A LESSON IN CHRISTMAS KEEPING

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4301, 9 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

A LESSON IN CHRISTMAS KEEPING

(By Frank T. Bulieu, F.8.G.5.) Author of “Tho Cruise of the Cachalot, 1 ' otc. ("M.A.P.") Morning broke bleakly forbidding on the iron-bound coast of Kerguelen Island. Over the fantastic peaks, flung broadcast as if from tho primeval cauldron cf tho world, hung a grim pall of low, grey-black' cloud, ‘so low, indeed, that the sea-birds drifting disconsolately to and fro between barren shore and gale-tossed sett were often hidden from view as if behind a fog-bank, and only their melancholy screams denoted their presence, until they glinted into sight again like huge snow-flakes hesitating to fall. Yet it was the Antarctic mid-sum-mer it wns the breaking of Christmas Day’. ' ' ' As the pale dawngrow less- weak, it revealed a tiny encampment, just a few odd* afad ends of drifting wreckage piled fprloraly together, and yielding a dubious shelter to a huddled-up group of fourteen ritoa, sleeping in spite- of ■ their surroundings. Presently, there were exposed perched upon the snarling teeth of an outlying rock-cluster, the “ribs and; trucks” cf a small wooden ship, a barque-: rigged craft of about 400 tons. Her rigging hung in slovenly festoons from the dfuukenly standing masts, the yards made more angles with their unstable supports than are known to Euclid, while through many a jagged gap in her topsides tho mad sea rushed wantonly, as if elated with its opportunities of marring tho handiwork of the daring sea-mas-ters.

The outlook was certainly sufficiently discomforting; yet, as one by one the sleepers awakened, and with many a grunt and shiver crept forth from their lair, it would have been duncult to judge from the expressions upon their weatherbeaten countenances bow Hopeless was the situation that they were in. For they cams of a breed that, is strong to endure hardness, that takes its much' bitter with little sweet as a matter of course, and, by dint of steady refusal to he dismayed at Fate’s fiercest frowns, has built up for itself a most gallantly-camr-.l reputation for pluck, endurance, and success throughout the civilised

world. They were Scotch to a man. rugged and Hem as the granite of their native Aberdeenshire.

