Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-05-28
THE SCHOOL.MISTRESS ON BAR,
BERRY ISLAND.


BERRY ISLAND,
"THE school-mistressP 1 want to
know if you amt heerdp Well now,
that does beat all !ns said Deacon Manley,
in answer to our question, with the air
of one who wondered in what far-away
nook of the world we could live that
such great events could transpire with
out our knowledge.
g Now this that I'm goin' to tell
YOU, about the school mistress and her
beau, sounds like the biggest kind of
yarn, and if you read it in one of your
story books you'd be very apt to say
that the feller had ought to made up
something that sounded likelier. But
it's jest as true as if the minister
preached it, every word ont.
"You see t was one day last Septem-
Der, along towards the middle o. the
month, when the summer folks was
beginnin' to thin out. was layin'
round the dock over to Porkerpine, in
my small boat, The Sarsy Fanny you
know, a waitin' for the Portland
steamer. / was expectin' some stuff
aboard of her that l was goin' to fetch
home in The Sarsy Fanny She
didn't fetch many passengers to Pork
erpine, bein' the season was about over,
but l got my eye sot on one young
feller that jumped off before
she got alongside the wharf
He acted rs if he felt pretty
much to home, and didn't care whether
school kept or not. He was dressed up
in store close, but knowed, by the cut
of his lib, that he was sailor. Icouldn't
exactly make out whether he belonged
to these parts or not, but when l see him
square in the face it kinder seemed as eff
he favored somebody that knowed. l
heerd him askin' for somebody to set
him over to Barberry Island, and took
him aboard the Fanny. Helent hand,
very lively, while was loadin' the mo-
lasses and lie that had come on the
steamer, but kinder run of an idee that
ha want no great hand for talkin'. He
took hold and handled the boat as eff he
was used to it, and bimeby l says: 4
take it you've follered the sea some,'
says l.
%" Some,' says he with a kind of
laugh 'And feller amt born on Bar
berry Island for nothin'.'
al was struck all of a heap at that;
for feller to tell me, to my face, that
he was born on Barberry Island when |
didn't know him! But after I'd thought
a spell l concluded that he might ben
born on vessel that put in for night
or so, or in some sech ereglar way. l
gin him a good sharp look, and thought
I'd seen him before; and then agin
thought hadn't.
"He looked me suddenly in the face
for considerable spell, and then says
he:
"'Is it possible that you don't know
me, DeaconP'
"Wen, l didn't, but the more 1 look
at him the more felt as if should re-
member him when he told me who he
was, and think what an old fool I'd ben
for forgettin'.
"'I'm Bart Ramsdell, says he.
"My hair riz right up, and my flesh
kinder crep'. I'd seen folks come home
before, arter a stun was set for 'em in
the graveyard and their folks had all
wore mournin', nothin' never made
me feel Just like this. You see he was
so altered. It kinder made me feel as
eff he'd ben dead and riz up agin. Bart's
looks was there-and then agin they
wa MT. Lookin' on him over could
not make out no real difference more IN
ten years would be apt to make. Bart
was only twenty when he went away,
and now he looked middlin' old for
thirty. allus thought consid able
o. Bart when he was youngster, and it
did beat me that | hadn't hnoWed him.
He was full of mischief, but he allus
owned up to his capers, and when he
gin you his word you could trust him.
He allus had mischievous twinkle in
his eye, but couldn't see no signs o.
that now, and there wa MT no naterai-
ness in the way he looked at me out OF
his eyes.
Z" "'You be Bart--and then agin you
amt, says 1.
"And upon that he threw back his
head and laughed, real kind of material,
and like boy; and my heart kinder
begun to 90 out to him. And when
thought of his father and mother, the
old Cap'n and Mis- Aminidab, and
Garafely, was a good mind to git down
on my knees right there and thank the
Lord for all his marcies. Afterwards ]
was kinder glad / didn't. It's pooty
hard, sometimes, for poor human mater
to tell what is marcies and what hain't
hain't a sayin' but what every thing
that comes from the hands Of the Lord
is marcies, i,s a giHeraL lOay''-and here
the Deacon looked somewhat perplexed
and scratched his head a little-"but
it's just as well not to give thanks fol
no pertickler thing, till you've waited a
spell to see bot0 Us agOin' TO turn out.
"Well, if 1 didn't get down on my
knees then, my heart riz up in thank
fulness for the Joy that was acomin' tC
them three-the old folks and Garafely
l sot by Garafely, and so does folks gin
orally. We never calkilated there was