Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-08-17

] all the while nelp1nS 10 maui up the DOaU
by the davit line, and keeping, as I had
observed, sidelong eye on the basket.
"There's them abroad this here Seamew,
and [ don't say as l amt one on 'em
myself, as III straight off begin to think
the rare luck Of this here present wage
is gone. But they'll dread worser luck,
sir, if We throw overheard a brindled cat
as has been carried aboard across water. F."
SIS that so ?'' asked Jack.
YES" said in low voice. GIVE
heard that before. But" said I aloud,
and looking at Dick, and trying to work
off my uneasiness in q joke, chow can
you have 'sea or any other NEW
without cat %
'tThis cat" said Jack, scarcely looks
as if she weuld NEW again. Just look
at her-skin and bone"
My little Maggie had walked her up
with stroking, and the wretched creature
tried to stand up and to walk, rubbing
against Maggie's leg. But she fell over
aud over again. Jack caught the ami
NAL up, and shifted her breath, while
she gave him an averted look, which to
me seemed almost human.
"S'elp me - cried Jack ''If they
haven't made her drunk, so that she
should come here quiet Did we 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. It was not Gas I told jack that
L was believer In the superstitions
about cats which many sailors still en-
courage, but because [ knew what des-
perate work it would be, if anything
should happen, to 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 cat rushed on deck, with Maggie
after it. 1t jumped up on the bulwarks,
and, looking and poking it's nose over the
water, meawed. It leaped back to the
| deck, and ran along toward the ,fo'c'sle
| and round the caboose, and stopped and
meawed again. It ran back toward me,
and looked round and meawed a third
time; and its meawing was loud and dis
tressful, as if it wanted to be let out or
let in. Maggie followed, calling "Puss,
puss poor pussy - And there was [,
and Jack, and farther off all the crew
looking on and wondering at the
creatures movements and cries. There
were peculiar one-sided chances and
head shakes, [ saw, exchanged by the
men. To discourage any notion there
might be that L also felt concern, |
turned to walk up and down as before,
having first lit my pipe. What did that
cat do but trot off at my heels, looking
up and meawing with a kind of bitter
greediness, as if [ were the cats meat
mani
"Catch it, Maggie" I said, "and
give it something to eat
GIVE given it something, father"
said Maggie, "and it won't eat it. But
may be it will now" 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 a bit of
cloud and then melting away straight up
[ did not like these signs. There was
change working round in the weather; of
which, let me tell you, the glass had
given no warming.
We had been having clear sky and
fresh breeze; the breeze fell slack, our
sails tapped and obliged like as if in
disgust, and the most curious dimness
and thickness came down around The
ship. I am too old sailor to make
note of every odd change in the look of
the sea or sky, but that was the oldest
change ever saw in mid-ocean. [ have
read a deal of poetry at sea, and [ used
to write home pieces to Maggie's
mother, when she was alive, God bless
her and SO have always by me sort
of taste and eye for what you would call
"poetic effects. Well, the effect that
day as the nor'west breeze fell dead and
the sun began to go down I shall never
forget. 1t became very cold and mys-
demonstrating haze gathered about the
ship III circle that got always narrower
and narrower, till we had not a hun
dred feet of clear view all round. The
sea lost its briskness and ripple; it took
on dull, steely, oily look, and glided
| and slid about as if it were the back of
| monstrous snake. We seemed at the
bottom of a pit OF darkness and deviltry;
| and the bottom we rested on was the
fathomless Atlantic! Ali around us the
| encroaching 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 cliff. From the depths of this cliff
seemed to come by and by faint labor
ed signs, which gradually became wilder
and prolonged themvelves into walls of
distress and pain. We shortened sail
at once down to the lower top-sails.
Between and 10 [ tucked my little
Maggie safe into her berth, and turned
in myself, though I knew it would be
only for little while. That cat I 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
sudden spasm as of choking; I caught
at my berth and sprang to my feet. You
have never been in hurricane, dare
say? Well, when it first swoops down,
it seems to shut you and the ship up