The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-07-07
THE COPPERING PET.

was wandering through the suburbs
of one of our smallest and most veneer
able seaport towns, when L came upon
the graveyard. One of the graves par
ticularly attracted my attention. 1t was
covered by large and flat stone, which
bore an inscription reading as follows:
"Here lies the body and worldly sab
stance of Capt. William Mereen, skip
per of this port, and father of Polly Me-
reen, who sailed from here In the Coz
pering Pet, in July, 1869. In 1901 he
was born in this town, where he died in
1871. The body shall remain here until
resurrected by the last trump, and the
worldly substance shall stay with it I'M
Gil his daughter Polly shall raise this
stone and take from under it her own. "
AS was turning away from the grave
I saw on the road On elderly man APP
preaching. had met him before. He
was weather beaten parsonage with q
sea-faring demeanor, and his name was
Wonderment Sanchez. l saw he was in
. hurry, but l stopped him and asked
If he could explain the inscrip ion on
this tomb.
"It's GURUS" he said, "that you
should ask me such thing at this time
The Copperin' Pet is lynn off the bar |;
I've been q watchin' fur her fur years,
and i can't be mistook in her. She'll
come over at high water, and I've been
60 hunt our pilots, but all three of 'em
have gone up the river fishing. I'm no
pilot but I'm goin' out to the Pet In my
boat. The Captain ought to know the
bar, fur he was raised here, and perhaps
he'll bring her In himself. If you like
I'll take you out with me, and I'll tell
yol all about that tombstone on the
way"
i replied that nothing would please
me better, and in fifteen minutes we
were rowing over the water toward the
bar.
"Billy Mereen," said Wonderment,
-"was an old friend of mine. He made
many v'yges and brought back many
.cUr'us things, principally made out OF
whales jawbones. He had great likin'
fur such matters, and he d had his own
bones made of whales jaws if he could
q done it. He had one child, named
Polly, and her mother died when she
was hit o. Nine years ago, when Polly
was about Is, she married young Alba,
of this town, and sailed away as is
stated on that stone. Two years after
that the old man died, and he left all he
had TO Polly. As I've been told, every
thin was turned into money,
which was put into an iron
box, and buried under his grave
stone. Accordin' to directions he left,
the money Is to wait there fur her fur q
hundred years, fur some of the women
Mereens live a long time. Ii she don't
come fur it in hundred years, the
money is TO be given to the oldest man
in the town, and when he dies to the
Oldest one left, and 80 on until it's all
gone"
1 thought Billy Mereen was the most
foolish testator had yet heard of;
but L did not say so. 1 suggested,
however, that the iron box might be
stolen.
"Some folks think" said the old
man, "that there's nothing much in
4llat box, and some folks thinks there's
lots. But, however tbs, there's no man
in this town would touch that grave"
was greatly interested in this story,
and was almost as anxious as old Won
de9ment himself to get out to the Cop.
pering Pet and see what would come Of
at all.
We were soon out at sea. and as we
approached the vessel 1 saw that Won
derment had not been mi,taken. HeI
name, "the Coppering Pet" wa,
painted in fresh white letters on her bow
As she lay to, before moderate breeze.
we were soon on board.
When we reached the deck Wonder
ment asked for the Captain.
"All right, sir T. said sailor, "she d
coming"
She the old man and I opened wide
our eyes, but none too wide for the sigh
we saw. Up a short companion. way
there stepped young woman. who will
O quick and sea-trained stap came towart
us. She wore o close fitting dress o
blue and broad straw hat
"Wby, il this isn't WoAderment I