Old Jack | Page 7

was a fair wind blowing down the Liffey. "Open the dock-gates,
Mr Thompson, and let her go. She'll find her own way to Jamaica and
back again by herself, without a hand at the helm, she knows it so
well," the captain, as he stood on the poop, sung out to the dock-master.
I found that this was a standing joke of his.
The Rainbow was a regular West India trader, and had had many
successful voyages there. Captain Helfrich was chief owner as well as
master, and was a great favourite with the merchants and planters at the
different islands at which he was in the habit of touching, and
consequently had always plenty of passengers, and never had to wait
long for freight. He was very proud of his brig, and of everything
connected with her. He himself also was a person not a little worthy of
note. He was, as I have said, a tall, fine man, robust and upright in
figure, with large, handsome features, and teeth of pearly whiteness. He
was probably at this time rather more than forty years old, but not a
particle of his crisp, curly, brown hair had a silvery tint. He had a fine
beaming smile, though he was very firm and determined, and could
look very fierce when angry. I had an unbounded respect for him. Thus
commanded, and with as good a crew as ever manned a ship, the
Rainbow dropped down the Liffey, and made sail to the southward; and
under these propitious circumstances I found myself fairly launched in
my career as a sailor.
CHAPTER TWO.
THE BITTERS AND SWEETS OF A SEA-LIFE.
"And so, Jack, you like a sea-life, do you?" said Peter Poplar to me one
day after we had been about two weeks from port. We had had very
fine weather all the time, with a north or easterly wind, and I expected
to find the ocean always as smooth and pleasant as it then was. One
good result was, that I had been able to pick up a good many of the
details of my duty, which I should not have done had I been sea-sick,
and knocked about in a gale.

"Yes, thanks to you, Peter, I like it much better than running errands on
shore," I answered. "I don't wish for a pleasanter life."
Peter laughed. "You've had only the sweets as yet, boy; the bitters are
to come," he observed. "Still, if you get a fair share of the first, you'll
have no reason to complain."
I did not quite understand him. I then only thought of the sweets, as he
called them. The truth was, I had generally been very kindly treated on
board. To be sure, I got a kick, or the taste of a rope's end, now and
then, from some of the men if they happened to be out of humour; but
those were trifles, as I never was much hurt, and Peter told me I was
fortunate to get nothing worse. There was one ill-conditioned fellow,
Barney Bogle by name, who lost no opportunity of giving me a cuff for
the merest trifle, if he could do so without being seen by Peter, of
whom he was mortally afraid. In his presence, the bully always kept his
hands off me. Of course it would not have been wise in me to complain
of Barney to Peter, as it might have caused a quarrel; so I contented
myself with doing my best to keep out of my enemy's way, just as a cat
does out of the way of a dog which has taken a fancy to worry her.
Captain Helfrich had hitherto taken no notice whatever of me, and he
seemed to me so awful a person, that I never expected to be spoken to
by him. Now and then the mates ordered me to do some little job or
other, to fetch a swab or a marlinespike, or to hold a paint-pot, but they
in no other way noticed me.
I remember how blue the sky was, and how sparkling the sea, and how
hot the sun at noon shone down on our heads, and how brightly the
moon floated above us at night, and formed a long, long stream of
silvery light across the waters; and I used to fancy, as I stood looking at
it, that I could hear voices calling to me from far, far-off, and telling me
of my sweet, calm-eyed mother, still remembered fondly, and of my
poor father, snatched from me so suddenly. I won't talk much about that
sort of thing. It seems now like a long-forgotten dream--I believe that,
even then, I was dreaming.
Well, as I said, the fine weather continued for a long time,