Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-24

BarnaDaS, no mauer now many Sto-
ries you may tell, remember l can
always ketch you in every one. Just
you wait until put on my white
apron and get my knitting. Now go
ahead, Barnabas, and make Miss Tel
hams hair curl with some of them out
rageous yarns Of yours"
So after Captain Barnabas had
thrown some more .driftwood on the
andirons (for a cold easterly storm was
raging without and Maria Fish had
brought in a glass dish Of mammoth
red apples we settled ourselves in our
several chairs.
Now for the story about the cookr'
I urged.
"Lawsy me, Barnabas, can't You tell
about something not quite so common
place as cooks?' cut in Maria with dis
gust. I'd like to hear about some OF
them tropical islands, and I'm sure
Miss Telham would too"
This is about tropical islands as well
as cooks, Maria" explained the cap
tain as he lighted his customary pipe.
"As 1 was telling Miss Telham here,
something she said reminded me OF q
cook we had aboard the old Indus thir-
y years ago. 1t happened when we
was or Ferry island, laying becalmed
for two days.
THE Pacific was as smooth as q
freshly ironed handkerchief or a mir
TOR or something like that. 1t reflect
ed the clouds at sunrise and sunset
and took on all the colors Of the rain
bow, but the rest of the day it was as
blue as the sky that stared down into
1t.
"An hands lay around and waited for
a breeze, and naturally after a spell
they got mischievous. Ananias Slime,
he was our cook then-his first voyage,
too, and he was a greenhorn If ever
one shipped before the mast The
men complained about his cooking, but
so far as could see what he put on
the cabin table wasn't much worse
than my other cooks had turned out.
But Ananias wasn't slow in learning
sea ways.
"At the end Of the first day all hands
were feeling peevish. Ferry island lay
an eighth Of a mile distant and some
Of them had been wanting to go ashore
and look for fruit and turtle eggs. /
put it of till the next day because I
was expecting a Whit Of wind every
minute, and when Ananias had piped
all hands to supper the calm was still
raging as Billy Sparks, my mate, used
to say.
when Ananias brought the platter
of salt beef and set it in front Of Fin
ley Beale, who had been in my fo'c'sle
for a dozen years, old Beale rose up
and, raising his hands over the salt
beef, gave the sailors blessing-so they
called it. Says he:
"'Old boss, old boss, how came you
here?
From
HE stopped there and glared at An
anias Slime, who had turned in his
steps and was listening with his eyes
popping out, silly like.
"'Cooky,' roars Beale, pointing his
knife at the pale Ananias, did you
cook this here poor old hossT
"''Tain't hossr cheeped Ananias,
frightened like.
"'What is It, ehP
Its first class salt beef-it says so
on the barrel Ananias kinder spunk-
ed up courage now because he thought
he was telling 'em something they
didn't know.
First class salt beef, en-? First
class salt boss, cooky, and don't you
sass me again, understand? This was
first class salt boss till you cooked it.
Now git outP
"Ananias tried to get out, but some
how all the men got into the spirit OF
the thing. and first one tossed a bis
cult at him, and another flung a bone,
and then big piece OF cold plum
duff struck him in the eye, and he
went bawling like a baby. The men
seemed TO feel better after that and
eat their supper quite amiable
Along about two bells l was sitting
on deck, smoking this here very pipe
and talking to Billy Sparks. We was
watching a great big round moon rise
up from the very edge OF the sea-
that's the way it looked to US.
What was that, captain?' asked
Billy, quick-like.
what was whatT I asked him,
but just at that minute 1 saw it, too,
and it did look queer
Against the big yellow moon we
could see the small black shadow OF a
mans head and shoulders. Up his
arms would go in an overstroke, one
after the other. Then he disappeared.
First time l ever seen the man in
the moon said Billy Sparks, still
staring over the rail toward the island.
What was tia nativer
Guess so, though I'm sure this IS
land is uninhablted. Maybe a party OF
'em from the Wearys come over to
gather turtle eggs. Perhaps he was
prospecting around the Indus-aha!
There goes the iubber-see, captain,
against the white beach,
Billy pointed toward the island,
and l looked and could see plain
enough in the moonlight that flooded
the white sandy beach Of the island n
moving black shadow that was pres
emily blOtted out in the dark shadow
Of the jungle growth.
I'VE sat there awhile longer, watch
ing the moon rise above the sea and
fight up fhe fan palms and cOcoaUufs