Raising the Wind.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 89

Raising the Wind.

Stranger: "I presume a man ivfl» has followed the sea so many years must jiave been in some wrecks?" Old Sea. Captain: "Well, a •few. TJ*e wusfr wrecks I ever had was on the Jersey coast." "Long ago?" ' "Some'at. Tou see, I got becalmed off the coast of Ireland." ( "Becalmed?" - "Yes. Well, I tried every way to start a wind, but it was no go. " Not a breath etirrin'. At last I got desperate." ' "I presume so." "Yes, I got so desperate I made up my mind I'd try a. plan I'd often heard of, if it took the last five-shillin'-pisco I had. Can't raise the wind without money." "It's a, good deal the same -nay en shore." "Jesso. Well, then, 1 took a big silver piece, kissed it three times, swung it nine times round my head, and then flung it as far as I could into the sea, in the direction I wanted the wind to come, you know." "I see." "Well, it came." '•It didi" "Did it? Well, you just ought to see it. The fust blast took every stich o' sail dean off the yards, an' in three minutes more- we was scudding under bare poles a thousand miles an hour." "Cricky!" "I sh'd say. so. Well, the nex' thing I knew, bump went 'er bow, an' theTe we was bcin* dashed all to bits square up agin Jersey. Why, sir, we struck with such foj^e we bounded fvay up the beach, an' walked dry-shod right into a hotel." "I never heard of that." ."N —o; the season was over an' the hotels was closed. Well, sir, after that I never tried no more five-shUlin'-pieces when I wanted wind." "I suppose not." "No, sir- After that I never flung anything bigger'n a threepenny-bit."