Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/231

 OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 225 leaving Heaton, with Peters and Jones, to take care of most of the females. We say of most, since Dido and Juno went along, in order to cook, and to wash all the clothes of the whole colony, a part of which were sent in the pinnace, but most of which were on board the ship. This was a portion of his duty, when a solitary man, to which Mark was exceedingly averse, and having shirts al most ad libitum, Bridget had found nearly a hundred ready for the buck-basket. There was no danger, therefore, that the wash would be too small. Betts was deeply impressed with the change that he found in the rocks. There, where he had left water over which he had often floated his raft, appeared dry land. Nor was he much less struck with the appearance of the crater. It was now a hill of a bright, lively verdure, Kitty and her new friend keeping it quite as closely cropped as was desirable. The interior, too, struck him forcibly ; for there, in addition to the garden, now flourishing, though a little in want of the hoe, was a meadow of acres in extent, in which the grass was fit to cut. Mark had observed this circumstance when last at the crater, and Socrates had brought his scythe and forks, to cut and cure the hay. The morning after the arrival, everybody .went to work. The women set up their tubs, under an awning spread for that purpose, near the spring, and were soon up to their elbows in suds. The scythe was set in motion, and the pinnace was taken round to the ship. Three active sea men soon hoisted out the carronades, and stowed them in the little sloop. The ammunition followed, and half-a- dozen barrels of the beef and pork were put in the Nesha- mony also. Mark scarcely ever touched this food now, the fish, eggs, chickens, and pigs, keeping his larder suffi ciently well supplied. But some of the men pined for ship s provisions, beef and pork that had now been packed more than two years, and the governor thought it might be well enough to indulge them. The empty barrels would be convenient on the Peak, and the salt would be accept able, after being dried and pulverized. The day was passed in loading the Neshamony, and in looking after various interests on the Reef. The hogs had all come in, and were fed. Mark shot one, and had it