LIBRARY 
 
 University of California 
 
 IRVINE
 
 LOVE AND ROCKS
 
 LOVE AND ROCKS 
 
 BY 
 
 LAURA E. RICHARDS 
 
 AUTHOR OF " CAPTAIN JANUARY," " MELODY," 
 " FIVE-MINUTE STORIES," ETC. 
 
 BOSTON 
 ESTES AND LAURIAT 
 
 MDCCCXCVIII
 
 Copyright, 1898, 
 BY ESTHS AND LAURIAT. 
 
 dolmual 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
 Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
 
 TO 
 
 lames anfi fHatn Bnrstota 
 
 THIS STORY IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 DEDICATED.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. MENONQUIT . . . .11 
 
 II. "ALL WE LIKE SHEEP " . 25 
 
 III. ON THE BEACH .... 35 
 
 IV. THE BLACK WOODS . . .51 
 V. SOUVENT FEMME VARIE . . 67 
 
 VI. THE ROCK HOUSE ... 80 
 
 VII. "QuE LES BEAUX JOURS SONT 
 
 COURTS " 98
 
 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MENONQUIT. 
 
 A SQUARE, gray house, substantial 
 and roomy, perched on a crag ; the 
 front windows looking down on the white, 
 rock-framed beach, the harbour, and the 
 black mass of Toluma Island opposite; 
 while the back windows command the 
 village street, and the gray fish-houses, 
 with their pleasant confusion of lobster- 
 pots and ropes and boats. This house is 
 the Influence, the oldest house on Menon- 
 quit Island, formerly the home of many a 
 stately sea-king, of the early fishers and 
 mariners of Menonquit, now owned and
 
 12 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 kept by Mrs. Treherne, the bright-eyed 
 and cheery descendant of those kings. 
 This is Mrs. Treherne, standing on the 
 verandah this bright June morning, and 
 the young person beside her is Miss Mary 
 Weymouth, who has come to spend a month 
 on the island of her love. She is looking 
 very cross, which is a pity for so pretty 
 and agreeable a girl. She has seen in the 
 narrow entry of the inn a strange trunk 
 standing beside her own, and her soul is 
 filled with bitterness. 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Treherne ! You wrote me that 
 no one else was here. You know I told 
 you that I wished positively to be alone if 
 I came." 
 
 " And no one else was here, Miss Wey 
 mouth ! " responded the landlady, promptly. 
 " I wrote you the truth, and I expected no 
 one till the end of the month; but this 
 young gentleman came here all by himself 
 last night. He was with friends on board 
 a yacht, and got them to leave him here. 
 He wants to be alone, too, and desires
 
 MENONQUIT. 1 3 
 
 nothing but quiet. Real pleasant, he 
 seems! his name is 
 
 " Oh, never mind his name, Mrs. Tre- 
 herne ! I dare say we shall not interfere 
 with each other. I suppose I can have my 
 meals alone, can I ? And did you remem 
 ber the room I liked so much last year?" 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! " said Mrs. Treherne. 
 " It is all ready for you ; and, as for 
 meals, the gentleman was particular 
 about having his meals an hour before 
 every one else, and he expects to live 
 outdoors most of the time. I dare say 
 you won t set eyes on each other from 
 one day to another." 
 
 " I dare say not ! " said Miss Weymouth. 
 " But it is exasperating, all the same ! " she 
 said to herself, when she was left alone 
 in her own room, the corner room that 
 looked out over the great south down and 
 the sea beyond it. 
 
 "I did think I could find solitude on 
 Menonquit in June. Why could not this 
 stupid person have been left on Ma-
 
 14 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 tinicus, or at Christmas Cove, or Owl s 
 Head, or anywhere else but here ? 
 
 " There he is now ! " and she drew back 
 from the window, taking refuge behind 
 the muslin curtain. 
 
 " Harvard, if ever I saw it ! Humph ! 
 Yes, not a doubt of it. John Harvard, 
 sir, is what I shall call you, since luckily 
 I did not hear your other name. Oh, you 
 tiresome creature ! " She shook her head 
 and retired, as the young man came up 
 the steps of the Influence. He was a 
 stalwart, broad - shouldered fellow, who 
 walked lightly enough, yet set his feet 
 down with weight and purpose. There 
 may have been a slight Harvard swing to 
 his arms, though people can swing their 
 arms elsewhere, it has been asserted. 
 
 He came into the hall, whistling 
 "Toreador," his brown eyes shining, his 
 face alight with cheerfulness ; but came to 
 a dead stop before the two trunks in the 
 entry. His face fell. 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " he murmured. " I didn t
 
 MENONQUIT. 15 
 
 bargain for this, you know. They told 
 me there wasn t a soul on the island ex 
 cept the people themselves." 
 
 He surveyed the peaceful trunk with 
 profound disgust, which deepened as he 
 read the legend upon it. 
 
 " M. W., Smith College." 
 
 " I ask you, is a person called upon to 
 endure this ? I wonder at you, Miss 
 Smith ; yes, I do ! Miss Smith you 
 shall be to me. You probably dislike 
 the name, and anything to give pain, as 
 Michael Finsbury says. But to think of 
 my not letting Tom come ashore with 
 me, because I wanted to try it alone, and 
 do a lot of thinking, and then having 
 to foregather with Smith College. My dear 
 miss, you must not expect it ! " And mut 
 tering unseemly remarks concerning edu 
 cational establishments for women, this 
 young gentleman went in to his supper. 
 
 Next morning the trunks were gone 
 from the entry, and the young man, 
 coming out on the verandah for his
 
 1 6 LOVE AND ROCKS. " >. 
 
 after - breakfast smoke, had almost for 
 gotten the newcomer, till he caught a 
 glimpse of a slight figure in a short blue 
 skirt and jacket, with two long braids of 
 hair hanging down, and a Tam-o -Shanter 
 cap atop. The girl s face was turned 
 towards him for an instant only, but he 
 saw that it was rosy and youthful, with 
 a pair of wide-open blue eyes, and a. 
 determined little mouth. He gave an 
 inward whistle as she disappeared. " Six 
 teen, and pretty ! I looked for twenty- 
 eight, and spectacled. A forward chit, 
 indeed, to be frisking it alone on islands ; 
 but so the century closes ! And, after 
 all, there is no one for her to run away 
 with, if she were so minded." 
 
 He tramped up and down the verandah, 
 smoking cheerfully, trying to whistle at 
 the same time, and making elaborate plans 
 for an all-day sketching tramp. 
 
 Mary Weymouth, waiting at the corner 
 for a chance to slip by unseen and get 
 away, regarded him with unfriendly eyes.
 
 MENONQUIT. I/ 
 
 " Oh, you stupid ! Why can t you smoke 
 your horrid pipe somewhere else ? Block 
 ing up the way like this ! I wish they had 
 a chair of sense at Harvard ! It s dis 
 graceful ! " 
 
 Finally, out of all patience, she waited 
 till the stranger turned his back, and then 
 fairly ran across the verandah ; and, as 
 the young man turned again, he saw her 
 light figure, black against the glowing 
 sky, flitting over the hill. 
 
 "Exeunt pigtails!" he said. "The 
 child avoids me ; tis well ! " and he 
 waved his pipe in salutation. " Be good, 
 sweet maid, and continue to shun my 
 baleful presence 
 
 Flower o the peach ! 
 Death for us all, and his own life for each ! 
 
 And after all, one small girl is not so 
 much matter on an island three miles 
 long." 
 
 Mary Weymouth, never looking back, 
 took her way down towards the south
 
 1 8 LOVE AND ROCKS. ~ V- 
 
 rocks. " Just for ten minutes ! " she 
 said to herself. " Just ten minutes con 
 versation with the shrimps and crabs, 
 then the yew-hollow, and reflection ! " 
 
 The island lay green and fair under 
 the June sun, ringed with its black rocks, 
 which struck sharply against the tossing 
 blue of the sea. In the harbour, if so . 
 one may call the narrow gut which lies be-; 
 tween the island and its sister, Toluma, 
 the water was smoother than outside, and 
 here the fishers were busy in their boats, 
 hoisting sail and standing out to sea; 
 some of them were already out and away, 
 and their sails shone in the sun like 
 patches of gleaming snow. 
 
 Mary Weymouth stepped from rock 
 to rock, now singing bits of sea-song, 
 now talking to herself. She was happy. 
 All winter she had longed for the island. 
 She had seen it last year for the first time, 
 though its name had been familiar all her 
 life ; her people had come from here, 
 started from here to California, far back
 
 MENONQUIT. 19 
 
 in the forties. And when she came, in 
 those first homesick weeks before the col 
 lege term began, and with it the new, 
 strange life, - lo, it was a home to which 
 she came. 
 
 All the stories that her grandmother 
 had told her, all the wild pictures her 
 child-mind had formed of the lonely is 
 land, sea-beaten and wind-swept, which 
 her grandfather left because he did not 
 love the fishing 
 
 (" But his heart stayed there, my 
 dear ! " said Grandmother Weymouth. 
 " His heart stayed there, and he longed 
 for it all his life.")- 
 
 These things had made the black rocks, 
 and the free hilltops, and the deep-bos 
 omed valleys, welcome her as their own 
 child. She felt that it was all her own, 
 her birthright, her heritage. 
 
 The island people were her friends by 
 inheritance ; she would make them so 
 by love, give her only a little time alone 
 with them. But for the strangers, the
 
 2O LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 summer visitors, the artists, and the rare 
 excursionists, Mary felt a fierce scorn. 
 She called it hatred, but she was only 
 twenty. She had passed them with head 
 held high, and eyes that saw nothing. 
 What business had they here, on her 
 island ? They had no graves in the gray 
 enclosure on the lighthouse hill. No 
 voices called to them from cliff and wood 
 and vale. Why could they not go to the 
 Isles of Shoals, or anywhere else, and 
 leave her alone with her own ? 
 
 So when this summer came, with its 
 great question to decide, she had flown 
 like a bird to her mountain, the very hour 
 college closed, feeling sure that now she 
 should have her island all to herself, and 
 could wander and think at her ease. 
 
 Well, and after all, of course it 
 was annoying, but how was one young 
 Harvard sprig to interfere with her? 
 Now that the matter of the meals was 
 settled, and there was no actual need of 
 their ever coming in contact, she could
 
 MENONQUIT. 21 
 
 forget him, or consider him in the light of 
 a post. 
 
 The rocks gleamed black and wet 
 where the tide had gone down. The 
 little pools were gay with green and 
 crimson mosses, and alive with all man 
 ner of cheerful inhabitants ; below, the 
 foam came curling up, caressing, inviting. 
 How pleasant it would be to sit and dip 
 one s feet 
 
 " No ! " said Mary, with decision. " No ! 
 I am going to the yew-hollow. I said I 
 would reflect, and I will ; and it would 
 not be possible here, with everything 
 making eyes at me like this." 
 
 She struck upward over the down that 
 heaved its great shoulder towards the 
 south end of the island. By and by she 
 came to a little dell that lay open to the 
 sun, with the sea looking in at one end. 
 The bottom was a plot of russet grass, 
 with water twinkling wherever a sunbeam 
 struck; the sloping sides were covered 
 with a dense mat of trailing yew. Mary
 
 22 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 threw herself down on the elastic bed, 
 and inhaled its fragrance with deep 
 breaths. 
 
