James Otis - The Light Keepers - A Story of the United States Light-house Service

"The appointment of light-house keepers is restricted to persons between the ages of eighteen and fifty, who can read, write, and keep accounts, are able to do the requisite manual labor, to pull and sail a boat, and have enough mechanical ability to make the necessary minor repairs about the premises, and keep them painted, whitewashed, and in order. After three months of service, the appointee is examined by an inspector, who, if he finds that he has the qualities needed at that especial station, certifies that fact to the Light-House Board, when, upon its approval, the full appointment is issued by the Treasury Department.

"Although but one grade of keeper is recognized by law, usage has divided keepers into a number of grades, with different pay as well as different duties, and with promotion running through the various grades. At one light-house there may be but one keeper; at another, a principal keeper and an assistant; and there is a station where there is a principal keeper with four assistants, the fourth having the lowest grade and the lowest pay, and the others having been appointed at that grade, and promoted as merit was shown and vacancies occurred; or they may have been transferred and promoted from another station.

"Although persons are appointed to the service and assigned to a given station, they are frequently transferred from one station to another, as the interest of the service may demand, and while it is usual to consult a keeper's wishes in his assignments, there is nothing in the regulations to prevent the transfer of a man appointed in Maine to a station in Georgia; and occasionally keepers are, with their own consent, transferred from one district to another at a great distance. Young men who have seen some sea service are preferred as assistants at the larger stations; and at stations requiring but one keeper, retired sea captains or mates who have families are frequently selected.

"Keepers are forbidden to engage in any business which can interfere with their presence at their stations, or with the proper and timely performance of their light-house duties; but it is no unusual thing to find a keeper working at his station as a shoemaker, tailor, or in some similar capacity, and there are light keepers who fill a neighboring pulpit, who hold commissions as justice of the peace, and there are still others who do duty as school teachers without neglecting their light-houses.

"The Board has done much to make keepers comfortable. They are furnished with quarters for themselves, and in certain cases for their families, and when so far distant from market as to make its carriage equal or exceed its cost, with fuel and rations. Suitable boats are furnished stations inaccessible by land; and at those stations on shore, distant from markets, barns are built for their cattle and horses. Something also has been done for the intellectual needs of the keepers and their families by supplying them with libraries. These are arranged in cases so constructed that they make rather a neat appearance when set upright on a table, and they need only to be closed and locked to be ready for transportation. They contain on an average about fifty volumes each. One of these libraries is left at a station for some three months, when it is exchanged and passed on to another station. This is usually done when the inspector makes his quarterly inspection; so each of the stations to which libraries are furnished sees some two hundred different books each year."

"Now you can see that we keepers must have some backbone to us, else we couldn't get the appointment, or, getting one, wouldn't hold it very long," Captain Eph said in a tone of satisfaction when Sidney ceased reading, and the lad, at a loss for reply to such a remark, asked:

"Are you all sailormen here?"

"Ay, lad, an' have all been soldiers – there's no need of tellin' you that much in Sammy's case. I've been cap'n of a fisherman nigh to ten years, an' my last cruise Uncle Zenas sailed with me as cook, while Sammy gave an imitation of bein' mate. We went inter the army together, an' have grown up amongst each other, so to speak, till we're jest like three Siamese twins. You won't ever hear any yippin' or scoldin' from us, for – "

"Ahoy there!" came in angry tones from the kitchen. "Are you goin' to let a good dinner go to waste jest because you're too lazy to come down an' eat it? I don't count on keepin' the table set a great while longer, for I want things kind'er ship-shape in case Sonny's father should tumble in on us unexpected-like!"

"That's Uncle Zenas," Captain Eph said in a whisper. "You might think, to hear him howl, that he'd lost his temper; but bless you, lad, he's as mild as a suckin' dove."

"I suppose we ought to go down as soon as we can," Sidney suggested timidly, "for even if he is mild, it sounds as if he was growing angry every minute."

Uncle Zenas was shouting to Mr. Peters, speaking more sharply than he had to the keeper, and Captain Eph said with a feeble attempt at a smile:

"I reckon we'll mosey along, lad, jest to keep him from worryin'," and the cook's superior officer made all haste to gain the kitchen, Sidney following close at his heels.

If Uncle Zenas had really lost his temper because the keeper and first assistant had not answered the summons to dinner as quickly as he thought they should have done, there was no trace of anger on his fat, placid face when Captain Eph and Sidney entered the kitchen.

Mr. Peters had moved so rapidly after the cook called, that he was already at the table, apparently ready to make a vigorous attack on the food before him; but waiting for Captain Eph to ask a blessing upon the food, as was the regular custom.

As a rule the old keeper's words were few at such a time, but on this day he prayed at considerable length that the lad who had so suddenly come among them be kept from sin and bodily harm, and that the father's mind be relieved speedily from the burden of grief which weighted it.

During the unusually long prayer Mr. Peters had been moving uneasily in his chair, and no sooner was the last word spoken than he asked abruptly:

"Have we got any gasolene among the stores, Captain Eph?"

"If Uncle Zenas hasn't wasted it there should be a couple of gallons left over from the last lot I bought with our own money. It does seem strange that the Board can't be brought around to the belief that it's cheaper to use an oil stove in the summer, than be messin' with coal, which is unhandy to get into the tower, an' bad stowin' in sich small quarters as ours. Why did you ask, Sammy?"

"I was thinkin' that if we didn't speak some kind of a craft pretty soon, an' I got the lad's boat into trim, he an' I might run over to town. The way I look at it, we're bound to get that report into the inspector's hands right away, else the West Wind may have gone to Porto Rico an' back before word can be sent to her captain."

"I ain't so certain but that might be a bit risky," Captain Eph said thoughtfully. "If we could leave Sonny behind, where there's no chance of his comin' to harm, it would be all right; but neither of us know how to run the motor."

"If we picked a fine day, it ought'er be done without risk to anybody, for I'm allowin' the craft could make the round trip in four hours, an' give us time to run up to the post-office," Mr. Peters replied eagerly, and it could readily be understood that he had already arranged the details in his own mind.

"How long will it take you to put the boat in shape, Sammy?" Uncle Zenas asked, after waiting in vain for some word from the keeper.

"If the weather holds as it is now, I can have her in prime condition day after to-morrow. Think you could run her a dozen miles or more, lad?" he asked of Sidney, and the latter replied without hesitation: