Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1904 — A REDHEADED GIRL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A REDHEADED GIRL

By C. B. LEWIS

It was while the brig Daisy, Captain Joelab Barnes, master, lay at Port au Prince, after loading up. that a redhettdod gi rl eame aboard to secure passage to Boston. She had gone to the island from Salem two years before with 3tn American family as governess, but had become tired of it and desired to get back to the United Slntes. The wife of Captain Barnes was aboard, and Ids •crew numbered seven men. lie had also taken as passengers two American sea captains whose vessels had been shipwrecked among the West Indian Islands. If it hadn’t been that one of

the captains offered to surrender his stateroom to the redheaded girl and sleep In the main cabin on a shakeKlown she could not have taken passage !by the Daisy. Indeed it was a close ••shave at best, ns Mrs. Barnes, who was fat, forty and plain faced, looked her •over and said to her husband: “Joslali, she's redheaded, and that means that she's giddy and sassy.” “Yes; she’s got red hair,” replied the captain, “hut I don’t see nothin’ giddy about her. She looks as sober as any gal with any colored hair, and that passage money will come in handy for us. She’ll probably be seasick clear up to Boston light and not cat $2 worth of provisions.” “Well, we’ll take her,” said Mrs. Barnes, with a doubtful shake of the head, “hut you see if it don’t result In a tornado, waterspout or calamity of some kind. Redheaded girls are bom to make trouble,” A day later the Daisy weighed anchor and set out on her return voyage, and the attitude of the redheaded girl as she moved about was so demure that the captain almost felt like patting her on the head and speaking words of sympathy and encouragement. The brig sailed at 1) o'clock in the morning, and the girl passenger did not make her appearance at the table at noon. Mrs. Barnes’ motherly heart forced her to look into the stateroom and offer her services, hut at the same time she was secretly glad to lind the redheaded girl In her berth and apparently suffering the pangs of seasickness. Something like a surprise party awaited the dame when supper time came

round. She was thinking of making a cup of tea with hes own hands and adding a Bliee of dry toast when the redheaded girl suddenly appeared in the cabin fully dressed and looking as pert and saucy as if the old brig rested in a cornfield instead of climbing up and down watery hills of exceeding steepness. .■■ . ' / - - “La, but haven't you been seasick!” exclaimed the captaifi's wife after a long stare. “Of course not,’’ was the reply. “And you ain't goiu’ to be?” “I hope not. Where are the gentlemen? They must have missed me. I’m so glad I'm the only girl aboard, as I will have them all to myself. Do you know if both captains are married men?” “Yes, ma’am; I know what they are, and each one is the father of at least ’leven children,” replied Mrs. Barnes, with great emphasis, being determined to crush the redheaded girl at the very outset. “Well, they can flirt with me for a few days just the same," said the girl as she surveyed herself In the cracked mirror hanging over the table. At supper the redheaded girl made herself thoroughly “at home.” She laughed and chatted and made eyes, and Mrs. Barnes could not help but see that her own captain, as well as the two others, was more than Interested. She grew red In the face, and her blood boiled, and as soon as the meal was finished and the girl had gone on deck, escorted by the two other captains, she drew herself ,up before her liege lord with folded arms and demanded: “Joslah Barnes of Providence, what did I tell you?” **l dunno,” be absently replied. , “Don’t lie to me, sir! I told you that redheaded girl was an impudent minx.

and my words have come true. ’ She even made eyes at you across the tehie.” •' . “I-1 didn’t see ’em If she did.” “You saw ’em and almost blushed. Joslali Barnes, that girl has got to st«fp or she’ll get a piece of my mind that will make her red hair curl. I won’t stand by and see no such chit make fools of three or four men who ought to know better.” The captain’s advice was for her to go slow, and he was glad to get on deck and out of reach of licr tongue. That was the beginning of things. That night the redheaded girl walked the deck with a captain on each side of her. The next day the “minx” got a piece of Mrs. Barnes’ mind. It was a liberal piece and ought to have brought her to her knees, but It didn’t. On the contrary, after she got fairly started the redheaded girl got off three words to the other’s one and read her a long and severe lecture on minding her own business. In this lecture were included a few observations on false teeth and gray hairs, and when the battle was over it was the motherly Mrs. Barnes who didn’t know where she was at. She tried to get even by calling her husband into the cabin and telling him what was what and that she’d take good care to see that everybody in Providence heard of it, but his reply was:

“It’s all nonsense in your sayln’ that I’ve fallen in love with that girl, but I’m tollin’ you that redheaded women are just the nicest things out, and I don’t care who hears me say so.” Inside of four days the redheaded girl was flirting with everything and everybody clear down to the cook, and of course jealousy crept In. The three captains hurled sarcastic remarks at each other, and the mate and carpenter bad a glare in their eyes and a feeling of revenge In their breasts. Mrs. Barnes tried again and again to stem the tide, hut in vain, and at length she took refuge in tears and predictions. The Daisy sailed on and on, and the flirtations went on and on, and as the brig crept up the coast Mrs. Barnes “felt it in her hones” that Boston would never he reached. The redheaded girl had brought disorganization from cabin to bowsprit and almost taken command.

“You jest wait, Josiah Barnes—you Jest wait for Cape Cod,” the captain’s wife grimly repeated a dozen times a day, and Cape Cod was finally reached. Then a gale sprang up, the big brig lost her foremast, and, though the redheaded girl sought her stateroom and the crew was left free to battle with the storm, the craft was driven ashore and became a total wreck. Crew and passengers were saved, and in due time Captain Barnes appeared at the office of the owners in Boston to tell how it all happened. He was listened to until he had finished, and then the head of the firm handed him a letter that had been received the day before. It was from Martha, and it read: I want to report that the Daley Is ashore on Cape Cod and a total wreck, and I want to report that a redheaded gal and a lot of fool men are the cause of it.

THE REDHEADED GIRL WALKED THE DECK WITH A CAPTAIN ON EACH SIDE.