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They will be entitled to 4 confined exclusively to their business, with t>ntil e i? eot c h ,iu Be tT- Advertising in all cases exclusive of sub script!oll to the paper. ,l UINTiNG of every kind in Plain and Fa n' i-, riot*, done with neatness and dispatch. Haud- Blanks, Cards, Pamphlets, &c., of every va ,v an i style, printed at the shortest notice. The ; r T-,,i eh Office has just been re-fitted with Power j., 4gt s. and everything in the Printing line can ,-uted in the most artistic manner and at the . ~i t rate*. TERMS INVARIABLY CASH. I j^orlni. THE SNOWDKOP. \\. i- .m to earth, white snowdrop, once again ; Welcome below the budding hedge : Welcome in woods that overledge p.. rooky streamlet murmuring down the glen : Welcome to gardens and abodes of men. Tliv maiden leaflets, tone-lied with spots of green, Like tiptoe-prints of timid Spring, Upon snow new fallen, bring Refreshing pleasure t:> the eyes, I ween, That weary of the winter's cold white sheen. T; .n wast the first in Nature's mind to lie, !!, for, sin wrought the gorgeous flowers i"olden Summer's garden bowers, ! Lr. ■tune disclosed to view earth's canopy Oi iight and azure mixed in harmony. \s if she chose thee for the New-Year's brow, j , t, uTpt her maids to imitate, And learn how comely simple state I pon the virgin's slender form doth show, And lead to ripened woman's statelier glow. (aim-lipped, ambrosia-breathing Charity, Whom in the unseen homes above. The clear-eved angels greet as Lore, Whoe'er may guard thy sisterhood, must be Do- -ister bidden t" keep watch o'er thee : For we discern those airy forms, that tend The fragrant lives of boll and bud tin bill or dale, or green-edged flood, By the peculiar thought which each doth send fnto our hearts, as o'er the leaves we bend. | THE GOOD SHIP SHOOTING STAR. l. • t'aptaiu Ilitson, allow me to introduce to you Mr. Pennant, your new purser. Mr. Pennant, pray take a chair, while 1 have a little talk on brsiness with Captain liit- Mr. Blizzard, of the firm of David and p,'. ...ani, 72 Limehouse Street, Liverpool, Tituiued ; t'aptaiu Kitson, we want to make the first trip of the Shooti g Star an auspicious trip ; we want to have our vessel toe first ii: o Quebec this year. We save the dues; i y they always return the dues to the first vessel that arrives from England ; but it .s not so much for the sake of the value of the dues as the eclat of the thing. Our ti.ide with Canada is large, and we want t ■ get our name up. \\ edo not, of course, want you to run any danger. No, that is ty no means the wish of the firm ; but we < wish ynu to skirt the ice. and run in on the very iirst opening. You will get off Labrador just in time for the frost to have ihawed, and, with care, there need be no v.-k whatever." ' Mi Blizzard said all lliis leaning againt lis railed fii-.-k, and nestled in among the 'iU -ol invoices and bills of lading. He war i hearty, fresh-colored, portly man, iy i-. a in Ins dress, and remarkable for white wm tcoat, t at seemed as hard ' iiid .stainless as enamel. He played with i wateb-cliaiii as he spoke, and eyed the cap rain, the purser, and the first mate, who ;t in -n uncomfortable half-circle. With aa-il-piilislied boots planted on the iin val.'c ruck ola large capital, Mr. Bliz . | si , n/cd to look boldly seaward met el. ;li ill v. aml consider wrecks and such '.-unities"ns .mere well-devised fictions, i .mi Kit-o.'i was a big Xorth-country ii oi, wrli a broad sen-age of chest, clear .ivi vi s and large, fed bands, —a sturdy, st, M'll-reiiant mail, without a fear in world. The niaie, Mr. Cardew, by no " n- so pleasant to look on, being a little -pare, thin-legged, cadaverous person, with •:! iwish eyes, sat in sullen subserviency tiie vi ry edge of bis chair just behind captain. The purser, a brisk, cheery, - v.t young fellow, sat deprecatingly (as ; i.c thought lie ought to stand) a trifle tether hack still. ] flight it is, Mister Blizzard," said the 1 •'!' Tin, buttoning bis pilot-coat across bis as if preparing for an immediate ml about to order everything to be Ttte:. I down. "Kiglit it is, and a better V' -sel than the Shooting Star 1 don't hope #/.e. She's sound, Mr. Blizzard, Ido be vt, Horn main truck to keel, —sound, it 1 y u.-j- J.he expression, as a pious man s iii.scieuce. The only thing that wexes uf, howsoiuever, is that, having been sent ; ;to my native place, down Allonby way, a very sad business" there the captain i>ld up sorrowfully an enormous hat cov d with black crape,) "I couldn't see to Ac lading of this ere wessel as 1 generally likes to do with wessels I am called upon in command." 'That is of no consequence at all, Cap tain Kitston," said Mr. Blizzard, pouring '•lit three glasses of sherry all in a ow hmi a decanter on an inky mantel-piece u him. "1 have been away at Mancbes -4' i, and my partner, Mr. David, lias been v, tj ill with a touch of pleurisy, but our first mate here, Mr. Cardew, lias seen to it all" Ihe mate nodded assent. " The cargo is—?" Agricultural implements, machinery, and cloth ;o< ids." Bbzzard referred to a ledger for this formation, as he spoke, as if lie scarcely Knew, in his multiplicity of business, wlietli the shooting Star might not be ladi-n w 'th frankincense, pearls, gold-dust, ami H pai rots—but he would see. Having ascertained the fact, Mr Bliz ziird carefully replaced tlio ledger, and, turning his 1 tck on his company, poket he tire, and consulted a large sheet alma -11 no uvi-r the mantel-piece, as a sign the fotcrvie was over. AVe sail