The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast Part 34

"Ever since we came to the island I felt as you feel, until the Sabbath when I knelt down in the woods, and gave myself to the Lord. My heart was very heavy; I knew that I was a sinner needing forgiveness, and that I had nothing that I could offer as pay; but I read where G.o.d offers salvation 'without money and without price,' and again where he says we must 'believe on him.' Well, after all that, I could not help believing; it was sweet to pray--sweet to think of G.o.d--sweet to read the Bible--sweet to do whatever was pleasing to Him. I hope it will be so always; and I long for the time when I can return to Bellevue to talk with your father about these things. Now, cousin, I advise you to try the same plan."

He marked several pa.s.sages of Scripture for her to read; then walked into the woods, where he prayed that the Lord would direct her, so as to find peace by believing in Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI

SUCCESSFUL WORK--EXCURSION--THE FISH-EAGLE--DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROCURING FIRE--WOODSMAN'S SHELTER AGAINST RAIN AND HAIL--NOVEL REFUGE FROM FALLING TREES

Monday morning found the labourers moving at the dawn of day. Sam was cook, and fulfilled his office with unexpected ability. His corn-bread was delightful; no one but a negro knows how to make it.

The tools were in excellent order, and the boys commenced work in fine spirits. At Harold's suggestion they resolved to work very leisurely that day and the next, as being the surest way to attain expedition in the end. Said he,

"My father was a great manager of horses, and sometimes made tremendous journeys. But his rule was always to begin a long journey very moderately. He used to say, 'If you strain a horse at the first, he will move heavily all the way through, but if you spare him at first, he will become gradually accustomed to the strain, and be able to push on faster at the end than at the beginning of the journey!' Now, as we are the horses, I think we had better make very moderate journeys today and tomorrow."

Robert was much pleased with the rule. Notwithstanding his boast, he had shuddered at the idea of blistered hands and weary limbs; but this plan enabled him to antic.i.p.ate fresh feelings, and even increasing labour, so long as they chose to work.

In the course of four days the second tree was cut, hewed, and excavated to the exact shape and size of the first. They then drew for choices, and separated, each working on his own boat, within hearing of the other's ax and mallet. One reason, perhaps, of the increased rapidity of their work, was a lesson which they learned of employing every moment to advantage, and of resting themselves by a mere change of work. For instance, when weary of the adze they would resort to the mallet and chisel, the auger, ax, or drawing-knife, and this was to some extent a real rest, for fresh muscles were brought into play while the wearied ones were relieved.

By Friday, however, their whole bodies began to feel the effects of fatigue; and Harold proposed, that for that day their arms should be entirely relieved from labour, and that they should search the woods for timber suitable for masts, yards, and oars. They, therefore, took their guns and hatchets, and went first to the orange landing, where they saw their old raft lying as they had left it exactly a month before.

Pa.s.sing thence to the place which they had dubbed "Duck Point," they proceeded along the beach towards their old encampment, and thence home.

This was their route; but it was marked by such a variety of useful expedients, that we must stop to describe them.

While Robert was engaged for a few minutes in searching a little grove, Harold saw a fish eagle plunge into the water, and bring out a trout so large that it could scarcely fly with it to the sh.o.r.e. Harold was hungry; his appet.i.te at breakfast had not allowed him to eat at all.

Now it began to crave, and the sight of that rich looking fish whetted it, keenly. He ran towards the eagle, crying out,

"I'll divide with you, old gentleman, if you please; that is too much for one."

The eagle, however, appeared to dissent from the proposal, and tried hard to carry its prey into a tree, but apprehensive of being itself caught before it could rise beyond reach, it dropped the fish, and flying to a neighbouring tree, watched patiently to see what share its human robber was disposed to leave.

A fish is easily enough cooked, if a person has fire; but in this case there was none, and what was worse, no apparent means of producing it, for their matches were left behind, and the wadding of their guns was not of a kind to receive and hold fire from the powder.

"Lend me your watch a minute," said Robert, on learning what was wanted.

