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twg_000012587900 | All at once he took his pipe from his mouth and stared earnestly at the horizon. "Bob," said he, speaking very slowly, "if there ain't a ship right off the starboard beam, I'm a Dutchman." "You don't mean it!" said I, starting with a feeling of excitement. Before another word could be uttered, the cry of "Sail ho!" cam... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587901 | down from the mast-head. Instantly the quiet of the morning was broken; sleepers sprang up and rubbed their eyes, the men below rushed wildly up the hatchway, the cook came tearing out of his own private den, flourishing a soup-ladle in one hand and his tormentors in the other, the steward came tumbling up with a lump ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587902 | his fist that he had forgot to throw down in his haste, and the captain bolted up from the cabin without his hat. "Where away?" cried he, with more than his usual energy. "Right off the starboard beam, sir." "Square the yards! Look alive, my hearties," was the next order; for although the calm sea was like a sheet of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587903 | glass, a light air, just sufficient to fill our top-gallant sails, enabled us to creep through the water. "Hurrah!" shouted the men as we sprang to obey. "What does she look like?" roared the captain. "A big ship, sir, I think," replied the look-out, "but I can only just make out the top of her main t-gallan' s'l."--(S... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587904 | speak of _top-gallant sails_). Gradually, one by one, the white sails of the stranger rose up like cloudlets out of the sea, and our hearts beat high with hope and expectation as we beheld the towering canvas of a full-rigged ship rise slowly into view. "Show our colours," said the captain. In a moment the Union Jack o... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587905 | was waving at the mast-head in the gentle breeze, and we watched anxiously for a reply. The stranger was polite; his colours flew up a moment after, and displayed the Stripes and Stars of America. "A Yankee!" exclaimed some of the men in a tone of slight disappointment. I may remark, that our disappointment arose simpl... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587906 | there was no chance, as we supposed, of getting news from "home" out of a ship that must have sailed last from America. For the rest, we cared not whether they were Yankees or Britons--they were men who could speak the English tongue, that was enough for us. "Never mind, boys," cried one, "we'll have a jolly gam; that'... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587907 | fact." "So we will," said another, "and I'll get news of my mad Irish cousin, Terrence O'Flannagan, who went out to seek his fortin in Ameriky with two shillin's and a broken knife in his pocket, and it's been said he's got into a government situation o' some sort connected with the jails,-- whether as captain, or left... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587908 | or turnkey, I'm not rightly sure." "More likely as a life-tenant of one of the cells," observed Bill Blunt, laughing. "Don't speak ill of a better man than yerself behind his back," retorted the owner of the Irish cousin. "Stand by to lower the jolly-boat," cried the captain. "Ay, ay, sir." "Lower away!" In a few minut... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587909 | over the calm sea in the direction of the strange ship, for the breeze had died down, and we were too eager to meet with new faces, and to hear the sound of new voices, to wait for the wind. To our joy we found that the Yankee had had a gam (as I have already said) with an English | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587910 | ship a few days before, so we returned to our vessel loaded with old newspapers from England, having invited the captain and crew of the Yankee to come aboard of us and spend the day. While preparation was being made for the reception of our friends, we got hold of two of the old newspapers, and Tom Lokins seized one, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587911 | while Bill Blunt got the other, and both men sat down on the windlass to retail the news to a crowd of eager men who tried hard to listen to both at once, and so could make nothing out of either. "Hold hard, Tom Lokins," cried one. "What's that you say about the Emperor, Bill?" "The Emperor of Roosia," said | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587912 | Bill Blunt, reading slowly, and with difficulty, "is--stop a bit, messmates, wot _can_ this word be?--the Emperor of Roosia is--" "Blowed up with gunpowder, and shattered to a thousand pieces," said Tom Lokins, raising his voice with excitement, as he read from _his_ paper an account of the blowing up of a mountain for... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587913 | one at a time, if you please," cried a harpooner; "a feller can't git a word of sense out of sich a jumble." "Come, messmates," cried two or three voices, as Tom stopped suddenly, and looked hard at the paper, "go ahead! wot have ye got there that makes ye look as wise as an owl? Has war been and | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587914 | broke out with the French?" "I do believe he's readin' the births, marriages, and deaths," said one of the men, peeping over Tom's shoulder. "Read 'em out, then, can't ye?" cried another. "I say, Bill Blunt, I think this consarns _you_," cried Tom: "isn't your sweetheart's name Susan Croft?" "That's a fact," said Bill,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587915 | who has got a word to say agin the prettiest lass in all Liverpool?" "Nobody's got a word to say against her," replied Tom; "but she's married, that's all." Bill Blunt leaped up as if he had been shot, and the blood rushed to his face, as he seized the paper, and tried to find the place. "Where is it, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587916 | Tom? let me see it with my own two eyes. Oh, here it is!" The poor man's face grew paler and paler as he read the following words:-- "Married at Liverpool, on the 5th inst, by the Reverend Charles Manson, Edward Gordon, Esquire, to Susan, youngest daughter of Admiral Croft--" A perfect roar of laughter drowned the rema... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587917 | sentence. "Well done, Bill Blunt--Mister Blunt, we'll have to call him hereafter," said Tom, with a grim smile; "I had no notion you thought so much o' yourself as to aim at an admiral's daughter." "All right, my hearties, chaff away!" said Bill, fetching a deep sigh of relief, while a broad grin played on his weather-... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587918 | Susan Crofts, that's all; but I wouldn't give _my_ Susan for all the Admirals' daughters that ever walked in shoe-leather." "Hallo! here come the Yankees," cried the captain, coming on deck at that moment. Our newspapers were thrown down at once, and we prepared to receive our guests, who, we could see, had just put of... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587919 | two boats. But before they had come within a mile of us, their attention, as well as ours, was riveted on a most extraordinary sight. Not more than a hundred yards ahead of our ship, a whale came suddenly to the surface of the water, seeming, by its wild motions, to be in a state of terror. It continued for | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587920 | some time to struggle, and lash the whole sea around it into a white foam. At once the boats were lowered from both ships, and we went after this fish, but his motions were so violent, that we found it utterly impossible to get near enough to throw a harpoon. When we had approached somewhat closely, we discovered that ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587921 | had been attacked by a killer fish, which was fully twenty feet long, and stuck to it like a leech. The monster's struggles were made in trying to shake itself free of this tremendous enemy, but it could not accomplish this. The killer held him by the under jaw, and hung on there, while the whale threw himself out of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587922 | the water in his agony, with his great mouth open like a huge cavern, and the blood flowing so fast from the wound that the sea was dyed for a long distance round. The killer fought like a bulldog. It held on until the whale was exhausted, but they passed away from us in such a confused struggle, that a | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587923 | harpoon could not be fixed for an hour after we first saw them. On this being done, the killer let go, and the whale, being already half dead, was soon killed. The Yankee boats were the first to come up with this fish, so the prize belonged to them. We were well pleased at this, as we could afford to | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587924 | let them have it, seeing that we could scarcely have found room to stow away the oil in our hold. It was the Yankees' first fish, too, so they were in great spirits about it, and towed it to their ship, singing "Yankee-doodle" with all their might. As they passed our boat the captain hailed them. "I wish you joy | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587925 | of your first fish, sir," said he to the Yankee captain. "Thank you, stranger. I guess we're in luck, though it ain't a big one. I say, what sort o' brute was that, that had hold of him? Never seed sich a crittur in all my life." "He's a killer," said our captain. "A killer! Guess he just is, and | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587926 | no mistake: if we hadn't helped him, he'd have done the job for himself! What does he kill him for?" "To eat him, but I'm told he only eats the tongue. You'll not forget that you've promised to gam with us to-night," cried our captain, as they were about to commence pulling again. "All right, stranger, one half will co... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587927 | to-night, before sundown; t'other half to-morrow, if the calm holds. Good-day. Give way, lads." The men dipped their oars, and resumed their song, while we pulled back to our ship. We did not offer to help them, because the fish was a small one, and the distance they had to go not great. It was near sunset when, accord... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587928 | promise, the Yankees came on board, and spent a long evening with us. They were a free, open-hearted, boastful, conceited, good-humoured set of fellows, and a jolly night we had of it in the forecastle, while the mates and captains were enjoying themselves and spinning their yarns in the cabin. Of course, we began with... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587929 | when we had pumped out of them every drop they had, we began to sing songs and to spin yarns. And it was now that my friend Tom Lokins came out strong, and went on at such a rate, that he quite won the hearts of our guests. Tom was not noisy, and he was slow in his talk, but | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587930 | us, and rowed away with a parting cheer. CHAPTER TEN. RETURN HOME. Six months after our "gam" with the Yankees Tom Lokins and I found ourselves seated once more in the little garret beside my dear old mother. "Deary me, Robert, how changed ye are!" "Changed, mother! I should think so! If you'd gone through all that I'v... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587931 | seen since we last sat together in this room you'd be changed too." "And have ye really seen the whales, my boy?" continued my mother, stroking my face with her old hand. "Seen them? ay, and killed them too--many of them." "You've been in danger, my son," said my mother earnestly, "but God has preserved you safe throug... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587932 | "Ay, mother, He has preserved my life in the midst of many dangers," said I, "for which I am most thankful." There was a short silence after this, during which my mother and I gazed earnestly at each other, and Tom Lokins smoked his pipe and stared at the fire. "Robert, how big is a whale?" inquired my mother suddenly. | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587933 | "How big? why, it's as big as a small ship, only it's longer, and not quite so fat." "Robert," replied my mother gravely, "ye didn't used to tell untruths; ye must be jokin'." "Joking, mother, I was never more in earnest in my life. Why, I tell you that I've seen, ay, and helped to cut up, whales that were | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587934 | more than sixty feet long, with heads so big that their mouths could have taken in a boat. Why, mother, I declare to you that you could put this room into a whale's mouth, and you and Tom and I could sit round this table and take our tea upon his tongue quite comfortable. Isn't that true, Tom?" My mother | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587935 | looked at Tom, who removed his pipe, puffed a cloud of smoke, and nodded his head twice very decidedly. "Moreover," said I, "a whale is so big and strong, that it can knock a boat right up into the air, and break in the sides of a ship. One day a whale fell right on top of one of our | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587936 | boats, and smashed it all to bits. Now that's a real truth!" Again my mother looked at Tom Lokins, and again that worthy man puffed an immense cloud of smoke, and nodded his head more decidedly than before. Being anxious to put to flight all her doubts at once, he said solemnly, "Old ooman, that's a fact!" "Robert," sa... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587937 | mother, "tell me something about the whales." Just as she said this the door opened, and in came the good old gentleman with the nose like his cane-knob, and with as kind a heart as ever beat in a human breast. My mother had already told me that he came to see her regularly once a week, ever since I | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587938 | went to sea, except in summer, when he was away in the country, and that he had never allowed her to want for anything. I need scarcely say that there was a hearty meeting between us three, and that we had much to say to each other. But in the midst of it all my mother turned to the old | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587939 | gentleman and said-- "Robert was just going to tell me something about his adventures with the whales." "That's capital!" cried the old gentleman, rubbing his hands. "Come, Bob, my boy, let's hear about 'em." Being thus invited, I consented to spin them a yarn. The old gentleman settled himself in his chair, my mother ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587940 | and looked meekly into my face. Tom Lokins filled his pipe, stretched out his foot to poke the fire with the toe of his shoe, and began to smoke like a steam-engine; then I cleared my throat and began my tale, and before I had done talking that night, I had told them all that I have told in this | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587941 | little book, almost word for word. Thus ended my first voyage to the South Seas. Many and many a trip have I made since then, and many a wonderful sight have I seen, both in the south and in the north. But if I were to write an account of all my adventures, my little book would grow into a | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587942 | big one; I must therefore come to a close. The profits of this voyage were so great, that I was enabled to place my mother in a position of comfort for the rest of her life, which, alas! was very short. She died about six months after my return. I nursed her to the end, and, when I laid her | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587943 | dear head in the grave, my heart seemed to die within me, for I felt that I had lost one of God's most precious gifts--an honest, gentle, pious mother. I'm getting to be a old man now, but I am comfortable and happy, and as I have more than enough of this world's goods, and no family to care for, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587944 | my chief occupation is to look after the poor, and particularly the old women who live in my neighbourhood. After the work of the day is done, I generally go and spend the evening with Tom Lokins, who lives near by, and is stout and hearty still; or he comes and spends it with me, and, while we smoke our | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587945 | pipes together, we often fall to talking about those stirring days when, in the strength and hope of youth, we sailed together to the South Seas, and took to--_Fighting the Whales_. THE END. | 33 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587946 | Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England FORT DESOLATION, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE. CHAPTER ONE. OR, SOLITUDE IN THE WILDERNESS. THE OUTSKIRTER. To some minds solitude is depressing, to others it is congenial. It was the _former_ to our friend John Robinson; yet he had a large share of it in his chequered life. John--more ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587947 | as his name was the reverse. To look at him you would have supposed that he was the most ordinary of common-place men, but if you had known him, as we did, you would have discovered that there was a deep, silent, but ever-flowing river of enthusiasm, energy, fervour--in a word, romance--in his soul, which seldom or nev... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587948 | in words, and only now and then, on rare occasions, flashed out in a lightning glance, or blazed up in a fiery countenance. For the most part Jack was calm as a mill-pond, deep as the Atlantic, straightforward and grave as an undertaker's clerk and good-humoured as an unspoilt and healthy child. Jack never made a joke,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587949 | could enjoy one; and he had a way of showing his enjoyment by a twinkle in his blue eye and a chuckle in his throat that was peculiarly impressive. Jack was a type of a large class. He was what we may call an _outskirter_ of the world. He was one of those who, from the force of necessity, or | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587950 | of self-will, or of circumstances, are driven to the outer circle of this world to do as Adam and Eve's family did, battle with Nature in her wildest scenes and moods; to earn his bread, literally, in the sweat of his brow. Jack was a middle-sized man of strong make. He was not sufficiently large to overawe men by his | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587951 | size, neither was he so small as to invite impertinence from "big bullies," of whom there were plenty in his neighbourhood. In short, being an unpretending man and a plain man, with a good nose and large chin and sandy hair, he was not usually taken much notice of by strangers during his journeyings in the world; but w... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587952 | action in cases of emergency was required Jack Robinson was the man to make himself conspicuous. It is not our intention to give an account of Jack's adventurous life from beginning to end, but to detail the incidents of a sojourn of two months at Fort Desolation, in almost utter solitude, in order to show one of the m... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587953 | of rough life to which outskirters are frequently subjected. In regard to his early life it may be sufficient to say that Jack, after being born, created such perpetual disturbance and storm in the house that his worthy father came to look upon him as a perfect pest, and as soon as possible sent him to a public school,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587954 | he fought like a Mameluke Bey, learned his lessons with the zeal of a philosopher, and, at the end of ten years ran away to sea, where he became as sick as a dog and as miserable as a convicted felon. Poor Jack was honest of heart and generous of spirit, but many a long hard year did he spend | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587955 | in the rugged parts of the earth ere he recovered, (if he ever did recover), from the evil effects of this first false step. In course of time Jack was landed in Canada, with only a few shillings in his pocket; from that period he became an outskirter. The romance in his nature pointed to the backwoods; he went thither | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587956 | at once, and was not disappointed. At first the wild life surpassed his expectations, but as time wore on the tinsel began to wear off the face of things, and he came to see them as they actually were. Nevertheless, the romance of life did not wear out of his constitution. Enthusiasm, quiet but deep, stuck to him all t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587957 | his career, and carried him on and over difficulties that would have disgusted and turned back many a colder spirit. Jack's first success was the obtaining of a situation as clerk in the store of a general merchant in an outskirt settlement of Canada. Dire necessity drove him to this. He had been three weeks without mo... