, 1872-04-04

nOnored always.
The widow could only murmur her
thanks. and invoke Gods blessing on
the kind-hearted stranger whom she had
never seen before, and who, bidding her
goodnight, left her alone with her dar-
ling boy.
On the following day the schooner
Western Trader left Cleveland with a
full cargo of oats and corn, bound for
Buffalo. That night there came on a
cold northeast snow storm, which finally
closed the navigation of Lake Erie for
the winter.
A whole month passed without news
from the schooner, and then when every
body had given her up for lost, her car
tain and crew came back to Cleveland
with the report that she was frozen fast
in the ice some thirty miles to the east
ward, and full half that distance from
land. They had left her and escaped to
the shore on the ice; but all they could
say to induce Frank Merrill to abandon
her was of no av.il.
"No, will never leave her, he said.
II promised MIR. Denison to stand by
and take care of her through the winter,
and will if 1 live r'
"God bless the noble boy :" exclaim-
ed Mr.. Denison, as the captain told of
the i tie fellows fidelity. And the ex-
clamation was echoed back by a dozen
men of Cleveland who happened to be
in the Office at the time.
Within two hours more sufficient
commander with eight fearless fellows,
who agreed to say by the vessel till
they got her into port somewhere, set
out from Cleveland to board her; but
when they arrived abreast of where she
had been frozen in, the ice was broken
np to within five miles of the land, and
the schooner was gone.
Three weeks passed, and all remained
uncertain with regard to the fate of the
Western Trader ard her brave boy COM
mander, when she was heard from again
ON the Canada side, some fifty miles the
westward of her former position. But
before relief could be sent to her there
came on a violent gale from the west
ward which broke up the ice, and he
was borne away down the lake embed
ded in field of more than q hundred
acres.
Next she was seen off Erie, hundred
miles westward of Buffalo, and they
could not even see the boy on her deck;
but it was almost night-to board her
was impossible. and at daylight ON the
following morning she had disappeared
And there was only small stock of
provisions on board when she left Cleve-
land. people wondered how the boy had
subsisted all that time, and predicted
his death by starvation provided the
schooner should live out the fierce win
ter gale. Several times after her ap-
pearance off Erie, the Western Trader
was seen in various parts of the lake,
but always too far off to discover any
thing about her distinctly, only that
there was always smoke coming out of
the funnel of her cabin siove.
At last one Sunday afternoon in the
month of April about a week after the
western part of the lake was clear of
ice schooner under just the head of
her foresail, was seen ten miles outside
the harbor of Cleveland, and as she
came bravely in between the piers, thou
sand of people on the shore and ranged
along the wharves recognized her as the
truant Western Trader, and the brave
little fellow at her helm, as Frank Mer-
rill, the winter rover of the lake who
had now returned in safety from his
dreary and solitary ice voyage. Such a
welcome as England would have accord
ed to Sir John Franklin, had he esoap-
ed from his ice-ruhbed Arctic prison and
returned to his native land, was given
by the citizens of Cleveland to the
young ice-voyager. Frank Merrill.
People wondered at first how he sub
sisted, but when they saw his well con-
ditioned face, his liberal supply of boil
ed and parched corn, and the way he
cut away the schooner's rail, windlass,
and the joiner work of her cabin for
fuel they wondered no longer.
The young commander of the winter
cruiser got his twelve dollars a month.
besides many handsome presents from
those who admired his courage and fidel-
ity, and when the Western Trader was
completely repaired, bill of sale for
one half of her was placed in Mrs. Mer-
rilrs hands for her son, by MIR. Deni-
son.
Long before the summer was over,
there was no Mrs. Merrill in Cleveland,
and those who inquired for her at her
former residence were directed to a
beautiful mansion on the bank of the
lake, some two miles from town, where
they were sure to find the rich Mrs.
Denison Just as courteous and happy
to meet them as ever the poor widow
Merrill had been.