Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-28

waters in their lazarette as would serva tho;-


 schooner to float in.
 It strangely and importunately entered n,v head to conceive that though those men nv.,., frozen and stirless they were not dead nc corpses are, but as a stream whose currant checked by ice, will flow when tbo ;oa ;s melted Might not life in them be susnenSel by the cold, not endeda There is vital;tv ;,, the seed, though it lies dead thing in tba hand. Those men are corpses to my eve. but said to myself, they may have the principles of life in them, which heat might call into being Putrefaction is natural law, but it is baked by frost; and just as decay is hindered by cold, might not the property of life be left unaffected in a body, though it should be numbed in a marble form for fifty yearss
 This was a terrible fancy to possess a man situated as was, and it so worked in me that again and again caught myself look ing first forward, then aft, as though, heaven help me! my secret instincts foreboded that at any moment 1 should behold some form from the forecastle or one of those figures in the cabin stalking in, and coming to my side and silently seating himself. I pshawed and pished, and querulously asked of myself what manner of English sailor was to suffer such womanly terrors to visit me; but it would not do; could not smoke; coldness of the heart fell upon me, and set me trembling above any sort of shivers which the frost of the air had chased through me; and presently a hollow creak sounding out of the hold, caused by some movement of the bed of ice on which the vessel lay, I was seized with panic terror and sprang to my feet, and lan- tern in hand made for the companion ladder, with a prayer in lne for the sight of start
 durst not look at the figures, but setting the light down at the foot of the ladder squeezed through the companion door on to the deck. My fear was fever in it's way, and did not feel the cold. There was no star to be seen; but the whiteness of the ice was flung out in a wild, strange glare by the blackness of the sky, and made light of it's own. It was the most savage and terrible picture of solitude the invention of man could reach to, yet blessed it for the relief it gave to my ghost enkindled imagination Presently, when the cold was beginning to pierce me, my courage was so much the bet ter for this excursion into the hoarse and black and gleamipg realities of the night, that my heart beat at it's usual measure as I passed through the hatch and went again to the cook room
 l was, however, sure that if sat here long, listening and thinking, fear would return. So, raking out the fire, picked up the lantern and was about to go, then halted, considering whether should not stow the frozen provis- ions away. It was natural thought, seeing how precious food was to me. But, alas! it nattered not where they lay; they were as secure here as if they were as snugly hidden in the bottom of the hold It was the white realm of death; if ever a rat had crawled in this ship it was, in it's hiding place, as stiff and idle as the frozen vessel So I let the lump of wine, the ice, ham, and SO forth, rest where they were, and went to the cabin had chosen, lnvoluntarily peeping at the figures as passed, and hurrying the faster because of the grim and terrifying liveliness put into the man who sat starting from the table by the swing of the lantern in my hand.
 shut the door and hung the lantern near the cot, having the flint and box in my pocket. There was, indeed, an abundance of can dles in the vessel; nevertheless, it was my business to husband them with the utmost niggardliness. How long was. to be i'm prisoned here, if indeed was ever to be de- livered, Providence alone knew; and to run short of candles would add to the terrors of my existence by forcing me either to open the matches and ports for light, and so filling the ship with the deadly air outside, or living in darkness. There were cloak and Q coat in the cot, but they would not suffice; there was, however, plenty of apparel in the cor ner to serve as wraps, and having chosen enough to smother me vaulted into the cot, and so covered myself that the clothes were above the level of the sides of the cot.
 left the lantern burning while made sure my bed was all right, and lay musing, feeling extremely melancholy; the hardest part was the thought of those two men watching in the cabin. The most fantastic alarms possessed me. Suppose their ghosts came to the ship at midnight, and entering their bodies quickened them into walkinge I caught myself listening; and there was enough to hear, too, what with the subdued roaring of the wind, the splintering of ice, the occasional creahng-not unlike a heavy booted tread-of the fabric of the schooner to the blasts of the gale against her masts, or to movement in the bed on which she reposed
 But plain sense came to my rescue at last. resolved to have no more of these night fears; so, blowing out the candle, I put my head on the coat that formed my pillow, res olutely kept my eyes shut, and after a while fell asleep.