A Serpent's Tale

By Marion

The Carwrights aren't mine (except Annie and Eddie, of course) and I'd like to thank Mr. Dortort for allowing us to use them. This story is purely for entertainment and is not intended to infringe on his rights or the rights of anyone else involved in this marvelous show.

Ben Cartwright sat reading in front of the fireplace, his long legs stretched in front of him. It had been a long winter and the family had spent much of it snowed in. This particular snowstorm had lasted three days, and had stranded Hop Sing in Eagle Station, visiting one of his many cousins. The tension in the house was palpable, as each member of the family tried to maintain at least an air of civility. But the house was small, and there was no way to be alone. He had already stopped a couple of squabbles between Annie and Joe. Everyone seemed to take the hint, though, and now the whole family was sitting by the fire trying to stay warm. Adam was telling a story, but Ben wasn't paying much attention, preferring instead to read the new Herman Melville book that Adam had received for Christmas. He was startled from his reading by the sounds of a girlish giggle rising above the boys' laughing. Annie was sitting on the sofa, her mending on her lap, and she was looking at her cousin, Joe. Joe, for his part, was looking decidedly put upon, as he leaned back on the sofa, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed.

"Joe, I can't believe you fell for that trick of a boy in a sea serpent costume." Annie was consumed by her giggles.

Ben saw the glint in Joe's eyes. Ben marked his place in the book and set it carefully down on the table. Time to stop this explosion before it started. "Now, in fairness to Joseph, he wasn't the only one who saw the monster."

Joe nodded vigorously. "Yeah, Hoss saw it, too. And lotsa other folks thought they saw it."

Annie rolled her eyes. "Sea serpents. Who could believe such a silly story?"

Ben smiled slightly. Annie would be very surprised indeed if she knew the answer to that question. But Hoss jumped in before Ben could speak.

"Well, I heard Big Dan sayin' that the Washoe claim there's been a big snake or monster or somethin' in that lake for, well, forever."

Annie shook her head. "It's just the waves and the way the light reflects on the water. Papa used to say that the waves make people think they're seeing things – like mermaids."

Ben opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted again, this time by Adam. "A lot of cultures have legends about mysterious creatures inhabiting lakes or oceans. Ancient map-makers would write, "here there be dragons" on the edges of the map because they didn't know what lay beyond the world that they knew." Adam paused to sip his coffee. "In Scotland, there's a big lake and there's supposed to be a monster or sea serpent there." Ben was startled by the sudden far away look in Adam's eyes. His eldest son smiled slightly and turned to his father.

"Pa, do you remember Mama telling the story of Storsjöodjuret?"

Joe sat up suddenly. "I don't remember Ma ever telling a story about Stor..Stor, whatever you said."

Ben almost sighed. "Not your mother, Joseph. Hoss's mother." He turned to Adam. "I remember, son." And he did. He could picture his beautiful blond wife, great with child, leaning against a tree, a small dark-haired boy lying with his head on her legs. It could have been yesterday, except that small boy was now a man, and the babe in her womb was now bigger than his father.

"Tell us what Mama said, Adam, please?" Ben looked up at Hoss's wistful tone. No matter how much Ben told his son, no matter how many stories Adam repeated, Hoss still wanted to know more about his mother.

Adam grinned. "Sure, Hoss. Let's see if I remember it right. It was a story about a lake in Sweden." Adam tilted his head and closed his eyes as though trying to picture Inger telling the story. "The monster lived in a lake called Storsjon, near where Mama grew up. Mama said that the monster appeared long ago. According to the legend, two trolls were cooking something on the shore of the lake, and it boiled for years and years."

Joe sat on the edge of the sofa. "Is that true, Adam? Could trolls do that?"

Ben smiled at Adam's embarrassed look. He remembered how the boy had interrupted Inger with that same question so many times that she threatened to stop telling the story. "Joseph, why don't you let Adam finish the story."

Adam winked at his father. "Thanks, Pa. Joe, I asked Mama the same question and she told me that she was just telling the story the way she had heard it when she was a little girl." Joe nodded eagerly. "Anyway, after the pot had boiled for a couple of years, there was a loud explosion and a black snake with a cat's head jumped from the kettle and into the lake. It stayed there and grew so large that it could wrap around an island in the lake and bite its own tail. Even when Mama was a little girl, people would claim that they saw the monster. I remember her saying that Uncle Gunnar and his friends snuck off to see the monster but that they were unsuccessful."

Ben remembered that part of the story, too. The whole reason that Inger had told the story was to impress upon Adam the importance of not sneaking away from the wagon train. When Inger had told Adam about Gunnar sneaking off, she had also told him that her father had caught Gunnar and had punished him the way that disobedient boys should be punished. Unfortunately the lesson had been lost on Adam, who had sneaked away from the wagon train a couple of days later and Ben had been obliged to impress his own lesson upon Adam.

Annie grinned. "I bet you believed her, too, Adam. Children believe anything. My father said that so many of the sailors would think they saw sea serpents or monsters, but it would turn out to be a whale or the waves or even a clump of seaweed."

