Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-02-27
THE ORPHAN BOY.

schooner had once more relapsed into
midnight quiet repose. sought my
hammock and soon fell asleep. But my
slumbers were disturbed by wild dreams,
which, like the visions of fever, agita-
ted and unnerved me the last strife, the
hardships of my early life, and thou
sand other things mingled together as
figures in a Phantasmagoria. Suddenly
hand was laid on my shoulder, and
starting up beheld the surgeons mate.
Little Dick, sir, is dying, he said
At once l sprung from my hammock
Little Dick was a sort of protege of mine.
/ He was a rale, delicate child, said TO be
an orphan, and used to gentle nurture,
and from the first hour 1 joined the
schooner, my heart yearned toward him,
for l too had once been friendless and
alone in tie world. He had often talk
ed to me in confidence, of his mother,
whose memory he regarded with holy
reverence, while TO the other boys of the
ship he had little to say for they were
rude and coarse, he delicate and sensi-
tive. Often when they jeered him for
his melancholy, he would go apart by
himself and weep. He never complain
ed Of his lot, though his companions i'm
posed upon him continually. Poor lad
his heart was in the grave with his lost
parents.
I took a strange interest in him, and
e had lightened his task as much as posi-
t. bic. During the late fight 1 had owed
e my life to him, for he rushed in just as {
|. sabre was levelled at me; and BY inter
! posing his feeble cutlass had aqerted tht
5 deadly blow. In the hurry and eonfu
n sion since, 1 had forgotten TO inquire if hi
K was hurt, though at the time, l inwardl.
e resolved to exert all my influence to pro
d cure him a midshipman's warrant in re
g quital for his service. 1t was with
is pang of reproachful agony, therefore
le that 1 leaped to my feet
III My GodP I exclaimed, you don
OIL mean it :? He is not dying
p / fear sir, said the messenger, shak
4 ing his head sadly, that he cannot liv
IN till morning
And have been lying idle here ?
< exclaimed with remorse, Lead me t
lie him ?
le He is delirious, but in the interval
he Of lunacy he asks for you, sir and a
n the man spoke we stood beside the bee
IN side of the dying boy.
d The sufferer did not lie in his usu;
III hammock, for it was hung in the yer
midst of the crew, and the close a
Or around it was too sitting but he ha
xt been carried under the open hatchwa
re and laid there III little open space
&c about four feet square. From the soun
no of the ripples, I judged the schoon'
" was in motion, while the clear, calm, bll
,le sky. seen through the opening overhea
and dotted with myriads of stars, beto
-. ened that the fog had broken away
How calm it smiled down on the WI
% face of the boy. Occasionally lig
in current--oh how deliciously cool
os that pent up hole-eddied down Il
hatchway, and lifted the dark chestn
i locks Of the sufferer, as with his he;
10 reposing in the lap Of an old veteran,
lay in an unquiet slumbe-. His sh
Il, collar was unbuttoned, and his child
-, bosom as white as that Of girl, "
on open and exposed. He breathed qui
bo and heavily. The wound Of which
,ps was dying had been intensely paint
A. but within the last half hour had son
III, what lulled, though even now his th
Of fingers tightly grasped the bedclothes,
ard if he suffered the greatest agony.
ad- A battle-stained and grey-haired 81
r of man stood beside him, holding a d
He lantern 10 his hand, and gazing sorro
and fully down upon the sufferer. The 8
of geon knelt with his finger on the DO
the pulse. As ] approached they all lool
up. The veteran who held him she
his head, and would have spoken,
l,r. the tears gathered too chokingIy in
and eyes. The surgeon said
10Th He Is going fast--poor little fellov
do you see this I? As he spoke be III
up rich gold loeket, which had
get upon the boys breast. He has 8
ting better days
could not answer, for my heart
full here was the being to whom, b,
the few hours before, had owed my life
,ear. poor, slight, unprotected ehild--lying
fore me, with death already written
his brow--and yet bad never kns
nent his danger, and had never sought