The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-05-07
THE OLD MAID CAPTAIN.
h Little Romance which the steward
ess Told.

The Little Romance which the steward
ess Told.
From N. Y. Times.
"I have been going to sea these 20
years." said the stewardess of an
American coastwise steamer, one aft
ernoon recently, rs she sat sewing in
the cozy ladies' cabin of the vessel to
which she belonged, ''and yet was
never wrecked, nor has a ship l have
been on lost so much as q spar while
/ was aboard. Yes, my life has been
a very commonplace one. There has
been no romance in any way connect
ed with it; stop though, | did not
play a very small part in 8 romance
once. That happened fully 20 years
ago, and now it seems like a dream; /
sometimes wonder if it wasn't after
all a dream. 1t seems stranger TO me
now than it did even then" The
worthy stewardess paused and a far
away look in her eyes showed that
she was INDUCING in retrospection.
"When was young / went on sail
ing vessels instead of steamers" 0
tinued the s~tewardess. f'About 20
years ago-that was when j was
young-I visited some friends in the
country after a voyage, and then |
came to New York to find a ship. The
agent / went to told me that / could
go as stewardess on a ship bound to
Australia. THE skipper said he, lis
a good man, but he's a regular old
maid said that / didn't mind old
maids, and so it vas settled that /
was to go with the odd maid captain
The next day I went aboard and re-
ported to my new captain who was,
called Harris. The captain was short
and rather slight built, with mildgray
eyes, but with O. full, heavy black
beard. He seemed about So years
old. His hands were small and deli
cate, and his voice was high and just
a trife shrill, and he walked up and
down the deck with a mincing sort of
gait. Thinks /, Captain Harris, if
you wasn't a skipper you'd have
made q first rate single woman /
regularly despised him until the first
storm came on. Then he went on deck
and handled the ship in such a way
that / could not but admit that he
was the best navigator | had ever
sailed under. Then / began to think
better of the old maid captain. / new
err saw a captain SO considerable OF his
men. If one Of them was the least bit
sick the captain would 60 into the
f~orecastle and attend to him as ten
derby as any nurse. And when the
weather was bad he would not allow
the mates to make the men do any
work that wasn't really necessary.
The mates used to make fun of the
captain behind his back for being so
considerable Of his men, but somehow
/ thought it WAS a good trait in him.
/ began to watch the captain closely
and / soon made up my mind that
there was a mystery about that man.
Once on a pleasant evening | came on
deck and saw the captain looking at
the red sunset with tears in his eyes.
At another time, when / thought he
was on deck,I went into the after-cab-
in for something. / found him there.
What do you think he was doing?
Why, he was sewing and crying into
the bargain. They are right in calling
you the old maid captain thinks /.
ssThe mate, Mr.. Wood, was q tall,
fine looking down-easter about SO
years old. The captain seemed to
like him, but thought how much he
must envy his size and strength.
The captain, though, was much
the smarter man OF the two. The
mate, somehow, seemed to take a
fancy to me--for, as ! said, / was
young in those days. He was always
running into the cabin on some pre-
text to see me. But / never encour-
aged him. You see / was engaged to
be the mate of another mate; and
that mate, poor fellow, was lost at
sea a few years afterward. Although
the captain didn't seem to care much
about me, he didn't fancy the mates
taking a liking to me. That used to
puzzle me. Onepleasant evening when
/ went on deck saw the captain, who
stood aft, looking admiringly st the
mate, who was sitting at the star
board gangway. When the captain
saw ms come onsdeck he gave me q