Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1862-02-11
THE ICE VOYAGE.

suaii nave me and good things to eat, q
nice warm dress and stnut shoes now!"
shouted chubby blue eyed boy, Of, it may
be, twelve Years, clad in the hum BILE garb
OF poverty. finging wide open the door aud
bounding into small comfortless apart
ment on the third fror Of dingy looking
old wooden building near the canal ground
IN the village Of Cleveland o. Come,
hurrah, mother. put away the slave work
ana go and get nice good dinner right
Oh, continued the little fellow. approach
ing pale, delicate woman, scautly clad in
thin dress her face pinched with hunger
and her hands even blue with cold.
why. what do you mean my child ?"
said the woman, looking wonderingly up
from her work. do y )u know have no.
money 10 buy anything to eat; and / must
hnish this vest before | can get even a
STICK OF wood .or our fire, which is almost
out"
Nonsense, mother; let the old vest 90
70 some poor woman who has 90 stout bot-1
Ike me to earn money for her. You shap't
work this way any longer, mother. Look
here !" And the little fellow flung down
on the table his two hands full of half dol.
lars. while roguish smile lit up hi. hand
some face as he beheld his mothers look of
wonder.
"Why, Frank Frank, nv son. where
have-did you
"All right MOTHER" interrupted the
boy. And down went another handful of
bright silver coin. I'm tell you all about
It mother. You see when Invent to get my
pay OF Mr., Dennison to day, for two months
cooking TN board the Aurora-well, be
paid me twenty dollars in all these pieces,
and then asked me if l would 90 for a
month IN his new schooner for fifteen dol
lars. told him ! woodland when he
heard me tell how hard you have to work,
and how poor and always sick you are, be
gave me ten dollars more, and said you
must get another room and stop working SO
hard; besides he says if I'll stay in the
schooner all winter and take care of her, |
shall have twelve dollars month to be
pald weekly to you. So hurrah mother,
we'll have big fire and nice dinner after
all 1t he Isl rich old bachelor, as that crab
apple old maid, Aunt Hetty johnson calls
him"
"Heaver bless you, my noble boy ?"
sobhed out the widow, as she cldsped her
arms around the child's neck, bowed her
head upon his shoulder and wept like
very child herself. for joy-.joy not SO much
Tor the timely aid her son had brought her,
although Der heart was full of thankfulness
for that, as for the noble qualities displays
ed by the brave little fellow in remembers
ing her and bringing home every shilling
OF his hard earned wages, instead of spend
ing 1t ioolIshly, as too many bays of his age
would have done.
A mcnth passed away, and again the
handsome sailor boy, Frank Merrill, stood
beside his mother in a more respectable
part OF the town, while the widow, as she
gazed proudly on her boy, looked ten years
younger and much happier than she had
done only four short weeks previously
a cheerful blaze was in the CRATE. every
thug about the room was neat and eloquent
of comfort, and the widow Merrill was real
iy beautiful in her blown merino dress
and CATERS, with her dark brown hair
parted On her classic brow and falling in
wavy tresses upon her shoulders.
Frank thought his mot ervery beautiful,
and 50 did another person present That
person was Mr.. Joseph Dennison, the bows
employer, a bluff, good natured, moneys
making man of forty-fve, who, at the boy IS
request, accompanied him home.
Mrs Merrill, said Deunison, "your boy
| has been in my employ three months and
| | am 50 we'll pleased with his prudence
and general good qualities that with your
| permission, | should be pleased to keen him
all winter on board one Of my vessels that
sails to morrow for Buffalo. 1t is SO late in
the season that he may not be able to re-
turn THIS winter in which case you can
have Franks wages pain monthly OF week
ly, In advance for such is his wish aud
should you need anything further, your
order on me will be honored always"
The widow could only murmur her
thanks and invoke Gods blessing on the
kind hearted stranger whom she had never
seen before, and bidding he good night, left
her alone with her darling boy. On the
following day the schooner Western Ira
der left Cleveland with a full cargo of oats
and corn bound for Buffalo That very
night there came on a cold northeast
storm, which finally closed the navigation
OF Lake Erie for the winter.
a whole month passed without any news
from the schooner and then v hen every
body had given her up for lost, captain
and crew came back to Cleveland with the
report that she was frozen fast in the ice
some thirty miles to the eastward. and full
half that distance from the land They had
left her and escaped to the shore on the
ice, but all they could say to induce the boy
Frank Merrill to abandon her was of nc
avail
mo, will never leave her" 81 prom
ised MIR. Dennison to stand by and take
care of her through the winter. and will i
l live"
"God bless the noble bcy!" exclaimed
MIR. DennisOn, as the captain told of the
little fellows fidelity, and the exclamation
was echoed back by dozen men of Cleve.
land, who happened to be in the Office Al
the time
Within two hours more efficient com.
mander, with eight fearless fellows who
agreed to stand by the schooner till they
got her into port somewhere, set out from
Cleveland to beard her; but when they ar
rived abreast OF where she bad been fro.
zen in, the ice was broken up to within
about FIVE miles of the land, and the
schooner was gone.
Three weeks passed. and all RENAME ed
uncertain with regard to the fate of the
Western Trader or her brave boy cUmman'
der, when he was again heard from On the
Canada side, some fifty miles to tie west
ward of her former position But before
relief could be sent to her there came a vio
lent gale from the westward which broke
up the ice, and she was borne away down
the lake embedded in field of more than 6
hundred acres.
Next she was seen off Ere. a hundred
miles to the westward of Buffalo, and they
could not even zee the boy on deck, but il
was almost night-it was impossible tt
board her, aud at daylight on the following
morning she had disappeared.
As there was small stock of provision,
on board when she left Cleveland people
wondered how the boy bad subsisted all tina
time and predicted his death by starvation
provided the schooner should live out the
fierce winter gales. Several times after
her appearance off Erie. the Western Ira
der was seen in parts of the lake, but
always too far off to make out anything
about her distinctly. only that there was q
smoke coming out of the funnel of the cabin