"Jackson," or The story of a sea dog

Robert Ridley is a retired mariner. He never rose to a higher grade than that of second mate. In which capacity indeed he acted without a certificate, having for the most part of his life sailed in a species of ship upon whose commanders find officers the State makes few or no demands in an educational sense.

Robert Ridley, having on several occasions served as a second mate, and conce as an only mate, returned to his earlier condition of able seaman, and while still acting in that capacity quiitted the ocean forever and settled down as a gentleman ashore in a comfortable, little cottage by the seaside. This achievement of independence the population of a great maritime country will not for an instant suppose was the result of his commercial prosperity as a foremast hand. After twenty years of working like a dog at sea, all that Robert Ridley had to show in the shape of "effect*" was comprised In a small sea-chest half full of clothes and a suit of oilskins, with perhaps a matter of eight pounds lodged in a Postoffice savings bank.

No! My friend Bob Ridley gained an independence not through old ocean—that most beggarly of callings—but through an uncle who had been an Italian warehouseman, and who left the worthy fellow, to his astonishment and joy, the handsome sum (to an able seaman) of six thousand pounds.

I was recently in the town where Bob Ridley lives, and spent an hour with him. We smoked our pipes together, drank to each other in a glass of Hollands and talked of the sea. He carried me into his little garden, and with much pride pointed to the various flowers and to what he called his kitchen-garden, a considerable bed of soil full of carrots, cabbage and the like At the extremity of his half acre of land stood a summer arbor, the fruit of his own skill, for he had been a ship's carpenter In his day, and few men were smarter with the chisel and the saw than he. On entering this building I observed a little wooden obelisk about three feet in height erected in the center of it. On the apex rested a piece of carving in wood, of which I could make neither head nor tail. Upon the body of the obelisk were carved the words:

IN MEMORY OF JACKSON

SUNDAY MORN, MDCCCLXXV.

At the hinder base of this queer little structure was the model of a wreck. Many queer devices representing mermaids, the sun, anchors, hearts, and so forth were artfully chiseled on the sides.

"Pray what have you here, Ridley?" said l.

"A memorial," he answered.

"Ay, that's clear enough. But what sailor friend of yours lies buried here?"

"No sailor friend at all," he answered laughing. "Jackson was a dog, and he, poor beast, doesn't lie here either. I wish he did. It wouId sometimes give my mind a sort of satisfaction to feel that his remains lay snug under this here mark."

"And what," cried I, peering at the little bit of carving on top of the obelisk, "is this?"

"lt's the portrait of the half of a vessel's caboose, sir—a vessel that was lost on a Sunday morning."

By the word "caboose" he signified galley, or the kitchen of a little ship. I could now make out that it was the representation of the roof and a portion of the sides of a caboose, as he called it, with a hole atop for the reception of a chimney.

"I see there is a yarn here," said I.

"Not much of a yarn," he answered; "just the tale of a poor beast of a dog that in time I got to love as truly as if he'd been a Christian man and a brother. That's where I fell in with him," said he, pointing to the model of the wreck, "and that," he added, indicating the fragment of miniature caboose, "is where he died."

I looked at my watch.

"Come," said I, "you shall tell me the story of Jackson whilst we sit here and smoke our pipes and survey your clever piece of carpentry. There's no hurry," and so saying I seated myself and he alongside of me, slowly extracting a brass tobaccobox out of his breeches pocket as he did so.

"Well," be began, with a sort of groping look around the summer arbor, and then bringing his eyes to bear in a squint of earnest memory upon his obelisk, "this was how it fell out. I was able seaman aboard a little bark, and we were bound for the River Thames from Porto Allegre. We fell in with a deal of bad weather which drove us well to the east'ard, and then for three weeks we were stagnated with calms, so that putting the fine weather along with the bad we reckoned that the vessel had lost her luck, and that ne'er a man of our little company was to consider it well with us till we were in a situation to pick up our bundles and step over the side on to good English dock-yard soil.

It is supposed that there are no superstitions now going at sea. You know better than that, sir. Any man with that notion in his head should have been aboard of us. The captain himself came forward one day and nailed a horse-shoe to the mast. I remember being weak enough myself to lament that there wasn't a Finn amongst us, so that we might have been able to say 'It's you, mate, that's the cause of these here calms and contrary gales,' and then have locked him up with nothing to eat until he should have been coaxed by famine into correcting his ill-nature and into giving us the breezes we wanted.

