Martin Rattler by R. M. Ballantyne (classic novels .TXT) 📕

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MARTIN RATTLER BY R M BALLANTYNE

1858

EDITOR'S NOTE

"MARTIN RATTLER" was one of, Robert Michael Ballantyne's early books. Born at Edinburgh in 1825,[1] he was sent to Rupert's Land as a trading-clerk in the Hudson Bay Fur Company's service when he left school, a boy of sixteen. There, to relieve his home-sickness, he first practised his pen in long letters home to his mother. Soon after his return to Scotland in 1848 he published a first book on Hudson's Bay. Then he passed some years in a Scottish publisher's office; and in 1855 a chance suggestion from another publisher led to his writing his first book for boys—"Snowflakes and Sunbeams, or The Young Fur Traders." That story showed he had found his vocation, and he poured forth its successors to the tune in all of some fourscore volumes. "Martin Rattler" appeared in 1858. In his "Personal Reminiscences" Ballantyne wrote: "How many thousands of lads have an intense liking for the idea of a sailor's life!" and he pointed out there the other side of the romantic picture: the long watches "in dirty unromantic weather," and the hard work of holystoning the decks, scraping down the masts and cleaning out the coal-hole. But though his books show something of this reverse side too, there is no doubt they have helped to set many boys dreaming of

"Wrecks, buccaneers, black flags, and desert lands
On which, alone, the second Crusoe stands."

[Footnote 1: See Note to "The Coral Island" in this series.]

Among these persuasions to the life of adventure "Martin Rattler" is still one of the favourite among all his books. Ballantyne himself was fated to die on foreign soil in 1894, at Rome, where he lies buried in the English Protestant cemetery.

The following is a list of Ballantyne's chief romances, tales of adventure, and descriptive works:—

