No More Learning

Early in my possession of him I cast about if I might find
in the neighborhood a companion of the other sex for him; and
when finally I heard that in a village just across the Rhine there
was a captive squirrel for sale, I sent my son with orders to buy
it if a female. It turned out to be a male; but he bought it
just the same, - a bright, active, and quite unreconciled prisoner,
two months older than Billy, of the orthodox red, just tamed
enough to take his food from the hand, but accustomed to be
-


## p. 13981 (#167) ##########################################

WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
13981
kept with his neck in a collar, to which there was attached a
fathom of light dog-chain. He refused with his utmost energy
to be handled; and as it was not possible to keep the little
creature in the torture of that chain,- for I refuse to keep a
caged creature,- I cut the collar and turned him loose in my
chamber, where he kept involuntary company with Billy. The
imprisonment of the half-tamed but wholly unreconciled animal
was perhaps as painful to me as to him, and my first impulse
was to turn him out into his native forest to take his chances of
life; but I considered that he was already too far compromised
with Mother Nature for this to be prudent: for having learned
to take his food from a man, the first attack of hunger was sure
to drive him to seek it where he had been accustomed to find it;
and the probable consequence was being knocked on the head by
a village boy, or at best re-consigned to a worse captivity than
mine. He had no mother, and he was still little more than a
baby; so I decided to keep him and make him as happy as he
would let me. His name was Hans. Had I released him as I
thought to do, I had saved myself one sorrow, and this history
had lost its interest.
After a little strangeness, the companionship between the two
became as perfect as the utterly diverse nature of their squirrel.
ships would permit. Billy was social and as friendly as a little
dog, Hans always a little morose and not over-ready to accept
familiarities; Billy always making friendly advances to his corn-
panion, which were at first unnoticed, and afterward only sub-
mitted to with equanimity. It was as if Billy had accepted the
position of the spoiled child of the family, and Hans reluctantly
that of an elder brother who is always expected to make way
for the pet and baby of the house. Billy was full of fun, and
delighted to tease Hans, when he was sleeping, by nibbling at
his toes and ears, biting him playfully anywhere he could get at
him; and Hans, after a little indignant bark, would bolt away
and find another place to sleep in. As they both had the free-
dom of my large bedroom, - the door of which was carefully
guarded, as Hans was always on the lookout for a chance to bolt
out into the unknown, they had plenty of room for climbing,
and comparative freedom; and after a little time Hans adopted
Billy's habit of passing the night in the fold of my bed-rug, and
even of nestling with Billy near my head. Billy was from the
beginning a bad sleeper, and in his waking moments his standing


## p. 13982 (#168) ##########################################

13982
WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
amusement was nibbling at Hans, who used to break out of his
sleep and go to the foot of the bed to lie; but never for long,
for he always worked his way back to Billy, and nestled down
again. When I gave Hans a nut, Billy would wait for him to
crack it, and deliberately take it out of his jaws and eat it, - to
which Hans submitted without a fight, or a snarl even, though
at first he held on a little; but the good-humor and caressing
ways of Billy were as irresistible with Hans as with us, and I
never knew him to retaliate in any way.
No two animals of the most domesticated species could have
differed in disposition more than these. During the first phase
of Hans's life he never lost his repugnance to being handled,
while Billy delighted in being fondled. The European squirrel is
by nature one of the most timid of animals, even more so than
the hare, being equaled in this respect only by the exquisite
flying-squirrel of America; and when it is frightened, as for in-
stance when held fast in any way or in a manner that alarms it,
it will bite even the most familiar hand, the feeling being appar-
ently that it is necessary to gnaw away the ligature which holds
it. Of course, considering the irreconcilability of Hans to captiv-
ity, I was obliged, much against my will, to get a cage for him
to travel in; and I made a little dark chamber in the upper part
of a wire bird-cage in which the two squirrels were put for trav-
eling: During the first journeys the motion of the carriage or
railway train made Hans quite frantic, while Billy took it with
absolute unconcern. On stopping at a hotel, they were invariably
,
released in my room.
Arriving at Rome, I fitted up a deep window recess for their
home: but they always had the run of the study, and Hans,
while never losing sight of a door left ajar, and often escaping
into adjoining rooms, made himself apparently happy in his new
quarters, climbing the high curtains, racing along the curtain
poles, and at intervals making excursions to the top of the book-
case; though to both, the table at which I was at work soon
became the favorite resort, and their antics there were as amus-
ing as those of a monkey. Toward the end of the year Billy
developed an indolent habit, which I now can trace to the disease
that finally took him from us; but he never lost his love for my
writing-table, where he used to lie and watch me at my work by
the hour. Hans soon learned to climb down from their window
bench, and up my legs and arms to the writing-table, and down


