Life — August 26, 1886 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

A FORTY-DAY CRUISE IN THE “ARK.” BY NOAH. HOMEWARD BOUND. T last it has stopped raining, and, if the sun CHAPTER V. is only hot enough, there is some chance of our seeing dry land within a week or two. This morning I sent a dove out prospecting, ? to see if she would bring a greenback home (or words to that effect), but she was unsuccessful. To-day I am very drowsy, as last night I hardly closed my eyes in sleep. My wife is, indeed, well named Mrs. Snoah. Oh, that sometimes I could be temporarily and totally deaf! It was only night before last that I was kept awake for three hours by the thomas- cat who was singing an amorous ditty to his THE THOMAS CAT. mate. His notes floated up from the hold, swelling and trilling, quivering and falling in a perfect cascade of feline vocal sound. He seemed to warble whole airs from the ‘ Mi- kado” by note, but every now and then he would disregard the score, and break forth in long, sweet cries of burning love, and soft complaining silvery notes of mingled sorrow : LIFE - to the forecastle, and made the timbers ring. If I could only have struck a chord, his neck would have been wrung in unison. ‘There are only two things which generally enliven a cruise, and which we have not seen—one is a water- spout and the other a sea- serpent. easily accounted for, as we came away in such a hurry that no one brought a drop of apple-jack on board. This morning I found Japheth feeding quite a brood of small downy chickens, and However, this is wondering how so many happened to be on board, I asked him to explain. “Father,” said Japheth, remembering the story about G. Washington and the cherry tree, ‘I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my little hatch- it!” and he pointed to his patent incubator. When- ever we get to land, the Ark will be for sale, and Japheth goes with her. I don’t expect she will About She was. bring very much. $13,500, I expect. built for an especial object, and she has accomplished it —her work is done. Be- sides, no one wants to own a pleasure boat containing 1,000,000 bird perches, and 800,000 box stalls. I think, after all, I shall paint her | “THIS MORNING I SENT OUT A DOVE PROSPECTING.” We hope to sight Mt. Ararat light this evening, and take a pilot aboard before mid- night. forty days in the staunch old Ar, for there will never be another flood. The sun is shining brightly and a brilliant bow spans Never again will we have to spend “OL CANNOT TRLL A LIB; 1 DID IT WITH MY LITTLE HATCHArT 1” the western heavens, while down near the east- ern horizon there is a pale but well-whiskered moon. At last, our cruise has come to an— and joy, that re-echoed from the poop-deck | white and rent her for a roller skating rink. END. Carlsbad, NEW ZEALAND volcano throws out showers of mud. It would be a valuable annex to an American political newspaper establishment. HE literary men are having some sport this summer. George Parsons Lathrop is squidding for novelists at New London, Julian Hawthorne is setting seines for English three-volume mackerel at Sag Harbor, George William Curtis * * * A NEW gas meter just invented is called the “George Washington.” This is refined satire boiled down and strained through silk. is spearing political eels up in Massachusetts, and William Dean Howells is gunning for ideas through the wide, wide world.