The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-11-16

and embark for strange countries. But
the prospects of attaining this glorious
estate looked remote enough, for Nick
was only 10 years old, and the 10 or II
years more which lay between him and
the point where the thorny foot-path OF
youth broadens into the smooth high
way of maturity looked almost inter-
minable to him, as to all of us at his
age, though after we have passed them
they look brief enough. Such projects
and visions naturally incapacitated
Nick for business, so much SO, indeed,
that hoggings were his daily ex-
periences.
One day, after a particularly sound
castigation, Nick made a desperate re-
solve. There was a French frigate in
the harbor, bound for Tahiti, and
aboard Of her was a mar tatooed all
over with beautiful blue and red an
chors and ships and flags and women
with fishs' tails and numberless other
designs which were as a sealed mystery
to Nick, but which he supposed a voy-
age would make him quite familiar
with This living panorama Of marine
wonders Fad excited the boys admira-
ton from the first, and he had done all
in his power by presents of fruit, etc,
to win his friendship. So well did he
succeed that the sailor offered to SNUG
gle him aboard the vessel, secrete him
till she sailed, and then, when it was
too late to do any thing about it, intro
duce him to the Captain. This function
airy, the sailor intimated, would be
likely to give him a hogging which
would quite eclipse any thing of his ex-
perience in that line, but he was con-
vinced that all would thereafter be Sc
rene. Nick accepted the sailors prop
o~sition, and was soon lying in a partie-
ularly inconvenient corner Of the hold,
in utter darkness and in the
midst of an uncomfortably smelling
cargo. Nobody discovered him,
though the search for him extended
even to the vessel in which he was hid
den, and his friend, the polychromatic
sailor, kept him well supplied with food
and water. In a day or two the frigate
sailed, and as soon as she was out of
sight of land Nick was brought on deck
by his patron, who presented him to
the Captain as a stow-away. Tha.
worthy at once knocked Nick down,
then hauled him up by the collar with
an enthusiasm which segregated it from
the rest of his coat, and beat him till
his arm ached. Then he swore ut Nick
for half an hour in Il blood-chilling
manner, but as the oaths were all in
French they did not hurt. He was then
ordered into the maintop to cool off,
and a he sat there above the pitching
deck and began to be sea-sick, he won
dered whether the charms Of ga life on
the ocean wave" had not been a little
exaggerated. After n day or two, which
he passed as much out of the Captains
range of vision as possible, Nick was
installed as cabin-boy, and gained his
first nautical knowledge in polishing
the Captains shoes, securing up his
epaulets and sword and carrying his
spittoon around, getting an oc-
casional logging from his
patron-who had pleasant
vein Of humor, and logged Nick in ac-
cordancc with his stated idea that the
rope wouldn't do him any hurt, and
might do him good, and that if he was
not at the time doing any thing worthy
of stripes it vas probable that he soon
would be, and it might not then be con
v~enient to chastise him. Besides these
bits of philosophy, Nick gained a very
good insight into the French language,
and by the time he reached Tahiti, q
French possession, he could converse
in it with considerable iluency. He
made a great many friends among the
sailors, too, and, on the whole, when
the ship reached Tahiti he was rather
sorry the voyage was at an end, and
looked with pleasure to the long jour.
ney to France which the frigate was
soon to take. But this experience Nicb
was destined never to enjoy, for wher
they reached the shore the Captain, who
like Mrs. John Gilpin, chad a fruga
mind" gave him over to the care of {
French merchant in the town, repre-
senting himself to be the boys guardi
an, and pocketing the money which thu
trader offered in consideration of having
Nick bound out to him for d term o
years.
Thus Nick found himself in reality
slave to this man, who, though calling
himself a merchant, was only a little
dried-up old French store. keeper, VIII,
sold rum and other such n~ecessaries o
life to the natives, and performed a no
( table part in the degradation and al
most complete humiliation of the PEG
!, pie which these fiery liquors and thei
consequent vices have caused. Such
man was, of course, a hard master, ant
Nick Don found that his escape from
!, service at home and his settlement il
: Tahiti had been merely a l~eisurel,
, change from the frying-pan into tn
: fire. Besides compelling the boy to wal
on customers and do all the drudger,
of the premises, in process of time hi
. master installed him in the cuisine an,
initiated him in all the mysteries o
: cooking, which, while they afterwar,
!. stood in good stead, were irksom
enough at the time, principally on &C
1 count Of the blows and malediction
: which attended the instruction. Now
among the native patrons of his mas
ter's groggery, there were several whit
people, one of whom, a gray haired an
n venerable looking Frenchman, had az
n paretly taken quite a liking to Mich
and used often to converse with hin