The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (5 page)

S
tymouth
was full of inns; too full. The farmers usually put up their horses at the “Black Bull” or the “Horse and
Farrier”; the smaller market people patronized the “Pig and Whistle”.

There was another inn called the “Crown and Anchor” at the corner of Fore Street. It
was much frequented by seamen; several were lounging about the door with their hands in their pockets. One
sailor-man in a blue jersey sauntered across the road, staring very
hard at Robinson.

Said he — “I say, little pig! do you like snuff?”

Now if Robinson had a fault, it was that he could not say “No”; not even to a hedgehog
stealing eggs. As a matter of fact, snuff or tobacco made him sick. But instead of saying, “No, thank you,
Mr. Man,” and going straight away about his business, he shuffled his feet, half closed one eye, hung his
head on one side, and grunted.

The sailor pulled out a horn snuff box and presented a small pinch to Robinson, who
wrapped it up in a little bit of paper, intending to give it to Aunt Dorcas. Then, not to be outdone in
politeness, he offered the sailor-man some barley sugar.

If Robinson was not fond of snuff, at all events his new acquaintance had no objection
to candy. He ate an alarming quantity. Then he pulled Robinson’s ear and complimented him, and said he had
five chins. He promised to take Robinson to the cabbage seed shop; and, finally, he begged to have the
honour of showing him over a ship engaged in the ginger trade, commanded by Captain Barnabas Butcher, and
named the “Pound of Candles”.

Robinson did not very much like the name. It reminded him of tallow, of lard, of
crackle and trimmings of bacon. But he allowed himself to be led away, smiling shyly, and walking on his
toes. If Robinson had only known … that man was a ship’s cook!

As they turned down the steep narrow lane, out
of High Street, leading to the harbour, old Mr. Mumby at his shop door called out anxiously, “Robinson!
Robinson!” But there was too much noise of carts. And a customer coming into the shop at that moment
distracted his attention, and he forgot the suspicious behaviour of the sailor. Otherwise, out of regard for
the family, he would undoubtedly have ordered his dog, Tipkins, to go and fetch Robinson back. As it was, he
was the first person to give useful information to the police, when Robinson had been missed. But it was
then too late.

Robinson and his new friend went down the long flight of steps to the harbour basin —
very high steps, steep and slippery. The little pig was obliged to jump from step to step until the
sailor kindly took hold of him. They walked along the quay hand in
hand; their appearance seemed to cause unbounded amusement.

Robinson looked about him with much interest. He had peeped over those steps before
when he had come into Stymouth in the donkey cart, but he had never ventured to go down, because the sailors
are rather rough, and because they frequently have little snarling terriers on guard about their
vessels.

There were ever so many ships in the harbour; the noise and bustle was almost as loud
as it had been up above in the market square. A big three-masted ship called the “Goldielocks” was
discharging a cargo of oranges; and farther along the quay, a small coasting brig called “Little Bo Peep” of Bristol was
loading up with bales of wool belonging to the sheep of Ewehampton and Lambworthy.

Old Sim Ram, with a sheepbell and big curly horns, stood by the gangway keeping count
of the bales. Every time the crane swung round and let down another bale of wool into the hold, with a
scuffle of rope through the pulley, Simon Ram nodded his old head, and the bell went “tinkle tinkle, tong”,
and he gave a gruff bleat.

He was a person who knew Robinson by sight and ought to have warned him. He had often
passed Piggery Porcombe when he drove down the lane in his gig. But his blind eye was turned towards the
quay; and he had been flustered and confused by an argument with the
pursers as to whether thirty-five bales of wool had been hoisted on
board already or only thirty-four.

So he kept his one useful eye carefully on the wool, and counted it by the notches on
his tally stick — another bale — another notch — thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven; he hoped the number
would come right at the finish.

His bob-tailed sheepdog, Timothy Gyp, was also acquainted with Robinson, but he was
busy superintending a dog fight between an Airedale terrier belonging to the collier “Margery Dawe” and a
Spanish dog belonging to the “Goldielocks”. No one took any notice of their growling and snarling, which
ended in both rolling over the side of the quay and falling into the water. Robinson kept close to the
sailor and held his hand very tight.

The “Pound of Candles” proved to be a good-sized schooner, newly painted and decorated
with certain flags, whose significance was not understood by Robinson. She lay near the outer end of the
jetty. The tide was running up fast, lapping against the ship’s sides and straining the thick hawsers by
which she was moored to the quay.

