The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old FavoritesTappan, Eva March
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The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites
Tappan, Eva March
Children's stories; Literature -- Adaptations
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some
little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the
wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of.
Upon this he called aloud to the boat, and bid his men bring the
things ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a
present as if I had been one, not that was to be carried away along
with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still, and
they were to go without me.
First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial
waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine (the bottles held two quarts
apiece), two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of
the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about
a hundred-weight of biscuit.
He had brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of
lemons, and two bottles of lime juice, and abundance of other things;
but besides these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he
brought me six clean new shirts, six very good neck-cloths, two pair
of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a
very good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very
little; in a word, he clothed me from head to foot.
It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to
one in my circumstances; but never was anything in the world of that
kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy as it was to me to wear such
clothes at their first putting on.
After these ceremonies passed, and after all his good things were
brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be
done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether
we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of
them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last
degree; and the captain said he knew they were such rogues that there
was no obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in
irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first
English colony he could come at; and I found that the captain himself
was very anxious about it.
Upon this I told him that, if he desired it, I durst undertake to
bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he
should leave them upon the island. "I should be very glad of that,"
says the captain, "with all my heart."
"Well," says I, "I will send for them up, and talk with them for you."
So I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged,
their comrades having performed their promise,--I say, I caused them
to go to the cave and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to
the bower, and keep them there till I came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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