Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/174

158 “There are the Floyd Ireson women,” said Nora,

“And after all, poor man, they say now that he did n’t do what Whittier thought he had done when he wrote that poem.”

“Oh, what was it?” There was considerable eagerness in Brenda’s voice.

“Well, they thought that he sailed away from a Marblehead vessel that had sprung aleak [sic] in Chaleur Bay. That was the report that was spread in Marblehead, that he had refused to help the sailors who were in danger of drowning. So when he reached Marblehead, the women tarred and feathered him, and rode him  around the streets in a cart. That part of the story is true enough, and so it is n’t so strange, perhaps, that  Whittier should have written a poem about it. But it’s a pity, too, for it was afterwards shown that Skipper  Ireson himself wanted to go to the help of the wreck,  only his sailors would n’t let him. To save themselves from blame, they told this story about him. But anyway the whole thing was n’t quite as bad as it seems in the poem, for the men on the sinking vessel were finally  rescued by another vessel that passed their way.”