Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-07-29
CAP'N BOUNCE.
A Love Story Somewhat Out of
 the Ordinary.

comprehensibIe; and in no person, per haps, was love ever manifested more curiously and incomprehensibly than in Cap'n Nathan Bounce, of Paradise, N. D.
 Cap'n Nathan Bounce was a retired old sea-dog; he often declared he was reformed pirate, and he had come to Dakota to live because, to use his own words:
 "Well, blow me if I could ever stay within smellin' distance of salt water without goin' ahoat so what does do to resist the temptation? Why, tucks myself away in this corner of No Mans Land, my boy. I builds me a shack shaped something like the fora part of boat an I paints her name-the Polly O., ye mind-on the side; has my lockers an what 1 calls my fo'castle, an cannon as l fires at sun-up an sun-down, an union jack as runs up peak every day of my life, I do, an'-an' not word. boy! I'll have a Mrs Cap'n Bounce in that 'ere old hulk of shack one O these days-ha, ha, ha-now, you see." Cap'n Bounce drew half pay from the government because of long and honorable career in the war of the re- bellion; to the putting down of which rebellion he had (to use his own words again) 'lent willin' hand" In other terms his hand had been 'lent" so thoroughly that it now lay in the Mis- sissippi, somewhere below Natchez, and an iron hook adorned the stump of his right arm.
 There were two things indispensable to the well being and jovial content ~4 nV7A oF things was his pipe; the other was his thermometer The former Jim Littel once declared he could smell as far off as he could hear the cap'n's cannon, and the latter, a great brass affair notched with immense figures, was the pride of the old sailors heart Whenever he lacked for occupation he filled his pipe with the strongest kind of jolly tar" and polished his thermometer. Beside this thermometer, in unmis- takable characters, was printed table \ to this effect: At sixty degrees, every- thing lovely. At seventy degrees, open starboard window. At eighty degrees, open larboard window. At ninety de- grees, take off pea jacket. At one hundred degrees, sleep on the upper deck.
 | There was also graduated scale of doings to be done at various notches below sixty degrees. Cap'n Bounce conducted himself in accordance with this table. and Buster Bluenose tells how, one winter afternoon, he found the cap'n outdoors in his shirt sleeves, nearly frozen, because of an accident having happened to his thermometer which had lodged a particle of mercury at ninety degrees.
 All good men have weaknesses, presume, and the cap'n's special weak ness was fondness for the society of | the softer sex. He had, as he him. self boasted, popped the question to twenty three leddy's, widders, young maids an old maids, an, Lord love ! 'em, nary a one would take him for love or money; but they wanted to look out, they did, cause stern chase is a long chase, and he'd foller 'em like man-o'-war after slave dhow, see if he didn't, my boy" It was rumored in Paradise that Polly o, whose first name and last initial were
 blazoned on the cap'n's shack, was the cap'n's last love, but the story was never vouched for by the cap'n himself.
 It came to pass that Simon Yarrup, a
 Michigan farmer, immigrated to Da- ! hOId anu COOh uP CAdlHA III tlc vicinity of Paradise. If this immigra-
 ton had consisted of old Simon, alone,
 it is dollars to cents the name of Var rup would never have figured Tn this
 tale; but old Simon was accompanied
 by his wife, a lady of comfortable pro-
 portions with an uncomfortable habit
 of wearing the Yarrup inexplicables,
 and, oh, heavens! by Belindy Yarrup.
 And Belindy Yarrup was tall and
 Belindy Yarrup had hair that was the
 color. of faded oakum; and Bellndy
 Yarrup had eyes that tried to be blue
 and red at the same time and compro-
 missed on a mucky gray; and Belindy
 Yarrup was seen, oh fate! by Cap'n
 Nathan Bounce as she drove by the Polly O., one afternoon in a democrat
 wagon that had passed it's best days ir
 Wolverine roads.
 The cap'n's thermometer at this mo ment was standing at ninety degrees, consequently the cap'n was outdoors minus his pea jacket The cap'n
 watched Belindy and took in at one
 comprehensive glance the whole O.
 her engaging makeup. Belindy also
 took in the cap'n and, would you be- lieve it. she actually smiled. Then the
 gay old sea-dog hooked his handker chief out of his pocket and waved it
 and Belindy Yarrup rattled 8 tin pal
 at him coquettishly, and drove slowly f out of sight watched by the enrapture(
 but reformed pirate.
 "Wait till she comes back mutteret
 the cap'n, diving below and lighting his pipe. ''pll show her thing O two," he added and puffed mysteri : ously.
 For two hours Cap'n Bounce watched the road leading from Paradise, ant when he finally glimpsed sorre , horse and democrat wagon jogging
 leisurely in his direction, he made read.
 for little surprise. Waiting until thu . fair Belindy was directly opposite th I Polly O., the cap'n cleared his decks .. Idipped the union jack, and fired hi ' cannon, full two hours before sunset e as delicate attention and salute to tn s passing maiden.
 - When the smoke had cleared awa,