CHAPTER XXIII Saved from the Sea
Not a word was spoken by any of his companions until he had finished his song, then his wife, looking up at him with streaming eyes, said—
“My dear love, how is it that I never knew of this wonderful gift of yours? I could sit and hear you sing all day, forgetting everything else in the world. How could you hide such a talent as that?”
For a little while C. B. hardly knew what to say, for he actually felt shy as if he had done something wrong. And at last all he could say was—
“I’m sorry, dear, if you like it so much, that I haven’t sung before. I’ll make it up to you now. But first of all I’d like to ask our chief here what he’s proposing to do.”
Haynes immediately suggested that C. B. should take charge as being the most experienced boatman, but C. B. would not hear of it, saying that as long as any particle of the late ship’s furniture remained upon which they had to depend the senior officer of the ship should be in charge of it, “and I,” concluded C. B. “am only too glad to be at your orders.”
“Well, then,” said Haynes, “my idea is this. We’re about midway between Prince Edward Island and the Crozets, that is in about 46 S. We dassent keep on east for we can’t stand the weather, and anyhow if we did fetch the Crozets there’s nothing there, we might all starve to death or remain in misery for many months. I think then we’d best stand on as we’re doin’, about north-east by east as near as I can figure it, hoping to be sighted by some of the clippers running east who won’t go very far south at this time of the year because of the ice. An’ I guess you’d better keep your pray-machine going, for as I figure it we’ve only got provisions enough with the utmost economy to keep us going for fourteen days. Fortunately an old fad of mine comes in handy now. I always did keep a couple of fishing lines and some hooks in one of the boats, and it happens to be in this one. It’s the first time I’ve ever known any good to come of it, but it may now mean the saving of all our lives.”
“Thank you,” said C. B., “as I know very little of geography and nothing at all of navigation I have no doubt you are right, and now if you like I’ll give you another song.” Without waiting he plunged into another sweet old melody and followed it up by another and another from the rich stores of his memory until he himself called a halt. Everybody was gratified, not merely by the sweet sounds but by the words which now for the first time meant so much to them. As for Mary and her father, it is impossible to say what their feelings were. It was a new side of their beloved one that they had not suspected. Oh! I know of no more poignant pleasure than to find that one you love and honour and trust goes on to develop new excellencies undreamed of before. Not merely that they do not fail you in your need, but that they rise to heights undreamed of by you. It is certainly a foretaste of heaven, as the failure of those you have lavished stores of love and trust upon to justify any confidence at all is misery not to be explained.
Now the life of a castaway boat’s crew in the middle of a mighty ocean is a fascinating subject, but one that requires much room and great care in handling. Principally, I think if dealt with faithfully from the inside, it would reveal the true character of each individual, because every one of the people involved has ever before them the spectre of an awful struggle to exist, a struggle wherein body and soul come to death grips, but where, thank God, it has so often been proved that soul is the stronger, conquering the primal longings of the body and vindicating its supremacy.
But somehow in this boat’s crew, although privation and suffering from exposure had full course, no one was really unhappy. When the awful vision of the end as it might be came before any of their minds, it was only able to affright them for a moment; then its effect departed, its place being taken by a sense of trust in God akin to that of a little child in its parents, which, I think, is the most precious instance of faith that we have. But the privations endured by them were not so terrible as some that have been recorded, for the weather having grown finer remained steadily so, much to the disgust of many of the captains of the great clippers, who by the failure of the heavy western winds felt that their chance of making a record passage that trip was being completely spoilt. They never dreamed of a little company of fellow-men being in such straits quite near them that they blessed God with their whole hearts because the usual sturdy winds had moderated their rugged force, and the great swelling seas of the south were rolling quietly, almost as the waters of an inland lake, the vast swell affecting them not at all.