"Hudson's Bay, or Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America," etc., 1848; "Snowflakes and Sunbeams, or the Young Fur Traders," 1856. In 1857 and 1858 appeared, under the pseudonym of "Comus": "The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast" (in verse by Roscoe), ed. with music, coloured illustrations, and a prose version; "Mister Fox"; "My Mother"; "The Robber Kitten" (by the author of "Three Little Kittens"). "The Coral Island, a Tale of the Pacific Ocean" (with a preface subscribed "Ralph Rover"), 1858 (1857); "Ungava, a Tale of Esquimaux Land," 1858 (1857); "Martin Rattler, or a Boy's Adventures in the Forests of Brazil," 1858; "Ships, the Great Eastern and lesser Craft" (with illustrations), 1859; "Mee-a-ow! or Good Advice to Cats and Kittens," 1859; "The World of Ice, or Adventures in the Polar Regions," 1860 (1859); "The Dog Crusoe, a Tale of the Western Prairies," 1861 (1860); "The Golden Dream, or Adventures in the Far West," 1861 (1860); "The Gorilla Hunters, a Tale of the Wilds of Africa," 1861; "The Red Eric, or the Whaler's Last Cruise," 1861; "Man on the Ocean, a Book for Boys," 1863 (1862); "The Wild Man of the West, a Tale of the Rocky Mountains," 1863 (1862); "Gascoyne, the Sandal-wood Trader, a Tale of the Pacific," 1864 (1863); "The Lifeboat, a Tale of our Coast Heroes," 1864; "Freaks on the Fells, or Three Months' Rustication," and "Why I did not become a Sailor," etc., 1865 (1861); "The Lighthouse, being the Story of a Great Fight between Man and the Sea," etc., 1865; "Shifting Winds, a Tough Yarn," etc., 1866; "Silver Lake, or Lost in the Snow," 1867; "A Rescue in the Rocky Mountains," 1867; "Fighting the Flames, a Tale of the London Fire Brigade," 1868; "Away in the Wilderness, or Life among the Red Indians and Fur Traders of North America," 1869; "Erling the Bold, a Tale of the Norse Sea-kings," with illustrations by the author, 1869; "Deep Down, a Tale of the Cornish Mines," 1869; "The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands," with illustrations by the author, 1870; "The Iron Horse, or Life on the Line, a Tale of the Grand National Trunk Railway," 1871; "The Norsemen in the West, or America before Columbus," 1872; "The Pioneers, a Tale of the Western Wilderness, illustrative of the Adventures and Discoveries of Sir A. Mackenzie," 1872; "Black Ivory, a Tale of Adventure among the Slaves of East Africa," 1873; "Life in the Red Brigade, a Story for Boys," 1873; "The Ocean and its Wonders," 1874; "The Pirate City, an Algerine Tale," 1875; "Under the Waves, or Diving in Deep Waters," 1876; "Rivers of Ice, a Tale illustrative of Alpine Adventure and Glacier Action," 1876; "The Settler and the Savage, a Tale of Peace and War in South Africa," 1877; "Jarwin and Cuffy" (Incident and Adventure Library), 1878; "In the Track of the Troops, a Tale of Modern War," 1878; "Six Months at the Cape, or Letters to Periwinkle from South Africa," 1879 (1878); "Post Haste, a Tale of Her Majesty's Mails," 1880 (1879); "The Red Man's Revenge, a Tale of the Red River Flood," 1880; "Philosopher Jack, a Tale of the Southern Seas," 1880; "The Lonely Island, or the Refuge of the Mutineers," 1880; "The Robber Kitten" (in volume of tales by two or three authors), 1880; "The Collected Works of Ensign Sopht, late of the Volunteers, illustrated by himself," 1881; "My Doggie and I," etc., 1881; "The Giant of the North, or Pokings round the Pole," 1882 (1881); "The Kitten Pilgrims, or Great Battles and Grand Victories," 1882; "The Madman and the Pirate," 1883; "The Battery and the Boiler, or Adventures in the Laying of Submarine Cables," etc., 1883; "Battles with the Sea, or Heroes of the Lifeboat and Rocket," 1883; "Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished, a Tale of City-arab Life and Adventure," 1884 (1862); "Twice Bought, a Tale of the Oregon Gold-fields," 1885 (1863); "The Island Queen, a Tale of the Southern Hemisphere," etc., 1885; "The Rover of the Andes, a Tale of Adventure in South America," 1885; "Red Rooney, or the Last of the Crew," 1886; "The Big Otter, a Tale of the Great Nor'-West," 1887 (1864); "The Middy of the Moors, an Algerine Story," 1888; "Blue Lights, or Hot Work in the Soudan, a Tale of Soldier Life," 1888; "The Crew of the Water Wagtail, a Story of Newfoundland," 1889; "A Gallant Rescue" (stories jolly, stories new, etc.), 1889; "The Fight on the Green" (Miles' Fifty-two Stories for Boys), 1889; "Charlie to the Rescue, a Tale of the Sea and the Rockies," with illustrations by the author, 1890; "The Garret and the Garden…, or the Young Coast-guardsman," 1890; "The Coxswain's Bride, or the Rising Tide, and other Tales," with illustrations by the author, 1891; "The Hot Swamp, a Romance of Old Albion," 1892; "Hunted and Harried, a Tale of the Scottish Covenanters," 1892; "The Walrus Hunters, a Romance of the Realms of Ice," 1893.

Ballantyne's Miscellany was started in 1863.

MY DEAR YOUNG READERS,

In presenting this book to you I have only to repeat what I have said in the prefaces of my former works,—namely, that all the important points and anecdotes are true; only the minor and unimportant ones being mingled with fiction. With this single remark I commit my work to your hands, and wish you a pleasant ramble, in spirit, through the romantic forests of Brazil.

Yours affectionately,

R.M. BALLANTYNE.

[October, 1858.]

