The Old Tobacco Shop

"Pirates don't have feathers," said Freddie.

"Dear, dear!" said the Sly Old Fox. "How can you say such a thing? How can you – ?"

"Did you ever see a pirate in a tree?"

"In cages, my dear little friend! Hundreds of them!"

"That's enough!" said Mr. Toby. "Quit wrangling for a minute, will you? What about this here map? I tell you what, though. I'd like the Churchwarden to see this map. Freddie, will you run down the street and get the Churchwarden?"

"Yes, sir," said Freddie, moving towards the door.

"And tell him to bring along his Odour of Sanctity with him. He always carries a bottle of it in his pocket, and we may need it. Don't forget it."

"No, sir," said Freddie.

"Hold on a minute," said Mr. Toby, snatching up his hat. "I'll go for him myself. I can do it quicker." And in a moment he was out of the door.

CHAPTER IX

THE ODOUR OF SANCTITY

While Toby was gone, Aunt Amanda explained to the two old men about the Sailorman from China, and about his gift of the map which was lying on the table. They were just at the end of their discussion when Toby returned, bringing with him the Churchwarden, puffing and blowing with the unusual exertion of walking, and without his pipe. Toby introduced him to Mr. Punch and the two old Codgers, and drew him up to the table and showed him the map, explaining at the same time how it came there.

The Churchwarden examined the map carefully, while the others all looked at him. He finally put down the map, settled himself in a chair, folded his hands across his fat stomach, blew out his cheeks, and said:

"My opinion is, that what we ought to do is to – I've considered the matter carefully, from all sides, and I think we ought to – Of course you may not agree with me, but I think the best thing to do would be to – Unless, of course, some of you may think of something better, but if you don't, then I can't say as there's anything better to do than to – "

At this moment there came a sound from the street outside which made everyone but Aunt Amanda jump to his feet. It was the sound of running feet, mixed with strange cries, not very loud, but somehow blood-curdling. It was evident that someone was in trouble. Freddie and the five men rushed from the room and through the shop and into the street.

The street was very dark, except for a gas-lamp at the opposite corner. A white figure was running down the pavement towards the shop-door, with frantic speed; and behind him, evidently chasing him, came a crowd of little dark creatures, hard to make out in the dim light. It was these creatures who were making the little blood-curdling cries. In a moment they had come so near that the party about the shop-door could see what they were. In front, running desperately with leaps and bounds, and panting for breath, came a tall slim man all in tight-fitting white clothes, with a dead white face and a white hairless head; and after him, tumbling on pell-mell, was a perfect riot of little red imps, with little horns on their foreheads, and little tails behind them, all trying to spear the white man with the wicked little pitchforks which they carried, and to seize him with their claws. Freddie thought they were precisely like the imps he had seen at Hanlon's Superba. When the white man reached the shop-door they had nearly caught him. He paused at that moment, looked wildly about him, saw the open door of the shop, and dashed in and banged the door to behind him. The imps came tumbling up and hesitated an instant before the men at the door; and in that instant the Churchwarden showed the most unexpected presence of mind. He quickly reached behind him and drew a small bottle out of his pocket and pulled out the cork and sprinkled a few drops of its contents on the ground before him. A sharp penetrating odour immediately filled the air; it was so intense that it made the tears come into Freddie's eyes; but what it did to the wild mob of imps was almost beyond belief. As they got their first whiff of it, they tumbled back over one another in a mad effort to get away; but they could not get away from the odour quick enough; it caught them and held them, so that in a moment they could not move; they stood fixed and fast and silent; in another moment they began to melt away, and in two minutes they had vanished; actually vanished where they stood, each and every one, before the very eyes of the astonished party before the door.

"Blimy hif I ever see the like!" said Mr. Punch.

"Never knew my Odour of Sanctity to fail once," said the Churchwarden, coolly. "Hardly ever go out without it. There ain't a witch or an imp or a bad spirit of any kind whatever can stand up against my Odour of Sanctity, if he once gets a couple of good whiffs of it out of this little bottle. Just a few drops from the bottle, and a few sniffs, and whoof! they're done for! No, sir! there ain't no perfumery in the world like Odour of Sanctity!"

On the floor of the shop they found the poor white man lying completely exhausted. They asked him to explain, but he could not speak. Mr. Toby and Mr. Punch, one on each side, supported him into the back room, and sat him down in a chair before Aunt Amanda. She held up her hands in astonishment. The man was certainly a strange-looking man. They plied him with questions, but he touched his tongue with his finger and shook his head. He could not speak; he was dumb. Freddie, after one long look at him under the gaslight, knew who he was.

