The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast Read online

  CHAPTER II

  MOTHER CARY'S CHICKENS--FISHING FOR TROUT--SAW-FISH--FRANK AND THESHARK---LOOMING---TOM STARBOARD--THE NAUTILUS--ARRIVAL AT TAMPA

  Mary and Frank were affected with sea sickness shortly after enteringthe rough and rolling water on the bar, and having, in consequence,retired early to bed, they scarcely rose for six and thirty hours.Indeed, all the passengers, except Harold, suffered in turn this usualinconvenience of persons unaccustomed to the sea.

  The only incident of interest that occurred during this part of thevoyage, was a fright received by Mary and Frank. It was as follows:Having partially recovered from their indisposition, they were engagedwith childish glee in fishing from the stern windows. Directly overhead hung the jolly boat, and beneath them the water foamed and eddiedround the rudder. Mary was fishing for Mother Cary's chickens--aspecies of "poultry" well known to those who go to sea. Her apparatusconsisted of a strong thread, twenty or thirty yards long, having diversloops upon it, and baited at the end with a little tuft of red. She hadnot succeeded in taking any; but one, more daring than the rest, hadbecome entangled in the thread, and Mary eagerly drew it towards her,exclaiming, "I have caught it! I have caught it!" Ere, however, shecould bring it within arm's length, the struggling bird had escaped.

  Frank had obtained a large fish-hook, which he tied to a piece of twine,and baited with some raw beef; and he was fishing, he said, for _trout_.A few minutes after Mary's adventure with the bird, he saw a great fish,twice as long as himself, having an enormous snout, set on both sideswith a multitude of sharp teeth, following in the vessel's wake. Hedrew himself quickly into the window, exclaiming, "Look, sister, look!"The fish did not continue long to follow them. It seemed to have comeon a voyage of curiosity, and having satisfied itself that this greatswimming monster, the vessel, was neither whale nor kraken, it dartedoff and returned no more.

  "I should not like to hook _that_ fellow," said Frank, "for I am sure Icould not draw him in."

  "No," replied Mary, "and I should not like to have such an ugly fellowon board, if we could get him here."

  "Ugh! what a long ugly nose he has," said Frank. "I wonder what he cando with such a nose, and with all those teeth on the outside of it--onlysee, sister, _teeth on his_ NOSE!"

  "I do not know," she answered, "but we can ask father when we go ondeck."

  "I think his nose must be long to smell things a great way off,"conjectured Frank.

  Thus they chatted until Mary called out, "See, Frank, there is a blackpiece of wood sticking out of the water. See how it floats after us!No, it cannot be a piece of wood, for it swims from side to side. Itmust be a fish. It is! Draw in your head, Frank."

  Unsuccessful in his trout fishing, Frank had attached a red silkhandkerchief to his line, and was amusing himself with letting it downso as to touch along the water. When Mary said "it is a fish," he espiedan enormous creature, much larger than the sawfish, swimming almostunder him, and looking up hungrily to the window where they were. Amoment after it leaped directly towards them. Both screamed withterror, and Frank's wrist was jerked so violently, and pained him somuch, that he was certain his hand had been bitten off. He was about toscream again; but looking down, he found his hand was safe, and the nextmoment saw the fish swimming away with the end of the handkerchiefhanging from its mouth. The fish was a shark. It had been attractedprobably by the smell of Frank's bait, and by the sight of the red silk.When he drew his handkerchief from the water, the fish leaped after it,and jerked the twine which had been wrapped around his wrist. From thattime they ceased all fishing from the cabin windows.

  The history of that fishing, however, was not yet ended. On the dayfollowing the company were much interested in watching a singularphenomenon, which is sometimes visible at sea, though seldom in alatitude so low as Florida. The looming of the land had been remarkablydistinct and beautiful; at one time the land looked as if lifted farabove the water; at another the shore was seen doubled, as if the waterwere a perfect reflector, and the land and its shadow were united at thebase. But, on the present occasion, the shadow appeared in the wrongplace--united to its substance, not at the base, but at the top. It wasa most singular spectacle to behold trees growing topsy-turvy, from landin the sky.

  The sailors, as well as passengers, looked on with a curiosity notunmixed with awe, and an old "salt" was heard to mutter, as he ominouslyshook his head,

  "I never seed the likes of that but something was sure to come after.Yes," he continued, looking sullenly at Mary and Frank, "and yesterday,when I was at the starn, I saw a chicken flutter in a string."

  "A chicken, Tom?" inquired the captain, looking at the little culprits."Ah, have any of my young friends been troubling the sailor's pets?"

