Yr Ynys Unyg Part 11

CHAPTER XIX.

While I was thus thinking my dear companions returned from their search which had been very successful. I kissed and thanked them all for their pretty thoughts and comforting words, and told them how much good they had done me, and how, for this once I must show them all to Madame and Schillie, that they might derive the same pleasure from them that I did, to which Sybil, as spokeswoman for all, gave a smiling blushing consent, and, though they did not read them just then, yet I may as well say that Madame could not sufficiently express her admiration of these innocent Sermons, and got leave from me and them to copy them into a book of her own; and, whenever she was ill or out of spirits, we always saw the little marble-covered book, containing them, brought out and regularly studied.

Schillie, in a more characteristic manner, expressed her approbation, saying that they were all good worthy children, and they wrote much better Sermons than most she had heard, for, besides being greatly to the point, they were extremely short.

And, now to return to the caverns. They had found a perfect series of comfortable places, as they called them, some being connected with others, so that we could go from one to the other without being exposed to the wet.

We had another severe storm that night, but the next day we worked and stowed everything away as well as we could. The old original cavern, being to Oscar's great delight the receptacle for the gunpowder and ammunition, more because it was the furthest from the others than from any particular wish to oblige him. Every now and then in the midst of our arrangements we had a severe storm, generally accompanied with thunder and lightning. To be exposed to one for only a few minutes wetted us quite through, therefore not wishing to lose a moment of such precious time, it was not until late in the evening that we changed or rested. At the end of three days we had done wonders, but had nearly done ourselves up also. That morning there was no sun; nothing but continual pouring down of rain all day, and so it continued for a fortnight. During this time we made ourselves more comfortable in the three caverns, which communicated with each other; one of which was very dark and close. The lighter ones we used all day, but they smelt damp and unwholesome, and the children began to grow pale, and become restless. Besides our food was but indifferent; no fruit or vegetables, or fish. Eggs we had in abundance from the chickens and ducks we had brought with us, and which had scarcely ceased laying since we arrived, so much did they thrive in this luxuriant island. The evenings were very tedious, and we had to invent all sorts of games which would at once amuse them, and yet be exercise also.

Felix and Winny were both attacked with ague, and Madame had so bad a cough no lessons could be done. I wondered at first, on hearing Gatty's eager enquiries every morning after Madame, until I accidently heard in answer by Hargrave that Madame had not slept during the night, "All right, girls, the cough is delightfully bad." This put me and Schillie upon employing our spare time in teaching them ourselves, which announcement was at first received rather coldly; but they derived such infinite amus.e.m.e.nt from our inaptness to the business that they were quite impatient if anything prevented us performing this office. With the utmost gravity and demureness Gatty would bring me the same lesson to repeat every day; and though I must, in justice to myself, allow that I thought it must be the easiest book in the world, it seemed all the same thing, I was too innocent to imagine she was amusing herself at my expense. How long I should have gone on I know not, but her exquisite delight at my simplicity was too great to be kept in, she told her own secret amidst the laughter of all, her dupe being one of the most amused. Sybil and Serena took equal liberties, all more from the love of fun than real delinquency, so that during our reign lessons were at a premium. Schillie undertook writing and summing, and as she was always mending pens and cutting pencils, holding one or other between her lips, she was often not in a condition to reprimand by words, consequently a tap on the head, a blow on the cheek, a pinch on the arm, generally expressed her disapprobation. Moreover, she was very impatient if the sums were done wrong, and exclaiming, "Good lack, what young noodles,"

would do the sums again herself, instead of making the delinquents correct them. This plan I p.r.o.nounced with great dignity as highly improper; she, in dudgeon, said I was a noodle too, and we came to high words, much to the delight and gratification of our pupils.

But Sybil and Serena delighted in drawing her out while they were all three reading aloud to her in turns their English History. Then warmed with her subject, delighting in all the political and historical details, she would take the book from their hands, and enter into long discussions, her strong whig principles startling the two bred and born tory girls into sufficient argument and opposition to give piquancy and eloquence to her words as they flowed rapidly from her lips. During these periods, Gatty, who only cared to get done as quick as possible what she was obliged to do, and thought all these digressions a great bore, employed her idle fingers in whatever mischief lay within her reach. If she had no pocket handkerchief to twist into holes, it took her but a few minutes to dog-ear a whole book; or, probably, the energetic discussion and the attentive listeners would be interrupted by a sudden crash, proclaiming the tearing of something, and each would instinctively look round for their handkerchiefs; or she would collect little animals, like ants, spiders, or flies, and, having got a handful, would empty them over one of the three; in fact, she would do anything to put an end to the discussion, that they might finish their allotted task and get it over. Then in wrath Schillie would turn round and exclaim, "You idle young monkey, why don't you go on with your reading?"

