Eastern times., 1855-09-20

boat push off from the wharves which are to
bring him the tidings of veal or woe Pale
and trembling he PAGES the deck with emotions
which he in vain endeavors to conceal. A
friend in boat greets him with smile, and
says, captain, your family are all well,' or
perhaps he says, Captain, have heavy news
for you, your wife died two years and a half
ago.
A young man left this island last summer,
leaving in his quiet home young and beauti-
ful wife and young child. The wife and child
are both now in the grave. But the husband
knows not, and probably will not know of it
for some months to come. He perhaps falls
asleep every night thinking of the loved ones
at home left at his freside; little thinking
they are both cold in death.
On bright summers afternoon the tele-
graph announces that Cape Horn ship ap-
peared in the horizon and Immediately the
stars and stripes of our national banner are un-
furled from our flagstaff, sending wave of
emotion through the town. Many families
are hoping it is the ship in which their friends
are to return, and all are hoping for tidings
from the absent Soon the name Of the ship
is announced, and then there is an eager CON
tention with the boys TO be the bearer of the
joyful tidings to the wife of the captain, for
which service silver dollar is the established
and invariable fee.
/
Who can describe the feelings which must
agitate the bosom of wife! Perhaps she
has had no tdings of the ship for more than a
year. Trembling with excitement. she dress
es herself to meet her husband. is he alivel
she says to herself, 'or am | widow, and my
poor children fatherlessl' She walks about
the room, unable TO compose herself sufficient
ly to sit down; eagerly is she looking out of
the window and down the street. She sees
man with hurried step turn the corner.
with little boy holding by his hand. Yes,
it is he. And her little son has gone down to
the boat and found his father. Or perhaps,
instead of this she sees two of her neighbors
returning slowly and sadly, and directing their
steps to her door. 1t is the knell of her hus-
bands death, and she falls senseless to the
floor as they tell her that her husband has long
since been entombed in the fathomless ocean.
This is not fiction. These are not extreme
cases which the Imagination creates. They
are facts of continual occurrence facts that
awaken emotions to which no pen do justice.
A few weeks ago ship returned TO this
island, bringing the news Of another ship that
was nearly filled with oil, that all were well,
and that she might be expected in neighbor-
ing port in such month. The wife of the
captain resided in Nantucket, and early in the
month, with heart throbbng with affection
and hope, she went to greet her husband on
his return. At length the ship appeared,
dropped her anchor in the harbor, and the
friends ofthe lady went to the ship TO escort
the husbsnd to the wife from whom he had
been so long separated. Soon they sadly re-
turned with the tidings that her husband had
been seized with the coast fever, upon the is
land of Madagascar, and when about week
out, on his return home, he died, and was
committed to his ocean burial. A few days
after,-I called upon the weeping widow and
little daughter, in their home of bereavement
and anguish.-Naatucket paper.