 " Oh, good ! Oh, native ! " she cried. 
 " I was born here, one of me. Just smell 
 it, will you ? And taste ! " she added, 
 plucking one of the gray-blue berries, and 
 crushing it between her teeth. 
 
 " Talk of the almond and rose of Da- 
 mascus ! H m ! Let them come here ! 
 No ! Let them stay away, I mean. And 
 now, let me think ! " 
 
 The question of a career ! What should 
 she do with her life ? It lay before her, 
 as the sea lay here ; these gates of green, 
 with the blue shining beyond them, were 
 the gates of womanhood opening before 
 her. Yes ! she must decide now, and 
 shape the three years of college yet re 
 maining to fit the future towards which 
 she looked. That was why she had come 
 here to the island ; to be alone, to think 
 and to plan. Yes ! 
 
 How blue the sea ! Was that the mail
 
 MENONQUIT. 23 
 
 schooner, just in sight? The Captain 
 ought to have had a great " chance," 
 such a morning as this. 
 
 Literature ! There was a field ! One 
 of the greatest in the world. And talk 
 ing of fields, that green knoll where she 
 had seen the sheep huddled together 
 this morning would be a lovely place 
 to sit in ! 
 
 Literature ! or medicine ! Only one 
 didn t like drugs, and they were finding out 
 such horrible things every day. One could 
 no longer enjoy the privacy of one s own 
 bones. And talking of drugs, was there 
 any drug or spice so sweet as this yew ? 
 Could not some wonderful balsam be made 
 from it that should cure all diseases, nerves 
 and things ? " And there came no more 
 any such spices as the Queen of Sheba 
 brought to King Solomon." This might 
 be Balsam of Sheba, or Solomon s 
 Strength, or anything alliterative. 
 
 The sun beat down on the yew bed, 
 and fresh puffs of warm perfume crept
 
 24 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 from it. The scent was going to her 
 head ! Perfumes used to poison, did 
 they intoxicate first ? The sun was very 
 warm literature a great field full 
 of brown grass and yew 
 
 Silence ! The sea lapping on the crags 
 below. The girl asleep under the summer 
 blue, white gulls wheeling above, white 
 clouds floating, silence ! 
 
 " Literature ! " said Mary again, sitting 
 up straight and looking about her wide- 
 eyed. 
 
 A new fragrance was in her nostrils ; a 
 faint blue smoke hung near her in curling, 
 fading rings ; was it could it be 
 tobacco smoke ? 
 
 And just beyond the seaward end of 
 the dell, a loose stone rolled from under a 
 hasty foot, and went dropping down from 
 ledge to ledge till it plunged in the water. 
 Then silence again. 
 
 " Impertinence ! " said Mary Wey- 
 mouth.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " ALL WE LIKE SHEEP " 
 
 IT is difficult to do much deep thinking 
 when one is exploring the country of 
 one s heart. Mary Weymouth started out 
 every morning with her heart full of cour 
 age and her head full of ideas ; she came 
 back at night rosy, happy-eyed, uncon 
 scious of anything save the sea and the 
 rocks, the rocks and the sea. 
 
 To-day, for example, she was deter 
 mined to consider the subject of education 
 as a profession. Learning should be her 
 comrade, and she would think from morn 
 ing till night of a teacher s life ; put her 
 self into it as into a frame, and look at 
 herself. After all, what could be more 
 useful than teaching, and for what could 
 she so well fit herself ?
 
 26 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 Starting out, she met the children of 
 the village on their way to school ; and 
 full of pleasure and friendly impulse, she 
 stopped to exchange greetings with them. 
 Some of the children replied cheerfully, 
 others hung their heads and put fingers in 
 their mouths, while others still fairly ran 
 away when she asked how they liked their 
 school and what were their favourite les 
 sons. 
 
 She would change all that, if she taught 
 children ; and she shook her head gravely 
 as she climbed the hill. Her pupils should 
 learn from the first to be gracious, courte 
 ous to strangers, full of smiles and cor 
 diality. Perhaps she might better begin 
 the day by going to the school, talking 
 with the teacher, perhaps suggesting to 
 her these ideas. No ! On the whole, the 
 afternoon would do as well, and it would 
 be wicked to spend such a morning as 
 this within four walls. 
 
 Graciousness ! It was a duty that every 
 one owed to his fellow beings here the
 
 "ALL WE LIKE SHEEP " 2/ 
 
 young lady looked up, and saw coming 
 towards her the fellow being who was also 
 her fellow lodger ; and she turned off into 
 the field, and almost ran up the hillside, 
 over the brow, into the hollow beyond. 
 
 Seated on a comfortable boulder, she 
 reflected, and became aware of inconsist 
 ency in her behaviour. Graciousness ! It 
 was a duty that every one owed 
 
 " Oh ! I can t help it ! " she said, shrug 
 ging her shoulders. " I must be allowed 
 to live ! " and then she looked about her, 
 and the place possessed her. 
 
 The rocks ran in long, gray ridges, 
 climbing up here and there into pinnacles 
 and cairns. Between the ridges the grass 
 was green as emerald, and water trickled 
 everywhere in silent rills, or stood in pools 
 to catch the sky. Wherever the green 
 was broken, the soil showed black and 
 rich like peat. 
 
 Old, twisted firs stood here and there, 
 like crabbed green dwarfs, guarding the 
 fairy hollows. " I was born here ! " cried
 
 28 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 Mary, spreading her arms wide to clasp 
 the brightness and the beauty of it. Then 
 she stepped along from tuft to tuft of long 
 grass, feeling the water pleasantly cool 
 through her canvas shoes. Presently 
 she came to where a granite ridge had 
 been rent apart, and formed a gateway ; 
 she passed through this, and found her 
 self in a pretty place indeed. 
 
 The gray rocks shut in a space some 
 twenty feet across either way ; the grass 
 was firm and short and green, how 
 green ! That was all, grass and granite, 
 and a sky burning blue overhead ; but 
 the rocks huddled together in all possible 
 shapes, quaint or solemn, and here and 
 there were clefts between them, running 
 back into blackness, suggestive of all 
 manner of delightful mystery. 
 
 One such cleft invited Mary to explore 
 it. The entrance was low, and she must 
 creep in on hands and knees; but once 
 inside she could sit upright, and fancy 
 herself a fair anchorite in a cell of the
 
 "ALL WE LIKE SHEEP 2Q 
 
 Thebaid, studying the question of edu 
 cation. 
 
 " It smells a little sheepy," she said, 
 " and it might be convenient to stand up 
 or turn round once in a while, say every 
 seven years or so, but on the whole an 
 enchanting place ! I can certainly medi 
 tate here, for there is nothing to capture 
 the eyes, only good, solid stone wall, and 
 the peep of blue and green outside. Now 
 I will think about education in good ear 
 nest. Gracious ! What is that ? " 
 
 She listened and looked, and looking, 
 felt her blood turn slowly to ice. 
 
 Into the little rock-parlour from which 
 she had just retreated stepped an active 
 figure that Mary already knew too well. 
 Pipe in mouth, sketching tools in hand, 
 humming "Toreador" through his 
 teeth, John Harvard came ! Oh, dis 
 traction ! oh, horror ! the hateful, odi 
 ous man ! he was sitting down, he was 
 opening his sketch-book, he was actu 
 ally establishing himself for the morning !
 
 3O LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 Seated with his back turned squarely 
 to the cave, facing the entrance of the 
 rock-parlour, the young man drew a deep 
 breath of satisfaction, and addressed the 
 universe. " Comfortable ? Yes, thank you ! 
 I do believe this the prettiest bit I have 
 found yet. No vile humanity to disturb 
 the fantastic pannicles ! " And he fell to 
 sketching, with ardour, the entrancing 
 view framed by the stony gates; the 
 black fir that leaned across, the shimmer 
 ing foreground, the living blue beyond. 
 
 What was to be done? The ice in 
 Mary s veins melted, glowed, turned to 
 liquid fire. If she could only rush out, 
 with a shriek that should paralyse him, 
 should prevent him from turning round ; 
 rush out, and past him, and away ! But 
 there was to be no rushing. She had 
 crept in forwards, she must creep out 
 backwards, on her hands and knees. 
 Well, she would not do that ! She would 
 sooner die in the cave ! 
 
 This being settled, Miss Weymouth
 
 "ALL WE LIKE SHEEP 3! 
 
 became aware of cramps in her foot ; 
 she was sitting with it doubled up under 
 her, for there was not room to stretch 
 both feet out. She remembered reading 
 how an actress, Miss Cushman, was 
 it ? to help her sister, smitten with 
 stage-fright, crouched motionless in one 
 position for half an hour. Oh, well, but 
 if you came to that, there were the In 
 dian fakirs, who held their arms up 
 straight till they stiffened. Oh ! oh ! 
 but Mary was not a fakir. Slowly and 
 cautiously she drew her foot out ; it 
 struck a pebble, and sent it rattling to 
 the entrance. She held her breath ; but 
 the sketcher took no notice. 
 
 " To re ador ! " he sang abstract 
 edly, mixing shades of blue, with one eye 
 on the horizon. Mary noticed that he 
 had a delightful voice, and hated him 
 the more for it. 
 
 " Oh, you goose ! why can t you go out 
 of the door?" she muttered under her 
 breath.
 
 32 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 It was her back now ; the rock was 
 sticking into it, hard and knobby. The 
 smell of sheep grew stronger. Oh ! why, 
 why had she ever got into this dreadful 
 little hole? She could not stay here all 
 the morning ; she should die ! 
 
 How long had she been here now ? It 
 seemed hours. If she could only sleep ! 
 She shut her eyes, and repeated Shelley s 
 " Hymn to Night," as she had been ad- 
 vised to do when her nerves required 
 soothing. Then she parodied it : 
 
 " Swiftly walk into the western wave, 
 
 Hideous fright ! 
 
 Off from the entrance of this cave, 
 Where all the long and lone daylight 
 Thou keepest me a prisoner here, 
 In sheepy dungeon, dark and drear, 
 Swift be thy flight." 
 
 But sleep did not come, and the aches 
 grew and multiplied ; and at length it 
 came over Mary that she could not bear 
 the situation any longer. She must come 
 out ; she did not care what happened.
 
 "ALL WE LIKE SHEEP 33 
 
 Softly, slowly she began to move back 
 ward towards the mouth of the cavern. 
 If she could only get out, get upright on 
 her feet before he turned round ! Vain 
 hope ! Another pebble rattled and rolled, 
 another ! 
 
 "Hallo!" said John Harvard. He 
 turned, and his bright, dark eyes looked 
 directly into the cave. 
 
 " Something in there ! Sheep ! Come 
 out, sheep ! Come out, I say ! " He was 
 looking about for a stone to throw, with 
 a view to dislodging the intruder, when 
 a voice came from the depths, icy and 
 tremulous : 
 
 " Do not throw stones ! I am com 
 ing out ! " 
 
 The voice broke off suddenly ; the 
 young man did not hear the sob, but he 
 felt it. He sprang to his feet and pulled 
 off his cap, keeping his back carefully 
 turned to the cave. 
 
 " I beg your pardon ! " he said. " I m 
 awfully sorry ! You you are sure you 
 don t need any help ? "
 
 34 LOVE AND ROCKS. ~ v 
 
 Mary tried to say, " No, thank you ! " 
 but the words would not come out 
 straight. She crept out, the pebbles 
 rolling to right and left, scrambled to 
 her feet and turned to flee; but in the 
 rocky gateway she paused. Her breath 
 was coming painfully short and quick, 
 but she pulled herself together, and said, 
 with tolerable distinctness, " I thank you,, 
 sir, for your considerateness." 
 
