“The next day we rigged a piece of sail to the end of a long pole, and set it up on the highest point of land, as a signal to vessels passing. We collected a lot of bushes, and leaves, too, so that we could make a bonfire in case we saw a sail, for we thought a smoke might be noticed, when our signal wouldn’t be. We treated ourselves to a few roasted eggs that day; but we found it wasn’t very easy or safe work getting them. Most of the nests were built among steep rocks, where it was almost impossible to get at them, without ladders and ropes, and the birds were so savage that it wasn’t safe to go near them without a club. They didn’t seem to be at all afraid of us, and wouldn’t stir from their nests when we went right up to them. I suppose they never saw any men on their island before, and didn’t know what they were. I thought I would just smooth down the feathers on the neck of one real handsome bird that I found near the bottom of the cliff, but she gave me such a poke with her beak that I almost wonder it didn’t break my arm. But she got paid for her impudence; one of the men brought a club and knocked her on the head, and we got three or four eggs from her nest, larger than ducks’ eggs.”
“Did you eat the bird, too?” inquired Harriet.
“No,” replied Jerry; “that kind of bird is a little too strong even for a sailor’s stomach. But I shan’t get through to-night, if I stop to tell you about all these little things. We kept a lookout for sails day after day, but didn’t see any. Every pleasant day we pushed our boat into the water, to prevent her drying up, and to have her ready for service at a moment’s notice; and every night we hauled her ashore, for fear of a sudden storm. Things went on in this way for about six weeks, when, one morning, we saw very distinctly a large vessel sailing south, several miles to the east of us. We lighted our bonfire, and in five minutes all hands were in the boat, pulling for dear life toward the vessel. Nobody said a word, but the men kept looking over their shoulders toward the vessel, as if they were afraid they should lose sight of it. We had our mast up, and a bit of sail-cloth flying at the top as a signal. We pulled away with all our might for fifteen or twenty minutes, I should think, till at last we got so near that we could see the vessel was a large ship. She had all sails set, but was going rather moderately, for the wind was light. We were still some distance in front of her, and were steering so as to head her off. We began to feel pretty lively now, and were putting in harder than ever, when all at once a fellow, who went by the name of Dick, pulled off his hat, and swung it over his head with one hand, while he kept his oar going with the other, and sung out,—
“‘Hurrah, boys! we’re safe! They see us, and have run up their flag as a signal to us!’
“None of the rest of us could see the flag, but as Dick was allowed to have the sharpest eyes in the crowd, we took his word for it; and, sure enough, it wasn’t but a few minutes before the ship changed her tack, and was sailing right toward us. If we didn’t cheer and laugh and swing our hats then, it’s no matter. I suppose we acted like a parcel of fools, but we couldn’t help it.
“Well, after we got over our excitement a little, we pulled away toward the ship, and pretty soon we were alongside of her. We found it was the ship May Queen, from New York for the Sandwich Islands. The officers and crew treated us first-rate. They gave us clothes, and plenty to eat, and told us we might stay on board till we got a chance to go home. They said they saw the smoke on our island, and that put them on the lookout. With the glass, the captain saw our signal on the hill, and pretty soon he discovered our boat pulling toward them. They didn’t know whether the rest of our crew had been picked up or not. They didn’t remember hearing anything about it.
“So we had got to go round Cape Horn twice more. That wasn’t very pleasant, but it was better than staying any longer on our little island. The captain promised to put us on board the first craft we spoke, bound home; but there was no knowing when we should meet anything. We had a rather pleasanter passage to the Cape in the ship than we did in the Susan. It wasn’t so stormy, and the weather was warmer, for it was the beginning of summer. We saw lots of floating ice, though, and we passed very near one immense iceberg that was bound north. The first vessel bound home that we saw was off Cape Horn, but the weather was so rough that we didn’t get a chance to speak her. That was quite a disappointment to us; but we had to get used to disappointments; for about a week after this, we saw another craft, and spoke her; but she was an English ship, bound to Liverpool, and as her captain didn’t seem at all anxious to take us with him, our captain concluded to keep us a spell longer.
“It was nearly a month before we spoke another vessel, and we were then pretty well up in the Pacific; in fact, almost up to the latitude of Valparaiso, though we were far to the westward of the coast. This time we spoke the barque Bride, bound from Honolulu to New York. The captain of the Bride said he’d take us, so the other captain had a boat launched, and sent us to the barque. We soon found that our berth on board the Bride wasn’t quite so pleasant as it was in the May Queen. The officers didn’t like to refuse to take us, I suppose, but I guess they thought we were more plague than profit. We did our share of the work, though, to pay for our grub, and were on good terms with the crew. And, after all, we had a pretty good time on the voyage home. We made a fine run round the Horn, and up the coast of South America, until we got to the equatorial doldrums. Do you know where that is, Emily?”
“No; I don’t think that’s on our map,” replied Emily.