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toi:GOLDEN DAYS:
7
December 17, 1881.
I buried at sea that I could not help
kissing you.”
The child was not afraid of him, for
her fairy-like tingers began playing with
the grizzled whiskers, while the honest
blue eyes of the old sailor grew dim and
misty for the moment.
The gentleman who had brought the
girl to the steamer saw that this was a
favorable time for him to use his plea.
“That is the little girl whom I wish to
send to Tokio by you.”
‘‘ Have you no friend or acquaintance
on in whose care you can place
her?”
**T do not know a soul.”
‘*Ts she any relatiye of yours?”
**She is my niece. Her father and mo-
ther are missionaries in Japan, and have
been notified of her coming on this
steamer,” .
“If that were so, why then were not
preparations made for sending her in
he car some one, instead of waiting
until the last minute, and then rushing
own here and making application in
such an irregular manner?” |
“Her uncle, the brother of my wife,
expected to make the voyage with her,
and came to San Francisco for that pur-
pose. He was taken dangerously ill at
the hotel, and when I reached there, a
few hours ago, he was dead, and my
niece was in the care of the landlord's
family. My wife, whois out yonder in
a carriage, had prepared to accompany
me East to-morrow, Her brother had
made no arrangements for taking the lit-
tle one on the steamer, so I was force
“into this unusual application,” .
While the gentleman was making this
explanation, the captain was holding the
girl in his arms, and admiring the beau-
tiful countenance and loveliness of face
and manner.
“She does look exactly like my poor
little Inez, whom I buried years azo,”
was his thought, as he gently placed her
on her feet again,
‘Tf we take her toJapan, what then?”
“« ffor parents will be in Tokio, waiting
for her. “You, as captain, have the right,
which no one would dare question, of
taking her into your cabin with you, and
T will compensate you in any manner
you may wish.
“What is her name?” asked Captain
Strathmore,
ee, ” 1’
‘She shall go,” said the’ sailor, in 4
husky voice.
CHAPTER II.
THE CAPTAIN AND INEZ,
The steamer Polynesia was steaming
swiftly across the Pacific, in the direc-
tion of Japan—bravely plunging out into
the mightiest expanse of water which
ns the globe, and heading for tho port
that loomed up from the ocean alynost
ten thousand miles away.
Although but a few days out, little
Inez had become the pet of the whole
ship. She was full of high spirits, bound-
ing health—a laughing, merry sprite,
who made every portion of the steamer
her home, and who was welcome
wherever she went,
: ‘o the bronzed and rugged Captain
Strathmore she was such a rominder of
his own lost Inez that she became a sec-
ond daughter to him, and something
like a pang stirred his heart when he re-
flected upon his arrival at his destination
and his parting from the little one.
Inez, as nearl. the captain could
gather, had been living for several years
with her uncle and aunt in San. Fran-
cisco, from which port her parents had
sailed a considerable time before.
© stranger gave g very common
name as his own—George Smith—and
said he would await the return of the
Polynesia with great anxiety, in order to
learn the particulars of tho arrival of his
niece in Japan,
However, the captain did not allow his
mind to be annoyed by any speculations
as to the past of ‘the little girl; but he
could not avoid a strong yearning which
was growing in his heart that something
would turn up—something possibly in
the shape of a social revolution or earth-
quake—that would place the little girlin
his possession again.
And yet he trembled as he muttered
the wish.
“Wow long would I keep her? I had
such a girl once—her very counterpart—
the sweet Inez, my own; and yet sho is
gone, and who shall say how Jone this
one shall be mine?”
- The weather remained all that could
be wished for several days after steam-
ing out of the Golden Gate, :
It was in the month of September,
when a mild, dreamy languor seemed to
rest upon everything, and the passage
across the Pacific was like one long-con-
tinued dream of the Orient—excepting,
perhaps, when the cyclone or hurricane,
roused from its sleep, swept over the
deep with a fury such as strews the shores
with wrecks, and the bottom with multi-
tudes of bodies.
What more beautiful than a moon-
light upon the Pacitic?
The Polynesia was plowing the vast
waste of waters which separates the two
worlds, bearing upon her decks and in
her cabins passengers from the four
quarters of the globe. .
They came from, and were going to,
every portion of the wide world. Some
were speeding toward their homes in
Asia or Africa or the islands of the sea;
and others living in Europe or America,
or the remote corners of the earth, would
finally return, after wandering over
strange places, seeing singular sights,
and treading in the footsteps of the ar-
mies who had gone before them in the
din ages of the past.
Now and then the enormous mass of
wood and iron rose upon some mighty
swell, and then, settling down, drove
ahead, cleaving the calm water and
leaving a wide wakg of foam behind.
The black vapor Poured out of the
broad funnels, and sifted upward
through the scant rigging, and was dis-
sipated in the clear air above. The
throbbing of the engine made its pul-
sations felt through the ponderous craft
from stem to stern, asa giant breathes
more powerfully when gathering his en-
ergy for the final effort of the race.
