The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-09-03
When the School,
ma'ams Sailed.
By HARRY
A. ARMSTRONG.

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 rightfully belong
ing to drunken sailors
A woman passed along the opposite
side Of the street She was listening
to the clatter of the mallets and did
not see the Judge as he stood erect, hat
in hand and bowling like Beau Brum-
mel The other men giggled bit, not
because woman was rare thing on
Goose island, but wholly at the Judge.
'"That is the brayest 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
and began to stroke his beard, which
had more gray hair than black in 1t.
"She-that is to say, that lady-doesn't
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.
1.-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 a thing
to do. Along came a schoolteacher
and asked me what we would charge
to take q half dozen or so young ladies
sailing up the lake to the Thousand
Islands and bring them safely back
to Chicago.
"Now, that was q new kind of
cargo, and l had to scratch my head
quite bit before making price. All
right, SIR she said. we will come
Every mothers son of us was carrying
provisions and getting stock of fresh
meats and things when there broke
loose a regular babel at the gangplank,
and there they came tripping aboard
with valises and bandboXes and UNI
brellas and packages and no telling
what. Just nine came and 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 result l had to go out and pick
I'D a new crew in the hope of getting
under way before the kind of cargo l
carried was known, but l forgot this
day was Friday. Something got tan
gled with the lines, or the anchor chain
was rusted, or the wheel had to be
fixed. The Mary Ann Rugged the
wharf till after midnight, when we ran
I'D light and tug came alongside
and towed us out into the lake. The
young women were all up as we glided
along past the big elevator and the
shadows of the mast swept across the
fields of salt barrels and on into the
broader basin beyond the life saving
station.
eve threw off the lines of the tug,
and there was such shouting the
lookout at the life saving station would
have been excused if he had thought
female lunatic asylum had broken out
on the Mary Ann.
EAT? They could eat anything. l
believe they would have fattened on
fricassee of rope ends. oh, it was a
Jolly lot that drew up to the first
breakfast, and the cabin boys had to
make several trips to the scullery be-
fore the meal was DONE Before noon
they had infinitely examined every
thing from the rock ballast in the hold
to the little flags whipping at the mast
heads. They even wanted to steer, and
sometimes the quartermaster would
let them. The ship would huff, and
the outfit would laugh and grab at
masts and coils of rope as the boat
rolled back to the course.
"When the first night came, the man
dolins and guitars came on deck, and
for hours the voices of women were
mingled with the trembling melody of
the strings. That, too, came to an end
along about midnight, and the whole
10 pulled cots out upon the deck and
slept there.
"But l might go on and on about that
voyage and not get to the point about
this schoolma'a am, so we will pass up
until we are north of Little Manitou
light and four nights out There came
a good fresh wind that rocked the Mary
Ann like a cradle Cots on the deck
were showed in, and the girls were be-
ginning to regret leaving their moth
| ers. One by one they dashed out or
the cabin ard clutched wildly at the
rail. Like specters, they made their
way along the decks until the IL were
there, barefooted, bareheaded ana
clothed in loose robes of white. we
turned the ships head against the wind
and waited.
Just as daylight was showing the
moon sailed out from behind bank OF
clouds and shone upon the waters. one
of the girls screamed, and l started
down to the deck, for | was up by the
wheel. Man overheard? she crled
and l met her at the top of the ladder
| and went back with her.
""There he is she exclaimed, point
ing to a dark object in the waves.
Then there floated by bit of wreck
age. and I gave orders to bring the
boat about and to lower the dory. BY
the time the boat came around the
dory was ready to go down, and four
men and a woman jumped in. look
ed about me for Mary Wood-that was
her name-and she was gone. Fear
fairly shook me as that little boat went
I'D over a swell and was lost beyond
the wave, to come into sight again the
next instant. That girl knew her busl-
ness. She held the shell across the
waves till she got abeam the wrecked
man. 1t was bold and daring thing
to do, but she did it-yes, sir, turned
that dory In the trough of the sea ano
came up to the man in the water.
"He crawled into the boat over the
bow, and they all pulled away for the
Mary Ann.
"And the even dozen schoolmaams
had forgotten their troubles and were
cheering-cheerIng like a lot of boys a
football game. Finally they came
alongside and were hoisted to the deck
Some one got whisky, and the rescued
man swallowed it like hospital pa
tent, but the young woman woult
have none Of It.