University of Virginia Library

29. CHAPTER XXIX.
How, by a second exercise of his new-born wisdom, Robin Day
escapes a terrible difficulty. He meets two old friends, and has a
controversy with Skipper Duck.

I found myself, as soon as I had collected my
wits sufficiently to look around me, crammed into
a barge, with as many of my new companions in-arms,
and as much plunder of various kinds, as the
boat would hold. At my side was the valiant personage,
the supposed captain of militia, to whom I
had first offered my patriotic services, and who now
wore a tattered handkerchief round his jaws, in
token they had received some damage in the action;
and in the stern was his superior, our gallant leader,
now in command of the boat. Around us, were
other boats, forming quite a fleet, all as much crowded
and deeply laden as our own, and all rapidly
descending the river towards a squadron of armed
schooners and shallops, which were seen at anchor
some six or seven miles below.

The sight of these vessels—prizes picked up in
the bay, and now employed in ravaging its inmost
nooks and corners, in which—once embarked in
them—I knew not to what further warlike expeditions
against my own countrymen I might be led,
filled me with desperation; and I immediately desired
the commander's attention to my case, by

assuring him, as before, that I had made a mistake,
“of which,” I told him, “it was my opinion, he
could not, as a gentleman, take advantage; and,
therefore, I expected he would immediately set me
ashore.”

“Hah!” cried the commander, “I remember
you; fought like a born devil—highly approve of
your spirit—did n't think it was in you. But—now
I think of it—you are a volunteer, hah? Who are
you, and where did you come from?”

“Sir,” said I, “my name is Robin Day; I am not
a volunteer—at least not on your side. I have
made a mistake, sir—I am an American.”

“The devil you are!” quoth the officer, staring
at me with astonishment; while my late leader
opened his bandaged jaws to give utterance to a
horse-laugh, in which he was joined by all the boat's
crew, and to the exclamation, “Here's a Johnny
Raw, d—n my eyes!”

“Hold your jaw, Tom Gunner, you drunken
jackass;—and you, men, mind your eyes, d—n
me!” quoth the commander, irefully. He gave
me another stare as full of surprise as the first, reechoed
my confession—“An American!” and then
turned to Tom Gunner, to resolve the riddle:
“Here, you lubber,” he cried, “what means all
this? Where did you pick up the younker?”

“'Long shore,” said Tom Gunner, with a hiccup;
“came a volunteering for his king and country—
grabbed roosters like a weasel, and fought the enemy
like a tomcat! Says he to me, says he—hiccup—
says he to me, `Captain,' (for, d'ye see, my eyes!
he takes me for a commodore:) says he to me, says
he—he did, lieutenant, by G—!” And here the
worthy speaker came to a stand, admiring at the
wonderfulness of my communication; of which,
however, he forgot he had not related one word.

“Hark you, Sam Slack,” quoth the officer, turning
to the one-eyed man, from whom I had received
the long nine, “you are the only man of the boatswain's
gang not as drunk as himself:—how did you
come by the young fellow?”

“Sir,” said I, waxing impatient, “I can tell you
that myself, as well—and, indeed, much better than
he can. I am an American, as I said before: I
came down here to fight the enemies of my country;
and happening by accident upon this gentleman and
his company,”—(“Gentleman!” quoth Tom Gunner,
with a nod of humorous wonder, “what the
h— will he make of me next, I axes!”)—“I say,
sir,” I continued, “stumbling upon this person and
his company, playing Yankee Doodle on a drum
and fife”—(“Picked 'em up in a ditch, where they
were dropped by a company of milishy, then under
full sail on the lee beam, standing No'th East half
East,” murmured Mr. Gunner:)—“I say, sir, I had
the misfortune to be deceived in their character—to
take them for a company of American militia-men;”
—(“Take me for a milishy-man!” quoth Tom Gunner—“my
eyes, what will become of me!”)—
“Upon which, sir, I volunteered my services. Nor
did I discover the error, sir, until the moment of
going into battle.”

“Upon my soul,” said the commander, “do you
expect me to believe all this cock-and-a-bull story!
An American, hah! discovery of error before going
into battle, hah! Why, did not I see you, with my
own eyes, fight the Americans with the greatest spirit
in the world?”

“If I did sir,” said I, “it was because I was
frightened out of my senses:” at which words, uttered
with the earnestness of truth, the lieutenant
burst into a laugh, then swore at the men for imitating

his example, and ended by asking me, with
much gravity—“And so, sir, because you made a
mistake—mistaking a company of his Britannic
Majesty's naval forces for a gang of ragamuffin American
militia, (and, curse me, I don't think, just now,
the mistake very unnatural,)—you expect me to put
you ashore?”

“Certainly, sir,” said I, “you can't, as a gentleman,
refuse to do so.”

