CHAPTER III
JOHN CABOT AND THE CODFISH
That same night after the children had gone to bed Lucy was just falling asleep when Joe called out:
"I say, Lucy, I wonder why our country isn't always called Columbia instead of America."
"Do keep still, Joe. I was so nice and sleepy and now you have waked me up," answered his sister. "You can ask Uncle Sam the next time you see him."
Two or three evenings afterward the old man was on his knees weeding his pansy bed when he heard steps near by.
"Uncle Sam! Uncle Sam! where are you?" called a girl's voice.
"Here I am, my little pink of a Lucy," and he straightened himself up by the side of the apple tree around which the pansies were growing.
"That is a lovely place for them. They don't have too much sunshine. How large the blossoms are! May I have that big purple one? It looks at me like a loving face."
"Of course you may, Lucy. But where is Joe?"
"He has gone on an errand for mother. After that, he's coming here. But we can't stay very long this evening. Mother said we must go to bed early to-night so as to be fresh for the picnic to-morrow. You are going, aren't you, Uncle Sam?"
"Certainly I am. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"I'm so glad. Mother said I must be sure to tell you not to take any lunch. We shall carry enough for you. It is a lovely lunch. Roast chicken and nut cake and apple jelly. I can hardly wait for to-morrow. Now aren't you glad you are going?"
"It makes me hungry to think of it, so you and I will have to eat some cherries I picked this afternoon."
"Aren't they beauties! How juicy they are. Red cherries are prettier, but I think I like these blackhearts the best. Here comes Joe now."
"You are just in time," called Uncle Sam, as Joe came hurrying along.
"Cherries are ripe, cherries are ripe," sang Lucy, as her brother sat down on the steps, quite out of breath.
"Christopher!" exclaimed Joe as soon as he could speak. "I've had an awful long walk and I'm as tired as anything."
"You shouldn't say 'Christopher,' nor 'awful,' either, Joe. They are as bad as slang."
"You needn't preach, Lucy. I should like to know a better word than 'Christopher' in the whole language. Wasn't Columbus's name Christopher?"
"I know that. It is all the more reason for not making the word so common. He was too great a man. But, Uncle Sam, that makes me think of what Joe was saying the other night. He and I both think Columbia is a better name for our country than America."
"Let us see about that, children. I must tell you how it all happened.
"You remember, of course, that Columbus never knew what he had discovered. He thought he had visited the shores of Asia. Some years after his first great voyage another man from his own country of Italy sailed out into the west. His name was Americus Vespucius. A little hard to say, isn't it?
"He was a merchant who had made several long voyages already. He went farther south than Columbus and sailed along the shores of South America.
"'It is a vast country,' he said to himself, and he was the first one to call it the 'New World.' He wrote long letters telling of what he had seen. The man who printed these letters called the New World America in his honor. And it has been called America ever since. But I like Columbia best myself, children. The name is very dear to me."
While Joe and Lucy finished eating the cherries, Uncle Sam sat thinking.
"What shall I next tell them about our glorious land?" he said to himself. "Oh, now I know. I am sure they would like to hear about John Cabot and the codfish. It isn't a very long story and there is just time enough before they should go home."
The twins were quite willing to listen. They had already found that true stories were quite as interesting as make-believe ones.
As they sat on the steps in the twilight this is what they heard:
Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in Italy. It was about the time that Columbus lived there, too. The boy's name was John Cabot. He loved the sea as Columbus did. He liked to listen to stories of strange lands.
When he grew up he was not satisfied to stay at home. He began to travel and made longer and longer journeys. After a while he went to England and made his home in that country. He did not stay there, however, for he wished to learn all he could about the world.
On one of his journeys he traveled to Arabia. He met some men there who were leading camels loaded with spices. People used a great deal of spice in their food and drink, so it was very precious to them.
John Cabot began to talk with the men. He asked them where they got all those spices. They pointed still farther to the east and explained to him that it was a long, long way off.
He thought a good deal about what the men told him. He said to himself:
"If I should go west far enough I should surely come to the east. The wise men must be right when they tell us the earth is round."
After he went back to England he heard the great news from Spain. A man named Columbus had done just what Cabot thought possible. He had reached the east by sailing west.
"It is truly wonderful," said the people. It was the talk of the whole country. John Cabot was as much excited as everyone else. He asked the king of England to send him on a voyage to the newly-found country. The king thought:
"The Spaniards should not be the only ones to bring back the riches of India. We must have a share of their good fortune."
He was quite willing, therefore, to send John Cabot, who was a wise man and a good sailor. Cabot's son went with him on the voyage.
They came to the mainland of North America, but they were much farther north than Columbus had ever been. It was quite cold and the place looked bare and lonesome.
They saw no Indians, but there were some fishnets lying about near the shore. These nets being there showed that probably people were not far away.
"What great numbers of fish there are in these waters," exclaimed Cabot. "I never in my life before saw so many. 'The Land of the Codfish' is a good name for this country."
He did not stay long, for food was becoming scarce. So the ship soon started on the homeward voyage. When they reached England the sailors told wonderful stories about the "Land of the Codfish." They said:
"The waters were so thick with fish that the ship sometimes could not move as fast as it otherwise would. One thing amused us very much. It was the strange sight of bears fishing! The great creatures swam out into the water and caught the fish in their paws. Sometimes the fish were so large that they fought hard to get away, but the bears nearly always won the battle."
John Cabot told the king he had discovered the country of China. He was treated with the highest honor and called "The Great Admiral." He was dressed in rich silks. The king promised he should have a sum of money given him every year for the rest of his life.
After a while the king began to say to himself:
"It is all very well to make a voyage to the west and find the east, but that is not enough. I should like some of the gold and gems and delicious spices found there."
So it came about that John Cabot and his son started out on a second voyage. When they reached North America this time they sailed along its shores for a long distance. They saw Indians dressed in skins and wearing ornaments of copper. But they found no gold nor spices.
Cabot still thought he had visited Asia. The king of England did not care about him any longer, however. He was of no use if he could not bring to England the treasures of India. This is probably the reason we know nothing more about John Cabot.
We do not even know how long he lived nor when he died. His son Sebastian lived to be a bright and lively old man and was always glad to hear of the voyages of others to far-away places.
When Uncle Sam had finished the story of John Cabot he told the children why he wished them to remember it.
"Columbus made his voyages with the help of Spain," said he. "That country claimed the right to hold the lands he discovered. That is why the people who settled in the West Indies and in almost all of South America came from Spain and spoke the Spanish language.
"But John Cabot sailed for the English king and that is why the English said:
"'We claim the eastern part of North America.'
"Years after the time of John Cabot they sent people to settle here. They spoke our language and planted English ways and English thoughts with their corn and potatoes."
Uncle Sam laughed as he added, "Maybe you and I would have been Spaniards if it had not been for John Cabot. I wonder how you would have liked that, Joe. I know you are not too fond of your Spanish cousins."
"Cousins! Ugh! I don't like to think of their being relations of mine."
"My dear boy, this world isn't so very large after all, and one great Father loves us and cares for all. Of course, we think America could teach Spain one or two things, but I don't doubt she could help us in some ways, too. No one is perfect, Joe, or else we shouldn't need to live in this world. Come, children, give me a kiss and run off to your little beds."
"Good-night, sleep tight, and don't let the mosquitos bite," Lucy called to her old friend as she followed Joe down the path.