Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-06-26
TIED 70 THE MAST.



David Kerr IN Harper Young People
Tell Us = story, papa, chorused
half dozen voices. ssWe must have 9
story" p
W." Oh you've heard all my yarns al.
ready, = answered Captain Martingale.-
eff you want q story this
gentleman will tell you one"
This gentleman" was 9 tall, broad
chested man, with q thick black beard
which was fast turning gray, who had
come in Just before dinner and had
been warmly welcomed by the CAPTAIN.
A very grim fellow he looked as he sal
in the great oaken chair, with the fire.
light playing ftfully on his dark,
bearded, weather beaten face.
Am I to tell you story?" asked the
visitor, in deep, hoarse voice, quite as
piratical as his appearance. well,
then, listen: There was once poor
boy who had no father or mother, nc.
friends and no home, except the wet,
dirty forecastle of trading schooner.
He had to go about barefoot in the cold
and rain, with nothing on but an old
ragged flannel shirt and pair of sail.
cloth trousers; and instead of landing
on beautiful islands and digging up
buried treasures, and having good
time all round, like the folks in the
story books, he got kicked and cuffed
from morning till night, and sometimes
had a sound tl,rasl,ing with ropes
end into the bargain. All the sailors
were very rough and ugly to him, but
the worst of all was the captain himself.
He had been badly treated himself
when he was a boy, and SO las some
men willy he took delight in
i'll treating somebody else i'll
the same way. Many a time
did he send the poor little fellow aloft
when the ship was rolling and the wind
blowing hard, and more than once he
beat him so cruelty that the poor lad
almost tainted with the pain"
wicked wretch!" cried Bob, indig.
nantly. II hope he got drowned OF
eaten up by savages."
"Or taken for d slave himself, and
we'll thrashed every day. suggested
Dick.
"Oh no, Bob," said little Helen, who
was sitting ON q low stool at her fathers
feet: II hope he was sorry for being SO
cruel. and got very good"
The strange guest stopped and lifted
the little girl into his lap and kissed
her. Helen nestled closer to him and
looked wonderingly up in his face, for:
as he bent his head toward her, some
thing touched her forehead in the dark
ness that felt very much like tear.
"Well," resumed the speaker, after a
short pause, "the schooner, heading
eastward across the Indian Ocean, came
at last among the Maldive Isles, where
it's always very dan gerous sailing The
coral islands, which liz in great rings
or 'atolls' all around, like so many
strings of beads, ars so low and fiat that
even in the daytime it's not easy to
avoid running aground upon them; but
at night you might as we'll try to walk
through q room full of stools without
tumbling over one Of them.
"Of course the captain had to be al.
ways on deck looking out, and that
didn't make his temper any the sweeter,
ns you may think. So that every even
ing, when the cabin boy had displeaseG
him in some way, what does he do but
tell the men to sling him up into the
rigging and tie him hand and foot to 8
mast.
But the towards were soon paid for
their cruelty. They were so busy, tor
menting the poor lad that none Of them
had noticed how the sky was darken.
ing to windward; and all at once a
squall came down upon them as sud.
denly as cut of a whip. In q moment
the sea all round was like boiling pot
and crash went the ship over on hel
side, and both the masts went by the
board Cell down into the sea, that isl
carrying the boy with them.
It was just as we'll for poor Harry
that he had been tied to the mast.
otherwise the sea would have swept
him away like straw. Even as it was,
he was almost stihed by the bursting OF
the waves over his head. He was still
peering into the darkness to try if he
could see anything Of the ship, when
there came tremendous crash and s
terrible cry. and then dead silence.
The vessel had been dashed upon a
coral reef and stove in, and the sea:
breaking over, had swept away every
man on board.
"But storms in those parts pass away
as quickly as they come; and it was not
long before the sea began to 60 down.
the clouds rolled away, and the moon
broke forth in all its glory. Then
Harry, finding that the rope which tied
his arms had been good deal strained
by the shock that carried away the
mast, managed to free one hand and
unbind the other arm and his feet
just then face rose from the water
within q few yards Of him, and Harry
recognized his enemy, the cruel cap.
tain.
"There he was, the man who hai
abused, starved and beaten him, dying
! or just about to die, almost within
reach of safety. Though barely twice
his own length divided him from the
floating man, so strong was the eddy
against which the captain was battling
in vain that he had no more CHANGE O
reaching it than if it had been a milk
away. A few moments more
and he would have sunk, nev'
er to rise again; but the sight
of that white, CHASTITY lace, and thost
wild, despairing eyes, was too much fol
Harry. He flung out the rope that he
held; the Captain clutched it, and II
another minute was safe on the mast,
rescued by the boy he had been so crue;
to-" =
"O-oh!" said Bob, drawing long
kreath. 49,. ~. w..
'I'm SO, gladP piped Helen's tiny
voice, II was so afraid he would lei
The poor Captain drown"
About sunrise, continued the guest