Confessions Of Con Cregan Part 22

"Who says he does?" retorted the captain. "Who ever said bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and blue beads were gold and turquoise? But they pa.s.s for the same in villages not fifty miles from where we are sailing. Mother Davis was wife of a skipper in the timber trade who died harbor-master here; she is not a very likely person to be critical about a butler or footman's accomplishments."

"By Jove," cried another, "Pike is all right! Go on with your plan."

"My plan is this: we'll dress up our friend Con, here, give him a few lessons about waiting at table, delivering a message, and so forth, furnish him with a jolly set of characters, and start him on the road of life with Mother Davis."

A merry roar of approving laughter broke forth from the party at this brief summary of Captain Pike's intentions; and indeed it was not without great difficulty I avoided joining in it.

"He looks so devilish young!" said Carrington; "he can't be fifteen."

"Possibly not fourteen," said Pike; "but we'll shave his head and give him a wig. I'll answer for the 'make up;' and as I have had some experience of private theatricals, rely on 't he'll pa.s.s muster."

"How will you dress him, Pike?"

"In livery,--a full suit of snuff-brown, lined with yellow; I 'll devote a large cloak I have to the purpose, and we 'll set the tailor at work to-day."

"Is he to have shorts?"

"Of course; some of you must 'stand' silk stockings for him, for we shall have to turn him out with a good kit."

A very generous burst of promises here broke in, about shirts, vests, cravats, gloves, and other wearables, which, I own it, gave the whole contrivance a far brighter coloring in my eyes than when it offered to be a mere lark.

"Will the rogue consent, think you?" asked Carrington.

"Will he prefer a bed and a dinner to nothing to eat and a siesta under the planks on the quays of Quebec?" asked Pike, contemptuously. "Look at the fellow! watch his keen eyes and his humorous mouth when he's speaking to you, and say if he would n't do the thing for the fun of it?

Not but a right clever chap like him will see something besides a joke in the whole contrivance.

"I foresee he 'll break down at the first go-off," said Carrington, who through all the controversy seemed impressed with the very humblest opinion of my merits.

"I foresee exactly the reverse," said Pike. "I've seldom met a more acute youngster, nor one readier to take up your meaning; and if the varlet does n't get spoilt by education, but simply follows out the bent of his own shrewd intelligence, he'll do well yet."

"You rate him more highly than I do," said Carrington, again.

"Not impossible either; we take our soundings with very dissimilar lead-lines," said Pike, scoffingly. "My opinion is formed by hearing the boy's own observations about character and life when he was speaking of Broughton; but if you were ten times as right about him, and I twice as many times in the wrong, he 'll do for what I intend him."

The others expressed their full concurrence in the captain's view of the matter, voted me a phoenix of all young vagabonds, and their brother-officer Carrington a downright a.s.s,--both being my own private sentiments to the letter.

And now for an honest avowal! It was the flattery of my natural acuteness--the captain's panegyric on my apt.i.tude and smartness--that won me over to a concurrence in the scheme; for, at heart, I neither liked the notion of "service," nor the prospect of the abstemious living he had so pointedly alluded to. Still, to justify the favorable impression he had conceived of me, and also with some half hope that I should see "life"--the ruling pa.s.sion of my mind--under a new aspect, I resolved to accept the proposition so soon as it should be made to me; nor had I long to wait that moment.

"Con, my lad," said the captain, "you may leave that belt there; come aft here,--I want to speak to you. What are your plans when you reach Quebec? Do you mean to look after your old master, Sir Dudley, again?"

"No, sir; I have had enough of salt water for a time,--I 'll keep my feet on dry land now."

"But what line of life do you propose to follow?"

I hesitated for the answer, and was silent.

"I mean," resumed he, "is it your intention to become a farm-servant with some of the emigrant families, or will you seek for employment in the town?"

"Or would you like to enlist, my lad?" broke in another.

"No, thank you, sir; promotion is slow from the ranks, and I 've a notion one ought to move 'up,' as they move 'on,' in life."

