The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-07-06
WANDERING WILLIE.

Late in the afternoon Of a golden Sep
TENDER day a canalboat was traverslng
the Erie canal at the sluggish rate Of
progress peculiar to that manner of nav
igation. Perhaps its locomotion was un-
usually SLOW, for not only was the h hc,s.s
eastward bonn: s s.::di therefore heavily
laden with the lumber it had shipped at
Buffalo, but it was of decidedly grave
and sedate aspect generally and was SO
extremely large, stolid and clumsy That
most Of its compeers were as fairy shall
Tops beside it for grace and hghtness.
1t was old-that is, old for canalboat,
which carries grain five years, lumber
five years more and then is past Its use
fulness-the paint was worn and bis
tered, and the gilt letters on the stern
were so defaced by time that one could
with difficulty decipher the words, The
Wandering Willie.
Had any one read this inscription on
that September day he would have
thought it n most absurd misnomer.
''Willie" was unsuitably light and ten
der, while the epithet Wandering
was surely i'll applied to a vessel whose
migrations were strictly confined to the
long and narrow extent of a canal But
perhaps it had seemed a more hitting u
tie some so years ago when 1t had been
chosen for q somewhat less ponderous
craft than the present possessor or the
name, when, too, the Erie canal was
a new, vast and magnificent enterprise,
and voyage along its placid waters
seemed almost as memorable as a Trip
TO Europe does to US now.
No one. however, bestowed any scru-
= <l1 hoo naT
afternoon, for it was passing through
district very thinly settled. Now and
then distant farmhouse, with its red
rooted barns, gave touch OF human
interest to the landscape, and occasion
ally the boat crept slowly between wide
stubble fields lying warm and glow
ing under the late sun, as if full of a
pleasant consciousness of a summers
work we'll done. But most of the time
the canal lay through vast woods, so
dense that oak and elm, beech and ma
pie leaves mingled together In indistin-
punishable confusion. The boat in these
leafy solitudes was as isolated as ship
Mt sea. but its loneliness was not desc
late. for it was broken by the twitter of
many birds and by the sense of the in
tense life in the myriad growing trees
and vines.
There were five persons connected
with the boat. One man was lazlly
guiding the mules some 200 feet ahead;
another was doing in the bow of the
boat; Jenny, a young woman, was pre-
pairing supper ON :he forward part OF the
deck: q young man was holding the till
er, and near him sat an elderly woman
knitting These latter two saw In their
different ways much of the beauty and
poetic possibilities of the scene. The
Young man thought that ''far in forest
deeps unseen," such as these, Lancelot
and Guinevere had ridden side by side,
and in Just such bosky dells Orlando
and Rosalind did fleet the time care
lessly, as they did IN the golden world y
The woman, unfamiliar with the ca
reers Of these distinguished personages,
merely put down her coarse knitting tc
listen more intently to blackbird's pip
ing, or to inhale with underlined delight
the cool fresh odors of the ferns and
moses, or the warm breath Of the fields
Presently she broke long silence by
saying to her companion:
You haven't told me bout thai
there letter you got yist' day.
I've been wanting to, but hardly
knew how to Begin said the young
man, with an effort to speak lightly
Its from that banking firm in Chica
go / told you about They offer me
good position now and 4 chance to rise
must make up my mind tonight. L
would be great thing for me, mother.
Until he spoke the last word on
would never have suspected the relation
between them. The young man lookeC
like gentleman. The straw hat pushed
back ON his head revealed face at one
keen, thoughtful and refined. His sui
of blue flannel fitted him we'll and wa
scrupulously neat. The woman wore
calico dress and apron and ginghar
sunbonnet She was not much past mid
die life, but seemed rather older. Sever
and incessant labor had bent her frame
as it had hardened and misshapen he
hands But with that word mother q
KEY an observer could have traced tn
latent resemblance in the two faces
There were the same soft brown eye
and wide brows, surmounted in on
case by thick, curly brown locks, IN til
other by scanty gray ones. There WEI
the same square jaws and firm set Lii
that told of indomitable energies, an
each countenance as it turned towar
the other beamed with tender affection
MAKE up yer mind, Joe?" the won
an said slowly, evidently startled ''Yo
don't pean that you air RELY Think
of it?''
''MotherP' he said with passionat
earuestness he strove in vain to concea
''you must see for yourself that al
not fitted for the life on canalboat-
is too quiet, too dull; it has no oppo
tunities. / have seen and learned tC
much to settle down willingly to tn
work. II am to do nothing else tina
this in the world, it was mistake Il
Won and father to send me to school On
college.