The herald., 1893-09-19
THE LOST YyONNE.

Steamer King Philip. b.. Mcdowell, Liver
pool, mdse. and GO cabin passengers, arrived al
Up. m. yesterday. Fine weather, with moder
ate westerly winds throughout passage. Re.
ports picked up sixth day out canvas covered
canoe Yvonnc, built by Iiggins&s Co., Boston
: found Sweater and silver Watham watch
No. s,sC7,l20, in Yvonnc. Owner supposed lost
This is an extract from the shipping
news published by Boston paper one
morning last August. My attention was
called to it by young man who sat be
side mo on o train coming into town from
Riverside. He put his thumb on the
place and handed me the paper with an
excited gesture.
My canoe-my watch-1ny sweater
he said. "Becn anoat three weeks today.
must go down to tho King Philip and
claim my property"
.'Floated away by q rising tide from
some place where you had drawn the
canoe up, suppose" said l.
mo. Haven't you heard how 1 lost
my canoe? I've told SO many people
about it that thought everybody in
West Newton knew. But l was forget
ting; you're almost a stranger there.
Well, the Yvonne was blown out to sea
and l with her."
"You don't say SO! How did you man
age TO get ashore without herr"
"That's the story. I'll tell you all
about it. There's time enough before
we get to Boston.
''Three weeks ago today got into tic
Yvonne at Kennebunkport and padded
out beyond the pier to sea. The weather
was fine and the sea calm. There wasn't
curl on the water; nothing but the
long ocean swell. Still didn't feel quite
comfortable out there. Were you ever
at sea in canoe? No?
well, perhaps you can imagine how
the size of the water affected me. l had
never before been out in canoe on any
thing wider than the Charles between
Riverside and Walthnm. It wasn't that
felt in danger of oapsizing or being un-
able to get buck to land, but an oppres-
sive sense of the enormous spread of tho
sea grew on mo as knelt in my cookie
shell away ont there, with my head only
three feet or SO from the pillows.
''There was no island on the ofing-
nothing but sea and sky and gulls, cx-
cept the red canoe Of young English
man named Albert Edward Jones, who
had gone out from Kennebunkport half
an hour or so before | did.
''We called him Wales Jones, and
must say that more unsocisble chap
never camo across than he seemed. l
suspect row that nothing worse than
shyness was the matter with him.
"All day long he was padding, gen.
orally out at sea, and certainly he was
wonderful hand in canoe.
"Often he would stay out in wind
that sent bigger surf ashore than most of
the bathers liked, and in he would come,
fairly sliding along on the crest of some
curling wave that would welter around
his canoe near the pier so that you'd be
sure he must so down before reaching
quiet water in the river.
II thought him foolhardy, though
could appreciate his great skill with tho
paddle. Most of tho summer people re-
garded him as dcmented to run such
risks.
"Well, it was the wish to practice on
big water and the hope to pick up some
Of Wales llnack that took me out into
the open that day. I said to myself,
'Ill go out firstin q calm, and afterward
in q gentle breeze, and after that in one
not quite SO gentle, and if 1 don't get
drowned I'll gradually learn how to
manage a canoe like Wales.
4Lo =
don't catch me fooling with it any more
On the calculation that it will stay
just SO.
GAS withstood my nervous feeling it
nearly disappeared, and l padded out
perhaps o mile. The weather was per-
fectly clear. There was just breath of
air from the south at first. This died
away after awhile. The afternoon sun
beat fiercely down, and yet sat so close
ta the cool water that / was not uncom-
fortably hot.
Il was padding in trunks, with my
rel tanned arms and shins bare. My
sweater and my watch were in the stern,
o. ! knelt before the second thwart.
Instead of coming toward me, as any
-l.Ecrican fellow would have done on
5e-ing me, Wales stood farther out, and
coald barely mako out the gleam of his
red canoe through the heat spirals and
faint mist that cling close to the sea on
hot, calm day. When I became con-
vilcod that he either didn't see me or
wouldn't come in for q chat, began to
think of turning back to shore.
In fact did turn, but l still had
plenty Of daylight ahead of me. The
shore seemed not more than mile away,
and | just sat there without padding
and let her swing on tho pillows.
II suppose l must have fallen into a
3ort of dream. Though did not sleep
nor close my eyes, wasn't taking notice
ii anything. How long this lasted l
;an't say, but ! was suddenly reused by
/ faint shout from scaward. AT that !
armed to sec Wales Jones coming in at
great pace. = =