them to rest themselves on the riggings of ships. But there were so many of them this time that the very deck was covered with them, and vast numbers more fluttered below, into the forecastle and the captain's cabin. The skipper ordered the hatches to be battened down, and all was made snug for the night. In the morning the birds on the deck and the rigging were gone, but we had still hundreds of swallows in the hold and in the cabin, and the noise the poor creatures made to be let out was most pitiable--indeed, it was simply heartrending. It was like the cry of children. It sounded like, "For God's sake, let us go free!" Captain Marbles--I have said so before--was a hard man, but he could not stand the agonised twittering of the wretched little birds; and as he ordered me to have the hatches opened, I noticed that there were two great tears coursing down his stern, weather-beaten cheeks. He had, for the first time in his life, perhaps, become acquainted with a certain blessed thing called PITY. Nor did we fail to notice afterward that he was not half so hard on the boys we had aboard. Perhaps he remembered the cry of the swallows. That's my yarn. There's nothing very grand about it; but, at least, it's true. As true, I mean, as old sailors' yarns usually are. "Gone!" cried the doctor, as the Dutchman, a minute before solid in appearance, suddenly collapsed into air and moisture, which directly became ice. "If I hadn't been so polite I might have stopped him. I suppose the effort of telling their histories exhausts them." "Well, sir, it's jolly interesting!" said Bostock. "Yes, my man," said the doctor; "but there's no science in it. What is there in his talk about how he came here, or for me to report to the learned societies?" "Can't say, I'm sure, sir," I said; "only, the discoveries." "Yes, that will do, Captain. But come, let's find another?" We all set to eagerly, for the men now thoroughly enjoyed the task. The stories we heard enlivened the tedium, and the men, far from being afraid now, went heartily into the search. "Shouldn't wonder if we found a nigger friz-up here, mates," sai
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111  
112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   >>  



Top keywords:
hatches
 

ordered

 

Captain

 
swallows
 
doctor
 
thousands
 

rigging

 

stopped

 

polite

 

interesting


suppose
 
effort
 

number

 

exhausts

 

telling

 

histories

 

Dutchman

 

sailors

 

minute

 

moisture


directly
 

Bostock

 

collapsed

 
appearance
 

suddenly

 
tedium
 
afraid
 

enlivened

 

enjoyed

 

stories


heartily

 

nigger

 
search
 
Shouldn
 

eption

 
report
 

learned

 

societies

 

appeared

 

science


eagerly

 

discoveries

 
absolutely
 

Perhaps

 
creatures
 
flying
 

hundreds

 

pitiable

 
sounded
 

children