River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1878-06-27
THE STOWAWAY.


Az, ay, sir; they're smart seamen
enough 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"
am standing on the upper deck of
the Austrian Lloyd steamer, and beside
me, with his elbow n the hand-rail and
his short pipe between his teeth, lounged
the stalwart chief engineer, delighted to
get hold of listner who, as he phrases
it, ''has been about bit"
"No; they amt got an Englishman's
seasonin'," he continues, land what's
more, they amt got an Englishman' S
pluck neither, not when it comes to real
scrape."
ssCan no one but an Englishman have
any pluck, then2" said l, laughing.
well, l won't go for to say that, o.
course a man as is 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
Quickest Teller as ever | seed warn't a
man at alll'
"What was he thenl- woman?n
''No, nor that neither; though, mark We.
| don't 60 for to say as how women amt
got pluck enough too, some of 'en at
least. But this un as I'm a talkin' on
was little lad, not much bigger n Tom
Thumb, only with speerit of his own as
I'D ha' bowed up a man-o'-war Almost.
Would yer like to hear about hin2"
| eagerly assent; and the narrators
knocking the ashes out of his pipe, fold
his brawny arms upon the top of fhe
rail, and commences as follows:
"'Bout three years ago afore got this
birth as I'm in now, l was second engin-
eer aboard Liverpool steamer bound
for New York. There'd been lot of
extra cargo seut down just at the last
minute, and we'd had ne 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 mate neither; as for the
chief engineer, he was an easy goin' sort
o. 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' as if somethin
had put him out pretty considerably.
Tom" says he "what dive think?
Blest il we amt found a stowaway."
That's the name, you know, sir, as we
give to chaps as hide themselves aboard
outward bound vessels, and gets carried
out unbeknown to everybody
"The dickens you have' says I. "Who
is he, and where did yer find him2"
''Wel. we found him slowed away
among the casks for ard, and ten to one
we'd never ha' twigged him at all il the
shippers dog hadn't shifted him out and
begun barkin'. SIGH little mite as he
is too! l could Almost put him in my
baccy pouch, poor little beggarl But he
looks to be good plucky un for all
tnat."
/" / didn't wait to hear no more, but up
on deck like a sky-rocket; and there
did see sight and no mistake. Every
man Jack o. the crew, and what few pas
sengers we had aboard, was all in 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, a
regular mite among all them big fellers,
was little bit o. a lad not ten year old
ragged as a scarecrow, but with bright
curly hair, and a bonnie little face o. his
own, if it hadn't been so woful thin and
pale But, bless yer soul TO see the way
that little chap held his head up, and
looked about him, you'd ha' thought the
whole ship belonged to him. The mate
was great, hulkin' blackbearded Teller,
with 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 the
world as f he was Prince HATRED him.
self Folk did say afterwards lowering
his voice to a Whisper s'as how he coined
o. better blood nor what he ought; and,
for my part, I'm rayther o. that way o
thinkin' myself; for | never yer seed a
common street Harab las they calls 'em
now carry it off Xix ham, You might ha'
heerd pin drop as the mate spoke.
"Well, you young whelp,' says he, in
his grimmest voice, whats brought
yo. hereq"
at was my step-father as done it, says
the boy in weak little voice, but as steady
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 warnt lookin'. and guy me
some grub to keep me goin' for day or
two till got to sea. He says I'm to go to
Aunt Jane at Halifax, and here's her adj
dress.n
"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 a 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. I'm 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,
do here some of these men o mine are
in the secret, and mean to have il out of
en-. Now, You just point out the man as
slowed you away aud fed you, this very
minuts;if you don't, It'll Do the worse for
youp
ssThe boy looked up. In his bright. fear
less wsy, and says, quite quietly: sIye
told you the truth; amt got no more to
say"