News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-03-23
By cable to N. Y. Hldepe1
THE COPPERING PET.
From Our Continent. I

lrEOm Our SOnEnent.t
was wandering through the suburbs
OF one of our smallest and most vener-
able seaport towns, when I came upon
the graveyard. One of the graves par
ticularly attracted my attention. 1t was
covered by large and fiat stone, and
bore an inscription reading as follows
"Here lies the body and worldly sub
stance of Captain William Mereen, a
skipper of this port, and father of Polly
Mereen, who sailed from here in the Cop
pering Pet, in July, 1869. In 1901 he was
born in this town, where he died in 1871.
The body shall remain here until res
urrected by the last trump, and the
worldly substance shall stay with it un-
til 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 an elderly man ap-
preaching. had met him before He
was weather-beaten parsonage, with a
sea-faring demeanor, and his name was
Wonderment Sanchez. I saw he was in
hurry, but stopped him and asked
if he could explain the inscription on
this tomb.
"It's GURUS" he said, "that you
should ask me such thing at this time.
The Copperin' Pet is lyin' off the bar !;
I've been watchin' fur her fur years,
and can't be mistook in her. She'll
come over at high water, and I've been
to 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 you all abont that tombstone on
the way"
/ replied that nothing would please
me better, and in fifteen minutes we
were rowing over the harbor toward the
bar.
"Billy Mereen," said Wonderment,
''Bas an old friend of mine. He made
many wages, and brought back many
Gurus things, principally made out of
whales jawbones. He had a great
liking for such matters, and he'd had
his own bones made of whales jaws if
he could done it. He had one child,
| named Polly, and her mother died
when she was little. Nine years ago,
when Polly was 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,
everythin' was turned into money,
which was put into an iron box and
buried under his gravestone. Accord
in to directions he left, the money is to
wait there fur her fur hundred years,
fur some of the women Mereens live a
long time. If she don't come fur it in
the 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 so On until it's all gone"
I thought old Billy Mereen was the
most foolish testator had yet heard of,
but did not say so. suggested, how
ever, that the iron box might be stolen.
'Some folks thinks" said the old
man, ''that there's nothin' much in that
box, and some folks thinks there's lots.
But, however tits, there's no man in
this town would touch that grave"
l was greatly interested in this story,
and was almost as anxious as Old Won
derment himself to get out to the