_Gatty_ (demurely).--"If you please, little Mother, we can't."

_Schillie._--"Cannot! What stops you, I should like to know? Nothing but your own laziness, keeping me waiting here all day."

_Gatty_ (still more meekly).--"If you please, little Mother, you have got the book."

_Schillie._--"Got the book! Who wants to keep your book? I am sure I don't; I only wish to have done with you as soon as possible."

_Gatty._--"If you please, little Mother, you stopped us to talk about those people."

_Schillie._--"Those people indeed! You who ought to be more interested in such characters than the other girls, because your Father's name will be handed down to posterity in the same manner. I am quite done up with you being such an owlet, Gatty."

_Gatty._--"If you please, little Mother, I don't care about them at all.

They are all dead, and they are nothing to me, and I only wish they had not lived, and then we should not have had such a long History of England to read through."

Such speeches were too much for Schillie's fort.i.tude, and Gatty's sparkling eyes showed how successful her manuvres were in being dismissed at once, "as too stupid to be borne with."

Sometimes I handed over the little girls to her to say their lessons, and they were invariably dismissed before they could have said half of them. And when I enquired the reason thereof, "Poor little victims," she answered, "what is the use of addling their brains with such a cart load of lessons, one more silly than another. As if they could not order a much better dinner than is mentioned in this French phrase book, and all that trumpery poetry; and their geography book is the stupidest I ever saw, as if they did not all know what an island is. It's my opinion they will know too well what an island is, without learning it in a book."

With the boys she got on pretty well, except hurting Felix's feelings now and then by saying, "Now learn your book, and don't eat it this time," which allusion generally caused a tear or two, he having a well very near his eyes.

None of the young ones were anxious to give up their new governesses, but they, on the contrary, hailed the return of fine weather with great joy.

CHAPTER XX.

I fancied we all looked quite mouldy, when we emerged from our dusky dark caverns. But the weather was so delicious, so cool and refreshing; everything was so green and beautiful that we soon revived. I thought it necessary to take an inventory of all our possessions, that we might husband them as much as possible. We also attended greatly to our gardens, and the few remaining potatoes that we had were planted that we might not be totally bereft of such a useful vegetable. I never saw anything like the growth of the English vegetables we had brought with us. They were almost too luxuriant, approaching to rankness.

Day after day pa.s.sed by and we were still alone. No ardently-desired vessel hove in sight, nothing met our longing gaze as we daily scanned the horizon. Fearing the inevitable lowness of spirits that such constant hoping and longing, followed by as constant disappointment, must end in, I, one evening, said that I should not at all like being cooped up in those caverns again the next rainy season.

_Schillie._--"Now if you mention one word about building one of your old huts, you shall be whipt."

_Mother._--"Oh no, no! I have had quite enough of the huts. I have not the smallest intention of building such another flimsy affair."

_Schillie._--"Then if you are going to talk common sense, I am quite willing to listen. Those caverns certainly put one rather in mind of one's grave, and I cannot get the nasty dead smell of them out of my nose. Now then, June, be speedy, and let us hear your intentions. Shall we build a boat, and betake ourselves off or shall we live _al fresco_, despite Madame's fears, or what? Come, speak up."

_Mother._--"I don't fancy building a boat at all, much less trusting myself in it; but, agreeing with you in your horror of huts, I think we must now make a good substantial house."

"Your horror!" said Schillie. "Delightful," exclaimed all the others.

"What splendid fun. How very charming. Where shall it be? Let us begin immediately."

