Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-07-17

y
! The whole transaction had MOT occupied
/ five minute, and moi don ii words Lad
been spoken. When they looked at the
oakcn chair they could scarcely realize
tnc fact that the straNgs being who had
co lately tenantcd it, full of life and her
culean vigor, should already be a corpse.
There was the very glass he had Just
drunk from: there lay the ashes from
tho pipe which he had smoked, as it
were, with his last breath. As the
worthy burghers pondered on these
things they felt terrible conviction of
the uncertainty OF human existence, and
each felt as IL the ground on which he
stood was rendered less stable By this
awful example,
AS, however, the most Of the company
were possessed of that valuable philos-
ophy which enables o man to bear up
with forttude against the misfortune
of his neighbors, they soon managed to
console themselves for the tragic end Of
the veteran. The landlord was happy
that the poor dear man had paid his
reckoning before he went.
He came in a storm and he went in a
storm; he camo in the night and he went
in tho night; he Came nobody knows
/ from whence and he las gone nobody
knows where. For aught | know he has
gone to sea once more on his chest and
may land to bother some people on the
other side Of the world! Though its
thousand pities, added the landlord, IF
he has gone to Davy Jones that lie had
not left his sea chest behind him."
AZ
us!" said Peechy Prauw. I'D not have
had that sea chest in the house for any
money; I'll warrant he'd come racket
ing after it at nights and making a
haunted house of tho inn. And as to
his going to sea on his chest, rccollect
what happened to Skipper OndordonkS
ship on his voyage fra.a Amsterdam.
The boatswain died during q storm,
so they wrapped him up in q sheet and
put him in his own sea chest, and threw
him overheard; but they neglected in
their hurry-skurry to say prayers over
him-and the storm ragged and reared
louder than ever, and they saw the dead
man seated in his chest, with his shroud
for a sail, coming hard after the ship,
and the sea breaking before him in great
sprays like fire, and there they kept
scudding day after day and night after
night, expecting every moment to 90 to
wreck; and every night they saw the
dead boatswain in his sea chest trying to
get up with them, and they heard his
whistle above the blasts Of wind, and he
seemed to send great seas mountain high
after them, that would have swampcd
tho ship if they had not put up the dead
lights. And 50 it went on till they lost
sight Of him in tho logs Of Newfound-
land, and supposed he had vecred ship
and stood for Dead Mans Isle. SOmuch
for buryinS a man at sea without saying
prayers over him"
The thunder gust which had hitherto
detained the company was now at an
end. The cuckoo clock in tn hail struck
midnight; every one pressed t. depart,
for seldom Wa, such a late hour tres
passed on by those quiet burShcrs. rs
they sailed forth thoy found the heavens
once moro syrCna. Tho storm which
had lately o'-cWol them had rolled
away and lay piled up in heecy masses
on the horizon, lighted up by the bright
crescent al the moon, which looked like
al tIlHii IsLI II nuns t' III q l'SAAtlN1 VI
clouds.
The dismal occurrence Of tho night
and tho dismal variations they had
made, had LETT a supcrstitious feeling in
every mind. They cast fearful glance
at the spot where tho buccaueer had dis
appeared, almost expecting 10 see him
sailing on his chest in the cool moon
shine The trembling rays glittered
along the waters, but all was placid, and
the current dimplcd over the spot where
he had gone down, The party huddlcd
together in n littlo crowd as they re-
paired homcwards, particularly when
they passed q lonely field where man
had been murdered; and he who
plote his journey alone, though a
veteran sexton, and accustomed, ono
would think, to ghosts and COLLINS, yet
went a long way round, rather than pass
by his own church yard.
Wolfort Weber had now carried homo
fresh stock of stories and notions 10
ruminate upon. His mind was all Of &
whirl with these freobootin5 tales; and
then these accounts of pots of money
and Spanish treasures, buried here and
there and everywhere about tho rocks
and bays Of this wild shore, made him
almost dizzy.
BLESSED st. Nicholas" calculated he,
half aloud, lit is not possible to come
upon one of these golden boards, and so
make ones self rich in a twinkGng.
How hard that must SO on, deiyins
and delving, day in and day out, merely
to make morsel OF bread, when one
lucky stroke of a spade might enable me
to ride in my carriage for the rest Of my
life"
As he turned over in his thoughts all
that he had been told Of the singular adj.
venture Of the black fisherman, his
imagination gave totally different
complexion to the tale, He saw in the
gang OF red caps nothing but crew Of
pirates buryiug their spoils, and his
cupidity was once more awakened by the
possibility Of at length getting on tho
tronaJ e e.,y,, e t1.;g l,,rl-irrv yyag IN