Adventures Of Tad

authob of "pepper adams," "blown oct to Sea," "Paüi, Gbaftos," Etc. [Copyrig?Ued, ivs, by I). Lothrop Ê Co., ana Publixhed bij Special Arranyement.] CHAPTER IV.- CONTINUED. "Woll, sir," exclaimed Captain Flagg, pointing his topic, so to speak, by toucfiingtheendof one stunapy forefinger with tho tip of the othur, and speaking with intense though quiet enjoyment, " he put it like this: 'James W. Dunn, my cliënt,' he says, 'claims pay at the rate of five pound a day for tho nse of his wheel, duria' eighteenmonths voyage. It's his wheel, isn't it? he had to pay for it, and there's tho name on the rim. The ship's had the use of it all this whjle, and a ship can't g?t aiong wunout a wneel no better'n without a compasa,' says the lawyer, 'and you can settle it right now, or else we'll take it up to the adm'raltv court.' " ' " Wasn't he smart! and did the owners have to pay it?" exolaimed and questioned Polly in the same breath. Captain Flagg nodded an afBrmatiye. " And so the sailor got a big lot of money?" put in Tad, as an interrogative. " He got what the lawyer left, most likely," returned Captain Flagg, rather dryly- which slight reflection against the lfgal profes&ions was, íortunately, not understood by his hearers. The sun disappeared boliind the SGean rim, and after supper the side-lights ! were put out, a'nd Tad instructed as to the duties of a lookout; for now the " Mary J." was headed right out ward the opea sea, which looked terri bly dark and cold to Tad's astonished eyes, particularly as there was no such thmg as a sign of land anywhere to bo ! seen, excepting the low sandy cape shores astern, which were fast disappearing In the distance and increasing darkness. Before sending the youthful mariner for'ard, Captain Flagg called him bclow, and gravely commanded him to put on some well-worn under-flannels, eeveral sizes too large, which, however, Tad iound vez-y comïortable, a peajacket, within whose capaciou3 tolAa three or four boys of Tad's dimensions could have been buttoned, and a large fur cap, whieh, only for resüng on the rims of his ears, would havo I ly extinguished him. "You don't look so stylish as you I might," Captain Flagg acknowledged, I after Tad had effeeted the required I change, "but sailors go In for comfort, mor'n style;" with which assurance Tad - conscious that ho looked rathor funny, to say the least - was fain to be ! comfoited. Indeed, the most that troubled him was the fear that Miss Polly might possibly laugh when he ventured on deck. But, though Polly had been brought up in the country, she had too much natural politeness to laugh; yet it mustbeconfessed that the depths of the deep sun-bonnet hid a dimple or two, as Tad waddled forward, wondering what the matter could be with the water to make the vessel tuiable about so. CHAPTER V. D.irker and darker grew the night, the wind sounded more and r. or. dreary, the vessel tossed about in whai Sícinod to Tad a terribly dangerous manner, while he began to feel an unpleasant nausea, whick recalled hia lirst and last experience in trying to smoke a íive-cent eigar. "I wonder if I ain't going to be aeasick." thought Tad, with a terrible sinking sensation in the neighborhood of his stomach. It was fortúnate that none of the far-away dots of red and green, which represented the lights of distant ships, camc very near the track of the "Mary J.," for the unfortunate lookout very soon became insensible to every thing but his own sufTerings. When Eph eame forward to strike the bell, poor Tad was whooping over the rail, in all the agonies of sea-sickness, whieh was not made a partido less painful by Eph's assertion that it wasn't nothin' killin'- he'd soon get over it. Meanwhile- " The storm grew loud apace, The water wraith was slirieking." And as Captain Flagg glanced at the compasa and the sky, he expressed a ■wish that he'd " come to anchor in the lower bay, and hung on till mornin'." But wishing availed nothing, novr that the "Mary J." was well out to sea, with the Mareh wind blowing half a gale offshore. And as the next best thing to being anchored was layingthe schooner to, the Captain shouted as a preliminary warning: "All han's short'n sail!" "All hands" cametumblingaft - that is, Eph and G. Washington Jones did. i ïad himsolf was already there, having crawlcd into the very centre of a big coil of rope, where ho huddled down as in a big bird's-nest, groaning and sighing, and occasionally faintly calling upon gome om; to cast him into the depths of the sea. Captain Flagg was on the quarter-deok, too, his heavy gum-boots seeuaing to appear in half a dozen places simultaneously, as he pulled, and hauled, and shouted, in the ensuing operation of reeting, while Polly, enwrapped as to her slim form in a soit of feminine storm-coat of water-prooi cïoth, which bnttoned tighÜy about her, and an oil-skin hftt fástened under her plomp ohin. stood holding the wheel, in obedience to her father's eheery commandB. All th.it took place was to Tad's bewildered mind a terrible eomplicated experienee. He ktiew that while the "MaryJ." was pitching and tossing and rolling in all sorts of wa-ys, the sails were lowered part way down the