The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-11-06
AzoGose;i,,o>
81 will. Ronnld.n

these ere doughnuts then-como
onl" cried Aunt Nabby. "We will
run that liio-savin' station this fore
noon. They shall have q female crew
today. You get the brooms ready
Il is WORKOUT thing down at the
station. Wen be lively and start
soon"
A smart but sprightly broom.bri-
gado soon charged on tho station and
captured It without difficulty. Win
dows we're thrown up, the brooms sol
to whisking. and the dust routed.
The hving-room below, the mems
headquarters by day, speedily was
swept The boat-room. with its appar-
atus Of suri-boat and breeohes-buoy,
life-car and Lyle gun, rockets and sig
nails, received prompt attention, and
this floor also was thoroughly swept
Aunt Nabby remained to do some
"cleanin' out" behind the door where
Que Of the other but less particular
crew had left heap Of dirt. Polly,
singing away, went upstairs hopping
like a robin from step to step, land
lug on the threshold Of tho masculine
crews quarters by night.
"The beds look all right" said
Polly, eying six iron beds, neatly Gov
cred with bedding and set in two prim
rows along the northern aud southern
walls of the room. "Yes, they look
all right, but know those men didn't
sweep under the beds. No, before I
sweep I'll take look off from the
lookout on the roof.
This was q platform on the roof,
rallied about, and supporting a flag
staff. Here on clear days a watch was
kept by the surfmen. II need be, a
signal could be run up to the top of
the staff, and any needy craft on the
water promptly instructed.
Guess women's eyes can see as
quick as MEMS" murmured Polly,
'and wo will have it so today"
On her way up a short fight of
steps to the lookout she halted in a
little recess and examined the box of
signals kept there. Since her arrival
she had been very mnch interested in
the signal department, and, instructed
by Uncle Ronald, felt that she could
now handle those signals as readily as
the keeper himself.
Don't 1 wish that Cousin Joe,
whom 1 never saw only in his picture,
we're off on the water and needed
some signaling from the shorelF
If she had allowed the promptings
of her heart and the signal vocabulary
permitted, she would have at once
signaled, 81 love thee, Joseph" But
he was just Cousin Joe, and repress-
ing any demonstrations of special in-
terest, she lifted the scuttle in the
roof, threw it back, climbed upon the
platform, and looked off.
Her heart started up and began to
beat like threshers fail, for there
was a schooner flying a signal. She
knew what it meant. Was it Cousin
Joe off there? Whoever it was, sig,
nal of "distress" was futtering above
the vessel. Should Polly run down tC
/ get Uncle Ronald? When in summer
during the season of closed doors and
t vacant rooms at the station, any dis
aster might happen on the water, the
t proper procedure was to run for tn,
} keeper and notify him. At the head
/ of as many of the old as he coult
gather from cornfelds and fish-house
Q the keeper hurried to the station, oper
: ating as might be advisable. Uncl
Ronald, though, was off on 'tater
patch, mile away. In the meal
{ time the whole United States navy
ducking their heads one after tn
other, could sink off this very station
4 Wasn't a female crew running thi
k station soday?" soliloquized Polly
q "I'll answer that signal myself.
The schooner was so near the shor
Y that if her sails had been set the ar
+: propriate signal would have been tn
II I'D Of the international code of sig
D nails, lyon are standing in to danger,
Q but this vessel had dropped her car