The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-10-01
Uncle Georges Courtship.
NNHE old mans story as told by himself
il is as follows:

Il. is as follows:
"I was cap'n of the skinner Abbey
Brown in them days, boys, and was just
a trihe proud of myself, for rayther few
young men of twenty-three years old gets
a chance to a vessel of their own at that
time of their life Besides bein' cap'n, /
was very good-lookin' young feller-what
are you all GRIMM like so many sculpins
about? D. you think cause man gets
gray and battered by fifty years. seafarin'
that he mayn't not have been good lookin'
in his younger days? Well, never mind,
if no offence is ment none is took. say l
was good loolSin' and / mean it, and what
with that, and bein' cap'n of the Abbey
Brown, and havin' besides some dollars
stuck away in bank, might a. had pretty
much my chice of any girl atween Squam
and Gloucester. But as is the way with
most young fellers, I'd got one of my eyes
gouged out with particular she--Deacon
Hadwin's daughter Mary, it was, and l
.jist thought all creation was tied around
by her apron strings, and outside of 'em
there wasn't woman that was worth
spilled mack'rel. seed good deal of
Mary, one way or another, for the Abbey
Brown run out Of Gloucester, where she
was owned, and Deacon Hadwin he lived
jjist tother side the halfway cross roads
atween Gloucester and Squam. So all the
time / was into port there was seldom
day didn't feel called on to come over
home, here, to see my old people; at least,
so give out. But it want more'n two
days in the seven I'd get beyond them tar
nal crossroads She was q mighty trim
little craft, was Mary. Full in the bows,
well-balanced aft, all her ribbons and sich
hauled taut, and coiled a board neat and
reg lar; face always lookin' as if had list
had fresh coat Of red paint; eyes blue and
sparklin'; teeth white, and generally show
in by reason of her smilin'--in short, boys,
she was one Of the kind that is only found
one at a time; and, bein' Of that sort, you
may bet your best boots there was no end
Of fellers hankerin' round her, promiscuous-
like, all the time. ] wern't much afraid
Of any of the other chaps gettin' Mary,
less it was Ahab Corbin. He was likely
sort Of young man, whose father had ,jist
set him up in the ship-chandlerin' line at
Gloucester; and them was the days when
ship-chandlerin' paid, for ten vessels came
into the port then for one that comes in
now. Ahab had the weather-gauge on me
in pint of height; but then / was stouter
built than him, and had powerful long
arms, so that if it ever kim to fight atween
us had calculated on bein' able to make
him smell gravel. But it want writ in the
books that that. fight was ever to be.
There's no use givin' long description
of our courtin. AS l say, when ever was
in port KEEP runnin' down to Marys
crusin' ground pretty reg 'larly, and all the
time was at sea / KEEP wishin' l was
ashore at the crossroads. But somehow
couldn't never git my courage up to ask
her, plump and plain, the question / want
ed answered Ahab, seed, was in pretty
much the same kind of fix, so didn'
worry gre'tly about il, known, as did
that there want anybody else likely to TAX,
the wind out of my sails. Howsomedever
this kind of thing couldn't be KEEP up al
ways, and one afternoon, after I'd seel
things made snug aboard the skinner, whicl
had just come up from Fernandiny, 60
| about tumblerful of old Newburypor
rum and started for the Deacon's, m