The Measure of a Man

    Gray sky, brown waters, as a bird that flies
      My heart flits forth to these;
    Back to the winter rose of Northern skies,
      Back to the Northern seas.

* * * * *

    The sea is His, and He made it.

I saw a man of God coming over the narrow zigzag path that led across a Shetland peat moss.  Swiftly and surely he stepped.  Bottomless bogs of black peat-water were on each side of him, but he had neither fear nor hesitation.  He walked like one who knew his way was ordered, and when the moss was passed, he pursued his journey over the rocky moor with the same untiring speed.  Now and then he sang a few lines, and now and then he lifted his cap, and stood still to listen to the larks.  For the larks sing at midnight in the Shetland summer, and to the music of their heaven-soaring songs he set one sweet name, and in the magical radiance over land and sea had that momentary vision of a beloved face which the second-sight of Memory sometimes grants to a pure, unselfish love.  Then with a joyful song nestling in his heart, he went rapidly forward.  And the night was as the day, for the moon was full and the rosy spears of the Aurora were charging the zenith from every point of the horizon.

Very early he came to a little town.  It was asleep and there was no sound of life in it; but a large yacht was lying at the silent pier with steam visible, and he went directly to her.  During the full tide she had drifted a few feet from land, but he took the open space like a longer step, walked straight to the wheel, and softly whistled.

Then the Captain came quickly up the companion-way, and there was light and liking on his face, as he said,

“Welcome, sir!  I was expecting thee.”

“To be sure.  I sent you word I should be here before sunrising.  Are you ready to sail?”

“Quite ready, sir.”

“Then cast off at once,” and immediately there was movement all through the boat—­the sound of setting sail, the lifting of the anchor, the rush of steam, and the hoarse melancholy voices of the sailors.  Then the man laid his hand on the wheel, and with wind and tide in her favor, the yacht was soon racing down the great North Sea.

“It is Yoden’s time at the wheel, sir,” said the Captain.  “If so be he is wanted.”

“He is not wanted yet.  I am going to take her as far as the Hoy—­if it suits you, Captain.”

“Take your will, sir.  I am always well suited with it.”

Now John Hatton was a cotton-spinner, but he knew the ways of a boat, and the winds and tides that would serve her, and the road southward she must take; and at his will she went, as if she was a solan flying for the rocks.  When they first started, the sea-birds were dozing on their perches, waiting for the dawn, and their unwonted silence lent a stronger sense of loneliness to the gray, misty waters.  But as they approached the pillars of Hoy, the wind rose and the waves swelled refulgent in the crimsoning east.

Then the man at the wheel was seen in all his great beauty—­a man of lofty stature perfectly formed and full of power and grace in every movement.  His head had an antique massiveness and was crowned with bright brown hair thrown backward.  His forehead was wide and contemplative, his eyes large and gray and thickly fringed, lustrous but not piercing.  His loving and vehement soul was not always at their windows, but when there, it drew or commanded all who met its gaze.  His nose was long and straight, showing great refinement, and his chin unblunted by animal passions.  A wonderful face, because the soul and the mind always found their way at once and in full force to it, as well as to the gestures, the speech, and every action of the body.  And this was the quality which gave to the whole man that air of distinction with which Nature autographs her noblest work.

When they reached the Hoy he left the wheel and stood in wonder and awe gazing at the sea around him.  For some time it had been cloudy and unquiet, but among these great basaltic pillars and into their black measureless caves it flung itself with the rush and roar of a ten-knot tide gone mad.  Yet the thundering bellow of its waves was not able to drown the aërial clamor of the millions of sea-birds that made these lonely pillars and cliffs their home.  Eagles screamed from their summits.  Great masses of marrots and guillemots rocked on the foam.  Kittiwakes of every kind in incalculable numbers and black and brown-backed gulls by the thousands filled the air as thickly as snowflakes in a winter’s storm; while from shelves and pinnacles of the cliffs, incredible numbers of gannots were diving with prodigious force and straight as an arrow, after their prey—­all plunging, rising, screaming and shrieking, like some maddened human mob, the more terrible because of the ear-piercing metallic ring of their unceasing clamor.

After a long silence John Hatton turned to his Captain and said,

“Is it always like this, Captain?”

“It is often much livelier, sir.  I have seen swarms of sea-birds miles long, darkening the air with their wings.  Our Great Father has many sea children, sir.  Next summer—­God willing!—­we might sail to the Faroe Islands, and you would be among His whales, and His whale men.”

“Then you have been to the Faroes?”

“More than once or twice.  I used to take them on my road to Iceland.  It is a wayless way there, but I know it.  And the people are a happy, comfortable, pious lot; they are that!  Most of them whale-hunters and whale-eaters.”

“Eaters?”

“To be sure, sir.  When it is fresh, a roast of whale isn’t half bad.  I once tried it myself.”

