Wake Up Jonah.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 464, 19 April 1890, Page 6

Wake Up Jonah.

A Story by Joaquin Miller.

[copyrighted,- 1890, . by the author.] .Jonah. was,. now to be seen here snugly, housed in 'one’'end of his huge old whaleboat by One of our Oakland wharves, an old Yankee sailor, tall, lean, lank ; <?nc6 as.full of old sea; stories as an old pinVhßffion is full-of bid: needles! Nearly all of these stoties are made up of dreadful shipwrecks, in every one of which he bore a conspicuous part, ‘and was each time the worst shipwrecked sailor of the whole crew, and I think this is why the Californians, long, long ago, when it was the habit to call men by queer names, called this man Jonah.’ Anyhow, the name was firmly fastened on him when a few years ago he was set to watch' a certain place by the shore and give'aTaTm in case of fire. Well, in a-feW'days the place took fire and everything,including old Jonah, as it was thought, was burned:to ashes.’ But as these Californians alwaysrebuildvery quickly, the workmen, while clearing away for a new foundation, heard a voice away down below, and, opening the mouth of the well that had been covered by falling timbers, there they ( found .poor ol(J. Jonah, up to his neck in the water, where he had fallen while running in great haste to give the alarm of fire. This and other less important incidents in ’ the same line gave the honest old sailor such a reputation for bad luck that.few fishermen or pleasure parties were willing to embark with Jonah if other boats were to be had at hand. ■ v . But on the -28th. of November, 1886, the day on which the California Arbor Day was established,; the old man had his big boat; filled with as bright and lovely a little

crowd of country boys and girls as .could have been found for miles around. And this was because every other boat had been engaged to go to Yuba Buena Island, in the middle of the great and most glorious Bay of San Francisco, where the ceremonies were to- take place. This great, big and ugly island in this broad and most beautiful bay on the globe —if we except the Bay of Naples, perhaps —was a barren and rocky place. It belongs to the Government, and has a pretty, lighthouse on ft. There are four other islands in this great Bay of San Francisco, but they are not so barren and ugly. One of them is a huge fort, with more than fivehundred cannon and many soldiers on it. Another one is a great place for building ships. »■ And so, as this barren island lies almost in the middle of this magnificent bay, and is nearly between Oakland and San Francisco, where boats pass by continuously, it was agreed that it would.'be,a good thing to begin our California-Arbor Day by planting this ugly and barren island, with forest trees.

Gen. Howard, the one-armed old hero of Gettysburg and many another bloody field of battle, was in command of our armies and armament on this coast at the time, and he headed the work by giving all the ships, and all the sailors and all the soldiers to carry the people to-the island and help plant trees and so on. x

Mr Sutro, the great engineer who made the Sutro tunnel into the. silver mountains of Nevada, gave us fifty thousand tree's to plant on the island. And as he was to plant the first tree, and as Gen. Howard was to also plant a tree, and as the Governors and Senators of California and Nevada were also to plant trees, and as the famous orator, John P. Irish, was to make a speech, why, you see, nearly everybody wanted to be there. Besides that, the forty-six thousand school children of San Francisco all wanted to plant trees on that particular island on that particular day. So you see clearly that every beat in and about the bay of San Francisco was crowded into the service and loaded to the guards. But poor old Jonah and his bigold whaleboat were left bill the very last. He had painted her up—painted her red and white and blue. He had set a row of little fivecenb flags along either gunwale and a big flag at bow and stern to give a gay appearance to his boat and attract attention. But for all that,people would pass by when they saw that it was Jonah’s boat.

The sun was high and hot, and you could see thousands and thousands of children in red and white and blue..clambering up the stony steep of the island away out in the middle of the bay.before the old man Jonah could find a customer .

And then suddenly there came a crowd—a; crowd, that had missed the last boat by the least part of a minute—a crowd of strangers —strangers to. one another mostly. They had come down from the on the cars by twos and threes and fours. , And when the plank of .the last boaf was pulled in' this little band pf young folks from the country melted in together and wandered along the shore bill they found Jonah. They tumbled into his boat with a shout. They were so glad ! Nearly everyone had a brother, sister, cousin or 'something«bf that sorb along. True, there were two or three young men who did not have their own sisters. But they had some otheryoung-men’s sisters, and so did noo complain. There was one pale and plain;,little girl who seemed quite alone. She was very plainly clad, too. Her dress was black. And there - was .a blonde young.man, lofty and handsome and saucy, who was all. alone. The pale little girl -looked up to him and seemed to like him. But he was clearly in love with himself, and did not very graciously accept tlie' ,? s6ab which Jonah assigned him by the side of the solitary little girl in' black. But still, :as everybody else- was happy, he, too, must; make merry ; and as the great boat, with' its- fluttering flags anfl living-passengers/ pushed off and swung about with its head* towards the island, the blonde young man shouted out: ■ ....

