Brave Men and Women Part 9

Gathering apples, and thinking of all The joys of Thanksgiving late in the Fall--

So pa.s.sed I the years in such like scenes Until I had grown well into my teens.

And then, with many a dream in my heart, I struck for myself and a n.o.bler part;

I hardly knew what, yet some higher good, Earning and spending as fast as I could;

Earning and spending in teaching and going To school, what time I to manhood was growing.

My maiden aunt--and Providence Is approved in its blessed consequence--

That baby of twenty, to thirty had grown, And from the nest had not yet flown.

And a childless aunt, my uncle's wife, Had come to gladden that quiet life.

G.o.d bless them both, for they were ever The foremost to second my life's endeavor.

Our aunts sometimes are almost mothers, Toiling and planning and spending for others.

Aunt Hannah, the maiden; Aunt Emily, wife,-- How they labored to gird me for the strife,

Cheering me on with words befitting, Doing my sewing and doing my knitting,

And pressing upon me many a token Whose meaning was more than ever was spoken!

At length the time for parting came-- They both in heaven will have true fame!

They did not bid me good-bye at the stile; They with me went through the woods a mile.

It was the still September time, When the Autumn fruits were in their prime.

Here and there a patch of crimson was seen Where the breath of the early frost had been.

The songs of the birds were tender and sad, Yet I could not say they were not glad.

Nature's soft and mellow undertone To a note-like trust in the Father had grown.

And that trust, I ween, in our hearts had sway, As on through the woods we wended our way.

Meeting and parting fringe life below; We parted--twenty years ago.

My aunts turned back, and on went I, Striving my burning tears to dry.

Almost a thousand miles away Was the _Alma Mater_ I sought that day.

To a voice I turned me on my track, And saw them both come running back.

"Is something forgotten?" soon stammered I; And they, without a word in reply,

Caught me in their arms, a great baby of twenty, And smothered me with kisses not too plenty.

Some joys I had known before that day, And many since have thronged my way;

But in all my seeking through forty years, In which rainbow hopes have dried all tears,

I have nothing found in the paths of knowledge, Surpa.s.sing those kisses I carried to college.

XII.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

(BORN 1786--DIED 1847.)

HEROISM ON THE GREAT DEEP--A MARTYR OF THE POLAR SEA.

The life of this great navigator is an epic of the ocean, which will stir the brave heart for many ages to come.

One day, toward the close of the last century, a young English lad, named John Franklin, spent a holiday with a companion in a walk of twelve miles from their school at Louth, to look at the sea from the level sh.o.r.es of his native country. It was the first time that the boy had ever gazed on the wonderful expanse, and his heart was strangely stirred. The youngest of four sons, he had been intended for the ministry of the Church of England, but that day's walk fixed His purposes in another direction; and though he knew it not, he was to serve G.o.d and man even more n.o.bly by heroic deeds than he could have done by the wisest and most persuasive words.

Mr. Franklin was a wise man, and when he found his son bent on a sailor's life, determined to give him a taste-of it, in the hope that this would be enough. John was therefore taken from school at the age of thirteen, and sent in a merchantman to Lisbon. The Bay of Biscay, however, did not cure his enthusiasm; and so we next find John Franklin as a mids.h.i.+pman on board the _Polyphemus_, seventy-four guns. These were stirring times. In 1801 young Franklin's s.h.i.+p led the line in the battle of Copenhagen, and in 1805, having been transferred to the _Bellerophon_, he held charge of the signals at the battle of Trafalgar, bravely standing at his post and coolly attending to his work while the dead and dying fell around him.

Between these two dates Franklin had accompanied an exploring voyage to Australia on board the _Investigator_, gaining in that expedition not only a great store of facts to be treasured up for use in his eager and retentive mind, but those habits of observation which were to be of the greatest service to him in after-years. On his return home in another vessel--the _Porpoise_--Franklin and his companions were wrecked upon a coral reef, where ninety-four persons remained for seven weeks on a narrow sand-bank less than a quarter of a mile in length, and only four feet above the surface of the water!

It was in 1818 that the young lieutenant first set sail for the Polar Sea, as second commander of the _Trent_, under Captain Buchan. The aim was to cross between Spitzbergen and Greenland; but the companion vessel, the _Dorothea_, being greatly injured by the ice, the two had to return to England, after reaching the eightieth degree of lat.i.tude.

A year later lieutenants Franklin and Parry were placed at the head of expeditions, the latter to carry on the exploration through Baffin's Bay, and to find an outlet, if possible, by Lancaster Sound. This was splendidly done, and the North-west Pa.s.sage practically discovered. The task of Franklin was more arduous. He had to traverse the vast solitary wastes of North-eastern America, with their rivers and lakes, to descend to the mouth of the Coppermine River, and to survey the coast eastward.

The toil and hards.h.i.+p of this wonderful expedition, and the brave endurance of Franklin and his friend Richardson, and their trusty helpers, have often been related. They had to contend with famine and illness, with the ignorance and treachery of the Indians, who murdered three of the party. The land journey altogether extended over 5,500 miles, occupying a year and six months.

In less than two years after their return to England, Franklin, Richardson, and Back volunteered for another expedition to the same region.

In 1825 this second expedition started, Franklin mournfully leaving the death-bed of his wife, to whom he had been married after his last return to England. This brave lady not only let him go, though she knew she was dying, but begged him not to delay one day for her! At New York Franklin heard of her death, but manfully concealed his grief, and pressed on to the northern wastes. As before, his object was to survey the northern sh.o.r.e, only this time by the Mackenzie River, instead of the Coppermine.

This expedition, too, was full of, stirring adventure among the Esquimaux, though without the terrible hards.h.i.+ps and calamities of the former journey. It was also crowned with great success, leaving in the end only 150 miles of the coast from Baffin's Bay to Behring Straits unsurveyed. These, too, were explored in later years by Franklin's successors, and the great discovery of the North-west Pa.s.sage completed.

Franklin was now made commander; in 1829 was knighted, and covered with honors by the University of Oxford and the great learned societies in England and France. He had married his second wife in 1828--the Lady Franklin of the later story. In 1832 Sir John Franklin was given the command of the _Rainbow_, on the Mediterranean station; and so wise and gracious was his rule, that the sailors nicknamed the sloop "The Celestial _Rainbow_" and "Franklin's Paradise." But we have no s.p.a.ce to speak of this now, nor of Franklin's wise and gracious government of Van Diemen's Land, now better known as Tasmania, that succeeded. Lady Franklin was here his wise and devoted helper in every scheme of usefulness and benevolence.

Returning to England, he was appointed, in 1845, to the command of an expedition for the further discovery of the North-west Pa.s.sage. The s.h.i.+ps _Erebus_ and _Terror_ sailed from England on the 26th of May, and were seen by the crew of the _Prince of Wales_, a whaler, on the 26th of July, in Melville Bay, _for the last time_.

Toward the close of 1847 serious anxiety was aroused respecting the fate of these brave explorers. The brave-hearted, devoted wife of the commander expended her whole fortune on these endeavors to ascertain what had become of her husband. It is interesting to note that the people of Tasmania, Franklin's colony, subscribed the sum of 1,700 toward the expenses of the search.

In the year 1850 it was discovered that the first Winter of the explorers to the following April, or later (1846), had been spent at Beechey Island, beyond Lancaster Sound, and that it had been an active holiday time.