FRESCOES FROM THE PAST.

killed two men of the after watch, and crippled two more. Crippled them
how, says you ? "Why, sprained their ankles I

6 The bar'] left in the dark betwixt lightnings, towards dawn. Well, not
a body eat a bite at breakfast that morning. After that the men loafed
around, in twos and threes, and talked low together. But none of them
herded with Dick Allbright.
They aU give him the cold
shake. If he conie around where
any of the men was, they split
up and sidled away. They
would n't man the sweeps with
him. The captain had all the skiffs
hauled up on the raft, alongside
oi his wigwam, and would n't let
the dead men be took ashore to
be planted; he did n't believe a
man that got ashore would come
back ; and he was right.

* Alter night come, you could
see pretty plain that there was
going to be trouble if that barl
come again; there was such a
muttering going on. A good
many wanted to kill Dick All-
bright, because he'd seen the bar'l
on other trips, and that had an
ugly look. Some wanted to put
hiTYi ashore. Some said, let's all
go ashore in a pile, if the bar'l
comes i;gain.

* This kind of whispers was
still going on, the men being
bunched together forrard watch-
ing for the bar'l, when, lo and
behold you, here she comes again.
Down she comes, slow and steady,
and settles into her old tracks.

You could a heard a pin drop. Then up comes the captain, and says:__

' " Boys, don't be a pack of children and fools ; I don't want this bar'l to
be dogging us all the way to Orleans, and you don't; well, then, how's the
best way to stop it ? Burn it up,—that's the way. Tm going to fetch if
aboard," he says. And before anybody could say a word, in he went.

'THE LIUHTNING- KILLED TWO
MEN.'