The San Francisco call., 1897-07-25

naval constructor in the yard where the
keel Of the Ark was laid. However, the
old man was now going out of com mission
to lay up in ordinary in the little hillside
graveyard at Mare Island with the other
human hulks that had heard their last
''pipe down." He had picked out his
mooring- place, he said, and he would
turn-in to coffin provided with lock
and key like diddy-bo1, instead of
hammock and round d-shot al the foot for
ballast.
Old Gill's long sea-seryce-he had left
his allotted last milestone many knots be.
hind-had been life of prayer that he
might not be buried in the sea when his
final enlistment had rounded to q finish.
"Pd never be at rest he growled. 'but
forever swosh hin' aroun' like an old corked-
bottle, pecked at by the gulls an nosed
about by every ioafin' cod that came that
way. want to sleep stiddy an quiet
like on tn shore-stiddy as q farmer
Fisher"
Every day at noon, after the navigator
had found the meridian and made eight
bells, Fisher would come down from the
spardeck and tell Gill how many more
knots the ship must reel off the log ere
she lifted the California coast, and the
dying man would mark the lying figures
on the side of his cot. Often when the
wind went down and the rocking motion
of the vessel showed little speed, it was
beautiful to see Sake arouse the sinking
spirits of Gill by adding few imaginary
knots TO each hours run.
She's a-swimmin' away like a hungry
duck fur fat mud fiat, OIL man." said the
faithful liar, as the almost stationary ship
rolled her idle canvas against the masts
with loud flaps, which the sick man could
have heard had not approaching death
dulled his ears.
Hear her now," he would say to the
home-yearning invalid. Isn't tn oil
hooker just a-rippin' through it'll Wy,
tn water is a-comin' over tn fo'cas'l head
victim th' fores'l clear up to tn reefband.
A minet ago she went into a swell an
bout four tons Nv green sea slapped down
into tn galley, nearly drownded tn cook
an washed th' plums out Nv tn bloomin'
duff a-bilin' in tn coppers. All, me boy
you will soon see tn roof Nv th' OF Guardo
loom up, an tn red walls OF tn Marine
Hospital dead ahead. 1 wus squintin'
over Micky McGreevy's shoulders as he
wus a-workin' out tn sights as tn Eav'ga-
ter gave 'im-you know Micky is goin' to
be a capt in in tn Fenian navy when or
Ireland is free-an' be said to me he had
figgered out bloomin' parallax that sez
we'll raise tn Farallones emmy mornin'
now. Dave Clark is gettin' his bag Nv
Japanese curlos ready to slide ashore be-
fore th' Custom-Eouse officers nab 'em.
George Romer just went to tn paymas-
ters to settle accounts, as he is goin' to
leave the service when we get in and ship
on a hen farm an grow poultry fur
th' marine mess at tn barracks on tn
island. You're a feelin' abe-bodied to-
day, aint you? That's right, my son,
hol' together little longer. Reminds me
Nv a shipmate 1 had in th' Savannah up
tn Mediterranean in 18-."
Then the increasing weakness of the
sick man would hasten the doctors stew
ard to order Fisher out of the bay, and
Sake would go on deck to give as his
opinion that Old Gill would go to pieces
before the morning watch was called.
Frequently Walker, who alternated his
enlistments with cruises among the Cali
fornia wheattields, would cheer with de-
drifting away to the uncharted sea. In
the calm evenings Lind and his fellow
songsters would gather on deck near the
open sick-bay hatch and the stirring
melody of 1.-The Benicia's Homeward
Bound" would float down to the dying
man like a benediction, Infinitely sweet
to the ocean-weary soul, longing for rest
and quiet under the grasses on the hill
side.
There were days when the gentle decep-
tion OF tender-hearted shipmates could
hardly hide the knowledge that the Be-
nicia Jagged in her sailing and that the
spell OF a great golden calm had fallen
over the sapphirine sea. Then the cot
swung softly, mercifully, rocking the fail
ing senses into the verge of a slumber that
had no dreaming as the vessel reeled
across the unwrinkled slopes of the low
undulations of swell. Other days there
were when the white summer clouds OF
cloth went out of the sky and little
patches of close-reefed sail gathered the