Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1904-06-02


tMfsSS4EJ was not a very unhappy
young fellow as he stood in his hne
uniform on the quarterback of the Re-
venge, the fresh breeze ruf!ling MIS-
brown curls when he lifted his heavy
cooked hat
True, he was leaving behind him
his friends, Capt. Bonnet and Ben
Greenway, with whom the Maynard
Blackboard would allow no word OF
leave-taking; true, he was going, ne
knew not where, and in the power
of a man noted the new world over
for his savage eccentricities; and true,
he might soon be sailing, hour by
hour. farther and farther away from
the island on which dwelt the angel
Kate-that angel Kate and his moth
err. But none of these considerations
could keep down the glad feeling that
| he was going, that he was moving
| Moreover. In answer to one of his mi
FASHIONED appeals to be set ashore at
| Jamaica, Black beard had said to him
that If he should get tired of him he
| did not see, at that moment, any rea-
son why he should not put him on
| board some convenient vessel ana
have him landed at Kingston.
Dickory did not believe very much
in the black bearded pirate, with his
wild tricks and inhuman high spirits,
but Jamaica lay to the east, and he
was going eastward,
melted. perhaps, by the possession
of a fine ship, manned by a crew
picked from his old vessel and from
the men who. had formed the crew OF
the Revenge, Blackboard was in better
spirits than was his wont, and so far
as his nature would allow he treated
Dickory with fair good humor. But
no matter what happened, his unre-
strained imagination never failed him.
Having taken the fancy to see Dick
DRY always in full uniform, he allowed
him to assume no other clothes; he
was always in naval full-dress and
cooked hat, and his duties were those
of a private secretary.
THE only shrewd thing | ever knew
your Sir Nightcap to do" he said
was to tell me you could not read nor
write. He spoke so glibly that be-
lieved him. Had it not been so
should have sent you to the town
to help with the shore end of my
affairs. and then you would have been
there still and l should have had nc
admiral to write my log and straighten
my accounts"
Sometimes, in his quieter moods
when there was no provocation &c
send pistol balls between two sailors
quietly conversing, or to perform some
other demoniac trick, Blackboard
would talk to Dickory and ask al
manner of questions, some OF which
the young man answered, while some
he tried not TO answer. Thus 1t was
that the pirate found out a great dea
more about Dickory's life, hope anc
sorrows than the young fellow imag'
med that he made known. He discov'
cred that Dickory was greatly interest
ed in Bonnet's daughter, and wished
above all other things in this worlt
to get to her and to be with her
This was a little out of the com
mon run of things among the brother
hood; it was their fashion to forget
80 far as they were able, the family
ties which already, belonged to them
and to make no plans for any future
ties of that sort which they might b
able to make. Such thing amused
the generally rampant Blackboard, bu
if this Dickory boy whom they hat
on board really did wish to MARI!
some one, the idea came into tn
crafty mind of Blackboard that n
would like to attend to that marryini
himself. 1t pleased him to have
finger in every pie, and now here wa
q pie in the lingering Of which h
might take novel interest.
This renowned desperate, thl
bloody cutthroat, this merciless pirat
possessed a home-a quiet little Eng
lish home on the Cornwall coast
where the cheerful woods and field
stretched down almost in reach OF tn
eullen sea. Here dwelt his wife, quie
Mistress Thatch, and here his Drawn
daughter. Seldom word came to thi
rural home from the father, burnin
and robbing, sinking and Staying GU
upon the western seas. But from tn
stores of pelf which so often slippe
so easily into his great arms, an
: which so often slipped just as easil
out of them, came now and then some
thing to help the Drawn grow upon hi
, daughters bones and to ease the Ia
: bors of his wife.
+ Eliza Thatch bore no resemblance
to houri; her hair was red, her fac