Kitabı oku: «Every Man for Himself», sayfa 4

“Not all of un,” added Jamie.

Salim took heart; he leaned close, whispering, in suspense: “How much have you thee got?”

“Two twenty – an’ a penny.”

“Ver’ good!” cried Salim Awad, radiant. “Ver’, ver’ good! Look!” said he: “you have wait three year for thee watch. Ver’ much you have want thee watch. ‘Ha!’ I theenk; ’ver’ good boy, this – I mus’ geeve thee watch to heem. No, no!’ I theenk; ’ver’ bad for thee boy. I mus’ not spoil thee ver’ good boy. Make thee mon-ee,’ I say; ’catch thee feesh, catch thee swile, then thee watch have be to you!’ Ver’ good. What happen? Second year, I have ask about the mon-ee. Ver’ good. ‘I have got one eighteen,’ you say. Oh my – no good! The watch have be three dollar. Oh my! Then I theenk: ‘I have geeve the good boy thee watch for one eighteen. Oh no, I mus’ not!’ I theenk; ‘ver’ bad for thee boy, an’ mos’ ver’ awful bad trade.’ Then I say, ‘I keep thee watch for one year more.’ Ver’ good. Thee third year I am have come. Ver’ good. What you say?‘ ‘I have thee two twenty-one,’ you say. Ver’, ver’ good. Thee price of thee watch have be three dollar? No! Not this year. Thee price have not be three dollar.”

Jamie looked up in hope.

“Why not?” Salim Awad continued, in delight. “Have thee watch be spoil? No, thee watch have be ver’ good watch. Have thee price go down? No; thee price have not.”

Jamie waited in intense anxiety, while Salim paused to enjoy the mystery.

“Have I then become to spoil thee boy?” Salim demanded. “No? Ver’ good. How then can thee price of thee watch have be two twenty?”

Jamie could not answer.

“Ver’ good!” cried the delighted Salim. “Ver’, ver’ good! I am have tell you. Hist!” he whispered.

Jamie cocked his ear.

“Hist!” said Salim Awad again.

They were alone – upon a bleak hill-side, in a wet, driving wind.

“I have be to New York,” Salim whispered, in a vast excitement of secrecy and delight. “I am theenk: ‘Thee boy want thee watch. How thee boy have thee watch? Thee good boy mus’ have thee watch. Oh, mygod! how?’ I theenk. I theenk, an’ I theenk, an’ I theenk. Thee boy mus’ pay fair price for thee watch. Ha! Thee Salim ver’ clever. He feex thee price of thee watch, you bet! Eh! Ver’ good. How?”

Jamie was tapped on the breast; he looked into the Syrian’s wide, delighted, mocking brown eyes – but could not fathom the mystery.

“How?” cried Salim. “Eh? How can the price come down?”

Jamie shook his head.

“I have smuggle thee watch!” Salim whispered.

“Whew!” Jamie whistled. “That’s sinful!”

“Thee watch it have be to you,” answered Salim, gently. “Thee sin,” he added, bowing courteously, a hand on his heart, “it have be all my own!”

For a long time after Salim Awad’s departure, Jamie Tuft sat in the lee of Bishop’s Rock – until indeed, the dark alien’s punt had fluttered out to sea on the perilous run to Chain Tickle. It began to rain in great drops; the sullen mood of the day was about to break in some wrathful outrage upon the coast. Gusts of wind swung in and down upon the boy – a cold rain, a bitter, rising wind. But Jamie still sat oblivious in the lee of the rock. It was hard for him, unused to gifts, through all his days unknown to favorable changes of fortune, to overcome his astonishment – to enter into the reality of this possession. The like had never happened before: never before had joy followed all in a flash upon months of mournful expectation. He sat as still as the passionless rock lifted behind him. It was a tragedy of delight. Two dirty, cracked, toil-distorted hands – two young hands, aged and stained and malformed by labor beyond their measure of strength and years to do – two hands and the shining treasure within them: to these his world was, for the time, reduced – the rest, the harsh world of rock and rising sea and harsher toil and deprivation, was turned to mist; it was like a circle of fog.

Jamie looked up.

