THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES I JACOB FAITHFUL BY THE AUTHOR OF "PETER SIMPLE," "THE KING'S OWN," &c. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. SECOND EDITION. LONDON SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 1834. Just published. The Third Edition revised. In 3 vols, post 8vo. PETER SIMPLE. " He that imagined " Peter Simple" is a sea Fielding."— Black- wood. "This is the best worli Captain Marryat has yet produced."— i4 CHxVPTER VII. The mystery becomes more and more interesting, and I determine to find it out — Prying after things locked up, 1 am locked up myself — Fleming proves to me that his advice was good when he recom- mended me to learn to swim . . 115 CHAPTER VIII. More of the ups and downs of life — Up before the ma- gistrates, then down the river again in the lighter — The Toms — A light heart upon two sticks — Receive my first lesson in singing — Our lighter well manned with two boys and a fraction . . 132 CHAPTER IX. The two Toms take to protocolling — Treaty of peace ratified between the belligerent parties — Lots of songs and supper — The largest mess of roast meat upon record . . . . .150 VI CONTEXTS. CHAPTER X. help to hang my late baigemate for his attempt to drown me — One good turn deserves another — The subject suddenly dropped, at Newgate — A yarn in the laAv line — With due precautions and preparation, the Domine makes his first voyage — to Green- wich . " . . .169 CHAPTER XL Much learning afloat — Young Tom is very lively upon the dead languages— The Domine, after experi- encing the wonders of the mighty deep, prepares to revel upon lobscouse— Though the man of learning gets many songs and some yarns from old Tom, he loses the best part of a tale, without knowing it .... 191 CHAPTER XII. Is a chapter of tales in a double sense — The Domine, from the natural effects of his single-heartedness, begins to see double. — A new definition of philoso- phy, with an episode on jealousy . . 207 CHAPTER XIII. The " fun grows fast and furious" — The pedagogue does not scan correctly, and his feet become very I CONTENTS. Vll unequal — An allegorical compliment almost worked up into a literal quarrel — At length, the mighty are laid lowj and the Domine hurts his nose . 222 CHAPTER XIV. Cold water and repentance — The two Toms almost moral, and myself full of wise reflections — The chapter, being full of grave saws, is luckily very short ; and though a very sensible one, I would not advise it to be skipped . . . 238 CHAPTER XV. I am unshipped for a short time, in order to record shipments and engross invoices — Form a new ac- quaintance, what is called in the world "^a Avarm man,' though he passed the best part of his life among icebergs, and one whole night within the ribs of death — His wife works hard at gentility . 253 CHAPTER XVI. High life above stairs, a little below the mark— Fashion, French, vertu, and all that ' . . 269 CHAPTI^R'^XXft: The Tomkinses' fete isbstopfee aM*/6't^;^^ —Lights among the got^seJxirry-.bashes— All went vm CONTENTS. off well, excepting the lights, they went out— A winding up that had nearly proved a. catastrophe — Old Tom proves that danger makes friends, by a yarn, young Tom, by a fact . . 284 I JACOB FAITHFUL. CHAPTER I. My birth, parentage, and family pretensions — Unfor- tunately I prove to be a detrimental or younger son, which is remedied by a trifling accident — I hardly receive the first elements of science from my father, when the elements conspire against me, and I am left an orphan. Gextt-e reader, I was born upon the water — not upon the salt and angry ocean, but upon the fresh, and rapid-flowing river. It was in a floating sort of box, called a lighter, and upon the River Thames, at low water, that I first VOL. I. B a JACOB FAITHFUL. smelt the mud. This lighter was manned (an expression amounting to bullism, if not con- strued kind-\y) by my father, my mother, and your humble servant. My father had the sole charge — he was monarch of the deck ; my mo- ther of course was queen, and I was the heir apparent. Before I say one word about myself, allow me dutifully to describe my parents. First, then, I will portray my queen mother. Report says, that when first she came on board of the lighter, a lighter figure and a lighter step never pressed a plank ; but as far as I can tax my recollection, she was always a fat, unwieldy woman. Locomotion was not to her taste — ffin was. She seldom quitted the cabin — never quitted the lighter: a pair of shoes may have lasted her for five years, for the wear and tear that she took out of them. Beine; of this do- mestic habit, as all married women ought to be, she was always to be found when wanted ; but, although always at hand, she was not always on her feet. Towards the close of the day, she lay down upon her bed — a wise precaution JACOB FAITHFUL. when a person can no longer stand. The fact was, that my honoured mother, although her virtue was unimpeachable, was frequently se- duced by liquor ; and although constant to my father, was debauched and to be found in bed with that insidious assailer of female upright- ness — gin. The lighter, which might have been compared to another garden of Eden, of which my mother was the Eve, and my father the Adam to consort with, was entered by this serpent who tempted her ; and if she did not eat, she drank, which was even worse. At first, indeed — and I mention it to prove how the enemy always gains admittance under a spe- cious form — she drank it only to keep the cold out of her stomach, which the humid atmo- sphere from the surrounding water appeared to warrant. My father look his pipe for the same reason ; but at the time that I was born, he smoked and she drank, from morning to night, because habit had rendered it almost necessary to their existence. The pipe was always to his lips, the glass incessantly to her"'s. I would have defied any cold ever to have penetrated B 2 JACOB FAITHFUL. into their stomachs; — but I have said enough of iny mother for the present, I will now pass on to my father. My father was a puffy, round-bellied, long- armed, little man, admirably calculated for his station in, or rather out of, society. He could manage a lighter, as well as any body ; but he could do no more. He had been brought up to it from his