The Sandman: His Ship Stories  by Willliam J. Hopkins

The Far Country Story

NCE upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way. And because ships had come there for a great many years, and all the sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the sidewalks were much worn. That was a great many years ago.

The river and the ocean are there yet, as they always have been and always will be; and the city is there, but it is a different kind of a city from what it used to be. And the wharf is slowly falling down, for it is not used now; and the narrow road down the steep hill is all grown up with weeds and grass.

One day, in the long ago, the brig Industry  was sailing down that river, on her first voyage, and on her were Captain Jacob and Lois, his wife, besides the sailors. And Captain Jacob and Lois had just been married, that very day. And on the wharf that they left behind them stood Captain Jonathan, and he was rather mournful because his daughter was married and was going away. And Lois was half mournful and half joyful; and she had watched, from the deck, until she couldn't see Captain Jonathan any longer. Captain Jacob was very busy, giving orders to the sailors; for even a wide river doesn't give much room to sail a ship, and Captain Jacob had to look out or the ship would go aground. So the sailors had to pull on the ropes to swing the yards around when Captain Jacob told them to, and they had to jump and be quick about it, too. And Lois went into her cabin.

After a little while, the vessel was out of the river and in the great ocean. And Lois watched, from the window of her cabin, and she saw the shores gradually get less distinct, until, at last, they were nothing but a dim blue line, very far away. And the Industry  kept on sailing, and the dim blue line disappeared, and all around was nothing but the water of the ocean. But the water was a deep blue and it sparkled in the sun, for it was a beautiful bright day, as every wedding day ought to be. Then the sailors fixed the sails the way they would stay for some time and they put the Industry  on her course. For the wind was fair, and it blew almost behind the vessel, but not quite; and it was not a great wind, so that the sailors put up every sail that there was: a sail on every yard, and all of her jibs and the spanker, and on some of the yards there were little sails that stuck out beyond the ends of the yards.

And pretty soon it was night, and the stars shone brightly all around. Lois liked to watch the stars, and she could see many more than she could see when she was on land, for there was nothing in the way. But the stars that were overhead were the brightest, and the stars that were far down near the water were dim. And she watched the stars for a long time, until Captain Jacob could leave some of the sailors to sail the vessel all night. For, on any ship, all the sailors are divided into what they call watches, a certain number of them in each watch, and they take turns at keeping awake, and in managing the sails; and while one watch is awake and on duty, the other sailors can sleep. And there are two mates, who take turns with the watch and take the captain's place in the command of the ship, so that the captain can sleep, too.

So the wind kept blowing briskly, but it was not a great wind, and the Industry  kept sailing along over the great ocean for many days. And, in all those many days, the sailors didn't have to change the sails once. And Captain Jacob was pleased that the Industry  sailed so well and so fast. But at last they came to that part of the ocean where it is most apt to be calm and where it rains a great deal. And, when they got to that part of the ocean, it was calm for a long time, and for days and days the Industry  just flapped her sails and rose and fell on the long waves, so that they didn't know whether they would ever get out of that calm place. And the sky wouldn't stay clear, but it rained a great deal from heavy, black clouds, and Lois was rather seasick and wished that she was at home.

And a great storm came, and the sailors took in all the sails but two, and the wind blew very hard for two days, and the waves were very high and steep. But Captain Jacob was glad, for he could get out of that calm place. And on the third day the sky cleared and the wind blew less strongly, and the sailors set more sails. And Captain Jacob was gladder than ever, but he didn't whistle, for that would have brought bad luck and less wind. The reason why Captain Jacob was so glad was because he had seen what a good ship the Industry  was and that she could go through any kind of a storm and not be hurt, just as the master of the shipyard had promised.

