The Young Marooners on the Florida Coast Page 9

  CHAPTER VI

  THE ONLY WAY TO STUDY--TAKING COLD--RILEY'S FAMILY--THE HARELIP---FISHING FOR SHEEPHEAD---FRANK CHOKED WITH A FISH BONE--HISRELIEF--HIS STORY OF THE SHEEP'S HEAD AND DUMPLINGS--"TILL THE WARFAREIS OVER"

  Dr. Gordon began to feel dissatisfied that his children were losing somuch valuable time from study; for the house was yet loaded with baggagewhich could be put nowhere else, and their time was broken up byunavoidable interruptions. Until a more favourable opportunity,therefore, he required only that they should devote one hour every dayto faithful study, and that they should spend the rest of their time asusefully as possible.

  His theory of education embraced two very simple, but very efficaciousprinciples. First, to _excite in his children the desire of acquiringknowledge_; and, secondly, to train them to _give their undividedattention to the subject in hand_. This last, he said, was the only wayto study; and he told them, in illustration, the story of Sir IsaacNewton, who, on being asked by a friend, in view of his prodigiousachievements, what was the difference, so far as he was conscious,between his mind and those of ordinary people, answered simply in thepower of concentration.

  Harold had been greatly discouraged at finding himself so far behind hiscousins in the art of study, but by following the advice of his uncle,he soon experienced a great and an encouraging change. At first, it istrue, he could scarcely give his whole mind to any study more than fiveminutes at a time, without a sense of weariness; but he persevered, andday by day his powers increased so manifestly that he used frequently tosay to himself, "_concentration is everything--everything in study_."

  But Dr. Gordon's instructions were by no means confined to books and theschool-room; he used every favourable opportunity to give information onpoints that promised to be useful.

  "Mary," said he one day, to his daughter, who was sitting absorbed instudy, beside a window through which the sea breeze was pouring freshlyupon her head and shoulders, and who had, in consequence, began toexhibit symptoms of a cold, "Mary, my daughter, remove your seat. Doyou not know that to allow a current of air like that to blow upon apart of your person, is almost sure to produce sickness?"

  "I know it, father," she replied, "and I intended some time since tochange my seat, but the sum is so hard that I forgot all about thewind."

  "I am glad to see you capable of such fixedness of mind," said he, "butI will take this opportunity to say to you, and to the rest, that thereare two seasons, especially, when you should be on your guard againstthese dangerous currents of air,--one is when you are asleep, and theother is when your mind is absorbed in thought. At these times thepores of the skin are more than usually open, as may be seen by the flowof perspiration; and a current of cool air, at such a time, especiallyif partial, is almost certain to give cold."

  "But how can we be on our guard, father," asked Mary with a smile, "whenwe are too far gone in sleep or in thought, to know what we are about!"

  "We must take the precaution beforehand," he replied. "Make it a rulenever to sleep nor to study in a partial current of air; and alsoremember that _the first moment_ you perceive the tingling sensation ofan incipient cold, you must obey the warning which kind nature gives youor else must bear the consequences."

  Mary's cold was pretty severe. For days she suffered from cough andpain. But that day's lecture on currents of air, followed by soimpressive an illustration, was probably more useful than her lesson inarithmetic; certainly it was longer remembered and more frequently actedupon.

  True to his promise, Riley appeared at the appointed time with hissupply of game. He said, however, that he should remain only a fewdays, because he had left his young wife sick. It interested Mary not alittle to perceive that a savage could feel and act so much like acivilized being; and she was trying to think of something complimentaryto say upon this occasion, when he threw her all aback, by adding, thatthis was his _youngest_ and _favourite_ wife.

  "What! have you two wives?" she exclaimed in horror.

  "Yes, only two, now; one dead."

  Her mind was sadly changed at this evidence of heathenism; but ere theday was over she received a still more impressive proof.

  Dr. Gordon perceiving that he looked sad whenever an allusion was madeto his home, he asked him if his wife was seriously sick, to which heanswered, No.

  "When I go home, last week," said he, "my squaw had a fine boy, big andfat. My heart glad. But I look and see a big hole in his mouth, fromhere to here," pointing from the lip to the nose.

  "That is what we call a hare lip," said Dr. Gordon, "it is notuncommon."