"One black night we were retching along under reefed topsails and the forecourse. I was at the wheel. The bark having her nose to it put a spite into the wind, and a nasty sea was washing past. There was nothing to see but the white water that would flush out in the darkness alongside as though the beams of an electric light were traveling round and round, touching the ocean in places as they traveled. All on a sudden the mate, who was standing at the weather rail just abreast of the skylight, gives a sort of shriek and then fell a-yelling; but there was no time for me to catch what he said; for whilst his cries were still ringing, I just caught sight of a huge lump of blackness oozing out of the weather bow like a blacker night still coining down through the darkness upon us with one spark of light showing; but it wasn't green nor red, and what it was I can't say. The next instant we were in collision—with some vessel; she caught us on the bluff of the bow and slewed us clean round with such a noise of splintering wood, of washing waters and of human cries that I've only got to recall it to feel deaf.

"She went clear and vanished. leaving its sinking. She had torn out our bows and wrecked our spars forward, but she never showed a flare, never shifted her helm, never so much as hailed us after she had slipped past. She left us to our fate, and by that token I allow that she was a foreigner. We had to feel for the boats. So black was it, and God knows how we managed. The boats were slung in the old-fashioned style, dangling overboard at the ends of davits, and steadied by gripes. Had they been stowed as the fashion now is, every soul of us must have perished. The vessel was up in the wind without way, rolling briskly, and the curl of the foam off her side to the smite of the sea showed us men who were standing on the starboard side, the outline of the boat as we lowered her. We entered her in scrambling fashion by the tackles—five of us, leaving six others of our company wrestling at the port falls: amongst them was the master and the two mates and us five were men—hands as the term is. The moment the boat was liberated she blew away: we never again saw the others, nor did we ever hear of them.

"When the day broke we were alone, nothing in sight, the hot sun rising, nothing to drink but four bottles of red wine, which a fellow amongst us who had acted as steward had brought along with him, and nothing to eat but as many broken bits of ship's bread as 'ud make about seven whole biscuits.

"The outlook was not very encouraging, but, as you know, I was always of a very hopeful disposition, and therefore determined to make a brave fight for life. There was one thing that encoraged me, and that was the thoroughly stanch and seaworthy condition of the boat in which I now found myself together with four fellow-creatures adrift, with an ugly sea running. I say adrift, for, there was no mast and only one pair of oars in the boat, and we hadn't strength to use them with any effect. 1 needn't tell you that this wasn't the first time that I had made a fight for life against terrible odds, for you know all about it. Well, the consequence was that it occurred to me I was the proper person to take command of the little party of castaways, and see that fair play was the rule of the day in dealing out the scant supply of broken biscuits and red wine which the steward had brought along with him.

"So I put the question to the men whether they were willing that should act as captain, and a cheery "aye, aye, sir," was the answer I got from all of them except Hal Wescott, a huge mulatto of tremendous strength and not extra good temper. Hal was a splendid looking fellow physically and put me in mind of one of the bronze statues that I've seen 'em dig out of the sand in the eastern countries. The muscles of his arms and chest were something fearful to look at, especially when he was out of humor at some trick played upon him. Then these muscles would knot and twist and his great round chest would heave like an ocean swell. Hal and I had always got along pretty well together, a fact which I attribute to my pair of keen black eyes which, as you used to say, were bright enough to be seen in the dark, like a cat's eye. Then again Hal knew that I wasn't afraid of him as the other men were, and so he never attempted to browbeat or bully me; in fact, he was ever ready to do me a good turn. I always made it a point to keep my eyes fixed hard and full upon Hal's face when talking to him, and the consequence was that I finally succeeded in getting the same sort of control over the huge animal, for such he was in plain words, that the trainer gets over a lion or a tiger. Instinctively he felt that I was different from the usual run of men, which I am, as you know. I never was known to lose my head, even when a youngster at school, and so l was always the chosen ringleader in times of mischief or danger.