to-morrow morning, Sunday,' E- <3. GOODRICH, VOLUME XXVI. said Captain Kitston, who was a Wesley aii, to the purser, aB they left the office of Messrs. David and Blizzard ; "1 likes to hear the blessed Sabbath bells calling to one another as I go out of the Mersey, and the men like it ; and, what's more, it's lucky. It's like the land taking leave of us, as I always say, giving a sort of bless ing on the ship ; at least, I'm a plain man, and that's how I take it. Its the day I always start, Sunday is." The purser expressed his hope that he should succeed in doing his duty, and pleas ing the captain and s*H his employers. " 0, you'll do, young man, I can see ; don't you be afraid. Won't he, Mr. Car dew ? Clear, straight-forward eyes, and all j aboveboard." Mr. Cardew thought he would do, but he did not look on the purser at all. His mind was running on very different things. 11. | " Joe," said the purser's wife, when Pennant returned to his little cottage at j Birkenhead, and announced his new ap j pointiueut, " I don't know how it is, but I j have got a strong presentment, and I wish you would'nt go in this ship. I never did j like ships with those sort of names. The ! best run you ever had was in the Jane j Parker, and the worse one in the Morning I Star. Stick to the plain names. Besides, j it's too early in the season. Now, do ob lige nie, Joe, and give it up. Stay for a j fortnight later ; get an Australian ship. It's too early tor Canada. It is, indeed. Mrs. Thompson says so." " Jenny, my love, you're a silly little wo man. A pretty sailor's wife you make. ! Come, pack up my kit, for I'm going, that j is the long and short of it. Nonsense about I ! sentiments. And who is Mrs. Thompson, I j j should like to kno * ? Who wants her poking her nose here ? Why did she drive her husband away with her nagging, and j temper, and botheration? Tell her to mind j her own business. Pretty thing, indeed ! ■ Come, dear, no nonsense ; pack up my • kit." " But, Joe dear, there was your photo graph fell off the nail on Tuesday, that night 1 saw a shooting star fall, close to the docks, and it wasn't sent for nothing. : Don't go, Joe ; don't go." "Go I must, Jenny dear, and go 1 shall, i so don't make it painful, there's a good lit tle woman. Come, I'll go up with you now, and kiss George and Lizzy. 1 won't wake them ; then we'll go and look out the shirts and things for the chest. Keep a ; good heart ; you know I shall soon be back. I've got a nice captain, and a smart j first mate." U J " \\ by, Captain Ihornpson, who ever thought to have found you here, and only j quartermaster ?" said the purser, as lie | stood at the gangway of the Shooting Star, j watching tue fresh provisions brought in. | " Well, I am sorry to see you so reduced, j sir, I am, indeed. How was it ?" The quartermaster drew liirn on oue side with a rueful look. He was a purple, jol ly, sottish-looking man, with swollen fea | tores. " It was the grog, Joe, as did it, —all the infernal grog," he said. "I lost my last ship, the Red Star, and then everything j went wrong ; but I've struck off drinking : now, Joe : I wasn't fit to have a ship, that's i about it,---lost myself, too, Joe ; and here I am w : tli my hands in the tar-bucket I again, trying to do 1113' doot3' in that station j of life, as the Catechism used to say." " And how do you like our captain and crew, sir ?" Pennant said, under his breath. ! " Captain's as good a man as ever trod jin shoe-leather—upright man, though he i will have Ihe work done, but the crew ain't I much, b tween ourselves. Four of them first-class, the rest loafers and skulkers, ! wanting to emigrate, picked up on the qua3'B, hall thieve, half deserters, not worth i their suit. They'll all run when they get ! to Quebec. Then tiier'es the first mate,he's a nice nigger-driver, he is, bound for a bad port, I tiiink. 1 wouldn't trust him with a | ship, that's all I can say, unless it was a | pirate ship, that he might get on with; but ! lie is smooth enough before the captain,— ! lie takes care of that, —curse liiin." ; .lust at that moment there came a shrill ! voice screaming curses from the shore. " Look alive, you skulkers, there," it | cried—it was the mate's voice—"or I'll let I you know. We shan't be ready Tues day. if you don't hurry. Not a drop of I grog before the work's done, mind that, j j I'll have 110 infernal grumbling while I'm mate ; and what are you doiug there quar- I termaster, idling ? Mr. Purser, see at once j if the stores are all in, and hand in the bills j to me to give to Captain Kitson." The men, ragged, sullen fellows, worked harder, but cursed in an underbreath. The moment the captain came on board, ! the mate's manner entirety altered. He | crouched and whispered, and asked for or ders, and spoke to the men with punctilious 1 quietude. Cardt-w had some strange hold over the j captain, as the purser soon discovered — i some mout'3' matters--some threat, which 1 lie held over Ritson's head, about his fath -1 ; er's farm in Cumberland, some power that the captain dreaded, though he tried to ap , ; pear cheerful, trusting, and indifferent. At 1 first tyrannical to the men, Cardew had -1 now begun to conciliate them in every pos j sible wa3 - , especially when Captain Kitson ' ' was not on deck. 1 The purser was in his cabin, the twen tieth day after the Shooting Star had star - ted. lie was head down ai hit} accounts, r and the luminous green shade over the 1 lamp threw a golden light upon rows of • 1 figures and the red lines that divided them. -1 He was working silently, honest, zealous 