infancy. He went on shore for my mother, and came on board again — the only remarkable event in his life. His whole amuse- ment was his pipe ; and, as there is a certain indefinable link between smoking and philo- sophy, my father, by dint of smoking, had be- come a perfect philoso])her. It is no less strange than true, that we can puff away our cares with tobacco, v/hen, without it, they remain an oppressive burthen to existence. There is no composing draught like the draught through the tube of a pipe. The savage warriors of North America enjoyed the blessing before we did ; and to the pipe is to be ascribed tlie wis- dom o( their councils, and the laconic delivery of their sentiments. It would be well intro- 4 JACOU FAITHFUL. cluced into our own legislative assembly. Ladies, indeed, would no longer peep down through tlie ventilator ; but we should have more sense and fewer words. It is also to tobacco that is to be ascribed the stoical firmness of those American warriors, who, satisfied with the pipe in their mouths, submitted with perfect indif- ference to the torture of their enemies. From the well-known virtues of this weed arose that peculiar expression, Avhen you irritate another, that you " put his pipe out." My father's pipe, literally and metaphorically, was never put out. He had a few apothegms which brought every disaster to a happy con- clusion ; and, as he seldom or ever indulged in words, these sayings were deeply impressed upon my infant memory. One was, " Ifs no use crying; whafs done can't be helped." When once these words escaped his lips, the subject was never renewed. Nothing appeared to move him: the adjurations of those employed in the other lighters, barges, vessels, and boats of every description, who were contending witli us for the extra foot of water, as we drifted up 6 JACOB FAITHFUL. or down with the tide, affected him not, further than an extra column or two of smoke rising from the bowl of his pipe. To my mother, he used but one expression, " Take it coolly f but it always had the contrary effect with my mo- ther, as it put her more in a passion. It was like pouring oil upon flame ; nevertheless, the advice was good, had it ever been followed. Another favourite expression of my father's, when any thing went wrong, and which was of the same pattern as the rest of his philosophy, was, " Better luck newt time.'''' These apho- risms were deeply impressed upon my memory. I continually recalled them to mind, and thus I became a philosopher long before my wise teeth were in embryo, or I had even shed the first set with which kind Nature presents us, that in the petticoat age we may fearlessly indulge in lol- lipop. My father's education had been neglected. He could neither write nor read ; but although he did not exactly, like Cadmus, invent letters, he had accustomed himself to certain hiero- glyphics, generally speaking sufficient for his JACOB FAITHFUL. 7 purposes, and which might be considered as an artificial memory. " I can't write nor read, Jacob," he would say, " I wish I could ; but look, boy, I means this mark for three-quarters of a bushel. Mind you recollects it when I axes you, or I'll be blowed if I don't wallop you.''"' But it was only a case of peculiar dif- ficulty which would require a new hieroglyphic, or extract such a long speech from my father. I was well acquainted with his usual scratches and dots, and having a good memory, could put him right when he was puzzled with some misshapen .v or ar, representing some uni^nown quantity, like the same letters in algebra. I have said that I was heir apparent, but I did not say that I was the only child born to my father in his wedlock. My honoured mo- ther had had two more children ; but the first, who was a girl, had been provided for by a fit of the measles ; and the second, my elder bro- ther, by tumbling over the stern of the lighter when he was three years old. At the time of the accident, my mother had retired to her bed, a little the worse for liquor ; my father was on 8 JACOB FAITHFUL. deck forward, leaning against the windlass, so- berly smoking his evening pipe. " What was that ?" exclaimed my father, taking his pipe out of his mouth, and listening; "I shouldn't wonder if it wasn't Joe." And my father put in his pipe again, and smoked away as before. My father was correct in his surmises. It was Joe — who had made the splash which roused him from his meditations, for the next morning Joe was nowhere to be found. He was, however, found some days afterwards ; but, as the newspapers say, and as may well be imagined, the "vital spark was extinct;" and moreover, the eels and chubs had eaten off his nose and a portion of his chubby face, so that, as my father said, " he was of no use to no- body." The morning after the accident, my father was up early and had missed poor little Joe. He went into the cabin, smoked his pipe, and said nothing. As my brother did not ap- pear as usual for his breakfast, my mother called out for him in a harsh voice ; but Joe was out of hearing, and as mute as a fish. Joe opened not his mouth in reply, neither did my JACOB FAITHFUL. 9 father. My mother then quitted the cabin, and walked round the lighter, looked into the dog- kennel to ascertain if he was asleep with the great mastiff — but Joe was nowhere to be found. " Why, what can have become of Joe ?" cried my mother, with maternal alarm in her counte- nance, appealing to my father, as she hastened back to the cabin. My father spoke not, but taking his pipe out of his mouth, dropped the bowl of it in a perpendicular direction till it landed softly on the deck, then put it into his mouth again, and puffed mournfully. " Why, you don't mean to say that he is overboard ?" screamed my mother. ]My father nodded his head, and puffed away at an accumulated rate. A torrent of tears, exclamations, and revilings, succeeded to this characteristic announcement. My father allowed my mother to exhaust herself. By the time that she had finished, so was his pipe ; he then knocked out the ashes, and quietly observed, " It's no use crying ; what's done can't be helped," and proceeded to refill the bowl. B -5 10 JACOB FAITHFUL. " Can't be helped !" cried my mother; " but it might have been helped." " Take it coolly," replied my father. " Take it coolly !" replied my mother in a rage — " take it coolly ! Yes, you 're for taking every thing coolly : I presume, if I fell over- board, you would be taking it coolly."" " You would be taking it coolly, at all events," replied my imperturbable father. " O dear ! O dear !" cried my poor mother ; " two poor children^ and lost them both I" " Better luck next time," rejoined my father; *' so, Sail, say no more about it." My father continued for some time to smoke his pipe, and my mother to pipe her eye, until at last my father, who was really a kind-hearted man, rose from the chest upon which he was seated, went to the cupboard, poured out a tea- cup full of gin, and handed it to my mother. It was kindly done of him, and my mother was to be won by kindness. It was a pure offering in the spirit, and taken in the spirit in which it was offered. After a few repetitions, which were rendered necessary from its potency being Jacob faiThfu'L. 11 diluted with her tears, grief and recollection were drowned together, and disappeared like two lovers who sink down entwined in each other"'s arms. With this beautiful metaphor, I shall wind up the episode of my unfortunate brother Joe. It was about a year after the loss of my bro- ther, that I was ushered into the world without any other assistants or spectators than my father and Dame Nature, who I believe to be a very clever midwife, if not interfered with. My father, who had some faint ideas of Christianity, performed the baptismal rites, by crossing me on the forehead with the end of his pipe, and calling me Jacob : as for my mother being churched, she had never been but once to church in her life. In fact, my father and mother never quitted the lighter, unless when the latter was called out by the superintendent or proprietor, at the delivery or shipment of a cargo, or was once a month for a few minutes on shore to pur- chase necessaries. I cannot recall much of my infancy : but I recollect that the lighter was often very brilliant with blue and red paint, 12 JACOB FAITHFUL. and that ray mother used to point it out to me as " so pretty," to keep me quiet. I shall therefore pass it over, and commence at the age of five years, at which early period I was of some little use to my father. Indeed, I was almost as forward as some boys at ten. This may appear strange ; but the fact is, that my ideas, although bounded, were concentrated. The lighter, its equipments, and its destination, were the microcosm of my infant imagination ; and ray ideas and thoughts being directed to so few objects, these objects were deeply impressed, and their value fully understood. Up to the time that I quitted the lighter, at eleven years old, the banks of the river were the boundaries of my speculations. I certainly comprehended something of the nature of trees and houses ; but I do not think that I was aware that the former grew. From the time that I could recollect them on the banks of the river, they appeared to be exactly of the same size as they were when first I saw them, and I asked no questions. But by the time that I was ten years old, I knew the name of every reach of the river, and every JACOB FAITHFUL. 13 point — the depth of water, and the shallows, the drift of the current, and the ebb and flow of the tide itself. I was able to manage the lighter as it floated down w ith the tide ; for what I lacked in strength, I made up with the dexterity arising from constant practice. It was at the age of eleven years that a catas- trophe took place which changed my prospects in life, and I must therefore say a little more about my fatlier and mother, bringing up their history to that period. The propensity of my mother to ardent spirits had, as always is the case, greatly increased upon her, and her cor- pulence had increased in the same ratio. She was now a most unwieldy, bloated moantain of flesh, such a form as I have never since beheld, although, at the time, she did not appear to me to be disgusting, accustomed to witness imper- ceptibly her increase, and not seeing any other females except at a distance. For the last two years she had seldom quitted her bed — certainly she did not crawl out of the cabin more than five minutes during the week — indeed her obesitv and habitual intoxication rendered her 14 JACOB FAITHFUL. incapable. My father went on shore for a quarter of an hour once a month, to purchase gin, tobacco, red herrings, and decayed ship biscuit-^the latter was my principal fare, ex- cept when I could catch a fish over the sides, as we lay at anchor. I was therefore a great water drinker, not altogether from choice, but from the salt nature of my food, and because my mother had still sense enough left to discern that " Gin wasn't good for little boys," But a great change had taken place in my father. I was now left almost altogether in charge of the deck, my father seldom coming up except to assist me in shooting the bridges, or when it required more than my exertions to steer clear of the crowds of vessels which we encountered when between them. In fact, as I grew more capable, my father became more incapable, and passed most of his time in the cabin, assisting my mother in emptying the great stone bottle. The woman had prevailed upon the man, and now both were guilty in partaking of the for- bidden fruit of the Juniper Tree. Such was the state of affairs in our little kingdom, when JACOB FAITHFUL. 