Adventures Of Tad

AUTHOR OF " PEPPER ADAMS," "BLOWS OUT to Sea," "Paul Graiton," Etc. ICopyrighted, me, by D. Lothrop t Co., and Published by Special Arrangement.] CHAPTER V.- CONTINÜED. "Forthisand all other meroies the Lord make us truly grateful," said Captain Flagg, reverently, as he took oflf his oil-skin hat, in which it was populariy belleved he slept while voyaging over the main. This was his invariable form of thanksgiving, as soon as Bixport wharf was sighted, and with its utterance Captain Flagg dove into the cabin, there to throw aside, with his seafaring attire, the weighty responsibilities oi the voyage. Ten minutes later, ns the " Mary J." neared the wharf, where half of the residente of Bixport seemed to have assembled, Captain Flagg reappeared on deck in his go-ashore snit, ing of a tall hat, a orumpled suit of navy-blue, and low-quartered shoes highly polished. In a comnianding voice the Captain gave the necessary orders for bringing the schooner aloftgside the wharf. Down carne the dingy sails, and a half-dozen pairs of hands were extended to catch the lines thrown from the deck. Enthusiastic were the greetings extended to the ship's company. for the quiet of the little inland vülage had never been disturbed by the locomotive's scream or the sound of a steamer's paddies, and the arrival of the only sailing packet between Bixport and Boston was an event of considrM.hlfl imnnr. tance. There were on board at least three large boxes of dry good, a case of millinery, a hogshead of molasses, and other groceries in proportion, for Mr. Jones, the store-keeper; Mr. Allen, the minister, had a package of books; 'Zias Nason, a new harness, and Deacon Whitney, a mowing-maehine - the first of its kind ever seen ia Bixport, Among those assembled on the wharf, Tad noticed a boy about his own age, dressed in a well-worn suit of tweed. He had curly hair, a pair o: very laughing blue eyes, a turn-up nose and a freckled face. Most prominent in voice and action was thisyouth, who, upon catching sight of Eph, performed a shuffle suggestive of delight, and in a very audible voice called out: " ' Hooray- tliree cheers forEphraim SmaLl, First mate, second mate, crew and all!' " "That'smy cousin - Joe Whitney," laughed Polly, as Master Joe proceeded in vigorous pantomime to express unbounded joy at seeing Polly, who waved her hand in recognition. CHAPTEK VL Joe was the first to spring on board; and it was evident that Joe Whitney was a youth of considerable vivaeity, to say the least. He slapped Captain Flagg familiarly on the shoulder, saluted the gi-inning George Washington in a most hilarious manner, and, rushing frantically aft, Reized upon Bounce with a shout of jubilation. " I say, Polly," he exclaimed, "what & jolly little dog - only you orter hare liim muzzled - he looks sa vage!" "There's some boys I know that wouldn't be worse if they were muzïled," grayejy observed Captain Flagg - rescning Bounce from the hands ol 8 nephew, who was preparing U stand the small dog on h3 hind legs- though he tempered the severity of thi# hint by a slight internal chuckle, and a wink of intense meaning. "No! is that so, üncle Jeth?" returned Joe, regarding Tad with a look of seeming apprehension. "He don't seem like one of that kind," added the youthful speaker, with affected innocence, as Captain Flagg turned away to hide a smile. "Oh, Joe Whitney, you're just as bad as ever," Polly exclaimed, despairingly; and then, remembering that the polite usages of society called for a formal introduction, she added: "Joe, this is Tad Thorne- I hope you'll be ever so good friends." "How are you, Tad?" said Joe, with a shy twinkle in nis eye. "How are you Joe?" awkwardly returned Tad, who didn't very well know what else to say, and, on the whole, rather fancying the easy, off-hand maaier of Polly's cousin. But, then, every body liked Joe, as a general thing- even those Bixport people who insisted that if he was Deacon Whitney's son, he was the worst boy in the place. Yet Joe's badness was nothing so very bad, after all. He was only one of those restless, fun-loving boys, who are never so well content as when they are in mischief ; and neither the protestations of his mothen, nor the occasional thrashings administered by the good deacon, had any thing more than a merely temporary effect. "Did you comefrom Boston?" asked Joe, as Tad, with a home-sick under his jacket, watched Polly and her fatlier getting ready to leave the vessel, for, of coupse, he expected to have to stay on board until some different arrangement was made for him. "No, from Philadelphia," returned Tad, and Joe began to regard him with a sort of respect; for Philadelphia, in the eyes of Bixport people, was one of the most wonderful cities in the whole world. "Come on, Tad; we're all ready," called Polly, and I can assure you that Tad was not more than a minute in running below after the little handsachel, which he determined not to let out of his possession, and returning to the deck. "Isn't it nice that you're going home with vis?" said Polly, as the little party of three walked up the wharf, leaving Joe swarming up the "Mary J.'s" rigging, three ratlines at a step. Tad thought it was decidedly nice, and his smiling face expressed more than lus brief words as, dropping behind Polly and her father, he followed them at a respectful distance. " This is Main street," explained Polly, turning a beaming face upon hitn, as, leaving the wharf, they entered the village itself. "Oh!" said