Utilising the Pig.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 10, 12 January 1895, Page 3

Utilising the Pig.

The? tell this story of the captain of an American coasting schooner, which was becalmed in a fog ofl Cape Cod. Ib was » genuine fog, of the same variety that the man inadvertently nailed an extra slate on to while repairing his roof. You couldn b see the end of the bowsprib from the foremast, and a man up aloft might have been tea milee from earth, for all thab he conld see. Nob a breath of wind was atirrin?, and the sails only flapped lazily as the vessel rolled on the swell. . The skipper was anxious, for be was nghO in the track of the steamers, and one in particular, of which his brother was captain, was just aboub due. He commanded the look-out to keep the tin horn Bounding vigorously. Alas ! bhe man carelessly laid bhe horn down on the rail for a moment, and it rolled overboard. The delinquent was treated to a liberal dose of profanity, bub of what use waa that 1 Presently the whistle of a steamer, and bhe noise of the paddles as they tore up the water, was heard through the fog. She wa3 evidently bearing right down upon them. Skipper and crew shouted till their lungs were edre, and beat on pans from the galley, but to no purpose. Every instant they expected to be sunk ■by the onrushing steamer. Suddenly the skipper's eye fell upon a lusty young pig, who was being transported in a temporary pen. la a trice that porker wbb dub; a powerful sailor gripped his tail with a pair of pincers and gave a twisb with the energy born of despair. And then what a squeal rent bhe atmoa« phere. •Keep ib up! Keep ib up ? yelled the skipper, as ho fairly danced with excitement. \ .. :-.. V ">■;

The blasbs of the steamer's whistle redoubled in frequency, and her machinery stopped. In a few moments her outlines emerged from the mist. Half the crew and passengers were on the forward deck ; and the captain shouted to the coaster's crew aa the vessel passed by a candid opinion of their ee&manehipj bub the ecisia w|jwi> t ,