“I'll be hang'd if I can't though,” said the officer:
“Having once volunteered to take arms in his
majesty's service —”

“But,” said I, interrupting him, “I never did
volunteer to take arms for his majesty: it was in the
service of my own country. And sir,” I added,
with suitable spirit, “I won't consent to be considered
a volunteer any longer.”

“You won't?” quoth the lieutenant. “Well then,
do me the favour to know your place—to hold your
tongue, and consider yourself a prisoner of war; for
one or the other you are—a volunteer, sir, or a prisoner
of war.”

A prisoner of war! It needed not the solemn and
severe look with which the commander pronounced
the word, to fill me with consternation. I had often
heard of British prison-ships: my whole life, as I
may say, had been passed in view of those waters on
which, in the days of the Revolution, these floating
Bastiles had acquired their terrible notoriety; and I had
known several old soldiers of the War of Independence,
who, having been confined in them, had many
a dismal tale to tell of the miseries of such captivity.
As a prisoner of war, I perceived I must be immediately
thrust into some horrible hulk, to roast and
freeze, to hunger and thirst, to pine for air, to languish
in fetters, to be tyrannised over by all hands,

to be carried over the seas afar from my country and
friends—in short, to be the most miserable creature
in the world.

To escape this odious fate now became an object
which I cast over in my mind with desperate energy
and haste; for there was no time to be lost. Once
received on board a British ship, a prisoner of war,
all, I foresaw, must be over with me; escape would
then be hopeless. A brilliant prospect struck my
mind, and instantly dispelled the clouds of despair
which had been gathering upon it. Received as a
volunteer, I should, of course, escape fetters and tyrannical
usage; and, what was of much greater consequence,
I should be sent ashore with the rest, to
burn villages and attack farm yards, or, (which was
my way of viewing it,) while my comrades were
thus engaged, to give them the slip, and so achieve
my liberty. The idea captivated my mind in a moment;
and turning to the lieutenant, I hastily assured
him, I had changed my mind, and begged he would
consider me a volunteer as before, as I was determined
to live a life of glory. And upon his expressing
a little wonder at my willingness to “fight
the Americans, my own countrymen,” I gave him
to understand, it was doubtful whether I could claim
them as such; it not being at all certain that I was
born in the country. Nay, I even informed him of
my late adventure with M'Goggin the schoolmaster,
to convince him I had the best reasons possible to
avoid returning to the Americans.

I am sorry to say, the gentleman did not seem to
consider the killing of a schoolmaster any very
heinous offence; on the contrary, he was extremely
diverted at the affair, swore I was a lad of mettle,
and that he would protect me against the universal
Yankee nation. Finally, he declared I should be
received as a volunteer in his own ship, and, by and

by, recommended to the admiral for a commission;
provided I should signalize my courage, at the
next excursion on shore, as handsomely as, he declared,
I had already done. I discovered I had
made a favourable impression upon his mind; and I
must say he made as satisfactory an one upon mine,
being a good-humoured, pleasant personage, who
seemed to take an interest in my affairs, of which
he questioned me a good deal, besides laughing
heartily at every thing I said.

Our conversation lasted until we reached the fleet
of small vessels anchored below; in one of which,
a miserable, old, and dirty looking shallop, I was
disappointed to find the “ship” into which I was to
be received a volunteer, under the immediate command
of my new friend. He pointed her out, as
we approached, declaring, by way of commendation,
she was “the best oysterboat on the bay.”

I looked up to her, and rubbed my eyes to dispel
a dream that seemed suddenly to have seized upon
my mind. Nothing could be more familiar than
the appearance of the vessel, which, in a moment,
conjured up remembrances that had long slumbered,
and, indeed, been for a time entirely lost. Methought
I saw before me the notorious Jumping
Jenny, that identical vile bark, in which I had passed
so many years of childhood and suffering; and to
make the illusion more perfect, I beheld, sitting upon
the bowsprit, as she swung by her anchor, the figure
of a boy, as ragged and uncouth as boy could be,
engaged in that very occupation, the last I had been
condemned to in the Jumping Jenny—that is to
say, plucking a goose, and dropping its feathers idly
over the tide. I saw, methought, not merely my
eidolon, or alter ego, but myself, such as I had
been, five years before; and so strongly did the feeling

of identification possess me, that I, for an instant,
fairly took to myself, and blushed and trembled at,
the jeering notices, which several of our drunken
boat's crew took of the hero of the bowsprit as we
approached, and found myself involuntarily dodging,
in anticipation of the shower of pebbles and
oystershells, which, I felt, was necessary to give the
last finish of reality to the scene.

A second look, however, showed me that my
representative was a much bigger and older boy
than I had been, at the epoch of the gander-pulling;
and he presently showed that, with all his squalid
looks, he was not deficient in a kind of savage spirit,
such as I, certainly, had never possessed, nor, indeed,
any spirit at all, while under the dominion of
Skipper Duck. To the gibes of the sailors he made
immediate response, by invoking all kinds of coarse
and puerile maledictions on their heads; when, having
thus vented his indignation, he fell to work
again upon the goose, leaving us to enter the vessel
without further scolding.