“By damn!” he thought, savagely, “’tis – ’tis —mine!”

The character of the exclamation is to be condoned; this sense of ownership had come like a vision.

“Why, I got she!” thought Jamie.

Herein was expressed more of agonized dread, more of the terror that accompanies great possessions, than of delight.

“Ecod!” he muttered, ecstatically; “she’s mine – she’s mine!”

The watch was clutched in a capable fist. It was not to be dropped, you may be sure! Jamie looked up and down the road. There was no highwayman, no menacing apparition of any sort, but the fear of some ghostly ravager had been real enough. Presently the boy laughed, arose, moved into the path, stood close to the verge of the steep, which fell abruptly to the harbor water.

“I got t’ tell mamma,” he thought.

On the way to Jamie’s pocket went the watch.

“She’ll be that glad,” the boy thought, gleefully, “that she – she – she’ll jus’ fair cry!”

There was some difficulty with the pocket.

“Yes, sir,” thought Jamie, grinning; “mamma’ll jus’ cry!”

The watch slipped from Jamie’s overcautious hand, struck the rock at his feet, bounded down the steep, splashed into the harbor water, and vanished forever…

A bad time at sea: a rising wind, spray on the wing, sheets of cold rain – and the gray light of day departing. Salim Awad looked back upon the coast; he saw no waste of restless water between, no weight and frown of cloud above, but only the great black gates of Hapless Harbor, beyond which, by the favor of God, he had been privileged to leave a pearl of delight. With the wind abeam he ran on through the sudsy sea, muttering, within his heart, as that great Antar long ago had cried: “Were I to say thy face is like the full moon of heaven, wherein that full moon is the eye of the antelope? Were I to say thy shape is like the branch of the erak tree, oh, thou shamest it in the grace of thy form! In thy forehead is my guide to truth, and in the night of thy tresses I wander astray!”

And presently, having won Chain Tickle, he pulled slowly to Aunt Amelia’s wharf, where he moored the punt, dreaming all the while of Haleema, Khouri’s daughter, star of the world. Before he climbed the hill to the little cottage, ghostly in the dusk and rain, he turned again to Hapless Harbor. The fog had been blown away; beyond the heads of the Tickle – far across the angry run – the lights of Hapless were shining cheerily.

“Ver’ good sailor – me!” thought Salim. “Ver’ good hand, you bet!”

A gust of wind swept down the Tickle and went bounding up the hill.

“He not get me!” muttered Salim between bared teeth.

A second gust showered the peddler with water snatched from the harbor.

“Ver’ glad to be in,” thought Salim, with a shudder, turning now from the black, tumultuous prospect. “Ver’ mos’ awful glad to be in!”

It was cosey in Aunt Amelia’s hospitable kitchen. The dark, smiling Salim, with his magic pack, was welcome. The wares displayed – no more for purchase than for the delight of inspection – Salim stowed them away, sat himself by the fire, gave himself to ease and comfort, to the delight of a cigarette, and to the pleasure of Aunt Amelia’s genial chattering. The wind beat upon the cottage – went on, wailing, sighing, calling – and in the lulls the breaking of the sea interrupted the silence. An hour – two hours, it may be – and there was the tramp of late-comers stumbling up the hill. A loud knocking, then entered for entertainment three gigantic dripping figures – men of Catch-as-Catch-Can, bound down to Wreckers’ Cove for a doctor, but now put in for shelter, having abandoned hope of winning farther through the gale that night. Need o’ haste? Ay; but what could men do? No time t’ take a skiff t’ Wreckers’ Cove in a wind like this! ’Twould blow your hair off beyond the Tickle heads. Hard enough crossin’ the run from Hapless Harbor. An’ was there a cup o’ tea an’ a bed for the crew o’ them? They’d be under way by dawn if the wind fell. Ol’ Tom Luther had t’ have a doctor somehow, whatever come of it!

“Hello, Joe!” cried the one.

Salim rose and bowed.

“Heared tell ’t Hapless Harbor you was here-abouts.”

“Much ’bliged,” Salim responded, courteously, bowing again. “Ver’ much ’bliged.”

“Heared tell you sold a watch t’ Jim Tuft’s young one?”

