Arthur Gordon Pym, Part I [pp. 13-16]

SOUTHEIIRN LITERIiARY MES,SE, ER.
out of ten who study those lan,,,ges at our scleools
anil colleges, acqtitres even 0 tolerabie knowledge of1
them; and five o'ut of those ten are, n a yeai o0 t wo
attel' they 10ave college, almost as -onoant o0 0111 the
rodiments of those laaia'10es, as if t,Jey had nIveI
seenai 0ookco taitim th(10. Thits woud cdeteris a
l-}trelit ti'om wasting' six or eig,t years of 0 i soris
early liio in so frittle ilss aatt ti he h i!
hitable Oevidenc of thIt sOn's i ity1 00 sposiaion
to st'dy. This assertion of dei,ey, ic inl
as it ma'y aypea", is by no msOais exago1"eated. ioaod
11e have seen profs s r o 0he s e 1na0 m ho
lived by teaicltot th,io' stumhob'10 h,oldle ov0r the
commnoaest stences of Latin a d Greek, like a boy
over his first hooel exrci s e haivo not only, seen
su0et, bht we tc0 prod0c t000m, together wivt h gates
hv tie dozeho CO not eve,, p10etdnld to I1 0conversat
w',ith the dead languages.! Cae,, is r', tilero
is no qultestion ofit; at1d inninte cases 0 t 0ofte,' l t,'time
spent on Litin and GiC(reek by the boys in thiis couiitr'y,
night be more, mtch'ii 0o1e1 pirofitably employed."
ARPTHUR GORDON PYM.
i\1O I.
Mly name is Arthur Gordon Pymo. My fithot'r 1as
a respectable trader in sea-stoctes at Nantucket, wh11ere
I was born. My material grandfather was Ota attorniey,
]I nood practice. He was fortunate ini every tlling 0n(
hld spI ecnl:ted very socc e ssfully i stocks of the cd~
eart Non New-B i, as it 1' iorn ~erly called. PFy tly (teo
at' ot'I to lay by a teolerab1le
Sttm of mooney'. I, was moor attacied to i lysel, I
belisev1e tht,an to any other person int t 11 wod, at,d I
expected to i nherit the mos-l of li s pon r'y at his
death, He sen'10, six years o00 age,! o th0e sc'aool
of oild 51. R'ektt, a gentleman11 ith onyone 0r,1 00
a00(1d of eccentri n,_,,, s-h is w 01,O to almost
every pe1,s0) ho has visited i2e 0, d,'d I staid
at his sd ool lotI was,t ee,7 ihein I left him
for M E. Roi,ald's Academoy oni the lill. Here I became intimate with the son of Mr. Barniaid, a s ia-captain, who generally sailed in the empnloy of Lloyd and
V~redenbttt"' h ~Mri'. Bairnatrd is also very well klnow1n
in New Bedford, and its tmay relations, I -01 certain,
in Edgeartoin. ils son was niamed Aug ustos, d lie
0,as niearly two year,s older than myself. Ile l"ad becn
on a wha,Ing roy,:g with ht's fiher in th" John Donaldsoa, anid was lwahvays talking to 11 of his acdventures in the Soutt Pacific Ocoan. I used fr'oequently to
go home with itim and remailn al1l day, an0(1 so times
all night. V,Tc occupied the same bed, atid lie wrould
be sure to koep me awako until almost lightI, loing me
stories of the naticve%e ofIi island of Tinr0i0, 011n1 other
places ite had visited in lhis traoels. At last I could not
help being interested in what he said, and bv deo."rees I
felt th greatest desire to go to sea. I owned a sail-'
boat called thoe Ari-, atid worth atou,it seventy-five dollars. She had a Oalf- dck or cuddy, 0n1 1's rI egod
sloop-~fs0110-1 to,"'ot her tonna "L, I it te wooldl hold
ten persons w ithout tuch crowdinig. In thbs bna+t we
1were in t h e hait of goilg on some of the maiddcest
fi'eals in the wor m -id, wIihen I now thiink of 1the1,1, it
app1a,,-s I 0 I 0(1 ot dears to aI a tor a wonIdrs thoa y.
