Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE DARKER SIDE OF A PICTURE.

It was a sergeant old and gray,

Well singed and bronzed from siege and pillage, Went tramping in an army's wake,

Along the turnpike of the village.

For days and nights the winding host

Had through the little place been marching, And ever aloud the rustics cheered,

Till every throat was hoarse and parching.

The squire and farmer, maid and dame,
All took the sight's electric stirring,

And hats were waved, and staves were sung,
And kerchiefs white were countless whirring.

The sergeant heard the shrill hurrahs,

Where he behind in step was keeping;

But glancing down beside the road,
He saw a little maid sit weeping.

"And how is this?" he gruffly said,

66

A moment pausing to regard her;

Why weepest thou, my little chit?"

And then she only cried the harder.

"And how is this, my little chit?"

The sturdy trooper straight repeated, "When all the village cheers us on,

That thou, in tears, apart art seated?

"We march two hundred thousand strong,
And that's a sight, my baby beauty,
To quicken silence into song

And glorify the soldier's duty."

[merged small][ocr errors]

The little maid gave soft replying; "And father, mother, brother too,

All say Hurrah!' while I am crying.

"But think, oh Mr. Soldier, think,
How many little sisters' brothers
Are going all away to fight,

And may be killed, as well as others!"

"Why, bless thee, child!" the sergeant said,

His brawny hands her curls caressing,

""Tis left for little ones like thee

To find that war's not all a blessing."

And "Bless thee!" once again he cried;
He cleared his throat and looked indignant,
And marched away with wrinkled brow
To stop the struggling tear benignant.

And still the ringing shouts went up

From doorway, thatch, and fields of tillage;
The pall behind the standard seen

By one alone of all the village.

The oak and cedar bend and writhe

When roars the wind through gap and braken;

But 'tis the tenderest reed of all

That trembles first when earth is shaken.

DEFINITIONS.Pillage, robbery. Tûrn'pike, a highroad. Rus'tics, country people. Squire, a country gentleman. Stāves, snatches of songs. Chit, little child. Re gärd', look at. In dig'nant, angry. Be nig'nant, kind, loving. Till'age, cultivated land. Brā'ken, a brake, a thicket of underwoods.

A WHALING ADVENTURE.

BY FRANK T. BULLEN.

Through all the vicissitudes of this strange voyage, I had hitherto felt pretty safe, and as the last thing a man anticipates is the possibility of coming to grief himself, while fully prepared to see everybody else go under, so I had come to think that, whoever got killed, I was safe from harm. This kind of feeling is a very pleasant one, and enables a man to face dangers with a light heart, which otherwise would make a nerveless animal of him.

much to our satis

In this optimistic mood, then, I gayly flung myself into my place in the mate's boat one morning, as we were departing in chase of a magnificent cachalot, or sperm whale, that had been discovered just after breakfast. There were no other vessels in sight, faction, the wind was light, with a the whale was dead to leeward of us. a good rate toward our prospective victim, who was, in his leisurely enjoyment of life, calmly lolling on the surface, occasionally lifting his enormous tail out of water and letting it fall flat upon the surface with a boom audible for miles.

cloudless sky, and We sped along at

We were, as usual, first boat; but, much to our mate's annoyance, when we were a short half mile from the whale, our mainsheet parted. It became immediately necessary to roll the sail up, lest its flapping should alarm the watchful monster, and this delayed us sufficiently to allow the other boats to shoot ahead of us. Thus, the second mate got fast some seconds before we arrived on the scene, and seeing this we furled sail, unshipped the mast, and went in on him with oars only.

At first the proceedings were quite of the usual character, our chief wielding his lance in most brilliant fashion, while not being fast to the animal allowed us much greater freedom in our evolutions; but that fatal habit of the mate's of allowing his boat to take care of herself so long as he was getting in some good home thrustsonce more asserted itself. Although the whale was exceedingly vigorous, churning the sea into yeasty foam over an enormous area, there we wallowed close to him, right in the middle of the turmoil, actually courting disaster.

He had just settled down for a moment when, glancing over the gunwale, I saw his tail, like a vast shadow, sweeping away from us toward the second mate, who was lying off the other side of him. Before I had time to think, the mighty mass of gristle leaped into the sunshine, curved back from us like a huge bow. Then with a roar it came at us, released from its tension. Full on the broadside it struck us, sending every soul but me flying out of the wreckage as if fired from catapults. I did not go because my foot was jammed somehow in the well of the boat, but the wrench nearly pulled my thigh bone out of its socket.

I had hardly released my foot, when, towering above me, came the colossal head of the great creature, as he plowed through the bundle of débris that had just been a boat. There was an appalling roar of water in my ears, and darkness that might be felt all around. Yet, in the midst of it all, one thought predominated as clearly as if I had been turning it over in my mind in the quiet of my bunk aboard. "What if he should swallow me?" Nor to this day can I understand how I escaped the portals of his gullet, which of course gaped wide as a church door. But

the agony of holding my breath soon overpowered every other feeling and thought, till just as something was going to snap inside my head, I rose to the surface. I was surrounded by a welter of bloody froth, which made it impossible for me to see; but oh, the air was sweet!

I struck out blindly, instinctively, although I could feel so strong an eddy that voluntary progress was out of the question. My hand touched and clung to a rope, which immediately towed me in some direction — I neither knew nor cared whither. Soon the motion ceased, and, with a seaman's instinct, I began to haul myself along by the rope I grasped, although no definite idea was in my mind as to where it was attached. Presently I came square up against something solid, the feel of which gathered all my scattered wits into one thought of dread. It was the whale ! "Any port in a storm,” I murmured, beginning to haul away again on my friendly line.

66

By dint of hard work I pulled myself right up the sloping, slippery bank of blubber, until I reached the iron, which, as luck would have it, was planted in that side of the carcass now uppermost. Carcass I said - well, certainly I had no idea of there being any life remaining within the vast mass beneath me; yet I had hardly time to take a couple of turns round myself with the rope (or whale line, as I had proved it to be), when I felt the great animal quiver all over, and begin to forge ahead. I was now composed enough to remember that help could not be far away, and that my rescue, providing that I could keep above water, was but a question of a few minutes.

But I was hardly prepared for the whale's next move. His death being near at hand, the boats had drawn off a

« PreviousContinue »