The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-09-17


than cared to let myself know. 1t was not
Gas told jack that was a believer in the SUI
perstitions about cats which many sailors still
encourage, but because knew what desperate
work it would be, if anything should happen,
to keep in hand crew that had given them
selves up.
1t was just 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 its nose over the water mewed. 1t
leaped back to the deck, and ran along toward
the fo'c'sle and round the caboose, and
stopped and mewed again. 1t ran back
toward me, and looked round and mewed
third time; and its mewing was loud and dis
tressful, if it wanted to be let out or let in.
Maggie followed, calling "Puss, puss poor
pussy!' And there was i, and Jack, and
farther off all the crew looking on and wonder
ing at the creatures movements and. cries.
There were peculiar one-sided glances and
head shakes | saw, exchanged by the men.
To 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 cat do but trot off at my heels, look
| ing up and mewing with a kind of bitter
| greediness, as if | were the cat's-meat man!
Catch It, Maggie" said "and give it
something to eat.n
give given it something, father" said
Maggie, "and it won't eat it. But maybe 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, raising little
and forming 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 warning.
We had been having a clear sky and a fresh
breeze the breeze fell slack, our sails tapped
and "bilged,n like as il in disgust, and the
most curious dimness and thickness came
down around the ship. / am too old a sailor
to make note of every odd change in the look
of the sea or sky, but that was the oldest
change l ever saw in mid-ocean. have read
deal of poetry at sea, and L 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, | shall
never forget. 1t became very cold and a
mysterious looking haze gathered about
the ship In circle that got always mar
rover and narrower, till we had not
hundred feet of clear view all
round. The sea lost its briskness and rim
pie; 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 pit OF darkness and deyiltry; and the bot
tom we rested on was the fathomless Atlantic!
All around us the encroaching haze, and rising
behind and above it ~ 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, labored signs, which gradually became
wilder and prolonged themselves into walls of
distress and pain. We shortened sail at once
down to the lower tOp-SailS.
Between nine and ten | tucked my little
Maggie safe into her berth, and turned in nv
self, though | knew it would be only for lit
tie while. That cat | did not see anywhere
about.
I.was walked suddenly by my head being
bumped against the side of my berth There
was loud report, like the going off of twenty
muskets; L felt a sudden spasm as of choking:
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 with too much breath
In another minute was on deck; the report
had been the noise of sheet blown to pieces
Jack was roaring 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 cat was hid
somewhere about, mewing its very worst. 1t
was two in the morning; hurricane from the
northeast, with bitter rain and we lay-to with
the lee clew of the lower maintopsail All on
OliI udhl anu JlliOuSll Jut udy IL DleW anu
shrieked its loudest. Two men were at the
wheel to keep her head up, but knew that for
all 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:
and by five O'Clock it was dark. About six
O'Clock a great sea struck our bows, carried
away our head, and let rush of water like
mill-race over our decks. We recoiled great
distance, and settled heavily in the trough of
the sea. But we rose again with shudder.
On the second day, after daylight, the hur-
ricane abated, though it still blew stiff gale
But were able to slacken something of the
grim tenacity of our vigilance, end to look at
each other again. liked not the looks met
We had passed with comparatively little dam
age through 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 witchery of 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 mewings,
that they were still bound by dread of what
it might bring upon them. | must confess
that myself disliked the cat, though it seemed
moved to wander up and down the deck and
1t to the cabin, and to lament as it did more
by some kind of distress than from spite. Mag
gle was the only one who took any notice of
it, and she fed it and followed it about with
an unwearied devotion to which the creature
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 making water.
The wind was still northeast, aga inst which
she not only made no head, but kept losing
way. | was therefore, not surprised when
Jack came to me in the cabin and said:
There's something going ON for'ard-no
end o. talk and tobacco iuicen
We went on deck.
" Look at them, continued Jack g there by
the Chains. See how they shove their shout
ders into each other. When a sailor does that,
and pulls his own ear as Dick Sandys is doing
there's something up And they half-look this
way. All, here they come"
There were three of them, headed by Dick
Sandys, shyly shouldering their way aft. Dick
came pretty straight, pulling at his ear, with
his eyes cast down, but with his round, rudy
face shining steadily forward; his comrades
lurched about looking from side to side, and
touching things as they passed.
swell, Dick" said /, ''you want to speak
to me, suppose, you and your matesp'
Ay, ay, sir; if you will kindly give us a
word: Me and them, sir Jerking his thumb
over his shoulder" come as a deprivation
from the fo'c'sle. We amt got no notion o.
debating to the Capting, but we want to put
We in possession, sir, of what we're thinking
about Eli, mates!"
Gay, ay."
g We see how it's going to be- This here
v'yage I'll never come to no good end. The
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