The Pioneers (26 page)

Remarkable had been one of the listeners to Mr. Grant, and returned with her resentment, which had been not a little excited by the language of the Judge, somewhat softened by reflection and the worship. She recollected the youth of Elizabeth, and thought it no difficult task, under present appearances, to exercise that power indirectly, which hitherto she had enjoyed undisputed. The idea of being governed, or of being compelled to pay the deference of servitude, was absolutely intolerable; and she had already determined within herself, some half dozen times, to make an effort, that should at once bring to an issue the delicate point of her domestic condition. But as often as she met the dark, proud eye of Elizabeth, who was walking up and down the apartment, musing on the scenes of her youth, and the change in her condition, and perhaps the events of the day, the housekeeper experienced an awe that she would not own to herself could be excited by anything mortal. It, however, checked her advances, and for some time held her tongue-tied. At length she determined to commence the discourse by entering on a subject that was apt to level all human distinctions, and in which she might display her own abilities.

“It was quite a wordy sarmon that Parson Grant gave us tonight,” said Remarkable. “The Church ministers be commonly smart sarmonizers; but they write down their idees, which is a great privilege. I don't think that by nater, they are as tonguey speakers, for an offhand discourse, as the standing-order ministers.”

“And what denomination do you distinguish as the standing order?” inquired Miss Temple, with some surprise.

“Why, the Presbyter'ans and Congregationals, and Baptists, too, for-ti'-now; and all sitch as don't go on their knees to prayer.”

“By that rule, then, you would call those who belong to the persuasion of my father, the sitting order,” observed Elizabeth.

“I'm sure I've never heard 'em spoken of by any other name than Quakers, so called,” returned Remarkable, betraying a slight uneasiness. “I should be the last to call them otherwise, for I never in my life used a disparaging tarm of the Judge, or any of his family. I've always set store by the Quakers, they are so pretty-spoken, clever people; and it's a wonderment to me how your father come to marry into a church family; for they are as contrary in religion as can be. One sits still, and for the most part, says nothing, while the church folks practyse all kinds of ways, so that I sometimes think it quite moosical to see them; for I went to a church meeting once before, down country.”

“You have found an excellence in the church liturgy that has hitherto escaped me. I will thank you to inquire whether the fire in my room burns: I feel fatigued with my journey, and will retire.”

Remarkable felt a wonderful inclination to tell the young mistress of the mansion, that by opening a door she might see for herself; but prudence got the better of resentment, and after pausing some little time, as a salvo to her dignity, she did as desired. The report was favorable, and the young lady, wishing Benjamin, who was filling the stove with wood, and the housekeeper, each a good night, withdrew.

The instant the door closed on Miss Temple, Remarkable commenced a sort of mysterious, ambiguous discourse, that was neither abusive nor commendatory of the qualities of the absent personage; but which seemed to be drawing nigh, by regular degrees, to a most dissatisfied description. The major-domo made no reply, but continued his occupation with great industry, which being happily completed, he took a look at the thermometer, and then, opening a drawer of the sideboard, he produced a supply of stimulants that would have served to keep the warmth in his system without the aid of the enormous fire he had been building. A small stand was drawn up near the stove, and the bottles and the glasses necessary for convenience were quietly arranged. Two chairs were placed by the side of this comfortable situation, when Benjamin, for the first time, appeared to observe his companion.

“Come,” he cried, “come, Mistress Remarkable, bring yourself to an anchor in this chair. It's a peeler without, I can tell you, good woman; but what cares I? Blow high or blow low, d'ye see, it's all the same thing to Ben. The niggers are snug stowed below before a fire that would roast an ox whole. The thermometer stands now at fifty-five, but if there's any vartue in good maple wood, I'll weather upon it, before one glass, as much as ten points more, so that the Squire, when he comes home from Betty Hollister's warm room, will feel as hot as a hand that has given the rigging a lick with bad tar. Come, mistress, bring up in this here chair, and tell me how you like our new heiress.”

“Why, to my notion, Mr. Penguillan——”

“Pump, Pump,” interrupted Benjamin; “it's Christmas Eve, Mistress Remarkable, and so, d'ye see, you had better call me Pump. It's a shorter name, and as I mean to pump this here pecanter till it sucks, why you may as well call me Pump.”

