Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-12

rocks by my house OF quiet evening, gave me
a notion that was most surprising about wound
ed creatures that the rocks had gored.
When the Sunday morning lifted, the masts
were thick as musketOes at a lighted window,
| all up and down the harbor. The sky was dull
| as death. Of over the point, along by Niles
woods there, a little palish streak law of a sort
| of salmon color, and with an unpleasant twitch
| across it, like winkiug man. On account of
the swinging Of the schooner, and the swinging
Of our neighbors, and the slope of the swell be-
fore the eyes, all Gloucester shores seemed waltz
ing in a hoTrd waltz; and what was curious
about it, was to see them Waiting to the time
beat by the Sunday church-beS. They rang at
halepast nine at the harbor, and | could see
folks, like specks, stir through the lev spray TO
20 TO meeting / couldn't help wondering that
morning if any of them said their prayers for
folks at sea. Not thar we looked for any mis-
chief at that hour, and who ever thought to
pray for folks in port?
1t blew all the morning and it blew all the
afternoon. The skipper came up about dinner
time, and says the mate: 81 wish had the old
lady ashore to-day"
But we could have got to China as easy as we
could have got ashore-some three or four
, boats lengths-On to the awful rocks of Fresh
Water cove that Sunday noon.
Yes, sir, it looks still enough over there now,
and green and soft, and kindly to the eve; and
the foam against the rocks falls and rises in a
pleasant manner, much like the muslin curtain,
often think, that hangs in our big parlor win
dow See how halfway rock blooms to-day?
And the purple color that hangs on Norman's
Woe? You should have walked up and down
Niles beach and looked at Norman's Woe on
that Sunday noon, the 18th Of December, 1899
They said it looked like the mouth of the bot
tomless pit; and that the spray rolled up like
smoke.
BY two O'Clock they begin TO 90 ashore. A
brig and two schooners broke there in the Sun
day daylight before our eyes. One smashed to
splinters Just above us here She was from
Mount Desert; forget the name. An old man
and his three boys went down. l could see
them dropping off like flies. You see the rig
ging froze so, and every thing you touched
glazed over and slipped up. 1t blew all the af
ternoon, and it blew all the evening.
A little to the fore of midnight, the skipper
sent Hancko below after the old lady. Jib
brought her up, and they tied her to the main
mast with a tippet she was knitting for her
daughters children, and almost broke her heart
Griggs would have her on deck and handy.
Heaven nor earth couldn't tell, he said, what
would come next.
Good Godp says he, of this goes on, we
shall 90 down at anchor like a baby's raftl"
To say that two hundred and fifty tonner just
swaShed air, like the chips you're throwing in
this minute, amt to say anything about it. To
say that we couldn't tell one minute from an
other, whether we stood on our keel or our
mainmaSt, amt to give you an idea. To say
how the gale put arms under US, and cluched
TWO over Eastern point and down with its head,
and hunted at us, and up withits shoulders and
h'isted US along, dead against the rock, amt TO
express nor imply it.
To say that at midnight of that Sunday night
all he'll opened under Gloucester harbor, is to
draw upon your imagination, sir; but it is the
best can do.
Five minutes after twelve, the cry came up:
"We've slipped our anchorP Five minutes
more and we were on the rocks. "If we don't
k,ae.v TO-
skipper, "fhere's chance for rope. Volun
teers for rope, my ladsP
For folks were upon shore from the village,
and cries camp up, and every time the sound cut
through the thunder, and Pansie leaped as if she
would answer to it, and rammed herself between
the teeth of the breakers like wedge.
We looked at one another, but no man stirred.
Said Ben Bumper, On a roper Said Jib
Hancko, slowly, 81 guess I'll 90" But the
skipper turned round on him; says he: 'Pd 20
myself if it wasn't tor the old lady. Anyhow,
| won't send you, Jib. Who'll hold ont the old
lady" said Jib Hancko, slow as ever; ''but I'd
rather 90 myself, Cap'n Griggs."
Hold your tongue" roarS Griggs through
the below OF the blast. 81 won't end YOU if
nobody goes Jib Hancko! If | don't get acrost,
you hold ont the old lady, will you, Jiop "Ay,
ay sir" says Jib. "And if | do get acrost
you'll hold ont the old lady, will you, Jib?
She's to come over first, you UNDERSTANDABLE
you, JibP SAY, ay, sir" SAYS Jib.
