CHAPTER XIX.
Wilkins's concern about clothing for Pedro, his eldest son-- His discourse with his wife about the ship--Her flight to it--His melancholy reflections till her return--An account of what she had done, and of what she brought--She clothes her children, and takes a second flight
As my boy Pedro grew up, though, as I said before, he had the graundee,yet it was of less dimensions than it ought to have been to be useful tohim, so that it was visible he could never fly; for it would scarce meetbefore, whereas it ought to have reached from side to side both ways.This pleased my wife to the heart; for now she was sure, whatever Ihad done before, I could not suspect her. Be that as it will, the boy'sgraundee not being a sufficient vestment for him, it became necessary heshould be clothed.
I turned over my hoard, but could find nothing that would do; or, atleast, that we knew how to fit him with. I had described my own countryvest for lads to Youwarkee, and she formed a tolerable idea of it, butwe had no tackle to alter anything with. "Oh, my dear," says I, "had Ibut been born with the graundee, I need not be now racking my brains toget my child clothes."--"What do you mean by that?" says she.--"Why,"says I, "I would have flown to my ship (for I had long before relatedto her all my sea adventures, till the vessel's coming to the magneticalrock), and have brought some such things from thence, as you, notwanting them in this country, can have no notion of." She seemed mightyinquisitive to understand how a ship was made, what it was most like to,how a person who never saw one might know it only by the description,and how one might get into it; with abundance of the like questions.She then inquired what sort of things those needles and several otherutensils were, which I had at times been speaking of; and in whatpart of a ship they usually kept such articles. And I, to gratify hercuriosity, as I perceived she took a pleasure in hearing me, answeredall her questions to a scruple; not then conceiving the secret purposeof all this inquisitiveness.
About two days after this, having been out two or three hours in themorning, to cut wood, at coming home I found Pedro crying, readyto break his heart, and his little brother Tommy hanging to him andcrawling about the floor after him: the youngest pretty baby was fastasleep upon one of the beast-fish skins, in a corner of the room. Iasked Pedro for his mother; but the poor infant had nothing farther tosay to the matter, than "Mammy run away, I cry! mammy run away, Icry!" I wondered where she was gone, never before missing her from ourhabitation. However, I waited patiently till bed-time, but no wife.I grew very uneasy then; yet, as my children were tired and sleepy, Ithought I had best go to bed with them, and make quiet; so, giving allthree their suppers, we lay down together. They slept; but my mind wastoo full to permit the closure of my eyes. A thousand different chimerasswam in my imagination relating to my wife. One while I fancied hercarried away by her kinsfolks; then, that she was gone of her own accordto make peace with her father. But that thought would not fix, being putaside by her constant tenderness to her children and regard to me, whomI was sure she would not have left without notice. "But alas!" says I,"she may even now be near me, but taken so ill she cannot get home, orshe may have died suddenly in the wood." I lay tumbling and tossing ingreat anxiety, not able to find out any excusable occasion she couldhave of so long absence. And then, thinks I, if she should either bedead, or have quite left me, which will be of equally bad consequenceto me, what can I do with three poor helpless infants? If they were alittle more grown up, they might be helpful to me and to each other;but at their age how shall I ever rear them without the tenderness ofa mother? And to see them pine away before my face, and not know how tohelp them, will distract me.
Finding I could neither sleep nor lie still, I rose, intending to searchall the woods about, and call to her, that if any accident had preventedsight of her she might at least hear me. But upon opening the door, andjust stepping out, how agreeably was I surprised to meet her coming in,with something on her arm. "My dear Youwarkee," says I, "where have youbeen? What has befallen you to keep you out so long? The poor childrenhave been at their wits' end to find you; and I, my dear, have beeninconsolable, and was now, almost distracted, coming in search of you."Youwarkee looked very blank, to think what concern she had given me andthe children. "My dearest Peter," says she, kissing me, "pray forgiveme the only thing I have ever done to offend you, and the last causeyou shall ever have, by my good will, to complain of me; but walk withindoors, and I will give you a farther account of my absence. Don't youremember what delight I took the other day to hear you talk of yourship?"--"Yes," says I, "you did so; but what of that?"--"Nay, pray,"says she, "forgive me, for I have been to see it."--"That's impossible,"says I; and truly this was the first time I ever thought she went aboutto deceive me.--"I do assure you," says she, "I have; and a wonderfulthing it is! But if you distrust me, and what I say, I have broughtproof of it; step out with me to the verge of the wood, and satisfyyourself."--"But pray," says I, "who presented you with this upon yourarm?"--"I vow," says she, "I had forgot this: yes, this will, I believe,confirm to you what I have said."--I turned it over and over; andlooking wistfully upon her, says I, "This waistcoat, indeed, is the veryfellow to one that lay in the captain's locker in the cabin"--"Say notthe very fellow," says she, "but rather say the very same, for I'llassure you it is so; and had you been with me, we might have got so manythings for ourselves and the children, we should never have wantedmore, though we had lived these hundred years; but as it is, I have leftsomething without the wood for you to bring up." When we had our talkout, she, hearing the children stir, took them up, and was going, as shealways did, to get their breakfasts. "Hold," says I, "this journey musthave fatigued you too much already; lay yourself to rest, and leaveeverything else to me."--"My dear," says she, "you seem to think thisflight tiresome, but you are mistaken; I am more weary with walking tothe lake and back again, than with all the rest. Oh," says she, "if youhad but the graundee, flying would rest you, after the greatest labour;for the parts which are moved with exercise on the earth, are all atrest in flight; as, on the contrary, the parts used in flight are whenon earthly travel. The whole trouble of flight is in mounting fromthe plain ground; but when once you are upon the graundee at a properheight, all the rest is play, a mere trifle; you need only think of yourway, and incline to it, your graundee directs you as readily as yourfeet obey you on the ground, without thinking of every step you take; itdoes not require labour, as your boat does, to keep you a-going."
