The Island Queen, Robert Michael Ballantyne [best books to read for women .txt] 📗

/> Nobbs had sense enough left to observe something of the ludicrous in the woman and her advice. He turned at once, uttered a wildly jovial laugh, and driving in the head of another cask, overturned it. As before, the spirit rushed down the hill and was set ablaze, but the poor madman did not pause now to look at the result. His great enemy was in his power; his spirit was roused. Like one of the fabled heroes of old, he laid about him with his ponderous weapon right and left until every cask was smashed, and every drop of the accursed liquid was rushing down the hillside to the sea, or flaming out its fierce existence in the air.

The people looked on awe-stricken, and in silence, while the madman fought. It was not with the senseless casks or the inanimate liquor that poor John Nobbs waged war that night; it was with a real fiend who, in days gone by, had many a time tripped him up and laid him low, who had nearly crushed the heart of his naturally cheerful little wife, who had ruined his business, broken up his home, alienated his friends, and, finally, driven him into exile--a fiend from whom, for many months, under the influence of "the pledge," he had been free, and who, he had fondly hoped, was quite dead.

This sudden revival of the old foe, and this unexpected surprise and fall, had roused this strong man's spirit to its utmost ferocity, and in mighty wrath he plied his hammer like a second Thor. But the very strength and nervous power of the man constituted his weakness, when brought under the subtle influence of the old tempter, and it is probable that on his recovery, with nerves shaken, old cravings awakened, and self-respect gone, he would have fallen again and again if God had not made use of the paroxysm of rage to destroy the opportunity and the cause of evil. Nobbs did not know at that time, though he learned it afterwards, that safety from the drink-sin--as from all other sin--lies not in strong-man resolutions, or Temperance pledges, though both are useful aids, but in Jesus, the Saviour _from sin_.

Some of those who witnessed the wholesale destruction of the liquor would fain have made an effort to prevent it; but, fortunately for the community, most of them were too drunk to care, and the others to interfere; while all were so taken by surprise that the deed was done and the grand conflagration ended before they had realised the full significance of the blacksmith's act.

When the last head had been driven in, and the last gallon of spirit summarily dismissed by the fire, Nobbs threw up his arms, and, looking upward, gave vent to a cheer which ended in a prolonged cry. For a moment he stood thus, then the hammer dropt from his grasp, and he fell back insensible.

Poor little Mrs Nobbs was by his side on her knees in a moment, parting the dark hair from his broad brow, kissing his swart cheeks, and chafing his strong hands.

"O John! darling John!" she cried, "come back--come back--don't die. You never was hard or cruel to _me_! Even the drink could not do that. Come back, John!"

Dr Marsh here gently restrained her. "Don't be alarmed," he said, as he undid the smith's necktie; "he'll be all right presently. Stand back, don't crowd round him; and you go fetch a cup of water, Mrs Nobbs."

The reassuring tones and the necessity for action did much to calm the excited woman. Before she had returned with the water her husband had partially recovered. They carried him to his hut, and left him to sleep off the effects, while his poor little wife watched by his side. When left quite alone, she went down on her knees beside him, and prayed for his deliverance with all her heart. Then she rose and sat down with a calm, contented look, muttering, "Yes; He _is_ the hearer and answerer of prayer. He _will_ answer me."

She might have gone further and said, "He _has_ answered me," for was not the destruction of the liquor an answer to the petition before it was put up? "Before they call I will answer."

"Pina," said Otto the following day, in a tone almost of reproach, during a private audience with the queen, "Pina, how came you to do such an insane thing as choose Joe Binney for your premier? Why didn't you choose Dom? You know well enough that he's fifty times cleverer than Joe, and even in the matter of strength, though he's not so strong, I'm very sure that with his pugilistic powers he could keep order quite as well. Besides, all the people had made up their minds, as a matter of course, that Dom was to be premier, and then--he's a gentleman."

"I'm thankful that you are not one of the Privy Council, Otto," returned Pauline, with a laugh. "You put several questions, and a string of commentary and suggestion in the same breath! Let me answer you in detail, beginning with your last remark. Joe is a gentleman in the highest sense of that word. He is gentle as a lamb by nature, and a _man_ every inch of him. But, more than this, I have noticed that he is a peculiarly wise man, with a calm, pool head on all occasions, and not too ready to use his great physical power in the settlement of disputes. I have observed, too, that when asked for his advice, he usually thinks well before he gives it, and when his advice is followed things almost always go well. Still further, Joe has the thorough confidence of the people, and I am not so sure that Dom has. Besides, if I had appointed Dom, some of the ungenerous among them might have said it was done from mere favouritism. Then as to the people making up their minds that I would appoint Dom," continued Pauline, "what have I to do with _that_?"

