The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-25
WASHINGTON, D. G..
From Dckens's Household Words.
THE PERllS
CERTAIN ENGLISH PRISONERS,
AND THEIR TREASURE
IN WOMEN, CHILDREN, SILVER, & JEWELS.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.
CHAPTER iii.
The Rats on the Ricer.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

a long way down the river. But we found the
night to be a dangerous time fer such naviga
ton, on account of the eddies and rapids, and
it was therefore settled next day that in future
we would bring-to st sunset, and encsmp on
the shore. As we knew of no boats that the
Pirates possessed, up at the Prison in the
Woods, We settled always to encamp on the op-
posite side of the stream, so as 70 have the
breadth of the river between our sleep and
them. Our opinion was, that if they were &C.
quanted with any near way by land to the
mouth of this river, they would come up it in
force, and re-take US or kill us, according as
they could but that if that was not the case,
aud if the river ran By none of their secret sta.
lions, we might escape.
When l cay we seitled this or that, I do not
mean that we planned anything with any con-
fdence as to what might happen an hour hence.
So much had happened In one night. and such
great changes had been violently and suddenly
made in the fortunes of many among US, that
we mad got better used to uncertainty, in little
while, than | dare say most people do in the
cou.se of their lives.
The difficulties we soon got into, through the
of-set!ings and point-currents of the stream,
made the likelihood of our being drowned,
alone-to say nothing of our being retaken-as
broad and plain as the sun at MONDAY to all of
RATS, under The direction of the seanen, (of our
own skill, | think we never could have pre-.
vented them from oversetting,) and we also
worked hard at making good the defects in their
first hasty cOnstruction-which the water soon
found out. While We hunbly resigned ourselves
to going down, if it was the will of Our Father
that was in Heaven, we humbly made up our
minds that we would all do the best that was
in us.
And 30 we held on, gliding with the stream.
1t drove us to this bank, and it drove US to that
bank, and it turned Us, and whirled US; but vet
1t carried US on-sometimes much too slowly
sometimes much too fast, but yet it carried us
on.
My little deaf and dumb boy slumbered q
good deal now, end that was the case with all
the children. They caused very little trouble
to any one. They seemed, in my eyes, to get
more like one another, net only in quiet man.
ner, but in the face, too. The motion of the
raft was usually so much the same the scene
was usually so much the same, the sound of the
soft wash and ripple of the water was usually
so much the same, that they were made drowsy,
as they might have been by the constant play
ing of one tune. Even On the grown people,
who worked hard and felt anxiety, the same
things produced something of the same effect.
Every day was 80 like the other, that soon lost
count Of the days myself, and had to ask Miss
Maryou, for instance, whether this was the third
or fourth Miss Mssson Rad q pocket-book and
pencil, and she kept the log that is to say, she
entered up clear little journal of toe time, and
OF the distances our seamen thought we had
made, each night
So, as | say, we kept afoat and glided on.
All day long, and every day, the water, and the
woods, and sky; all day long, and every day,
the contaut watching of both sides of the river,
and far ahead at every bold tnrn and sweep it
made, for any egns of Pirate-boats, or Pirate
dwellings,. Sc, as l say, we kept afoat and
gided on-the days melting themselves to-
gether to that degree that could hardly believe
my ears when asked How many, now, Miss2"
and she answered, "Seven."
To be sure, poor Mr.. Pordsge had, by about
now, got his Diplomatic coat into such a state
as never was seen. What with the mud of the
river, what with the water Of the river, what
With the sun, and The dews, and the tearing
boughs, and the thicke,s, it hung about him in
discolored shreds like a mop. The sun had
touched him bit He had taken to always
polishing one particular button, which Just held
OF to his left wrist, and to always calling for
stationery. / suppose that man called for pens,
ink, and paper, tape, and sealing-wax, upwards
OF one thousand times in four-and twenty hours
that river, unless we were written out of it in
formal Memorandum and the more we labored
at navigating the rats, the more he ordered us
not TO touch them at our peril, and the more he
sat and rosred for stationery.
Mrs. Pordage similarly, persisted in wearing
her nlght-cap. l doubt if any one but ourselves
who had seen the progress of that article of
dress, could by this time have told what it was
meant for. 1t had got 80 limp and ragged
that she couldn't see out of her eyes for it. 1t
was so dirty, that whether it was vegetable mat
ter out CT a swamp, or weeds out OF the river,
or an old porter's knot from England, don't
think any new spectator could havs said. Yet
this unfortunate cid woman had q notion that
1t was not only vastly genteel, but that it was
the correct thing as to propriety. And she
really did carry herself over the other ladies who
had no night-caps, and who were forced to tie
up Their hair how they could, in superior man
ner that was perfectly amazing.
| don't know what she looked like, sitting in
that blessed night-cap, on a log of wood, out
side the hut or cabin upon our raft. She would
have rather resembled fortune teller in one of
the picture books that used to be in the shop
windows in my boy hood, except for her stateli-
ness. But, Lord bless my heart, the dignity
with which she sat and moped, with her head
IN that bundle of tatters, was like nothing else
IN the world She was not on speaking terms
with more than three Of the ladies. Some Of
them had, what she called, "taken precedence
Of her-in getting into, or out of, that miserable
little shelter and others had not called to pay
their respects, or something of that kind. So
there she sat. in her own state and ceremony
while her husband sat On the same log of wood
ordering us one aud all to let the raft go to The
bottom, and to bring him stationery.
What with this noise on the part of Mr.. Com
missioner Pordage, and what with the cries o
Sergeant Drooce on the raft astern, (which wer'
sometimes more than Tom Pccker could silence,
We of en- made our slow way down the rivel
anything but quietly. Yet, that 1t was OF grea
Importance that no ears should be able to hea
US from the woods on the banks, could not b
doubted. We were looked for, to q certainty
and we might be retaken at any moment. l
was an anxious time; it was, indeed, indeed
an anxious time.
On the seventh night of our voyage on tn
rats, we made fast, as usual, on the OPPOSITE
side of the river 10 that from which we has
started, in az dark place as we could pick out
Our little encam pment was soou made, and sup
per was eaten, and the children fell asleep
The watch was set, and everything made order
ly Tor the night. Such a starlight night, will
such blue in the sky, and such black in tn,
places of heavy shade on the banks of the grea
stream!
Those two ladies, Miss Msryon and Mrs
Fisher, had always kept near me since the nigh
OF the attack. Mr.. Fisher, who was uutirins
In the work of our raft, had said to me:
my dear little childess wife has grown q
attached to you, Davis, and you are such a ger
tie fellow, as well as such determined one,
our party had adopted that last expression fror
,ae one-eyed English pirate, and repeat whs
mr. Fisher said, only because he said it "tha