“Did you ever!” cried Remarkable, with a laugh that seemed to unhinge every joint in her body. “You're a moosical creater, Benjamin, when the notion takes you. But as I was saying, I rather guess that times will be altered now in this house.”

“Altered!” exclaimed the major-domo, eying the bottle that was assuming the clear aspect of cut glass with astonishing rapidity; “it don't matter much, Mistress Remarkable, so long as I keep the keys of the lockers in my pocket.”

“I can't say,” continued the housekeeper, “but there's good eatables and drinkables enough in the house for a body's content—a little more sugar, Benjamin, in the glass—for Squire Jones is an excellent provider. But new lords, new laws; and I shouldn't wonder if you and I had an unsartain time on't in footer.”

“Life is as unsartain as the wind that blows,” said Benjamin, with a moralizing air; “and nothing is more vari'ble than the wind, Mistress Remarkable, unless you happen to fall in with the trades, d'ye see, and then you may run for the matter of a month at a time, with studding sails on both sides, alow and aloft, and with the cabin boy at the wheel.”

“I know that life is disp'ut unsartain,” said Remarkable, compressing her features to the humor of her companion; “but I expect there will be great changes made in the house to rights; and that you will find a young man put over your head, as there is one that wants to be over mine; and after having been settled as long as you have, Benjamin, I should judge that to be hard.”

“Promotion should go according to length of service,” said the major-domo; “and if so be that they ship a hand for my berth, or place a new steward aft, I shall throw up my commission in less time than you can put a pilot boat in stays. Thof Squire Dickens”—this was a common misnomer with Benjamin—“is a nice gentleman, and as good a man to sail with as heart could wish, yet I shall tell the Squire, d'ye see, in plain English, and that's my native tongue, that if so be he is thinking of putting any Johnny Raw over my head, why I shall resign. I began forrard, Mistress Prettybones, and worked my way aft, like a man. I was six months aboard a Garnsey lugger, hauling in the slack of the lee sheet, and coiling up rigging. From that I went a few trips in a fore-and-after, in the same trade, which, after all, was but a blind kind of sailing in the dark, where a man larns but little, excepting how to steer by the stars. Well, then, d'ye see, I larnt how a topmast should be slushed, and how a topgallant sail was to be becketted; and then I did small jobs in the cabin, such as mixing the skipper's grog. 'Twas there I got my taste, which, you must have often seen, is excellent. Well, here's better acquaintance to us.”

Remarkable nodded a return to the compliment and took a sip of the beverage before her; for, provided it was well sweetened, she had no objection to a small potation now and then. After this observance of courtesy between the worthy couple, the dialogue proceeded.

“You have had great experiences in life, Benjamin; for, as the Scripter says, ‘They that go down to the sea in ships see the works of the Lord.' ”

“Ay! For that matter, they in brigs and schooners, too; and it mought say, the works of the devil. The sea, Mistress Remarkable, is a great advantage to a man, in the way of knowledge, for he sees the fashions of nations, and the shape of a country. Now, I suppose, for myself here, who is but an unlarned man to some that follows the seas, I suppose that, taking the coast from Cape Ler Hogue, as low down as Cape Finish-there, there isn't so much as a headland, or an island, that I don't know either the name of it, or something more or less about it. Take enough, woman, to color the water. Here's sugar. It's a sweet tooth, that fellow that you hold on upon yet, Mistress Prettybones. But, as I was saying, take the whole coast along I know it as well as the way from here to the Bold Dragoon; and a devil of an acquaintance is that Bay of Biscay. Whew! I wish you could but hear the wind blow there. It sometimes takes two to hold one man's hair on his head. Scudding through the Bay is pretty much the same thing as traveling the roads in this country, up one side of a mountain, and down the other.”

“Do tell!” exclaimed Remarkable; “And does the sea run as high as mountains, Benjamin?”