A few drifting clouds moved along the
sky, while, now and then, a star-like
point of light, far away against the hori-
zon, Showed where some other caravan-
sary of the sea was moving toward its
destination, thousands of leagues away.
Although Captain Strathmore was on
duty, and it was against the rules for
any passenger to approach or address
him, yet there was one who was unre-
strained by rules or regulations, no mat-
ter how sternly they were enforced in
other cases, -
captain was standing on the
bridge, when he felt some one tugging at
his coat skirts, and he looked down.
There was Inez demgnding his atten-
tion. / a y
“Take me up, pop,’ said she.
“Bless your heart!” laughed the cap-
tain as he obeyed the little empress;
“you would ruin the discipline of a
man-of-war in a month.” . .
While speaking, he perched her on his
shoulder, a8 was a favorite custom with
him.
The day had been unusually warm,
and the night was so mild that the steady
breeze made by the motion of the steam-
er ies searcely sufficient to keep one
cool.
Little Inez had thrown aside her hat
with the setting of the sun, and now her
wealth of golden hair streamed and fut-
tered in fleeey masses about her shoul-
ders. :
The steamer was plowing straight to
the westward, cutting the waves
keenly that a thin parabola of water con-
tinually curved over in front of her from
the knife-like prow.
Perched aloft on the shoulder of the
captain, Inez naturally gazed ahead, and
the figure was a striking one of inno-
cence and infancy, peering forward
through the mists and clouds toward the
unknown future. But Inez was too
young to haveanysuch poetical thoughts,
and the captain was too practical to be
troubled by * ssthetic meditations.”
Ife chatted with her about their arrival
in Japan, saying that she would be glad
to. sve no inore of him, when she re-
plied:
“Ifyou talk that way, I'll ery. You
must go home and live with us. Uncle
Con says papa has a big dog, andif we
haven’t room in the house, you can sleep
with him, and I’]l feed you each morn-
ing—oh, look !?
g
CHAPTER IIL
AM ACCIDENT, -
That which arrested the attention of
tho little girl in the arms of Captain
Strathmore, was a sight—unique, rare
and impressively beautiful.
All around the laboring steamer
stretched the vast Pacific, nelting away
nto darkness, with here and there a
star-like twinkle, showing where some
ship was inoving over tho waste of wa-
1S.
Overhead, the sky was clear, with a
few stars faintly gleaming, while the
round, full moon, for whose rising so
many on the steamer had been watching,
had just come up, its disk looking unusu-
ally large, as it always does when so
close to the horizon. .
Just when the moon was half above
the ocean, and when the narrowing path
of the illumination stretched from the
ship to the outer edge of the world, a
vessel under full sail slowly passed over
the face of the moon.
The partial eclipse was so singular that
it arrested the attention of the girl, who
uttered the exclamation we have record-
ed.
It was seen by nearly all the passen-
gers, too, most of whom were looking
toward the horizon for the rising of the
orb, and expressions of delight were
heard from every quarter, for such a
sight, we say, is rare. .
‘When observed by the passengers on
board the Polynesia, the moon had bare-
ly cleared the horizon, as we have stated,
and the top of the mainmast just reached
the uppermost portion of the periphery,
while spars, rigging and hull were mark-
ed against the yellow disk as distinctly
as if painted in India ink. :
Such an obscuration, like a total one of
the sun, could last but a few seconds, for
the Polynesia and the other ship were
moving in opposite directions, while the
orb itself was creeping upward toward
the zenith.
Slowly the black ship glided toward
its destination—hull, masts and rigging
gradually mingled with the gloom be-
yond, until the moon, as if shaking off
the eclipse, mounted upward with its
face unspotted, excepting by the peculiar
figures stamped there when it was first
launched into space.
hen the wonderful exhibition was
over, there were murmurs of adiniration
from the passengers, who, grouped here
and there, or promenading back and
forth, had stood speliboun |, aS may be
said, while it was in progress,
Captain Strathmore and two of his offi-
cers had seen the same thing once or
twice before, but they had been favored
in this respect above others, and could
hardly expect anything of the kind
again.
Captain Strathmore now prepared for
an interesting and. novel cerem Y,
which he had announced }jvould take
place that evening by moonlight.
Descending to the deck, an approach-
ing the stern, where the expectant pa‘
sengers had gathered together, the group
were silent a minute, while he stood
among them holding little Inez by the
@
A few minutes later the purser came
aft, carrying a parcel in his and, which
he carefully placed upon the taffrail.
Then he spoke, in a sepulchral voice :
“Ladies and gentlemen, we all have
lost minutes and hours, but it is seldom
that we deliberately throw away a day.
But we are todosonow. We are about
to bury aday. To-day is the Twentieth,
to-morrow will be the ‘Twenty-second,
and where, then, is the Twenty-first ?
