Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-06-23
THE STOWAWAY.

Ay, ay, SIR. They're smart seamen
enoug, h no doubt, them Dalmatians, and
reason good, too, seein' they man half the
Austrian navy; but they amt got the
seasonin' of an Englishuan, 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 a listner who, as he phrases
it, ''has been about a bit.''
"No; they amt got an Englishmans
seasonin'," he continues, "and what's
more, they amt got an Englishman's
pluck neither, not when it comes to real
scrape.' .-
Scan no one but an Englishman have
any pluck, them" said I, laughing.
"Well, 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 a
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
pluCAlcSl 1Cllcl DIS CYGI l. SccU "dIu d
man at alp
''What was he then?-a woman?'
"No, nor that neither; though, mark ye,
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 talkin' on
was little lad, not much bigger n Tom
Thumb, only with a speerit Of his own as
'ud ha' blowed up a man-o'-war almost.
Would yer like to hear about hiu?"
I eagerly assent; and the nara tors
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 afore got this
birth as Pm in now, was second engin-
Ger aboard Liverpool steamer bound
for New York. There'd been lot of
extra cargo sent down just at the last
minute, and we'd had no end Of 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
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
precious hurry, lookin' as if sonaetham'
had put him out pretty considerably.
'Tom," says he "what dye think?
Blest it we amt found stowaway.' y
(That's the name, you know, sir, as we
give to chaps as hide themselves aboard
outward bound vessels, and gets carried
out unbekno WI to everybody
"The dickens you have!" says 1. 'sWho
is he, and where did yer find hing
"Well, 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! could Almost put him in my
baccy- pouch, poor little beggar! But he
looks to be good plucky un for all
that"
I didn't wait to hear no more, but up
on deck like a sky-rocket; 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, 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 bonnie little face O. his
own, If it hadn't been 50 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 a great, hulkin' blackbearded Teller,
with a look that nd ha' frightened a
horse, and voice fit to make one jump
drought a key-hole; but the young un
warn't a 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 # he was Prince Hatred him
self. Folk did say afterwards lowering
his voice to a 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 1 never YET seed a
common street Harab Gas they calls 'em
now) carry it off lik hena. You might ha'
heerd a pin drop as the mate spoke
swell, you young whelp,' says he, in
his grimmest voice, whats brought
you here?"
1T 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 warn't lookin', and guy me
some grub to keep me goin' for a day OF
two till 1 got to sea. He says I'm to 60 tc
Aunt Jane at Halifax, and here's her ad.
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
"We all believed every word ont even
without the paper; for his look, and his
voice, and the way he spoke, was enough
to show that there warn't a ha'porth 8
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 8
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 art
in the secret, and I mean to have it out o
'cm. Now, you just point out the man al
slowed you away and fed you, this very