Newspaper Page Text
346
Written for Burke's Weekly.
Acrostic.
BY If. H. COKER.
Sweetest season of the year,
Pleasing songs from birds we hear,
Richest flowers do now appear,
lee and frost must disappear,
Not a cloud, but all is clear,
Gently warm, but not severe.
Trton Factory, Ga.
— — »•+
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
MAEOONER’S ISLAND ;
on,
Dr. Gordon in Search of His Children.
BY REV. F. R- GOULDING,
Author of “ The Young Marooners.”
CHAPTER XXY.
WATER-PROOF MATCH BOX SEA-SICKNESS,
AND HOW IT WAS MITIGATED —SUNDAY
SERVICE —SAILORS AS A CLASS —PARTING
COMPANY.
T is but fair, however, to
say that the captain ob
tained, as well as commu
nicated some new ideas du
**** ring the voyage. He was
ZgMf] pleased with Hr. Gordon’s simple
fjag device for keeping his matches dry,
rap by means of a strong vial tightly
corked, which he carried in his
pocket.
“Ho you know,” said he, “I have wish
ed a thousand times that somebody would
invent a sailor's match' box, so as to be
proof against wet. And here it is in my
own closet, though I never knew it till
this minute.”
Among the other novelties of the occa
sion must not be forgotten the experiences
of Somassee and Wildcat. Yersed as they
were in all that pertained to wood craft,
they had never before been at sea, at least
not in a sailing vessel, and were, there
fore, peculiarly liable to what befalls most
landsmen on their introduction to this
new life.
The vessel was rolling in what is called
a chopped sea, which sometimes affects
even those esteemed old sailors. It is a
condition of the sea produced by a sudden
change of wind raising anew set of waves
across the course of the preceding, and
chopping them into what a Georgia back
woodsman would call potato hills. The
two redskins had enjoyed themselves vast
ly at first in an inspection of the rigging,
and the sails, and the action of the wind
upon the canvass, but after an hour’s toss
ing upon the rough water they began to
look somewhat serious, then a little pale,
and finally distressed. Indian-like, they
struggled hard against the coming evil,
first to ignore, then to endure, but it was
all in vain ; for, though an Indian may
be trained to such stoicism as to scorn
BURK E’ S WEEKLY.
pain and laugh even at death —and So
massee and Wildcat were well-trained,
sea-sickness is quite another thing; it,
will neither be scorned nor laughed at.
The two sufferers, after preserving their
dignity as long as possible, were at last
compelled to yield to their fate. Each
looked inquiringly at the other; but see
ing on the other’s face only a reflection of
his own discomfort, they hastily separa
ted, ran to opposite sides of the vessel,
leaned for sometime over the gunwales,
and then came away, looking very for
lorn. They said nothing, but the kind
hearted captain, reading their cases in
their countenances, offered them the usual
round of sailor remedies —brandy, red
pepper, and salt-water. These having
failed, Wheeler prevailed upon Somassee
to lie with his back upon the deck and
his feet raised high upon the mast, in
which position he found relief.
Hr. Gordon tried, in Wildcat’s case, but
with less success, the experiment of look
ing steadily at a tumbler full of water,
which he held in his hand. After a few
hours the unpleasant motion of the ship
subsided into a gently-prolonged swing,
which proved more quickly and power
fully restorative than all the captain’s
remedies, or the other’s devices.
The first day’s sail had brought them
nearly to the Cape. The second day was
one of calms and of baffling winds. The
progress was so slow that Dr. Gordon
would have bid adieu to his pleasant host
and taken to his boat, but for two con
siderations : one was, that the captain
declared the weather to be very uncer
tain, and, in that latitude, very unsafe;
the other was, that the day was the Sab
bath, which Hr. Gordon preferred to
spend, if possible, in worship. lie, there
fore, informed the captain that, though
not by profession a clergymen, he was ac
customed to conducting service, either
with a book or without, and that, if it
was agreeable to him and his crew, he
would take pleasure in rendering such aid
as he could in the services aboard.
Assent to this was most cordially given,
the captain saying, that although he was
not, at that time, in membership with any
Christian church, he once had been, and
had not forgotten how pleasant it used to
be to try to serve God; and that it was
his invariable custom, when in the city of
Charleston, to attend the services in the
Mariner’s Church, conducted by the ear
nest and sailor-souled chaplain there. He
also showed Hr. Gordon a copy of the
Sailor s J rayer-Book, which he himself
used sometimes, in case of a funeral at
sea, or other emergency requiring a form
of worship.
At half-past ten o’clock, the crewoftho
schooner, all neatly clad, together with
the few passengers, assembled on the open
deck, when Hr. Gordon, ably seconded by
the captain, led their devotions, and made
a short, “ free and easy ” address. The
sailors seemed greatly to enjoy the ser
vices, as sailors generally do, when feel
ingly conducted. Rough and wicked, as
they ordinarily appear to be, there is
more of child-like simplicity among them
as a class, than is to be found perhaps in
any other class of our people, and, in pro
portion, as many strong hearts, big as a
man’s, yet tender as a child’s, and as
readily responsive to earnest religious ap
peals. They appear to be a cast-off class,
only because they have been cast off by the
greater part of their fellow men. After
service, one of them, a roughly-clad fel
low, with tarred hands and weather-beat
en visage, came to Hr. Gordon, made him
self known as the runaway son of an Eng
lish clergyman, gave the Doctor’s extend
ed hand a hearty grip), and, with tears in
his eyes, remarked :
“ We cannot say to-day, as we too often
can, that there is no Sabbath in four fath
oms water."
Late in the afternoon, the schooner
came abreast of Punta Fancha, known
now as Capie Sable, where she was brought
to anchor, a musket-shot from shore, in
nine feet water, this being the nearest ap
proach to land she could make. The
captain seemed really sorry to part com
pany, and, when the time of settlement
came, refused to receive a cent, saying,
“ I have been more than paid in the
pirofit of your conrpany.”
“ Hut we have piartaken of your stores,
and—”
“Nobody but yourself, for the men ate
of their own, and I am only sorry that
you cannot stay longer.”
“But, sir, you received my boats as
freight, and agreed to —”
The captain interrupted him again,
saying, “No matter what I agreed to be
fore I knew you or your errand. Youi
boats have not hurt my ship) by coming-
And now pffcase say not another word
about pay, for remember,” and he laugh
ed at his odd, make-shift of a reason, “to
day is Sunday, and wo must have no
money dealings to-day.”
Hr. Gordon laughed too and yielded the
p)oint. They shook hands and parted,
with the hopie that they might some da)
meet again.
It is one of the glories ol the Bible
that it expresses the grandest pn’incipk*
of the highest philosophy in the language
of children.