Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-07-05

'pphen that boys genius for mischief
come in straight, and says he ::
6" Tom, wouldn't it be jolly lark to
answer that letter ? IEIi1 gftfft
"'As now, says 'we amt Polly,
for l couldn't see what the deuce he was
drivin' at. -..,.,
"'No;' says he, but I can write a
letter and sign her name, and put it in
the ships bag, and we'll go to New York
about the same time that he will, and
we'll see how he'll take on when he gets
the letter; it will be great sell, and
the young varmint actually danced for
Joy at the idea. -.
"Go ahead, my bo' says /, for I
didn't see no great harm in it at the
time; and Billy he gets pen and paper
and fires away. T .r.
Well, Jim's letter was soft, sure
enough, tellin' Polly how much he
loved her, and how he'd never stop
ped a thinkin' on her since last he
clapped his eyes on her, and prOmisin',
if she was willin', to come right on
straight and splice her out of hand, and
so on, it was soft and no mistake but
it wern't nothing to the one which this
boy writ in reply. He read it off to me,
when ned got it all done, and it was
gusher, can tell you. He didn't stick
at nothing, didn't that boy, but telled
Jim as how Polly was on the very verge
of the tomb for love of him, and if he
wanted to see her alive he'd better make
all sail in her direction and carry on
hard. 1t was writ regular small, like a
woman's writing, and that boy claps
Polly Jones at the bottom of it and
slows it away snug in cover and di-
rects it to Jim to his boarding-house in
Franklin square, New York, and the
boys mind was at ease. b.t s..&
"Of course, I didn't tell Polly any
thing about this, and in good time our
sailin' day come, and away we went and
street in due course. ....
"The bark what Jim Williams was
second mate of, got in two days after
us, and Jim came up to the house where
Billy and | was boardin' and he got the
letter, and was justzas pleased as a,dog
with two tails. Billy and was keopin
our weather eyes open all the while,
and we was tickled Almost to death to
see the way that chap went on. About
every fifteen minutes he'd get away by
himself and pull out the letter and read
it all through, and then he'd come up
to me or to some of the other chaps in
the house and insist on standing treat,
50 that by bedtime what with freshenin
the nip so often Jim was more'n half
seas over.
Gas soon as he was paid off Jim
leaves his bark and ships afore the
mast in the John r. Skiddy, and away
he goes to Liverpool to get spliced, as
he thought; and Billy and l, having
swayed on all taut ropes till our money
was gone, we ships in the New York,
and away we goes, too and it so hap
pened that all three of us got to Liver
pool together. Jim got there, as it
might be Monday, and we got in two
days after, and the first night ashore I,
of course, calls in to see Polly and have
mug of. ale. Well. Polly, arter. .sayin
how de do and so on, goes on to tell
me as how she really believed that Jim
was adrift in his top-hamper Hes
crazy, sure says she !; he will have it
that writ him letter and told him to
come on, and that would marry him !;
whereas, you know Tom, I never did
anything of the kind She said he
really took on awful when she told him
she never wrote to him, and she was
quite sure he was crazy. o.. II. Wv.
"Well, when I told Billy all this I
thought that boy would go into convul-
sions with laughter. tom, said he, 4
amt quite done with him yet, and he
writes him another letter, signing Polly's
name, of course, and makes an appoint
ment to meet him by the Nelson monu-
ment, in the Exchange, the next night
at seven O'clock. Billy and L went
through there about eight, and he was
a walking back and forward as industri-
GUS as if he had been standin' watch at
sea, and / don't believe he left that
blessed square afore midnight.
"Well, the next night arter this he
goes up to Polly, and they had a reg'lar
row. He produces the letters, and asks
Polly if she will deny her own hand
writin' She got as mad as blazes, and
wouldn't look at the letters at first, but
after a while she overhauls. them, and
then she see that somebody had been o
hoaxing of Jim, and she told him so,
and then they made up, and parted
good friends. She made him under
stand that he must sheer off that she
couldn't keep company with him for
the long voyage, and he took so many
mugs of the tenpenny on the strength
of it that he lost his way going down
to the docks, and found himself in the
lookup in the morning and was fined los
and costs for being drunk and disorder
ly.
'T am afeared, sir, you find this rather
tedious, but I had to tell you all this to
get in the fair way for the yarn sot
out to spin you at the first, which was
to tell you how I come to get spliced.
"When we got back to New York
after that trip, Billy had got the idea
into his head that nothing but tall
water voyage would ever make sailor
of him. 1T was no use, he said, going
these coasting voyages, / want to go
around the cape;' and all I could say
wern't no use, go he would and two
days arter we arrived he shipped aboard
the Sea Witch, with Bully Waterman,
for the East Indies, and as I heard after
wards he came mighty near losing the
number of his mess in a gale of wind,
Just afore they got up with the cape.
eff you don't mind my going off, on
short board, after him, I'll tell you
how it was, and then I'll resume the
yarn I've been a spinin'. t.aT
GAS I was told, the ship was pretty
well up with the cape, when one night
it breezed on rapid from a whole sail
breeze, till it blew great guns, and from
having three royals onto her--for you
see they had had fine weather up to this,