mast, where they hung banging and slatting in a most exasperating mannor. And he was dimly conscious of siving Epb' long Iegs astride the boom-ond, waving hither and thither, as he tngged at a rope, while Captain Flagg mul George Washington performed the most nnheard-of prodigios of seamanship, as despite the struggling and bellying of the stiff canvas, they contiived to tie it down to the boom, so that when the sails were hoisted up again, they were not nearly as large as before. And then waxing bold, the gallant old sea-dog, Captain Jethro Flagg, dccided that, instead of lying to till morning, he would- to uso liis own nautical expression - " keep her a-jogging to the nor'ard and east'ard." So all through that eventful night the " Mary J." pursued her billovy course, while poor ïad, in a sadly demoralized state of mind and body, lay nested in the coil of rope I have tioned, feeling, even in hs deathly sickness, oh, so ashamed! that Polly, a girl, not quite as oíd as himself, should show such courage, while he, a lubberly boy, couldn't even offer to d6 the least thing to keep the vessel from going straight to the bottom of the sea! But I, myself, don't think tliere was any thing very strange in the matter. It was Tad's iirst experience, and seaiickness, like conscience, makes eow.rds of us all. Tho Atlantic Ocean is a. terrible fellow to take the courage out of a landsman, when it gets on a sort of rarapage; and I don't wonder that íesthetic Mr. Osear Wilde, with lus lastiüious tastes, shoulcl shudderingly declare that he was disappointed with it. But I believe that, in spite of this severe critieism, the Atlantic goes right on roaring and dashing, and swallowing up ships, and making peole sea-sick, just as it has been doing or ever so long. Tad couldn't be persuaded to go beow. 11e thought that when the vessel did come to go down, he would perhaps tand a better chance on deck - though, j t is true, he couldn't swim a stroke. And as he lay there all night long till sunrise, his sickness began to abate a Httle, as did also the stift" westerly breeza wim-h, coming further trom the south, gave the "ALiry J." a perfectly fair wind for her home-bound passage. They were all so kind, when, quite dizzy and wenk, Tad managed to ktagger to his feet, like tiy tbawed out by ' the warm rays of the morning sun, whieh dried up the wet deck, and made the u-aves of the great blue sea all about them eparkle with gladuess. Georgo Washington got him some hot coffee, and said he was glad to see him "condolescent." Captain Flagg, who looked quite fresh and hearty in spite of having been up all night, smiled broadly, telling Tad that he'd got over the worst of it, and would begin to get his sea-legs on in a jiffy. Eph grinned at him over the top of the wheel, and proffêred the use of his jack-knifa, if he (Tad) wantod to whittle. Polly glanced at hhn dcimirely, and Bounce lapped the ends of Tad's extended lingera. On the whole, Tad didn't feel nearly as badly regarding his humiliation as he had expected to; but all his bright visions of the pleasures of seafaring life had been swallowed up in the darkness and terror of the night before. He was not intended by nature for a sailor, and now Tad's greatest desire was to set his foot on dry land again. I know that, in contrast with the average boy of juvenile fiction, this sounds tremendously unheroic, but I can't help it; there are "bom sailors" and born landsmon, and Tad was one of the latter. One must take people andthingsas hefinds them in real life. Yet, as Tad began to feel better, there was much to wonder at and admire all about him. F away on the port hand was the distant une, uotteü liere and there by the white shaft of a light-house. To starboard, the ocean rollcd ou and on. till its waters washed the very rim of the great arching domo of blue whichcame down to meet it. On every side were the sails of passing vessels, and beautiful beyond compare was the sight of a handsome ship, with all drawing sail set, standing in for Boston Light, heading almost directly for the schooner. On she came, with her yards braced sharp against the back-stays, throwing the sparkling foam from the cutwater in great swaths, that swept along her glassy sides and f orined a creamy track astern. As the stranger was passing so near, Captain Flagg hailed her through an immense speaking trumpet. "What ship's that, and where from?" "Ship 'Sooloo,' a hnndred and thirtv days from Calcutta- what vessel'3 that?" bellowed back the Captain, who was standing by the weather mizzen rigging, with liis hand on a backstay. "Sohooner 'Mary J.,' of Bixport; twenty-four hours out er Boston," bawled Captain Flíígg, with a gracious ware of the hand; and Tad, who had listened to these nautical querios and replies with greatmarveling, wondered what made the Captain of the ship doublé himself np, like a man with a sudden attack of colic, or like a person in an agony of laughter, as the great vessel went plunging onward toward her destination. "Them that goes down to the sea in ships has cur'us exper'ences, Thaddeus," said Captain Flagg, layingdown liis big trumpet with an imprussive nod of the heüd. With a vivid recollection of