 " May I turn round now ? " asked John 
 Harvard, meekly. 
 
 " Oh, of course you may ! " cried Mary, 
 angrily. " Good-morning ! " 
 
 He turned quickly, but not quickly 
 enough ; the last fold of a blue skirt 
 fluttered and vanished. Hasty feet fled 
 away over the down towards the shore. 
 
 " Miss Smith," said John Harvard, " / 
 call that a scurvy trick ! "
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE BEACH. 
 
 FOR some time after this Mary lived 
 in peace. She had no further 
 trouble from her fellow lodger. Per 
 haps he was exploring the further end 
 of the island; at all events, he came no 
 more to her favourite haunts. Only in the 
 evening she would hear his springing step 
 and his cheery whistle, as he came run 
 ning up the steps and passed through 
 the narrow entry on his way to the dining- 
 room. He never so much as looked in at 
 the parlour door ; and being thus safe 
 from annoyance, Mary gradually got into 
 the way of listening for the whistle and 
 the light, firm tread. He was a punctual
 
 36 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 creature, she acknowledged ; really almost 
 as good as a clock. One night, it is true, 
 she was very angry, because he stood 
 under her window and sang for an hour. 
 It was full moon ; he stood by the ve 
 randah rail, and certainly he was very, 
 good-looking, and graceful, and his 
 voice was enchanting. Still, it was im 
 pertinent ; not that she really supposed 
 he was audacious enough to fancy that she 
 was listening to him, but still, even the 
 proximity to her window, and the absence 
 of any one but herself to whom he could 
 sing, in short, it was an impertinence, 
 and Mary was furious. She did not go to 
 bed very early, it was full moon, as I 
 said, and the glory of it unspeakable ; and 
 when she did, all was silent except the 
 sea, and the last song was ringing in her 
 ears. It had a quaint little refrain, evi 
 dently a song of Stuart times, Mary 
 thought. She was rather well up in 
 Stuart songs ; she had taken a course in 
 them this very year.
 
 ON THE BEACH. 37 
 
 " Oh, it s never yet the blade I met 
 Could prick to bring me pain. 
 
 Oh, it s never yet the maid I met 
 I sighed to meet again. 
 
 Then it s hey ! for a horse ! 
 
 A hound and a horse ! 
 
 And over the hills away. 
 
 For he who d seek 
 
 A velvet cheek, 
 
 He rides not with me to-day." 
 
 When Mary came down the next morn 
 ing, she was still in a fine little glow of 
 indignation, she did not know exactly at 
 what. Mrs. Treherne greeted her with 
 a corresponding glow of delight. 
 
 " Well now, Miss Weymouth," she said, 
 " it is a thousand pities you didn t hear 
 my concert last night." 
 
 " Your concert ? " repeated Mary. 
 
 " Yes, all my own ! " said the good 
 landlady, beaming. " Twas while you 
 were down to Cap n Avery s, I expect. 
 The other boarder, he sat out on the 
 porch and sung to me, as much as an 
 hour. Oh, there ! he does sing beauti-
 
 38 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 ~" 
 
 ful ! You might go to a dozen concerts, 
 and not hear anything as much to my 
 mind. I sat inside the door, I don t 
 dare to sit right out in the air, for fear of 
 rheumatism, and he stood there by the 
 rail, and well, it was like a bird and an 
 organ, both together. There ! I did wish 
 you were where you could have opportu 
 nity to hear too ! How quiet you came 
 in ! I never heard a sound. But you re 
 always quiet." 
 
 " Thank you ! " said Mary. " Ap 
 parently you would like me better if I 
 were noisy, Mrs. Treherne." 
 
 " Now, how quick you are ! " said Mrs. 
 Treherne. 
 
 But except for this little flutter, Mary 
 was now very happy. The people of 
 the village, finding that she was one of 
 themselves, by descent at least, took her 
 into their hearts and homes. Many a 
 happy hour she spent sitting on an up 
 turned boat with Captain Simon or Cap 
 tain Price, listening to wild tales of storm
 
 ON THE BEACH. 39 
 
 and shipwreck, or to quieter stories of 
 life on the island. The fishermen s 
 wives, too, made her kindly welcome to 
 their firesides. There was always a baby 
 she could hold, or a skein of yarn to 
 wind, or quilt pieces to sort ; and sitting 
 thus, she learned the story of many a 
 brave, faithful life. She made the ac 
 quaintance of the Oldest Inhabitant, a 
 sweet and gracious woman, crowned with 
 all the beauty of age ; and from her and 
 Mrs. Treherne, always her good friend, 
 she learned to know her own forebears 
 as she could not have known them else 
 where than in this home where they had 
 toiled, and struggled, and died. 
 
 But still, best of all, she loved to 
 wander alone over the windy hills, and 
 climb among the fantastic rocks, and sit 
 beside the clamorous sea. And she was 
 at home everywhere, and everywhere 
 happy. 
 
 One morning, quite early, she was sit 
 ting beside Captain Price, watching the
 
 4O LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 mending of his boat, and knitting a sock 
 for Mrs. Price s new baby. They talked 
 of the island, as usual ; there was no 
 other subject for Mary in these days. 
 
 " There s good folks on the island ! " 
 Captain Price said, as he whittled pegs. 
 " Take em by and large, they are good 
 folks. Different, of course, different, 
 no two alike in the Lord s fish-nets, 
 but take what I see over on the main, 
 I ve been about consid able, and 
 what I see here, and give me the island 
 every time. None of your pork and sun 
 set fellows here." 
 
 " Captain Price, what do you mean ? " 
 asked Mary. " Pork and sunset ? " 
 
 "Well, it s an expression, Miss Wey- 
 mouth," responded the Captain, slowly. 
 " It s not an elegant expression ; maybe I 
 shouldn t have used it, speaking to a 
 lady, but it means something like this : 
 Over on the main, you go into a factory, 
 say ; and you see a lot of fellows working 
 away, and most of em s working good,
 
 ON THE BEACH. 4! 
 
 and laying down and doing their durn 
 doing the best they know how. That s so, 
 ain t it, here in New England ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! " said Mary, heartily. 
 " I am sure it is, Captain Price." 
 
 " Well, I observed so ! " returned the 
 Captain. " That s where my observa 
 tions brought me to, in general. But 
 here and there, in that same lot, you ll 
 see one fellow, pity if there should be 
 two in one gang, - you ll see one who 
 keeps settin back from his work, and all 
 the time reason good to give for it. He 
 has to get a drink you d think they 
 was fish, sometimes, though any one on 
 this island would heave em back into 
 the water, the way they drink. Or he 
 wants to know what o clock it is, or he s 
 got a stitch in his back, or something or 
 other. Whatever excuse he can get up, 
 that man is always settin back, and wait- 
 in for the whistle to blow noon, and then 
 for it to blow night. All he wants is to 
 stop off work ; and that man is spotted
 
 42 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 by the other men, and they call him a 
 pork and sunset man. That means he 
 ain t no good. Well, what I say is, we 
 have none of that sort on this island, 
 Miss Weymouth, and we don t want any." 
 
 " I should think not ! " said Mary, smil 
 ing. 
 
 " Then, " the Captain went on, sight 
 ing carefully along his peg, "then there s 
 the summer folks." He paused with a 
 side glance at the young girl. 
 
 " Oh, you need not mind, Captain 
 Price ! " cried Mary, eagerly. " I am not 
 a summer person, you know ; nothing of 
 the sort ! I belong to the island, just as 
 much as if I had been born here." 
 
 " That so ? " said the Captain, with a 
 slow, gratified smile. " Well, I m pleased 
 to hear ye say so. It s an honour to the 
 island ; or so I consider it. But these 
 summer folks, now," - he waved his hand 
 towards a shadowy host, Mary could 
 almost see them trooping up from the 
 schooner, with groans over their " bad
 
 ON THE BEACH. 43 
 
 chance " coming over, " I don t hardly 
 see what some of em come here for. Of 
 course, there s those that every one on 
 the island is glad to see, and sorry to see 
 go, and hoping they ll come again. But 
 the other kind, who come to see some 
 kind of show, it appears as if, I have 
 no desire for their acquaintance, Miss 
 Weymouth, and I should be free to tell 
 them so, if manners allowed. It s not 
 agreeable for folks that have lived here 
 all their days, and done as best was give 
 them to know how, it s not agreeable 
 to be looked at as if they was some kind 
 of Injun, or fust cousin to a moose. Now 
 is it ? " 
 
 Mary shook her head vehemently, and 
 would have spoken, but the Captain went 
 on with another wave of his hand. 
 
 "Go over to the main there, and 
 nobody takes notice of ye, more n of 
 another person. No horns, or tails, as I 
 know of, to an island man ; pass in the 
 crowd for a real person, every time. But
 
 44 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 come over here, and they stare at ye as if 
 they expected ye to be blue. Perhaps tis 
 because they are green ! " he added, with 
 a chuckle. " Now, they was a young man 
 come here last summer. Green ? why, 
 grass was yeller beside him. He come 
 here, and he was sea-sick, and home-sick, 
 and love-sick, all three together." 
 
 " Poor thing ! " cried Mary. " How 
 pitiful ! " 
 
 " Well, that is the word, Miss Wey- 
 mouth ! " said the Captain. " Pitiful he 
 was ; and took a lot of photographs, and 
 tried to make up to Susetta Harlan. 
 Wrote poetry, I m told, about an island 
 maiden. Why, he didn t know one end 
 of a fish from the other, Susetta said ; and 
 asked her if a cod s sounds were melodi 
 ous ! Well, there s all kinds ! " He medi 
 tated for a moment, then, brightening up, 
 added : 
 
 " That s a very different sort of young 
 man you ve got down to Mis Treherne s, 
 now. There s what I call a gentleman, if
 
 ON THE BEACH. 45 
 
 I see him carrying a hod on a ladder. 
 Chock full of sense, with an eye in his 
 head ; and so pleasant, you feel like 
 hurrah boys ! every time you hear him 
 speak. And understands a boat." 
 
 On this final word he paused. " There 
 was na moore to say ! " 
 
 Mary saw that a reply was expected 
 from her. 
 
 " Oh yes ! " she said, hastily. " That 
 is, I hardly know but, Captain Price, I 
 should think you would be jealous of 
 every one who comes here. Why, I hate 
 them, myself, and I have only been here 
 a few weeks; but it seems half a life 
 time, and I cannot bear the thought of 
 going away. How can you ever bear to 
 go to the main, to go inland, and lose 
 sight of the sea? I should think you 
 would stifle for want of your own air." 
 
 The Captain gave a short laugh. 
 
