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Page 24
"An Asiatic only relishes one thing better than being outwitted--that is
to outwit.
"'Eyah! Eyah! Ha! ha! ha!' they cried as we rode away.
"'Ha! ha! ha!' replied I, waving a well-gloved hand, on my road to
Pekin."
WAVES OF THE GREAT SOUTH SEAS.
(_Founded on Fact_.)
"Very likely the man who drew it had been nearly drowned by one
himself."
"Very likely nothing of the sort!"
"How could he draw it if he hadn't seen it?"
"Why, they always do. Look at Uncle Alfred, he drew a splendid picture
of a shipwreck. Don't you remember his doing it at the dining-room
table, and James coming in to lay the cloth, and he would have a bit of
the table left clear for him, because he was in the middle of putting in
the drowning men, and wanted to get them in before luncheon? And Uncle
Herbert wrote a beautiful poem to it, and they were both put into a real
magazine. And Uncle Alfred and Uncle Herbert never were in shipwrecks.
So there!"
"Well, Uncle Alfred drew it very well, and he made very big waves. So
there!"
"Ah, but he didn't make waves like a great wall. He did it very
naturally, and he draws a great deal better than those rubbishy old
pictures in Father's _Robinson Crusoe_."
"Well, I don't care. The Bible says that when the Children of Israel
went through the Red Sea the waters were a wall to them on their right
hand and on their left. And I believe they were great waves like the
wave in _Robinson Crusoe_, only they weren't allowed to fall down till
Pharaoh and his host came, and then they washed them all away."
"But that's a miracle. I don't believe there are waves like that now."
"I believe there are in other countries. Uncle Alfred's shipwreck was
only an English shipwreck, with waves like the waves at the seaside."
"Let's ask Cousin Peregrine. He's been in foreign countries, and he's
been at sea."
The point in dispute between Maggie and her brother was this:--The
nursery copy of _Robinson Crusoe_ was an old one which had belonged to
their father, with very rough old wood-cuts, one of which represented
Robinson Crusoe cowering under a huge wave, which towered far above his
head, and threatened to overwhelm him. This wave Maggie had declared to
be unnatural and impossible, whilst the adventure-book young gentleman
clung to and defended an illustration which had helped him so vividly to
realize the sea-perils of his hero.
It was the day following that of Cousin Peregrine's arrival, and when
evening arrived the two children carried the book down with them to
dessert, and attacked Cousin Peregrine simultaneously.
"Cousin Peregrine, you've been at sea: isn't that an impossible wave?"
"Cousin Peregrine, you've been at sea: aren't there sometimes waves like
that in foreign places?"
"It's not very cleverly drawn," said Cousin Peregrine, examining the
wood-cut; "but making allowance for that, I have seen waves not at all
unlike this one."
"There!" cried the young gentleman triumphantly. "Maggie laughed at it,
and said it was like a wall."
"Some waves are very like walls, but those are surf-waves, as they are
called, that is, waves which break upon a shore. The waves I am thinking
of just now are more like mountains--translucent blackish-blue
mountains--mountains that look as if they were made of bottle-green
glass, like the glass mountain in the fairy tale, or shining mountains
of phosphorescent light--meeting you as if, they would overwhelm you,
passing under you, and tossing you like the old woman in the blanket,
and then running away behind you as you go to meet another. Every wave
with a little running white crest on its ridge; though not quite such a
curling frill as this one has which is engulfing poor Robinson Crusoe.
But his is a surf-wave, of course. Those I am speaking of are waves in
mid-ocean."
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