11. CHAPTER XI.
DOCTOR LONG GHOST A WAG—ONE OF HIS CAPERS.
Grave though he was at times, Doctor Long Ghost was a
decided wag.
Every one knows what lovers of fun sailors are ashore—afloat,
they are absolutely mad after it. So his pranks were duly appreciated.
The poor old black cook! Unlashing his hammock for the
night, and finding a wet log fast asleep in it; and then waking
in the morning with his woolly head tarred. Opening his coppers,
and finding an old boot boiling away as saucy as could
be, and sometimes cakes of pitch candying in his oven.
Baltimore's[3]
tribulations were indeed sore; there was no
peace for him day nor night. Poor fellow! he was altogether
too good-natured. Say what they will about easy-tempered
people, it is far better, on some accounts, to have the temper
of a wolf. Who ever thought of taking liberties with gruff
Black Dan!
The most curious of the doctor's jokes, was hoisting the men
aloft by the foot or shoulder, when they fell asleep on deck during
the night-watches.
Ascending from the forecastle on one occasion, he found
every soul napping, and forthwith went about his capers.
Fastening a rope's end to each sleeper, he rove the lines
through a number of blocks, and conducted them all to the
windlass; then, by heaving round cheerily, in spite of cries and
struggles, he soon had them dangling aloft in all directions by
arms and legs. Waked by the uproar, we rushed up from below,
and found the poor fellows swinging in the moonlight
from the tops and lower yard-arms, like a parcel of pirates gibbeted
at sea by a cruiser.
Connected with this sort of diversion, was another prank of his.
During the night some of those on deck would come below to
light a pipe, or take a mouthful of beef and biscuit. Sometimes
they fell asleep; and being missed directly that any thing
was to be done, their shipmates often amused themselves by
running them aloft with a pulley dropped down the scuttle from
the fore-top.
One night, when all was perfectly still, I lay awake in the
forecastle; the lamp was burning low and thick, and swinging
from its blackened beam; and with the uniform motion of the
ship, the men in the bunks rolled slowly from side to side; the
hammocks swaying in unison.
Presently I heard a foot upon the ladder, and, looking up,
saw a wide trowsers' leg. Immediately, Navy Bob, a stout, old
Triton, stealthily descended, and at once went to groping in the
locker after something to eat.
Supper ended, he proceeded to load his pipe. Now, for a
good comfortable smoke at sea, there never was a better place
than the Julia's forecastle at midnight. To enjoy the luxury,
one wants to fall into a kind of dreamy revery, only known to
the children of the weed. And the very atmosphere of the
place, laden as it was with the snores of the sleepers, was inducive
of this. No wonder, then, that after a while Bob's head
sunk upon his breast; presently his hat fell off, the extinguished
pipe dropped from his mouth, and the next moment he lay out
on the chest as tranquil as an infant.
Suddenly an order was heard on deck, followed by the
trampling of feet and the hauling of rigging. The yards were
being braced, and soon after the sleeper was missed; for there
was a whispered conference over the scuttle.
Directly a shadow glided across the forecastle and noiselessly
approached the unsuspecting Bob. It was one of the watch
with the end of a rope leading out of sight up the scuttle.
Pausing an instant, the sailor pressed softly the chest of his
victim, sounding his slumbers; and then hitching the cord to
his ankle, returned to the deck.
Hardly was his back turned, when a long limb was thrust
from a hammock opposite, and Doctor Long Ghost, leaping
forth warily, whipped the rope from Bob's ankle, and fastened it
like lightning to a great lumbering chest, the property of the
man who had just disappeared.
Scarcely was the thing done, when lo! with a thundering
bound, the clumsy box was torn from its fastenings, and banging
from side to side, flew toward the scuttle. Here it jammed;
and thinking that Bob, who was as strong as a windlass,
was grappling a beam and trying to cut the line, the jokers on
deck strained away furiously. On a sudden, the chest went
aloft, and striking against the mast, flew open, raining down on
the heads of the party a merciless shower of things too numerous
to mention.
Of course the uproar roused all hands, and when we hurried
on deck, there was the owner of the box, looking aghast at its
scattered contents, and with one wandering hand taking the
altitude of a bump on his head.
