The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-11-19
JACKSON G. H.. OHIO THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1863

our officer, you see, and we felt asham-
ed me at the head, and the lads fol-
lowing alter.
l got 10 the futtoCk shrouds, and
there | stopped, for saw him myself
"a palish boy with jerk of thin hair
on his forehead I'd have known him
anywhere in this world or t. other.
saw him just as distinct as / see you
Tom Brown, sitting on that yard quite
steady with the royal tapping like to
flap him off.
reckon I've had as much expert
ence fore and aft, in the course Of fifteen
years aboard, as any man that ever tied
a reef-point in a nor easter; but never
saw sight like that, not before nor
since.
| won't say that l didn't wish myself
well on deck; but | will say that |
stuck to the sLrouds, and looked on
steady.
Whitmarsb, swearing that the royal
should be furled went on and went up.
1t was after that heard the voice.
Il came straight from the figure .of the
boy upon the upper yard.
But this time it says, "Cone up!
Come up r.. And then, little louder,
"COme up! Come up| Gene up" So
he goes up, and next l knew there was
a cry,-and next a splash ,-and then |
saw the royal tapping from an empty
yard, and the mate. was gone, and the
boy.
Job Whitmarsh was never seen again,
allow or aloft, that night or ever after.
/ was telling the tale to our parson
this summer,-he's fair minded chap,
the parsoD, in spite of little natural
leaning to strawberries, which always
take in very good part, he turned
it about in his mind some time.
eff it was the boy" says he,-"and
/ can't say as / see any reason especial
why it shouldn't have been,-Fve been
wondering what his spiritooaI condition
was. A soul in hell,"-the parson
believes in hell, l take it, because he
can't help himself; but he has that
solemn, tender way of preaching it as
makes you feel he wouldn't have so
much as a chicken get there he could
help it,-"a lost SOUL" says the parson
q don't know as l get the words exact),
ia soul that has gone and been and
got there of its own fire will and choos-
ing would as like as not to have another
soul alongside if he could Then again,
if the mates time had come, you see,
and his chances were over, why, that's
the will of the Lord, and it's hell for
him whichever side of death he is, and
nobody's fault but hisn; and the boy
might be in the good place, and do the
errand all the same. That's just about
it, Brown" says he. ga man goes his
own gait, and, if he won't go to heaven,
he wont, and the good God himself
} can't help it. He throws the shining
gates all open wide, and. he never
, shut them on any poor fellow as would
have entered in, and he never, never
will"
Which l thought was sensible of the
parson, and very prettily put.
There's Molly frying faRjacks now,
and fapjacks won't wait for no man,
you know, no more than time aud tide,
: else should have talked till midnight,
| very like, to tell the time we made on that
trip home, and how green the harbOr
looked sailing up, and of Molly and
the baby coming down to meet me in
little boat that danced about (for we
, cast little down the channeD, aud how
5 she climbed up laughing and crying all
to once, about my neck, and how the
boy had grown, and how when ran
l about the deck (the little shaver had
bis first pair ofboots on that very after
D noon) / bethought me of the other time,
and OF Mollys words, and Of the lad
we'd left behind us in the purple days.
, Just as we we're hauling up, says
' to my wife: who's that old lady
+; setting there upon the lumber, with a
gray bunnet, and gray ribbon on heI
r cap"
For there was an old lady there, and
e | saw the sun all about her, and all on
t the blazing yellow boards, and l grew 6
little dazed and dazzled.
, II don't know" said Molly, catching
e onto me a little close. '"She comes
+ there every day. They say she sits
and watches for her lad as ran away
S SO then l seemed to know, as wei
b as ever | knew afterwards, who it was
And thought of the dog And tht
n green rocking-ch And the booE
that Whitmarsh wadded his old CUR
!, with. And the front door, with thC
boy walking in.
!. SO we three went up to the wharf,
l Molly and the baby and me,-and sa
t down beside her on the yellow boards
e | can't remember rightly what l said
but / remember her sitting silent in tn
a sunshine till had told her all there
= was to tell.
s "Don't cry !" says Molly, when | go
e through, which it was the more sur
b prising of Molly, considering as sh
n was doing the crying all to herself
: The old lady never cried, you see. Sh
with her eyes wide open under her gra
IS bunnet, and her lips moving. Afte
}! a while l made it out what it was sh
said: "The only son-of his mother
Is and She"
:" Ru and hr cha nnts IN. and goes be