There it lies” (pointing to the parcel on
the tatfrail)- “Life is short enough,
without deliberately casting an entire
day into the sea; but there is the conso-
lation of knowing; on your return, that
it shall be restored to you, and’ thus
beautifally does nature preserve the
Sdullibrium throughout the world,
What more fitting than that the day
should be buried by the hands of one
whose life is as spotless asthe snow upon
phe peaks of the Sierras we have left be-
hind us?”
All now uncovered their heads—that
is, the gentlemen did—and the captain
advanced, leading Inez Hawthorne by
the hand. Tolding her upa short dis-
tance from the deck, she called out:
b ped by, Twenty-first of Septem-
er
She repeated the words correctly, fo:
the captain whispered them in her'ear
and as she spoke she gave the parcel a
slight shove, and overboard it’ went,
striking the water with a splash, and ins
stantly sinking out of sight.
@ package was nothing but some
old iron, wrapped about with coarse
brown paper.
The ceremo: Ly of burying a da 743 the
reader knows, is a common, and fit may
be said a necessary, one with vessels
sailing westward over the Pacific, as the
picking up of a day is necessary on the
return. « °
At first sight it seems incongruous, but
itis in fact the only way in which’ t
reckoning of time can be kept correctine
}
The little ceremony naturally caused
the matter itself to become one of discus-
sion for the time, and probably a goodly
number of young ladies and gentlemen
picked up more knowledge of the mat-
ter than they had ever dreamed of be-
re.
Two curious things happened within a
half-hour after this novel ceremony. :
‘olynesia was plunging along
with that steady motion in which the
throbbing of the vessel can only be de-
tected by carefully standing still and
watching for it, when every passenger,
and especially the captain and his omi-
cers, suddenly felt an alarming jar,
which shook the steamer from stem to
stern.
It was noticed that the engine instant-
Jy stopped and the enormous shi, grada-
ally came to rest upon the long, heaving
swell of the Pacific.
In a few minutes it was ascertained
that the steamer had broken the shaft of
her propeller, thus rendering the all-im-
portant screw useless.
This necessitated the hoisting of her
sails, and a monotonous voyage -to her
destination, a return to San Francisco,
oralong deviation to Honolulu, in the
Sandwich Islands, for repairs.
. While the necessary investigation was
ing on, a sail had been detected bear-~
ing down upon them, and a few minutes
later it caine-to, a short distance off, in
the hope of being able to afford some as-
sistance—as the sight of a steamer lying
motionless on the great deep meant that
something was amiss.
This new craft was the schooner Coral,
a staunchly-built, sharp-bowed little ves-
sel, of forty tons burden, built for the
Honolulu trade. set
he was about seven years old, very
fast, and constructed as strongly as iron
and woud could make her. The fore-
castle, cook’s quarters and cabin were all
under deck, so that in heavy weather
there was no danger of being washed
from one’s bunk, whenever a big sea
came thundering over the rail..
e@ skipper or captain of this trim
little craft was Jack Bergen, of Boston,
and he with his mate, Abram: Storms,
had made the trip across the continent
by rail to San Francisco—thus saving the
long, dangerous and expensive voyage
around Cape Horn.
In the Golden Gate City they—for the
mate and captain were joint’ partners—
bought the Coral at auction, paying just
two-thirds the sum they expected to
give for the vessel they needed.
~ However, when she was fitted up and
provisioned, they found very little of
their funds left, and they coula but feel
some anxiety as to the result of the ex-
traordinary enterprise upon which they
were engaged,
© crew of the little schooner con-
sisted of the two sailors, Hyde Brazzier,
Alffreddo Redvignez, anda nuge African,
Pomp Cooper, who shipped as cook and
steward, with the liability of being call-
ed upon to do duty in an emergency.
But of these, more hereatter,
Captain Bergen, after his craft came-to,
was rowed across the short, intervening
distance with his mate, and they were
assisted upon deck, where they were re-
ceived most courteously,
“Is there anything I can do to help
you?” he asked, after he and his brother
officer were received by Captain Strath-
ore.
“Tm obliged to you, but I’m afraid
not,”” was the courteous response. “ You
‘now, there’s no way of te ling when a
piece of iron is going to fracture, and so
there is no way of providing against such
an accident, except by providing your-
self with sails, which, of course, we al-
ways do.”
“Ts the shaft broke?” asked Captain
Bergen. .
“Yes; broken clean off.”
“* Where???
The captain of the steamer smiled, for
he saw no need of such a question, since
he considered the damage irremediable.
__ ‘Quite a distance from the s¢rew, and
it’s a curious fracture. Would you like
to look at it?”
“TI would indeed. You see, we have
ot considerably out of our course—be-
Ing too far west—and we shall make a
pretty sharp turn to the south, toward
Tonolutu.”?
“Tam debating whether to go there,
turn back to San Francisco, or keep on
under sail to Tokio.”
“This is my mate, Abram Storms,
from Entield, Connecticut,” said Cap-
tain Bergen, introducing the two.
bring him along, because he is the most
ingenious man ever turned out by that