Shireen and her Friends Part 16

"Another day, when I was grown up, they forced some spoonfuls of brandy and water down my throat, and by-and-bye I seemed to get out of my mind.

I walked round the camp and challenged every other he cat in the place, and fought almost as bad as a miner.

"I was always death on dogs, Shireen, but that night there wasn't a dog anywhere about that I did not try to swallow alive, for I believed myself to be as big as an elephant. My master found me at last, and kindly took me home and laid me on his old coat in the corner, and I soon fell sound asleep, but, oh, Shireen, when I awoke next day my head and eyes were fit to burst with pain.

"Then, by-and-bye, there came a parson to our camp, and my master would walk miles to hear the preaching, and I always went with him. When there were many dogs about master used to lead me with a string, but he never chained me up in his house, as some miners did with their big cats. It is cruel to chain a dog even, but much more cruel to chain a cat.

"Well, master was what they call a rolling stone; one of the sort that don't gather moss, you know. So he often changed camp. It took us two days and nights sometimes to get to the new camp, and I travelled all the way in an old gin case.

"Poor master!"

"Did he die?" said I.

"Well, it was like this. Often and often on lovely moonlit nights, Shireen, master and I would sit in the door of the hut where he lived out among the bush and scrub, and he would speak to me of his far-off home in England, and of his young wife and children that he was trying to dig gold for.

"'It is that,' he told me once, 'which makes me so restless, Tom. I want to get money. I want to get home to them, p.u.s.s.y, and I'll take you with me and we'll be so happy.'

"And he would smooth my head and sing to me of the happy time that was coming when we should get home with wealth and riches.

"'When the wild wintry wind Idly raves round our dwelling, And the roar of the linn On the night breeze is swelling; So merrily we'll sing, As the storm rattles o'er us, Till the dear shieling [a cottage] ring With the light lilting chorus.'"

"But, ah! Shireen, that happy time never came, for one sad night, at the stores, a quarrel arose about something, and next moment the noise of pistol-shooting rang out high above the din of voices.

"There was a moment or two of intense stillness, and my master fell back into the arms of a friend.

"'Oh, my dear wife and bairns!' That was all master had breath to say before his death-blood rose and choked him.

"They told me I nearly went wild with grief, that I jumped upon his breast and cried and howled. Well, perhaps I did. I forget most of what happened. Only I know they buried him next day, and I sat on the grave for days, refusing to leave it. Then I wandered off to Melbourne.

I thought if I could only get home and find master's wife, and children, I might be a comfort to them. But this was impossible.

"Well, I stayed for some months in Melbourne, just a waif and a stray, you know, begging my bread from door to door. Then the _Venom_, the very ship we are now on, Shireen, lay in, and when walking one night near the docks, a sailor came singing along the street. He looked so good and so brown and so jolly that my heart went out to him at once, and I spoke to him.

"'Hullo!' he cried, 'what a fine lump of a cat. Why, you _are_ thin though, Tom.'"

"How did he know your name?" said I.

"Oh, just guessed it, I suppose.

"'How thin you are!' he says. 'Well, on board you goes with me, and you shall be our ship's cat, and if any man Jack bullies you, why they'll have to fight Bill Bobstay.' And that is how I came to be a ship's cat, my lovely Shireen."

"n.o.body objected to your being on board, I suppose," said I.

"Well, I don't know, for you see, next day was Sunday, and seeing they were rigging up a church on the main deck, I went and sat down by the parson very demure-like, as I had sat beside poor master in the miners'

camp.

"Then, after church, the first lieutenant asked the men, who brought the cat on board. But of course n.o.body knew.

"'Throw him overboard,' cried the lieutenant.

"'No, no,' said the captain. 'That will never do, Mr Jones. The poor cat is welcome to his bite and sup as long as he likes to stop with us, whoever brought him on board.'

"Then a man in the ranks saluted.

"'Did you want to say anything?' said Captain Beecroft.

"'Well, sir,' said the man, 'I wouldn't like any of my pals to be blamed for a-bringing of Tom from sh.o.r.e, 'cause _I_ did, and you may flog me if you like.'

"'No, no, my man, instead of flogging you I'll forgive you. I like my men to be bold and outspoken just as you are.'

"And from that day to this, three long years, Shireen, I've been ship's cat to the saucy _Venom_, and, what is more, I like it.

"Now, if you please, I'll take you forward, and you can see the men's quarters."

"What are those three trees growing on the lid of the ship for, Tom?" I asked.

"Those are not trees, Shireen," he answered; "those are what they call ship's masts, and you must not say the lid of the ship, but the deck."

"Thank you, Tom. And are those sheets hung up yonder to dry, Tom?"

"Oh, no, those are the ship's sails. They carry the vessel along before the wind when the steam isn't up. Look down into that hole, Shireen.

Take care you don't fall. Do you see all those clear glittering shafts and cranks and things? Well, those are the engines. Keep well away from them when they begin to move, else you might tumble in and be killed in a moment."

"How strange and terrible!" I said.

Well, children, Tom took me everywhere all over the ship, and even introduced me to the men.

"My eyes, Bill," said one man, "here's a beauty. Did you ever see the like of her before? White's the snow; long coat and eyes like a forget-me-not. Stand well back, Bill. Don't smoke over her. She belongs to that soldier officer, and I'll warrant he wouldn't like a hole burned in that beautiful jacket she wears."

But oh, children, for many weeks I thought ship-life was about the most awkward thing out, for when it isn't blowing enough to send the vessel on through the water, then, you know, they start the mill and the rattling wheels, and your poor life is nearly shaken out of you, while the blacks keep falling all about, and if a lady has a white coat like mine, why--why it won't bear thinking about. And if it does blow, Warlock, well, then it is too awkward for anything, and sometimes it was about all Tom Brandy could do to hang out, although his claws were sharper and stronger far than mine.

But long before we reached the city of Zanzibar I was, I think, quite as good a ship's cat as Tom Brandy himself.

I'll never forget, however, the first day Tom took me aloft.

We went as far as the maintop, and there we sat together talking for quite an hour.

"Hullo!" said Tom at last, "there goes eight bells and the bugle for dinner; come on, Shireen."

Tom began to go down at once, but lo! when I looked over my heart grew faint and my head felt giddy, and I wouldn't have ventured after Tom for anything.

"No, no, Tom," I cried, "save yourself. Never mind me."

"Why, there is no danger," he answered. "Only you mustn't try it head first as if you were coming out of a tree, but hand after hand, thus."

And Tom soon disappeared.

I sat there till the shades of evening began to fall. Tom, however, hadn't quite forgotten me, for he brought me up the breast of a chicken.

After I had partaken of it: "Will you try to come down now, Shireen?" he said.