Spite of all her opposition, Schillie knew very well we must have a house, and the more she grumbled I knew the harder she would work. So everybody was ordered to use their best wits, and give their opinions as to the kind, size, situation, and other things belonging to the intended mansion, and at tea-time the sense of the company was to be taken. In the meantime I compared our list of goods, with what the captain had made out for us, and found that we had suffered considerably by the rain. Out of seven barrels of flour four were nearly spoilt; a cask of cheese and ship's biscuit was all that remained of those commodities; not a bit of the salted beef and pork could be touched, we had to throw it all away, but some bacon and hams were quite good. We had four or five cases of preserved meats, but, as Jenny observed, we could eat those up in a week, and then what were we to do for meat. I gave her clearly to understand that we must do without meat for the future, which caused her to drop one of our saucepans in surprise and dismay, while she exclaimed, "Whatever, Ma'am, shall we do about Master Felix if he has no meat, and he growing so fast?" "Whatever, Jenny, shall we do if you knock holes in the saucepans in such a careless way?" said I. Jenny apologised as best she could, but it was evident all the saucepans in the world might get punched into holes provided her little master had meat for his dinner every day; she comforted herself very much, however, thinking of the ducks and chickens, though she bewailed over his great affection for mutton chops and beef steaks, and now for the future that weakness of his would run no chance of being gratified.

The potatoes were nearly all gone, as before mentioned, but that was to be only a temporary deprivation. We had stores sufficient to last for six months of rice, sago, tapioca, tea, coffee, sugar, raisins, and all those kind of things; but the ship's provisions, which had been mostly left behind to lighten the vessel (the Captain having only taken what was just necessary) were greatly damaged by the rain; they had not been in good tin cases like ours, and eventually were of little use. The packets of seeds became now our most valuable possessions. We had a great quant.i.ty of ropes, spars, sails, and other things belonging to the vessel, carpenters' tools, nails, screws, &c., all of which became invaluable to us, though we afterwards discovered a good subst.i.tute for nails in the thick sharp thorns of a species of Cactus. We had a great deal of furniture, sofas, bedding, hammocks, tables, chairs, bookcases, a great deal of pantry furniture, of which we were now most careful, knowing we could never replace the china or gla.s.s; also, we had a plate chest, in which we had silver to the value of 200. Of kitchen utensils we were greatly in want, almost everything having been lost in the caboose when it was washed away. We had two kettles and a small boiler.

The men had constructed a sort of fire-place and oven for Jenny before they left, but it was so far from the dining place that we had everything generally cold. We had about six dozen bottles of various sorts of wine, a large cask of rum and another of brandy, which belonged to the ship's company, plenty of beer, ale, and porter, which, however, being in casks, spoilt long before we could drink it, from the heat of the climate. But such details must be tedious, as it can be easily imagined what our possessions would be out of a vessel victualled, furnished, and prepared for a twelve months' voyage. The result of the investigation, however, proved that of civilized food we had but little, and that we must soon set about preparing to live upon what the island would afford us. And when I looked round on the fertility and richness surrounding us, and the vast variety of food we could indulge in, I could not help thanking the Giver of all good for so much mercy showered upon us in the midst of such extraordinary events.

We had one c.o.c.k and eleven hens and about seven ducks, all of whom seemed to provide themselves with food, without any a.s.sistance from us.

Every one knows that in preparing for a sea voyage quant.i.ties of linen are necessary; we were therefore most fortunate in that particular. I had also pieces of muslin, white and coloured, which I brought to make frocks for the young ones in the hot climates, knowing how fast they would grow. I left the arrangement of the clothes to Hargrave, who grumbled and put away, and put away and grumbled to her heart's content.

She arranged all the best dresses and also the fine things, laces and trinkets, in such a manner that she could constantly look at them, as she could not have the satisfaction of seeing us wear them, and to each person was given out a certain quant.i.ty of wearing apparel that was to last a given time. But these are such dry details, that I will proceed at once to tea, at which such an important subject as building a house was to be discussed.

CHAPTER XXI.

While I and the two maids had been undergoing the dull labour mentioned in the preceding chapter, all the others had been attending to their gardens, and they all flocked to tea, laden with fruit and decorated with flowers, looking so pretty and happy that I could not but think, whatever our lot, we should retain our spirits and cheerfulness to the end. Schillie came last, dragging with her a heap of unknown lichens, creepers, and mosses, on all of which she wanted me to hold a consultation as to what they could be.

Having made some highly-satisfactory guesses, and also having discovered amongst our books one on Botany, and another on Natural History of all kinds, and also the Travels of a Gentleman in the West Indies, that gave a very accurate account of all the productions natural to the climate we were in, she was in an especial good humour.

