The Press., 1916-08-17
AReturn From Oblivion
By WILLIAM CHANDLER

It Is not an uncommon occurrence for two youngsters who are chums to agree that if possible the one who dies first will appear in the spirit to the other. don't think such agreements are as apt to be made now as formerly, for belief in the reappearance of those who have died is not what it was when I was young. Scientists have taken up the matter, but the laity don't feel much interest in it.
 made one of these agreements with Dick Atherton when we were eighteen years old. Dick became a sailor, and on one of his voyages the vessel he sailed in was wrecked, and all on board were lost. At any rate, if any of them escaped death he was never heard from. I took to the water, too, but not in the same line as Dick. came to own and run a steamer that usually laid up in winter, but ran as an excursion boat in summer
 One season I had contracted to take a party of excursionists out of Boston harbor around Cape Ann. For several days before our sailing everything went wrong. The government inspec- tor took 1t into his head to find fault with lot of things which he required didn't attend to them myself wouldn't be ready to keep my contract for the excursion. The consequence was that I got no sleep for two nights and a day before we left Boston.
 had several hundred persons aboard and, rounding Cape Ann, preferred to rely on myself rather than on any one else. l was passing Thatcher's light when began to feel so drowsy that I feared to fall asleep, notwithstanding the fact that the lives of so many hu- man beings were dependent on my keeping awake. I was tired, too, and when had clear course ahead of me sat down on the seat behind the wheel, reaching forward to take it whenever required. This I should not have done. A man may go to sleep on his feet. He is much more liable to do so while sitting.
 Slumber got me, though, at last must have slept quite awhile. Sud- denly I awoke, frightened out of my wits. for I knew what it was to go to sleep at the wheel. There was a man standing between me and 1t, turning 1t rapidly. Whether he was really hazy or not I couldn't say. He certainly looked so through my sleepy eyes. I tried to wake myself enough to get up and take the wheel from him, but somehow. considering that he was there, couldn't do it.
 'Go to sleep. Tom," he said. You're not in fit condition for pilot" Whether I was not entirely awake, whether I was dreaming, I couldn't make out, but the voice was certainly Dick Atherton's. Then dreamed that said to him:
 "Dick, have you come back to keep your promise when we were young stersY
 "I've come back to keep you from running full headway against Folly point" was the reply.
 I have said that dreamed this, be- cause that's the way it seemed to me- What it really was might be another matter.
 I woke up again later, looked ahead and saw that there was clear sailing. Thompson, one of my steersmen, was at the wheel.
 "Great heavensv' I exclaimed. "Can it be that I've been asleep?"
 Reckon you have, sir"
 "How long have you been at the wheelY
 About ten minutes. I happened to look ahead, and the boat was heading for Folly point. I ran up here to see what was up and found you asleep and a man at the wheel who was sheering off. He gave me the wheel and left the pilothouse"
 "A man?'
 "Yes, sir, he was a man. Why do you think he was anything else?"
 "What did he look nke?"
 "I didn't notice him very particular ly. I was too much upset by the mar row escape. But remember that his hair was red"
 Dick Athertons hair was red. When he was a boy we called him Reddy.
 So mortified was at my narrow es- cape from sacrificing boatload of ex- cursionists that had scarcely time to wonder about Atherton or his ghost. asked Thompson if he felt sure he could attend to the wheel safely, and when he replied that he could I told him I would go below and rest bit, for l was completely knocked out by what had occurred. Leaving the pilot house, walked aft through the crowd of excursionists-they were ignorant of the frightful doom they had escaped and was about to go down the stern companionway when I felt hand on my shoulder. Turning, there stood Dick Atherton. He was ten years old CT than when had last seen him, but I recognized him at once He was looking mighty serious. Putting fin ger to his lips, he said: Don't get broken up over it, old man. Only l and the man who relieved me at the wheel know about it.'
 Dick then briefly explained. He had escaped the wreck of his vessel and spent year in the east, mostly Japan. Returning, he had seen an advertise ment of the excursion on my boat, my name being mentioned as master. He had come aboard without making him. self known and had gone up to the pilothouse to surprise me, but instead 1t was I who had surprised him.
 When She Sees 1t Quickly.
 ''Can your wife see joke?'
 If it's in the shape of bonnet or a dress that some other woman is wear ing she can."-Detroit Free Press.