## p. 13983 (#169) ##########################################

WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
13983
again by the same road when he was tired of his exercises with
the pencils or penholders he found there, or of hunting out the
nuts which he had hidden the day before among the books and
papers; but I never could induce him to stay in my pocket with
Billy, who on cold days preferred sleeping there, as the warmth
of my body was more agreeable than that of their fur-lined nest.
There was something uncanny in Billy,-a preternatural animal
intelligence which one sees, generally, only in animals that have
had training and heredity to work on. He soon learned to indi-
cate to me his few wants: and one of the things which will never
fade from my memory is the pretty way in which he used to
come to the edge of the window bench and nod his head to me
to show that he wished to be taken; for he soon learned that it
was easier to call to me and be taken than it was to climb down
the curtain and run across the room to me. He nodded and
wagged his head until I went to him, and his flexible nose
wrinkled into the grotesque semblance of a smile, with all the
seductive entreaty an animal could show; and somehow we
learned to understand each other so well that I rarely mistook
his want, were it water or food, or to climb, or to get on my
table, or rest in my pocket. Notwithstanding all the forbearance
which Hans showed for his mischievous ways, and the real
attachment he had for Billy, Billy clearly preferred me to his
companion; and when during the following winter I was attacked
by bronchitis, and was kept in my bedroom for several days,
after a day of my absence my wife, going into the study, found
him in an extraordinary state of excitement, which she said
resembled hysterics, and he insisted on being taken. It occurred
to her that he wanted me, and she brought him up-stairs to my
bedroom, when he immediately pointed to be taken to me; and
as she was curious to see what he would do, and stopped at the
threshold, he bit her hand gently to spur her forward to the bed.
When put on the bed, he nestled down in the fur of my bed-
cover, perfectly contented. As long as I kept my room he was
brought up every day, and passed the day on my bed. At other
times the two slept together in an open box lined with fur,-
or what they seemed greatly to delight in, a wisp of new-mown
hay,- or the bend of the window-curtain, so nestled together
that it was hard to distinguish whether there were one or two.
Some instincts of the woods they were long losing the use of,
as the habit of often changing their sleeping-places. I provided


## p. 13984 (#170) ##########################################

13984
WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
them with several, of which the ultimate favorite was the bag of
the window curtain; but sometimes when Billy was missing, he
was found in my waste-paper basket, and even in the drawer of
my typewriter desk, asleep. In their native forests these squir-
rels have this habit of changing their nests; and the mother
will carry her little ones from one tree to another to hide their
resting-place, as if she suspected the mischievous plans of the
boys to hunt them — and probably she does. But the nest I
made my squirrels in their traveling-carriage, of hard cardboard
well lined with fur, suited the hiding and secluding ways of
Hans for a long time best of all; and he abandoned it entirely
only when he grew so familiar as not to care to hide. They also
lost the habit of hiding their surplus food when they found food
never wanting
When the large cones of the stone-pine came into the market
late in the autumn, I got some to give them a taste of fresh
nuts; and the frantic delight with which Hans recognized the
relation to his national fir-cones, far away and slight as it was,
was touching. He raced around the huge and impenetrable
cone, tried it from every side, gnawed at the stem and then at
the apex, but in vain. Yet he persisted. The odor of the pine
seemed an intoxication to him; and the eager satisfaction with
which he split the nuts, once taken out for him, even when Billy
was watching him to confiscate them when open, was very inter-
esting: for he had never seen the fruit of the stone-pine, and
knew only the tiny things which the fir of the Northern forest
bears; and to extricate the pine-nuts from their strong and hard
cones was impossible to his tiny teeth. As for Billy, he was
content to sit and look on while Hans gnawed, and to take the
kernel from him when he had split the nut; and the charming
bonhomie with which he appropriated it, and with which Hans
submitted to the piracy, was a study.
The friendship between the two was very interesting: for
while Billy generally preferred being with me to remaining on
his window bench with Hans, he had intervals when he insisted
on being with Hans; while the latter seemed to care for nothing
but Billy, and would not remain long away from him willingly
as long as Billy lived. When the summer came again, being
unable to leave them with servants or the housekeeper, I put
them in their cage once more, and took them back to Lauffen-
burg for my vacation. Hans still retained his impatience at the


## p. 13985 (#171) ##########################################

WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
13985
an
confinement even of my large chamber, and with a curious dili-
gence watched the door for a crack to escape by, though in all
other respects he seemed happy and at home and perfectly
familiar; and though always in this period of his life shy with
strangers, he climbed over me with perfect nonchalance. Billy,
on the contrary, refused freedom; and when I took him out into
his native woods he ran about a little, and came back to find his
place in my pocket as naturally as if it had been his birth-nest.
But the apparent yearning of Hans for liberty was to me
exquisite pain. He would get up on the window-bench, looking
out one way on the rushing Rhine, and the other on the stretch-
ing pine forest, and stand with one paw on the sash and the
other laid across his breast, and turn his bright black eyes from
one to the other view incessantly, and with a look of passionate
eagerness which made my heart ache. If I could have found a
friendly park where he could have been turned loose in security
from hunger and the danger of hunting boys and the snares
which beset a wild life, I would have released him at once. I
never so felt the wrong and mutual pain of imprisonment of
God's free creatures as then with poor Hans, whose independent
spirit had always made him the favorite of the two with my
wife; and now that the little drama of their lives is over, and
Nature has taken them both to herself again, I can never think
of this eager little creature with his passionate outlook over the
Rhineland without tears. But in the Rhineland, under the pre-
text that they eat off the top twigs of the pine-trees and spoil
their growth, they hunt the poor things with a malignancy that
makes it a wonder that there is one left to be captured; and
Hans's chance of life in those regions was the very least a
creature could have. As to the pretext of the destruction of
the pine-tops, I have looked at them in every part of the Black
Forest that I have visited, and have never been able to discover
one tree-top spoiled. It is possible that the poor little creatures,
when famished, may eat the young twigs of trees; but in my
opinion the accusation is only the case of the wolf who wants an
excuse to eat the lamb. Hans and Billy were both fond of roses
and lettuce; but nothing else in the way of vegetation, other
than fruits and nuts, would they eat. But when I remember
that in my boyhood I have joined in squirrel hunts, and that my
murderous lead has often crashed through their tender frames, I
have no right to cast stones at the Germans, but with pain and
humiliation remember my cruelty. I would sooner be myself
.
XXIV-875


