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Pieces of Eight, a novel by Richard Le Gallienne |
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Book 1 - Chapter 9 |
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_ BOOK I CHAPTER IX In Which Tom and I Attend Several Funerals.
"Why, Tom," I said, "there isn't a wheel-barrow load of real soil in a square mile. We couldn't dig a grave for a dog in stuff like this," and, as I spoke, the pewter-like rock under my feet clanged and echoed with a metallic sound. It was indeed a terrible land from the point of view of the husbandman. No wonder the Government couldn't dispose of it as a gift. It was a marvel that anything had the fierce courage to grow on it at all. For the most part it was of a grey clinker-like formation, tossed, as by fiery convulsions, in shelves of irregular strata, with holes every few feet suggesting the circular action of the sea--some of these holes no more than a foot wide, and some as wide as an ordinary-sized well--and in these was the only soil to be found. In them the strange and savage trees--spined, and sown thick with sharp teeth--found their rootage, and writhed about, splitting the rock into endless cracks and fissures with their fierce effort--sea-grape, with leaves like cymbal-shaped plates of green metal; gum-elemi trees, with trunks of glistening bronze; and seven-year apples, with fruit like painted wood. Here and there was a thatch-palm, stunted, and looking like the head-dress of some savage African warrior. Inland, the creek, all white sand and golden sunny water at its opening, spread out far and near into noisome swamps overgrown with mangroves. Those strangest of all trees, that had something tender and idyllic as they stepped out into the ripple with their fresh child-like laurel-line leaves and dangling rods of emerald, that were really the suckers of their banyan-like roots, had grown into an obscene and bizarre maturity, like nightmares striding out in every direction with skeleton feet planted in festering mud, and stretching out horned, clawing hands that seemed to take root as one looked, and to throw out other roots of horror like a dream. Twilight was beginning to add to its suggestions of _diablerie,_ and the whole land to seem more and more the abode of devils. "Come along, Tom, I can't stand any more of this. We'll have to leave our funerals till to-morrow, and get aboard for the night"--for the _Maggie Darling_ was still floating there serenely, as though men and their violence had no existence on the planet. "We'd better cover them up, against the turkey-buzzards," said Tom, two of those unsavory birds rising in the air as we returned to the shore. We did this as well as we were able with rocks and the wreckage of an old boat strewn on the beach, and, before we rowed aboard--Tom, and Sailor, and I--we managed to shoot a couple of them,--_pour encourager les autres._ I don't think two men were ever so glad of the morning, driving before it the haunted night, as Tom and I; and Sailor seemed as glad as ourselves, for he too seemed to have been troubled by bad dreams, and woke me more than once, growling and moaning in his sleep in a frightened way. After breakfast, our first thought was naturally to the sad and disagreeable business before us. "I tell you what I've been thinking, sar," said Tom, as we rowed ashore, and I managed to pull down a turkey-buzzard that rose at our approach--happily our coverings had proved fairly effective--"I've been thinking that the only one of the three that really matters is the captain, and we can find sufficient soil for him in one of those big holes." "How about the others?" "Why, to tell the truth, I was thinking that sharks are good enough for them." "They deserve no better, Tom, and I think we may as well get rid of them first. The tide's running out strong and we won't have them knocking about for long." So it was done as we said, and carrying them by the feet and shoulders to the edge of the bluff--George, and Silly Theodore, and the nameless giant who had knocked me down so opportunely--we skilfully flung them in, and they glided off with scarce a splash. "See that fin yonder!" cried Tom eagerly; and next minute one of the floating figures was drawn under. "Got him already!" (with a certain grim satisfaction). "That's what I call quick work." Then we turned to the poor captain, and carried him as gently as we could over the rough ground to the biggest of the banana holes, as the natives call them, and there we were able to dig him a fairly respectable grave. "Do you know the funeral service, Tom?" I asked. "No, sar, can't say as I do, though I seem to have heard it pretty often." "Wait a minute. I've got a Bible aboard, I'll go and get it." "I'd rather go with you, sar, if you don't mind." "Why, you're surely not frightened of the poor fellow here, are you, Tom?" "Well, sar, I don't say as I'm exactly that; but somehow he seems kind of lonesome; and, if you don't mind--" So we went off, and were back in a few moments with the Bible, and I read those passages, from Job and the Psalms, immemorially associated with the passage of the dead: _"Man, that is born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not--;_ and again: _Behold Thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth: and mine age is as nothing before Thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a vain show: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Have mercy, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry: hold not thy peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were--."_ And, by the time we had got to the end, our tears were falling like rain into a brave man's grave. _ |
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