Carl and Jocko; or, The adventures of the little Italian boy and his monkey

Front matter

*

J

I t t t

Preface

This book contains the history of a little Italian boy, who left Europe with his father and mother to come as emigrants to America. He met with a great many sad and sorrowful adventures on his way, and the reader of the story may learn from it the lessons of calmness and composure in danger, of patience and fortitude in suffering, and trust in God in times of dark despondency. It is true that Carl had Jocko to help him and to amuse him, but his chief reliance, after all, was upon the overruling hand of Divine Providence, and upon his own calm consideration and forethought, and the firm and steady perseverance with which he pursued the end which he had in view.

By following his example in these respects when you enter yourselves, hereafter, upon the serious struggles of life, you will almost certainly succeed in the end, and you will, at any rate, be cheered, and sustained, and comforted through all the disappointments, trials, and sufferings that you will encounter on the way.

Contents

CHAPTER / PAGH

I. SOME ACCOUNT OF CARL 13

II. A VISIT 28

Chapter I. The Ship

The appearance of Carl. His early home.

Seeking a fortune.

FIARL was an Italian boy, and Jocko was his monkey. Carl ^ was a very pretty boy. He had large, dark eyes, and black, glossy hair. His face was rather pale, but this was partly in consequence of the hard life he had led.

Carl was born at the foot of the Alps, on the sunny side of them — that is, on the side toward Italy. Grapes grow there, and figs, and other delicious fruits in rich profusion, but the grapes and the figs belong all to the men who own the lands on which they grow. Carl’s father had no land, and he found it very difficult to get enough for his wife and little Carl to eat ; so he determined to go with his wife and son over the Alps to France to seek his fortune, as a great many other poor Italian men had done before him.

There are a grc ik many children, too, that go in this way with their fathers into France and England from Saxony and Piedmont,

CARL.

THE SHIP.

Poor children earning money. The passengers upon the steamer.

and various other countries about the foot of the Alps. When there, they try to earn their living in very curious ways. Some, particularly the smallest of them, become chimney-sweeps. Others go about the streets singing songs, or playing upon a tambourine, or exhibiting a monkey to amuse the children in the houses, hoping that the people whose children are amused will throw them out a penny or two from the window. Sometimes the people do, and sometimes they do not.

Often the parents of these poor boys and girls die, and then the children are left to take care of themselves, and a very hard time do they have of it. A lady has just related to me a little incident which happened to her in Paris last summer, which illustrates this. Her relating it to me was entirely accidental, for she did not know that I was going to write the story of Carl and Jocko. She was lying on her sofa at the time in her state-room on board the steamer Persia, in which we are making the voyage to Europe together. Her state-room was very near to ours, and we often visited each other during the course of the voyage, as is customary among the passengers on board the Atlantic steamers.*

The incident which she related to me was this : She was walking one day on one of the quais at Paris, f Her husband was with her. He, having occasion to make some small purchases, stepped into a shop, leaving the lady to walk slowly along upon the sidewalk until he should come out. She saw some object in

* You can see a view of one of these steamers on page C l .

t A quai is a street along the bank of a river. It has houses and shops on one side, and a low wall separating it from the water on the other.

THE SHIP.

The Italian boy in Paris.

The lady’s gift. What the boys bought.

a shop-window which attracted her attention, and she stopped to look at it. While she was thus looking, she felt something gently pull her cloak. She looked round, and saw one of these little Italian boys standing near and holding out his hand as if to beg. At the same time, he looked anxiously up and down the street, to be sure that no policeman was near ; for begging is forbidden in the streets of Paris, and all persons found violating the law are taken up by the police, and sent to some poor-house or house of correction. The poor child looked so wan and woe-begone in his misery that the lady pitied him, and she put her hand in her pocket and took out a sou and gave it to him.

A sou is a French coin of about the size and value of a cent.

The boy seemed overjoyed at his good fortune, and immediately ran off with his sou round the corner.

In a moment, however, he reappeared, bringing with him two other boys as poor and miserable as himself, and they held out their hands to the lady. She took out two more sous from her pocket, and gave each of them one. Then all three of the boys ran off again, with their faces full of joy and pleasure.

