My First Cruise | Page 4

about Tom Hansard, and they pretended that they
could not make out how I had got loose. I found out, however, that the
whole plan was arranged beforehand by Dicky Snookes and my other
messmates with the captain of the top, just to see what I was made of,

and what I would do, it being understood that he was to keep whatever
he could get out of me. Had I cried or made a fuss about the matter, or
said that I would complain to my uncle, I should have been looked
upon as a regular sneak. The fellows hate telling of one another here
just as much as we did at school. From the way I took the trick I
believe they liked me better than they did before. Of course, all about
the garden and the vegetables was nonsense, and I should have been
green to have believed it, which I didn't. Away we went rolling along
with a westerly swell and a northerly wind, while many of the fellows
in the berth were singing: "There we lay, all the day, in the Bay of
Biscay, O;" and others "Rule Britannia," old Gregson not forgetting his
standing joke of "Bless the old girl; I wish, while she was about it, that
she had ruled them straighter." The very next morning the gale, of
which the swell was the forerunner, came down upon us with a sudden
gust. "All hands shorten sail," was shouted along the decks. The men
flew aloft, that is, they climbed up so nimbly that they looked as if they
were flying, and they lay out on the yards to reef the sail. Snookes had
to go also, as he was stationed in the foretop. "Any greens up there
to-day?" I asked as he passed me, not looking happy, for the ship was
tumbling about, the spray was flying over us, and the wind was
howling terrifically in the rigging. It was altogether very different to
what it had been on the previous evening. Still poor Snookes had to go
up. The boatswain's whistle and the voices of the officers sounded loud
above the gale, and so did the cries of the midshipmen. I contrived to
make myself heard, though, of course, I only sung out what I was told
to say, and wasn't always certain what would happen after I had said it,
any more than does a person in a fairy tale, who has got hold of some
magic words and doesn't know what effect they will produce. The
topgallantsails and royals were quickly furled--those are the sails
highest up, you know; and then the huge topsails came rattling down
the masts, and the men lay out on the yards and caught hold of them, as
they were bulging out and flapping fearfully about, to reef them. One of
the topmen, Tom Hansard, was at the weather yardarm, and had hold of
the earing, which isn't a bit like those gold things our sisters wear in
their ears, but is a long rope which helps to reef the sails. Suddenly the
ship gave a tremendous lurch, I heard a cry, I looked up, and there was
Tom Hansard hanging by one hand to the earing from the yard-arm,

right over the foaming ocean. I felt as if I had swallowed a bucket full
of snow. I thought the poor fellow must be dropped overboard, and so
did everybody else, and some were running to one of the boats to lower
her to pick him up. He swung fearfully about from side to side. No
human power could save him. I was watching to see him drop, when he
made a great effort, and springing up, he caught the rope with his other
hand. Still he was only a degree better off. Fancy dangling away at the
end of a thin rope, jerked backwards and forwards high up in the air,
with certain death were he to fall on board, and very small prospect of
escape if he fell into the foaming, tumbling sea, through which the ship
was flying at the rate of some ten knots an hour. I felt inclined to shriek
out in sympathy, for I am sure that I should have shrieked out, and very
loudly too, had I been up there in his place. I felt sure that he would
come down when I saw two of the topmen going out to the end of the
yard-arm and stretching out their arms towards him to help him. He
saw them, and began to climb up the thin rope till they could catch hold
of his jacket, then up they pulled him, though the sails flapping about
very nearly tore him out of their hands. They held him on to the