You remember Bill Vokes,
John?"
"I mind him, yer honour. A poor, half-crazed fellow he was, and yet a
good seaman, who would do his duty blow high or blow low. He sailed
six voyages with us, Captain."
"And never one of them without telling the crew that the ship would
never return to port. He had had dreams about it, and the black cat
had mewed when he left home, and he saw the three magpies in a tree
hard by when he stepped from the door, and many other portents of
that kind. The first time he well-nigh scared some of the crew, but
after the first voyage--from which we came back safely, of
course--they did but laugh at him; and as in all other respects he
was a good sailor, and a willing fellow, I did not like to discharge
him, for, once the men found out that his prophecies came to naught,
they did no harm, and, indeed, they afforded them much amusement.
Just as it is on board a ship, so it is elsewhere. If our vessel had
gone down that first voyage, any man who escaped drowning would have
said that Bill Vokes had not been without reason in his warnings, and
that it was nothing less than flying in the face of Providence, to
put to sea when the loss of the ship had been so surely foretold. So,
on shore, the fools or madmen who have dreams and visions are not
heeded when times are good, and men's senses sound, whereas, in
troubled times, men take their ravings to heart. If all the
scatterbrains had a good whipping at the pillory it would be well,
both for them and for the silly people who pay attention to their
ravings.
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