Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-12-05
TIE BASKET OF FLOWERS.


wondered what peculiar taste could
have induced either the designers or
decorators OF the craft to have clapped
sucn Prepo'terous thing as flower
"sShet on Inc stern of that ship. was
seated IN a dock near Hunters Point
%a'c' ling the loading of petroleum
We ssel-a queer, old-fashioned bark
Had the owner or skipper any fcral
proclivities9 Perhaps some practical
hand in ship-yard-a master in the
art of hacking figure-heads of dolphins
or cornucopias all out of solid oak
some one who might have been O
Thorswalden but for the want of op-
portunity, had eliminated that flower
basket from his inner consciousness.
just as likely it might have been the
production, so Ear as the poetical con-
ceptlon of it went, of some captain
through whose composition there ran
latent Vein of romance. Who could
tell Tut that in years long gone by the;
woman the captain had loved had been
associated with basket of flowers !?
So he might have gone straight to the
ship-yard, all aglow, inspired for the
moment, and in CHEEKY voice said,
Here, carpenter, cut me out basket
of flowers. Do it good. I amt par
ticular about the kind of flowers, so
that there is plenty OF them, and that
the basket is all right. Put two han
dies on the basket" And SO to work
fifty years ago went the carpenter, who
had followed the sea in his younger
days, and the artist, with adze and
gouge in hand, had possibly got into
quandary over the job, for quite likely
he was more familiar with tangled sea-
weed than with the primmer garden
flowers. So in great mental travail he
must have solved the question by
taking as pattern his mothers oil
fashioned sampler, on which in cross
stitch was depicted a floral Offering,
and copied it all out in wood and stuck
it on the stern of that essel, and felt
satisfied with it, though a sitter or
more impossible flower basket never
was made. Undo, ,Qbtedly once it was
colored with hp .es as bright and varied
as a ralnbo,W, and shown out re-
splendantl.Il as the ships stern, and was
renecbed in summer seas, and was the
envy Of other shippers. But when I
saw it all it's bloom was gone, for it
lad been painted all over a glaring
yellow, and was as ugly as sin. Orna-
meftlng the stern of petroleum ship,
odorous with the most villainous of
smells, that poor old flower basket
seeD1ed horribly out of place.
Captain, sir ?" I made bold to say
to man in the dock, who was giving
some instructions as to the moorings of
the vessel. -...
"Just SO, SIR" was the reply of a
fine, hearty-looking man. "Here, Mr..
Mathias" s"-this was to a person evi.
IDENTIFY the mate-"have this hawser
eased. Take out the double hitch, and
don't jam the knot. It's too tight. 1t
would take as much as five minutes to
unreeve that knot; amt you got sabe
enough to know that when you are taking
on board this kind of dangerous stuff,
alongside of the factory as makes it,
the whole place is just as likely as not
to be on fire any minutep Tell that
hand forard at the fall to watch the
capstan and them spiles here, and to
loo the hawser with the tide. She
can't chafe much. It amt bad plan
TO have an ak, and a sharp one, always
Grady, 30 that fellow can cut his
lucky and run. Capt. Billy Magruder
saved his brig year and half ago, at
this very dock, ftom,being burned up,
because he had o. carpenters hatchet
handy. You was wanting me, sir p
said the captain. "What can I do for
you? ?" .E.Ht.#
"Only this" 1 replied ri am very
little nautical, and my experience does
not go beyond yachting; but have, I
think, kind of memory for ships.
Did not see this ship at New Bedford;
she was then in the whaling business
some years ago?"
Exactly SO, sir. You are right.
Maybe you found her out by the carv-
ing on her stern. She is queer old