## p. 13986 (#172) ##########################################

13986
WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
shot than shoot another. I feel so keenly their winsome grace
when I can watch them in freedom that I cannot draw the line
between them and myself, except that they are worthier of life
than I am. The evolutionists tell us that we are descended from
some common ancestor of the monkey. It may be so: and if, as
has been conjectured by one scientist, that was the lemur, which
is the link between the monkey and the squirrel, I should not
object; but I hope that we branched off at the Sciurus, for I
would willingly be the far-off cousin of my little pets.
But before leaving Rome for my summer vacation at Lauff-
enburg, the artificial habits of life, and my ignorance of the con-
ditions of squirrel health, began to work their usual consequences.
Billy had begun to droop, and symptoms of some organic malady
appeared; though he grew more and more devoted to me, his
ambition to climb and disport himself diminished: and it was
clear that his civilized life had done for him what it does for
many of us,- shortened his existence.
shortened his existence. He never showed signs
of pain, but grew more sluggish, and would come to me and rest,
licking my hand like a little dog, and was as happy so as his
nature could show. They both hailed again with greedy enthusi-
asm the first nuts, fresh and crisp, and the first peaches, which I
went to Basel to purchase for them; and what the position per-
mitted me I supplied them with, with a guilty feeling that I
could never atone for the loss of what they lost with freedom. I
tried to make them happy in any way with my limited abilities;
and, the vacation over, we went back to Rome and the fresh
pine-cones and their window niche.
But there Billy grew rapidly worse, and I realized that the
tragedy of our little ménage was coming. He grew apathetic;
and would lie with his great black eyes looking into space, as if
in a dream. It became tragedy for me: for the symptoms were
the same as those of a dear little fellow who had first rejoiced
my father's heart in the years gone by, and who lies in an old
English church-yard; whose last hours I watched lapsing into
the eternity beyond, painlessly, and he, thank God! understanding
nothing of the great change. When he could no longer speak,
he beckoned me to lay my head on the same pillow. He died
of blood-poisoning, as I found after Billy's death that he also
did; and the identity of the symptoms (of the cause of which I
then understood nothing) brought back the memory of that last
solitary night when my boy passed from under my care, and his
eyes, large and dark like Billy's, grew dim and vacant like his.


## p. 13987 (#173) ##########################################

WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
13987
Billy, too, clung the closer to me as the end approached; and
when the apathy left him almost no recognition of things around,
he would grasp one of my fingers with his two paws, and lick it
till he tired. It was clear that death was at hand: and on the
last afternoon I took him out into the grounds of the Villa
Borghese to lie in the sunshine, and get perhaps a moment of
return to Mother Nature; but when I put him on the grass in
the warm light he only looked away into vacancy, and lay still,
and after a little dreamily indicated to me to take him up again:
and I remembered that on the day before his death I had car-
ried Russie into the green fields, hoping they would revive him
for one breathing-space, for I knew that death was on him; and
he lay and looked off beyond the field and flowers; and now he
almost seemed to be looking out of dear little Billy's eyes.
I went out to walk early the next morning, and when I re-
turned I found Billy dead, still warm, and sitting up in his box
of fresh hay in the attitude of making his toilet; for to the last
he would wash his face and paws, and comb out his tail, even
when his strength no longer sufficed for more than the mere
form of it. I am not ashamed to say that I wept like a child.
The dear little creature had been to me not merely a pet to
amuse my vacant hours,— though many of those most vacant
which sleepless nights bring had been diverted by his pretty
ways as he shared my bed, and by his singular devotion to me,
but he had been as a door open into the world of God's lesser
creatures, an apostle of pity and tenderness for all living things,
and his memory stands on the eternal threshold nodding and
beckoning to me to enter in and make part of the creation I had
ignored till he taught it to me; so that while life lasts I can no
longer inflict pain or death upon the least of God's creatures. If
it be true that “to win the secret of a weed's plain heart” gives
the winner a clue to the hidden things of the spiritual life, how
much more the conscient and reciprocal love which Billy and I
bore, and I could gladly say still bear, each other, must widen
the sphere of spiritual sympathy; which, widening still, reaches at
last the eternal source of all life and love, and finds indeed that
one touch of nature makes all things kin. Living and dying,
Billy has opened to me a window into the universe, of the
existence of which I had no suspicion; his little history is an
added chamber to that eternal mansion into which my constant
and humble faith assures me that I shall some time enter; he
»


