THE BRIDE'S RETURN.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4310, 13 November 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE BRIDE'S RETURN.

A>. OL: ' MA/."S TALE." "Ruih. ii-c ic»ri«;»-r's maid, was srastruck. hkt; I've a-heard say they gets stage-si-ui k nowadays. Her'd be out 011 the ratio' Ware Head both day an night, watching the boats in an 1 out o" the Roads, till the fishermen named her \Y are Beacon, an' said if her watched 'em out 'twould bringt em luck. An' it did; I've a-proved it. 'Here, boy.' the t'ariner'd call me. 'Go'n tell the maid that if her isn't in to dinner be time I've finished, there's none for her.' An' there wasn't, nuther, though maybe he'd linger bit over it. "By'm-bye her took to going down to beach for to see if any o' the pigs there was fit for farmer to buy an' salt-in—so her'd say—an", taking her food 'long wi' her, her'd bide there all day, an' half the night too if the weather was dirty an' the boats not home. Haul "em up. lier would, like any man ,an' you'd sea her there most days, making or nionding nets. " Dan'l Biscoe named his new trawler the Ruth after her. Wild chap, he was, wilder than most Waremen is, or used to be. His first wife, they said, died o' worrying about 'en. his doings to sea an' ashore; which may well have been, 'cause her was a wished puling body by all accounts. Not but what he was a good fisherman an" earned good money. He was always lucky, an' he'd go to sea when never another boat did dare to put its nose round the Head. ■'Nothing would satisfy Miss Ruth but to go to sea in the Ruth. 'Twas known as Ruth's Ruth, that boat, an' it come'd to farmer's ears that 'twas so. He said her should never go out in her, n'eet go down to Ware beach any more, an' threatened to lock her up. But when the new trawl was ready, I mind lier creeping away from the farm tine evening wi' some food an' extry clothes under her arm.

'"'Twas a night, thie night. The sea were roaring under cliff, an' when farmer sent me clown to Ware village for to find out what was become o' her. the spray was flying right over the Head. I was only a boy, an' got frightened. 'Twas such a rush an' a roar wi' it all.

'■ Bout midnight DanTs boat drove in. They were half-drowned aboard, Ruth most of all. Her hadn't no shift o' clothe.s, an* anyhow 'twasn't no fit time for her to trudge up over the Mead, so DanTs mother puts her to b. j cl in DanTs house, an" stays there 'long wi' her. "'Farmer heard o' it, o' course. Xext day. when Ruth -her clothes dried—comes home, he meets her. barring the eatewav, an' says—"Xo fish to-day, thank you, fishwife." That's all he said, but 'twas his way of saying it. Her know'd her wasn't to go back there 110 more. "Meeting me later oil in the day. her says—Peanu •. can "ee walk ten miles?" "' Ay, Miss.' says I. for I'd have up an' followed her anywhere. Her was that sort. " 'l'm going to my aunt's, to Otford.' her says: an' Dan'l's coming down in our lKiat for to marry mo an' fetch me home by sea. I'm going to sad home, her says. iike a fisherman's wife ought to. Pearnie, boy. come on!" An' with the same, us started. " They was married to Otford Church, an' the wedding party- walked 'long wi' 'em down to Otford Cove, where the Ruth was hauled up, for to help shove 'em off. Ruth shoves, too. an' jumps in over the l>ows like any fisherman, wedding dress an' all, an' helps hoLst sail. 'Good-bye!' her calls. 'Walk home, quick, Pearn : e.' Her wouldn't have none aboard for to help sad the boat

but her an' Dan'l. Blowing northeasterly, 'twas, an' squally. From the top o' Steep Head I watched 'em beating homo, sitting together in the stern. Wi' my own eyes I saw a squall catch "em off "Ware Head, an' the Ruth go over. I saw it. I say—you knows how gently a boat capsizes to them what's looking on.

""When they picked Dan'l up there was nothing to be seen o' Ruth; an' nothing was seen o' her until six days afterwards Dan'l's little boy runs in house, saying. 'Daddy Biscoe, the pigs be eating my Ruth.' '' '"What, oh eel?' says Dan'l's mother. "But Dan'l, who was up to bed, 'onn-e he couldn't sleep nohow by night—Dan'l heard, an' Dan'l know'd. |God!" he shouts, running from his bed just as lie was. Down to beach he goes, an' thero he finds his bride wi' the pics fighting—fighting for possession o' her. Aye! an" they followed 'en right up street, grunting an' .snorting to his very door, a?, he carried her home to his house.

"That was-the Bride's Return." —Ste ph.en Reynolds, in one of his "Longshore Sketches" in the "Westminster Gazette."