Uncle Terry: A Story of the Maine CoastMunn, Charles Clark
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Uncle Terry: A Story of the Maine Coast
Munn, Charles Clark
Maine -- Fiction
"It was 'bout the last o' March, nigh onto eighteen year ago, and
durin' one o' the worst blows I ever rec'clect since I kep' the light,
that one mornin' I spied a vessel hard an' fast on White Hoss Ledge,
'bout half a mile off the pint. It had been snowin' some an' froze on
the windows o' the light, so mebbe she didn't see it 'fore she fetched
up all standin'. The seas was poundin' her like great guns, an' in her
riggin' I could see the poor devils half hid in snow an' ice. Thar
wa'n't no hope for 'em, for no dory could 'a' lived a moment in that
awful gale, and thar wa'n't no lifeboat here. Lissy an' me made haste to
build a fire on the pint, to show the poor critturs we had feelin' for
'em, an' then we just stood an' waited an' watched for 'em to go down.
It might 'a' been an hour, there's no tellin', when I saw a big bundle
tossin' light, an' comin' ashore. I ran over to the cove where I keep my
boats, and grabbed a piece o' rope an' boat hook, and made ready. The
Lord must 'a' steered that bundle, for it kept workin' along, headin'
for a bit o' beach just by the pint. I had a rope round my waist, an'
Lissy held onto the end, an' when the bundle struck I made fast with the
boat hook and the next comber tumbled me end over, bundle an' all, up
onto the sand. I grabbed at it, an' 'fore the next one come, had it high
an' dry out o' the way.
"It's allus been a puzzle to me just why I did it, for I was wet
through an' most froze, an' what I'd pulled out looked like a feather
bed tied round with a cord, but I out with my knife an' cut the cords,
an' thar in the middle o' two feather beds was a box, an' in the box a
baby alive an' squallin'!
"I didn't stop to take the rope off my waist, but grabbed the box an'
ran for the house with Lissy after me. We had a fire in the stove, an'
Lissy warmed a blanket and wrapped the poor thing up an' held it over
the stove an' kissed it and took on just as wimmin will. When I see it
was safe I cut for the pint, thinkin' to wave my hat an' show 'em we had
saved the baby, but a squall o' snow had struck in an' when it let up
the vessel was gone. Thar was bits o' wreck cum ashore, pieces o' spars,
a boat all stove in, an' the like, an' a wooden shoe. In the box the
baby was in was two little blankets, an', tied in a bit o' cloth, two
rings an' a locket with two picters in it, an' a paper was pinned to the
baby's clothes with furrin writin' on it. It said the baby's name was
Etelka Peterson, an' 'To God I commend my child,' an' signed, 'A
despairin' mother.' From bits o' the wreck we learned the vessel was
from Stockholm, an' named 'Peterson.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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