"Well, that's neither here nor there; all that I need tell you is that the big mack fellow was afraid of me; but, sir, would you believe it. when the other men sent up their cheery "Ay, ay, sir,' Wescott never opened his mouth, never drew a muscle. I saw it, and it made a deep impression on me. It was just as if a lion-tamer upon entering the cage had caught a glimpse of one of his animals crouching and sulking in the corner and refusing to obey his call. It's hardly necessary for me to tell you how I acted under the circumstances. My mind was made up in an instant. I heard a voice ringing in my ears above the scream of that nasty sea, which was tossing our boat about like a cork in a mill-race. It said: "Whip him up to the scratch, or you're lost," so letting fly my leg I gave the big swarthy giant a sharp kick on the shin, and fixed my keenest glance upon him full in the face.

"'Hal Wescott," said I, "if you're agin me for captain of this boat, say so, man.'

"That glance was too much for him. He winced like a dog under the lash, and turning his bloodshot eyes away, he muttered out:

"'That's all right, messmate, I'm for you. I votes ay, ay, sir.'

"The men seemed to draw a long breath as they heard these words.

"Good enough," I replied. "Now, men, listen to me. We're in bad way, a very bad way. We haven't any water at all, and only about half a dozen biscuits, half of which are soaked with sea water, but I'll dry them as soon as the sun comes out. It's more than likely that we're in for a long last before we're picked up, but I've been in just such a fix before this and if you'll be patient and follow my instructions to the letter I may save you all. Now, if you don't know, I must tell you one thing and that's this: A man can go without food, or, better said, with an uncommon small allowance, for several days, if he lets sea water alone. Mind what I say—if he lets sea water alone. When thirst comes on you must grin and bear it, for once you begin to drink sea water you're doomed. It'll transform you Into raving, screeching lunatics, and in your madness you'll as likely as not fall foul of some of your messmates as a famished beast would of a fat sheep. But hark ye, men,' I continued, laying my hand on my revolver, 'I'm determined to see fair play in this business, and as the cartridges of my revolver are waterproof the wetting they've had wont do 'em a bit of hurt. D'ye hear that? And I give you fair warning that if any one of you attacks his messmate or tries to rob him of his rations I'll shoot him as I would any other wild beast."

"The men, Hal Wescott included, gave me a hearty cheer, and promised me implicit obedience.

"Our first bit of luck was a heavy fall of rain, so rigging a piece of sail cloth in such a way as to catch as much water as possible, I proceed to empty the red wine, one bottle at a time, into the sea and to fill it with water, cork it again securely and pack it away carefully in the boat's locker, upon which I took up my position.

"Now it was that that great black brute Hal Wescott first showed his teeth, if I may be permitted to express myself so, and big, white, sharp and animal-like teeth they were, too, take my word for it. When Wescott first caught the low gurgling sound of the wine, as it spurted like a rill of lifeblood into the sea, a strange look glowed with wicked fire, his lips twitched convulsively and his huge hands opened and shut with a snap in the iron knuckles. He was likea thirsty beast suddenly roused by the trickling sound of water. I could hear the big fellow's tongue fairly click between his massive jaws as he watched my movements.

"When the time came for me to take up the second bottle and uncork it Wescott could not hold his rebellious in'ards no longer in control. With a half scream, half groan, he burst out:

" 'For God's sake, captain, give me a drink o' that. Don't waste it. I'm burnin' up inside. I'm all on fire, captain, I swear I am! I can't stand it, captain; for the love of heaven don't say no, just give me a taste of it, just a taste!' "

"I needn't tell, you sir, that even a few mouthfuls of that wine would have transformed the big mulatto into a fiend incarnate. Poured into his fasting stomach it would have set a stream of fire in his blood, and I wouldn't be here to-day to tell you this story, for he would have brained every mother's son of us, sure as fate. So in an instant I determined what course of action to pursue, and in that brief space of time I said my prayers, felt for my pistol and bid uncle Bob and you good-by.

" 'Silence, sir!'" I roared, with all the strength I could muster, as I turned upon the writhing, twitching monster, whose face, already frightfully distorted with suffering, was now made still more repulsive by ill-disguised rage which burned in his red eyes.

"It took all my self-control to keep my gaze riveted upon the man without flinching, but I was successful, and the mulatto crouched down in his corner again, like a half-cowed, half-defiant tiger. Things went passably well for a day or so. The men obeyed me cheerfully, and bore the pangs of hunger with wonderful calmness. I kept Wescott at the bow of the boat, so I could have my eye on him. Next to me was the steward—never a strong man and hence the first to sink lifeless in a heap on the bottom of the boat.