"It is possible that I may obtain from it what you wish."

Had Robert spoken of some chemical combination for producing fire, by mixing sand and sea-water, Harold could scarcely have been more surprised than by the proposal to obtain fire from his watch. He handed it to his cousin with the simple remark, "Please don't hurt it," and looked on with curiosity. Robert examined the convex surface of the crystal, which being old fashioned, was almost the section of a sphere, and said,

"I think it will do."

Then obtaining some dry, rotten wood from a decayed tree, he filled the hollow part of the crystal with water, and setting it upon a support, for the purpose of keeping the water perfectly steady, showed Harold that the rays of the sun pa.s.sing through this temporary lens, were concentrated as by a sun-gla.s.s. The tinder smoked, and seemed almost ready to ignite, but did not quite--the sun's rays were too much aslant at that hour of the day, and the sky was moreover covered with a thin film of mist.

"It is a failure," said he, "but still there is another plan which I have seen adopted--a spark of fire _squeezed from the air_ by suddenly compressing it in a syringe. If we had a dry reed, the size of this gun barrel, I would try it by using a tight plug of gun wadding as a piston."

But Robert had no opportunity for trying his philosophical experiment, and being mortified by a second disappointment, as he probably would have been, from the rudeness of the contrivance; for Harold's voice was soon heard from the bank above, "I have it now!" and when Robert approached he saw in his hand a white flint arrowhead. With this old Indian relic he showered a plentiful supply of sparks upon the dry touch-wood, until a rising smoke proclaimed that the fire had taken.

During the time occupied by these experiments, and the subsequent cookery, the thin mist in the sky had given place to several dark rolling clouds, which promised ere long to give them a shower. The promise was kept; for the boys had not proceeded half a mile before the rain poured down in torrents. As there was no lightning, they sought the shelter of a mossy tree, and for a season were so well protected that they could not but admire their good fortune. But their admiration did not last long; the rain soaked through the dense ma.s.ses over head, and fell in heavy drops upon their caps and shoulders.

"This will never do," cried Harold. "Come with me, Robert, and I will provide a shelter that we can trust."

Putting upon their heads a thick covering of moss, which hung like a cape as far down as their elbows, they ran to a fallen pine, and loosened several pieces of its bark, as long and broad as they could detach, then placing them upon their heads above the moss, marched back to the tree, and had the pleasure of seeing the rain drip from their bark shelters as from the eaves of a house. Robert was much pleased with the expedient, and remarked,

"I suppose this is another of old Torgah's notions."

"O, no," replied Harold. "I have frequently seen it used by negroes in the field, and by hunters in the woods. But there is another device of a similar kind, which I will leave you to guess. I was riding once with a rough backwoodsman across one of our Alabama prairies, when we were overtaken by a severe hail-storm, that gave us an unmerciful pelting.

Now, how do you suppose he protected himself against the hailstones?"

"Got under his horse," conjectured Robert. "I once saw a person sheltering himself under his wagon."

"He took the _saddle_ from his horse, and placed it upon his head. For my own part, I preferred the pelting of the stones to the smell of the saddle."

The rain ceasing shortly after, they continued their walk to the old encampment, which they visited for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were any other signs of visitors. Everything was just as they had left it, except that it had a.s.sumed a desolate and weather-beaten aspect. Their flag was flying, and the paper, though wet, adhering to the staff. At sea the weather looked foul, and the surf was rolling angrily upon the sh.o.r.e. Resting themselves upon the root of the n.o.ble old oak, and visiting the spring for a drink of cool water, they once more turned their faces to the prairie.

Whoever will travel extensively through our pine barrens, will see tracts, varying in extent from a quarter of an acre to many hundreds of acres, destroyed by the attacks of a worm. The path from the old encampment led through a "deadening," as it is called, of this sort; in which the trees, having been attacked some years before, were many of them prostrate, and others standing only by sufferance of the winds. By the time our travellers reached the middle of this dangerous tract, a sudden squall came up from sea, and roared through the forest at a terrible rate. They heard it from afar, and saw the distant limbs bending, breaking, and interlocking, while all around them was a wilderness of slender, brittle trunks, from which they had not time to escape. Their situation was appalling. Death seemed almost inevitable.