## p. 13988 (#174) ##########################################

13988
WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
has helped me to a higher life. If love could confer immortality,
he would share eternity with me, and I would thank the Creator
for the companionship. And who knows? Thousands of human
beings to whom we dare not deny the possession of immortal
souls have not half Billy's claim to live forever. May not the
Indian philosopher with his transmigration of souls have had
some glimpses of a truth?
But my history is only half told. When I found the little
creature dead, and laid him down in an attitude befitting death,
Hans came to him, and making a careful and curious study of him,
seemed to realize that something strange had come: and stretched
himself out at full length on the body, evidently trying to warm
it into life again, or feeling that something was wanting which
he might impart; and this failing, began licking the body. When
he found that all this was of no avail, he went away into the
remotest corner of his window niche, refusing to lie any longer
in their common bed or stay where they had been in the habit
of staying together. All day he would touch neither food nor
drink; and for days following he took no interest in anything,
hardly touching his food. Fearing that he would starve himself
to death, I took him out on the large open terrace of my house,
where, owing to his old persistent desire to escape, I had never
dared trust him, and turned him loose among the plants. He
wandered a few steps as if bewildered, looked all about him, and
then came deliberately to me, climbed my leg, and went volun-
tarily into the pocket Billy loved to lie in, and in which I had
never been able to make Hans stay for more than a minute or
SO. The whole nature of the creature became changed. He
reconciled himself to life, but never again became what he had
been before. His gayety was gone, his wandering ambitions
were forgotten, and his favorite place was my pocket, — Billy's
pocket. From that time he lost all desire to escape: even when
I took him out into the fields or woods he had no desire to leave
me; but after a little turn, and a half-attempt to climb a tree,
would come back voluntarily to me, and soon grew as fond of
being caressed and stroked as Billy had been. It was as if
the love he bore Billy had changed him to Billy's likeness. He
never became as demonstrative as Billy was; and to my wife,
who was fond of teasing him, he always showed a little pique,
and even if buried in his curtain nest or in the fold of my rug,
and asleep, he would scold if she approached within several yards


## p. 13989 (#175) ##########################################

WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
13989
of him: but to me he behaved as if he had consciously taken
Billy's place. I sent to Turin to get him a companion, and the
merchant sent me one guaranteed young and a female; but I
found it a male, which died of old age within a few weeks of his
arrival. Hans had hardly become familiarized with him when he
died. The night before he died I came home late in the even-
ing; and having occasion to go into my study, I was surprised,
when I opened the door, to find Hans on the threshold nodding
to me to be taken, with no attempt to escape as of old. I took
him up, wondering what had disturbed him at an hour when he
was never accustomed to be afoot, put him back in his bed, and
went to mine. But thinking over the strange occurrence, I got
up, dressed myself, and went down to see if anything was wrong;
and found the new squirrel hanging under the curtain in which
the two had been sleeping, with his hind claws entangled in the
stuff, head down, and evidently very ill. He had probably felt
death coming, and tried to get down and find a hiding-place,
but got his claws entangled, and could not extricate them. He
died the next day, and I took Hans to sleep in his old place in
the fold of my bed-cover; where, with a few days' interruption,
he slept as long as he lived. He insisted on being taken, in fact,
when his sleeping-time came, and would come to the edge of his
shelf and nod to me till I took him; or if I delayed, he would
climb down the curtain and come to me. One night I was out
late, and on reaching home I went to take him; and not find-
ing him in his place, alarmed the house to look for him. After
long search I found him sitting quietly under the chair I always
occupied in the study. He got very impatient if I delayed put-
ting him to bed; and like Billy, he used to bite my hand to indi-
cate his discontent, gently at first, but harder and harder till I
attended to him. When he saw that we were going up-stairs to
the bedroom he became quiet.
Whether from artificial conditions of life or because he suf-
fered from the loss of Billy (after whose death he never recov-
ered his spirits), or as I fear, from a fall from some high piece
of furniture,- for he loved still to be on any height, and his
claws, grown too long, no longer held to the furniture, so that
he had several heavy falls, - his hind legs became slowly para-
lyzed. He now ran with difficulty; but his eyes were as bright
and his intelligence was as quick as ever, and his fore feet were
as dexterous. His attachment to me increased as the malady
-


## p. 13990 (#176) ##########################################

13990
WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN
progressed; and though from habit he always scolded a little when
my wife approached him, he showed a great deal of affection for
her toward the end, which was clearly approaching. Vacation
came again, and I took him once more with me to the Black
Forest, hoping that his mysterious intelligence might find some
consolation in the native air. He was evidently growing weak
very fast, and occasionally showed impatience as if in pain; but
for the most of the time he rested quietly in my pocket, and
was most happy when I gave him my hand for a pillow, some-
times, though rarely, licking the hand for he was even then far
more reserved in all his expressions of feeling than Billy. At
times he would sit on the window bench, and scan the landscape
with something of the old eagerness that used to give me so
much pain, snuffing the mountain air eagerly for a half-hour, and
then nod to go into my pocket again; and at other times, as if
restless, would insist, in the way he had made me understand,
that like a baby he wanted motion, and when I walked about
with him he grew quiet and content again. At home he had
been very fond of a dish of dried rose-leaves, in which he would
wallow and burrow; and my wife sent him from Rome a little
bag of them, which he enjoyed weakly for a little. But in his
last days the time was spent by day mostly in my pocket, and
by night on my bed with his head on my hand. It was only
the morning before his death that he seemed really to suffer,
and then a great restlessness came on him, and a disposition to
bite convulsively whatever was near him: but at the end he lay
quietly in my hand, and when the spasm was on him I gave
him a little chloroform to inhale till it had passed; and when he
breathed his last in my pocket, I knew that he was dead only by
my hand on his heart. I buried him, as I had wished, in his
native forest, in his bed of rose-leaves, digging a niche under a
great granite bowlder. He had survived his companion little
more than six months; and if the readers of my little history are
disposed to think me weak when I say that his death was to me
a great and lasting grief, I am not concerned to dispute their
judgment. I have known grief in all its most blinding and varied
forms, and I thank God that he constituted me loving enough
to have kept a tender place in my heart (even for the least
of these,” the little companions of two years; and but for my
having perhaps shortened their innocent lives, I thank him for
having known and loved them as I have.


