The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-08-21


mon. Pigeon breeders dropped in and
smoked long pipes in the Kitchen with
Master Simon, and slowly evolved bets
and matches. And once or twice in the
summer months a com pShy OF pilgrims
would arrive-queer literary men In vel
veteen coats, who examined all the rooms
and furniture as though they meant 10
make bid for the inn complete; who
talked with outlandish tongues ana or
dered expensive dinners, and usually paid
for them next morning, rather 10 Master
Smon's surprise. 1t appeared that there
was once, in the time OF Mater Simon's
grandfather, certain pot-boy at the
Flowing Source who ran of into the
world and became great poet and these
pilgrimages were made in his honor.
Master Simon found this story somehow
very creditable to himself, and came in
time to take almost as much PRIDE In III
as in his pigeons and broiled salmon
Regularly after dinner on these occasions
he would exhibit an old pewter pint-pot
to the pilgrims, and draw their attention
to the following verse, scratched upon IL
AS he asserted-by the poets own hand:
"Who buys beef buys bones,
Who buys land buys stones,
Who buys eggs buys shells,
But who buys ale buys nothing else. "
And the pilgrims feigned credulity ac-
| cording as they valued Master Simon's
| opinion Of their intelligence.
| But most welcome of all were the mer-
| chant captains from Panteglos among
| whom custom had made IL point OF
| honor to report themselves at the Flow
| ing Source within "A hours after dropping
anchor by Ponteglos Quay When or why
| or how the custom arose nobody was
| old enough to remember, but a master
| mariner would as soon have thought OF
| sailing without log or lead-line as of put
| ting in and out o! Ponteglos without
tasting Master Simon's ale, ''calling for
orders,n as they put it. Master Simon
| had never climbed a sea-going ship ex-
| cept to shake hands with friend and
| wish good voyage and return to shore
| with the pilot. But the teak walls of his
| parlor were lined with charts of such very
| remote parts of the world, and his shelves
| with such quantity OF foreign china
| and marine curiosities, and he spoke so
familiarly o: Galapagos, Batavia, Cape
| Verde, the Horn, the Straits OF Magellan
and SO forth, and would bring his tele-
| scope so knowingly to bear on the gilt
weather-cock over Ponteglos church
| tower, that until you knew the truth you
would have sworn half his life had been
! spent on the quarterback. And while the
| sea captains-serious men, attired in blue
cloth, wearing rings in their ears-sat
| and smoked CANISTER and other queer to-
baccos in painted china pipes, and talked
of countries whose very names conJured
up visions Of parrots, and carved idols,
and sharks, and brown natives In flash
ing canoes Master Simon would put a
shrewd question or two and wag his
head over the answers as man who
hears Just what he expected. And some
times toward the close OF the sitting, IL
he knew his company very well, he
would reward them with his favorite and
only song, "The Golden Vanitee:"
"a ship have got in the North Coun-
And / had her christened the Golden
| Vantee;
o, fear she'll be taken by Spaish Gal
| lee,
As she sails by the Lowlands low" .
In some hazy way he had persuaded
himself that the Spanish galleon OF the
ballad was the very ship whose timbers
| overarched him and the audience; and
for the moment, being himself inverted
$50 to speak, by the potency OF his own
singing he blew out his chest and strad-
died out his thick calves and screwed up
his eyes, quite as il his roof-tree were
| right-side-up o1ce more in blue water,
and he on deck beside the weather-rail
But the mood began to pass as soon as he
locked the front door behind his guests,
| and Ann the cook poured him out his
last cup OF mulled ale and withdrew with
! the saucepan. And another noon would
| find him seated under his leaning house
front, his eyes half-closed, his attention
divided between the whisper OF the tide
and the murmur in the pigeon-cots over
head, his body at ease and his soul con-
tent. His was happy life-or hao been,
but for two crumpled rose-leaves. To
begin with, there were these confounded
pot boys. 1t puzzled Master Simon al
most as much as IL annoyed him; he had
paid fair wages and passed for a good
employer; but he could not keep pot
boy for ~ months. As a matter OF fact,
| know the river TO have been at the bot
tom of the mischief-the river, and per-
haps the talk OF the ship captains. II
might satisfy Master Simon to sit and
watch the salmon passing up in autumn
toward their spawning beds, and rub
bing, as they went, their scales against
his landing stage TO clear them OF the
sea-lice; 10 watch them and their young
passing seaward in the early spring; TO
watch and wait and spread his nets In the
due season. But for the youngsters this