15 the catastrophe occurred which I am now about to relate. One fine summer's evening, we were floating up with the tide, deeply laden with coals, to be delivered at the proprietor''s wharf, some dis- tance above Putney Bridge ; a strong breeze sprang up, and checked our progress, and we could not, as we expected, gain the wharf that night. We were about a mile and a half above the bridge when the tide turned against us, and we dropped our anchor. My father, who, ex- pecting to arrive that evening, had very unwil- lingly remained sober, waited until the lighter had swung to the stream, and then saying to me, " Hemember, Jacob, we must be at the Avharf early to-morrow morning, so keep alive,"" he went into the cabin to; indplge in his pota- tions, leaving me in possession jof the deck, and also of my supper, which I never ate below, the little cabin being so unpleasantly close. Indeed, I took all my meals al fresco, and unless the nights were intensely cold, slept on deck, in the capacious dog kennel abaft, which had once been tenanted by the large mastiff, but he had 16 JACOB FAITHFUL, been dead some years, was thrown overboard, and, in all probability, had been converted into Epping sausages, at ^s. per lb. Some time after his decease, I had taken possession of his apartment and had performed his duty. I had finished my supper, which I washed down with a considerable portion of Thames water, for I always drank more when above the bridges, having an idea that it tasted more pure and fresh. I had walked forward and looked at tiie cable to see if all was right, and then having nothing more to do, I laid down on the deck, and indulged in the profound speculations of a boy of eleven years old. I was watching the stars above me, which twinkled faintly, and appeared to me ever and anon to be extin- guished and then relio-hted. I was wondering O CI3 Cj what they could be made of, and how they came there, when of a sudden I was interrupted in my reveries by a loud shriek, and perceived a strong smell of something burning. The shrieks were renewed again and again, and I had hardly time to get upon my legs when my father burst up from the cabin, rushed over the side of the JACOB FAITHFUL. 17 lighter, and disappeared under the water. I caught a glimpse of his features as he passed me, and observed fright and intoxication blended together. I ran to the side where he had dis- appeared, but could see nothing but a few eddy- ing circles as the tide rushed quickly past. For a few seconds I remained staggered and stupi- fied at his sudden disappearance and evident death, but I was recalled to recollection by the smoke which encompassed me, and the shrieks of my mother, which were now fainter and fainter, and 1 hastened to her assistance. A strong empyreumatic, thick smoke ascended from the hatchway of the cabin, and, as it had now fallen calm, it mounted straight up the air in a dense column. I attempted to go in, but so soon as I encountered the smoke, I found that it was impossible; it would have suffocated me in half a minute. I did what most children would have done in such a situation of excite- ment and distress — I sat down and cried bit- terly. In about ten minutes I removed my hands, with which I had covered up my face, and looked at the cabin hatch. The smoke 18 JACOB FAITHFUL. had disappeared, and all was silent. I went to the hatchway, and although the smell was still overpowering, I found that I could bear it. 1 descended the little ladder of three steps, and called " Mother," but there was no answer. The lamp fixed against the after bulk-head, with a glass before it, was still alight, and I could see plainly to every corner of the cabin. Nothing was burning — not even the curtains to my mother's bed appeared to be singed. I was astonished — breathless with fear, with a trem- bling voice, I again called out " Mother." I remained more than a minute panting for breath, and then ventured to draw back the curtains of the bed — my mother was not there ! but there appeared to be a black mass in the centre of the bed. I put my hand fearfully upon it — it was a sort of unctuous, pitchy cinder. I screamed with horror, my little senses reeled — I staggered from the cabin ar^.fell down on the deck in a state amounting to almost insanity : it was fol- lowed by a sort of stupor, which lasted for many hours. As the reader may be in some doubt as to JACOB FAITHFUL. 19 the occasion of my mother's death, I must in- form him that she perished in that very peculiar and dreadful manner, which does sometimes, although rarely, occur, to those who indulge in an immoderate use of spirituous liquors. Cases of this kind do indeed present themselves but once in a century, but the occurrence of them is but too well authenticated. She perished from wliat is termed spontaneous combustion, an in- flammation of the gasses generated from the spirits absorbed into the system. It is to be presumed that the flames issuing from my mo- ther's body, completely frightened out of his senses my father, who had been drinking freely ; and thus did I lose both my parents, one by fire and the other by water, at one and the same time. 20 JACOB FAITHFUL. CHAPTER II. I fulfil the last injunctions of my father, and I am em- barked upon a new element— First bargain in my life very profitable, first parting with old friends very painful — First introduction into civilized life very unsatisfactory to all parties. It was broad daylight when I awoke from my state of bodily and mental imbecility. For some time I could not recall to my mind all that had happened : the weight which pressed upon my feelings told me that it was something dreadful. At length, the cabin hatch, still open, caught my eye ; I recalled all the horrors of the preceding evening, and recollected that I was left alone in the lighter. I got up and stood upon my feet in mute despair. I looked around me — the mist of the morning was hanging over JACOB FAITHFUL. 21 the river, and the objects on shore were with difficulty to be distinguished. I was chilled from lying all night in the heavy dew, and per- haps still more from previous and extraordinary excitement. Venture to go down into the cabin I dare not. I had an indescribable awe, a degree of horror at what I had seen, that made it im- possible; still I was unsatisfied, and would have given worlds, if I had had them, to explain the mvstery. I turned my eyes from the cabin hatch to the water, thought of my father, and then for more than half an hour watched the tide as it ran up, my mind in a state of vacancy. As the sun rose, the mist gradually cleared away; trees, houses, and green fields, other barges coming up with the tide, boats passing and repassing, the barking of dogs, the smoke issuing from the various chimneys, all broke upon me by degrees ; and I was recalled to the sense tliat I was in a busy world, and had m\' own task to perform. The last words of my father— and his injunctions had ever been a law to me — vvere, " IMind, Jacob, we must be up at the wharf early to-morrow morning." I pre- 22 JACOB FAITHFUL. pared to obey him. Purchase the anchor I could not ; I therefore slipped the cable, lashing a broken sweep to the end of it, as a buoy