1 fellow that he was, when a low tap came r; at the cabin-door. He leaped off bis seat t and opened the door ; it was old Thoinp ■ sou, the quartermaster, who shut it after him with a suspicious care. " Well, Thompson," said the purser, look , | ing up with an overworked and troubled ex pression, "what is it ?" s The quartermaster sat down with a hand y 011 either knee " I teil you what it is, Mr. 1- Pennant, between you aed rue, there's mis n 1 ehiel brewing." d ' Thompson, 3 - ou've been at the rum I again," the amazed purser, in a re z- i proachful voice. I, j " No, Mr. Pennant, I haven't ; no, I am d j sober as the day I was born. Never you i- ; mind how I learned what I am going to e tell 3011. There was a time when no one dared accuse Jack Thompson of eaves dropping, without getting an auswer straight between the eyes, and quick too ; j but now I'm a poor rascal no one ; only fit to mend old rope and patch sails, and I can stoop now to do things I should have been | ashamed of once, even if I had done them, ! as 1 did this, for good." There came at this moment a pert rap at j the door, and Harrison, the ship's boy, j thrust in ltis head. •' Well, what do you want?" said the pur ser, in his sharp, honest way. "If you please, sir, there's an ice-fog coming on, and Mr. Cardew sa3's the men j are to have an extra glass of grog round, I as there will be extra watches." " Did Captain Kitson himself give the or- i der ?" "No, sir; Mr. Cardew. Captain's been up all night, and is gone to lie down." "Tell Mr. Cardew, with my compliments, that the captain told me yesterday never to serve out rum without his special or ders." " Yes, sir." The boy left. " Now, Mr. Quartermaster, let us know the worst. 1 think—l suspect—it is some-! thing about our iirst mate. This is going to be an unlucky voyage, I can see. Let us hear the worst quick, that we may do some thing to stop the leak." The quartermaster, a stolid man, of Dutch temperament, and by no means to be hur ried, proceeded as calmly as is he were spinning a yarn over the galley fire. "What 1 heard the first mate and the carpenter talk about only two hours ago was this. The ice-fog's come on, and the men (a bad lot in any weather, all but Davis and two or three more) are beginning to think we're ! running dangerously near the ice, and that' we shall get nipped. The mate, when the ! captain is away, encourages thetn in this i idea, and the worst of them talk now of I forcing the captain to steer more south- I ward, so as to keep clear of the ice-packs off Labrador." The purser started, and uttered an ex- j clamation of surprise and indignation. "Belay there, Mr. Pennant," said the' quartermaster, forcing his sou'wester firm- 1 er on his head to express hatred for the ■ mate; "that was only the first entry in their log. Then they went on to propose ' sinking the ship, lashing down the captain ! and those wh > wouldn't join them, destroy- [ ing all evidence, and taking to the boats j as soon as there was a sight of land." " But what for ?" " What for ? Why, for this. The fiist ; mate, as be let out, has had the lading of! the vessel. Well, what did he do, with ! the help of some scoundrel friend of his, a : shipping agent, but remove two thirds of! the machinery from the cases, unknown, j of course, to Mr Blizzard, and pile them up j with old iron, unknown to the captain, who was away because his father was dying, and now they want to sink the vessel, and then go home and sell the plunder. That's about the size of it." " Come this moment and tell the captain of this scoundrel," said the purser, leaping up and locking his desk resolutely. " Now, avast heaving there, not just yet, 1 Mr. Purser, by your leave ; let tie thing 1 ripen a little; let me pick up what I cat) i in the fo'kasal, they don't mind a poor old beast like me." " What's all this ?" cried a shrill, spite- j ful voice, as the door was thrust violently | open. " Where is this purser fellow ? - j Who is it dares to disobey my orders ? j What do you mean, purser, by not serv j ing out this rum? No skulking here.- - j Thompson, go on deck, see all made taut i for the night, and the fog-bell rigged, or ; we shall be run down in this cursed fog." j Thompson slunk out of the cabin. The purser did not flinch ; he took his ; cap quietly from its peg. " Mr. Cardew," | he said, " I only obeyed the captain's or- j ders, and 1 shall continue to do so till j'ou take command of the vessel. I'm going on deck for a smoke before I turn in. Good night, sir." The mate's eyes became all at once blood shot and phosphorescent with a cruel light. " I tell you what it is, Pennant," he said; "if I wax your captain, I'd maroon you on an icaberg before you were five hours older, and I'd let you know first, with a good bit of pickled rope, what it was to disobey your superior officer" "Good night, sir ; threatened men live long. And perhaps you will allow me to lock up my cabin ? Thank you." With this good-humored defiance the purser ran, laughing and singing, up the cabin stairs. It was Sunday morning, and the ice-fog had lifted. The vessel had met with mere pancake ice, loose sheets thin as tinsel, but nothing more ; the wind blew intense ly cold as if from ice-fields of enormous size, but no bergs had been seen, and the captain, judging from the ship's reckoning, hoped still to make a swift and successful voyage, and to be the first to reach Que bec that season. The men were mustered for prayers in the state cabin. It was a pleasant sight to see them file in, two and two, so trim, with their blue