Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-03-21


ut me, and talking as if there was some
thing in his swaller dye mean to keep
me on deck all night?'
Don't ask no questions, says |.
You're hero by French leave. Nobody
wants you. If | had my way you'd be
towing astern, with your neck in bow
line and if all the rest O your tribe and
the blooming 'tornies you sarve were
tailed i'll your wake, I'd be willing to woy
age round the world, and never grumble
if we took years in reaching home.
81 was in passion, which rose my
voice, and the skipper, hearing me, comes
over.
"'Hallo, bailiff says he, cheerfully
mot drowned yet, my lad2 What dye
think o the weather.?
Captain, says the man, you've car
ried me away by force. Dye mean to
freeze me to death by keeping me on
deck all night Your mate here says I'm
not to use the cabin
why should he use it, capt'n," says
1. Gould sailor man sit with the likes
of him, I've messed afore now with
Chaneymen I've slept along with Peru
vian beach -combers when the airs been
that thick with the smell of onions ye
might have leant agin it but you may
boil me, skipper, says l, If ever [ occu-
pied cabin along with bailiff afore,
and if he's to share that crib along with
us, I'll sleep forrard.
"'You hear that, bailiff, says the skip
per- Il can't let my mate live forard to
oblige you. If you're cold, dare say
the cook'll let you warm yourself in the
galley. But nobody wanted you here.
You were not invited, consequently it's
not for you to grumble if you don't find
yourself perfectly comfortable and hap
py.
handling the bailiff MS if she'd taken his
own trade upon herself, and making one
rush he lay over the lee rail so i'll that l
never saw the equal of it, even in a
Frenchman he twisted himself about
just as if he'd been revolving on q corck-
screw; the water blowing over the for
ward rail hit him neatly, and he was like
a streaming rag in five minutes.
"We left him enjoying himself and
went on with our work. 1t was falling
dark, and not only blowing hard but
wind in the southwest sky. The brig
under lower topsails and reefed foresail,
y
able thing overheard, and showing
through it very slowly with surprising
sag to leeward The skipper went below
for some supper, and after bit he calls
me in.
Where's the bailiff?" says hc
"'Don't know exactly / says. TO
leeward somewheres. There's n figure
half over the rail just abaft the forerig-
ging, if that's him.
I've been farming it over in my
mind, says the skipper, and I've got a
notion, William, says he, that we'd ha'
done better not to bring that bailiff along
with us.
"'But he wouldn't go ashore when you
told him, says 1.
Quite true, says the captain, but
that won't make it better for us. After
all, the laws not n thing ye can take lib
critics with, and there's something in his
threat of making me purge in open court,
William, says he, which mightn't matter
if 1 knew what it meant but, being ig-
norant, I'm willing to think it alarming.
Pooh = says I, it's only lawyers
,, word. There's nothing in it. They use
unintelligible words to scare plain men
! but there can't be anything more terrify-
ing in language ye don't understand than
: in language ye do.
"I wish had some book aboard that
I'D explain that word, says he. 'Tho
bailiff II know, but I'll not ask him fCl
fear he should think me afraid But VT
, can't let him starve. Better send hin
!, here and let him get something to eat
81 WAS going to argue, but he wouldn'
listen.
" No, no, says he. send him here,
q and knew by that that the fear of the
! law was beginning to master him.
"Well, it was my duty to obey, so
/, I found the bailiff sitting up to his hip
!. in water against the scuttle-butt abreas
! of the galley.
- Come along says I, 'supper's in thu
! cabin, and the captain wants you there.
= "He stood up, but was so cramped il
. his timbers that he could scarcely shufh
y :, along, and I had to drag him by the col
lar. When the captain saw by the lamp
light the plight the fellow was in, hi
>, heart failed him altogether. There wa
= no more proper digniied scorn.
= "'Why, says he, looking at him,
= didn't think it was such bad Job as that,
:, and he jumped up and brought him sui
!, of dry clothes, and then poured out dos
- of medicine. This was regular knucklinj
Il under. He had gone on considering AM
considering until he was in an out-and
:, out funk. There was no use in my say
,, ing anything. The bailiff had growed Ol
:, a sudden to become the strongest ma
l. aboard that brig though as for me, whe
! / tell you that if l had been the captai
4 I'd have sent the fellow aloft, and KEEP
~ him there all night as hint to leav
g sailor-men alone on future occasions
N yell allow that my caving wur only bt
"a cause | wasn't skipper, and that's al
,s Well, sir, to cut this yarn short luck turn
T ed in favor of the bailiff with wei
- geance. At midnight it was blowing
: hurricane, and the skipper said there WI
i no good going on facing it, he must pl
~ ~ back.
le There's handler port, says ], nan
er ing it, than the one we're from to mai
ar for.
a 'Ay, says he, but since we're bour
to up keeleg, it'll look better to carry IL
Id bailiff slick home than to give him raj
n, way journey
nd at would have made a hangel growl
IS hear the captain, all through fear, plHeir
this baiiff before the very hurrical
n that was blowing, and thinking Of hi
lis only whom he'd ha' gladly drowned fe
Ie, hours earlier, instead of the vessel nj
IA the lives aboard her. But reasoning W
d. out OF the question. The brig was iu
ce n smother Of froth, the gale roaring ii
he thunder, the seas as high as our mainto
he and the old hooker shivering with eve
er upward heave, ms if she must leave
he the lower part OF her behind her. 1t "
lip a job to get the vessel round, but '
in managed it, and at $50 o'clock in t
as morning We fetched the harbor we b
ks started from, and brought up, nothi
nd having been carried away but the bailil
ch chimbleypot.
in "And what was the result Of all this
I