Sybil begged earnestly that the house might be in the gothic style, which upset Schillie a little, but she pooh, poohed it off, until Serena came out with a vehement hope that it might be a Swiss cottage. "Swiss fiddlestick," retorted Schillie, "my dear girls, if you think I shall break my back and spoil my hands ornamenting a house for you, you will find yourselves wonderfully deceived." She had very pretty small white hands. Gatty thought it would be delightful to cut down a tree, and muttered something about the impossibility of learning lessons and building a house at the same time. In this she was unanimously supported by several youthful voices, and Madame was already appealing to me by looks of a most pathetic kind (she had the most extraordinary horror of a holiday that I ever saw), and Schillie, on seeing her look, exclaimed, "Well, Madame, you are certainly not of the same species as I am. I should be only too willing to give them holidays every day if I were their governess." "Yes, Madame," said Sybil, "and she acts up to it; for when you were ill, I heard her say to the little girls that she would give them a whole holiday that day because they had had only half a one the day before." Madame looked horror-stricken, and mournfully shook her head at Schillie.

_Mother._--"Come, come, now, about this house. Where shall we put it up!"

Many places were suggested, and at last, partly because there were so many trees there, partly because we fancied it more sheltered, and partly because it was such a lovely spot, we fixed upon the little valley or glade which was sheltered by the cliffs on one side and by a thick wood on the other. In the centre was the great tree which had bewildered us so by its strange movements while under the influence of the great Anaconda. Inland, beyond the tree, was the pretty peaceful lake, and a sloping terrace took us down to it.

Great impatience was now manifested on all sides to begin; Madame alone was in low spirits. It had been decreed by the higher powers that, until we could see how we got on in this new and unusual work for feminine fingers, it was as well to employ the whole force of the island; besides, after being screwed up in the caverns, where lessons and Madame were met at every corner, and there was no escape, a little holiday would be a great boon. The piano had been sadly damaged by the wet, so we begged her to set it right, that it might be ready for the new drawing room.

We all drew plans of the house first, and, to the surprise of everybody, Schillie's was undoubtedly the best. So the little Mother was well bullied for being so disgusted at having to build a house, and yet taking the trouble of making such a good plan. She was made clerk of the works on the spot. Gatty's plan had consisted of merely one square. "On one side we can sleep," she said, "and on the other sit and do all we have to do." "But where are we to eat?" said Sybil. "Oh, I think nothing so stupid as having regular meals," said Gatty. "When I have a house of my own, I never intend to order anything, but I shall go to the cupboard and eat when I am hungry." "But," said Winny, "I don't see a cupboard in your plan, Gatty." "Oh, we will stick one up somewhere, little one,"

returned Gatty.

The high spirits with which every one began their allotted tasks rather gave way under the fatigue and hard work, so unusual to delicate fingers. Gatty had earnestly begged to cut down the tree, with Jenny, Oscar, and Schillie to help. Sybil's hands were too slight and small to hold the hatchet, so she had to collect gra.s.s and moss with the young ones. The first tree that was cut down, how often it was anathematized, it seemed determined not to come down. Hot and panting we sat down one after another to rest, and a sort of vague notion kept running in our heads, if one tree is such a trouble, what shall we do having to cut down so many. But Schillie was not to be daunted by a tree; taking a great gla.s.sful of porter, she called on us all to set to work again, partly laughing at us, partly praising us, and especially animating us by her energetic example; at length down came our first tree with a delightful crash. And happy were the boys, sitting astride on the branches, and sawing away as if they received wages for all they did.

