the house of mourning.
we have it on the highest authority that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. this fallen world does not readily believe that, but then the world is notoriously slow to believe the truth, and also rather apt to believe what is false. it was long before even the learned world could be got to believe that the world itself moves round the sun. indeed it is more than probable that more than half the world does not believe that yet. on the other hand, much of it very likely believes still that the world is flat. a savage of the prairie would almost certainly entertain that fallacy, while a savage of the mountains would perhaps laugh him to scorn, yet neither would admit that it was a globe.
so, mankind is very unwilling to accept the truth that it is better to give than to receive, though such is certainly the case if there be truth in holy writ.
john gunter had been much impressed, and not a little softened, by the recent catastrophe of the shipwreck and of his skipper’s death, but he had not yet been subdued to the point of believing that it would be better to spend an hour with widow bright than to spend it in the public-house, even though his shipmate joe davidson did his best to persuade him of that truth.
“come,” said joe, as a last appeal, “come, john, what’ll our shipmates think of ’ee if you never go near the poor thing to offer her a word o’ comfort?”
“i can’t comfort nobody,” replied gunter with a surly heave of his shoulder.
“yes, you can,” said joe, earnestly; “why, the very sight o’ you bein’ there, out o’ respect to david, would do her poor heart good.”
the idea of anybody deriving comfort from a sight of him so tickled gunter that he only replied with a sarcastic laugh, nevertheless he followed his mate sulkily and, as it were, under protest.
on entering the humble dwelling they found spivin, trevor, and zulu already there. mrs bright arose with tearful eyes to welcome the new guests. billy rose with her. he had scarcely left his mother’s side for more than a few minutes since the dark night of the wreck, though several days had elapsed.
it was a great era in the life of the fisher-boy—a new departure. it had brought him for the first time in his young life into personal contact as it were, with the dark side of life, and had made an indelible impression on his soul. it did not indeed abate the sprightly activity of his mind or body, but it sobered his spirit and, in one day, made him more of a man than several years of ordinary life could have accomplished. the most visible result was a manly consideration of, and a womanly tenderness towards, his mother, which went a long way to calm mrs bright’s first outbreak of sorrow.
these rough fishermen—rough only in outward appearance—had their own method of comforting the widow. they did not attempt anything like direct consolation, however, but they sat beside her and chatted in quiet undertones—through which there ran an unmistakable sound of sympathy. their talk was about incidents and events of a pleasant or cheering kind in their several experiences. and occasionally, though not often, they referred to the absent david when anything particularly favourable to him could be said.
“we’ve got good news, joe,” said billy, when the former was seated.
“ay, billy, i’m glad o’ that. what may the good news be?”
“another ‘evening star’ has been raised up to us by the lord,” said mrs bright, “but oh! it will never shine like the first one to me!” the poor woman could go no further, so billy again took up the story.
“you know,” he said, “that our kind friend miss ruth dotropy has been greatly taken up about us since father went—went home, and it seems that she’s bin writin’ to lun’on about us, tellin’ all about the wreck, an’ about our mistake in goin’ to sea, last trip, without bein’ inspected, which lost us the insurance-money. an’ there’s a rich friend o’ hers as has sent her a thousand pound to buy mother another smack!”
“you don’t say that’s true, billy!” exclaimed joe, with a look of surprise.
“that’s just what i do say, joe. the smack is already bought, and is to be fitted out at once, an’ mother has made you her skipper, joe, an’ the rest have all agreed to go—zulu as cook—and gunter too. won’t you, john?”
the boy, who was somewhat excited by the news he had to tell, frankly held out his hand to gunter, and that worthy, grasping it with an unwonted display of frankness on his part growled—“i’m with ’ee, lad.”
“yes, it’s all arranged,” resumed billy, “and we’ll not be long o’ being ready for sea, so you won’t be left to starve, mother—”
up to this point the poor boy had held on with his wonted vivacity, but he stopped suddenly. the corners of his mouth began to twitch, and, laying his head on his mother’s bosom, he sobbed aloud.
it did the widow good to comfort him. the fishermen had an instinctive perception that their wisest course lay in taking no notice, and continuing their low-voiced intercourse.
“well, now,” said joe, “i have read in story-books of folk bein’ as lib’ral sometimes as to give a thousand pounds, but i never thought i’d live to see ’em do it.”
“why, joe, where have your eyes and ears bin?” said luke trevor. “don’t you know it was a lib’ral gentleman, if not two, or p’raps three, as lent the ensign, our first gospel-ship, to the mission?”
“that’s true, luke; i forgot that when i spoke, an’ there’s more gospel-smacks comin’, i’m told, presented in the same way by lib’ral folk.”
“it’s my belief,” said luke, with emphasis, at the same time striking his right knee with his hand, “it’s my belief that afore long we’ll have a gospel-ship for every fleet on the north sea.”
“right you are, boy,” said joe, “an’ the sooner the better. moreover, i’ve heard say that there’s a talk about sellin’ baccy on board of the mission-ships cheaper than what they do aboard o’ the copers. did any of ’ee hear o’ that?”
“i heard somethin’ about it,” answered luke, “but it’s too good news to be true. if they do, it’ll drive the copers off the sea.”