  "I sorry very much," continued Riley. "Child too ugly."

  "But it can be easily cured," observed Dr. Gordon.

  Riley looked at him inquiringly, and Dr. Gordon added, "O, yes, it canbe easily cured. If you will bring your child here, any time, I willstop that hole in half an hour; and there will be no sign of it left,except a little scar, like a cut."

  The Indian shook his head mournfully, "Can't bring him. Too late now."

  "O, the child is dead?" inquired the Doctor. "I am sorry."

  "Dead now," replied Riley. "I look at him one day, two day, tree day.Child too ugly. I throw him in the water."

  "What!" exclaimed Dr. Gordon, suddenly remembering that it was thepractice of the Indians to destroy all their deformed children. "Youdid not drown it?"

  "Child ugly too much," answered Riley, with a softened tone of voice."Child good for nothing. I throw him in the water."

  Dr. Gordon was not only shocked, as any man of feeling would have been,under the circumstances, but he felt as a Christian, whose heart movedwith compassion towards his dark skinned brother. He uttered not oneword of rebuke or of condemnation; his time for speaking to the purposehad not yet come; and he carefully avoided everything in word and lookwhich should widen the space which naturally exists between the whiteman and the Indian, the Christian and the pagan.

  Poor Mary! She no sooner heard this confession, than she sidled awayfrom her interesting savage, until wholly beyond his reach, and couldscarcely look at him during his stay that week, without feelings akin tofear. An Indian, she learned, was an Indian after all.

  While Riley was there the boys often borrowed his boat, and Harold triedto imitate his dexterity in the use of the paddle. They soon becamegreat friends. On one of their excursions for fish, they went, by hisdirection, around a point of land where the head of a fallen live oaklay in the water, and its partially decayed limbs were encrusted withbarnacles and young oysters. There they soon caught a large supply ofvery fine fish of various sorts, particularly of the sheephead,--adelicious fish, shaped somewhat like the perch, only stouter androunder, beautifully marked with broad alternate bands of black andwhite around the body, and varying in weight from half a pound to ten orfifteen pounds.

  No one was more delighted than Frank, with the result of the excursion;for he was fond, as a cat, of everything in the shape of fish. But, itis said, there is no rose without its thorn; and so he found in thepresent case. He was enjoying, rather voraciously, the luxury of hisfavourite food, when a disorderly bone lodged crossways in the narrowpart of his throat, and gave him excessive pain. Frank was a politeboy. Avoiding, as far as possible, disturbing the others by hismisfortune, he slipped quietly from the table, and tried every means torelieve himself. But it was not until he had applied to his father,and, under his direction, swallowed a piece of hard bread, that he wasable to resume his place.[#]

  [#] Unwilling to mislead any of my young readers, by describingexpedients and remedies that might not serve them in case of necessity,I have submitted my manuscript to several persons for inspection, andamong others to a judicious physician and surgeon. It never occurred tome that in mentioning so simple a thing as swallowing a crust for theremoval of a fish-bone, I could possibly do harm. To my surprise,however, my medical friend observed, that he supposed Dr. Gordon knewthat the fishbone, which Frank swallowed, was _small_ and _
flexible_, orhe would not have used that expedient.

  "If," said he, "the substance which lodges in the throat is so stiff (apin for instance) as not to be easily bent, the attempt to force it downby swallowing a piece of bread may be unsafe; it may lacerate the liningmembrane, or, being stopped by the offending substance, it may cause theperson to be worse choked than before."

  "But, Doctor, what should the poor fellow do in such a case?" he wasasked.

  "I suspect Dr. Gordon would have used a large feather?"

  "Indeed!"

  "Yes, he would have rumpled its plume, so as to reverse the direction ofthe feathery part, and would have thrust that down the throat, below thepin or bone. On withdrawing the feather, the substance would be eitherfound adhering to its wet sides, or raised on end, so that it could beeasily swallowed."

  With many thanks for this suggestion, the promise was made that theyoung readers of Robert and Harold should have the benefit of hisadvice. But I think that the best plan is to avoid the fish-bones.

  Being not quite so humble as he was polite, however, he began to condemnthe fish instead of himself for his accident. His father told him hehad no right to say one word against the fish, which was remarkably freefrom bones, and was just preparing to give him a gentle lecture ongormandizing, when Frank, foreseeing what was to come, was adroit enoughto seize a moment's pause in the conversation, and to divert thesubject, by asking with a very droll air,

  "I wonder, father, if these sheephead are of the same kind with that onethat butted the dumplings?"