“Once?”

“Well, then, I didn’t want it twice.  You know, I’m beef-bred.  That makes a difference, sir.  I like to go to lonely islands, and as a general thing I favor the kind of people that live on them.”

“What is the difference between these lonely islanders and Yorkshire men like you and me?”

“There is a good bit of difference, in more ways than one, sir.  For instance, they aren’t fashionable.  The women mostly dress the same, and there are no stylish shapes in the men’s ‘oils’ and guernseys.  Then, they call no man ‘master.’  God is their employer, and from His hand they take their daily bread.  And they don’t set themselves up against Him, and grumble about their small wages and their long hours.  And if the weather is bad, and they are kept off a sea that no boat could live in, they don’t grumble like Yorkshire men do, when warehouses are overstocked and trade nowhere, and employers hev to make shorter hours and less pay.”

“What then?”

“The men smoke a few more pipes, and the women spin a few more hanks of wool.  And in the long evenings there’s a good bit of violin-playing and reciting, but there’s no murmuring against their Great Master.  And there’s no drinking, or dance halls.  And when the storm is over, the men untie their boats with a shout and the women gladly clean up the stour of the idle time.”

“Did you ever see a Yorkshire strike?”

“To be sure I hev; I had my say at the Hatton strike, I hed that!  You were at college then, and your father was managing it, so we could not take the yacht out as expected, and I run down to Hatton to hev a talk with Stephen Hatton.  There was a big strike meeting that afternoon, and I went and listened to the men stating ‘their grievances.’  They talked a lot of nonsense, and I told them so.  ‘Get all you can rightly,’ I said, ’but don’t expect Stephen Hatton or any other cotton lord to run factories for fun.  They won’t do it, and you wouldn’t do it yersens!’”

“Did they talk sensibly?”

“They talked foolishness and believed it, too.  It was fair capping to listen to them.  There was some women present, slatterns all, and I told them to go home and red up their houses and comb up their hair, and try to look like decent cotton-spinners’ wives.  And when this advice was cheered, the women began to get excited, and I thought I would be safer in Hatton Hall.  Women are queer creatures.”

“Were you ever married, Captain?”

“Not to any woman.  My ship is my wife.  She’s father and mother and brother and sister to me.  I have no kin, and when I see how much trouble kin can give you, I don’t feel lonely.  The ship I sail—­whatever her name—­is to me ‘My Lady,’ and I guard and guide and cherish her all the days of her life with me.”

“Why do you say ‘her life,’ Captain?”

“Because ships are like women—­contrary and unreasonable.  Like women they must be made to answer the rudder, or they go on the rocks.  There are, of course, men-of-war, and they get men’s names, and we give them fire and steel to protect themselves, but when your yacht with sails set, goes curtsying over the waves like a duchess, you know she’s feminine, and you wouldn’t call her after your father or yourself, but your sweetheart’s name would be just suitable, I’m sure.”

John smiled pleasantly, and his silence encouraged the Captain to continue.  “Why, sir, the very insurance offices speak of a ship as she, and what’s more they talk naturally of the ’life and death of a ship,’ and I can tell you, sir, if you had ever seen a ship fight for her life and go down to her death, you would say they were right.  Mr. Hatton, there is no sadder sight than a ship giving up the fight, because further fight is useless.  Once I was present at the death of a ship.  I pray God that I may never see the like again.  Her captain and her men had left her alone, and from the boats standing abaft, they silently watched her sinking.  Sir, many a man dies in his bed with all his kin around, and does not carry as much love with him as she did. Why-a!  The thought of that hour brings a pain to my heart yet—­and it is thirty years ago.”

“You are a true sailor, Captain.”

“To be sure I am.  As the Fife men say, ’I was born with the sea in my mouth.’  I thank God for it!  Often I have met Him on the great deep, for ‘His path is on the waters.’  I don’t believe I would have found Him as easy and as often, in a cotton-spinning factory—­no, I don’t!”

“A good man like you, Captain, ought to have a wife and a home.”

“I’m not sure of that, Mr. Hatton.  On my ship at sea I am lord and master, and my word is law as long as I stop at sea.  If any man does not like my word and way, he can leave my ship at the first land we touch, and I see that he does so.  But it is different with a wife.  She is in your house to stay, whether you like it or not.  All you have is hers if you stick to the marriage vow.  Yes, sir, she even takes your name for her own, and if she does not behave well with it, you have to take the blame and the shame, whether you deserve it or not.  It is a one-sided bargain, sir.”

“Not always as bad as that, Captain.”

“Why, sir, your honored father, who lorded it over every man he met and contradicted everything he didn’t like, said, ‘Yes, my dear,’ to whatever Mrs. Hatton desired or declared.  I hed to do the same thing in my way, and Mrs. Hatton on board this yacht was really her captain.  I’m not saying but what she was a satisfactory substitute, for she hed the sense to always ask my advice.”