Ben leaned back and looked at Annie. He bit back his grin. It seemed like Ed had told her a lot about monsters, but maybe he had forgotten the most important part.

He sipped his tea. "When I was a boy…" He was gratified to see four pairs of eyes fix on him. He enjoyed telling stories, and he was pleased that his children still liked to hear them.

"When I was a boy, I think about eleven or twelve years old, I remember hearing about a sea serpent in Gloucester. That was a town north of Boston. I think we were still living in Plymouth at the time, and Gloucester would have been several hours north by carriage. The serpent seemed to make an appearance every day in the Gloucester harbor. The serpent was sixty feet long if it was a foot!"

Ben looked to Joe, whose mouth was agape, and then to Annie, who had forgotten both her mending and her doubts. He nodded slightly.

"One brave Gloucester man, Matthew Gaffney, tried to shoot it but he wasn't successful. Then, several respectable citizens, including members of the clergy, saw it. Finally, the New England Linnean Society called a meeting and as a group decided to find out if the stories were true. They wrote to the local magistrate – I've forgotten his name – and he answered many of their questions, and he even sent them signed statements from people who had seen the monster."

Now Hoss was engrossed in the story; he sat with one hand on the checker he was about to move and his chin was resting on the other hand. Adam leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, a slight smirk gracing his lips.

"I heard about two boys – maybe a little younger than you, Joseph. They decided to sneak out one Sunday afternoon to find the monster for themselves. When I was a boy in Massachusetts, the Sabbath was set aside as a day of church and a day of rest. Going out on a boat just wasn't done. In fact, I believe it was illegal. What made it worse was these two boys were visiting their mother's cousin, and he was a stern Congregational minister."

Joe almost leaped from his seat. "Who were they, Pa? Were they friends o' yours?"

"They were just some boys I knew, Joseph." Ben sent Adam a warning glance to remain silent. "The two boys sneaked from the house on Sunday afternoon, while the minister was visiting some of his congregation. The minister's house wasn't far from the ocean, and they were able to run to the water without anyone seeing them."

"Where was their ma, Pa? How come she wasn't watchin' 'em?" Ben tried to look stern at Joe's interruptions.

"Joseph, do you want me to tell this story or not?"

Joe sat back down. "Sorry, Pa."

Ben nodded. "Thank you, son. As I was saying, the two boys sneaked to the water and found a rowboat. Now, the older boy was trying to convince the younger boy that this wasn't a good idea, that they were sure to be caught. Besides, the older boy was convinced there was no such thing as a sea serpent." Ben almost laughed aloud at the memory. "But the younger boy was absolutely convinced and he told the older boy that he would go without his brother if he had to, but by golly, he was going to find that serpent."

Joe nodded, as though in agreement with the younger boy, and Ben had no trouble picturing his youngest son in the same situation.

"So the older brother agreed, even though he knew they would be in terrible trouble if they were caught." Ben spared a glance to Hoss, so often the one in trouble because he followed Joe's schemes, but the point seemed to slip past his middle son. "Not only would they be in trouble with their mother's cousin, but their father was coming to retrieve them that very week, and the oldest boy knew they would have to answer to him as well. That's if they didn't wind up in jail for breaking the Sabbath.

"The youngest boy hopped into the boat while the older one untied the rope and pushed it away from the dock. He leaped into the boat, almost flipping it when he landed. Each boy grabbed an oar and they rowed away from the dock."

"Hey, Pa?" Hoss dropped his checker and gestured toward his father. "Hey, Pa, how come you know so much about these two fellas?"

Ben shrugged. "Maybe I should just go back to my book."

Annie and Joe nearly jumped from their seats. "Hoss, hush! Uncle Ben, please finish the story. What happened?"

Hoss slumped back in his seat, scowling at Annie. He quickly changed his expression when his father raised an eyebrow in his direction.

"Now, the two boys rowed as hard as they could, and soon they were a goodly distance from land. Certainly they were further from land than they had ever gone on their own. The older boy was more and more convinced that no good would come of this trip.

"As the younger boy rowed, he talked about the sea serpent. 'I heard tell that there were two of them. Did ya know that? And maybe they're gonna spawn! '"

Ben paused a minute as Adam leaned over to whisper to Joe. "That mean's they were going to lay eggs." Joe nodded in understanding.

"That piqued the older boy's interest. 'Glory! There'll be hundreds of them. Do you think they'll all grow as big as these ones?' The younger one nodded and said solemnly 'I heard that someone found a small one, in Rockport. Someone killed it in Loblolly Cove.'

"The two boys were so busy talking that they didn't notice that something was churning the water near them. The day was a fine summer day, and the water had been relatively calm. But something was moving in the water toward their boat."

Ben looked around at his four children. Annie and Joe were staring at him, mouths agape. Hoss was leaning forward, and even Adam had lost his smirk.

"Finally the oldest boy noticed the movement in the water and he pointed. He tried to speak, but the words just wouldn't come out of his mouth. Finally he was able to stammer out 'look' and the younger boy turned in the direction of the boy's outstretched arm.

