The Argosy — page 385: what you’re looking at

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

364 Under Northern Skies. up to itself, where the wild birds build and sing. The hours vanished until all light and colour fled from the sky, and darkness fell. About ten o’clock we launched out into the Baltic. Just before doing so, a passenger landed at a settlement consisting of a solitary lighthouse and a small cottage or two for the keepers. A brig lay at anchor in the sheltered waters, and our passenger, her skipper, had been to Stockholm concerning freight. As soon as we were in sight, a boat shot out from her, came alongside, and before long we had left them far behind. Our steamer was small, but not uncomfortable. Her captain was rough and hardy, but thoughtful as though he had had the ee a a ee TT ewe ws Ree Rew OR SSE ER Re | 460 COR ss cases BEF mene sees - os ee ner seers: - . oneee’- nomeeeee <-* -_—w «ee vo eeeee - es oe8 . Ee . -- . -- e- * =. - —?— er ++ Le ses ae AES W- boed) thik ie Vie las Ce errs WISBY. training in the world. Oneold man, also a passenger, spoke excellent English. He, too, had passed his hfe on the troubled waters, and had been to Stockholm to seek cargo for his brig, lying in Wisby harbour. But he had not been successful, and declared that times were changed. Brokers and shippers wanted their freights carried for nothing, and the system did not pay. He was an amusing old man, with a good deal of dry humour; appeared to have gone through life with a certain amount of obser- vation, and gave us the benefit of his wisdom. Huis weird tales of the people, at home and abroad, were endless ; adventures that made one’s hair stand on end, and stories that caused one’s flesh to creep. He abounded in murders and suicides that had come within his own knowledge ; records of people who had disappeared overboard on dark nights, without rhyme or reason, or had been spirited away, none ever knew how or where. CONMMICMOOOKS. ©)