Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-09-18
CAPT. JOE And JAMIE.
A story of the Tantramar Tides.


over the Tantramar dyke!
1t was about sunset, and fierce orange
red CLEAN thrusting itself through a rift in
the clouds that blackened the sky, cast
strange glow over the wide, desolate
marshes. A mile back rose the dark line
of the uplands, with small, white farm
houses already hidden in shadow.
Captain Joe Boultbee had Just left his
wagon standing in the dyke road, with his
-yearOld-boy on the seat. He was on
the point of crossing the dyke, to visit the
little landing place where he kept his boat,
when above the rush and whistle of the
gale he heard Jamie's voice. He hurried
back few PAGES before he could make out
what the little fellow was saying.
''Pap," cried the child, 81 want to get
out of the wagon. 'Fraid Bill going to run
awayr'
ooh, NONSENSE answered Captain Joe.
|'Bill wont run away. He doesn't know
how. You stay there, and don't be fright
ened, and I'll be right back"
"But, pap, the wind blows me too hard"
piped the small voice, pleadingly.
sob all right said the father, and re-
turning to the wagon he lifted the child
gently down and set him on his feet.
''Now," he continued, cts too windy for
you out on the other side of the dyke.
You run over and sit on that big stick,
where the wind can't get at you, and wait
for me. And be sure you don't let Bill
run away"
AS he spoke the Captain noticed that
the horse, ordinarily one of the most stol-
id of creatures, seemed tonight peculiarly
uneasy; with his head up in the air he
was shifting nervously and glancing from
To oil
through the long grass to the seat which
his father had shown him, the Captain
said, "Why, Bill does seem scary after all {:
who'd have thought this would scare him?''
"Bill don't like it, replied jamie; sit
blows him too hard" And, glad to be
out of the gale, which took his breath
away, the little fellow seated himself con-
tentedly in the shadow of the dyke Just
then there was clatter of wheels and a
crash. Bill had whirled sharply about in
the narrow road, upsetting and smashing
the light wagon.
Now, utterly needless of his masters
angry shouts, he was galloping in mad
haste back toward the uplands, with the
fragments of the wagon at his heels. The
Captain and Jamie watched him flying be-
fore the wind red spectre in the lurid
light. Then, turning away once more to
see to his boat, the Captain remarked,
"Wcll, laddie, guess We'll have to foot it
back when we get through here. But
Bills got to have licking for thisr'
Left to himself, Jamie crouched down
behind the dyke, a strange, solitary little
figure in the wide waste of the marshes.
Though the full force of the gale could not
reach linn, his long fair curls were blown
across his face, and he chung determinedlv
to his small, round hat. For while he
watched the beam of red light, till the Jag
ged fringe of clouds closed over it, and it
was gone. Then, in the dusk, he began to
feel little frightened; but he knew his
father would soon be back, and he didn't
like to call him again. He listened to the
waves washing, surging, beating, roaring,
on the shoals beyond the dyke. Presently
he heard them, every now and then, thun-
der in against the very dyke itself; upon
this he grew more frightened, and called to
his father several times; but of course the
small voice was drowned in the tumut of
wind and wave, and the father, working
eagerly on the other side of the dyke,
heard no sound of it.
Close by the shelter in which Jamie was
crOuching there were several great tubs,
made by saving molasses hogsheads into
halves. These tubs, in fishing season,
were carried by the fishermen in their boats,
to hold the shad as they were taken from
the net. Now they stood empty and dry,
but highly favored with memories of their
Office. Into the nearest tub jamie crawl
ed, after having shouted in vain to his
father.
TO the childs loneliness and fear the
tub looked "cosey," as he called it. He
curled up in the bottom, and felt little
comfOrted.
Jamie was the only child of Captain Joe
BOultbee. When Jamie was about two
years Old, the captain had taken the child
and his mother on a voyage to Brazil
While calling at Barbados the young
mother had caught the yellow fever. There
she had died, and was buried After that
voyage Captain Joe had given up his ship,
and retired to his fathers farm at Tantra-
mar. There he devoted himself to Jamie
and the farm, but to Jamie especially; and
in the summer, partly for amusement,
partly for profit, he was accustomed to
spend few weeks in drifting for shad on
the wild tides of Chignecto bay. Wherever
he went, Jamie went. If the weather
was too rough for Jamie, Captain Joe
stayed at home. As for the child, petted
without being spoiled, he was growing a
more and more the delight of his fathers
heart.
Why should he leave him curled up in
his tub on the edge of the marshes, on
night so wildP In truth, though the wind
was tremendous, and now growing to a
Veritable hurricane, there was no apparent
danger or great hardship on the marshes.
1t was not cold, and there was no rain
Captain Joe, fOreseeing heavy gale, to-
gether with tide higher than usual, had
driven over to the dyke to make his little
craft more secure.
He found the boat already in confusion;
and the wind, when once he had crossed
out of the dykes shelter, was so much
more violent than he had expected, that it
took him some time to get things "snu gged
up" He felt that Jamie was all right, as long
as he was out of the wind He was only
a stones throw distant, though hidden by
the great rampant of the dyke. But the