And no more storms came, and the Industry  sailed on her voyage over the great ocean, and Lois felt better. They sailed past the country where the monkeys lived and around the end of that country. But Captain Jacob was getting worried because they had been in that calm place so long that he was afraid that they wouldn't have water enough. Cows drink a good deal of water; and one day they had fresh beef for dinner, and after that they had fresh beef for dinner every day for a week, but they didn't have so much milk or cream or butter as they had been having. And then they had the last of the fresh mutton; and when that was gone, they had beef again for some days, but Lois couldn't have any cream in her tea nor on her oatmeal, nor any butter on her bread, but only molasses. And, though Captain Jacob was sorry for Lois, he was glad that there were no cows to drink up the water. Then he began to look carefully over the ocean and he kept a sailor up in the crosstrees, looking out, all the time. But it wasn't the same sailor all the time.

And, one day, the sailor who was up in the crosstrees saw something.

"Land, O!" he cried.

And Captain Jacob was glad when he heard that, and he made the ship go near that land. It was an island, the same island where Captain Solomon stopped, that it tells about in another story; and no people lived there, but there was a spring of beautiful clear water running out of a crack in the rock.

And the sailors fixed the sails so that the ship wouldn't go ahead, and they got one of the rowboats down from the place where it had been, and they let it down into the water. And they took all the hogsheads that had held water, and they found the water all gone from them, except that there was one that was nearly full. And they emptied out the water from that one, and they put in the bungs in all the hogsheads. Then they tied all the hogsheads together and threw them over the side of the ship into the water, and they towed them ashore and filled them.

When the sailors had brought back the hogsheads full of water and had hoisted them up into the ship, Captain Jacob felt better, for he knew that they would have enough of the good water to last them until they got to the far country. And he had the sailors fix the sails so that the ship would go ahead, and they sailed away for a great many days until they came to the far country.

Then the Industry  sailed into a wide river, and the sailors took in the sails and let the great anchor down to the bottom of the river. That was the first time that the anchor of the Industry  had been down to the bottom of the water. And a lot of men came out from the shore in little rowboats and took the things out of the ship and carried them to the city that was on the shore. But, all this time that the men were taking the things out of the Industry, Lois had to stay on board, for Captain Jacob was very busy and he wouldn't let her go ashore without him and he didn't have time to go with her. But at last Captain Jacob had attended to all the business he had to do and he had the ship all unloaded and the things sold, so that he wasn't very busy any more.

So he called Lois and told her that, if she cared to, they could go ashore and see what there was to see. And Lois was very glad and she got ready quickly, and the sailors let down Captain Jacob's rowboat and Captain Jacob and Lois got in and were rowed to the shore. And they went up some steps of stone and along some queer streets until they came where the shops were. And Lois was interested in seeing the queer shops and the queer people and the strange things that the people had to sell. Some of the things were just such as she had always been used to, for Captain Jonathan had many such things in his own house where Lois had grown up; things that had been brought from this very city. And some of the things that she was not used to she did not care for and some of them she did. And Lois and Captain Jacob wandered around all day among the shops, and when it was late in the afternoon they went to the stone steps that led down to the river and they were rowed back to the Industry.

And Lois was interested in seeing the queer shops.

And so they did every day for a good many days, and Captain Jacob bought a good many things that Lois seemed to like very much. There was a whole set of china with a great many plates and vegetable dishes and platters and every kind of a thing that you could think of, that had houses and trees and birds painted on them in blue. And he bought another set, in case some of the first set should get broken. And there were tables of teak-wood and ebony, and little tables that had the tops inlaid with ivory, and trays that were shiny black with birds and flowers painted on them in red and silver and gold. And there were tea-sets of the most delicate china almost as thin as paper; and the tea-pots were of queer shapes, like dragons and turtles and other strange animals. And there were a few of the images carved out of ivory; but there weren't many of them, for Lois didn't care much for them. There was a procession of elephants, all carved out of an elephant's tusk, and they got smaller as they went along, until the last elephant was not more than an inch high. And there were two or three squatting idols, that were meant to be terrible and were very ugly. And when Lois had got all these things, she had almost enough to furnish Captain Jacob's house, that would be her house when she got back home again.