"It's Mr. Hanlon!" he cried, in great excitement. "It's Mr. Hanlon!"

The dumb man looked at Freddie and smiled, and nodded his head. He rose to his feet, shook Freddie's hand, and made a graceful bow to the whole company.

"It's Mr. Hanlon sure enough," said Toby, "still being chased by the imps. Pretty near got him that time, too! But he got away safe and sound after all, didn't he, eh?" And all the party, including Mr. Hanlon himself, laughed with delight. And when the Churchwarden pulled out his little perfume bottle and showed it around, and explained to Mr. Hanlon what it had done, the poor man was so overcome that he put his head down on the Churchwarden's shoulder and wept.

"This'll never do!" cried Toby. "Ain't we never, never, going to get down to this here map? I never see such a time as I've had, trying to examine this here map! One thing right after another! Mr. Hanlon, I'll tell you what it's about, and then you can see it for yourself. Would you like to stay here with our little party? It's a good deal safer than out-of-doors."

Mr. Hanlon nodded eagerly and smiled, and Toby explained everything to him and showed him the map.

"Now," said Toby, when that was done, "speak up, Warden, and finish what you was a-saying!"

CHAPTER X

CAPTAIN HIGGINSON AND THE SPANISH MAIN

The Churchwarden, having put back into his pocket the bottle of Odour of Sanctity, folded his hands across his fat stomach and began again:

"As I was saying – "

"Never mind that," said Toby. "Tell us what we had better do."

"Well, as I was saying," went on the Churchwarden, paying no attention to Toby, "the best idea that occurs to me, after thinking it over considerable, is that – But I ain't saying there's none better, and I don't lay claim to being any wiser than – Anyway, it seems to me we ought to – "

"Just listen to this!" broke in Aunt Amanda. She had been studying the map all this time, and she was holding it in her hands. She was much excited. "I've just made out all this handwriting at the bottom of the map, and I'll read it to you. Do you want to hear it?" Her voice shook and her hands trembled. Everybody except the Churchwarden begged her to go on. "Oh! do you think it could be true? If it only could! Oh, if it could only be true!"

"Maybe if you'd read it, Aunt Amanda – " said Toby.

"Yes, yes, I will," said she, all of a twitter. "I'll read it. Don't hurry me. This is what it says. If it could only be true! 'Correction Island: By dead Reckoning, latitude 12° 32' 14" N., longitude 61° 45' 13" W.,' whatever that means. But I'll read it to you just as it's written. It's a queer kind of language – Anyway, this is what it says:

"'Lately discovered by me, Reuben Higginson, Master Mariner, Brig Cotton Mather: New Bedford.

"'Notify Elizabeth Higginson, Spinster: or Else the acknowledged Elder of the Society of Friends: New Bedford.

"'Now off course in heavy gale on return Voyage to fetch my Sister aforesaid to Correction Island with as Many others as are Minded to come.

"'Leaking badly below line: pumps Given over: Water mounting in hold: decks Awash: Both masts gone By the board: whale-oil, no use: Down with all hands in another Hour.

"'This Map shall be cast Overboard in a stout Bottel as we go down, with a Paper of directions how to Gain correction in the Island.'"

"Where's the paper of directions?" said Toby.

"It ain't here," said Aunt Amanda. "I suppose Captain Higginson lost it, or else he didn't have time to put it in the bottle. Anyway, this is what the writing on the map says:

"'Let him that Finds the Bottel remember these Mariners: Also, let him take heed to Search out the Island diligently.

"'For this Island' – Listen to what it says now," said Aunt Amanda, trembling with excitement. "Oh, do you suppose it could really be true? And yet this Reuben Higginson was a good Quaker captain, I'm sure, and I don't believe he would say what wasn't true, and especially when he was on his way home to get his own sister – "

"Why don't you read it, instead of talking about it?" said Toby.

"I would, if you'd let me," said Aunt Amanda. "Here's what it says:

"'For this Island is Refuge to such as be afflicted: And in this Island shall be Corrected' – oh! listen to this! I wouldn't believe it from anybody but Reuben Higginson – 'shall be Corrected whatever Errors, Disappointments, Miscarriages, Faylures, Preventions, and the like, this mortal Life may have afflicted Any withal: Wherefore I have called it Correction Island.

"'There be Perils enough in coming at Compleat Correction: But let Courage halt not By the way, so shall he Arrive presently.

