The Columbus journal., 1893-09-06
Truly, the earth seemed frightened

Truly. the earth seemed frightened
with the madness of the seas
|. But in the house here we were
havin' q merry time. We had q ioi
of the women and children from town
and q couple of the young men who
were just in from i trip and stopped
over to see US married. Old Cap'u
Thomas and the minister had each
just said . grace, and we were about
to fall to and eat when suddenly some
one heard q faint signal gun. In 4
minute feast and everything was for
gotten; of rushed the whole company,
men, women and children, Malcolm
and me with them, to tho beach.
What did we see in the darkening
evening light? A vessel way out sea-
ward, pounding ON the bar! Not q
stick nor spar did she have standing;
shorn of everything by the force OF
the shock when she struck, and the
big wave dashin' and lashiu' clean
over her!
mot a minuts do we waste, but ali
hands help drag the life boat down
to the edge of the surf and then quick
call for volunteers, brave fellows who
count themselves nothing if they can
only ave some one else's life. My
Malcolm felt no fear; he was the first
to spring forward and, though l chung
to him and beseeched and sobbed,
would not heed me. He gave one
last embrace to me. his new-made
wife, and turned to the boat.
..Vainly l begged him to remain
with me that first day of our welded
life, but no. he counted his duty be-
fore all else. Oh, that l had died
then! My heart was filed with q
dark terror; twas torn and rent
apart with anguish that he would 60;
my head was. swimmin' and reslin,'
and crazed with tho cruel smart Of
his first refusal l Knocked and cursed
him there Aye. cursed him for
what was only right. for the boat
was but poorly manned, there were
so few men at the beach. and of
them some were old and almost
crippled; but in my selfish rawlings l
felt MO pity for the poor ship in dis
tress, screaming again and again
that l wished it would break up be-
fore they got started. and that if
they went l hoped never to see any
of them again.
..Slowly my Malcolm left his place
at the bow of the boat; if l live till
I'm a hundred, which God pity me, l
hope l won't. never can l forget the
look / saw on his face in the wan
light.
...Nell. darling, kiss me goodby.
Won't? All we'll, God bless your and
he was gone!
down on the sand I fell in a dead
faint. What then? All, yes. l lay
there but a moment; the wet sand on
my face brought me to. l stared
about me; none were left but q little
knot of women and children huddled
together. crying and peering through
the gloom at the struggling boat, and
q couple of old men still standing
waist deep in the water where they
had helped shove of.
Nov the surf is passed; they are
tossed on the great waves; down.
down they go far from sight in the
mad sea; then they come again up.
up. 'gainst wind and tide, now
topping on the point of some mon
ster billow, only to go ~plunging down
to meet the next, and pulling with
might and main to reach the wreck
that labored and strained on the bar
and threatened to 60 to pieces every
second.
Nov they work round under her
stern and are hidden from us by the
hulk, but soon We see them again
carefully approaching from the lee
side; but even there it seems too
rough to try to board her. Then we
know from the motions that they
have cast q line. which must be
caught, as now we set q dark shape
suspended over the boat for an in
slant; the next. a vast, mountainous
wall of foam overwhelms them, the
gale bursts out afresh, and when we
can get our breaths and look again
they are gone! Nothing is left but
the raging line of breakers black
with wreckage! Ship and boat are
no more!!"
Calmly she wiped her streaming
eyes and concluded:
'.At daybreak eight bodies had
washed ashore: four our own men
and four strangers; the rest of the
ships company. nobody knows how
many, and the fifth of the boats
crew-my own Malcolm, were never
recovered"
The heat which pulsated around
us like a draught from a hot furnace,
and the dramatic intensity of the old
DANES recital. had so worked upon
me that l was in a sort of added
co.natose condition. The few sounds
of life from the village we're un-
noticed; even the warning whistle
had blown some minutes before en-
tirely unheeded; so l had to take the
Cape train back to town. but some
how l didn't feel like COMPLAINING
American Cultivator.
The Chinese Chess.
WEIGH is the greatest game of the