rope, and once more the lighter was at the mercy of the stream, guided by a boy of eleven years old. In about two hours I was within a hundred yards of the wharf, and well in-shore. I hailed for assistance, and two men who were on board of the lighters moored at the wharf, pushed off in a skiff to know what it was that I wanted. I told them that I was alone in the lighter, without anchor or a cable, and requested them to secure her. They came on board, and in a few minutes the lighter was safe slcrgside of the others. As soon as the lashings were passed, they interrogated me as to what had happened, but although the fulfilling of ray father's last injunctions had borne up my spirits, now that they were obeyed, a re-action took place. I could not answer them ; I threw my- self down on the deck in a paroxysm of grief, and cried as if my heart would break. The men, who were astonished not only at my conduct, but at finding me alone in the JACOB FAITHFUL. 23 lighter, went on shore to the clerk, and stated the circumstances. He returned with them, and would have interrogated me, but my paroxysm was not yet over, and my replies, broken by my sobs, were unintelligible. The clerk and the two men went down into the cabin, returned hastily, and quitted the lighter. In about a quarter of an hour I was sent for, and con- ducted to the house of the proprietor — the first time in my life that I had ever put my foot on terra Jirma. I was led into the parlour, where I found the proprietor at breakfast with his wife and his daughter, a little girl nine years old. By this time I had recovered myself, and on being interrogated, told my story clearly and succinctly, while the big tears coursed each other down ray dirty face. " How strange and how horrible !" said the lady to her husband, " I cannot understand it even now." " Nor can I ; but still it is true, from what Johnson the clerk has witnessed."" In the mean time my eyes were directed to every part of the room, which appeared to my 24 JACOB FAITHFUL. .gnorance as a Golconda of wealth and luxury. There were few things which I had seen before, but I had an innate idea that they were of va- lue. The silver tea-pot, the hissing urn, the spoons, the pictures in their frames, every article of furniture, caught my wondering eye, and for a short time I had forgotten my father and my mother ; but I was recalled from my musing speculations by the proprietor inquiring how far I had brought the lighter without assist- ance. " Have you any friends, my poor boy ?"" in- quired the lady. " No." " What ! no relations on shore .'^"" " I never was on shore before in my life." " Do you know that you are a destitute orphan ?" " What's that .?" " That you have no father or mother," said the little girl. " Well," replied I, in my father"'s words, having no answer more appropriate, " it's no use crying ; what''s done can't be helped." JACOB FAITHFUL. 25 a But what do you intend to do now?" in- quired the proprietor, looking hard at me after my previous answer. " Don't know, I'm sure. Take it coolly,"" replied I, whimpering. " What a very odd child !" observed the lady. " Is he aware of the extent of his misfortune ?" " Better luck next time, missus," replied I, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand. " What strange answers from a child who has shown so much feeling,"" observed the proprietor to his wife. " What is your name ?"" « Jacob Faithful.'' " Can you write or read .''" . " No," replied I, again using my father''s words. " No, I can't, I wish I could." " Very well, my poor boy, we'll see what's to be done," said the proprietor. " I know what's to be done," rejoined I, " you must send a couple of hands to get the anchor and cable afore they cut the buoy adrift." " You are right, my lad, that must be done immediately," said the proprietor ; " but now VOL. I. C 26 JACOB FAITHFUL. you had better go down with Sarah into the kitchen ; cook will take care of you. Sarah, my love, take him down to cook.'' The little girl beckoned me to follow her. I was astonished at the length and variety of the companion ladders, for such I considered the stairs, and was at last landed below, when little Sarah, giving cook the injunction to take care of me, again tripped lightly up to her mother. I found the signification of " take care of any one," very different on shore from what it was on the river, where taking care of you means getting out of your way, and giving you a wide berth ; and I found the shore-reading much more agreeable. Cook did take care of me ; she was a kind-hearted, fat woman, who melted at a tale of woe, although the fire made no impres- sion on her. I not only beheld, but I devoured such things as never before entered into mv mouth or my imagination. Grief had not taken away my appetite. I stopped occasionally to cry a little, wiped my eyes, and sat down again. It was more than two hours before I laid down my knife, and not until strong symptoms of suffo- JACOB FATTHFUL. 27 cation played round the regions of my trachea, did I cry out, " hold, enough." Somebody has made an epigram about the vast ideas which a miser's horse must have had of corn. I doubt, if such ideas were existent, whether they were at all equal to my astonishment at a leg of mut- ton. I had never seen such a piece of meat before, and wondered if it were fresh or other- wise. After such reflection I naturally felt inclined to sleep ; in a few minutes I was snoring upon two chairs, cook having covered me up with her apron to keep away the flies. Thus was I fairly embarked upon an element new to me — my mother earth ; and it may bo just as well to examine now into the capital I possessed for my novel enterprise. In person I was well looking ; I was well made, strong, and active. Of my habiliments the less said the better : I had a pair of trowsers with no seat to them, but this defect when I stood up was hid -by my jacket, composed of an old waistcoat of my father's, which reached down as low as the morning frocks worn in those days. A shirt of coarse duck, and a fur cap, which was as rough c 2 28 JACOB FAITHFUL. and ragged as if it had been the hide of a cat pulled to pieces by dogs, completed my attire. Shoes and stockings I had none ; these super- numerary appendages had never confined the action of my feet. My mental acquisitions were not much more valuable — they consisted of a tolerable knowledge of the depth of water, , names of points and reaches, in the river Thames, all of which was not very available on dry land — of a few hieroglyphics of my father''s, which, as the crier says, sometimes winding up his oration, were of " no use to nobody but the owner."" Add to the above, the three favourite maxims of my taciturn father, which were in- delibly imprinted upon my memory, and you have the whole inventory of my stock in trade. These three maxims were, I may say, incorpo- rated into my very system, so continually had they been quoted to me during my life ; and before I went to sleep that night, they were again conned over. " What's done, can't be helped," consoled me for the mishaps of my life ; " Better luck next time," made me look forward with hope ; and, " Take it coolly," was JACOB FAITHFUL. 