Books: The Little Savage

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There was something so novel to me and so beautiful in her fervency
of prayer, that the tears came into my eyes, and about a minute after
she had finished, I said--

"I now recollect, at least, I think I do--for the memory of it is
very confused-that my mother used to kneel down by me and pray just
as you have done. Oh, how I wish I had a mother!"

"My child," replied she, "promise me that you will be a good and
obedient son, and I will be a mother to you."

"Will you? Oh! how kind of you. Yes, I will be all you wish; I will
work for you day and night if it is necessary. I will do everything,
if you will but be my mother."

"I will do my duty to you as a mother most strictly," replied she;
"so that is agreed upon. Now, you had better go to sleep, if you can."

"But I must first ask you a question. Why did you thank God for the
seamen having left us here, instead of taking us with them?"

"Because the boat was overloaded as it was; because the men, having
liquor, would become careless and desperate, and submit to no
control; and therefore I think there is little or no chance of their
ever arriving anywhere safe, but that they will perish miserably in
some way or another. This, I consider, is the probability, unless the
Almighty in his mercy should be pleased to come to their assistance,
and allow them to fall in with some vessel soon after their departure."

"Do you think, then, that God prevented our going with them on
purpose that we might not share their fate?"

"I do! God regulates everything. Had it been better for us that we
should have gone, he would have permitted it; but he willed it
otherwise, and we must bow to his will with a full faith, that he
orders everything for the best."

"And you say that God will give us all that we ask for in our
prayers?"

"Yes, if we pray fervently and in faith, and ask it in the name of
Jesus Christ; that is, he will grant all we pray for, that is good
for us, but not what is not good for us; or when we ask anything, we
do not know that we are asking what is proper or not--but he does. We
may ask what would be hurtful to us, and then, in his love for us, he
denies it. For instance, suppose you had been accustomed to pray, you
must have prayed God that he would permit you to leave this island in
the boat, as you are so anxious to go away; but supposing that boat
is lost, as I imagine it will be, surely it would have been a
kindness in God, who knew that it would be lost, not to grant your
prayer. Is it not so?"

"Yes, I see now, thank you; now I will go to sleep--good-night."

Chapter XXIV

I awoke the next morning quite recovered from my illness of the day
before, and was out of the cabin before Mrs Reichardt, who still
remained behind the screen which she had put up after I had gone to
sleep. It was a beautiful morning, the water was smooth, and merely
rippled with a light breeze, and the sun shone bright. I felt well
and happy. I lighted a fire to broil the fish for breakfast, as there
was a sufficiency left, and then got my fishing-lines ready to catch
some larger fish to reinhabit my pond at the bathing pool. Mrs
Reichardt came out of the cabin and found me playing with Nero.

"Good morning, dear mother," said I, for I felt most kindly towards
her.

"Good morning, my dear boy," replied she. "Are you quite well?"

"Quite well; and I have got my lines all ready, for I have been
thinking that until the birds come, we must live on fish altogether,
and we can only take them in fine weather like this; so we must not
lose such a day."

"Certainly not. As soon as we have breakfasted, we will go down and
fish. I can fish very well, I am used to it. We must both work now;
but first go for your Bible, that we may read a little."

I did so, and after she had read a chapter she prayed, and I knelt
by her side; then we breakfasted, and as soon as we had breakfasted,
we set off to the bathing-pool.

"Do you know if they left anything behind them, Frank?"

"Yes," replied I, "they left some oars, I believe, and a long line
and we have the shovel, and the hammer, and the boat's small sail, up
at the cabin."

"Well, we shall see very soon," replied she, as we went down the path.

When we arrived at the bathing-pool, the first thing that met my
eyes made me leap with joy. "Oh! mother! mother! they've left the
iron pot; I did so long for it; and as I lay awake this morning, I
thought that if I prayed for anything, it would be for the iron pot.
I was tired of dried birds, and they ate so different when they were
boiled up in the pot with potatoes."

"I am equally glad, Frank, for I do not like victuals uncooked; but
now let us first see what else they have thrown out of the boat."

"Why they have put on shore three of the little casks of water,"
said I; "they took them all on board."

