SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 348, 8 January 1903, Page 7

SHORT STORY

Thxks were pirate craft quartering the Caribbean Sea from the Island of Trinidad to Havana, and from Nassau to the Bay of Honduras. They sailed up and down the Gulf of Florida, and they hung about the Bahama Bank and the Yucatan and Windward Channels. Many a trader from the American coast fell into their hands, to be burned or sunk and the cre« misused, and the dread of the black flag lay he»vy oa the sailor s mind. Of all the men who, trusting in luck, went from the port of Salem to the Florida Cape, Noah HutcHns was perhaps the most notable. In his old butter-box of a brig, the Lucky Sally, he sailed out of Salem for the West Indies as calmly and serenely as he started off for Sunday muting when ashore. On one occasion he would have been captured by a rover but for the advent of a sudden squall; on another the Lucky Sally owed her escape to a fog and brought home thr«e solid shot fired into her hull; again a ' long, lew, rakish craft* flying the jolly Soger, had come within range of her and was about to open fire when an English man-of-war hove ia sight and sent the red rover scurrying,. - escapee simply confirmed Captain Noah Hutchins in his first belief is the luck of the Lucky Sally. On the day the brig waa launched; he had found a Continental dollar in the road, and after he bad moistened it with his tongue and boxed the compass backward he had met a white horse and a one-horned cow. Even pirates couldn't beat such luck as that. Now and then as he made ready for a voyage, same of the townspeople would say to him: 'Captain Noah, do not depend too much on Providence. You can't expect to always escape the pirates, even with the Lord on your side.' 'Mebbenot,'he would reply: 'but if me and the Sally and Providence can't squeeze through, than my grave-stun is all ready, 'ceptia' the.date.' Captain Noah had been a widower for many years. For many years also he had had an eye on the ■ Widder' Skinner -, when he got through taking out machinery and caucoes and bringing back rum and molasses he would ask her to 'jine' with him. It was an understood ching between them. Bach time that he had sailed away the widow admonished him to look out for black flags, and each time he returned home she thanked Heaven for his escape.

As time went on he came to bis last voyage. The pirates were still doing a brisk business at the old stand, but the look of the Lucky Sally would take her through, and then he'd settle down and have a comf triable home for the remainder of bis days. ':■»■-■ Ob the night before the brig was to sail Captain Ncah went up as usual to call on the widow. 'Nancy, I shall be back in about a month/ he said as he sat poking the fire and eating an apple, 'and then I'll be around to milk the cow, feed the hogs, and wind the clock, 1 - 'Well, I shall be kind o' glad on it,' she replied without ablush; *I do confen that if s sort o' handy to have a man •round. By the way, Noah, did I tell you that the cow had lost her cud ?' ' N-o-o-a ! You don't Bay so!' ' Yes, she has. Hasn't been herself for the last two weeks. When a eow loses her cud you can look for most anjfriag to happen.' •What d'ye'spose made her lose it?' asked the Captain after a solemn silence. ' Dunno, unless she got to pining.' .* Pining for what Y » For a change of scenery, mebbe. I've been thinking. This ie to be your last voyage, and the cow has lost her cud. Being as this is your last voyage, I want you to be comf crtabler than usuaL Being as the cow is pining, s'posea you take her along and give her a change of scenery? Both of you'll be the better for it.' 'She'd be is the. way,'replied the Captain slowly;' but' at the same time there's the milk. Then she'd sort o' remind me * of you, If change of soeaery will brighten her up, I'll fetch her back with her tail in the sir.* It happened, therefore, that when the Lucky Sally apread her wings next morning aad sailed out of Salem at her lively speed of six miles an hour, the widow's cow was on board.

•Don't let her get hold of anyoniontopa to taint her milk; and look out for pirates,' called the Widow Skinner as the bag cast off. ' ill remember, and don't you fall down cellar nor git drowned in the cistern,' replied the Captain, and so they parted. It is due to the pirates of that day, who are no longer on hand to protect their reputations, to say that they kept a bright lookout far Captain Noah Hutchins and his butter-box, and it wasn't their fault that the Lucky Sally squeaked through for the dozenth time and brought up in the port of San Domingo. It .is also due to the record of the cow. who didn't outlive the pirates many years, to say she did her best to make Captain Noah ' comfortabler.* Nothing happened for anyone to fall over until the brig was headed for home and was trying to bound over the bounding billows to the westward of Uaicos Bank. The sua had just climbed out of his bed when a sail was reported coming up astern. The mate and the crew almost at onco declared her to be a pirate, bat Captain Noah was in no hurry about it. He ate his breakfast and smoked his pipe, and then took a long squint at the stranger through his glass. Her black nag bad been thrown to the breeze and was visible to tht naked eye before the QgfaM carefully put away his elass and calmly observed: 'Wal, now, but that's a pirate, sure 'naff, and I shouldn't wonder if he was afty ua.' There was considerable trepidation —Ottg the crew, bat Captain Noah showed no evidence of being upset. The Lucky Sally cut along at her best 7 paeejJbnt two hours after the strange sail had been raised the rover crait was alongside. Lock had finally deserted the brig. As no resistance was made when a score of cut-threats scrambled over the rail, no one was shot cr cut.down. flftptain Noah didn't get fluatrated. He looked the

