Article August 9, 1952 Issue

DON'T HAUL IT ABOARD!

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

BERENICE JACOBS GRIMMER

Many years ago the writer lived with her family on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, where they all spent many happy hours on the warm, placid water. The fishermen sometimes encountered strong currents, but she herself had never encountered anything but pelicans flying overhead and porpoises leaping on the surface. However, she had never ventured beyond the pier and always thought the current must be far out.

One bright May morning this same writer was walking on the bulkhead with a sister when their two younger brothers overtook them with an invitation to take a row before breakfast. All four eagerly climbed into a boat and followed the shore line carefully for perhaps half a mile.

Suddenly the larger brother spied a life preserver floating on the water. They stopped, and the smaller boy dragged it aboard gleefully. Then both boys bent to their oars. Nothing happened, except that the boat moved in a lazy arc. The boys rowed harder, but made no better progress. Then the younger boy began to cry, the sister grew very fearful, and they all thought they must be caught in the treacherous current.

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