Humility thought that for certain the shipwreck had turned his head.
“But where do you come from?” she asked.
“They call me Jacky Pascoe, ma’am; but I calls myself the King’s
Postman--
“‘Jacky Pascoe is my name,
Wendron is my nation,
Nowhere is my dwelling-place,
For Christ is my salvation--’
“I was brought to a miner, over to Wheal Jewel, in Illogan Parish;
but got conversion fifteen years since, an’ now I go about praising
the Name. I’ve been miner, cafender, cooper, mason, seaman,
scissor-grinder, umbrella-mender, holli-bubber, all by turns.
I sticks my hands in my pockets, an’ waits on the Lord; an’ what he
tells me to do, I do. This day week I was up to Fowey, working on
the tip.[2] There was a little schooner there, the _Garibaldi_, of
Newport, discharging coal. The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go in that
there schooner!’ I sought out the skipper, and said, ‘Where be bound
for next?’ ‘Back to Newport,’ says he. ‘That’ll suit me,’ I says,
an’ persuaded en to take me. But the Lord knew where she were bound
better’n the skipper; and here I be!”
It seemed to his hearers that this man took little thought of his
drowned shipmates. Mr. Raymond looked up as he strapped his books
together.
“You were not the only man in that schooner,” he said, rather
severely.
“Glory be! Who be I, to question the Lord’s ways? One day I picked
up a map, an’ seed a place on it called ‘Little Sins.’ ‘Little Sins
wants great Deliverance,’ says I, an’ I started clane off an’ walked
to the place, though I’d never so much as heard of it till then.
’Twas harvest-time there, an’ I danced into the field, shouting
‘Glory, glory. The harvest is plenty, but the labourers be few!’
The farmer was moved to give me a job ’pon the spot. I bided there
two year, an’ built them a chapel an’ preached the Word in it.
They offered me money to stop an’ preach; and I laid it before the
Lord. But He said, ‘You’re the King’s Postman. Keep moving, keep on
moving!’ I’ve built two more chapels since then.”
Late that afternoon three bodies were recovered from the sea--the
captain, the mate, and a boy of about sixteen; and were buried in the
churchyard next day, as soon as the inquest was over. Pascoe
followed the coffins, and pointed the service at the grave-side with
interjaculations of his own. “Glory be!” “A-men!” “Hallelujah!”
“Great Redemption!” To the Vicar’s surprise the small crowd after a
minute began to follow the man’s lead, until at length he could
scarcely read for these interruptions.
At supper that night Pascoe sprang a question on the Vicar.
“Be you convarted?” he asked, looking up with his mouth full of bread
and cheese.
“I hope so.”
“Aw, you _hopes!_ ’Tis a bad case with ’ee, then. When a man’s
convarted, he _knows_. Seemin’ to me, you baint. You don’t show
enough of the bright side. Now, as I go along, my very toes keep
ticking salvation. Down goes one foot, ‘Glory be!’ Down goes the
other, ‘A-men!’ Aw! I must dance for joy!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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