Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-03-14
A Romantic Story.

hUIiuhpiO pbVh 10
The veteran New England fishing
town of Gloucester must, like other
places of it's kind, have a romantic lore
by no means poor in the comedy and
tragedy of seafaring life; but rarely has
it found mention in connection with
such an oddly characteristic bit of sea-
shore sentiment and mystery as the local
Advertiser now relates. During vio-
lent gale off the coast of Nova Scotia,
some twenty years ago, the keeper Of a
lighthouse there, and his young daugh-
ter, beheld, from their lofty cage of
safety, fine foreign vessel drifting upon
the very rocks OF which their light was
the warning. They saw her strike broad
side upon the deadly reef, and careen
before wind and wave like child's cradle,
and crack and grind and collapse like an
egg.shell. Powerless to render aid,
father and child could only watch the
elemental tragedy until the angry sea
had done its work, and then hasten
down from their tower to where door
opened upon the waves. OF vessel, pas.
sengers, and crew all that came towards
shore was cabin door, bearing boy
not more than ten years old. With his
boat the lighthouse-keeper managed to
rescue the nearly drowned lad, though
not without imminent peril to himself,
and brought him into the lighthouse at
last more dead than alive. The name
of the waif from the sea, his nativity,
and the name of the ship could not be
ascertained from the little fellow by
English questions, for he spoke in q
foreign tongue, so soon as he was strong
enough to speak at all, and seemed like
creature reused from an Incompetent
sible dream. His rescuer, being a wild.
over, with no kith or kin beside his
little daughter, not only felt a pity fol
his prize, but determined to retain and
adopt him as his own son. Thus the
"lad from Nowhere" as he was subse.
quently called, entered upon new life
which, by his youth and the confusion
of new language, so completely blottec
out all of his brief past that he was never
able to recall his true name, nor those
of his country and the ship. Wearing
the name of his foster father, he grew tC
young manhood in the lighthouse beside
the lighthouse-keeper's daughter, anC
never knew that he was not her brother
until hearing it from her lips. She ant
her father told all they knew of his his
tory--that he had been saved from thu
wreck of some unknown ship from SOM
unknown shore. The only effect of thi
unsatisfactory revelation was to turn hin
from a brother into a lover, and whel
the girl shrank from responding to thi
transformation the lad from Nowhere
abruptly left the lighthouse and wen
despairingly to sea as a common sailor
Soon after his departure the father re
signed his keepership of the beacon anc
removed with his daughter to Glouces
ter where the Maid of the Light, afte
a season of mourning forher late adopted
brother, and, perhaps, regret of her owl
conduct towards him, accepted the hanc
of thriving young fisherman of tn
town. In the first year of this marriag
the husband was drowned in the wreci
VI lilo SClOOucl, anu DclOlc ullC Wl'tpN
tears had dried another vessel came int
port with the lad from Nowhere amongs
her crew. There was speedy meeting
of course, between the rover and hi
former friends, resulting in his determi
nation to turn Gloucester fisherman an,
resume his earlier love-sdit. In his tw,
years OF seafaring the sailor had learne,
nothing of his own true origin probabl.
he had not cared to learn anything, ant
in offering himself to his old sweethear
he found no awkwardness in still wear
irg her fathers name. They were mar
ried, and lived happily at Glouceste
until the last fishing season, when tn
husbands vessel left harbor to return n
more. In just such fearful storm a
destroyed the ship off the Nova Scotial
light, his frail craft with many other
was overwhelmed by the waves, and tn
man from Nowhere returned to the Sc
which gave him.