Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1901-07-25
When the School
ma'amS Sailed.
BY HARRY
A. ARMSTRONG.

Judge Neyins sat on the edge of the
drydock whiting and spinning warns
as he was always doing. Not that he
was a judge or ever had been. but it
4 shows how a name viii stick to a sea-
faring man through life. for the judges
baptismal name was William. Some
one called him judge in the days when
/ he sailed before the mast, and ii stuck
4 to him always. like his white hat
/ Here the judge sat with the calking
1 hammers Gathering away around him
4 like spring frogs and the keel Of Tie
/ Mary Ann of Charlevoix as dry as it
was before the launch day. Men were
at work on a plank slung over the side
/ splitting green paint into the seams
with the recklessness rightfuliy belong
/ Ing to drunken sailors
a woman passed along the opposite
/ side of the street She was listening
/ to the chatter Of the mallets and did
4 not see the judge as he stood erect. hat
/ in hand and howing like Il Beau Brum-
mel. Tie other men giggled bit, not
4 because a woman was q rare thing on
4 Goose island. but wholly at the judge.
| THAT is the bravest woman WHO
! ever stepped over the side of any craft
/ afloat or on the bottom of the lake.
said the judge as he slipped back To
| his place on the edge of the drydock
1 and began to stroke his beard. which
had more gray hair than black in it.
| "She-that is to say, that lady-doesnt
/ look afraid of anything. not even the
water out of the river" But the judge
paid no attention To the remark of the
! first mate.
The Mary Ann of Charlevoix was
not so pretty then as She was at first
said the Judge half to himself. but she
was just as seaworthy as any of the
bigger vessels going up and down the
lake under their own steam. When
the June vacations came. the Mary Ann
lay here in the river without n thing
to do. Along came schoolteacher
and asked me what we would charge
TO take a half dozen or So young ladies'
sailing up the lake to tie Thousand
/ Islands and bring them safely back
TO Chicago.
Now. that was new kind Of a
cargo. and I had TO scratch my head
t
right. sir she said we VIII come
down tomorrow And SO they came.
Every mothers son of rs was carrying
provisions ana getting a stock Of fresh
meats ana things when there broke
loose a regular babel at the gangplank,
AMI there they came tripping aboard
with valises and bandboNes and UNI
brcllas and packages and no telling
what Just nine came. ana we had no
trouble slowing them away in the
cabin. my room and the mates room.
But two more came. and then. just as
/ it was getting dark. two more came.
THAT made thirteen.
As 4 reSHlt l had - 90 ont ana picl.
/ up a new crew in the hope Of getting
/ uaaer way before the kind Of cargo |
carried was known. hut | forgot this
/ day was Friday Something got tam
i sled with the lines, or the anchor chain
I was rustcd. or the wheel hal to be
+ fiAed The Mary Ann Rugged the
/ wharf till after midnight. wien we ran
up light, and tug came alongside
4 and flowed us Ont into the lake. The
i Young women were al M as ve clided
4 along past the big elevator and the
shadows OF the mast swept across the
fields e salt barrels AMI on into the
broader basin beyond the life saving
s station
We threw oil the lines of lhe tug.
& and there was such shouting the
lookout nj the life saving station would
have been excused If lac had thought Il
q