Dorymates: A Tale of the Fishing BanksMunroe, Kirk
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Dorymates: A Tale of the Fishing Banks
Munroe, Kirk
Newfoundland and Labrador -- Fiction
Twenty-four hours later they entered Boston harbor, and the crew of the
lost _Curlew_, after expressing their heart-felt thanks to the captain,
passengers, and crew of the steamer, who had done everything in their
power to make them comfortable, left her. They made their way at once to
the market slip devoted to the use of fishing vessels, where they were
sure of finding friends and fellow-townsmen.
While walking slowly along the wharf, and looking wistfully over the
many fishing vessels crowded into the basin, in search of a familiar
face, Breeze was slapped on the shoulder, and a well-known voice
exclaimed,
“Vy, Breeza, ma boy! how you vas? Vere you come from, eh?”
Turning, he saw the smiling face of old Mateo, the Portuguese cook who,
on board the _Sea Robin_, had fed him with milk from the “lit tin cow”
when he was a baby. The old cook had always retained a warm affection
for the boy whom he had thus cared for in his helplessness, and had
never returned to Gloucester without visiting him and bringing him some
present. Now to see him seemed to Breeze almost like a glimpse of home.
Mateo, who, in spite of his years, was still hale and hearty, and one of
the best cooks to be found in the fishing fleet, would listen to nothing
where they stood. He insisted upon dragging Breeze aboard a new and
handsome schooner named the _Albatross_, in which he had shipped for a
cruise to the George’s. She had left Gloucester the day before, and run
up to Boston, where her skipper had some business to attend to. Now she
was to sail again within an hour.
Pulling his young friend down into the forecastle, and seating him
before the mess-table, Mateo exclaimed, “Vell, Breeza, you hongry, eh?”
To him eating was the most important business of life, and until Breeze
had assured him that he had just finished one breakfast, and had no room
for another mouthful, he would listen to nothing else. His mind being
set at rest on this point, Mateo asked,
“Vell, you not hongry, ma boy, ver is ze _C’loo_?”
“Gone to the bottom,” answered Breeze, “and poor Rod Mason has gone with
her.”
“Vat you say? ze _C’loo_ loss, and Rod Mason drowned? Oh, ze holy feesh!
an his bruzzer Bill here, on ze _’Batross_!”
It was indeed so; the only brother of the drowned man had shipped in the
_Albatross_ the day before. When he heard the sad news brought by
Breeze, he declared he must return at once to Gloucester, and make
arrangements for the future of his brother’s family. He would not even
wait for the skipper’s return, but, collecting his dunnage, hurried away
to catch the first train for home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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