Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1872-06-22
G.aIes = Sketches.
THE ACCEPTED OFFERING

The evening was pretty warm, 81 l sat
in my cabin with my window ami door
open. was reading by the light Of wax
candle, put in sWiVel-stand butalthOugh
| was interested in the subject, could not
help being aware, in sort Of dreamy way,
of the sounds which reached my ear from
time to time. There vas the harsh grind
ing and rattling of he stcam-winch at
wulk discharging ca'go; the cries and
curses of the coarse men at work the
striking of the bells o, board the tapping
Of the water at the wharf; the sounds of
the great ferry-bOatI which crossed from
East Boston to Boston proper. | was be-
. ginning to feel tired and was thinking of
| turning in for the night, when the lamp
that hung in the passage revealed the iig-
ure of the second mate, great rough, sui
ky looking fellow. with as warm Il heart as
ever beat in human breast. "Oh,'' said |,
come in, sit down, and spin NE that long
promised yarn Of yours. Take Il cigarette
It's the only thing smoke =; I'll keep you
company.n So saying, produced two of
little weeds, and we commenced slowly to
cXhalc.
"Well, Sawbones," )" he began, II was the
doctor Il hate palaver 80 here goes. |
was once mate of a cOolie ship. am not
going to speak of the coolic trade at this
time but it's about coolies that the story
is. I'm not going to enter into time or
place; but suffice it that our ship was 4
good one, and we were On Il voyage with IL
right heavy load Of coolies. We were pret-
ty tightly packed, | can tell you, and no
mistake. Well, we had the Slackies on
deck pretty much, and We did all we could
to ventilate and purify them; and as yet
we had no bad disorder among them-all
was going pretty well.
THE skipper was much engaged below
he was one of the kind that believe in keep
ing the steam up-high pressure, you know.
In fact, | had command ; the old mau
never intcricred. Doctor, boys are the
greatest nuisance and torment that you can
have alloat CT ashorC--nO mistake. We
had two boys. They were little dwariish
chts, but as cunning and tricky rs young
apes. 1t took lis all our time to look after
those boys. Sometimes they fOught-som
times they leagucd in mischief; but if they
were out of sight you might be sure they
were doing no good. George was the name
of one, Harry that of the other. The whole
of the ship was against them, and they
against the whole of the ship. 1t was a
game, and the little wretchcs played it. OF
. course they were thrashed from time to
! time, but that seemed to act only as a
stmuaut.
"Wcll. one day the coolies got up great
atlair--at least it was great affair to them,
poor creatures. They were to give a sort
of Offering to their god or at least one OF
them. They waited to be in his good
book, you see, and So they made him his
gift ! don't know all that was in the
bundle, but | think there was rice, and
know there was money. The Offering was
| fixed to the trunk OF the mainmast-thc
truck, you know, is the bottom affair at
the very point Of the mast. Well, it was
fastened up during the day, and the sign
was, that if the god came in the night and
took away the bundle he was well pleased
and meant to bless their voyage. 1t was
fastened all right, and they set watch OF
/ their own to keep tight eye to the bundle,
so that they might see the god swoop oven
and carry it away. There was also "A grouI
Of coolies at the shrouds To see that there
was no unhallowed interference by the
| ships people.
/ 'Well, evening shaded into night, and q
deuced dark night ii was, tOo-heavy
masses of cloud scudding across a sombre
/ sky no; bad weather. but rather threaten
| ing, you know. | was on watch, feeling
! rather anxious as TO how the night might
/ turn out. Our doctor, Il native, came t.
7
/ | can tell YOU, and well educated. lie
/ didn't believe in the god coming down and
/ taking away the bundle, but he wasn'l
such fool as to express his mind before
| the coolies. They are rather dangerous
cattle at tunes. You read now aud again
of their rising in mutiny, killing the officers
and crew, aye, even setting fire to the ship
and playing the deuce generally. Coolies
are not to be tritled with, especially wher
there is Il great crowd of them. OF course
they are ignorant and superstitious, ant
such are always dangerous. Life witt
such people is al discount and no mis-
take. Well, the doctor and ! were devils
ing plans for ventiating the ship by kind
ling fires, ETC., and SD the watch passed
When eight bells struck at midnight,
turned in as soon as | was relieved. /
seemed scarcely Il minute before | wa'
forced to know that it WAS four O'Clock il
the morning and time for me to be on drcl
and take my watch. found the shil
much as | had left her. The second
said that the wind had not risen higheI
than when went below, but that the nigh
had been intensely dark. 1t was so at thu
time he spoke. | commenced to pace tC
aud fro, wishing heartily that my watcl
pab over, and, ae time passed noticing tht