Jacob Faithful Part 56

I INTERRUPT A MATRIMONIAL DUET AND CAPSIZE THE BOAT--BEING UPON DRY LAND, NO ONE IS DROWNED--TOM LEAVES A MAN-OF-WAR BECAUSE HE DON'T LIKE IT--I FIND THE PROFESSION OF A GENTLEMAN PREFERABLE TO THAT OF A WATERMAN.

My first object on my return was to call upon old Tom, and a.s.sure him of his son's welfare. My wishes certainly would have led me to Mr Drummond's but I felt that my duty required that I should delay that pleasure. I arrived at the hotel late in the evening, and early next morning I went down to the steps at Westminster Bridge, and was saluted with the usual cry of "Boat, sir!" A crowd of recollections poured into my mind at the well-known sound; my life appeared to have pa.s.sed in review in a few seconds, as I took my seat in the stern of a wherry, and directed the waterman to pull up the river. It was a beautiful morning, and even at that early hour almost too warm--the sun was so powerful; I watched every object that we pa.s.sed with an interest I cannot describe; every tree, every building, every point of land--they were all old friends, who appeared, as the sun shone brightly on them, to rejoice in my good fortune. I remained in a reverie too delightful to be wished to be disturbed from it, although occasionally there were reminiscences which were painful; but they were but as light clouds, obscuring for a moment, as they flew past, the glorious sun of my happiness. At last the well-known tenement of old Tom, his large board with "Boats built to order," and the half of the boat stuck up on end, caught my sight, and I remembered the object of my embarkation. I directed the waterman to pull to the hard, and, paying him well, dismissed him; for I had perceived that old Tom was at work stumping round a wherry, bottom up; and his wife was sitting on a bench in the boat-arbour, basking in the warm sun, and working away at her nets. I had landed so quietly, and they both were so occupied with their respective employments, that they had not perceived me, and I crept round by the house to surprise them.

I had gained a station behind the old boat, where I overheard the conversation.

"It's my opinion," said old Tom, who left off hammering for a time, "that all the nails in Birmingham won't make this boat water-tight. The timbers are as rotten as a pear, and the nails fall through them. I have put in one piece more than agreed for; and if I don't put in another here she'll never swim."

"Well, then, put another piece in," replied Mrs Beazeley.

"Yes; so I will; but I've a notion I shall be out of pocket by this job.

Seven-and-sixpence won't pay for labour and all. However, never mind,"

and Tom carolled forth--

"Is not the sea Made for the free-- Land for courts and chains alone?

There we are slaves, But on the waves Love and liberty's all our own."

"Now, if you do sing, sing truth, Beazeley," said the old woman. "A'n't our boy pressed into the service? And how can you talk of liberty?"

Old Tom answered by continuing his song--

"No eye to watch, and no tongue to wound us; All earth forgot, and all heaven around us."

"Yes, yes," replied the old woman; "no eye to watch, indeed. He may be in sickness and in sorrow; he may be wounded, or dying of a fever; and there's no mother's eye to watch over him. As to all the earth being forgot, I won't believe that Tom has forgotten his mother."

Old Tom replied--

"Seasons may roll, But the true soul Burns the same wherever it goes."

"So it does, Tom--so it does; and he's thinking this moment of his father and mother, I do verily believe, and he loves us more than ever."

"So I believe," replied old Tom--"that is, if he hasn't anything better to do. But there's a time for all things; and when a man is doing his duty as a seaman, he mustn't let his thoughts wander. Never fear, old woman: he'll be back again.

"There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, To take care of the life of poor Jack."

"G.o.d grant it! G.o.d grant it!" replied the old woman, wiping her eyes with her ap.r.o.n, and then resuming her netting.

"He seems," continued she, "by his letters, to be over-fond of that girl, Mary Stapleton--and I sometimes think that she cares not a little for him; but she's never of one mind long. I didn't like to see her flaunting and flirting so with the soldiers, and at the same time Tom says that she writes that she cares for n.o.body but him."

"Women are--women! that's sartin," replied old Tom, musing for a time, and then showing that his thoughts were running on his son, by bursting out--

"Mary, when yonder boundless sea Shall part us, and perchance for ever, Think not my heart can stray from thee, Or cease to mourn thine absence--never!

And when in distant climes I roam, Forlorn, unfriended, broken-hearted--"

"Don't say so, Tom--don't say so," interrupted the old woman.

Tom continued--

"Oft shall I sigh for thee and home, And all those joys from which I parted."

"Aye, so he does, poor fellow, I'll be bound to say. What would I give to see his dear, smiling face!" said Mrs Beazeley.

"And I'd give no little, missus, myself. But still, it's the duty for every man to serve his country; and so ought Tom, as his father did before him. I shall be glad to see him back: but I'm not sorry that he's gone. Our s.h.i.+ps must be manned, old woman; and if they take men by force, it's only because they won't volunteer--that's all. When they're once on board they don't mind it. You women require pressing just as much as the men, and it's all much of a muchness."

"How's that Tom?"

"Why, when we make love, and ask you to marry, don't you always pout, and say, 'No!' You like being kissed, but we must take it by force. So it is with manning a s.h.i.+p. The men all say, 'No;' but when they are once there, they like the service very much--only, you see, like you, they want pressing. Don't Tom write and say that he's quite happy, and don't care where he is so long as he's with Jacob?"

"Yes; that's true; but they say Jacob is to be discharged and come home, now that he's come to a fortune; and what will Tom say then?"

