The Press., 1890-08-07
LITTLE MISS MUFFET.

tor, but how can you De sure Cndt ne is o'os Courage shows itself unexpectedly in many different ways and places. have seen men who had been brave soldiers turn pale when they sat in dentists chair, and have seen women who would scream at the sight of a mouse bear without a groan the pain of terrible surgical operation.
 The other day, in old station on the New Jersey coast, saw a queerly shaped boat which reminded me of something that hap pened to me once.
 Some years ago took passage in a large emigrant ship, the Ayrshire, for this coun- try had been at the University of Edin- burgh, and was impatient to reach home. There were on board over three hundred em- igrant passengers in the steerage, and sixty seven passengers in the cabin.
 One of the cabin passengers was an in- valid, very small, delicate young girl of twenty years, attended by her mother and nurse She was not patient sufferer. Her medicine was always too sweet or too sour; her pillows were too hard or too soft, and Ut the sound of the wind or a peal of thunder she would tremble and cry like child from fear.
 There were two young men in the cabin be- sides myself, and am afraid that they found good deal of amusement in provoking her terrors by telling horrible stories of corpse lights on the rigging, or of sharks and devil fish and other sea monsters, or the sailors yarn of the great shadow of a fish which fol lows ship on which is a human being ap- pointed soon to die. She used to stand by the hour at the stern of the ship looking down into the cool, green depths to sec if the shadow pursued her. Her nervous system was shaken by long suffering, and I sympathized with her; but tho oil, nnIS3ncA They were strong and full of health and fun, and 1 thought it a hardship that the cabin should | be, so they said, turned into hospital ward | with bottles and pillows.
 One of them, Frank Lowe, had served in | the French army in Algiers, out of sheer love | of excitement and adventure; the other, Der nard Knott, had been volunteer in the | United States army during the civil war. So l you see that, notwithstanding their unfeeling | behavior toward the invalid girl they were ! not towards.
 | It was one day near the end of the voyage, | and we hoped to see land on the morrow. Early in the evening Knott and Lowe and | went down into the cabin, as the fog was so 1 heavy that in the darkness we could scarcely I see one another's faces on deck. The lamps
 were lighted, and we sat down at the table. | I took up my book; the other men began to l play dominoes. S~|. ."* Miss Murray, the invalid, was lying on a | sofa, knitting, as usual, at some white fluffy ! stuff. The young men called the poor girl | Miss Muffet to each other because she was so | tiny, and because she was always scared and shuddering at some fancied object of terror. Set in the woodwork at one end of the sa- | loon was long mirror, and draped about it were some faded red and gold curtains of l moreen. Mrs Murray, who was a chatty, cheerful little body, called our attention to | the drops of moisture on the glass. | "You cannot see your face in it, she said. | "The fog must be very heavy.n ez "Where are weg' asked Lowe "Did the | captain work up our position this evening?' 'Yes," said Knott. 'He figured it out by the dead reckoning, of course But believe
 he does not know any more than do where we are." .- .s..s z+ s | noticed that Knott had no jokes to make | that evening, and that he was restless
 Throwing down a book that he had caught
 up, he paced up and down the cabin. | There was much shouting and trampling
 on deck, but supposed that the crew were
 reefng sail in anticipation of storm, and l paid little attention to the commotion over head.
 | Suddenly it seemed to me as if every bone
 in my body had been wrenched. 1 found
 myself on my hands and knees, with the
 floor of the cabin rising like steep wall be-
 fore me. Then saw a queer thing. The
 mirror broke obliquely from corner to cor.
 ner, and through the rent came torrent oi
 foul bilge water. People have described
 the wreckage of vessel in storm at sea as
 magnificent, terrible spectacle but that is l all that saw at the moment of it's occurrence l the mirror parting in the middle and the
 bilge water pouring into the room. a
 But that was enough. I knew that the | ship was doomed. s
 The mate, Sanders, stood in the doorway.
 "What is thisg" yelled Knott.
 1.-The ship has struck a bar and is going tc | piecesl" the mate answered. "An hands or | deckl" -f@ ~@
 He spoke pretty much as he might have
 talked if he were giving an order to holy | stone decks; yet knew that he had wife al
 home, and a child whom he had never seen | but had hoped to see son the morrow. Hi: | coolness was habit, you see
 don't know how we got on. deck. We mer
 helped the three women up, of course That
 was habit, too. Good habits tell in time I like that just as much as they do in an even | ing party in a drawing room on shore. | The Ayrshire was on the great sandbal l which lies off the whole New Jersey coast Hundreds of ships used to be wrecked there Before the life saving service was established l the New Jersey shore was strewn with wreck l age.
 1 The emigrants were swarning on the decks | A fearful surf broke over us continually | The ship was ilremoyably settled in the sands, but it was rocked necessarily by the waves. All around us was the impenetrable l grayness of the fog, through which came the terrific thunder of the breakers on the shore
 It drowned the shrieks of the women and even the hoarse shouts of the captains trum. pet.
 Surely we are on land.n piped Mrs. Mur-
 ray, close beside me. stThe ship is fast" "On bar" said the mate. t&k
 From the moment of her striking there
 was no chance of saving the vessel, which
 was rapidly going to pieces. The passengers and crew were hudd1ed on her quarter deck. Three boats were launched, but before one
 of them cculd be manned they were swept
 away like feathers in the storm. .
 We found afterward that we had gone
 upon the bar of ske village of Point Pleas.
 ant. Our guns were heard on shore, ,and the
 crew of men along shore came atonee.to our
 rescue, but the fog was so dense that we did
 not see their signal lights nor, with the wind
 blowing toward shore, hear the firing of
 their mortar. It was after hours of mortal
 agony and suspense that wild yell of de-
 light broke from the ships crew; they rushed
 together, grappling light cord which had
 fallen as if from the skies across the deck.
 It was line shot from the life saving mems mortar on shore. s ;e
 Gently, ment gentlyr' shouted the cap
 tain, hoarsely, as he himself caught the cord and pulled on it.
 By means of the line the crew pulled a | AL