 " Maybe you are right, Miss Wey- 
 mouth," he said, slowly, " but we don t 
 always feel that way ourselves. It s dif-
 
 46 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 ferent, you see, coming for a spell, from 
 what it is to summer and winter right 
 along. Why, I remember a time good 
 many years ago tis now when I got 
 downright sick of the island, and the sea, 
 and the whole thing of it. I suppose 
 likely I wasn t over and above well ; any 
 how, it come over me strong that I d had 
 enough sea for one spell. Seemed to me 
 that if I could only get away off up coun 
 try somewheres, out of sight and sound of 
 it, and lay under an apple-tree and eat 
 apples, all the apples I wanted, it 
 seemed to me that would be about as near 
 heaven as I could imagine this side of 
 Jordan." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Mary. " Oh, how strange ! 
 And did you go, Captain Price ? " 
 
 "I went," said the Captain, nodding 
 with deliberate emphasis. " I went over 
 to the main, and I went up country quite 
 a ways, and hired out to a farmer. Well ! 
 twas a place shut in like a box, with 
 mountings all round it ; over Camden
 
 ON THE BEACH. 47 
 
 way, but inland, you see. The man was 
 as close as a hungry lobster. We lived 
 on salt fish that wouldn t be given to no 
 island pig that was desired to fatten. I 
 never see a pound of fresh fish while 
 I was there. Rank fish, and pork and 
 no sunset," he added, with a twinkle, " be 
 cause of it s being shut off by the mount 
 ings. It was a terrible place." 
 
 " And the apples ! " cried Mary. " Did 
 you have the apples, all you wanted ? " 
 
 The Captain laughed again, his short, 
 dry laugh. 
 
 " The apples were green when I went 
 there," he said ; " and green apples never 
 suited my internal legislature. Soon as I 
 saw one that looked friendly, I ate it ; 
 and he saw me, and threatened to put me 
 in jail if he caught me with another." 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! the miserable wretch ! And 
 then, Captain ? " 
 
 " I went away next day," said the Cap 
 tain. " I went and bought a peck of 
 apples of the man on the next farm, and
 
 48 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 came and sat down on the old man s fence 
 and ate em, and threw the cores into his 
 dooryard. He was proper mad, but he 
 didn t dare to say anything, for he knew 
 I was mad too, fighting mad. Then I 
 came back to the island. I d had enough 
 of the main for one while." 
 
 They were silent for a moment, each 
 enjoying the story in his own way. Then 
 the old man said : 
 
 " And you do feel to regard the island 
 as your belonging to it ? Now that is a 
 pleasant thing, surely ! That gives pleas 
 ure to the mind. And you ve been 
 about, pretty much nigh all over it, have 
 ye ? Have you been in the Black Woods, 
 I wonder ? " 
 
 No, Mary had not heard of the Black 
 Woods. Where were they, that she might 
 find them at once, this morning, this 
 moment ? 
 
 Captain Price laid his pipe beside his 
 jack-knife, pulled out a bit of string, and 
 made an elaborate chart of the island.
 
 ON THE BEACH. 49 
 
 " Tis quite a piece on from here ! " he 
 said. " You have to go round the big bog, 
 remember; you couldn t get through it, 
 no way in the world." 
 
 " I see ! I understand ! " cried Mary, her 
 eyes shining with the joy of the explorer. 
 " Here I strike off to the northeast ; yes, 
 I am sure I can find the way." 
 
 " I don t hardly know ! " said the Cap 
 tain. " I don t hardly know as you d 
 better try it alone, young lady. The 
 woods are thick, mighty thick. We can t 
 have you getting lost, you know. That 
 would never do ! Suppose you wait and 
 let me go with you, when this rheumatism 
 lets up a little in my joints ! " 
 
 Mary thanked him, and said that would 
 be delightful. Then suddenly recollecting 
 some important business that must take 
 her directly back to the Influence, she 
 bade the Captain good-by, and thanked 
 him so prettily for all the pleasant things 
 he had told her, that she left the good 
 man in a little glow of pleasure. He
 
 5<D LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 watched her as she took her way up the 
 beach, noting her light step and the pretty 
 way she carried her head. " That s what 
 I call a lady ! " said the Captain to his 
 pipe. 
 
 In less than an hour Mary was on her 
 way to the Black Woods.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 
 
 MARY went by dale and down, her 
 heart full of joy. She was to find 
 a new place, one whose existence she had 
 not suspected. She had gone around the 
 island on the rocks, and across it over 
 the hills, but this place, as the Captain 
 described it, lay hidden behind a high 
 shoulder that she had not yet climbed. 
 She had always been stopped by the great 
 moss, the quaking bog that spread its 
 broad, treacherous surface of tufted green 
 well-nigh across the middle of the island. 
 She had not known of this way round; 
 now she was sure of her path, and she 
 trod on air. But when she came near, 
 and left the green, smiling meadow, and 
 saw the woods rising before her black
 
 52 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 " 
 
 and grim, her face grew grave, and the 
 little song died on her lips. This was no 
 place to laugh about ! 
 
 Spruce and fir, fir and spruce, knotted 
 and tangled and twisted together in dense 
 masses. The trees never of great height, 
 but often of enormous girth, stunted giants, 
 reaching out massive, distorted limbs to 
 lock with their neighbours . Every tree 
 was bearded with moss, and crusted thick 
 with black and gray lichens. Here and 
 there was a dead one, bleached and naked, 
 unable to fall, the stark form held upright 
 by the close ranks of the living. 
 
 An awful place, Mary thought; but 
 how beautiful ! how unearthly lovely ! 
 The rocks thrust themselves up through 
 the thin soil in fantastic shapes, the 
 gnomes that watched the hidden treas 
 ures of this fairy forest ; and they were 
 clad in the fairies fatal green, moss so 
 rich and so delicate that Mary could not 
 find words for it, could only stroke and 
 pat it with murmurs of delight.
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 53 
 
 "Perhaps this is the most beautiful of 
 all ! " she said. " I don t say positively, 
 but I must think about it. Oh ! and will 
 you look ? " she broke off short, for on 
 the rock at her foot the bright moss was 
 all embroidered with rose-colour, fine, 
 quaint patterns, traced in tiny buttons of 
 pale pink coral. Fungi, were they ? what 
 a stupid language English was, to have 
 no lovely word for so lovely a thing ! 
 
 Progress was necessarily slow through 
 the Black Woods. Mary s eyes were in 
 constant peril from the interlacing twigs. 
 She had often to force her way along, 
 taking her whole strength to it, bending 
 back the stubborn branches, like twisted 
 rods of iron, that barred her way at every 
 step. Once she came very near her end. 
 So absorbed was she in fighting her way 
 through these ranks of silent, bearded 
 sentinels, that she did not hear the sound 
 that was growing nearer and louder at 
 every step, till suddenly light shone in 
 upon her ; the woods broke off short, and
 
 54 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 the rocks fell away from her feet, and 
 there was the sea leaping and shouting 
 a hundred feet below. 
 
 It may be that this rather shook our 
 Mary s nerve ; or it may be, on the other 
 hand, that she grew careless, and over 
 confident. However it was, she had not 
 gone very far back from the break in the 
 woods when suddenly her foot caught in 
 a wandering loop of fir-root. She stum 
 bled, tried to save herself, and finally 
 came heavily to the ground. 
 
 She was stunned for a moment; then, 
 her eyes clearing, she tried to rise has 
 tily, but sank back with a cry of pain. 
 
 She had sprained her ankle. 
 
 "What shall I do now?" said Mary 
 Weymouth. 
 
 She was a resolute girl, and at first she 
 was contented with feeling positively sure 
 that she would get home somehow. She 
 must ! 
 
 She tried to stand, but found it impos 
 sible. She tried to hop on the other foot,
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 55 
 
 but this made the pain so distracting that 
 she cried out again, and sat for some time 
 rocking backward and forward, like a hurt 
 child. 
 
 " Well, then, I must creep ; that s all ! " 
 she said ; and she started on her hands 
 and knees, being nearly three miles from 
 home, in the middle of a tangled wilder 
 ness. 
 
 Any one who has tried to drag a 
 sprained ankle through a rough forest 
 will have some idea of what she was 
 attempting ; any one who has not, is not 
 recommended to try it. 
 
 After ten minutes of agony, Mary had 
 made a progress of three rods. She 
 became aware that if she persisted she 
 should soon faint, and there would be an 
 end of it ; so she gave up the battle, and 
 set her back against a tree, and waited. 
 
 At first she could not think. All the 
 world was throbbing with anguish, and all 
 that anguish centred in her ankle, which 
 was punishing her cruelly for the treat-
 
 56 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 ment it had received. But when the pain 
 quieted a little, she considered her posi 
 tion. She was nearly three miles from 
 home, as has been said. It had taken all 
 her strength to make her way through 
 this stubborn wood, when her strength was 
 rejoicing through every limb of her ; now 
 she was disabled. No one was likely to 
 come this way ; it was out of the track of 
 the island people, a place given up to 
 savagery, which busy men were glad to 
 let alone. What would become of her ? 
 
 " I certainly don t want to die here ! " 
 said Mary. She laughed as she spoke, 
 but it was rather a dreary little laugh, and 
 the trees did not take it up. She won 
 dered what time it was ; she had forgot 
 ten her watch. Near dinner-time, surely, 
 for she was hungry. Well, Mrs. Treherne 
 would wonder why she did not come to 
 dinner, but she would not take the alarm till 
 near nightfall, being used to her going off 
 on long excursions. When it came towards 
 supper-time, the good landlady would be
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 57 
 
 frightened indeed, and no doubt there 
 would be a search-party organised, and in 
 due course of time they would find her. 
 After all, the island was not so very large ; 
 yet it might very well be that this would 
 be the last place they would think of 
 searching. Captain Price was going off 
 fishing at noon, he had told her so ; 
 and no one else would know of the talk 
 they had had, and how he had told her 
 about these horrible woods. 
 
 Well, and if she had to spend the night 
 here ; what of it ? She would be very 
 hungry, of course. Dear me! she was 
 very hungry now ! but people could not 
 starve in one night. And she would not 
 freeze, though the nights were pretty 
 cool for sleeping out. And there was 
 nothing to hurt her. 
 
 This last assurance came more slowly 
 than the others. Mary looked around, in 
 a mute appeal to the trees. She had 
 always thought, with her favourite Ste 
 venson, that trees were among the most
 
 58 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 friendly people in the world; but these 
 trees were not friendly. They seemed to 
 press round her, grim and unhelpful ; 
 there was no tremor of sympathy in any 
 smallest twig ; no sigh of compassion 
 moved their bushy tops ; all was stark 
 and silent. 
 
 " Miserable comforters are ye all ! " 
 said poor Mary. 
 
 If there were even a squirrel, it would 
 be something ! but there was no squirrel. 
 
 In spite of her determination to be 
 steadfast and cheerful, Mary found herself 
 already fancying how it would be when 
 night fell, in this grim desolation : the 
 black trees blotted out by the deeper 
 blackness ; hunger, cold, fear ! 
 
 Fear ! she had hardly thought the word, 
 when it seemed to possess the air, the 
 whole place. Weak as she was with pain 
 and weariness, fear seized her, and com 
 mon sense shrank away appalled. 
 
 Who knew what creatures there might 
 be lurking in this savage place ? Might
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 59 
 
 not this be the last resort of those beasts 
 that civilisation had driven from the main 
 land ? Bears, panthers, perhaps ! and 
 what was that Indian Devil, about which 
 she had once read a terrible story ? 
 Would not any such beast, lingering un- 
 guessed in these deathly solitudes, smell 
 her out at whatever distance, and come 
 creeping creeping 
 
 Ah ! heaven ! what was that ? 
 
 The silence had been absolute, dead, 
 noted only by her own heart-beats. But 
 now, far off, the branches crackled, the 
 dry leaves rustled. Something was mov 
 ing through the wood ! Something alive 
 was coming nearer nearer ! 
 