“Then she acted under orders, Captain.”

“To be sure.  But I am Captain Lance Cook, of Whitby, a master navigator, a fourth in direct line from Captain James Cook, who sailed three times round the world, when that was a most uncommon thing to do.  And every time he went, he made England a present of a few islands.  Captain James Cook made his name famous among Englishmen of the sea, and I hevn’t come across the woman yet I considered worthy to share it.”

“You may meet her soon now, Captain.  There is a ‘new woman’ very much the fashion these days.  Perhaps you have not seen her yet.”

“I have seen her, sir.  I have seen all I want to see of her.  She appears to hev got the idea into her head that she ought to hev been a man, and some of them have got so far in that direction that you are forced to say that in their dress and looks there isn’t much difference.  However, I hev heard very knowing men declare they always found the old woman in all her glory under the new one, and I wouldn’t wonder if that was the case.  What do you think, Mr. Hatton?”

“It may be, Captain, that it is the ‘new man’ that is wanted, and not the ‘new woman.’  I think most men are satisfied with the old woman.  I am sure I am,” and his eyes filled with light, and he silently blessed the fair woman who came into his memory ere he added, “but then, I have not a great ancestor’s name to consider.  The Hattons never gave anything in the way of land to England.”

“They hev done a deal for Yorkshire, sir.”

“That was their duty, and their pleasure and profit.  Yorkshire men are kinsmen everywhere.  If I met one in Singapore, or Timbuctoo, I would say ‘Yorkshire?’ and hold out my hand to him.”

“Well, sir, I’ve seen Yorkshire men I wouldn’t offer my hand to; I hev that, and sorry I am to say it!  I never was in Singapore harbor, and I must acknowledge I never saw or heard tell of Timbuctoo harbor.”

John laughed pleasantly.  “Timbuctoo is in Central Africa.  It was just an illustration.”

“Illustration!  You might have illustrated with a true harbor, sir—­for instance, New York.”

“You are right.  I ought to have done so.”

“Well, sir, it’s hard to illustrate and stick to truth.  There is the boatswain’s whistle!  I must go and see what’s up.  Pentland Firth is ever restless and nobody minds that, but she gets into sudden passions which need close watching, and I wouldn’t wonder if there was not now signs of a Pentland tantrum.”

The Captain’s supposition was correct.  In a few minutes the ship was enveloped in a livid creeping mist, and he heard the Captain shout, “All hands stand by to reef!” Reef they did, but Pentland’s temper was rapidly rising, and in a few minutes there was an impetuous shout for the storm jib, “Quick,” and down came a blast from the north, and with a rip and a roar the yacht leaped her full length.  If her canvas had been spread, she would have gone to the bottom; but under bare masts she came quickly and beautifully to her bearings, shook herself like a gull, and sped southward.

All night they were beating about in a fierce wind and heavy sea; and Hatton, lying awake, listened to the mysterious hungering voice of the waves, till he was strangely sad and lonely.  And there was no Captain to talk with, though he could hear his hoarse, strong voice above the roar of wind and waters.  For the sea was rising like the gable of a house, but the yacht was in no trouble; she had held her own in far worse seas.  In the morning the sky was of snaky tints of yellow and gray, but the wind had settled and the waves were flatting; but John saw bits of trailing wreckage floating about their black depths, making the Firth look savagely haggard.

On the second evening the Captain came to eat his dinner with John.  “The storm is over, Mr. Hatton,” he said.  “The sea has been out of her wits, like an angry woman; but,” he added with a smile, “we got the better of her, and the wind has gone down.  There is not breeze enough now to make the yacht lie over.”

“I could hear your voice, strong and cheerful, above all the uproar, Captain, so I had no fear.”

“We had plenty of sea room, sir, a good boat, and—­”

“A good captain.”

“Yes, sir, you may say that.  The Pentland roared and raged a bit, but the sea has her Master.  She hears a voice we cannot hear.  It says only three words, Mr. Hatton, three words we cannot hear, but a great calm follows them.”

“And the three words are—?”

“Peace!  Be still!”

Then John Hatton looked with a quick understanding into his Captain’s face, and answered with a confident smile,

    “O Saxon Sailor thou hast had with thee,
    The Sailor of the Lake of Galilee.”

“I hope, and I believe so, sir.  I have been in big storms, and felt it.”

“I got a glimpse of you in a flash of lightning that I shall never forget, Captain Cook.  You were standing by the wheel, tightening your hat on your head; your feet were firm on the rolling deck, and you were searching the thickest of the storm with a cheerful, confident face.  Do you like a storm?”

