LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 4, 4 June 1874, Page 4

LITERATURE.

[From “ Chambers’s Journal.”] Continued, ‘ If ever I took a dislike against any one I did then. The man’s face hanuted me long after the train had left the station, but being given to brooding, and having no cause to doubt his good faith, I got rid of his evil eyes, and lay back dreaming of a certain brown-eyed Folly who had promised to wait for Poor Jack Robins till something turned up. ‘ Arrived at Cardiff, I found the mate on the look-out for me; and, after signing articles, we went aboard the Maid of Orleans. The vessel was lying in the harbor with the blue-peter flying, and everything ready for sea. She was a long low craft, deep in the water —rather too deep to please my fancy—fresh painted, and looking fine enough ; masts and spars a trifle neavy, but, on the whole, I could find nothing particular to find fault with about her. As w'e pulled alongside I noticed a woman on the poop. Hearing the sound of oars she looked over the side, and I thought I’d never seen a sweeter face in my life. ‘ Old man got his wife aboard V says I to the mate. ‘Yes, and she’s a regular good un,’ says he. ‘You’ll find yourself as comfortable aboard as if you was passenger in a liner.’ * The skipper was coming up from the cuddy as we got on deck —a fine sailor-like young fellow, about thirty years of age, with an affable, pleasant way with him that took my fancy. ‘ I hope you’ll be comfortable aboard, my man,’ says he ; “live and let live, that’s my motto. You do your duty by me, and never fear but that I’ll do mine by you.’ ‘All right, sir, says I, touching my cap. and then I went forward and made acquaintance with my shipmates. Well, sir, to make a long story short, we got under weigh that afternoon, and stood out to sea, working down Channel with a light south-west breeze. The crew consisted of the captain, chief and second mates, boatswain, and fourteen men and a boy ; captain’s wife, cook, and steward : twenty-two all told ; and things went on smoothly enough for some days after we sailed. My messmates told me that this was the skipper’s first voyage as master, and that he had been married about three weeks; and a happier couple there couldn’t be anywhere. The young girl—for she was but a child after all—used to come on deck of a morning often when I was at the wheel; and she had always a kind word and a smile that lighted up her pretty face for the hands. She was as full of fun and frolic as a kitten, it being, I suppose, such a new kind of life to her ; always joking and teasing the skipper, and plaguing him out of his life, what with saying she must try and be a sailor, and learn to knot, and splice, and steer, and handling the marling-spike and a bit of rope, daubing her pretty fingers with tar, running to the taffrail to look at the fish, or hoisting signals to passing vessels, using the wrong flags, and laughing merrily when the old man would try and be dignified. But ’twas no manner of use; her saucy laugh, rippling out like the little waves breaking against the ship’s side, would change his frown into a smile in spite of himself ; and often he’d cast a sheep’s eye at me, as much as to say : “ You see, Kobins ! What can a fellow do with a craft like this in tow.’ ‘ Sometimes she’d declure she must learn to steer, and come and put her little white hands on the spokes of the wheel, making believe that she was was watching the compass in the binnacle, whilst I was afraid of crushing her tiny fingers with my great knotty fists ; and so the ship would come up in the wind, setting all the sails a-shakiug, and then she’d clap her hands together, and call Harry, that was her husband, to see the mischief she’d done, her blue eyes kindling with delight, and her long golden hair floating over her shoulders like a mermaid's. I believe I was a bit of a favorite with her, as I always took care to keep myself clean and tidy, and to have a civil tongue in my head. There was something so innocent and winning about the girl, too, always ready to omit do a good turn, or to put in a kind word for any one, that we got to look upon her as a sort of angel or fairy. Anyhow,this much I’ll say—l’ve sailed in scores of ships in my time, but I never heard less swearing on board any ship before or since than aboard the Maid of Orleans. Well, sir, we’d been out about three weeks, the weather fine, with light breezes ; and though we pumped rather more water out of the ship than we liked to see, there was nothing particular to growl about. I was so comfortable, and things went on so smoothly, that I’d well nigh forgotten all about the talk I’d overheard at the publichouse, when one evening it all came back upon me on a sudden. For the last few hours the clouds had been gathering heavy from the north’ard ; the wind shifted and jibed round ; the skipper looked anxious, and I heard him tell the mate that the barometer was falling, and that we should have dirty weather before night. The watch were employed in odd jobs about the decks ; and being in want of a coil of spunyarn, the boatswain sent me down into the storeroom to fetch it. The place was pitch dark, so I was obliged to take a lantern with me; and after groping about for some time I found what I was in search of, close to the foremast, that ran through the storeroom. I was picking it up, when the light of the lantern fell upon some letters roughly cu-j in the mast, as if some idle young scamp had amused himself by carving his name with his jack-knife. Thinks Ito myself, let’s sec what mark the fellow has left. I raised the lantern, and as I made out the letters, a shiver ran through my very bones. There, as sure as death itself was the word Reindeer cat out clear and distinct upon the timber I You could have knocked me down with a feather ; my knees trembled under me ; a sort of dumbness came over my mind as I read again and again, scarce knowing what [ did, that fatal word. The horrible talk I had overheard in the publichouse seemed dinned into my ears, mingled with the hoarse rush of the mocking waters, that seethed and foamed round the ship, as if reminding me that they were only biding their time to swallow us up in a living tomb. As I sat, dazed and frightened—it was the wickedness that frightened me, more than all the rest—on a coil of hawser, with a sort of horror in ray heart, I heard the boatswain’s voice shouting for the hands to shorten sail, and I sprang up the ladder to the deck. There was no time to be lost ; a squall had struck us, the topsail halyards had been let go by the run, the sails were flapping about like thunder, and all hands shortening sail for dear life. To ho continued,