Tad, filled with amazement, and thinking how funny it all was- the narrow plank walk, the grass growing green by the wayside, with cows - real live cows! - feeding on it! Tad caught himself wondering what a country cow would do in a Philadelphia street- say Broad street, for examplel And then, too, every thing was so quiet. Occasionally a farmwagon rolled leisurely by, or an cart, with a brown-faced man, in shirtsleeves, sitting sideways on the carttongue, jolted slowly along. Tad, who had never seen any oxen before, regarded them as a probable new and superior breed of cows. At little intcrrala along thc street, great elm and niaple trees were growing- trees whose shade in summer nearly hid the quaint oíd housesbehind them from view. Just now their branches were bare, but the warm April sun which slione down through them suggested that soon they would begin to throw out shoot and bud. Already some bluebirds and a robin or two were comparing musical notes in the tree-tops, as they discussed the shortest passages from the south, or began laying their plans for spring housekeeping. A little further on stood the one store and post-office combined, then came the town pump, tlie school-house, a small church with a square tower like a sentry-box, and then - "Our house," rapturously cried Polly, and, dropping Bounce, who waddled along after her as fast as his short lega would carry him, she darted through an open gateway and up a trim gravel walk, and was directly ofterward infolded in the motherly arms of Mrs. Flagg, who was short and stout like her husband, and beamed so g'enially upon Tad, through a pair of brass-bowed speetacles, a moment or two later, that his heart warmed toward her at once. "Our house" was a funny little onestory building with what the Bixport jeople cali a "gambril roof," making t seem to an imaginative person as though it were shrugging its shoulders with its hands in its pockets. The Windows were small, with tiny panes of glass, and the front door, painted a lively pea-gveen, liad a woaderfullj bright brass knocker in the center ol the upper panel. There was a weatherbeaten barn at the rear, from whose open doors issued flocks of noisy hens, while a number of doves "courooed" on the roofs in the eunshine; the little door-yard was overgrown with syringa and lilac bushes, and the two or three dilapidated flower-beds were bordered with large clam-shells. Tad had a good chance to notice all this, because the Flaggs were some little time in getting into the house, as at every few steps Mrs. Flagg had to stop and speak of some bit of news, parenthesizing the same by giving Polly a hug. Polly had certain Bostonian experiences to nárrate- particularly the one where Tad and Bounce were prominent, and even Captain Flagg himself tarried on tne aoorstep a inomeut, to illustrate, by penciled diagram on the threshold, the whereabouta of the "MaryJ." when it carne on to blow heavy from the west'ard the first nio-ht out. But linally they all got into the dining-room, where Ted seated himself in a very uncompromising chair made to fit into a corner, and sitting on the extreme verge thereof, with his cap held in both hands resting on his knees, glanced interestedly about him, whilè the tongues of the others wagged unflaggingly- if I may be allowed the expression. He soon made up his mind that the inside of the little house was as delitrhb. fully quaint as its exterior. In the tirst place, an oak wainscoting ran around the walls nearly as high as Tad's shoulder. All the furniture was black with age, and of the severest hair-cloth and mahogany order, for, like the house, it I had been in being considerably over a century. In the corner stood a tall, pale-faced clock, that had monotonouslj ticked away a hundred and ten years, second by second. On the mantle were some sea-shells, a pair of china vases, and a small wooden ship, whittled out by Ephraim K. Small. And beneath the mantle was a large open fire-place, where the fire itself leaped up incessantly and rubbed its glowing hands together, with warm smiles that were reflected in the polished faces of the brass-headed andirons. Just such a fire as one likes to sit in front of when it is snowing and sleeting and blowing out-of-doors, and listen to tales of ship wrecks and storms at sea. The talk went on interruptedly till dinner-time, and then carne a meal, to whieh Tad did morethan ampie justioe. He said afterward that he was ashamed to have eaten so much. But when a hungry growing boy is set down to cold beef, and hot biscuit, and fresh butter, and new gingerbread, with pie and doughnuts besides, what else can be expected? After dinner Polly took Tad out to make the acquaintance of the pig and hens, while Mrs. Flagg cleared up the dishes, during which operation Captain Tlagg, between the whiffs of his pipe, told her Tad's simple story, and mentioned the boy's expressed desire to get woik of somo kind in the country. "Why," exclaimed Mrs. Flagg, with enthusiasm in her voicc and a dish-towel in her hand, "now if that don't seem proyidentia] like; Miss Smith ran np to bring sDine yeast this morning, and she was in a peck of trouble. Dan Crosby- you remember Dan- he wanted to go ofl" to sea with you las' summer?" The Captain intimated by a grunt that he reeollected the youth very well. "Well, Dan had been working there for a year," the good lady went on, "and Miss Smith said she'd noticed he was getting dretful sort of uppish lately, and because she gave him a talking to for smoking