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The Last Of The Huggermuggers, A Giant Story
by
“Well,” answered Zebedee, “I guess, arter all, Jackie, you may be right. You’ve seen the big varmint, and feel a kind of o’ acquainted with him, so you see I won’t insist on my plan, if you’ve any better. Now, what I want to know is, what’s your idee of comin’ it over the critter?”
“You leave that to me,” said Little Jacket; “if talking and making friends with him can do any thing, I think I can do it. We may coax him away; tell him stories about our country, and what fun he’d have among the people so much smaller than himself, and how they’d all look up to him as the greatest man they ever had, which will be true, you know: and that perhaps the Americans will make him General Huggermugger, or His Excellency President Huggermugger; and you add a word about our nice oysters, and clam-chowders.
“I think there’d be room for him in your big ship. It’s warm weather, and he could lie on deck, you know; and we could cover him up at night with matting and old sails; and he’d be so tickled at the idea of going to sea, and seeing strange countries, and we’d show him such whales and porpoises, and tell him such good stories, that I think he’d keep pretty quiet till we reached America. To be sure, it’s a long voyage, and we’d have to lay in an awful sight of provisions, for he’s a great feeder; but we can touch at different ports as we go along, and replenish our stock.
“One difficulty will be, how to persuade him to leave his wife–for there wouldn’t be room for two of them. We must think the matter over, and it will be time enough to decide what to do when we get there. Even if we find it impossible to get him to go with us, we’ll get somebody to write his history, and an account of our adventures, and make a book that will sell.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
THEY SAIL FOR HUGGERMUGGER’S ISLAND.
So Little Jacket sailed with Mr. Zebedee Nabbum, in search of the giant’s island. They took along a good crew, several bold elephant-hunters, an author to write their adventures, an artist to sketch the Huggermuggers, Little Jacket’s six comrades, grappling-irons, nets, ropes, harpoons, cutlasses, pistols, guns, the two young elephants, the lion, the giraffe, the monkeys, and the parrots.
They had some difficulty in finding the island, but by taking repeated observations, they at last discovered land that they thought must be it. They came near, and were satisfied that they were not deceived. There were the huge black cliffs–there were the rocky promontory–the beach. It was growing dusk, however, and they determined to cast anchor, and wait till morning before they sent ashore a boat.
Was it fancy or not, that Little Jacket thought he could see in the gathering darkness, a dim, towering shape, moving along like a pillar of cloud, now and then stooping to pick up something on the shore–till it stopped, and seemed looking in the direction of the ship, and then suddenly darted off towards the cliffs, and disappeared in the dark woods.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
THE HUGGERMUGGERS IN A NEW LIGHT.
I think the giant must have seen the ship, and ran home at full speed to tell his wife about it. For in the morning early, as Little Jacket and Nabbum and several others of the boldest of the crew had just landed their boat, and were walking on the beach, whom should they see but Huggermugger and his wife hastening towards them with rapid strides. Their first impulse was to rush and hide themselves, but the Huggermuggers came too fast towards them to allow them to do so. There was nothing else to do but face the danger, if danger there was. What was their surprise to find that the giant and giantess wore the most beaming smiles on their broad faces. They stooped down and patted their heads with their huge hands, and called them, in broken English, “pretty little dolls and dears, and where did they come from, and how long it was since they had seen any little men like them–and wouldn’t they go home and see them in their big house under the cliffs?” Mrs. Huggermugger, especially, was charmed with them, and would have taken them home in her arms–“she had no children of her own, and they should live with her and be her little babies.” The sailors did not exactly like the idea of being treated like babies, but they were so astonished and delighted to find the giants in such good humor, that they were ready to submit to all the good woman’s caresses.