“Ver’ good watch,” said Salim.

“Maybe,” was the response.

Salim blew a puff of smoke with light grace toward the white rafters. He was quite serene; he anticipated, now, a compliment, and was fashioning, of his inadequate English, a dignified sentence of acknowledgment.

“Anyhow,” drawled the man from Catch-as-Catch-Can, “she won’t go no more.”

Salim looked up bewildered.

“Overboard,” the big man explained.

“W’at!” cried Salim.

“Dropped her.”

Salim trembled. “He have – drop thee – watch?” he demanded. “No, no!” he cried. “The boy have not drop thee watch!”

“Twelve fathoms o’ water.”

“Oh, mygod! Oh, dear me!” groaned Salim Awad. He began to pace the floor, wringing his hands. They watched him in amazement. “Oh, mygod! Oh, gracious! He have drop thee watch!” he continued. “Oh, thee poor broke heart of thee boy! Oh, my! He have work three year for thee watch. He have want thee watch so ver’ much. Oh, thee great grief of thee poor boy! I am mus’ go,” said he, with resolution. “I am mus’ go to thee Hapless at thee once. I am mus’ cure thee broke heart of thee poor boy. Oh, mygod! Oh, dear!” They scorned the intention, for the recklessness of it; they bade him listen to the wind, the rain on the roof, the growl and thud of the breakers; they called him a loon for his folly. “Oh, mygod!” he replied; “you have not understand. Thee broke heart of thee child! Eh? W’at you know? Oh, thee ver’ awful pain of thee broke heart. Eh? I know. I am have thee broke heart. I am have bear thee ver’ awful bad pain.”

Aunt Amelia put a hand on Salim’s arm.

“I am mus’ go,” said the Syrian, defiantly.

“Ye’ll not!” the woman declared.

“I am mus’ go to thee child.”

“Ye’ll not lose your life, will ye?”

The men of Catch-as-Catch-Can were incapable of a word; they were amazed beyond speech. ’Twas a new thing in their experience. They had put out in a gale to fetch the doctor, all as a matter of course; but this risk to ease mere woe – and that of a child! They were astounded.

“Oh yes!” Salim answered. “For thee child.”

“Ye fool!”

Salim looked helplessly about. He was nonplussed. There was no encouragement anywhere to be descried. Moreover, he was bewildered that they should not understand!

“For thee child – yes,” he repeated.

They did but stare.

“Thee broke heart,” he cried, “of thee li’l child!”

No response was elicited.

“Oh, dear me!” groaned the poet. “You mus’ see. It is a child!”

A gust was the only answer.

“Oh, mygod!” cried Salim Awad, poet, who had wandered astray in the tresses of night. “Oh, dear me! Oh, gee!”

Without more persuasion, he prepared himself for this high mission in salvation of the heart of a child; and being no longer deterred, he put out upon it – having no fear of the seething water, but a great pity for the incomprehension of such as knew it best. It was a wild night; the wind was a vicious wind, the rain a blinding mist, the night thick and unkind, the sea such in turmoil as no punt could live through save by grace. Beyond Chain Tickle, Salim Awad entered the thick of that gale, but was not perturbed; for he remembered, rather than recognized the menace of the water, the words of that great lover, Antar, warrior and lover, who, from the sands of isolation, sang to Abla, his beloved: “The sun as it sets turns toward her and says, Darkness obscures the land, do thou arise in my absence. And the brilliant moon calls out to her, Come forth, for thy face is like me when I am at the full and in all my glory.”

The hand upon the steering-oar of this punt, cast into an ill-tempered, cold, dreary, evil-intentioned northern sea, was without agitation, the hand upon the halyard was perceiving and sure, the eye of intelligence was detached from romance; but still the heart remembered: “The tamarisk-trees complain of her in the morn and in the eve, and say, Away, thou waning beauty, thou form of the laurel! She turns away abashed, and throws aside her veil, and the roses are scattered from her soft, fresh cheeks. Graceful is every limb, slender her waist, love-beaming are her glances, waving is her form. The lustre of day sparkles from her forehead, and by the dark shades of her curling ringlets night itself is driven away.”

