Sylvia's Lovers

How well it was, thought the young girl, that she had doffed her

bed-gown and linsey-woolsey petticoat, her working-dress, and made

herself smart in her stuff gown, when she sate down to work with her

mother.

By the time she could sit down again, her father and Kinraid had

their glasses filled, and were talking of the relative merits of

various kinds of spirits; that led on to tales of smuggling, and the

different contrivances by which they or their friends had eluded the

preventive service; the nightly relays of men to carry the goods

inland; the kegs of brandy found by certain farmers whose horses had

gone so far in the night, that they could do no work the next day;

the clever way in which certain women managed to bring in prohibited

goods; in fact, that when a woman did give her mind to smuggling,

she was more full of resources, and tricks, and impudence, and

energy than any man. There was no question of the morality of the

affair; one of the greatest signs of the real progress we have made

since those times seems to be that our daily concerns of buying and

selling, eating and drinking, whatsoever we do, are more tested by

the real practical standard of our religion than they were in the

days of our grandfathers. Neither Sylvia nor her mother was in

advance of their age. Both listened with admiration to the ingenious

devices, and acted as well as spoken lies, that were talked about as

fine and spirited things. Yet if Sylvia had attempted one tithe of

this deceit in her every-day life, it would have half broken her

mother's heart. But when the duty on salt was strictly and cruelly

enforced, making it penal to pick up rough dirty lumps containing

small quantities that might be thrown out with the ashes of the

brine-houses on the high-roads; when the price of this necessary was

so increased by the tax upon it as to make it an expensive,

sometimes an unattainable, luxury to the working man, Government did

more to demoralise the popular sense of rectitude and uprightness

than heaps of sermons could undo. And the same, though in smaller

measure, was the consequence of many other taxes. It may seem

curious to trace up the popular standard of truth to taxation; but I

do not think the idea would be so very far-fetched.

From smuggling adventures it was easy to pass on to stories of what

had happened to Robson, in his youth a sailor in the Greenland seas,

and to Kinraid, now one of the best harpooners in any whaler that

sailed off the coast.

'There's three things to be afeared on,' said Robson,

authoritatively: 'there's t' ice, that's bad; there's dirty weather,

that's worse; and there's whales theirselves, as is t' worst of all;

leastways, they was i' my days; t' darned brutes may ha' larnt

better manners sin'. When I were young, they could niver be got to

let theirsels be harpooned wi'out flounderin' and makin' play wi'

their tales and their fins, till t' say were all in a foam, and t'

boats' crews was all o'er wi' spray, which i' them latitudes is a

kind o' shower-bath not needed.' 'Th' whales hasn't mended their manners, as you call it,' said

Kinraid; 'but th' ice is not to be spoken lightly on. I were once in

th' ship John of Hull, and we were in good green water, and were

keen after whales; and ne'er thought harm of a great gray iceberg as

were on our lee-bow, a mile or so off; it looked as if it had been

there from the days of Adam, and were likely to see th' last man

out, and it ne'er a bit bigger nor smaller in all them thousands and

thousands o' years. Well, the fast-boats were out after a fish, and

I were specksioneer in one; and we were so keen after capturing our

whale, that none on us ever saw that we were drifting away from them

right into deep shadow o' th' iceberg. But we were set upon our

whale, and I harpooned it; and as soon as it were dead we lashed its

fins together, and fastened its tail to our boat; and then we took

breath and looked about us, and away from us a little space were th'

other boats, wi' two other fish making play, and as likely as not to

break loose, for I may say as I were th' best harpooner on board the

John, wi'out saying great things o' mysel'. So I says, "My lads,

one o' you stay i' th' boat by this fish,"--the fins o' which, as I

said, I'd reeved a rope through mysel', and which was as dead as

Noah's grandfather--"and th' rest on us shall go off and help th'

other boats wi' their fish." For, you see, we had another boat close

by in order to sweep th' fish. (I suppose they swept fish i' your

time, master?)' 'Ay, ay!' said Robson; 'one boat lies still holding t' end o' t'

line; t' other makes a circuit round t' fish.' 'Well! luckily for us we had our second boat, for we all got into

it, ne'er a man on us was left i' th' fast-boat. And says I, "But

who's to stay by t' dead fish?" And no man answered, for they were

all as keen as me for to go and help our mates; and we thought as we

could come back to our dead fish, as had a boat for a buoy, once we

had helped our mates. So off we rowed, every man Jack on us, out o'

the black shadow o' th' iceberg, as looked as steady as th'

pole-star. Well! we had na' been a dozen fathoms away fra' th' boat

as we had left, when crash! down wi' a roaring noise, and then a

gulp of the deep waters, and then a shower o' blinding spray; and

when we had wiped our eyes clear, and getten our hearts down agen

fra' our mouths, there were never a boat nor a glittering belly o'

e'er a great whale to be seen; but th' iceberg were there, still and

grim, as if a hundred ton or more had fallen off all in a mass, and

crushed down boat, and fish, and all, into th' deep water, as goes

half through the earth in them latitudes. Th' coal-miners round

about Newcastle way may come upon our good boat if they mine deep

enough, else ne'er another man will see her. And I left as good a

clasp-knife in her as ever I clapt eyes on.' 'But what a mercy no man stayed in her,' said Bell.