A TOUCHING SCENE AT SEA.

Southland Times, Issue 1127, 10 September 1869, Page 3

A TOUCHING SCENE AT SEA.

A. BEAL HEUO. A touching scene at sea is described by the ' New York Sun ' as follows : — Two weeks ago, on board an English steamer, a little ragged boy, aged nine years, was discovered on the fourth day of the voyage out from Liverpool to New York, arid carried before the first n»»te, whose duty it was to deal with suc r When questioned as to his object of being stowed away, and who had brought him on board, the boy, who had a beautiful sunny face, and eyes that looked the very mirrors of truth, replied that his step-father did it, because he could not afford to keep him, I nor to pay his passage out to Halifax, where ha had an aunt who was well off, and to whose house he was going. The mate did not believe the story, in spite of the winning face and truthful accents of the boy. He had seen too much of stowaways to be easily deceived by them, he Baia ; and it was his firm conviction that the boy had been brought on board and provided with food by the sailors. The Httle fellow was very roughly handled in consequence. Day by day he was questioned and requestioned, but always with the same result. He did not know a sailor on board, and his father alone had secreted him and given him the food which he ate. At last the mate, wearied by the boy* a persistence in the same story, and perhaps a little anxious to inculpate the sailors, seized him one day by the collar, and dragging him to the fore, told him that unless he told the truth, in ten I minutes from that time he would hang from the yardarm. He then made him ait down under it on the deck. All around him were the passengers and sailors of the midday watch, and in front of him stood the inexorable mate, with his chronomoter in his hand, and the

other officers of the ship by his side. It was the finest sight, said our informant, that be ever beheld — to see the pale, proud, sorrowful face of that noble boy, nis head erect, his beautiful eyes bright, through the tears that suffused them. When eight minutes had fled, the mate told him that he had but two minutes to live, and advised him to speak the truth and save his life ; but he replied with the utmost sincerity by asking the mate if he might pray. The mate said nothing, but nodded his head and turned as paie as a ghost, and shook with trembling like a reed with the wind. And there all eyes turned on him, the brave and noble little fellow, this poor waif whom society owned not, and whose own step-father could not care for him, there he knelt, with clasped hands and eyes upturned to heaven, while he repeated audibly the Lord's Prayer, and prayed the dear Lord Jesus to take him to heaven. Our informant adds that there then occurred a scene as of Pentecost. Sobs broke ont from strong hard hearts, as the mate sprang forward to the boy and clasped him to bis bosom, and kissed him and blessed him, and told him how sincerely he now believed his story, and how glad he was that he had been brave enough to iace death, and be willing to nacrifice his life for the truth of his word.