The lights of Hapless Harbor dwindled; one by one they went out, a last message of wariness; but still there shone, bright and promising continuance, a lamp of Greedy Head, whereon the cottage of Skipper Jim Tuft, the father of Jamie, was builded.

“I will have come safe,” thought Salim, “if thee light of Jamie have burn on.”

It continued to burn.

“It is because of thee broke heart,” thought Salim.

The light was not put out: Salim Awad – this child of sand and heat and poetry – made harbor in the rocky north; and he was delighted with the achievement. But how? I do not know. ’Twas a marvellous thing – thus to flaunt through three miles of wind-swept, grasping sea. A gale of wind was blowing – a gale to compel schooners to reef – ay, and to double reef, and to hunt shelter like a rabbit pursued: this I have been told, and for myself know, because I was abroad, Cape Norman way. No Newfoundlander could have crossed the run from Chain Tickle to Hapless Harbor at that time; the thing is beyond dispute; ’twas a feat impossible – with wind and lop and rain and pelting spray to fight. But this poet, desert born and bred, won through, despite the antagonism of all alien enemies, cold and wet and vigorous wind: this poet won through, led by Antar, who said: “Thy bosom is created as an enchantment. Oh, may God protect it ever in that perfection,” and by his great wish to ease the pain of a child, and by his knowledge of wind and sea, gained by three years of seeking for the relief of the sorrows of love.

“Ver’ good sailor,” thought Salim Awad, as he tied up at Sam Swuth’s wharf.

’Twas a proper estimate. “Ver’ good,” he repeated. “Ver’ beeg good.”

Then this Salim, who had lost at love, made haste to the cottage of Skipper Jim Tuft, wherein was the child Jamie, who had lost the watch. He entered abruptly from the gale – recognizing no ceremony of knocking, as why should he? There was discovered to him a dismal group: Skipper Jim, Jamie’s mother, Jamie – all in the uttermost depths. “I am come!” cried he. “I – Salim Awad – I am come from thee sea! I am come from thee black night – I am come wet from thee rain – I am escape thee hands of thee sea! I am come – I, Salim Awad, broke of thee heart!” ’Twas a surprising thing to the inmates of that mean, hopeless place. “I am come,” Salim repeated, posing dramatically – “I, Salim – I am come!” ’Twas no more than amazement he confronted. “To thee help of thee child,” he repeated. “Eh? To thee cure of thee broke heart.” There was no instant response. Salim drew a new watch from his pocket. “I have come from thee ver’ mos’ awful sea with thee new watch. Eh? Ver’ good. I am fetch thee cure of thee broke heart to thee poor child.” There was no doubt about the efficacy of the cure. ’Twas a thing evident and delightful. Salim was wet, cold, disheartened by the night and weather; but the response restored him. “Thee watch an’ thee li’l’ chain, Jamie,” said he, with a bow most polite, “it is to you.”

Jamie grabbed the watch.

“Ver’ much ’bliged,” said Salim.

“Thanks,” said Jamie.

And in this cheap and simple way Salim Awad restored the soul of Jamie Tuft and brought happiness to all that household.

And now, when the news of this feat came to the ears of Khalil Khayyat, the editor, as all news must come, he sought the little back room of Nageeb Fiani, the greatest player in all the world, with the letter in his hand. Presently he got his narghile going, and a cup of perfumed coffee before him on the round, green baize table; and he was very happy – what with the narghile and the coffee and the letter from the north. There was hot weather, the sweat and complaint of the tenements; there was the intermittent roar and shriek of the Elevated trains rounding the curve to South Ferry; there was the street murmur and gasp, the noise of boisterous voices and the click of dice in the outer room; but by these Khalil Khayyat was not disturbed. Indeed not; there was a matter of the poetry of reality occupying his attention. He called Nageeb, the little Intelligent One, who came with soft feet; and he bade the little one summon to his presence Nageeb Fiani, the artist, the greatest player in all the world, who came, deferentially, wondering concerning this important message from the poet.

“Nageeb,” said Khalil Khayyat, “there has come a letter from the north.”

Nageeb assented.

“It concerns Salim,” said Khayyat.

