The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1878-06-27
THE STOWXWAY.

l
Ay, ay, sir; they're smart seamen
cnoug,h no doubt, them Dalmatians. and
reason good, too, seein' they man half the
Austrian navy; but they amt got the
seasonin' OF an Englishman, put it how
yer will"
I am standing on the upper deck of
the Austrian Lloyd steamer, and beside
me, with his elbow n the hand Trail and
his short pipe between his teeth, lounged
the stalwar. chief engineer, delighted to
get hold Of a lis1ner who, as he phrases
it, ''has been about bit"
'No; they amt got an Englishman's
more, they amt got an English,nan's
pluck neither, not when it comes to real
scrape.'
."Can no one but an Englishman have
any pluck, them" said I. laughing
well, I won't go for to say that, o
course man as is a man 'ull have pluck
in-him all the world over I've seen q
Frencher tackle shark to save his mess.
mate: and I've seed Rooshan stand to
his gun arter every man in the battery.
barrin' himself, had been blown all to
smash. But, if yer come to that. the
pluckiest Teller as ever I seed warn't a
man at all!'
"What was he then?-s. woman?"
mo, nor that neither; though, mark ye.
l don't 60 for to say as how women ain t
got pluck enough too, some of en- at
least. But this III as I'm IA talkin' on
was a little lad, not much bigger n Tom
Thumb, only with speerit of his own as
'ud ha' bowed up man-o'-war a most.
Would yer like to hear about hiU?'
| eagerly assent; and the narrators
knocking the ashes out of his pipe, fold
his brawny arms upon the top of the
rail, and commences as follows:
"'Bout three years ago aforc got this
birth as Pm in now, was second engin-
Ger aboard u Liverpool steamer bound
for New York. There'd been lot of
extra cargo sent down just ut the. last
minute, and we'd had no end of a JOB
stowin' it away, and that ran us late
O startin', so that, although, as you
may think, the cap'n. warn't alto
gether in the sweetest temper in the
world, nor the maze neither; as for the
chef engineer, he was an easy goin' sort
y chap as nothin' on earth could put out.
But on the morni' of the third day out
| from Liverpool, he cum down to me in a
precious hurry, lookin' rs if someths;n'
had put him out pretty considerably.
"Tom,' says he "what dive think?
Blest il we amt found stowaway"
(That's the name, you know, sir, as we
give to chaps as hide themselves aboard
outward bound vessels, and gets carried
out unbckno wn to everybody
"The dickens you have!' says I. 'Who
is he, and where did yer find him?'
"Weli. We found him slowed away
among the casks for ard, and ten to one
we'd never ha' twieged him at all il the
shippers dog Hadn't shifted him out and
begun barkin'. SIGH little mite as he
is too! could almost put him ia my
baccy: pouch, poor little beggar! But he
looks to be good plucky I'm for all
that"
II didn't weit to hear no more, but up
on deck like a skyrocket; and there I
did see a sight and no mistake. Every
man:Jack O. the crew, and what few pas
sengers we had aboard, was all in a ring
on the fo'c'stle, and in the middle stood
the first mate, lookin' as black as thun-
! der. Right in front of him, lookin, q
| regular mite among all them big ,fellers,
| was little bit O 4 laa not ten year old
ragged as a scarecrow, but With bright
curly hair, and bonnie little face o. his
own, if it hadn't been so woful thin and
! pale. But, bless yer soul to sec the way
| that little chap held Ills head up, and
looked about him,;you:d ha' thought the
whole ship. belonged to him. The mate
was great, hulkin blackbearded TELLER.
with q look that nd ha' frightened a
horse, and voice fit to make one jump
drought key-hole; but the young un
warn't bit afeard- he stood straight up,
and looked him full in the face with
them bright, clear eyes O. hisn, for all tie
world as # he w,is Prince Hatred him
self. Folk did say afterwards lowering
his voice to whisper) Gas how he coined
O. better blood nor what he ought; and,
for my part, I'm rayther o that way O
thinkin' myself; for I never YET seed a
common street Harab las they calls 'eiin
now carry it off Xix Inn. You might ha'
heerd pin drop as the mate spoke.
well, you young whelp,' ssatys be, in
his grimmest voice, whats :brought
] UoU neIei :. - go 49,. - 81
ut was my step-father as done it, says
the boy in weak little voice, but as stead :
as could be Fathers dead and mothers
married again, and my new father says as
how he won't have no brats about eatin'
up his wages; and he slowed me away
when nobody warn't lookin', and guv me
some grub to keep me goin' for y DAY or
two till got to sea. He SAYS I'm to 90 to
Aunt Jane at Halifax, and here's her adj
DRESS"
"And with that he slips his hand into
the breast of his shirt, and out with scrap
o paper, awful dirty, and crumbled up
but with the address on it, right enough
I'VE all believed every word ont even
without the paper; tor his look, and his
voice, and the way he spoke, was enough
to show that there warn't ha'porth o
lynn in his whole skin. But the mate
didn't seem to. swaller the yarn at all; he
only shrugged his shoulders with kind
o. grin, as much as to say, Sim too old a
bird to be caught with that kim O. chat,
and then he says to him, Look here
my lad that's all very fine, but it won't
40 here some Of these men o. mine arc
in tho secret, and I;mean to haven't out Of
en-. Now, you just point out the man as
slowed, you away iand fed you, this very
minute;i iii you don't, it'll be the worse fol
your
''The boy looked up, in his bright, fear
less way, and says; quite quietly: 'l've
tod you the truth; I amt got no more to
say"