Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-05-01

clally TO the best OF us. He comes OF one
OF the first families in the country, but is
poor, and crazy on everything marine. To
sailing many yachts in summer he joins
boat building in winter, and sea painting
at all times. He is gentlemanly original,
mixture Of Tom Cringle's Log The
Green Hand, and The Cruise of the
Midge' in flavor, and overflows with the
best kind of dry humor in action and
-alk. With all appreciation of my neph-
Is and his guests, | must say that
l most enjoyed our sailing master
On that trip, often beside him, helm in
hand and pipe in mouth, | learned some
valuable lessons in life from him, my jul
nior, and the fun he seasoned them with
was cure for heartache or dyspepsia.
'This Archie C, our sailing master,
had brother, his elder. captain in the
merchant service. If ever one man was
proud Of and devoted to another, it was
Archie and his brother. He spun yarns
of him through many nights watch, and
| grew to know the merchant captain so
well that | believe l should have recog-
nized him anywhere in a crowd at sea or
on shore
And now l am brought to the real
story, as | may say.
Our pleasure trip nearly finished, we
lazily dipped and rolled one moonlight
night off Barnegat All had turned in
except Archibald by the helm, the watch
forward, and |, who, as was my custom,
enjoyed an dnte-sOnlJ62t1a stroll and smoke
on deck. | had planned for chat with
our master, but could not get many words
from him that night From sleepiness or
other cause he was in his shell. In the
turnings of my pacing astern, threw out
numerous bats for him to rise to, but at
but at length discovered that my friend
was mapping by the idle helm.
''In a reverie of pleasant thought | en-
joyed the quiet lonely rocking of our
yacht, the golden mistiness of the moon
light, the lazy splashing Of the water on
our sides, and the low indolent tapping
now and then Of our canvas A dim bro
ken line and hazy ray of light in the
west were the jersey shore and lighthouse
Sometimes my ear caught very low the
hum of the distant surf Nowhere sea
ward was there sail in sight, until sud
denly, and greatly TO my astonishment, as
| wheeled in my march, I discovered close
on our larboard, and not four hundred
yards off, large brig, her sails hanging,
and she as idle in the calm as We She
was not there a minute before; Of that |
was sure. As | gazed in utter bewilder-
iiitul lltdIu IL hOItc tOllc CItdI lIoUl Il
figure on her deck:
"'AhOy! yacht ahoyi Is Archie -
aboard? Tell him
AT that instant our master sprang
from his doze, crying out, Who called
me? Was it you, Mr.. -?'
My attention distracted, | turned again
quickly to the brig. There ras nothing in
S5ght!-not a mast nor sail on the whole
clcarlv-lighted eXpanse.
Ibid g0u call me?' continued Archi-
bald, repeating his question: and then,
with a little surprise, added, No, it was
not bit like your voice
mo | answered in amazement; 4
have not spoken a word; but | hest
tated whether to say more, when he con
tinued, with a short laugh, but some sur
prise or concern:
"'What dream-vivid as life Right
off there, pointing to the spot where the
brig had seemed to me to ride, right there
I thought was brig as lazy as our little
craft, and fellow on deck, whom | saw
as plain as | see you now, Mr.. -, hailed
US exactly in brother Ben's voice, but
husky a bit-"Ahoy! yacht ahoy! Is
Archie - aboard? Tell him" and
then | wake up, and find it all CANNON.
Well what's the use of being awake, if
that's dream:'
"'Oho" answered |, trying to hide my
uncomfortable amazement under a light
speech-'Oho! skipper asleep and with
nightmare
ale laughed and loaded fresh pipe,
while | stepped forward and asked of the
watch, Any sails in sight to-night?'
- Nary a one, sir, to bless my eyes.
Generally they is most plentiful off here.
Only seen a steamers smoke away off
starboard an hour or better ago; that's all
this watch, so far
"' How stranger
g What's that, sir?'
Ahem. Strange! Why, so near har-
Dor, you see, and no sails
- Yes sir; rather So"
The captain called up fresh man to
relieve him at the wheel and he and | de
scended to the cabin. | said nothing to
him of my mysterious delusion (as much
so to him as to mel, and we soon turned
in. | lay awake some time that night,
turning the matter over in my mind. 1t
puzzled me greatly, and many times since
have | tried to study it out to some prac-
tiCal solution; but-oh, made an entry
of it in my diary the next morning-here
it is now"
From an inside pocket he drew out
small notebook, and, turning over Its
pages for few seconds, he handed it to
me at this item:
"21st July, 1S7O-About II As p. M, off
Barnegat, hailed by ... :"
Merely memorandum, of significance
to no one but its writer.
Twelve hours afteward, " he continued,
as | returned the notebook, 1--WE were
landed in New York. Returned to my
usual work and these almost daily trips
by rail, l sometimes recalled that Incl
dent of the yacht trip, but, as | have said,
| never repeated its experience to any one,
1t was a nut for leisure cracking. | want
ed TO keep il all to myself until | might
pick out its meaning. And now To
chance companion | hand ii for his con-
sideration. Is it an intuition or mere
chance that brings Us so en- rapport?
However, to resume the story had
bowed my head and smiled a recognition
of his implied compliment, but, much abb
sorbed in the narrative, and supposing it
unfinished, had spoken no words to delay
its continuance-"to resume the story
One morning, early in September, as ran
down in the seven o'clock train to New
York, | bought the Times, as usual, and
my eyes happening accidentally on
Marine Intelligence, | read at the close
of its column this paragraph Here he
again handed me his diary, marking
page with his finger. On this page
there was pasted printed slip under
the written date of Sept. 5th. 1t