LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2179, 18 February 1881, Page 3

LITERATURE.

LOVE ON THE HIGH SEAS. ‘Now,’said the Captain, ‘we shan’t see any more land for a week, and you young ladies ’ll have nothing to do bat let some of these young fellows fall in loro with you.' * Fall in love, ’ cried Hetty, her tip-tilted nose curling with incredulity and disgust. ‘ Who could fall in love at sea, I’d like to know ?’

* Who conld ?’ asked the Captain, in innocent surprise. * Why, everybody does. Why not ?’ Hetty smiled in evident unbelief, but glanced fnrtively ao’-oss the deck toward the handsome young officer, where he leans on the rail, blowing rings of smoke into the deep bine, bine sky. Mischievous Deb and the quick-sighted Captain detect both, and laugh unmercifully. Hetty blushes, and the first officer uncompromisingly tnrns a deaf ear to the Captain's guffaws. It is evening on shipboard, dinner Is over, the day’s work is done, and all are assembled on deck.

The sun, which has hung all day like a copper gong upon a brass ceiling, is now mercifully disappearing. The mountains of Lower California shine in his fast fading rays like “ the golden hills of heaven,” while one little hammock of an island, long, and high, and narrow, rises out of the sea like the grave-mound of some ocean god. For once the water is smooth; nothing breaks its stillness bat the steamer’s trail, and the sea-gulls now and then brushing its surface. Far, far away—far as the eye can reach—is nothing but the same expanse of deep bine waters, broken only by those yellow hills, now fast vanishing into distance and night, Overhead only another and wider expanse, still deeply, darkly, beautifully bine, and behind a cloud the new moon just beginning to look forth upon the boisterous world below.

Prigsby, from London, explains to a gaping audience how the scenery now before them suffers from comparison with that of the Bhlne. Sam Boland, of San Francisco, carelessly replies to an inquirer that he is going prospecting for gold in Guatemala, acknowledges it to be a pretty risky business, admits the country to ba full of road agents and bushwhackers, but “ reckons he’ll pall through.” Meantime Hetty and Deb, seeing that the Captain had a story in reserve, settled themselves to hear it.

' Didn’t I tell you how my first officer got married? No? Well, nobody could a’ been sicker’n his wife was when he courted her. I’ll just tell you all about it, it you like.’

* Well, you see, I haven't always been captain of a first-class steamer —no siree I I ran away to sea when I was twelve years old, and I’ve worked my way from the bottom of the ladder. Well, wbei I wa: thirty I was captain of a large sailing vessel that was in the South American tra-ie.

* I sailed from the port of Cal'.ao, San Francisco being my destination. My seco d officer was an .Englishman, but my first was an American, only two or three years younger than I, as good looting a young fellow as ever I saw; tail and straight and handsome’ with eyes like blue china. He was a right good fellow, too ; brave and honest, but frisky as a kitten, and up to all sorts of larks.

* Well, we crept up the cnast, a’oppir.g at every ninth door, as our orders ob iged us to do, taking in all sorts of things, all booked for San Francisco. Finally we came to San Jose de Guatemala-that lies ninety miles in and—and there we hove to, and waited for a chance to go ashore. • Did yon ever hear of the surf on that coast, ladies ? No t Well, it often rolls ten or twenty feet high, and a good pvt of the time no boat can live in it. Her.y we’re not going to stop this trip or you m ght see it. You see, there’s really n» I,a b >r — nothing but an open roadstead —and, > x :ep‘. in the Bay of Fnndy, this place shows the highest and lowest tide in the world. The people here tried to build a breakwater < s nt beyond the surf, but it breaks over it, h-df the time, and when it doesn’t, it knocks it to pieces. Sometimes vessels h .ve to riie nt anchor for a week before they can put a boat athore. We’d only just hove to, Jwhen I noticed that a ship at anchor, not far off, was making signals of distress and that, a boat was put ting off in our direction. < f course, we were anchored far out beyond tho amf, and it was comparatively easy for tha boat to reach us; so it was soon along and one if the men came up the ship’s side and told me

