The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-04-15

houses and piers with chains, ropes
and spiles.
The ice was getting ready to move;
that is what the Wailing and the boom
ing and the signing meant. Deep un-
der the silent, motionless surface the
tide was loosening the foes inch by
inch.
Standing on a point that jutted out
into the bay a boy of about Is years
looked long and anxiously toward a sol
itary shanty two miles from land,
perched on spiIes in the very middle OF
the white plain.
Funny l can't see anything Of him, .
said the boy to himself
Him was MS father, Capt. Ru-
land. He had gone to his shanty, which
stood on the marsh by his oyster
grounds, to look after things, and Jim
knew that it was high time for him 70
get back to shore if he were to escape
the ice shove.
Capt Rutland knew it even better
than his son did, for from the shanty
could be seen a vast barrier of ice piled
into hills ten and fifteen feet high by
tide and wind. Capt Rutland knew
well that when this mighty mass began
to move, as it might at any moment
when the tide began to run strongly, it
would make the worst sGce-shove" of
many years. and that, strong as his
shanty was, there was ample reason to
fear that it might be crushed.
But he was helpless to escape, for a
beam had fallen on his leg and broken
it that morning.
He dragged himself into the shanty
and lay there so helpless that he could
not even hoist the flag at half-mast to
signal for help.
Luckily his son Jim, small as he was,
did not need anyone to tell him that
something was wrong. He hurried along
the shore to the little cove where he kept
his tiny scooter.
The scooter is the queerest boat in the
world. It is a aat-5ottomed thing,
barely big enough to hold two men, and
it carries a great mainsail and jib. On
its bottom are metal runners, one along
each side of the keel. Where the ice IS
strong and smooth the scooter skates
along exactly like an iceboat, except
that it is steered altogether with the
sails. because it has no rudder But
when the scooter approaches open water
or wide cracks in the ice or very
thin spots that cannot support its
weight, it does not have to sheer off like
the ordinary iceboat, but heads at it and
dives straight into the water
Fast as Jim worked, the tide was
faster. When he had sailed up and
slipped out of the cove he found a great
and alarming change in the fields of
ice. Great cracks had opened in many
the waiting and booming
sounds came more and more often, and
with each one new crack would open.
Here and there whole foes novel
slowly. Toward the inletthe white field
was undulating.' Jim knew that it was
a race for life then. He could have
turned back to shore easily, but the
thought never entered his head. He
trimmed in his sheet and sped straight
for the little black shanty.
Over and over again he struck much
ice that made a half solid, half liquid
mixture, through which even the won
derful scooter hardly could go. Once a
big foe broke away with crash and
a roar just as the boat was on it, and the
tremendous dip and roll, like that of a
falling iceberg, nearly overwhelmed the
tiny craft, But jim was sailor boy, and
ne reached the shanty at last, soaked to
the skin, but safe.
Just in time, Jim. good boy. said his
rather we haven't a minute to spare.
me shove is on, and the shanty is going
to go. Hurry and help me to crawl to
the boat"
They did hurry, but even as the
got under way again there came
2 duh rumble, like that of a heavy