"Why, that _is_ the worst of it. I believe that Jacob's heart is in the right place; but still, riches spoil a man. But we shall see. If Jacob don't prove 'true blue,' I'll never put faith in man again. But there be changes in this world, that's sartin.

"We all have our taste of the ups and the downs, As Fortune dispenses her smiles and her frowns; But may we not hope, if she's frowning to-day, That to-morrow she'll lend us the light of her ray.

"I only wish Jacob was here--that's all."

"Then you have your wish, my good old friend," cried I, running up to Tom and seizing his hand. But old Tom was so taken by surprise that he started back and lost his equilibrium, dragging me after him, and we rolled on the turf together. Nor was this the only accident, for old Mrs Beazeley was so alarmed that she also sprang from the bench fixed in the half of the old boat stuck on end, and threw herself back against it. The boat, rotten when first put up, and with the disadvantage of exposure to the elements for many years, could no longer stand such pressure. It gave way to the sudden force applied by the old woman, and she and the boat went down together, she screaming and scuffling among the rotten planks, which now, after so many years close intimacy, were induced to part company. I was first on my legs, and ran to the a.s.sistance of Mrs Beazeley, who was half smothered with dust and flakes of dry pitch; and old Tom coming to my a.s.sistance, we put the old woman on her legs again.

"O deary me!" cried the old woman--"O deary me! I do believe my hip is out! Lord, Mr Jacob, how you frightened me!"

"Yes," said old Tom, shaking me warmly by the hand, "we were all taken aback, old boat and all. What a s.h.i.+ndy you have made, bowling us all down like ninepins! Well, my boy, I'm glad to see you, and notwithstanding your gear, you're Jacob Faithful still."

"I hope so," replied I; and we then adjourned to the house, where I made them acquainted with all that had pa.s.sed, and what I intended to do relative to obtaining Tom's discharge. I then left them, promising to return soon, and, hailing a wherry going up the river, proceeded to my old friend the Dominie, of whose welfare, as well as Stapleton's and Mary's, I had been already a.s.sured.

But as I pa.s.sed through Putney Bridge I thought I might as well call first upon old Stapleton; and I desired the waterman to pull in. I hastened to Stapleton's lodgings, and went upstairs, where I found Mary in earnest conversation with a very good-looking young man, in a sergeant's uniform of the 93rd Regiment. Mary, who was even handsomer than when I had left her, starting up, at first did not appear to recognise me, then coloured up to the forehead, as she welcomed me with a constraint I had never witnessed before. The sergeant appeared inclined to keep his ground; but on my taking her hand and telling her that I brought a message from a person whom I trusted she had not forgotten, he gave her a nod and walked downstairs. Perhaps there was a severity in my countenance as I said, "Mary, I do not know whether, after what I have seen, I ought to give the message; and the pleasure I antic.i.p.ated in meeting you again is destroyed by what I have now witnessed. How disgraceful is it thus to play with a man's feelings--to write to him, a.s.suring him of your regard and constancy, and at the same time encouraging another."

Mary hung down her head. "If I have done wrong, Mr Faithful," said she, after a pause, "I have not wronged Tom; what I have written I felt."

"If that is the case, why do you wrong another person? why encourage another young man only to make him unhappy?"

"I have promised him nothing; but why does not Tom come back and look after me? I can't mope here by myself; I have no one to keep company with; my father is always away at the alehouse, and I must have somebody to talk to. Besides, Tom is away, and may be away a long while, and absence cures love in men, although it does not in women."

"It appears then, Mary, that you wish to have two strings to your bow, in case of accident."

"Should the first string break, a second would be very acceptable,"

replied Mary. "But it is always this way," continued she, with increasing warmth; "I never can be in a situation which is not right; whenever I do anything which may appear improper, so certain do _you_ make your appearance when least expected and least wished for--as if you were born to be my constant accuser."

"Does not your own conscience accuse you, Mary?"

"Mr Faithful," repeated she, very warmly, "you are not my father confessor; but do as you please--write to Tom if you please, and tell him all you have seen, and anything you may think--make him and make me miserable and unhappy--do it, I pray. It will be a friendly act; and as you are now a great man, you may persuade Tom that I am a jilt and a good-for-nothing."

Here Mary laid her hands on the table and buried her face in them.

"I did not come here to be your censor, Mary; you are certainly at liberty to act as you please, without my having any right to interfere; but as Tom is my earliest and best friend, so far as his interests and happiness are concerned, I shall carefully watch over them. We have been so long together, and I am so well acquainted with all his feelings, that I really believe that if ever there was a young man sincerely and devotedly attached to a woman, he is so to you; and I will add, that if ever there was a young man who deserved love in return, it is Tom. When I left, not a month back, he desired me to call upon you as soon as I could, and a.s.sure you of his unalterable attachment; and I am now about to procure his discharge, that he may be able to return.

All his thoughts are upon this point, and he is now waiting with the utmost impatience the arrival of it, that he may again be in your company; you can best judge whether his return will or will not be a source of happiness."

Mary raised her head--her face was wet with tears.

"Then he will soon be back again, and I shall see him. Indeed, his return will be no source of unhappiness, if I can make him happy-- indeed, it shall not, Mr Faithful; but pray don't tell him of my foolish conduct, pray don't--why make him unhappy?--I entreat you not to do it. I will not do so again. Promise me, Jacob, will you?" continued Mary, taking me by the arm, and looking beseechingly in my face.

"Mary, I will never be a mischief-maker; but recollect I exact the performance of your promise."