29 a subject of deep reflection, until I fell into a deep sleep, for I had sufficient penetration to observe, that my father had lost his life by not adhering to his own principles; and this per- ception only rendered my belief in the infallibility of these maxims to be even still more stedfast. I have stated what was my father's legacy, and the reader will suppose that from the ma- ternal side the acquisition was nil. Directly such was the case, but indirectly she proved a very good mother to me, and that was by the very extraordinary way in which she had quitted the world. Had she met with a common death, she would have been worth nothing. Burke himself would not have been able to dispose of her ; but dying as she did, her ashes were the source of wealth. The bed, with her remains lying in the centre, even the curtains of the bed, were all brought on shore, and locked up in an outhouse. The coroner came down in a post- chaise and four, charged to the county ; the jury was empannelled, my evidence was taken, surgeons and apothecaries attended from far and near to give their opinions, and after 30 JACOB FAITHFUL. much examination, much arguing, and much disagreement, the verdict was brought in that she died by the visitation of God." As this, in other phraseology, implies that " God only knows how she died," it was agreed to nem. con., and gave universal satisfaction. But the extra- ordinary circumstance was spread every where, with all due amplifications, and thousands flocked to the wharfinger's yard to witness the effects of spontaneous combustion. The pro- prietor immediately perceived that he could avail himself of the public curiosity to my advantage. A plate, with some silver and gold, was placed at the foot of my poor mother's flock mattrass, with, " For the benefit of the orphan,'' in capi- tal text, placarded above it ; and many were the shillings, half-crowns, and even larger sums, which were dropped into it by the spectators, who shuddered as they turned away from this awful specimen of the effects of habitual intoxi- cation. For many days did the exhibition con- tinue, during which time I was domiciled with the cook, who employed me in scouring her saucepans, and any other employment in which JACOB FAITHFUL. 31 my slender services might be useful, little think- ing at the time that my poor mother was hold- ing her levee for my advantage. On the ele- venth day the exhibition was closed, and I was summoned up stairs by the proprietor, whom I found in company with a little gentleman in black. This was a surgeon, who had offered a sum of money for my mother's remains, bed and cur- tains, in a lot. The proprietor was willing to get rid of them in so advantageous a manner, but did not conceive that he was justified in taking this step, although for my benefit, with- out first consulting me, as heir-at-law. " Jacob," said he, " this gentleman offers 201., which is a great deal of money, for the ashes of your poor mother. Have you any ob- jection to let him have them.'''" *' What do you want 'em for.?'' inquired I. " I wish to keep them, and take great care of them,"" answered he. " Well," replied I, after a little considera- tion, " if you'll take care of the old woman, you may have her," — and the bargain was concluded. Singular that the first bar- 32 JACOB FAITHFUL. gain ever made in my life should be that of selling my own mother. The proceeds of the exhibition and sale amounted to 47/. odd, which the worthy proprietor of the lighter, after deducting for a suit of clothes, laid up for my use. Thus ends the history of my mother's remains, w^hich proved more valu- able to me than ever she did when living. In her career she somewhat reversed the case of Semele, who was first visited in a shower of gold, and eventually perished in the fiery em- braces of the god ; whereas my poor mother perished first by the same element, and the shower of gold descended to her only son. But this is easily explained. Semele was very lovely and did not drink gin — my mother was her com- plete antithesis. When I was summoned to my master's pre- sence to arrange the contract with the surgeon, I had taken off the waistcoat which I wore as a garment over ail, that I might be more at my ease in chopping some wood for the cook, and the servant led me up at once, without giving me time to put it on. After I had given my JACOB FAITHFUL. 33 consent, I turned away to go down stairs again, when having, as I before observed, no seat to my trowsers, the solution of continuity was ob- served by a little spaniel, who jumped from the sofa, and arriving at a certain distance, stood at bay, and barked most furiously at the exposure. He had been bred up among respectable people, and had never seen such an expose. Mr. Druramond, the proprietor, observed the defect pointed out by the dog, and forthwith I was ordered to be suited with a new suit, certainly not before they were required. In twenty-four hours I was thrust into a new garment, by a bandy-legged tailor, assisted by my friend the cook, and turn or twist whichever way I pleased, decency was never violated. A new suit of clothes is generally an object of ambition, and flatters the vanity of young and old ; but with me it was far otherwise. Encumbered with my novel apparel, I experienced at once feelings of restraint and sorrow. My shoes hurt me, my worsted stockings irritated the skin, and as I had