Judge — October 31, 1885 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE JUDGE. CAUGHT ON THE STRING PIECE. Jack Servenmalet has an Adventure with a Pretty Girl, a Widow and a Bloodhound. When ard the of-war lying at the foot of West Twe th strect, late one night not long ago, with the water dripping from every thread of his clothing, the few sailors who happened to be on deck paid little tention to it at first. That a sailor with full cargo of on board should roll his scuppers under when trying to board asmall boat f 1 bulkhead was nothing unusual, and Jack had gone ashore with the second- class apprentice simply to pass the evening. But when they iced that Jack was making strenuous rts to conceal a very conspicuous rent in his dripping trousers and was entirely too graff for a drunken Jack, their curiosity was greatly excite oxt dav, during the second dog watch, as ly drew the torn parts of the trou together with thread and needle, while stnoke from a fragrant pipe curled around his h his mess-mates noticed that the corners of his mouth were relax and they prepared to listen to what he had to tell them, Aftera preparatory whiff or two, he said, pointing to the second-rate apprenti The boy, there, a sailorin Jack is a larnin’ to be and its into him to make as good a one as ever passed « weather earring. He's that takin? with the pretty girls, which there's no end of vem her ats, that if he was a little older there aint none of the good lookin’ chaps aboard as ud have any show without he said so. It'snigh on to a month ago that we was a headin’ down this way past the big lumber yard, when [ see him give a sort of a start just as we was a piss- ing the uncommon trim brick house into the corner of the yard, which itis used for the offi own-stairs and the foreman lives over it. “ Soon as sorter stopped, he gits re biled lobster and then doffs his cap and bows as grace- ful as midshipmite. With that T fol- lera his eyes and sees at a winder up above the werry pretty features of the rettiest of them three girls what he helped to make the boquets for at the church fandango, where he spilt the snuff, as I was tellin’ you of. Well, seein’ the boy had stopped twern’t for mo to desert a shipmate, and I hove to, and the lass she came down to the sor step. She bowed wery respectful and proper to me as had gray hairs onto my | head, and then she held out her hid tothe | boy, which I see it made him shiver like the | weather cock 0’ the main royal. Hows’ever, he weren't slow in bringin’ to along side of her, and I sits down ona mahogany stump jist far enough away that I couldn’t hear nothin’ as they was talkin’ about. I reckon he'd overstayed his time, so we'd a been quarantined aboard ship for a month, only after a hour or two I signaled him to veer off on his course again. With that the girl she looks at me reproachful like aud whis- pers to the boy and then we comes 2 “Taint no use tellin’ you how it’s been then, The youngsters was that sweet h other, I shouldn’t a had no peace pon ashore with the boy ’ceptin’ the girl had a friend as was old enough to be her mother and was a widder, said us how it wouldn't look proper for a young girl and a young sailor to be a gali- jit The widder she | herself, Servenmalet returned on, vantin’ around the streets at night alone and so she, us was older and sedater, foller ‘em a respectful distance bein’ as I more sedater nor any of ‘em, it was agreed that I should go along with the widd keen her from gettin’ lonesome-like, ‘cause widders is wery easy to get lonesome. “It might have been wery pleasant for all on us, and no tellin’ how much religion the boy might a got, for the litule she was strong on piety and was a coaxing him nowerful to join that ‘ere dominie’s meetin’ house what I told you of, only just as he wa gettin’ ready to promise to try it agin, and we was a bringin’ to along sid the door step, one evenin’, we finds the girl’s father, which he n of that ere lumber yard, wai A more | obstinater nor onrease man [never | hearn tell on. He talked awful to the girl, and told her we was a lot of low-lived sail- would y and xd, | ors as was beneath the notice of any lady. | With that, [ asked his pardon and was agoin’ to tell who we was, when he told us to be off or he'd make us suffer for it. I e’enamost forgot that there was ladies pres- ent and one of ’em a widder had n trouble enough as she had been tellin’? me of, and was goin’ to crack his nut for ’im to oncet only he got very suddint inside of the door, and with that the widder told us to come to her place next time, which it just around the next block, and with t we made the best of our y on board ship. « The next time we got shore leave, which 1s last night and we wont soon forget it, we fetched a long tack to windward and then bore down on the widder’s home where we rounded to and found the girl there all rigged out wery pretty and shipa- shape a waitin’ for the boy, and the widder as I had often remarked, wery plump and sizeable for one as had ‘had so much grief. When we'd rightly got our | bearin’s we took a turn over to the avenue where we had a bit of suthin’ to refresh us, which the girl and the boy took lemonade, and the widder and me, bein’ older and more abler to stand it, beer; and then we sauntered back again, It scemed to me to be oncommon pleasant weather, and when we gets back alongside the lumber yard und sits down on a stick of sawed hem- lock in the shudder of a big pile of Georgia pine, the widder, she was mournfuller nor ever before. I wis a sayin’ it was 0 wery pleasant evenin’, and was remarkin’ as how the young folks was a enjoyin’ of it, and was a gettin’ wery sentimental, which youngsters like them and tall to be thought of in folksas had ¥ hairs in their heads, when I see a man’s id a peerin’ around the corner of the pile ine. It riled me considerable, it If there thing I detest it’s them as can’t help pryin” into others folk’s busine: So I re ked to the widder that I should have to round to and punch the feller’s head. With that she eaid I shouldn't do it, as it was most likely one of the lumber district gang und the whole lot of ‘em would pitch on tome and she never could abide the thought of that. “Tdidn't sce no more of that ‘cre he: de the remark about punchin’ ud the widder she says we must all go round to her parlor where we'd be more comfortabler. We was just a gettin? up and a pre- parin’ to make sail when I hears a sort of w half growl and a half ery, as sounded most like a human in distress, away to} the house where the foreman of the yard lived, ‘Then the little girl she jumped up suddint and screamed and. plumped. herself down on to the boy’s lap and threw her arms around him. “It's the hound, Jack,’ she say ‘it's pa’s blood hound and he’s turned him lo Run for a cop, or he'll Kill you,’ . ‘As I was a hesitatin’, the widder she tells me to run, ‘cause the dog knowed them and they could cover the be > hide him, but they wasn’t yg cnough to cover me. I could hear the infernal brute acryin’ through the yard and a makin’ our way, and reached for my knife, but it wasn’t there. ‘The widder was a askin’ me what would become of her if I got killed, and a implorin’ me to run and there weren’t no or to help matters and so I eet my stunsils and pinted for the landin’, I rounded the ner and was a makin’ down towards the bulkhead at about fourteen knots by the log and a thinkin’ I had left the e! out o’ sight to leeward, when all to oncet, I hears him break out in full ery, and I knowed he was on to the trail pverhaulin’ me like I was anchored, Shere be’n’t no doorways thereabouts for a feller to pop into, and £0 us it wasn’t no use to strike my colors whilst it was a starn chase, I determined to give ’im the best legs I had. I reckon I'd got mostly three fourths of the way to the river when the brute sighted me and shut his yawp. Then pretty soon I could hear him clawin’ the ci sas lines the pavin’ stone alon, there. I was choked for breath, the blood was a bustin’ the veins of my head and I Kk able comicbooks.com