“What has this Salim accomplished,” asked Nageeb Fiani, “in alleviation of the sorrows of love?”

Khayyat would not answer.

“Tell me,” Nageeb pleaded.

“This Salim,” said Khalil Khayyat, “made a song that could not be uttered. It is well,” said Khalil Khayyat. “You remember?”

Nageeb remembered.

“Then know this,” said Khalil Khayyat, abruptly, “the song he could not utter he sings in gentle deeds. It is a great song; it is too great for singing – it must be lived. This Salim,” he added, “is the greatest poet that ever lived. He expresses his sublime and perfect compositions in dear deeds. He is, indeed, a great poet.”

Nageeb Fiani thought it great argument for poetry; so, too, Khalil Khayyat.

IV – THE SQUALL

TUMM of the Good Samaritan kicked the cabin stove into a sputter and roar of flame so lusty that the black weather of Jump Harbor was instantly reduced from arrogant and disquieting menace to an impression of contrast grateful to the heart. “Not bein’ a parson,” said he, roused now from a brooding silence by this radiant inspiration, “I isn’t much of a hand at accountin’ for the mysteries o’ God; an’ never havin’ made a world, I isn’t no critic o’ creation. Still an’ all,” he persisted, in a flash of complaint, “it did seem t’ me, somehow, accordin’ t’ my lights, which wasn’t trimmed at no theological college, that the Maker o’ Archibald Shott o’ Jump Harbor hadn’t been quite kind t’ Arch.” The man shifted his feet in impatient disdain, then laughed – a gently contemptuous shaft, directed at his insolence: perhaps, too, at his ignorance. It fell to a sigh, however, which continued expression, presently, in a glance of poignant bewilderment. “Take un by an’ all,” he pursued, “I was wonderful sorry for Arch. Seemed t’ me, sir, though he bore the sign o’ the Lord’s own hand, as do us all, that he’d but a mean lookout for gracious livin’, after all.

“Poor Archibald Shott!

“‘Arch, b’y,’ says I, ‘you got the disposition of a snake.’

“‘Is I?’ says he. ‘Maybe you’re right, Tumm. I never knowed a snake in a intimate way.’

“‘You got the soul,’ said I, ‘of a ill-born squid.’

“‘Don’t know,’ said he; ‘never seed a squid’s soul.’

“‘Your tongue,’ says I, ‘is a flame o’ fire; ’tis a wonder t’ me she haven’t blistered your lips long afore this.’

“‘Isn’t my fault,’ says he.

“‘No?’ says I. ‘Then who’s t’ blame?’

“‘Well,’ says he, ‘God made me.’

“‘Anyhow,’ said I, ‘you’ve took t’ the devil’s alterations an’ improvements like a imp t’ hell fire.’”

Tumm dropped into an angry muse…

We had put in from the sea off the Harborless Shore, balked by a screaming Newfoundland northwester, allied with fog and falling night, from rounding Taunt Head, beyond which lay the snug harbor and waiting fish of Candlestick Cove. It had been labor enough, enough of cold, of sleety wind and anxious watching, to send the crew to berth in sleepy confusion when the teacups were emptied. Tumm and I sat in the companionable seclusion of the trader’s cabin, the schooner lying at ease in the shelter of Jump Harbor. In the pause, led by the wind from this warmth and peace and light to the reaches of frothy coast, I recalled the cliffs of Black Bight, upon which, as I had been told in the gray gale of that day, the inevitable had overtaken Archibald Shott. They sprang clear from the breakers, an expanse of black rock, barren as a bone, as it seemed in the sullen light, rising to a veil of fog, which, floating higher than our foremast, kept their topmost places in forbidding mystery. We had come about within stone’s-throw, so that the bleak walls, echoing upon us, doubled the thunder of the sea. They inclined from the water: I bore this impression away as the schooner darted from their proximity – an impression, too, of ledges, crevices, broken surfaces. In that tumultuous commotion, perhaps, flung then against my senses, I had small power to observe; but I fancied, I recall, that a nimble man, pursued by fear, might scale the Black Bight cliffs. There was imperative need, however, of knowing the way, else there might be neither advance nor turning back…

