Springhaven: A Tale of the Great War

  CHAPTER IX

  THE MAROON

  If yet there remained upon our southern coast a home for the rarervirtues, such as gratitude, content, liberality (not of other people'sgoods alone), faith in a gracious Providence, and strict abstinence fromrash labor, that home and stronghold was Springhaven. To most men goodsuccess brings neither comfort, nor tranquillity, nor so much as a stoolto sit upon, but comes as a tread-mill which must be trodden without anygetting to the top of it. Not so did these wise men take their luck. Ifever they came from the fickle wave-bosom to the firm breast of land ona Saturday, with a fine catch of fish, and sold it well--and such wastheir sagacity that sooner would they keep it for cannibal temptationthan sell it badly--did they rush into the waves again, before they haddried their breeches? Not they; nor did their wives, who were nearlyall good women, stir them up to be off again. Especially at this time ofyear, with the days pulling out, and the season quickening, and the fishcoming back to wag their tails upon the shallows, a pleasant race of menshould take their pleasure, and leave flints to be skinned by the sonsof flint.

  This was the reason why Miss Dolly Darling had watched in vain atthe Monday morning tide for the bold issue of the fishing fleet. Theweariless tide came up and lifted the bedded keel and the plungedforefoot, and gurgled with a quiet wash among the straky bends, thenlurched the boats to this side and to that, to get their heft correctly,and dandled them at last with their bowsprits dipped and their littlemast-heads nodding. Every brave smack then was mounted, and riding, andready for a canter upon the broad sea: but not a blessed man came to sether free. Tethered by head and by heel, she could only enjoy the poisedpace of the rocking-horse, instead of the racer's delight in careeringacross the free sweep of the distance.

  Springhaven had done so well last week, that this week it meant to dostill better, by stopping at home till the money was gone, and makingshort work afterward. Every man thoroughly enjoyed himself, keepingsober whenever good manners allowed, foregoing all business, andsauntering about to see the folk hard at work who had got no money. OnWednesday, however, an order was issued by Captain Zebedee Tugwell thatall must be ready for a three days' trip when the tide should serve,which would be at the first of the ebb, about ten in the morning. Thetides were slackening now, and the smacks had required some change ofberth, but still they were not very far from the Admiral's white gate.

  "I shall go down to see them, papa, if you please," Dolly said to herfather at breakfast-time. "They should have gone on Monday; but theywere too rich; and I think it very shameful of them. I dare say theyhave not got a halfpenny left, and that makes them look so lively. Ofcourse they've been stuffing, and they won't move fast, and they can'texpect any more dinner till they catch it. But they have got so muchbacon that they don't care."

  "What could they have better, I should like to know?" asked the Admiral,who had seen hard times. "Why, I gave seven men three dozen apiece forturning their noses up at salt horse, just because he whisked his tailin the copper. Lord bless my soul! what is the nation coming to, when aman can't dine upon cold bacon?"

  "No, it is not that, papa. They are very good in that way, as theirwives will tell you. Jenny Shanks tells me the very same thing, andof course she knows all about them. She knew they would never think ofgoing out on Monday, and if I had asked her I might have known it too.But she says that they are sure to catch this tide."

  "Very well, Dolly. Go you and catch them. You are never content withoutseeing something. Though what there is to see in a lot of lubberly craftpushing off with punt-poles--"

  "Hush, papa, hush! Don't be so contemptuous. What did my godfather saythe other day? And I suppose he understands things."

  "Don't quote your godfather against your father. It was never intendedin the Catechism. And if it was, I would never put up with it."

  Dolly made off; for she knew that her father, while proud of his greatimpartiality, candor, and scorn of all trumpery feeling, was sometimesunable to make out the reason why a queer little middy of his own shouldnow stand upon the giddy truck of fame, while himself, still ahead ofhim in the Navy List, might pace his quarter-deck and have hats touchedto him, but never a heart beat one pulse quicker. Jealous he was not;but still, at least in his own family--

  Leaving her dear father to his meditations, which Faith ran up to kissaway, fair Dolly put on a plain hat and scarf, quite good enough forthe fishermen, and set off in haste for the Round-house, to see theexpedition start. By the time she was there, and had lifted the sashes,and got the spy-glass ready, the flow of the tide was almost spent, andthe brimming moment of the slack was nigh. For this all the folk of thevillage waited, according to the tradition of the place; the manhoodand boyhood, to launch forth; old age, womanhood, and childhood, tocontribute the comfort of kind looks and good-by. The tides, though notto be compared to the winds in fickleness, are capricious here, havingsallies of irregularity when there has been a long period of northeastwinds, bringing a counter-flow to the Atlantic influx. And a man mustbe thoroughly acquainted with the coast, as well as the moon and theweather, to foretell how the water will rise and fall there. For thepresent, however, there was no such puzzle. The last lift of the quiettide shone along the beach in three straight waves, shallow steps thatarose inshore, and spent themselves without breaking.