## p. 13991 (#177) ##########################################

13991
FRANK R. STOCKTON
(1834-)
鐵
​(
-
RANK R. STOCKTON holds a unique position among Ameri-
can makers of humorous fiction. His vein is so quaint and
enjoyable, his invention so unfailing, that his work is a per-
ennial source of pleasure. He was born in Philadelphia, April 5th,
1834, and is a graduate of the High School in that city. As a young
man he worked at wood engraving as well as literature, furnishing
illustrations for Vanity Fair and writing child stories; his first two
books, Roundabout Rambles' and (Tales Out of School,' — like the
later (What Might Have Been Expected,'
A Jolly Fellowship,' The Story of Viteau,'
and a great number of delicious wonder
stories, — being intended for the critical au-
dience of children. Mr. Stockton was early
a magazine contributor, his work appear-
ing in the Philadelphia Post, the New York
Hearth and Home, Scribner's, and St. Nich-
olas. His first successful book was the set
of sketches called "Rudder Grange,' which
was published in 1879. It was widely wel-
comed as a fresh and amusing account of
a picturesque phase of American life, and
made Stockton's reputation as a humorist. FRANK R. STOCKTON
His subsequent books - novels and collec-
tions of short stories — count up to a dozen or more, with great variety
of motive.
His special talent is for writing a tale, which in a few
pages
and with the lightest of touches, explicates an odd plot or delin-
eates an odd character, dealing so gravely and logically with an ab-
surd or impossible set of circumstances that they seem reality itself.
More than once this singularly graphic quality has suggested to
critical readers a likeness to Defoe; but he has an excellent style,
while Defoe has none at all. His humor is sly and unobtruded, yet
it pervades all his writing like an atmosphere. His longer stories - -
especially "The Adventures of Captain Horn (1895) and its sequel
(Mrs. Cliff's Yacht' (1897)— indicate a broader range than might
have been inferred from his earlier whimsies. Both stories in their
romantic incidents introduce an element of strong narrative interest.
Whether in these broader delineations, or in the delicately turned fan-
tasies of his short tales, Mr. Stockton's quality is unmistakable and



## p. 13992 (#178) ##########################################

13992
FRANK R. STOCKTON
distinctive. His inventions are always refined and wholesome; intro-
ducing the reader to the company of well-bred folk, whether they
know anything of etiquette or not. Even his burglars are not coarse.
His humor is most kindly, having the sparkle of dry wine; and his
manner of writing is quite as much a merit as is his fecund origi-
nality in the imagining of the story. Mr. Stockton resides in Madison,
New Jersey, and devotes himself to literary production. He is essen-
tially a man of letters.
THE CASTING AWAY OF MRS. LECKS AND MRS. ALESHINE
I
From the novel so named. Copyright 1886, 1892, by Frank R. Stockton. Re-
printed by permission of the Century Company, publishers
was on my way from San Francisco to Yokohama, when in a
very desultory and gradual manner I became acquainted with
Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine. The steamer, on which I
was making a moderately rapid passage toward the land of the
legended fan and the lacquered box, carried a fair complement
of passengers, most of whom were Americans; and among these,
my attention was attracted from the very first day of the voy.
age to two middle-aged women who appeared to me very unlike
the ordinary traveler or tourist. At first sight they might have
been taken for farmers' wives who, for some unusual reason, had
determined to make a voyage across the Pacific; but on closer
observation, one would have been more apt to suppose that they
belonged to the families of prosperous tradesmen in some little
country town, where, besides the arts of rural housewifery, there
would be opportunities of becoming acquainted in some degree
with the ways and manners of the outside world. They were
not of that order of persons who generally take first-class pass-
ages on steamships, but the state-room occupied by Mrs. Lecks and
Mrs. Aleshine was one of the best in the vessel; and although
they kept very much to themselves and showed no desire for
the company or notice of the other passengers, they evidently
considered themselves quite as good as any one else, and with as
much right to voyage to any part of the world in any manner
or style which pleased them.
Mrs. Lecks was a rather tall woman, large-boned and mus-
cular; and her well-browned countenance gave indications of that
conviction of superiority which gradually grows up in the minds
of those who, for a long time, have had absolute control of the


