The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1881-07-07
Out OF the Depths

Ont OF tno DeptnS.
B} g. " BENJAMIN.
| Captain AbijaIl Baker had been to sea
ever since his fourteenth year. He was
born on the Cape there he found his
wife: there his children were born
| there stood the house he had built to
which he had always returned for Il few
! DAYS Mt the end of each voyage: and
thithcr he had come at last after forty
Years of wandering on the ocean to pass
| the remainder of his days, ON amodcrate
! bat snug competence Wrenched from the
mad Sea-WaEcs, until he should once
more launch his bark on the voyage from
which no traveller returns. His boy had
also taken early to the water, and was
now skipper of the fishing schooner Gen
tie Annie. He was engaged to Lucy
| May, the lady who taught the district
school and after one or two more sue
cessfuI trips to the Banks the wedding
was to come off.
= Captain Baker was Il noble specimen
! Of the mariners they used to turn out on
| Cape Cod. Nearly six feet tall. broad
| chested and broad -shoutlered, he still
walked erect As in his youth and the
keen, honest, fearless look Of his blue
| eyes from under their roofing Of shaggy
gray eyebrows was aS undjmmed as when
he first trod the quarterback. But if
sometimes their glance was stern and
! uncompromising, there lurkcd in them
also untathomcd possibilities Of good
natured mirth, and not rarely an express
sion which showed that under a bluff
exterior he carried Il warm, true heart.
Mrs Baker still survived, after twenty
six years of welded life. to have her ''old
man with her, and with him to share
the remaining Years of life. When they
were first married she made several Voy-
ages with her husband. but the invaria-
ble sea-scllncss which prosecuted her on
shipbOard. and the growing demands Of
her children, obliged hcr to remain at
home to WO]ly for him on stormy nights,
and realize the truth of the French
| proyerb. ''Femme de malm. femme de
| chagrln.
Her daughter Mary, now 4 girl OF
| twenty. had tended to assuage her soil
| Jude while husband and son were battling
with winds and waves thousands OF miles
away. Mrs Baker was one of those
women OF tact and character who, while
|
! spirit, had the penetration to perceive
that in the family as on the quarterback
there can only be one captain. even when
the mate knows more than the captain
about navigation, and that even for her
own comfort merely. and tOrttaln her in
luence over him. it was better to yield to
and cooperate in the life plans Of her
husband than to thWart them by direct
opposition. A thoroughly practical New
| England woman, generally undemonstra-
tive but faithful in her affections. portly
and warm hearted, Mrs, Baker accepted
with serene content the prospect OF haV-
inc Abijah with her, as never before dur
ing all their married years, with their son
and daughter ill-laW settled near them,
and possibly divers grand -children tod
ding in the spring sunshine before the
grandparental door.
But Fate seemed to have otherwise de-
termined, or at least awhile longer defer
red good Mrs. Bakers entrance into pos
session of these castles in Spain. 1t is a
hard thing for a man still in active pos
session OF his own powers suddenly to alb
dictate the throne and retire into peaceful
inaction. When he is oppressed by the
storms OF life he looks longingly forward
to a tranquil rest under bis own vine anC
lig-trec But the strongest muscles con
demned to inactiOn become tiabby anC
weak, the keenest blade hanging unused
en wall is eaten with rust, and the brain
ceasing its Wonted habits of action. soft
ems and decays, and senility comes OF
apace Many men, instinctiyely con
scious of this tendency after they have
tried rest for Il time, chaie once more fol
a field whereOn to exercise their powers
and spring back to the arena to begil
life anew. but so heavily handicapped by
age or the more recent habits OF lethargy
that they learn when it is too late the mis-
take they made in 50 soon quitting thei
life pursuits.
1t was not long before Captain Bake
began to realize the truth of these ob
seryations. To spend the remainder 0
his days hoeing potato hills and turning
his melons and squashes to the sun on The
sere soil of the Cape, or rOSclllating between
his house and the village store, with al
occasional trip to Boston, was rather too
placid and monOtOnOus a change for
man who had listened all his days to tht
creaking of tackle blocks and the thun
derous and frantic tapping of topsais il
Atlantic squals-a man, too, in whose
veins still thrObbed a manly VigOr, il
whose heart still thr0bbed an homes
: ambition. The growing uneasiness o
her husband, the restlessness and annoy
ed discomfort so unusual in his frank ant
, generous nature, were not unpercelved b,
) Mrs. Baker: she toresaw the inevitable
: result but kept her own cOunSelS. Blu
when he returned one day from Bostol
with a sober but brisk and determined
air, she was prepared to hear him say
, "Well, mother''-he always called he
mother-'I don't s'pose you'll like it YER
WE'LL and it comes kind of hard for me t.
tell ye, but Pm going ona v'yge to Smyr
J ny; | sail next week"
~ mistrusted somethin' Of the sor
when you went to Boston | knew 'twan'
for nothing you were going up there S
often. But what on airth possesses yo
to 90 to sea again, Abijah Here yo
5 are, everything just as coy as can be
and amt seen much of ye since we stoo
up afore the minister twenty seven year
ago come next October; and here
Johnnie going to be married maybe mex
} Thanksgiving.
, "Well, you see it's just here hate t
go and leave ye, but then what's a ma
: to do if he amt got no trade ashore t
keep him busye And feel just as spr
as when | first took command of the Will
} Rover. | don't mean to go to sea agai
i for good, but let me just 60 one NOR
| v'yge, and I'll get over this hankeriH
for it. Anyway, didn't really mean