Harry Milvaine Part 16

The mate made a rush for a rope.

Harry ran, and dived down the fore-hatch.

There was a little old man poking the huge galley fire and stirring soup with a ladle at one and the same time. He had no more hair on his head than the lid of a copper kettle, and he did not wear a cap either.

"Are you the cook?" said Harry.

"No, I'm the doctor." [Greenlandmen usually call the cook "doctor."]

"Well, doctor," began Harry, "I want to tell you something. I'm in a very queer position--"

"Don't bother _me_!" roared the grim old man, turning so fiercely round on him, ladle in hand, that Harry started and quaked with fear. "Don't bother _me_," he roared, "or I'll pop you into the boiling copper, then you'll be in a queerer position."

Harry fell back. He did not know well what to do. So he went and sat down on a locker.

Presently past came a young sailor.

"I say, common sailor!" cried Harry.

The youth turned sharply round.

"I'm in a queer position."

The youth pulled him clean off the locker and threw him straight across the deck, where he lay nearly stunned and doubled up.

"That's a queerer position, ain't it, eh? Well, don't you come for to go to call me a common sailor again, drat ye."

A great mastiff dog came along and licked Harry's face, and then lay down beside him. Harry put an arm round the n.o.ble dog's neck and patted and caressed him.

By and by there arose on deck an immense noise and shouting, rattling of chains, and trampling of feet, and high above all this din the merry notes of a fiddle and a fife, playing lively airs. [When heaving windla.s.s or capstan in Greenland ships the fiddler is nearly always ordered to play.]

Said Harry to himself, "It is evident they are having a dance, and no doubt they will keep it up quite a long time. Well, there is little chance of the ship sailing to-night. By and by I'll slip quietly up and go straight to the captain's cabin and tell him all and ask him to take me."

Then he began to think of home, of his mother and father, of Eily and of Andrew--and in a few minutes, lo and behold! our hero was fast asleep.

When he awoke it was inky dark where he lay, only at some distance he could see the glimmer of the galley fire, and see the old, bald cook moving about at his duties.

The great dog still lay beside him, and some kind hand had thrown a rug over the pair of them.

But the vessel was no longer still, she was slowly pitching and rolling, in a way that told Harry, novice though he was, that they were at sea.

There was no noise on deck now, only occasionally the steady tread of heavy footsteps was audible, or the flop-flap of canvas, or a quick, sharp word of command, followed by an "Ay, ay, sir," and the rattling of the rudder-chains.

"Heaven help me!" said Harry to himself. "I was in a queer position before, I'm in a queerer now. Oh! dear me, dear me, I'll be taken for a stowaway."

This thought so overcame him, that he almost burst into tears.

Some time afterwards there came towards him with a lantern a red-haired and red-bearded little man. He had a kind and smiling face. He bent down, and Harry sat up on his elbow.

"Don't move, my sonny," he said. "You'll be a bit sick, I suppose?"

"No."

"No? Well, I've brought you a bit of a sandwich, and I don't know whose watch you're in, but we always give green hands some days' grace. I'm the second mate, and I advise you not to turn out to-night, but just to eat your supper and lie still till eight bells in the morning watch."

"But oh, sir," cried Harry, "I'm in such a queer position!"

"I'll remedy that," said the second mate.

Away he went, and in a minute back he came again, and in his hand a huge flock pillow. This he placed under Harry's head and shoulders.

"There," he said, "that's a better position. Keep still and you won't get sick, and Harold there will keep you warm."

"Is the dog's name Harold?"

"Yes, boy."

"And mine is Harry. How strange!"

"Well, there are two of you. Good-night, sonny." And off went the fiery-whiskered but kindly little second mate.

Note 1. In Greenland ships, on May-day, there is great rejoicing, and a garland bedecked with ribbons--every one contributing--is hung from the stays high aloft.

Book 2--CHAPTER TWO.

FIRST EXPERIENCES OF LIFE AT SEA.

Harry awoke next morning cold and shivering; his companion, Harold, the mastiff, had left him. He started up. It was broad daylight, and the men were having breakfast, and chaffing and laughing, and all as happy as sailors can be.

It was not long before he noticed his friend the second mate coming below, so he started up and went to meet him.

"What cheer, my sonny!" said Wilson--for that was his name.

"Come along through to the half-deck," he continued, "and have some coffee. That'll put you straight."

He led Harry on deck.

The sea seemed mountains high. Great green waves, with combing, curling tops, that every moment threatened the good ship with destruction, so it seemed to Harry.

"What an awful sea?"

"Awful sea, sonny?" laughed Mr Wilson. "Call that an awful sea? Ha!

ha! Wait a bit, my boy."

They went down another ladder into the second officer's quarters. Here also lived the spectioneer or third mate, the carpenter, and the cooper, and an extra gunner.

A rough kind of a cabin, with a table in the middle a stove with a roaring fire in it, and bunks all round.