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FRANK R. STOCKTON
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destinies of a state, or the multifarious affairs of a country house-
hold. Mrs. Aleshine was somewhat younger than her friend,
somewhat shorter, and a great deal fatter. She had the same
air of reliance upon her individual worth that characterized
Mrs. Lecks; but there was a certain geniality about her which
indicated that she would have a good deal of forbearance for
those who never had had the opportunity or the ability of be-
coming the thoroughly good housewife which she was herself.
These two worthy dames spent the greater part of their time
on deck, where they always sat together in a place at the stern
of the vessel which was well sheltered from wind and weather.
As they sat thus they were generally employed in knitting;
although this occupation did not prevent them from keeping
up what seemed to me, as I passed them in my walks about
the deck, a continuous conversation. From a question which
Mrs. Lecks once asked me about a distant sail, our acquaintance
began. There was no one on board for whose society I particu-
larly cared; and as there was something quaint and odd about
these countrywomen on the ocean which interested me, I was
glad to vary my solitary promenades by an occasional chat with
them. They were not at all backward in giving me information
about themselves. They were both widows, and Mrs. Aleshine
was going out to Japan to visit a son who had a position there
in a mercantile house. Mrs. Lecks had no children, and was
accompanying her friend because, as she said, she would not
allow Mrs. Aleshine to make such a voyage as that by herself;
and because, being quite able to do so, she did not know why
she should not see the world as well as other people.
These two friends were not educated women. They made
frequent mistakes in their grammar, and a good deal of Middle
States provincialism showed itself in their pronunciation and ex-
pressions. But although they brought many of their rural ideas
to sea with them, they possessed a large share of that common-
sense which is available anywhere, and they frequently made
use of it in a manner which was very amusing to me. I think
also that they found in me a quarry of information concerning
nautical matters, foreign countries, and my own affairs, the work-
ing of which helped to make us very good ship friends.
Our steamer touched at the Sandwich Islands; and it was a
little more than two days after we left Honolulu, that about
nine o'clock in the evening we had the misfortune to come into


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FRANK R. STOCKTON
collision with an eastern-bound vessel. The fault was entirely
due to the other ship; the lookout on which, although the night
was rather dark and foggy, could easily have seen our lights in
time to avoid collision, if he had not been asleep or absent from
his post. Be this as it may, this vessel, which appeared to be a
small steamer, struck us with great force near our bows, and then
backing disappeared into the fog, and we never saw or heard
of her again. The general opinion was that she was injured very
much more than we were, and that she probably sank not very
long after the accident; for when the fog cleared away, about an
hour afterward, nothing could be seen of her lights.
As it usually happens on occasions of accidents at sea, the
damage to our vessel was at first reported to be slight; but it
was soon discovered that our injuries were serious, and indeed
disastrous. The hull of our steamer had been badly shattered
on the port bow, and the water came in at a most alarming rate.
For nearly two hours the crew and many of the passengers
worked at the pumps, and everything possible was done to stop
the enormous leak: but all labor to save the vessel was found to
be utterly unavailing; and a little before midnight the captain
announced that it was impossible to keep the steamer afloat, and
that we must all take to the boats. The night was now clear,
the stars were bright, and as there was but little wind, the sea
was comparatively smooth, With all these advantages, the cap-
tain assured us there was no reason to apprehend danger; and
he thought that by noon of the following day we could easily
make a small inhabited island, where we could be sheltered and
cared for until we should be taken off by some passing vessel.
There was plenty of time for all necessary preparations, and
these were made with much order and subordination. Some of
the ladies among the cabin passengers were greatly frightened,
and inclined to be hysterical. There were pale faces also among
the gentlemen. But everybody obeyed the captain's orders, and
all prepared themselves for the transfer to the boats. The first
officer came among us, and told each of us what boats we were
to take, and where we were to place ourselves on deck.
assigned to a large boat which was to be principally occupied by
steerage passengers; and as I came up from my state-room, where
I had gone to secure my money and some portable valuables, I
met on the companion-way Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine, who
expressed considerable dissatisfaction when they found that I was
I was


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13995
not going in the boat with them. They however hurried below,
and I went on deck; where in about ten minutes I was joined
by Mrs. Lecks, who apparently had been looking for me. She
told me she had something very particular to say to me, and
conducted me toward the stern of the vessel; where, behind one
of the deck-houses, we found Mrs. Aleshine.
"Look here,” said Mrs. Lecks, leading me to the rail and
pointing downward, “do you see that boat there? It has been
let down, and there is nobody in it. The boat on the other side
has just gone off, full to the brim. I never saw so many people
crowded into a boat. The other ones will be just as packed, I
expect. I don't see why we shouldn't take this empty boat, now
we've got a chance, instead of squeezin' ourselves into those
crowded ones. If any of the other people come afterward, why,
we shall have our choice of seats; and that's considerable of a
p’int, I should say, in a time like this. ”
That's so,” said Mrs. Aleshine, “and me and Mrs. Lecks
would 'a' got right in when we saw the boat was empty, if we
hadn't been afraid to be there without any man — for it might
have floated off, and neither of us don't know nothin' about
rowin'. And then Mrs. Lecks she thought of you, supposin' a
young man who knew so much about the sea would know how
to row. ”
"Oh, yes,” said I, “but I cannot imagine why this boat should
have been left empty. I see a keg of water in it, and the oars,
and some tin cans; and so I suppose it has been made ready for
somebody. Will you wait here a minute until I run forward and
see how things are going on there? ”
Amidships and forward I saw that there was some confusion
among the people who were not yet in their boats, and I found
that there was to be rather more crowding than at first was
expected. People who had supposed that they were to go in a
certain boat found there no place, and were hurrying to other
boats. It now became plain to me that no time should be lost
in getting into the small boat which Mrs. Lecks had pointed out,
and which was probably reserved for some favored persons, as
the officers were keeping the people forward and amidships, the
other stern-boat having already departed. But as I acknowledged
no reason why any one should be regarded with more favor than
myself and the two women who were waiting for me, I slipped
quietly aft, and joined Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine.
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FRANK R. STOCKTON
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“We must get in as soon as we can,” said I in a low voice,
« for this boat may be discovered, and then there will be a rush
for it. I suspect it may have been reserved for the captain and
some of the officers, but we have as much right in it as they. ”
"And more too,” replied Mrs. Lecks; for we had nothin' to
do with the steerin' and smashin'. "
“But how are we goin' to get down there ? ” said Mrs. Ale.
shine. « There's no steps. ”
“That is true,” said I. “I shouldn't wonder if this boat is
to be taken forward when the others are filled. We must scram-
ble down as well as we can by the tackle at the bow and stern.
I'll get in first and keep her close to the ship's side. ”
“That's goin' to be a scratchy business," said Mrs. Lecks;
“and I'm of the opinion we ought to wait till the ship has sunk
a little more, so we'll be nearer to the boat. ”
"It won't do to wait," said I, “or we shall not get in at all. ”
"And goodness gracious! ” exclaimed Mrs. Aleshine, "I can't
stand here and feel the ship sinkin' cold blooded under me, till
we've got where we can make an easy jump! ”
“Very well, then,” said Mrs. Lecks, we won't wait. But
the first thing to be done is for each one of us to put on one
of these life-preservers.
-
Two of them I brought from Mrs.
Aleshine's and my cabin, and the other I got next door, where
the people had gone off and left it on the floor. I thought if
anythin' happened on the way to the island, these would give
us a chance to look about us; but it seems to me we'll need 'em
more gettin' down them ropes than anywhere else. I did intend
puttin' on two myself to make up for Mrs. Aleshine's fat; but
you must wear one of 'em, sir, now that you are goin' to join
the party. ”
As I knew that two life-preservers would not be needed by
Mrs. Lecks, and would greatly inconvenience her, I accepted
the one offered me; but declined to put it on until it should be
necessary, as it would interfere with my movements.
“Very well,” said Mrs. Lecks, “if you think you are safe in
gettin' down without it. But Mrs. Aleshine and me will put
ours on before we begin sailor-scramblin'. We know how to do
it, for we tried 'em on soon after we started from San Francisco.
And now, Barb'ry Aleshine, are you sure you've got everythin'
you want? for it'll be no use thinkin' about anythin' you've for-
got after the ship has sunk out of sight. ”


