The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-10-18

Dphhidlu, duu tuey luoiuselNbb WOHueI-
ed not a little, as the years went by,
who his parents were. The passenger
list of the steamer in London, they
ascertaned, did not contain the names
of any persons in the cabin with an in
fant except themselves; nor could they
remember having seen or heard another
child during the three days they were at
sea before the accident occurred 1t did
not seem probable, either, that the child
could have belonged to any of the steer
age passengers, for,iD that case, it would
not have been in the saloon. BY degrees
however, the past faded away and spec
ulation about the boys parentage had
far less interest for them than what his
future was to be. He was bright and
full of spirit and under Mr.. Forsythe's
scholarly manipulation developed prom
isingly from year to year.
Sitting before the library fire winter
evenings, Mrs. Forsythe used to watch
both with great pleasure-her husband
bent over his favorite books, with Ru-
pert's glossy black head close to his,
busy with the same employment. She
would build catles for the boy, too, now
and then, and dreaded little the time
when he would goaway to college, where
Mr.. Forsythe intended to send him;
but it turned out, strangely enough,
that before that time came her thoughts
were turned back again to the baby she
had lost, and all her affection and an
guish for it were painfully revived.
One afternoon, several years after the
event which has been related, Mr.. For
sythe brought home with him from the
city an odd-looking man, to take charge
of his stable and garden. He had a
set, limped badly, had rings in his ears,
and wore the sailors conventional pea
jacket and tarpaulin hat. 1t was also
discovered, when he had been about the
premises for q few days, that both of
his arms were profusely decorated with
India.ink anchors and stars and that one
of his fingers was missing.
You see, ma'am, L amt much to
look at, bein' rather the wus for wear"
he said to Mrs. Forsythe, apologetically;
but can cut and splice round the
grounds and have an eye to most any
thing that comes handy"
This assertion proved to be quite true;
and, taking up his quarters in little
room over the stable, he soon made him.
self at home and indispensable to the
family. He had been at sea nearly all
his life, he said, until he injured one of
his feet. After that he had been obliged
to make shift to do something else,
and had hit on gardening.
"Its sort o. life that's gut poetry in
it, you see, he explained, while trim
ming the vines around the piazza, land
kinder took to it one way and an
other"
When asked bowit came about that he
had lost the missing finger of his right t
hand, he scratched his head refectively
a moment, then sat down on the piazza
steps and fell into an photographed
mood that was not anticipated.
"Unless I'm off my reckonin', it was
hard on to eighteen year ago that the
thing happened" he said. I'D been
cruisin' bout the Pacific, and gut sort
o. tired o. the thing. So L took fancy
inter my head to try somethin' steady
aboard o. a Liverpool steamer. Luck
was always agin me, though, whenever
tried settlin' down to anythin' reg g'ler;
and the steamer went down afore we'd
been out four days"
He paused as Mrs. Forsythe came
over to the end of the piazza where her
husband was his auditor, and then con-
tinued:
1T was all over in ten minutes. you
see; and the first anybody knowed,
they were either splashin' round in
one o. the boats or rollin' on the waves.
In oufboat there was more'n dozen
men an women; but afore morDin' only
my mate and me and little babe was
left. She turned right over, you see,
in spite of all we could do, and emptied
everybody inter the trough o. the sea-
My hand gut caught, somehow, in the
rowlock, and / give it such yank that
1t tore that finger clean Off; but WASH t
slow, for all that, in a-climbin' onto the
bottom o. that boat. My mate he'd gut
there fust and lent me hand.
"' Jack, my man. said he, a. breathin'
like whale, we're in for 1t this time,
anyhow"
"' SO be it, said /, for was little