Connecticut western news., 1917-02-22
A Bottle and a
 Message
By F. A. MiTCHEL

So l can truly Say that I..l water man all over. But now I'm liyln' ill clover.
 There he stories of bottles with mes sages in 'em dropped from ships gom' down, that the messages bpin' written for jone. This has maG1 blossoms think that all messaees .ouni in bot ties are jokes. But tlis isn sJ. as can prove, for l piciCd up oHc O. thrn bottles myself, and the pussons that she message was written to are Twin and can vouch for my story. But the ent kind from the jokes.
 One day when 1 was pullin' in my net with a catch O mackerel l saw q bottle bobbin up and down. It GOated near me, and l had only to put out an oar to take it in. The cork want sealed, but it was driven iii so tight that had to cut it out. There was a paper inside and message on it, writ ten with a lead pencil. This is the way 1t read:
 On Steamer Ellen Ha' haway. snip goin down in a gale. l sidnaped Stephen Cartright. He's Twin win Math- CIV Drake, No. - Bennett Street, Balti- more, Maryland. SAM S1ARKEY.
 It didn't seem to me that if feller was goin' to make a joke he'd write that sort of a one. So the next day takes the message to Boston and hands 1t in at police station. They called it fake or something like that. but said they'd see that it got to the party what it was written to.
 Not hearin' nothin from it for some time, l forgot all about it. I jist kept on fishin'. One day a young feller come down on to the dock where l was mendin' my net and looked at me and asked if I was Jack Bunker. I said that was my name.
 He stood lookin' at me kind O queer for awhile; then he said:
 "Mr. Bunker, if you had a wish granted what would the wish be?"
 My friend" I said, I'm nothin' but a fisherman. hain't got no time to be thinkin' about whether or not I'd like the sky fer blue bandannar."
  while, and when I'd said that he says:
 "Mr. Bunker, is that your boat tied up alongside the pier?"
 'I reckon it is" I says.
 "How would you like a new one?"
 "How would like new. one? What dye take me fer-a lunatic? Of course I'd like a new boat in place O that old f1on ins hot hn I git caught out in q gale she'll let me down into the brine"
 ''Is there anything else you'd like. MT. Bunker?"
 I looked up at him, wonderin' ef he was loOny.
 Young feller," I says, "I reckon if I'm goin' to get these nets mended I'll have to shut you off all to onCet. I'd like a new house on the bluff over there, all furnished, with a garding. I'd like a thousand dollars a year to keep it up. I'd like the celler stocked with good grog. Now I've tole you all this perhaps you'll let me alone for awhile"
 He turned away without sayin' noth- in more, and I thought he was mad. l was sorry, but I didn't see why he should take up my time askin' fool questions, so I thought no more about it.
 Less'n d month after that somebody begun to build a house on the bluff. Wher it was finished it was the pur- tyest little shack 1 ever seen. And one day when I come down to the dock found a single sticker about thirty feet long, bran new and rigged out with everything needed, anchored out about a cables length. And the queerest thing about it was that on her stern was painted the same name as my ole tub. 1 asked who was her owner, but nobody seemed to know anything about her.
 That afternoon I come in early from fishin', not havin' no luck, and as I rounded up to the pier who should see standin' on it but the lunatic that was askin' me how many things I'd like to have if I could get 'em. When I'd throwed the painter around a post the feller said to me:
 'Mr. Bunker, when I was here some
 
 time ago I think you said you'd like a house."
 "Yes, and a garding. Are you goin' to begin that racket ag'in?"
 Do you sec that house up on the bluff"
 ''In course I do. My eyes are as good as when was at sea and could take in a bird on the horizon"
 That house is yours. The cellar is well stocked with grog, and there is plenty of room for a garden"
 My friend" said I, 'I'd better do you a favor. From what madhouse did you escape?
 You also said" he went on, not mo- ticin' my remark, 'that you'd like a boat. There she is out there"-pointed to the new boat, still ridin' at anchor and in a deposit company's vaults ill ROotor, ora eoY,oo F TaY. cont hOndc that