The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-28


If Sarah hadn't been so mad it'd have
been funny. Mr.. Spencer leaned back
and laughed at the remembrance.
And the captains wife expected
Mrs. Spencer to wear pan-that is,
trousers?" inquired.
That's just what she did, and come
to think about 1t, that's what the books
say the Esquimau women do wear;
but my Sarah in pair of furry pants,
with her bonnet with feathers i'm it on
her head and spectacles on her nose,
and she the mother of three children
and the grandmother of six more!
Gracious, | was glad l was the only
one to see her. 'Abner Spencer, she
said, it makes me blush to look at
myself. You ought to be ashamed to
stand there and laugh. Dear, oh, dear
she said what do l look like?
We'll, for the life of me. / couldn't
tell her, because she didn't look like
anything I'd ever seen before. Do
you know l had the hardest time to
keep that woman from changing back
to the things she wore on the ship?
But l saw we were taking chances
enough from lumbago and quinsy sore
throat as ii was, so l made her keep
on the things, seeing there was no.
body there to see her except me, and
I'd seen her already.
IF 1 should tell you how we work.
it'd take till supper time, and thered
be no sense in 1t, anyway. We got
things as we wanted them at last, with
everything to eat safe indoors and
| the clothes we weren't wearing in the
trunk under the heap of stones back
of the house, and we had supper and
went to bed dead tired out II seemed
| foolish to go to sleep when the sun
was shining, but / figured that we'd
have to wait month or two before 1t
set, so we pulled the curtains to make
1t as dark as we could, and 1t wasn't
long before we were snoring.
1.-The first thing we knew after that
1t seemed as If an earthquake had
| struck us. Everything was going
humpity bumpity, and there was the
scariest, ripping roaring noise, and it
wasn't until / stuck my head out of
! the window that / saw what was the
matter. We were afloat. Yes, sir,
afioat; bobbing around on an iceberg
with the wind blowing us further and
further from the land. The whole
point we took for rocks covered with
ice had broken off just back of our
house, leaving our trunk under the
stones behind; and there we two were.
knowing Sarah's nerves 1 was
scared to death to tell her what was
the matter, thinking she'd have a fit;
but do you know when / saw there
was no use keeping things a secret and
did tell her, breaking the news easy,
she was as pleased as possible.
Now she said, I'll have adven-
lures to tell that Hills woman thatTl
make anything she does seem like
staying at home
Even when l told her that the
trunk had been left behind, she didn't
seem to care bit. That woman, who
even IL she was my wife, was grunting
all the time from June to November
every year, cheered right up the min
ute she had really something to COM
plain about
THE wind kept blowing us south.
Id have been scared to death, floating
around the way we were. But Sarah
kept laughing and cooking buckwheat
cakes on the oil stove just as IL moth
ing had happened, so / didn't have
the nerve to complain. Every morn
ing as we skept floating south hoist
ted sheet on a pole on top of the
iceberg so if a ship did happen to come
our way II would see it and stop, but
/ didn't have much faith in il. Every
day the wind kept coming from the
north, and 1t was lucky we had on
clothes like the Esqulmaux wear. or
we'd have been frozen stiff All the
time Sarah was just as happy and
pleased, and a big sight more so, as
| II we'd been safe in our house on
Main street. What with the house,
keeping and cooking to attend to, her
time was pretty well taken up, but
after I'd hoisted the sheet for the day
all had to do was to write in my
diary and eat my meals.
But, after all, 1t was sort of grand,
with the sea just as blue as If someone
had dumped a million bottles OF bluing
into it, and wind blowing off the tops
of the waves now and then and maxi
ing them look as white as napkins on
clothesline. And the iceberg itself
that was the grandest Of all; so big
and solemn and white and cold. 1t made
you have the shvers to look at it
all and think how small you were COM,
pared to everything around you.
used to get sort of brooding, and then
Sarahd cook me some griddle cakes
and I'd feel better.
"The only living thing in sight, bar
ring Sarah and me, were the whales.
Sometimes they'd come up to the top
and roll with their sides all white and
shiny, and blow little squrts OF water
Sarah and / would stand in our front
door and watch them. She used to
say how nice IL was not to have the
wind blow her clothes around. and she
began plying the women who had to
follow the styles and wear puffed-up
sleeves and skirts made just so. She
began to look better, too. When
got down spirited she'd cheer me up,
and say how nice IL would be II some
day the wind changed a little and blew
us up the river and landed us safe
and sound at home.
The iceberg was melting pretty
fast. though, and II wasn't more than
half the size II was when we started
out on Il six weeks before. when one
morning / saw smoke.
There a steamer coming
shouted to Sarah and we're savedr
That's too bad she said: and
just as we're commencing 10 enjoy
ourselves so much. too
II looked nj her with my mouth
open as II she WAS crazy. and then
made up my mind that I've be saved
whatever she thought and ! waved
the sheet and YELLED as loud "a hl