 Mary s heart stopped ; then sprang up 
 wildly and beat to suffocation. She for 
 got the pain for an instant, and tried once 
 more to rise to her feet; but the ankle 
 turned under her, and she fell again. 
 Now, in mortal terror, her hands clasped, 
 her breath coming and going in short, 
 quick pants, the girl waited for what ?
 
 6O LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 Nearer, the crackling, the rustling and 
 rending ! This was no harmless little 
 wild-wood creature that was making its 
 way through the dense forest ; this was 
 powerful strength that was tearing the 
 stubborn branches apart. How should 
 she bear it ? What prayer could give 
 her strength? 
 
 Hark ! oh, mercy ! hark ! What was 
 that? 
 
 For over the crashing of branches, 
 clear, and high, and sweet, rose now an 
 other sound; and hearing it, Mary 
 Weymouth put her face down in her 
 hands, and wept, and laughed, and wept 
 again, that it was shame to hear her. 
 
 " Toreador, prends garde ! " 
 
 " Help ! " she cried ; and she started 
 at her own voice, which sounded like a 
 stranger s. " John Harvard, help ! " 
 
 There was a brief exclamation of sur 
 prise ; then more crackling and rending ; 
 and in a few minutes a very surprised
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 6 1 
 
 young man stood looking down upon a 
 much confused young woman. 
 
 " Miss Smith," said John Harvard. " I 
 beg your pardon ! Did you call me ? " 
 
 " My name is not Smith ! " said Mary, 
 faintly. 
 
 " Of course it isn t ! " cried the young 
 man, flushing a very honest red. " Aw 
 fully stupid of me ! I I saw Smith 
 College on the trunk, don t you know ? " 
 
 He paused a moment, giving her an 
 opening to mention her real name ; but 
 she said nothing, and he went on more 
 stiffly, " Is there anything I can do for 
 you ? " 
 
 " I have sprained my ankle ! " said 
 Mary. " I cannot walk 
 
 "Great Scott!" said John Harvard. 
 " Oh, I say, I m awfully sorry ! Let me 
 look at it ! I am a surgeon," he added, 
 as Mary looked up in feeble, but manifest 
 indignation. 
 
 "I don t believe it ! " she said. 
 " You are an undergraduate ! "
 
 62 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 The young man gave a short laugh. "* 
 " I was once ! " he said. " I graduated 
 at the medical school a year ago, and 
 have been in the hospital ever since. 
 Come ! " He was kneeling beside her 
 now, and spoke authoritatively. " Let me 
 see I should think so ! Did it not oc 
 cur to you to take off your boot at once ? 
 Now I shall have to cut it. What a 
 shame to spoil a good boot like this ! " 
 
 He spoke in an injured tone. Out 
 came his knife, and in a few minutes the 
 mangled boot lay on the ground. 
 
 u Now take off the stocking," he com 
 manded, " while I go for some water. It 
 will be easier for you getting home if it is 
 well bandaged." 
 
 Mary wanted to say, " I wish I had not 
 called you ! " but it was becoming difficult 
 to talk ; and the stocking was off when 
 the young surgeon returned, with a fold 
 ing cup full of water. Her handkerchief 
 was next demanded, torn in strips to 
 gether with his own ; and then came a
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 63 
 
 moment of exquisite relief, as the cool, 
 wet bandage was wound round and 
 round, quickly, delicately, strongly. 
 
 " Safety-pin ! " said John Harvard, as 
 if they grew on every tree in the woods. 
 " Hold on I have one ! " and so he had, 
 under the lapel of his coat. Mary won 
 dered what kind of girl had pinned the 
 flower there. 
 
 " Now ! " he said. " Let us see if we 
 can stand. Lean all your weight on me 
 so ! Ah ! just as I feared ! " 
 
 Mary rose to her feet, obedient to the 
 strong hand that raised her; stood for a 
 moment wavering, clinging to the young 
 man s arm, then the world turned black, 
 revolved once, and vanished. 
 
 " Great Scott ! " said John Harvard, as 
 he caught her. 
 
 Mary was rocking in a cradle, on an 
 uneven floor. No ! she was in a boat, 
 and the sea was choppy. No ! she was 
 riding on a camel. The motion was pleas-
 
 64 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 anter than she had supposed it ; but how 
 did camels come to be used in the 
 woods 
 
 Here she came to herself with a violent 
 start, and became aware of a gray shoul 
 der directly above her, and still above, a 
 brown head bobbing serenely in time to 
 the slow, regular strides of its owner. 
 
 " Oh ! Oh, Mr. Harvard ! " cried Mary, 
 now fully awake. " How can you ? oh, 
 put me down, please ! " 
 
 " Mr. Harvard is good," said the young 
 man, " and well deserved ; but as to put 
 ting you down, just wait a minute, till we 
 get out of this boggy place." 
 
 " You shouldn t ! " Mary protested, 
 feebly. 
 
 " Did you want to stay there ? " was 
 the reply. 
 
 Mary murmured something about a 
 wheelbarrow (there is no horse on the 
 island), and was briefly bidden to look 
 about her. 
 
 " As soon as we get clear of the trees,"
 
 THE BLACK WOODS. 65 
 
 said John Harvard, " I will put you down, 
 and go and get Captain Avery and a chair, 
 or a hammock, or something ; then we 
 can get you home comfortably. Nothing 
 could have been got into that place where 
 I found you. Am I holding you pretty 
 well ? Are you dreadfully uncomfort 
 able ? " 
 
 Mary was not, and said so, trying to 
 feel as grateful as she ought. 
 
 "Used to carrying lame sister!" was 
 the brief explanation. And then nothing 
 more was said till he set her gently down 
 in a little open space, on a tuft of moss 
 under a spreading tree. 
 
 " You must be quite exhausted ! " said 
 Mary, remorsefully, looking up as the 
 young man stretched his cramped arms 
 and shook himself. 
 
 " Not a bit ! " was the cheery answer. 
 " Been training all the spring with a crew. 
 Ha ! Now you are all right here for 
 half an hour Miss Smith ? " 
 
 " All right, Mr. Harvard thank you ! "
 
 66 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 Then their eyes met, and Mary found 
 herself laughing helplessly, whether she 
 would or no. 
 
 " It is funny ! " she said, ruefully. 
 
 " Isn t it ! " said John Harvard. " Aw 
 fully funny ! " and off he went across the 
 hill.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. 
 
 ND I must say, Mary Weymouth, I 
 think you are a very ungrateful 
 girl ! " 
 
 It was Mrs. Treherne who spoke. She 
 had dropped the " Miss " some time before, 
 in speaking to Mary ; had they not dis 
 covered that the young girl was niece to 
 her third cousin, once removed ? 
 
 The two women were sitting in the 
 pleasant parlour, Mary on the sofa, Mrs. 
 Treherne in the rocking-chair. 
 
 " Ungrateful ! " repeated Mrs. Treherne. 
 " Here has Mr. " 
 
 " I tell you I don t want to know his 
 name ! " broke in Mary, petulantly. 
 
 " Well, if you are not contrary ! " sighed
 
 68 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 the good landlady. " Here has he been 
 as kind as kind, and tended your foot, 
 and kept you from having a serious lame 
 ness, like as not, to say nothing of his 
 bringing you out of those awful woods, 
 where you might have been to this day, 
 if it hadn t been for him, and now you 
 won t ask him to come into the sitting- 
 room." 
 
 " Oh ! how you do tease me, Mrs. Tre- 
 herne ! " cried Mary, turning fretfully on 
 her sofa. 
 
 " It s not my sitting-room, as I have 
 told you twenty times. He is as free to 
 come here as I am. Why doesn t he 
 come, then, if he wants to ? " 
 
 " That s foolish talk ! " said Mrs. Tre- 
 herne. " You know as well as I do that 
 he won t come unless you ask him. I 
 never saw folks behave so foolish in my 
 life. There ! " 
 
 " Then he can stay out ! " said Mary. 
 
 She was silent, listening to the sound 
 of regular footsteps outside, pacing up
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. 69 
 
 and down the verandah. The steps were 
 accompanied by a cheerful whistle, but 
 the rain was pattering on the windows, 
 and the wind whistled drearily through 
 the cracks. A northeaster was setting 
 in, and it was not probably pleasant out 
 there. Mary threw an angry glance at 
 the landlady. Why could not one be let 
 alone for a little while ? Her mind went 
 back over the scenes of the past week. 
 She hurried over the adventure in the 
 wood ; she did not care to dwell upon it ; 
 besides, there was no danger of her for 
 getting it. But she thought of the suc 
 ceeding days, when she had been so 
 feverish and wretched, and the young 
 surgeon had never failed to come twice 
 a day to look at her bandages, and to 
 sit beside her for a few minutes, full of 
 cheery talk and pleasant stories. He 
 never alluded to the past, nor to the 
 future. One would think he had never 
 seen her before ; that she was simply 
 a new patient, and to judge from his
 
 7O LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 manner rather an interesting one. He 
 called her Miss Smith, and she called him 
 Mr. Harvard, with perfect composure, as 
 if neither had known any other name. It 
 certainly was foolish, but 
 
 Well, and then what had happened? 
 Mary hardly knew. Had she fancied one 
 day that the look in his eyes was too 
 kind, the pressure of his hand too cordial, 
 as he greeted her ? and had she drawn 
 back in consequence, veiled her own 
 eyes with coldness, answered indiffer 
 ently the friendly greeting ? Possibly ! 
 one could not always keep exactly the 
 right shade of tone in one s voice ; but 
 surely that was not sufficient reason for 
 his withdrawing absolutely into his shell, 
 and never coming near her since she 
 began to come down-stairs. She didn t 
 believe she had been so disagreeable 
 as all that; and even if she had 
 
 The girl shut her eyes ; and when she 
 did so, she saw a brown head bobbing 
 above hers, and heard a voice ask, "Do
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. /I 
 
 I hold you pretty well ? Are you dread 
 fully uncomfortable ? " 
 
 She opened her eyes promptly ; she 
 must be still weak, or this ridiculous 
 thing would not go on, and she heard 
 the strong, steady tread outside, and the 
 cheerful whistle, and the rain pattering 
 down. It was actually pouring now. Oh, 
 if one had to be one s own scapegoat ! 
 
 She threw another black look at the 
 landlady ; then leaned forward, and, as 
 the steps drew near, knocked on the win 
 dow by the head of her sofa. 
 
 The steps stopped. Mary knocked 
 again. "Won t you come in?" she 
 said. 
 
 " All right ! " was the answer ; and the 
 next minute the young man entered, six 
 foot of sunburnt health and cheeriness. 
 Mary had a moment of exasperation. 
 Why should he be striding about, and 
 looking like that, when she was on this 
 tiresome sofa ? 
 
 " Oh ! " she said, rather unamiably.
 
 72 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 " Mrs. Treherne wanted you to come in ; 
 she was afraid you would get wet." 
 
 Then, seeing the swift change in his 
 face, and flushing scarlet at her own rude 
 ness, she cried out : " No ! that isn t it 
 at all! We are tired to death of each 
 other ; we want to be amused. Won t 
 you sit down please and amuse 
 us?" 
 
