The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-03-04
Stlert Shry.
BILLY BUTTONS.
BY NORMAN MACLEOD, D. D.

wen, sam, can't qu'le remember,
answered Dick, chow | looked when
launched, and before l was rugged and
left port; but | s'pose | was much about
it. 1t amt easy to believe | ever gave
bother to my mother afore knowed it."
"Nor !, chimed in a third. "And
mayhap if any of us had thought it, we
might have given less bother to our old
mothers after we did know it,"
"You have me there" said Dick, med
itatively, as he knocked the ashes out of
his pipe. "Here we are jolly boys; but
if we were all once like Billy Buttons,
with mothers a-crying, a-dying, a-walkin'
about with us, and hushing and buzzing
with us, day and night, its an ugly thing
to look astern and to think how little we
did for them when they were fighting
with the gale of life, ay, and some sink
ing in it,"
Silence followed Dicks honest attempt
at moralzing. TWAS interrupted by one
of the crew asking
"EIow are we to bring Billy to shore?
"Here's the cabin-boy a-nursing him, and
Watson a-feeding him, and the captain
watching his edication, and the mate
chewing his tobacco over him; but will
he live without his mother?"
"The Father in heaven alone knows!
None of us lived without our mothers"
said a voice from one ofthe hunks.
II did" said another voice, " for was
brought up on the bottle by an uncle and
aunt"
This sage remark excited the first
laugh they had had during the day.
"Ha, ha" said Halliday, "and you've
ever since stuck to the bottle without the
milk"
"Its the feedin' o Billy that puzzles
me- | can't shape my course through it,
nohows," said Dick
"Pve been thinking" remarked an old
sailor, g that little drop of tobacco-juice
might do Billy good What are ye all
laughing at?" he exclaimed, with honest
indignation at the reception his remark
met with. 81 can tell you that when |
could get neither meat nor drink, when
shipwrecked on cor.l-reef, | was kept
alive by tobacco; and it stands to reason
that if it saved a man, it might save a
child. And I'll stick to it, and would
give all the baccy have if drop ofthe
juice would keep Billy alive"
ellis stomach won't stand it. He is
not, ye see, accustomed to it," sagely re-
marked another.
"Ill tell ye. boys" said Thomas the
carpenter, who had not yet spoken, "that
all BARNS like fun. And what say you,
Wallace, to give us a scrape of yer ovid
fiddle, and we might get up dance round
Billy! Eli? 1t would open his eyes and
make him laugh"
There was no difference of opinion as
to the wisdom and propriety of this pro-
posal,
Billy all this time was utterly uncon-
scious, poor little fellow of the pan-fore-
castle synod which was consulting about
him, with his trials and pleasures. But
heseemed well and not unhappy, though
He alone who feeds the sparrows in the
winters cold, and the sea-birds on the
stormy waves could tell how it could be
sol The cabin-boy rejoiced in nurs-
ing him and putting him to sleep;
it so reminded him of his home in the
glen, to see which again he was counting
the hours. The steward fed the child
with his contrivances Of eggs, to which
he added weak, very weak, brandy and
water.
Linen and flannel had been freely
given by the captain to clothe Billy, and
he himself undertook the duty of spong-
ing him with luke-warm water every
day. And so the little thing sucked its
lips and gave sundry groans and grunts,
and often sharp cries-prolonged some
times into continued screams, in which
its little red tongue vibrated in its mouth,
and which so alarmed even the crew that
faces at times might be seen peering
down the companion stairs, asking what
allied Billy. Daily he was aired on deck,
and daily eacn sailor insisted on having
the honor of carrying him, and it was in
deed sight to see those japanned faces
chirruping and smirking to the unseen
treasure rolled up in the blanket. In a
few days the very navigation of the ship
was affected by the presence of the child.
1t was not unfrequent to hear such re-
marks as these: 81 say. Tom, easy with
that rope;" or, Don't make such clat-
tering on deck;;" or, "Heave in that yard
handy, for Billy is sleeping" And one
would express his delight at the fine
breeze and the prospect of sighting land
soon, because they would get nurse
for Billy" or suggest that the reef of the
topsails, taken in an hour before, might
be shaken out, and "half a knot more got
out other for Billy" His influence went
so far at last that one remarked, "There's
no blasphemy in this ship as / have
heard The captain has dropped it for
the sake of Billy, and we're all following
his example, eh?" The man seemed
really to have become more cheerful in
their work, for "the captain was a mother
to Billy,-and more kind to each other
from their common sympathies with
Billy. Mothers long dead, or mothers
expecting them home, brothers and
sisters whom they had played with long
ago, all the softening remembrances Of
childhood, the only Eden-though often
poor one-in many wild and rough
life; these were all unconsciously sug-
gested by Billy. Even bird driven in
its weakness away from land to their
ship for refuge, would have quickened in