“Well, I will tell; but first let's taste the grog. Hem! It's the right kind of stuff, I must say, that you keep in this country, but then you're so close aboard the West Indies, you make but a small run of it. By the Lord Harry, woman, if Garnsey only lay somewhere between Cape Hatteras and the Bite of Logann, but you'd see rum cheap! As to the seas, they runs more in uppers in the Bay of Biscay, unless it may be in a souwester, when they tumble about quite handsomely; tho'f it's not in the narrow sea that you are to look for a swell; just go off the Western Islands, in a westerly blow, keeping the land on your larboard hand, with the ship's head to the south'ard, and bring to, under a close-reef'd topsail; or, mayhap, a reef'd foresail, with a fore-topmast staysail, and mizzen staysail, to keep her up to the sea, if she will bear it; and lay there for the matter of two watches, if you want to see mountains. Why, good woman, I've been off there in the Boadishey frigate, when you could see nothing but some such matter as a piece of sky, mayhap, as big as the mainsail; and then again, there was a hole under your lee quarter big enough to hold the whole British navy.”

“Oh! For massy's sake! And wan't you afeard, Benjamin? And how did you get off?”

“Afeard! Who the devil do you think was to be frightened at a little salt water tumbling about his head? As for getting off, when we had enough of it, and had washed our decks down pretty well, we called all hands, for, d'ye see, the watch below was in their hammocks, all the same as if they were in one of your best bedrooms; and so we watched for a smooth time; clapt her helm hard a weather, let fall the foresail, and got the tack aboard; and so, when we got her afore it, I ask you, Mistress Prettybones, if she didn't walk? Didn't she? I'm no liar, good woman, when I say that I saw that ship jump from the top of one seat to another, just like one of these squirrels, that can fly, jumps from tree to tree.”

“What, clean out of the water!” exclaimed Remarkable, lifting her two lank arms, with their bony hands spread in astonishment.

“It was no such easy matter to get out of the water, good woman; for the spray flew so that you couldn't tell which was sea and which was cloud. So there we kept her afore it for the matter of two glasses. The first lieutenant he cun'd the ship himself, and there was four quartermasters at the wheel, besides the master with six forecastle men in the gun room, at the relieving tackles. But then she behaved herself so well! Oh! She was a sweet ship, mistress! That one frigate was well worth more, to live in, than the best house in the island. If I was King of England, I'd have her hauled up above Lon'on Bridge and fit her up for a palace; because why? If anybody can afford to live comfortably, his Majesty can.”

“Well! But, Benjamin,” cried the listener, who was in an ecstasy of astonishment at this relation of the steward's dangers, “What
did
you do?”

“Do! Why we did our duty like hearty fellows. Now if the countrymen of Mounsheer Ler Quaw had been aboard of her, they would have just struck her ashore on some of them small islands; but we run along the land, until we found her dead to leeward off the mountains of Pico, and dam'me if I know to this day hew we got there: whether we jumped over the island, or hauled round it; but there we was, and there we lay, under easy sail, forereaching first upon one tack and then upon t'other, so as to poke her nose out now and then, and take a look to wind'ard, till the gale blow'd its pipe out.”

“I wonder now!” exclaimed Remarkable, to whom most of the terms used by Benjamin were perfectly unintelligible, but who had got a confused idea of a raging tempest. “It must be an awful life, that going to sea! and I don't feel astonishment that you are so affronted with the thoughts of being forced to quit a comfortable home like this. Not that a body cares much for't, as there's more houses than one to live in. Why, when the Judge agreed with me to come and live with him, I'd no more notion of stopping any time than anything. I happened in, just to see how the family did, about a week after Miss Temple died, thinking to be back home agin night; but the family was in sitch a distressed way, that I couldn't but stop awhile, and help 'em on. I thought the situation a good one, seeing that I was an unmarried body, and they were so much in want of help; so I tarried.”

“And a long time have you left your anchors down in the same place, mistress. I think you must find that the ship rides easy.”

“How you talk, Benjamin! There's no believing a word you say. I must say that the Judge and Squire Jones have both acted quite clever, so long; but I see that now we shall have a specimen to the contrary. I heer'n say that the Judge was gone a great 'broad, and that he meant to bring his darter hum, but I didn't calculate on sitch carrins on. To my notion, Benjamin, she's likely to turn out a desput ugly gal.”