Last of the Huggermuggers | Page 2

long voyage, and there was plenty of hard work for Little
Jacket, but he found several good fellows among the sailors, and was so
quick, so bright, so ready to turn his hand to every thing, and withal of
so kind and social a disposition, that he soon became a favorite with the

Captain and mates, as with all the sailors. They had fine weather, only
too fine, the Captain said, for it was summer time, and the sea was
often as smooth as glass. There were lazy times then for the sailors,
when there was little work to do, and many a story was told among
them as they lay in the warm moonlight nights on the forecastle. But
now and then there came a blow of wind, and all hands had to be
stirring--running up the shrouds, taking in sails, pulling at ropes, plying
the pump; and there was many a hearty laugh among them at the
ducking some poor fellow would get, as now and then a wave broke
over the deck.
Things went on, however, pretty smoothly with Little Jacket, on the
whole, for some time. They doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and were
making their way as fast as they could to the coast of Java, when the
sky suddenly darkened, and there came on a terrible storm. They took
in all the sails they could, after having several carried away by the wind.
The vessel scudded, at last, almost under bare poles. The storm was so
violent as to render her almost unmanageable, and they were carried a
long way out of their course. Everybody had tremendous work to
perform, and Little Jacket began to wish he were safe on dry land again.
Day after day the poor vessel drifted and rolled. The sky was so dark,
that the Captain could not take an observation to tell in what part of the
ocean they were. At last, they saw that they were driving towards some
enormous cliffs that loomed up in the darkness. Every one lost hope of
the ship being saved. Still they neared the cliffs, and now they saw the
white breakers ahead, close under them. The Captain got the boats out,
to be in readiness for the worst. But the sea was too rough to use them.
At last, with a mighty crash, the great ship struck upon the black rocks.
All was confusion and wild rushing of the salt waves over them, and
poor Jacky found himself in the foaming surge. Struggling to reach the
shore, a great wave did what he could not have done himself. He was
thrown dripping wet, and bruised, upon the rocks. When he came to
himself, he discovered that several of his companions had also reached
the shore, but nothing more was seen of the ship. She had gone down in
the fearful tempest, and carried I know not how many poor fellows
down with her.

CHAPTER THREE.
HOW HE FARED ON SHORE.
All this was bad enough, as Little Jacket thought. But he was very
thankful that he was alive and on shore, and able to use his limbs, and
that he found some companions still left. He was not long either in
using his wits, and in making the best use of the chances still left him.
He found himself upon a rocky promontory. But on climbing a little
higher up, he could see that there was beyond it, and joining on to it, a
beautiful smooth beach. The rocks were enormous, and he and his
comrades had hard work to clamber over them. It took them a good
while to do so, exhausted as they were by fatigue, and dripping with
wet. At length they reached the beach, the sands of which were of very
large grain, and so loose that they had to wade nearly knee deep
through them. The country back of the shore seemed very rocky and
rough, and here and there were trees of an enormous magnitude. Every
thing seemed on a gigantic scale, even to the weeds and grasses that
grew on the edge of the beach, where it sloped up to join the main land.
And they could see, by mounting on a stone, the same great gloomy
cliffs which they saw before the ship struck, but some miles inland. But
what most attracted their attention, was the enormous and beautiful
great sea-shells, which lay far up on the shore. They were not only of
the most lovely colors, but quite various in form, and so large that a
man might creep into them. Little Jacket was not long in discovering
the advantage of this fact, for they might be obliged, when night came
on, to retire into these shells, as they saw no house anywhere