A Set of Rogues

by Frank Barrett

  CHAPTER XII.

  _How Don Sanchez very honestly offers to free us of our bargain if wewill; but we will not._

  The house, like nearly all Moorish houses of this class, was simply onelarge and lofty room, with a domed ceiling built of very thick masonry,to resist the heat of the sun. There was neither window nor chimney, thedoor serving to admit light and air, and let out the smoke if a firewere lighted within. One half of this chamber was dug out to a depth ofa couple of feet, for the accommodation of cattle (the litter beingthrown into the hollow as it is needed, and nought removed till itreaches the level of the other floor), and above this, about eight feetfrom the ground and four from the roof, was a kind of shelf (the breadthand length of that half), for the storage of fodder and a sleeping-placefor the inhabitants, with no kind of partition, or any issue for thefoul air from the cattle below.

  "Are we to live a year in this hutch?" asks Moll, in affright.

  "Have done with your chatter, Moll!" answers Jack, testily. "Don't yousee I'm a-thinking? Heaven knows there's enough to swallow without anybugbears of your raising."

  With that, having finished his inspection of the interior, he goes outand looks at it outside.

  "Well," says Don Sanchez, "what think you of the house?"

  "Why, Senor, 'tis no worse as I can see than any other in these parts,and hath this advantage, which they have not, of being in a sweet air.With a bit of contrivance we could make a shift to live here wellenough. We should not do amiss neither for furniture, seeing that 'tisthe custom of the country to eat off the floor and sit upon nothing. Apot to cook victuals in is about all we need in that way. But how we areto get anything to cook in it is one mystery, and" (clacking his tongue)"what we are going to drink is another, neither of which I can fathom.For, look you, Senor, if one may judge of men's characters by theirfaces or of their means by their habitations, we may dance our legs offere ever these Moors will bestow a penny piece upon us, and as for theirsour milk, I'd as lief drink hemlock, and liefer. Now, if this town hadbeen as we counted on, like Barcelona, all had gone as merry as amarriage bell, for then might we have gained enough to keep us injollity as long as you please; but here, if we die not of the colicks ina week, 'twill be to perish of starvation in a fortnight. What say you,Kit?"

  I was forced to admit that I had never seen a town less likely to afforda subsistence than this.

  Then Don Sanchez, having heard us with great patience, and waited aminute to see if we could raise any further objections, answers us inmeasured tones.

  "I doubt not," says he, "that with a little ingenuity you may make thehouse habitable and this wilderness agreeable. My friend, Sidi benAhmed, has offered to provide us with what commodities are necessary tothat end. I agree with you that it would be impossible to earn themeanest livelihood here by dancing; it would not be advisable if wecould. For that reason, my knowledge of various tongues making me veryserviceable to Sidi ben Ahmed (who is the most considerable merchant ofthis town), I have accepted an office in his house. This will enable meto keep my engagement with you. You will live at my charge, as Ipromised, and you shall want for nothing in reason. If the Moors drinkno wine themselves, they make excellent for those who will, and youshall not be stinted in that particular."

  "Come, this sounds fair enough," cries Dawson. "But pray, Senor, are weto do nothing for our keep?"

  "Nothing beyond what we came here to do," replies he, with a meaningglance at Moll.

  "What!" cries poor Moll, in pain. "We are to dance no more!"

  The Don shook his head gravely; and, remembering the jolly, vagabond,careless, adventurous life we had led these past two months and more,with a thousand pleasant incidents of our happy junketings, we were alldowncast at the prospect of living in this place--though a paradise--fora year without change.

  "Though I promised you no more than I offer," says the Don, "yet if thisprospect displease you, we will cry quits and part here. Nay," adds he,taking a purse from his pocket, "I will give you the means to return toAlicante, where you may live as better pleases you."

  It seemed to me that there was an unfeigned carelessness in his manner,as if he would as lief as not throw up this hazardous enterprise forsome other more sure undertaking. And, indeed, I believe he was thenbalancing another alternative in his mind.

  At this generous offer Moll dashed away the tears that had sprung to hereyes, brightening up wonderfully, but then, casting her eyes upon theDon, her face fell again as at the thought of leaving him. For we alladmired him, and she prodigiously, for his great reserve and many goodqualities which commanded respect, and this feeling was tinged in hercase, I believe, with a kind of growing affection.

  Seeing this sentiment in her eyes, the Don was clearly touched by it,and so, laying his hand gently on her shoulder, he says:

  "My poor child, remember you the ugly old women we saw dancing atBarcelona? They were not more than forty; what will they be like in afew years? Who will tolerate them? who love them? Is that the end youchoose for your own life--that the estate to which our little princessshall fall?"

  "No, no, no!" cries she, in a passion, clenching her little hands andthrowing up her head in disdain.

  "And no, no, no, say I," cries Dawson. "Were our case ten times as bad,I'd not go back from my word. As it is, we are not to be pitied, and Iwarrant ere long we make ourselves to be envied. Come, Kit, rouse youout of your lethargies, and let us consult how we may improve ourcondition here; and do you, Senor, pray order us a little of that sameexcellent wine you spoke of, if it be but a pint, when you feel disposedthat way."

  The Don inclined his head, but lingered, talking to Moll very gravely,and yet tenderly, for some while, Dawson and I going into the house tosee what we could make of it; and then, telling us we should see him nomore till the next day, he left us. But for some time after he was goneMoll sat on the side of the well, very pensive and wistful, as one towhom the future was opened for the first time.

