The Water Was Very Cold; He Clung To A Cotton
Bale - Mainly With His Teeth - And Floated Until Nearly Exhausted, When He
Was Rescued By Some Deck Hands Who Were On A Piece Of The Wreck.
They
tore open the bale and packed him in the cotton, and warmed the life
back into him, and got him safe to Memphis.
He is one of Bixby's pilots
on the 'Baton Rouge' now.
Into the life of a steamboat clerk, now dead, had dropped a bit of
romance - somewhat grotesque romance, but romance nevertheless. When I
knew him he was a shiftless young spendthrift, boisterous, goodhearted,
full of careless generosities, and pretty conspicuously promising to
fool his possibilities away early, and come to nothing. In a Western
city lived a rich and childless old foreigner and his wife; and in their
family was a comely young girl - sort of friend, sort of servant. The
young clerk of whom I have been speaking - whose name was not George
Johnson, but who shall be called George Johnson for the purposes of this
narrative - got acquainted with this young girl, and they sinned; and the
old foreigner found them out, and rebuked them. Being ashamed, they
lied, and said they were married; that they had been privately married.
Then the old foreigner's hurt was healed, and he forgave and blessed
them. After that, they were able to continue their sin without
concealment. By-and-bye the foreigner's wife died; and presently he
followed after her.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 393 of 539
Words from 108372 to 108621
of 148123