been accustomed to hereditarily succeed to my father's cast off skins, which were a world c 5 34 JACOB FAITHFUL. too wide for my shanks, having but few ideas, it appeared to me as if I had swelled out to the size of the clothes which I had been unac- customed to wear, not that they had been re- duced to my dimensions. I fancied myself a man, but was very much embarrassed with my manhood. Every step that I took I felt as if I was checked back by strings. I could not swing my arms as I was wont to do, and tottered in my shoes like a ricketty child. My old apparel had been consigned to the dust-hole by cook, and often during the day would I pass, casting a longing eye at it, wishing that I dare recover it, and exchange it for that which I wore. I knew the value of it, and like the magician in Aladdin's tale, would have offered new lamps for old ones, cheerfully submitting to ridicule, that I might have repossessed my treasure. With the kitchen and its apparatus I was now quite at home ; but at every other part of the house and furniture I was completely puz- zled. Every thing appeared to me foreign, strange, and unnatural, and Prince Le Boo or any other savage, never stared or wondered JACOB FAITHFUL. 35 more than I did. Of most things I knew not the use, of many not even the names. I was literally a savage, but still a kind and docile one. The day after my new clothes had been put on, I was summoned into the parlour. Mr. Drummond and his wife surveyed me in my altered habiliments, and amused themselves at my awkwardness, at the same time that they admired my well-knit, compact, and straight figure, set off by a fit, in my opinion, much too strait. Their little daughter, Sarah, who often spoke to me, went up and whispered to her mother. " You must ask papa," was the reply. Another whisper, and a kiss, and 3Ir. Drummond told me that I should dine with them. In a few minutes I followed them into the dining-room, and for the first time I was seated to a repast which could boast of some of the supernumerary comforts of civilized life. There I sat, perched on a chair, with my feet swinging close to the carpet, glowing with heat from the compression of my clothes, and the novelty of my situation, and all that was around me. Mr. Drummond helped me to some scald- 36 JACOB FAITHFUL. ing soup, a silver spoon was put into my hand, which I twisted round and round, looking at my face reflected in miniature on its polish. " Now, Jacob, you must eat the soup with the spoon," said little Sarah, laughing ; " we shall all be done. Be quick." " Take it coolly," replied I, digging my spoon into the burning preparation, and tossing it into my mouth. It burst forth from my tor- tured throat in a diverging shower, accompanied with a howl of pain. " The poor boy has scalded his mouth," cried the lady, pouring out a tumbler of water. " It's no use crying," replied I, blubbering with all my might, " what's done can't be helped." " Better that you had not been helped,"' ob- served Mr. Drummond, wiping off his share of my liberal spargefication from his coat and waistcoat. " The poor boy has been shamefully neg- lected," observed the good-natured Mrs. Drum- mond. " Come, Jacob, sit down and try it again ; it will not burn you now." JACOB FAITHFUL. 37 " Better hick, next time," said I, shoving in a portion of it, with a great deal of tremulous hesitation, and spilling one half of it in its transit. It was now cool, but I did not get on very fast ; I held my spoon awry, and soiled my clothes. Mrs, Drummond interfered, and kindly showed me how to proceed; when Mr. Drum- mond said, " Let the boy eat it after his own fashion, my dear — only be quick, Jacobj for we are waiting." " Then I see no good losing so much of it, taking it in tale," observed I, " when I can slwp it all in bulk in a minute." I laid down my spoon, and stooping my head, applied my mouth to the edge of the plate, and sucked the re- mainder down my throat without spilling a drop. I looked up for approbation, and was very much astounded to hear Mrs. Drummond quietly observe, " That is not the way to eat soup."* I made so many blunders during the meal, that little Sarah was in a continued roar of laughter ; and I felt so miserable, that I heartily wished myself again in my dog-kennel S8 JACOB FAITHFUL. on board of the lighter, gnawing biscuit in all the happiness of content, and dignity of sim- plicity. For the first time, I felt the pangs of humiliation. Ignorance is not always debasing. On board of the lighter I was sufficient for myself, my company, and my duties. I felt an elasticity of mind, a respect for myself, and a consciousness of power, as the immense mass was guided through the waters by my single arm. There, without being able to analyze my feelings, I was a spirit guiding a little world ; and now at this table, and in com- pany "with rational and well-informed beings, I felt humiliated and degraded ; my heart was overflowing with shame, and at one unusual loud laugh of the little Sarah, the heaped-up measure of my anguish overflowed, and I burst into a passion of tears. As I laid with my head upon the tablecloth, regardless of those decencies I had so much feared, and awake only to a deep sense of wounded pride, each sob coming from the very core of my heart, I felt a soft breathing warm upon my cheek, that caused me to look up timidly, and I beheld tlie JACOB FAITHFUL. 39 glowing and beautiful face of little Sarah, her eyes filled with tears, looking so softly and be- seechingly at me, that I felt at once I was of some value, and panted to be of more. " I won't laugh at you any more," said she ; " so don''t cry, Jacob." " No more I will," replied I,, cheering up. She remained standing by me, and I felt grate- ful. " The first time I get a piece of wood," whispered I, " I'll cut you out a barge." " Oh, papa ! Jacob says he'll cut me out a barge." " That boy has a heart," said Mr. Drum- mond to his wife. " But will it swim, Jacob?" inquired the little girl. " Yes ; and if it 's lopsided^ call me a lub- ber." " What's lopsid^d^ and what's a lubber?" replied Sarah. " Why, don't you know ?" cried I ; and I felt my confidence return, when I found that in this little instance I knew more than she did. 4-0 JACOB FAITHFUL. CHAPTER III. I am sent to a charity shool, where the boys do not consider charity as a part of their education — The peculiarities of the master, and the magical effects of a blow, of the nose — A disquisition upon the let- ter A, from which I find all my previous learning thrown away. Before I quitted the room, Sarah and I were in deep converse at the window, and Mr. and Mrs. Drummond employed likewise at the table. The result of the conversation between Sarah and me was the intimacy of children ; that of Mr. and Mrs. Drummond, that the sooner I was disposed of, the more it would be for my own advantage. Having some interest with the governors of a charity school near Brentford, Mr. Drummond lost no time in JACOB FAITHFUL. 