  "No, sir," responded Frank, promptly and indignantly. "We did nottrouble anybody's chickens. I only went to the coop, and pulled the olddrake's tail; but I did that to make him look at the bread I broughthim."

  "I do not mean the chickens on board, but the chickens that fly aroundus--Mother Cary's chickens," said the captain, trying hard to smotherdown a laugh. "Don't you know that they all belong to the sailors; andthat whoever troubles them is sure to bring trouble on the ship?"

  "No, sir," Frank persisted, evidently convinced that the captain wastrying to tease him. "I did not know that they belonged to anybody. Ithought that they were all wild."

  Mary, however, looked guilty. She knew well the sailor's superstitionabout the "chickens," but having had at that time nothing to do, she hadbeen urged on by an irrepressible desire for fun, and until this momenthad imagined that her fishing was unnoticed. She timidly answered,

  "I did not _catch_ it, sir; I only tangled it in the thread, and it gotaway before I touched it."

  "Well, Tom," said the captain to the sailor, who seemed to be in doubtafter Frank's defence whether to appear pleased or angry, "I think youwill have to forgive the offence this time, especially as the sharkstook it in hand so soon to revenge the insult, and ran away with thelittle fellow's handkerchief."

  Old Tom smiled grimly at the allusion to the shark; for he had beensitting quietly in the jolly boat picking rope, and had witnessed thewhole adventure.

  The wind, which had continued favourable ever since they leftCharleston, now gradually died away. The boatswain whistled often andshrilly to bring it back; but it was like "calling spirits from thevasty deep." The sails hung listlessly down, and moved only as thevessel rocked sluggishly upon the scarce undulating surface. The onlycircumstance which enlivened this scene was the appearance of anautilus, or Portuguese man-of-war. Mary was the first to discern it.She fancied that it was a tiny toy boat, launched by some child onshore, and wafted by the wind to this distant point. It was certainly atoy vessel, though one of nature's workmanship; for there was thefloating body corresponding to the hull, there the living passenger,there the sails spread or furled at will, and there the oars (Mary couldsee them move) by which the little adventurer paddled itself along.

  The young people were very anxious to obtain it. Frank went first to oldTom Starboard (as the sailor was called who had scolded him and Mary,but who was now on excellent terms with both) to ask whether they mighthave the nautilus if they could catch it.

  "Have the man-o'-war!" ejaculated the old man, opening wide his eyes,"who ever heered of sich a thing? O yes, have it, if you can get it; buthow will you do that?"

  "Brother Robert and cousin Harold will row after it and pick it up, ifthe captain will let them have his boat."

  Tom chuckled at the idea, and said he doubted not the captain would letthem have his boat, and be glad, too, to see the fun. Frank then wentto the captain, and told him that old Tom had given him leave to havethe man-of-war if he could get it; and that his brother and cousin wouldgo out and pick it up, if the captain would let them have his boat.With a good-natured smile, he answered,

  "You are perfectly welcome to the boat, my little man; but if yourbrother and cousin
catch that little sailor out there, they will be muchsmarter than most folks."

  "Can they not pick it up?"

  "Easily enough, if it will wait till they come. But if they do not wishto be hurt, they had better take a basket or net for dipping it from thewater."

  Frank went finally to his father to obtain his consent, which after amoment's hesitation was granted, the doctor well knowing what theprobable result would be, yet pleased to afford them any innocentamusement by which to enliven their voyage.

  "Tom," said the captain, "lower away the jolly boat, and do you go withthese young gentlemen. Row softly as you can, and give them the bestchance for getting what they want."

  The boat was soon alongside. Old Tom slid down by a rope, but Robertand Harold were let down more securely. They shoved off from thevessel's side, and glided so noiselessly along, that the water wasscarcely rippled. Harold stood in the bow, and Robert amidships, onewith a basket, and the other with a scoop net, ready to dip it from thewater. A cat creeping upon a shy bird could not have been more stealthyin its approach. But somehow the little sensitive thing became aware ofits danger, and ere the boat's prow had come within ten feet, it quicklydrew in its many arms, and sank like lead beyond their sight.

  "Umph!" said old Tom, with an expressive grunt, "I said you might haveit, if you could catch it."

  On the first day of September the voyagers approached some placidlooking islands, tasselled above with lofty palmettoes, and variedbeneath with every hue of green, from the soft colour of the mallow tothe sombre tint of the cedar and the glossy green of the live oak.Between these islands the vessel passed, so near to one that they couldsee a herd of deer peeping at them through the thin growth of the bluff,and a flock of wild turkeys flying to a distant grove.

  Beyond the islands lay, in perfect repose, the waters of that bay whosetranquil beauty has been a theme of admiration with every one whoseprivilege it has been to look upon it.