Mary Barton Page #49

Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in the English city of Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the difficulties faced by the Victorian working class.

• Novel

								

had assumed many of Margaret's little household duties. While he
moved about he was deep in conversation with the young sailor, trying
to extract from him any circumstances connected with the natural
history of the different countries he had visited.

"Oh! if you are fond of grubs, and flies, and beetles, there's no
place for 'em like Sierra Leone. I wish you'd had some of ours; we
had rather too much of a good thing; we drank them with our drink,
and could scarcely keep from eating them with our food. I never
thought any folk could care for such fat green beasts as those, or I
would ha' brought you them by the thousand. A plate full o' peas-soup
would ha' been full enough for you, I dare say; it were often too
full for us."

"I would ha' given a good deal for some on 'em," said Job.

"Well, I knew folk at home liked some o' the queer things one meets
with abroad; but I never thought they'd care for them nasty slimy
things. I were always on the look-out for a mermaid, for that I knew
were a curiosity."

"You might ha' looked long enough," said Job, in an under-tone of
contempt, which, however, the quick ears of the sailor caught.

"Not so long, master, in some latitudes, as you think. It stands to
reason th' sea hereabouts is too cold for mermaids; for women here
don't go half-naked on account o' climate. But I've been in lands
where muslin were too hot to wear on land, and where the sea were
more than milk-warm; and though I'd never the good luck to see a
mermaid in that latitude, I know them that has."

"Do tell us about it," cried Mary.

"Pooh, pooh!" said Job the naturalist.

Both speeches determined Will to go on with his story. What could a
fellow who had never been many miles from home know about the wonders
of the deep, that he should put him down in that way?

"Well, it were Jack Harris, our third mate last voyage, as many
and many a time telled us all about it. You see he were becalmed
off Chatham Island (that's in the Great Pacific, and a warm enough
latitude for mermaids, and sharks, and such like perils). So some of
the men took the long boat, and pulled for the island to see what
it were like; and when they got near, they heard a puffing, like a
creature come up to take breath; you've never heard a diver? No!
Well! you've heard folks in th' asthma, and it were for all the world
like that. So they looked around, and what should they see but a
mermaid, sitting on a rock, and sunning herself. The water is always
warmer when it's rough, you know, so I suppose in the calm she felt
it rather chilly, and had come up to warm herself."

"What was she like?" asked Mary, breathlessly.

Job took his pipe off the chimney-piece and began to smoke with very
audible puffs, as if the story were not worth listening to.

"Oh! Jack used to say she was for all the world as beautiful as any
of the wax ladies in the barbers' shops; only, Mary, there were one
little difference: her hair was bright grass green."

"I should not think that was pretty," said Mary, hesitatingly; as if
not liking to doubt the perfection of any thing belonging to such an
acknowledged beauty.

"Oh! but it is when you're used to it. I always think when first
we get sight of land, there's no colour so lovely as grass green.
However, she had green hair sure enough; and were proud enough of it,
too; for she were combing it out full-length when first they saw her.
They all thought she were a fair prize, and may be as good as a whale
in ready money (they were whale-fishers you know). For some folk
think a deal of mermaids, whatever other folk do." This was a hit at
Job, who retaliated in a series of sonorous spittings and puffs.

"So, as I were saying, they pulled towards her, thinking to catch
her. She were all the while combing her beautiful hair, and beckoning
to them, while with the other hand she held a looking-glass."

"How many hands had she?" asked Job.

"Two, to be sure, just like any other woman," answered Will,
indignantly.

"Oh! I thought you said she beckoned with one hand, and combed her
hair with another, and held a looking-glass with a third," said Job,
with provoking quietness.

"No! I didn't! at least if I did, I meant she did one thing after
another, as any one but" (here he mumbled a word or two) "could
understand. Well, Mary," turning very decidedly towards her, "when
she saw them coming near, whether it were she grew frightened at
their fowling-pieces, as they had on board, for a bit o' shooting on
the island, or whether it were she were just a fickle jade as did not
rightly know her own mind (which, seeing one half of her was woman,
I think myself was most probable), but when they were only about two
oars' length from the rock where she sat, down she plopped into the
water, leaving nothing but her hinder end of a fish tail sticking up
for a minute, and then that disappeared too."

"And did they never see her again?" asked Mary.

"Never so plain; the man who had the second watch one night declared
he saw her swimming round the ship, and holding up her glass for him
to look in; and then he saw the little cottage near Aber in Wales
(where his wife lived) as plain as ever he saw it in life, and his
wife standing outside, shading her eyes as if she were looking for
him. But Jack Harris gave him no credit, for he said he were always a
bit of a romancer, and beside that, were a home-sick, down-hearted
chap."

"I wish they had caught her," said Mary, musing.

"They got one thing as belonged to her," replied Will, "and that I've
often seen with my own eyes, and I reckon it's a sure proof of the
truth of their story; for them that wants proof."

"What was it?" asked Margaret, almost anxious her grandfather should
be convinced.

"Why, in her hurry she left her comb on the rock, and one o' the men
spied it; so they thought that were better than nothing, and they
rowed there and took it, and Jack Harris had it on board the John
Cropper, and I saw him comb his hair with it every Sunday morning."

"What was it like?" asked Mary, eagerly; her imagination running on
coral combs, studded with pearls.

"Why, if it had not had such a strange yarn belonging to it, you'd
never ha' noticed it from any other small-tooth comb."

"I should rather think not," sneered Job Legh.

The sailor bit his lips to keep down his anger against an old man.
Margaret felt very uneasy, knowing her grandfather so well, and not
daring to guess what caustic remark might come next to irritate the
young sailor guest.

Mary, however, was too much interested by the wonders of the deep
to perceive the incredulity with which Job Legh received Wilson's
account of the mermaid; and when he left off, half offended, and very
much inclined not to open his lips again through the evening, she
eagerly said,

"Oh do tell us something more of what you hear and see on board ship.
Do, Will!"

"What's the use, Mary, if folk won't believe one. There are things
I saw with my own eyes, that some people would pish and pshaw at, as
if I were a baby to be put down by cross noises. But I'll tell you,
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