"They have so, I suppose, because the boat was too heavy, and they
would not part with the liquor. Foolish men, they will now not have
more than six days' water, and will suffer dreadfully."

We then looked round the rocks and found that they had left the iron
kettle, three breakers, five oars, and a harpoon and staffs; a gang-board,
a whale line of 200 fathoms, an old saw, a bag of broad-headed
nails, and two large pieces of sheet-iron.

"That saw may be very useful to us," said Mrs Reichardt, "especially
as you have files in your chest. Indeed, if we want them, we may
convert one-half of the saw into knives."

"Into knives! How?"

"I will shew you; and these pieces of sheet-iron I could use again.
You see the sheet-iron was put on to repair any hole which might be
made in the boat, and they have thrown it out, as well as the hammer
and nails. I wonder at John Gough permitting it."

"I heard them quarrelling with him as I came out yesterday to fetch
you down; they would not mind what he said."

"No, or we should not have been left here," replied she; "John Gough
was too good a man to have allowed it, if he could have prevented it.
That sheet-iron will be very useful. Do you know what for? to broil
fish on, or anything else. We must turn up the corners with the
hammer. But now we must lose no more time, but fish all day long, and
not think of eating till supper time."

Accordingly we threw out our lines, and the fish taking the bait
freely, we soon hauled in more than a dozen large fish, which I put
into the bathing-pool.

"What use can we make of that long line which they have left?"

"A good many; but the best use we can make of it, is to turn it into
fishing-lines, when we require new ones."

"But how can we do that, it is so thick and heavy?"

"Yes, but I will show you how to unlay it, and then make it up
again. Recollect, Frank, that I have been the wife of a Missionary,
and have followed my husband wherever he went; sometimes we have been
well off, sometimes as badly off as you and I are now--for a
Missionary has to go through great dangers, and great hardships, as
you would acknowledge if you ever heard my life, or rather that of my
husband."

"Won't you tell it to me?"

"Yes, perhaps I will, some day or another; but what I wish to point
out to you now is, that being his wife, and sharing his danger and
privation, I have been often obliged to work hard and to obtain my
living as I could. In England, women do little except in the house,
but a Missionary's wife is obliged to work with the men, and as a man
very often, and therefore learns to do many things of which women in
general are ignorant. You understand now?"

"Oh yes. I have thought already that you appear to know more than
Jackson did."

"I should think not; but Jackson was not fond of work I expect, and
I am. And now, Frank, you little thought that when you so tardily
went to work the other day to plant potatoes for the benefit of any
one that might hereafter come to the island, that you were planting
for yourself, and would reap the benefit of your own kind act; for if
you had not assisted, of course I could not have done it by myself:
so true it is, that even in this world you are very often rewarded
for a good action."

"But are not you always?"

"No, my child, you must not expect that; but if not rewarded in this
world, you will be rewarded in the next."

"I don't understand that."

"I suppose that you hardly can, but I will explain all that to you,
if God spare my life; but it must be at a more seasonable time."

We continued fishing till late in the afternoon, by which time we
had taken twenty-eight large fish, about seven to nine pounds'
weight; Mrs Reichardt then proposed that we should leave off, as we
had already provision for a fortnight.

I hauled out one more fish, which she took with her to cook for our
supper, and having coiled up my lines, I then commenced, as she had
told me to do, carrying up the articles left by the boat's crew at
the bathing-pool. The first thing I seized upon was the coveted iron
kettle; I was quite overjoyed at the possession of this article, and
I had good reason to be. In my other hand I carried the saw and the
bag of nails. As soon as I had deposited them at the cabin, I went
down again, and before supper was ready I had brought up everything
except the three breakers of water, which I left where they were, as
we did not want them for present use, whatever we might hereafter. We
were both rather tired, and were glad to go to bed after we had taken
our supper.

Chapter XXV

When we met the following morning, my mother, as I shall in future
call her, said to me, "This will be a busy day, Frank, for we have a
great many arrangements to make in the cabin, so that we may be
comfortable. In future the cabin must be kept much more clean and
tidy than it is--but that is my business more than yours. Let us get
our breakfasts, and then we will begin."

"I don't know what you want me to do," replied I; "but I will do it
if I can, as soon as you tell me."

