228 



FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



Sacramento. It is not a little curious, also, that this very year she has be- 

 gun exporting fish to Sweden. One would have thought that like carrying 

 coals to Newcastle. But even stranger things may happen, 



"The exhibit of the Gloucester fisheries is, however, the most interesting 

 one of its kind in the Exhibition. It is by far the most complete, as it gives 

 an accurate idea of the growth from very small proportions to their present 

 gigantic status of the fisheries of the largest fishing port in the world. 

 Brave old Gloucester! There is almost poetry in these toy sails and mimic 

 wharves, and imitation seas spread out before the eyes of visitors to the 

 Exhibition, for they recall the many pathetic stories which we have heard 

 of the losses of good fishermen and their ships on the gloomy and treacher- 

 ous 'banks.' " 



I 



THE WIDOW'S APPEAL TO THE WINDS AND SEA. 



BY GEORGE H. PROCTER. 



"Winds, to your charge I give 



My bonnie fisher lad; 

 A treasure very dear to me, 



"Whose absence makes me sad. 

 He toils that we may live. 



His mother, sisters three, 

 "Widowed and fatherless, 



Made so by thee. 



Blow steady — let no gales 



Their fury burst upon 

 The craft which holds my boy, 



This darling, only son. 

 Gently the snowy sails 



Fill with thy wondrous breath, 

 And Avaft him back to me. 



And not to death. 



O sea, a boon I crave, 



Thou, too, must guard my boy; 

 Do not his graceful form 



To thy embrace decoy ; 

 But bear him safely o'er 



Thy pathless, billowy space, 

 That we may gladsome be 



At sight of that dear face. 



Buoy up his vessel well, 



Ye waves, your force subdue; 

 Ko sullen humors take, 



But to your charge be true. 

 Around the schooner's prow 



In tiny wavelets break, 

 O treacherous, heaving sea, 



For his dear sake. 