Thcy were the crew of the barque Jennie Deans, of Peterhead, which, while outward bound from Aberdeen to Otago, New .Zealand,' had, after long striving against weather -extraordinarily severe for tho time of year, been hurled against that terrific coast during the previous afternoon. Their escape, shoreward had been as miraculous as fifty per cent, of such escapes are, and, beyond, their lives, they had saved nothing. So the prospect" was unpromising. Nothing could he expected from the break-up of the ship. She was loaded with ironwork of various sorts, .and her stores were not in any water-tight cases which might bring them ashore in an ; eatable condi-| tion. But tho large-limbed, red-beard-ed skipper,.after a.keen look round, said: “On, ay, ther, isna muckle tae back an’ fill on, but A’am .thenkim we’ll juist hao to bestir wersells an’ see if we.canna get soma , breakfas’. ..Has: ony !ane got ony matches f” . It presently appeared,that of these . simple but- invaluable little adjuncts to ■civilisation; there-was not one, among the crowd. But even this grim discovery appeared to' make no great impression, and-presently the mate, a.tali man from’ Auchtermuchty, with an. expressionless face and- a, voice lilfo “a oqq’s,” as he was went to say, remarked casually: “If ye’ll scatther aboot an.’ see fat ye can fine tae cuik, I’se warrant ye Aa’ll get ye some fire’tae cnik;it wi.’” : No :on6 spoke, another word, but silently they ' separated for their quest, leaving Mi* Lowrie, with his blank face, methodically. rummaging. among the debris. Presently hesat down quietly with a piece of-flat board before him about two feet long by six inches-wide. In,his hand he held a piece of broomstick, which in some mysterious way had got included ■in the flotsam. This he whittled at one end into:a blunt point,, carefullv saving the cuttings in his trousers pocket. Then , with a steady movement of his stick he commenced to chafe a groove lengthways in,tho board, adding occasionally _ a pinch of'.grit from, the ground to assist fraction. ; . / . By-and-bye there was! quite a little heap of brown, .wood dust- collected at one entj of the igroove. Then getting onlas knees; and grasping his broom-stick-pieco energetically in, both hands, he pushed it to . and fro- in the groove with _ all , his force and speed, until suddenly ho flung away tho stick, anfl stooping ■ over the little pile of dust he, covered ifc; tenderly with- both hands . hollowed,' and bending his, head over it _ breathed upon it most gently. ' Audi by impercep- , table degrees there - arose ’ftom it a si eh-; der spiral of smoke. > i - TTir right hand stole to his pocket andj -fetched-therefrom a few; shivers of wood,' which ho coyly introduced under- the , shelter of his other hand, until sud-j . dehly, the Red, Flower blossomed;—there was fire. Now it only needed feeding to rise, gloriously into that gloomy air. To this end Mf Lowtie worked like a China-; man-, uptil Fithin! an hour he had a pile of burning, driftwood, four feet high and . fully sis fbefc round, .sending up rudd tongues of flame and a column of smoke like a palni tree. - One by-one the adventurers returned ..with dour faces.'empty-handed save for a sea-bird’s egg or , two. a few fronds of seaweed which the bearers insisted was “dulse” (the edible fuens), and,a brace of birds that looked scarcely enough to furnish an appetiser for one. But just as a stray sunbeam darted down upon the little gathering, ' while ■ they - huddled round the grateful, warmth, there was'a hoarse shout;, All started, for it Was the skipper’s voice roaring: “C’way hers anMend a han’, -ye leans 1 Fat’r ye all shtanhim thfere toasting yer tries fur like; a pickle o’’weans juist waitin’ on yer inithers tae ory on ye tae come hen fur ycr breakfas’?''- • • The men: at once obeyed the familiar : command, finding-the, skipper and., the cook wrestling with a hnge case, ’that was so stoutiv built that net a plank of it had come adrift. When they had man-han-dled it over themggedrgronnd to within reach of-the warmth the skipper said: “Ah divua ken.fats intilt, bit Ah min' fine that Mester Broon, fan he shipped it, said it wis somethin’ Ah, wis'tae talc’ unco care o’. . And’ So ’twis lasht under

th' s’lcon table. 1 C’wa', Jo’s opsn’t: please ■ God there may be somethin’ useful inside oV - ■ i

Willing hands, regardless ef the loss pf shin from knuckles and arms, wrought at: ibo task ,* but so, stoutly .did the case resist their efforts that it was long before. they had-stripped off- the, stout planking and revealed an air-light lining of thick tin.,. This was attacked with sheath knives, ■.and,, after much hacking and breaking of cutlery, yielded and. exposed : a number of queer-looking parcels most carefully packed. . On-the top was a letter. It ran as follows: ~

Dear Jack, —In full recollection of your curious Scottish .prejudice against any celebration of Christmas, and also of that awful time when yon and 1' were stranded on the Campbells, and compelled to suck raw soa-bircis’ eggs for our Christmas fare, I have sent you the materials for a good old-fashioned onristmas dinner, as I understand it. being a Cockney of the Oociauest. X also send you Dickens’s

“Christmas Carol” to read after dinner, and if you don't do justice to my loving Christmas Box, I solemnly swear that I will never regard you as i chum again. Hero’s wishing you a Merry Christmas, and as jolly a Hogmanay as ever you ran get after. Most affectionately yours, John Brown.