The crew were stowing goods on board and doing things with ropes under the direction
of Captain Barnabas Butcher; a lean, brown, nautical person with a rasping voice. He banged things about and
grumbled; parts of his remarks were audible on the quay. He was speaking about the tug “Sea-horse” — and
about the spring tide, with a north-east wind behind it — and the baker’s man and fresh vegetables — “to be
shipped at eleven sharp; likewise a joint of…” He stopped short suddenly,
and his eye lighted upon the cook and Robinson.

Robinson and the cook went on board across a shaky plank. When Robinson stepped on to
the deck, he found himself face to face with a large yellow cat who was blacking boots.

The cat gave a start of surprise and dropped its blacking brush. It then began to wink
and make extraordinary faces at Robinson. He had never seen a cat behave in that way before. He inquired
whether it was ill. Whereupon the cook threw a boot at it, and it rushed up into the rigging. But Robinson
he invited most affably to descend into the cabin, to partake of muffins and crumpets.

I do not know how many muffins Robinson
consumed. He went on eating them until he fell asleep; and he went on sleeping until his stool gave a lurch,
and he fell off and rolled under the table. One side of the cabin floor swung up to the ceiling; and the
other side of the ceiling swung down to the floor. Plates danced about; and there were shoutings and
thumpings and rattling of chains and other bad sounds.

Robinson picked himself up, feeling bumped. He scrambled up a sort of a
ladder-staircase on to the deck. Then he gave squeal upon squeal of horror! All round the ship there were
great big green waves; the houses on the quay were like dolls’ houses; and high up inland, above the red
cliffs and green fields, he could see the farm of Piggery Porcombe looking no bigger than a
postage stamp. A little white patch in the orchard was Aunt Porcas’s washing, spread out to bleach upon the
grass. Near at hand the black tug “Sea-horse” smoked and plunged and rolled. They were winding in the tow rope which had just been cast loose from the “Pound of Candles”.

Captain Barnabas stood up in the bows of his schooner; he yelled and shouted to the
master of the tug. The sailors shouted also, and pulled with a will,
and hoisted the sails. The ship heeled over and rushed through the waves, and there was a smell of the
sea.

As for Robinson — he tore round and round the deck like one distracted, shrieking very
shrill and loud. Once or twice he slipped down; for the deck was extremely sideways; but still he ran and he
ran. Gradually his squeals subsided into singing, but still he kept on running, and this is what he sang
 —

The sailors laughed until they cried; but when Robinson had sung that same verse about
fifty times, and upset several sailors by rushing between their legs,
they began to get angry. Even the ship’s cook was no longer civil to
Robinson. On the contrary, he was very rude indeed. He said that if Robinson did not leave off singing
through his nose, he would make him into pork chops.

Then Robinson fainted, and fell flat upon the deck of the “Pound of Candles”.

I
t
must
not be supposed for one moment that Robinson was ill-treated on board ship. Quite the contrary. He was even
better fed and more petted on the “Pound of Candles” than he had been at Piggery Porcombe. So, after a few
days’ fretting for his kind old aunts (especially while he was seasick), Robinson became perfectly contented
and happy. He found what is called his “sea legs”; and he scampered about the deck
until the time when he became too fat and lazy to scamper.

The cook was never tired of boiling porridge for him. A whole sack full of meal and a
sack of potatoes appeared to have been provided especially for his benefit and pleasure. He could eat as
much as he pleased. It pleased him to eat a great deal and to lie on the warm boards of the deck. He got
lazier and lazier as the ship sailed south into warmer weather. The mate made a pet of him; the crew gave
him tit-bits. The cook rubbed his back and scratched his sides — his ribs could not be tickled, because he
had laid so much fat on. The only persons who refused to treat him as a joke were the yellow tom-cat and
Captain Barnabas Butcher, who was of a sour disposition.

The attitude of the cat was perplexing to Robinson. Obviously it disapproved of the
maize meal porridge business, and it spoke mysteriously about the impropriety of greediness, and about the
disastrous results of over-indulgence. But it did not explain what those results might be, and as the cat
itself cared neither for yellow meal nor ’taties, Robinson thought that its warnings might arise from
prejudice. It was not unfriendly. It was mournful and foreboding.

The cat itself was crossed in love. Its morose and gloomy outlook upon life was partly
the result of separation from the owl. That sweet hen-bird, a snowy owl of Lapland, had sailed upon a
northern whaler, bound for Greenland. Whereas the “Pound of Candles” was heading for the tropic seas.