shirts turned back from their big brown necks, their jaunty-knotted black silk neckerchiefs and their snowy white trousers, the petty officers in their best bluejackets, and all so decorous and disciplined, as they took their prescribed seats. Pleasant, too, it was to see the hardy captain in that wild and remote sea so calmly and gravely reading the chapter from the Bible relating to Paul's voyage, with an unconscious commanding-officer j air }f the ship-boy dared to cough, that j stern, gray eye nailed him to his seat ; if j the boatswain shuffled his feet, there was a ! reproving pause between the verses ; if I even the spray broke over the hatchway, j the captain was down upon it. The purser was the last *o leave the cab-1 in when the service was over. As he col-; lected the Bibles, the captain touched him on the shoulder. " 1 want a word with you, Mr. Pennant," lie said, sitting sorrowfully down at the table with his hand on his telescope, and his large prayer-book still open before him. " You are an honest, faithful fellow, and I want to ask you a simple question. Have you seen or heard anything lately that makes you think the first mate is playing double, and exciting the men to mutiny ? Yes or no ?" " Yes, captain." The captain did not lift his eyes from the table at this answer, but giving a slight, half-disdainful sigh, poured out a glass of watpr and drank it. then rose, shook the REGARDLESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER. TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., APRIL 12, 1866. purser by the hand, and looked steadily in his face. " Come up with nie, purser, on deck," he said, "and we will settle this matter at once. Some one has been altering the vessel's course,l feel sure, since the morn ing. If it is the mate, I will put him in irons. If it cost nie my right arm, I'll keep him in irons. I'm a fool not to have seen it all before. I was warned about that man in Liverpool." When the captain stood upon the deck, the chill, white ice-fog was again bearing down fast on the Shooting Star. It was bearing down with a spectral gloom that was depressing in a sea known to be still half blocked with ice-packs. A Sabbath calm reigned over the vessel. The men were lying down by the trim rope coils, eome reading, some conversing ; not a bolt-head or brass but shone as well as anything could shiue in that lurid light. The mate and carpenter were sitting near the wheel, looking at the advancing fog ; at the entrance to the fo'ksal were some men stretched out half asleep. The captain said not a word, but walked straight up to the man at the wheel, and looked at the compass. " Why, you're steering south," he said, quietly, "and I told uor'-uor'-west an hour ago." " I am steering as the first mate told me," said the fellow, sullenly. " I can't steer as every one wants me. If it was ni3' way, I'd 'steer home.'" The first mate, as the man said this, came up anil took the wheel from him in solently, as il in defiance of the captain. " Jackson's steering riglit," he said. " Right 3'ou call it," said the captain, storming. " I'm a plain man, and I like plain dealing Mr. Cardew, I've had enough of your ty'ing tricks ; let go the wheel, sir, and go to your cabin. Consider 3-ourselt under arrest for mutinous conduct. Purser, you are witness ; take this man down." Cardew still refused to let go the wheel. With the quickness of thought, the captain felled him with a blow ; in a moment the deck seemed alive with shouting and leap ing men. Five sailors threw themselves 011 the captain, three on the purser. The mutiii3' had had broken out at last. A cruel yell rang from stem to stern. All who fa vored the captain were in a moment, with curses and threats, overpowered and bound to the mast and rigging. " Now, Captain Kitson," said Cardew, as he rose with a yellow face, down which the blood streamed, and advanced to where the captain stood bound and pale with rage, "3'ou see I am stronger than you thought. If I choose, I could at once let you overboard with a rope and freeze you to death ; I could have you pelted with bottles, or put an end to in some other agreeable way ; but I shall spare 3'os now, to pa 3' you out better for that blow and other indignities. Last night you refused to join me in ni3 r sensible scheme for baffl ing the rascals who expose us to danger and then underpay us. Now I will not ac cept your partnership. O, you're a rash, violent man, though you are so pious ; where's your Providence now ? Come, rn3 T boys, leave these fools, and get out the wine ; we'll have a spree to-night, for to morrow we shall be on shore, and perhaps starting again for England. Come, get out this mail's brandy. U r e'll have a night of it. It's cold enough for these fellows, ain't it ? But it'll make them warm seeing us drinking.'' That night, as the liquor went round, and the songs circulated among the mutin eers to the doleful accompaniment of the monotonous and funeral fog-bell, the cap tain and seven friends lying bound against the frozen shrouds, the vapor lifted for a moment eastward and disclosed an aurora borealis that lit up all the horizon with a majestic fan of crimson anil phosphorescent light that darted upward its keen rays, and throbbed and quivered with almost super natural splendor. The electric lustre lit the pale faces of the captain and his fellow prisoners. "Why, here are the meny dancers," said the first mate, now somewhat excited by drinking, as he walked up to the captain, and waved a smoking hot glass of grog be fore bis face. "Why, I'll be hanged