The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-09-02

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idea of the seafaring man with one leg,
was far less afraid of the captain him
self than anybody else who knew him.
There were nights when he took deal
would carry; and then he would some
times sit and sing his wicked, old, wild
sea songs, minding nobody; but some
times he would call for glasses round,
and force all the trembling company to
listen to his stories or bear chorus
to his singing. Often have heard the
house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho. and
bottle of rum" all the neighbors join
ing in for dear life. with the fear Of
death upon them, and each singing
louder than the other to avoid remark.
For in these fits he was the most over
riding companion ever known; he
would slap his hand ON the table for 81
lence all round; he would fly up in pas
sion of anger at question, or some
times because none was put and so he
judged the company was not following
his story. Nor would he allow anyone
to leave the inn till he had drunk him
self sleepy and reeled off to bed.
His stories were what frightened peo-
pie worst of all. Dreadful stories they
were; about hanging, and walking the
plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry
Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on
the Spanish main. BY his own account,
he must have lived his life among some
of the wickedest men that God ever al
lowed upon the sea; and the language
in which he told these stories shocked
our plain country people almost as
much as the crimes that he described.
My father was always saying the inn
would be ruined, for people would soon
cease coming there to be tyrannized
over and put down, and sent shivering
to their beds; but l really believe his
presence did us good. People were
frightened at the time, but on looking
back they rather liked it; it was a fine
excitement in quiet country life; and
there was even party of the younger
men who pretended to admire him, call
ing him "true sea-dog," and "real
old salt" and such like names, and say
ing there was the sort of man that
made England terrible at sea.
In one way, indeed. he babe fair to
ruin us; for he kept on staying week
after week, and at last month after
month, so that all the money had been
long exhausted, and still my father
never plucked up the heart to insist on
having more. If ever he mentioned it,
the captain blew through his nose SO
loudly that you might say he roared,
and stared my poor father out of the
room. have seen him wringing his
, hands after such rebuff, and am sure
the annoyance and the terror he lived
in must have greatly hastened his early
and unhappy death.
All the time he lived with us the cap
tain made no change whatever in his
dress but to buy some stockings from
a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat
having fallen down, he let it hang from
that day forth, though it was a great
annoyance when it blew. 1 remember
the appearance of his coat, which he
patched himself upstairs in his room,
and which, before the end, was nothing
but patches. He never wrote or re-
ceived letter, and he never spoke with
any but the neighbors, and with these
for the most part, only when drunk on
rum. The great sea-chest none of us
had ever seen open.
He was only once crossed, and thatwas
toward the end, when my poor father
was far gone in decline that took hin
off, DR.. Livesey came late one after
noon to see the patient, took a bit Of
dinner from my mother, and went int
the parlor to smoke pipe until hi:
horse should come down from the ham
let, for we had no stabling at the ole
Benbow. I followed him in, and / re
member observing the contrast thu
neat, bright doctor, with his powder al
white as snow, and his bright, blacl
eyes and pleasant manners, made will
the coltish country folk, and, above all
with that filthy, heavy, bleared scare
crow of pirate of ours, sitting far gon'
in rum. with his arms on the table. Sud
denly he-the captain, that is-begai
to pipe up his eternal song:
Fifteen men on the dead mans chest
Yo-ho-ho, and bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"
At first I had supposed "the dea'
mans chest" to be that Identical bi,
box of his upstairs in the front room
and the thought had been mingled il
my Nightmares with that of the one
legged seafaring man. But by this tim
we had all long ceased to pay any par
/, ticular notice to the song; it was new
that night, to nobody but DR.. Livesey
and on him l observed that it did no
, produce an agreeable effect, for h
looked up for moment quite angril
, before he went on with his talk to oil
/ Taylor, the gardener, on new cure TO
rheumatics. In the meantime the car
tain gradually frightened up at hi
own music, and at last tapped his han
( upon the table before him in way W
all knew to mean-silence. The voice
! stopped at once, all but DR.. Livesey's
he went on as before, speaking clea
and kind, and drawing briskly at hi
{ pipe between every word or two. Tn
e captain glared at him for awhil,
:, AonDad HE hond amin rrIorad Sfi