"The two boys were terrified, there's just no other way to say it. The disturbance in the water was at least eight or nine times bigger than their boat, and it was heading straight for them. It was coming from the direction of the shore, and the sun bounced off a shape in the water. The sunlight was bright, because they were looking into the sun, which was beginning its descent.

"Whatever it was, it was coming toward them quickly. The boys couldn't remember ever seeing anything move so fast in all their days. The youngest boy squealed as he pointed. 'Look! The head! It's looking at us!'

"Sure enough, the serpent's head was raised several feet above the water, but before the older boy could get a good look at it, the creature submerged once more. But still the creature seemed to be moving toward them."

Ben had to fight the urge to tell Joe to breathe. The boy had moved so his backside was just barely resting on the sofa; he was leaning toward his father, eyes and mouth wide.

"As they watched the movement, the boys could see it moving up and down, like a seal or a dolphin, not side to side like a fish would. But it didn't look like any seal or dolphin they had ever seen, and it certainly didn't look like a whale, which was the only creature in the ocean that could be so large. Later, when the two boys discussed it, the older boy insisted that the creature had been smooth, like glass, but the younger boy was equally insistent that it had scales, like a fish. When the head was out of the water, it looked like the underbelly was something of a yellow color, but the back of the serpent was black or brown.

"They noticed all of this in just a split second. The animal was quickly approaching the small rowboat, and both boys were convinced it would swamp the boat and devour the two of them. Just as the youngest boy started to shout, the creature veered to the right and headed toward Ten Pound Island. The last they saw of it was the sunlight glinting off its back."

Ben paused a minute before finishing his tale. "The two boys stared at the movement for several minutes before the older boy shook himself. 'We gotta get back to shore before that thing comes back!'

"The younger boy nodded. 'Golly, do you think anyone will believe us?' The older boy shook his head. 'We can't tell anyone about it. We're breakin' the Sabbath. Cousin Nathaniel will have our hide, and preach a long lecture, and then he'll tell Father.' The younger boy's eyes went wide and he nodded in agreement. They both knew what their father would do."

Ben stopped and no one spoke for a while. Finally Annie broke the silence.

"What happened then, Uncle Ben?"

"The two boys rowed back to shore, tied up the boat and ran home. They made it to their rooms just before the minister arrived. And they never told an adult that story."

"But, Pa, what about the sea serpent?"

"Well, Joe, the small one that had been found and killed turned out to be a deformed black snake. The next year a Captain Richard Rich went in search of the creature only to come back with a thunney. Some of the people were convinced that what they had seen was just a school of the fish. Others were still convinced that a sea serpent was swimming off the coast of Massachusetts. We read reports in the newspapers for the next few years about different sightings."

"Do you think it was a serpent, Pa?"

"Joseph, I think it's time for you and Annie to go to bed. No more questions."

Joe started to protest, but Ben just raised an eyebrow and the boy stood. Annie got up and picked up the bundle of bricks wrapped in flannel that she had warming in front of the fireplace. She leaned over to kiss her uncle, and she wished her cousins pleasant dreams. Ben watched her go to her room and he turned just as Joe closed the bunkroom door. Hoss and Adam looked at him expectantly.

"Why don't you two boys play one more game and then I'll play the winner?" Ben stood, put his teacup in the washbasin, and walked to Annie's door. He knocked softly on Annie's door and then opened it. She was already in bed.

"Say your prayers?"

"Yes, Uncle Ben." She smiled as he leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Uncle Ben? May I ask you something?"

One look at Annie's serious expression and Ben pulled the chair next to the bed. This was going to be a sitting discussion, he could tell.

"What's on your mind, Annie?"

She struggled to sit up in bed, and arranged her blankets neatly at her waist.

"Were you one of those boys in the story, Uncle Ben?"

Ben grinned as he nodded. "I was."

Annie wrinkled her nose. "Was Uncle John the other boy, or…or was Papa?"

Ben rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Uncle John wouldn't believe in anything unless he had absolute proof. I'm afraid your father was the younger boy, the one who was convinced there was a serpent."

She frowned. "But he was so adamant that these things were tricks of the eye. I mean, it just doesn't make sense to me."

"He learned." Ben didn't add that Ed had learned the hard way. Abel Stoddard did not tolerate his cabin boys prattling on about sea monsters and serpents. 'Stuff and nonsense' Abel had called the stories.

"Annie, when you're a child, you like to believe in monsters and serpents. It's a way to explain things you don't understand. But as you grow older, you know there's a good explanation for things that seem so mysterious. When your father and I were sailors, we saw many things that seemed incredible, but after a while, we learned that the sea can play tricks on a man's mind, that after days of staring at the water, it's easy to imagine you've seen a mermaid, or a sea serpent. What we saw that day was probably a school of fish, or maybe several seals."

Annie sighed. "I still can't believe my father thought he saw a sea serpent and never told me."

Ben took Annie's hand. "Well, Annie, it took your father a long time to admit that we didn't see a sea serpent that day, and I sometimes wonder if a part of him still wanted to believe in that serpent." Ben stood. "Good night, Annie."

Annie pulled the blanket up. "Good night, Uncle Ben."