Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1870-07-21

us would probably Gil and water-log the
already shattered hull. ,....5.fa
! "Where's father ?" said tremulous lit
tie voice behind me. 1St rA
| Until then I had not thought of the
child. / turned at the sound, and saw the
bright head protruding from the narrow
| opening of q .state-room door. The blue
i eyes were unnaturally expanded with
wonder and anxiety; but there was none
Of the childish weakness of fear that
might have been looked for under the cir.
cumstances. -T p
"Mr. Darrell, where's father p" she re.
peated. r-Ga,, aids ni.i 1-fte-f!t t-7.-
How could answer the question Only
| by signfto her to keep close within her
room, as I moved forward out of her
range of vision, that my telEtale face
might be hidden. ... .,;ffi =
Powerless, as regarded any effort
could make for safety against the storm,
awaited the moment when the ship should
/ be ingulfed, with little Jessie and myself
But as if the demon of wrath had been sa-
tiated, she now appeared to make better
weather of it than she had done for hours
before. Hope again revived, and has
nsdfo explain our position to the or
phahed GIRL
Iknew not how to begin, rough
seaman that Twas, to break the sad intel
ligepce to her. But I found it unneces-
sary to- speak; She had already guessed
| the truth, i'm part, and 8 single look in my
face was sufficient for her quick COM
prehension to take in the rest. a.i..
After the first burst of grief, which
suffered her TO indulge unchecked, she be-
came ca1m3 wonderfully so, and was pre-
pared TO look the rnatter squarely in the
face with acoolness and resolution far be-
yond her years. ~ J, ss
EaDo you think we shall be drowned,
Mr.. Darrell s@she asked.
"No," answered. At least l have
strong hopes that we may be saved l
think the worst of the gale is over, and if
we only don't happen to ship an unfortu-
nate sea like that which," f- =
"My dear fatherl He was all that had !"
she moaned; and once more her miract1-
lous fortitude gave way, and she broke
down again. ~ SH -, ~ Z
The gale abated at midnight, and though
the ship labored terribly in the tumbling
swell, for want of canvas to steady her,
we shipped no more heavy seas. stayed
near my young charge all through the
night; for, of course, neither of us could
sleep. I promised her that would ever
be as father to her, and that, come what
would, she should share my fortunes and
be to me as a sacred legacy.
OF course, no such idea as marriage
W1Gl neI naQ any bn1uR 10 OO Will tWnd6 L
said or felt at that timesn l was twenty
five years old, and Jessie q child. Besides,
was under promise of marriage to a
young lady of suitable age, She Tilted
me for another, during my absence-but
that has nothing to do with my story.
With the morning light came the neces-
sity for effort, and sense of responsibility
new and strange to me; I sounded the
well and found only two feet of water in
the ship, this having worked down from
above. did not attempt, alone, to pump
her out but rejoiced in the assurance
that still had a tight vessel under me !;
for, had she sunk, I should have had no
dependence beyond such raft as could
have extemporized. Every boat had been
swept away. r.,.c-....s
I : I ioosed and let fall the foresail, and sue
ceeded in setting it, with the child assist
ance and the power of the windlass. The
spanker I could easily manage with the
brails and these, with the lower staysails,
were all the canvas 1 intended to make
use of could do nothing with the loftier
sails without more help. .,ti
The sun had come up brightly after the
storm, and the aspect of the skies indicated
a continuance of fine weather. 1 took OBJ
servations and shaped my course toward
the Hervey Islands, hoping to make
Mangea or Raratonga- l had good
general knowledge of navigation, though
[ had little practice, and was unused to
anything like responsible control of that
department.. .E..-es . fg
helm most of the time But 1 soon taught
Jessie, SO that she could steer well enough
in fair weather, which gave me time to
attend to many other matters. But as We
could not steer all day and all night, the
ship was necessarily left to her own
guidance some part of the time.
soon discovered that my knowledge of
navigation, though it might tell me where
/ was, would not enable me to go where I
wished. The winds and currents headed
me on, so that we were making drift to
the westward; and it was impossible to
remedy this, unless the ship were manned
so as to be well steered and enabled to
carry all sail. Spite of all that the child
and 1 could do, she must go nearly where
the elements might carry her. We should
be more likely TO make land somewhere
among the Tongas or Fejees than in the
direction I had hoped at frst-f
There was no fear of our running short
of provisions or water, as we had more
on board than we could consume for
years. The weather continued fine, and
we were daily drifting into milder lsti-
tudes ; bat no sail could be seen. A dozen
times every day l climbed to the mast
head, in the vain hope of deserving a
ship, and as often descended to cheer up
my little shipmate with the hope of see-
ing one to morrow. Thus week after
week wore away monotonously, while
Jessie and were all the world to each
other, and every hour served to fasten
the tendrils more firmly about my heart,
as she leaned in her childish dependence
upon me. - thought how miserable /
might have been if entirely alone in such
a situation, and in return clung to her,
and gave thanks as for a, blessing, heav-
en-sent, to become a part of my. whole
future life and being. I do not think I
could have entertajned the thought Of
ever parting with her. 8 a1&'4 400
My observations satisfied me that We
had passed beyond the latitude of the
Tonga and Feejee groups without having
seen them. This knowledge was rather a
relief to me, for we should most likely
have fallen into the power of savage canT
nibals, who would have shown us no
mercy. We could hardly fare worse by
drifting on toward the equator, while
there was still the possibility, of meeting
a ship with civilized men on board.
At'length, on going aloft, as usual, one
beautiful morning, the horizon line along
under our lee presented the irregular,