The lady walked slowly on, but before she had taken many steps she saw the boys all coming back again, each with a small roll of bread in his hand, which they had bought with their sous. They held up these rolls to the lady to show her what they had done with the money, and thanked her again by their smiling looks for her kindness in giving it to them, and then went away.

Carl was such a boy as one of these.

When he went over the Alps into France, his father and moth-

THE SHIP.

The musical company. Why Carl’s father wished to go to America.

er went with him, and they wandered about together for several years. Carl’s father played upon the violin, and his wife sang to accompany him. This was to make music in the streets in order to please the children at the windows of the houses. Besides the music, they had Jocko. Jocko was a very funny monkey, and his dancings and caperings made the children laugh. Carl took care of Jocko. He held the end of the cord which was fastened around him to prevent him from running away. Then, after the song was ended and the children had seen Jocko as much as they wished, Carl would hold out his cap for the money which they were to give him, and he brought the money to his father.

Sometimes there would be a ring formed round Carl’s father and mother and the monkey in the street, and then Carl would go around and collect the money in his cap. At other times people would throw the money out from the windows, and it would fall upon the pavement. Then Carl would run about and find it, and pick it up.

All the money that Carl’s father gained in this way he saved — all but just enough to buy what was necessary for his family to eat day by day. He was saving this money in hopes to get enough to pay for the passage of them all to America.

“ If we can only get to America,” he said to Carl, “ we can do very well. There is plenty of land there, and I will get some and become a farmer. Then we shall have a house to live in of our own, instead of roaming about in this way, houseless wanderers from town to town.”

“I shall like that,” said Carl.

THE SHIP.

Carl goes to London to learn the English language.

“And then, besides,” said his father, “you can go to school there and learn ; and so, instead of being poor and miserable all your life, as you must be here, you will have as good a chance as any other American boy to grow rich and to become a gentleman.”

“ I shall like that too,” said Carl.

“ Only first,” said his father, “ you must learn the English language.”

“Yes, sir,” said Carl, “I will learn it as fast as I can.”

Carl’s father concluded to go to England, so as to give his boy an opportunity to begin to learn the English language before going to America. He remained a year or more in London, and during that time he earned so much as to complete the sum necessary to pay the passage of all his family to America. At length, when the time came, he took passage on board a packet-ship, and when the day of sailing arrived they went on board, Jocko and all.

The ship that they went on board of lay in the docks in London. These docks are immense basins dug out of the ground and walled up round the sides. They are large enough to hold hundreds and hundreds of ships. The people made these docks because there was not room enough for the ships in the river. Of course, there are passage-ways from the docks to the river. These passage-ways are shut by great gates when the tide goes down, and this keeps the water in the docks high, so as to float the shipping within all the time.

The ship in which Carl’s father took passage was pulled out of the docks, when the time came, by means of a strong hawser fastened at one end to an immense iron ring built in the pier. The oth-

THE SHIP.

Setting sail for America. What Jocko thought about the rigging. The voyage.

er end of the hawser was wound around the capstan, and the sailors, by turning the capstan, drew the ship along. When the ship got into the river the sails were hoisted, and she sailed away down the stream between double and triple rows of steamers, ships, barges, and vessels of all sorts, which lined the shores. As the ship moved slowly along, Carl gazed at the forests of masts with amazement. He wondered where such an immense multitude of vessels could have come from, and where they could be going. Jocko all this time sat perched upon the rigging near Carl. He, too, was looking at the shipping. He thought that the masts were trees growing along the banks. The yards and spars he supposed were branches, but what the ropes were he could not tell.

The ship sailed down the river, and then came out to the open sea. She then turned to the southward, and passed through the Straits of Dover, and so down the English Channel, along the southern shore of England, until she reached Portsmouth. Here she stopped to take on board the lady and gentlemen passengers who had come down from London across the country to meet her. If you look at the map, you will see that to go down the Thames and round through the Straits of Dover to Portsmouth is a long way, while the distance is comparatively very short from London to Portsmouth across the country. It was customary, therefore, in those days, for the lady and gentlemen passengers to let the ship go round, while they went across the country with a view of meeting the ship at Portsmouth, while emigrants and other people who could not afford to pay the expense of the journey across the country would go all the way in the ship.

THE SHIP.

Steerage passengers and cabin passengers. The emigrants’ berths.