"'If any be Crooked' – this is the part! it's too wonderful! but Captain Higginson wouldn't have said it, when he was so near going down with his ship, and especially on his way home to get his own sister – "

"Me dear lydy," said Mr. Punch, "hif you would be so wery kind as to – "

"Yes, yes; give me time. I declare you make me so nervous – Now just listen to this, every one of you, and don't speak:

"'If any be Crooked, he shall there be made Straight.'"

She paused, and looked hard at Toby. Mr. Punch started at the same time, and he and Toby looked hard at each other.

"'If any be Blind, he shall see: If any Dumb, he shall speak.'"

At the word "dumb," Mr. Hanlon, whose elbow was resting on the table, jumped so violently that he knocked the Album onto the floor. Aunt Amanda nodded her head to him, and all the others stared at him.

"'If any be Old, he shall be Young again: If any Fat, he shall be as Lean as he will.'"

At the word "fat", the Churchwarden gave a questioning grunt, and settled down deeper in his chair.

"'If any be Poor, whether in Purse or in Mind, he shall seek Alms no longer.'"

The Old Codger with the Wooden Leg, who had been resting his wooden leg on the chair opposite, dropped it to the floor and sat up very straight. Toby, who was standing beside him, clapped him heartily on the shoulder.

"'If any be Mean, or Cunning, or Despiteful, he shall be given a new heart.'"

Aunt Amanda looked directly at the Sly Old Codger, who was sitting smiling, with his tall silk hat on his knees; and everyone else in the room, except Mr. Hanlon, looked very intently at him. He noticed it, and glanced around inquiringly, smiling more benevolently than ever.

"How beautiful that would be," he said. "How beautiful! If some of my dear, dear friends could only have a new heart, – how beautiful!"

"Don't interrupt," said Aunt Amanda. "Freddie, listen to this:

"'If any be Little in stature, against his desire, he shall be Great.'"

Freddie opened his eyes very wide. Would it be possible to be big at once, without waiting all that long dreary time? How glorious that would be!

"But this," said Aunt Amanda, "this is the last and the best. I don't know – whether I can – read it right – " her voice broke, and she blew her nose and cleared her throat – "but I will try. Oh! do you suppose it could be true? Would a good Quaker captain, with a sister in New Bedford, say it if it wasn't true? With the sea raging and both masts gone, and the ship filling up with water, and – "

"Aunt Amanda," said Toby, "if you don't read the rest of it this minute – "

"Ah, yes, Toby, I will," said Aunt Amanda. "It must be true, or a good man like that wouldn't have said it. This is the last part, and the best:

"'If any be Prevented unjustly of Beauty or of Children or of Love or of Other like desires, there shall be found for him of these a great Store: So that there shall be an End of repining, and none in that Place shall say, Thus and thus might I have been also, had I been but justly entreated.

"'And so I commit my Body to the sea, and my soul to – '"

"Go on! go on!" cried the company – excepting, of course, Mr. Hanlon.

Aunt Amanda blew her nose again, and laid down the map on the table. "That's all," she said. "I suppose he didn't have time to finish it."

CHAPTER XI

A MIXED COMPANY IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE

After Aunt Amanda had stopped reading, it was a moment or two before anyone spoke. "If all those things," said Mr. Toby thoughtfully, "could be done in that Island, I'd be in favor of going there."

There was a general murmur of assent, and Mr. Hanlon nodded his head.

"Well," went on Mr. Toby, "we'd better make up our minds what we want to do about it. The Churchwarden ain't had his say yet, what with all these interruptions, and I move we give him a chance to have his say, right now. Speak up, Warden; what do you think we ought to do?"

"As I was saying," said the Churchwarden, looking around solemnly, "while I don't hold to my own opinion if anybody else can think up something better, still it seems to me – But maybe you'd ruther hear from the others first."

"No, no!" cried the whole company, – except Mr. Hanlon, who shook his head vigorously.

"Well, then, being as you've asked me so particular, and having thought about it considerable, – as I was saying, it appears to me that the best thing to do would be to – This is only the way it looks to me, you understand, and I ain't speaking for nobody but myself, and I don't pretend that my opinion is worth – "

"By crackey!" cried Mr. Toby, very rudely. "Ain't you the most maddening old feller that ever was in the world? Come on, now, tell us what to do, and be quick about it!"

"Call up the Able Seaman!"

This was so unexpected that nobody spoke for a moment.

