News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1913-07-09
CHAPTER n.
The Happy Ship.

up along ed wear a silk hat, the only
one on the Labrador Yes. Sundays
ED be ashore talkin' predestinatior
an grace out of book e KEEP in is
berth, but never a word about 1ish OF
the state Of the ice. Mother'd beer
raised to belief in Christians, sc
when Nose dropped in at her shack
admirin' how she cooked, she'd be
pleased all up the back, and have hin
right in to dinner. He'd kiss. me
talkin' soft about little children. Yes
That's how e got me away to sea as
boy on a sealin' voyage, without pay.
ing me any wages.
Mother never knew what Cap'n
Nose was like on weekdays, and Sun.
day didn't happen aboard Of the Zede.
kiah. l remember hidin' away at the
back of Ole Blossoms bunk, aXing God
please to turn me into an animal. Any
sort would do, because l seen men
kind to animals. You know an animal
mostly consists of pure heart, and
four legs, which is a great advantage.
Queer world though, if all our prayers
was granted.
Delay thar. A man sets out to tell
adventures, and if his victims don't
find some excuse for getting absent,
ne owes them all the happiness he's
persons Bearing their full share al
ready. So We proceeds to the night
when I ran from tic Zedek,ah, and
joined tie Harry Shin.
We lay in The big ice pack CT Cape
Breton. The Zedekiah was old, Just
paint an punk, and cLo did surely
groan to the thrust Of the pack. l Was
too scared to sleep, SO l went up on
deck.
I'd allus watched for a chance to
run away, and thar was Jim, the an
chor-watch, squatting on the bits
dead asleep. He used to be that way
when nobody chased him.
seen the lights of the three-masted
schooner a couple of miles to wind
ward, l grabbed a sealing gait and
Slid down on the ice.
First, as the pans rocked under me,
l was scary, next | warmed, gettin'
venturesome. until came near slid
ing into the wet, and after that I'd
look before lep'.
You know how the grinding piles
an edge around each pan, of broken
splinters? That edge shone white
agin the black of the water, all the
guide l had. But times the squalls of
wind was likes scythes edged with
sleet, SO l was blinded, waiting, freez
ing until a lull came, and I'd get on.
1t was broad day, and I reckon each
step weighed a ton before ! made
that schooner.
A gray man, fat, with chin whis-
ker, lifted me in oversize. Come
far?" says he, and I turned round to
show him the Zedekiah. She wasn't
there. She was gone-foundered
So that's how I came aboard Of the
Happy Ship, just like a ILL lost dog,
with no room in my skin for more'n
bones and famine. Captain Smith
used to say he'd signed me on as fam
lily ghost; but he paid me honest
wages, fed me honest grub, while as
to clothes and bed, was snug as
little rabbit. He taught me reading
and writing, and punctuation with his
belt, sums, hand, reef, and steer, cate
chism, knots and spices, sewing, sque-
gee, rule of the road, soojie moojie,
psalms of David, constitution of the
United States, and playing the from
bone, with three pills and a good lick
Ing regular Saturday nights. Mothers
little boy began to set up and take no.
&ice.
The five years in the Pawtucket all
along, from Montreal to Colon, from
banjos plunking in them portales of
Vera Cruz, to bugles crying reva.Iy in
Quebec, and the oyster boats asleep
by Old Point Comfort, and the Glouces-
ter fleet a-storming home past Sable,
and dagos basking on Havana quays.
Suck oranges in the dinghy under the
moonlight, waiting to help the old man
aboard when he's drunk. If ever he
went ashore without me, I'd be like
a lost dog, and he drunk before the
sun was over the yard-arm. But away
together it wasn't master and boy, but
Just father and son. He'd even named
me after himself, and that's why my
names Smith. 1
disremember which port-some-
where's up the st. Lawrence where we
loaded lumber for the Gulf o. Mexico,
but the captain and me was away fish
ing. Mother had come from the Lab
rador to find me, old gray mother. She
put on her round horn spectacles to
smile at the mate aft, and the second
mate forward, the or'nary seaman
painting in the name board, and BIZ
In his bos'n's chair a-tarring down the
digging, and the bumboat laundress
who'd been tearing the old mans
shirt-fronts. She just sat happy at the
sight of the Pawnticket, and she sure
ly admired everything, from Old Glory
to Blue Peter-until our niger cook
came and spilled slops oversize
Seems he'd had news Of the lady, and
came to grin but was back in his gal
sey, like a rabbit to his borrow, while I
She marched up the gangway. Cant