31. CHAPTER XXXI.
Every one knows what a fascination there is in wandering
up and down in a deserted old tenement in some warm,
dreamy country; where the vacant halls seem echoing of
silence, and the doors creak open like the footsteps of strangers;
and into every window the old garden trees thrust their
dark boughs, like the arms of night-burglars; and ever and
anon the nails start from the wainscot; while behind it the
mice rattle like dice. Up and down in such old specter
houses one loves to wander; and so much the more, if the
place be haunted by some marvelous story.
And during the drowsy stillness of the tropical sea-day,
very much such a fancy had I, for prying about our
little brigantine, whose tragic hull was haunted by the
memory of the massacre, of which it still bore innumerable
traces.
And so far as the indulgence of quiet strolling and reverie
was concerned, it was well nigh the same as if I were all
by myself. For Samoa, for a time, was rather reserved,
being occupied with thoughts of his own. And Annatoo
seldom troubled me with her presence. She was taken up
with her calicoes and jewelry; which I had permitted her
to retain, to keep her in good humor if possible. And as for
my royal old Viking, he was one of those individuals who
seldom speak, unless personally addressed.
Besides, all that by day was necessary to navigating the
Parki was, that somebody should stand at the helm; the
craft being so small, and the grating, whereon the steersman
stood, so elevated, that he commanded a view far beyond the
bowsprit; thus keeping Argus eyes on the sea, as he steered
us along. In all other respects we left the brigantine to the
guardianship of the gentle winds.
My own turn at the helm—for though commander, I felt
constrained to do duty with the rest—came but once in the
twenty-four hours. And not only did Jarl and Samoa,
officiate as helmsmen, but also Dame Annatoo, who had
become quite expert at the business. Though Jarl always
maintained that there was a slight drawback upon her usefulness
in this vocation. Too much taken up by her lovely
image partially reflected in the glass of the binnacle before
her, Annatoo now and then neglected her duty, and led us
some devious dances. Nor was she, I ween, the first woman
that ever led men into zigzags.
For the reasons above stated, I had many spare hours to
myself. At times, I mounted aloft, and lounging in the
slings of the topsail yard—one of the many snug nooks in a
ship's rigging—I gazed broad off upon the blue boundless
sea, and wondered what they were doing in that unknown
land, toward which we were fated to be borne. Or feeling
less meditative, I roved about hither and thither; slipping
over, by the stays, from one mast to the other; climbing
up to the truck; or lounging out to the ends of the yards;
exploring wherever there was a foothold. It was like
climbing about in some mighty old oak, and resting in the
crotches.
To a sailor, a ship's ropes are a study. And to me, every
rope-yarn of the Parki's was invested with interest. The
outlandish fashion of her shrouds, the collars of her stays,
the stirrups, seizings, Flemish-horses, gaskets,—all the
wilderness of her rigging, bore unequivocal traces of her
origin.
But, perhaps, my pleasantest hours were those which I
spent, stretched out on a pile of old sails, in the fore-top;
lazily dozing to the craft's light roll.
Frequently, I descended to the cabin: for the fiftieth time,
exploring the lockers and state-rooms for some new object of
curiosity. And often, with a glimmering light, I went into
the midnight hold, as into old vaults and catacombs; and
creeping between damp ranges of casks, penetrated into its
farthest recesses.
Sometimes, in these under-ground burrowings, I lighted
upon sundry out-of-the-way hiding places of Annatoo's;
where were snugly secreted divers articles, with which she
had been smitten. In truth, no small portion of the hull
seemed a mine of stolen goods, stolen out of its own bowels.
I found a jaunty shore-cap of the captain's, hidden away in
the hollow heart of a coil of rigging; covered over in a
manner most touchingly natural, with a heap of old ropes;
and near by, in a breaker, discovered several entire pieces of
calico, heroically tied together with cords almost strong
enough to sustain the mainmast.
Near the stray light, which, when the hatch was removed,
gleamed down into this part of the hold, was a huge groundtier
butt, headless as Charles the First. And herein was a
mat nicely spread for repose; a discovery which accounted
for what had often proved an enigma. Not seldom Annatoo
had been among the missing; and though, from stem to
stern, loudly invoked to come forth and relieve the poignant
distress of her anxious friends, the dame remained perdu;
silent and invisible as a spirit. But in her own good time,
she would mysteriously emerge; or be suddenly espied
lounging quietly in the forecastle, as if she had been there
from all eternity.
Useless to inquire, “Where hast thou been, sweet Annatoo?”
For no sweet rejoinder would she give.
But now the problem was solved. Here, in this silent
cask in the hold, Annatoo was wont to coil herself away,
like a garter-snake under a stone.
Whether she thus stood sentry over her goods secreted
round about: whether she here performed penance like a
nun in her cell; or was moved to this unaccountable freak
by the powers of the air; no one could tell. Can you?
Verily, her ways were as the ways of the inscrutable
penguins in building their inscrutable nests, which baffle all
science, and make a fool of a sage.
Marvelous Annatoo! who shall expound thee?
