Barney and the Secret of the Whales Read Free

to talk about riches. She and Mr Johnson said that true treasures are what you do to help people here on earth, then afterwards in Heaven.
    â€˜Aye, I have.’
    I looked at him eagerly. I’d heard the sailors who brought us here talk about naked ladies with flowers in their hair, or getting tattoos of fish so they wouldn’t drown if the ship sank. And stories about being becalmed when the winds died in mid-ocean and drawing lots to see who would be eaten next . . .
    â€˜Did you ever eat a cabin boy?’ I asked.
    â€˜Barney!’ said Mr Johnson. ‘Leave the table! Now!’
    Captain Melvill laughed. ‘Let him stay. No, boy, I’ve never eaten anyone. I stock my ships well. A sailor needs his strength to battle whales. A man who is underfed or has scurvy can’t carve up a prince of the sea. Whalingcrews eat better than other sailors, including those on His Majesty’s ships.’
    â€˜I imagine there’s good eating on a whale,’ said Sally, standing up and nodding to me and Elsie to help her collect the dishes. Sally used to turn up her nose at anything that wasn’t salt pork or beef, but after more than three years in the colony she could make an o’possum pudding or kangaroo stew that you’d swear came from a cow.
    Captain Melvill shrugged. ‘It’s tradition to have a steak or two, fresh from the neck . . .’
    Mrs Johnson looked at me pointedly. So when Sally took in the stewed rhubarb and custard, I sat at the kitchen table to eat mine. Elsie sat with me. You wouldn’t think Elsie was good company, not being able to talk. But she did quiet better than most people did chatter when they had nothing to say. She’d smile or raise an eyebrow or wrinkle her nose when I spoke . . .
    But now I was quiet, trying to hear more tales of the sea from the dining room. Maybe Captain Melvill had seen a mermaid or the ladies who danced in grass skirts. But the adults just seemed to be talking about churches now: ones they’d known in England; the one Mr Johnson longed to build here; and a big one Captain Melvill had seen in some foreign port . . .
    I looked up to find Elsie staring at me, her expression hard to read. ‘What’s wrong?’
    Elsie nodded towards the dining room, then at me, then shook her head emphatically.
    Most times I could work out what Elsie meant, but not now.
    And then it was time to start the washing-up.

CHAPTER 2
    An Offer
    Captain Melvill hadn’t left by the time the washing-up was finished and the kitchen wiped down and the dining room swept to Sally’s satisfaction. I smelled pipe tobacco, out the back near the well.
    Snake!
    I scooted out the back door. ‘Sir!’ I yelled.
    â€˜What is it, boy?’
    I looked around. No snake. ‘There was a snake near where you’re sitting, just before dinner. Big brown one.’
    â€˜They’re poisonous?’
    I nodded.
    â€˜Did you chase it away?’
    â€˜No, sir. You don’t chase brown snakes. I just stood still so it couldn’t see me. Snakes can only see you properly if you move. Then Sally shouted and startled it. But it could come back.’
    â€˜I think I’ll risk it,’ said Captain Melvill, puffing on his pipe. It was a big black one, and put out great puffs of blue smoke. Some of the convict men and older women puffed on pipes, but not as many as back in England. Tobacco grew here all right, but the stores master said the leaves didn’t dry well enough to smoke it. ‘You got good eyesight, boy?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’ I had too. Lots of convicts here didn’t see well at all, nor Ma either, which was why she had got that cut from an oyster shell that she’d died from.
    â€˜Can you count the ships in the harbour from here?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’ I glanced back onto the bouncing blue below us. ‘Eleven.’
    â€˜And do you see any difference between the ships, boy?’
    I squinted