 People said that Mary Weymouth had 
 the most winning smile in the world, 
 when she chose to make use of it ; cer 
 tainly, John Harvard did not even try to 
 resist it. He sat down by the fire, and 
 looked at the young girl with friendly 
 eyes. " How is the ankle to-day ? " he 
 said. 
 
 " That doesn t amuse me ! " said Mary. 
 " The ankle is very much better, 
 thanks ! That ointment is really won 
 derful. Did you get it from a witch ? " 
 
 He nodded. " She lives over by Green 
 Point. Her name is Hazel, and she has 
 tufts of yellow hair growing on her arms ;
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. 73 
 
 also, she has an extraordinary bark. Does 
 this amuse you ? " 
 
 " Pretty well ! " said Mary, laughing. 
 " But I would rather hear a story. Have 
 you a story of your own, or are you a 
 needy knife-grinder ? " 
 
 " You describe me accurately," said the 
 young man, gravely. And he added, 
 with an odd little inflection in his voice, 
 " My story is just beginning." 
 
 " I don t understand a word you two 
 are saying," said Mrs. Treherne. 
 
 " Oh ! but it is you who have the 
 stories, Mrs. Treherne," said Mary, turn 
 ing with animation to her hostess. " Tell 
 us a story ; please do ! Tell us about 
 this house. Didn t you say it was the 
 oldest house on the island ? There must 
 be stories about it." 
 
 " Well, I don t know," said Mrs. Tre 
 herne ; and she pondered a moment. 
 
 " I ve told you about the naming of it, 
 and all that." Assured that she had 
 not, the good lady counted her stitches
 
 74 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 and settled herself comfortably in her 
 chair. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " this is the oldest 
 house on the island, surely. It is called 
 the Influence. They used to name the 
 houses in those days, same as they did 
 ships and folks ; and there was a great 
 to-do over the raising of this one. My 
 great-grandfather, Polwarth, built it, and 
 his daughter christened it, and made the 
 posy." 
 
 " Oh, how delightful ! " cried Mary. 
 " Tell us all about the christening." 
 
 " I wasn t there," said Mrs. Treherne, 
 with a twinkle. " But they do say it was 
 a great occasion. Peggy Polwarth was 
 the handsomest girl anywhere in these 
 parts, island or main, and folks came from 
 far and near to tend the christening. 
 There was a story of a boat coming over 
 from Matinicus with three young men 
 aboard, and all of them in love with Peggy, 
 and they quarrelling about which should 
 have her, and upsetting the boat, and
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. 75 
 
 all three drowned ; but I never believed 
 that myself. Anyhow, Peggy came down 
 to the raising, in a white gown and flowers 
 in her hair ; and she ran up the ladder like 
 a squirrel, and stood on the ridge-pole, and 
 walked the len th of it with her two arms 
 stretched out, so t folks was scared to 
 death she d fall and break her neck. She 
 was a terrible lively girl. But she didn t 
 fall ; and she broke the bottle, and she 
 said like this : 
 
 " This is a fine frame, 
 
 Raised in a pleasant spot. 
 May God bless the owner, 
 
 And all he has got ! 
 It shall be called " The Influence," 
 
 And the " Landlady s Delight ; " 
 It was raised on Thursday, 
 
 A little before night. " 
 
 " Oh, what a delightful thing ! " sighed 
 Mary. " To have it really true, and to 
 be actually living in the house ! And 
 has it been your delight, Mrs. Tre- 
 herne ? "
 
 76 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 " Humph ! " said Mrs. Treherne. " That 
 depends upon the kind of guests I have. 
 It takes all kinds to make folks." 
 
 " And how about the Influence ? " 
 asked John Harvard. " That seems to me 
 very interesting. What do you suppose 
 was in the young girl s mind? And it 
 would be curious if one could trace any 
 influence any similarity in the lives of 
 the people who lived in this house." 
 
 Mrs. Treherne glanced at him under 
 her eyebrows. 
 
 " Folks used to call it Courtship 
 Castle, one while," she said, quietly. 
 " There s been more marriages from this 
 house than from any three on the is 
 land." 
 
 " Oh ! " said John Harvard, thought 
 fully. 
 
 At this moment a bell tinkled in the 
 distance. The young man looked up and 
 sighed. 
 
 " There is my supper-bell ! " he said. 
 " Dear me ! This fire is altogether too
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. // 
 
 pleasant to leave, to say nothing of the 
 company." 
 
 Mrs. Treherne reflected a moment, knit 
 ting rapidly. " I ve been meaning to say 
 to you and Miss " 
 
 " Smith ! " said Mary, quickly. 
 
 " Well, I declare ! " said Mrs. Treherne. 
 " I ve been meaning to tell you both, 
 my girl thinks she can t get so many 
 meals, right along, so. She isn t over 
 strong, and I can t have her fall sick, 
 with the summer just beginning. Sup 
 pose you both take your tea with me to 
 night ! Twould be an accommodation, I 
 assure you ; and I get real lonesome some 
 times, sitting there all alone." 
 
 " Why, of course, Mrs. Treherne ! " 
 cried Mary. " How thoughtless, how 
 inconsiderate we have been ! " 
 
 " Awfully stupid ! " murmured John 
 Harvard. 
 
 " Thank you ! " said Mary, demurely. 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " cried John Harvard. 
 "You know what I meant! And and
 
 78 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 I think Mrs. Treherne is right. It s aw 
 fully poky eating alone, don t you think ? 
 Do let us have supper all together ! " 
 
 " And it is my supper, too ! " said Mrs. 
 Treherne, smiling. " Your bell rang half 
 an hour ago, sir, and you never heard it." 
 " You don t say so ! " said the young 
 man. " The world is so full of a number 
 of things " 
 
 " Oh, you love Stevenson ? " cried Mary, 
 her eyes shining. 
 
 " Well, I hope so ! " said the young man. 
 Hereupon ensued a sudden eager babble 
 of both voices, which was unintelligible 
 to Mrs. Treherne, waiting with Mary s 
 crutches in her hand. She heard " Kid 
 napped," "The Master " 
 " Oh, but the Ebb-tide ! " 
 " You know Underwoods ? " 
 " By heart ! From cover to cover ! " 
 "I, too! Oh! Our Lady of the 
 Snows " 
 
 " But the Fables, nothing like 
 them ! "
 
 SOUVENT FEMME VARIE. 79 
 
 " Your supper will be as cold as a 
 stone ! " said the landlady, plaintively. 
 " And it is a good supper, if I do say 
 it." 
 
 " I am fed on proper meat ! " cried John 
 Harvard, gaily. His eyes danced, and 
 the girl s shone in glad response. It 
 seemed as if some chord had been 
 touched, some common bond discovered, 
 which destroyed with a touch the barrier 
 between them. 
 
 " What are these for ? " said John Har 
 vard, pointing to the crutches. "You 
 don t need those things any more, surely. 
 Take my arm ! I am quite sure it will 
 be all you need." 
 
 Mrs. Treherne laid down the crutches, 
 and followed quietly ; they seemed to have 
 forgotten her. And they all had a feast 
 of joy, - and lobsters, and there were 
 no more solitary meals at the Influence.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 
 
 AGAIN it was closing in for a rainy 
 evening; but Mary did not mind 
 the rain this time. She had had a de 
 lightful day, and a delightful evening was 
 before her. The ankle was well, and she 
 and her former enemy had been off on 
 an exploring tour together. Great as 
 was the joy of rambling alone among 
 the mighty hills and the wild rocks, Mary 
 found it to be surpassed by the pleasure 
 of doing the same thing in agreeable com 
 pany. A strong hand always ready to help 
 her over the dikes and chasms, a quick eye 
 that took in every anemone in the rock- 
 pools, every flower on the uplands ; a 
 hearty, ready will to see everything, 
 80
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 8 1 
 
 do everything, enjoy everything, and 
 withal a manifest pleasure in her soci 
 ety, what maiden would not prefer this 
 to solitude, if she were in any degree 
 right - minded ? Mary had been wrong- 
 minded ; she acknowledged that ; and 
 now it was really much more sensible 
 to be friendly and and nice to this 
 young man. They might never meet 
 again after this summer ; their paths would 
 lie far apart; she would try to leave a 
 pleasant impression on his mind. 
 
 So they had had a joyful morning 
 about Gull Rock, and now she was look 
 ing forward to a cheerful evening by 
 the fireside, with Mrs. Treherne knitting 
 and rocking, and John Harvard reading 
 " Pride and Prejudice " aloud. Dear Eliza 
 beth ! dear Darcy ! she had been so clever 
 to bring them with her ! 
 
 Singing a gay little song, she ran 
 down-stairs when the tea-bell rang. Mrs. 
 Treherne was sitting alone at the table, 
 looking rather grave.
 
 82 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 " Where is Mr. Harvard ? " asked * 
 Mary. 
 
 " Dear me ! " said Mrs. Treherne. " I 
 do wish he d come back ! I feel real 
 worried about him ; there ! " 
 
 "Why! what where is he?" cried 
 Mary, looking anxious in her turn. 
 
 "Word came about an hour ago, while 
 you were resting, that a child was sick 
 up to the Rock House, as they call it. 
 It s a little old house, about a mile up 
 from the street. The man who lives 
 there is a newcomer, a Norwegian. He 
 hasn t been there more n a few months, 
 and his wife is sick, and has this babe, 
 about six months old. Don t you remem 
 ber my telling you, Mary ? " 
 
 " Oh ! yes, yes ! " cried Mary, remorse 
 fully. " And I was only thinking of my 
 self and my ankle, and forgot all about 
 it. Well, and what else ? " 
 
 "Why, the man is cantankerous ! " said 
 Mrs. Treherne. " One woman and an 
 other has tried to help them, but he drinks,
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 83 
 
 I guess, and there can t no one stand his 
 temper. I guess his wife has a hard time 
 of it, poor soul. To-day she sent word 
 that the baby was sick, and wouldn t I 
 come ? but I couldn t, for I promised to 
 sit up to-night with Mis Mays. She s 
 failing fast, and her folks are worn out 
 watching. I never did see so much sick 
 ness on the island as there is now. It 
 seems as if every family had their hands 
 full ; and no doctor, and well, Mr. Har 
 vard said right off, he d go, though he 
 had a cold, and tis a dismal place up 
 there. So off he went, and that s the 
 last I ve heard. I hated to have him go 
 every way. We do aim to care for our 
 folks well, here on the island ; but these 
 people seem to be by themselves, some 
 way of it. The man s off fishing, and I 
 don t know whether the woman is able to 
 do for herself and the child, let alone Mr. 
 Harvard, it does seem foolish to call 
 him out of his name, good as he is, but 
 you will have your way ! And not a bite
 
 84 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 of anything to eat since noon, and may 
 be there half the night ! There ! I am 
 discouraged ! " 
 
 Mary had listened in silence, sipping 
 her tea and eating her bread and butter. 
 Now she said, quietly : 
 
 " I will go up there, Mrs. Treherne. If 
 you will get me a basket, I will take up 
 Mr. Harvard s supper, and stay and help 
 a little. Oh, you needn t look surprised ! " 
 she added. " I know a good deal about 
 sickness, and I am used to babies, and I 
 know the way to the house. So make up 
 a good little basket, there s a dear, and I 
 will be off as soon as I have finished my 
 griddle-cakes. I suppose you couldn t 
 send him any of those ? They do look 
 so good ! " 
 
 She spoke cheerfully, but with decision ; 
 and Mrs. Treherne, after remonstrating 
 properly against her going out on such a 
 night, was glad to yield. A basket was 
 packed with tea and sugar, a bottle of 
 milk, bread and butter, and good Mrs.
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 85 
 
 Treherne slipped in a pot of raspberry 
 jam, with apologies. 
 
