The Oregon daily journal., June 14, 1908, Page 57, Image 57

THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY. MORNING,1 jtjne 14
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jU"Maj Two Flee OverboardlllH-liri rUr)
' T vu in '62, and, with a rood cargo of logwood
'aboard, we were cruising elonsf the coast.
trying to get ' into the track of th trade
winds for a straight run home, The wind
was pretty light, and wt had tTery sail set;
till w- didn t make much headway. , We
were so used to calm weather that no one even
thought of any sudden change, and when, in the
. It looked as if we M hold on until we got pretty
tired of it, t thought to myself.
"Hullo, a treel" suddenly cried Corden. "We must
be pretty near land. That encouraging."
'"A tree-might drift across tha ocean," 'I objected
rather gloomily, : ;'; ' . '!' tmi)
As it rose on the top of a wave we aaw that it was
a big one and that its leaves were still green. ' That
was encouraging. ; -., ' . :
, "S'pflM we change boarding-houses." suggested
Corden. The tree is more roomy. We can climb
tip on it and.be comfortable,. It looks more home
like too I used to live on a farm."
He ewam over to look at It.
' "vine As n.xt" tte CAU.ro back as he ciamekekd vr ow it.
middle of one hot night, a howling squall struck us we
all were greatly surprised. That's the worst of thos
tropical ' calms you eant count on them. Down
drops a hurricane upon you when you least expect
It . t
The captain piped us out in a hurry, to get in the
sails. But the gale was too quick for us, and the
topsails were tearing themselves to pieces while we
were getting in the foresails. I never heard such a
racket before The wind shrieked through the rig
ging; and the waves, which had come up in a minute,
so n seemed, splashed and splattered around ua in a
terrible rage. The ship was down on her beam
ends, shooting along like a etreak Sf lightning
Everything was Rearing and cracking. We thought
the masts would be torn out ol her.
Corden and I had climbed out on the yard to reef.
It dipped so that at times we almost touched the
sea; what with the banging of the loose sail and the
tear of being washed off, we had a hard time.
"Rather lively," Corden shouted to me. "How do
you like it?"
"I don't like it,". I howled back.
The wordi were scarcely out of my mouth, and
blowing out to sea, when, crash I efcwn we banged
into a great wave. I gripped tight and held on.
Rip! Tearl Crash! The topmast gave way. An
other 'wave, another wrench, and the yard, sail, and
all were torn off and sailing about on their own
hook. But the Worirof it wet, they had taken Cor
den and mt along. . M ,
"Here's a pretty kettle of fish!" was Corden's
' first remark as his head popped up and he sputtered
, out the salt water. Cool chap, that Corden).
I You can believe we held on to that yard. The
night was black as pitch. . We eould n't see ten feet
ahead of us. But now and then a lightning-flash
gave us a quick glimpse of waves and more waves,
but no ship. She probably waa scudding way under
bare poles at the rate of a mile a minute.
When the day broke we were glad to see the light,
though it did n t help matters much. Still, it's a kind
of satisfaction to be able to see exactly how things
are. All that day the sea waa still somewhat high
though the wind had gone down as quickly as it had
come up. '
What possible escape could there be for as? That
wa9 the question. I put it to Corden.
"Just hold on a while end we shall see," waa his
answer.
1
. J
. had not been long in the water, and we decided that
it,' like ourselves, was a victim of last night's storm, .
This gave us courate, for we knew that we could
n't be far from shore.,
, "Hold steady till I stand up and take hearings,"
said Corden, bracing himself against my shoulders.
But a tree is a roily thing, and over it went, and
Corden with it I was laughing at him when back
' it rolled and dropped me over the other side,. As I
' bobbed up with my mouth full of water, for it had
been open- laughing at Corden when I went in, he
, popped up on the other- side.
- "Ah, there!" he said. "Passengers change at this
station I"
1 was glad he was of such a good humor, for it 'a
no fun being wrecked with a man who thinks he 'a
going to die any minute. We climbed aboard again.
... .."Let 'i put our yard across underneath that '11
steady us, I suggested.