"We had been washing about for three days. Hunger was beginning to give our faces that wild haggard look which robs the human countenance of all traces of a soul and leaves nothing behind but the dull distrustful glare of the animal.

"But thirst was the thing I most dreaded. In spite of the few thimblefuls of water which I doled out from time to time it was only too plain to be seen that I wouldn't be able to keep the poor fellows from drinking the sea water many days longer. In their fitful sleep they would dream of coming upon sparkling rills and cool fountains, shaded by far-reaching boughs, heavy wtth dark green foliage, and when about to plunge their red and swollen lips into the cool and limpid pool it would move away from them like a painted curtain drawn slowly aside only to uncover darkness, blackness, nothingness! Their screams and prayers as they awoke were pitiful. Sitting bolt upright their haggard faces, half flayed by the action of the scorching sunlight and brine, would be turned upon me, and hard though they strove to control themselves I could hear the low dull whisper: 'Water! Water! Water.'

"Wescott, strange to say, bore his suffering more patiently than I had anticipated. I was touched by what seemed to me his devotion, his obedience, and I spoke kindly to him. But he paid no attention to any one or anything, lying like a huge beast, curling up in the bow of the boat.

"Ah, sir, those were terrible hours. I shudder as I call them to mind, and the recollection of them makes me more grateful than ever to old Uncle Bobert for making it possible for me to quit the sea forever.

"We had now been four days knocking about in this terrible fashion, when one morning I was aroused by a shriek and cries of 'Captain, captain!' The buckle of my belt had been drawn up to its lust hole in order to keep my poor collapsed stomach from grinding itself to pieces, and I had left the steward on watch and was catching a few winks of sleep when that fearful shriek caused me to start up with a jerk.

"The beast was loose! Yes, these words described the situation exactly. While I had been sleeping the giant mulatto had waked up and in a frenzy, which the others had made futile efforts to control, had filled a tarpaulin hat with sea water and taken long and deep draughts of it. In a few moments he was a raving madman, frothing at the mouth and tearing his own flesh with his glistening teeth. It was a sight to strike terror to the stoutest heart. What I feared at first thought was that he would swamp the boat, for he threatened every moment to rise from his kneeling position. To turn the boat over meant quick and sure death for us all, for not one of us had strength enough to swim a stroke. But no, the maniac had other ends in view. With a deep prolonged growl he threw himself upon the poor steward and seizing the terror-stricken man with his huge hands he drew him into his lap as if he weighed no more than four stone.

"Then I felt my hair stiffen and my heart struggle to keep up its beat, for, horror of horrors, what did I see? That huge beast in human form with a rapid motion bent the steward's head back and then set those terrible teeth of his into the poor man's throat. In an instant I was upon him! My own strength and vigor astounded me, but although I rained blow after blow upon the mulatto's head with the butt of my pistol, it had no more effeet than the tapping of a lady's gloved hand.

"Meantime, the steward's face grew blacker and blacker. There was not an instant to be lost, and, setting the barrel of my revolver at the mulatto's ear, I pressed the trigger.

"It seemed an age before I heard the sharp crack of that pistol (I suppose my hand was paralyzed), but it came at last and the big black monster dropped his prey and rolled into a heap in the bottom of the boat. For a few moments I saw nothing more, but gradually I pulled myself together, and, making a motion to the others to help me, we laid hold of the huge corpse and tumbled it into the water.

"Ah. that was a fearful deed, but I never regretted it, sir, never!"

Here Mr. Robert Ridley, retired mariner, paused, drew a long breath and then continued as follows:

"Toward nightfall we fell in with a vessel. We sighted her at sundown and she was then a mere spot upon the distant sea, and we thought no more of her when the darkness came; but next morning she was showing within an easy pull and we then saw that she was a wreck, all three masts gone and her thick shrouds trailing over the side, as though her hold was full of serpents crawling away from her. As we passed under her stern we read the name, 'Grace Tucker, Boston.' She sat high upon the water and seemed a new ship; anyway, her copper was new, and the wet flash of it to the sun might have been seen for miles.

