The Boy Captain of the Black Swallow — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘ t THE BOY CAPLAIN OF THE “BLACK SWALLOW, went asa “hand” ina fishing smack. But at leugth he built a hut in the cove and removed there, and by industry, for he began to correct his habits, he was enabled to become the owner of a small fishing-hoat of eight tons, in which he used to go out to fish off the mouth of the river, seldom being absent more than two days, for he fished for the market of Bath. His crew consisted of young Arthur, lad as he was, and a black man named Jerry Roy, who had once been the servant of his wife’s father. He was a faithful, honest fellow, hardy and industrions, and devoted to the interests of the poor family to which he had attached himself. William paid him no wages, but clothed and fed him just as he did his wife and child, and Jerry was contented. Mainly through his influence, for Jerry was always sober, his master was pre- vailed upon to drink less, and thus lay the basis for prosperity. Gradually their prospects im- proved, and William bought a small schooner. Arthur, at this time, was about seventeen, Tlis mother had taught hin all he knew, for he never saw the inside of a school-house. But his maternal instructions were far superior to those of many of the yeuth of the best famihes in the town, for his mother’s education had been very excellent. Arthur followed wita zeal the occupation of his father, and at this age he could manage the fishing-schooner with skill equal to his. He thus remained in this pursuit until his twenticth year, when the war of 1812 broke out between the States and Great Britain. All commerce an: fishing were instantly paralysed. ‘Che vritish cruisers blockaded the ports, and vessels in hundreds were laid up in the docks to rot. ‘Lhe fisher- men suffered particularly. The blockade was rigid. Constantly British cruisers were sweeping the coast, and chasing and picking up everything. The fishermen were pursued and captured, not for any value their rude boats furnished, but in order to im- press the owners. ‘Thus,. few were daring enough to venture forth, and their pursuits were confined to the rivers and inlets; and this only for daily subsistence. Most of the young and able-bodied fishermen, finding the war likely to continue, went by land to Boston, and shipped either_in privateers or the regular service as seamen, leaving at home only the old men to provide for their families as best they could. Arthur had not remained inactive after the schooner was laid up (even that could not be sold, for vessels were valueless), from want of energy. He saw daily young men departing to ship in the service of their country, but firmly refused all solicitations to join them. His motive in remaining was not understood by them; but had it been made known it would have commanded their respect. It was froma sense of filial responsibility. He would gladly have joined his countrymen in resisting the enemy and meeting him on his own element, the sea; but he saw that his mother would be protectorless ; that hisfather’s habits rendered him no safeguard in which to repose con- fidence; and that if he went sway, she would be thrown upon the charity of strangers. He therefore remained, daily fishing an hour or two in the river, to supply the table, and the rest of the time was employed either in build- ing and rigging miniature vessels, or roaming the rocks and the forests. Sometimes he would extend his rambles quite to the seaside, nine miles distant, and standing upon some rocky eminence gaze olf upon the wide waters, and wateh the move- ments of the cruisers, some of which were just visible in the direction of Portland, slumbering upon the horizon, while he saw one stand close inshore, and fire a gun to windward, as if in defiance of the little fort aé Huanewell’s Point, a mile within the entrance of the river. The young man thus inspired by fihal duty —the highest finite moral ohligation of human nature—remainéd some months daily providing for his mother’s and father’s subsistence, by his net and rod, assisted by his faithful Jerry. At length, abont two weeks before our story opens, he rowed up to towu for the purpose of exchanging a beautiful modelicd miniature schooner he had made, for tearnd sugar for his mother. She had heen without these feminine luxuries for five weeks, and as he wished to sur- prise her with them on his return, he had kept his object inemaking the vessel concealed, It was about five in the afternoon when he put ont from the cove and pulled towards the town, Ife landed on a dock where fishing boats ussaliy stopned, and directly in front of an inn, which had jor its sign a erow perched upon an anchor. There were several fisher- men’s sxiifs in the dock, and their owners were lounging about the door of the inn, or idly basking upon the pier-head, smoking their short pipes, and waiting for the ehb-tide to return to their homes, some of them being as far down as the mouth of the river; for Bath was the ‘‘town,” and the only town, to this wide region of the Kennebec. Arthur, with his schooner in his hand, landed and walked up past the tavern, painfully familiar through his father’s habits. He had gone but two or three paces past the inn, when a young man, a fisherman like himself, whose company he had always avoided for his gross profanity and beastly intemper- ance, stepped up to him from the crowd, and said, with an insulting, swaggering air: “What's that you got there, eh ?” “A model of a schooner, as you see,” answered Arthur, coldly, and passing on. ‘Oh, yes, that is all you are fit for—to make playthings like that. Now, lve been fighting for my country ona man-o’-war the last six months. Just got back with prize-money. Hear the jingle? I wonder if your marm has larnt you to knit stockings ?” At this sally the bystanders all laughed aloud. Arthur’scheek burned, and heseemed struggling to suppress a strong inclination to strike him to the earth. He had, however, true courage, which is always cool and forbearing. “Tf could get money to make my mother Comichboo KS (C©)