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“There's nothin' else I can think of,” said Mrs. Aleshine,-
"at least nothin' I can carry; and so I suppose we may as well
begin, for your talk of the ship sinkin' under our feet gives me
a sort o' feelin' like an oyster creepin' up and down my back. ”
Mrs. Lecks looked over the side at the boat, into which I had
already descended. “I'll go first, Barb'ry Aleshine," said she,
"and show you how. ”
The sea was quiet, and the steamer had already sunk so much
that Mrs. Lecks's voice sounded frightfully near me, although she
spoke in a low tone.
"Watch me,” said she to her companion. "I'm goin' to do
just as he did, and you must follow in the same way.
So saying, she stepped on a bench by the rail; then, with one
foot on the rail itself, she seized the ropes which hung from one
of the davits to the bow of the boat. She looked down for a
moment, and then she drew back.
“It's no use," she said. « We must wait until she sinks more,
an' I can get in easier. ”
This remark made me feel nervous. I did not know at what
moment there might be a rush for this boat, nor when indeed
the steamer might go down. The boat amidships on our side
had rowed away some minutes before, and through the darkness
I could distinguish another boat, near the bows, pushing off. It
would be too late now for us to try to get into any other boat,
and I did not feel that there was time enough for me to take
this one to a place where the two women could more easily
descend to her. Standing upright, I urged them not to delay.
«You see,” said I, “I can reach you as soon as you swing
yourself off the ropes, and I'll help you down. ”
“If you're sure you can keep us from comin' down too sud-
den, we'll try it,” said Mrs. Lecks, “but I'd as soon be drowned
as to get to an island with a broken leg. And as to Mrs. Ale-
shine, if she was to slip she'd go slam through that boat to the
bottom of the sea. Now then, be ready! I'm comin' down ! »
So saying, she swung herself off, and she was then so near
me that I was able to seize her and make the rest of her descent
comparatively easy. Mrs. Aleshine proved to be a more difficult
subject. Even after I had a firm grasp of her capacious waist
she refused to let go the ropes, for fear that she might drop into
the ocean instead of the boat. But the reproaches of Mrs. Lecks
and the downward weight of myself made her loosen her nervous
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FRANK R. STOCKTON
grip; and although we came very near going overboard together,
I safely placed her on one of the thwarts.
I now unhooked the tackle from the stern; but before casting
off at the bow, I hesitated, for I did not wish to desert any of
those who might be expecting to embark in this boat. But I
could hear no approaching footsteps; and from my position, close
to the side of the steamer, I could see nothing. Therefore I cast
off, and taking the oars, I pushed away and rowed to a little dis-
tance, where I could get whatever view was possible of the deck
of the steamer. Seeing no forms moving about, I called out, and
receiving no answer, I shouted again at the top of my voice. I
waited for nearly a minute; and hearing nothing and seeing
nothing, I became convinced that no one was left on the vessel.
“ They are all gone,” said I, “and we will pull after them as
fast as we can. ”
And I began to row toward the bow of the steamer, in the
direction which the other boats had taken.
“It's a good thing you can row,” said Mrs. Lecks, settling
herself comfortably in the stern-sheets, for what Mrs. Aleshine
and me would ha' done with them oars, I am sure I don't know. ”
I'd never have got into this boat," said Mrs. Aleshine, if
Mr. Craig hadn't been here. ”
“ "No, indeed,” replied her friend. "You'd ha' gone to the
bottom, hangin' for dear life to them ropes. ”
When I had rounded the bow of the steamer, which appeared
to me to be rapidly settling in the water, I perceived at no great
distance several lights which of course belonged to the other
boats; and I rowed as hard as I could, hoping to catch up with
them, or at least to keep sufficiently near. It might be my duty
to take off some of the people who had crowded into the other
boats, probably supposing that this one had been loaded and
gone. How such a mistake could have taken place I could not
divine, and it was not my business to do so. Quite certain that
one was left on the sinking steamer, all I had to do was
to row after the other boats, and to overtake them as soon as
possible. I thought it would not take me very long to do this;
but after rowing for half an hour, Mrs. Aleshine remarked that
the lights seemed as far off as, if not farther than, when we first
started after them. Turning, I saw that this was the case, and
was greatly surprised. With only two passengers I ought soon
to have come up with those heavily laden boats; but after I had
no


