"Wasn"t settin. I was tied up in a knot, or rolled up into a ball. Any way, I wasn"t settin."
"Well, how did you find the place?"
"Wal, I jes got up dar. I stood on de sho till de water drobe me, an I kep out ob its way till at las I found myself tied up de way you saw me."
"Why didn"t you halloo?"
"Hollar? Didn"t I hollar like all possessed?"
"We didn"t hear you."
"Wal, dat ar"s dredful sterious. An me a hollarin an a yellin like mad. Tell you what, I felt as ef I"d bust my ole head open, I did yell that hard."
"Couldn"t you manage to climb up that cliff?"
"Dat cliff? Climb up? Me? What! me climb up a cliff? an dat cliff?
Why, I couldn"t no more climb up dat ar cliff dan I could fly to de moon. No, sah. Much as I could do to keep whar I was, out ob de water. Dat was enough."
"Don"t you know that we walked two miles up the sh.o.r.e?"
"Two miles! Two! De sakes, now, chil"en! did you, railly? Ef I"d a ony knowed you war a comin so near, wouldn"t I a yelled? I bet I would."
"Why, you didn"t think we"d have left you."
"Lef me? Nebber. But den I didn"t tink you"d magine anyting was wrong till too late. What I wanted was help, den an dar. De trouble was, when you did come, you all made dat ar circ.u.mbendibus, an trabelled clean an clar away from me."
"We thought at first you could not be so near the point."
"But de pint was de whole difficulty. Dat"s de pint."
"Well, at any rate, you"ve saved the lobsters."
"Yah! yah! yah! Yes. Bound to sabe dem dar. Loss my ole hat, an nearly loss my ole self; but still I hung on to dem dar lobstas. Tell you what it is now, dey come nigh onto bein de dearest lobstas you ebber eat. I"be done a good deal in de way ob puttin myself out to get a dinna at odd times for you, chil"en; but dis time I almost put myself out ob dis mortial life. So when you get your dinnas to-day, you may tink on what dat ar dinna come nigh to costin."
"I wonder that you held on to them so tight, when they brought you into such danger."
"Hole on? Why, dat ar"s de berry reason why I did hole on. What, let go ob dem arter all my trouble on dat count? No. I was bound to hab somethin to show whenebber I got back, if I ebber did get back; and so here I am, all alibe, an a bringin my lobstas wid me."
"Well, Solomon," said Bart, in a kindly tone, "old man, the lobsters have come near costing us pretty dear, and we felt bad enough, I can tell you, when we went up there along the sh.o.r.e calling for you and getting no answer."
"What, you did car for de ole man, Mas"r Bart--did you?" said Solomon, in a tremulous voice. Tears started to his eyes as he said it, and all power of saying anything more seemed to depart from him. He fell back behind the others, and walked on for the rest of the way in silence, but at times casting upon Bart glances that spoke volumes, and talking to himself in inaudible tones.
In this way they soon reached the wharf where the schooner was lying.
The first thing that they noticed was, that the schooner was aground.
The tide had gone out too far for her to float away, and consequently there was no hope of resuming their voyage for that day.
"We"re in for it, captain," said Bruce
"Yes; I felt afeard of it," said the captain. "We"ve got to wait here till the next tide."
"We"ll leave to-night, of course."
"O, yes. We must get off at the night"s tide, and drop down the bay."
"How far had we better go?"
"Wal, I ben a thinkin it all over, an it"s my opinion that we"d better go to St. John next. We may hear of him there, an ef he don"t turn up we can send out some more vessels, an give warnin that he"s astray on the briny biller."
"At what time will we be able to leave?"
"Wal, it"ll not be high tide till near one o"clock, but we can git off ef thar"s a wind a leetle before midnight."
"Do you think the wind will hold on?"
The captain raised his head, and looked at the sky; then he looked out to sea, and then he remained silent for a few minutes.
"Wal," said he, at last, slowly and thoughtfully, "it"ll take a man with a head as long as a hoss to answer that thar. It mought hold on, an then agin it moughtn"t."
"At any rate, I suppose we can drift."
"O, yes; an of the wind doosn"t come round too strong, we can git nigh down pooty close to St. John by mornin."
