The age-herald., 1899-09-24
a good way" s"hnurtp

a good way"
 "Whew!"
 HWhew!"
 Where did you find that beast, skip per-"
 Me? I didn't find her. She came to of her own accord at Galveston Texas. Rather, I should say, Providence sent her to Us. Our cat was dead, and we might have forgotten to get new cat, if that yellow animal hadn't seen fit to walk right aboar rd-came along our lumber we were moored to the dock completing cargo"
 You said she didn't mind swimming?"
 "I did, and l stick 10 It. I didn't say she would prefer coming aboard in a natural way, when there was taut hawser quite handy did I? Oh, you cant lause me down about that yellow cat. She saved my life, ] tell you-mine and plenty of others.
 Say, you landsmen are mighty apt to laugh at sailors superstitdons, you call em. Well, I tell you. that's because you only see one side of things-the land side. It makes man irreigious and leaves him to scoff at things he don't un- derstand when he stays ashore too long.
 What I'm driving at Is just how 1t came to pass that a crew of eighteen men, fn- oluding the cook, were saved from death by that yellow cat that came up the haw- |. ser of the brig Salambo at Galveston, Texas Do you know what they always have a cat on board for? It's to keep down the rats, of course. If you let them have their way, the rats will eat through any wooden hull in time, let alone the cargo-unless the cargo is minerals. Coal and iron is about all the vicuals I know that rats won't eat.
 Now, when we were lying off place they call Grenada which is in the West Indies and grows cocoa enough to serve all thjs continent, l should think, a very funny thlng happened. The brig commenced to ust over to one side without any rhyme or reason.
 Well, the skipper was on shore looking after business, and the mate was attending to slowing our cargo-cocoa, of course.
 sam, says the mate, speaking to me, do you know what's gone wrong with the cargo of this brig?- is it the ballast?' he says.
 No said I, T don't know that any, thing is gone wrong with her cargo or her ballast, either It's my opinion that you'd better let the carpenter sec how much water there is in her hold
 "Well, not to make 1t too long for a hot telow in less than half an hour a1ter that and said that the Salambo had about four feet of water in her hold, which was good deal for a vessel of her tonnage. They stopped slowing cargo and turned all hands on her pumps without delay, and when We had pumped out all that water the carpen- ter went and looked at the bilge cocks to see if any of them were open. The bilge cocks were all right. The carpenter rum maged about some more and at last, about an hour after sundown, he found that there were two big holes in her bottom, close to the keel, starooard side-whch was the side she was leaning, you understand.
 Now it's easy enough to say that we ought to have guessed that rats had done the mischief, for We had sailed some days without cat before we got to Galveston. But that never seemed to come into any body's head The carpenter bunged up those holes and flattered himself every thing was snug, and then the rest of us went to work wondering what had bored these holes.
 Next morning she foated pretty straight, we thought, and we went to work again on the cargo. But the skipper had left word for us to send his gig ashore