Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-04-01
CHAPTER IN
ILGsE MY BOAT.

| fingered, / dare say, above twenty
minutes contemplating this singular crys-
tai fossil of a ship, and considering
whether | should 60 down to her and
rausack her for whatever might answer my
turn. But she looked so darkly secret
under her white garb, aod there was
something SO terrible in the aspect of the
motionless, snow clad sentinel who leaned
upon the rail, that my heart failed NE,
and concluding to have nothing 10 do with
the ghostly sparkling fabric, | fell again
to my downward march and looked toward
my boat; that is to cay, | looked t9ward
the part of the ice where the little haven
in which she lay had been, and / found
both boat and haven gone!
l la5bed my eyes and stared again.
Tush, thought |, ] am deceived by the ice.
/ glanced at the slope behind TO keep me to
my bearings, and once more sought the
haven, but the rock that had formed il was
gone, the blue swell rolled trimming past
the linC of shore there, aud my eye, fol-
lowing the swing OF q fold, | saw the boat
about three cables length distant out upon
the water, swimming steadily away into
the south, and showing and disappearing
with the heave.
l uttered a cry of anguish; l clasped my
hands aud lifted them them to God, and
looked up to Him. | was for kicking OFF
my boots and plugging into the water
but, mad as / was, / was not so mad as
that; and mad | shOuld have been TO at
tempt il, for | could not swim twenty
strokes; and had been the st0utest swim
mer that ever roasted the salt spray. the
cold must speedily have put an end 70 my
misery.
The horror that this white and frightful
scene of dssolRtion bad ut the beginning
filed me With, was renewed with such.vio-
lerce when saw that my boat was lost
and | was to be n prisoner on the death
haunted waste, that / fell down in a sort
OF swOon. like one partly stunned; and
had any person come along and seen me
he would have thosght me ~ dead az the
body on the bill, or the corpse that kept
its dismal lookout from the deck OF the
schooner.
by senses presently returning, ! got up,
ard the rock upon which l stood being
level, / fell TO pacing it, with my hands
locked behind me, my head sunk, lost in
thought.
By this time the boat wa out Of sight
l locked and looked, but she was gone.
Then came my good angel TO my help,
and put some courage into me. After
all" thought /, what do l dread? Death!
it can but come 10 that. It is not long
ago that Capt. Rosy cried 10 me: A man
cin die but once. Hell! not perish quick
er for contemplating his end with a stout
heart He that so spoke is dead. The
worst is over for him. Were he a babe
resting upon his mothers breast he could
not sleep more soundly, DO more teGdeIly
Jailed, nor be ireer from such anguish as
row afljcts me, who clings to life as if
this-this," l cried, looking around me,
"were = paradise of warmth and besuty.
l must be a msn, ask God for courage TO
meet whatever may betide, and stoutly
endure what cannot be eyaded."
My mind went to the schooner, yet /
felt an extraordinary recOil within me
when l thought OF seeking an asylum in
her. / hsd the figure Of her before my
fancy, viewed the form of the man on her
uSSnf IN wv NNCo VI PNASS -N N"
interior, and seeking shelter in a fabric
that time ard frost and death had wrought
into a black mystery, was dreadful to me.
1t must he done, nevertheless, thought
1; l shall certainly perish from e~xposureif
l linger here; besides, how do l know bat
that | may discover some means Of escap-
ing from that ship? Assuredly there was
plenty o. material in her for the building
of a boat, if l could meet with tools. Or,
possibly, | might find q bUat under matches,
for il was common for vessels Of her class
and in her time to stow their piDDaces in
the hold, and when the necessity for using
them arose to hoist them out and tow
them astern. These reflections somewhat
heartened me, and / turned my back upon
the clamorous ocean and started to ascend
the slope once more.
l helped myself along with the oar, and
presently arrived at the brink of the slope,
in whose hollow lay the ship as in a cup.
The wind made 8 noisy bowling in her rig
ging; but the tacklipg was frozen so iron