what was wauted. It appears that the ship was a coBVo ship from Han Francisco, and had come to San Jose for a cargo. It was only ba'f loade 1 when ona of the boats capsized in the surf,

drowning the captiiia and first officer. The isiond officer was very low with a fever,and they had nobody to navigate She vessel; eo they had to wait in port till some other ship came along and conld lend ’em an officer or somebody who understood navigation. Well, I called up my first officer and put him aboard the coffee ship, and in a day or two wo both sailed. We were going over jnst the same ground—or sea. rather—and as the two vessels were equally fast, we kept each oth»r in sight mo ; t of the time. We’d been out about ten days, and were in American waters again, when all of a sodden the ship hove to and signalled ns to stop. We ran as close to them as we oonld, then hove to. and presently through a glass I saw a boat being lowered and there was a woman in it.

‘ 1 w ‘' a surprised, as you may imagine, for I did not know there were any passengers on the coffee ship, though there were half a dozen on my own. In a few minutes np the side came my first officer more than halfcarrying the prettiest little Spanish girl I ever saw. Oh, ladies ! she was a beauty 1 Kyea like the stars in the flag, and the sweetest little free—kisses jest sticking out all over it ! But wasn't she the sickest little mortal that eve? sot foot on deck ? I tell you, she was all preen and yellow, and looked haif-starved. Ido not believe she’d kept down a quarter of a dinner for a month, past.

‘Hullo, Jack!’ said I; ‘what’s the matter ? And I gave the yonng lady a seat on the loncge in my cabin. The poor little thing couldn’t sit np straight, so I just hoisted her feet up and made her comfortable among the pillows.

‘ Captain,’ said he, ‘I want you to marry me to this young lady.’ ‘ Marry you ?’ said I. ‘ What do you mean ? She’s too sick to he married, man! She can't stand up. If you and she want to be married, why don’t you wait till yon got ashore?’

You see, ladies, we talked out free before her, for she couldn’t understand a word of English.

t ‘ If we wait till then.' said, he, ' you and I’ll ho going to her fnneral instead of her wedding. We’ve got to be married, and right away, and you havs got to marry ns,’ ¥on see again ladies, we were very great* fri? nds outside the ship, and when we were alone together we dropped all ceremony. ‘ What In thunder are you in snob a hurry for?’said I. ‘Why can't you wait till you’re ashore? Where are the lady’s friends ?’ ‘Her stepfather’s aboard my ship,’ he said. * I thought so,’ said I; ‘and I won’t have anything to do with it.’ He just turned and winked at me '• out of the tail of his eye,” and I than remembered, in a moment of misplaced confidence, I had told him some little circumstances in regard to my own marriage. * Hem !’ said he, grinning like a monkey, ‘ I think they’i e sometimes justifiable. Now, just look here, Cap.; listen, and I’ll tell you all about it. That little girl has no relations, nothing but a stepfather, and she’s dependent npon him for support. Well, the old coot’s a doctor, and crazy at that; or if he isn’t, he the meanest cuss on earth. He’s taken Into his addle! old head to discover a sure cure for sea-sickness, and because just the name of a ship sets poor little Dolores to casting np acconnts, he’s been taking her on all sorts of long voyages, and trying his various decoctions on her. So I want to marry her to get her out of his way. Of conrae, ‘ I’m in love with her, and all that, ’ tald he, looking kind of foolish, ‘ but if that was all I’d wait till wo got ashore. Of course I can’t make him let her alone unless she’s my wife, and if ho bos control of her much longer she’ll never sea port again,’ * Oo you mean to say,’ said I, staring at him in surprise, ‘that he tries experiments on her—gives her things that ain’t medicine ?’

