The Queen of the Pirate Isle Read online

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  THE QUEEN

  OF THE

  PIRATE ISLE

  BY

  BRET HARTE

  ILLUSTRATED BY

  KATE GREENAWAY

  A FACSIMILE FROM THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION OF 1885

  UNIVERSAL BOOKS LTD, LONDON, ENGLAND

  Harte, Bret, 1836-1902.

  ISBN 0 86441 018 2.

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

  MRS SMITH 7

  POLLY 10

  BEGGAR CHILD 12

  SCHOOL MISTRESS 12

  INDIAN MAIDEN 13

  PROUD LADY 14

  CHINESE JUNK 15

  SWIMMING FOR HIS LIFE 16

  A TENT 17

  CAPTURE OF MERCHANTMAN 18

  AT SUPPER 20

  POLLY IN THE BRANCHES 23

  PATSEY 25

  SLUMGULLION 28

  EACH OTHER'S HANDS 30

  EDGE OF CLIFF 31

  SLIDING DOWN HILL 32

  PIG TAIL ROPE 34

  FIREWORKS IN CAVE 37

  LADY MARY'S HAIR GONE 39

  INVISIBLE MEDICINE 42

  CLAD IN DEEPEST MOURNING 44

  BROTHER STEP-AND-FETCH-IT 48

  WAN LEE 54

  NOT ALWAYS PIRATES 56

  POLLY BROUGHT HOME 58

  ASLEEP WITH DOLL 60

  THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE.

  I first knew her as the Queen of the Pirate Isle. To the best of myrecollection she had no reasonable right to that title. She was onlynine years old, inclined to plumpness and good humour, deprecatedviolence and had never been to sea. Need it be added that she did_not_ live in an island and that her name was "Polly."

  Perhaps I ought to explain that she had already known otherexperiences of a purely imaginative character. Part of her existencehad been passed as a Beggar Child--solely indicated by a shawltightly folded round her shoulders and chills,--as a Schoolmistress,unnecessarily severe; as a Preacher, singularly personal in hisremarks, and once, after reading one of Cooper's novels, as anIndian Maiden. This was, I believe, the only instance when she hadborrowed from another's fiction. Most of the characters that sheassumed for days and sometimes weeks at a time were purely originalin conception; some so much so as to be vague to the generalunderstanding. I remember that her personation of a certain Mrs.Smith, whose individuality was supposed to be sufficientlyrepresented by a sun-bonnet worn wrong side before and a weeklyaddition to her family, was never perfectly appreciated by her owncircle although she lived the character for a month. Anothercreation known as "The Proud Lady"--a being whose excessive andunreasonable haughtiness was so pronounced as to give her featuresthe expression of extreme nausea, caused her mother so much alarmthat it had to be abandoned. This was easily effected. The ProudLady was understood to have died. Indeed, most of Polly'simpersonations were got rid of in this way, although it by no meansprevented their subsequent reappearance. "I thought Mrs. Smith wasdead," remonstrated her mother at the posthumous appearance of thatlady with a new infant. "She was buried alive and kem to!" saidPolly with a melancholy air. Fortunately, the representation of aresuscitated person required such extraordinary acting, and was,through some uncertainty of conception, so closely allied in facialexpression to the Proud Lady, that Mrs. Smith was resuscitated onlyfor a day.

  The origin of the title of the Queen of the Pirate Isle, may bebriefly stated as follows:--

  An hour after luncheon, one day, Polly, Hickory Hunt, her cousin,and Wan Lee, a Chinese page, were crossing the nursery floor in aChinese junk. The sea was calm and the sky cloudless. Any change inthe weather was as unexpected as it is in books. Suddenly a WestIndian Hurricane, purely local in character and unfelt anywhereelse, struck Master Hickory and threw him overboard, whence, wildlyswimming for his life and carrying Polly on his back, he eventuallyreached a Desert Island in the closet. Here the rescued party put upa tent made of a table cloth providentially snatched from the ragingbillows, and from two o'clock until four, passed six weeks on theisland supported only by a piece of candle, a box of matches, andtwo peppermint lozenges. It was at this time that it becamenecessary to account for Polly's existence among them, and this wasonly effected by an alarming sacrifice of their morality; Hickoryand Wan Lee instantly became _Pirates_, and at once elected Polly astheir Queen. The royal duties, which seemed to be purely maternal,consisted in putting the Pirates to bed after a day of rapine andbloodshed, and in feeding them with liquorice water through a quillin a small bottle. Limited as her functions were, Polly performedthem with inimitable gravity and unquestioned sincerity. Even whenher companions sometimes hesitated from actual hunger or fatigue andforgot their guilty part, she never faltered. It was her _real_existence--her other life of being washed, dressed, and put to bedat certain hours by her mother was the _illusion_.

  Doubt and scepticism came at last,--and came from Wan Lee! Wan Leeof all creatures! Wan Lee, whose silent, stolid, mechanicalperformance of a Pirate's duties--a perfect imitation like all hishousehold work--had been their one delight and fascination!

  It was just after the exciting capture of a merchantman with theindiscriminate slaughter of all on board--a spectacle on which theround blue eyes of the plump Polly had gazed with royal and maternaltolerance, and they were burying the booty--two table spoons and athimble in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose.

  "Melican boy pleenty foolee! Melican boy no Pilat!" said the littleChinaman, 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--spose 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 himselfin character. "Ah! Ho!" he shrieked, dancing wildly on one leg,"Mutiny and Splordinashun! Way with him to the yard arm."

  "Yald alm--heap foolee! Allee same clothes hoss 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 seethat you're up early to church to-morrow." It should be explainedthat in deference to Polly's proficiency as a preacher, and probablyas a relief to their uneasy consciences, Divine Service had alwaysbeen held on the Island. But Wan Lee continued:--

  "Me no shabbee Pilat _inside_ housee; me shabbee Pilat _outside_housee. Spose you lun away longside Chinee boy--Chinee boy makee youPilat."

  Hickory softly scratched his leg while a broad, bashful smile,almost closed his small eyes. "Wot!" he asked.

  "Mebbee you too frightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heaplickee."

  This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. "Dy'arthink we daresent," said Hickory, desperately, but with an uneasyglance at Polly. "I'll show yer to-morrow."

  The entrance of Polly's mother at this moment put an end to Polly'sauthority and dispersed the pirate band, but left Wan Lee's proposaland Hickory's rash acceptance ringing in the ears of the PirateQueen. That evening she was unusually silent. She would have takenBridget, her nurse, into her confidence, but this would haveinvolved a long explanation of her own feelings, from which, likeall imaginative children, she shrank. She
, however, made preparationfor the proposed flight by settling in her mind which of her twodolls she would take. A wooden creature with easy going knees andmoveable hair seemed to be more fit for hard service and anyindiscriminate scalping that might turn up hereafter. At supper, shetimidly asked a question of Bridget. "Did ye ever hear the loikes uvthat, Ma'am," said the Irish handmaid with affectionate pride,"Shure the darlint's head is filled noight and day with ancienthistory. She's after asking me now if Queen's ever run away!" ToPolly's remorseful confusion here her good father equally proud ofher precocious interest and his own knowledge, at once interferedwith an unintelligible account of the abdication of various Queensin history until Polly's head ached again. Well meant as it was, itonly settled in the child's mind that she must keep the