The lady and gentlemen passengers had berths in the cabin, which was in the after part of the ship. The berths of the emigrants were farther forward, in a place called the steerage. So the emigrants were commonly called steerage passengers, while the ladies and gentlemen were called cabin passengers. The state-rooms of the cabin passengers were very elegantly furnished and fitted up. The steerage berths, on the other hand, were plain and coarse. The steerage, too, was full, for there were more than a hundred passengers crowded in it, men, women, and children.

What are called berths in a ship at sea are, in fact, shelves built against the side of the ship to serve instead of bedsteads for people to sleep upon. There would not be room for bedsteads enough to hold so many people ; and besides, even if there were room, bedsteads would not be suitable for use at sea, inasmuch as in the rocking and rolling of the ship in a storm they would continually be sliding about the floor unless they were fastened down. So, for the double purpose of saving room and of keeping the bedplaces secure, they build berths against the sides of the ship, and let the poor people sleep in them.

Carl’s father and mother had two berths, one above the other. His father slept in the upper one, and his mother in the lower one. As for Carl, he had no berth, so he slept on the floor in front of his mother’s place. They spread down something for him to lie upon, and he had a bundle for a pillow.

Jocko slept at his feet. To prevent his getting away in the night, Carl used to fasten the end of his chain into a staple that he found near.

THE SHIP.

What Carl and Jocko did in the daytime.

Jocko’s amusements.

All around were a great many other berths, which at night were filled with people. The floor, too, was covered in all directions with women and children. Some of these lay thus upon the floor because they had no berths ; others, because they were afraid to sleep in berths, lest they should fall out in the night from the rolling of the ship in going over the seas.

It was only the night that Carl and J ocko spent below. In the daytime they were almost always on deck, where Carl took great interest in observing the operations of the sailors in managing the ship, and Jocko amused himself by climbing about among the rigring.

Jocko made a great deal of amusement for the sailors, and also for the passengers, during the voyage, by his tricks and funny capers. He had a very comical way of taking hold of the end of his tail and shaking it at any body that displeased him, as if it were a stick, and he was going to strike his enemy with it. Whenever he had done any mischief, and a sailor ran after him to punish him for it, he would run up the rigging, the sailor, perhaps, running after him. Jocko, however, could climb higher and faster than the sailor ; and when he got up to a place where the sailor could not reach him, he would stop and sit on his hind legs, and shake the end of his tail at the sailor, and make faces in such a manner as to bring shouts of laughter from all that were looking on.

Indeed, it was a great source of amusement to the sailors simply to see how Jocko could climb. A monkey is made to climb, and Jocko could run up and down the ropes and rigging, and out

THE SHIP.

Jocko’s leaps among the rigging. The sailor’s trick. The ship’s bell.

upon the slenderest spars, as fast as a kitten can run about a carpet. Sometimes he would spring across a long distance, and catch a rope hanging midway in the air, and then run hand over hand up or down, just as he pleased. At one time the sailors played him a trick by running a rope through a block and letting the end hang down where they thought that Jocko would go, hoping that he would jump at it and catch it, and that then his weight would pull the rope through the block and let him down to the deck. The plan succeeded admirably. The rope was, however, somewhat heavy, and a little stiff, so that it did not let J ocko down fast enough to hurt him much when he came to the deck, but it frightened him prodigiously. When he reached the deck, he jumped up and ran limping away, looking, at the same time, quite ashamed, for every body was laughing at him.

After this he was very shy of ropes that he saw hanging dangling in the air, and would not jump to any unless he saw that they were firmly secured at each end.

Jocko made it a point to imitate every thing that he saw the sailors doing about the ship, provided it was within reach of his power. It is customary on board ships at sea to strike the hours upon a bell which is placed for this purpose in a convenient situation on the deck. There are two of these bells, in fact, one at each end of the ship. The one that is near the stern of the ship is struck by an officer when the time arrives, and then, immediately afterward, the one at the other end, where the sailors are, is struck by a sailor. The bells in both cases are struck by means of a small cord which is fastened to the lower end of the tongue.

THE SHIP.

Jocko ringing the bell. A disaster. The water-cask.

