Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-06-27
THE STOWAWAY.

THE STOWAWAY.
Ay, 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 wlli..'
I 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 q iistner who, as he phrases
it, has been about bit"
"No; they amt got an Englishman' 5
seasonin," he continues, land what's
more, they ain't got an Englishman' S
pluck neither, not when it comes to a real
scrape.
Can no one but an Englishman have
any pluck. them" said I: laughing.
"Well, / won't 60 for to say that, O
course man as Is a 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
Quickest Teller as ever I seed warn't a
man at air.
"What was he then: "a woman?"
"No, nor that neither; though, mark ye,
I don't 60 for to say as how women aim
got pluck enough too. some of 'em at
least. But this III as I'm talkin' on
was little lad, not much bigger n Tom
Thumb, only with a speerit Of his own as
nd ha' blowed up a man-o'-war Almost.
Would yer like to hear about himl"
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 afore got this
birth as I'm in now, l was second engin-
Ger 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 no end of a jon
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 a
precious hurry. lookin' as if somethin'
had put him out pretty considerably.
1" Tom," says he "what dive think?
Blest it we amt found a stowaway
CHATS 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 l. "Who
is he, and where did yer find him?"
swell, we found him slowed away
among the casks for ard, and ten to one
we'd never ha' twigged him at all ii 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'
II didn't wait to hear no more, but W
on deck like a sky-rockct; 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, 6
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. hii
own, if it hadn't been so woful thin and
,,n1o P,,f h0oeo tn
that little chap held his head up, ano
looked about him, you'd ha' thought the
whole ship belonged to him. Tie mate
was a great, hulkin' blackbearded Teller
with a look that :ud ha' frightened {
horse, and voice fit to meke one jumr
drought key-hole; but the young III
warnt a bit afcard- he stood straight up
and looked him full in the face will
them bright, clear eyes O. hisn, for all thu
world as # he was Prince Hatred him
self. Folk did say afterwards Qowerine
his voice to whisper) las how he colnet
O better blood nor what he ought; and
for my part, I'm rayther O. that way Q
thinkin' myself; for l never yet seed
common street Harab las they calls 'en
now carry it of. Xix han. You might ha
herd pin drop as the mate spoke.
DWELL, you young whelp,' says he, il
his grimmest voice, "what's brough
you here2"
ut was my step-father as~done it, say
the boy in weak little voice, but as stead,
as could be. Fathers dead and mother
married again, and my new father says a
how he won't have no brats about catin
up his wages; and he, slowed me ava,
when nobody warh't lookin', and guy NJ
some grub to keep me goin' for a day. o
two till 1 got to sea. He says 1'mto go.t'
"A unit Jane at Halifax, and here's her ad
dress"
"And with that he slips his hand int,
the breast of his shirt, and out with scra]
o paper, awful dirty, and crumbled VI
but with the address on it, right enough
I'VE all believed every word ont eve,
without tho paper; tor his look, and hi
voice, and the: way he spoke, was enough
to show that there warn't a. ha porth Q
lynn in his whole skin. But the mat
didn't seem to swaller the yarn at all h
only shrugged his shoulders with a. ,kint
o'grin, as much as to say, I'm too old
bird to be caught with that kim O. chat
and then be says to him, Look her,
my lad; that's all very tine,: but it won't
do here, some Of these. men o. mine ar,
in the secret, and mean to have it out o
en- Now, you just point out the man a
slowed you away and fed you, this yer,
mipute;it you don't, it'll be the worse 70
you'll! 49,. -.
"The boy looked up, in his bright, fear
less way, and says, quite quietly: "l'v
told you the truth; I amt got no more t
say"