CHARLIE BECOMES A FREEHOLDER.

Charlie was in high spirits when he weighed anchor; but on the way “a change came over the spirit of his dream.”

He began to reproach himself that, carried away by the attractions of Pleasant Cove, and the impulse of the moment, he had gone so far without consulting his adopted parents. “Father will think that I ought to have asked him. He would have bought the land for me if he had thought best I should have it.”

When he reached the island, he told them all about it. Ben and Sally seemed to understand his feelings perfectly.

“It would not have looked well,” said Sally, “after Uncle Isaac offered to buy the land for you not to have accepted the offer.”

“You could not have found a better piece of land, or a more pleasant spot,” said Ben. “That flat next to the beach is splendid wheat land, and there’s an excellent boiling spring on the eastern side of the cove.”

“I didn’t see that, but I saw the brook.”

The evenings were now quite long, and Charlie made rapid progress in surveying. Uncle Isaac’s boat also grew apace under the new impulse he had received. Every stroke of the hammer was so much towards buying land.

Ben’s prediction in respect to increase of business was abundantly verified. After Uncle Isaac’s boat was finished and gone, Charlie set up another, without any model or guide except his eye, and the knowledge of proportions which he had gained from the other boats. He endeavored to unite the sailing qualities of the West Wind with a greater capacity of burden, and ability to carry sail with a less quantity of ballast.

Charlie did not intend to sell this boat, but to make her large and able for rough weather and heavy seas, and keep her for a family boat to go to the main land in. He had of late been smitten with a very great desire to go to meeting on the main land, and to dine at Captain Rhines’s, and he knew that his mother would like to go with him, as she never was afraid of anything. But although he did not intend to sell this boat, he designed her for a permanent model of others to be sold. He perceived that the other boats, though infinitely better than the dug-outs to get about in, were not what was required for fishing; that, though great sailers, they were not capacious enough to hold fish and ballast both, and required too much ballast to keep them on their legs. It is by no means an easy attainment to unite in one boat all the elements of a good fishing-boat, that will sail well, row easy, and save life in bad weather. A fisherman wants a boat that will row easy, for he often starts away at two o’clock in the morning, when it is generally calm, and rows seven or eight miles, perhaps more, to reach his ground. He cannot go without ballast, and he can get none after he is outside, except he gets fish, which is by no means certain. On the other hand, if he gets a large quantity of fish, he can throw some of his ballast overboard, and he doesn’t want to row half a ton of ballast eight or ten miles. But if his boat is stiff, and will carry reefed sails, or a whole foresail, with a moderate quantity of ballast that he can keep in all the time, not sufficient to overload her when fish are plenty, and yet sufficient to make her safe, he is suited.

It is not a great deal, to be sure, to row four or five hundred weight of ballast more, for once or twice, but when you have got to do it year in and year out, when tired and hungry, it is a good deal. A fisherman wants a boat, too, that is smart, stiff to bear a hard blow, buoyant, will mind her helm, and work quick to clear an ugly sea, and sail well on a wind. They often go twenty miles from land, tempted by weather that appears “hard and good,” to particular shoals, where they get large fish, when the weather suddenly changes, and in an open boat they must beat in, and they do beat in. There are boats now built at Hampton or Seabrook that would beat into Boston Bay, with a man in them that knew how to handle them in a gale of wind, when a ship couldn’t do it; for, when a big ship gets down to close-reefs, she won’t do much on a wind. The people then knew where the fish were as well as we do now; but they couldn’t go off to those places except in pinkies, and, when they ventured to the inner shoals, reefs, and hake ground in their canoes, it was real slavery. They had to row in if the wind came ahead, or it was calm, and were liable to be blown to sea and lost.

Charlie meant to build a boat that would answer these requirements as far as he was able. Then he meant to take moulds of every timber and every streak of plank as he went along, so that he might work from them, and build another of the same size, with one half the labor.

