368 



TEE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



December 



OH FCR 



METHING TO READl 



And it's oh for a i5ible or saving tract, 

 A history, nowl or two, 



The ponderous tomes of the sages of old- 

 Medicine, law wuald do; 



A paper, a panii)lilet, a magazine 

 To stifle tlie tlioughts that rise. 



For the niina niusl teed, as the body does, 

 Or, like the body, dies! 



Then it's oh for Dickens, Thackeray, Sue 



And Lever and Lover's fun. 

 The stately style of the scholarly Burke 



Or Hugo by tlie ton! 

 There's Shakespeare, Lytton and Dumas pere. 



And tils of famed "Camille;" 

 Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant and Poe— 



They ring of the truest steel. 



IThen it's oh for a book of some kind tonight! 



This slave is my only friend. 

 Like friendship, too, it is brittle and thin; 



Once broken, hard to mend. 

 But with friends in books you ne'er fall out. 



They're true in hour of need 

 Bo come, add a year to my time, if you will, 



But give me a book to read. 



— Philadelphia Times. 



THE RAINBOW'S LUCK 



BY C. B. LEWIS. 



During the palmy days of the whal- 

 ing fleet no craft sailing out of any port 

 was referred to as often as the bark 

 Rainbow. Her history from beginning 

 to end was a curious one, and it would 

 be hard to And an old whaleman who 

 hadn't heard it half a dozen times over. 



The ship Wanderer went whaling 

 from the port of Bristol, commanded by 

 Captain Joseph Watkius. She was out 

 18 mouths and never took a whale. 

 Four of her crew died of fever, three 

 were killed by accident, and the ship 

 returned so wrecked that she was sold 

 for a collier. The owners lost heavily, 

 of course, and Captain Watkins was 

 called a Jcuah and could not get anoth- 

 er craft. Cne day whfu he was digging 

 in his garden he unearthed three jars 

 which were filled to the brim with gold- 

 pieces, and which had been buried for 

 perhaps a century. His find footed up 

 about $90,000, and with the greater 

 portion of the niouey he built and fitted 

 out the bark Rainbow. Instead of ship- 

 ping a crew on shares he paid by the 

 mouth, and thus set out on his first voy- 



age with I he ) ci-t seamen of Bristol. 



On the sec; nd day after leaving port 

 the bark c;aiK' across a dead whale float- 

 ing about v.bi^h yielded 80 barrels of 

 oil. On the fifth day, just as the decks 

 had been cleared up, she came upon the 

 scene of a fight between five whales 

 and seven cr eight of that species of 

 fish known as the killer, which is the 

 mortal enemy of the leviathan and the 

 only known one he has in any sea. The 

 bark hove to and let the fight go on, 

 and when it was. over she had two dead 

 whales to tow alongside and added 150 

 barrels of oil to her cargo. In four 

 months from the day she left Bristol 

 she entered port again, having a cargo 

 of bone and oil which sold for more 

 than $30,000. In addition to that she 

 brought home the complete skeleton of 

 a whale 85 feet long, for which the 

 British museum paid $5,000 in cash. 



The lucky voyage of the Rainbow 

 created much talk, and when Captain 

 Watkins was ready to set sail again he 

 had to turii sailors away by the hun- 

 dred. This time the crew was shipped 

 on shares, and no man had reason to re- 

 gret it. In 1 50 days the bark was back 

 in Bristol with 2,870 barrels of common 

 oil, 320 barrels of "case" or fine oil, 

 and the larg^ st cargo of baleen, or whale- 

 bone, ever brought to port by a whaler 

 She had not lost a man, boat or a sail. 

 Everybody was astounded over the luck 

 of a man who had been out a year and a 

 half in another ship to meet with noth- 

 ing but disaster, and the name of Cap- 

 tain Watkins was heard whenever two 

 sailors met. He had money enough to 

 enable him to live comfortably the rest 

 of his days, but he was persuaded to 

 make one more voyage. On this third 

 cruise the levuithans of the deep seemed 

 to hunt for the ship. In 15(5 days she 

 made the port ot bnstoi with a cargo 

 worth $(i,000 more than either of the 

 preceding ones. 



When tlie Rainbow had completed 

 her third voyage, C;aptain Watkins de- 

 termined to remain ashore. There were 

 so many men who wanted to buy the 

 lucky ship that she was put up at auc- 

 tion. JVieu eame trom every seaport in 

 England aiul Scotland to bid on her, 

 and the prue was run up until she sold 

 for $5,0UU more thau she had cost to 

 build. She was but lu by a Bristol firm, 

 and the cau.maud ot her given to a Can- 



