Read Ebook: Wrecked on Spider Island; Or How Ned Rogers Found the Treasure by Otis James Graves George E Illustrator

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Ebook has 1855 lines and 60976 words, and 38 pages

WRECKED ON SPIDER ISLAND.

Ned Rogers had but few acquaintances in the city of Portland, Maine; but those few were positive the boy had run away from home.

It was quite natural such should be the general idea among those who saw him trying from day to day to earn the small amount of money necessary to provide him with food.

As a matter of course it was essential he should also have clothes and a bed at night; but Ned had found it such hard work to get sufficient to satisfy his hunger that it would have seemed a willful waste of money to expend it on anything save provisions.

He very often found shelter in the store-houses on the wharves where he sought employment. Sometimes the crew of a fishing vessel would allow him to remain on board during the night, and more than once did he walk around the streets because of his inability to go elsewhere.

As for clothing, the badly patched suit he wore, which had originally been made for a full-sized man, was quite as much as he aspired to until "luck came his way," and to have new garments was a dream he never allowed himself to indulge in, because of the apparent impossibility.

Now, while Ned presented every indication of a boy who has run away from home in order to better his fortunes, and wishes heartily that he could run back, he had never been so foolish, for the simple reason that so long as he could remember there was no home for him in all this wide world.

His first remembrance of anything even approaching an abiding-place was when he had reached his fifth birthday, and then understood he was supported by an uncle, who seldom lost an opportunity of telling him what a useless article he was, more especially on a farm.

After that he remembered a funeral, with his uncle in the coffin, and from the moment the hard-hearted farmer was carried to his last resting-place Ned's journeyings began.

First one neighbor and then another had some work by which he could earn enough to pay for the small amount he ate, and finally, as he grew older, even these opportunities ceased.

He did not know that he had a single relative in the world to whom he could go, and while perfectly willing and even anxious to work, the townspeople called him a "lazy good-for-nothing, whose only desire was to eat the bread of idleness."

"It's mighty little of any kind of bread I get," Ned once said to Deacon Grout, when the latter had made use of this remark because the boy applied to him for work. "I allers have done whatever I could find that would give me a square meal or a place to sleep; but it looks as if you folks wasn't willin' to spare that much. I s'pose you think a feller like me oughter pay for the privilege of stayin' in this blamed old town."

There is no question but that Ned's provocation was great, yet it was an ill-advised remark, for from that day he not only had the reputation of being lazy, but impudent as well.

The deacon predicted he would "come to some bad end," and the deacon's friends fully expected each morning to hear that "the Rogers boy" had been sent to jail, because of having committed some terrible crime.

Despite this very unpleasant and unsatisfactory method of gaining less than half a livelihood, Ned remained in the town until he was fourteen years old; not for love of the place, but owing to his inability to leave.

The city was so far away that he did not think it possible to walk, and as for paying his fare on the stage-coach, he might just as well have cried for the moon.

The cost of riding from Jonesboro to Portland, in both stage and cars, was , and Ned had never been the possessor of a tenth part of that amount, although he was really as industrious as the townspeople would allow him to be.

From the day he was ten years old the unhappy boy had said to himself that he would go to the city at the first opportunity; but as the weeks went by and he could see no possibility of carrying out such a plan, he grew discouraged.

"I expect what the deacon said will come true," he thought, "an' it won't be my fault. The people ain't willin' to give me a job, an' if I do get a chance now an' then, nobody wants to pay cash."

It was when the future looked darkest, and he had begun to ask himself whether it would not be possible for him to walk to Portland, even though the distance was more than two hundred miles, that the longed-for opportunity arrived.

A drover passed through the town, or was about to do so, with a hundred head of cattle, when one of his drivers was taken sick, and he inquired for some one to fill the man's place.

The stock was to be driven to the nearest shipping point on the railroad, and from there taken by cars to Portland.

Ned heard of the drover's necessities and applied for the situation, agreeing to do the work, provided he was taken as far as the city and supplied with food during the journey.

On such terms there was but little difficulty in making a trade, and the boy left his native town, determined never to return until he could show Deacon Grout and his friends that it was possible for him to rise in the world when he was among those who would allow him an opportunity.

The journey, slow and fatiguing though it was, delighted Ned.

Everything around him was strange and wonderful, and those with whom he came in contact treated him like a human being, which was a pleasing contrast to his experience in Jonesboro.

The other drivers told him of what could be seen in the great world to which he was going, and related more than one story of poor boys who had started out to seek their fortunes under even more distressing circumstances than those from which he suffered, coming back some day rich and respected, until he began to think it was only necessary to gain the city in order to be wealthy.

With such dreams as these was his time occupied, and when the journey was finally finished he began to look around for one of those very charitable men whom he fancied were waiting in large cities to welcome, with outstretched arms and plenty of money, all poor boys.

As a matter of course he found nothing of the kind, and before forty-eight hours had passed began to realize that the people in one place were very much like those in all others.

No one seemed to have any especial interest in him, and it was quite as difficult to find an opportunity to work in the city as in the country.

After the first day he understood that there would be but little chance for him to get an engagement in a store while his clothing was in such a condition, and he relinquished that portion of his plans to seek work around the docks.

Here he succeeded in earning about as much as while in Jonesboro; but his life was more pleasant because he was treated more like a human being and less as a criminal.

During the summer season it made but little difference where he slept; but winter was near at hand, and it became absolutely necessary he should make such arrangements as would provide himself with a shelter.

Until this time he had resolutely set his mind against going to sea, for he was quite certain it would not be an agreeable life, and there would be but little chance for him, without influence, to rise above the level of a sailor.

"It's no use, I've got to try it," he said to himself one morning when, after sleeping under a pile of lumber on a pier, he awakened to find everything covered with hoar-frost. "I'm pretty nigh frozen now, an' what'll be the position of affairs in another month?"

Having once determined his course, Ned lost no time in acting upon it.

He was very well acquainted with the waterfront of the city and knew where to find vessels bound for a foreign port.

Since it seemed necessary for him to go to sea he did not intend to ship on board a fishing vessel or one engaged in the coast-wise trade, for the very good reason that in such craft he would not receive sufficient advance to purchase the much-needed outfit.

The brig Evening Star was loading for Manila, and this seemed to him the proper kind of a voyage to take. When the trip was ended he would have wages enough due him, provided he spent no money except for clothing, to admit of making himself presentable for a situation in a store.

Captain Bragg was on the quarter-deck talking with one of his officers when Ned clambered over the side and stood by the port rail amidships waiting until the master of the brig should be at leisure to speak with him.

"What do you want?" the captain asked five minutes later when, the interview having come to an end, he condescended to notice the boy.

"I'd like to ship on this brig if you need a boy."

"What can you do?"

"Almost anything in the cabin; but I don't believe I'd make much of a fist goin' aloft."

"So you're no sailor, but want to go to sea?"

"I had rather stay on shore, sir; but I can't get a job, so made up my mind to try it aboard ship if any one is willin' to take a green hand."

"What about wages?"

"I'll leave that to you, sir, providin' I can have advance enough to give me a decent fittin' out. These clothes I've got on are all I own, an' I reckon more'n them will be needed before the brig gets back."

"Would you like to ship as cabin-boy?"

"At what wages, sir?"

"Ten dollars a month and an advance of two months' wages out of the slop-chest."

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