This he did, and built a boat twenty-two feet long on top, sharp under water, and deeper in proportion to her length than the others, with a pink-stern and lap-streak. It was less work to put on the planks with a lap than with a calking-seam; there was less need of accuracy; for, if the plank lapped too much in any place, you had only to take it off with a plane or chisel.

When his boat was finished, he painted her by the streaks, and she looked as neat as a pin. He thought she was a great deal handsomer than a square stern; so did everybody.

When anchored beside the Perseverance, she looked so much like her that he christened her Perseverance, Jr. As soon as the spars and sails were made, Charlie and the whole family, except Sally Merrithew and the baby, went over to meeting. People then came great distances to meeting, taking a luncheon of “turnovers,” or doughnuts and cheese, and going out to walk in the burying-ground to eat it, the intermission between services being short.

The boat was anchored in the cove, right in front of the church, and many were the curious eyes that scanned her proportions during the intermission.

Henry Griffin had enjoyed his boat but three weeks, when he came on to the island, and wanted to buy the Perseverance, Jr.

“What do you want of two boats?”

“There’s a man in Wiscasset wants mine for a pleasure-boat. I think yours would be a great deal better boat for fishing in the winter, in rough weather. I will sell mine, and buy yours.”

“I won’t sell this boat, for we want just such a boat to go over to meeting in. We can go in her dry, by carrying short sail, any time, almost; but I’ll build you one just like her.”

“When?”

“I’ll begin to-morrow.”

“Then build her, and I’ll sell this.”

In the course of a fortnight he had three orders more; all wanted them as soon as possible, they said. The boats were rather large, but just the thing for two men.

He then hired Robert Yelf to work with him, and sent some moulds over to Uncle Isaac, who dug out roots for him, and procured crooks for knees and breast-hooks. When he had filled these orders, there was a lull, and Charlie went to farming and making preparations for boat-building in future.

Having now mastered the principles of surveying by means of a Gunter’s scale and chain, which Ben possessed, and a cross staff which he had made under his father’s directions, he began to practise by measuring the cleared land on the island and the points, and making and platting the different pieces. He was anxious to learn the use of the compass, and to run lines by it; but he had no land compass, and here, with most boys, the matter would have rested; but unaccustomed to yield to difficulties, Charlie resolved to make a boat compass serve his turn—the very one that had been the instrument of saving his life in the snow squall.

His first attempt was to make a tripod. Upon a piece of oak board he drew a circle two inches larger than the compass, with projections at each side six inches long, and sawed it out by the marks: he then drew another circle, two inches inside of this, and sawed down to it, cutting out the wood so as to leave two projections on each side, two inches wide and two long: in each of these he cut a slot on the underside, also in one of the end ones, to receive a tenon cut on the end of each of the legs. By heating a wrought nail he made rivets, upon which his legs traversed easily, and fastened the compass to a wooden peg in the centre. A land compass has brass perpendiculars at each end of the base upon which it sits, with slits in them, by which to sight. In order to represent these, he made two holes in the ends of his base, in line with the needle of the compass, and put in two knitting needles, making them perpendicular with a plumb-line: thus, by setting up a stake, he had three objects in range, and could sight accurately. A land compass has a spirit level on its frame, by which to level it, screws to keep it in place, and a ball and socket joint upon which it moves; but by spreading or contracting the legs of his tripod, and by means of a plumb-line (the great resource of all mechanics in emergencies), he contrived to depress, elevate, and adjust the compass, measure land, and run a line accurately, and in a manner which Ben, after looking over his work, pronounced correct.

“Survey the island, Charlie,” said Ben; “I should like to know how much there is in it. I will carry the chain for you, and help you about measuring the points.”

“Don’t you know how much land you bought?”

“No; I bought it for so much; had it for more or less—what Mr. Welch’s father had it for when he bought it; I expect it overruns.”

