The St. Johns herald., 1897-04-10

Gk " anyhow; but being in receipt of pen sion and small private income to boot, have cast anchor in my present abode in the expectation of weathering many winters storm yet.
 Being without a known relation in the world, I willingly fell in with the suggestion that I should pick up my moorings alongside my old friend and meSsmate, Capt Travers, late R. N, who, having left one of his legs on the west coast of Africa while capturing a shaver, was pensioned off at an even earlier age than myself, and now lived with his sister-a most comfortable party, fat, fair. and 40, or thereabouts in the adjoining house to mine in the neighbOrhoOd of London. We had al ways got on well together, our tastes and dispositions were similar, and we had often met during our naval careers. His sister I had not previously been acquainted with, but, being in many respects like her brother, we were soon firm friends
 Capt. TraVers and myself had each a favOrite parrot-his the common Afri- can gray, with a red-tipped tail, and mine the purer variety, without a trace of color, but otherwise similar.
 l had not long settled down in my new quarters, and got everything ship shape, or what seemed so to me-a very important difference, as I know to-day when, almost uncOnSciously at first, I began to feel what a lonely old bach elor was and what a Set-off to all my other belongings the figure of Miss Rachel Travers would be by my fire side. But just here the course of my life began began to make itself felt. Inherent shyness in the presence of the opposite sex had dogged my footsteps i from my earliest recOllectiOns. Give me a gale of wind in the bay of Biscay, a tornado in the tropics, or twenty hours duty on deck, wet through to the skin, and Capt. Manley, late of the r. and o. service, will thank you for it, and consider life well worth living; but as dispenser of delicate attentions to l the fair sex, intensely as he inwardly admireS their pretty ways, Capt. Man. ley does not, mo- he certainly does not, show up to advantage.
 Although fond of pets generally, l have an antipathy to cats, especially at night. l am not aware that our neigh bOrhood was particularly beneficial In Its aspect or other qualifications to p.1s til I was inhuman enough to start an air-gun cannonade on my numerous 7-sftoi- Ss FisoSTTioI1t1y llT1- able to get q respectable nights rest One internal black and evhite Tom de- fled my finest efforts. If average cats have nine lives, am sure this one must have had nineteen, and began to won der what sort of uncanny being this was that had no objection to letting my bullets pass apparently through its 1 body without suffering any inconven- 1 fence. But after all it must have been my bad marksmanship, for one after noon 1 saw my enemy quietly walking up the low fence that divided my back garden from Capt Travers'.
 The opportunity was too good to be lost, and quietly getting my airgun took a steady aim and fired. There was no mistake this time, and without a sound poor puss dropped on to my flow CT bed as dead as the proyerbial door nail
 My eXultation, however, was of short duration. for to my horror and dismay, on proceeding to pick up his unfortu- nate carcass and give it decent burial, I saw that my shot had passed right through the unlucky animal and killed my neighbor's parrot, which had been put out to sun itself iii little summer house that stood at the bottom of the garden.
 l was staggered at my poSition; knew the parrot was a supreme favor Ite with Miss Travers, and how I could ever explain my careleSSness 1 could not imagine. Suddenly a way out of my dilemma presented itself to my mind, and l hastened to put it into execution. 1 knew that the Traverses were out. and would not be back for some little time, so hurrying indoors and taking my own parrot from it's cage I carefully painted the end of its tail with red ink in imitation of its de- ceased cOmTade. and finding no one was about 1 stepped lightly over the fence and substituted the living for the dead bird. which I buried, together with the cat in my own garden. l knew that my parrot would not readily talk before strangers, and 1 hoped that by the time it had got used to it's new surroundings it would have forgotten its former accomplishments; at any rate, l must risk it.
 Alas! Uneasy lies the head that wears crown" sang some poet who, I expect, never wore anything harder than a nightcap, but, true as it may be, compared to the torture of my mind, | now launched on a course of duplicity, l 1t would be bed of roses.
 It was toward the end of the follow ing week that I happened to be out in | the garden and saw my old friend come ] stumping down the path of his own | garden in his dot-and-carry-one style, l and, seeing me on the fence, cried:
 ''Holloa. Captain, you're quite a stranger! Whats been up? Rachel has been talking about coming in to in quire about your health, as she was afraid something must be wrong"
 "Yes, have been bit poorly said | l. Oh, how easily the words slipped out,