Flora Lyndsay Volume Ii Part 29

James Hawke determined not to be outdone by the tailor, and took up an exalted position on the mast, while the rest of the pa.s.sengers walked to and fro the deck, straining their eyes, and looking in all directions for the promised land. A bank of dull grey clouds obscured the distant horizon, and for some time they looked in vain.

A warm resinous smell came at times upon the wind, and large ma.s.ses of sea-weed floated continually past. Flora was watching these with great interest, when the little brown man, who had kept quiet for some days, sauntered to her side.

He was in a more contradictory mood than ever.

"A fine day, Mrs. Lyndsay."

"Rather hazy.--It looks like rain."

"_Quite_ the reverse. The sky is _quite_ clear."

"Independent of that fog-bank."

"_Fog!_ I see no _fog_. You are blind, my dear Madam. The atmosphere is _unusually_ clear."

Flora stared at him. "Could the man be in his senses?" Presently she remarked, "that they must be near land, from the quant.i.ty of sea-weed floating upon the water."

"_That's_ not sea-weed!"

"Mr. Lootie, I was born and brought up on the sea-coast: don't you think I know sea-weed?"

"Not if you call pieces of reed and gra.s.s _sea-weed_. And as to being _near_ land, that's all fudge. The Captain only says so to please you."

Lyndsay, who was standing near, now took Flora's arm, and walked to the other side of the deck. "What a little contradictory, snarling creature it is!" he said. "Why do you bandy words with him? Look, here is a piece of twisted paper. I will go forward, and throw it overboard. It looks like nothing but what it is. You return to Lootie, and when it pa.s.ses, say, 'There's a piece of white paper,' and just hear how he will contradict the fact."

Flora did as she was told.

Presently the paper floated just beneath the spot where they were standing.

"Ah!" cries Flora, with feigned surprise, "we must be near land.

See--there is a piece of white paper."

"Pshaw! _Paper indeed!_ where are your eyes? It is a _feather_--a white _feather_, belonging to some sea-fowl or other."

"A _goosle_, perhaps, Mr. Lootie. But no, it is what I say, a piece of paper."

"A _feather_, Madam, a _feather_!"

"Why, there's writing upon it; I see the letters."

"Nonsense, it is a _feather_, speckled with black and grey. I'll swear it's a _feather_!" and his shrill voice rose almost to a scream.

Lyndsay joined the disputants, hardly able to keep from laughing in the face of the angry little elf. "Flora, did you see the piece of paper I flung overboard just now? I thought it would set you wondering?"

"Now, Mr. Lootie, what do you say to your _feather_?"

"That I hate senseless jokes, and the fools who make them," snarled the ex-distiller, as he retired with a face as black as a thunder-cloud.

About four in the afternoon, the clouds cleared away, the sun came out brilliantly, and the cry of "Land! land, to the left!" was sung out l.u.s.tily from the mast-head.

The little tailor had won the promised reward, and it was not many minutes before he reached the deck to claim it.

Land was indeed in sight, not exactly that which they looked for. The s.h.i.+p was considerably out of the usual track, and was rather too near for safety, to the stern mountain peak of Cape Breton. The Captain calculated it to be about fourteen miles distant before sunset, and the dark outline of rock and forest was visible to the naked eye.

It was a warm, delicious summer evening, and the smell of the pine forests was as rich as gales of Araby to the poor emigrants. The Captain had treated all hands to a stiff gla.s.s of grog; and the Duncans had tuned their fiddles, and young and old were a.s.sembled upon the deck for a dance.

Flora was too much entranced with the sight of land, to heed the dancers as they bounded past; shouting and laughing in their mad revel of mirth.

The moon had risen above the frowning Cape, and flooded the land and sea with light. The jollity of the pa.s.sengers and crew profaned the calm grandeur of the night--the august and profound solitude of sea and sky.

Gladly would she have shut out all such sights and sounds, to commune with her own heart, with nature, and with nature's G.o.d, while gazing upon such a scene, at such an hour. "But fast and furious grew the fun,"

and a cry from her babe, whom she had left sleeping in her little cabin, faint as it was, reached her maternal ear; and she left the revellers, to attend to the wants of her child.

