A ma.s.s of the tangle was hauled on board, and the men amused themselves by stamping on the hollow air-cells which give the weed its buoyancy, producing a series of cracks like the explosion of fire-crackers.
"I"ve heerd tell, though I can"t say I"ve seen it myself," observed a sailor, "as there"s places whar them weeds are so thick and strong that a man can walk on "em all the same as dry land."
"Well, they can stop a ship, anyhow, whether they can carry a man or not. A chum of mine as v"y"ged here in a Portigee steamer told me that she once got reg"lar jammed among the weed, and only "scaped by reversin" her en_gines_."
"Well, it"s a fact that some whar in these seas there"s a place they call the Lumber Yard, "cause of all the driftwood and floatin" spars and bits o" wreck and sich gittin" jumbled up together; for all the currents sort o" meet there, like them puzzles whar every road leads in and none out. If a ship once gits in _there_, good-by to her; for there ain"t no wind, nor tide, nor nothin", and you jist stick there till you rot."
Here old Herrick muttered, dreamily, as if speaking to himself, "_I_"ve seen that, and I sha"n"t forget it in a hurry."
The men nudged each other, and there was a general silence; for it was but seldom that Herrick could be got to spin a yarn, and he was now evidently about to "get off" one of his best.
"I was cruising in these waters," he went on, ""bout twenty years ago, when one afternoon we sighted a sort o" mound in among the thickest of the weed, with somethin" like a ship"s mast standin" up from it. The "old man" came out to look at it, and then gave orders to lower the boat, and we pulled for the wreck with a will. But as we neared her, the very look of her seemed to strike cold upon us all. Her hull had such an old-fashioned build that it might ha" been afloat for a hundred years and more; and all up the sides and over the deck great slimy coils of weed had trailed, like them eight-armed squids that clutch men and drag "em down. As we came nigher, the very sun clouded over, and all was chill, and gray, and dismal, and the wreck itself looked so unearthly, with no sign or sound of life about it, that I guess I wasn"t the only one who felt queer when we ran alongside at last.
"Up we scrambled, our very tread soundin" hollow and uncanny in that awful silence. Not a livin" thing was there aboard, not even a mouse.
The mainmast was gone, all but a stump, and the moulderin" tackle lay on the deck all of a heap. The plankin" was rotten and fallin" to bits, and the place on the starn where her name had been was clean mouldered away.
All at once our c.o.xswain, Bill Grimes, gives a jump and a holler as if he"d trod on a rattlesnake; and when we ran for"ard, what should we see, half hid among the weeds, but the skeleton of a man, fastened to the bulwarks by a rusty chain!"
The speaker ceased, and looked round the attentive circle with the air of a man who feels that he has made a hit.
"A slaver, I reckon," said one, at length.
"Or a pirate."
"Or some craft that had got starved out."
"Ay; but how c.u.m that skeleton there? Did _you_ never find out nothin"
"bout her, old hoss?"
"_Never_," said the old man, solemnly. "That"s how many a gallant ship has ended--just a mark of "missing" opposite her name in the owner"s list, and a few poor souls watchin" and waitin" for them that"ll never come back. Ay, boys; for as bright and pretty as these waters look, there"s many a black story hid aneath "em as"ll never be known till the day when the sea shall give up its dead."
They were now east of the Azores, and within four days" run of Gibraltar, which was their first halting-place. So the men were set to work to scrub the deck, polish the rails, new paint the boats, mend such of the signal flags as were torn, and "smarten" up the vessel generally; for a sea-captain is as proud of his ship as a lands-man of his wife, and likes to bring her into port as trim as possible.
Frank, always ready to be of use, took his share of the work, though he had plenty to occupy him without it. He was never tired of watching the sun make rainbows in the spray of the bow, and the pretty little sea-fairies, called by sailors "Portuguese men-of-war," float past with their tinted sh.e.l.ls and outspread feelers; while at night the moon was so gloriously brilliant, and the sea so clear and smooth, that he often staid on deck till midnight to enjoy the spectacle. But another sight was in store for him, even more to his taste than these.
One evening, just before sunset, two sail (the first for several days) were descried by the look-out, quite close to each other. Herrick, after eying them keenly for a moment, p.r.o.nounced them to be a British steamer and a full-rigged American clipper ship.
"How on earth can you tell that?" asked the wondering Frank, who could see nothing of the strangers but their topmasts.
"Easy enough. That un"s a steamer, by her smoke; and she"s a Britisher, by the _look_ o" the smoke, for they mostly burn soft coal. T"other"s a clipper, by her rig, and the lot o" handkerchiefs [studding sails] she has aloft; and she"s a "Merican, for nothin" else could hold its own with a steamer. But what can they be doin" so close together? Ah! _I_"ve got it--they"re a-_racin_"."
