Shifting Winds by Robert Michael Ballantyne (epub e ink reader txt) 📖

an' little knew wot a bad lot she got when she set her heart on me."

"Father, that's not true."

"Ain't it, lass? Well, let it pass, but then this feller, this Dan Hursey--"

"Horsey, father," said Susan.

"Well, well, it ain't much better; this Horsey is an Irishman, an' I don't like Irishmen."

"Father, you'd get to like 'em if you only knew 'em better," said Susan earnestly. "What bell's that?" she added, as a loud ringing echoed through the house.

"The dinner bell, lass. Come an' see wot a comf'rable feed they git. I can tell 'ee that them Sailors' Homes is the greatest blessin' that was ever got up for us sea-dogs. We ain't 'xactly such soft good natur'd ignorant big babies as some o' your well-meanin' pheelanthropists would make us out; but we _are_ uncommon hard put to it when we git ashore, for every port is alive with crimps an' land-sharks to swaller us up when we come off a long voyage; an' the wust of it is, that we're in a wild reckless humour for the most part when we git ashore with our pockets full o' yellow boys, an' are too often quite willin' to _be_ swallered up, so that lots of us are constantly a-goin' to sticks an' stivers. An' then before the Homes was set a-goin', the fellers as wanted to get quiet lodgin's didn't find it easy to know where to look for 'em, an' was often took in; an' when they wanted to send cash to their wives or mothers, they didn't well know how to manage it; but now, wherever there's a Home you can git cheap board, good victuals, help in the way o' managin' yer cash, an' no end of advice gratis. It's only a pity there ain't one or two of 'em in every port in the kingdom.

"See here," continued Haco, warming with his subject as he led Susan past the dormitories where the Russians, who had been maimed during the recent wrecks, were being supplied with dinner in their berths, "see here,--another o' the best o' the institootions o' this land looks arter them poor fellers, an' pays their shot for 'em as long as they're here, an' sends them to their homes free of expense--that's the Shipwrecked Fishermen's and Mariners' Society. You've heerd o' that Society, Susan, haven't 'ee?"

"No father, never."

"What, never heerd o' the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society with its hundreds o' honorary agents all round the coast, who have done more to dry the tears o' orphans an' comfort widders' hearts than tongue can tell?--Never heerd o' it, an' you a sailor's daughter?"

"I daresay I'm very stupid for being so ignorant, father; but I never heard of it. You know I've spent most o' my life inland with old Auntie Bess, an' only come here this year.

"Mayhap," continued Haco, shaking his head gravely, "you've never heer'd, neither, o' the Lifeboat Institootion."

"Never," said Susan meekly. "I've seen the lifeboat we have here, you know, but I never heard of the Institootion."

"Well, well, Susan, I needn't be surprised, for, to say truth, there's many in this country, who think no small beer o' theirselves, that know precious little about either the one or the other, although they're the most valooable Institootions in the country. I'll tell 'ee about 'em, lass, some other time--how they saves hundreds o' lives, an' relieves no end o' distress annooally. It's enough just now to say that the two Institootions is what I calls brother an' sister--the Lifeboat one bein' the brother; the Shipwrecked Mariners' one bein' the sister. The brother, besides savin' thousands o' pounds worth o' goods, saves hundreds o' lives every year. But when the brother has saved the shipwrecked sailor, his work is done. He hands him over to the sister, who clothes him, feeds him, warms him--as you see bein' done to them there Roosians--and then sends him home. Every sailor in the country should be a member o' the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society, say I. I've been one myself for many years, an' it only costs me three shillings a year. I'll tell 'ee some other time what good it does me; but just now you an' I shall go an' have some grub."

"Where shall we go to get it, father?"

"To the refreshment room below, lass. It won't do to take ye to the dinin' hall o' the Home for three reasons,--first, 'cause ye're a 'ooman, an' they ain't admitted; second, 'cause it wouldn't be pleasant for ye to dine wi' forty or fifty Jack-tars; and, thirdly, if ye wanted it ever so much yer old father wouldn't let ye--so come along, lass, to dinner."


CHAPTER TEN.


THE DINNER IN THE RESTAURANT--HACO MEETS AN OLD FRIEND AND BECOMES COMMUNICATIVE.

The room to which Haco led his daughter was a small oblong one, divided off into compartments similar to those with which we are familiar in eating-houses and restaurants of the poorer class. It formed part of the Home, but was used by the general public as well as by seamen, who wished to order a meal at any time and pay for it.

Haco Barepoles, being at the time a boarder in the home, was entitled to his dinner in the general mess-room, but being bent on enjoying his meal in company with Susan, he chose to forego his rights on that occasion.

Being the hour at which a number of seamen, labourers, clerks, and others were wont to experience the truth of the great fact that nature abhors a vacuum, the room was pretty full, and a brisk demand was going on for soup, tea, coffee, rolls, and steaks, etcetera, all of which were supplied on the most moderate terms, in order to accommodate the capacities of the poorest purse.

