American people are justly noted in their dealings with all persons in
misfortune.
But Augusta was not the only person who with sorrow watched the
departure of the Harpoon. First, there was little Dick, who had
acquired a fine Yankee drawl, and grown quite half an inch on board of
her, and who fairly howled when his particular friend, a remarkably
fierce and grisly-looking boatswain, brought him as a parting offering
a large whale’s tooth, patiently carved by himself with a spirited
picture of their rescue on Kerguelen Land. Then there was Mrs. Thomas
herself. When they finally reached the island of St. Michael, in the
Azores, Augusta had offered to pay fifty pounds, being half of the
hundred sovereigns given to her by Mr. Meeson, to Captain Thomas as a
passage fee, knowing that he was by no moans overburdened with the
goods of this world. But he stoutly declined to touch a farthing,
saying that it would be unlucky to take money from a castaway. Augusta
as stoutly insisted; and, finally, a compromise was come to. Mrs.
Thomas was anxious, being seized with that acute species of
home-sickness from which Suffolk people are no more exempt than other
folk, to visit the land where she was born and the people midst whom
she was bred up. But this she could not well afford to do. Therefore,
Augusta’s proffered fifty pounds was appropriated to this purpose, and
Mrs. Thomas stopped with Augusta at Ponta Delgada, waiting for the
London and West India Line Packet to take them to Southampton.
So it came to pass that they stood together on the Ponta Delgada
breakwater and together saw the Harpoon sail off towards the setting
sun.
Then came a soft dreamy fortnight in the fair island of St. Michael,
where nature is ever as a bride, and never reaches the stage of the
hard-worked, toil-worn mother, lank and lean with the burden of
maternity. The mental act of looking back to this time, in after years,
always recalled to Augusta’s senses the odor of orange-blossoms, and
the sight of the rich pomegranate-bloom blushing the roses down. It was
a pleasant time, for the English Consul there most hospitably
entertained them—with much more personal enthusiasm, indeed, than he
generally considered it necessary to show towards shipwrecked
voyagers—a class of people of whom consular representatives abroad must
get rather tired with their eternal misfortunes and their perennial
want of clothes. Indeed, the only drawback to her enjoyment was that
the Consul, a gallant official, with red hair, equally charmed by her
adventures, her literary fame, and her person, showed a decided
disposition to fall in love with her, and a red-haired and therefore
ardent Consular officer is, under those circumstances, a somewhat
alarming personage. But the time went on without anything serious
happening; and, at last, one morning after breakfast, a man came
running up with the information that the mail was in sight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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