4 1 do,’ said he, * and I mean to say that the last thing he gave her was a bottle of bed-bug poison, and it most killed her.’ ‘By the Flying Dutchman!’ said I, *1 should think it would. Where’s the old ooet now V 4 ln irons. I told him I wouldn’t have any such doing aboard my ship and he slapped my face. So 1 put him in irons and. came off to you. ’ W ell, ladies, I jast went over to the sofa where the little girl was rolling her big black eyes at us, and wondering what in thnnder we were saj ing. * How old are you, my dear ?’ I asked in. Spanish. You see, I’d been married more’n two years, and I thought I’d a setter right to be paternal. 4 Eighteen, Senor Captain/ said she, in the softest voice in the world.

Said I, ‘Do you love this young man, and. ■want to marry him ? You needn’t if yon. don’t, because I’ll see to it your stepfather doesn’t bother you a r y more.’ I didn’t dare look round at Jack, for I knew he’d be looking black In thunder at me jest then. And indeed he took a stop toward ns ; but I made him keep off till she should have answered for herself.

Well, she blushed very prettily, and hesitated for a second, then answered very sweetly that if the Kenor Captain didn’t mind the trouble she should marry the Senor First Officer. That the t-'enor First Officer had been her only friend; that, although she had taken many voyages and seen many people, she had never before found anyone who cared to interfere in her behalf ; that she felt very grateful to the Senor First Officer, and had now become attached to fcim. and with the Senor Captain's permission would gladly become bis wife. As she said this, Jack got out of sight behind the door, put his thumb to his nose and twirled his finger in the mo t disrespectful manner. I had a great mind to put him in irons for mutiny—hut no matter. Of course, there was nothing to be done except marry them ; she was over eighteen, and at sea the captain’s as good as a parson, you know, • So I called up the passengers and thaofficers; and the ladies dressed her np in their own finery, and wo had a wedding in very short order. After that the ship’s surgeon prescribed an autidota for the bedbug poison. The second officer went over and took command of the coffee ship in Jack’s place, and sent back Dolores’ truck and clothing. At first I thought we couldn’t get along without him, for Jack was so deeply in love with his little sea sick girl I thought ho’d be r.f no manner of use. But we had good, ■weather most of the time, and Jack did hia duty like a man. But it was real touching to see him go to his wife’s cabin every day and bring her on dec *. and fix her up comfortably on a bed the stewaid mode for her under an awning, ''.nd there he’d nurse her and care for her jir tas it he’d been a sister of charity. Yon might have seen then, Miss Hetty, how a sailor can leva a woman.

Web, she soon got better and stronger. Jack and the doct or fixed her np between them, and a healthier, livelier, happier little woman never set foot in Han Francisco. Jack took her right to his married sister, a-d there she stayed between voyages till she had a lot of children, and her husband bought her a boose of her own. What about the col T.-e ship P Oh, that made port a day before ua, and the old doctor bad ns all arrested the minute we touched land, So we v, ere all hauled up hi court, and Jack had it oat with his stepfather in-law.

1 think that the Court was rather against ns first; but the bed-bug poison and the slap in the face did the bittiness and turned everything in our favor He was afterward deoid-.d to be a lunatic and turned over to hi« bro.lnn's keeping. What became of Ja k ? Why, he sailed with me f r sivoral years as first officer;, now he's cap’aiu of the companion steamer to this. M hat good-looking young fellow that’s been in iking eyes at, you, Miss Hetty, is his «on, and I daresay that he agrees with bis father that ees sickness makes precious little difference when a man's in love.’

The m on is quite up now fl ioding the B! a wit-i silver, ueiwoen ns and the shining mirror internosrs the head of young Jack, showing in fine, clo- r ent silhouette. What a won.ler that Hetty has to put severe strain-, upon her eyes that they shall not wander in that direction ? The captain sai n ers a way to do theagreea la toother pisscngeis, whi’e Deb stm/s down to the deck to listen at a little closer quarters t-> the tinkle of a guitar and to a s ,ft voice humming a Spanish love song. As rfae strobs li ck, she finds a masculine form usurping her place, amd peeping under H'tty's d .veilcast li is aj-e a pair of earnest sailor eyes, whose dawning love and hope no sea cau fright or quell;