"My dear boy, a woman requires a portion of the cabin to herself, as
it is not the custom for women to live altogether with men. Now, what
I wish is, that the hinder part of the cabin, where you used to stow
away your dried birds, should be made over to me. We have oars with
which we can make a division, and then nail up seal skins, so that I
may have that part of the cabin to myself. Now, do you understand
what I want?"

"Yes, but the oars are longer than the cabin is wide," observed I.
"How shall we manage it?"

"We have the old saw, and that will do well enough to cut them off,
without its being sharpened."

"I never saw one used," replied I, "and I don't understand it."

"I will soon show you. First, we must measure the width of the
cabin. I shall not take away more than one third of it."

My mother went into the cabin, and I followed her. With a piece of
fishing-line, she took the width of the cabin, and then the height up
to the rafters for the door posts. We then went out, and with the
saw, which she showed me how to use, and which astonished me very
much, when I perceived its effects, the oars were cut up to the
proper length. Gimlets I had already from the sea-chest, and nails
and hammer we had just obtained from the boat, so that before the
forenoon was over, the framework was all ready for nailing on the
seal skins. The bag of broad-headed short nails, which had been
thrown on the rocks, were excellent for this purpose, and, as I had
plenty of skins, the cabin was soon divided off, with a skin between
the door-jambs hanging down loose, so that any one might enter. I
went inside after it was complete. "But," said I, "you have no light
to see what you are about."

"Not yet, but I soon will have," replied my mother. "Bring the saw
here, Frank. Observe, you must cut through the side of the cabin
here, a square hole of this size; three of the planks cut through
will be sufficient. Begin here."

I did as she directed me, and in the course of half an hour, I had
cut out of the south side of the cabin a window about two feet
square, which admitted plenty of light.

"But won't it make it cold at night?" said I.

"We will prevent that," replied she, and she took out a piece of
white linen, and with some broad-headed nails, she nailed it up, so
as to prevent the air from coming in, although there was still plenty
of light. "There," said she, "that is but a coarse job, which I will
mend bye-and-bye, but it will do for the present."

"Well, it is very nice and comfortable now," said I, looking round
it. "Now what shall I bring in?"

"Nothing for the bed but seal skins," said she. "I do not like the
feathers. The seal skins are stiff at present, but I think we may be
able to soften them bye-and-bye. Now, Frank, your chest had better
come in here, as it is of no use where it is, and we will make a
storeroom of it, to hold all our valuables."

"What, the diamonds?" replied I.

"My dear boy, we have articles to put into the chest, which, in our
present position, are more valuable to us than all the diamonds in
the world. Tell me now, yourself, what do you prefer and set most
value upon, your belt of diamonds, or the iron kettle?"

"The iron kettle, to be sure," replied I.

"Exactly so; and there are many things in our possession as valuable
as the iron kettle, as you will hereafter acknowledge. Now do you go
and get ready some fire for us, and I will finish here by myself.
Nero, keep out, sir--you are never to come into this cabin."

I went with Nero for a fish and when I returned, I determined that I
would use the iron kettle. I put it on with water and boiled the
fish, and I thought that it ate better than broiled on the embers,
which made it too dry.

As we sat at our meal, I said, "Dear mother, what are we to do next?"

"To-morrow morning we will put the cabin into better order, and put
away all our things instead of leaving them about the platform in
this way. Then I will carefully look over all that we have got, and
put them away in the chest. I have not yet seen the contents of the
chest."

The next day it was very cloudy and, rough weather, blowing fresh.
After breakfast we set to work. We cleared out the floor of the
cabin, which was strewed with all manner of things, for Jackson and I
had not been very particular. The whale line was coiled up and put
into one corner, and every thing else was brought in and a place
found for it.

"We must contrive some shelves," said my mother, "that we may put
things on them, or else we never can be tidy; and we have not one
except that which holds the books. I think we can manage it. We have
two oars left besides the boat's yard; we will nail them along the
side of the cabin, about a foot or more from it, and then we will cut
some of the boat's sail, and nail the canvas from the side of the
cabin to the oars, and that will make a sort of shelf which will hold
our things."

