The morning call., 1890-10-26


of carrots, cabbage and the like. At the eX-
tremi;y OF his half acre of land stood sum-
mer arboI, the fruits of his own skill, for he
had been a ships carpenter in his day. and
few men were smarter with the ChiSel aud
the saw than he. On entering this building
l observed a little wooden Obelisk about
three feet in height erected in the center Of
it, On the apex rested piece OF carving in
wood, of which could make neither head
nor tail Upon the body of the obelisk were
carved the words:
IN MEMORY OF JACKSON.
SUNDAY MORN, MDCCCLXXv.
At the hinder base of this queer little
structure was the model of a wreck. Many
queer devices representing mermaids, the
sun, anchors. hearts, and so forth were art
fully chiseled on the sides.
Pray what have you here Ridley?" said L.
"A memorial, he answered.
"Ay, that's clear enough. But what sailor
friend Of yours lies buried hereY'
No sailor friend at all" he answered
laughing. jackson was a dog, and he,
poor beast doesn't lie here either. l wish he
did. 1t wOnld sometimes give my mind a
sort of satisfaction to feel that his remains
lay snug under this here mark"
And what" cried |, peering at the little
hit Of carving on top of the obelisk, sis
this ."
ITS the portrait of the half of a vessels
caboose, sir-of a vessel that was lost on
Sunday morning."
By the word 'cabOose'' he signifed galley,
or the kitchen of a little ship. l could now
make out that it was the representation of
the roof and n portion of the sides OF a ca
hOose, as he called it, with a hole atop for
the reception of chimney.
see there is q yarn here" said |.
Not much of a yarn he answered: :
lust the tale Of poor beast Of dog that
in time | got to love as truly as if he'd been
Christian man and brother. That's where
tel IN with him, said he, pointing to the
model Of the wreck, ''and that he added,
Indicating the fragment of miniature ca
bOUSe, ''is where he died"
looked at MY watch.
Come" said l, you shall tell me the
story Of Jackson whilst we sit here and
Sm Ike our pipes and survey your clever
piece Of carpentry. There's no hurry" and
so saying | seated myself and he alongside
OF me. slowly extracting brass tobacco
box ont If his breaches pocket as he did so.
well, he began, with sort of groping
look around the summer arbOr, and then
bringing his eyes to bear in a squint of
earnest memory upon his obelisk, this was
how It fell out | was able seaman aboard
little bark, and we were bound for the
River Thames from Porto Allegro. We fell
IN with deal of bad weather which drove
us well to the BASTARD, and then for three
weeks we were stagnated with Gains, so
that putting the fine weather along with the
bad we reckoned that the vessel had
lost her luck, and that ne'er
man of our little company was to
consider it well with lis till we were in a
situation TO pick UP our bundles and step
over the side on to good English dock-yard
soil. 1t is supposed that there are no SUI er-
stitions now going at sea. You know better
than that, sir. Any man with that notion
IN his head should have been aboard Of US.
The captain himself came forward one day
and nailed a horseshoe to the mast. re-
member being weak enough myself to
lament that there wasn't Finn amongst Us.
so that we might have been able TO say It's
You, mate, that's the cause of these here
Gains and contrary gales and then have
locked him up with nothing to eat until he
should have been coaXed by famine into
correcting bis Immature and into giving us
the breeZes we wanted.
"One black night we were ratching along
under reeIed tOpsails and the forecourSe |
was at the wheel. Tie bark having her
nose to it put a spite into the wind. and
nasty sea was washing past. There was
nothing to see but the white wafer that
would flash out in the darkness alongside as
though the beams of an electric light were
travelling round and round, touching the
ocean in places as they travelled. All on a
sudden the mate, who was standing at the
weather rail just abreast of the skylight.
gives sort OF shrek and then fell a-yelling;
but there was no time for me to catch what
he said; for whilst his cries were still ring
ing, just caught sight of huge lump of
blackness ooZing out of the weather bow
like blacker night still coming down
through the darkness upon us with one spark
of light showing; but it wasn't green nor
red, and what%t was | can't say. The next
instant we were in collision with some YES
sci; she caught US on the bluff of the bow