'This we did without much trouble. Next with
great care, I got upon my feet, balancing like a
tight-rope walker. But I could n t see anything but
water, water, all around; nD land, no ship. .
As we could do nothing but wait and see how
things turned out, we tried to make ourselves as
comfortable as possible. But after a time we com
menced to feel pretty hungry, and thirsty too. And
now we discovered that our tree was a cocoanut, and
fairly well filled with the fruit. .We found them1?
quite ripe.
"We e struck it, old man," said Corden. "Our
poor mates have n't cocoanuti, and they 'ro probably
working like slaves putting the ship to rights after
her shaklng-up, while we are Joafing and living on
cocoanuts. It s a regular picnic!"
I did n't see. it just as Corden did; but still, I ap
preciated the cocoanuts.
Well, we had a good meal of cocoanuts, and began
to ftri quite cheerful. All that, day we floated about
oni our' tree. Occasionally the gulls came and had a
look at us, and we were glad to see them: they were
company. But the night was terribly long and tire
some. We could n't Keep our eyes open, and every
little while would fall into a doze) out each time
over we went, and woke up to find ourselves splash-
ing- about in the water.
This won't do," said Corden; "I'm going to
perch in the branches."
"By-by, Renaud," I heard him say a little later;
and I could hear him crackling around among the
branches of our tree, but it was too dark to see.
I finally made up a scheme for sleeping, though it
was n't eaactly perfect. I stretched out on my face,
my feet on each side of the trunk and my hands on
the yard, which lay across underneath. This bal
anced me pretty well; but sometimes, just as I was
dropping into a nice nap, a wave would lap up and
smack me in the face. These little surprise-parties
though' not the worst things in the world, were n't
II good as a hammock.
"Well, what 's , th bill of fare for breakfast,
Renaud," he asked, "coffee or milk? I guess 1 11 try
milk. There 's cocoanut milk to-day."
We tapped two cocoanuts and made a pretty good
meal
- To make a long story short, we floated around in
this way for three days.
On the fourth day we had grown very tired of that
tree. Corden, who was always on the lookout, said
we wiib Loorma rot shoxs And could m't think of anything eisk.
freshened, and the sail drew. Slowly we crawleix
through the water but ever so slowly, -ry'y.
"We U have to cut away a lot of those b'rancliesi;
to make any headway," I told Corden. v ; ; f p
So Corden hacked some of them off, though' hd
was careful to save the ones with cocoanuta.'
Then we commenced really to sail. Tho win$
kept coming from the sea, so we knew that in timet)
we would reach land, unless our sail blew over. Qi
this we were very much afraid. ! , '
It came oa dark, and still no land. We com-4
menced to feel discouraged. We did n't try to sleeps
that sight at all; we were looking for shore, and'
eould n't think of anything else. When it wa!
nearly morning we heard a dull roar. We straincdj
our cart to listen.
"It 'a surf 1" shouted Corden.
It surf 1" I cried after blm.
Louder and louder we could hear the noise. Hh'e
surf waa coming nearer and nearer, or so it seemed,1
.is
as
THE NEXT MINUTE WE WEXB XtDINO IN ON THE CREST OF THE WAVE.
"Fine as silk," he called back as he clambered up
on it. "Room for another passenger. Come along,
Renaud, and get aboard."
''Let 'a have our. timber just the same," I sug
gested. "It may come handy in aome way."
So between us we managed to push our wreck
over to the tree and make it fast.' Our tree was a
fine big one, and we floated quite comfortably. It
spoiled my dreams. But I stopped them by facing
to leeward, so that the water struck me only in the
back of the head. You can get used to almost any
thing, and pretty soon I was comfortably snocizing.
Corden was doing the same, fori could hear him
snoring like our fog-horn on board ship.