 " Twill make it heavy, I know," she 
 said, " but he does set by it, and I don t 
 know as it weighs so very much." 
 
 " I think I can stagger under it ! " said 
 Mary, laughing. She had taken off her 
 pretty house dress, and put on the fa 
 miliar short blue skirt and jacket. Over 
 her shoulders she threw a short rough 
 cape with a hood, fixed her Tam-o -Shan- 
 ter firmly on her head, and felt ready for 
 anything. 
 
 "Won t you take an umbrella?" said 
 Mrs. Treherne. "Child, you ll be wet 
 through before you get there." 
 
 " Not I ! " said Mary. " My skirt and 
 cloak are waterproof; so is Tammy; 
 basket and lantern are all I can manage. 
 Good-bye ! and don t worry, if I should 
 not get back till morning." 
 
 She laughed at Mrs. Treherne s ex 
 clamation of horror, and stepped bravely 
 out into the lashing rain. The lantern
 
 86 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 swung to her rapid steps, throwing its" 
 gleams to right and left, and lighting up 
 the rocks, gay with orange lichens, that 
 bordered the steep, crooked village street. 
 Not a soul was out this wild night. A 
 body was, however, for half-way down 
 the street a great head flashed out of the 
 darkness before her, and she almost ran 
 into David, the village bull. David spent 
 his peaceful days wandering up and down 
 the village, and was now probably going 
 somewhere to bed. Mary recoiled with 
 a little shriek, and ran swiftly past the 
 huge creature. She did not like bulls. 
 David was generally amiable, but the day 
 before he had taken more notice of her 
 red scarf than was pleasant. Yes, and 
 John Harvard had taken him by his 
 horns, and turned him round, and then 
 with a friendly kick sent him lumbering 
 off towards the post-office. 
 
 How it did rain ! Up the hill now, by 
 the schoolhouse ; then to the left, through 
 Captain Janeway s yard ; opening and
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. S/ 
 
 shutting all the queer little gates, jump 
 ing from one level to another, crossing 
 the tiny stream, which raged furiously in 
 its bed, like an angry baby. The smell of 
 the fish for she knew exactly where Cap 
 tain Janeway dried his fish guided her 
 to the last gate of all, and once past this, 
 she was out on the north down, with the 
 sea bellowing below, and the wind and 
 rain swooping and shrieking at her above. 
 
 It was a wild night ! Had she known 
 how wild 
 
 Yes ! She would have come just the 
 same. Was she not descended from 
 island people ? This was her home, the 
 home of her heart. 
 
 Here she stepped on a sheep, huddled 
 asleep under a point of rock, and came 
 near falling headlong over the cliff. The 
 sheep rose and fled, remonstrating. "Well, 
 I like that," said Mary, " when you came 
 near killing me ! " 
 
 On she went, the storm buffeting and 
 tearing at her, the surf thundering be-
 
 88 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 neath her feet. She began to realise 
 what she had undertaken. A moment s 
 faintness seized her, at the thought of 
 that white, boiling waste below, which 
 she could not see. If she had fallen 
 she faltered. Had she overrated her 
 strength ? would she be able to reach the 
 house ? 
 
 Then there came to her mind a word of 
 the Poet-Master whom she loved, " The 
 bright face of danger " 
 
 She shook her head resolutely, and 
 pressed bravely on ; and almost the next 
 moment, rounding a point of rock, she 
 saw a light not far off, and knew it was 
 the goal she sought. A few minutes more 
 of battling against a wall that was alive, 
 and that bit and scratched and screamed 
 at her, and breathless and dripping, 
 Mary stood at the door of the Rock 
 House. 
 
 The young man whom we have known 
 as John Harvard had been having a very
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 89 
 
 uncomfortable two hours. He had started 
 at once on hearing of the sick baby ; with 
 a little sigh, to be sure, and a glance at 
 the pleasure he was leaving behind, yet 
 with a steady, cheerful gaze, bent on the 
 duty before him. He was rather a good 
 fellow, this John Harvard. Reaching the 
 house, he found the woman a Norwe 
 gian, who spoke little English suffering 
 from a sharp attack of pleurisy. He took 
 the crying child from her arms, and sent 
 her promptly to bed. Then, when he 
 had mixed and administered the proper 
 remedies, he considered what to do next. 
 The baby was wailing, the woman moan 
 ing, the fire gone out. 
 
 " When in doubt, fill the kettle ! " said 
 John Harvard, remembering his mother s 
 admonitions. He laid the baby in the 
 cradle. It screamed lustily, but he har 
 dened his heart, and filled the kettle and 
 built up a roaring fire. Then he took the 
 baby again, and observed it carefully. 
 The poor little creature was behaving
 
 9O LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 very like the Duchess s baby in " Alice,""* **, 
 doubling itself up and straightening itself 
 out again, screaming violently all the time. 
 When he laid it on his shoulder and walked 
 up and down the room with it, the screams 
 quieted a little. He felt the little hands 
 and head ; no fever ! The baby face was 
 scarlet with crying, but the limbs were 
 plump and firm, and the lungs were cer 
 tainly in superb condition. Poor little 
 thing! It was sobbing quietly now, and 
 John Harvard was aware of a queer sen 
 sation about his heart, as he felt the vel 
 vet cheek against his own. Poor little 
 beggar ! it was a shame to have to be a 
 baby, and to have pains too ! 
 
 Then, somehow, he found himself think 
 ing of that other head that had rested on 
 his shoulder, not so many days ago. It 
 had been heavier than the baby s, but not 
 at all too heavy. And how pale and 
 lovely she looked, with the long lashes on 
 her cheek ! 
 
 And the way the colour came flooding
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 9 1 
 
 back when she opened her eyes ! Ah ! 
 well, one didn t have such luck 
 twice ! 
 
 What was the matter with this baby, 
 anyhow ? Nothing very serious, or it 
 could not look like this. Now that it was 
 quiet, he would lay it in the cradle, and 
 see how the mother was getting on. But 
 the moment he put the child down, it 
 screamed and shrieked so violently, that 
 the poor woman woke from the doze into 
 which she had fallen, and moaned in con 
 cert. 
 
 " Wife dying up-stairs, mad dog down ! " 
 quoted John Harvard. " Are we to keep 
 this up all night ? " 
 
 He took the baby up again, and re 
 sumed his march. Up and down, up 
 and down ! Perhaps he could get it to 
 sleep ! What did one sing to a baby ? 
 " Toreador " would only send it broad 
 awake. 
 
 He began to croon softly a little old 
 French song.
 
 92 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 "Quand j ai vu Madeline 
 Pour la premiere fois, 
 Elle gravait la colline, 
 Je descendais du bois. 
 En robe du Dimanche, 
 En guimpe et jupe blanche, 
 Elle allait sous les branches. 
 Que les beaux jours sont courts ! " 
 
 But it was the second verse that had 
 been haunting him, ever since that day in 
 the woods. 
 
 " Pour aller au village, 
 Le chemin fait un pli; 
 Et la veille un orage 
 D eau 1 avait tout rempli. 
 Souriante et legere, 
 Je Penlevai de terre ; 
 Elle se laissa faire. 
 Que les beaux jours sont courts! " 
 
 Circumstances different, result the same! 
 
 " Je 1 enlevai de terre ; 
 Elle se laissa faire 
 
 because she couldn t help herself, poor 
 dar oh, come, this will never do !
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 93 
 
 Baby, what are you about ? Almost asleep ? 
 That s good ! 
 
 " Que les beaux jours sont courts ! 
 
 " By Jove, aren t they ! And that brute 
 of a Tom coming to pick me up next week. 
 Well, I won t go, anyhow." 
 
 But then Tom might come ashore 
 oh, bother Tom ! 
 
 " Hush, baby ! hush ! Better now, 
 ma am ? That s right ! As soon as I can 
 put the baby down, I ll get you some 
 milk, or gruel, or something. Hush 
 hush baby bye ! Hush hush 
 oh, Great Scott ! " 
 
 For he had thought the baby sound 
 asleep, and had laid it once more in the 
 cradle ; and here it was yelling like a little 
 demon, and twisting itself into hard knots. 
 
 The young man caught up the child 
 again, and struck out once more in a kind 
 of despair. How long would this last? 
 Till the child grew up ? There was a man 
 who carried a calf till it grew to be an 
 ox
 
 94 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 But just at this moment, while the"*- 
 baby was screaming, the mother sighing, 
 and John Harvard stalking with tragic 
 brows, Hamlet in the nursery, the 
 door opened. 
 
 As if blown in by the gale, came a light 
 figure, dripping, breathless, with glowing 
 cheeks and shining eyes. So lightly, 
 quickly, the girl came, the young man 
 thought her for an instant a part of his 
 dream. " Souriante et legere ! " * 
 
 But no ! She was real. She was setting 
 down a basket, hanging up her wet cloak, 
 warming her hands at the fire, and all the 
 time smiling at him oh, no one else in 
 the world knew how to smile ! 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " cried John Harvard. 
 
 In two minutes the basket was un 
 packed. In five, the gruel w r as on the 
 stove, a plate on the table, and Mary was 
 holding out her arms for the baby. 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " said John Harvard 
 again. " You re awfully good ! I m so 
 glad you have come ! But how could
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 95 
 
 you come in this storm ? You ought not 
 to have stirred out of doors. Are you 
 sure he isn t too heavy for you ? I can t 
 make out what is the matter with the 
 child ! " he continued ; and the relief in 
 his tone, as he gave up his charge, was 
 almost comic. 
 
 "You see, of course I ve had very 
 little experience, and most of that surgical, 
 casual wards and all that, and I can 
 not tell ! He doesn t seem to be in pain, 
 till I put him into the cradle, and then he 
 screams like like oh, I am so glad 
 you have come ! " 
 
 He sat down with a deep sigh of con 
 tent, and looked at Mary, and then at the 
 raspberry jam. He was a healthy and 
 vigorous youth, and it was an hour and 
 more past supper-time. 
 
 Mary sat down by the fire, with the 
 baby in her arms ; she cooed and mur 
 mured to it, and the baby looked up at 
 her, with its pretty eyes all red and swollen 
 with crying.
 
 96 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 " My lamb ! " said Mary. " My littte 
 poor, sweet lamb ! What did hurt it, a 
 kitty baby ? " 
 
 She laid the child on its back ; it 
 screamed, and grew purple in the face. 
 She turned it over on its face ; the screams 
 died away into moans, into faint sobs, 
 then stopped altogether. 
 
 " There ! " said John Harvard. " That s 
 the way it has been acting ever since I 
 came. Most extraordinary thing ! " 
 
 " I should think so ! " said Mary, quietly. 
 
 She patted the child ; she felt it all 
 over with swift, light ringers. " My lamb ! " 
 she said again. " It was a wicked, wicked 
 shame, so it was ! " and she drew out, and 
 held up in the firelight a pin ! 
 
 " Right in his precious back ! " she said. 
 " The only wonder is that the child hasn t 
 had a fit!" 
 
 " Great Scott ! " said John Harvard. 
 
