The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-16

IDENTIFY Link had been taken to task
by 'Lish; success has fashion of so
doing to failure.
babe them good-morning as they
shot ahead, and said to Cap'n Jim,
who was rowing me aboard the "Met-
aeon, "What is 'Lish Pevey doing
down here at this time? | should
think it was his business season Bar
Harbor way. Visiting his father!"
"Harryin' of his brother, guess"
Cap'n Jim replied. at does beat all
how hard he tries to set Link straight;
but therel faint no use to try. What's
bred in the bones bound to come out
in the flesh"
"Yes; but Uncle Nat says breedin'
hasn't anything to do with it," l de-
clared. "He says both his boys had
the same bringing up and the same
chances"
"Well, therew Cap'n Jim exclaimed,
using his favorite and almost his
strongest expression of emphasis;
"that's jest like Nat. He knows
them boys didn't have an even
chance. 'Lish, he was the show one
always; Link had to take back
seat and play second fiddle right
from the start. Fellers as is put
down sometimes gets put so fur they
can't get up again to save them
selves. Link is gran, good Teller
at heart; I've always said SO, and I
stick to it; but it's playin' second fid-
die and not bein' able to let liquor
alone that's made him good fer
nothin'."
1 had just boarded the "Meta-
CON-" and Cap'n Jim had pulled in
his oars and was about to follow me
when he dropped into his seat again
and seized his oars with that grip of
iron nervousness that comes from
constant acquaintance with the perils
of the sea.
"Well, there!" he almost shouted.
Cap'n Jim never could really shout,
so mild makeup is his. "Wall,
therel What in the name O. COM
mon sense has got into him? Don't
'Lish Pevy know how to act in dory
no more? He's overheard, and he
can't swim stroke. No more can
Link; and now he's over after him."
All this came out as he pulled with
short quick strokes toward the over
set dory and the struggling brothers.
Just how it was that DIR. Elisha
went overheard, unless it was in
clumsily shifting his position while
laying down the moral law, no one
ever knew. He could not tell him
self, and, as Cap'n Jim says, "dories
is dretful tittlish when you haint used
to 'em."
But it was all speedily over. Link,
supporting himself as best he could
with one hand on the unsteady dory,
lunged at his foundering brother and
sought to catch him by the arm.
'Lish, with the desperation that comes
with drowning, caught his brother in
vise-like grip that tore Link loose
from his only secure hold. A stiff
Southwestern was kicking up quite
sea inside the harbor, and, in COM
pany with many fishermen reared in
sight of the cold Maine seas, neither
one of Uncle Mats boys could swim.
The dories that from every quarter
pulled to the rescue breasted the
white caps with leap and swirl; but,
fast as they sped, they were all too
late. Link, pulled under by his
brothers desperate grasp, had again
come to the surface, and with an al
most herculean effort had caught his
brother about the shoulders and ac-
tually flung him into the empty dory,
which favoring sea had driven to-
ward the brothers in just the nick of
time. Then the reaction came and,
limp and helpless, Lincoln Pevey sank
beneath the waves.
They grappled for the body and
soon drew it up; but life was gone.
The "good for-nothin's" career had
ended by being good for something.
Uncle Mats grief was of that reti-
cent nature that is part of the New
England seafaring character, always
face to face with disaster. But it
was real grief, none the less. And
with it came respect for the dead
son that, because of recent growth,
was all the more emphatic.
"Link had it in him to amount to
something" Uncle Nat assured me.
II knowed it all along. But he
didn't seem to have no fair chance
to bring it out. When the time came,
though, he had jest as much decis
ion of character as 'Lish ever had
only it took death grapple to git it