  Anon comes a banging at our garden gate, which Moll had closed behindthe Don; and, going to it, we find a Moorish boy with a barrow chargedwith many things. We could not understand a word he said, but Dawsondecided these chattels were sent us by the Don, by perceiving a hugehogskin of wine, for which he thanked God and Don Sanchez an hundredtimes over. So these commodities we carried up to the house, marvellinggreatly at the Don's forethought and generosity, for here were a scoreof things over and above those we had already found ourselves lacking;namely, earthen pipkins and wooden vessels, a bag of charcoal, a box ofcarpenters' tools (which did greatly like Dawson, he having been bred acarpenter in his youth), instruments for gardening (to my pleasure, as Ihave ever had a taste for such employment), some very fine Moorishblankets, etc. So when the barrow was discharged, Dawson gives the ladsome rials out of his pocket, which pleased him also mightily.

  Then, first of all, Dawson unties the leg of the hogskin, and draws offa quart of wine, very carefully securing the leg after, and this wedrank to our great refreshment; and next Moll, being awoke from herdreams and eager to be doing, sets herself to sort out our goods, suchas belong to us (as tools, etc.), on one side, and such as belong to her(as pipkins and the rest) on the other. Leaving her to this employment,Dawson and I, armed with a knife and bagging hook, betake ourselves to agreat store of canes stacked in one corner of the garden, and sortingout those most proper to our purpose, we lopped them all of an equallength, and shouldering as many as we could carried them up to ourhouse. Here we found Moll mighty jubilant in having got her work done,and admirably she had done it, to be sure. For, having found a longrecess in the wall, she had brushed it out clean with a whisp of herbs,and stored up her crocks according to their size, very artificial, witha dish of oranges plucked from the tree at our door on one side, and adish of almonds on the other, a pipkin standing betwixt 'em with ahandsome posey of roses in it. She had spread a mat on the floor, andfolded up our fine blankets to serve for cushions; and all that did notbelong to her she had bundled out of sight into tha
t hollowed side Ihave mentioned as being intended for cattle.

  After we had sufficiently admired the performance, she told us she had amind to give us a supper of broth. "But," says she, "the Don hasforgotten that we must eat, and hath sent us neither bread nor flesh norsalt."

  This put us to a stumble, for how to get these things we knew not; butMoll declared she would get all she needed if we could only find themoney.

  "Why, how?" asks Jack. "You know not their gibberish."

  "That may be," answers she, "but I warrant the same language that boughtme this petticoat will get us a supper."

  So we gave her what money we had, and she went off a-marketing, with asmuch confidence as if she were a born Barbary Moor. Then Jack falls tothanking God for blessing him with such a daughter, at the same timetaking no small credit to himself for having bred her to suchperfection, and in the midst of his encomiums, being down in the hollowsearching for his hammer, he cries:

  "Plague take the careless baggage! she has spilled all our nails, andhere's an hour's work to pick 'em up!"

  This accident was repaired, however, and Moll's transgression forgottenwhen she returned with an old woman carrying her purchases. Then were weforced to admire her skill in this business, for she had bought all thatwas needful for a couple of meals, and yet had spent but half our money.Now arose the difficult question how to make a fire, and this Jack leftus to settle by our own devices, he returning to his own occupation.Moll resolved we should do our cooking outside the house, so here webuilt up a kind of grate with stones; and, contriving to strike a sparkwith the back of a jack-knife and a stone, upon a heap of dried leaves,we presently blew up a fine flame, and feeding this with the ends ofcane we had cut and some charcoal, we at last got a royal fire on whichto set our pot of mutton. And into this pot we put rice and a multitudeof herbs from the garden, which by the taste we thought might serve tomake a savoury mess. And, indeed, when it began to boil, the odour wasso agreeable that we would have Jack come out to smell it. And he havingpraised it very highly, we in return went in to look at his handiworkand praise that. This we could do very heartily and without hypocrisy,for he had worked well and made a rare good job, having built a veryseemly partition across the room, by nailing of the canesperpendicularly to that kind of floor that hung over the hollowedportion, thus making us now three rooms out of one. At one end he hadleft an opening to enter the cavity below and the floor above by thelittle ladder that stood there, and these canes were set not so closetogether but that air and light could pass betwixt them, and yet fromthe outer side no eye could see within, which was very commodious. Alsoupon the floor above, he had found sundry bundles of soft dried leaves,and these, opened out upon the surface of both chambers, made a verysweet, convenient bed upon which to lie. Then Dawson offering Moll herchoice, she took the upper floor for her chamber, leaving us two thelower; and so, it being near sundown by this time, we to our supper inthe sweet, cool air of evening, all mightily content with one another,and not less satisfied with our stew, which was indeed most savoury andpalatable. This done, we took a turn round our little domain, admiringthe many strange and wonderful things that grew there (especially thefigs, which, though yet green, were wondrous pleasant to eat); and Ilaying out my plans for the morrow, how to get this wilderness intoorder, tear out the worthless herbs, dig the soil, etc., Dawson'sthoughts running on the building of an outhouse for the accommodation ofour wine, tools, and such like, and Moll meditating on dishes to give usfor our repasts. And at length, when these divers subjects were no moreto be discussed, we turned into our dormitories, and fell asleep mightytired, but as happy as princes.