if tliey ain't the blessed angels dancing for joy be cause 3on and your brother saints will so soon join them. What do you think of Providence by this time, Kitson, eh ?" The mutineers put their glasses together, and laughed hideousty* at this. "Just as I always did. God watches us at sea as well as ty land," was the cap tain's calm reply. " I'd rather even now be bouud here, than change my conscience with yours Cardew. I'm a plain man, and I mean it when 1 sa3 T that it's no worse dying here than at home in a feather-bed. It is less hard to part with the world here." "O, if you're satisfied, I am. Here, glas ses round to drink to the Pious Captain. All his gang are here but that boy, that little devil Harrison ; search for him every where, men ; he mus'ntbe left ; if he is in the hold, smoke him out with brimstone ; never mind if he does'nt come out, he'll have his gruel if you keep the hatches well down." " A3', ay, sir," was the reply, with a bru tal and disgusting laugh ; and away the men went on their search, eager as boys for a rat-hunt. All hour after, all but the watch to toll the fog-bell, the mutineers on board tin- Shooting Star were sunk into a drunken and wallowing sleep. That night, from time to time, Captain Kitston kept his men's hearts up with cheerful words ; the cold was hard to bear, but they survived it.— When da 3' broke, tliey all united in pra3'er that God would allow them to die soon aud together. They had suuk into a torpid semi-sleep, when the sound of a gun through the fog, in the distance, aroused them. At the same moment, the loud taunting voice of the mate awoke the bound men to a sense of their misery and despair. " Good morning, Captain Kitson," said the mate. " Lord, lads, how chopfallen that smart fellow the purser is, aud look at those A. B. sailors, who used to sneer at you, and call you skulkers, loafers, and Liverpool dregs. How our fat friend the quartermaster must miss iiis grog ; hard, isn't it ? Captain Kitston, it is 1113- painful dut3 r to inform you (lower the two boats there, quick, meu, and stave the third)that we are about to leave this ship, which will Bink, as I am informed b3' my excellent Iriend the carpenter here, almost exactly three hours after our departure. A more pliant disposi ion and a more graceful con cession to those business arrangements, in which I solicited your co-operatiou, would have led to very diflerent results ; gentle men, that gun is from a vessel lying oft the ice-field which we are now skirting ; that vessel will take us up. How about that blow now ? We Lave moDey enough to pay for our passage. Farewell. Lower the boats there. Captain Ritson, I have the honor of wishing 3 r ou a pleasant voyage to heaven." Captain Ritsou made no answer till the boats were lowered. "God will avenge us if it seemeth good to him," was the only malediction he uttered. " Men, I thank God that I still trust in his mercy, and, worse come to worst, I am ready to die." "So am I," said the purser, "if I could only first look up and see that 3'ellow ras cal dangling at the yard-arm." " It's all up with us," said the quarter master. " I only wish the black villians 1 had given us oue noggin round before they left." An hour passed, the last sound of the re ceding boats bad passed awa3 r . The sai lors began to groan and lament their fate. " Have you aty hope left, Captain Rit son, now ?" said the purser, in a melanc.ioly voice. " 0 Jemy, Jeuny, my dear wife, I shall never see you again." "As for ny wife," said the quartermas ter, "it's no great loss. I'm thinking more of nyself. Oh, those villians." " I have to hope," said the captain, brave ly, " but lam ready to die. I trust in the mercy of God. He will do the best for us, and he will guard my poor chi dren." Just then, like a direct answer from Heaven, the fog grew thinner, and the sun slione through with a cold 3'ellow luster, showing the line of land for miles ; alas ! it was not laud, but ice-pack, miles of it, ris ing into mountainous bergs, green as emer ald, blue as sapphire, golden as cysolite, and stretching away into snow plains and valle3'B. The nearest cliffs were semi transparent, and glistened with prismatic colors, but in the distance they merged again into cold clinging fog. The nearest 1 ice was about two miles oft'. The captain looked at his companions, ! and tlicy at him, but the 3' did not speak, j their hearts were so full, for the water could be now heard gurgling and bubbling upward in the hold. "We have two hours more to live, and j let us spend it," said the captain, bravely, "in preparing for death. After all, it is 1 better than dying of cold and hunger, and j it is only the death us sailors have been j taught to expect at any moment." " I shouldn't care il it was not lor ny | poor old mother," said one of the sailors, j "but now she'll have to go 011 the parish, j 0, it's hard, bitter hard." " Fie, man," said the captain, with his un quenchable courage, "have I not ny chil dren, and the purser his wife. What must be must be, must be, —bear it like a man." At that moment a shrewd boyish face showed itself round the corner of the cabin stairs, and the next instant up leaped and danced Harrison, the ship's boy, with a sharp carving knife in his hand. He ca pered for joy round the captain, and was hailed with a tremendous shout of delight and welcome as he released the men one b3* j one, beginning with his master. " They thought 1 was in the hold, " he said, "diden't they ? but I was hiding un der the captain's sola all the time,and there I la3 r till I was sure they were gone. The vessel's filling fast, Captain Ritsou ; there is no time to lose. Hurrah !" "It is quite true," said the purser, as he returned from below with the captain. "We have one hour, 110 more, to rig a raft in, so to it my lads,with a will. The leak's too far gone, and we've not hands enough to make the pumps tell 011 it." The nn u were shaking hands all round, intoxicated with joy at their escape. "Come, men, enough of that. I'm a plain man, and what I say I mean," said the cap tain, alread3' himself. "We're not out of the wood yet, so don't holler. Come, set to at the raft, and get all the biscuts and junk those villains have left. I shall be the last man to leave the wessel. I sha'nt leave her at all till she begins to settle down.