Tweety’s Reviews > Winds of Fortune > Status Update

"Ah, sweet soul," sighed he, bowing his head, "can there ever be friendship 'twixt such men as Japhet and I? Can such trespass as mine ever be forgiven?" 'Oh, surely!' said I. 'If it be truly repented...and death so very nigh.' (While each and every character does something wrong or foolish, I like how some of them change for the better)

Japhet was still asleep; I or any other might have disarmed him. Seeing him thus unconscious of me, and all else, I moved nearer to gaze down on him. Then I saw the sly wretch was awake after all, for his lips curved to their quirkish smile and he murmured, eyes fast shut the while: "Buss me, lass, buss me and be done." (Lol, poor Ursula is forever tormented by his teasing)

"Japhet," said I suddenly, whereat he as suddenly turned to look at me. "Well, Ursula?" 'Why are you such a hatefully cruel man? So relentlessly vindictive?' "Some day you shall hear-mayhap." 'And why not now?' "You are still too much the useless, prideful fine lady." 'I am what God made me.' "And your own idle vanities, madam, God givith us possibilities, circumstances and ourselves mold and shape 'em."

"Sink me!" he exclaimed. "Tis to be hoped ye can cook better than build a fire! How a-plague shall this kindle, think ye?" When he had got his fire going he demanded I should cook supper, I vowed I could not and folding my hands in my lap sat me down. "Cannot or will not?" he demanded. "Both!" I retorted; whereupon he stared up at the moon, fell a whistling and set about the business himself.

"No! I'll bide where I am." 'He will have light and air in the great cabin-Mr. Barnabas-' "But I shall have peace and quiet here,' quoth the Captain, excessive peevish,"no fine-lady airs or shrewish tongue-" 'The poor creature shows a little feverish,' said I, setting the tips of my fingers to his scowling brow,'let him be borne well lapped in blankets.'

"Ursula, why will you seem baser than you are.- such peevish, light, selfish creature? Let us suppose death should take us today; well-we die in right good cause; better so than in the hunting field or fevered of a surfeit." While he spoke the great cannon on the lower decks and it awoke in me such horror that I turned on the Captain reviling him so bitterly that he gave back before me like one amazed.

"Oh, sir, is this not a wicked pirate ship?" 'She is called the Joyful Deliverance. See yonder at the main our flag o' deliverance, bold to God's wind.' Now, looking where he pointed, I saw a broad red flag that bore for its symbol a great black hammer crossed by a broken shackle bolt very plain to see. 'Yon is the Hammer o' Mercy striking asunder the Fetters o' Slavery. 'Tis the symbol of freedom.'

"Mrs. Deborah," says he, unbuttoning his waistcoat, "since your lady is minded to watch over my balmy slumber, bide you too, lest she be tempted to tickle my defenseless ribs with her knife."

"You ha' seen but six of us and these friends and comrades endeared to me by bitter adversity, and someone them, moreover, of prouder birth than your prideful self." 'Rogues and villains all!' cried I. 'Ay, and villainous as their looks!' "Their looks?" he repeated bitterly. "Ay, and small wonder for, most dainty ma'm, these be men like those you read of in the Scriptures that have come out of great tribulation."

"Beware, Captain, I am no poor country lass to be thus brutally abducted with impunity." 'True!" he nodded. "You are a lady of vasty possessions; also you have red hair. But then, I am a man of scant possessions and very desperate fortune-' "And shall answer for this outrage, sir, so sure as there is law in England." 'But then, England is fading on our lee, ma'm- the broad seas lie before us.'