It was a great point with Jocko to run and strike the bell which was at the forward part of the ship whenever he heard the officer strike his bell at the stern. This would have done very well if he could only have struck it right ; but Jocko, with all his sagacity, could not count, and so, whatever may have been the number of strokes given at the stern, Jocko made only a confused dinging at the bows, which would have made mischief if the sailors had not known at once by the sound that it was only Jocko’s work. Indeed, the sailor whose business it was to strike the bell soon learned to observe whether Jocko was near or not when the time came ; and if he was near, he would run quick to the place and drive Jocko away from the bell just as he was reaching out his paw to the cord, and then ring it himself in a proper manner.

Sometimes Jocko’s propensity to imitate every thing that he saw brought some disaster upon his own head. For instance, he once knocked himself over with a jet of water spouting out of a cask. The cask was one of several containing a supply of fresh water, which was kept on the deck of the ship for the use of the sailors. It was mounted on skids for the purpose of raising it high enough from the deck to make it convenient to draw the water, and there it was lashed securely. There was a plug in the lower part of the head of it, and the sailors, when they wished to draw the water, would pull out this plug, holding, of course, the pail or pitcher which they wished to fill under it to catch the water.

J ocko, having seen the sailors pull out this plug a number of times, concluded one day, as he was passing by the place, that he

THE SHIP.

Jocko gets a ducking.

Description of the marling-spike.

would try and see if he could not draw it out. So he seized it

with both paws, and, after pulling it this way and that, as he had seen the sailors do, at length got it out.

He was, however, immediately struck in the face by the jet of water that came out, and knocked over upon the deck. Pie jumped up, and scampered away up the rigging, dripping with wet, and frightened half out of his senses.

At another time Jocko jammed his foot with a marling-spike, and this made him so angry with the marling-spike that he contrived a way to throw it overboard. But perhaps some of my readers may not know precisely what a marling-spike is. It is an iron bar about a foot long, round at one end, and tapering to a point at the other. The round end is about as large round as a hoe-handle. The sailors use the marling-spike somewhat as ladies use a bodkin. They employ it to make holes with in the canvas, when necessary, in sewing the sails, and also to open the strands of ropes and cables when they are splicing.

Jocko saw one of these marling-spikes lying on the deck where a sailor had been at work, and he attempted to lift it. He sue-

THE SHIP.

How Jocko contrived to throw the marling-spike overboard.

ceeded in lifting one end of it, but just then he saw the sailor coming, and so he dropped it suddenly, intending to run away ; but the marling-spike fell upon his foot, and hurt him very much indeed ; so he ran away limping and crying aloud.

“It is good enough for you, you little imp of mischief,” said the sailor. “ You are always meddling.”

Jocko took great offense against the marling-spike in consequence of this misfortune, and so, watching his opportunity a few hours later, when the sailor had gone aloft to help to take in sail, he ran slyly down to the place, and seizing the marling-spike by the little end, he dragged it along to one of the lee scuppers, and pushed it down through. The scuppers are holes made along the margin of the deck to let the water run out that breaks over the bulwarks from high waves. They lead down through the deck and out through the sides of the ship. Of course, the marling-spike went out into the water, and immediately began to sink to the bottom.

I say began to sink, for the water in that place was about five miles deep ; and though the marling-spike, being of solid iron, went down very fast, it took it nearly an hour to get to the bottom.

When the sailor came back for his marling-spike it was gone, and he could not imagine what had become of it.

“ I should think,” said he to himself, “ that that grinning ape had thrown it overboard if I supposed he had strength enough to lift it over the bulwarks.”

He did not dream of Jocko’s having cunning enough to push it down through one of the lee scuppers.

THE SHIP.

Jocko stealing potatoes.

The cook after him.

Tom’s cap.

It was a famous amusement of Jocko’s to steal things from the deck, and run off with them up into the rigging, and keep them there a long while. One day he carried off half a dozen potatoes into the main top, and hid them there in a fold of the sail, and then, watching his opportunity, he pelted the sailors with them. Of course, in carrying them up he could only take one at a time ; and so he was obliged to run up and down six times to get them all there. He would have carried up more, but the cook, who had left the potatoes in a pan at the door of the galley, happened to see what he was doing, and ran at him with a rope’s end ; but Jocko saw him coming, and so, dropping the seventh potato, he ran off as fast as he could go without it, and then the cook took the rest of the potatoes in.