With that the skipper steps up and kisses the
old lady, before us all, once on one cheek, and
once the other, Good by, mother!" says he.
But the old lady only wruBg her hands and
said, they'd spoiled Charles Henry's tippet, and
she was very cold.
Well so Griggs set off with the rope 1t was
an ugly job. Twice we thought he'd gone, and
three time we'd thought hid gone, and once the
mate struck his two fists together so the blood
came from his knuckles. "The ropes partedP
said he.
But next minute through the hellsh noise we
heard the shippers voice and saw, through the
thin and broken shine Of lanterns that folks
held on shore, that the rope lay over, safe and
sound.
Now, would you believe it, sir. that after that.
that old creature wouldn't bulge an inch?
declare, it makes me feel bad to think of it to
this day. Come, mother" said Jib Hancko,
hurrying her up in a gentle way, for we were
terribly strained and mangled, and no time to
lose. But she sat and wrung her hands, and
wrung her hands-quite crazed by fright and
cold, and crying out: Only sons carrying me to
Boston to spend the winter with nv daughter!
he said it shouldn't cost me nothingl NV
daughters children have got the whooping
coughP
Do our best, we couldn't stir her, hide nor
hair. "Lord A'mightyp said Jlb Hancko But
after that he held his tongue. He went and sat
down by the old lady, and united her tippet
from her, and put his arms around her. The
cargo leaped and struck at them, in plunrinG
over saw blood upon his head and face He
wiped it off with his lee elbow, so the Old lady
shouldn't see it. lie sat crouched up a little to
keep the timber off from her, l take it, with his
head and shoulders out--so.
Well we went and left them sir. What else
could we do? Ben Bumper was the first. Half
way over he cried out and dropped. What he
did we never knew-whether be was struck, or
slipped, or frOze, or what it was Some of the
lads said it was for damning the old lady. But
| don't know All | know is be Just cried out
and dropped. Yes, we left 'em, him and the old
lady, sitting side by side. | felt as mean as
Luciier. called out good by 10 him, and how
mean felt. But the blast blew his answer the
other way, | saw his lips move, but lost the
words, heard the old lady, though, as | swung
of. You could have heard her in purgatory, if
you'd been so far, She piped up like a weasel.
MY SON carrying NE to Boston! He said it
shouldn't cost me nothing" -
heard her until got ashore Griggs didn't
himself. he wasachilled or frozen, or sometime
of that kind, and in a kind of faint, they said,
was mighty glad of it, | must saw The old
creature did pipe up so! We stood on the rocks
and watched them, well as we could see them
through the beating of the blow. | had feel
ing as if my eyes were beaten in my head, I
put both hands up to hold 'em in. | saw
Hancko trying to tie a life preserver on to the
old lady. The other boys didn't. But did.
He tried to tie it on, and she sat and wrung her
hands, l don't suppose | heard her but I'd
have sworn | did piping up Gle said if
shouldn't cost me nothingF
HanckO stood up. | saw that He stood look
ing straight ahead. thought he had a grand
look, being at a distance where you missed ths.
squirting Of his eye And he stood 50 rall. sir
on that wreck, as tall as stand to-day. which ID
six loot three in my stockings.
| suppose when a man. courting his wife he
thinks more Of such things quite natural; but
couldn't help thinking, when | saw Jib Haucko
standing there, Of that young woman down TO
Squam. If she'd been down TO Calais visiting a
cousin now, it would have seemed a pitv,
And | wondered if he thought of it; how he
aud the Pansie were going down together by
themselves.
Next minute there came the awfuest, longest.
bOrrldest cry ever listened to on land or sea
Whether il was the old lady as she struck
water, or whether it was tine skipper coming to
and seeing the Pansie's head light out or whether
it was the devils below or the angels above, I
couldn't tell you to this day,
i don't think You could understand. sir. nm.
less you'd been through it yourself what feel
ing It gives a man to fall and Slip slip and fan.
clutch and cling, and drop plumb down a wall
oil rock ike that-all ice beneath you and about
you-and squeeze your feet into a little LEDGE
you know Of, and jam your fnge. into a little
crack above our head, to save a human crea.
tufe II so be ii washes up against you and SEQ
the lath and piles come laundering in. To see
EN- roar and strike, and topple over, and splin
ter up like teacups, and suck under and slim off
u4p Ip fNftfea D 10 A..