‘ I say, old duffer, what’s your name ?’ ‘Jonah;’ and the word came up like the ; gro.wl of a grizzly bear, as the old man leaned heavily to his oars." ' The name and the manner, too, of the old man seemed to dampen the spirits of the handsome blonde boy who sat by the side of' the plain little girl in black "and he said no moie, but ,sitting himself over' to one side, he dre,w out a bunch' of nasty cigarettes, arid; without'even asking anybody’s leave, lighted one and puffed away, as if he had been smoking over since his mother hadleft off his long clothes. The old man pulled hard and steadily. The pretty girls from up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains glanced out from under their bonnets, and all took in the surilight and the sea and were silent with joy and admiration. The young men counted the many huge battle-ships that bore the flag of England, and they marvelled at the size of the . mighty iron ram that had almost destroyed the navy of Peru, and had made Chili the greatest naval power in the Pacific.

Twenty-four bands of martial music loaded the delicious air with melody. It was a stirring scene !

But long before the clumsy big whaleboat, with its one pair of oars in feeble old hands, could make the landing, the ladder was drawn up and the ceremonies well under way. In this state of affairs, all that could be done was to pass on around towards the Golden Gate and get as near to the music and the speakers as possible. This the old man didi and, casting anchor, was soon nodding in his seat, for the sun was hot, and then his work had been long and hard for one so old and worn.

The big boat swung about pointing towards the Golden Gate, which opens into : the Pacific Ocean some five riffles distant. This brought the rope by which the anchor ,hung close .under‘the arm of the blonde young man with the cigarettes, where it creaked and squeaked continuously. The music .ceased, and then the speaking began.. Pint the party .in the boat could not hear what was said, and some of the less thoughtful began to grow restless and mischievous. A freckle-faced boy, with small eyes and a sunburnt hose, tried to tickle the’sleeping old Jonah on the neck with a wooden tooth-pick, but could not quite reach. This inspired the blonde young man,and sticking his burning cigarette on the point'of his penknife he leaned over- and, in the midst of giggles from the whole party, with one exception perhaps, he held it close under the old man’s nose.

Fortunately j.t did not harm him, and, after coughing slightly from the smoke, old Jonah again doubled up like a pocket-knife and soon was sound asleep as before. But 'the spirit of- mischief was now abroad, and. the handsome blonde boy,with his penknife in his band, turned his attention to the creaking, squeaking rope that held the anchor. At first he only cut it a little, just for fun. And how they all did giggle! AH but one: And that one put a little brown hand feebly from under a . blackshawl and laid it reproachfully on the blonde boy's arm.

This only angered him, and setting his teeth, he severed the rope and let the great boat swing loose and drift as it liked. The giggles burst into laughter, laughter loud and furious, as the old man’s head bobbed up and down under the action of the swiftly-moving boat, and his bands, frajn force of habit, held stoutly to the oars. ‘ I hear the music ; bub it seems a good, way off, ’ said the eldest of the girls suddenly. She half-rose, and, looking in the direction ini which the boat was drifting, cried: ‘ And the Golden Gate is close by ! - And the great ocean ! Look ! Here is the open ocean ! Wake up, Jonah ! Wake up, Jonah !'

r Blanched faces, and silence ! No one moved or spoke. Bub down from over the side of the beat a little white cigarette slid, and falling- intothe water with a scarcely audible ‘sizz ’ was soon left behind and lost sight of. The old sailor opened his eyes slowly as his name was called; Slowly he looked up from one terrified face to the other, and slowly but certainly took in the situation. He did nob say one word or look right or left. He only held tightly to his oars and kept in the midst of the now roaring current, straight for the open sea. Let me explain how the Golden Gate, through which so many tons of gold have passed, is at certain times swift as the swiftest river, and at such times you cannot land at all. You must pass right on and out, as if shot from a gun. And this is the reason : a great river : fl!ows into this bay and floods it full as the tid,e. sets , in. So ; that when the ,tide sets out it gqes with f Oarful'force; and. swiftness through the narrow, rock-bound Golden Gate. ,

Indeed, so swift and swirling are the waters here at such times that the Spanish settlers have long held that the traditional maelstrom off Norway had a counterpart at the Golden Gate. Fremont, who named this the Golden Gate two years before gold was discovered in California,, tells us of some young officers of our navy who perished here with their boat and left not even so much as a plank to tell of their fate : and so their names for years and years were carried forward. They were even promoted in their order. Bub they were never heard from any more. ‘ Why don’t you land ? Why don’t you land?’ gasped the blonde boy at last, as the racing and eddying waters of the Golden Gate began to lap. and leap into the boat.

