The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-09-17

Little Hattie was a sea captains
daughter and her playmate while on
shipboard was the young sailor
Weathergage, her fathers intimate
young friend. But her father going
upon one voyage left his child
as the ward of an intimate, Capt.
Ned Witham together with $40, 200 in
United States bonds in trust for his
daughter, and he never returned from
that voyage. Witham offered a receipt
at the time of the transfer of the bonds,
but the old sea captain spurned it, toss
it back to Capt. Ned, who tore it up
and throw it on the floor.
Witham became involved in tinan-
cial difficulties and converted his money
to his own uses and those Of his son an
attorney and in order, to cover up his
crime he proposed that his son should
marry little Hattie now grown to
womanhood beautiful and winning;
and he himself pressed his suit with a
wealthy and dashing young widow with
whose money he purposed to make good
the evil outcome Of his sreculatlons.
Little Hattie loved the young attorney
"a a brother; and the widow was pas
sionately enamoured with the gallant
Capt. Weathergage, who was Hattie's
''old sea horse'' in the rast, and could
not tolerate the hypeoritical Capt,
Ned.
One bright day, Capt. Weathergage
returned from his long whaling voyage
and was heartily welcomed by the
Commodore. Capt. Ned's born sailor
sister, Capt. Ned, the widow and the
prim young lady Hattie who had
grown out Of her old playmate's re-
membrance. Gruff and hearty, honest
and square, Weathergage soon discover
ed the drift Of the wind in this snug
harbor and Terrified out the secrets of
Capt. Ned and "the attorney" as he
dubbed the young sprig of law in u
most contemptious tone.
Finding that Hattie was pennlless ac-
cording to Capt. Ned, instead of the
inheritor of a rich dowery, he determin-
ed that she should have the savings of
his voyages, some 5000, also entrusted
to Capt. Ned. Finding that her guar
dian vas determined to make ''his little
Hattien marry against her will and
finding within the deaths of his own
great heart that which, while wishing
only for her own happiness, to possess
the little treasure himself, he makes
himself forbidden the house by stand
ing between the will of the guardian
and his ward.
Weathergage became suspicious of
Capt. Ned, that his story of the bonds
was untrue and that he had really re-
ceived them and used them. His boat
steerer, Tom, told the story of the
transfer as an eye witness and said he
picked up the pieces, of the torn receipt
pasted them together and kept them.
Capt. Ned overheard this, and finding
Tom alone, in a struggle to obtain pos
session of the paper shot the sailor as
he supposed, dead. Time passed, Capt.
Ned escaped punishment upon the
plea of accident, but the prosecutions
of Hattie continued and one day at
Weathergage's solicitations, Hattie,
having acknowledged his awkwardly
proffered love, she, her aunt the Com
modoren and Jennie the waiting girl,
/ embarked on the Aurora, to sail for
| New Bedford. Followed on board by
Capt. Ned and "the attorney with a
! writ of hebeas corpus for the Captains
ward, by a shfewd trick, the officers Of
the law and the attorney are cut adrift,
and Weathergage in the cabin alone
with Ned forces him to give up the
paper he had siezed from Tom, who was
not killed but appears to vouoh for the
document; and begging for his life the
would be murderer, is conquered and
"all comes out right in the end" and
Capt. Weathergage and ''little Hattie,
become shipmates for life.