[Ill.u.s.tration: AN OCEAN RACE.]
When the two vessels came near enough to be signaled, and to reply, Herrick was found to be right in every particular, and the excitement aboard the _Arizona_ rose to a height. The captain himself came out to watch the race, and every man who was not on duty below hastened on deck.
"See how Johnny Bull"s a-pilin" the coal on!" cried old Herrick, pointing to the eddying smoke, which grew blacker every minute. "But he don"t whip _that_ craft--not much! Canvas agin tea-kettles any day!
Hooray!"
"Right you air, old hoss! Guess some o" them clippers can show as good a record as any steamer afloat. Why, didn"t the old _Nabob_ run 7389 miles in thirty days out thar in the Indian Ocean?--and that"s 246 miles a day for a whole month, anyhow."
The two racers were now crossing the _Arizona_"s bows, and every one crowded forward to look at them. The steamer"s pa.s.sengers were seen cl.u.s.tered along the side like bees, while the crew were bustling to and fro, setting every sail that would draw. But still on the starboard quarter hung the beautiful clipper, gliding along smoothly and easily, one great pyramid of snow-white canvas from gunwale to truck, while the look-out and the two men at the wheel (the only persons visible on board) grinned from ear to ear at the "Britisher"s" vain efforts. Just as the clipper pa.s.sed, the Stars and Stripes fluttered out jauntily at her peak.
"Come, boys!" cried Herrick; "let"s give the old "gridiron" a cheer."
Mingling with the hearty shout that followed (in which Frank joined with a will) came three sharp blasts from the _Arizona_"s steam-whistle, by way of salute. Instantly the clipper"s crew sprang up from behind the bulwarks, and, waving their caps, sent back a rousing cheer, answered by the Englishman with a short whistle of defiance as he swept by.
Little by little the racers, still close together, melted into the fast-falling shadows of night; but there were not a few who declared that, when last seen, the clipper was getting the best of it, and their belief in the superiority of wind over steam was greatly strengthened thereby.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
APRIL"S TEARS.
April"s tears are happy tears.
Joy when the arbutus sweet Creeps about her dancing feet, When the violet appears, When the birds begin to sing, When the gra.s.s begins to grow, Makes her lovely eyes o"erflow.
She"s a tender-hearted thing, Bonny daughter of the spring.
BILLY"S GREAT SPEECH.
BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
Billy was the youngest member of the debating society; that is, the other members were all grown-up men, though none of them were very old, and he was not yet quite fourteen years of age. Some of the boys he knew told him he had been let in by mistake, and some said it was a joke; but there he was, week after week, every Friday evening, sitting on a front bench, and as much a member as the president, or the secretary, or either of the three vice-presidents.
One of the names of that village debating society was "The Lyceum," but it wasn"t much used, except when they had distinguished strangers to lecture for them, and charged twenty-five cents apiece for tickets.
The regular weekly debates were "free," and so there was always a good attendance. The ladies, of all ages, were sure to come, and a good many of the boys. Billy never missed a debate; but he had not yet made so much as one single solitary speech on any subject. n.o.body knew how often he had entered that hall with a big speech in him, all ready, or how he had always carried it out again unspoken.
A little after the Christmas and New-Years" holidays there was a question proposed for the society to debate that Billy was sure he could handle. It had something to do with the Const.i.tution of the United States, and Grandfather Morton said it "was too political altogether"; but Billy silently determined that at last he would make himself heard.
He read several things in order to get his mind ready, especially the _Life of Benjamin Franklin_ and _Captain Cook"s Voyages_.
He could not see just how they helped him, but he knew that was the way to do it. Then he practiced his speech, too, in the garret, and up in the pasture lot, and out in the barn, where he was sure n.o.body could hear him, and the night before the debate was to be he hardly slept a wink.
He knew Grandfather Morton and all the family would be there; and they had scared him out of making more than half a dozen speeches before, but he made up his mind not to be afraid of them this time. Speak he would!
He was careful about his dress, as every public speaker should be, and succeeded in borrowing one of his father"s standing collars. It was dreadfully stiff with starch, but it would not hurt his ears if he held his head straight.
When he got to the Lyceum Hall it seemed to him to have grown a good deal since the week before, and to have a greater mult.i.tude of men and women in it than he had ever dreamed of.
It was warm, too, and grew warmer very fast, and he wondered why the rest did not take off their overcoats. Perhaps they would have done so if they had known Billy was going to address them.
He knew who was to open the debate on both sides, for that was always arranged beforehand, and his chance would come afterward.