Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1901-12-13
When the School
ma'anlS Sailed.
BY HARRY
A. ARMSTRONG.

Judge Nevlns sat on the edge Of the
1rydock whiting and spinning yarns
as he was always doing. Not that he
was a Judge or ever had been. but II
shows how a name will stick to a sea.
faring man through life. for the judges
baptismal name was william. Some
one called him judge In the days when
be sailed before the mnst, and 1t stuck
TO him always. Ike his white hat.
Here the Judge sat with the calklng
hammers gathering away around him
like spring frogs and the keel Of the
Mary Ann OF Charlevoix as dry as II
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 n Beau Brum.
mel. The other men giggled a bit, not
because n woman was a rare thing on
Goose island, but wholly at the judge.
THAT is the bravest woman who
ever stepped yer the side of any craft
Aloat or on the bottom Of the lake"
said the Judge al he slipped back to
his place On the edge of the drydocS
and began to stroke his beard, which
had more gray hair than black in il.
"She-that is to say. that lady-doesn't
iooi afraid of anything. not even the
wafer out Of the river" But the Judge
paid no attention to the remark OF the
FIRST mate.
The Mary Ann OF Charlevolx 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
bicger 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 a schoolteacher
and asked me what we would charge
to take a half dozen or so young ladies
sailing up the lake to the Thousand
Islands and bring them safely back
to Chicago.
Now. that was a new kind Of a
cargo. and | had to scratch my head
quite a bit before making a price. AN
right. sir she said. We will come
down tomorrow And so they came.
Every mothers son Of us was carrying
provisions and getting a stock Of fresh
meats and things when there broke
loose a regular babel at the gangplGnk,
and there they came tripping aboard
with vallscs 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
1t was getting dark. twO more came.
THAT made thirteen!
"As a result | had to so out and pick
up a new crew in the hope Of getting
under way before the kind of cargo /
carried was known. but | 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
up a light, and a tug came alongside
and towed us out into the lake. The
young ONE were all up as we gllded
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.
"We threw or the lines Of the tug,
and there was such a shouting the
lookout at the life saving station would
have been excused II he had thought a
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. 1t was a
Jolly lot that drew up to the first
breakfast. and the cabin boys had to
make several trips 10 the scullery be-
fore the meal was done. Before noon
they had infinitely examined every
thing from the rock ballast In the hold
70 the little dags whipping at the mast
heads They I've wanted TO steer. and
sometimes the quartermnster would
r.; them. The ship would luH, 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 10 an end
along about midnight, and the whole
IS pulled cots u upon the deck and
slept there.
! might go on and on about that
gage aud not get to the point about
schollma'au. 80 we win pass Up
ue rre north Of Little Manltou
h- and four nights q There came
3 good fresh Ind hat rocked the Nary
Am IKE 4 cradle. Cots on the deck
were showed IN. and the ciTis we're BE-
ginning 70 regret leaving their moth
ers. One BY u they daCbe1 out Of
Ne cabla Grd cllt.hsd wildly AZ The