"Hurrah!" cried Toby. "Now you've said it. We'll call up Mr. Lemuel Mizzen – is that his name? That's the thing to do! Do you all agree to that?" Everybody approved, and Mr. Toby turned to Freddie. "He's your man, Freddie, and if you've done it once, I reckon it won't be any harm for you to do it again. Wait a minute." And he ran into the shop, and immediately returned with the Chinaman's head and a churchwarden pipe.

"Now, then, Freddie," he said. "Will you do it again?"

"No, sir," said Freddie. "I'd rather not."

"You shouldn't make him do it," said Aunt Amanda.

"Nonsense, Aunt Amanda!" cried Toby. "He's as bad now as he'll ever be, and it ain't a-going to do him no harm. I'll fill the pipe."

"Hit's quite a lark," said Mr. Punch, laughing heartily. "Fancy the little beggar's smoking a pipe!"

"My dear little friend," began the Sly Old Fox, beaming upon Freddie. "You must always remember that your elders know best – "

"Here, Freddie," said Mr. Toby, having filled the pipe, "sit down here." And he pushed Freddie gently down upon his accustomed hassock at Aunt Amanda's feet.

Freddie shook his head, but Mr. Toby put the pipe into his mouth and lit a match. All the others sat in silence, watching Freddie intently.

"Now, then!" said Toby. "Pull away!" And he touched the lighted match to the pipeful of black tobacco.

Freddie gave a pull, and blew out a cloud of smoke. He did not choke this time. He gave another pull, and blew out another cloud. The white smoke lay above the heads of the company in a thick mass; it grew thicker, so that he could not see through it; it began to move, as if in a high wind. He drew on the pipe once more, and blew out another cloud of smoke. He knew what was coming, and in fact the same thing happened that had happened to him before. The white cloud churned about, with its barber-poles and jets of fire, coming down closer and closer upon him, and in a jiffy he was sitting in midair on his hassock, and then he felt himself falling, falling; and as he struck the bottom with a jar, he heard, very distinctly, a knock on the door; and he was sitting again on his hassock at Aunt Amanda's feet in the quiet room, with no sign of a cloud anywhere to be seen.

"Come in!" he heard Mr. Toby cry.

The door opened, and in walked Mr. Lemuel Mizzen, A.B., as cool as a cucumber.

He took off his flat blue cap with the black ribbon, and made a bow to the company.

"Piped me aft again, and good evening to you all!" said he, in his hoarse voice. "Lemuel Mizzen, A.B.! That's me! What'll it be? All ready for orders, skipper! It was just half past by the starboard watch, and the skippers their apples were quietly peeling, when I locked up the last of the lemons and Scotch, and lay on my bed looking up at the ceiling, to snatch forty winks, as I foolishly reckoned; but just as I thinks, 'Thirty-first, thirty-second,' there's a ring at the bell of the big front-door, and the mates come and yell that I'm wanted ashore; so I tucks in my cap the eight points of my nap, and just before stopping to turn down the lights, I runs to the dresser and puts it to rights, and then before giving a last look behind, I goes to the bed and takes off the spread, and lays out to air the three sheets in the wind! And here I be," concluded the Able Seaman, "all ready for orders." And he looked very hard at Freddie.

"Well!" said Aunt Amanda, gasping. "I never in my life heard such a – "

"I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Mizzen," said Toby. "It's about Correction Island, on the Spanish Main."

"Ay, ay, sir!" said Mr. Mizzen. "Would you like to go there?"

"Ah!" said everyone at once, except Mr. Hanlon, who nodded his head.

"No trouble at all," said Mr. Mizzen. "Just step into The Sieve, and we'll be off. A sweet little bark is The Sieve, provided there's plenty of dippers; but we always go well provided. Is the whole party going?"

"One moment, if you please," said the Sly Old Codger. "There is one little point on which I – that is to say – Will there be any expense?"

"Not a penny," said Mr. Mizzen. "Everything's found. Orders from the skipper. What he says goes."

"Ah!" said the Sly Old Fox. "The Spanish Main! With all the little parrots and monkeys flitting about in the branches of the upas trees! – I think I will join."

"I reckon we're all going," said Mr. Toby. "Is everybody agreed? All right. It's settled. And my vote is, to go right now, while we've got hold of our Able Seaman here."

"Shouldn't I tell mother first?" asked Freddie.

"I'll write her a note in the morning," said Toby. "I'll fix it; you leave it to me."

"I suppose I really ought to finish this sewing," said Aunt Amanda.