“Seemed t’ be made jus’ o’ leavin’s, Arch did,” Tumm resumed, with a little twitch of scorn: “jus’ knocked t’gether,” said he, “with scraps an’ odds an’ ends from the loft an’ floor. But whatever, an a man had no harsh feelin’ again’ a body patched up out o’ the shavin’s o’ bigger folk, a lean, long-legged, rickety sort o’ carcass, like t’ break in the grip of a real man,” he continued, “nor bore no grudge again’ high cheek-bones, skimped lips, a ape’s forehead, an’ pale-green eyes, sot close to a nose like a axe an’ pushed a bit too far back, why, then,” he concluded, with a largely generous wave, “they wasn’t a deal o’ fault t’ be found with the looks o’ Archibald Shott. Wasn’t no reason ever I seed why Arch shouldn’t o’ wed any maid o’ nineteen harbors an’ lived a sober, righteous, an’ fatherly life till the sea cotched un. But it seemed, somehow, that Arch must fall in love with the maid o’ Jump Harbor that was promised t’ Slow Jim Tool – a lovely lass, sir, believe me: a dimpled, rosy, towheaded, ripplin’ sort o’ maid, as soft as feathers an’ as plump as a oyster, with a disposition like sunshine an’ – an’ – well, flowers. She was a wonderful dear an’ tender lass, quick t’ smile, sir, quick as the sea in a sunlit southerly wind, an’ quick t’ cry, too, God bless her! in sympathy with the woes o’ folk.

“‘Arch,’ says I, wind-bound in the Curly Head at Jump Harbor, ‘don’t you do it.’

“‘Love,’ says he, ‘is queer.’

“‘Maybe,’ says I; ‘but keep off. You go,’ says I, ‘an’ get a maid o’ your own.’

“‘Wonderful queer,’ says he. ‘’Twouldn’t s’prise me, Tumm,’ says he, ‘if a man failed in love with a fish-hook.’

“‘Well,’ says I, ‘’Lizabeth All isn’t no fish-hook. She’ve red cheeks an’ blue eyes an’ as soft an’ round a body as a man ever clapped eyes on. Her hair,’ says I, ‘is a glory; an’, Arch,’ says I, ‘why, she pities!’

“‘True,’ says he; ‘but it falls far short.’

“‘How far?’ says I.

“‘Well,’ says he, ‘you left out her muscles.’

“‘Look you, Arch!’ says I; ‘you isn’t nothin’ but a mean man. They isn’t nothin’ that’s low an’ cruel an’ irreligious that you can’t be comfortable shipmates with. Understand me? They isn’t nothin’ that can’t be spoke of in the presence o’ women an’ children that isn’t as good as a Sunday-school treat t’ you. It doesn’t scare you t’ know that the things o’ your delight would ruin God’s own world an they had their way. Understand me?’ says I, bein’ bound, now, to make it plain. ‘An’ now,’ says I, ‘what you got t’ give, anyhow, for the heart an’ sweet looks o’ this maid? Is you thinkin’,’ says I, ‘that she’ve a hankerin’ after your dried beef body an’ pill of a soul?’

“‘Never you mind,’ says he.

“‘Speak up!’ says I. ‘What you got t’ trade?’

“‘Well,’ says he, ‘I’m clever.’

“‘’Tis small cleverness t’ think,’ says I, ‘that in these parts a ounce o’ brains is as good as a hundredweight o’ chest an’ shoulders.’

“‘You jus’ wait an’ see,’ says he.

“Seems that Jim Tool was a big man with a curly head an’ a maid’s gray eyes. He was wonderful solemn an’ soft an’ slow – so slow, believe me, sir, that he wouldn’t quite know till to-morrow what he found out yesterday. If you spat in his face to-day, sir, he might drop in any time toward the end o’ next week an’ knock you down; but if he put it off for a fortnight, why, ’twouldn’t be so wonderful s’prisin’. I ’low he was troubled a deal by the world. ’Twas all a mystery to un. He went about, sir, with his brows drawed down an’ a look o’ wonder an’ s’prise an’ pity on his big, kind, pink-an’-white face. He was always s’prised; never seemed t’ expect nothin’ – never seemed t’ be ready. I ’low it shocked un t’ pull a fish over the side. ‘Dear man!’ says he. ‘Well, well!’ What he done when ’Lizabeth All first kissed un ’tis past me t’ tell. I ’low that shootin’ wouldn’t o’ shocked un more. An’ how long it took un t’ wake up an’ really feel that kiss – how many days o’ wonder an’ s’prise an’ doubt – ’twould take a parson t’ reckon. Anyhow, she loved un: I knows she did – she loved un, sir, because he was big an’ kind an’ curly-headed, which was enough for ’Lizabeth All, I ’low, an’ might be enough for any likely maid o’ Newf’un’land.”