“Well, sir, smooth sea-sailing is no great pleasure.  I would rather see clouds of spray driving past swelling sails, than feel my way through a nasty fog.  Give me a sea as high as a masthead, compact as a wall, and charging with the level swiftness of a horse regiment, and I would rather take a ship through it, than make her cut her way through a thick, black fog, as if she was a knife.  In a storm you see what you are doing, and where you are going, but you hev to steal and creep and sneak through a fog, and never know what trap or hole may be ahead of you.  I know the sea in all her ways and moods, sir.  Some of them are rather trying.  But my home and my business is on her, and in her worst temper she suits me better than any four-walled room, where I would feel like a stormy petrel shut up in a cage.  The sea and I are kin.  I often feel as if I had tides in my blood that flow and ebb with her tides.”

“I would not gainsay you, Captain.  Every man’s blood runs as he feels.  You were a different man and a grander man when you were guiding the yacht through the storm than you are sitting here beside me eating and drinking.  My blood begins to flow quick when I go into big rooms filled with a thousand power looms.  Their noise and clatter is in my ears a song of praise, and very often the men and women who work at them are singing grandly to this accompaniment.  Sometimes I join in their song, as I walk among them, for the Great Master hears as well as sees, and though these looms are almost alive in their marvelous skill, it may be that He is pleased to hear the little human note mingling with the voices of the clattering, humming, burring looms.”

“To be sure He is.  The song of labor is His, and I hev no doubt it is quite as sweet in His ear as the song of praise.  Your song is among the looms, and mine is among the winds and waves, but they are both the same, sir.  It is all right.  I’m sure I’m satisfied.”

“How you do love the sea, Captain!”

“To be sure, I was born on it and, please God, I hope my death may be from it and my grave in it, nearby some coast where the fisher-folk live happily around me.”

There was a few moments’ silence, then John Hatton asked, “Are we likely to have fine weather now?”

“Yes, sir, middling fine, until we pass Peterhead.  At Aberdeen and southward it may be still finer, and you might have a grand sail along the east coast of Scotland and take a look at some of its famous towns.”

This pleasant prospect was amply verified.  It was soon blue seas and white sea-birds and sunny skies, with a nice little whole-sail breeze in the right direction.  But John was not lured by any of the storied towns of the east coast.  “What time I can now spare I will give to Edinburgh,” he said, in answer to the Captain’s suggestion concerning St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Anstruther and Largo.  “I am straight for Edinburgh now.  I feel as if my holiday was over.  I heard the clack of the looms this morning.  They need me, I dare say.  I suppose we can be in Leith harbor by Saturday night, Captain?”

“It may be Sunday, sir, if this wind holds.  It is an east-windy west-windy coast, and between here and Edinburgh the wind doesn’t know its own mind an hour at a time.”

“Well, then, say Sunday.  I will stay a few days in Edinburgh, and then it must be Whitby and home.”

It was Sunday afternoon when the yacht was snug in Leith harbor, and the streets of Edinburgh were full of congregations returning home from the different churches.  He went to an hotel on Prince Street and ordered a good dinner spread in his sitting-room.  It was a large outlooking apartment, showing him in the glorious sunset the Old Town piled as by a dreamer, story over story, and at the top of this dream-like hill, the gray ancient castle with bugles and the roll of drums sounding behind its ramparts.  Bridges leaped across a valley edged with gardens connecting the Old Town with the New Town.  Wherever his eyes fell, all was romance and memories of romance, a magically

    Towered, templed Metropolitan,
      Waited upon by hills,
    River, and wide-spread ocean; tinged
    By April light, or draped and fringed
      As April vapor wills. 
    Hanging like some vast Cyclops’ dream
    High in the shifting weather gleam.

After dinner he sat at the open window, thinking of many things, until he finally fell asleep to dream of that illuminated vault in the castle, in which glitters mysteriously the crown and scepter of the ancient kings and queens of Scotland.

Into the glamour of this vision there came suddenly a dream of his mother, and his home, and he awakened from it with an intense conviction that his mother needed his presence, and that he must make all haste to reach his home.  In half an hour he had paid his bill and taken a carriage for Leith harbor, and the yacht was speeding down the Firth ere the wan, misty daylight brightened the colorless sea.  The stillness of sea and sky was magical and they were a little delayed by the calm, but in due time the wind sprang up suddenly and the yacht danced into Whitby harbor.

Then John parted from Captain Cook, saying as he did so, “Good-bye, Captain.  We have had a happy holiday together.  Get the yacht in order and revictualed, for in two weeks my brother Henry may join you.  I believe he is for the south.”

“Good-bye, sir.  It has been a good time for me.  You have been my teacher more than my master, and you are a rich man and I am a poor one.”

“A man’s a man for all that, Captain.”

“Well, sir, not always.  Many are not men in spite of all that.  God be with you, sir.”

“And with you, Captain.”  Then they clasped hands and turned away, each man where Duty called him.