Tte Widow's Gow.

situation over and then explained to the pirate leader: ' Wal, captaiß, she's loaded with rnm and sugar and won't make you rich, but we've got to take luck as it cornea. I did ho,>e to d i dge ye J3st this once more, but being as £ couldn't, I must mak-3 the best of it. What ye going to do with her ?• By tho usual rules and regulations governing the piratn business, Captain Noah and his crew ought to have been made to walk the plank and the brig sent to the bottom after them, but all the rules and regulations have exception?, Tlwre was no dearth of rum and in the black.flag market, bat Buch a cargo always came in handy. A trader's crew couldn't reasonably expect mercy from pirates, especially when they hadn't a dollar A o give up, but tVe rovers reasoned it out that it would save their own muscle to let the craw of the Lucky Sally w.>rK her up to Acklin Island, which was th<=n a rendezvous, and break out the cargo. A crew of six fantastically-dressed and seriou*3-10-.,king rovers were left on board as a prize crew, and the pirate craft; took herself off m search of a richer prize. The brig's crew numbered counting the cook, but as jack-knives were their only weapons the pirates had no cause to fear a revolt. They had arms in plenty, and they aho realised the moral effect upon the peaceful traders of their profession and presence. They took possession of the cabin and the Captain's big jug of Santa Cruz exnra, and tsough they drank and gambled and cursed and sang, they offered no violence to the helpleßs prisoners.

2 If the wind hadn't chopped around and piped up and tried to blow the Lucky Sally'd teeth down her threat Bhe might have fetched Acklin Island within twenty. four hours, but as it was, instead of going ahead she was beaten back. I have treated the widow's cow as a cipher while relating the story of attack and capture. Bat for Bight of the pirate sail she would have been milked at the usual hour in the morning. The chase and capture put her out of the thoughts of captain, mate, and cook, and up to five o'clock in the afternoon she had neither been milked, watered, nor fed. At that hour, when the pirates had ceased their roystering for a time to let their heads clear, and were assembled on deck, one of them suddenly espied the cow and cried out that he was both a farmer and a pirate. He would milk her, and there there should be milk-punch for nightcaps. Pail and stool were fetched, and, amidst much hilarity on the part of his companions, the cut-throat set out to play the part of a dairy-maid. The widow's cow was hungry and thirsty and suffering from want of milking, and, though not an excitable cow, the presence of the pirates had affected her somewhat. She had become nervous and irritable, and finally had u longing to break loose and battle for her bovine rights. She was in this mood when one of the ■ black flags untied her, and led her out upon the d-.ck, and the man with the pail sat down to his task. The first move was a kick which rolled the milker on his back and confused his piratical ideas for full five minutes. The second was a charge which lifted the man at the end of the rope off his feet and let him fall with a crash. Then, as the four other pirates cried out and started back the eow pureued them.; Two of tuem were picked up on her horns before they could escape, while the other two sprang into the rigging.

Then it was that Captain Noah Hutchins saw luck coming aboard and reached out to give her a helping hand. In two minutes they had four of the pirates fast bound, and the brig was their own again. The cow kept charging about for the next ten minutes, not discriminating between pirate and honest sailor, while the two rovers in the rigging swore they would never be taken alive. All things come to an end, however, and in due time the cow was secured and the pirates were tied hand and heel. The milking had hardly been finished when the wind hauled four points to the west, the yards of the Lucky Sally ware braced to the change and she went squatting away up the Channel with all the dignity of a man-of-war.

Nexfcday the Lack Sally was spoken by an American frigate and the pirates were turned over to her, and the Widow's cow received so much admiration and so many • compliments that she almost lost hc-r cud "' again while drinking in the praise. There were other rovers afloat, aad there were squalls and fogs and head winds to be encountered, but one fair day the Lucky Sally sailed into the port of oaltm with flags flying, everybody whistling and the cook beating on a tin pan. The story of the cow, tho capture, and the escape was known all over the town almost before the brig had been made fast to tho wharf, and everybody turned out to siring his hat and huzza and assist in a triumphal march to the Widow's Skinner's. Captain Noah led the cow with one hand and waved the American 'flag with the other. The cow was chewing her cud, and her tail stood up, just as he had promised^ ' Wal, Neah, I was 'specting ye back,' s-ud the Widow as she appeared at the door. 'So the cow has got over pining ?' 'l'm a-believing she has, Nancy, and I've got the ail-fired est pirate story to tell ye ever heard of. That critter saved the Lucky Sally and all the rest of us.' • Shoo! Didn't I say that losing ber cud and your last voyage had a bearing on each other ? Wal, turn her into the barayaid and then scrape the mud off yer boots and come in and tell me all about it.' *..•••-■■"• ■ And wj aie to be jined in marriage in two weeks,' said the Captain as he led the cow away. 'La me, but what a man! If you say so I s'poso if 8 got to be, even if 1 have to put off makiag soft-soap and dyeing* carpet rajjs.'—ll. Quad.

Sidney—'Bodney, you live by your wits, don't you ?' liodney— * Well, partly : and partly by other people's lack of wita.' Tramp-—' Yed'm j I takes cr a bath 'bout oncet er month.' Rm& L idy—«You should bath three or four times a week.' look I ain't no mermaid?