Читать книгу In Highland Harbours with Para Handy - Munro Neil - Страница 7

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Para Handy, gossiping with his crew, and speaking generally of "luck" and the rewards of industry and intelligence, always counted luck the strongest agent in the destiny of man. "Since ever I wass a skipper," he said, "I had nobody in my crew that was not lucky; I would sooner have lucky chaps on board wi' me than tip-top sailors that had a great experience o' wrecks. If the Fital Spark hass the reputation o' bein' the smertest vessel in the coastin' tred, it's no' aal-thegither wi' navigation; it's chust because I had luck mysel', and aalways had a lot o' lucky laads aboot me. Dougie himsel' 'll tell you that."

"We have plenty o' luck," admitted Dougie, nursing a wounded head he had got that day by carelessly using it as a fender to keep the side of the ship from the piles of Tarbert quay. "We have plenty of luck, but there must be a lot o' cluver people never mindin' mich aboot their luck, and gettin' aal the money."

"Money!" said the Captain with contempt; "there's other things to think aboot than money. If I had as mich money ass I needed, I wouldna ask for a penny more. There's nothing bates contentment and a pleesant way o' speakin' to the owners. You needna empty aal the jar o' jam, Macphail; give him a rap on the knuckles, Jum, and tak' it from him."

Macphail relinquished the jam-jar readily, because he had finished all that was in it. "If ye had mair luck and less jaw aboot it," said he snappishly, "ye wadna hae to wait so lang on the money ye're expectin' frae your cousin Cherlie in Dunmore. Is he no deid yet?"

"No," said Para Handy dolefully; "he's still hangin' on; I never heard o' a man o' ninety-three so desperate deleeberate aboot dyin', and it the wintertime. Last Friday week wass the fifth time they sent to Tarbert for the munister, and he wasna needed."

"That was your cousin Cherlie's luck," said the engineer, who was not without logic.

"I don't caal that luck at aal," retorted Para Handy; "I call it just manoeuvrin'. Forbye, it wasna very lucky for the munister."

Cousin Cherlie's deliberation terminated a week later, when the Vital Spark was in Loch Pyne, and the Captain borrowed a hat and went to the funeral. "My own roond hat iss a good enough hat and quite respectable," he said, "but someway it doesna fit for funerals since I canna wear it on my heid except it's cocked a little to the side. You see, I have been at so many Tarbert Fairs with it, and highjeenks chenerally."

The crew helped to make his toilet. Macphail, with a piece of oily engine-room waste, imparted a resplendent polish to the borrowed hat, which belonged to a Tarbert citizen, and had lost a good deal of its original lustre. Dougie contributed a waistcoat, and Sunny Jim cheerfully sacrificed his thumb-nails in fastening the essential, but unaccustomed, collar on his Captain's neck. "There ye are, skipper," he said; "ye look Al if ye only had a clean hanky."

"I'm no feelin' in very good trum, though," said the Captain, who seemed to be almost throttled by the collar; "there's no' mich fun for us sailor chaps in bein' chentlemen. But of course it's no' every day we're buryin' Cherlie, and I'm his only cousin, no' coontin' them MacNeills."

"Hoo much did ye say he had?" asked Macphail. "Was it a hunder pounds and a free hoose? or a hunder free hooses and a pound?"

"Do you know, laads," said the Captain, "his money wasna in my mind!"

"That's wi' the ticht collar," said the engineer unfeelingly; "lowse yer collar and mak' up yer mind whit yer gaun to dae wi' the hunder pounds. That's to say, if the MacNeills don't get it."

The Captain's heart, at the very thought of such disaster, came to his throat, and burst the fastenings of his collar, which had to be rigged up anew by Sunny Jim.

"The MacNeills," he said, "'ll no' touch a penny. Cherlie couldna stand them, and I wass aye his favourite, me bein' a captain. Money would be wasted on the MacNeills; they wouldna know what to do wi't."

"I ken whit I wad dae wi' a hunder pound if I had it," said Macphail emphatically.

"You would likely gie up the sea and retire to the free hoose wi' a ton or two o' your penny novelles," suggested the Captain.

"I wad trevel," said the engineer, heedless of the unpleasant innuendo. "There's naething like trevel for widenin' the mind. When I was sailin' foreign I saw a lot o' life, but I didna see near sae much as I wad hae seen if I had the money."

"Fancy a sailor traivellin'!" remarked Sunny Jim. "There's no much fun in that."

"I don't mean traivellin' in boats," explained Macphail. "Ye never see onything trevellin' in boats; I mean trains. The only places abroad worth seein' 's no' to be seen at the heid o' a quay; ye must tak' a train to them. Rome, and Paris, and the Eyetalian Lakes--that sort o' thing. Ye live in hotels and any amount o' men's ready to carry yer bag. Wi' a hunder pound a man could trevel the world."

"Never heed him, Peter," said Dougie; "trevellin's an anxious business; you're aye losin' your tickets, and the tips you have to give folk's a fair ruination. If I had a hunder pound and a free hoose, I would let the hoose and tak' a ferm."

"A ferm's no' bad," admitted Para Handy, "but there's a desperate lot o' work aboot a ferm."

"There's a desperate lot o' work aboot anything ye can put your hand to, except enchineerin'," said Dougie sadly, "but you can do wonders if you have a good horse and a fine strong wife. You wouldna need to be a rale former, but chust wan o' them chentleman termers that wears knickerbockers and yellow leggin's."

"There's a good dale in what you say," Dougie, admitted the Captain, who saw a pleasing vision of himself in yellow leggings. "It's no' a bad tred, chentleman fermin'."

"Tred!" said Dougie; "it's no a tred--it's a recreation, like sailin' a yat. Plooin'-matches and 'ool-markets every other day; your own eggs and all the mutton and milk you need for nothing. Buy you a ferm, Peter, I'm tellin' you!"

"Chust that!" said the Captain cunningly. "And then maybe you would be skipper of the Fital Spark, Dougie."

"I wasna thinkin' aboot that at aal!" protested the mate.

"I wasna sayin' you were," said the Captain, "but the mustress would give you the notion."

"If I was you I wad tak' a shop in Gleska," said Sunny Jim. "No' an awfu' big shop, but a handy wee wan ye could shut when there was any sport on withoot mony people noticin'."

Para Handy buttoned his coat, and prepared to set out for the funeral. "Whether it wass trevellin', or a ferm, or a shop, I would get on sublime, for I'm a lucky, lucky man, laads; but I'm no lettin' my mind dwell on Cherlie's money, oot o' respect for my relative. I'll see you aal when I come back, and maybe it might be an Occasion."

Dougie cried after him when he was a little up the quay, "Captain, your hat's chust a little to the side."

Para Handy was back from the funeral much sooner than was expected, his collar in his pocket, and the borrowed hat in his hand. He went below to resume his ordinary habiliments without a word to the crew, who concluded that he was discreetly concealing the legacy. When he came up, they asked no questions, from a sense of proper decorum, but the Captain seemed surcharged with great emotion.

"Dougie," he said to the mate, "what would be the cost o' a pair o' yellow leggin's?"

"Aboot a pound," said the mate, with some exultation. "Have you made up your mind for fermin'?"

"No," said the Captain bitterly; "but I might afford the leggin's off my cousin Cherlie's legacy, but it wouldna go the length o' knickerbockers."