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


'Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed."
Old superstitions, like old religions, take a
great deal of killing. About no four-footed
creatures have religious beliefs or supersti-
tions chung more tenaciously than about the
cat, from the feline deity of Egypt, and the
gaunt grimalkin of the witches, to the tame
tabby OF our fireside. 1t is difficult, however
to believe that, in this quarter of the nine
teenth century and among sane Englishmen,
pussy should ever be an object of fear and
foreboding. Yet hear the story of my friend,
the Captain OF the Seamew, recently come into
port after an unusually stormy and strange
passage from Baltimore.
We had capital run for several days. After
dropping down the river we gave her sheet
across the cold belt of water that lies along
the coast, and out we 'swished" into the
stream and away along it.
Jack" says to the mate who has sailed
with me in the Seamew a many years, 'shome
in thirty days. EhH'
"Humph," said Jack, "mayben Jack was
Scotchman and cautious about an opinion,
Well, on March IA Il have reason to remem-
Der the date), a little after twelve O'Clock. in
latitude forty-one degrees north and longitude
fifty-three west Il had just taken our bearings
and remember 'em), l was sweeping around
with my glass careless like when sighted a
ship on our starboard bow. l had a good
look she was bark, and was flying signals
of distress | called Jack.
odSh9 odlu WHICH, Ldu lOOheu, 'Wnat
do you think! We must bear down on her,
suppose"
"Humph," said Jack CAY, SUPPOSE
We shortened sail and bore down We came
within hail, but nobody answered from the
bark, Presently, though, boat was
pulling weak and ''dippy."
Then man stood up in the middle of the
boat, tugged his coat off and waved it, and
sang out "Ahoy Ahoy!" in a half-cracked
kind OF voice: This was strange, and /
tramped up and down, impatient to hear what
they wanted.
eve are starvingr That's what the Cap
tain that stood up in the middle said g We
are starving" said he 'The Lily of Ply
mouth, outward bound for Baltimore"
We got 'em up the side. | took the master
into the cabin and sent the men for'ard. Lord
to see that man drink and eat With delir-
1ous ea9erness, as you might say, and yet
afraid to eat too fast or too much He knew
he must keep in his awful appetite and still it
would keep breaking from him. He told us
this story in scraps between: They had been
provisioned for three months, and that was
their 125th day out! The weather they had
experienced had been most peculiar; not
stormy, but playful and perverse-like; some
times blowing this way, sometimes that often
not blowing at all. Near eleven weeks had
gone by before they sighted Cape Henry, and
when they did down came furious, sprawlng
III.
And so they had beaten about in adverse
winds, of course, ever since. Their last dro }
of water and their last scrap of biscuit went
five days ago. Then they came to cooking
their boots and sucking the oil from the lamps
even from the pinnacle
We ate my dog lastr' And the poor fell
low burst into tears. las sure as fate,n said
he, looking oddly at me, we have been be-
witched.H
Bewitchedm said l. "What, now-what
makes you think of such a thinge'
All, well, y said he, " don't know. But
Wen see"
After that he was in hurry to return to his
ship. We filled their long boat and boat of
our own with all the provisions we thought we
could spare land there were thirteen of 'em.
an awkward number to feedl. Jack went
with our boat, and when he came back, saws
he to me:
4" That shippers not bad sort, though he
be Cardiff man. He's sent We this key o.
spirits-and it's maybe as well out o. their way
now and, what dye think! four bottles O,
champagne in the basket here! They had
thought o. saving them for land sight, but
he's sent them to your
We looked in the basket of champagne at
once. The bottles lay sloped in, with their
heads out. Underneath was lifting packing.
straw, and underneath that-oh, Jacks face
and language when he saw tia tabby, a
brinded cat, lying curled up asleep.
OPP cried Jack. 80, the sly, ungrateful
devil. This Is your Welshman your Taffv
This is what he thought he was WI bewitched
VII! And he's been afraid to make away vii
1t! So he sends the witchcraft here The
coward he is! But Wen play Jonah's trick
and chance the whale"
So he seized the cat and swung out his arm
to toss It overheard; when my little Maggie,
that sailed with me this voyage, and that
scarce understood his words, but Understood
his action, caught his wrist and cried.