STAGECOACH, PACKET, AND RAILWAY. 



443 



interesting anecdote of the Belle is told, occurring about 

 forty years ago. She had a pleasure party of a score or 

 more upon a warm summer day ; and after catching a few 

 codfish, she returned to anchor just outside of the harbor, 

 while they might cook the chowder. In the afternoon 

 a tempest suddenly arose and the company was driven 

 into the cabin. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the 

 packet. The blow shattered the mainmast, and Charles 

 A. Cousens, who was standing below with his hand rest- 

 ing against it, was stunned. The consternation in that 



Head of the Cove, i£ 



Photo, G. n. Roberts. 



crowded cabin may be imagined. Chowder and lightning 

 did not make an agreeable mixture. 



Another packet was the sloop Hattie J. Averill, run by 

 Captain Henry Collier, carrying freights of every sort, 

 farm produce, lumber, sand, anything wherever trade might 

 call him in Massachusetts Bay. 



The Lycena, which followed the days of the schooner 

 Belle, was skippered by William V. Creed, and the suc- 

 cess of the little craft may be guessed when it is known 

 that this packet took mortgages off from three or four 

 houses by her earnings. 