— Purser, get some sails for tents Quar termaster, 3'ou look to the grub. Harrison, you collect the spars for the men ; Davis, you see the work is sfi'oug and sure. It isn't the coast I should choose to laud on ; but au3' port in a storm, you know ; and, purser, you get two or three muskets and some powder and shot. We may have to live on sea-birds for a day or two, till God sends us deliverance,death, or a ship ; that is our alternative. Come, to work." The raft was made in no time. But the stores proved scant3 r . The scoundrel mate had thrown overboard, spoiled, or carried off all but three da3's' provision of meat, biscut, and rum. The captain had almost to be forced from the vessel. They had not got half a mile awa3' when the great ice pack closed upon it, just as she was sink ing. As the Shooting Star slowly settled down, Captain Kitson took oft' his cap and stood for a moment bareheaded. "There," said he, "goes as good a wessel as ever passed tiie Merse3" lights ; as long as she floated she'd have done Messrs Da vid and Blizzard credit." "Good by, old Shooting Star," said the men. "If ever a man deserved the gallows, it's that first mate of ours." The raft reached the shore safety'. "I take possession of this 'ere floating pack," said the captain, good-humordly, to keep up the men'< 4 spirits, as he leaped 011 the ice, "in the name of her blessed Majes t3', and I beg to christen it Ritson's Island, it it is joined on to the mainland, we'll wait aud see what the mainland is. I wonder if there are many bears, or puffins, or white foxes, on it. And now let's rig the tents, and then we'll measure out the food." The next day brought no hope. The pack proved to be of enormous size, and a deep [ ice-fog prevented its complete exploration. \ The food was fast decreasing. The few j penguins on the pack would not come with !in shot. Once the3 r saw a white bear, but ;it dived, and appeared no more. The men's hearts began to sink ; half the spars had ! been used up for the fires ; one day more and the fuel would be gone ; the rum gone ; I the meat gone Frost and starvation await ed them. There were now murmurs Once ! the captain came on two of the sailors who v. i re crying like children ; another time he observed the men's fierce and hungry looks as they watched the quartermaster cower ing under the tent, aud he knew too well $3 per Annum, in Advance. what those savage fires in their hollow eyes indicated. "It must come to the casting of lots for one of us," he heard them whisper. "Eve ry hour we can pull on gets us more chance of a ship." The next day the purser shot two pen guins, and ate greedily of the nauseous flesh. The fourth day the provisions were exhausted at the first meal. Then Captain Ritson stood up, his musket in his hand, for he had all this time kept watch at night like the other men, and shared every labor and privation. The quartermaster was la menting his fate. "If this voyage had only turned out well," he said, "I might have got a ship again ; for the firm promised me a ship again if I only kept from drink and did my duty ; and j this time I have done it by tuem, and 1 should have saved the vessel if it hadn't been for this mutiny." Captain Ritson hegan,— "Mr. Quartermaster, silence. This is no , time for crying over spilt milk. I dont wish to hurt your feelings, for you're an honest man, though you sometimes rather overdid the grog. I'm a plain man, and I mean , what I say, and what I say is this, —here we are, and we don't know whether it is berg or mainland, and no food left, —not a crumb. Now what is to be done ! We j hear the bear growl, and the fox yelp ; but if we can't shoot them, that won't help us I much. We must spend all to-day in trying ' for the mainlaud ; if we find the sea to the eastward, we must then turn back, commit ourselves to God, who directs all things in the heavens above and the earth beneath (you all heard me read that on Sunday,and I needn't repeat it), and take to the raft, whatever happens. But there's one thing 1 have to say, as a plain man, and that is,— if any coward here dares even whisper the word "caunibalish,"l'll shoot him dead with this gun I hold in my hand, and mean to hold day and night. We are Christien men, mind ; and no misery shall make wild beasts of us, while I arn a live captain—so mind that." The exploration destroyed the men's last hope. The mile's painful march only served to prove that wild tracts of sea, lull of shaking ice, lay between the pack and the shore. "I see something ahead like a man's bod dy," said the pursuer, who had volunteered to climb an eminence, and report if any vessel could be discerned. "It is partly covered with snow, and it lies on the edge of a deep hole in the ice " The party instantly made for it. Harri son, being light of foot, was the first to reach