The Press., 1890-03-06
THE CAPTAINS WELL.
BY J. G. WHITTIER.

THE CAPTAINS WELL. ..
 BY J. c. WIFI TIER.
 lThe story of the shipwreck of Captain Valentino the esert has bcsn familiar from my s cbiId6oo9 has been partially told in the singuarly beautiful lines of my friend Harriet Prescott Spoford. the Library To the charm and felicity of her verse; as far as 1t goes nothing can be added but in the fo ahDg it is From pain and peril, by land and main, The shipwrecked sailor came back again; Back to his home, where wife and child, Who had mourned him lost, with joy were
 wild,
 Where he sat once more with his kith and kin, And welcomed his neighbors thronging in But when morning came he called for his
 spade.
 II must pay my debt to The Lord" he said. "Why dig you herer" asked the passer-by; "ls there gold or silver the road so nigh?" ''No, friend," he answered; but under this
 sod
 Is the blessed water, the wine of God" "Water! the Powow IS at your back, And right before you the Merrimack. "And look you up, or look you down, There's well-sweep at every door in town !" "True," he said, Eve have wells of our own But this dig for the Lord alone.'' Said the other: "This soil is dry, you know, I doubt if a spring can be found below; ''Yeu had better consult. before you dig, Some water-witch, with hazel twig." 'No; wet or dry, I will dig it here, Shallow or deep, if it takes year. ''In the Arab desert, where shade is none, The waterless land of sand and sun, "Under the pitiless, brazen sky My burning throat as the sand was dry; My crazed brain listened in fever-dreams For plash of buckets, and ripple of streams; "And opening my eyes to the blinding glare, And my lips to the breath of the blistering air, Tortured alike by the heavens and earth, l cursed, like Job, the day of my birth. "Then something tender, and sad, and mild AS mothers voice to her wandering child, "Rebuked my phrenzy; and, lowing my head, prayed as l never before had prayed: " Pity me, God! for I die of tAirss; Take me out of this land acourst; "And # euer yeach xay home aoain. Where sarth has springs and sky has rain, "I soiN dig soeA for the passer 6v. And none shaH sv6sr Oith tA,rst as I. Fl saw, as passed my home once more, The house. the barn, the elms by the door, ''The grass-lined road, that riverward wound. The tall ate stones of the burying ground ''The belfry and steeple on mee ing house hill, The brook with it's dam, and gray grist-mill ''And I knew in that vision beyond the sea, The verp place where my we'll must be- seGod heard my prayer in that evil day; tde led my feet in their homeward way, From false mirage and dried-up we'll, And the hot sand-storms of land of hell, "fill saw at last, through coast-hills gap, The 'ity held In its stony lap,
 'The mosques and the domes of scorched
 Muscat,
 And my heart leaped up with joy thereat; For there was ship at anchor lying, Christian flag at it's masthead flying, "And sweetest of sounds to my home-sick ear Was my native tongue in the sailors cheer. '.Now the Lord be thanked, am back again, where the earth has springs, and the skies
 have rain,
 "And the we'll I promised, by Oman's Sea, am digging for him in Amesbury." His good wife wept, and his neighbors said : ''The poor old captain is out of his head" But from morn to noon, and from noon to
 night,
 He toiled at his task with main and might; And when at last, from the loosened earth, Under his spade the stream gushed forth, And fast as he climbed to his deep wells brim The water he dug for followed him, And here is the well promised the Eoruy--- The long years came, and the long years went, And he sat by his roadside wei content; He watched the travellers, heat-oppressed, Pause by the way to drink and rest, And the sweltering horses dip, as they drank, Their nostrils deep in the cool, sweet tank; And grateful at heart his memory went Back to that waterless Orient, And the blessed answer of prayer, which came To the earth of iron and sky of flame. And when wayfarer, weary and hot, Kept to the mid-road, pausing not For the wells refreshing, he shook his head ssHe don't know the value of water" {" he said 'sHad he prayed for drop as have done, Tn the desert circle of sand and sun, l s'He would drink and rest, and go home to tel That Gods best gift is the wayside we'll ]" -Eew York Ledger. OFFICIAL LIST or PATENTS ISSUED TO CTT1 zENs OF CONNECTICUT from the U. s. paten office for the week ending February 25, 1890 as reported from the office of Simonds & BuI dett, solicitors of patents, No. Central Row Hartford, Conn:
 Charles M. Burgess, assignor to Russell Erwin Mfg Co.,, New Britain, sheet meta latch case.,
 George M. Griswold, New Haven, assigno to American Button Fastener Co.,, New Brit ain, butlon setting machine.
 Joseph M. Morrow, Morrow, looped fabric
 Alvin D. Moulton and D F. Crofut Bridge port, assignors to Hartles < Graham, Ne York, N. Y., ammunition charger. ! Samuel N Pond New Haven, assiQnor