The Republican journal., 1903-10-15

gestionS to the mate in low tones, TO DC
in turn repeated by him in a voice which
a megaphone would have softened--ln
one paragraph, and in the next, and even
sometimes between the lines of the first
one-a little home in Penmaquonwlth an
old porch in front covered with clematls
and little, round, red-cheeked, blue:
eyed girl standing in it waving her Hand
to him.
It was on this trip that Captain Cowan
first commenced to talk to him about
the possibility of his soon getting yes
sci. The firm who managed the bark
were conservative builders and owned
but small fleet. They were talking OF
adding to it and if they built new one,
it would be for Cowan. He was their
oldest and their wealthiest captain,
someone must then take the Oneida, ="
why not Crandall?
One long trip, another, and another
TRANSFERRED, however, before the firm
built, and two years had passed when
it happened that the bark corsica,
belonging to the same set OF owners,
Law in New York with the Oneida"
while both discharged and loaded.
Crandall here became acquainted with
Fred Lurchin, the mate Of corsica,
a son of the leading member OF the
firm, twenty years old, active, bright,
full of fun as a school boy, and a
thorough sailor. They became great
friends and Crandall, who had for ten
years scarcely gone a hundred yards
from his ship in the evening, learned
more about New York in month with
Fred than he had known before about
all the ports he had ever been in.
The night before Fred was to sail,
they went up town together, and in per-
feet careessness, Fred told him that he
had received letter from his father
that the firm were getting out the tim
Der for the new vessel, that CoWan was
to have her and that if the other own
ers would consent, he could take the
"Oneida" on her return to the States,
and he added affectionately:
"Then We'll have good times togett-
er, old man, for I'll keep you mate with
me until you get(a ship of your own"
Crandall felt pretty badly. He had
planned and talked SO much with Cap
tain Cowan, that he thought he had a
right to expect tie Oneida" That
night he took his first drink. This isn't
temperance lecture, but a mans first
drink is a big jump ahead, (or back
ward) especially when he does not take
it until he is twenty seven.
Rum is like the measles. The older
YOU take it. the harder you are apt to
have it.
l don't mean that Crandall got drunk.
He only took couple of glasses OF
beer, about one to Fred's ten, but he
learned what it tasted like and how it
telt and that is dangerous to men who
60 to sea and dream dreams.
When the time came, Fred got the
vessel and Crandall went mate of her a
couple of years, then he changed over
and went with CoWan a year and then
back to Fred.
The little, round, red checked, blue
eyed girl was a woman now, and there
were two babies, a girl and boy. The
father and mother were getting older
and it took little hired help about the
place at times so that the twenty y-tive
dollars would not pay the bills at home,
and each trip there were grocery bills
and doctors bills and taxes and bills for
shingling the house, and well, you know
all what else, to fix up. And besides
that, that first drink hadn't been the
last one, quite, and when he was in port,
Crandali spent more than he used to,
SO that when he came back to the old
"Oneida' with Fred the savings were
getting pretty low and there were few
little debts left unpaid at Penmaquon.
That trip they went tc Buenos Ayres,
gay, expensive, seductive Spanish
Buenos Ayres, and there was one wild
Saturday night. wilder Sunday, and
a blind, hateful, miserable Monday,
when three months wages went as the
dew goes under the scorching sun; as
the fog goes before the driving wind.
There were dreams that trip, too,
coming home.
Besides that miserable debauch, which
meant more to Crandall than twenty
mean to men used to such, a letter had
come from his wife and there had been
hard times at home. Her mother had
been very sick and had died. The doc
tors bills and funeral bills had been
very large, and, poor thing, she felt al
most as much grief at the one fact as
at the other.
Dreams of debt, of mortgaging the
little home, perhaps, of disappointing
poor EN- with such a mean pay day
after an eight months trip, and if
across them played the old dream of
his ship, he scoffed at it and drove it
from him, even though he wished it
back.
There came another change in the
fleet next year. Fred was transferred
to a new vessel and there seemed to be
no way then but that Crandall would
have chance to 60 master, but in the
mail following that which brought the
news Of the change, came letter to
him from the firm telling him that Cap
tain William Knowles, toWnsman of
his, was to take the bark as he had pur-
chased an interest in her and that the
chance would have been offered to him
excepting that the firm made it an in
variable rule to never employ master
who could not buy into vessel. Add
ing also that he was now in debt to the
firm for advances made to his wife and
that they would be pleased if on the
next voyage he would square up the
account.
He stayed in the ship as mate, but the
dreams had all gone.
That trip he got drunk in Brunswick.
good and drunk.
He tried to get aboard the vessel and
fell off the wharf at low water in the
night time. 1t was a thirty-foot fall
and it stunned him, SO that he lay on
the beach unconscious, partly from the
fall and good deal from the whiskey,
until the tide came in and the cold, salt
water woke him up. Then he struggled
up and managed to climb aboard.