"We sprang aboard, all mad for water and then for food. Figure our joy when I tell you we found scuttle-butt full of cold water, with a dipper ready at hand to drink from. There was a dead man lying in the galley; he was a half-caste, and the atmosphere was so bad with him that two of us tumbled him over the side without ado. Aft was a long deck-house; I entered it to rummage for food, and the first thing I saw was the body of a man lying upon the deck stone dead, with a live dog sitting alongside of him. When the dog saw me he crawled like a dying creature on to the man s breast, and feebly showed his teeth. He was something after the breed of a water spaniel, but his eyes were red, and seemed on fire, and I felt scared somehow on seeing him alive, and though I saw how weak he was, I had no heart to push past him lest ho should fly at me.

"I called through the door to one of my mates. 'Jackson! Jackson!' meaning that between us we should secure the dog, but I had no sooner uttered tho word 'Jackson' than the dog crept off the dead man's bosom, and weakly wagging his tail, comes to my feet and falls a-licking my shoe.

" 'Why, Jackson, poor chap,' says I, patting him, on which he utters a sort of howl and looks up at me with his two fiery red eyes with such an expression in his face that you'd have sworn he felt as if it would have done him good to cry. There was an empty pannikin along side one of the dead man's hands. I fetched some water and gave it to the dog, who drank it to the last drain, and on my saving poor Jackson, and patting him again, he howled as before, as though there was something in the name to break his heart. You may hear some dogs howl as he did when a street organ begins. I left him to rummage for victuals, and in a locker found some cold salt beef and a tin of white biscuit. On this I called to my mates, and they all came in and we fell to. The dog had got again on to the dead man's breast and wouldn't stir though I threw him a piece of biscuit and then a bit of meat. The water had strengthened him, and he was shifting about as though uneasy in his mind, occasionally uttering a low growl and eyeing us steadily.

" 'Likely as not we may have to stay here,' says a man named William, and if so that there poor chap'll have to come out of it.'

" 'Better turn to,' exclaimod another; 'it's bad enough to be cast away after this here pattern. I'm for fresh air, shipwreck or no shipwreck.'

"But on our approaching the body the dog snarled and showed his teeth, and cut such capers on the corpse's chest that we all thought he was gone mad, and stood looking at him. At last I says, 'Poor Jackson! Come along, old Jackson! Poor old Jackson!' patting my leg, on which he drew up to me, and whilst I patted him and called him Jackson, he meanwhile licking my shoes or looking up at me with his tongue out as if his heart was ready to burst, the others sneaked the body off.

"I thought to see Jackson bolt out of the cabin when he found the body was gone instead of which, after a look around, he uttered along howl, then came to my feet again and ate the biscuit and the piece of meat out of my hand.

"We were nearly a week aboard that vessel before we were taken off. Luckily, there was plenty to eat and drink in her, but she was draining in water and needed constant pump ing, and we feared for our lives should heavy weather set in. That model you see there at the foot of tho obelisk is a true copy of her. I believe she had been struck by lightning. One of us, a man named Parsons, said that he guessed by the look of the corpse, that they had been smote blind and had died of their blindness. But a derelict is nearlv always a mystery when there's nobody left alive to tell the story. As much a mystery was it, too, why that there dog should have answered to the name of Jackson. Maybe his master was so called. Be this as it will, you had only to call him Jackson to bring him to your feet and convert him to the lovingest beast that over wagged a tail.

"During the week we were aboard the wreck that dog never lost sight of me. He followed at my heels like my own shadow, lay down with me, watched me as if he was human with a powerful intelligence working out imaginations in him. He was the first to sight the ship that took us off. I was lying asleep on the cuddy deck and he awoke me by licking my face. I was vexed to bo disturbed and told him to get away and turned over for another nap. On this he licks my face again and barked.

" 'Blast that dawg!' says William, and he sits up to chuck a boot at the poor beast.

" 'Hold your hand,' sasy I. 'Now, Jackson, what is it?' says I.

"He barked again and walked to the deck house door, looking behind him, and on my following the first thing I saw was a large brig within half a mile of us.

"Well, to cut this, we were taken off, and I took good care to carry Jackson along with me, for thistime the love between us was something beautiful Throughout the passage home he lay in the clews of my hammock at night and by day followed me about the deck; and laugh as you may, sir, I tell you I've seen tears of joy gush into his red eyes when I've allowed him to jump upon my knees and lie there and lick my hand. The master of the brig wanted to buy him from me, but I said no, not for ten times his weight in gold. 'I'll pawn the shirt off my back to repay you for your kindness, sir,' says I, 'but Jackson and me are friends that must not part if we can help it.'

