The suburban citizen., 1901-09-07
} The Death of a Coward.
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! nead reel, and he was weak from want
of food. He seemed altogether apart
from the stir and life that three hun
| dred emigrants on board created. His
whole soul was filled with a dumb
and impotent protest against his fate,
and the life before him. Old Captain
Malcolm had shown little wisdom
when he sent his only son to sea to
have some pluck knocked into him.
In the fathers defence it may be
said that he was utterly unable to
realize the timidity and sensitiveness
of the boy. All his ancestors had
been rough seamen who had faced
storm and danger on every sea- and
courage and nerve were hereditary
! qualities. And now the last of the
Malcoms seemed more of a girl than
any of his five sisters.
All the exhortations to manliness,
all the covert reproaches that came
from his father, We're so many darts
that ranked and festered in his soul,
but failed to compel his nature to
be other than he was. The boy
and uneventful life that an office in
his native town could have offered
under his mothers watchful care.
| Instead, he was here, an apprentice
on the steamship Pride of ASIA a
big cargo boat just off the ships on the
Tyne, and carrying emigrants to the
| Cape.
The ships doctor came out of the
saloon in the poop to go his evening
round below With him was his wife,
slight, girlish figure wrapt in n
heavy cloak. She turned at the ladder
which led to the lower deck, and was
about to go back, when her eyes
fell on the boy. She had noticed him
once or twice before, and his white
| face and lonely air reused the wom-
anly sympathy in her. She touched
him lightly on the shoulder and said:
"You are leaving home, like me-"
The boy started. A slight color
sprang to his cheeks, and tears to his
eyes. He smiled family, showing a
gap where tvs teeth had been
knocked out by a smaller boy in the
only fight he had ever had at school.
"Yes, ma'am," he replied.
"You must feel lonely" she said;
"but you will soon be back. and then
every one will think so much of you"
Her voice had something caressing
and inviting about it; and so his con-
fidence, overcoming his shyness and
reserve, broke bounds. He told her
everything-how he would hate this
life, how all filed him with fear and
disgust, the cold and darkness. the
chaff and horseplay of his fellow-ap-
prentices, the indifference of every
| one around him. He told how i'm
possible it was to come up to his
fathers standard, how he felt he was
a born coward, and that he would
always be one, shrinking instinct
lively from the danger and excite
ment that bolder natures took
pleasure In.
She listened sympathetically. Her
hand had pattcd him once or twice,
and encouraged him to 60 on. When
he ended, she said: You must not
be too hard Oh yourself. 1t is not
always those who fear the least that
are bravcst in the end. When the
time comes. l am sure you will do
your duty"
The boy heard her listlcssly. He
had little heart TO respond to any ap-
peal TO his manlincss. There seemed
no time when he would rot shrink
I from hardship or danger He almost
felt as If his confidence had been mis-
placed. and that she had understood
nothing after all
! She saw the change and her in
tcrest in him somewhat waned.
Courage to Il woman is the primary
quality IN the other sex, and nothing
will Compensate for the lack Of it. She
bade him good night and turned away
TO the poop
In n few minutes the second mate
! passed along the deck and told the
boy to 20 below. Then all was quiet.
A few hours later the Pride Of Asia
was steaming at "slow," with her
whistle going every few minutes The
Channel fog glrt the ship like n
shroud. The Captain walked the
bridge uncasily. No tempest or rock
bound shore gives the anxiety that
fog on this waterway Of the ma
tlons docn. Danger Is imminent
everywhere, and the most careful
seamanship is no guarantee Of safety.
SO it was now. 4 hoarse shout came
from the man on the lookout. The
Captain sprang to the telegraph, and
as Full speed astcrn' rang out a
large sailing ship took form in the
fog, and in q few seconds crashed in
to the steamer in front OF the bridge.
The Pride of Asia shook from stem
TO stern, heclcd over to starboard,
and then began to forge ahead, while
the other went pounding along her
side, wrepchlnS the port boats from