The Republican journal., 1881-08-18

| made her drunk, so that she could come
here quiet Did ye ever see cat like
| her ?'
When Maggie carried the cat into the
cabin, tramped up and down the deck,
more uneasy than | cared to let myself
know. 1t was not (as | told jack that |
was a believer i'll the superstitions about
eats which many sailors still encourage,
Tut because | knew what desperate work
It would be, if anything should happen,
10 keep in hand crew that had given
themselves up.
1t was getting on in the afternoon, and
was still tramping to and fro when that
eat rushed on deck with Maggie after it.
1t jumped up on the bulwarks. and
looking and poking its nose over the wa
ter, meWed. 1t leaped back to the deck
and ran along the to'c'sle and around the
caboose, and stopped and mewed again.
1t ran back toward me, and looked round
and mewed a third time; and its mewing
was loud and distressful, as if it wanted
to be let out or in. Maggie followed,
calling ''Puss, puss poor pussy :" And
there was |, and Jack, and farther off all
the crew looking and wondering at the
creatures movements and cries. There
were peculiar one sided elances and head
shakes, | SAW exchanged by the men,
10 discourage any notion there might be
that also felt concern, turned to walk
up and down as before. having first lit
my pipe. What did that eat do but trot
off at my heels, looking up and mewing
with kind Of bitter grecdincss, as if |
were the eats meat man
Catch it, Maggie" | said, ''and give
it something to eat"
''l'Ve given it something's father" said
Maggie, land it won't eat it. But maybe
it Will now y and she managed to seize
and carry it off.
Now, standing still, | noticed that the
smoke of my pipe, instead Of being blown
away, was curling slowly about my head,
rising little and forming bit Of cloud
and then melting away straight up. did
not like these signs. There was a change
working round in the weather. Of which.
let me tell YOU, the glass had given no
warning.
We had been having clear sky ana Il
fresh breeze: the breeze fell slack, our
sails tapped and 'biiged,' like as if in
disgust, and the most curious dimnesS
and thickness came down around the
ship. | am too Old Il sailor not to make
note Of every odd change in the look Of
the SEA or sky, but that was the oddest
change ever saw in mid-Ocean. ! have
read great deal OF poetry at sea, and
used to write home pieces to Magge's
mother, when she was alive God bless
her. and so have always by me a sort
Of taste and eye for what you would call
poetic effects Well, the effect that day
as the norwest breeze fell dead, and the
sun began to go down, | shall never for
get. 1t became very cold and Il myster-
Gus looking haze gathered about the
ship in a circle that got always narrower
and narrower, till we had not a hundred
feet Of clear view all round. The sea lost
its briskncSs and ripple: it took on dull,
steolN, oily look, and glided and slid about
as il it were the back OF Il monstrous
snake. We seemed at the bottom Of
pit Of darkness and dcviltry; and the
bottom We rested on was the fathomleSs
Atlantic MI around us the cncroaching
haze, and rising behind and above it, a
dense dark wall OF cloud. touched, in the
west, at its lofty broken edges, with the
dim glory OF The setting sun, and showing
little space Of pale, pure blue above,
and in the east and south appearing like
an inaccessible gray chill. From the
depths of this cliff seemed to come, by
and by faint laborcd sighs, which gradu-
ally became wilder and prolonged them
selves into walls Of distress and pain. We
shortened sail at once down to the lower
topsails.
Between 9 and 10 | tucked my little
in myself, though | knew it would be
only for a little while. That cat did
not see anywhere about.
was walked suddenly by my head be-
ing bumped against the side Of my berth.
There was loud report, like the going
off OF twenty muskets; | felt a sudden
spasm as OF choking: | caught at my
berth and sprang to my feet. You have
never been in a hurricane, dare say
Well, when it first swoops down it seems
to shut you and the ship up with too
much breath. In another minute | was
on deck the report had been the noise
Of a sail blown to pieces. Jack was roar
ing through the trumpet, the men were
shortening sail-you could just hear the
sharp creak Of ropes and pulleys through
the Wind-and that wretched eat was
hid somewhere about, mewing its very
worst. 1t was , in the morning; hurri-
cane from the northeast with bitter rain,
and we lay-to with the lee clew of the
lower maintop-sail. All on till dawn
and through the day it blew and shrieked
its oudest. Two men were at the wheel
to keep her head up, but knew that we
were driving rapidly back on our track.
The drift in the air was so dense that we
could not see five yards beyond the ship;
ard by ) O'clock it was dark. About 6
o'clock a great sea struck our bows, car
ried away our head, and let a rush OF wa
ter like a mill-race over our decks. We
recoiled a great distance, and settled
heavily in the trough of the sea. But We
rose again with shudder
On the second day, after daylight, the
hurricane abated, though it still blew a
stiff gale. But we were able to slacken
something of the grim tenacity of our
vigilance, and to look at each other
again. | liked not the looks | met. We
had passed with comparatively little
damage through 4 terrible danger; and
that would have been enough, you would
have thought, to lead the sailors to think
that both weather and ship were under
altogether different and better guidance
than the witchely Of a tabby cat. Yet
they looked sullen and hopeless. could
see from the way they eyed the creature,
and drew off from it and its dismal new
ings, that they were still bound by a
dread of what it might bring upon them.
| must confess that myself disliked the
cat, though it seemed to wander up and
down the deck and into the cabin and
lament as it did more by some kind Of
distress than from spite. Maggie was
the only one who took any notice of it;
and she fed it and followed it about with
an unWearled devotion to which the crea-
ture did not at all respond.
Next day, though the gale continued to
abate, our plight was little improved.
The Seamew carried herself heavily,
though we could not discover she was