But just as the crash commenced among the pines, a brilliant idea occurred to the mind of Robert.

"Here, Harold!" said he. "Run! run! run!"

Suiting the action to the word, he threw himself flat beside a large sound log that lay _across the course of the wind_, and crouched closely beside its curvature; almost too closely, as he afterwards discovered.

Hardly had Harold time to follow his example, before an enormous tree cracked, crashed, and came with a horrible roar, directly over the place where they lay. The log by the side of which they had taken refuge, was buried several inches in the ground; and when Robert tried to move, he found that his coat had been caught by a projecting knot, and partly buried. The tree which fell was broken into four parts; two of them resting with their fractured ends b.u.t.ting each other on the log, while their other ends rested at ten or twelve feet distance upon the earth.

For five minutes the winds roared, and the trees crashed around them; and then the squall subsided as quickly as it had arisen.

"That was awful," said Robert, rising and looking at the enormous tree, from whose crushing fall they had been so happily protected.

"It was, indeed," Harold responded; "and we owe our lives, under G.o.d, to that happy thought of yours. Where did you obtain it?"

Robert pointed to the other end of the log, and said, "There." A small tree had fallen across it, and was broken, as the larger one had been.

"I saw that," said he, "just as the wind began to crash among these pines, and thought that if we laid ourselves where we did, we should be safe from everything, except straggling limbs, or flying splinters."

"Really," said Harold, "at this rate you are likely to beat me in my own province. I wonder I never thought of this plan before."

"I had an adventure somewhat like this last year, only not a quarter so bad," said Robert. "I was fishing with Frank, on a small stream, when a whirlwind came roaring along, with such force as to break off limbs from several of the trees. Afraid that we, and particularly Frank, who was light, might be taken up and carried away, or else dashed against a tree and seriously hurt, I made him grasp a sapling, by putting around it both arms and legs, while I threw my own arms around him and it together, to hold all tight. I was badly frightened at the noise and near approach of the whirlwind, but for the life of me could not help laughing at an act of Frank's. We had taken only a few small catfish (which he called from their size, _kitten_-fish), and two of these being the first he had ever caught, he of course thought much of them. When the wind came nearest, and I called to him, 'Hold fast, Frank!' I saw him lean his head to one side, looking first at the flying branches, then at the string of fish, which the wind had slightly moved, and deliberately letting go his hold of the tree, he grasped his prize, and held to that with an air and manner, which said as plainly as an act could say, 'If you get them, you must take me too.'"

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

LAUNCHING THE BOATS--MORE WORK, AND YET MORE--ECLIPSE OF FEB. 12TH, 1831--HEALING BY "FIRST INTENTION"--FRANK'S BIRTHDAY--PREPARING FOR A VOYAGE--RAIN, RAIN

The boats came on swimmingly. By the end of the second week of their systematic labours they had not only been sufficiently excavated, but the young shipwrights had trimmed down much of the exterior. They were two and a half feet wide, by twenty inches deep, and eighteen feet long.

At this stage Robert supposed the work to be nearly done, but Sam shook his head, and said, "Not half." The most laborious part of the work was over, but so much more remained, in the way of paring, smoothing, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, and bringing into proper shape, that it was full a fortnight before they were considered fit for the water.

They were ready for launching on the same day; and though Robert made his announcement of the fact some hours in the advance of Harold, it was agreed, that as Sam had been with him half a day more, the race should be considered as even. The launching occupied four days. They were distant from the water respectively an hundred and an hundred and fifty paces. A thick forest was to be traversed. It was necessary to clear a road, build bridges, and cut down the river bank. Robert's was launched on February 1st, and Harold's on February 3d. On each occasion there was a general rejoicing, and every person, not excepting Mary and Frank, fired a salute.