Josey was fretful and restless, and more than an hour elapsed before she could hush her again to sleep. She was still lying beside her on her berth, with the little creature's arms clasped tightly about her neck, when the s.h.i.+p seemed to reel and lurch, as if suddenly struck by a tremendous blow. Then came shouts and cries--the trampling of feet, the creaking of ropes and chains; and still the s.h.i.+p plunged and tossed, with such a violent motion, that she had to hold to the berth to keep her feet. What could all this mean?--was she in a dream? Everything was bright and beautiful above, when she quitted the deck. Whence then came the confusion of sounds--the hoa.r.s.e roaring of winds--the das.h.i.+ng of waves--the fearful tossing to and fro of her ocean home? Flora gently unclasped the clinging arms of her sleeping babe, and groping her way through the dark cabin, with great difficulty succeeded in climbing the companion-ladder, and bringing her head on a level with the deck.

She did not venture higher. She saw enough to convince her that women had no place amid the horrors of such an awful scene. A sudden squall from the mountains had struck the s.h.i.+p. The moon had withdrawn her light; and vast ma.s.ses of clouds covered the sky, which was before so clear and brilliant. Vast sheets of foam enveloped the vessel, and huge billows thundered upon her deck. Not a st.i.tch of canvas was to be seen; some of the sails had been rent from the mast by the gale; the rest were close furled. Lyndsay and four other men were at the rudder, to keep the s.h.i.+p in her course. The roaring of the winds and waves was deafening. Flora's heart beat violently for a moment, then grew calm before the grandeur of the scene.

"We are in the hands of G.o.d!" she thought; "in life and death we are His. Submission to His will is the sublimity of faith!"

In the cabin everything was loose. Trunks rolled from side to side. The mate had removed the light, and utter darkness prevailed. It was a long time before she could regain her little domicile--the s.h.i.+p pitched with such violence, that every step brought her to her knees; at length she found the door, and lifting the mattress from her berth, into which she found it impossible to climb, she took her baby in her arms, and lay down upon the heaving floor, commending herself and her fellow-pa.s.sengers to the care of G.o.d.

To sleep was impossible; but her mind seemed sustained by a lofty courage which made her feel calm in the midst of danger. This strength was not her own; it was derived from a higher source--a firm reliance on the unerring wisdom and providence of G.o.d. If death was His decree, she would try to meet it with becoming fort.i.tude. Resistance and lamentations were alike useless; even prayers for self-preservation appeared impious. She was in His keeping, and she felt confident that whatever might befal her and those so dear to her was for the best.

The hurricane roared through the long starless night. Floods of rain forced their way through the skylight, and drenched her bed. She buried her head in the wet blankets, and s.h.i.+vered with cold. Yet Josey slept as peacefully as ever on her mother's breast, happily unconscious of the terrors of the hour.

About four o'clock in the morning, Lyndsay opened the door of her little cabin. The water was streaming from his garments.

"Flora, are you awake?"

"Yes, darling," she cried, starting to a sitting posture; "who could sleep in such a storm?"

"It has been a dreadful night. The danger is over. The s.h.i.+p is no longer on the lee sh.o.r.e, but standing out to sea. At one time, we expected that she would run upon the rocks and go down. The gale still continues, but we have plenty of sea-room. I have been hard at work all night. The men behaved like trumps--especially old Macdonald and the Dragoon. I am going to change these wet clothes, and lie down for an hour. So content yourself, my Flora. Thank G.o.d for our deliverance, and go to sleep."

Flora had silently done that already. In a few minutes she was slumbering as peacefully as Josey--dreaming of green fields, and running brooks, and wandering with dear familiar faces, among nature's quiet haunts, in the memory-haunting eternity of the past.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE s.h.i.+P COMES TO AN ANCHOR, AND THE BOOK TO A CLOSE.

The next morning, Flora hastened upon deck; but while there, the wind was still so high, and the waves so rough, that she could not stand without holding to the ropes. The sea was covered with foam, the heavens with flying rack, which rolled in huge broken ma.s.ses round and round the horizon. The land was no longer in sight, and old ocean roared and tossed in his unrest, as a strong man raves and tosses in the delirium of fever.

"The white mice are out this morning, Mrs. Lyndsay," said Bob Motion, who was at his old post at the helm. "Miss Josey's cradle, I'm thinking, was well rocked last night. We are now running right afore the gale. The skipper was out of his reckoning altogether. It's a mercy the s.h.i.+p did not founder on that cursed sh.o.r.e."

At noon the storm abated, with a fair wind.