I brought in the oars, they were measured and cut off and nailed up.
The canvas was then stretched from the side of the cabin to the oar,
and nailed with the broad-headed nails, and made two capital shelves
on each side of the cabin, running from one end to the other.

"There," said my mother, "that is a good job. Now we will examine
the chest and put everything away and in its place."

My mother took out all the clothes, and folded them up. When she
found the roll of duck which was at the bottom, she said--

"I am glad to find this as I can make a dress for myself much better
for this island than this black stuff dress which I now wear, and
which I will put by to wear in case we should be taken off the island
some of these days, for I must dress like other people when I am
again among them. The clothes are sufficient to last you for a long
while, but I shall only alter two shirts and two pair of trousers to
your present size, as you will grow very fast. How old do you think
you are now?"

I replied, "About sixteen years old, or perhaps more."

"I should think that was about your age."

Having examined and folded up every article of clothing in the
chest, the tools, spyglass, &c., were put by me on the shelves, and
then we examined the box containing the thread, needles, fishhooks,
and other articles, such as buttons, &c.

"These are valuable," said she; "I have some of my own to put along
with them. Go and fetch my basket, I have not yet had time to look
into it since I left the ship."

"What is there in it?"

"Except brushes and combs, I can hardly say. When I travelled about,
I always carried my basket, containing those things most requisite
for daily use, and in the basket I put everything that I wished to
preserve, till I had an opportunity to put it away. When I embarked
on board of the whaler, I brought my basket on my arm as usual, but
except opening it for my brushes and combs or scissors, I have not
examined it for months."

"What are brushes and combs and scissors?"

"That I will shew you," replied she, opening the lid of the basket.
"These are the brushes and combs for cleaning the hair, and these are
scissors. Now we will take everything out."

The basket did indeed appear to contain a wonderful quantity of
things, almost all new to me. There were two brushes, twelve combs,
three pair of scissors, a penknife, a little bottle of ink, some
pens, a woman's thimble, a piece of wax, a case of needles, thread
and silk, a piece of India ink, and a camel's-hair brush, sealing-wax,
sticking plaster, a box of pills, some tape and bobbin, paper of
pins, a magnifying glass, silver pencil case, some money in a purse,
black shoe ribbon, and many other articles which I have forgotten.
All I know is that I never was so much interested ever after at any
show as I was with the contents of this basket, all of which were
explained to me by my mother, as to their uses, and how they were
made. There were several little papers at the bottom of the basket
which she said were seeds of plants, which she had collected to take
to England with her, and that we would plant them here. As she shook
the dust out of the basket after it was empty, two or three white
things tumbled out, which she asked me to pick up and give to her.

"I don't know how they came here," said she, "but three of them are
orange-pips which we will sow to-morrow, and the other is a pea, but
of what kind I know not, we will sow that also--but I fear it will
not come up, as it appears to me to be one of the peas served out to
the sailors on board ship, and will be too old to grow. We can but
try. Now we will put into the chest, with the other things that you
have, what we do not want for present use, and then I can drive a
nail into the side of my bedroom and hang my basket on it."

"But," said I, "this round glass--what is that for?"

"Put it on one side," replied she, "and to-morrow, if it is fine, I
will shew you the use of it; but there are some things we have
forgotten, which are your belt and the other articles you gave me to
take for you when you thought we were to leave the island. They are
in the bed-place opposite to yours."

I brought them, and she put away the mate's watch and sleeve
buttons, and the other trinkets, &c., saying that she would examine
the letters and papers at another time. The belt was examined,
counting how many of the squares had stones in them, and then, with
her scissors, she cut open one of the squares, and took out a white
glittering thing like glass as it appeared to me, and looked at it
carefully.

"I am no great judge of these things," said she, "but still I have
picked up some little knowledge. This belt, if it contain all stones
like this, must be of considerable value; now I must get out my
needle and thread and sew it up again." She did, and put the belt
away with the other articles in the chest. "And now," said she, "we
have done a good day's work, and it is time to have something to eat."