"Listen to the varlet now," said Pike, in French; "the fellow's as cool with us as if we were exactly his equals, and no more. I 'll tell you what it is, lads," added he, seriously, "when such rogues journey the road of life singly, they raise _themselves_ to station and eminence; but when they herd together in ma.s.ses, these are the fellows who pull _others_ down, and effect the most disastrous social revolutions.--So you 'll not be a soldier Con?" added he, resuming the vernacular; "well, what are your ideas as to the civil service?"

"Anything to begin with, sir."

"Quite right, lad,--well said; a fair start is all you ask?"

"Why, sir, I carry no weight, either in the shape of goods or character; and if a light equipment gives speed, I 've a chance to be placed well."

The captain gave a side-glance at the others as though to say, "Was I correct in my opinion of this fellow?" and then went on: "I have a thought in my head for you, Con: there is a lady of my acquaintance at Quebec wants a servant; now, if you could pick up some notion of the duties, I 've no doubt you'd learn the remainder rapidly."

"I used to wait on Sir Dudley, sir, and am therefore not entirely ignorant."

"Very true; and as these gentlemen and myself will put you into training while the voyage lasts, I hope you 'll do us credit in the end."

"Much will depend on my mistress, sir," said I, determining to profit by what I had overheard, but yet not use the knowledge rashly or unadvisedly. "Should she not be very exacting and very particular, but have a little patience with me, accepting zeal for skill, I 've no doubt, sir, I 'll not discredit your recommendation."

"That's the very point I'm coming to, Con," said the captain, lowering his voice to a most confidential tone.

"The true state of the case is this: "--and here he entered upon an explanation which I need not trouble the reader by recapitulating, since it merely went the length I have already related, save that he added, in conclusion, this important piece of information:--

"Your golden rule, in every difficulty, will then be, to a.s.sure Mrs.

Davis that you always did so, whatever it may be, when you were living with Lord George, or Sir Charles, or the Bishop of Drone. You understand me, eh?"

"I think so, sir," said I, brightening up, and at the same time stealing an ill.u.s.tration from my old legal practices. "In Mrs. Davis's court there are no precedents."

"Exactly, Con; hit the nail on the very head, my boy!"

"It will not be a very difficult game, sir, if the guests are like the mistress."

"So they are, for the most part; now and then you'll have a military and naval officer at table, and you'll be obliged to look out sharp, and not let them detect you; but with the skippers of merchantmen, dockyard people, storekeepers, male and female, I fancy you can hold your own."

"Why, sir, I hope they'll be satisfied with the qualification that contented my former t.i.tled masters," said I, with a knowing twinkle of the eye he seemed to relish prodigiously, and an a.s.sumed tone of voice that suited well the part I was to play.

"Come down below, now, and we 'll write your characters for you;" and so he beckoned the others to accompany him to the cabin, whither I followed them.

An animated debate ensued as to the number and nature of the certificates I ought to possess, some being of opinion that I should have those of every kind and degree; others alleging that my age forbade the likelihood of my having served in more than two or three situations.

"What say you to this, lads?" said Pike, reading from a rough and much-corrected draft before him:--

The bearer, Cornelius Cregan, has lived in my service ten months as a page; he is scrupulously honest, active, and intelligent, well acquainted with the duties of his station, and competent to discharge them in the first families. I now dismiss him at his own request.

Cecilia Mendleshaw.

"Gad! I'd rather make him start as what they call in his own country a 'Tay-boy,'" said Carrington,--"one of those bits of tarnished gold-lace and gaiters seen about the outskirts of Dublin."

"Your honor is right, sir," said I, glad to show myself above any absurd vanity on the score of my early beginning; "a 'Tay-boy' on the Rathmines road, able to drive a jaunting-car and wait at table."

"That's the mark, I believe," said Pike. "Suppose, then, we say: 'Con Cregan has served me twelve months, waited at table, and taken care of a horse and car.'"