A TALE IF THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 197, 17 February 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

A TALE IF THE SEA.

BABY FOUND IN AN OPEN BOAT,

GBJOWS UP TO BE A HEKO,

Noel Lambezellec, a fisherman, "21 years old, son of Jan Lambezellec, retired, of Brest, saved eight lives in March last, and was one of those who had received the Carnegie rewards for heroism presented by ex-President Loubet on Christmas Eve. He had earned his reward by an act of valor that was beyond question. But all the same a busybody had written to the committee of the fund stating that Jan Lambezellec was a bachelor, that Noel was not his son, and that therefore the reward was being conferred under false pretences. Red tape has its ritual and has to be satisfied, so the fund sent down to Brest to ask old Jan Lambezellec in his small cottage why he had declared that Noel was his son.

"Yes," said the old man, "I am a bachelor. But Noel is my son, though I have never married, and his mother is the sea." "The sea?" inquired the messenger. "Yes, the sea which washed Belle Isle lighthouse away just 20 years ago, before it was the great building it is now, and when it was not on Belle Isle itself, but on the spit of a rock which disappeared in the queer weather three years back. Volcanic? May be. It disappeared. That's all I know. We used to call it Happy Island, Goulvec and I, because life was so dull there. A bit of a building 60ft high on a bit of bare rock in the sea. A small room for Goulvec and me, just under the lamp. The lamp to look after, and when it was foggy (it usually is foggy nine months in "the 12, as you knowj, a great bell to ring till the Wieather cleared up. That was our life on ]

Happy Island. J-IF 10 OX A BOCK. I! "And 21 years ago, on 'Christmas Eve, Goulvec atul 1 had quarrelled. I don't remember what it was about. But a quarrel between two nien who live in one small room where their noses rub as they sit at supper, is no amusing thing. We had not spoken to each other since the morning. Our fire was drooping because neither of us would look after it, and we sat there on Christmas Eve and thought about the little church on land here, with the manger and plastef statues of the kings in blue and gold,

the ox, the ass, St. Joseph, Mother Mary, and the Baby with the gifts around him. "Goulec had a wife and two children at home. My only home was 'Happy Island. It was a merry evening. Oh, no I shan't forget Christmas Eve on Happy 1 Island 2il years ago. We were short of food, too. The boat had not been out to us for three days, owing to the weather. We were not actually hungry, but our last meal or two had not been festive and we had no more tobacco. We sat over the miserable little fire and brooded in silence.

"The sea moaned and lashed the rock, and the wind whistled and swore at us outside, but we were used to that, and I remember thinking that the night was very still and wondering whether when 12 o'clock struck we should hear the church hells from shore. We sometimes did, -and last Christmas old Goulvec and I had kissed like women when the bells rang out, and had touched glasses to the wife and lads on shore. DERELICT BOAT.

"Suddenly we sprang up and listened. I heard a crash on the rock outside, and Goulvec had heard it too. 'Stay you here and see to the fire,' I said. 'lt's 'my watch, I'll go down.' 'Be careful, comrade,' said old Goulvec, and touched my shoulder as I left the room. We were not talkative men, either of us, and our quarrel was over. There was something in danger outside. "It was no easy matter to get down. The staircase was slippery, and the wind and sea were high. As for the stones, they were like ice, and it was not an easy thing to get out to the point where I heard something tapping. There was a bit of a boat there, and I marvelled that it held together. I was so startled, though, by what I saw in it that I forgot to look, as I ought to have looked, for her ship's name and number. "There was a bundle in the cockleshell, and the bundle waile'd in a queer little high-pitched voice, which I heard quite distinctly above the wind and the lashing of the sea. I have always marvelled how I. got out to the boat without drowning myself. But I did get out, and the boat went to pieces as I stumbled back to the lighthouse. "Comrade,' I said, as I pushed the door open and blinked at the brightness inside, comrade, poke up the fire. Here's a visitor.' 'Saint Joseph!' cried Goulvec (he swore by St. Joseph, who was his name-saint), ''Saint Joseph, it is Our Lord Himself!' But it was only a baby boy whom the sea had washed up to our doorstep, and we called him Noel. As Goulvec had lads and a wife of his own we agreed that, the child should be mine.' And that is how I came by Noel FOSTER-FATHERS. ' ' "Luck never comes alone. The wind changed a few minutes later, and the fcre burned up more brightly. We fed Noel, on milk-lucky we had any-tak-ing turns to hold the child and the spoon. Our quarrel had disappeared, as if by magic. We rang the bell that night without remembering whose turn it was, and we pretended (for lonely men have to play at pretending games like children do when they are that the fogbell was really the church bell for Christmas. And I'll swear we heard the shore bells ringing on Christmas morning, too, though Goulvec always said that was just my imagination. w3 h j/L b i^ a 2 C . himln g J' ust as kittle Noel took his first sup of milk out of the spoon I held, and opened eyes eyes like crv y JnT S U V nto mv face -' 'Con't cry into his milk, you fool,' growled Goulvec <You will make it all salty.' He loved his joke, did old Goulvec, Poor «?' l' een dead these 18 years. And Noel is my son, Monsieur, and the sea is his mother. Papers? No I him" £7V hou SM about papers for S m w ' ?? u Sa - r so ' he must tnem. He will want them next year, when h e h to Qf , vll v a I" 101 "" He ' s a flshe "nan now. m him down of unknown father and mother if you think that is best. We do l° o V?f' ¥ ?o el and T > and old Goulvec is dead these 18 years . ww !? my son alld the sea is his mother. It does not matter what the official papers say about him. We never saw or hcml anything of the ship from which the sea took him. There were 30 ships wrecked near Belle Isle that Christmas 21 years ago."