it, and to shout, — "O captain ! captain ! come here ! it's Philips, the carpenter, that went away with the mate." And so it was. They all recognized the hard bad face. An empty bottle lay by tin; body. "I see it all," said the captain. "He gut drunk, lie lagged behind, and they lost him in the fog. Some vessel has taken them off," "I wish it had been the mate," said the purser As he spoke, a huge black head emerged for a moment from the water, and all the men fell back and cried it was the Devil come for the carpenter. "Nonsense, you flock of geese," said the ! captain ; it was only a black seal. 1 only wish he'd show again, and we'd have a shot at him ; he'd keep us for two days. Now then, push on, for we must get on the raft and into the open sea before dark, and the Lord guide and help us." Slowly and silently the melancholy band, with only two sound-hearted men left among them, the captain and the purser, ascen ded the last snow hill leading to the shore, where the raft and the tents had been left six hours before. The sun, a globe of crim som fire, was setting behind banks of gray and ominous mist. Two of the men were now frostbitten in the cheeks,and lay down to be rubbed with snow by their compan-; ions. The captain strode forward alone to the ! top of the hill to reconnoitre. He was seen by them all striding forward till he reached the summit, but slowly now, for that giant of a man was faint with hunger and fatigue. The men sat down waiting for him to re turn, aud rubbing themselves with snow. ; He returned slower than he had ascended, feeble and silent. He did not look liis com panions straight in the face, but wrung bis hands, pulled his sou'wester over his eyes, and sat down by the tired men. Then he j rose gravely, with his old impregnable courage, and said, — "Men I bring you bad news ; but bear it like Christians. It's all sent for a good purpose. Our raft has been carried off by 1 a flow of drift ice. We have only a few hours to live. I'm a plain man, and mean what I say. Let us (lie with a good heart, and without repining. It is not our own j fault as to this." Two of the men uttered yells of despair, and threw themselves on the ground ; the ! rest seemed to actually grow smaller, and shrink together in their hopeless despair. The purser rocked to and fro, holding his hands. The quartermaster shook with the cold, and turned purple with fear. The boy burst into an agony of tears. "Come, men, let us light a fire," aud Cap tain Ritson. "We are not women. Let us collect any remaining wood, and, having prayed together and committed ourselves into liis hands (the captain took off his hat aud looked upwards), let us sleep and in that sleep, if it is His will, death will take us." But nothing could rouse them now. The purser, and the purser only, had strength enough left to collect the few pieces of driftwood outside the tents. It was like digging one's own grave, as the uight be gan to fall,and shut out the white cliffs and desolate tracts of ice. "Light it, Pennant," said the captain, "while we kneel round and commit our selves to Him who never leaves the helm, though he may seem to some times when the storm hides Him." The fire crackeled and spluttered ; then it rose a thin wavering flame. "Before this is burnt out, messmate we shall have started on another voyage, and pray God we get safely to port. Now, then, load all the uiuskets, and fire them at the third signal I give. If there is a vessel within two miles of the pack, they may perhaps hear us. One, two, three." The discharge of the five guns broke tin? ghastly stillness with a crash explosion. which seemed to rebound and spread from cliff to clig till it faded far away in the northern solitudes, where death only reign ed in eternal silence,and amid eternal snow "There goes our last hope," said the captain ; "but 1 am thankful I can still say, llis will be done ; and I trust my children to Llis mercy." "My wife don't need much praying for," said the quartermaster. "She'll fight her way, I bet." Just then the purser, who had been staring at the horizon, trying to pierce the gloom to the riirht, leaped on his feet, shouted, screamed, cried, embraced the captain, and danced and flung up his hat. Every one turned round and looked where he was looking. There the saw a light sparkle, and then a red light blazed up, and then a rocket mount in a*long tail of fire till it discharged a nosegay of colored stars. It was a ship answering their light j Then came the booming sound of a ship's gun. It was a vessel lying off the pack, and they were saved. An hour's walk (they were all strong enough now) brought the captain and his men to the ship's side. The ship was only three miles oft' along the shore, but the log had bidden it lroin them when they had returned to lay down and die. As honest rough hands pressed theirs, and helped them up the vessel's side, and honest brown faces smiled welcome, and food was held out, and thirty sailors at once broke into a cheer that scared the wolves on the opposite shore, Captain Rit- I son said : " Thank Cod, friends, for this : kindness. I'm a plain man, and I mean ! what 1 say ; but my heart's too full now to tell you all I fed. "Purser, 1 did loser hope just now, when I saw the raft carried oft". One autumn afternoon, four months la | tor, three inen entered Mr. Blizzard's office and inquired for that person, j " lie is engaged just now," said a new ; clerk (the rest had left ;,|and pointing to an | inner glass door that stood ajar. "Engaged | with Captain Cardew, of the Morning Star; | he