Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1899-10-10
TIE KEEPER OF THE BISHOP

For a fortnight out of every six weeks
the little white-faced man walked the
Garrison on ST. Mary's island in a broad
cloth froc1 coat, a low waistcoat and
black ribbon of a tie fastened in Il bow;
and it gave him great pleasure to be mis-
taken for a commercial traveller. But
during the other four weeks he was head
keeper of the lighthouse on the Bishops
Rock, with thirty years of exemplary
service to his credit BY what circum-
stances he had been brought to enlist I'M
der the Trinity flag | never knew. But
now. at the age Of 4S, he was entirely
occupied with q great horror of the sea
and its hunger for the bodies of men; the
frock coat which he wore during his
spells on shore was Il protest against the
sea; and he hated not only the sea, but
all things that were in the sea, especially
rock lighthouses, and of all rock light
houses especially the Bishop.
The AtlanticS as smooth as Il ball
room floor said be. 1t was clear, suil
day, and we were sitting among the gorse
on the top of the garrison, looking down
the sea toward the west. Five miles
from the Settles the thin column of the
Bishop showed like a cord strung taut
in the sky. But out there all round
the lighthouse there are eddies twisting
and twisting without any noise, and eX-
traordinary quick, and every other sec
ond. now here, now there, you'll notice
the sea dimple, and you'll hear a sound
like Il man hiccOughing, and, all at once,
there's 4 wicked black whirlpool. The
tide runs seven miles an hour past the
Bishop But in another year L have done
with her." John Garstin nodded across
from st. Mary's to that gray finger post
of the Atlantic. "One more winter.
Well. very likely during this one more
winter the Bishop will go-on some night
when a storm blows from west or west
nor west and the Irish coast takes none
Of its strength.
He was only Gttering the current be-
lief of the islands The first Bishop
lighthouse had been swept away before
its building was finished, and though the
second stood, a fog bell. weighing no less
than a ton, and fixed ninety feet above
the water, had been lifted from its nit
ings by single wave, and tossed like
tennis ball into the sea- l asked Car
stin whether he had been stationed on
the rock at the time.
People talk of lightships plunging and
Juggling at their cables" he returned.
We'll. I've tried lightships, and what l
say is. ships are built to plunge and tug
at their cables That's their business.
But it isn't the business of 10 upright
feet of granite to culver and tremble ilke
q steel spring. No, | wasn't on the Blsh-
Op when the bell went. But | was there
when a wave climbed up from the base
of the rock and smashed in the glass
wall of the lantern. and put the hight
out That was last spring at 4 o'clock
in the morning. The day was breaking
very cold and wild, and one could just
see the waves below, a flashing tumble
of gray and white water as far as the
eye could stretch. / was in the lantern,
reading It's Never Too Late to Mend.
| had come to where the chaplain knocks
down the warder, and l was thinking
n Ep
der myself, when all the guns Ill the
world went off together in my ears. And
there was | dripping wet, and fairly
sliced with splinters of glass, and the
wind blowing salt in my face, and the
lamp out, and bitter gray light of morn
ing, as though there never, never had
been any sun, and all the dead men in
the sea shouting out for me 100 feet
below" and Garstin shivered, and rose
to his feet. We'll, have only one more
winter of it,
And them" 1 asked
Then l get the North Foreland, and
the trippers come out from Margate, and
| live on shore with my wife andy
the way, | wanted to speak to you about
my boy He's getting up in years What
shall 1 make of him? A linen draper, eh :
In the Midlands, what? Or something in
Il free library, handing out Charles
Reade's books? He's at home now.
Come and see him.
guard inclosure. [ was introduced to his
wife and the lad, Leopold. what shall
we call him." Mrs. Garstin had asked
some fifteen years before. 4 don't know
any seafaring man of the name of Leo
nOld," Garstin had replied, after a mo-
ment of reflection. So Leopold he was
named.
Mrs Garstin was a buxom, unima gin
ativo woman, but she shared to the full
her husbands horror of the sea. She
toll of OH no oil
listening to the moan of the wind over
head, and seeing the column of the
Bishop rock upon its base, and of morn
ings when she climbed from the sheltered
barracks up the gorse, with her heart
Juggling in her breast. certain, certain
that this morning, at last, there would
be no Bishop lighthouse visible from the
top of the garrison.
1T seems sort of insult to the works
of God" said she, in a hushed voice. st
seems as if it stood up there in Gods
face and cried, You can't hurt me.''
Yes, most presumptious and provok-
ing said Garstin. And so they fell to
talking of the boy, who, at ali events,
from the sea. Mrs. Garstin leaned to
the linen drapery; Garstin inclined to
the free library.
We'll. will come down to the North
Foreland," said |. land you shall tell me
Yes, if said Garstin, and stopped.
Eyes, if repeated his wife, with
nod of the head.
''Oh. it won't go this winter said l.
And it didn't. But on the other hand
Garstin did not go to the North Foreland
not fo- two years did hear any more of
him. But two years later / returned to
ST. Mary's, and walked across the neck
of the island to the little graveyard by
the sea. A new tablet upon the outer
wall of the church caught and held my
eye. | read the inscription, and re-
manned incredulous. For the Bishop
still stood But the letters were there en-
graved upon the plate, and as / read
them again the futility Of Garstins fears
was enforced upon me with a singular
pathos.
For the Bishop still stood. and Garstin
had died on the Christmas eve of that
last year which he was to spend upon
rock lighthouses. OF how he died the
tablet gave hint, but no more than
hint There were four words inscribed
underneath the name:
And he was not