The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-01-02
JEST sER ARuNcH OF kALIkgR.

The ancient mariner sat summing him
self on the end OF spiIe and looking
squintingly UP at the sky He looked long
It 4 dark cloud floating IT. the southwest,
and then. wetting lis finger, held II AZ IL
the breeze.
what's she going to do?" I asked the
1 ancient mariner as I sat down at the
! pier and cast glance over The great
! expanse OF the blue lake. Wind, rain.
or both aitogether?"
Hits a-goin' 10 blow great guns said
/ the ancient marirer, AN that afore
dark. Hits a-goin' ter blow like hit did
/ that yer mite when We run the Glad
I News acrost from Bradford's Pint 70
Little Weasel Ran"
! could see indications OF a good yarn
coming whether the storm did or not, 50
] took in all SAL and rode az anchor
I by the side Of the ancient mariner and
stood ty with MS feVorite brand OF cut
+ plug while he went on with the story.
Il was I'll only sailor man OF the Glad
News" said the ancient mariner. They
called me the 'sailin' master er some
thing like that. Anyway. l was the
( handy man that knew how, when the
/ land lubbers we were takin' fer a vaca-
ton cruise lost their heads and tried 70
pull the forethrote hallerds in two when
the skipper told them to let 20 the fore
sheet. There was six of the crew, all
friends of the skipper what owned the
boat. We wuz haVin a pretty good time
until we put into Bradford's Point on
| THURSDAY way up on the pinin-suley
fer mail and ter get out Of squan that
was a-brewin'.
The skipper was as happy as the jolly
boat on a whaler until he went down TO
tn postofice and got a little blue letter
that was a-waitin' Their fer him. When
he came back 1 c'ud see that something
was tn matter. He looked pale ard
stern Ike. Jes' as ne jumped on board
he yelled out: Here, now, men, stand by
TO git under way. Well, I was that
astonished you could have pushed me
over with a tWO-knot breeze. 1 up an
says: There's only jes' Tommy-he was
one of the slippers frien's- the cook
on board. TIL rest of the boys are a
hangin' aroun' the girls over at tn hotel
Never mind says the skipper; stan by
the foresail, and after you make that
get up the mainsell.'
Well. O course orders wuz orders.
an me an Tommy an the cock made
sail. an then one Of the life-safers, who
seG we wuZ crazy, east off our lines an
we hauled en- in an started out inter
tn lake, right In the teeth Of one of the
howlinest sou weSters I ever see. / didn't
know wot was the matter but I allowed
as how the skipper he'd got word of his
pa er ma er III whole family a-dyin on
one o them islands, an that he wanted
TO git there before their sta board lights
went out fer good an all.
We had the wind right or the stern
quarter an how we did go. We wuz
maxim nine knots from the start an nine
knots fer such a ole tub as the Glad
News is a sailin'. Then the skipper
bawls out, Put on tn head canvas. Say.
l most had fit. But I'm a sailor man
and | took the cook an Tommy an went
forard. We made the jib all right an
the Glad News jest begin ter snort. I
wuZ holdin' on With my feet, teeth, hans
and eyebrows. wen The skipper bellers
out: Clap on that staysel.
We'll, 1 jest says to the cook: Here's
where we go 10 tn bottom of the lake
an the cook who is the blacklist man I
ever see, purity near turned wife. We
had a horrible time putin on Chet stay
sell, but finally we got it up, though it
threatened 10 carry away every minute.
Then we crawled aft on our hands and
knees. with the seas a-cOmin' over and a
sousin' us every second The skipper
says: Go aft now and mako the lib
topsail.' I'm a SAILOR man, but amt
a-goin' to jest throw my life away or a
ole hog trough Ike the Glad News. and
I SAYS so. Hold the stick SAYS the
skipper an I took the rudder an the
skipper crawls forerd and wriggies out
rite on TO the end of the bowsprit He
set out there i fussin' with thet jib-
topsen an every Minute or two the ole
ship would stick its nose way down in
the sea and the skipper would go under
Jest all but his he'd. Then ne yelled an
Tommy went forerd and got hold of the
jibtop hallirds an up went the jibtopsal.
Say, 1 thought the old Glad News would
jest jump out o 'er hide. But It held
{ n how we did go. The cook was laid
out in the cockpit ded to the worl', only
once in n while he would moan some
thin about state street and his babies
How we WIZ a-goin'. The lee shippers
was away under the water and half the
time we wuz a-standin' up on our beams
end The skipper kept a-lCohfn' astera
an suddenly yelled to take out the reefs
in tn mainsel l knew he wuz plum
crazy then, but We took EN- out. though
how we done it I don't know. The fore
5ibtopsell carried away, as I knew it
would. an we had to jump to cut it loose. /
Everything was a-poppin' an a-snap-
pin, an [ thought tho Glad News would
jump its masts clear out of It. But lick
was with us an about O'Clock we went
slidin arOun' Little Weasel l'lan' an
into calm water on the weather side
of the place. we ran into a good, snug
ttdtDoi ia NLopDtu aHcuoIr an the SKIP
rer baled out the dingy an went ashore
with his valise. An after he'd gone
picked up the blue letter he dropped.
an wanting TO know whether il was hiz
ma er hiz pa that WIZ dyin. read it, an
wot do you SUPPOSE
The note wuz from one OF them
lunches of kaliser or tn islam an II
sed that if the skipper didn't git over
Their by Thursday rite he was hateful
ole. mean thing and she would 60 70
III party with The Major. so there now
j les laid down in the cockpit an he'd q
spasTn. Chicago Tribune.