We jumped, accordingly, aboard, where the appearances
of things called up still more vividly the recollections
of my own unhappy childhood: I could
have sworn I again trod the deck of the Jumping
Jenny. And, indeed, I had not been half a minute
on board, when full confirmation of the suspicion was
furnished by the sudden appearance of no less a man
than the veritable Skipper Duck himself, my horrible
tyrant, whom I immediately recognised, and, I
believe, by mere instinct, for five years had wrought
many changes in his visage and person. What fury
possessed me at the moment I hardly know: perhaps
the recollections, thus renewed, of his former barbarities,
awakened the desire for vengeance; and
perhaps the desperation of my present circumstances

had a share in the excitement; but certain it is, no
sooner had this amiable personage, in obedience to
the call of the lieutenant—“Here, pilot, skipper,
where the devil are you?” made his appearance, than,
driven by an irresistible impulse, I flew at him, and
with the words, “Now, you scoundrel, I'll pay you
up for old times,” and some half a dozen cuffs, applied
with all my strength, laid him sprawling on the
deck.

“Hurrah for you, Mister!” cried my representative,
rushing from the bowsprit to my side, goose in
hand, and looking half frantic with delight—“that's
the way to serve him—give him a little more!”

“I will,” said I, fortified by such encouragement,
and squared off to give the Skipper, amazed and confounded
at such an attack, the rising blow; when my
commander, as much astonished as Duck, but still
vastly diverted, bade me (after first kicking the lad
of the goose out of the way,) “hold,” and asked
“what I meant by beating the king's friends, after
volunteering to fight his enemies?”

“Sir,” said I, “this man is the biggest villain in
America, and treated me like a dog when I was a
little boy.”

“I!” said Skipper Duck, wiping the blood from
his nose, and admiring its ruddy appearance on his
thumb; “I!” ejaculated the rascal with meek and
submissive astonishment; “I never seed the young
gentleman before in my life.”

“What, you thief!” said I, “don't you recollect
Robin Day?”

“Robin Day!” cried he, giving me a look of surprise,
then of surly resentment: “Very well, little
Cock Robin, I won't forget you!” With which
words, he sneaked away, and I saw no more of him.

The lieutenant now invited me into the cabin—

that dog-hole in which I had so often played the
part of a menial and slave—to inquire a little more
into my history; and I gave him a full account of all
Skipper Duck's behaviour; upon which he commented
by laughing very heartily, and by declaring that
Skipper Duck deserved all I had given him, and
something more into the bargain. “As for his cruelty,”
said he, “they tell me, he used to treat boy
Tom—that's the cook boy with the goose, his 'prentice—just
as savagely: but Tom's a devil, and deserves
a rope's end every watch—and, upon my
soul, I believe he get's it.” I asked him how Skipper
Duck came to be in the British service; upon
which, he told me they had captured his vessel; and
the Skipper, preferring a handsome reward, and the
hope of having his shallop, by and by, restored to
him, to remaining a prisoner of war, or being set
ashore a pennyless beggar, had accepted a situation
as pilot, being well acquainted with all the Chesapeake
waters.

“What a traitorous villain!” thought I to myself,
and would have said it, had it not immediately occurred
to me that any such expression of virtuous
indignation would look suspicious, coming from me
in my present circumstances. But I resolved in
my heart, some time or other, to have Skipper Duck
hanged for high treason.

My commander having asked me all the questions
he thought proper, first as to my own affairs, and
then in relation to the villages on some of the
neighbouring waters, of which, however, I soon
satisfied him I knew nothing, now gave me to understand,
that as a volunteer taking arms in his
Majesty's service, it was expedient I should be
taught the use of arms; for which purpose, greatly
to my disappointment, for I expected he would

have invited me to dinner, which boy Tom was
now laying on the table, gave me in charge of a
man in a red-coat—I believe a marine—who was
exercising the sailors on the deck, and teaching
them a more scientific use of their legs and muskets
than they naturally possessed, all, doubtless, to fit
them more advantageously for the land-service, on
which they were to be employed. And in this kind
of exercise, stopping only for a time to eat our dinners,
(I, to my great dudgeon, being obliged to mess
with the men, as a person of no greater consideration
than themselves,) we continued for several hours
during the afternoon; when a boat coming on board
with a message to the lieutenant, we were ordered
to go below and turn in—that is, go to bed—and
snatch a little sleep, previous to embarking on a
new enterprise, to be undertaken some time during
the night.

I felt my dignity again outraged by being compelled
to sleep in the common hold among the men,
and thought that my friend the lieutenant was not
treating me in the most gentlemanly manner in the
world; but the prospect of going on shore, and so
effecting my escape, reconciled me to the wrong,
and I lay down on the hard planks of the hold (for
not a bit of a bed had I,) with great resignation,
and straightway fell fast asleep, dreaming of prison-ships
all the time.