Old Jim.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

Old Jim.

(Colleen Brnwno. T>nniolt Avenue, Kpsom. a ire 13.) Old Jim was a sailor, at least, he had been in his younger days. He still thought of himself as one, although he only rowed around the little bay in a dinghy, fishing with a. piece of string and a bent pin, as he was too poor to buy a good fishing line. He still clung to a sailor bat and a white shirt, although tlic latter had lost much of its original colour, being dirty and having a fishy smell. All the villagers knew liitn; there was always a smile on his ruddy face, and a twinkle in his bright blue eyes. He spent most of his time fishing and making model sailing ships, which he put in bottles. At three every afternoon, when lie had finished his pipe and read the paper, he would tell the village children storie*. His favourites were tales of pirates, smugglers and hidden treasure. ' Old •Tim lived in a tiny cottage on the edge of a high Hi IT, which had n little garden full of hollyhocks and marigolds, arid a crazy path. It was fenced in by a small wooden railing, with a little white, rioketv gate. Some of the "well-to-do"' folk of tinvillage hated Jim beyond all words, and planned to turn him out of his home by putting up the rent. As they thought, old .)im had to leave. He went aboard a tramp steamer and lived a happy life for a while, but to the jov of most people, when he had saved a little, lie returned to the cottage on the cliff.

But now tlio stone stops which lcil up to tlic cottage have been worn down. The rickety <ruti* has fallen off its hinges, and the fence has rotted away. The windows arc hung with cobwebs, and tin; curtains have been eaten I>y the moths. Hollyhocks and marigolds arc confused with weeds, and are blocking up the doorway. The grass is lift high, for no one lias ever bothered to cut it. Part of the cliff has fallen away, ami old Jim's fortune, which he buried, is at the bottom of the sea.

The children, who are children 110 more, often creep up to the workshop which he had, to take a peep at the sailing ships, which have never !>cen touched for ten years, or more. Kvcrythinjr is just now it was left, even to the half-smoked pipe on the manteland the dirty plate in the kitchen sink. Hardly anyone knows of the little cm)tajje. for the tree« hide it, but the memories of old Jim remain.