"However, I couldn't take him to sea with me every voyage, and when I got home I gave him to my sister to take charge of. I went chiefly on coasting trips, and was absent for short spells only, and lodging as I did with my sister when I was ashore, never did mortal man from the most loving of wives or mothers, from the most affectione of fathers or brothers, receive such a welcome home as I did from Jackson. His joy was almost terrifying. It came to this, that when the neighbors heard I was to return they'd assemble in a body in the door to witness Jackson's delight. You would have thought he'd spring through the very roof. When his demonstrations were over he'd sit and grunt, with his eyes fixed upon me as though he were talking. He was the only dog I ever met that seemed to know his bark didn't convey all that was in his mind. I can assure you it used to affect me to see him trying to give expression to his thoughts by uttering sounds and maneuvering with his ears. I believe that a dead sailor's soul had passed into that there dog. Ha! But I do then! Never did the like of so much intelligence walk on four legs before.

"There came a time when I shipped as second mate and carpenter aboard a coal-man bound to a French port. This gave me a chance to carry Jackson along with me, the skipper not objecting. I had now had the dog about three and half years—perhaps four. He was still an active, beautiful dog with a lovely brown coat of hair, fine as silk, and eyes as expressive as a pretty girl's. It came on to blow after we had left port a few hours, and the weather turned thick as mud in a wine-glass. Wo got the vessel under easy sail; the wind was a little abaft the beam, and we were plowing through it reckoning on forty fathoms of water under our keel, when shortly after six bells of the first watch the vessel took the ground off the Norfolk coast; the masts went over the side and she was wrecked in a breath, beating hard with the seas bursting over her.

"There was a bit of a deck-house aft, and most of the men took shelter in it. I was making my way to that structure to join them when the deck blew up amidships, and to save myself from being washed overboard I crawled into the little caboose, and when I was there, feeling horribly lonesome, I thought of Jackson, and putting my head out though the door and whistled on the little silver whistle I used to carry expressly to call him with. Whether he was aft with the men and they let him out, suspecting by his capers on hearing my whistle that he was going mad, whether he had been sheltering himself waiting for me to call him, I never could tell. The hull lay with a strong list, and the air was white with flying spray. All amidships the hold was yawning; yet five minutes after I had sounded that whistle I heard a scratching at the galley door, and, on sliding it a bit open, in bounded Jackson.

"He had scarcely entered when a lump of a green sea struck the caboose. What followed is like recollecting the waking up out of a swoon. I remember finding myself in the water and of scraping at something with my finger ends. It was the top of the caboose, as you see it there: but I didn't know what it was till the day broke. In groping I put my arm through a hole and held by it. Just then I heard a yelp close beside me. I put my other arm into the smother where something showed black and caught hold of the dog—for the dog it was—and hoisted him on to my back with his fore-paws on my shoulders. The water was horribly broken and the tumbling of the caboose roof sickening; yet I held on with my arm through the chimney-hole and the dog clung to my shoulders, encouraging me as it were by sometimes licking my face; and whenever a bigger sea than usual ran at us, the poor beast would bark as though he thought to frighten it away from hurting me.

"We floated away from the broken tumble of the shoal into a run of the sea that was something regular, but the water was constantly washing over us. I cannot express what comfort I found in having that poor beast on my shoulders close to me, barking, and then giving a little growl as though to hearten me, and then licking my face. At last he fell silent. The gray of the dawn was stealing into the sky. I said, 'Jackson, how is it with you, poor beast?' He didn't answer: I spoke again, and finding him still silent I pulled him down and found he was dead. I was too weak, too near my own death to cry; yet I felt to be weeping in my heart when I pulled him down and found he was dead. My exhaustion was too great to suffer me to hold him long, and I had to let him go. His body floated off and I lost sight of it.

"Shortly after sunrise a smack hove into view. The mate of her, seeing a black object, put a glass to his eye and instantly spied me waving my arm, whereupon he headed for me, launched a boat and took me aboard. I was the only man saved; the vessel had gone to pieces in the darkness and drowned all the others. That's the little yarn, sir," exclaimed Bob Ridley, knocking the ashes out of his pipe and rising. "Poor old Jackson!" and with a deep sigh and an air of abstraction, he led the way out of his summer arbor.