Redburn | Page 5

lain for almost a
hundred years.
Not to speak of the tall masts, and yards, and rigging of this famous
ship, among whose mazes of spun-glass I used to rove in imagination,
till I grew dizzy at the main-truck, I will only make mention of the
people on board of her. They, too, were all of glass, as beautiful little
glass sailors as any body ever saw, with hats and shoes on, just like
living men, and curious blue jackets with a sort of ruffle round the
bottom. Four or five of these sailors were very nimble little chaps, and
were mounting up the rigging with very long strides; but for all that,
they never gained a single inch in the year, as I can take my oath.
Another sailor was sitting astride of the spanker-boom, with his arms
over his head, but I never could find out what that was for; a second
was in the fore-top, with a coil of glass rigging over his shoulder; the
cook, with a glass ax, was splitting wood near the fore-hatch; the
steward, in a glass apron, was hurrying toward the cabin with a plate of
glass pudding; and a glass dog, with a red mouth, was barking at him;
while the captain in a glass cap was smoking a glass cigar on the
quarterdeck. He was leaning against the bulwark, with one hand to his
head; perhaps he was unwell, for he looked very glassy out of the eyes.
The name of this curious ship was La Reine, or The Queen, which was
painted on her stern where any one might read it, among a crowd of
glass dolphins and sea-horses carved there in a sort of semicircle.
And this Queen rode undisputed mistress of a green glassy sea, some of
whose waves were breaking over her bow in a wild way, I can tell you,
and I used to be giving her up for lost and foundered every moment, till
I grew older, and perceived that she was not in the slightest danger in
the world.
A good deal of dust, and fuzzy stuff like down, had in the course of
many years worked through the joints of the case, in which the ship
was kept, so as to cover all the sea with a light dash of white, which if
any thing improved the general effect, for it looked like the foam and
froth raised by the terrible gale the good Queen was battling against.
So much for La Reine. We have her yet in the house, but many of her
glass spars and ropes are now sadly shattered and broken,--but I will
not have her mended; and her figurehead, a gallant warrior in a
cocked-hat, lies pitching headforemost down into the trough of a

calamitous sea under the bows--but I will not have him put on his legs
again, till I get on my own; for between him and me there is a secret
sympathy; and my sisters tell me, even yet, that he fell from his perch
the very day I left home to go to sea on this my first voyage.

II. REDBURN'S DEPARTURE FROM HOME
It was with a heavy heart and full eyes, that my poor mother parted
with me; perhaps she thought me an erring and a willful boy, and
perhaps I was; but if I was, it had been a hardhearted world, and hard
times that had made me so. I had learned to think much and bitterly
before my time; all my young mounting dreams of glory had left me;
and at that early age, I was as unambitious as a man of sixty.
Yes, I will go to sea; cut my kind uncles and aunts, and sympathizing
patrons, and leave no heavy hearts but those in my own home, and take
none along but the one which aches in my bosom. Cold, bitter cold as
December, and bleak as its blasts, seemed the world then to me; there is
no misanthrope like a boy disappointed; and such was I, with the
warmth of me flogged out by adversity. But these thoughts are bitter
enough even now, for they have not yet gone quite away; and they must
be uncongenial enough to the reader; so no more of that, and let me go
on with my story.
"Yes, I will write you, dear mother, as soon as I can," murmured I, as
she charged me for the hundredth time, not fail to inform her of my safe
arrival in New York.
"And now Mary, Martha, and Jane, kiss me all round, dear sisters, and
then I am off. I'll be back in four months--it will be autumn then, and
we'll go into the woods after nuts, an I'll tell you all