‘ Shut up ! or I’ll land you over the hull,’ was all that old Jonah said between his sot teeth. ' •'

Up and down ! Down and up, and away ! Oh, bub that old boat was saucy !, She seemed to smell the rattling, salty waters without the Gate. The snap and the clash and the colour of the awful deep delighted her. And even old Jonah was wide awake now, wide awake as he had nob been since he had retired from the sea and eked out a stint as a landsman. There was a,glint in his old eyes ; a gleam of gladness, even mbh all this misery and helplessness at his feet in the-boat. - -For the young folk were nearly all sick now; fearfully siek ! The handsome, proud, boy had wilted ; faded as fades the sunflower when it is cut down. That last remark .from qld Jonah had cut him up terribly. His head leaned out over the boat. The little girl in black at his side held on to , him as if she were afraid he would fall out. And he did nob 'resent her kindness this time, . bub seemed to rather like it. She drew him back closer to her, after he had disposed of his vanity: and his bile together, and his comely head gradually settled over, on to her little black and bony shoulder. ‘ Poor, dear young man ! it’s the cigarettes ; help hold his poor head, please.’ This is what the little girl in black whispered back over her shoulder to another quiet little girl who sab close by. And so the two together held the wilted blonde head between them. ■'Film’as the rocks that lock the walls of the Golden Gate was : old Jonah all'this tithe. The sun was setting low and fast;, full and- large and luminous as a world of flame lay the sun on a sea of blood for a 'second only ; and then it was night on ibhe •surgingj heaving bosom of the sea of seas ! Bear in mind that it was thousands of miles from the spot where Balboa and, Cortez first saw this great ocean and named Lb ‘ the Pacific.’ But it is not pacific here.. It is a roaring lion. It is a terrible ocean for ah open boat, from : here even to Alaska. The stars came as the sun went out, as often happens in this life of change and, events, and it was not dark; but- it was cold; oh, so cold ! You see, the winds blow down from Alaska with great force all the season here, and out in the open ocean here you should be clad in furs. Indeed, I often see ladies wearing sealskin cloaks in San Francisco all through July and August.

The girls that lay crouched in the boat were but thinly clad. They were wet, and crying with pain from the cold. The boys were no better. In fact, they shivered harder and made a good deal more complaint than the girls. The big blonde one, ■ however, had managed to get in between the two quiet little girls before spoken of, and was comparatively dry and comfortable. But the two little girls were so wet and were shivering so badly that old Jonah, began to fear for their lives. More than once he lifted his head and glanced sharply back over his shoulder to see if by some chance the party on his boat had not been missed and their friends or the Government sent a steamer in search. But no sign of help. At last, in despair, he gasped out : * Do any of you folk have friends ? 1 mean, do any of you amount to anything ?’ They did not seem to quite understand, and after a painful,silence and feelirig that, he had not put the proposition quite as mildly as he might, he again began, after once more glancing back towards the Golden Gate. ‘I mean, is your father any-, body—anybody, in particular I mean, miss.’ The old man spoke with effort’ and,desperation. The cpld was piercing'his old: bones' to the an,d' ; l\e. knew ript hold the* oars or steady the boat muchlonger, The eldest girl, the only one who could hold up her head as he spoke, only looked at him blankly and then said ‘No ’ in a husky whisper. Then all was still for a long time, and you could only hear the rattle of the heavy salt water on the side of the great boat as she slid up and down the deep Hollows of the ocean. ‘ Boy! big blonde boy over there ! is your father-anybody ? Who is y our father, I Say ? And where is he ?’

‘Yes, yes,’ gasped the blonde head from between the girls, without rising up, * yes, my father is a great man. He is Sheriff of Stanislaus!’

‘ Well, let him stay in Stanislaus,’ muttered the old man between his chattering old teeth.

He again glanced back over his shoulder, light-houses andstars, stars andlighthouses; and a great, gleaming wall of white beyond. But that was all.

‘ My little girl, my quiet little girl in black, where is your father t The old man’s voice was quite broken now. It trembled so that he could hardly speak. His left hand had slipped from the oar. The rowlock rattled heavily, bub the hand lay helpless. ‘Little girl, where is your father?’ he gasped again. Her two little brown hands olasped together clumsily, hardly able to hold to-

gether from the cold and web; but holding theca so she raised her pitiful face to heaven. Her chin quivered and her lips- . trembled, but she could nob speak. The old npan understood. With his one-, remaining hand he lifted his hat and laid it : reverently down as he said in a whisper so soft and low that maybe only jJe heard it: ‘ Then we must look there for help.’ And a long'tithe'he_ looked steadily upward.- And the tremblingTlips, and the" quivering little chin-were lifted also. i ' -‘ The two rowlocks rattled and rasped and • rasped and rattled. The boat wa£.her own master now/ She had turned about! Her bow was to the Golden Gate ! The tide had turned ! ... -'••-• ; Ibis strange that some one on some one. of the many ships had not seen this party; . and its : peril ; strange that some .watcher, . from some one of the lighthouses had. not.. ( - seen this lone craft in its peril. But it.is;a. V •fact that this boat passed out of the Golden Gate, spent much of the night in the open ocean, and was finally borne back with all its precious cargo saved, and with, no other help than the help of Him to whom all will cry out for help, at least once, this side the -< River of Rest. Joaquin MillEr, The Heights, Oakland, Cal. ■