"Why, everything to do with it," returned Otto, with a surprised look. "Were you not made queen for the purpose of carrying out their wishes?"

"Certainly not," answered Pauline; "I was made queen for the purpose of ruling. They told me they had confidence in my judgment, not in my readiness to carry out their wishes. If my judgment, coupled with that of my advisers, does not suit them, it is open to them to unmake me as they made me, and appoint a king or a president, but my judgment I cannot alter."

Otto listened to these gravely stated opinions of the new queen with increasing astonishment.

"Then, you awful despot," he said, "do you mean to tell me that you are going to have no regard for the will of the people?"

"No, I don't mean to tell you that, you presumptuous little subject. I intend always to have the utmost regard for the will of my people, and to weigh it well, and consult with my advisers about it; and when our united judgment says that their will is good, I will act in accordance with it; when we think it bad, I will reject it. I have been made queen to rule, and I _mean_ to rule! That's fair, isn't it? If they don't like my ruling they can dethrone me. That's also fair, isn't it? You wouldn't have me become a mere puppet--a jumping Jack or Jinnie--would you, for the people to pull the string of?"

"Well, I never!" exclaimed Otto, gazing with distended eyes at the soft fair face and at the pretty little innocent mouth that gave vent to these vigorous sentiments. "And what may it be your majesty's pleasure to do next?"

"It is my pleasure that you, sir, shall go down to the beach and prepare the dinghy for immediate service. I have already directed the prime minister, in conjunction with Dom and our Court physician, to draw up a constitution and code of laws; while they are thus employed you and I will go a-fishing."

"Very good; I suppose I'm bound to obey, but I thought your majesty preferred to go a-sketching."

"We will do both. Be off, sirrah!"

Otto was not long in launching and getting ready the little punt, or dinghy, belonging to the wreck, which, being too small for carrying goods to the island, had been made over to Pauline as a royal barge for her special amusement, and already had she and her little brother enjoyed several charming expeditions among the sheltered islets of the lagoon, when Otto devoted himself chiefly to rowing and fishing, while his sister sketched with pencil and water-colours. Being expert with both, she took great pleasure therein.

"It _is_ so pleasant and so very engrossing," she murmured, busying herself with a sketch of Otto as he rowed gently towards one of the smaller islets. "I can't tell you how much I delight--turn your head a little more to the left--so--and do keep your nose quiet if you can."

"Impossible," said Otto. "There's a little fly that has made up its mind to go into my nose. I can neither drive it away nor catch it while both hands are engaged with the oars, so there's no resource left but to screw my nose about. But what were you going to say you delighted in?"

"In--in drawing," replied the queen very slowly, while her pretty little head went up and down as she glanced alternately at her sitter and the sketch-book on her knee; "it--it takes one's mind--so--off--"

"The cares of state?" said Otto. "Yes, I can easily understand what a-re-re-ha! hk-sh!" he gave way to a convulsive sneeze; "there, it went up at last, and that little fly's doom is sealed!"

"I should think it was," said Pauline laughingly. "To be blown from a cannon's mouth must be nothing to that. Now, do keep still, just for one minute."

For considerably more than a minute she went on sketching busily, while her brother pulled along very gently, as if unwilling to break the pleasant silence. Everything around was calculated to foster a dreamy, languid, peaceful state of mind. The weather was pleasantly cool--just cool enough to render the brilliant sunshine most enjoyable. Not a zephyr disturbed the glassy surface of the sea outside or the lagoon within, or broke the perfect reflections of the islets among which they moved. The silence would have been even oppressive had it not been for the soft, plaintive cries of wildfowl and the occasional whistling of wings as they hurried to and fro, and the solemn boom of the great breakers as they fell at slow regular intervals on the reef. "Doesn't it sound," said Pauline, looking up from her sketch with a flush of delight, "like the deep soft voice of the ocean speaking peace to all mankind?"

"What, the breakers?" asked Otto.

"Yes, dropping with a soft deep roar as they do in the midst of the universal silence."

"Well, it doesn't quite strike me in that light, Pina. My imagination isn't so lively as yours. Seems to me more like the snoring of a sleeping giant, whom it is best to let lie still like a sleeping dog, for he's apt to do considerable damage when roused."

The soft influences around soon reduced the pair to