The Newark journal., 1905-06-09

- and when a sailor d turn in the whole tho rats he was a pressin on. Why, the whole crew was a nussin rat bites
 ''Why didn't you smoke em out?" asked the skipper.
 We burned every kind O pizen that would burn In the olo hooker, and while the smoke come close to killin' the crew it didn't harm the rats There WAS so many O them that you couldn't mAss what was killed. Why. wha0 them rats got to runnin' about the brig the ellyments d have to be maxim big niZe outside to make themselves heard"
 "Whew!" whistled the skipper.
 ''I am only tellin' what s fact" said the mate, firmly Well, them rats got so bad that the old man went pretty nigh plumb crazy, and when the brig gets to Portland one day he ups and throws his job away.
 The owners puts a long hatchet- faced man from the Kennebec in com-
 
 hooker with white pine lumber for Demerary, and, Lord, he did load her, too He crammed the hold chaeE block, and then began pilin' it Up ca deck. Blest if 1t didn't look as ii l mejum-sized man d have to duck hiS head to walk under the fore yard arm. Now, you can laugh if you want to. I don't care rope yarn, but it's fact that when he was pilin that lumber up on deck the most uneasy creeturs I ever see was them rats They'd run about over the load and all the time a-squeakin' most powerful
 Finally we gets her loaded. stores aboard. and the next day was fixed to sail. Says I to myself, I'll run up town and get dram or two, just to say goOd-by to land. and I sneaked over the rail and went up town The fust man I sees when I went in the saloon was the old man who used to command the Hannibal.
 Hello, Henery,e he sings out. "how's the Hannibal?"
 Ready to sail. with a fun cargo O lumber and rats" says I, kind O jok- in Then I ups and tells him about how she was loaded and how them rats was carryin on.
 "The old man looked kind O duber- ous as he listened to me.
 Henery, sez he, solemn like, them rats is a forerunner'
 What do you mean sez I.
 What time O the year will you come south O Bermudas? ? sez he.
 ' 'Considerin' the speed O that old hooker, overloaded, sez I. about mid dle July
 Right spank into the hurricane season, sez he, loaded plumb up to the yard arms, brig 40 year old and soft in her uppers Henery, them rats is forerunner; watch em close
 Well, the old man he talked and looked so solemn like that I began to feel duberous myself, and after had taken a drink or so more l went down to the wharf a thinklns O what the old man had said. It was bright moonlight night and when I gets to the end O the wharf l leans agin a pile O sugar shocks and looks around. 1 was admirin' of the night when hears a kerplunk. I didn't pay no nt- tention until 1 hears 1t agin, and then I looks at the old hooker AS I'm & sinner if them rats wasn't a comin' on that craft in droyes. Just as soon as they pumped on tho wharf they laid course for big warehouse up the wharf and I watched 'em come until 1 was giddy with jumpin' rats. There was one old gray feller who sot on the rail until the last one was over, and then he plumps down and follers of 'em. Then did some thinkin. The old mans words was a singin' Tn my ears and the doin's O them rats was right sfore my eyeA
 Bennett, sez I to myself, you may know a thing or two, but you don ' maybe know more than an old skipper five times better sailor than you, and you don't know more than 10000 rats
 Then l goes aboard. quiet like, picks up my dunnage and lays low up tow till the Hannibal sailed.
 "Eobody never heard tell O the brig after that, and nobody never saw z piece O her wreckage"
 "I heard down In Portland, one time, said the skipper. after pause