Marco Pauls Voyages and Travels | Page 3

Williams came
out and got into the coach. She sat on the back seat. Forester and Marco
got in, and took their places on the middle seat. A young man, dressed
like a sailor, took the front seat, at one corner of the coach. These were
all the passengers that were to get in here. When every thing was ready,
they drove away.
The stage stopped, however, in a few minutes at the door of a
handsome house in the town, and took a gentleman and lady in. These
new passengers took places on the back seat, with Mary Williams.
This company rode in perfect silence for some time. Forester took out a
book and began to read. The gentleman on the back seat went to sleep.
Mary Williams and Marco looked out at the windows, watching the
changing scenery. The sailor rode in silence; moving his lips now and
then, as if he were talking to himself, but taking no notice of any of the
company. The coach stopped at the villages which they passed through,
to exchange the mail, and sometimes to take in new passengers. In the
course of these changes Marco got his place shifted to the forward seat
by the side of the sailor, and he gradually got into conversation with
him. Marco introduced the conversation, by asking the sailor if he
knew how far it was to Montpelier.
"No," said the sailor, "I don't keep any reckoning, but I wish we were
there."
"Why?" asked Marco.
"O, I expect the old cart will capsize somewhere among these
mountains, and break our necks for us."

Marco had observed, all the morning, that when the coach canted to
one side or the other, on account of the unevenness of the road, the
sailor always started and looked anxious, as if afraid it was going to be
upset. He wondered that a man who had been apparently accustomed to
the terrible dangers of the seas, should be alarmed at the gentle
oscillations of a stage-coach.
"Are you afraid that we shall upset?" asked Marco.
"Yes," said the sailor, "over some of these precipices and mountains;
and then there'll be an end of us."
The sailor said this in an easy and careless manner, as if, after all, he
was not much concerned about the danger. Still, Marco was surprised
that he should fear it at all. He was not aware how much the fears
which people feel, are occasioned by the mere novelty of the danger
which they incur. A stage-driver, who is calm and composed on his box,
in a dark night, and upon dangerous roads, will be alarmed by the
careening of a ship under a gentle breeze at sea,--while the sailor who
laughs at a gale of wind on the ocean, is afraid to ride in a carriage on
land.
"An't you a sailor?" asked Marco.
"Yes," replied his companion.
"I shouldn't think that a man that had been used to the sea, would be
afraid of upsetting in a coach."
"I'm not a man" said the sailor.
"What are you?" said Marco.
"I'm a boy. I'm only nineteen years old; though I'm going to be rated
seaman next voyage."
"Have you just got back from a voyage?" asked Marco.
"Yes," said the sailor. "I've been round the Horn in a whaler, from old

Nantuck. And now I'm going home to see my mother."
"How long since you've seen her?" asked Marco.
"O, it's four years since I ran away."
Here the sailor began to speak in rather a lower tone than he had done
before, so that Marco only could hear. This was not difficult, as the
other passengers were at this time engaged in conversation.
"I ran away," continued the sailor, "and went to sea about four years
ago."
"What made you run away?" asked Marco.
"O, I didn't want to stay at home and be abused. My father used to
abuse me; but my mother took my part, and now I want to go and see
her."
"And to see your father too," said Marco.
"No," said the sailor. "I don't care for him. I hope he's gone off
somewhere. But I want to see my mother. I have got a shawl for her in
my chest."
Marco was shocked to hear a young man speak in such a manner of his
father. Still there was something in the frankness and openness of the
sailor's manner, which pleased him very much. He liked to hear his odd
and sailor-like language too, and he accordingly entered into a long
conversation with him. The sailor gave him an account of his
adventures on the voyage; how he was drawn off from the ship one day,
several miles, by a whale which they had harpooned;--how they