Captain Jacob bought a beautiful camel's hair shawl for Lois and a narrow piece made of camel's hair to go around her neck, but she wouldn't let him buy any more for her. So he bought, for the Industry's account, a lot more of the camel's hair shawls and a lot of the cloth made of goat's hair; and a great many chests of tea, of all kinds, and a lot of spices and some chests made of camphor-wood and some made of cedar; and more of the tables of ebony and ivory and teak-wood; and more of the images carved out of ivory; and a great many trays and little bits of tables that were shiny black with birds and flowers painted on them in red and silver and gold. And then he bought enough logs of teak-wood to fill up the ship.

All these things had to be brought out to the Industry  in small boats, and stowed away, the heaviest things first, because they would be nearest the bottom, and the heaviest things must always be put nearest the bottom of a ship. And it would take the men a long time to get the ship loaded properly, so Captain Jacob thought that he would leave the ship in the charge of the first mate, and take Lois on a little trip into the country. For the first mate had shown that he was a capable kind of a man and could take good care of the ship. And the first mate was the same man that had command of the Industry  afterwards, and then he was called Captain Solomon; but he wasn't Captain Solomon at that time, for he was only the mate.

So Captain Jacob took three of the sailors, and he and Lois and the three sailors went off into the country in carts that were drawn by bullocks. These bullocks were a queer sort of oxen, and they had a great hump, like a camel's hump, over their shoulders, but they didn't go very fast. And, because they went so slowly, Captain Jacob couldn't go very far into the country, for he didn't want to be away any longer than it would take the men to load the ship. But Lois saw the villages and the women washing the clothes in the water of the river, and the crocodiles that looked like so many old logs. But the women who washed clothes in the river had to be very careful or the crocodiles would eat them up. And she saw the elephants piling teak-wood logs beside the water, and she thought that was very interesting and she would have liked to stay longer and watch the elephants. Some of the elephants had done that work so long that they knew how without any men going with them, and the elephants that knew how showed the others that didn't know how. And when these others were very stupid about piling the logs, the elephants that knew how would get angry with them and butt into them and punish them.

The women who washed clothes.

But Captain Jacob thought that they had been away as long as they ought to be and he wouldn't stay there any longer. So they went back in the bullock carts. And when they had got back to the Industry  they found the sailors waiting for them, for Mate Solomon had finished loading the ship in two days' less time than Captain Jacob had expected. And he had got all the things that they would eat while the ship was sailing over the great ocean and all the water that they would drink. And when Captain Jacob learned this, he was pleased. Then the sailors pulled up the great anchor and hoisted the sails.

So the Industry  sailed out of the river into the great ocean, and Lois was glad, for she was going home. And they sailed over the ocean for a great many days, and when they came to the island where the nice water ran out of the crack in the rock, Captain Jacob had all the water barrels filled with fresh water again.

Then they sailed away for a great many days, around the end of the country where the monkeys live, into another big ocean. And they didn't have any storms worth mentioning, and they didn't have to stay in the calm place very long. And after a long time they came to the wide river that the little city was beside; and they sailed into the river and up to the wharf. And the sailors took down the sails and fastened the ship to the wharf with great ropes, and they were all glad to get home again.

It was just sunset when the Industry  sailed into the wide river and Captain Jonathan had gone from his office. And when he got home he had gone up the stairs into the cupola, and looked out through a telescope that was there to look through. For he knew that it was almost time for the Industry  to get home and he wanted to be the first one to see her when she came. And when he looked, there was a ship coming in over the ocean, and the ship was heading for the river; and he looked again and he knew it was the Industry.

So it happened that Captain Jonathan was the first person that Lois saw on the wharf. And she was very glad to see him, and he came on the ship as soon as the ship was fast to the wharf, and she put her arms around his neck and cried a little, she was so glad to see him. And Captain Jonathan shook hands with Captain Jacob as soon as he had a chance, and said that he was glad to see him back again. And then they all went up to Captain Jonathan's house.

And that's all.