Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-10-07
THE TABLES TURNED.
A Temperance Story.

One evening, not long since, a nun
ber of us, old ship masters, CHANGED to
meet at a social supper, and after the
cloth was removed we went in for yarn
spinning. Among our number was
Capt. Richard Nutter, and finer man,
or better sailor, never trod a deck. At
lon 9Th it camo his turn to tell story,
or, what we preferred-and what the
rest of us had done-relate some Incl
dent of experience in his own life.
swell, boys" he said, as he rejected
the wine, which was at that moment
passed to him for the first time, 81 will
give you n bit of the early part of my
ocean life, and it is very important bit,
too, for upon it have built the whole
of my subsequent manhood"
We prepared to listen to Captain Nut
ter with the most perfect attention, for
he was not only an old seaman, but one
Of the most successful commanders in
our mercantile marine. We listened,
and his story was as follows
81 was very young when first enter
ed on shipboard, and at the age of four
teen considered myself quite sailor.
When was eighteen I was shipped on
board an East Indianman, for a long
voyage. There were six of us on board
of about the same age, and we had
about the same duties to perform, The
ship-the old Lady Dunlap-was large
one, and our crew was large in proper
tion, there being fifty-two, all tod. We
'boys,' as we were called, messed to-
gether, and in all other respects we're
10 &c
as much as the officers we're. Our cap.
tain was noble hearted, honorable man,
kind and generous, but yet very strict.
Of course we youngsters found plenty
of occasion to find fault with him, and
very often were his decisions arraigned
before our mess and decidedly condemn
ed. In fact. we should have reversed
many of his judgments if we had had
the power; but rs he was the command
er, and we only foremast hands-and
boys at that-he had his own way, and
the luminous decisions we came to were
consequently of no avail, and lost to the
world.
"Now We boys had learned, in the
course of our travels, to drink grog as
well as any sailors. We could toss off
6iucb Va kuL WdvCA WlVu no uuuCu
grace as any one, and we claimed the
right 80 to do, not only as a privilege,
but as an honor to which life upon the
ocean entitled us. But even in this re-
spect our captain pretended to differ
from us. When we could get on shore
we would invariably indulge in our
cups, and not infrequently would we
come off, or be brought of, in state
anything but sober. I say 'we,' but
there was one of our number who could
not be induced to touch a drop of any
thing intoxicating. His name was John
Small, and he belonged in one of the
back towns of New Jersey.
SHOW Jack Small not only refrained
entirely from drinking himself, but he
used sometimes to ask us to let the stuff
alone. He gave that job up, however,
for we made such sport of him that he
was glad to let us alone. But our cap
tain had sharp eyes, and it was not long
before he begun to show Jack Small
favors which he did not show to us. He
would often take Jack on shore with
him to spend the night, and such things
as that, while we were kept on board
the ship. or course this created sort
OF envy on our part, and it ended in q
decided i'll will toward poor Jack.
"Now, in truth, Jack was one Of the