, 1880-12-24
Love ON the High Seas.

lcL SOllC VI UA'N~0
love with you
"Fnll in love-" cried Hctty, her tip
tilted nose curling with incredulity and
Jisonst. "Who could fall in love ut sea,
I'd like to know sa'
WHO could?' asked the captain, in
innocent surprise. why, everybody
does. Whynotl" A .... =.
Hetty smiled in evident unbelief, but
Glanced futively across the deck toward
the handsome young officer where ne
leans on the rail blowing rings OF smoke
into the deep blue sky.
Mischievous Deb and the quick sighted
captain detect both, and laugh unmerci-
fully Hetty bushes, and the first officer
nncompronlisingi turns his back and II
deaf ear to the captain $ outlaws.
II is evening on shipboard, dinner is
over. the days work is done, and all are
assembled on deck
The sun. which has hung all dag like IL
copper gong upon u brass ceiling, Is now
mercifully Disappearing. The mountains
Of Lower California shine in his fast
fading rays like ''the golden hills of
heaven, while one little hummock of an
island, long and high and narrow, rises
ont of the sea like the grave mound OF
some ocean god.
For once the water is smooth; nothing
breaks its stiffness but the steamers
trail. and the sea gulls now and then
brushing it's surface. Far, far away
far as the eye can reacA-is nothing but
the same expanse of deep blue waters,
broken only by those yellow hills, now
fast vanishing into distance and night.
Overhead, only another and wider ex
panse, still "deeply, darkly, beautifully
blue" and behind cloud the new moon
Just beginning to look forth on the bois-
ferrous world below.
Prigsby, from London, explains to n
gaping audience how the scenery now
before them suffers from comparison
with that of the Rhine. Sam Roland, of
San Francisco, carelessly replies to an
inquirer that he is going prospecting for
gold in Guatemala, acknowledges it to
be "pretty risky business" admits the
country to be full OF road agents and
bushwhackers, but ''reckons he'll pull
through" Meantime Hetty and Deb,
seeing the captain had story in reserve,
settled themselves to hear it. ..
Didn't tell you how my first officer
got married? No? Well, nobody could
a been sicker'n his wife when he courted
her. III just tell you all about 1t ii you
like.
well, you see, ! haven't always been
captain OF trst-class steamer--no, stree
| ran away to sea when was IL years OF
age. and I've worked my way from the
bottom Of the ladder. Well, when l was
30, was captain of sailing vessel
in the South American trade.
81 sailed from the port of Callao, San
francisco being my destination. My
second officer was an Englishman, but
my first was an American only two or
three years younger than las good
looking young fellow as ever saw;
tall and straight and handsome, with
eyes like blue china. He was right
good fellow. too; brave and honest, but
frisky as kitten and up to all sorts of
larks.
"Well, we crept mp the coast, stopping
ut every ninth door, as our orders obliged
us to do, taking in all sorts of things, all
booked for San Francisco. Finally we
came to San Jose dc Guatemala
lies 80 miles inland.-,andr there we hove
to, and waited for chance to go ashore.
Did you ever hear of the surf on that
coast, ladies? No? Well, it often rolls
10 or 20 feet high, and good part of the
time no boat can live in it. Sorry we're
not going to stop this trip or you might
see'it,5s You see, there's really no harbor
nothing but an open roadstead-and
except in the bay Funday, this place
shows the highest and lowest tides in
the world. The people here tried to
Dulld a bfeakwater out beyond the surf,
Dqtlt breaks over it half the time, and
when 1t doesn't it breaks it to pieces.
Sometimes vessels have to ride at anchor
fora week before they can put boat
ashore.
WED only just hove to when / no
uced that ship at anchor, not far off,
Was'making signals of distress, and that
q Ooat was putting off in our direction.
VI course, we were anchored far out be-
yond the surf, and it was comparatively
easy for the boat to reach MS; so it was
soon alongside, and one of the mon came
up the SHIPS side md told me what was
wanted 1000. ..'. ".,...f
1T appears that the ship was coffee
ship from San Francisco, and had come
TO San Jose for n cargo. 1t was only
half loaded when ono Of the boats cap
sized in the surf, drowning the captain
and trSt oilicer. The second officer was
very low with fever, and they had no.
body to navigate the vessel; so they'd
had to wait in port TIL some other ship
came along and could lend EN- an officer
or somebody who understood navigation.
wei, / called up my first officer, and
put him aboard the coffee ship, and in
day or two we both sailed. We were 60
ing over just the same ground-or sea,
rather-and as the two vessels were
equally fast, we kept each other in sight
most OF the time. We'd been out about
ten days, and were in American waters
again, when all of a sudden the ship
move to, and signalled us to stop. We
ran as close tham ns lun nnnll al IL.