I dropped a birch billet in the stove.

“Anyhow,” said Tumm, moodily, “it didn’t last long.”

The fire crackled a genial accompaniment to the tale of Slow Jim Tool…

“Well, now,” Tumm continued, “Slow Jim Tool an’ Archibald Shott o’ Jump Harbor was cast away in the Dimple at Creep Head o’ the Labrador. Bein’ wrecked seamen, they come up in the mail-boat; an’ it so happened, sir, that ’long about Run-by-Guess, with the fog thick, an’ dusk near come, Archibald Short managed t’ steal a Yankee’s gold watch an’ sink un in the pocket o’ Slow Jim Tool. ’Twas s’prisin’ t’ Jim. Fact is, when they cotched un with the prope’ty, sir, Jim ’lowed he never knowed when he done it – never knowed he could do it. ‘Ecod!’ says he; ‘now that s’prises me. I mus’ o’ stole that there watch in my sleep. Well, well!’ S’prised un a deal more, they says, when a brass-buttoned constable come aboard at Tilt Cove’ an’ took un in charge in the Queen’s name. ‘In the Queen’s name!’ says Jim. ‘What’s that? In the Queen’s name? Dear man!’ says he; ‘but this is awful! An’ I never knows when I done it!’ ’Twas more s’prisin’ still when they haled un past Jump Harbor. ‘Why,’ says he, ‘I wants t’ go home an’ see ’Lizabeth All. Why,’ says he, ‘I got t’ talk it over with ‘Lizabeth!’ ‘You can’t,’ says the constable. ‘But,’ says Jim, ‘I got t’. Why,’ says he, ‘I always have.’ ‘Now,’ says the constable, ‘don’t you make no trouble.’ So Jim was s’prised again; but when the judge give un a year t’ repent an’ make brooms in chokee t’ St. John’s he was so s’prised, they says, that he never come to his senses till he landed back at Jump Harbor an’ was kissed seven times by ’Lizabeth All in the sight o’ the folk o’ that place. An’ even after that, I’m told – ay, through a season’s fishin’ – he pondered a deal more’n was good for un. Ashore an’ afloat, ’twas all the same. ‘Well, well!’ says he. ‘Dear man! I wonders how I done it. Arch,’ says he, ‘you was aboard; can’t you throw no light?’ Arch ’lowed he might an he but tried, but wouldn’t. ‘Might interfere,’ says he, ‘atween you an’ ’Lizabeth.’ ‘But,’ says Jim, ‘as a friend?’

“‘Well,’ says Arch, ‘’riginal sin.’

“‘’Riginal sin!’ says Jim. ‘Dear man! but I mus’ have got my share!’

“‘You is,’ says Arch. ‘’Tis plain in your face. You looks low and vicious. ‘Riginal sin, Jim,’ says he, ‘marks a man.’

“‘Think so?’ says Jim. ‘I’m sorry I got it.’

“‘An’ look you!’ says Arch; ‘you better be wonderful careful about unshippin’ wickedness on ’Lizabeth.’

“‘On ‘Lizabeth?’ says Jim. ‘What you mean? God knows,’ says he, ‘I’d not hurt ’Lizabeth.’

“‘Then ponder,’ says Arch. ‘’Riginal sin is made you a thief an’ a jailbird. Ponder, Jim – ponder!’

“Now,” cries Tumm, in an outburst of feeling, “what you think ’Lizabeth All done?”

I was confused by the question.

“Why,” Tumm answered, “it didn’t make no difference t’ she!”