"No time," said Toby, who seemed to be managing everything. "Where's the ship, Mr. Mizzen?"

"Made fast to the wharf at the foot of this street," said Mr. Mizzen.

"Then let's go," said Toby.

He ran out of the room, and returned with his white derby hat on his head, and his hand-painted necktie neatly in its place. He helped Aunt Amanda to get up, and brought her her little black bonnet, which she put on and tied under her chin, and her cashmere shawl, which she put around her shoulders.

"All right!" cried Toby. "We're off! Come along!"

"We're off to the Spanish Main," said Mr. Mizzen, in his curious sing-song, "to the wet Antipodee; but dry or wet we need not fret, for we are bold as bold can be; and on the way at Botany Bay we'll probably stay a week or two, to gather ferns as the Botanists do, and then we'll stop at the door of Spain, to ask the way to the Spanish Main, and so without any more delay, on the Spanish Main we'll all alight, where the star-fish shines in the sea all night, and the dog-star barks in the sky all day – Here, skipper, put this in your pocket, and hold fast to it." He handed Freddie the map, and Freddie put it away safely in his pocket.

"Have you got the Odour of Sanctity?" said Mr. Toby to the Churchwarden.

"Right here," said the fat man, tapping his back pocket.

"I'll carry the Chinaman's tobacco," said Toby. "We may need it." And he tucked the Chinaman's head under his arm.

In a few moments the whole party were standing on the pavement outside, and Toby locked the shop-door behind them. They crossed the street, and as they did so they heard a faint voice halloing from the top of the church tower, and they could make out that it said, "Punch! Punch!" But Mr. Punch only sniffed and shrugged his shoulders, and made no answer.

It was very dark. The gas-lamps at the corners only made the darkness gloomier. The only sound they heard, after Mr. Punch's father's voice had died away behind them, was the stump-stump of the Old Codger's wooden leg on the brick pavement. All the dwelling-houses were closed, and as they came nearer to the wharves all the warehouses were dark and awful. Not a soul was to be seen, except that once they saw the back of a policeman as he disappeared around a dark corner in advance. At the sight of this policeman's back, and in the shadow of a great gloomy building alongside an alley, Freddie slipped his hand into the Able Seaman's big paw. He wondered if he were doing quite right in leaving home without saying a word to his mother, but Mr. Toby had promised to do whatever was necessary, and anyway, he was going aboard a ship! If he should stop to speak to his mother about going away on a voyage in a ship, he felt somehow that he might never go. He could already smell the delicious odour of tarred ropes.

Their progress was very slow, on account of Aunt Amanda's lameness. First came Mr. Mizzen, leading the way with Freddie by his side. Next came Aunt Amanda, limping with her cane, and supported on one side by Mr. Toby and on the other by Mr. Punch. Behind them walked the Churchwarden and the Sly Old Fox, and last of all Mr. Hanlon and the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg.

They could see not far before them the ghost-like masts and shrouds of ships, looking as if they were growing up from the street among the buildings; and in another moment they found themselves standing in a group on a wide wharf, piled up with bales and boxes, and before them, against the edge of the wharf, where the black water was lapping the piles, stood a tall ship with most of her sails set. Freddie thrilled in every vein of his body. At that moment he did not think of his father or mother; he thought of nothing but the smell of brackish water and tarred ropes, and the deck of a ship on the open sea under a cloud of canvas, and the far-away Spanish Main.

The Able Seaman led the company of adventurers forward between the bales and boxes, until they stood beside the dark hull of the ship. He turned round and faced them and touched his cap respectfully.

"Come aboard," said he.

CHAPTER XII

THE VOYAGE OF THE SIEVE

When Freddie awoke the next morning, he leaned up on his elbow, rubbing his eyes, and was surprised to see the floor of the little room in which he found himself settling slowly down at one side. In a moment the floor rose again on that side, and the other side settled down. Then the whole room tilted sideways and back again. It made him dizzy, and he closed his eyes, wondering what kind of a house he had gotten into. He decided he would get up and find out about it.

He carefully rose, and tried to walk across the floor to the window. As he stepped out, the floor seemed to go down under him, and he quickly grasped the bed; he put out his foot again, and the floor rose up; he was dizzier than before, and he had a queer sinking feeling in his stomach. As the floor tilted down sideways again, he made a dash to the opposite wall, and held on there by the window; but the floor sank again, and he made another dash, back to bed. He was cold and hot, and his head ached, and there was a feeling in his stomach as if – oh dear! He decided he would lie in bed for a few moments until he felt better.