sweet-fern cigars in bed, he told her he wasn't going to be ordered round by no waman, if he knowed hisself, so he up and left, and she paying of him two dollars a week and board!" "I'd given him something mor'n a talking to," remarked Captain Flagg, emphatically, as he knbcked the ashes f rom his pipe and rose to his f eet. "I giiess, Mary Jane," he continued, ing for his nat, 'Til jest drift down to Miss Smith's and see how the land lays - ii she ain't shipped any one, that's the very place for Tad." With which remark the Captain Tolled out of the door and down the street on his benevolent errand, while Mrs. Flagg, having finished clearing away the dinner things, took up her knitting for the rest of the afternoon. Meanwhile, Tad and Polly were wandering about the premises, followed by Bounce, who, being a city-reared PuPPy seemed to find every thing as delightfully novel and strange as did Tad himself. "I never thought the country was so nice," said Tad, with an expressive sigh, as the two leaned over the garden fence and looked down the wide quiet street. An old-fashioned stage-coach, drawn by three horses, was rumbling along in the direetion of the one hotel locally called a "tahvern," which boasted of a room where General Lafayette had slept. Thrice a week this antiquated vehicle made the journey between Bixport and Middleboro - a flourishing inland town, twenty miles distant - with the mails and an occasional venturesome passenger. Farther down, at the end of the thorouglifare, the masts of the "Mary J." outlined themselves against the sky, and a glimpse of Bixport river, on its way to the ocean, could be seen. " I'spose you've lived here ever since you were born." continued Tad, a little wistfully. To have been reared in a peaceful home like this, with the loving care of parents continually about ne, s(!pmed to homeless, orjihaned Tad the very highest happiness eartk could afford. Polly opened her eyes very wide indeed. " Wliy- don't you know? How funny!" she exclaimed, turning a wondering face toward her companion. As Tap hadn't the slightest conception of her meaning, he shook his head in silence. "Of course, yon don't, though," said Polly, recollecting herself. "Come with me." she said, soberly, touching Tad on the arm; and, curious to know her meaning, he folio wed Polly througk the gate, and across the street to what was locally known as the "meetin'house lot." Behind the little old weather-bcateu wooden church, on either side of which stood a row of solemn-looking poplars, was the village burying-ground, into which, to Tad's great wonderment, Polly silently led the way. A short distance from the entrance, a flat, moss - grown tombstone ws raiscd upon two slight brick elevations at either end, on which, in almost Ulegible letters, were the words: " Sacred to the memory ol DEBOEAH SAYLES. AGED 22. Killed ty ye Indlsns. June ye 27, A. D. 1734." Sitting down on the old stone as on a bench, Polly motioned Tad to a seat beside her. Just in front of them stood a plain white marble slab. "Read it," briefly eaid Polly, in a very low tone, as she pointed to the Bcnption. - Awed by Polly's marmer, as well as by the solemn stillness, only broken by the breathing of the soft south wind through the leafless branches overhead, Tad read, in a subdued voice: " ' Here liesthe body of a very beautiful unknown lady - one oí the passenpers on board the ill-fated steamer "Pomerania" which went ashore near the mouth of Bixport river, In thegreat gale cf Februarr 24,1862. Seventy-one souls were lost. " ' Floating hair all tangled and torn Beautiful head lald low on the sand Prlde all out of the arching lips Life all out of the marble hands- Oh terrible, restless, trembling sea, -low could you leave her alone with death? Clasping her close in a oold embrace And stealiag away the last faint breath?' " CHAPTER VIL "Mr. Allen, our minister, took that verso from a paper, and had it cut on the stone- isn't it beautiful!" softlv said Polly. "Yes, indeed," returned Tad, considerably bewiklered, "only I don't sce what it has to do with you." ), "Wait! I am going to teil you all about it," his companion responded. But she sat for a moment or two without speaking, resting her chin in the hollow of her small hand, and her dark eyes looking far off seaward. Through the hushed stillness, the distant Toice of the ocean carne to their ears, sounding soft and low, like the imprisoned echóos that one hears in a sea-shell. "It was in the great gale of '62, when fifteen vessels and a hundred and twenty men wero lost on 'George's Banks' " s.iid Polly, abvuptly. "The 'Pomeranift' drore ashore on some rccfí at the mouth of tlie river, near where the light-house stands now. A íisherman carne up to Bbrport, and tokl pcople about it, Every body- tbc men, I mean- got down to the point as soon as they coukl. There wasn't any life-boat, and they say the sea was Bomethiag awful. But there was n wlialeboat that belonged to George Hudson, and so Captain Flagg got five fishermen to go off vith him in it, though nobody thought they cotildever get through the surf line. But they did, and just managed to reach the steamer as she was breaking up. The poor people were in the water cryine, and" Here Polly stopped a moment and caught her breath, while Tad feit a curious lump rising in his throat. He touched Polly's small hand with his own rough one in mute sympathy, but, frightened at his boldness, drew it lastily away, and af ter a little she went on: "TO BE CONTINÜED.]