Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-07-21
20 H."


counting room who has to sort and dis
tribute the replies to "small want ads, ,"
wish to apologize to him right here and
now, and to assure him that this incident
never did really happen, and couldn't pos
sibly happen except in a story-and that
Of course is this story.
Captain Sprowl threw his hat on the bed
and sat down in his easy chair in the cabin
TO light his pipe Up eurled the smoke,
and through it the captain looked ruefully
at a neat package that lay on the table.
What fool | was to buy that" he
thought. odd sextant was plenty good
enough, though have had it nine years.
Bought it in Liverpool when was second
mate of the Julia a. Smith. And now I've
put out months earnings for a new one.
What possessed me don't know"
And so the captain went on.
Now Captain Sprowl was not, as you
might think from the name, baldheaded
old man with bushy wniskers.
No, names are very misleading. Instead,
he was tall and slender, with sandy mus
tache, and had not gray hair in his head.
He came from Maine, and although but
thirty years old he had been for six years
captain of the Edna Dunn, now lying at
Constitution wharf in Boston discharging
her cargo of sugar.
"Well," pulled the captain, nothing TO
do now but to get rid of the old sextant.
should go ashore next trip if l had two
sextants to navigate by. Must work the
old one off on some landlubber OF some
body"
The package WAS lying on an old news
paper which he had read through and
10 l.
"The very thing" said he. I'm put a
notice in the paper-'Sextant for sale,
cheap and if somebody doesn't bite at it
i miss my guess"
The next morning the only thing the
captain could see in the paper was this:
sextant for sale by ship captain, nearly
new and in perfect order; will be sold cheap.
Address o Al, Globe Office.
And now my story's begun.
Eta Bourne had been at work in a MILL
merry store in Boston for nearly two years.
She and her older sister Annie had learned
the trade with the village milliner down
in Kennebunk.
But Annie, who had long been the belle
Of the village, got married, and Eta con-
cluded TO try her fOrt- ne in Boston.
She was full of ambition.
So it fell that in her two years in the
millinery store she studied shorthand and
typewriting, with the intention of fitting
herself TO be a confidential clerk.
One Sunday she saw this advertisement:
For Sale-Jones' Premier typewriter, at half
prices been used less than month; in perfect
order. Address o AZ, Globe Office.
Eta Bourne, being a Maine Yankee,
knew bargain when she saw it. She
wanted to own a typewriter, and SO she
wrote a brief note addressed to 20 AZ,
Globe Office" asking where the machine
could be seen, and dropped it into the
letter box as she went to work Monday
morning.
Now l said at the beginning that the ad-
vertising clerk was to blame. Perhaps
the mistake was partly that of Eta Bourne.
At any rate it will never be known.
The clerk was sorting the replies and
putting them in their appropriate boxes.
When he came to Eta Bourne's letter to
30 A." he read it 80 Al" and put it in the
pigeonhole as such,
That was a very, very little mistake Of
course, but you who have noticed how
things go in this world of ours have dis
covered that the most serious changes In
the course of our lives come about from
Just such little happenings
SprowI advertised his sextant for sale
And Captain Sprowl was 80 Al"
Now the tall captain was a very busy
man, and it was late that afternoon before
he went to the office to gather in the replies
from people who were anxious to buy a
sextant.
But the sextant market was apparently
rather dull, for all the clerk could give
him was one solitary letter, The captain
tore the envelope open and tossed it aside.
II saw your advertisement in The
Globe" read the captain. II wish to buy
good second hand machine of standard
make and If the one you offer is in perfect
repair and the price is satisfactory, perhaps
we can trade. But | cannot give more
than fifty dollars, and if you ask more you
need not reply to this. Send your address,
stating where machine can be seen, to H.
Z. Bourne, $50 Winter street."
WELL" soliloquized the captain, give
got one answer, anyhow. But what does
woman want of sextant--for this is
certainly womans writing She seems
to be in earnest, though. And fifty doliarsl
Conscience | never expected to get more
than twenty-five dollars. Well. she'll have
to come on board, | suppose, so I'll send
her my address," And standing at the
public desk he wrote:
II. Z. Bourne:
DEAR MIss-Yours in reply to my advertise
ment in The Globe is at hand. Please call on
me on board the bark Edna Dunn, Constitution
wharf, between and ..
EDWIN r. SPRowI, Captain.
The next afternoon about trim little
figure walked rapidly over the rough
planks of Constitution wharf.
Its queer place to find second hand
typewriter" thought Eta Bourne, but
suppose the captain got tired of it, or
couldn't use it because the vessel pitched
so, OF something like that"
She saw the gilt letters, Edna Dunn"
A fat, baldheaded man with q little ging-
ham apron on looked out at the door Of a
boxlike house in the middle of the vessel
A broad plank extended from the wharf
across the bulwarks. The man in the
apron came forward