In this temple of luxury you could get a small bowl of good soup for one penny, which, with a halfpenny roll, might form a dinner to any one whose imagination was so strong as to enable him to believe he had had enough. Any one who was the fortunate possessor of threepence, could, by doubling the order, really feel his appetite appeased. Then for those whose poverty was extreme, or appetite unusually small, a little cup of tea could be supplied for one halfpenny--and a good cup of tea too, not particularly strong, it is true, but with a fair average allowance of milk and sugar.

"Waiter," cried Haco Barepoles in a voice that commanded instant attention.

"Yessir."

"Soup for two, steaks an' 'taties for ditto to foller."

"Yessir."

"Please, father, I would like a cup of coffee after the soup instead of a steak. I don't feel very hungry."

"All right, lass. Waiter, knock off one o' the steaks an' clap a cup o' coffee in its place."

"Yessir. Roll with it, Miss?"

"Of course," said Haco.

"Butter, Miss?"

"Sartinly. An' double allowance o' milk an' sugar," replied the skipper. "S'pose you han't got cream?"

"No sir."

"Never mind. Look alive now, lad. Come, Susan, here's a box with only one man in't, we'll--Hallo! shiver my timbers if it ain't--no--it can't be--Stephen Gaff, eh! or his ghost?"

"Just so," said Stephen, laying down his knife and fork, and shaking warmly the hand which Haco stretched across the table to him; "I'm always turnin' up now an' again like a bad shillin'. How goes life with 'ee, Haco? you don't seem to have multiplied the wrinkles since I last saw ye."

"Thank 'ee, I'm pretty comf'rable. This is my darter Susan," said Haco, observing that his friend glanced inquiringly at his fair companion--"The world always uses me much the same. I find it a roughish customer, but it finds me a jolly one, an' not easily put out. When did I see ye last? Let me see,--two years come Christmas. Why, I've been wrecked three times since then, run down twice, an' drownded at least half-a-dozen times; but by good luck they always manages to bring me round--rowsussitate me, as the doctors call it."

"Ay, you've had hard times of it," observed Gaff, finishing his last morsel of meat, and proceeding to scrape up the remains of gravy and potato with his knife; "I've bin wrecked myself sin' we last met, but only once, and that warn't long ago, just the last gale. You coasters are worse off than we are. Commend me to blue water, and plenty o' sea-room."

"I believe you, my boy," responded the skipper. "There's nothin' like a good offing an' a tight ship. We stand but a poor chance as we go creepin' 'long shore in them rotten tubs, that are well named `Coal-Coffins.' Why, if it comes on thick squally weather or a gale when yer dodgin' off an' on, the `Coal-Coffins' go down by dozens. Mayhap at the first burst o' the gale you're hove on your beam-ends, an' away go the masts, leavin' ye to drift ashore or sink; or p'raps you're sharp enough to get in sail, and have all snug, when, just as ye're weatherin' a headland, away goes the sheet o' the jib, jib's blowed to ribbons, an' afore ye know where ye are, `breakers on the lee bow!' is the cry. Another gust, an' the rotten foretops'l's blow'd away, carryin' the fore-topmast by the board, which, of course, takes the jib-boom along with it, if it an't gone before. Then it's `stand by to let go the anchor.' `Let go!' `Ay, ay, sir.' Down it goes, an' the `Coffin's' brought up sharp; not a moment too soon, mayhap, for ten to one but you see an' hear the breakers, roarin' like mad, thirty yards or so astern. It may be good holdin' ground, but what o' that?--the anchor's an old 'un, or too small; the fluke gives way, and ye're adrift; or the cable's too small, and can't stand the strain, so you let go both anchors, an' ye'd let go a dozen more if ye had 'em for dear life; but it's o' no use. First one an' then the other parts; the stern is crushed in a'most afore ye can think, an' in two minutes more, if not less, it's all up with ye, unless there's a lifeboat at hand."

"Ah! pity there's not more of 'em on the coast," said Gaff.

"True," rejoined Haco, "many a poor feller's saved every year by them blessed boats, as would otherwise have gone to the bottom, an' left widder and childer to weep for him, an' be a burden, more or less, on the country."

The waiter appeared at this point in the conversation with the soup, so Haco devoted himself to dinner, while Gaff ordered a plate of bread and cheese extra in order to keep him company. For some minutes they all ate in silence. Then Haco, during the interval between the courses, informed Gaff that he expected to return to the port of London in a day or two; whereupon Gaff said that he just happened to be lookin' out for a ship goin' there, as he had business to do in the great city, and offered to work his way. The skipper readily promised to ship him as an extra hand, if the owner chose to send the `Coffin' to sea without repairs, "which," observed Haco, "is not unlikely, for he's a close-fisted customer."