  "Toorn o' the tide!" the Captain shouted; "all aboord, aboord, my lads!The more 'ee bide ashore, the wuss 'ee be. See to Master Cheeseman'scraft! Got a good hour afront of us. Dannel, what be mooning at? Fetch'un a clout on his head, Harry Shanks; or Tim, you run up and do it.Doubt the young hosebird were struck last moon, and his brains put tosalt in a herring-tub. Home with you, wife! And take Dan, if you will.He'd do more good at the chipping job, with the full moon in his headso."

  "Then home I will take my son, Master Tugwell," his wife answered, withmuch dignity, for all the good wives of Springhaven heard him, and whatwould they think of her if she said nothing? "Home I will take my sonand yours, and the wisest place for him to abide in, with his father setagin him so. Dannel, you come along of me. I won't have my eldest boygainsaid so."

  Zebedee Tugwell closed his lips, and went on with his proper business.All the women would side with him if he left them the use of their ownminds, and the sound of his wife's voice last; while all the men intheir hearts felt wisdom. But the young man, loath to be left behind,came doubtfully down to the stern of the boat, which was pushed off forthe Rosalie. And he looked at the place where he generally sat, and thenat his father and the rest of them.

  "No gappermouths here!" cried his father, sternly. "Get theezell homewith the vemmelvolk. Shove off without him, Tim! How many more tideswould 'ee lose?"

  Young Dan, whose stout legs were in the swirling water, snatched up hisstriped woolsey from under the tiller, threw it on his shoulder, andwalked off, without a farewell to any one. The whole of Springhaven thatcould see saw it, and they never had seen such a thing before. CaptainZeb stood up and stared, with his big forehead coming out under hishat, and his golden beard shining in the morning sun; but the onlysatisfaction for his eyes was the back of his son growing smaller andsmaller.

  "Chip of the old block!" "Sarve 'ee right, Cap'en!" "Starve 'un backto his manners again!" the inferior chieftains of the expedition cried,according to their several views of life. But Zebedee Tugwell paid noheed to thoughts outside of his own hat and coat. "Spake when I ax you,"he said, urbanely, but with a glance which conveyed to any too urgentsympathizer that he would be knocked down, when accessible.

  But, alas! the less-disciplined women rejoiced, with a wink at theirdeparting lords, as Mrs. Zebedee set off in chase of her long-stridingDaniel. The mother, enriched by home affections and course of dutieswell performed, was of a rounded and ample figure, while the son wastall, and thin as might be one of strong and well-knit frame. And thesense of wrong would not permit him to turn his neck, or take a glanceat the enterprise which had rejected him.

  "How grand he does look! what a noble profile!" thought Dolly, w
ho hadseen everything without the glass, but now brought it to bear upon hiscountenance. "He is like the centurion in the painted window, or a Romanmedallion with a hat on. But that old woman will never catch him. Shemight just as well go home again. He is walking about ten miles an hour,and how beautifully straight his legs are! What a shame that he shouldnot be a gentleman! He is ten times more like one than most of theofficers that used to come bothering me so. I wonder how far he meansto go? I do hope he won't make away with himself. It is almost enoughto make him do it, to be so insulted by his own father, and disgracedbefore all the village, simply because he can't help having his poorhead so full of me! Nobody shall ever say that I did anything to givehim the faintest encouragement, because it would be so very wicked andso cruel, considering all he has done for me. But if he comes back,when his father is out of sight, and he has walked off his righteousindignation, and all these people are gone to dinner, it might give aturn to his thoughts if I were to put on my shell-colored frock andthe pale blue sash, and just go and see, on the other side of thestepping-stones, how much longer they mean to be with that boat theybegan so long ago."