Wisconsin in Story and Song;: Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Badger State Writers
General
Wisconsin in Story and Song;: Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Badger State Writers
American literature -- Wisconsin; Wisconsin -- Literary collections
But I got used to it very soon, getting the "feel of it," and as the
"Mary Morton" steered like a daisy I lined out a very respectable
wake; though Tom tried to puzzle me a good deal with questions as to
the landmarks, most of which I had forgotten save in a general way....
A mile or two below Hastings I saw the "break" on the surface of the
water which marked the resting-place of the "Fanny Harris," on which I
had spent so many months of hard work, but which, looked back upon
through the haze of twenty years, now seemed to have been nothing but
holiday excursions.
At Prescott I looked on the familiar water front, and into the attic
windows where with my brother I had so often in the night watches
studied the characteristics of boats landing at the levee. Going
ashore I met many old-time friends, among whom was Charles Barnes,
agent of the Diamond Jo Line, who had occupied the same office on the
levee since 1858, and had met every steam boat touching the landing
during all those years. He was the Nestor of the profession, and was
one of the very few agents still doing business on the water front who
had begun such work prior to 1860. Since then, within a few years
past, he also has gone, and that by an accident, while still in the
performance of duties connected with the steamboat business.
Dropping rapidly down the river, we passed Diamond Bluff without
stopping, but rounded to at Red Wing for passengers and freight, and
afterward headed into a big sea on Lake Pepin, kicked up by the high
south wind that was still blowing. We landed under the lee of the
sandpit at Lake City, and after getting away spent the better part of
an hour in picking up a barge load of wheat, that was anchored out in
the lake....
I turned in at an early hour, and lay in the upper berth, listening to
the cinders skating over the roof a couple of feet above my face, and
translating the familiar sounds that reached me from the engine-room
and roof--the call for the draw at the railroad bridge, below the
landing; the signal for landing at Wabasha; the slow bell, the
stopping-bell, the backing bell, and a dozen or twenty unclassified
bells, before the landing was fully accomplished; the engineer trying
the water in the boilers; the rattle of the slice-bars on the sides of
the furnace doors as the firemen trimmed their fires; and one new and
unfamiliar sound from the engine-room--the rapid exhaust of the little
engine driving the electric generator, the only intruder among the
otherwise familiar noises, all of which came to my sleepy senses as a
lullaby.
MRS. HATTIE TYNG GRISWOLD.
Hattie Tyng was born in Boston in 1840, and came with her
parents to Columbus, Wisconsin, in 1850, where, in course of
time, she was married to Mr. Griswold, and it was in this
delightful village that much of her work as an author was
done. Here she died in 1909.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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