sails to-morrow for Belize. Take seats.' The rauffled-up sailor-looking men took seats near the half-open door, through j which came low words of talk, j " Kiston was too reckless," said a disa greeable voice, "and quite lost his head in i danger." "No doubt," said another voice. "Take ; another glass of sherry, captain." i '• The purser, too, was not very honest, 1 fear, and very careless about the stores | By the by, did 1 ever tell you about that drunken quartermaster, Thompson, losing - that ship ot yours, the Red Star, oft' the Malabar coast. He had just returned from Quebec, so Seuuant told me, who sailed | witn him. lie had been sotting at Quebec, i and wheu the vessel returned, be said he wouldn't go. They found him obstinately drunk. Will you believe it, lie remained drunk the whole voyage till they came and I told him he was near Glasgow. Then he, , leaped up, shaved hinodf, put < n his last coat and a white tie, and went on shore t>> i see our agents, old Falconer and Johnson, fresh as paint. 11a ! ha !" The other voice laughed too. It was Mr. Blizzard,f rorn his throne of large capital ; he was probably about to replace a ledger, and consult the almanac, as he had done that afternoon four mouths before, i " You must make a better voyage with , the Morning Star than Captain Ritsou did with his unfortunate vessel," said Mr. Bliz zard. "Don't be afuid of the sherry." But Cardew never drank that glass of sherry, for'the <i r just then bursting ope i dashed the glass to pi. cos in liis hand, ar d Captain Ritson seized him by the throat. " I'm a plain man, Mr. Blizzard, sir," lie , said, " and I mean what 1 say ; but if ever j there was a mutinous, thieving, lying,false, 1 shark-hearted scoundrel, it is this man who | sunk the Shooting Star, and left me, and the purser, and six more of us, to die off Labrador on the ic< -pack. Purser, bring in that policeman, and we'll have justice dune !" ! At the next assizes, Cardew was sentenced to nine years' transportation for frauds on ! the house of David and Blizzard, and for j conspiring to sink the Shooting Star, and : part of her crew, off the coast of Labrador j A Liverpool paper, a few months ago, men tioned that a bushranger of the same name had been shot in an encounter with the ! mounted police. As the name is not a I common one, the busiirangei and the mate | were probably the same persons. The firm tried the quartermaster with an- I other vessel, and lie acquitt- d himself well; and as for Ritson, he is now the most re \ spected captain in their service. For the Reporter. EDUCATIONAL No. 1. COMMON SCHOOLS. — Our present system ' of Common Schools is based upon the idea that 1 Education should be the common inheritance of all | the youth of the State. The State undertakes to educate its own children : and truly, it can In - queath no richer legacy than Education. Its ben efits can not be over estimated. The school sy - j tern affords the iiieons to accomplish this noble ob ' ject, and places them within the reach of all—th ; poor as well as the rich. It does not offer educa tion as a gift, affords to all alike the opportunity of ■ '"•qnirutij it. If any remain in ignorance it is bc i cause they do not accept the benefits within their i reach. And it is a lamentoblc faet that all do : not aooept—that many in our own County i are growing up in comparitive ignorance, not | withstanding all the pains taken to educate I them. A large number entitled to school benefits j attend only in the Winter term many of these so ! irregularly as to scarcely 'hold their own" while ; others do not even have their names enrolled upon I the Report book. There is a wrong somewht r. We believe i owing more to the fault of the parents | than of the children. The latter are often kept at 1 home, or in the streets, because, at school, they I are required to submit to some kind of restraint, and their parents encourage them in so doing. The remedy to this ceil must be applied to society, i o j do this there must be a stronger public sentiment in ! favor of intelligence. Do you ask how this is to jbe awakened? By agitatatiou, by calling the at- I tentiou of the people to their oic/i interests} by dis | cussing educational matters, by holding edueation ;al meetings, and Teacher's Associations. Scatter I the school-law, and c ducutionel reading, among the I people. Ask of your law-makers that inteUiijenc ,be made a requisite to franchisement. Let the 1 Pres reiterate the truth that the future happiness of our country depends upon the proper education jof the young. Yes! "Keep it before the people that ignorance is synouymoys with •ri• . M hat a | vast improvement in public sentiment might be brought about, if every newspaper in the State would devote one column to educational intcrc -ts. The "leven would then come in contact with the ■ "whole lump. Our (Vmmon Schools, the li, s, j and the Pulpit, are the three great levers upon 1 which we must rely for the elevation of Society. These le\ers should work in perfect harmony. Let there be unity of effort Although our school sys tem is accomplishing much, there is much to ac complish. Let the friends of this system strive i o remove every "hindering cause" to its full effiei i eney. Now that "this cruel war is over," let us 1 trv to impart to our educational machinery, an or celernM motion. "Move direct upon the enemie's j works" and ignorance must begin to capitulate. ALPHA BETA . "BRIDE goeth before a fall. It trequeiit i ly goeth before a waterfall. NUMBER 46.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers