Thomas County cat., 1886-11-18
"MAN OvERBOARD."

Jack, and whose portrait Is lt! In
quired little Elsie of her coastguard
friend.
Il picked that up in a book-shop
many years ago." returned the honest
tar, ''for 1 thought it had strong
look of Robin, my little brother
What, had you a brother, too?" in
uuired Elsie. Il never knew that be-
fore. Tell US about him-dor' Whilst
Freddy chimcd in with "Yes, spin us
yarn, Jack"
Thus beset, and smiling down upon
the two eager faces, Jack established
himself upon his chest, and holding the
print in his hand, ransacked from his
memory the following incident:
when Twas young (Jack's stories
generally opened in this manncr) Il
had, like many another lad, a craving
after the briny; and, in SPITE of poor
mothers remOnstrances, l went into
the merchant service. A pretty hard
time l had of it, can tell you, Master
Fred, and l kicked about for many
long year from ship to ship and port
to port Twas sixteen or more before
found myself in my native village
again, near Falmouth, my father dead
long since and my mother very ill.
She was overjoyed to see me again,
poor soul, and on her death-bed com.
mitted to my charge my little brother
Robin, as pretty little fellow, with
saw. Some months went by, but nv
L. 4
to sea again, leaving Robin in charge
of respectable old body as had known
mother well. He was to go to school,
for he was a smart little lad. with more
learning in his little finger than in
my great hulking head. But the
wrench of parting was very hard. 1
was glad enough to get Off at last, and
turned in dead beat into my hammock
the first night aboard, glad it was all
over and the little lad in safe hands. /
was awOke at last by something mov-
ing on my bed. At first thought it
was one of them impudent rats, of
which there are shoals on board some
of the wooden vessels.
g put out my hand, and was as
founded to feel little soft hand thrust
into mine, while voice whispered
It's only me-RO6in,' and sure enough
SO it was! Robin, who had run away
from Mrs. Yarrow's, and slipped Oh
board and been hiding away the whole
of the day whilst we were going down
channel!
'' Here was a pretty kettle o fish,
and though l scolded him well he only
clung to me the more and cried. while
l turned over in ny mind how best to
get him ashore again, and what the
captain would say the next morning.
But the captain was as soft-hearted
man as ever trod deck, and his wife,
who was aboard, when she saw Robin,
cried out: why, he's the very double
of our Charlie! we must keep him.
So that clinched matters, and Robin
stayed aboard.
robin took to sea-life very kind
ly. He became prime favorite with
all; the toughest had a soft word for
him, and stopped their horse-play and
evil conversation when the little inno-
cent lad was present
I'VE were sailing round one of the
West Indian islands one evening, and
l was looking across the ocean, when
III luC StllllCSS L SuuuCu pIuuyc
in the waters, and the we'll known cry
Man overboard!' Leaning over the
side saw 4 dark speck struggling in
the distance. Without more ado l
kicked off my shoes, took a header
and made straight for the object.
which, to my horror, found to be the
captains wife. She was crazy with
fright, poor soul, and clung to me with
all the despair of a drowning creature.
1t was comparatively easy matter to |
a good swimmer to keep afloat till help |
came, and l fe't no alarm, more es-
pecially when boat was showed off |
from the ship to meet us.
But when about half way towards |
the boat, cry arose which curdled the |
very blood in my veins. "A shark, a !
shark! they called out, and the row.
ers redoubled their efforts. Sure !
enough one of these monsters of the !
deep which infest the shores of the !
West Indies was on our track. / |
strained every nerve, my limbs felt all |
of q sudden as if weighted with lead. l |
knew instinctively the fiend was gain
ing an us. and, hardened as was, ex-
pected horrible death every minute |
ia oohsi VI Us. OuAt a lew SakOkeS anu
we should be in safety; but how far off
the boat seemed to my strained limbs
All this passed through my mind. and
1 saw as in vision little Robins white
face at the bow urging me on. whilst
she voice of one of my mates came dis
finctly across the water. sealing our
fate: He'll never do it-never!'
The words were hardly out Of his
mouth when Robin rose from his seat.
With arms urraised, took q tremendous
header into the sea, and began to
make for us. He passed us. but the
keen in pursuit, crossed him
Robin, who swan like a
duck, dived beneath the shark, infiict-
ing great wound with his knife OH.
the fieshy part of the huge body, andj
Eobbed up like a cork some distance Off ,
jhe savage creature turned suddenly
Oh his new victim. leaving a red streak
on The green waters, aad ROBIN, taking
advantage of his start, struck out gal
lantly towards the ship. il
IL and my burden were soon lugged {
on beard. and all eyes were fixed on /,
the flaxen head in the distance. They !
held me back by main force from
jumping into the water. It's of no /,
coed. mate they said; they are too
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