We slept well into the morning, and woke up
feeling cramped Corden complained Jhat branches,
he thought he could see land A breeze had sprang
up. : illiTESa
"Let 's try and get up a sail," I suggested. And
we were glad to do anything to relieve the monotony
of just drifting. We got out the broken yard, with
its piece of sail still hanging to it. But getting it up
was a big job. Finally, after working hard all day,
and taking many sudden tumbles into the tea, .wt
managed to lash it up against the end of the tree
trunk. We had our knives, sailors never lose their
knives, you .know and we needed them here, It
was n't very solid, but we stayed if from the trunR
with the rigging which still hung to it, ' T 3 1
We decided to wait for the daylight before foist
ing our sail, so slept as best we could for another
night. But we were awake early the next morning;
That sail-Idea was on our minds. I had been dream
ing about it all night. We got the sail on.t The wind
to us, for we forgot that we were moving. At lass'
through the darkness we could see the white line.
Ad now we wondered how we were to land, whether
among rocks or on a sandy beach. Landing in surf
is ticklish business.
Soon -we got in the big swells, and we dashe3
ahead. Ah! we were saved! It was a long sandy
. beach. The next, minute we were riding in on tbn
crest of the wave. The aurf broke and threw us. 'At
splurge, a scramble and a rush, and, on our hand t
and knees, we were soon sprawling on the eand, whils
the white surf lapped up around our feet. Cordei
got up; I got up. Then we silently shook hands;
but we did n't say anything.
' We sat down on the beach and waited for the day-
light And when it came, to our gret joyy we heard'
. the famjliar creaking of blocks. We hurried aroun4 j
a bend of the beach, and there, before us, was ouat j
! own ship. She had put in to repair damages. Theyr
had given us .up for lost, of course; but here wq
were, none the worse for our sail on a eocoanut-tree
A S K THE R ABBIT.
A. UITU S3TOKT MOM THE HINpUStTAJU.
Br JAMES B. BENEDICT.
THERE was once a silly donkey who went
one day strolling down the road, chew
ing a bit of thistle and feeling as fine as ,
a June morning. Presently he came to
a trap where a lion had been caught and
was roaring so loudlv that the donkey
stopped in amazement Indeed, it was remarkable
that the villagers had not heard the rumpus long be
iore, and come out and killed him; but perhaps the
wind was the other way. Silly stood looking at the
lion for some time, and, finding that he was securely
trapped, began to question the royal brute, saying:
"What are you doing in there. Lion?"
"Let me out I" roared the other. "Let me out at
once, you miserable slave!"
"Oh, .yesl" sneered Silly-rwho did not have very
' good manners, for it is undoubtedly impolite to
sneer. "Let you out and then get eaten for my trou
ble! I think not. I am not so. foolish as that, thank
you"; and he laughed with pleasure, "Hee-ee-aughl"
for he considered himself a very fine fellow indeed. ;
The lion saw that this would n t do, so he changed
his tone and began to beg and flatter instead of
threatening. 1 , . , . . ? . V. '
"Donkey," he said in his most winning voice, "you
certainly are a very handsome and clever chap. And
I wish you would kindly push up that wretched bar
which holds the door shut, and then I can get out
Will you do that, you kind and wise dqnkey?" ' 1
"You can't gammon me," was the reply. " I don't
want to be eaten." r ;
"Eaten!" cried the lion in- the most injured , tone
he could manage. "What ever put that thought into ;
your head, I wonder. ' How eould you Imagine such
a thing? I do not eat my friends. Neverl" And he
looked as mild as milk, the deceitful old rascal!
Naturally enough Silly was pleased at being called
the lion's friend, and, donkev-4ike, he raised the bar
which held the door, while the Hon pushed from the
Inside, and In a moment he was free. And the very
'first thing he did was. to knock down poor Silly
and prepare to make a meal of him.
"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the wretched donkey. "What
are you doing?"
"I am very hungry indeed," replied the lion.
"Don't interrupt me.
"But you promised solemnly not to eat me."
pleaded Silly.
"Pooh, pooh!" the wicked lion answered. "I
dont remember saying anything of the sort Of
course I am going to eat you."
Tha poor donkey gave himself up for lost, and be
gan to bemoan his fate. "I think it is very unfair,"
he whimpered.
"WhatP roared hie captor. "Do you dare to say
that I am unfair? Now you deserve to die, and 1.
shall eat you without the least hesitation"; and he
lashed his sides with his wicked tail and growled
horribly.