There was a coarse-looking boy among the sailors, who was called Tom, that took a dislike to J ocko from some reason or other, and was continually doing something to tease him. Jocko endeavored to avenge himself for these affronts and injuries by playing tricks of various kinds upon Tom. One day, when Tom was sitting at his ease on a coil of ropes, with some other sailors around, who were listening to a story that one of their number was telling, Jocko came slyly down the shrouds until he was directly over Tom’s head, and then, swinging himself down by means of a rope, he seized Tom’s cap by the top-knot, and made off with it up the rope as fast as he could.

“ Who’s that pulled off my cap ?” exclaimed Tom.

He looked about every way, but no one was to be seen who could have taken the cap, and before he thought of looking up-

THE SHIP.

Tom can not recover his cap. How Carl tries.

ward, Jocko had made his way with the cap in his paw to the foretop ; and there, at length, Tom and the sailors caught sight of him, sitting in the top with the cap on his head, and grinning. The cap was so large that, while the front part of it rested on Jocko’s head, the rest of it extended half down his back, like a clumsy cloak.

Tom immediately began to run up the shrouds to get his cap ; but Jocko, as soon as he saw him coming, took off the cap, and holding it in one hand, while he climbed with his feet and with the other hand, he ran up the rigging to a higher place. Tom followed him, and for some time chased the poor monkey about the rigging, without, however, coming nearer to him. At length he gave up in despair, and came down to the deck in a great rage, just as Carl was coming up from below.

“ Never fear,” said Carl ; “ I’ll get the cap back for you.”

Now Carl had trained Jocko to imitate him in all that he did, and this accomplishment, of which Jocko was very proud, Carl often made use of to great advantage in managing his monkey. The way in which he did this will appear by the course which he pursued on this occasion.

He called to Jocko, and when he had made him attend, he climbed up a little way on the shrouds, and took his stand there where Jocko could see him. He had his cap in his hand. He made a low bow to Jocko, and then put his cap upon his head. Jocko did the same.

Then he took off his cap again and held it in his hand. Then he put it upon his head again. Jocko imitated all these motions

THE SHIP.

Jocko’s imitation. Making friends among the passengers.

exactly. Finally, Carl held out his cap at arm’s length, and when Jocko had done the same, he let it drop to the deck. Jocko immediately dropped his, and then, of course, Tom, who was waiting below, had nothing to do but to pick it up.

Jocko made some enemies, it is true, by his tricks and mischief, but he made many more friends by them, for his various acts of mimicry, and the funny antics that he performed, amused all on board. Sometimes the lady and gentlemen passengers, who occupied state-rooms in the cabin, and who were accustomed, when they were upon deck, to sit upon settees and camp-stools that were placed for them near the stem, used to ask Carl to come there with his monkey and let them see him. In these cases they would sometimes give Carl money, and this money Carl would carry to his father.

Thus the voyage passed away very prosperously and pleasantly for two or three weeks, until, at length, the ship began to draw near to the Banks of Newfoundland.

A VISIT.

How wide the Atlantic Ocean is.

Carl learning to read.

Chapter II. A Visit

The sea which separates Europe from America is very wide. It is so wide that if it were frozen over, and there was a road across it on the ice, and a boy were to attempt to walk over it, and were to go at the rate of twenty miles a day, it would take him almost half a year to finish the journey.

A sailing ship which should sail upon an average one hundred miles in a day would get across in a month; but often ships are so kept back by contrary winds and storms that they are six or eight weeks on the way. Steamers, on the other hand, which go about three hundred miles a day, can go over generally in ten days. Indeed, the great iron steamer Persia, in which I have just made the voyage, and in which the first chapter of this story was written, crossed in nine days. But to return to the story.

One day, when the ship in which Carl was sailing had been out about three weeks, Carl was sitting near the bows, teaching himself to read English by means of a tract which one of the passengers had given him, when a young man, having a white apron on,

A VISIT.

Carl receives a summons from some passenger.

and with no cap on his head, came from the after part of the vessel, and on approaching Carl accosted him by asking,

44 Are you the boy that has got the monkey?”

“And where is your monkey?”

44 He is down below,” said Carl, “by my father’s berth.”

44 Go and get him, and bring him here,” said the man. “I want you to go with me.”