CHAPTER XI

ROBINSON CRUSOE--LORNA DOONE--HEREWARD--WESTWARD HO!--ROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS--TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA--MIDSHIPMAN EASY--PETER SIMPLE--TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST--THE GOLDEN DOG

Let us stop for a little while to consider why we enjoy ourselves so much when we read stories of romance and adventure. Indeed, books of this character are fascinating to almost everyone.

You have read of the magic carpet which belongs to the world of fairy tales. One had only to stand on the carpet and wish one's self in any part of the world, to travel where one wanted to be in a flash. Many of us would like to travel to strange countries, learn foreign customs, see uncommon sights and listen to marvels of which we have not known before. Stories of romance and adventure enable us to visit, as it were, all parts of the known world; we can even imagine ourselves in unknown worlds by means of their assistance. So, in a real sense it is true that the magic of a good book of adventure is like that of the carpet in the story; it can carry us anywhere.

But perhaps the most enjoyable quality we find in such books is the power they have to give us a sense of holiday. We turn to the first page of {68} whatever book of adventure we may happen to choose, and then in a moment we are away with the hero, travelling swiftly by sea or land, wandering on foot, fighting battles, in peril from robbers, helping the distressed, finding treasure, climbing mountains, or lost in the desert. We are exactly the kind of people we want to be and we have a share in all kinds of wonderful happenings.

The adventures in these books may not always seem probable, or, as people say, true to life. But this makes very little difference fortunately in romantic and adventurous stories which have a splendid truth of their own. The truth belonging to these stories is that the bravery, strength, resourcefulness, generosity, honour and chivalry of which we read are among the finest qualities in the world; these qualities, with patience and persistence added, can actually sometimes achieve the seemingly impossible happenings related to us.

A moment ago, we spoke of being lost in the desert. You very probably know that a book called _Robinson Crusoe_ is the most famous story ever written about being cast away on an uninhabited island. Indeed, ever since Daniel Defoe wrote the story everyone who likes speculating what he would do if this or that happened, has tried to imagine what it would be like to live alone by oneself. We can make a game of writing down what we think we really could not do without under such circumstances. But Daniel Defoe, basing his story partly on the actual experiences of a man called Alexander Selkirk, has played this game better than anyone else is ever likely to play it. _Robinson Crusoe_ is a wonderful story, so vivid, {69} convincing and reasonable, that it might be the actual journal of a man, a very practical and clever man cast wholly on his own resources, with the never failing bounties of nature on which he may draw.

Robinson Crusoe had been many years on the island before he found one day, marked on the sand, the print of a naked foot. Imagine how he must have looked at it! Of course he knew that it had been made by a savage, and so it was. Eventually, he is visited by these savages. He rescues one of them; and because Friday was the day of the week on which the man was rescued, Robinson Crusoe called him Friday. He was a gentle, kind, good fellow who served Robinson Crusoe faithfully all the rest of his life. It was thirty-five years before Robinson Crusoe was able to return to England; eventually a ship came to the island. There is a second part of the story which relates further adventures. One of the best parts of the narrative is its peaceful ending which tells us that at last the hero found happiness and contentment after all his wanderings.

It is interesting to know some of the facts concerning the people who have written the books we are reading. Daniel Defoe wrote this great story of adventure when he was fifty-eight or fifty-nine years old. He had had a stirring and difficult life, had taken part in Monmouth's rebellion, had been in prison, and had been put in the pillory, which was an old form of punishment now properly abolished. He was a journalist and novelist, and wrote a great deal, especially in the form of pamphlets. His story, _Robinson Crusoe_, was first {70} published as long ago as 1719. Its popularity has never failed since then.

Now let us suppose that we are looking at a shelf which holds ten books, counting _Robinson Crusoe_ as the first; all the ten are exceptionally good stories of adventure. What are the other nine books about and who wrote them?

Following _Robinson Crusoe_ comes a tale of robbers, called _Lorna Doone_, which is a story of a boy named Jan, or John, Ridd, and of a famous outlaw family, the Doones, who lived in a beautiful, wild glen of Exmoor, part of the romantic English county of Devon. Richard Doddridge Blackmore, the author, knew Exmoor and Devon well. He had been a schoolmaster and had studied law before he became a novelist. The date of the story belongs to the time of James II. Blackmore draws a wonderful picture of the English country at that time, remote, strong, romantic and stout-hearted. _Lorna Doone_ is one of the most lovable romances ever written.

Jan's father was killed by the Doones when Jan was a lad. He had to leave school and come home to take care of his mother and sister, and learn how to be the master of a farm. Blackmore was skilled in all country knowledge, and he writes truly and attractively of farm life. When Jan was a small boy he saw Lorna, an orphan and a lovely child, who was of the same kindred as the Doones but not like them in heart or disposition. Jan Ridd grows up a giant. He is a great fighter, and brave, clean and generous, a hero of the people. We love to read of Dunkery Beacon, of the great snow storm, of Jan's long contest with the {71} wicked Doones, of Tom Faggis, the highwayman, and his mare Winnie, of Jan's mother and sister, of the lovely Lorna who is brought by Jan at last home to the farm, and finally of Jan's great fight with Carver Doone.