 When the two started on their home 
 ward walk together, mother and child
 
 THE ROCK HOUSE. 97 
 
 were both sleeping sweetly. The father 
 had come home, sober and conciliatory. 
 The rain and wind still continued, but it 
 was a joyful paaan that they roared and 
 shouted. A glorious night for a walk, 
 both young people agreed. With Mary 
 on his arm, John Harvard thought lightly 
 of the prince of the powers of the air. 
 Once, indeed, the desire to kiss her came 
 upon him so strongly, that in repressing 
 it he pressed her arm unconsciously. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Mary. " What is the mat 
 ter ? Is it the bull ? " 
 
 " No, no ! nothing ! " said the young 
 man, in confusion. " Nothing at all ! I 
 had a pain ; that s all." 
 
 " A pain ? Oh ! Where ? " 
 
 " Somewhere about the heart ! " said 
 John Harvard. " It s of no consequence ; 
 I often have them. That is, it s of a 
 great deal of consequence, but no matter ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mary. " I thought per 
 haps it was a pin ! "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "QUE LES BEAUX JOURS SONT COURTS." 
 
 THE next morning was Sunday. The 
 mail schooner had come in late the 
 night before, and a little pile of letters 
 lay by each plate on the breakfast-table. 
 John Harvard opened his, and gloomed 
 black as thunder. Mary opened hers, 
 and sighed. Last, Mrs. Treherne, after 
 pouring out the coffee, and presuming 
 that the drop-cakes were not fit to eat, 
 turned to her own budget, and, reading 
 one, uttered an exclamation of surprise. 
 
 " I declare, I m sorry ! " she said. " Tis 
 time, to be sure, but I surely am sorry." 
 Then, as the others looked up in wonder 
 " My first batch of boarders comes day 
 after to-morrow ! " she said. 
 98
 
 LES BEAUX JOURS. 99 
 
 " Well, that s some comfort ! " said John 
 Harvard. Mrs. Treherne looked at him 
 open-eyed, and he added, quickly : 
 
 " I have just heard that they are com 
 ing for me to-morrow. An awful bore 
 but if a lot of people are com 
 ing - 
 
 " I have my summons, too ! " said 
 Mary, looking up with heightened colour. 
 " My father is coming to New York, and 
 wants me to meet him there. I must go 
 back by Tuesday s boat." 
 
 A blank silence fell on them all ; then 
 Mrs. Treherne heard the kettle boiling 
 over, or said she did, and went into the 
 kitchen. 
 
 " You are not eating any breakfast ! " 
 said Mary, presently. There was a new 
 note in her voice half timid, half play 
 ful that brought back the pain to John 
 Harvard s heart, violently. 
 
 " No more are you ! " he said. 
 
 Then they laughed, and being hungry 
 and sensible, ate their breakfast ; and
 
 IOO LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 then they went out on the verandah and * 
 looked about them. 
 
 It was a perfect morning. The sea was 
 blue as sapphire; the little harbour was 
 dotted with sails, where the fishermen 
 were starting out for their day s trip ; 
 Toluma towered opposite, black against 
 the glowing sky, yet gay here and there 
 with June flowers. Directly below them 
 spread the white beach, and the rocks on 
 either hand, tricked with orange and rose- 
 coloured lichens ; while behind, and to 
 right and left, the downs rolled up and 
 away, green and shining, crowned with 
 their sombre woods. 
 
 The old house, square and gray and 
 weatherbeaten, stood like a friend beside 
 them. How happy they had been ! How 
 could they go away and leave it all ? 
 
 " Poor old Influence ! " said Mary, lay 
 ing her hand on the mossy door-post. " It 
 has been a happy place for me, surely ! " 
 
 John Harvard said nothing, only stood 
 aside and looked at her. Her eyes were
 
 LES BEAUX JOURS. IOI 
 
 quite the colour of the sea, he thought, only 
 softer ; altogether she was the loveliest 
 thing he had ever seen, but he was not 
 sure that she would care to be told so. 
 
 " Come away ! " he said, at last. " Let 
 us have one last day that shall be 
 perfection. Let us come to all the 
 places ! " 
 
 He did not explain what places, but 
 Mary seemed to know, and followed him 
 without a word. 
 
 They turned to the left, and took their 
 way over the rocks towards the yew-hol 
 low. The sun shone down into it, waking 
 the warm fragrance into life ; little birds 
 flew up from the yew, where they had 
 been breakfasting on the gray-blue berries ; 
 a snake, green as emerald, rippled away 
 through the rushes. 
 
 " This was the second time I saw you ! " 
 said the young man. " The first was just 
 for a minute on the piazza. I say ! Do 
 you know, I was awfully put out when I 
 found you were here."
 
 IO2 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 "So was I!" said Mary. "Perfectly -*, 
 furious, when I found you were here ! " 
 
 " So I inferred ! " said John Harvard, 
 dryly. " Then I came up here, that morn 
 ing, and you were asleep." 
 
 " And you were smoking ! " said Mary. 
 
 " Ah ! you woke up, then, when the 
 stone rattled ? Well, I wondered how girls 
 of sixteen knew enough to go to college." 
 
 " I am twenty ! " said Mary, demurely. 
 
 "Well, of course, when I found out - 
 what a lot you knew " said John Har 
 vard ; " well, anyhow, I wondered do 
 you mind if I say it ? I wondered if you 
 were as pretty awake as you were asleep." 
 
 " And was I ? " asked Mary, laughing. 
 
 " I don t know ! " said John Harvard, 
 wickedly. " You wouldn t let me turn 
 round. That was the next time, when 
 
 " Don t ! " cried Mary, blushing scarlet, 
 and springing up from her seat on the 
 yew-bed. " I don t care to recall that 
 time, sir ! You took me for a sheep, 
 you may remember."
 
 LES BEAUX JOURS. IO3 
 
 " I know I was an ass ! " said the young 
 man, meekly. " Quite an Animals Fair 
 between us, don t you think ? And then 
 the next time for I don t count the 
 times you whisked by me in the house, 
 with your head in the air the next time 
 was in the Black Woods. That was 
 quite a time ! Shall we go there, Miss 
 Smith ? " 
 
 " No, Mr. Harvard, we shall not ! And 
 it would be a pity for you to be imperti 
 nent on our last day. We will go to Black 
 Head, and to Gull Rock, and to all the 
 dear, dear pools and dikes and precipices. 
 And as we go, since you are so fond of 
 reminiscences, I can remind you of the 
 baby and the pin." 
 
 " Don t ! " cried the youth, in his turn. 
 " I call a truce ! and how could I be sup 
 posed to know ? " 
 
 " But you may sing Toreador ! " said 
 Mary, with no special relevance. 
 
 " There is another song that I like bet 
 ter now ! " said John Harvard. " I have
 
 IO4 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 been singing it to myself ever since 
 that is, for some time. May I sing it to 
 you ? " 
 
 Of course he could, and did. 
 
 " Quand j ai vu Madeline 
 Pour la premiere fois 
 
 His voice thrilled deep and sweet on 
 the quiet air, and there was something in 
 it that made Mary s heart beat fast, and 
 made her feel that it was safer for her to 
 look out to sea, or down at the rocks, or 
 anywhere save up at the brown eyes that 
 she knew were bent on her as the lad sang. 
 
 Ah ! that was a day ! Nature seemed 
 to know all about it. The sea laughed 
 and dimpled all over with happy lights. 
 The sun winked and twinkled with merri 
 ment. The brown old rocks smiled, and 
 made themselves as soft and comfort 
 able as their nature allowed ; the ripples 
 lapped softly in the chasms, the breeze 
 came like a kiss. Ah ! that was a day ! 
 
 And when it was over; when the blaz 
 ing gold had gathered itself into one
 
 LES BEAUX JOURS. 
 
 splendid glory over the black head of To- 
 luma, and the sea was deepening into 
 purple, and the rosy shades were soften 
 ing to amethyst and gray and nameless 
 hues of harmony and rest, these two 
 young people sat together on the veran 
 dah of the Influence, and watched the 
 lovely pomp, and saw the world that it 
 was very good. They had just come 
 from the early evening service in the 
 chapel, a service so sweet, so earnest and 
 simple, that their hearts were full. The 
 melody of the closing hymn was ringing 
 in their ears, and Mary repeated the 
 words softly : 
 
 " God be with you till we meet again ! " 
 
 " And when will that be ? " asked John 
 Harvard, in a low voice, his eyes fixed on 
 the golden west. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Mary, and her voice tried 
 to be light and cheery ; " who can tell ? 
 We shall surely meet, for have we not re 
 solved to be friends always ? Perhaps it 
 may be here again, our next meeting. I
 
 IO6 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 shall come again, whenever it is possible. 
 You know I come of island people. My 
 name " she laughed. " How silly I 
 have been! But of course you have 
 heard it from Mrs. Treherne. My name 
 is Mary Weymouth. My people came 
 from here. Indeed, I have always liked 
 to think that we are descended from Cap 
 tain Weymouth of the Archangel, the 
 first white man who ever saw this beloved 
 island of ours." 
 
 " Oh ! if you come to that," said the 
 young man, " my name is John Rosier, 
 and my ancestor came on the Archangel, 
 too." 
 
 " What ! " cried Mary. " James Rosier, 
 gentleman, who wrote the story of the 
 great voyage ? Oh, Mr. Harvard, you 
 don t really no ! You are making fun 
 of me. It would be too good to be true." 
 
 " Fact, I assure you ! " said the young 
 man. " Ask Mrs. Treherne else ! Do 
 you mean to say she hasn t told you all 
 this?"
 
 LES BEAUX JOURS. IO/ 
 
 "I wouldn t let her ! " said Mary, in 
 a small voice. 
 
 She was silent for a moment; then 
 added : 
 
 " And for us to meet here, how very, 
 
 very strange ! But of course, this is 
 
 most delightful and astonishing, and all, 
 
 but I am almost sorry that you are 
 
 not John Harvard after all ! " 
 
 I am John ! " said the young man. 
 
 They were silent again. Then, under 
 the soft, gray twilight, he put out his 
 hand, and took the girl s hand, and held 
 it in his strong, warm clasp. 
 
 " Mary ! " he said, and his deep voice 
 trembled a little. " Mary, dear, the old 
 Influence has justified its name, has it 
 not ? I - I don t know how it may be 
 with you, but you fill my heart and my 
 life ; there is no one else in the world for 
 me. See, dear ! Our ancestors - those 
 old beggars came a long way together, 
 and found this island, the best place in 
 the world, I "
 
 IO8 LOVE AND ROCKS. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " whispered Mary. 
 
 " And they were rather a set of ras 
 cals, I believe, but still it was a great 
 thing they did, and I shall bless them for 
 it as long as I live. Mary, dear, shall we 
 follow where they led the way ? Shall 
 we take our voyage together ? " 
 
 He bent his head over the slender 
 hand. The shadows gathered deeper ; 
 the violet dusk came softly over the earth 
 and wrapped her mantle round the lovers. 
 
 Presently Mrs. Treherne came to see 
 why her boarders did not heed the tea- 
 bell ; but after peeping through the parlour 
 blinds for a moment, she went back again, 
 and sat down in the rocking-chair, and 
 rocked to and fro, and cried with pleas 
 ure. 
 
 "It shall be called the Influence, " 
 she said ; " and the Landlady s De 
 light ! " 
 
 THE END.
 
 Date Due 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. CAT. NO. 24 161
 
 000 550 
 
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