MARTIN RATTLER CHAPTER I THE HERO AND HIS ONLY RELATIVE

Martin Rattler was a very bad boy. At least his aunt, Mrs. Dorothy Grumbit, said so; and certainly she ought to have known, if anybody should, for Martin lived with her, and was, as she herself expressed it, "the bane of her existence,—the very torment of her life." No doubt of it whatever, according to Aunt Dorothy Grumbit's showing, Martin Rattler was "a remarkably bad boy."

It is a curious fact, however, that, although most of the people in the village of Ashford seemed to agree with Mrs. Grumbit in her opinion of Martin, there were very few of them who did not smile cheerfully on the child when they met him, and say, "Good day, lad!" as heartily as if they thought him the best boy in the place. No one seemed to bear Martin Rattler ill-will, notwithstanding his alleged badness. Men laughed when they said he was a bad boy, as if they did not quite believe their own assertion. The vicar, an old whiteheaded man, with a kind, hearty countenance, said that the child was full of mischief, full of mischief; but he would improve as he grew older, he was quite certain of that. And the vicar was a good judge, for he had five boys of his own, besides three other boys, the sons of a distant relative, who boarded with him; and he had lived forty years in a parish overflowing with boys, and he was particularly fond of boys in general. Not so the doctor, a pursy little man with a terrific frown, who hated boys, especially little ones, with a very powerful hatred. The doctor said that Martin was a scamp.

And yet Martin had not the appearance of a scamp. He had fat rosy cheeks, a round rosy mouth, a straight delicately-formed nose, a firm massive chin, and a broad forehead. But the latter was seldom visible, owing to the thickly-clustering fair curls that overhung it. When asleep Martin's face was the perfection of gentle innocence. But the instant he opened his dark-brown eyes, a thousand dimples and wrinkles played over his visage, chiefly at the corners of his mouth and round his eyes; as if the spirit of fun and the spirit of mischief had got entire possession of the boy, and were determined to make the most of him. When deeply interested in anything, Martin was as grave and serious as a philosopher.

Aunt Dorothy Grumbit had a turned-up nose,—a very much turned-up nose; so much so, indeed, that it presented a front view of the nostrils! It was an aggravating nose, too for the old lady's spectacles refused to rest on any part of it except the extreme point. Mrs. Grumbit invariably placed them on the right part of her nose, and they as invariably slid down the curved slope until they were brought up by the little hillock at the end. There they condescended to repose in peace.

Mrs. Grumbit was mild, and gentle, and little, and thin, and old,—perhaps seventy-five; but no one knew her age for certain, not even herself. She wore an old-fashioned, high-crowned cap, and a gown of bed-curtain chintz, with flowers on it the size of a saucer. It was a curious gown, and very cheap, for Mrs. Grumbit was poor. No one knew the extent of her poverty, any more than they did her age; but she herself knew it, and felt it deeply,—never so deeply, perhaps, as when her orphan nephew Martin grew old enough to be put to school, and she had not wherewithal to send him. But love is quick-witted and resolute. A residence of six years in Germany had taught her to knit stockings at a rate that cannot be described, neither conceived unless seen. She knitted two dozen pairs. The vicar took one dozen, the doctor took the other. The fact soon became known. Shops were not numerous in the village in those days; and the wares they supplied were only second rate. Orders came pouring in, Mrs. Grumbit's knitting wires clicked, and her little old hands wagged with incomprehensible rapidity and unflagging regularity,—and Martin Rattler was sent to school.

While occupied with her knitting, she sat in a high-backed chair in a very small deep window, through which the sun streamed nearly the whole day; and out of which there was the most charming imaginable view of the gardens and orchards of the villagers, with a little dancing brook in the midst, and the green fields of the farmers beyond, studded with sheep and cattle and knolls of woodland, and bounded in the far distance by the bright blue sea. It was a lovely scene, such an one as causes the eye to brighten and the heart to melt as we gaze upon it, and think, perchance, of its Creator.

Yes, it was