Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-10-02

in these villages fish all the year round.
except for a short season in midsum-
mer. when they use the motorboats for
taking out sailing parties on various
excursions. for which they receive
good pay.
In one of these villages lived two
fishermen whose ownership and man.
agement of a boat gave them the title
| of captain. They were Captain Steve
Williams and Captain Enoch Brown.
Williams was older than Brown. but
they were stanch friends. Both Of
| them knew so well the rocks and
/ shoals of the coast in which they were
/ used to fish that they could sail around
! them or between them in the darkest
night.
They set their nets Just before dark
/ ness fell upon the ocean and took them
! in soon after dawn. 1t was hard
| life, this being exposed to the winds
| and waves when others were asleep
and sleeping while others were awake,
but so long as they were young they
did not mind it-that is. when the
weather was fair. When 1t was
stormy they did not 60 out to fish. but
many night a change would come,
and. being out. they were obliged to
endure the exposure till they could
make the cove from which they had
started.
Captain Steve Williams was mar
ried, and many time when storms
arose while he was out In his boat his
wife would lie awake dreading with
every shrek of the wind that 1t might
be blowing her husband on some sunk
en- rock. She would clasp her little
daughter. Edith. tightly to her breast
and mutter a prayer for the man ply
ing his perilous vocation.
Captain Brown had no wife to pray
for him. He had passed the heyday
of youth and had not married. though
he could have won almost any of the
girls of the village He was n well
built man with clear steel gray eye
an eye that bespoke courage and hon
esty. But the winds and the spray had
begun to pillow burrows in his cheeks,
and few gray hairs were beginning
to appear in his sandy hair.
When Edith Williams was little
child she was sensible of there being II
great trouble in the family. man
came TO the house and took her father
away with him. her mother clinging to
her husband. weeping. Edith did not
see her father for some time: then he
came home. and the trouble seemed to
be over. 1t occurred when she was at
an age in which children forget. but
she never forgot the scene of her IA
theirs being taken away. And there
was another scene she remembered,
her father holding one of Captain
Browns hands while her mother held
the other. and they were talking to
him with great earnestness.
But both these scenes, though not
forgotten, grew dim in her memory as
she grew away from them. Perhaps
they were dwarfed by others that were
present with her. Her father, who
was never the same man after the
misfortune that had come to him. be-
gan to dread going out at night on
the black ocean to gain n livelihood for
those dependent upon him. And his
wife dreaded to have him go as much
as he dreaded going.
Edith wished that the fish would go
into the nets during the day as we'll as
during the night. She wished that her
father could devote himself to some
other calling And yet when now
and then he would make a great haul
and dispose of it for a large sum it
would not seem so dreadful after all
( - q
himself
And so the battle for life with the
winds and the waves went on. The
two captains weathered every tempest,
every fog, in which they were caught
At last little germ so small that 1t
could be seen only with microscope
got into Captain Williams system and
effected what the angry breakers roll
ing over some half hidden rock were
powerless TO do. The fisherman died
quietly in his bed
He had wrung from the sea enough
to pay for the home in which he lived,
besides n fund for an income by which.
living economically. his wife and
, daughter might keep the wolf from
the door But his wife could not live
without him. There was now nothing
to worry her, but when the wind howl
ed Mt night. from force Of habit. she
would waken and think of the little
boat out on the dark. hearing ocean.
the solitary man in it feeling his way
like q blind person. While she was
sinking away. at the slightest sound
she would start. inqulring Il it were
not the melancholy foghorn or a gun
from sinking ship. and Mt the last she
was sure she heard the thin clang of a
distant bell buoy.
Edith was now alone. There were
friends and acquaintance vi plenty,
but they were like persons In another
boat. liable to drift away at any mo-
ment One. and only one. seemed left
Of those she had beer accustomed 10
regard a part Of the household, Cap.
tain Brown.
A few DAYS after the death OF her