“I should like to know, too,” said Uncle Isaac, who had come to the island that morning. “I’ve heard the most talk back and forth about this island: some say Ben hasn’t got the land he paid for, some say he’s got more. You need three to work in the woods. I’ll carry the chain.”

“I had it for seventeen hundred acres,” said Ben.

“Well, there’s all that, if not more.”

They ran lines north-east and south-west the length of the island, and parallel to each other at eighty rods apart; then ran cross lines, also parallel, eighty rods apart; blazed a tree at every intersection, and numbered the ranges included in these spaces, and put them down in a field-book. As the shore line was irregular, they measured the shore sections by offsets from the range lines.

Charlie then made a plat of it. The island contained nineteen hundred and thirty-five acres, one rood, twenty-seven rods, five links.

“That’s not much more than there ought to be,” said Uncle Isaac; “you have measured the whole; but they didn’t call these points anything, and they of course made allowance for the squawk swamp.”

They were five days in doing it, and it afforded Charlie excellent practice. A short time after that, Ben was sent for to run a large lot of timber land. He hired Squire Eveleth’s compass, and took Charlie with him, when he had an opportunity to perfect his knowledge of that instrument.

In due time Uncle Isaac received a letter from Salem. The price of the land was seventy-five cents an acre. Uncle Isaac, Ben, and Charlie went to look over it.

“It is too much,” said Uncle Isaac; “seventy-five cents an acre! farther back, you can buy it for twelve or fifteen cents.”

“What of that?” replied Ben: “no chance to get a thing to eat, except what you get from the land, and while you are clearing, almost starve to death; have to hunt and live on beech leaves and acorns; while here are clams at the shore, and fish and lobsters in the sea, to fall back upon; besides a brook with a fine mill privilege.”

“Better than that, Ben; there are plenty of pickerel in this pond, and the alewives, smelts, and frost-fish come up here into the brook, and any amount of eels.”

“There is still another great advantage you have overlooked: there is a swale made by the flowing back of the water, where the beavers once had a dam, that will cut six or seven tons of hay; that would be everything to a man going to settle on it. With the hay in that swale for winter, browse in this hard wood growth in summer, he could keep cattle right off.”

The pond contained over two hundred acres, and they found that in order to obtain that, and a portion of the heaviest pine growth back of it, it would be necessary for Charlie to buy about four hundred acres, or more.

“Buy it, Charlie,” said Ben; “you will then have the mill privilege and the timber both, and can do well with it.”

Charlie concluded to take it; and Uncle Isaac wrote to Salem to close the bargain. Ben and Charlie now went to Boston and procured their trees, taking up a load of fish to Mr. Welch, for Fred. Mr. Welch gave Charlie a Gunter’s scale, a land compass and chain, with all the appurtenances.

They received a letter from Isaac Murch, to the great delight of all, especially of Captain Rhines—the readers of the Ark will remember him. Mr. Welch told the captain that he had received a letter at the same time from Captain Radford, in which he said Isaac was now second mate of the Congress, an excellent seaman, and good navigator; and he should give him a mate’s birth at the first opportunity.

“He’s my boy,” said the captain, highly gratified; “for I brought him to life when he was good as dead, and Flour and I educated him. I’ll risk him anywhere; that will be good news for his parents and Uncle Isaac.”

Fred had orders from Mr. Welch for more fish; Joe Griffin likewise.

Charlie was now abundantly supplied with material for building boats, and had more orders. The harvest being over, he was assisted by his father. In a tight shop, with a rousing fire, they had nice times together.

Nobody would fish in a canoe now; and as demand always creates supply, an ingenious man at Wiscasset (a ship carpenter, who had been injured by a fall, and could not endure the heavy work of the ship-yard) saw one of Charlie’s boats, took the dimensions of her, and set up boat-building. Uncle Sam Elwell also built a boat for himself, and other ingenious people did the same; but Charlie’s boats outsailed all the others, and were preferred; there was something about them the others could not imitate. Uncle Isaac said there was a soul in them; they were alive.

