Jacob Faithful | Page 5

as it had now fallen calm, it mounted straight up the air
in a dense column. I attempted to go in, but so soon as I encountered
the smoke I found that it was impossible; it would have suffocated me
in half a minute. I did what most children would have done in such a
situation of excitement and distress--I sat down and cried bitterly. In
about ten minutes I moved my hands, with which I had covered up my
face, and looked at the cabin hatch. The smoke had disappeared, and all
was silent. I went to the hatchway, and although the smell was still
overpowering, I found that I could bear it. I descended the little ladder
of three steps, and called "Mother!" but there was no answer. The lamp
fixed against the after bulk-head, with a glass before it, was still alight,
and I could see plainly to every corner of the cabin. Nothing was
burning--not even the curtains to my mother's bed appeared to be
singed. I was astonished--breathless with fear, with a trembling voice, I
again called out "Mother!" I remained more than a minute panting for
breath, and then ventured to draw back the curtains of the bed--my
mother was not there! but there appeared to be a black mass in the
centre of the bed. I put my hand fearfully upon it--it was a sort of

unctuous, pitchy cinder. I screamed with horror--my little senses
reeled--I staggered from the cabin and fell down on the deck in a state
amounting almost to insanity: it was followed by a sort of stupor,
which lasted for many hours.
As the reader may be in some doubt as to the occasion of my mother's
death, I must inform him that she perished in that very peculiar and
dreadful manner, which does sometimes, although rarely, occur, to
those who indulge in an immoderate use of spirituous liquors. Cases of
this kind do, indeed, present themselves but once in a century, but the
occurrence of them is too well authenticated. She perished from what is
termed spontaneous combustion, an inflammation of the gases
generated from the spirits absorbed into the system. It is to be
presumed that the flames issuing from my mother's body completely
frightened out of his senses my father, who had been drinking freely;
and thus did I lose both my parents, one by fire and the other by water,
at one and the same time.
CHAPTER TWO.
I FULFIL THE LAST INJUNCTIONS OF MY FATHER, AND I AM
EMBARKED UPON A NEW ELEMENT--FIRST BARGAIN IN MY
LIFE VERY PROFITABLE--FIRST PARTING WITH OLD
FRIENDS VERY PAINFUL--FIRST INTRODUCTION INTO
CIVILISED LIFE VERY UNSATISFACTORY TO ALL PARTIES.
It was broad daylight when I awoke from my state of bodily and mental
imbecility. For some time I could not recall to my mind all that had
happened: the weight which pressed upon my feelings told me that it
was something dreadful. At length, the cabin hatch, still open, caught
my eye; I recalled all the horrors of the preceding evening, and
recollected that I was left alone in the lighter. I got up and stood on my
feet in mute despair. I looked around me--the mist of the morning was
hanging over the river, and the objects on shore were with difficulty to
be distinguished. I was chilled from lying all night in the heavy dew,
and, perhaps, still more from previous and extraordinary excitement.
Venture to go down into the cabin I dare not. I had an indescribable

awe, a degree of horror at what I had seen, that made it impossible; still
I was unsatisfied, and would have given worlds, if I had had them, to
explain the mystery. I turned my eyes from the cabin hatch to the water,
thought of my father, and then, for more than half an hour, watched the
tide as it ran up--my mind in a state of vacancy. As the sun rose, the
mist gradually cleared away; trees, houses, and green fields, other
barges coming up with the tide, boats passing and repassing, the
barking of dogs, the smoke issuing from the various chimneys, all
broke upon me by degrees; and I was recalled to the sense that I was in
a busy world, and had my own task to perform. The last words of my
father--and his injunctions had ever been a law to me--were, "Mind,
Jacob, we must be up at the wharf early to-morrow morning." I
prepared to obey him. Purchase the anchor I could not; I therefore
slipped the cable, lashing a broken sweep to the end of it, as a
buoy-rope, and once more the lighter was at the mercy of the stream,
guided by a boy of eleven years old. In about two hours I