“Well, there is a counter-spell for what we wish to do, and if it is used, it will go hard with us, for it will cost us nothing less than our lives!”
“What is the counter-spell, sister,” asked the wife of the one quartermaster.
“Is it certain that no one is listening to us? It seemed to me as though some one were smoking in the forward cabin.”
“But you know we looked in every corner. They just forgot to let the fire go out in the caboose, and that is why there’s smoke,” said the quartermaster’s wife, “so tell away.”
“If they buy three cords of birch-wood,” said the witch,—“but it must be full measure, and they must not bargain for it—and throw the first cord into the water, billet by billet, when the first breaker strikes, and the second cord, billet by billet, when the second breaker strikes, and the third cord, billet by billet, when the third breaker strikes, then it is all up with us!”
“Yes, that’s true, sister, then it is all up with us! Then it is all up with us!” said the wives of the quartermasters; “but there is no one who knows it,” they cried, and laughed loudly, and with that they flew out of the hatchway, screaming and croaking like ravens.
When it came time to sail, the cabin-boy would not go along for anything in the world; and all the captain’s coaxing, and all his promises were useless, nothing would tempt him to go. At last they asked him whether he were afraid, because fall was at hand, and said he would rather hide behind the stove, hanging to mother’s apron strings. No, said the youth, he was not afraid, and they could not say that they had ever seen him show a sign of so land-lubberly a thing as fear; and he was willing to prove it to them, for now he was going along with them, but he made it a condition that three cords of birch-wood were to be bought, full measure, and that on a certain day he was to have command, just as though he himself were the captain. The captain asked what sort of nonsense this might be, and whether he had ever heard of a cabin-boy’s being entrusted with the command of a ship. But the boy answered that was all one to him; if they did not care to buy the three cords of birch-wood, and obey him, as though he were captain, for the space of a single day—the captain and crew should know which day it was to be in advance—then he would set foot on the ship no more, and far less would he ever dirty his hands with pitch and tar on her again. The whole thing seemed strange to the captain, yet he finally gave in, because he wanted to have the boy along with him and, no doubt, he also thought that he would come to his senses again when they were once under way. The quartermaster was of the same opinion. “Just let him command all he likes, and if things go wrong with him, we’ll help him out,” said he. So the birch-wood was bought, full-measure and without haggling, and they set sail.
When the day came on which the cabin-boy was to take command, the weather was fair and quiet; but he drummed up the whole ship’s crew, and with the exception of a tiny bit of canvas, had all sails reefed. The captain and crew laughed at him, and said: “That shows the sort of a captain we have now. Don’t you want us to reef that last bit of sail this very minute?” “Not yet,” answered the cabin-boy, “but before long.”
Suddenly a squall struck them, struck them so heavily that they thought they would capsize, and had they not reefed the sails they would undoubtedly have foundered when the first breaker roared down upon the ship.
The boy ordered them to throw the first cord of birch-wood overboard, billet by billet, one at a time and never two, and he did not let them touch the other two cords. Now they obeyed him to the letter, and did not laugh; but cast out the birch-wood billet by billet. When the last billet fell they heard a groaning, as though some one were wrestling with death, and then the squall had passed.