  "I do not know what dumplings you mean," said his father.

  "O, did you never hear the story of the sheep's head and the dumplings?Well, brother Robert can tell you all about it."

  "No, no," returned his father, who saw through the little fellow'sstratagem. "No, no, Frank, it is your own story, and you must gothrough with it."

  This was a trial, for Frank had never in his life made so long anextempore speech in the presence of the assembled family, as he had nowimposed upon himself. But, in the desperation of the moment, he musteredcourage, and thus spoke,

  "There was once an old woman that left her little boy to mind a pot thathad in it a sheep's head and some dumplings boiling for dinner, whileshe went to a neighbour's house to attend some sort of preaching. Thelittle boy did not seem to have much sense; and had never minded a potbefore; so when he saw the water boiling over, and the sheep's head andthe dumplings bobbing about in every direction, he became frightened andran for his mother, bawling at the top of his voice, 'Mammy! thedumplings! run!' She saw him coming in among the people, and tried tostop his bawling by shaking her head and winking her eyes at him; but hewould not stop. He crowded right up to her, saying, 'Mammy, you needn'tto wink nor to blink, for the sheep's head is butting all the dumplingsout of the pot!'"

  Throughout this story Frank did not make a balk or a blunder. He keptstraight on, as if brimful of fun, and uttered the last sentence withsuch an affectation of grave terror, as produced a universal laugh.

  His father had tried hard to keep up his dignity for the intendedlecture, but it also gave way, and he contented himself with saying,

  "Well, master Frank, I see you are at your old tricks again. And sinceyou show such an aptitude for putting people into good humour, therewill be reason to think you are in fault, if you ever put them out.Harold, has your aunt ever told you how Frank once _kissed himself outof a scrape with her_?"

  Harold said she had not, and his uncle went on,

  "It was when he was between three and four years of age. His mother hadtaken him on a visit to a friend of hers in the neighbourhood ofCharleston, and he was allowed to sit at the dinner table with theladies. But he became so disorderly and perverse that his mother, afteran ineffectual reprimand or two, ordered him to go up stairs, meaning toher room above. The language was indefinite, and Frank interpreted itto suit his own pleasure. He went up stairs, it is true, but only halfway, where he seated himself so as to look at the table and the company,and then began to drum with his feet and to talk loud enough to beheard,

  "'H-m-n-h! This is a very good place. I love these nice stairs. I'drather be here than anywhere else in the world. I don't want any ofthat old dinner!'

  "This was very rude language, and more especially when used in a housewhere he was a guest. His mother was so much mortified that as soon asdinner was over she took him to her room, gave him a sound strapping,and put him in a corner, where he was to stay, until he promised to be agood boy. Then she lay down on her bed as if to take a nap, but inreality to meditate what course to pursue towards her rude little child.

  "Frank, you know, is fond of singing. There was a wild religious melodywhich he had learnt about that time, and which he was constantlysinging. It had a short chorus at the end of every line, and a longchorus at the end of each verse, running this way,

  "'Children of the heavenly King, Till the warfare is over, Hallelujah,As ye journey sweetly sing, Till the warfare is over, Hallelujah.'

  I forget the long chorus.

  "Well, your aunt had not been upon the bed more than a few minutes,before Frank quietly slipped from his corner and stole close to thebedside to make friends. But his mother would not notice him. He bentover and gave her a kiss. Still she looked displeased. He triedanother kiss, but she turned away her face. This was a damper. Frankwas disheartened, but not in despair. He leaned over the bed, making along reach, to try the effect of a third kiss.

  "'There, Frank,' said his mother, in a displeased tone, 'that is enough.You need not kiss me any more.'

  "'Yes, mother,' said he, leaning far over, and taking hold of her, 'Imean to kiss you _till the warfare is over, Hallelujah_.'

  "I need not say that, from that moment, the warfare _was_ over, andFrank behaved himself well through the remainder of the visit.

  "And now, since he has managed to escape the lecture I was about to givehim on eating too fast, I hope he will hereafter cultivate therecollection of _today and the fish-bones_."