The next tree was more civil, and came down in half the time; the fact is, we grew more expert, and at last it was but one hour's task among us all to fell one. In a week we had cleared a good s.p.a.ce, sawn and chopped a vast quant.i.ty of wood, and then the clerk of the works ordered me to get a great feast ready, as the next day she was going to lay, not the first stone, but the first tree of our house. So we went in great state to the ceremony, and we took a bottle of wine with us to drink success to the new house, and the clerk of the works made a very neat and appropriate speech, in which, however, she showed herself on rather too familiar terms with her workpeople; and I, in return, proposed, "health and long life to the clerk of the works," which was received with great cheering and applause. Madame became quite merry, and having settled the well-being of the piano, actually offered her services to a.s.sist in the building, and never mentioned lessons the whole day. We had a superb feast. A magnificent dish of fish, the last piece of beef in our possession, peas, bacon and beans, roasted yams, a glorious plum-pudding, with brandy blazing up in the middle, fruit, beautiful to behold and delicious to taste. Then, after dinner, we sang songs, and Madame told us some stories, and we went to bed extremely happy, but nearly as weary of our day's pleasure as we were of our daily work, we had laughed and talked so much. It was quite a month before the clerk of the works would allow us to consider our house fit to be looked at, and I cannot say it was ever quite finished, as we always found something to alter and arrange in it. It consisted of one hall in the middle, thirty feet long, twenty feet wide, the walls of which were composed of the trees we had cut down, a double row of them, the intermediate s.p.a.ce being filled up with everything we could collect in the shape of gra.s.s and moss; the inside was plastered with clay, which, after a while, we painted, as we had a good store of oils and turpentine and other things, which had been designed for the ship. On both sides of the hall, we had what we called lean-tos, the roofs of which began where the roof of the hall ended, and they sloped down to within four feet of the ground. The other side, or point of the hall, was the entrance. The sheds on each side opened into the hall, but had no other outlet. There were two on each side and one at the end opposite the entrance, which was a kitchen and scullery. Of the four little side rooms, Schillie and I occupied the one on the right hand of the door, Madame and the three little girls the next one, the two maids and two boys opposite us, and the three girls opposite Madame. The little girls used our room to dress and wash in, so that Madame's was not intruded upon except at night, and she could keep it quiet for herself when she wanted to lie down and rest. The bed places were put just where the roof was lowest, so that, in fact, when lying down, our faces were within two feet of the roof, but, by this means, we had more room in which to stand upright and move about. The kitchen had an outlet at the side. The reason we made our side roofs slope down so much was to allow the rain to fall off quicker, and to let hurricanes blow over us, if possible, without finding any resisting substance the wind could blow away. Then all round our house we planted the p.r.i.c.kly pear, which grew like a weed, so that nothing could attack our dwelling from the outside, excepting by the door, and that makes me remember to remark that we had no door at all, and we often laughed at ourselves for taking such care to guard the sides of the house when we left open the only place where there was an entrance. However, then we were under no alarm regarding thieves and robbers. But we had a sail-cloth curtain, which at night we fastened with bars of wood across, as much to prevent the wind flapping it to and fro as to hinder anything getting in; also, each bed-room had a curtain before its door or entrance. We had a great deal of trouble with the roof it must be acknowledged, even the clerk of the works stamped her foot, and went so far as to say, "Hang the roof," to which Sybil demurely replied, "That's just what we want to do."

We took three spars, one for the middle and two each side, these latter being placed two feet lower; on these we nailed a strip of sail-cloth each side, which we tarred and painted very often, especially the inside, which, at the children's request, was painted in blue, to make our roof or ceiling look pretty; above the sail-cloth outside we laid a smooth layer of leaves, and then across we nailed shingles of wood lapped one over the other, which again were seamed by cross pieces very strongly fastened. Lucky it was that the walls were so thick, otherwise such an elaborate roof could never have been supported. When finished, we all had an argument as to whether it really would resist water, and Gatty offered, with Serena to help her, to go up and empty buckets of water on it to try. This handsome offer was declined, as we thought the rain would do that soon enough, and we were at present too much in love with our work to bear the shock of finding all our labour was thrown away. I am afraid of appearing tedious in describing our many mistakes, our frequent mishaps, and the many blundering contrivances we had.

Certain it is that to the clerk of the works we owed most of our neatness, to the quick wits of the girls many of our ideas, and one and all worked with a will. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that the commonest carpenter in the smallest village would have laughed at the house we built, and how we rectified gaps with gra.s.s and moss, how things warped one way and others shrunk the contrary, how nails stuck out their points and their heads were utterly lost, how screws were such a time before they would ever screw for us, how, animated by the clerk of the works, few thought of chopped fingers and hammered hands, how others ceased to shriek at the monstrous spiders, centipedes, lizards and small snakes, appearing every minute in the gra.s.s and moss; and now one and all agreed, that, in spite of every impediment, we should have the housewarming dinner and the first usage of our new mansion on the first Christmas-day we had ever spent on this unknown but lonely island.