Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/245

 Ten Days in Nantucket.

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��o clock, after Mr. Gordon and Tom had gone off with two gentlemen for a day's blue-fishing, she with Mrs. Gordon and Bessie started out for their morning's sight-seeing. In a half hour's time they had climbed the stairs to the tower, and were admiring the fine new clock — a gift from one of Nantucket's sons, now living in New York — which had been first set in motion two years before, to replace an old one which had told the time tor over half a century. A Httle farther up they saw the famous bell, and Miss Ray did wish that she could read Spanish so as to translate the inscription which was upon it. A few steps more brought them into the dome itself. Here, then, was the place where "Billy " came to sight the steamers ; and here was where a watchman stayed every night to watch for fires ; whenever he saw one, Bessie said his duty was to hang a lantern upon a hook in the direction of the fire and give the alarm. She said that this had been the custom for years. As they were all enjoying this finest view which the island affords, Bessie spied the Old Mill in the distance, and as she had that painted on a shell as a souvenir of her Nantucket trip she must surely visit it. So they were soon wend- ing their way up Orange street, through Lyons to Pleasant, and then up South Mill to the Old Mill itself. On paying five cents a piece, they were privileged to go to the top and look through the spy- glass, and also see the miller grind some corn. This old wind mill, built in 1 746, with its old oaken beams still strong and sound, situated on a hill by itself, was to Bessie the most pictur- esque thing that she had seen. She associated this with the oldest house on the island, built in 1686, facing the south, which she had seen the day before.

In the afternoon they continued their

��sight-seeing by visiting the i\thenaeura on Federal street ; they found it to be a large white building with pillars in front, on the lower floor of which ISIiss Ray was particularly pleased to see such a good library of six thousand volumes, and a reading-room with the leading English and American periodicals, the use of which she learned was to be gained by the payment of a small sum. Bessie was attracted to the oil- painting on the wall of Abraham Quary,. who was the last of the Indian race on the island. Then they examined in an adjoining room the curiosities gathered, together for public inspection. Here- they found the model of the " Camels," and also the jaw of a sperm whale,, seventeen feet long, with forty-six teeth and a weight of eight hundred pounds.. Bessie said that the whale from which it was taken was eighty-seven feet long and weighed two hundred tons. When Mrs. Gordon learned that this very whale w^as taken in the Pacific Ocean and brought to the island by a Nan- tucket Captain, she became as much interested in it as in the " Camels," for surely it had an historical interest. After an hour spent in this entertaining manner, they returned to their board- ing-place in time to greet the gentle- men who had come back with glowing accounts of their day's work, or rather pleasure, for they had met with splen- did success. Tom's fingers were blis- tered, but what was that compared to the fun of blue-fishing !

What particularly interested the la- dies was a "Portuguese man of war " which one of the gentlemen had caught in a pail and brought home alive. This beautiful specimen of a fish, seen only at Nantucket, their hostess said, and seldom caught alive, was admired by all, who indeed were mostly ignorant of the habits or even the existence of such

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