The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-04-07
THE OLD MAID CAPTAIN.

II have been going to sea these 25
years." said the stewardess of an Amer
lean coaStwise steamer, one afternoon,
as she sat sewing in the coy ladies'
cabin of the vessel to which she be-
longed, land yet l was never wrecked.
much as a spar while was aboard. Yes,
my life has been very commonplace.
There has been no romance connected
with it. Stop, though; l did play very
small part in romance once. That
happened fully 20 years ago. some
times wonder if it wasn't all a dream.
1t seems stranger to me now than it did
even then" The stewardess paused,
with a PARKWAY look in her eyes.
when was young went on sailing
vessels instead of steamers" she con-
tinued. about 20 years ago visited
some friends in the country after a
voyage, and then came to New York to
find a ship. The agent went to told me
that l could go as stewardess on a ship
bound to Australia. The skipper said
he, lis good man, but he's a regular old
L l.
and so it was settled that was to GO
with the old maid captain The next
day l went aboard and reported to my
new captain. He was called Harris. He
was short and rather slightly built, with
mild gray eyes, but with full, heavy
black beard. He seemed about 35 years
old. His hands were small and delicate,
and his voice was high and just trife
shrill, and he walked up and down the
deck with mincing sort of gait.
Thinks 1, Capt. Harris, if you wasn't
a skipper you'd have made first-rate
single woman l regularly despised
him until the first storm came on. Then
he went on deck and handled the ship
in such a way that l saw he was the
best navigator had ever sailed under.
After that began to think better of the
old maid captain. never saw a captain
SO considerate of his men. If one of
them was the least bit sick, the captain
would go into the forccastle and look
after him as tenderly as any nurse. And
when the weather was bad, he would
not let the mates make the men do any
work that wasn't really necessary. The
mates used to make fun of the captain
behind his back for being so considerable
of his men, but somehow l thought it
was good trait in him.
81 began to watch the captain closely,
and / soon made up my mind that there
was some mystery about that man.
Once on a pleasant evening l came on
deck and saw the captain looking at the
red sunset with tears in his eyes. An
other time, when l thought he was on
deck, went into the after cabin for
What do you think he was doing? Why,
he was sewing, and crying into the
bargain. They are right in calling you
the old maid captain thinks l.
''The mate, Mr.. Wood, was tall, fine
looking down-easter. The captain
seemed to like him, but I thought how
much he must envy his size and strength.
The captain, though, was much the
smarter man of the two. The mate,
somehow, seemed to take fancy to me.
I was young in those days. He was al
ways running into the cabin on some
pretext to see me. But l never en-
couraged him. You see, l was engaged
to be the mate of another mate; and
that mate, poor fellow, was lost at sen
a few years afterward. Although the
captain didn't seem to care much about
me, he didn't fancy the mates taking a
liking to me. That used to puzzle me.
Zone pleasant evening when / went
on deck L saw the captain standing aft,
looking admiring!y at the mate, who
was sitting at the starboard gangway.
When the captain saw me come on deck
he gave me sort of suspicious look,
and when the mate came up to me and
began to make himself agreeable, al
though, as l said before, had not given
him any encouragement, l glanced
again at the captain, and there was an
angry snap in his eyes. He did not like
to see the mate and me together. That
was plain. But why should he object
- it, so long as he didn't seem to care