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FRANK R. STOCKTON
13999
thought over it a little, I considered that as each of them was
probably pulled by half a dozen stout sailors, it was not so very
strange that they should make as good or better headway than I
did.
It was not very long after this that Mrs. Lecks said that
she thought that the lights on the other boats must be going
out; and that this, most probably, was due to the fact that the
sailors had forgotten to fill their lanterns before they started.
« That sort of thing often happens,” she said, “when people leave
a place in a hurry. ”
But when I turned around, and peered over the dark waters,
it was quite plain to me that it was not want of oil, but increased
distance, which made those lights so dim. I could now perceive
but three of them; and as the surface was agitated only by a
gentle swell, I could not suppose that any of them were hidden
from our view by waves. We were being left behind, that was
certain; and all I could do was to row on as long and as well
as I could in the direction which the other boats had taken. I
had been used to rowing, and thought I pulled a good oar, and I
certainly did not expect to be left behind in this way.
"I don't believe this boat has been emptied out since the
last rain,” said Mrs. Aleshine; «for my feet are wet, though I
didn't notice it before. ”
At this I shipped my cars, and began to examine the boat.
The bottom was covered with a movable floor of slats, and as
I put my hand down I could feel the water welling up between
the slats. The flooring was in sections; and lifting the one
beneath me, I felt under it, and put my hand into six or eight
inches of water.
The exact state of the case was now as plain to me as if it
had been posted up on a bulletin board.
-
This boat had been
found to be unseaworthy, and its use had been forbidden, all the
people having been crowded into the others. This had caused
confusion at the last moment, and of course we were supposed
to be on some one of the other boats.
And now, here was I, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
in a leaky boat with two middle-aged women!
“Anythin' the matter with the floor? ) asked Mrs. Lecks.
I let the section fall back into its place and looked aft. By
the starlight I could see that my two companions had each fixed
upon me a steadfast gaze. They evidently felt that something


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FRANK R. STOCKTON
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was the matter, and wanted to know what it was. I did not
hesitate for a moment to inform them. They appeared to me to
be women whom it would be neither advisable nor possible to
deceive in a case like this.
« This boat has a leak in it,” I said. « There is a lot of
water in her already, and that is the reason we have got along
so slowly. ”
“And that is why,” said Mrs. Aleshine, “it was left empty.
We ought to have known better than to expect to have a whole
boat just for three of us. It would have been much
more sensi.
ble, I think, if we had tried to squeeze into one of the others. ”
Now, Barb'ry Aleshine," said Mrs. Lecks, “don't you begin
findin' fault with good fortune when it comes to you.
Here
we've got a comfortable boat, with room enough to set easy and
stretch out if we want to. If the water is comin' in, what we've
got to do is to get it out again just as fast as we can. What's
the best way to do that, Mr. Craig ? ”
We must bail her out, and lose no time about it,” said I.
« If I can find the leak I may be able to stop it. ”
I now looked about for something to bail with, and the two
women aided actively in the search. I found one leather scoop
in the bow; but as it was well that we should all go to work, I
took two tin cans that had been put in by some one who had
begun to provision the boat, and proceeded to cut the tops from
them with my jack-knife.
“Don't lose what's in 'em,” said Mrs. Lecks; that is, if it's
anythin' we'd be likely to want to eat. If it's tomatoes, pour it
into the sea, for nobody ought to eat tomatoes put up in tins. ”
I hastily passed the cans to Mrs. Lecks, and I saw her empty
the contents of one into the sea, and those of the other on a
newspaper which she took from her pocket and placed in the
stern.
I pulled up the movable floor and threw it overboard, and
then began to bail.
“I thought,” said Mrs. Aleshine, “that they always had pumps
for leaks. ”
“Now, Barb'ry Aleshine,” said Mrs. Lecks, "just gether your-
self up on one of them seats and go to work. The less talkin'
we do and the more scoopin', the better it'll be for us. ”
soon perceived that it would have been difficult to find two
more valuable assistants in the bailing of a boat than Mrs. Lecks
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FRANK R. STOCKTON
14001
and Mrs. Aleshine. They were evidently used to work, and were
able to accommodate themselves to the unusual circumstances in
which they were placed. We threw out the water very rapidly,
and every little while I stopped bailing and felt about to see if
I could discover where it came in. As these attempts met with
no success, I gave them up after a time, and set about bailing
with new vigor, believing that if we could get the boat nearly
dry, I should surely be able to find the leak.