The Perseverance made several trips, and Fred obtained his goods in that way easily, and at small expense for freight, and paid Charlie his money, with a handsome profit, much more than the money would have earned at interest.

The last time the Perseverance went to Boston, Sally went in her, baby and all. Mr. Welch and his wife were delighted to see her. Mrs. Welch went shopping with her, and she purchased furniture for the house, and dishes to take the place of the old pewter, a large looking-glass, and a globe to hang on the wall in the front room, dresses for herself, and some presents for Ben and Charlie.

Mr. Welch declared the child should be named for him, and so it was.

Charlie, having received his money, was naturally anxious to close the bargain for the land, of which Uncle Isaac had obtained the refusal.

In going over it the first time, they had merely guessed at the number of acres it would be necessary to buy in order to take in the pond, the pine timber, and the whole of the brook.

Men like Ben and Uncle Isaac will, by pacing, come quite near to the contents of a piece of land; but it was now necessary to measure and describe it sufficiently to make a deed.

Charlie wanted the cove, the long point, a growth of white oak which extended several rods beyond the short point, and the pond and brook. These he meant to have, even if he had to buy more land than he actually wanted. Mr. Pickering wrote to Uncle Isaac, who was an old acquaintance of his, that he was willing to take Rhines’s survey, if he would go with them and carry the chain.

When they arrived at the spot with the new instruments Mr. Welch had given him, Charlie wanted to begin at the shore line, above Long Point; but Ben told him if he did he would lose the point, as he could only hold what was within his lines. They therefore began on the shore, below the short point, ran the lines, and made a description by which to write the deed, as follows: Beginning at a blazed yellow birch tree, standing in a split rock on the shore, twenty rods south-west from Bluff Point, so called; thence running south-east four hundred and fifty rods to a blazed pine, marked C. B. (Charlie’s initials), south-east corner; thence north-east one hundred and fifty rods to a blazed pine tree, marked C. B., north-east corner; thence north-west four hundred and six rods to a blazed red oak tree on the shore, marked C. B.; thence along the shore of Pleasant Point, so called, at low-water mark, to the point of the high ledge at the westerly end of the same; thence west by south forty rods to the south-westerly end of said Pleasant Point at low-water mark; the line thence to the point begun at, being below low-water mark, across the mouth of Pleasant Cove, containing three hundred and sixty-three acres, more or less, thirty-seven being deducted for the contents of Pleasant Cove.

“I must go to the brook and get a drink of water,” said Charlie, when they had finished.

“We’ll go to Cross-root Spring,” said Uncle Isaac. “That’s something you’ve not seen yet, and it’s one of the best pieces of property you’ve got.”

Uncle Isaac led the way along the shore to the head of the cove. There the land rose gradually into a very gentle swell. A few rods from the water’s edge, on the breast of this slight elevation, were two large birches, whose branches interlocked; two of their main roots, crossing each other, grew together, and between them quivered, in transient gleams of sunlight, the clear waters of a noble spring.

Charlie looked down into it. The white sand was rolling over and over, as the bubbling water flung it up from the bottom. All around were the footprints of sea and land birds and animals. Uncle Isaac pointed out the track of a wolf, coons, and the print of a bear’s foot.

“There,” said he, “is a well that God Almighty dug for the good of his creatures. You see they know where it is. More red than white men have drank at this spring. It is a priceless gift! Let us drink, and remember the Giver.”

These details may not be very interesting to us, but they were intensely so to Charlie, who felt his hand was almost upon the prize he had so long desired. It had already been productive of one good result. It had given him an excellent practical knowledge of surveying and mathematics, most useful in his mechanical pursuits.

When Ben had written out the description, after returning to the island, he gave it to Charlie, and said, “When you pay your money, and get a deed of the land thus described, you’ve got all the land that belongs to you, and as good a farm as there is in town.”

In due time Charlie received his deed, which, he being a minor, ran to Uncle Isaac in trust for him.