William Cooper

“ When a man is driven to death by inches, he craves for life more than ever—pride, manliness, everything is wake in him; but that boy was a hero, if ever there was one born. At last the day came that all was gone; another and another followed, and Black Will Gardiner stooped over me and whispered a horrid timptation, for, says he, “if we can only prolong life a couple of days more, we’ll be sure to fall in wid some of the homeward-bounders!” My blood curdled at his words; but as the day wore on, and no sign uv a sail, he spoke to me again ”

“ In the coorse of time the widow Blair became a mother; an’ if ever the dead came to life again the father did in that boy, only he had the mother’s beauty an’ all her winnin’ ways to the back of all poor Donald’s dash an’ bravery; he grew fast, an’ ould Clement began to regard him as the apple uv his eye, couldn’t bear him out uv his sight for a minit; bud the dark times wor at hand, things began to go cross wid the poor ould masther,—first one ship was wracked, thin another, until, at last, the only one he had left was the Carlo Zeno. ”

“ God forgive her poor wanderin’ broken sperit, it’s not Christian-like, but shure she knows no better—she asks for her poor lost son—once the pride of the heart that shall never bloom again, the light of the eyes that shall never sparkle more but in madness. Terrible will be the fate of the man that wrongs the widowed and the fatherless!’”
The old pilot ceased, and I shall do the same, good reader. I tell you the tale as it was told to me; and, for aught I know, the poor maniac mother may still frequent the little pier of L——, and Black Will Gardiner may still be prosperous ”

“ Not wid poor Letty, though; the poor craythur! she never lifted her head from that day; an’ the poor ould masther, too, wid all Donald’s wild ways was fond uv him, for who wouldn’t; the poor lad was as honest an’ open-hearted as the light uv day, only fond uv his joke, an’ his divarshun, small blame to him, ids a sorry sowl that goes through the world without rubbing a few bright spots in id. ”

“ Ay—ay—by my sowl, the child that sails her is no chicken! He knows every shtick in her timper, too, or he’d never thry such a divil’s thrick as that wid her. If a rope yarn failed him, his sperit id be on the road to glory now. ”

“ Troth, id just is what yer honer says,—wicked, wild, cruel work; an’ shure id makes one’s heart bleed for thim poor coasthers that’s sint to say in sich wild winthery weather, an’ wid vessels ill-found, wid ropes as ould and as rotten as haybands; short manned, too, the way they may bring long profits to their naygur-hearted owners; ay, in troth, yer honer, many is the brave-hearted stout sayman that has had to give in whin human nathur couldn’t stand agin hardships that id break a frame uv iron ”

“ Blair, an’ he asked her the question that had been the aim an’ object of his life; he asked her to be his wife, an’ to forget all she had ever loved as only a woman can love—once; but he spoke uv him that was dead and gone, of the man with whom he’d broken the same bread, and drunk the same cup as a ne’er-do-well that desarved to be forgotten: little knowin’, the black-hearted villain! the woman he had to dale with. Oh, my jewel! it was Letty that up an’ gev him her mind, and he left her that night wid the scowl upon his brow and the curse upon his lips. ”

“ Well, the time kem when something must be done, wid young Donald—he’d no longer his grandfather to look to, so bedad the heritage uv his poor drowned father was bestowed upon him—and he was sint to sarve his time wid Will Gardiner: oh! but that was a sorry partin’, for Clement Lorimer had parted wid his last ship to him, an’ in sending his darlin’ grandson wid him id seemed like a last hope that he’d bring back the fortune that was gone. ”

“ Ther’s always two voices to a bargain, and although Letty wasn’t much consulted at first, bedad she was daytermined she’d have her own way; so the very day Donald Blair was out uv his time the two uv them sets off an’ gets married hard an’ fast, an’ may-be there wasn’t the devil’s own rooksun about it; however, Clement, sinsible-like, med the best uv the bargain his daughter got, an’ had them home, an’ daycently married, an’ a powerful jollification ther’ was; everybody got dhrunk uv coorse, for Donald was such a favourite that nobody envied him but one, that one was Will Gardiner ”