Chapter XXVI

I must say that I was much better pleased with the appearance of the
cabin, it was so neat and clean to what it had been, and everything
was out of the way. The next day was a calm and clear day, and we
went down to fish. We were fortunate, and procured almost as many as
we had done at the previous fishing--they were all put in the bathing
pool as before. When we went up to the cabin, as soon as the fish was
put on the fire, under the direction of my mother, I turned up the
sides of one of the pieces of sheet iron, so as to make a sort of
dish. The other piece I did the same to, only not so high at the
sides, as one piece was kept for baking the fish on and the other as
a dish to put our dinner upon when cooked. That day we had been too
busy with fishing to think of anything else, but on the following I
recollected the magnifying glass, and brought it to her. She first
showed me the power it had to magnify, with which I was much amused
for a time, and she explained as well as she could to me the cause of
its having that power, but I could not well understand her; I was
more pleased with the effect than cognisant of the cause. Afterwards
she sent me to the cabin for some of the dried moss which I used for
tinder, and placing the glass so as to concentrate the rays of the
sun, to my astonishment I saw the tinder caught fire. It was
amazement more than astonishment, and I looked up to see where the
fire came from. My mother explained to me, and I, to a certain
degree, comprehended, but I was too anxious to have the glass in my
own hands and try experiments. I lighted the tinder again-then I
burnt my hand--then I singed one of the gannet's heads, and lastly,
perceiving that Nero was fast asleep in the sun, I obtained the focus
on his cold nose. He started up with a growl, which made me retreat,
and I was perfectly satisfied with the result of my experiments. From
that time, the fire was, when the sun shone, invariably lighted by
the burning-glass, and very useful did I find it. As it was so
portable, I always carried it with me, and when I had nothing to do,
I magnified, or set fire, according to the humour of the moment.

Although I have not mentioned it, not a morning rose, but before
breakfast, I read the Scriptures to my mother.

"There's so much in that book which I cannot understand," said I,
one morning.

"I suspect that, living as you have, alone on this island, and
having seen nothing of the world," replied my mother, "that there are
not many books that you would understand."

"But I understand all that is said in the Beast and Bird Book,"
replied I.

"Perhaps you may, or think you do; but, Frank, you must not class
the Bible with other books. The other books are the works of man, but
the Bible is the word of God. There are many portions of that book
which the cleverest men, who have devoted their lives to its study,
cannot understand, and which never will be understood as long as this
world endures. In many parts the Bible is a sealed book."

"But will it never be understood then by anybody?"

"There is quite as much of the Bible as is necessary for men to
follow its precepts, and this is so clear that anybody may understand
it--it contains all that is necessary for salvation; but there are
passages, the true meaning of which we cannot explain, and which God,
for his own purposes, will not permit us to. But if we do not know
them now, we shall probably hereafter, when we have left this world,
and our intellects more nearly approach God's."

"Well, I don't understand why we should not understand it."

"Frank," replied she, "look at that flower just in bloom. Do you
understand how it is that that plant keeps alive--grows every year
--every year throws out a large blue flower? Why should it do so? why
should the flower always be blue? and whence comes that beautiful
colour? Can you tell me? You see, you know that it does do so; but
can you tell me what makes it do so?"

"No."

"Look at that bird. You know it is hatched from an egg. How is it
that the inside of an egg is changed into a bird? How is it that the
bird is covered with feathers, and has the power to fly? Can you
explain to me yourself? You can walk about just as you please--you
have the power of reasoning, and thinking, and of acting; but by what
means is it that you possess that power? Can you tell? You know that
is so, but you know no more. You can't tell why or how or what causes
produce these effects--can you?"

"No."

"Well, then, if you are surrounded by all manner of things, living
and dead, and see every day things which you cannot explain, or
understand, why should you be surprised that, as God has not let you
know by what means these effects are produced, that in his written
word he should also keep from you that which for good purposes you
are not permitted to know. Everything here is by God's will, and that
must be sufficient for us. Now do you understand?"

"Yes, I see now what you mean, but I never thought about these
things before. Tell me some more about the Bible."

"Not now. Some day I will give you a history of the Bible, and then
you will understand the nature of the book, and why it was written;
but not at present. Suppose, as we have nothing particular to do, you
tell me all you know about yourself from Jackson, and all that
happened while you lived with him. I have heard only part, and I
should like to know all."

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