bis own experience of the previous night, Tad replied emphatically that he had no doubt of it. "W'hon yon come to be a sailor, Thaddeus, and, may be, a ship-master, like myself," pursued the Captain, I feeling meehanically in his pocketa for his pipe - which he discovered, a moment later, to be on the deck, in possession of Bolinee, who was gravely dragging it away to the immeasurable delight of Polly- "an' you've gone tnrougn the r'sponsibilities, an' dangers, an typhoons - an' - things gen'lly," he rather hazily concluded, is he recovera! his pipe from Bounce, "you'll realize that what Solomon says iibout truth being stranger'n fiction is (est about as he's put it" "But I- I- don't think I want to be x sailor," faltered Tad, with downcast eyes. "What- not want to be a salyer bold, and plow the ragin' main," exelaimcd the Captain with a look of imutterable imazcment. "No, sir," faintly replied Tacl. And as he thus spoke, he hung his head so far one sitie that the big fur cap fell I off, aml waa immetlúttely seized by Bounce, who began to worry it, evidently regarding it as some ñew speciea of the. foline race, until, ia the fervor of his attack, he fell into it bodily, and gave vent to small yelps, expressive of extreme fear. It was some timo before the Captain I recovered frora the shock occasioned by Tad's rcply. That a Mkdy boy i should prefer a prosaic existence ashore, who had once tasted the pleasurable excitement of " a ufe on the ocean wave," passed his simple comprehension. But gradnally yielding to Polly's artftil arguments, Captain Flagg's brow began to olear. "All right, my lad," he said, quite cheerfully. " I own I'm a bit struck aback, but, seeing 3-011 don't take nat rally to sailorizin', there's no pressgangs nowadays to force you into join' against your will. Only," rejiarked Captain Flhgg, tilting back his oil-skin hat, and seratching his head reflectively, " I don't just know what to do with you, uow you've changed I 'ourmind." I "1 know!" suddenly exclalmed Polly, clapping her hands. "VV'ell?" asked her father, interrogativo ly. "We'll find him a chance on a farm uhen we get to Bixport," returned Polly, confldently. " You'd üke ! ing- wouldn'tyou, TadP" Tad nodded with growing enthasiasm. He knew that fannlng liad something to do with new milk and fresh botter and driving horses. Whatever it was, it would be far preferable to going to sea. And so it was pretty nitely settled that Tad ehould be s farmer, provided lie be able, througli the Captain's influence, to iind a sito tion. Whon Tad came on deck at sunrise tlie foUowingmorning, sleepily rubbing hls oyes, he rubbed theni still harder, and, moreover, gave his elbow a sly pinch tê make sure that he was fully i awako as he saw the strange transformation t luit had taken place in his surroundings of the previous night. For lo! in place of the far-reaching tea, green flelds, alternating with foruata of oak or pine, sloped down on either hand to the edge of a broad rwt a.s smooth and clear as glass on. Vhoae upmoving tide the "Mary J." was slowly drifting. "Wh-y-y," exelaimed Tad, staring Bbout him in glad surprise, "where h this, anyway?" "This'is 'down East,' Tad," laughea Polly, enjoying his look of perplexify. "Bixport'a right ahead tierO, Where you see the meetin1 -house stecple over the tree-tops, yonder,"' said Captain Flagg, pointing ahead, "and I can teil yon, Tad, when a man'. b'en faein' the dangers of the boisterous ocean as we sailors has to, the words of the poet Shakspeaie: "Home ag'in- home ag'in, From a furrin shore, And oh 1 it fllls my soul with joy To see my fren's once more." goes to the right spot." Tad ivspoctfully replied th.-it he wat sure tliey must, and, at the .sime time, gavealittle inToluntary sigh as he remembered lus own homeleas condition. "But, naay be, I can get a chance with a real olever man, and, if I'm smart, save up my money, and some clay buy a little house of iny own," tiboughtTad, who had rather a hopeful (üsposition. And bo, with the sanie interest that he had given to the sights on the great deep, Tad watched the to him almost equally novel ecenes on tlie shores whlch theywere passing- scènes that, thongh perfeetly familiar, were hailed I with the enthusiasru of voyagers returnlng fróm at least a threo vears' cruise, by the entire shij'a company, "John Doty's got the same oíd whiteface cow" (he pronounced it kaow) " he had when he went away; he talkod of swappin' with OziasNas'n, one spell," said Eph, as the schooner, drifting slowly with the tide, was borne wichin a cable's length of the shore, where a number of eows were browsing on the short ])isture-grass, Tvliich grew down wkhin a few feet of highwater mark. "Square Hall's had the line fence 'twixt him and old Burton whitewashed, I see," Captain Flagg observed, as he stood with his eagle eye glancing shoreward through the canvas-covered telescope. And as the "Mary J." very dcliberately rounded a densely woodcd point, alded by a light breeze wluch had beg-un to iill the schooner's sails, and the town of Bixport appeared in full view, even Pollyrecognized witli rapture that the roof of the scliool-house luid been newly sliingled. fTO BE OONTINÜED.]