Next are two fine historical romances by Charles Kingsley, who was rector of Eversley in Hampshire, England, for many years. Kingsley, a vigorous, wholehearted man whose writing is of the same character, was the author of a number of well-known books. He was specially interested in history and was professor of modern history at Cambridge in his later years. _Hereward the Wake_ is a story of the Old English. Wake means watchful. What happy, thrilling hours boys and girls and other people have spent with Hereward. No one who reads this story can forget it. _Westward Ho!_ is a story of the sea. The name of its hero is Amyas Leigh. He sails away with adventuring ships to the Western world, but returns to command a ship in the Armada.

Jules Verne was a Frenchman who wrote stories of scientific imagination. His _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_ was written long before the days of submarines, but in it you will find an exciting account of what it is like to live in the depths of the sea. Jules Verne's stories have helped to inspire many inventors; this in itself is a proud achievement. We may think that _Round the World in Eighty Days_ is slow travelling compared with the speed of to-day. But when we read the story, we will find ourselves living in an atmosphere of haste, despatch and adventure in travel which no writer has yet been able to {72} surpass. Many a lad afterwards famous has spent long hours with Jules Verne.

The famous Captain Marryat has taught us more, probably, about the sea, the navy and fighting ships than any other writer of stories of adventure. Frederick Marryat was born in England of Huguenot ancestry in the year 1792. He belonged to a family of fifteen children and seems always to have been of a stirring, restless disposition. More than once, he ran away from home or school to go to sea, giving as an excuse that he had to wear his elder brother's old clothes. He was not a particularly attentive student, although a story is told that he was once discovered standing on his head, in order, he explained, to see if he could learn one of his lessons better in that position. He had tried, so he said, for three hours to learn the lesson in the more usual attitude. This of course was one of young Frederick Marryat's little jokes. He entered the King's Navy in 1806 as a midshipman when he was fourteen years old. It was his good fortune to be under a very fine type of Captain, Lord Cochrane, the Earl of Dundonald, an able, fearless and upright person. In many of Marryat's stories, we find that his captains are like the Earl of Dundonald. Marryat's promotion in the Navy was rapid. These were the years of the great Napoleonic Wars. He had reached the rank of Commander by the end of the war in 1815 when he was only twenty-three, having seen much smart service. Later, he was given the responsible task of mounting guard over Napoleon.

Two of Marryat's best known and most interesting {73} stories are _Midshipman Easy_ and _Peter Simple_. These give interesting, authentic, and exciting accounts of life at sea from the point of view first of a midshipman, and then of a young officer in command. Farce, fun, reality and strange adventure are so blended that we can almost imagine we hear the splash of waves, smell the salt tang of the sea, and experience the nerve-racking excitement of going into action. There is occasionally a quality of coarseness in Marryat's stories, but they are honest, straightforward and brave. We learn from them with unmistakable clearness that the world is not a place where people are pampered and made much of, but a scene of discipline and hard work, as well as of fun and adventure.

_Two Years Before the Mast_, by Richard Henry Dana, is a narrative of the American merchant service, as well known in its way as Captain Marryat's stories of the Navy. Young Dana was at Harvard University when, on account of his eyesight, he became unable to study. He had had a wish to be a sailor previously, but his father had not approved. Young Dana felt now that a long voyage would re-establish his health. He shipped as a sailor before the mast, and sailed from the port of Boston in the year 1834 on the brig _Pilgrim_. He returned two years later in the _Alert_, having kept a full and careful log of his voyages. Re-entering Harvard University he found time during his studies to prepare the manuscript of his book which was published in New York, 1840. The year following, an English edition appeared, and was bought up by the naval authorities for {74} distribution on the Queen's ships. _Before the Mast_ is a plain, simple narrative of the daily life of a sailor on a merchant ship. It tells of many hardships, some of which have been remedied since the publication of the book. It has been called "A voice from the forecastle". Dana's accounts of rounding Cape Horn are wonderfully vivid, and all the descriptions of California in its early days are enthralling. _Before the Mast_ is a remarkably interesting and realistic narrative; it is, however, a book of travel rather than a story of adventure. The incidents are plainly in no case imaginary.

A book about Canada of a wholly different character is a well-known historical romance, _The Golden Dog_, written by William Kirby. This is a tale of early days in the beautiful, romantic city of Quebec when some of the colour and glory of the French court was reproduced on western soil. _The Golden Dog_ has not a little romantic charm. Many readers have been puzzled and attracted by the rhyme which in all likelihood first gave Kirby the idea for his story.

I am a dog that gnaws his bone, I couch and gnaw it all alone-- A time will come, which is not yet, When I'll bite him by whom I'm bit.

The lines have been translated from the French. Here are the words of the original.

Je suis un chien qui ronge l'os, En le rongeant je prends mon repos. Un temps viendra qui n'est pas venu Que je mordrai qui m' aura mordu.

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A rude carving of the dog and his bone, with the lines cut above and underneath, is to be seen still on a building in Quebec City.

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