Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-10-11
THE HERO OF THE ARETHUSA
BY ETHEL c. GALE.

It was soon after the Indian mutiny
had been euelled, and men felt that it
would again be safe to have wives and
children by their sides in India, that my
father sent for me to join him in Cal
cutta. The Arethusa, upon which I
took passage, was fine, new sailing
vessel, fitted up with great care for her
first voyage around the Cape. There
were comparatively few male passen-
gers, but the ships ample accomoda-
tions were crowded by wives, mothers
and daughters, embracing their first
opportunity to join those Of their dear
ones who had survived the horrors of
the mutiny. Of those on board probab-
~ not one had escaped the loss of some
friend near and dear.
With Its freight of sorrow-stricken
passengers, the social atmosphere of
the Arethusa, though not bright, was
far from sornbre. Each sufferer unset
fishly sought to make life less burden
to the others, and the result was, if not
happiness, yet at least as much of
cheerful rest as often falls to the lots of
mortals.
Of course we had our bit OF romance,
though there was small chances for
such thing where most Of the ladies
were wives or recently made widows,
and ali of the gentlemen were either
accompanied by their wives, or Grip
pied, or too much given over to the
morose humors which beset the age of
an English East Indian, to have p..-
tience with such follies. So our inno-
cent trif1e of romance was only a vio-
lent attachment between a handsome
little fellow of ten, the youngest of the
merchant service middies-of whom
there were on board about a dozen Sf
all ages up to nineteen-and the pretty
seven-year-old daughter of our most
distinguished passenger, a General, and
K. C. B. As a general thing, any pas
senge1 ship going to Calcutta can num-
Der from twenty to forty children, but
Joe and Nellie were the only ones on
the Arethusa, and they became the pets
of us all.
After more than three months of al
most uninterrupted good weather, we
were overtaken by one Of those deadly
Gains which sometimes fall upon the
Indian Ocean. The great ship lay mo-
tionless upon the water, which was as
dull and seemingly as dense as tarnish-
ed brass. The sun was invisible through
the thick atmosphere, but the whole
heavens seemed a glaring, FURNISHED
vault Of copper. There was no distin-
guishable horizon line; the copper and
the brass seemed to be fused together
by the intense heat, and formed around
us a great hollow ball, in the lowest
depths Of which we were immoyably
fixed. As far as our eyes could reach
there was no sign of life. If We looked
downward, the dense, dull, brazen sur
face gave back only a reflection of
heat If we looked up, the FURNISHED
copper scared our eyeballs with its
fiery glow. The sailors forgot to swear,
the incorrigible jokers were silenced,
the chronic complainers for once were
mute, and even the hutter Of fans ceas-
ed from mere exhaustion.
Little Joe and Nellie sat on the stairs
mute as all the rest. Suddenly Nelly
exclaimed:
my feet are hot"
"Of course they're hot" said her
father. "What isn't hot, I should like
to Know
"But pa, it's fre-hot, feel"
The general did not stir, but Joe put
down bis hand and touched the iron
square, ike furnace register, which
was inserted in the floor, and which
may sometimes have served as a ven
tl1ator.
at is not" he exclaimed, SO excited
~ that the generals attention was
aroused, and he too felt Of the iron,
and Immediately grasping a screw
driver which lay conveniently near
the children having been using it H.
heir play Ct the es.rly morning began
hurriedly removing the screw which
prevented the register from turning.
Looking through il at the same mo-
ment that he did, I saw what appeared
TO be a ball Of flame resting on a bar
rel directly under the register. Quick
ly closing this the general said to me in
a hurried undertone, "6ay nothing,