818
Sm5s


6
THE SOUVENIR.
She was wading up to her fetlocks
In sweat, from the fearful heat,
That pelted down til we both was played ;
Jest whipped, and rigaler beat!
We'd been to Brodicks grocery,
Per a few of Medford rum,
A pound of powder and shot or so,
And some things fur folks to hum.
1
Them times was the "old prime-evil!"
Every stump was a grizzly bar,
And injins jest laid round in tribes,
Lifting horses and bar,
And playing the mischief gineral !
In their sneaking, spaky way,
Skulking around like grey coyotes,
Askeered of the light of day.
And the meanest out is the Pi Ute,
They are jest the durnedest of critters ;
The cross of a snake and a catamount-
Jack ! toddle around them bitteis!
Straight, without sugar or water,
Is the stuff fur fever and chills,
Or anything else; jest take enough,
And then sink doctors and pills,
I've used it and know fer sartin !
Wall, yes, it was hot, I said,
And Sal and me was about did for,
Jest half alive and dead.
Aploughing through the hotness,
And glare, and sweat, and dust,
Jest thrte miles distant of Hunkers Flat,
And both of us dern nigh bust,




THE TEXAS SQUELCHER.
7
When I got to the Jackson Crossing,
Whar the branch cuts through the trail,
I got down to misten my windpipe a bit,
A blowing a parfect gale.
Sal was washing it down by hogsets,
And I was aʼmost as bad;
When there cum a growl in the bushes—a crash !
And Sal up raring like mad !
1
She busted away and started !
Jest split fer her very life :
With my rifle strapped onto the saddle behind
And me nothing else but my knife !
I knowed at on'st twas a grizzly,
And im mejit I spotted a tree
And the oncommon time I made up it,
Was comfortin'-very-to see!
The varmint cum up dissapinted,
And rared round promiscuous with rage,
Till he saw 'twas no go, when he sorter cooled down,
To a clost case of regaler siege.
Plump-chunk-serene he squatted,
Down thar to the fut of the tree,
With a hungry cannibal sort of a grin,
And we sot I-him and me!
1
Three or four yards from each other,
Me and that grizzly set,
Like a couple of overgrown Shanghi hens
A setting it out for a bet,
Ove hour ! and getting tired !
Two hours ! worse yet-and three ;
Four hours and getting dusk ! till at last,
I struck on a bright idee.


10
HARPOON AND HANDSPIKE.
but the boy of sixteen who had been non est at break-
fast time, and ho was a nephew of the wealthy owner
of Eagle Cliff must have eloped with the private purse of
the aforesaid gentleman, for it was also missing, and with
it several hundred dollars. Quite a rumpus was raised
and for several days a rigid search was kept up, much to
the secret amusement of young Sam, the wealthy man's
heir and adopted child. As the days passed by and no
tidings of the runaway were gleaned, he would laugh and
chuckle to himself in private, which fact, curious in itself,
would have made a sharp person if a witness of this
merriment, suspect that Sam knew more about his fath-
ers former favorite than he chose to tell. And the
young scoundrel might well gloat over his well carried
schemes, for by one successful blow he had rid himself of
one who had threatened to succeed him in Col. Hudson's
esteem, and fasten a crime upon his.own name.
But this has nothing to do with the manner in which
Andy Hudson shipped on board the Water Waif, the
reader exclaims. But Andy did not go on as a passenger,
nor yet as one of the crew. It was almost midnight, and
darkness covered the land and ocean, when a wet form
crawled up the dingy side of the whaler, bound for the
icy deep on the morrow, and slipping past the one sleepy
seaman who composed the entire watch, stole below.
This was how our hero shipped on board the Water
Waif without signing any articles.




CHAPTER III.
THE HARPOONER'S FAVORITE.
2
T was a strange name for a dingy whaler, and so
Andy thought as he leaned over the side and
gazed into the vast flood during his watch that
night. But the presence of the captain's pretty
daughter on board told him where the words
"Wuter Waif” originated, and Andy would have
been certain that the vessel had lately been rechrist-
ened, even if he had not found one day the name “Thun-
derbo t cut in a post down in the hold, the work of some
industrious sailor of years before, no doubt.
Days and weeks passed swiftly by, and the whaler was
now making a difficult passage through icebergs and
fields of ice.
Several whales had been sighted but all too distant.
When then, one fine morning the cry of "there she
blows" came from the lookout at the masthead, every
one leaped to their feet and were on the alert.
A few moments later and two light whale boats were
skimming over the stretch of water and heading for the
stream of water, which, shooting upward proclaimed the
fact that the cause of the commotion in the sea was a
huge whale.


CHAPTER IV.
THE RIVAL WHALERS,
N spite of the dirty work and cold climate, Andy
felt as happy as a king, and he really had no
cause to feel otherwise. The Captain had taken
a great fancy to him, going so far as to call him his
boy.
This liking had been greatly augmented by a fact
which had come to light during one of their conversa-
tions. It had happened that the name of Hudson seem-
ed familiar to the captain and one day it came out that
Andy's dead father had been master and part owner of
the brig on which Mr. Barton had served as mate. His
friendship for the father now descended to the son, and
Andy was privileged beyond all reason,
The presence of Rosebud on board kept things in order
and as the captain was a gentleman himself, he had a
separate table from the crew, a thing seldom seen on
board a greasy whaler.
At this table there were four persons, the Captain, his
daughter, Andy and Mr. Jeffrey, the mate. Another
whale had been captured, and the captain had great hopes


CHAPTER VIII.
WINDING UP IN THE USUAL WAY.
ING-a-ling-a-ling went the bell of the Hud-
son mansion.
"By the Lord Harry,” growled the Colonel
up stairs, as he sat smoking with his dressing
gown on, “early visitors. Nine o'clock. Well
James ?” and the latter interrogative was addressed to the
servant who opened the door and looked in in a frighten-
ed manner.
“A young gentlemen, sir, a boy I might say, on 'ticular
business.”
“A boy you say. Then show him up here,” growled
the colonel.
"Reckon as how he won't need no showin',” muttered
James as he descended the stairs. A couple of moments
passed—the door opened.
“Uncle ?'' said a manly voice, and the Colonel started.
“What ! Andy, you here? Go at once, God forbid that
I should be harsh to my brother's child, but I cannot
foster a serpent.”
"Hold, Uncle, you are acting unjustly. You give me
no chance to defend myself. Please read that and then