After we had composed ourselves, we walked to the verge of the wood, tosee what cargo my wife had brought from the ship. I was astonished atthe bulk of it; and seeing, by the outside, it consisted of clothes, Itook it with much ado upon my shoulders and carried it home. But uponopening it, I found far more treasure than I could have imagined; forthere was a hammer, a great many spikes and nails, three spoons, aboutfive plates of pewter, four knives and a fork, a small china punchbowl,two chocolate cups, a paper of needles, and several of pins, a parcelof coarse thread, a pair of shoes, and abundance of such other thingsas she had heard me wish for and describe; besides as much linen andwoollen, of one sort or another, as made a good package for all theother things; with a great tin porridge-pot, of about two gallons, tiedto the outside; and all these as nicely stowed as if she had been bred apacker.
When I had viewed the bundle, and poised the weight, "How was itpossible, my dear You-warkee," said I, "for you to bring all this?You could never carry them in your hands."--"No, no," replied she, "Icarried them on my back."--"Is it possible," says I, "for your graundeeto bear yourself and all this weight too in the air, and to such aheight as the top of these rocks?"--"You will always," replies she,"make the height a part of your difficulty in flying; but you aredeceived, for as the first stroke (I have heard you say often) infighting is half the battle, so it is in flying; get but once fairly onthe wind, nothing can hurt you afterwards. My method, let me tell you,was this; I climbed to the highest part of the ship, where I could standclear, having first put up my burden, which you have there; and t
hengetting that on my back near my shoulders, I took the two cords you seehang loose to it in my two hands, and extending my graundee, leaped offflatwise with my face towards the water; when instantly playing two orthree good strokes with my graundee, I was out of danger; now, if Ihad found the bundle too heavy to make my first strokes with, I shoulddirectly have turned on my back, dropped my bundle, and floated in mygraundee to the ship again, as you once saw me float on the lake." SaysI, "You must have flown a prodigious distance to the lake, for I wasseveral days sailing, I believe three weeks, from my ship, before Ireached the gulf; and after that could be little less than five weeks(as I accounted for it), and at a great rate of sailing too under therock, before I reached the lake; so that the ship must be a monstrousway off." "No, no," says she, "your ship lies but over yon cliff, thatrises as it were with two points; and as to the rock itself, it is notbroader than our lake is long; but what made you so tedious in yourpassage was many of the windings and turnings in the cavern returningin to themselves again; so that you might have gone round and roundtill this time, if the tide had not luckily struck you into the directpassage: this," says she, "I have heard from some of my countrymen, whohave flown up it, but could never get quite through."
"I wish with all my heart," says I, "fortune had brought me first tolight in this country; or (but for your sake I could almost say) hadnever brought me into it at all; for to be a creature of theleast significancy, of the whole race but one, is a melancholycircumstance."--"Fear not," says she, "my love, for you have a wife willhazard all for you, though you are restrained; and as my inclinationsand affections are so much yours, that I need but know your desiresto execute them as far as my power extends, surely you, who can act byanother, may be content to forego the trouble of your own performance. Iperceive, indeed," continued she, "you want mightily to go to your ship,and are more uneasy now you know it is safe than you was before; butthat being past my skill to assist you in, if you will command yourdeputy to go backwards and forwards in your stead, I am ready to obeyyou."
Thus ended our conversation about the ship for that time. But it leftnot my mind so soon; for a stronger hankering after it pursued me nowthan ever since my wife's flight, but to no purpose.
We sat us down and sorted out our cargo, piece by piece; and havingfound several things proper for the children, my wife longed to enterupon some piece of work towards clothing Pedro in the manner shehad heard me talk of, and laid hard at me to show her the use of theneedles, thread, and other things she had brought. Indeed I must sayshe proved very tractable; and from the little instruction I was able togive her, soon out-wrought my knowledge; for I could only show her thatthe thread went through the needle, and both through the cloth to holdit together; but for anything else I was as ignorant as she. In muchless time than I could have imagined, she had clothed my son Pedro, andhad made a sort of mantle for the youngest. But now seeing us so smart(for I took upon me sometimes to wear the green waistcoat she hadbrought under my dirty jacket), she began to be ashamed of herself, asshe said, in our fine company; and afterwards (as I shall soon acquaintyou) got into our fashion.
Seeing the advantages her flight to the ship, and that so manyconveniences arose from it, she was frequently at me to let her goagain. I should as much have wished for another return of goods as she,but I could by no means think of parting with my factor; for I knew hereagerness to please me, and that she would stick at nothing to performit. And, thinks I, should any accident happen to her, by over-loading orotherwise, and I should lose her, all the other commodities of thewhole world put together would not compensate her loss. But as she soearnestly desired it, and assured me she would run no hazards, I wasprevailed on at length, by her incessant importunities, to let her go;though under certain restrictions which she promised me to comply with.As first, I insisted upon it that she should take a tour quite roundthe rock, setting out the same way I had last gone with my boat; and, ifpossible, find out the gulf, which I told her she could not mistake,by reason of the noise the fall of the water made; and desired her toremark the place, so as I might know within-side where it was without.And then I told her she might review and search every hole in the shipas she pleased; and if there were any small things she had a mind tobring from it, she was welcome, provided the bundle she should make upwas not above a fourth part either of the bulk or weight of the last.All which she having engaged punctually to observe, she bade me notexpect her till I saw her, and she would return as soon as possible. Ithen went with her to the confines of the wood (for I told her I desiredto see her mount), and she, after we had embraced, bidding me to standbehind her, took her flight.
Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) Page 23