"We"ll run down with the tide."
"Percisely."
"Well, I suppose we"ll have to put the time through the best way we can, and try to be patient. Only it seems hard to be delayed so much.
First there was the fog, which made our search useless; and now, when there comes a bright day, when we can see where we"re going, here we are tied up in Quaco all day and all night."
"It doos seem hard," said Captain Corbet, gravely, "terrible hard; an ef I owned a balloon that could rise this here vessel off the ground, an convey her through the air to her nat"ral element, I"d hev it done in five minutes, an we"d all proceed to walk the waters like things of life. But I don"t happen to own a balloon, an so thar you air.
"But, boys," continued the captain, in a solemn voice, elevating his venerable chin, and regarding them with a patriarchal smile,--"boys, don"t begin to go on in that thar old despondent strain. Methinks I hear some on you a repinin, an a frettin, cos we"re stuck here hard an fast. Don"t do it, boys; take my advice, an don"t do it. Bear in mind the stirrin an memiorable events of this here mornin. See what a calamity was a threatenin us. Why, I declare to you all, thar was a time when I expected to see our aged friend Solomon no more in the flesh. You could not tell it by my manner, for I presarved a calm an collected dumeanour; but yet, I tell you, underneath all that icy calm an startlin good-natur of my att.i.tood, I concealed a heart that bet with dark despair. At that moment, when we in our wanderins had reached the furthest extremity that we attained onto, I tell you my blood friz, an my har riz in horror! Methought it were all up with Solomon; and when I see his hat, it seemed to me jest as though I was a regardin with despairin eye his tumestun whereon war graven by no mortial hand the solemn an despairin epigram, "Hic jacet!"
"So now, my friends," continued the captain, as he brushed a tear-drop from his eye, "let us conterrol our feelins. Let us be calm, and hope for the best. When Solomon took his departoor, an was among the missin, I thought that an evil fortin was a berroodin over us, and about to consume us. But that derream air past. Solomon is onst more among the eatables. He cooks agin the mortial repast. He lives! So it will be with our young friend who has so mysteriously drifted away from our midst. Cheer up, I say! Them"s my sentiment. He"ll come to, an turn up, all alive--right side up--with care,--C. O. D.,--O. K.,--to be shaken before taken,--marked and numbered as per margin,--jest as when shipped, in good order an condition, on board the schooner Antelope, Corbet master, of Grand Pre."
These words of Captain Corbet had a very good effect upon the boys.
They had already felt very much cheered by the escape of Solomon, and it seemed to them to be a good omen. If Solomon had escaped, so also might Tom. And, as their anxiety on Solomon"s account had all been dispelled by his restoration, so also might they hope that their anxiety about Tom would be dispelled. True, he had been lost to them for a much longer time, and his absence was certainly surrounded by a more terrible obscurity than any which had been connected with that of Solomon. Yet this one favorable circ.u.mstance served to show them that all might not be so dark as they had feared. Thus, therefore, they began to be more sanguine, and to hope that when they reached St. John, some tidings of the lost boy might be brought to them.
Solomon"s exertions towards giving them a dinner were on this day crowned with greater success than had been experienced for some days past. Their exertions had given them an appet.i.te, and they were able to eat heartily for the first time since Tom"s departure.
The rest of the day pa.s.sed very slowly with them. They retired early, and slept until midnight. At that time they waked, and went on deck, when they had the extreme satisfaction of seeing the vessel get under way. A moderate breeze was blowing, which was favorable, and though the tide was not yet in their favor, yet the wind was sufficient to bear them out into the bay. Then the boys all went below again, full of hope. The night pa.s.sed away quietly, and without any incident whatever. They all slept soundly, and the dreams that came to them were pleasant rather than otherwise.
Awaking in the morning by daylight, they all hurried up on deck, and encountered there a new disappointment; for all around them they saw again the hated presence of the fog. The wind also had died away, and the vessel"s sails flapped idly against her masts.
"Where are we now?" asked Bruce, in a despondent tone.
"Wal," said Captain Corbet, "as nigh as I can reckon, we"re two or three miles outside of St. John harbor."