'‘Em, ehmm” (no written words’ can adequately represent tho peculiar Scottish exclamation that stands for anything ; yon like, being strictly non-committal), “that reads no sao bad. We’ll juist investigate. Fat hae we here ? Et’s a j duff, mahn, ou ay, bit it’s a boeny wan.” | And, as ho spoke, ho pulled out of its nest a gorgeous Christmas pudding weighing some twenty-five pounds. Next came an enormous oblong tin case, labelled ; “Fortnoum and Mason. Special Christmas turkey, stuffed, with, cappn, tongue, and forcemeat/’ upon reading which the Skipper murmured again; “Ou ay, that’s no'sao dusty, ye ken.’’ Next camO'a layer of bottles of green peas, alternated with bottles labelled “Turtle Soup,”' Other queer tin cases followed,, bearing inscriptions such as “Special mince pies,” “Scotch shortbread,” “American Biscuits”—like foamilakes —“Dessert fruits,” '“York hanr, best- quality, ready cocked,” and “Boar’s bpad.” Finally, on the ground floor, as it were, was displayed, a compact array of bottles, of which six were labelled, “Extra special Scotch whisky,” six “Special port, bin 50,”-two' corpulent ones bore tho signature “D.0.M.,” and twelve had bigheaded corks with gold foil adorning' them. Followed at last two boxes of fatlooking cigars, and the book. That grim assembly looked down upon this tempting array with their hard features perceptibly softening, while tho skipper said - : “Weol a’weel. A’am no’ an advocate for specialisin’ Chrismuss masel, altho’ Ah laik fine fcae keep np Hogmanay. But A’am ho a bigot, yo ken, an’ A’am theulim’ that unner th’ circumstances "twad juist be flytin’ Proveedenco no tae accept In a speerut o’ inoderashun siccan Ohrismuss Boex as then. Bib I’ll no coairce buy man. Them ’at disna approve o’ keopin* Chrismuss ava can juist daunder awa’. ’S far as A’m consairned” —here he deftly knocked the top off one of the special Scotch-bottles, and, looking round benignantly, said : “Here’s tae wersels, boys, a blessin’ oni the giver o’ th’ feast, an’ a Merry Chrismuss tae us a’.”

Why particularise the proceedings that ensued ? Shoiild it not be sufficient to say that no conscientious scruples were entertained by auy of those hard-grained men at this almost compulsory wrecking of their principles. Scarcely; yet passing notice may lie given to the difficulties attendant upon drinking champagnoout of bottle necks, of eating concentrated turtle soup warmed in the bottle like Rcmmard, of the total want of order and routine e-vfnoed in dealing with the assorted provisions so providentially to hand—and mouth. Especially was this the case with the rotund bottles of Benedictine. One and all agreed that while the contents were “gey an cily-like,” they were “vara seductiv and had the effect of making the partakers thereof curiously unreserved and open to conviction as to the general satisfactoriness of things in general. • When at last with • long drawn sighs the unwonted Christmas keepers sank down upon their stony s'eats and lit up their aromatic smokeswith brands passed from hand to band, it evidently needed no keen judge of human nature to prophesy’that a unanimous vote would be given if asked'for as to the desirability of keeping up Christmas, English fashion.

When all had quietly settled down to the -soothing influence of nicotine in its best form, the skipper, lifted up his voice and said:

“Weel, ma lads, A’ain thenkin’ that we ka dae nae less than gae through the haill reetual. This bulk, ‘A, Christmas Carol,’ is eovidently pairt o’ th’ programme, an’ as A’am-nae that ongratefn’ I’ll juist read it, fativer it coasts ma.’” ' ' f , ' So he opened. the volume, and read while the hard lines .of the .faces softened under the magic of,tho Master’s words, and irf spite of the well-worn masks of indifference, an occasional dewdrop of sympathy glittered like a diamond in the furrow; of a bronzed visage.

»■ » « “Ah wudna wass tae interrup ye, sir,’’ suddenly interjected. an ordinary seaman,- “bit Ah thocht ye xnieht laik tae ken that there’s a vessel juist lookin’ roun’ the point,” ' . . , “Man, ye’re richt, there is that. Weel, A’am nearly throu’, an’ as thou auld deevd Scrooge has been conveeneit o’ th’erreur cf ? s ways (as we have) A’am of opinion ;we ma tak’ th’ lave o’ th’ story as road.; But ’twas a gey guid yam, was’t no?” ’• :. By this time, the, ship of deliverance, having hove to, was getting a boat out. -That laborious-business oyer, the boat came at fair,speed towards the only practicable landing place- until the commiserating face - of the officer in charge took on an expression of'bewilderment as he noted the smug complacency, on the countenance of the castaways.

It did: not diminish when the skipper, gravely welcoming him with one hand, held out invitingly, a' decapitated bottle of extra.special Scotch with tho other, saying/, with lingering', sweetness :in his voice: : '

“Malm, dear, hero’s wussm’ ye a Merry Christmuss.” .