Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-08
OET or TIE DEPTHS.

Captain Abijah Baker had been to sea ever
since his fourteenth year. He was bonn on
the Cape there he found his wife there his
children We're born there stood the house
he had built, TO which he always returned for
Il few days at the end of each voyage: aud
thither he had come at last after forty years
of wandering OH the ocean to pass the re-
mainder of his days, on a moderate but snug
competence wrenched from the mad sea-
waves, until he should once more launch his
bark on the voyage from which no Traveller
returns. His boy had also taken early to the
water, and was now skipper of the fishing
schooner Gentle Annie, He was engaged to
Lucy May, the lady who taught the district
school, and after one or two more successful
trips to the Banks the wedding was TO come
of.
Captain Baker was a noble specimen of the
mariners they used to turn out on Cape Cod.
Nearly six feet tall, broad-chested and broad
slouldered, he still walked erect as in his
youth and the keen, honest, fearless look
Of his blue eyes from under their roofing Of
shaggy gray eyebrows was as undimmed as
when he first trod the quarterback. But if
sometimes their glance was stern and uncom-
promising, there lurked in them also unfath-
oned possibilities of good-natured mirth, and
not rarely an expression which showed that
under bluff exterior he carried warm, true
heart.
Mrs. Baker still survived, after twenty-six
years Of welded life, to have her "Old man
with her, and with him to share the remain
ing years of life. When they were first mar
ritd she made several voyages with her hus-
band but the invariablo sea-sickness which
prosecuted her ON shipboard, and the grow
ing demands Of her children, obliged her to
remain at home to worry for him on stormy
pF 1a EreTsb
proverb, Femme de marin, femme de cha
rim"
Her daughter Mary, now q girl of twenty,
had tended to assuage her solitude while hus-
band and son were battling with winds and
waves thousands of miles away. Mrs. Baker
was one Of those women of tact and charac-
ter who, while not at all lacking in independ-
ence and spirit, had the penetration to per
ceive that in the family as on the quarter
deck, there can be only one captain, even
when the mate knows more than the captain
about navigation, and that even for her own
comfort merely, and to retain her influence
over him. it was better to yield to and coop
crate in the life-plans of her husband than to
thwart them by direct opposition. A thor
oughly practical New England woman, gener-
ally undemonstrative but faithful in her af-
fections, portly and warm hearted Mrs. Ba-
ker accepted with serene content the pros
pect of having Abijah with her as never be-
fore during all their married years, with THEN
son and daughter-in-law settled near them,
and possibly divers grandchildren toddling
in the spring sunshine before the grandpa
rental door
But Fate seemed to have otherwise deter
mined. or at least awhile longer deferred
good Mrs Bakers entrance into possession OF
these castles in Spain. 1t is hard thing for
man still in active possession of his powers
suddenly to abdicate the throne and retire in
TO peaceful inaction. When he is oppressed
by the storms of life he looks longingly for
ward to tranquil rest under his own vine
and fig-tree. But the strongest muscles con
demned to inaction become habby and weak,
tbe keenest blade hanging unused ON wall
is eaten with rust and the brain, ceasing its
wonted habits of action, softens and decays
and senility comes on apace. Many men, IN
stinotiyely conscious of this tendency aitel