41 procuring me admission ; and before I had quite spoiled my new clothes, having worn them nearly three weeks, I was suited afresh in a formal attire— a long coat of pepper and salt, yellow leather-breeches tied at the knees, a worsted cap with a tuft on the top of it, stock- ings and shoes to match, and a large pewter plate upon my breast marked with No. 63, which, as I was the last entered boy, indicated the sum total of the school. It was with re- gret that I left the abode of the Drummonds, who did not think it advisable to wait for the completion of the barge, mucli to the annoy- ance of ]Miss Sarah and myself. I was con- ducted to the school by Mr. Drummond, and before we arrived met them all out walkino-. I was put in the ranks, received a little good advice from my worthy patron, who then walked away one way, while we walked another, look- ing like a regiment of yellow-thighed fieldfares straightened into human perpendiculars. Be- hold, then, the last scion of the Faithfuls, pep- pered, salted, and plated, that all the world might know that he was a charity-boy, and that 42 JACOB FAITHFUL. there was charity in this world. But if heroes, kings, great and grave men, must yield to des- tiny, lighter-boys cannot be expected to escape ; and I was doomed to receive an education, board, lodging, raiment, &c. free, gratis, and for nothing. Every society has its chief; and I was about to observe that every circle has its centre, which certainly would have been true enough, but the comparison is of no use to me, as our circle had two centres, or, to follow up the first idea, had two chiefs — the chief schoolmaster, and the chief domestic — the chief masculine and the chief feminine — the chief with the ferula and the chief with the brimstone and treacle — the master and the matron, each of whom had their appendages — the one in the usher, the other in the assistant housemaid. But of this quartette, the master was not only the most important, but the most worthy of description ; and, as he will often appear in the pages of my narrative long after my education was complete, I shall be very particular in my description of Domine Dobiensis, as he delighted to be called, or JACOB FAITHFUL. 43 dreary Dobbs, as his dutiful scholars delighted to call him. As, in our school, it was necessary that we should be instructed in reading, writ- ing, and ciphering, the governors had selected the Domine as the most fitting person that had offered for the employment, because he had, in the first place, written a work that nobody could understand upon the Greek particles ; secondly, he had proved himself a great mathe- matician, having, it was said, squared the circle by algebraical false quantities, but would never show the operation for fear of losing the honour by treachery. He had also discovered as many errors in the demonstrations of Euclid, as ever did Joey Hume in army and navy estimates, and with as much benefit to the country at large. He was a man who breathed certainly in the present age, but the half of his life was spent in antiquity, or algebray-, Once carried away by a problem or a Greek reminiscence, he passed away, as it were, from his present existence, and every thing was unheeded. His body re- mained, and breathed on his desk, but his soul was absent. This peculiarity was well-known 44 JACOB FAITHFUL. to the boys, who used to say, " Domine is in his dreams, and talks in his sleep." Domine Dobiensis left reading and writing to the usher, contrary to the regulations of the school, putting the boys, if possible, into ma- thematics, Latin, and Greek. The usher was not over competent to teach the two first; the boys not over willing to learn the latter. The master was too clever, the usher too ignorant ; hence the scholars profited little. The Domine was grave and irascible, but he possessed a fund of drollery and the kindest heart. His features could not laush, but his trachea did. The chuckle rose no higher than the rings of the windpipe, and then it was vigorously thrust back again by the impulse of gravity into the region of his heart, and gladdened it with hid- den mirth in its dark centre. The Domine loved a pun, whether it was let off in English, Greek, or Latin. The two last were made by nobody but himself, and not being understood, were of course relished by himself alone. But his love of a pun was a serious attachment : he loved it with a solemn affection — with him it was no laughing matter. JACOB FAITHFUL. 45 In person, Domine Dobiensis was above six feet, all. bone and sinews. His face was long, and his lineaments large ; but his predominant feature was his nose, which, large as were the others, bore them down into insignificance. It was a prodigy — a ridicule ; but he consoled himself — Ovid was called Naso. It was not an acquiline nose, nor was it an acquiline nose reversed. It was not a nose snubbed at the ex- tremity, gross, heavy, or carbuncled, or fluting. In all its magnitude of proportions, it was an intellectual nose. It was thin, horny, trans- parent, and sonorous. Its snuffle was conse- quential, and its sneeze oracular. The very sight of it was impressive; its sound, when blown in school-hours, was ominous. But the scholars loved the nose for the warning which it gave : like the rattle of the dreaded snake, which announces its presence, so did the nose indicate to the scholars that they were to be on their suard. The Domine would attend to this world and its duties for an hour or two, and then forget his scholars and his school-room, while he took a journey into the world of Greek 46 JACOB FAITHFUL. or algebra. Then when he marked