Punch: Punch (11.1846)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

49

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP

MISS ROBINSON CRUSOE.

CHAPTER V.

had heard something about " painting the
rose, and giving a perfume to the violet."
and every morning, for two hours at least,
determined to try if it couldn't be done. 1
shall not, at this lapse of time, be accused
of vanity when I declare that very often,
as I then believed, I succeeded to a miracle.

y rummaging with all the To think of the looking-glass, and again
earnestness and intelligence to be on the shiP's deck was. 1 mav sa7»
of my sex—and who, when the same thinS ■ As the poet sa4vs,
she likes, can rummage like a j " Like the darting swallow " I fled into

' the lady's cabin, for there, I recollected,
was a large gilt-framed mirror, nailed to
the wall, with lion's claws (doves, not lions,
ought to support looking-glasses ; for what,
in her innocence, knows woman of claws ?)
standing upon nothing. How to detach it,
for it seemed to have been nailed up by a
decker. How they came to i giant ! Rummaging about, I found a chiseL
be forgotten in the hour of! with which—I know not how long—I la-
our peril, is only to be ac- boured. I shall never forget the various
counted for by the frequent expression of my features in that looking-

woman ?—I discovered, in
the steward's store cabin, a
crate full of life-preservers ;
a sufficient number to have
saved the lives of the crew of
what I think on the voyage I
once heard called a three-

glass, as I worked and toiled. I looked
red, and black, and angry, and savage ;
and still, in the very height and depth of
my despair, I could not help pausing and
asking if it could be possible that it was
the same Miss Robinson reflected in the
crystal, the very same that had so often
" painted the rose, and perfumed the violet."
Again and again I thought I must leave
the glass to the mermaids. And then the
thought of breaking the glass, and at least
rescuing the fragments, rose within me.

truth, that we can rarely put
our hands upon anything
when we are in a hurry for
it. (The reader who has ever
mislaid her scissors, or any
particular ball of cotton, will
at once understand me.)
Now, the life-preservers were
exactly of the same sort as
the one I found upon the
beach. It immediately oc-
curred to me, that by filling
some fifty or more of them ^d then 1 shuddered,
with air, and tying them together with tight string, I might make what is called a raft, upon Nerved by a thimble-full of eau de cologne,
which I might safely deposit the trunks, the band-boxes, and other valuables. With this thought I resumed my task. How shall I describe
I set to work ; beginning with all my power to blow up every single article. Exhausted as I had my emotions, when I felt the first nail
been by the terrors of the previous night, this was no easy task. But perseverance was always yield to the chisel ? My face—I caught a
my motto—as it should be that of every young woman setting out in life for a husband—and look of myself-—seemed to go off as it were
though I had had but a poor breakfast, I succeeded in perfectly well blowing up every one of the in one tremendous smile, (often as I have
articles, and then flung every one of them overboard. Recruiting myself with another horn of since practised for the same look, I never
eau-de-cologne and water, and some potted anchovies, found in the captain's cupboard, I again set could touch it). Nail followed nail; and.
to work to finish my task. I descended the ship's side, and with my preserver still about my not to weary the reader—for such person
waist, with some tight string bound every piece of buoyant India-rubber close together. Returning may be of the male sex—I folded the
to the ship I threw overboard a patent water-bed, which subsequently I laid upon the life-preservers, liberated mirror to my breast, as I released
and very snug and comfortable it looked. I then moved trunk by trunk and box by box from it from the wall. Had it not been a mirror
the ship upon the raft ; and who can know, who can understand, my delight, when I perceived ; I should have considered its weight quite
that every box, though trusted to uncertain Neptune, remained as dry as a bone ! For the sea insupportable ; as it was, I felt it light—
was like glass . there was not spray enough to straighten the curls of a mermaid.

Whilst thus employed, securing my own boxes, and the boxes of the other lady passengers,
I cast my eyes towards the shore. The tide, I perceived, had risen, and was carrying away my
gown, with all its flounces. I felt a momentary pang ; but, looking at the boxes on the raft,
permitted myself to be comforted. Having first secured all the articles of wearing apparel, my
next thought was to provide myself with a sufficient store of food. A few sides of bacon—
stowed away in the steward's cabin—half-a-dozen hams, and all the pickles and preserves, with
twenty packages of Embden Groats (for how, I thought, could I bear existence without, now
and then, my gruel !) were, with much pain and labour, discovered, and safely placed upon the
raft. A very beautiful mahogany case of surgical instruments—the Ramo Samee had advertised
to carry a surgeon—providentially attracted my notice. This I also secured ; and happy was
it that I did so.

My next thought was to secure some weapons to protect me against the bears and lions that
might already be in the island, or the savages that might visit it. The captain's pistols were in
his cabin; and as nobody saw me, I took them down, without even attempting to scream—which,
I have no doubt, I should have done had anybody been present. A canister of powder, and a
bag of shot about as big as pins'-heads, next rewarded my scrutinising vigilance. I will not
stay to number all the things secured, (many of them will immediately arise to the recollection
of every housewife,) but state, that as I thought my raft pretty well furnished, I had nothing
more to do than—as I had heard the sailors observe—shove off.

I again descended from the vessel, and was about to cut the string that secured the raft to
the ship's side, when—the thought flashed upon me, and as I may say, with its brightness
illuminated the very depths of my being—when I remembered that I had no looking-glass !

A woman, nursed in the lap, and dandled upon the knees of luxury, without a looking-glass !
Imagine it—dwell upon it—is it possible for fate, in its worst malignity, more cruelly to punish
her ? When at home, with every blessing about me, I thought nothing of the chief delight, the
happiness of sitting two or three hours before my mirror, trying here a patch and there a patch.
Now limiting the furtive wanderings of an eyebrow—and now making pretty experiments with
my hair, for all the world as they practise in Woolwich marshes—for more certain killing. I

light, as somebody says who knew nothing
about it—as vanity.

My next care was to place the glass
upon the raft. Very thick, and very violent,
were the beatings of my woman's heart as
I brought the mirror over the ship's side.
No words, though bright as rainbows, can
paint my feelings when I saw the glass
safely lowered among my other goods. I
sank upon the deck, and grateful tears ran,
like rain-drops on cottage casements, down
my cheeks. Finally recruiting myself for
my great effort—to land my goods—I
descended upon the raft—it bore me beau-
tifully ; and it was not without some pride
that I gazed upon my valuables, so safely
stowed, my looking-glass included.

Taking an oar in my hand—I had once,
in an hour of childish hilarity, rowed a
boat upon a lake, somewhere near Hornsey,
so was not altogether unskilful in the
management of skulls—I paddled, as some
one once said to me (oh, memory ! and oh.
fate !), " like a little duck as I was."

I steered towards a slit—a creek, I think
it's called—in the shore ; to avoid the
billows that, big as feather-beds, were
rolling over the rocks. Then I trembled
for my raft ; felt cold and hot, and hot and