"Well," whined the miserable donkey, "all, I can
say is that it is unfair, and any one I might ask to
be a judge would say the same."
The lion, greatly enraged at this, was about to be
gin his dinner at once, when a sudden thought came
into his evil old head. . "I he can get some one else
into this business to be a judge," he reflected, "what
is to prevent me from having the judge himself for
breakfast to-mqrrow? That ' a fine ideal"
So, to Silly's astonishment, the lion, who had been
holding his prey tightly, and it hurt, too, removed
'nis paws and allowed him to get up. Then the
wicked old brute addressed him. "Donkey." he said,
"you have remarked that any judge would say that
I was unfair. Now we will find a judge and see
about it, and I only hope, that when he hears the
case, It will not be the worse for you, sir." ,
Silly was so bewildered that his poor foolish head
eould not understand it alt, and he only winked and
blinked till the lion lost patience, and, seizing him
by the ear, off they west down th road to find a judge.
Before they had gone far they met the very great"
grandpapa of all rabbits. He was remarkable old and
,gray, and looked as if he were surprisingly foolish,
"which was far,frora being the case, however, as yoi
shall see,
"Here," cried the Hon; "here 's a rabbit He will
make a very good breakf I mean judge. Go ahead
and ask him.
So Silly the donkey explained the affair to the
rabbit, who sat up attentively and scratched-his ear,
looking more foolish than ever.
"That is very complicated," he remarked when the
donkey bad finished. "Would you mind saying it
over again It is n't quite clear to me."
Well, Silly repeated the story at length, explaining
it all very carefully. '
"Dear, dear," said t he rabbit, "that is very curious.
I do not quite understand yet how you came to be
in the trap." '
"I was n't in the trap," cried SUly. "It was the
lion." , ,
"Oh yes the Hon," replied the rabbit "How
stupid of me I But, really. I could understand it bet
ter, I know, if we went right to the place where it
happened. ,
The lion was rather vexed at the delay, but he
could think of no reasonable excuse, so off the three
went up the road, and presently they came to the
trap again. - , v
"Now," said the rabbit, "if you will just say that
all over again from the beginning, I think I can un
derstand it"; which Silly did. while the lion waited
hungrily, wondering jf he had n't better eat his din
ner and breakfast together.
wow . i peer trie rabbit cried, "The Hon wa$
walking down-the Toad, when he saw the trap
"No, nor interrupted Silly. "I was walking down
the road, and I saw the lion in the trap."
"Oh, yes; of course," said the rabbit. "You were';
. walking in the trap, and the lion saw " :
"No, no, no! atupid - thing!" roared the lioa,
"Can't you understand anything?" r t ' ,
"Dear, dear, my poor brain!" cried the rabbit, "I
don't believe I shall ever understand it." '
"Yes, you shall, though,? the lion growled, for he
-was very angry at such stupidity.-- "You shall un
derstand it I say. Now listen."
- "V m IAtA linn" liinin.nJ nU,if " '
.., " J . V . .'V.ll 1. ...... LV.VV. at . H U U . V.
"Now. I was in the trap when the donkey came
down the road. Do you see that?" , - '
"Yes, yes," cried the rabbit; "I think but, please,
I do not quite see about the trap. How did you get in.
"Why, through the door, idiot 1" ,
"But. but oh, dear me, my poor head? It is such .
a very small door. How could yott get in?" ) "
"Here, you foolish, stupid thing;; I 'll shbw you"; :
and the lion marched into the trap. "Now, do, you
i lee 1 nt In the trap." - '
"Perfectly," replied the clever rabbit, as he quick
fastened the door; "and, what is more, I think y
v will stay there this time. Good-by." "
And the rabbit and Silly strolled off down the roa 4
.'just AS merry as crickets, leaving the wicked old lioa
to roar with rage till the villagers finally hearing tht
racket came out with ropes and poles and carried
'him oft
win try'
COFVRIOHT
v .. -
i '
BY THE
CENTURY CO I
I PART
I
A.
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