The Queen of the Pirate Isle | Page 4

The sea was calm and the sky cloudless. Any change in the
weather was as unexpected as it is in books. Suddenly a West Indian
Hurricane, purely local in character and unfelt anywhere else, struck
Master Hickory and threw him overboard, whence, wildly swimming
for his life and carrying Polly on his back, he eventually reached a
Desert Island in the closet. Here the rescued party put up a tent made of
a table-cloth providentially snatched from the raging billows, and, from
two o'clock until four, passed six weeks on the island, supported only
by a piece of candle, a box of matches, and two peppermint lozenges. It
was at this time that it became necessary to account for Polly's
existence among them, and this was only effected by an alarming
sacrifice of their morality; Hickory and Wan Lee instantly became
PIRATES, and at once elected Polly as their Queen. The royal duties,
which seemed to be purely maternal, consisted in putting the Pirates to
bed after a day of rapine and bloodshed, and in feeding them with
licorice water through a quill in a small bottle. Limited as her functions
were, Polly performed them with inimitable gravity and unquestioned
sincerity. Even when her companions sometimes hesitated from actual
hunger or fatigue and forgot their guilty part, she never faltered. It was
her real existence; her other life of being washed, dressed, and put to
bed at certain hours by her mother was the ILLUSION.
Doubt and skepticism came at last,--and came from Wan Lee! Wan Lee
of all creatures! Wan Lee, whose silent, stolid, mechanical performance
of a pirate's duties--a perfect imitation like all his household work--had
been their one delight and fascination!

It was just after the exciting capture of a merchantman, with the
indiscriminate slaughter of all on board,--a spectacle on which the
round blue eyes of the plump Polly had gazed with royal and maternal
tolerance,--and they were burying the booty, two tablespoons and a
thimble, in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose.
"Melican boy pleenty foolee! Melican boy no Pilat!" said the little
Chinaman, substituting "l's" for "r's" after his usual fashion.
"Wotcher say?" said Hickory, reddening with sudden confusion.
"Melican boy's papa heap lickee him--s'pose him leal Pilat," continued
Wan Lee doggedly. "Melican boy Pilat INSIDE housee. Chinee boy
Pilat OUTSIDE housee. First chop Pilat."
Staggered by this humiliating statement, Hickory recovered himself in
character. "Ah! Ho!" he shrieked, dancing wildly on one leg, "Mutiny
and Splordinashun! 'Way with him to the yard-arm."
"Yald-alm--heap foolee! Alee same clothes-horse for washee washee."
It was here necessary for the Pirate Queen to assert her authority, which,
as I have before stated, was somewhat confusingly maternal.
"Go to bed instantly without your supper," she said seriously. "Really, I
never saw such bad pirates. Say your prayers, and see that you're up
early to church tomorrow."
It should be explained that in deference to Polly's proficiency as a
preacher, and probably as a relief to their uneasy consciences, Divine
Service had always been held on the Island. But Wan Lee continued:--
"Me no shabbee Pilat INSIDE housee; me shabbee Pilat OUTSIDE
housee. S'pose you lun away longside Chinee boy--Chinee boy make
you Pilat."
Hickory softly scratched his leg; while a broad, bashful smile almost
closed his small eyes. "Wot?" he asked.
"Mebbe you too flightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heap
lickee."
This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. "Dy'ar think we
daresen't?" said Hickory desperately, but with an uneasy glance at Polly.
"I'll show yer to-morrow."
The entrance of Polly's mother at this moment put an end to Polly's
authority and dispersed the pirate band, but left Wan Lee's proposal and
Hickory's rash acceptance ringing in the ears of the Pirate Queen. That
evening she was unusually silent. She would have taken Bridget, her

nurse, into her confidence, but this would have involved a long
explanation of her own feelings, from which, like all imaginative
children, she shrank. She, however, made preparation for the proposed
flight by settling in her mind which of her two dolls she would take. A
wooden creature with easy-going knees and movable hair seemed to be
more fit for hard service and any indiscriminate scalping that might
turn up hereafter. At supper, she timidly asked a question of Bridget.
"Did ye ever hear the loikes uv that, ma'am?" said the Irish handmaid
with affectionate pride. "Shure the darlint's head is filled noight and
day with ancient history. She's after asking me now if Queens ever run
away!" To Polly's remorseful confusion here her good father, equally
proud of her precocious interest and his own knowledge, at once
interfered with an unintelligible account of the abdication of various
queens in history until Polly's head ached again. Well meant as