“of course it will. that’s just what they’re a-goin’ to do it for, i suppose.”
reader, the mode of dealing with the abominable “coper” traffic referred to by these men has at last happily been adopted, and the final blow has been dealt by the simple expedient of underselling the floating grog-shops in the article of tobacco. very considerable trouble and expense have to be incurred by the mission, however, for the tobacco has to be fetched from a foreign port; but the result amply repays the cost for the men naturally prefer paying only 1 shilling per pound on board the mission-ship, to paying 1 shilling 6 pence on board the “coper.” the smacksman’s advantages in this respect may be better understood when we say that on shore he has to pay 4 shillings per pound for tobacco. but his greatest advantage of all—that for which the plan has been adopted—is his being kept away from the vessel where, while purchasing tobacco, he is tempted to buy poisonous spirits. of course the anti-smoker is entitled to say “it were better that the smacksman should be saved from tobacco as well as drink!” but of two evils it is wise to choose the less. tobacco at 1 shilling 6 pence procured in the “coper,” with, to some, its irresistible temptation to get drunk on vile spirits, is a greater evil than the procuring of the same weed at 1 shilling in a vessel all whose surroundings and internal arrangements are conducive to the benefit of soul and body.
“d’ye mind the old swan, boys?” asked an elderly man—a former friend of david bright who had dropped in with his mite of genuine sympathy.
“what, the first gospel-ship as was sent afloat some thirty years ago? it would be hard to remember what existed before i was born!”
“well, you’ve heard of her, anyhow. she was lent by the admiralty for the work in the year eighteen hundred and something, not to go out like the ensign to the north sea fleets, but to cruise about an’ visit in the thames. i was in the swan myself for a few months when i was a young fellow, and we had grand times aboard of that wessel. it seemed to me like a sort o’ home to the sailors that they’d make for arter their woyages was over. once, i reklect, we had a evenin’ service, an’ as several ships had come in from furrin parts that mornin’ we had the swan chock-full o’ noo hands; but bless you, though they was noo to us they warn’t noo to each other. they had many of ’em met aboard the swan years before. some of ’em hadn’t met for seven and ten year, and sich a shakin’ o’ hands there was, an’ recognisin’ of each other!—i thought we’d never get the service begun. many of ’em was christian men, and felt like brothers, you see.”
“did many of the masters an’ mates come to the services in those days?” asked joe davidson.
“ay, a-many of ’em. w’y, i’ve seed lots o’ both masters an’ mates wolunteerin’ to indoose their men to come w’en some of ’em warn’t willin’—takin’ their own boats, too, to the neighbourin’ ships an’ bringin’ off the men as wanted to, w’en the swan’s bell was a-ringin’ for service. i heard one man say he hadn’t bin to a place o’ worship for ten year, an’ if he’d know’d what the swan was like he’d ha’ bin to her sooner.
“i mind meetin’ wery unexpected with a friend at that time,” continued the old fisherman, who saw that his audience was interested in his talk, and that the mind of poor mrs bright was being drawn from her great sorrow for a little. “i hadn’t met ’im for eight or ten years.
“‘hallo! abel,’ says i, ‘is that you?’
“‘that’s me,’ says he, ketchin’ hold o’ my grapnel, an’ givin’ it a shake that a’most unshipped the shoulder. ‘leastwise it’s all that’s left o’ me.’
“‘what d’ee mean?’ says i.
“‘i mean,’ says he, ‘that i’ve just lost my wessel on the gunfleet sands, but, thank god, i haven’t lost my life, nor none o’ my men, though it was a close shave.’
“‘how did it happen, abel?’ says i.
“says he, ‘it happened pretty much in the usual way. a gale, wi’ sleet that thick we could hardly see the end o’ the jib-boom. the moment we struck i know’d it was all over wi’ the old wessel, but i didn’t see my way to go under without a struggle, so we made a desp’rit attemp’ to git out the boats, but a sea saved us the trouble, for it swept ’em all away before we got at ’em, as if they’d bin on’y chips o’ wood. then, as if to mock us, another sea pitched us higher on the sands, so as the decks wasn’t washed by every wave quite so bad, but we knew that wouldn’t last for the tide was makin’ fast, so i calls the crew together, an’ says i, “now, lads, i’ve often prayed with you an’ for you. in a few minutes we’ll have to take to the riggin’, an’ you know what the end o’ that’s likely to be. before doin’ so, i’ll pray again, for nothin’ is impossible to the lord, an’ it may be his will to spare us yet a while.” well, i prayed. then we took to the riggin’ to wait for death—or rescue. an’ sure enough, after we had bin six hours there, an’ was all but frozen, a fishin’-smack came past and took us off.’”
“now, mates,” said joe davidson, after they had chatted thus in subdued tones for some time, “it do seem to me that as most of us are of one mind here, and we are, so to speak, of one fisher-family, it might do mrs bright good if we was to have a bit of the word together, and a prayer or two.”
as every one agreed to this either heartily or by silence, a bible was produced, and joe,—being mate of the late evening star, and therefore a sort of natural head of the family—read the portion where god promises to be a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless.
then they all knelt while he prayed in simple language for comfort and a blessing to the mourning household. he was followed with a very few but intensely earnest words by luke. even john gunter put up an unpremeditated prayer in the words, “god help us!” uttered in a choking voice, and the old fisherman followed them all with a deep “amen.”
after that they shook hands tenderly with the widow and billy, and went out silently from the house of mourning.
