Litchfield enquirer., 1855-03-22

Here ! was ina fx. They would see me from the boat. as soon as she pulled round the stern, and 1 should have had hard work to tell what was doing, stark naked in the chains. couldn't get my clothes on quick ehoughfo be ready for rcompany-for could not stand up without considerable risk of being seen from the poop, in case some fel- low happened to be looking over the larboard side. concluded pretty soon what to do. first looked into the cabin. Tine captain wasn't in sight, so jammed my othes in- to the mnzzle of the gun, and then got in myself feet foremost. told you, you know, that guns of the kind they call carronades, are short, but have tremendous big bores. They are used in close fighting, and when nothing else comes handy, and they load them with cask of nails and such sort of things. showed myself in feet foremost, because knew thatif rammed my head in first with my body on top of it for wad, !, it would be rather close quarters for breath ing comfortably. I found ii rather snug berth as it was couldn't move an inch after got in, but knew that l was out of sight at any rate. l supposed that after the men had come aboard, the boat would be hauled out to the bcoms, and that then could get out of the gun. But, instead of that, they had the cut ter loaded with something, I didn't know what, that it took pretty near an hour, it seemed to me, to clear her of. They got sling on the main yard and could hear the order given to hook on in the boat, and the how'sn's mate in the gangway, piping to haul taut and "holst away" and avast hoisting," and "come up," over and over again. until it appeared to me they had got dozen launch-hoats over the side. By this l time my back began to ache with lying in the bore of that old gun; it didn't exactly fit my shoulders.
 l began now to hear talking in the cabin. The gun, you know, was all in the cabin, except the muzzle of it, that run out of the port. couldn't hear so well through the iron though, and it was sometime before l could make out wha, the talk was about. l could distinguish the captains voice, and could hear the words ''lock" and swafer" pretty often. At last he and the man he was talking with, came close up to the very gun was in, and then heard him call the gunner by name in talking to him, and re- cognizod him by his growl. heard him rubbing the gun off with his hand, and play ing with the lock, and two or three times he snapped it; that made me feel nervous, for didn't know what he might have put in it." ..--- He fnds out at last what they were talk | ing about. The gunner had been making some percussion waters that he thinks will l never miss fire. He said that they would set the charge off without any priming, and he wasn't sure that there would be any need of even picking the cartridge The captain tells the gunner to try some of these new waters on the very gun that the fugi- tive Is in!
 "l was just going to sing out," he con- tinues, "when the captain asked the gun ner if he was sure the guns wasn', loaded.
 "Yes, sir" says he,." the charges were all drawn when the ship came in. and these guns in the cabin havn't been loaded since"
 "That was not so bad after all. They were only going to try if the waters would snap-so lconcluded to keep quiet. didn't quite like the idea, though, for l wasn't guile so well contenied with the gunner's 1 trial in the gun as should have been out of ! it. l wasn't quite as easy in my mind as 1 had been an hour before, when l was swing ing in the captains cot. | lay still, though, and meant to '.see 1t out" l knew there wasn't any shot in the gun at all events, and l didn't think blank cartridge would hurt me much, seeing as had pushed my trow. sers and frock in before got in myself. If l had got in head foremost, should have been a good deal more worried about the matter but, thinks to myself, "P.l risk the feetw
 "So there I lay, aching all over, from having my shoulders and hips jammed in between the round sides of my berth, and listening to the talk between the captain and the gunner, that came in at the touch- hole, and then to the noise that came in through the muzzle. It's not strange that got everything mixed up in Q heap in my mind as to what was going on outside. At 1 last, however, heard the click of the spring as the gunner cooked the lock, and the mex, instant ="
 We'll, what then!''
 al was going through the air as if had been kicked by forty horse power! My clothes didn't follow me more than twenty i fathoms, but didn't touch the water, till 1 was a mile and a half from the ship!" Then he was saved as matter ot course, "else wherefore breathes he in Christian land" to tell his wondrous yarn.
 Like Hoods story of the eronant who was thrown out of his balloon by crazy man, ] when some two miles up in the air and him- self describing the circumstances, and the moon-hoax of Mir. Locke, this "yarn" de- rives its interest from the naturalness of its minu,ia, rather from the probability of it's catastrophe.
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 DoN'r WoaRy.-This is the first thing
 an editor should get by heart. If Mr. Slo- cum threatens to withdraw his patronage, because. you criticised Professor Drawl's lecture on the onion question, don't worrv-