The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-08
"N0UscHACHITo nGTo."
by JEAN 1NoELow.

particular signlhcaton, Dut 10 ,Inose VINO are
IL suggests a great deal. For mtdshipmen,
like other boys, come home sometimes to
cheer the hearts of their relatives; and how
they spend their time when enjoying these
visits is well known to the initiated, hut the
world in general can form but meagre no
tion Of it.
A midshipman, when he comes home, soon
makes his family feel that no part of the
house, inside or outside, is inaccessible to
him; windows are handler things than doors
10 come in at, if one may judge of his habits;
there is no tree in the topmost branch of
which he will not sit cross-legged, cracking
flberts there is no rocks nest, however high,
that be has not poked his fingers into; pop
lars are a joke to him, and he makes no more
of oaks and chestnuts than he does of hay
stacks.
Other boys are contented to sit on chairs
and eat their lunch in a dining-room, but
midshipman loves to eat up aloft, and carries
his provisions, sometimes plate, glass, and
all, to the top of the greenhouse, whore,
strange to say, he never breaks the glass; or
to the top of the pigeon house, which is
very handy place, because of the weathercock,
upon which he can hang his cap and jacket.
He comes in smelling of smoke, and pre-
sents you with some sooty young jackdaws,
which he has just got out of the top of the
chimney.
He spends sovereign in rope, such as
boxes are corded WITH it comes home from
the shop in a cart; some of it he makes into
rope ladders, and runs up and down them
like squirrel; other lengths are twisted into
cats'-cradles up in the trees, or festooned
from one to the other, and upon these he
disports himself and travels audaciously from
tree to tree without touching the deck. Oh
that her Majesty could conveniently be served
without so much agility and such marvellous
powers of swarming
Finally he goes away again upon his coun-
try's service, and his relatives have the COM
fort of knowing that, whatever he may have
done at home, the feats that he is performing
perhaps at that very moment in the rigging
of III. M. s. the -, make his other feats
nothing and not worth mentioning.
The best receipt know of for keeping a
1nidshipman on terra .tfrmG is to tell him a
story. Under favorable circumstances have
known this to succeed for two or three hours
together, if it is done in the open air and
among newly-cut hay; the lines of hay, sup
pose, remind them of waves; for certain it is
/ never knew midshipman run off over these
lines, and have tried the experiment several
times and on more than one of these gene
rally refractory subjects.
Sometimes my brother could be drawn into
relating story himself; some adventure that
he had met WITH or some wonderful thing
that he had seen; for this said midshipman,
though scarcely yet fourteen years of age, has
visited every quarter of the globe, and known
both shipwreck and tornado.
Once he told me such curious story, show
ing the value of presence of mind, that wrote
it down shortly afterwards, and l now offer ii
to you, divested of nearly oil the language OF
the sea; its interest partly depends, in my
mind, upon the fact that but for this singular
presence of mind he probably would not have
lived to tell it.
'I suppose you have heard of Cumano ?
he began; Ignorance on such subjects as ter
restrial magnetism, navigation, and the in
ternal arrangements of ship seeming to his
mind inconsistent with knowledge on any
other points.
''How can you ask such question ?" an
swered. Yes, of course, have, and have
read an account of it in Humboldt; it is 6
town in the northern part of South America.
''Oh, well, thought you might not know
about it; at least / thought you might not
know about the experiments that have been
made there; about the 0ar5GtiOnS and all
that" He then added something about {
volcanic country, and the inclination, ant
the ''dip, and thought would not commi
myself, so / merely said that I had read Si
John Ross's book, and how he went in searcl
of the magnetic poles.
''Oh, well, he answered, ''then needn'
explain it to you. did tell you that we lay
off Cumano for some time, and that we wer,
sent up the country to that convent on tn
mountain; Talbot and Owen and were sen
with the second and third ieutenants and tn
doctor, to the heights above Cumano, will
the chronometers and the instruments"
''Was it long journey? ?" inquired.
me, not long, only difficult it took severa
days. You cannot think what an extraordinar
shore there is in that part of South America
When the tide goes out it uncovers acres o
trees their stems and lower branches ar
thickly incrusted with Shiny mud, and ye
they live and grow in the salt water. The
are mangroyes, and have great, Tapping
heshy leaves, almost as thick as q person
hand. You never saw such unwholesome
looking trees; they steam with the heat til
the mud is dry and caked upon them, an
then the tide comes up and vets it again.
''We travelled up the country on mules;
was intensely hot, and so steep when once W
begin to ascend the mountain that I shoul
no more have thought the mules could clim
up with US than should have expected ther
to get up to the masthead, and yet they di
contrive it, and took up the instruments too
Where there were no trees for shelter III
country was nothing but dead grass, dus
and rents cracked in the ground-some
these rents were three feet across, and ha
lizards hiding in them and crayfish-b,
under the shade of the forest everythiI
dripped with moisture, and we were 80 W.
when we came out that our clothes and Il
mules steamed Visibly, but the sun soon drit
it up.
1--WE spent three days at the convent on Il
mountain, and the monks were very kind
us and tried to teach us some of their Spani
words used to think that monks were dar