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587958 | days without food before he succumbed. Having given in, however, he worked like a Trojan, and would certainly have advanced himself in life if his employer had not failed and left him, minus a portion of his salary, to "try again." Next, he became an engineer on board one of the Missouri steamers, in which capacity he ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587959 | and threw himself and the passengers into the river--the captain having adopted the truly Yankee expedient of sitting down on the safety-valve while racing with another boat! Afterwards, Jack Robinson became clerk in one of the Ontario steam-boats, but, growing tired of this life, he went up the Ottawa, and became over... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587960 | of civilisation, he saw the roughest of Canadian life. The lumbermen of that district are a mixed race--French-Canadians, Irishmen, Indians, half-castes, etcetera,--and whatever good qualities these men might possess in the way of hewing timber and bush-life, they were sadly deficient in the matters of morality and tem... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587961 | his cards well. He jested with the jocular, sympathised with the homesick, doctored the ailing in a rough and ready fashion peculiarly his own, and avoided the quarrelsome. Thus he became a general favourite. Of course it was not to be expected that he could escape an occasional broil, and it was herein that his early ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587962 | service. He had been trained in an English school where he became one of the best boxers. The lumberers on the Ottawa were not practised in this science; they indulged in that kicking, tearing, pommelling sort of mode which is so repugnant to the feelings of an Englishman. The consequence was that Jack had few fights, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587963 | with the largest bullies of the district; and he, in each case, inflicted such tremendous facial punishment on his opponent that he became a noted man, against whom few cared to pit themselves. There are none so likely to enjoy peace as those who are prepared for war. Jack used sometimes to say, with a smile, that his ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587964 | were the price he had to pay for peace. Our hero was unlucky. The saw-mill failed--its master being a drunkard. When that went down he entered the lumber trade, where he made the acquaintance of a young Scotchman, of congenial mind and temperament, who suggested the setting up of a store in a promising locality and pro... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587965 | "Murray and Robinson" was forthwith painted by the latter, (who was a bit of an artist), over the door of a small log-house, and the store soon became well known and much frequented by the sparse population as well as by those engaged in the timber trade. But "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587966 | strong." There must have been a screw loose somewhere, for bad debts accumulated and losses were incurred which finally brought the firm to the ground, and left its dissevered partners to begin the world over again! After this poor Jack Robinson fell into low spirits for a time, but he soon recovered, and bought a smal... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587967 | a nominal price in a region so wild that he had to cut his own road to it, fell the trees with his own hand, and, in short, reclaim it from the wilderness on the margin of which it lay. This was hard work, but Jack liked hard work, and whatever work he undertook he always did it well. Strange | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587968 | that such a man could not get on! yet so it was, that, in a couple of years, he found himself little better off than he had been when he entered on his new property. The region, too, was not a tempting one. No adventurous spirits had located themselves beside him, and only a few had come within several miles | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587969 | of his habitation. This did not suit our hero's sociable temperament, and he began to despond very much. Still his sanguine spirit led him to persevere, and there is no saying how long he might have continued to spend his days and his energies in felling trees and sowing among the stumps and hoping for better days, had... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587970 | views been changed and his thoughts turned into another channel by a letter. CHAPTER TWO. THE LETTER, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. One fine spring morning Jack was sitting, smoking his pipe after breakfast, at the door of his log cabin, looking pensively out upon the tree-stump-encumbered field which constituted his farm. He ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587971 | consequence of there being neither mountain nor hill larger than an inverted wash-hand basin, within ten miles of him! He was wont to defend the misnomer on the ground that it served to keep him in remembrance of the fact that hills really existed in other parts of the world. Jack was in a desponding mood. His pipe wou... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587972 | "draw" that morning; and his mind had been more active than usual for a few days past, revolving the past, the present, and the future. In short, Jack was cross. There could be no doubt whatever about it; for he suddenly, and without warning, dashed his pipe to pieces against a log, went into the house for another, whi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587973 | calmly filled, as he resumed his former seat, lit, and continued to smoke for some time in sulky silence. We record this fact because it was quite contrary to Jack's amiable and patient character, and showed that some deep emotions were stirring within him. The second pipe "drew" well. Probably it was this that induced... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587974 | the expression-- "I wonder how long this sort of thing will last?" "Just as long as you've a mind to let it, and no longer," answered a man clad in the garb of a trapper, whose mocassin foot had given no indication of his approach until he was within a couple of paces of the door. "Is that you, Joe?" | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587975 | said Jack, looking up, and pointing to a log which served as a seat on the other side of the doorway. "It's all that's of me," replied Joe. "Sit down and fill your pipe out of my pouch, Joe. It's good 'baccy, you'll find. Any news? I suppose not. There never is; and if there was, what would be the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587976 | odds to me?" "In the blues?" remarked the hunter, regarding Jack with a peculiar smile through his first puff of smoke. "Rather!" said Jack. "Grog?" inquired Joe. "Haven't tasted a drop for months," replied Jack. "All square _here_?" inquired the hunter, tapping his stomach. "Could digest gun-flints and screw nails!" T... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587977 | drew forth a soiled letter, which he handed to his companion, saying-- "It's bin lying at the post-office for some weeks, and as the postmaster know'd I was comin' here he asked me to take it. I've a notion it may be an offer to buy your clearin', for I've heerd two or three fellows speakin' about it. Now, as | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587978 | I want to buy it myself, if yer disposed to sell it, I hereby make you the first offer." Jack Robinson continued to smoke in silence, gazing abstractedly at the letter. Since his mother had died, a year before the date of which we write, he had not received a line from any one, insomuch that he had given up | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587979 | calling at the post-office on his occasional visits to the nearest settlement. This letter, therefore, took him by surprise, all the more that it was addressed in the handwriting of his former partner, Murray. Breaking the seal, he read as follows: "Fort Kamenistaquoia, April the somethingth:-- "Dear Jack,--You'll be s... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587980 | was to hear from an old hunter just arrived, that you had taken to farming. It's not your forte, Jack, my boy. Be advised. Sell off the farm for what it will fetch, and come and join me. My antecedents are not in my favour, I grant; but facts are stubborn things, and it is a fact that I am | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587981 | making dollars here like stones. I'm a fur-trader, my boy. Have joined a small company, and up to this time have made a good thing of it. You know something of the fur trade, if I mistake not. Do come and join us; we want such a man as you at a new post we have established on the coast | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587982 | of Labrador. Shooting, fishing, hunting, _ad libitum_. Eating, drinking, sleeping, _ad infinitum_. What would you more? Come, like a good fellow, and be happy! "Ever thine, J. MURRAY." "I'll sell the _farm_," said Jack Robinson, folding the letter. "You will?" exclaimed Joe. "What's your price?" "Come over it with me, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587983 | Jack. They went over it together, and looked at every fence and stump and implement. They visited the live stock, and estimated the value of the sprouting crop. Then they returned to the house, where they struck a bargain off-hand. That evening Jack bade adieu to the Mountain House, mounted his horse, with his worldly ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587984 | the saddle, and rode away, leaving Joe, the trapper, in possession. In process of time our hero rode through the settlements to Montreal, where he sold his horse, purchased a few necessaries, and made his way down the Saint Lawrence to the frontier settlements of the bleak and almost uninhabited north shore of the gulf... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587985 | in engaging a man to go with him, in a canoe, towards the coast of Labrador. An Irishman, in a fit of despondency, at length agreed; but on reaching a saw-mill that had been established by a couple of adventurous Yankees, in a region that seemed to be the out-skirts of creation, Paddy repented, and vowed he'd go no far... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587986 | for love or money. Jack Robinson earnestly advised the faithless man to go home, and help his grandmother, thenceforth, to plant murphies; after which he embarked in his canoe alone, and paddled away into the dreary north. Camping out in the woods at night, paddling all day, and living on biscuit and salt pork, with an... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587987 | by way of variety; never seeing a human face from morn till night, nor hearing the sound of any voice except his own, Jack pursued his voyage for fourteen days. At the end of that time he descried Fort Kamenistaquoia. It consisted of four small log-houses, perched on a conspicuous promontory, with a flag-staff in the m... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587988 | he was welcomed warmly by his friend John Murray and his colleagues, and was entertained for three days sumptuously on fresh salmon, salt pork, pancakes, and tea. Intellectually, he was regaled with glowing accounts of the fur trade and the salmon fisheries of that region. "Now, Jack," said Murray, on the third day aft... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587989 | front of the fort, smoking a morning pipe, "it is time that you were off to the new fort. One of our best men has built it, but he is not a suitable person to take charge, and as the salmon season has pretty well advanced we are anxious to have you there to look after the salting and sending | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587990 | of them to Quebec." "What do you call the new fort?" inquired Jack. "Well, it has not yet got a name. We've been so much in the habit of styling it the New Fort that the necessity of another name has not occurred to us. Perhaps, as you are to be its first master, we may leave the naming of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587991 | it to you." "Very good," said Jack; "I am ready at a moment's notice. Shall I set off this forenoon?" "Not quite so sharp as that," replied Murray, laughing. "To-morrow morning, at day-break, will do. There is a small sloop lying in a creek about twenty miles below this. We beached her there last autumn. You'll go down... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587992 | boat with three men, and haul her into deep water. There will be spring tides in two days, so, with the help of tackle, you'll easily manage it. Thence you will sail to the new fort, forty miles farther along the coast, and take charge." "The three men you mean to give me know their work, I presume?" said Jack. | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587993 | "Of course they do. None of them have been at the fort, however." "Oh! How then shall we find it?" inquired Jack. "By observation," replied the other. "Keep a sharp look out as you coast along, and you can't miss it." The idea of mists and darkness and storms occurred to Jack Robinson, but he only answered, "Very good.... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587994 | any of the three men navigate the sloop?" he inquired. "Not that I'm aware of," said Murray; "but you know something of navigation, yourself, don't you?" "No! nothing!" "Pooh! nonsense. Have you never sailed a boat?" "Yes, occasionally." "Well, it's the same thing. If a squall comes, keep a steady hand on the helm and ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587995 | and you're safe as the Bank. If it's too strong for you, loose the halyards, let the sheets fly, and down with the helm; the easiest thing in the world if you only look alive and don't get flurried." "Very good," said Jack, and as he said so his pipe went out; so he knocked out the ashes and refilled | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587996 | it. Next morning our hero rowed away with his three men, and soon discovered the creek of which his friend had spoken. Here he found the sloop, a clumsy "tub" of about twenty tons burden, and here Jack's troubles began. The _Fairy_, as the sloop was named, happened to have been beached during a very high tide. It now l... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587997 | high and dry in what once had been mud, on the shore of a land-locked bay or pond, under the shadow of some towering pines. The spot looked like an inland lakelet, on the margin of which one might have expected to find a bear or a moose-deer, but certainly not a sloop. "Oh! ye shall nevair git him off," | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587998 | said Francois Xavier, one of the three men--a French-Canadian--on beholding the stranded vessel. "We'll try," said Pierre, another of the three men, and a burly half-breed. "Try!" exclaimed Rollo, the third of the three men--a tall, powerful, ill-favoured man, who was somewhat of a bully, who could not tell where he ha... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012587999 | father and mother had been, having been forsaken by them in his infancy. "Try? you might as well try to lift a mountain! I've a mind to go straight back to Kamenistaquoia and tell Mr Murray that to his face!" "Have you?" said Jack Robinson, in a quiet, peculiar tone, accompanied by a gaze that had the effect of causing | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
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