The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1899-07-22

father said the later vikings used. | must
have my boat ready by the time the ice is
off, Peter said, unmindful of his wifes
sarcasm. II will paint it white with blue
trimmings and have a golden prov, and it
will ride like gull on the waves" He fell
to dreaming of his wonder ship, and his
wife knitted in silence until the fading
light obliged her to lay down her needles.
Through the long Wisconsin winter,
Peter was busy in his shop. He set up
small wood stove that kept out the bitterest
of the cold, though the wind came in at the
cracks and pinched his lean old body. He
had seasoned timber laid by, and before
the snow fell he had hewn his first rough
model Of the viking ship. A thousand
stories came back to him, and when he
closed his eyes he could see his boat filled
with yellow-haired giants whose great
strokes sent it shooting across the water
| like an arrow. When he went to the store
he talked so much of his viking ship that
his hearers shook their heads and said
among themselves that his brain was quite
turned by this boat building.
On March LIST, he walked across the ice
to the village to buy his paints. His wife
had cried out at this extravaganza, but he
paid no heed and carried home his buckets
of color and his brushes. He painted the
body of the boat white. The wooden
shields that hung alongside the sides as the
vikings had hung theirs were blue, as was
the prov and the rudder post He had to
be content without the gliding. He looked
at it in an ecstacy of admiration. He
touched it tenderly ard sat for hours gaz-
ing at the graceful curve of the keel and
the bold upward sweep of the PROV. To
his simple mind it seemed the most beauti-
full thing he had ever seen-and he had
made it. He longed for the day when the
ice would break up and he could launch
his boat
When the bay was yet filled with float
ing cakes Of ice, he slid it down the runway
that sloped from his shop into the water,
then he tied it to the pier while he set the
square squat sail that he had sewed labor
iously in the evenings. He loosened the
ropes, the sail Tapped, then filled, the
sharp bow cut the water like knife and
the boat flew away from shore. He guided
| with the rudder placed at one side the
Nstern and made long tack toward the viii
lage pier, for he wished to beat out into
the main water of Green Bay. His heart
eXulted. He felt as il he had created some
beautiful living thing, and he had vague
magnificent dreams of the fair as he glided
along-no need of rowers straining at the
oars when his sail carried so galy. He
avoided the ice cakes and went on past the
village, flying before the wind like witch
boat
He shifted the sail and beat toward the
passage between the cliff and the island.
Suddenly the wind changed and the boat
refused to obey the awkward side rudder
and drove straight toward the rocks under
the cliff. The old man tried to lower his
sail, but it pulled away from him and tlut-
tered and snapped in the wind. The boat
went on toward the rocks which showed in
rough points above the surface The keel
grated and the boat listed far on its side.
Peter fell into the water but it was not
more than thigh deep, and he waded to the
beach. Then he looked back and his heart
! lilo 1aaI -bic f,,l L.
ing ground to bits by the sharp-toothed
rocks. The mast snapped and the square
sail lay spread on the water the gay
wooden shields were loosened and loated
on the waves. He shook his fist and cursed
in wild oaths, the rocks that were beating
apart the work of his hands. Once he
waded out and snatched one of the shields
and held it to his breast ; then he sat down
in despair and watched the breaking up of
his wonder boat. Now and then the waves
flung a bit of wrecbage at his feet but
when he put out his hands it foated from
his reach. He sat there until it was dusk,
forgetful of his wet clothes and all save his
loss. Finally he arose and walked along
the cliffs base until he came to path
which led to the top. He went up slowly,
and when he reached the top paused. His
farm was to the left, but he turned into the
deep woods, where the pale birches shone
family in the dusk.
Searches found him the next evening in
the deep woods wandering with stumbling
and feeble steps. He had not eaten or
slept and was likely to drop from fatigue.
He went with them willingly enough, and
when they took him home, he bore the re.
proaohes and complaints of his wife with
out reply. When he spoke, it was sensibly
and without any of the violence of the de-
mented, but when his beloved boat was
torn to pieces on the rocks, the light of
reason had been forever extinguished in his
mind.
He spent his long days in his shop build
ing boats that have always some fatal de-
feet that renders them unseaworthy, for the
defective brain makes boats that are like
unto himself. But the old man tolls on
dreaming of the day when he shall finish