Coo ntight thiere was a party at Mr. Ba. i:l's, and
both Aogustus air.( myself wei'e not a little ititoxicated towlarts the ctitos0e of it. As usual, in soli cases,
I took part of Iti I iI-) prcferiniico to going ht toe. 11(
went to sleep, Is [ t},.oultt, very quieo-tly, (it beitig near
one whe0 the p art'y bhioke p,) anid w ithout saying a
word ott his falvorite topi. It inht haive been ohIf an
hour fiom tite ttie (0?01our getting in b(1, nod I xvcwas
just hboot falin ig into a doze, whon he soddeoly started
up, and swo11e wi11 a terrible oath titat he w1ould not
,o to sleep ftsr any Arthur Pynill in Chiten dom, when
Llct'ee was so glorious a breeze from the south-west. I
i never a so a0s0tonished in my life, no't knowving what
he intended, and thiinkinig thltat the'w ines and liqutos
he had dsenk 11d et hit entirely beside him elf. lTe
p'ooeeded to talk very cooly, l1owever; sayinl he ktioew
that I su11ppose d hin in,.tox',icartOed, but that lie 11as never
more sober in his life. H0e vas ottly titced, he added,
of lying in bed on such a fine nightt lilke a dog, and;,Is
determined to get tip and dress, and go out o(t - fr-olic
with the boat. I caa hardly tell what possessed me,
but the wvords 11wvere0c n o tooter out of his mouth than I
felt a tl'till of the greatcst exciteiement an0 pleasure,
and thought his 0ma1d idea o ne of' the most deightf.l
a0+1 most reasonable things in the 11oirld. It wvas blowh -
ing almost a gale, and the 11weatlier was very cold —it
being late in October. I sprang out of lbed, nev erttlieless, in a lkind of oost acy, and told him I was quite as
brave a hiimiself, and'[ito as tired Sas lws of lying
in bad lite a dog, atid q01tito as r'ead5Cy [O any foii of
fi'oiic as any A u gutus B it'nitd in Naittucket.
o lost no tuie in gettiing on1 O(1 olothes and hutrtyit' downo to tho hoat. S~he 11as lying at the old decay (1 wh i'f by tle lua,,i_.r yard of Paol.oy & Co. and
almost thumping her sides out ainst tlle rot]gh logs.
Astl tous {jot into her andc I atiled teot, fi(r she was ne alai'y
hl if foll of water. Tiis being doto, w, wn ted'il
a,nd mainsal ho p foil, epil,1 started bIs(ldly out to sea.
The wind, as I before said, blew fi'esltly f'om tlte
south-e he n igit was very ct ~ lt0 t0' and cnold. A uigstust ha lid takentO t'te hoe m, and I s tationed mys lf bsy
the mast on the doek of the etddy. IVe fldew aloig at
a great rate0-net110r of us havini said 0 11woi'd since
casting loose fi'oa the w1harf. I now asked -y con'panion what course he intended to steier, a whatt time
he thought It probaI 11e should get baok. lie whistled for a few minuiiites, and then slid trustiiy "I
am going' to sea~-ozt may go 110010 if you tl'tk proper." Torning my 00e 01on hii', I per ceived at
once, 1,ihat in spite of lhis a s sumed,ov~c' ((?cl, was
areatly a oitod. I could see him dis tini cty by tile
liglht of thie mooti tth's face was pa t hieia aily marhle, and his hand sho o sl e0 cessiv ely, tliet ho e('d
scarcely rota hold of ti c tiller. I u that s(11,0titintg had gon11 wr00" 0(d b eca me it siy alarmed.
At this pertlid I kI-t littie about tile noi",nent (f a
,)oat, asd i -;as now od'tig ontirely ipoi tle t:tt't
-'eel skill of oty ft'i(0(1. The 11nd too ").td suddcnoy
inoreased, os 110 were fas' get tingnout (of tle lee oft the
landis-till I was asha med to beti'ay a' y tret'id:tiort,
and fot' altmost half an thou ettto d a rosolutes 000. 1~ s'ttl ail tt noi "t lone,hotsover, a1( nol soe
0to A 1 tootis bcttt the pronrioty of tort~iti ba,ck. A~s
safore, it 110s near5ly a mtintot bofotre 10 maode answer0,
or' took any notice rcf my suggesti00. ~By aind bye,"
sai11 he at ieith- t(i me1(I, cno i'"b ho-me 10y otd bye."
[ lttd expected a sim'lar1 re1ly, Ittt there wias so tool,ing
in tlte ton ocfi tl~ese wnl which f (elillod 111 wvith an it de cril,ai'- feelingof dtcod I again0 lookedl at tlhe speaker'
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