Connecticut western news., 1874-09-11
Mrs. Hicks did not have to send for

Mrs. Hicks did not have to send for her neighbors her screams soon
 brought them to the house, and among
 the sympathizing crowd were half-a
 dozen ladies from the city who had
 made the acquaintance of poor Lump
 on the bluff, and bought bits of sponge,
 end shells, and seaweed from him. Davis, the fisherman, was there
 among the rest, and the frantic woman talked as if he had drowned her boy
 instead of only innocsntly looking at
 the floating molasses jug.
 "Why didn't you save him, if you
 hnew he was drowning ?" she cried,
 Poor Davis only bowed his head in
 silent pity.
 "Why on arth don't somebody run for the doctor and the minister !? And why don't you put out your boats, you hard hearted men ?" she shrieked.
 No boat can go round the big rock. I've tried, and had to give it up. Where did you see him come up, Tommy ?" asked Davis, in & subdued tone, as if he felt that Lump's death lay at his door.
 "Oyer yender," was the very explicit reply of Tommy, whose fists were too much engaged with his eyes to spare finger to point with. "His hair was all patted down slick with the water, and he was bouncin' and bouncin' with every wave, and-and-boo hoo, hoo ]"
 By this time the minister had arrived, and he tried to unravel the tangled ac- counts by cross-questioning the wit nesses. When he came to Tommy, he said, Now tell all you know about it," and then poor, kind little Tommy finished the. sentence which had choked him. ia
 "And I think his head was loose from the rest on him; for I see it hove clear up onct, and there wasn't no body hitched to itr'
 "A sharks been at him P shrieked the mother, and then her neighbors be- gan to cry with her.
 Poor Davis, looking as if he expected an arrest, beckoned to two men who had come in. The three left the house, and gathering the weary fellows who had just escaped with their own lives, they took to their boats and rowed out, hoping to find the body of poor Lump before the receding tide should carry it out to sea.
 The silence in the cottage was un- broken save by the sobs and groans of the mother, who was now too much ex- hausted to scream. The boys gathered at the windows to watch the boats put out in the surf the women rocked, or leaned against the wall, while the min ister sat by the table with his head on his hand, hardly knowing what to say.
 And so they sat, while the shadows were falling, for more than an hour, hoping for the return of the men. No one could do any good, and yet it seemed very heartless to go away and leave the poor widow alone in her grief. No one thought of supper that night. Occasionally woman whispered to her neiGhbor some kind word of the lost boy, and the mother catching it, would sob out full inventory of Lump's vir- tues, in charming forgetfulness of the threats she had been pouring out an hour before.
 The minister knew the boy-impetu- ous, brave, quick-witted and enterpris- ing, with more sense than all the rest of the family. He had frequently made him his companion in searching for shells and minerals, and had always thought Lump's lot hard one-order- ed, and scolded, and knocked about, as he had to be-, by this petulant and weak-minded woman. So now he join ed in and corroborated all she said in his praise, and remarked, hopefully
 CT hope our fears may be ground less, he may yet be alive 1"
 "Alive, after two hours in the waterp' snarled out the afflicted mother. Anybody might know you had come up inland, where there aint water enough to drown kitten p and then she added, I guess I've seen drownin' enough in my day to know how long it takes to do it My hus- bands skiff was overturned right afore my eyes, out in the bay here, and he wasn't in the water two minutes afore he was dead O, how awful it is to have 'em brought in dead How shall I stan it Il How shall I stan it P
 The minister made some remark about our strength being equal to our day, when the silly woman replied,-
 "I shall see and hear sperits to- night, I know shall I seed MT. Hicks after he was all laid out here, a-walkin' along the beach with load of sails on his shoulders, and was skeart nigh out O my"-
 70 nanny, mammyl l'' cried little Tom, with bound which brought him to his mother, and then with his face buried in her lap, he said in smothered | tones, "I-I-I see Lump's ghost just now, come round the pint, with a 'lasses jug in his hand whistlin Yan- kee P I
 "Didn't I tell you so, now ?" shriek- ed the mother, glancing triumphantly at the minister, as if he had been con- her. ..... -..
 Before the minister had time to speak, the door burst open, and sure enough there was Lump, jug in hand
 "I've got the biggest red lizard Hollo what's the matter ?'' he cried, at the company before him.
 Some of the women laughed, and some of them cried, while others, with real mother-hearts for all boys, kissed him.
 The minister grasped his hand and cried, "Thank Heaven, my dear boy, that you are safe!
 Safe Safe from what, in the name of mater p'' cried Lump. Na
 An explanation ensued and when Lump heard that the weary fishermen were out hunting for his headless body, he first scolded and then laughed an I am sorry to say, called his mother tn very irreverent name "old goose"
 "Well," cried she, as if to defend herself, "didn't I tell you to come back p ...-,. -...-
 Yes but aint I old enough to go round by the old rock to look for sea lizards after storm if I'm mind to ?'' cried Christopher Columbus. H7a-
 Just then two men came in, one of them holding big black football, which the little city boys had lost few days before, and which the waves had found and carried out. s. tf$ ...5 .f..
 When he saw Lump, he laughed and said, /" Here's your head, boy and the jug Davis see was Stevens, that was washed overheard last night in the