I was not surprised.

“Not s’prised!” cries Tumm. “No,” he snapped, indignantly, “nor neither was Slow Jim Tool.”

Of course not!

“Nobody knows nothin’ about a woman,” said Tumm; “least of all, the woman. An’, anyhow,” he resumed, “’Lizabeth All didn’t care. Why, God save you, sir!” he burst out, “she loved the shoulders an’ soul o’ Slow Jim Tool too much t’ care. ’Tis a woman’s way; an’ a woman’s true love so passes the knowledge o’ men that faith in God is a lesson in A B C beside it. Well,” he continued, “sailin’ the Give an’ Take that fall, I was cotched in the early freeze-up, an’ us put the winter in at Jump Harbor, with a hold full o’ fish an’ every married man o’ the crew in a righteous rage. An’ as for ’Lizabeth, why, when us cleared the school-room, when ol’ Bill Bump fiddled up with the accordion ‘’Money Musk’ an’ ‘Pop Goes the Weasel,’ when he sung out, ‘Balance!’ an’ ‘H’ist her, lad!’ when the jackets was throwed aside an’ the boots was cast off, why, ’Lizabeth All jus’ fair clinged t’ that there big, gray-eyed, pink-an’-white Slow Jim Tool! ’Twas a pretty sight t’ watch her, sir, plump an’ winsome an’ yellow-haired, float like a sea-gull over the school-room floor – t’ see her blushes an’ smiles an’ eyes o’ love. It done me good. I ’lowed I wished I was young again – an’ big an’ slow an’ kind an’ curly-headed. But lookin’ about, sir, it seemed t’ me, as best I could understand, that a regiment o’ little devils was stickin’ red-hot fish-forks into the vitals o’ Archibald Shott; an’ then I ’lowed, somehow, that maybe I was jus’ as well off as I was. I got a look in his eyes, sir, afore the night was done; an’ it jus’ seemed t’ me that the Lord had give me a peep into hell.

“’Twas more’n Archibald Shott could carry. ‘Tumm,’ says he, nex’ day, ‘I ’low I’ll move.’

“‘Where to?’ says I.

“‘’Low I’ll jack my house down t’ the ice,’ says he, ‘an’ haul she over t’ Deep Cove. I’ve growed tired,’ says he, ‘o’ fishin’ Jump Harbor.’

“Well, now, they wasn’t no prayer-meetin’ held t’ keep Archibald Shott t’ Jump Harbor. The lads o’ the place an’ the crew o’ the Give an’ Take turned to an’ jerked that house across the bay t’ Deep Cove like a gale o’ wind. They wasn’t nothin’ left o’ Archibald Shott at Jump Harbor but the bare spot on the rocks where the house used t’ be. When ’twas all over with, Arch come back t’ say good-bye; an’ he took Slow Jim Tool t’ the hills, an’, ‘Jim,’ says he, ‘you knows where my house used t’ be? Hist!’ says he, ‘I wants t’ tell you: is you able t’ hold a secret? Well,’ says he, ‘I wouldn’t go pokin’ ’round in the dirt there. You leave that place be. They isn’t nothin’ there that you’d like t’ have. Understand? Don’t go pokin’ ’round in the dirt where my ol’ house was. But if you does,’ says he, ‘an’ if you finds anything you wants, why, you can keep it, and not be obliged t’ me.’ So Jim begun pokin’ ’round; being human, he jus’ couldn’t help it. He poked an’ poked, till they wasn’t no sense in pokin’ no more; an’ then he ’lowed he’d give ’Lizabeth a wonderful s’prise in the spring, no matter what it cost. ‘Archibald Shott,’ says he, ‘is a kind man. You jus’ wait, ’Lizabeth, an’ see.’ And in the spring, sure enough, off he sot for Chain Tickle, where ol’ Jonas Williams have a shop an’ a store, t’ fetch ’Lizabeth a pink ostrich feather she’d seed in Jonas’s trader two year afore. She ’lowed that ’twas a wonderful sight o’ money t’ lay out on a feather, when he got back; but he says: ‘Oh no, ’Lizabeth; the money wasn’t no trouble t’ get.’